Student stepping on the stones to success

As a student pursuing a degree in Human Resources, working at SteppingStones and learning the ropes of the recruitment processes will start to give me an insight into what I hope my everyday life may one day entail!

I have completed my first week of my four week internship and have already learned a great deal. Last week I sat in on phone interviews as well as physical interviews, completed an audit, learnt how to format resumes and the list goes on… Let’s just say SteppingStones is the epitome of proficiency and efficiency!

The central lesson of the week was learning the differences in the process of recruiting temporary versus permanent staff. I was able to begin to understand this through sitting in on interviews for permanent candidates as well as temporary support staff candidates to see the different questions which have to be asked.

I also spent some time observing the daily function of their program which tracks candidates all the way from the application process to the placement process and it is essentially the pillar of their everyday procedures.

As a recruitment agency, throughout the many processes on their endless list, the consultants encounter tasks which the HR field sees on a daily basis such as immigration, advertising job posts, interviews, training, payroll, etc. I am hoping that this internship will allow me to have first-hand experience of what I am studying, and also give me the opportunity to begin to further develop my office and interpersonal skills and formulate a realistic understanding of what exactly I would like to pursue in the HR field once I have completed my degree.

I look forward to this week which will be similar to the first week with some formatting of resumes, an audit project, learning about the importance of reference checking as well as the process of doing so, and more shadowing during interviews. As the beginning of last week was used to familiarize me with everything, working this week and the end of last week, I can see that I am already much more confident in the nature of this work.  I’ll be back with an update of my work experience next week!

For more information on employment in Cayman visit the SteppingStones website

Leadership Cayman 2014

Over the past two years, SteppingStones has sponsored a staff member to participate in Leadership Cayman.  The programme offers an intensive, interactive, six-month series of seminars and retreats with member interacting with high-level community leaders and decision makers in fields ranging from business, government, education, media, social services, criminal justice, diversity, the arts and more.  The course is designed to promote and enhance community leadership with class members learning about their personal leadership styles and gaining an invaluable understanding of how our community works. 

Graduating class members join the Leadership Cayman Alumni and can remain involved in a variety of ways.  This year, Lindsey Gordon, Recruitment Manager at SteppingStones volunteered as a mentor to two of the Class 2014 participants, assisting them in organising a seminar evening.  Last night saw the culmination of their hard work and effort resulting in an extremely lively seminar on the very interesting topic of Immigration.

If you would like to find out more about Leadership Cayman, visit www.leadershipcayman.ky

Clifton Hunter Year 11 Mock Interview Day

On Friday 17th January 2014, Rosie Dunsford and Chelsea Flynn spent the day at Clifton Hunter school on Frank Sound Road, interviewing Year 11 children who had applied to a variety of role. 
The students had been given a number of job advertisements to choose from and had officially applied by way of cover letter and tailored resumes. 
Rosie and Chelsea interviewed 6 students each and then provided constructive feedback and guidance on future interview techniques and resume writing. 
A great event that allowed the SteppingStones team to interact with some very impressive young adults. 

For more information, please see: Cayman 27 report

To view all of our current opportunities, please visit: www.steppingstonescayman.com 

We love Rugby!

SteppingStones was proud to be the title sponsor of the 2013 NACRA (North America Caribbean Rugby Association) Sevens Tournament that took place in Grand Cayman November 9 & 10, 2013.  We love sports on both the corporate and individual level, as many of our team members are athletes themselves.  Visit our Facebook page for photos of the weekend’s event.

Along with having a great time, we also raised funds for our programme SteppingUp for the Community, with this month’s charity recipient being the Special Olympics of the Cayman Islands.

For more information about the SteppingStones NACRA Sevens, visit our website.

Give a little…to give a lot…it all adds up

Giving back to the community is easy to do, especially when you do it as a team.  At SteppingStones Recruitment, we thrive on doing our part in the local Cayman community. 

