Work Culture–Monday FunDay

in /by

ExactHire wrapped up a successful 2015 with the final Monday FunDay of the year on December 21. In addition to the monthly competition and employee workiversary/birthday celebrations, we added a Sweet Treat Exchange for everyone to enjoy. Combining these activities made for an exciting, sugar-charged day that once again brought our company together to enjoy and relish in our unique work culture.

Sweet Treat Exchange

Sharing office space with another company can sometimes present challenges. Organizing office supplies, reserving conference rooms, adjusting to different noise levels, and sometimes just navigating your way through a crowded break space can be frustrating. However, when the Sweet Treat Exchange comes around, suddenly the rewards are realized.

Our officemates at Human Capital Resources joined us in an annual tradition of baking, or otherwise making, our favorite sweets to share with one another. This year, each participant walked away with several dozen bags of home baked goods (or in my case, thoughtfully selected commercially produced sweets). The exchange is just one way our two companies provide opportunities for developing a shared culture that does much to overcome the challenges of a shared office space.

Monday FunDay –  December

After taking down about 200 grams of sugar, the remaining ExactHire team that wasn’t in a sugar coma went to the conference room for a holiday-appropriate contest. The contestants were in luck, as two-time defending champion, Allen, was under the weather and unable to compete. There would be a new winner this month.

The competition melded shuffleboard, present wrapping, and trash talking. Here’s what that looks like:

Jess Sliding present for ExactHire Monday Funday

One of the most skilled contestants was forced to go first and, thus, showed everyone who followed how not to do it. The main beneficiary of this scheme? Our Co-owner, Jeff, who with expert skill and dexterity wrapped his gift and slid it to victory on his first attempt. The winning time: 36 seconds.

Jeff Slides Into First

Jeff Wins ExactHire Monday Funday

Requisite Victory Taunt

Final Results

  1. Jeff
  2. Christa
  3. Jess
  4. Harlan
  5. Tom

The December Monday FunDay was a fitting end to a fun 2015. And after 4 months of testing this new team-building event, I think it’s safe to say that 2016 will continue the tradition and usher in more fun as a defense against the Monday Blues.

Recent Golden Vase Winners

Company Culture Ebook Download | ExactHire

How To Make A Holiday Video In One Week

in /by

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! For many, December is the month to buy and give gifts–and maybe even receive some too. That, of course, is not the reason for the season, but it has become a tradition that spans cultures and faith backgrounds.

Another tradition is the holiday card. These come in a variety of styles…

Holiday Card Styles

The Majestic

lang

The Peaceful

sinceyours

The Family

popsugar

The Pets

dogs-Christmas-MBryant

The Funny

lollyjane.com.summertimedesigns

Bringing It All Together

2025200_0b3861c227_b

New Approaches

And now, increasingly, holiday “cards” are coming via new channels. From the holiday email, to the social media post, and even to cutting edge bitmojis, there are more ways than ever to send your season’s greetings to family and loved ones. For our team at ExactHire, we opted to move away from our traditional Thanksgiving Card (snail mailed), and we embraced another trend: the video holiday card.

If your small business forgot to budget a holiday card this year–or if you were just too busy takin’ care of business–it’s not too late! You can produce your very own video holiday card in one week and bring some holiday cheer to the hearts of your customers. Here’s how:

  1. Invite your co-workers to participate. Not everyone is cutout for the big screen–or even the iPhone screen–so make this optional. It’s much easier to work with willing actors and actresses.
  2. Determine your direction. Need inspiration? There are tons of examples out there on YouTube, Vimeo and the blogs of companies who provide video editing software. Go ahead and find a handful of different ideas and put them in front of your team for feedback.
  3. Storyboard. With a direction in mind, you can now start the process of scripting and storyboarding your video. Best advice here is to keep it simple and short (60-150 seconds). Also, avoid long shots if possible–it makes the filming and editing easier, while also cutting down on retakes (your co-workers will appreciate the limited distraction and time investment too).
  4. Choose your weapon. GoPro, Camcorder, SmartPhone…you choose! We used an iPhone 6 and were very happy with our results. Use what is comfortable for you and is readily available.
  5. Schedule the shoot. You can realistically shoot this in a morning, but it may be hard to get time on everyone’s schedule. Remember that you don’t need to necessarily shoot the scenes/shots in order. If your owner appears last in the video, but is available first, go ahead and shoot him (his part in the video, not him). You can reorder the shots when editing. Use an online scheduling tool to help this go smoothly.
  6. Edit. For this you’ll need some type of video editing software. If you are on a mac iMovie is free and capable enough. Wistia and Camtasia are also affordable options with more capabilities. You’ll want to pull it all together, add graphics or text and maybe some background music.
  7. Publish and Distribute. With a completed video in hand, go to your favorite hosting site and upload. You can link the video into a holiday email, on your website blog, and on your social media sites. It’s a good idea to send to your customers/clients first as part of a customized email. After they have had the opportunity to view, then unleash it to the world!

