Tag Archives: Technical Recruitment

How to turn down a job interview

After applying for a job, you suddenly realize it isn’t a good fit or you are presently uninterested in the position. Here are some tips on how to professionally and politely turn down an interview from an employer.

Be sure you want to reject the interview

Take some time (not too long) to consider why you turning down this interview. Consider the reasons both good and bad. If there are legitimate reasons such as changes in your personal and family life or you were offered a promotion within your current company, then it is understandable why you are rejecting this job. If you are still unsure, you can still take the interview and clarify any concerns. The job interview, is not the same as a job offer. So doing the interview would be good practice thus improving your interpersonal and communication skills.

Respond ASAP!

Promptly decline the interview via email or phone call. Let the hiring manager know as soon as possible. Do not send a whatsapp message. Be respectful of people’s time, be professional and open up this opportunity for someone else.

Keep the response short, simple and be polite

Write a concise and simple response declining to be interviewed. Don’t give too much detail as to why you are rejecting the interview. Be polite by expressing gratitude for the opportunity and make sure you email or call the correct person.

Don’t avoid responding

Never ghost or do not respond to a hiring manager about turning down a job interview. This is just disrespectful. Only you know what is best for you in terms of doing a job interview or not. Be professional in your communication to maintain a positive relationship with this hiring manager and the company.

Author: Johanna Thomas

Posted by webmaster on July 10, 2021

Career Advice

Top Tips to up-skill and get promoted to Manager

For employees, it is important to understand the key aspects of management, leadership and the job at hand.

√ What are your responsibilities and the skills needed in your capacity as manager?

√ Do I understand my role?

In this new managerial position, employees should take the time to get a clearer picture of the key components required to be successful in their new role. Time must also be spent in the managerial role doing the job in order to learn and gain hands-on experience.

Pairing with a mentor

Leaders should encourage employees to pair up with someone who has made the transition into management. Employees can shadow a colleague or someone they admire currently in a managerial position. A mentor can provide insight into the challenges of being a manager and how to overcome them.

Technical people need soft skills

Soft skills are essential for a person in a managerial role, as they influence how you work and interact with others. As employees acquire these skills, it will lead to their personal growth and development enabling them to thrive in their new position.

Here are some soft skills to focus on:

Interpersonal Skills – These skills give managers the ability to communicate, work, interact and relate effectively with people. This will lead to an open and welcoming work environment for staff.
Communication skills – Being an effective communicator will allow new managers to engage and collaborate with staff who was once their colleagues previously. Exploring what is the best way to communicate both verbally and in written as a new manager is important.
Time Management – This can have a profound effect on the new role and the team. Creating schedules, sticking to deadlines and completing tasks or projects shows new managers their dependability and efficient use of time.
Creativity and Innovation – To stay ahead of the curve, newly appointed managers should be at the forefront of creativity and innovation. It is important to encourage and enable collaboration amongst staff, tapping into their creativity and input.
Problem Solving – Managers who are problem solvers are an asset to any company. Newly appointed managers will need to be quick on their feet and offer solutions to problems in a productive manner.

Making that move into management is not an easy road, but those who are willing to undertake this exploration will excel in their new role and strengthen by their drive to succeed.

CRS can assist businesses in up-skilling or re-skilling their staff for the transition to management. Need help in preparing your technical staff for managerial roles? Book a session with Mariska at mariska@crsrecruitment.co.tt

Author: Johanna Thomas

Posted by webmaster on July 5, 2021

Industry Insights

Outsourcing the Human Resource Function

Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO) is a service where companies can transfer their Human Resource (HR) functions to an external consultant / team in the absence of a Human Resource Department or specific HR skills.

There are many benefits to outsourcing all or parts of your Human Resource function. Having access to knowledgeable and experienced Human Resource consultants is one of them. Human Resource Outsourcing can significantly add value to any organization no matter size, industry or location, by reducing operational /administrative costs while improving efficiency.

This approach allows companies the time to focus on their strategy and vision without spending time or have the hassle of administrative processes.

