Now that the pharmacy job market is an employer’s market, many of you

One of the best strategies to saving time in your hiring process is being a candidate magnet.  That way you attract the ones that are the right fit, and repel the ones who aren’t.  The chances of your new pharmacist hire staying will be higher.  Then you won’t have to hire as much.

Let me share with you a few secrets of being a candidate magnet. If you are using these strategies, you will have better luck with identifying the right fit and save yourself headaches of a bad hire.

Here are the first three steps of the 5-step process I teach about being a candidate magnet:

STEP 1: Clarify what your pharmacy/hospital/organization stands for, what’s important to the role, how the pharmacist would fit into the big picture, and what makes your pharmacy special (Read ideas about figuring this out below).

STEP 2: Write an attractive job description and convey what makes you different.

STEP 3: Get the word out (You’ll be learning some of my tips in a future article about this). The first step is one that is glossed over when hiring. Most pharmacy directors who are involved with justifying the position from a financial perspective to get a position approved by administration will spend time on how the pharmacist would fit into the big picture and on the roles and responsibilities.  But take time to consider a few important questions (see sample answers below):

1. What are the values and beliefs of my pharmacy?

• Do what it takes – go above & beyond
• Open your heart to others
• Pitch in
• Have fun in your work
• Be creative in decision-making

2.  What are the values and beliefs of my hospital/organization?

• Connection and contribution

3.  What makes my pharmacy special?

• Every pharmacist has the opportunity to do clinical work
• Everyone is valued for their ideas and has the opportunity to use their talents

4.  What is important to this role I’m hiring for? (Include what a typical workday be like, skills they would come with and those that they’d be capable of being trained on, how the pharmacist would interact with other patients and co-workers, and the non-negotiable values)

Key Tip:  Include the characteristics you want the pharmacist to have. The answers to the first few questions will likely be a part of this answer.

Example: Conscientious, strong ethics, heart-centered, going above and beyond, creativity Use the answers to these questions not only in writing your magnetizing job description, but also through your screening process.  It is the foundation of attracting the best fit.

Register for the FREE teleseminar “Insider Secrets the Best Recruiters Use to Attract the Right Candidates”

Thursday, June 7, 2012 at 8:30am PT / 9:30am MT / 10:30am CT / 11:30am ET

You’ll Learn:

• How to Be a Candidate Magnet - learn how to attract the right candidate, not pursue them
• Secrets to finding candidates when you needed them yesterday
• Buyer Beware! Why the perfect resume may not be the perfect candidate
• Simple steps to weed out the wrong ones quickly & effectively
• How to identify “red flag” candidates
• 3 reasons why most job descriptions actually turn off your best candidates, rather than attract them

Enter your name and email above to register now for this free teleseminar!

How do you know if you’ve done what you could to negotiate for the highest salary? A PGY2 oncology resident I’m working with has a dilemma about whether to stay on at the hospital where she’s doing her current residency at a salary that is around $30,000 lower than another offer she has.  She would rather stay at the hospital she’s currently at, but the salary difference is so significant that he was bummed.  She didn’t think it was possible for them to come back with an offer that he could accept.

What to do in this scenario?

Let me peel back the curtains and share with you a few tips I gave her to use as her personal arsenal during negotiations at the hospital she wanted to stay at.  These valuable tips are centered on a mindset shift that can inspire a pharmacy hiring manager to give you more money (or an offer package) than you would’ve imagined.

#1  It’s not all about the money. Approach the conversation with the mindset of partnership. I remember growing up watching my dad negotiate.  He had a specific style of negotiating–Hardball.  He always started with what someone else offered for the same product or service…”they are doing this for me…so it would make sense for you to do this for me.”  I remember thinking that it didn’t “feel good”, even though it seemed to work for him.

That style of negotiating doesn’t work for me, although I mimicked it for years until  I discovered it was possible to get the outcome I was looking for while having it feel good.

Negotiation is not just about getting your way. It’s about putting things on the table to come up with the best possible scenario for both of you.  For example, you may want 14 additional vacation days and your employer may be ok with this if you agree to work weekends for half the year.  You may not come to discover that this kind of exchange would work for both of you until you put things out on the table & brainstorm on how to make it work .

#2  Appeal to the pharmacy hiring manager (HR or pharmacy director)’s perspective and focus on what you can do for them. Help them to see what would it mean for them if they were to hire you over someone else.  Will you be saving them time or money by avoiding a hiring decision that doesn’t work out?

