Ask HR: How to Motivate Teenage Summer Employees?
As originally published on gardencentermag.com. BEST is excited to partner with our friends at Garden Center magazine on their “Ask HR” column. Click here for the original article. THE QUESTION: I hire teenagers for summer work in my garden center. Some are great, and some are distracted by being a teenager. I want to communicate better with them and maybe even build future employees. Do you have any tips? THE ADVICE: First Thought— You are helping these teenagers develop good habits and social skills, just as much as they are helping you in their business. If you take the time to get to know them and help them improve as humans, their appreciation will show in the form of hard work. Spending time with your employees, regardless of age, and learning about them as people and the things they do and don’t enjoy about the job will result in them feeling valued and part of a community, which is the number one driver of employee retention. However, there are bound to be bumps in the road. Attention Spans According to the National Institute of Health, the average attention span for adults working on a task can last for a few hours, while the average attention span for teenagers working on a task is 35 minutes. Work with your department leaders to assign your teenage employees a few different tasks to take care of during their shift and write them on a big board. If you see them losing focus on a task, ask them to take a 5-minute break outside (to catch up on chatsnap or whatever they do on their phone) and come back ready to start on a new project. Once a project is complete, have them cross it off the board and give them a 5-minute break before starting the next. Even if all of the projects aren’t fully completed, you will still have less work to do to finish them and less of a headache trying to force a teenager to do something, which is nearly impossible. Also, when communicating with your younger staff, keep in mind that even adults only have a conversational attention span of 8.25 seconds (NIH). Don’t lecture! Money Talks Remember using dimes and quarters to fill up your gas tank or get a cheeseburger when you were in high school? I sure do. Try to incentivize your teenage employees to pay more attention to their work with cold, hard cash. Set up competitions with cash prizes to create the best end-cap display, an attractive new signage design to use throughout the store, or the most impressive social media campaign. An important aspect of these example projects is that they will be in the public eye. This creates pride for the participants and provides additional motivation knowing that their work could have a real impact on the store’s success, but is also something their friends and family could see. Prizes don’t have to be more than $5-$10 if you run the competitions at least a couple of times per month. Oh, the things I would’ve bought at McDonald’s if I had five extra dollars in my pocket after a shift! A few words to the wise: be selective when deciding who to include in the competition and avoid picking the same winner repeatedly. Also, do not incentivize sales programs with teenagers – you do not want to scare away customers with money-hungry, angsty boys and girls. P.S. I have coached soccer at all ages, 6-18, for over a decade. A 17-year-old is much easier to coach than a 15-year-old. As originally published on gardencentermag.com. BEST is excited to partner with our friends at Garden Center magazine on their “Ask HR” column. Click here for the original article.
Should I Stay or Should I Go? Searching for a New Position in Uncertain Times
Tariffs, inflation, uncertainty— each word evokes fear and stress, especially when looking to make a career move and search for new possibilities. While we preach patience and loyalty as a general approach to life, career, and business at BEST Human Capital, we know some employment situations are not tenable. We also realize that some circumstances are limiting as they don’t allow for desired growth, and you may also feel boxed in with the current business uncertainty. If you find yourself in one of these situations, consider exploring professional options away from your current position. While external factors require consideration regarding your professional advancement, business is cyclical, and uncertainty doesn’t mean opportunities and hiring stop. This is an ideal time to plan and prepare for the next step of your career progression. We are happy to guide you through all possible aspects of your career progression and help advise you from an outside and unbiased perspective. If ever in need, please reach out for a career-focused conversation without any obligations or the pressure of being sold on available positions or companies. Above all else, we’re interested in learning about your experience and continued career goals and strive to form long-term relationships. Resources and Inspiration for Your Journey Suppose your current employment situation cannot be fixed, or it is time to refresh your resume and brush up on your interviewing skills. In that case, we have assembled a list of helpful resources and articles to get you started (click on the link or button below for each resource). LinkedIn: Quick Tips for Your LinkedIn Profile to Increase Your Interview Rate (PDF) Not quite a LinkedIn influencer? LinkedIn is a primary tool for executive recruiters to search for candidates. We cannot understate the importance of using LinkedIn today for any candidate and using your “dashboard” to open yourself to new opportunities. The more complete and optimized your profile is, the better the odds that recruiters will find you. Your Resume: For People Who Want to Write Resumes Good By The BEST Blogger Do you need help getting started on your resume, or do you feel your existing one could be better? Writing a resume or CV today can be frustrating and time-consuming, especially for those out of practice or starting from scratch. As our tongue-in-cheek title suggests, it is easy to stumble in this area. We have seen brilliant marketers and salespeople struggle for days to assemble a 1- or 2-page sheet of their career experiences and qualifications, essentially about selling themselves. They are not alone. Phone Interviewing: 12 Smart Phone Interview Success Tips (PDF) By Laura DeCarlo – job-hunt.org Some helpful tips to review before that call with the hiring manager might be helpful. Typically, a candidate’s first contact with a recruiter or potential employer is via the phone or virtually (see below if your first interaction will be virtual). A telephone interview aims to secure an invitation to come to the employer’s location for an in-person interview. You typically have just two assets for telephone interviews – your voice and your preparation! Virtual Interviewing: Succeeding in a Virtual Interview for Candidates (PDF) By Ben Molenda, BEST Human Capital & Advisory Group How do you succeed in your upcoming Zoom or Teams meeting? These are useful tips for being interviewed virtually. Be prepared. The In-Person Interview: Walk Out of Your Job Interview in a Blaze of Glory (PDF) By Scott Ginsberg Want to smash your next interview (in a good way)? This article is a candidate favorite because it works. These are the questions that get potential employers thinking in any job interview. Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions, for helpful insight, or for a copy of our BEST Interview Prep Guide. This is a comprehensive guide that takes a candidate through the interviewing process step-by-step, from initial preparation to the thank-you note. We look forward to connecting with you. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • BEST is Hiring! Check out our open positions, featuring a wide variety of roles and industries. Click on the posting title for a full job description. Submit Your Resume: Your resume is imported into our secure tracking system and can only be accessed by BEST. Once you are in our system, your profile will be continuously reviewed. Questions? If you are looking to advance your career or searching out of necessity, we invite you to contact us and speak with a BEST “Human” and let’s have a confidential discussion. Contact the Best Team!