The Hiring Site

Employee Feedback: Are You Really Listening?

2012-02-06T17:11:24Z

Unless you’re Angela Martin from “The Office”, opening yourself up to criticism about your shortcomings probably falls somewhere between picking up your dry cleaning and getting a colonoscopy on your list of favorite things to do.

While administering employee feedback surveys can feel like you’re putting both your company and your performance as a leader and manager in front of the firing squad, it also happens to be one of the most efficient and effective ways to understand the internal workings of your organization. Consider the following benefits to employee surveys (and take the ‘evil’ out of ‘necessary evil’).

Five Benefits of Employee Feedback

Turning lemons into lemonade (or lemonade vodkas, if you prefer). Yes, the chances you’ll receive some negative feedback are about as good as the chances E! will soon create yet another Kardashian-focused reality show, but negative feedback provides the opportunity to change things at your organization for the better.
Winning over new fans. If your organization were a television network, employee feedback time would be sweeps week for you. Just by virtue of taking an interest in your employees, you’re likely to see an increase in morale and productivity; however, those effects may only be short-term. If you want to retain those new fans (i.e. foster long-term employee morale), you must continue to meet the expectations you’ve now set forth (see #5 from the checklist below).
Reigniting that old feeling. Instead of just asking employees what they would change about the company or their jobs, ask them to vocalize what they love about these things, as well. Chances are they don’t often stop to think about these things, and it serves as a good reminder as to why they come to work each day, again boosting morale. Bonus: You can use this feedback to enhance your current employer brand message.
Saving money. Employee feedback can also give you better insight into how to better allocate your resources and enhance your benefits package. Be sure to ask about the benefits or employee-focused programs they take advantage of, which ones they don’t (you might find you’re wasting money on programs employees don’t want) and which benefits you should consider implementing to make them happier and more productive (and more likely to recommend you to prospective candidates).
Bring out the Steve Jobs in everyone. In addition to the above, employee surveys can build your bottom line by generating business ideas. Because they work closely with customers, your employees have a much closer pulse on customer needs. Thus, they’re likely to have suggestions for how to improve certain aspects of the business, services or products to meet these needs.

Administering Employee Surveys | A Six-Step Checklist
In order to get the best return out of your employee survey, the following actions are a must:

Ensure anonymity. If your employees think there’s any chance their feedback will be held against them later on, they might not be completely honest in their answers. In the end, that won’t help anyone.
Clarify your goals. Explain your reasoning behind administering the survey, what you hope to get out of it, and why your employees’ participation is important. Be sure to emphasize how these surveys will benefit them.
Get buy-in from all levels of leadership. From the CEO to your employees’ direct managers, everyone should be encouraging participation in the survey to reiterate the importance of participation.
Make it easy. The easier you make it for employees to give feedback, the more likely they are to participate. Keep the survey brief (according to Inc.com, the ideal length of an employee survey is between 35 to 55 questions and takes only 15 to 25 minutes to complete), and easily accessible. If possible, create an online survey that can pre-populate data such as name, department and title to save your employees time filling out these fields. Also, be sure to include a direct link to the survey through email invitations and reminders, as well as the homepage of the company intranet.
Live up to your promises. The most important part of the employee feedback process is also, unfortunately, one of the most underutilized. Don’t let your time and efforts to gather feedback amount to nothing. Follow up with your employees to go over the results of the survey, reiterate your goals and outline the next steps. Not only does failing to follow up mean you’ve essentially wasted everybody’s time, it’s also huge blow to morale, because it sends the message that you really don’t care about your employees’ wants and needs.
End on a high note: Remember, employee surveys are also a chance for you to reaffirm what’s great about your organization. Take this opportunity to recognize those things that make working for your organization great. Use the follow-up meetings as a chance to say, “This is what you said you love about working here, and we take pride in that. Let’s celebrate this.”

How do you solicit employee feedback? What methods do you recommend?

