Successful Blog

Should I Hire From Temp Agencies?

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When it comes time for your company to hire a new employee, it’s fair to assume you’re looking for nothing short of the perfect match for the job, right?

Well, if you’re on the fence about going through a temp agency, there are some pros and cons to take into consideration that might influence which side of the fence you land. Most employment agencies are great about vetting and providing the perfect candidate, while others miss the mark.

Here are just a few benefits as well as drawbacks when it comes to your company hiring through a temp agency:

The Pros

Considering a temp agency’s purpose is to match employees with employers, it’s sometimes better for companies to hire through an agency rather than advertise positions to the general public and for good reason:

* Avoid Hiring Mistakes – When you hire through a temp agency, your company can rest assured the candidate is not only pre-screened, but tested for the job at hand. This is a great way to avoid poor hiring decisions that ultimately result in lost productivity and wages.

* Eliminate Unemployment Claims – Temporary employees are hired with the full knowledge that their time at your company is short-term. Because of this, your company avoids any unemployment claims that may arise. If you decide to let go of a temporary employee, it’s the temp agency’s responsibility thereafter.

* Reduce Recruiting Efforts – When hiring through a temp agency, the vetting process is done for you. So, instead of wasting time, money, and energy on the legwork that goes along with the recruiting process, your company can cut to the chase with temp employees that are apt for the job.

* Decreased Benefit Costs – Employee benefits cost companies a ton, but with temp employees, your company isn’t required or expected to pay benefits as long as that employee is on a part-time schedule. Likewise, if it’s a full-time position your company needs to fill, consider hiring two temp employees to cover the same job.

The Cons

Before making the decision, there are a couple drawbacks your company needs to consider before going the temp agency route:

* Employee Buyouts – Although finding the perfect fit through a temp agency is a huge benefit, the contract buyout that goes along with hiring that employee full time is a major drawback. And, most temp agencies require a significant buyout depending on the length of the remaining contract.

* Agency Screening – Most temp agencies take the screening process very seriously in order to provide companies with the best possible match. But, unqualified employees sometimes slip through the cracks, especially in the case of larger temp agencies.

* Lack of Strong Relationships – Employers like long-term employees because they are able to form strong relationships with the company as well as other employees. Temporary employees on the other hand don’t have the chance to develop any real relationships. This results in a loss of team spirit and, in some cases, a lack of commitment from the temp employee.

As you can see, weighing the good with the bad is an important step when deciding whether or not to hire through a temp agency.

Photo credit: writeforhr.com

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including personal health, roofing repair, and small business.

Entrepreneurial Tips – How to Maintain a Positive Attitude

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By Ronald Alexander

As entrepreneurs, we put work just above everything else. Unfortunately, sometimes when we are working toward something, we forget to maintain a positive attitude, which can lead to additional stress and an unhappy all-around life.

The 10 tips listed below will help you to stay positive while at the same time driving your business in the right direction.
How to maintain a positive attitude

1. Work with people that you like

It’s easy to be unhappy in a business where you are surrounded by negative people all day. This is why it is vital that you hire and work with people who have a positive attitude and don’t drain you emotionally.

2. Don’t hesitate to fire people

It is 100% okay to let people go who are not doing all they can do to help your business. Usually a primary cause of stress for entrepreneurs in the workplace is having people who make them unhappy because they either don’t work hard enough or constantly stress out about little things. It’s a great release when you know that you have just made your work environment better for everyone by letting someone go.

3. Create long-term goals

Short-term goals are good, but having goals that extend decades will allow you to be more focused on where you want your business to go. These goals are usually far less stressful and will show your team that you do know what you want out of your company.

4. Feed your creative mind

Every entrepreneur is creative, so it’s natural that we need to fill our off-time with things that will feed that creativity. Some people like to read, while others get their creative juices flowing by taking a long walk. Whatever you need to stay charged up, you need to make sure that it is included in your weekly schedule.

