The Bagg Group Blog

Study shows some times to call are better than others, but The Bagg Group recruiters insist it’s what you say that counts more.

Every now and then, anyone who is selling anything has to do it.  They have to pick up the phone and make cold calls or, at the very least, they have to call contacts that have long gone cold.  

If you think as a job-seeker you aren’t selling, it’s time to think again.  Right now you are running your own business.  And what you’re selling are your services as a potential employee — whether you’re looking for a full-time job, contract work, or temporary employment   

Like any business, you have to market, as many ways as you can.  Cold calling everyone and anyone you can think of could be one of those ways.

At The Bagg Group, we are often asked when is a good time to call new contacts or revive long-lost ones.  Speaking with hiring managers in companies across the GTA, we know that it’s much more important to focus on your message, than on the day and time of the call. 

There’s no crystal ball that will let you know whether your call is perfectly timed or not.  Typically, people don’t answer if they are otherwise busy.  So if someone picks up, they may not have a lot of time to talk, but it’s safe to say they aren’t in the middle of a crucial meeting. 

Still, according to Dr. James Oldroyd of the Kellogg School of Management, some times and days may be better than others.  He analyzed more than a million cold calls, made by thousands of professionals, at 50 companies.  

Dr. Oldroyd’s study investigated traditional sales cold calls, but the findings can also be of interest to job-hunters.   According to his research …

Thursday is best day to call someone out of the blue, and get a conversation going. It’s 19% more effective than Friday.

Friday is the worst day of the week for cold calls..

The best times to call are first thing in the morning, between 8 am. and 9 am and end-of-day between 4 pm and 5 pm.

Still, for job-seekers, the expert recruiters at The Bagg Group can’t emphasize enough that it is always what you say, not when you call, that really counts. 

The best call depends not on the clock, but on your preparedness, and your friendly, professional tone of voice.  Have your message ready before you pick up the phone.  In our upcoming blogs, we’ll review the key points for a good message and how to follow-up with an email. 

Meanwhile, if you are going to set a day aside for cold-calling, experiment with Thursday. It can’t hurt to try. But of course, there are no guarantees, and some people have their own preferred day and times which work best for them.  Here’s the one thing you can be sure of: nothing will happen if you don’t make contact – on any day.

The beginning of a new decade always feels like a clean slate – the zero at the end of the number seems to act like a reset button.  And for those seeking employment, it’s the perfect time to reflect on what you want to delete, and what you’d like to keep, as you move into the future.

At The Bagg Group, we have been helping candidates find full-time opportunities in the GTA, as well as contract work and part-time employment for more than three decades.  We know, from experience, that the best thing you can do is keep your list of achievements top-of-mind, and delete any history of bitterness and resentment from past work experiences. 

This is not always easy.  But it’s a great new year’s resolution to make.  To help you stick to it, ask yourself, as a job-hunter, “How is being anything less than positive going to help me?”  The answer is simple.  It’s not.  

Hiring managers across the GTA tell us they steer clear of candidates who project negativity.  And we know that contacts who might be able to help a job-seeker also prefer not to take the call of someone who will bring them down.

A 30-year-old University of California study is still used as the definitive research on non-verbal communications. The study shows that tone of voice accounts for 38% of people’s perception of you, and body language for 55%. That means that the actual words you speak only contribute to 7% of a person’s impression.

That’s why it’s essential to walk into an interview feeling good, in body and mind, about who you are, and what you’ve accomplished.  Here are two key tips from expert recruiters at The Bagg Group to help you do just that: 

• Write a realistic daily plan and break down each of the day’s tasks into bite-size activities.  In her new book The Follow-Through Factor: Getting from Doubt to Done, Gene Hayden notes that the smaller the task, the more likely you will accomplish it.  What’s more, in this way, each activity will be well thought out to bring you one step closer to your goal.

For example, let’s say your goal is to call a former boss.  Write out each of the steps necessary for the task to be successful, as shown below.

Task:  Contact Bob  (former boss).

