Enjoy the Spring 2013 - the Refreshing Colors, Activities with Friends, Events and Celebrations

Again, It is Spring Time My Friends ~

On Sunday, March 10, Daylight Saving Time  

"Time to move forward your clock to reflect the correct time" 
(Applicable only in US States that observe DST)

Spring Season is always the refreshing time after the long drawn coldness of the winter breezes, rains and gloomy skies. It is the time when the spring flowers in your gardens and pots will grow and bloom. 

Spring is also the time when there are many changes around you, time to celebrate and enjoy the climate that nature brings. 

Here are the Top Ten Spring Chores that may be on your list. Have fun and be safe always. 

1. Time of de-cluttering unwanted items from your drawers and cabinets 

2. Time to re-organize your closets, hide the Winter outfits and hang your Spring collection ward drove

3. Time to re-grow your gardens of vegetables, herbs and flowers

4. Many household chores and renovations are underway

5. Many will pack their belongings or homes, and move to another city, state or country

6.  It's also time to meet your new neighbors, who moved from far other places 

7. Take time to enjoy the beautiful weather among friends, new neighbors and family

8. It is also the time to enjoy Spring vacations  

9. Time for your Spring neighborhood Yard Sales (where applicable)

10. Time to celebrate important events that normally taking place during the season. New celebrations will be held as well. 

The beautiful California's colorful flowers are blooming everywhere in your neighborhoods and flower farms... butterflies, bees and birds enjoy them alike. 

When you meet with friends and acquaintances, do not forget to learn something new and different. In that way, you always have something to think about and share to others when the chance will come. 

Spring Season is another moment that will bring us new opportunities in life. 

Enjoy and be productive always. 

US Immigrant Fee Took Effect on February 1, 2012

Effective February 1, 2013, the USCIS implemented that all immigrant candidates who will be receiving 'Immigrant Visa Package' from a U.S. consulate or embassy abroad will be required to pay the new Immigrant Fee of $165.00 USD.

In addition, applicants will also pay applicable Department of State (DOS) application fee.

USCIS noted that the new fees will be necessary to cover the costs of producing and delivering US Resident Cards.

Exemption from paying the fee:

Children who enter the United States under the Orphan or Hague adoption programs, Iraqi and Afghan special immigrants, returning residents (SB-1s), and those issued K visas  are the only immigrant visa cases exempt from paying the new fee. 

Payments of the required fees must be made through the USCIS Pay Your Immigrant Fee Online.

Please click on the link to read the full Final Rule on this matter.

Please click on the link to read the full text of the Information on Effectivity of the Immigrant Fee 

For additional information about USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) please visit http://www.uscis.gov 

Workforce: Their Invaluable Talents and Competencies

People possess talents that are either innate and acquired. These talents are combined with behaviours, attitude and intelligence that will illustrate uniqueness of one's personality. And these are readily adaptable into any type of setting or environment.

©2012 JNTConsulting

Every individual member of a workforce offers a set of skills that cannot be found true from another. The DNA of each person is the differentiator in working style, idea processing, navigating relationships, behaviors, manners, attitudes, aptitude, technical trade and communication competencies. 

Across the nation, organizations are struggling in hiring the best people to become a member of their workforce and then retain them in a long term. However, one of the most predictive challenges of organizations is the long term dedication and loyalty of workforce. These is because of one basic reason, organizations of today are not creating strategic career paths, there are no tangible mentoring for professional development of promising leaders, opportunities for advancement for younger one's are limited due to external forces that are brought into the organization, safety net of environment have disappeared, functinal responsibilities are no longer fulfilling and majority are driven mechanically instead of using intelligible decisions of people and their skills to maneuver growth, efficiency and advancement.

Comments:

We like to hear about your insights. You can email your comments to: info@jntconsulting.com or share us your comments towards the end of this article.

Sunday - November 4th - Day Light Saving Time Ends

The Daylight Saving Time will end this Sunday.  

In order not to be late with your appointment on the following Monday, please take time to re-set your watches and clocks. 

credits: AP

This is a simple reminder to all our global friends especially if you are living or doing business in an area where there are few hours differences from your own location.

