3 Hiring Lessons from Back-to-School Season

3 Hiring Lessons from Back-to-School Season As summer slowly morphs into fall, 26.9 percent of the population goes from worrying about sunburns to homework. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 79 million children and adults enrolled in school back in 2011 which means, for a large proportion of the population, back-to-school season is upon us. Going back to school, whether you’re a student or parent, can be expensive. Statistics pin back-to-school spending at somewhere in the $8.5 billion range. There are books to buy, new notebooks to fill with learning, and a new fall wardrobe to obtain so you don’t attend class in your pajamas.  But back-to-school season isn’t only about finding the most fashionable backpack for your textbooks. In fact, recruiters and hiring managers can learn some valuable lessons from the preparation which goes into preparing for the fall school year to begin. Here are the three lessons you can learn from the back-to-school season and apply to your hiring efforts (pay attention, there will be a test on this information!): 1) Make A List Of Supplies: Before parents and students go shopping for new notebooks and pens, it’s always a good idea to make a list of the essentials. Going back to school usually involves getting all manner of supplies, from binders to graphing calculators. Students who go shopping without thinking about what they’ll need for their particular classes will probably have to make a return trip to the store. Hiring is similar, only instead of making a return trip you might end up making the wrong hire. This isn’t really an option, especially with a bad hire potentially setting your company back $50,000 or more. This is why it’s imperative to know exactly what you need when hiring for any position. Like Santa Claus, you need to make your list and check it twice when it comes to the specific skills and experience candidates need to possess. Once you’ve made a list of essential skills and approved it with the important people on your team, you have to ensure the job description reflects the specific candidate you’re looking for. An unclear job description is likely to nab you the wrong candidate, but a good job description can help weed through the wrong people and deliver top talent. 2) Get A New Fall Wardrobe: As summer ends, you need to put away those tank tops and pull out warmer attire. In 2012 alone, the average household spent about $133 on new fall wardrobes. Even though school supplies and electronics top the list of spending, it’s important for students to freshen up their wardrobes. Similarly, what a candidate wears in the interview, whether it’s in-person or through online video, can tell you a lot about their attention to detail and level of professionalism. Candidates who show up for the interview in a suit or other professional attire are taking the interview seriously and understand the need for professional dress. Candidates who show up looking sloppy or unkempt have failed the bare minimum when it comes to interview presentation. This is just as true for a video interview as for an in-person meeting. Many candidates mistake a video interview as a more informal occasion, when in fact it should be taken just as seriously as a sit-down interview. A candidate who stands up to grab a work portfolio only to reveal a suit jacket on top and pajama bottoms below is probably a candidate lacking the attention to detail your position requires. 3) Do Your Summer Reading: Summer reading can help you pass lazy days on the beach or bore you to death on vacation. The reason for those long lists of summer books to read is simple: Students can lose up to three months of education over the summer if they don’t try to keep their learning fresh. This might account for why spending on books around back-to-school season totals approximately $2.4 billion. You might not be in any danger of forgetting how to recruit and hire great people when the weather is warm, but it’s still important to do your homework. During the interview process, whether in a video interview or in-person sit down, make sure your candidate has all the skills and qualifications to jump right in and hit the ground running. Don’t be afraid to ask specific questions about their skill set and pose hypothetical questions for them to answer. If you don’t have all the information about the specific workload of the position, ask someone in the relevant department to give you important questions to ask. Since a live video interview will record a candidate’s answers, you can share the interview with the manager who will deal directly with this future employee. Doing your homework doesn’t end after the interview. You also need to check a candidate’s references and verify their employment history. References can tell you a good deal about what the candidate was like at a previous employer and how he or she lived up to the promise shown in their qualifications. On the negative side, 46 percent of job candidates will include at least one fib on their resume, so it’s important to make sure your candidate is truthful before they sign on the dotted line. If you take these valuable lessons from back-to-school season and apply them to finding great candidates, you’ll ace the hiring process every time! Author: Josh Tolan is the CEO of  Spark Hire, which combines a video job board and online interviewing platform to enrich interaction between job seekers and employers.