Our comprehensive range of Human Resource Outsourcing Services (HRO) consists of:

1) development and implementation of a strategic HR plan

2) HR policies and procedures

3)Employee handbooks

4) Performance Management

5) Compensation – Payroll and Benefits administration

6) HRIS – HR Dashboard and Metrics

7) IR and employee relations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced companies to reassess their HR strategies to cope with the many concerns surrounding the organization and its people. Our Human Resource solutions are customized and tailored to the needs of our clients. We believe understanding our clients’ culture, objectives, internal and external stakeholders are critical to providing the best solutions.

Chat with us to discuss your HR Outsourcing needs and how we can help you. Schedule a call with Mariska Seereeram at mariska@crsrecruitment.co.tt

Author: Johanna Thomas

Posted by webmaster on May 27, 2021

Industry Insights

Subject Matter Experts on Interview Panels and Training

It’s time to propel your business forward and you may not know where to start. Subject matter experts are in high demand lately in the Caribbean and can provide a level of industry or technical expertise to help businesses propel their business forward by providing consulting services or guidance in the employee interview process and/or to also guide their staff in the field over a set period of time.

Right now, expert guidance is invaluable to businesses and CRS can search and select the best experts and consultants needed for projects, contracts or 1-1 advisory support as and when the business requires it.

Check your business strategy and determine whether you need a subject matter expert to help you interview the right staff for your business or you may decide to hire an expert on a contract basis to help you train your staff for a short time.

Experts can join the interview panel

Businesses also hire SMEs to join their interview panel when they are recruiting a specialist in a particular field. Their expertise will aid any interview panel in securing the right person for that job specific role. Having an industry expert on your interview panel improves the quality of the interview as they understand the intricacies of the job specific role and what knowledge and skills this candidate must possess to be hired for that job.

Experts can be hired on contract

We all know budgets are tight at the moment, yet you need to propel your business forward. CRS can assist companies in sourcing job specific experts on a contractual basis to help you move forward and help guide and train your staff.

If a business wants to hire CRS to find an expert, there is some basic information we need to start the process such as a job description for the expert. For example, ‘Seeking an attorney for a contract position in the oil and gas industry to provide legal counsel for industrial relations matters.’ We will discuss their role, responsibilities, experience needed, the reporting and supervisory function, and where the position ranks in the organizational chart. We need to understand how this person adds value to your organisation and will thus satisfy your human resource objectives and business strategy.

Book a free consultation to discuss how we can help you source the best consultants or experts in your industry – either for an interview panel or on a contract basis. Schedule a call with Mariska Seereeram at mariska@crsrecruitment.co.tt

Author: Johanna Thomas

Posted by webmaster on April 28, 2021

Industry Insights

4 HR Management Solutions in this new world of work

The changes in our work environments have forced business owners to increase HR’s impact within their companies. Here we discuss, HR’s role and how it will continue to evolve in 2021 and beyond.

Work Life Balance

“If your place of work is your home, staff may find it difficult to separate the two.” How to have work–life balance in the same space which is your home? This is the question on staffers and employers’ minds. HR and business owners must play a critical role in helping employees manage these uncharted waters. Communication with staff is important to hear what issues staff are facing in this new work environment.

CRS works with organizations and their HR teams to creatively engage their staff. When staff feel supported and listened to, this can propel the business to success. “CRS is able to help companies because we had to do it ourselves. We have learnt from the practical experiences within our own organization, thus we are able to assist our clients.”

CRS HR Advisory Services

Companies need to have a clear understanding of their future goals. Once a company knows its next move, CRS can assist with meeting those human resources needs. Things are changing constantly and at some point, business owners may question if they need this resource or not. “We can gage what processes, benchmarks or KPIs are needed to structure your resources accordingly. Basically, what resources do you need now but also for the future.”

Measuring Staff Performance

For an employee in an administrative position, this “new normal” can affect how they work and their role within the company. A manager provides new technologies but may not equip staff with the necessary training. “It is not as simple as adding technology. Our HR advisory service can access how these changes as a result of the pandemic affect a person’s performance, how you plan to measure their performance and what recommendations can be made for re-training staff.”

