Congratulations Micah Kailimai and Ronald Musial!! They were 2 of many winners from our Thanksgiving drawing. They each took home a $25 gift card, and Advance Staffing Solutions drawstring bag!! We are very thankful for all of our employees!!
If you are looking for ways to take the next step in your career, it all begins and ends with networking. People tend to become stagnant in their job and career over time, but it is important to push yourself and continue to strive for something better. Many people assume that they are safe in their current position and don’t need to make networking a priority, but this is the wrong attitude to have. Not making the effort to network while you can might really hamper your career going forward.
Networking is not always easy and it is common to feel burnt out over time, but there are a few ways that you can keep this from happening.
Help Others
In some ways, networking can be very self-oriented at times. When you are looking to network in the most effective way, it is important that you look to help others. Approaching networking from the standpoint of helping yourself is not ideal. This often puts you in a negative light with those that you are trying to network with. This means that you can benefit from networking in a way that allows you to help others. It is always a good idea when you are connecting with other people that you ask how you can help them. People are more likely to go to bat for someone that is willing to pay it back.
One on One
It is also important to remember that networking is most relaxed and enjoyable when you do it in a more personal setting. This means that networking should be one on one. It is always a good idea to try to network with people that you have some history with or a background. This makes the conversation flow more freely and takes a bit of the pressure off of you. Meeting in person is always the best way to begin the networking process. You can begin corresponding through email later on to add convenience.
Set Aside Time
Another great way to make networking less stressful is to set aside time dedicated specifically to networking. Networking is important to your career and it is important that you make networking a priority. Networking shouldn’t be something that just happens by chance. It needs to be something that you plane for in your schedule. This is the only way that networking can be manageable.
Tyler, Tara, Renee, Jordan, and Donna recently attended the Football Party event sponsored by Southern Wayne County Regional Chamber, and Monroe Chamber! Advance Staffing Solutions is a proud member of both chambers and enjoy the opportunity to network with other community businesses.
Nearly every job seeker has been faced with the conundrum of not having enough career references. This can happen for a number of reasons. A job seeker may not have many previous jobs, thus the number of references are limited. Or the job seeker may have limited references because former companies have either shut down or former bosses are no longer working there. Very often, references may seem good, but when the time comes to get a response from one — they are MIA. The worst case scenario is when a candidate leaves a job with no reference at all because of a negative experience. How can you get around the need for better or more references?
Here are some tips for getting better job references.
Contact a former co-worker (or two).
Chances are, you had a few good relationships in your previous position. Take the time to reconnect with a few of your co-workers who you believe had a positive experience with you. You can use social network if it seem less awkward. Reach out by phone and/or email to request a professional reference. Return the favor by writing a reference for them.
Ask your staffing agency for support.
When you have worked through a staffing agency in the past, this can be in your favor. Take the time to contact the recruitment agency that you worked with recently and ask them for a professional reference. This can include the type of position(s) that you held, the length of service, and your general performance. Make sure the staffing agency includes the contact person’s name and extension in case the potential employer has a question.
Inquire with a career mentor.
It is a smart practice to line up a professional mentor early in your career. This is someone that is at a higher level than you and whom is well connected. Reach out to your mentor and ask for a reference. If you do not have a career mentor, consider another type of mentor such as a religious leader, college professor, or another professional in your industry. Get this reference in written form.
Use your professional memberships.
Most professionals belong to at least one industry association or business networking group. This is the time to tap into the power of association. Ask several of your colleagues at the professional group to write you a letter of reference. To make things smoother, offer to write the letter of yourself and have them sign off on it. This can be a great way to boost your career and to obtain a better reference.
Have you ever wondered how you can learn how to be a better boss when you have so much on your plate all the time? Turns out, there’s an app for that. Here’s a rundown of the best apps for management skills development on the market today.
Dispatch
As a boss, are you continually weeding through hundreds of emails each day, only to find yourself buried in responses? You are not alone. The average manager gets around 150 to 300 emails a day. Luckily, there is an app called Dispatch that can help you chop down those emails and get back to actually being around your people — instead of sitting behind a computer all day. Dispatch “lets you get rid of mails by swiping, respond faster with snippets, and process your mails with other apps.” It’s available on Apple iTunes.
