If you're looking for more flexibility, stepping back into the workforce, or wanting to fill time between permanent roles - temping could be the perfect option for you.
Here, Intepeople Temps Partner Rosie shares some of the many benefits to temping.
Are you looking for work/life balance? Maybe you like the thought of working for a few months at a time, then taking a bit of extra time off between jobs? If that kind of flexibility sounds appealing, temping can be a great choice.
You might be ready for a new challenge but aren't looking to completely change careers. Temping provides an opportunity to work in various industries and learn about different companies in the area. You can 'try before you buy,' so to speak!
Many of our temps enjoy the variety that comes with working across different industries and with various companies.
"Rosie found me a temp position straight away, working in the Human Resources Department for one of Nelson’s leading employers. This role, along with my other temp placements, provided me with invaluable experience in my field across various industries."
Julia, Intepeople Temp
Just as temping can provide an opportunity to work in a range of industries and companies, it offers endless opportunities to meet new people. If you're a people-person and thrive on building new relationships, you'll no doubt enjoy temping.
You never know who you are going to meet and what you might be able to learn from them. These relationships could transform into professional opportunities, or you might make some lifelong friends.
While, for the most part, clients need someone who can hit the ground running, they are realistic that a temp may not be versed in all areas of a role. Often there is scope to learn something new in each role.
“Temping with Intepeople has been a great way to broaden my administrative skill-base. I’ve had interesting assignments across a range of workplaces and Rosie and the team always provide great support.”
Rochelle, Intepeople Temp
Every client is different. Temping can expose candidates to a variety of organisations. With this comes the experience of differing organisational cultures, management styles and work environments.
Finding the 'perfect' job can sometimes be a matter of being in the right place at the right time, and temping is an excellent option to use and grow your skills while you look for a permanent role.
Here at Intepeople, our Temp & Talent Partners work closely together. Candidates can still be very much in the mix for permanent roles while enjoying the benefits of temporary employment.
"I arrived in NZ at the beginning of October 2017. As soon as I could, I registered with Intepeople as a temp and for any permanent positions. I did the skills test which I was very nervous about, but your wonderful staff put me at ease. I'd been in my previous job for over 20 years, so I found it very daunting to be back on the market looking for a job again. I was most grateful for your input in getting my CV up to date."
Anne, Intepeople Temp
Temp work is exactly that - temporary! If you’re not sure what your next career move will be, temping can be a good way to fill the gap and ensure you have an income, while you make a decision about what's next.
We are nearly always looking for more temps because often our superstars end up being offered a permanent role.
"After temping for two months through Intepeople, I was offered permanent employment. I am so happy and will recommend Intepeople to anyone who wants to find a good temp or permanent job."
Delicia, Intepeople Temp
Intepeople provide temporary staff across a broad range of sectors and industries across Aotearoa. We’re often looking out for more talented temps to add to our Talent Bank.
To be successful as a temp you’ll have previous experience, be able to hit the ground running, pick things up quickly, and work well with others.
Sound like a good fit for you? Register today to join our Talent Bank and one of our Temp Partners will be in touch.
As I watched the All Blacks completely dominate the Aussies on Sunday morning I wondered how on earth they stay so humble, grounded and in control of their nerves.
We in HR can learn so much from this team – I’m sure you are thinking – Fantastic leadership, Beyond amazing teamwork, Mentors, Coaching, Resilience, Goal setting, Training both mentally and physically and much much more.
I thought of mindfulness, what exactly is this, how do we achieve it and how have our All Black brothers mastered it.
Mindfulness is a special mental state of awareness and openness. (As defined by Dr Russ Harris and Bev Aisbett in the book “The Happiness Trap”
They say that it involves 3 skills:
1 – Defusion –When you learn to defuse painful and unpleasant thoughts, self-limiting beliefs and self-criticism, they have less influence over you.
2 – Expansion – This means making room for painful thoughts and feelings and allowing them to flow through you, without getting swept away by them.
3 – Connection – This means living fully in the present instead of dwelling on the past or worrying about the future
The pace of life is so fast today that our brain is not always geared up to take in the huge amounts of information bombarding it. We choose to filter what we want and how we want to receive this information. We then choose how we let this information affect our emotions and consequently our reactions to events.
Mindfulness is being open and ready to receive anything that comes along as it happens, helping you stay in the now.
It takes practise – and I reckon our boys in black will have been practising it a lot over the last 6 weeks.
No limiting beliefs – take the knocks – be open to feedback – have the end goal in sight but take one game at a time. They have an amazing ability to stay grounded in the face of enormous pressure.
Even being able to stop and celebrate their enormous win without focussing on the future showed how adept they are at being mindful.
Inspirational in so many ways – hats off to you All Blacks….
Every now and again someone comes into your life – either personal or through work – that make a lasting impression on how you think and react to things.
It may be you get inspiration from a great book, you are privileged to have a powerful coach or mentor, you attend some outstanding training or you just get a feel good feeling from working with a fantastic group of people.
Sometimes it’s nice to stop and reflect on some of these learnings.
