3 Ways Staffing Agencies and Small Businesses Team Up

Imagine opening up a new business that starts booming quickly. You suddenly find yourself in need of an employee or maybe even a couple of employees. The problem is you’ve never hired anyone. You don’t know how to onboard someone into your company let alone go about finding them. Some research will show you that you need to post the job online, read resumes, interview, screen candidates, and even get tax information prepared.

Maybe that situation isn’t hard for you to imagine. Finding and hiring new employees is a common problem for small and growing businesses. Whether you are in need of one employee or several, you need a staffing solution that will work for your plans and processes. One option you have: partner with a staffing firm that can bring you custom solutions. Here are three great ways how staffing agencies and small businesses can work together to find great solutions:

  1. Testing Out Employees. As a small business, you’re probably still going through some growing pains, which means money could fluctuate on a month-to-month basis. You may not be quite ready to make that full-time hire. When you choose to hire a temporary worker or even a temp-to-hire worker, you allow yourself the time to adjust to the growth and test out the waters. See if the employee will work well within your company and if you can handle another full-time employee before you actually make that commitment.
  2. Ease the Stress: Finding employees is a full-time job and can be overly stressful. In order to find the right employee, you have to post your open position on job boards, read resumes/cover letters, and interview candidates in order to find the right hire. As a business owner or even a manager, you don’t have the time it takes to really find that right fit. No matter your needs, specifications, or requirements, a staffing firm can help find you the right candidate for the job. Instead of looking through dozens (or more) resumes, a staffing firm will simply send you a few candidates after pre-screening and screening them. These candidates will be the best choices for your staffing needs.
  3. Make Onboarding Easier: One of the biggest issues with hiring new employees is the onboarding process. It can take months for an employee to become fully acclimated to a new work environment. Partnerships between staffing agencies and small businesses can make this process more effective and easier through presentations, testimonials, mentor programs, multimedia tools, and tours. When your new employee starts, you want them to be as prepared as possible and a staffing firm can help make that happen.

Your life doesn’t need to be stressful because you need to hire an employee. Instead, rely on a team of experts to target, engage, and qualify top candidates who can help you successfully carry out your plans and effectively manage your processes.

Leave your staffing questions in the comments section below!

 

Image Credit: freedigitalphotos.net

10 Ways to Make Career Gaps Positive

When you apply for a new job, potential employers are going to look at your resume and they may notice a few career gaps. These gaps occur when you go through a period of unemployment. While this happens to almost everyone, it’s what you do with those gaps that matters.

Employers are going to ask you about career gaps and how you spent your time. You want to project that you working towards improving yourself during those times you were out of work. Did you spend your time learning? Traveling? Volunteering? Moping around? Turning these career gaps into a positive experience will not only help you personally, but will increase your chances of landing your next job. Below, you’ll find 10 ways to turn your career gaps into something positive:

Take a Class
More than likely, your field of work is constantly changing; using this gap period to enhance your knowledge or learn new things can give you a competitive advantage when it comes to finding your next job.

Volunteer
Whether you decide to help out at a local animal shelter or tutor kids, being able to place volunteer experiences on your resume is a real differentiator. Potential employers will see this and recognize you as having empathy and a strong work ethic.

Join a Professional Organization
Go beyond being a “member” of a professional organization. Be engaged in activities and take initiative to be a leader. Not only with this help you branch out and expand your network, it will give you valuable skills for your future job.

Network
Mentioned above, your career gap can be a great time to meet new people and expand your professional network. By doing this, you can make great connections that could end up helping you both personally and professionally.

Become an Intern
No matter where you are at in your career, an internship can be a great experience. This could be your chance to learn a new skill, humble yourself, or just ensure that you are building your resume experiences.

Teach
Do you have a lot of experience in your field? Take this opportunity to teach others about what you do. Maybe you just want to share one of your hobbies with others- no matter what, a teaching experience can help you become a better communicator, establish yourself as a leader, and allow you to meet new people.

Start a Business
Have you always dreamed of owning your own business? Do you have an original idea or innovation? This gap period could be exactly what you need to start your business. Take a chance and see what happens. Just make sure you think everything through first.

Freelance
If you don’t want to start a business, but need to keep working, then you should consider freelancing or consulting. As an expert in your field, businesses may be looking for your expertise. Start small and build your way up. Be sure to use your professional network to get a few accounts.

Travel
If you have money saved up, you can use this time to travel to a new place. Doing this may not seem like it has much impact on your career, but when you travel somewhere new you are stepping outside of your comfort zone, being independent, and being detail-oriented.