Step 1:  Write out key points you wish to convey to Bob.  (What are the 2 or 3 messages that I want Bob to know?) 

Step 2:  Write questions or requests for Bob.  (What do I want the outcome of this call to be?  What do I wish to ask Bob to do? )

• Celebrate all the small wins on your way to finding employment.  Updating your profile on Linkedin is a win.  Calling a contact and setting up a coffee is a win.  Whenever you can put a checkmark next to a task, it’s worthy of a pat on the back.  

Being positive about what you have done in the past, what you are accomplishing day-to-day, and what you can contribute in the future, is a key job-seeking strategy.  So be sure to put it high on your list of resolutions.  And the good news is that it is likely a lot easier to stick to than giving up sugar, fat, and bad TV.

Tis the season to remind all your contacts of your name, say recruiters at The Bagg Group

It’s a great idea to send out holiday cards to people on your networking lists.  It’s not just about keeping a nice tradition going.  The holidays provide an excellent opportunity for job seekers to put themselves on the radar with those who are helpful contacts.

But whether you are seeking full time work, contract work or temporary work, use this occasion to build relationships, not to blatantly sell yourself and your skills.

Our expert recruiters at The Bagg Group have put together a list of etiquette tips for how to send seasonal greetings that impress.

Make it a Happy New Year:  You can’t go wrong with a New Year’s card as it is an occasion that is celebrated by everyone.  It’s a good idea to avoid sending cards with a religious message to mark a holiday unless you are certain that your contact celebrates the event.

If you miss the deadline for sending cards, you can still use the New Year as a good excuse for touching base.  In early to mid January, send an update email that opens with greetings for a happy new year.  Follow this with a short paragraph that details your latest activities.  If you don’t have any professional news, look to share an interesting piece of industry news that relates to your area of work. 

Splurge.  You don’t need to break the bank on cards, but don’t send the very lowest quality on the market.  You want to make a good impression, not a cheap one.  You can never go wrong with cards from Unicef or other charitable organizations.

Keep it classic, not cute:  Consider the greeting card as a marketing piece and keep it professional.   It’s not worth it to you to send a card that could risk being perceived as distasteful, even though you may find it hilarious.  Similarly, one person’s idea of cute is another’s idea of dumb.  

Write a message that is personal, but not pushy:  You need to do more than simply sign your name, but not too much more.  For instance, “Best wishes for a wonderful start to the new decade” or ” All the best for the year ahead” is enough for the occasion.  You may add, if it’s appropriate to your relationship, a line such as, “Looking forward to touching base in the New Year.”

Don’t send ecards to business contacts:  It’s one thing for corporations to send specially-designed emails to their clients, but it’s not ideal as a personal initiative. Unless you know the contact well, don’t send an ecard.  The recipient has to take the time to download the card and most people will not wish to do that so your efforts are wasted.  Even worse, your gesture could backfire as many who suffer from mail overload consider non-essential email simply annoying.  

Keeping your name out there makes a difference.  So make your new year’s resolution to stay top-of-mind.

As many of you know, The Bagg Group has been conducting a survey of 200 private and public sector organizations in the GTA.

Latest findings show  better times ahead.  There are more employers in the GTA  that plan to add staff, rather than reduce their numbers, in 2010.  

In particular, 22% of organizations with less than 100 employees said they anticipate adding staff, while 20% of those who have between 100 and 500 employees and 15 % of organizations over 500 staff reported plans to hire.

For the 15% that said there may be a reduction, the majority were employers of 100  to 500 people. 

And when it comes to hiring staff, we learned that even in this age of do-it-yourself everything, the majority of organizations recognize the value of leaving recruitment  to the staffing solution experts.

While 28% of respondents said they may attempt the task on their own by using job boards, the others gave three reasons  for turning to a staffing agency:  They said the don’t have the time, their staff are too busy, and they don’t have the necessary expertise to do the best possible recruitment.

