Red Flags to Look For When Conducting Job Interviews

Job interviews offer candidates a chance to convince you that they deserve a position in your organization. However, sometimes, an applicant goes in the opposite direction. Their behavior at or before an interview actually talks you out of hiring them. Should you listen to these red flags?

About a third of hiring executives make a decision in the first 90 seconds of a job interview. That’s certainly not the gold-standard procedure, to say the least. Ideally, you’ll gather all the pertinent information about a candidate and make a patient, well-reasoned assessment.

That said, there are some moments in an interview that immediately standout. A single misstep by a candidate shouldn’t completely tank their candidacy. However, you should also take these warning signs seriously, noting them when they happen and weighing them in your deliberations.

What are some of the most telling red flags? Here are a few negative signs a candidate can flash during and before a job interview:

Inconsistent Communication

You can get a sense of a candidate even before you meet them. After all, a job seeker has a very particular role: finding a job. If they don’t treat that with a level of professionalism, how will they act when they get into your organization?

As such, track how your candidates communicate. Do they get back to you quickly? Are they open and responsive? Or do you need to wade through one-word responses and tossed off emails?

Rescheduling or Other Signs of Disorganization

You want employees you can count on. As such, focus on candidates who show responsibility and a respect for other people’s time. Sure, unexpected events can happen. But a habit of rescheduling interviews or other appointments can suggest that the problem stems from a personality trait rather than bad luck.

Arriving Late or Unprepared

In the first moments of the interview, you can receive important information about your prospective employee. Don’t make your final decision in that first 90 seconds. But you can learn some key data. A top candidate will arrive on time, unhurried, and prepared for an in-depth conversation. Less-stellar options will lack that sense of poise and organization.

Again, you don’t want to pass on an otherwise perfect candidate because they had a bad day (say, a traffic accident on the way to the interview). Instead, note which candidates seemed most ready for the interview and give them the extra consideration they deserve.

Avoiding Certain Questions

You should receive straightforward answers to your interview questions. Any evasions or sidestepping should signal potential trouble. If you see a candidate dodging a particular subject, drill down on that area. Make sure you get the facts you need to make an informed hiring decision.

Lack of Enthusiasm

Any new employee will be at the peak of their excitement coming into a new role. Signs of dissatisfaction in recruiting process point to trouble down the road. No matter how talented a professional, how will they stay engaged if they can’t even show sufficient enthusiasm during a job interview?

As such, look for signs of distraction or disconnect during the conversation. Some candidates adopt a demeanor that they are doing you a favor by attending the interview. This kind of attitude should trigger a warning that they may not be the right choice for the position.

Conflicts with Former Employers

Every career has its bumps. Still, you should expect your candidates to stay philosophical, or at least professional, about any past hiccups. An applicant who bad mouths a previous employer or seems to hold grudges likely doesn’t have the emotional maturity you need.

Aggressively Focusing on Compensation or Benefits

Yes, work involves trading time, effort, and talent in exchange for money. However, any healthy relationship with an employee should go beyond this level. The connection should mean more than a paycheck.

As part of this, look out for an overly aggressive focus on the monetary part of the opportunity. A healthy interest in pay and benefits should be expected. However, your ideal candidates will round this out with other ambitions.

Ready to find amazing candidates for your open positions? A top recruiter, like PrideStaff, will connect you with the top talent available.

Contact PrideStaff today to learn more.

Why You Should Let Employees Express Creativity at Work

“Creativity is contagious – pass it on.”

Contagiousness may have become a dreaded word in the past few years, but when it comes to creativity, this quote from Albert Einstein holds true in any time and under any circumstances.

Innovation and growth thrive on new ideas, so you should always foster creative thinking among your employees. As noted in a leadership study conducted by IBM, 60 percent of CEOs identified creativity as the single most important quality for business success.

There Are No Bad Ideas

Creativity fosters an open work environment, and vice versa. Be sure yours is a company culture in which employees are encouraged to speak up with new concepts and action plans.

• Hold brainstorming sessions and similar forums to encourage creative flow. When doing so, always reinforce the principle that there is no such thing as a bad idea or suggestion.
• Don’t expect perfection. Instead, use setbacks and failures as learning opportunities. This helps people feel more comfortable taking calculated risks, knowing there will be no negative repercussions. As noted by Graham Henshaw, executive director of the Entrepreneurship Center at the College of William and Mary, innovators must have “an openness to risk … You’re willing to take risks where you might fail, but you learn something from that failure and move forward.”

