admin, Author at Cura HR

Every year, millions of college students graduate and enter the workforce. Even with unemployment levels at record lows, some graduates are still struggling to find careers in their chosen fields after graduating.

Entry-level positions are a vital part of any company. Being able to fill these roles with talented, hard-working candidates is just as important as hiring qualified executives and leaders. Especially because many of these entry-level graduates will eventually become high performers and leaders within their industries.

Are you struggling to recruit talented upcoming employees? Don’t make the mistake of passing up a competent candidate solely due to their lack of experience. Here are a few tips and tricks for scouting out and identifying new talent.

Recruit Directly from Colleges

Most colleges have job boards, career platforms, and internship programs available. These opportunities can prove fruitful for soon-to-be graduates and employers looking for new talent. Contact a local university or community college and ask if you can promote careers on their job boards or careers page. If there is an upcoming college job fair, consider sponsoring and participating.

If you’re hesitant to hire a recent graduate, consider offering a seasonal internship opportunity. Internships provide college students with hands-on experience and possibly an income, as well. This is a great opportunity to receive additional support, and determine if the intern is a good longer-term asset for your team.

Make Your Messaging Clear

A study done by LinkedIn found that employees are 67% more engaged when companies talk about their culture regularly. More than ever, younger candidates are seeking companies whose messaging resonates with and is aligned with their beliefs. For example, if your company culture values knowledge sharing and strong commitment to clients, emphasize this in your job postings and on your careers page.

Your mission and vision statements should also be very clear. For example, if your company’s mission is to provide the best possible affordable clothing while also being eco-friendly, state that in your job postings and on your company website to find interviewees who resonate and align with your values.

Finally, make it clear in your job postings that the job is entry-level. If a job is entry-level, it should typically require 0-3 years of experience.

Up Your Social Media Game

College Pulse performed a survey that found that 48% of college students used LinkedIn as their primary social media platform for job searching. Using LinkedIn to promote your entry-level job listings is an effective way to reach recent college graduates.

Here are a few tips for writing effective LinkedIn job postings to appeal to recent graduates:

Use standard job titles rather than jargon-laden ones
Be as detailed as possible about job functions
Clearly list requirements (experience level, education, etc.)
Outline your values and company culture
Include details about your total rewards package (benefits, compensation, time off, etc.)
Offer opportunities for growth

LinkedIn also has features like InMail where you can contact potential candidates directly. Reaching out to recent or soon-to-be graduates allows you to connect with talented individuals on your own. If you see someone who fits the description of an outstanding candidate, reaching out directly allows you a chance to hire them before someone else. Keep in mind that InMail is a paid feature.

Know What New Talent Looks Like

Once you’ve found qualified candidates, it’s time to start interviewing. First and foremost, you should consider your company culture. Look within your company and consider the employees who are currently excelling. What traits do they have? What value do they bring to your business and teams? Consider these traits when interviewing potential employees, and look for them in responses to interview questions. We have a few interview tips prepared if you’re stuck.

Ideally, you’ll want to look for the following traits:

Invested in your company’s mission, vision and values
Highly motivated and willing to learn
Collaborative and team-oriented
Receptive to feedback
Ability to problem solve

Keep in mind, these candidates may have less experience than candidates in upper-level positions. Look for leadership experience in college clubs, internships, and part-time work opportunities.

Hire Up and Coming Talent With Cura HR

Between discerning who will be a good fit and getting your message to the right people, hiring new talent can be difficult. Cura helps companies build and nurture their greatest asset—their employees. Your people are your value center. Healthy, diverse, and productive work environments are conducive to attracting new talent and retaining existing teams.

We’d love to learn about your business and how we can leverage best-in-class HR practices to help you attract and retain upcoming talent.

Management serves functions beyond decision-making and bringing expertise to your business. Leading by example, managers set the tone of the workplace for all employees. Despite this, a study done by West Monroe found that 43% of new managers had not received any formal management training.

Creating effective development strategies for leadership at your company is essential for promoting best-in-class management practices. If you’re not sure where to start, the Cura team has effective training suggestions to help you develop your managers so they can optimize their leadership skills!

