Learn How Managers Can Effectively Engage with their Employees

Engaged employees show up at work every day and get involved, not just because they’re being paid to do so, but because they are invested, emotionally and otherwise, in their work, their future, and the ongoing success of their company.

An organization whose team members are actively engaged will benefit from higher productivity, enhanced customer satisfaction, and lower turnover, as its employees live company values every day. As noted by Ann Lantham at Forbes, engagement is a symptom of success.

The Role of Managers in Engagement

Employees with higher levels of engagement with their managers tend to feel they’re getting better direction on the work they do and feedback on their performance. Their mutual feelings of trust and respect with their supervisors leads to them having a stronger sense of ownership and value within your organization.

Managers can become more engaged with their employees by:

Getting to know them better. This simply involves spending more time with employees and learning about their lives, their families, and their hobbies, interests, and passions. As a result, people feel like their presence is known, and management cares about them. Research consistently proves that employees who feel valued tend to be more engaged and productive.
Equipping them for success. As they oversee day-to-day operations, managers need to ensure that employees have the training, tools, and resources they need to do their jobs and advance in their careers. Provide them with a strong foundation for the tasks they need to complete and the challenges and achievements ahead.
Keeping them in the loop. In a word, this boils down to communication. Managers should regularly update employees on company progress, news, and developments – and their role in them. Otherwise, how can they possibly be vested in how things are going?
Listening to them. Communication is only successful if it’s a two-way process. Whether it’s one-on-one, during team meetings, or via company surveys, managers need to listen to what their team members have to say. Consider communication training for managers to focus on active listening skills.
Allowing them to grow. Managers choose their teams for a reason. Once people are on board, it’s important to let them do their jobs and showcase their best skills. This means not micromanaging and supporting ideas and suggestions that come from employees.
Encouraging their development. As they get to know their employees, managers should be thinking about the company and different areas in which it specializes. Is each employee in the right place within the organization – or could they better grow and contribute elsewhere? For instance, that warehouse stocker who loves graphic design may be able to transition into a marketing role that would benefit everyone involved.
Recognizing their accomplishments. Appropriate acknowledgment and reward for a job well done goes a long way toward building and maintaining employee engagement. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just meaningful to the individual. And heartfelt. Otherwise, it can backfire and erase any engagement progress that may have been made.

The PrideStaff Fresno team can assist you with strategic staffing, employee engagement, and workforce development, with solutions custom designed for your company and its unique culture. Read our related posts or contact us today for more information.

Look for These 5 Signs You’re Burned Out at Work

Burnout is more than just a bad day – or week, or even month – at work. As defined by the Mayo Clinic, it’s a specific type of job-related stress that results in a state of physical or emotional exhaustion. It also can manifest as a sense of lowered accomplishment or a loss of personal identity.

Last May, the World Health Organization published its updated definition of burnout: a “syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” So, it’s more than just a bad day, indeed.

Know the Warning Signals

If you know the warning signs, you can take effective steps to bring yourself back from the burnout. Here are five common symptoms:

Apathy

Burnout is typically marked by a loss of interest or enthusiasm in work that used to bring you excitement or make you feel fulfilled. This leads to an apathetic or negative attitude that leaves you completed depleted. Even when a task or project goes amazingly well, you still don’t get the same sense of accomplishment or satisfaction.

Anger

If you’re feeling down or frustrated about work, you may have a shorter fuse to deal with difficult people or challenging situations. This can quickly accelerate into detachment, anger, or irritability. Like other burnout side effects, these feelings can spill over into your personal life if left unchecked.

Performance Slump

In a nutshell, people who are burned out simply don’t – or, more accurately, can’t – care enough to do a good job. As a result, deadlines are missed, mistakes are made, quality takes a nosedive and, in worst-case scenarios, safety is compromised. If you are experiencing these signs or spot them in a colleague, it’s time to seek out help.

