Posts Tagged ‘employee performance software’

Marketing Yourself 101 - Using Career Assessments To Your Advantage

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Hey! Thanks for coming back. Make sure to check out ClearFit to receive your free candidate and employee assessment. Check back often!

Many times when you’re looking for a job or thinking about your career, you’ll think “how can I make myself stand out?” or “why did the other candidate get the job and not me?”… of course if the latter is the case you might use other language that we cannot/should not use on our G-Rated blog. Sorry.

They are both valid questions, and important to address in order to learn and improve your chances of getting a job. If you’re encountering resistance and in need of some advice on how to market yourself better, here are some tips worth considering.

1. Have A Relevant , Accurate And Updated Resume
There’s nothing worse then an old, outdated resume that doesn’t really reflect your qualifications or experience. Make sure that your resume is suited for the position that you’re applying for, including facts and accomplishments that highlight why you are best qualified for a particular job. Be ready to talk about your experiences and everything that you’ve listed on your resume. Make sure that you take a free employee evaluation from ClearFit to verify your strengths.

2. Apply Only To Applicable Jobs
Don’t waste your time by applying for jobs that are completely out of your range, scope and experience level. In other words, do everyone a favour and don’t apply to a job because they sound cool. That is one way to lower your chances of ever finding the right job for you. If you’re unsure about what jobs you’d enjoy and be good at, take a career assessment from a reputable organization and uncover your true work potential.

3. Align Appropriate and Reliable References
Chances are that at one point you’ll be asked for references. Be proactive and align yourself with individuals who you know will vouch for you based on your previous work. If you’ve gotten fired from a job in the past, probably not a good idea to have that old boss be one of you references. Just saying. Also, make sure to ask your references before giving out any contact information. The last thing you want to have happen is that they are called out-of-the-blue and caught by surprise. Again, one way to quickly NOT get a job.

5. Prepare Questions To Ask
If you’ve made it into a interview scenario, you’re pretty much guaranteed some question time at the end. The answer to that should be “Yes, I do have some question about this position/company/role…” not “No, I’m good thanks.” Show an interest in the company, the position you’re applying for and the person you’re talking to. Make the person you’re talking to remember you. If you have taken an employee personality test, show the results to your potential employer - the more info, the better.

6. Dress Appropriately For The Interview
The worst thing that you can do is dress too casual. On the other hand, you can’t dress up too much. Even a construction worker will put on a nice shirt for an interview (Disclaimer: Construction workers are fantastic people, they are also great dressers - the aforementioned analogy is meant purely for demonstration purposes. Please do not write us or be offended if you work as a construction.) So, make sure that you dress appropriately for your interview.

7. Leave Your Mark
Careful, let’s not get crazy here. The idea here is that you will be remembered for the great impression you’ve made, not being the story at the water-cooler tomorrow! Make sure that when you leave the interview they’ll remember who you are. People are usually good at interpreting the results of candidate analysis, therefore - compliment those by standing out from the rest both on paper and in person.

For more information on finding the right job, taking an employee personality test to find out what jobs you’d be good at, visit ClearFit today!

Tags: ,
Posted in General | No Comments »

Hiring - Why Do I Have To Do it?

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Why is it that many people dread hiring?

Well, the answer is actually quite simple (especially if you’ve done it before) - nightmare hiring stories, horrible candidates showing up at your office, way too time intensive and the uncertainty of whether you’ve made the right decision or not… only to find out potentially when it’s too late.

Guess you should have used a hiring assessment… or perhaps some sort of employee performance software… but at the end of the day, hiring can be a very painful task that would be most likely pawned off to someone else. But there are good reasons why you - not your assistant, intern or someone else should do it.

1. Managing Expectations:

Only you - and you alone (isn’t that part of a song?) know what it is you are looking for. That is why you should be the one who is doing the hiring. The best thing you could do is to prepare, list and plan ahead before embarking. Certainly make use of resources and tools that will make the actual hiring process easier, and there are a number of tools available that do just that - but having someone else do the work for you because of convenience is a recipe for problems.

2. Knowing The Role/Company

As we always emphasize, fit of a candidate is almost more important then hard skills these days. Meeting someone yourself and seeing how you get along, rather then the letters that proceed their last name is extremely important. Having someone walk into your office that was hired off-site and that you have never met can again spell disaster and quick firing.

3. Establishing The Mood

Hiring yourself is a great base-builder for future conversations and building team dynamic. It’s important to have a direct and transparent (where and when appropriate) relationship. By doing the hiring yourself, you’ll have the opportunity to talk openly and ensure that you can communicate expectations openly from the start.

4. If You Want It Done Right - Do It Yourself

Every have to rely on someone else to do it? Then you’ll know how frustrating that can be. Now imagine having to rely on someone to do your hiring… you get the idea. Just remember, you get out of it what you put in - so if you want something done right and to your standards - do it yourself!

For more information on hiring done right, getting answers from our experts and the tools available to you, visit ClearFit.

Tags: ,
Posted in General, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Why Should I Use A Career Assessment?

Friday, May 8th, 2009

So far, in prior posts we’ve discussed the how to get the most out of your employees from an employers perspective. Now, we’re going to change gears and focus on the benefits of how and why a candidate analysis can benefit a job seeker.

Imagine for a second if you will (just go along with it)…

2009… ”The Big Three” are more like “The Smaller 1.2″… the most commonly used words in the English language starting with the letter “B” are now “Bailout” and “Billion” - often used in the same sentence… and you’re in the middle in all of this trying to figure out how to make things happen career-wise.

Let me be the fourth to tell you - this is a time of opportunity and exploration. As my stock broker likes to keep saying as I cry on the phone, what goes down must come back up! So how can a career assessments help me? Finding a job and/or career you enjoy, by utilizing psychometric analysis can open the doors to many streams of success (both psychological and physical) based on your answers and assessment.

1. People who work in jobs that they are good fit for are far happier at work, resulting in higher productivity and less illness - both positives!

2. People see their productivity increase.  For example, people who fit the following jobs are far more productive in those jobs than others who don’t fit:

  • 55-60% more productive as a sales person*
  • 40-45% more productive as an administrator*
  • 45-50% more productive as a manager*

3. Validated personality survey tools usually costs $100 to $250 per use and can take hours – HOWEVER there are free ones that take only 15 minutes.

4. It’s quick, easy and painless. You’ve got everything to gain and nothing to lose so why not give it a try.

Don’t believe me, try it!

Tags: , ,
Posted in General | No Comments »