Given a choice, which one would you select? EQ or IQ?

For several years (and probably more to come), Intelligence quotient or IQ, which is a measure of one’s mental abilities, has been almost the sole determiner of one’s output at school, college and especially workplace.

Having said that, this is what most of the job posts on any job portals nowadays demand:

That’s right. All of the aforementioned skills that have been highlighted are some emotional skills that recruiters would typically want from any candidate.

Does that mean IQ is not important?

Research suggests that once a person reaches his/her normal IQ threshold, it only remains 4 to 25% important in determining success in one’s career, while EQ takes over as the main factor.

Emotional intelligence quotient, better known as EQ, can be defined as the ability of a person to understand others’ and one’s own emotions and respond to it with validity and reliability. For example, we can imagine those people at workplace, who are simply used to working under a lot of stress and a different segment of people out there who succumb to even under low stress levels  altogether.

The difference lies in the emotional intelligence of people. All individuals have separate levels of threshold, and their behavior depends a lot on their emotional intelligence. Probably it will be safe to comment that in any companies, people who possess the talked about attribute are preferred compared to others who do not.

Doubtful? We have results to back ourselves up.

Evidently, a combination of average intelligence is still preferred over Superior intelligence with low people skills.

Therefore, being a candidate, how can you enhance your people skills?

Let’s make it brief and simple:-

1. Interact with coworkers and build relationships with them
2. Try having a positive attitude at work
3. Think over any problem that seems to bother you. It’s perhaps amazing how you can easily detach yourself from an issue that has been bothering your work life, just by taking some time off and pondering over it.
4. Have an internal focus of control and try finding out your shortcomings instead of blaming the rest for mistakes.
5. Going to a trip alone helps!

Last but not the least; did you know that happy workers are productive workers?

Employment engagement has become one of the most important factors for achieving overall success for an organization. In this dynamic economic environment, business heads understand the importance of high-performing employees for success and expansion. They know highly-engaged workers bring innovative ideas to the table, increase productivity and bottom-line performance, while lowering overall costs of resource hiring & retention of an organization. If your organization lacks in employee engagement here are few tips that can help to improve.

Engaged Leaders

To drive employment engagement, leaders must first demonstrate the spirit of engagement through their actions. Top leaderships behavior at a workplace influences a company’s culture and employees immensely. Senior leaders must demonstrate highly-engaged company culture spirit by exhibiting the company’s values.

Robust Communication

Industry leaders understand the critical role of communication in creating successful employment engagement at an organization. So they plan out effective communication plan that are transparent, which built trust among employees and increases employment engagement.

Encouraging Work Culture

Research says employees tend to perform better in a motivated work environment. Leaders alone cannot keep the employees motivated for long. They must create a motivational work culture with engaged workforce where employees can motivate each other to drive at innovation and deliver best business results.

Employees Involvement

Employee engagement can be enhanced by involving employees in creating new rules and organizational decisions, by taking their opinions and feedback. Getting your employees involved in business decisions can help your organization get great business insights.

Review & Reward Employee Progress

Employees like an organization want to work in a happening workplace. And they need to know where they are heading in their career ladder from time to time. As an organization, you will need to build a level of employment engagement where your resources are rewarded for their smart efforts, which help your business perform better. Rewarding your employees through recognizing their hard work can help improve your employment engagement a lot better.

In the month of May, 2014, a very interesting survey ‘Recruitment Barriers’ was conducted by Pinhopes.com and its findings indicate common hiring barriers faced by recruiters. A total of 272 recruiters all over India have taken up the survey and shared common recruitment barriers they face while searching for right candidates. As per the survey result, listed below are the most common recruitment challenges:

–        Irrelevant candidate profile

–        Duplicate profile

–        Tedious recruitment process

–        Limited senior profiles with niche skills

–        Candidates with more than one offer at hand

Pinhopes.com India’s first video job application destination tackles most of these typical recruitment challenges through its feature rich portal.

Here is how Pinhopes tackles common hiring challenges:

–  To fulfill resource requirement, recruiters need to sift through thousands of irrelevant profiles in a huge database, to get few relevant ones. At Pinhopes, recruiters get applications directly from candidates who are actively looking for jobs. To ease the candidate search process further, our Intelligent Search Engine throws up the most relevant profiles at top listing.

–  Oftentimes hiring through the traditional HR portals leads to profile duplication. This is due to multiple recruiters from different consultancies approaching the same candidate’s profile for the same position. The solution to this is provided by Pinhopes as the candidates here apply for a job only when they are interested in the same, thereby eradicating profile duplication.

