Top Small Business Employee Benefits for Recruitment

The health of your small business may rest on your ability to create a robust benefits package.

That’s because 74 percent of U.S. employees say their benefits are important part of their financial stability, and 69 percent say their benefit package is a critical element in their job satisfaction. Not surprisingly, job seekers say health insurance benefits are among the top factors they take into account when considering a job offer.

As a small businesses owner, you may not be able to match the high salaries and big-ticket perks that large corporations can use to entice talent, but you can put together an innovative, cost-effective small business employee benefits package that reflects your core values and makes sure your employees know how much you value them.

Getting Started: How to Develop Your Small Business Employee Benefits Plan

The first step to crafting a benefits program is to establish a budget. You can expect to invest 30 percent of salary per employee in each comprehensive benefits package you offer. The most expensive component of your benefits offerings will be healthcare insurance, which is also the benefit most valued by employees. Other highly valued benefits include retirement savings programs such as 401(k) plans and paid time off (PTO).

Think of your compensation package as a single, per-employee expense divided among the following categories:

  • Direct compensation: Salary, PTO, bonuses, and commissions
  • Mandatory indirect compensation: Social Security and Medicare taxes paid on your employees’ behalf
  • Optional indirect compensation: Benefits and perks that aren’t required by law, 401(k) matching, or health insurance premiums

One of the best ways to establish or update your small business employee benefits plan is to ask your current employees what benefits they wish they had. Once you’ve determined what you’re offering, consider investing in an automated payroll and benefits platform, or even contracting with a professional employer organization (PEO) that provides comprehensive HR solutions.

Basic Benefits: What’s Required by Law

Some employee benefits, such as unpaid family leave, are required by law. Under the Affordable Care Act, for example, employers with more than 50 employees are required to provide healthcare insurance. Healthcare will likely be the most costly benefit you offer, so you may want to band together with other small businesses in an association like the National Federation of Independent Businesses to access discounted rates.

Also under federal law, hourly workers are entitled to a higher hourly rate for any work that surpasses 40 hours in a single week. However, state laws differ on exactly which categories of workers are considered hourly wage earners and which are salaried and therefore exempt.

The degree to which you are responsible for contributing to disability insurance and unemployment or offering PTO can also differ by state and municipality. Other benefits that may be mandated by your state include life insurance, short and long-term disability insurance, worker’s compensation, unemployment, COBRA (continued healthcare coverage for employees who have been let go), and paid family and disability leave.

Check with resources like the U.S. Small Business Administration or Department of Labor, as well as state and municipal labor agencies, to make sure your small business employee benefits package is in compliance with all applicable regulations.

Competitive Compensation: Benefits Employees Expect

Beyond what is required by law, there are certain benefits that applicants are likely to expect. Health insurance and pre-tax benefits, such as 401(k) and health and childcare savings plans, that help lower employees’ taxable income are popular across all sectors. In some fields benefits like remote work and flexible scheduling are popular.

As you assemble your small business employee benefits, keep in mind which benefits are expected within your industry. Do you want to match or surpass those offerings?

One way to create an enticing benefits package is to focus on emerging benefit trends that are popular among today’s job seekers, such as mental health and wellness, skills training, and the option to carry over unused PTO.

You can keep benefits robust while still balancing costs by offering your employees choices.

For example, your employees with young children will likely be overjoyed if you offer childcare assistance, but those without children might feel left out. Offer employees a certain amount of annual assistance they can use toward childcare, tuition loan assistance, or 401(k). This way, not only will you be making every employee, no matter their stage of life, feel valued, but you will also make them feel empowered by their ability to make the financial choices that make the most sense for them.

Values-Based Small Business Employee Benefits

A growing number of employers are offering benefits that reflect their core values. For example, if you’re a local business with strong ties to your community, you might offer your employees paid volunteer hours for work at a local charity. If health is a core value, then you might offer employees reimbursement for fitness club memberships and free onsite healthy snacks and meals.

One way to communicate your commitment to your employees is to be flexible and generous when the unexpected happens, and to give your employees the opportunity to help each other as well.

In the wake of fires, natural disasters, or health crises, for example, you might allow your employees to donate their accumulated PTO to coworkers facing emergencies. It will cost you nothing, and though you might have provided the PTO to the employee in distress anyway, it is a wonderful way to build community and allow those receiving the help to feel empowered to play their coworkers’ generosity forward in the future.

These types of benefits tend to be used by only a few employees over the lifespan of your business, so the costs are minimal. But values-based benefits can go a long way toward helping your employees develop a positive connection with your company’s core values. They can be a useful recruitment tool for job seekers looking for a mission-driven work environment.

Creative Perks to Help You Stand Out

You may not be able to outbid your bigger competitors, but you can get creative with small perks that set you apart. You might offer employees a package of sessions with a life coach or “lunch and learn” sessions on personal investment options, time management, or even cooking.

If your systems can accommodate it, allow workers to use whatever tech they are most comfortable with—Apple or Windows-based devices, for instance. Join your local chamber of commerce and partner with other local businesses to offer discounted purchases on travel, tech, or dining. Or consider fostering a pet-friendly workplace, including pet health insurance.

Try to come up with low-cost benefits that reflect your business’s unique culture or mission.

The Know-How You Need to Attract the Right Candidates to Your Growing Small Business Staff

From small business employee benefits that can compete with larger employers to the best ways to stretch your recruitment budget, Monster has the expertise you need to grow your business. Sign up to learn about the latest hiring news, recruiting best practices, and HR tools to attract and keep top talent.

5 Ways to Attract Leisure and Hospitality Candidates

Business owners in the leisure and hospitality industry are often first to feel the financial impact to their bottom line during social or economic fluctuations. This is in addition to planned sales spikes and dips like spring break, Mother’s Day, summer vacation season, and end-of-year holiday season.

All these variables can make keeping your business properly staffed a constant balancing act. Here are five ways to attract employees and keep your pipeline full of viable candidates throughout the year.

1. Target Candidates Seeking Non-Traditional Schedules

Businesses in the leisure and hospitality industry often require employees to work weekends, nights, part time or seasonal, and irregular shifts. One of the best ways to attract candidates willing to work such hours is to target job seekers who need non-traditional schedules.

For example, teachers who don’t work during the summer break often look to supplement their income, which makes seasonal work an ideal fit. College students who attend classes during the day may also be attracted to evening and weekend shifts that accommodate their schedules. Also, since workers 65 and older are twice as likely to work part time as workers ages 25 to 64, targeting retirees for part-time schedules can mean a larger pool of willing applicants.

