Time Management Archives - Paragon Strategic Staffing https://phoenixstaffingagency.net/tag/time-management/ Tue, 04 Oct 2022 12:00:44 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://phoenixstaffingagency.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/cropped-paragon-logo-32x32.png Time Management Archives - Paragon Strategic Staffing https://phoenixstaffingagency.net/tag/time-management/ 32 32 Mental Health in Management: How to Recognize Overworking https://phoenixstaffingagency.net/mental-health-in-management-how-to-recognize-overworking/ Tue, 04 Oct 2022 12:00:44 +0000 http://www.thestaffingstream.com/?p=10034 When you’re a manager, it can feel as if the workday never really ends. After all, it’s your job to keep the work humming along. You’re required to plan and orchestrate theRead More...

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When you’re a manager, it can feel as if the workday never really ends. After all, it’s your job to keep the work humming along. You’re required to plan and orchestrate the seamless collaboration of people and processes to achieve both short-term and long-range goals.

That means, in short, that you’re tasked with being an analyst, strategist, problem-solver, coach and mentor all at once. That’s a tall mountain to climb for anyone, no matter how well-trained or experienced you may be.

It’s little wonder, then, that so many managers find themselves becoming overworked and overwhelmed. This article describes strategies business leaders can use to protect their mental health by recognizing the signs of overwork and taking proactive steps to prevent it.

Recognizing the Signs of Overwork

When you are in leadership, it can be difficult to ever truly break away from work. After all, the success of your company and your team rests largely on your shoulders. You may realize that even during off hours, you constantly check your work email or text messages or your thoughts drift back to work-related issues.

Even if you are not consciously aware of a preoccupation with work, you may nevertheless experience symptoms that indicate underlying anxiety or sleep deprivation likely caused by overwork. You may also experience physical impacts of work-related exhaustion such as headaches or increased blood pressure.

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Taking Action

Whether you are already experiencing the signs and symptoms of overwork, or you want to take proactive steps to prevent them, there are ways to find a healthier work/life balance as a manager.

Set boundaries. It can be easy for salaried managers to be “always on,” attending to work matters any time of day. That’s why the first and most important step is to set firm boundaries (and adhere to them). Ensure that your work actually ends at the close of each work day. Teach your clients and colleagues to respect your off hours, and make sure you do the same by resisting the temptation to “check in” or “get a few things done” while you’re at home or on vacation.

Delegate tasks. Avoiding burnout and overwork is about more than your life after hours. At work, take a step back from your hands-on approach and analyze which tasks you could delegate to your employees. Not only is task delegation essential for managing your workload, it’s also a managerial skill that empowers employees and helps them learn new things.

Prepare them for your absence. In this vein, set your team up for success by training them to excel while you’re on vacation. Coach them on how to resolve conflicts and solve problems. Doing so won’t render you obsolete as a manager — it will ensure there are no fires to put out when you get back and enable you to focus on new improvements now that your team can handle problem-solving and new tasks.

Consider automation. In some cases, you might not want to delegate tasks to employees. Instead, automating certain tasks will enable everyone to focus on higher-level work. For example, you could use AI software to approve employee workflows, create schedules, update information and more. Automation is a great way to displace some of your workloads and make room for the tasks, such as coaching, that only a human manager can do.

Make the most of your time off. It’s also critical to make time for socializing and recreation. You won’t reap the rewards of your off hours if you’re worrying about work and waiting for the new business day to begin. Instead, use your personal time to gather with family and friends, engage in a physical activity you enjoy or participate in a favorite hobby.

Use evenings and weekends to enjoy mini-staycations and ensure you’re taking at least one or two full vacations a year. These little adventures will help you replenish and rejuvenate not only your body but also your mind and spirit.

The Takeaway

Sometimes it seems as if a manager’s work is never done. However, if you don’t make the commitment to setting boundaries and striking a healthier work/life balance, you may well find yourself paying a physical and emotional price for your overwork.

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Five Ways Recruiters Can Maximize Automation https://phoenixstaffingagency.net/five-ways-recruiters-can-maximize-automation/ Thu, 15 Sep 2022 12:00:45 +0000 http://www.thestaffingstream.com/?p=10000 With a faltering economy and a tight labor market putting immense pressure on hiring, recruiters are turning to automation to deliver results. Bullhorn’s aggregated data shows that recruitment firms that use automation haveRead More...

