In short, an internal recruiting strategy can help your SMB grow and thrive, as the approach can help you find qualified candidates who already work for you and are strong fits for job openings.

What is internal recruiting?

Internal recruiting is the process of sourcing in-house talent to fill open positions.

• You identify existing employees whose skill sets match those tied to a job opening. Then, you engage them for said role. If your hiring team and the internal candidates in question come to an agreement, you can promote or transfer those staff members.

Your small business likely publishes postings to LinkedIn, Indeed, and/or similar job boards. To drive your SMB’s internal recruiting process, you can post certain roles to an internal job board.

This job board is only visible to current members of your workforce and can give them an inside edge, in terms of being able to learn about new opportunities before external candidates.

Implementing various types of internal recruitment approaches helps your HR team save time and resources, since you don’t have to depend on it as much. Moreover, doing so:

• Enables you to leverage the knowledge and expertise of their current workforce
• Improves employee satisfaction, since workers can take on new work opportunities
• Provide a clear career mobility path (and reason to stay) for internal team members

“Promoting internal mobility helps grow internal knowledge; improve performance related to diversity, equity and inclusion goals; and support agility,” HR expert Corey Berkey wrote for Forbes.

All this isn’t to say external recruitment isn’t vital. Rather, you can look in-house for candidates and create a hybrid internal-and-external hiring approach that provides more sourcing avenues to explore.

An added bonus: Giving your workers the chance to move into new, more meaningful, and higher-paying jobs internally can greatly boost employee morale and productivity.

The benefits of internal recruiting

Whether you are a small business or a scaling company, there are several pros to implementing an internal recruiting strategy. Notably, there are five pros of adopting the TA approach.

1) Enhanced efficiency in terms of costs and time

The most tangible benefit of internal recruiting is that it can be a significantly more time- and cost-efficient process compared to sourcing external talent.

By hiring from within your org, you can save resources by reducing the number of job postings to be made, interviews to be conducted, and, ultimately, the time and money spent on hiring onboarding a new employee (e.g., paying for background checks, allocating energy toward new-hire training).

2) Increased employee retention and satisfaction

Studies consistently show employees are more likely to remain loyal to their employers if they feel there are opportunities for advancement. By fostering a consistent culture of internal recruitment, you can communicate to your workforce that you value their contributions and want to see them grow.

Promoting or transferring from within can also improve employee motivation, as they know they have the potential to move up within the company (and, in turn, earn greater pay and more responsibility).

Positive employer sentiment not only reduces turnover rates, but also boosts worker productivity.

3) Strengthened company culture and engagement

When promoting or transferring someone internally, you can be assured that the employee already understands and aligns well with the company culture and values. By contrast, hiring external candidates can be more of a “wild card,” as they may not always end up thriving at the org.

In the long run, employees who share your company’s values and want to engage with colleagues across the business on various work initiatives are likely to be more passionate and enthusiastic about helping your SMB excel. (That is, achieve your company’s long-term goals.)

4) Harnessed skills and knowledge company-wide

Internally advanced employees already possess a deep understanding of the company, its products and/or services, and its customer base. They may also have established relationships with coworkers and clients. This makes them more capable of making immediate contributions in their new role.

• By utilizing these existing skills, you can breeze through the onboarding process.

This means internal hires can quickly be more productive and efficient in their new roles, ultimately serving both their own career growth preferences and the company’s overall success.

5) Reduced reliance on external talent sourcing

Hiring candidates from outside your org always carries a certain degree of risk. Aside from the cultural fit aspect, there is always the concern that the new hire may not perform to expectations.

With internal recruiting, though, you have a better track record of an employee’s performance. That makes it less likely (typically) that you’ll encounter these issues after a promotion or transfer.

Internal recruiting for your business

Looking to get started with internal recruitment at your SMB? Here are some best practices to abide by:

• Identifying internal talent: A crucial first step in successful internal recruiting involves actively assessing your current team members’ skills and performance, as well as identifying any skill gaps or opportunities for growth.
• Communicating job opportunities: Ensure that open roles are communicated internally, making your staff aware of the potential for career advancement within the company.
• Providing L&D opportunities: Offer training and support programs for employees who demonstrate the potential for advancement. This enables them to build their skill set and prepare for future leadership roles.
• Streamlining hiring: An internal hiring process should be swift and efficient, allowing you to quickly identify the best candidates and minimize disruptions to your business operations.
• Fostering a culture of growth and development: Encourage employees to continually learn and expand their skills, allowing them to grow personally and professionally alongside your business.

