Blog Archives - Page 2 of 3

Building Your Career With the Right Tests, Certificates, and Licenses

In today’s competitive workplace, it’s not enough to believe you can succeed in a role or even to have experience with transferrable skills.

January 25, 2022/by DoverSolutions

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An Executive’s Guide to Career Advancement

You’ve set a high bar for your career goals, and now it’s time to jump. The question is — how? Career development doesn’t end once you have a seat at the boardroom table. Whether you’ve found your home in lower to middle management or have your eye on the C-suite, there are always more steps to take that will cultivate your skills and advance your career.

January 13, 2022/by DoverSolutions

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Top 5 Strategies for Career Development in the Modern Workforce

Employers seeking to thrive in the modern business landscape are increasingly recognizing that one of the keys to meeting corporate goals and boosting profitability is creating career development strategies that improve their employees’ progress and career advancement. Of course, ongoing training is essential to career development, but there are many resources and strategies for growing a more knowledgeable workforce that is ready for the digital world. Individuals and businesses that embrace these concepts will reap the benefits at both the enterprise and employee level.

This approach applies to all industries, including manufacturing, education, telecommunications and retail sales. Today, every job requires digital skills and nimble employees. According to Sanquinetta Dover, founder of Dover Solutions, that means everyone benefits when employees pursue higher goals. “When you give individuals the tools necessary to improve their performance, it grows your company along with their individual careers.”

In this article, we’ll explore how that philosophy applies to the following career development strategies.

Become Excellent at Your Current Position

Although businesses strive to hire qualified candidates, no one has mastery of a job when they begin it. Management should provide ongoing training for your position so that you can stay abreast of recent developments, but you are responsible for upping your skills. The best path forward is to set short-term goals for improvement. Perhaps you want to process your insurance claims with 98% accuracy instead of 95%. Maybe you want to raise your customer service ranking to a five instead of a four. Your goal might be to produce more product in less time. Research how to improve and then establish action steps to achieve your ultimate goal one milestone at a time.

Develop New Skills

If you want to move up in your company, you need to learn new skills. Study for the job you want as well as the job you have. Almost every employee can benefit from computer hardware or software training. Your employer may already offer classes in these subjects or pay for outside training. Many upper-level positions in corporations have global ties, which provide excellent opportunities to expand your skills. You can improve your value by fine-tuning your ability to communicate cross-culturally, or by learning a second language. Similarly, if your industry is one that particularly values higher education, consider taking courses that will benefit your career progress.

Be Open to Lateral Moves

If you cannot move up the ladder right away, think about moving laterally. Your willingness to learn a new position will impress your management team and also make you a more valuable employee at your current company — or at another business. You will learn new skills and prove that you are flexible. Employers prize workers who will take on new challenges and prove their worth as team players.

Be a Volunteer

You can make connections and learn new skills when you volunteer for special projects. Although volunteering often means more work without a pay increase, it does deliver rewards. For one, management will notice that you are eager to help and to grow. You may get management experience yourself by leading a team to complete a project. And your efforts will impress other employers if you decide to look elsewhere for a position in the future. So offer to plan the company’s charity baseball game! You will help your community and yourself.

Self-Evaluation

You need to be brutally honest with yourself in order to develop your career prospects. Part of your plan should be to identify your weaknesses and then take corrective measures. Are you bad with deadlines? Are you hesitant to speak up in meetings? Do your customer service skills need work? You must be clear-eyed about your skills and not defensive, otherwise, you will never improve. And yes, you should also catalog your strengths; know your worth!

Final Thoughts

Both individuals and companies benefit when there is a strategic focus on career development. As an employee, you need to take advantage of any opportunity to improve your skills and move up the job ladder. Employers need to offer these opportunities to create a stronger workforce and to encourage employee loyalty. Skill growth is key. Employees who stagnate limit their job opportunities and are less valuable to their employers.

How Dover Solutions Can Help

Dover Solutions believes in maximizing opportunities for individuals through workforce development. We take a holistic approach to employee training so that employees can meet the demands of their employers while learning skills that will propel them upward in a healthy career trajectory. Successful job placement is a partnership between employer and employee, and at Dover, we specialize in facilitating these matches. We also work to garner public, private, and non-profit resources to knock down barriers to employment, such as disabilities or lack of training.