Insomnia

Insomnia occurs when you feel super exhausted but can’t sleep. It can snowball as you become increasingly frustrated – and it turns into a vicious circle: frustration leads to lack of sleep leads back to frustration. All the while, you’re watching the numbers change on your digital clock.

Vulnerability to Illness

Burnout may contribute to high cortisol levels. This is the stress hormone that, among other functions, partially regulates inflammation. While it doesn’t cause these conditions, long-term, chronic inflammation may be associated with cancer, diabetes, or metabolic syndromes.

For additional resources on avoiding and overcoming burnout, consider working with the professional career coaches at PrideStaff Fresno. Contact us today to learn more.

PrideStaff Fresno Wins The Fresno Bee’s Best Employment Agency Award for Sixth Consecutive Year

The “People’s Choice” for More Than Half a Decade:

PrideStaff Fresno Wins The Fresno Bee’s

Best Employment Agency Award for Sixth Consecutive Year

For sixteen years, The Fresno Bee‘s People’s Choice Award has served as a way for Central Valley community members to recognize and thank area businesses for their hard work. What started out as a simple contest has evolved to become a much-anticipated annual event that is part of the Fresno area’s culture. Each year The Fresno Bee readers eagerly vote for their favorite employers in a wide range of business categories, and award winners are published online.

Always quick to acknowledge his team’s efforts, Sean Akin, Strategic-Partner of PrideStaff Fresno, credits his entire staff for earning this mark of distinction once again. “This award is especially meaningful because it belongs to my entire staff, and it comes from our valued clients and candidates,” said Akin. “Thanks to an amazingly talented and dedicated team who continually exceeds expectations, our Fresno office raises the bar each year in solving employers’ workforce challenges and connecting talented people with rewarding employment.

“Helping the people of the Central Valley community, especially during these past few challenging months, is what gives us purpose – and makes us Fresno’s top employment agency year after year,” continued Akin. “By focusing on what clients and talent value most, our team will provide the service and solutions customers need to reopen our economy and emerge even stronger as a community.”

This latest honor comes on the heels of several other awards and accolades for Sean Akin and his team. Earlier this year, PrideStaff Fresno was named PrideStaff’s Office of the Year for becoming the top-performing office among the franchise’s system of more than 80 locations. The Fresno office also recently won ClearlyRated’s’s Best of Staffing ^® Client and Talent Diamond Awards for the seventh consecutive year.

In addition, Akin was named a 2020 winner of PrideStaff’s President’s Circle Award for being one of the national staffing firm’s top revenue producers for 2019, as well as their 212 Degree Award, recognizing his office for delivering the highest level of client service while expanding the reach of their office. This is the third consecutive year Akin has earned these two awards, reflecting the success of his team’s continued dedication to excellent service.

About PrideStaff

PrideStaff was founded in the 1970s as 100% company-owned units and began staffing franchising in 1995. They operate over 80 offices in North America to serve over 5,000 clients and are headquartered in Fresno, CA. With over 40 years in the staffing business, PrideStaff offers the resources and expertise of a national firm with the spirit, dedication, and personal service of smaller, entrepreneurial firms. PrideStaff is the only nationwide, commercial staffing firm in the U.S. and Canada with over $100 million in annual revenue to earn ClearlyRated’s prestigious Best of Staffing Diamond Award seven years in a row highlighting exceptional client and talent service quality.

For more information on our services or for staffing franchise information, visit www.pridestaff.com.

4 Reasons You Should Consider Hiring Temporary Employees

As reported by the Associated Press, approximately 17 million people currently work as temporary workers, contract workers, consultants, freelancers, seasonal workers, and interns. Research also shows that nearly 50 percent of all companies use some form of temporary employees. Why might this be a good option for your company?

Here are four ways hiring temporary employees can benefit your organization without significantly increasing labor costs:

You can reduce overall staffing costs.

Hiring temporary workers is a cost-effective way to replace employees who go out on family, maternity or medical leave, take vacations or sabbaticals, or resign unexpectedly. You realize savings as you don’t have to pay healthcare, overtime, or other benefit expenses. You also save on training, as your staffing firm provides workers who already have the experience and skills you’re seeking.

