Is Investing in Education Opportunities for Employees
Worth It?

While the bottom line always matters in business, investing some profits back into the quality, knowledge and skills of your staff benefits everyone involved. Even as many corporations have made cutbacks in employee perks or increased the employee share of benefits that used to be solely provided for by the organization, businesses that choose to invest in education opportunities for employees are reaping considerable rewards.

Increased Expertise
When you already have a well-trained employee who is responsible, fits in well at your organization and brings many skills and talents to the table, investing in that person is a more cost-effective endeavor than trying to recruit someone else with the particular new skill or expertise that you need. According to an article by Joseph J. Grilli, M.P.A., D.P.A. on CitizensVoice.com, a well-educated and trained workforce helps to increase a company’s profitability and boosts their chances of long-term success[1].

Types of Education Opportunities to Invest In
There is a broad array of educational opportunities that your organization can invest in for the increased knowledge of your staff and benefit of your organization. Many organizations offer tuition reimbursement so that employees can take particular classes within or outside of a degree program.

These classes would be directly related to the employee’s job. Employees could go to the local community college or university for Bachelor’s, Master’s or doctorate coursework in finance, management or other areas that would benefit your organization. Employers offering these benefits often ask employees to remain with them for a certain timeframe. Other educational opportunities can take place through independent organizations. For example, an employee doing marketing analysis could take a class in SAS or STATA statistical analysis software programming.

Employee Loyalty
The loyalty of an employee is of concern to your organization. You may be worried about whether the employee you just invested in will move on to one of your competitors. Not only does investing in continuing education and degree programs benefit employees, but it also promotes employee loyalty, according to an article by Laura Raines on AJC.com[2]. By choosing to invest in your staff, you are more likely to keep them and their expertise within your organization.

[1] http://citizensvoice.com/opinion/letters/continuing-education-programs-benefit-employees-and-employers-1.1410489

[2] http://www.ajc.com/news/business/companies-that-invest-in-employee-education-reap-m/nQSd4/

Common Hiring Process Mistakes that Alienate Top Talent

Hiring qualified candidates to bring into your organization is a costly process in terms of time, energy and money. If your hiring process involves certain types of actions, you could actually be alienating the exact people who would benefit your company. Bringing in the wrong candidates could prove even more expensive. According to Mary Lorenz on CareerBuilder, 41 percent of corporations report that bringing aboard a bad hire cost them more than $25,000, and another 25 percent of companies said that their hiring mistakes cost them an average of $50,000 per poor candidate[1]. These tips can help your business avoid hiring mistakes that alienate top talent.

Interviewing to the Resume
A candidate’s resume is more like a statistical play by play of their past jobs and education. The interview is a part of the hiring process where you can really get a feel for whether a candidate would be a good fit for the job and for your company. Only asking questions about what is on the candidate’s resume or application is a mistake. The top talent will want to show off their skills, but you need to ask about them.

Lack of Opportunity
The top pool of candidates will want to know about opportunities for advancement within your company. Any statement suggesting that there are few chances to move up the ladder will alienate the top candidates. The best candidates want to be challenged and have opportunities for growth. Providing those opportunities within your organization benefits everyone.

Misunderstanding of a Candidate’s Skills
Talented individuals want to know how their skills will be put to use in your organization. As a hiring manager, you will need to explain how their skills will be used in both short-term and long-term projects. A lack of vision about how a candidate’s expertise fits into your organizational goals will alienate them, explains Kevin Jarvis, writing for Robert Half[2]. During the hiring process, discuss how your organization offers personal development benefits. Up to 21 percent of businesses fail to match candidate skills to job needs. This shows how your organization is committed to helping them succeed with you.

[1] http://thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com/2011/12/16/true-cost-of-a-bad-hire/

[2] https://www.roberthalf.com.au/blog/5-mistakes-companies-make-cost-them-top-talent

Offering a platform of just 140 characters, Twitter may not seem like the most helpful tool for recruitment. However, it can be an effective way to find top candidates. These tips detail some of the top ways to recruit candidates through Twitter.

