Ask our Flexpert any job description questions to get it right.
Hiring organizations have no legal obligation to develop, maintain or periodically revise job descriptions. By the same token, there are multiple advantages and legal upsides that make that practice useful.
Good job descriptions perform several important functions
They are especially useful if they are carefully written, maintained and used.
They describe the key elements, specifications and functions of every job for employers. Formal job descriptions are the basis for setting expectations for positions. They reflect the skills and experience job candidates must have. They are also useful as a basis for performance appraisals.
Likewise, they provide benefits to other teams or individuals who interface with a certain position to know what to expect from that function.
Key components
Then, let’s define some important parts. For instance:
Job title
Goals of the job
Pay rates
Hours/shifts, overtime and weekend work
Exempt/non-exempt status
Employee benefits
Organization reporting relationships/hierarchy
General duties including descriptions of significant activities
Position duties which make up the main part of the job’s actions
Background including experience, education, licenses, credentials, training, and necessary tech skills
Harsh states such as: contact with severe temps, prolonged standing, heavy lifting, major overtime, etc.
Summing up
In other words, job descriptions are key details of every job, for every firm. We described how good ones perform many central functions. We also outlined how to write clear, concise and accurate job descriptions that define defined roles.
Also, have new-hires sign employment contracts. They should state that they have received their job specs, reviewed them, and agree what’s assumed in their role. This can better protect and inform both employer and employee.
Want to find out how to access Flexicrew’s broad network of skilled workers and professionals? Contact us today!
FTS Managing Partner, Brandon Smith, Continues Support to the Society of HR Managers
Metairie, LA, November 3, 2017– FTS was a key exhibitor and speaker at the annual Society of HR Managers conference, held in Mobile, AL. The Flexicrew Companies sponsored, Ryan Lowe, who gave a speech on, “Get Off Your Attitude: Change Your Attitude, Change Your Life.”
“The Flexicrew Companies are committed to being involved in SHRM chapters in all the markets we serve,” said Flexicrew Technical Services Managing Partner, Brandon Smith. “This was the fourth SHRM conference where FTS has been an exhibitor this year.”
Brandon Smith spoke on November 3rd and his keynote talk gave him the opportunity once again to showcase FTS services to all conference attendees.
“On behalf of the Mobile SHRM Chapter, we extend a warm thank you for your support of the 2017 Gulf Coast HR Conference this year,” said Susie Jones of SHRM. “We realize our Sponsors and Resource Partners make the event successful each year.”
About Brandon Smith
Flexicrew Technical Services Managing Partner, Brandon Smith, is a long time recruitment authority in the staffing industry. For 2016-17 he was awarded a scholarship to prestigious, nationwide Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program where he attended among a unique set of New Orleans area small business leaders.
FTS began operations in January, 2015 and is a leader in technical placements, focused on flexibility, accuracy, and efficient recruitment. It was awarded the 2016 American Staffing Association Genius Award, displaying the most innovative and effective communications in the entire staffing, recruiting and workforce solutions industry.
About The Flexicrew Companies
Flexicrew was recognized by Staffing Industry Analysts in 2015 as the 4th fastest-growing staffing company in the U.S. over a 5-year period. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Mobile, Alabama, Flexicrew makes use of technology and industry best practices to deliver the most talented and qualified industrial – skilled and unskilled, technical, and professional talent to clients within most major industries. Flexicrew has a presence in over 25 markets across North America with more than 2,000 contractors currently placed in companies throughout the U.S. To learn more, visit https://www.flexicrew.com or www.flexicrewtech.com
If you would like more information about Flexicrew Technical Services or any of our hiring initiatives, please contact Brandon Smith at 504.500.3539 or email at bsmith@flexicrewtech.com.
Is that the sound of a basketball going through the net, or the sound of your productivity slipping away?
Millions of Americans have filled out March Madness brackets and discuss them with friends, and coworkers during work hours. Maybe even some of your workers.