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With a faltering economy and a tight labor market putting immense pressure on hiring, recruiters are turning to automation to deliver results. Bullhorn’s aggregated data shows that recruitment firms that use automation have a 64% higher fill rate and submit 33% more candidates per recruiter.

Here are five ways that firms are leveraging automation that you can employ to address today’s challenges.

Leave repetitive tasks to your technology. Automation is great for the simple, repetitive tasks that eat up recruiters’ valuable time. A great starting point for firms considering automation is using it for simple tasks like leaving notes in the applicant tracking system (ATS), creating calendar appointments and sending internal reminders. This frees up time for recruiters to focus on tasks that add real value, such as nurturing client and candidate relationships.

Increasingly intelligent recruitment tools are also capable of more complex tasks, such as recommending candidates for jobs (and jobs for candidates). Tools with artificial intelligence capabilities can review details on candidates in an instant, providing recruiters with valuable recommendations. This is particularly useful for temp or contingent workers, as it can cut redeployment time.

Keep your talent engaged. According to Bullhorn’s recent survey of 2,000 candidates, poor communication is the top reason that talent became frustrated with the recruiting process. The good news is that automation can help. Many of the routine interactions in the recruiting process, such as updating a candidate on their application’s progress, are ideal for automation.

Keeping candidates in the loop without communications feeling robotic depends on a tightly integrated tech stack. The system must be able to collate information from across channels to accurately personalize the messages and deliver them both at the right time and on the right channel.

This technology is also useful for reaching out to candidates at other important points, such as when they are approaching the end of their contract. These interactions maintain a relationship and ensure that the recruiter will be top of mind when the candidate starts looking for a new job.

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Take the friction out of onboarding. Many recruitment firms are already using automation to fill out paperwork and complete other important onboarding tasks. This is particularly valuable for firms that work with several industries, as the system can automatically account for differing policies on topics like pay, benefits, harassment and more. This same logic applies to firms that work across multiple countries, where employment laws may be different. The result is a fast turnaround and the elimination of potentially costly back-office mistakes.

Declutter your ATS. Manually organizing the ATS is a time-consuming task that frequently winds up at the bottom of the to-do list. However, keeping a recruitment agency’s data in good working order is fundamental to its success.

Streamlining data management is a natural fit for automation. An automated system can comb through records in a fraction of the time it would take a person and identify outdated entries, duplicates, people without contact information and records with no recent activity, all without the risk of human error. It can even update job, company and contract status automatically.

However, this is only possible when data can flow freely between systems, so recruiters must ensure that their ATS is correctly integrated with the other tools and platforms they use before pursuing automation. Further, as with any technology that involves data on people, businesses must be aware of the regulatory restrictions. Most modern automation solutions are compliant with data protection and privacy laws when used properly, but it is a firm’s responsibility to ensure that all processing activities are legal.

Scale your marketing with your business. Reaching out to candidates and clients across channels is another task that is ripe for automation. The technology can automatically personalize the content to ensure that it is relevant and applicable to each audience across different channels like web, mobile, email and social. To target contacts with tailored content, recruiters can define segments and lists for the marketing workflow.

At every step, the system provides in-depth data for recruiters or the sales team to review and refine their approach. Stats to keep an eye on are engagement score, pipeline revenue and the new lead close rate.

Automation isn’t some faraway possibility for the recruitment industry. It’s already helping many recruitment firms to thrive in a challenging environment, and those that haven’t adopted it will quite soon be in the minority.

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Getting Back on Track https://phoenixstaffingagency.net/getting-back-on-track/ Mon, 12 Sep 2022 12:00:34 +0000 http://www.thestaffingstream.com/?p=9993 If you are like me, it is hard to get things done in the summer. There are so many fun distractions, and it is a great time to take a break. WeRead More...

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If you are like me, it is hard to get things done in the summer. There are so many fun distractions, and it is a great time to take a break. We are now a couple weeks away from the official start of fall, and that means the calendar year-end crunch time is around the corner. A change of season is always a good time to check to see if you are on track with your leadership goals and what you want to accomplish.