CareerBuilder’s Big Game ‘Run the Ultimate Fly Pattern’ Sweepstakes

2012-02-06T17:20:41Z

Whether you are rooting for the New England Patriots or the New York Giants, chances are you’re going to be watching the Big Game with friends, family and even some co-workers. Instead, imagine leaving the stress of your job for a few days by hopping a flight to the U.S. destination of your choice. Unlike that last grueling business trip, we think travel should be nothing but fun and relaxation. And we have a solution for you…

Run the Ultimate Fly Pattern Sweepstakes
“Like” CareerBuilder for Employers on Facebook and then enter your name, address and e-mail for a chance to win $1,000 in complimentary airfare from CareerBuilder; the ‘Run the Ultimate Fly Pattern’ sweepstakes runs from January 30, 2012 to midnight, February 12, 2012.

We know your work is important, but everyone deserves to take a break to unplug, kick up their feet and get lost in a good book. And many (including CareerBuilder’s own VP of HR), say traveling across the world or just setting up camp in your house — and away from your office — is good for your health and may translate to better work while in the office:

“Taking advantage of vacation or paid-time-off benefits is critical not only to your well-being, but to your overall job performance,” said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder. “Workers who set aside time for R&R tend to have less burnout, more creative energy and higher quality output. While financial challenges and heavy workloads may make vacation planning difficult, it’s important to find time to recharge away or at home. It can ultimately translate into a more gratifying work experience that benefits you, your family and your employer.”

Where would you go if you won $1,000 in complementary airfare?

Better Employee Benefits Generate Perks for Business, Too

2012-02-06T17:20:33Z

Creating a better benefits package isn’t just good for employees. It’s good for business, too.

Growing Pains: it’s not just a classic TV series desperately in need of a reunion show. While growth is a blessing for many companies, it also brings with it many challenges. With this in mind, CareerBuilder and Inc. have just released “Geared to Growth: Building an Infrastructure for the Long Haul,” a new report designed to help companies deal with the growing pains they may experience over both the short- and long-term.

The following excerpt from Part III of “Geared to Growth” (you can check out part I here and go here for part II) discusses how benefits are critical to attracting and retaining employees – and how you can deliver the benefits employees want (without breaking the bank).

Benchmarking Your Employee Benefits Package
Benefits play a crucial role in attracting and retaining productive employees. So how do you know if you’re offering a compelling benefits plan? Start with one question: Are employees using it?

“One important factor is utilization,” says Professor Martocchio, who is author of Employee Benefits: A Primer for Human Resource Professionals. Take stock of which benefits employees are actually taking advantage of. Perhaps your company can replace some benefits employees don’t want or need with new benefits that they’ll appreciate more. “Before you invest in those benefits and spend the money, you need to do a needs test to find out what the employees will use.”

Don’t neglect non-traditional benefits like flex-time, telecommuting, and domestic partner coverage, which many employees today consider essentials, not extras. They expect employers to recognize and respect their personal and family obligations, even in the current economic environment.

It’s not just employees who get perks from these types of benefits, either. Offering those nonstandard benefits gives you a competitive edge in attracting highly in-demand workers – and in retaining your current employees.

Benefits don’t have to break the bank.
Some of the most valued employee benefits are also some of the most cost-effective to execute. Options include:

Providing space for weekly weight-loss program meetings.
Offering education on use of flexible spending plans.
Bringing in counselors to help employees assess their financial planning and insurance positions.

“These are really critical issues,” Martocchio says. “Most of us do not know how to deal with long-term wealth building or long-term care, because it is so complicated.”

Be careful, however, not to endorse or sponsor financial or insurance advisors (which introduces the potential for liability) and make it clear that the company receives no commission on these referrals.

Staff members should have a voice in designing the plans. Several strategies can help you to gather and implement their input:

Conduct periodic surveys of employee preferences.
Invite feedback through use of a physical or virtual suggestion box.
Create a representative employee advisory committee that reflects a broad cross-section of job titles and employee backgrounds, both personal and professional.

