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Top-10 Signs you have a Bad Boss

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A dream job includes not only your passion and high compensation but also good co-workers and an excellent boss. Unfortunately, not every job has a boss that will suit you and vibes with you. A bad boss will have a negative impact on your working experience and will sometimes force you leave your work.

Here are some traits of a bad boss to watch out for.

1. Speaks offensively and seldom communicates with the team.

Communication is the key to a relationship and the relationship between manager and employee is no different. If your manager yells or says derogatory words to you or the team, not only your self-esteem suffers but pressure also increases.

Your manager should know when or what to say during a talk and he/she should always communicate with the team. They should give clear instructions about the project and provide the full job details.

 2. Fear is his/her form of motivation.

 Motivation is one way for an employee to work hard for the company especially since there are other things an employee thinks of. A manager that leads his/her team via threats such as firing you if you do not do your job properly should not be a boss in the first place.

Positive motivation such as offering rewards and providing constructive criticism remove the tension around the workplace and increase the self-esteem and energies of employees.

3. Wants complete control over your job.

 A company hires an employee because he/she have met the qualifications for the job and he/she has the necessary skills and abilities. A manager that tells you what you SHOULD do, expects to do your job the way he/she have done it, and control every aspect of your job is a hazard to every employee’s personal growth and self-esteem.

A good manager should let their employees do their own ways of how to accomplish the project. They just need to provide clear instructions and specifications.

4. Blames the team for failures.

 One of the worst feelings is being blamed by something you did not do. A manager that blames his/her team for failures and only accepts accomplishments is a really TERRIBLE MANAGER.

He/she should always sticks for the team and he/she should always do what is best for the team. The relationship between manager and employees is always give and take.

5. Does not consider suggestions other than his own.

Your boss is THE BOSS for a reason. He/she has acquired enough experiences and has the required skill set to be in the position he/she is in now.  Although the boss should always be the one to lead and employees should follow him/her that does not mean that he/she is always right.

A great boss asks suggestions from his/her team and consider other options for the sake of the project. The accomplishment of the team is also the boss’ accomplishment.

6. Does not do his/her job properly and you work harder than him/her.

Your boss should always set as a role model, as an example of the company’s vision and mission. Your boss should work as hard as his/her employees and he/she should do his/her part of the project just like anybody else.

As told by Moses’ teachings, “”Always do for other people everything you want them to do for you.”

7. Does not provide guidance.

First time employees need guidance from their boss and other co-workers especially in the first few weeks of their jobs. A proper briefing about the job should be conducted and from time to time, the boss should always check you to see your work and to see if you are comfortable and well-adjusted.

8. Does not have a firm goal or vision.

A boss should always have a clear heading on where to lead his/her team.

Your boss should lead his/her team as instructed by the company’s vision and mission. A boss could also lead his/her team on their own terms provided that it complies with the company’s vision and mission.

9. Ignores the importance of team-building activities.

Team building is there for a reason. It strengthens the relationship between the company and its employees. It is a medium where employees can release their stress acquired in the work environment and it is a reward for employees for all their hard work.

10. Your boss makes you work hard but the compensation is low.

Your salary should be based on your performance and the quality of your work. There should be a set of guidelines and rules assigned to you and you should not accept any other works that is outside of your contract.

A good boss rewards employees who work hard and provide good service to the company. Employees should not be underpaid and they should have the respect they deserve.

The difference between a great boss and a bad boss is a thin line most people do not realize. They should use their status for the greater good of the company and they should treat the employees with respect. The employees are the lifeblood of the company and they should be treated fairly.

Everyone has the right to be treated with respect within a workplace. If you are looking for a new opportunity within the Information & Technology industry, check out our latest job opportunities featured on our jobs page by following this link.

 

– Lianne Martha Maiquez Laroya

10 benefits of using the ‘right’ Recruitment Agency!

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10 benefits of using the ‘right’ Recruitment Agency!

There are a lot of benefits to using the ‘right’ recruitment agency, we have chosen the top 10 that may be beneficial to you.

1. Knowledge of the market

The best recruiters will have their finger on the pulse of their specialist markets, and can give the hiring team insight in to what is happening. They should know the available talent, where they are and how to reach out to them, salary rates, career expectations, available skill-sets and current hiring complexities. The best will act as partners and collaborators, and should still be your eyes and ears in the market.

