“I’m Not Interested” … How to Politely Decline a Job Offer

You’ve successfully interviewed and been offered a job, but choose not to accept it. You have your reasons and, whatever they are, the position is just not right for you. By declining with grace and professionalism, the employer and recruiter involved will remember you in a positive light. If handled correctly, turning down an offer may even help set up a future successful job search.

Respond Promptly and Formally
As soon as you know you can’t accept an offer, respond accordingly. This gives the employer optimal time to hire another candidate. Contact whomever the person was who made the offer.

• Don’t wait till the 11^th hour or fail to respond at all. This is highly unprofessional. Remember, hiring
   managers and recruiters are all in the same professional network. If you act inappropriately, word will get around. And you never know when you might run across the same interviewer or need to approach the same company again.
• Clearly state that you’re rejecting the offer. Use words like “unfortunately” or “regrettably” before delivering the news. Then be diplomatic and briefly state your reason. You’re not obligated to go into detail. It’s sufficient to simply say that “the job did not meet my career objectives.”
• Do be prepared to answer questions. The recruiter and employer will likely probe a bit into the factors that drove your decision. Be courteous and honest. Listen. Show that you care and that the company should think of you in the future. Never say anything offensive.
• Put it in writing. Even if you initially decline an offer in person or by phone, follow up with a letter. This makes you look even more responsible and professional.

Show Your Gratitude
Before stating that you’re declining an employer’s offer, thank them for the privilege of being considered for the job. Show that you appreciate how hard they worked to introduce you and make you feel comfortable.

• In addition to thanking your direct contact person, mention a few others whom you met and were helpful to you. Take this a step further by sending your recruiter and others LinkedIn invitations. Your goal is to make the employer feel good about you as a candidate and about their role in recruiting and selecting you.
• Start and finish with grace. Remind the employer that you were impressed with the company and the possibility of working there. Wish your contact person and the organization luck in future endeavors. Be positive and appreciative as you bring closure to the process.

A professional career coach from PrideStaff Modesto can work with you throughout your search to ensure the best possible outcome and keep your career path on track. To learn more, read our related posts or contact our team of experienced recruiters today.

You Don’t Have to “Do It Yourself”: Four Advantages to Using a Staffing Agency

As you evaluate your hiring needs, consider using a staffing company to help. As experts in the industry they can assist you with creating an effective hiring strategy, customized to your needs.

Four Reasons to Consider Using a Staffing Agency:

1. Decreased cost: While a temporary employee may cost more per hour, you pay only for the hours, days or weeks that you need that help. And, because temp workers are technically employed by your staffing company, you won’t have to worry about benefits, worker’s compensation, unemployment or adding unnecessary headcount.

2. Flexibility: Hiring temporary workers is an effective way to cover your requirements on an as-needed basis. Staffing agencies can help you find the right person for your temporary needs, saving you valuable time and energy.

Whether you need someone for a large and time-consuming project, a fill-in for an employee absence, or have a particularly busy time of year, staffing agencies are a great resource for quality, temporary employees. And they come to you prepared to work – screened for the specific skills and training required to make it a smooth transition.

3. Less worry: With a strategic plan for hiring in place, you can anticipate short- and long-term staffing needs, projected costs and upcoming projects. Using a staffing firm helps you avoid hiring someone not entirely right for the job. Getting the right help will reduce stress, wasted time, and wasted money.

Establish a relationship with a single staffing firm who understands your needs and goals and has access to the best local talent. You’ll gain a competitive advantage with a ready source of pre-screened temporary and full-time talent that can help you reach your business objectives.

4. Saving resources: When you use a staffing agency, you significantly reduce the workload on your HR team who would otherwise spend valuable time screening resumes, paring down the list of prospective candidates, and taking part in interviews. A staffing agency has a pool of screened, qualified people to choose from.

A clear plan and a staffing firm who knows your needs can help find quality staff that you may even decide to hire full-time. An agency such as PrideStaff Akron can give you all of that and more.

The Dangers of Hiring Friends

You’ve got a position to fill – and the perfect person in mind for it. The trouble is: it’s a good friend. Do you a) forget about it; b) hire them on the spot; or c) put them through the interviewing process like any other candidate?

As one of the leading staffing services firms in Phoenix, PrideStaff knows hiring friends may sound great in theory. You’ll get to work with someone you know you like. But that doesn’t mean you should hire them.

Before you take the plunge, consider the following:

Is your friend competent?

You might not have the answer to this question, which is why you need to put your friend through the same interviewing process you would any other candidate. It could be a little awkward at first. But evaluating their skills for the position is a must before you bring them on board.

