1. Screen the Candidates
- Has the application form been completely filled out?
- Have the minimum requirements been met?
- Does the person have some out of the ordinary experience?
- Are there any issues with the dates of employment or education?
- Was the salary progression and promotional history analyzed?
- Is the presentation of the résumé neat and orderly?
- Did you take notes on anything that you needed to talk about?


2. Determine the Number of Candidates
- Did you avoid setting arbitrary numbers of candidates to interview?

3. Decide Upon the Length of the Interview
- Have you determined what needs to be accomplished in the interview?
- Has the interview been forced to fit an arbitrary schedule?
- Is there enough time to evaluate the candidate?

4. Set the Interview Date
- Is there enough time for the applications to be returned and for schedules to be set up?
- Is there some flexibility in the schedule?

5. Create a Positive Image
- Has the interview created a positive image in the minds of the candidates, panelists and staff?

6. Create the Proper Physical Setting
- Is the room well-lit, attractive and neat?
- Is the spacing adequate for leg room and personal space?
- Is the furniture well-spaced?
- Is the room confidential?
- Can persons with disabilities move around the room easily?

7. Decide on Taping the Interview
- Does the organization have a policy on taping?
- Do you feel comfortable taping?

8. Notify the Applicants
- Did a letter or phone call or e-mail go to all candidates to inform them of their status?
- Was all of the logistical information given to the candidates who were screened in?
- Were the candidates who were screened out informed in a timely and courteous fashion?

9. Confirm the Interview the Day Before
- Were all the candidates called to confirm the interview?

10. Don’t Promise the Job Ahead of Time
- Do you want to preserve the integrity of the hiring process?
- Do you want to maintain a reputation for being fair?

11. Set the Interview Properly
- Did you do a last check on the interview room?
- Are all the hospitality items prepared?
- Are the tools of the interview ready?
- Does the staff know what to do when the candidate arrives?

REF.:- HR Center

Amira Sobeih
RDR (Sustainable Development Association)
YES_Country Network Egypt

Just like everyone else, employees need to feel important and appreciated. Contrary to popular belief, money isn’t everything, not to employees at least: That doesn’t mean that it is not important but when you want to reward employees, there are many ways to say thank you.

- Every company has employees who work way past office hours. Order a meal for these dedicated employees.

- After a successful event or the completion of a big project, buy the team coffee, lunch or a dessert and thank everyone for their hard work and cooperation. This is also a good opportunity to socialize for a few minutes.

- Reward achievements with warm gestures. Buy an employee dinner for two at a nice restaurant where they can take whom they want. *

- Create an Employee of the Month/Year system. Winners should have certificates issued plus a gift such as a free lunch

- Giving credit is crucial. Make sure you do it when discussing an employee’s or group’s ideas with other people, peers or higher management.

- An annual trip or gathering is often a popular idea in the corporate world. The entire team gets a chance to get together and see what the company has done in the last year and what they have planned for the future.

- Creating a photo gallery of events or a wall with outstanding employees is often good. It should be a place where everyone can see it, even visitors.

- Loyalty and dedication should be rewarded. After an employee has been at a company for a year, reward him with something, like an engraved key chain for example. Then after 5 years, 10 years, 15 years and so forth. The value of each should increase as the number of years does.

- Simple gestures are greatly appreciated. Try these:
- Send a thank you card
- Recognize an employee(s) in a company/staff meeting or event
- Send out an email to everyone recognizing him/her
- Call an employee into your office just to say thank you
- Have top management call/email/go to an employee to thank him/her


* From 1001 Ways to Reward Employees by Bob Nelson


Amira Sobeih
RDR (Sustainable Development Association)
TES_COuntry Network Egypt

by Susan Bryant

What’s the difference between the rising star whose career is picking up speed and his counterpart who can’t seem to get the engine to turn over? Often, the star has mastered the nuances of business etiquette -- the subtle but critical behaviors that can make or break an important meeting, influence a first impression or impress a potential client.
According to Hilka Klinkenberg, director of Etiquette International, a business etiquette firm, the basics of professionaletiquette are really quite simple. First, understand the difference between business etiquette and social etiquette. Business etiquette is genderless. For example, the traditional chivalrous etiquette of holding the door open for a woman is not necessary in the workplace and can even have the unintended effect of offending her. In the work environment, men and women are peers.

Secondly, your guiding principle should always be to treat people with consideration and respect. Although this may seem obvious, Klinkenberg cites this basic decency as a frequent casualty in today’s workplace.

Here are a few of the specific dos and don’ts of business etiquette you are likely to encounter during your workday.