Tips on Good Resume Writing

Tips on Good Resume WritingIf you are a job hunter, you need to take some time to consider the various tips on good resume writing. This is not just any old resume, but one that goes right to the point and is succinct in the terms of what it does say.There are actually quite a few tips that can help you make your resume more effective. One is that you must use basic colors and fonts. The reason for this is that you need to have clear pictures that will stand out. In addition, you need to use the necessary text to ensure that you make a good first impression on your prospective employer.Another tip on good resume writing is that you need to be neat and uncluttered when preparing the document. Do not draw attention to yourself and your skills. A way to get around this is to include information about your qualifications and achievements that will provide clarity.Another tip on good resume writing is that the job candidate should actually read the document over carefully before it is pri nted. This is due to the fact that you might be providing a job opportunity in front of your prospective employer. You need to ensure that the document says what it is.Keep in mind that in such situations, you are basically trying to get someone to notice you and hire you as a means of making the most of your potential employer. It is best to be unique in what you have to offer, and to make a good impression to ensure that you do get the job. The guide mentioned above is also helpful in this regard.Another tip on good resume writing is that you need to understand the industry that you are applying for. For instance, you need to know what the market demand is for specific qualifications. The amount of time that you are willing to put into this job search is also a factor to consider.Perhaps the most important tip on good resume writing is that you should ask for an interview, even if you don't get it. It is because you never know if you get the job or not. If you are too close to the date, it is probably best to not apply and try to save the money rather than hiring someone who might just be wasting time on it.The tips that we mentioned above are some of the basic ones that you need to be aware of if you are into an effective job search. The rest will only come from experience. By this, we mean that you need to take advantage of the various resources that are available for you on the internet.

Personal Branding Interview Ken Blanchard - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Branding Interview Ken Blanchard - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, I spoke with Ken Blanchard, who is one of the most influential leadership experts in the world, an bestselling author multiple times over, a world famous speaker and author of the new book, Helping People Win At Work.   In this interview, Ken discusses how employees can win at work, the training and development employees need, and more. Do you think every employee can win at work? What about the ones that dont fit into the culture? I think everyone can be coached and supported to be a high performer in their area in their responsibility, unless it’s just not in their DNA. I could be coached all day and would never be a good accountant. The key concept in Helping People Win at Work is to make sure that everyone has the final exam ahead of time (at the beginning of the fiscal year), and that they know what they are being held accountable for and what good performance looks like. Then it’s the responsibility of their manager to help them win. If a manager works closely with a direct report and performance is still not good at the end of the year, then that’s good evidence that maybe this person is in the wrong job. If the person is a good values match to the culture, then most managers would see if they could find another job for this values-driven person. If a person isn’t performing and they’re not a good match for the culture this is a good time, as Garry Ridge suggests, for you to share that person with the competition. What type of training and development program should be standard in the workplace? Everyone should be taught how to set observable and measurable goals. They also need to learn how to ask for help. This seems like an unusual part of a training and development program, and yet in our self leadership programâ€"how to take initiative when you don’t have powerâ€"we teach people that the most important phrase they can learn in their life is “I need.” A lot of people fail at work because they’re not willing to ask for help. They act like victims: “Nobody’s giving me a hand.” “I’m in the wrong position.” And they bang the nails into their own coffins. At any point when they are not performing well, people should ask for help. Managers should all be trained in how to listen. What happens when you have a toxic manager or employee? What do you do? Toxic managers or employees should be told quickly about what makes them toxic. A firm belief I have is: When in doubt, confront, and when all else fails, try honesty. You always want to give somebody a chance to change their behavior and make it part of their performance review. Once people know what they are working on, give them feedback and applause for their improvement. Paul Meyer, with whom I coauthored the book Know Can Do!, worked with a VP of Finance who was incredible in the financial tasks of her position but a wet blanket on all new ideas. He called her in and told her how good she was as a financial officer, but her killing of all new ideas was career damaging. He told her from now on, at meetings with him or their team, if a new idea came up she could not say anything negative about that idea. In fact, she was in charge of “green light” thinking. It was her job to come up with all the positive reasons for why things should go forward. It was amazing to hear her report out after a year or so of this kind of responsibility. She had trouble finding fault with things because she had been so taught to be a positive thinker. Can you name a company that has helped people win at work? Southwest Airlines is a perfect example of a company that has helped people win at work. Herb Kelleher, who cofounded the airline, has been a firm believer in helping everybody win at work. At Southwest Airlines they have a clear mission, set of values, and goals for every department and position. Everybody is encouraged to help each other win at work. They don’t have a normal distribution mentality. Their philosophy is: When you hire somebody to be on your team, you want them to win. Ken Blanchard is a   prominent, sought-after author, speaker, and business consultant.   Ken is one of the most influential leadership experts in the world.   Dr. Ken Blanchard is the cofounder and Chief Spiritual Officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies, an international management training and consulting firm.   In addition to being a renowned speaker and consultant, Ken also spends time as a visiting lecturer at his alma mater, Cornell University, where he is a trustee emeritus of the Board of Trustees.   His phenomenal best-selling book, The One Minute Manager, coauthored with Spencer Johnson, which has sold more than 13 million copies and remains on best-seller lists. His books have combined sales of more than 18 million copies in more than 25 languages.   Ken has been inducted into Amazon’s Hall of Fame as one of the top 25 best-selling authors of all time.   His two latest books are Who Killed Change? and Helping People Win at Work.   You can read more about Kens views on his blog, howwelead.org.

