Looking for experience when recruiting employees? Consider older workers

With the low unemployment rate coinciding with many older adults working longer, it would be wise to be more open to the skills of well-experienced workers when recruiting employees. The unemployment rate in southcentral Pennsylvania ranges from 3.7 to 4.2 percent, and businesses remain challenged by the difficulty of finding skilled workers. At the same…

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Screening resumes takes time, methodology, and sometimes, a sense of humor

Sorting through resumes can be a time-consuming, pain-staking responsibility for managers and HR professionals. Depending on the number received, they can spend hours poring over resumes for just one position, eventually deciding on “yes,” “no,” or “maybe.” Many times, there are a few gems to be found. Professional recruiters estimate that 75-80 percent of resumes…

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How to make your newly recruited employees feel welcome from day one

After expending time and money to recruit great employees, make sure they have good experiences with your company in the initial days and weeks. These impressions can affect their long-term loyalty and help determine whether they stay with you for the long term. Here are ideas for making new employees feel welcome in your workplace…

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Seven ways to interview candidates more effectively

What could be easier than sitting down and asking someone a few questions from a list? When put that way, interviewing sounds easy. But as you may know, it’s not as simple as it sounds. The process of interviewing candidates for a job requires organization, preparation, and the knowledge to ask the right questions. Save…

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The right way to check references before hiring employees

When companies make a bad hire, it can cost a lot of time and money to correct the situation. Many of these bad hires could be avoided simply by checking references of potential employees. But, for reference checks to yield valuable information, managers should know the process to follow and the right questions to ask…

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How to retain employees – 5 ways to keep your high-performers

Successful business leaders know that to remain profitable, they must try to retain their best employees. While competitive salaries and benefits go a long way in recruiting industry stars, those rewards aren’t always enough to keep them. A 2017 Nielson survey of 1,600 American and Canadian employees, done for the international HR technology firm Ceridian,…

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“Unlimited” vacation for employees: intentions vs. results

Time-off philosophies are changing a bit with some companies, mostly small or growing start-ups, now offering “unlimited” vacation as an employee benefit. The term is misleading—Could someone take a year off? Probably not—so other more accurate phrases, such as “flexible vacation” and “self-managed vacation,” are starting to be used as well. Unlimited vacation has advantages…

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How to bridge the workplace generation gap and build cooperative teams and positive outcomes

We can face generational differences at work that challenge our understanding and appreciation of fellow employees. That’s not surprising, considering the three dominant generations currently represented in the workplace: Baby Boomers – born 1946-1964 (youngest are 53) Generation X – born 1965-1980 (youngest are 37) Millennials (or Generation Y) – born 1981-2000 (youngest are 17)…

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An HR best practice: How to terminate an employee

Most business owners and HR managers consider terminating an employee to be the most unpleasant of their responsibilities. The manager who wakes up, considers the coming day and thinks, “I can’t wait to fire so-and-so,” is rare … and maybe shouldn’t be a manager. Terminating an employee, even when due to performance issues, requires sensitivity,…

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