2. Use Your Company’s Products and Services to Provide Generous Perks

Restaurants, hotels, amusement parks, and entertainment venues have a unique advantage when considering perks and bonuses as recruitment and retention incentives.

Employees in the leisure and hospitality industry—and their friends and families—enjoy access to VIP experiences at the restaurants and hotels where they work, or discounts for meals and lodging. Even offering generous food allowances like free meals during a shift go a long way. Be sure to include these perks in the compensation and benefits portion of the job description to attract more applicants.

Offering job-related perks also has an upside for business owners. It saves the business from paying traditional employment taxes, since discounted room rates, free meals, or complimentary admission to entertainment venues are considered nonpayroll compensation.

3. Highlight Your Workplace Culture

While pay remains a top consideration when evaluating employment options, company culture fit ranks high on the list of criteria. Culture consists of shared beliefs and values established by leaders and then communicated and reinforced through various methods, ultimately shaping employee perceptions, behaviors and understanding. Culture tends to be implied and not expressly defined and develops organically over time from the cumulative traits of the people the company hires.

Like employees in corporate settings, leisure and hospitality workers also want to be part of a company culture where they enjoy their work and feel valued and supported. A Monster poll found that 95 percent of U.S. workers believe overall fit is important when it comes to their happiness at work. That means business owners who take deliberate steps toward creating an attractive company culture have a competitive advantage.

In-person hiring events and job descriptions are effective places to highlight your business culture. For example, if you offer a high-energy, fun work environment, flexible schedules, or are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive business, be sure to emphasize it when writing your job description and talking to applicants at in-person events. Also, be sure to articulate your vision, mission, and philosophy for how to serve customers so workers understand the big picture and how their role in the business.

4. Create or Update Your Employee Referral Program

Creating and managing an active employee referral program significantly reduces the time and cost of recruitment. Also, employee-referred job candidates are usually a good cultural fit, which may mean less turnover.

Leisure and hospitality employees who work late nights frequently form bonds from hanging out after shifts. That social comradery often turns into a de facto professional network, and a great resource for employers who can successfully engage their employees and leverage an active referral program.

Cash bonuses for the new hire and the employee after a predefined time on the job is a common reward for high-quality referrals. Other incentives can include additional paid time off and reimbursements for fees associated with industry networking affiliations or training.

5. Consider a Different Compensation Model

Leisure and hospitality employers across the country often have to increase wages to attract and retain workers, especially during peak seasons. Given this competition for talent, it may be worth considering a more sustainable compensation model for service industry workers. For example, minimum wage plus tips is a standard pay model in the restaurant industry.

Although it may feel like too risky (or expensive) a proposition, restaurant owners who consider a salaried front-of-house staff immediately gain an advantage for attracting top talent. Salaried front-of-house staff create a better customer experience because they’re not focused on “turn and burn” tactics that rush diners so that the server can seat more customers and earn more tips. A better experience means more referrals and repeat customers—and a more profitable business.

For other leisure and hospitality job positions, compensation models that include profit sharing or bonuses for meeting business goals also serve as incentives that attract and retain employees who work hard and serve customers with the highest standards.

Get Your Business in Front of the Best Leisure and Hospitality Professionals

One of the best ways to manage the ups and downs of staffing your business is to maintain a viable pool of applicants. Once you’ve crafted a clear, specific, concise job description, jumpstart the search for your business’s perfect fit. Post your listing for free on Monster and attract the best candidates.

Use Your Small Business Website to Recruit a Great Team

Small businesses often have less name recognition than larger companies, so your small business website might be the first introduction potential customers, clients, and candidates have to your company. Make it a good first impression by designing an on-brand homepage with clear navigation to the other pages on your site and your social media profiles.

Use your homepage copy as an elevator pitch for your small business. Describe what your small business does, its mission and values, and the value proposition. You can use additional pages to sell your products and services and “sell” your company as a great place to work.

Follow these best practices to create a website that will help you increase revenue and recruit top talent.

“About Us” Page

Potential customers, clients, and candidates want to learn your brand story. Share why you started your small business and more information about your company’s history. You may want to include creative elements like photos and a timeline.

Impress people with some of the recognition your small business has received. It’s helpful to mention any awards your business has won and include press clippings with links to the full story. You could also feature client or customer testimonials and product reviews.

Team Page

Let clients and candidates “meet” the people they’d be working with by creating a team page that highlights the people who make your business successful. Instead of writing bland bios, encourage team members to share their hobbies and interests out of the office.

Depending on your company culture, you could get creative with your design and include fun props or photos of team members and their pets. Use this section of your small business website to share photos of your office or workspace and your team at work.

Career Page

Your career page gives you an opportunity to go into more detail and add more creative elements than you can in your job descriptions. The best career pages include these components:

Job Postings

In addition to posting your job descriptions on popular job boards, post them on your small business website to drive traffic to your career page. Maximize reach by including the keywords and terms candidates are likely to use when they use a search engine to look for similar jobs. If you’re hiring a janitor, for example, you could also use the titles “custodian,” “cleaning person,” and “superintendent.”

Since you have more room on your career page, you could share the next steps in the hiring process at your small business so that candidates know what to expect. You could also include advice and an FAQ section with the answers to common questions people have about the hiring process or working at your company.

Company Culture

Candidates want to work with people who share similar professional values and goals. Showcase your team’s core values, such as collaboration, teamwork, innovation, accountability, kindness, and learning. Show your commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace by sharing your company’s diversity and inclusion statement and initiatives like employee resource groups (ERGs).

It can be helpful to include short video or written interviews with team members from various departments. Ask them to describe the company culture, their role and responsibilities, and what they like best about working at your small business.

Benefits and Perks

This is where you’ll note the benefits you offer, such as health insurance, retirement plans, commute stipends, paid time off, and paid parental leave. Next, mention any perks of working at your small business as opposed to a larger business. For example, you may want to highlight the flat organizational structure, collaborative company culture, flexible schedule, remote work options, casual dress code, and fun team-building events.

It’s valuable to showcase professional development initiatives, such as training programs, mentorship programs, and learning stipends. Employees at a small business often have a wider range of responsibilities than they would at a larger business with more defined roles, meaning they can learn new skills and advance at a faster rate. If that’s the case, mention it on your small business website.

Blog Page

You may want to create a blog page to share company updates and advice. A blog is likely to increase traffic to your website because it generates new search engine optimization (SEO) keywords.

If you have a service business, it is helpful to share relevant advice that will interest your potential clients and candidates. For example, if you run a marketing agency, you could share actionable digital advertising, social media, and website optimization advice.

