Tag Archives | Employment

Over 1M Recruiters, Who Is The Right One?

By on October 15, 2014 in Uncategorized

Every job has it’s perks and down falls and the biggest downfall in recruitment is the quality of talent that comes through staffing firms directly so here are the qualities needed for top performing recruiters you should know about if you are going to be working with them:

Emotional Intelligence: Being smart is one thing but a great recruiter needs to be able to read people and situations. They need to know what to say when and how, and WITHOUT LYING! Lying gets you nowhere but trouble

Diligent To The Point of Obsession: It’s one thing to be a perfectionist however top performing recruiters are people of the now with the vision of the long term as everything has to happen instantly for their candidates and their clients but building the solid relationship is always #1.

Multi-Task Masters: There is no way a top performing recruiter will take on one job at a time or talk to one candidate for one search. The don’t NEED a retained search as they know that they will find the top candidate and there’s no way they are working with one company so why make a company work with only them? Due to their busy desk, they need to know how to manage a different projects at different stages, hand while being observant enough to know what priorities are. As I was once told it’s “Magic hands”.

Listen: In sales it’s always important to listen but recruiters aren’t just sales people selling a glass. Their class walks, talks, speaks to other glasses and if they fall of the shelf, the recruiter can’t just find the exact same glass. So it’s so important they listen to the needs of their clients.

Caring: In all jobs the bottom line is important but someone who is in recruitment for the money is in it for the wrong reasons. The career placement industry isn’t a numbers game, it’s about changing lives.

Friendly: If the recruiter you are working with can not take the time to talk to you with a smile and caring voice, you have a problem

Sense of Sportsmanship:Recruiting is the People Person Sport. It’s impossible to be a successful recruiter without a team. It takes a village to make the right higher. They need the right tools and guidance from their clients and their candidates so if they aren’t working with you, they aren’t going to be able to help you

Energized: If a recruiter sounds like Eeyor you have a problem, they shouldn’t be like Tiger either. You need them to be a healthy balance of professional, fun and educated regarding your needs.

Self-Motivated: A recruiters lively hood depends on the clients they manage and the jobs they fill. If they are happy with just being at the level they are at, they will not strive to fill your jobs as they have no drive. A top preforming recruiter has drive faster then a formula 1 racer.

Ridiculous Researcher: A top recruiter won’t just research a company to know what they do, they will know the company and the match of what they are looking for better then an adult tooth moving into a mouth. They love to research, to the point of almost stalking. It;s their passion to research, learn and talk to others. It’s just in their blood.

Laugh At Themselves: If they can’t laugh at themselves they will die as some things said and done along the way can kill them…literally.

“Tell Me About Yourself” What Do They REALLY Want To Know

By on August 7, 2014 in Career Advise

You are sitting in your dream company, across from your potential new employer all decked out. You have your freshly printed resume in their hands, they look through it briefly and say: “So….tell me about yourself”

And your brain goes like wildfire. You have done so much. You have so much to say but where do you start?

What they are really asking in the politest of ways is “who are you and why are you here?”

So your answer needs to be along the lines of “what have you done that will help their team and company succeed?”.

They don’t care about anything personal. This is your time to show how you fit in the company. They need to learn you know how to give long answers in a short period of time.

So you must:

Be precise.

Be consistent.

AND

Don’t ramble

Don’t worry about what they want to hear. Worry about the message you want to get across.

Think of it as you elevator pitch with more substance to get you to that higher level.

Remember every good story has a beginning, middle and an end a summary as this question gets you talking but don’t talk too much.

Here is how it’s broken down:

I am a ….

“I have done…with numbers and dollars and accomplishments and I’m looking for x, y, z which is what brings me to you today.

How does that work for you?”

Write down all your key points so it will help you not have to think once you are in your interview.

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Learn To Keep Your Employees!

By on May 9, 2014 in Others

You have employees, you are growing, you want to grow, that’s all great! Nerve wracking but great!! The only problem is, everyone is different and every company is different so as much as it’s fabulous to want to add employees you need to go about it the right way!
So what can you do to actually keep employees so people like me don’t take them out???

A steady job and paycheck is not enough to keep them happy.
Here are some not deep pocket examples that can help employees feel warm and fuzzy inside:

Relax on the dress code once a week or provide a free lunch of Fridays…offices love free!! Free coffee, free donuts, free time!!

Keep them motivated, keep them educated!
Lunch and learn sessions: The government of Quebec provides grants to companies that provide training. Take advantage of it!! It will save you money in the long run as well! If you need more information please do feel free to send jessica@mindhr.com an email. She will put you in touch with the right person.

Offer a flexible work schedule. I have a client that has a 7.5 hour work week. Everyone has to be in at 10am but they can come in anytime before and leave 7.5 hours later.

