If you receive a profile request for a job, we encourage you to either accept or decline this as soon as possible.  Businesses send you these requests to find out more about you, so it’s respectful to get back in touch in a prompt matter.  Profile request alerts can now be sent to your mobile (in addition to the standard email), if you haven’t set this up already, click here to find out how.

We know that your availability can change quite regularly, so we encourage you to log in now and update this using the calendar function on your Dashboard.  If you are currently in a contract or in employment, you can make your profile unavailable by blocking out your availability.  This will also mean you won’t be contacted with profile requests during this period – and when you are ready for a new project, you don’t have to start from scratch and build a new profile.

Do you feel like you are missing out on this action?  It could be because you have not completed your profile yet!  Businesses can only find Crackerjacks who have complete profiles.  You can easily find out if you’ve completed your profile, by logging on and looking at your Dashboard.  If there is a “Print profile” option at the top right side of your Dashboard, then you’re good to go.  If this isn’t displayed – the areas you need to complete will be highlighted there.

If you have any questions relating to your profile, please don’t hesitate to contact us on question@crackerjacks.co.nz and one of the team will be in touch with you.

Talk soon,

The Crackerjacks team

When there are deadlines to meet, limited staffing budgets, and particularly when you have a limited amount of time to recruit – making the right decision the first time is paramount.

Companies do have measures to hire performers, such as maintaining contact with good contractors they’ve engaged in the past, along with using contractor suppliers, such as agencies.  Sound familiar?  But these options have their pitfalls; when existing contractors are engaged in other projects and if the budget won’t stretch to cover agencies bills, managers can be left scrambling to find a good contractor.

Our focus at Crackerjacks is to provide businesses direct access to a pool of vetted contractors, who are assured to perform. This is delivered through our proprietary performance checking system – which has been patented in New Zealand.

This proprietary performance system works in the following manner:

1. 1.    Contractors who register on Crackerjacks are required to add two referees, who have been their past managers, so we can contact them and undertake the performance check.
2. 2.    The performance check measures their key competencies, such as communication, technical abilities, project management and management skills.  It also looks at contractor specific performance indicators, such as; speed/accuracy, understanding of their past project, people integration skills and their value for money.
3. 3.    From this check each contractor is assigned a rating – which is comparative to all other contractors.  Top performers, who scored well in these, are assigned a 3 star rating – and will naturally appear higher in business searches, which makes finding a top performer easy for employers.

With performance being such a vital issue for employers, it is good to know there is an alternative that simplifies this guesswork, before the final hire decision is made.  Crackerjacks pool of performance rated contractors can be accessed by any Crackerjacks business user 24/7, and because our fees are only incurred once a contractor is hired, you can have peace-of-mind while searching and interviewing.  With this end-to-end recruitment system you are assisted every step of the way, so contractors can be quickly found and hired with ease.

For more information please contact us on business@crackerjacks.co.nz or call on (09) 914 8540 ext. 2

“We recently hired an Accounts Receivable contractor through Crackerjacks for a one month project.  It was a pretty straightforward process and we were very happy with the contractor we found.  She was a great performer and we would definitely hire her again in the future.  When it comes to hiring contractors and temps the proof is in the pudding and Crackerjacks worked for us because we found a great contractor.  I would definitely encourage other businesses to consider using Crackerjacks to hire contractors.”

- Fire Security Services, Hamilton

In terms of business sectors on Crackerjacks, IT/Computing is the most highly represented followed by Professional Services, Manufacturing, Banking Finance, Retail/Wholesale, Advertising/Media and Telecommunications.  Please note there are numerous other sectors – these are just the top seven.

Want to know more?  Simply log on to your business account – or create one (free of charge) to conduct a search and get the low-down on our proven performers.  Keep in mind – to request a person’s full profile you need to have a live role posted (which is free of charge too!).  If you are interested in a specific skill set, or certain business sector experience, we suggest you set up a Talent Alert to be notified when people who meet this criteria register.

Happy searching,

The Crackerjacks team

These are particular abilities you can demonstrate in the workplace and incorporate your key talents that draw you apart from others in your profession.