Use Your Small Business Website to Build Your Team

After implementing these best practices, your website will demonstrate the benefits of joining your small business. Sign up to receive hiring advice, trends, and news from Monster so you can recruit a talented team with the necessary skills and experience to make your small business even more successful.

Corner Office Q&A: Wells Fargo’s Sean Passmore

 

Sean Passmore leads the Military Talent Strategic Sourcing team and oversees enterprise military and veteran initiatives at Wells Fargo. As a retired service member, he understands the challenges of transitioning from the military to a second career, and he also appreciates the value of recruiting veterans to contribute to a company’s success.

Here, he talks with Monster about making the jump from military to civilian work, the importance of a veteran recruiting strategy, and why it’s crucial to have veterans on your team.

How did you make a successful transition from the military to a civilian career?

For me, it was really about three things: Starting early, doing a gap analysis, and then closing that gap. When I worked at the White House Communications Agency, which was my last assignment, I knew I’d be retiring in four years, so I really got to work early on this thing I called a gap analysis.

It was about researching the jobs and the companies that I felt like I wanted to work for. What do those people look like who are working in those roles at those companies? I compared myself to those people working in those positions and identified the gap — what do they have that I don’t? Then I really tried to use that time as efficiently as possible while still serving in the military.

To do that, that meant earning a master’s degree. I chose a university with a reputable business school, but also that had a program that was flexible enough for me to continue serving in the military at the White House, which was a very demanding role. I also earned a professional certification: my PMP (Project Management Professional). I continued to network and do informational interviews. Those are the things that led to me eventually landing in a great career with a good company.

What would you say has helped you the most so far in your career?

I think it’s been mostly about just trying to do the absolute best job I could do while serving in the role I was in — not really focusing on ‘How do I get the next promotion,’ not trying to network with people who I thought could help me climb the ladder — just doing the best I could do at what the company asked me to do at the time.

Another thing, I’ve always really tried to add value to other people’s work, which is the best type of networking — focusing on being a good partner, trying to give more in value than I take, and then network through my job performance. I’ve always felt it’s important to treat people well no matter what the role is, and no matter where they fall.

Third, I think it’s always about trying to do what’s best for the larger team over the longer term. Sometimes this has meant not doing what might be best for myself or my team over the short term, but really understanding and supporting the organizations’ greatest business priorities.

What hurdles have you encountered along the way?

A hurdle is an obstacle you can see in front of you. For me, I think the obstacles that I’ve found most challenging were the ones I didn’t see. I’m talking about my blind spot, and all transitioning veterans have these.

I was very often frustrated by what I perceived to be hesitant decision-making by corporate leaders. The military is a culture of action. Leaders are decisive, and the environment really demands that. After leaving the military, solutions to problems seemed so evident to me, and I was very irritated that nobody would just make a decision.

What I wasn’t aware of was that there are so many variables that were being weighed in the decision-making process. It seemed to me to be a very simple decision in one business unit, but it can cause a ripple effect on many more leaders in different business units. I had no awareness and appreciation of the second and third-order effects. But it’s a very common blind spot. The sooner you realize it’s a blind spot, the better off you are.

Another one is really just becoming comfortable with the idea of self-promotion. Generally speaking, military leaders are very quick to pass any and all credit for a job well done to their subordinates and equally as quick to accept blame for anything that wasn’t successful. I learned it’s really important to be able to influence and advocate for yourself, for your ideas, your programs and your own achievements. This places me miles outside my comfort zone, even now, seven years after leaving military service.

Why is it important to develop a veteran hiring recruitment strategy?

We know that veterans bring collaboration, leadership, problem solving, resilience, agility. The list goes on and on for why you want to bring veterans into the workforce. I key in on this idea of developing a strategy.

Veteran recruiting isn’t as easy as it sounds. You don’t just wake up in the morning and decide you want to hire veterans. It’s just like any other business program or initiative — you need to think strategically, develop an operating model. You need to incorporate communications and marketing strategies to create a military-friendly employer brand, and optimize paid media strategy to attract passive military candidates.

Also, it’s critical to engage in and maintain healthy relationships with veteran-serving military bases. This all helps extend your reach into the veteran job community.

What best practices have you learned in terms of veteran recruiting and hiring?

Number one, unquestionably you have to have buy-in from the most senior levels of leadership. Without executive sponsorship, you’re going to feel like you’re pushing a giant rock up a very steep hill and you’re unlikely to be successful.

Two, if you want to hire more veterans, I would encourage people to start in their talent acquisition workforce. Hire veterans and military spouses as recruiters and talent sourcers and it will spread from there.

Three, veterans are notorious disqualifiers. They often can’t or don’t see themselves in our job descriptions or minimum requirements. Companies can increase the number of vet applicants by including veteran-friendly language in job postings and by allowing military service equivalencies in the job requirements: “Three years project manager experience or successful completion of military service.”

I also think it’s a good idea when companies include veterans on the interview panel. That veteran may recognize relevant experience that others don’t, and may be able to ask probing questions that can help the veteran candidate better demonstrate the value of that experience to the other interview panelists.

Have you noticed any measurable impacts from having veterans in the workforce?

We know that veterans bring the ability to learn new things quickly and adapt to new environments. Those things are not measurable, but these traits have become abundantly clear to us.

Boots to Banking is our high-volume veteran hiring program. Since 2018, we’ve hired more than 550 veterans through our Boots to Banking program. We conducted a study recently comparing the work quality of a class of Boots to Banking customer service reps against their civilian service peers. What we found is that the veterans outperformed their civilian peers in five out of six KPIs (key performance indicators). That really just points to their ability to learn new things and adapt to new environments.

And not as quantitative, but no less important, are the character traits veterans bring to our organization. At Wells Fargo, we expect six things from our employees: Embrace candor, learn and grow, be great at execution, champion diversity, equity and inclusion, do what is right, and build high-performing teams. I would argue that there really is nowhere better to find these traits than in the men and women who’ve served our country.

Want to improve your veteran hiring initiatives?

As Sean mentioned, successful veteran hiring programs are made overnight. He shared a number of excellent, actionable strategies and tactics to get started. If you’d like to read about how other companies developed their veteran recruitment programs, download our free veteran hiring guide.

How to Make Upskilling Part of Your Recruitment Strategy

Employers can’t fill open positions because they can’t find applicants with the skills they need. Meanwhile, job seekers desperate for work but lacking critically needed skills feel discouraged from applying for those roles. This leaves recruiters and hiring managers frustrated by the challenge of closing the gap. It’s not exactly a feel-good story. The good news? There’s a solution to this problem: upskilling.

