EMPLOYERS
WAS IT SOMETHING YOU SAID?
Staff falling off faster than you can replace them? You’re not alone. As fast as employers can hire new talent, new vacancies continue to outpace the best efforts of top management.
Whether you’re ‘growing your own’ or continuously seeking hot new talent to maintain a lead role in your industry, keeping staff in today’s market is a highly competitive ball game with a whole new set of rules.
Today’s employers are finding innovative new ways to retain employees - and not just with money.
What’s an employer to do?
According to Positive Performance, keeping good employees has more to do with how you manage than what you pay. People hire into organizations. They stay or leave based on their relationship with their manager, and their opportunity to both contribute and advance in their job.
The Good Manager’s 5-POINT CHECK LIST
- Do you involve your people in setting goals for themselves and their department?
- Do you ensure your people have sufficient time, tools, and training to accomplish their jobs?
- Are their efforts recognized and are they shown appreciation?
- Do you have a structure in place to provide specific and accurate feedback in a positive and timely manner?
- Do your people have fun?
Hire RIGHT by Knowing WHAT’S MOST IMPORTANT
Skills, appearance and personality all go into the interview evaluation mix when companies are hiring. Determine what is most important to your organization. Insisting on university degrees, or specific years of experience will shrink your selection substantially. Finding the right employee who will hang in through thick and thin with you, has far more to do with personality than with matching hard skills to the job at hand.
Visionary Strategist and international speaker Barton Goldsmith says that while it is (relatively) easy to train people in the necessary skills, it is next to impossible to change their personalities.
JOB SEEKERS
Follow these simple steps and you’ll be ready when career opportunities come knocking.
- Keep an ongoing inventory of your accomplishments – the things you have done that have made a difference to past employers. Think about productivity improvements, increased sales, stronger customer loyalty, etc.
- Along with this keep a list of the assets you bring to prospective employers – work experience, education, work ethic, and team work and leadership qualities. Special interests and outside community activities count too!
- Always carry business cards, no matter where you're going. Again, keep these at hand should an encounter turn out to be a professional contact. Make notes on the business cards you collect, or in a notebook, so you'll remember the details of who you met.
- Conduct informational interviews with your contacts and ask for referrals, and when networking online, keep track of who you've emailed and where you have posted so you can follow up
- Follow through with referrals, and always thank contacts in writing (email is fine)
How to Ask For and Get That Raise
First Things First. How Much Are You Worth?
Do you know what typical salaries in your field are?
Here are a few good online salary resources:
•
www.monster.ca
• www.vault.salary.com
• www.payscale.com
Can They Afford You?
You need to list what you've accomplished for your employer, and the skills you have that are most valuable to your work.
Do some research, online and off. If your industry and/or employer is having a hard time, this is definitely not a good time to ask for more money.
Ask and Be Prepared
Yes, be very well prepared to present your case. This is both a selling and a negotiating venue, and no doubt one in which your boss has considerably more experience than you.
Take Career.com’s Dawn Rosenberg McKay’s advice: "Treat this as a business meeting. Set up a time to meet with your boss. Don't discuss your raise with him or her by email, at the water cooler, or by telephone (unless you and your boss don't work at the same location).
What if they do say no? Or offer a raise smaller than the one you want? Are you going to quit? Wait and ask again later? Prepare for as many scenarios as possible, as this will show that you are serious and head off any ugly surprises.
Plan Your Follow Through.
Don’t just be prepared for criticism; ask for it. If they don’t have any real issues with your work, you have effectively eliminated their primary defense. But if in fact it is your performance that’s keeping your pay lower than you think it should be, ask your boss to give you specific suggestions for ways to improve. If they can’t, you may want to go where you are appreciated.
