The Bagg Group Blog

Join us in launching the next generation of Technology Resourcing at The Bagg Group

For over 15 years, KBITS (Keith Bagg Information Technology Search Inc.) has been the leader in helping organizations across Ontario and beyond find the right contract and full-time resources for their IT and Technology projects. Enriched by the wealth of The Bagg Groups’ 40-year staff augmentation history, it has worked with its business partners and clients on the frontiers of new technologies, successfully meeting the challenges of a fast changing, demanding market.

Currently, we are providing the very best talent for project and contract staffing, as well as full-time placements to clients in Information Technology, Information Systems and Telecommunications.  To more accurately reflect the breadth of our technology resourcing, we have changed our name to Bagg Technology Resources (BTR).  Under our new brand, we will continue to meet and anticipate the needs of our clients with our trademark commitment, knowledge, and integrity.

The team of experts at BTR has combined experience of more than 100 years in the technology resource marketplace.  We are renowned industry-wide for our in-depth understanding of technology staffing needs and our delivery of resource solutions. 

Whether you are looking to staff a project, require contract or full time technology, BTR, grounded in ethical business practices and a team of dedicated expert Resource Managers is here to assist you. 

Bagg Technology Resources – Where experience delivers!

At The Bagg Group, we know that seeking a full-time placement, contract work or temporary employment takes energy. 

Until you find the placement that’s right for you, it can sometimes feel as if you’re swimming against the tide.  Having placed people with top organizations in the GTA for decades, recruiters at The Bagg Group know that even the most positive candidates have to work to stay motivated during their job search at times.

If your get-up-and-go has gone, follow theses six tips to get your energy back.

Set small goals:  Lofty goals can leave you feeling disappointed, rather than energized.  Don’t put pressure on yourself to land a fantastic job within a short period of time.   Instead, write an specific, achievable, list of tasks for each day that are within your ability to accomplish.  

At day’s end, focus on the goals you’ve achieved, not those you have yet to reach:  When you complete a task, give yourself a high five.  It’s not arrogant or conceited to feel good about yourself, it’s a key strategy that is practiced by all successful job-seekers.  Celebrating small wins is a way to stay confident and positive — two qualities which are valued by hiring managers at organizations throughout the GTA.

Forget perfection, strive for progress:  If you didn’t catch a typo on a covering letter until it’s too late, if  you missed an opportunity, or messed up on an interview, immediately replace the words “if only”  with “next time”.  You can never go back in time but fortunately, you can always move forward, a little bit wiser.

Take a break:  When you truly feel your battery is on empty, take time out to do whatever it is you love to do to recharge.  

Work where other people are working:  If you have a laptop, consider working at a friend’s house  or office. If that’s not possible, head to a coffee shop with your phone and your computer. Simply being around others who are working can motivate you keep  focused on your tasks.  What’s more, looking for a job can be lonely business.  For the price of a coffee, you can feel less alone during the day. 

Choose a winning team:  Surround yourself with positive people who persevere with their own goals and remind you to persevere with yours.

Stay motivated and energetic, and you can be sure people will respond to your enthusiasm and be that much more interested in helping you meet your goals.

Recently, an A-level candidate met with a staffing solutions expert at The Bagg Group and said he was seeking a change because his boss’s negativity brought down the entire team. That’s certainly not the first time that a toxic workplace has prompted the departure of an excellent employee.

Candidates who have much to offer choose upbeat work environments.

With four decades of successfully placing people in full-time jobs, contract work and temporary positions, recruiters at The Bagg Group know that the saying, “birds of a feather flock together” holds true when it comes to attitude. Hiring authorities who think positively attract and retain positive thinking employees.  

Similarly, there’s truth in another cliché…misery loves company.  An employee who is easily defeated by problems will align quickly and comfortably with a boss who sees only doom and gloom.

But in an interview, everyone tends to be on their best behavior.  With that in mind, hiring authorities at  top companies in the GTA have asked how The Bagg Group staffing solution experts discern between negative thinkers and positive ones when meeting with candidates.  We do it by listening closely to what people tell themselves, and others.    

Negative thinkers complain and judge; positive thinkers assess, consider and explore possibilities with curiousity.     

The following chart from the Mayo Clinic offers some examples of the differences between negative and positive talk.

Negative self-talk                              Positive self-talk

As experts in interviewing, we know that a funny thing happens to you when you listen intently to determine if someone approaches work from a positive or negative perspective.   You start to notice your own communication patterns. 

Are you being upbeat or unenthusiastic? Our staffing experts say the minute they feel they are being negative, they change their  tone because every good interviewer knows the golden rule, established by Confuscius, “Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.”

