Here are a few things you can do that will help ease the pain of the hiring process for seasonal workers.

1. Post openings in locations where people who want to work seasonally are likely to find them. One excellent choice for this is in college residence and dining halls. These are areas congregated by students who are interested in working during the summer months when school is on break. Graduating seniors looking to land a job quickly until they find something in their majors are also excellent choices to consider as well.
2. Always create job advertisements and descriptions that accurately describe the job and the duties that are expected in this position. This is an ideal way to weed out people who aren’t really willing or interested in getting the job done. A thorough ad also ensures that you’re not wasting time hiring people who are completely shocked and horrified by the tasks at hand.
3. Return to sources of previous successes. Get in touch with successful hires from previous seasons. If they aren’t interested in doing the work themselves, they may know someone who is prepared to get out there and help you meet your seasonal staffing needs. If you treat your staff well this season, chances are good that they’ll be willing to come back or recommend you to friends and family who are interested in seasonal work.
4. Devote the proper amount of resources towards ensuring that the people you do hire become successful seasonal employees. Over-hiring, in the hopes that you’ll be able to maintain sufficient staff throughout the season, is a sink or swim attitude could leave your business suffering.
5. Consider bonuses or other incentives for seasonal staff workers that complete the terms of the season. No matter what, there are going to be people who don’t make it the entire season. Many different factors play into this. Some people really aren’t cut out for the work. Some are offered full-time jobs elsewhere. Offering a substantial incentive for completing the season will help you retain workers who are on the fence about staying. Be aware that you’ll likely need to hire additional workers at some point during the season as well – regardless of the incentives you offer. Incentives though, can net you a sizable reduction in the number of new hires that will be needed.

The most important thing to remember about hiring seasonal employees is that, while it is largely a game of numbers, you are hiring actual people. It is essential that you make an effort to make them feel like welcomed and wanted members of your team. For support with your seasonal hiring needs, be sure to contact Stanley Staffing today.

Leadership IQ performed a three-year study that covered 20,000 new hires during that period. An astonishing 46 percent of the people hired were gone within 18-months of being hired. The overwhelming reason – 89 percent – had to do with attitude.

How do You Shift the Hiring Mindset in Your Company?

Identify the Attitudes You Want to See

Consider the culture or prevailing atmosphere you’d like to have in your workspace? Is it a fun group of people? Do you all get together and go and do things after work? Do you have a powerful group dynamic? Is there a certain atmosphere you’d like to foster within the workplace? What kind of attitude do you need in your next employee to fit well with the prevailing attitude you’d like to see in the office?

The main thing you need to do is be aware of the exact characteristics you’re looking for in an employee’s attitude. You can’t really find the perfect employee attitude in a candidate if you don’t know what the perfect attitude for your company is. Walking into the interview, have a list of things you’d like to see in any potential employee and check the candidate against the list throughout the interview process.

Tailor Your Interview Questions to Draw Those Attitudes Out

The “go to” questions of the past often get canned responses from today’s job seekers. You need to think outside the box if you want to hire staff that also offers a little bit of unconventional thinking. Instead of asking about the strengths of a candidate, consider asking a question about a specific incident when the candidate had to adapt in order to work through a specific situation.

The beauty of this particular question is that it’s not one of the “canned” questions candidates prepare for. It means you get to see the candidate in a situation where he must adapt to the fact that he didn’t have a response ready to go with the moment the question was asked.

Questions like these give you an idea as to whether a particular candidate is going to be one who presses forward or one who makes excuses when adversity arises. They provide excellent insight into the type of person the candidate really is, as well as what kind of employee he would be.

At the end of the day, you don’t want your hiring efforts wasted on someone who won’t be a good fit for your corporate culture. You want to hire someone that’s likely to last far beyond the infamous 18-month line of demarcation. Taking the time to find the right attitude during the interview process is an important step in the right direction.

About Stanley Staffing
Stanley Staffing was founded in 1997 by President Dave Stanley in Cleveland, Ohio. Today, Stanley is one of the largest staffing firms in Northeastern Ohio with a core focus on office, medical billing, call center staffing, and national sales recruiting.

What Does Generation Y Want?

Generation Y employees expect a different workplace than those that came before them. There is no doubt that many of these individuals will be hard working, well-trained individuals. Many will be the ideal candidate. What do they want, though, from an employer?

