HR

Biggest Hurdles to Building a Diverse Workforce (and How to Overcome Them)

By Ashutosh Jha → Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Diversity and inclusion aren't just corporate buzzwords, they're key issues of importance as socially responsible initiatives that are also critical for a company's success. When studying how employee engagement and diversity affect performance, Gallup revealed that the combination of gender diversity and engagement resulted in significantly higher financial performance (46 to 58 percent). A report by Deloitte found that 69 percent of executives believe diversity is an important issue.

We could list stat after stat, but the key isn't just to talk about it, it's to make it happen. If your business is struggling to do so, it could be harming productivity and your bottom line, or even creating an environment that leads to discrimination cases being filed against it.

If you want your organization to be successful, here's how you can overcome the biggest hurdles and build a truly diverse workforce.

Misunderstandings Between People from Different Cultures

When you have employees who come from different cultures, it's a great way to bring new ideas to the table with various perspectives, but it can also lead to misunderstandings. For example, if you give someone a thumbs up or pat them on the back, it can be seen as offensive in certain cultures. If you have an inclusive workplace that helps employees feel confident that their team members respect those differences, they're likely to give others the benefit of the doubt.

Be sure to create an environment in which team members welcome feedback and the opportunity to learn when they've done or said something that could be offensive. Taking advantage of teachable moments can help everyone learn to do their part, ensuring diversity and inclusivity.

Communication Problems

When hiring a group of diverse people in a primarily English-speaking environment, it can be difficult for those who don't speak English as their first language.

Even if their English reading and writing skills are strong, they may still be practicing to communicate verbally as it can be difficult, especially when nuances and slang are involved. They may feel ostracized and pressured to try and make a good first impression by contributing in a meeting, for example, but don't feel confident enough to speak up. These individuals may be left out of the conversation, and meeting leaders often don't make the effort to understand and recognize what the issue is.

Managers in this situation should acknowledge language barriers while providing guidelines for more inclusive meetings and encouraging employees to feel safe enough to speak up. Encourage those whose first language is English to speak more slowly and clearly, and avoid slang.

Biases and Stereotypes

As you work at diversifying your team, you may uncover biases. Unfortunately bias, prejudice, and stereotypes can be ingrained which means overcoming them not only takes a willingness to change, but humility.

If an employee doesn't feel comfortable with a coworker, is skeptical about their ability or perhaps would hesitate to put them in front of a customer, it's important to ask why. The answers will quickly reveal if there is an unconscious bias, discrimination, prejudice, or stereotype behind it, or, if there is truly a legitimate reason.

If there isn't a legitimate reason, it's essential to handle the situation quickly before it causes divisions at the company as it will interfere with your goal of building a more diverse workforce. Some employees might start looking for a new job while candidates might not want to work for your company.

Unwillingness to Change

If your business has been rather homogenized, with most employees coming from similar backgrounds, it's natural for some to resist change which means trying to implement diversity initiatives might be a battle. With good leadership, persistence, and an explanation of the values of diversity, that resistance can be overcome.

HR

Should You Consider Labor For Hire Temporary Staffing?

By Ashutosh Jha → Monday, December 21, 2020

Getting the right staff members can be difficult. It’s often the case that the ones who look best on paper don’t relate to your existing team. In contrast, the ones that connect may not have the necessary skills to be useful.

The fact that hiring staff is complicated, and time-consuming, makes it important that you get the right one the first time. Of course, this is further complicated when you only want a temporary worker. Going through the employment process just to find someone for a three-month contract is tough, especially when the one you choose doesn’t turn out to be the right fit or skill set.

That’s why you should be considering using a reputable labor hire agency. There are plenty of benefits, although you should also be aware of the disadvantages of this approach:

Fast process

When you use a labor hire agency you can have an employee on-site the next day, or sometimes sooner. That’s much faster than traditional advertising. This means you can easily fill gaps in your workforce, even if they are sickness related, a member of staff on maternity leave, or to handle a special project.

Labor hire agencies ensure your business is ready to cope with unexpected staffing changes.

Flexibility

It’s also a very flexible approach. While all employees need to be treated equally, anyone you get from a labor hire agency is still employed by them, not you. That means you can have them for a day or a month and then simply terminate the contract when they are no longer needed.

It’s a very flexible approach to your workforce which allows you to react to market changes or seasonal demand and maintain security for your key workers.

Advanced Evaluation

If you’re considering taking on a new member of staff then using a labor hire agency can make a lot of sense. Instead of wasting time with adverts, processing applications, and interviews, you can simply contract a qualified person.

You’ll then be able to see how they work and integrate with your existing tea before deciding whether to talk to them about a permanent job or not.

