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Setting 2021 Goals for Your Team

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The year 2020 is almost over and few people aren’t glad to see the back of it. Next year could be equally challenging, but here are lessons you can carry from this year into 2021.

One of those lessons is the importance of setting goals for your team. Goals help focus and maintain momentum, even in the midst of chaos. However, you need to choose these goals carefully.

Are you putting together a vision for 2021? Use these tips to set goals that will inspire your team in 2021.

Prioritize Your Team’s Vision

You have an idea of goals to choose from, but do your team members agree?

It’s difficult to motivate teams to do something they have no interest in or don’t see its value. So your first task is to figure out what your group wants to achieve. Once you understand that, you may find it helpful to develop a vision statement that reflects your team’s position. You can use this to reflect on when you set goals and when you reevaluate throughout the year.

Defining goals based on the team’s vision is key. Once everyone is on the same page, it’s much easier to pull in the same direction as one team.

Connect Team Goals to the Organizational Strategy

More and more, employees derive satisfaction and motivation from knowing they’re contributing to something bigger than themselves. Most employees work at your company because they believe in what they do. It’s not the day-to-day operations that drive them but the bigger picture.

Lean into this motivating factor when developing your goals. Identify those instances that connect with the organizational strategy. In other words, ask, “What is everyone here to do, and how does our team take the organization one step closer to achieving it?”

Choose Measurable Goals

A goal you can’t measure isn’t a goal at all. Measurable goals are specific and include precise details: usually, you’ll focus on numbers. For example, “improve customer retention” is a good goal, but it’s hardly measurable unless you choose to “improve customer retention by 10% in one year.”

Keep in mind that your goals should be achievable with the resources available. They can require extra effort, but your projections should always be realistic.

Goal Setting Requires More Than Numbers

Setting and achieving goals in 2021 demands more than picking a KPI and throwing it against the wall. To motivate teams and keep them working together, you need goals that inspire teams to do their best work, even when they’re apart. These are aligned with your vision, connected to strategy, and inherently measurable.

Are you looking to add new team members in 2021? RightStone can help you find someone who fits into your team’s strategy. Get in touch to learn more about the RightStone 360 process.

Building Your LinkedIn Network – How to Build Your Career

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LinkedIn: it’s an unavoidable part of your professional life in 2020. With 575 million members and countless opportunities, you can’t afford to stay away, even if the notifications do become a bit much after a while.

Are you new to LinkedIn and wondering how to use it to your advantage? You already have what you need to get started. Here’s how to build your career using LinkedIn.

Create a Full, Engaging Profile

Your first stop is your profile. Your profile is public (unless you decide otherwise), and it’s easy for potential contacts and recruiters to find you both through LinkedIn and on Google.

Putting together a full, engaging profile is the number one hack for making the most from LinkedIn. You have a headline, summary, work history, and image to work with, which you can use to show off.

Do spend time building out your profile to create as complete a picture as possible for visitors. And if you are job hunting and want to be extra visible, use keywords related to your job title (or hopeful job title) to help stand out from the crowd. If you’re looking for a job as a Network Engineer, you might sprinkle in keywords like Network Communications Engineer or networking experience.

It’s a chance for you to tell your story in your own words — so make it a good one!

Join LinkedIn Groups

While you might use LinkedIn to search for jobs, there’s a whole world on the site that’s waiting for you. LinkedIn groups are a great place to start.

Join groups related to your industry, role, and career goals. But don’t stop there: participate in the group. Comment on posts. Share your thoughts. And don’t be afraid to send a direct message to get conversations going.

While LinkedIn groups are a great place to get talking, remember that you’re still in a professional environment. Act the same way you might at a networking event or conference and remember how you might portray your organization through your posts.

Accept More Requests than You Deny

“You have a new request.” You’ll get these emails more frequently than you might realize, and more often than not, and you might wonder whether to accept.

Only you can decide how and when to grow your network. But don’t be so hasty in hitting the decline button. New connections can lead to professional awareness, referrals, or even friendship.

So before you make a decision, check out the sender. They could be your next big opportunity.

Are you on the hunt for your next big opportunity? RightStone is placing qualified consultants like you with excellent employers. Get in touch to learn about the RightStone 360 process and see a list of current jobs.

