Unhealthy employees will ultimately cause your company a hefty and ‘unhealthy’ health care bill. Wondering how to force your employees to live healthier (and ultimately happier) lives? Here are a few tips:

1. Make it mandatory for each to get an annual on-site assessment that takes a look at a number of critical indicators – blood pressure, weight, cholesterol levels etc. Assign a score to each assessment and apply awards (cash or otherwise) in those situations where the employee’s score has improved or remained the same.
2. Make it difficult for them to smoke – have nicotine levels included in the assessment above, and for those with nicotine levels above a certain limit, make it a rule that they then have to pay their own insurance premiums.
3. Fire all employees who smoke – a bit drastic and possibly some legal implications depending on state/country, but some companies have implemented this with success. Note, quite a few U.S. states have laws against firing or demoting smokers. A less drastic alternative in this case would be to offer counseling and nicotine patches in order to help employees quick smoking.
4. Host regular health seminars that cover topics such as maintaining a healthy diet and lowering cholesterol levels. Invite speakers to give quick talks on matters of health.
5. Offer gym or other work out facilities on property. Hand in hand with this, you could also offer incentives for employees who spend a minimum of X hours per week in the gym (have them sign in and out).

There is no doubt that health care costs are now talking a bigger bite from the bottom line of many companies. The goal now for company owners / managers has got to be to find ways to force/make the employees live healthier lives – ultimately being good for them, and for the company. Be careful though, it’s often a tangled legal web when you try to implement some of these tips. As mentioned above for example, many U.S. states have laws against firing or demoting smokers. Similarly, for example also, granting perks for one set of employees vs. another can often lead to a variety of grounds for a discriminatory lawsuit. Trying to force wellness can also backfire in a number of other ways – demotivating some employees, creating employee/employer antagonism etc. It will work for some, but be warned that it may very well breed resentment in others.

Good luck.

Today, effective administrative assistants handle responsibilities once reserved for managerial and professional staff and as such, performing and co-coordinating an office’s administrative activities is just a part of the job. Office assistants play a crucial role in small businesses. The last thing you need to worry about is whether or not the daily routines of the workplace are running smoothly. We decided to provide you with a few guidelines to assist you in making the right choice, so be sure to follow these helpful tips on how to hire an office assistant.

Your administrative assistant should be able to do more than type letters and answer phones. A capable administrative assistant should also possess the ability to bring organization and professionalism to the workplace. To maximize the effectiveness of your administrative assistant, you will need to know what you are looking for before you begin the hiring process.

Competence: This is one of the first qualities you should look for in an administrative assistant. If he/she is untrained or unable to perform their job at a satisfactory level you may find that business could flounder. An administrative assistant needs to be computer literate and demonstrate a working knowledge of word processing, scheduling, database, and spreadsheet software (e.g. MS Office). He/She should also possess the interpersonal and analytical skills that the job requires.

Organization: Another important quality you should look for is organization. Remember, your administrative assistant will be required to play a central role in tasks such as scheduling and coordination of resources. To be effective, you will need someone who is highly organized with an ability to multitask. Otherwise, you may find yourself with a mess on your hands.

Time Management: This is also a key qualification for an office assistant. A small business is a fast-paced working environment. The person who you choose needs to be comfortable working in such an environment and demonstrate the skills needed to keep up with you without dropping the ball or complaining.

Personality: Personality is a quality that is sometimes overlooked when hiring an administrative assistant. You need to ensure that the potential candidate has a personality that will mesh with others within the environment despite how good he/she may look on paper to function effectively in your company. Even so, it is difficult to get to know an applicant in a single interview. It never hurts to conduct a second or third interview before deciding whether the applicant’s personality is a good fit for you and your workplace.

Confidentiality: Finally, it is very important that your office assistant demonstrates the ability to maintain confidentiality. He/She will be privy to information that other people in the company do not know. Employee salaries, correspondence, personal scheduling among other things is likely to cross your administrative assistant’s desk sooner or later. Ensure that you clearly communicate the need for confidentiality to all applicants and make sure the person you hire is someone you can trust.

