Tag: Beacon Staffing Alternatives
How To Bounce Back From a Layoff
Millions of Americans face layoffs. Layoffs may result from various factors but are rarely expected and never fun. Experiencing a layoff isn’t the end, however. You can and will go on to have a great career once you get through this setback.
If you’re experiencing a layoff or want to be prepared if you ever face one, these tips may help you to bounce back:
Mourn Your Loss
Being laid off is a negative experience. You’ve lost your job, and like any loss, it is essential that you take time and cope with the loss. Stress, anxiety, depression, and anger are some of the emotions you may experience as you cope with your job loss. It is vital to work through these feelings before moving forward.
Prioritize Self-Care
Prioritize your physical and mental health during this time. Sleep well, practice good eating habits, exercise regularly, and stay in touch with friends and family. Taking care of yourself ensures you will get through this time in the healthiest way possible and prepare you to move forward when ready.
Assess Your Finances
Now that you do not have regular money, you must evaluate your finances and make essential spending choices. Go over your finances, including your last paycheck, any severance pay you receive, and unemployment compensation. Ensure you only spend money on your needs, such as rent, utilities, groceries, and bills.
Start Networking
Stay in touch with your coworkers and networking contacts, and try to connect with other industry peers and experts. Many open roles are filled because of networking, so don’t underestimate the importance of making and keeping those connections.
Update Your Resume and Skills
As you’re unemployed, look back at your time with the company and assess what accomplishments you can add to your resume. Prospective employers want candidates who can add value to their company, help them reach their business goals, and participate fully in their company culture. Show the hard and soft skills you have built and perfected with your former employer.
This is also an ideal time to take some skill-related classes. Sign up for workshops or courses at your local college or online to build your skills, strengthen your talent marketability, and keep your mind sharp and ready to move forward professionally.
Consider Part-Time Positions
Switching to part-time work may be a challenging choice, but it can be a great option to generate income and keep your skills in shape while you look for a full-time position. Part-time, temporary, and contract work are all viable options and, in some cases, could lead to a permanent position.
Work with a Recruiter
Staffing agencies offer insight and inside access to many companies and positions that might be difficult to access independently. Staffing agencies help you prepare for job opportunities, connecting you with the right ones and getting you back to work quickly and effectively.
Start your search for a new job today with the help of Beacon Staffing! Contact us today!
5 Signs it’s NOT the Time for a Career Change
The average worker will change jobs a dozen times before retirement. Some changes will lead to bigger paychecks, better benefits, or career growth. Not all of these job changes will be positive, however. Before making a major change in your career path, the key is to ensure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Sometimes, making a career change is the wrong move. Here are five signs that it may not be a good time to make a career change.
1. You Are Overstressed
Change is constant, and sometimes in life, everything seems to change at once. When your personal and professional life is busy and stressful, it may not be a good time to change jobs. While it’s natural to want more stability and security in a stress-filled life, moving from your current job to a new position could cause more upheaval rather than ease it.
2. Your Judgement is Clouded
Your perception may be driving you toward a career change. Whether you’re experiencing personal or professional upheaval, you may be tempted to change things. While that might be the right thing to do, it’s better to make those choices when you are in a more stable, rested, and healthy state of mind and being.
3. You’re Having a Bad Day (or Week, or Month)
Even the best jobs come with bad times. Complex projects, extra hours, and conflicts with co-workers can all take a toll, but these issues are all temporary. Even bad relationships with managers or supervisors won’t last forever.
4. You’re Focused on Money
If your only motivation for changing jobs is pursuing a higher salary, you may want to rethink that move. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make more money, but it should not be the only reason. You may leave a job you like in pursuit of more money and find yourself in a position that is a bad fit. What’s worse, that higher paycheck may not be so high after taxes are taken out. You may also find that higher pay in the new job means worse employee benefits.
5. You’re Afraid You’re Missing Out
If you are discontented with your job after seeing how happy other people seem in theirs on social media, don’t quit! It is too easy to compare how you feel in your career to how others seem to feel in theirs. Online content is carefully curated, emphasizing the positives and superlatives of people’s careers, not the moments of doubt and failure they have.
Need a change in jobs? Beacon has got you covered. Check out our career portal today!
