The Right Way to Interview Job Candidates

Whether the candidate you’re about to interview is an established professional or a young job seeker, you need to impress upon him that your company follows high standards of professionalism. Whatever favorable impression you made through your job posting on one of the leading newspapers and job portals in Singapore, you have to build on when you conduct your interview.


Be on time
Keeping an interviewee waiting for more than a few minutes is a sure way to create a bad first impression for your company. If he makes an effort to arrive on time, he has a right to expect the same from his prospective employer. Be on time, and you get his respect right off the bat.

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Different Approaches to Resolve Office Conflict

Your job search in Singapore has finally landed you the job of your dreams. You’ve successfully moved from being a job seeker to a professional and you’re now leading a team of hardworking career-driven workers. Then, it happens. A conflict between team members threatens to disrupt harmony and workflow. How do you get the two warring parties to reconcile and get back on track? There are many different approaches to resolving conflicts. Here are a few that should prove helpful.

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Take Team Building to the Skies

In just about any job advertisement Singapore newspapers and job portals carry, you’ll find words like “team,” “coordinate,” and “work with.” This only goes to show how just about every employee, no matter what his job, has to perform a role in a group of other employees. In other words, everybody is part of a team, and for that team to succeed, its members have to work together well.

In their effort to make their teams perform as cohesive units, managers are constantly looking for novel team-building programs. These include company outings, games during parties and other activities that mix fun with the objective of improving teamwork.

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Announcing jobsDB Singapore’s new partnership with Yahoo!

SINGAPORE, 13 AUGUST 2013 – Leading online job portal, jobsDB Singapore, had commenced its partnership with Yahoo! on August 1st to create even more opportunities for job seekers in Singapore to find jobs. The strategic alliance gives Yahoo! Singapore’s 5.5 million monthly unique visitors direct access to jobsDB Singapore’s website via a new dedicated icon on the Yahoo! Singapore homepage. This new partnership significantly broadens jobsDB’s reach, benefitting both job seekers and employers alike as Yahoo! is one of the most popular online destinations here.

Furthermore, the partnership will also allow jobsDB’s 22,000+ available jobs – from temporary vacancies to full-time jobs – to be viewed by Yahoo! visitors. This further establishes the job site as a preferred place for employers to reach the widest breadth of potential employment candidates in Singapore.


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Traits and Skills of Successful Salesmen

Sales jobs may vary in many ways, but the skill set that makes for good salesmanship remains constant across all industries. Sales professionals who have honed these skills are the ones most likely to move up to sales manager and sales executive.

It doesn't take natural talent to be an effective salesperson. It takes the following traits that can be developed and skills that can be learned.


Confidence
This is by far the most important trait of the successful salesperson. You must believe in yourself and your product for your prospects to believe in you. When you project an aura of confidence, you convince others that that you are a person they'll want to deal with. Speak with authority and answer questions without hesitation, and you're halfway towards making the sale.



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jobsDB’s MD, Angeli Beltran, Talks to Marketing Magazine About Our Refreshing Brand Revamp

Angeli is pictured on the cover of Marketing Magazine's July '13 issue
with TBWA\'s Creative Director for our account, Eddie Azadi.

jobsDB’s Managing Director, Angeli Beltran, was featured on Marketing Magazine’s July ’13 edition in their cover story of jobsDB’s massive brand revamp. The cover story on Asia Pacific’s highest circulating publication for advertising and marketing professionals further establishes jobsDB as a leading jobs portal and thought leader for Singapore job seekers.

The magazine interview chronicled the development of jobsDB’s brand revamp: from the intense pitching process in which TBWA\ won, to the crazy deadlines that both the agency and our marketing team had to meet for the entire campaign to be completed within one week.

Read the whole article here.

This article is either written or edited by jobsDB SG. If you would like to publish or link it on your website or publication, you have to write to marketinginfo@jobsdb.com.sg for permission. We reserve the right to take legal action if we find copyright infringement.

