Workplace violence is a haunting fear for employees and employers alike. It’s not a casual concern either. The BLS reports that nearly 19000 people were traumatized or killed by workplace violence in 2017 alone. If you want to provide your employees with a safe work environment, here are nine questions you should ask yourself. 

Do You Maintain a Workplace Violence Policy? 

While violence against another person is illegal in general, most workplaces set out a formal policy as well. These policies generally take the form of automatic dismissal for any act of violence. The threat of losing one’s job may just stay someone’s hand if they’re made aware early on.  

Do You Offer Employee Assistance Programs or Could You? 

Workplace violence often stems from pressures outside of the job, either financial or emotional. Do you offer financial assistance programs? Counseling? If not, consider staring such programs. 

Do You Encourage Emotional/Mental Health Activities? 

Many workplaces encourage emotional/mental health activities by sponsoring them. A simple example is offering flexible scheduling. This lets people better manage their home life.  

Do Managers Have the Right Training to Spot Warning Behavior? 

Managers are often best placed to spot an employee in trouble. They still need the proper training to identify troubled employees before things escalate. 

Do You Maintain a Process for Ending Employment? 

A formal process for ending someone’s employment sets out procedures that help control that person’s exit. The process can prevent physical altercations by, for example, having security present.  

Do You Maintain a Formal Process for Reporting Threats? 

If you don’t have a formal process for reporting threats, consider setting one up. This can allow more timid employees to make reports without having to confess to a trauma publicly.  

Do You Maintain Basic Security at Entry Points? 

Security at entry points for your business can make the difference between an ex-employee or disgruntled spouse getting inside or not. Keycards or barcoded badges are a simple solution. 

Can You Use Technology to Limit Potential Violence? 

Security companies and computer scientists have developed programs that can assess historical data and offer predictions of future behaviors. Do you employ technology like this to analyze complaints and reprimands for your employees? If you employ a large number of employees, it may prove invaluable in protecting everyone. 

Do You Provide Ongoing Training for Emergency Situations? 

The average person isn’t prepared for an emergency situation. They need the training to make smart choices. If you aren’t offering emergency training, such as active shooter training, it’s time to make that happen. 

You Can Do a Lot to Prevent Workplace Violence 

Employers can take a lot of steps to minimize workplace violence. You can offer assistance programs, training, and encourage emotional wellness. You can also create processes for termination, threat reporting, and install security at entry points. As with most safety issues, preparation can dramatically improve your outcomes. 

Few people find working the night shift an easy prospect. For most, it takes a progressive toll that only grows worse over time. Weight gain is a common side effect. An ever-increasing sleep deficit is another common side effect. While you’d be hard-pressed to find a night shift routine that can substitute for a regular day-night schedule, a healthy lifestyle can help you handle the night shift better. Here are five ways a healthy lifestyle will do that for you.

Healthier Immune System

People who work the night shift tend to get sick more often. That is because the body needs certain things to maintain a healthy immune system. It needs enough rest, proper nutrition, and regular exercise. If you make a habit of getting enough sleep, minimizing unhealthy food choices, and getting at least some exercise, you’ll get sick far less often than your coworkers.

Better Sense of Well-Being

Anyone working the night shift gets less sunlight exposure than people who work a day shift. They also get to socialize less often with friends and family. Anyone getting insufficient sleep also struggles more with emotional control. This combination can cause a steady decline in your sense of well-being. Regular exercise, good nutrition, and sound sleep all help you preserve a healthy sense of well-being.

Weight Control

Poor sleep, poor nutrition, and minimal exercise are the trifecta of gaining weight. That means that working the night shift puts you at far greater risk for obesity than your day shift counterparts. Regular exercise and a healthy diet help you combat the calorie-based side of weight gain. As a bonus, exercise and healthy food help support restful sleep.

Faster Recovery time

It’s a fundamental truth that unhealthy people recover from injury and illness more slowly than healthier people. A healthy lifestyle makes you more physically, emotionally, and mentally resilient. You bounce back faster from illness. You’re less likely to become depressed about an illness or injury and more likely to see it as a challenge. In short, you’re better prepared to get well.

