“Hack Days” are an interesting new trend in technology and engineering companies. This is not hacking in the traditional sense. They don’t encourage employees to create internet viruses or find ways onto top secret government sites. The idea is to encourage employees to embrace the concept of hacking to develop new ideas for the company. Employees are encouraged to work on things outside of their normal scope to find creative ideas to improve the business. Non technology companies are beginning to implement Hack Days to embrace their employee’s talents and motivate workplace innovation. Here are three tips to starting Hack Day events in your own office

1. Allow employees to pursue their passions. Hack Day gives employees a way to engage in things that they enjoy doing which may also benefit the company. You might allow employees to volunteer for part of the day based on their own interests and talents. You may be surprised what your administrative staff prefers to dedicate their time to or that your IT department has already been thinking of ways to make things more efficient. It will not take much encouragement to get them to share their ideas if they are passionate about them.
2. Encourage Participation. Make sure everyone taking part in Hack Day understands that there is no final evaluation on the ideas they might come up with. Empower your employees to explore every idea, even knowing that not all the concepts are going to be good right out the gate. Some employees might be hesitant to make suggestions because they are afraid of criticism, but a manager must ensure this will not be the case. All good innovation has a failure rate, don’t be afraid of it.
3. Provide incentive. When the team is actively engaged with improving the company, everyone benefits. When that improvement is implemented each employee feels their individual participation made a difference. Make Hack Day an event. Celebrate the accomplishment with something fun at the end of the day. Be sure to incorporate the final development into everyday business to whatever degree makes sense. It is very important for everyone involved to see an end result.

Looking for innovative team members for your company?  CornerStone Staffing can locate the right “hackers” for you.

Conventional wisdom says that it is easier to find a job when you have a job. It’s hard to believe this could be true, but there are many reasons why employers want to hire people who are currently working. You’ve already proven that you have value in the workforce and employers like to feel secure in their hiring decisions. There are a few things to keep in mind when looking for work while still employed.

• Why do you want to leave? Are you looking for something else because you don’t like your current office environment? Are your co-workers difficult to work with? Is the commute causing anxiety? Do you want a raise or different job duties? You will be asked why you want to leave your current position and you’ll need to articulate that in a way that makes the new company think very positively of you as a potential employee. Keep these things in mind when you turn in your notice as well. Your current employer might try to present a counter offer but remember that the reasons you want to leave won’t change even if they offer more money or a promotion.
• Be discreet and confidential. Since you don’t want you let your current employer know you’ve been looking for another job until after you have an offer, make sure you keep your search confidential. Be careful who you tell, what social media sites you share details on, and where you post your resume. Be honest with the companies you’re interviewing with and ask them not to reach out to your current employer. Provide contact information of other references for their convenience. Companies are comfortable with this request and won’t see it as a red flag.
• Don’t slack off in your current job. Just because you are ready for a change you shouldn’t perform poorly in your current job. Schedule interviews for lunch hours or days off. Respect your current employer’s time and be sure to complete any work required of you. Don’t use your current company’s phone, fax, or email to conduct your job search. This will ensure that you won’t burn any bridges with the company after you put in your notice.

Looking to start your job search? Contact CornerStone Staffing to find your next career move.

Everyone understands that networking is a valuable tool when it comes to advancing your career. However, there is a right and a wrong way to go about it. Don’t let bad networking hurt your chance at another rung on the corporate ladder or the ability to meet people who could help you along the way.  Here are five tips you can use to get the most out of your networking.

1. Expand Your Circles. Make sure that you aren’t spending all your time with the same groups of people.  If you spend too much time with people who do exactly what you do, they are less likely to be able to help you move to the next level. In fact, if you are all searching for jobs, you become competition and not a network.  It is better to seek diversity. Talk to people in multiple industries and from multiple stages in their careers to cast a broader net.
2. Don’t use networking as a tool of desperation.  A big mistake that people will make is to not network at all until they are in need of a new job. The people you meet are less likely to help you if you seem desperate. They question your connection and feel that you might be disingenuous.  You should always be expanding your networks even when you’re not in the market.  Reach out to professional organizations and stay active with them. Determine what you can offer them as well.
3. Build quality relationships. When you’re using sites like LinkedIn, it is common to try to hoard as many connections as possible. You never know when someone might be useful in the future. This is exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. Make sure that you are cultivating personal relationships with people.  If you don’t think you have anything to offer them, get creative. Their job is not the only thing that defines who they are. If you share a similar interest or hobby, reach out to them about that.
4. Make sure you know what you want. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, your contacts won’t know either. Don’t just reach out blindly to as many people as possible. Create a plan and decide what your next best step is and reach out to those people that might be able to help or make more connections for you.
5. Don’t make the wrong connections. You need to decide which people are really matches for your career goals. Making connections to people who don’t know anyone in your industry or who don’t return your phone calls won’t help you and you might as well remove them from your directory.

