Great news from Yahoo! Health – Salmon and Coffee – for Ultimate Brain Power:

Listen up! Your morning cup of coffee and dinner delight can help sharpen your memory.
…
Researchers from the University of Innsbruck in Austria used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the brain activity of people working on a memory task. The volunteers were tested twice, once after receiving the caffeine equivalent of about two cups of coffee, and once without any caffeine. Caffeine improved the memory skills and reactions times of the volunteers. In addition, caffeine increased brain activity in two locations-the memory-rich frontal lobe and the attention-controlling anterior cingulum. Without caffeine, there was no increase in brain activity. So if memory problems are a major concern for you, and if you don’t have a medical condition that precludes caffeine, feel free to indulge in a cup or two in the morning to jump-start your brain.

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The opening line from a sales employment ad placed by a recruiter (edited to remove industry) :

Must come from _____ Sales Related To ____ Products Manufacturing!

Please, only do this if your primary goal is to recycle mediocrity from your industry.  Remember, this is the opening line with their bolded text -the only bolded text in the ad.

There are plenty of recruiters who dabble in sales positions and it shows.  This ad is a cut and paste job from a typical internal job description.  Unfortunately, someone pasted twice so the description is listed twice in the ad.  Nonetheless, it is far more effective to list the intrinsic traits and transferable skills your position requires.  If a candidate has related industry experience also, then all the better.

Just don’t lead with it.

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Ok, this may be a bit ethereal, but it is Friday afternoon.  From ManageSmarter.com’s Burn Your Boat!

The ancient Greek warriors were both feared and respected by their enemies. In battle, the Greeks established a well-deserved reputation for their unsurpassed bravery and unshakable commitment to victory. The key to their overwhelming success on the battlefield had far more to do with how the Greek commanders motivated the warriors than it did with issues of tactics or training. The Greeks were master motivators who understood how to use a “dramatic demonstration” to infuse a spirit of commitment into the heart of every warrior.

Once the warriors had been offloaded from their boats onto their enemy’s shore, the Greek commanders would shout out their first order, “Burn the boats!” The sight of burning boats removed any notion of retreat from their hearts and any thoughts of surrender from their heads. Imagine the tremendous psychological impact on the soldiers as they watched their boats being set to the torch. As the boats turned to ash and slipped quietly out of sight into the water, each man understood there was no turning back and the only way home was through victory.

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Salary.com and Money teamed up to offer this article in which they polled more than 12,000 people in their 2nd annual Best Jobs in America survey. One interesting fact that they found was that 60% of those surveyed are considering or recently have completed a career change. Clearly the days of the single-company career are gone (all of here at Select Metrix can attest to that).

They have actually broken down the top 20 jobs for 4 different categories, for the young (Gen Y), parent’s returning to the workforce, veterans and for those over 50 (baby boomers). The articles are quite long so allow me to preview the top 10 lists for each category.

For the Young & the Restless. I have included the median pay, job outlook & growth for the next 10 years and how rewarding/challenging the position is on an A,B,C,D,F grade scale.

1. Product/Brand Manager – $90,100; 21% growth; B grade.
2. Staff Nurse (RN) – $59,800; 29% growth; A- grade.
3. Property Manager – $81,400; 15% growth; B+.
4. Public Accountant – $50,100; 22% growth; B grade.
5. IT Generalist – $47,800; 31% growth, C+ grade.
6. Engineer I – $53,600; 15% growth; B grade.
7. Engineer I, Environmental, Health & Safety – $52,400; 30% growth; B grade.
8. Meeting/Event Planner – $52,600; 22% growth; B grade.
9. Financial Advisor – $66,800; 12% growth; A- grade.
10. Investment Specialist – $72,000; 26% growth; B+ grade.

For Parents Returning to Work. I have included the median pay, job outlook & growth for the next 10 years, and both flexibility and how family friendly the position is on an A,B,C,D,F grade scale.

