If you are stuck working today, I have something that may make you laugh. I found this site quite entertaining and have to give Stanley credit for a humorous advertising campaign:
I chose the toilet first and the rabbit second, if that says anything about me.
Today is the biggest shopping day of the year and Maritz Research has some of the stats to define the day:
A recent Maritz® Poll found that one-third of respondents (37 percent) plan to shop on the day after Thanksgiving. In last year’s poll, a similar number (34 percent) said they would shop on Black Friday.
In addition, those who plan to shop on Black Friday say they will spend more overall on their holiday purchases – $790 compared to $637 for all shoppers combined.
Black Friday also has generational implications with the majority of Gen Y respondents (59 percent), as well as a significant portion of Gen X (46 percent), planning to shop. Only a small percentage of Boomers (23 percent) and the Silent Generation (21 percent) will venture out on Black Friday.
(h/t JustSell.com)
In case you are one of the few of us working today, here is a fun do and don’t list for salespeople. Here are just a few from the Salesopedia article:
DO match and mirror the speed, tone and volume of the other person’s voice.
DON’T speak in a monotone.DO call for a specific reason such as to provide some information of value.
DON’T call just to check in.DO listen to and concentrate on what’s being said.
DON’T let your mind wander.DO be polite yet respectfully persistent.
DON’T give up after one or two calls.
7 Tips for Recruiting Gen-Y
- Offer generous referral bonuses.
- Consider different geographies.
- Keep ‘em moving.
- Tlk 2 them.
- Get flexible.
- Community service.
- Think beyond the short term.
Shelley Solheim, CMP Channel
Competent managers. That’s according to a Kenexa Research Institute survey quoted in CareerJournal.com (emphasis mine).
Sixty-two percent of employees who said they have an effective manager also said they planned to stay with their job versus 17% of employees who said their manager is ineffective who plan to stay with their job, according to a survey of 10,000 U.S. workers, plus 1,000 workers each in India, China, Brazil, the U.K. and Germany.
No surprise, really. When we first encounter a customer with a turnover problem, we start by looking at management. Typically there is misalignment between the manager and the team or there is misalignment between the position and the current hiring process.
Either way, something is out of alignment. When this misalignment occurs, turnover becomes the defining symptom. Gen Y’s eagerness to grow in their roles through job change is only going to exasperate the retention problem.
The cure is strong managers aligned with a complementary sales team. I know – no small feat. Yet, through developing your current team and making the proper hiring adjustments, it can be done.
It is a week to be thankful for many things – especially if you don’t have a “Dirty Job.” No, not that type of dirty. Dirty as in the Mike Rowe series on Discovery Channel. MSN.com has a story today titled They’re Dirty Jobs, But They Gotta Get Done.
A sampling of the jobs and their average pay:
Butcher
Leaving work in blood-stained clothes would be a serious HR issue in many offices, but the practice is nothing unusual for a butcher, whose grisly work involves cutting and washing the innards of slaughtered animals to create sides of beef, steaks, sausage and ribs in slaughterhouses and meat-packing establishments. This job is not for the faint of heart.Average salary with benefits and bonuses: $25,961/year
Farrier
Farriers inspect horse hooves for defects, trim and shape them and remove worn or defective shoes. Aside from the strain of shaping shoes with hammers and bending or squatting for long periods of time, farriers must also deal with unpleasant odors emanating from the horses and risk stepping in any number of “surprises” the horses leave behind.Average salary with benefits and bonuses: $31,604/year
Proctologist
Proctologists diagnose and treat diseases and disorders related to the anus, rectum and colon, a labor of love that involves getting up close and personal in order to inspect these areas frequently and even performing hands-on work to repair or remove the affected body parts.Average salary with benefits and bonuses: $388,734/year
Ok, I threw the last one in there for some counterbalance. There’s more dirty jobs if you follow the link to the article.
We’ve been on the telecommuting trend for quite some time this year as it continues to grow. I think it is safe to say it is more than a trend now. As we source for sales positions, it is quite apparent that the younger candidates almost always address this issue early in the process. They want to know what tools are in place and what the office expectations are.
