When Paranoia is Justified: Doing Background Checks on People

A full back ground check on people can be an important tool used by
employers to find and pull out people who may pose some risk to the company.
Governments have long been using background checks on people, and
this especially since the aftermath of the September 11 attack. Terrorist cell
worries aside, background checks on people have long been
essential for employers in hiring the right kind of people. Much money and a lot
of time are lost by people who refuse to do background checks on
people, until it is too late--as when an employee with sexual harassments raps
has done it again in the office, or when a new hire skips town unexpectedly
along with office equipment.



A background check on people is easy to do and won't take more
than a couple of minutes. It can be done with the use of online search engines,
through free or paid for background checking services, and through
on-foot searches of public databases and records. Employers want to know more
than whether a person is right or trained enough for a job; they also wish to
know if it is cost effective and safe to keep this person employed; if he is
worth an investment in training.



An employer does not wish to spend training for a new IT guy only to find out he
had skipped town for a better job, using his new training certificates to
bolster his job application. What the employer missed there was that that person
has a history of job hopping.



Performing background checks on people is also useful not just in
hiring en masse, but also in the domestic market. A parent does not want to hire
a babysitter with a history of violence against toddlers. A parent wishes only
the best for her children. So she performs a through background search on
the people that come to her wanting to become her children's babysitter.



Paranoia is most instances these days are justified. People, employers, and
parents want to be assured that the person who claims to be someone on paper is
actually that person, and not someone else, or that his history is accurately
told and not invented. Performing a background check on people is
a necessity these days

Computer Software Engineer Jobs In The UK

The field of Computer Software Engineering has become more popular among UK university graduates in recent years. Students are entering university with a more sophisticated knowledge of information technology than undergraduates from a generation ago. This knowledge is coupled with a realization that many of the best jobs available in the UK involve computer technology, creating a desire within university students for success in the IT world. However, as graduates leave the university setting for the professional world, they begin to realize that their dream of working as a computer software engineer may be difficult to achieve.

The rising number of computer jobs in the United Kingdom has been met with an exponential increase in applications over the last decade. Professionals interested in software engineering, IT graduates, and candidates on the international market make the application process a log-jam. Hiring managers often have to set high standards in order to reduce the numbers of applicants that proceed to the interview stage. As such, talented software engineers may not be able to distinguish themselves enough to land their dream job. By understanding what a software engineer does on a daily basis, a young applicant is better able to tailor their application to suit a specific position.

Computer software engineers essentially bridge the gap between designers and users or retailers of software. Engineers take concepts and designs as imagined at the beginning of the creative process, create specific processes to meet the individual needs of software systems, and troubleshoot production processes in order to meet customer demands. For instance, a computer software engineer may work on creating the software CDs and supporting materials that come with a new video game or business solution. The role of the middle man means that engineers need to meet regularly with both designers and users or supply chain professionals to ensure that everything gets done right the first time.

This brief summary of a software engineer's job should allow a young professional to focus their CV and application in the right areas. An applicant may choose to highlight areas of troubleshooting, problem solving, or multitasking in their application. On their CV, a young professional can highlight aspects of their education or job experience that would be uniquely suited to computer software engineering. In the interview process for a role as a software engineer, an applicant who is well-prepared should be able to use their knowledge of software engineering to answer a hypothetical question. In the end, computer software engineering jobs require quick thinking and creativity. An applicant needs to demonstrate these skills in order to land their dream job.

The Exit Interview - A Valuable Tool For Reducing Turnover

The exit interview is often overlooked as an extremely valuable retention and organizational effectiveness tool. The purpose of exit interviews is to understand individuals' perceptions and experiences and get feedback about the job the employee held, the work environment, and the organization. A well-crafted exit interview system can help reduce turnover and increase employee satisfaction and commitment.

The exit interview should be positive, relaxed, and ensure that employee leaves on a good note. It's great PR. Some employees may even decide to return to your company at a future point in their career.

An exit interview can be conducted face to face, by telephone and/or by questionnaire. There is a new wave in outsourcing telephone exit interviews, direct-mail questionnaires, or electronic questionnaire forms. Some organizations choose to send questionnaires 1-3 months afterwards, allowing the former employee to honestly reflect on their experiences, once detached from the situation. As with 360 feedback, keeping exit interviews anonymous can provide more accurate and measurable responses.

