Are You a Green Company?

Believe it or not, but for a large portion of the young talent emerging from universities, working for a green company is more important than benefits packages, hours or bonuses. During interviews, more and more HR and recruiters are getting asked more and more, “are you a green company?” And to attract the really top talent, the answer needs to be, “yes.”

But what does that mean exactly? What makes a green company?

You don’t have to be in the renewable energy or conservation business to be green (although it certainly helps). You just have to run your business with an eye towards the environment.

Going paperless is a good start, as is using more energy efficient light bulbs. Recycling bins in the break room is a given. Offering incentives for employees to either walk or ride bikes to work isn’t a bad idea. Minimizing energy hungry office appliances and equipment to only what’s necessary should impress a few candidates.

But that’s the easy stuff. Everyone pretty much already does that. What can you do to set yourself apart from the pack?

Reviewing your business, your clients, and your partners to ensure they are green as well does the trick. If you’re an oil company, you’re not going to attract these types of candidates. But, if you can avoid doing business with oil companies, and can tout that in your recruitment efforts, you just might catch the eye of that eco-conscious Harvard grad you desperately want on your team.

Being a green company pervades every facet of your company and its business dealings. It’s a totality of your company’s everyday operations. And moving forward, it will define you.

Employee Handbook Restrictions

All companies abide by some sort of employee handbook. It acts as the Bible of company policies, benefits, and other important information. You probably rack your brain trying to think of all the topics to include in your company guidelines, but do you ever think about the topics that are taboo? It is a good idea to avoid documenting policies in the following areas:

1. Overtime restrictions – Wage and labor laws state that employees get paid for working more than 40 hours a week. Not all employers authorize this. Never require overtime work to be authorized in advance.
2. Office romance – It is nearly impossible to ban office romances and it invades employees’ personal rights. Romeo and Juliet had a romance after their parents forbade them showing that when it comes to love people don’t follow rules. It’s a part of life so don’t outline your employees’ love lives in your handbook.
3. The pregnant worker – They have the same rights as all of your other employees. You have no right to require them to disclose personal information about their pregnancy.
4. Giving notice – Putting this in an employee handbook can come back to haunt you. By requiring an employee to give notice before quitting you might not have the legal right to fire unwanted individuals.
5. Compensation issues – Don’t prohibit employees from discussing salary with other coworkers. They have the right to openly discuss their compensation.

By documenting some of the policies presented above you are only harming yourself and your company with unwanted legal issues. Remember that sometimes it’s not the best tactic to write a one hundred page employee guide and that some things ought to be left out.

Picking the Right Category on a Job Board

When it comes time to post your open position on a job board, you’ll be asked what category you want to list it under. Although you may think you know the best category, don’t choose this too quickly. Before you do, take some time to dertermine which category will get you the best results.

Foremost, many job boards will charge you for extra categories, which is why you want to choose the best one they give you free and not have to incur that expense. You may be tempted to pick the industry your company makes its money with, but that might not best fit the job. For instance, although your company is an aeronautical engineering firm, the job you’re looking to fill is for a network administrator. Now, that person has no need to know anything about engineering, but if you list that job under your company’s main focus there’s no guarantee that a good network admin will find your job amongst the thousands of jobs on that board.

So how do you choose the best category?

Like most things in life, research is the key. Look at other similar jobs and study which categories they are listed under – especially for specialty jobs that might fall under more than one category. Some categories are more heavily trafficked than others, so you’ll want yours to be both relevant, and be in the more popular section of the site.

You might need to track categories yourself. Chances are you’ll list the same job several times. If you get a weak response once, pick a different category the next time and see if it does better. Build a spreadsheet and analyze the results to determine which category works best for which job.

But do they have dental?

You gotta love great marketing. If you click the link, you’ll be taken to a news story about Australia’s tourism commission advertising what amounts to a six month vacation they’ll actually pay you a hundred grand for. All that’s actually required is that you be a spokesperson for their tourism industry.

They swear it’s a real job offer, but it’s obviously a “make the media pay for it” advertising campaign. It’s a pretty darn good one, too. I can’t say I didn’t spend at least a few minutes living in my head, imagining a six month lifestyle of snorkeling and blogging.

As of this writing, the “application site” is overloaded and begging for mercy from all of the traffic, so the campaign has been a smashing success. If a typical job listing can generate a couple hundred applicants, imagine what one such as this creates.

