Who’s Interviewing Who?

As the interviewer, you should always be aware that your potential employee could have several other offers. You are doing more than just interviewing your candidate; think of it as you are selling them the job. During the interview process your candidate is likely (hopefully) taking mental notes about you as well, and the company overall. Therefore, it’s important to not only ask questions, but also inform them about yourself and your position within the company.

            

When it comes to the interview process, always be respectful towards your candidate and attentive when they are speaking. This will make your candidate feel more comfortable and important. Let them know about your company’s culture and how your executives make an effort to get to know their employees on a personal level.

Your candidate should also be informed that their opinions matter and their feedback would always be considered. Also, knowing that there are competitors, it’s critical to make a better offer. This way your candidate can compare salaries, healthcare insurance, benefits, and hours. If your candidate brings up a counter-offer they received from another company, always counter the counter-offer.

Aside from being the interviewer, always be prepared for your candidate to ask you some questions of his or her own. They will often ask about their career path, which you should always answer in a long-term perspective in order for them to feel secure at your company. Make sure you are also well informed about your co-workers and what they do because your candidate may ask what they are like to see if they will fit in.

This is a candidate-driven job market, which means top candidates can afford to be particular about which offer to accept, so always make a good case because they are interviewing you too.

For more information please contact Connor|Caitlin at www.connorcaitlin.com

Happiness is the Ultimate Key to Success

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer

If you want successful employees, you need happy employees. This begs the question, how do you get happy employees?

Hiring people who really want to work for your company is key to employee happiness. By creating a friendly work environment and being great at what you do, your company will attract excellent candidates. 

The best thing to do is simply open the dialogue with employees. If you do not really know what your employees need to be happy,

you cannot provide it. Every workplace is different and every employee is different, but having a common understanding of employees in your workplace will allow you to cater to them, which will create success. Additionally, simply making sure that your employees know that their happiness is important to you will contribute to higher employee morale and better company culture.

There are a lot of great articles about research done by Shawn Achor on happiness contributing to success. A great place to start making employee happiness a priority is checking out this research and sharing it with your employees.

Please contact Connor | Caitlin to talk about the happiness and success of your business.

www.connorcaitlin.com  

Prim and Proper, Being Polite in the Workplace

Many people would be surprised at just how far being polite can further you in your career. If you are able to obtain characteristics such as being charismatic, able to share intuitive ideas, and being generous, then you will stand out in the superlative way. Aside from having those traits, there are several gestures you can make to express courtesy toward your colleagues.

Next time you’re at a work party or benefit, begin introducing people you know as if you were privileged to do so. This will show the utmost respect to your co-workers. In another sense, when someone is being introduced to you it’s important to address them by the name they told you. This means that you should not shorten their name or call them by a nickname seeing as that would be considered unprofessional and too friendly. 

Also, when first meeting someone, a polite individual will wait until the other person determines the nonsexual touch guidelines, unless it’s a handshake. It’s critical to make sure the person you are being introduced to feels comfortable at all times.

Social media has become quite a significant tool in today’s society, which sometimes can turn out to be negative.  It’s extremely significant to always keep your personal social media sites objective and professional. In addition to social media, one should never gossip over the Internet or in person. It’s often difficult to resist the inside scoop about a particular person or event, but the civil way to go about this would be to simply ignore it.

However, something a polite individual should never ignore is the elephant in the room. For instance, if a colleague’s family member passed away it would be considerate to briefly express your condolences. Most prominently, when being polite you should never push your opinions or judge someone. 

Always try to keep an open mind when it comes to specific subject matters or people. Remember, polite people never stop being polite, and once you are you will begin to see that your colleagues will think more highly of you.

Contact Connor | Caitlin Talent Solutions at www.connorcaitlin.com for more information. 

The After-Graduation Black Hole

Congratulations Class of 2015!

Now that you've hit the major milestone of graduating from college, it’s time to enter the working world.  Some of you may already have job offers, and some may still be discovering themselves, but we can all benefit from job/career advice. 

Business professionals have long since stated the importance of networking, and that is still a large part to the success of many careers today.  Networking, meeting people from all specialties and industries will open your eyes to opportunities that you never even thought about, or knew existed.  Plus, down the road, you never know when one of those connections you made will come in handy.

 

Here’s a fun one.  As a recent college graduate, learn to let your parents help you find the right position.  Parents always want their kids to succeed, and will do anything in their power to help.  While this may seem like you are reverting back to your childhood, trust me, it will help in the end. They know people that they can trust, and people always love to help others.