The presence of temporary employees keeps your regular workers fully productive, but not overwhelmed, as they would be if they had to double up workloads to compensate for openings.

You can flex your headcount to match customer demands.

By staffing up and down using temporary employees, you can maintain optimal headcount levels all year round. For instance, you may want to bring in more people during your busy season, whether you sell gardening or lawn products and demand peaks in springtime or you’re an accounting firm that seeks an uptick during tax season.

Adjusting the size of your workforce is easier because you don’t have to take the time to post openings, review resumes or conduct interviews. You can simply add or deduct staff as needed, without paying full-time salaries or making painful layoffs.

You can benefit from specialized expertise and experience.

Temporary staffers bring in new skills, experience, and perspectives to their roles. This, in turn, can increase efficiency and streamline operations. If a new product or project requires skills outside your team’s wheelhouse, the right temp can provide this expertise and keep things on track.

You can “try before you buy.”

Last but not least, utilizing temporary employees allows you to evaluate their performance over an extended period of time without committing to a direct hire.

This alleviates the urgency that comes with the need to fill a business-critical opening. Having a short-term employee in place during your recruitment period enables you to take the time you need to make the right direct hire – whether it’s your temp or someone else.

If you’d like to further explore temporary or temp-to-hire staffing for your company, contact PrideStaff today. We specialize in both direct and short-term staffing in industries including administration, customer service, IT, finance, legal support, healthcare, and production and distribution. And, we have the staffing solution that’s just right for you!

Learn How to Advance Your Human Resources Career

Are you ready to take the next step in your HR career? Maybe you’d like to be more visible within your organization or, you have your eye on a promotion. Or, maybe you’d like to explore opportunities elsewhere. What’s the best way to go about it?

The answer lies in focusing on some key steps to help you realize your goal. In the words of Kay Wakeham, global VP, talent and employee management at Citi, “Always transform yourself in the strategic direction.”

Keep your skills – and your resume – current.

Continuously work on updating your professional skills. As you do so, update your resume and LinkedIn profile to reflect such improvements as:

A presentation you made at a conference or company meeting.
An article you wrote.
Your nomination or receipt of a professional award.
Your election to a board or other leadership body.

Consider going back to school, whether this means earning a degree, completing an HR certification such as SHRM-CP, or starting with an online course or two.

Network within HR circles.

A broad professional network not only gives you access to people who may have an inside track on job openings, but it also provides you with additional learning opportunities. Maximize your networking reach both on and offline.

Use LinkedIn to connect with like-minded pros. Be active and engaged by participating in groups, contributing content, and joining in conversations.
Join professional groups and associations. Here, too, SHRM is a great place to start.
Attend conferences, fundraisers, and trade shows.

Explore different roles.

There’s a wide variety of career paths within HR, from recruiting and talent acquisition to payroll and benefits administration. Look into options that pique your interest. This will help you narrow down your preferred choices. Or, you may conclude that you want to be an HR generalist, wearing many hats but enjoying them all – a role that is generally typical to smaller organizations.

Watch and learn. You may want to shadow a member of your own or an external team to gain exposure to a new role. For instance, talk through your current benefit plans with your broker or learn payroll processing from your finance team. Your manager and colleagues will appreciate your deepening your understanding of the business, and you can learn a great deal just by watching.

At PrideStaff Fresno, we have a proven track record of matching skilled HR pros with the most rewarding professional opportunities in the Central Valley region and beyond. As you map out your strategic career plan, let us help make it a reality. Contact us today to learn more.

5 Ways to Calm Your Nerves Before an Interview

It’s perfectly normal to be nervous before a job interview. In fact, interviewers expect it. But if you’re stammering, shaking or sweating throughout the conversation, they may conclude that you don’t perform well under pressure and wouldn’t be a good fit.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to ward off the pre-interview jitters. They include:

Fresh Air and Exercise

Exercise produces endorphins – your feel-good neurotransmitters – and burns off excess nervous energy. Try to get a brief walk in, preferably in the fresh air, before your phone or in-person interview. Even five minutes before entering the building can work wonders.