When a leader starts in a coaching program with me, I have them complete a Leadership Questionnaire that asks them to reflect on their personal and professional goals — what is working well and what areas they would like to develop. It helps leaders take stock of their leadership journey and think about where they are right now and where they want to go.

I encourage them to keep this document and refer to it throughout the year to help them stay the course and/or reassess their plan if their priorities have changed.

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If you have committed to a similar process, now is a good time to have another look at your work and refocus on your goals. If you have never taken the time to reflect on your own goals, I encourage you to do so now. While the work will change over time, it serves as a guidepost along the way and helps leaders to stay on track.

Think about what you set out to achieve this year and how you measure up so far.

Are there actions you committed to that you have given up? Why — what got in the way? Is it something worth course correcting for?

If you are on track, you may want to consider setting an additional goal, taking some time for yourself to fill your own cup and/or paying it forward. Reflect on who on your team seems off track with their goals and how you can support them to get back on track.

The change in season brings with it renewed energy towards our goals. Are you ready to get back on track?

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Overcoming the Big Six Challenges of Managing Remote Teams https://phoenixstaffingagency.net/overcoming-the-big-six-challenges-of-managing-remote-teams/ Fri, 29 Apr 2022 12:00:11 +0000 http://www.thestaffingstream.com/?p=9725 Managing a remote team comes with its own unique set of challenges. There’s a lot to think about, from communication and collaboration issues to managing different workflows. But don’t let the challengesRead More...

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Managing a remote team comes with its own unique set of challenges. There’s a lot to think about, from communication and collaboration issues to managing different workflows. But don’t let the challenges scare you off! With the right strategies in place, you can overcome the challenges and ensure your team is productive, cohesive and happy.

Here are six of the biggest challenges of managing a remote team and how to overcome them:

1. Communication Issues

One of the most common challenges faced by managers of remote teams is communication. It can be challenging to keep everyone on the same page when you’re not all in the same room, and it’s easy for important information to get lost or misinterpreted.

Solution:

  • Set up regular check-ins such as daily stand-ups or weekly team meetings to ensure everyone is on the same page.
  • Use a project management tool such as Trello or Asana to keep all of your projects and communication in one place so everyone can stay organized and on track.
  • Encourage open communication and an environment where everyone feels comfortable speaking up and asking questions.

2. Time Zone Differences

If your team spans different time zones, you might end up working odd hours to accommodate everyone. How can you avoid this?

Solution:

  • Use a time tracking tool such as Toggl or RescueTime to see how much time everyone is spending on each task. These tools help you manage deadlines and make sure everyone is on track.
  • Set up flexible meetings at a time that works for everyone.

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3. Managing Different Workflows

When you have a team of remote workers, everyone likely has their unique way of working. Some people might prefer to work in the morning, while others might work at night. This can make it challenging to manage everyone’s work.

Solution:

  • Identify your team’s workflows and understand how everyone likes to work and their schedules.
  • Use a project management tool to help you keep track of everyone’s work and progress.
  • Set deadlines for each task to ensure that the work is done on time.

4. Lack of Face-to-face Interaction

You may not have the opportunity to interact with your team members in person, making it challenging to build relationships and trust.

Solution:

  • Set up regular video/conference calls with your team to build robust relationships.
  • Use a chat tool such as Slack or Microsoft Team to help you stay in touch with your team throughout the day and build relationships.
  • Schedule social time to reinforce friendship and teamwork. This can be anything from a virtual happy hour to playing online games together.

5. Trouble Ensuring “Tech Equity”

It can be easy for some team members to feel left out if they don’t have access to the same technology or resources as others. This can lead to frustration and resentment.

Solution:

  • Provide your remote team with the equipment and software they need to do their job.
  • Provide training and support. If there is a new software or tool that you want everyone to use, provide training and support to help them get up to speed.

6. Maintaining Company Culture

Working with a remote team can make it challenging to maintain your company culture. This is because many things that help build and reinforce company cultures — such as office parties, team-building exercises and casual conversations around the water cooler — just don’t happen when everyone is working remotely.

Solution

  • Define and communicate your culture. What values and beliefs are important to your company? Ensure everyone is on the same page about your company culture.
  • Encourage social interaction. Schedule regular virtual team-building exercises or social events so everyone can get to know each other and bond over common interests.
  • Celebrate successes. Even if it’s just through a virtual high-five in a chat room, this gesture can make everyone feel appreciated and motivated.

