This is from the Career News newsletter (sorry, no link): According to the U.S. Census Bureau the difference in lifetime earnings between a high school diploma and bachelor’s degree is a million dollars. Add on a master’s degree and you can expect to earn an additional half a million dollars in earnings. Those with professional degrees earn much more – about 4.4 million dollars during their working life. Jennifer Day, Chief of the Education and Social Stratification Branch at the U.S. Census Bureau says, “In 1999, average annual earnings ranged from $19,000 for high school dropouts, to $26,000 for high school graduates, $45,000 for college graduates and $99,000 for the… Read More
Continue ReadingWeekend Hangover…For Ads
The days of posting your employment ad on the weekend are over. I think the whole weekend approach is a hangover from the Sunday paper days of job hunting. Nowadays, few – few – people look for a job on the weekend. According to The Career News newsletter (sorry, no link): In a trend that has held true for three years, job hunting takes off on Monday, peaks on Tuesday and is still very busy on Wednesday, according to Monster.com. Job hunt traffic on Tuesday is 28 percent higher than on Friday, said Steve Sylven, a spokesman for Monster. EQuest, which manages job boards for companies, used to see Tuesdays… Read More
Continue ReadingA Fundamental Lack Of Communication
The more companies we work with, the more we see communication breakdowns being the root of most problems. Our work with our clients spans more than just recruiting. We assist them in onramping their new salesperson. This function places us in the unique position of working with both the salesperson and the sales manager. One of the more dysfunctional situations we encounter is a communication breakdown between the manager and salesperson. One manager complained that the salesperson wasn’t doing what he asked, but he never confronted the salesperson. Another time we had a salesperson who would not submit his weekly call report. Ever. Yes, he was let go (even we… Read More
Continue ReadingYou Get What You Pay Salespeople For
We have really come to enjoy Dave Stein’s posts. They are timely and cut straight to the heart of the issue. Today’s post is no exception. Working strictly on the sales side of organizations, one of the areas we look at while profiling their sale is compensation. Most importantly, we look to see if the compensation structure rewards the behaviors the company expects of the salesperson. More times than not it won’t and from one of Dave’s comments, he sees the same issues: I am bringing this up because compensation is another dysfunctional area within many companies. During the past quarter, I’ve been engaged with several clients where “errors of commission” are preventing… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Migration To Niche Job Boards
One of the points we always push when it comes to sourcing is to use multiple channels that still includes online job boards. In fact we use them during our sourcing efforts, however if you talk to other recruiters you will probably hear that running ads on the boards will only get you active job seekers (the unemployed). We find that at least half of the salespeople that respond to our ads are currently working or what other recruiters call passive job seekers. So the one thing we are always looking for are niche job boards to try out. What we are finding is that the niche job boards deliver on their… Read More
Continue ReadingI May Know This Person
From the title of a resume posted online: receptionist,homemaker,health aide,sales ass,youth counselor,or daycare aide I know I have worked with many a sales ass. In the resume, this person lists a job from years ago in which they worked the retail cash register at a drug store. I particularly enjoyed their description of that work: SALES ASSOCIATE:RECEIVE CASH FROM CUSTOMRES IN PAYMENT FOR GOODS.PROCESS SALES TRANSCATIONS AND ISSUE RECEIPTS. “Issue receipts” just kills me.
Continue ReadingMulti-Channel Sourcing
We preach to our clients that simply placing an onlie ad is not a sound sourcing strategy. Managesmarter.com has an article that gives 3 good, quick tips for leveraging the Internet to fill open positions. The only way to effectively recruit is to use multiple channels. You’re trying to find that one person who is exactly right, and that means exploring multiple avenues. This includes your offline efforts, by the way—don’t stop networking just because you’ve posted a job online. Work multiple sources (both online and real world) to get the word out about your opening. Make sure you’ve got an accurate, well-written, exciting job description. You need a posting that… Read More
Continue ReadingFirst Round Cuts
The frequency of layoffs has started to rise as the economy continues it’s slow progression (no, it hasn’t recessed). Up here in Minnesota we have experienced some large layoffs recently. But there is an interesting point in all of these layoffs when it comes to salespeople. Many times the underperformers are released first as a method for upgrading the sales force. One of the large corporations up here announced a sizeable layoff that reduced their employee count by 5%. Yet, the following week they had multiple employment ads on multiple sites looking for different levels of salespeople. This approach is not surprising as you will see it often during slow… Read More
Continue ReadingA Database Of The Discarded
A headline from the Wall Street Journal – Employer Alliance Aims To Streamline Recruiting. “Streamline” is one of those overused business terms that I find annoying. Yet, the article is rather interesting: Seven of the nation’s largest employers have teamed up to help one another with recruiting. They’ve formed a consortium called AllianceQ, which allows them and future members to share information about job applicants they don’t hire. Which leads to this: Since QuietAgent.com doesn’t feature job ads, professionals will only learn about career opportunities if employers contact them. By giving out referrals to QuietAgent.com, AllianceQ members are helping job hunters they don’t hire find employment elsewhere, says Jason Kerr,… Read More
Continue ReadingTightening The Ad
I’ve been reading through many sales employment ads recently and am seeing a trend – the ads are written tighter. A couple of examples: -Minimum of 5 years of related public accounting and/or corporate sales -A minimum of two years’ business development experience in a pharmaceutical and/or CRO biotechnology, or drug development company. Nothing wrong with this approach since the candidate pool is still relatively large due to the slow economy. One thing to be sure of – the labor pool will tighten up again soon. At that point, it is wiser to move these requirements into preferences and look outside of your industry for transferable skills. One interesting point… Read More
Continue Reading