These strategies not only provide a simple, inexpensive way to gauge employee concerns—they also give executives and management a way to demonstrate that the company cares about and does its best to respond to employee concerns.

If you choose to launch an employee advisory committee, make sure you have a clearly defined purpose for it. Make sure the members understand the metrics the company will use to evaluate the committee’s effectiveness and contributions to corporate-wide productivity.

These metrics should measure concerns that “play to the success of the organization,” says human capital management consultant Paul Belliveau, SPHR, HRIP. These metrics should measure success “against the problems that need to be solved to achieve strategic goals and objectives from a corporate standpoint.”

For more information, download a complimentary copy of “Geared to Growth” – and check out the Infrastructure-Building Resources on page 15 for further assistance in evaluating and enhancing your existing benefits plan.

The Surprising Reason You’re Not Getting the Candidates You Need

2012-01-31T15:32:31Z

You don’t get it. You’re doing everything right: You’re offering a great job with a great company, you’ve ensured your job advertising placement is targeting the right group of candidates, and you’re positive you’re offering the most competitive salary. Even your job posting is flawless.

And yet, the job applications just aren’t flowing in the way they should. So what gives?

The truth is, while you might be doing everything right to attract the right job candidates and compel them to apply to your job opportunities, it might just be what happens after they hit “apply now” that’s the source of your troubles.

Research shows that 34 percent of candidates who try to apply for jobs don’t complete the application process – simply because the application process is too much of a hassle.

(Think about it. Have you ever tried to enter a contest online only to find that the registration process is more trouble than the prize is worth? Applying to a job online can be just as frustrating. The more hoops you make candidates jump through just to apply, the less likely they are to complete the application process.)

According to CareerBuilder internal data, the top two reasons candidates gave for failing to complete the application process were due to usability issues and time constraints:

24 percent of candidates don’t apply to jobs because the “Apply Now” link is broken.
21 percent believe that the long application process isn’t worth their time.

The good news is that fixing your job application process to end candidate drop-off is a relatively easy fix. The hard part, however, comes with discerning exactly where and why candidates are dropping off in the first place – an effort that will inevitably require some data analysis.

While your current applicant tracking system might be able to offer some insight as to what you need to change or enhance about your application process, you might find you need the help of a third party that can offer objective analysis and insights. CareerBuilder’s Applicant Experience offering, for example, gives insight into your application process by tracking candidates and surveying them within 24 hours of an interaction with your Job Posting, and then again a month later.

Not only will an external resource help you uncover holes your internal team is likely to overlook, but you’ll benefit from the expert solutions to create a better recruitment process overall. It’s an investment up front, but one that will ultimately save you time and money (and frustration).

How often do you evaluate your organization’s application process?

Pay Scales and Job Descriptions: Two Ways to Break the Bad Hire Blues

2012-01-31T18:23:55Z

It’s true that your company, no matter what other aspects you may excel and grow in, is only as good as its people. Yet, your people are only as good as your process of selecting them. As a company currently growing or preparing for future growth, how can slow down enough to reverse the cycle and improve your selection process to bring in better people–and see better business results? CareerBuilder and Inc.’s just-released report, “Geared to Growth: Building an Infrastructure for the Long Haul,” will help you prepare for the recruitment changes and challenges that come along with your company’s growth and make changes in the way you’re selecting candidates now that will prove crucial later.

Below, check out a sneak peek of Part II of “Geared to Growth” (and if you missed Part I about getting the right policies and procedures in place, read it here) — it’s all about the long-term people standards your company needs create to prepare for significant growth.

In reexamining your candidate selection process, where should you start?

1. Targeted Job Descriptions

First and foremost, take a look at your job descriptions–they may be harming your prospects more than you realize.The quality of your job descriptions can have a huge impact on your opportunities to attract the most qualified candidates and make them start thinking of your company as their employer of choice.