HR’s role in 2021 and beyond

HR has to continually build relations with the staff and act as an advisor to staff and employers to resolve any issues. Traditional employee interactions have forever changed where they may no longer host staff functions, sports days or Christmas dinners. “HR can partner with staff to reinvent the employee experience and make staff a part of the planning process.” HR teams will measure results as staff engage in organized virtual interactive events and some outdoors excursions in small groups. This unforeseen situation has presented an opportunity for better camaraderie and teamwork but also a new found respect for HR.

Chat with us to discuss what are your employee challenges and how we can help you. Schedule a call with Mariska Seereeram at mariska@crsrecruitment.co.tt

Author: Johanna Thomas

Posted by webmaster on March 18, 2021

Career Advice

Professional CV Writing – Top Tips for Career Changers

Knowing what to leave on or off a resume is sometimes difficult. CRS General Manager, Mariska Seereeram, offers sound advice to jobseekers and freelancers on what to put in their resume to bag that new job.

Showcase Competencies and Achievements

Jobseekers need to carefully review the job details of the role they are applying for and ensure that it is easy for the Hiring Manager to identify the key experience, skills and competencies required for the role. “When the Hiring Manager reviews a person’s CV, they are looking for specific things. Case in point, for an accounting position, they are looking for certain key words; bank reconciliation, financial statements and the accounting software. Your résumé represents you ,makes the first impression and determines whether you get the first interview or prescreening.”

Don’t resend the same CV

“If you are ready for the next career step, don’t re-send the same CVs as when you were an assistant or in a junior position. You must update your resume to show the new skills, qualifications and experience you have acquired, thus making you the right candidate for this new role.”

Mariska shares one simple adjustment she made to a client’s resume. She recalled a situation where the role the candidate wanted to apply for required supervisory experience. The candidate’s current role was junior and leading a team was not one of her core responsibilities. When coaching the candidate Mariska realized that the candidate did participate in a project to develop a new product line in the company over five months in which she did have a lead role. The was not part of her normal daily duties but a major achievement which the candidate did not consider highlighting in her resume.

Be concise. Showcase the best.

For our candidates applying for executive or even leadership positions, their resume must be tailored to show these competencies. Mariska shared her experience of helping a candidate apply for a COO position. Mariska recalls, “This candidate had all the qualifications and experience but her resume was 6 pages long and the format only showcased her legal background. I redesigned her resume to a C Suite format and highlighted her experience in strategic planning ,business and management while still including details her legal background.”

Hiring CRS Resume Writing Service

There is added value to our CRS Resume Writing Service. CRS is not just a recruitment provider, we work closely with candidates in improving their CVs via our Resume Writing service. Ms. Seereeram said, “We offer the service of looking at your CV from the Hiring Manager’s perspective and provide continuous support through including interview preparation.”

In our current work environment, CRS has adapted to using Zoom and Microsoft teams to conduct virtual sessions with our candidates. These sessions are used to get a proper understanding of the candidates and their prospective career opportunities. Mariska states “We go through line by line together. There is collaboration in how the CV is written. It is drafted, then re-drafted and recommendations are made. Then we go it over again with suggestions and do some further editing.” At CRS, it is a collaborative process with the candidate as we provide additional support.

Freelancers’ portfolios as marketing tools

Freelancers, are very certain of what they want and the type of projects they want to work on. On the other hand, as compared to other jobseekers who are looking for a permanent job in a different company. Mariska notes that, “With freelancers the structure of their CVs will be a little different. It will not be a regular CV. They can showcase their work via an online portfolio with links to current and past projects if possible.” This portfolio has to be designed as a marketing tool rather than just a CV. She adds, “This is where we can help freelancers really put their accomplishments, their projects down and format the portfolio properly.” This will also allow prospective companies and clients to verify their work as well as references.

CRS is not just a recruitment agency. We offer a unique, collaborative and supportive experience for our candidates and clients via our professional resume writing services as they venture into new career paths.

Need our help? Book a session with Mariska at mariska@crsrecruitment.co.tt

Author: Johanna Thomas

Posted by webmaster on March 10, 2021

Industry Insights

Value of Staff Engagement Interviews

How 20 minutes with your staff can lead to creative solutions and increased engagement?