Bottom line: Hiring internal candidates won’t always be the ideal avenue to fill a position at your SMB.

(After all, not all existing employees have the requisite job requirements for certain roles, and there are plenty of good-fit prospects you can find via job boards and other career communities.)

That said, you can (and should) make internal recruitment work at your company today.

The approach can alleviate external sourcing pressure on your HR team. It can also allow your hiring managers work with your recruiters to connect current staff members to help members of your workforce advance into roles of interest — and want to stay and grow at your org for years to come.

Discover how JazzHR’s powerful applicant tracking system for small businesses such as yours can help streamline your internal recruitment and hiring efforts. Book a demo with our team today.

Knowing it’s vital to enhance communication in the workplace is one thing. Taking the necessary action to ensure highly efficient and effective inter- and intra-departmental communication and collaboration on key initiatives that can move the needle for your business is another.

11 ways to improve communication in the workplace

Thankfully, there’s a proven framework you can follow to not just improve communication at work, but also boost employee engagement and strengthen your company culture.

1) Organize enjoyable events outside the company

Communication does not always happen organically, as people who are separated by their responsibilities within a growing company may not interact regularly.

Planning outside events can help break those barriers and improve communication. There is a formality in the workplace that is not always conducive to communication, as separation in responsibilities and authority can discourage dialogue.

Therefore, organizing outside events that are away from the physical workspace can lessen tension, bring down physical barriers that exist in a business, and get team members to see each other as well-rounded people, not just fellow employees.

Doing so relaxes the environment for communication. By organizing outside events away from the business, you can bring in the human element that encourages communication that will extend into your growing org.

David Derigiotis, CIO, Embroker

2) Embed comms best practices in your onboarding

It’s challenging to ensure that communication stays efficient when your employee headcount is growing. More people means more emails or Slack messages; more people means more knowledge being shared, but potentially not being captured for the good of everyone, if the system isn’t set up optimally.

When onboarding new employees, it is important to run them through all your comms outputs and best practices. What information should they expect to learn/find from which outputs: all-hands meetings, newsletters, intranet, manager cascades?

If they have a codified sense of where comms should be, they can contribute and keep things running smoothly rather than posting questions or information in a forum that will get missed by others.

Scott Hitchins, CMO, Interact Software

3) Revisit your company’s communication protocols

As your company grows, it’s important to scale your communication effectively.

Establish clear communication channels and protocols that everyone in the organization can access and use. Use tools such as videoconferencing, instant messaging, and email to ensure that all employees can stay connected and up to date.

Regularly review and update communication policies and procedures to ensure they remain effective and efficient. Encourage open dialogue and feedback from all employees to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard. And ensure that everyone is aware of the company’s goals and objectives so they can work together to achieve them.

Carly Hill, Operations Manager, VirtualHolidayParty.com

4) Meet regularly for brief stand-up meetings

Have daily “stand-up meetings” to get an overview of what everyone is working on and capture existing obstacles at work. These stand-ups are time-boxed and informal, and five minutes should be enough for everyone in a growing team to share a point or two about their individual projects.

In this short time, everyone should be able to get enough context to remain informed with what the rest are working on. For efficient comms, brief yet impactful stand-up meetings are one way to go.

Max Wesman, Chief Operating Officer, GoodHire

5) Over-communicate with workers when possible

One thing that I can’t emphasize enough is the importance of over-communicating. In a remote or hybrid work setup, organizations need to be extra vigilant not to create a communication gap.

By over-communicating, you make sure that no critical information is lost. That being said, over-communication doesn’t mean sharing confidential information but effectively and repeatedly conveying the information to employees.

Every organization must have a communication plan in place, which essentially outlines diverse ways of communicating vital information across the teams.

Just sharing the info in a Slack channel won’t be enough. Send emails, personal messages, or set up online or offline meetings if required. Over-communication is better than under-communication.

Adit Jain, CEO & Co-Founder, Leena AI

6) Clarify your org’s values and adhere to them

Being clear about company values and sticking to them is crucial for improving communication at an SMB because it provides a clear, common ground and a shared understanding and language.

When an org always acts in alignment with its values, it earns the trust of its employees, partners, and customers, which is essential for effective comms, as it allows for open, honest dialogue.

It also establishes a culture of accountability. When company values are clearly communicated and upheld, it sets an expectation of accountability for all employees. This promotes efficient communication, as individuals are less likely to be evasive and dismissive in their conversation style.

What’s more, adhering to company values ensures all employees are working towards the same goals, which ensures that they share common ground and aren’t forced to verbalize all the minutest details.

