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Tag: company culture

Lone Star Staffing Solutions > Our Blog > company culture
09Feb

Supporting Mental Wellbeing
During the Job Search Process

The job search process can be an incredibly stressful experience, and employers have a responsibility to their applicants to ensure that their mental health is supported throughout the entire process. As employers, it’s important to understand the unique pressures of searching for a job and how our support can help alleviate some of them. This blog will examine how employers can provide mental wellness assistance during their job search.

Here are some tips on how employers can support mental health while searching for candidates.

Communication is Key During the Hiring Process

Employers must remain in communication with applicants throughout the hiring process. This means keeping applicants up-to-date on where they are in the hiring process and providing feedback when appropriate.

It’s important to remember that job seekers are often very anxious about the outcome of their applications—especially if they’ve been rejected or haven’t heard back in a while—so providing clear and timely communication can help relieve some of this anxiety.

Be Respectful of Candidates' Time and Attention

The job search process requires a significant amount of time and effort from candidates, so it’s essential that employers respect this investment. For example, if you require a phone interview or an in-person meeting with a candidate, give them plenty of advance notice, and don’t expect them to drop everything at your convenience. Similarly, if you ask candidates to complete an assignment as part of their application or interview process, clearly outline what is expected—and give them ample time to complete it.

Provide Reassurance

The job search process can be overwhelming and uncertain, so employers must provide reassurance to applicants throughout the process.

Employers should ensure they have provided enough information about the role so that applicants clearly understand what they will be doing if hired.

Additionally, employers should keep candidates updated on their hiring decisions to minimize any uncertainty or confusion.

Make Your Culture Accessible

When potential candidates are actively researching your company online or attending an interview with you in person, they should get a good sense of your company culture. Ensuring your website is updated regularly with information about your values and goals will give candidates better insight into what working for your company would be like. Furthermore, try to convey these values during interviews by providing examples of how employees work together on projects or collaborate across departments on initiatives.

Not only does this help create more transparency between employer and employee, but it also shows potential candidates that there are opportunities for growth within the organization.

Create an Inclusive Environment

Employers should strive to create an inclusive environment to make all applicants feel welcome, regardless of their background. This includes creating interview questions that focus on skills rather than personal history or beliefs and monitoring language used during the recruitment process for any potential biases. Similarly, employers should offer accommodations whenever possible for candidates with disabilities or special needs who may need assistance during recruitment.

Partnering with a Professional Recruiter

If you are working with a recruiter, they will manage many of the above steps. You should only work with recruiters who understand the importance of not just placing a candidate in a job but supporting their mental well-being throughout the process. A good recruiter will take the time to learn about your company culture and values to ensure they find candidates that will excel in their role and fit in with your team. If you’re an employer looking for assistance with your next hire, partner with a recruiter that shares your commitment to supporting mental health in the workplace.

Supporting mental well-being during the job search process is essential for employers and applicants. As employers, we need to recognize our responsibility in helping create an environment where everyone feels safe and supported during the hiring process—and ensure that our actions reflect those values. By providing transparent communication and respecting each person’s individual investment into their career journey, we can work towards ensuring every applicant has a positive experience regardless of their outcome in the hiring process.

When done correctly, this awareness will benefit applicants and help employers find qualified employees who will fit in well with their team and culture!
26Jan

You Can Attract The Right Employees

Attracting top-notch employees requires more than finding a great candidate and extending a competitive salary and benefits package. These days, it’s about developing a company culture that will keep people engaged and inspired.
Engaged employees are more productive, which leads to better results for your business. And, a happy team translates into happy customers and clients. They’re also less likely to leave after only working for a short period — which means spending less time/money hiring and training new people. By implementing a few changes, you can begin to create a company culture that everyone will want to support.

Be Clear About Your Company Values

Every business has its own set of values—beliefs that form the basis for how they operate. Some are obvious, like “work hard” or “put customers first.” Others are less visible and take some digging to uncover. The values you choose should be clearly defined and communicated to potential employees.

This will help applicants evaluate whether or not they will thrive in your company culture and help minimize the number of candidates who would not necessarily be a good fit. Taking these steps will help accelerate the hiring process. Always be transparent about your vision and mission when partnering with staffing agencies to find new talent or when posting open positions online.

Showcase People Behind The Work

The factors that make up a healthy company are many:
  • Mission
  • Values
  • Reward structure
  • Team dynamics
  • And more

But at the heart of it are the people empowering the organization. Passion can be an impactful recruiting tool, especially when it’s authentic. Survey your current employees to find out what they like most about their jobs and use that information to attract incoming talent. Allowing the candidates to hear from a current employee during the interview process, instead of marketing jargon can be the difference between finding top talent or just another job-seeker.

Be Personable When Communicating

Make an effort to be more engaging and personable in all of your communications when corresponding with potential candidates. Outdated website text and stuffy job descriptions can be a subtle signal of a low-engagement work environment. Personalize emails, minimize internal jargon, and refrain from using robotic “corporate speak.”

You need to build rapport and trust to successfully advance a qualified job-seeker. And that means taking the time to communicate in an approachable and candidate-friendly way.

