You’re in an interview, dressed to impress and feeling totally in control of the situation, when the unthinkable happens – the interviewer asks a question that completely stumps you: 

“If you could have dinner with anyone from history, whom would it be and why?”

“Why is a manhole cover round?”

“Which fictional character would you say best describes you?”

If just reading these questions makes beads of sweat pop out on your forehead, you’re not alone.  In an interview situation, most of us would be stopped in our tracks by off-the-wall questions like these.  But that’s the point:  interviewers ask odd questions intentionally, to see how well job candidates thinks on their feet and respond to stress.

Because unusual interview questions can be about virutally any topic, they’re nearly impossible to prepare for.  Still, here are a few quick tips to help you handle them more effectively:

• Keep your composure.  The question was meant to throw you off your game – so don’t let it rattle you.  Keep your face neutral and recognize that this is the wacky question you’ve been anticipating.
• Take your time.  Smile, take a deep breath and avoid the temptation to blurt out an answer.  Don’t panic – if you have to take a moment to gather your thoughts, it merely demonstrates that you think carefully through a situation before responding.
• Relax.  When it comes to unusual interview questions, your answer is not as important as how you handle the situation.  In fact, most don’t have right or wrong answers.  So take the pressure off yourself.  You don’t have to be brilliant, you just need to answer honestly.

If you’d like some practice answering off-the-wall questions, consider the following popular ones:

• If you could be any character in fiction, whom would you be?
• If you had only six months left to live, what would you do with the time?
• If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?
• If you were a _________ (insert:  car, animal, salad dressing – you get the picture), what kind would you be and why?
• If you won $50 million in the lottery, what would you do with the money?
• How would you rate me as an interviewer?

Be Prepared for Your Next Interview

Register with ABR Employment Services today.  Our team of staffing professionals will listen to your needs, match you with a perfect direct placement opportunity, and then prepare you to ace the interview.

In recent years, the term has commonly been used to describe any difficult employee, male or female, who:

• is used to getting what he wants;
• thinks he needs no guidance or management;
• lives for drama in the workplace;
• is hyper-critical, sensitive and intolerant;
• is great at what he does.

If you have a diva on staff, you need to learn how to keep him in line without driving him out the door.  You need to find a way for your employees to co-exist peacefully and productively.  Here are some techniques for reigning in this high performing – albeit challenging – type of employee:

1. Nip annoying behaviors in the bud.  Discuss problematic behaviors immediately – before they develop into patterns.  This allows you to address issues without releasing a wave of emotional build-up.
2. Act based on facts – not gossip or rumor.  Too often, co-workers compound problems by spreading gossip.  So when drama unfolds, don’t assume what others tell you is true.  If you haven’t witnessed a diva’s inappropriate behavior yourself, look into it further.  Listen to both sides of the story, to be sure you get all the facts.
3. Keep open lines of communication.  Divas need to vent more than other employees.  Keep drama to a minimum by maintaining an “open door” policy.  If a diva has a chance to voice frustrations to you, he will be less likely to stir up conflict with other employees.
4. Keep your emotions in check.  Never stand around arguing with a diva.  Make your point once, clarify if necessary, and move on.  A difficult employee may get a rise out of seeing you lose your cool, so stay calm and positive.  If you need to, walk away from the situation and come back once you’ve regained your composure.
5. Make your diva part of the solution.  Give your problematic employee the opportunity to help develop a solution to the problem.  He is more likely to implement behavior change if he’s at least partly responsible for developing it.
6. Get outside help.  If sparks fly when you and your diva communicate, ask a neutral third party to step in.  With no ulterior motive or emotional ties to the situation, an objective individual may improve how you communicate and work together.

Of course, the best way to handle difficult employees is to avoid hiring them in the first place.  ABR Employment Services allows you to try a candidate out on the job, to see how he fits in with your corporate culture, before extending an offer for direct employment.  Contact us to find out more about our try-before-hire staffing service.