Looking to maximize your networking? Contact CornerStone Staffing to tap into their career networks today.

In the first decade of the 21st century, Generation Y entered the workforce in large numbers as they graduated from college and began to look for jobs. It became crucial for companies to understand these new employees so they could integrate them with the existing team of Baby Boomers and Generation X. Generation Y, also called Millennials, come with many benefits that can ensure a company stay relevant in the marketplace. Understanding them and how they work will help you create an environment that attracts qualified Generation Y employees to your company. Here are some tips to understanding what makes Millennials tick.

• They are technological experts. Millennials were raised on a steady diet of computers. From the time they entered kindergarten, they were taught how to use PCs and other devices. They have not lived in a world without cell phones, and smart phones have been around most of their lives as well. This puts them in the perfect position to take on any sort of technological challenge in the work place.
• They are job hoppers. It is not uncommon for a member of Generation Y to go from job to job to find something just a little different each place. To retain a Millennial, it is the responsibility of the employer to keep them engaged in the company culture.
• They work well in teams. There is something to be said about a generation raised with team sports activities and the “everyone’s a winner” mentality. It makes them great at collaboration. It is rare to find a Millennial who is uncomfortable in working as part of a team. That being said, Generation Y does not measure up in the people skills department in general. So while they might be comfortable collaborating, they are used to doing this virtually or competitively. Understanding both sides of this issue can help you better manage them to work in teams.
• They can actually multi-task. It is said that there is no such thing as multi-tasking. Scientists say that the human brain is only capable of one task at a time and when we push ourselves to multi-task what we are really doing is making each individual task suffer. This is not necessarily true of Generation Y. Studies have shown that because of the constant stimulation provided by personal technology, Millennials are capable of doing more than one task at a time.
• They need more structure. Generation Y is not a group that works well without strong leadership. The same phenomenon that made them all winners also means that they are used to helicopter parenting and constant instruction and supervision. To manage them effectively you need to take this into consideration.

Considering adding a new member to your team? Contact CornerStone Staffing to tap into their network of qualified employees.

With the popularity of social media as an engine for finding jobs, job seekers should be very concerned about what a potential employer might find online. Blog posts, photographs, videos and participation in forums can stay on the internet forever. There is no undo button on the World Wide Web and occasionally job seekers will have to engage in damage control. However, there are a few simple things everyone can do to make sure that their online reputation is intact.

• Google yourself. The first step to determining the action you need to take is to learn what is already out there. Google your own name and see what comes up. You really only need to check out the first couple pages since that will be about as far back as anyone will look. If there is anything troubling, bookmark it so you can consider the correct action.
• Replace the bad with good. The way search engines work is they find the sites with the most keyword hits that match what you are searching for. If you do find something bad in the first couple pages if your search, the best solution is to begin creating good content that will eventually bury the bad content. You can create a blog and start to write about industry specific things which will make a potential employer interested instead of turned off.
• Request removal. If you find something serious on a website, you can request removal from the site owner. Remember, even if you request removal from a website the information will still be in the internet archives but this elimination may keep it from a potential employer’s Google results. Make sure you aren’t rude or abusive in your request as that could backfire and cause the exact opposite result.
• Ensure your privacy settings. Another key to making sure that the wrong information does not find its way into the hands of a potential employer is to have the proper privacy settings on the social media sites that you use. It seems that most users prefer Facebook for friends and family and LinkedIn for business networking.  Set  your Facebook profile to be more secure and make sure your LinkedIn profile is accessible and complete. You can still post your vacation photos and not worry about whether a potential employer will be judging you by them. Even still, a good rule of thumb is to never post anything on line that you wouldn’t want your Mom to see.

Looking for a staffing company who has a great industry reputation? Contact CornerStone Staffing to talk to a recruiter about your next opportunity.

Many companies have been reluctant to give their employees access to social media at work. But the fact is, much of your employees’ social networking can be a competitive advantage to your company. How?

• Have you ever asked your employees to act as brand evangelists, promoting the company and its products and services to friends, colleagues and family? They can engage more easily—and with more people—online.

• Through their presence on social media sites, your employees can help with public relations, marketing and customer service. They can address complaints or issues raised by members of the online communities in which they participate. They can read about ideas and gather other intelligence that will help your company solve problems, improve customer satisfaction and adapt to changing customer needs.

• And in the networked world, social media is dramatically changing the recruiting game. After all, birds of a feather flock together, so your engineers most likely network with other engineers, your accountants communicate with other accountants, and so on. So when a position opens up at your company, your employees will already be connected to the right people through their regular interactions with colleagues at other companies.