For example, an Account Manager may include; excellent negotiation skills, advanced relationship building and interpersonal skills and strong organisational skills.  Whereas an Accountant may include; Meticulous with an eye for detail, advanced analytical skills, methodical approach to deliver accurate results and self-motivated.

Obviously these are two stereotypical examples, so make sure you personalise this section to show what you can offer an employer or client.  When businesses are searching for professionals, this blurb is what they see.  So it’s important to clearly articulate the skills that make you stand out from others.

Technical skills:

These are specific skills including; IT systems/applications, procedures/processes, legislation/policy and languages you are knowledgeable with.

On Crackerjacks, these are broken into three separate areas, including; Expert, Experienced, and Entry level.  Make sure you categorise your technical skills accordingly into the appropriate area.

This section is presented along side your business skills to employers, making it another key area to complete.

If you have any further questions please contact us on – question@crackerjacks.co.nz

It’s easy to tell whether you’ve been rated – simply log in, look at the image on the top of your Dashboard – and find out if you are a “New”, “0 Star”, “1 Star”, “2 Star”, or “3 Star” contractor.  If you’re still “New” this means you haven’t been rated yet and your details won’t be featuring prominently in business candidate searches.  To ensure you come up when an employer is looking for someone with your skills – make sure there are two relevant Referees added to your profile so you can be given a rating.  If you have already done this and are still “New” – our team is onto it and will be currently following up your outstanding reference check(s).  Click here for more information on our reference checks.

2.  Keep your information up to date
If you have completed a few roles since you first loaded your profile, or if you have new contact details – no better time than now to log in and update this!  You may want to ‘revamp’ your key skills too; this is the information a business user will see while searching for candidates.  Defining your technical and business skills is very important here because potential clients/employers will read this and then decide whether to request your profile for their role.

3.  Updating Availably
If you’re currently involved with another role, or not available for work, it would be great if you could block out your availability on your calendar.  Simply log in and you will see your calendar on the right side of your screen – click on this to manage.

4.  Entering Realistic Rates
It is important to enter a realistic rate range on your profile.  It may be that your rates have changed since you originally entered this information, so take this opportunity to log on and enter your current rate expectations; remember the tighter the ‘to and from’ range the better.  A business user can not see your rates – but they are notified whether these are within the range they are seeking.

Here at Crackerjacks we speak with HR professionals regularly who encounter issues in setting up talent pools, and more importantly keeping them up to date.  The maintenance of these take a considerable amount of time and with other important HR day to day tasks taking priority, building and maintaining talent pools can take a back-seat.

This is where Crackerjacks provide real value to companies who want to build talent pools in key professions.  The main factor that sets Crackerjacks apart is that we measure and rate the talent in our database of professionals.  Capturing static data does not constitute a meaningful talent pool in our books.

This is why we have set up a unique performance rating system where all professionals on Crackerjacks are reference checked at the time of registration and assigned a rating.  This enables businesses to identify high-performers and add them to their “Watch-Lists”, effectively allowing them to build validated talent pools.

To ensure you do not miss any relevant individuals new to Crackerjacks, a “Talent Alert” service is provided where business users can save searches for professions of interest and then receive a fortnightly email update on new talent.

Because Crackerjacks is an online tool designed to be used in-house, it means organisations can use this as their talent pooling platform.  To access this function a business must be registered with Crackerjacks, but there is no cost involved to build talent pools.

To find out more about the rating system we use click here.  To get your organisation set up for this function contact us on info@crackerjacks.co.nz or (09) 914 8540 and quote the “Watch-list” function.

Key components to a successful Crackerjacks profile:

Key Skills:

A business user with a contract role will look at your key skills and decide whether they would like to know more information about you.  When a search is conducted – your key skills are the first thing that is shown.  So it is important to include an accurate list of the key skills you have developed throughout your career.  This would include your core skills as well as the applications you have used.  For example, if you were an Accountant it would be important to include software that you have used e.g SAP.

Career Summary:

This is the section that will be shown to business users after you agree to a profile request.  In essence, this is a copy of your Crackerjacks CV.  Keep in mind you can not upload your CV.  The reasons for this include:

• Business searches are optimised when a standardised format is used.  For example, if individual CV’s were uploaded it would be difficult to scan for key skills and business sector experience.
• Your Crackerjacks profile is immediately updated when you secure a role through Crackerjacks.  The contract will be added to your Career Profile automatically – with a manually uploaded CV this could not take place.

