The Bagg Group Blog

Remember the classic tale of The Tortoise and the Hare? The rabbit is so certain that a turtle can’t beat him in a race that he stops to nap during the event.  He wakes up to find the turtle had crossed the finish line while he was sleeping.

The moral of the story for candidates looking for full-time positions, contract work or part-time placements in the GTA is this:  Don’t spend the summer snoozing.  You may think the world has abandoned their desks and phones for the beach, but think again.

There is a widespread myth that hiring stops in the summer.  But that’s simply not the case, say The Bagg Group recruiters who are hard at work, placing candidates with the best companies in the GTA this season.

Business needs don’t take holidays.  While people may take a break for a week or two, the work goes on, even in sweltering temperatures.  Companies with openings are eager to fill them as soon as they can. Candidates who nap the summer away lose out.

The bonus of job hunting in summer is you have a competitive edge.  The great majority of candidates make the mistake of putting their hunt on ice from Canada Day weekend to Labour Day.  That’s cause enough to double your efforts.

The misconception that ‘nothing happens in the summer’ may have traveled over from Europe. The BBC has nicknamed August the “silly season” since so many employees get the entire month off, and much grinds to a halt  But in the GTA, it’s very much business as usual whether you are looking for a full-time position, contract work or temporary placement.

So if you are heading out to the coffee shop for a frappuccino, pick up your your laptop and take it with you. Prepare to send out resumes and make calls.  And to inspire you, consider these advantages:

Interviews may be more relaxed:  In summer, the workplace typically moves to a somewhat less hurried pace.  Interviewers may feel less harried when meeting with you, and can spend a little more time.  That means more time for you to talk about the skills and experience you can contribute to help the organization meet its objectives.

More temporary and contract work:  Recruiters at The Bagg Group note that summer is often the time when department heads will bring in additional short-term help to cover for employees on holiday.

Networking is easier:  It’s a good  time to call up contacts as many are glad for a reason to step out of the office for a little bit and head to a nearby patio to catch up.  Even the busiest contact may be more inclined to agree to 15-minutes, if only to catch a bit of summer breeze.

As we say often, looking for a job is a job. And you need a break as much as anyone.  But think twice before giving yourself the entire summer off.  Instead, be a fair but wise boss to yourself.

Consider putting yourself on summer hours:  shortened  work days and occasional three-day weekends.  And by all means, take a holiday from the computer for a week or two.  But in-between, keep actively looking for postings, targeting companies, sending out resumes, and networking.

With 40 years of successfully placing people, The Bagg Group recruiters know the sleeping hare never gets the job, any time of year.  

As discussed in the previous blog, productivity melts in the summer heat.  So it’s a good time to start implementing time-savers so that your staff don’t lose any more minutes from their day than necessary.

Minutes matter, according to a study on work interruptions by Dr. Gloria Mark, associate professor at the University of California.  In her study, Dr. Mark shadowed 36 managers, financial analysts, software developers, engineers, and project leaders for three entire days.  The researchers timed, to the second, how much uninterrupted time people had while on the phone, working on a document, typing an email or interacting with a colleague.

According to the findings, the average amount of time that people spent on any single activity before being interrupted or switching to something else was only 3.05 minutes.

Juggling so much at once may sound like multi-tasking.  But Dave Crenshaw, author of The Myth of Multitasking, argues that the brain is incapable of focusing on multiple tasks at the same time.  He says studies show that rather than working simultaneously on several activities, we actually switch rapidly back and forth between tasks.  And every time we do, our focus and productivity slips.

With decades of working with GTA employers on staffing solutions to our credit, The Bagg Group has compiled this quick tip list for buoying productivity, minute by minute.

Think about disabling the Reply All button.  Neilsen reported great success with this technique as a way to cut down on overloading staff with unnecessary email.    

Start off every written communication with your most important info.  Known as the inverted pyramid, this style of writing helps people get clear on what they need to know, very quickly. Whether writing emails or enrollment packages, lead with the most pertinent points.  Once you get your key info out of the way, you may find you don’t need to add much more.  That saves writing and reading time.

Break tasks into small steps.  It’s helpful to the time-stressed when you specify the individual steps you that are required.  It’s equally useful to help an employee prioritize to fit these tasks into an already busy day.

Think twice about meetings.  If a meeting is strictly to impart standard information, consider sending a to-the-point email instead, and inviting questions by email in return.

Assign tasks per skill. Maximize output by ensuring employees aren’t wasting their energy on tasks that don’t require their skill level.  Reassign or consider temporary or contract workers to keep focus where you need it.

This summer, make the most of every moment.

You might expect that on a scorching day no one would expect you do to drive or take public transit to a job opportunity in the GTA in full business attire. Sadly, you would be wrong.

It doesn’t matter which jobs you are seeking; you have to dress for success, regardless of the weather. Whether you want a full-time position, contract work or temporary employment, your interviewer is going to be looking for professionalism. 

Even on days when it’s so hot you could fry an egg on the sidewalk.

Remember, you aren’t meeting with your interviewer outside, where they too would be aware of the heat and want to bare their arms.  Instead, hiring authorities are working in air-conditioned cool offices and aren’t thinking about the weather.  So the last thing you want to do is show up looking hot, bothered, and dripping with sweat.