5. Continue to be yourself

People often forget what got them to the point of being an entrepreneur and having a business. The fact is that you need to continue to be yourself even as you are taking off as an entrepreneur. The people who work for you and the business contacts that you make need to know who the real “you” is. You don’t have to develop a phoney business persona, which, I promise you, will lead to additional stress.

6. Don’t be a yes man

Many people have the instinct that saying yes to their employees will keep all parties happy, but in reality a business has to be run by someone who knows when to say no. If someone needs help with something and you have an important task that you are dealing with right now, you have to tell them no and they’ll need to find another solution to their problem. Always take a second to assess everything before you answer questions at work so you can be honest with yourself and others.

7. Remember to take a break once in a while

Entrepreneurs are usually workaholics, but everyone needs a break to stay fresh. The truth is that those breaks that you take every day will allow you to get better work done, which should be reason enough to take them.

8. Expect stressful situations and deal with them the right way

Work is stressful no matter what you do for a living, so it is each person’s responsibility to deal with every bit of stress that is thrown in their direction. It’s tougher earlier on because you are new to all of the business scenarios that you will face, but with time you will learn how to deal with the stress. Just go into every situation knowing that there will be stress and then conquer it.

9. Don’t expect flawless work

It would be nice if everything we do in our work life ends up being absolutely perfect, but that’s just not reality. You want to draw things up to be perfectly played out, but the most important thing is that you reach the end goal in everything you do. Don’t focus too much on the imperfections; this can help you put off some burden.

10. Don’t try to do everything on your own.

You have a team for a reason, so you have to learn how to delegate responsibilities. It’s not easy at first, but you shouldn’t try to do too much of the work on your own. You run the business, so figuring out who should be doing what all day will help you to take a lot off your plate.

To sum up: You need to figure out what’s keeping you from being as happy as you can be in your business life. Going over these tips should help you to figure out how to lessen the stress so you can focus on getting your business to where you want it to be.

Author’s Bio: Ronald Alexander is a passionate writer and avid blogger currently associated with Forsyth.co.uk, which provides business services including flexible office space and virtual office services in Manchester.

Image source: Pixabay by Nemo

How to Drive Traffic to Your Website For Free

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By Michelle Rebecca

Starting a website is easy; driving traffic can be a little more difficult for many that are just getting started doing business online. There are many people out there that will offer plenty of ways to advertise a website, however many of these options can cost a pretty penny over time. In addition to the initial website costs, many businesses can be inundated with online marketing fees. Finding ways to drive traffic with grassroot techniques that are free is an excellent option for those on a tight budget.

Search Engine Optimization Tips

There are entire books and even companies that are dedicated to teaching SEO techniques. However, there are many things that business owners can do on their own to increase website visibility on search engine sites. While all take time and effort, many are free to do.

Keywords

Searches are done primarily with keywords. Therefore the first major step in being found online is to make sure your website is matching searches being made. Common words that relate to the product or service along with local references such as town names, counties and landmarks should be sprinkled throughout a website where they add value to the content. Even if keywords were entered throughout the site and included in the original website pricing, they need to be updated periodically.

Content

Keeping content on a site fresh and intriguing is another aspect to SEO. A blog page can be a great way to add new and interesting information related to the products or services on the site. Try adding new content at least once a week consistently.

Links

Linking a website to as many other high quality sites as possible is a great and often free way to increase exposure online. Links can be added through the Internet in many ways. Having social media sites that are linked, social bookmark sites and other posting sites that all have a link back to the website are all great ways to increase traffic. Some free websites to check out are Squidoo, Hubpages, Dropjack and Onlywire. Use caution with links, and avoid directory sites that are simply “linkfarms.” Those links will do you more harm than good.

Free Ads

Putting classified ads out online for a business site is often free and worth the effort. Sites like Craigslist and US Free Ads are great ways to advertise with no fees involved. Try putting ads under many different topics that are related to the website to get the most exposure.

Video

Another technique for driving traffic is to create interesting and informative videos related to the products or services on the website. YouTube is the most well known video site, but there are others, including Vimeo and Shutterfly.