For help in strengthening your career path or building an employee team, contact Dover Staffing Solutions and take advantage of our Dover Training Institute. The institute offers many services, including licensure and certification, entrance examinations, and training assessments. As a full-service staffing firm, we understand the needs of today’s employers and employees. Get more information by filling out our brief online form or calling 770-434-3040. Remember, success comes when you “Dare to dream. Dare to do.”

Image credits: Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

January 6, 2022/by DoverSolutions

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A Guide to Employee Training for Career Development

In the ever-changing workplace, skill development persists as a tried-and-true advancement strategy for employees at all levels. Whether you’re just starting your career or are part of the way through the journey, adopting a lifelong learning mindset and pursuing skill upgrades better equip you to navigate twists and turns on the road to career success.

If you’re an employer or human resources professional, one of your goals is to provide your staff with the tools they need to succeed and effectively contribute to your organization. Skills training for career development is a way to accomplish this aim and help your staff work smarter and not harder, which benefits everyone involved.

In this article, the second in our employee development series, we’ll explore several skill areas employees can develop or improve to bolster their careers and add value to their organizations.

“Everyone has something meaningful to contribute. A bedrock strategy of true success is to discover and foster individual strengths and use them to benefit others.” ~ Sanquinetta Marie Dover, Dover Solutions founder

1. Soft Skills

Teamwork, problem-solving, and flexibility are examples of what recruiters call soft skills. Ubiquitously transferable, soft skills enable employees to communicate, manage conflict, and collaborate.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is a type of executive function soft skill that involves understanding and regulating behavior. If you have a difficult day or unsatisfactory interaction with a coworker or business associate, it’s your EQ that helps you put everything in perspective while you remain calm and effective. Team members who struggle with EQ concepts can benefit tremendously from training in this area.

Staff with interpersonal skills and a work ethic — and who demonstrate leadership through self-motivation — become valued contributors to their organizations while furthering career objectives because of their ability to adapt, learn, and grow.

2. Remote Upskilling

As remote work becomes more common, the ability to expand on existing skills both proactively and independently becomes a skill in and of itself. Career candidates need initiative and confidence to assess their own skill set, source upgrade solutions, and act on those opportunities.

Reading industry publications, listening to podcasts, and attending virtual events such as webinars are all ways to engage remotely in career development. Whether you are entry-level clerical staff improving your keyboarding skills or have a role in IT and are working towards a CCNA certificate, remote upskilling is accessible and advantageous.

In addition to job-specific career development, remote upskilling presents the opportunity to develop other valuable and transferrable skills, such as time management and personal organization. Taking on training while working at home may seem overwhelming until you flex your scheduling muscles and devise a plan to keep yourself on track and accountable.

3. Software and Technology

Mastery of widely-used software positions job candidates competitively in the quest for advancement. One example of this software is Microsoft Office, which covers an array of application choices; spreadsheets, presentations, and word processing are all of value in any industry. The hug percentage of companies in the U.S. using Office 365 make this suite of programs a prime focus for employee training.

Technology is not just a tool to facilitate workflow; in some organizations, it’s the core of the business. If you work for a software company, for example, there are likely multiple training opportunities to advance your position and increase your job prospects.

4. Job-Specific Training

A Customer Service Specialist (CSS) is the vital link between the customer and company and is an example of a role that requires job-specific training. When performed skillfully, the role of CSS results in new business, successful client retention, and dispute de-escalation. An employee responsible for customer service brings to the role soft skills such as leadership and emotional intelligence but also requires job-specific training regarding company products and policies.

Look for opportunities at your company for job-specific training outside of your current role. Your employer might need vacation or sick days backup for a coworker’s position. Taking on this training increases your value to the employer while broadening your skill set for future opportunities.

5. Core Skills Training

Core skills are highly transferrable between roles and even industries, and they should be a priority in employee training for career development. These are the skills that enable you to work on a team and share ideas and information.

Communication is one such example. Whether it’s public speaking or the written word, the ability to effectively convey information is a highly valuable core skill. The purpose of communication affects the way you use it; for example, your word choices and delivery methods might differ between language intended to persuade and that which is meant to instruct. Fluency in oral and written communication can be a make-or-break core skill, the development of which can benefit any staff member.

Employee training benefits organizations and staff. If you’re an employer or HR manager, adding staff skill assessments and upgrades to your management plan is a worthwhile undertaking. If you’re an employee who wants to uplevel your skills, you don’t need to wait for your employer to lead the way. Be proactive and look for professional self-improvement opportunities.

The next article in our employee development series will examine career growth essentials such as testing, certification, and licensures aimed at promoting career development. Contact Dover Training Institute for more information and complete this form to get information about our next training courses.