These are roughly the steps that ExactHire took to create “Thanksgiving Potluck In 7 Steps”. If you have additional advice or questions, please leave these in the comment sections below. This was our first year making a holiday video, and we are eager to improve our skills. Thanks!

5 Tips for Making the Holidays an Employee Engagement Extravaganza

in /by

Employee engagement comes in many forms. Many organizations look at it as a top-down activity, where perks are given to the rank and file staff by the executives or directors. But another form is one that meaningfully involves everyone across roles and departments.

ExactHire has solidified its monthly tradition of seasonally-themed and friendly inter-office competition. November’s version of this much anticipated event didn’t disappoint and was not surprisingly focused on giving thanks, eating food and taking out turkeys. Wait…what? Read on for details folks.

For those of you who weren’t able to join us for the spirited activities on Monday, November 16th, I thought it would be fun to give you the breakdown in a few quick snippets below. Gobble, gobble! Let’s get to it…

#5 – Deck Your Office Digs With Turkey Swag

Turkey Swag Monday Funday | ExactHire

To get into the spirit, a handful of us conspired to bring in an eclectic collection of autumn- and Thanksgiving-inspired decorations to make the conference room extra special and lively for our annual November potluck lunch. I think we struck a reasonable balance between really hitting the mark vs. making it look like the seasonal aisle at Michael’s or Jo-Ann’s threw up on our conference table. I mean, we even had a cornucopia!

#4 – Eat: Pre-Game, Main Event & Post-Game

Thanksgiving Potluck Monday Funday | ExactHire

Arguably, November is the easiest month in which to host an office pitch-in because you don’t have to worry about coming up with a clever theme. Yes, potluck sign-up sheets are old hat for us at ExactHire since we embrace the paperless nature of our business by using a shared Google Doc file to state our name and our favorite Thanksgiving-appropriate food converted into a portable version (courtesy of a crockpot). Especially on a Monday Funday, the nibbles started early with the pre-game warm-up followed by the main meal in the company of each other. A few people might have kept sneaking the chocolate-caramel brownies later in the afternoon, too.

#3 – Document the Day & Spread the Joy

Staged Napping Monday Funday | ExactHire

Wondering about the picture, aren’t you? What better way to pay homage to a momentous meal than to embrace the power of the trytophan? But speaking of giving thanks and spreading cheer, one of my favorite ExactHire traditions is our annual Thanksgiving card to clients.

ExactHire Thanksgiving Card 2014
ExactHire Thanksgiving Card 2014
ExactHire Thanksgiving Card 2013
ExactHire Thanksgiving Card 2013
ExactHire Thanksgiving Card 2012
ExactHire Thanksgiving Card 2012

We’ve had fun putting together the design for the cards in past years as they’ve always depicted the members of our team in what we hope is a comedic way. This year, however, we wanted to try something new that could reach even more people — a video. We used Funday as center stage for producing our first (dare I say) annual Thanksgiving video card. The collaborative effort involved in the video production helped us engage in the day’s festivities even more…from the decorations to the personal video messages of thanks to the staged post-meal napping.

#2 – Shoot Some Turkeys

Randi Stance | ExactHire Monday Funday

We can’t forget the competitive part of Monday Funday. When we all battle it out for the coveted golden vase and personalized certificate of achievement. November didn’t fall short with a bowling pin-style shooting range of thoughtfully (okay, maybe hastily) colored paper turkey drawings each assigned various point totals. Each participant was given two practice shots before taking six official shots to try and accumulate the highest point total. You may be wondering about our weapons of choice? Well, fellow teammate Darythe was kind enough to supply us with some sharp shooting tools courtesy of her daughter. They were from the Nerf Rebelle line in case any of you want to bring this contest to your own organizations.