2. Extended reach

Some candidates are hard to find. They may be passive or they may be selective. If they aren’t responding to job advertisements, don’t see themselves as part of your ‘talent pool’ and are too busy to search full time then the chances are that they may have relationships with trusted specialist recruiters in your sector. Even if they aren’t currently ‘active’ I use this term loosely as everyone is active if presented with the right opportunity, there’s a strong chance that a good recruiter will know who they are and how to reach them. Agencies have many networks – each consultant, candidate, client or collaborator has the potential to leverage their networks to help connect you to people with a range of skills and experiences, many of who would be off the radar of an in-house team or hiring manager.

3. Time saved

In business, time is money and using a Recruitment Agency is a time saver. They will save you time because they take care of the beginning steps of the hiring process. If you post a job opening on traditional job boards, there is a strong chance you will receive hundreds of CV’s  and applications for any single position. Out of the hundreds of applicants, a significant amount will not be qualified or will simply not be right for the job. Finding the right applicants to interview will take a great amount of time and effort.

4. Candidates not applicants

A lot of talent attraction is aimed at attracting applicants, whether they are responding to an advert, applying on spec, or through your website. A lot of these people may not be good matches for the role hence a lot of time will be invested in filtering, assessing, matching and communicating with them. Using a recruitment agency should mean that you see only candidates – job seekers who have been pre-selected to match the criteria that you are looking for and who are worthy of consideration and interview.

5. Access to the best

In addition to sorting through submitted applications, a Recruitment Agency will also have access to the best talent available. This includes access to talent that is currently employed elsewhere. These qualified individuals can work discreetly with a recruitment agency when they are looking for a new challenge and opportunity. Recruitment Agencies have their own database of qualified applicants that they can pull directly from.

6. Cost

Cost needs to be proportioned to two things, price associated with advertising your vacancy and the time spent by you and your employees trying to find that correct match. If you are looking for a person with a specific skill set or in a specific niche many hiring managers in house maybe out of there depth when trying to understand what it ‘actually’ is you need from that person. Through no fault of their own they are maybe not specialists in that particular market place, although get it ‘wrong’ and it will end up costing your business more than just money. A Recruitment Agency is also there to help negotiate the best salary, giving you guidance and advice on what is fair and appropriate, but also what you might need to do to guarantee that top candidate that everyone else is after too!

7. Help with employer brand

Large companies invest a lot of time and money in developing and marketing their employer brand, but many SME’s and smaller businesses don’t have the same resources. If you choose your agency wisely then they can give potential candidates a real insight in to your business – what it’s like to work there, benefits and career openings available, and a feel for the culture. If you partner closely with right agency they will act as an extension of you and your team and also be an advocate of your brand.

8. Access to key strategic skills

The number one reason that companies gave for using a recruitment agency was to gain short term access to key strategic skills, a reason that has been growing in importance over the last 3 years, now overtaking covering leave and peaks in demand. With talent shortages now potentially hindering growth it’s not surprising that this is the case. Whilst some of the reasons I’ve already given may refer more to permanent recruiters, many also offer the opportunity to bring in qualified, experienced help at short notice. These flexible solutions are particularly crucial for a long term project or initiative.

9. Peace of mind

A good Recruitment Agency is going to have a proven track record of finding the right employees for the job and be specialist in their field. When you meet with their selection of shortlisted candidates, you can feel more confident with your final hiring decision. Working with a Recruitment Agency will help you make a more assured decision.

10. Relationship

Once you have developed a relationship with a Recruitment Agency that you trust, your future hiring’s will go even more smoothly. The Agency will be aware of the qualities that it takes to make the right fit within your company and what you expect from them. The next time you have an available position, you can fill it quickly and satisfactorily. Your recruitment partner is an advocate, a specialist soundboard and an extension of you and your company’s brand.

Please contact Graffiti Recruitment to find out how we can help! Our recruitment experts offer a free business review, and a no obligation quote on all your recruitment needs!

 

 

How a Recruitment Agency can save you time and money!

