5 Tips for Leading Your Team into the New Year

This year has created a new norm for businesses and employees alike. Many companies are operating under a much different set of circumstances than they were a year ago or even a few months ago. How can you continue to work toward your company’s larger, long-term goals, while still managing through a crisis? Here are five tips for leaders to consider:

#1: Keep short-term metrics in mind.

In today’s economy, you must be agile enough to adapt to a changing marketplace quickly. This means focusing more on short-term performance metrics. This enables your company to pivot quickly, when needed, and recalibrate based on results. In the big picture, however, you should still be referencing your long-term plans to ensure you’re moving forward toward them, even if it’s at a difference pace.

#2: Identify the skill gaps.

Businesses have been forced to work in many different ways to get the job done and meet customer demands. Throughout it all, you’ve likely noticed skill gaps or needs that weren’t readily apparent before. Make sure you’re actively working to cross-train your team and help them develop their capabilities in areas that are important for current and future success.

#3: Keep up with communication.

Just like at any other time, communication is critical to keeping your team on the same page. In this constantly changing environment, it’s key your people are in the loop, so they know what’s coming in the short-term and what to expect down the line. In addition, make sure you’re remaining open minded and listening to feedback and concerns from your staff. This will give you the insight you need to make more informed decisions.

#4: Evaluate flexibility.

The remote workforce is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. It’s therefore important to start assessing performance in this environment, from what’s working to areas that need improvement. It’s also time consider whether it’s an option that makes sense for the long-term future of your company’s operations.

If your employees like working remotely or in a hybrid model, it’s worth considering keeping it even once “normal” returns. It’s also a perk that can help you attract better-quality candidates when you’re recruiting.

#5: Focus on bringing more value to customers.

This season has been a challenging one for companies. However, the most successful leaders stay focused on customers and steps they can take to maintain and strengthen relationships with them. To do that, ask yourself about new challenges your customers are facing, how you can adapt to or address them, and ways to better service them in the short- and long-term future. When you’re consistently adding more value, customers will remain loyal to your team.

Need help adding to your existing team of employees?

Turn to PrideStaff. We’re leading the way in recruitment across Tempe and other nearby areas. Our recruiters know where to find talented professionals, how to screen them to ensure an excellent fit, and ways to keep your workforce more agile with a mix of temporary, temp-to-hire and full-time staff. If you’re ready to find out more, contact us today to get started.

5 Apps to Help You Stay Productive at Work

Technology may be a major source of distraction, or it can greatly improve your productivity – it just depends on how you utilize it. Productivity apps can help you free up some mental space, get organized, and accomplish more. Maximize your productivity at work with these five apps:  

1. Evernote  

It’s hard to stay organized if you jot down notes randomly on scraps of paper, so a note-taking app like Evernote can make your professional life a lot easier. From meeting notes to brainstorming to your To-Do list, being able to store all of your notes in one place ensures that you don’t waste valuable time hunting for key information you wrote down “somewhere,” since Evernote allows you to search for words not only in documents themselves, but even ones that are handwritten or on images.  

2. Calm  

A major factor in productivity is your physical, mental, and emotional health and wellbeing. A relaxation app, such as Calm, can help you manage stress, which in turn can help you take better care of your body and improve your work performance. Taking consistent, scheduled breaks can help you be more productive because you don’t get fatigued, and you can use Calm to participate in relaxation breathing exercises, light stretching, or short meditations to help you come back to work refreshed and better able to focus.   

3. Todoist  

It’s well-established that a To-Do list is key to productivity and keeping you on track and proactively working on impactful tasks, rather than reactively tackling tasks as they come your way. A To-Do list app, such as Todoist, allows you to manage all of your tasks in one spot, from organizing to prioritizing to setting deadlines with notifications. It also helps you keep track of all of the sub-tasks related to a larger project so nothing gets missed, and you stay on track.   

4. Focus To-Do    

Procrastination is a productivity killer, and the root cause is often a lack of motivation tied to feeling overwhelmed or unable to focus. The key to fighting procrastination and improving your productivity is consistency, and taking the first small step to get started. A focus app like Focus To-Do can help you be more efficient through the Pomodoro Technique, in which you set a timer for a designated amount of time (typically 25 minutes) followed by a short break. When you’re dreading tasks, you can set the app’s timer and focus on it until the interval is over. This helps you gain confidence (i.e., “That wasn’t so difficult for me after all!”) and prevents multi-tasking, which can cause you to constantly be busy, but not have much output to show for it.   