Looking Beyond the Resume – The Benefits of Hiring an Underqualified Candidate

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In your quest to find the best candidate for your role, you likely have a long list of boxes to tick. There are certifications, education, and technical skills that your candidate needs to do the job well. Or are there?

Sometimes, finding the right candidate means looking beyond the resume and worrying less about qualifications. What are the benefits of hiring an underqualified candidate? They could add far more to your organization than you think.

They Automatically Push Beyond Their Limits

Someone who applied for a job that they aren’t technically qualified for may not have the technical skillset you desire. But they do have a skill you can’t teach: the desire to reach beyond themselves and push their own limits.

Finding employees who want to learn and grow in their field is far more valuable than finding someone who ticks all the boxes but enjoys the comfort of staying at the same level. A candidate who has been in the same role and held the same responsibilities for years may not be willing to grow with your company!

They Are Inherently Trainable

When you have a candidate who comes in and requires some additional skills, you have a unique opportunity: you get to mold them in a way you can’t with fully-trained ‘qualified’ candidates.

Having the opportunity to train them according to the latest information and your organizational processes will help them fit in quickly. It will also attract hungry learners looking for opportunities that they may not have had at their last place of employment.

Plus, as too many managers know, it’s far easier to teach an employee new skills than to help them un-learn old or incorrect ways of working. When someone “isn’t qualified” they don’t have giant egos or bad habits.

They Often Bring Unique Skill Sets

In today’s world, workers change jobs every 4.2 years. In some cases, they don’t just leave for a promotion: they go for an entire career change.

Career-change candidates are invaluable. They have experience in the job-market, a foundation of core training, and often unique skill sets picked up from other roles or careers.

It’s not just the soft skills they bring. They also have technical skills that may translate or inform their work and a valuable outsider’s perspective that allows them to use them.

Unqualified Candidates Add Value to Teams

Every job post comes with a list of duties and responsibilities and skills required to perform them. There’s no need to pass on the resumes that don’t quite tick all the boxes. Underqualified candidates often possess other value-adding qualities that may be what your organization needs to take the next steps.

Are you looking for that valuable ‘unqualified’ candidate for your IT role? Get in touch to learn how the RIghtStone 360 process places the right fight every time.

Leveraging Social Media to Find Top Talent

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Your number one goal for hiring isn’t merely to add a new employee. Instead, you want to attract the perfect candidate, someone who also happens to represent top-tier talent in their field. Doing that requires more than posting an opening online and waiting for applications to pour in.

To compete for the best, you need to be proactive. Social media makes it easier to seek out top talent and have meaningful conversations. But it takes a different approach than you may be used to.

Here’s a quick guide to using social media to steal top industry talent.

Extend Your Network

HR puts the job on your internal site, industry job boards, and of course, LinkedIn. You’ll find job seekers in these places, but if you want to compete for top tier talent, you’ll need to court those who aren’t necessarily actively looking for a new job.

Share your job on your social media pages, including LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. If you’re looking for a wider talent pool, you can consider using advertisements to reach more people. (Just make sure to cost control before posting.)

Keep in mind that posts on Facebook or LinkedIn pages should be more than a basic job description. These are great places to sell your company culture and let more people peek through the window into your company. So, skip the technical details and use personalized posts.

Start Discussions Online

The key to unlocking the power of social media is to zoom in on the first half of the phrase: social.

For too long, recruiters used social media as a place to learn more about candidates’ personal lives or professional interests. But those tactics don’t build a connection. To connect with candidates, you need to avoid talking at them. You want to talk with them. And to do that, you need to start and engage in discussions.

HR can do this by working together with the marketing department to craft messages and engage. You will also want to get involved with hashtags related to your industry, which often serve as meeting places for industry professional and prospective candidates.

Organic discussions help your company stand out, attract talent, and give you an extra chance to screen candidates.

Encourage Current Employees to Get Involved

There’s one secret to hiring through social media that most of your competitors forget about: referrals.

Referrals take on a new life on social media.

Ask the new role’s team members to share the job with their own networks, too. Current employees are your best ambassadors, and the qualified professionals in their networks may not be scouring the job boards every day.

Are you on the hunt for the perfect fit but having no luck? RightStone can help. Get in touch to learn about the RightStone 360 process for placing qualified consultants with great clients.

You Didn’t Get Hired – Now What Do You Do?

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You spotted the job post of your dreams. You thought “That’s it. That’s the role I’ve been waiting for.” So, you applied and got that first call back. After weeks of screenings, interviews, and the final interview, you find out you didn’t get the job.