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The recruitment of new employees can be a costly and time-consuming process for businesses, especially SMEs. Find out how a Recruitment Agency can save your business time and money when it comes to recruiting. 

Employers fully recognise the value of top talent – those individuals that can drive their business forwards and boost the bottom line. Directors and hiring managers face a tricky task when it comes to ensuring a flow of continual talent into the business and making sure they hire individuals who are suited to the job and the culture of the organisation. In a buoyant jobs market, where employers are competing with one another for the most skilled and experienced staff, this becomes even more difficult. In many cases, employers need specialist support with their hiring strategies. Using a recruitment agency to identify and attract talent, and negotiate terms, can relieve a huge amount of pressure. This approach can help organisations find the people they need to move forwards, bring them to interview, and secure their services within budget.

What are the benefits of using recruitment agency to help hire professionals?

Here are a few practical benefits:

  1. Ability to identify talent

Recruitment agencies work with both employers who are searching for talent, and professionals who are on the hunt for career opportunities. As such, they are ideally placed to be ‘in the know’ and operate as an intermediary between the two parties. The knowledge recruitment consultants possess about how to avoid hiring a bad candidate can be extremely valuable; they know who is looking for work, how capable they are, and what sort of a salary expectations people have.

Once an employer has created a vacancy and established the job criteria, recruitment agencies can set about finding suitable people for the position. The ‘ideal candidate’ is often the one who is not actively looking for a new job but would be open to one if the right opportunity presented itself. A recruitment consultant has strong networks and a clear idea of where to find these individuals.

Another benefit of using a recruitment agency is their extensive knowledge about individual segments of the job market and the talent that is available in particular localities. They also learn about employers’ requirements and goals. This means they can source talented individuals who are capable of doing the job.

  1. Advertise roles

Sometimes when employers advertise vacancies, they do not receive applications of the required calibre. They are looking for an experienced candidate with niche skills, but the CVs they receive simply don’t hit the mark. Often, this is down to poor marketing; or the cost to advertise individual jobs online. High-calibre people can sometime miss the job advert an aren’t aware of the opportunity available.

Recruitment agencies advertise vacancies both online and offline. They actively seek out and head hunt professionals who fit the job description. Recruitment consultants may establish direct contact with talented individuals they know, having networked with them in the past and invite them to apply for the role. Some professionals might not be actively looking for a career change, but your vacancy could just tempt them. ‘Everyone has a price right’, but that price may not always be money! As the millennial generation continues to demand modifications to the standard 9-5 as we know it. Work/life balance and company culture sometimes become even more important than salaries.

  1. Negotiate salaries

As an employer, the last thing you want is to get to the end of the recruitment process, having identified your preferred candidate and made a job offer, only to find that you are poles apart on salary and benefits. Before entering salary negotiations, recruiters can help you benchmark remuneration against other businesses in your industry and can provide valuable resources. Recruitment agencies are also actively placing skilled candidates and negotiating salaries involved in the hiring process. They can negotiate on behalf of both parties and agree a mutually acceptable remuneration package. If both parties are aware of the other’s hopes and expectations from the outset, it ensures there is a realistic prospect of sealing the deal.

  1. Interview candidates

The recruitment agency can conduct interviews on an employer’s behalf, which can save time and money. On average each individual hire could take up to 50 hours of your time. Within an average SME there are usually 3 people involved in the recruitment of a single person. Is this the best way to spend your time or can you use this time more effectively to drive your business forward? A recruitment consultant can give you that time back by providing a shortlist of suitable candidates and begin the process of narrowing down the applicants. The recruitment agency can also conduct background checks on candidates invited to interview, meaning the employer’s HR department doesn’t have to.

  1. Deliver interim professionals

Using a recruitment agency gives businesses the benefit of increasing or decreasing their employee levels as needed. They can identify professionals for full-time permanent roles, but also individuals suitable for interim jobs. It may be that emergency cover is needed for an absent employee who has gone off ill or left at short notice. Or an employer may be concerned about a lack of capacity for a new project or initiative that is getting underway. Recruiters have candidates on who are willing to hit the ground running, meaning there is no time wasted getting these professionals up to speed.

