When looking at job a candidate, there are many factors to consider in making a decision as to whether someone will be successful or not in the job. Naturally, education and training play a key role in making a hiring decision. But there are other factors as well. Personality and character traits – the so-called intangible elements – are also very important and need to be given serious consideration also.

These character traits can be the difference between a person who is mediocre in a job and one who is outstanding. A person who has strong problem-solving skills, yet may lack the specific educational or work experience required, still might be the one to hire because of his or her unique ability.

It may be well worth the effort to find a person who thinks outside the box, works well with others, thinks independently, and questions the way things are done. This is particularly important, according to human resource professionals, if you are in an industry that is changing quickly, or if your company is growing rapidly.

To find these qualities, human resource professionals recommend the following:

First, you need to figure out what particular qualities you seek. You need to establish these qualities even before the first candidate comes in for an interview. For example, do you want someone with good problem-solving ability? If the job is one where the person will need to increase sales of a flagging product or merge supply chains, it may be important that the person can think creatively. How important is it for the person to be calm under pressure? Is unpredictability a key element of the job, where there may be a lot of competition or a lot of change in demand? Then poise under pressure may be a key trait the person will need to succeed in the job.

And if the environment is unpredictable, how important is it that the person be a quick study, that her or she is able to learn and adapt quickly? How important is it that the person is able to work well with others and/or influence them?

You’ll need to develop questions that focus on the traits you seek. For example, if you see from a candidate’s work experience a time when he or she was navigating an unfamiliar landscape, you can ask how the candidate felt about and handled the situation.

When you’re looking for that special employee, let Winston Resources help your Manhattan-based company find the right candidate. We’ve been helping NYC companies find high-performing and reliable employees throughout our 44-year history. Contact us today!

With the job market as tight as it is, it may come as little surprise that there has been an appreciable increase in false statements made on resumes, according to hiring managers. It has become more of a widespread problem.

Job candidates tell outright falsehoods, or they will leave out important facts about their background or employment history. The most common falsehood is extending dates of employment to cover up gaps in work history.

Job candidates also will include on resumes or applications degrees or certifications they have not earned, list a college or university they have not attended, list particular technical skills they do not have or exaggerate, or lie about other accomplishments.

To head off these problems, employers need to include disclaimers about making false statements or omissions and that these fraudulent statements will automatically disqualify a candidate from consideration, according to Russell Thomas, an attorney specializing in employment law. Employers also should not neglect doing background checks. Naturally, the higher level the position, the more you want to do a thorough background check on the applicant.

Another way to verify statements made by applicants is to simply look at what’s in the public record, Thomas says. With all the social media that now exist, there are plenty of places to go to do this. You can check out MySpace, Facebook or YouTube for information. These sites can confirm what is on a person’s resume, or reveal false statements a person has made on a resume.

The interview also is a key place to look for discrepancies or misleading statements and try to verify statements, Thomas says. That is why good interviewing skills are important. The best thing to do is ask the applicant questions that he or she will not expect. The interview should be set up so that the applicant is the one doing most of the talking, while the interviewer is spending most of the time listening and observing.

Whatever you do as an employer, Thomas says, avoid the urge to overlook misrepresentations on an applicant’s resume. These misleading statements could be a sign of some deeper character flaw that may affect the person’s ability to do the job.

In this tough job market, employers need to be especially vigilant about fraudulent resumes, Thomas says.

Let Winston Resources source and vet candidates for positions at your Manhattan-area company. We can perform preliminary interviews and conduct background checks to verify statements regarding skills, education and job history. Contact us today!

In the past, contingent workers were looked at as last-minute, stop-gap measures, something to plug a hole to keep things running. But that is not the case any longer. Companies are using contingent workers in increasing numbers for all kinds of jobs, integrating them into their business operations like never before.

As this process has been taking place, human resource departments have been looking at ways to use these workers to the company’s best advantage and to help the company get the best return on investment.

Companies have developed best practices for the use of contingent labor. These strategies better help companies handle production when demand is greater and when demand falls off. The strategies also help in planning to use contingent labor take in vacant positions until full-time people are hired. Other strategies involve taking on someone as a temporary worker to screen him or her for a possible permanent position. Other strategies use contingent labor for areas where there is a lot of turnover, incorporating the turnover rate into the planning process.

Companies that are effective at using their contingent labor work to predict when they will need temporary workers and work them into the big-picture. These companies try to figure out when business will pick up and slow down before it happens, as well as when more labor will be needed for projects.

