1. Attention to detail

How many times have you heard this one, right? Pay attention to detail. Let me say it again: PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL!

There’s a great story at the end of the movie Coming to America with Eddie Murphy. It goes something like this:

A man goes into a restaurant. He’s having a bowl of soup and he says to the waiter, “Waiter come taste the soup.” The waiter says, “Is something wrong with the soup?” He says “Taste the soup.” The waiter says again, “Is there something wrong with the soup? Is the soup too hot?” The man says again, “Will you taste the soup?“ “What’s wrong, is the soup too cold?” Replies the waiter. “Will you just taste the soup?!” “All right, I’ll taste the soup,” says the waiter, “where’s the spoon??” “Aha. Aha! …”

At this point you may be asking yourself, “So what does this have to do with identifying a great candidate?”

Not less than two months ago I received a wonderful e-mail from an applicant seeking to work for The Trademark Company. The e-mail was personally crafted. The note struck a wonderful tone emphasizing capability and a willingness to learn more about what we do here. Most importantly, the candidate emphasized attention to detail. I was sold. I was ready to open up the resume and see what they had to offer. And then, “Aha. Aha! …”

The applicant had failed to attach a resume. In the blink of an eye, all of the time spent preparing for this submission–researching me, the company, and the job’s requirements–vanished into thin air. Poof!

Some CEOs may have overlooked this and just asked for the resume. But you can’t say you have an eye for detail and then fail to deliver on the point. Everything job candidates do, from cover letter to resume and beyond, must prove that point. Otherwise they are just wasting your time. I passed on that candidate.

2. Proofread

My contracts professor in law school told this one to the class one day. Although he was an otherwise socially challenged individual, this story has always stayed with me.

It seems that at some juncture he was involved in delivering a speech on some topic that involved a “public option.” He had written and prepared the speech but had left the PowerPoint slide presentation to one of his assistants.

Well, as he began delivering his speech–a seemingly dry speech–he could not understand why a wave of chuckles and murmurs would, from time to time, arise from the audience. It was not until he neared the end of his presentation that he glanced up at the screen projecting the bullet points of his speech behind him. And right there, right in that moment, he understood with perfect clarity why his speech had evoked the unexpected reaction from the crowd.

If you omit the letter “L” from the word “public,” it won’t be flagged by spell check. It will, however, be picked up by anyone else reading the slides as you deliver your speech on the “pubic option.”

This could very well be you at your next sales presentation: pissed and embarrassed because you overlooked your employee’s failure to proofread his resume during the hiring process. So, check the candidate’s resume and cover letter for misspellings that spell check might have missed. In so doing you will make sure that you hire someone that’s thorough and doesn’t rely on spell check to do their job.

3. Preparedness

One of the first things I always do after an interviewee leaves is to ask every single person who came into contact with them what they thought. Why you might ask? You never know what little windows into your prospective employee this may provide.

Once I asked one of our receptionists what she thought of a particular interviewee. I was very surprised to hear what she had to say. She said she thought the interviewee was pleasant but did have some trouble when she first arrived: It seems that the prospective employee had no idea who she was interviewing with, so the receptionist had to call around the office for 10 minutes until she could figure out who to notify that their appointment had arrived.

I thought this displayed a lack of preparedness on the interviewee’s part, especially as she was interviewing for a job that had primary scheduling responsibilities for me and would require her to know and keep track of all of our most important customers.

In another case, after a 45-minute interview the interviewee stood and said, “Mark, thanks for the second interview.” Big problem: My name is actually Matt. Nevertheless, I shrugged it off–perhaps I had misheard the applicant, or maybe he had simply had a momentary lapse. However, when I walked him to the door he proudly reiterated my name, “Mark, again thanks. I look forward to hearing from you.” Every fiber in my being yearned to reply, “Well, if I meet this Mark fellow, I’ll be sure to have him call you.” I did not. I also did not call him back.

A candidate should know everything about you that they can find out and engage you on a level that you will enjoy and that moves you one step closer to offering them the job.

