The Best Recruitment Technique

Make no mistake, no matter how great your business plan is, or how ingenious your idea is, you will have no success unless you have the appropriate ta...

 

Make no mistake, no matter how great your business plan is, or how ingenious your idea is, you will have no success unless you have the appropriate talent to make it happen. Getting the right employees for the job you need is a pretty difficult task and you might find yourself wondering what the best recruitment technique is. As I have found while starting my own business, there are two major steps that need to be taken in order to get the right man for the job. First of all you need to make sure he is the right man, focus on the facts more than on the way he is perceived by others, and see if he really has got what it takes to put your idea in practice. Second of all, you need to find the right way of convincing him to join your team without giving away the store. Talent is the most important commodity you have in your business but it’s useless if you have no more money to provide the necessary resources to get the job done, so you need to be careful to strike a balance between the two.

So let’s see what are the steps you need to take in order to get the first stage done, making sure you found the right man for the job:

1.    Focus on the facts. Facts are the only true parameter that can’t lie to you about the work someone you are monitoring is doing. See what his accomplishments are, what assignments he was in charge of and what results he produced. If he meets the standards you have for your business than you can move to the next step of this recruitment technique.

2.    Test skills. Once you have found that the facts are in his favor you still need to make sure he or she can handle the work you require of them, and that they have the necessary skills. Give them a test, ask him or her to do a small job for you outside their current workplace, and this way you can find out if they have everything it takes to join your team.

3.    Find out how much they value their work. A very good indicator that somebody is doing the best work that they can is to check out how much they value it. If they pore their heart and soul into it, than they will treasure it, and they will much rather see it not used at all, than not given the necessary attention. For me this is the sign of somebody who believes in what he does, and is conscious that his or her work means something, and this is the kind of employee I would want.

4.    Look for a sense of humor. For me, the next step in this recruitment tactic is to see if the potential candidate for the job has a sense of humor. I believe that this is a very important quality, especially for a healthy work environment, which is the key to a successful business. Making sure he can take a joke will save you a lot of time and money in the future when you realize he might not be compatible with the rest of the team, even though he might be more talented.

The second stage of this recruitment technique is convincing your candidate to take the job you offer rather than something similar that the competition provides. There are three steps I can think of as being relevant at this stage:

1.    Focus on work environment and resources. Make sure that while your competition is trying to offer your candidate the best pay, you are thinking of other benefits of working for you. Focus on the fact that your business has a very good work environment, with young people and positive attitude, where no idea is too extravagant to approach.

2.    Better pay. Pay of course should still remain an important factor in this recruitment technique. Once you have seen what the competition has offered you should do your best to at least match it, and focus on the other benefits to lure your candidate in.

3.    Provide the adequate resources to get the job done. One of the other things you should focus on is making sure your candidate believes that you will always provide the most up to date equipment and technology and methodology, in order for him to do the work he cares about to the highest standards so that both he and you can fulfill your respective visions.

This recruitment technique has proven to be very useful for me while starting up my own business. The two major stages of this technique I think are universal, while the steps required can and should be adapted for the specifics of each candidate. I hope this article will prove useful for your plans, and will help you get the right man for the job!

 

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Employee Fun, At The Workplace

 

Providing an adequate work environment is one of the best tactics you need to use in order to have a successful business. This can be achieved only if the employees are happy, if they are optimistic, and if they have something to look forward to other than the job when coming in at work in the morning. This is why I believe that employee fun at the workplace has become a requirement for any self-respecting business. But how do you provide employee fun at the workplace? Well of course there are a number of measures you can take, but you have to be prepared to spend some money. I would urge you to think of it as an investment because from my point of view there is clear connection between employee fun, employee morale and employee productivity. So if you are careful enough you might find that the money you invest in order for your employees to have fun will turn up in increased productivity and therefore a bigger profit. So, if it’s a win-win situation why doesn’t everybody invest in employee fun? Well, you need to take enough time and evaluate the situation well before you make an investment that doesn’t back-fire on you. This is why I have chosen some of the most successful methods of providing employee fun at the workplace in the paragraphs below:

1.    Game room in the common area. A great way to provide employee fun is to organize a game room where the employees can gather during their breaks. Supply that room with board games, or Ping-Pong tables, or even foosball, and you will find that suddenly employees have something to look forward too when coming in at work, like, for example, getting a revenge for the game lost yesterday at foosball. I have seen this tactic applied at various businesses and the results have always been very good.

2.    Online game breaks. Another way you can spark employee interest, especially if you have a lot of young people working for you is to organize online game breaks at the office. Give them restricted use to the company computers so that they can play a game or two which you provide for them. In many IT companies this sort of thing is done on a regular basis without manager approval, so I believe making it more organized, and in a controlled environment will get you lots of points with the employees, and will undoubtedly increase employee fun in the workplace.   

3.    Anonymous suggestions. Another way making the workplace a much happier place is to urge everybody to write down suggestions about what they believe should change in the office. Then organize once a week in a break the reading out loud of the suggestions, which, if they are anonymous usually contain a lot of humor.

4.    Costume party night. Make it a habit to organize at least once a month an office party. Set interesting themes, and try to get people excited with lots of surprises at the party. Everybody loves a costume party so this could be great way to increase employee fun.

5.    Game night, with bosses. Something that all employees love to do is to beat their bosses at anything. So a good way to let out steam built up for the duration of a month or so is to organize a game night where bosses are compelled to participate. This will give employees a chance to build the cohesiveness of the teams and also to get a better read on what kind of people their bosses are.

6.    Fun trainings. Another great program you can invest in is trainings and team building exercises. Focus on the types of programs that make teaching new skills fun. Training doesn’t need to be an intensive program where you study all day, but rather a fun activity that at the same time manages to teach you new skills.

7.    Food fight. My favorite thing. Of course it’s not professional, and nobody wants to have nothing to wear after their suit is filled with spaghetti, so it’s better to start “spontaneous” food fights on a casual Friday, preferably just at the end of the program. Not everybody will appreciate it, but I think it’s a great way to blow off steam.

Employee fun should be a priority for every new business, especially those which rely on the talent and creativity of their employees to get the best product. You can’t always be creative by working under stress and short deadlines, you need to be able to have some fun and at the same time, maybe come up with new ideas. As I said a positive and optimistic work environment is the key to a successful business, so maybe investing in employee fun doesn’t seem like such a bad idea after all.    

 

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