How to Conduct Meetings that Save Your (and others) Time?

We mostly come across several great posts that talk about saving your time for the best tasks in the office.

Avoiding unnecessary office meetings is one of those important tips. The following article shares some useful tips on how to conduct great meetings (and avoid wasting the time!).

Unnecessary e-mails and meetings kill hours. Time is, undoubtedly the most important thing in your life. It becomes even more important while considering your work life.

Meetings are important, but some managers forget to understand how to conduct it efficiently. After all, the time that you save for your work is important. The long and unproductive meetings indeed overload the subordinate calendars at the end of the day, resulting in a ‘no-profit’ situation for everyone.

If you are leaving all your urgent deadlines for the sake of attending a long-hour meeting about, say which font size will look good for your company’s monthly magazine- Cambria or Times Roman, then it is definitely a red flag. However, if your manager plans a one-on-one meeting on something really important, it is worth your time.

Time Wasting Meetings

You are wasting the major part of your life in attending meetings!

On an average, an employee spends almost 16 hours in weekly meetings. Meetings where everyone is fiddling with their smartphones, checking clock again and again, wondering the agenda of the same- surely, you would not like to be a part of such meetings!

Hence, successful meetings are a result of a unique combination of focused efforts and intelligent planning. Many managers have less or no idea about how to conduct an efficient meeting- and the result is the waste of time.

There are a few strategies to conduct great meetings:

Know the Agenda

Before sending a meeting request to your staff, analyze if it is actually needed? Do you really need a formal meeting? Will a ‘stand up’ meeting serve the purpose? Look for a quick, productive, and effective option to send across the message to the team. Remember, without an agenda, meetings easily turn into an aimless discussion that takes up the time of everyone.

Convey the Objective of the Meeting Clearly

This saves the much needed time for others to understand the purpose of the meeting, and how their contribution would be required. Calling them all with no idea takes additional 10-15 minutes to clarify the agenda. Conveying the objective helps to set the expectations, including the time required, topics to be discussed, and other things.

Act as a Facilitator

No meeting can run itself. As a manager, it is your job to discuss and find resolution for each area discussed. It is important to involve everyone and make sure that it starts and ends at the suggested time. If a meeting needs to be held urgently to get something done, go ahead with it. However, invite only those whose participation is actually needed. Remember, attending a meeting is not a certificate of honor!

Keep it Short

Meetings should leave employees walk out with an energy, enthusiasm, and a clear result. For this, it is vital that it should have an appropriate end time. Any meeting that runs beyond the estimated time becomes an off-topic conversation. Remember your school days when the idea of extending the class by even 5 minutes disturbed you; employees do think the same way. Thus, be specific and ensure an early adjournment.

Following these tips would help you to save time and conduct a great meeting.

What’s your approach? Share it with us.

Author Bio:

Author Bio: Swati Srivastava is an avid writer with a keen interest on the extensive domain of job search and career counselling. Currently associated with Naukrigulf.com, her articles are published on several reputed job search portals and online career magazines.

July 10, 2015November 30, 2020

5 Characteristics That Will Make You A Great Recruiter

Are you worried every time you are making a recruitment call? Do the candidates keep snubbing you? Does the hiring manager get tired of the countless resumes received from you? Now is the time to change all that.

Here I will give some useful tips of the profession that will help you be a sought-after recruiter and be an expert in the field.

According to Wikipedia, recruitment is the overall process of attracting, selecting and appointing suitable candidates for a certain job profile. Recruiters according to their functioning can be either in-house, independent or associated with some recruiting agency. Recruiters are usually involved with the whole process of recruitment.

Recruitment process is not just about calling a person to find out the availability for a required profile. There are lot of things that have to be considered before making out a call to the right candidate.

If you do not do your research before contacting a candidate, then you may end up wasting a lot of precious time and the position may not be filled up in time, which will decrease the productivity of the team.

