The Bagg Group Blog

The Bagg Group-Sponsored HRPA Scholarship:  An Opportunity for the HR Students in Your Company

The Bagg Group and HR professionals across the GTA share much in common.  Our staffing solution experts and the HR professionals are both committed to ensuring organizations have productive, engaged individuals who have the drive and the support to meet their potential.

It is in the spirit of partnership that The Bagg Group has been sponsoring an HRPA scholarship for 22 years.  We are the only agency to sponsor this important award that facilitates a student’s study and career in human resources.  It is an initiative that is close to our hearts.  Promoting the careers of those who have proven competencies and motivation to help organizations succeed has been our trademark since 1971.

This year, we are delighted to champion the 2010 HRPA scholarship winner. Jennifer Kroft is a workplace discrimination and harassment prevention advisor with the Ontario Public Service. She is currently completing her Human Resources Certificate program at Georgian College.  As well, she is taking an introductory business course to expand her knowledge in this area.

All of us at The Bagg Group are impressed with Jennifer’s demonstrated leadership and her drive to help others succeed. 

Jennifer is a long-time tutor who has been tutoring students in the HR program at Georgian College.  She has completed a Master’s Degree at Wilfred Laurier University in religion and culture.  While at Laurier, Jennifer worked at the Accessible Learning Centre, designing and presenting orientations for students with disabilities to introduce them to the services of the centre.

This past summer, Jennifer was responsible for designing the training for Bill 168 and delivering it to approximately 160 managerial and non-managerial staff and volunteers.                                                                             

Prior to attending University, she worked for Local 183 Universal Workers as a construction laborer, as well as at General Motors and Ontario Hydro.  These experiences allowed her to learn from the inside what unions and labour relations are all about.

Is there someone in your company you would like to see honoured with The Bagg Group HRPA Scholarship?

The Bagg Group provides a $2,000 award to help the scholarship winner successfully complete their human resources studies.  To be eligible, the candidate must be an HRPA member and enrolled in the association’s academic courses, either full-time or part-time.

Let your up-and-coming HR talent know about The Bagg Goup sponsored HRPA scholarship.

 Here’s a question you may never have thought to ask a job candidate: “If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?”   Yet that’s what a hiring authority with Goldman Sachs asked when interviewing a candidate for an analyst position.

Or what about this question,  “What do wood and alcohol have in common?”  That one was put to a candidate for a staff writing job with Guardflex.

Those are just two of the 15 oddest questions, allegedly asked by top flight employers in the US in 2010.  The US job site Glassdoor.com sifted through 80,000 interview questions shared online by job-hunters to compile their list of stumpers.

With 40 years of interviewing candidates to successfully match people and organizations across the GTA, staffing experts at The Bagg Group don’t recommend peppering interviews with brain-teasers.  But we do suggest asking candidates some behaviour-based questions, albeit straightforward ones. 

We know that skills and experience aren’t the only factors to consider when hiring for a full-time position, contract work, or temporary placement.  The candidate also needs to have the attitude and approach that fits with the organization’s culture. 

We work with our clients across the GTA on developing attitude-based questions that make sense for the position.  The key when asking these types of queries is to put your own bias aside, and stay focused on listening for the traits that meet the needs of the team.  This can be trickier than it sounds.

Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, author of Great People Decisions notes that we all have a strong natural tendency to hire people who are like us, or make us comfortable.  But he warns, to make a good hire, we need to seek a match for the team’s personality, not our own. 

An interviewer might be a lone wolf who recognizes and appreciates another lone wolf when he or she meets one. But if the position involves a lot of team-work, then it’s the collaborative type who’s the best fit. And that’s where the behaviour-based questions come in. 

“Describe what a team environment means to you?”  and “What would you do if some team members reject your idea?” are examples of queries  that provide insight into a candidate’s approach to group dynamics, according to University of California research. 

Or you could take a more unique tact and pose the question said to have been asked by an interviewer at Capital One, “Rate yourself on a scale of one to 10 on how weird you are.”  But that might not tell you much.

