With the holiday rush over, we can relax a bit and look forward to New Year. My advice is to use these last days of 2013 to contemplate the year's goods, bads, ups, downs and all around amazing moments. A good, "end of year" exercise is to compile a list of all the things you remember doing in 2013. Use vacations, work milestones, personal milestones, relationships and any other events that happened to you. Separate these events into good and bad lists. After contemplating your lists, think of ways that you can repeat the events on the good list and minimize the events on the bad list.

A personal forecast is another "end of the year" exercise that will help you realize and achieve your goals for 2014. To start your personal forecast, make a list of all the months in the year starting with January and Ending with December. Think of everything you would like to accomplish in your personal life in 2014. You may include relationships, family, health, finances and any other topics that may be of interest to you. Use the list of months to map out how you will achieve these 2014 goals. The map should include what your goal is, how long to achieve your goal and what type of problems you may have trying to achieve your goal. You may also extend your 2014 forecast to business as well. At PsiNapse Technology, we formalize our goal making process by having a January goals meeting. This allows us to set reachable goals for the rest of the year.

I know this technique sounds simple, but if you follow the steps above, these exercises will help you visualize your 2014 goals and provide guidance to help you achieve those goals. Have a wonderful New Years and 2014!

Let us know how PsiNapse can help you to Connect - Collaborate - Achieve!

We just returned from a wonderful TechServe Alliance Conference at the Red Rock in Las Vegas, NV. The weather was perfect and the venue was organized and well attended. We had several notable speakers, and among them, our very own President Elect, Jim Carteris. Jim had some wonderful thoughts on our current economy and how TechServe can optimize the strength of all TechServe Alliance members. Thank you Jim! We are very proud of your presence on the National front and look forward to your leadership.

This was a meeting of the minds of many in our industry, and the conversations were intense and varied. For those of you unable to attend from the world of Staffing and Consulting, I have put together a top ten list of some great take away' s I would like to share:

1. 50% of communication is non-verbal! Meet your candidates in person or at least skype them.
2. Encourage referrals from Candidates and Clients alike. Push yourself every day.
3. Manage your consultant care tightly. Do a formal check in the first day, the first week, the first month, then every quarter ongoing.
4. Ask for Consultant feedback and listen!
5. Focus even more efforts on sales for 2014—timing is critical due to economic cycling.
6. Look at the vertical markets that are burgeoning in our economy such as energy and healthcare to name a few.
7. Invest if you can in real estate—the market is ripe for this type of investment.
8. Stay true to your core values: As leaders of your organizations, you are the purveyors of your own corporate culture and this is the GLUE that will keep you together during tough times.
9. Grow through your centers of influence—what are complimentary resources that are non-competitive with your business? Use leverage to work smarter and not harder.
10. Develop systems and processes that are scalable and repeatable. Remember that what gets measured gets done!

This is a great time of year to work on your personal and company goals! Put them together for your Holiday Party.

Wishing you great success and a wonderful holiday season,

Sylvia Luneau

President

This thoughtful article from http://booleanblackbelt.com/ shared some great insight with regard to the overall recruiting/sourcing process. PsiNapse recognizes the importance of understanding the difference between PASSIVE and ACTIVE strategies to ensure you are reaching the correct applicant pool. While posting your open positions online to attract talent is still useful, sourcing from the Internet, LinkedIn and other online resume databases to identify qualified applicants offers more control over candidate selection.

Passive:

Job Posting is a Passive Strategy - Posting jobs online is a passive, sit-back-and-wait talent attraction strategy. Identifying, attracting and hiring top talent is critical to any company’s ability to create and maintain a competitive advantage.

• Job Posting Offers No Control Over Candidate Qualifications - If you post a specific job requirement, literally ANYONE can respond, whether they have the appropriate experience or not. This strategy puts 100% of the selection control in the hands of the job seeker and 0% in yours.
• Job Posting Attracts the Smallest Percentage of Job Seekers - The only people who are going to respond are active job seekers and they represent the smallest percentage of the available applicant pool. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, here is the breakdown of job seeker status:
  • 32% passively looking
  • 34% not looking
  • 20% casually looking
  • 14% actively looking
• Your Ads are Invisible to Most People - Passive job seekers and those who are not looking at all don’t even SEE ads for jobs right in front of their face. The reality is that most people tune out ads of any kind…on the Internet, on TV, billboards, etc.