1. Realize that context is everything.  To successfully self-promote, your comments need to be relevant to the conversation.  Bringing up your latest success while your boss is talking about his favorite TV show will not earn you any points.  Bide your time until the conversation switches gears.  Research has shown that once a topic has been raised, a subsequent boast is not viewed as inappropriate – because it’s in context.
2. Wait for the right moment.   Believe it or not, it is okay to steer a conversation toward a topic relevant to your accomplishment.  However, changing topics doesn’t give you license to just blurt out what you’ve done.  Be patient and wait until your conversation partner asks a question that gives you the opening you need.
3. Be a tortoise, not a hare.  Self-promotion is about building a long-term reputation for yourself; establishing trust and respect in your workplace (or the marketplace).  So get in it for the long-haul by making self-promotion a habit.  Set daily goals for doing something small – sharing an idea, reaching out to someone, showing up at an event – and measurable results will follow in time.
4. Promote your ideas.  Beyond talking up accomplishments, you should also spread your ideas, concepts and vision.  By promoting your ideas (as opposed to just your deeds) you will give co-workers and superiors something to support – without being “turned off” or threatened by your success.
5. Know yourself.  Are you like most people, who err on the side of caution and don’t talk themselves up enough?  Or are you the type who tends to talk easily about yourself and your accomplishments?  If you’re unsure, ask a trusted friend into which end of the spectrum you fall.  The art of successful self-promotion depends upon having the self-knowledge to realize when to toot your own horn, and when to let your actions speak for themselves.

Let ABR Employment Services help you put your best foot forward.  When you come in for an interview, our experienced staffing specialists will learn about your skills, interests, experience and needs – then show you where your strengths lie.  We can help you master the art of self-promotion and find the perfect employment opportunity.  Just give us a call.

• have the authority, and take the initiative, to make sound business decisions;
• are energetic, passionate and committed to doing a great job;
• are creative and innovative problem solvers;
• continually strive to improve quality, productivity and morale;

all because they feel personally rewarded for doing so.

But while the benefits of empowerment are clear, the steps to creating an empowered workplace may not be.  Use these quick tips to get your business started on the right path:

1. Understand what empowerment really is.  Empowerment isn’t something you do to people.  It’s an environment you create by giving employees goals, information, feedback, training and positive reinforcement.
2. Identify an opportunity for empowerment.  Start small.  Create a work team by selecting a few key employees who have the right skills, knowledge and resources to complete a small test project.  This project should be challenging enough to allow your staff to grow and take on additional responsibilities.
3. Set clear expectations.  Let your employees know what to do and how to do it.  Factors to consider include:  deadlines, channels for sharing information, methods for delegating authority, and ways to check progress / measure success.
4. Provide decision-making guidelines.  Provide clear instructions for when and how to make good decisions.  Explain when it’s okay to the take initiative and when employees should check with team members first.
5. Encourage open communication.  Information sharing is a critical component of an empowered workplace.  Create an atmosphere in which employees feel comfortable expressing concerns and sharing new ideas.
6. Establish accountability.  Provide the advice, perspective and guidance your team needs, but require them to create and manage their own solutions.  If mistakes are made, do not step in and fix them – use them as opportunities for employees to learn.
7. Let go.  Tough as it may be, don’t micromanage.  Once you’ve established clear expectations and guidelines for the project, it’s time to take your hands off the wheel.
8. Provide positive reinforcement.  For empowerment to permanently take hold in your organization, your employees have to want to do it.  So celebrate the successes (however small) your employees have while working on the test project.  Provide the feedback they need to feel respected and valued in their efforts.
9. Review results, then take it to the next level.  Once the project is complete, assemble your team for a debriefing.  How did the group do?  What worked?  What didn’t?  Use the lessons learned to develop a more comprehensive plan for getting your whole company on the road to empowerment.

An Empowered Workplace Starts with Great People

ABR Employment Services can deliver the talented office, professional, technical and industrial staff you need to create an empowered workplace.

The American Staffing Association’s Intelligence Report called Workforce Flexibility:  Staffing for a Better Bottom Line speaks to this very topic.  The article details the numerous ways our industry delivers the workforce flexibility today’s businesses need - from quickly finding experienced specialists for short-term projects to helping organizations run leaner during these tough times. 

I encourage you to follow the link above and learn more about how our industry can benefit yours.  And of course, if you have specific questions about how ABR Employment Services could enhance your company’s workforce flexibility, please contact us directly.

