Job hopping gets much attention from companies when they are in hiring mode and rightly so. This business article provides some interesting statistics in regards to upper-level management trends.

Did you know:

• A total of 17,612 managers from chief executive officers to vice presidents changed jobs from January through July, more than twice the 7,251 during the same period in 2005, New York-based Liberum Research said in a study released Tuesday.
• Of the executive changes, 1,636 were CEOs, up 50 percent from 1,089 in the first seven months of 2005
• The pressure hasn’t been just on CEOs. Some 1,444 chief financial officers left their companies through July this year, up from 963 in the same period last year

This trend is consistent in all areas of modern-day business. Career stability is certainly of value but the days of 6-10 year stays at a company are quickly fading. As we have written often, the younger generations are leveraging today’s technology to be consistently informed of other opportunities. They change jobs far more frequently than the boomers.

One downside that rarely gets discussed - employees with long tenures at one company may not have the adaptability to respond to today’s quickly changing markets. Success in one company’s system often leads to a very specific skill set and a limited comfort zone. This fact must be considered when sourcing candidates. “Job hopping” may actually have a benefit in today’s market as long as success in the positions can be determined.

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We were at a customer site yesterday afternoon and heard a great line. This is a large, national company with thousands of employees. Our HR contacts have to work with many different hiring managers and have to debrief with them after interviews.

One of the lines they hear from a particular manager is that their gut tells them no on a certain candidate who has been qualified and assessed.

Our HR contact said, “We don’t like ‘gut’ in HR.”

Amen to that! We don’t like it either in our business. Far better to hear objective assessment analysis and direct interview responses as opposed to anything involving the ethereal “my gut” comments.

If you are hiring today based on your gut, there is a better way.

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No, not Coors. I’m talking about interview questions. More specifically, is there any catch-all interview question that will reveal the essence of the candidate.

No.

I read many articles that discuss interview strategies and most of them are exercises in theory. Maybe my sales background taints my perspective, but interviews are qualifying events for both the candidate and interviewer.

What I mean is that template questions tend to generate template answers. For example:

Q - “Where do you want to be in 5 years?”

A - “I hope to use my leadership skills to expand my responsibilities within the company and move into a leadership position.”

That exchange was worthless thanks to a standard question that elicited a well-rehearsed standard answer. I would rather ask a question and gently interrupt the candidate during their response. I will learn how well they handle an interruption, can they keep their train of thought, can they work back to the topic, etc.

An even more effective approach is to ask a purposely vague question and see if the candidate gracefully reverses the question back to me for further clarification. This qualifying skill is effective in all sales positions and should be valued greatly by all interviewers.

Our process focuses on gathering information about each candidate and then using it to delve deeper into their overall sales approach. Interviewers must be able to move with the discussion, integrate subtle prospect behaviors and observe the candidate with a detached objectivity.

I still recommend preparing some candidate-specific questions before the interview, but don’t get cute. Focus on their abilities, experience and sales approach and be prepared to drill down on their responses. Simultaneously, launch some opaque responses and see if the candidate drills down on your words.

If the candidate starts answering what they think you said, you will have learned more than any silver bullet question could have provided.

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Unbelievable. This seems like it must be a joke, but I doubt it. Here is the gist of the article:

But instead of increased efficiency, lawsuits against employers who supply workers with gadgets are “very possible,” she says.

Addiction to technology blamed by critics on the seeming ubiquity of portable e-mail devices, smartphones, cellphones and laptops, coupled with long working hours is hardly a new phenomenon.

But Porter argues litigation could be the next step, as employees seek redress for technology dependence.

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Friday and time for another anecdote as the week winds down.

A while back, I was working with one of our clients who has a fairly complex sale in which they offer a high-end solution. Budget is one of the first qualifying questions in their sales process so we mirror that process in our sourcing. We ask candidates, “At what point do you qualify a prospect’s budget in your current sale?”

As I talked with each candidate, I asked them this question to see if they could discuss this topic and how they handled customers who were reluctant to share their budget. Most of the candidates did well with this question except for one candidate. His response came back rather quickly:

“I don’t. Everyone has the same price so the prospect knows what they are going to be spending for the service so I figure why ask?”

