That title is for John Sumser – one more colloquialism for the recruiting world.  The Wall Street Journal offers up this article to discuss mothers re-entering the workforce after taking extended time off (years) to raise their family.

I have a soft spot in my heart for this topic since my wife recently reentered the workforce after taking 8 years off.  It took her some time, but she landed an ideal position at a medical clinic.  That isn’t always the case:

Though 74% do find work, only 40% say they are gainfully employed in full-time, mainstream jobs. “There is still a tremendous amount of stigma and suspension when employers see a hole in a resume,” says Ms. Hewlett.

I would hope that hiring managers do not equate being a full-time mom with being unemployed.  I would argue that being a mom does not constitute a hole in one’s resume (but I am not objective on this topic).

And, to facilitate that transition, a whole new industry of coaching and staffing firms as well as corporate and educational programs have popped up. “This talent pool is more and more necessary” and there is a growing recruiting effort to target parents returning to work, says Meryle Mahrer Kaplan, vice president of advisory services at Catalyst.

This is a great talent pool that should be tapped as the boomers retire.  Finally, one piece of advice from the article that worked well for my wife:

In your resume and—and later in interviews—be sure to take the mystery out of the time away from work. If you’ve taken on projects at schools and charities and used some of the skills from your career, highlight those volunteer experiences and any bottom-line or eye-catching results from the projects.

Comments(3)

Remember the book, All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Perhaps not, unless you are a seasoned vet like I am, but the premise is still sound. Today I was reminded of the power of principle centered leadership.

This morning I attended a meeting of the Manufacturers Alliance, a group of 300 or so manufacturers here in Minnesota who share best practices, lead training seminars and otherwise help their peers get better. The keynote speaker was Tom Tiller, CEO of Polaris Industries.

Tom’s message was so crystal clear I need to share it. Polaris, he told us, has increased its value by 150 times in the last 20 years (despite intense competition, wars and several economic ‘downturns’) because of one thing – people.

Tom said they treat their employees like gold, foster a culture of innovation and participation, and make sure they get and stay close to their customers. “It’s our passion for outdoor activities like snowmobiling and off-roading that drives our contact with customers. We use the product together and talk about what could make it better. I am with customers, using our products, more than 200 days a year.”

Wow! That’s a lot of time with customers. That’s a lot of time actually using the product. That’s a lot of time spent listening – to both employees and customers.

Tom ended his presentation with a quick story about his employees’ passion and commitment – during spring flooding a few years ago in Roseau, Minnesota, both the company’s plant and many employee homes were threatened. More than 400 Polaris employees showed up at the plant to help sandbag for 48 hours straight (Tom among them). They watched their houses float away but managed to save the plant.

What’s so simple about Polaris’ strategy? A clear and unshakable faith that success will come if they focus on their two most important constituencies – their customers and their employees. It wasn’t their strategic planning, their marketing plan or the way they organized their shop floor.

Does it work? Well, one would expect discretionary lifestyle purchases like snowmobiles, ATVs and the like to be down these days. Instead, Tom told us this morning, Polaris expects a 22% increase in sales this quarter.

Simple.

Comments(0)

Hiring strong salespeople is just about the most difficult hire any company can attempt to make.  One of the reasons it is difficult is due to the types of ads that companies use when sourcing.

Here is a prime example:

Detailed Description

Prospect region to identify new Referral vendors

Provide regional support for National Referral relationships

Re-engage Referral Endorsers not assigned to current reps

Introduce (Company) to Referral vendors

Manage paperwork for registering Referral vendors

Educate Referral vendors on (Company) products and services

Manage leads received through Referral vendors

Develop (Company) solutions for referred leads

Complete profit assistants and proposals for referred prospects

Submit orders and process paperwork for provisioning

This description is for a business development position.  If you are looking for a hunter and find the words “manage paperwork” in your ad, you are in trouble.

Comments(1)

That title probably got your attention.  The economy is completely dynamic so things can change, but the quarterly CareerBuilder.com/Harris Interactive survey came back with some surprising results (my editing).

“The job loss reported in the first quarter signified a gradual deceleration in recruitment in the U.S. as the nation’s economy downshifted,” says CEO, Matt Ferguson. “In the next three months, employers anticipate marginal change in their hiring pace. While some industries are experiencing a contraction in employment levels, areas such as information technology, healthcare, professional and business services and sales continue to add full-time jobs.”

…29% of employers state plans to grow their number of full-time, permanent employees from April through June, while 59% anticipate no change, and 6% expect to decrease headcount.

Despite all of the “sky is falling” forecasts, we are blessed with a fairly robust economy, even when it is in a down cycle.

Comments(0)

Forbes.com offers up an article about companies hiring large numbers of employees.  How large?

Infosys received 1.3 million résumés last year. “In peak seasons we receive around 6,000-10,000 resumes in a day,” says Nandita Gurjar, vice president of human resources development at Infosys.

And you thought you had a pile of resumes to get through.  The article explains how many of these companies are using online tests or questionnaires at the first step in the process.  Clearly, as cold as it sounds, they would have to do some sort of first-pass, automated filter to handle this level of response.

After the initial culling, one casino uses a unique approach to role playing:

Once the initial pool is culled, candidates go to an audition, which is what the job interview is called. Since hotel and casino employees have so much interaction with customers, managers want people who deal well under pressure, interact positively with customers and can demonstrate that they can do the tasks their jobs require.

Hiring managers use software to rate candidates on their performance during a series of scenarios. For instance, a roulette dealer must go through several rolls of the dice while the hiring manager acts as the customer.