At The Bagg Group, we advise all those hunting for jobs in the heat to follow these 4 tips.

1. Even if your interview is on a casual dress day, don’t show up wearing shorts and sandals.  Keep your look professional. Once you get the job, you can dress as the employees do.

2. You do want to be comfortable, so keep clothing simple and not tight. But men still need to wear a tie. And both women and men need to wear a jacket in the interview. It may be tiresome to carry on the way to the interview, but a jacket hides a million wrinkles, and perspiration.

3. You can wear summer shoes but not the kind of casual sandal you might wear to the beach.

4. If there’s a washroom in the hallway before you arrive at reception, stop in to tame your hair, run cold water over your hands and wipe the sweat from your brow.  If there’s not, ask directions from the receptionist before she or he lets the interviewer know you have arrived.

All you have to do is get to the interview.  As soon as you exit the building, you can take off the jacket, roll up your shirt sleeves, change into flat sandals and go for freezing cold iced coffee.

There’s a myth that there is no point looking for a job during the holiday season.  Companies and recruitment firms work all summer long, so there’s no reason to believe all business comes to a complete standstill. At The Bagg Group, we advise that you don’t stop looking for a job until you find one, regardless of the season. 

There are some advantages to looking for jobs in the GTA during vacation times.  The pace at many businesses may be slower so it can be an ideal time to network over a coffee or to seek informational interviews.  As well, there can be less competition since many job-hunters do take the summer off.

Of course, we’d all rather be sailing.  That’s why at The Bagg Group we offer these tips for how to keep job-hunting and still enjoy the summer. 

Adopt summer hours.  Offices do it, and looking for a job is no different than any other work.  Get an extra early start to your workday and give yourself the promise that you’ll complete your job-hunting activities before the afternoon is out.

Use a daybook.  List two or three job hunting activities for the day.  These are tasks that are within your control to complete, such as researching job-boards, applying for a job, touching base with your references, rewriting your resume.   Estimate how long each task will take and schedule it like you would a meeting with yourself.  In this way, you can enjoy the rest of your day, guilt-free.

Consider volunteer work.  Many volunteer organizations need help in the summer when regular volunteers go off on vacations. This is a great time to help out and it’s good for your resume.  As well, volunteering is another way to network, and acquire references if necessary.

Temporary work opportunities.  Whether you are looking for a full-time job, a temporary job, or a contract job, the summer may offer up unexpected opportunities to serve as fill-in while regular staff is on holiday.  Any such opportunities are worth your while.

Finally, it’s important to stay-up-to-date in your field, year-round.  But there’s nothing that says you have to do your reading indoors.  Make a patio your office away from your home office.

With the warm weather comes daydreams of vacations and dips in employee productivity. Recently, a survey of a British staffing agency showed 68% of employees admit to spending a significant part of their workday thinking about their impending holidays and 25% of respondents acknowledged a drop in their productivity.

That’s not unusual. When fine weather finally hits, even the most disciplined of us find it difficult to block thoughts of canoes and cottages. 

At The Bagg Group, we advocate vacations.  They are all the more important in a recession when employees need a break from a heavy workload and office stresses.

Across Canada, most companies offer an average of 17 annual vacation days.  That’s down two days from 2007, but still three more than Americans, according to a  2008 Expedia survey of employed workers in North America and Europe

In Europe, the practice has always been to provide significant time off. In 2008, employees in Great Britain typically got 26 days off,  a two-day increase over 2007, and Germany, Spain and France saw increases of one day, with workers receiving 27 days, 31 days and 37 days respectively.

Recruitment agencies in  the GTA concur that there are three reasons to encourage employees to take their vacations:

Vacation help reduce burnout:  Rest and relaxation is the best way to re-charge the batteries.

Vacations promote creative thinking:  Often, in stepping away from a situation, you can see it more clearly and so come up with better solutions.  

Vacations improve work/life balance:  A holiday is a time for employees to reconnect with families and personal interests and increased quality of life can lead to increased quality of work on the job.

Still, daydreaming and vacationing employees can add up to a seasonal headache for managers and hiring authorities who must ensure smooth operations, regardless of the temperature outside.  As staffing solution experts, here are some tips that we have shared  successfully with top employers in the GTA.

Create work schedules for the summer frame of mind:  Allow flexible work hours that let workers start and finish the day earlier.  In this way, workers complete eight-hour days at the office and still have time to enjoy the sunshine

Post a visual chart showing who is absent when:  This is useful for colleagues, and helps managers ensure key employees are not on holiday at the same time.

Have employees compile a list of clients, suppliers, and anyone else who may need to be contacted in case of an emergency:  This list is useful year-round, and the summer holiday is a great incentive for the employee to put it together.

Cross train employees to take over duties of others:  Have employees prepare a list of their major duties and step-by-step instructions on how to fulfill these. But put on hold those tasks that can wait a week.  It’s not helpful to to overburden  colleagues left behind.

Consider hiring temporary staff or contract workers:  This ensures continued smooth operation, and allows the other employees to focus on their work.  Also, it helps the vacationing employee who can suffer a bad case of post-holiday blues if returning to work that has piled up.

Look for opportunities to celebrate summer:  After our long winter, we do need to make the most of summer.  Consider holding one-on-one meetings at a patio or allowing Bermuda short and sandal days.