PPB January 2019

“Gone are the days of focusing solely on whether a candidate is good for your organization. It’s important for the candidate tohearwhy the organization is good for himor her. Employers are going tohave to be able to answer that question in ameaningful way.” —LisaRitchie, vice president, recruiting and talent selection, AffinityHRGroup, Inc. new jobs, you’re going to have to go find them. But, how? • Use active sourcing (“headhunting”) tools on job boards and LinkedIn, which have resume databases; these can be costly, but youmay find someone who isn’t actively looking. • Post to industry-specific job boards. Visit www.ppai.org/ industry-job-board for details. Check this link for resumes of those seeking employment, www. ppai.org/industry-professional- resumes. Career Hub is a new job seeker resource fromPPAI member PromoPlacement. See more at promoplacement.com/ career-hub. • Post to job boards that focus on groups that are often underrepresented in the workplace, such as veterans or the disabled – www.dol. gov/veterans/hireaveteran and www.dol.gov/odep are two sources dedicated to these specific groups of people where you may find someone not using traditional methods. • List positions to statewide job boards focused on currently unemployed workers. • Offer meaningful referral bonuses to your current employees to entice them to refer people they know (your best employees can refer other good employees). Q&A With Paige McAllister Send your human resources-related questions to ppb@ppai.org . Select questions will be answered in future issues. Q We just hired a new inside sales rep with very little experience. It was a hard, long search, and we had to pay him $12,000 more than our other sales rep who has been with us for three years and is a great employee. Should we increase her pay in case she would discover the pay disparity? A In a word, absolutely. Employees talk about pay, and she will certainly learn of the disparity. It’s best to keep it all equitable, otherwise you risk losing a valued employee and will end up paying her replacement $12,000 more anyway. Welcome to the true impact of the tight labor market. Q In the northern states, this is the time when we get snowstorms. We have a new office network which enables access to the network remotely. Some of our customer service representatives live far away. There’s nothing about it in our handbook, but can we let them work from home on an ad-hoc basis? A Sure! Flexible work arrangements are increasingly prevalent and can help minimize the office disruption that can occur with inclement weather. A couple of things to keep in mind, though: first, always require approval for ad-hoc work changes. You will need to decide if this new flexibility is a right or a benefit. If the latter, it should require approval and be well-managed. Second, hourly, non-exempt employees (which is how most customer service representatives should be classified) will need to be paid for all time worked—even after hours. Be sure to arrange in advance how you will track each CSR’s hours when working from home. Finally, you should take the time now to establish what your work-from-home policy is so that you are not inconsistent in your approach or management going forward. | JANUARY 2019 | 85 THINK