Soft Skills Training

Soft skills are essential for anyone in a leadership role. Soft skills training allows managers to better connect with employees in order to provide effective feedback, set goals and expectations, and build trusting and productive relationships. A manager with effective soft skills can promote a healthier work environment, which is good for your employees’ mental health.

You can promote soft skills development through either online or in-person courses. If you aren’t sure how to go about this, team Cura offers various training programs for managers and employees alike.

Conflict Resolution Techniques

Soft skills create the foundation for managers to be able to effectively handle and ideally, resolve conflict. Situations such as conflicts between employees can create disharmony in the workplace and can escalate quickly if not resolved. Training managers to both mediate conflict and identify when they need assistance from an HR partner to navigate the situation is important.

Take action to prevent conflict before it starts. Outline clear expectations for behavior, and educate both managers and employees on these practices regularly. Ensure company policies and practices are clear on how to address conflict if it does arise, and that they are followed consistently throughout the organization. Clearly outline the procedures for reporting an issue and consider using an anonymous reporting system allowing employees to inform leadership if they are not comfortable sharing with their manager.

Finally, know when to involve HR in workplace conflicts. More serious issues such as harassment, discrimination, and workplace violence should all be handled in partnership with an HR professional. If you are unsure about how to handle an issue, it’s best to consult with an expert.

Performance Evaluation and Feedback Standards

Effective performance reviews are a great way to show employees how well they are doing. Train managers to address performance evaluations in a thoughtful and productive way. Encourage regular and sincere constructive feedback, and celebrate when they are doing well. Conducting performance reviews and providing feedback should be done face to face when possible to build strong relationships and trust.

Also, partner with your team to establish goals and performance expectations for the upcoming review period. Consider what they are doing well, and the steps that can be taken to improve areas where they’re struggling. Don’t forget to offer support and resources to help them reach these goals.

Company and Legal Knowledge Training

Educate managers on all company policies and programs. It’s critical for them to know about everything from the Code of Conduct, to the Attendance Policy and everything in between. It’s important to be familiar with this information to help support, communicate and enforce policies and practices when needed. Additionally, ensure managers know how to deal with violations of company policies and the appropriate steps to take.

Managers should also be familiar with your products and services, company processes, mission, vision, and business model. The greater their knowledge of your organization, the better they can help advise customers and employees.

Finally, ensure that managers are familiar with state and federal employment laws and regulations. While these are generally overseen by HR experts, it’s important for all managers to be aware of regulations such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) laws, among others. Awareness of these laws and regulations is especially important because violating them can lead to serious repercussions for your business.

Create a Management Development Program with Cura HR

Manager training is an ever-evolving topic that needs to align with each organization’s unique needs. A new or experienced employee transitioning into management needs guidance and resources to set themselves and your company up for success.

Cura HR helps our clients identify and implement opportunities to level up their talent. We are certified in the most widely used and reputable people assessment tools, offer extensive manager and employee training, and facilitate effective team-building and development programs. We’d love to learn about your business and how we can help you to develop your team!

Hiring top talent is something every business strives for. After all, experienced and dedicated employees are always excellent to have on your team. As people gain experience, they develop and deepen their skills and competencies. Despite this, many older employees state that they face discrimination in their workplace due to their age. A survey done by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) found that 61% of respondents had experienced or witnessed discrimination based on age in their workplace.

This number is especially concerning since the workforce is getting older and working longer in their careers. This means that hiring and keeping experienced talent is more important than ever. Making sure that your workplace is accepting of people of all ages will ensure that you keep older employees satisfied with working at your company. If you’re not sure how to foster an age-inclusive company culture, here are a few suggestions to help.

What is Workplace Ageism?

Despite how common ageism is, many people do not know it exists. Ageism is a type of discrimination or prejudice that consists of treating an employee poorly compared to others because of their age. Age discrimination is prohibited by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which forbids discrimination and harassment of people over the age of 40 based on their age.