Image credits: Photo by Katemangostar on Freepik.

December 16, 2021/by DoverSolutions

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The Most In-Demand Soft Skills Employers Are Looking for in Today’s Talent

Being ranked No. 1 in your university class or training program is a great asset, but your skill set is not enough to secure your dream job. To succeed in today’s job market, employees need to bring more than technical skills to the table. Employers are looking for someone who can bring added value to their business. They want employees with soft skills, those human traits that machines cannot duplicate.

The recent pandemic highlighted the need for soft skills to deal with the fear and anxiety many felt. In this post-COVID-19 world, qualities like empathy and kindness make the workplace run more smoothly and profitably. You need to hire candidates who possess these skills in addition to technical ability. The following are five of the most in-demand soft skills that you should seek from today’s talent pool.

1. Emotional Intelligence

Effective employees possess emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence includes the ability to understand others’ unspoken feelings and care about what happens to them. This caring builds trust between employees, clients, and management, and can increase productivity at the workplace. Hiring people with high emotional intelligence leads to fewer staff conflicts and helps to attract and keep clients. A brilliant financial planner with no people skills will not be as successful as one who has slightly less financial savvy but more empathy. Remember, your clients want to feel heard and understood as you meet their needs.

2. Self-Motivation

The pandemic turned millions of people into remote workers, and many of these employees will continue to work from home at least part of the time. This shift in the workplace means that employers can’t monitor employees as closely as if they were in the office. As a result, they are looking more than ever for highly motivated, self-directed workers.

A self-directed employee can map out their own workday and produce the necessary results, whether they work for an insurance company or conduct online college courses. They do not depend on someone else to keep them productive. Employers need this type of employee even more than they did before the pandemic.

3. Creativity

The future of work includes the need for creativity, something that cannot be automated. Creative employees may develop beautiful media designs or elegant ad campaigns, but other job types require this trait as well. All companies need creative people who have new ideas and can apply those ideas to current systems and problems. Companies must have innovation to prosper, and innovation comes from creative people in every industry, including manufacturing, customer service, education and financial services.

You should hire creative people to fill your new positions, but your current employees can learn to be more creative through collaborative projects, soliciting feedback, and writing down ideas. Do not assume that only new hires can bring new life to your business.

4. Flexibility

Companies need workers who can quickly adapt to new situations or problems. Life and work seldom go as planned, so you need employees who can handle disruptions and embrace new ideas and work processes. Employees who possess good job skills but who are not flexible will not be as productive over the long term as those who are willing to step out of their comfort zone.

During the pandemic, many businesses had to drastically change how they did business. Restaurants, grocery stores, and retail operations had to shift quickly into delivery mode to serve their clients. Customer relations became even more of an online enterprise since people stayed in their homes. Employees who were stuck in “how things used to be” were of little help. Adaptability is key, especially post COVID-19.

5. Integrity

Integrity may sound like an old-fashioned value, but employers are emphasizing it once again. A highly competent employee who has no scruples can do incredible damage by misleading clients, lying to coworkers, or breaking promises to management. An employee’s quality of work means more than the ability to invest money or manage an office. Management and customers need to trust the people who work for them.

Integrity is important for all job functions, roles, and industries, and when prospective customers think it’s lacking, it can result in lost business. Salespeople, for example, can — often unfairly — be seen as willing to do anything for a sale, which can make it more difficult for customers to trust them. Your company needs to hire people who would rather lose a sale than mislead a customer about your products or services. In the long run, your business will benefit from honest and ethical employees.

How Dover Staffing Can Help

Dover staffing can help you find employees with the soft skills you need. At Dover, we understand that hiring skilled employees is not enough. In this post-COVID-19 world, you need skilled employees who also have empathy, character, adaptability, and self-discipline.

For help building a team with both hard and soft skills, contact Dover Staffing Solutions. We are a full-service staffing firm that understands the needs of today’s employers, including corporate, government, and nonprofit clients. Get more information by filling out our brief online form or calling 770-434-3040.

Image Credits: Photo by Christina on Unsplash.

July 28, 2021/by DoverSolutions

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Diversity is Not Just a Discussion

Over the last few years, we’ve seen many companies start to take diversity and inclusion in the workplace more seriously. Of course, we all know why these values are so important to address and implement in the workforce — but why is the focus so crucial now more than ever?