The U.S. Small Business Administration outlines these job description essentials:

Job title and objective
Description of the function and scope of the position
Review of duties and functional responsibilities
Overview of relationships and roles within the company

Following this formula for all job descriptions makes it easier for employees to understand not only what is expected of them and their colleagues, but also how each person on the staff contributes to the company’s overall success.

Even with these four main points in place, don’t forget to offer a short description of your company culture and make an effort to personalize your company further. For example, you might say something like, “We reward original thinking and ideas, encourage our employees to grow professionally and personally, and support their efforts to take on new challenges, whether it’s to learn a new language or run the Chicago Marathon.”

This can help you to attract candidates who will go above and beyond the responsibilities outlined in the job description and who want to work for you — not just any company.

2. Standard versus performance-based pay scales

Salary: It can sometimes feel like a never-ending headache trying to get it right. As your business grows, a standardized pay scale is a great way to manage employees’ compensation expectations in a way that encourages and rewards their contributions to corporate growth. Several formulas can help you to do this:

Key compensation to skill development—for example, acquisition of advanced skills in certain computer programs—rather than tying pay to a particular job title.
Implement competency-based pay for employees whose value rests more in what they know than tasks they perform.
Employ broadbanding, which groups similar jobs (for example, administrative staff) within a pay range for the group as a whole, rather than as individual jobs.
Create performance-based pay scales that match compensation to the employee’s success in meeting established objectives.

Alternatively, performance-based compensation strategy keys salaries to employees’ value in meeting revenue and profitability goals. This approach creates another opportunity to motivate employees to exceed expectations in their job performance. It ties compensation and incentives to:

Productivity
Work quality and results delivered
Success in meeting difficult challenges
Willingness to work under dangerous conditions

What’s the best method for you?

There is no one best approach to compensation. Choose the strategy that best supports your business model and protects your company’s ability to attract and retain the
employees you need. That’s true even in a job market that favors employers.

Catch Part I of Geared to Growth: Building an Infrastructure for the Long Haul here, and stay tuned for Part III on benchmarking, coming soon.

What CareerBuilder’s Big Game Investment Means for Employers

2012-02-06T17:21:00Z

It’s coming: The onslaught of buffalo chicken dips, foam fingers bigger than most people’s heads, shushing of those talking during the game, shushing of those talking during the commercials, vintage jersey envy, and a whole lot of whooping, shouting, and possibly even “pulling a Tebow” (hey, things can get emotional–I’m not judging).

Of course, I’m talking about this year’s Big Game, happening on February 5. As you may know, CareerBuilder is among those businesses participating in the game’s commercials this year–2012 marks our eighth year of participating–but what you might not know is how this decision is directly related to our commitment to giving our employers better candidates (and more of them). Here’s a little more information about how our investment in the biggest football game of the year turns into real results not just for us, but also for our customers, who are seeking the best people with the right skills in a still-tough economy.

Benefits Of The Big Game and What They Mean for Employers:

TRAFFIC. CareerBuilder’s traffic grew 43 percent year-over-year during the month of the Super Bowl when we first debuted as a Super Bowl advertiser. CareerBuilder has seen continued gains and, in 2011, we had an 18 percent year-over-year increase in traffic in the month of the Super Bowl.

What this means for employers: Increased traffic on CareerBuilder’s site equates to more job seekers looking for jobs–and more of them finding your open position/s. We are constantly looking for ways to make it easier for candidates most closely matched to your position’s requirements to find you, and an extra flow of traffic means more eyeballs on your jobs. You can take further advantage of this opportunity by making sure your job description appeals to job seekers and answers their questions, and by doing things to strengthen your employment brand and help job seekers get to know your company. And of course, more traffic leads to more applications, which leads me to my next point…

APPLICATIONS. Over the last seven years, on average, CareerBuilder saw a 24 percent year-over-year increase in applications to our employers’ jobs in the month of the Super Bowl.

