This is a dilemma that almost all employers face, it does not matter if your office is in Ireland and situated in Dublin, Dundalk, Louth, Cork, Belfast, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Drogheda or Galway. There is always competition present in the job market when it comes to employees or whether we are talking about employers. The press to attract employees with goodies will always be there.

A matter of fact is if you consider large companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Spotify or any other renown company you almost always have a dedicated budget for personal development i.e. a budget tied to the skill development of each employee. This employee might be a desk worker or a field worker and ranging from a new hire to a senior manager. So why is that important? These multi-billion companies have loads of cash and can surely spend some bucks on keeping the skillset of their employees up to date. But how can a small or even medium company do this? How can budgets be tied or allocated for skill development for every employee? If you have ever wondered about this or tired to figure out the answer but have not found the answer you have come to the right place. Let us give you some free advice worth a lot of money. These advices might even be considered as saved money that you did not have to spend on skill development and skill maintenance of your employees, but still managed to get/keep them up to date. 

Previously we have published a blog post for employees, describing and enlisting the most generic IT skills required for a worker in this digital age. If you have not read this blog post you have some catching up to do. You can read the blog post here:  http://jobprospect.ie/mastering-office-products-for-fulfilling-job-requirements/ 

As we stated in that blog post referenced, there are a lot of free resources available online, just waiting to be used. The least and employer can do is to require a certain level of competence within each tool from a specific job position. Keeping the legal things in mind, you certainly cannot impose employees spending their off duty time on learning these skills but you certainly can impose setting off some time each day for a period to learn a new skill or brush up old ones to the latest technology. Back to the phrase or example from social media, do you really want to sit around with a workforce which gradually is getting outdated? In today’s competitive market this is not an option, and before you know it you get caught up by your competitors who leverage and try to capitalize your every weakness and use it to their benefit. We do realize that there are some certain aspects that need to be considered, the genitor might not gain benefit by becoming a racer in a specific tool or technology, but by learning let’s say more about building management and automation systems he might be able to gain valuable knowledge that might prove useful in the effective operation of your office building.  

Every business, being an employer, should have an overall policy for all managers. This includes manager at executive level as well as in the middle level and lower level managers. Each level should be responsible for creating a 3-5 year’s plan for people/employee skill maintenance and development plan. This can be as generic as describing the goals or as detailed as describing the goals along with a detailed execution plan. Whatever the detail level is, a plan should be made available and executed.  

Having up to date skills makes the employees more valuable for the business/company. The older the knowledge or technology the more the experience counts, but the newer the technology the more the new skills counts towards a successful execution of a plan or project. Companies that have a plan aiming towards a clear goal in the horizon tend to be more inspiring for employees as well being more robust and adaptive to change as compared to the ones who choose or stick to just traditional values and tools.

Consider a hiring process where a candidate or potential employee asks about carrier development and investment in the future of people, what will be your answer? We do not have the budgets as the fortune 500 companies or would you rather want to gladly describe how you invest in people within the budget you have to make them even a more valuable asset for you company? We know for a fact that the later choice explanation would encourage the right candidate while the other choice may result in a hire that really is not so much into investing in the future themselves. Some companies operate with bonuses for employees while other do not afford to have this kind of luxuries available.

In either case, if you educate your employees and make sure that they understand that you being the employer value them the most will make them invest more effort in makes them even better and not to mention the amount of effort they will be willing to put in to do their job. If you have your development plan and strategy ready you might even would have started to crouching numbers.

For example, if being an employer you provide each employee 40 hours for skill and personal skills development and you have 50 employees you are spending 40 x 50 (200) hours for non-productive work per annuum. However, if you think about how much these 40 hours are in terms of time spent each year divided by month you will roughly end up under 3 hours per month per employee. If you further break down this to weeks the number becomes even less than an hour. Then again, if you have done your homework and these hours are spent correctly and meaningfully you would be investing this exact amount of effort in the future of your business.  

If you have any questions related to the content presented here please feel free to make contact as we can guide you and even hook you up with the right resources to guide you to create the right level of policy for your business.  

The post Investing in Your True Asset by Investing in Employee’s Skills appeared first on Job Prospect.

In early 2019, Revenue launched live reporting of payroll for employers all over Ireland. It was made mandatory for all employers to switch to the new reporting system from 1^st January 2019. From an employee’s perspective, documents like P45s and P60s were discontinued. This project was named PAYE modernisation and it was designed after extensive consultation with stakeholders. Although early on, the system had many discrepancies, with time, Revenue has improved the entire system. During the Covid-19 lockdown, it is actually because of this PAYE modernisation system that Revenue was able to launch the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) so quickly and efficiently. 

Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection recently announced changes to the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP). The changes involved reduction of the flat €350 for people who were earning less than €200 per week before the start of Covid-19 lockdown. Again, this up to date information is only available to DEASP – Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection because of the PAYE modernisation reporting system. As part of the launch of the system, all employees in Ireland were asked to sign up to Revenue’s online service for employees called myAccount. Services offered through myAccount have been improved and increased over the last few months.  
 
This blog is mainly focused towards people who start their first job or who have recently changed their job.  If you are an employee who is starting your first job in Ireland or if you have recently changed your job or even if you have started a second job, I would suggest that you sign in to your myAccount and update your record. myAccount enables employees to register their new job or to cease an old job, allocate or transfer tax credits, cut off points and USC bands as required. It also enables users to claim new tax credits.  
  
