What is ransomware?   

According to CSO Online, “Ransomware is a form of malware that encrypts a victim’s files. The attacker then demands a ransom from the victim to restore access to the data upon payment.” It’s common for hackers to target businesses across all industries, though financial and healthcare organizations are targeted frequently, probably due to the nature of their business and the information they collect and house regularly. Luckily, many businesses have seen a decline in these kinds of attacks in recent years, but they do still pose a significant threat to organizations if deployed against them.   

How can businesses protect themselves against ransomware?   

There are a few simple steps that businesses everywhere can enact to help protect yourself against ransomware threats.   

• Pay attention to your networks and operating systems. Are they up to date, with all the latest updates installed? This will ensure there are fewer vulnerabilities to exploit. 
• Restrict downloads and use administrators to oversee installs. Employees can unwittingly download malicious software and businesses can save themselves time and money by ensuring that professional IT administrators are the ones who authorize access to the necessary software and files.    
• Install antivirus software. This is a simple step that can help detect malicious programs like ransomware as they arrive and prevent unauthorized applications from executing in the first place.  
• Back up your data and files frequently and automatically. While this won’t stop malware attacks, it can help impede the damage and prevent the complete loss of crucial data and information.   
• Educate your employees. Make sure employees know not to open suspicious emails or download any files that could be damaging. Teaching your employees how to recognize malicious communications can make your business safer.   
• Hire the best IT professionals. The administration and education necessary to prevent damaging ransomware attacks are conducted by your IT or IS teams. Make sure you’re staffed with the brightest people who are up for the challenge and will monitor trends as they develop to help protect your business going forward.   

Hire the right IT experts 

If you’re looking for the best IT professionals for your business, our expert team can help. Get in touch today to find the most qualified candidates to help keep your business safe.   

The post Protecting Your Company Against Ransomware  appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

Why is diversity a crucial component of your recruitment strategy?

1. More diverse employees can better represent the wants and needs of your customers: Your customers want to know that your business and your employees understand them and their wants and needs. One of the best ways to do this is to actively recruit diverse employees and make sure your staff is made up of people with different backgrounds from age to race to education.
2. Diversity gives more perspectives for better ideas and problem solving: If decision makers all have the same background and similar experiences, it increases the risk for businesses becoming “echo chambers” where all ideas are very similar. Without some risk-taking and outsider creativity, it’s easy for businesses to stagnate and even digress. A more diverse workforce helps employers leverage a wide range of ideas and experiences for better ideation and progress.
3. Employees want to work in diverse environments: The job talent market is becoming increasingly competitive. In this candidates’ market, more job seekers are proactively seeking out companies that allow them to celebrate differences. Smart job seekers know that too much of the same thing is not only boring but dangerous – fresh ideas and different perspectives are important for progress and growth, both personally and professionally and for both individuals and companies.
4. Better business reputation: When a community knows that a business has a sincere commitment to diversity and inclusion, you’re more likely to have a higher credibility with customers as a business with integrity and reliability. This helps drive up both employee and customer attraction and retention.

Open Systems Can Help Shape Your Hiring Strategy

If you’re looking to hire the best talent from a wide range of qualified candidates, give our team a call. Our experts have years of experience in matching the right technical talent for your open positions to help support your business and better meet your goals. Let us help you and your company today.

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What is an employee brand?  

Employee brand is your reputation in your industry and with your employees. How is your business seen as a place to work? Do people feel inspired, creative, taken care of, appreciated, and challenged? Or do they feel stressed, overwhelmed, confused, disconnected, and frustrated? and inspired and creative environment is going to draw in more candidates and encourage more applicants. A mindful HR team, in collaboration with insightful leadership will help develop the employee brand with several different tools meant to cultivate culture. Everything from your company’s mission and alignment in their business goals to their vision to company communication to benefits and perks all contributes to the employee brand. This is not just important for finding new employees, but also for retaining your existing workforce.   

How do people know what your employee brand is?  