These companies also set up specific budgets for their temporary labor and they set up a system to monitor their contingent workforce and what they are spending on it.

Companies that are most effective using contingent labor are now moving away from using multiple staffing firms. Instead, they use one firm as their primary contact, and then that staffing company works with others in the area to find the specialized labor that each service is best at delivering. The primary service sets up strategic partnerships with the other firms in order to best supply the needed labor to the client company. This arrangement generally works best when companies use a high level of temporary workers, which is usually 20 or more people.

Are you a New York City-area employer looking to bring in some high-level talent into your organization? Winston Resources can help. We provide top-notch workers for you within temporary, temp-to-hire or direct-hire assignments. Contact us today!

When you need to bring temporary workers on board at your company, here are some tips to help you get the most out of them while they are on assignment with you.

1) Before you ever bring a temporary staffer to your department, make sure all the people who will be working with the individual knows a temporary is on the way. This will help you identify what exactly the person will need to accomplish while on assignment. This also will help you find out the skills the person will need to succeed in the assignment.

2) Be sure you let staff know the reason why you’re bringing temporary staff on board. Rumors of layoffs could result if you don’t. Communicate openly with your staff members and you’ll find that workers will be more open and collegiate to the temporary worker(s) as a result.

3) Once the temporary arrives, aim to give him or her as much information as you would a “regular” hire. That is, make sure the worker knows where the bathroom and break rooms are located. Fill him or her in on lunch times and other important information such as safety rules, company policies and who your key players are. Make sure the worker knows what you expect of him or her. In addition, ensure the individual knows who to go to when questions or challenges come up. Encourage the worker to ask questions.

4) Check up on your temporary staffer periodically during the assignment. This will help you keep tabs on how the worker is doing. It also lets the temporary know you think enough of him or her to stop by periodically. Remember, a well-managed worker often becomes a motivated worker and motivated workers can be good candidates for regular hire, should the need arise.

5) If the worker isn’t performing at the level you need and you sense the performance won’t improve enough, don’t hesitate to contact your staffing service. The service will work quickly to find you a replacement worker.

Do you have a major project coming up at your New York City firm? Do you need reliable professionals for short- or long-term temporary assignments? Then contact Winston Resources. We’ll source and place top-notch workers for your temporary needs. Contact us today!

When you need to fill a personnel gap quickly, you may need to rely upon the services of a staffing firm such as Winston Resources to help you find a temporary professional to help you during a crunch time.

Although the professional we’ll find you is temporary, we’ve found that our most successful clients don’t cut corners when it comes to the orientation and training of temporary staff.

Helping a temporary employee succeed with solid orientation and training likely is going to result in you receiving the best effort from the employee. In addition, if safety is critical in your workplace, to skimp on training/orientation means you increase the risk that something could happen to your temporary employee, your regular employees, your property/tools — or all three.

As you consider bringing in a temporary worker, be sure to contact managers, supervisors and others who will be working with the individual. Give the staffing service as much detail as possible regarding the day-to-day duties of the position, as well as the skills and even personality needed to be successful in the position. This makes it easier for the staffing service to find you a great candidate, one who will be able to “hit the ground running,” when he or she reports to your worksite.

As you give the temporary an orientation, aim to give as much information as you would to a “regular” employee. Tell the contract worker about lunch and rest breaks, company rules, safety regulations. Give the worker a tour of his or her workspace, including bathrooms, break rooms and any lunch rooms.

Let the new temporary worker understand clearly what you expect of him or her. Let the worker know it’s OK to ask questions and be sure to tell the worker who on your team can answer questions.

Check in with the worker every now and then. Ask how things are going and if there’s anything you or someone else can do to help with any bumps in the road the worker may have encountered.

If you find after a few days or hours (depending on how long you need the worker), that the temporary employee isn’t what you need, contact the staffing service immediately. The company can find you a replacement quickly.

Are you in need of reliable and skilled temporary administrative assistants for your NYC-area company? Then contact Winston Resources. We have a large database of talented and reliable professionals available to work at a moment’s notice. We look forward to hearing from you!

While wisdom teaches us not to judge a book by its cover, practicality in the workplace says otherwise. Employers are at odds over the issue of appearance on the job. Today there seems to be an ever broadening palette of choices when it comes to things such as clothing, hairstyle, weight, and yes, body piercing.

According to one report, in which 1,000 people were surveyed, 40 percent of them agreed that companies have the right not to hire someone because of his or her appearance as it relates to weight, hair style, body piercing, and tattoos. In fact, one-third of those in the survey said “better looking” individuals are more likely to be hired as well as be promoted.