By following these tips, you’ll be able to overcome the challenges of managing a remote team and build a successful, cohesive team that can achieve anything.

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Five Fantastic Tech Tools for Workplace Productivity https://phoenixstaffingagency.net/five-fantastic-tech-tools-for-workplace-productivity/ Fri, 03 Dec 2021 13:00:03 +0000 http://www.thestaffingstream.com/?p=9421 Workplace productivity is limited in many ways by the number of productivity tools used by the teams under your control. In this regard, the more useful the tools, the greater the productivityRead More...

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Workplace productivity is limited in many ways by the number of productivity tools used by the teams under your control. In this regard, the more useful the tools, the greater the productivity of the teams you run. Here are five important productivity tools that you might use to enhance the overall output of your team.

Todoist. This nifty little tool creates productivity apps that simplify and organize the workday. It’s a simple to-do list app that lets you manage all kinds of individual tasks as well as collaborate with your colleagues and coworkers. Some of its top features include the breakdown of tasks into individual subtasks and subprojects. It has separate notifications for recurring tasks and also sets its notifications based on their priority levels. If used correctly, it will help you to figure out what is on your plate and what you should start working on first. It will also help you to organize all of your work. Once your teams start using it, they won’t want to go back.

Pumble. This all-encompassing business management platform will actively help your team to communicate and collaborate. Its UI has been specifically designed with different channels for diverse topics and projects. Once your team has Pumble up and running, they can invite all of their other team members to join them. You can also send direct messages to your subordinates. And customization of notification feeds allows you to tailor it to your daily needs; for example, you can freeze all notifications while you work for periods ranging from five minutes up to two hours.

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Google Docs. Available to people who use Google services, Google Docs allows you to send files to your teammates or share them on an online spreadsheet. This handy tool also has its own excellent editor that not only automatically rectifies errors but also gives suggestions regarding grammar and syntax. Finally, it offers multiple levels of protection for its files. You can allow specific members of your team to view the files or allow anyone with the web link to access any particular file.

Clockify. Clockify is a simple but powerful tool for tracking your time during different projects. Clockify essentially provides basic stopwatch features so that one can easily track how long they spend working on different projects. The tool can be configured to start as soon as you open your browser, making it simple and easy-to-use! For those who don’t want Clockify open constantly, there is also a browser extension available. The Clockify system integrates with other popular tools like Trello, Asana, Jira and Todoist.

Massive. Massive is a great platform that helps in an enhanced and superfast file-sharing process, including very large files. Massive can seamlessly transfer your files to your team members so that they can work together or collaborate on different sections to create a finished file.

There are many new tools on the market that use technology to drive productivity. You can use any or all of the above tools to increase productivity in your workplace.

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How to Help Your Employees Manage More Meetings Without Burning Them Out https://phoenixstaffingagency.net/how-to-help-your-employees-manage-more-meetings-without-burning-them-out/ Tue, 16 Nov 2021 13:00:05 +0000 http://www.thestaffingstream.com/?p=9385 There have been a number of reports recently concluding that our workweeks have become longer in the era of remote work. Those studies acknowledge that people are working longer hours, but suggestRead More...

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There have been a number of reports recently concluding that our workweeks have become longer in the era of remote work. Those studies acknowledge that people are working longer hours, but suggest that the increase is due to workers being “distracted with other obligations while working from home.”

Recently, my startup, which builds a platform to help busy professionals manage their calendars more efficiently, did a similar analysis using aggregated, anonymized data across over 15,000 users. What we found echoed earlier studies, but with a twist: The workday has gotten 1.4 hours longer on average – not due to “other obligations,” but due to an increase in work meetings.

Professionals are attending more meetings than they ever did pre-pandemic. The number of weekly meetings is up 69.7% since February 2020 – about 7.3 more hours of meetings a week – for a total of 21.5 hours of meetings per week on average, over half of the standard 40-hour workweek. This increase is driven by an explosion in the number of one-on-one meetings, which account for 79.6% of new meetings.