Stay Interviews are informal one-on-one structured discussions between a supervisor and a team member. It’s designed to provide insight into what keeps employees working for an organization and what aspects need improvement. It is a conversation meant to identify the factors that drive an employee’s individual retention, engagement and morale.

This is good way to get employees to feel part of the decision making of the company, get creative solutions on how they think the company can look at their services , new technologies and tap into the talent apart outside of the strategic level. This virtual world is a great setting for millennials thrive. By engaging staff this way, employers show individual support, empathy and motivate employees to be continue pushing through the pandemic, because now they engaged.

The Benefits of a Stay Interview

The information from interviews can also help to redefine your human resource strategy going forward.
Stay Interviews show that you recognize and admire the commitment and contributions of valued employees and that you care about their job satisfaction. Furthermore, the employer can learn from employees their definitive reasons for continuing to work for this organisation.
These interviews will provide knowledge on how to retain current and valued employees. Managers can engage their teams to work better and increase productivity while still motivating them.
Stay Interviews can create a trusting employee-employer relationship.
COVID-19 pandemic has led companies to adopt a work from home approach to ensure the safety of workers. Additionally, staff interaction and activities are less frequent or non-existent. Stay Interviews allows employers to know how staff want to be engaged and that they want to contribute to planning and organizing of such initiatives.

Tip: For new hires, Stay Interviews should be held in the first three to six months. For confirmed employees, it should happen at least once a year.

The saying, “You don’t’ know what you have until it’s gone.”, are very wise words employers should heed. You don’t want to receive a resignation letter from one of your valued employees. Caribbean Resourcing Solutions (CRS) can assist you with this stay interview process.

As your external Human Resource Partner, we will assist you in learning the possible reasons for why your staff stay and why they may possibly leave. Stay Interviews can build trust between employers and employees. Most importantly, the insight gained in these interviews causes changes to be made to support and motivate staff in their work environment which leads to the betterment of the organisation.

Posted by webmaster on January 29, 2021

Career Advice

Level up: 5 Jobseeker Tips for 2021

New year and new opportunities await jobseekers. As candidates enter the workforce or continue the job search in 2021, here are some tips to help jobseekers’ level up and bag that job.

It’s time to upskill

Upskilling refers to the process of individuals learning new or additional skills. In this competitive job market, stand out by embracing and acquiring new skills. There are a number of free online courses being offered by Facebook, LinkedIn and Coursera. For example, take this time to learn how you can improve your communication, organizational or even leadership skills.

Keep your video interviewing and tech skills sharp

As companies continue to work remotely, some Human Resource Managers and Recruiters are conducting online interviews. Thus, job seekers need to be prepared for video interviews and conduct themselves the same way as if it were an in-person interview. Furthermore, the interviewee (you) must dress appropriately, set up for the interview in a well lit sound proof room and be prepared. Being technological savvy is also an asset in 2021 as this skill can aid in attaining a job. For instance, more computer-based and smartphone devices are being utilized by companies to conduct business, so being competent is a must.

Tailor your resume for each application

Customize different applications for each employer. Also, mention your capabilities and successes in different areas or industries.

Apply for jobs in industries that are still hiring despite the COVID-19 pandemic

Technology and Telecommunications industries are still hiring. In spite of the COVID-19, both sectors have continuous growth as technical expertise, connectivity and videoconferencing are in demand at this time. Click to view job postings for an IT Analyst and an Information Technology Administrator. An expanding industry may just be the place for you to work right now. Furthermore, remote work is the new normal so do not dismiss jobs that are not in an office. View vacancies for Bookkeeper, Payroll Officer and Administrative Assistant. Be open as the workplace is now anywhere once you have a laptop and internet connectivity.

Stay up to date on trends in your industry

It is important to learn as much as you can about the position or industry you plan to work in. So, stay informed of developments by following companies and professionals in your field on LinkedIn, Facebook and also check companies’ websites or blogs. Also, networking with industry professionals will also keep you in-the-know.

Posted by webmaster on January 15, 2021