Combating Ageism in Your Workplace

Preventing age-based discrimination from happening at your company starts with implementing practices to raise awareness of biases and behaviors associated with ageism. Start by creating a training program to address unconscious biases. Unconscious bias training is an important part of promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace for everyone, which is something that Cura HR values within our organization.

Promoting an Inclusive Company Culture

When looking at your team, are there people of all different age groups? Or is your company dominated by people of a certain age group? Having a team of all ages promotes inclusivity and different perspectives, which helps employees and teams think creatively.

Ensure that managers and employees know that it’s not okay to make jokes about or comment on someone’s age. Remarks such as “OK Boomer or OK Snowflake,” “You are so young,” or “When are you going to retire?” are never appropriate in the workplace. Use age-inclusive language on your company’s website and social media channels, and include a statement about how promoting diversity in age is an important value to your company.

Be Conscious of Ageism Throughout the Employee Lifecycle

Hiring is another place to be aware of potential biases. Subconscious bias can cause hiring managers to hire people very similar to themselves. Unfortunately, this can lead to a workplace made up of very similar people. If you have two qualified candidates, and only hire one of them because they are younger, that is a form of age discrimination.

Some other forms of age discrimination throughout the employee lifecycle include:

Passing up people for promotions based on their age
Not providing salary increases to older employees
Laying off only older employees
Encouraging older employees to retire early

Cura HR Can Help You Promote an Age-Inclusive Workplace

Are you unsure about how to create a work environment that is inclusive for employees of all ages? At Cura HR we offer outsourced HR partnership and support at the level you need. Whether you need help developing an ageism prevention training program or want to create a more inclusive hiring process, Cura HR has your back!

We’d love to learn about your business and how we can leverage best practices to elevate your HR!

Ingenuity is the name of the game at Outrider–the pioneer in autonomous freight yard operations for logistics hubs. The only software and development company exclusively focused on automating all aspects of yard operations, Outrider eliminates manual tasks that are hazardous and repetitive while driving efficiency, safety and sustainability.

At Outrider ingenuity doesn’t stop at the yard. The company is committed to on-going progress and growth throughout all facets of the business. This commitment starts with its people. That’s why Outrider teamed up with Cura as its HR consulting partner—not out of necessity, but a proactive desire to continually cultivate a thriving workforce and vibrant work culture.

Projects accomplished

Outrider Vitals

Embracing a Culture of Continuous Feedback

One of Outrider’s primary goals in partnering with Cura was to upgrade its internal performance management approach. Outrider leadership saw this as an opportunity to lay the tracks for future company advancement and success. Outrider engaged Cura for its People Operations and performance management expertise to assist in developing the right strategy for their business.

Feedback for Thought

After a thorough internal assessment, Cura identified continuous feedback as a key opportunity area for Outrider to create a performance management process that would deliver high value to its employees and business. Cura’s role was to equip Outrider with the tools needed to build a culture open to proactively giving and seeking feedback.

A recent Gallup survey found that only 26% of employees strongly agree that the feedback they get actually improves their work.

Giving and Receiving Feedback Well

To support the Outrider team in learning how to give and receive feedback, Cura trained their people managers on this concept using a 4-part formula for giving continuous feedback and best practices for effective management.

Continuous Feedback: 4-Part Formula

Best Practices for People Managers

Cura shared the 4-Part Continuous Feedback Model to enable Outrider’s people managers to be as effective as possible when sharing feedback with their teams.

Key Practices

The Impact

“Cura HR is fantastic. As soon as we engaged with them, they worked with us to establish a process first to review our existing HR functions, policies and procedures and establish new services to help our growing organization.”

See how Cura can advance your organizational growth.

Hiring new employees who are not only talented but interested in staying with the company for a period of time is important for any successful company. However, despite the importance of hiring talented employees, recruitment is often where some companies struggle to succeed.

Interviewing processes can feel like a chore to potential candidates and employers alike. Not only that, but recruitment can be an expensive process due to time spent on interviewing, onboarding, and training costs. In 2020 and 2021, companies spent more than 92 billion dollars on training alone. This emphasizes the importance of hiring successfully as each new hire who ends up being a poor fit and leaves the organization costs you a great deal of money.

