Where are you working right now? From home? In a coffee shop? From an outdoor patio? Working remotely is a continually fast-growing trend in the modern workforce. But like any new working practice, usual routine takes some discipline and diligence.

According to the statistics*, in the U.S. alone, 34 million people work in distributed teams and this number is expected to grow to 63 million people. Many organizations see working remotely as a great way for employees to keep a healthy work-life balance. But that flexibility can also create a few challenges.

When looking to hire remote employees, how do you know if it will actually work? Here are 5 strategies that make working remotely effective. 

• Communicate well and often – whether it’s email or video chat, pick the tool that works best for the project at hand.
• Be a proactive manager – checking in consistently is key!
• Be a proactive team player – be deliberate about reaching out and checking in with co-workers.
• Get personal – re-create the ‘water cooler’ talk by asking colleagues about their families, hobbies or weekend activities.
• Know how to measure productivity – have concrete definitions around work productivity paired with communication and engagement.

Some Benefits of Remote Employees:
Easier to collaborate, increased productivity and no geographic boundaries.

Check out this article in Forbes about 10 Remote Work Trends That Will Dominate 2019:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/abdullahimuhammed/2018/12/21/10-remote-work-trends-that-will-dominate-2019/#5f54dc727c72

Whether you’re looking to hire remote or onsite employees, let us help you Hire With Ease!

*https://www.forrester.com

Writing An Effective Job Ad

A job ad is different from a job description. A job description is usually very lengthy, and very formal. In a job ad, you want to have a more casual tone. While including the requirements and an outline of the general duties, you want to keep the ad succinct, friendly and approachable.

The first really critical part of a job ad is the ad headline.

Remember, this is the very first thing that a job seeker sees when deciding whether to click on your ad, or your competitor’s ad. If you look on Craigslist and Indeed.com, you’ll see lots of very vanilla and general ad headlines.

It’s very easy to make yours stand out. Include these three things in your job headline:

1) Use A Common and Appropriate Job Title

Perhaps at your company you call the receptionist a “Director of First Impressions”, while it’s a clever and lovely title for her business card, it may not attract the correct job seekers on the job boards. If they’re searching by keyword, which they do exclusively on Indeed.com, they’ll never see your ad. As a result, you want to make sure the most commonly used job title for that type of position is what goes in your ad headline.

2) Something Unique

The second thing to always include in your ad headline is something that makes your company unique and interesting- something that makes your business stand out. Perhaps it’s something that you’re offering, like a 4 day work week, casual Fridays, room to grow or a super fun culture. You want to put that right in the ad headline to make your job stand out.

3) Include Pay

The third thing you always want to include in your job headline is the pay, or a pay range. It could be a really broad range, such as $10-$20 per hour or $30-$50,000 per year, but you want to state a range. This will dramatically increase your applicant flow. Again, if you look on other job boards, you will see that very few employers include this in their ad headline.

The body of the job ad should include these components.

1) The first paragraph should be a general summary about the company and about what you’re looking to fill.

2) The second paragraph should go into more detail about what makes your company and this opportunity attractive.

3) Then we recommend having a bulleted list of the general duties of the position, followed by a bulleted list of the required skills and experience. Remember to be specific- is this a required skill or a “like to have” or “bonus if you have” skill. Towards the end you can go into more detail about the compensation package.

The very last thing you want to do is to let potential applicants know how to apply for this position. We recommend having an online application and include a hyperlink right in the ad.

 

“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall”
-Stephen R. Covey

“When you form a team, why do you try to form a team? Because teamwork builds trust and trust build speed.”
-Russel Honore

“Management is nothing more than motivating other people.”
-Lee Lacocca

“You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb.”
-Andrew Carnegie

“Management by objectives works if you first think through your objectives. Ninety percent of the time you haven’t.”
-Peter Drucker

“Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.”
-Ronald Reagan

“You manage things; you lead people.”
-Grace Murray Hopper

“Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.”
-David Ogilvy

“Understanding your employee’s perspective can go a long way towards increasing productivity and happiness.”
-Kathryn Minshew

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
-Jack Welch

 

How to Discover if a Candidate Lacks Attention to Detail

A lot of jobs for our clients are in small, fast growing companies where employees wear many hats and really must pay close attention to detail.