Introductions

The proper way to make an introduction is to introduce a lower- ranking person to a higher-ranking person. For example, if your CEO is Mrs. Jones and you are introducing administrative assistant Jane Smith to her, the correct introduction would be "Mrs. Jones, I’d like you to meet Jane Smith." If you forget a person’s name while making an introduction, don’t panic. Proceed with the introduction with a statement such as, "I’m sorry, your name has just slipped my mind." Omitting an introduction is a bigger faux pas than salvaging a botched introduction.

Handshakes

The physical connection you make when shaking hands with someone can leave a powerful impression. When someone’s handshake is unpleasant in any way, we often associate negative character traits with that person. A firm handshake made with direct eye contact sets the stage for a positive encounter.

Women take note: To avoid any confusion during an introduction, always extend your hand when greeting someone. Remember, men and women are equals in the workplace.

Electronic Etiquette

Email, faxes, conference calls and cell phones can create a veritable landmine of professional etiquette. Just because you have the capability to reach someone 24/7, it doesn’t mean you should.

Email is so prevalent in many of today’s companies that the transmission of jokes, spam and personal notes often constitute more of the messages employees receive than actual work-related material. Remember that your email messages are an example of your professional correspondence. Professional correspondence does not include smiley faces or similar emoticons.

Faxes should always include your contact information, date and number of pages included. They should not be sent unsolicited -- they waste the other person’s paper and tie up the lines.

Conference call etiquette entails introducing all the participants at the beginning of the call so everyone knows who is in attendance. Since you are not able to see other participants body language and nonverbal clues, you will have to compensate for this disadvantage by communicating very clearly. Be aware of unintentionally interrupting someone or failing to address or include attendees because you can’t see them. And finally, don’t put anyone on speakerphone until you have asked permission to do so.

Cell phones can be a lifesaver for many professionals. Unfortunately, if you are using a cell phone, you are most likely outside your office and may be preoccupied with driving, catching a flight or some other activity. Be sensitive to the fact that your listener may not be interested in a play-by-play of traffic or the other events you are experiencing during your call.

Even if you have impeccable social graces, you will inevitably have a professional blunder at some point. When this happens, Klinkenberg offers this advice: Apologize sincerely without gushing or being too effusive. State your apology like you mean it, and then move on. Making too big an issue of your mistake only magnifies the damage and makes the recipient more uncomfortable.

REF: Careers

http://www.arabia.msn.com/News/tech/news1/

World's first information summit to get connected in Geneva

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (L) sends the first message from a CERN server in Geneva

10-12-2003 14:42:39
Political leaders gathered in Geneva for a UN-sponsored information summit to tackle issues such as who should rule the Internet and how to close the technology gap between the north and south.

Delegates from some 175 countries, including about 40 heads of state, arrived Wednesday in this western Swiss city for the three-day, UN-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which was due to start at 1300 GMT.

"This summit is about coming to grips with the challenges (of the information age) at a policy level and not purely at a technological level," said Shashi Tharoor, UN under secretary general for communications and information.

In total, some 13,000 people including representatives from industry and non-governmental organisations are expected at the conference, which will explore issues thrown up by the growing use of technology -- such as mobile phones, the Internet and electronic media -- to access information.

But many world leaders chose to shun the event with the exception of a few well known names such as Zimbabwe's embattled President Robert Mugabe who arrived in Geneva Tuesday after pulling his country out of the Commonwealth, the group of 53 mainly former British colonies.

Mugabe was due to address delegates in a speech later in the afternoon along with 17 other political chiefs including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

At a hotel in Geneva earlier in the morning, the Egyptian president met Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom for the first time since August 2002.

Following a one hour talk, Sharon told reporters that Israeli leader Ariel Sharon and Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei could meet within the next few days if the Palestinians did not impose preconditions on the encounter.

Back at Palexpo, an enormous conference hall just outside the city where the summit is being held, sideline events were going on to illustrate the importance of information technology to improve the lives of millions of people.

A US agency, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation pledged to establish a 400 million dollar grant to help poor nations benefit from IT.

The challenge for the governments involved is clear: to establish a global framework to enable all countries to enjoy the benefits of the information age.

But wrangling over the way to achieve this goal has prevented delegates from drafting a strong plan of action and declaration of principles to be endorsed by delegates on Friday.

A suggestion by many African countries to establish a special fund to help bridge the digital divide between rich and poor countries was watered down to a mere pledge to study the issue in time for the second stage of the summit in Tunis in 2005.

