Every single event you attend has the potential to help you further your career.  How’s that?  The key is coming in with the right mindset and then taking just a few manageable steps while you’re there.

1. Approach strangers. It’s tempting to cling to known acquaintances when you are at a business event, but this is a mistake if you want to get your name out there. Instead of circulating with your golf buddy, Joe Smith, who you’ve known since your first gig together out of college, reach out and mingle with some new faces. While this can prove daunting for some folks, it is an invaluable way to make connections. Set a goal for yourself before you attend the event; for example, determine that you’re going to meet 5 new people.   The key to connecting with new folks is to find common ground on which to build a conversation.  One way to do this is to come prepared to discuss or just comment on at least one recent news item related to your industry or the event you’re attending.  Another way is to ask why someone is attending the event and what they hope to get out of it.  You know that you have at least these things in common with others in the room, so work them to your advantage.

2. Offer to help. People appreciate it. The key is to listen to conversations and determine whether you can offer any assistance. For example, let’s say you are discussing a news story that the other person has not heard about. Offer to send them an email with the link to the story. If someone is talking about a problem they’re experiencing and you know of a person or company that can help, offer to text them later with a contact name. They’ll remember you and be more apt to want to stay in touch.

3. Be intriguing. This sounds harder than it really is.  One mistake many prospective networkers make is to launch into exhausting detail when asked, “What do you do?” Answer with a short sentence or two that divulges some information about what you do without laying it all out.  This way people are likely to want to learn more about you and your work. For example, “At Planetpro, we help businesses accelerate their revenues with talent.”  This reveals what we do and leaves the door open for questions and further conversation.

4. Bring your business cards. Sure, it’s old school, and most of us rely solely on our digital devices; still, it’s useful to have a card ready to hand to someone who might be rushed, and a pen to write down your personal contact information for someone whose phone just died. Don’t get stuck wanting to connect with even one person and missing on that opportunity for unexpected reasons.

Whether you are attending a charity gala, a business conference, or even an interdepartmental meeting, you have many opportunities to network. Position yourself to take advantage of every opportunity by coming prepared and moving out of your comfort zone.  You’ll find yourself quickly reaping the rewards.

How do you take advantage of events to network? What have you learned in the past about how to leverage these events to your advantage?

According to recent surveys, The McKinsey Global Institute found in 2011, that over 58% of employers expect to hire contract staff over the next five years. This outlook gives job seekers a forecast into their career outlook. Many professionals may need to consider contract and freelance work. Also, 21.5% said that they were considering using off-shore or outsourced workers during that same time period. With employers looking for contract and off-shore workers the future job-seeker will need to have a better understanding of the market to be able to sell them.

Why has there been such an increase of interest in contract staffing? Some industry analysts point to the current state of the economy. With the prevalence of economic uncertainty, many employers are hesitant to hire full-time workers, preferring instead to rely on temporary staff or contractors to fill in the gaps until it is clear what direction their revenue will take.

Other employers cite their interest in contractors stemming from the ease of the try-before-you-buy approach. Using contract staffing eliminates longer training periods for new hires and ensures that new employees are already well-suited to their position. The company can then monitor their progress and hire them full time if they decide the person is a good fit for their organization.

For companies that experience seasonal fluctuations, contract staffing offers numerous benefits and helps mitigate extra costs associated with permanent hires, such as benefits and the potential for lay-offs at a future date.

Contract staffing also reduces the amount of time it takes to fill positions. Instead of laboring   through the hiring process to find the perfect candidate, a company can simply hire a temp or contract staffer that can go to work immediately, with just a brief period of orientation. This benefit alone is the reason why companies are so willing to try this hiring method. In addition, the process of bringing talent on board is also easier when companies work with contract staffing agencies that excel at matching the right candidates to the position.

Planetpro would like to know what benefits do you feel your company has reaped through this staffing method?

While there are basic job skills that are necessary for each position, there are a number of other job skills that are vital if the hire is going to be the right candidate for the position. No matter how impressive a resume may be, if a candidate doesn’t possess these extra skills, they may not be the right person for the job.

Your interview process should be tailored to finding these particular skills as well as the standard skills required for the job.

1. Flexibility of the Mind. Your ideal candidate should be able to think quickly on her feet and come up with alternate solutions very quickly. You can determine if a candidate has these skills by rapid firing questions that come from different angles and asking hypothetical questions to determine how she might handle different real life situations.

2. A high level of empathy. This is particularly vital for anyone who will assume a managerial or customer service position. Empathy is not something that can be learned, it is either ingrained in someone or it’s not. Empathetic people are able to look at complex situations, and take into account other’s feelings. Once again, scenario questions are the best way to determine a candidate’s level of empathy.

