Your workforce e xperts

1. Your workforce experts

2. EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS AND THE JOB HUNT Getting, Keeping and Doing Well On the Job.

3. Employability Skills • Employability skills are the basic skills necessary for getting, keeping and doing well on the job. • Basic Skills • Higher order thinking skills • Personal Qualities

4. What do you think… • What are Basic Skills? • Reading • Writing • Science • Math • Oral Communication • Listening

5. What do you think… • What are higher order thinking skills? • Learning • Reasoning • Thinking Creatively • Decision making • Problem Solving

6. What do you think… • What are personal qualities? • Responsibility • Self-Confidence • Self-Control • Social Skills • Honesty • Integrity • Adaptability • Team Spirit • Punctual and Efficient • Self-Directed • Good Work Attitude • Well-Groomed • Cooperative • Self Motivated

7. Brainstorming • What would you do to increase employability skills? • Steps to take • Training

8. Matching Your Skills

9. Skills Employers Want • Willingness to learn new tasks • Ability to effectively read, write and perform simple computation • Communication- listening and verbal • Creative thinking/ problem solving • Self-esteem and goal setting • Leadership

10. What Bosses Hate the Most • A survey was conducted that asked executives in the nations’ largest companies, “What employee behavior disturbs you the most?”

11. The Results • #1 - Dishonesty • Irresponsibility, goofing off or doing personal business on a company time. • Arrogance, ego problems and excessive aggressiveness. • Absenteeism and lateness. • Not following instructions or ignoring company policy. • Whining and complaining.

12. The Results (Continued) • Absence of commitment, concern or dedication. • Laziness and lack of motivation. • Lack of character • Inability to get along with others. • Displays of anger or pettiness. • Poor judgment. • Taking credit for others work. • Inappropriate language or conversation topics.

13. Traits of Good Employees • Cooperation • Honesty • Initiative • Willingness to learn • Dependability • Enthusiasm • Acceptance of criticism

14. Responsibility • Being a responsible employee involves areas such as: • Punctuality • Being task-oriented • Learning company policy • Being an informed spokesperson for your company • Pulling your own weight

15. YOUR CREDIT SCORE AND EMPLOYABILITY What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You.

16. Credit and Employability • Understanding the importance of your credit and how it affects employment • You can control both your credit and your employability

17. Types of negative information most likelyto affect an employer’s decision notto hire. Reasons Not to Hire

18. Controlling Your Credit Score? 1.) Get there first. Pull your report before an employer does and clean up errors. 2.) Check for mistakes on your credit report annually. 3.) Prepare an explanation. If you find negative information on your report is correct, plan what you’re going to tell the employer.

19. Credit Score Affects Job Search Source: www.freescore.com

20. What do you think? • Do you think it’s right for employers to ask for your credit report? • Should an employer judge your employability skills based on how you pay your bills?

21. Social Media and the Job Hunt

22. Facts about Social Media • 1 in 5 employers use social networking sites to research job applicants • 24% of those employers say the information found on the applicant’s page factored into their final hiring decision.

23. Social Networking Dangers Source: FOX Toledo

24. Downside of Social Media • Watch out for pictures in which your friends “tag” you. The picture is out there for all to see, even if you did not post it. • Status updates - avoid negative or offensive posts. • A friend’s post or tweet on your profile may be vulgar, negative or offensive. • Your mother’s cousin’s wife’s son’s best friend’s dad may have access to your profile.

25. What Not to Post • OMG! I Hate my job!! • Was totally wasted last night. Can’t w8 to go out again 2nite! • I just stole $50 dollars from my co-workers tip cup! • first day at work. omg!! So dull!! • all i do is shred holepunch n scan paper!!! omg! • im so totally bored!!!

26. Do’s and Don’ts Source: www.job.com

27. Five Rules for Social Networking Don’t: • Reveal embarrassing details on your profile. • Post pictures that damage your credibility. • Be negative. Negative comments will always rub someone the wrong way. • Lie about qualifications. • Think you are protected. Your employer is free to fire you for just about any reason. • Think they aren’t listening. Two out of three bosses monitor their employees’ Internet connections.

28. What to do when… • You are tagged in an embarrassing photo • You’re friended by someone you don’t want to connect with • You’re considering friending your boss • You want to join various groups • You would like to be a fan of certain pages • You love taking quizzes

29. How To Use Social Media To Aide In Your Job Search • Let people know you are looking. • Don’t be afraid to network on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. • Make sure your profile is private. • Find information about hiring managers. • Hyperlink your resume on social media sites or job search engines. • Seek out job search advice.

30. What do you think? • Should employers search your social media accounts and have the right to fire you over what you post? • Do you think employers have the right to ask for your passwords to get into your profiles?