With the power of the internet to make knowledge more widely available and the ability to view mass media from all over the world, people are starting to see through companies who “talk” a lot, but don’t necessarily “walk the talk.” On June 17, 2021, Dover Staffing hosted a webinar to explore this topic by taking a deep dive into the priorities, opportunities, and challenges that diversity creates for the workplace.

To facilitate this timely conversation, we heard from our host, Sanquinetta Dover, Founder and CEO of DoverSolutions; panelist Ingrid Watkins, CEO and Chief Diversity Strategist at IW Consulting Group; panelist Veronica Maldonado Torres, President and CEO of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; panelist Adam Moore, VP, Director of Supplier Diversity for Truist Bank; and moderator Roz Lewis, President and CEO at The Greater Women’s Business Council.

How can diversity give companies a competitive advantage?

More and more companies are seeing how diversity drives better results and more purpose-driven employees. Companies must understand that being intentional with hearing from different employee perspectives is crucial to creating game changing products and services. Seeing through the lens of diversity creates a sustainable, growing enterprise and is instrumental in talent search as well.

Diversity and inclusion are also key in branding in today’s day and age. We are learning that younger generations are not brand loyal like their parents are or once were. Young people today are more driven to purchase from companies with a strong Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) presence, and the power of social media matters a lot to them. Adam stressed that DE&I “can’t just be a banner or flag on the wall.” A company winning in diversity and inclusion is a company that is winning in authenticity.

What should organizations do to leverage the power of diversity in their workforce?

The first step is to create a culture of diversity. Having different viewpoints and diverse people at the decision-making table is critical for an organization. For example, noted Veronica, steps should include “creating business resource groups and places of education for the non-diverse groups of the organization to get to know each other and learn.” Education for everyone in the organization is a crucial part of building that culture.

When we talk about diversity and inclusion within the workforce, which groups are we including?

Roz shared how the pandemic gave everyone, individuals and companies alike, time to sit back and think about their current state and how they can improve. Companies must think about how they create spaces within their structure for everyone, and how they are measuring success. Victoria also touched on the topics of neurodiversity and disability, and how companies have been and should start to think about incorporating neurodiverse and differently abled employees into their culture. She challenges companies to think about how they can “win together” by empowering their employees with resources to succeed — which also results in more success for the business.

Socioeconomics adds an additional level of complexity to efforts to create equity, as its impact is not always visible or known at various stages of the employee journey, such as the application process. Over the pandemic, disparities between wealthier and lower income consumers increased. As a result, employers have a renewed and heightened responsibility to think about equity and how they ensure access to essentials like personal development opportunities and promotions are within everyone’s reach.

How can we change our recruiting and talent development processes to better attract and engage diverse individuals?

“In order to identify diverse talent,” stated Ingrid, “you have to go where they are.” This can mean reaching out to various cultural associations to find talent as well as building relationships with organizations like Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Diversity should be as much a corporate strategy as marketing, sales, and business development are. When diversity is not a top priority, it is destined to fail. Implementing practices such as goals to measure success and compliance checklists are a great way to ensure progress.

What do we mean by diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Employers tend to focus on these terms when it comes to hiring, but truly adopting the principles of DE&I means so much more. Equality is about treating everyone the same, whereas equity is focused on making sure everyone is treated fairly by taking into account their privilege or lack thereof. It is important for companies to ensure that their pay scale and policies for how they assess, grade, and pay employees is fair. It’s all about equal footing.

What are two steps employers can take to build a diverse, equal, and inclusive workforce and culture?

When employers put together a talent strategy, they should focus on eliminating bias throughout the employee life cycle, i.e. recruiting, interviewing, hiring process, belonging, and development. This attentiveness should occur over the course of the professional’s career with the company as well. The first step towards creating a true diverse and inclusive environment is committing to action.

The Dover philosophy takes a human-focused, global approach to problem solving by creating business solutions that enhance the modern workplace. Together, DoverSolutions, DoverStaffing, and the Dover Training Institute are able to address workforce development challenges on multiple levels. To find talent, click here, fill out your information, and one of our recruitment specialists will be in touch. To find a career, click here to see available positions in Atlanta.

Image credits: Photo by Rawpixel on Freepik.

July 20, 2021/by DoverSolutions

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The Future of the Workplace Post COVID-19

The workplace is always changing, but some events supercharge its transformation. For instance, WWII forced employers to hire women for jobs previously closed to them. And the COVID-19 pandemic turned remote work into the norm rather than the exception.