Ask yourself the reason for the exit interview. Are there new training initiatives your company is considering? Would the results from the exit interviews help guide objectives? Exit interviews can be extremely helpful in understanding turnover rate, improving recruitment, hiring, and orientation programs.

Exit Interview Questions - Samples

Listed below are sample questions to ask departing employees. Use these questions as a guide for dialog.

1. What is your overall impression of our organization?

2. What was most satisfying about your job or what did you like most about working here?

3. What was least satisfying about your job or what did you like least about working here?

4. What would you change about your job?

5. Did your job duties turn out to be as you expected?

6. Did you receive enough training to do your job effectively?

7. Did you receive adequate support to do your job?

8. Did you receive sufficient feedback about your performance between merit reviews?

9. What would you improve to make our workplace better?

10. What was the quality of the supervision you received?

11. What could your immediate supervisor do to improve his or her management style?

12. Based on your experience with us, what do you think it takes to succeed at this company?

13. Did any company policies or procedures (or any other obstacles) make your job more difficult?

14. Would you consider working again for this company in the future?

15. Any other comments?

Are you an HR Director or Manager? Are you just developing your HR division? Take the time to implement or revise your exit interview strategy. Understanding why employees leave can save your company hundreds of thousands of dollars in recruitment and training.

Success is in the Cards with Advertising Careers

They say TV rots your brain, but maybe sitcoms of the past serve a purpose beyond amusement after all. While most TV programs are fiction -- aside from the onslaught of reality TV, that is -- shows of the past are sometimes based on fact and can provide viewers with accurate depictions of the lives of others.

Take a career in advertising, for instance. On shows like "Bewitched" and "Who's the Boss?" viewers are clued in on the lives of advertising agents at home, as well as in the office. So if you're interested in earning an advertising degree and striving for advertising careers, read on (and watch the reruns) -- you might learn something.

Creativity Required in Advertising Careers

When it comes to advertising careers, while an advertising degree is a necessity, creativity also plays a large role. As was the case with Darrin Stephens, the mortal husband advertising executive on "Bewitched." From time to time, the source of his creativity was his wife Samantha. While she vowed to give up her witchcraft to become an ordinary suburban housewife, she never really gave up her heritage. Sometimes creeping into her husband's advertising career, Samantha's quirky ways would help her husband advance.

For example, there was a Halloween episode in which Samantha actively defied the fun holiday because it perpetuates the image that witches are ugly, mean, and wicked. Coincidently, Darrin was working on a candy campaign for Mr. Brinkman who wants to use the image of a witch that Samantha absolutely hates. Her supernatural ways take hold and she coerces Mr. Brinkman to use a beautiful witch instead. The unique advertising campaign was a success!

Advertising Careers May Let You Be the Boss

On "Who's the Boss," when Tony Micelli first moved into the Bower residence, Angela Bower worked for an advertising agency. After not being valued by her boss, it wasn't long until she ventured off to start her own advertising business. Taking most of her clients from her previous employment and hiring her mother as her secretary, Bower was able to make her own advertising agency work.

It was a wise career move indeed for the fictional character, but would it be a wise advertising career move for those in the real world to go from advertising account executive to chief advertising executive? And if so, what is the difference? While someone in this managerial position plans and directs all aspects of an organization's initiatives, including its policies, he or she is also responsible for directing concepts and placement of all commercials and promotional materials. It's a big task to handle, but someone with at least 15 years of experience and a degree from college should do the trick. And this kind of worth doesn't go unnoticed. In fact, 80 percent of chief advertising executives are paid between $74,943 and $250,532.

Are the lives of Stephens and Bower enough to convince you to pursue an advertising degree? There aren't many jobs out there where you have the opportunity to be incredibly creative and at the same time reap impressive rewards. Advertising careers are certainly something to consider. And if Stephens and Bower, two fictional advertising executives of the past don't strike an advertising career fancy in you, try watching "Desperate Housewives" and "Queer as Folk" -- there are advertising executives on these current TV dramas, too, illustrating that advertising careers at least has lasting power!