Active:

• Sourcing is an Active Strategy - When you create and execute searches to source for potential candidates, you are actively looking for talent. Instead of waiting for the right people to respond to a job posting, sourcers take decisive action to go out, identify and proactively engage the talent.
• Sourcing Takes Control Over Candidate Qualifications - While it is impossible to post a job that guarantees you only people who perfectly match the requirements will apply, it is possible to write a query to find people who have the right type and years of experience. 100% of the control over who you find and identify is in your hands, not someone else’s.
• Sourcing Can Target Passive and Non-Job Seekers - Unlike posting jobs online which require action on the candidate’s part, when you actively search for candidates, you can target people who are not actively looking. Statistically, the majority of resumes online are of people who are not looking or passively looking.
• Sourcing is Social - A sourcer can and should engage prospective candidates socially via InMails, Facebook messages, tweets, LinkedIn and/or group discussions, or just plain old email dialogues for that matter. Sourcing can go even more social…actually picking up the phone and having a live conversation with a candidate is a 100 times more social than any online/social media exchange.

Posting jobs online is a logical thing to do and is certainly a part of a balanced “diet” of recruiting methods. On the other hand, an active strategy, affords everything that job posting fails to: control over candidate qualifications and the ability to specifically target and engage passive and even non-job seekers socially. Instead of waiting for the right people to come to you, PsiNapse believes in simply going out and finding them.

Through the active utilization of these methods, PsiNapse provides our clients with the most talented candidates for their opportunities.

Connect • Collaborate • Achieve with PsiNapse

I enjoy what I do very much because I get a chance to help people and companies every day.  Sometimes though, the drain of a long work week or a rough day can be an obstacle.  When I feel this way, my co-workers can rally around me and help me get past that obstacle.  Whether they give me a positive comment, a nice smile or simply ask how I’m doing, they give me the energy and confidence that makes me want to succeed, not just for myself, but for the whole team. 

So, if you have co-workers that you appreciate, let them know they’re doing a good job.  Ask your co-workers how they are doing, offer a helping hand, or bring in some food that you’ve made for everyone to enjoy.  It will give them a boost and make you a great teammate/co-worker.  So, go out there and be the best co-worker you can be!

For me, the holiday season is all about giving. I spend hours and hours on getting just the right gift for each of my loved ones. Most of the time, I am awake before my kids on Christmas morning, because I am so excited to see their joy when they open their gifts. I also feel that there is a gift much more precious than any object bought in a store, and that is the gift of us, and our time.  So, when I learned what PsiNapse does for their holiday party each year, I was excited and also impressed.  For the last few years, the PsiNapse team has volunteered at the Alameda County Food Bank in lieu of having a party.  It was a wonderful way to give back to our community, and help those in need.

PsiNapse Technology wants to assist you with your resume editing. Below, we have listed a few helpful tips for you to consider before you submit your resume to that next great opening!

My favorite session was one on best practices. Although the actual title of the seminar was “Designing a Technology Strategy for a Large Publisher” given by Julien Merceron, Worldwide Technology Director of Square Enix … do not judge a seminar by its title!

Mr. Merceron was a dynamic speaker and I took away his core thoughts to share with my staff and to share with you, as I believe his “best practices” can cross over to any industry or any business.

• Pick your Battles: All companies and departments will have competing interests at times. Know the level of your resources and pick the battles you can win. Time is never on your side.
• Find Partners: Find partners to work with on big initiatives to maximize your abilities and grow. You will learn from your partners, and you will learn from the experience.
• Outsource: Look at outsourcing solutions to enhance your offerings and research outsourcing companies before making any decisions to ensure the best fit for you and your goals.
• Tools: Invest in whatever tools are necessary to make your teams as efficient as possible. Tools may be expensive, but the efficiency will make your organization stronger. Make sure these tools are team friendly and make sure to keep away from single points of failure: the tendency of having one person with too much knowledge in one area, and no redundancy of that knowledge within the team. More than one person should always know how to do any one critical process.
• Knowledge Management: Choose now how to address your on line presence and strategy moving forward to ensure it is not managing you. This presence is critical and game changing.
• Essential Strengths: Know your essential strengths. Ask yourself, what are you great at? Focus your energy on these essential elements to grow!

Mr. Merceron also had vital thoughts on how organizations and teams should regularly meet to have “best practices sharing,” among other strategic discussions. He reiterated that that changes do not happen in a day and, if you empower your teams, you will reap the benefits and rewards. Over all, it was a powerful message that I hope I did not diminish by paraphrasing his insightful thoughts.

Let’s all move forward, know our strengths, pick our battle and grow.

PsiNapse Technology wishes you a great 2012!

Connect. Collaborate. Achieve

One of the core values that PsiNapse holds is being involved in the community and giving back whenever and wherever possible.  One way that we stay involved and show our appreciation for what we have is by giving of our time and resources to community-based charities.  This year, as in years past, we are doing our part to support the Alameda County Community Food Bank.

Returning to the workplace after an extended absence is a challenge many career seekers face.  There may be apprehension that your resume will be overlooked when a break in service is apparent, and a lengthy absence from the workforce may seem like an insurmountable challenge.