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The Cutting Edge of Employment Branding

30 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by trendhr in Recruiting

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employee performance, Employment Branding, high-performing, internal branding, job search, recruiting and retention strategy, staffing agency dfw, TPS, trend personnel dallas

by Stephen Bruce & John Sullivan  | BLR

Trusted-Brand1[1]During a recent webinar, BLR® asked Dr. John Sullivan, professor, author, corporate speaker, and advisor, a number of questions about employment branding. Today we present a portion of that interview.

Q: Would you help us understand the importance and impact of employment branding in today’s business environment?

A: Employment branding is the only long-term recruiting and retention strategy, so you [should] use it to build what employees … and others say about you. Seventy-five percent of people in the U.S. would not take a job with a company with a bad employment brand even if they were unemployed, and 87 percent would consider leaving their current job if they were offered a job at a company with a strong brand.

Well-branded firms can improve applicant quality by 54 percent, quality of hire by 9 percent and, in some cases, the firms with a strong employment brand [see] their stock prices increase as much as 10 times more than the standard employer. You get higher offer acceptance rates, so when people know positive things about your company, they just say “Yes” to your offers more.

If you have a negative internal brand, it turns out your employees talk to your customers, and they don’t say nice things. Therefore, having a negative internal brand costs you money. In a highly competitive marketplace with so many firms competing for the same talent, your image is everything.

Without an image, or without managing that image, you’re certainly not going to have great results. Especially in recruiting, we target fully employed people—people that are doing really well—innovators. Well, those people are not attracted to job postings. The only way to get them is to write a branding message, or [to] have your company written up., Amazon [learned] how important a brand is. Well, they just went through a lot of turmoil because some employees said some negative things—[that’s] a current example of the impact on sales, on recruiting, [and] on retention.

Q: Maybe you could share some thoughts on what actions can help companies be successful with their internal branding?

A: Well, the first thing you have to realize is that we’re in a very connected world. So when you have an employee who is unhappy, not only will they know, but every other employee will know—whether through mobile phone or text. They’ll also post it externally. So if you want to improve retention and certainly as I mentioned earlier, sales, if your customers are unhappy, and someone says, “Oh, tell me about that,” [your employees are] going to say negative things, and it’s going to hurt your sales.

The first thing you want to do is measure your…internal brand strength. What [things] do your employees say about you, both positive and negative? You want that ratio, obviously, to have more positives than negatives. Anonymous employee websites or surveys allow employees to have complaints [and] to say things without their name[s] coming up. That helps them vent, which means that they won’t say bad things to others and customers if they get a chance to vent—especially if someone answers their question or gives them information.

Spreading stories is one of the best ways to get referrals, but it also impacts retention. So, if you have what we call a “story inventory” of all the great things and practices your firm does and employees see it when they are in the process of making a referral, they build their pride, they build their knowledge, they build their understanding and say, “Hey, our firm is pretty good.”

Getting on lists of best places to work—LinkedIn, Fortune, those kinds of things—also builds image because everyone asks them “What’s it like to work there?” And, you know, people at Apple, for example, get hundreds of people asking, “What’s it like to work there?” Where, at a less-desirable firm, you wouldn’t get that.

The last thing you need to realize is that only 20 percent of the information that people get about a firm comes from the firm. The other 80 percent comes from some other place, and that other place is not owned or controlled by you. You can have an employee newsletter where you can say all these things that are great, but it’s getting 80 percent of its information from some other place, which might cite something [contrary].

Q: To what extent do you recommend gearing programs toward high-performing employees, or do you recommend it at all?

A: I definitely do—it’s critical. When you look at all employees, you know, Homer Simpson just doesn’t produce as much as a top performer. Apple found … that top performers produce between 10 and 25 times, not percent, but times more [than average employees]. So obviously, you want to focus your internal and external brand message on your top-performing employees.

It turns out that most of the people you want to attract are currently treated well [and] are currently employed. So an employer brand can bring people who work at another firm and get them to consider your firm. But top performers have different requirements, so they might want to create work, or they might want to innovate where Homer might want donuts or something. If you want to attract top performers it turns out there’s data that show they will bring 3 to 5 other people with them [to your firm]. When you count the ROI of branding [not only do] you get a top performer [and] an innovator but also 3 to 5 people.

