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When Coworkers Leave, How Do You Handle a Heavier Workload?

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The loss of a teammate often means an increased workload for you. This can be a significant source of stress.

You may be asked to take on additional tasks and responsibilities. Due to an already heavy workload, the additional activities can seem endless.

Figuring out where to start can feel intimidating. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to plan your work and accomplish everything by the deadline.

Here are some strategies to handle the increased workload caused by the loss of a teammate.

Plan Your Work

Make a list of the tasks you want to accomplish for the week. Then, break down the list into the tasks you want to finish each day.

You may want to focus on the purpose of each task, the deadline, the desired results, the key performance indicators, and the potential challenges to determine which tasks to complete at a certain time. This helps provide clarity for the tasks, deliverables, and desired results. It also helps you understand your priorities and timelines.

Block out on your schedule the required amount of time to complete each task. Be sure to include time to take breaks and to handle unexpected events.

Prioritize Your Tasks

Determine which of your tasks are priorities and which are not. You may want to use an Eisenhower Matrix to separate your tasks into four categories: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither urgent nor important.

Your urgent and important tasks should be scheduled for completion right away. Your important but not urgent tasks should be scheduled for later. Delegate your urgent but not important tasks to a teammate. Eliminate your tasks that are not urgent or important.

Take Breaks

Walk away from your desk at regular intervals. This gives your brain time to rest and recuperate. It also helps your body stay energized and your mind focused.

Take a walk, meditate, stretch, listen to music, or read a book during your breaks. Be sure to eat healthy foods during your lunch hour. This helps maintain engagement and productivity and reduces feelings of stress.

Consider Finding a New Job

If you regularly find yourself with an increased workload, it may be time to find a new IT job. Be sure to involve RightStone in your search. Here is a link to our job board.

Is Your Resume Hurting Your Job Search?

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Your resume often provides a hiring manager with the first impression of you. You have a page or two to convince them your education, skills, and experience make you best qualified for the role. The manager will be more inclined to contact you for an interview if they believe you have what it takes to be successful in a role.

Follow these resume writing tips to help you land a job.

Select a Professional Font

Use a basic, clear font that is easy to read. Examples include Arial or Times New Roman. Also, keep your font size between 10 and 12 points. Plus, make sure there is a minimum of white space so the hiring manager focuses on your information.

Include Keywords  

Find keywords from the job description to pepper throughout your resume. Pay special attention to the keywords showing what the employer is looking for in an ideal candidate. Emphasize the skills, requirements, and qualifications you have that make you best equipped for the role.

Share Relevant Information  

List only the information that pertains to the job you want. Because a hiring manager probably will skim your resume, you want them to see you have the required education, skills, and experience to do the work.

Focus on Your Accomplishments

Point out your top three or four most important achievements in each position you held. Include the numbers used to measure your success for each accomplishment. You may want to include written feedback on your work performance or acknowledgment from your manager on reaching a goal.

Choose Active Verbs

Include power words such as “achieved,” “earned,” or “completed” throughout your resume. For instance, “Led multiple team projects and effectively coordinated group tasks.” This helps the hiring manager visualize your productivity and engagement at work. These aspects are important for securing an interview.

Proofread  

Read your resume aloud several times to see how it can be improved. Pay close attention to your spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Also, ask a family member or friend to review your final draft before submission. They may point out something you missed or suggest a better way to share your information.

Talk with a Recruiter

When you partner with a recruiter from RightStone, they can provide resume advice and much more to help with your IT job search. See which jobs interest you today.

Make Text Messaging an Effective Recruitment Tool with These 5 Tips

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Do you ever worry that your emails get lost in the shuffle? Think your lead times are longer because email is now ‘work’? Text messaging could be the answer.

Texting is a fast, inexpensive way to reach out to candidates. When your message arrives, it sits in an inbox surrounded by friends and family rather than random advertisements and emails from businesses the candidate visited once. What’s more, candidates are now more likely to apply for jobs on their phones than ever before.

We put together some simple rules to make text messaging a more effective tool for recruiters.