How are you going to find out if a candidate really has that skill? Of course if you ask them, they’re going to tell you that they certainly have extraordinary attention to detail.

This is not something a candidate can tell you, this is something that you need to observe of the candidate throughout the entire interview process.

Here are 3 ways to tell if a candidate is detail oriented:

1) Use an Online Application

I highly recommend that you use an online application. This is really for multiple reasons, one of the main reasons is that it gives you an opportunity to check the spelling, grammar and the completeness with which the candidate does their work while they’re filling out the application.

2) Have the Candidate Schedule the Phone Interview

We like using a scheduling tool, such as TimeTrade, and invite the top candidates to schedule their own phone interviews.  When scheduling the phone interviews, instruct the candidate that they will be calling you.

You want to see:

• Did the applicant pay attention to this detailed instruction that’s a little bit unusual?
• Did they indeed call, call the correct number, and call on time? 

An applicant who pays close attention to detail will successfully complete these tasks with no problem.

3) Ask Compound Questions

The third way you can tell if a candidate pays attention to detail is by asking compound, or multi-part questions during the interview process.
In the interview, ask the candidate to walk you through their resume by asking,
“Tell me what you liked most, what you liked least, and why you left” 

Then, as the candidate answers the question, let them talk and see:

• Does the candidate stay on point? 
• Does the candidate address each part of the question?
• Do they skip one part and not even realize it?
• Do they forget what the third part was and then ask you for clarification?

All of these things are great ways to be on the lookout for candidates that do or do not have strong attention to detail.

For more hiring tips and insights, visit our blog and follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Hire With Ease helps small business owners with the upfront work of attracting and screening candidates for their open positions. We work on low flat-fee rates. Learn more at http://www.HireWithEase.com.

When you own a business, hiring quality employees is one of your most important responsibilities. It is critical to get individuals that not only have the basic skills to do the job, but are also capable of helping take your business to the next level. Those that are unsure how to conduct an interview may try to Google search a list of interview questions and hope that they get a good impression from the individual in the moment. However, Behavior-Based Interview questions are much more effective for narrowing down choices to the best candidates for the job.

So what are behavior-based interviews? This style of interviewing focuses on a potential employees past successes in the work place and how they have worked through various problems. These interviews focus more on storytelling from the individual being interviewed, and it allows the employer to get a glimpse into how the individual works through ethical problems and situations where there may not be a clear-cut answer. This style is most effective when there is a clear job description and the hiring manager knows what types of skills and competencies are necessary to understand and fulfill the job requirements.

Using a Behavior-Based Interview is a powerful and extremely effective way of finding candidates that are truly the best for the job. Strong candidates will have the ability to demonstrate past success through their behaviors, choices, and problem solving skills that can then be a better predictor for how that individual will perform in a new job. This style will steer clear of the questions such as, “What is your biggest strength?” or “How are your customer service skills?” Instead, these open ended questions encourage the applicant to back up their skill set with concrete examples from their past experiences, making it much easier to determine if they are a good fit for the job. Behavior based questions may take a little extra time, but the end result is well worth it.

Imagine that you are hiring an individual for a customer service representative for your company.

Some behavior-based questions you might ask would be:

1. Describe a time when you had to deal with an upset customer. How did you respond and what was the end result?

2. Share an example of when you had an innovative solution to a common problem.

3. In this position, we expect individuals to work as part of a team. Describe how you worked with your previous coworkers and how you came together to solve a problem

These questions are open-ended, and encourage the applicant to share specific instances of their behavior. By knowing this history, you can feel more confident that the individual can complete the tasks for the available position. Whether you are running a small business or a large corporation, this model of interviewing could be the best possible way to find the most skilled employees for the job.