Its That Time of Year Again.....

Yes the big man in the red suit will be here soon, this means stress in the office to try and have all tasks completed in time before the office closes for the festive season. Then its drink all around whilst enjoying a bbq or workplace party. Yes this time of year is upon us again. Is it just me or does time fly the quicker we get older?

For some this time of year will bring joy and laughter to others heartache and depression. It is easy to forget those who have been looking all year for a job and find themselves still without a job, or a party to attend. Take comfort in the fact 2010 is almost at a close, we can only pray and hope that 2011 will bring you success, joy and a total celebration of life.

To those of you looking for a new venture a change of life, I wish you all the best and that Santa fills your stockings with opportunities and a belief in your abilities and self.

Merry Christmas to One & All and ultimately FANTASTIC 2011

Recruiters - Hidden Form Of Discrimination or Just Poor Service?

Losing your job, can render you powerless and impotent, filled with all the emotions attributed to death – and as such you need to give yourself time to GRIEVE and MOURN your job lose. The 5 stages of grief you may feel are;

1. Sadness
2. Anger
3. Denial
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

As part of the process, you can seek help from your community counsellor, family or friends. Going through the stages of grief allows you to re-evaluate your priorities in life. Such as what is important to you? what have you always wanted to do but were too time poor to achieve? where do you want to take your career? and are you content in your personal life?

Take this time to answer these questions for yourself; work out what it is that you want. If you can afford it go on a little holiday, and if dollars are a little tight, then arrange a sleep over at a friends place for a few days. The point of this is to change your environment and to regain control of your life, confidence and self-esteem after it was shockingly taken away from you.

You are at our most vulnerable and as such are highly sensitive and therefore susceptible to all forms of positive and negative input. Try to encase yourself with those whom you trust who will support you through the grieving and healing process. Take the time needed to heal your self esteem and confidence to wellness. There is no time limit and you shouldn’t be pressured into running to the first pay check. Remind yourself that you are more than a pay check and as such are worthy of self consideration.

When you are ready to re-enter the workforce, either as an employee or self employed, draft an action plan with an acceptable timeline of when YOU want to start working again. Here is an example;

1. Draft Action Plan

2. Set Time Line

3. Expand Your Horizon, for the challenge and diversity

4. Review & Amend Resume

5. Create a Business & Marketing Plan

6. Re-access Your Financial Position & Goal

7. Join Networking & Social Sites

8. Investigate the types of organizations you would like to work for

9. Review Personal Appearance, such as haircut, wardrobe, (which will do wonders for your self confidence and esteem)

10. Practice interview or meeting new clients techniques with friends or family

Ok, you have followed YOUR plan of action, and you are now in control of what you want after your experience. You have maintained (hopefully) a good relationship with your former employer, who will provide you with a great reference.

As the candidate, you will have spent weeks and months if required on perfecting the right resume and presentation to sell to a prospective employer or client. Be prepared for some rejection. It happens to us all. However remind yourself that finding the right employer or client is like finding the right spouse or partner, you would never agree to marry the first person you see, and the same can be said for the right employer or client.

How do you convince an employer (recruitment agency especially) to see beyond the "norm", that you are unique, funny, highly skilled and desirous of learning and re-entering the workforce?

You breathe, you remind yourself of your strengths, about what makes you the best person for the job. You remind your self that you have experienced triumphs that took your former employer to the stratosphere for a day and it had been achieved with your input. You remind your self that along your career path, you were guided by the best mentors, who inspired you to stretch yourself and reach as high as you can whilst maintaining your integrity, honesty and humour. You breathe!

For some finding the next job can take a matter of weeks, others it can takes months. However long it takes, we remind ourselves we have something to offer that is unique and special and therefore only the “right” employer or client will see it.

