Archives May 2021

Capitalizing on employees’ strengths can help make them a better employee. Bringing skilled employees into your business is a critical step in putting together a successful work team. However, it’s certainly not the last step.

At the end of the day, your employees will only excel to the extent that their roles allow them. After hiring new workers, you’ll have to figure out where they belong in your company’s culture. Matching people with duties and responsibilities that suit their skillsets is one of the key ways you can improve general productivity.

Use these ideas to evaluate the strengths of individual team members and delegate tasks appropriately.

Observe Daily Workflows: watch for employees’ strengths

Beyond taking note of the end results for assignments, pay attention to how each employee goes about completing their work. Because employees work differently, you should be able to identify who has better skills in different areas.

Time management, organization, and workflow patterns should all be part of your decisions regarding placement within your company.

Consider Communication Skills: where are the employees’ strengths

There’s a reason that in surveys, corporate recruiters routinely name communication as the top skill that companies seek when hiring new talent. Communication can make or break a project.

Identifying good communicators within your team is a great starting point for doling out new responsibilities.

Give Self-Evaluations

No one knows your employees better than themselves. Because you’re determining how to place staff in roles that match their strengths, asking for their opinions makes them part of the process. This will give you more tools and insight to their strengths.

Self-evaluations provide a convenient way to measure how comfortable and confident your employees will be with different responsibilities.

Provide Leadership Opportunities

Giving workers the chance to take the lead on a project allows you to understand their skills on a whole other level. By seeing how they cooperate with others to accomplish goals, you can understand more about their teamwork skills. You will also be able to view how they handle responsibility.

You may be surprised by what comes out when you trust employees with a leadership role. Often, they’ll rise to the challenge outperform what you—or they—thought possible.

Use a Strategic Staffing Agency

Figuring out the right role for a new hire is a long, drawn-out process. It may take months or even over a year to determine how an employee best fits into your company. But, using your employees’ strengths is a great way to ensure they feel noticed and appreciated.

Many companies benefit from using a staffing agency that recruits qualified candidates for placement on your team. If you’re in need of skilled tech contractors to fill specific roles, ABBTECH can help you out.

ABBTECH’s strategic IT talent acquisition system matches quality tech professionals to roles within your company. Contact us today to start building your dream work team.

Workplace burnout is a common problem today.

Fast-paced work environments, nonstop online communication, and the drive to impress company leadership are some of the many contributors to burnout. Rising rates of remote work that blur the line between work and home life add to this problem.

Burnout is especially prevalent among young professionals. In one survey, 84 percent of millennials reported experiencing burnout at their job—a rate 8 percent higher than the general population.

Fortunately, there are some key steps you can take to reduce burnout at your job.

Set Workplace Boundaries (Then Keep Them)

One of the best ways to prevent burnout is to not let your professional life bleed into your private life.

When you clock out of work, make a point to log out of your email and other communication channels. Resist the urge to check whether anyone liked your GIF in the company Slack.

Instead, use your off hours solely for non-work-related pastimes. Get rest, work on hobbies, and spend time with family and friends. You’ll come back to work recharged and ready to take on new tasks.

Invest in Your Health to keep burnout at bay

Taking care of yourself physically can relieve stress. It can also stave off crashes or mental blocks.

Make a point to stay hydrated throughout your workday. Keep healthy snacks on hand for days when you may be too busy to sit down for a proper meal. If you are sedentary at your job, take a walk or get some exercise during your breaks—outside in fresh air, if possible.

Breathing exercises, meditation, and yoga are other ways to deal with work-related anxiety and burnout.

Build a Support System

Forming bonds with your coworkers does more than boost your productivity. It also gives you people from whom to seek support when you’re at risk of burnout.

Work friends (and even friendly acquaintances) can help keep your spirits up during the days when it seems like everything is falling to pieces.

Be Open and Honest

If you’re struggling to stay afloat during your daily work, don’t try to hide it from your boss. Be upfront and honest about how you’re feeling.

If you know you’re prone to workplace burnout, bring it up ahead of time during the hiring and onboarding process. Staffing recruiters can provide guidance as you enter employment with a company.

When you work with an IT staffing agency like ABBTECH, you’ll receive the one-on-one coaching you need to be successful in your position. Our IT recruiters and placement services help skilled professionals transition into new career opportunities.

Visit ABBTECH’s job portal to match with openings in tech startups and businesses of all sizes. We’ll be available for support every step of the way.