It’s the perfect way of testing an employee without the hassle of firing them if they are not working out.

Agency Relationship

No matter how well you plan there will be obstacles to the progression of your business. Having established a good relationship with your labor hire agency they’ll be on hand and willing to help you weather a storm.

A good relationship works both ways as you help them generate profits and they give you the workers you need when you need them.

Training Issues

However, you should note that although you can get qualified staff from an agency you’ll still need to spend time training them on your equipment. This is essential to comply with health and safety rules.

It means that if you use agency staff a lot you’ll spend more time than normal training. You’ll have to weigh this up against the convenience of the agency.

HR

How To Find The Best Employees

By Ashutosh Jha → Sunday, November 8, 2020

It’s no secret that a business can rise or fall on the strength of its employees. They are a vital part of any company's success, so how can you find the best people?

Write a good job post

This might seem like a fairly obvious tip but you would be amazed at how many job adverts make it onto job sites missing vital information like is the role full or part-time, permanent, or temporary. Another common pitfall is the lack of any hint of salary information or directions on how to apply.

Remember this is possibly a potential hire's very first interaction with your company. Do you want to give them the impression that you are a dynamic and interesting company to work for or leave them feeling a bit confused?

Use an agency

Take the stress out of finding the perfect fit by letting a recruitment agency do some of the hard work for you. I recommend working with agencies that specialize in your particular sector.

For example, an agency like MBN Solutions who deals only with the tech, digital, and data science fields will be well-placed to tap into top talent. A more tailored agency will also be able to write a great job posting directed at your dream hire and even give you specific advice on industry salary ranges.

Take a look at your existing talent pool

Internal candidates are often overlooked when it comes to finding new staff. The benefits of hiring from within include knowing exactly who you are getting and being able to cut out some of that endless new start faffing around.

But the biggest bonus of all is that by providing career progression you are also building employee loyalty. An internal candidate won't need to learn all about your business, they already know about it. They may need to learn a different facet of the business or work in a different area but they understand the culture.

In fact, research shows that external hires receive lower performance reviews in the first 24 months of working compared to internal hires even though they are paid on average 18%-20% more.

Look in unusual places

Don't be blinded by the everyday approach to hiring. If the role you are hiring for doesn’t require specific industry experience consider university graduates or even students. Young and full of enthusiasm they can be primed to travel further in your company early on.

Another option is to look to new job seekers or those looking to get back into the working world. Could previous experience in different sectors translate to your industry? Again depending on the role you need to be filled, would an apprenticeship be an option?

Get your employees to spread the word

There’s the classic saying- it's not what you know it's who you know, and it couldn't be truer when it comes to finding the perfect new hire. Your existing employees are going to (hopefully) be your best advertisement.

Make sure they know about open opportunities. They may know others in similar roles who are looking for a change or new opportunities. I got one of the most rewarding jobs of my career thanks to a friend telling me about an opening and selling my skill set to the managing director.

Would you work for your company?

I’ll leave you with this final piece of advice- Ask yourself if you would take a job with you.

Not every business can afford a top of range wages but they can make up for it in other ways. If wages are a sticking point what other perks or benefits can you bring to the table that would attract the right people? Make sure you advertise those too.

If you find yourself constantly having to find new staff, ask yourself why you have such a high turnover rate. What could you change that might make people stay longer?

With these top tips, I hope you find yourself with a wealth of exciting candidates to choose from.

HR

How Team Building Is Key To Healthy Company Environment

By Ashutosh Jha → Wednesday, April 1, 2020

When companies hire people to work for them, they trust that their workers will do a good job. In most cases, they do and managers of a team want to make sure that they continue to do good work. Keeping your team productive makes a huge difference in how a company operates and so, good managers are always interested in ways to boost their employees' morale. They want to build a team that works well together and can get involved in projects that make sense.

Team Building Is Necessary for The Great Results on A Job

Employees Need to work well as a team to meet the goals of the company. Sometimes, this doesn't happen on its own. The managers need to find ways to promote teamwork. They will look into team-building projects that can enlist all of the employees to work towards the same goals. For many managers, having team building kits can allow people in a company to learn to work with each other in a much better way.

Using the Team Building Kits Is Fun

The team building kits are designed to be fun and engaging. They also provide a great atmosphere for workers to get to know one another and give their feedback on all kinds of issues with the company and their work. Since this can make a huge difference in the morale of the workers, it is a positive time that they all can spend together working on team building.