Candidates and job seekers can get familiar with your employee brand in a number of ways. Glassdoor reviews give candidates an honest insight into how people feel working for your organization, so it’s always helpful to keep an eye on that and course correct to improve the employee experience as needed. Another way that applicants will discover your brand is through social media.  More companies are choosing social media platforms to showcase company culture and give a more rounded, sense of the organization.  Finally, good old fashioned word of mouth – employees talking about their company to friends, family, or social media – is another way that employer brand messaging gets spread. This is why you want to pay attention to your employee branding and work to make it as strong and positive as possible.   

A strong employee brand is key to securing top talent, but having a recruiter to actively identify the best candidates for your open roles can help you hire faster.  

Connect with top talent 

Open Systems can help find quality candidates who match your mission and are excited to contribute their skills to grow the success of your company. 

The post How Strong is Your Employer Brand? appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

The Top 5 Hiring Habits to Avoid    

1. Taking too long: You don’t want to rush hiring, but you also don’t want to take too long to bring new team members on board. Many companies have lost excellent candidates due to lengthy gaps in communication. It’s important to connect with your candidates regularly throughout the process to make sure you don’t lose candidates to other companies that are hiring.
2. Focusing on only one area: You want to ensure that your candidates have the qualifications for the position and what skills are considered essential will vary by the job. But one area mustn’t be considered disproportionately. Even if your candidate is a rockstar in one qualification, make sure you know they have the experience in all the areas that matter. A willingness and desire to learn is important in any candidate, but you don’t want your new employees to struggle or fail during the first months on the job because their skillsets are imbalanced.   
3. Not hiring for cultural fit: Experience, education, and skills are hugely important, but the most important thing to consider with applicants is if their personality fits your team. Do their values mirror what your company wants to present to the world? Will they get along with your established teams? Don’t forget that criteria when conducting interviews and considering candidates.   
4. Not personalizing communications: No one wants to receive a form fill template to tell them they’re moving on in an interview or that they’re not longer being considered. You’ll connect with more candidates if hiring managers are able to personalize their communications with applicants before and after interviews.  
5. Not including a pay range in your job posting: Some companies worry that by including a pay range, they’ll alienate certain candidates and attract those that are underqualified. The truth is that you can end up wasting a lot of valuable time going through applications of people who have a very different acceptable salary in mind. Getting through the interview process with candidates only to find out that they won’t be able to accept an offer due to salary is frustrating. You can save your business, your HR teams, and your candidates a lot of time and effort by listing your salary range with your job listing.  

Ready to staff up? 

If you need help finding and hiring the right candidates for your open positions, give us a call today. Our expert team can help you get connected with the best talent today.   

The post 5 Bad Hiring Habits That Will Burn You appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

How to Upskill Your Workforce    

Here’s what to focus on to better train and educate your employees.   

1. Understand the talent gap: Where exactly are the knowledge gaps? What do you need to make sure your employees are capable and qualified to order to help your business succeed both now and long into the future? Technology skills, in particular, will become crucial to every area of your business, from finance to marketing to sales and HR. Are your employees and departments ready to learn what it will take to support whatever future work requires?   
2. Hire those who are hungry to learn: When it comes to ensuring that your workforce is prepared to take on new challenges and participate in employee-offered training is to find the people who love to learn. Whether these are people you identify when you’re first hiring for a role, or current employees that you work with or management helps you find. Upskilling really starts with finding the people who want to keep learning and see growth as an opportunity, as opposed to those that see “development” as a chore or company-issued mandate.   
3. Strengthen your in-house training: You might not have an in-house trainer, but you can still have effective training for employee development and upskilling. Start small by using YouTube tutorials or SlideShare presentations and begin to formalize small training groups and regular sessions to enhance needed skills.   
4. Find a training pro: For certain tech skills and training sessions, it makes sense to partner with an outside educational professional who can help develop and lead training classes and programs. There are many professional education and training companies who can help your company tackle tough training tasks, but businesses can also partner with colleges, universities, local technical trade schools, and more in order to bring in some additional resources.   
5. Consider apprenticeship or mentorship: One of the best ways to grow the skills of your current workforce is to match up employees with another expert in your company. This is particularly helpful for companies to do when they’re working on succession planning and strategy. It’s important that the knowledge and skills that exist within your company don’t get lost when someone moves on or retires. Passing along education and training from person to person can be valuable in both ensuring there are fewer knowledge gaps, as well as improve team collaboration and cross-business relationships.   

