If you are not at least paying attention to “going green” and the growing number of businesses marketing their sustainability efforts, you are behind the times. But don’t take it from me.
Ida Cheinman, Principal and Creative Director of strategic brand communication firm Substance151, said businesses that do not participate in or market their efforts to be environmentally sustainable and socially responsible (two concepts that have become increasingly intertwined and covered by the umbrella term, ‘sustainable’) are at a real disadvantage.
“Environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility are becoming strong motivators because people want to feel good about their personal choices,” she said. “The marketplace is becoming very crowded very quickly and simply being green or socially responsible and knowing that internally is not enough. You really need to be branding and marketing your business appropriately to take advantage of all the benefits there are to taking on those initiatives.”
Among the audiences you can reach through marketing of your sustainability efforts:
- Your customers: According to Cheinman’s presentation, 67 percent of buyers believe it is important to buy sustainable products, and 71 percent avoid purchasing from companies with “bad” practices.
- Employees: Marketing your sustainability can give you an edge in recruitment and employee retention. “Younger generations are becoming more conscious about who they work with. They want to work for an organization that is known for sustainability and good practices and, for small businesses that must compete with larger firms for top talent, this can be especially important,” Cheinman said.
- Investors: Cheinman said investors are increasingly looking for performance in the triple bottom line, which encompasses an economic, environmental, and social impact.
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Interviewing a candidate is one of the most important steps in selecting a new employee. The encounter with the candidate can give you a sense of how they will conduct themselves in your workplace, and often it is apparent very quickly whether the candidate is the right fit for the position.
If you’ve narrowed down resumes to several final candidates, starting with a brief phone interview may be best to screen applicants. This can give you a sense of their professionalism and preparedness, as well as their phone-style if this is an important factor for the position.
Once in-person interviews are set, prepare questions ahead of time, as well as criteria by which to score candidates.
“It is important to develop scoring systems based on the job descriptions and specifications,” Deborah Stallings, President & CEO of HR Anew, said. The scores can be based on personal appearance and conduct, actual responses to questions and the manner in which they are answered (for example: you’ll most likely want simple yes and no questions answered briefly, not for the candidate to go into a long dissertation or concrete examples given when asked about specific situations the candidate has experienced). It is also a good idea to have others interview a candidate as well, since they may gain insight that you missed in your interview.
When preparing interview questions, it is important to be aware of what is legal to ask and what is not. Illegal interview questions include any questions related to a candidates age, race, ethnicity or color, gender, country of national origin or birthplace, religion, disability, marital or family status or pregnancy. Visit www.eeoc.gov for more information on this. To be safe, keep interview questions focused on behaviors, skills and experience needed to perform the job, even if the discussion becomes more relaxed.
There are different techniques to use when interviewing to learn more about a candidate. Stallings said that there are four interview question styles that can be used:
Open ended – What are your five-year goals? Would you help me understand a certain aspect of your resume?
Probing – How did you resolve a particular situation? Why did you leave your last position?
Closed ended – These are ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ questions. Did you find the location easy to reach? Are you willing to relocate? When can you begin?
Behavioral – Tell me about a situation in the past where you had to manage a conflict. This is where you’re trying to get the person to tell you about situations that help you to assess what their behaviors are at work.
Using a combination of these styles may help you gain additional insight about your candidate.
For more information about interviewing techniques and questions, visit www.hranew.com.
In the last ‘Green Office Tips’ we talked about going green with your professional publications by choosing a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified printer and environmentally friendly printing techniques. This week we’ll explore how to go green with your in-house printing.
There are several options when deciding how to go green with your office’s paper and printer needs. Each can save you money and reduce waste.
Going paperless: The thought of going paperless within an office can send some people into a fit of protest. But if your office can cope with the changes, going paperless can both help the environment and boost your office’s productivity and organization.
Electronic document management systems enable you to track a document from its creation, through any manipulations it undergoes, to its storage and circulation. Even contracts can be created and signed electronically—e-signatures are equally binding under the law. For sensitive documents, security levels, permissions and access can be assigned, and electronic document storage adds extra protection in the event of a fire or other disaster. It organizes your office’s documents so that files can be located and retrieved quickly and eases preparations for audits and regulatory compliance.
Electronic document management systems also eliminate wasteful printing and duplication that consumes both material resources and employee time.
“Without an electronic document system, you might have had to scan a document and print several copies to send to people of interest. With the system, you can scan that one piece of paper and send it directly to those people’s emails,” Lindsay Kelley, Marketing Manager of Advance, a document management service provider, said.
If you cannot go completely paperless, there are other ways to be environmentally conscious with your office printing.