31. Linking Your Resume To Social Media

32. Cell Phone Use In The Job Search

33. Making Calls • Be courteous to everyone with whom you speak. • Identify yourself, stating first and last name clearly. Be clear about the purpose of your call. • When leaving messages, SLOW DOWN when you state your phone number and name.

34. Effectiveness • Ask for information whenever possible. • Do not ask questions that you could easily find on the employers website. • Remember that tone of voice carries a lot of weight in a phone conversation. • Smiling when you speak on the phone can help your voice sound more pleasant.

35. Things to Think About • Don’t answer calls from employers if you are not in an appropriate environment (noisy surroundings, competing conversations from others, etc.). • Appropriate voicemail message - no clever or comical greeting messages, no music, no ringback tone • Have voicemail set up and/or room in your voicemail box for others to leave a message. • Don’t be overly casual when answering the phone. • Never bring your phone to an interview. • Avoid dropped calls by ensuring you are in a place that has service for an interview or receiving a call from a potential employer.

36. RETENTION You got the job...what’s next?

37. Keep the Job • Show up • Be on time • Be honest • Leave personal problems at home • Follow the rules • Work well with others • Be a role model in dress and speech • Be willing to do more than you are asked • Keep a positive attitude

38. Attendance The Friday/Monday Syndrome This syndrome is represented by workers who are usually absent from work on Friday and/or Monday. The worker is eager to start the weekend early and then spends Monday either recovering from the weekend or taking care of personal matters that were not done over the weekend. These absences are big red flags for supervisors. This is typically found to be a problem in the younger workforce.

39. Test Your Ethics For many of us, the fundamental question of ethics is "What should I do?" or "How should I act?" Ethics are supposed to provide us with moral principles or universal rules that tell us what to do. Dilemmas, both small and large, pop up every day and test your moral guidelines. Answer these 10 questions to see how ethical your decision-making is at work.

40. Question 1 • You just printed a 200-page document that used all the paper in the printer. You • Refill the paper tray. • Casually mention the machine is out of paper. • Say, “Eh, they’ll figure it out eventually.”

41. Question 2 Your boss hands you a stack of papers that accidentally include confidential personnel files. • You immediately return the files to your boss. • You search through the pages just to find your own file. • You read everyone’s file.

42. Question 3 You’re running late because you got a little too happy at last night’s happy hour. • You call ahead to warn your team you’ll be late. • You show up late and hope no one notices. • You show up late and blame a horrible (imaginary) car wreck that caused traffic to back up for miles.

43. Question 4 You haven’t had a vacation day in months and you’d like to take tomorrow off. • You tell your boss you need to use a vacation day to unwind and recharge. • You start coughing and mention you feel bad so that you’ve built a convincing reason to call in sick. • You wait until the morning when you know the boss hasn’t arrived. Leave a message saying an emergency’s come up and you can’t make it in today.

44. Question 5 In the middle of the most boring business meeting, you realize you could be more productive (less bored) if you were at your own desk. • You grin and bear it. • You pretend to have received an urgent call or email and go back to your desk to work. • You pretend to visit the restroom but go back to your desk and update your Facebook status.

45. Question 6 You find out your cubicle neighbor is having a secret affair with the intern in accounting. • You pretend you know nothing about it. • You tell your closest work friends. • You tell anyone who will listen.

46. Question 7 You just accepted a job offer at a new company. It begins in a month. You’re going to wait two weeks to give your notice. The next day your boss comes in and explains how he wants to restructure the department and your role is pivotal. • You tell him now that you are leaving in a month. • You go along with his plans for now, but still give your two-week’s notice so that he receives ample warning time. • You wait until your last day to tell him.

47. Question 8 You know the boss is in a terrible mood. You also know your co-worker is about to go ask the boss for raise. • You quietly warn your colleague. • You mind your own business. • You don’t mention the boss’s bad mood and encourage him to make the request.

48. Question 9 It is 3 p.m. the day before Thanksgiving and everyone is on vacation. The phone hasn’t rung all day and no emails have come in. • You stay at your desk until 5 p.m. • You wait 30 more minutes to make sure nothing comes up and then leave. • You leave immediately.

49. Question 10 The boss loves the ideas you pitched to everyone and can’t stop showering you with accolades. The problem is the ideas were a joint effort between you and your colleague. • You say, “Thanks, but I didn’t work alone.” • You take the praise and tell your co-worker what happened. • You accept the accolades.

50. If You Scored: • Mostly As – You're a highly ethical individual whom others look up to. You are the type of person who can inspire others to be more ethical. If you're not already in a leadership position, you could be.