Managers Are the Leaders

The managers will have to be even more of a leader than they already are when using the team building kits. They will need to let all of their workers know when and where they are going to meet to do the team building session. They must have refreshments during the team building session to offer the workers so their people can relax and take part in all the fun. They will capture the attention of their workers and also get them to participate quickly and easily when their teams are well fed.

The Kits Provide for Great Communication and Interesting Conversation

During the team building session, workers will love to communicate and take part in interesting conversations that deal with their work and current events. Their participation is automatically rewarded because it will make their daily work go a lot smoother in all cases. Workers will also get to know each other in a better way and know that they can depend on each other as a team to complete their job duties fantastically.

Using team building kits is something that companies want to do as soon as they can. They know that when they show how much they care about their employees, the better the employees will work for them. This will work well for everyone involved because when they are working towards a goal together it makes it more important. The rewards are a lot higher too.

Companies always do much better when they induce team building and that is why these kits are so important. They are very popular for those reasons and they will continue to be just as popular in the future.

HR

How To Make HR Team More Efficient

By Ashutosh Jha → Tuesday, May 7, 2019

There’s no denying that HR is among the most important teams in your business. While other departments might be focused on advertising, on product development and on customer service, HR is focused on your business’s most important capital — the people.

However, businesses of all sizes — from brand-new startups to international conglomerates — often find that HR isn’t doing enough to keep the people within an organization content or productive. If you suspect your HR team isn’t meeting your business’s needs, here’s what you can do.

3 Ways to Make HR Team More Efficient

Here are some of the leading ways using which you can make HR team more efficient. These are the proven ways and as HR team is responsible for all people management and policy in the organization and so having a great team is much required.

Hire

It might be that your HR efforts aren’t working because you simply lack enough HR team members to provide adequate support. Even when a business is brand-new and teeny-tiny, it isn’t ideal to rely wholly on DIY HR tools like BambooHR or Zenefits. While these software solutions can be helpful, they still require you to take time from your busy schedule to manage HR-related responsibilities. Instead, you need a qualified HR professional to do this work for you, and as your business grows, you need to hire additional staff members to deliver the support your growing company requires.

Hiring HR professionals isn’t exactly like hiring employees to fill other positions around your company. That’s because HR is such a diverse field, and it can be difficult to find candidates that check all the boxes on your business’s HR must-haves list. It’s imperative that you craft your job description carefully, making specific note of the responsivities of potential hires and the proficiencies demanded by the position. In interviews, instead of asking about vague strengths and weaknesses, you should ask more targeted questions, such as:

• How do you organize recruitment initiatives?
• How do you conduct job terminations?
• How would you handle an unethical situation?
• Describe a difficult encounter with an employee/colleague and how you handled it.
• What trends do you foresee shaping HR departments in the coming years?

Hiring the right people is only the beginning; you need to be sure you can retain a strong and effective HR team, which means you need training, too.

Train

It might be that your HR team is enough — they just aren’t reaching their full potential because you haven’t equipped them with the right skills and tools. Employee training initiatives are much less expensive and much more impactful than many higher-ups believe; one study from the American Society for Training and Development found that comprehensive training programs increase income per employee by 218 percent, and companies that emphasize employee training have a 24 percent higher profit margin.

Perhaps even more importantly, training is vital for retaining employees, especially those that are effective in their roles. Roughly 40 percent of employees who don’t receive job training will leave their positions within one year. Most employees expect to continue receiving career training for the duration of their careers, regardless of their seniority. Thus, you should be able to provide training options if you hope to maintain a capable in-house HR team.

Your training program can take many forms, from a series of in-person seminars led by business leaders to tuition-free community college courses to purpose-built online classrooms. What’s crucial is that you keep the conversation open with your HR team (and other employees enjoying continued training) and measure the success of your training initiative, so you can ensure its effectiveness over time.

Outsource

Of course, paying attention to HR through the recruitment and training processes takes your focus away from potentially lucrative endeavors, like product development and marketing. HR is important, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to create space in your office for an HR team. HR outsourcing companies are plentiful and productive solutions for providing employees the resources they need without wasting employee time or energy. Plus, outsourcing plans are essentially fully customizable; you can cherry-pick the exact tasks you want to handle in-house, and then you can relegate other responsibilities to a third-party services provider. Some example of oft-outsourced HR actions includes:

• Payroll
• Benefits administration
• Retirement planning
• Recruitment
• Compliance
• Coaching

Typically, brand-new startups are keen on outsourced HR, but even larger businesses with in-house HR teams can benefit from a third party relieving the pressure. HR outsourcing providers have the tools and expertise to perform to a high standard, which is what your business deserves.

Over time, any department can lag behind — but that doesn’t mean you should lower your expectations for their performance. By adjusting your hiring practices and your training services, and by outsourcing crucial tasks to a competent third party, your company can enjoy high-quality HR once again.

