While the pandemic is showing some signs of slowing down, the damage to the economy and to many small businesses has already been done. In fact, reports show that close to two thirds of small businesses in Toronto could close permanently in the next three months.

Small businesses have always been the backbone of the economy. To have so many small businesses close at the same time would be devastating to the economy. While the government has provided emergency relief measures, it might prove to be insufficient for many small business owners.

At Workholler we’re trying to do what we can to help Employers and Employees by providing services at discounted price and working with our suppliers to help them through this difficult time. We would also like to pass forward any kind gestures that we receive and we encourage you to do the same. To all those working on the front lines, and those doing what they can to help others, your kind gestures are a testament to the triumph of the human spirit. Thank you.

Employers Can Help

• Understand times are tough for employees. Ask your employees to see which ones can afford to have reduced hours, or to take their vacations, in order to allow those that cannot afford reduced pay to remain employed full-time.
• Check up on your employees regularly to let them know the situation with the business, and to see if they are doing ok. Small gestures of kindness will go a long way.
• Instead of layoffs, try to see if reduced hours could work for the team. Most people would prefer to stay employed, even at reduced hours, rather than go on EI.
• When the business re-opens, bring back your team at their original salaries. Do not use this pandemic as an excuse to shake up the team, or to extract concessions from your employees. They deserve better.
• Try to work with your employees to create a solution that works for everyone as much as possible. If it’s not possible to satisfy everyone’s needs, try to point them to government resources and provide any support they need in applying for EI, government grants, loans or even a new job. Small gestures matter and you can look yourself in the mirror with the satisfaction that you have tried your best.

Employees Can Help

• Understand the employers are in a tough spot as well. This pandemic has affected businesses as much as it did workers.
• Talk to your employer and co-workers. Offer to help if you can, it doesn’t have to be monetary help, any small gesture of kindness will go a long way.
• Manage expectations. It will take time for things to go back to normal. That could mean reduced pay for a little while, maybe you could chip in a bit more with helping the business re-open. Perhaps check in on co-workers to see if everyone is ok. Check in on your boss too.
• Remember that business owners are just people too, with their own families and challenges to deal with. So treat them with kindness and understanding.

I have no doubt that together we can get through these difficult times. We will triumph over this and we will be stronger for it. In the meantime, let’s all show a little kindness to each other, and help those in need to get through the tough times. Stay safe!

With Coronavirus shutting down most major cities in the world, and social distancing more and more becoming the norm. Many companies have implemented working from home policies in light of the virus. Once life returns to normal (soon, fingers crossed), would we all go back to the way things were or would work-from-home become the norm going forward?

After all, working from home allows the worker to avoid time-consuming commute to and from work, thus saving time (as many as 3-4 hours a day), which can either be used to increase work productivity, or to enjoy some work-life balance with activities such as working out, yoga, or just getting some R&R.

In 2013, then Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer made the decision to cancel Yahoo’s generous Work-From-Home policy. She was initially vilified for her unpopular decision, however, some touted her decision as being ahead of the curve, as working from home proved unproductive for other organizations. However, as this CNBC article points out, what works for Silicon Valley tech companies might not work for Government organizations and vise versa. If in the long run Yahoo becomes more productive overall, Mayer may yet be proven right.

Sadly that wasn’t the case. After rising to the top role at Yahoo amidst much fanfare, her 5-year tenure was mired with slow growth and employee dissatisfaction. She was eventually ousted as Yahoo’s chief officer in 2017.

For all the talk about improved productivity, her decision ultimately proved to be the wrong one. She underestimated the significant value of allowing work from home in improving employee satisfaction and engagement.

Consider if a Work From Home Policy is Right For Your Business

Work from home doesn’t work for all organizations. It’s obvious that it’s not possible (yet) for retail stores, restaurants, and other customer facing businesses. We expect to be served by a real person, not a phone or computer.

Other positions such as telephone customer support can easily accommodate a work from home policy, with easy-to-track targets and records to maintain productivity.

And then there’s everything in between. The rule of thumb is, if the role requires very standard operating procedures and involves a lot of individual work, it can generally be done at home. If a role requires a lot of collaboration, with lots of fluid discussions and team meetings, working from home could be challenging.

Challenging, but Not Impossible

With the advance of collaborating tools such as Slack, and video conferencing software such as Zoom, working from home can be made easy for many roles that didn’t have such options before.

At the end of the day, as long as the organization is comfortable with result-driven productivity measures, and not time-driven productivity, and management is not worried about tracking where someone is at all times (impossible with work from home, short of giving everyone a GPS chip, and George Orwell would turn over in his grave if we went there), working from home will become more prevalent in the future as more and more workers demand it, and more and more companies embrace it.

Oftentimes businesses use temp workers to fill an immediate and temporary need. This could be for a project or to cover an immediate staffing gap.

Once the temporary staff are on-site and hitting the ground running, this is when you should consider whether or not to convert them to full-time.