Helps You Avoid Problematic Chemicals

Night shift workers often find themselves stuck in an ugly cycle of chemical use. They don’t get enough healthy sleep, so they chug coffee and energy drinks all night. They get home tired but stuck with caffeine wakefulness. They have a beer or a glass of wine to help them drop off, which causes poor sleep. Begin the cycle again. A healthy lifestyle lets you stay awake and fall asleep without relying on chemicals to help.

You Need a Healthy Lifestyle

In many ways, night shift workers need a healthy lifestyle even more than people on day shifts. You have more challenges. A healthy food, exercise, and sleep regimen make you more resilient, less prone to illness or injury, and psychologically healthier. All of which makes coping with the night shift easier.

Are you a seasoned night shift pro looking for a new workplace? Let Gallman Consulting help you find that new night shift position.

Reference checking often proves one of those tasks in the hiring process that soaks up far more time and energy than expected. You play phone tag with candidates’ old supervisors. The references get very tight-lipped because of decrees from their HR department. The information you get isn’t actionable. If this sounds like your experience, keep reading for six ways you can make the reference checking process more efficient and useful.

1. Ask for a Specific Number

You can’t always predict how many references someone will provide. A highly outgoing candidate might provide a half-dozen. A more reserved candidate might only provide a few. Specifying a set number of references helps you manage the total time the reference checks take.

2. Forget Personal References

Personal references add almost no value to the process. Anyone adding personal references will only select people with a good opinion of them. Asking for personal references also puts the shy or introverted into a tough position without learning anything about their ability to do the job.

3. Use Standardized Questions for All Candidates

A former supervisor who loved a candidate may go on at length about non-critical information. Their positive opinion can skew your perception without the candidate necessarily being the best choice. Develop a standard list of questions you ask all references. This makes the information you gather more relevant. It also gives you a more reliable method of comparing candidates.

4. Make Sure You Speak with a Direct Supervisor

No matter how well-intentioned a manager might be, they often have little direct contact with many of their subordinates. That means they can usually only talk in general statements. The candidate was never in trouble. They got good performance reviews. A direct supervisor can provide you with more concrete information about the candidate’s actual work, even if it’s only through tone and subtext.

5. Leave Reference Checks for Last

Reference checks take time. You need to coordinate with previous supervisors and block out time. Then there is the actual time you spend on the phone. After that, you must compare notes about each candidate’s references. The fewer of these checks you must do, the faster and more efficient the process becomes. Leaving it until you’ve narrowed down the pool to a few candidates makes the process much faster.

6. Work with a Staffing Agency

While this doesn’t streamline the reference checking process itself, it does streamline the process for you. The staffing agency will check the references in advance and weed out the problematic candidates. That means you only need to check a short list of references before you offer to hire someone.

Always Aim for Maximum Value

When making your reference checking process more efficient, always look for what will give you maximum value. That means talking with direct supervisors, asking the same questions, and waiting until you only have a few candidates left.

Working with a recruiter has upsides. They can connect you with positions that may not be public knowledge yet or smooth over concerns that might otherwise cost you an interview. With that said, here are some things to avoid doing when working with a recruiter.

Don’t Act Unprofessionally

The recruiter is the person who will present you and your skills to potential employers. You need to present them with the exact persona you’d present to an employer. That means dressing professionally, responding promptly to calls or emails, and showing up on time.

Don’t Provide Financial Information

It’s easy to think of the recruiter as your friend since they’re trying to help you find a job. In the end, though, they work for someone else. More importantly, they’ve got a profit motive for getting you placed quickly. Don’t share that you’ll work for less than your target salary. If they know that, they may present you to companies offering lower salaries if it will get you hired faster.

Don’t Divulge Future Plans

You may know that you’re maximum shelf-life at a new job is two years because you’ll be opening a small business then. Your recruiter doesn’t need to know those plans. Employers don’t like hiring people they know will leave in the near future. Recruiters know it. Some recruiters will steer you away from better employers to preserve their relationship with that company.

