Category: Employers

Employee happiness has become increasingly important to success in business. Why? There is now growing evidence that when employees are happy, companies thrive.

Consider these key statistics. According to Forbes Magazine, one study found that happy employees are up to 20% more productive than unhappy employees. When it comes to salespeople, happiness has an even greater impact, raising sales by 37%. But the benefits don’t end there. Often there is less employee turnover in a healthy, employee-friendly workplace environment. That equals less time lost on the job translating into an increased bottom line for companies.

Taking positive steps to create a more employee-friendly work environment can be done with these five simple suggestions:

1. Invest in growing your employees. Self-development is essential for career growth. Offering a variety of training programs will help employees build their skills and grow professionally. Conferences, seminars, and online courses can further help employees gain more knowledge and become an increased contributor in the workplace.
2. Listen and show appreciation to your employees. Promote an open dialogue between corporate leadership and staff. Employees want to know that their opinion matters and that their work contribution is making a difference. Recognize staff accomplishments in meetings for positive behavior and performance that go above ... Read More

On average, nearly 17 million temporary and contract employees work with America’s staffing companies during the course of a year, according to the American Staffing Association. In Pennsylvania, temporary help came primarily from engineering, IT, and scientific sectors (38%), health care (7%), industrial (17%), administrative and clerical office work (14%), and managerial (12%).

At TriStarr, our clients find that hiring temporary workers can reduce labor costs, unemployment claims, and time. Temps, on the other hand, enjoy the flexibility of short-term assignments that align with their personal schedules and lifestyles.

There are many ways to recruit temporary workers to ensure the best possible fit. Here are a few strategies for recruitment that can lead to finding a temporary worker that exceeds expectations:

1. Assess soft skills when conducting an interview. Exemplary temporary candidates are cheerful, resourceful, and coachable. They’re also confident. Ask open-ended and anecdotal questions to gauge their abilities beyond what’s on their resume.
2. Evaluate a candidate’s communication skills. Temporary workers often shift from assignment to assignment and work with many different people and industries. The best temporary workers are adaptable and able to communicate well with employers and employees of all levels. Enthusiasm and a can-do attitude can also have a positive impact on ... Read More

In the midst of chatter of an impending recession—Lancaster County continues to have a low unemployment rate of 3.3% as of September 2019. Though job prospects are as good as ever for job seekers, this historically low unemployment rate presents an added challenge to companies looking to fill open positions.

As companies around the county look to sharpen their recruiting efforts, it’s important to remember one vital, yet often overlooked, portion of recruitment strategies: Knowing the company’s recruiting competition. Recognizing where the competition is and what they are doing to attract talent is an ideal recruiting practice. 

Here are several ways to keep internal recruitment strategies sharp and ahead of the competition:

1. Conduct an ongoing analysis of future needs in hiring. Planning ahead can help avoid hasty decisions, limited last-minute options, or overlooking available internal skills.
2. If possible, maintain a pool of applicants and tap into individual and personal networks to find candidates who are the best fit for the role. But don’t get too focused on landing a “purple squirrel” – a staffing industry term for the person who checks every box on the hiring checklist. Always consider whether a candidate with the right personality and cultural fit can be trained for specific ... Read More

In several previous blog posts, we have provided guidance on effective steps to take when recruiting employees. In this post, we’ll focus on what not to do—mistakes to avoid—while referencing some of our past blog posts.

In order to get the most out of your recruitment efforts and find the candidates you need, plan ahead. Consider each of these “don’ts” when developing your recruitment strategies:

1. Don’t rely on old-fashioned recruitment tools – If you’re just posting ads in the newspaper and on job sites, you’re short-changing yourself and missing promising candidates. Use your social media pages, professional online forums, and specialized search tools, too. If you don’t have access to these, get in touch with a professional recruiter with this experience. See our blog post on technology used by professional recruiters.
2. Don’t overlook current employees – Could a great candidate already be working for your company, maybe within another department? Don’t be so focused on getting the best candidate “out there” that you miss a great candidate “in here.” Someone who excels in a position within the company may be ready for increased responsibility. And a promotion is a great way to hang on to talented staff. See our blog post ... Read More

The average amount of time for recruiting employees—from first posting to accepted offer—increased 62 percent at large global organizations from 2010 to 2015. The hiring time for white-collar positions reached, on average, 68 business days in 2015. That’s 26 days longer than in 2010.^*

Hiring can definitely take too long, dragging on for weeks and weeks and even months with no real benefit to anyone—employer, their employees, and job candidates. Among the reasons: more people involved in the hiring process, increased testing and background clearances, and managers loaded down with hiring duties as well as day-to-day administrative responsibilities.