• Most want to be paid more. They are driven by a lucrative salary as they expect to live with the luxuries of life their parents had – without the credit card debt to go along with it.
• Many will expect a flexible work schedule. While previous generations saw employees working longer hours, this generation wants a flexible schedule that allows them more time at home to raise a family.
• Most expect to see promotions in their job description. They are driven to succeed, and to do that they will want to see the opportunity of a promotion before they take on a job. Many will expect to be promoted within a year or so, assuming they perform at the top of their game.
• About half expect that their job will provide vacation and personal time. Some experts say Generation Y will demand more personal time than previous generations but that they are often willing to put in the work to get it.
• About a third expect to have access to the latest technology within the workforce. They expect to be within a phone call of their employer, but they expect the employer to ensure the work environment features modern technology. It is something they have grown up with in their hands.

As an employer, it is important to tailor to the needs of the workforce coming in to ensure that you are able to attract the ideal candidates. With Generation Y, employers will need to find a candidate that is passionate about their work. Many are willing to put in the hard work, as long as there is a ladder to climb that makes it worth their while to do so. It is also important to pay a competitive salary. You don’t want your valued employees to be lured away to another company by a higher paycheck.

Perhaps the most important aspect for employees in Generation Y is feeling valued. To ensure you provide an environment where this is the case, employers should engage employees and show they care. These employees will respond to positive encouragement far better than they will to receiving punishment. They will also respond better to the manager who seems to care about them, than those that do not. Though they may be a challenge, Generation Y has plenty to offer to the right employer.

Need help?
At Stanley Staffing we are a leading recruiter in Cleveland.  We offer temp staffing and direct recruitment for companies throughout Ohio and beyond.  From admin staff to hospitality, sales, call centers and car rental, Stanley Staffing is your workforce partner.

What Does Pinterest Have to do With Finding a Job?

Oddly enough, Pinterest can actually assist you in your job search efforts. Here are just a few of the ways that using Pinterest can be a real boon for your job search.

Use Pinterest as a Virtual Portfolio

Are you interested in creative positions? Do you have specific evidence of your talent to offer your audience? Pinterest makes a spectacular virtual portfolio that can accommodate a wide range of fields – especially those that are creative in nature.

You can use Pinterest to do any of the following:

• Showcase recipes you’ve created
• Post clips of your music
• Display snapshots of your art work
• Share your poetry
• Show off your latest fashion designs
• Share construction projects you’ve finished
• Provide the beginning, middle, and end of products you’re creating
• Share before and after photographs of any makeover projects
• Display room designs you’ve created

There are few limits to what you can do with a Pinterest portfolio. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box either. For example, a Forbes article mentions a party planner using Pinterest to showcase different party themes on one board and “goodie bags” on another board. Use your imagination and make your boards – at least some of them – relevant to the skills and talents you’d like to use in your next job.

Use Pinterest to Research Potential Employers

You probably know how important it is to gather information about potential employers before the big interview.  This is your chance to gather as much information as possible and “pin it” together in one place. Follow their own Pinterest pages and re-pin “pins” that are relevant to your career and job search.

You’ll be surprised by how small the world has become. You may even discover that they’ve heard of you and found a few of your pins. At the least, it will give you something to discuss during your interview.

Word of Warning About Pinterest

Pinterest is a beautiful and addictive thing. If you find Facebook distracting, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Give yourself a time limit for Pinterest activity and stick with it. You might consider a tool to assist with this, like Focus Booster. The timer follows the Pomodoro method which allots 25 minutes for a specific task, followed by a short break to help you stay on task and target.

If you remain focused on your job search, you’ll find Pinterest a highly useful tool in getting the message out about your skills and talents.

Job seekers today need to use every tool at their disposal, such as Pinterest to aid in the job search to have the best chance at finding that dream job.

Why are Job Descriptions Important?
Before you can write the perfect job description that’s sure to bring the top talent in your field to your email inbox, it’s important to understand why they are needed. To get to the bottom of this, you need to really put yourself in the shoes of the job seekers.

Job seekers use the descriptions of jobs to determine whether they are:

1) Qualified to do the job.

2) Interested in having the job.

3) Confident that the compensation is adequate for the responsibility.

These things might not seem like such a huge deal now, but when a job doesn’t match the description provided, it gives hired candidates some negotiating room when it’s time to determine pay increases or title changes.

The bottom line is that job descriptions matter because they help candidates determine whether a job is one they would be interested in. The last thing you want is to invest in training for a candidate only to have that candidate leave because the job did not match the description. You are out not only the investment in hiring and training the candidate, but even more in terms of lost productivity.

When the job description is accurate, you can hire with greater confidence. There’s also less likelihood that the candidate will not be happy with the duties he or she is required to do in the course of the job.

What Job Descriptions Mean for the Hiring Company
Accurate and concise job descriptions do more than help potential employees establish clear expectations of their responsibilities within the organization. They also help other departments, management teams, and coworkers understand what is expected of every person who is part of the team. The clearer and more specific the descriptions are, the better everyone’s understanding of their jobs will be.