The below 8 must-ask questions highlight candidate skills that help identify the correct candidate. Technical skills evaluation is the primary focus of recruiting and hiring for IT jobs. Interviews provide a valuable opportunity to contextualize those skills with more personal knowledge about your candidates—if you ask the right questions.

Here are some of the most useful questions you can ask when interviewing tech candidates.

Why are you interested in technology?

This simple-sounding question is a good icebreaker.

Right away, you’ll get information about your candidate’s history in tech. This helps define why they’re driven to pursue employment in this area.

Can you tell me about a tech innovator you admire?

Candidates are essentially telling you about their own goals and values when they talk about who they look up to within their field.

Their answer will demonstrate how they measure success in the tech industry.

How do you use your tech skills outside of work?

When candidates give you a rundown of their tech skills, they’ll usually focus on their professional experience.

The ways they use their skills outside of a work environment can tell you a lot about their strengths and problem-solving abilities.

Sometimes a candidate is a ham radio enthusiast, an amateur web designer, or the unofficial tech support for their family. It will be enlightening to find out how they use technology in their personal life.

What is your approach to security?

It’s critical for any IT professional to understand and use best cybersecurity practices.

Pay attention to how your candidate talks about security, and you’ll gain insight into whether you can rely on them to work with your company’s technology.

What is your role on a team?

Because people in the IT field typically support others, tech positions usually require some level of teamwork.

Even if you’re hiring for a largely independent role, it’s important to know how your candidate sees themselves fitting into your team.

How do you stay up-to-date with tech as it evolves?

IT professionals need to stay plugged into developments within their industry to work at the highest level possible.  By identifying how the candidate stays up-to-date, you can ensure they will bring new information to your company.

During the interview, make sure to inquire what steps your candidate takes to stay current on the daily changes to the technology they use.

Can you describe your favorite piece of technology in simple, non-technical terms?

IT support jobs involve much more than grappling with technology. These positions call for a high amount of quick, clear communication about technical topics. By asking this question, you will get an example of how they will explain things on-the-job.

Staffing IT positions with the right people requires you to understand how candidates communicate about technology with people who lack their level of technical knowledge.   

What certifications and experience do you have in tech?

It’s important to establish that candidates meet the criteria you’ve set for the position.

However, you may be able to skip this question if you use IT recruiting services. They can screen candidates’ qualifications and interests ahead of time.

Tech placement services from ABBTECH can ensure that the candidates you interview meet your basic requirements and fit your company’s needs. These 8 must-ask questions will be asked and answered by our candidates, by us.

Contact us today and learn more about our nationwide IT placement services.

Looking for a way to broaden your job opportunities in the tech industry? IT Certifications may be the way to go.

Studies show that earning a professional certificate or certifications boosts your chances of being employed.

Because acquiring an IT certification will enhance your resume, it can help you stand out to hiring managers. You can do this in your spare time.

You don’t even have to leave your couch to earn any of these popular IT certifications. Just log on to a learning platform like Coursera or Udemy and start building your credentials online.

Information Technology Infrastructure Library Certifications

Managing IT services requires a complex combination of business knowledge and technical abilities. As such, you can equip yourself for jobs in this arena by becoming certified in Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

This certificate gives you options for positions that require knowledge of IT management framework, from directing a help desk to risk management.

Certified Information Systems Auditor Certifications

Within the IT field, demand for skilled cybersecurity experts is consistent and pressing.

By earning certification as a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), you show that you are prepared for professional work in auditing, control, or security for information systems.

CISA certification is a must-have for most IT auditor positions. This can also help you find work as a security consultant, penetration tester, or any career within IT security and compliance.

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

If you’re a newcomer to the IT industry and have an interest in cloud technology, becoming an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner is a promising first step to a future career.

This certification demonstrates knowledge of the architecture, security, account management, and services bundled into the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform. As reliance on cloud platforms rises, the proven ability to use and navigate AWS is an in-demand skill.

CompTIA A+

Another ideal certification for those looking for entry-level work in IT is CompTIA A+. It verifies that you have a well-rounded set of fundamental IT skills. These skills include operating system configuration, tech support, IT networking, and basic cybersecurity.

Because hiring managers often look for this certification when recruiting for tech positions, so do we. At ABBTECH, we actively seek out CompTIA A+ certifications in the vast majority of our placements.

As a leading provider of staff augmentation services for IT companies, ABBTECH helps tech professionals find placement in all types of businesses, from startups to Fortune 500 corporations. So, visit our career portal and reach out to our recruitment team to find companies where you can apply your skills, training, and technical knowledge.