Allow Time for Creativity

Creativity doesn’t happen on demand. Make sure employees’ workload allows for a reasonable amount of time to experiment, think, and work on possible new ideas and solutions. Also, allow people to deliver their ideas in different formats. A more visually-oriented individual may want to sketch out a concept, while someone else may prefer to submit a brief written outline.

Celebrate It!

Acknowledge employees for thinking creatively, even if things don’t pan out as planned. Bring up fresh ideas you’ve noticed from people during one-on-one meetings, and provide recognition and rewards during staff of town hall meetings if a project was a success.

And remember – this time, in the words of poet Maya Angelou – “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

The talent management experts at PrideStaff Modesto can help with strategic staffing and workforce development solutions including building creativity, teamwork and innovation as you grow your successful business. Contact us today to learn more about what we can do for you.

How to Write a Great Cover Letter

Looking for a new job? You first need to get an interview. To do that, a cover letter is key to setting you apart from the competition. The question is: how do you write one that’s effective? Here are some do’s and don’ts to help you in the process.

Don’t copy and paste from the Internet.

Hiring managers get generic letters online all the time. If you send one, it won’t do anything to help you stand out. In fact, it might even count against you. Use these as examples and inspiration, but write your own unique cover letter for each job.

Don’t regurgitate your resume.

Your resume and cover letter are two separate documents that should complement, not mirror, each other. For instance, your resume might highlight an achievement in bullet point format, while your cover letter digs deeper into what you did, how you did it, and the results you delivered in the process.

Do address your letter to the hiring manager.

When you’re writing your cover letter, address it to the hiring manager, not “to whom it may concern.” If you don’t know their name, call the company or do some online digging on LinkedIn or the company website to try and find out.

Do keep your letter short and sweet.

Your cover letter is an opportunity to show some personality and what sets you apart from other candidates. That said, write a letter that is short and concise. It shouldn’t be long-winded but should provide examples and illustrations that showcase the value you bring to the table.

Don’t use vague or generic language.

Avoid phrases like “team-oriented” or “results-driven.” Anyone can claim this and they don’t communicate anything unique about your strengths or abilities. Instead, get specific, detailing a relevant past project or why you’d like to work for the company.

Do focus on the company.

Don’t talk too much about what you’re looking for in an employer. Instead, discuss what you can do for the company. Tie your specific background experience and skills to the company’s challenges or objectives, so it’s clear you’re the right pick for the job.

Do format your letter properly.

Keep your letter to one page and format it in the same way as your resume. Also, set the font size to between 10 and 12 points to ensure it’s easy for the hiring manager to read.

Need more help with your next job search?

PrideStaff is here for you. We’re a leading recruiter in Tempe and can help you polish your cover letter and resume, prepare for interviews, and land the position you want. Contact us today to learn more.

How to Stand out as an Employer and the Power of Social Media

These days, just about everyone uses some form of social media. Therefore, if you want your company to stand out, you need to have a presence on at least one platform that’s popular with your ideal candidate base.

Of course, simply having an account isn’t enough to stand out on social media. Here’s some advice to take advantage of the incredible power these platforms have to offer.

Four Tips to Make Your Company Stand Out on Social Media

Post Regularly

You want your company to appear in the feeds of potential candidates, so you need to share content often. If possible, try to post on sites like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn daily — at minimum, a few times per week. Twitter requires more attention, so if you decide to use it, you’ll need to commit to around five posts per day.

Be Consistent

Chances are, your company will decide to have an account on more than one social platform. This is great because your target audience doesn’t all use the same sites, so this allows you to expand your reach.

Just remember to keep your tone consistent from one platform to the next. Social media should allow potential candidates to gain a deeper understanding of your brand, so you don’t want to confuse anyone by using a different voice on each site.

Go Behind the Scenes

Social media is a casual way to introduce your company to people who might want to work for you one day. For your accounts to be worth following, you need to offer something they can’t get anywhere else. Sharing an inside look at your office, company events, projects you’re working on, and employees is a great way to appeal to candidates and keep them coming back for more.

Respond to Comments

No one wants to work for an aloof company, so it’s essential to reply to as many comments on your social media posts as possible. This shows candidates you care about the people who reach out to you, which says a lot. It also gives you the opportunity to let your brand personality shine, helping potential candidates decide if they would be a good fit.

Attract the Best Candidates

Need help finding top talent for your team? PrideStaff Las Vegas is here to help. Contact us today to discuss a partnership!