Conversely, “less attractive” individuals, those who might be overweight or who wear less traditional clothing on the job, should be protected by federal law, the survey said.

Nearly one-fifth of respondents said they have been discriminated against because of their appearance. A little less than half of those respondents said it was for their general appearance. One-third of those surveyed cited weight as the reason for the discrimination, while hair style was the culprit for 15 percent of respondents.

Individuals in management positions, rather than subordinates, are more likely to be the ones having something to say about a company policy regarding personal appearance.

One interesting fact in the survey stated that nearly half of the employers in the country have no policy addressing employee appearance.

There was a time when most legal suits brought against a company came from employees having close contact with the public such as waiters, waitresses, drivers, and salesmen.

That has changed.

Now complaints are coming from  more quarters of  the workplace. The pressure is on employers to be very specific about job requirements when interviewing potential job candidates.

When you’re looking for exceptional and reliable workers for your Manhattan company’s temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire assignments, contact Winston Resources. We’ll be able to source, vet and place workers who possess the skills and qualities you need. We look forward to hearing from you.

When we see a new face, our brains decide almost unconsciously how attractive and trustworthy a person is.  The whole process takes no more than a fraction of a second.  It happens so fast that it is possible that the rational part of our brain does not even get involved in the assessment.

Because this reaction does not appear to involve our conscious thought, we need to be aware of what is happening when we look at other people, to realize what is going on when we form judgments about others. The lesson here is not to allow those first impressions to overshadow a more reasoned and rational response to others, whether they are co-workers or customers — or job candidates — according to business advisors.
Princeton researchers discovered this instant decision-making during a study of 200 people.  Participants were asked to look at 66 faces that were projected onto a screen for 100 milliseconds, 500 milliseconds and one second.

The people viewing the faces were asked to tell whether they found the person to be trustworthy, and how sure they were about their impression.  Researchers also asked the viewers to assess how likeable the people were based on the faces, and how competent and aggressive.  The researchers found that the quick judgments people made did not change even when they were given as much time as they wanted to look at the faces.  In fact, the viewers became even more sure of their assessment after being able to see the faces for a longer period of time.

Even though there is no connection between a person’s face and his or her character, our minds still rush to make that instant judgment, the researchers said.  We decide very fast if people have any of the traits that we value, such as likeability, competence and reliability. The research suggests that our brains are naturally built to make these decisions in a speedy, unconscious manner.

The researchers don’t know why the brain acts this way. What they do know is that the part of the brain involved in the process is called the amygdala, which is also the area of the brain that is activated when a person experiences fear.  The amygdala is an area of the brain that existed in animals long before the reasoning part, the cortex, evolved in humans, researchers said.

Most people believe the judgment about whether to trust someone or not is a more complex process, one that involves our reasoning abilities, but the results of this experiment show that this higher-order judgment is made by a basic part of the brain.  They speculated that the reaction in the brain may not involve the cortex at all.

As mentioned above, our faces generally have so very little to do with our character. Don’t let a pretty — or not-so-pretty — face fool you when it comes to hiring. Interview job candidates thoroughly and conduct broad and deep background checks. If you need help with the vetting, contact Winston Resources. Our New York City-area staffing firm can and will conduct any and all reference checks you need, as well as conduct preliminary interviews so that you can concentrate on meeting with top candidates only. Contact us today!

Looking for a new hire in a timely fashion can be a trying experience.  Done properly, filling a vacancy with qualified workers takes a bit of skill to maneuver through the murky waters to which most human resources managers are subjected.

Before placing an ad for a vacancy, HR departments should look at their hiring practices from start to finish and see if any “tweaking” is called for.

For instance, management should be in agreement about the sort of skills and duties that are required for a particular position. When a worker is reporting to two or three supervisors who are not in agreement, problems are likely to arise and delay a hiring.

When making use of a staffing service, give the recruiters as much relevant information as possible for a position. Don’t just tell a recruiter to “get me someone great.” The more information a recruiter has, the better he or she can screen for qualified candidates.

Applicant tracking software applications are another important tool HR departments may use. These can greatly streamline the hiring process while freeing up hiring managers to focus on more relevant things.

In addition, companies can reinvent themselves internally to attract new talent in a timely fashion. Flexible work schedules are popular recruiting incentives today. Eliminate the drudgery of long commutes by allowing an employee to work from home a few days a week.  This also is a good way to retain veteran workers.