Commitment is key! 
If you encourage the whole team to contribute a little, it goes a long way.  Implement a programme to make it easy for the team to take part.  Our programme is called, Stepping Up for the Community, where each staff member voluntarily contributes a percentage of their pay and the company matches it.  It is completely effortless since the donation is taken automatically, yet the end result is so rewarding.

Who is your favourite?
Make it a team effort. Ask each employee what their favourite local charity is and add it to the list of the deserving donation recipients.  This shows both the employee and the charity they are valued.  This is an excellent way to spread the joy around to a variety of charities.

Corporate responsibility in the community is a priority to us…and it all adds up!

Interactive MBTI workshop for team members

SteppingStones may have come out winners of their group at the 2013 Top Employer awards but they are not content to rest on their laurels.  Milly and Ciara are committed to an ongoing programme of learning and development and in continuance of this the whole team took part in a Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) workshop facilitated by SteppingStones Training partner, Emma Woodhouse.

Over the last year or so each team member has taken an online assessment and had a follow up one-on-one interview with Emma to help interpret and understand the results.  The workshop was designed using internationally recognised and licenced exercises to begin to explore the findings in a team context.  The interactive workshop focused on vital business skills including communication, decision making, stress management and managing change. 

“MBTI helps us to understand more about our own and others preferences including decision making, giving and receiving information and managing time.” Says Emma.  “This is useful in itself but really comes alive when you see the differences and dynamics in a group situation.  Recognising these can really help to make teams more effective both in using the members’ contributions and recognising areas that might be overlooked.”

Owners Milly and Ciara firm believe even though SteppingStones already has a high functioning team, it is always informative not only to learn more about each other but to talk through some practical steps we can all take to get even better.

We already have another workshop planned in autumn!

 

Rosie new Secretary for Rotaract Club of Grand Cayman

SteppingStones staff are always involved in the community.

Starting 1st July 2013, Rosie Dunsford will be the Secretary for the Rotaract Club of Grand Cayman (RCGC). The Changeover Ceremony for RCGC took place on Saturday 22nd June at the George Town Yacht Club where both Rotaractors and Rotarians showed their support for the new 2013/14 Board.

A busy year lies ahead with a number of exciting projects in the pipeline. Hard work, great attitudes and many shared goals mean that the 2013/14 year is bound to be a good one! 

HR Professionals...Becoming More: Bold, Stronger, Better at SHRM

For the last 65 years, The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has hosted an Annual Conference & Exposition for HR professionals in the US and all over the world. This year, the conference was held in beautiful Chicago, Illinois where over 15,000 attendees gathered for the event, making it the largest HR conference in history. The theme for this year’s conference was motivating and encouraging - Becoming More: Bolder, Stronger, Better.

Late last year, I became a member of SHRM and completed the GPHR certification course and exam. Therefore, the conference promised not only the chance to gain some of my required recertification credits but to also expand upon my recently acquired knowledge and skills base and learn from some top innovators in the industry. I jumped at the opportunity to attend, and registered months in advance.

I was joined by more than 20 fellow HR professionals from the Cayman Islands, and over 1,100 fellow international attendees. As delegates from outside the United States, we were given access to the Global Networking Lounge, where I had the chance to catch up with other delegates from Cayman as well as make new connections with people from all over the world.

Being a fairly young newcomer to the industry and having never attended a conference of this magnitude before, it was a bit overwhelming at first. I had to choose from over 200 sessions and navigate my way through a massive convention centre in the city on my own. However, I am a pretty meticulous planner by nature so I created an itinerary for myself, outlining my first and second choice sessions for each time slot so that I knew what I wanted to attend and had a backup plan if my first choice was full or cancelled. This helped tremendously to keep me on track throughout the 4 conference days.

Everything was prepared and organized brilliantly by SHRM, from the daily newsletters, online discussion boards and the on-site logistics. They even created a mobile App so that you could easily track your sessions, create calendar reminders, view speaker bios and take notes during the session, all at your fingertips. While the conference was a bit exhausting at times, the tremendous amount of energy and evening entertainment kept everyone going.   

