There are lots of people seeking jobs today. However, as an employer, you are not looking for just anyone. You would like to hire the best, most imaginative employees to work at your business. You recognize that your company is only as strong as your workers. How do you hire the best people? It all starts with the job interview.

It’s important to create a job interview strategy that pin points what you are looking for in an employee. If you ask the same cookie cutter questions that everyone else does, you are likely to get cookie cutter answers.

Ask the Right Questions

A common approach to the job interview is to inquire about past positions the person held. What their responsibilities were, etc. These are not the most beneficial questions as you only end up receiving information that could be easily read from their resume. This doesn’t help you much if you are looking for specific characteristics. Think about asking them how they enhanced their positions, were there any processes that they changed, or ways in which they saved their company money.

One of the most common questions to ask a candidate concerns their strengths and weaknesses. Try to avoid asking them to list these; most of us have predetermined answers. Instead ask them what they bring to the culture of a company, or ask them what they do to make their job more satisfying. The responses you get to these types of questions will help you to gauge the actual resourcefulness of the person you are evaluating.

Another simple way to evaluate a prospective employee’s creativity is to ask them to carry out a task. For example, you could ask them to brainstorm ideas for an ad campaign, or write a short essay about their ideal workplace. Whatever it is, it is something your interviewee will not expect and it will give you a snapshot of their creativity.

Today’s job market is such that it’s probable that many competent people will apply to your open position. So, in order to sift through these applicants and find the most creative and inventive individuals, change your interview tactics to hone in on these traits.

Adobe Photoshop is an excellent photo manipulation tool. With it, businesses can create professional looking marketing materials quite easily. The biggest issue with Photoshop is the price. A person looking to buy it can spend more then $600 for newer versions. This is not feasible for many small business owners, plus they probably don’t require all of the features that a $600 photo-editing program comes with. Thankfully, there are many alternatives to Photoshop that are affordable or free.

These alternatives are not quite as powerful as Photoshop but they offer enough of the elements to be useful to the small business owner. This is a list of three that make photo-manipulation easy, without straining the wallet.

GIMP

GIMP, which stands for GNU image manipulation program, is the choice of many a cost-conscious designer. That’s because this free program contains the most important features of Photoshop. The GIMP website even offers a version of the program—cleverly named GIMPShop—that features a screen layout that’s a virtual twin of Photoshop’s.

Paint.NET

Remember that old MSPaint program that came with your Windows program? Paint.NET is the successor to this, and it is a surprisingly powerful—and free—photo editor. Paint.NET comes with its own special effects, a limitless undo (a nice feature for those designers who are far from perfect), and an online forum full of users who aren’t shy about sharing their favorite tips and methods for using this program. The only negative of Paint.NET? It only works with Windows-based systems.

Picnik

Picnik has become a popular free photo editor for many reasons. First, it works on the Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. Secondly, users don’t need to download any files to their computers to use the program. The program is also known for its speed. It’s simple and easy to learn the fundamentals of cropping, resizing, and rotating photos. It’s easy, too, to add special effects and turn blurry, dark images into clear, light ones.

Business owners needn’t let Photoshop’s high price keep them from inserting professionally edited photos into their marketing materials. With just a little bit of online hunting, even the most frugal of business owners will find an ideal alternative.

Google is the household name when it comes to searching the Web. However, it might not be the greatest search engine out there. Microsoft launched Bing, a competitor, in 2009 and it shouldn’t be dismissed. Although many Internet users still use Google as their primary search engine, Bing has numerous features that make for a robust searching experience.

Taking Another Look at Bing

When searching on Bing, you get more information about your search results then you do with Google. Bing has a navigation panel on the left that enables users to focus their search effortlessly. In addition, it organizes search results into logical categories, making it easier to find quick answers.

Bing Goes Beyond Search Results

Another great advantage of Bing is that it doesn’t just bring up search results. It also brings up related videos, music, and images. Although this is an element of Google as well, Bing makes it more user friendly, as the categories are right below the search bar. Bing beats Google for travel searches too. They use something called Farecast Technology in the Bing Travel site; it lets users find the least expensive flights quickly and easily.

Bing Video Search Shines

Bing shines, too, when it comes to searching for videos. Before searching, users can tell Bing how long they would like their videos to be, what screen size they’d like them to be, and what image resolution they’d prefer. Users can start their videos by simply hovering their cursors over a screen capture.

These are a few reasons why Bing shouldn’t be overlooked. Google may be the current king of search engines, but Bing has a lot to deliver surfers of the Web.  Give it a try, if you haven’t already, and let me know what you think!

We’ve talked about how easy it is to get distracted while working with the Internet at your fingertips. The Internet is one of the greatest technological advancements of the past 30 years, but workers have been getting distracted in the office long before the World Wide Web. Here are three of the most frequent ways that workers can get distracted in the office without the aid of the Internet (as well as a few steps on how to combat these bad habits).

The Water Cooler

A strong work culture is important for any business. Research has shown that workers who have developed a strong community will be more productive. However, making this community constructive for productivity is also a necessity. It’s easy to spend too much time discussing your personal life with coworkers during working hours. To help combat this, try planning a weekly after-work-hours gathering with your coworkers. This will help you stay up to date on each other’s lives without decreasing productivity during office hours.

Minesweeper

No matter what computer you use, there is likely some kind of preloaded game saved to the hard drive. Whether it’s Minesweeper, Chess or Solitaire, there is always a mind numbing game to indulge in during work hours. With these games, it’s easy to let a few minutes of distraction turn into hours of wasted work time. In this case, the best thing to do is to simply delete the game off your computer. Let’s be honest, you probably don’t even enjoy playing these games that much anymore.

Daydream

We all know what it’s like to get lost in thought, daydreaming about our favorite TV show, book or movie. It’s something we do when we have low focus and it can be a big time waster. Try changing your lifestyle to help increase your focus to avoid daydreaming. Simple changes can help, like getting more sleep or eating foods that are low in processed sugar.

Working without distractions can be a challenge. Even without the multiple distractions offered by the Internet, staying focused on your work can be difficult. Remember these tips during the workweek and do your best to stay on top of things. Don’t forget, 90% of productivity is focus! Do you have any additional ideas or thoughts?