Rejection stings at any point of the process. But rejection is also an opportunity. So when you’re ready, follow these next steps to make your next interview a success.

Say Thank You for the Opportunity

It’s not the letter you hoped or expected to write, but it’s important none-the-less. 

Saying “thank you” is always a smart move. First, it’s mature and it acknowledges what happened. Second, it leaves a good impression with the employer, which is good news in case the chosen candidate doesn’t work out or you decide to apply again in the future.

Either way, it’s nice to be nice. So, your first order of business is to accept the decision gracefully.

Keep It Positive

Finding out a company passed on you hurts, even if you half-expected it. While the desire to wallow is natural, you need to remember that making it through the interview process means you did succeed.

By making it through the process, you proved you were a qualified candidate. You wrote a great resume or cover letter, and the hiring manager agreed. You then made it through the interview process, which is no small feat.

Ask for Feeback

With a positive mindset, it’s time to seek out a new opportunity. The best way to do that is through feedback.

It’s important to remember that the reasoning behind the decision could be a monumental issue or a tiny, almost imperceivable difference. Sometimes you don’t get passed on for any reason other than a gut feeling. 

Your feedback doesn’t need to cover why you didn’t get the job. Instead, you should focus on getting information on your perceived strengths and weaknesses. Where did you do well? Were there any stumbling blocks?

Sometimes, feedback gives you closure, or the feedback will help you find a new path forward.

Are you on the hunt for your next big opportunity? RightStone is placing qualified consultants like you with excellent employers. Get in touch to learn about the RightStone 360 process and see a list of current jobs.

Automation – Future of IT

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Automation has been a regular topic of discussion for well over a decade. Even still, the world has not yet felt its full effects.

While there’s no doubt that automation impacts jobs, automation also presents opportunities for IT professionals. Before you can harness automation to expand your career, you first need to look at the applications.

What’s Automation Doing in IT?

Automation is part of the software revolution, and it’s made the jobs of IT pros easier to bare. Automation makes monitoring simpler and allows you to skip the manual sifting through files. These realities align with the predictions that found automation would first take over repetitive, manual work that primarily requires following the same program.

Although it’s possible that tech support jobs, in particular, will be most subject to automation, it’s unlikely that these roles will evaporate. Instead, the tasks themselves will change, and there will be a smaller cohort of people doing them.

However, automation isn’t going to do everything for you. It won’t take over from non-routine or non-standardized tasks.

What Should You Do Next? It’s All About Skills

Automation itself isn’t here to take IT jobs. However, if you want to remain relevant, you do need to adjust your skills accordingly.

The IT field is already facing a huge skills shortage in general, but some of the automation skills that are increasingly in-demand include:

  • Network automation skills
  • Configuration management software experience
  • Troubleshooting
  • Scripting

Of course, if you know how to work with automation or contribute to it, then your skills will be particularly in demand.

Finally, there’s evidence that applied technology skills (ATS), or skills that focus on integrating new technologies, such as data analysis, will remain at the forefront or recruiter and hiring managers’ minds.

You Can Survive Automation

Automation reduces the need for highly repetitive tasks, which means jobs associate with repetitive and easily programmable tasks are at risk. However, automation isn’t AI. If there’s a deviation in your processes or they’re not standardized, then they require a human to run them.

You can survive automation by focusing on upskilling and reskilling to progress through your career. Because while you can’t control tech developments, you can learn how to use and protect them.

Are you looking for a place to practice your new skills? RightStone is placing candidates in IT roles right now. Get in touch or browse our list of available jobs.

 

Stepping Up for the Challenge – How to Ask for More Responsibility at Work

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You have a set of responsibilities associated with your role. They may ebb and flow throughout the year, but you know them well and find you can achieve them comfortably.

Getting too comfortable can lead to boredom and complacency. But you don’t need a new job to avoid feeling stuck. You can ask for more responsibility to create new challenges.

How do you ask your boss for more responsibility at work? Keep reading for a short guide.

Look for Opportunities

“I’d like more responsibility around here.” It’s what you’re thinking, but that statement won’t win you any favors. Managers aren’t in a rush to delegate new tasks because delegation takes work, especially training.

