Assert yourself! The crazy, hustle-bustle holiday season is approaching.  By learning how to occasionally say “no” and treating each other with respect, you can take control of the demands at work and home you are facing.   You must learn how to not fret over your own feelings of guilt, fears of rejection or possible repercussions.  You can still be helpful and considerate of others, but you must take care of yourself first.  Before you respond to someone, ask yourself, “What would make me most happy and fulfilled?”  Once you develop assertive communication skills, you will be able to effectively handle difficult people and awkward situations.

Aggressive Communication Looks Like This:

“This is what you’re going to do and you have no say in the matter.”  Too many dominating, overbearing behaviors surface and push people away or into submission.   The aggressive person lacks self-esteem and acts out of fear to control people and situations.  Unfortunately, most people get turned off and don’t want to be around this type of person because they are too disrespectful and demanding.
Passive Communication Looks Like This:
“Whatever you ask, I’ll do it whether I want to or not.”  Too many unwanted yes’s build up resentment and passive-aggressive behaviors can surface.  The passive person lacks self-worth and self-respect.  Unfortunately, the word of a passive person cannot be trusted because they are not open and honest about their feelings, needs or opinions.
Assertive Communication Looks Like This:
“I know that this is important to you. This is also important to me.  Let’s talk about some options that are fair to both of us.”  Respectful, healthy behaviors evolve. This healthy, mature style says, “I hear you. You matter, and I matter too.”
7 Tips to Say “No” and Assert Yourself Today

1. Become self-aware of your communication and behavior patterns.  What is consistently happening in your life? How do these patterns affect you?
2. Evaluate the reasons you feel the need to please or control everyone.
3. Realize the goal of assertive communication is to express your thoughts and boundaries while being direct, honest and respectful of others.
4. Realize it is necessary and okay to say “no” sometimes and to ask questions.
5. Example for Anyone: “I see why this is important to you.  I am unable to help this time.  Let’s try to figure out some other possible solutions that could work.”
6. Example for Boss: “This is what is on my plate right now.  Which one of these priorities would you prefer I remove to accommodate your request?”
7. Example for Anyone: “I’d love to join you but my schedule is already full that week.  Please keep me in mind the next time. Have fun.”

If you do not address your own unique needs, your frustrations will build, you will feel taken for granted and your performances and relationships will suffer.  As Dr. Phil says, “We teach people how to treat us.” It is up to you to face the fears and guilt you carry from your disease to please. Find your courage to change and grow.  When you stop feeling guilty and seeking approval of others, your days will be fueled by positive energy, confidence and self-respect.  You will feel empowered and in control of your life because you utilized your power of choice. You hold the power.  Enjoy the season and assert yourself today!

Candidates for professional and managerial positions tend to be part of a national or even international labor market. Large employers in particular are likely to cast as wide a net as possible to find top talent. A portion of the regional employers participating in the national/international competition for professional and managerial top talent report having difficulty attracting this talent to SWPA. Attracting and retaining young, diverse talent appears to be especially challenging.

This is why the RIC was created to help employers looking to recruit for all types of positions cast their net wider.

Small and mid-sized employers don’t always have the resources to recruit nationally for top talent. Being in an area that has advanced education grads nearby may be an advantage for them, but the employers’ connection to local colleges is often weak or non-existent.

This is why the RIC is here to help. Moreover, their hiring needs tend not to be as predictable as large employers and do not necessarily coincide with the recruiting season of local schools.  This is why internships are so valuable to build a top talent pool from which to hire so when you are ready to hire, you’ve built relationships, but also, you can hire your intern when you know you’ve found the right person.  Often employers will wait for the student to graduate.

In contrast, jobs requiring high school or technical degrees are filled primarily from the local labor market. Individuals in these positions are less likely to move for a job and more likely to have ties to the region. So if an employer cannot find an adequate number of job applicants with high school or technical degrees locally, it is likely to impede the employer’s operations. Building a solid core of this technical labor is critical to any region’s efforts to sustain and grow an industry cluster.

“Perceived lack of jobs, a negative image of the region, and a lack of diversity contribute to the difficulty some southwestern Pennsylvania employers have in attracting and retaining young professional talent to the region.”  By connecting students to employers, we help employers increase diversity, but we also help students connect to employers and a network to see that there truly are jobs here in the region.  The Interns Summer Program also connects students to the community outside of their internship to show them the many things to do here outside of work and internships–the region has lots to do for live, work and play.

The RIC is also sited as an solution to helping employers recruit talented in the PA Economy League report.  Many employers don’t recruit at volumes high enough to afford the price and time to recruit at large universities, so their companies go unknown to many students.

Organizations like Facebook, DreamWorks Animation and Google are notorious for  providing lavish and unique employee benefits. Such a unique value proposition for employees nowadays seems like a paradox. In reality, many employees face the exact opposite, with reduced benefits stemming from organizations’ need to trimm spending.