What this means for employers: More applications means, of course, more people applying to your jobs. More than that, though, with CareerBuilder’s many solutions that help employers filter out unqualified candidates so they can focus on only the best-matched ones, the time needed to find the right candidates is cut down considerably with an even larger pool of people vying for your open position and a myriad of options for zoning in on the talent you want.

As Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, says, “We have invested in the Super Bowl for eight consecutive years because we consistently see a positive return in regard to revenue, traffic, applications and brand awareness. No other venue enables you to reach an audience this large that is actively engaged in watching your ad.”

REVENUE. Over the last seven years, on average, CareerBuilder’s invoicing increased 36 percent year-over-year in the month following the Super Bowl. This consistently outpaced year-over-year growth in other months.

What this means for employers: Sure, who doesn’t love revenue? But increased invoicing means increased productivity internally — and also gives us as a company new opportunities to invest in our employers with even more solutions that address recruitment challenges from social media, to talent pipelining, to the current skills gap. It also helps us fund initiatives like CareerBuilder’s internal Hackday initiative (in which employees can dedicate a full day to creating any new business idea they like) and CareerBuilder’s Re-Employment Initiative, in which we recently recruited ten unemployed job seekers for an intensive, six-month IT training program.

BRAND AWARENESS. Per a Millward Brown awareness tracking study, CareerBuilder’s unaided awareness grew 29 percent from 2004 to 2011. Total awareness of CareerBuilder’s TV ads doubled in the week following our first appearance at the Super Bowl.

What this means for employers: Awareness leads to more traffic, which leads to more applications, but as we’ve talked about at length on The Hiring Site, brand awareness is key in reaching candidates you’re currently missing out on. It’s key for your business, and it’s key for ours — and by building more brand awareness, we’ve been able to gain the attention of a much larger pool of candidates and employers — and help them connect.

Which makes us want to come to work each day.

Oh, About That Commercial…
You didn’t think I’d leave you hanging without a sneak peek of CareerBuilder’s lovable chimps, did you? Below, enjoy a look at this year’s contender:

CareerBuilder supports the fair and humane treatment of all animals. Read about how our chimpanzee stars were treated during filming. We can’t wait to experience the Big Game with all of you!

What Skills Gap? 5 Ways to Get the Qualified Workers You Need

2012-01-30T21:07:06Z

Finding workers with the right skills can be a skill in itself.

If you find yourself complaining that you can’t find the qualified candidates you need for certain positions at your organization, the good news is you’re not alone – by a long shot.

According to a recent Manpower survey, 52 percent of U.S. employers can’t find the skilled workers they need to fill open positions.

Dire as these findings may seem, the situation isn’t hopeless. In a recent editorial for Harvard Business Review addressing how companies can navigate the growing skills gap, CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson mentioned that companies need to take the initiative to reskill workers themselves. After all, many out-of-work Americans have skills they could easily transfer to a new career “if given the opportunity to build them,” according to Ferguson.

The question then becomes, how can you provide that opportunity? Consider the following ways organizations can take it upon themselves to reskill workers – and help close that ever-widening skills gap.