Don’t yell, it’s not good for you and it’s not good for the morale of the office. Keep calm and work on!

Dangle a carrot in front of the right people. Everyone has different motivations so work with what those differences. It’s not discrimination if everyone has something to look forward to. I worked with a sales woman who was motivated by time off. She didn’t care about the commissions, she wanted a half day off for every sale made. Not the end of the world.

Celebrate occasions and offer the option of It’s your Birthday take the day off. With smart phones we are always available, so a day off is never really a day off.

Participate in community events. Events bring up team spirit. You don’t have to make it mandatory but you can make it an option. Building a sense of community and family makes it harder for people to leave.

As a manager or an owner, bond with them and get to know them. You don’t have to be best buddies but you can get to know their favorite color.

If you can and have the space, offer gym memberships or provide the time for your employees to get out and exercise. Healthy body healthy mind

Work with your employees to show the progression of their work and the company, if that is something that interests them. Don’t worry, NOT everyone wants to the be chief and not everyone wants to be the soldier.

Don’t forget to congratulate successes not everything has to be about money, a simple well done, is really enough sometimes.

The employers who treat their employees the best will not only keep their current staff but also find the best employees flocking to them.

Happy flying!

Contract VS Permanent Careers-HuffPost Article

By on November 12, 2013 in Others

Why Having a ‘Contract’ Job Instead of a

Permanent One is a Good Thing 

Michel Kelly-Gagnon President, Institut économique de Montréal

Posted: 11/11/2013 5:12 pm

There are still some people, including government officials, who look at any job which is not full-time and permanent as a non-standard or undesirable job. But these people should know that “non-standard jobs” are actually more numerous in Canada than the standard ones.

2013-11-11-Graphagencesdeplacement.jpg

This change has happened mostly because it is a desired phenomenon. Indeed, many people yearn for such jobs because they want to balance work with family obligations, with the pursuit of their studies or with gradual retirement. In fact, three quarters of people in such “non-standard” jobs are choosing this course.

When they answer people’s needs, there is no way that we can characterize these changes as “undesirable”. On the contrary, the flexibility now offered by the labour market is a good thing.

Rigid regulations cause unemployment

Adapting and evolving are central aspects of the concept of flexibility. More flexibility does have the effect of increasing uncertainty for both employers and employees. But rigid labour market rules and regulations are not a solution since they generate structural unemployment . In Europe, where the regulation of labour market is very heavy, we see that unemployment rates have been higher than in United States or Canada. The scale of unemployment among the youth and immigrants is alarming in several countries.

The reason for this can be grasped very easily from the point of view of an employer: if hiring someone ties your hands for the future, it creates a risk for your business, and the decision to hire won’t be easy of frequent. Hiring and laying off employees are two intimately connected decisions and both are necessary to adjust to an ever-evolving economy. So regulations should preserve flexibility.

Staffing services on the rise

Change in the labour market goes hand in hand with the continuous rise of staffing services. In Canada, this industry’s operating revenues have gone up considerably in the last dozen years, reaching $10.6 billion. So have salaries, wages and benefits paid by staffing services.

This raises a tough but legitimate question: are businesses using staffing services to subcontract jobs and pay lower wages? When asked about their motivations , American businesses cite these various reasons: to deal with unexpected business growth (52 per cent); to fill long-term absences (47 per cent); while waiting for permanent replacement (47 per cent); for special projects (36 per cent). Also, 21 per cent use staffing services in order to pre-select candidates for regular positions. No mention of lowering wages here.

A German study went a bit further by examining the behavior of companies making extensive use of staffing services, meaning that they find more than 20% of their labor force that way. The conclusion of the authors is that they do so only temporarily, making it unlikely to be part of a low labour cost strategy.

A springboard for the unemployed

One of the least-known facts about staffing services, that we see confirmed in various studies, is the “springboard effect” for the unemployed.

In the U.S., the overall impact of staffing services was quite impressive after the last recession. Even though they account for only 2 per cent of total employment, the industry was responsible for 12 per cent of net job creation over the past three years.

In Canada, 60 per cent of previously unemployed people who found a job were hired for “non-standard” work. Compared to staying unemployed, working for an agency increases the probability of finding a job, and also the prospective salary, as shown in a Dutch study. This positive causal effect was also raised in an Italian study.

In other words, some people chose to work part-time or temporary contracts. But even for those looking for a full-time and permanent job, staffing services offer a leg up.

It is especially true for immigrants, the reason being that when they graduated or were trained abroad, they have a harder time convincing future employers of their skills. Staffing services provide an opportunity to be evaluated on the job.

All in all, there are no real downsides about having a more flexible labour market. It gives everyone the opportunity to achieve what they want. And the possibilities abound.

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