1. Executive Recruiter – $77,000; 30% growth; A- grade; A- grade.
2. NonProfit Manager – $55,100; 20-27% growth; A- grade; B+ grade.
3. Sales Representative – $62,500; 14% growth; A grade; A- grade.
4. Marketing Analyst – $56,900; 20% growth; A- grade; A- grade.
5. Accountant – $41,100; 22% growth; B grade; B+ grade.
6. Bookkeeper – $37,400; 6% growth; A- grade; B+ grade.
7. Claims Examiner – $35,400; 15% growth; B grade; B+ grade.
8. Community Organizer – $30,900; 23% growth; A grade; A- grade.
9. Financial Analyst – $58,500; 17% growth; B grade; B grade.
10. Marketing Manager – $89,200; 21% growth; B- grade; B- grade.

For those Retired from the Military. I have included the median pay, job outlook & growth for the next 10 years, and both stability and ease of transition on an A,B,C,D,F grade scale.

1. Operations or Intelligence Analyst – $68,900; 36% growth; A grade; A- grade.
2. Network Systems Manager- $73,600; 38% growth; A- grade; B+ grade.
3. Field Service Engineer – $74,900; 10% growth; A grade; A grade.
4. Operations Manager Logistics – $82,500; 36% growth; A grade; A- grade.
5. Senior Trainer/Training Manager – $83,500; 26% growth; B+ grade; B+ grade.
6. Comptroller – $69,800; 15% growth; B+ grade; B grade.
7. Construction Manager – $102,800; 11% growth; B grade; B- grade.
8. Contracts Administrator III – $67,800; 7% growth; B- grade; B grade.
9. Engineering Manager – $109,600; 13% growth; B grade; A- grade.
10. Human Resources Manager -$78,400; 20% growth; B- grade; B- grade.

For those Over 50. I have included the median pay, job outlook & growth for the next 10 years, and both meaning and flexible hours on an A,B,C,D,F grade scale.

1. Nonprofit Executive – $63,500; 27% growth; B+ grade; B grade.
2. Patient Representative – $41,800; 22% growth; A- grade; B grade.
3. Celebrant/Religious Leader – $48,300; 12% growth; A grade; B+ grade.
4. Financial Adviser – $66,800; 12% growth; B+ grade; B+ grade.
5. Public School Teacher – $47,500; 14% growth; A- grade; B grade.
6. Appraiser (Residential Real Estate) – $42,000: 23% growth; C grade; A- grade.
7. College Professor – $40,200; 32% growth; A- grade; A grade.
8. Day Care Center Teacher – $26,400; 33% growth; B+ grade; A- grade.
9. IRA Specialist – $38,700; 15% growth; C+ grade; B+ grade.
10. Labor Relations Manager – $100,700; 20% growth; B grade; C+ grade.

Sales only made the top 10 list once but did make the Young & Restless’ top 20 list.

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Anyone who has worked in a large company has encountered office grandstanders in great quantity.  Every department has them.  Now CareerJournal.com offers an entertaining article titled Not Even Politicians Can Outdo Office Grandstanders.

Another tactic: Speak first, and often, in meetings, says Greg Milano, a sales and marketing veteran of 22 years, and act like the boss you aren’t — yet. One colleague he remembers would often distribute minutes of meetings that weren’t his, make the first toasts at parties he didn’t host and grill people with questions only he felt he was entitled to ask. “It became such an annoyance that people started to refer to that behavior by his name,” says Mr. Milano.

Make up his own meeting minutes – fantastic.  I could give you all of the examples, but the article is worth the time to read.  I suspect you will think of many shining examples on your own.

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Salespeople are the face of your company to the prospect world. The salesperson’s output (emails, proposals, information) also represents your company in the market. Have you ever managed a salesperson who simply didn’t focus on the quality of his or her output? Or how about the salesperson who places a perfectionist’s expectation on a simple item? They drag out a simple item to exacting levels – even to the point of missing the opportunity. This week we break down that trait.

Meeting Standards
The ability to see and understand the standard requirements established for a job and having the commitment to meet them. This is an internal motivation which combines the capacities of quality orientation and focus on structure and order.

A salesperson with strength in this capacity will have the internal motivation to strive to meet whatever standards have been set (either by herself or someone else). She is able to focus the appropriate amount of attention to achieve these standards.

A weakness in this trait indicates the salesperson focuses either too little or too much attention to the task of achieving a standard. In the case of over-attention, the salesperson will place so much importance on meeting a standard that they may become an overbearing perfectionist in their demands of others and/or themselves. There appears very little room for error. In the case of under-attention, the salesperson does not place enough importance on this objective. They tend to miss standards in situations which are difficult or repetitive.

