This year, AT&T identified a labor supply issue that many other organizations are also struggling with. Only about half of AT&T's 250,000 employees had the necessary science, technology, engineering, and math skills that the company requires. They had a tough choice to make – they could hire software and engineering people and pay extremely high acquisition costs to secure them.

At the dawn of the 21^st century, the economy has shifted from a culture of full-time workers to an on-demand, “gig” economy. This model allows additional flexibility, with emphasis on crowd sourcing and peer to peer (P2P) connections.

Think back to your last vacation. How many times did you check your email? Your voicemail? How many times did your coworkers reach out to you in desperation for information or access that only you had?

As the economy rebounds, many organizations are growing by leaps and bounds. If 2015 was a growth year for your company – or if you’re planning to grow in 2016 – the expansion may have you feeling disorganized.

If you’re the one responsible for terminating employees, you probably worry about the potential for litigation. What if your employee sues you? How long does he have to sue you? Would you have any kind of insurance or other protection? 

If you’re hiring for the holidays, because your business is growing, or to replace departing employees, you know that hiring is just the first step. After you’ve found great additions to your team, you have to figure out what information you need to communicate to them to successfully integrate them into your company and community.

In tight economic times, it can be tempting to trim costs and expenses in any way possible. But making decisions that look good initially can backfire and cost your company much more in the long run – the proverbial “penny wise and pound foolish” philosophy. A more amusing term for this is “frupid”: frugal, but stupid.

Hiring is indisputably difficult, time-consuming, and costly. It generally costs much more to hire and train a new employee rather than retain an existing employee, and there’s always a significant risk that the employee won’t work out – won’t perform well, won’t like the environment, or won’t be a good fit with your existing team.

It’s a global economy these days, which means that the best candidates out there for a position you’d like to hire may be, well, really far out there. Social media and professional networks can easily expand your candidate search nationwide (or even globally) – sometimes unintentionally, as friends and contacts pass along your opportunities.

Whether you’re hiring as a matter of course (like seasonal employees, or employees on a per-project basis), replacing a valuable team member, or expanding your workforce, the key to effective staffing is starting off right. Creating a great job description and crafting a great job ad will jumpstart your hiring process and make it easier to find the perfect employee(s) for your company.