• 2.66 million people are employed by staffing companies each day.
• 79% of staffing employees work full-time (virtually the same as the rest of the work force).
• 66% of staffing employees consider flexible work time important.
• 80% of staffing clients say staffing firms offer a good way to find people who can become permanent employees.
• 67% of staffing employees say that “choice of assignments” was an important factor in their job decision.
• 90% of staffing companies provide free training to their temporary and contract employees.
• 65% of staffing employees say they developed new or improved work skills while on assignment.

Want to learn more?

Visit the American Staffing Association’s website to learn more about the staffing industry, or for more employee staffing statistics.

What are your thoughts?

Flexibility.  Experience.  Choice of assignments.  Bridge to permanent employment.  These are just a few of the reasons millions of Americans – and thousands of ABR Employment Services employees - have chosen temporary and contract work.  What are the most important reasons to you?  Please leave your comments below, or contact us directly via our website.

1. Keep employees informed.  Make sure employees understand your organization’s current “state of the union.”  Communicate what challenges and goals your company faces, as well as the factors that will contribute to your success. 
2. Let employees know what they can do to help achieve that success.  Explain how increasing customer service and loyalty, increasing efficiency, minimizing waste, etc. can help achieve company goals.  The more employees believe they can have an impact on organizational outcomes, the higher morale will stay.
3. Ask employees for input.  Before making decisions that impact their roles or work – and may possibly lower morale – ask employees for their feedback.  If you attempt to understand their perspectives and feelings, changes will be more readily accepted.
4. Respond to staff members’ questions and requests promptly.  Morale suffers greatly when employees feel their concerns are just ”swept under the rug.”  So if you don’t have one already, create a formal process for addressing employee issues in a timely manner.
5. Give employees a sense of ownership by increasing responsibility.  For example, one Philadelphia-based consulting firm creates voluntary employee committees to set up an annual health fair and ongoing food co-op.  The extra work makes employees feel good and allows potential leaders to hone their skills.
6. Consider alternative rewards to company picnics.  Believe it or not, many employees find forced company socialization a burden.  So instead of spending money on an annual cookout, consider awarding spa or salon gift certificates, movie passes, etc. to thank employees for their individual efforts.
7. Institute a peer-nominated employee recognition award.  An Atlanta business school awards employees for personal achievements as well as organizational contributions that go beyond job responsibilities.  This company finds that recognizing just one employee creates a huge boost in morale company-wide.
8. Offer more flexible work schedules.  For many workers, especially single parents and other caregivers, having the flexibility for personal time to handle family obligations is a huge morale-booster.  And often, your company can offer this perk without incurring additional expense.  Ideas include earlier/later start times; working four 10-hour days; working from home one day a week; and job-sharing.

Staffing as a Morale-Booster

Here are two more ways ABR Employment can help keep your staff’s spirits high:

• Treat an employee to a day off.  Allow us to provide a temporary replacement for the day.
• Reduce employee burnout.  Bring in our temporaries to help ease the burden of overtime.  Remember, you can avoid paying overtime by using our employees to handle the extra hours.

Sure, the recovery is going to take awhile.  Consumer spending is still down; unemployment is still high; the foreclosure crisis is still playing out nationwide.  And unfortunately, your business may still be stuck in a rut of stale, survival-mode thinking.

But as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, our economy will improve.  So get a jump on your competitors by planning now for the growth that’s around the corner.  These quick tips will show you how to leverage staffing to prosper in 2010.

Test new ideas.  Before you commit to hiring direct staff to implement a post-recession business concept, you can test your idea with temporary employees.  These temporaries can assume a direct role, or they can fill in for your staff members involved with testing the new idea.

Try before you buy.  Once your need for staff increases, temp-to-hire services can mitigate hiring decision risks.  You can literally try employees out on the job, to see how they perform and fit into your corporate culture – before extending an offer for direct employment.

Manage rapid growth.  A good staffing service can function as an extension of your human resource department.  By taking the time to learn and understand your business, they can help you quickly and cost-effectively recruit temporary employees and direct hires who will succeed in your work environment.  Establish a good relationship now, so that you’re ready to “explode out of the box” when the upturn hits.