Are you struggling to interview the right candidates? No need to worry! We compiled a few tips and tricks in this post to help you create a more productive hiring process.

Know What You’re Looking For in Ideal Candidates

Before hiring a new candidate, there’s one question you should ask: What would the ideal candidate for that role look like? Ask this question for each job opening, because every position will have different qualifications, and what you need in a new hire may vary as your business grows.

Consider Your Company Culture

Skills and experience are important, but so are your company’s values. If you value things like teamwork and collaboration, you’re going to want to find a candidate who is a cooperative team player rather than a lone wolf. Make sure that a candidate’s values align with your own before hiring them. An interview focused specifically on culture is a great way to determine if an individual’s values align with what is important to your organization.

Here are several interview questions to gain insight into a candidate’s values:

Describe your ideal company culture.
What role do you typically take in a team setting? Provide an example.
How do you manage conflict with others?
Tell us about your favorite supervisor, and why/how did you work successfully together?
Which of our company values do you find yourself most/least aligned with? Why?

Promote Inclusivity in Your Branding

Speaking of values, inclusivity is very important to consider as a company value. Be sure to promote diversity and inclusion within your workplace and on your website. You can do this by adding a statement about diversity and inclusion and posting pictures of diverse teams collaborating and spending time with one another.

It’s also important to evaluate your job postings. Are you using inclusive language? Here are important things to consider when writing inclusive job postings:

Are you using gender-neutral language?
Is the job posting accessible for people with disabilities? For example, consider adding image descriptions to pictures, using clear language, using dyslexia-friendly fonts, and adding an audio transcript.
Is your company website’s UX design clean and easy to navigate?
Do you encourage candidates to apply even if they don’t meet 100% of the qualifications listed?
Do you include an inclusivity and non-discrimination statement about your company?

Marketing the Role

Now that you’ve determined what your ideal candidate looks like, you can advertise the role. You’ll want the job description, qualifications, and responsibilities to be very clear. When interviewing candidates, give them a sense of what an average “day in the life” of their role looks like. The clearer you are about what the position is, the more likely you’ll be able to find a good, long-term fit.

On websites like LinkedIn or Indeed, you can browse potential candidate profiles. When reaching out to candidates, be sure to introduce yourself and the company you work for. Let them know how you found their profile, and what stood out about it as well as the position that you’d like them to apply.

Find Your Ideal Candidate Using Cura HR

Developing an interview process that helps hire successfully takes time and effort. If you need help establishing or improving your talent acquisition strategy, Cura HR has the skills and experience you’re looking for.

We help companies build and nurture their greatest asset- their employees. Your people are your value center. Healthy, diverse, and productive work environments are conducive to attracting new talent and retaining existing team members. We’d love to learn about your business and how we can leverage best-in-class HR practices to help you attract and retain top talent.

Mental health is becoming a common topic among employees, especially after COVID-19. According to a study by Oxford Academic, by the end of 2020, rates of anxiety and depression in the U.S. were nearly six times what they were in 2019. Several factors have led to this rise in mental health problems, such as loneliness, fear of illness, financial stressors, and burnout.

As mental health issues continue to be at the forefront of our minds, we need to be more aware of ways to support employees and let them know their mental health matters. Here are a few ways to provide that support.

Include Mental Health Benefits

Mental health benefits go a long way when it comes to employee satisfaction. Offering coverage for mental health services at a reasonable cost can support employee acquisition and retention.

In addition to benefits, there are other options to support employees’ mental health and wellbeing. For example, a free or discounted gym membership can give employees an incentive to exercise. Exercise has been scientifically proven time and time again to promote good mental health and reduce the severity of anxiety and depression.

Finally, providing an EAP (Employee Assistance Program) is a great way to support employees’ mental health. EAPs generally offer free counseling sessions, and other support services. If you go this route, be sure to effectively promote the EAP and its benefits so employees are aware.