Perks at Work Big Deal or a Little Luxury

Perks at Work Big Deal or a Little Luxury When searching for a new role, prospective candidates are more often than not, sold by the incentives an employer offers. In recent years, employee perks have developed into integral factors of any office job, becoming less of a perk, and more of a necessity. With 19% of employees claiming to not receive any perks from their employer, it is becoming increasingly competitive between corporations to locate the most enticing benefits to satisfy and retain their employees. Google as the prime example has gone so far as to equip their offices with Energy Pods, in order give their employees some space to nap when in need of a bit of shut-eye. Although some of us may not be as fortunate as this when it comes to what perks we receive, Andrews Sykes Air Conditioning have collated some insightful research about the state of office perks. This national study looked into what perks are presently offered to employees and the ones people really want, as well as whether these benefits actually make a difference to the employee morale because after all happy employees, means a more motivated and committed workforce. The reality vs. the expectations of office perks In today’s office space, common perks include access to changing facilities and reclining chairs, but do these “perks” really make much of a positive impact on employees? Some perks although small, have a beneficial effect over a staggered period of time. The most commonly offered employee perk is free hot beverages, with over half of office workers having access to as much caffeine whenever they should like. However, the remaining half are expected to subsidize this cost themselves, which could be costing them up to £950 per year, the equivalent to an all-inclusive seven day holiday to Portugal. It’s these smaller incentives which are often taken for granted, that actually benefit the individual employee the most over time and encourage positivity amongst a workforce. What incentives would make you seal the deal? Sometimes, employees don’t want to sell themselves short with the little perks but are often lured in by the less accessible perks which are not offered elsewhere. The perk which office workers desired the most (43% of those included in the survey) was flexible working hours. This gives employees the freedom to work to their own schedule, which almost always results in better staff retention. It is this opportunity for employees to take more control over their working hours and their own time, which stimulates them to be more productive and motivated workers. The potential power of office perks The question on every employer’s lips is do perks actually make a difference to the morale and productivity of a workforce? The answer is an indefinite yes, with 20% of employees admitting they’d work harder if offered them, 37% revealing they’d be more motivated and a whopping 49% confessing they’d be happier. Given that stress is the number one cause of disengagement and absence for employees in the UK, it seems justifiable that this could be changed with the addition of a free bar after a busy day at work, or the ability to work from home when the traffic is a little too hectic. By treating hard-workers with the care and attention they deserve, businesses are more likely to see results in employee loyalty, a high retention rate and subsequently a lower turnover within a workforce. About the author: Olivia Stone is contributing  writer for research commissioned  by Andrews Sykes, the UKs leading specialists in air-conditioning and heating hire.