HR

8 Creative Employee Recognition Ideas

By Ashutosh Jha → Friday, March 22, 2019

Did you know that nearly half of US workers feel underappreciated?

You may be thinking to yourself, "no way that my employees feel that way," but chances are, some of them do.

Think about all of the employees you have. Do you get the impression that some of them are unmotivated, disgruntled, disengaged, or frustrated with their work? You may think that your employees' attitude toward their work is their own problem, or that it's just a phase that they'll get over.

But the truth is, this is your problem too. More often than not, when employees are dissatisfied with their jobs, their performance starts to drop. This can have a huge effect on how you look as a boss and on your company as a whole. 

Luckily, there are things you can do if you get the sense that your workers feel underappreciated.

You can start doing things that demonstrate that you recognize your employees' and work.

What sort of things are we talking about here?

8 Best Employee Recognition Ideas

Read on to learn about the top employee recognition ideas. These employee recognition ideas will help you keep your employee motivated and encouraged to give their best.

1. Survey Your Employees for Recognition Ideas

Before you start doling out gifts and bonuses, you should survey your employees via email to ask them what recognition ideas resonate with them the most.

If you are taking only one approach in recognizing your employees, chances are you're missing the mark when it comes to how you recognize the others. 

You will be surprised by some of the answers that surface when you ask your employees how they like to be recognized.

Plus, just asking your employees for their opinions on the matter is something they'll appreciate.

2. Lunch Out

A lot of employees aren't into the idea of public recognition. If this is the case with some of your employees, you should take them out for a private lunch with just the two of you instead.

This will help to foster a meaningful conversation that will give you the chance to show your appreciation for an employee in a private setting.

And if you want to take it one step further, allow your employee to pick the lunch spot!

3. Experiential Awards 

When it comes to employee recognition, a lot of companies stick with the tried and true method of giving their employees a certificate of appreciation along with the boss giving a short speech of gratitude in front of their coworkers.

While there's nothing wrong with this method, it can get a little old and feel a little boring. Plus, most of your employees are just going to toss that paper in the trash.

Instead, we suggest thinking outside the box by giving your employees experiential awards instead. This could be anything from a skydiving session to a wine tasting to a rock climbing lesson.

Experiential awards are fantastic because they're something that your employee will remember for a long time. Plus, an experiential award, if chosen correctly, is usually something that people have wanted to do for a while, but didn't because they felt like they couldn't justify spending the extra money.

4. Catered Meal

Are you looking to show appreciation to your whole staff, and not just one employee?

If so, a catered meal is the way to go. If you already do catered meals for your company, find a way to make this one extra special. For example, you could add a popcorn stand or a s'mores bar to the event.

Or, you could order from a variety of your employees' favorite restaurants instead of just picking the standard one you always order from.

5. Schedule a Fun Activity 

This is another great idea for companies who are looking to treat their whole staff.

Sure, you probably already go out for weekly happy hours, but your employees are probably used to this and no longer see it as a form of employee appreciation. 

That's why we suggest shaking things up and scheduling a fun employee outing instead. Some fun activities worth considering are bowling, laser tag, karaoke, or an outing to a professional sports game.

If the event can cut into the regular workday a bit, which will be even better in the eyes of your staff!

6. Surprise Time Off

If there's one thing every employee will appreciate in your office, it's some surprise time off.

You can use this as an added award for whoever wins employee of the month, or if you can afford it, you can give your whole staff some extra time off.

One boss recently found a way to close down her entire shop and take all of her employees and their families to Disney World.

If giving all of your employees extra time off is something you can swing, trust us, they'll never forget it.

7. Wellness Day

Employee wellness is a hot button topic right now. To show your employees that you appreciate their work and that you care about their health, we suggest scheduling some sort of wellness day.

There are many self-care activities that you can bring into the office that will show your employees that you care. For example, you could organize mindfulness/meditation sessions, yoga sessions, on-site massages, or fitness classes for your whole team.  Here are some of the top industry wellness program you can also follow-

8. Step Up the Paper Awards

As we said earlier, most employees end up tossing out paper awards for the employee of the month or employee of the year.

To show your employees you care, we suggest stepping these awards up a bit. For example, instead of paper, you could hand out plaques or trophies.

You can find more info here about doing this. 

Employee Recognition Ideas: Wrap Up

As you can see, there are many things you can do to show your employees appreciation.

If you have any questions about these employee recognition ideas, or if you've used one of these ideas successfully, please drop us a comment below.

And, if you are looking to hire new employees, then check out these questions to ask potential candidates.