PCS Staffing

We just welcomed the new year and with it comes the 2019 recruitment trends. These HR trends are here to help job seekers and HR managers and professionals to understand the employment climate in different fields.

Even in the staffing industry, professionals have identified key influences that had changed the market setting. And with this, here are some of the forces and trends that everyone, even job seekers, should look into when looking for a job.

Large Recruitments by Industry

According to research, chemical manufacturers (pharmaceutical), gas and oil extraction companies, and computer and electronics manufacturers are the industries with the most projected hires. Next among these industries include construction and engineering services.

As an example, pharmaceutical companies are persistently growing as the global population expands. Similarly, the growth in the global community also signals an increase in the use of oil and other manufacturers, including computer and electronics, will have to cater to a larger market in the upcoming years.

New Set of Recruiting Trends

The market has changed and so have the recruitment process. Many HR professionals have seen that, compared to the previous years, candidates now have power as they search for jobs.

This means that talents now have the power to choose who they’ll work with. With this change in the recruitment climate, HR professionals have found it difficult to find, hire, and retain talents with in-demand skills.

On the other hand, considering that candidates have the power on their job search, it is also notable that candidates must hold the experience. Experience means the past, current, and the future involvement of the candidate on the recruiting process.

It’s essential to provide a positive experience in order for the candidate to accept the job you’re offering. HR professionals are also advised to give a positive recruitment experience for the candidate to reapply or refer the company to their colleagues.

Tips on Improving Your Recruiting Strategy

With all these trends on hand, it’s crucial for a company to ensure that your recruitment strategy aligns and offers solutions to these trends. With this on hand, here are some of the strategies you can apply:

• Treat applicants like customers.

Look at your recruitment strategy and compare it with your marketing and sales strategy, are the two entirely different from one another? If your answer is yes, then you may have to rethink your recruitment strategy.

In sales, you move heaven and earth to close a deal, which must also be the case when accommodating a candidate. Make the candidate experience the best customer service by engaging with them, informing them, and transforming them to be part of your team.

• Understand the cost/benefit of hiring a new employee.

Don’t open doors to applicants or attract talents if you haven’t assessed the benefits and costs of hiring an employee. Don’t hire just because of anticipated growth, instead, hire talent because of the ROI they can give to the company.

• Understanding the need for a full-time and a freelancer in your team.

If you are struggling to tick off tasks, may it be accounting, designs, and the like, in your to-do list, then hiring a freelancer can help you finish that task you’ve been holding off.

This is the best route especially if you can’t afford to hire a regular employee as of the moment. There have been a lot of startups and even established companies that have grown with freelancers on their side.

• Hire employees that thrive with the company cycle.

Regardless of whatever stage you are in your business, make sure that you work with people who can easily navigate on a changing landscape.

Attract and hire people who are adaptable. Learn about their trait by looking at their previous work environments. If you need to work with a team that wears many hats, then make sure that the person understands their different roles in the company.

Not just during the new year, every day gives new trends that could affect the industry where you’re operating. So, be prepared and work with the best HR professionals on your team now.

The holiday season is here! Along with the joys and carols it brings, it also brings with it an influx of clients to your business – which is actually a good problem to solve.

This period of high demands can test the way you handle your business and your people. We can all agree that holiday leadership takes everyone on a different level of both stress and success. Specifically, you have strike a balance between the demand of the season and the capacity of your employees.

This holiday season, we bring you some leadership tips to up your leadership skills in order to achieve both your business goals and your employees’ satisfaction.

1.    Don’t spread your employees too thin.

It’s a given that the holiday season will be a busy season. Therefore, the demand of the work can be too overwhelming for your regular employees.

Too much workload can burn them out or can cause them to get sick leading to a bigger problem during the holiday season.

A good leader would know how to address the situation by hiring additional employees. This will help even out the workload so everyone can still perform at their best.

This will also show your employees that you understand their concerns and you are doing something about it.

2.    Plan days off ahead of time.

Since it is the holiday season, your employees will have to do some extra things as well. It would be better to gather them up and talk about scheduling three months before the holiday season.

This will give them time to plot their schedule and set their expectation as to which dates they can have their time off.

3.    Don’t turn into the Grinch.
The last thing your employees will need is someone who will add pressure to the bottleneck pressure they are already having. One of the traits of a good leader is the ability to keep grace under pressure.

It will bring a negative impact to employees if you make things more cumbersome for them. They have too much load for the season and on top of that, a leader who adds to their burden.

The key to successful leadership is being able to make your employees feel that you are with them in times when everyone is cracking in pressure.  

4.    Always have a positive approach.

It is crucial to have a positive approach towards employees. Praise them for their accomplishments and make them feel that you appreciate their efforts.

Also, in case they commit mistakes, the more positive approach is to coach them instead of nagging at them. Tell them what they did wrong and suggestions on ways they can improve. This kind of attitude is positive and very nurturing.

One of the common mistakes committed by managers is that they would focus on one error over the hundreds of good things the employee has done.

DO NOT be that kind of leader.