I was up first and feeling pretty good about my chances, but was very quickly rousted from contention by pretty much every single other co-worker…except of course, Darythe, who ironically came in last despite owning the goods. The official standings:

  • Darythe – 70
  • Jess – 85
  • Tom – 100
  • Susan – 135
  • Christa – 150
  • Jeff – 185
  • Randi – 200
  • Allen – 250 (for his second Monday Funday win!)
Allen Wins November Monday Funday
Allen proudly reclaims the golden vase for the second time!
Turkey Targets | ExactHire Monday Funday
All set with turkey targets in place!
Darythe Loads Nerf Shooter | Funday
Darythe gets ready to show us how it's done.

#1 – Spend Quality Time With Great Teammates

It’s easy for people to be too busy to really talk to their co-workers these days. I’m sure many of us are guilty of taking lunch at our desks, heading off site to meet others outside of the company all the time or just huddling in our own offices/cubes to finish a big project for hours on end. Our Monday Fundays give ExactHire employees a built-in opportunity to stop talking shop for a bit and get to know and appreciate each other. Fostering that kind of synergy pays dividends when it comes to group projects and resolving challenges in the workplace. We highly encourage you to try similar stress-reducing, culture-building activities in your organization.

I think it is safe to say there is no “case of the Mondays” here!

Recent Golden Vase Winners

Company Culture Ebook Download | ExactHire

Mobile Recruiting Strategy Fails – When Your Organization Isn’t Prepared

in /by

You built a mobile recruiting presence, the applicants came…but then your organization wasn’t ready. Or, maybe you’re well on your way toward social recruiting Shangri La and you sense that a few hiring managers may be late to the party. In this blog, I’ll review five mobile recruiting strategy fails encountered when a business is not prepared in the hopes that you can avoid the same mistakes.

1 – Failure To Get Buy In

Even if you’ve already put a few mobile-friendly recruiting elements into play, or if you continue to evolve your social media content calendar to include career-related advice, you will still struggle if the rest of the team at your company isn’t prepared to buy into and participate in the new talent acquisition model. Start by educating them with statistics that paint a picture of this trend–no, this new way of doing business–to get their attention.

According to a 2015 survey by SHRM, 65% of employer respondents indicated they had sourced candidates from social media in the past year. And if it’s not your organization regularly leveraging the power of professional networking sites like LinkedIn or career community-focused networks like Beyond.com, then you can bet your competitors are.

Skilled workers who are willing and able to participate in the workforce aren’t as easy to come by these days. For example, in October 2015, recruiting difficulty reached a four year high for the 19th consecutive month according to SHRM’s Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) Report. Your organization must utilize the latest resources available in order to grab its share of scarce talent.

2 – Failure To Be Candidate-Centric

Remember when Tom Hanks’ character told Meg Ryan’s character that she needed to take it “to the mattresses” to save her business in the movie You’ve Got Mail? As you may recall, the dialogue was actually a reference to the famed Godfather; however, I like to mention the former, more recent movie because it represented how (at the time) email was a revolution in the dating game. It changed the face of courtship forever.

So now has social media and the proliferation of smartphones and tablets forced the evolution of talent acquisition. Take it to the mattresses. Be candidate-centric…maybe not in the same context that a staffing agency might because you have to fill a specific job rather than amass resumes for the future, but in a way that empowers your company to find the candidates where they are…on the networks and devices they are using. Don’t make it difficult for candidates to research your company online; and do make it easy for them to share jobs and positive career-related content on social networks when they want to chat with their peers about what they heard about working at your organization.

3 – Failure To Know Your Candidate Personas

If you fail to identify your target applicant audience across various job categories, then you will miss the mark when it comes to selecting specific social networks, mobile job posting apps and even customizing the applicant interface for your jobs portal to optimize your user experience (UX).

And while the thought that “mobile is coming” often conjures images of my favorite Stark family characters warning that “winter is coming” along with an onslaught of white-walkers in the binge watch-worthy Game of Thrones, the extent to which your organization needs to plan out its mobile and social strategy is dependent on the types of jobs you offer and the demographics and preferences of the top talent filling those positions. According to a 2015 Pew Research Center Report on U.S. smartphone use, it is lower income smartphone owners who are the most likely to use a phone during a job search.

