I came across an interesting article on fuzzy phrases in this week’s newsletter from Sales Vault and it is well worth the time to read. The author’s definition of a fuzzy phrase is something that really says nothing. You feel like you might have heard something of substance, but after analysis (usually after the call is over) you realize they just said nothing. They are his pet peeve as I am sure they are for all sales people. His suggestion is to ask for clarification. When you hear any statement that is vague or wishy-washy, ask for clarification. If it’s something that needs to be done or discussed, I’ll always… Read More
Continue ReadingRadio Shack’s Junk Mail
Ok, maybe electronic communication has gone too far. I posted some Termination Tips a week ago that apparently were not read by Radio Shack’s upper management team. Before that, I posted about Text Message Terminations – an employee was fired through her cell phone text messaging. Granted, it was from a body piercing shop, but the approach was still laughable. Now Radio Shack has decided to enter this infamous club by using email to terminate employees. This is no joke: Employees at the Fort Worth headquarters received an e-mail Tuesday morning telling them they were being dismissed immediately.”The work force reduction notification is currently in progress,” the notice stated. “Unfortunately… Read More
Continue ReadingOpen for Comments
After input from one of our readers (thank you Amitai), we have opened up our comments section so you no longer need to register to post a comment. Due to the high volume of daily spam we receive, we will have to continue to hold comments in moderation for the time being. We will approve the comments as we check to make sure they are not automated posts. At any rate, I hope the open comments section makes it easier to share your thoughts on The Hire Sense.
Continue ReadingRecruiting.com Blog
We have just been added to the Recruiting.com Blog directory which is a great resource for finding high-quality recruiting blogs. Thanks to Jason for adding us to the directory and I am sure our blogroll will be growing in the next few weeks!
Continue ReadingThe Impending Entrepreneur Wave
A good sign from an Inc.com article – Three Out of Four Teens Want to Start a Business. I suspect there is a dream factor to being young and having your work career completely in front of you. Nonetheless, I am all for the youths of this country aspiring to create new careers for themselves. Two interesting points from the article: Of more than 1,400 teens surveyed across the nation earlier this year, nearly 71% said they would like to run a business someday, up from 64% in 2004 Surprisingly, very few said the desire to own a business is driven by a lack of meaningful employment elsewhere. Instead, nearly… Read More
Continue ReadingBlogs & Recruiting
Blogs Could Become Newest Recruiting Tool from the SHRM website (membership required): Blogs offer businesses an excellent and interactive communication tool. For example Microsoft has close to 3,000 blogs posted by the company’s employees. Blogs can give an insiders view of a company’s work environment to potential job candidates. This is extremely important with the younger generations (ed.-see our article), it is as important to understand the culture as it is the responsibilities of the position. For this reason companies that don’t have employee blogs could find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in recruiting. Honeywell Corp. is a good example of a company that uses blogs as a recruiting device.… Read More
Continue ReadingHail Rhymes With Sale
This may only interest me, but I read an employment ad for a Hail Restoration Salesperson this morning. We had a tremendous hail storm roll through here last week – softball-sized hail did some extensive damage. I have already received 5-6 mailers/brochures from roofing companies in the past 5 days. Now I read this ad and it states: This could be the opportunity of a lifetime, with six-figure income potential easily within reach. Maybe it is that big of an opportunity, but I am skeptical. What does this salesperson do in the middle of our extended Minnesota winter? I would recommend this position be on a contract only. The steady… Read More
Continue ReadingManaging Other Communication Styles
Monster.com posted this article last week – Adapting Your Management Style. There isn’t a lot of meat in this thing but it does address an important principle: Moniot helped the manager better understand different personality styles and then devised an innovative visual cue of a color-coded piece of paper, correlated with their assessed personality style, that was taped to the top of each worker’s computer monitor. This served as a reminder of each staff member’s communication needs as the manager entered their workspace. I suspect . . . no, I guarantee this manager has a High D style. The High D has long been cherished for management because of their… Read More
Continue ReadingJob Hopping Amongst Executives
Job hopping gets much attention from companies when they are in hiring mode and rightly so. This business article provides some interesting statistics in regards to upper-level management trends. Did you know: A total of 17,612 managers from chief executive officers to vice presidents changed jobs from January through July, more than twice the 7,251 during the same period in 2005, New York-based Liberum Research said in a study released Tuesday. Of the executive changes, 1,636 were CEOs, up 50 percent from 1,089 in the first seven months of 2005 The pressure hasn’t been just on CEOs. Some 1,444 chief financial officers left their companies through July this year, up… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Gut is NOT the Answer
We were at a customer site yesterday afternoon and heard a great line. This is a large, national company with thousands of employees. Our HR contacts have to work with many different hiring managers and have to debrief with them after interviews. One of the lines they hear from a particular manager is that their gut tells them no on a certain candidate who has been qualified and assessed. Our HR contact said, “We don’t like ‘gut’ in HR.” Amen to that! We don’t like it either in our business. Far better to hear objective assessment analysis and direct interview responses as opposed to anything involving the ethereal “my gut”… Read More
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