Don’t Be Too Flexible

If you’re months into a job search with no results, you may think that you need to expand your horizons. Don’t tell your recruiter that you’re open to any job, anywhere. That doesn’t make the process easier or faster. A focused search in a specific city or area will go much faster and smoother.

Don’t Ignore Their Feedback

If you’ve been on a few job interviews and didn’t get offers, there is a good chance those employers touched base with your recruiter. Your recruiter’s feedback will come out of those conversations. Ignoring that advice only hurts your chances of getting future offers from potential employers.

Don’t Complain

Have you ever dealt with a coworker who complains all the time? It’s tedious and makes you want to avoid that person whenever possible. If all you do is complain to your recruiter, they’ll feel the same way about you.

Treat Recruiters Like Potential Employers

The safest bet when working with a recruiter is to treat that person like you would a potential employer. Focus on behaving professionally but keep sensitive information private. You’d never tell a potential employer you’d work for less or plan on quitting in two years, so don’t tell your recruiter. By approaching your recruiter this way, you arm them to present you to employers in the right light.

Are you tired of tackling the job search process by yourself? Let Gallman Consulting guide you into the right interview with the right company.

As a recruiter for the past 20 years I have experienced some interesting challenges – COVID 19, being the latest.  We are being bombarded with news (some fake news) and some very serious concerns are being raised.  For Gallman Consulting – The safety and well-being of our Staff is paramount to us.  Therefore, we have advised them how to take care of themselves, protect others, and monitor the latest developments per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But….    WE ARE WORKING!!!    We are staying in touch with clients and continuing to provide our expert services.  

For clients who are especially concerned about face to face / onsite interviews, we recommend the following:

• Do a more in-depth phone interview before bringing potential candidates into your facility / offices
• Consider a Skype / Zoom or any number of virtual interview systems that are available.   

If a face to face interview becomes necessary, we will check with the candidates to find out if the following applies to them:

• Traveled outside of the US in the last month.
• Had contact with someone else who has traveled outside of the US in the last month.
• Had contact with someone who has the coronavirus.

You can ask these same questions when a candidate arrives for an interview, and even have them sign a form to verify the above.  Of course – it is a good idea to have hand sanitizer available on the premises. We can also ask the candidate if they are willing to wear a face mask if you prefer.

Gallman Consulting is ready to assist you in navigating this public health challenge and furthering the well-being of all employees.  We remain available to service your needs.  Our contingency plans ensure our internal processes will continue without interruption and you will have the candidates you need to fill your open positions.

We are in this together!

Best Regards,

Georgette
TE BU0901

Georgette Sandifer
Senior Director of Placement
Phone: 803-744-3304
gsandifer@gpsjobs.net
www.gallman-consulting.com

Your resume is the first and often the last thing a hiring manager sees about you. That means you must do everything in your power to avoid getting screened out at the resume review stage of the process. To that end, here are five of the most common resume mistakes you should avoid at all costs.

1. Typos and Grammar Errors

Typos and grammar errors are one of the easiest mistakes to fix. That’s the reason why leaving any on your resume is one of the fastest ways to get cut from consideration. Take advantage of spellcheck and grammar checking features in word processing programs to catch obvious errors. Next, print out a copy and read it out loud to yourself. Seeing it on paper and hearing it can help you spot any lingering mistakes. After that, get someone you trust to read it over and look for errors.

2. Not Customizing Your Resume

Many companies and staffing services use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to identify good candidates for a job. One of the things an ATS does is look for matching keywords. That means it looks on your resume for phrases that appear in the job listing. Let’s say a job listing mentions:

• Prepare bill of lading
• Operate lift truck and pallet jacks
• Oversee shipping activity

Those three phrases should appear on your resume. It kicks your resume to the top of the candidate pile.

3. Oversharing

A good resume is 1-2 pages. If your resume goes beyond two pages, it means you’re sharing too much information about each job. Remember, you’re sharing highlights about the position and your accomplishments. Maybe you picked up an award or certification at a job. Maybe one of your ideas saved the company a lot of money. Share that kind of information, rather than mundane details.

4. Get Specific

Get specific about what you did, rather than make general statements. Let’s say your last job was in fast food. A bad description looks like this:

“I handled customer service and worked in the grill.”