Translation: The mobile candidate experience will make or break your recruiting success when it comes to your less specialized and entry-level positions.

Tweet This!

 

In fact, according to the report, “compared with smartphone owners from households earning $75,000 or more per year, those from households earning less than $30,000 annually are nearly twice as likely to use a smartphone to look for information about a job — and more than four times as likely to use their phone to actually submit a job application.” So ask yourself what percentage of your recruiting efforts focus on that population and then take appropriate action.

This insight doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels if you manage HR at a professional office setting with higher income levels such as a physicians group or an engineering firm. Mobile is coming and the statistics on usage in the job seeker space will continue to climb across all income brackets.

4 – Failure to Communicate Internally

In your haste to reach out to candidates in their own space and ensure that your applicant tracking system is mobile responsive, did you miss explaining the consequences a more savvy candidate hiring experience will have on your internal stakeholders? If you’re not catching my drift, think about whether the following comments elicit a grin…or a chagrin.

  • Have you engaged hiring managers in the process of revamping your recruiting process? If not, then the shorter, concise job descriptions you may want to use may irritate them since they don’t understand why you are condensing details about their department’s opportunity. (The answer of course would be due to the shorter attention spans and impatient click behavior indicative especially of mobile job viewers).
  • Ever since social media has inserted itself into the selection process, the next generation of candidates who used to place phone calls to hiring managers and HR staff are now inviting employers to connect on social media; or, they are simply tweeting at your organization’s Twitter handle with specific job questions. With this increase in inbound activity comes the heightened responsibility for employer representatives to be ready to respond in the same manner solicited. And, for your organization to have documented policies on how you handle social media inquiries (using the best hashtags BTW) and candidate social screening.
  • Have you documented details on which social platforms and external job boards you use to post which types of positions? After all, what works for attracting manufacturing-minded machinists will probably fail miserably at securing interest from content marketers.
  • Have you discussed how to approach scenarios in which you may need to privately source talent for a position that is not yet open? If individuals in management but outside of recruiting are involved, a lack of coaching to show constraint when it comes to covertly posting future jobs can spell disaster for many…especially the existing employee who has not yet received the termination memo.

5 – Failure To Enable A Talent-Focused Culture

When was the last time you paid a placement fee to an external recruiter? Not something you want to do for every open position, huh? While there is certainly a time and a place for such engagements, in the meantime you should be focused on maximizing awareness for your job opportunities via in-house resources. The right approach starts with making sure that your existing employees, vendors, clients, alumni and friends know about the amazing roles available with your organization. The best approach kicks it up a notch (like Emeril) and incentivizes crowdsourcing behavior with a socially savvy employee referral program.

Make it easy for individuals to share your job listings with their networks using a unique permalink (URL address with an individual identifier) that tracks their referral activity and rewards them when their candidates are hired. Then, when it comes to amplifying the reach of your latest career-related content, share examples of suggested wording for social posts so that your co-workers can quickly copy and paste to spread your message (for ex., if they are outside of human resources and don’t necessarily want to spend time/thought on crafting their own version of a message). Also, consider whether any rigid social media policies or limited access to certain websites will limit your long-term hiring objectives by handcuffing your employees’ talent-focused social behavior.

This is the first post in a series of blogs about mobile recruiting fails. Stay tuned for the next post which will examine what happens when the technical aspects of your mobile-friendly recruiting experience don’t align with the rest of your hiring process.

ExactHire’s HireCentric applicant tracking system is a mobile responsive software application for your job posting and recruiting needs. Contact us for details today.

Image credit: FAIL Stamp by Hans Gerwitz (contact)

Monday Funday – October 2015

in /by

Monday Funday is one way in which ExactHire seeks to build and grow a fun work culture. Each month–on a Monday of course–we recognize the workiversaries and birthdays of our team. We also participate in creative competitions that sometimes turn fierce.

We will share recaps of these events via our blog in an effort to spread the word that Monday can be a fun day. But we also want to know how you have FUN at your workplace too. So add that in the comment section below. Our Fun Committee is always looking for ideas!

