In order for employees to work together as a team, thy need to understand what is expected of them individually. This includes each employee’s expected performance, the reason for the team, and why the team is so important to the company’s success. The overall business goals, as well as the individual goals of each employee should be made clear by company executives.

Provide the Team with Enough Control

While your staff will need supervision in order to ensure projects are done correctly, they should also be given room for making their own decisions and having some control over the work they are doing. By handing over some control to your team members, they will be able to make decisions based on what is best for the whole team as they better understand their own importance with this authority.

Ensure the Team is Collaborating

A team only works when each team member works together. Collaboration of the team as a whole is an important part of the workforce. Each staff member should understand not only their own job description and responsibilities, but also how to use those skills and knowledge for the success of his fellow workers. Team members should understand the roles and responsibilities of other team members, just as much as their own, in order to successfully solve problems and set goals.

Establish Communication Channels

Communication with employees and between team members is essential when focusing on teambuilding to create a stronger workforce. Team members should feel comfortable discussing their project goals with each other, as well as with management. Supervisors of the team should communicate with their staff members about the progress of the company, meeting deadlines, goals to be met, and any new responsibilities. They should provide feedback when they feel it is necessary. Team members should also have communication channels made clear, so they know who to turn to with any questions or concerns regarding the project or their own job performance.

Establish Team Accountability and Responsibility

Each team member should be aware of her own responsibilities as she works together with the team and should be held accountable for the decisions the team makes. If communication runs smoothly, each employee will understand their own job responsibilities and what is expected of them through careful instruction and honest feedback. There should also be timelines and deadlines that keep employees accountable for their own job responsibilities as well as those of their fellow team members.

Rewarding team members for a job well done is a great way to offer positive feedback for their current job performance, as well as encourage them to continue to do excellent work and keep up with their team responsibilities.

Building a stronger workforce requires each employee to work as a team; keeping the team building methods in mind will help employees when making decisions for their own job duties which may impact the rest of the business.

Be sure to read our related posts for more information on building a strong workforce:

Keep the Good Ones! Management Strategies to Retain and Develop High Potential Employees

Stop Hiring Job Hoppers! Don’t Hire Someone who is Going to Quit in 6 Months

• Online learning accommodates individuals that learn in different ways and at different speeds. For the employee that prefers to learn on their own and out of the classroom, online learning is ideal. It also helps individuals who learn at a faster or slower pace than others.
• Online learning courses are flexible. They offer employees the ability to choose when they want to take the courses, such as after work in the evenings, or on the weekends when they have more free time.
• Online learning skilled labor training courses offered to current employees may be customized according to your company’s industry, rather than being overly generalized for different types of industries. This controlled content helps employees to relate their training directly to their jobs.
• Classes and training courses offered online allow the job seeker or employee to have more interaction and participation with the learning process, rather than sitting through a presentation or training video. E-learning courses provide various quizzes and other methods of interactive learning that is helpful for visual and hands-on learners.
• Employers are given the ability to train a group of employees with customized learning courses while continuing to maintain their daily work-related tasks, rather than having to take time away from their busy schedules for training their workers.
• With E-learning courses and training sessions, employees receive clear learning objectives with courses tailored to teach the employee how to apply what they have learned to their job and productivity.

What to Look For in E-Learning Courses
A variety of aspects of an E-learning course can give credence to its reliability and potential success. Not all online courses are created equal, therefore you should pay attention to the details that make for an excellent E-learning course.

• Clear learning objectives that allow the individual to understand how to relate the learned material to their job performance and work situation.  Well-organized lesson plans that cover all of the required learning material while maintaining the original learning objectives.
• E-learning courses should be flexible and tailored to a variety of students, including individuals of different skill levels and reading ability.
• Interactive online courses are successful as they engage the student into learning and understanding the material; therefore an ideal E-learning program will include video and other forms of media during the learning process.

Online education offers a variety of flexibility for job seekers and employees, while giving employers the ability to offer their employees excellent training. E-learning courses and training are being used more often and are shown to be highly successful in the training of current and prospective employees for a variety of industries.

Learn more about online learning’s impact on the world of work by contacting a staffing professional at LC Staffing today.

There’s No Such Thing as Perfect

Every candidate, no matter how many checks he has in the plus column, is going to bring some negatives to the table. That’s the beauty of dealing with people. They all have strengths and weaknesses. Your job is to find out which strengths and weaknesses you can and cannot live with.

