06Jun

A job interview isn’t just an opportunity to showcase your experience and skills, it’s also a great opportunity to get insight into company culture and the working style of your potential manager and future boss.

Assessing someone’s management style can be difficult, particularly during an interview, but there are a few ways to find the right environment and the right management style for you.

Psychologist Cécile Pichon wrote in a recent article, that to start this process, you must first understand the best way that you work. Do you prefer teamwork or autonomy? Competition or encouragement? Knowing what you need from a manager can help you recognize your compatibility with a particular management style.

When it comes to understanding a potential boss’s management style, Pichon suggests asking direct questions during an interview, for example:

  • What are the qualities you expect in your employees?
  • What is the onboarding and training process like?
  • How would you define your management style?
  • What makes you proud of your team?
  • What do you think is required to achieve success in this position?

From these questions, you may be able to gain some insight into your potential manager’s expectations. It’s a chance to discover what qualities are important in the members of their team. Compare these insights to your own management needs to understand if they would be the best match for you as a manager.

Remember, an interview is not only meant for a potential employer to learn more about you, it is also an opportunity for you to ask questions and understand if the role or the team is right for you. Check out the opportunities our Green Key recruiters are hiring for now on our Jobs page.

Are there questions that you ask in interviews to better understand a potential boss’s management style? Let us know on our LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter!

Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash

Business Indicators, Staffing Hires Point to an Improving Economy

After falling in the first quarter to the lowest level since 2014, staffing employment came roaring back in the second quarter that ended June 30, adding almost 200,000 new temporary and contract workers to the US economy.

The numbers from the Labor Department released July 2 bear out the trend first seen in the weekly Staffing Index produced by the American Staffing Association. The Index, which tracks weekly changes in temporary and contract employment, began declining in early March as COVID-19 cases began rising. With businesses shutting down, idling millions of workers, the Index fell to a historic low.

But with the May 3rd Index update, the first signs of improvement began to show. Slowly , and, now more rapidly as businesses reopen, the Index is trending up.

Between May and June, the Index gained almost 9 percentage points. Meanwhile, all staffing agencies, including we here at Green Key Resources, added a total of 148,900 jobs during June. For the quarter, staffing agencies added 195,800 new contract and temporary jobs.

“The economy is not out of the woods yet. But the overall numbers are certainly encouraging,” says Green Key Resources Managing Partner Andrew Chayut.

“Temp and contract positions are a leading economic indicator,” he explained. “As businesses begin growing, they first bring on temporary workers. That’s what we’re seeing and it’s definitely a positive development.”

While the recovery is fragile, tied as it is to the spread of the coronavirus and government efforts to stop it, other economic indicators are all improving.

The Employment Trends Index from the non-profit business research group The Conference Board, was up by 8.3% in June. Hiring by staffing employment agencies was one of the two strongest contributors to the ETI, which is a composite of 8 labor market indicators.

The Conference Board’s other, closely watched economic indicators, were also up, some even more strongly. CEO Confidence for the quarter increased by 10%; Consumer Confidence was up 12.2%. The Board’s most recent Leading Economic Index was up 2.8% in May. June’s results are due to be released July 23.

Photo by AbsolutVision

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