Choosing paper: According to the FSC, the U.S. consumes about 100 million tons of paper each year. One ton of office paper may require up to 24 trees to produce. Choosing FSC certified paper, which assures that the paper comes from managed, sustainable forests, or recycled paper with the highest post-consumer waste content possible can make a big difference. Recycled paper is often cost-competitive or costs even less than virgin paper.
Waste paper should be recycled, and double-sided printing should be used whenever possible.
Choosing equipment: Choose copier and printer suppliers that employ green programs, such as toner and cartridge recycling, machine recycling and refurbishing, and machine reuse programs, where equipment that is at the end of a contract is reused as a loaner or for wholesale.
Advance employs several environmental programs that recycle and reuse equipment and supplies.
“We partner with companies that can take back machines and strip them down and take everything that’s reusable. Our partners can also recycle up to 98 percent of an old machine that is not reusable,” Kelley said. “These pieces of equipment can do a lot of environmental damage when they’re just dropped in a landfill. It’s in our best interest, and the best interest of our children and future generations to invest in these programs and initiatives.”
Long, unproductive meetings can result in lost revenue for your business, setbacks in project schedules, or can simply ruin your day by putting you off your schedule.
If you are responsible for facilitating a meeting, whether it be a small staff meeting, a committee meeting, or a meeting of a very large group, there are several strategies you can use to ensure your meeting will be productive and run smoothly.
1. Have a set agenda: The most important component of running an effective meeting is having a set agenda. “A set agenda allows attendees to stay focused and stay on purpose,” Paul H. Naden, founder of CPA firm Naden/Lean LLC, said. “In order for the meeting to be productive, you have to start on time, play by the structured guidelines and end on time”
An agenda sets the goals of the meeting and can also be used to set the pace of the meeting and how much time is allotted for each item. It can be used as a tool to cut off discussion when it is time to move on to a new topic. Naden suggested requesting agenda items and prioritizing the agenda items prior to the meeting.
Most importantly, though, an agenda forces you to think about and prepare for the meeting in advance. “Don’t just wing it,” Carrie Capuco, President of Capuco Consulting Services, Inc. said. “Your attendees can tell when you’ve come in unprepared, and being unprepared and disorganized fuels the potential for having an unproductive meeting.”
2. Know who is attending the meeting: The more familiar you are with who is attending the meeting and why they are attending, the better prepared you will be to facilitate the meeting and keep it moving forward. “Knowing their names can help you address them directly, either to involve them in conversation or to keep the conversation moving along,” Capuco said. “Knowing why they are attending can alert you to what their concerns are and what items they are likely to be most interested in or passionate about.”
3. Keep the conversation moving forward: In addition to adhering to a schedule set by an agenda, there are techniques that can be used to keep a conversation moving forward.
Naden said whoever introduced the agenda item should speak first. “Starting clockwise left of the speaker each attendee can speak on the item or ‘pass.’ Opportunity for response, rebuttal or questions could happen on the next turn around the table.”
4. Prevent one person from dominating the conversation and involve those who are not contributing: There are several strategies that can be used to keep the conversation from being dominated by one person. How you handle the situation will depend on your own style and comfort level.
“You can be very direct and informal if you’re comfortable with that. Using people’s names and making eye contact can help hint to them that it’s time to move on, is one way” Capuco said. “You can also use several techniques that involve just moving around the room. If someone is dominating the conversation and seems to have made their point, you can simply place a hand on their shoulder to indicate that it’s time for someone else to talk.”
Other strategies include putting a time limit on participants’ comments or having attendees agree to abide to guidelines before the meeting.
“Introduce the written structured guidelines of DIM-WYT, Don’t Interrupt Me – Wait Your Turn,” Naden said. “People interrupt for a variety of reasons. Whether they are impolite, disrespectful or merely enthusiastic, the results are the same: frustration abounds and the purpose of the meeting is sidetracked if not entirely derailed. Wait Your Turn indicates that everyone will have a chance to speak – in fact, everyone at the meeting is encouraged to participate. People who are normally reticent can have their say and everyone will stay focused on the issue under discussion.”
5. Make your enthusiasm contagious: Employees are often required to attend meetings they are not necessarily enthusiastic about. “The easiest way to get enthusiasm from your attendees, is to show your enthusiasm as the facilitator. You have to make your own excitement contagious,” Capuco said. Getting your participants excited about the meeting topic can help generate more ideas and results from your meeting.
Naden said encouraging your attendees to state why they are present at the start of a meeting is a good way to make introductions and to involve all attendees from the beginning. It should also be made clear that all attendees have the opportunity to participate.