5. RescueTime

If you struggle to understand where your time goes or have issues with distractions, a time-tracking app like RescueTime can help you gather the necessary data to help you determine your problem areas and develop solutions. It can monitor what apps and websites you spend your time on and allows you to label each according to their level of productivity. Then, it creates reports for you to view so you can get an overall picture and then set goals accordingly to limit your time on unproductive sites or apps and increase your time on ones you consider more helpful to your productivity.   

Call PrideStaff Today to Start Your Job Search  

Are you looking for a new job? PrideStaff Akron can help! We work with employers in the Akron area for their hiring needs and can match you with the opportunities that are the best fit for you. Search our database of current available jobs.   

Helpful Tips for Training a New Hire Quicker

Training is an investment – there’s no question about that. But if it’s done right, you’ll see a consistent positive ROI. This is especially true in the case of new hires, as their first days, weeks, and months on the job can make or break their future with your company.

Effective training is crucial for making new team members feel welcome and invested in your organization. It’s also a great opportunity to communicate your company culture early on and ensure alignment on long-term goals and plans.

To streamline your new hire training process:

Follow an outline.

No matter how well you know your business, you can’t just wing it. Be crystal clear about what you want your new team member to understand. Document this in a training outline and share it with everyone involved.

• Include information on who and where they should go if they have questions or need additional information.
• This will not only benefit your new hire, but you won’t have to reinvent the wheel. With every subsequent hire, you can modify your template.

Break training down into manageable pieces.

Look for logical ways to break new hire training into bite-sized, manageable segments. Your trainees are probably nervous and feeling a bit overwhelmed. Prevent information overload.

• Avoid long, uninterrupted classroom sessions. Intersperse shorter ones with breaks, tours, or other activities. Even if this seems counterproductive at first, retention levels will be greater in the long run.

Make sure you have the right tools available.

Which tools or training methods are “right” will depend on your audience. For some, it’s videos or interactive and online sessions. For others, it’s working in groups. Different people learn differently. Get to know your trainees early on, and don’t hesitate to think outside the box.

A few more tips:

• Check-in with new hires often. A good rule of thumb is to touch base with them at least once a day at first. This may seem like overkill, and you can gradually back off, but it beats having them feel lost, overlooked, or unsure what to do next.
• Help them score an early win. Give your new team member an assignment that’s challenging but readily achievable. This will boost their confidence and comfort level right off the bat.
• Activate the buddy system. Assign new hires a buddy or mentor. Designate a friendly peer or senior staffer who does similar work. That person can field questions, show them around and introduce them to people. Consider having your new employee shadow their buddy or mentor for a day to learn what your typical business routine looks like.
• Gather feedback. Make communication with new hires a two-way street. Have them tell you how their training process is going. Take this information into account for the future.

To optimize your training strategy, and address your ongoing staffing and talent development needs in areas including customer service, IT, accounting and finance, legal support, healthcare, and production, contact PrideStaff Modesto today. We have a 30-plus year track record of success in the Central Valley, and we’re ready to help you innovate and exceed all your HR goals.

What’s the Easiest Way to Get a Good Job in Las Vegas?

You’re ready to start the next chapter of your career, but you’re not sure where to find the best jobs in Las Vegas. While you’ve had some luck searching online, it can be time-consuming and you don’t feel like you’re accessing every available opportunity.

What you haven’t yet realized is, teaming up with a recruiter is the easiest and most effective way to find a great new job. Here’s what you have to gain by allowing a staffing partner to guide your search.

Benefits of Working With a Recruiter

Access Exclusive Opportunities

Every company doesn’t post job openings online. Some prefer to work with a recruiter to keep their hiring process more discrete. Without this connection, you’ll never even know these opportunities are available, so don’t miss your chance to land your dream job.