Piotrek Sosnowski, Chief People & Culture Officer, HiJunior

7) Let senior management set the comms example

As a part of the senior management of my company, I can attest that the best way to ensure consistent and effective communication is for the senior management team to take the first step.

They should make it part of their role to keep all employees in touch with one another by, for example, hosting regular team meetings, having open office hours, and voicing messages out loud.

The senior team should also lead by example and practice real listening, assert obvious lines of responsibility, and show genuine interest in what their employees are bringing to the table.

This would pave the way for better vertical integration, enhanced collaboration across teams without silos, an open tone of constructive feedback, and eventually more efficient communication company-wide.

Derek Bruce, Sr. Director, Skills Training Group

8) Train all executives and other business leaders

As a growing company, it is essential to perfect leaders’ communication styles and practices in order to improve communication. Leaders serve as the primary models for communication. Their communication practices will be the foundation for how comms is conducted across the org.

Managers are disseminators of the communication practices. Their ability to effectively communicate is key to ensuring that all employees understand and implement the communication practices.

As the org expands, it is important to ensure that leaders are equipped with the necessary skills and resources to effectively communicate with their teams and other stakeholders.

With effective, open communication practices in place, your small business will be better prepared to face the challenges and opportunities that come with growth. (Not to mention ensure all employees feel comfortable to share their thoughts about business concerns tied to their work.)

Grace He, People & Culture Director, teambuilding.com

9) Switch over to asynchronous communication

Relying on weekly team meetings for communication is fine 20 or 30 employees. It’s downright impossible, though, as you grow beyond that. Your employees will spend more time updating each other in meetings than actually doing the work.

I’ve seen this happen repeatedly at companies I’ve worked at in the past. In my current company, we use written (Slack) and video (Loom) updates to share info with each other. This is especially helpful in the remote work era and gives team members a choice over which updates apply to their job.

Moreover, this has freed up our calendars without becoming disconnected. Every employee can share insights and info with colleagues for whenever they get back online.

Julian Schaaf, Head of Marketing, Gomada

10) Schedule all-hands meetings and stick to them

When a company is small and numbers only several dozen employees, maintaining communication is relatively straightforward and rarely requires any additional effort. However, rapid growth can put communication on the back burner and lead to breakdowns in operation.

One way to prevent this is by organizing all-hands meetings each month, where employees can get direct and undiluted information from the source and engage in active listening with one another.

Monthly meetings are so effective at keeping communication alive because they give everyone a chance to hear more about different people within the company and learn who to contact with future queries. These group chats bring separate teams together and help people get to know each other.

Goran Luledzija, CEO, Localizely

11) Build a robust employee knowledge database

Build and regularly update a virtual employee knowledge base. Employees should be able to access instructions or informational documents like files and spreadsheets whenever needed, so give them a 24/7 space to easily access these answers.

While you can’t predict every question an employee has or replace meetings with a team FAQ database, you can help reduce the need for some of these more repetitive communications, so they have many of these answers available instantly at their fingertips.

Regularly ask employees to submit questions they think will help themselves or their teammates and update the data to keep up with developing standards and strategies.

Tory Gray, CEO & Founder, The Gray Dot Company

Learn how you can improve your SMB hiring team’s communication and collaboration with JazzHR.

• Ensure the business regularly hires people of color and those from other historically underrepresented groups and retains diverse employees
• Create a strong company culture through the creation of employee resource groups and implementation of other workforce engagement efforts
• Strengthen the overall business strategy by establishing a safe and welcoming work environment where every employee can thrive

“Meaningful [DEI] progress requires dedication,” McKinsey Company analysts recently wrote. “The DEI strategy should be continually refined as pilot projects deliver results, lessons are learned, leaders and employees develop new skills and awareness, and the business’s overarching strategy evolves.

Your SMB may not have Vice President of DEI or even a dedicated DEI committee that regularly collects and acts on feedback from workers to increase employee satisfaction.

• However, your small business leaders must ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion is a top priority at all times to attract and retain top talent and drive long-term business growth.

If your organization — including your executives, people managers, and HR and hiring teams — is looking to develop new DEI programs this year, you’ve come to the right place.

Understanding the importance of DEI programs

One of the major upsides to mature DEI programs is a rise in workforce satisfaction.

Employees are happier when their leaders, human resources team, and people managers work in tandem to hire more members of underrepresented groups, like sexual orientations and ethnicities, and create an inclusive work environment where people are treated and paid fairly.

• That said, 75% of workers think their employers need to do more in terms of DEI efforts that not just positively impact their job and business satisfaction, but also have an outsized impact externally.

