Our 6th annual Spare an Hour campaign was our best yet. We donated €5600 for Our Lady’s Hospice and we must thank every one of our temp workers for generously donating hours of their pay to the cause! Between our temps and internal staff, we raised an incredible €1800. In previous years, Three Q has matched this donation but in 2018, we pledged to donate double the figure raised by our internal staff and temps. This effectively meant that for every hour worth of wages our temps donated, it would be worth three hours. In fact, Three Q donated a little over double making it €5600.

How the Recipient is Chosen

Every year the recipient of Three Q’s Spare an Hour Campaign is chosen democratically via a vote by our team. This year, Our Lady’s Hospice was selected while in previous years our team has voted in charities such as Aware, and Dublin Simon.

Temp Consultants

Temp consultants Costina and Charlotte were thrilled with the compassion and enthusiasm shown by our temp panel. They were excited to tell our team that 100% of our temps have opted in, that some temps were donating 2 hours, others were donating 4 and others donated even more! There’s a great energy in the office when we hear about how our temp workers have shown so much enthusiasm for the Spare an Hour campaign!

Temp Worker Draw for Participating in our Spare an Hour Campaign

Every temp worker who participated in our Spare an Hour Campaign for Our Lady’s Hospice were entered into a draw for a €100 One4All for voucher. Our HR Coordinator James and our Temp Consultants Costina and Christina conducted the draw and uploaded a video of it onto our social media pages. Congratulations to Barbara who was the lucky temp who won the prize!#

Presenting The Cheque with our Three Q Temps

A representative from Our Lady’s Hospice came to our office to receive the cheque for €5600. We also invited two of our temps, Bisi and Barbara, who had won the draw for the €100 voucher to deliver the cheque to Our Lady’s Hospice and they were happy to help us!

Listen to Suzanne, Three Q’s Operations Manager and Costina, our Temp Consultant praising our temp workers for their incredible generosity and how much they love running this campaign!

We at Three Q PERMS and TEMPS believe that we can make a big difference. If you want to learn more about the work we do in our community, you can go to our Corporate Social Responsibility page on our website here.

You’ll never stop marketing yourself. Even once you are in an assignment, you need to start thinking about your next role, starting with the organisation at which you are currently temping. Ask if there are:

  • Any other areas or departments where your skills might be needed.
  • Let your face be seen.
  • If you can see opportunities but don’t feel comfortable investigating, let your managers know and they will make enquiries for you.

Constant upskilling is another reality in the working life of a temp. I’m sure you’ve heard examples of people who’ve earned significantly more money as a contractor than in a similar permanent job. However to do this long-term you need to invest in your own learning and development.

Your Working Life will Never be Uniform

This is why temps are always ready for, and cope well with change. Most temporary assignments have a finish date, but it can be extended. Equally, it may be cut short. Sometimes plans change, on both sides, and successful temps understand this and act accordingly.

Of course as a temp you are also the quintessence of professional. For example, you respect the policies, procedures and culture of each organisation you enter, you hit the ground running, you never get involved in office politics or gossip and, you learn quickly. It’s standard to prepare appropriately before each new assignment. This element of a temp’s working life involves knowing who you need to report to, the tasks you’ll undertake and what the organisation’s culture is. You must walk in the door and contribute appropriately from the get go, which requires you to prepare before each assignment.

Needless to say, a temp’s personal life never crosses over into their working life in the way that it can for permanent employees. An example of this would be your mobile stays in your bag on silent and the organisation’s telephone or email is never used for personal communications.  A temp’s working life is also one in which expectations of your abilities and results are higher than those of your full-time counterparts. While most temps thrive on this, some find it daunting. After all, there’s nowhere to hide in a temp assignment and you’ll never become too comfortable.

To be Successful

You need to be the sort of person who thrives on constantly meeting new objectives. You’ll walk in the door on day one of a new assignment and after a short induction you’ll immediately start work on your new brief. No two are ever the same, just as no two organisations are ever the same.