Determine the Need

Oftentimes you might think a full-time role is required, but is it really? Consider Susan, her design company needs someone to take care of the company’s social media content and to follow up with potential clients. She has posted the job but hasn’t had the time to go through the hiring process, resulting in a glaring gap in her company’s day to day operations.

Through Workholler, the next generation hiring platform, she was able to source a pre-vetted temporary worker Joyce. Joyce joined Susan’s company under Workholler’s Try’n’Hire program, where a business can “trial” a candidate on a temporary basis typically between 1 to 3 months, in order to fill an immediate need, while providing management with time to decide on a permanent solution.

Within a week of the job posting, Joyce joined Susan’s company, and immediately started to update its social media presence, and clearing the backlog of follow-ups.

Susan is now considering to make Joyce a permanent member of her small team. She considers the following.

1. Her company needs a social media expert.
2. Client follow-ups used to be done by the sales team but they are too busy getting more sales, and Susan doesn’t want to disrupt the flow.
3. Joyce is doing a good job with the social media. However, while she is doing her best to follow up with clients, she just doesn’t have the design knowledge or training required to answer detailed questions.

Is the Candidate a Right Fit?

Susan sees Joyce’s performance and positive attitude and thinks she is a good fit for the company. She makes the following decision.

1. Susan offers Joyce a part-time job working 2 days a week with the company’s social media content. Joyce is able to work from home one day and participate in the company’s activities the other.
2. Susan decides to create a new Sales Support role, which requires a candidate with a design background and customer service experience.
3. Susan posts the Sales Support job on Workholler, and was connected with David, who has been pre-vetted by Workholler and has the necessary design experience. David started his 2 months trial period right away.

Revisit After the Trial Period

While Joyce preferred a full-time job, she was able to accept Susan’s offer of a part-time job, while Workholler found Joyce another part-time job as a social media expert within a different company. She works 3 days a week there and 2 days with Susan, providing her with a full-time income.

After David’s trial period, Susan decided not to extend a permanent offer. David was very good technically but Susan felt he was not a good fit for the company’s culture. Workholler then sent another candidate, Amit to Susan under the same Try’n’Hire program, and this time it was a home run. Amit was excellent in both design and customer support, as well as fitting into the company’s culture. After only one month, Susan quickly extended a full-time offer which Amit gladly accepted.

The Answer

There’s no right or wrong answer to the question of when to convert a temporary worker to a permanent hire. It’s entirely up to a company’s needs, which can differ drastically from one to another. Whatever your staffing needs are, be it temporary or permanent, Workholler is here to help. We aim to make the hiring process as quick and as seamless as possible, so your business won’t be interrupted by staffing shortages, and can go on running smoothly.

Taking tests are never fun, but they are a window into a person’s abilities and aptitudes. That’s why more and more employers are using them as a tool to pre-screen candidates for the right combination of Competence, Ethics, Emotional Intelligence, and Ambition/Drive.

According to Harvard Business Review, 76% of organizations with more than 100 employees use tests for external hiring. And the more senior the role, the more likely the employer is to use assessments to identify candidates with the right traits and abilities. According to HBR, it is estimated that 72% of middle management positions and up to 80% of senior positions have pre-qualification tests.

There are several reasons why pre-employment assessments are useful.

1. Resumes don’t paint the whole picture

Resumes are a great starting point to view a candidate’s summary of experiences, but it talks nothing of their other attributes like interpersonal skills, management skills, ability for defusing confrontations, nor their level of ambition, as examples. That’s when employers turn to pre-employment assessment tools to gain a better picture of whether the candidate will be a good fit to the corporate culture.

2. Specific Skill Test

Certain jobs require a specific skill set that is difficult to convey within a resume. Imagine a surgeon who must perform triple bypass surgeries, or a pilot that must fly a jumbo jet. We cannot rely on resumes to simply assure us that people who claim they can do it can actually do so. Imagine the chaos that will ensue. There needs to be a qualifying test (or in the case of the two examples above, real-life demonstrations and proof) before the person can be placed.

3. Ethics and Morals

It’s fairly easy to convey experience and ambition during interviews, but how do you measure someone’s ethics? It’s an important aspect to consider when hiring, as ethics and morals can ultimately drive a company’s corporate culture. Jack Welch said it best, “First we get the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.” The last thing you want is someone who doesn’t buy into your corporate culture, or even worse, will derail the bus.

Great! Let’s do it!

Let’s do it! I hear you say. But administering all these tests requires a lot of resources. You need professionals to find the relevant questions and put the tests together; technology tools to administer and grade the tests; and finally you need people to comb through the results of the tests to ultimately select the right candidate. All of this takes effort that an SME (or even a corporation) might not have the resources for. Not to worry, simply outsource the admin tasks to someone who is best at it. Workholler has the platform to not only filter and matches candidates by experience, skill-set, and availability, we also offer a wide range of aptitude tests that are used to pre-qualify candidates for a wide-variety of roles. With our six-step pre-qualifying assessments, we take vetting to the next level.