Are you looking for niche talent to close the gap? 

Businesses who are thinking about the future need to focus on their present and figure out what they have and what they need to get where they want to go. If you’re looking for the right talent – from the tech-savvy to those with advanced training skills – give our expert team a call.   

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1. Lateness: Running late shouldn’t automatically disqualify someone from a job offer, but how they handle setbacks is essential. Were they communicative ahead of time? Do they make excuses? How they handle running or arriving late to an interview can tell you a lot about how they’ll handle job stress and communicate under pressure.  
2. Badmouthing: If a candidate has nothing but negative things to say about their past employer, this could be a bad sign. A previous bad boss or experience with a disorganized company can certainly be discussed during an interview – often in the context of how they handled a less-than-ideal workplace scenario – but it shouldn’t be infused with bitterness, name-calling, or a generally unprofessional attitude.   
3. Inconsistency: If there are significant discrepancies between what an applicant says in an interview and what was on their resume, it’s probably a sign that they’re not entirely truthful about their experience, which could be bad news for your business.  
4. Lack of knowledge: If the candidate seems exceedingly unfamiliar with the details of the job they’re interviewing for or the company itself, these are indicators that they might not be all that interested and aren’t looking to stay on board long-term. Candidates don’t need to be experts, but they should have a working knowledge and show enthusiasm for your company.   

If you’re looking to find top technical talent for your organization, our team can help. We have years of industry knowledge, and our expert recruiters know exactly what to look for when screening candidates to ensure that you’re matched with the best potential employees. Give us a call today.   

The post Red Flags You Should Never Ignore in an Interview appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

What exactly does a “broken” experience look like for job seekers? Here are some top candidate complaints that keep many applicants from moving forward with a job – or even applying to one, to begin with.   

1. Difficult, time-consuming applications: Candidates don’t want to have to invest an hour of their time to apply for a job. Most candidates think a resume only gets a cursory glance, or never even makes it to a real person because of applicant tracking software. If they have to fill out an extensive application (especially after already uploading their resume), they might quit on the process early on, which means you never get a chance to connect with those talented candidates. Applicants understand that a hiring screening that includes assessments and other tools is necessary for some jobs. Still, most don’t want to invest the time in these steps if they’re not even sure their resume will be considered, so your company might consider restructuring and reordering your process.   
2. Lack of communication: Hiring managers and HR staff used to be able to tell candidates, “We’ll be in touch,” but that doesn’t work in today’s hiring climate. Candidates want to know what the next steps are and need clarity on when they should expect to hear from someone. Leaving candidates waiting for what’s next can lead them to move on with a different company.   
3. Long timelines: Companies are losing talent to other organizations because they’re not acting fast enough. Applicants know there are a lot of options available to them, and they don’t want to wait around for a company that seems wishy-washy or disorganized. Make it a priority to create the most efficient hiring process possible.   

The team at Open Systems can help you improve your recruitment experience without sacrificing candidate quality or thorough vetting. Our expertise in your industry and years of experience in recruitment allow us to help give your company an edge when it comes to finding your next hire. Get in touch with our team today.   

The post The Candidate Experience is still Broken, Here’s Why appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

1. Check for discrepancies: Checking a LinkedIn profile ensures as a “double-check” on the accuracy of candidate experience and qualifications because the past job information on a resume and LinkedIn are usually the same. This gives you an excellent opportunity to check for anything that would be a red flag, such as a different job title, company name, and more. You may also find some “positive” discrepancies, such as additional relevant work experience as a freelancer or contractor that the candidate didn’t add to their resume for the sake of brevity.  
2. See community involvement and engagement: LinkedIn offers access to more than just job history. Profile sections like volunteer experience can showcase a potential employee’s interests and help recruiters better ascertain if candidates are a good fit for the culture and values of your company.
3. Look for relevant endorsements and connections: Another non-resume benefit of LinkedIn is seeing who your candidate has in their network and if they’ve garnered any endorsements from previous connections. While endorsements aren’t a substitute for background and reference checks, they give you a good sense of what your candidate is capable of and the work relationships they’ve established. If there are shared connections between you and the candidate, it might be worth reaching out to them and seeing if they have any feedback.     

