Are You Thinking Going Abroad For A Job?

International mobility of Employees;What was earlier known as the 'Brain Drain' and had become a matter of concern for many countries has taken the shape of international mobility of employees. Of late, international mobility of employees has become the latest trend and one of the top HR issues of present, courtesy increasing globalization, widening horizon of operation of MNC's, attraction by the greener pastures at the other side, etc.

With the influx of globalization, with flow of technology and capital across geographic and political barriers to help creating new resources, the concept of distance became virtually non factor.International mobility of highly skilled workers has increased significantly and far more complications and intricacies involved. International mobility of employees - there are the following two perspectives of looking at the prevalent scenario:
People moving across the globe freely for jobs.International mobility of employees is increasing. People tend to not to limit themselves to working in their home country. People going to work in other countries are known as expatriates. . The emerging rationale behind the trend is the quest for better work exposure in complex work environments than simple, homely environment that would have left them less competent to face future challenges. This is a paradigm shift from the motive which people attributed for migrating to foreign lands - that lack of sufficient opportunity to get employed suitably. The new trend is most commonly seen in the IT industry, international experiences and exposure are considered crucial in pharmaceuticals industry, scientific research, and the professions like sales and distribution for career development and progress.
With the MNC's increasing their foothold in almost every country, they are also providing ample opportunities to talented and experienced employees from foreign locations to utilize their skills for the organisation. Employees are also willing to cover that extra mile for new, challenging and rewarding career opportunities and growth, better standards of life and greener pastures at the other side. An overseas opportunity by an employer is also taken as a sign of empowerment by organisation and a move upwards in the career.
The other side of the same coin is working with and for the cross-border clients.
With the widespread and transnational operations of MNC's, changing work practices, increasing off shoring and outsourcing of work, the international mobility of employees is increasing at a rapid rate. The intricacies of international mobility involve being sent to the client locations in other countries and even remote locations, to work with the client itself. Moreover, to fill the positions with the right kind of person has become of supreme importance for the organisations, and they are willing to recruit expatriates and deploy the best person irrespective of his/her nationality to the place having the requirement. Refusing any such offer of the company can have its own consequences for the employee.

Body-Shopping:Another concept related to the international mobility of employees is "Body shops". Body shops is a term that refers to manpower supplier or recruitment outsourcing companies, especially in the IT sector, which deploy and cater to the requirements for skilled IT labourers of its clients placed across the globe. Body shops are contributing significantly to the tremendous growth of the international mobility of employees by recruiting employees for their clients to work in foreign countries.
Issues rather challenges involved:Various factors like technological advancement, International mobility of employees has changed fundamentally and traditional nature of the concept. There are many issues and considerations involved for the organisation, the concerned employee and his/her family. For companies that do business globally, the need for broad, comprehensive HR programs that anticipate, and address, the myriad issues that come with having an internationally-dispersed workforce is absolutely crucial. It's essential that you have in place a competitive international mobility programme that is not only aligned with your business strategy but also facilitates the transactional aspects of international mobility.

The challenge for the Organisation;Talent Management,The main challenges for the organisation are;Selecting the candidate keeping in mind the factors like cultural adaptability, communication factors, family background etc.Performance management: Clearly defining the objectives of the assignment, the standards, measurement of performance etc.Reward aspects: The compensation during the assignment including all the benefits and other privileges.Immigration requirements and tax procedures for the employee should be arranged by the organisation.

The organisation should have policies and strategies for dealing with the requirements of international mobility of its employees aligned to its overall strategy and business objectives systematically.

The challenge for the family;Another major concern is the immediate andlong term and direct andindirect implications of the relocation of an employee on their family. Generally seen as the concern of the employer and the concerned employee, most neglected are the life partners or the families of the employee. The effect on the career of the partner or the families can become a hindrance for an employee in accepting the offer to relocate. Relocating the children and spouse in midst of their own education or careers, can harm the same. Bring new opportunities as well as challenges and problems for the family.

The challenge for the individual;Before accepting or taking up any such assignment, the concerned employee should seriously consider its impact on career development, impact on the immediate family, adjusting to the new environment etc.

A trade-off between the costs and benefits for the employee who is supposed to relocate is nearly impossible (qualitative factors). But comparing the costs and benefits from the side of the organisation is the most logical and the feasible step. Keeping in mind all the developments taking place towards globalization, international mobility of employees will increase with time.