The workplace will never return to the way it looked and operated in 2019. Many of the changes made during the pandemic will improve not only the lives of employees but also the bottom lines of companies. The post-COVID-19 workplace promises to be a more agile and understanding environment.

Permanence of Remote Work

The popularity of remote work was on the rise even before the pandemic. But when COVID-19 made working from the office unsafe, companies allowed employees to work from home in droves. Both workplaces and workers responded well to the change, which brought with it many benefits.

The pandemic created childcare challenges, which remote workers could better navigate. They saved money and time on their daily commute and learned that remote meetings, while sometimes awkward, saved time without sacrificing results.

Companies realized they could downsize office space without sacrificing productivity, which lowered their overhead expenses. In fact, some employers noted an increase in productivity when employees worked from home. Research shows that over 90% of employees expect to continue working from home, at least one day a week, after COVID-19 concerns abate.

Of course many businesses, such as manufacturing operations, require on-site employees, but they too have office staff that can work remotely, at least part of the time. Remote work produces results, so it’s here to stay.

Physical Workplace Changes

Businesses are changing the space in the workplace to make it safer and to reflect the number of employees working from home. Sadly, COVID-19 will likely not be the only new virus to emerge in the coming years. Companies must prepare for health challenges by improving air filtration, disinfecting stations, and implementing workplace distancing. Wearing masks may become part of the permanent office culture — to battle surges in the yearly flu variations, for instance.

Although the increased distance between employees may need to remain, the business may actually use less space by staggering shifts or allowing a mix of home-based and office-based work. Businesses have more options than ever before to customize their workspace and employee schedules since they know they don’t have to run a traditional workplace to get results.

Flexible HR Processes

This changing operation philosophy extends to HR. For instance, the worker pool no longer needs to be limited by geographical area. It’s possible for your business to recruit the best candidates from all over the country or even the world. Also, some routines that were previously carved in stone may no longer fit. You could begin paying employees on differing schedules to better meet their needs. And you can put less emphasis on hours worked and more of it on results.

HR departments can improve office culture by remaining flexible and accessible. Some are striving to create one point of contact for complaints and concerns instead of three or four, which happens when issues are kicked up the ladder. Streamlined HR practices will be key in the coming years.

Focus on Empathy

COVID-19 caused tragedy after tragedy for employees. They have paid a heavy price over the last 18 months, with many losing loved ones or facing their own long recovery. Many are emotionally and physically diminished. Businesses wishing to strengthen morale and improve employee engagement and retention will take an empathetic approach to their workers.

First, employees need to feel safe on-site, not just for the remaining COVID-19 threat but also for any other challenge that may emerge. Transparency is important, so if your company made mistakes during the pandemic, own them and let workers know how you will improve.

In the future, expect the emphasis on family needs to remain. Consider friendlier policies for employees who need to take care of their elderly parents or sick partners, and realize that the mental health of your workforce should be a priority.

Implementation of Advanced Technology

Companies learned to rely on new and emerging technology during the pandemic to make remote work effective. You may have invested in software programs that allowed secure access to vital information so teams could work together online. And most companies jumped to install online conferencing software that was reliable and easy to use.

For the future, the enhanced use of cloud computing is a necessity. You can add or eliminate services as needed and provide your employees secure access from wherever they are working. You can also give your employees remote VPN access so they won’t pop onto an open Wi-Fi network and potentially expose sensitive information.

And don’t forget to take advantage of the latest business apps that help with project, inventory, and product management. You should have already overhauled your technology approach to meet the needs of a post-pandemic world. If you have not, then you cannot afford to waste any more time.

How Dover Staffing Can Help

No business can thrive while maintaining pre-pandemic practices. Your company must adapt and plan for a different world. And you need talented and flexible employees to make your post-COVID-19 strategy work. Dover Staffing has decades of experience in meeting current workforce needs and planning for tomorrow. For more information on how we can help your business, contact us now by filling out a brief online form or calling 770-434-3040.

Image Credits: Photo by Hristo Sahatchiev on Unsplash

June 24, 2021/by DoverSolutions

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Transforming Your Organizational Culture Through the Power of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

People often talk about the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in business, but they don’t always understand how to make meaningful progress in this area. Sometimes, management does not know where to begin, so they do not begin at all. If you and your colleagues want to transform your organizational culture, you need to understand the DEI terms and set concrete goals for progress.

What Do Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Mean?

You may wonder, “Why can’t we all just get along?” The answer to that question is long and complex, but you do not have to understand the world’s history to make progress at your company. Simply understanding the following terms will help.

