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You know that applicants “fudge” or even outright lie about their skills, educational achievements and job history, but how good are you at spotting those falsehoods?

Read below for some tips on how to spot a “fake” resume.

Look for the red flags. Gaps in unemployment that aren’t explained. A candidate that balks at explaining why he or she left the last employer. Does the candidate have many short stints at “self-employment?” All of these could be attempt at hiding something. You’ll want to be sure you check references (that includes clients, if the person is self-employed). Stated references can be false so check for the former employer’s website and call to verify employment.

Use social networking sites to your advantage. It’s much easier to leave an employer off a resume than it is at a site such as LinkedIn.

Does a candidate say she’s a whiz at Excel? Test her. If you can’t test, ask specific questions regarding the technological or communication skills they say they have. For example, if the person says she’s great at overcoming objections in sales calls, put together a mock sales call with a very stubborn “prospect.”

As you check backgrounds and work to verify a candidate’s statements, understand that honest mistakes do happen. Keep an open mind regarding each candidate, even if you tired of outing applicants who lie egregiously. Not every lie is massive or even a real lie. It may be a lie of “omission.” It may be a slight exaggeration. Aim to find out why a candidate fudged or lied about a skill or job, then decide if the omission/lie warrants being cut from consideration.

Speaking of testing, Trinity Staffing Services automatically test all candidates as a part of their registration with us. If someone says she’s an Excel whiz, we’ll verify it before the candidate ever comes to you company for either a temporary or direct hire assignment. If your company is located in the San Antonio area, contact us today to learn more about how we will source, vet and place skilled and reliable people with your firm.

If you’re looking to find new talent, good workers and add diversity to your workforce, you don’t want to overlook one group of people that routinely is underrepresented in business today – the disabled.

A recent report by the International Labor Organization states that hiring people with disabilities has a number of advantages and can contribute to the bottom line. First, studies have shown that people with disabilities are dependable. Companies who employ disabled workers have found that their performance is as good as or better than employees who are not disabled. Also, disabled employees are loyal. Turnover for the disabled is low. This is an advantage because of the cost to recruit and train new employees. Also, companies have noticed that bringing the disabled on board tends to improve employee morale.

Moreover, the disabled are a pool of workers whose talents and skills have been largely untapped. People with disabilities have the skills and knowledge that businesses need. They have the technical know-how, as well as the unique problem-solving skills they have developed living every day as a disabled person.

And the disabled have knowledge about people with disabilities as consumers – what products and services appeal to the disabled as a group, as well as the families and friends of the disabled. That market is estimated to be about $200 billion in the United States, about $50 billion in Great Britain, and about $25 billion in Canada. So, by employing the disabled, you have people who know by experience the needs and wants of this large and, for the most part, ignored market segment.

Although the disabled have a lot to contribute, they face a number of obstacles to finding employment. Many of these obstacles center around people’s image of the unemployed. They face fears, stereotypes and discrimination in many different areas, including in the workplace.
More tangible obstacles include problems with access to assistive devices, buildings, communications, and transportation that are not geared for the disabled.

But if these barriers are removed, there is now abundant evidence to show that the disabled can be productive members of the workforce.

Trinity Staffing Services has been connecting great San Antonio companies with great workers since 1996. Contact us today to learn more about how we can find you work or find your company temporary and direct hire employees!

If you work in human resources, you are constantly making decisions. We all make countless decisions each day, as we are faced with a huge array of choices. So, with all of this decision making, what can we do to make better decisions?

Most of the decisions we make are made pretty much by habit. We react to something that is making a demand on us. So, it’s not surprising that because of this we often make bad decisions. There is also something researchers call decision fatigue – the more decisions we make, the less ability we have to make additional decisions well. So, we need to get a handle on our decision making. How? Business analyst Tony Schwartz provides a few ideas.

The first thing is to avoid making bad decisions. That means taking control of your decision-making. That is, don’t be reactive. Some things act as triggers for our behavior. Something happens and it just triggers a response that is almost automatic. But this is what you have to avoid. If you feel compelled to do something, don’t. This is just automatic behavior, something you have not deliberated about, something that is not intentional.

So, become more aware of what you are feeling. If you are emotional, if the adrenaline is pumping, you know this is not a good time to make a decision. The first thing to do is calm down and take a few deep breaths.

Another thing you need to do is to take the long view. A certain decision might make you feel good right now, but how about down the road a bit? Will you wish you had done something else instead? What decision will add the most value to your life and deliver the most bang for the buck over the long haul? Schwartz suggests doing your most important work, making the most important decisions, first thing in the morning, when you are the most energetic and have fewer obligations than later in the day.

Another dimension to making good decisions is a moral one. What decision will make you feel good about yourself, not just feel good? What kind of decision will put your values into action? These types of decisions obviously are often more difficult to make, as they involve sacrifice and discomfort in the short term. But if you simply choose the most pleasurable alternative, how will you feel about yourself later? What kind of person do you want to be?