–   Unlike traditional online recruitment portals, recruiters using Pinhopes do not require to sift through hundreds of profiles to select the relevant ones, schedule an interview and decide on the venue for the interview, just to gauge whether a candidate is fit for the role. At Pinhopes, recruiters get applications directly from active candidates. Our innovative features like 5 min candidate’s video profile, also called unique self-promoting (USP) video and video interview, help recruiters easily connect with the right candidate for a job, thereby completing the entire hiring process 3x faster.

–   Senior professionals are very particular about their profile privacy. As a result they prefer a HR portal which can keep their personal information and job search activities private, along with the benefits of a traditional job portal. Pinhopes offers these senior professionals exactly what they expect from an online recruitment portal i.e. profile privacy, relevant jobs and freedom from unwanted recruiters/ promotional calls.

If your organization wants to tackle these typical online hiring challenges effectively and hire the best talent in industry then Pinhopes.com- the new-age recruitment destination, is your answer.

All jobs are important and contribute in its’ own way that help to build the society. Though there are few jobs that are universally more respected. And often these jobs are difficult and command respect for the altruistic efforts and the good effects they have on society. Here the list of five most respected jobs in the world:

Astronauts

The term ”Astronaut’ is derived from Greek words which means ‘space sailor’ and it is one of those lucrative jobs which have earned respect and awe from people around the world. These professionals are selfless public servants who work as explorers in highly risky conditions to benefit the human society. Astronauts are those intelligent, highly skilled and accomplished individuals who manage to deal with and solve difficult problems in harsh conditions (space).

Doctors

Doctors have been one of the most sought after professions since ages. Majority of parents want their children to be in the prestigious medical profession. Whether consider it in terms of social standing or monetary compensation, ‘Doctors’ are at the top. They are talented and brilliant professionals who work relentlessly to keep people healthy and alive. There are even more critical sub-categories such as heart and brain surgeons who are often responsible for a person’s life or death.

Pilots

Being a Pilot is amazing and comes with huge responsibilities at the same time. Imagine your smooth and comfortable air travel from one country to another, where you enjoy sipping a warm cup of coffee over 1000 feet above the ground. While your air travel was made comfortable, Pilots on the other hand are always at a constant threat of something going wrong which can be fatal. They work under constant stressful conditions to help you travel long distance within hours safely. To be a successful pilot, an individual needs patience, a calm demeanor along with intelligence.

Judge

One of the most respected jobs in any part of the world is that of a Judge. It is the Judge who interprets the law, accesses evidences and controls the entire proceedings in a courtroom. To be a Judge, the most critical criteria are the ability to make impartial judgment in the pursuit of truth. Decisions that a judge makes have the ability to forge a new path for the society and change the course of history.

Military

Military personnel are the backbone of a country. No nation can have a peaceful, safe, controlled law and order situation without the help of military personnel. The military profession is beset with many challenges – operational, medical, ethical and bureaucratic. Willing to work as a military personnel demands courage, sound decision making ability, physical fitness and great intelligence.

Running an organization successfully depends a lot on how happy and connected your employees are with your organization. Motivating your employees may look like a challenge at first but it is simple. To make your company a success, you need to make your employees feel spirited to come to work every day. Here are few tips that can help motivate your employees:

Great work environment

Try and create a great work environment that is fun, interesting, open, trusting and encourages a lot of innovative ideas and discussions among your employees.

Acknowledge good work in public

Acknowledge your employees’ good work or any major achievement in public e.g. monthly/quarterly meetings or staff meetings. This gives employees the feeling of being recognized for their hard work and motivates others in the team, to put in more efforts.

Say ‘Thank You’

When one of your employees does great work recognize their work by saying ‘Thank You’. Recognizing your employees’ hard work timely and with sincerity motivate employees morale in the workplace.

Involve employees

Make your employees, a part of decision making process e.g. when introducing a new employee related HR rules or ask for project related inputs. These help employees get involved and feel more connected with your organization.

Employee development program

Giving your employees the opportunity to learn new skills through training programs is a great way to help them climb up the corporate ladder. When your organization opens the door of learning that helps employees build their skill sets and increase their opportunities, they become far more loyal to your organization.

Communicate clearly

Communicating clearly with your employees is the key to build cohesion and long-term relationships in your organization. When you assign a task, make sure you communicate clearly what exactly you expect from your employee. Maintaining an open-door policy help employees communicate frankly with you. When employees are comfortable communicating with you, they tend to work better.

Reward your employees

Recognize your employees’ hard work with rewards in the form of small personalized gifts e.g. mug with the employee’s name and a short message, a bouquet with a personal note etc. When you recognize your employees’ hard work you inspire them and others to work better.