Diversity – The presence of differences among your employees, including psychological, physical, and social ones. To have a diverse workplace, you need to have a variety of social and cultural characteristics present.
Equity – This term means everyone is given the same treatment and opportunities. Some groups do not achieve equity because of conscious or unconscious bias.
Inclusion – Inclusion means everyone feels welcome in the larger group. Acceptance is key to inclusion.

These are separate constructs, but they work together to create a fair, productive, and even happy workplace when made a priority in organizational development.

What Is the Combined Power of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion?

Realistically, you can have a diverse workplace without inclusion. That means your employees can be of different races, nationalities, genders, physical ability, etc., but your corporation still treats some employees as “less than.” For instance, you can have a diverse staff but the majority of your workforce excludes some individuals or subgroups. These excluded groups do not feel welcomed or appreciated.

You can have diversity without equity as well. If you pay your female employees less than the male employees, then your corporation is inequitable. If you promote some racial groups less often than others, your workplace lacks equity.

However, when all three elements are present in your company, you will notice fewer conflicts, more cooperation, and better staff morale. When employees are accepted and even rewarded for being themselves, they give more to the company, secure in the knowledge that management and their peers will appreciate and reward their work.

As Saleema Vellani, Chief Innovation Strategist of Innovazing said, “Empathy is the engine of innovation.” When you have empathy, you are able to learn from others with very different backgrounds, which improves creativity. Diversity enhances innovation and innovation solidifies diversity and inclusion.

What Are the Goals of a More Diverse, Equitable & Inclusive Workplace?

Achieving DEI means setting attainable goals and continuing to work toward those goals. In short, set the goals and then take concrete action to effect positive workforce development. Too often, this conversation gets lost in abstractions. Your goals for a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace should:

Identify Opportunities – Your company’s management has to take stock of where you are and where you need to go. That may mean some uncomfortable introspection and a truthful look at current policies, values, and culture. Once you know where you are, you can list specific actions to achieve change.
Emphasize Equity – All three aspects of DEI are essential, but without equity, can the other two areas exist? Determine what fair opportunity is for different groups and work to identify barriers to it in your company.
Unleash Diversity – You can have a diverse workforce and never unleash the power of that diversity. You need to encourage different perspectives and challenge assumptions. An empowered and diverse workplace will value all perspectives.
Become Inclusive – As a leader, you need to be inclusive in your thinking and your behavior. If you do not set the expectation, you cannot expect your employees to embrace the concept.

What Does a More Diverse, Equitable & Inclusive Workplace Look Like?

Can you tell if a workplace is DEI just by looking? Well, you can certainly tell if it’s diverse, although not all cultural and social differences are visually apparent. You can still see if women and different races are represented in your workforce. Are there differently abled people present? You can also judge inclusion to some degree if you are present at a management meeting and distinct groups have representation. Equity is tougher to judge without taking a deep dive into the paperwork. Your workplace equity proof lies in yearly salary, management opportunities, and actual promotions.

How Does Creating a DEI Organization Improve the Performance of My Team and Affect the Organization?

You may worry that transforming your company into a DEI culture may negatively affect production and the bottom line. Studies show that this fear is simply not warranted. In fact, DEI can bring the following benefits:

Improved Financial Performance – Ethnically diverse companies outproduce national industry medians.
Enhanced Recruitment Ability – Excellent prospects want to work for diverse companies. Make DEI part of your talent strategy.
Improved Employee Engagement – Employees, especially millennials, are more engaged when they believe in their company’s DEI efforts.
Growth – Diverse companies are much more likely to capture new markets and increase market share.

Doing the right thing is better for employees and your company, not just ethically but financially as well.

Final Thoughts

It is not enough to talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion in your workplace. You need to embrace action over abstractions. Set specific goals and identify several concrete steps you can take now to transform your corporate culture. Your company will become a better DEI workplace step by step as long as you make it a priority.

For help with talent strategy and staffing needs, contact Dover Staffing Solutions, a full-service staffing firm that cares about business integrity and professional customer service. We work with corporate, government, and nonprofit clients. For more information, contact us today by filling out our brief online form or calling 770-434-3040.

Image credits: Photo on Freepik.

June 1, 2021/by DoverSolutions

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Building Your Employer Brand: Key Strategies for Retaining Top Talent

Building your employer brand involves more than attracting talent to your workplace. It also requires an in-depth understanding of how to use social media and technology to attract talent and support employee engagement. Today, whether it’s workforce retention in the manufacturing industry or talent acquisition for corporate offices, this issue represents a major challenge in the workplace.