Ask for a Retweet

One of the keys to successfully using Twitter as a recruitment tool is to request an RT, or retweet. Asking an already large audience of followers to retweet a post about a job opportunity can significantly increase the pool of candidates. Says recruitment expert Tom Gimbel in Entrepreneur, “When asked, most people are willing to retweet, and you can easily leverage your network and get your message spread. [1]”

Include a Shortened URL

Tweets are limited to 140 characters, so don’t waste precious letters spelling out a long URL for a job application site. Instead, shorten the URL through a site like Bitly, which will give recruiters more space to craft a succinct explanation of the job or a call to action.

Use Appropriate Hashtags

Many candidates in search of specific jobs will use hashtags on Twitter. Recruiting tweets should include specific hashtags as well as more general job-seeking terms. According to an article in Inc., key general hashtags might include #recruiting, #hiring or #staffing [2]. For specific career opportunities, also include hashtags for skills needed, like #Germanspeakers or #programmers.

Tag Major Recruitment Twitter Users

Small businesses that don’t have a large existing group of Twitter followers may want to tweet job openings to major recruitment players on Twitter. These social media recruitment platforms, such as TweetMyJob, can help those searching for employees reach a wider audience [3].

Time Tweets to Get the Most Views

One LinkedIn article reminds recruitment professionals that the timing of Tweets can play a big role in how many views each will receive [4]. Using tools like CrowdBooster can ensure that each Tweet gets maximum visibility in the preferred time zone.

Twitter can be a way to recruit professionals in virtually any industry, and these tips ensure that recruiters can effectively find top candidates through this social media platform.

[1] http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226960

[2] http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/05/using-twitter-for-recruiting.html

[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2morrowknight/tweetmyjobs-and-social-re_1_b_1371164.html

[4] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140403173251-2061783-why-twitter-is-a-recruiter-s-secret-weapon-and-how-to-use-it

Employer branding is a concept that every large company should be familiar with. It is the idea that your business is a desirable place to work. Creating an appealing workspace is an integral part of the equation, but it is also important to broadcast the appeal of working at your company. Here are some insightful tips from major corporations who have mastered the art of employer branding.

Use Real Stories in Your Branding Strategy

Bryan Chaney, an attraction and staffing specialist working for IBM, says, “An employer brand is not created; it can only be revealed [1].” This is a reminder to use real stories from current employees in your brand strategy. Get real quotes, take actual photos and focus on the genuine appeal of your corporation rather than crafting a story about it.

Use Your Career Page to Your Advantage

One of the first things that prospective employees will see is your company’s career or employment page. Rather than simply listing out available jobs, take out a page from Google’s playbook. The page has a company overview, a clear summary of what employees do and a list of what they believe in. In addition, Google’s career page includes information about the company culture along with the following quote: “Although Googlers share common goals and visions for the company, we hail from all walks of life and speak dozens of languages [2].” This paints an attractive picture for future job applicants. Edward Jones, another of the nation’s top places to work, uses its career page to remind browsers about the huge investment that the company puts into their employees [3].

Don’t Settle for the Industry Standard

Jeff Bezos, founder of billion-dollar company Amazon, has a strong opinion on how to create unbeatable employer branding. According to Bloomberg Business Week Magazine, Bezos believes, “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well [4].”

Although the tips and tricks above can be helpful, there is no substitute for simply focusing on making an incredible workspace for employees and then relying on positive word of mouth.

[1] http://www.slideshare.net/lizonomics/employment-branding-stats

[2] http://www.google.com/about/company/facts/culture/

[3] http://www.careers.edwardjones.com/explore-edward-jones/index.html

[4] http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2004-08-01/online-extra-jeff-bezos-on-word-of-mouth-power

Here’s a fact: a Facebook webpage is still a webpage. Businesses maintain a Facebook page for the same reason they keep up a traditional website: to attract customers or potential hires. Therefore, it stands to reason they need keep an eye on SEO, too. If a company is invested in their Facebook strategy, they should keep a close watch on its visibility. Paying attention to a few attributes will help boost your Facebook site’s ranking in search engines, and make your new media plan that much more effective.
1. Stay consistent in your naming—your Twitter and LinkedIn account should all sport the same brand name as your Facebook.

2.  Keep current on your content; post at least once a week—more often will get you ranked higher.

3. Upload media to Facebook including images and video.

4. Get your industry keywords up in the “info” and “about” sections of your page.

5. Invest in events—by hosting an event and promoting it through Facebook, you’re adding another indexable element to your page.