Growing Your Employees

The importance of reinvesting in your business is no secret. If you want to remain competitive, you need to ensure you are using the latest technology, the newest equipment, and are applying the most current methods in your operations. You are also quite aware of the importance of a highly skilled and capable workforce that can utilize these assets and effectively strive to outperform your competition. Investing in capital is a priority of nearly every company, but what about investing in your employees?

Hiring quality employees has always been the goal of every organization. The methodology has been well defined from the development of detailed job descriptions to rigorous interviewing procedures. Much effort and money has been spent in an attempt to attract and mete out the highest caliber recruits. Thorough background checks, scrupulous reference reviews, meticulous investigation into criminal records and past performance as well as comprehensive assessments of the representative skills are the mainstay of every successful human resource manager. A considerable amount of energy is expended in the process of finding that capable employee, but what about your current workforce?

There are companies out there that have come to realize just how important the continuous development of current employees is, however, there are still a vast percentage of organizations that overlook this process to at least a significant degree. If you have yet to adopt a system to train, educate and improve your workforce in an ongoing manner, the time to do so is upon you.

DEVELOP A PLAN

Develop a comprehensive program to evaluate your employees on a regular basis. At the bare minimum you should take advantage of the annual performance review to assess each individual's capabilities, compare their current qualifications to those required to achieve the goals of the organization and identify the skills needed to make each employee a proficient tool for reaching those goals. Reevaluate the goals you have set at regular intervals to determine not only if your plan is on track, but are your employees keeping up as well.

Just as you perform scheduled maintenance on facilities and equipment, your employee base requires the same attention to capability and utilization. When machinery or software is no longer capable of handling your day to day requirements, you upgrade the software to remain competent. As your employees begin to lag behind your desired abilities, you likewise should be looking to upgrade their potential in the same manner.

HAVE AN ATTRITION LIST

Every company should have some type of attrition list. When employees retire, resign, or leave for whatever reason, it is important to know who the most likely candidate to replace that individual is. Knowing up front gives you the opportunity to determine what skills are lacking and provide the necessary training or experience before it is too late. Why would you want to advertize, interview, check up on and train a new employee when you can simply promote from within?

PROMOTE FROM WITHIN

Promoting from within your organization offers many advantages in addition to the money saved by not having to look outside for new recruits. Current employees already know who is who, what is where, and how your company goes about its daily operations. You know your workers level of reliability and responsibility. An existing employee will most likely be much happier when given the chance to grow with the company. If an employee is doing a good job in a position he was hired into, think of the level of performance you will get if that employee is promoted or moved to position he or she is truly interested in. Most importantly, if an employee feels that their hard work and dedication will pay off with regular opportunities for advancement and subsequent pay increases, they will be more prone to embracing those added responsibilities and will be much more willing to remain with the company for the long term.

Another asset of promoting from within is your ability to move workers up the ladder. With proper training you can have a number of individuals that are ready to step up when the need arises. Wouldn't it be great if you could hire experienced managers to perform your daily tasks? You will be hard pressed to pull this off hiring from the outside, but by training and mentoring your current staff you can have a number of management level employees on the floor. When your company grows, the additional leadership is right there waiting to step up.

By moving your employees up through the ranks you create openings at the bottom. The jobs you need to go outside for are those jobs that require the least amount of skill and that pay the lowest wage. This source of labor is readily available, requires the least amount of training and if it turns out they do not fit the bill and you need to let them go, you have minimized your losses. Another employee can be quickly attained and brought up to speed with very little effort so the impact to your daily operations is almost negligible.

PROVIDE QUALITY TRAINING

There are many ways in which to provide the necessary training for your employees. Experience can be gained by simply working alongside other competent employees when time permits or by filling in when someone is on vacation or out of the office. Send your workers to seminars, conventions, classes, etc. Better yet, bring the training in house. If you see that there are areas where all or many of your workforce is behind, such as some new software or technology, you can take advantage of the groups size and usually get tailored instruction on site at a reasonable cost. Offer education assistance or tuition reimbursement at some level. Take advantage of possible local government training credits, workforce development funds, or tax deductions to reduce your out of pocket expenses.

It is in your best interest to retain the employees you have already invested heavily in. The benefits far outweigh the cost. So invest in your largest resource, your employees, and grow them as you would any other part of your business. I am reminded of a question I heard many years ago: "What if you train them and they leave?" to which the correct answer was, and still is: "What if you don't and they stay?"

