I read a recent newsletter article from Ragan’s Management Resources titled “Use job titles to attract and reward workers” (sorry, no link available). The president of a service company ran an experiement. He offered job candidates a choice between having the title of “sales manager” or the title of “salesperson” with an additional $2,000 added to their salary. Interesting enough, most of the candidates took the “manager” title over the pay.

I would have liked this article to go a little deeper by sharing the ad or providing their insight into why they thought the title was chosen over the pay. I would venture a guess that the ad unintentionally revealed what the reward structure was for this position. Titles are usually preferred over money when a person has a status and recognition reward and an individualistic motivation (common in leadership positions). And I would guess that the ad was written to attract this type of person. If the ad was written to attract someone with a monetary possessions reward and a utilitarian motivation, you would have seen the opposite results of the experiment.

The article closed with:

Think of ways you can attract or reward employees with prestigious-sounding titles.

I would recommend that you think of ways to reward your employees. Take a look at how your company reward the individual in that role and then tie that data into your recruitment process.

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This is the creepiest anecdote I have posted, but I think you will laugh. Recent responses to an ad led to 4 email from the same person. So being the inquisitive person that I am, I opened the emails and read through them. What I read was shocking to say the least – I will share with you what I can. The first email read:

I am a plump sweatie . . . sorry . . . but working on that . .I used to be just tall and burly

I am 6’1

I cannot share the last line. Then the second email came in just 1 minute later and read:

THIS WAS SENT IN ERROR BY MY NEPHEW
SORRY. . . IT WAS INTENDED FOR ANOTHER

Then 30 minutes later another email came in from the same individual:

Lee. . .I have proven experience in sale . . .and dealing with corporations, CEOs and HR Units. I have the ability to travel and look forward to that aspect.

I have been working from a home-offce for a decade..and have always reported directly to VPs of Sales.

Please contact me!

Then 4 minutes later the last of the emails came in:

Someone has stolen my laptop and sending out strange e-mails form it.
I left it at a public place…a coffee shop. They are not from me! I have reported it already.

Please disregard anything that might come under my name or CPC, ok?

Take Care

PS- I am copying others who may have received e-mails with my name on it

Unbelievable. And no, I didn’t contact him.

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Friday, so let’s go to the anecdotes. I had a unique candidate call while conducting phone screens this past week. I talked to a candidate who said my name a thousand times if he said it once. I know, sounds silly, but after a couple questions into the interview, I was worn out from hearing my name so frequently.

Let me give you an example from our discussion:

“Well, Lee that’s a great question and I wished I could say that I have a quick response for you, Lee, but I need to think about that question for a moment.”

With hardly a pause he continued, “Lee, I would say that my experience in the industry and selling a similar product would help me fill the pipeline quickly. Does that make sense, Lee?”

Unnerving.

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Earlier this year I was conducting phone screens for a client whose service was always changing and evolving. Essentially, we knew a major key leading to success in the role was to find candidates with a Theoretical motivation. One of my screening questions was “What have you done in the last 3 years to further develop your sales skills?”

A response from one of the applicants:

“I have taken a bunch of Microsoft classes, from PowerPoint to Excel to Word to Access. If you name it, I’ve taken it.”

Sounds right. Shows a desire to learn. But notice my question – develop your sales skills. Did these courses afford them the opportunity to be in front of prospects and customers because of their proficiency on the computer? Or did they close more business because their presentations were now more animated? I doubt it. This applicant may have been a tremendous support person, but deeper into the phone screen it became quite apparent they lacked the needed business development skills.

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An envelope caught my eye this past week as I was rifling through my junk mail. Printed on the envelope was “Employee Recruitment & Retention.” Since that is my field, I decided to open it up. Inside, I found a complimentary copy of a monthly newsletter from Lawrence Ragan Communications dedicated to employee recruitment & retention.

I’ve never heard of this company, but I discovered a couple of interesting short articles on employee retention in their Quotes & Statistics section. First, What do workers want? You may be surprised. In it were the results of a survey of more than 1,000 US workers by the Sarratoga Institute (my emphasis).

When asked what factors would make them likely to remain with their current employers, here are their top 3 reasons:
1. Training and mentoring
2. Earnings potential
3. Positive work relations

The second article was titled Keep Workers in the Loop or They’ll Say Goodbye. In a survey conducted of 2,600 employees by Mercer Human Resources Consulting, they found that only 15% of those who enjoyed strong workplace communications were thinking of seeking new jobs. Now compare that to the 41% of the people in a tight-lipped organization thinking of seeking new employment.