Unanimously, they noted that a staffing search is more time-consuming than ever before as more people are looking.  The Globe and Mail reported this summer that 54% of Americans are hoping to leave their current position for better jobs.  And in the GTA, we are seeing similar wave of restlessness among the employed.  

As I noted in a blog this spring  (In a recession, employers abide by two golden rules), quantity just means more resources are necessary to sort through the mountain of resumes to find appropriate fits. 

Typically, only three out of 100 responses are potentially suitable for your job opportunity. At The Bagg Group, we meet face-to-face with every prospective candidate. And on average, we recommend less than 30% of all those we interview to our clients.

Hiring authorities in companies across the GTA seeking to fill full-time positions or contract positions know that it will take an enormous amount of their time just to get an initial list together.  And nowadays, in most organizations, people are stretched thin as it is.

With that in mind, companies are more keen than ever to retain A-level talent. And the way to make that happen in this economy is to allow your best employees to focus on their areas of expertise. 

At the Bagg Group, our staffing solution experts hear every day from A-level people who want to find another job because they are de-motivated by having to spend much of their day handling  junior-level tasks that do not require their skill set.  

Our survey showed  the two most popular solutions of top employers in the GTA is to determine priorities for each task, and to hire temporary and contract workers to help balance the workload for those who are doing the job of two.

In these busy times when there just aren’t enough hours in a day, when you help your staff succeed, you help yourself.

The recruitment practices of The Bagg Group, top employers in the GTA and ivy league universities in North America are all motivated by the same belief:  You can’t ever afford to sit back on your laurels. 

No matter how great your reputation is as an organization, to get the best people on your team, you have to go out and find them.  

As President of The Bagg Group, I can vouch for the effectiveness of this approach.  And to new hiring authorities who are disbelieving, I offer the case of Harvard University.

For the class of 2010, Harvard received a near-record of 23,000 applications.  If you posted a position on a job board in the last year, you probably had about the same number of resumes flooding your inbox, proportionally speaking.

Yet despite the fact that Harvard is one of the most desired universities with top-ranking students around the world, it’s renowned for its hard-working recruitment department.  It has a 35-person admission team that claims to travel to more places, in more countries, than any other ivy-league university. 

What’s more, Harvard also has an army of 8,000 alumni who actively seek out the high-school students who show the greatest leadership potential in their hometowns.

The result is that each of Harvard’s 2,100 first year students– 9% of the total number of applicants– are stellar candidates for success.

A top-notch staffing and recruiting agency needs to work in a similar way. I believe staffing solution experts must be extremely knowledgeable about the hard and soft skills that are most valuable for businesses in today’s climate.  They have to have tremendous understanding of what it is they are looking for. And the best recruiters are well connected, with networks everywhere.

Harvard, like our clients – who are leading employers in the GTA and Ontario - recognize that it is people that ultimately make the difference between success and stagnation.  And that’s why recruitment is a proactive science. 

In my next blog, I’ll be giving you the results of a survey that we conducted with private and public organizations across the GTA.  I know you’ll find it interesting.

Geoff Bagg

It feels like everyone is going back to school and going back to work after their summer holidays, except me. I am already doing everything I can to find a job, do you have any suggestions how I can do more?

At The Bagg Group, we know September can be tough month for job-seekers. It seems as if everyday life is revving up again after the slow days summer, and you are eager to be part of the back-to-work crowd. 

But don’t forget you are working at finding a job.  You are not unlike a salesperson who needs to find a client, or a customer. In your case, you need to find an employer.  And just like every good salesperson, you need top-notch marketing tools and up-to-minute knowledge to get a win.

Whether you are looking for full-time employment, contract work or temporary employment in the GTA, there are things you can be doing to help you stand out from the crowd.   Here are three R’s from recruiters at The Bagg Group. :

Revise your resume:  Don’t just list your responsibilities for each job you had, instead show each of your activities benefited the organization. Update with volunteer or contract work, again demonstrating how you helped meet objectives.