How Much Should You Spend on Job Boards?

Times certainly are tough for all of us. Our budget and P&L sheets have become daily reading like a newspaper with just as many developments. Although you’ve probably slowed down hiring, you’re not technically at a hiring freeze due to natural turnover, but you’re also very wary of recruitment costs. It’s a lot to juggle and you’re stressed over the fact that losing one of the balls may make you drop them all.

Over spending on recruitment is not necessary. You’ll hear a lot of hustles from the big boys of recruitment about how it will save you in the long run, but so long as you recruit carefully, you can also do so cheaply.

Seek out alternatives to find new employees. Smaller job boards are just as, if not more, effective as the big ones. And they’re much, much cheaper.

Using a big board will not only cost you possibly thousands, it will also make your job much harder. You’ll get flooded with applicants who are only vaguely aware they applied with you because they just hit ’submit’ to every job in their area. Smaller boards are easier to manage and typically have better informed people using them.

Are You a Leader or a Manager?

They sound like the same thing right? Leadership and management skills? While these positions encompass many of the same beliefs they dissect the idea of motivation differently. One uses a little more heart and one uses more authority but the gist is the same – get your employees energized to act.

I am going to break down both roles for you so you can best decide which category you fit into. And it’s a great asset if you are a little of both!

Managers have an authoritarian style of supervising their employees. They tell their employees what to do and they do it. Yeah there might be a little power trip in most managers, but they get the job done. A manager tries to minimize risk at all cost and likes to have control and stability within the workplace. They make the rules and tell people what to do. Managers aren’t necessarily cold hearted leaders; they just know what they want and how to achieve it.

Whereas managers have subordinates, leaders have followers. Leaders use their charismatic appeal to tug on the heart strings of their followers. Most leaders are kind and give credit to others who help in the task at hand. One of the primary differences is that instead of telling people what to do leaders try to stimulate people to work together towards their vision. Leaders are more risk-seeking than managers and will break the rules if necessary to accomplish things.

Many people are capable of leading and managing at the same time and it takes skill to know what role is best for what situation. Find out whom you are and if you can learn to utilize skills from the opposite role.

If I wanted to be a Juggler I Would’ve joined the Circus

We all get stressed in the workforce from time to time. Let me be the first to say, there are not enough hours in the day! There is always work to be done, work to be brought home, after hours crunch time and so forth. As much as I like to be a crowd pleaser and a hard working employee, there are limits to my capabilities. After all, I am only one person. But how do you say ‘no’ to that daunting boss of yours or other pushy co-workers? Here are some tips on how to put your foot down before you are pulling out your hair and wishing you had ten arms to get all your work done.

One of the most significant things you can learn to do is delegate. You aren’t a juggler and you can’t balance hundreds of tasks on your own. Have trust in other people and work with them to produce high-quality results. Multitasking ultimately leads to more errors. If your brain is going a thousand miles a minute then you are going to make mistakes and be more forgetful with your work. Let your co-workers help you!

You also need to set limits for yourself. Recognize how much work you can do and let your boss know if a deadline is inconceivable. It is important that you don’t make excuses for saying ‘no’ but tell your co-workers the reason you are putting your foot down. People hate hearing excuses and they will respect your honesty. And finally, don’t make commitments that you aren’t prepared to keep. It is much better to say ‘no’ then to take on a task and be overwhelmed, stressed and perform poorly in the long run.

Once in awhile you deserve to take priority. If you take a little free time for yourself then you will be a happier person and a more pleasant employee to be around. Learn to set boundaries with your hours and the work you take home with you. You aren’t a superhero so stop acting like one!

Finding your inner coach

If you’re feeling a bit down about your leadership abilities try looking to your childhood for inspiration. Chances are you played on a sports team and that team had a coach. Coaches, like bosses, seek to lead and motivate their team. They want to win but they also want to be respected. The best way to be a respected leader is to follow these simple coaching strategies:

Pick a game plan and stick to your approach. Providing your team with a clear goal and means to achieving that goal will motivate them to succeed. It will also focus everyone and ensure that the team is looking towards the end goal together. Providing your team with a plan lets them trust your guidance. Can you imagine a football team attempting to win the big game without fixed plays?

Put your team players in roles that are best suited for their abilities. Just like you wouldn’t want your outfielders on the pitching mound, it is important to recognize what players are good at and where they can best benefit the team. Don’t be afraid to let them grow in their positions and shift players around if they have demonstrated abilities specific to a different area.