Sometimes the Best Employees are the Biggest Surprises

Most of the time, the hiring process is a bit of a crap shoot. You never know what you’re really going to get. Some people interview well but really don’t work all that well once they’ve been hired. Others look great on paper, but the reality doesn’t quite meet with the expectations. While you don’t want to hire people who are completely unsuited for the position you have available, that doesn’t mean that you should wait until the one who looks perfect on paper comes along either.

Weigh the Pros and the Cons of Individual Candidates

The odds are high that you’re going to receive a lot of applicants for the position that’s available. Once you eliminate from the mix those who are completely unqualified for the position, the challenge becomes figuring out which candidates are better “fits” within your organization. The best way to do this is to make a list of pros and cons for each candidate.  See how they stack up to the position you need filled by also listing the strengths and weaknesses already present within your organization. Remember that most companies operate as a team of people working together these days. One person’s strength can make up for another person’s weakness.

How Trainable is the Candidate in Question?

At the end of the day, it all comes down to trainability. No matter how much industry knowledge or experience a candidate has coming into an organization or business, there is going to be a bit of a learning curve. Can this person be trained to operate in the way your business needs? How long do you believe it will take to turn each candidate on your short list into a real winner for your organization?  If you’re interested in a long-term return on investment, choose the one that offers the most potential, not the one that seems “perfect” right now
Sometimes, a little perfectionism can go a long way towards making the world a better place. But, there are also times when it’s best not to  wait for the perfect solution when there is a perfectly good possible solution right here, right now.

Ditch the Three-Piece Suit

There’s no need to be quite as formal when interviewing for a skilled trades job. It should be the quality of your work that speaks volumes about you. A solid portfolio will make the point much better than a business suit or sports coat ever could. More importantly, you’re probably not at all comfortable in business suits – and you need to feel as comfortable as possible in the interview process.

Ladies, you can get rid of the dress and heels. There’s no need for them. Other attire options will be a much better fit for the position to which you’re applying. It will also make it easier for you to be treated like one of the guys.

Keep it Casual, but Professional

While that might sound like a contradiction, there is method to the madness. You don’t want to go into the interview looking like you slept in your clothes. It’s a good idea to go for the “business casual” look that has you wearing a nice pair of khaki pants and a nicely ironed button-up shirt. Don’t forget to wear a nice pair of shoes, which does not mean your best tennis shoes.

Women might opt for a pair of slacks and a professional looking top or blouse. Choose shoes that match the professional look of the slacks and shirt you’ve selected. Flats, dress boots or loafers are a good idea.

If the interview has been arranged through a recruiting agency, don’t hesitate to ask the recruiter what the recommended attire for the interview would be. They have a better understanding of the specific client performing the interview and what attire might get the best results with that client.

The point is to look professional without going over the top. You don’t want to look completely out of place but you also don’t want to look like you’re not taking the interview process seriously. Dressing the proper way for the interview shows the person conducting the interview that you take yourself, your talent, and this interview seriously.

Increase Real Time Response

One of the biggest hang-ups in the industry is the delay in getting information from the machine or worker to the production manager. By implementing devices and tools that can increase the real time experience of those on the floor, you’ll easily increase the productivity possible. There are numerous ways to do this. Some businesses have resorted to using Apple’s iPad to deliver this type of real time processing. Other devices, including remote sensors, real time location systems and wireless networks, can all add to the process and increase productivity.

Find the Problems

By using a method to analyze the way the system is working and to pinpoint problem areas, you can begin to understand what’s affecting your business’s productivity on the manufacturing floor. For example, if you implement methods that can detect and then eliminate problems associated with production systems, you’ll be improving response times and reducing those time consuming and cost intensive concerns. You can ramp up production with ease then.

Communications Matter Too

One of the biggest breakdowns in any business is a lack of communication. Hands down, if a business wants to improve its productivity, it needs to open up business communications at all levels. Streamlining communications can help ensure that everything from customer demands to on the floor problems get attention right away. Be sure that those who have the ability to make decisions are readily able to gather the information through a real time method. In other words, empowering those at a lower level to handle some types of problems on their own can improve the reaction time and response time.

The manufacturing floor of any business needs a customized solution. It is not always possible to use every method for increasing production in your business, but by using some basic tools, it is possible to make significant improvements. It may be necessary to use an analysis system or company to help find those problem areas so you can then find the best way to improve the situation.

Where are your hang-ups? If you do not know the answer to this (and every business has them) then you may be positioning your business to be limited in productivity.