The STOP Method

STOP is a proven means of tackling stressful situations. It reminds you that you have the power to slow down, banish your nerves, and be deliberate in your thoughts and actions. STOP stands for:

Stop what you’re doing.
Take a few deep breaths.
Observe what’s going on with your body, emotions, and mind, and why you’re feeling this way.
Proceed, with an intention to incorporate what you observed into your actions.

Over Preparing

Rehearse your questions ahead of time. Have your outfit, down to the very last accessory, ready and laid out the night before. Make yourself a cheat sheet of everything you want to remember to bring to your interview. Take an advance trip to nail down how long it will take to get there, allowing for traffic, parking and other details – and leaving five to 10 extra minutes, just in case. There are a lot of details here, but take on one at a time and remember: practice makes perfect.

Rest and Diet

It may be easier said than done, but get a good night’s rest before your interview. Ease up on caffeine and alcohol. Drift off to sleep visualizing success, perhaps while listening to soothing music or a mediation app. When the big day dawns, eat a healthy breakfast or lunch. You know your stomach, so avoid anything that may further upset or embarrass you during your interview.

Keeping It in Perspective

Of course, your interview is really, really important. But you’ve made it this far, so the hiring manager is already impressed with you. Keep in mind that as long as you’re well prepared, it’s just a conversation – and it’s equally important to your interviewers.

In the words of Richard Moy, author of How to Keep Your Cool When You Interview with Your Dream Company: “As much as you want to work for them, they’re also really hoping you’re the one.” How’s that for a confidence booster?

The expert team at PrideStaff Fresno can guide you through interview prep, as well as all aspects of your successful job search process. And, we can match you with the best career opportunities in the region in administration, customer service, IT, finance, legal support, healthcare, and production and distribution. Contact us today to learn more.

These are the Soft Skills You Need for an Information Technology Job

IT professionals sometimes get a bad rap. They’re perceived as nerdy, socially awkward, and just, well, too techy! While this is totally unfair, you may need to remind yourself that when advancing your career or meeting performance goals, you do need to demonstrate strong soft, as well as hard skills.

What are soft skills?

Soft skills, aka interpersonal or transferable skills, are those necessary to successfully interact with colleagues, clients, and vendors, as well as manage projects and teams. Employers value them greatly as they enable people to thrive in teams and within organizations as a whole. In fact, mastery of key soft skills can be the deciding factor in landing your dream job or promotion.

Here’s a snapshot look at seven critical soft skills:

Communication: Oral and written, as well as active listening and collaboration strengths, help you to learn and respond effectively to any circumstances you encounter. And don’t underestimate email, text and other online etiquette, as more and more business communication is played out this way.
Creativity: In 2019, LinkedIn analyzed 50,000 professional skills to discover which ones were in the highest demand. Of all of them, creativity ranked top among soft skills and second among overall responses (right after cloud computing). With IT pros constantly focused on problem-solving and innovating, creativity is essential in helping teams and organizations move in the right direction.
Determination: IT projects can be frustrating. Professionals come to expect roadblocks due to financial constraints, system failures, or numerous other factors. It’s critical to stay the course, driving toward desired results despite all the bumps in the road.
Flexibility: This is the willingness to embrace new challenges, calmly, and without fuss. It means stepping in and helping out whenever and wherever needed, taking on extra responsibilities, and adjusting quickly when plans change.
Leadership: Employers look for people with the potential to become leaders – or better leaders than they already are. Effective leaders have the ability to inspire others and guide teams to success. They display a consistently positive attitude, can make quick and effective decisions, and are strong self-motivators.
Negotiation: To be an adept negotiator is to know how to be persuasive and exert influence while sensitively seeking a solution that benefits all parties involved. This can apply to anything from selecting project team members to developing budgets and selling your idea to an organization.
Presentation: Even the best ideas fall flat if they’re not conveyed effectively to all necessary stakeholders. IT pros need the ability to clearly articulate their vision and work results to audiences in a way that captures their attention, engages their input, and motivates them to act in accordance with desired outcomes.