In the United States, the only state that do not change its time is the State of Arizona. 

Do you ever collect clocks? 

As always, you are welcome to share us your comments and they will be appreciated. 

Being Relevant with Hiring Practices will diminish Unemployment

This article is being re-printed from its original publication date because its content is very relevant to the current challenges of job seekers of today. 

What matters today:
Two years later since this article was written, its content is still very relevant to today's challenges. Job seekers are faced with various discriminating business practices of screeners, interviewers and hiring representative of organizations. All players including hiring manager, recruiter and the candidate must be practical and abreast with the realities. Face the facts that will drive the acquisition of high caliber talent. It is essential to determine the value of the candidate immediately at the very beginning. 

Identify their value-add to your current organizational needs. Do Not depend on the data that is produced by your Applicant Tracking Systems. Keep your staffing indicators ahead of the game in regards to long term human capital investments and returns. Set appropriate expectations and approach it with competence and not wait for the moment of negotiation that will delay the start date. 

Being competitive in the global economy is important. What matters in the global economy is the combination of strategic mindset, cross cultural and diverse experience including professional competencies of individuals. The assembly line mentality should be only utilized in the manufacturing environment unless you intend of treating your workforce as objects. Today, it is necessary to increase growth and advancement of the organization by employing critically strategic thinkers and competent professionals with common sense . 

Strategic Competencies in recruiting and hiring:
At the very start when the Job Requisition is being executed, there must be an identified timeline in hiring the talent. Demonstrate consultative competence in consolidating all details of requirements. Discuss with the Hiring Manager the actual job functions and expected end results. Liaise the same with HR Manager or HR Business Partner, including salary range, benefits, hiring incentives, technical skills and professional competencies of the candidate at-large. 

The compensation package that will afford the position is necessary. It is a pro-active practice to obtain current industry compensation range for the position similar to what you are hiring. Depending on two years or older data will provide you a wrong decision. To be strategic, one must be knowledgeable about current practices. Guide hiring managers and human resources personnel who are not knowlegeable about current trends that facilitate effective hiring is a form of investment.

Hiring Managers must understand that experience require reasonable and comensurate compensation. Be shameful to underpay an experienced professional. Staffing professionals need to demonstrate professional responsibility that will connect the needs of the Job and the strenghts of the candidate. There should be a realistic and functional description of responsibilities and requirements that will determine the expected type of individual to be hired. Determine what matters. The essential skills to achieve the result of the function and not 'requiring qualifications that are not relevant to the job', be realistic! Do not copy from the internet a job description which you think will be applicable to the job you are hiring but the actual function is not relevant to the position. Seek guidance from a professional consultant if you do not posses the competencies of developing actual Job Description for your position. 

Plan ahead about candidate's availability for interviews whether via video-cam, telephone or onsite, brief and debrief candidates prior and post interviews, family matters that might affect the hiring such are relocation or may be immigration, time frame to begin work, and most importantly the candidate's current application activities. What are the current objectives and needs of the candidate? Beware of the patterns and trends of the personal application activities. One common error of inexperienced recruiter is not pre-closing and sustaining the high level of interest of the candidate to the job.

Given the conditions of the economy, the hiring team must be mindful that candidates are actively looking for the best employment opportunity. Many have been out of job from few up to many months. Be sensible with compensation offer, avoid underpaying your human capital. Invest on them to retain their quality of service and loyalty. Employees will not move to a competitor if employer values their competencies and abilities. Implement active hiring technique when a candidate who possess the competencies to the Job Requisition is found. 

As a professional hiring practitioner, interview candidates at par. Discuss their competencies and capabilities. Learn their background and stimulate effective conversations to understand their strenghts and what they can do for the advancement of the organization. Avoid tactical activities like reading a resume alone. Be mindful, that resume is only a preview of the candidate's qualification. It does not illustrate concretely the complete expertise, competencies and qualification of the candidate. Conducting a consultative interviewing with the candidate will leverage your ability to decide and recommend whether the candidate is right for the job or better fit for another business unit within your organization. That is being strategic in regards to candidate screening and managing your hiring manager's expectations.