And a controversial attempt to place the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) -- the United Nations agency in charge of the summit -- in charge of global regulation of the Internet has also been put off and placed in the hands of a working group under UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Other contentious areas include how to protect human rights and intellectual property in the virtual world.

Advocacy groups accuse countries such as China and Egypt of using the summit to crack down on dissidence over the Internet, triggering concerns that it will provide a channel to infringe human rights such as freedom of speech.

A group of about 40 Tibetan demonstrators protested outside the conference hall on Wednesday, waving flags and banners.

"China's censorship can't kill the truth," proclaimed one banner.

The Swiss government has called in 2,000 troops to lend a hand to police, but authorities in Geneva said they were not concerned about the kind of violent demonstrations that disturbed the G8 summit meeting in nearby Evian last June.

Annan is due to open the summit officially with a speech.

This is a small test to see how bad you are. Get a paper and a pen .you will need them.
Directions:
Answer the following questions with “YES” or “NO”.
For every “YES” add 2 points on the paper. The questions are 50. That means that if you had all of them, as yes then you will be 100 % bad. After you find the score. Write down your score.It is that simple and that easy. Whats nice about it is that there are 50 questions so no body will know what u answered as yes J.

Here are the questions:
Have you ever:
1:Lied?
2:Stolen?
3:Betrayed a friend?
4:Smoked a cigarette?
5:Smoked a cigar?
6:Smoked weed?
7:Drunk?
8:Cheat in a test?
9:Cheated someone?
10:Used someone?
11:Ran away from skool?
12:Played sick to skip skool?
13:Said the “F” word ?
14:Done the “F”sign with your finger?
15:Said the word “Shit”?
16:Played Poker?
!7:Gambled on something?
18:Hit somebody?
19:Destroy your class or skool in a way?
20: Shouted in someone’s face?
21:Told someone you hated him/her?
22:Ignored someone?
23:Made fun of someone?
24:Hurted a pet or an animal?
25:Made any sexual behavior?
26:Told a secret of your friend?
27:Painted the public walls with spray paint?
28:Made a fire in a garbage can in the street?
29:Broke the glass or headlights of a car?
30:Gave the owner of a restaurant a hard time?
31:Raised your voice on your Mom?
32:Raised your voice on your Dad?
33:Raised your voice on your teacher?
34:Disobeyed your Mom?
35:Disobeyed your Dad?
36:Disobeyed your teacher?
37:Ran away from home?
38:Tried to kill yourself?
39:Tried to kill someone else?
40:Used your computer for bad things?
41:Used the TV to watch bad things?
42:Watched “over 18 years “ MOVIES?
43:Taped these “R” rated movies?
44:Used your money to buy these kinds of movies?
45:Seen bad pictures?
46:Buy or sell these bad pictures?
47:Said a bad word to a family member?
48:Hated or cursed the country u were born in?
49:Blamed or cursed “life”?
50:Blamed or Cursed God or religion?

Now that you have answered the questions add your points Remember that no one will know what u answered so don’t get shy from the truth.
Ps : These questions were meant to be bad because this test is to see how bad you are.;) ..And don’t worry if you were too bad….you can fix your self and your actions. After all…no body is perfect in this World.

Sylvia Ho








Question: I have always wondered what the correct procedure is for resigning from a company. Also, what should be in the body of your resignation notice, and is there a basic outline for this?

Answer: Not really. But there are a couple of basic rules about how to conduct yourself and what to say or not say at your exit interview.

1. Don't burn your bridges with the company. You might need them for references, or you might want to come back later on. Or the people that you leave here might end up at your next job or a job down the road.

2. If you're leaving because you are being treated unfairly and might want to sue, don't let on. Quietly gather your evidence and look for a lawyer. Keep smiling, or the element of surprise will be lost.

3. Study the employee handbook and your benefits literature to make sure that you know exactly what you are entitled to be paid after resigning -- unused vacation time, etc.

4. Calendar your deadlines so you can get back to the company on issues such as COBRA benefits. If you are resigning in the face of termination, go to the unemployment comp office.

5. Get yourself an agreement from someone in the company to be your reference later on. Most company HR offices will just give out your name and dates of employment.

6. Most Important: Keep in touch with your business contacts and mentors, not just your friends. Start a little black book of contacts who might be fond of you and will help you later on in your career. This is usually overlooked by most people, but it's something top executives always do. (And you wonder why they make the big bucks!)

As for the resignation letter, you might just want to send a two-liner stating, "It is with regret that I must resign my position at this time," and leave it at that.

Good luck at your new job.


Ref. : Careers Center