Revisit your contacts:  Send out a friendly short email, reminding your contacts of the type of position you are seeking and mentioning that you’ve updated your resume should they know of any opportunities.  If you know them well, attach the email. If you don’t, paste it into the body of the message. 

Research and read: Stay up-to-the-minute on your industry so that you are able to hold timely, informed conversations at any opportunity. Sharing insights and shop-talk gives you a competitive edge.  Top employers recognize knowledge when they hear it.  As do contacts in your network who will be more likely to pass on your name when they find you have a solid, impressive grasp of your subject.

September is a great month to reinvigorate your job search-and there is no better way to do that than to master the 3Rs.

At The Bagg Group, we remind candidates that looking for a job is a job.  And like any job, you can’t live, eat and breathe it 24-hours a day.  You need a break at the end of each day to recharge your batteries.

• Put in some hours daily on writing covering letters, fixing up your resume, making calls, thinking about interview questions and answers. But when your tasks are complete, give yourself a mental holiday. Go biking, go for a walk, catch a movie, play with the kids, listen to your favourite music.
• List all of the things you like to do, or you’d like to try, such as gardening, hiking, painting. Then see if you can find a group to join which does these activities. It’s energizing to be with people who share your interests.
• Looking for a job can be a lonely business so spending time with others is more important than ever. It’s excellent to network to find full-time job opportunities, contract work or temporary work. But it’s also worthwhile to meet with people just for the joy of it. And to talk about something other than your job hunt.
• Volunteer as much as possible. And don’t feel that every task you do as a volunteer has to develop a career skill. Helping out at a marathon or sorting food at the Food Bank is a chance to get involved, meet people and make a valuable contribution. And that makes you feel good, which is good for you.
• Working on your personal interests as you job hunt is not a waste of time. It’s an excellent strategy for when seeking job opportunities. Employers at companies across the GTA confirm that depressed people do not interview well. Hiring authorities are like everyone else-they gravitate towards positive, upbeat people.
• Above all, allow yourself to laugh every day. It’s long been established by medical researchers that laughter can lower the level of stress hormones and increase endorphin levels, the body’s natural feel good chemicals.

Attitude is important and right now, one of your jobs is to do what you can to maintain a positive one…and that’s a task you are meant to enjoy.

In previous blogs, our staffing solution experts have talked about how management needs to keep lines of communications with employees open in tough times. 

At The Bagg Group, we can’t emphasize enough how important this is. Our recruitment experts hear daily from A-level talent who are frustrated because their employers are not sharing information and keeping them in the loop. 

An interesting study from the US Centre for Work-Life Policy echoes our experiences.  This three-month long research project entitled, “Sustaining High Performance in Difficult Times” quantifies the value of talking.   

The study showed that loyalty to employers among a group of high-potential employees dropped from 95% in 2007 to 53% in 2008. Trust in their company plummeted from 79% in 2007 to 37% 2008.  And engagement, as evidenced by initiative and willingness to go the extra mile, decreased from 91% 2007 to 71% 2008.  The authors of the study have gone on record to say that over the course of 2009, things have only gotten worse.  

More details on the study can be found in the Business Week special report on The Real Effects of Workplace Anxiety. 

The study offers the same easy-to-implement tips The Bagg Group gives its clients. Hiring authorities with top employers in the GTA use these techniques to promote best workplace and staffing practices:

Managers who don’t have information to impart should share that fact with staff and reassure employees that they will pass on news whenever they receive it. Employees appreciate the good intention and the honesty.

It’s especially important for managers to have an open-door policy in uncertain times. And to circulate in the office. The research shows visibility and accessibility make a difference to morale.

At The Bagg Group, we have always believed in giving back to the community. And we know employees feel pride when their companies put important causes front and centre. It’s no surprise that the study found that integrating volunteer projects into office life is a great way to strengthen bonding and perspective.

Finally, managers should work with employees on ensuring they have a balanced workload.  Prioritizing tasks, training employees to take on new challenging responsibilities, hiring temporary workers to relieve staff of time-consuming tasks or employing contract workers to kick-start projects are found to strengthen loyalty and engagement.