Professionals who think outside the box and strategically hiring the top talent and right candidate for any position are always spending time with candidates. Investing time in learning one's qualification, experience and competencies will provide better results and return of investment instead of wasting time in ticking your checklist whether or not the candidate possess the 'c++, web 2.0, MS Word knowledge or project skills'.

Observations about challenges of candidates on current hiring practices?
There is a complex irony about facts of unemployment and available jobs. Observing at job boards, job aggregators and corporate job webpages and every other sources of employment - there are many positions to be filled.

However, based on research and actual conversations with almost 1,000 candidates, 90 percent of candidates said - they applied to hundreds of positions in the last six months or longer but never heard of any call from any of these companies that were advertising opened positions. Approximately 2 percent confirmed, they had an interview but did not get an update. They struggled following up on results but the representative of the company they interviewed with did not return their calls. 8 percent received an email that they did not qualify. Majority confirmed receipt of the traditional and automatic reply sent by an applicant tracking system such as this; 

"Thank you for applying for the xyz position, requisition number cx000123. We will review your application to match with the position requirements. We encourage you to continue to visit our jobs web site at www.xyzjobs.com to apply for other positions that may interest you. Also, don't forget to register for "Job Agent" to receive notifications for xyz opportunities that match your interests. We wish you success in your efforts to identify employment opportunities." 

Doubts arise whether or not these advertised jobs were for real or just a recruiting technique to gain or attract resumes for future use? 

Today, many companies have integrated in their human resources department an applicant tracking system that was meant to be a tool which capture all applicants to the job that is being recruited against - the resume database per se. The same tool was meant to support the reporting and compliance procedure of the staffing hr department. The HR personnel of many companies were convinced that making this tool as the only absolute portal to all candidates who will apply for any position, is the best practice. 

The intent of this endeavor was purposeful. However its current functional role does not resonate a good practice of how talent acquisition should be. It became a gate keeper. At some extent, the applicant tracking system has become a shield of the recruiter from speaking with candidates directly. To many job seekers, it became a detriment to their advantage as a qualified candidate for a position. It also opened possibilities of risks on personal indentifiable information that can be a subject to identify theft. 

The integrated applicant tracking system is prevalent in many websites of corporations or a job board. Some websites which integrated the applicant tracking system even require sensitive information such as "social security number". And this field is not optional. Where was the HR Manager when this system was integrated into their website? Is your organization keeping up with the best practices in the Human Resources Management?

Be Relevant, Sensible and Strategic:
In order to become relevant, sensible and strategic, the entire hiring team must be reflective about the valued hiring practices towards the human capital assets of the organization. Coping up with current practices that are in line with current state and federal regulations must be an absolute practice. Human Capital is about people. Be people oriented always.

Tools (Applicant Tracking Systems) are aids to do the job in compiling piles of resumes in a more efficient way and they are not a substitute of a human being who will negotiate with a fellow human being.  Both hiring representative and candidate must discuss the areas of responsibilities and capabilities in order to find the right individual who can execute / learn the expected function at the shortest possible time. This is why and how people work humanely and with respect to one another.  Not to be discriminated by an algorithmic search created by a single track of mind that eventually eliminate people with great background, skills, and qualifications. It is a loss of the hiring investments of organization that was facilitated by the poor business practice of a recruiter, hiring manager and Human Resources.

Suzanne Lucas, of RealEvilHRLady says; "Remember, you can train any reasonably intelligent person on the "how" part of the job. But organizations need people who are capable more than that. And finding that means you need to step away from the computer".

For any relevant question about this article please email to: info@jntconsulting.com or call (650) 241-3207.# # #

Source Reference Credits:

1 JNTC Articles 

2 RealEvilHRLady

Business English with Conversational Flair - A Necessity in Global Organizations

Most recently, experienced professionals in Linguistics, Global Business and Cross-Culture arena were finding that there is growing gap regarding English proficiency particularly with limited Conversational Business English competency.

Regardless of the profession, white collar or blue collar job, temporary or permanent status - English has become a burden among workers and employers. This was brought along by globalization of organizations and workforce migration across cultures.