What it takes to be a great recruiter? This is a question that comes to every person in the profession when there are so many limitations in the area of their expertise. If you look at the traits of successful recruiters from different industries, you will find they all have the same skills and characteristics when it comes to recruitment. Here I will discuss five of the important characteristics that can help you to be a great recruiter:

Excellent Networking Skills

Time and again you should realise that since you are in the ‘people business’ you should know how to build up good relationships with people. Try to build quality relationships based upon quid pro quo; professional give and take activities help in the long run to build a solid network of professionals. If you help the candidates or the hiring manager to get the perfect match, it will provide the recruiter with loyalty and commitment.

Great Influencing Ability

Whether it is face-to-face, telephonic or via email, all successful recruiters have amazing influencing skills. You will find that their personality has a charismatic touch, through which they achieve to make the candidates to think about the interview offer.

Good communication skills are of the utmost importance if you want to succeed as a recruiter. You cannot care to make one wrong move while having a conversation with the potential candidate.

Embrace Technology

It is understood that recruiters are not necessarily technology nerds but a good understanding and the acceptance of technology is needed to become successful when it comes to hiring people who are advanced in that field. As online assessment and interviews are needed for outstation candidates, it is also important for recruiters to adapt to their capabilities regarding the use of technology.

Honesty and Confidence Goes Hand in Hand

What every candidate wants from recruiters is that they be transparent about the job profile they are hiring for. Any dishonesty on your part and they will vanish at the first hint. It is important to maintain the relationship which will offer you a good network of professionals in the future. And with honesty, comes confidence; if you are confident enough that it is the right job profile for the confident you should be able to describe it flawlessly.

Good Listeners

To be honest, all candidates want their requirements to be fulfilled before accepting any job interview, so you have to be good listeners as well. If you do not get what the person is looking for from the position you will ultimately make the wrong person turn up for the interview, which will issue deep misunderstanding and eventually lose the trust of both the recruiter and the candidate.

If you have got the above characteristics rightly, your recruiting career will be a lot easier than you expect, and catapult you in the right and successful direction.

Author Bio

Hasib is a foodie and an avid reader with the same voracious appetite. He is interested in the current trends in job market and time to time writes about employment and career related topics. Reach him @ twitter, LinkedIn

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June 5, 2014December 6, 2020

An Inside Look at Being a UK Nanny

Nanny positions in the United Kingdom vary from employer to employer. In general, the career choice entails caring for one or more children of a client. Accommodations, duties and wages along with any perks or additional benefits differ and are typically discussed before the signing of a contract.

1. Accommodations–If a nanny is not required to reside at the client’s home, employers offer locations in and around the property where the caretaker may enjoy meals, take breaks away from the family, or spend time when the children or family is not in need of immediate services.

When expecting the nanny to stay on the premises, employers typically provide a room or living quarters where the employee may spend private time during off-duty hours. This area is typically off limits to the family and especially to the children. The nanny’s quarters should provide the option of a locking door. The nanny should also be aware if someone else has a key.

2. Duties-Employers hire nannies to care for children while both parents work. If living on the property, the nanny may have the responsibility of providing care when the child awakens and taking on the duty of putting the child to bed at night.

Nannies may take children to and from school, to extracurricular activities and supervise play of younger children. Older children may require assistance with homework. Employers might also require that duties include meal preparation, doing laundry or taking care of errands. If requirements include services not directly related to childcare, these duties should be discussed during the interview process and agreed upon by both parties.

3. Wages-The salary a nanny receives depends on a number of circumstances. Employees working within larger cities often receive higher wages compared with nannies working in more rural areas.

Wages might also depend on the number of children requiring care and any additional duties needed by the family. Nannies who travel to and from the employer’s home usually receive an hourly salary. Nannies living on the premises commonly receive a standard wage determined by the employer. Live-in nannies commonly receive a lesser wage compared to their travelling counterparts. Regardless of the type of working conditions offered, the United Kingdom demands that employers pay wages that lie within the guidelines of the minimum wage standards. Employers must also pay the taxes on those wages and provide National Insurance.

4. Working Hours-Live-in nannies generally work Monday through Friday and provide services for anywhere between eight to 12 hours per day. Nannies who commute to and from the work site often work fewer hours, which the employer determines as needed. Depending on the number of children in the family and the family situation itself, nannies might be required to accompany the family on outings or holidays.

