Have you considered finding your new employees online? Many Australian employers have been on a bit of a roller coaster ride over the past two years – particularly in regard to finding quality employees.

Currently, unemployment seems to be rising and many average Australians have been struggling to find work in recent months – but it was not so very long ago that the unemployment rate was exceptionally low. Tradespeople had plenty of work and good employees were so hard to come by that many were “job jumping” and offering their services to the highest bidder. Some employers simply couldn’t fill their vacancies. Thankfully – for employers – that time has passed, at least for now.

There’s usually a cost involved in searching for employees, and if you have to do it week after week, it can get very expensive, especially in times when the unemployment rate is low and the response rate to your advertisement is almost zero! Now is a great time to consider changing the way you search for employees because you can find top quality employees online – often faster and less expensively than you can using traditional media advertising.

Here are several great methods of finding employees online:

1. There are services such as www.seek.com.au that are essentially online job classifieds. You’ll pay to use the service, but there are many prospective employees that visit the site – particularly for office based and IT related jobs, but increasingly for trades and manual labour positions too.

2. Some keen prospective employees take matters into their own hands and post profiles on sites like www.whatcanyoudo.com.au. Find profiles on the site and you’ll be able to get quite a good idea as to the candidates’ suitability for your firm before you even make contact with them. The choice of contact can be yours – or you can advertise your position on the site for free. This can be a great way of finding employees. You could be pleasantly surprised to find the ideal person. If you post your position on the site, you have an advantage – people who aren’t registered on the site will see it too, so you won’t be limited to the people who have joined and posted their profiles.

3. You can use your own website to attract prospective employees. If you have regular vacancies to fill through the year consider adding a “Vacancies” or “Employment” page to your company website. Doing that also puts out the welcome mat for general employment enquiries and you may be able to build up a list of prospective employees to contact when a position arises. Don’t forget to update the page regularly if you’re advertising particular positions – leaving a vacancy up there once it’s filled will waste your time and that of any applicants.

4. There are also free classified advertisements online. A particularly good one is Gumtree. It’s a high traffic website used by a variety of people and it’s nicely categorized and divided into states. People use it to buy and sell but also to seek employees, seek work and advertise their services.

Advertising your position online in any form can net interesting results. People all over the country will see your advertisement – and people who are travelling here from interstate are usually looking for work before they arrive. They’re prospective employees you’ll miss out on hearing from using traditional media. So get with it, and get online – you’ll have more prospective employees to choose from and that means a greater chance you’ll find exactly the right one!

If you’re looking for work, whether it’s a regular job or freelance work that you’re looking for, get your profile online here today! It’s a totally free service to help you out so you’ve got nothing to lose but a couple of minutes of your time – and who knows, you may have a brand new job or a great freelance assignment coming your way very soon.

Bear in mind that not all prospective employers are registered on the site – there are many more that drop by just for a look, and if they like the look of what you have to offer, they might just get in touch. Employees who take the initiative to advertise themselves can be particularly attractive to employers. Did we mention it’s free? You’ve absolutely nothing to lose by giving it a go.

Simply register then use the step by step instructions to build your profile.

There’s no need to stop at one profile either! If you have multiple skills, why not set up a profile for each of them. You might be an attractive proposition for a variety of employers, so treat your profile like a resume and tailor one to each type of employer you’d like to attract. And no, we’re not going to trick you and charge you after the first profile – it’s all completely free!

Whether you’re a graphic designer, a freelance writer, process worker, dressmaker or a tradesperson, we want to help you find the work you’re looking for – for free!

Owning your own business is simply fabulous really. You get to make the rules, come and go as you please, and work without someone peering over your shoulder.  Essentially, you get to be in total control. You’re at the helm which means you can do things your way and keep everything running just as you want it to – at least until you have to employ someone!

Whether you have one employee or many, your business is often at their mercy. These days, if people want to take a day off they often do, even if it causes you a significant problem. Where once work was considered an all important livelihood, now it’s “just work” and many other things can take priority. Let’s face it – nobody cares quite as much about the productivity and profit level of your business as you do. There’s absolutely nothing you can do about this – except to hire the hardest working, responsible and most like minded employees you can find. But where on earth will you find them?