Polish Your Resume

Hiring managers see a lot of resumes, so it’s important for yours to stand out. However, it’s hard to know exactly how to craft an eye-catching resume that highlights your fit for the job. As hiring experts, recruiters know exactly what it takes to create a resume that makes you shine, and they’ll help you do just that.

Get Help With Interview Prep

Job interviews can be nerve-wracking for even the most confident candidates. A big part of maintaining your cool is knowing you’re well-prepared for anything the interviewer has in store. Prior to the big day, your recruiter will help you with everything from preparing responses to common interview questions to offering guidance on what to wear. This will allow you to feel confident, so you can put your best self forward in the interview.

Gain Valuable Post-Interview Feedback

In most cases, the only post-interview feedback you receive is whether or not you got the job. This is different when you work with a recruiter because they often have a relationship with the hiring manager. If you’re not selected, they’re able to reach out to the hiring manager and find out where you excel and where there’s room for improvement, so you can make the necessary adjustments before your next interview.

Take Your Career to the Next Level

If you’re ready to find a great new job, but need a little help getting started, PrideStaff Las Vegas is here for you. Contact us today to take your career to new heights.

How Do You Measure Quality of Hire?

Building a dynamic, productive team starts at the hiring process. That makes fine-tuning your recruiting procedures a key to long-term success. But what metrics should you use? How should you go about measuring the quality of hires you get from your recruiting efforts?

These questions may seem like they have simple answers. If you get a good employee, you did a good job. If you get a bad employee, you did a bad job. Couldn’t be more straightforward, right?

Well, not quite.

One good or bad outcome doesn’t prove the quality of a procedure. Even the most rigorous recruiting structures make mistakes at a surprisingly high rate. One study found that 46% of new hires failed within the first year and a half. That figure suggests that the typical hiring process is basically a coin flip.

More than that, holding a strictly binary view of the situation doesn’t leave much room for small improvements. For that, you need a more refined method. Here are a few ways of looking at your hiring process and effectively measuring the outcomes:

Time Horizon

First off, it’s important to realize that the concept of “quality of hire” can have multiple definitions. In large part, these rely on the time horizon you use to judge the process.

Short Term

You can look at the quality of your recruiting process immediately after making your decision. Of course, at this point, you don’t have much information about your new employee. Still, there are a few data points you can look at.

• Time-to-hire: How long did it take you to run the process? Compare your results to industry norms and see if there is room to improve efficiency.
• Cost of hiring: What kind of investment was necessary to find your new worker? Again, rate your results against an appropriate benchmark to see if you might need to streamline your process.
• Training Time: How long did it take your new hire to get up to speed? In the early going, this will be your only guide to employee quality. It will provide an indicator as to how well your recruiting efforts did.

Long Term

Don’t just look at the short-term results of your recruiting process. Take a long view as well. Routinely review your current staff and compare them to the hiring process that led you to employ them. Here are a few criteria to keep in mind:

• Employee Contribution: Once they become productive employees, how well do your hires perform on the job? Use your performance KPIs to quantitatively assess how much your workers have contributed over time.
• Team Dynamics: How well do your workers fit into the team? Hiring is more than just finding great individual performers. You are building a team. You need to gauge how well your recruiting efforts identify soft skills, like communication and leadership.
• Cultural Fit: How well do your hires fit into your corporate culture? This plays a large role in how well they fit into your plans long term.

Ways to Measure Quality of Hire

It’s one thing to say “measure your employees’ contributions.” It’s another to devise an effective method of doing that. If your process of evaluation isn’t sound, you can’t effectively judge your hiring procedures. Here are a few factors to keep in mind:

Employee Performance

Of course, this is the core question: how do the people you hire do the job? Having well-defined key performance indicators allows you to rate performance accurately. This data, in turn, lets you judge how well you did during the initial hiring stage.

Looking long term, many firms use a metric known as Employee Lifetime Value or ELV. This gives a look at how much a worker contributed during their tenure at the firm. It acts as a kind of all-in-one measure of value0 – a crucial indicator when you’re trying to judge your hiring practices.

Retention

Having a great employee is a gift. However, it isn’t necessary a gift that keeps on giving. Top talent tends to look for the next big opportunity, making it difficult to keep your best workers in place. How well you are able to retain workers points to your ability to match candidates with positions. It also indicates your long-term attractiveness to high-value candidates.

