When interviewing someone for a position, there is a lot riding on the decision. If you choose the right person, it can be a big boost for the company in productivity and revenue. Make the wrong decision, however, and you can have an even bigger headache, dealing with productivity problems, lost time and effort trying to get the person up to speed, and so on. If you terminate the person, there is the process of again looking for someone new and the time and expense for that.

Considering all that is riding on an interview, it is surprising that many interviewers still treat it as more of an art than a science, often relying on their “gut instinct,” their intuition about a candidate. Given that this is not an unusual practice, the natural question to ask is, how effective is it?

The answer, when you look at all of the psychological pitfalls involved, is: not very. There are a lot of things that can sway our “gut feeling” about a person, that don’t really directly tell whether the person will do the job or not.

One of the big things that can influence our opinion about someone is what is known as the halo effect. If you are interviewing someone who is very similar to you – for example, similar in age, in likes and dislikes, in what he or she does as a pastime, in opinions, in background – you are more likely to form a favorable impression of that person. She’s like you, so why wouldn’t you like her? But how much does this tell you about whether she’s capable of doing the job or not?

Another thing that influences our opinion — our “gut feel” — is how the person is dressed. Someone who is well dressed naturally will make a more favorable impression, but the question is, how well does this relate to her ability to do a job?

What can happen is that your “intuition” may end up giving an unfair advantage to a candidate because of psychological factors that might not even be directly related to the job.

What really counts is having a structured, organized job interview, one that is consistent with all candidates, and rates them all on the same scale, a scale that measures those criteria that are directly related to the ability to do the job.

If you need help sourcing and even interviewing great candidates for positions in your San Francisco-area company, give Bayside Solutions a call. We can help you find candidates, we can conduct preliminary interview, we’ll do all the necessary background checks, and more. Contact us today!

Temporary workers are a big help to a company most of the time. Sometimes there are problems, however, and when there are, they usually fall into one of three areas.

The first is when the manager does not clearly spell out the worker’s status, which causes the worker to believe he or she may end up with a permanent position, when that is not the case.

The second is when the contingent worker starts to become more attached to the contracting company than the staffing firm and he or she becomes frustrated when not treated like a regular employee.

The third is when the duties of the assignment change from what was originally expected, and the worker feels as if he or she is being taken advantage of.

These pitfalls can be avoided, however, if the proper precautions are taken.

To avoid the misapprehension of permanent employment, both the staffing service and the client company need to be very clear up front about what the relationship is between the worker and the client. Both the staffing firm and client company need to deliver the same message.

Most staffing services have orientation booklets that spell out the duties and responsibilities of the worker, the service and the client company. This can help to head off problems before they arise, and also establish some guidelines for the worker as to what he or she can expect. Staffing officials recommend that the employment arrangements be put in writing to avoid any confusion.

Also, the client company’s human resources department needs to get involved and communicate to managers so that they are aware of the company’s policies and practices relating to hiring and temporary employees.

To avoid confusion about who the temporary staffer is working for, you need to keep in mind that the staffing service needs to address the concerns of the worker, not your managers.

When the worker is at his or her new location within your firm, it is important that you work to make sure connections between the worker and the staffing service are not disturbed. Sometimes, after the worker has started the assignment, he or she no longer hears from the service, and then begins to treat your company as the employer. To help maintain the connection between the staffing service and the temporary worker, make sure your company uses services that make it a point to maintain close ties with their workers.

To avoid a situation where job duties change unexpectedly, leaving the worker frustrated, it is important that you continually reevaluate the worker’s situation and what he or she is doing.

If your firm is looking for reliable and skilled workers in the construction, manufacturing, green scientific, high tech, and managed services arena in the San Francisco area, contact us, Bayside Solutions. We know where to find these tough-to-source professionals. Contact us today?.