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The Face Value Problems In BPO

Business process outsourcing, the most flourishing Kenyan industry sector has emerged as Kenya’s most promising sector, and has been growing at a rate of 40-50 per cent since its inception. BPO is a very fast paced and a high momentum industry. BPO industry is expected to generate one million jobs by the year 2008. Taking advantage form the abundant skills and low cost benefits, large number of BPO companies have mushroomed in Kenya in recent years, many of the well established IT companies have also started their BPO divisions. But, there is another side of the BPO picture too. The side that has already brought the BPO industry in limelight many times. This picture is concerned with the non viability of the BPO and the fact that the young generation of Kenya is actually loosing out in the BPO.
In the past couple of years, Kenya has witnessed many small time businessmen entering the bandwagon of the flourishing the business process outsourcing sector without adequate investment capital or vision that is required to run an employment organization. (This article is not critical about individual business or small entrepreneurial efforts) Even many biggies and MNCs were found exploiting the psyche of people who favour and safeguard employment generating and economic development efforts against critics. Many are taking an advantage of the favourable climate created by the recent outsourcing culture of the west.

Business process outsourcing organisations, commonly known as call centres – work when rest of the Kenya sleeps! Most of the BPO organisations work according to the international (US and UK) timings, therefore most of the BPO employees work in might shifts starting anywhere from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and ending at 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. There is also a graveyard shift starting at 4 a.m. working in such shifts having odd timings have started showing hazardous results on the health of the Kenyan youth.

Prolonged working in shifts of odd hour’s can have major implications on the physical and mental health of the employees. The physical strains like sleep disorders, depression, odd working shifts, learning foreign accents, constantly handling abusive calls and high stress levels are making the BPO employees more prone to hypertension and heart attacks.

Various surveys and research conducted amongst the call centre employees have shown that depression is the most common problem faced by BPO employees. Frequent headaches, feeling of fatigue, sleeping disorders and frustration have become regular problems for them.

The basic profile of the BPO employees is trouble-shooting, sales or revenue collection. All of these are done through tele-calling. Talking to foreigners in a fake foreign accent, solving other people’s problems, facing and handling the anger and abuse of the clients become a routine for these juvenile population.

The youth is facing the brunt of the thoughtless campaign of many employers who are just trying to encash the flourishing BPO scenario. With no particular qualification required for call centre jobs (except fluency in English and good communication and convincing skills) BPO jobs provide a quick gateway to good pay packages. Many youngsters are quitting their education right after the 12th standard for these jobs. This step can block and kill their long term (future) career prospects. Also, at the very young age they get lot of money in hand and they are unaware of the rational utilization of that money. Also, working in overnight shifts does not get accepted easily in the traditional Kenyan culture and the youth are resistance from the seniors in the society.

Due to the increasing gap between the supply and demand of the talent for Bpo’s, and the already saturated talent market, the companies are luring and attracting youngsters with attractive pay packages and other benefits as soon as they get out of college. But the youngsters have to face the realities of the industry as they fail to cope up with the stress and responsibilities of their work life. It is clearly a case of hyper-growth with an immediate fall-down as soon as the reality strikes.

With no time for personal life, the erratic schedules and monotonous work of business process outsourcing also disturbs the family life of the employees adding to their frustrations. This will definitely lead to loose family ties and other unhealthy behaviour.

All these problems have triggered the problems of attrition and retention for the BPO industry itself. If not taken care of, these problems can lead to hazardous health and other implications for the youth of Kenya.

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How To Managing Difficult People at Work

Every organisation, every workplace has people with diverse backgrounds, religions, educational qualifications, experiences etc. Most importantly, they differ in their personalities and attitudes. Most people are polite, easily accessible and cooperate with others. But every organisation has a few people who are simply difficult to deal with or difficult to manage. "Difficult people" as they are generally referred, exists in every workplace. They can be in the form of a bad boss, a difficult co-worker or a non-corporative vendor or customer.

Difficult people become the problem employees for an organisation very soon. From the organisation's point of view, difficult people in a workplace is a problem because not only do they

themselves perform feebly, but also affect other employee's productivity, and often become a bottleneck for the people around them to perform efficiently on their jobs. A negative person can affect and hinder the organizational processes like change.