Promote a Positive and Supportive Work Environment

While providing benefits is a good start, it’s important to ensure you have a healthy work environment. Promoting a positive, supportive environment can lead to more fulfilled employees.

Consider being more flexible with your employees’ schedules to help ease some of their stress. Allowing more paid time off or the ability to work from home as needed are both great ways to promote flexibility. These are both highly desirable benefits, so including them will improve both employee retention and satisfaction—a win-win situation.

Promote and support breaks and time off work. Don’t make people feel bad for taking time off work for a vacation, or time to recharge. A few companies that have incentivized taking time off work increased their employee retention. The most famous (and Colorado-based) example being FullContact, which offers employees up to a $7,000 bonus for using all of their vacation days.

Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

A report by the American Psychological Association found that nearly seven out of every ten adults in the United States reported being discriminated against by others. This statistic includes workplace discrimination.

Diversity and inclusion is an essential part of creating a positive and supportive workplace. Discrimination in the workplace for any reason can lead to worsening mental health status. Because workplace discrimination is common, it’s important to be proactive and address it before it occurs. Additionally, consider implementing policies that promote diversity and inclusion in your workplace. Diverse organizations are shown to outperform companies that are not.

There are several different ways to promote diversity and inclusion in your workplace.

Here are a few examples:

Clear and enforceable policies that prevent discrimination and harassment
Implicit bias training (race, age, gender, etc)
Demonstrate open support for LFBTQ+ individuals, women and people of all races
Cultural diversity initiatives such as celebrating holidays of different cultures and forming a DEI committee for staff to join
Ensuring an accessible workplace for people with disabilities

Offer Support for Your Employees

Consider different ways for managers and leadership to provide support. Making sure your employees feel heard is important for keeping your team happy. Solicit feedback on a regular basis about what they like and what could be improved. Also, if you ask employees for feedback, make a commitment to action some of their requests. Otherwise, this gesture could be viewed as inauthentic and may erode trust and leave your team unhappy.

As a manager, it’s important to be aware of your team’s struggles. Implementing training to help your team become more effective people managers could also promote a more positive work environment.

Some training topic examples include:

Performance management
How to give effective feedback
HR essentials for leaders

Use Cura HR to Help You Promote Mental Health at Your Workplace

Are your employees struggling with their mental health? Cura HR creates custom solutions for every project and client by combining our years of experience with fresh ideas and forward-thinking.

Whether you need help creating a plan for leadership development, or wellness programs and strategies, Cura HR has you covered! We’d love to learn about your business and how we can help improve your team’s mental health and wellbeing.

The 2022 labor market is experiencing changes that make it more challenging for employers to retain employees. Why? There is no doubt that the global pandemic created a work environment of fear and uncertainty. As a result, some people are leaving due to unhappiness with how they were treated by their employer during the pandemic, undesirable pay, or unsatisfactory benefits. Other reasons include a lack of work-life balance, a desire for a change…and some are simply burned out.

With more and more people leaving the workforce, it’s never been more important or pressing for businesses to offer a competitive total rewards package. In this blog, we will discuss ways employers can add value to their employee’s experience and retain their top talent.

Offer competitive salary and benefits

Compensation is a factor that will continue to play a significant role in the employee’s experience and retention. Employees often leave when they don’t feel appropriately compensated. Therefore, it’s important to understand competitive compensation ranges for your positions and ensure you are paying appropriately.

Benefits are also an essential part of a comprehensive total rewards package. Employees value health and wellfare benefits, 401(k) and retirement benefits, technology stipends, and perks such as gym memberships and access to mental health services. Employees are also desiring competitive paid time off programs and professional development opportunities.

Upskill your team

Speaking of professional development, let’s highlight the fact that employees are regularly looking to gain new skills and opportunities. It’s important to provide employees with opportunities to learn and take on stretch opportunities.

These opportunities will also serve as a way for employees to grow within your organization by providing them with new job responsibilities or leadership roles. In addition, offering the opportunity for ongoing professional development will help the employee imagine a future with your company.