Registering as a user for the service is quite simple. You go to Revenue’s website. Click on the myAccount link. 

Now you will have three options. 
1- If you already have myAccount setup, you can sign in to myAccount with your PPS number, Date of Birth and Password. 

2- If you have a verified MyGovID account, you can also use your MyGovID details to sign in 

But if you do not have any of the above setup, Click on Register now

Once you have completed the process, you will either be posted a pin number to your home address or you may be given a temporary pin number provided you fulfil a specific criterion. Check Revenue’s website (www.revenue.ie) for details.  

Once registered and signed in, you can register your job by following the “Update Job or Pension” Details link. You will be asked to provide an employer tax number,  job start date and few other questions depending on your record held by Revenue. 

Who is it for? 
This service is for anyone who: 

a- Is starting a new job 
b- Is starting to receive payments from a private pension (not a DEASP, i.e. social welfare, pension) 
c- Has left a job or pension and has received their final payment

What do I need? 
To add a new job or pension you will need:  

a- Your new employer or pension provider’s tax registration number 
b- The date your job starts or pension becomes payable and how often you will be paid 
c- To tell us an estimate of your overall incomes 
d- If you have recently moved to Ireland, you will need to provide some additional details such as arrival date.  

How long does it take? 
About 10 minutes for most people. Some people may have more or less questions to answer. The sections are as follows;  

1- Section One: 
Add your new job or pension  

2- Section Two: 
Tell us how long you have been living in the Republic of Ireland 

3- Section Three: 
Tell us about your overall incomes 

4- Section Four: 
Review your details and submit 
  
To make a change to your credits and cut off points, follow the link “Manage Your Tax 202X”.  

You will be brought to a page showing your employments registered with Revenue. Scroll down to the section and you will see “How your tax credits and rate band are currently divided”. If you would like to make changes to this section, press the Edit button. You can now give Revenue estimated figures of your expected gross income for each job. Revenue will then calculate an allocation for each job and prompt you to confirm if you are happy to continue. Revenue’s allocation system does not always work the way you like. So you have the option to accept Revenue’s allocation, to divide the credits and cut off points equally or if you like to distribute your tax credits and cut off points in a specific percentage, you will be given the option to type a message. This message is then sent to Revenue and they make the changes for your manually.  

If you go to myAccount and click on “Review Your Tax 201X – 201X “,  

You will be brought to a page where you will be able to review and file your tax return for the previous 4 years and claim overpaid taxes.  

More details about this in my next blog.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:    
The content of this blog has been written by Rehan Khan. The author has been part of many successful multinational companies where he learned and excelled. He has worked in IT, Finance, Accounting and Advisory sectors. Currently, the author is not only running his own successful businesses but also acting as an advisor for several past employers on a regular basis. In case you need to contact the author, use the comments section below.  

The post First Job or Changed Employer? appeared first on Job Prospect.

Which tools are these tools that will not be covered during onboarding process? Well, are you given training on how to use a computer? What about how to surf the internet? What about using emails and other office products? It is almost expected and compulsory for you being an employee to know how to operate these tools. What was previously done on a typewriter and on paper is currently being done electronically on computers and emails. Furthermore, more advanced tools are being utilized. In this article we will focus on which necessary tools you need to master, as Microsoft tools are by far the most common tools being used in the market along with Google application we will be focusing on these tools. However, the same principle applies also to other products, these do also include open office. 

Moving forward with Microsoft tools as an example we have  

Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, SharePoint, Teams, Word, Visio. 

Access: 

This is a database type of a tool mainly used to store data. Being an average office worker you are not expected to have a working knowledge of this product, however, if you work within accounts you might end up working with Access. The good news is that in look and feels the tool resembles much on Excel spreadsheets which are the next item on our list.
Link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/microsoft-365/access  

Excel: 

 Excel is heavily used by departments that work with numbers. This also applies to managers who work with budgets etc.  Excel offers a large number of functions that are prebuilt into the product. Furthermore, you have the option and capability to create Makro and formulas. By utilizing these and similar function, several tedious tasks can be automated when you only punch in numbers, while Excel does the magic for you. These can be simple tasks as bookkeeping or more complex tasks as calculating taxes and salaries. Depending on your role and your job title, your employer will be expecting you being an employee to know how to use Excel or similar products to assist you in your job and becoming more efficient. 
Link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/microsoft-365/excel

OneDrive: 

Onedrive or Gmails G-drive are the tools which are some of the most popular tools used for sharing files and content. Dropbox is also one of the heavyweights who has made its place within the leading cloud-based storage services. You should at least be comfortable with using these and similar products. You should also be able to share the files both with restricted and unrestricted access, as during a successful carrier with a known employer will require most if not all it employees to be able to share files. 
Link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/microsoft-365/onedrive/online-cloud-storage
Link: https://www.google.com/drive/

Outlook: 