A Few Tips When Returning to the Office After Being Remote for So Long

With COVID restrictions largely lifted, many employers are starting to phase their employees back into the office. Are you ready? Returning to the office after being remote for so long is likely to create a bumpy transition period if you don’t prepare properly.

Don’t worry, though. You aren’t alone. The pandemic made remote working an amazingly common experience. One estimate suggested that about half of all paid work hours involved work-from-home activity at the height of the COVID lockdowns, from April to December 2020. Prior to the outbreak, that figure sat at 5%.

Meanwhile, companies are largely taking the return to the office in stages. One study showed that just 4% of companies are currently requiring all their employees to return to the office full time. Meanwhile, 45% of firms were setting policies that called for some staff members to switch to in-office work throughout the week.

Even if your employer takes a slow approach, you need to prepare for the change. The sooner you start reframing your schedule, the better off you’ll be. With that in mind, here are a few tips when returning to the office after being remote for so long:

Prepare for Your New Schedule

The rhythms of a workday change dramatically based on the setting. As you switch from a remote situation to one focused on the office, you’ll need to get accustomed to a new schedule. Here are some steps to take:

Reset Your Body Clock

Going into the office creates a new set of logistical concerns. As such, you’ll likely need to get up earlier and you might not return home until relatively late in the evening. At the same time, you’ll need to get used to a full eight hours at your desk. (They probably won’t let you bring your couch and jammies once you return to company property.)

Figure Out Transportation

With remote work, your commute involved a trip from your bed to the kitchen table. Now that you’re returning to the office, you’ll need to deal with a more complicated journey. Figure out your best way of getting to work and build the extra required time into your schedule.

Arrange Childcare and Other Details

You’ve built your recent life around the idea that you’d spend your days working at home. Now, you’ll be leaving the house for most of the day. As a result, you’ll have to reshape your lifestyle accordingly.

That means finding alternative ways to handle some of the responsibilities that will become impossible for you to do once you’ve returned to the office. Childcare represents the most glaring of these. However, you should review your current schedule and see if you need to make any other notable adjustments.

Create a Routine

Your routine is about to change dramatically. You’ll need to build in time for a commute and getting ready for work. (Yes, it’s probably time to resume daily showers.) Meanwhile, your new routine will impact everyone around you. Make sure you coordinate with others in your household.

Reconnect with Coworkers

Technology has greatly improved the ability to collaborate over distances. This upgrade to corporate infrastructures made the sudden spike in remote working possible, as companies closed their physical offices during the pandemic.

However, despite these improvements, you should prepare for a transition. Returning to the office presents a change in your collaborative process. Exchanging ideas over Slack and Zoom has a different feel than in-person conversations.

As such, make an effort to smooth the process. Look to connect with your coworkers. Start conversations with them. Plan social events. This way, you can jumpstart your ability to work together in closer physical proximity.

Develop a New Work/Life Balance

When you work at home, your work and home lives blend together. Have a few minutes before your next Zoom meeting? You can empty the dishwasher or throw in a load of laundry.

Many of these quick crossovers become impossible once you return to the office. Suddenly, those chores that you finished in stages during the day are waiting for you when you get home. This dynamic can contribute to the stress of returning to work.

On the other side of the spectrum, work still has the power to intrude on your time at home. You can’t take your laundry to the office, but your email and slack accounts remain active after the official quitting time. It’s easy to let work takeover even as the physical separation become more obvious.

Recognize these challenges as you head back to the office. You’ll need to renegotiate the equilibrium between work and the rest of your life. Be prepared for that process. And remember that a strong balance will provide the most success and happiness over the long haul.

Contact PrideStaff Bend Today

Looking for the ideal job for you? A top recruiter, like PrideStaff Bend, can connect you with a position that perfectly suits your background and lifestyle. Contact PrideStaff Bend today to learn more.

Retention & Recruiting

Follow These Strategies to Make Sure You’re Getting the Most Qualified Candidates

Are you getting the most qualified candidates for your open positions? The answer to this question can decide your business destiny. Strong team building starts with impeccable recruitment — finding productive, innovative staff members will drive your company forward.

Unfortunately, hiring is often more art than science. Picking the perfect choice from a crowd of seemingly qualified candidates is difficult. The process becomes even more challenging in a tight labor market, when employers get especially competitive about nabbing top talent.

No wonder businesses make so many mistakes. Almost half of business managers (46%) report making a regrettable hire in the past 12 months.