An interviewer with Volkswagen in Germany allegedly asked a candidate who was vying for the position of business analyst, “What would you do if you just inherited a pizzeria from your uncle?” 

The interviewer apparently hoped to determine how the candidate would handle any project that she inherits.  At The Bagg Group, we maintain it would prove more helpful to ask the question straight up, just to be sure the answer isn’t influenced by a sudden craving for a cheese and pepperoni slice.

By the way, as to what we’d do if we were reduced to the size of a pencil and stuck in a blender, most of us agree with an online commentator who said, “I’d take a job with a different company.”

In workplaces across the GTA, January kicks off with teams making New Year’s resolutions.  However, studies show only 12% of us keep our resolutions, according to Gene Hayden, author of The Follow-Through Factor: Getting from Doubt to Done. 

Ms. Hayden says 88% of us abandon our aspirations in the face of any of 15 obstacles that typically get in our way.  Regardless of how much we wish to accomplish a project, many of us put it on the backburner because we can’t find the time, the budget, the staff, the energy, or the confidence to move forward. 

“The bad news is anytime you have a goal, you have to run something of an obstacle course to make it happen,” says Ms. Hayden. “The good news is we can problem-solve our way around just about anything.”

Letting goals slide is not only bad for business, it’s equally bad for employee retention. At The Bagg Group, our four decades of interviewing top talent confirm that employee commitment is affected when organizations don’t work to help teams and individuals turn resolutions into reality.

Gene Hayden - who helps managers and teams in companies across the GTA follow-through on their aspirations – says a proven strategy for reaching a goal is to literally map out the journey from here to there.  A critical factor is to account for all possible roadblocks and detours along the way.

“Many managers talk with their team about what they want to accomplish,” says Ms. Hayden.  “They detail what the end result looks like, but it’s more useful, and engaging, to brainstorm together on how you’re going to get there, step-by-step.” 

To illustrate the point, it’s the difference between stating that you want to run the Toronto marathon, and brainstorming with a team of supporters about how to get in shape to reach the finish line.

The staffing solution experts at The Bagg Group know that the key to turning resolutions into results is the question, “What steps do you need to take to make your goal happen?”   

When we put that question to our clients, we commonly hear that their first step is to help their valued employees find time. We are told of talented, skilled people who are frustrated because they can’t fit new, promising projects into their already overloaded workday.  In these cases, our solution may be to find the right full-time candidate, or an excellent contract worker or temporary staff, to allow top producers to focus on what they do best.

In its forecasts for 2011, Business Week predicts that companies will resolve to accelerate growth through product development and market expansion. Successful teams everywhere are now making maps to get from Aspiration to Achievement.  And every journey starts with the same question, “What steps do we need to take to get there?”

The Bagg Group wishes you great success with your resolutions for 2011.

Planning on taking a pass on marking the holidays with your team this year?  Thinking of just sending out emails and stopping there? Think again.  The staffing experts at The Bagg Group know that a celebration isn’t an indulgence, it’s an important employee retention strategy.

All work and no play doesn’t do much to lift employee morale or cement company loyalty. It may sound corny, but the team that has fun together, stays together. And t’s the season for a little levity.

It doesn’t have to cost a fortune.  In fact, in a recovering economy, laying on the champagne and caviar can irk those who suffered the impact of budget cuts throughout the year.

Only 6% of companies in the US who are holding celebrations say they will spend more than last year on the festivities, according to a survey by the consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But more companies are getting into the spirit, with 68% of businesses planning on holding some sort of party, up from 62% in 2009.  Still, John Challenger, CEO of the consulting firm, estimates it will be a year or more before there’s a widespread return to the types of blow-outs held prior to the recession. 

The survey also found that 53% of respondents are holding their holiday party at the office, and 54% are keeping the guest list to employees only, no significant others allowed.  That’s a shame because an office party is a terrific occasion to welcome the families of employees and thank them for their support.

