A new trend from BusinessWeek.com – Napping Your Way to the Top. I laughed out loud when I read this article. Full disclosure – I hate naps. I never take them no matter how tired I am. Hence the reference to Longfellow in title of this post. From the article: Without sleep you don’t learn. My research shows that people deteriorate during the day. It’s difficult to sustain productivity. Naps can add back to the sleep you’re deprived of at night. And a nap enhances productivity even if you have enough nocturnal sleep. I still remember the business owner I worked for in my first outside sales position. He was… Read More
Continue ReadingCivic-Minded Millennials
The justsell.com guys reference an interesting study that came out last month regarding the Millennial generation (born between 1979 and 2001). I know, I doubt they received much input from the 5 year olds. Anyway, the study indicates some distinct trends amongst the generation just out of college. Moreover, the poll finds that as Millennials begin to enter the workforce, they not only have high expectations for themselves, but also for their employers. Nearly eight out of ten want to work for a company that cares about how it contributes to society, while more than half would refuse to work for an irresponsible corporation. Certainly the Enron, Global Crossing, WorldCom… Read More
Continue ReadingCandidates With Blogs
All right, we posted on Candidates with Personal Websites yesterday and now today we come across this Selling Power article – Blogs: Are You There Yet? This phenomenon is more than a fad, it appears to be a growing trend: “Blogs are, generally speaking, genuine,” says Krane. “A blog is one person’s voice. How someone blogs is probably an indication of how that person speaks and conducts him or herself in general.”Many prospective employees also keep blogs as a portfolio – especially in this town [San Francisco],” says Krane. “Having a blog shows that you are on the cutting edge of Web 2.0. It’s commonplace for a job candidate to… Read More
Continue ReadingOne of Them Must Be Wrong
A quote from my post on Tuesday: And don’t assume its about money. When someone quits her job, 89 percent of managers assume it was over money, whereas 91 percent of the workers who quit say it was anything but, Murphy said. From a CareerJournal article titled Opportunity Knocks, And It Pays a Lot Better: Managers like to say employees leave companies because of bad bosses or lack of career growth. A new report suggests a more straightforward reason: money.In a survey of about 1,100 U.S. employees, 71% of top performers listed pay among the top three reasons they would consider leaving their employer. Yet in a sister survey of… Read More
Continue ReadingCandidates With Personal Websites
We may be early on this topic, but we have seen candidates with personal websites. Now, I must clarify – I’m not talking about MySpace profiles. I am referring to full-fledged, personal, web domains. My initial take on this approach is that it is rife with vanity. But I have to confess, I took some time to browse their website and learn more about them. Now I just caught up to this MarketingProfs.com article title What’s Your Google Identity? From the article: People are googling you and making decisions about you from what Google reveals. Whether you are an employee looking to advance in your company, a professional seeking your… Read More
Continue ReadingWork-Life Perception
Sales & Marketing Management has an quick-hitter of a story titled Motivational Forces in the Workplace. I thought we could keep the motivational/rewards riff going from this morning’s post, but this article is a quick rehash of a Monster.com study. The article is rather unremarkable except for this bullet point: Work-life balance matters more to women. Forty-one percent of women would refuse a job offer that provided no work hours flexibility. Only 26 percent of men would do the same. Still, once on the job, work-life issues flip-flop across gender lines. Forty percent of men say their current employer is not flexible enough regarding work-family balance, while only 28 percent… Read More
Continue ReadingEmployee Retention Wake-Up Call
Speaking Up Helps Keep Star Workers appears in one of our local papers – the Pioneer Press. The article discusses a topic we have addressed before that many employers assume is not active in their company – job hunting. In case you were in doubt, some stats from the article: A recent workplace survey of 16,237 workers by Leadership IQ, a leadership training and research firm in Washington, D.C., found that nearly half the people regarded as stellar performers were actively trying to leave their current employers. That should grab every managers’ attention. 16,237 is a large sample size and 47% are actively looking to leave. Forty-seven percent of your… Read More
Continue ReadingA REAL Working Vacation
Ok, I had to read this abcnews.com article slowly – Need a New Job? Go On Vacation. To cut to the chase – people are using their vacation time to test drive a new career they would prefer to have. Vocation Vacation – what a great name – offers this service: the company offers more than 75 different career experiences all while your boss thinks you’re off sunning yourself on some sandy beach. We have encountered companies that are implementing various forms of trial-for-hire programs even amongst high end sales positions. From the company’s perspective, I think it is a great opportunity to make sure you hire the right person… Read More
Continue ReadingTop Job Boards
I’m sure you can guess the top 2 job boards, no surprises there, but who is number one. Careerbuilder nudges out Monster by 400,000 more ads in a quarter. But what boards round out the top 10, that might suprise you. Check out the list at Workforce.com.
Continue ReadingBest Cities for Relocating
Through some of my sourcing efforts this past week I came across several lists for the top cities for relocating. The Employee Relocation Council (ERC) and Primacy Relocation have been conducting these survey’s for a few years. From what I found, they publish a yearly list of the top 50 cities for Families by market size and the top 100 cities for singles. Our home state of Minnesota did not place any cities in the top 50 for families, but Minneapolis/St. Paul came in at 77 on the list of top 100 cities for singles. Here is the criteria used for each of the lists: Families Tax Rates Average House… Read More
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