The PrideStaff Fresno team has a long and proven track record of matching top IT pros with leading employers region-wide. As you realize your career dreams, we can help you develop the perfect hybrid skillset – with emphasis on both your hard and soft traits – so you stand out from the crowd in the best possible way. Contact us today so we can tell you more!

Protect Your Business from the Coronavirus Outbreak

How are you coping with the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on your business? What are you doing to keep yourself and your employees safe? It’s a new world for the time being, and everyone is learning as they go. As you continue to protect your organization, here are some tips and ideas:

Implement Your Emergency Preparedness Plan

Does your company have an Emergency Preparedness Plan? Since 9/11 and other crises, in the meantime, most do. Even if your plan is not formalized or complex, now is the time to put it to use. It should include:

Regular updates on relevant developments, changes, and steps being taken.
Information on how employees can stay in touch with you – and each other – during this time.

Remote Work

Worldwide, people are sheltering at home to fend off coronavirus infection and spread. Social distancing is today’s global way of life, and, as much as possible, it should apply in the workplace as well.

Your plan and policy should include information on employee eligibility to work remotely, along with related procedures and guidelines.

Keep Everyone in the Loop

Ongoing communication – always essential to business success – has taken on a new level of importance in recent days and weeks. In addition to keeping your team informed, it will help ease their stress and anxiety.

Utilize the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website for real-time updates. Scroll to its additional page for added business guidance.
Relay pertinent information to your senior leaders, managers, employees, and other stakeholders ASAP. Send group memos, emails or texts, or hold online mandatory company meetings.
Establish a regular communication schedule as part of your crisis management strategy. For instance, you may want to implement a daily morning or midday email update.
Last but not least, reach out and show you care. What mental health resources can you offer through your EAP or other means? People’s lives have been turned upside down, virtually overnight, and many feel the added strain of isolation. Let them know they’re not alone.

Clean House

While people are at home – or even if they can’t be – ramp up your processes to clean and sanitize your business at this time.

Stock up on soap, disinfectant and hand sanitizer.
Ask those who must be on-site to disinfect their workstations frequently – at least once a day.
Direct anyone who feels sick to stay home.

And an increased emphasis on handwashing goes without saying.

Government Relief for Businesses

If your company is struggling financially due to the coronavirus pandemic, there are a number of government resources available. Among them are:

Low-interest federal disaster loans through the Small Business Administration (SBA).
Coverage of paid sick and leave costs if you have an employer tax credit, equal to 100 percent of benefits issued.

In addition, income tax deferment has extended this year’s April 15 filing deadline for 90 days without penalty. This gives you a chance to use your tax liability funds to cover other, more pressing expenses.

Stay safe and well – and take care of yourselves, your loved ones, and your team during this unprecedented time. Remember, your PrideStaff Fresno team is here for you, too! #InThisTogether!

Is Your Best Employee About to Walk Out the Door? Here’s How to Tell

It’s inevitable that employees – including those you value highly – will leave your company, whether it’s to take another position or make a total career or lifestyle change. But in most cases, key team members don’t just up and quit without warning. There are signs you can watch for, so that with the right strategy, you may be able to avoid the stress and heartache of a costly turnover. These are marked by noticeable changes in behavior, including:

Complaining and Grumbling

If an employee who rarely complains suddenly begins grumbling a lot, this is a red flag that they’re no longer satisfied at their job. Something has gotten under their skin, and they’re clearly not happy.

In many cases, the source of their discontent leads directly back to their manager. The industry adage that “people don’t quit their jobs, they quit their bosses” really does ring true.
Find out what’s wrong. If you don’t, you may wind up replacing more than one good employee, as word spread and their attitude rubs off on coworkers.