Finally

A temp’s working life can provide the ultimate freedom – they can take time off between assignments when they choose to and they enjoy meeting new people and working in a broad range of organisations.

We have more information on our Temp Worker section of our website here.

We also have a blog on what it’s like to work as a Temp with Three Q you can read here.

Our Three Q Temps our fantastic every year when it comes to our Spare an Hour campaign. Check out our Blog showing the involvement our temp workers have on our Spare an Hour campaign! Read here: Three Q Temps are The Heroes of Our Spare An Hour Campaign

Employer Branding – Get People Who Get You

Employer brand is a company’s reputation as an employer, its value or what it offers to potential employees. Positive employer branding will help attract and retain employees. It’s taking longer than ever to fill positions and employer branding can provide huge advantages – companies with positive brands get twice as many applications as companies with negative brands. So now more than ever it’s important to build a positive employer brand. If you have a strong employer brand, great candidates that connect with your employer brand will queue up to work for you making the search for quality candidates so much easier.

Build on Your Company’s Reputation

It’s obvious to most that companies who have a bad reputation will find it more difficult to fill positions in comparison to the companies with an excellent reputation. It’s also been proven that if the reputation of your company is not impressive you will be forced to pay above market salaries in order to attract people to applying for your open positions. Building a good reputation is easy – Treat your employees with the same respect you would treat your clients – doing so with monthly social events and employee awards/recognition and always update your social media to make your future employees aware of the benefits of working with your company when they start with your company. Another benefit from updating your social media platforms with such content is that potential employees will always research your company before clicking onto the application which some people forget – employers always do their background checks before deciding whether or not to hire but most potential candidates will also do the same before hitting the apply now button.

Employer Branding on Social Media

With today’s social media phenomenon being generic is death to branding – the second someone detects a canned message, whether it’s in a tweet, an emailed job alert, a Facebook post or a job ad, they can turn to a number of different channels for something better so always be organic with your social media posts and never be try and represent something that the company doesn’t do. The only way to get out of this is to know your audience and the people you want to attract and speak directly to their interests.

Be Different!

Employer branding is all about what sets you apart from every other company out there. This can be shown through many different channels, CSR is a huge part of every company in today’s working environment and it’s important to choose your CSR activities to match the interest of the company and its employees which will encourage your employees to further broadcast the these activities which could potentially attract that star candidate you have been searching for. Choosing such activities that are of an interest to the people working in your company will also encourage your employees to interact and get involved.

Make Your Employer Brand About Satisfying Employees Needs

Many employees need more than just work and wages— they need something to work toward. For one, when employees understand the mission of a business and its reason for being, they are more likely to feel that same pride and work in the same direction to achieve the goals the business owner has set. Having a strong brand is like turning the company logo into a flag the whole the company can rally around. Think about how you can brand your company to show what you do to care about your Employees’ needs.

Overall, there are many things to consider and many ways you can improve your employer brand. Standing out, taking part in and communicating your CSR, using social media and thinking about what your potential employees would want in a company are essential for improving your employer brand.

For more information on building your employer brand, you can go read this great article by clicking here.

A few ways we like to communicate our employer brand? We care about people and one way we show this include displaying testimonials on our website and on social media. You can click here to see our candidate and client testimonials on our website. As a company that cares about people, we also try to make a big difference in our community. We show our CSR activities here.

Working with Three Q TEMP Agency as a Temp, you can expect to be treated with dignity and respect. The quality of our service is built on the quality and professionalism of you our agency staff workers.

What we do differently:

  • Emergency on-call (available 7 days a week)
  • We undertake site visits to ensure you work in a good environment
  • You will get regular reviews and feedback
  • We will assist you to undertake Garda Vetting
  • You will be trained in statutory & role specific skills
  • We have a unique Temp of the Month and Temp of the Year Program to reward our Temps that go above and beyond
  • You will have a relationship with our Team based on support, transparent communication and cooperation
  • You will receive competitive pay
  • You will have the opportunity to make a difference as a part of a team in our community with our annual charity campaigns such as ‘Spare An Hour’

Training

Temp Agency workers get access to a variety of experiences in different settings that widen their skill set and in some instances lead to full direct employment with the agencies client.