We only work in the sales arena so our data may be slightly exaggerated to that end. Nonetheless, telecommuting is a hot article topic as you can see from CareerJournal.com’s Good News for Professionals Who Want to Work at Home:
A growing number of employers, from UnitedHealth Group and Safeco to Capgemini, IBM, American Express and Sun Microsystems, are hiring skilled new employees to telecommute right from the start. These aren’t the piecework, independent-contractor gigs or commission-only sales jobs that have characterized at-home “employment” in the past. They are full-time corporate jobs with benefits, available without the prerequisite of working for the company for a few years first.
I’m always of the belief that once you see large companies incorporating a trend, that trend has truly grabbed hold.
Safeco has hired 91 new home-based employees so far this year, including claims examiners, adjustors and managers; about 1,500 of its 7,000 employees now work away from corporate offices, dramatically expanding Safeco’s talent pool. “With technology as good as it is,” Mr. Diana says, “there aren’t many jobs that can’t be done remotely.”
As a complete coffee addict, I found these statistics about Starbucks remarkable:
Starbucks’s closest competitor in the coffeehouse market, Caribou Coffee, is just one-twenty-fifth its size. Every 10 weeks, Starbucks opens as many stores as the total number of Caribou outlets.
Sip ’em if you’ve got ’em.
This article on HR World – 30 Interview Questions You Can’t Ask and 30 Sneaky, Legal Alternatives to Get the Same Info – is making quite a splash on the web today. I think it is an interesting read with some excellent suggestions regarding how to phrase interview questions.
To give you a sample:
12. What you can’t ask: Do you have kids?
This one is for positions in which the candidate may work with children. The added experience of children at home may be a bonus for you, but it’s not an employer’s place to ask about this. Rather, inquire about the candidate’s experience, and they may volunteer this information to you anyway.
What to ask instead: What is your experience with “x” age group?
19. What you can’t ask: Do you smoke or drink?
As an employer, you probably want to avoid someone who has a drinking problem or will take multiple smoke breaks throughout the day. It’s even a concern for insurance. Instead of asking about this directly, find out if they’ve had trouble with health policies in the past.
What to ask instead: In the past, have you been disciplined for violating company policies forbidding the use of alcohol or tobacco products?
28. What you can’t ask: Have you ever been arrested?
In sensitive positions, like those that deal with money, you may want to find out about your candidate’s legal fortitude. But ensure that you ask only directly about crimes that relate to your concern.
What to ask instead: Have you ever been convicted of “x” (fraud, theft and so on)?
As they say, read the whole thing.
I suspect Boeing will be in damage control mode on this Seattle Post-Intelligencer article:
One such team, dubbed “enterprise” investigators, has permission to read the private e-mails of employees, follow them and collect video footage or photos of them. Investigators can also secretly watch employee computer screens in real time and reproduce every keystroke a worker makes, the Seattle P-I has learned.
I have read much about how Gen Y craves transparency in all things. I can’t imagine the impact an article like this could have on their recruiting efforts. Whether the story is true or not, the impact will still be felt.
Recently, a Boeing investigator told a Puget Sound-area employee that he was followed off company property to a lunch spot, that investigators had footage of him “coming and going” and that investigators had accessed his personal Gmail account.
The primary reason for the 2007 investigation, the employee said, was Boeing’s suspicion that he had spoken with a member of the media. The employee learned the details of the investigation during a three-hour meeting, in which investigators laid out some of their findings. He has since been fired.
Boeing was a customer of mine in a previous position and I have been out to Everett, WA when it was the official headquarters for the company. Obviously, Boeing has highly-classified government projects, but this approach to security appears to be over-the-top.
Unfortunately, the privacy laws in this area are somewhat vague according to the article:
So when does privacy begin? When an employee steps across the threshold into his or her own home, experts say.
“The only thing your boss can’t do is listen to personal telephone calls; that’s covered by wiretapping laws,” said Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute in Princeton, N.J.
…
However, “it’s a tricky area because there aren’t a lot of legal protections in Washington and in most states where we have employment-at-will. There are some privacy rights of employees, but they are limited relative to the employer.”
The reporter references the exact topic that went through my mind when I saw the headline – the HP scandal from last year. I believe as we continue into this Information Age, more of these types of stories are going to appear.
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