Starting a new job is stressful, and let’s be honest, so is hiring someone!

The average US employer spends $4000 and 24 days to hire a new worker. (Business Wire, 2019)

If you are like most small businesses, you may not have a lot of manpower to spare – being down a person for even a fraction of that time can mean even more hard work shared between you and your already hardworking team, all while you are taking on the additional and difficult task to find someone new.

Reviewing and interviewing applicants can feel like a frenzy when candidates often have so many options to choose from. When you finally find the right person and they accept your offer, its finally time to relax… well, maybe not quite yet.

Image Credit: @Mattsurelee

Lets try to put ourselves in your new employees’ shoes. Imagine with me for a moment that you are in their position, but rather than starting a new job, you are a guest at a hotel:

You show...

Getting “Bored” with Your Onboarding Process?

Make Onboarding and Training Fast and Easy!

For most of us, we have experienced what it’s like to be that “newbie”.  That’s right, a new face in a new company where countless thoughts of excitement, worry and anxiety flood our minds. If you are like many, those thoughts can turn into piercing questions or doubts. Did you make the right decision? Is this truly the right company for you? Where is the nearest exit in case you need to make a run for it?  

As an employer, hiring manager, or HR representative, your focus is guaranteeing that you can “walk the walk”. Your newly hired employee accepted the position for a reason, now it’s up to you to ensure that he or she continues to feel that this opportunity was too good to pass up.

So, how does this happen? Think about the first few days on the job and how much information and training was provided. It’s a...

An employee's first week is the most important week of the employment life cycle. This is when you create the foundation to the new employee's future behaviors, your future leadership capabilities and their perception of what working with you will be like.  Making sure you provide the right tools, resources and training opportunities will ensure optimal success.  Let's take a look at some common mistakes that small businesses often make and 4 steps to ensuring a great first week.  

Small Business Mistakes:
When it comes to onboarding a new employee during their first-week employers make a few mistakes. First, employers expect a new employee to hit the ground running. Quite frankly, no two business are ever the same. You can never have a plug and play employee.

The second mistake that we often see within an employee's first week is that the required paperwork is not correctly completed... if at all. It is required by law that the I-9 is completed within 3...

I love helping small businesses. Most of my career was spent in the corporate world. However, my husband went off and started a CPA firm, at that time he started working with small businesses. Next thing I knew, he was telling his clients that I was a Human Resources professional. His small business clients started filtering their HR questions through him to me. As the questions became more and more, we spent our dinners and evenings talking about HR while finding ways to help his clients. That's when we found a gap. Small businesses have been left behind in the world of human resources.

Now that we have launched HR Branches, walking in and seeing the positive changes that our clients have been able to make from when they start working with has just been incredible. I never thought I would find such excitement in my career as I have today.

I started a new job, years and years and years ago. When I showed up for my first day I didn't have a computer and I had a cubicle full of boxes....

*Presented at Colorado Springs, CO SCORE meeting on July 12, 2019

I'm obsessed with Richard Branson. Anything that comes out of that man's mouth is like gospel to me. I aspire to be a Richard Branson, well a female/ American, Richard Branson one day. I believe that his people philosophy is really where it's at. And I think that this quote right here says it all: “A company is people... employees want to know... am I being listened to or am I a cog in the wheel? People really need to feel wanted". -Richard Branson

To start off on the right path of having sound employee practices, let's look at some recruiting tips and tricks. This blog is going to look at how to prepare and attract the right candidates and to evaluate those candidates. But first, let's look at the mistakes small businesses often make when it comes to recruiting. I'm sure all of you guys have seen these mistakes.

Small Business Recruiting Mistakes
1: Lack of Planning
First and foremost, small businesses...