If you can’t be objective enough to handle the process, then ask someone else at the company to do it or hire a staffing services firm who will give you an unbiased opinion. You want to ensure your friend has a solid track record and an objective third-party to back that view. Just because they told you about all their wins and successes at work doesn’t mean they’re necessarily true.

Are you prepared for your relationship to change?

When you hire a friend, your relationship is going to change, especially if you’re managing that person directly. Will they be comfortable taking orders from you? What will happen if there are performance issues? What would happen if you had to fire them?

These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself before you hire them. Don’t wait until issues arise and tempers flare to think through the consequences.

How will hiring a friend impact your other employees?

When you bring a friend on board, your employees are quickly going to realize you have a personal relationship with them. How will they react? Are you going to be able to treat everyone fairly and without favoritism?

It’s vitally important to consider how this relationship could impact your existing, core team so it doesn’t lead to problems with them.

While there isn’t a right answer when it comes to hiring a friend, you should always proceed with caution. Worst-case scenario, you could hurt your relationship with your existing employees and lose a friend as well.

Looking for more advice on handling sticky hiring situations?
Call PrideStaff. As one of the leading staffing services firms in Phoenix, we have the knowledge and experience you need to take the hassle out of the hiring process.

Find out more! Contact us today.

5 Soft Skills That Can Help You Get Ahead in Your Career

Want to get ahead in your career? Don’t just focus on building a portfolio of strong technical skills. As one of the leading Phoenix employment agencies, PrideStaff knows if you want to achieve career success, you need to be a well-rounded professional, which includes boosting your soft skills.

Here’s a look at five that are most important to employers:

#1. Soft Skill: Self-Motivation

Employers want people who are driven and come to the table with ideas; not those who need to be pushed, prodded, or given specific and detailed instructions before moving forward. This means you have to take some risks, make mistakes and offer ideas that may not get implemented along the way.

#2. Soft Skill: Flexibility

Some employees are so stuck in their ways and resistant to change that they actually harm morale and productivity. Don’t be one of them. In today’s rapidly changing economy, employers don’t just want those who are adaptable and eager to learn – they are demanding them.

#3. Soft Skill: Emotional Intelligence

You’ve probably worked with people who are great at what they do, but terrible at collaborating with others and managing relationships. This certainly impacts career trajectory.

Instead, aim for high emotional intelligence. Understand your co-workers, how to foster a strong rapport with them, and how to manage your own emotions and connect with others. When you work successfully with your peers, you’ll enhance your visibility, expand your network and build your reputation.

#4. Soft Skill: Accountability

You might not be in charge of the company, but you are responsible for your work. And if you point fingers and start blaming every time something goes wrong, your boss isn’t going to see you as someone to be trusted with more challenging assignments.

Rather, it’s important to take ownership of your work. Invest in its outcome, look for ways to make it better or more efficient, identify problems and offer solutions.

#5. Soft Skill: Ability to Accept Feedback

Being open to feedback is necessary if you want to get ahead. Otherwise, you’re going to stay where you are in your career. You simply cannot learn and grow if you don’t listen to feedback and then work to incorporate those lessons into your everyday role. Rather than getting defensive, keep an open mind and look at input as an opportunity to get ahead.

Ready to advance your career in a new direction? Call PrideStaff. As one of the leading Phoenix employment agencies, our expert team of specialists will learn about your background, experience and aspirations…then get to work matching you with opportunities that fit.

Find out more! Contact us today.

Go from Temp to Full Time with These 3 Steps

3 Tips to Consider When Piecing Together Your Workforce

Assembling a workforce team is a challenging task. Much like a puzzle or an automobile, all parts of your team have to work in unison to achieve success. One missing part, and the overall team is impacted.

So how can you make sure all members are going to not only get along, but also perform well together? That’s where screening and hiring come into play.

3 Tips to Consider When Piecing Together Your Workforce

• To assemble a strong team quickly, conduct small assignments that assess the candidates. Or talk to fellow subordinates and peers to conduct an analysis. Eliminating individual candidates who are not up to par is necessary to establish the best team. Establish credibility rather than feel the need to be liked and be transparent in your goals and methodology.
• Think of a team as a puzzle. Look at the team dynamics from different perspectives before you make any changes. Talk to the team members to understand their view point. Consider other factors that might be at play such as meeting scheduling difficulties or other distractions. Consider the human elements as well as the human resource elements.

• It is likely that a sub-par team member is aware of his or her capabilities, and other team members are also. Ultimate decisions must be explained or you risk losing respect and credibility. When decisions prove effective over time, your leadership recognition will skyrocket. Talk one-on-one with those who will be affected to lessen their disappointment, and try to find alternative ways that they can progress.