If you encounter hidden discrimination, (usually found among top tier recruitment agencies), be mindful and manage the amounts of “rejection emails” you receive from them. It could be that either your resume is not marking the impression you want or that you are applying for jobs you are not suitable for. Therefore have a friend or former employer review your resume and provide the feedback necessary to make the required amendments. If however; after you have made all the changes and you are still not getting anywhere with the recruiters, then it’s not YOU it is THEM.

A recruiter has an invested interested in finding the right candidate for the job as they are paid thousands of dollars as top tier recruiters and they may not be the only preferred supplier, to find the right candidate for their client (employer), therefore recruiters become overly selective to the point of over looking your experience based on what they hear and see. If you have fallen into the listed below criteria then it's a hidden form of discrimination based on;

1. Weight
2. Appearance
3. Employment History
4. Multiple Retrenchments

These are discriminatory and illegal and yet recruiters apply these tac tics daily by not providing the necessary and required feedback on why your application has not made it either for the selection stage or interview, or even after the interview.

Recruiters are also notorious for planting “fake” job advertisements to build their pool of staff, but rarely will you ever receive a call from an agency saying that you have been pooled from their databank. If you have encountered this silent and hidden form of discrimination I would be interested to hear from you.

To ensure that the job you are applying for is “real” ring the recruiter, speak to the consultant, if you don’t hear back within a reasonable 24 hours, then DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME. It is a FAKE!

You have endured too much and have worked too hard to have a consultant who isn’t interested in helping you find the right job. Remember they need you, more than you need them.

Remember recruiters are only as powerful as we make them. They are not smarter, or necessarily specialized or highly skilled in their fields. They are ordinary sales people paid to do a job and find new clients who will pay them large amounts of money to have YOU. If you find that you have been ignored, calls that have not been returned, after YOU have taken the time to call the consultant, then YOU have to ask your self, one question - WHY? And if you don’t receive the answer you seek, then speak to their manager that is what they are there for, ACCOUNTABILITY and blog the agency/s.

Let other’s like yourself know of the recruiters who have not only met your expectations through exceptional service delivery, such as returning phone calls, been available to help you, friendly and approachable, professional with integrity in attaining a job, but also those who have neither delivered in service, professionalism, or integrity. We live in an age of technology where transparency is required not only by candidates but also with employers and recruiters. It is your right not to be discriminated against for any reason. It is illegal and recruiters must be held accountable, and lack of responses or feedback equates to poor service and even possibly discrimination!.

Remember if YOU can recommend a restaurant, holiday destination or even a trades person to your friends, family or online, then so can a recruitment agency be held on recommendations based on their success or failure of assisting you to find that new job. YOU are their clients and as such deserve no less consideration.

Good Luck and let me know how you go….

Marketplace Changing With The Times

The global crisis of the past decade has redefined the industry of administration staff to a thriving global home based business, challenging the concept of "in-house" vs "home based" assistant and employers reaping the rewards.

Secretaries no longer "simply" type correspondence for "the boss.” Now, they often write that correspondence—as well as plan meetings, organize data using spreadsheet and database management software, interact with clients, vendors, and the general public, supervise the office and other staff, handle purchasing, and even train other workers.

Today, secretaries (also known as administrative assistants, office coordinators, executive assistants, office managers) are using computers, the Internet, and other advanced office technologies to perform vital "information management" functions in the modern office.

The future is bright for computer-literate, well-educated, administrative professionals with industry moving rapidly towards Virtual Assistants.

The "VA" Virtual Assistant was founded in 1995 in the US to meet the ever-changing business and family requirement. Women, who had been employed as administrative professionals, were leaving the workforce to start families and not returning due the high cost of childcare, and the desire to spend quality time with their children.

Technology had evolved so rapidly in the last 20 years, that most homes had a computer, to which administrative professionals could work from home to meet the corporate industry's urgent demand for administrative tasks to be completed such as data entry and word processing.

Corporate America and Mothers united to join forces to achieve a common goal and objective, that of "Free Enterprise.” The driving demand for skilled administrative assistants was the catalysts that spawned a new service industry in the marketplace.