Types of difficult people in an organisation:
Difficult people in an organisation and be characterized and categorized into the following types or categories:
•Uncooperative - These are the people who are concerned only about their needs and work, often creating troubles and conflicts for others. They don't cooperate with others and have the tendency to create tension at workplace.
•Power Seekers - There are few people who can be categorized basically as power seekers. They always look for some chance or the other to seek more authority and power over others and show their superiority. To seek the spotlight (attention), or to be in the good books of the boss, they can even become the 'yes man' of their boss and go to the extent demoting or creating problems for others.
•Complainer - This category is for the people who keep complaining about the organisation and its systems, their co-workers etc. Although there are complainers who complain against the genuine issues and do good for the organisation. The most dangerous type of complainers is the "malcontent complainer" who offers no valid suggestions but problems, and they drain out the energy from the organisation and have a demotivating impact on others.
•Pessimists - Another category of difficult people in the organisation is of pessimists. They are the set of negative people in the organisation who can find fault in almost everything and everybody. With their negative mindsets, they can create negativity in their surroundings.
•The aggressive employee - Aggressive employees, especially an aggressive boss, is the most difficult set of people in an organisation to deal with. They are the people who refuse to accept their faults and flaws, and consider themselves to be always right. They are found to be dominating in nature and believe that they "know-it-all". Such people fail to mature and acknowledge other's valuable ideas and suggestions. Such employees are often referred as "The hyena" indicating rude, aggressive, authoritarian and negative people, always blaming others for their failures.
•The wild cat -is the category of people who are generally found very irregular at their work. Also, they are known to create and spread rumors in the workplace, always making excuses and blaming others for their inadequate performance. They have the tendency to create stress at their workplace.

MANAGING DIFFICULT PEOPLE AT WORK:
Difficult people can be irrational, abusive, creating problems persistently or simply difficult to get along with. Every organisation has to decide whether and how to deal with them without having an adverse effect on the organisation's environment, employee's productivity and their morale. A few ways of dealing with them are:

Talk to them: Be patient and polite, talk to them with a personalized touch explaining them the situation. Don't confront or blame them, and listen to them. Give them a piece of your own mind, understand if there is some problem they are facing. Reinforce the good part of their behaviour.

Don't be a difficult person for them! Don't rush things and explain your point of view with care. Don't point fingers or try to judge them as a person. Be unbiased and systematic I your approach.

Always agree to disagree: Talk to the person with an open mind and positivity. No two individual are alike and there can always be disagreements. Personally disliking towards a co-worker or boss should be dealt with care. Always try to find the positive way out.

And last but not the least
Take concrete action: Once you are completely aware of the problem, through with all the possible solutions and the situation doesn't get any better, don't shy away from taking any concrete action for the good of the organisation and to stop the problem from aggravating, even if it requires to confront the person directly.

Establish parameters and hire "right": One of the most important and effective solution is to frame and practice the recruitment policies and procedures to judge the attitude of the person at the time of the interview and hire only the right people.

CONCLUSION:
Dealing with difficult people is a challenge. However firing them or separating them from the organisation should be the last resort, as it is always possible to help them be more productive and effective in doing their job.

How Does Emotions Affect Job Performance?

There was a time when emotions in the workplace were considered important in relation to employee well being and job satisfaction only. In recent years, the organizations have realized that employee emotions are pervasive in the workplace. The emotions are not only a deep-seated part of work life but have an important role to play in one's job performance. An employee's emotions and overall temperament have a significant impact on his job performance, decision making skills, team spirit, leadership and turnover. Its is believed that employees bring their feelings of anger, fear, love and respect with them when they come to work. An employee's emotions are essential to what happens in an organization. Emotions matter because they drive one's performance.

Emotions at work place, generally, fall into the category of positive (good) and negative (bad) emotions. Positive emotions are those feelings of an individual that are favorable to the attainment of organizational goals while negative emotions are those that are perceived to be destructive for the organization. To classify them further, emotions can be categorized as discrete, dis positional and as moods. Discrete emotions reflect short lived emotions like joy, anger, fear and disgust which arise from the occurrence of a particular event; while dis positional define an employees overall approach towards life like cheerful, negative, etc. Moods, however, are long lasting as compared to discrete emotions.