4. Phone and e-mail correspondence

Another thing that also gets overlooked is professionalism in e-mail and phone communications. I pay attention to the candidate’s e-mail address and how they answer their personal phone.

Sure we all have private lives, but we all have to be professional in dealing with employers–and, most importantly, prospective employers. So if a candidate’s e-mail address is “bigsexy@gmail.com” or “hunkaburninlove@yahoo.com,” think twice about hiring him. Gmail, Yahoo and other companies have a great price point for new e-mail addresses: free. There’s no excuse for not having a professional-looking e-mail address.

For me, an interview starts when I call you to set up the interview. Recently I called an applicant, and they must have been at a the reunion tour of Van Halen–because when the candidate answered, all I could hear was “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” blasting through my phone. I mean, it was so loud I could actually see people in my office starting to bob their heads to the tunes.

After a few attempts shouting into the phone–“Is [Name Omitted] there?”–finally the music departed and I was able to hear once again. The heads stopped bobbing in my office and the person on the other end said, “Speaking.” Ahhhh. Well, I know they love music…and that they lack judgement.

5. Honesty is overrated

Yes, you want your potential employee to answer questions truthfully, but answering too truthfully may also show a lack of judgment. For instance, I often ask the hypothetical question, “If you were hired and six months after you were hired another opportunity presented itself, would you go on an interview for that opportunity?” You would be surprised at how many people say they would. Wrong answer!

Let’s take one of my more infamous examples. Once I was asking a prospective employee to explain an 18-month gap in his employment history. To this day I remember his response verbatim. It went like this: “Man, the whole work thing … ya’ know … like, wow.” I was left mouth agape and speechless. Needless to say: He did not get the job.

Have you ever found yourself in the situation where you wanted to hire a person but you just weren’t sure if it was a good thing to do at that particular time? Maybe the need is there for that person now, but is there going to be enough work down the road to support adding people to your payroll? None of us have a crystal ball to see what business is going be like down the road. Or maybe the person you’re contemplating hiring is a friend or relative of a current employee. You might want to hire them but you aren’t sure how well it will work out. Will their relationship with a current employee be a good thing our will it cause problems? Maybe you have another person who came to you with a terrific referral but you want to see for yourself how good they really are before you add them to your payroll and benefit plan. So what do you do?

The answer could be to bring the employee on through BarryStaff’s Payrolling Service. This way you can let us take the initial risk. We place the employee on OUR payroll so they can work for you while you give them a try. Since we didn’t really recruit them for you our markup is typically lower than our regular placements and you can make the switch to move them to your payroll whenever you are ready with no minimum on the hours they need to work through BarryStaff. We perform this service for many companies. Maybe it would be a good move for your company, too.

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
Here are some more likely headlines from the year 2035

- Spotted Owl Plague Threatens Northwestern United States Crops and Livestock
- 35 Year Study. Diet and Excercise Key to Weight Loss
- Supreme Court Rules Punishment of Criminals Viloates Their Civil Rights
- Upcoming NFL Draft Likely to Focus on Use of Mutants
- Average Height of NBA Players Now Nine Feet Seven Inches.
- Microsoft Announces Newest Version of Windows Crashes BEFORE Installation is Completed
- Congress Authorizes Direct Deposit of Illegal Contributions to Campaign Accounts
- New Federal Law Requires That All Nail clippers, Screwdrivers, Flyswatters, Hammers, and Rolled Up Newspapers Must Be Registered By 2036
- IRS sets Lowest Tax Rate at 85%

Hope we hear from you!

Tips for Working with Recruiters

Recruiters don’t find people jobs: The average job seeker has it all mixed up – recruiters don’t go out and find jobs, recruiters find candidates. They match candidates with open positions given to them by their client companies. Recruiters are tasked with filling these job requisitions. If you’re planning on working with recruiters, understand that they are often looking for very specific types of candidates – don’t get offended if you don’t match.

