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Three Simple Human Resources
Tips For Canadian Small And Medium Business Owners
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 The
times are changing even for human resources. Gone are
the days when you could simply place a want ad in the
local newspaper and then sit back and wait for the resumes
to arrive in the mail. In the Internet age you must take
your candidate search online. No one knows this better
than many of the larger Canadian companies. These companies
know how to get the most for their money especially
when it comes to human resources. There are some very
basic human resources strategies and tools that you can
easily and affordably apply towards your small or medium
sized business.
Have A Plan
All of Canada's top companies have a defined plan for
how they develop their human resources. No matter what
the size of your business, you should have a human resources
development plan. It is important that you create a simple
one-page plan that honestly details your basic company
structure, your human resources goals and how you plan
to best match the interests, skills and talents of your
employees with the long term economic goals of your company.
You may also want to include your present human resources
capabilities, philosophy and needs, the number of employees
you intend to hire, how you will manage them and your
estimated personnel costs. Review and revise this at least
once a year.
Know And Grow Your Present Employees
How do you expect your best employees to stay in your
company unless you offer them something more than a paycheck?
Often employees state that their work environment is equally
or more important than how much they earn. Most successful
companies know this and realise that small, inexpensive
gestures like free cappuccino and warm cookies in the
lunchroom go a long way to create and sustain employee
moral (and retention). Grow your employees: Training your
current employees will not only directly benefit your
productivity but it can also build strong bonds with employees.
If employees feel that the company respects them enough
to invest in them then they will probably go that extra
mile for you. One out of town seminar per year for an
employee could save having to train a new replacement
employee every year or two.
Cast A Wide Net And Hire The Best Candidates Possible
Probably the most important human resources lesson that
successful businesses have learned is how to hire the
best possible employees. Simply posting a free advertisement
on free social classified ad sites kijiji or Craigslist
is fine if you are looking for a new barista for your
solar powered organic coffee shop but if you are looking
for a skilled professional to help move your company forward
then you had better find and use the same tools as companies
that are actively recruiting the exact same employee.
Luckily in Canada the choices of professional human resources
recruiting tools are few and simple. Hands down, the number
one human resources tool for hiring top-notch candidates
in Canada would have to be Workopolis. Before you go flying
off the post your job, there are few things that you should
know about this great Canadian human resources tool. Spend
a few seconds here and save hours and dollars when you
get to the Workopolis website.
First of all, Workopolis is huge. They receive over 3.5
visits per month. The Workopolis resume database has over
2 million resumes on file. This is enormous considering
Canada's population is only around 35 million. Workopolis
is actually many job sites in one. There is the main Workopolis
site that you a have probably already visited but did
you know that Workopolis also offers Workopoliscampus?
This is a student-focused site that targets 150 colleges
and universities. Workopolis also operates a network of
industry focused job sites so that you can target your
job postings towards the best possible candidates in your
sector or industry.
Workopolis also offers many different packages to suit
every employer. You can even focus your human resources
recruiting by region. Workopolis has individual package
pricing for National, Western Canada, Ontario, Quebec
and Atlantic Canada job postings. Each ad package gives
you access to a free suite of candidate screening tools
aptly named the screening room. Don't want to post a
job? You can also purchase packages with or without access
to the Workopolis database (with or without posting a
job) and search through candidates yourself.
On the downside Workopolis is not cheap. But considering
the investment you are about to make in hiring, training
and seasoning a new hire, why wouldn't want only the best
candidates? A nationwide single ad can go as high as $750
for 30 days. Of course there are tricks to get these numbers
down. The Workopolis pricing is quite flexible if not
a little complex at times. You can purchase longer term
job posting packages for lesser amounts or you can purchase
job extension credits for far less money than you pay
for the original job posting. You can also save by narrowing
your search to a specific region. For the nationwide example
mentioned earlier, the price drops to only $325 if you
target the Atlantic Provinces only. Workopolis also has
ongoing special offers and discounts but you may need
to dig around the Workopolis website to find these deals.
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