Until next time,
Buyer Advertising
www.buyerads.com

Thanksgiving is over, and with full bellies and lethargic legs, we look towards the future. As the season heats up, don’t fall in the habit of neglecting your hiring strategy. If you’ve taken a traditional approach to recruitment, it’s a great time to flesh out your online and social media plans. The best part: there are a lot of advantages attached to starting today.

The most important thing to remember is that an online hiring campaign isn’t strictly a game of numbers. You’ve furthering your employer brand. You’re increasing engagement. You’re disseminating information about your place of business. To evaluate effectiveness, you need to look at traditional online metrics including page views, landing page visits (if you’ve set up your system that way), and fan/follower counts. Actual conversions or hires remains a solid method to determine whether your campaign is working or not.Until next time,

Buyer Advertising
www.buyerads.com

When you’re a smaller organization, every employee counts. The quality of your hires reflect the quality of your organization. High-powered individuals make for a red-hot organization. As you build out your recruitment strategy, keep in mind these pitfalls and the best way to avoid them.

Go big or go home. You spend all day writing up a beautifully-worded job description, and the following week you receive only 4 resumes. Boo. Creating an attractive workplace starts at home. If you haven’t already, sit down and define the value you provide to employees in the form of an Employer Value Statement, or EVP. Using that as a tool, get the word out through print and online that you’re looking for the next great employee at a great place to work.

Stay ahead of the technology. New technology based around the Internet allows virtual interviews, electronic portfolios, pre-qualifiers even before potential hires arrive at the office. Technology and digital interview tactics allow you create a “short list” of candidates that reduce overhead and narrow down on quality candidates.

Retention, retention, retention. Employee satisfaction extends beyond wages and bonuses. The culture you create at the workplace and affects both retention and productivity for the years your employees call your office home. Work in the concept of flexibility. Find creative ways to reward (and not punish) hard work and keep your base engaged. Good luck!

Signing off for now,
Buyer Advertising
www.buyerads.com

Once a ripe garden of opportunity, Facebook has become a haven for spammers who would cloud your walls with offers of weight loss products, cheap online colleges, and, ahem, various pills and medicines for those of the male persuasion. And with some clever solicitors enjoying social media conversion rates as high as 47%, it’s no wonder they’re camping your site and peddling their electronic wares. Don’t let it happen! Here are a couple of tips to keep your messages clear and you boards spam free.

Should you encounter an advertisement on your company’s Facebook wall, the important thing is to take immediate action. You could simply delete the message from your wall, but many spammers will test a site’s responsiveness with a single message before unleashing a wave of spam that could clutter things up. Even a few hours exposure can be effective for a spammer—not to mention the possibility of “friending” your fan base for some one-on-one spamming at a later date.

A distant, much more virulent relative to Facebook spam, solicitations using your blog as a platform have become rampant. Typically, a poster will address a theme in your article before listing a service with associated website, but many don’t even take the time to include that level of detail. On an unmoderated blog, this can get out of hand—fast. One sure-fire solution is to turn on moderation, and only allow comments that an administer approves his or herself. If you’re on WordPress, spend some time learning about plug-ins that allow you to block commentors by IP, shrugging off habitual spammers and sending them back to the untamed, unnoticed wilds of the Internet where they belong.
Thanks for reading,
Buyer Advertising

When you’re a smaller organization, every employee counts. The quality of your hires reflect the quality of your organization. High-powered individuals make for a red-hot organization. As you build out your recruitment strategy, keep in mind these pitfalls and the best way to avoid them.

Go big or go home. You spend all day writing up a beautifully-worded job description, and the following week you receive only 4 resumes. Boo. Creating an attractive workplace starts at home. If you haven’t already, sit down and define the value you provide to employees in the form of an Employer Value Statement, or EVP. Using that as a tool, get the word out through print and online that you’re looking for the next great employee at a great place to work.

Stay ahead of the technology. New technology based around the Internet allows virtual interviews, electronic portfolios, pre-qualifiers even before potential hires arrive at the office. Technology and digital interview tactics allow you create a “short list” of candidates that reduce overhead and narrow down on quality candidates.

Retention, retention, retention. Employee satisfaction extends beyond wages and bonuses. The culture you create at the workplace and affects both retention and productivity for the years your employees call your office home. Work in the concept of flexibility. Find creative ways to reward (and not punish) hard work and keep your base engaged. Good luck!

Signing off for now,
Buyer Advertising
www.buyerads.com