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Leadership Skills Every Employee Needs

May 26th, 2017

You might not believe your current job requires anything that can be defined as “leadership”. In fact, you may look around your work environment and see yourself as the lowest person on multiple totem poles. Or you may not interact with your coworkers in a way that suggests hierarchy or levels of influence. You may contribute to a team of equals, or you may be the newest and least influential person in every room you occupy. But we have news for you: this won’t always be the case. You have a greater impact on others than you realize, and your influence will only grow with time. So in order to thrive, you’ll need to build a few critical leadership skills. Start now and within a few years, you’ll be on your way up the ladder.

Speak up.

Practice raising your voice in order to make your thoughts and feelings heard. Don’t wait for an invitation; just speak, even if it means interrupting someone or setting yourself up to be interrupted by others. Words have no power if you don’t use them, and speaking up usually brings lower risk than you might imagine. Gather your courage and join the conversation. As an employee, if you are facing discrimination or is being treated badly without any rational reasons, hire lawyers in Indianapolis to give you legal counseling and help you out.

When you want someone to do something, tell them.

Instead of hinting or insinuating, just make your request. When you need a pen from distant shelf, say “Can you hand me that pen, please” or simply “Grab me that pen over there, thanks.” If you simply express abstract sorrow regarding your lack of writing equipment, or go to impractical lengths to get the pen yourself, you miss out on an opportunity to practice issuing a request and enlisting the help of others to get things done.

Take up space.

Gracefully accept what’s yours. In fact, assert yourself a little bit in order to reach out and take it. When you’re offered a chair, take possession of the entire chair, including the armrests; don’t perch nervously at the edge. The same applies to your work area, your salary, and the resources you require in order to do your job. None of these things are gifts. You deserve them, you earned them, and they’re yours by right. So take them and say thank you. Then move on.

When you’re right, stand your ground.

If several members of your team suggest opposing plans, and you know that yours is the best idea on the table, don’t let go until you receive evidence that an alternate plan may offer more benefits. Push for your ideas and suggestions, and while you’re at it, stand up for others who propose great ideas, and don’t let them be shouted down. Amplify the voices of those who have something to say that might benefit the team.

For more on how to exercise your small but growing influence in the workplace, reach out to the Connecticut career management professionals at Merritt Staffing.

The Benefits of Hiring Temporary Employees

May 6th, 2016

If you’re like most hiring managers, your company occasionally faces spikes in client demand. These spikes may happen on a regular seasonal schedule, or they may occur without warning based on market forces beyond your control. You may also sometimes find yourself in a lurch for the opposite reason; instead of too many projects, you simply don’t have enough hands to manage the standard workload, due to sudden departures, simultaneous leaves, or overlapping vacations.

So what to do? How can you handle the gap between the work that needs to be done and the employees available to do it? And how can you pull this off without breaking your budget or hurting your company’s reputation? Consider the benefits of a temporary or contingency hiring to get you through the rough patch.

Temporary employees reduce risk.

Sometimes temporary workers are only interested in temporary jobs. They want to step on board, work for a few weeks, and then move on. But plenty of others would actually like to find full time, permanent positions eventually. And plenty of employers are also interested in long term arrangements if—and only if—the two parties are mutually compatible. In a temporary work agreement, both participants can take the relationship for a test drive, and if all goes well, the agreement can become long term after the contract period ends.

Temporary employment reduces hassle.

Signing on a permanent full-time employee means paperwork, and paperwork means headaches. But if you employ a temp, the agency hires and pays them, not you. We also handle tax reporting, insurance issues, and all necessary screening and testing to make sure your candidate fits the bill before you even meet for the first interview.

Temporary employees can be highly skilled.

If you’re just looking for an honest, hardworking person who can help you complete a low skill task (like moving boxes or stacking papers), that’s fine. But modern temporary employees come with every imaginable skill set and every imaginable level of experience. From high school diplomas to Phds, and from coding to healthcare to engineering to culinary skills, a great agency can help you find the exact candidates and skills sets you need.

Temporary employment saves time.

Hiring is expensive, and a great deal of this expense is often a function of time. It takes time (and therefore money) to source positions, post ads, review resumes, screen candidates, screen them again, interview, then make a final decision. So leave the heavy lifting to us. We’re great listeners, and once we understand what you’re looking for, we can access our vast network of resources and connections to bring the right candidate directly to your door.

For more on how to handle a temporary workload or form relationships with new employees at minimal cost and risk, reach out to the Fairfeld County recruiting professionals at Merritt Staffing.

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