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/151-the-cutting-edge-of-employment-branding

7 Things You Should Never Say During a Job Interview

02 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by trendhr in Interviews

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connecting with the interviewer, dallas staffing, get hired, getting hired, hiring now, Interview preparation, interview questions, interview tips, Job Interview, Never Say During a Job Interview, potential employers, staffing agency dfw, trend personnel services

by Catherine Conlan | Monster

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1. “How much vacation time do I get?”

“How long do I have to be here before I’m eligible for a vacation?”

“How long before I start to accrue additional weeks of vacation?”

Consultant Barry Maher says he was involved in a recent interview in which these were the first three questions out of the applicant’s mouth. “What had looked like a great applicant now looked like someone who couldn’t wait to get out of work,” Maher says.

It’s important to ask questions during a job interview, but not ones about taking time off. And that’s not all. Even if you have all the right qualifications and show up looking your best, it’s easy to lower your chances of getting hired by letting the wrong words slip out of your mouth.

Before you head out to meet your next prospective employer, consider these six additional things you should never say in a job interview.

2. “Sorry I’m late.”
Even if you have to leave ridiculously early, find a way to be on time to your interview. “If you can’t be punctual while asking for the job, how late will you be after you get hired?” says career coach Alex Simon.

3. “Do you mind if I get this?”
Answering a call or a text during an interview is rude and gives the impression the interview — and the prospect of getting hired — aren’t your priorities. “Leave your cell phone in the car, at home, anywhere, but don’t bring it into the interview,” Simon says.

4. “I’m a perfectionist.”
If you get the question about your greatest weakness, don’t try to answer with a strength instead, says Jim Giammatteo, author of “No Mistakes Interviews.” “If you say you’re a perfectionist, or a workaholic, you might as well grab your briefcase and go home. Any good interviewer knows that all candidates have weaknesses. If you can’t admit it, or even worse, if you don’t know it, you’re not the person they want.”

5. “I’m applying for this job because it will give me …”
You may think talking about the skills or experience you’ll get from the job is a compliment to the company, but it just puts the focus on you. “Instead, talk about what you will contribute to a prospective new employer,” says leadership coach Susan Bernstein. “This is a very frequent and subtle mistake that often keeps otherwise great candidates from connecting with the interviewer.”

6. “I’m not sure if I’m a good fit for this job, but…”
“Everyone is unsure until they’re hired,” says Bernstein. “You’re not actually expected to be able to perform 100 percent of the job on the first day. If you can do 75 percent or more, go ahead and apply. Then spotlight your strengths, rather than your doubts or deficits.”

7. “I want to talk to dolphins.”
TalkToCanada CEO Marc Anderson is often involved with interviewing prospective employees and says one candidate he met was eager to talk about his love of dolphins. “He said that he wished for us all one day to communicate with dolphins as they can awaken our spirituality.” The revelation didn’t help him win the job.

Information about odd aspects of your personal life can make the interviewer feel awkward, which is bad for your job chances, says Anderson. “Have all the weird hobbies you want, but don’t share them if they’re too far out there.”

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/141-7-things-you-should-never-say-during-a-job-interview

Tips For Avoiding The Resume Black Hole

25 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by trendhr in Uncategorized

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cover letter guidelines, dallas work available, get your resume noticed, Hiring managers, hiring process, how write a cover letter, job seekers, proofread your résumé, qualified candidates, resume tips, staffing agency dfw, submitting your resume, trend personnel services, trendpersonnel

by Jacquelyn Smith | Forbes

Many job seekers spend countless hours writing, polishing and blasting their résumés to dozens of companies. Then they wait, and wait, and never hear a thing.

That’s because human resources people and hiring managers receive heaps of résumés for any given job opening, and they end up missing, skipping or tossing a lot of them. However, it turns out there are things you can do to help ensure your résumé is seen.

“I think résumés end up in the résumé black hole if the person just responds to a posting or ad and does nothing else,” says Anita Attridge, a Five O’Clock Club career and executive coach. “Today companies are receiving hundreds of résumés for each position and, due to the volume, are not acknowledging receipt of them. Most large and medium-size companies are using applicant tracking systems to screen résumés before a person looks at them. Smaller organizations many just review the ones they receive until they find enough qualified candidates and then set the other résumés aside.”

Ruth Robbins, a certified career counselor with the Five O’Clock Club, suggests that using buzz words and key phrases that demonstrate you are a perfect fit for the job will help you get on the employer’s radar—but even with a perfectly tailored résumé, there is no way to know if or when it will be reviewed by the hiring manager.