How Gen Z Can Differ From Millennials in the Workforce
As more Gen Z workers enter a workforce increasingly dominated by Millennials, it’s essential to understand how workers from both generations view work and approach tasks. Each group has been shaped by the innovations and challenges they grew up with.
In this blog, we’ll look at some of the defining characteristics of Gen Z and Millennials in the workplace, how they differ, and how their unique traits and experiences enhance the workplace.
What is Gen Z?
Gen Z, or Generation Z, is a demographic term for anyone born between 1997 and 2015. This generation grew up with technology and has never experienced a world without the internet, social media, or smartphones. Highly independent, Gen Z is generally aware of economic, environmental, political, and social issues and integrates activism into their daily lives.
Millennial Characteristics
Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996, with the oldest millennials in their 40s. This was the first generation to use the internet, have mobile devices, and face the economic hardships of student loan debt and a global recession. Millennials watched the development of many new technologies and watched them become obsolete.
Gen Z and Millennials in the Workplace
Gen Z and Millennials share main characteristics in common, but their differences are noteworthy and can significantly affect how they work together. Understanding these differences as a manager can help you improve your whole team’s ability to collaborate and perform.
Education
Millennials grew up with the pressure to go to college. At the same time, Gen Z pursues knowledge and skills through less traditional methods such as online tutorials, online classes, and real-world experience.
Technology
While both groups are comfortable with technology as a part of daily life and work, Gen Z was raised in it. Millennials are eager to learn and adapt to new technology while still retaining the capability to work at high levels without it. Gen Z workers are “digital natives” and find it more difficult to “unplug” when needed.
Professionalism
Millennials grew up understanding that some forms of personal expression, including piercings, tattoos, clothing, and hair color, could prevent them from landing a job. Gen Z, on the other hand, is more likely to value expression over advancement and gravitates toward company cultures that are more casual and open.
Focus
Workers within Gen Z have a shorter attention span than millennials. While younger millennials grew up with the same technology as Gen Z, it was less pervasive. Gen Z is used to a bombardment of information, so processing a great deal at once is their strength, while focusing on a single subject is more difficult.
Though these differences, and others, exist between Gen Z and Millennial workers, they create a strong dynamic of experience and innovation in the workplace that improves the mindset and productivity of the entire work team.
Looking for top talent? Contact Beacon Staffing.
We are a staffing agency in Maryland that places qualified candidates with the region’s top employers. Our recruiters in Aberdeen and Baltimore provide exceptional staffing services in the light industrial and administrative industries. Get in touch with our team to learn more about our hiring solutions in Maryland.
Struggling to Stay on Track? 5 Ways to Stay Productive at Work
If staying focused and on-task at work is something you struggle with, you’re not alone. Interruptions, distractions, and stress can all decrease your ability to focus and get your work done.
In this blog, we’ll break down five tips to help you focus and stay productive at work, no matter your role.
Focus On One Task at a Time
When we try to concentrate on more than one task at a time, we use most of that time transitioning between tasks. Not only does it decrease the quality of the work, but it can result in tasks remaining incomplete.
Focusing on one task at a time can increase your productivity, motivating you to complete the current task before moving on to the next one. If you must multitask, consider prioritizing the tasks in order of importance, completing the most demanding ones before you finish with the less time-consuming tasks.
Set Small Objectives
This is especially useful for completing large projects. Planning out small objectives throughout the day allows you to progress step by step toward completing the day’s work or the project itself. This is also useful to measure your progress toward a larger work goal.
Time Block Your Schedule
Another way to maintain focus and increase work productivity is to use time blocks within your daily schedule. Blocking out 60-to-90-minute blocks for tasks gives you a dedicated time frame to work within and a target time for finishing the task. Don’t forget to schedule break times as well.
Use a Timer
Another time management tip is to use a timer. The Pomodoro time management method involves using a timer and dedicating 20 minutes to a task, followed by a five-minute break. This technique encourages you to focus steadily for a while, then step back and take a break before beginning work again.
Delegate Tasks
If getting everything done yourself isn’t working, delegation may be the key. If you have a variety of tasks to do, and the team is all capable of completing them, consider assigning some of the tasks to others. Not only does this help complete the project quickly and efficiently, but it also frees you to work on tasks assigned to you alone.
Whether you follow these tips or implement other strategies to improve your focus at work, the key is to be as consistent as possible. Learn what works for you, and you can be sure your focus and productivity will improve.
Ready to find your next position? Contact Beacon Staffing today!
As a leading temp agency in Maryland, our expert recruiters can help you find an office or industrial job that works with your schedule. We provide job placement services in Aberdeen, Baltimore, and beyond. Browse our available jobs below:
Management Best Practices: Giving Employees Constructive Feedback
Feedback is one of the most important parts of professional life. As a manager, you must ensure that your employees know what they are doing well and where and how they could improve to help the company function more productively.
Constructive feedback takes skill, however. You need to learn how to give feedback that allows your employees to develop skills and more effectively pursue their goals. Read on to learn some valuable tips for giving employees constructive feedback.
What is Constructive Feedback?
Constructive feedback is a type of guidance that focuses on areas for improvement and offers strategies or solutions to accomplish the improvement. Constructive feedback is thoughtful and supportive. The goal is always to help the employee improve their work performance.
Constructive feedback, also called constructive criticism, is a crucial part of the manager-employee relationship. It is constructive because it seeks to help the employee understand what areas of their work performance need improvement and how they could best accomplish that goal.
When to Provide Constructive Criticism
Constructive criticism can be provided at any time, but there are some situations when providing this valuable guidance is vital:
- Performance reviews
- Following an incident
- Concluding a project
Tips For Giving Employees Constructive Feedback
Focus on observations
Stick to “I” statements and avoid character judgments. Focus on the employee’s actions.
State the feedback clearly and directly
Be kind but blunt. The employee needs to fully understand the issue and how they can positively change for the better.
Show empathy and sincerity
Employees may be upset that they’ve made an error or performed poorly. Be considerate and let your employees know you care about them and sincerely want to help them improve.
Share Constructive feedback in person and privately if possible
Constructive feedback is always more effective in person and should be given privately, so the employee doesn’t feel uncomfortable or embarrassed.
Provide guidance
Offer suggestions for how the employee can improve the situation.
Include positive feedback
Show the employee that you see and appreciate the good work they’ve done makes them more receptive to the constructive comments and guidance you’re offering.
Looking to grow your workforce? Contact Beacon Staffing!
Beacon Staffing is a proven leader among temp agencies in Aberdeen and Baltimore. Our recruiters are committed to helping you expand your workforce in Maryland. Contact us today for reliable administrative and light industrial staffing services.
Your Outdated Hiring Process is Costing you Talent
The effects of the past two years on the job market have been intense, with the power in the market shifting to the candidates. For employers searching for top talent, having an outdated hiring process could cost you.
If you find yourself missing out on the best job candidates, it may be time to look at your hiring process.
Symptoms of an Outdated Hiring Process:
Long, Tedious Applications
Now that most job applications are completed online, candidates do not want to spend a lot of time filling out forms and completing paperwork. The application can be make-or-break for your company because applicants will look for a similar job that requires less work if it is too difficult, tedious, or time-consuming.
Complicated job applications do not rule out unqualified talent, but they can discourage top talent from even trying. Streamline the application process and make it easy to find, complete, and submit.
Too Many Interview Rounds
It is important to make sure you’re getting the best candidate for the job, and a solid interview process is essential to doing that. However, dragging out the process with multiple interviews increases the risk of losing candidates who simply do not want to go that.
Ghosting Candidates
Recruiting is a complex process, and trying to reply to everyone who applies may seem impossible and not a priority. Nothing could be farther from the truth. “Ghosting” candidates by not acknowledging their submissions or responding as they proceed through the hiring process leaves applicants frustrated and erodes their confidence in your company brand.
Take the time to reply, even if it is through an automated system, and let candidates know where they stand and what to expect next.
Lack of Flexibility
Rigid hiring schedules could mean you’re losing out on top talent. Some candidates may have the flexibility to interview during business hours, but others who work during the day may not have that option. Having virtual options available for interviewing and considering the schedule and convenience of top talent ensures you do not miss out on the best talent for your company.
The hiring process can be long, tiring, and tedious – Or it can be the best introduction candidates have to your company’s brand and culture. With a quick assessment of your hiring process and some changes to any outdated steps, you can ensure you get the top talent during your recruitment periods.
For help hiring this year, turn to Beacon Staffing!