The outlook is the world’s second most used mail client, only second to Google’s Gmail. Knowing how to use an email client is definitely one thing that is expected from an employee. Most of the communication between employees or even employer and employee occur through digitals means as email. You should at a bare minimum be able to send an email, create contact and be able to send emails to specific people in a specific manner. By that I mean, you should know about and how to use cc and bcc field I.e. carbon copy and blind carbon copy field. How you can forward and email or part of an email to other people. You should also be able to withstand phishing attacks I.e. identify fraud ant emails where someone poses to be someone from within your circle of trust. Being an employee, you represent your company to clients and customers, you must be professional enough to at least fill these bare minimum standards of using an email client. You should also be able to add Out of office message, I.e. emails that are sent to the sender who sends you emails while you are out of the office on vacations or just sick and unable to be at work. 
Link: https://outlook.live.com/owa/

PowerPoint 

To make impressive presentations, PowerPoint is the tool of choice. An employer expects from all its employees to be able to make professional presentations. As the tools similar to PowerPoint have been around for almost 20 years if not more, being able to use PowerPoint or similar products can be the difference that lets you get the promotion or fellow employee/colleague who makes stunning presentations all the time. If you are one of those who still are caught behind the stream, get busy learning PowerPoint, as it is as easy as drag and drop. In the newest version of the tool, it makes it even easier to make presentations by suggesting presentation templates based on content. 
Link: https://office.live.com/start/powerpoint.aspx

Project 

Microsoft project is another tool which is mostly used by project managers. If you are a project manager or aiming to become one, you should try to familiarize yourself with this product as it makes your life much easier. Besides that, a lot of employers tend to use Microsoft Project as is integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft products. Remember that learning tools that will make project planning easier is as important as Prince2 certification. 
Link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/project/project-management-software

SharePoint 

SharePoint is a product which enables collaboration between team members. An employer will certainly expect you being capable of browsing some sites and sharing documents by using SharePoint og similar products. Luckily, SharePoint is mostly a browser-based product, this makes it almost as a website. However, the main difference lies in the collaboration capabilities. You can share files, documents and much more using SharePoint and these can be shared internally within an organization or with people outside of your organization. Again, make yourself familiar with SharePoint. The is nothing better than a CV enlisting a lot of tools that are largely used within an organization. This makes your CV and you as a potential employee much more attractive. 
Link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/microsoft-365/sharepoint/collaboration

Teams 

As its sister product SharePoint, Teams offers a lot of similar functionality with some additional functionality like allowing to chat with your teams or your contacts. In addition, you can use this tool to arrange and attend meetings. During the Covid19 pandemic, Teams was one of the most broadly used meeting tools, right up there with Zoom and Cisco Webex. Most employers encourage the use of Teams as it helps reduce travel-expenses and increases productivity but allowing you to focus on work rather than travelling from one location to another to attend the meeting.
Link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software

Word 

If you can use a computer the chances are that you will be able to use Word. It is broadly used within organizations. Try to learn the more advanced feature of Words, so that it can be used more professionally. A team manager at an employer will surely be interested in hiring someone is capable of producing almost as professional documents as a press or newspaper publisher. 
Link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/microsoft-365/word

Visio 

If you’re an engineer, or work with processes or have any job that requires you to draw, remember the name Visio. It is a great tool with a lot of stencils available which can be used in diagrams. Anything from a flowchart to a detailed blueprint can be made/drawn in Visio. It might not be the tool that your employer would require you to master, but if you are familiar with the product or are an advanced user your employer will definitely include you in the circle of valued and skilful employees possessing digital expertise to copy with any challenge.  
Link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/microsoft-365/visio/flowchart-software

During this post we talked through the most broadly used digital office tools. If you are unfamiliar with most of these, you should seriously consider spending some time learning these tools. Most vendors like Microsoft and Google provide free online training that will take you from a zero to hero within a very short period of time. Make sure to invest 15 minutes each day, and become a digital office tools ninja in no time.   

The post Mastering Office Products for Fulfilling Job Requirements in 2020 appeared first on Job Prospect.

A wise professor of mine used to say, it is not important to know how thing is done in technology, the most important thing to know is what is possible. If you are a programmer, you can solve a task a million different ways using different programming languages. Same applies for an IT pro, who daily work with IT systems and keep our society working. So what are these 5 skills that every employee or potential employee should possess that an employer would love to hire?  

1) Know The Basics  

It sounds too simple that it might even sound stupid, but however, this still remains to be a fact, if you do not know the basics you never will be able to fully grasp or comprehend the technology. As we are talking in general terms, let’s apply this to a programmer first. If you do not know what datatypes are supported within a programming language you would surely use the wrong datatypes causing a miserable design and even a worse application. Applying the same example on an IT pro, if you do not know how a computer works, how can you optimize a system or how can you make a system stable?

2) It is all Logic 

A lot of information technology is logic/logical. There is no room for emotions or thoughts. Make sure to make logical choices especially when it comes to computers. It can be a simple task as writing a program or a complex task as programming a spaceship landing for NASA. In either of the cases, the solution will follow or should follow certain mathematical algorithms in order to make decisions rather than guesstimates. 

3) Become a Jack of all Trades 

Unless you really want to become a senior technician or an expert within a limited area, you should be trying to gain and gather a lot of knowledge of more products. I am not saying that you should not master one or two fields, and I am rather saying or advising you to master some fields but do not make that the only thing you know. If you have forgotten it already, you can scroll up and read about the example of Nokia and their descent from being the largest mobile phones vendors to becoming a company who barely produces mobile phone.  If you can, you should rather focus on point (1), so that your concepts are as clear as possible. When a point (1) is in place, you are well set to start using different tools. As we have been using programmers as examples, let continue to use this analogy. Having the foundation in place, you as a programmer would be able to program in any programming language as it only would be a question of semantics. However, if you only focused on a specific feature of one specific programming language, you would have had a hard time to adjust and to adopt a new programming language.  