So rather than asking for more work or opportunities generally, identify those opportunities for yourself and ask for them. Can you see things within your wheelhouse that your manager is stuck doing? Even better, are there action points that you could take ownership of that would add value to current projects or even the business?

There’s almost always room to scale. Once you find the opportunities that could grow your career, it’s time to figure out how you’ll do them.

Create a Plan

Before you present your chosen option to your boss, you’ll need to flesh out the idea.

How will you get the extra work done? Where will you pick up the skills? How much will it cost? What value will it add? Where will the spare time come from?

You’ll also need to demonstrate the stability of your current workload. No one is going to give you extra tasks if you can’t manage what you have already.

Pitch It the Right Way

With your goals identified and a plan in place, it’s time to pitch.

As with anything, context is key, and timing is everything. Don’t pick a particularly stressful time to make the ask — even if it might add value.

When you pitch, help them envision what the goal will do for them. Share the impact of the results’ impact and provide them with milestones and performance measurements to track them.

If they can see the value off the bat, they’re more likely to tell you to run with it.

Use Responsibilities to Create New Opportunities

You don’t need to feel stuck in your role. If you’re ready for more, all you need to do is ask — just make sure you have a plan before you do it.

Are you looking for a new role with new responsibilities? RightStone is placing qualified IT candidates in challenging positions right now. Find the list of currently available jobs on our website.

 

Political Divisiveness in the Workplace – How to Set the Right Tone for Your Team

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Politics is everywhere right now. It’s on yard signs, billboards, and it dominates every form of media. There’s no doubt that tensions are high and likely will remain so even after the election ends. Denying it is impossible. So, what do you do at work?

Talking politics at work is a bad idea. HR says, “Don’t do it.” Leadership says, “Steer clear.” But do the old rules still apply?

It’s impossible to avoid politics altogether. Rather than stamping it out, you need to learn how to manage it.

First, Set Ground Rules for Everyone

If you aren’t aware of your company’s rules around political statements, refer to the HR handbook. If you don’t have any rules, now is an excellent time to set them. The key is to make sure the restrictions apply to everyone equally.

An essential ground rule is to ban political paraphernalia in the workplace. That means no candidate or political party t-shirts or hats or even laptop stickers — not even the ‘funny’ or ‘jokey’ ones. Everyone can have their political views, but they can save their physical expression for nights and weekends.

Keeping these out of the workplace will help prevent colleagues from sitting across the office and seething, which will prevent feelings from bubbling over at the water cooler.

A second rule required for these divided times is the rules governing when to walk away. If a discussion or question becomes a debate or confrontation, then all employees must walk away — no exceptions.

Keep Protections for Labor Speech

Remember that while you can end political debates during work hours, there is legally protected speech as defined by the National Labor Relations Act.

Employees can discuss wages, working conditions, and unions. You can get in trouble for putting the kibosh on these discussions, so make sure everyone knows what’s appropriate and what isn’t.

Remind Everyone of the Policies on Harassment

You can create a culture that avoids confrontation and encourages respect. However, you should also make sure you share resources if some employees can’t meet those standards.

Remind everyone of the rules on harassment, intimidation, and bullying — both online and offline. Create an open-door policy for anyone experiencing any of the above and make it clear to the entire team. 

No one has the right to harass or bully anyone else due to their political beliefs, so it’s vital that everyone knows what your behavioral expectations are and that they have support if it does happen.

Political Speech Happens, But You Can Still Control It

The year 2020 is not a time when employers can ban political speech and call it a job well done. People will talk about politics at work. Your role is to ensure that you create an environment that avoids confrontations, sets behavioral expectations, and upholds the right to protected speech.

These may be unprecedented times, but life and business go on. If you’re looking to add quality IT professionals to your team, RightStone can help. Get in touch to learn about the RightStone 360 process.

 

Facing the New Normal of Virtual Onboarding

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Living during a respiratory pandemic means making strategic decisions about the number of people you’ll meet every day. Experts say that fewer social contacts translate to a lower infection rate, so it’s no surprise that almost everything, from concerts to interviews, is currently happening via Zoom.

Employee onboarding is one of the many, many activities now taking place virtually. While the tech makes it possible, the process remains far from perfect. Here’s what companies like yours can do to improve the virtual onboarding experience. 

Create a New Hire Schedule of Activities

You wouldn’t onboard a new employee in a single hour in ‘normal’ times, so there’s no reason to do so just because you can send them links to all your documentation.