5.    Lead by example.

While it is true that your employees are not the only ones experiencing too much pressure because of the holidays, it doesn’t give you an excuse to slack off.

A good leader would set an excellent example to his/her employees. This is your chance to gain their respect. Once you show them how you can stay professional and ethical despite the pressure around, they will look up to you and emulate your example.

6.    Don’t forget the bonuses.

Needless to say, this is very important for an employee during the holiday season. They too have extra things to buy and spend money on.

Make your employees happy this holiday season by giving them the bonus that they deserve. Employees know how the business ran the whole year, so they have their own expectation on how much they deserve to get.

Therefore, it would pay to give them their fair share of the bargain. They’ve worked hard all year long, so they should get what they deserve.

Pressure and stress brought about by the holidays should bring out the best in you and not the worst in you.

There can be times that we would crack up in pressure, but throughout the years, we all will be good leaders. We just have to open for any improvements, learn from our mistakes and maintain our best practices.

The hiring process is one of the most crucial in any business. Looking for and deciding who will join your pool of talents is perhaps the first step in ensuring the success of your company.

This process will determine who will you work with to achieve your company’s mission and vision. The people working in the company is the determining factor whether it will succeed or fail.

However, this process is not as simple as looking for someone who can do the job. More than being able to do the job, a successful applicant must share the same core values and is willing to contribute to the achievement of the company’s goals.

More so, after the application, the challenge of retaining talented employees must be heeded by both the management and the human resource department.

Employees nowadays are looking beyond compensation and are already seeing the importance of a good and healthy working environment. Thus, it is essential to design a proactive strategy for hiring and retaining talent.

You must be able to reach out to prospective employees and attract them to join your organization.

In this post, we will discuss some of the most effective hiring processes. This will help your company do better in the process of hiring and retaining your employees.

Outlined below are some tips on talent acquisition that a company can do:

1.    Create Your Employer Brand

It would help if you built a brand that would define you and will differentiate you from other companies. Creating your own employer brand will take time, but it will definitely come a long way once you’ve established a good one.

Once you have built your brand as an employer, it will be easier to attract talents to work with you. Potential candidates will be at ease when they know that their values are in line with that of your company.

At the same time, having a good employer brand will make current employees recommend it as a great place to work.

2.    Your Job Posts must be a Reflection of Your Company

Give your potential candidates a glimpse of what kind of company they will be joining by creating a job post that would reflect it.

For example, if you want to create an impression that your office environment is fun, then add some humor in your job posting. If you’re going to convey that your working environment is strict but sophisticated, create a more formal job posting.

3.    Take Advantage of Social Media

If you’re looking at hiring the younger generation fondly tagged as the millennials, then you have to speak their language. Most of them spend so much time on social media, and it might just be the right place to find whom you’re looking for. You can make use of social media to see young and talented candidates.

Another use of social media in talent acquisition is you can use it as a platform to post job vacancies. Its sharable nature can make it easier to reach more people.

4.    Try Specialized Job Boards

As social media can be a massive space for job postings, it also helps to explore niche job boards. This is particularly applicable if you are looking for someone who has a specific set of expertise.

Find a job board that caters to the specific talent you are looking for. These specific job boards usually provide to specific communities or industries.

5.    Eye Talented Students

It will also help if you start eyeing an employee even if they are still studying. You can join career fairs in campuses or even present yourself as a speaker for career talks.

These talents are raw and uncorrupted therefore you can expect them to perform well if they decide to join your company.  They can become a potentially good asset for the organization if you groom them well.

Contrary to popular belief, the hiring process is not an easy task. It is not just about posting a job vacancy or interviewing those who have qualified based on the requirements.

It is more about finding the right people and making them stay. Thus, companies need to have effective human resource solutions in all aspects of human resource management to maximize productivity in the organization.

Thanksgiving is here

Thanksgiving is here, and everyone’s looking for creative ways to say ‘thank you’ to people, especially to employees. Do you already have any plans already on how to say or send a thank you note to employee for hard work?

In business, your employees are your best partners to success. Their contribution to the company is crucial especially that they are your frontline to your clients. So, this Thanksgiving, make sure to make them feel appreciated for their contribution.

If you are looking for creative ideas to do it, then we’re here to help. Here are some simple but creative ideas to send gratitude in the workplace.

1.    Put up a Wall of Fame

It’s already great to be recognized in private, but it would mean a lot more if others know. You can put up a Wall of Fame and recognize the exemplary performance of your employees there.

They will definitely appreciate the recognition and the wall will also serve as a motivation to other employees to strive harder.

2.    Free passes

Another way of showing gratitude is to give them free passes. A free movie pass, spa day, salon, or to any exciting activity you can think of can be a gift of wealth.

A thank you note to employee for hard work will also be an excellent addition to the gift. Write a short, sincere, and meaningful note to them to send your gratitude.

3.    Free lunch

You can give them a coupon to a good restaurant, so they can go individually, or you can go for a team lunch – either way, what’s important is you acknowledge them.