Let Them Network

The networked generation is assuming management roles. They’re making increasingly consequential business decisions. And being connected to their networks is as natural to this demographic as using the telephone is to older generations.

So how can you turn this new workplace reality to your advantage?

• Ensure policies are in place and well communicated, spelling out employee obligations and accountabilities when they’re engaging in social media at work. Nobody should ever be surprised when someone is disciplined for violating guidelines.

• Improve business literacy in your organization so employees are well-equipped to talk about the company. They may not be official spokespersons issuing statements of record, but they can still represent the organization well and drive sales and customer loyalty through their normal, day-to-day interactions.

• Offer training on social media so employees know the right way to use it

Providing employees with access to social media at work—and proper guidance in how to use it—will increasingly become a success factor for organizations. Implement it now to get a jumpstart on your competitors!

Looking to hire more members of the networked generation? Contact CornerStone Staffing for assistance!

Since 2008, the job market has been brutal, but the slow and steady climb to recovery has begun. The 2012 job market is actually looking good.

A recent poll of more than 3,000 hiring managers showed that 23 percent plan to hire full-time, permanent employees in 2012, while only 16 percent plan to cut back staff levels. These numbers are a big improvement from the end of 2008, when just 14 percent of employers planned to hire new employees in the coming year.

Small businesses on the upswing
Small businesses provide about half of the private-sector jobs in the U.S. and have accounted for about 65 percent of the total job creation in the past two decades—and their job market is looking even better in 2012.

Sixteen percent of companies with 50 or fewer employees plan to bring on additional full-time staff this year. Better still, 20 percent of companies with fewer than 250 employees and 21 percent of companies with fewer than 500 employees also reported plans to add staff this year.

Job Market Trends for 2012
Here are five job trends you can expect to see throughout 2012:

1. Workers will seek new opportunities: As the economy improves, workers will begin looking for better job opportunities. Thirty-four percent of employers surveyed said that voluntary turnover was higher at their organizations in 2011 than in 2010, and it’s expected to rise in 2012.

2. Employers will increase salaries to keep their current employees and attract new ones: Probably due to last year’s higher turnover, companies will spend more money in 2012. 62 percent of employers reported plans to increase employee compensation next year, while 32 percent plan to increase starting salary offers to new workers.

3. The recovery will be uneven: Certain industries, job functions and geographic areas will recover faster than others. For example, employers need highly skilled workers, so jobs in engineering and IT will be plentiful in the coming year. More employers in the West reported plans to hire in 2012 than did employers in the Northeast, Midwest and South.

4. Employers will try to close the skills gap: The skills gap will continue to be a hot topic in 2012. In order to meet their growing need for employees in high skills areas, 38 percent of employers plan to provide workers and new hires with on-the-job training.

5. Employers will pursue diversity: Twenty-nine percent of employers said they’d focus on workforce diversity in 2012. Twenty percent plan to recruit more African-American and Hispanic workers, while the same number reported plans to recruit women. Forty-four percent plan to concentrate on hiring more bilingual employees.

At CornerStone Staffing, we always have our fingers on the pulse of the employment marketplace. Need help making staffing plans for this year? Contact us today!

During a typical job interview, you’ll be asked many questions. The key to answering them correctly? Understanding what the interviewer needs to know.

Employers aren’t there to play games, trick you try to outguess you. They’re trying to assess your answers to six key questions:

Do You Have the Skills to Do the Job?

The employer’s first step is to determine whether you have the necessary hard skills for the position, such as programming knowledge for a database administration job or the writing chops to be a newspaper reporter.

She’s also looking for key soft skills you’ll need to succeed in the job and organization, such as the ability to work well on teams or the basic common sense to figure things out once you’ve had some basic training.

Do You Fit In?

The interviewer is trying to pinpoint not only whether you match up well with both the company’s and department’s activities but also whether you’ll complement the personalities of your potential coworkers.

How Do You Stack Up Against the Competition?

You’re being evaluated in relation to other candidates for the job. In other words, this test is graded on a curve. So the interviewer will constantly be comparing your performance with that of the other candidates.

Do You Understand the Company and Its Purpose?

If the interviewer thinks her organization fits well with your career aspirations, she’ll assume you’ll be motivated to do good work there—and stay more than a month or two.

Do You Have the Right Mind-Set for the Job and the Company?

Employers really can’t train for this trait, so if you don’t have it, they’ll likely pass you over.

Do You Want the Job?

Employers know better than to think everyone they interview actually wants the position being offered. They understand some candidates are exploring their options, while others are using an interview with a company they don’t care about to hone their interview skills. So if you want the job, you have to prove it.

For the last three questions, the employer wants to know how much you know about the company, why you think your skill set would work for the job, and what you think you can bring to the team. So come prepared with some research about the company, such as its history, general practices, and its general office style.

