No real surprises from this CNNMoney.com article (emphasis mine): Employers are trimming their hiring plans but still expect to add workers in 2008, according to a survey released Wednesday. Online job search site CareerBuilder.com said its survey of 3,016 hiring managers and human resource professionals in the private sector found that 32 percent of companies plan to increase the number of full-time, permanent employees in the upcoming year. A year ago, 40 percent said they expected to add staff. Slow, steady growth is an ideal situation. The hiring trend has been on such a torrid pace that finding strong candidates has become an extended process. I’ve thought for the past… Read More
Continue ReadingRetention Starts With Recruiting
The Herman Trend Alert offers up an excellent analysis of the most pressing topic of today – retention. I thought this statement was spot on: The Hodes 2007 Workplace Study holds that two factors are critical to retaining valued employees. The first is choosing quality people, not settling for “warm bodies”. The second is choosing people who have long-term expectations of staying with the organization. We encounter companies that have a hire fast, fire fast mentality. Personally, I think this approach is high risk, low reward and we never condone this approach at Select Metrix. The second point is an important one also. If you are looking at a candidate… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Spam Trend
This is bad – straight from Online Media Daily: NEARLY 9 OUT OF 10 email messages delivered to large enterprises in November were spam, according to the latest stats from Proofpoint. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based data security company released its Proofpoint Spam Index and found that while overall spam levels dropped slightly (from 89% in October to 88% in November), large companies were still receiving an extremely high volume of spam–with an upsurge in attachment-based spam of almost every kind. If they think that is bad, they should see how much comment spam a blog can generate.
Continue ReadingMore Job Ad Errors
Ok, I know it is a holiday week so people are cruising at half speed, but there is no room for some errors. Spelling mistakes in the title is inexcusable. The title is the only information that is displayed on most job boards so you can see the significance of this mistake. The position’s title: Egineer – Mulitple Positions Honestly, I am embarrassed for the company.
Continue ReadingThe NHL On New Year’s Day
Ok, there are plenty of college football games to digest this holiday week so why not try something different on New Year’s Day? We here at The Hire Sense are huge hockey fans and all of our sons play in our local association and high school program. The NHL is a second-tier (at best) league in the US, but they are fairly progressive in their approach to marketing their league. Online Media Daily has an article titled NHL’s ‘Winter Classic’ Coverage to Include Historic Broadband Firsts. In case you haven’t heard, the NHL will have an outdoor game on Jan. 1 from Buffalo, NY. I love this idea (they held… Read More
Continue ReadingMerry Christmas!
We are calling it a wrap today and are on our way to be with family and friends. All of us at Select Metrix would like to wish you and yours a joyous and blessed Christmas!
Continue ReadingTop 10 Travel Blunders
Since I suspect many of you will be hopping on an airplane within the next few days, here is an article from Yahoo Finance titled 10 Biggest Bonehead Moves at Airport Security. It is a funny article especially if you have been caught in one of these scenarios. I usually cause one of these scenarios: 4.) Sporting Lace-Ups When Loafers Will Do You don’t need to wear your father’s slippers, but you shouldn’t wear his army boots either. Nowadays, everyone — and that means you, Your Honor — has to take off their shoes for X-ray inspection. So wear shoes that can be easily put on and taken off. And… Read More
Continue ReadingManaging A Remote Salesforce
We talk about this topic at length because it is more than a trend. ManageSmarter.com’s Long-Distance Teambuilding addresses this topic in a real-world manner: “Sellers by nature like to be in a team environment—they want a high-five and a talk around the water cooler,” says Cowitt, vice president of national advertising sales for Freedom Interactive, the Internet division of Freedom Communications, a media company in Irvine, Calif. So Cowitt implemented a daily phone call, which lasts about 15 minutes, to allow salespeople to exchange ideas, successes and challenges. That is the right approach. We initiated a weekly conference call earlier this year with one of our customers with whom we… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Hottest Gift This Christmas…
is a GPS receiver. I get lost in my driveway and yet I still do not own one of these things. In case you were wondering (you probably weren’t wondering, but I was), here is how the thing works: When people talk about “a GPS,” they usually mean a GPS receiver. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is actually a constellation of 27 Earth-orbiting satellites (24 in operation and three extras in case one fails). The U.S. military developed and implemented this satellite network as a military navigation system, but soon opened it up to everybody else. Each of these 3,000- to 4,000-pound solar-powered satellites circles the globe at about 12,000… Read More
Continue ReadingMotivating Salespeople
Sales managers have to be part-time psychologists in their leadership position. The best salespeople have an internal motivation that drives them to succeed. Yet, a strong sales manager still has to know each salesperson’s drivers and how to access them when needed. Selling Power offers a short article titled Internalizing Motivation that discusses this topic: Sales trainer Don Hutson recounts the story about a sales manager who approached him at one of his seminars and said, “I don’t believe in motivation because it doesn’t last.” Hutson replied, “A bath doesn’t either, but it’s a good idea to take one once in a while.” Hutson says sales managers can’t directly motivate… Read More
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