To expand on your efforts, you need to support employee advocacy; make your company’s culture interesting and welcoming; popularize and build your brand on social media; use AI for staffing and hiring; and support education outreach initiatives. These five key strategies will get you started.

1. Support Employee Advocacy

Supporting employee advocacy within your organization humanizes your employer brand and extends your influence in branding, advertising, marketing, staffing and hiring, and talent retention. By developing an advocacy program, you can encourage brand ambassadorship from your employees.

Creating an Advocacy Program

Creating an advocacy program involves:

Identifying your employer brand in innovative terms.
Focusing on service.
Showing support for employee concerns and needs.
Highlighting your employer brand as a leader in your field.
Giving back to your community or the world through environmental sustainability or volunteer assignments.
Developing a company culture that inspires trust, which is instrumental for staffing and hiring top talent — and for continued employee retention.

Do your employees love coming to work? Do they like sharing their work experiences? Answering these key questions will help you develop an employee advocacy program that enhances employee retention and helps you find top talent. Passionate employees can serve as indirect — yet powerful — staffing and hiring recruiters. They also make it possible for your staffing agency to find and recruit the best of the best employees.

You can easily develop an employee advocacy program today, thanks to social media. Using your employees’ perceptions of your brand can be helpful for workforce retention.

To begin, you need to establish goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). While employees of your company may post their impressions about work on social media, you still need to set defined goals for your program to track and analyze results.

Make it your goal to step up employee engagement by increasing brand awareness. Encourage employees to post their views of your employer brand and offerings. For example, if you plan to provide a new service, create shareable information — something that will excite and motivate employees to post the content.

Next, you need to focus on the key metrics, including:

The top contributors, or which employees or teams share the most information on social media. What is the level of employee engagement?
Your brand’s organic reach. How many people see employee-generated posts?
Outside engagement. How many people comment on the content posted by employees?
Traffic. How much traffic does employee engagement drive to your employer brand and site.

Finally, review how your employer advocacy initiatives affect your employer brand perception on social media.

Other Activities That Build Your Employer Brand

You can also improve your employer brand for employee retention and hiring purposes by taking these steps:

Create testimonial videos and share them on your website and social media.
Craft tweets that convey employee satisfaction or share career advancement opportunities.

By turning your best-performing employees into brand ambassadors, you will raise awareness about your organization and employer brand.

2. Turn Your Employer Brand Into a Talent Magnet

To become a talent magnet or increase talent retention, you must make your company’s culture inviting and interesting. Here are several ways to accomplish this goal:

Establish a protocol that supports transparent management and leadership.
Show appreciation to your employees regularly.
Treat all your employees with respect and fairness.
Encourage employee engagement, collaboration and communication.
Build positive relationships in the workplace.
Highlight company innovations.

If you make your workplace culture inviting and supportive, you cannot help but become a magnet for top talent.

3. Build a Popular Employer Brand on Social Media Accounts

To popularize your employer brand, you need to maintain a high-quality profile on your social media accounts — one that will allow you to connect with top talent and support your talent retention initiatives.

Studies reveal that candidates research company profiles before applying for jobs through a staffing agency online. It pays off, then, to use employee engagement and your employer brand to fuel interest in your company.

This requires starting meaningful conversations, tracking engagement, and positively taking part in social media activities.

4. Use AI for Staffing and Hiring

You can collaborate with your staffing agency by using artificial intelligence (AI) for staffing and hiring as well. Here are some ways automation can improve these processes:

Automating the recruitment process.
Screening and short-listing candidates.
Scheduling and coordinating interviews.
Supporting mobility of redeployment for workforce retention.
Sourcing or reactivating the data on passive candidates.

Using the latest recruitment software or AI technologies can help you organize your HR activities for better workforce retention and employer brand awareness.

5. Develop Apprenticeship Programs and Internships

You can also develop your employer brand and increase talent retention by working with schools and colleges to develop apprenticeship programs and internships. An education outreach program gives students the initiative to find work in a job they love and helps you, as a company, maintain employee retention.

Final Thoughts

In the current digital climate, it pays to build your employer brand to attract top talent and increase employee retention. By becoming more proactive on social media and collaborating with a staffing agency, you can meet many of today’s HR challenges.

Because you have special staffing and hiring requirements, you need support from an expert in the staffing field. At Dover Staffing, we can help you with your unique HR needs. Contact us now to learn more about our services.