Researchers have found that the more temporary workers are brought on board to a company, the less happy the regular workers are. To counteract this situation, they recommend integrating the contingent workforce as much as possible into the social and cultural network of the company, not looking at them as a completely separate workforce.

Regular workers become dissatisfied for a number of reasons. One is that they often are tasked with training the temporary workers and introducing them to the corporate culture. So, when there are more temporary workers at a company, the job of the full-time employees becomes more involved, because they are then constantly engaged in the training of new people. Regular employees also can become frustrated because they see the time they spend helpin contingent workers as time that is being taken away from their own work.

Another problem arises when the temporary worker is doing the same job as the regular employee. The full-time person looks at this as a lessening of his or her own status.
This feeling is more pronounced at the lower levels of a company, where there may not be a lot of difference between the two types of workers.

Managers, however, can help make the situation better for everyone if they handle things properly. They should try to foster social exchange among all workers. The temporary workers should be part of all company functions, such as departmental lunches, holiday parties, and other gatherings, researchers said.

Forming these social connections is the key to forming an efficient and effective workforce, they added.

Research also showed that temporary workers who came to company with the knowledge that they had a chance to become a regular, full-time employee if they performed well in their temporary assignment, were more satisfied and performed better than contingent workers who did not have such an opportunity.

The researchers said that temporary workers want to work hard and fit in, especially if they see an opportunity to become a full-time worker at a company. As a result, a temp-to-hire arrangement can be a good method for companies to use to find skilled and reliable workers.

If you need great employees on a temporary basis, give Bayside Solutions a call. We can provide talented and reliable temporary workers for your San Francisco-area company. Contact us today!

If there’s one thing that companies with successful retention rates for IT talent know, it’s that you have to make sure your IT employees feel like they’re part of the larger organization. Too often, the IT department is treated as a separate entity, and it’s crucial that they feel part of the business.

You should also make sure they understand how their efforts impact the bottom line and improve the profitability of the company. In other words, show your appreciation!

If you can create an inclusive, supportive environment, you will get both engagement and innovation from your IT staff. By differentiating your work environment, you will make your IT employees think twice about leaving and joining a more typical work environment – even if it offers a little more pay.

One great way to make your IT employees feel important to the company is to create incentives. These incentives aren’t necessarily monetary. They can be professional rewards.

• Organizations can improve retention rates and employee performance by making it easier for IT personnel to find new opportunities within the company.
• Some companies empower IT employees by giving them the opportunity to work on diverse, limited-term assignments, rather than in one department or function. Some organizations develop a talent exchange. This connects employees and other resources with appropriate projects, roles, and positions across the company.
• Companies that provide intensive training to promote skill building convey the message that professional development is important – and it is especially important to IT personnel, who work in a field that develops and changes rapidly.

Some incentive plans can be quickly implemented and will yield positive results almost immediately if executed well: project bonuses or other project-related incentives (which can be non-cash, like restaurant vouchers or gift cards); awards for outstanding performance; or public recognition of achievement through corporate communications outlets like newsletters and intranets.

IT employees tend to value family-oriented or quality-of-life rewards, such as extra paid time off or a paid family vacation as compensation for their efforts.

Of course, you can always use cash incentives such as stock options and annual bonuses. A recent survey found that more than 90% of companies provide some form of cash bonus or incentive plan for IT workers.

However, research also suggests that what matters most is not always how much money or how many perks are offered, but the way in which incentive programs are structured. An incentive must be attainable, relevant, and meaningful to impact performance and behavior. Giving the employee an opportunity to have input into the reward system he will be attempting is important in developing commitment. Employees who have been given some say in the design of their incentive programs will be more committed to seeing the program through to reap the rewards.

If you would like to learn more about the ins and outs of hiring IT talent, contact Bayside Solutions today.

The National Electrical Contractors Association, which bills itself as “the voice of the electrical construction industry,” works to advance the industry through advocacy, education, research, and standards development. As part of their educational offerings, they provide courses that will help electrical contractors estimate projects profitably.