Three Q TEMPS are the faces of our Quality commitment and uphold the standards we believe in by being properly trained, dressed and capable of the tasks in the assignments given to them. We will ensure that the temps supplied meet the standards set by the client and that the temps who work with us are treated with the highest standard of care and respect.

Temping with Three Q gives workers a foot in the door within major organisations. If you are looking to break into competitive industries then a temporary role can act as a foot in the door or a try before you buy opportunity.

Exposure

Temping is a fantastic opportunity to see different company cultures and allows you to see what you prefer as an employee – without any major contract commitments.

Learn new skills and implement them

On the job experience through temporary jobs is the best way to gain new skills for a new line of work. Temping allows you to enter a company and under the guidance of the client, further enhance your skill set.

Experience

Experience is what will draw employers to your CV. Temping gives you the opportunity to build your CV and if you have temped with respected companies you’ll find it makes your CV more impressive to prospective employers.

Opportunity to Transition to Permanent Employment

Temping gives workers the opportunity to go into an organisation and make themselves indispensable. Often, a temporary position can transition into a permanent role.

Temporary work offers the opportunity to try various new roles, enhance your CV and work flexible hours while retaining the same benefits as permanent workers – not to mention it’s an easy form of work to get into. As we’ve discussed, working as a temp with Three Q PERMS & TEMPS has a lot to offer.

If you want to learn more, read our Temp Worker FAQ’s here.

ocial Media has grown massively over the last number of years and is now one of the most effective ways to advertise open roles, especially when it’s an urgent role. Candidates would much rather spend time applying for a job ad that they have seen on Social Media rather than scrolling through endless pages of job ads. Obviously LinkedIn is the most obvious platform for advertising open positions but the likes of Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram are ever growing. In this blog we will discuss the main points in how to make sure that your job ad gets found on Social Media.

Networking

Networking is key for success when advertising on social media; it is all good posting the job on the platforms but the work should not stop there. Sending an email to your colleagues asking them to share/like a job ad that you have just posted can be extremely beneficial, they may have someone in their network that you don’t who is looking for exactly what you’re advertising or they may even know somebody who they can recommend. Networking on LinkedIn is the obvious choice and it is great for this, but you can get value from all of the social media platforms. Think about which social media your target audience is likely to be using.

Hashtags

Hashtags are one of the main ways to get your job out there and seen. People tend to search for hashtags while searching for their dream jobs, hashtags like #JobFairy, #JobVacancy or #Recruiting can be some of the main ones you will see in job ads but it’s also important to hashtag the location and also the position within the actual posting for people in that area to see the advertisement.

Make the Ad Attractive

Always make your job advertisement as attractive as possible. We all know that we are more inclined to click on a post if it has a funny meme or a picture people can relate to attached to the post. This can be a time consuming thing but its been proven that social media posts will perform better if they attract an audience by using the likes of pictures, videos and memes.

Job Description is KEY

Anyone can post a job ad in the old fashioned layout with nothing but the basic requirements and duties. Make your job description attractive. Obviously you should always cover the basics such as your requirements, salary and location but make sure you include a brief background on the company and what the benefits of a candidate choosing your company will be whether that be staff events or career progression it could be the deciding factor for someone clicking that apply button. You should include details in your job description in your social media post. These details could be the reason your audience clicks on the link to see your job ad.

Using social media for hiring purposes is something you should do and something you should do right. Some of the main ways you can utilise your professional social media profiles for recruitment purposes involve networking correctly, writing a good job description and reference it in your social media caption, make the ad attractive for readers and increase visibility with appropriate hashtags!

To read more on our tips for employers, we have a recent article on the top hiring mistakes and how to avoid them.

For more tips on best practices for recruitment on social media: see this article on social media recruitment strategies.

