When you’re trying to find a job, it’s easy to think of the hiring manager as the villain. Or the dragon you have to get past to get a job. But to increase your chances of getting hired, try to understand the hiring process from a hiring manager’s point of view. Some points to ponder:

1. Hiring managers are human beings too

When you go looking for a job, you’re preoccupied, of course, with your own needs and priorities.  Well, a hiring manager is interested, first and foremost, in protecting and promoting her own career. And she’s not going to willingly make a decision or take an action that might jeopardize it.

Your goal is to help them feel secure about hiring you. Managers want employees who are competent in terms of knowledge and skills, yes—but who can also be managed easily. A hiring decision for a manager is about feeling safe, in terms of protecting her department, her goals and her team.

2. Hiring is a risk assessment exercise

Managers know that nobody is perfect. Everyone has shortcomings, weaknesses, faults, biases and prejudices. And everyone has a downside. There’s a lot of truth to the old cliche that people hire who they know. Why? It’s easier to hire somebody you know because it’s easier to assess their downside.

In formal interviews, many questions are designed to uncover weaknesses and shortcomings: What is your greatest weakness? Describe a situation in which you were unsuccessful achieving a goal, and how did you respond? How would you rate your ability to resolve conflict on a scale of 1 to 10, from low to high, then give me an example?

3. Hiring is about pain relief

Consider the priorities of a hiring manager. Managers are responsible for achieving the goals and objectives of their organization. If it were easy to attain those goals, they could do all the work themselves and wouldn’t need employees!

But, of course, various problems, challenges, issues and pressures get in the way of corporate goals and objectives. To a sales professional, these things are known as “pain points.”

Salespeople need to understand their prospects’ pain points in order to make that pain go away. In a job search, you’re selling yourself as the product or service for the hiring manager’s pain relief.

Your job in an interview is to uncover that agenda.  Listen for clues to the hiring manager’s pain points. Respond not with the features of your value proposition (i.e. your education, experience, personal traits) but with benefits (i.e. how you can help them with their pain points).

Establish rapport with a manager by focusing on their needs and priorities.  Flush out concerns. What challenges, issues, problems, pressure points are driving this hiring decision? Reduce risk. Find out what red flags the manager may have about hiring somebody they don’t know. Make it easy for them to hire you!

For more great interview tips, contact Clark Personnel today!

As companies engage in the incredible marketing power of social media, they’re also discovering that while there are very few laws in place yet, there are plenty of legal concerns.

One of the biggest concerns? How much power do they have over what their employees post on social media sites? What about privacy, discrimination and the right of employees to discuss the terms and conditions of their employment?

Proactive Measures

To strengthen their legal rights, companies must be proactive in setting clear policies regarding employee use of social media. By establishing guidelines, companies can protect their own interests and give employees a roadmap for appropriate conduct.

Develop a plan. Companies must clearly communicate the appropriate venues for discussing workplace issues and then make sure that employee concerns are addressed. Just prohibiting workplace discussions on social media may not protect companies from action by the National Labor Relations Board.

Write a policy. If a company takes a neutral or positive stance regarding employee use of social media to discuss work, it must develop a policy to guide that use. Companies shouldn’t assume that employees know they shouldn’t post confidential information or that they should keep their posts strictly factual. The policy should spell out the rules in clear and concise language and make it clear to employees that they are company representatives and need to act appropriately in the virtual world.

Employers must be careful to define terms and provide examples to ensure that the policy is clear. Failing to do so can result in litigation.

Educate employees. As with e-mail, social media can be used effectively in the business setting. But employers shouldn’t assume that employees know all the pitfalls. The specifics of what is and isn’t appropriate should be reinforced through periodic training that focuses on particular aspects of the social media landscape.

Stress confidentiality. In addition to a social media policy, companies must incorporate references to social media into their confidentiality policies and other communications. Employees must be reminded to be hyper-vigilant regarding the information they post and ensure that the information is already in the public domain—or, at a minimum, not considered confidential or sensitive by the company.

Respect privacy. Company policies with regard to the use of Internet information in investigations should follow the law. There is no violation of the Stored Communications Act, nor are there privacy concerns, when investigations are performed with information available to the public. Therefore, if an employee’s privacy settings allow open access to material, the company can review it without issue. But if the material is password protected or is viewable by invitation only, then employers must respect those boundaries. Company representatives should carefully document how they access such information and ensure that any access is freely given.

By understanding the legal challenges posed by social media and then developing a policy to address them, companies can reap the benefits of new technology while minimizing potential problems. And if you have any further questions, contact Clark Personnel today!

No matter what field you’re in, there are certain skills you need when you’re on the job hunt. In the past, they included how to put together a resume, how to behave in an interview, how to handle followup. These days, there are brand-new must-have job search skills. Here are five of them:

Pain Spotting To really grab en employer’s attention in your cover letter (or cover email), you’ve got to figure out—by reading the job ad and researching the employer—what sort of business pain lurks behind the job opening.

Is it growth-related pain, or consolidation-related pain? Pain associated with customers fleeing, with competitors outsourcing the work and cutting costs, or with a shortage of talent in an industry? When you know or can guess at the pain behind the job ad, you have something of substance to say to a hiring manager.

Storytelling: “I have a strong work ethic and get along with all kinds of people” is about as compelling as “I had coffee this morning.” Nearly everyone claims these traits. To get a hiring manager’s attention, tell a brief and powerful story that demonstrates what you get done when you work. Let a hiring manager know some of the good things that you make happen.

Using a Human Voice: The old “results-oriented professional with a bottom-line orientation” style of resume is as out of date as VCRs. Using a human ‘voice’ in your resume or in any other communication with employers will separate you from the boilerplate-spouting hordes. Replace tired resume-speak like “Met or exceeded expectations” with a concrete achievement. And forget the old rule about not using the word “I” in your resume.

Showing Relevance: Forget the one-size-fits-all resume that gets sent out for any open position. You need to make your background relevant to the hiring manager by highlighting the accomplishments from each past job that relate to the role you’re pursuing. Update your resume as often as necessary to make sure your most relevant stories come to the fore.

Knowing Your Value: No one will pay you more than you’re worth, so know your value before you begin an active job search. There are several website that will help you calculate your market value and avoid getting lowballed in the hiring process. Arm yourself with information, then get out there and tell your story.

Still feeling unsure about a job search in this economy? Contact Clark Personnel today—we’re happy to share our expertise and help you find that next great opportunity!