5 Ways to Train Workers for the Skills Your Organization Needs

Set up an internal training and development program. It’s no accident that some of today’s most successful companies also happen to make leadership development a priority. General Electric, for example, invests roughly $1 billion annually on training and educational opportunities for employees, while both Intel and McDonald’s have company-specific ‘universities’ where employees to go to learn new skills and develop existing ones. Don’t have the means to create an internal training program? Look into using a third party resource, such as CareerBuilderInstitute, which enables businesses to train their employees through online courses that range from hard- and soft-skill development to professional certification.
Create a mentorship program within the organization. Mentorship programs are a great, cost-effective way to prepare employees for leadership and management positions. But the benefits don’t end there. Research suggests that mentorship programs have a positive effect on morale, boost productivity and increase retention rates, as well.
Partner with local colleges to offer training and recruit. In hopes to reverse the trend of an increasing skills gap and labor shortage, companies across all industries are partnering with local colleges and universities to offer programs that ensure workers get the specialized skills they need for various industries.
Promote current employees first. When looking to hire for a new position, don’t overlook your current employees. Chances are you’ll have to train whoever you hire to some extent anyway, so why not have one of those people be someone you know is already the right fit culturally? Promoting from within not only saves time and money bringing in someone new, but it can also improve morale and increase retention, as it sends the message that you value your employees and provide growth opportunities.
Consider rehiring former employees. This can be a tricky one, depending on the circumstances surrounding the employee’s original departure, but rehiring a former employee could be a viable option to fill certain open positions. After all, rehired employees understand the company culture, and you don’t have to retrain them.

What is your organization doing to reskill workers?

Forget Social Media | Recruit Employees With Word-of-Mouth Marketing

2012-01-30T21:07:11Z

They may love their Facebooks, their Twitters and their YouTubes, but the members of Gen Y may not be nearly as swayed by social media as you might think. New research around social media’s influence on consumer behavior indicates that, while millennials might be “digital natives”, they are actually more influenced by word-of-mouth marketing than social media when it comes to making purchasing decisions.

The takeaway for hiring managers and recruiters? Given that employee recruitment is essentially just another form of marketing, focusing more on word-of-mouth marketing techniques could enhance your recruiting strategy. (This doesn’t just go for recruiting Gen Y, either: The study showed word-of-mouth also trumps social media when marketing to members of Gen X and Baby Boomers as well.)

The question now, of course, is how? Might I suggest starting with your current employees?

We’ve discussed before the importance of turning your employees as employer brand ambassadors, and this finding speaks to that. Job seekers want to feel a connection with potential employers. They want to know first-hand what they’re getting into before they buy in and accept an offer. They want to hear from real people – people they feel they can trust – why a certain workplace is the workplace they want to invest in. As the face of your company, your employees are the way to accomplish these things. Consider the following tactics:

5 Ways to Create Word of Mouth Recruiting Using Your Employee Network

Make the most of career fairs. Career fairs are perhaps the most obvious way to get employees in front of candidates to recommend your organization. Send your best employees to these events, where they can meet job seekers, answer questions about the work culture, exchange information with candidates, and let their personality and enthusiasm for their jobs and workplace do the selling for you.
Sponsor employee memberships in professional organizations. Encouraging your employees to join professional organizations specific to your industry enables them to expand their professional network – and pool of potential candidates they can refer to your company. You’re also investing in your employees’ learning and development, a much-valued benefit among today’s workers (and one more selling point they can bring up to potential candidates).
Mind your ERPs. Research shows that a well-structured employee referral program (ERP) is one of the best ways to generate new hires, but they’ve also been shown to increase retention, lower costs and boost morale among current employees.
Emphasize the “social” part of social media. While social media might not be as influential as word-of-mouth, but you can still use social media to mimic the feel of word-of-mouth. How? Take a cue from online retailer Zappos, where employees create “connection channels” via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs to connect with potential employees, freely answer questions about life at Zappos, and let their individual personalities shine through as they ‘live the brand’. Social media may never hold the weight of face-to-face conversations, but it does enable employees to speak – authentically and in their own words – on behalf of their employers. That’s not a bad consolation.
Create employee testimonial videos. Recruitment videos with employee testimonials are the next best thing to getting employees face-to-face with candidates (perhaps because it feels like face-to-face). See how companies like Noodles&Co and Madison Health Care Center utilize their recruitment videos to enable employees to tell their stories – literally in their own voices – about what makes working for these companies such a great experience.

Do you employ word-of-mouth marketing tactics in your recruiting efforts? How do employees at your organization help you recruit?

Relocation Nation 2012: How Workers and Employers Are Making a Move

2012-02-02T17:10:15Z

We’ve talked recently about how voluntary turnover is on the rise this year. As it turns out, many of those workers may not be remaining anywhere near their own backyard when they leave their current job.