Researches show that there is a growing gap of this deficiency, particularly among global workforce demonstrating weaknesses in conversational / business English language with approximate range of 58% to 71%. Surveyed organizations with internationally based workforce in the fields acknowledged that the handicap is on Business English Skills to support the demand and communication requirements of their jobs.

Business and Conversational English language competencies and proficiencies are required to those who like to work in English-speaking countries, they will learn to speak English within the business premise.

Among the workforce of multi-national organizations from other countries, who migrated to the United States, they face many challenges when articulating their ideas with their co-workers. They will need to increase proficiency level in their Conversational Business English.

For the employees who are English speakers, they also face many challenges when it comes to writing and articulating their ideas. They get confused on many linguistical features of the English language. This is because they did not learn the correct usage of linguistic features when growing up. Today, when engaged in speaking and or writing reports for management or customer's consumption they often commit mistakes like the non-native English speakers.

Do I like to acquire or increase my Conversational Business English Proficiency?

It is a matter of personal decision making. Prioritizing your business preferences for advancement or selecting to become a misfit at workplace and feel inadequate professionally.

There are many choices available when it comes to learning environments. Comes along with those choices are the costs associated to poor versus quality results. With the intent to acquiring the necessary skills and proficiency in Conversational Business English, there are limited options with quality and results.

Ideas N Conversations is one that is unique and is based in the Silicon Valley (San Jose, California). Their techniques and professional approaches in coaching and training are customized by their experienced Coach / Trainer. Lessons are matched with the assessed weaknesses of the individual, personalized that will provide significant improved learning adaptable for immediate use at the workplace. Their learning philosophy and business practices are far and beyond compared to the usual practices of the traditional adults language learning centers. Results and Return On Investments are their priority for their clients. Take advantage of their Summer Promotions!

Candidates: Must Seek Hidden Culture when Interviewing with Potential Employers

Have you been interviewing with various representatives of a potential employer? It is a silly question, right?  But here is what I can share with you to improve your chances.

Oftentimes, candidates participate passively in these screening processes; engage themselves by answering questions through the stages of interviews with the hope of getting hired. During each stage, it was the employer’s representative who was driving that scene; asking tactical questions about you as a candidate, exploring your social media behavior and practices. They spend only few minutes about what they are offering you and how can you help them.

At the very end of the time, one will ask “Do you have any question(s) for us?” Depending on your mood, or how you felt from the previous 20 minutes or so, you will take time to inquire. Sometimes, you have forgotten about turning the table on your favor, because you were overwhelmed with the presence of the so called ‘interviewing team’ who will be working with you, should you be hired.

As candidate for a specific position, you know your abilities. Be confident that you bring your technical skills and professional competencies to the employer’s business. When given that chance, you will take advantage of the situation by asking or probing subtle questions that will disclose the hidden culture of the organization. Knowing what is outside the interviewing room is the most crucial piece of information for making your personal or professional decision to join the organization. You have the right to inquire in equal footing to their right of screening you.

Learning about your prospect is very important:

Take your time to inquire and understand about them in addition to your prior research of their background before interviewing. Facts speak loud to you. Watch for the demonstrated interviewing etiquette, when they say "we only have few minutes left" - that says a lot about them, this is a red flag.

The following is a set of magic probing inquiries that will set you apart from other candidates while seeking important pieces of information. You can either ask these questions during phone or face-to-face interviews.

1. Can you illustrate your expectations of me in the first sixty days of employment?
2. Can you describe to me the types of workforce that work in your organization?
3. Can you share me your insights about the organization’s prospects in the next five years?
4. How do you see my competencies to complement your current team members?
5. When will you plan to close this position, and how many people have you been interviewing? 

With these five inquisitive questions you will be able to elicit a better perspective and landscape of this prospective employer. When doing this, however, you need to be very smart by listening actively on what they say. There are times, that one or two among the representatives will spill the beans, and some are very cautious on what they say. Watch for symptoms of being cautious – then start further investigations after leaving the premises.