Adding LinkedIn to your candidate search process makes a lot of sense when you’ve received many qualified candidates who you’re interested in or as preparation for an already scheduled interview. Additional candidate insight can help you make better, more informed decisions and see past the education and experience history to better determine a cultural fit.   

Do you need additional support in your hiring strategy?

Open Systems is a leader in technical staffing in Alpharetta, GA.  Our team’s expertise and experience can help you succeed in finding the best people and bringing them on board. Hire better candidates, give us a call today.  

The post What to Look for on a LinkedIn Profile That You Can’t Find on a Resume appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

Recruit with candidates in mind

Hiring is about finding the right people who can help your business succeed and understanding what they can bring to the table. It’s also, however, about what you’re about to offer candidates. When you focus on what potential employees want from the companies they work for want out of the organization and from their job, you can attract and retain a higher-quality caliber candidate. That’s why hiring with flexibility in mind can benefit your business. More and more job seekers want to work for a company that offers them the flexibility to work from wherever and have more flexible work hours. This kind of corporate culture perk can lead to better candidates, better retention, and increased productivity.   

Expanding the talent market

Recruiters can’t afford to only look in the traditional places for employees anymore or focus on hiring only those who fit a very rigid set of requirements. What’s becoming more important in hiring is less related job experience, and more the potential employees have to grow and learn. Hiring for skills like dependability, communication, leadership, and flexibility can help you find quality candidates and strengthen your team.

Video recruitment

In 2020, the use of technology by hiring teams will continue to grow. While video recruiting isn’t new, it has grown in use as a valuable tool used by recruiters. It helps connect employers to qualified candidates who aren’t local and enables recording of interviews, which can be shared with other team members who aren’t available for the live interview, but whose input is important.   

Referral recruiting

It’s long been known that candidates personally recommended to a job are more successful employers, and more employers will capitalize on this in the coming year. Many companies have already built an employee referral program that helps to incentivize employee’s recommending members of their network, benefitting both employer and employee.  

Prioritizing diversity

Companies that deliberately seek out diverse candidates with a wide array of backgrounds from education, industry, age bracket, and more perform better than those who don’t actively value diversity hiring.   

Let us streamline the hiring process  

If you’re looking for additional support in your 2020 hiring objectives, give Open Systems a call. Our team can help you screen for top IT and Engineering talent in the new year.   

The post Recruiting Tactics to Use in 2020 to Bring in Top Talent appeared first on Open Systems Inc..

What are some of the most common remote work challenges?  

• Different time zones: When teams are distributed all over the country, sometimes the world, one of the biggest challenges is to make sure that team members are communicating often enough and in-depth enough to work together effectively.  
• Creating a team culture: It can be hard for distributed employees to feel like they’re part of the “team.” Every team is different in how it should be accomplished, but every team needs some team building structure to reinforce that everyone is on the same page working towards the same goals.  
• Inconsistent or confusing communication: Even the best remote work tools aren’t the same thing as being in the office with the same group of people week after week. Some people do better communicating via chat and are uncomfortable over video calls; some people only need weekly check-ins to feel connected, while other employees will benefit from shorter daily conversations. Finding out what’s best for your employees is key.  

What are the best ways to overcome remote work issues?  

• Use the right remote team software: As a manager, you might not have control of the software implementation that your company chooses. But you can be a champion for your remote programming team by learning what the best tools are and making a business case for them. The right tools help you connect consistently via web and video calls, help you track and manage projects, and have robust feedback and collaboration features.  

• Be clear about expectations: One of the main reasons that consistent and regular communication is so important is because it helps your employees know what to expect. The most productive employees – remote and otherwise – know what they need to focus on to be successful on their projects and know what metrics their managers are looking at to define their success.  

If you’re looking for help hiring for your team – remote or otherwise – we can help. Our recruitment experts ensure that they match the right candidates to your positions so that you can feel confident that you’re hiring the right people who meet your requirements and can support your business. Give us a call today to help you find the best talent faster.  

The post Managing Your Remote Programmers, a Manager’s Guide appeared first on Open Systems Inc..