I recently read an excellent Career Journal article – Speed Date a Potential Employer And Get an Offer That Same Day. A point made in the article is to include a response deadline when extending an offer to a candidate. The author puts in the following quote: “Time kills all deals,” he says. “I’ve had clients that lost out on candidates because they went the traditional way and dragged their feet for three or four weeks.” No one is making you, as an employer, change how you hire. If you want to take 3, 4 or even more weeks to run your hiring process, that is your choice. Remember, you are looking at a salesperson and… Read More
Continue ReadingWearing Out The Delete Key
From a cover email I just received in response to an ad for a regional sales manager: Hi, Lee. I am _____. I live in __, however, I am international, or regional, or national, or whatever the job calls for. It gets worse. The candidate worked in a collection-type role and included 2 pages of collections (amounts, dates, commission, payment type). He included the first and last names of the people from which he collected the late payments. Unbelievable.
Continue ReadingMy Shortest Phone Screen Ever
I am sourcing for a mid-level account executive for a complex, custom manufactured product for businesses. I had one candidate contact me via voicemail who stated that he has decades of experience in this market. Ok. So I called him back late in the afternoon to go through a phone screen. First off, he didn’t remember me. After I explained who I was, he remembered the company. Next, I told him, “I was hoping to take a few minutes of your…” He interrupted me at that point to say he only had 5 minutes to talk since he had to get to Dominos to deliver pizzas.
Continue ReadingThe Craig’s List Tragedy
The recent murder of a young woman responding to a Craig’s List ad here in Minnesota has saddened all of us. Although the details are still sketchy, it appears to be a heinous, planned murder. Unfortunately, it has hit close to home with all of us at The Hire Sense. The murder occurred just 20 miles away from us in the same metropolitan county. Furthermore, we know the victim’s uncle. He is the top candidate for one of the position’s we are selecting for one of our customers. I called the candidate yesterday to follow up on the next step in our process and was utterly stunned when he told… Read More
Continue Reading5th Annual National Work And Family Month
The US Senate designated October as National Work and Family Month back in 2003 in hopes that it would engage employers into sponsoring work/life programs for their employees. We’ve posted about this topic before, but as more and more Gen X & Y’ers fill the roles of the retiring Baby Boomers, this subject will require attention by everyone who plans on hiring. Gen X & Y’ers consider work/life balance a very important topic, often reporting it as important as money. As we posted earlier this year, a survey of recruiters showed that 85% of them have seen candidates reject a job offer because it was misaligned with their work-life balance.… Read More
Continue ReadingTermination By Voicemail
A couple of days ago I put up a post about the rise of email terminations and how inappropriate I thought that practice was. Well I must say I have now learned of one example of a termination that does this one better (or should that be WORSE!). I talked with a salesperson this morning and would like to pass along his story of his termination experience. The President of his division was going to be in town and wanted to meet with him so they scheduled a time to meet in the morning. When the day came the salesperson was in bed with the flu so he called his… Read More
Continue ReadingTermination By Email
Over a year ago Derrick posted on Radio Shack’s faux pas regarding the emails they sent to their employees telling them that they had been terminated. If you would have told me then that this trend would be on the rise, I would have never believed you. Unfortunately, a recent survey of 752 people found that 75 of them had experienced or knew someone who had been terminated/laid-off via email. Maybe it’s me, but does anyone else out there think that this is beyond inappropriate? Firing or laying off an employee is never a fun thing to do and I have had my share to do, but emailing some one… Read More
Continue ReadingBackground Screening Stats
According to a recent article in Workforce Managements Newsletter, almost as many employees are discharged for poor performance as those who leave for better pay or for personal reasons. The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations, an Alexandria, Virginia-based group found about 70 percent of companies say job candidates omit relevant background information €œoccasionally or frequently.€ A fairly high rate especially if you are not conducting some type of background check. We have been very consistent here at The Hire Sense encouraging you as an employer to run background checks on all final candidates. If you aren’t performing background checks today, I hope the latest statistic will prompt you to… Read More
Continue ReadingCandidates Should Qualify Money
I’ve been swamped phone screening sales candidates this week and have seen many levels of ability. One thing that has been clear is the candidate’s ability to qualify money. This is a big issue for some salespeople in that they are uncomfortable discussing money. One move I like to use is to provide a wide range on the salary to see what they do with it. If they ask me about compensation (surprising how many do not), I give them a range like $40K to $80K salary. That is a wide range so I expect them to qualify it further: -What will it take to be closer to the $80K… Read More
Continue ReadingCandidates’ Decision Making Process
I’m never sure what to make of these surveys about employment decision processes among candidates. Pay always seems like the obvious response but rarely the significant driver of the decision. Nonetheless, the results always catch my eye so I put it up here anyway. From the most recent Workforce Recruiting Newsletter (sorry, no link) – the top attraction drivers by age group for U.S. employees in 2007:
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