Over the next few decades, millions of workers will be displaced as the need for some physical and basic cognitive skills is replaced by automation. Meanwhile, employers will be scrambling to find applicants with high-level cognitive abilities, social competencies, and tech skills. Plus, the timing could not be worse. An aging workforce and looming mass retirements have triggered a talent and knowledge gap that is only exacerbating the skills gap.

This gap, no matter how deep, can be navigated as long as you have the right tools and the right strategy. The five strategies below are designed to help you upskill your workforce and successfully narrow the skills gap.

1. Conduct a Skills-Gap Analysis

The first step toward developing an upskilling strategy is to conduct a skills-gap analysis. Begin by determining your company’s goals at a point in the future—say, five years from now. The timeframe will vary by industry, but you must look well beyond the next quarter or even the next year.

Next, determine what jobs you suspect will be most affected by automation during that timeframe. Look at which new roles automation might create by taking stock of what skills are most sought after in your industry currently and in the years to come.

Then, take stock of the skills and knowledge your employees will need but do not yet possess to reach your future goals. This may involve comparing your company’s current job descriptions to the list of skills you suspect will be most critical in the future. You can also conduct an inventory of your workforce’s current skills based on performance reviews and similar metrics, or by having your staff complete task-based skills assessments.

2. Redesign Your Job Descriptions

Once you’ve conducted your skills-gap analysis, begin redesigning your job descriptions at every level to include the skills:

  • You are short of now.
  • You anticipate needing it in the near future.
  • You predict you’ll need it for years to come.

In the business world that is rapidly unfolding before our eyes, nearly all workers will need technical skills, customer focus, and an adaptable attitude toward change. Build in flexible core competencies like customer focus, a love of learning, and a facility with technology, rather than specific skills like experience with a certain platform or software suite.

Gone are the days when you could create a job description with a shopping list of dream qualities and expect to find your unicorn. You’ll need to manage expectations and be willing to hire for potential rather than immediate job readiness. Start by revamping your existing job descriptions for current staff and then work to help them attain anticipated must-have skills.

From there, you have three options: Train your current workforce, begin recruiting a more adaptable workforce, or do both simultaneously.

3. Create an Upskilling Program for Your Current Workforce

If you’ve already done an in-house skills assessment, you should have a good idea of which employees lack the skills you will need in the future. You may also have identified your most adaptable employees, who can be upskilled or even move into different roles. From here you have a few options as you work to develop a learning and development program.

Employers in sectors such as light industrial, manufacturing, and logistics will need to aggressively invest in upskilling their existing staff to both retain and recruit the workers they will need to remain competitive. The good news is that today’s workers are highly incentivized to take advantage of training benefits through their existing employers and to seek out employers willing to retrain them.

Depending on the size of your organization, you might partner with a trusted staffing agency to create a training program, contract with a training vendor that can create a customized upskilling program for you, or hire someone to head up in-house skills development that includes self-guided learning modules.

4. Recruit and Hire Adaptable Employees

As mentioned in Step 2, employers need to begin shifting their hiring strategies toward recruiting for potential rather than for a specific skillset that is likely to have a short shelf life. Hiring managers and recruiters will need to convince employers that their desire to hire applicants who can “hit the ground running” is not sustainable. For some, this will mean convincing executives with an eye on the quarterly bottom line that they need to adapt their expectations to the reality of a changing employment landscape.

Instead, you’ll need to target your hiring practices and strategies to find applicants with “soft” skills that lend themselves to career-long learning: critical thinking, problem solving, curiosity, and patience. While 46% of newly onboarded employees are considered failed hires within the first 18 months, 89% didn’t last because of a lack of soft skills such as coachability and interpersonal relationship building, rather than technical incompetence.

As you look for your newly defined ideal employees, be sure to mention in-house training benefits in your descriptions. This increasingly popular job perk can help you attract the kinds of curious lifelong learners your workplace will need in the coming decades to keep up with the rapid pace of change.

5. Invest in Training at All Levels

Upskilling employees and offering training benefits as part of your compensation practices builds loyalty among top performers, increasing worker productivity and innovation. When coupled with mentoring, career development, and promoting from within, investment in employee training saves time and money you would otherwise spend on recruiting and onboarding, and then some.

The best strategy is an aggressive one. Don’t just offer apprenticeships and internships to forge relationships with promising students and recent graduates or intense training during onboarding and then drop it after the first year of employment. A comprehensive skills development program needs to include aggressive training of prospective hires, new employees, and existing personnel.

Some particularly in-demand roles, such as an Agile Coach or information architect, may become very difficult to fill. If the need arises, consider gauging whether some of your top-performing employees may be interested in training for these sought-after roles.

Be generous. Offer tuition reimbursement. Use your skills-gap analysis to pinpoint underutilized employees with hidden potential. The loyalty you cement in your workforce through these gestures won’t just pay off in increased skills acquisition; it also will save you time and money otherwise spent on recruitment and training when the next hiring crisis emerges.

You Know How to Use Upskilling to Conquer the Skills Gap, Now Get More Winning Strategies

Hiring is an ever-moving target in a shifting business landscape. Monster’s latest recruiting guides can help you navigate all your employee recruitment and retention challenges and come out ahead.

New grad survey: anxiety, desperation and salary woes revealed

COVID-19 has cast a longer shadow on the job market than anyone expected, and new grads are still feeling the pinch. Almost a year past their graduation, a surprising 45% of the class of 2020 are still looking for work, according to a survey of 1,000 recent and impending U.S. college graduates conducted by Monster. And this year’s class expects to spend five months searching for the right job.

That’s not the only interesting finding. Monster asked this emerging Gen Z workforce about their expectations for entry-level jobs, salaries, gig work and job fit. Here’s where they stand:

Covid has set them back

Graduating from college is a hopeful time of life, but recent and impending grads are feeling the COVID slowdown. Not only is nearly half of last year’s class still looking for work, but 85% of new grads say their career goals have been set back by a month or more, and 29% expect a delay of over six months. Another 66% of grads are not very optimistic that they’ll get a job that fits their career goals.

In fact, desperation drove about three-quarters of grads (73%) and 63% of non-college Gen Zers to take a job that didn’t fit their career goals. Why the desperation? Money and experience topped the list:

Why take a job that didn’t fit your career goals?GradsNon-college
Needed money45%39%
Needed experience25%16%
Pay off student loans20%NA
Sick of searching16%14%
Parental pressure14%13%
Afraid they’d get no other offers14%14%

Grads—especially POC—are feeling pessimistic about salary potential

It’s not just lost time: College grads expect to be paying for the COVID-19 pandemic. A surprising 69% of recent and impending grads expect lower salaries as a result of COVID-19.