Have more questions about finding a job or preparing for interviews? Contact CornerStone Staffing today— our talented recruiters are here for you!

Why do top companies like Kraft and General Mills use personality testing as part of their hiring process?  Because they want to minimize hiring mistakes, resolve conflict within the organization, build teams and retain good people when they hire them.

How can personality assessments help you hire effectively, manage employees better and deal with difficult people?

1.  They give you the real picture.  Every candidate puts their best foot forward during an interview, but a personality test can show you a different side—about their ability to work well with other people, their problem-solving abilities, their thought processes and their ability to tolerate stress. This can help you make an informed decision as to whether someone is a good fit for your job or team.

2.  They help you find your employees’ potential.  Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and an objective measurement system can help you identify them. Once you pinpoint the good and the bad, then you can place them in the right position and coach them on where to improve.

3.  They help you communicate and inspire. Personality testing can give a manager and employees a common language for interaction. The assessments can help you train future managers on how to get the best out of their team.

4.  They help you manage difficult people...  The best way to deal with a problem is to prevent it in the first place. There will always be difficult people in every workplace, but you can use objective personality assessments to diagnose potential sources of conflict.

5.  … and not-so-difficult people. Members of different departments have to interact to make the company run smoothly. But even the most easygoing employees can get frustrated with their co-workers and wonder why everyone doesn’t act like them. Through the use of personality profiles, managers can coach employees how to interact better with peers.

6.  They can make managers better leaders…  When managers understand what makes their people tick, then they can be better leaders.  Knowing personality traits can help with motivating teams, communicating change and delegating authority.

7.  … and help them pick better teams.  Today, work is often done by ad hoc teams that come together for a specific purpose. Before assembling a team, it pays to know the strengths and weaknesses of its members.  Sometimes this can be the difference between a productive team that gets the job done, and one that pulls apart at the seams.

8.  They can improve retention.  Sometimes we hire the right employee and put them in the wrong job.  Understanding preferred work styles, and where a person would be happiest, goes a long way to improving retention and productivity.

Want to know more about pre-employment testing and how it can help you choose the right hires? Contact CornerStone Staffing today, to take advantage of our knowledge and experience. We’re happy to assist you!

If you’re a regular visitor to the CornerStone Staffing blog, you know that social media should be an integral component of your recruiting plan. And the latest entry into the social media fray is known as Google+ (or Google Plus). A social media tool that is part of your Google account (which you may use for Gmail, Picasa or other Google tools), Google+ offers a new way to network, connect with peers and meet great new talent.

Google+ has already made a huge splash on the social media landscape. As of October 2011, there were more than 40 million users! And it’s inevitably becoming a game-changer for recruiting in social media. Let’s take a look at some of the ways Google+ is different than Facebook, and how that impacts you:

• You should already have a profile (and people will expect it to be up and running!). Google+ is past its infancy, and now that businesses can set up their own pages on Google+, top talent and potential clients expect you to have an active profile. Google+ is the latest tool, and it came out of the box with a clamoring for invites. Now that the floodgates are open, you had better have a profile. If you’re not sure how to set one up and use Google+, here’s an excellent online tutorial to help you get started.

• Google+ isn’t about “friends.” Ever have an awkward moment where you receive a Facebook friend request from someone who isn’t really a friend? Google+ circumvents this issue with “circles.” In your Google+ “circles,” you can organize all your connections. Each circle can have access to different pieces of information. Someone (including job seekers and clients) can add you to his or her circle without permission; however, you can control what these people see.

• Privacy still matters. Privacy settings come into play on all social media sites, most notably with Facebook and it’s frequent privacy updates. With Google+, your privacy settings allow you to set certain information as a public “share,” so even someone who isn’t in one of your circles can still keep tabs on relevant information. This can be a great way to include clients, job seekers or current employees, without having to give access to more personal information than you’d like. Google+ blurs the line in our online “worlds” more than any other social media site. Use your privacy settings to your advantage.

• Google+ is more about engaging conversation. Facebook and Twitter are excellent resources for sharing information, and the occasional short conversational exchange. Google+ is made for conversations – in other words: relationship-building. “Hangout,” a group video chat function, allows you to speak to multiple friends (coworkers, staff at clients, etc) using your webcam. Hangout doesn’t require additional software like Skype, and is an easy way to assemble multiple people (across different locations), quickly. “Sparks” is the Google+ news function (similar to your Facebook news feed). Use Sparks to share information and stories (and start conversations) with members of your various circles.

For more information about Google+, visit the official Google+ website.

Searching for talent in Dallas Fort Worth?
Contact CornerStone Staffing. Our network includes a range of talented professionals across the Dallas Fort Worth area. We’ll find exactly the professional you need for your business!