On the weekend one of my inspirational influencers passed away. Wayne Dyer was a famous self-help, wellness pioneer.
So in memory of all the greatness he inspired in people I offer you 10 of his inspirational quotes.
1. "If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
2. "How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours."
3. "When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself."
4. "Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice."
5. "Conflict cannot survive without your participation."
6. "You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with."
7. "The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about."
8. "When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way."
9. "Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life."
10. "Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into."
Have a great week and please feel free to share with us any of your favourite influencers.
Performance Reviews – Are they worth it?
Just lately I have noticed a growing trend - in not only small to medium businesses but also major corporates –to reconsider the benefits of the annual review process. Some include Adobe, Accenture, Deloittes and the NAB.
They have run the numbers, researched the staff and decided that a more regular, informal check in is a better way to go.
They have also ditched the forced ranking systems that tend to fall out of the performance review data. Feedback from staff suggests that they are not motivated by rankings and often struggle to understand why they get the result they do.
Over the years I have implemented a range of performance review processes – usually the more formal type. Historically large corporates find it useful to have all review data in around the same time so you can then work out who deserves what level of pay rise. It’s all a rather formal process.
And as we all know the performance review is really only as good as the manager facilitating it.
When employees get to “know” the system and the following can happen:
In fact the whole process can work against positive morale and create an unproductive working environment.
However:
Those less confident staff will know that when they get a chance to use a formal process, they will get their voice heard.
A structured approach allows executives to see a baseline across managers, teams and business units. This can be useful for succession management or planning structural change.
A more regular “check in” also has positives and negatives:
Positives vs Negatives
I tend to favour a less structured more frequent approach – 6 weekly check ins – maybe a more formal review twice a year if needed.
It really depends on the company – values, culture, strategic direction, performance etc. – they all play a part in how you run your performance process.
You may want to call it something completely different as the word “performance” is usually associated with poor performance.
When it comes to discussion about the annual bonus – you may wish to consider more regular awards – could be based on excellent work or grabbing a big piece of business. The issue of bonuses is really a blog on its own so I will have a look at that next week.
This type of discussion makes for a great leadership team session.
What kind of performance process do you use at your place? Is it working? Please let our community of readers know – continuous improvement is the way to go…
It’s really exciting to see a number of new HR initiatives being offered online. In our last blog we talked about employees being able to rate employers. You can check it out HERE:
This week I was intrigued to read about a new site where you can use quizzes as part of your selection process to narrow down applicants by asking them a series of relevant questions to ensure they will fit at your company.
This site is called wierdlyhub.com
Read a bit about what they do from this Stuff article:
With the use of Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites as well as more traditional methods to advertise your role – Trademe, Seek and the newspaper - you can have candidates coming in from many places.
This is when your selection criteria and processes kicks in.
Traditional Selection processes include:
Weirdly offers another string to your selection bow. Especially in the cultural fit side of things which we all know is critical.
Some initial thoughts on using this new tool includes:
Nothing is more powerful than a properly run interview with follow up in-depth reference checking.
But if you can use this tool to whittle down your shortlist at minimal cost – I say give it a try…
And if you do – drop us a line and let us know if it worked for you or not – our community of readers would love to hear the feedback.
Did any of you notice this interesting article in the Business pages of Stuff last week?
Employees rating Employers Article
It essentially outlines how there are now websites like Trip Advisor that you can go to and rate your workplace – usually out of 5.
The site the articles uses as an example is www.glassdoor.com.
As a seasoned HR professional I had to go and check it out and see how it could affect the EVP (Employer Value Proposition) of a company – i.e. the impact this could have on how attractive are you to work for.
Glassdoor calls itself a career community website that features areas such as: Jobs, Salaries, Interview Questions, a place to rate employers and quite a large employers section where employers can place job ads and get free advice on some career type issues.
Be aware that there are already a number of New Zealand based companies on there – usually bigger one e.g. Banks, Insurance. Interestingly as part of your login you are asked to rate where you currently work so it won’t be long till there are a number of NZ employers on there. Glass door has over 30 million users…
So what does this mean for Employers today? I see pros and cons
Pros:
• If you have a really great place to work you will get free advertising and endorsements
• Negative feedback is always a chance to take a step back and ask yourself some hard questions about how it really is working at your place
• You get free feedback on areas you may need to improve on
• It’s a relatively controlled environment where there is not a lot of space for employees to rant about really bad experiences
• It will encourage employers to ensure their recruitment processes are robust and transparent that they provide a high standard of customer service to their candidates
Cons:
• The feedback you may receive is out of your control and there is no opportunity to respond to this
• Employers will really have to live up to their promises
• You may struggle to attract the kind of staff you really want
• You have to rely on perceptions from people who may be very one sided in their views
I do believe this type of rating system is a bit of a wakeup call for Employers. They need to be aware and ready to deal with the impact of these websites on their employment brand.
The changing face of available workforce shows us that the younger Generations are consistently relying on endorsements when it comes to making decisions.
Good feedback could add strength to your employment brand but criticism may have the opposite effect.