The journey from college to office environment is not easy for fresh graduates. Every year Indian colleges and universities churns out millions of graduates who joins the job market. To stand out from the crowd as a potential employee, it is desirable to pep up your skills, aptitudes and attributes in the right way to land your dream job. Here are a few tips that can help you to get job ready:

Develop soft skills

When employers are looking to add freshers in their organizations they generally prefer candidates with better soft skills. Because they know technical skills can be taught and excelled through experience but soft skills on the contrary are tied to an individual’s personality which takes longer time to learn and inculcate. Now you must be wondering what exactly are soft skills? Soft skills are more of personal attributes that describes a person’s ability to interact with people, communicate thoughts & ideas clearly, people skills, ability to stay calm and positive even in difficult situations. Evaluate yourself in the soft skills area by putting yourself in situations where you need to communicate and interact with others effectively on important topics or any project related task, to get things done or put a message across well.

Be present at different popular platforms

Social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, among others are great way to find a suitable job. But there are other platforms and events such as job boards, career fairs, your professional and personal networks which can be utilized to land a job.

Apply for jobs you would love

When you choose to apply for a job always pick a field or domain which you are truly interested in. Often interviewers are turned off by lack of seriousness on the part of the candidates about the job profile or company. When you are passionate about something it shows in the interview and companies are looking for people who are passionate and willing to go that extra mile, to add more value to the role.

Think out of the box

If given a choice, companies generally choose candidates who think outside the box to solve problems or tasks at hand. Job seekers with entrepreneurial skills, excellent interpersonal skills and great problem-solving qualities weigh higher in comparison to other candidates in an interview.

Highlight your internship experience

Even though you are new to the job market do your best to highlight your bits of experience as an intern at different organizations. And if you don’t have any internship under your name then showcase your unique abilities e.g. grasping new concepts quickly, technology savvy, promoting a cause at social media channels etc. can help you get noticed by employers and increase your chances of hiring immensely.

Prepare for your interview

Attending an interview doesn’t guarantee you a job. It is important that you prepare well ahead of the interview to be able to hold intelligent discussions with the interviewer. Do your homework by visiting the company website, learning about its products/services and its involvement in social causes to know about the company.

Hiring the right employee is the key to business success. Organizations spend huge amount of time in looking, connecting and bringing on-board the right kind of talent. Losing and replacing an existing employee may cost companies both time and money. It is better that you identify these few early warning signs of an employee planning to quit.

Lack of enthusiasm

Soon to become ex-employees stop suggesting innovative ideas and make constructive contributions toward any projects. They become disinterested about any new project or work improvement plans.

Non-participatory stance

Employees who are about to quit often become less interested in what is happening around him at workplace. If he takes non-participatory stance in team activities, short and long-term team improvement plans, it’s a warning sign that he is planning to quit.

Frequent leaves

Job hunting requires going for interviews. If an employee starts frequently staying away from work on personal account or sickness, then this could be another important sign that he is looking to exit.

Dressing well

Employees generally dress well at workplace but if you notice a marked shift in their dressing style. This can be another huge indication that the employee is trying to impress new bosses.

Stopped complaining

When a team member who was always complaining about one or the other thing e.g. salary, marketing strategies etc. suddenly stops complaining, be prepared to take the upcoming news of his plan to quit.

Always on the phone

Scheduling or discussion for an interview requires some private space and if an employee starts walking out of the workstation to attend phone calls. Chances are that the employee is looking out for a job.

Staying aware of early warning signs of employees about to quit, helps managers to address retention issues or start looking for a replacement. If you notice any five of the above traits in your current employees, you can have a frank discussion to address their concerns at work.

An interview can be your game-changing opportunity where you can sell yourself effectively to hiring managers and land your dream job. But interviews are nerve-racking experiences even for experienced candidates. And if you are on your way looking out for a new position, it’s important that you avoid common interview mistakes that job seekers often commit:

Inappropriate attire

Your dressing sense says a lot about your personality. And when you go for an interview, it is imperative that you look polished and professional. Formal attire suits best for an occasion like interview – it gives you a cool and collected look.

Not doing research on the company

When you go for an interview without doing proper research on the company, you lose the chance to have a well-informed discussion with the interviewer. Knowing your potential employer’s domain, products and services, will help you to get better understanding of the company and the job role.

Unprepared answers & questions

No two job interviews are the same but you must prepare yourself for few most frequently asked questions like ‘Tell me something about yourself?’ ‘What are your strengths and weakness?’, ‘Why should we hire you?’ and more. Often candidates babble while answering these common questions. Answering to the interviewer’s questions is not enough, you should also ask few important questions about the company e.g. market position, company culture and management style. This shows your level of interest in the company.

Lying

Hiring managers are experts in understanding human behaviors and they are most likely to catch you, if you are lying about something. In an interview, if you happen to drift to a topic which you are clueless about, it’s always better to acknowledge your lack of knowledge rather than babbling something incorrect. Remember, covering anything with lie will not help you in the long run.

Saying too much/little

Saying too much or too little can have negative impact on your interview. If you give too many details, the interviewer may lose the string of discussion and interest. On the other hand, if you give brief information, he may become suspicious that you are hiding something.