Sometimes the best thing you can do to boost daily productivity and morale is take a short break from work.  But new research shows that the very best breaks are not those spent watching funny videos on Youtube, or chatting around the water cooler.  Instead, the most effective way to recharge is to do what you did in kindergarten –  enjoy a 20-minute outdoor recess.

However, you don’t have to climb monkey bars or jog, according to a recently released study reported in the British newspaper The Telegraph.  The research by psychology professor Richard Ryan at the University of Rochester concludes that all you need to do is just be outdoors to get a jolt of energy that is equivalent to a strong cup of coffee.

Working with 537 volunteers, Professor Ryan found those who spent just 20 minutes in the open air experienced a significant increase in vitality that had a positive effect on their work day. 

Even desk-bound volunteers who were encouraged to imagine being outside and were shown pictures of  the outsides recorded better mood and energy levels throughout the day than those who didn’t let their minds stray out of doors.

Professor Ryan says his study shows that “people feel more alive” when they can feel the sun and the breeze.  It’s logical, he adds, given the natural bond between humans and nature.

At The Bagg Group, we know from decades of interviewing candidates that employees truly value organizations which recognize life-work balance.  Now, science has come onside to confirm that staying glued to the desk from nine to five is counter-productive.

A 20- minute recess is good for the spirit and for decreasing absenteeism. Going outside increases wellbeing.  “People with a greater sense of vitality don’t just have more energy for things they want to do, they are also more resilient to physical illnesses,” said Professor Ryan.

This summer, spread the word to colleagues that they’ll be doing themselves and the organization a favour by not lunching at the desks, but picnicking instead.

To reach your goal takes commitment and smart strategizing. That’s something every CEO and entrepreneur knows. 

And the most successful job-hunters know that too. That’s confirmed by The Bagg Group which has helped hundreds of candidates achieve their career goals.

Whether your goal is to land a full-time position, contract work, or a temporary placement, you need to make an impact in a competitive world.  You have to be the one to capture the interest and trust of a hiring authority. 

Those who have successfully built their own companies have advice on how to do that.  They know how inspire people to want their expertise and service.  Here are four key tips they offer to give a boost to job-seekers.

Listen to people’s complaints.  Entrepreneurs do it all the time – they need to know what people are complaining about, and they need to figure out how they can offer a better solution than anyone else.  

Follow in their footsteps. Listen carefully to friends and former colleagues when they talk about workplace complaints and issues.  What do your friends’ stories tell you about what organizations want, need, or expect from employees?

Reflecting on this question before an interview can help you stand out from the crowd.  You will be better prepared to talk about how you can meet expectations and needs.

Think creatively. CEOs say that they always ask themselves, “What can we  do differently and better?”  It’s a great question to ask about your job search.  Often, companies hold brainstorming sessions to answer their  – you can do that too. 

Two, or more, heads can be better than one.  Get together with former colleagues and friends and brainstorm ways you can create a bigger network of contacts or improve your resume.  You may be surprised at what you come up with.

Don’t give in to failure. CEOs who have started their own companies have all had their fair share of setbacks and failures along the way.  But they say, they couldn’t afford to let disappointment get them down.  They insist if they had stopped believing in themselves, they would never have reached their goal. Those who have overcome rejection say there are only two things you can do when it happens to you – be resilient and keep going.  This is what has made the careers of company presidents, and it can make your career too.

Upgrade and improve. Those who own their own company say that being complacent is a threat to their business. Instead, you need to continually think about what you can upgrade and improve. Job-seekers are no different, they need to continually update and improve their resumes, covering letters, phone pitches.

There’s no magic bullet, but in working with hiring authorities at the best companies in the GTA, The Bagg Group recruiters know that these strategies can make all the difference.

More entrepreneur strategies can be found in the book, The Risk Takers: 16 Women and Men Share Their Entrepreneurial Strategies for Success. 

Change is an inevitable part of life … and the workplace.  And yet, at The Bagg Group, we know from more than three decades of interviewing candidates that the notion of change frequently provokes anxiety among employees.   

In his book, Management Challenges for the 21^st Century, Peter Drucker captures the sense of disquiet that is typically experienced by staff. He writes, “Everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still implies that change is like death and taxes — it should be postponed as long as possible and no change would be vastly preferable. But in a period of upheaval, such as the one we are living in, change is the norm.”

As experts in staffing, we can confirm that employees take change personally.  The question that people ask themselves first when any new initiative is introduced is, “How will it affect me?” 

Our clients, the best employers in the GTA, often address this question directly with their employees.  That’s important for employee morale and retention. 

The Bagg Group staffing solution experts suggest asking the following additional questions to help people manage change, fearlessly.