Things You Definitely Want to “Do” in Your Blog

Do use your blog to show off your skills and talents in the field for which you’re seeking employment. You want to “brand” your name as the name to know for anyone seeking competent, qualified, and exceptionally talented job candidates in your chosen industry. Use your market to establish the connection between your name and your industry on the Internet.

Do choose the name for your blog carefully. If you are unemployed, name the blog after yourself. This helps with the branding aspect of using the blog to further your job search endeavors. However, if you are employed, you want to be a little more anonymous and give your blog a name that relates to your industry instead.

Do update your blog regularly. This shows that you’re committed to the blog and the follow-through necessary to maintain a blog. More importantly, it lets potential employers know you’re still interested in finding new employment and haven’t stopped searching for a job.

Do include some personal details about your life. Companies are seeking to hire whole people who have many dimensions to their lives. Let a little bit of you, your personality, and your commitment to friends and family shine through in your blog.

Things You “Don’t” Want to do With Your Blog

Don’t be politically incorrect in your blog. Even well-known comedians, whose bread and butter is political incorrectness, have suffered recently from off-handed references that were in bad taste outside of the office. Avoid it. Political incorrectness will turn off potential employers. They will be concerned that things you say “off the clock” will reflect poorly upon them if they hire you.

Don’t get too personal. It’s one thing to share casual things about your personal life on your blog. Those things are even encouraged. But avoid going into detail over messy breakups, last night’s party scene, and other things that might not, in the light of day, reflect well upon you and/or your character.

Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in discussions of religion, politics, and sex in your blog. These things are best kept private and personal during a job search.

Don’t say bad things about current or past employers. That’s not the way to endear yourself to potential future employers at all. If you can’t say something nice, then avoid mentioning the companies you’ve worked for in the past at all.

These dos and don’ts do not guarantee you the job of your dreams. That being said, they may very well have you blogging yourself right into a satisfying and rewarding job sooner rather than later.

BeamME

While the technology doesn’t yet exist to beam yourself right into the job of your dreams, BeamME can help you beam your business card and contact information from your iPhone, Blackberry, or Android device to any other mobile device, mobile phone, or laptop. It’s a fast and convenient way to get your contact information to people in your field who either have job openings or may be vitally important contacts when jobs do become available.

LinkedIn

If you aren’t already using LinkedIn at home to help you with your job search efforts you’re missing out. But, did you know that you can actually take the power of LinkedIn on the road with you? It’s true. LinkedIn offers apps for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android mobile phones and devices. This means that you can access your LinkedIn profile wherever you happen to be.

Interview Buzz Lite

This iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch app asks over 50 interview questions you may hear during the interview process in order to help you prepare. The more you practice the answers to some of these tough questions, the better prepared you’ll be for the actual interview. There are few tools as valuable as this to aid you in the interview process – which is essential to ultimately getting the job. It’s a wonder that, with so many people out of work, there are so few quality apps like this available.

Jobs by CareerBuilder.com

While there are many job “boards” that offer free mobile apps, this is one of the best apps available at the moment. With this app you can search according to specific keywords, locations, even job types and companies on your mobile phones and/or devices. This nifty app even offers GPS location services that will locate jobs near your physical location. You can also sync this app to the Careerbuilder.com information on your home computer and it’s possible to apply for jobs directly from your phone so you don’t have to waste a single minute to get your name in front of potential career opportunities.

There are many reasons to use mobile job apps to help you with your job search. Just remember that all of the helpful apps out there don’t begin with job search boards. There are other ways to help the process along for you. These apps are sure to assist you in your efforts to get the new career you’ve been looking for. Use them wisely!

The Benefits You Are Missing

For those without a virtual assistant, the pile of work on your desk is all up to you. For those who do have one, that pile is significantly smaller and you still look good in front of your clients. Look at a few of the advantages of hiring a virtual assistant no matter what type of business you are in.

• Benefit from better time management. Use your time for the tasks that are most important. These tasks pay your bills and help you to get ahead. Avoid spending time on tasks that do not bring home the paycheck.
• With a virtual assistant, you introduce new skills to the mesh. Your VA may offer benefits you cannot offer yourself due to lack of time, training or experience. The right virtual assistant could actually help increase your skill set down the road, too.
• Choose a professional who can add to your productivity. This should be someone trained and ready to go. However, if you bring in someone without a lot of experience, you can train him or her to do things your way. That increases your productivity without putting strain on you. You do not have to worry that they are doing a poor job.
• Impress your clients. When you have a virtual assistant, your clients know you are hot stuff – your time is money. You are worth more to them because others want your services as well. This helps you to gain the prestige you need to make the right impression (assuming the assistant does his or her job well.)
• Get work done faster and get more work in because of it. When you can turn projects around faster due to the help of the virtual assistant, you’ll be able to focus on bringing in more work. Your client can come to you for more projects because you have the time to devote to them. You become more valuable.