The best managers make tough decisions after weighing the risks of not doing so. Respected leaders explain their actions and are courageous enough to take action. Progress requires risk taking. Making tough decisions based on the appropriate groundwork is a manager’s responsibility to the organization.

Looking to hire top tier employees in 2014?
Experts in staffing Las Vegas, contact the experienced recruiters at PrideStaff Las Vegas, and let us put our expertise to work for you! 

The Scoop on Informational Interviews

Are you looking to switch careers? Or perhaps you just graduated and aren’t sure which career path to go down? As one of the leading Tempe employment agencies, PrideStaff can tell you that if you’re at a crossroads when it comes to your career, informational interviews are a great way to decide which path to go down.

What are Informational Interviews?

Unlike job interviews, informational interviews are simply used to learn more, not to pursue a certain opportunity. It’s still an interview with someone working in a career you’re interested in, but you’re seeking information about a field, company or certain kind of job.

Why Conduct Them

A few reasons include:

• You can gain relevant information about what the realities are like of working in a specific industry or career field.
• You can get advice and tips on how to break into the field, including lessons learned and mistakes made along the way from people in the know.
• You can expand your network to include people working in the field you’re interested in (including those who may be able to tell you about future job leads).
• You can practice your interviewing skills, which will serve you well in your future job search.

How to Set One Up

Identify those people who have jobs you think you’d be interested in. You can look for them online on sites like LinkedIn, read news articles to find contacts, tell your family and friends and ask them for referrals, and reach out to your alumni network.

Once you have a list of people you want to connect with, send each person an email introducing yourself, your background and explaining what you’d like to gain by interviewing them. Ask for 20 or 30 minutes of their time when it’s convenient for them. Be clear you are only seeking information; you’re not trying to hit them up for a job.

Once you’ve scheduled an informational interview, make sure you prepare ahead of time so you can get as much as possible out of it. Outline your questions, research the person you’re interviewing, and learn about where they work.

Some questions to ask include:

• How did you break into this career field?
• What kind of advice can you offer someone looking for a job in the field?
• What do you like most about working in this field? Least?
• What skills, education, and background do I need to get a job like yours?

One final word of advice: Once you’ve completed the interview, be sure to send a follow up “thank you” note to all those you interviewed.

Need more help getting your career on track?
Let PrideStaff know. As one of the leading Tempe employment agencies [https://www.staffingagencyphoenix.com/], we can help you identify your goals and needs, and then connect you with terrific job opportunities that are a fit for them. Find out more! Contact us today.

How to Create a Strong Workplace Bond among Employees

Did you know that the only difference between the top 10 percent of the world’s happiest people and everyone else is their satisfying social life? Well, it’s true – and it extends to the workplace as well. Which is not surprising, considering how much time the average person spend at their job.

Research has shown that social support at work increases feelings of personal control. Positive emotions are important to organizations as indicated by the fact that high-performing business teams demonstrate a 6:1 ratio of positivity to negativity. Happiness at work is infectious. As a leader, it starts with you.

Define the Team You Want to Build
Being part of a team means feeling part of something larger than yourself. Success is based on everyone understanding the overall mission and objectives and how their individual roles contribute to them. The bigger picture drives team actions.

• Set clear expectations. Clearly communicate your team’s purpose, ongoing responsibilities and expected outcomes. Support team members with the resources they need and be sure to continually seek their feedback.
• Create a sense of commitment. Employees need to know and believe that the team mission is important and in line with their own priorities. Be the conduit who makes this occur. Every individual needs to be excited, engaged and challenged by team opportunities.
• Build the right skillset and let team members know it’s there. Employees must feel assured that their team has the right people and capabilities to succeed. For instance, if yours is a process improvement team, make sure every step of the process is represented.
• Encourage innovation. Express your sincere interest in making change for the better – and solicit ideas from team members on how to make this happen. Place a high value on creative thinking, unique solutions and out-of-the-box ideas. Reward members who take reasonable risks to make improvements.

Stand by Your Team
Strengthen team bonds by being there for your employees. This translates into accessibility, fairness, support and compromise. Even if they make mistakes, be prepared to “take one for the team” and move on to implement corrective actions that double as learning experiences.

• Get to know each individual. This is the first step toward successful team collaboration. Practice active listening as you learn each employee’s personal goals, objectives, passions and motivators.
• Set the emotional tone. This is part of effective leadership by example. Create an atmosphere of positivity and optimism by demonstrating it yourself, even during the most challenging times.
• Make time to be sociable. Create opportunities to get together outside work, at lunch, Happy Hours or outings such as sporting events and picnics.
• It’s impossible to over communicate. Problems shared are problems halved. Discussions should be as open and transparent as possible, providing team members the liberty to express their views and concerns. Conduct regular morning or start-of-shift meetings. They can be brief and informal – and will go a long way toward breaking the ice, setting the tone for the day and further boosting interpersonal relations.