And the pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on communities of color. More than three in four grads of color (77%) expect a lower starting salary as the result of COVID-19, significantly more than the 65% of their white peers who say the same. The gap is even starker among Hispanic grads (85%) to non-Hispanic grads (66%).

They’re worried about their resumes

With millions still unemployed, it’s a tough time to be a job seeker. And Gen Z has some concerns about putting their best foot forward: Sixty-three percent of college grads and 52% of non-college Gen Zers worry that their resumes don’t accurately represent what they bring to the table.

Grads of color (70%) are more likely than white grads (61%) to have these resume worries. Nearly three in four Hispanic grads (73%) say the same, compared to 62% of non-Hispanic grads.

More than two-thirds (68%) of college grads also believe employers will judge COVID-related resume gaps. Interestingly, 38% of employers say resume gaps aren’t the red flags they were before COVID-19, according to Monster’s Future of Work report. Despite a glut of job seekers, employers are still working to find qualified candidates with the right skills, and many more people have resume gaps now due to the pandemic.

On a positive note, Gen Z feels prepared: 79% of grads feel their degree is equal to or more valuable than real job experience. (But both non-college and college seekers know that training is the path to their company of choice.)

They have first-job fears

Gone are the days when college grads expected to start at the very bottom of the ladder. About seven out of 10 Gen Z grads say they’re overqualified for entry-level work. And 68% of graduates and 66% of non-college Gen Zers say entry-level work should last less than six months, before either getting promoted or moving to a different job.

(Conversely, 39% of recruiters say finding candidates with the right skills will be .)

Another 85% worry they’ll miss out on positive job experiences because they started work during the pandemic. When asked what they’ll miss most, they point to:

  • In-person coworker connection (40%)
  • On-site perks (36%)
  • Mentorship (34%)
  • An office setting (33%)

They’re flexible about how they find work

Job hunting doesn’t have to be the formal, buttoned-up affair it used to be. In fact, both grads (68%) and non-college Gen Zers (60%) would do an entire job search and interview by text, the survey found.

They’re also willing to go to the job, if the job doesn’t want to come to them. The majority of grad (72%) and non-college Gen Zers (58%) would relocate for a job if the search took too long.

They’re keeping their options open

Gig work is here to stay, and both college and non-college grads are into it. Nearly a third (30%) of college grads intend to take on gig, freelance or temp work until they get a full-time job—and 23% intend to keep at it even after finding a full-time job. Similar numbers of non-college grads (26%) plan to freelance until they find full-time work, and 24% will keep freelancing after that.

Refine your new grad hiring strategy

Dig into the details of Monster’s latest survey and get strategies for landing talented new grads. Download our free new grad hiring guide to learn more.

Corner Office Q&A: Joyce Russell

Joyce Russell started her career at Adecco in 1987 as a branch manager, and over the next 30 years, held a number of leadership positions, including president of Adecco USA from 2004 to 2018. In 2019, she was appointed to her current role as president of the Adecco Group US Foundation.

At its core, staffing is about people. And while Joyce Russell certainly knows how to grow a business, her superpower is finding the best people, fertilizing them, and watching them grow. As the daughter of a tomato farmer, she knows a thing or two about how to reap a fruitful harvest.

In fact, her delightful book, Put a Cherry on Top: Generosity in Life & Leadership, starts with her childhood in Florida, where her roots in “fertilizing” began. The rest is all about helping people and going the extra mile, whether it’s showing a client you’re the only one for the job, or the importance of rewarding a rock star team member for excellent performance.

But with Joyce, the cherry on top is the extra effort and attention to detail that make everything just a little bit better.  A cherry on top expresses love and appreciation for others. Joyce has been known as “the quintessential people person in the people industry,” and she shows recognition by listening and then supporting the people and causes she cares about.

Monster had a conversation with Russell over Zoom recently, to ask about the secrets of her success, and the work she’s doing with the Adecco Group US Foundation.

What qualities do you think helped you rise from branch manager to president of a global organization like Adecco?

I never planned to be the president of a $2.3 billion business when I joined Adecco. I just had a plan to do the very best at the job I was in, and then to put a cherry on top. And, to perform better than anybody would have expected.

How did you first get your start at Adecco?

I had just moved to Charlotte, North Carolina and joined a small staffing company called Adia. In 1996, Adia merged with Ecco and became Adecco. At that time, there were two regional banks in Charlotte. One called NCNB which is now Bank of America, and the other was First Union, now Wells Fargo.

I feel like I joined the right company at just the right time, and I was able to capitalize on the growth of the Charlotte market. My philosophy was, in order to own the market, I had to own the best places to work, and the banks were among the best places to work in Charlotte.

What’s your magic formula for growing great teams?

It starts with taking your time to hire the best people and making sure they are a good fit for the position and the culture of the company.  Second, make the investments of time and resources to train and develop new colleagues, and work side by side every day role-modeling the behavior you expect.  Third, reward and recognize performance.  And then of course, have a ton of fun along the way!

Were there any mentors who had a big impact on you as you grew at Adecco?

I got really lucky. A retired Army brigadier general named Ray Roe came to run our company. The COO job came up, and I didn’t think I’d get it because all of the other candidates were men.  I interviewed for the job, and to my surprise, he picked me to be the Chief Operating Officer.  It was one of the pivotal times in my career.

Ray had an amazing way of teaching some of the lessons he learned from his years in the military. He explained that our regional vice presidents are like battalion commanders in the Army. He said “You will not win the war alone, Joyce. Your battalion commanders, your regional vice presidents in the field decide whether you take the hill or not. They have the direct relationships with the people in the field. So, your goal is to make sure they’re the right leaders and that they can influence their teams to take the hill for you.”

How did you differentiate yourself and Adecco as you kept growing the business?

I firmly believe what I talk about in chapter four of the book: service never goes out of style. If you are always focused on the customer’s success versus your own, then your business will grow.

We were focused on making the best possible matches for the client, and in helping clients solve their most pressing problems.  I believe in over-delivering in terms of quality and service, and always going above and beyond what is expected.

So, how do you go above and beyond?

I think the main thing, and that’s where the title of my book “Put a Cherry on Top” comes from, is to create a service mentality. In our industry, there are three things: the quality of the product, the service that’s delivered, and the value that you see in those two components.

Here’s an example from the field: We have a customer in Memphis, and the work is always on the third shift. Most of the associates are mothers doing data entry in the middle of the night. We know those moms have put their kids to bed and have left their home and family to go to work. We decided to surprise our associates at 3:00 am with donuts from Krispy Kreme. Most services aren’t doing that. They aren’t going out in the middle of the night to make sure their workers know how much they are appreciated.