Supervisor Satisfaction

In some ways, you can define a good worker as someone who keeps the boss happy. You can also quantify this sentiment. Ask direct supervisors their opinions about recent hires, gathering data at various stages in the onboarding, training, and working process.

Optimizing your hiring process is critical to long term success. A strong recruiting partner, like PrideStaff, can facilitate that effort.

Contact PrideStaff today to learn more.

5 Ways to Hire Exceptional Talent in the Age of COVID

Remember the days of job fairs, face-to-face interviews, and office tours after? It seems those are over for the foreseeable future. If you still need to hire qualified candidates, how can you do so during these times of mask mandates and social distancing? PrideStaff, one of Phoenix’s top recruiting agencies, is here to help. Below are some steps to finding the right people and successfully onboarding them.

#1: Create a talent profile first.

Go beyond a job description to also creating a talent profile. It’s especially important to take this step since most recruiting activities will be performed online. Doing so will help you target candidates who are a better for fit your needs, boosting your recruiting effectiveness in the process. Some examples of components to include in your talent profile are:

• • Accomplishments and accolades
  • Number of years of experience and career mobility
  • Work style and preferences
  • Specialized skills, such as languages spoken

#2: Put the power of social media to use.

Social media has been on the upswing for years in terms of recruiting candidates. Now, during a global pandemic, it provides you with an ideal platform to cast a wider net and find the skilled candidates you need, whether locally or in other parts of the country. You might even have one already following you online.

#3: Make sure your careers page is updated.

It’s important potential candidates know you’re hiring. When you do, don’t simply list open positions. Also provide insight into the company culture and why a candidate would want to work for your company. This can be done in a number of ways, from providing office photos and employee-written blogs to offering details on the perks and benefits your organization offers as an employer.

#4: Create a clear recruitment process.

Finding a new job is more stressful than ever for candidates. Strive to make the process as easy as possible for them. Make sure they understand the next steps, when they can expect to hear from you, what kind of video conferencing technology they’ll need, who will be part of the conversation, and when you’ll make a final decision. The more transparent you are, the better the experience will be for each candidate, boosting your employer brand.

#5: Create a virtual onboarding process.

Today’s onboarding process might look difference than year’s past. However, it’s still just as important to engage new hires and help them become productive as quickly as possible.

Some tips for getting them acclimated include: creating a virtual welcoming event to connect them with their co-workers; assigning them to a virtual mentor; and developing an online database with the company handbook, employee contact information, HR policy and any other important documents in one place, so they can easily access it.

Need help from Phoenix’s Recruiting Experts?

It seems as if virtual recruiting and hiring will be the norm for at least a while. Embrace it and work to adjust to this new landscape, so you can find and hire the talented people you need. If you’d like help with the process, turn to PrideStaff. As one of Phoenix’s top recruiting agencies, we know where to find skilled people and how to screen them, so you get the best-fit employees for a range of positions. Contact us today to get started.

How to Create a Company Culture that Attracts Top Talent

The employers who are the most desirable to the most-in demand candidates generally have a strong company culture. In order to be a company that gets top talent excited about the prospect of working for, you must prioritize cultivating a positive work environment. Learn more about how to create a company culture that attracts top talent:  

 Focus on Clarity and Consistency   

The key to a culture that is appealing to candidates is authenticity. Don’t try to make your company something it’s not – instead, focus on clarity and consistency. Determine your company’s mission and core values, and then ensure they are the foundation for decision-making and employer branding. Whether you’re creating a new policy or posting a job opening, always ask yourself if it’s promoting the culture you want to build.  

Keep Employee Needs in Mind   

The best source of information regarding building a strong company culture to attract top talent is your current employees. Be open to feedback – proactively reach out, whether an anonymous form or in-person conversation, and ask about their job satisfaction, professional goals and how well the company is helping them make progress, etc. Use this input to make necessary improvements for employee happiness to organically strengthen your culture and increase the chances that employees will serve as ambassadors and refer their qualified contacts to apply for openings.   