Their catalog of courses includes:

Basic Estimating of Electrical Construction
Recommended Pre-requisite: NECA’s one-hour online course, Introduction to the NECA Manual of Labor Units, is now required for all Basic Estimating class participants before they take this course. The intro course provides clear instruction on the proper application of the NECA Manual of Labor Units when estimating electrical construction projects.

This course is for those with little or no experience in estimating and seasoned estimators looking to hone their skills. It is a must for those who find themselves frustrated by the current bid market and continue to question their efforts in compiling a “competitive” bid. The principles taught will help you eliminate careless mistakes, which can cost your company its very existence.

Materials include a textbook, reference books, sample drawings, and specification and work sheets for each student. Through this course, contractors and estimators will learn how to properly apply the labor unit data to a specific material installation. It contains helpful information about the origin of the labor units, the proper application of the data and how one can use these labor units to competitively bid electrical construction projects.

Topics covered: labor factoring for job conditions, basics of material takeoff/expanded material takeoff, labor units applied to material takeoffs, bid documents, organizing an estimate for control, and more.

Advanced Estimating of Electrical Construction
Recommended Pre-requisite: Basic Estimating of Electrical Construction or permission of instructor

This course is designed to assist the student in all phases of the estimating process, beginning with identifying desirable bid opportunities in conjunction with analyzing the company’s capabilities to insure profitable results. It covers all phases of preparing a competitive bid, including the many-times-ignored hidden costs in the bid documents.

The course material includes NECA’s Productivity Studies. These recently revised studies quantify the impact of adverse working conditions on electrical constructors and will be used during the course to solve real life case studies.

The course concludes with an overview of the estimator’s role at the pre-construction meeting. The long-term goal is to increase the estimator’s confidence and efficiency while improving the company’s profitability.

Avoid Killer Jobs-Improve Estimation Accuracy [NEW]
Recommended Pre-requisite: Basic Estimating of Electrical Construction
Estimation accuracy is vital to a contractor’s survival. One wrong estimate could lead into a major “Killer Job,” which can erode the entire company’s profits. Hit ratios and accuracy of estimation can be improved by application of unique data-mining method and statistical process control. Using the historical data from accounting, estimation and job tracking, the contractor’s owners and estimators can improve their estimation accuracy cost code by cost code and increase the predictability of their estimated labor units per job.

Participants will learn how to mine the existing database to identify the company’s overall productivity performance, then use data analysis to improve estimation accuracy. The following topics will be covered:

• Data analysis of estimation, accounting and job tracking
• Applied statistics for contractors
• Methodology for interpretation of data

The participants will be introduced to:

• Data mining technologies
• Application of statistics to estimation data
• Creation of: bar, box and run charts for analysis
• Interpretation of data graphs

Managers and executive level employees are more likely to go for long weekends when they take time off, rather than a several-week vacation.  Employees below the management level, on the other hand, tend to take their full vacation time all at once.
That was the finding from a recent survey of more than 600 human resource workers and almost 500 employees.

Managers and executives value their time off as well, but also feel the need to keep in touch with their companies when they are away from work, which may influence the planning of their vacation time.  Taking too much time off at once may cut them off from developments at work, which is moving at an ever-faster pace, and jeopardize their opportunity for advancement, according to some business experts.

But the business experts also cautioned that even managers need to take some extended time off occasionally to avoid the possibility of burnout.

The survey also revealed that employees who had worked less than two years at a company tend to use sick days or personal days as vacation days, while those who have been at a company for an extended period of time – 16 years or longer – avoided this practice.  The survey also showed that more than two-thirds of the employees at the executive level who had worked less than a year at their company were given more than two weeks of vacation.  This contrasted with only half of the mid-level management and a third of the people below management level.