And that’s just looking over the last year. Longer-term, almost three-quarters of employers (74%) admit they have given the wrong candidate an open position. Meanwhile, each of these unfortunate recruitment decisions lead to losses of nearly $15,000, on average.

Unfortunately, there’s no perfect prescription for discovering the perfect fit for every position. However, there are steps you can take. Follow these strategies to make sure you get the most qualified candidates:

Define Your Ideal Candidate

At the start of your recruiting process, make a list of the qualifications you would like to see in the ideal candidate. Include both the technical skills the role requires and the key soft skills you’d prefer. From there, you should prioritize the desired abilities based on how central they are to the role.

With this list in mind, you can evaluate your candidates more thoroughly. You’ll have a framework in mind to judge each applicant’s fitness for the open position.

Fine-Tune Your Job Description

Now that you’ve defined your ideal candidate, you need to take the steps necessary to find them. This starts with your job description. Here, you make your initial connection with potential employees.

The details of the position will communicate to job seekers what you want to see. At the same time, you can sell the benefits of your company and of the particular role, enticing top talent to apply. As such, take time to craft an informative, attractive job description that will convince high-quality candidates to contact you.

Get Creative About Recruitment

A flexible hiring approach lets you discover top candidates, wherever they are. On the other hand, focusing exclusively on large, traditional job sites can let excellent options go undetected. As such, boost your creativity with strategies like these:

• Go Beyond the Obvious Job Sites: Post your job descriptions on niche job sites, focusing on particular industries, regions, or population groups.
• Leverage Social Media: Advertise open positions on social media and stay open to finding candidates on those platforms.
• Find Passive Talent: Don’t wait for the top candidates to come to you. Rather, seek out passive talent and approach the potential candidates that best fit your needs.
• Use Employee Referrals: Get your current staff involved in the hiring process. They can provide stellar candidates through referrals.

Streamline Your Hiring Process

Your most qualified candidates will have other options. A drawn-out or confusing hiring process can push these potential superstars to other opportunities. Avoid this by maintaining a streamlined structure.

Create a concentrated timeline for the hiring process. Don’t burden candidates with unnecessarily long applications. At the same time, communicate clearly with your best applicants, making sure they stay engaged.

Optimize Job Interviews

Once you’ve created a strong pool of candidates, your hiring decision often comes down to the interview process. These discussions let you go beyond the resume to select the prospective employee with the highest potential. To do so, you should get the most out of these talks.

Here are a few steps to maximize your interview process:

• Create an Interview Game Plan
• Include Multiple Voices in the Hiring Process
• Start with Shorter Prescreening Interviews
• Avoid Cliche Questions

Reach Out to PrideStaff Bend Today

Finding amazing employees takes planning and effort. It also helps to have professional input. A top recruiter, like PrideStaff, can deliver the talent you need to push your organization to the next level. Contact PrideStaff Bend today to learn more.

Too Much To Do? How to Manage Your Workload More Effectively

When you are dealing with a heavy workload, it can be overwhelming to figure out how to best utilize your efforts. However, if you are not proactive with your strategy, you may end up being constantly busy without having results to show for it. This can quickly become overly stressful and lead to burnout. If you have too much to do, here is how to manage your workload more effectively:

Develop Criteria for Prioritizing 

When you are frazzled in the moment with a mounting To Do list, everything seems urgent and it can be difficult to make an objective decision on what to work on first. Develop criteria for prioritizing tasks to determine what order to tackle them, such as based on your annual goals or due date. This will serve as guidance for making decisions that best serve your objectives. 

Plan Your Day Strategically

Maximizing your productivity isn’t just about managing your time – it also requires carefully managing your motivation and focus levels so you can get more done with less effort. Plan your day strategically – play to your strengths and personal tendencies. For example, if you are at your most energetic in the morning, plan to work on your more mentally taxing or deep thinking work. Then, schedule time to handle lower level administrative tasks when you hit your afternoon lull. 

Create a Detailed Action Plan

When you have a heavy workload, it can be difficult to squeeze in time for extensive uninterrupted sessions to work on major projects. To make progress, even during hectic times, break down the project into the smallest actions as you can. Work backwards from the due date and create a detailed action plan consisting of all the steps needed to complete the project. This way, even when you are crunched for time, you can work on a small task and feel confident you are making progress. 

Schedule Regular Breaks

If you try to power through and work as many hours as possible without stopping, you will start to run out of mental energy and be more likely to make mistakes. Schedule regular breaks, such as a five minute break every 30 minutes or a 15 minute break every 90 minutes. Experiment to figure out what type of break schedule works best for your stamina, and then commit to taking them. Remind yourself that a small amount of time away from working will help you accomplish more overall. 