Building a team takes a certain amount of work and a healthy dose of ongoing commitment – but the end results are nothing short of amazing. To learn more about developing and guiding your workforce team, contact PrideStaff Modesto today.

The Importance of Finding a Job You LOVE

Steve Jobs, at a Stanford commencement speech, said “And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” Settling for a job that you are not excited about may relieve difficulties in the short term but can be detrimental in the long term. You may quickly become dissatisfied, and job hopping can be an unfortunate result.

You may attempt to hide these assignments from potential employers, in which case the “swiss cheese” effect – career holes in your resume – may raise questions among hiring managers and recruiters. A healthy dose of reality is not a bad idea in the current economy where jobs are hard to find. Some consider landing any job to be fortuitous. However, here are some ways to strike a balance between a job that can lead you in the right direction professionally, and one that may backfire.

• If you cannot identify your passions or interests, contact a staffing agency. A professional recruiter can assess your skills and interests and provide you with career options. Temporary assignments have the advantage of providing an income while, at the same time, you nurture a broad set of skills in a variety of areas. Eventually, you will identify the right direction to follow.
• According to Erika Andersen of Forbes, 89 percent of hiring failures is a result of poor cultural fit. Taking on temporary assignments gives you the opportunity to discern if a company is right for you. It may seem impossible to align your passions with a realistic way to earn a living; however, the more exposure you get, the closer you will come to finding the best fit.
• You may find that it is a component of a situation that appeals. It might be your work colleagues, the mission of the organization, or the actual work that you do. That component might be a stepping stone to something bigger, and you will not find everything that you desire at once.

Wherever you are in your career, there is a way to marry your passions with the need to make a living. It will take hard work and commitment, but hard work brings results.

Looking for Help in Your Job Search?
Contact a PrideStaff Las Vegas professional for a consultation. We can help you align your interests with your skills and professional goals. 

The Top 5 Reasons to Quit Your Job

Everyone has those days. From the time you open your office door till you pull out of the parking lot to drive home, nothing goes right. There may even be weeks or months during which you swear to yourself that “That’s it! I’m leaving!”

But if those feelings persist over time, perhaps you do need to launch a job search. The average time an employee spends in a position today is 4.4 years – and even less for younger, millennial employees. So consider where you are right now and where you want to be in 12 months or more. (A year is the average time frame involved in finding new employment). The right time to make a job change is as different as every individual – so find the one that works for you.

Top 5 Reasons for Modesto Employees to Quit Their Job

Your Company May Be in Trouble
If you’re living with chronic uncertainty about the future of your organization, it may be time to look elsewhere for employment.

• While it may be noble to stay and help with the transition, take care of Number One. Consider yourself, your loved ones and the future of your career.
• The best performers leave when a company is in transition. It’s better to be somewhere that has a strong line of sight to the future.

Impossible Chemistry
Your working relationship with your manager is beyond repair. You are oil and water. You’ve tried to find common ground but for whatever reason – yours or your supervisor’s – you simply cannot coexist.

• Don’t make a rash move. Rather, explore options both internally and externally.
• Keep it professional and savvy. There is no room here for bad mouthing or trash talking. Take the high road. It will pay off in the long run.

A Lifestyle Change
Your career needs to be in sync with your lifestyle. If you have recently married, had a child, taken on the responsibility of caring for another family member or face other developments that place different demands on your time and focus, you may want to reevaluate your work situation as well. Perhaps your salary and benefits no longer support your life needs. Or, you simply need to move on to a different opportunity that better suites yourself and your loved ones.

Culture Clash
If your employer or job doesn’t help fulfill your personal mission and vision, it’s time for a change. Regardless of the details, this lack of congruence will destroy your attitude at work.

• When you look to your future, the prospect should excite and motivate you. If this is not the case at your current company, consider a change.

The Stress is Unsustainable
Your job must jive with your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs. Pursue a job change at the point where your stress level become so high that it threatens to affect your health or personal relationships.

• Money does not equal happiness. People spend what they make. So don’t make salary your sole reason for staying in a job. It won’t get you what you want – not even freedom from overall stress in your life.

By working with a professional career coach in Modesto, you can better determine the next step on your career path and learn whether it’s time for a change in your short or long-term plans. To learn more, contact PrideStaff Modesto, experts in finding top-tier employees, today.