The trick to building traffic online on a small budget is to be willing to devote time and effort to creating as much exposure as possible. There are literally hundreds of websites that are free to join that can drive traffic and improve search engine rankings. As with all marketing efforts, these are ongoing processes that need to be updated regularly to be effective, but with time and creativity, they can add many new visitors to any site!

Author’s Bio: Michelle Rebecca is an aspiring writer who enjoys blogging about a vast variety of topics. She loves that blogging gives her the opportunity to publicly voice her thoughts and share advice with an unlimited audience. You can find her blogging about social media at SocialWeLove.com, and you can reach her on Twitter at @Mich_Rebecca.

Tips for Getting More Facebook Shares

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By Charles Mburugu

Everyone would want to have their Facebook posts shared by as many people as possible. A share is somewhat like a vote of confidence, showing that someone values your content enough to share it with others. Therefore, getting many shares enhances your credibility and exposes your Facebook profile or page to a wider audience.

Here are some guidelines which will help you increase your Facebook shares.

1. Post at the right time

When you post on Facebook is as important as what you post. Therefore, you need to take time to study the Facebook habits of your audience. In most cases, people look at their updates first thing in the morning, during their lunch break, after work or on weekends. This means that anything posted during business hours might be missed by your target audience. However, not all audiences are the same. Study your audience and find out what would work best for them.

2. Be relevant

People like Facebook pages or follow profiles which cover topics of interest to them. Therefore, you cannot afford to just post anything on your Facebook profile. Make sure all the content published on your profile is relevant to your theme as well as your audience. For instance, if your page is for a gym, it would be inappropriate to post anything about home improvement.

3. Use videos and photos

Sharing visual content can be very powerful way of capturing the interest of your audience. When people are scanning through text-only updates, they could easily miss something. However, when updates are accompanied by videos and photos, your audience is more likely to pay attention and even share with others. Therefore, sharing relevant visual content on your Facebook profile is a very effective way of increasing the level of audience interaction.

4. Have a clear call to action

If you want people to follow your profile, like a page, share updates or simply comment, ask them to do so. This means that all your posts should be accompanied with an appropriate call to action. When you tell people what exactly you want them to do, they are likely to heed the call to action.

5. Post educational content

Most people would love to learn something new in their topics of interest. This is why it is important to occasionally share relevant educational material on your Facebook page or profile. Every time you publish a how-to post on your blog, remember to share the link as a Facebook update, as well as a brief summary of what the post is all about.

6. Share useful lists

People love lists. Take time to create a great list on a relevant topic and share it with your Facebook followers or fans. Where possible, you could present it in form of an infographic. If the content is great and presented in a professional way, it could easily go viral, thus ensuring more visibility for your page name or profile.

7. Inject some humor

Your Facebook page or profile does not have to be dull and boring. A sprinkling of humor can do wonders in getting the attention of your audience. When people come across something funny, they are likely to share it with others in their social network. Therefore, take time to look for humorous content which can be shared once in a while.

What are you doing to increase your Facebook engagement?

Author’s Bio: Charles Mburugu is a HubSpot-certified content writer/marketer for B2B, B2C and SaaS companies. He has worked with brands such as GetResponse, Neil Patel, Shopify, 99 Designs, Oberlo, Salesforce and Condor. Check out his portfolio and connect on LinkedIn.

Simple Sentiment Analysis for Small Business

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Stop reading this post right now if you’re rolling in cash, have a team of more than 10 people involved in your marketing efforts, or if your social media headquarters looks anything like this:

Social listening command center

OK, now that those lucky folks are gone, let’s talk reality for most of us.

Are you relying solely on Google Alerts to find out what your customers are talking about? Maybe you took it one step further and set up a Hootsuite column to track Twitter mentions. What are you doing with that information as it accumulates?

Welcome to the club.

But we can all take it up several notches this week, by implementing a few simple routines.