Employers embraced the idea of hiring a virtual assistant who could provide all of the services of an in-house assistant, without any of the former high overhead associated costs of an employee such as employee tax, benefits, and superannuation.

Enterprising women could setup a small home based business working hours to suit their lifestyle, whilst providing all the skills and experiences of an in-house assistant. Virtual Assistants are accessible through technology and not restricted by time zones. As a home based operation, the "va" is able to provide affordable rates for their services.

More recently, the global economic crisis has put the virtual administrative assistants in the spotlight, due to workplace retrenchments on the rise, and virtual assistants utilized as a more cost effective business solution.

Most virtual assistants reside in the US, but the number of virtual assistants is growing world wide most noticeably in places such as the U.K, Australia, Canada, Europe, India and most recently Asia due to demand for highly skilled and affordable assistants.

As demand has grown, so has the unethical opportunist with scams on search engines offering data entry and word processing jobs, that do not exist or un-skilled "va"s not accredited with associations or valid websites. The professional virtual assistant will have a professional website outlining their services, history, and privacy policy with valid contact details.

As a relatively new industry, the virtual assistant is the way of the future, by removing the need to travel, therefore a more 'Green Approach', combined with the motivation and passion to achieve financial and personal freedom and finally flexible hours to meet the needs of their family.

The way I see it, working with a virtual assistant is a WIN WIN outcome, company’s save on financial resources, yet nurture a continually growing global service industry.

Friendships Are Filled With Opportunties

Welcome everyone to my first ever blog.

I thought I would share with you a little about me and what I hope to provide with this blog. For the past 15 years, I have worked in many industries, from government, corporate and small business sectors. In most cases, it has involved working by the seat of my pants. What I had learned over time is that business organizations hardly ever have a “How to Guide,” when it comes to most jobs. Therefore creating something from nothing empowers not only you but also those to come after you.

We can look at the current economic crisis as a time to conduct some internal housekeeping chores we have been putting off. We could be looking at ways to streamline processes, or improve on our customer service delivery, ensuring that our customers no matters their size are treated as if they were our one and only client. Take the time to revaluate your business and personal priorities. If today were your last day on the job, what would you do differently?

We all remember starting in our first job, either at McDonald, KFC or retail outlet, learning the fundamentals of customer service and communications. It was our ‘L’ time and for number years, until we perfected our skills and branched out into our career of choice, which meant that, we progressed to ‘P’ status and finally fully fledged licensed employees, or business owners. This skill has not been achieved over night, but rather over time.

Make time for you to do something that you enjoy, whether it is window shopping, going for a walk or a drive. Listen to your favourite music, dance as if nobody can see you, and have fun at the office. Remember laughter, smiling and joy at contagious, so spread it around freely!

There are many networking organizations around, depending on what your needs are, there is an organization to meet them. It is easy to lose site of how to make new friends. It can also be quite is scary, when you have not made a new friend in a long time. Where do you start? I tend to gravitate towards networking sites for women who offer mentoring and business enhancement skills whilst also offering friendship for my business such as Essentially for Women and for my social outlet, I chose Getalife. Both meet my specific needs. It is so easy to forget your needs, when you work so hard at meeting the needs of others. Networking opens many doors to fantastic opportunities, open a door today and see what is behind it!

To summarize this first blog, learn to manage your time more effectively, by re-evaluating your processes and procedures to assist those working in your organization. Look at ways we communicate internally with our staff and externally with our clients, by finding the passion that drove us when we first started out. Finally we are not an Island, we rely on many sources to help our business grow, through recommendations, repeat business, networking and knowledge.

We all start out wanting to do a good job and ultimately to be remembered for providing excellence in our service delivery for customers. ‘Build it and they will come, ignore them and you will go broke’!

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass it's about learning how to dance in the rain."