Do you have any thoughts on how these rating sites may impact at your workplace?
by Emma Worseldine
How many times as HR professionals have you been asked to look for a coach or mentor for a learning or performance issue?
You need to ask yourself what are the individual needs of each situation. Sometimes it is coaching that is needed – other times a mentor and often times neither.
Quick recap on the difference between a Coach and a Mentor
A Coach
A Mentor
Here are some tips on how to decide:
Have a look at the performance appraisal of the person - what is the nature of the learning need?
Has the company introduced a new software system or program?
Does the company want to develop employees in specific competencies?
Do you have a few talented individuals who need ongoing leadership advice?
Do you have internal company experience/expertise you wish to retain and pass on to younger staff members?
Do you have staff members who need help with some of the more emotional intelligent areas in their development?
And as I said above sometime you need neither – often looking at other Learning and Development techniques may suit the situation.
Webinars, online learning tools, traditional training courses, exposure to other departments, putting staff on one-off projects are just some of the other methods you can use to fill a training need.
The size of your company and the amount of money you want to spend may also influence your training needs decision.
Another BIG question you need to ask yourself is – Will this training spend actually benefit the company?
I have seen many Business Owners and Managers fork out big sums of money on training that only benefits the individual and is not in the best interest of the company. So spend wisely.
If you have any other tips for helping our community of readers make L&D decisions drop us a note below. We welcome your thoughts and ideas.
The hot HR topic at a work BBQ last week was how much impact the 'Millennials' will make on cultures of the future.
If you aren’t already aware – Millennials are:
It has also been said that in the workplace they want:
So I decided to go and do a bit of research on how different they actually are when it comes to workforce planning.
Do we as Leaders and HR Specialists have to think differently when planning for and dealing with the younger generations?
It seems the answer is Yes and No.
Fortune Magazine has released 5 myths about Millennials in the workplace:
All these myths are debunked in the article.
Check it out HERE:
In fact each of the other generational groups – Baby boomers, Gen Y, Gen X – all have their own set of characteristics and myths associated with them.
These characteristics and myths show that we need to be aware of the need to create a workplace where employees of all ages are embraced for the different traits that they bring.
So respect each generation and build a workplace where everyone is treated like an individual.
The success of a culture is the ability to bring individuals together to achieve your company’s strategic goals.
Perhaps think of it as an alliance – check out this earlier blog on Alliances –
We would welcome your thoughts on whether or not millennials need to be treated differently in the workplace.
References used for this Blog:
Interview Questions About Political Views - To Ask or Not to Ask?
The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has recently come under fire for asking prospective candidates their opinion on the controversial Ruataniwha Dam.
An unsuccessful candidate has subsequently claimed that his oppositional stance to the dam was a contributing factor in him not securing a role.
I found the whole scenario alarming - it got me thinking about what questions are appropriate when interviewing potential employees. Is it appropriate to ask interview questions about political views?
When planning any interview questions you need to stop and think:
They claim that they were just wanting to find out if candidates had done their “homework”. Well there are lots of ways of finding out if candidates have done their homework that don’t involve probing political views so that sounds a little farfetched.
The Council also vigorously denied that they used the information for vetting candidates. This stance is either quite cunning or very naive. The reality is that as soon as you ask a question you expose yourself to the perception that you are using the information from the response to inform your decision.
What I found most alarming about this line of questioning was the thought that any public sector organisation could potentially be vetting employees on political views. Surely we want the employees in our public sector to represent the diverse and varied community that they work for and for them to work in an environment that encourages debate and critique.
By Emily Coe
I had the privilege of attending a breakfast two weeks ago in Wellington where Hugh McCutcheon, a 45 year Kiwi whose career highlights include coaching the USA Men’s Volleyball to Olympic Gold in 2008 and USA Women’s Volleyball to Olympic Silver in 2012.
He was introduced to the breakfast attendees by Paul Cameron the CEO of Volleyball New Zealand as “just a boy from Christchurch”, but one who now has led one of the world’s largest nations to Olympic glory – Quite a feat!
The key points I took from his philosophy were:
I loved the last one. Essentially a disruptive person in a team environment cannot have another full time follower. One highly talented and skilled person who is an “idiot” in many other aspects such as comedic behaviour, dubious ethics, team player etc. can be managed when they have outstanding skills for the job as long there is no other full time idiot to join them, otherwise disruptive ‘cliques’ occur. Any other team member may be an idiot on any given day -as long as there is not more than another half time equivalent.
Hugh made the point that culture change takes time and that can be a problem in the professional sport environment. The speed of the results required and the expectations on the team by sponsors and owners can dictate whether culture change is possible and will indeed work. In the Olympics, the four year cycle means you train and work for four years where you need to be good & performing at the top of your game for two weeks to hope to excel for the last two hours!
As in sport, business teams need to perform optimally to achieve results. To achieve this the team culture needs to be really clear, supported by all team members and aligned to the business objectives. Management and all team members need to work hard at maintaining a strong culture and be prepared to keep it alive and well through strong communication to make the results really hum.
Read the Dominion Post article about his breakfast address.
by Pru Bell