A whopping 44 percent of workers say they’ll relocate this year for the right job, according to a new CareerBuilder survey conducted by Harris Interactive© among more than 3,000 hiring managers and HR professionals and nearly 8,000 U.S. workers. Many employers are doing their best to make the stress of moving worthwhile: Nearly a third say they’ll foot the relocation bill in return for great new talent.

(See the Infographic)

A new way for out-of-area workers and employers to get in touch

Fast on the heels of this trend, CareerBuilder has just launched CareerRelocate.com, a site dedicated to helping workers and employers connect and turn job relocation opportunities into realities. Employers can post jobs and search resumes through CareerRelocate.com, and candidates have many options as well when it comes to making the right career move (literally and figuratively). As Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, explains, “CareerRelocate.com helps workers identify relocation opportunities and understand related costs, so they have the right information in hand for their next career move.”

Through CareerRelocate.com, workers are able to:

Run a simple keyword or category search and view a map detailing where the most and fewest opportunities are for their line of work.
View actual relocation opportunities in different cities.
Learn what they would need to earn in order to maintain their current standard of living in another city.
Research homes, property values, mortgage quotes, moving and storage costs.
Tap into articles and advice on relocating and hiring trends.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s in store for worker relocation this year:

In 2011, many laid-off workers turned to jobs out of their area to find new work. Of full-time workers who were laid off in the last year and found new jobs, 20 percent relocated to a new city or state, according to a September 2011 CareerBuilder study.

“One of the key trends we saw coming out of the recession is the movement of labor in and out of markets across the U.S. Workers have had to expand their job search geographically and employers in need of hard-to-find, skilled talent have had to recruit across state lines,” says Ferguson.

Positions most likely to pay (for the move)

Employers who are experiencing challenges finding workers for skilled positions said they’re willing to pay to bring on great new people: 32 percent reported they would be willing to pay to relocate new employees in 2012, and 19 percent would be willing to pay a smaller first year salary in order to give a signing bonus to relocate an employee.

While employers say they’re willing to pay both current staff and new hires for a wide variety of positions, the areas which they’re most likely to pay to relocate employees are tied to technology and revenue-generation:

Engineering – 30 percent of employers
Information Technology – 23 percent
Business Development – 21 percent
Sales – 21 percent
Financial – 16 percent
Marketing – 13 percent
Legal – 11 percent

Owners of a lonely heart?

We’re all human, and sometimes work changes call for sacrifices we’re not thrilled to make, even if they are best for us in the long run. It’s not a surprise, then, that some workers who relocated last year experienced pangs of loneliness or doubt: 41 percent of them said their family wasn’t able to relocate with them and they had to travel to see them.

Here’s what workers said topped the list when it came to their other biggest relocation challenges:

Cost of living was higher – 26 percent
Caused more stress on the family unit – 24 percent
It was difficult to make new friends – 18 percent
They were feeling homesick – 16 percent

No looking back

Seventy-seven percent of workers who relocated in the last year reported they were happy with the move and didn’t regret their decision. How did workers say they benefited the most?

Made a fresh start – 30 percent
Made new friends – 31 percent
Had new experiences they wouldn’t have had anywhere else – 29 percent
Earning at a higher level gave their family more spending options – 27 percent
Better long-term career opportunities – 22 percent
Area was nicer and schools were better – 19 percent

Check out our “Relocation Nation” infographic to get a snapshot of relocation trends for 2012:

Are you planning on looking for out-of-area candidates this year to get the right employees in the door? Will you pay for relocation costs?

Is Your Company Prepared for a Growth Spurt? Start by Getting the Right Policies in Place

2012-02-02T17:10:05Z

Growth can obviously be a huge boon to your company, but it can also lead to some stumbling blocks you weren’t exactly prepared to encounter. Well, detach the nails that you’ve just dug into your office chair in panic: CareerBuilder and Inc. have just released a new report, “Geared to Growth: Building an Infrastructure for the Long Haul,” with the sole purpose of helping you prepare for any changes and challenges that come along with your company’s growth, whether that growth happens tomorrow or 10 years from now.