Meetings are getting shorter – by about 11% on average – but that’s likely because people are trying to cram more of them into a workweek. And, because they’re having trouble keeping up with all these meetings, they’re rescheduling and canceling meetings a lot: On a weekly basis, 42.4% of one-on-ones get rescheduled and 29.6% are canceled.

This data should raise some red flags. A workweek filled with back-to-back meetings, longer hours, and decreased time to focus on one’s priorities across work and life is a recipe for burnout.

So what can we do to help our employees? Here are a few suggestions as a remote startup founder, employee, and advocate.

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Embrace core collaboration hours. Companies like Dropbox are eliminating the traditional workweek, implementing “nonlinear workdays” that allow employees to work around a 3-4 hour period where everyone is expected to be available for meetings – and then flex their days as they see fit.

This policy forces the organization to compress its meetings into a smaller chunk of the day, which naturally limits how out-of-control the load can get. More broadly, it enables employees to build their workday how they see fit outside of those core hours.

Some organizations bristle at the idea of nonlinear workdays. My opinion? Those companies are going to have a harder and harder time retaining their employees as more of their competitors start to offer it.

Offer tools to decrease the burden of scheduling. Rescheduling in and of itself doesn’t seem like a big contributor to burnout, but there’s a lot of downstream pain that comes with it.

When a meeting needs to be rescheduled, especially at the last minute, it creates cascading stress for everyone: They need to not only find a new time for the meeting, they likely need to reschedule a number of other events as a result.

Giving your employees access to software that automates scheduling can be a huge benefit for their sanity. It frees people up to focus on what they do best and offloads the scheduling problems to a robot. There are lots of reasonably-priced or free tools in this space.

Retain boundaries in the era of flexibility. Even if you embrace flexibility in the workweek, it can’t be used to erode boundaries between work and life. Showing employees that you care about them drawing a hard line between their workday and their “off hours” is critical to retaining them and keeping them engaged.

A simple rule is to have a cutoff time where no one should expect to be emailed or Slacked. Like core collaboration hours, this also naturally limits the number of meetings that can be scheduled in a given workday.

The increase in meetings in the era of remote work isn’t totally surprising or bad: People are looking for ways to stay connected to one another, and meetings are a natural outlet for that. But as employers, it’s our responsibility to ensure we’ve created an environment where people can really be the best versions of themselves across work and life – and if they’re drowning in meetings, that’s just not going to happen.

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Four Myths About AI-Enabled Job Advertising with Programmatic https://phoenixstaffingagency.net/four-myths-about-ai-enabled-job-advertising-with-programmatic/ Wed, 18 Aug 2021 12:00:54 +0000 http://www.thestaffingstream.com/?p=9199 Drive along any major street in the US, and you’ll find streets dotted with “Now Hiring” signs. It’s clear we are struggling through a labor shortage driven by a perfect storm ofRead More...

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Drive along any major street in the US, and you’ll find streets dotted with “Now Hiring” signs. It’s clear we are struggling through a labor shortage driven by a perfect storm of challenges — vendors playing hardball, budget degradation and an unstable labor market. To help make ends meet, companies are now looking to leverage technology. When faced with similar challenges, CMOs turned to programmatic to help propel their corporate branding. And while this tech is now picking up steam in candidate sourcing, there’s some hesitancy.

According to Madeline Laurano of Aptitude Research, “One of the fundamental challenges with programmatic is the lack of education and awareness in talent acquisition.”

Many in the space don’t really understand programmatic job advertising is or its benefits. Couple that with industry-wide misinformation, and suddenly there are myths that need busting! Let’s dive into four of the most common programmatic job advertising myths to keep you in the know.

Myth 1: We will lose control. Losing control has become synonymous with automation. We see it play out in our everyday lives in the form of automated toll collections on state highways or ATMs at the local bank. The fear of potential obsolescence is not unfounded. But programmatic does not exist to replace; it enhances.

Most organizations don’t have the bandwidth to properly manage traditional job advertising resulting in costly inefficiencies. Intelligent automation like programmatic ensures that you’re targeting the right person on the right site at the right time for the right price. It provides real-time feedback so that you understand the decisions being made, and, if necessary, you can step in to reprioritize at a moment’s notice. The human touch is never lost.

Myth 2: We do not have the budget. One of the greatest misconceptions about programmatic is that organizations need to find a budget to support it. But that’s simply untrue. The reality is that 40% of job advertising spend is wasted each year using traditional methods.