One of the most impressive parts of the conference was the speaker line up. I heard Hillary Clinton describe the adversities she faced while pushing the frontiers of human rights, heard Blake Mycoskie describe how his passion for helping others has lead him to create a successful business and how it wasn’t always easy, and I heard how Gabby Giffords fought for her life while always remaining optimistic.  This is only a snippet of the inspirational speeches that we were so privileged to receive.

In addition to these motivating speakers, I was also able to attend some forward-thinking and very engaging seminars. Topics such as “Strategic Insights & Practical Guidelines for Boosting Performance and Retention,” “A Global Perspective on Recruiting and Retaining the Multi-Gen Workforce,” “Talent Acquisition Strategies in Times of Unprecedented Change,” “The Science of a Good Hire,” “Beyond Behavioural Interviewing,” and “Getting Comfortable with Uncomfortable Conversations: 7 Steps for High-Impact Communication” were just some of the sessions I attended, and I learned practical techniques from people who have worked first-hand in the field.

Throughout the conference, I gained many pearls of wisdom that I believe will help me to be a bolder, stronger and better HR professional and will greatly benefit my organization and the industry as a whole in the Cayman Islands. I would like to share some of these pearls with you:

“Take criticism seriously, but never personally.” – Hillary Clinton

“How good you are at the beginning of something is not an indicator of how well you will do in the long run.” – Mark Kelly

“Even if you don’t reach all of your goals, focus on the journey which is often much more meaningful.” – Mark Kelly

“Bosses fail when they forget to take their employees’ perspectives.” – Dan Pink

 “Context drives behaviour more than we realize.” – Dan Pink

 “It’s not the strongest or most intelligent person that survives, but the one that can respond to change.” – Darwin (reflected upon in a session led by George Fleming).

“Purpose is what drives you, passion is what fuels you, and pride is what defines you.” – Steve Gilliland

The SHRM Annual Conference introduced me to new ways of thinking and provided me with skills for managing people in today’s environment, and I look forward to putting this new-found knowledge to practice in the workplace.



By Michelle Gibbon, Staffing Coordinator, SteppingStones Recruitment

Better than the Best

In an ever increasing world of stress and deadlines, recruitment is always the icing on the cake when it comes to long ‘to do’ lists and additional headaches in the office.

Your best Accountant has just left to relocate to an office on the other side of the world, so what do you do? Do you advertise, read through quite possibly hundreds of resumes and then hire someone really good to take over the role? I imagine the answer to this is yes, which is great, but also time consuming.

So why would you bother to use an external recruiter? The answer to this is quite simple. As recruitment consultants our job and our time is spent going the extra mile. We can advertise, we can look at the pool of candidates we have met over the years, we can proactively search for candidates, and then we can find you not just the best person who applied for the job, but the best person there is for the job.

Next time you are in doubt about whether recruitment agencies are worth using, give us a shot – you won’t be disappointed.

Congratulations Irongirl Pam!

We want to be the first to congratulate our very own Pam Abbott for her outstanding achievement at yesterday's IRONMAN event in Cozumel, Mexico.  Pam completed the gruelling course in well under her goal time at an incredible 11:43:48.   GO Pam!!
 
For those not aquainted with this event, an IRONMAN is a triathalon which includes a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run.  Three thousand athletes were enrolled in yesterday's event which started off at the Chankanaab Park in the Cozumel Reef National Park with the mass-start swim through the pristine waters of the Caribbean Ocean.  Participants then took to their bikes to complete a two-loop course through the southern part of the island on flat, paved roads before hitting the run which took them through a scenic course that runs parallel to the Caribbean Ocean.

We look forward to welcoming our IRONGIRL back to the office!  Well done!

Visit the SteppingStones website to learn more about triathalons, other activities and job opportunities in the Cayman Islands.