Employers might also request 24-hour child care services if the parents plan on embarking on a trip without the children. Parents should discuss wages and working hours with the prospective employee in advance.

5. Meals-Nannies residing with the family typically receive meals above the wages that they receive. The employer cannot charge the nanny for any food consumed during working hours. Meals are considered an additional benefit or perk of the job.

6. Time Off-Employers generally discuss time-off with prospective employees at the time of hiring along with the special occasions that nannies may need to provide child care services. Employers usually award nannies with four weeks of paid time off during the year.

Parents commonly determine the date of two of the weeks while the other two weeks are left to the discretion of the nanny. Accompanying the family on holiday is not considered part of paid holidays. If travelling with the family, the employer remains responsible for the nanny’s travel, accommodation and meal expenses during the holiday.

7. Benefits-Benefits or perks vary from employer to employer. These might include the option of setting guidelines for the children, working unsupervised by the parents and having access to the employer’s home. Some families may provide nannies with communication devices that frequently include mobile phones. Nannies might also receive transportation in the form of a vehicle or commuting allowance. Employers often also provide nannies with a special bonus or gift as a gratuity during holiday seasons.

Statistics indicate that only 20% of the nannies employed actually reside with the family. Families and prospective nannies requiring more information concerning the legal mandates involving the position may contact the Professional Association of Nanny Nurses.

Rachael Cherry is a wife, mother, and writer who is passionate about helping connect families in need with high quality caregivers. She has taken that passion and put it to work through NannyPro, a respected online nanny referral service. Learn more by visiting @NannyPro on Twitter.

August 30, 2013December 11, 2020

Do You Ned To Be Creative To Pass Future Job Interviews?

Do You Need To Be Creative To Pass a Job Interview?

Recently on Virgin Blog.com, they discuss the importance of creativity for future job searchers.

Creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship will be soon seen as the most desirable skills required by employers, Virgin explains. This is because employers understand that the digital age has a need for entrepreneurs.

Inventions soon to come to light include paper-thin phones that curl up when you receive a call and self-driving cars.

STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) jobs are on the rise. Examples can be found now with innovative scientists looking at new ways of harnessing the suns rays to provide green energy and products such as “The Life Saver Bottle” have been designed to clean polluted water, by pumping contaminated water after hurricanes and tsunamis turning polluted water into drinking water within seconds, saving thousands of lives.

Employers and business leaders understand how such innovations will change the world while making them billions of pounds. Communication and technology is the new in-demand job, employers will interview highly skilled job hunters and creativity and innovation will be a required skill without these some employees will find it hard to progress in the workplace.

Read the full article here: The importance of daydreaming for entrepreneurs

June 24, 2013December 12, 2020

What is a Big Data Job?

A big data analyst works with the data in a given system and performs data analysis, these results help the business to make key decisions through clear and insightful analyses of data.

You will perform data mining, data auditing, aggregation, reconciliation, advanced modelling techniques, testing and explaining results through clear reports and presentations.

A big data analyst will have a broad understanding with real-time analytic s and business intelligent platforms. You will be experienced in SQL databases, scripting languages, programming languages and statistical software packages. From the analysed data you will be able to develop new insights.

Key skills required for this position include:

· Enjoys searching for patterns that could lead to new insights

· Able to use very large data sets

· Question your findings and create management reports

· A Bachelor’s Degree ranging from mathematics, statistics, and computer science, economics or finance

· Interpersonal, oral and written communication and presentation skills to communicate complex findings and ideas in plain language

· Problem solving skills

· Able to work under pressure and to meet deadlines

Jobs in this sector are increasing with a predicted 1.5 million jobs being created in the US alone. The job growth is due to the increase of data in the digital world.

Big data employees work with this large amount of data before computers literally burn out. Companies especially in the medical sector have millions of pieces of data and they have no idea what to do with it.

Graduates aren’t aware of these opportunities, which is leading to a careers gap between an increase in job opportunities and a lack of qualified and skilled applicants.

December 29, 2012

Workplace Extrovert Good or Bad?