Candidates can to turn the table for their advantage:
For anyone who is looking for a job, and would like to screen out those organizations that do not demonstrate good recruitment and hiring practices.  Our research illustrated the following as common bad practices; Requested an updated resume but never got any follow up from the Requester. Do not send any acknowledgement, nor communicate back with candidates. Do not send a feedback of the status of the application. They send a reply to candidates after 3 months from date of application. Conducted an interview either by phone or in person, but did not send any updates beyond ten days. All of these bad practices within the recruitment and staffing are giving a bad name to the industry where real professionals do their work at best. 

What will candidate do? Create a spreadsheet of all organizations that you have applied. Create a column that says "With Bad Practice". Any organization that you will encounter with those practice, tab them in your spreadsheet. And do not apply to them.

Consider only those with good business practices:
Only apply to organization that will demonstrate Good Business Practice that are reflective during their recruitment and hiring process.  These good practices are opposite activities of the bad practices identified above.  There are also pro-active behaviors of organization's representative such as following up with their candidates and providing them updates regularly until the time the position is closed.

As always, we like to hear from your experiences. You can either fill the space below or send us an email at: info@jntconsulting.com

Relative Links of References:

1. Questionable Hiring Practices 

2. Opportunities and Potentials - Facing its Challenges

3. Hiring the Right Person is the Key

4. Do you exploit or love poor productivity?

5. Competencies and Proficiency Make You Successful

6.  Interviewing Biases 

7.  Etiquette's of Interviewing Panel

English Proficiency is a Global Business Competency

Today, we thought of reinforcing a previously published article to help you with a personal guide on how you gauge yourself in your speaking abilities. When you work in an English speaking country and your mother tongue is not English, there are times that challenges in speaking occurs.

We are giving you a mock up list of descriptions that may be relevant to your own personal experience and proficiency. Try it out, and then let us know how you fair.

Procedure:

Please choose all applicable items below that will describe your present abilities when you are speaking in English with another individual at any given setting such as; at home, at a party, among friends, applying to a job, on the telephone, in the store buying something, at a doctor’s office or at any location where you need English as the means to share your idea.

	1	I can only say the words I learned from my language classes through memorization and grammar
	2	I struggle to find the right word or phrase to say
	3	I cannot explain myself when asked to describe. Unless the other person will ask me something that is answered only with yes or no
	4	I only ask simple questions but cannot discuss more to inquire about the details
	5	I can ask and answer simple questions that are only familiar to me
	6	I can talk about usual activities that I was trained for. I can engage with simple conversations but limited to discuss more information that may be relative to activities. I cannot do a progressive conversation
	7	I can share certain degree of fluency during conversations with native speakers on familiar topics, express and support my ideas but will not engage with topics that are broad and need more knowledge because I don’t have all the words and expressions to support my views
	8	I can express myself fluently without searching for informal expressions during basic conversations but don’t have control on topics within the business environment. I lack technical terms to engage with better conversations professionally
	9	I can use the language somewhat effectively for informal social and professional purposes. I can share my ideas and opinions with confidence but limited with formal expressions and cannot handle specific topics that require additional situations like entertainments, jobs, articles with specific focus, sharing more in depth knowledge on certain topics

To read the complete article, please visit "How can I tell that I need .... "

Perspectives:
Globally, English is the understood preferred language of major businesses enterprises, business men or women and their families.

Language competencies and proficiencies are equally essential to those who find opportunities within English speaking countries, they will learn to speak English the best they can.

Among the workforce of multi-national organizations, who migrated to the United States, they face many challenges when articulating their ideas with their co-workers. They learn to polish their conversational English.

For the employees who are English speakers (their mother tongue is English), they also face many challenges when it comes to writing and articulating their ideas. They get confused on many grammatical features of the English language. This is because they did not learn the correctness of the linguistic features when growing up. Today, when engaged in speaking and or writing reports for management consumption they often commit mistakes like the non-native English speakers.

Managing Expatriates During Crises

Recently,  an article on Disaster Plan was published based on recent Tsunami and 9.0 earthquake that shook Japan. It provided a list of reminders for everyone who is living in a zone that has a prevalent catastrophic activity like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis etc. 


