Don’t Tell the Sales Team…

but according to CareerJournal.com, it appears that the classic business lunch is making a strong comeback. As the article states, it may become even more popular if the IRS moves the deduction from 50% up to 80%. Check expense reports for fine wine and fancy meals!

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Younger Workers = “…curt, blunt, irreverent and impersonal”

The pronounced generation gap in today’s workplace is a topic we consistently encounter in our selection and assessment business. We released an article, Hiring Adjustments for Generations X and Y, earlier this week in response to this gap. Now monster.com has a great article that goes to the experiential source of the younger generations’ uniqueness. The younger generation, particularly Generation Y (born 1977 to 1989), thrives in a fast-paced technological world. . . Their constant exposure to technology has even caused some to speculate that their brains have developed differently. The familiarity of so many different technological media has enabled them to process a huge amount of information in a… Read More

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Lost Art of the Phone Screen

The phone screen is making a comeback, as well it should. We talk extensively about the sequence in which a strong sales hiring process occurs. Step 3 is the phone screen which comes before the in-person interview. The main thrust of this approach is to neuralize the candidate’s advantages while placing them in a sales prospecting scenario. What is one strength that is almost universal in all salespeople? Rapport-building. Granted, there are some who lack even this ability but the vast majority of salespeople have some skills in this area. Unfortunately, even the bad salespeople can have enough of this ability to make themselves appear stronger than they are in… Read More

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In Support of Assessments

I read Perfect Score = Perfect Job? a few days ago on Forbes.com and am catching up to comment on it now. It is a good read with many excellent points in support of assessments. I previously posted about an article that discussed the ability of candidates to refuse to take the assessments. This article goes a long ways in articulating the purpose and results of effective, validated assessments. …the process benefits both sides by matching the employer’s needs with the candidate’s skills and interests. To put a sharper point on it, assessments measure the candidate’s skills, aptitudes, style and motivations to the specific needs of the position for which… Read More

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First-Time Managers

Stepping Into the Role of a First-Time Manager (link is gone) is a quick read article with practical advice for employees making their foray into management. My first foray into management left me with many bruises as I did not follow one of the suggestions in this article. I attempted to change many things in a short amount of time. My approach led to some significant changes but it triggered many management meetings with the other departments. Let’s just say those were quite candid meetings. Much of our focus is on hiring, but we have another side to our business where we assess existing teams. In some ways, this work… Read More

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Average Work Time Wasted by State

Not kidding. Salary.com has a listing of time wasted at work broken out by all 50 states. I’m not sure what to make of it, but I did find this fact interesting: 4. Wisconsin 2.8 hrs avg wasted salary wasted: $23.8 billion 33. Minnesota 1.9 hrs avg wasted salary wasted: $11.8 billion I will reserve comment since we have customers in Wisconsin.

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Telecommuting Part 2 – Businesses Slow to Act

From a recent SHRM survey and article titled “Businesses slow to help employees at the gas pump” (membership required): of 380 companies surveyed from April 25th to May 1st of this year, few companies are actively moving to assist their employees with rising gas prices. In fact, 86% indicated that they were doing nothing. Here is a break down of the top initiatives for those companies reaching out: 20% are increasing the mileage limit 8% are offering public transportation discounts, up from 7% in 2005 8.4% organize carpools, up from 5.3% in 2005 7.1% offer telecommuting, up from 4.4% in 2005 As you can see, only a small percentage of… Read More

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An Opportunity-Limiting Move

What If Employers Want You to Take a Personality Test? is a stretch of an article from monster.com. Surely it is written to generations X and Y and falls under the category “Work/Life Balance.” (see our new article released this week regarding this topic). The author advocates a position of questioning the assessment process to the point of respectfully declining to take the test. In all fairness to the author, he does state that theoretically a candidate could decline but that approach is not realistically a strong position for getting the job. First off, “personality test” is a fat phrase – it can encompass a broad array of assessments. This… Read More

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“Stress” Interview Questions

The online training continues with the CareerJournal.com article Don’t Let Tough Questions Sabotage Your Interview. The author refers to these questions as “stress questions” which is a fair description. The article is a long read so I have compiled the 10 example questions they use: Could you tell me a little about yourself? Why did you leave your previous employer, or why are you leaving your present job? What are your greatest strengths? What are your weaknesses? What type of salary do you have in mind? What do you like most and least about your present job? Are you applying for any other jobs? Why should we hire you? Where… Read More

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Interview Tips – Part 3

The online training of candidates continues. This time, monster.com offers up Interview Prep Tips which provides a general overview of strategy for a successful interview (from the candidate’s side). If you follow the link for Closing the Interview you will end up here. This complementary article is excellent advice for sales candidates to close an interview strongly. One approach we value is found in bullet #4: Ask about the next step in the process. It’s important for you to know the next step so you can follow up. Ask for the decision date. Sound advice…and you would be shocked how infrequently this question occurs among sales candidates.

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