In every workplace there is always one extrovert, but is having a workplace extrovert good or bad? Leave your comments below.

Good Extrovert – the extrovert always has a story to tell, a quip to share and an ideas to discuss. The Monday morning blues are lightened when the extrovert arrives, their happy chatter can go along way when you need a break. The extrovert will say whatever is on their head, in team meetings they will ask the question that you have wanting to ask for the last twenty minutes, the extrovert will start the group discussions in team exercises, and the extrovert shares their thoughts on new innovative ideas. The extrovert can bring a new energy to a team, they can boost morale and the extrovert can be the one person you can turn to when you need a workplace boost.

Bad Extrovert – the extrovert will often interrupt your work, with no thought to your forthcoming deadline, they will join in conversations even when uninvited, and they will share their thoughts and ideas when they’re not required. The Extroverts negative side comes out, when on a late Friday afternoon, you are halfway through a series of task, your concentration is complete and then the singing extrovert enters, singing, chatting and discussing any old thing that pops in to his mind. The extrovert can eat away at your free time, as the team meeting ends, the extrovert will have a hundred questions to ask when all you want to do is go home. The extrovert can interrupt, annoy and share unwanted thoughts with whoever is in listening range.

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December 29, 2012December 18, 2020

3 Strategies for Coping with a Job You Hate

Sometime you will find yourself in a job you hate, in these situations don’t be rash and hand in your resignation before finding a career you love, first follow these 3 strategies for coping with a job you hate.

1. Job Planning

– by starting to plan for a new career you will feel you have a way out of the current job you hate, but it’s not good enough to just say I’m looking for a new job, you need to have a plan of action “I will see a career advisor on 12/12/25, I will apply for 5 jobs a week, etc. By having a plan of actions with dates you are much more likely to commit to them, as you start to see your success you will feel less stressed in your current position.

2. Reframe the Problem

– when looking to get a new job because you don’t like your current role there is always a reason. Maybe there are rumours of redundancies, your manager may be lazy and never does any work or maybe you asked by your boss to do extra work. This negative thinking can make you stressed and ill, which is not a good place to be in when your applying for new jobs.

First, write down what you don’t like about your job “lazy manager”, I’m asked to do all the work”, “I will have no income if I get made redundant” and then look at the positive to all these situations, by looking at the positives or by looking at the problems from a new perceptive will make you feel more positive and in control, and remember because your job hunting you not going to be there that long.

Example reframes “the potential redundancies have given me to the push I need, I have already found 3 jobs I could apply for which pay a higher salary” “Being asked to take on more work shows me that my employer values my work” “my boss not doing any work is a sign that he doesn’t know what he is doing”

3. Killer Reference

– Knowing you are going to leave is a great feeling, now you have made that decision you can go out with a bang. Pick a new project or task and put your all into it, make it a real success. Your line manager is now highly impressed with your work ethic and skills. Once you hand in your notice, you will know that they gutted that you are leaving especially when they hear that a competitor has recruited you because you have been seen through your last project as a valuable employee. After trying to get you to stay, the only thing they can do now to show their appreciation for your hard work is to offer you a killer reference.

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December 1, 2012

Communication – The New UK Export

Communication is the new export, with information, news and advice being sold worldwide often via the internet. A communication degree can open many doors for you, as part of your course you will specialise journalism, public relations, speech or advertising. Once qualified graduates can apply for positions in companies in all job sectors from retail to construction.

The barrier that older people face is that they don’t think they will secure work after their degree, wrongly believing that the younger graduate will be snapped up. This limiting belief is wrong and often comes from the belief that employers want to recruit a younger person as they will stay in the position for much longer, as the older applicant will retire a lot sooner then the younger counterpart.

The truth is, and employers are very aware of this, is that most employees work in one company on average for 3-5 years before jumping ship, with many career professionals changing careers 3 times in their life time. In fact if an employer is keen to recruit someone who is likely to stay with their company for 5 years + they are more likely to recruit the older graduate as research has shown that it is the older job hunter who will, once offered a position stay with that one company until he retires in 10, 15 or even 20 years.