The impact of emotions, whether positive or negative, is well researched on. Studies suggest that negative feelings have adverse effects on job performances. Anger often leads to aggressions towards colleagues while sadness leads to dissatisfaction with the job. Envy or conflict with peers also leads to frequent fights and in turn results absenteeism. It is not always that only bad emotions lead to bad results. Office romance, despite being a positive feeling, can have negative effect on others. However, emotions can have positive effects as well. Positive emotions increase creativity, encourage helping behavior and cooperation and reduce aggression both against the organization and against people. Research suggests that positive people have better cognitive abilities and tend to do better in the workplace and with accuracy.

Emotions influence the task on which an employee is working, the efforts he puts and how he influences other employees around him. In other words, what employees feel and how they express their emotions affects their performance.

Effect on decision making : Studies have shown that positive mood leads to better and efficient decision making. However, this doesn't mean that decisions taken in a bad mood are disruptive. Studies have also found that negative emotions can lead to more effective decision making. Negative emotions, sometimes, may lead to more concentrated, detailed, and analytic processing of the facts.

Emotions and absenteeism: Positive mood is associated with reduced absence and intention to quit the job while negative mood increase absenteeism, intention to turnover, and actual turnover.

Effects on creativity: Positive emotions influence creativity positively as it creates a content state of mind which is open to all ideas. It also leads to a more complex and flexible thinking.

Interpersonal relations: Positive feelings induce helping behaviors while feelings of jealousy of hatred lead to poor relations with colleagues.

How one can Manage emotions
Emotions directly influence behavior, so one has to manage emotions while at work. Some jobs simply cannot be done, if emotions are not dealt with first. Imagine how employees whose jobs asks compulsion towards specific emotions, like the front desk people or customer care executives, manage their emotions. This is where the concept of emotional labor comes in to play. Emotional labour or emotion work is the effort, planning and control needed to express desired level of emotions while on work. Emotional labor is a form of regulation in which workers are expected to display certain emotions as part of their job and to promote organizational goals. When interacting with coworkers, customers, suppliers, and others, employees are expected to abide by such rules.

There are two main ways of managing emotions at work - surface acting and deep acting. In surface acting, employees are required to show emotions that they actually might not feel. For example an employee may fake a smile for his client even if in actual he is unhappy because of some personal reasons. This method of managing emotions may lead to discrepancy between what employee expresses and what he actually feels and result in job dissatisfaction. This leads to emotional dissonance, which refers to a state of disagreement between internal expression of emotions and publicly displayed emotions. Emotional dissonance is often accompanied by high emotional exhaustion, low organizational commitment, and low job satisfaction .

In deep acting, instead of expressing fake emotions, employees try to experience the emotions that they are supposed to express. This method of requires more effort but leads to greater job satisfaction. Thus, the containment of unpleasant emotions decreases job satisfaction and increases intentions of quitting the job.

Why Employee Surveillance At Workplaces?

Sitting in your cubicle, you are busy sending mails to your friends or sending your resume to explore better career opportunities, or writing scraps on the social networking sites. You feel secure as no one saw you. But wait! if you think you managed to be fooling your boss, then you are in trouble. The technology has made it easier for your employer to keep a tab on everything you do, from sending mails to monitoring your calls.

Employers now-a-days are indulging into monitoring their employees’ actions. From inspecting their personal folders in their systems to monitoring every mail sent by them, employers are curtailing the privacy of their employees. This has raised a concern towards employee privacy which is being debated worldwide.
In countries like USA, employee privacy issues are discussed explicitly as invasion of one’s privacy is considered to be a major breach of trust. However, in countries like Kenya, data security is of paramount importance. When issues like increasing internet usage for personal work, employee thefts, emails and social networking from office and the like are growing, surveillance of employees becomes necessary, thereby hampering an employee’s privacy. While employers try hard to ensure their employees do a good job, the employees don’t want to be spied. This conflict of workplace monitoring has paved the path for many such other dilemmas.

What employers have to say?
Many studies and surveys have revealed how employees spend time on doing personal work while being in office. Realizing the misuse of internet and rise in issues like data security, employers consider it relevant to monitor their employees’ actions. Employers defend themselves by quoting a number of reasons for employee surveillance like improving productivity, selecting and retaining honest employees, evaluating employee performance, conforming to privacy obligations of the company, etc. Some of the valid reasons stated by employers include:

Productivity: Surveys reveal that employees spend 2-3 hours of their working hours in sending personal emails, visiting sports sites, trading stocks, sending off color jokes to peers, etc. The surveys also show that on an average, it is estimated that 30-40 percent of employees' internet usage is not work related, and result in loss of productivity.