Practice makes perfect. Before every game it is important to do a few dry runs, isolate skills that need to be improved, and work towards improvement in those areas. The same is true for team presentations. Your team is only as strong as your weakest player and even the strongest ones can benefit from additional practice.

And finally, celebrate the goals your team has achieved and don’t feel like you can’t single out the MVP. Honing in on major accomplishments confirms expected results, honors specific feats, and motivates team players for the future.

Inspire, not Perspire

I used to work in the hospitality industry, more specifically, in a restaurant. For anyone who ever has, you know how it is and I needn’t say more. For those of you who haven’t, oh boy. There is a lot of behind the scenes, political stuff that goes on to get that food to your table. And there are a lot of lazy people. When your server is nowhere to be found, she could actually be doing something productive like bussing one table or running food to another one. She also, might not be doing either.

She could be talking to another server, standing around not doing anything at all. And then what? The whole restaurant suffers. Guests are waiting to sit down due to dirty tables, they are waiting to eat while their food gets cold, they are waiting for their credit cards to come back and no one is having a good experience.

That’s when you see managers bussing tables, running food, and pretty much doing everything they are paying their employees to do; all the while sweating like a can of pop in mid July. In a job like that, it’s hard to gauge who’s actually working and who’s not, because there is always some down time in a restaurant. In the same way, an office is just like that. There are the people that never need prompting and there are people who need more than just that. My point is, instead of running around doing all the work yourself, and trying to fix everyone else’s inabilities, try inspiring them to be a better worker.

You might think, “Oh, why didn’t I think of that”, but stop being sarcastic for a second and realize that even the laziest employee knows they are at “work”. You might just need to inspire them to aspire to be great. Don’t get on her case every minute, she’ll just run the other way when she sees you. Try, instead, to understand what it is that she’s are having a hard time with. Is it concentrating? Or coming up with ideas? Or is it just that she’s bored with what she’s doing?

Now I realize that you are not a babysitter, and that each employee should be able to bring to the workplace as much contribution as the next. But they’re there for a reason; you obviously haven’t fired them so you might as well try to motivate them.

Once you’ve found out why it is that they’re lazy, think of ways to help their cause. Maybe mix up their tasks so they are doing different things throughout the day. Suggest headphones to block out noise from the office. Talk with them, let them know that you know they are a valuable part of your team. Nothing infuses creativity and energy like a good pep talk, really! Everyone likes to know their worth, to feel wanted and needed.

If this person is someone you want or need to keep around, you better start to try something to get them going. Your productivity and reputation depend on it. That lazy employee isn’t going to take the initiative on their own, quite obviously. So unless you want to be sweating your job forever, you better start inspiring somehow!

The Positives of Telecommuting for Employers

We all know that the gas prices are soaring. Employees are trying to avoid driving to work like the plague. I’m sure you’ve overheard your employees gossiping about telecommuting in the break room or complaining that they sat in an hour of traffic on their way to work. You probably would love to let some of your employees telecommute but there are issues of trust involved. The big question as an employer is how am I going to benefit? Well telecommuting isn’t just all about the employee, there are many positive reasons why letting your employees telecommute can benefit you.

Your company gains an increase in work hours. Most employees can save a full hour or two by not having to drive to the office every day. The telecommuter can begin to work when they would normally be stuck in traffic. This increase in productivity can aid an employer by increasing the company’s profits, decreasing spending and having more time to spend with important clients. In addition to the gain in work hours, an employer is cutting infrastructure costs. Telecommuters are saving employers real estate, technology and telecommunication costs.

This next gain may be disputed but I strongly believe that by telecommuting you are eliminating distractions. Instead of finding ways to not do work at the office you are conversely working as hard as you can at home so you can finish and go play. Standing around the break room drinking coffee with co-workers, going out to lunch and having people come into your office to gab are situations you won’t encounter at home.

Employees will also have increased morale knowing that you trust them and allow them flexibility. They will become positive and happier to work knowing that they have more time and flexibility to control the demands of life. By employees knowing that you are a supportive employer you will gain employee loyalty and retention. This will save you in the long run from having to hire recruiters and pay for training the new employees. Telecommuting can really help cut your company’s costs and boost employee morale. This alternative to coming to work can offer many positives that you as an employer should consider.