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November 22, 2012

A Key Piece of Job Search Advice

I have worked with hundreds of people who originally struggled securing employment even though some of these professionals were experts in their industries. To key piece of advice to any job hunter is to TARGET your application, CV and Job Interview. It sounds simple, I know but so many job hunters fail to do this. They will have a general CV that they will tinker with before they apply. But what job hunters need to do in today’s competitive times is to really match the job criteria (from the job advert, company values and job specification) to the duties on their CV or the answers in there interview.

Often during the interview and on the job application, applicants and interviewees will often discuss and record irrelevant information that they feel is one of their key achievements, but if their potential new employer doesn’t deem this skill important then don’t mention it as the employer will not see it relevance. Remember research has shown that employers initially skim through CVs and applications, looking for the skills they require. The job interview is the same, you may be passionately talking about a past experience but the employer is sat there thinking “great but has that got to do with the role your applying for?”

Read the job spec and research the company values, from this you will be able to gather enough intelligence to really target your CV and stand out, winning more job offers.

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October 27, 2012October 27, 2012

No More Pokes: 10 True Stories – How Facebook Ruined My Career

No More Pokes: 10 True Stories

– How Facebook Ruined My Career

1. Facebook Comment Cost me a £6000 Payout

Kate Furlong, a Royal Bank of Scotland employee was due a nice £6000 redundancy payout. While off work due to an illness, Kate received a redundancy notice through the post and promptly added her disgust on her facebook wall ”I speak for myself when I say WoOOOOooooOooooHOoooOooOoo’ it was pretty damn obvious something like this was coming. I’m neither stupid nor naive … and quite honestly it is the best news ever as far as I am concerned!”

She later followed this up with ”It was not unexpected. I’ve just hung on by my fingertips to stick around long enough for a nice payout when they could’ve had me out long ago without a penny! More fool them! Haha! Xx.” This Facebook insult resulted in the Royal Bank of Scotland holding a disciplinary hearing before deciding to sack Furlong without a penny, with the employer saying that she broke a secrecy agreement.

Source

2. Facebook Got Me the Sack

A computer technician at a USA high school was fired, after two students thought that he was ‘creepy.’ To check out their theory the boys set up a fake facebook account posing as a 16 year old girl to trick him into asking her out. The unsuspecting worker and father of two fell for the trick and invited the fake ‘Sarah’ out telling her how cute she was, before being sacked by the school

The father-of-two was aware that she was 16 from the get go, with the students posing as Sarah telling the older male that she was a model, the perpetrator quickly responded claiming to be interested in photography. These exchange took place over several months, before the police became involved.

Source

3. Offensive Facebook Messages Ruins Footballers Career

Bygrave a none league footballer came through the ranks at Reading, before playing for Gillingham, Weymouth, Histon and Hayes & Yeading until being promptly sacked after admitting to making numerous comments about race, disability and paedophilia on Facebook. Bygrave later issued a statement saying he “deeply regretted” his actions.

He said: “As much as I totally accept that they are inappropriate and will offend many people, I believed I was just repeating banter and jokes from numerous sources”

Source

4. Fat Taunts Ends Builders Career

In competitive times 3 builders secured a building contract with Dennis Owen from Wales. When they arrived the trio thought Dennis was overweight and posted a picture of a pair of his large sized jeans which they had found while working in his house — with the comment “the fattest person I have seen in my life” on their face book wall.

We don’t know how true this statement was, but we know that they got a lot of laughs from their mates until the Dennis made his complaint, which resulted in the trio losing a lucrative building contract.

Source

5. Pulling a Sickie

Kyle Doyle, a call centre worker from Sydney, after a big night out decide early in the morning as the room was spinning that he would ring in sick. After e-mailing his manager Kyle was still level headed enough to gloat about his master mind scheme on facebook.

Unfortunately for the 21-year-old his boss had seen his Facebook status which read: “Kyle Doyle is not going to work, f… it – I’m still trashed. SICKIE WOO!”

The email exchange between the two ended with boss Niresh Regmi posting the Facebook page on his email under the message: “I believe the proof that you are after is below”.

At this Doyle realised he had been caught in the act and seemed to accept his fate, writing back: “HAHAHA LMAO epic fail. No worries man.”