Evacuation of Expatriates in Critical Zones


Expatriates living in different countries are not exempted in this area.  While an expat is living in a foreign country, it was a part of his/her orientation about learning the nuances of living in the new home country.  The nuances are not only related to culture, business practices, schooling for children, language barriers, and way of life and lifestyles.  It also cover learning about current local rules, regulations and laws that might affect your temporary living in that particular country.


Disaster Plan is also a part of an Expatriate Program Management. Organizations with competent Human Capital Program Managers should have this plan incorporated in their Mobility Program.  However, the most important of that equation is the how and logistics of exit.  It is a a very challenging activity when an expat will take an exit at the soonest in a country that is in turmoil. Have you thought of that logistics when you were creating your program or the least your policy?


Recently, numerous British expats living in Bahrain were surprised with the impact of a current local law that will not allow those individuals to leave the kingdom if they have outstanding debts with banks and private firms regardless of the situation of the country. 


Solutions Planning and Management

The Human Capital Manager who is in-charge in the deployment of Expats in any country must take every efforts in putting together important pieces of Evacuation Plan. One part of that plan is providing adequate knowledge, guidance and training to their expatriates.  The same dedication is expected on the part of the Expat so that they know when and how to exit when such situation present itself.


On the case of Bahrain, expats have down-played the reality of having debt while they are in a temporary living status in this kingdom. Are they aware on the existence of the law? or not? 


Perspectives:
In any situation and regardless of location of expatriate living. One must take responsibility in understanding what are the things that are convenient and advantageous while living as an expat.  But one must not ignore the force of a local law that will prohibit their exit from such country when there is a turmoil or similar event that will take place. 


The Evacuation Plan must illustrate actionable logistics that employees can execute immediately from their current location.  Human Capital Management must be the Lead at the very beginning of planning by informing their expat employees on the limitations and prohibitions including privileges of certain laws at specific countries.


Consequence of Situations:
At the event that there is a turmoil at host country of the expat, and they cannot exit due to certain obligations such as debt in Bahrain that is enforced by local laws. How can an employer assist the expat? At what extent that the employer will play a role even though certain obligations are incurred by personal activities? It's a tough decision but someone will have to bite a bullet in order to evacuate expats from danger zones. 


Share us your thoughts and ideas by sending your email to: info@jntconsulting.com or write your comments at the comments section below. 


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USCIS - Relief for Japan, Other Nationals from the Pacific Stranded due to Earthquake & Tsunami

Today, March 11, 2011, the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) released an Advisory intended for the Japanese and other Nationals from the Pacific Region whose travels were affected by the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan last March 10th 2011. (Link Source: guardian.co.uk)

clip by Youtube

clip by youtube

The Advisory details is seen below:

Subject: Relief for Japan and Other Nationals from the Pacific Stranded due to the Earthquakes and Tsunami

This advisory is for Japanese and other foreign nationals from the Pacific stranded in the United States due to the earthquakes and tsunami devastation in the Pacific.  If you have exceeded or are about to exceed your authorized stay in the U.S. you may be permitted up to an additional 30 days to depart.
Visitors traveling under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP):

• If you are at an airport, contact the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office at the airport. 
• All others, please visit the local U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office.

 Visitors traveling under a nonimmigrant visa:

• Visit the local U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office.  
• Bring your passport, evidence that you are stranded (such as an itinerary for the cancelled flight), and your I-94 departure record.

For additional immigration relief options, please visit the Special Situation page.

How can you help the Japanese victims of the Earthquake and Tsunami?

The American Red Cross has mobilized its efforts in helping Japanese who were affected with the Earthquake and Tsunami.  Ninety one per cent of your donation will go directly to the victims. You have the choice in selecting your favorite charity but choose the ones who will give the most of your  donations.

Perspectives:
1. It would be necessary to contact the nearest USCIS Field Office and discuss your situation. In that way, you can benefit with this Advisory. There is no better way than taking necessary steps in complying with regulations.

JNT Consulting wishes the best to everyone who were affected to this Catastrophe.
"The impact of this Tsunami which begun in Japan is devastating and 'Our Thoughts' to those who perished, and the people who were and will be affected by its expanding impact by the coastal areas of other countries."




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Reference Source Credit:

http://www.redcross.org/