Companies can reduce search time for new workers by referrals from their current employees. According to one survey, an active employee referral program can generate as much as 70 percent of a firm’s new hires. This works particularly well when tied to a cash incentive.

When it comes time to review résumés, experts suggest performing this essential recruiting task in at least one-hour increments (rather than for 15 minutes when it is convenient). The idea is to put in the time and get it over with in a shorter period. This can reduce hiring time by weeks.

The same is true when doing personal interviews. Interviewing five individuals the same day rather than one per day can greatly reduces the time it takes to select a candidate.
During telephone interviews, try asking the most pertinent questions first. That way unqualified candidates can be eliminated much sooner.

Still, even though reducing hiring time can save money, be careful of cutting essential corners (such as performing background checks). You’ll do yourself no good in the long run if some of your “streamlining processes” result in the hiring of unwanted candidates.

When it’s time to hire talent, don’t risk making that “bad” hire. Winston Resources will source, vet and place exceptional professionals quickly, saving you considerably time and, more importantly, ensuring you save time as well as money in the process. Contact us today!

Salary negotiations with prospective employees are seldom simple.  Job candidates will want to negotiate on a range of issues beyond that of the base salary.  And you the employer will also have a number of issues to consider when making an offer.

As an employer, you will be looking at what level the job is in your organization, how unique the candidate is in terms of the skills and knowledge he or she possesses, and how difficult those skills are to hire, the market value of the job itself, the salary range of the job in your organization and in your particular geographic area, and the current economic conditions, both in general and in your particular industry.

And you need to be careful.  You can run into trouble if you pay more than you can afford, or offer a salary package that is not in line with other jobs in your company, or offer a pay package that you just don’t feel comfortable with.  Doing any of these things is not in the best interest of the employer or the employee.

So, how do you get the best candidate while staying within your comfort zone?

The first step is to realize that a salary negotiation is not a competition.  No one is trying to defeat anyone here.  If either side feels as if they have had to completely give in, both sides lose.  Salary negotiations have to be a winning proposition for both sides.

You should try your best to find out what the applicant’s salary and benefits package was at his or her last place of employment.  This will at least give you an idea what the candidate will be asking for.  You also need to recognize that most candidates will negotiate around a host of peripheral issues not connected to base salary, such as benefits, paid time off, tuition assistance, stock options, variable bonus pay, severance packages, and relocation expenses.  These may be other ways to successfully negotiate a deal with a candidate.

You also need to know up front what your limits are on salary – what is the most you can offer?  These limits should be built on the salary ranges in your company, the salaries for employees in similar jobs, the general economic conditions, and the financial  health of your company.  If your initial offer is not negotiable, you need to be clear about that with the candidate when you make the salary offer.
Even if you love the candidate, going over your limits will only lead to regret and other problems in the future.  Even if you have to start the recruiting process over, you will save years of problems and crippling costs by adhering to your limits.

Contact Winston Resources when it’s time to bring in additional employees. We can provide your Manhattan-area company with top marketing, administrative, healthcare, IT, accounting, legal, human resources, publishing, and real estate professionals. Contact us today to learn more about how strategic staffing can help your business succeed.

Do you marry someone the first day you meet him or her? Do you not take a car out for a test drive before purchasing it? Do you try on clothes before buying?

That’s the same premise — the “test drive” — of Winston Resources’ “temp-to-hire” service.

A temp-to-hire assignment is when you tell us you would like to bring a worker in for about three months (the standard length of time for temp-to-hire situations) with the hope that, if all works out for everyone concerned, you’ll hire the person onto your own payroll after the “try out” period is complete.

This way you’ll be able to see if the worker has the skills you need and if the person will be a good fit for your company.

The temporary employee also will have a chance to test you out, as well.

While on a temp-to-hire assignment, our employee will work at your business just as any other temporary worker. We’ll tell our employee that if all goes as we hope it goes, that this assignment could turn into a regular position on your payroll.

We also tell our employees that taking the temp-to-hire assignment in no way guarantees that they will be hired on with your company when the trial period ends. And, while it is rare that the temporary worker calls the “date” off, we do let our employees know that if they feel the position isn’t right, they’re under no obligation to accept the position should it be offered. (In fact, we counsel our employees to tell us as soon as possible if they feel a temp-to-hire assignment isn’t right for them so that we may find an employee for whom the assignment is a better fit.)

We’ve found that 90 days usually is long enough for both you and our employee to decide if a good match has been made. If either of you decide the assignment is not working out, we’ll replace our employee with another, and the 90-day trial period starts anew.

We’d love to show you how a temp-to-hire assignment can benefit your