  1. Offer industry insight

Another benefit of a recruitment agency is they spend all day, every day, working to provide staffing solutions for organisations across a range of industry sectors. As such, they have significant expertise and jobs market insight, internationally, nationally, and locally, which employers can tap into as they plan their recruitment strategy. Recruitment consultants understand employer’s needs, candidate expectations, and the impacts of supply and demand. This means they are ideally situated to help employers make educated decisions, which have a positive impact on the bottom line.

In summary

Employers don’t need to go it alone when it comes to hiring. Finding the right recruitment agency that has access to people in your industry vertical can be very beneficial, time saving and cost effective.

We can help you find highly talented candidates within the Tech Sector for jobs such as Software Development, Web Development, IT Engineering, IT Support, Graphic Design, Marketing, Business Development and much more! Please get in touch to find out how we can help you.

Telford Superfast Extension

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Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet is set to approve a scheme which will open up Superfast broadband to around 120 extra businesses in the borough.

If an application for European funding is successful, the Marches Broadband Grant project will provide eligible businesses across Telford & Wrekin with a fully funded grant to access fibre broadband.

In Telford and Wrekin, 98 per cent of the borough will be covered by the end of 2017 as a result of the Council’s Superfast Telford partnership with BT and Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK).

The council is committed to seeking a solution for the other 2% of the borough, of which this scheme is potentially one, to get coverage as close to 100 per cent as possible.

The Telford & Wrekin element of the £4m project is seeking £237,818 funding from the European Regional Development Fund , which requires match funding of £158,545.

It is assumed that the level of grant payment to businesses will on average be between £7,000 and £25,000 per business although many grants in Telford and Wrekin are likely to be towards the lower end of the spectrum, as it has more accessible, semi-rural areas.

It will only be open to businesses that have not been broadband enabled by either the current Superfast Telford programme or by other commercial broadband investment.

A total of 124 eligible businesses have initially been identified in Telford and Wrekin and an expected output of around 22 per cent or 27 businesses, including a significant number of micro enterprises will potentially benefit.

Councillor Angela McClements, Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet member for Customer and Neighbourhood Services, said: “We have made a commitment to extend fibre broadband coverage across the borough as far as possible.

“The priority is the delivery of Superfast Telford which is still in the early stages of delivery.

“However the Marches Broadband Grant scheme opens up the availability of fibre broadband to businesses that might not be covered by Superfast Telford, although some eligible businesses may receive superfast connectivity via the main programme.

“This demonstrates our commitment to ensure that as close to as 100 per cent of the borough as possible has access to superfast connectivity and all the benefits it brings.”

Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet – which meets on 21 July – is being asked to approve proposals for the match funding mechanism.

They are also being asked to enter into a partnership agreement with project partners Shropshire and Herefordshire Councils to deliver the grant project.

– telford.gov.uk

Interested in the development of Superfast Broadband and Business? Why not check out our latest job roles in these sectors by clicking here!

Graduation of apprentices emerging debt free

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The first group of IT graduates emerging from Accenture’s apprenticeship scheme in north-east England will walk straight into jobs, debt-free

The first group of IT graduates from Accenture’s Newcastle-based apprentice programme will all walk into jobs at the IT services giant free of student debt, after graduating in April 2016.

Thirteen apprentices became the first to pass out of the scheme, which combines several years of on-the-job experience with a salary and education. This resulted in the award of a Higher Apprenticeship for IT, software, web and telecoms professionals, incorporating a foundation degree and Level 4 BTEC diploma.
Surely the greatest pull of the scheme is the absence of crippling debt following years of study.

Back in 2013, local young people joined the company’s scheme, at Accenture’s Cobalt Business Park near Newcastle, north-east England. All 13 graduates will soon start full-time work at the firm’s Newcastle-based centre, the UK link in its global delivery network.

The programme’s success has meant that it has already been expanded and the next 19-strong group of apprentices, set to graduate in July 2016, are already on their way.

The expansion is not a surprise, with apprenticeships experiencing something of a revival in the UK. The IT sector is part of a new industrial revolution, driven by digital technology, with trends such as the internet of things (IoT) breathing new life into similar schemes.

Earn while you learn

Three graduates inside story.

Ben Manning

Ben Manning was 17 years old when he joined the programme. “I was in sixth form doing my A-Levels and I wanted to go to university to study computer science. I heard about the Accenture scheme, which was pretty similar to the path I wanted to follow,” he said, adding that it was easier partly because the degree is paid for by Accenture.