You can simply copy and paste your responsibilities from your existing CV into the achievements section.  Please note that bullet points from Microsoft Word are not recognized in this format.

Referees:

Perhaps the most important aspect of your profile are referees, as your performance rating, along with your key skills are almost always the first thing a business user sees. Contractors are rated most commonly as either a one, two or three star ‘Crackerjack’, and this is based on answers given by referees during the reference checking process.

Crackerjacks reference checks are more like performance checks – assessing performance in past roles. When you enter your referees (2 are needed), they are automatically sent an email, explaining they have been nominated as a referee and asking them to complete a quick online reference check. In the check, your referees are asked a series of nine questions, each question reflecting a different aspect of performance: integration with the business, core competencies and performance against objectives. The referee is then able to rate your abilities on a scale of one to seven.

It’s important to enter a valid email addresses for your referees, as email is ideally our only point of contact with referees. However, if they do not respond to our follow-up email, we will usually give them a call to complete the check verbally.

Rates:

It is important to enter your expected rates to your Crackerjacks profile.  Without adding these, your profile will not be complete, which lessens the probability of appearing in searches businesses conduct when looking for contractors.  Also – we do not disclose what your rates are to businesses, but they are told whether your rates fit in with what they want to pay.

Once you have followed these steps your profile will be complete and you will be more likely to receive profile requests for active contracts.  Log in now to make sure your account is up to scratch.

We would like to welcome Sandra Diekerhof to the Crackerjacks team. Bolstering a strong HR background encompassing performance management, recruitment and training, Sandra is a valuable new addition. She operates from her own boutique HR consultancy – ‘hr connect’, and will now be assisting businesses with their recruitment of professional contractors through Crackerjacks within the Waikato region.

Sandra has worked for a number of organisations in the Waikato, including the Waikato DHB, Fonterra and Futurestep (a Korn Ferry Company) and subsequently has a large network of business contacts in the Waikato area.

It is Sandra’s focus to provide guidance and support for employers in the Waikato wishing to utilize Crackerjacks when sourcing professional contractors. If you would like to contact Sandra, send her an email – sandra.diekerhof@crackerjacks.co.nz or call her on (07) 974 9291 ext. 410 and she will be in touch.

Are you an employer who would like assistance using Crackerjacks – but not based in the Waikato? We have it covered. Alex Wong, the Auckland Business Support Partner is an accomplished sales professional in the IT sector. He is ready and willing to help you utilize Crackerjacks to find stand out contractors – now or in the future. He is contactable on alex.wong@crackerjacks.co.nz or call him on (09) 914 8540 ext 452.

It is a well known fact that sourcing talented professionals is a challenging and expensive task. With businesses squeezing recruitment budgets, finding the “A Grade” professionals who have the ability to step in and get the job done, can be hard work. Crackerjacks has utilized the online environment to create a site where businesses can directly recruit pre-qualified professional contractors to resolve this issue.

Why Crackerjacks?
Businesses who register with Crackerjacks have access to the market-ready candidate database of over 1,500 professional contractors. Various features of this web-based tool include a watch list function – which allows employers to create their own talent pools, and a multiple user account option so that HR staff can invite Line Managers to assist with selection processes.

Essentially Crackerjacks has made a break through in the online recruitment industry; it sits between being a job board and an online recruitment solution.

Tony Wai, Crackerjacks’ Managing Director created this tool in association with Frane Karaman – Senior IT Architect, in order to provide employers with a quick and simple way to source and manage professional contractors online.

Even with a restricted budget there are viable options to assist with online recruitment and talent management. Using Crackerjacks is an example – it is free to register with this tool and access the candidate database of professional contractors. The cost is only incurred once a contractor is offered a role. This means the additional functions, such as the talent management tool and advert posting facilities, are free of charge to use.

Taking the initiative in 2009 to investigate Crackerjack’s recruitment software could be worthwhile.   This has already proved to be a handy addition to a number of company’s recruitment methods.  As more and more companies trial this and have success, it is important not to get left behind, as this seems to be the way sourcing and managing talent is heading.