This article is from Salary.com and the title of this post is from them and NOT from me. They came up with $134,121 for stay at home moms and $85,876 for working moms (the “mom” portion of their efforts). The breakdown of weekly jobs performed by mom are quite entertaining. I enjoyed the 3.5 hours per week of being a psychologist. Clever.
Continue Reading“A weakness is just the flip side of a strength taken too far”
Good article from vault.com titled Answering the Weaknesses Question. I want to take a different tact on this article’s main point. First, if you are using interviews as a second step qualifier in your hiring process, an article like this one ought to give you pause. The article is a deep analysis of strategies to answering an interview question many companies use today. But back to the point – Jerry Houser illuminates a great truth which is the title of this post. His further comment is just as insightful, “Strengths and weakness are situational. You have to know how to read your environment and use or moderate your skills in… Read More
Continue ReadingBad Hires That Lead to a Bad Fit
This article from CareerJournal.com speaks to a common problem – good hires who are a bad fit for the position. There are many variables within a minimally structured hiring process. To simplify the equation, either the position was not clearly defined or, more likely, the employee’s skills, style and motivations were assumed or unknown during the hiring process. From the article: “Employers are well-schooled in how to eliminate jobs or fire poor performers. Yet they often don’t know what to do with people who are doing their work passably, or even better, but aren’t suited for the job, for reasons ranging from personal chemistry to mismatched skills. In that gray… Read More
Continue Reading12 Warning Signs You Are Failing As A Manager
More from Sales & Marketing Management with my comments in parentheses: “Here is Sales & Marketing Management’s dozen warning signs that you are failing as a manager:1. Team members stop greeting you in the morning, or don’t come into your office as often as they used to. When communication starts breaking down, performance slumps. (some managers never establish good communication channels with their team)2. Your boss stops greeting you in the morning. You may be the problem or it could be somebody else, but your job is on the line if you don’t get the boss talking again. Your team knows it, too. (the last sentence is the key)3. People… Read More
Continue ReadingBeating the Phone Screen
This Career Center article provides candidates with insightful tips in how to do well on a phone interview (an important step in our process). This in itself, isn’t terrible but shows why employers need to be prepared for coached candidates. Before completing any phone interviews, interviewers need to have a set list of questions and a method to measure which candidates will move on to the next step in the hiring process. This article is one of many resources available on the internet to candidates for which they can strengthen and hone their interview skills.
Continue ReadingGeneration Gaps in Salespeople
This article from Sales & Marketing Management has a Tolstoy-like length, but it is a fascinating read that spans many topics. We’ll start with the different generations in the sales arena today. This topic is one we experience daily as we have many customers with sales teams spanning these generations (Baby Boomers, Gen X & Gen Y). “Typically the world is all about hard work and loyalty for those oldest workers, most often top-level executives, who were born before 1945. Baby boomers, born roughly between 1946 and 1963, manage their lives for profit and status; boomers are the generation that gave us 60-hour workweeks and 24/7 availability to maximize work… Read More
Continue ReadingAccepting An Offer…Then Taking a Different Offer
The title sounds a bit abnormal but we actually experienced this fiasco earlier this year with one of our customers. The candidate accepted the offer and agreed to start in 3 weeks (she was moving from another state). To our surprise and our customer’s dismay, she contacted them approximately 10 days after accepting to say she took a different opportunity. The hiring landscape is changing with the younger generation. I have never heard of a candidate backing out of an agreed upon offer with a firm start date. I guess I am naive because I just read this article from CareerJournal.com. Who knows, maybe the author of the question was… Read More
Continue ReadingOur Growing Article List
We are on a new blog engine so our old posts are toast. That means we’ll have to point out some specific topics. One item is our ever-increasing (albeit slowly) article list which can be found here. The 2005 articles cover high points from our unique hiring process while the 2006 articles are a bit broader in their topics. A couple quick hits to pique your interest – from our 10 Commandments of Successful Sales Selection: Always select talent and skills over experience. Do not assume you are the candidates’ only option. Provocative? I hope so. Hiring strong salespeople requires a process that peels back the shiny veneer to get… Read More
Continue ReadingThe New Look
Welcome to our new and improved blog. Our previous blog was one of convenience, but not feature-rich like this updated version. We will continue to post about current hiring trends, sales management techniques and general employee information that we find insightful, helpful or laughable. Hope you enjoy the new layout and please drop us a comment.
Continue Reading