by John Sule | Mar 21, 2018 | Articles
“Going the extra mile” is willingly providing a better service and more than is expected or paid for. It is an essential part of success in every endeavor because it makes one indispensable and more marketable. It is also a source of self-fulfillment when one has gone beyond “best efforts” and a client is more than satisfied and getting more than what they have expected.
However, there are reasons why people at work are discouraged from providing their best efforts. According to the article “Don’t Lose Your Best Employees Because of These 7 HR Blunders” by Sujan Patel, who is also the author of “100 Days of Growth“, a marketing veteran and entrepreneur, here are the reasons:
- Unfair compensation
- Poor work-life balance
- Lack of appreciation for accomplishments or tenure
- Unsupportive upper management
- A negative work environment
- Hoarding information
- Promoting from outside
Do those reasons above sound familiar? Well then, how can you avoid losing your best workers?
- An employee who is consistently helping you improve your business deserves a fair compensation and even a raise. Remember that it will cost you more when your best employee leaves.
- Show your employees how you understand their need to have a work-life balance. Let them recharge especially after a great accomplishment.
- Show appreciation for accomplishments and loyalty because employees also want to feel that they matter.
- Avoid losing your top performers by showing support, talking to them and not making them feel unnoticed.
- A workplace should feel like a professional office and not a fight club because nobody wants to work with a negative atmosphere.
- An open-door policy can be an advantage for both sides because it encourages openness and transparency which works for any relationship.
- It is heartbreaking to a loyal and hardworking employee to see someone new to the company getting the position that he has been striving and eyeing for a long time. Give your employee a chance to move up and continue to develop as professionals.
When someone at work becomes unmotivated in performing his best, the organization will suffer and incur losses because the quality and costs are at stake.
Here is a quote from Linda, a Director for a Major Financial Institution, who expressed her thoughts on what it is like to work with people who do not seem to put in their best efforts: “They don’t care if your project goes over budget or it’s late. They really don’t. You’re just another assignment…The time schedules are much longer too, because the incentive to deliver quickly and be done isn’t there.”
Linda went on to describe working with John Sule of Horizon Technology Partners: “He is committed to finding the right professionals who are always willing to render their best efforts and go the extra mile. And I think he was always looking for a good match between a resource and a client as opposed to just trying to place people to get the commission…and I don’t think that’s the case with a lot of other vendors. They look at the resource they’re bringing in as just a kind of “Its the offering that we have, and either you like it or you don’t, and if you don’t, we’ll find you someone else.” …I don’t think they give regard to the resource like John did.”
Horizon Technology Partners believes that a company deserves team members whom you will look back on as the individuals who make a difference in your organization, so it is the goal of Horizon Technology Partners to provide you with elite talents and ensure that they are consistent in delivering their best efforts.
Are you also looking for elite staff who will always go the extra mile for you?
For a “No-Pressure” conversation with John Sule, schedule a call
If you would like to learn more about finding the right candidate for your open positions give us a call at 847-202-3242 or email us at connect2htp@htpartners.com.
WE RECOGNIZE. WE UNDERSTAND. WE DISTINGUISH. WE PRODUCE. WE DELIVER! AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, WE’RE RESPONSIBLE.
by John Sule | Dec 22, 2017 | Articles
From all of us at Horizon Technology Partners, Inc., your elite staffing experts in the Chicago metro area, we wish you Season’s Greetings!
Warmest of wishes this holiday season. May 2018 bring you peace and prosperity!
From your team at Horizon Technology Partners, Inc.
by John Sule | Dec 18, 2017 | Articles
The economy has been booming, the Dow has risen 5000 points in the last year – an unheard of record – and yet that prosperity has not trickled down to corporate employees yet.
It usually takes time for employers to pass along higher saleries. Pay raises may be elusive this year, but bonuses are expected to increase by 66% this year.
How are you rewarding your talent this year?
At HT Partners, we’ll help you fill your elite staffing needs. We’ll do it fast and we’ll do it right the first time, but it’s your job to retain them, so what are you going to do this year to show your appreciation for your top IT talent?
End of year bonuses are a great way to show your top talent your appreciation for all they do. If you’re in a position to offer bonuses, that’s fantastic – go for it. If you aren’t, there are still some things you can do to show your gratitude for all your employees do.
Thank You – A warm and heartfelt Thank You is still an effective way to show your appreciation. Telling your employees that you’ve noticed all their hard work goes a long way to making them feel like they are appreciated and valued. It also makes them feel like part of the team.
Donating to Charity – Many employers are donating to charities in the names of their employees. As companies work to align their values with employees, they’ve found this to be an effective way to do something good and employees seem to like it.
Holiday Parties – You don’t have to throw a big shin-dig, but taking your team out for lunch is a nice way to show your appreciation and to spend time with them off site.
If you have elite staffing needs, give us a call at 847-202-3242, we’ll help you find the talent you need.
by John Sule | Oct 12, 2017 | Articles
If you have an open position you know how difficult it can be to fill it with the right person. You may find you’ve been avoiding filling the position because it is such a daunting task. Hiring the right candidate for an open position is time-consuming, and stressful because hiring the wrong candidate is disruptive to the current culture and it’s expensive.
Hiring the wrong candidate can cost a company hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the position. The Department of Labor estimates that it costs 1/3 the annual salary of the bad hire to replace them. Not only is expensive to replace a bad hire, but it undermines the moral of the culture you’ve worked so hard to cultivate. Obviously, it is important that you hire the right candidate the first time.
