Clergy Appreciation Month

The month of October is Clergy Appreciation Month and dates back to 1992. Hallmark has a page giving details of this celebration. Here is some background from their site: The mission of Clergy Appreciation Month is to uplift and encourage pastors, missionaries and religious workers by providing physical, emotional and spiritual support. There are more than 1 million full-time Christian ministry workers in the United States, including 350,000 senior pastors. So make sure to thank your pastor, reverand, preacher and priest for all they do.

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Sales Traits Series – Self-Starting Ability

There may be no more popular buzzword in employment articles today than “self starter.” The majority of ads list this trait as required for the position. We can objectively measure it. Self-Starting Ability A measure of a person’s ability to initiate tasks in order to fulfill responsibilities and commitments along with the degree to which a person will maintain that ability in the face of adversity. A salesperson with strength in this capacity is adept at synchronizing their internal drivers (e.g., level of initiative, persistence, goal focus, etc.) and directing these combined abilities toward a common goal or task. They are also capable of marshalling these strengths on their own… Read More

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Recruiting Challenges of 2006

As I have said before, I am a sucker for statistics so I was drawn in to this comparison of 2005 to 2006 recruiting challenges companies are facing in Workforce Management’s recent newsletter. It is a survey of 1,000 hiring managers conducted by Robert Half International/CareerBuilder.com. Here are the stats: Recruiting Challenges -Percentage of hiring managers reporting primary cause behind the challenge in finding qualified workers for their firm. 2005 2006 Shortage of qualified workers 47% 52% Low recruitment budget 6% 5% Inability to offer competitive compensation 20% 21% Inability to offer career advancement 10% 8% Ineffective recruitment tools 4% 4%

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A Different Pricing Model

We have kicked around a pricing model in jest but it conveys a point. One part of our business is assessing candidates for many different positions but sales is our specialty. We have clients that do their own sourcing and interviewing and then use our online assessments to measure the candidate’s sales skills, aptitudes, motivations and style. That being said, here is what the Rock Star and I were discussing: If a company locates a sales candidate they feel is strong, we assess them and confirm that they are strong, the fee is $500. If a company locates a sales candidate they feel is strong, we assess them and reveal… Read More

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