Multitasking is one of those words that has entered business lexicon but should be considered an urban myth. We posted on this topic a few months ago and now I have come across a short Q&A article from CareerJournal.com that addresses the physical aspects of so-called multitasking.

First, kudos to the author of the question who can really turn a phrase (emphasis mine):

You’ve written that too much multitasking can leave the mind and body marinating in stress hormones. Can you elaborate on the physiological effects?…Brief or infrequent stress responses pose little risk. But when a person responds this way habitually or over long periods, the risk of injury or disease rises. Evidence is growing that some people’s stress response plays a role in such chronic health problems as psychological ailments or cardiovascular or musculoskeletal disorders, NIOSH says.

I realize some employees are better at accomplishing tasks and goals than other employees. Typically, this ability has more to do with personal drive, goal focus and results orientation than it does with a mythical multitasking ability. From our earlier post:

While multitaskers seem to be accomplishing a lot, they are in most cases literally just going through the motions.
Multitasking doesn’t look to be one of the great strengths of human cognition, says James C. Johnston, a research psychologist at NASA’s Ames Research Center. It’s almost inevitable that each individual task will be slower and of lower quality.

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Bad Writing: As Written Communication Skills Deteriorate, Business Schools Take Aim. There is hope and I am encouraged this Monday morning. We comment about writing skills frequently here at The Hire Sense since, well, we have seen some atrocious documents.

The article attacks the problem right at the source:

But in an era of nonstop e-mail and instant and text messaging, written communication skills within companies may be getting even worse as quality is compromised by the perceived need for speed.

The casualness of email and the shorthand of text messaging has crippled writing styles. Now it appears to be affecting basic writing ability. The ubiquitousness of cell phones probably plays a part in this whole sordid trend also. Instead of writing a letter to a friend, one can simply call them (and reach them) instantly on their cell phone.

In case you had some doubts:

“Frequently e-mails are fired off with never a second thought no proofreading,” said O’Rourke. “And certainly the grammar of instant messaging and text messaging has intruded as well.”

We see this trend in cover emails - it is patently obvious that the author did not proofread their email at all. The reason these errors are important in the hiring process is that this communication should be their best work - as good as they get. If they cannot take the time to proofread their prose when they are looking for a new opportunity, I guarantee they will not take the time to properly proofread their communication when representing your company.

“People have been complaining about the quality of student writing since Plato,” said Kate Ronald, an English professor who runs the school’s Howe Writing Initiative. “But I think businesses are paying more attention to it. Businesses today are doing so much more writing, and doing it so much more publicly because so much of the discourse is discussed on the screen rather than on paper.”

Email, websites, text messaging and blogs. I think Professor Ronald is spot on in her closing comment.

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The email covers are like Clark Griswold’s Jelly of the Month Club membership - they are the gift that keeps on giving. Scanning through recent resumes led me to this cover email statement:

I currently am the best sale personality i have ever met. However i’m not loving my postion right now.

I think this was supposed to be a joke. At least I hope so.

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Posting Your Resume on YouTube To Stand Out From the Competition. First, the gist of the article:

…young job hunters are starting to make a video clip part of their job application, sometimes even posting them on sites like Google Inc.’s YouTube…

It seemed like this day would be coming. But the author does bring up a good point that crossed my mind:

Many employers and third-party recruiters remain wary of the concept of video resumes. Those who oppose it say that turning down candidates for interviews after seeing what they look and sound like on video could leave employers open to discrimination lawsuits. When job candidates send in photos of themselves, most employers throw them out for the same reason.

If you are screening candidates by simply reviewing resumes then yes, the video (or photo) resume is a discrimination risk. If you are running an objective hiring process (i.e. not screening on the resume alone), then this media format can become an asset.

Of course, whether or not the video resume is an asset for the candidate is a different story. I submit to you this popular, and embarrassing, video from YouTube.

A final quote from from the article:

Despite the potential hazards, some in the recruiting industry are betting that the practice will blossom. “You have this perfect storm of more people with broadband connections, more adoption of home video technology, more people who have viewed video online and more people who have created video online,” says Jason Goldberg, CEO of Jobster.com.

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Remember that old line? Apparently some employees believe it still has legs even after graduating. We love lists here at The Hire Sense and CareerBuilder offers up one of my seasonal favorites - Thirty-Two Percent of Workers Called in Sick With Fake Excuses in the Last Year.

I have no idea how many companies still separate sick days from vacation days - I was under the impression most companies just offered PTO now. At any rate, a couple statistics from the survey:

Twenty-seven percent of hiring managers reported they have fired a worker for calling in sick without a legitimate reason.

The most popular motivator for missing work was the need to relax, according to nearly half (48 percent) of workers. (ed. - sounds like a work/life imbalance issue)

One-in-four workers said they consider their sick days to be equivalent to vacation days and treat them as such.

Ah, but now for the best part of the article - the list of lame excuses. It needs no further comment, but I did bold my personal favorites.