Gettin’ All (Witch) Crafty In The Office

The holiday season seems to grow longer each year. The end of the season is known–January 1st ends all the fun pretty swiftly. However, the beginning of the season seems to keep creeping up earlier. I mean, really, I saw a local mall display rocking the triumvirate of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas on October 1st!

Of course, we can’t just blame the retailers for the holiday jumpstart. At some level, the majority of us must want the holidays to start earlier. The retailers are likely just responding to that need…right?

In any case, this October, the ExactHire team joined in the premature celebration of holidays by hosting a halloween themed Monday Funday…on October 12th.

Ok, so it wasn’t THAT early, but celebrating Halloween 19 days in advance felt a little forced–and the bats and cobwebs, troubling to unaware visitors. Regardless, the coveted Golden Vase (our traveling Monday Funday trophy) was up for grabs again. And any resistance to an early celebration was quickly overcome when the contest was announced: Pumpkin Decorating.

I immediately knew this would not be my month to shine. While I fancy myself creative in some ways; glitter glue, sequins, and craft pens are not my tools of choice. But notwithstanding my lackluster effort, our team produced some pretty impressive pumpkins. And their addition to our office has provided a festive environment for visitors this October.

ExactHire Company Halloween Party-Monday Funday

Tasty Office Treats

Jessica won the competition decisively–the Golden Vase was hers–but everyone enjoyed a special treat for their efforts in the form of candied apple nachos. What are candied apple nachos you ask?  Well, it’s a health snack of sorts. Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients:

(4) green granny smith apples, cored and sliced

10 oz. of caramel squares OR  by a tub of it (depending on your health goals).

2 teaspoon water

1/2 cup chopped peanuts

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup crushed oreos

1/2 cup reese’s pieces

1/2 cup of…well basically anything sweet or salty that makes you smile.

Directions

  1. Unwrap caramels. Place in a saucepan with one teaspoon of water over medium low heat. Stir constantly until caramels are melted. Or heat the tub o’ caramel.
  2.  Drizzle melted caramel over sliced apples. Or pour it on generously.
  3.  Sprinkle with desired toppings. Or let it rain down with toppings.
  4. Serve with glee.

Another Monday Funday is in the books. We enjoyed the company of one another, flexed creative muscles, supplemented our nutritional needs, and jazzed up the office for Round 1 of the holiday season.

Next up: A Thanksgiving feast…and another chance to claim the Golden Vase.

Recent Golden Vase Winners

Sharing Joy With Customers

in /by

As an employee at a small business, you frequently have the opportunity to interact with customers, and it’s easy to see how your work directly impacts the customer experience. You also have the opportunity to learn about different aspects of the business, so that when the organization succeeds in one area, it’s easier to share in the joy of that success.

Recently, ExactHire succeeded in optimizing HireCentric ATS for mobile devices, while also migrating the platform to new servers where it can more easily be updated in response to our customers’ needs. A huge win!

As we celebrated, I realized something: although it’s my teammates’ success, the big winners are our customers. We successfully improved our product and set the stage for future improvements without increasing costs to our customers–we added value. So a large part of our celebration was the excitement we had for our customers. And I think this genuine excitement for customers is something unique to small businesses.

Sharing Joy

At a larger company, this news like ours might be circulated in a memo, added to the website, and emailed to clients. Employees would read, acknowledge, and then go about their day. But at ExactHire, we all shared in this success and in communicating it to our customers.

We pride ourselves in taking a personal interest in our clients, in going the extra mile–or two–to ensure that our clients succeed through the optimal use of our solutions. So when it came time to share the news that HireCentric ATS was optimized for mobile devices, we felt that a simple email just wouldn’t do.

We had to do more for our customers. We had to share our joy. And what better way to share your joy than to hone your inner thespian and breakout into song and dance. With a loosely written script, bad lighting, worse audio…but with enthusiastic (though roundly tone-deaf) actors, we set to the task of making a promo video announcing HireCentric’s new mobile-friendly platform!

Bringing The Team Together

Involving the majority of our staff was possible thanks to our size–small businesses can more easily do something like this. And although a few of our employees were working remotely, we were able to use mobile devices, cloud-drives, and email to get the job done. But, of course, it also required a team that was willing to be a little goofy for the good of the cause–luckily we have that in spades.