For the oncology pharmacy resident I was helping, if she stayed at the same hospital she was doing his residency at, she would be reducing the employer’s risk of hiring a new pharmacist who might not be a fit for the hospital.  Plus, since she is already working there, the initial training process would be minimal.  Hiring managers know that no matter how diligently they screen during the interview process, they are taking on a risk by hiring someone new.

The cost of turnover is high. Show that your pharmacist experience demonstrates a proven record of excellence that aligns with the hospital’s culture and team, and hiring managers will love knowing that you won’t be a high risk to them.

The reason why going into negotiations with this simple mindset shift is so effective is because it changes the tone of the conversation from “how can I get what I want” to “how can we make this benefit both of us?”  Once negotiations are over, the tone you set during the negotiation process can carry over to your working relationship.  This will help you start off in the spirit of partnership.

Try using the simple mindset shift above the next time you negotiate for a higher salary/offer. Comment below on what happened before in your previous negotiations that didn’t work for you, so we can all learn from it.

Are you an experienced hospital pharmacist and want access to unadvertised jobs before they come out?  Get access here.

After you’ve internalized this mindset shift, check back here later for tips on what to do or say during negotiations so that you get the best offer.  Plus, stay tuned to hear what happened to the PGY2 oncology resident’s negotiation in a future article.

Pharmacy directors/hiring managers: do your reference questions help weed out the wrong fit, or do you not pay much attention to them especially if you like the candidate? References are a goldmine not only for determining fit, but also for how to bring out the best in a new hire once he/she starts.

When my company asks reference questions to pharmacy directors about candidates who’ve worked under their supervision, we often get pharmacy directors making comments like “these are good questions—I’m writing some of your questions down to ask during reference checks!”

Since quite a few of you have asked me for this, I’ve decided to make you lucky this St Patrick’s Day and let you in on a few of my secrets about asking the right reference questions to weed out the wrong fit:

Are pharmacist salaries going down?   What kind of pharmacist is getting paid the most in this current pharmacy job market?

Based on comparing pharmacist salary surveys (compiled by Mercer) taken between the spring 2010 and fall 2011 survey edition, pharmacist salaries have increased.  Pharmacy managers who manage the day-to-day operations of hospital pharmacies make the most, even compared to retail pharmacy managers.

Hospital staff pharmacists experienced the smallest increase compared to the other pharmacy positions surveyed.  Retail pharmacists and hospital retail/outpatient pharmacists seem to have the highest % increase in salary from the previous year, compared to pharmacists in other positions.

A few things to note when interpreting the survey results:  salaries are based on 77 organizations participating in the survey and the # of organizations participating in the survey seemed to have decreased from spring 2010’s pharmacist salary survey.  The # of organizations participating in the survey who reported hospital staff pharmacist salary surveys decreased in half.  Keep in mind that the results were compiled in middle of the year in 2011 for the fall survey publication.

Without doing research on statistical significance and a more detailed analytical comparison from year-to-year, my observations are that the salaries are increasing.

As far as what I’m observing in pharmacist salary trends right now, salaries appear to stay in a similar trend.  My projections are that until we make ourselves more valuable (aka make more money for the pharmacy or demonstrate in a hospital setting for example that we save healthcare costs) to warrant an increase in salary, the salaries will stay similar for now.

What about temp pharmacist jobs? Look out for the update on that in an article coming soon.

How do the salary trends affect you, even if you have a job? Use the information to get a raise. Make yourself valuable.  It goes back to the basics of any business.  The more value you provide to the business (aka pharmacy), the greater asset you will be and you may ask for a raise.  Not sure what the best way is to ask for a raise, or to ask for the fairest compensation when you are looking for a new job?  Stay tuned in an upcoming article on tips to ask for a raise/fair compensation and get it.  You will also find out what pharmacist jobs have more negotiating power.

If you qualify for a recruiter to network on your behalf, use your recruiter to help you negotiate a fair compensation for you.  Remember, it’s not all about the salary—it’s the whole package.

Comment below (you can keep it anonymous if you wish) about what you’ve seen with salaries at your workplace.

I’ve included the National Results from the 2010 Spring Edition Pharmacist Salary Survey from Mercer Human Resource Consulting.  *Keep in mind that there are absolutely variations geographically & you may be compensated differently due to the depth of role that you have.