“The best way to make sure your résumé is seen is by networking into the company,” Attridge says. “Let your networking contact know that you have applied for a position, and ask that person if he or she would send your résumé to the H.R. department with an endorsement of you as a candidate. Another way is to try to determine who the hiring manager is and send a résumé directly to that person, with a letter asking for an informational interview.”

Additional Advice

Have someone proofread your résumé. Sometimes it can be something as small as a typo that may turn off an employer and land you in the black hole. Before sending your résumé, have at least one person you trust review it so that it can have a better chance of catching the eyes of the employer.

Keep it simple. Avoid graphics and logos and other things that may “clog” how an applicant tracking system reads your résumé.

Research the company’s hiring process. “Companies like Google and Facebook include specific insights into their interview process,” says Samantha Zupan, a spokesperson for Glassdoor. “For example, on the Google careers page, they let you know that one of their recruiters is the first to review your résumé and that they look first at your qualifications and experience.” Thorough research can help you properly prepare to avoid the résumé black hole.

http://trendpersonnel.com/index.php/en/news/item/114-6-tips-for-avoiding-the-resume-black-hole

Treat Telephone Interviews Like In-Person Interviews

04 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by trendhr in Applying for a Job, Hiring, Interviews

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carrollton jobs, dallas temp jobs, dfw career fair, interview dress code, interview tips, job hunt dallas, prepare for interview, staffing agency dfw, telephone interview, trend personnel

by Lisa Quast

For many jobs, you must first get through a telephone interview before you’re invited to an in-person interview, so don’t discount the importance of it. Here are tips to ace telephone interviews:

Act like it’s an in-person interview. Research the company and industry, prepare potential interview questions and answers, and practice interviewing over the telephone with someone so you can get the feel for it before the actual interview.

Test your telephone voice. Practice how you speak over the telephone so you’ll come across sounding clear and at the right volume. Introduce yourself at the beginning using a strong voice that sounds confident and avoid answers that ramble or sound monotone. Feeling a little lethargic? Try standing up when you talk to help you sound more energetic.

Eliminate background noise. Ensure you can hold the interview in a quiet location. If you’re interviewing from your home, be sure no one will pick up one of the other telephones and accidentally interrupt the interview.

Have the right documents available. This includes your resume, the job description, your list of questions for the hiring manager, a note pad and several pens, reference list, recommendation letters – everything you’d normally bring to an in-person interview. Put them on the desk or table in front of you and spread them out so you can easily see the information.

Dress the part. There’s something to be said for putting on the clothes you’d wear to an in-person interview and wearing them for your telephone interview. Just the act of getting dressed for the part of a job candidate will help your mind psychologically get ready for your telephone interview.

Have some water handy. You never know when your mouth will go dry, so have something close by to sip. Just don’t accidentally knock it over onto all of your paperwork. And, don’t chew gum, eat food, or smoke while you’re on your telephone call. Trust me, the interviewer will hear you.

Listen and think before you speak. Allow the hiring manager to take the lead during the telephone interview. Listen carefully and answer each question succinctly. Don’t go off on tangents when answering questions over the telephone and never interrupt the interviewer.

Finish your telephone interview with class. Practice asking questions that will help you uncover what the hiring manager thinks of your qualifications and to find out the next steps in the hiring process. Reiterate your interest in the position and thank him or her for their time.

Treating telephone interviews with the same level of importance as you’d treat an in-person interview will increase your odds of advancing to the next step in the hiring process.

 

http://trendpersonnel.com/index.php/en/news/item/110-treat-telephone-interviews-like-in-person-interviews

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  • KEY TRENDS IN RECRUITING TO IDENTIFY, ENGAGE, AND HIRE TOP TALENT
  • Preemployment inquiries under the FMLA and ADA: What’s prohibited?
  • Look Behind the Credentials: Find Candidates with Multiple Skillsets
  • The Cutting Edge of Employment Branding
  • Why Conduct Background Checks on Potential Employees?

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Recent Posts

  • KEY TRENDS IN RECRUITING TO IDENTIFY, ENGAGE, AND HIRE TOP TALENT
  • Preemployment inquiries under the FMLA and ADA: What’s prohibited?
  • Look Behind the Credentials: Find Candidates with Multiple Skillsets
  • The Cutting Edge of Employment Branding
  • Why Conduct Background Checks on Potential Employees?

Archives

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