Image credits: Photo by Shurkin on Freepik.

April 30, 2021/0 Comments/by DoverSolutions

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Building Your Employer Brand: Key Strategies for Attracting Top Talent

In today’s increasingly complex economic landscape, business leaders have to focus on far more than simply the product or service their company offers. To become or remain competitive, organizations must also consider how they are viewed by employees in terms of the appeal of their workplace culture, compensation levels, and benefits packages. From huge tech companies like Google to industry giants like L’Oreal and IKEA, the emphasis now is on
investing in employee happiness and well-being by creating an employer brand that attracts and retains top talent. In this article, we’ll explore the reasons why it’s so critical to developing an employer brand, and how you can build yours.

Importance of Building an Employer Brand

As modern CEOs, HR departments, and marketing leaders can tell you, employer branding is of the utmost strategic importance. Many leaders believe that employer brand responsibility lies with the CEO or marketing department, while CEOs may argue this responsibility lies with HR and recruiting. But the bottom line is that building an employer brand is so important that every part of an organization has a role to play in ensuring it is done successfully. The development of a robust employer presence is critical to attracting and retaining talented employees, and as such should be a top priority across all organizational levels.

How to Build Your Employer Brand

We’ve got some tips on how you can build your employer brand in such a way that you’ll be able to attract and retain talented employees. Here’s how:

1. Conduct a brand awareness and reputation analysis.

First, you’ll want to know where your company stands in terms of its employer brand. To determine the strength (or lack thereof) of your company’s reputation as an employer, you should survey target audiences and key external stakeholders. You should also survey existing employees to gauge their experience and level of satisfaction. The information gained in these surveys will enable you to establish metrics to measure growth and develop a change strategy to improve your employer brand reputation. To do this, you’ll want to work with your HR department to create organization-specific objectives.

Focus on these fundamental objectives, as well as the company-specific ones you develop based on your analysis:

Secure recruitment needs in the long term.
Grow your employer brand locally and globally.
Differentiate your employer brand from your competitors.

By accomplishing these objectives, you’ll be on your way to strong employer branding and, by extension, talent attraction and retention.

2. Create, promote, and invest in employee development and learning initiatives.

The workforce is currently and will, for the foreseeable future, be dominated by the millennial generation. This generation is known for their expectations regarding learning and development opportunities within their chosen career. They want to grow and expand within their companies.
By offering these opportunities, you’ll be much more likely to retain your talent, as well as attract new talent. Moreover, your company will be stronger and more effective because you’ll be maintaining employees who know their jobs.

A powerful way to meet this expectation is by embracing e-learning. Millennials are knowledgeable about technology and want to be able to complete activities to grow and learn in their own time. Even more beneficial are those opportunities that enable your employees to gain certifications and credentials that they can use in other companies in the future.

3. Capitalize on brand value.

Employer brand management is critical to attracting new talent, as employer branding plays a major role in the decisions candidates make about which companies to apply to. Potential employees must understand company strengths to feel engaged and start building loyalty to the brand mission. Some brands create a website where they talk about their brand ethos, which has yielded positive results in attracting talent by showing exactly how the brand
will benefit them and vice versa. These websites are also great because the team gets an opportunity to show what they do and share their experiences.

4. Personalize the experience.

It’s important to personalize the experience individuals have on the pathway from candidate to employee. In fact, retention is often based on employee experience because all employees need to know that they matter as people. Here are some ideas on how to incorporate this into your organization’s hiring and HR policies:

Map out a career roadmap with each employee, which helps you see where their talent lies and how you can help them be the best employee possible, as well as meet their personal career goals.
Engage in employee recognition. This boosts morale, leading to increased motivation, acknowledgment of efforts, and increased productivity.
Develop nurturing relationships, especially between employees and immediate supervisors for an interpersonal connection.

5. Engage in internal communication.

Talent attraction and retention aren’t going to be effective without communication. Brands have to communicate the value and need for a strong employer brand and how employees can help fulfill this goal. As today’s world is more transparent, clever recruiting efforts are no longer sufficient for an effective employer brand image. Instead, there must be an emphasis on existing employees and their satisfaction to generate interest from new talent and keep current talent.

You’ve got unique staffing needs. At Dover Staffing, we can help you meet these needs, so contact us today for more information on how we can help you.

Image Credits: Photo by Lookstudio on FreePik

April 14, 2021/0 Comments/by DoverSolutions