That’s just one example, but we’re constantly thinking about how the employees or associates might be impacted by making a little extra effort and putting the cherry on top. Right now, we’re doing that with the foundation and putting the cherry on top with reskilling.

What inspired you to shift gears and lead the foundation?

I’d been leading the Adecco Staffing business for 14 years. The company has foundations in Switzerland, France, Italy and Spain.  They were very interested in establishing a foundation in the United States, and they asked me to lead that effort. In January 2019, we launched the Adecco Group US Foundation, and I am very proud of the work we are doing.

What did you decide were the three things you wanted to focus on?

We created three pillars, and you won’t believe what we picked. Remember, this was two and a half years ago. The first one is upskilling and reskilling. The second one is women’s leadership, and workplace equality and inclusion. And the third is giving back in our local communities – charitable giving.

In terms of reskilling and upskilling, we want to provide an opportunity for workers to learn new skills and to be ready for the future of work.

We looked at where businesses are going and what skills would be lacking, and we created a free academy called Aspire. Courses include medical billing and coding, administrative careers, call center, welding, and supervisor training, all for free! We’ve identified over 20 technical skills that are going to be needed to be relevant in the workforce.

Are you also creating courses for other skills?

Yes. We are now thinking about the soft skills, or what I prefer to call human skills: communication, problem solving, conflict resolution, growth mindset, and stress management. We want to expand the academy for the human skills. I believe that’s going to take people faster to their next career than even the technical skills.

Many companies are trying to find ways to help women and other caregivers rebound after COVID-19. This sounds like one way to achieve that.

In the last year, nearly three million women have dropped out of the workforce to take care of their children, help with homeschooling, or to take care of aging parents. As someone who’s been caring for aging parents this last year, I understand that it’s not easy. I feel like we’re really going to have to give women more when they return to the workplace to get them caught up from what they missed in the last 18 months.

My brain is already spinning about how we can accelerate that, or how we can offer opportunities that aren’t in the typical timeframe. For example, if someone says, “I can only work after 9:00pm because I need to get my children to bed and then work”, how can we put courses online with instructors at night so they can do this work to accommodate them? I’m trying to be innovative and creative around that.

Do you think the world will embrace remote work in a bigger way after COVID-19? 

I think it’s going to be a hybrid model. I don’t think it will be 100% remote. If you think about banking, I do some of my banking online, but sometimes I need to go into a branch. So, I think there’s going to be a hybrid model of how that looks, depending on the business. Some businesses can be completely digital, and some might be a higher-touch model.

When it comes to empowering women at work, you’ve said that you prefer the sponsorship model over mentorship. Can you explain what that means?

I like both, and they’re both important. But there is a huge difference between sponsorship and mentorship. Mentorship is more about spending time with someone and giving them career guidance and advice. Sponsorship is when you “put your name on someone” and your credibility behind them. You are essentially vouching for that person with your reputation.

Your book, “Put a Cherry on Top: Generosity in Life & Leadership” came out last year and it’s got so many great stories about yourself personally, but also about the secrets of your success. Why did you write the book now?

For over 30 years, I had all these little vignettes and stories that I had filed away, but I never had time running the business to write a book. Sarah Davis and I worked together for most of my career, and we had often talked about writing a book, but we had never actually gotten around to it.  In 2019, we were finally able to put some of the stories to paper, and the book was published in March 2020, right before the world shut down with the COVID-19 pandemic.

You shared some of your industry secrets in this book. Why did you decide to share so much?

I wanted to tell the story in an honest and authentic way, and part of that is sharing what actually happened. I didn’t change the narrative. Rather, it is my hope that others can learn from my experiences, and I wanted to share everything.

There’s a sense from reading your book that staffing is about more than just building a billion-dollar businesses to you. You talk a lot about purpose.

Every time we made a match, we were helping the customer be more successful. It wasn’t just about increasing revenue. It’s about how you can you help your customer achieve their goals AND connect someone to a great job.  I was always excited about the impact we made by connecting great talent to great companies.

Do you feel a renewed sense of purpose now, being part of the industry that’s rebuilding the world’s workforce?

I do. I think we’ll make a big mark after COVID-19. Getting America back to work, getting the world back to work. Our industry is always first to come back. People bring contingent or flexible labor back first because they’re not sure what the market will bear. We’re going to be on the front line of helping America rebound. And that feels good.

I love my job. I hope that shines through.  At this point in my life, I am enjoying my role as Chairman of the American Staffing Association. And most of all, I am passionate about the work we are doing and the difference we are making in the foundation – it’s the cherry on top of my career!

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7 Ways You Can Support Women in Leadership

If your organization has struggled to hire and retain women leaders, you’re not alone. Even though gender diversity in management improves innovation, employee engagement and retention rates, and profit margins, men still outnumber women by large ratios at the highest leadership levels in most workplaces.

Women earn more than half the college and advanced degrees awarded in the United States and have made gains in overall workforce participation. So why do the numbers for women in executive roles remain so disappointing?

Disparities begin at the first promotion level, when they’re less likely to cultivate the kind of relationships with company leadership that can aid in career advancement. From there, challenges mount at each stage of advancement, particularly at mid-career when women are more likely to ease up on their careers or even leave the workforce to shoulder caregiving responsibilities.

Armed with this information, there are steps employers can take to address these challenges and increase the number of women in leadership.

1. Focus on Promotion at the Early Management Level

Employers have focused resources and attention on recruiting women and men in equitable numbers, but more can be done to determine how to support women in the workplace in ways that will increase the number of women in leadership.

Men begin to break away from women at the first promotion level, when women are far less likely to put themselves forward or to be tapped by their direct supervisors for increased responsibility.

To address this systemic issue, you need to set goals for recruiting and promoting women at all levels, with a focus on entry-level management. Make recruitment, retention, and promotion of women part of performance criteria for all managers and executives in your company. Assess progress on this goal frequently by celebrating progress and being transparent when you fall short.

2. Support Women’s Professional Goals

Research shows that women receive higher performance assessments than men do. But there’s one key metric where women rank lower: leadership potential.

Supervisors are more likely to assume women are not interested in leadership roles, maybe because men are more likely to bring up their career goals in one-on-one meetings with supervisors. Women are also less likely than men to apply for promotions that they don’t think they are 100 percent qualified for.

Even when they are promoted into management, women in leadership roles face gender-based biases, such as being interrupted more often during meetings and presentations.