Job Interview Thank You Note Sample

There are several ways to go about writing a small note of appreciation to an interviewer. Try getting a business card from your interviewer. (Nowadays, it seems like everyone has a business card – including my hairdresser!) If you cannot, be sure to remember to write down the name of your interviewer before you go to the interview. Alternatively, attempt to remember his or her name as you introduce yourself at the beginning of the interview. Also, get the address of the establishment you visited. (If it is a branch office of a larger company, strive to use the branch address, NOT the corporate headquarters!)

The note of thanks is meant to be just that – a note! Not a long, drawn out letter that reiterates your excellent professional skills for the job position – that was what the interview has already established! You are just trying to accomplish four small goals: One – Impress the interviewer with your thoughtfulness (yeah, yeah, you are kind of kissing the big man / woman's behind!). Two – Give yourself that possible winning edge over other prospective applicants. Three – Shove YOUR name back into the head of the interviewer. Four -- The underlying idea of the note is to say, Hey, look at this! I really want this job!

Possible examples: "Dear Ms. Brown, Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to apply for the teaching position in the science department. I was very impressed with your establishment, and look forward to hearing from you in the near future. Once again, thank you for the chance I had to speak with you! Kindest regards, Joseph Nelson" Notice you told her what a great place the school was, and that you do not need to tell her to call you, even though you kindly stated that you hoped to hear from her!

"Dear Mr. Doe, I just thought I should let you know how much I appreciated the opportunity to speak with you about the welding position. It was impressive to be introduced to so many hard-working individuals at your shop. Working for ABC Welding Inc. would truly be a rewarding experience, and I hope you find the right applicant for the position. Thanks again, Brian Baxter" Notice you did not tell him that YOU were the best for the job, but it would certainly allude to that, would it not? In addition, you just paid Mr. Doe a compliment by telling him what a great job he did picking out the other employees!

"Dear Mr. Witherspoon, Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to speak with me about the I.T. position your company has available. It seems that S.R. Tech Center is very up-to-date on all of the latest equipment and available expertise. I was very impressed, and I hope to have a future distributing that technology with S.R. Tech Center. Sincerely, Tamara Schmidt" Once again, you have complimented the company, and still showed how interested you are in the job.

Negotiate for More Money and Power

Even as today's professional women have succeeded in becoming highly respected members of the workforce and have achieved some parity, fairness in compensation has remained a sticking point, according to PINK magazine. Many of my clients have concerns and apprehensions about moving themselves to the next level in their organizations and are not demanding the money and recognition they deserve. One of the basic questions is, "How do I manage my boss and influence the politics to get a promotion or raise?

5 Things to Consider

1. Have you initiated a conversation in the last year with your boss to gain agreement on what you want from him/her in support of your growth?


A great way to get a raise or promotion is to ask what is needed to get you to the next level. Also solicit your boss's support and involvement in getting you there. Bosses don't always assume the role of mentor even though you might expect them to.

2. Do you know what your boss considers as important in your job performance?


It is important to have agreement with your manager about what success looks like for you in your job. It is often not the things that are in your job description but what your boss feels is important at the moment. Be sure to ask and don't make assumptions so you can focus on what is going to move you towards your goal.

3. Do you know what success is for your boss and what he/she is being held accountable for by their boss?


When you know what your boss is being held accountable for, it creates an opportunity for you to focus your efforts and link them to the things that will contribute to his/her success. Demonstrate your ability to be tactical as well as strategic in your thinking.

4. What relationships do you have with people on the same level as your boss?


These relationships can give you access to people who share similar views and goals with your boss and they are likely in a position to give you a different perspective about opportunities and political dynamics.

5. What can you do to gain more visibility for yourself at higher levels in the organization?


Lift your head up from your keyboard and listen for requests for involvement in office projects, like a blood drive, charity campaigns, community events and/or AIDS Walks. Find out what socially responsible activities your senior executives are involved with and get involved and be seen. You could always try golf.

You might consider politics a dirty word, but remember anytime you have two or more people in an organization you are going to have politics. If you can't change the game, then learn how to play it to the best of your ability.