Inversely, many companies are investing on employee benefits and satisfaction since there’s a fear that many will be looking for greener pastures once the economy turns around. According to a report released by Glassdoor based on 375,000 employee interviews, there are quite a few employers out there investing in employee benefits. Once of them is the game developing company, Zynga which states on its website: “Zynga workers are a well-fed bunch. Our great culinary staff provides meals for our entire workforce five days a week.”

This kind of information may lead small and medium size organizations to wonder what is within their reach when it comes to employee benefits. Here are a couple of creative ideas that go beyond the traditional employee benefits package and that can keep your employees happy:

A Family that Eats Together, Stays Together

While some organizations like Intercon Solutions can provide free catered lunches for all of their 50 employees, 5 days a week, most small and medium size business cannot afford such luxury. A feasible alternative would be to offer monthly lunches or even free snacks to your employees.

Another idea is to promote a “Potluck!” Regina Anderson, for RIC Director was the precursor of Coro Potlucks in the office. Once a month, the staff was invited to bring homemade and/or store-bought dishes to be shared with the staff. It was a great opportunity for the staff to get together, chat, and strengthen our team.

Flexible Schedules

For some employees, a flexible schedule can be considered an amazing benefit and it has virtually no cost to the employer. Offering employees a flexible schedule can be quite simple:

1. Allowing employees to start an hour early and be allowed to leave an hour early – this can be a particularly attractive benefit to employees with young families and it is unlikely to affect regular business functions.

2. Allowing employees to work from home one afternoon a week – this employee benefit can only make people happier and feeling good about their jobs, which in return tends to increase productivity.

Low Cost Employee Perks

If your organization sees positive results when introducing these employee benefits and are willing to invest some more on employee benefits and satisfaction, there are some low cost options like contributing to health club memberships or day care, creating a tuition reimbursement program, and even gifting employees with dry cleaning coupons on a regular basis. Just cut a deal with the providers and show them that this sort of arrangement can be a win/win situation!

And How About Interns? Should They get Employee Benefits?

It may not be cost effective to invest on employee benefits specifically for interns but if you already have a benefits & perks program in place it may be a good idea to include your interns on the package. Why? Because interns will potentially see you as a more attractive potential employer!

If you and your organization are using internship programs as a recruitment tool (and you should be), giving employee benefits and perks to interns can be a a great way to ensure that the best talent of the upcoming workforce sees you as a valuable employer.

Did this happen to you or your organization?

“This finding is more about employee dissatisfaction and discontent than projected turnover,” said Douglas Matthews, president of career-management agency Right Management, which conducted the poll. “Clearly, if the job market picks up a lot next year many employees are going to take advantage of it, and organizations stand to lose some of their top contributors,” Matthews said. “So this is a wake-up call to management.”

Even if dissatisfied employees do not leave an organization, they are a liability.  Dissatisfied workers tend to complain more than carry out their share of the workload.  They may be highly skilled at their trade or provide excellent customer service, but how they interact and work (or don’t) with other employees, can create an unhealthy, negative environment.  An unhealthy, negative environment ripples through an organization and affects the performance of others, which ultimately cuts the bottom line.

Internship interview questions are no different from those you would ask a candidate for a regular full-time position.

Image extracted from: Brookhaven Website

You should realize that the student might not have as robust of a resume as candidates for regular positions, so expect to see course work and extracurricular activities listed more prominently.  In addition, keep in mind when asking internship interview questions that this might be the student’s first interview so be certain to explain the process so they know what to expect prior to the interview.

Here are typical internship interview questions you could ask:

Background/General

• Tell me a little more about yourself?
• What is your major and why did you choose it?
• Do your grades reflect your true ability? Why or why not?
• What extracurricular activities are you involved in?
• What leadership roles have you had?

Intern Goals

• Why are you interested in this internship?
• How does this internship reflect your academic and career goals?
• How will this internship help you work towards these goals? What would you like to get out of this experience?
• Which of your courses, jobs, or extracurricular activities has prepared you for this internship and make you qualified?
• Would you like to receive academic credit for this experience?  If so, what are the requirements for your school?

Job Performance

• What are your greatest strengths and biggest weaknesses?
• What are your most important/proudest accomplishments?
• What type of supervisor do you prefer to work under?
• When you have been told, or discovered for yourself a problem in your job performance, what have you typically done?  Examples?
• What are some things you would like to avoid in a job? Why?
• What are some things you particularly liked about your last job or related course work?

Self-Assessment

• Do you consider yourself a self-starter? An independent worker? If so, explain.
• When you are jugging multiple things, how do you determine which projects to put on hold?
• Explain one of the following: the last major problem that you were confronted with; how you have dealt with difficult people; how you overcame an obstacle; or how you solved a problem.

Logistics

• Are you familiar with _______________ (the computer system that your company uses) and   _____________software program?
• What date would you be able to start?  What date would you have to terminate the position?
• What is your schedule of availability (What days and time are you available? How many hours a week can you work?)
• How would you handle conflicts between your school schedule and this internship?

Conclusion

• Why do you think we should hire you?
• Do you have any questions for me?