Source

6. Women Sacked on for Complaining About Her Boss on Facebook

Hoping to release the Sunday night stress after thinking about work, Lindsay decide to vent her anger on facebook posting “I hate my Job” the wall post continue in severity accusing her employer of being lecherous towards her.

Only a couple of hours later, Brain her boss, replied with ‘Firstly, don’t flatter yourself. Secondly, you’ve worked here five months and didn’t work out that I’m gay?

‘I know I don’t prance about the office like a queen, but it’s not exactly a secret.

‘Thirdly, that “s*** stuff ” is called your “job”, you know, what I pay you to do. And lastly, you also seem to have forgotten that you have two weeks left on your six-month trial period. Don’t bother coming in tomorrow.

‘I’ll pop your P45 in the post and you can come in whenever you like to pick up any stuff you’ve left here. And yes, I’m serious.’

Source

7. Facebook Post Used as Evidence in Exam Cheat

Two Belgian college student after being caught exchanging responses during the tests have been flunked for cheating on their written exams.

Exam supervisors had noticed something suspicious during the exams but had failed to find any hard evidence of cheating. But after a couple of threads on Facebook surfaced, proving that the cheating had been going on for quite a while and showing that the students were pretty proud of the fact they hadn’t been caught.

The council ultimately determined the conversations on the social network could be used as evidence, resulting in the flunking of the pupils after they confessed to cheating

Source

8. Military Betrayal to President Obama

The U.S. military discharged Sgt. Gary Stein for postings 15 words on Facebook that have ruined his nine-year career

Stein openly criticized U.S. President Barack Obama on his Facebook profile and posted comical images on a Facebook Page. Online comments included “Obama is the economic enemy … He is the religious enemy … he is the ‘Fundamentally change’ America enemy … he IS the Domestic Enemy.”

The Marine Corps decided to take administrative action after Stein declared “Screw Obama and I will not follow all orders from him” on Facebook. Stein said his statement was part of an online debate about NATO allowing U.S. troops to be tried for the Quran burnings in Afghanistan.

He explained he would not follow orders from the president if it involved detaining U.S. citizens, disarming them, or doing anything else that he believes would violate their constitutional rights. He later clarified the original statement, saying he would not follow “unlawful orders”.

Source

9. £10 Cost a School Girl Her Part Time Job

Chelsea Taylor a Manchester school girl recently logged onto her social networking site to find a mis-spelt dismissal letter posted on her page -littered with grammatical errors due to the poor girl losing £10, but Elaine Sutton the manageress at Cookies in Leigh Greater Manchester softened the blow with two kisses.

The message read: ”hiya (sic) Chelsea its (sic) Elaine from work. Sorry to send u (sic) a message like this but bin (sic) tryin (sic) to ring u (sic) but gettin (sic) no joy.

”I had to tell the owner bout (sic) u (sic) losin (sic) that tenner coz (sic) obviously the till was down at the end of day (sic). she (sic) wasn’t very pleased at all and despite me trying to persuade her otherwise she said I have to let u (sic) go. I’m really sorry.

”If u (sic) call in in (sic) the week with your uniform i’ll (sic) sort your wages out. Once again I’m really sorry but it’s out of my hands. Elaine xx.”

Source

10. Not Even God Can Save You From Facebook

For years Christians have been spreading the good word of our lord, but when Maria Jesus Galan a Nun from the Santo Domingo el Real convent in Toledo, Spain used facebook to pass on the good message to her 600 followers she was quickly kicked out of the nunnery.

10 years ago the nunnery invested in a computer to upload the convents achieves, which Sister Maria was responsible for. She then went on to use the internet for online banking and other online initiates which in the end won her a governmental price for her digital initiatives. With this new fame she increased her facebook popularity which was the start of her downfall.

Her fellow nuns reportedly claimed that Sister Maria’s Facebook activity “made life impossible.” She was therefore asked to leave and now lives with her mother.

At least Sister Maria understands the opportunities an online life can offer. She used to have 600 Facebook friends. Now her Facebook community numbers more than 5,000

Source

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