The end result of our efforts was a fun (to create and to watch) video that communicated some of the primary benefits of our updated platform. Oh, and some really hilarious outtakes that–at least at this point–may not be suitable for public distribution. So check it out and let us know what you think!

5 Steps To Getting More Qualified Applicants

in /by

Finding the right candidate from a small pool of applicants is no easy task. Many times, hiring managers must settle for the “best available”, and sadly this often leads to new hires that simply don’t pan out. Before you know it, that hiring manager is looking to fill the same positions each year; effectively making them the “turnover manager”.

Turnover is inevitable at some point, but great hiring managers seek to minimize it by hiring individuals who are a fit for both the position and the company. This is not easy, as it requires searching for applicants who possess “something special” that cannot be easily found by parsing resumes or sometimes even by conducting an interview. So when these individuals are found, it’s important to not lose them.

The following steps will help your organization develop an applicant pool that consistently delivers more qualified applicants and, over time, minimizes employee turnover.

1. Maximize Channels

Believe it or not, many hiring organizations–of all sizes–are not promoting their open positions through all available channels. While being on every channel may not be practical, collaboration between Marketing and HR is vital in order to maximize awareness of job openings. Good recruiting software will include tools that easily leverage an organization’s existing channels, while also unlocking dozens more. And the best recruiting software will automate these job postings to multiple channels with just one click.

2. Promote Your Authentic Employer Brand

There is nothing worse than a job description or career page that appears generic–and I’m not just talking about the cheesy stock photography. Employers who want to hire and retain the best talent must work hard to cultivate and promote an enviable employer brand. This employer brand should be based on the foundation of a positive, authentic work culture that permeates all aspects of an organization–including the job descriptions and career page.

employer brand management

DOWNLOAD

3. Provide An Applicant-Friendly Experience

With wide awareness of your organization and its job opportunities in place, it’s now time to focus on where the rubber meets the road: the application process. This is the time period where an organization begins building a relationship with applicants. And the first and most important component in any relationship is trust. By providing an applicant-friendly experience that imbues the positive qualities of your employer brand, an organization can go a long way to building this requisite trust. From there, make it easy by:

  • Providing transparency (let applicants know what’s ahead)
  • Staying on track (meet the expectations you set with applicants)
  • Utilizing online applications (yes, some companies still ask for hard copies)
  • Automating duplicate entries (no one wants to enter the same information twice)
  • Making it easy to apply for multiple or future openings (an ATS can help with this)

4. Express Why You (The Hiring Organization) Want To Stay Connected

Inevitably, there will be some very good applicants that simply cannot be hired. How a hiring manager deals with these applicants will determine whether or not a talent pool for future hiring can be developed. An applicant status message of “Thank you for your interest. Please check back for future job openings” will simply not cut it.

While many HR professionals may feel that a canned “rejection” message is all they have time for, a little more effort at this point can save a lot of time down the road. Tell those qualified, “something special” applicants exactly:

  • Why you found them impressive
  • The types of opportunities that may exist at your organization in the future
  • How you would like to stay in touch with them (and give them options for this).

5. Stay Connected With Your Applicant

Assuming you’ve implemented the above, the final step is to simply follow through with what you said you would do. And this is done by going back to Step 1 and, where possible, segmenting communications for the the “something special” talent pool. Here are some examples of what that could look like:

  • Personalized invitations to apply for specific positions before they open
  • E-newsletter specifically created for previous “something special” applicants
  • Storing applicant information in an Applicant Tracking System for easy re-apply
  • Brief, personalized emails that include company updates
  • LinkedIn/Facebook group for prospective hires (Ex. “ACME Future Directions”

Getting More Qualified Applicants Begins With Building Relationships

Developing relationships with previous applicants is key to creating a high quality talent pool for hiring. These relationships do not need to include frequent interaction, but they must be marked by consistent value and sincerity. In this way, a growing organization is never challenged to find “something special” in a sea of “meh” applicants. And that, in turn, will go a long way toward minimizing employee turnover and its associated costs.

 

ExactHire provides hiring solutions for small- to medium-sized businesses that are seeking to hire the best talent for their organizations. To learn how ExactHire can assist you organization, contact us today!