1) Employee was poisoned by his mother-in-law.
2) A buffalo escaped from the game reserve and kept charging the employee every time she tried to go to her car from her house.
3) Employee was feeling all the symptoms of his expecting wife.
4) Employee called from his cell phone, said he was accidentally locked in a restroom stall and no one was around to let him out.
5) Employee broke his leg snowboarding off his roof while drunk.
6) Employees wife said he couldn’t come into work because he had a lot of chores to do around the house.
7) One of the walls in the employee’s home fell off the night before.
Employee’s mother was in jail.
9) A skunk got into the employee’s house and sprayed all of his uniforms.
10) Employee had bad hiccups.
11) Employee blew his nose so hard, his back went out.
12) Employee’s horses got loose and were running down the highway.
13) Employee was hit by a bus while walking.
14) Employee’s dog swallowed her bus pass.
15) Employee was sad.

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This is sheer stupidity in action - St. Paul gives ex-cons a break on city hiring - With rehabilitation in mind, job applications won’t require disclosure of criminal records. Honestly, what do they hope to accomplish by decreasing their information on a candidate?

We always tell our customers to complete a thorough background check before hiring any new employee. It is simply common sense that drives this approach.

Then there is the city of St. Paul:

The city decided this week to stop requiring job hopefuls to state on their applications whether they’ve ever been convicted of a crime.

My first thought was positions that work with children, but then I got to the end of the story and read this excerpt:

Nalezny also said the city conducts background checks when the applicant would work with children or have access to money or sensitive information, and would know whether those applicants have a criminal record.
Therefore, there’s no risk of a sex offender being assigned to work with children, Nalezny said.

Well that’s reassuring. What about a sex offender working in an office with many female employees? I can envision the lawsuits if the city hires a registered sex offender and they commit another similar crime at their employment.

In this day and age, background checks need to be a part of any thorough hiring process. Crimes come with consequences and jeopardizing future employment options is one of them. I think most employers are fairly evenhanded in their approach to criminal records. We have all made mistakes in the past. But those mistakes must have an accounting when making an important hiring decision.

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Selling entails many skills and aptitudes, but one thing that is often overlooked is the ability to disqualify prospects. Selling Power offers up this article - How to Disqualify Leads - which provides a thorough explanation of techniques.

First, a great image that I have not heard used in this context:

Brooks says top performers are so guarded about who goes into their pipeline that their pipelines look more like cylinders: fewer opportunities going in one end and a higher percentage of them closing on the other. Contrast that with the other 80 percent of your reps. Typically this group aims to prop up every lead that comes their way, stuff them into their pipeline, and hope some will close at the other end.

There is truth for you. We work with companies to evaluate their current team and we often see prospects welded to the 90 day forecast. I like the author’s description of a sales pipeline being a cylinder instead of a funnel. If salespeople are properly qualifying, only prospects will go into their “funnel.”

Check out the 6 questions in the middle of the article. Those questions should be asked by every sales manager of their salespeople’s prospects. I used to work for a sales manager whom I really didn’t enjoy. Invariably he would ask almost the same 6 questions of me regarding any prospect I added to my forecast. I learned quickly to ask those questions of my prospects which truly did improve my closing percentage greatly.

Lastly, the author explains why this seemingly simplistic strategy is so difficult to enact:

Brooks acknowledges that shifting from a mindset of qualifying your leads to disqualifying your leads can be a bit scary. Sales people worry that if they start tossing out leads, there wont be any more coming in to fill their pipeline. But heres the gem: These techniques will never disqualify a true buyer; they will reveal the true buyers, says Brooks.

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In a recent survey conducted by BNS and sponsored by Kronos, researchers found that more employers will give staff gifts and bonuses this year while fewer plan to extend the holidays by granting three or more days of paid leave. Here are some highlights from the survey:

• 49% of employers will give employees holiday gift items, cash awards or bonuses this year. This represents an increase over 2005 (40%) and is the highest figure reported in the survey’s 25-year history.
• 43% of employers are giving workers three or more paid holidays - down from other comparable years when these holidays also fell on Monday (49% in 2000, 47% in 1995 and 60% in 1989).
• Most employers will still grant two paid holidays at year end for Christmas and New Years.

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We’ve defined Self-Starting Ability in a previous post - now let’s define a similar, but still different sales trait that is crucial in any role.

Initiative
This ability directs ones energies toward the completion of a goal without an external catalyst. The ability to initiate actions based on ones own interpretation, or understanding, of a situation.

A salesperson with strength in this capacity has the ability to take action as a result of his or her own decisions. They feel comfortable enough in their own abilities to act on their own decisions without consulting others. They will adapt to a dynamic situation and move around unforeseen obstacles without waiting for supervisory instruction.

A salesperson with weakness in this area would indicate a person who is not comfortable enough in these abilities to act in the above manner. They may have difficulty beginning a project without direct supervision.

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Back in early November I posted on a newsletter article from Workforce Management that middle managers are the most resilient group in the workforce. In one of their late November newsletters they previewed a new study due out in January from Monica Wofford International, a corporate training firm. They found that middle managers are lacking the emotional intelligence to advance into top leadership positions. They also found that middle managers tend to resist coaching as a toll for improving performance.

They have piqued my interest and I will be sure to share with you more of what they learned in this study when it is released.

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