3. Initiative and passion. Zombie hires are the bane of any manager. If a candidate is not passionate about his job or the work that he does for a company, he simply isn’t going to perform at the same level as someone who does have passion. While we can’t all love our jobs, we can love doing a good job. Seek out candidates that have demonstrated initiative in their past accomplishments. It’s a good predictor of how much they’ll be willing to do for you.

4. Risk tolerance. High-level positions require a great deal of risk tolerance. The ideal candidate should not be put off or scared by risk, but should view this as an opportunity for challenge and growth. Hypothetical lines of questioning and asking about similar situations at an old position will help you find this type of candidate.

These skills are largely ingrained in a personality, and most cannot be taught or inspired. If you need help finding candidates who demonstrate these qualities, or if you want tips on finding the right fit candidate for your position, give Planetpro a call today.  [Please note the proper spelling of our company name]

Planetpro believes these are some of the main skills anyone should have when recruiting new hires. What are some of the different skills you use to recruit new hires into your company? (Please comment below)

Contact Planetpro with any of your staffing needs.

If you have an open position in your organization, instead of immediately hiring a permanent employee, you may want to consider the ‘try-before-you-buy’ approach. This method provides a way for companies to test drive their talent without making a full-time commitment prior to observing the quality of their work.  In fact, contract staffing has many benefits for employers and is an underutilized tool that can help improve your retention rates and ensure you are getting the best possible candidate for the job.

Contract staffing ensures you can fill an open position quickly, with talent who is well-trained, has specialized skills, and just needs a quick overview of how your company operates. If you have mission critical positions that are open, this strategy can help ensure your business won’t suffer while you are looking for the right person.

Let’s take a look at a few of the other benefits of implementing the try-before-you-buy approach:

1. On-the-job interview.
Instead of having to spend inordinate hours interviewing prospects, you can focus on observing the contractor in action. This means you can evaluate actual on-the-job performance over a longer period of time.   Also, the data you gather in evaluating prospects this way is likely to be a better predictor of their ability to succeed in that job, compared to the few hours spent talking in the hypothetical during an interview.

2. Finding the right culture fit.
Not only is job performance vital, it is also important to measure how well a contract employee fits within your organization’s culture and how they interact with others. If you end up with someone who isn’t the right fit, you can employ another contractor until you find the one candidate that works best for you.

3. Minimize your risk if change is required.

With permanent hiring, if and when it becomes obvious that the employee cannot handle the demands of the position, making changes can cost valuable time and money.  Minimize the cost and hassle of legal entanglements related with such changes by testing  your talent before you commit to them.

Working with the right staffing agency will also help ensure that you’re not just getting contract workers to fill resource gaps, but highly qualified talent that can help you keep things running smoothly and work towards your business goals while you make your decision.

The general questions you ask during a job interview are a given, but are you getting all of the information you need to make an informed decision? If you’re not asking questions that specifically address the candidate’s ability to succeed on the job you may end up selecting the wrong candidate.

While each job is different, some questions work well universally, regardless of the position or industry.

1. Based on the specific goals for the job/position in question, ask questions that explore and assess the candidate’s likelihood to achieve the same for your company.  For example, if your goal is to increase revenues by 30% over the next year, you may ask for evidence of a comparable accomplishment from the candidate’s recent past.
2. Ask them to provide specifics on tough situations they met in their last position. Questions such as, “Tell me about the last time you had to manage a difficult employee — what did you do?” and “Describe one of the most stressful situations you’ve had to deal with recently,” will reveal not only the candidate’s personal management style, but also how they handle being under pressure.
3. Find out how they see themselves culturally fitting into your organization. This is a great question to find out more about their values and personality.  For example, if integrity is an important value to your company, you might ask the candidate, “Tell me about a time in your last job when you demonstrated integrity.”  Or, “What does integrity mean to you and how does it affect how you approach your job?”
4. Follow-up on questions. Digging deeper with classic questions like ‘who, what, where, why, how?’ is key to getting an accurate picture.  It’s also a good way to verify that the candidate is being truthful about his or her claims.  People who have done what they really claim to have done have loads of specific details to share about the experience.
5. Create a Scenario Question. Take a current or past business challenge you’ve seen within your company and ask candidates to describe how they would handle this event on their own. Give them a little time to think about it. Be wary of those who answer in general terms, or don’t seem able to grasp the situation appropriately. While it’s normal to be nervous during an interview, the right candidate will think on his or her feet and come up with a well-thought answer.

While these questions may take more time to explore than the standard job interview queries, you’re likely to obtain more relevant information that will ultimately help you pick the right candidate for the job.

