What is your company doing to accommodate remote employees? That question is becoming more common in each subsequent interview I run with our customers. Sales has always been an “outside-the-walls” position, but now that truth is being taken to new levels. From Managesmarter.com’s Get Competitive, Get Mobile (added emphasis): The study polled more than 500 executives globally on whether or not their organizations had implemented mobility initiatives and how often those initiatives were being used. The results show that business mobility is now implemented in most companies and executives report that one fifth of their employees are mobile, spending at least one day a week working outside the office. Reasons… Read More
Continue ReadingThe History of Memorial Day
The unofficial start of summer is this weekend. With such an an important day to remember the valiant people who have died in the service of our nation, I thought it would be appropriate to give a little history to the Memorial Day holiday. For more information please visit this website devoted to Memorial Day. May 5th, 1868 – General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, Memorial Day was officially proclaimed, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. 1873 – New York is the first state to recognize Memorial Day… Read More
Continue ReadingOnline Job Posting Trends
Weddle’s offer’s a bi-weekly newsletter about Internet resources for recruiting & HR professionals. In a survey conducted between March 10 and May 10, 2007 they asked the following question: Of the openings you’ve posted online, what level were they at: Hourly positions? 7.7% Entry-level professional positions? 23% Mid-level professional positions? 46.2% Senior-level professional positions? 7.7% Managerial positions? 11.5% Executive positions? 3.9% It is interesting that Mid-level professional is the largest group followed second by entry-level. I believe we’ll continue to see these two categories grow in the coming years. It will be interesting to watch the growth of niche job boards and of the networking sites liked LinkedIn, Jigsaw and… Read More
Continue ReadingVideo-Conference Interviewing
I have been working through many phone screens and phone interviews over the past few weeks. These interactions are tough for the candidate and for the interviewer. I was at a communication conference this past weekend that restated something I already knew – 55% of all communication is non-verbal. This fact is never more obvious than during a phone interview. So SellingPower.com has an article in their latest hiring newsletter that caught my eye – Three, Two, One, Action. The article discusses video-conference interviewing. I am currently working on national positions in every region except the Southeast. Video conferencing would make this task much easier. Some points: Rooms can cost… Read More
Continue ReadingA Quick Screening Tip
I’m working through another week consisting of one phone screen after another. There are few things that are more revealing than spending time on the phone with sales candidates. One topic I enjoy hearing is a candidate who clearly has experience building a territory from nothing to a significant revenue level. This ability is highly valuable and it doesn’t take long to discover if the candidate has truly done it or not. The candidates who have done it have detailed accounts of successes and failures in growing the revenue. Drill down a level or two on their responses and you will hear either past-tense experiences or theoretical strategies. Listen for… Read More
Continue ReadingSimple Sign Of A Schmoozer
I’m working through many phone screens today and came across a respondent who displayed one of the hallmarks of a schmoozer. A question I often like to lead with is some variation of this: “Give me an overview of your skills and how they would fit into this position based on the ad that you read.” A simple question that assumes they are familiar with the ad. Yet, you would be surprised how often the candidate does not have the ad in front of them or how little they remember from the ad. Some respondents are wise enough to state they don’t have the ad in front of them so… Read More
Continue ReadingInterview Etiquette – When To Cancel
I am on the road this week in Dallas interviewing candidates with one of our clients and a situation came up in the last 24 hours that speaks to proper etiquette during the interview/hiring process. There are certain expected behaviors that should be followed by both the employer and the candidate in any process. Yesterday, I received a phone call in the evening from a candidate who wanted to tell me that she was canceling our interview scheduled with her for early this morning. She knew that I was traveling from Minneapolis to Dallas and had even confirmed her interview with us late in the afternoon the day before. So… Read More
Continue ReadingIncreased Pay or Better Benefits? That Is The Question.
So which is more important to employees, pay or benefits (specifically health benefits)? In last week’s Workforce Management’s newsletter, a nationwide survey was recently conducted by the National Business Group on Health that asked 1,619 employed people that specific question. They found that employees in the U.S. consider their health plan to be their most important benefit. Furthermore, in a world of rising health care costs, employees would rather give up wage increases and other benefits to preserve health care coverage. More than 50% said they would accept fewer choices in order to keep their premiums low and roughly 75% would rather receive employer health benefits than get paid more… Read More
Continue ReadingDefining The Battle For Talent
“The biggest challenge employers face in recruiting new hires is the competition between companies for talent” notes Worldwide ERC, the association for global workforce mobility management. According to an article on their website, more than 90% of the companies surveyed are having problems recruiting the right people and more than 20% consider the problem severe. They were asked to give the reasons why they have been running into difficulties in hiring talented people – here are their responses (including percentages from the 2002 survey): 2002 2006 Competition with other companies 47% 59% Lack of qualified candidates 48% 50% Cost of living/housing issues 26% 38% Undesirable areas 22% 32% Dual career/family… Read More
Continue ReadingBest Jobs in America
Salary.com and Money teamed up to offer this article in which they polled more than 12,000 people in their 2nd annual Best Jobs in America survey. One interesting fact that they found was that 60% of those surveyed are considering or recently have completed a career change. Clearly the days of the single-company career are gone (all of here at Select Metrix can attest to that). They have actually broken down the top 20 jobs for 4 different categories, for the young (Gen Y), parent’s returning to the workforce, veterans and for those over 50 (baby boomers). The articles are quite long so allow me to preview the top 10… Read More
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