4) Embrace Change 

Whenever change arrives it can be seen as a new opportunity or it can be considered or perceived as a burden. The way you perceive change will impact how you function both with regards to productivity as well as well-being. 

5) Continuous Development 

Curiosity killed the cat, but it does not kill the technical guys and gals. Normally the more curious you are the more successful you are as a technical person. Keep on learning new stuff and try to stay up to date. Attending seminars and courses is a great way to keep on developing your skills and keeping yourself up to date.  Another good practice is to keep on taking certifications. This makes sure that you are up to date with regards to technology and that you are attractive for employers.   

Here are some of the companies hiring in Ireland right now!

1- Amazon
2- Google
3- PayPal
4- Stripe
5- Facebook
6- Salesforce
7- Microsoft
8- Intel
9- Dropbox
10- Apple

I hope that you can follow these simple advice and tips and become more successful in your job. If you are a technical person, I would really like to get feedback regarding your thoughts on the material provided within this blog article. From a level of 1 to 5, how much do you think these things apply to you? Looking forward to hearing from you.

The post Top 5 Skills for Technology Jobs in Ireland appeared first on Job Prospect.

One of the things that was probably most unanticipated during and before the Covid19 pandemic was the impact of it on businesses both new ones, already established ones, the ones growing, the ones been there for decades and any other category of business that you can imagine. One thing that became evident is the saying that “one thing that is constant in the world, is change, embrace it!” 

A Leader’s Role 

If you think of a leader, what will you use to describe this role? And what will the definition be when it comes to a generic description of the role vs your personal experience with various leaders and manager through the years? In general, terms a good manager and leader is considered to be a person who leads by example. The one carrying the flag and leading the troops in the right direction. The same person can be described as the general that is encouraging the troops and keeping the morale high through any circumstances and conditions. Probably one of the most important jobs of a good leader is to make sure that the entire team succeeds and that no one is left behind. It is also the leader’s responsibility to make sure that the employee’s interest is taken care of and that an employee’s desire for challenges is met in their daily work.  

Need for Teamwork 

Why is teamwork so important is a question which might have different answers depending on whom you may ask and what position they might be in. But with respect to business, teamwork is key to success. Consider a team of engineers developing some software, a team of salesmen trying to achieve their sales targets or goal, consider a team of teachers, factory workers producing something or whatever scenario where more than one person is involved in producing or delivering a product or a service! As soon as more than a single person is involved in work, the teamwork becomes crucial. One component must deliver so that the other component depending on the first can continue to be developed/delivered to the right person being the customer in this case. 

Manager’s Toolkit   

In traditional terms a manager might have had a limited arsenal of tools, however, in the modern era, a plethora of tools are available just waiting to be used. The challenge is no longer if there are any tools that are suited for the needs, and has rather become how to identify the available and relevant tools. Let’s explore a modern manager’s toolkit that can be utilized during the Covid19 pandemic. We will also spend some time exploring available options. 

I) Available Tools for Teamwork 

A large number of tools, both paid and free versions are available. The functionality greatly differs from product to product depending on the service type, region availability along with competing for availability in your area. To use one of the available tools as an example, you might choose to utilize, Google Meet, Teams, Lync, Slack or Zoom. All the products mentioned here can be used to collaborate between teams, however, each and every one has its benefits and drawbacks. Hence, the question for a manager becomes what to use and what not to use?  

ii) Choosing the Right Tools 

 While choosing the tools, it is very important to consider the needs of your workforce. Who better understands the needs of their workforce than a very engaged leader? The tools selected must be easy to use and must fulfil all the needs and functionality that is required by your team to complete the job in hand. More than often, it is difficult to find a single tool which fulfils all the requirements and you end up choosing a number of tools making the life of those who you care about most (at work) a living nightmare. When several tools have the same functionality the choice of tool falls on the mercy of the employee’s preference. The preference falls normally down on ease of use and end user-friendliness. Therefore it is quite important to consider these factors before the acquisition of new technology and products. 

Tools in Desperate Times 

The tips provided in the previous sections are valid in the time of peace, I.e. in the time of normal operation. What do you do in the time of chaos and the time of Covid19 pandemic? You can definitely not start procuring new tools. You are surely dependent on using the existing tools. Office 365 is used by more than 180 million customers around the world. If you have a business that has an online presence or you use computers at your workplace the chances are high for you being one of these 180 million customers. By the way, these 180 Million customers are not numbers of active users, each of these 180 million have a varying number of active users ranging from 1 to several thousand or even hundreds of thousands.  

If you are so lucky that your business is using office 365, the next section applies specifically to you. Even if you are not a paying customer and using Office 365, there still all tools that can be utilized free of charge.  

Using Office 365 as a Collaboration Tool 

Office 365 is a complete suite of different products consisting of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, Sharepoint, PowerApps, PowerAutomate, Planner, Teams and several others. The most important tools are the tools for collaboration. We can write a blog post on each of these tools but we are not specifically focusing on the technology here and rather on the employer’s options so let’s keep our focus on the Office 365 collaboration tools and how these tools can be used to increase employee’s productivity and help the business grow.  