It’s not just existing staff that’ll appreciate a sustained commitment to inclusivity. Numbers suggest that job seekers are looking for evidence of diversity at work and that success can be compounded.

Proof of this can be found in Glassdoor’s annual Diversity and Inclusion Survey, which found four in five minority applicants count a diverse workforce as a deciding factor when evaluating an employer.

So, ask yourself: What is your SMB doing to implement DEI programs (and specific, measurable goals tied to them) that help you build a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace?

Developing dedicated DEI programs around training

One-off diversity workshops aren’t enough anymore. In fact, they’re viewed as doing the bare minimum by employees. As a group of researchers publishing in the Harvard Business Review put it:

“Virtually all Fortune 500 companies offer diversity training to their employees … even when the training is beneficial, the effects may not last after the program ends.”

• In order for anti-bias training to actually work, it needs to be reinforced regularly. The efficacy of a one-off workshop drops off as time goes on, and subconscious biases can resurface.

The University of Buffalo’s Katerina Bezrukova studied 40 years’ worth of DEI training results, and also found that “over time … attitudes regressed to what they were before the training.”

Remember: Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs don’t always have to involve lengthy and expensive workshops. Instead, learning experiences should be facilitated on a day-to-day basis by business and HR leaders and people managers by embedding diversity practice into company culture.

Business News Daily’s Paula Fernandes shared expert advice based on Bezrukova’s research. We think it’s a great summary of how to conduct DEI training.

“Roll out a series of programs, events, celebrations, mentoring opportunities and other experiences for continual learning,” said Paula. “This way, it becomes more about reinforcement of positive behavior than an annual lecture of all the prohibitive rules.”

Ensuring you have a sustainable inclusive hiring strategy

Good news: We already have a how-to guide on diversity hiring. If you read that and abide by our tips, you’ll (hopefully) end up with stronger, more inclusive recruitment processes. Here, though, let’s look at the ways in which you can measure and improve your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

You wouldn’t let your social media campaigns go un-evaluated. Your DEI programs are far more important than a few Twitter (er, X) posts. It’s time to track your inclusivity performance with smart goals, using frameworks like KPIs or OKRs. Align inclusivity goals with your company goals.

• Start measuring, and you’ll be able to take data-backed action to improve your DEI efforts and compound your successes. If all goes according to plan, you’ll have a healthy set of statistics that you can translate into positive employer branding that attracts even more diverse talent.

“DEI metrics provide a tangible way to gain data-driven insights into diversity’s impact on business performance” and “help leaders address backlash and meet mandated reporting requirements,” according to The Conference Board.

Here’s a helpful LinkedIn guide to the kinds of DEI metrics your hiring team, in particular, should be tracking. Once you’ve defined your goals, ensure that your applicant tracking system (ATS) is capable of collecting and centralizing all your diversity recruiting and candidate data in a single location.

(One that ideally dynamically updates and offers rich analytics tied to your DEI hiring initiatives.)

Communicating your commitment to DEI programs

A 2020 Quantum Workplace report found 48% of business professionals said that “respect” is the most important contributor to “a culture of inclusion.” (A sentiment your staff likely agrees with.)

Respect isn’t a token show of support. It’s an ongoing set of actions that tell employees you value their opinions. For your team to feel respected, they need to see consistency on the part of their employers when it comes to DEI efforts.

• One of the simplest ways to communicate respect for your team is to listen to them, and act on the suggestions that arise from your conversations.

“No workplace is perfect when it comes to [DEI programs],” The Gallup CHRO Roundtable Managing Director and Partner Jeremie Brecheisen wrote for Harvard Business Review.

“But, the strongest have something in common: They listen to their people and see beyond their own worldviews before they start trying to solve a problem they do not understand or even see.”

Job seekers are far more likely to trust employees than employers. As if communicating respect wasn’t enough, this makes another argument for including staff in the DEI conversation.

• By listening to their suggestions and giving them a stake in your org’s DEI programs, you’ll be creating in-house advocates that have a sense of ownership and pride in the changes that are being made.

Then, you can involve them in the hiring process. That way, you’ll have ambassadors that job seekers — experienced industry veterans and those fresh out of colleges and universities — can trust. It’s a fantastic opportunity to both improve your employer brand, and to learn from your teammates.

Making DEI programs “business as usual” at your SMB

Practically everyone at your small business is laser-focused on improving your bottom line. As they should. Your company’s success has a trickle-down effect on your staff (i.e., earning bonuses, getting promotions and raises, upward mobility options). But, it can’t be the sole focus for your business.