AI-enabled programmatic is a cost-saving solution because it uses your existing budget and learns as it goes. It eliminates inefficiencies and moves your budget into sources that perform well for your open positions. It references years of historical data to ensure that you’re using whatever budget you may have in the most effective way.

PREMIUM CONTENT: August 2021 US Jobs Report

Myth 3: It simply costs too much to really see its value. Value is hard to represent when there’s no transparency into what is being spent and the result. You can’t prove ROI if you have no sense of the overall investment. With traditional advertising, this is very much the norm. Using separate vendors and their siloed data mean ROI is difficult to see at and even harder to report. And as talent acquisition is further integrated into the performance of the business, showing value is critical.

With programmatic, you have full transparency. You’re able to measure ROI, identify inefficiencies and further streamline and improve your business model more quickly and accurately. For most companies, the switch to programmatic means immediate results that you can pass along to your clients.

Myth 4: Programmatic delivers quantity over quality. You may have heard that programmatic is only necessary if you’re interested in a large volume of candidates but not concerned with quality. It’s true that without the right tools, quality of hire is tough to measure so early in hiring. But with the powerful combination of conversational AI, programmatic enter its final form.

Conversational AI integrated into a programmatic platform streamlines the top of the funnel. Candidates are targeted, vetted, and nurtured, all within a seamless conversation. These tools will source and screen candidates from the start. Candidates can also self-nominate for diversity, add context to their experience, or even remove themselves from consideration ensuring that your applicants are truly top tier.

Myths today are wide-spreading and pervasive. When you look beyond the noise, you’ll find that the advantages of programmatic job advertising are clear. Programmatic eliminates inefficiencies, allowing you to do more with less. Get back to your human mission of connecting with and hiring quality talent for your clients and stay one step ahead of the competition.

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3 Areas to Help Reach Full Potential of Technology Utilization https://phoenixstaffingagency.net/3-areas-to-help-reach-full-potential-of-technology-utilization/ Fri, 13 Aug 2021 12:00:10 +0000 http://www.thestaffingstream.com/?p=9195 Technology can be overwhelming. Just when you think you get the hang of one program or application, a bigger and better version or new product is released. There are shortcuts, hints andRead More...

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Technology can be overwhelming. Just when you think you get the hang of one program or application, a bigger and better version or new product is released. There are shortcuts, hints and tricks to make everything more manageable, but how do you learn them all? Technology is evolving how we perform. Individuals and businesses alike are learning to rely heavily on new technology. There is no limit to how you can implement tech into your daily life, whether at your workplace or home, to make things quicker, easier, more automated and more efficient. The only limitation is finding and learning how to use what is available, but that can be solved with some time and effort. Here are a few tricks to utilize technology to its full potential in a way that benefits you best.

1. Communications. Businesses especially are benefitting from the advances in networks made to allow real-time communications globally. Video conferences, voice-over long-term evolution (VoLTE) and many other capabilities make a trusted session border controller a versatile tech addition. Companies can spend a ton of money investing in new technologies and still barely scrape the surface utilizing the latest tech because they are content with the current state or do not want to invest more time to learn the intricacies.

There are so many features in many communication programs that you may settle for just understanding the basic features. To reap the benefits of your investment and see changes in efficiency, spend the time thoroughly learning. Rely on the company that installs the software or devices for you. They will have training on the extensive uses of the technology. If you work for a company, consider having the tech company train users, spend extra time with a superuser and be sure to keep contact information for any questions.

PREMIUM CONTENT: Online Job Advertising Market

2. Data. Data, and knowing how to interpret, analyze and use it, is an essential part of every organization. There is software to automate the collection and analytics for you. However, you must take the time to set it up to capture what benefits your needs the most. Here is where many companies may hire an expert to set up this technology. To thoroughly understand this process and to be able to tailor it for maximum efficiency, you should set aside time to learn from this expert personally or to read up on it prior to meeting with the expert so that you can soak up any extra knowledge the individual offers.

Underutilizing tech for data is halting the efficiency of individual life and within companies. The data highlights areas that need improvement, helps with manageability and can increase productivity. Luckily, there are online classes, books, seminars and conferences, among others, to explain these advances in full detail, discuss future changes and hints for optimal use.