1) Use of Outlook 

Reaching individual by email is still 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined. This is a powerful statistic and should not be ignored in talent acquisition. Receiving a text or a call with a job offer can come across as intense, invasive, or spammy. This doesn’t mean that emails coming from recruiters or your future employer won’t come off as spammy, but we do know that emails are generally perceived as the more formal and official way to communicate something as important as a career move.  

If you use email, you might be familiar with Outlook it is the second most used email client in the world after Gmail. A lot of paper working has been replaced with email communication. During the day, employees communicate with each other using email. The email is also quite an important tool to communicate with external resources as clients and customers. The email client is used by individual users or can be utilized by several users by utilizing the shared mailbox functionality. By utilizing shared mailbox functionality, save mailbox is available for a team of employees. This approach works well but is quite a traditional approach for collaborating with your team.  

2) Use of Sharepoint 

Sharepoint is a document handling and management system, a system providing processes to create, manage and update documents during their entire lifecycle. It is a bit unfair to describe Sharepoint as only a document handling system, as it offers so much more. You can create libraries, create blogs, internal wikis, create collaboration sites etc. Automated processes can be created, emails can be sent directly to rooms (project folders), RSS feeds can be enabled and utilized, tasks can be created and assigned by utilizing integration with a planner. Sharepoint also provides RBAC (role-based access control) which enables creating of virtual teams. This teams can be projects or departments or something as simple as job roles. As Sharepoint retains the data indefinitely, it is a good archive solution. In order to use Sharepoint, it is important to create good processes to define the flow and to define the structure in advance. Not properly planning and just starting to use Sharepoint will surely cause creation of a lot of unstructured data, which might become difficult to process. However, predefined Sharepoint roles as author, contributor, reader and visitors to make life a bit easier.

3) Use of Teams 

Microsoft’s latest addition to the collaboration family is Teams. Teams simply put is the recommended tool for collaboration. Teams provide a lot of functionality that Sharepoint provides, but with an even more modern touch. In addition, in Teams, Channels can be created and users can be added to these channels. Both internal and external workers/users can be added to these channels. Teams also provide a very rich platform for online meeting, Chat, and file and screen sharing. Teams have also officially replaced Lync, but with added functionality. Collaboration is made easy as you easily can differentiate based on individual users or teams/channels. Teams have a rich integration with other applications which can directly integrate with teams. As with Sharepoint, it is imperative to have a good structure within Teams. It is wise to invest some time in planning the exact use of Teams. A more systematic adaption approach is better than using every available functionality. In many SMB organizations, internal employee start using Teams for it has officially been adopted by the organization. This means, you no longer can have a planned structure or deployment. However, there is still possible to create a structure that works.  

As with most the products, there is no one size fits all solution. The solution must be designed according to your organization and your employee team requirements. If you have not started to use Teams, it might be the collaboration tool that you were missing. If you only want it to be used for internal communication, or for it to become a tool for collaboration or whatever use, make sure to access it properly and deploy it gradually. 

The post How to Collaborate effectively with Your Team using Microsoft appeared first on Job Prospect.

Recruitment process 
I am not going to focus too much on the interview process, if you are interested in reading my opinion you might want to consider reading other blog posts that we have available. However, I still have to include some basic principles of recruiting for the purpose to show the change and the challenges caused by Covid19 pandemic.  

During the recruitment process at either the first or second phase, you end up talking to a person from HR. Normally the first conversation is made on a phone while the second tends to be in person. During this process both the recruiter and the one being recruited (a potential employee) get the chance the evaluate the other partner I.e. the employer evaluates and gets the first impression of applicant and vice versa. As 70-80% of communication is non-verbal and mainly body language the social interaction becomes quite important. This element is quite important if you ask both the participating parties, also considering how to evaluate someone who you really do not know boils down to the first meeting. You might have heard or read the saying; The first impression is the last impression! 

Covid 19 – Lockdown 
So along now comes Covid19 and social distancing along with complete lockdowns. Every business is trying to minimize the impact of this new disease and is trying to do so by following advice and recommendations made by health authorities. One of the most common advice made from several health authorities in Europe has been to avoid having gatherings, and rather use internet-based conferencing. So almost everyone who can, in spite of they being technically capable or not is trying to follow the recommendation. The result though is very different for everyone trying. To be honest, the chances are, if you are a normal worker with an average non-technical job you would not know that much about online conferencing. I see that you disagree with me, yelling at me how ignorant I must be making such a claim, when Skype has been around for ages, Facetime, and not to mention Facebook messenger, and what about Signal, WhatsApp, Viber etc the list just keeps ongoing. Well, I understand your frustration, but please bear with me as I try to make my case. As you might have noticed and guessed, most of these products are target on private use and probably are not even for the business market. Those products which are or at least are worth mentioning a very least is Lync! Now back to the problem description, as you use a product to talk to your family, friends or someone else with whom you have a personal relationship is NOT the same as talking to someone whom you have a business relationship with or might end up getting a business relationship with, do you now see the difference? Let’s use a quick and short example, you might want to have a facetime, or video session with your girlfriend, boyfriend, family member etc. Will such a session force you to be well prepared? What I mean to say, you shall most probably have some general discussion or topic that are important and/or relevant to you. But there is not formalness with it.  

