According to a Career Builder Survey, 40% of employers reported that a bad hiring decision can cost companies $25,000 and, 25% of those polled said the cost can be as high as $50,000! More than 68% of employers surveyed stated that they had made a bad hiring decision in the prior year. Poor hiring decisions can affect productivity, morale and work quality.

“It can be hard to predict how a new hire will fit with the organization or perform in their new role. Even though mistakes happen that are beyond the hiring manager’s control, the more thoroughly the candidates are vetted, the less likely they will be a poor match,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “It’s important that candidates meet as many people in the department as possible – especially if they will work closely together. Also, if candidates say they are proficient in a skill critical to the job, they should provide ample evidence that their experience meets the organization’s

Read More »from What is that bad hire costing your organization?

The cloud, the cloud! By now most entrepreneurs have heard that the cloud can help their small business operate with the computing sophistication and efficiencies of a big business. But many still aren’t sure just how.

One great example can be seen in a new service launched today by the Silicon Valley startup Pertino. Pertino’s founders—a team of networking and security innovators with top management experience at Packeteer, Apple, Blue Coat, and HP’s Mercury Interactive—say they aim to bring enterprise-class computing networks to even the tiniest operations.

With their service, they say, an Internet connection is all a small business needs to build a global network for its employees. No purchase of servers, no hiring of IT professionals, no adding IP addresses. Says marketing VP Todd Krautkremer, “You can create a business-class network without knowing a single word of mumbo jumbo, and you pay $10 a month per user.”

Pertino’s founders say that, as the workforce becomes increasingly

Read More »from How your startup can get enterprise-class networking cheap

Although a huge winter storm is dumping snow in the NorthEast of the US as I write this, technically we are headed toward Spring and a time for renewal. And renewal also means the workplace. We did our best to cover the theme this week on Yahoo! Small Business Advisor with articles covering office design tips, creating a great small business workspace, retaining good employees as your business grows, and the hidden qualities of great bosses (which can help you renew your management practices.) We also took a very optimistic look at the future for small businesses in Chris Myers' post on the future Fortune 5 Million.

Renewal

If you haven't taken the plunge yet, hopefully some of these articles give you the impetus to start your own business — and if you do, we have tools to help. Besides our domain name, web hosting and ecommerce products, we also have just added an innovative marketing dashboard that you can try for free even if you don't use our other products.

Some other great small

Read More »from Renewal – new office, new management style. Small Business Reading for February 8th, 2013

I once worked for a small nonprofit that generously provided employees with free K-cup coffee. One day a junior staffer noticed that a video camera had been installed in the break room ceiling, its eye pointed at the coffeemaker.

Emails started flying. Why was management spying on staff? Were conversations being recorded? Were lunch hours and coffee breaks being monitored?

I went to the HR director to find out. She informed me that unusually large quantities of milk had been disappearing from the fridge. She was determined to find out who was taking all that milk and to penalize them. Installing a security camera, with no explanation, was her best solution.

Never mind the cost-benefit analysis that would inevitably prove lost pints of milk to be far cheaper than installing a camera and paying someone to watch hours of video to catch the culprit. The cost of creeping out employees was immeasurable. At that organization, such a move was par for the course. Smart people who were fed up

Read More »from How not to lose talent as your startup matures

Pets can be part of a productive workspace. Photo: turnstone

Think that a better-designed workspace, or even a more wellness-oriented culture, could help your small business be more productive and get to the next level? Kevin Kuske would bet on it.

He’s Chief Anthropologist and General Manager for the office furniture company turnstone, which caters to entrepreneurs and businesses with fewer than 100 employees. In his studies of great small businesses—the kinds of startups that brilliant people grovel to work for—he’s seen how attention to office design and culture can support success.

In these workplaces, Kuske says, “there’s freedom and the boundaries between work and home are blurred; you see dogs and skateboards and teapots, which creates a very strong culture of personality that is the sum of all the people who work there.” That's also a great recruiting tool, he says.

In fast-moving small businesses, Kuske says the team members are working so hard that social bonds are important. An element of play in a workspace can help to establish

Read More »from How to create a great small business workspace

Designers might promise that a well-designed office space can improve productivity and enhance worker efficiency and well being, but many small businesses have higher priorities for their limited budget dollars than office furniture and interior design. If you operate in Chicago, Des Moines, Omaha, Kansas City, or Dallas, here’s your chance to win a $20,000 office makeover.

Office furniture company turnstone will launch its “Culture@Work in the Heartland” contest later this month. A team of the company’s office design experts will set out from their Grand Rapids, Mich., headquarters on a ten-day roadtrip through nine states on their way to the SXSW festival in Austin. Traveling in a sleek state-of-the-art mobile office and conference room—converted from a Michigan State University football team bus—emblazoned with the slogan “Be Yourself at Work,” the turnstone team will stop in each of five cities to overhaul the office space of a contest winner.

The turnstone bus will pull up at five Heartland small business spaces later this month.

To enter to win a $20,000 office

Read More »from Four office design tips from a workplace anthropologist

It seems as though you can’t turn on the television or pick up a magazine without coming across a politician or pundit extolling the virtues of small business and the role it plays in the U.S. economy. It’s easy to see why small business is such a popular topic of conversation. As of today there are about 27 million small businesses in the U.S., 6 million of which actually have employees. These businesses account for over 50% of total U.S. GDP and 75% of the net new jobs in the U.S.

Golden Egg

It’s clearly a big deal, but I for one, think that this renewed focus on small business is only the beginning. There is strong evidence to suggest that we’re witnessing the beginning of a major social and economic shift. As a result, I’ve become convinced that while the 20th century was dominated by the Fortune 500, the 21st century belongs to the Fortune 5 Million.

There are three key drivers of this shift.

1. Structural changes in the economy
2. Increasing interest in niche products
3. Ever lowering

Read More »from Shaking the Bode Tree: The Future Belongs to the Fortune 5 Million

With the start of a new year many business owners get a boost of renewal and new energy. The trick is to sustain that energy for as long as possible. Some of our articles this week should help you do that. Our Startup Diaries series is written by real small business owners working away on starting and sustaining their new businesses. J. P.Sawyer talks about the lessons he learned in getting going. Chris Myers of Bode Tree also wrote about his three startup lessons. We looked at why you should get an insurance re-evaluation at the start of every year and how to boostrap your dream business in ten steps. And if you haven't taken the entreprenurial leap yet, here is how to handle job burnout.

newenergy

If you haven't taken the plunge yet, hopefully some of these articles give you the impetus to start your own business — and if you do, we have tools to help. Besides our domain name, web hosting and ecommerce products, we also have just added an innovative marketing dashboard that you can try for

Read More »from New energy, new startups, new lessons. Small Business Reading for February 1, 2013