3. Security. Another area where the technology may not be utilized fully is security. Being smart about security can be a game-changer. Cybersecurity is an expansive field that has started to become a priority within many companies. Looking to hire individuals who have completed extra training in tech disciplines like cybersecurity can strengthen the company as a whole. These employees will bring experience, knowledge and ideas. Ask for their input and suggestions while also trying to understand as much as you possibly can about the technology you are using. Choosing to hire new team members with tech backgrounds can enhance not only your digital security but also your utilization of tech across the entire company.

If you’re overwhelmed by technology, you aren’t alone. However, you are probably surrounded by individuals who know specific software or programs very well and could easily recommend or help you learn. There are tutorials, books, online classes and many other resources available if you are willing to spend the time to learn. Technology is changing the world, and it can change your daily life if you start using it to its full potential.

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Enhancing Onboarding Experiences to Gain a Competitive Edge https://phoenixstaffingagency.net/enhancing-onboarding-experiences-to-gain-a-competitive-edge/ Wed, 04 Aug 2021 18:00:34 +0000 http://www.thestaffingstream.com/?p=9129 Proper onboarding affects the employee experience and has a direct impact on the cost of a new hire. It also helps mitigate company risk. My first post in this series discussed theRead More...

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Proper onboarding affects the employee experience and has a direct impact on the cost of a new hire. It also helps mitigate company risk. My first post in this series discussed the role of onboarding in compliance. Last week, I discussed what KPIs staffing firms should be tracking as part of their onboarding programs.

The goal of all onboarding process improvements is to provide the best onboarding experience for all involved, be they the candidate or the recruiter. This post addresses how to do just that.

You might presume that providing a great candidate experience means more work for the recruiter. But thanks to technology, elevating the candidate experience no longer means working your recruiters harder. In fact, the opposite is true.

Good for the Recruiter, Good for the Candidate

The most effective way to elevate the onboarding experience for candidates is to first elevate the onboarding experience for recruiters, which you can do through smart tools.

“The candidate and recruiter experience go hand-in-hand. You can’t have one at the expense of the other,” confirms Gibree. She has already instituted a wealth of changes, including automating background checks and much of the Form I-9 process, and is currently working to streamline all processes through a single portal. The feedback from recruiters has been overwhelming. “These are huge pain points for us, so we’re really excited about the shift.”

EG has also reaped serious rewards for both recruiters and candidates with their onboarding enhancements, says Hoke. “It used to take candidates about an hour and a half to complete their onboarding documents. A lot of recruiter intervention was needed. But now that we’ve automated with Able, candidates get through the process in 10 minutes, and with minimal recruiter intervention.”

By removing a large amount of the work and seriously simplifying the complexity, EG’s recruiters were left feeling “very, very pleased” with the new onboarding system, giving it an NPS score of nine.

PREMIUM CONTENT: US Staffing Industry Pulse Survey Report: July 2021 Selected Highlights

The Key Traits of a Great Onboarding Process

What exactly does a great onboarding process look like? As new technologies continue to be adopted, the shape the best onboarding experiences is beginning to become clear:

  • Mobile-optimized: Candidates are becoming less and less willing to put up with long and complex onboarding and application processes. Both must be able to be completed on a smartphone, ideally in minutes.
  • A single portal: Your onboarding process must be simple and streamlined for both recruiter and candidate. A single portal should solicit every piece of necessary information in an intuitive way.
  • Automated: Your firm should challenge itself: What are we doing manually today that we could automate tomorrow? What are some of our most labor-intensive tasks, and can they be automated?

A smart solution isn’t a silver bullet. Remember that 70% of technology implementations fail – you can’t just slap a tech solution on a problem and expect it to be fixed. You need to be considered in your choice of solution, you need to develop an implementation plan and you need recruiter buy-in.

The Surprising Perks

The benefits of enhancing your onboarding processes stretch beyond candidate and recruiter experience, and even beyond increased efficiency, productivity and revenue for your firm.

The staffing industry struggles with retention — one out of every four account managers and recruiters leaves a staffing firm in any given year. But enhancing the recruiter experience can see you beating those odds by freeing them up to focus on the fun and exciting side of staffing: building relationships and making money. Not only will you retain the best, you’ll attract the best.