If you ever hear this response from a candidate, no matter what your sales model, run the other way as fast as you can.

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In an article on Salary.com titled - Can Your Credit Report Hurt You in An Interview? An interesting statistic popped out at me - only 1 out of 5 small to medium-sized businesses run any form of background verification. 20%! I was shocked that the number is so low.

Soap box time: If you are not already completing some form of background verification, start with your next hire and all subsequent hires.

A true story to illustrate my point. Roughly 2 years ago, we were working with a client that was impressed with a candidate’s ability to close the deal (ask for and start the job). They liked him so much that they allowed him to begin work before they received the results of his background verification.

They received the new employee’s report on his first day on the job. Here is what they discovered:

-He had not been working for over 2 months. He told our client he was currently working and may have to give 2 weeks notice. Lo and behold, he told them his “employer” allowed him to quit without notice and start immediately with our client.

-His driver’s license had been revoked some time ago even though driving was required for this position. His record contained multiple DWI’s and other violations.

-His credit report indicated a pattern of maxed credit and delinquent/closed lines of credit.

The result was that our client ended up firing this person for lying on his resume on his first day. Our customer was more than generous and provided a 2 week severance for this person who lasted less than 1 day. All of this nonsense could have been avoided if they would have followed their own hiring process. The lesson here is to first run background verifications. For all potential employees. Secondly, complete the verification before you hire the candidate.

If you are looking for a company that provides this service, please visit Verified Credentials. We do not provide this service but have seen the thoroughness of Verified’s reports and they are top notch.

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Good article here from CareerJournal written as a “How To” for young workers entering the workforce. A good tip for any candidate from the article:

Try not to play hardball at this level,” warns Mr. Gordon. But you don’t have to be a pushover either. Once you’ve got a number, remain positive about the position. Ask, don’t demand. No one wants to hear you need more money to take vacations in Cancun, but you might have a case for a higher salary if you have to move to a new city. Ask for a day or so to think it over.

Another topic to be aware of is the fact that Gen Y candidates are interested in more than just compensation. They take a more holistic approach to their employment experience.

Gen Y is interested in the facility, their potential coworkers, the culture, the values and their immediate manager. We are observing this focus first-hand with a young sales candidate for one of our customers. His interest goes beyond the position which has shown up in his question pattern.

Be prepared to discuss their growth within the company. They are interested in their skill development and growth. This growth does not mean they are looking for a large corporation to move up the corporate ladder. Instead, they usually are looking for their own personal growth.

Our suggestions to provide Gen Y candidates:
-facility tour
-meet peers
-discuss growth opportunities
-one-on-one interview with their potential manager
-market background

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CareerJournal.com references a survey from Korn/Ferry that identifies the most common interview blunders:

• Talking too much
• Lack of knowledge about company or position
• Over-inflated ego
• Appearing overly confident
• Inquiring about compensation too early in the process
• Unkempt appearance

When selecting salespeople, an overly strong ego combined with a Dominant selling style is a recipe for disaster. These salespeople, at their worst, turn into a walking flamethrower. Their approach will aggravate most who come in contact with them - coworkers, customers and prospects.

In case you were wondering (I was):
unkempt = 1: not combed 2: deficient in order or neatness

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I thought I would pass along some stats and information I found regarding job boards & recruiting. This information can be found in a recent newsletter from Weedle’s, which is a research, publishing, consulting and training firm. They surveyed 750 job seekers and asked them how much time they normally spend on a job board. Here are their findings:

• 29.1% spend more than 30 minutes on each job board they visit
• 24.5% spend 11-20 minutes
• 22.3% spend 21-30 minutes
• 18.9% spend 6-10 minutes
• 5.2% blow in-and-out in 5 minutes or less

They also provided some suggestions when trying to determine which sites to use in recruiting active vs. passive job seekers.

Active Job Seekers

• Focus of the site
• Number and caliber of jobs that are posted
• Quality of the supporting job search content the site offers

Passive Job Seekers