2011 Pharmacy Compensation Survey – Fall Edition

National Results

This data provides reasonable estimates of market rates in the Pharmacy industry. However, many factors contribute to the final determination of pay rates, including company philosophy and the influences of each individual incumbent. For that reason, Mercer, Pharmacy OneSource, and PharmacyWeek suggest that you use multiple resources in the development of a total compensation program.

Last year, someone I know who works at the VA told me that as a pilot program, a VA mail-order facility started filling prescriptions for an IHS site around June/July in South Dakota.

Mail-order for the IHS—what do you think?

My first reaction was wow–this new implementation feels opposite to what the praised IHS pharmacy model of patient care stands for.  If mail-order were implemented, patients may miss out on an important opportunity for a timely medication intervention or to get their medication-related questions answered by a pharmacist.

There have been many times while working at an IHS/tribal pharmacy, I remember sharing something important with a patient that had an impact on their medication adherence & health (translating to healthcare cost savings), which would never have come up if I had not interacted with them in person.  It’s like talking to your personal trainer on the phone and getting some basic tips vs. seeing your personal trainer through a full workout.  He or she gets to hold you accountable in a more impactful way in person.  The level of personalized care jumps exponentially.

Then I wondered what the plus side would be. Perhaps there would be easier access to medication for patients.  Workload can be taken off current pharmacists’ plate for more clinical work.

But is it realistic to hope that budgets would allow pharmacists to do more clinical work, or will sites end up having a reason to cut the budgets even more when mail-order is implemented?

Comment below (and feel free to post anonymously) about what you think the pros & cons are. Share your opinion and be heard.  You’ll get updates in an upcoming issue about the status of this concept and its implementation in IHS, what IHS/tribal pharmacy directors throughout the country think about its impact on our patients & practice, and ideas on how best to make it work.

Are you an IHS-experienced pharmacist and interested in temporary IHS jobs?  For access to IHS travel assignment options, click here.

My husband likes to work out at the gym. He went the other day and couldn’t believe how packed it was. The New Year’s Resolution phenomenon in full swing. Ben (my husband) said to me, “Give it another month, and the gym will be back to normal”. I guess he doesn’t have much faith in all the people there excited about their new founded habit to get their butts out the door and to the gym a month from now.

As we start the New Year, many of us take this step into a new year as a symbolic opportunity to step into doing things differently. The key is whether we can sustain that new commitment to ourselves to make a lasting difference on the way we choose to live. This applies to any intention you set for yourself, like getting yourself a new fit body, a new job, or a new habit (like never being late again).

The first step is recognizing what didn’t serve you.

It might have been bubbling up inside you…a knowing that something didn’t work for you.   For example, in the past, when you searched for jobs, did you mostly search online (isn’t that what everyone does these days to find a job)? What about blasting out your resume to many places online and not hear back from the ones you really wanted to hear from? Did you use the same resume for every application?

Maybe it didn’t work that well, or maybe it worked ok, but boy was it a lot of work. You had a feeling that surely there must be a different less time consuming way.

All those people at the gym recognized the first step.  But why isn’t it always lasting? How can it be different this year with your resolution?

The second step is deciding what you want to commit to.  Commit to it, and then never look back.

Don’t bring any misery of regret, beating yourself up, or memory of your previous habit (or way of doing things) that didn’t serve you before along with you as you create your new habit or new mindset.

When looking for jobs, decide that you will only apply for a few jobs that you are most interested in, and put most of your efforts there. This allows you to take the time to understand the role, get to know the pharmacy or hospital you are most interested in (their vision, leadership, work environment, etc), and highlight yourself in a way that makes them want to chase you.  It also gives you an advantage because knowing this in detail will help you make an impression that other “spray & pray” candidates won’t have a chance in making.  Be committed to doing things differently with your job search & don’t look back.

This year, I’m taking my own medicine. In reflecting about what frustrated me about our company in 2011, this is what came to me…

What didn’t serve us: not being able to serve the pharmacists in our community the way we wanted.  Many pharmacists contacting us for our help, and not enough people/resources to serve them in an effective way that solved their problems/challenges in a timely manner.

What we decide to commit to & never look back from: Pharmacist Job Connection (which was trying to be too many things to too many pharmacists) is getting a facelift.

Pharmacist Job Connection is going to be about helping pharmacists learn how to stand out in their job search to beat their competition for interviews & offers.