Social Media has grown massively over the last number of years and is now one of the most effective ways to advertise open roles, especially when it’s an urgent role. Candidates would much rather spend time applying for a job ad that they have seen on Social Media rather than scrolling through endless pages of job ads. Obviously LinkedIn is the most obvious platform for advertising open positions but the likes of Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram are ever growing. In this blog we will discuss the main points in how to make sure that your job ad gets found on Social Media.

Networking

Networking is key for success when advertising on social media; it is all good posting the job on the platforms but the work should not stop there. Sending an email to your colleagues asking them to share/like a job ad that you have just posted can be extremely beneficial, they may have someone in their network that you don’t who is looking for exactly what you’re advertising or they may even know somebody who they can recommend. Networking on LinkedIn is the obvious choice and it is great for this, but you can get value from all of the social media platforms. Think about which social media your target audience is likely to be using.

Hashtags

Hashtags are one of the main ways to get your job out there and seen. People tend to search for hashtags while searching for their dream jobs, hashtags like #JobFairy, #JobVacancy or #Recruiting can be some of the main ones you will see in job ads but it’s also important to hashtag the location and also the position within the actual posting for people in that area to see the advertisement.

Make the Ad Attractive

Always make your job advertisement as attractive as possible. We all know that we are more inclined to click on a post if it has a funny meme or a picture people can relate to attached to the post. This can be a time consuming thing but its been proven that social media posts will perform better if they attract an audience by using the likes of pictures, videos and memes.

Job Description is KEY

Anyone can post a job ad in the old fashioned layout with nothing but the basic requirements and duties. Make your job description attractive. Obviously you should always cover the basics such as your requirements, salary and location but make sure you include a brief background on the company and what the benefits of a candidate choosing your company will be whether that be staff events or career progression it could be the deciding factor for someone clicking that apply button. You should include details in your job description in your social media post. These details could be the reason your audience clicks on the link to see your job ad.

Using social media for hiring purposes is something you should do and something you should do right. Some of the main ways you can utilise your professional social media profiles for recruitment purposes involve networking correctly, writing a good job description and reference it in your social media caption, make the ad attractive for readers and increase visibility with appropriate hashtags!

To read more on our tips for employers, we have a recent article on the top hiring mistakes and how to avoid them.

As a Recruiter I know the importance of the Right Hire to my clients and when thinking of that I wanted to present some of the key issues facing anyone looking to hire new talent into their team or company. Finding the right person to join your team can be one of the most crucial tasks in leading an organisation and possibly one of the most difficult. This is why knowing the top hiring mistakes is important to any company and even more importantly knowing how to avoid them.

Describing your “ideal” candidate:

We are all guilty of adding a list of attributes to a job description in order to find the “ideal” candidate who just simply doesn’t exist which means it can be nearly impossible to find and attract a person who has all those skills. When recruiting, your goal should be to define what the job really is and the experience it requires in order for the candidate to succeed and use this as a scale on determining what candidates are a good fit for the role rather than searching endlessly for perfection.

Overlooking Internal Candidates:

Overlooking internal candidates is often a case with many employers while struggling to find the right candidate for a role with their company. Employers will spend many hours trailing through applications and trying to source the perfect candidates via the many platforms available and sometimes forget to look inside the front door rather than beyond it. Have you got someone who is already in your company who is looking to expand their career and is more than capable of taking on a new challenge? It’s a common mistake made by employers to overlook current employees because they may be in a different department and forget it’s easier to train someone who already has extensive knowledge about the company and is interested in progressing their career.

Maximise your interview:

Employers can be quick to judge a candidate for not preparing for an interview but what if it’s the other way around? Without a clear and concise plan for the interview questions will be predictable which will lead to vague and underwhelming answers. Interviews should always include multiple team members because sometimes extra eyes and ears may pick up subtleties that one person alone,who is focusing on the technicality of the interview may miss out on.

Experience over ability:

Often employers will choose to interview someone who has more experience rather than go with that “I got a really good feeling about that person” and believing that the more experience a candidate has the safer the hire, is often wrong. Just because someone has done something for years doesn’t mean that person may have more ability than someone with less experience. Remember, everyone has to start somewhere.