#1 Get Permission First

Did you know marketers can’t just text you? The law says they need to get your permission first.

While recruiting isn’t advertising per se, the rule still applies informally. You should always be getting permission when sending out the first text. Be sure to provide a reason for texting, too, and let them know how often they’ll hear from you and what kind of information you’ll send.

#2 Time It Right

It goes without saying that texting after dark is an unprofessional move. But you shouldn’t just avoid obviously anti-social hours.

Keep your texts strictly within business hours to keep it professional and avoid stressing out your candidates.

#3 Pick Up the Phone for Big News

Firing off a quick text may save you time, but candidates don’t want to hear big news via text. 

When you have interview feedback or the results of a big decision, pick up the phone and call. No one wants to hear they didn’t get the job via SMS.

#4 Make Unsubscribing Easy

Unwanted texts are effectively spam, even if you’re a real person just trying to do their job. You don’t want to be spam, so you need to make it easy to opt-out of your messages.

If you’re texting manually, add a note to their candidate profile. Using software? Make sure your unsubscribe settings are on.

#5 Proofread Your Texts Every Time

Texting candidates isn’t like texting your friends. You shouldn’t rely on their ability to interpret typos and understand what you really meant.

It’s much easier to send out a typo-ridden text because you’re working with a smaller screen and fewer spell check tools. That’s why it’s essential that you read every text — and then read it again — before sending it to your candidate.

Turn the Perfect Candidate into Your Next Team Member

Texting can be a helpful tool to turn quality prospective candidates into great hires, but only if you use it the right way. Are you looking for more ways to simplify hiring? RightStone can help you attract the right fit for your project. Get in touch to learn more about our 360 process.

Coronavirus Update For Our Clients

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March 12, 2020

Dear Valued Customer:

The coronavirus situation is highly fluid. As a valued client, we want to take this opportunity to inform you that we are staying abreast of public health information and guidelines and will continue to monitor and assess the actual and potential impact on our clients, temporary associates and contractors, and staff employees.

The well-being of our staffing community and neighbors is paramount to us. We will continue to share up-to-date developments, as necessary. We are following government and health organization web sites and we encourage you to review the same. Many of the most commonly suggested preventive measures are inexpensive and easy to obtain. These web sites include:

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

We trust you are advising your employees similarly and that you will apply the recommended safety policies outlined in the links above. We will stand together to navigate this public health challenge and further the well-being of everyone.

Should you wish to discuss this issue or have any questions, please let your local representative know, or feel free to contact our Director of Insurance and Risk Management, Anissa Wieck, at awieck@cssitalent.com.
As always, I am also a phone call away and welcome your direct input or suggestions.

Sincerely,
Steven R. Drexel
President & CEO

Coronavirus Update For Our Employees

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March 12, 2020

Dear Employee:

The coronavirus situation is highly fluid. As a valued member of our team, we want to take this opportunity to inform you that we are staying abreast of public health information and guidelines and will continue to monitor and assess the actual and potential impact.

The well-being of our staffing community and neighbors is paramount to us. We will continue to share up-to-date developments, as necessary.
Please take a moment to update your contact information by going to www.cornerstone-staffing.com and clicking on My Cornerstone. You can update your contact information by clicking on “Personal Info” and then “Contact Method.”

We are following government and health organization web sites, and we encourage you to review the same. These web sites include:

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

World Health Organization (WHO) – https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) – https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/covid-19/

Based on guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we encourage you to:

  • Avoid close contact with people who are sick; Stay home when you are sick
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth
  • Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash
  • Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces using a household cleaning spray or wipe
  • Not wear a face mask unless you show symptoms of respiratory illness, including COVID-19
  • Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing (if soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol)

We trust you are already following the guidance and will apply the recommended safety policies outlined in the links above. Many of the most commonly suggested preventive measures are inexpensive. We will stand together to navigate this public health challenge and further the well-being of everyone.

Should you wish to discuss this issue or have any questions, please let your local branch representative know.