RPh Temp Service (our temp division specializing in Indian Health Service travel assignments) will continue to be the most requested temp agency serving Native American pharmacies (IHS/tribal).

Now here’s the exciting news…

Hospital Pharmacist Job Connection is a fresh face in our family…it will exclusively help experienced hospital pharmacists get introduced directly to hiring decision-makers and access jobs before they’re advertised.

If you are a hospital experienced pharmacist (ie, clinical coordinator, clinical pharmacy specialist, informatics pharmacist, PGY2 residency-trained, or pharmacy director/manager), click here to be kept in the loop about how to cut down on your time consuming job-seeking process.

If you are a hospital pharmacy director/hiring manager tired of sifting through hundreds of resumes & getting backed up with your workload, be the first to hear about 1) secrets on how to hire “The One”, or 2) options to hand off searching, finding, & hiring “The One” to experts.

The answer?
It’s simple but not always obvious.

Some pharmacy hiring managers love to hire inexperienced pharmacists with the right attitude and train them to their pharmacy/company’s ways of doing things & groom them.  Others prefer more experienced pharmacists, so management can save time with training.  *Note: in this job market, the definition of inexperienced that I’m referring to is a few years of experience or less.

Here are the 3 most common mistakes of hiring based on experience or inexperience.  You may identify with one of them and gain a few insights, plus save yourself headaches when you hire:

Mistake #1:  Hiring inexperienced people with the right attitude & fit, but not having the time/energy to set them up to meet or exceed your expectations.  You tell yourself you will create a comprehensive training program, but you really don’t have time for this kind of thing.  It gets put on the backburner because of all the other things you HAVE to do.

Before you know it, your new hire is either frustrated and not performing to the way you’d like, or you talk yourself into not needing to create a comprehensive training program.  You tell yourself that the first few week or two of training should’ve been enough.

Even more frustrating, your new hire decides to leave after a short period of time, even though the pharmacist seemed like he/she wanted to stay a long time with you.

Pharmacist Slacking Off

Mistake #2:  Hiring primarily based on experience, and getting excited about someone’s achievements but not being careful with the rest of your screening process (including not following your intuition). You tell yourself that you don’t have to worry as much about assessing their fit, because this person has worked many years at another pharmacy successfully.  Surely they’ll catch on even though they start out performing below your expectation.  You let your guard down and skip over parts of your typical screening process.

Caution (Hiring Alert!):  Working many years at another pharmacy and doing well there doesn’t automatically translate into doing well in your pharmacy’s culture and expectations.  Your potential hire’s previous goals aligned with that employers’, but does his/her current goal align with your pharmacy’s?

Mistake #3: Hiring and allowing someone to continue at your organization when you realize they consume too much of your time (not in a beneficial way), or may be toxic to your staff. You think it will be too much trouble to go out there & look for a new hire again.  You stay in this bad marriage because you committed, right?*  Now, in most cases, I’m all about commitment in a marriage & staying until things get worked out, but having someone on your staff is not completely like a marriage (although there are similarities).

You can have patience & compassion to an extent about your new hire, but if it doesn’t work out, the decision to let him/her go will prevent that person’s ability to affect other staff members’ work.  In fact, hanging on to someone who’s not right for your pharmacy can prevent others from performing their best.You can have a different relationship with your hire who didn’t work out, ie:  an acquaintance, but you don’t need to have them consume your time & emotional energy as a staff member whom your pharmacy’s paying for.

What is the solution to these potential headaches?

If you hire someone inexperienced, take the time to assess how much time and energy it will take of yours and your staffs’ to get your new hire up to speed.  Beyond that, how much time and resources will it take for them to excel?  When you hire someone inexperienced, hiring someone with the right attitude and “fit” becomes even more important.  If you end up finding out after they start & it doesn’t look like it’s going to work out, you’ve just spent a tremendous amount of your energy getting them on board.  Take care in assessing the “fit” and attitude of your inexperienced hire.

If you hire someone experienced, make sure you have someone who has the attitude and “fit” of your pharmacy organization, not just on a short-term basis but a long-term basis.

These common hiring mistakes above can not only happen when hiring a pharmacist for a full-time position, but especially when hiring someone to fulfill a temporary need.  Most of the time when you are pressed for a last-minute need, you really don’t have time to ie, train someone with little experience, or deal with headaches of someone who is not the right fit.