That description doesn’t tell the hiring manager anything. A good description looks more like this:

“Served as a shift manager, handling customer concerns about their orders, supervising 3-6 workers every shift, as well as operating the cash register and preparing food as needed.”

That description gives specific information about your responsibilities and skills.

5. Contact Information

A shocking number of job applicants get so focused on the jobs and structure of their resume that they neglect their contact information. Some people leave old contact information, and others forget to add it altogether. Make sure your contact information is at the top of the resume and correct.

Mind the Details

Crafting a good resume means that you mind the details. Is all the information correct? Is it free of typos and grammar errors? Does it include key phrases from the job description? Is it specific and concise? By focusing on these issues first, you avoid common resume mistakes and improve your odds of landing an interview.

Many companies select group interviews over individual interviews. Some companies want to gauge how you respond under added stress that can mimic actual job conditions. Other companies use them as a time and cost-saving approach. Whatever the reason behind the group interview, you need a plan to navigate a group interview successfully.

If you’ve never faced a group interview before, read on for some key tips for making the right impression.

Study the Company

Few things impress an interviewer less than candidates who don’t know anything about the company. This is as true for waiters and sales staff as it is for management trainee candidates. Minimally, you should know something about the following:

• Company history
• Company products/services
• Where your potential job fits into the company

If you can answer questions on these topics, you’ll match or outshine your competitors in the room.

Create and Memorize an Introduction

It’s common for the interviewer to ask everyone in the room to introduce themselves. This is a golden opportunity to shine. Highlight your experience, but also mention any soft skills or hard skills that might make you more capable in the role. Angling for a supervisory position down the road? Briefly mention some prior leadership experience.

Practice

Unless you’ve done a lot of group interviews, you should set up at least one or two practice interviews with friends. This lets you work out some of your nervousness about the process. It also gives you a chance to refine your answers to difficult questions. Quiz your friends afterward for honest answers about where you did well and what left them cold.

Listening

The last thing interviewers want to see is you tuning out whenever someone else speaks. It’s a bad sign that you don’t value the opinions or thoughts of others. The practice interview gives you an excellent chance to practice your listening skills, but it’s not the only opportunity. Leading up to the interview, make it a point to listen whenever you find yourself in a conversation. It will make it easier to remain attentive when the interview rolls around.

Body Language and Tone

Body language and tone can derail you in either an individual or group interview. You should look and sound confident. Looking confident means that you sit calmly, without fidgeting, and don’t slouch. Make sure you make good eye contact with both the interviewer and other candidates. Avoid waffling terms like “maybe” and “could be.” Use good projection so everyone in the room can hear you.

It’s About Awareness

Succeeding in group interviews is mostly about knowledge and awareness. You must know about the company and position. You should know your introduction by heart. You must remain aware of your body language and tone. You must also stay mindful of how well you listen.

Think you’re ready to tackle a group interview for a new job. Let Gallman Consulting help you get in the room.

The days of employees quietly accepting endless demands for overtime are largely done. Part of it is a culture shift as millennials stand poised to take up the lion’s share of the workforce. Part of it is a growing recognition of the damage chronic stress and exhaustion take on the health of workers. After all, no one is productive when they’re sick.

If you’re struggling with work-life balance, keep reading for five steps to help you establish the right balance.

Embrace the Word “No”

An endless cycle of obligations to friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and managers can leave feeling like your about to drown. Figure out what things really matter to you and say yes to those. Say no to everything else.

Apply the 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule or the Pareto Principle holds that most of your biggest results come from a small amount of your work. Look for the parts of your work that create the most results and offload as much of the other stuff as possible. You’ll achieve more while actually doing less.

Get or Stay Healthy

When you’ve got lots of demands at home and at work, it’s easy to let your health and fitness slide into the background. Make those things a priority. Being healthy and fit makes it easier to weather stress. You can even build some family time around staying fit by organizing weekend hikes.

Ask for Help

Sometimes, you will end up with too much on your plate. When that happens, don’t try to be a hero or start sacrificing sleep. Reach out to colleagues for help at work. Talk to friends and family to help you manage personal obligations. More often than not, people are happy to lend a hand.