Now consider the scenario where you are trying to land your dream job, which is a position in a big company. Will you just make a call without being properly prepared? And if your answer is yes, you might end up not getting that job. Based on this justification, we can at least agree on the fact that using a tool privately is not the same as using it in a professional context.  

Remote interview 
The saviour for businesses being in need of new resources in the form of recruits and employees, is something called a remote interview, especially during this Covid19 pandemic. This is the better option as compared to interview in person, or is it? Let’s explore some of the key elements of a remote/online interview, both with regards to being an employer and being an applicant 

Being host or organizer  
This definitely can introduce some challenges for the employer if online interviewing and the online meeting has not been a part of the company’s history. There are number of things that need to be considered both before conducting the interview as well as during and after the interview. As previously stated in this post, the applicant who will be interviewed will also form his picture of the potential employer. Hence being the representant of company/business you must be professional and make a professional impression. There are some best practices for online meetings that can and to be honest should be followed. Let’s enlist these in random order and describe each element briefly 

1) Internet Connection Speed 
Being the host or guest participating in the online interview, internet speed does matter. If you have bad WIFI coverage or in general a lot of bandwidth consumption chances are that the quality of your online meeting will suffer. And when this happens, you might say sorry a couple of times, but after that, you are starting to make an impression, which will be quite long-lasting. Representing the business, you might give the idea that the company has or uses sluggish, outdated or malfunctioning systems. Being on the other side of the table you might give the idea that you might not have properly prepared for such an important event namely the interview. This too does not score well with the recruiter. 

2) Background Environment 
Please make sure that you sit in an office, room or a cabin without background noise. Have you ever had a phone call where the seller is trying to sell you something, you are interested in buying but you just can understand half of the conversation due to the background noise. Or you are describing relevant job experience, but in the background you dog is barking, kids are listening to nursery rimes or watching cartoons.  As people do have a lenient approach and might understand your position, this might still weaken your position and give the impression you not being professional enough! 

3) Presentation 
The presentation is also one of the most important things during and online interview. This applies to the presentation of the participants I.e. being in presentable condition as well as the presentation that might be used as material for the meeting. Having a good structure is pivotal to keep you audience engaged and keep on having their attention. Use of monotone speech, choice of a bad theme, or simple choice of colors that might not be easily visible on the screen all are part of the presentation. 

4) Being human 
Even though the interview is being conducted online, remember that we are humans and need to stretch out our legs, visit the toilet or have a need to fetch a glass of water, tea or coffee. But please also bear in mind that even though dirking beverages is permissible eating is strictly off-limits. Imagine have a meeting with someone who already has their mouthful while trying to talk to you. 

5) Correct Equipment 
Use of camera makes sure that all the participants are engaged. However, it is sometimes difficult to remember or easy to forget that you are being watched. Always make sure that your background is presentable while using the camera. Using the camera in the mobile might seem to be a good idea, but if you attending to be the host, remember that you would be using the same pair of hands to take down notes. A camera attached to the computer gives a much more professional image rather that you holding your mobile camera with your arm extended out to provide a good enough picture.

6)  Media Files and Sensitive Data 
Often if not always, a presentation includes information that is considered confidential, I.e. the information is meant to be available for the general public. This information can be a part of the presentation that you present for a candidate who meets you in person, as the person will not be taking the contents with them. While when the same content is presented during an online interview, the guest might take screenshots or pictures. Rather be safe and careful than being sorry. 

7) Presentation Skills 
It is a good idea to have gone through the presentation and interview theme in advance. You do not want to start using functions during the interview, which you are not comfortable using. For example, if you are asked a question about benefits the company offers to employees, and you do not remember and you start searching on your intranet site. During the entire process you expose information unintentionally, or in the other scenario where you have files opened on your computer while you are sharing your screen.  

8) Wrapping it up 
Make sure to have a summary at the end of the interview, as you would in person and answer any questions. Agree upon how you will provide feedback on points, concerns or questions raised during the interview.  

9) General Tips 
For online meetings, it is generally a good practice to make people wait in the lobby before you let them in the meeting room. This has several benefits like for example you have control over who is participating and entering the interview. Besides that, if you have any technical issues these can be resolved before you start people enter the room/meeting. It is also a good practice to test the meeting room and equipment before the meeting starts. If there are several people attending/conducting the interview it would be a good idea to put everyone on mute and allow one person to talk at a time.

Online meeting tools have functions as raising the hand for questions, or chat-based communication. It could also to be wise to inform about the data collection and retention especially with regards to GDPR.  

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(i) Recruitment time 

When in the recruitment process started I.e. what time of year, including wither or not it is in the holiday season. Is it a specific time when employees are busy trying to get tasks done before the next fiscal year starts?    

(ii) Candidates availability  

In order to find the perfect candidate, the candidate should be available in the market. Otherwise, it might be difficult to recruit the ideal person for the job. The other aspect is if the candidate is not available in the market, which people are the best-suited candidates that might suit the role? 

(iii) Time and affordability 

Generally, time is an important constraint, you normally hire someone because you need that person to become a part of your workforce. Time poses a constraint and as a general rule of thumb, the sooner you find the candidate the better it is for the business. The other important part of this process is to be available to afford the best candidates as normally the best candidates will generally request more pay and benefits than an average worker.  