A recent survey showed that in these times of economic turmoil, 49% of Canadian chief financial officers have increased the frequency and quality of communications to boost morale in the workplace.  That’s a smart move on their part. 

As staffing solution experts who speak to hundreds of A level talent weekly, we have the inside track on what it takes to retain great employees.  And two-way communications is key.

Nowadays at The Bagg Group, we get calls from people everyday who tell us they are disgruntled because their employers don’t keep them in the loop about what’s going at their company. And many look for other job opportunities because they are frustrated that their employers never solicit their ideas or feedback on how to survive the downturn.

People want to be involved in discussions. To that end, we often consult with top employers in the GTA on how to hold brainstormings that allow people to feel heard and share their expertise. These round-the-table idea sessions go a long way to boosting morale.

Our top clients have all used these following tips with great success:

• Involve employees from all departments in a brainstorming.  This energizes staff, increases cross-department cooperation, and generates surprising creative solutions.
• Allow every idea, no matter how seemingly far-fetched. This sparks the imagination and gets people to break away from routine thinking.
• Never say ‘No’, instead ask ‘How?’   A brainstorming session won’t be effective if people are holding back because they fear their ideas will be judged or brushed off. 

Hiring authorities have reported to The Bagg Group that often people come up with brilliant project ideas to stimulate sales and employees. But they don’t know how  to find the time to carry them out.  That’s when these top employers introduce contract workers to either free up staff time or help get the project underway.

Encourage participants to share problem-solving tactics they have used successfully in situations outside the workplace.  For example, if departments or members of the same tea aren’t seeing eye-to-eye, ask staff who engage in group sports or play in bands how they increase collaboration in the field or on stage. In this way, participants start to discuss solutins from a different perspective.

Let people talk about the bothersome tasks and activities that de-energize them with a view to finding a way to tackle these in a way that works for everyone.  One of our client’s recently reported that a brainstorming session revealed that, post-cutbacks, staff were demoralized by having to do jobs they weren’t hired to do, such as rotate on reception. Together, the team resolved it would be more productive for everyone to engage a temporary worker to work the reception desk.

Not every brainstorming necessarily results in strokes of genius, but the very act of exchanging thoughts in a non-judgmental forum gives everyone a shot of energy. And even small solutions can have big impact.  At one client’s office, the hiring authority reported that everyone willingly agreed to allow people to bring in their dog, on a rotating basis. The dogs proved the perfect ice-breaker to increase collaboration between rival departments.

Whether you want temporary work, a full-time job opportunity or contract work,  twittering can work for you. But if you twitter inappropriately, it can work against you.

Never write a tweet that would embarrass you if it fell into the wrong hands. There are already too many stories about people who have interviewed for jobs in the GTA and afterward made what they thought were funny comments about the experience on Twitter.  Sure enough, those tweets were spotted by people within the organizations who were not amused. 

The Globe and Mail recently reported on a story that stands as a warning to all job seekers.  A candidate sent a tweet about being offered a job at Cisco, the high-tech giant in California, that read in part: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh…a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

In less than hour, this twitterer received a message back from Cisco and lost her job offer.

For tips on how to twitter properly, check out the article 50 Terrific Twitter Tips for Job Seekers.

 Meanwhile, the recruiters at The Bagg Group have put together this list of short tweets for you that are words to twitter by:

• Create an easy-to-remember Twitter name. Make sure it’s not silly and won’t make potential employers wonder about you.  
• Put your professional Web site or even your personal LinkedIn url on your Twitter profile.
• Don’t get too casual. Twitter is an informal way to spread information but you want to project a professional image.  Use correct grammar and spelling to help your image.
• Don’t post anything inappropriate.  When it doubt, leave it out.  You don’t want potential employers to question your judgment or good taste.
• Follow and connect with people with similar interests to network.
• Follow up off of Twitter. Don’t rely on Twitter to make all the connections for you. Network off Twitter or follow up with an e-mail when it’s appropriate.