Communication is crucial to management success and employee retention. Do not overlook its significance.

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Friday sourcing anecdote time so let’s go. This one was an email response that I need to give you just a little background information. First, the company we were running this hiring process for had a few open positions on their website. Second, we were in different stages of the hiring process on several positions with several customers. I received this email with “work at home” for a subject:

hi ijohna ilooking to work this at home can you call me asap 4561230978cst
johna@email.com call me monday at 2;00pmcst

I am always baffled by responses like this to employment ads. This guy obviously has some communication issues with email. Yet, this type of response is even worse for a sales role. Is this how he will prospect for new business? Feeble as his approach was, you still have to give him credit for making the approach. Some salespeople won’t even do that!

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I just caught up to some reading on Workforce Management’s website. Ready for the Big Time captivated my attention. The author references a company where candidates are hired similar to an NFL-style draft. You have to register at the site but it is free.

The article is quite long but I’ll give you the high points. The article is written about what National Oilwell Varco’s (NOV) chief executive did in response to seeing that most of his executives and upper managment positions were being held by baby boomers. He put his Senior VP of Sales and Director of Employee Development on the task to develop a system to recruit their next generation of company leaders. At the time, the VP of Sales was asked to spearhead this initiative and he was reading Patriot Reign – a book about the New England Patriots. He pulled a few points from the book which included business units competing for candidates based on the NFL draft.

A couple of points jumped out at me. Obviously, NOV made a conscious decision to shift their existing hiring paradigms. First, they stopped looking just in their backyard and started recruiting beyond the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. Second, they actually started looking to recruit directly from colleges, picking 30-40 students from 10 different colleges for interviews. In interviewing these students, they looked for specifc competencies: communication, ability to deal with ambiguity, perseverance, strategic ability, a drive for results and political savvy. They stopped prioritizing a recruiting paradigm that focused on hiring from their competitors for industry experience.

There are a number of interesting points thoughout this article but I would like to focus on hiring competency over experience. As we meet with clients and prospects, we consistently uncover that their top priority is to hire someone with direct industry experience. Their logic is that this approach will certainly lead to success. As with NOV, we recommend first to understand what competencies will lead to success in the role and then worry about the experience piece. In sales, some times experience helps, but all to often it is grossly overrated. Even though a salesperson may have sold a similiar product, how they went to market and competed is far different than any other company . . . including our customer. The only possible exception I can think of is when a company sells a commodity, leads with price and has no value add.

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During a recent salesperson search involving a long, complex, technical sale, we posted a clearly written ad that asked candidates to either email their resumes or to call. I received a voicemail from a candidate who actually picked up the phone to call (something we always like to see in salespeople). However, here was his messagel:

“I seen your ad and am currently in route sales. I need to get out of this position and make a change now. Please call me today so I can find out how soon I would be able to start.”

He then left me his first name and his pager number. Desperation is rarely pesuasive when looking for a new opportunity.

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It is Friday once again and time for another anecdote. In case you haven’t noticed, the phone screen is the source for most of these humorous encounters. I was recently conducting a phone screen for a high tech company with a complex sale. I asked the candidate what products and services he had sold and how this experience fit the requirements of the position listed in the ad. He replied with:

That’s easy – my background fits very well. I’ve been a comic for over 10 years, an agent, sold cars at a dealership and car washes to gas stations.

He never tied these experiences nor the skills he gained from them into the requirements of the position. That is understandable since the position involved a solution-based, $500K sale that typically went through a top level executive.

The screen call ended soon after that line.

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As I was reading through SHRM’s recent survey on Job Satisfaction (subscription required), a couple of stats really jumped out at me that further indicate the gap in what satisfies and motivates the different generations of workers.

Respondents were asked to rate their satisfaction on 21 different aspects of their work environment. They used a standard 1 to 5 scale (1=very unimportant up to 5=very important). Here are some of the topical results broken out by employee age followed by avg. score:

Career advancement: under 35 – 4.41 36 to 55-3.85 over 56-3.53

Career development opportunities: under 35 – 4.49 36 to 55 – 4.09 over 56 – 3.85

Job-specific training: under 35 – 4.34 36 to 55 – 4.04 over 56-3.62

Employer commitment to professional development: under 35 – 4.34 36 to 55 – 4.01 over 56 – 3.77

Flexibility to balance life/work issues: under 35 – 4.57 36 to 55 – 4.44 over 56 – 4.36

As you can see, younger generation expects a company to be committed to providing opportunities for professional development along with a distinct desire to balance personal and work life.

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