Below, check out a sneak peek of Part I of “Geared to Growth” — it’s all about the policies and procedures your company needs to put in place to prepare for significant growth.

The employee manual

One critical component of a planned approach to growth is the sometimes dreaded, always indispensable employee manual. As Lisa Guerin, legal editor at Nolo and co-author of “Create Your Own Employee Handbook: A Legal & Practical Guide for Employers,” says, “The actual process of sitting down and writing an employee handbook is really valuable for a company. Many companies make the mistake of creating ‘scattered policies as they come up.’”

Sound familiar? Not only does this backwards approach make it much harder to create consistent policies for things like performance reviews, vacation time and employee leave, but it also leaves companies open to legal action. “The inconsistent treatment can lead to suspicions that there may be discrimination going on, or that there may be some kind of ulterior motive,” Guerin adds.

As a general guide, an effective employee manual:

Covers internal policies .
Includes your company’s statement of compliance with laws and regulations like the Family Medical Leave Act.
Sets the standard for company behavior and employee conduct—for example, by stating that your company prohibits discrimination and harassment.

Guerin adds that the above three criteria handle part of companies’ need to comply with Title 7, the federal law prohibiting discrimination. “But,” she adds, “it’s also
letting employees know what kind of behavior is not acceptable, what kind of
behavior they should report, the complaint process, and what happens when
a complaint is filed.”

Note: Because the employee manual gets into legal territory, make sure your corporate counsel reviews it before you finalize and excitedly distribute it to Every. Employee. At. The. Company.

The manual is ready to go–now what?

Even though your employee manual is finalized, both your company and the world around it are likely to change from time to time. Consequently, you’ll need to review it annually and also when your company:

Reaches certain milestones in staff size.
Expands its operations or lines of business.
Experiences significant competitive or market changes.
Is affected by new laws or regulations.
Faces cultural changes like the rise of social media.

That last one has likely come into play for your business in some way or another, with the rapid rise of social media and its rapid integration into the workplace. Your employee manual should include guidelines on employee contributions to your corporate blog or company-related Facebook page/s.

Also, make sure employees are aware of the federal trade commission’s revised endorsement guides. They require disclosure of “any connection between the endorser and the marketer of the product that would affect how people evaluate the endorsement.”

Though a 2010 National Labor Relations Board ruling limited
the extent to which companies can restrict their employees’ personal activities
in social media, it is still important for employees to be aware of your policies and vigilant in using common sense in their social media activities.

How to get the employee manual to the people it’s meant for (hint: your employees)

Like the manual itself, how you choose to deliver your shiny new employee manual should fit the needs of your employees (if you want them to read it). For that reason, it’s best to
make it available in a variety of formats:

Online is a good option for people who are comfortable with receiving information electronically and have access to a computer throughout the workday.
Print is preferable for people who have limited exposure and access to computers.
Employees with disabilities may be best served by another delivery system, like one that interfaces with an audio e-reader for people with visual impairments.

Did they get it — or did they get it?

Distributing your employee manual is only half the work — the real work comes in making sure your employees understand and comprehend its contents. Otherwise, what’s the point? Your goal should be for your employee manual to serve as a tool for corporate and individual growth and success.

Once the manual is distributed, schedule time for supervisors to conduct training sessions/grievance sessions. Yes, this is where employees can air any concerns or uncertainties they have about their rights and obligations within the company — and supervisors (or whomever you deem as point people) can give them the answers they’re seeking.

Get your complimentary copy of “Geared for Growth” and check out the Infrastructure-Building Resources on page 14 for more tools to help your company create its employee manual — and all the essentials on preparing your company for a period of growth.)