·         What problem do you think the change is intended to address?

·         What might work better for you as a result of the change?

·         What do you think might affect you negatively?

·         What obstacles do we need to overcome and what support do we need to offer to resolve your concerns?

·         What is in it for you to adopt the change?

These questions are adaptations of standard queries companies usually consider when building a case for organizational change.  

In a recent Financial Post article entitled Change can be managed, Mark Smith of KPMG writes that organizations must tackle such questions as, “How will things be better if we do change? And how will they be worse if we don’t?” to ensure that its new plans are the right ones for moving forward.

By personalizing these questions for the individual, the organization and the employee can recognize change as a way to move forward in synch.  As a result, resistance to change gives way to a willingness to let go of the old and bring on the new.  

And that’s a necessity for all of us in today’s competitive workplace.  As John F. Kennedy so famously said, “Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

Our recruiters at The Bagg Group often tell candidates that looking for a job is like running your own company. Whether you are seeking a full-time position, contract work, or a temporary placement, you need to promote and sell your expertise – just like anyone who owns their own business.

That’s why the tactics which entrepreneurs use to get ahead in the marketplace are useful for job-seekers in the GTA.  With that in mind, staffing experts at The Bagg Group offer these four tips, inspired by the book The Risk Takers: 16 Women and Men Share Their Entrepreneurial Strategies for Success.

1.  Don’t overlook the bonus skill:  Successful entrepreneurs say it’s a good idea to service even small, special or niche markets that others overlook or ignore. In the same way, it’s a good idea for job-seekers to develop extra skills, in their spare time, that others in the field may not worry about acquiring. 

These additional skills —  which may range from learning a second language to a new software program — may not be essential for your work. They may only be of use in certain specific situations. But bonus skills can impress interviewers and give you a competitive edge over other candidates.

2.  Keep your eyes and ears open: Top entrepreneurs say they always stay up-to-date on trends so they can meet new needs and interests.  When in the business of job-seeking, stay up-to-date on trends in your area of work so hiring managers will know you’re in step with ongoing developments in your field.  

3. The best time to do anything is now. Those who operate companies insist there is no perfect time to launch a new idea. Instead, they say, the right time to start anything is ‘now.’  Similarly, don’t wait to start your job search until the economy picks up, the holidays are over, or you get the new Ipad.  Begin it today.

4.  Avoid pessimists. People who have built thriving businesses from scratch say they had to ignore those who insisted their plans would never work.  As a job-hunter, you too will want to seek people who encourage and help you, and avoid those who doubt you.  When you do come face-to-face with a pessimist, remind them that you’ve had a job before, and you will have one again.  Then, change the subject to the weather.

In the next blog, we’ll bring you four more strategies to help you succeed in your business of finding a job.

After 40 years of interviewing candidates to ensure they are the right fit for our clients, The Bagg Group has a well-known reputation for conducting insightful interviews. That’s why hiring authorities across the GTA often consult us on the subject.

One key piece of advice is to use of your limited time effectively. We know you have busy days and can’t afford to spend hours with each candidate.   A good rule of thumb is to ensure the candidate does 75% of the talking.  At a first meeting, it’s critical for you to spend most of your time together listening so you can assess the person’s potential.

If you find you’re doing more than 25% of the talking, you may be falling prey to one of three common pitfalls. 

1. Recounting the history of your organization:  Telling the history of anything takes time, more than you likely have to spare.  Moreover, it’s not essential information that you need to impart.  This is research that the candidate can do on their own time, and should have done before the meeting

2. Detailing your own career path:  It’s not unusual for a candidate to ask how long you’ve been with the company.  One anecdote leads to another, and soon you may find you’ve talked more about your experience and less about the candidate’s than you’d like.

3. Swapping industry gossip:  It’s hard for people in the same industry not to talk shop, especially if they have people and places in common.  

A little chit-chat is great, and recommended to put the candidate at ease. But it’s easy to lose track of time and have little left for the nitty gritty of the interview.

Also, keep in mind that what is said in the interview room doesn’t necessarily stay in the interview room.  When you trade war stories, it’s easy to make off-the-cuff comments that you may not want the candidate to repeat later. 

Two other common pitfalls to watch out for:

Letting first impressions rule:  We all make snap judgments.  Before a person says two words, we can be wowed or unimpressed by their personal style.  

However, as staffing solution experts who have successfully placed hundreds of people in full-time positions, temporary jobs and contract jobs, we know that first impressions can be wrong. 

The candidate who wears an eccentric tie can prove to be a fantastic team-player.  The one with tattoos may not look likes the sales rep you had in mind, but could have the best people skills you’ll ever come across.