Antibias training, especially for managers who write performance reviews and have a say in promotions, can increase inclusion. Encourage managers to have conversations with high-achieving women employees about their career aspirations.

Whenever you have an open management position, make sure that:

  • The job description doesn’t read like an impossible-to-fulfill wish list of attributes that might dissuade qualified women from applying.
  • There are internal women candidates still in the running for the position at the final stages of your hiring process.

3. Provide Flexibility

Caregiving—for children and other family members—still falls disproportionately on women. This means many women are unable to devote the hours and energy they would like to building their careers. Others end up leaving the workplace entirely.

Employers can ease these pressures for all employees facing caregiving challenges by offering flexible, remote, and hybrid work schedules. They can also sponsor flexible savings accounts (FSAs) to help pay for childcare and eldercare.

In addition, top leadership can model work-life balance by taking time off and resisting the urge to send work emails at all hours. Communicating to employees that boundaries are important and respected can go a long way toward avoiding the kind of burnout that can lead top-performing women to jump ship before you have the chance to promote them into positions of leadership.

4. Address Pay Inequities Across the Board

Women, even women in leadership roles, still make significantly less than men, and the discrepancies for women of color are even more dramatic. Ensuring more transparency and equity in compensation can increase your chances of retaining top-performing women with leadership potential. It can also help you comply with the increasing number of state and municipal regulations that require pay equity and transparency.

5. Encourage Mentoring, Sponsorship, and Allyship

For women to catch up with men as workplace leaders, they need mentors, allies, and sponsors. A growing number of employers are encouraging mentor-protégé arrangements. These close relationships pair someone at a higher level of leadership with someone more junior to provide general advice and guidance. Though a mentor can be a supervisor, they are just as likely to be in a different department or even another company.

A sponsor is someone with the power to further your career, who is convinced of your potential and can speak on your behalf when promotion decisions are made. Women are less likely to secure these types of relationships with upper levels of management than men are. Employers need to be aware of this dynamic and encourage leaders to look for opportunities to forge sponsorship relationships with junior staff.

Allyship takes place at the coworker level. An ally might be someone who women can feel safe sharing frustrations with, especially frustrations that are a consequence of gender bias. An even better way to promote gender equity and make women feel supported in your organization is to sponsor an employee resource group (ESG) that focuses on gender equity and encourage men to join. The relationships formed through collaborative action on behalf of gender equity can have long-lasting effects on your company’s DEI goals.

6. Recognize and Reward the Contributions That Women Make

Women in leadership are more likely to check in on team members and provide the kind of support that maximizes performance. They are also more likely to be involved with DEI initiatives, community outreach, and employee morale initiatives. All of this work benefits organizations. Unfortunately, none of this is considered in the metrics used by most employers for internal promotions.

Incorporate these categories of labor into your promotional metrics and it should move the needle on the number of women who move into management and leadership roles at your organization.

7. Normalize Nonlinear Career Paths

Even with all of these measures in place, many talented women—and men—will opt to interrupt their career trajectory at some point for a host of reasons. Health challenges, caregiving and family responsibilities, educational and philanthropic opportunities can all affect career paths.

Today’s employers need to recognize that candidates with leadership potential may come with gaps in their resumes, and that the experiences those gaps represent sometimes make them better leaders. Opening up your hiring and promotion screening process to candidates who have less linear career paths will likely increase your company’s gender diversity in leadership roles.

Learn How to Support Women in Leadership and All Your Retention Goals

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How to Hire a 1099 Employee

The first thing you need to know about how to hire a 1099 employee is that, technically, there’s no such thing as a “1099 employee,” although it is a commonly used term.

It’s often used to describe an independent contractor who is engaged directly by an employer to either provide a service or work on a project. Employers who contract work with this category of consultants or gig workers are required to furnish them with an IRS 1099 form. In contrast, “W2 employees” are permanent workers hired on an ongoing basis who require W2 forms.

Referring to gig workers as “1099 employees” in the workplace isn’t accurate and could backfire. If your relationship with your 1099 contractors resembles the relationship you have with your permanent employees, you may violate state and federal employment laws. You may also find yourself the subject of an IRS audit.

The following guidelines should help you find the best contractors available.

When Does Hiring a ‘1099 Employee’ Make Sense?

Using contractors rather than employees can be a useful solution for a small business that is growing just fast enough to overwhelm its owners, keeping them at work well past 40 hours a week, but not quite fast enough to support hiring full-time permanent help.

Let’s say you’re a chef and, unless you’re estimating ingredient measurements, numbers aren’t your strong suit. A self-employed bookkeeper or accountant could be the magic ingredient you need. Or, maybe your bakery’s online orders aren’t where you’d like them to be and it’s time to hire a professional website designer. You get the idea. If any of these scenarios sound familiar, it may be time to learn how to hire a ‘1099 employee’, without running afoul of the IRS or federal or state labor laws.

Hiring these specialists on a contract basis can buy you and your full-time employees time to focus on core business tasks, without the added time and expense that comes with hiring permanent staff.

The Benefits of Hiring an Independent Contractor

Using a contract worker allows you to pay for work only when it’s needed and only if the work gets done. You also take on a bit less liability if you choose to end the relationship, as compared to firing an employee. These relationships also tend to come with less paperwork and less complicated tax withholding procedures.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) offers useful summaries of the many laws and agencies governing employment classification. In addition, laws vary from state to state and even among municipalities, but if you’re able to answer “yes” to the following questions about your freelancer(s), then you’re probably in compliance:

  • Do they work for more than one client?
  • Do they control their hours?
  • Do they work off-site?
  • Are they working on a defined project with a deadline?

How to Hire a ‘1099 Employee’: The Basics

As with any job, when you’re looking to hire a ‘1099 employee’ you’ll want to craft a well-worded job description, ask relevant interview questions, and check references. The only difference is that you’ll need to emphasize the parameters of the employment relationship during each step of the hiring process, starting with the job description.

State clearly, early, and more than once in your job posting that the role is not permanent and that whoever you hire will not be an official employee. Try to describe the contractor’s role in more than one way. For example, your ad might include the word “contractor” or “freelance” in the job title. Then, you might include descriptions such as “freelance role” or “contract position” in the first paragraph.

You may also want to include some key soft skills in your job description that good contract workers need to have, such as the ability to work independently. You’ll also want to include popular search terms that gig workers tend to use when looking for their next project, including “freelance,” “contractor,” “flexible,” and “independent.”

Once you begin interviewing contractors, reiterate that the role is not a staff position. Ask them directly:

  • Are you okay with taking on this assignment in a freelance capacity?
  • Are you comfortable working independently or do you prefer to work as part of a team?
  • How do you react to suggestions and constructive criticism?