Whether it’s initiatives around training, hiring, or communicating, the common thread that runs through sustainable DEI programs is communication, collaboration, and coordination.

• “Forward-looking small businesses recognize and understand the implications of demographic shifts and adapt their strategies, HR practices, and business operations to better meet the needs of current and future employees and clients,” DEI expert Glen Guyton recently wrote.

That means these forward-thinking SMBs on’t just act like a company that prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion. They actually do make DEI an intrinsic part of their company’s identity.

By doing so at your small business, you will not only see greater employee satisfaction and retention, but also a rise in more job seekers who want to work for your company and stay there long term.

• And with a small business applicant tracking system (ATS) in place for your HR team, you can tackle tasks associated with arguably the most important DEI program: hiring diverse talent.

“Many organizations want to improve their DEI efforts but lack the right tools to make a scalable impact,” HR expert Corey Berkey wrote for Spiceworks. “That’s where hiring technology comes in.”

Find out how investing in our advanced ATS can help your hiring team better identify, engage, and hire diverse talent. Schedule a demo of our leading recruiting software today for more info.

4 dated HR processes to get rid of

So, is your HR team struggling with manual, outdated processes that are stuck in the 90s? Here are some key warning signs to look out for, and the strategies you should use to address them.

1) Processing paper → going (mostly) digital

“[Human resources] is moving from processing paper to making sure individuals feel valued in the organization,” employment attorney Kate Bischoff recently explained to SHRM.

Paperwork was once synonymous with HR processes. Now, ‘paper-first’ has become ‘people-first’.

• To automate inefficient admin work, embrace digital documentation with Google docs, Microsoft 365, or project management software.

There are also HR tools with digital forms and templates built right in. Digital solutions now exist for most HR processes, and you can manage everything from timesheets to eContracts without relying on paper.

It’s also important to mention the environmental impact of paper. The average office in the U.S. uses 10,000 pieces of paper every year. If that doesn’t persuade you, just think about never getting another paper cut again. Now we’re talking …

2) Punitive policy-making → increased flexibility

COVID has ripped the band-aid off of inflexible working policies. Suddenly, bosses have had to accommodate employees juggling homeschooling and other interruptions. Strict time-off policies have had to be adjusted to accommodate for self-isolating.

• The role of HR is to personalize an approach to suit evolving requirements.

So, try to build a culture around resolving issues, not assigning blame. Use a guide to employee conduct and set parameters for work, of course, but always remember the “human” in “human resources.”

3) Rigid hiring practices → update and diversify

Take a look at your existing hiring practices. Are you making assumptions about your TA and HR processes? Are you making assumptions about candidates you engage with?

Review the steps involved in your recruitment pipeline and make use of current technology. Instead of interviewing candidates over the phone, for example, try video conferencing.

If you don’t already have one, adopt an applicant tracking system (ATS). That way you can reach more people, improve the candidate experience and hire more talent — specifically, diverse talent — faster.

4. Annual reviews → consistently empower employees

Annual performance reviews can be stressful, unrewarding experiences. Nine in 10 HR leaders are dissatisfied with how their companies conduct performance reviews.

Annual reviews lack context. As employee contributions are summarized, they may also be minimized. Replace or supplement them with regular check-ins, like monthly 1:1s. In so doing, you can recognize employee achievements in greater detail and offer support when they face challenges.

The future of your HR processes is in your hands

We predict that, by 2025, HR processes will have seen a significant shift. Technologies such as process management tools, analytics, and even AI will give small teams the power to transform their HR capabilities and adapt to the future of work.

They’ll need that power. The rapid evolution of working culture means that ideas like unlimited time off and remote work may soon become the new norm. For many forward-thinking organizations, these changes are already underway — and their HR teams are preparing.

Companies have various choices to make as they consider their next hire, enabling them to choose the right people for their projects. Freelancers and contractors have emerged as viable alternatives to doing everything in-house, with many businesses now relying on them for niche and recurring tasks as well as ad-hoc assignments. 

This guide will walk you through the three main types of workers: freelancers, contractors, and employees. We will look at how they differ from each other and which one you should choose. 

Let’s dive in.

Who are freelancers?

Freelancers are self-employed people who often work on short-term projects with various clients. They receive no employee benefits from their clients and pay their own taxes. A defining feature of freelancers – and the reason the path is attractive to many workers – is their ability to set their own hours and work with more than one client simultaneously. 

• Freelancers set their own rates, which may be hourly or on a per-project basis.

They typically work remotely, though may occasionally meet with clients in person or visit the office for meetings.