References and additional information available at:

http://humanresources.about.com/od/selectemployees/a/hiringtips.htm

http://www.yourofficecoach.com/Topics/developinterviewquestions.htm

http://jobsearch.about.com/od/interviewquestionsanswers/a/job-specific-interview-questions.htm

You’ve just interviewed what appeared to be the perfect candidate and all systems are go. However, if you’re not taking the time to check their references, you may end up with a nasty surprise. Most employers ask for references during the hiring process, and it’s all too easy to gloss over this last step, especially if everything seems to be just perfect. In addition, it’s a given that applicants are only going to provide you with references they know will have glowing reports. You may not be getting the whole story.

In this instance, adding blind reference checks to your fact-checking routine is essential. Thankfully, with services such as LinkedIn, it’s become relatively easily to track down who an applicant has worked with in the past.

Blind reference checks can reveal the complete story of your applicant’s past work history. Search through your candidate’s LinkedIn and Facebook accounts to develop a list of blind references. Even a simple Google search can reveal where they have worked in the past. Find the human resource contacts for this company or the managers of their former departments.

Next, make sure you follow some basic guidelines about reference checks. You are allowed to: confirm details that are on an application or came forth in an interview, confirm dates of employment, ask questions about an employee’s past performance, and encourage the reference to supply any additional information that may be helpful.

Once you make contact with the references, make sure you communicate the objective of your call. Of course, it’s always good to begin by building rapport. You’re likely to get more information that way.

After that, it’s important to remember that you are speaking to the reference to fact-check, not just to obtain a thumbs up or down on whether to hire the candidate.

So, instead of glossing over the check as many people mistakenly do, ask open ended questions. Since this is a fact finding mission, your goal is to investigate, through conversation with this person, whether the claims that the candidate made about his or her work, at that time, with that person, are in fact accurate.

Keep notes during your calls and then when you’re finished with one candidate’s list of references, compile all of your notes and go over them. Look for similarities, and especially stark differences. When you put all of the information together you should have a pretty good picture of your candidate and you can see whether or not it matches your initial impressions.

Lastly, keep all of these notes for each candidate. A paper trail may be necessary if you have future issues, or if a candidate feels he or she was treated unfairly during the hiring process.

The first impression you make in an interview will largely determine your success rate. You have mere seconds to get your foot in the door, or have it slammed in your face and even the most innocuous greetings could end up ruining your approach.

Much of the impression you make is based on psychological factors. Some of these, such as the words you say, you can control. Others, such as an interviewer’s personal feelings or issues, you cannot control. It is important to focus on the impressions that you can control and learn how to break through psychological barriers when dealing with your prospects.

Certain words and phrases, especially when delivered to those who hear them all too frequently, will spell disaster. Common phrases, such as “Do you have a minute?” or “I’m calling because,” will instantly create resistance in your contact. Resistance is exactly the feeling you do not want to invoke in your prospect.

It is all too easy to fall into the trap of using the same phrases over and over with your contacts. If you’re finding that you simply can’t get to the hiring conversation, it’s most likely due to the fact that you are creating resistance instead of building a relationship and rapport with your contact.

So, how can you begin building the foundation for a relationship with your contact? Instead of using resistance words, such as the phrases mentioned above, start out by simply talking to your prospect. If you were referred to their company, immediately begin the conversation with the name of the person who referred you. If you’re dealing with a cold-call situation, use a little psychological trick to get their attention and ensure their interest – ask them for help. The vast majority of people will have a natural response to assist you if you simply say, “Can you help me?”

Work this to your advantage by re-learning how you start and continue your conversations with your contacts. Practice with c friends to learn how to drop the resistance words and start using the relationship words. It may take a little time, but you’ll get the hang of creating a real conversation that will get real results.

Welcome to Planetpro! We have been in business for over twelve years.  We are fortunate to have a loyal base of amazing clients, 95% of whom are repeat clients.  Many of them tell us that we have had a significant positive impact on their business.   Our clients also say that we are really easy to work with.

Yet, only a fraction of our prospective clients know who we are or what we do.

We have grown predominantly through referrals. We have been a well-kept secret! Over the last several years, we’ve focused on building out our offerings and global service capabilities. Now, it’s time to let everyone in on the secret.  Our new identity helps us take the first step in that journey.

I’m delighted to inform you of the launch of our new identity: a new logo, a new tagline and a new website.    Each of these elements helps communicate more clearly who we are, what we do, and how we bring unique value to our clients.

About our new logo: the globe and dots in our logo represent our global talent and the upward arrow signifies revenue growth of our clients.  Our tagline “Accelerating revenue with talent” articulates the essence of how we contribute to our clients’ success.

I invite you to take a tour of our website.  If you only have a few minutes, I recommend the following pages:

1)     Why Planetpro
2)     Solutions overview
3)     Global talent profiles: Professional and personal profiles of some of our professionals.  My favorite page!

If you like what you see, please share the secret with anyone you believe could benefit from our services.
Thank you,

Ravi Thota
CEO
Planetpro, Inc.