How Meditation Can Reduce Your Stress Prevent Burnout

How Meditation Can Reduce Your Stress Prevent Burnout Everyone experiences some degree of workplace stress, but over time, even small stressors can take a big toll on your physical and mental health, eventually leading to exhaustion and burnout. You can help prevent burnout by establishing a daily meditation routine: even just a few minutes a day can provide real benefits. Studies have shown that meditation decreases stress and anxiety, and it increases focus and concentration. It can also have direct physical benefits: it helps to decrease blood pressure, increases blood flow to the heart and decreases muscle tensionâ€"including the muscles that cause stress-related tension headaches! Meditation Decreases Your Stress Anxiety It is a well-known fact that chronic stress negatively affects both the body and the mind. Meditation can help mitigate stress by promoting relaxation and helping you let go of daily worries. It also increases positive feelings and tolerance, so youll be less likely lash out when your child refuses to cooperate or your boss piles on additional work at the last minute. Tense situations simply wont rattle you as much. A daily practice will also lessen the chances of reaching for unhealthy stress-relief options that cause damage, such as smoking, binge drinking or overeating. Meditation Increases Your Focus Concentration It teaches you to focus on the present moment, which means you can more effectively tune out unhelpful distractions and complete the tasks in front of you. This improved focus leads to better prioritizing and decision-making both at work and in life. Many busy working people feel that meditation is just another time-consuming activity to add to an already over-scheduled day. However, by taking just a few minutes out of your day to relax and focus, you are actually likely to increase your productivityâ€"and stave off burnout at the same time. Meditation Improves Your Physical Health If you feel healthy and strong, you are less likely to become overwhelmed by stress and experience burnout. Meditation has been linked to a host of physical benefits including pain relief, lower oxygen consumption and decreased respiratory rate. Regular practice has also been shown to decrease blood pressure and increase blood flow to the heart. In addition, meditation helps promote restful sleep and the ability to give up unhealthful behaviors like substance abuse. Furthermore, many common illnesses are exacerbated by stress, and meditating helps keep stress at bay. It has been shown to reduce the severity of symptoms from a host of ailments, ranging from arthritis to allergies to cancer to PMS. It is also linked to stronger immune systems and shorter post-operation healing times. (Meditation is not a replacement for medication, of course, but many physicians are now recommending meditation as a complementary addition to traditional medical treatment.) If you are looking to improve your physical health, there is really no reason not to try it. In addition to providing all of these benefits, meditation is completely free and accessible to anyone. There is no special equipment required, and you can do it from pretty much anywhere. (If you’re having a stressful day at work, you can take five-minutes to  meditate in your carâ€"or even in a stairwell!) However, many people have difficulties establishing a routine at first. It may help to create a small space in your home that you use exclusively for meditating, and to set aside a specific time of day as your designated meditation time. You can start with just five minutes a day (use a timer to help yourself keep track). If you still have trouble sticking with it, there are many free resources available online that can help. Here is a good place to start. This post was written on behalf of Psychic Source. To get a convenient reading from a psychic online, visit their website today.  Image courtesy of Jon Fife.

Achieve Your Writing Dream in the 2nd Half of Life - Career Pivot

Achieve Your Writing Dream in the 2nd Half of Life - Career Pivot Achieve Your Writing Dream in the 2nd Half of Life Copyright: raywoo / 123RF Stock Photo You had a dream of being a journalist. The Lois Lane or Clark Kent of your generation. Breaking important news and crafting influential pieces that thousands would read. Alas, life took a slightly different route. You don’t nearly do as much writing as you would like…or you do, but it’s not the right kind of writing. The dream deferred still eats at you. It festers and stinks. Now might be the time to reevaluate if that dream can become a reality. You’re in the 2nd half of your life, but it’s not too late. The editorial landscape has transformed over the last thirty years. While freelancers can still seek out opportunities by approaching nationally acclaimed magazines and newspapers, the internet has created hundreds of new opportunities for freelance writers. Businesses need copy for their websites and content for their blogs. And hundreds of news and information-driven websites seek talented writers to create high-quality articles. If you have just a little writing skill and a lot of determination, you can make a freelance writing career flourish. Should you just quit your job and dive into a freelance career? No. Quitting your day job is a very unsafe method. So close to retirement, you might not be able to afford to take the monetary hit if the new freelance career doesn’t shoot off as seamlessly as you hope. This is especially true if your current job has good benefits like paid sick days or health insurance. At this point, think of freelance writing as a means to supplement your income that has the potential to become a part-time or full-time job. Steps to Success. Step One: Take stock of your online personal brand. Your online personal brand is comprised of every mention of yourself on the internet. Moments of personal branding range from personal social media sites to online writing portfolios to professional mentions in articles. It’s anything you can leverage to convince editors and businesses, you have the writing skills and experience to craft high-quality articles. Step Two: If you don’t have a personal brand, spend some time creating a LinkedIn profile and then begin outreaching to blog owners to pitch potential articles. Choose a social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) to begin connecting with other blog owners and professionals. Step Three: If you don’t have any content published under your own name, begin to get published. You can start by publishing your own content on LinkedIn Publisher. Due to the fact it’s a self-submit process, the article won’t quite be as influential as it would be if the post was published on a slightly higher authority blog with hundreds of readers. Listen to the most recent episode Next, you might want to think about getting a least two or three publications on sites with an editorial team. You can easily find hundreds of sites that accept guest submissions by typing “write for us” in Google’s search engine. Make sure when you pitch a site, it has either twitter interaction, readers, or blog comments. There are a lot of guest post mills out there that have no readers. Some sites may offer to pay, but a lot of smaller online publications cannot afford to pay guest contributors. The idea at this stage isn’t to make money, it’s simply to get a collection of writing samples you can leverage. Step Four: Start pitching articles to sites that pay. Many freelance writing sites have lists of blogs and news sites that pay writers when they publish their content. To start, take a look at 37 Blogs That Pay Up To $300 For Your Guest Posts or These 79 Sites Offer $50 and Up. Choose two or three potential sites to pitch. Here are some tips to pitch editorial content. Step Five: Sign up for a freelance writing platform. Check out Entrepreneur’s list of 11 Freelance websites that will help you find jobs. Freelance writing platforms will connect you with companies, websites, and professionals that need web content, blog, creative, technical, and copy writing projects completed. Step Six: Do research on your tax obligations. If you live in the United States, you can find your freelance tax expectations here. Depending on how fast your freelance career kicks off, you might need to pay your taxes four times throughout the year. If you won’t make more than $5000 in freelance income this (or owe less than $1,000 in taxes on that income), you can wait until April to pay your freelance taxes. Be sure to keep a running tally of all payments made to you by editors and companies. Depending on how much a contractor paid you, they might not be required to send you a 1099-MISC (the freelance equivalent of a W-2). Step Seven: Look into Potential Tax Deductions. Freelance writing, even part-time freelance writing, is a personal business. This allows freelancers to be able to claim the expenses attached to the freelance writing process as tax deductions. What can you deduct? The rent or mortgage attached to the portion of the home that is reserved for your home office (you cannot use the room for any other reason besides work). If you have a home office, you can deduct a portion of your phone, heating, air conditioning, gas, electricity, internet, or phone bill. Classes and seminars related to professional development. (Classes do not qualify if they give you the credentials to enter another field.) Costs related to creating and maintaining a website. Necessary software like Microsoft Office. Did you dream of becoming a writer? Why not give freelance writing a try? Even if freelance writing only remains supplemental income, it will be supplemental income that you can continue to utilize after you retire from your “real” job. And best case scenario, it may allow you to pursue your passion full-time. You’re in the 2nd half of your life, now’s the time to stop deferring your dream and give professional writing a chance. Samantha Stauf is a part-time blogger, full-time marketing professional, and a newbie freelance writer. Over the last year, she’s realized you can cultivate a successful writing career. And from there, it’s just small hop, skip, and a jump to a landing fruitful freelance writing opportunities. Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