According to a study by the Freelancers Union and Upwork, about 35% of Americans were freelancing as of last year. The image above is a snapshot of the study’s findings, which estimated that freelancing income touched nearly $1 trillion last year. 

Who are contractors?

Much like freelancers, contractors also set their own hours and pay their own taxes. They also receive no employee benefits from their clients and have control over their rates for any given project. However, this is where the similarities end. 

• A contractor usually takes on one client at a time.

Their projects are typically large and can last weeks, months, or longer. Their contract usually defines a specific period of engagement. They are most commonly found in construction and IT, business consulting, and creative industries.

Who are permanent employees?

Employees work for a single employer permanently and are paid fixed remuneration such as an hourly rate or annual salary. They might work in the office or be a part of a remote team hired and are hired to fill a designated role as opposed to working on a single project. 

The employer provides benefits (such as vacation time, healthcare, and pension plans) and is also responsible for taxes and contributions. Employees typically have a fixed that determines their work hours, role, and the terms of their employment. 

Since they are a permanent part of the company, employees are usually required to serve a notice period before leaving the company. They also enjoy more job security than freelancers or contractors.

Breaking down the differences

Now that we know what freelancers, contractors, and employees are, let’s look at how these categories of workers differ. Here are a few of the critical areas of difference:

• Employment status. Freelancers and contractors are self-employed, while an employee works for the company.
• The number of clients. Freelancers take on more than one client at a time, while contractors usually have one client at a time, and employees work for a single company. You can find valuable insights on how to get and impress new clients as a freelancer or a contractor in the book called “The Price of Freelancing”, by Better Proposals’ Adam Hempenstall.
• Project duration. Freelancers usually work on shorter projects, while contractors work on longer and more involved projects. On the other hand, employees are engaged to fill a specific role and may work on multiple projects during their time with the company, Place of work. Freelancers are almost always remote, while both contractors and employees may work in the office, remotely, or a combination of the two. 
• Tax and benefits. Freelance and contractors are responsible for their own tax contributions. They are not eligible for any benefits from their clients. Companies take care of both taxes and benefits for their employees. 

Regarding the latter, the moment we cease with learning — or, as it’s known in the business space, training and development — we fail to compete with those coming up behind us.

• In the workplace, it can be tricky for human resource management teams and hiring managers to identify training and development opportunities both during and after the onboarding stage.

And yet, to ensure employees remain engaged and successful at your company, it’s critical to continuously recognize their potential, identify unique skills and knowledge, and nurture these workers’ development through dedicated, ongoing “blended” learning and job training sessions.

That is to say, prioritize employee training and development opportunities — ones that can improve employees’ day-to-day work performance, give them the expertise needed to take on new roles down the line, and enhance the odds of retaining top-performing workers long term.

4 ways to identify training and development opportunities during your new-hire onboarding process

“It’s vital that your development and mobility programs are accessible to workers,” Employ SVP People & Talent Corey Berkey recently wrote for Forbes. “So, you must offer a range of reskilling and educational opportunities [to your workforce].”

Translation? Your HR team and people managers must work together to build distinct skills training methods and programs that empower employees to realize their desired level of professional growth and prepare themselves to take on new and challenging jobs at the org in the future.

Here are four tips to help you discern which types of training programs that are designed to boost employee performance in the long run are worth exploring early on in your onboarding efforts.

1) Conduct regular check-ins with new hires

The onboarding stage is a great opportunity for new hires to understand your entire business. They can get to know more about other departments, not only the one you hired them for. By conducting regular check-ins, you can understand where employee interests lie and develop mutually beneficial career goals.

When an employee expresses curiosity in another area of the business, it’s worth noting this down for later. Should you hire in the future, your strongest candidates might come from within.

2) Set up custom personal development plans

Personal development plans are a great way to help employees feel more valued and invested in your business.

Set up personal development plans with your staff and review them on a regular basis. Not only does this improve communication with your team, but it also helps identify any work-related training they might need.

3) Gauge interest in a new mentoring initiative

Internal, cross-departmental mentoring is a great way to share knowledge across your business.

A mentoring program helps new hires and seasoned employees alike learn about other parts of the business. It’s also a great way to provide insight into how an employee’s specific skill set fits into the wider picture of the business.

By closely aligning staff with a mentor, you can help develop skills, as well as identify any training or development requirements needed to further someone’s career.

4) Factor in business goals with training options

By analyzing and understanding what the overall goals of the business are, you can gain clarity over what areas of your business require further training to help reach that next benchmark. 

For instance, you might discover that some teams have duplicated skillsets, while others lack knowledge about your industry. With this in mind, you can begin offering personalized training programs that address these needs.