 Make Your Hiring Practices More Inclusive    

If you want to compete with other companies to attract the most in-demand candidates, you must make your hiring practices as inclusive as possible. Diversity is often a key core value for many organizations, but it is undermined by a lack of support for certain demographics through company policies. For example, a company culture that only rewards those who come in early, stay late, and rarely take vacation is going to alienate workers with personal responsibilities (such as working parents) and cost you valuable perspectives.   

Offer flexibility with scheduling, generous paid time off, and remote work options to appeal to as wide of a range of prospective candidates as possible and naturally increase a variety of types of employees.   

Offer Growth Opportunities   

Constant turnover is a major hindrance to a positive company culture as a revolving door of employees can’t grow the company or feel a true sense of engagement and identity as a team member. To counteract this, as well as strengthen your employer brand to prospective candidates, offer growth opportunities for professional development. Communicate a clear path to achieving their goals within the company, rather than them having to go elsewhere to gain new skills or land promotions.  

PrideStaff Can Help You Find Top Talent

Creating a strong company culture starts with hiring the right people. Find top talent to join your team with PrideStaff Akron. Our experienced team of staffing experts will work with you to understand your needs and provide you with qualified candidates. Contact us for more information on how PrideStaff Akron can help you with your staffing needs.  

Having These 5 In-Demand Skills Will Help You Land a Job

Whether your career has been interrupted by coronavirus or it’s simply time to find a better job, you want to be as attractive to recruiters as possible. This has become especially critical since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, as the market has shifted from being driven by candidates to controlled by employers.

In other words, there are many more job seekers out there than there are available positions. It is a bit like swimming upstream, but you can stand out among the competition if you can offer the most in-demand skills.

Here’s a snapshot of five of the top skills that will get you noticed by potential employers, circa 2020:

1. Problem Solving/Critical Thinking: As noted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) 2019 State of the Workplace report, 37 percent of employers cited this among the top soft skills most desired – and often lacking – in job candidates. It’s important to show you can think critically – and outside the box when necessary – to solve business problems.
2. Data Analysis: Data science and machine learning related roles represent five of the top 15 growing jobs in the U.S. today. If you can crunch raw data to spot trends and answer questions, you’ll be highly sought after by employers in virtually every industry.
3. Digital/Social Media Marketing: Because of data mining and burgeoning research on consumer behavior, digital and social media marketing will only continue to grow in importance and relevance. Traditional forms of marketing like direct mail and TV commercials are old school unless they’re accompanied by strong digital marketing support. Search engine optimization, email campaigns, website development, and content creation fall under this skillset umbrella.
4. Emotional Intelligence: Also known as emotional quotient, emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, manage, and reason with emotions – both your own and those of others. It’s a critical skill for interpersonal communication, as it influences how well people interact with peers, managers, colleagues, and clients. If you have high emotional intelligence, you can make better decisions, keep cool under pressure, show greater empathy, and are likely more adept at listening, reflecting, and responding well to constructive criticism.
5. Communications: Your written and verbal communication skills set the tone for how people perceive you. They enhance your chances of building strong relationships and boost your performance levels as they help you glean clear expectations from your manager and vice versa. Employers look for strong communication skills because employees who have them tend to be more productive, as they know how to best relate to their peers.

As you develop your professional skills and fine-tune your job search, don’t be intimidated by today’s Covid-prompted market, where the best jobs may seem scarce and competition fierce. You have an ally at PrideStaff Modesto. We are laser-focused on finding the right opportunity for you – and we can coach you every step of the way. Contact us today to learn more.

5 Tips to Balance Child Care and Working From Home

Circa 2019, finding the proper work/life equilibrium was a chore. In 2020? It’s nearly impossible. In the post-COVID world, parents have been forced to balance childcare with working from home in uncomfortable and often unproductive ways.

It’s no secret that the coronavirus outbreak dramatically increased the number of people working. One estimate found that some 42% of the U.S. workforce had moved to remote contributions following the pandemic. (This compares to around 4% before the outbreak.)

Meanwhile, COVID simultaneously drove most schools to incorporate some kind of virtual component. Going into the school year data showed that about half of elementary and high school students were slated to receive virtual instruction every day. Another 19% had planned for a hybrid model – leaving just about a quarter of students headed to a classroom on a daily basis.