The key to finding top employees is to widen your search so you can consider as many candidates as possible. Why not take a look online? There you’ll find people diligently searching for work. Instead of sitting through hours of interviews, you’ll be able to spend just minutes scanning online profiles.

Possibly the best thing about hiring online is that you can do it quickly – and for a small business with limited employees, filling a position quickly is usually crucial to the work flow.

Most successful freelancers, self employed tradesmen, and home based business people will tell you that one of the most important qualities you’re going to need in order to work for yourself is discipline.

As an employee, you don’t need that much of it. When the alarm goes off each morning you know that – at least on most occasions – you have to go to work. You go through the motions of showering and having breakfast and off you go through the morning traffic to arrive at the time your employer requires you there. As a general rule, you don’t pick and choose the particular tasks you’ll do for your employer either. You do what they ask you to do within the scope of your employment.

The minute you start to work for yourself, all of that goes out the window. The threat of losing your job is gone. Now, you have total control over your day and your income – but the freedom that comes with self employment is a double edged sword.

Suddenly, there’s no need to set the alarm. That can be a huge plus – you’ll feel so much better if you’re allowed to awake naturally and the chances are you’ll wake up around the same time or shortly after the alarm would normally wake you. The catch is you don’t actually have to get out of bed.

When you do, unless you’ve arranged to be somewhere, there’s absolutely no compelling reason to get out of your pyjamas and into the shower. In fact, sipping coffee over the morning newspaper until 10am can be very tempting because you don’t have to start work at all if you don’t want to!

When it comes to dealing with potential clients and jobs, it’s ever so easy to decide you don’t want to do a particular job, or work for a particular client, and turn a job away. Truth be told, there are always some clients that are more trouble than they’re worth, but when you turn a job away, you need to be sure you’re doing it for a good reason – hopefully because you’ve already got too much work to do!

It’s just as easy to take on too much and end up working seven days a week. As much as you need to discipline yourself to work, you need to discipline yourself to schedule time off. If you’re working from a home office, it’s very easy to continue working into the night and over the weekend when you should be spending that time with your family. That was one of the compelling reasons you decided to work for yourself wasn’t it?

You’ll need to learn to say no to a number of things. For example, when:

• a client asks you to do a job in an unrealistic time frame or a job you just don’t have time to do by the date they require it;
• a prospective client asks you to drop your price to match a cheaper quote;
• a family member tempts you with a recreational activity when you must work to get a job completed;

Being self-employed is all about discipline – and finding that balance between having more time to do the things you enjoy and earning sufficient income.

If you’re looking for temporary or casual employment, why not add your profile to whatcanyoudo.com.au? The site is free for everyone to use – people looking for work, and those looking for employees. If you create a fabulous profile outlining your skills you just never know who will find you here.

Perhaps you’re hoping to find work you can do from home on a temporary or casual basis. If you have administrative or technical skills and can work from home just as easily as from office premises, you might find employers willing to outsource work to you.

Having an overflow of work can be a difficult situation for employers – it’s often a temporary situation so they can’t justify hiring a permanent new employee. For a person who wants to work from home, or just work periodically, filling in as an emergency employee can be ideal.

If you need work quickly and you have multiple skills, cast a wide net – create a profile specific to each skill you have to offer. The employment market is forever changing, particularly in terms of the types of work on offer. If you have multiple profiles online you can receive more enquiries about the type of work you are able to do – and you might just find a new niche market for your skills.

If an employer needs assistance fast and believes you can do the work, they might offer you the opportunity to develop a new skill or gain valuable experience.

Surprising things can happen when you seek temporary or casual employment online!

Managers of office based businesses often complain about the difficulty finding good “temp” employees. Many businesses use “temps” when they need to cover employee holiday periods, sick leave or maternity absences or when there’s an influx of work that is likely to subside rather than become a permanent work volume increase.

There are many temp agencies offering to fill the gaps for you but for many employers there are two main problems experienced when you have to call in a temp:

1. The hourly rate for a temp can be quite expensive. That’s because not only is the worker being paid a higher rate for the inconvenience of having only temporary employment, but because the agency has to make money from the temp every hour too. If the job is simply typing, the hourly rate can seem quite unreasonable.