Tailoring your training and development program to the career and growth aspirations of your workforce

The 2020 Workplace Learning Report by LinkedIn found 94% of employees would stay with a company longer if there was an investment in learning and development. What’s more, 68% of employees say training employees is a company’s most important policy.

Identifying how employees learn is a great way to make training and development as effective as possible. Some employees will learn best collaboratively through workshops, while others will require more independent study.

By understanding how each member of your team best absorbs information, you can begin tailoring your training and development. This ensures that staff put their newfound skills into practice and, ultimately, help the business grow.

While HR and people managers focus on training and development of existing employees, your talent team needs the right tech to find future employees. Schedule a JazzHR demo today to learn about our ATS.

Employee performance is directly related to business performance and success. But, most managers and employers don’t give performance management the importance it deserves.

If you want to improve your small business’s bottom line and productivity, it’s time to give this aspect of organizational development some serious thought.

6 performance management tips for business leaders

Business owners and leaders face certain problems when it comes to performance management. Let’s look at these challenges and how you can overcome them:

1) Setting goals and milestones

Without clear goals, workers won’t know what they’re supposed to be working to achieve.

Solution: Understand what you want for your business. Break that down into specific goals that your team can reach in a certain timeframe. Then, communicate these to your employees. This reminds them of what they’re trying to accomplish and how to make it happen.

2)  Strategic planning and focus

Goal setting isn’t going to work without a plan in place to help employees focus on goals.

Solution: To be truly effective, your performance management process should be aligned with company objectives. Help your team to understand how their efforts contribute to critical goals. Then, make a plan that focuses on prioritizing tasks that impact organizational progress the most.

3) Proper evaluation and feedback

Without balanced and timely feedback, performance management cannot be done effectively.

Solution: Annual reviews only address recent issues and accomplishments. Instead, you should evaluate employee performance and provide feedback regularly. This boosts motivation, ownership of problems, and productivity.

4) Regular coaching and training

Similarly, employee assessment isn’t ineffective if it’s not paired with ongoing training.

Solution: Implement learning and development strategies that help employees grow both individually and as a team. With the right mentorship, coaching, and skill development programs, you can improve employee performance, engagement, and productivity at the workplace.

5) Leadership and management support

Moreover, if you aren’t helping workers solve their problems, they have no reason to help you solve yours.

Solution: You can boost performance management processes tremendously by encouraging leaders and managers to provide guidance, help, and support to employees. This boosts morale and loyalty at the workplace, increases employee retention, and encourages your whole team to work harder.

6) Reward and recognition programs

Motivation and confidence cannot improve without an appreciation for positive actions and behaviors.

Solution: Lack of appreciation and recognition can demoralize your team, leading to poor employee performance. Make sure you have well-planned processes in place for rewarding and promoting accomplishments, actions, and behaviors that have an impact on your business’s success.

Because of the significant connection between worker performance and organizational development, you cannot neglect performance management. This isn’t just a formality put in place by HR, but an essential part of your company’s daily functioning and eventual success.

Managers are responsible for ensuring team success, creating a positive atmosphere, and solving complex problems, among others. These varied responsibilities can quickly become unbalanced, and a sudden shift in the market could take leaders’ attention away from their teams. This can then lead to a drop in productivity.

Leaders can stabilize their own resources by adopting various leadership styles, including:

• Autocratic leadership: Creating a clear separation between leaders and employees. This style centralizes decision-making powers in a single person. Decisions are made quickly and employees are expected to follow their instructions.
• Democratic leadership: This style uses a consultative approach in which leaders solicit feedback from individual team members. Decisions are made more slowly, with leaders considering the input of relevant stakeholders.
• Participative leadership: In this approach, leaders leave most of the decision-making process to trusted team members. Leaders provide guidance as necessary and delegate tasks to individuals based on their skills.

Orgs may use a combination of these leadership styles. Enterprises might take an autocratic approach to their investment strategies, but use a more democratic style when developing products, for example.

When evaluating different types of leadership, managers must also consider how well their team members trust their decisions.

Evaluating leadership styles’ effects on employee performance

A study of leadership styles found that each has a unique impact on employee performance. Likewise, researchers identified various business scenarios that naturally lend themselves to specific styles.

• The autocratic approach was found to be useful for driving short-term performance. Researchers revealed that in situations where teams are made of new employees, authoritarian leaders are better at defining solutions to difficult business challenges.
• The democratic approach was shown to be effective in both the short and long term. Specifically, researchers indicated that the feedback loop created by soliciting opinions from team members led not only to higher productivity but also higher morale.
• The participative approach proved less effective in the short term, but very useful in the long term, with a positive impact on employee performance. Researchers found that the style led to a positive work environment where creativity was encouraged.

