We may be early on this topic, but we have seen candidates with personal websites. Now, I must clarify – I’m not talking about MySpace profiles. I am referring to full-fledged, personal, web domains. My initial take on this approach is that it is rife with vanity. But I have to confess, I took some time to browse their website and learn more about them. Now I just caught up to this MarketingProfs.com article title What’s Your Google Identity? From the article: People are googling you and making decisions about you from what Google reveals. Whether you are an employee looking to advance in your company, a professional seeking your… Read More
Continue ReadingCandidate Questions
We always say that interviewing is a two-way street. Both the hiring company and the candidate have to be impressed with each other to continue the process. Either one can terminate the process at any time. That being said, BusinessWeek has an interesting article dedicated to candidates titled Ask The Right Question. The author provides a strategy to 3 styles of questions all candidates should ask in an interview: Here’s My Brain Working Questions My Turn Questions What Happens Now? Questions I’ll let the author lay out the strategy for the questions (which is quite well developed). One overly simplistic tip I will share from our experience – candidates should… Read More
Continue ReadingWork-Life Perception
Sales & Marketing Management has an quick-hitter of a story titled Motivational Forces in the Workplace. I thought we could keep the motivational/rewards riff going from this morning’s post, but this article is a quick rehash of a Monster.com study. The article is rather unremarkable except for this bullet point: Work-life balance matters more to women. Forty-one percent of women would refuse a job offer that provided no work hours flexibility. Only 26 percent of men would do the same. Still, once on the job, work-life issues flip-flop across gender lines. Forty percent of men say their current employer is not flexible enough regarding work-family balance, while only 28 percent… Read More
Continue ReadingEmployee Retention Wake-Up Call
Speaking Up Helps Keep Star Workers appears in one of our local papers – the Pioneer Press. The article discusses a topic we have addressed before that many employers assume is not active in their company – job hunting. In case you were in doubt, some stats from the article: A recent workplace survey of 16,237 workers by Leadership IQ, a leadership training and research firm in Washington, D.C., found that nearly half the people regarded as stellar performers were actively trying to leave their current employers. That should grab every managers’ attention. 16,237 is a large sample size and 47% are actively looking to leave. Forty-seven percent of your… Read More
Continue ReadingA REAL Working Vacation
Ok, I had to read this abcnews.com article slowly – Need a New Job? Go On Vacation. To cut to the chase – people are using their vacation time to test drive a new career they would prefer to have. Vocation Vacation – what a great name – offers this service: the company offers more than 75 different career experiences all while your boss thinks you’re off sunning yourself on some sandy beach. We have encountered companies that are implementing various forms of trial-for-hire programs even amongst high end sales positions. From the company’s perspective, I think it is a great opportunity to make sure you hire the right person… Read More
Continue ReadingWhen Sales Job Postings Go Bad
We keep an eye on the sales employment ads so we are informed of trends in the market. I came across an ad that was innocuous enough in its title. Then I read the opening sentence: This is a job in our Customer Service Department that can lead to an outside sales position at our company. What does customer service and outside sales have to do with each other? Nothing…that is the problem. We have seen this trap before with some of our customers. The skills and aptitudes required for effective customer service are markedly different than the skills and aptitudes required for successful outside selling. This situation is exasperated… Read More
Continue ReadingWhy Assessing Works – Stopping the Fakers
CareerJournal.com again with this article – Pre-Hire Tests Aim To Stop ‘Fakers’. I like to riff on this topic often. My comment – if we could simply keep the fakers off your payroll, we would be worth our weight in gold. Along those lines, I think the most accurate pricing model for our assessments would be $500 for determining a strong candidate and $1,000 for identifying a weak candidate. I doubt that would fly, but the logic is sound. Some excerpts: Despite the tests’ flaws, Dr. Griffith says pre-employment tests are generally more reliable predictors of performance than an interview alone. Generally? An understatement in my opinion. Our primary focus… Read More
Continue ReadingAnecdote – Tell Me What You’re Looking For
In a recent phone screen for a sales position, I asked a candidate to tell me how they believed their background fit the requirements of the position. Now mind you, the position required the candidates to listen effectively, build rapport, ask insightful questions and have excellent verbal communication skills. The candidate’s response: Tell me what you’re looking for and I will tell you if I can do it. Really, I didn’t need to go much further, but I did ask him a couple of other questions and received similar answers. So I ended the phone screen by stating, “That’s all the questions I have for you at this time. What… Read More
Continue ReadingWhy Assessing Works
From CareerJournal.com’s mailbag article (emphasis mine): Question: My son, a high-school student who has dyslexia and ADD, handles himself well in job interviews and on jobs bagging groceries or helping customers. But when he applies for part-time jobs at big store chains, he invariably flunks their online pre-employment tests. The tests take an hour or more and ask so many simple, repetitive questions that my son gets bored and just starts checking off answers randomly. Are these tests a legal way of discriminating? — F.J., Irvine, Calif. Answer: Such tests can be discriminatory, but proving it can be difficult. The Americans With Disabilities Act prohibits employers from using screening tests… Read More
Continue ReadingVeteran’s Day
This Saturday, November 11th is Veteran’s Day and I hope you will observe this holiday by remembering the sacrifices of our military men & women including their families. I would like to share a little bit of history with you regarding this day of remembrance. June 28, 1919 – Treaty of Versailles was signed, officially ended World War I. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier for that reason, November 11, 1918 , is generally regarded as the end of the war to end all wars. November 11, 1919 – President Wilson proclaimed the first commemoration of Armistice Day. June 4, 1926 – United States Congress officially recognized the end of… Read More
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