When looking for great employees for your San Antonio-area company, don’t go it alone. Let Trinity Staffing Services help your find terrific workers for your temporary and direct-hire assignments. We look forward to hearing from you!

In this day and age, everyone has an Internet persona. With all the tweets, status updates, comments and such, it’s unavoidable not to be online (or searchable) in some way, shape or form.

In a 2011 Reppler survey about how recruiters use social networks to screen candidates, 91% of the respondents claimed they have visited a potential candidate’s profile on a social network as part of the screening process, and 69% have even rejected a candidate based on what they found on his or her social networking profiles, such as an inappropriate photo, a post about the candidate using illegal substances or negative comments about a previous employer.

But what are hiring managers and recruiters actually hoping to accomplish by doing this? And what happens when they find something questionable?

For one thing, it’s expensive for companies to hire someone only to learn weeks or months later that he or she isn’t the right fit for the job. With social media, it’s possible to learn a lot more about a person than what’s on their resume, giving recruiters and hiring managers more insight into the behaviors and personal lives of their candidates.

“Businesses and recruiters want to know as much as they can about a person who they may give a job offer,” says Eric Meyer, partner in the labor and employment group at Dilworth Paxson LLP. “But the real purpose behind screening is to make sure the person you’re hiring doesn’t have any red flags that would make them a bad fit or a potential liability for the business.”

Most social media profiles aren’t updated with recruiters in mind. People are posting about things that are relevant to their lives, interests and personalities. By screening candidates’ social media profiles, recruiters are getting a clearer picture of the person behind the resume.

What to Expect When Employers Find a Red Flag

Most job seekers should know there’s a chance a hiring manager might glance at at least one of their social media profiles throughout the duration of the hiring and interviewing process. There’s also a chance he or she might find something questionable, like a nasty comment about a former boss, causing a red flag to go up and throwing a wrench in the hiring process.

While recruiters have rejected candidates based on what they’ve found on a social network, some would prefer to give the candidate a chance to explain the reasoning behind it.

“I think it’s a good practice as an employer who’s doing really any kind of a background check to give candidates a chance to explain themselves,” Meyer says. “Oftentimes there’s a story behind what was posted online or what might show up in a background check.”

Maybe those stories won’t hold up, and in that case the candidate probably wasn’t the right fit for the company. But just as 69% of recruiters have rejected a candidate based on content found on his or her social networking profile, 68% have actually hired someone. Of those, 39% did it because whatever they found “gave a positive impression of the candidate’s personality and organizational fit.”

“In terms of mindset and outlook on life, people use their social networks and their blogs to really express themselves,” says Rachel Dotson, content manager for ZipRecruiter. “If you see someone consistently posting negative things and it’s apparent they have a poor outlook on life, that’s the kind of thing (especially at a small company like ours) that’s going to give us a lot of pause. One toxic employee can ruin an entire department or organization, depending on its size.”

Reminders for Job Seekers

Whether candidates are active on just one or multiple social media profiles, they can’t assume anything they put online is private.

“You may have privacy restrictions set up on Facebook and the like, and an employer may not be able to view what’s behind those privacy restrictions, but you never know how they might gain lawful access to that information,” says Meyer.

For most job seekers, these points are pretty common sense. But if more and more hiring managers start demanding login information for candidates’ social media profiles, employers will have more to worry about than what’s on a job seeker’s Facebook profile, such as the legality of accessing electronic information without authorization, or the of risk losing top talent due to a perceived lack of trust.

“Employers run the risk that if they require job candidates to relinquish Facebook logins and passwords as a condition of employment, those candidates will respond by removing their names from consideration,” Meyer adds. “At the moment the company requests that private information, it projects a lack of trust, which is a bad building block for an employer-employee relationship.”

What other best practices should social job seekers consider for maintaining their social reputation online?

Jennifer King is an HR Analyst for Software Advice, a company that compares and reviews employee evaluation and HR software. She blogs about trends, technology and best practices in HR and career development.

Chances are you’ll have the chance to lead or mentor someone at some point during your career.
What’s more, you may not even know a leadership role is coming; we’re often placed in a leadership/mentoring role at a moment’s notice.

Follow the tips below as you “learn leadership as you go.”

• Remember that leadership is as much mentoring as it is “leading.” It’s your job as a leader to help your staff grow professionally. Take time to learn what your team members hope to accomplish both at your company and in their career. Build relatiionships and don’t forget to focus on the long view as well as the short-term.
• Yes, you should and must focus on your department’s or team’s goals and responsibilities, as well as your own goals. But the best leaders have a knack of making sure their own goals include the goals of their team.
• Don’t forget to “lead” your own superiors. What’s that? Don’t forget that your own boss is looking to you for help in achieving his or her goals. Aim to make sure you help those goals come to fruition. You also can lead up by offering “advice” to your superiors in the form of articles you find of use, advice you heard – in other words, you “influence” your boss to help him or her achieve greater things.
• You’ll also need to be sure you communicate regularly with both your team members and your superiors. This can be as simple as sending a weekly e-mail to your manager regarding projects completed, in progress and challenges overcome/still facing. You also can speak with your team members together and one-on-one to go over project needs, challenges, etc.

No matter is you’re looking for a new leadership position or if you’re looking for a new leader for your department, if you’re in the San Antonio area, come to Trinity Staffing Services. We’ve been helping great employers and workers come together since 1996 and we look forward to begin this type of professional “matchmaker” for years to come. Contact us today!

If you’ve been moved into management recently, or even if you’ve been a supervisor for several years, we’re sure you’re always looking to improve.

Below are some tips to help you improve your “boss performance.”

1. Perhaps the best way to improve your management skills is to improve how well you listen. Sure, you may think you’re good at listening. After all, every day, hour by hour, you hear your employees’ concerns, complaints, suggestions etc. But do you really hear them? Are you going to them every now and then and just asking them how they’re doing and if there’s anything you can do to make their job better and/or more successful? Listen to their concerns and suggestions. You don’t have to act on them right away, but by listening and hearing your staff you’ll be amazed at how much their performance improves.
2. Sure, your main job as boss is to make sure projects are finished on time and done well. But another important part of your job is to help your people shine, to help them grow and be the best they can be. With that in mind, take a look at your staffers and notice what they do best. Then let them do those things as much as possible within the constraints of their job description and their job duties.
3. Never correct an employee in public. In addition, never shame someone in front of others. Sure, you may be fed up with the employee, and the employee may have made a huge mistake – again! – but instead of the employee being seeing as receiving a worthy public flogging, you’ll be seen as a tyrant and a bully. Plus, the employee will never want to do it your way ever again – you’ve made a big enemy. Always take an employee to a private room and correct him or her as soon as you can – the same day as possible. Try using the “reverse Oreo” technique: compliment the employee sincerely on something her or she does well, offer your critique/need for improvement, finish with another bit of praise about the employee.
4. As you’ll correct in private, you should praise in public. Let the good work of an employee be known and don’t be shy. When someone does something above and beyond, acknowledge it. You also may want to offer an employee of the month program, with some sort of small reward (gift certificates to the movies, for coffee, etc.). A little praise will go a long, long way!
5. To be a better boss, hire great people in the first place. In fact, some of the greatest leaders in the world make a point of hiring people they believe are “better” than they are. If you’d like to hire great people for your San Antonio company, contact Trinity Staffing Services. We know where to find “the good guys,” and we’d look forward to finding them for your company. Contact us today!

Prospective parents may say they want to divvy up childcare duties equally, but a recent University of Virginia study found that “men almost never do half of the infant care from birth to age 2, even when they believe that child care should be shared equally.”

The study’s authors said they believed that the reason more new mothers tend to the newborns more than the new fathers is because “they enjoy it more than men do.”

The study even concluded that, in light of its findings,  universities may want to rethink paid paternity leave for men.

The article went on to say that

“[p]aid post-birth leave originally appeared in academia as a way to help level the playing field for women trying to earn tenure while raising children. However, the extension of this benefit to men may actually undermine women’s equality in academia, Rhoads said.

“Male professors who take paid leave tend to use a majority of their time on things other than infant care, such as advancing their publishing agendas, he said. In contrast, women use the time to do a significant majority of infant care tasks – on top of breastfeeding, perhaps the most time-consuming and physically demanding task.

“’In this area, refusal to take sex differences seriously, rather than helping women, leads to a policy that could injure females seeking tenure by giving their male counterparts an unfair advantage,’ the study concludes. While only about 12 percent of men currently utilize their post-birth leave option, the study finds, ‘if men should begin to take leave in much larger numbers, far from leveling the playing field, gender-neutral, post-birth leaves are likely to tilt the field further in favor of men.’”

Yet some people argue that paternity leave does offer men the chance to learn and take on more childcare duties.

What do you think? How does paternity leave help or hinder you in your own life?

If you’re looking for more flexibility in your work life, consider signing on with Trinity Staffing Services. We have many temporary positions with San Antonio companies that can help you work while having a healthy personal life. Contact us today!

With the downturn in the economy, which remains anemic, it may come as no surprise that financial stress and uncertainty are now major concerns for employee, and that these issues are having a big impact on the effectiveness of workers.

In a recent survey, almost two-thirds of companies contacted said that employee financial problems affected attendance at work, and more than three-fourths said that financial problems could be affecting productivity, according to Lisa Beyer of Workforce Management. And, in what could be valuable information for human resources staff, the study also found that financial training programs for employees reduced worker stress, as well as absenteeism, and increased productivity.

Another study has shown that almost two-thirds of companies surveyed are taking a more active interest in their employees’ financial status, and more than half said that having benefit plans as well as financial advice are important for their workers.  Since the recession, the survey showed that almost half of the companies have experienced an increase in the number of employees asking about their financial benefit plans.

But, although financial preparedness has become a big issue for employees, studies have shown that many employees are not as prepared as they should be for retirement. This is especially problematic given the fact that employers are cutting back on retirement benefits. At the federal government level as well, there is more and more talk about cutting entitlement funding, the most significant of which is healthcare for retirees (Medicare) and Social Security.

In addition to this, there are many other financial dilemmas facing workers today, including lower returns from the stock market, declining home values, higher healthcare costs, and increased length of life, according to Beyer.

While almost two-thirds of employers offer retirement planning for their workers, less than one-fifth offered any type of daily financial planning education. But employers need to take a more active role in helping their employees with financial planning, because it could have a negative impact on the company. If workers cannot afford to retire, it affects morale and productivity. Older workers generally receive higher pay, cost more to insure and can affect the ability of the company to hire new people, according to analysts.

When your San Antonio-area company needs workers for temporary, temp-to-hire or direct-hire assignments, contact a recruiter at Trinity Staffing Services. We look forward to hearing how we may be of service!

Because the number of older workers in the workforce is going to continue to grow, experts are saying that companies will need to do more to reduce the losses associated with age-related problems, such as injuries and chronic ailments.

There are a number of reasons for the increase in older workers – the aging of the Baby Boom generation, more people putting off retirement because of financial losses due to the recession, companies needing to retain skilled, experienced workers, and rising costs of healthcare.

As more workers age, employers will have to focus more attention on healthcare costs and workers’ compensation spending, the experts say. This is because the workers’ health will more and more be affected by age-related conditions such as chronic disease and injury. This also will affect how workers will respond to hazards in the workplace, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 15 million workers age 55 and older in 1988. That number swelled to 28 million in 2008, and it is projected to increase to almost 40 million by 2018, when members of the Baby Boom generation will enter the 55 and older age group. This age group is expected to make up about one-quarter of the workforce by 2018, a seven percent increase from 2008, according to BLS statistics.

Although the aging of the workforce looms, many employers have done little to address the situation. Indeed, many are not even aware of the health and safety issues that confront older workers. For example, although older workers suffer fewer injuries than other age groups on the job, when they do, it takes them longer to recover.

Employers need to do more to tailor their healthcare for older workers, and even get a more accurate picture of the number of older workers they have. Employers also have done little to help their older employees plan for retirement.

These issues have become all the more pressing as the number of people working into their retirement years increases. A recent poll by the American Association of Retired Persons shows that 70 percent of employees now plan to work into their retirement years.

If you’re looking for skilled and reliable workers for your San Antonio company’s temporary staffing needs, look no further than Trinity Staffing Services. We look forward to serving you!

In order to rein in health care costs, human resource and finance departments are developing more cooperative working relationships at many companies, according to business observer Sarah Fister Gale.

The continuing weakness in the economy, skyrocketing healthcare costs, along with uncertainty in healthcare reform efforts, are the prime movers in the increasing joint efforts among human resources and finance. Each department complements the other in helping to deliver healthcare to employees – human resources, with knowledge about employee demographics, will take the lead in determining what types of health coverage to invest in, while finance plays more of a role in choosing the plans based on costs, according to Gale.

And a recent survey of HR and finance leaders confirmed the close working relationship, noting that HR sets the strategy for healthcare, while finance handles the budgeting.

Working together is easier if HR people know something about the language of finance and are able to quantify their reasoning, according to some HR professionals. For example, one HR official works together with his company’s chief financial officer to do a cost-benefit analysis of the firm’s healthcare program. The packages includes a wellness program, which includes health education, exercise classes and incentives for getting regular checkups and watching what you eat.  This HR person was able to gain support for the wellness program by showing how much healthcare costs at the company have dropped since the program began – even though the company began offering increased coverage to employees. The program essentially paid for itself through reduced costs.

The cooperation between HR and finance also can lead to some unconventional changes that have not only improved the healthcare for employees but also led to steep reductions in costs. For example, Harris Corporation, an IT company located in Florida, has built a medical imaging center at its business. The project worked so well that the company has since added a pharmacy and a healthcare clinic staffed by doctors. The project came about through the efforts of HR and finance working together.

This project not only has saved the company millions of dollars, according to company officials, but has also improved employee healthcare, because the company is able to more closely monitor what services are needed the most and customize what it delivers to meet employee needs.

When looking for temporary workers for your San Antonio-area company, call upon Trinity Staffing to find you highly skilled and reliable professionals for your short- and long-term assignments. We look forward to serving you!