Access the knowledge you need.  Staffing firms allow you to bring in the expertise you need on a short-term basis.  These experts, especially temporary technical and professional staff, can be used to complete growth initiatives related to anything from new business lines to system upgrades.  Alternately, these highly skilled temporaries can teach new skills to direct employees in your organization.

Meet immediate placement needs.  Most staffing companies maintain robust applicant databases.  They can often instantly identify candidates who have the skills, experience, and personality traits that match your work environment.  They can also supply competent temporary employees who can fill in until you’ve found the right people for immediate openings.

ABR Employment Services is ready to help your business grow.

Even if your business isn’t experiencing post-recession growing pains yet, now is the time to prepare.  Contact one of our staffing experts today to discuss your goals for 2010.  Let us show you how we can provide the staff to realize and exceed your expectations.

• Revisit your resume.  Make sure you know dates of employment, responsibilities, professional accomplishments, etc. for each position.
• Practice your answers to common interview questions, enlisting a friend’s help if necessary.  Common questions include:

           – How would you describe yourself?

           – What is your greatest strength/weakness?

           – How do you define success?

           – Why do you want to work here?

           – Why should we hire you?

• Conduct a self-assessment.  Make sure you can clearly communicate your current skills, strengths, weaknesses, motivations, interests and work values.
• Go online or visit the local library to learn all you can about the company’s mission statement, financials, organizational structure, products and services – so you can speak intelligently about them during the interview.
• Bring along extra digital and paper copies of your resume.
• Select an appropriate outfit, bearing in mind both the position and corporate culture – then dress one notch above what would be expected.  When in doubt, go with a business suit.
• Call a day or two ahead of time to confirm directions, parking, interview time and interviewers’ names.
• Do a practice run to make sure you know the route.  See how long it takes to drive there, factoring in rush hour traffic if applicable.
• Prepare a list of professional and personal references.
• Bring along breath mints, a small note pad and a pen – just in case.
• A day or two after the interview, drop off hand-written thank you notes to each person who interviewed you, thanking them for their time and emphasizing your specific qualifications for the position.

Share Your Experience

What interview questions have stumped you?  We’d like to know.  Leave your comment below, or contact us via e-mail.

Need More Interviewing Help?

We at ABR Employment Services want to do all we can to help you land the perfect opportunity.  If you need assistance or would like additional resources to help hone your interviewing skills, please contact us directly.

Here are some key ways you can use staffing to reduce costs in your organization:

Convert fixed expenses to variable.
Develop a plan to staff your business strategically. Minimize the number of permanent employees on your staff to the level needed to sustain your core volume of work. Proactively plan to bring in extra help when it’s needed.

Bring in expertise on an as-needed basis.
Temporaries can deliver the experience and skills you need without impacting fixed expenses. As an added benefit, temporary “experts” are often less expensive than consultants.

Lower benefits costs.
Limit benefits expense by using temporary employees. Most temporary employees receive only limited benefits which are paid by the temporary staffing service. Companies with extensive benefits programs may not want to offer full benefits to all employees. Using a temporary staffing, payrolling or employee leasing service may make it possible to offer more limited and cost effective benefits programs to these employees.

Eliminate overtime.
Use temporary employees to reduce the amount of overtime worked by your permanent staff.

Reduce training costs.
Reduce training costs and learning curves by bringing in temporary employees who are trained and have experience using the skills you need.

Streamline recruiting.
Use a permanent placement service to eliminate the costs and time involvement associated with advertising, screening resumes, interviewing, testing and reference checking applicants.
 
Lower payroll expenses.
Administration Eliminate the costs associated with processing and administering your company’s payroll and benefits by using a payroll or employee leasing service.

Reduce unemployment claims.
Using a temporary in place of a short-term employee prevents an unemployment claim from affecting the client company.  Legally, payrolled or leased employees work for the company providing the payrolling or employee leasing service. All claims affect the staffing service’s unemployment rating, not yours.

Eliminate operating inefficiencies.
Inefficient functions can be outsourced to services that can perform the work more effectively. The outsourcing service should be able to reduce expenses and improve performance while allowing your company to focus on its core competencies.

Develop a Strategic Staffing Plan for Your Organization
At ABR Employment Services, we help clients evaluate their current workforce and develop a strategic staffing model to help lower overall employment costs and access the skilled talent they need.  Discover more about ABR’s staffing solutions.