Many human resource people as well as other employees  also said that workers were taking the long weekends so they wouldn’t be away from work for an extended period of time.  They also said employees often will take vacation time while on a business trip.
One-third of the employees surveyed said they bring work along with them on vacation.  Many also feel the need to stay in touch with their workplace during vacations, they said, even though hardly any companies require that they do.

With the advances in technology, it’s easier than ever for employees to stay in touch with their workplace.  Many companies even provide them with the equipment they need to keep the lines of communication open, such as cell phones/Smartphones, pagers and laptops.

When your employees take the time for a well-deserved break, do you have the staff in place to cover for them? If not, give Bayside Solutions a call. We have many skilled professionals available for short-term, temporary assignments at Bay Area firms. Contact us today.

When it comes to corporate planning, establishing corporate goals and strategies, and maintaining employee morale, initiatives that focus on new employees – hiring and orientation programs – get little attention, according to a recent study.  The study looked at 50 large businesses in the United States.

Business experts said companies need to improve in this area.  One of the most essential elements of the long-range performance of a company is introducing employees to the corporate culture and to the outlook of the company.  Many companies look at this process as more of a chore than anything else, but they should look at it as an opportunity, according to business experts.  It is an opportunity to help new employees hit the ground running, to prepare them for their work at the company, and to inform them about the ways they can help the company reach its goals.

Companies that established effective hiring and orientation procedures had better employee morale and outperformed others financially, according to the study.  The study showed that 65 percent of the firms that had motivated employees provided training to their managers in interviewing techniques.  Companies with more motivated employees also spent more time getting the workers ready for their new jobs.  These firms spent an average of 35 weeks on such preparations, compared to only 15 weeks for companies that had employees with lower morale.

Other studies have also shown that helping to motivate employees and putting effective recruiting procedures in place also helped businesses financially.  These studies established a strong correlation between the financial situation of a company and the morale of its employees.  In a large corporation, a sizeable change in employee morale resulted in an increase of about $95 million in earnings.  Studies also showed that companies that filled positions more quickly – within one month – had a much better financial situation than those who took longer.

Business experts argue that having effective hiring and orientation programs is cost effective.  In order to implement these programs, no big changes are required.  It is mostly a matter of improving the channels of communication between managers and employees.
One very potent technique for improving employee morale, interest and involvement in their jobs is to tell them why they were hired.  More than half the firms that achieved outstanding financial results gave an explanation to employees of why they were hired.  In contrast, almost three-fourths of firms with poor financial results did not talk to employees about the reasons for their employment with the company.

Providing such an explanation establishes a bond between the new employee and the company and gives them a better idea of what the company is looking for from them and how they can use their skills, according to business experts.

If you’d like more strategies on how to best “onboard” your new employees for your Bay Area firm, contact Bayside Solutions. We can offer solutions that have worked for other companies and we can help you source, vet and place qualified and reliable workers for your temporary, contract and direct-hire assignments. We look forward to hearing from you.

With corporate scandals garnering widespread public attention, as well as government notice, training in business ethics has also been attracting more interest as well.

If they accomplish their goal, these training programs should help workers and managers to examine their own moral values and develop approaches for handling ethical dilemmas at work..

But for a company to really develop an ethical business culture, the training has to be more than a one-time thing. Training in ethics needs to be a continual process to emphasize its importance Linked to a code of ethics, training in ethics can provide a guide for a everyone in a business, especially if training becomes a common practice. It will help employees regard ethics as not just onerous rules to be obeyed, but as a more effective way of doing business.

A business that is ethical is made that way through its culture, its values and its leadership.  Company leaders must show the way in acting ethically.  There must also be openness, fairness and good communication to establish an ethical workplace.

Training in business ethics can be delivered through a variety of media, including Web-based lessons.

But to make this type of training truly effective, a company must be willing to commit the time, effort and resources.  The majority of companies still have not yet made such a commitment, but observers expect that to change as more companies see the value of this training in helping firmss avoid investigations and fines. Most see the value of having these programs to avoid problems in the long run, but making the investment now is still something many companies still are unwilling to do.