In general recruitment is a very tedious and slow process, and the consequences of a wrong recruitment are also quite noticeable. In the end of the day consequences for the company will always be economical in nature, either one way or the other! For example, if a person is not correct for the job but has been recruited, or if the person is the right person for the job but discovers that our business does not offers the number of challenges or carrier development opportunities for that person, or simply put if a person just  chooses to move on and needs to be replaced. In any of the given scenarios the productivity of the business will be impacted. There are several recruitment techniques that are available and which are heavily used in the process of recruiting potential candidates. Most of these techniques are very dependent on the recruiter. The more experienced a recruiter is the more chances there are for successful recruitment of the ideal candidate or at least the most suitable matching profile among the available candidate pool. 

The process is normally the same as far as I can tell. Ab course it differs a bit depending on the size of the business, however, initially a need for a resource arises which kick starts the recruitment process. Depending on the need a relevant job description is prepared and advertised into the market to attract as many candidates as possible. If the marketing campaign has been successful a number of candidates submit their CVs which are further filtered down to relevant candidates. A subset of these are chosen to interviews. After the interviews have been conducted, the candidate list becomes shorter and shorter till the recruiter ends up with the best candidates.  

Normally the personality of the applicant is evaluated by the HR team, along with the line manager (to be). Personality tests are conducted to see wither or not a candidate suits for the role or to what extent the personality differs from the existing workforce. The personality test gives some good indication of the composition of the team will or might get affected by new recruit. References are checked and a job offer is made and then it is happy days.  

During this entire process a number of steps are manual or at least semi-manual, dependent on human logic, experience, and last but not least their feelings.  

Can you recall a situation where you were in a position where you might have been best at something, but due to being a bit shy you kept yourself somewhat reserved! What was the consequence of this passiveness? Or maybe you just were tired, depressed, nervous or something similar can this or would this impact the potential outcome? Were you able to land the job? 

What if technology could help you in this entire process? What if it could help both you as the applicant and the recruiter to make good matches if not the best ones? Let’s explore how technology can be utilized and how it actively is being utilized for assessing people for job/roles. 

1) Use of Social media 

It is a known fact that recruiters use social media to find, assess and to some extent verify information regarding an applicant. Facebook and LinkedIn are by far the most heavily utilized tools, Twitter and tool are as well as a presence on the internet too are used during the assessment phase. LinkedIn shows you online CV as well as your history I.e if you have been actively using the application. Your contacts, past jobs, positions and feedback from ex-colleagues reveal a whole lot about you. Same can be said about your presence on other social media sites or just a simple search on Google. The most successful recruiters have a large number of LinkedIn connections and are actively seeking to extend their network to have the best candidates available in their circle. 

This same technique is now being utilized by technology, the only difference is that machine learning(ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) is utilized to gather all the information about a person. Removing the human element also removes the ethical aspect however these AI and ML algorithms can be tailored according to needs and according to laws. The technology is not replacing humans in the current version as it still depends upon humans for the final decision making, formatted data is presented as information rather than raw data which must be gathered and then processed.  Moving forward these services will be able to evaluate personality of a person based gathered information. Some day to day examples of this can be seen in targeted adds, and relevant searches. A fun and interesting fact worth pointing out Facebook was able to identify a user’s personality better than their spouse already back in 2015-2016 based on their likes. Studies shows that this personality profiling is capable of profiling much more than your favorite color, your favorite bike, or favorite activities. Information as religion, beliefs, sexual orientation, addictive trends and weakness too can be revealed. For more information PNAS published document “Computer-based personality judgments are more accurate than those made by humans” can be studied.  

2) Gamification 

As mobile devices are becoming more and more common and numbers are up in billions, what better tool to use than games to assess personalities? A recent and emerging trend is the use of games to perform personality checks. These games build a personality profile based on your game results. This approach is far superior than its predecessor which was primarily text and MCQ based tests. The game tests many more aspects of the personality and are even able to check the upper and lower limits (capabilities) of a person and performance under different stress levels. This gives a very precise picture of a person’s personality. More and more games are emerging and commercially available for recruiters. Scorecards are made available as with traditional personality checks, however, you have to option to ask for comparison with others in the same or similar role. This is the power of big data being leashed free to the general public. Imagine being able to pick a handful of people for a specific role and then being able to compare them with a workforce working for Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft or any other small companies. How about being able to compare your workforce with your competing companies and businesses?  Quite scaring idea, but at the same time shows what potential the technology has along with the new options that will become available over time.

These databases so-called personality databases are growing each day and currently are living their own lives functioning as separate islands.  But it is just a matter of time before one of the giants or a number of giants will jump into this and will start merging these islands to a country or even a continent.  Some companies are also actively targeting fresh graduates which provide them free access to games in return of having their data available for interested companies. This is a win, win situation for both parties at least in the shorter run. If you are interested in the topic try reading a bit more about Binnacle, thegameagency or 16companies. Or just a simple search on Google for use of gamification for recruitment will show you what currently is going on within this field.  Two big renown companies like Siemens and Marriot are using a similar approach, but with their own developed games/software called “Siemens Plantsville” and “My Marriott Hotel”.  Gamification is also being used for onboarding and internal training with a lot of success, but that is a topic for another post.   