Accept Some Imbalance

No one can attain an ideal balance between work and life in the long term. Sometimes you have a big project that soaks up your time. Sometimes your kid needs surgery. These imbalances are part of the deal that is life. Accepting that things will tilt one way or the other sometimes will help preserve your sanity.

You’ll probably never strike a perfect work-life balance. What you can do is get a whole lot closer. Look for ways to prioritize your time energy on the things that matter most and get you the best results. Trim obligations you don’t care about. Ask for help when you need it. These steps will help you take some big steps toward a better-balanced life.

Stuck in a job that won’t let you find that work-life balance you want? Touch base with Gallman Consulting and let us find you a job that respects work-life balance.

Many people assume they’ll become less productive toward the end of the day. There is even some research to back it up. Throughout the day, you make countless decisions. By the end of the day, you’re probably experiencing some decision fatigue. In other words, your mind and brain have worn out their ability to decide things for the day.

Fortunately, you can take some steps to make sure you end the day productively.

Healthy Snacks

Chips and candy bars might give you a short-term burst of energy, but they don’t do much for your overall productivity. For that, you must turn to the world of healthy snacks. Go in for some almonds. Eat a banana and hard-boiled egg on break. If you work somewhere, it’s practical, get yourself a blueberry and low-fat Greek yogurt parfait and put in the fridge for later. These kinds of snacks are quick to eat. Plus, you can even make most of them at home ahead of time.

Frontload Difficult Work

If nothing else, the decision fatigue research backs up the claim that you should frontload more difficult work. By getting that out of the way earlier in the day, it leaves you free to tackle smaller but necessary tasks later in the day. As a bonus, you get to experience the “completion high” more frequently at the end of the day. That can help you stay productive at your smaller tasks.

Become Unavailable at the End of the Day

Distractions kill productivity when you’re well-rested. They can completely derail you when you’re already tired from putting in most of a day’s work. Tell everyone that you won’t answer emails, respond to Slack notifications, or take phone calls that aren’t extremely important for the last hour or two of work. That lets you focus your remaining energy on finishing any work you must complete before you leave.

A fall-off in mental performance at the end of the day is probably inevitable, but not necessarily a disaster for productivity. Staying productive at the end of the day is mostly about managing yourself in a way promotes productivity. Eating healthier snacks, ending your day with less demanding tasks and limit your distractions will help you marshal your mental resources better when you get to the end of your day.

Looking for a job that lets you be more productive than you are now? Gallman Consulting can help you find the right job at the right company.

It’s one of the most common questions among job seekers: Should I follow up after a job interview? Most of the time, the simple answer is yes. You should follow up. Very few potential employers will look negatively on you for showing some initiative. The less simple answer is still yes, usually, but you need to apply some finesse.

Let’s jump in and look at some of those finer details.

When Should You Follow Up?

A good rule of thumb is that you should wait at least a week before you follow up. A week is enough time for most companies to wrap up most of their interviews and start weeding people out. Even if they aren’t done picking people for second interviews or the position, they probably can tell you how long it will be.

How Should You Follow Up?

Take your cue from the interviewer. If you only spoke to the interviewer on the interview day and all other communication was by email, send them an email to follow up. It’s how they prefer to communicate. If you talked with your interview on the phone repeatedly in the ramp-up to the interview, give them a call.

When Shouldn’t You Follow Up?

One question you should always ask at the end of the interview is when you’ll likely hear from them. Some companies have very specific procedures and timelines for filling positions. If you interview with one of these companies, the hiring manager will probably give you a firm timeline, such as 10 days or 2 weeks. They’ll often follow that with something like:

“If you don’t hear from in two weeks, feel free to follow up about the position.”

That’s a not so subtle way of telling you that following up before then will not win you any brownie points or friends.

Following Up Helps

Following up about a position is generally a good way of telling a company you do want to work there. Still, you should act reasonably. Give it a week or so before you follow up. Communicate with the interviewer in the way they communicated with you most often. Don’t follow up if the interviewer strongly hints that it won’t be welcome before a certain point.