Attendance Issues

Any out-of-the-ordinary time away from the office that occurs frequently is generally a sign that an employee is either actively job hunting elsewhere or has reached an unhealthy level of burnout. Either way, it’s time to step in and fix the problem. This could manifest as an individual:

Coming in late or leaving early.
Suddenly using up accrued time off.
Taking inordinately long lunch breaks.

Performance Declines

When an employee is thinking of moving on, their productivity, output levels or the quality of their work are likely to suffer. It may start out small, such as a normally outgoing team member no longer participating at meetings or offering to help with extra assignments.

Unless you’ve authorized the action, call employees out if they suddenly begin delegating their work to others. It’s your right to determine why they’re lessening their workload. If it’s a reason other than job hunting, you still need to know so you can take the right corrective action.

Social Gushing

A good indicator that an employee may be moving on is a recently updated LinkedIn profile. When it comes to endorsements and recruiter connections, LinkedIn recently started to allow users to hide their profile edits, so this can make it a bit tricky. Train yourself to be alert for what has come to be known as social gushing.

Look at a person’s profile for likes, comments, and similar content directed toward key executives at other firms. It may mean they’re trying to get on their best side and land an interview.

For additional tips on how to optimize your employee retention rate – or when the worst happens, and you need to find new talent to replace an A-team player – PrideStaff Fresno can help. We offer temporary, direct, and temp-to-hire solutions customized to meet your business needs. Contact us today to learn more.

4 Great Ways to Stay Motivated at Work

“It is through motivation that individuals are able to achieve great things in life.”

King Kew, author of Motivation: Top Secrets Successful People Use to Achieve Greater Success, notes that people who are motivated “cultivate enthusiasm and have a greater zest for life” because they have an ongoing sense of purpose and are more focused, creative, and resilient.

But what happens when you simply can’t find that motivation or hold onto it long enough to complete a project or even keep up with your daily to-do list? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but here are four tips to keep you on track:

Think about your impact.

What you do does make a difference, even if it may not always feel that way. Keep reminding yourself, especially when you’re mired in tasks that feel dry or removed from what excites you most about your job.

Focus on the aspects of your work that help make someone’s life better, even in small ways. This can make even the most humdrum day on the job more meaningful.

Take the high road.

You don’t have to be in an uber-friendly good mood all the time, but try to maintain a positive outlook as often as possible. You’ll feel more energized and, in turn, spread that energy to those around you.

Choose success. Create a mental picture of yourself successfully completing a job. Make a conscious choice to complete it – and then see it through to completion. Believing that you can accomplish something and staying optimistic is the key to progress.

Step outside your comfort zone.

Find ways to try new things. Take calculated risks and accept new challenges that may make you gulp at first. As noted by Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo, “when there’s that moment of ‘wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.”

Be open to constructive criticism. Take it as a learning opportunity. Google CEO Sundar Pichai summed this up by saying, “at some point in your life, you have to work with people where you feel a bit insecure. That’s essential because it means you’re working with people who are better than you and who are pushing you.” In a nutshell, it makes you better, too.

Break overwhelming tasks into manageable pieces.

Replace projects or assignments that seem impossible into smaller, bite-sized pieces. Then, tackle just one of them at a time.

Make to-do lists with each step prioritized. When you complete one step, cross it off. Then, you can mentally eliminate it and begin to feel more motivated and closer to completing the entire project.
Seize the power of deadlines. Setting time limits for each step will enable you to assemble the needed resources towards completion. Deadlines are always helpful, but especially if you’re part of a team and need one person’s work to finish before someone else can incorporate it into their assignment.

Are you motivated for success … or do you feel as if you’re already lagging behind your plans for the year? Partnering with the right career coach can make all the difference. If your goal is to advance your career in areas including finance, IT, healthcare, customer service, legal support and production, and distribution, turn to the experts at Pridestaff. Contact us today so we can tell you more.