Recruiters are part of the bigger picture: With this in mind, job seekers should embrace one or more recruiters as part of their overall job seeking strategy – not as an end-all solution. Professional networking, social media sites, and other job seeking channels should still be utilized to maximize individual job leads. Job seekers should recognize that recruiters can open additional doors for them and are inevitably part of the larger job market landscape.

Recruiters and job seekers need to work together: It’s all about teamwork. Job seekers should be honest about their credentials and in turn, recruiters will work hard to push their profile towards befitting opportunities. Be open and upfront about your current compensation and future expectations and recruiters will get the interviews rolling. If everything works out, the recruiter makes a placement and you get a new job – both sides win when there’s mutual respect and understanding.

All too often, job seekers throw themselves at recruiters and expect royal treatment. Candidates have a hard time accepting the fact that recruiters don’t work for them, but with them. Recruiters always have your best interests in mind (and they want you to get hired), but they can’t make individually tailored jobs appear out of thin air.

Seeing eye-to-eye with recruiters isn’t all that complicated when you use their services as one of many valuable resources in your job seeking toolbox. If you are looking for a job, make sure you pursue every avenue available to you – and that working with recruiters in the correct fashion is part of your job search strategy.

Improve Productivity
Bringing in temporary workers to handle work overload can prevent employee burnout of full-time staff. When work schedules are overloaded, employees can quickly become unmotivated and overwhelmed. This can increase mistakes made as well as decrease productivity. Increased absenteeism is often a side effect when this occurs. By bringing in temporary staff to handle the extra work load, full-time employees can continue to focus on their main job tasks while maintaining their productivity.

Try Before You Buy
Temporary employees give the business a chance to try out an employee before making a permanent offer of employment. In some cases, a person may have the experience and education for a job but simply does not mesh well with the business environment. Having the opportunity to have the person work on a temporary basis first gives the business a chance to evaluate how the person will fit in with the corporate culture and other employees. It also provides time to identify any weaknesses that would not typically be evident in the interview process.

Decrease Costs
Temporary staff persons are employed by the staffing agency, not the business that is using their services. This can decrease the overall costs of the employee as the business does not have to provide benefits to a temporary staff member. In addition, bringing in temporary staff may reduce other overhead costs such as overtime for regular, full-time employees. While the per-hour cost may be more than the per-hour cost of a full-time employee, temporary staff can be used as needed without a commitment of a 40-hour workweek regardless of if the work exists to support it.

Avoid Unemployment Claims
Because the temporary staff person is an employee of the staffing agency and not the business, there is no concern about the person filing for unemployment when their services are no longer needed by the business. This can also reduce overall operating costs for the business as the unemployment claims rate of the business will not be raised due to letting go of temporary staff. Human resources costs may also decrease as managers will not be spending multiple hours dealing with unemployment claims and the Department of Labor.

Increase Flexibility
Temporary employees allow businesses to use staff as needed. Temporary employees can be brought in to cover the vacation of an employee or maternity leave. Many staffing agencies can provide employees in a wide variety of disciplines to meet all of the needs of the business. The business then has the flexibility to use the services of the temporary staff as needed, whether it is a few hours a week or on a full-time basis. Using a staffing agency can avoid the permanent commitment that a full-time employee requires, saving both time and money.

Please call BarryStaff where we place you first!

Inquiries

Finding a job first begins with seeing if the business in which you are interested in working for is hiring. Sometimes businesses will post announcements advertising that they are in need of employees or you can choose to contact them to see if any positions are going to soon become available.

Applying

If a position is open and you think that you would be a good fit for the job, you will most likely need to fill out an application. Most job applications are online or available in paper form and ask for general information such as your contact information, previous work history, education and references. Some may also request that you write a short personal statement or cover letter explaining a little more about yourself.

Review

Once the employer receives all of the applications, they will begin the review process. This involves reading through all of the applications, verifying that provided information is correct and contacting references. The employer selects their top choices, and contacts the applicants to request an interview.

Interviews

If you are selected for an interview, you will meet with an overseer from the business. The interview serves the purpose of getting to know you in person and gives the supervisor a chance to ask you questions about your personality, work ethics and job experience. If the interview goes well but the interviewer feels as if they need a bit more information, they might request a second interview to ask more questions or have you meet with other people from the company.