These findings indicate that there is no single best style of leadership. Rather, leaders need to assess their goals and determine which style – or combination of styles – is right for the current situation.

The role of trust on improving employee performance over time

Trust in leadership is a critical factor in employee performance, regardless of what style leaders adopt. A 2017 study found a strong correlation between trust and employee behaviors that stimulate performance, including the willingness to stay with the organization long term.

Building trust with employees may be one of the best ways to boost performance. In fact, only 37% of employees say they trust their leaders. Leaders can win the trust of their employees by:

• Always telling the truth
• Following through on commitments
• Listening to employees’ concerns and opinions
• Promoting a positive work environment

Trust has to be built up over time. But the more leaders strive to gain employee trust – and demonstrate their trustworthiness – the better gains they can see from employee performance. Leadership styles have a direct impact on employee performance, and trust is a vital factor.

Managers should ultimately understand that:

• An authoritative approach can be effective in the short term when decisions need to be made quickly
• A consultative approach can be useful when creative problem-solving skills are needed to make progress
• A participative approach can be useful when leading a group of experts and competent team members
• Trust and employee engagement go hand-in-hand; empowered workers are more likely to take initiative

Not surprisingly, fostering belonging in your company is one of the most valuable things you can do.

People who say they have a sense of belonging feel connected to their work and workplace. That’s essential, not just at work, but in life itself. In fact, it’s so important that pioneering social psychologist Dr. Abraham Maslow ranks belonging as third in his Hierarchy of Needs for human satisfaction and fulfillment.

• Neuroscience has even found that social needs are managed by the same neural networks as primary survival needs such as food and water.

The bottom line is that individuals need to feel that they fit in, that they are valued, that they have purpose and a common bond, and that they are connected to their co-workers. When they do, great things can happen. The question, of course, is how do you foster that sense of belonging at work?

Let’s take a look at several easy things that you can do.

Show employees that their work has meaning

For employees to truly belong, they first need to have a sense of purpose. Working just for the sake of working with no sense of meaning can be depressing and leave employees feeling disconnected.

• When people know what they do matters and that it makes a difference, they’re more likely to feel connected to their organization and committed to the company and their co-workers.

Managers should make sure the link between what an employee does and the bigger picture is clear and valued, so that their people feel a true sense of purpose. 

Set team goals and recognize work results

When people operate as part of a team and work toward a common goal, they build each other up and support one another. Good collaboration happens when you set goals for the team as a whole, and successful collaboration builds connections between individuals. Set goals that encourage people to work as a team so they can flourish together.

• It’s important to also acknowledge and recognize both individual and group achievements.

Group successes should be publicized so that the rest of the workforce knows what has been achieved. Encourage management to acknowledge how these successes feed into the bigger picture of the organization’s goals and mission. Recognition is a powerful motivator and fosters an important emotional connection to the work, the team, and the company.

Solicit input from your entire workforce

Inclusiveness happens when people are asked to contribute. When they feel their opinions matter, and can actually make a difference, they feel like they’re a part of things. When workplace leaders hold meetings, they should invite team members and ask for their opinions.

Soliciting input and having it acted upon gives employees a sense of ownership and an investment in the performance of their organization. This gives them a sense of belonging and encourages them to stay.

Encourage camaraderie and collaboration

Work may be a place to get things done, but we spend so much time in our workplaces, it only makes sense that we enjoy it as much as we can. There’s nothing wrong with encouraging camaraderie and a bit of fun now and again.

• Managers can encourage people to connect through in- and out-of-work events, such as celebrating birthdays, monthly team lunches, group volunteering events, and employer-subsidized activities.

Fostering a positive workplace culture can pay enormous dividends, so it’s well worth investing the time in getting everyone on board and truly harness that sense of belonging as a work community.

Celebrate your work successes together

Celebrating successes, such as hitting targets, reaching goals, and landing new clients, as a group can foster strong bonds within a team or department. It gives the employees the chance to reflect on their teamwork, and appreciate what they have achieved together.

• Take the time to bring people together to enjoy their collective success.

Belonging is better for business There’s no doubt belonging is a powerful motivator for employees in the workplace. It’s not hard or expensive to do.

And, by nurturing this sense in the people who work for your organization, you can achieve great things. Helping ensure that everyone feels like they belong in your work culture is a great way to help ensure your company’s overall success.