Ok, this is more brainstorming than well-developed post (don’t touch that – they are all well-developed in my mind). Anyway, I read through an interesting piece on BusinessWeek.com titled Coping With the Talent Crunch. The article is from last year, but the author hits on a couple interesting points. First, this (my editing and emphasis): It may be that employers (especially large ones) are increasingly out of touch. True, for most of the past two decades employees have consistently said there are reasons more important than money that make a job attractive. The problem is, most of those reasons to stick around have gone the way of the manual typewriter.… Read More
Continue ReadingReading The Resume
If you have read The Hire Sense for any period of time, you know we have some strong feelings about using resumes to filter sales candidates. This approach is ripe with problems. However, we know it occurs and until we change the world on this topic, we’ll have to make the best of it. In that light, here are the items we look for when reading through resumes: Performance. Has the person succeeded by what you can see in their work history? Is this success supported by specific numbers? Progression. Has their sales career shown overall growth through their different positions? Have they been with only 1 company or have… Read More
Continue ReadingTelecommuting Or Cube Farm?
As a resident in many cube farms for many years of my career, I have a fondness for stories involving this topic. This article – Why Silicon Valley Firms Are Rethinking the Cubicle – provides probably more insight than the average person cares to know about this topic. But this caught my attention: Intel Corp. is often credited, or blamed, for popularizing the office cubicle. Now it is joining some prominent Silicon Valley peers in reconsidering the concept. I didn’t know that, but later in the article you find this statistic: Sun Microsystems Inc. is particularly aggressive about flexible work styles; the computer maker estimated that about 55% of its employees… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Most Annoying Coworker
It’s me. Well, I didn’t make the list, but I think I could have won it (Lee will confirm it). But this article in CareerJournal.com reports that SnagAJob.com went with their own list and came up with these answers: According to the 7,000 people who responded to the poll last month, the “slacker” and the “kiss-up” tied for the most annoying person to work with. Each type was selected as most annoying by 32.6% of those who responded to the one-question survey. … Third on the list of annoying co-workers was the “gossip hound,” which 18.4% said was the most annoying co-worker. The “loud talker” was deemed most annoying by… Read More
Continue ReadingCounterpunching The Recruiting Firm
Great quote that is. Selling Power provided it in their article Re-Recruiting and Retention. The gist of the article deals with keeping your top performers when they have been recruited from your company. The article lists some suggested goals you can gather by conducting exit interviews: – Eliminate the barriers to retention that were mentioned in surveys of ex-employees.– Identify essential, “can’t operate without” employees and thank each one of them (often).– Upgrade personal performance contracts, paying special attention to the problem areas identified.– Provide extra compensation and rewards. (Pacetta suggests establishing a recruiting and retaining fund for this purpose.)– Ask each of your essential employees to come to you… Read More
Continue ReadingNews Alert: Most Employees Faking Sick Days
Ok, it is a cheeky title to this post, but I recently read this Inc.com article – Big Surprise: Most Workers Faking Sick Days (see, Inc.com started it). In case you had any doubt: …most workers who call in sick at the last minute aren’t really sick. … The real reasons for employee absenteeism range from family issues to personal needs and stress. Indeed, a majority of workers tend to call in “sick” on Mondays or Fridays, with similar patterns appearing around major holidays, the survey found. So no surprises here but there is a very good point made towards the end of the article (emphasis mine): Still, Wolf doesn’t blame… Read More
Continue ReadingCompanies Offering "Voluntary" Benefits
We just lost a strong candidate at one of our customers this week because the company’s offer did not contain a well-defined benefits package. That always hurts. Now this morning I read the CareerJournal.com article titled Firms Increasingly Offer ‘Voluntary’ Benefits. I haven’t heard of this trend, but it is most intriguing. A growing number of businesses, large and small, are offering employees so-called voluntary benefits ranging from pet insurance to homeowners insurance to help with house closings and estate planning. The signature character of these voluntary benefits is that employees pay for them, but at a discounted rate obtained by the employer. Medical insurance will always be the top… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series-Monitoring Others
This week’s sales management trait sports a word that I don’t particularly enjoy – “monitoring.” That isn’t a great description of this trait since it is far broader than that term. Nonetheless, in today’s world of remote salespeople, this trait will be in even greater demand in the near future. Monitoring Others This ability focuses on the actions and decisions of others in a practical, pragmatic way to identify both successes and mistakes. It is the ability to identify the causes of success and failure and to do so in an objective, accurate manner while not allowing personal feelings or biases to influence such decisions. A sales manager with strength… Read More
Continue ReadingTalkin’ Trends Podcast
I mentioned the new Salesopedia JobsCentral board earlier today. As part of that board’s launch, I had the chance to record a podcast with Clayton Shold from Salesopedia and Jeremy Miller from LEAPJob.com. We talked about a handful of sales hiring trends, Generations X & Y and our predictions of where we see the market going in the next 5 years. It was a good, lively discussion and worth your time to listen. Please click here to listen to the entire podcast.
Continue ReadingDumb And Dumber Resume Moves
I came across this quick info from The Career News newsletter (sorry, no link): Job site CareerBuilder.com recently asked pollsters Harris Interactive to survey hiring managers and find out the wackiest resume items they’ve seen lately. Out of 2,627 responses, here are the top ten resume blunders made by job candidates: Attached a letter from her mother. Used pale blue paper with teddy bears printed around the border. Explained a three-month gap in employment by saying that he was getting over the death of his cat. Specified that his availability to work Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays is limited because the weekends are “drinking time.” Included a picture of herself in… Read More
Continue Reading