This is where having a relationship with a recruiting company that specializes in the area of pharmacists you’re looking for and who knows you well can really give you value that no one else can.  There is nothing better to be said for fit, experience, & the right attitude.  Sometimes not having the right fit nailed down can really cost you.

When you have a secret weapon who knows you, your pharmacy’s vision, and more about your team so they are sizing up candidates based on much more than experience, the result of finding the right “fit” can save you headaches, time, and beaucoup bucks.

Add that with getting access to the most experienced pharmacists in the area of specialty your pharmacy’s looking to hire, and you have an edge to save yourself a lot of hassle & long-term hiring costs that other pharmacy hiring managers don’t have.

As the year comes to a close, acknowledge yourself for the gift you’ve given your patients and colleagues this year-maybe your clinical intervention saved someone from a serious adverse effect, what you said brightened up someone’s day, or just being you was an inspiration to your co-worker/pharmacy staff even when you didn’t realize it.

As we enter into the new year, I challenge you to join me in taking this on for the next 48 days: decide every moment that you’ll give without bothering how the other person is responding or reciprocating (including in your job)…go to your extreme of giving.  See yourself explode in intelligence & energy.  Be your own source of inspiration to live & expand in every dimension of your life (-inspiration from Paramahamsa Nithyananda).

On the one hand, you can resolve to do just the minimum because you may decide that you don’t like your job or your boss. You may decide to give only how much you feel you are receiving.  But you’ll end up stunting your own creativity, and the person who will suffer the most from it is you.

You have the capacity to be an inspiring leader regardless of what role you play...an inspiration to others while giving your greatest gift.  Your gift may not be the same as those around you (so drop all comparison!)…your gift is unique & can only be expressed by you.

Have a wonderful holiday—may those of you who choose to be inspired share bliss and joy with everyone around you.  Email me & share your reflections with me in your 48-day journey.  I’ll be thinking of you with love and inspiration as we enter the New Year!

In the spirit of ASHP Midyear meeting coming up, some of you are sure to be interviewing there (or maybe being the interviewer). Here are some surefire ways to make a potential pharmacy employer yawn in an interview:

1.  Tell them what you’ve done and never talk about the reasons why it would benefit them. A lot of pharmacists are really good at doing this.  They describe their job responsibilities….and then end there.  The average pharmacy job seeker describes their experience in a typical way & expects that the employer will think they walk on water, because they do the same things as everyone else who has similar experience.

If you want to stand out from your competition, go one step further.  Describe what that would mean for the employer. For example, if you’re a pharmacy manager, instead of saying “I manage 14 pharmacists”, say:

“I manage 14 pharmacists and have built a loyal pharmacy staff with the highest retention the pharmacy has seen in the last 10 yrs during my employment there.”

To impress the employer even more, take it a step further & describe the reasons why doing what you did would benefit them:

“I manage 14 pharmacists and have built a loyal pharmacy staff that has seen the highest retention in the last 10 yrs, saving my current employer over $XXX/yr in turnover costs.”

——————-
If you’re a clinical coordinator, instead of just listing your job responsibilities”:  ”I have been a clinical coordinator for 7 years.  I’ve been involved with rounding, developing clinical protocols, & medication safety initiatives”,

describe your accomplishments in a nutshell right away: “…..I’ve been involved with medication safety initiatives that have reduced medication errors each year by XX%.  I’ve also helped establish a residency program.”

& describe the reasons why doing what you did would benefit them: ”….made the pharmacy department look good by reducing medication errors each year by X%” and “increased the amount of visibility & interest pharmacists had in our institution from establishing a residency program”.  Are you starting to see the power in that?  Change this one thing about the way you interview, and you will leave impressing the interviewer and increase your chances for getting a job you want, vs. someone else who didn’t know better.

——————–

Are you starting to see the power in that?  Change this one thing about the way you interview, and you will leave impressing the interviewer and increase your chances for getting a job you want, vs. someone else who didn’t know better.

2.  Say trite things that other pharmacist job applicants will most likely say. Tell them how you work well with others and that you are hard working.  Be like a broken record that a pharmacy director or hiring manager will have likely heard a million times before.  You can bet that your interviewer will tune out when you say trite things.

Instead, try to describe yourself in a way that relates to the job you will be doing.  Perhaps you could describe your strengths in being a creative thinker who likes to explore alternative solutions to solve problems.  Here’s the key: Back it up with an example, or a story.  When a potential employer hears a story of you doing the great things you’ve done, they can relate to it.  They can think about how that situation can apply to their needs.