Step One – Start Proactively Listening

Use the free tools at your disposal and start seeking out mentions of your brand, your company, and your industry. Both Topsy and Social Mention are great options, and will cover Google+ and Twitter, as well as blogs. I do this task weekly, gathering the resulting information into a spreadsheet.

What’s that you say? No-one’s talking about you? Not to worry.

Turn the tables, and evaluate sentiment about your big brand competitors. Find larger companies that are in your industry and see what people are saying about them. Is it positive or negative? You might uncover a great business opportunity, or a competitor weakness by doing this. Bonus: you might discover topic ideas for your blog!

Step Two – Self-Exams Are Useful Too

Particularly if you don’t have a lot of external social discussion going on yet (maybe you just launched, or you haven’t gotten traction yet), evaluate the contents of your email feedback or support questions. Analyze whether the questions and reactions you’re getting from your own customers are positive or negative. Talk to your colleagues and collect some anecdotal evidence if you don’t have a formal online feedback tool.

Step Three – Act on the Data

Now that you have some indicators of sentiment, get further value out of the exercise by engaging with those who mentioned you. For example, if Topsy revealed a Tweet that gave you a shout-out, you might reply to that person with a thanks. If you found that a certain person has been promoting your content consistently, you might want to reach out and look for some of their content that you can promote.

On the flip side, if you find someone who is unhappy with your services or who has mentioned your company in a negative light, evaluate whether you can address the issue and turn them around. This is one of the strong suits of social media—the ability to capture those negative reviews and the opportunity to respond to them.

Are you doing any sentiment analysis right now? How might you add this data to your marketing tool kit?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

How Do I Hire the Right People?

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Judging a book by its cover probably is not the best way to find the right candidate for your company. These days you have to at least open the book and read the first chapter.

Luckily, there are ways to ensure your company hires the right people without sitting them down in an interrogation room first.

The following tips will help you get the most out of your first encounter with potential employees and ensure you pick the perfect candidate.

Screen Resumes

In an attempt to streamline the interview process, resume screening is a great way to cut out candidates that don’t meet the requirements. Sure, resumes are naturally screened as you read them, but they should be accompanied by a detailed checklist.

The job specific checklist can work as a 1 to 10 scale broken down into categories ranging from candidate qualifications, experiences, and whether or not they should move on to the interview process.

By doing this, you, the employer has a tailored checklist that’s easily compared to other checklists based off the competition’s resumes. Additionally, it’s wise to have dedicated screeners during recruiting periods to act as candidate experts.

Interview for Attitude

Before you hire any employee, it’s important to know whether their knowledge and skill level is up to par. But, another essential facet to any potential candidate is their inner office attitude. That’s where the interview comes into play.

Don’t spend too much time grilling the candidate on information already stated in the resume. Instead, try to gauge their personality. Ask questions concerning work habits, how they function under stress, and their opinion on working long hours.

This is also where your ability to read body language plays a huge role. If the candidate becomes uneasy or makes a seemingly harmless joke at the mention of possibly working nights and weekends, it’s probably because they’ll ultimately have a problem with it.

Quiz References

If and when a candidate reaches the reference checking stage, it’s the perfect time to dig deep into the potential employee’s work past. And, if the reference is strictly professional, it’s also a great chance to gather unbiased opinions about the employee in question.

Once questions concerning the candidate’s abilities are out of the way, transition directly into their people skills. Questions like whether or not the candidate works well with others, their day-to-day attitudes, and their willingness to go above and beyond what’s asked of them are all fair game.

Test for Success

After the candidate checks out on paper and face-to-face, it’s wise to request they take an abilities test.

Whether it’s to get a sense of the candidate’s general knowledge or gauge skills particular to the job, if the potential employee is all they say they are, they should have not problem taking the test and more importantly, receiving an adequate score.

So, when it comes time to fill your next open position, take some of the above tips into consideration and find the best employee for the job.

As an employer, what have your hiring experiences been like to date?

Photo credit: ABC15.com

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including business, invoice software, and personal health.