So, if you are an applicant, start brushing your CV along with stretching your gaming skills, and being a recruiter should should definitely start using the tools available to assist you in your next hire process. If you liked the blogpost, please do share it on social media, and if you have any inquiries regarding the content, please do not hesitate to reach out. Till next time, stay safe.

The post How to Use Technology To Enhance Modern Recruitment appeared first on Job Prospect.

In terms of business, it is true that topmost management acts as the main driver of the whole operation but it is also true that each and every business needs a competent leader at every hierarchical level of the organisation for the success of the whole operation. 

People in Human Resource management understand this very well and indeed plan for it accordingly when hiring new people. If during an interview they score you well as a leader, they will carefully analyse the skillset of the team you will be joining. If they are hiring you for a permanent, long term role, they will want to see traits of a future leader in you. As you mature in your role and progress through the organisation, you start to become an integral part of the organisation and people will come to you for guidance, direction and big decisions. 

If you are planning to apply for a role where leadership qualities are a must, you will be expected to have some specific traits. Not all people are born leaders with these special traits but human beings are very good at learning and improving their behaviour and skills. If you practice enough, they become your traits. In my opinion and from my experience, five of the most important traits are as follows 

Confident 

Confidence in a sense, is power and yes, it is a fact that if you do not have confidence, it is highly likely that you will not succeed, at least to a level which people expect of a true leader. The link between confidence and success has been proven in a number of scientific studies. You can find limitless literature about it. If you are confused in what you want to do, how will the people who follow you, react and perform? You should have a confident personality. You should be the kind of person who is always determined to achieve your goals. You do not lose motivation on your way if there is an obstacle or setbacks. You keep going and moving towards your goal as you have a clear understanding of what you want to do. When you speak, you have charisma, you are not confused in your thoughts. Your words are clear and direct. You speak slowly but with authority. There is assurance in your speech which calms people down and convinces them to follow your lead. 

So learn to be truly confident and to stick to your decisions no matter what the outcome. There is a learning curve, but eventually you will get there. 

Courageous 

Organisations are always looking for people who are strong and capable. People who are willing to take their own decisions, not just follow others. If you have the right conviction, you will not only create new opportunities, you will also be able to convert an unfavourable situation to a profitable opportunity. 
 
In the lifetime of any business, there will be at least one crisis, although realistically, critical situations are a norm for most businesses. Courageous people are self-disciplined. This helps them to view any situation calmly. Being calm allows them to analyse the problem much more clearly and take appropriate actions instead of following the herd. You will rise above others and bring your point of view in focus. Although taking a leap of faith in all situations is not advisable, but if you believe in yourself enough and you have gained the knowledge and experience, it is not just a leap of faith, it is a calculated risk and experienced person’s courageous decision. 

Focused 

Being focused is the ability to concentrate. Distractions are now commonly part of normal life. Some people understand how they can power through the distractions and concentrate on the task on hand. There are always others who just give up and get lost in today’s ocean of millions of distractions. It is always a good idea to identify your objective first. Once you have done that, you can understand what is helpful and what is unhelpful, what is cluttering your thought process and what is facilitating you towards your objective. It is also a good idea to create a plan that you can easily remember and visualise. you have a clear path to follow based on your plan, it will make it much easier for you to focus. Nowadays, work life involves you to work and accomplish a number of tasks in a limited time. Multitasking is always the best approach but you must plan and design your approach in a way that prioritises and focus the allocation of resources including your time to the important projects. 

Communicator 

Communication is not just a one-way street. It means that sometimes when people want to talk and convey their opinion, you listen and understand. It also means when you want to get through to others, you know the best approach. If you want to be an effective communicator, you must have proper oral and written skills. Learning and polishing the necessary skills will go a long way. If you are communicating with your team members, they must understand your expectations clearly. Try to be as specific as you can. Teams have people from all levels, so it is a good idea to first be familiar with your audience. You can make yourself available through different means. This will help the junior team members to communicate in a way that best suits them. The key to effective communication is to always know your audience and design your approach accordingly. So using those short words and abbreviations is not always a good idea.  

Motivator 

Motivation always works but the same formula does not work for everyone. Some people might be motivated by a monetary factor, others might not care about it at all. In most cases, to be exact around 75 percent, getting rewarded is the reason why people do things. But the motivation for a particular reward does not last forever. You need to able to understand the inner drive of other people. Another good idea is to always be enthusiastic yourself. Your positive energy will flow to others and get them motivated. Motivation has been discussed and researched in science since forever. There are a ton of books, blogs and stories that are widely available on the topic. Learn from the experience of other professionals and try different approaches. Identify the personalities of your team members. Pessimistic people tend to be a demotivator to others. Target them and make them optimistic. Failures always happen so be ready for it and lend a helping and constructive hand to team members to keep them motivated. Keep developing and experimenting with different approaches until you find a one that works. 

Like all skills, leadership in itself is a skill. You can always learn and practice more to make yourself better. One way of bettering yourself is to attend leadership training. By learning and working to enhance your skills and knowledge, you will not only strengthen your leadership traits, but also polish them to keep yourself ahead of others. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 
The content of this blog has been written by Rehan Khan. The author has been part of many successful multinational companies where he learned and excelled. He has worked in IT, Finance, Accounting and Advisory sectors. Currently the author is not only running his own successful businesses but also acting as an advisor for a number of previous employers on a regular basis. 

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