3. When asked by your interviewer, “Do you have any questions?”, you say, “No, you went over everything.” Hmm..boring.  Non-creative person.  Probably not really that interested in the job to even have any questions! Hiring managers want to know that you are just as invested in choosing the right job as they are in choosing the right candidate.  By saying that you have no questions about the position, you raise a red flag about your level of interest.  Have some sincere questions ready for when you are asked, such as:

“What are the qualities of people who are very successful in your pharmacy?” (Use this to respond with the similar qualities you have)

“Can you tell me a bit about the long-term advancement opportunities at this hospital?” (This shows your interest in long-term growth and not just “a job”)

“What projects/initiatives are being implemented that I will have a part in if I am accepted for the job?”

The interviewer will be impressed by the questions you ask, and he or she can learn a lot about you by what you bring up during the interview.

Use these valuable strategies in your next interview–stop boring your potential employer(s), keep their eyes wide open & get the job!

Comment below on what you learned from these strategies & what mistakes you’ve made in the past but now you’ve realized.  If you have been an interviewer before, comment on how frequently you hear boring things from pharmacist applicants.

If you’re going to ASHP Midyear, email me–I’m gifting mini resume and interview assessments to PGY2 pharmacy residents and hospital-experienced pharmacists in my community (everything’s confidential).   Apply here for limited available spots. Or if you just want to meet up, email me.  Have a good recruiter know you personally and they’ll put more attention on looking out for opportunities for you.

The #1 communication method that causes misunderstandings in pharmacies is….

You voted & the results are in from last month’s poll of pharmacy residency directors and pharmacy managers. The most popular answer was email.  Face-to-face communication is currently in 2nd place.  Do you agree?

What method of communication has caused you the most misunderstandings? If you haven’t voted yet, vote here & see the latest tally so your input is counted.

Tired of emails causing you frustrations with miscommunication? Here are 7 ways to prevent this issue from happening, including when & when not to use email.

1. Write a summary of the content or the request you have in the subject of the email. I started doing this regularly when my straightforward best friend from pharmacy school (she’s a clinical inpatient pharmacist & is now working at the FDA) asked me to start being specific in every subject title of emails to her, even personal ones.  I suppose she had a lot of emails to go through at the time & now I understand the value of it even more, now that I get hundreds of emails every day.

• Bonus Tip: Put the level of importance of your task request in the subject heading of the email, example: IMPORTANT: Send me XXX today

2. End the first paragraph of each email with an overview of the rest of the email, or an action step request (with deadline).  End the last paragraph with a summary of how to move forward, by when, and how.

3. Request confirmation and understanding of your email.  This is important when you are wanting someone to do something for you, or you want to make sure someone understood you clearly.  Sometimes confirmation of understanding your email is best to do on the phone, rather than back & forth questions that may develop as a result of questions about your email.

4. Don’t be afraid of the phone.  Let’s face it.  We’ve all done it—trying to avoid an uncomfortable conversation or the elephant in the room by emailing someone.  And then it just gets worse, because your email gets interpreted differently than you intended.  Then the receiver takes time fuming over your email, crafting just the perfect thing to say in response.  All that energy wasted and leading to both of you feeling frustrated than if you just both got on the phone.  Imagine that!  Some things are better to talk about in person, including new items that might require discussion.  Get on the phone.

5. The best times to use email to communication are when you want to share updates (preferably in bullet points) or make quick announcements that you may wish to have forwarded.  Email is also useful for notating policy changes and summarizing mutual understanding about a conversation you’ve had with someone and how to move forward.  If you are initiating a policy change, have the receiver verbalize their understanding of what you’d like them to do on the phone.

6. Find out the preference of the people you work with closely—do they prefer one long email with many points, or a separate email for each task/topic?  Of course, you can’t cater to everyone, but short typically better for everyone’s busy lives.

7. Is CC or BCC better?

• Use Cc (or carbon copy) field for people you want to know about the message, but are not directly involved. It’s for people that do not need to act or reply to the message, but to keep them informed.  But they can if they want to.
  • Mention in the email that you are CCing someone on an email
• The Bcc field (Blind Carbon Copy) can be used when you want other people to receive the message, but you don’t want the other recipients to know they got it.
  • The benefit of using BCC instead of CC is that if a person hits “reply all” it won’t go to everyone