Investing in your onboarding processes also serves to future-proof your business and make it more resilient in turbulent times, a fact laid bare by Covid-19.

At the end of the day, enhancing onboarding comes down to one thing: technology. If you choose the right solution and implement it in the right way, you can turn the current pain of onboarding into some serious gains.

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Onboarding: Turn a Source of Pain into an Opportunity for Gains https://phoenixstaffingagency.net/onboarding-turn-a-source-of-pain-into-an-opportunity-for-gains/ Mon, 19 Jul 2021 17:00:42 +0000 http://www.thestaffingstream.com/?p=9127 Onboarding. You might shudder at the word. It’s historically a laborious, complex and monotonous process — with serious consequences for errors and oversights. According to Glassdoor, the average US employer spends $4000Read More...

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Onboarding. You might shudder at the word. It’s historically a laborious, complex and monotonous process — with serious consequences for errors and oversights.

According to Glassdoor, the average US employer spends $4000 and 24 days to hire a new worker. If you deliver a negative onboarding experience, candidates will drop out of the process, further increasing these already high numbers. If you’re quick to lose employees, you’ll also face the cost of vacancy, the loss in productivity, and the impact on morale. It’s a greater drain on your company than it might initially seem.

Meanwhile, companies with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82%, and productivity by more than 70%. And such strong processes are made possible by technology. Covid-19 helped accelerate the use of technology in the onboarding process. And while the world is opening back up, your processes don’t have to go back to paper to meet your organization’s needs and maintain compliance.

Risk of Noncompliance

The consequences of non-compliance are serious. And with the depth, breadth and complexity of employment legislation, trying to do the right thing is not enough, and can actually get you in trouble.

For example, in 2017, Panda Express was fined $400,000 for non-compliance. Their crime: asking employees who were permanent residents to renew their I-9 forms, while not requiring the same from employees who were US citizens. This was deemed a discriminatory hiring practice.

On top of keeping abreast of rules and regulations, onboarding compliance is built on a foundation of auditing. This should be done weekly for the likes of I-9s, E-Verify, tax forms, and payment instructions, while deeper audits should be conducted quarterly or annually on things like process and strategy.

This is where the value of technology in onboarding becomes apparent.

PREMIUM CONTENT: US Geographic Opportunity Atlas 2021 Edition

The Role of Technology in Ensuring Compliance

“Software is your friend in avoiding non-compliance,” says Dustin Brewer, VP of product at Able. “You want to prevent errors from occurring, because small mistakes at the beginning can grow into huge problems further downstream.”

You can avoid such mistakes by designing an onboarding process that makes things as clear and as simple as possible. Instead of giving a candidate papers to complete, you can instead offer a mobile-optimized form that understands what each piece of information should look like, and doesn’t let them move forward until they type an appropriate answer in. This would address a large portion of drop-off and compliance issues overnight.

Integration and automation can also greatly decrease error rates. Modern, integrated solutions can reduce or even remove the need for manual data entry, minimizing the opportunity for human error (while also making things far more efficient.) For example, with integrated onboarding into your ATS, information only needs to be completed one time — with checks and balances in place on the back end to ensure that candidate-entered data is correct (such as social security numbers, phone numbers and emails).

Recruiter — and Candidate — Buy-in

Without buy-in from your recruiters, your onboarding and compliance improvements will be dead in the water. But if they understand the “why” behind compliance, they will be more motivated to do it and do it right, and be able to better explain the importance to the candidate.

Investing in coaching your recruiters on compliance will deliver handsome returns, says Claire Gibree, HR manager at The Davis Cos.. Recruiters will also be more open to technology once they recognize that bots can take care of compliance for them.

Adapt and Adopt

While the pace of technological innovation is constantly accelerating, Covid put it into overdrive. Where compliance was once an exclusively in-person affair, firms found solutions that enabled a candidate to complete their compliance responsibilities on their smartphone, and it just so happened that the process was many times quicker and more convenient.

With so much room for improvement within the compliance and onboarding space, you can’t afford to wait until the next global pandemic to act. Now that we know how technology might enhance compliance and onboarding, it’s time to get a sense of where the improvements might lie for your firm.

My next post will discuss the onboarding key performance indicators that every staffing form should be tracking.

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