Find the Right Job for You

Make your job search more productive with the help of PrideStaff Akron. We work with area employers to fill their open positions and can connect you with opportunities you’re qualified for, saving you time and effort. Search our current available jobs to get started.  

6 Quick Tips for Avoiding a Bad Hire

With a worker shortage, it’s easy to hire in a hurry when a candidate seems like a great fit. However, if you don’t perform your due diligence, you could end up with a bad hire on your hands. How can you hire in an efficient way, yet still avoid a hiring mistake? Here are some tips to help you.

Tip #1: Don’t skip steps in the hiring process.

When you need to hire fast, it’s easy to justify skipping steps in the process, like checking references or skills testing. However, these are often where you’ll find out about any discrepancies or issues with the candidate. While you might want to speed up the process, avoid doing so and check all the boxes to ensure you can hire with peace of mind.

Tip #2: Check for cultural fit.

One of the biggest reasons new hires don’t work out is often a lack of fit. They have the hard skills to do that job, but don’t mesh with the culture and, as a result, can’t thrive in your office environment. Avoid this by checking for cultural fit during the hiring process.

Ask questions about places they’ve worked in the past and what kind of environment they operate best in. Also, ask about how past co-workers or bosses would describe them. These kinds of questions will help you to get to know them on a more personal level, so you can assess fit better.

Tip #3: Look for red flags.

Oftentimes, if you look close enough, the candidate will be sending off some warning signs. This can include anything from showing up late to acting unprofessionally or being vague or generic in their answers. Other red flags include poor body language, a lack of specific work accomplishments or examples, or an inconsistent career path. If you see a warning sign or red flag like these or others, don’t be afraid to look closer and dig deeper.

Tip #4: Evaluate past bad hires you’ve made.

If there have been hiring mistakes made in the past, figure out where things went wrong. Perhaps you hired someone quickly based on a referral and didn’t thoroughly vet them. Or, maybe you promoted someone from within before they were ready. Regardless of the situation, identifying how things got off track in the first place is key to avoiding a future bad hire.

Tip #5: Invite others into the hiring process.

Don’t be the only one involved in the hiring process. Get the opinion of others about the short list of candidates you’re considering. They can ask questions and offer a fresh perspective on areas you might not have thought about. They might also spot an issue or a warning sign that you didn’t notice.

Tip #6: Get help from a professional.

At PrideStaff, we’re experts at evaluating candidates. As a leading recruiting firm serving businesses in the Tempe area, we know how to properly vet candidates with the right mix of questions, assessments, reference checks, skills testing, and more. When you hire our team to help you staff yours, you’ll get the best-fit new employee from the start. Ready to learn more? Contact us today.

Explaining Gaps in Your Work History

You’ve just been invited to interview for a very promising new job. However, you’re afraid other candidates already have a competitive advantage because you have at least one employment gap.

Whether you’ve been back in the workforce for a few years or you’re currently trying to land the first job you’ve had in a while, this can be nerve-wracking, but you’ve got this. Plenty of people take a break from their career for various reasons — i.e., caring for a family member, traveling abroad, going back to school full-time — so it’s not as uncommon as you think.

Your resume impressed the hiring manager enough to want to interview you, so you’ve got this. Follow this advice to address this situation with ease.

Here’s How to Explain Gaps in Your Work History

Prepare a Response

You know you’ll be asked about your resume gap, so formulate a response for it. Going into the interview with a prepared — and well-rehearsed — statement will ease your nerves and make you feel more confident.

Be Honest

Lying in a job interview will catch up to you, so it’s always best to tell the truth. You don’t need to go into extensive detail, but briefly explain why you needed to take time away from the workforce. The interviewer will appreciate your honesty, and the fact that you told the truth will show them you’re someone they can trust.

Explain How You Used Your Time Away Off

Just because you weren’t working for a bit doesn’t mean you weren’t still learning. Impress the hiring manager by highlighting job-related initiatives you took during your time away to continue learning and growing.

This might involve recently taking a class to get your skills up to date or volunteering at a non-profit in a role similar to the position at hand. Everyone doesn’t use their time away from the workforce to learn and grow, so the fact that you were motivated enough to do so will make a great impression.

Stand Out From the Crowd

Having trouble finding a great new job due to gaps in your employment? PrideStaff Las Vegas can help. Contact us today to get started!