This will lead to a much happier work place where everyone knows what he or she is personally responsible and accountable for. People like to be judged according to their own individual efforts, successes, and even failures. More importantly, they want to know what is expected of them so they can deliver.

In other words, most employees want to do what is expected of them. They just need to know what the expectations are. Job descriptions tell them that, and give them the information they need to be happier in their jobs and with your company. This will result in lower staff turnover and a much happier and more productive workplace.

Need help writing job descriptions?
As Cleveland’s top staffing agency, we help companies throughout Ohio recruit top talent–and it starts with developing a great job description.  If you would like help writing your next job description, or recruiting for your next job opening just give us a call!

To understand a little more about the personality concepts of hunting vs. gathering, let’s take a closer look at these personalities in candidates.

Hunters

• Generally lead generators
• Like to set appointments
• Excel in client-facing roles
• Perfect for field rep assignments
• Love to go door to door
• Seek new opportunities with ease

Gatherers

• Like to gather more information on prospects
• Excel in roles in the background or via telephone
• Good at explaining complicated topics
• Fastidious about work documentation
• Avoid confrontation with others
• Support sales roles are the best fit
• High level technical sales roles

From the above general traits of hunters vs. gatherers, you can clearly see that there are some fundamental differences in the way that these sales candidates approach work. Therefore, understanding how critical it is to test personality types before placement into an assignment can be the difference between success and failure.  In many cases, turnover can be prevented simply by taking the time to test for personality before putting a gatherer into a field sales role, or a hunter in a phone sales role. If a candidate is put into an assignment where the duties conflict with their personal traits and abilities, then the job will not be a good fit and you will be back at square one to find a new candidate.

It’s easier to see how understanding personality types by conducting objective, personality tests is vital to your success as a business. By taking the time to handle this through Stanley Staffing’s unique candidate screening process, your business can hire the best people for the best jobs, and increase productivity as a result.

Luckily, there’s a great resource that HR and recruiting pros can use in their arsenal of recruiting tools.  This is the pre-screening knowledge based assessment that can be used on candidates before they ever have a chance to get a foot in your door.  An AOL article stated that 43 percent of all candidates have lied about some area of their work history, salary, education or more on a resume, just to land a job they wanted.

Don’t let your organization fall victim to candidates who don’t meet the challenges or have the skillsets of the assignments at your company. Consider the benefits of using a reliable knowledge based assessment system in the candidate selection process.

1. Test for the corporate “fit” of each candidate.  One of the biggest issues when basing candidate quality solely on resumes is that oftentimes you cannot tell if a client has the right stuff to fit in at your organization. An assessment can uncover hidden layers in a candidate to reveal if he or she has the right fit for your company. Likewise, this can reveal if your company is a good fit for the candidate too.
2. Check how well candidates perform specific tasks.  Sure, a candidate may say that he or she can do certain things, but how can you know until they get on the job? Instead of wondering if a candidate will be able to perform the duties of the assignment, test for them in advance, then review this with the candidate during the interview process to identify potential training needs.
3. Verify the skills and knowledge are accurate. Candidates very often list skills like computer software, sales ability, and other marketable skills on their resumes because they know this is what recruiters are scanning for. To find out the actual skills that a candidate has, along with how updated these skills are, an assessment test can determine this in a very concrete way.
4. Confirm personality suitability for assignments.  There’s a lot of research that shows certain personality types are better suited for specific careers, which can affect how well candidates do their jobs. Take the guesswork out of the hiring process by performing a pre-screening assessment of all candidates to determine this in advance. This can help companies choose the right candidates for the right assignments, resulting in greater productivity.
5. Know that the person has the right genetic makeup.  Genetics research is at the forefront of the science of hiring nowadays. Knowing what characteristics each candidate has below their surface appearance can be a great advantage when hiring new people. Be sure to use a confidential screening process that does not discriminate against certain protected groups, and keep all information secure – it’s the law.

It is clear that employee assessment tests can give recruiters and hiring managers a great deal of insight and the advantage when selecting candidates. Consider how assessment testing from Stanley Staffing can help your company make better hiring decisions that produce better results this year.

The good news is that there are resources available that can help hiring professionals make better decisions in choosing suitable candidates. Behavior is a significant factor that can cause a business to succeed or fail, so it’s up to human resources pros to get it right. That’s why behavioral fit assessments should be in every HR department’s arsenal of tools.

What are Behavioral Fit Assessments?

In a nutshell, behavioral assessments evaluate how candidates may react to certain case scenarios on the job. This is based on their individual personality type and compared to those of the most successful employees for specific job types. Candidates are asked to answer a series of questions and choose from a list of available personality traits. These are then measured according to scientifically generated charts, which show each candidate’s unique personality type.

Are Behavioral Fit Assessments Accurate?