2. They’re often not helpful at all. They might be quite good in many aspects but some jobs require a certain period of training for a person to do them properly and a temporary worker can’t always achieve of a high level of competence from the minute they arrive. They’re often just getting the hang of it when the regular employee returns! If you do find a brilliant temp, it’s usually difficult the get them again the next time – good temps are often offered permanent positions with good salaries and are gone by the next time you need a temp!

Next time you think about hiring a temp to fill a gap, you might like to consider outsourcing the work to a home based worker, online business or a freelancer instead. With modern electronic communications, laptops, thumb drives, video conferencing and sound files, a great deal of office work no longer has to be done in your office.

Here are two possible approaches to consider:

 If you have a regular overflow of work and find yourself frequently calling for temporary personnel, or struggling to cope with the workload, consider searching online to find a freelancer capable of doing the work and coming to an arrangement with them to help you out as required. A freelancer might be prepared to attend the office if need be and will soon become familiar with the tasks required.

 If you’re able to find a home based business or an online service that can competently do the work, consider making regular use of them! If they undertake your work regularly, they’ll quickly become competent with it and there’s every chance that the increased level of efficiency will make them cheaper to use than a temp service over the long term.

Having the same person undertake the task regularly is always going to be more efficient that having a different person do it each time. Consider reviewing your office tasks and considering whether they can be just as easily done outside your office. If you’re not sure whether there is technology available that would make it possible, ask an IT expert. You might find that using in-office temp employees is no longer necessary.

It’s no coincidence that Freelance begins with “free”. A freelancer is free to choose the work they do, how much of it they do, and when they do it.

If you were to ask any employee what would improve their lifestyle, it’s likely they’d say something about earning more and working less so they could spend more time with their family, or just doing the things that please them. If you’re currently an employee, you’re probably thinking the same thing. But if you have a skill that you can take to the freelance market how should you go about it?

The best way is to do a little research and planning first, then test the waters.

 Research – find out what freelancers in your field are charging. If the rates vary significantly, consider why. What level of service can you offer? What volume of work seems to be available?

 Planning – work out what you would be happy earning and plan your rates. Don’t forget to take into consideration any time you’ll need to spend on marketing and administration. If you need to spend 10 hours a week on that and you’re only charging your services out at $60 an hour, your hourly rate will drop when those non-billable hours are added to your working week. Don’t forget to consider expenses like your insurance and telephone.

 Test the waters – before you throw your day job in, and if you’re not bound by a contract, place your profile on sites like whatcanyoudo.com.au and see what level of interest there is in your services.

For most people it’s possible to make the transition to freelance work slowly and with limited risk – so if you have good skills and the desire to work freelance, it’s well worth considering.

Have you considered outsourcing work to freelancers? Times are changing when it comes to employment and working life – well, in fact they already have! The Internet has afforded numerous individuals the opportunity to work for themselves as freelancers or consultants or to undertake home based work.

The benefits for those individuals can be massive. Potentially, they save the expense of running a vehicle to and from work, the cost of purchasing lunches, clothing and shoes suitable for the office environment, and of course, the cost of child care if they have young ones.

The benefits don’t stop there either – they’re able to enjoy a much more flexible lifestyle and many of them will earn more per hour than they would in regular employment. When there are so many benefits for an employee to go freelance, how can there possibly be anything left to be gained by an employer?

There are as many, if not more advantages for an employer who uses freelancers or home based workers. Here are some to consider:

 Generally, you’ll save the cost of purchasing office equipment for them;

 Home based workers and freelancers are generally being paid by the task and not the hour so they’re unlikely to waste time chatting to co-workers and if they do waste time, you won’t be paying for it;

 If they’re working for themselves they need to keep the income flowing so your work is likely to be done in a very timely manner;

 Unless they’re still your employees, you won’t be paying sick leave or holiday pay;

 Colds and flu spread easily in an office environment – your home based workers won’t be exposed to it, and if they do catch a cold, the chances are they’ll still manage a few hours work at home;

 Happy workers are more productive – and it has to be assumed that freelancers and home based workers who are well paid are happier than those who drag themselves off through peak hour traffic to office every day!