Every new employee should get a schedule of activities for their first week so they know what to expect. Include events like:

  • Going over the employee handbook
  • Completing paperwork with HR
  • Discussing company culture and expectations
  • Setting up technology with IT
  • Meetings with direct supervisors and other key stakeholders

Don’t forget to build time in for a conversation. Your goal isn’t just to inform but to build a relationship with your new employee. 

A few other good ideas include adding a ‘new hire social’ to the calendar. Set up a Zoom call for all new hires and their teammates to mix socially and chat. If you want to go the extra mile, you can set up a guided discussion or even a game to play during the session!

Go Further with Weekly and Monthly Check-ins

Don’t limit your program to the first week of work. Think of it like school: if your teacher never checked in after your first week in school, you could easily fall behind and you’d both be bewildered by the end of the term.

Schedule in sessions for check-ins, with supervisors, and with HR. Supervisor check-ins should be weekly, and company check-ins should be monthly. These give your new employees a chance to ask questions, clarify issues, and bring up any problems or roadblocks they face.

Use Starter Packs to Make Their New Job Tangible

For many people, a new job doesn’t come with much change. The only physical difference they see is in their direct deposit. You can make your culture and brand feel more real with some simple touches – like swag packs.

Send over a company polo, travel mug, laptop case, or whatever else makes sense for your group.

It’s a small touch, but it is a physical reminder that they’re part of the team.

Use Virtual Onboarding to Welcome New Employees

Virtual onboarding is here, and it could become the new normal for years. Companies can use it successfully, but you can’t rely on a single video call to do all the heavy lifting. You also need to find appropriate and on-brand ways to make employees feel welcome and engaged.

Did you know? Employee engagement starts at the interview stage. Get in touch to learn how RightStone recruits and interviews the perfect fit for every client.

Delivering a Negative Performance Review – 4 Ways to Turn It Around

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No one wants to critique an employee’s negative performance. And no one wants to get a negative performance review. But if an employee is slipping and hasn’t self-corrected, there is no way around it. 

Performance reviews boost productivity and drive engagement. A negative performance review can do that, too, if you frame it correctly.

Here are four ways to deal with an employee who is missing the mark without sending them into a downward spiral.

Start with a Self-Assessment

The worst part of a negative performance review tends to be the surprise with which it is met. If the employee thinks things are still going okay or if they’re trying so hard to tread water that they don’t see their performance, then hitting them with criticism can do lasting damage.

One way to ease into the process is to give your employee a chance to take a lead. A self-assessment gives you both a clear, honest idea of where they think they are and how they perceive their work.

Then, you can find places to naturally start a conversation. Plus, it allows you to see if their performance has less to do with failure and more to do with a difference in expectations.

Identify and Develop Strengths

No one is good at everything. Everyone learns and grows differently. These two principles are important to keep in mind during your performance review.

So rather than focusing solely on what’s going wrong, look for the reasons why, and start asking whether it’s an issue of you prioritizing your employee’s strengths.

Remember: you can’t ask a marathoner to sprint or vice versa without seeing a drop in performance. It doesn’t mean their not a good employee. It just requires realigning roles and expectations.

Use Your Emotional Intelligence

Your ability to deliver bad news has less to do with the message and more to do with your delivery. You’ll rely heavily on your emotional intelligence as you navigate the review.

One of the most difficult things you’ll learn to do is manage your own expectations when your employee doesn’t just have bad habits — they’re also a problem employee.

It’s important to stay calm and collected regardless of what way the talk goes. You don’t want to inflame the situation because no one wins.

Frame It as a Chance to Succeed

The only thing worse than getting a poor performance review is knowing that you’ve been doing something wrong for weeks — or even months — and no one told you.

So rather than framing a negative performance review as something ‘bad,’ reframe the whole experience as a chance to succeed. If you can reframe it in your mind, you will not only be able to better deliver the news, but you’ll dread it less and won’t feel as drained afterward.

Negative Performance Reviews Can Be Positive Opportunites

No one becomes a leader so they can dole out criticism all day. Unfortunately, it’s part of the territory. However, you can deliver these reviews in a way that creates an opportunity for growth for both the employee and the whole team.

Are you looking for IT professionals to join your team and execution your vision? RightStone is placing quality IT consultants right now. Get in touch to learn more about the RightStone 360 process.