BCjobs Blog

Internal hiring is rarely used when it’s time to fill a job vacancy; most companies simply don’t think to promote from within. They advertise the opening in traditional and online media, hire recruiters to search for candidates and sift through resumes as they pour in.

Last year, we saw a powerful shift in the communications industry, particularly in human resources and recruitment. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn continued to grow and benefit the HR communications industry by reaching passive and active candidates. Job seekers, already active on these sites, were drawn to branded employer pages that advertised open positions and content broadcasted through blogs, microblogs and status updates.

We need to hire employees, but we’re so busy working in the business to replace the employee(s) who just left that we don’t have time to recruit. Sound familiar?

For many businesses having to recruit means that they are or soon will be short-staffed. In this situation, many small business owners find themselves struggling as they are suddenly drawn back or further into the daily operations of the business while simultaneously trying to run the business and of course, recruit quality candidates for the job.

I know that there are some folks who don’t believe a job description is necessary anymore and of course, that is the decision of the organization to make.
I do believe in job descriptions – and let me tell you why.
A job description helps a business in understanding what the needs are of a particular position. What are the functional responsibilities and skills required in the position? How will you know what a reasonable amount of pay should be if you don’t have some sort of understanding of the duties? How would you classify the role? Who would the person report to and who would be responsible to manage the incumbent? For that matter, how will you hire someone into a position that has no description? How would you construct a set of interview questions that would be relevant to the role?

More and more small businesses are popping up due to the economic downturn. People are realizing that they need to become more reliant on themselves to be gainfully employed. As these startup businesses increase, there will be some challenges that must be considered.
One of many challenges will possibly be in hiring a strong and stable group of employees. The reality is that you will probably not be able to compete with larger employers that offer higher salaries; benefit packages; stock options; flexible work-weeks, etc. For a while, folks are going to try to hold out for these positions and may very well turn you down.

Finding the right person for your job isn’t easy. If it were we’d all be happy and businesses would be humming along contentedly without any conflict whatsoever because we’d all be living in the fantasy world as illustrated in the satirical movie, “The Stepford Wives”.
So, we need to be honest here and figure out what you can realistically do to ensure you find the right person.
What I am going to suggest may sound to some of you like it’s too much work – but my years of experience have taught me that doing the work up front will save you ten-fold as you begin to move forward and people are indeed doing what it is you hired them to do.

Many managers view hiring as one of the easier decisions they have to make. Problem is, it’s also one of the hardest decisions to unmake!
Here’s a common scenario for busy managers. A vacancy is posted on the web. Some promising, skilled candidates apply–you interview, conduct a reference or two, make an offer and you’re done.

The Canadian government has decided that it is time for temporary foreign workers to make their decisions about remaining in Canada more quickly. With the implementation of the new regulations effective on April 1, 2011, foreign workers will only be allowed a maximum four year work permit period at a time. At the end of each period, these individuals are required to return back to their home country for another four years before being eligible to apply for another Canadian work permit. There will be no reprieve for individuals on a work permit awaiting their permanent resident status approval. Even if they are pending the issuance of their landing status, foreign nationals will be required to return home to await final PR approval.