Decisions

After the interviews, the employer may consult with others in the company and compare you to the other applicants to decide who would be the best fit. A background check or drug tests may be requested at this time as well. If the company likes you and selects you, you will need to fill out final paperwork and tax forms, and agree to the job.

Player                           Score                         Final Pick

1 Greg Cross (3)            44                        Kentucky (126)
2 Justin Barry                42                        Kentucky (139)
2Ryan Trapp                  42                         North Carolina (156)
4 Pam Barry                   41                          Ohio St. (147)
4 Scot Feldmeyer (1)    41                           Louisville (135)
6 joshua voelkel             40                            Syracuse (149)
6 Teresa Myers             40                            Kentucky (175)
8 Chris Musick               39                            Kentucky (127)
8 Dianne Baxter (3)      39                             Kentucky (164)
8 Emily Monnin             39                            Michigan St. (137)
8 Greg Cross (1)            39                             Kentucky (139)
8 Scot Feldmeyer(2)     39                             Michigan St. (135)
13 Dianne Baxter (1)     38                             Kentucky (155)
14 Angela Burkhead      37                              Baylor (140)
14 Greg Cross (2)           37                             Duke (120)
16 Andrew barry           35                            Ohio St. (125)
16 Kerri Voelkel             35                            North Carolina (173)
16 Robert Voelkel          35                            Duke (168)
19 Megan Brinckerhoff  34                         Kentucky (64)
20 Dianne Baxter (2)     33                           Kentucky (156)
21 Marlene Feldmeyer  32                         Michigan St. (154)

Greg wins it all if KY beats L’ville.

Scot  and Greg will tie if L’ville wins the championship.  The tie breaker scores are- Scot 135 and Greg 126.

Pam  and Greg will tie if OSU wins the championship and L’ville beats KY.  The tie breaker scores are- Pam 147 and Greg 126.

Good luck!

I like to save money.  You might say that I can’t stand to not save money. I can’t stand to buy a pizza without a coupon and I’ve driven miles out of my way to save pennies on gas.  I also like to help other people save money.

Many of our customers have figured out that they can save money by using our services when they need to hire a new employee.  Sure it seems to cost a little more in the beginning to bring on a new employee through BarryStaff but the overall savings in the end are well worth it.  These savings come from not running a classified ad in the newspaper or an online posting from Monster or CareerBuilder, spending hundreds of dollars and producing no qualified candidates.  Savings also come from not having to spend days or weeks interviewing people who aren’t qualified for the job in hopes of finding someone who is.  And then there is the painful cost of fixing a bad hiring decision, with the cost of wrongful termination liability, unemployment insurance claims, Worker’s Compensation exposure, benefits expense, and payroll taxes.

When you think about all of those expenses it just makes sense to let the professionals at BarryStaff do the footwork for you.  We can define your requirements for the position you need to fill, conduct a search of our database and other resources, interview candidates, test them, and check their background and references.  Then we can present just the best ones for you to interview.  If you like one of them, you can try them out on our Temp-to-Hire program and if they do a good job you can switch them over to your payroll after 90 days and pay us no additional fees.  We’ve been in business a long time and we know how to find good employees.  Just give us a call.

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE…..I recently ran across these expressions which were recently seen on T-shirts and bumper stickers. Thought you might enjoy them.

· My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn’t.
· Some people are alive only because it’s illegal to kill them.
· I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.
· Don’t take life too seriously. None of us are getting out of it alive.
· You’re just jealous because the voices only talk to me.
· Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
· Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
· I’m not a complete idiot. Some parts are missing.
· God must love stupid people. He made so many.
· Frankly Scallop, I don’t give a Clam. (Seen on Cape Cod)
· I don’t suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
· Wrinkled is not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up.
And my favorite.
POLICE STATION TOILET STOLEN… Cops have nothing to go on.

Hope we hear from you……..Scot