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How Talent Management Can Drive Business Growth

Talent management is one of the critical tasks every company has to undertake in order to keep their best employees, regardless of the state of the economy. Under favorable economic conditions, employees find it easy to conduct a job search in Singapore, mostly through job finder websites, in the hopes of landing a better job. This makes it necessary for companies to devise ways to retain their best talents. During difficult times, companies have to show their determination to keep their best employees, to prevent them from leaving once the economy gets better.

An ACCA report titled “Talent Management in 2010: Foundations for Growth” discussed the importance of talent management, as well as the effectiveness of current strategies, and the challenges involved in planning and implementing talent management programs. The report contains the findings of a survey on talent management practices in the finance profession, conducted among 1400 individuals from 105 countries.

The Importance of Talent Management
The ACCA report states that “good talent management practices lay the foundation for business growth, and are at the heart of value creation in the knowledge economy.” Finance professionals, it was found, recognize the benefits and importance of well-implemented talent management programs. They see these programs as critical to the development of high-potential individuals, the identification of future leaders, and the planning of succession.

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High Potential Programs: Boosting Retention and Maximizing Talent

The science of finding the right talent has evolved considerably from the usual practice of visiting every job website Singapore has to offer, consulting career centers, and interviewing qualified job seekers. More and more employers are looking to High Potential Programs to build employee capability, retain the best talents, and drive business goals.

According to the latest Hudson Report, 65.3% of employers currently utilize High Potential Programs. This serves as testimony to the fact that these programs are a sound business decision.

Tony Pownall, General Manager of Hudson Hong Kong, shares: “The war for talent is still very much on, so it is now more important than ever for employers to reframe their approach to talent management, re-evaluating the skills and capabilities required within their teams and build a talent pipeline that will assist in meeting the challenge of current and future talent shortages.”

“As a result, we’re seeing a higher incidence of employers using High Potential Programs to boost engagement and retain staff which is key to driving efficiency, productivity and minimising business disruption.” 

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Eight Ways to Keep Your Best People

You never know when one of your key people will come up to you to express his intention to join another company. When you least expect it, you have to visit a Singapore job portal to look for a job seeker who can replace a departing employee.

There’s never any guarantee that you can keep this from happening, but there are ways to increase your chances of successful retention.

1. Communicate Employees always appreciate transparency. If you keep them in the loop about what is going on within the organisation, both good news and bad, you make them feel important, and that is key to employee satisfaction.

2. Educate It’s important for your people to know that you’re willing to invest in their future. Provide them with training programs and opportunities for career advancement, and you earn loyalty points with them.

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What to Consider Before You Make a Counter Offer

A key member of your team has expressed his intention to resign, and you don’t want to lose him. Should you visit a job portal or one of those job search engines to look for a replacement, or should you make a counter offer? If you feel less inclined to take the job posting route, there are steps you have to take before making that counter offer.

Talk to the resigning employee
This serves a dual purpose: to express your regret over his decision, and to find out his reasons for resigning. What are his views on the job, his coworkers, and the company? These bits of information will help you move on to the next step.

Identify his concerns
After talking to the employee, you’ll have a clear idea of his reasons for resigning. Study these carefully: do they have to do with money, career growth opportunities, the workplace environment, work relationships, or personal matters?

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Secure the Top Talent in Sales and Business Development

Among the Singapore jobs vacancies, spots for sales agents in particular are proving harder and harder to fill, as the war for talent reaches boiling point. People with sales experience and business development skills in information technology (IT), fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), life sciences and banking are highly sought after by employers looking to boost profits and maintain a competitive edge.

In line with broader labour market trends, mobility in sales and business development roles is high. A general employee lifecycle is between 18 and 24 months. For generation Y, it can be as short as 12, or even 6 months. Hence, one of the biggest challenges that employers of sales and business development professionals face is talent attraction and retention.

Here are some tips to help ensure employers can secure the best talent.

1. Acknowledge the talent shortage
Some senior managers maintain the perception that there are many jobseekers to choose from and it is an employers’ market. However, with 1.9 percent unemployment in Singapore, this is not the case. For some companies, sales and business development roles can remain vacant for up to six months. Once this is realised, the need to have a tailored talent attraction and retention strategy in place becomes obvious.