Improper internet usage: The employers have some justifiable reasons for monitoring their employees’ internet usage like preventing cyber stalking by employees and preventing employees from downloading software illegally, etc. Moreover, downloading pirated music or movies onto a work computer can lead to a copyright-infringement suit. Similarly, viewing pornographic video clips or sending off-color emails can lead to sexual harassment claims.

Data Security: In an attempt to prevent confidential data from being passed on to rivals through internet and prevent employee disclosure of trade secrets, employers keep a tab on outgoing the mails of employees.

The employers can indulge into several types of monitoring like follows:
Performance tracking: Here, the employer can take screen shots to know what his employees are doing, how much time they dedicate to work, and how productive they actually are.

Computer searches: Computers provided by employer are personal but not private. So employees should not expect privacy in computers. Employers have full right to access information stored on them.

Monitoring calls: Employers can monitor calls of employees to ensure quality. Moreover, employees use official phone lines for personal calls. To keep a check on that, employers can monitor calls.

Monitoring mails: For preventing employees from indulging into offensive writings, spreading rumors and the like employers have a legitimate business interest to review e-mails.

Some Common Offences:
Some of the most prevalent instances of misuse are:
• Sending messages with an intention to harass/malign, or exchanging potentially offensive messages;
1 Online chatting and instant messaging;
2 Shopping and gambling online;
3 Surfing pornographic sites;
4 Unproductive downloads;
5 Disclosing customer-sensitive information; breach of confidentiality
6 Browsing social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, and many more.

Is it legal or illegal?
It is necessary for an organization to know what its employees are doing. It is especially important to know what they are using the company’s resources for. While there are plenty of software available in the markets to track what is happening on each of the networked computers, there is one question that needs to be answered before making use of it. Is monitoring an employee legal? The answer to this question lies in the legal aspects of monitoring. In some cases it is legal, while in other cases, using monitoring software to view what employees are doing on the job can be illegal. In Kenya, as yet, no legislation specifically addresses e-mail privacy and electronic monitoring activities. Moreover, it depends on the policy of the company which should clearly specify the apparent offences and the penalties for the same. Moreover the intentions behind monitoring employees should be right. Employee surveillance should be done to track reliability, use of time, and efficiency of employees.

Conclusion:
A line is to be drawn on what is considered private for an employee and what is private for the organization, that is, what are those matters that are considered a part of organizational information that an employee has to skip. When too much sneaking is done, employees lose faith in the employer resulting in lesser commitment towards the organization. Employees feel alienated and thus are motivated to leave the company. To ensure healthy practices at workplace, companies should establish clear policies on workplace privacy, and clearly define what privacy means to the organization based on culture, business needs, and operations. It should be communicated properly what will be monitored and what will not. And lastly, a balance should be maintained between surveillance and employee privacy.

Job Hopping: Does It Really Pay?

We barely get to hear of a person who started his career with an organization many years back, dedicated his entire career growing with the organization and finally retired from the same organization. As it is said, nothing lasts forever; same is the case with jobs these days. Jobs today do not last unlike previous generations.

In the past few years job-hopping has become so widespread across the industries that even a four year stretch in the same organization is considered to be a stable job. Three jobs in less than a year, no longer raise eyebrows and gaps mouths. Job hopping, in fact, has become the new mantra for success. People no longer believe in sticking to one job and waiting for that golden leap to come. But is job hopping for career advancement a mere illusion or does it really pay?

The trend of hopping jobs is prevalent in IT- ITeS sector most. However, other sectors like retail, banking and hospitality are also witnessing the same trend. Not only are freshers changing jobs frequently, but senior professionals are also increasingly falling in the trap of job hopping. Willingly, senior professionals with excellent credentials are changing jobs more frequently than ever before.

Some of the common reasons for hoping jobs as quoted by job hoppers include dissatisfaction with the job, lack of challenging work, stagnation or less pay. A survey revealed that 24 per cent of the graduates from premier B-schools and quit their first jobs within 12 months of being hired. The eye-popping fat salaries appear to be one of the main reasons for their resignations. Job hopping also acts as a shortcut to success. Employees make their way to higher levels in the management hierarchy as each job change brings with it a hike in pay and position.