It’s also a chance for your employees to bond outside the workplace and give them the chance to be thankful to their coworkers as well. It’s a chance for them to experience how to say thank you to coworkers.

4.    Post a Sticky Note

Imagine yourself going to work early in the morning, and the first thing you see in your desk is an appreciation note from your superior. Isn’t it motivating? Do this to your employees, and you will surely lighten up their day.

5.    Make the office more comfortable

You can say your thank you a step further by making offices more comfortable. What a great way to say thank you than to make your employees feel more relaxed in their workstations. A comfortable working environment can definitely up the mood of employees and increase their productivity.

6.    Random gifts

Gifts are heartwarming but receiving it unexpectedly will make it more heartening. You can leave small tokens in your employees’ desks. Don’t forget to include an important note!

7.    Recognize an Employee of the Month

Being recognized as an employee of the month could mean a lot to the chosen employee. You can practice it in the department level, or if you have a big company, you can do it per quarter.

If it is on a department level, you can announce it via email or during a team meeting. Also, include a little token to the chosen employee. But you should know that more than the token, the employee will value the recognition and the appreciation more.

As for big corporations, the General Manager or the President can write a thank you letter to employees for excellent performance. It will come as great a motivational drive for them to be recognized by the highest ranking official of the organization.

8.    Thank you video

You can create a thank you video and show what you are thankful for. You can create a heartwarming narrative showing how thankful you are for your employees.

You can post this in your social media account or send it to all your employees’ email.

There are a lot of other things that you can do to make your employees feel appreciated. But it’s never about how big or how small you would give them, it will always be about the sincerity of your gratitude.

Thanksgiving reminds us to be thankful to them, but it doesn’t mean that we only celebrate it during the occasion.

So, celebrate Thanksgiving whole year round by practicing the art of gratitude.

Human Resources Shared Services – The Benefits for Your Firm

Human resources have evolved over the past two decades. The evolution and changes of HR had paved its way to the development of the shared services model. Therefore, as HR practitioners, it’s important to know more about this new model and how human resources shared services (HRSS) is beneficial for a firm.

What is HR Shared Services Model?

The model was created in order to provide HR services to the firm following a decentralized model. Specifically, the mission and vision of the firm are shared to an HR services provider in order to help the firm in achieving its goals, HR shared services aims to minimise or avoid overlap, duplication and other issues in the organisation. Sharing services can be either intra-agency or interagency and are dependent on the structure and needs of the firm. HRSS functions include handling and reporting of the benefits of the employees, job leaves, employee payroll, and attraction and recruitment.

What are the Benefits of Human Resources Shared Services?

HRSS has three primary service areas of implementation which include the following:

• Professional Services

The professional and integrated system of services is provided by this type of companies. Specifically, HRSS provides the structure for benefits, compensation, training and development of employees, acquisition of talents, and compliance. An integrated service is provided by professional HRSS which also allows the firm to gather data and analytics on their organizational and management processes.

• Operational Excellence

Implementing the transition in the firm is also one of the beneficial functions of HRSS. In this manner, the expert HR firm provides data and analytics to the company in order to assess, implement, and monitor HR practices in the firm. These data will help the firm decide on changing, improving, or maintaining their current practices that help the company achieve its organizational goals.

• HR Operations

HR shared services provide a key aid in the operations of the company. This means that the HRSS helps in coordinating the employees of the firm, including part-time, full-time employees, or seasonal employees. The operations provide also include onboarding of the newly hired employees, develop customer service structure for the company, and other staffing services.

Why Have HR Shared Services?

There are a lot of best practices and productivity approaches of HRSS. Some of the reasons why a medium or large firm should work one include the following:

Optimized Operations

Best practice companies utilize self-service transactions within the firm. In here, companies use a self-service process in terms of accessing individual files, contracts, and other data and information that a company has about an employee. HRSS comes in by creating a system for companies to reduce the HR transactional actions. The team also focuses on helping the company have an efficient operation when it comes to employee data handling and storage.

Technology

Currently, one of the emerging trends in human resources is the paperless system. In this manner, HRSS leverages technology to provide the best and most efficient service to their clients. Software and cloud computing are two of the best and most convenient means to digitize HR data and information. Digitizing files for different branches or sites of a company helps in allowing managers in different locations access files and update these files in a timely manner.

Continuity

Working with an expert HRSS provide continuity which helps develop and provide employee satisfaction. A continuous help from HRSS, even with your HR team, helps in ensuring that regardless of the drastic changes in your internal HR team, there is still a continuous support from the HRSS. Employees who have an assurance that they can work with HR personnel anytime helps them become more satisfied and productive in the workplace.

The benefits of HRSS also transcend from employees to the management, especially during implementing the change management process. With this on hand, these benefits and trends in HR shared services help managers focus on the bigger picture in order to achieve both long and short-term goals of the company.

Human resources have evolved in the past two decades. The evolution and changes of HR had paved its way to the development of the shared services model. Therefore, as HR practitioners, it’s important to know more about this new model and how human resources shared services (HRSS) is beneficial for a firm.