Yeah, I know – roulette “dealer” and “several rolls of the dice” – they appear to mixing positions, but you get the point.  The casino is using a strong approach to their hiring.  We use different techniques in our initial phone screen with candidates without their knowledge.  This approach allows us to get a glimpse into their ability to handle specific interactions.

Comments(2)

My wife once took classes to become a court reporter.  She even bought her own stenograph (is that what they are called?) for the training.  Unfortunately, she never completed the training due to other circumstances.

Unfortunate because court reporters earn an average salary of $59,970.

CNN.com reports this number in their article Five surprising salaries:

Surprising salary: $59,970*. You might not have thought typing could earn you so much money, but once you realize court reporters can’t miss a word — often in fast-talking situations — it makes more sense.

Here is the other end of the surprising salaries spectrum:

Surprising salary: $27,070. Seeing as paramedics have high stress jobs that require them to be on call and ready to save lives at a moment’s notice, you might expect their mean annual salary to be higher.

*Mean annual salary information based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Comments(1)

Steven Rothberg over at CollegeRecruiter.com provides a money quote in his post Why Today’s College Students Need Not Fear Exploding Offers.  Obviously, Steven’s market is geared towards college students, but this paragraph is applicable to all businesses when it comes to hiring (emphasis mine):

The recession of 2001-03 was worse than the recession of 2008 and employers are looking backwards in order to better understand what to do as they move forwards. Although many and perhaps most employers have scaled back their college hiring plans for this spring, there’s little talk of exploding offers. More employers realize that recessions are tactical problems and college recruiting is strategic. You don’t solve tactical problems by grossly altering and certainly not abandoning your strategic vision. You may tweak the strategy here and nip it a bit there in order to survive the tough times, but organizations which confuse tactics with strategy are organizations which tend not to survive let alone thrive.

That is excellent advice for any company in this present economy.  I experienced this abandonment of strategic vision back in 2001 as a Regional Sales Manager for a high-tech company.  The company was small, but growing quickly in a niche market.  Unfortunately, the President buckled under the potential economic impact of a recession and abandoned the very principles that had grown the business.  Instead of slight adjustments, he collapsed the entire company by attempting to go a different direction.

I’m reminded of a short post from Seth Godin a while back titled That moment.  Here it is in it’s entirety:

When you are sitting right on the edge of something daring and scary and creative and powerful and perhaps wonderful… and you blink and take a step back.

That’s the moment. The moment between you and remarkable. Most people blink. Most people get stuck.

All the hard work and preparation and daring and luck is nothing compared with the ability to not blink.

Comments(1)

This sentence is from a cover email regarding a sales position:

I am educated up to an MBA.

I still am not sure what that means.

Comments(0)

Yesterday I posted on this “determine your own vacation time” approach to management.  It is totally foreign to me.  Today I come across another company with the same approach.  This HRE Online article – In Their Own Words – contains comments provided by Gen Y workers on a recent survey.

First the vacation comment (my empahsis):

CarMax

“Time away from work policy instead of vacation and sick days. There is not a set amount of time you can take, you just work it out with your manager. The office’s atmosphere is very bright and open. Management is very accessible and will answer any questions that you have. They encourage management throughout the company in order to give you a better overall understanding of the company.”

This one is rather astounding:

Quicken Loans

“When I was in training, it was mid-winter. On the first very cold day of the year, I had an amazing experience. I pulled into the very large parking lot and saw about eight people driving golf carts around, picking up employees. It was none other than the owner, CEO and president along with other executives of our company out there in the freezing cold picking us up and driving us to the front door. Upon walking in, there were donuts and warm apple cider waiting for us. If that’s not employee appreciation, I don’t know what is.”

We are up here in the frozen tundra of Minnesota so I am rather appreciative of this effort.  Owners, CEOs and Presidents that are willing to actually give of their time and effort for their employees reap greater retention rewards than just monetary rewards.  Yes, I know money goes a long ways, but imagine combining a monetary reward with this effort.  If I were an employee at Quicken Loans, I would be blown away with this effort.

You know, sometimes the best retention efforts are not wrapped in strategy, planning committees and focus groups.  They are simply people serving their employees in an unexpected, thoughtful manner.

Comments(5)

I have a weakness for future predictions of jobs, markets, trends, etc.  This particular one is from the Job Market Weekly email (sorry, no link).

Technology will create new jobs as well. Out-of-work “top gun” pilots may find jobs captaining dirigibles, says Joel Barker, author of Five Regions of the Future. A relic from the 1920s and 1930s, these rigid blimps will revolutionize travel in the developing world, he adds.

Hollywood’s woes may be solved by holography. Since consumers are perfectly happy watching DVDs at home on big flat-screen televisions, box-office receipts have slipped and movie moguls are scrambling. But eventually, Barker says, film companies will start producing three-dimensional holographic movies that require equipment too expensive and complicated to set up at home.

It’s too early to declare the end of oil, but alternative energy will create dozens of new careers in the next two decades. Hydrogen fuel could be cost-competitive with gasoline if refueling stations were mass-produced, according to a study conducted by Ford. The hydrogen at these stations would be produced on-site, so managers would need an entirely different set of skills than those required in today’s gas stations, which are mainly retail operations.

Interesting, no?  Blimps in the developing world, holographic movies and hydrogen-manufacturing gas stations.  The gas station idea is an amazing idea and surely energy-industry jobs will be expanding in the future.

Comments(1)