So, how quickly should companies hire? While we generally advocate for hiring fast, especially in the currently tight job market, there are sometimes legitimate reasons for hiring slow. But not often.

When recruiting employees, what’s the harm in routinely hiring slow?

Top candidates can lose interest if the hiring process takes too long; meanwhile, they get other competitive offers, and you can lose them. In fact, some companies keep looking for the perfect candidate—”this one looks really good, but maybe someone even better is out there.” Then, they lose a great candidate and settle for less in the end. So, more time and deliberation doesn’t mean ... Read More

The days of taking out ample space in the newspaper classifieds to tout an in-demand job opening may be just about over. As the world changes, recruitment strategies must stay aligned with the best options to reach the top job candidates. One way employers are connecting with new candidates is by using social media to help broaden the reach of their company brand and locate qualified professionals.

As many companies use social media to look into prospective employees’ backgrounds, the odds lean in your favor that your new employee is just a click away on Facebook or LinkedIn. Facebook has joined LinkedIn in offering direct-to-job seeker “apply now” websites.

Figure out for yourself if this strategy, utilized by job recruitment companies like TriStarr Staffing, is right for you. Companies can effectively utilize social media platforms to reach job seekers by following these tips.

Tips for effectively using social media as a job recruitment tool

1. Advertise your open jobs through Facebook Ads Manager and LinkedIn Business Manager. Low-cost options exist on these platforms to connect powerful creative with people who best fit the skills, education, and opportunities available at your company. If you create an ad on Facebook, you can also then connect it with ... Read More

How many people do you know who work from home? If you feel like that number is increasing, you’re not wrong—a survey done by Global Workplace Analytics and FlexJobs shows that remote work has grown by over 91 percent in the past decade.

This simple workplace benefit is often seen as enticing for employers who wish to cut down on office space costs, boost employee morale, and attract top candidates who appreciate the scheduling flexibility. Mobile and online applications like Slack allow workers to communicate with each other anywhere and everywhere, no matter if they’re physically in the office or working from home, a client site, or even a tropical beach.

On the other hand, some major companies like Bank of New York Mellon Corp, IBM, and Yahoo, have been cutting down on offering remote work options and asking their remote workers to return to the office. According to SHRM Online, this decision may have come from the following theories about why working remotely sometimes fails:

1. Employers do not adequately train or provide proper resources to remote workers to ensure their success.
2. Some supervisors find it harder to manage someone who they cannot communicate with face-to-face, and are uncomfortable with them working ... Read More

You may not be Disney, Coca-Cola, Apple, or Google, but your company has a brand, whether it’s actively managed or not. And your brand extends beyond customers or clients—it reaches employees, too, including the ones you most want to recruit.

In fact, your employer brand isn’t necessarily the same as your company brand. The former is a perception among members of your staff or work force, while the latter is a perception held by your clients or customers.

What attributes make up your employer brand? For most companies, these include their mission, values, company culture, workplace environment, and salaries and benefits. These are areas a company should focus on when working to establish or improve its employer brand.

Advantages of a strong employer brand to job recruitment

A vital but often neglected part of job recruitment strategies is convincing candidates the company is a good place to work. That starts with developing a strong employer brand, one that:

• Creates initial enthusiasm among job seekers in working for your company.
• Appeals to candidates during the selection process and increases their interest in the job.
• Maintains or improves retention of your current employees.
• Saves money on recruiting costs because you can fill positions more easily.

Presenting your employer brand to job ... Read More