 If you make good use of home based workers and freelancers, you’ll have more office space available for the workers you need in the office – and that means you’ll be able to expand your business more before the need for larger premises or more parking arises;

 You’ll save on other things too – like tea room items, electricity used by computers and office consumables;

 Employees who are parents often need time off during school holidays to care for children – if they’re home based, they’ll probably only want to reduce their hours during that period.

You’ll also be doing your bit for the environment. If a substantial number of businesses begin to use home based workers and freelancers for some tasks over the coming years, it could take quite a few vehicles off the road and make a significant contribution to reducing emissions.

Many employers are still reluctant to switch from office based workers to freelancers or home based workers but the fact is that if you can reduce your overheads by outsourcing to freelancers, you’ll either have more profit, or more money to spend expanding your business – and that would be a good thing, wouldn’t it?

The Internet has changed the way we do business in so many ways. More and more employees are opting out of the traditional job market and choosing to freelance or work from home. We’re shopping online for almost everything – including new employers!

When you’re used to hiring employees the old fashioned way – via newspaper advertisements or recruitment agencies – hiring someone after seeing their profile on a website can seem almost undignified and even a little risky. The fact is there are tremendous advantages to using the Internet to find prospective employees. There are only a few risks and they can be minimised with a little diligence on your part.

The Pros

 The Internet is immediate. Search and you shall find. If you’ve missed the newspaper advertising deadline for the week you won’t have to wait until next week; and if you need people who can start immediately, you’re going to save days by searching online.

 People seeking work online often put up complete profiles including work experience and qualifications – so you get most of the information before any interview.

 You don’t necessarily need to advertise your position online – you can make contact with individuals whose profile indicates that they may be the type of person you’re looking for.

 An online profile is as good as an old fashioned letter of application – it can give you a great idea of the person’s language skills and nature.

 You can often interact online with the person quite quickly and know whether they’re suitable – if they’re not, you won’t have wasted time with a personal interview.

 If they’re job is creative in nature, they’ll probably be able to show you samples of their work in an instant.

 Prospective employees using websites to gain employment generally have computer skills.

 If you’re outsourcing work or filling a position that can be filled by a home based worker, the number of prospective employees you’ll find online is just huge – and that means more opportunity to find just the person you are looking for!

 Most people who have gone to the trouble of placing their profile online for prospective employers are very actively seeking new employment. Consider it the online version of the weekend newspapers “Jobs Wanted” section.

The Cons

 People can write anything in an online profile – but they can do this in a hard copy resume too. You should verify any qualifications prospective employees claim to have and check their references – just as you would do (or should do) if you were hiring the old fashioned way.

 You don’t get to see your prospective employee’s reactions and appearance if you are talking to them via electronic means – but you can certainly invite them in for a personal interview if they’re local or use a webcam if you both have one.

 Sometimes the people you contact will have already found employment – but you’ll only have wasted a few minutes if that’s the case, which is less time than you’d waste waiting for an interviewee that fails to show up or advise you they’ve found another position.

Looking online for employees and home based workers has many advantages and very few disadvantages. Isn’t it time you started shopping online?

If you’re out of work you’ll have noticed that the employment market certainly isn’t what it was just a couple of years ago. Now that there are more people out of work you’ve got more competition and prospective employers can be a bit fussier than they could afford to be in recent years.

One thing employers often respect is a person’s initiative in seeking work. And it goes without saying that the more irons you have in the fire, the more likely you are to pick up the employment you want.

There are several ways of finding work online and it can literally pay to use all of them:

 Research and find companies who are likely to hire someone with your skills. Many firms have websites with an “employment” page that outlines how to go about obtaining work with them, or lists their vacancies. If they don’t have such a page, don’t let that stop you from contacting them and asking!

 Classified advertisements. There are some fabulous classified advertising sites that allow you to post free advertisements. Gumtree is an excellent place to start as advertisements come up well in organic search results and the site has good traffic.

 It goes without saying that you should create a profile on whatcanyoudo.com.au! Whether you want to earn money from a hobby, work part time from home or find full time employment, you never know who will spot your talent on our site.

 If you’re looking for regular employment sites like seek.com.au are well worth looking at.

Most importantly, stay positive while you’re seeking employment – a positive attitude and happy disposition makes you more attractive to any employer!