Many managers and business owners struggle to keep their employees on-task while the games go on during the workday. There are stories of employees taking extended lunch breaks or calling in sick to catch a little piece of the action.
Some companies say that there is so much lost productivity during March Madness, that they have to block popular streaming sites and slow down their office’s
internet connection.
With an estimated 50+ million Americans participating in brackets and office pools, companies stand to lose at least $1.2 billion for every unproductive work hour during the first week of the tournament, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
So why do many companies encourage participation in office pools and brackets? (Flexicrew Staffing is one of them). One survey suggests that 32 percent of senior managers believe activities tied to the tournament boost employee morale, which makes your workforce more efficient and productive.
So, enjoy this annual event while still staying on track so no productivity is lost. March Madness isn’t going away anytime soon, so why not make the best of the situation?
Yes…March Madness has arrived with excitement and upsets.
POP QUIZ: How does March Madness Parallel Flexicrew’s mission?
We started kicking around that March Madness – filling out brackets and picking winners – parallels what we do at Flexicrew to build your workforce every day.
For March Madness, fans look at a wide number of teams, review their records and decide among them which they will advance in their brackets to the Sweet Sixteen. Likewise, Flexicrew reviews the resumes of possible candidates, screens them against several criteria, and decides which candidates should move forward in the recruiting process.
Finally, the March Madness Championship Game takes place where the two best teams play each other head-to-head and one of them wins. Similarly, Flexicrew often compares two finalists in detail against each other and recommends to you our favorite candidate that we believe should get offered the job.
Like a perceptive team coach, Flexicrew recruiters search for and recruit good talent just the way a team needs to fill out various positions.
At the end of the day, whether it’s a basketball team or a work team, it’s all about picking capable people, having a winning attitude and how you play the game!
Flexicrew hopes to team up with you to provide winners. Look forward to a small gift coming your way in a few days to remind you of how Flexicrew can help YOU be the CHAMPION!
Brandon Smith, Managing Partner of Flexicrew Technical Services, awarded scholarship to prestigious, nationwide Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program
Metairie, LA, January 10, 2017–
Flexicrew Technical Services Managing Partner, Brandon Smith, was invited to participate in Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program at Delgado Community College where he will attend with a small number of other local New Orleans area small business leaders.
Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program is a $500 million initiative to unlock the growth and job creation potential of small businesses across the United States by providing them with greater access to business education, financial capital, and business support services.
Stated Smith, “I am proud to be selected and excited to be a part of this dynamic program. I look forward to continued business growth and the ability to create more employment across the Gulf South Region.”
As part of the program, Smith will spend 14 weeks at Delgado Community College starting January 18th. He will study a business and management curriculum designed by the top-ranked school for entrepreneurial education, and customized by Delgado Community College faculty. The curriculum covers topics including accounting, human resources, negotiation, and marketing. The program also includes one-on-one mentoring, accounting workshops and advice from Goldman Sachs’ professionals. The program culminates with each participant developing a strategic growth plan for their business.
Stephanie Bell of Delgado Community College congratulated Brandon by saying, “The selection process was quite competitive, as we received many outstanding applications from throughout the New Orleans Gulf South Region. You were chosen from a strong pool of candidates.
We hope that with your dedication and commitment, you will benefit from the program and continue to take your business to new heights.”
Within six months of graduation from this program, nearly 70 percent of program alumni increase revenues and 48 percent add jobs, per a recent report by Babson College, Stimulating Small Business Growth.
About Brandon Smith:
Brandon Smith is the Managing Partner of Flexicrew Technical Services, a leader in technical placements, focused on flexibility, speed of recruitment and skills accuracy in the New Orleans and Gulf South Region.
Brandon has an extensive background in the Staffing Industry .
About Flexicrew Technical Services:
Flexicrew Technical Services began operations in January, 2015 and is a leader in technical placements, focused on flexibility, accuracy, and efficient recruitment. It was awarded the 2016 American Staffing Association Genius Award, displaying the most innovative and effective communications in the staffing, recruiting and workforce solutions industry.
The Flexicrew companies are family-owned and run since 2008, that’s brought together the best management and support team, resulting in over 95% customer satisfaction. * Certified survey by Inavero.
If you would like more information about Flexicrew Technical Services or any of our hiring initiatives, please contact Brandon Smith at 504.400.9140 or email to bsmith at flexicrewtech.com.
Social networking for a job opportunity involves looking for people at your level with whom to network. But almost more importantly, it also means to connect with anyone in your industry and/or geography can be a useful contact regardless of title or experience.
The key is to network with people who fall into two basic categories;
those who might hire you, and
those who probably won’t hire you but who have common experience and/or interests.
The formula for a winning job search using social media involves engaging in conversation as quickly and as often as you can with the people who can hire you. Social media outlets including Facebook and LinkedIn have made finding and opening dialogue with these people much easier. The most valuable networking contacts for your job search are the people who:
Hold job titles one, two, and three levels above your own
Hold job titles similar to your own
Hold job titles that interact with yours
Work in staffing as corporate recruiters and headhunters
These are the people who are most likely to know of job openings, and are the most likely to have the authority to hire you. This is common sense — the challenge, of course, is how to find them.
Who wants to connect with you?
You might be asking yourself, “Who wants to connect with someone like me? What value do I offer a connection?”
The answer is that professionals have always known that strong networks are crucial to any smart job search or career move. They may be looking to you one day for a job opportunity!
Social networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook have vastly improved the ease and speed of building professional networks. Building professional connections that might otherwise have been very difficult if not impossible is now something every one can achieve.
Strive for a goal you aim to reach via social networking. Whether that goal is to land a new job, or establish a relationship with a seasoned professional allowing for picking his or her brain, don’t get discouraged if you reach a dead-end. The beauty is that there are numerous other outlets to explore if one proves fruitless.
LinkedIn & Facebook Groups
If you’re a seasoned LinkedIn networker, you are probably aware that relevant professional networks are not only desirable — for reasons that extend far beyond job search —but also are surprisingly easy to foster. One of LinkedIn’s strengths is its thousands of special interest groups that encourage you to communicate and connect with other professionals who share a common interest. On LinkedIn, you can join up to 50 different groups.
Networkers on Facebook also have the invaluable asset of specialized group pages. Businesses and professional organizations host Facebook Like pages that allow the like-minded to congregate and share ideas and news. Twitter also can be used similarly for connecting with professionals of similar drive and interest.
You get on board with social networking by becoming a member of groups relevant to your profession, but don’t just sign up and troll for contacts. Become too brazen with connection requests and you’ll get blocked before you even get started.
One of the best ways to utilize LinkedIn is to participate in the many discussion forums within the groups you join — the people you want noticing you. Make time to follow these discussions. Participation in discussion forums gives you a way to advertise who you are and what you do without appearing to do so. With LI groups, anyone can start a discussion and join in.
Other ways to boost your social media presence include:
Make comments and “like” the posts of people who you want to network with, then ask them to connect.
Start discussions of your own. The easiest way is to post a link to a professionally relevant article, blog or video. Then connect with the people who comment — that they clicked on your link demonstrates a common interest.
Search the group’s membership list for high-value job titles, and request a connection based on a shared profession and group. You can’t connect to just anyone on LinkedIn. You need to share a group or a contact in common with your target if you wish to connect with her.
You can also make high-value networking contacts by searching the LinkedIn database and keying in a job title and location. For example, a staffing sales representative living in Lafayette might use these search terms: “Sales Staffing Lafayette”
The profiles that show up in your search — and there will be thousands —will include people holding this and similar titles, plus headhunters and recruiters who work in either this same location and/or area of professional expertise. Your next step is to check relevant profiles to see if you have mutual connections that can justify a connection request. Sometimes these profiles will contain an e-mail address. This makes contact even easier.