Allowing the candidate to have an easy ride: At The Bagg Group, we ask our candidates hard questions, and only recommend those whose answers satisfy us. But we know that a candidate can be nervous in meeting with a hiring authority.

You may be feeling so sensitive to a person’s case of the nerves that you don’t want to add to their stress by throwing them a curve ball.  Sometimes, being too nice doesn’t do anyone a favour. Ask challenging questions as you need and allow the candidate to rise to the occasion.

Has this happened to you?   You write an email, press send, and then regret it immediately.

If you have ever wished you could stop an email, you are not alone.  When you are seeking full-time work, contract opportunities, or temporary placements, you can get into an impatient state-of-mind.  And sometimes that impatience translates into rash actions.  

For example, perhaps on the spur of the moment, you decide to inject some off-the-wall humour in a covering letter because you think this will help you stand out from the crowd.  As soon as you send it, you remember that unless you are applying to be a stand-up comic, you have to be professional, not funny.

Or maybe you are frustrated because you haven’t received a reply from a recruiter or a hiring manager. You sit at your computer and type out an angry email, demanding consideration.  After you hit send, you realize that what is top priority to you is one item on a long to-do list for others.

Linda Stone, a leading researcher who studies human-computer interactions, says there is a reason we may act quickly, and without good judgment, when we’re at our keyboards.   Her studies show that we often hold our breaths while cranking out emails.  She calls this phenomenon “email apnea” – shallow breathing, or not breathing for a few seconds, while dealing with emails.

Doctors confirm that when we hold back oxygen from our brains, we react emotionally, and less professionally.  We are more impulsive, and less reflective.

Our clients, the best companies across the GTA, have many stories about receiving emails from people looking for work who have asked them to delete an earlier email without reading it.  That’s a sign that the sender didn’t take a deep breath before sending the original message.  It doesn’t leave the hiring manager with a good impression.

The best way to avoid this situation? Stay clear-headed. Recruiters at The Bagg Group urge you to step back and breathe before hitting send. That simple act of slowing down for a few seconds can ensure you don’t send out anything that you’ll later regret.

Also, when you finish writing an email, read it over as if you were a busy hiring manager, who doesn’t know you.  Is there anything in your message that could possibly be misunderstood?  Recruiters at The Bagg Group say the best rule when you aren’t sure about whether to say something is: when in doubt, leave it out.

Often hiring authorities and department managers ask The Bagg Group whether they should friend employees on Facebook.

They wonder if there’s a benefit to social networking with staff. Is it a way to show interest and build a collegial relationship, while also ensuring employees aren’t posting anything that could hurt their company’s reputation?

Or is it the virtual equivalent of gate-crashing your employee’s party?

Since Facebook launched in 2004, there hasn’t been corporate consensus on the answer. At The Bagg Group, our staffing solution experts hear mixed opinions from clients across the GTA and from candidates, whether they are looking for full-time employment, contract work or temporary placements. The feedback we receive mirrors the range of survey findings.

Not surprisingly, for the most part, employees prefer that employers keep out of their social networks. A recent report in the Globe and Mail showed that 69 out of 100 employees don’t want to socialize with their bosses, online or off. Moreover, 56 out of 100 employees don’t want to friend their co-workers either.

The majority of managers responding to that survey said they also would prefer not to mix work with online networking. The study said 72 out of 100 senior executives are uncomfortable about being friended on Facebook by those they manage.

However, there are many who are of another opinion. A different survey, carried out by Deloitte, showed that 60 % of managers believe that people make their private lives public on Facebook and Twitter. These managers speculate that employees are spilling the beans about their work situation, and so their postings should be monitored to make sure they aren’t broadcasting information they shouldn’t.

This same survey showed that, overall, 53% of employees believe that what they say on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter is simply none of their boss’ business. That’s the view of 63% of those in the 18- to 34-years-old bracket.

Yet, one-third of employees admit that they never consider how their employer will be affected when they post material online. Interestingly, almost 75% of employees admit that social networking sites make employers more vulnerable to damaged reputations.

Simply put, there’s no definitive right or wrong answer that applies to every organization. For companies that are unsure which direction to follow, the best step is to open the question up to a candid, respectful internal debate. As always, we urge our clients to talk to employees about issues that affect them so as to foster strong, positive, workplace relationships.

Once you have a policy, make sure everyone understands your rationale for it. It’s counter-productive to have employees make assumptions about why they’re expected to friend, or not friend, their managers on social network sites. We know from experience that when you don’t tell people why you are introducing a particular policy, they’ll invent their own reasons – and these are rarely accurate or flattering.