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We are gradually moving towards instant messaging for our internal communications at Select Metrix and away from email.  Speed is a big part of this move for us, but email spam is also driving the change.  I have a difficult time imagining email disappearing all together, but this article from Inc.com provides some insight:

Due to increasing levels of spam, companies may soon have to look beyond e-mail as the primary method of communicating with employees and customers, according to a new study.

In 2007 alone, it is predicted that nearly 97 billion e-mails will be sent daily worldwide, 40 billion of which will be spam messages, the study found.

In a recent report forecasting worldwide e-mail usage over the next five years and published by Framingham, Mass.-based market-intelligence firm IDC, this is the first year that spam e-mail volumes are expected to exceed person-to-person e-mail volumes sent worldwide.

Unbelievable.  We can attest that spam is a real problem for blogs too.  Our comments section is inundated every day with hundreds of spam comments.  We have to sift through them to find the real comments to approve (and I apologize for any legitimate comments that accidentally get deleted).

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If you have noticed in our posts, we are paying more and more attention to retention. (say that 10 times fast!) The employment market clearly indicates that it’s a hot topic.

Over the years, two compensation moves really set off the negative alarms in my mind. They also made me, as a sales manager, more aware of how compensation impacts salesperson performance.

Increased quotas.
When quotas are increased (which isn’t necessarily “bad”), the first thing I always looked for was the corresponding compensation. If the message was “We need you to sell more,”that’s fine as long as everybody in the organization wins. However, trouble developed when the message came through as “We need you to sell more and you’ll have to sell more just to make the same amount of money.” At that point the sales group had the perception of losing while be singled out as the sacrificial group within the organization. Bad move.

Commission rate changes/overall compensation.
Again, not necessarily bad, but potentially a dis-incentive. Any respectable sales person immediately reacted to a commission rate change by figuring out the impact on their personal compensation. If the changes appeared to be positive, the best sales people behaved accordingly. It’s called “working the comp plan.” If the changes appeared negative, well, another bad move. I fired up the sales hiring process since I knew I was going to lose someone, I just hoped it wasn’t my best salesperson.

May I suggest a good move? Ask individual sales people what topics the organization should consider when reviewing compensation. Done correctly, this type of input will have significant, positive impacts for sales management and ultimately retention.

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We at The Hire Sense have been focused on employee retention this year. Pretty smart of us, I know (especially when the national unemployment rate is 4.4%). Michael at Hidden Business Treasures pointed us towards the Herman Group’s Trend Alert e-newsletter and I received my first one this week. The topic – wellness programs and their impact on benefits.

This shocked me:

The financial impact of healthcare spending is indisputable. Starbucks spends more money in one year on health insurance for its employees than it spends on coffee for its customers. The US automakers will spend more money this year on health insurance than they will on the steel that goes into their automobiles.

Amazing, but then I read this nugget:

Also, employees who are in the middle of a weight-loss or smoking-cessation program are much less likely to leave. Reducing employee turnover also decreases benefit costs, mostly because there is lower utilization of the healthcare system. When you bring on new people, they have often avoided visiting doctors, because they had no coverage. Once on your system, it€™s time to visit the doctors. This increased system usage produces higher insurance premiums.

Yet another reason to put an increased effort into your retention programs. Turnover is expensive unless you have underperforming salespeople (then it is needed).

We have seen benefits enter the interview process earlier in the discussions. This approach used to be a flag for us back around 2001. Now we consider it a standard aspect of qualifying opportunities. If your company offers a strong benefits package, introduce the package early in your hiring process.

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20 years ago we would not have been discussing this topic, but Foxnews.com posts this article:  Quirky E-Mail Addresses Won’t Help in the Hunt for Jobs.  I believe it was Mark Twain who said that common sense ain’t so common.  You would think job candidates would be wary of using party-like names.  Apparently not:

E-mail names deemed unprofessional included: alliecat@, bacardigirl@, bighotdaddy@, drunkensquirl@, foxylady@, gigglez217@.

“bighotdaddy” made me laugh.  Just as surprising was the fact that someone conducted a study to find out if these email addresses would have an adverse effect on a job search.

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