Shared membership in a group counts as an existing connection, and LinkedIn will tell you about group memberships you have in common. If you don’t have a group in common, you can simply join one of the groups in which your target “sales representative” belongs. Remember to check the person’s “contact info,” listed under “education” at the top of the profile.
Cross-Reference Companies and Job Postings
When your research identifies companies of interest or you come across relevant job postings, you can also perform a LinkedIn database search. For example, you find a job for a welder at Bollinger New Orleans at the Port of New Orleans and do a search using “Welder Bollinger New Orleans.” You will likely find people with the exact title or one similar who worked at Bollinger in New Orleans – or, at least have connections to someone who does.
These results will often give you direct contacts to potential hiring managers, or at least, the people who know the potential hiring managers. Every relevant connection will get you closer to getting into a conversation with someone who has a job opening and the authority to hire you.
You recently graduated. You’ve prepared your resume and sent it to various hiring managers. Your resume is great and the cover letter clearly states why you are the best candidate for the job. You get an interview call. You get there well-dressed and on-time. You make eye contact with your interviewer, communicate effectively, and answer most questions with confidence. You get hired. Why? Probably because you’ve displayed the skills the employer desired.
However, these skills do not come easy for many graduates, skills which they failed to learn in their probably very expensive education.
What skills are sought by the employers?
In a recent GMAT survey nearly 600 employers were asked about the skills they look for when hiring new business graduates. The following statement by a technical recruiter sums up the response, “Communications, teamwork, and interpersonal skills are critical—everything we do involves working with other people.”
The following prioritized set of skills and abilities are the most desirable:
Working in a team
Making decisions and solve problems (tie)
Communicating verbally inside and outside an organization
Planning, organizing and prioritizing work
Retrieving and processing information
Analyzing quantitative data
Job specific technical knowledge
Proficient with computer software programs
Creating and/or editing written reports
Persuading and influencing others
What makes it difficult for the employers to recruit talent?
According to a 2015 Talent Search global survey by recruiting firm ManpowerGroup, including 41,700 employers in 42 countries, one in three employers said that there just aren’t enough applicants. But other major reasons are related to the available applicant’s skills and abilities.
For example, 34% of them said that the candidates lack the required technical competencies (industry-specific professional qualifications and industry-specific skilled trades’ certifications).
In addition, 22% hiring managers cited that lack of experience is behind talent shortages and
17% report soft skills deficits (particularly lack of professionalism, enthusiasm, motivation and a learning mindset).
Possible solutions?
The single most critical factor in bridging the technical and soft skills gap is improving the quality of “hands-on” education. The students need more real life experiences, project based learning, internships, co-op programs. They will then get to confront, discuss, and solve real world issues/problems.
Business leaders must communicate what skills are desirable, offer tools and resources, and collaborate with educators/institutions to showcase and demonstrate the ‘teamwork and communication’ they expect of their potential new hires.
Changing careers takes focus and commitment. To be successful, you’ll need to develop short-term, intermediate and long-term goals, and decide on the steps you’ll need to accomplish them. Once you do that, it will be a lot easier to take the plunge into a new line of work.
Next, take assessment tests to discover your hidden talents and jobs that fit them. Leading tests include the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Strong Interest Inventory and Campbell Interest & Skill Survey. Also, ask individuals you know personally and professionally for their insight into occupations that might be a strong fit for your background and skills.
Once you’ve decided on a new path, do some online research and networking to determine the skills you’ll need to qualify for jobs that interest you. If you lack key credentials, consider signing up for volunteer work enrolling in classes to bridge the gap.
Next, revamp your résumé to highlight skills and experiences that are most relevant to your desired new line of work. A professional career coach may be able to help.
When applying for jobs, craft cover letters that will help employers understand why you’re looking to change careers and how you can add value. Similarly, prepare for interviews by crafting 30-second introduction that sums up what you can do for employers.
