A headline from the Wall Street Journal – Employer Alliance Aims To Streamline Recruiting.  “Streamline” is one of those overused business terms that I find annoying.  Yet, the article is rather interesting:

Seven of the nation’s largest employers have teamed up to help one another with recruiting. They’ve formed a consortium called AllianceQ, which allows them and future members to share information about job applicants they don’t hire.

Which leads to this:

Since QuietAgent.com doesn’t feature job ads, professionals will only learn about career opportunities if employers contact them.

By giving out referrals to QuietAgent.com, AllianceQ members are helping job hunters they don’t hire find employment elsewhere, says Jason Kerr, chief executive officer of Chicago-based QuietAgent Inc., which publishes both QuietAgent.com and AllianceQ.com.

Which inevitably leads to this:

In the second quarter of 2009, QuietAgent.com plans to launch a new marketing campaign aimed at getting more small and midsize employers to use it. The campaign will focus on the site’s new relationship with AllianceQ. “We’re going to use the brand power of big businesses to offer small businesses a way to recruit,” says Mr. Kerr.

The idea seems like a strong leverage point if small businesses can benefit from the large corporations’ vast recruiting efforts.  Keep an eye on this one.

Comments(0)

This has been a topic of discussion here at Select Metrix several times.  So how do you refer to the companies with whom you do business?  Kendra Lee, guest author for Jonathan Farrington has this to say.

From my perspective a client is a person whose business you have a vested interest in, and for whom you perform as a partner within their business. Not everything you provide is billable. And not every opportunity you are awarded was shopped with the competition for the best price.

In contrast, customers are people who you help meet a need. They have a problem. You address the problem. You may invest long hours in determining the right solution. They may invest a great deal in purchasing the solution, but they don’t recognize the value of your recommendations. You don’t take time to present new ideas, perform quarterly review meetings, or call them spontaneously.

An interesting thought.  Whether you agree or not, I think we would all agree that having more clients according to the description above would make our businesses more profitable.  So how do we get to this point where we are viewed as partners?

I think Kendra is right on the money with her thoughts on the subject – we need to start treating them as our partners.  We can do that by forging new ideas, identifying strategic business objectives, holding review meetings and taking responsibility for our errors are just a few.  Realistically, I don’t think that everyone we do business with will see us as a partner which is is ok.  However, we need to do our part to make sure that we don’t give them an easy reason to do so.

Comments(0)

Funny article here from BusinessWeek.com titled Office Wear: A Tale of Two Generations.  There is a definite clash of generations when it comes to business attire, especially among women.  This article provides a discussion from both the Baby Boomer perspective and the Millennial perspective.

Some pull quotes:

It’s no wonder then that she is unnerved by women who drift into work wearing bright tops or fitted dress pants. Or that she is downright shocked when they wear even less, baring bellies, toes, or tattoos. “We banned flip-flops here two years ago,” says Gaines. “I still can’t believe we had to tell people not to wear them.”

Apparently I am dating myself by agreeing here – flip flops in the office?  Come on.

Gaines says Mahoney’s generation never has had to worry about sexism in the workplace, so the women think nothing of wearing clothes that highlight their bodies. Mahoney’s response? “I watch old Murphy Brown shows and see the big shoulder pads and the women dressing more masculine, and it is so off-putting. I don’t think that kind of fashion proves anything today. It doesn’t mean you are more serious. People feel more comfortable dressing in tune with their personalities.”

Murphy Brown and big shoulder pads.  Excellent reference.  I’m no slave to fashion, but I did enjoy the article.

Comments(0)