 

Feature Image Credit: New York – Overhead Traffic Lights by Pete Bellis(contact)

2 Ways To Avoid A “Workation”

in /by

It’s fall break time and lots of ExactHire employees have vacation plans over the next two weeks. It’s hard to avoid slipping into vacation mode a little early, knowing that the beach is calling my name. Having flexible work time allows some extra time to prep for travel, but I am also reminded of the extra work that will be waiting for me upon my return. How do you avoid a slump in productivity before vacation, a heap of work after vacation, or–most importantly–bringing work with you on “workation”?

Work Hard Before….

This is the philosophy I am trying to use this time around, and it seems to be working so far. T-minus 2 days ‘til I leave for the Caribbean, but I still have lots I want to get done. I am hoping that my Inbox will be nearly empty before leave,  and I am working to get all invoices and bills entered ahead of time. The more I can do now, the less I have to do when I get back–no one wants to play catch up! I also know my personality and that I can better relax on vacation, knowing that all my work is taken care of. I know there will still be a stack of items to work through upon my return, but tying up loose ends before I go means that the stack won’t be nearly as tall or time-sensitive.

Relax Early….

Ahhh, but there are times when it is so nice to just start coasting into vacation! It’s easy to get excited about travel plans, the fun things you’ll do, the gorgeous blue waters, the hot sunshine…(I’m a beach bum, but born in the wrong state! Can you tell!?) Anyways, with this approach you might know that you have items to finish upon your return, but if none of those items are time-sensitive, they won’t worry you while you’re away. In this way, you enter vacation calm and relaxed–not burnt out.  Some might also refer to the HUGE amount of work waiting for you as “job security”.  Just be careful that the HUGE amount of work won’t lead to a stressful first week back–that could very well negate the positive effects of your vacation.

Considerations For Both Approaches

  • List tasks for the week before vacation, during vacation, and the week after vacation.
    • Prioritize based first on due-date, then on importance.
  • Which tasks can be done by another member of your team while you are gone?
    • How difficult are these tasks?
    • If complicated, can you complete those tasks before you leave?

Of course, your organization’s work culture will also determine which of these approaches you take. How your team covers duties while employees are out may influence how much you take on or put off.  Make sure to communicate with your colleagues so that even if your “vacation approach” is different, the organization and customer service are not negatively affected.

Bon voyage!

ExactHire provides hiring software to help HR Professionals streamline processes and get more done in less time with better outcomes. To learn more, contact us today!

 

 

Why More Is Not Always Better – Recruiting Talent

in /by

Is the old adage, “Less is more.” really true? Nowadays, new jobs are posted EVERYWHERE! You can find them on job boards, social media, industry specific sites, and even in the newspaper still…I think. This means that MORE applicants are likely seeing your openings, which can also mean MORE applications to review. Hiring can be super stressful when there are too many applicants to review for a position. Here are a few things to remember to make sure you don’t make the mistake of having too many applicants:

  • Be Specific in Job Post

    One of the easiest and obvious ways to reduce the number of candidates is to be extremely specific about what you are looking for in a candidate. Let the applicant know exactly what the required skills are for the position, the location of work, amount of travel and any other requirements that the position may entail. This will hopefully discourage unqualified job seekers from applying and keep you efficient while sorting through the candidates. Beware not to “weed” out everyone though!

  • Be Selective in Where you Post

    Not all jobs need to be on all social media pages and every job board. Depending on the level of job, you could use a basic site such as indeed.com or careerbuilder.com.  Other jobs could be posted on theladders.com if it is an executive level position. Finally, consider posting on industry specific sites to help narrow down the field– for example www.hcareers.com for positions in the hospitality industry.

  • Be Concerned with Screening

    Did you know that you can use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to ask “Knock Out” questions? ExactHire’s HireCentric ATS allows questions to be added to the application process to make sure the candidate will fit your exact needs. This will help you streamline your recruiting process and save yourself time (and hassle!)

Sometimes less IS more, especially when you’re looking to quickly hire for a high skilled position in a competitive job market. Time wasted on posting, sorting, and vetting could be the difference between making the perfect hire and having to settle for an OK candidate. Use these three tips to optimize your hiring process and add top talent to your organization.

“Time wasted on posting, sorting, and vetting could be the difference between making the perfect hire and having to settle for an OK candidate.”

Tweet This!

 

To learn more about ExactHire’s hiring technology, please contact us today for your free demo.

Feature Image Credit: Full of Work by reynermedia(contact)