The Watercooler

The Watercooler Blog is full of workplace tips and trends related to employee retention, engagement, interviewing and more. The Watercooler is frequently refilled, so gather ‘round often.

Using Behavioral Interviews to Find the Right Candidate

A behavioral approach to interviewing can take the guesswork out of hiring with a structured process that helps you better assess candidates’ knowledge, skills, work styles and other relevant competencies – as you narrow the field toward your final decision. Behavioral questions delve into an individual’s actions and results in past work situations that are [...] Read More

How to Handle a Candidate Whose Background – But Not Personality – Fits the Criteria

Skills versus personality … which one is more important in a job candidate? A successful long-term employee has a personality that matches both their role within your company and your workplace culture. And while skills, knowledge and ability can be developed with experience, an employee’s personality is unlikely to change. In one study of more [...] Read More

The Importance of Creating a Positive Company Culture

Creating a positive company culture begins with fostering happy employees. Recent research shows that happy workers are 85 percent more efficient, experience a 60 percent drop in absenteeism and stay twice as long in their jobs as their less satisfied colleagues. This results in measurable improvements in safety, wellness, engagement, retention, employer brand and ultimately, [...] Read More
Partnering with an Employment Agency in Modesto

Conducting Employee Performance Reviews the Right Way

As spelled out in a recent Washington Post headline, “Study Finds That Basically Every Single Person Hates Performance Reviews.” Yikes! But it doesn’t have to be that way. No one should walk into a performance review without already knowing about their performance. Managers should be providing regular, ongoing feedback and listening to input from employees [...] Read More

A Look into OSHA’s “Safe and Sound” Campaign

In early 2017, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) launched a new campaign designed to help companies provide safe and healthy work environments. Employers across the U.S. can benefit from the program, which was specifically designed to curb rising injury and fatality rates at worksites in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. As one of the [...] Read More

How Does Employment in Akron Compare to the Rest of Ohio?

While many places in the state have come back from the recession of nearly a decade ago, not all cities have bounced back in the same way. When looking at Akron’s unemployment rates specifically, it does about the same or a little higher than Ohio’s rates in general but surpasses some of the major cities. [...] Read More

Interview Tips: When to Keep Your Answers Short

You may feel a need to tell an interviewer everything possible so they can get the best measure of you in the time you have, but that can lead to wordy answers that actually hurt your chances rather than helping you. For some questions in particular, you’ll do best keeping your responses succinct.   When [...] Read More