At The Bagg Group, we do something different. We go shopping.  The company closes for half-a-day so all of us can hit the Eaton Centre and play Santa.  With money raised by staff and matched by the company, we load up on gifts for the Adopt-A-Family program organized by the Toronto-based Scott Mission.

This is not only a tremendous opportunity to help families in need, it also doubles as a true gift for all of us at The Bagg Group.  Working together to help our adopted families have a wonderful Christmas is a team-building experience that lets us do what we love to do best – help make a difference.

 After 40 years of successfully placing candidates in full-time positions, temporary work, and contract work, The Bagg Group knows that the best companies make a point to leave Scrooge at the door in December.  From holding a pot-luck to a fund-raiser, there are an infinite number of affordable ways to mark the occasion, the only thing that matters is to bring the spirit of the occasion into the workplace.

Recently, The Bagg Group won research firm Inavero’s 2010 Best of Staffing award, presented in partnership with CareerBuilder. This is the nation’s only award that recognizes exceptional service to job candidates. 

The Bagg Group went through a rigorous candidate survey to earn the award.  The candidates gave us a satisfaction score that is double the national staffing industry’s benchmark.  More than 70 percent of survey respondents rated The Bagg Group recruiters a 9 or 10 out of 10.

What’s behind their rave review?  We believe it is the art of listening.  We listen when candidates talk about their goals, interests and values. And we respect what is important to them.  As a result, we are unparalleled in making the right fit between job-seekers and organizations. 

We are thrilled to get this vote of confidence from our candidates.  But we share the honour with our clients across the GTA. 

It is thanks to our clients that we serve our candidates well. Hiring authorities willingly engage with The Bagg Group recruiters in conversations about their organization’s challenges, needs, and culture.  And these exchanges are invaluable for giving us the insight we need to compile the best possible shortlist for our clients.

The Bagg Group recruiters are known in the industry for their approach as partners of hiring authorities, committed to finding the perfect staffing solution.  However, we couldn’t excel in our role if our clients weren’t willing to take the time to talk with us. 

Our clients give us much to listen to, and that makes all the difference. All recruiters at The Bagg Group take to heart the advice of one of the best all-time interviewers, Larry King, who said, “I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening.”

New Ipsos Reid data that shows 27% of working Canadians plan to job-hunt mirrors The Bagg Group findings

A new study by Ipsos Reid confirms what we have long known at The Bagg Group—that employees who feel they are being stretched too thin on the job are eager to jump ship.

Ipsos Reid’s Build A Better Workplace poll, conducted last month, revealed the following:

More than a quarter of employees (27%) said they are likely to seek a new position in the next six months. Among employees who work for organizations where there has been a wage freeze, this figure jumped to 34%.

• At 31%, managers were even more likely than rank-and-file employees to indicate they plan to look elsewhere.
• Sales people and IT professionals also registered levels of discontent higher than the average.

An astounding 31% of managers reported their number one reason for wanting to leave their company was life/work balance. Among other respondents, 26% cited work /life balance as their leading cause of dissatisfaction, and 29% cited compensation.

Greg Leach, senior VP at Ipsos Reid and author of the study, echoes The Bagg Group’s observations that the economic crisis took its toll, not only on those who lost their jobs, but also on those who stayed.  In reviewing the data, Mr. Leach notes, “Amid cutbacks, layoffs and the search for greater efficiencies, employees are feeling that they are being asked to work far too hard for the compensation they are getting.”

Compensation isn’t only measured in dollars.  The poll also showed that 22 % of employees, or just over one in five, stated they are feeling less optimistic about their own future within their organization.  Only 7% stated their optimism is increasing.

From The Bagg Group’s hundreds of interviews over the years with managers and employees, we know there is a direct correlation between the way a company supports its employees, and employee commitment and productivity.

It’s not news that losing good talent costs a company in numerous ways.  It’s also documented that companies increase employee retention when they help people prioritize and make it possible for them to delegate projects and tasks.  That’s why the most competitive organizations in the GTA hire contract workers and temporary placements to lessen the load on those who have too much on their plate. 