Hiring a virtual assistant is not as difficult as you may expect. It is also not something to put off. Doing so now can help you to increase your productivity while reducing the stress on your shoulders. For many entrepreneurs, hiring a professional like this is the difference between staying where you are and excelling with your client base. The only question is when can they start? Shorten your workload and use your skills where they matter most. You will find your business benefiting from this service.

So how do you nurture your rising stars and entice them to stay? Let’s take a look at seven ways.

Tips for Retaining Top Talent

1) Be the employer of choice. Some companies are known to be good companies to work for: Google, Proctor and Gamble, and Whole Foods come to mind. Concentrate on building your employment desirability brand by focuses on areas such as work-life balance, diversity, employee education, benefits, communications, and of course the all-important perks.

2) Value individual contributions. Peak performers usually want to know how their individual efforts impact the organization as a whole. When people know how their individual contributions impact the organization’s bottom line, they feel more engaged and take pride in their accomplishments.

3) Include high potential employees in problem solving. Want to keep the cream of the crop engaged? Include them in help to solving business problems, including developing solutions.

4) Be competitive with salary, benefits, and perks. You don’t necessary have to have the “best” salary and benefits package in the marketplace to retain employees, but you certainly must stay competitive. You surely don’t want your employee to leave for a “greener” Pasteur.

• It’s also important to keep in mind that different employees value different benefits. While a single mom might prefer a shortened work week or flexible work schedule in lieu of a slightly less competitive salary, a young employee would rather have above market compensation or even over-time pay, rather than a four day work week. Smart companies realize it’s important to offer a choice of benefits and perks to meet individual needs.

5) Praise employees. Meaningful and sincere words acknowledging efforts helps build loyalty and spurs people on to work even harder.

6) Reward employees. Beyond words of accolades, provide actions showing your appreciation. A gift card to a restaurant or tickets to a sporting event or show will do wonders to keep you in your employee’s good graces. This isn’t to say this act should be done routinely because it can lose its gumption if done too frequently. But a spontaneous and infrequent reward will do wonders to boost morale.

7) Provide career advancement training. Exceptional employees usually crave to advance their career. They’ll appreciate seminars or training sessions that help them to further develop their skills and advance their career.

As a manager, you’re in the position to make a positive impact on developing and retaining top talent working for your organization. And it’s important for you to do so: these exceptional individuals can have a huge impact on overall profitability and bottom-line results.

Plumbers

These skills are highly prized skills to have. Not only are kitchens and bathrooms the two biggest home renovation projects people undertake, many states require that the plumbing aspects of these renovations be handled by a licensed plumber. Then there are the inevitable accidents, mishaps, and pipe problems that can lead to major damage to property and family.

But, how do you get a job in this noble profession? The path to becoming a professional plumber often does require some degree of education and/or an apprenticeship. It will depend on the laws of the land in your state as to how much training is required and whether or not there are any tests to go through before licenses are issued. The important thing to know is that demand for these positions is currently high when compared with other careers or fields in the market, and is expected to improve by 16 percent or more over the next six years.

Automobile Mechanic

It wasn’t all that long ago that “shade tree” mechanics were fairly common and people had a wide range of options for car repair. With new automobiles becoming more widely dependent on computers for diagnosis and even repairs, it makes sense that the mechanics of today are a new breed compared to 10 or 20 years ago.

Most mechanics get an education by watching other mechanics who have more skills do the jobs they need to do. However, there are many schools, technical colleges, and even high school vocational classes that offer some degree of training in this field of work. Licensing is required in many states and there are many different examinations that must be passed in order to obtain licensure.

HVAC

Most HVAC workers received an education in a technical college and/or trade school. Some junior colleges offer full programs, along with certification opportunities for careers in this field. HVAC, which stands for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning,  certification programs can last anywhere from six months to two years of study.

Not only are the people in this field required to get general licenses or certificates but those who handle refrigerants are also required to obtain secondary certifications for the proper handling of these dangerous materials.

Trade careers can be highly lucrative and very much in demand – even in this economy. More importantly, it is possible to begin to pursue these careers in as few as six month’s worth of time and with significantly fewer student loan burdens than getting an education from a four-year university in an academic line of work that may or may not be in demand by the time graduation takes place. Don’t count them out just yet.