Sincerely,
Steven R. Drexel
President & CEO

Tips for Hiring a Programmer When You Don’t Know Coding

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In order to be able to identify and recruit high-quality employees, managers in the IT industry need to understand the specific types of experience and technical expertise that they should be looking for in a candidate. This can often be a straightforward task: if a role requires a candidate to be certified in a particular type of cloud-services platform, for example, any manager can easily find out if any given candidate meets that requirement by simply asking for his or her certification. Difficulties can arise, however, if a hiring manager does not have some basic fluency in the more technical programmer jargon. In other words, it can be tricky for managers to get a clearly defined understanding of a candidate’s experience and skills without first becoming familiar with the language of the trade.

The aim of this post, therefore, will be to provide IT managers who are newcomers to the “language” of programming with some tips for hiring top-talent candidates.

Tips for Hiring Programmers

1. Understand the job requirements.

Before you interview a candidate for any role, it will be essential to first familiarize yourself with the idiosyncrasies and unique responsibilities of that particular position. In many cases, this will require you to meet with a supervisor or colleague who will work closely with the new employee. You’ll want to find out: what are the most challenging technical aspects of this role? What are the character traits that will be conducive to success in this position? You won’t need to become an expert on each of the technical duties required by the role, but you should have an understanding of the general skills that will be required for success.

 

2. Request a portfolio from each candidate.

Having a tangible, visual sample of each candidate’s work experience can provide you with a much clearer understanding of their past accomplishments and unique abilities. It may also be worth consulting with a colleague who is more well-versed in programming to more clearly understand a candidate’s portfolio.

 

3. Don’t forget to discuss the work environment.

It will (obviously) be a priority to find candidates who have the requisite background, experience, and technical skills, but it’s equally important to make sure that you find someone who will fit well within your company culture. With that in mind, be sure to ask any candidate what they value and expect from a workplace, whether or not they’re looking for a role with flexible work options, and if they work more effectively as an individual or within a team-oriented environment.

 

4. Test their skills.

If you’re not intimately familiar with the language of programmers or coders, it can be very helpful to prepare a short examination which will test a candidate’s technical skills. Tests can take place on paper or online and can either be developed in collaboration with other, more technically-fluent.

Connect with Talent Today

At RightStone, we’re working with IT candidates and top employers to make connections that last. To learn more about how to get connected with top talent, we’re here to help.

 

 

 

The Top Hiring Tactics Every IT Manager Should Be Using in 2019

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The IT talent market continues to be a competitive field from which to draw candidates. There are lots of businesses with open IT positions that are vying for candidates, and many hiring managers are finding creative ways to find and recruit talent. Sometimes improving your recruiting strategy means paying attention to trends and being willing to divert from the same old things. Here are some hiring tactics to consider for your talent search in 2019.

  • Treat Your Company or Department Like an Employee-Facing Brand:

    Brands need to market themselves as a solution to whatever problems a customer might be facing and build a reputation of excellence. Employers and hiring managers need to take the same approach with talent. Why would someone want to work for you? It’s about more than just perks and pays – candidates want to know they’re part of something bigger than themselves and the work they do matters. Use your LinkedIn platform as a way to showcase interesting projects your company has worked on, partnerships with other brands, innovative designs, and developments in progress, or awards your company or department has received.

  • Encourage Employee Referrals:

    Chances are, if you have employees working for you, you value their work ethic, skills, and experience – and maybe they have some friends or peers who are similarly motivated or talented. Current employees can be one of your best resources for finding new talent. Encourage your employees to pass on the resumes or contact info of other qualified candidates they know; some companies incentivize this recruitment effort with contests or bonuses, but when you’ve built a great culture, most employees are happy to spread the word about the great place they work and want to help their organization continue to grow and thrive.

Recruiting isn’t just placing an ad on a job board or going to a job fair and waiting passively for candidates to stumble upon your business. You can take steps to connect with candidates and make your team a place where people are excited to come to you.

Find Top Talent Today!

If you’re looking for help finding the best IT talent, contact us today. Our expertise and candidate network can help you find the right fit for your team in 2019 and beyond.

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