These organizations know that overloading top performers with additional tasks that compromise their focus and don’t require their skill level is counter-productive.  It’s far more economical to hire additional support than it is to lose the people who are good for your business.

The popular TV series Lie to Me is inspired by the scientific discoveries that the face, body and voice provides clues to hidden feelings. 

As recruiters who are experts in the art and science of in-depth interviewing, at The Bagg Group we know that people send non-verbal cues.  But as many behaviour experts warn, the show Lie to Me oversells the point.  Making snapshot judgments can be unfair to candidates.

For example, psychologist Kevin Ochsner noted in an ABC TV interview on the subject that a person who is concentrating can be mistaken as angry. In both cases, people tend to narrow their eyes and furrow their brow.

That said, we can’t help but pick up signals from each other.  And certain signals can instantly put people at ease which is useful for the interview process.   

In his book Louder Than Words, Joe Navarro, a former special agent with the FBI and leading expert on nonverbal communications, talks about the power of what he calls “movement to action.” This includes the simple gesture of getting up to greet someone which sends a message to the person that they matter. 

Mr. Navarro writes that when bank managers or account managers get up to greet new or old customers, the customers rate the encounter as more satisfying.

He adds that his study shows that clients enjoyed a positive effect for a day, and even longer, when they were welcomed by a receptionist who stood to greet them, rather than by one who remained sitting behind a desk.

“It makes sense, we feel special when people move to action on our behalf and it makes us feel appreciated,” says Mr. Navarro.  He notes that parents instinctively use “movement to action” when they run to greet a child with open arms, which causes delight in the child.  

Writing in Psychology Today, Mr. Navarro notes, “We even find that jurors tend to look upon attorneys with greater empathy when those same attorneys stand as the jurors come into the room. This rise to action, which demonstrates respect, can and does influence individuals and not just in business or the courtroom.”

Conversely, failure to move to action can send a message that you are indifferent to the person coming to see you.  Such a signal can skew an interview. Interviewees may feel immediately defensive or nervous, believing that they have to turn cartwheels to make an impression.

That’s why after forty years of listening and “reading” candidates to ensure successful placements,  all of us at The Bagg Group urge hiring authorities across the GTA to pay less attention to the oversimplified claims of Lie to Me, and more attention to those small gestures that set the stage for an open conversation.

For more on nonverbal communications, Joe Navarro’s newest book is Louder than words: take your career from average to exceptional with the hidden power of nonverbal intelligence. He also co-wrote the 2008 book, What Every Body Is Saying: An Ex FBI’s Guide to Speed Reading People.

Every now and then, we hear stories of employees who have made dramatic exits from their job. Of course, none are in the league of the Steven Slater’s public departure from JetBlue this summer.  After being berated by a passenger while still on the tarmac in New York City, the long-time flight attendant quit, using choice words, over the plane’s PA system and slid out the emergency chute.  

Now the term “Slaterize” has made it into the urban dictionary, the web-based dictionary of popular slang words and phrases.  The definition: “When you are so fed up with your job, the people you work with, the people you work for that you instinctively and temporarily go bezerk and quit.”

There are those who secretly harbor fantasies, not of going bezerk, but of delivering their version of the famous rant, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”  (From the movie Network.)  That explains why a young broker became an internet sensation this summer for quitting her job by posting captioned pictures, many criticizing her boss.  It didn’t matter that it was later proven to be a hoax, thousands applauded her for doing what they dreamed of.

While any kind of dramatic departure may make for an interesting story at parties, it’s bad news for both employees and employers. Those who leave in this way burn their bridges on the way out.  Those who stay are distressed that the organization didn’t resolve a situation before it blew up.

There is only one way to deal with the aftershocks of a high-profile exit.  Talk about it.   

Join in the discussion with employees. Acknowledge that sometimes stresses at work can build up, and identify people in the organization to whom people can talk if they are feeling overwhelmed.