At HT Partners, we specialize in finding the right candidate for the job every time. Here are the strategies we use to ensure the right fit for your company.
Get to know the candidate – Candidates are much more than their resumes. You could be missing the best candidates because their resume didn’t stand out. We get to know our candidates personally, leveraging extensive experience interviewing and managing talent (when you’ve interviewed thousands of individuals, you build up a wealth of expert knowledge and insight). When we recommend them for a position, we know they’re a good fit.
Write better job descriptions – Want to attract better candidates? Write better job descriptions (see how to do it here). In a nutshell – focus on what the company to do for the candidate and you’ll find better quality candidates will apply.
Utilize digital media – Make sure your website is mobile friendly and you’re posting positions on social media. Quality candidates are using their smartphones to search for jobs and to research the companies posting those positions. If your company hasn’t embraced digital media you’re going to turn off the candidates you seek.
These are just some of the tools and methods we use to match the right job to the right candidate. If you’d like to learn more about finding the right candidate for your open positions give us a call at 847-202-3242 or email us at connect2htp@htpartners.com.
by John Sule | Sep 21, 2017 | Articles
As the tech talent shortage continues, hiring managers are having a challenging time filling these top tech positions. You’ve probably felt the pinch yourself. Everyone is looking to fill these top five tech positions, so demand is high while supply is historically low.
Not only is it difficult to fill these tech positions, but your competition is trying to fill them too. That means you must offer more attractive salaries and benefits than your competition, if you can find the talent, that is.
Hardest to Fill Tech Positions:
- Software Developers – This should be no surprise to hiring managers, software developers are the most in-demand IT position. Simply put, they drive business forward. Those who can design software solutions to fill a company’s needs are not only in high demand, they are nearly impossible to find on any job boards or recruiting websites.
- DevOps Engineers – New to the list, this position was expected to do away with the System Admin, but that hasn’t happened and doesn’t look to do so in the near future. Still, they are hard to come by as their demand has increased steadily.
- Java Developers – Java is being used more and more in both front-end and back-end web development, putting those with a Java skillset in high demand. If you’re a hiring manager you know that this role is one of the most difficult to fill. In fact, you probably have several positions open right now for Java Developers.
- .Net Experience – Microsoft’s software framework is in high demand and there simply aren’t enough with .Net experience to fill all the positions. The ones that are out there, aren’t out there for long, and you won’t find them on Monster or Zip Recruiter.
- Security Professionals – It seems every day there’s another massive data breach at a large corporation we believed was secure. Companies are finally taking their security seriously and want someone, many someones, in-house to manage, prevent and anticipate the next possible software hack. Tech professionals with security expertise are in extremely high demand.
If you’re trying to fill these top in-demand tech positions you know how challenging the task can be. In fact, you may have given up. Don’t throw in the towel just yet, we’re here to help.
At Horizon Technology Partners we have a large network of top tech talent that won’t be found on any recruiting website or job board. We’ve cultivated relationships with the top tech talent and match them to the company where they will be the best fit.
Horizon Technology Partners is a premier provider of IT Talent with over 18 years of experience to Fortune 1000 Companies.
If you’d like to learn more about our process please contact us at 847-202-3242.
by John Sule | Aug 24, 2017 | Articles
Mistreatment is the #1 reason people leave tech jobs according to the Tech Leavers Study a one-of-a-kind national study that looked into why people in the tech industry voluntarily left their jobs.
What the study found was that workplace culture drove turnover which had a significant impact on the retention of underrepresented groups. This turnover costs the tech industry more than $16 billion each year.
Here are just some of the key findings of the study:
- Nearly 40% of respondents cited mistreatment or unfairness.
- Underrepresented men were most likely to leave due to unfairness.
- 1 in 10 women experienced unwanted sexual attention
- LGBT employees were most likely to be bullied and/or experience public humiliation.
- Underrepresented men and women of color experienced stereotyping at twice the rate of White and Asian men and women
- 30% of underrepresented women of color were passed over for promotion.
We know that tech has a problem with diversity. There aren’t enough women or people of color entering the tech industry. While there may be some debate about why that is, especially in light of Google Memo posted a couple of weeks ago, we do know that the culture can be an echo chamber of old and outdated beliefs and attitudes.
The good news is, there’s a lot of room for improvement. You may not be able to hire a chief diversity officer, but you can implement these strategies to retain the diverse culture you may already have and to attract more women, people of color and lgbt people to your company.
Fix the Culture – Nearly two –thirds of tech leavers said they would have stayed if they culture had been fixed. Ask around and find out of your talent feels mistreated or feels as though they are being treated poorly or unfairly. The change in culture needs to start from the top down and it needs to be comprehensive. According to the study diversity and inclusion should be treated as a business strategy.
Core Values – Companies need to identify a core set of values and develop a code of conduct that strives to eliminate mistreatment and unfairness. It’s not enough to identify the problems, they must also be addressed and altered. Companies must be prepared to identify and discipline people who violate the core values.
Fairness – Companies also need to willingly audit performance management and compensation practices for bias.
Tech can save billions of dollars in retention and reputation costs if they focus on building an inclusive and fair culture.
Diversity encourages growth and development of out-of-the-box thinking, you want to attract a more diverse culture if you want to succeed in business these days.
What are you doing to ensure your company is attracting women, people of color, misrepresented men and lgbt people?