He has worked on customer relationship management (CRM) software, mobile technologies and at HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) operation in Newcastle.

He’ll stay at Accenture after graduation and hopes to continue developing at HSBC, the company’s customer, and could also be offered a top-up year to attain his full degree. He’s happy to stay at the HMRC, he said, where he is part of a small team delivering software changes.

Ashley Walker

Ashley Walker, 28, who studied IT during a further education course, joined the scheme from a business degree, after realising the latter wasn’t for him. “I heard about the Accenture programme from a friend of a friend,” he said.

On the apprentice scheme he started in a maintenance role at the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), another Accenture customer, working on the RPA’s IT system, known as Rita, and got to grips with things such as batch schedulers and Unix.

He is currently working on Salesforce.com technology and, like Manning, hopes to top up to a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree.

He said the course has surprised him through the opportunities it has provided, even beyond the learning experience. “One week I was sat doing my normal stuff at the RPA, and the next week I was collecting an award on behalf of Accenture, meeting Nick Clegg and staying in a nice hotel.” He has also spent time working in Madrid.

While Manning’s computer science interest and Walker’s IT course at college seem to be appropriate launch pads to the apprentice scheme, IT experience is not actually a requirement.

Scott Gillan

For example, Scott Gillan embarked on his A-Levels but wasn’t sure what he wanted to do after that. “I heard about an apprenticeship and thought this was the best choice because the company pays for your degree, so you earn while you learn and get experience as well.”

He said he might be £40,000 in debt if he had completed a degree. “All my mates went down the university route and they are going to be stuck with this kind of debt,” he said, adding employees want possible recruits to have experiences of life.

Gillan works in HMRC software testing, and is happy to remain there gaining experience in public sector IT. He said he would like to progress to a team leader or manager role and see where he can go from there.

Career opportunities in Newcastle and beyond

And there could be great opportunities even if the graduates remain in Newcastle, where Accenture is developing operations the business considers important for it both nationally and globally.

The north-east England operation is a vital cog in Accenture’s global delivery engine. In fact, Accenture’s Cobalt Park office is the only UK facility where the company’s name adorns a building, according to UK managing director Oliver Benzecry.

The centre, Accenture’s main UK delivery operation, is part of the company’s global delivery network, which encompasses more than 140,000 people globally, the majority of whom are in India and the Philippines.

Emma McGuigan, who runs Accenture’s UK and Ireland Technology business, said the Newcastle operation was originally seen as a way of getting a different mix of people and skills. These complement other regions, she said. For instance, agile development might start in Newcastle and then be scaled in Mumbai.

She said the centre was first used to support government customers that did not want data going overseas, but added that this approach was now changing.

Five years ago the centre was supporting about 10 clients, mainly in the public sector. “We now have 60 clients supported from Newcastle, which is a significant percentage of the business, and they are all accessing it in different ways,” said McGuigan.

For instance, UK customers might not have the volume to justify a large offshore shared services contract, for operations such as Salesforce, and the Newcastle operation can provide a small local alternative.

Scaling down services is important as changes in technology, such as the increased use of the cloud, lead to a fall in the average deal size of IT services contracts, something which McGuigan said would be perfect for a delivery centre such as Newcastle.

Getting the right people is vital

It’s the rapidity of technology change that gives the north-east England operation another advantage. Mark Larsen, who heads up the Newcastle operation, said the centre is flexible and the people within it are able to shift between technologies. “It’s now about getting people with the right curiosity, aptitude and skills. They have to switch between technologies very quickly.”

Getting the right people is clearly critical, and with 500 people applying for 20 places there’s a lot of choice.

Despite the success, Accenture knows there is still work to do, not least attracting the right kind of people, something which is not always obvious.

Larsen said the advertising used for the scheme needs to be adapted to attract the  right people, as well as more women. There were no women in the first group of graduates, and there’s only one among July’s graduates.

“It is harder to attract girls but it is improving and there are more interested,” said the operations manager for the Newcastle delivery centre.

The programme now is now expanded technology apprenticeship to London, Warwick and Newbury!

– Karl Flinders

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