Not completing reference checks:

Failure to complete a reference check for your candidate can be a game changer a month into the job. Everyone has been at the stage where getting the role filled is urgent and overlooking the most crucial part of the application process, reference checking, can be put to the side because you would rather get the candidate started rather than wait for a previous employer to return your call but in reality it’s much better to wait for that call back than having to start the process from the beginning a couple of months later.

Remember when recruiting it’s important to take the time to find the right candidate for your company and sometimes, rushing into a hire just to fill the urgent role may become problematic down the line. The mistakes listed above with hiring can be costly. Here at Three Q we have a rigorous process to ensure the best candidates are offered to interview by clients which mitigates these problems from occurring. Three Q recruiters go on regular site visits to see our clients to find out exactly what our clients’ needs are. We are experienced in screening candidates and we always do reference checks. If you would like to work with Three Q as a recruitment partner, you can learn more about our service here or call us at 01 878 3335

For more reading on hiring mistakes to avoid here’s a great article from Forbes: Hiring Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs

As a Recruiter I know the importance of the Right Hire to my clients and when thinking of that I wanted to present some of the key issues facing anyone looking to hire new talent into their team or company. Finding the right person to join your team can be one of the most crucial tasks in leading an organisation and possibly one of the most difficult. This is why knowing the top hiring mistakes is important to any company and even more importantly knowing how to avoid them.

Describing your “ideal” candidate:

We are all guilty of adding a list of attributes to a job description in order to find the “ideal” candidate who just simply doesn’t exist which means it can be nearly impossible to find and attract a person who has all those skills. When recruiting, your goal should be to define what the job really is and the experience it requires in order for the candidate to succeed and use this as a scale on determining what candidates are a good fit for the role rather than searching endlessly for perfection.

Overlooking Internal Candidates:

Overlooking internal candidates is often a case with many employers while struggling to find the right candidate for a role with their company. Employers will spend many hours trailing through applications and trying to source the perfect candidates via the many platforms available and sometimes forget to look inside the front door rather than beyond it. Have you got someone who is already in your company who is looking to expand their career and is more than capable of taking on a new challenge? It’s a common mistake made by employers to overlook current employees because they may be in a different department and forget it’s easier to train someone who already has extensive knowledge about the company and is interested in progressing their career.

Maximise your interview:

Employers can be quick to judge a candidate for not preparing for an interview but what if it’s the other way around? Without a clear and concise plan for the interview questions will be predictable which will lead to vague and underwhelming answers. Interviews should always include multiple team members because sometimes extra eyes and ears may pick up subtleties that one person alone,who is focusing on the technicality of the interview may miss out on.

Experience over ability:

Often employers will choose to interview someone who has more experience rather than go with that “I got a really good feeling about that person” and believing that the more experience a candidate has the safer the hire, is often wrong. Just because someone has done something for years doesn’t mean that person may have more ability than someone with less experience. Remember, everyone has to start somewhere.

Not completing reference checks:

Failure to complete a reference check for your candidate can be a game changer a month into the job. Everyone has been at the stage where getting the role filled is urgent and overlooking the most crucial part of the application process, reference checking, can be put to the side because you would rather get the candidate started rather than wait for a previous employer to return your call but in reality it’s much better to wait for that call back than having to start the process from the beginning a couple of months later.

Remember when recruiting it’s important to take the time to find the right candidate for your company and sometimes, rushing into a hire just to fill the urgent role may become problematic down the line. The mistakes listed above with hiring can be costly. Here at Three Q we have a rigorous process to ensure the best candidates are offered to interview by clients which mitigates these problems from occurring. Three Q recruiters go on regular site visits to see our clients to find out exactly what our clients’ needs are. We are experienced in screening candidates and we always do reference checks. If you would like to work with Three Q as a recruitment partner, you can learn more about our service here or call us at 01 878 3335

For more reading on hiring mistakes to avoid here’s a great article from Forbes: Hiring Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs