BizSieve Team | BizSieve.com

Tips to Remember When You Conduct an Employment Background Check

Before you hire an employee, it is imperative that a background check is carried out. Although most HR professionals do conduct these checks, at times they may not be conducted properly. In such cases, your organization will end up hiring individuals who will adversely affect the growth and environment of the company.

Background checks may sound like a simple procedure, but it is not. There are several factors that should be paid attention it, else it can result in a lawsuit for negligent hiring. Hiring an employee without conducting appropriate background checks could place the lives and work of existing employees in harm’s way. The following are the top four tips that you should consider when you conduct a background check on a potential employee.

employment background check — Image by Andy Beatty / Flickr

Adhere to FCRA Regulations

One of the standard ways to conduct a background check is to investigate an employee candidate’s credit history. This will give you an adequate picture of whether the candidate is financially stable. But, this cannot be done on the whims and fancies of a recruiter. To protect employees, there is a regulation known as the Fair Credit Reporting Act that employers have to adhere to while conducting a background check.

Credit checks can be conducted only for valid reasons such as promoting, firing, hiring or reassigning an employee. This means that unless there is a business interest, it is illegal to conduct credit checks. Another stipulation regarding financial checks is that employers can go through with it only if they have a written consent from the candidate.

Contact and Confirm References

Every organization requires candidates to provide references which can be a previous employer or anyone who can confirm the ability of the candidate in regard to a particular job. As a recruiter, it is important to contact the individuals given as references as it will give you a clear idea of what they are like in a business setting.

More often than not, employers neglect checking all of the references. This is an important part of recruitment as you can never know whether the details given are accurate or not. Confirming and contacting the references provided in the resume will allow you to verify the employment details and working behavioural pattern of the candidate.

Maintain Consistency with Background Checks

Conduct the same type of background checks on all the candidates rather than providing preferential treatment to some. A failure to do so could result in a lawsuit of employment discrimination. For instance, if you carry out a credit check on one candidate and not another when both are vying for the same position, it could land you in a spot of trouble.

Establish a Rapport with a Potential Employee

Although you can conduct several background checks, make sure you establish a rapport with the candidate beforehand. At times, issues that can provide a potential reason for rejecting a candidate can be cleared with simple explanations. These can be documented for proof if the candidate has the ability and the qualifications required for the job.

About the Author: Penny is an expert associated with CV Insight, which provides guidelines on how to vet candidates. The site provides information on how to perform background checks and the regulations attributed to them.

Doing business like a pro!

We all have some dreams we would like to come true. Some dream big, others small; but what truly matters is how you plan on achieving what you want. So you dream of owning your own business? Running it successfully? Believe in yourself, after all big corporate giants like Google, Apple, Sony also started somewhere. Well here are some small business tips for all the budding entrepreneurs to keep in mind.

5 tips of the wise:

You don’t necessarily have to start your business from scratch. If you find a small business that you believe you can benefit from, buy it. You can either grow it or sell it for an even bigger return.
Do you have a lot of dough to start with? Good! Hold on to it. There is no need for a young business to have a very lavish office and setup. Buy and spend very wisely. Old office furniture can be just as useful and serve the purpose. You can save all your extra cash for a rainy day. Just because you have it doesn’t mean you should blow it
Who are you? And what can you offer? A good business always has a sense of direction. Make a game plan, set goals and go about how you are going to achieve them. Keep in mind who you are exactly targeting
What makes you so different? Think about what makes you standout in the crowd. Always go the extra mile for customer satisfaction. This will never fail you. After all happy customers are loyal customers
Most importantly, exercise gratitude. Towards your employees, your customers, and your own self. Research in the field of human resource management shows that appreciation goes a long way to ensure success. It is a tool not frequently used by employers.

The toughest is the battle within:

As much as capital and resources are needed to start your own venture, some things come easily and without any cost. A bit of planning and smart thinking can make your journey of success a whole lot smoother. Though the road leading you towards your goals may not always be easy to tread upon, a positive outlook and determination can always ease your burden.

No matter what line of business you pursue, always believe that you have something unique to give to the world. It is only when you find out everything good has already been done, you push yourself to create something even better.

And one more thing:

As quoted by Steve Jobs, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower”. Knowledge is truly Power and today’s world is the most volatile it has ever been. Always keep educating yourself, learn, explore. There is no limit to the knowledge one can attain. There is always innovation in the world around us. New marketing techniques, management studies, growth opportunity factors; if one stays aloof to changing times he will be left behind. So always nurture your talents and keep polishing them in order to shine.

About the Author: The author is currently pursuing a degree in business administration and has a penchant for writing about modern day management techniques w.r.t. your credit card and organizational behavior.

5 Tips For Sales Manager To Increase Productivity

Working as a sales manager can be a very rewarding and lucrative career, but unless you know how to get the best out of your people, you may not last long in this industry. Here are a a few tips for sales managers to increase the productivity of their staff.

1. Embrace Technology

If you want to get the most out of your staff, you should embrace technological advancements. For example, you could get everyone a specific work app that allows them to collaborate on projects together. With type of work app, your employees will be able to work smarter, and get more work done.

2. Manage Customer Relationships

When you want to increase productivity, it is important to manage your customer relationships more effectively. By using a mobile CRM solution, you’ll be able to provide better service to your customers, while making fewer mistakes. When you use a CRM for mobile application, it will allow your sales reps to get information about their customers on the fly. A good CRM for mobile app can ensure that your employees close more sales, and get more repeat business. There are many mobile CRM apps out there, so be sure to choose the best one for your business.

3. Don’t Micromanage

One of the biggest problems that sales managers have is that they micromanage everything in their department. If you want your staff to be productive, don’t be looking over their shoulder at every moment. You’ll be able to get a lot more out of your staff if you trust them to do their jobs.

4. Provide Incentives

One of the best ways to boost productivity is to provide incentives to your sales staff. For example, give some kind of a financial bonus to the top salesman during a particular period. If you provide incentives, your sales staff will work harder to try to meet your goals.

5. Recognize Top Performers

Although money and other bonuses do provide some motivation, you can’t always motivate people with money. Recognition is also very important to the average person. When someone does a good job on your team, be sure to recognize them for it. By doing this, your employees will tend to work harder and more productive overall.

By employing some of these methods, you may be able to take your sales team to new heights. This will go a long way toward promoting your own success as a sales manager.

About the Author: Steve is a sales expert and enjoys sharing his expertise. He recently wrote about how mobile CRM can help increase a sales team productivty. For more information please visit doubledutch.me

Knowing When it May Be Beneficial for Small Businesses to Outsource Work

Whilst it may appear as if your small business is saving money, handling multiple responsibilities in-house can be both time-consuming and extremely expensive. Granted, you’ve likely decided that the key to business success lies in developing good behaviour. As such, you may see your ability to assume multiple roles and responsibilities as an inherent strength. However, what do you do when those tasks become too much to handle? What do you do when some tasks become too costly to manage in-house? After all, you’re responsible for business development. Doesn’t it just make sense that you focus your efforts elsewhere, instead of rationalising your decision to go it alone? When faced with such a decision, it is important to understand the innumerable benefits of outsourcing. Regardless of whether it includes outsourcing IT, marketing or payroll, there are a number of immediate benefits to choosing an outside firm to handle these day-to-day tasks.

Free Up Valuable Resources: One of the first benefits of outsourcing is how it immediately frees up valuable internal resources. Whether that includes removing timely obstacles for yourself, or your employees, your business is bound to reduce its costs by outsourcing certain redundant and repetitive business functions. You’ll not only reduce your overhead, but you’ll be able to hand over these responsibilities knowing they’ll be managed properly. After all, you’re in the proverbial “driver’s seat.” You are now able to dictate terms of service with your chosen outsourcing firm.