Forget about your age.  Present yourself as you want others to see you.  Never say “I know I’m young, but…”  This will only get the interviewers thinking about how young you really are, and if you have what it takes to make it at that company.  Instead, present yourself as a professional.  Leave them wondering how old you really are, because you present yourself as a seasoned professional.  Don’t be intimidated by those who are older and wiser, and learn from their experiences that they are willing to share.

Read articles, google the company you are interviewing for, and meet everyone you can.  You will find your niche.

If you want help discovering your career path, please contact Connor|Caitlin. 

Well...I just didn't like her.

Normally I like to touch on interviewing from a candidates perspective, but today I’m going to take a look at it from the other side of the table. Interviewers can be the first closed door that a great candidate may face, and in all reality, that closed door may be the result of a bias on the interviewers’ part.

We've always been told that your first impression means everything.  In this case, it’s very true. If you are an interviewer, or just someone meeting another for the first time, keep these things in mind.

Bring your bias to a conscious level.  This is the first step in neutralizing bias; recognition.  Even if you have an instant reaction, try to do the opposite of what you first feel, such as leading with a positive question if you have a negative feeling about a candidate. 

Measure your first impression at the end of a meeting.  Objectively use what you've learned within the interview to determine if the candidate would be a right fit.

Make sure to listen to all the evidence before making a conclusion. Then, use evidence, not emotions, to assess.  “I feel” and “I think” and “My gut tells me” are all statements using emotions and not hard evidence.  

Use your team to objectively study your candidate.  Have everyone share their evidence to help decrease the emotional bias of the hiring authority.

These few tips will help ensure that you are giving each candidate a complete and fair shot.  And who knows, it may even be helpful on a first date.

If you need help standardizing your hiring practices, or help finding top talent, contact Connor|Caitlin.

Listening. A new fad.

We live in a world where most everyone is nose down in a smart phone or tablet with Wi-Fi available everywhere, even in seemingly the most remote of locations. It’s unfathomable to be disconnected from the “world”, yet ironically, this practice actually disconnects us from the people who are actually present in our space. It’s not just individuals who are guilty of this. Individuals bring this personal practice into their business and it trickles down to customers. Concurrently, much emphasis is focused on growth and staying ahead of the curve that it has taken away from the principal that many businesses were founded for their customers. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if companies put down the proverbial smart phone and dedicated time to really listen? Universally, customers want to feel a sense of reliability, responsiveness, empathy, competency, and last but not least being valued. All of these are achieved through active listening. So many customers feel discouraged from dialogue on their service experience because the service agents they interact with are not present.

Stella Service, Elite rated companies like Apple & Zappos are hitting the mark. Zappos recorded an epic 10 hour phone call with one customer! While that’s a bit extreme, it speaks volumes about their approach to service. These companies are successful largely because they understand that a customer centric outlook is paramount. They understand that one of the simplest (as well as incredibly cost efficient…) ways to achieve this is active listening and follow through. They take the time to liaise with customers to understand how they really feel.

TARP, research firm concluded that every 1 customer who has a complaint will share it with 10 others. These 10 will go on to further share with 5 others. A single complaint quickly impacts up to 50 people! The good news is, it’s entirely possible to avoid this by active listening. It may even be possible to detect concerns even if customers aren’t actively voicing them. TARP also concluded that for every customer who verbalizes a complaint, a whopping 26 more remain silent.

Getting back to basics – listening 101:

Ø  Be ready! How can you actively listen if you are searching for a notebook & pen, or texting?

Ø  Take notes. Details, details, details.

Ø  Be responsive. Let them know you are still present without taking over.

Ø  Match their emotion. If they are in a panic, show a sense of urgency.

Ø  Be positive or factual. Don’t color the dialogue with negative feelings. If you are negative, they will surely be too.

Ø  Be respectful. Don’t interrupt or assume you know what they are about to say.

Ø  Ask questions. Ensure you understand their needs.

Ø  Paraphrase. Demonstrating not just paying attention, but active thinking & reasoning.

Ø  Take action! The best way to show listening is to follow through on the customer’s needs. Actions always speak louder than words.

Active listening supports solid communication which leaves customers feeling appreciated and overall strengthens your long term relationship. It can often help resolve or avoid conflicts and misunderstandings entirely. The information we harvest by listening can even allow us to take a step further and not only resolve conflicts, but ensure that we are applying the right solution. Equally important to making the problem go away, is ensuring that we’ve solved it correctly. This might be an opportunity to think creatively about what the customer is saying to find a solution that works best for them and is also cost efficient for your business. 

“Listen. You don't learn anything by talking. Listening makes for good business and it makes for good friends.” — Liz Robbins