Voxpop - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Voxpop - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog The happy at work project went out on the streets of Copenhagen and asked people What makes you happy at work? The answers we got were funny and interesting, and if you understand danish you can see the best of them in this 1,5 min video clip. A big thank you to Charlotte Slemming for putting this together. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

How to Wow with Your LinkedIn Profile Summary

How to Wow with Your LinkedIn Profile Summary You have a maximum of 30 seconds to impress someone who reads your LinkedIn profile summary. Many executives struggle with balancing the requirement of talking about yourself, while also explaining your impact on others. It’s challenging to do when you sit down and think about it, so sometimes it’s best to just start with LinkedIn profile development services for assistance. Being concise is key, since every single word matters in your profile summary. Here are the main things to keep in mind when developing yours. Tell People Who You Are Can you describe yourself in roughly 10 seconds? That’s about one or two sentences to explain who you are, what your identity is and what value you bring to the table. You don’t have to be a professional LinkedIn profile writer to put together these two sentences, but you do have to choose your words carefully. These first two sentences are critical, since people will generally choose to keep reading or leave your page depending on how intrigued they are. Be Brief About What You Do This is the part where you can get specific. Expand on your role within your company, your specialties, areas of expertise and a brief summary of what you do in a nutshell. Do your best to fit this information in three or four sentences to avoid getting too lengthy. If you choose to hire a LinkedIn profile writer, they will try to condense this section as much as possible, while still getting the point across. Finish With A Bang If you want to really know how to optimize your LinkedIn profile, it’s by finishing your profile summary with a bang. These last couple of sentences will be similar to your opening two sentences, but make them even stronger. Reiterate how your passion and expertise helps people succeed and how your success has translated into success for your company. Making the last sentence or two impactful will help make your profile summary memorable. Professional Resume Services understands the challenges of writing an effective LinkedIn profile summary. Our LinkedIn profile development services can help you develop the most impactful profile to aid in your networking and professional development efforts. To learn more about how to wow with your LinkedIn profile summary or about the many other services, feel free to contact us at any time.