EasilyDo
Always forgetting important tasks, employee birthdays, ordering office supplies, setting up travel, and other critical team-building activities? EasilyDo is an app that can help you stay on track with daily reminders of what’s priority as a boss, and executing some of these things for you. It’s akin to having a personal assistant to help you stay above water. It can even integrate with your email and contacts for smooth transitions between tasks, and sending alerts and reminders to others.
Flow
Managing a team, tasks, and projects can be the bane of every boss’ life. The Flow app makes it easier by creating a collaborative task management space where managers can allocate tasks, communicate with team members, and stay on top of deadlines. Use the Flow app to separate tasks into teams and individuals who have the right skills to achieve them.
TimeTrade
Tired of the back and forth emails asking you to schedule meeting times and get phone numbers and other contact info in place? TimeTrade is a perfect management app that helps you to streamline meeting schedules for yourself and your team members. Powerful analytics also let managers see where they are spending the bulk of their time. The best part is that there is a free version.
Talkboard
If you have a creative team or employees who spend a great deal of time working in silos, why not bring them together during meetings using the collaborative whiteboard of Talkboard? It’s simple to use, and interfaces with Apple iPads. Integrate video and images, social networking, and more to make presentations and meetings fun again.
When candidates visit your corporate website, your social media accounts, and read about the company in the news, how well does this online presence blend with the kind of corporate culture you are trying to portray? Many times, companies put a lot of effort into their marketing only to find out it’s coming up short for recruitment purposes. Candidates can be highly critical when it comes to deciding IF they want to apply to work for a company that may not share their same values. This is why it’s critical to develop a strong online presence that speaks to a positive culture.
Here are some things any company can do to ensure they are portrayed in a candidate-friendly light.
Update your company website and your job listings
When job seekers are reviewing career opportunities, they can be judging the way the company website looks. If it’s been updated recently and has a positive brand, then they are more confident applying for work. If the website looks like it hasn’t been updated since the dawn of the Internet, or if job postings are outdated, these factors will not go unnoticed by job candidates.
Mixed messages and poor information on social networks
Does your company have a central person or team dealing with the social networks, or is it a free-for-all? Inconsistent messaging, odd posts, and even potential offensive content could be hurting your company’s chance of hiring the best people. Make sure your marketing team syncs with the hiring team at frequent intervals to avoid this kind of mixed messaging.
If there a Web-friendly way of applying?
Candidates today are turning to their mobile devices for finding and applying for work. If your company has not developed a mobile version of the company career portal or created a mobile job app, you are missing out on many great candidates. Use a mobile app that’s simple to use and streamlined for job applicants to use. Try a ready-made career app to make this a quick and easy step, and get your website set up as interactive with all mobile devices.
Promoting the company career opportunities
You cannot expect candidates to find your company without doing a little marketing to get the word out about job opps. Attend career fairs, participate in job fairs, partner with a staffing agency, and more to market your careers to job seekers. The company doesn’t have to have a huge budget or team to accomplish this, just keep it simple and focused.
Need help finding top-quality job candidates in Michigan and Ohio? Click here to contact Advance Staffing Solutions today, and let us take the hard work of finding, testing, and vetting quality candidates for you!
Does your company have a mobile recruitment strategy in place? Perhaps it should. A recent workforce survey conducted by IBM Smarter Workforce Institute indicated that 70 percent of high-potential candidates prefer and are drawn to companies that have a mobile recruitment options. Around 12,000 workers representing organizations around the world said they use mobile devices for job-searching activities. If your company doesn’t have a mobile recruitment presence, that’s a lot of potential candidates you could be missing out on.
How to implement a mobile recruitment strategy.
Thanks to technology resources that make mobile recruitment cheaper and more readily available, any organization can create a mobile-friendly recruitment plan. Here are some ways to get started:
Create a mobile-enabled career website.
Set up a website with a career portal that is easy to access via mobile devices. Your website should be responsive to every type of mobile device available from the smallest smartphones to the largest tablet. Keep the content simple and have a search function prominently featured on the page so candidates can quickly search for jobs.
Develop an interactive brand.
The optimum content to share across the mobile recruitment platforms are videos and images. Use this space to create a powerful introductory video explaining the corporate culture and the benefits of working for the company. Recruiters can create personal videos to introduce themselves and the different job types that may be available. Your career portal can also be setup to share important announcements such as Career Fairs and other recruitment events.
Use a one-page application form.
Since mobile devices use a simple interface, you will want to have a one-page application form for candidates to complete. Several social media tools such as LinkedIn recruitment offer this option which can simplify candidate acquisition. You may also want to include an opportunity for candidates to upload a short introductory video or to link their social networks to the application.
