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What Role Does Culture Play in Retention?

February 9th, 2018

For the sake of your business, and for the sake of its long-term health and sustainability, you want your workforce to be happy. Job satisfaction isn’t just a nice perk that you, as an employer, hand out with benevolence; it’s a signature aspect of any successful and functional business. Of course you can still make money with a miserable team—some companies do—but not very much, and not for very long. Poor satisfaction means high turnover, and high turnover means high costs and low productivity.

Long story short: It’s hard to stay competitive when your employees sign on reluctantly and spend their short tenures with one foot out the door. And a positive, thriving culture can keep that from happening. Here’s how.

Culture works like a magnet.

The impact of a positive culture starts long before the hiring process even begins. When talented candidates hear about your workplace and are motivated to apply, your overall applicant pool begins to improve. Your average candidate becomes nicer, smarter, more reliable and more highly qualified. Why? Because the best candidates always have plenty of options, and they won’t reach out to a company with a weak workplace reputation. They want the best, and they know they’ll find a welcome anywhere they go.

Culture knits people together.

A positive culture doesn’t just attract great candidates; it attracts candidates who already fit in and belong. Why? Because happy employees want to bring their own friends, family, and trusted colleagues onto the team. When those highly qualified friends apply and join the organization, they won’t have to build every relationship from the ground up. They’ll have a pathway to trust already in place.

Culture is contagious.

Once the best, smartest, and friendliest people are encouraged to sign on, they spread their positive energy and personal example to everyone around them. There’s much talk of how a single bad apple can ruin the barrel—and there’s truth in that folksy wisdom—but the opposite is also true: One great hire can bring cascading benefits to the entire team. Even better, these benefits can last for years after the person leaves.

Culture means stability.

A great employee will leave an average workplace within about two years (and that timeline shortens significantly in a below-average, toxic workplace). But when the boss feels like a friend and coworkers feel like family members, good people stay. Sometimes they stay for a long time, and they may even turn down offers from higher paying competitors.

A better culture means better relationships with vendors, clients and partners, a better product, a general sense of pride, and an upward spiral that brings long term benefits to the bottom line. Learn more by contacting the staffing and management experts at Merritt.

Online Applications: How to Answer the “Desired Salary” Question

November 23rd, 2012

Online applications have a few standard features that seem to carry across from one industry and position to the next. One of the trickiest of these universal questions has to do with salary. When employers ask you to enter your desired salary, or a salary range, into an online application box, how should you respond? Here are a few of your most likely options, along with the pros and cons of each one.

1. Enter the lowest salary you’d ever accept.

This will please your employers if they register the number as “affordable.” But they won’t be impressed if they read your number as “desperate”. Shoppers on a shoestring buy the cheapest item in the store, but those can afford to do so tend to move upscale. Be careful not to undersell your hard-earned skills or compromise your self-respect.

2. Enter the highest reasonable salary you can possibly expect.

This shows that you’re confident in your marketability and proud of your skills and experience. But if you’re bluffing, remember that your employers are more experienced poker players than you are, and they know a weak hand when they see one. Before you ask for too much, gain a sense of how your resume and accomplishments stack up when measured against those of your peers.

3. Enter the salary of your last job.

This is an easy solution with minimal risk and minimal reward. It may keep you out of trouble, but it won’t help you stand out.

4. Conduct some careful research and enter a number just above or just below the exact average for this job in your geographic area.

This is probably the wisest and most practical option. It shows that you know the value of the position and that you’ve taken that number and carefully factored in one of your two most appealing features: either your affordability or your general excellence.

5. Enter a range between the option 1 (the lowest you’ll accept) and option 2 (the highest you can possibly expect.)

If the application will allow you to enter a range, this is probably your best and most open-ended response to the question. But be aware that your employers probably won’t offer a cent more than they need to for the health of the business, which means their attention will fall to the lower end of the scale.
For more compensation request and salary negotiation tips, reach out to the Connecticut staffing and job search experts at Merritt Staffing.

 

“Tell Me About Yourself”: What Does This Really Mean?

October 5th, 2012

There are a few common interview questions that aren’t just common…they’re nearly universal, across every industry at every career level. These questions typically begin the conversation, and the way you decide to answer can set the tone for the rest of the session. So when a hiring manager opens an interview by asking you to talk freely about yourself and your background, how should you respond?

Think About Your Overarching Goals

What are you here to accomplish? Of course you want this hiring manager to see you as a valuable asset to the company, but what specific skills and character traits can you offer that will leave an impression beyond the obvious? What can you say about yourself that other candidates might not be able to say? For example:

1. Have you accomplished anything specific and important during your career that other candidates probably haven’t?

2. Have you experienced a mid-life career change? If so, what made you decide to leave the previous field and what attracted you to this one?

3. Have there been some unique and defining events in your life that sparked your passion for this type of work?

Your answers to the questions above will help your interviewer gain a better sense of who you are as person and what you’re specifically looking for as you shape the direction of your career. As she listens, she can think about the information you’re providing and how it fits into the complex needs of the company and the straightforward demands of this particular position.

Showcase Your Personality

The introductory question of your interview gives you an opportunity to highlight the most important aspects of your candidacy that you’d like the interviewer to remember. But it also allows you to put your personality on display and let the interviewer draw conclusions about what it might be like to work with you every day.

If you want her to see your friendly side, now is your chance. If you want to come off as business-focused, analytical, and serious, she’ll be watching and taking notes. If you don’t know exactly what she’s looking for and what kind of person she wants to see, it’s in your best interest to simply be yourself…but the best side of yourself. No matter what you decide to share, keep it positive, stay engaged and energetic, and stay focused on the professional (rather than the personal) side of your life story.

For specific guidance, mock interview sessions, and additional practice questions, reach out to your local staffing company and job search experts at Merritt Staffing Agency in Connecticut. We can help you start your interview off on the right note.

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