Managers also need to be aware of the effects of these programs.  If they have been successful, they may actually increase the number of ethical lapses that are reported because the training has raised awareness among employees.  However, there is a lag time between employee awareness and a change in behavior.

Before committing to a particular program, companies should take the time to look over different training courses to find the ones that they consider the most effective and most interesting for their employees.  If the training program is simply a lecture series on what compliance is, it probably won’t grab employee interest, and probably won’t have the impact the business is looking for.

Ethics training, at its best, is about more than just warding off legal problems.  It can help to form employee attitudes about good business practices and affect the whole corporate culture.

When you need honest and hardworking IT professionals for your temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire assignments at your San Francisco-area firm, call upon Bayside Solutions. We will source, vet and place reliable and skilled workers who will help your firm achieve success in 2011 and beyond. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

If you’ve been lax in appreciating your employees, especially those who could be considered “high potential,” you may have put yourself at risk at losing them once the job market comes back.

The Corporate Executive Board recently surveyed 50,000 workers across the world and found that “high potential” employees increasingly are disengaged and looking at another employer or opportunity when they make their next career or employment move. (High-potential employees were identified as such by their employers.)

Twenty-five percent of these top employees said they planned to leave their current employer, the survey found. That number is up from 10 percent in 2006.

So, as the job market slowly warms, here are some ideas (as given by the CEB) as to how to 1) identify your high-potential workers and 2) engage them and thus possibly keep them around.

• To identify your potential top performers, start at the very beginning: at the interview. Use assessment tests to gauge an applicant’s abilities, goals and engagement so that you may get some idea of his or her potential for leadership and growth.
• Pay these top performers a salary appropriate to the value of the work they bring you, as appropriate. Recognize them for their efforts, as well.
• Give them stimulating and challenging work, or you risk their disengagement. If you identified them as potential leaders in your preliminary assessment of them, start developing those qualities as soon as possible via seminars, education and opportunities to lead.
• Finally, bring your high-potential employees in on your company’s strategic planning sessions. Engage them with your ideas as to how you see them playing a role in your firm’s future. In other words, help your top-future workers start picturing themselves as members of your team five, 10, etc. years from now and that will help them be members of your team five, 10 or more years from now.

When you’re looking for your next high-level, high-performing technology, construction, scientific, manufacturing, and green professionals for your Bay Area company, contact Bayside Solutions. We will source, check and place top workers for your temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire needs. Contact us today.

Hiring is starting to improve at companies throughout the U.S., albeit at a glacier pace. Once that glacier melts and companies really start hiring again, we’ll see more and more human resources professionals using social media to help them in their recruiting efforts.

Companies already use the social media sites Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, yet the move to more social media also will include using blogs with very specific content and aimed at a very narrow audience.

For example, one employer recently used a blog to find people with very specific backgrounds in financial services. The firm also put a recruiting video on the blog and received an excellent response — about 20 percent of those who viewed the video applied for the opening! And, because sites tend to see an up tick in visitors when a video is posted, more people than usual ended up visiting the site and seeing the video. In addition, since the site was so specific to a niche target audience, applicants were far more likely to have the qualifications the company sought.

Another great way to find new employees is to use your firm’s Facebook page. Place a video on the page — this means it has a far greater chance of being watched by workers. Your employees then will forward it onto people they know whom they feel may be a good fit and interested in the position. (Another benefit of this method is the fact that you’ll be able to track how many people view the video, a great way to see who well this recruitment tool works.)

Companies also could allow employees to upload the videos to their cell phones, thus letting them text or otherwise send it to their friends.

If your firm is looking for reliable and skilled workers in the construction, manufacturing, green scientific, high tech and managed services arena for your Bay Area firm, contact us, Bayside Solutions. We know where to find these tough-to-source professionals. Contact us today!