1. Hire Smart - Try innovative new job interview techniques that highlight how applicants deal with criticism. To innovate, you have to be very open to critique.
2. Go Multicultural. Cultural melting pots are known to be creative hot spots. Everything counts, from knowledge of global markets to varying diets and needs.
3. Give your employees lots of time and space to think and be creative. How about giving your employees X-number of free days per month where they are encouraged to visit a spot (mountain top, beach, river, wherever) that’s conducive to reflection and let their minds run wild with ideas and concepts.
4. Encourage risk taking. The unorthodox, the unusual, the unthinkable … usually, creative and innovative will stem from a bit of risk taking.
5. Bring in external forces. Tap the perspectives of outside experts – professors, physicists, poets, actors, archaeologists, theologians, astronauts, whoever. Get them to speak to your employees, motivate them, encourage them, give them different perspectives etc.
6. Be flexible. This ties very closely with #4 above. Give your employees room, space and flexibility to be creative.
7. Have them explore their co-workers world. Let your employees do their own work, but also allow them to experience their colleagues’ specialties. A new and different perspective on an old job/desk can be amazing!

Here is a list of some important soft skills that Employers seek:

1. Self-motivated and progressive – do you seem as though you want to just kick back and be content with any ol’ job, or are you driven and wanting to prove yourself, advance yourself (via education etc.) and make moves.
2. Pressure, stress and time management – can you handle the stress / pressure of the position?
3. Interpersonal skills – can you interact effectively and efficiently with your co-workers, or are you likely to be that “co-worker from hell” who no one wants to deal with?
4. Receptive to change – how do you deal with change? Do you move with the times or do you get caught up on how it was?
5. Planning and organizational skills – can you effectively schedule your tasks and priorities?
6. Written and oral communication skills – is your grammar a mess? Can you effectively get your point across to a group or indivual?
7. Leadership skills – do you exhibit the traits or skillset of an effective leader?
8. Team work – are you a team player or a lone wolf? Employers typically go for the team player.
9. Trustworthy – if they can’t trust you then they’re not going to hire or keep you.
10. Ethics – are your moral / ethical standards questionable?

If you’ve got an interview or are currently on probation in a new job, definitely you need to bear these soft skills in mind, and try to be the best employee that you can be.

It is possible that a laptop allowance will help to boost productivity in your office. Employees will be more inclined to do some work at home among other things, and the declining cost of laptops makes it a very feasible possibility these days. Better yet, as an employer, it’s quite a good gesture for you to offer this sort of ‘cool’ benefit to your employees.

Employers – consider implementing a laptop allowance. Employees – considering suggesting the idea of a laptop allowance.

1. “Ruse” – get to a potential job prospect at a competitor’s office by calling their switchboard and playing dumb as you probe the receptionist to get him/her to transfer you to the potential job prospect.
2. “Peel” – Peel through the layers of a company’s website as you attempt to find a staff roster or other detailed listing of some sort .. in order to identify potential targets.
3. “Poach” – the use of aggressive/questionable tactics to lure a rival’s talent.
4. “Lift Out” – recruit the entire team of a particular team within a unit. For e.g. hire all four of the competitor’s actuarial staff.

Here are the tried and tested aggressive recruitment tactics:

1. Position yourself outside the office of a struggling rival and offer to buy lunch for certain staffers as they step outside during their lunch hour.
2. Sweeten the pot … find out what the prospective recruitee likes. If for e.g. he/she had their eye on a particular new car, throw it in the pot as a signing bonus!
3. Pay existing employees a referral bonus for any person that they refer who eventually gets hired – let them do the recruiting for you
4. Do constant / perpetual recruiting. Run job postings even when you don’t have vacancies .. for jobs that you actually have or plan to habe in the future. That way, you’ll have a fresh pool of potential interviewees that you can call at any time.

Careful how you poach! It may very well come right back around to you.

For Generation X-ers, salary is oft times less important on the job satisfaction scale than other factors such as how interesting the job actually is and what opportunities for learning may come with the particular job. Generation X mothers also want a good balance of work and home (Mom) life, so don’t expect them to soldier on for hours into the night without worry. Family-friendly work policies have got to be the order of the day here.

Here are a few tips on keeping your Generation X female employees happy:

• Flex time – don’t force them into the 9-5 mold
• On-site childcare – care about them and their families. Offer perks such as daycare services.
• Training – keep their minds active and interested