Protect Business Knowledge and Know-How: Your business knowledge is an asset, one that can be stolen, used against you or simply copied. Whilst you may view your employees as loyal and committed to the cause, the reality is that information theft is a going concern for all enterprises. Outsourcing IT reduces the growing concern of theft by protecting confidential and critical data. You’ll be able to upgrade your service capabilities, protect your vital data, and provide remote desktop management to both internal and external customers. Whether that includes providing 24/7 support, or revamping your website with improved online order fulfilment capabilities, outsourcing IT is a cost saving solution that just makes sense.

Reduced Tax Burden: It’s amazing just how many enterprises must cover late, incorrect and incomplete tax filings. Whilst PAYE rules are clearly defined, small businesses still face yearly fines for not properly filling out their returns. However, your small business can immediately eliminate these fines by using an outsourcing firm. In fact, most firms will provide a guarantee that any fees will be reimbursed.

Don’t rationalise your decision to keep these aforementioned business functions in-house. There is an immediate savings to using outside firms, ones who assume full responsibility for a given business function. Reduce your costs and focus on growing your business. In the end, that will not only save you money, but make it easier to grow your enterprise.

Robert Dean has worked in the document shredding business for several years and believes in the importance of data security. He currently works for The Shredding Alliance.

What are the steps to start Your New Business with a Clean Credit Score

Many people dream of owning their personal business. However, before you give wings to your dream, it is very important to organize your personal finances. At this stage, you will be required to put in your own personal finances to get started with your business. However, to initiate successfully, it is very important that you use a ‘professional eye’ approach towards your personal finances.

Start-up expenses can be huge but it is advisable that you use your own personal finances to carry out the initial expenses. Avoid funding these expenses on credit or else you will end up with huge credit debt. You also have the option to go for a business loan. This is a better option as compared to credit card because it is a one-time loan with usually lower interest rates as compared to credit card.

However, there is a connection between your credit card and business loan that you must understand in order to successfully apply for a business loan. The relationship is that your credit card debt must be in order before you could apply for business loan. This means that you must maintain clear credit score if you wish to win the business loan without any hassle.

If you do not possess an organized business loan history, then lenders will look up to your personal credit score to negotiate loan terms. Do not let credit score problems affect your business set-up in its initial stages.

Your credit score is indeed a very important number for your personal business career. You will need to show it off for various purposes once you are running your own business. It works as the determining factors, especially for negotiating loan application and interest rates.

Three Steps to Set-Up Your Business with Clean Credit Score

As a new business owner, you must definitely look for lower interest rates on any credit finance or loan you acquire. This will give a solid base for your business to begin.

Step 1 – Pay Your Credit Card Debt

After identifying your credit weakness, take appropriate measures to improve your standing. The basic goal you will be working for is to eliminate any credit card debt you are liable to pay. At first this may not seem to be the best idea, but it is true, paying your debt faster can actually ease down your debt payment. It will also cause it to be less expensive eliminating the additional interest you will be required to pay otherwise.

The idea is to make double payments on the minimum balance of the debt with the highest interest liability. You can manage the rest of your credit liability with lower interest rates the way you like. By paying off the debt with the highest interest rate first; you can save yourself from paying the additional amount of the extra interest for a particular debt liability.

Once the highest is paid, move on the debt liability with the next highest interest rate and so on. Eventually, this will lead you to clear out your credit card debt maintaining a healthy credit score for you.

Step 2 – Study Your Credit Report

How often do you check your credit report? You must do it often in order to ensure there are no mistakes that are reflecting any negative effects on your credit score as well as your interest rates.

In case you find a mistake, you can seek assistance from the credit-reporting agency and dispute them. Your dispute will be responded within 30 days successfully. This is indeed worth trying since you have nothing to lose in this procedure, except for bad credit score.

Step 3 – Pay Bills

The negotiation over your business loan will not solely be based on your debt liability payment. You must also show that you are responsible when it comes to your bills and debt payments. You can do this by showing a good history of your rent, car payments, or utility bills. In short, keeping all the payables and debts in place and organized will help you achieve business loan with a lower interest rate.

About the Author: The article is provided by Rosette Summer. She thinks that good finances make successful business! But in case this does not persuade you, visit Consolidated Credit’s website for debt relief advice.