Moreover, sticking to the same organization from which you started off your career is passé now. It is believed that those who hang on to the same job are taken for granted and declared not competent enough to move ahead in their career.

The consequences of frequent job change are many, but the most affected area is loyalty with the organization. The word loyalty has become old fashioned and is no more considered a success mantra. Loyalty, which once has been considered a fundamental value in an Kenyan organization seems to be losing its relevance.

People, especially younger generation, are highly career conscious. They don't mind changing jobs too often if it helps them earn more and grow faster. They are ready to shift their loyalties for an extra buck, an additional perk or any other monetary consideration.

Grass is not always green on the other side.
No doubt job hopping has become the latest trend today, or a shortcut to success; one can not jump from one job to another as and when it strikes one’s imagination. Moreover, though two or more jobs on a resume no longer are an employment risk, too many jobs in less than two years time portray one as a chronic job hopper. A series of rapid, random and pointless moves will show up as annoyances on the resume.

Employers view such contenders as dysfunctional - lacking in loyalty, trust and self-motivation. Quick moves from one job to other raise big questions for prospective employers as to one's staying power and ability to withstand challenges, as well as accept accountability. Employer may feel that you are not committed to a particular organization. The future employers, who are probably looking for a long term employee, might not be impressed with the job hopping tendencies. They might perceive that one has become a job hopper may be because of inability to get along with colleagues or employers. It does not even leave substantial time to acquire sufficient experience and hands-on skills. What’s more is that after innumerable hops, one may find himself at the same place where he first started.

Is it really that bad?
As experts believes that, after a long stint, there always comes a time for moving in most organizations, but it is important to move for the right reasons, rather than superficial ones, like money, designation or an overseas trip. Job hopping today is considered an important part of career development. But, there is a big dilemma about where to draw the line, i.e. how long is too long or how short is too short? Also, how long can the hop last? Career experts opine that staying around for 2-4 years is ideal. Also, every job move deserves careful consideration and planning. While monetary increase is often a valid reason to change jobs, one should realize that work environment, long term career prospects, colleagues and company culture are equally important factors in determining an ideal job. It should be a mature decision carefully charted out after properly weighing varied factors like current job satisfaction, challenges, career development, company image, benefits and growth prospects. One should consider the suitability of whole package rather than being blindfolded with short term benefits.

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WHAT IF YOU ARE BEING OVERED A CUP OF COFFEE!!!

In an interview, candidates are often offered a cup of coffee. The candidates get confused and become apprehensive whether they should accept the offer or refuse it. The condition even worsens when the coffee is accompanied with cookies. What should a candidate do?
Well the season for interview is on. So much have been said and read about interviews and yet when a fresher appears for an interview he becomes unarmed. All his knowledge and training suddenly becomes insufficient and he has to take his own stance.
A part from the usual problems reported, a student narrated experience of his interview in MNC in Nairobi where he made a complete mess of the offered coffee and job on offer. It happens many times a candidate gets confused when offered a cup of coffee during an interview. The candidate becomes little apprehensive and gets into dilemma whether he should accept the offer or refuse it. This seems to be too simple but may have its various repercussions which need to be analyzed appropriately. It becomes little difficult for an individual to handle the complicated situation as it remains geared up with punch of heavy questions on head. An individual in his own cerebral pop corning starts weighing pros and cons of the situation. Let us analyze.
If interviewer is himself taking coffee as he is tired with long row of candidates waiting outside the interview room or it’s the routine coffee time, a candidate can understand the genuine need of coffee by an interviewer. He should understand that an interviewer is apprehensive in having it alone so is apprehensive in having it alone so is offering you the same. If otherwise the coffee is offered during the interview ideally candidate can politely reply, “Thanks for the offer, I just had it.’ An interviewer may force to accept the same however, care needs to be taken by an interviewee that his sip should not be before the sip taken by an interviewer says Experts, Soft Skill Trainer, INC, Nairobi. The agenda may comprise of noticing how you pick the cup and saucer, are there any shaky hands creating clinking noise. An individual is advised to handle cup carefully without shaky hand. The idea is to check your confidence.
A candidate is advised to deny initially, however could accept when insisted. However could accept when insisted. However, it is not important that he should finish coffee. This can be your strategy to satisfy an interviewer’s urge. Candidate needs to be little careful with the scum that may remain on the top of the slightly cold coffee. He should smartly remove or engulf the scum depending on his willingness taking care that it should not get attached to lips, says Kimani, soft Skill Trainer.
An interviewee is expected to be more confident with smiling face and should not convey any nervousness. He should hold the cup from its holder and not from another side. Saucer should not be picked. An individual can deny biscuits and if offered later can take one.
An interviewer is likely to be interested to know whether the candidate may get well with the operation of the organization. One of the HR , says that employer of different nation may view the offered coffee differently. For instance an American may not mind denial while an Kenyan employer or for that sake an European employer may mind your denial. Having accepted the offer to have a cup of coffee, a candidate should take care that there should not be any distraction in communicating with the interviewer. The culture in the business organization has changed and I do not find any reason that an offered cup of coffee could be viewed otherwise.
Well a cup of coffee may be offered to the candidate to make him more comfortable in the interview room. There are no hidden agenda. However, it is her experience that fresher generally denies even though he is offered twice or thrice. A smart candidate rather will grab the opportunity half way and will take chance of making coffee asking how many sugar cubes for your Sir/Madam?
Conclusion: The situation is surrounded by various factors like position for which an individual has applied, psyche of an interviewer, confidence level of an interviewer, knowledge and preparation of an individual including his attitude.