Include flexible work options

Flexible work options are another way to stay competitive in this market—and it is becoming increasingly important to employees. In fact, according to a recent study, 89% of U.S. workers say the ability to have a flexible schedule would improve their job satisfaction.

Understand what makes employees leave/stay

Understanding the reason why employees leave is an integral part of avoiding turnover. Exit interviews can help you understand the driving factors behind an employee’s decision to leave. Encourage open communication and track common reasons for leaving.

It can also be helpful to consider why your current employees are staying by conducting “stay interviews.” Similar to an exit interview, a stay interview asks employees about what they enjoy the most, and what could be improved about the company. This can help you understand the company’s strengths and challenges and solutions to maintain retention.

Put your best foot forward with Cura HR

Are you struggling to keep your best employees? High turnover rates can affect your company and its ability to reach its goals. Developing an effective retention strategy can help you improve employee satisfaction. However, we understand if you’re unsure where to start. That’s where Cura HR comes in!

We provide benchmarking, guidance, and expert advice to ensure your ability to successfully recruit, hire, and retain the best talent aligned with your organizations’ mission and values. We’d love to learn about your business and how we can leverage HR best practices to take your vision to the next level.

At this point, most of us have either heard of or experienced the effects of the Great Resignation. A record number, 4.5 million people, voluntarily left their positions in November 2021 alone. This amount of resignations was an all-time high, and unemployment rates continue to soar.

People are leaving for various reasons such as undesirable pay or benefits, lack of work-life balance, etc. Therefore, as people re-enter the workforce, they are asking more from their employers than ever before. Employees want the opportunity to learn and grow; they want to work for a company that cares about their well-being and they want flexibility in their working arrangements.

In this blog, we break down ways employers can keep up with the evolving work environment to ensure their teams are happy and satisfied with their work.

Promoting Development at Your Company

A recent Gallup poll stated that 87% of millennials and 69% of non-millennials rate career growth and development opportunities as highly important to them in a job. It’s essential for employers to consider how they’ll promote career growth as a part of their company culture. Promotions are typically one significant way to highlight development, but it’s not always a viable option. There are other ways to reward hard work and encourage growth, for example:

Click here to watch the webinar.

Human Resources is most effective when dynamic and ever-evolving. Cura consultants start with proven tools and processes and build from there. We create custom solutions for each client by combining our collective years of experience with a forward-thinking approach. We continually test, benchmark and optimize our efforts to ensure we’re providing the greatest value and relevance to our clients.

Kodiak Vitals

Compensation Strategies to Drive Business Growth

Kodiak is a growth oriented company with aggressive goals to scale. Its leadership identified compensation as a key area of focus in its broader strategic operating plan. To shore up this component of the business, Kodiak engaged Cura HR for their Total Rewards expertise. Cura was tasked with:

The Outcome

Over the course of 12 months, Cura conducted a comprehensive compensation assessment and analysis for Kodiak Cakes and turned the findings into strategic recommendations and actions. Cura seamlessly put the following in place to support Kodiak’s growth objectives.

“Cura HR was extremely responsive and helpful in getting an intense amount of compensation planning work done in a very short amount of time. We had tight deadlines that we were able to meet due to Cura’s support. We really appreciate their partnership!”

“We elevated our compensation planning tools and communication to the organization. This enabled our leaders to have meaningful compensation conversations with their people, which is invaluable.”

Discover how Cura can help you scale your business with smart compensation strategies.

About Kodiak Cakes

With a delicious portfolio of 100% whole-grain, protein-powered pancake and waffle mixes, frozen waffles and pancakes, oatmeal, baking mixes, and a variety of snacking products, Kodiak provides its loyal consumers with “Nourishment for Today’s Frontier.” Headquartered in Park City, Utah, Kodiak was built on a mission to enable healthier eating and active living. The brand began when eight year-old Joel Clark began selling his family’s hand-milled flapjack mix door-to-door from a little red wagon, and Kodiak is now proudly sold in 26,000 doors nationwide.

About Cura HR

Cura is your modern HR partner for strategic HR services. We provide virtual, high-value Human Resources leadership and support for businesses large and small across a wide range of dynamic industries.