Mobile messaging.
When developing a mobile recruitment strategy, it’s also important to keep in mind that you will want your application to include text messaging opportunities. Create short job titles and appealing headlines that can be broadcast out to all candidates in your system. Automate the process. Make sure to include an opt-in box so that candidates can choose to receive text messaging via their mobile devices.
Need help creating a better recruitment process? Partner with the recruiting experts at Advance Staffing Solutions! Contact us online today.
Is your job search starting to get you very stressed out? Are you overwhelmed by all the different things that you need to keep track of and do in order to get a job? You are not alone. Many people feel frustrated over the job search process – particularly if it takes months to land even one interview.
However, there are some things you can do to streamline and simplify things so that you are staying on track and making the best use of your time. Here are some ways to un-complicate your job search.
1. Decide what type of job you want.
Believe it or not this can be a very difficult thing for some people. This is especially true if you had put certain types of jobs in the past and you think that you can only do those types of jobs. But what you need to understand is that you have a broad gamut of skills that would be valuable to a potential employer. Take the time to participate in a few career personality tests which can be taken online and identify the top-three career choices for your particular talents.
2. Clean up your image.
Some people think you should start with your resume but we think that you should start with your public profiles. 95 percent of all recruiters are looking through candidate profiles on their social networks before they even pick up the phone to call them for an interview. Make sure that you clean up your profiles, remove any questionable content, and put your best foot forward with a professional headshot photo and information about your career.
3. Work with a career coach.
You don’t have to go it alone with a job search! There are skilled professionals out there ready and willing to help you along the way. Contact your local staffing agency and find out if you can get support there for your job search. Consider hiring a certified career coach in your area of expertise to guide you along the way. Get support by joining a job network where you can learn of new job opportunities and talk to others about your journey.
The above three steps will set you on the right path in very little time at all. Be sure to check out the new job openings available at Advance Staffing Solutions, and reach out to us any time you need help with your job search — from resumes to interviews, we’re here to help you!
Nearly everyone and their grandmother has a social media account today. It’s been estimated that people spend up to four hours per day checking in on their social networks. Job seekers are especially mindful of their social networks because they are continuously connecting with recruiters and hiring companies. However, they may accidentally do some things that will hurt their chances of getting hired.
Here are some mistakes that you’ll want to watch out for when using social media.
Take the time to review your social network profiles and clean them up for a successful job search. And if you need job search advice or assistance, contact the experts at Advance Staffing Solutions!
Networking is a vital part of a marketing career, no matter the years of experience the candidate has. Those who do not network will find it difficult to obtain new job opportunities throughout their careers. Smart marketing candidates have cast a wide net to reel in the best career opportunities, using technology to their advantage.
Networking does not have to bog you down, nor take up a ton of your time. It is something that can be done a couple hours per month or more, if you feel the need. Just remember one thing: Networking makes all the difference throughout the life of your career. If you need to improve your marketing career, use the three tools discussed in this article.
Spiceworks 7.0: Free Mobile Device Management
One of the most recommended networking tools out there today is the Spiceworks 7.0. This is a free mobile device management system that lets you take it wherever you go. It is perfect for the marketing professional who is always on the go, traveling from city to city for events and gigs hosted by their employer or employer’s clients. This software allows you to manage the smartphones and tablets of employees around the world. If an issue ever arises with their devices, the software will allow you to fix that issue without having the device in hand.
GlassWire Network Monitor
GlassWire Network Monitor is another free network tool that many professionals use today to help their marketing career. The software provides a graph for you to view that shows the activity of your network as well as the apps being used by computers on your network. The program keeps a log of network activity for up to 30 days at a time. If malware or other suspicious activity is detected, GlassWire will monitor the activity and send the user alerts.
Netwrix Account Lockout Examiner
What is more frustrating than getting locked out of an account? It’s so hard remembering all the different login names and passwords one has for their variety of social media accounts, personal accounts, work accounts and more. This is a free tool that every marketing professional should have on their devices. The software allows you to troubleshoot locked accounts after receiving an alert from Netwrix.
If you are having trouble networking in your marketing career, then it is time to make a change. There are plenty of free networking tools out there today that can help anyone in the marketing field take charge. Give one or all three discussed today a try. And if you still need help finding a new marketing career, click to browse our open positions today!