Do You Know That Preparation is the only key to a successful interview!

Does the idea of going to a job interview make you feel a little queasy? Many people find that it is the hardest part of the hiring process. But it doesn’t have to be. The more you prepare and practice, the more comfortable you will feel. Increase your odds of landing the job you want by brushing up on your interview skills.

Prepare before you go. Find out all you can about the company before you go to the interview. Understand the products that they produce and/or the services that they provide. It’s also good to know who the customers are and who the major competitors are.

Practice makes perfect. It will also make you feel more confident and relaxed. So, practice your answers to common questions. Make a list of questions to ask, too. Almost all interviewers will ask if you have questions. This is a great opportunity for you to show that you have done your homework and have put some thought into your questions.

Make a great impression.The interview is your chance to show that you are the best person for the job. Your application or resume has already exhibited that you are qualified. Now it ’s up to you to show how your skills and experience match this position and this company.

The employer will be looking and listening to determine if you are a good fit. He/she will be looking for a number of different qualities, in addition to the skills that you possess. To make the best impression, dress appropriately; sell your strengths; arrive early, by about 10-15 minutes; be enthusiastic; shake hands firmly; be an active listener; sit up straight and maintain eye contact; ask questions.

Say "thank you".After the interview, follow up with a thank-you note. This is a chance for you to restate your interest and how you can benefit the company. Your best bet is to try to time it so that the note gets there before the hiring decision is made. You should also follow up with a phone call if you don’t hear back from the employer within the specified time.

How to Preparing for a Job Interview

Preparing for a job interview begins with conducting good background research on the company, the position and even the people you will be meeting. Find out how to do this company research and which resources to use.



When preparing for a job interview, many people are unfamiliar with how to start the research process. Which traditional and electronic resources are the best to use?



Go through these basic rules before beginning your research


It is easier to find out information about a publicly held company than privately owned organizations because public companies are legally required to make certain information available.



When researching a subsidiary of a company start with the parent company or holding corporation. You can then drill down into the subsidiary information.


Nationally known companies are easier to research than local firms. Check whether the company is part of a bigger, national organization and start your research there.


Internet information is generally more up to date than print sources (directories). News in journals and newspapers is obviously more current but a company has to have been news-worthy to get into these publications.


Use a variety of sources, when preparing for a job interview, to get the most valid information. Remember to consider the source of the information. A web search will give you data from a variety of sources, it is up to you to recognize reputable and valid information. Information from the company website is usually the most reliable but if you have gone to other sites or sources try and validate the information you get by cross referencing with another source.



What can I do if I cannot find any information on the company on the internet?


Before conducting your interview preparation, make sure you have the full and proper company name. Sometimes a company is commonly referred to by a different name to the registered name. Check whether it is a subsidiary of a larger corporation and if so focus on the parent company.