2. Focus on the key skills
In this talent-tight market, employers must keep an open mind when considering new hires for the company. Look deeper into the experience of a candidate, rather than rejecting them straight away because they do not match all of the required skills sets. Industry experience and inititiative play a big part. Also, while some candidates might not have years of experience, they might be enthusiastic and willing to learn. Once they are given the opportunity to learn and grow, they will succeed in their roles fast.

The most successful sales professionals usually possess a positive “can-do” attitude and well-versed communication skills. This means that they listen to customers closely, provide the right solutions, and are able to articulate the benefits of the products to the customers. They also need to have a high level of energy and be able to think strategically. If a jobseeker does not have relevant experience, but has these qualities, he might just be the next sales star.

3. Act fast
Interviews and approval procedures can take time. It’s important to bear in mind that if you take a while to get back to a good candidate, you run the risk that they might have accepted another offer and moved on. The lesson is: once you identify a talented individual, act fast and secure them immediately.

4. Nurture the talent you have
Once a new member joins the team, it is important for employers to bring them up to speed as soon as possible. Give them clear targets and strategies, and let them know the expectations from the onset. It will be good to give them break-down targets in first, third and sixth months and reward them once they meet these targets. This helps to keep them motivated and engaged.

Jobseekers in Singapore do not only focus on a competitive remuneration package, but also the training and career advancement opportunities provided. Business leaders need to think strategically and make sure they attract and retain the best talent to propel their business forward.

Secure the Top Talent in Sales and Business Development Article by: Richard Farmer, Director of Professionals, Randstad

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KEEPING OFFICE COMPETITION HEALTHY

Office competition can be a double-edged sword. Handled properly, it can be an effective motivator and deliver outstanding results. Approached ruthlessly, it can be a source of demoralization and disgruntlement. An admin assistant may resort to devious means to outdo her peer. A finance analyst may try to inflate figures just to beat the others in his department. Even those who have held temporary jobs in Singapore have probably experienced office competitions getting out of hand.

When your boss decides to hold a competition among you and your peers, it’s important that you approach the exercise with an open mind and a positive attitude. This means not just bringing your “A” game, but also giving importance to the value of fair play.

Compete against yourself, not the others.
Don’t think of office competition as a “me-against-them” affair. Don’t try to second-guess what the others are cooking up. Just go out and do your best. Recall your biggest accomplishment, and use that as the yardstick against which you should measure your effort. This is what being your own biggest competition is about. You try to outdo yourself, not your opponents.

Keep the competition friendly.
Stay cordial with your officemates throughout the competition. Enjoy lunch and coffee with them as you always do. You can talk about the competition if you like, and even engage in friendly trash talking, but be sure to keep it just that, friendly. Good-natured jibes can actually create a more relaxed atmosphere and keep the competition in its proper perspective.

Win or lose, be gracious.
When the outcome of an office competition is a matter of judgment (as opposed to something quantifiable like sales figures), there’s bound to be some grumbling when the winner is announced. Don’t allow yourself to be part of that. If you lose, accept the decision graciously. Congratulate the winner and learn from the experience. If you win, stay humble and acknowledge the work that everyone else put in.

Remember that you’re still on the same team.
Unlike competition with other companies, competitions within a company are by nature temporary. You have to keep in mind that whatever the outcome, you’re still teammates. If you lose, give your full support to the winner. Let him know that whatever additional work has to be done, you’ll be ready to help. If you win, let your teammates know that you’ll welcome any ideas that will enhance your work. This will tell them that you want them to take part in your success.

Competition, they say, can bring out the best and the worst in us. When you push out the negative and let your office competition bring out the best in you, you’ll earn the respect of both your boss and your peers. That’s definitely the best prize you can win.

Image source: 
http://www.123rf.com/photo_1592941_business-team-in-a-competition-in-the-office--focus-is-on-the-face-of-the-second-guy-from-right-to-l.html

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