• Remind employees that there are alternatives to “slaterizing.” Those who are successful in their careers leave a job on good terms, even if that involves taking a few deep breaths before handing in a resignation. 
• Note that storming off decreases the chance for a good reference, and can damage reputation.  
• Avoid speaking ill of the person who left in a huff. Instead, show good will. Also, remind the team that it is much more effective, not to mention professional, to use the exit interview to officially inform the company of concerns. 

It doesn’t matter whether people are in permanent positions,  doing contract work, or in temporary placements, employees can get overwhelmed by demands and pressures at times.

After 40 years as staffing solution experts to companies of all sizes across the GTA, we’ve heard it all at The Bagg Group. And we know the most in-demand workplaces are those that champion employee well-being, and that includes encouraging employees to share their challenges and concerns, as well as their successes, in good times and in tough times.

Recently, an A-level candidate met with a staffing solutions expert at The Bagg Group and said he was seeking a change because his boss’s negativity brought down the entire team. That’s certainly not the first time that a toxic workplace has prompted the departure of an excellent employee.

Candidates who have much to offer choose upbeat work environments.

With four decades of successfully placing people in full-time jobs, contract work and temporary positions, recruiters at The Bagg Group know that the saying, “birds of a feather flock together” holds true when it comes to attitude. Hiring authorities who think positively attract and retain positive thinking employees.  

Similarly, there’s truth in another cliché…misery loves company.  An employee who is easily defeated by problems will align quickly and comfortably with a boss who sees only doom and gloom.

But in an interview, everyone tends to be on their best behavior.  With that in mind, hiring authorities at  top companies in the GTA have asked how The Bagg Group staffing solution experts discern between negative thinkers and positive ones when meeting with candidates.  We do it by listening closely to what people tell themselves, and others.    

Negative thinkers complain and judge; positive thinkers assess, consider and explore possibilities with curiousity.     

The following chart from the Mayo Clinic offers some examples of the differences between negative and positive talk.

Negative self-talk                              Positive self-talk

As experts in interviewing, we know that a funny thing happens to you when you listen intently to determine if someone approaches work from a positive or negative perspective.   You start to notice your own communication patterns. 

Are you being upbeat or unenthusiastic? Our staffing experts say the minute they feel they are being negative, they change their  tone because every good interviewer knows the golden rule, established by Confuscius, “Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.”

Sometimes the best thing you can do to boost daily productivity and morale is take a short break from work.  But new research shows that the very best breaks are not those spent watching funny videos on Youtube, or chatting around the water cooler.  Instead, the most effective way to recharge is to do what you did in kindergarten –  enjoy a 20-minute outdoor recess.

However, you don’t have to climb monkey bars or jog, according to a recently released study reported in the British newspaper The Telegraph.  The research by psychology professor Richard Ryan at the University of Rochester concludes that all you need to do is just be outdoors to get a jolt of energy that is equivalent to a strong cup of coffee.

Working with 537 volunteers, Professor Ryan found those who spent just 20 minutes in the open air experienced a significant increase in vitality that had a positive effect on their work day. 

Even desk-bound volunteers who were encouraged to imagine being outside and were shown pictures of  the outsides recorded better mood and energy levels throughout the day than those who didn’t let their minds stray out of doors.

Professor Ryan says his study shows that “people feel more alive” when they can feel the sun and the breeze.  It’s logical, he adds, given the natural bond between humans and nature.

At The Bagg Group, we know from decades of interviewing candidates that employees truly value organizations which recognize life-work balance.  Now, science has come onside to confirm that staying glued to the desk from nine to five is counter-productive.

A 20- minute recess is good for the spirit and for decreasing absenteeism. Going outside increases wellbeing.  “People with a greater sense of vitality don’t just have more energy for things they want to do, they are also more resilient to physical illnesses,” said Professor Ryan.

This summer, spread the word to colleagues that they’ll be doing themselves and the organization a favour by not lunching at the desks, but picnicking instead.