When behavioral fit assessments are done properly, they can be amazingly accurate. How well a candidate matches a specific job type can be an indication of how well he or she will be suited for a certain kind of job. For example, candidates who function well under stress may do better in high-pressure management roles, while those who do not could “snap” when pushed to their limits. The candidate reports demonstrate how closely matched a candidate is to certain jobs, so that hiring managers can decide who is a good fit and who should be considered for alternate assignments.

Candidates are generally wise to the use of personality tests so they try to answer questions the “right” way in an attempt to fool assessments. However, when you use a high quality Kenexa behavioral fit assessment test, which uses a series of confirmation questions and choices, you won’t get skewed results. This stumps most candidates, which makes behavioral fit assessments a great way to update your current pre-hire screening tests.

You want to hire the best possible candidates for the job, so why not include behavioral fit assessments into your recruiting strategy? The tools are easy to use, the assessments are non-threatening and quick to complete, and the results are excellent. Use behavioral fit assessments from Stanley Staffing to better manage your recruiting duties, and enhance the performance of candidates you choose to work for your company.

There could be a million reasons why someone may not be suitable for your company, and cultural fit assessments do an amazing job helping you hire people who will last in your company culture. Let’s take a look at how cultural fit assessments may help you reduce employee turnover.

An Inside Look at Cultural Fit Assessments

Cultural fit assessments look at each candidate from the standpoint of whether or not the person has the ability to blend in with others in a work setting. Instead of just evaluating skills and experience, a cultural fit assessment looks at the candidate’s values and past behaviors as indicators of success or failure in your corporate culture. Fitting in with peers is an important aspect of longevity in a work environment.

Because each company has a unique mission statement and values, candidates may not always fit in, even if they have great personalities and work skills. Very often, work environments can become burdensome to employees who do not know how to handle the little quirks that come with them. For example, some companies have CEO’s who interact with employees at all levels, while others have a hierarchy of managers that can make things difficult. Not all employees can fit into workplaces like these all the time.

Cultural fit assessments also look at things that are in a candidate’s background, such as the kinds of work environments in which they’ve thrived in the past. There are many employees who do well in casual environments, or work well with all age groups. There are also many who fit in better with a mature crowd, with steadfast rules for every aspect of work. How a candidate has been able to work the best in previous assignments is a part of every cultural fit test.

The values that a candidate has can also affect the type of work he or she is best suited for. We cannot all be managers, nor can we all be subordinates. Some employees do better in work environments where they can advance quickly up the ranks, while others prefer to stay in one type of job for a longer period of time. Either way, the cultural fit assessment can help shed more light on what makes some candidates better suited for specific company assignments and work teams.

Overall, cultural fit assessments can be a powerful recruiting tool to use that can decrease employee turnover, and increase successful placement of candidates. It can help to predict employee satisfaction and performance, which can improve the bottom line. Contact Stanley Staffing to find out more about using cultural fit assessments when placing new employees to work for your company.

Key Characteristics to Focus On

Job fit assessments are tests hiring managers can provide to prospective individuals to determine if they have the right skills for the job. Things like the applicant’s thinking style and behavioral traits can make a big impact on the individual’s success within the company. Applications do not translate details such as a person’s occupational interests well, but these job fit assessments can do a fantastic job of doing just that.

What Is a Job Fit Test?

A job fit assessment does not take a lot of time or effort on behalf of the employer. The test is a tool that helps to understand the soft skills of the applicant. There is no real way for the applicant to prepare for such a test – the ultimate goal is to learn if the applicant has the ability to fit into your job. These tests can measure the following types of skills.

• How well does the applicant follow the rules? Is he or she willing to deal with change easily? How much structure does the applicant require within the job’s daily tasks?
• Is the applicant a team player? Does he or she collaborate well with others? How competitive is the applicant?
• The assertiveness of the applicant is also vital to understand. How does he or she handle making decisions? How willing is the applicant to take direction and criticism from others? Can he or she close the sale?
• How is the individual’s communication? Does he or she have the ability to communicate well – in both listening and speaking skills?
• Some tests will also measure the cognitive skills of the individual to ensure this is a fit for the company.
• Does the individual have good time management stills? Can he or she manage details effectively? How organized of the individual?

Job fit assessment tools help the hiring manager better to understand the whole applicant. By understanding what the applicant truly has to offer to the business, it helps cut down on turnover and increases productivity. As an HR professional selecting the right employee is essential to your job. However, there is more to consider than just what the paper application has to say. With a job fit assessment, this information becomes clear. You can clearly see who is a better fit for the position and who may be lacking the soft skills necessary to perform well.

Learn more about job fit testing when you call on the candidate recruitment experts at Stanley Staffing.