How to Hire Independent Contractors You Can Trust

Any contractor you engage will likely have access to some vulnerable aspects of your business. A cleaning service may be on the premises when you are not. Any freelancer working on your computer platforms can pose a cybersecurity risk. A bookkeeper or accountant will have access to details of your financial life.

Before you enter into a business relationship with a contract worker, you’ll want to check their credentials. Ask to talk to some of their other clients, check out their presence and customer reviews on social media, and consider running a background check.

Once Your 1099 Worker Begins Working for You

Before your consultant or freelancer begins working for you, make sure you determine whether you will be paying them hourly or on a per-project basis. Then draft a contractor agreement that reflects the nature of the working relationship using words and phrases like “project basis,” “independent contractor,” and “not an employee.” Describe the work that will be done, the deadlines, and the payment structure. Clarify equipment use, confidentiality, and ownership rights over any intellectual property that results from the project. Finally, make sure to include a termination clause.

If you hire 1099 workers directly, rather than through an employment agency, you will need to set up the following IRS paperwork:

  • W-9 form
  • 1099-NEC form

Assuming you pay your contractor more than $600 in any calendar year, you will need to send a copy of the 1099-NEC to the contractor and the IRS by January 31. If you pay via a third-party service, such as a credit card or PayPal, you may need to provide a 1099-K. If you used a 1099-MISC for contractors in the past, be aware that this form is now used for other purposes.

When Is It Time to Turn Your Contractor Into an Employee?

When a function you thought would be peripheral to your core business grows beyond your original plan, it’s probably time to offer your 1099 contractor a permanent position. If the DOL, IRS, or state labor regulators believe you’re using contractors as permanent employees, you can find yourself liable for multiple penalties.

Let’s revisit our bakery scenario to illustrate: If you now own three bake shops, and as a result, your contract bookkeeper is billing you for 40 hours a week, and you just found out you’re her only client, then say goodbye to that 1099 and print out a fresh W2. It’s time to offer your contractor permanent employment.

Learn How to Hire a ‘1099 Employee’ to Tackle Your Projects

If you have projects eating up your time and distracting from your core business functions, you’ll want to start looking for high-caliber contract workers to take some of that work off your plate. Here at Monster, we’re ready to help. Find out how to start checking those distracting boxes off your to-do list by posting your next job with us for free.

How to Hire a Social Media Manager

Once upon a time, a company that wanted to hire a social media manager would just delegate the one-off task to a tech-savvy son or niece. But, with billions of people worldwide using social networks, it has become an in-demand skill set, one that small businesses can’t afford to treat as an afterthought. In fact, 2016 marked a “royal” ascent of social media careers, with UK’s Royal Communication office seeking applicants to serve as Queen Elizabeth II’s social media editor.

The number of social media platforms, content formats, and never-ending buzz about the next big thing for online marketing can make hiring a social media manager seem daunting. After all, the candidate you hire will be responsible for managing one of your business’s biggest asset: its online reputation.

Prepare yourself to make the right hire by using the following considerations and steps as a guide:

  1. Understand what social media managers (and social media marketers) do.
  2. Approach the market with clear eyes: it’s very competitive!
  3. Write a compelling job description to attract top candidates.
  4. Look for flexible candidates willing to learn new skills and methods.
  5. Post your opening on a highly visible job board.

1. Should You Hire a Social Media Manager or a Social Media Marketer?

Don’t panic. You’re not alone if you don’t know the difference, but you’ll want to understand some of the distinctions between the two (sometimes separate) roles. The short answer is that for small businesses, the social media manager often wears both hats, working with leadership to develop a marketing strategy for social media as well as managing the accounts and executing that strategy.

It may seem like splitting hairs as far as titles are concerned, but it’s not. Understanding the difference between the two will help you attract a pool of candidates with experience more closely matched to your needs.

2. Be Prepared to Compete for Top Social Media Manager Talent

From Fortune 500 companies to non-profit organizations to the popular neighborhood coffee shop, consumers expect businesses of all sizes and industries to have an active social media account. That expectation sparked a 1000 percent increase in job postings for social media managers between 2010 and 2020. The role also pays well and is described as satisfying work.

With all the momentum in the field, the push to hire a social media manager will require you to put on your marketing hat as well. Making your business more attractive to candidates may include:

  • Showing your commitment to work-life balance
  • Promoting opportunities for training and growth
  • Branding your business as one with strong values and ethics

3. Craft a Detailed Social Media Manager Job Description

One of the most difficult aspects of hiring a social media manager is deciding on the skills needed for that employee to succeed. When writing the job description, avoid using vanity metrics like page views, followers, and subscribers as the sole benchmark. Instead, think about how the social media manager’s job can have a positive impact on key business objectives like generating leads, decreasing customer service calls, or fast public relations responses during crisis management.

Once you have a clear understanding of how the social media manager fits into your business, you’ll have a better idea of what skills and experience to include in the job description. Requiring samples of their work and accounts they’ve managed for previous companies allows you critical insight into their real abilities. It’s also important to clearly state whether writing, graphic design, and video editing will be a part of their responsibilities.

Another way to be clear about your requirements as you seek to hire a social media manager is to use a “Day in the Life” framework to write the description. Describe in detail how you imagine that employee would spend a typical day as a social media manager at your company. Ask other employees or colleagues to share their input and experiences working with a social media manager, if needed.

Your job description should have the following elements, in this order:

  • Introductory paragraph (try to capture their attention quickly)
  • List of job responsibilities
  • Description of work hours and benefits
  • List of necessary and desired qualifications and skills
  • Call to action (letting them know exactly how to apply for the job)

4. Hire a Social Media Manager Who is Flexible and Enjoys Learning

Even with a clear and detailed social media manager job description, chances are the role will change as new social media marketing formats and channels make their way to market. Hiring someone who knows how to implement current best practices while remaining open to emerging technology and trends will serve you well as you learn more about how to leverage social media in your business. Your interview questions should reveal whether your candidate has these traits.

Keeping up with trends is also an important part of successfully managing social media. Someone who enjoys staying in the know about your industry, competitors, and customers should also be high on your list of soft skills required for this role. While having a growth mindset is important for any job, it’s particularly vital for something as dynamic as social media management.

5. Put Your Knowledge to the Test and Hire a Social Media Manager

Finding the right candidate in a competitive landscape doesn’t have to be stressful or long and drawn out. Part of making the search for a social media manager easier and more efficient is getting in front of the right pool of candidates. Take advantage of Monster’s free job listing and move one step closer to hiring the perfect fit for your business.