Relax and Refresh
Sometimes, these resume gaps are the perfect opportunities to relax and refresh. Maybe you feel a little burnt out and you need to recover. Take this time to do that. Rediscover why you love your field of work and get your passion back.

Remember, career gaps don’t have to be a negative thing on your resume. In fact, you can make career gaps into a positive and rewarding situation. Instead of moping around because you don’t have a job, you can do something to better yourself, your community, and your career.

What have you done to fill in your career gaps? Leave your stories and advice in the comments section below!

 

Image Credit: freedigitalphotos.net 

Using Facebook to Recruit

Over the last few weeks, we’ve discussed how to best use social media to find your next hire. While there are a lot of methods and several networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, one of the best ways to recruit your next hire is to use Facebook. Using Facebook to recruit is actually a lot simpler than using some of the other social networks. However, there is still some work involved.

Build Up Your Following

Before you can expect to see any results on Facebook, or any social network for that matter, you have to build up your following. In order to effectively use Facebook as a recruiting tool, you need to have an audience to share content with. Without followers on Facebook, you’ll be sharing content and job postings to no one.

Create a Careers Tab

With a Company Page on Facebook, you have the opportunity to create different tabs. Through these tabs, you can hold contests, share content, and even post your job openings. By creating a Careers Tab on your company page, you are providing followers and those who visit your page with the opportunity to see what positions you have open.

Share Content

With Facebook, it’s all about being real, which means sharing content that your page followers actually want to see and read. Don’t just share your own blog posts, but share content from other sources, post pictures, share quotes, and encourage your followers to reach out to you.

Engage Your Followers

Being on any social media site is about engagement. It’s about making connections with people, which means you need to be monitoring your social sites. It also means you need to be asking questions, answering questions, and talking to the people who follow you and the people you follow.

How do you use Facebook to recruit? We’d love to hear your stories and see how we can help! Leave your questions and stories int he comments section below.

Using Facebook to Find a Job

Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked about using social media to find a job. We’ve talked about building a personal brand, sharing content on Twitter, and keeping it professional on LinkedIn, but there’s one more network you need to know about. Using Facebook to find a job may seem like a strange concept, but it works. You just need to know how to go about using the site to your advantage.

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Using Twitter to Recruit

Last week, we discussed how you can start using LinkedIn for your recruiting efforts . This week, it’s all about using Twitter to recruit. With all of the social networks, it can become a little tedious to monitor them and keep up with everything. Using Twitter for recruiting doesn’t have to be quite as time consuming as some of the other networks, but that’s not to say you should be passive. Here are a few ways you can start using Twitter to find your next hire:

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Using Twitter to Find a Job

Using social media sites like LinkedIn can open up a whole world of possibilities, even if you aren’t actively seeking a job. But with sites like Twitter, you can access even more resources in real time. And engagement is even simpler.

When you start using twitter, it’s best to think of it as a micro blogging site. Every tweet you send is like a tiny glimpse into who you are. Using Twitter to find a job takes your search to the next level. Not only are you able to find companies and possible job opportunities, but people are able to get a glimpse of who you are and why they may want to work with you. Here are a few things you need to do to make using Twitter to find a job most effective for you:

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Using LinkedIn to Find a Job

Last week, we talked about how social media is a great way to search for a new job. This week, we’re focusing on LinkedIn and the benefits of the site in your job search.

Of all the social media sites out there, LinkedIn is regarded as the most professional, which means you need to keep it professional when it comes to creating a profile and seeking job opportunities. There are several ways to put yourself at an advantage when it comes to using LinkedIn to find a job. Below, you’ll find some helpful tips that can go a long way during your job search process.

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Using Social Media to Recruit

It’s next to impossible to not be on social media today. Whether it’s your personal accounts or company accounts, you probably have some sort of interaction with social media sites on a daily basis. The use of mobile devices is on the rise and that rise is driving the importance of social media. Many companies are now using social media networks as tools for recruiting top talent.

While this sounds like a fantastic idea (and it may very well be) there are certainly right and wrong ways to go about using social media to recruit talent. Here are a few things you need to think about before launching into using social media for recruiting:

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Using Social Media to Find a Job

In today’s world, it seems almost impossible to not be on at least one social media network. You probably have some friends on Facebook. Maybe you have a couple of followers on Twitter. You may even have connections on LinkedIn, but did you know that you can use social media to find a job? You have unlimited resources at your fingertips every time you login to LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Using social media to find a job is all about knowing how to connect and put yourself out there.

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