Asking about wages too early

Well, wages is one of the few important factors that led job seekers search for a new position. However, it doesn’t mean that you should be asking about salary when the time isn’t right. Bring up your salary concerns only when the interviewer asks you about your expected wages.

Failing to listen to the interviewer

Succeeding in an interview depends a lot on your ability to listen, understand and respond appropriately to what the interviewer is saying. If you are too busy forming your responses then you may miss out critical information given by the interviewer, regarding the opening or company.

Landing to the next role is not always easy. Follow the above tips and practice your interview in advance, you will definitely increase your chances of landing your next job sooner than you thought of.

In this fiercely competitive business environment you need proactive employees who can boost your organization’s performance and productivity. And this criterion is even more critical when you are to hire a candidate for a managerial role. Here are few essential skills to look for while hiring a managerial candidate:

Communication

Effective communication is one of the key deciding factors for many companies while hiring a manager. A team’s performance & success depends on how well a manager put across important business messages and information to concerned parties. When the line of communication is clear, concise and straightforward, it saves from creating roadblocks within a team and worst with clients. Hiring a manager who conveys his thoughts effectively across team & clients (both in oral and written form), increase chances of a team to be successful.

Critical Thinking

Managers who will be placed in a change creating position must be critical thinkers. Why? Because decision making in today’s world of conflicting ideas & opinions, uncertainties and tremendous pressures need managers who thinks clearly to face challenges efficiently. Managers who are good at critical thinking often identify risks, learn to address the right problems and make better decisions.

Management

Management plays a critical role in the achievement of a company’s goals which requires planning, identifying obstacles, strategies to overcome the problems and utilizing the abilities of each team member to bring the best result. Another important role of a manager is to smoothly manage, bond and inspire his team members, leaving no room for misunderstanding.

Problem Solver

It is one of the key skills that can make a much difference in terms of team/organization performance. Problem solving is a must-have skill to look for while hiring a manager. It is common scenario at work when every employee needs to solve internal or external work related issues. And a manager needs to be excellent at solving problems that he and his faces. If you fail to hire a good problem solver as a manager your business processes or development will stay stagnant instead of moving ahead.

Leadership

A magnetic manager who has impeccable leadership skills has the power to influence, inspire, and take his team in the right direction strategically, to deliver best results. And it is this skill in a manager that can transform a business performance of his team by persuading his sub-ordinates willingly work, as per planned strategies.

Choosing a career is easy but to be sure of its existence in future is pretty difficult. If you look decades back from now, you must have noticed a number of careers that existed but have become obsolete now. However, there are certain careers that are likely to exist in coming years regardless of economic situation or changing business requirements. If you are cautious and would like to play safe on the career front, choose a path that has a higher chance of being around in future. Here are few evergreen career options for you:

Healthcare

No matter where you live, what you eat and follow, you will need healthcare services. With increasing environmental pollution, a number of new and critical diseases have come into existence. At present, the doctor and patients ratio is 1:1,700 which will definitely be higher in future. Chances are there will be no shortage of jobs in this sector. These are few of the jobs in the healthcare sector: doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians, nutritionists, among others.

Education

Whether you are a college student, a professional or even an expert in any field, you will need to continue learning every day. Gathering knowledge is a life-long process, and it doesn’t have an end point. With changing times, modes of educational institutions have evolved and became popular e.g. online universities, real-time classes etc. And over the years, need for specialized education has increased. Specialized education helps students to land a job faster. Career in the educational field is one of the most demanded careers that have never ceased to exist and flourish. If you choose your career in the educational field, you could be a teacher, professor, consultant, university instructor, video lecturer etc.

Law Enforcement

With growing security threats from extremists, criminals and anti-social groups, people from all walks of life need protection. Every nation, city, town, village and places of importance, requires security personnel to maintain law and order. Jobs under the law enforcement sector include – police, surveillance officer, security officer, army etc.

Food Industry

We need food to stay alive and in no period in the history of mankind could this industry become a thing of the past. Whatever maybe the economic situation of a nation, this industry is not likely to be shut down. Jobs in this industry include chefs, waiters, butlers etc.

Advertising, Marketing & Sales

Advertising, Marketing & Sales plays a critical role in the success of any business. And as long as businesses exist, the requirement for such services will always be there. If you happen to be in any of these sectors, you are less likely to be without work even in the future.

Computer

Computers are an indispensable part of any organization. One cannot imagine of running an organization without a computer. Almost all the works are now done in computers hence there will be huge opportunities in future for computer professionals such as administrator, networking, operator and IT security analyst.

It’s true that no one can predict what would be trending careers in future. But if you want to remain sure of your career even in the coming years, you could opt for any of the suggested above.