Attracting the right employees can be fostered in many ways — but it starts with valuing candidates, showcasing the people who empower the company, and communicating realistically and honestly.
Let Lone Star Staffing Solutions help you find the right employees for your business. We pride ourselves on maintaining outstanding relationships with top talent that are a perfect fit for your business.
25Aug

Please, Make Yourself at Home

Many are welcoming employees back into the office or have at least started making plans to do so. Companies realize that there is no way to make everyone happy. But still, they also recognize the plans, processes, and procedures that they put in place could be critical to their employee satisfaction.
Outside of the health protocols, policies, and Covid-driven planning, how can an employer help with the transition back to the office?

Employers need to take a step back and look at the little things that express to their employees, “Welcome back! Please, make yourself at home!”

Most employees have not only become accustomed to working from home, but they have also been completely spoiled by it! Coming back into the office for many can sound like a COMPLETE DRAG because they don’t feel nearly as comfortable in the office as they do at home.
So short of making every day “Pajama bottoms and house slippers Day,” here are a couple of tips to help your office achieve the comfort of home.

SPACE PEOPLE OUT

Covid is driving a lot of attention to how employees are spaced throughout the office but let’s be honest, nobody wants to feel like they are packed in like sardines anyway. Many homes over the last year-plus, had multiple professionals working from home. Do you think they were voluntarily sitting as close together as they could just because they liked the company? NO! They were spread out on opposite sides of the house, as far away from each other as possible.

Let your employees spread out and, if available, not be forced to be confined to one desk. Set your employees up with room to walk around to take calls without bothering others, work by a window, or even on a porch if they choose. Make the effort to give your employees the space, privacy, and freedom they have grown to love working from home.

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF NATURAL LIGHTING

One of the most underappreciated benefits of working from home has been access to natural lighting. If you think about it, natural lighting has been a focal point to residential architecture and design because, people don’t want a cramped, dark, and claustrophobic home. Commercial architecture and design have recently made the use of natural lighting and open features just as much of a priority, following years of the focus being, “how many workers can we cram in here?”

In fact, a survey by MY HR Advisory firm Future Workplace called “The Employee Experience” revealed that employees rank access to natural light and views of the outdoors as the number one attribute of the workplace environment needs.

Promote better employee satisfaction and mental health by simply providing them with access to work areas near natural lighting sources and outdoor views.

LISTEN TO YOUR EMPLOYEES

As mentioned earlier, there is no way to please every person by accommodating their “home-sick” work-life. However, employers can gain valuable information by simply listening to their employees to define the differences between their “at-home” and “at-work” environments. An employee survey is a great way to uncover the things that matter and could help make the work-space more comfortable, and in-turn more productive.
Take advantage of bringing your employees back to work on the right foot. These efforts can go a long way to help your employees flourish in an environment that feels more like “HOME SWEET HOME.”
20Jul

Employee Comfort = Increased Productivity

When employees think of work, they don’t necessarily associate that thought with comfort. That’s a shame as there are several ways to ensure physical comfort in the workplace or whenever we call our “office.” Whether it’s the furniture they sit on, their location within the office, or how the computer is situated.

If your staff is comfortable, it could make all the difference in attitude and productivity.

Comfort comes in many forms, and there are a few strategies to help you demonstrate that the well-being of your employees is a priority. Some will require a bit of effort and possibly a monetary investment, but many approaches are no/low-cost.
Desk & Chair

The desk is essential, but the office chair can be one of the biggest game-changers for comfort. A poorly made chair can be uncomfortable, and as the day continues, the employee could experience back neck and shoulder pain, in addition to other stressors, which can easily lead to decreased concentration and fatigue. Many supply stores will work with you to choose an ergonomically built office chair at reduced costs, especially if you purchase more than one.

Show Your Support for Keeping Work & Personal Time Separate

This may not always be possible as in these virtual times, and with hybrid work environments, the way we work is different. However, whenever possible, allow, and encourage your employees to take a break and take time to have a personal life. When they feel you support their time away from the “office” as their own, they will come back with clearer heads and a deeper appreciation for the company.

Break Up the Day
The following suggestions are something that will make you look great to your team, and at the same time, increase productivity as it will allow them to take super quick mini-breaks every hour. And, it could also turn into a team exercise where everyone comes up with ideas on how to accomplish these activities. To follow are some suggestions you could introduce. They can be performed on an individual basis or as a fun few seconds/minutes simultaneously.
Get Out Of Your Chair
Sitting in their chair for hours on end is detrimental and reduces focus. Perform an unrelated work activity every hour for just a few minutes.
  • Stretch or do jumping jacks in place
  • Walk to a window and look out, focusing on the shape of a cloud. Is it a dog? Or is it a fairy princess? Use your imagination.
  • Walk around the office. Do you wear a monitoring device such as a Fitbit? Get your steps in but take care not to disrupt the rest of the office unless you're doing this as a group exercise.
  • If given longer breaks throughout the day, 5-10 minutes of walking outside can do wonders. Responsible staff won't abuse these opportunities, but to ensure work is still performed, include the break guidelines in the employee manual. Most employers loosen the reins if they see an increase in production or creative thinking.
Meditation
This exercise is something that can be accomplished at their desk and done throughout the day. There are many apps or if someone in the office has experience meditating, ask them to show others how to do it. Or bring in a third-party vendor to show them exercises they can do on their own. It takes practice, but if they can clear their head for a few minutes each hour, it helps restore focus.
Meditation
If you work closely with a reputable Staffing Solutions firm to secure quality talent, make sure to let them know if these are some of your everyday best practices. In a competitive market, this positive culture could be the deciding factor between your company and another.
Take some of the above steps and watch your employees thrive while increasing their motivation to take your company to the next level.