The result: the boundaries between work life and home life have become nonexistent. As a result, many parents have been forced to make difficult decisions. They either let their kid’s education slide or slack on their contribution to work.

However, these trade-offs can be minimized. With proper organization, you can balance childcare with your work-at-home schedule. Here are five things to keep in mind.

Realize You’ve Got New Coworkers

Let’s be honest: no workplace is without distractions. Any off-topic interactions while you’re working can cut into productivity. At the office, you have your chatty coworker or those unnecessary meetings.

At home, you have your kids. Recognize this parallel and think of your kids as your new coworkers. By realizing that your previous workspace wasn’t the citadel of perfect productivity you remember, you’ll have a better mental frame to deal with your new interruptions.

Create Separate Workspaces

Everyone needs their own space. Zoom calls require a quiet area to hold discussions. Both homework and office work take concentration to complete effectively.

To accommodate the need for privacy, carve out a dedicated space for everyone trying to work in the house. Have a place for you to complete your work. At the same time, make a similar area for your kids to engage in their virtual learning.

Make a Schedule

Coordination is key. You have tasks you have to complete by certain deadlines. The same is true of your kids. Do what you can to line up everyone’s schedules, so each family member stays out of everyone else’s crucial work time.

Set Boundaries

To stay productive, you need to establish ground rules. Let your kids know when it’s safe to approach you and when they should keep their distance. To avoid distractions at crucial moments, they need to know when you’re involved in something that requires peace and quiet. In addition, maintain communication throughout the day and set up a predictable routine.

Discover Your New Work/Life Balance

Getting used to the new routine will take some experimentation. Unforeseen problems will arise, and you’ll have to improvise to fix them. Over time, you’ll come up with a system that maximizes everyone’s ability to achieve their goals.

In other words, don’t get discouraged if you have some initial problems coordinating childcare and working from home. Keep working at it, and you’ll eventually come up with a sustainable process.

Finding the right mix of home and work has always presented a problem. Now that the two are literally mixed together, the challenge becomes significantly more complicated. It helps to have the right employer. By working with the right staffing agency, like PrideStaff, you find positions that fit perfectly into your lifestyle.

Contact PrideStaff today to take your career to the next level.

How to Find a New Job in Uncertain Times

You’ve invested a lot in your career and you want to continue to advance it. However, you might be wondering whether companies are even hiring during these uncertain times.

While this year has been one for the history books, the good news is there are many organizations still adding to their workforce despite the challenges brought on by a global pandemic. In fact, some companies and industries need people now more than ever and are ramping up their hiring function to support demand.

To help you navigate your way to them and secure the job you want, here are some tips and resources to consider:

Think “essential.”

There are many companies who are performing work deemed “essential” and therefore not impacted as much by past or potentially future shutdowns. In Arizona, for instance, some services that were categorized last spring as “essential” include: health care, human services, government functions, grocery stores, certain non-profits, media organizations, transportation-related businesses, financial institutions, critical trades, and manufacturers and distributors of supply chain-critical products. Try to focus on these industries and companies in them, which are likely performing better and hiring, as a result.

Broaden your search.

You might have your mind set on a certain employer or industry. However, if they’ve taken a COVID-related hit, you’ll need to chart a new course. Be opened minded and look into other industries or different opportunities. For instance, expand your search beyond typical on-site jobs to those that are more flexible or remote.

Do your homework.

Don’t just jump headfirst into a new opportunity that comes your way without doing your research. When you find a position that seems like a good fit, perform an online check of the company’s reputation. Go on sites like Glassdoor to read their employment reviews. Also, take a look at their website and search online for a news article about them. This will help you gain more insight into the strength of the company’s financials and what it’s really like to work there.

Get career help from experts.

If you’re ready to make a move to a different job, but want professional help with the process, turn to the experts at PrideStaff. As one of Phoenix’s top employment agencies, we can work with you to learn about your background and experience, as well as your future career goals. We also know who’s hiring and can connect you with employers that will be a strong fit for your personality, ability and career aspirations. You’ll find a new job faster, all in a way that’s less stressful for you.

If you’re ready to take action, turn to PrideStaff. Search our jobs now or contact us today to get started.