It sure feels like a holiday already, but we at The Hire Sense march on today. We’ll keep things light before the long holiday weekend. Google kicked up this fun article from a CareerBuilder.com editor titled The 10 worst things to do in a meeting. Here’s a good tease: Who among us hasn’t cringed as the office windbag launched into a self-aggrandizing discourse that was completely off-point? Pitied a meek co-worker who got trounced by the office bully? Or marveled at a colleagues’ ability to string together an array of buzzwords that mean absolutely nothing? Oh, I have been in many of those meetings. A couple of my favorite items… 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 ReadingWho is the Toughest?
In a recent a recent Workforce Management newsletter it had quick article that caught my eye. It was titled: Who’s Tough and Who’s Not (sorry no link available) and looks to see what is the toughest group in corporate America. PsyMax Solutions, a human capital assessment company in Cleveland conducted a survey and reached its conclusions after studying the responses of more than 2,000 employees. It found that middle managers are the most resilient, are better able to accept criticism, manage stress and bounce back from frustration and disappointments.
Continue ReadingSimply The Best
I had a good conversation today about a business owner whom we assessed as a salesperson and found some varied results. The owner was strong in some areas but weak in some important aptitudes. This led to the discussion that the owner was one of the best people at actually selling this service so how could they have lower scores in these areas. Some important points about this scenario: Hiring is a complex process with an almost limitless amount of variables. A successful process needs to incorporate objective data and then use it interactively with the candidate. Our approach is to pursue specific topics, in an indirect manner, once we… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Sales Manager Factor
It seems we come across this issue frequently so it merits some attention. The scenario is this – a company hires a strong salesperson and they fail within a short amount of time. The first question that is usually raised is why did we hire this person? Obviously, they were not the right fit, they weren’t talented, they were disingenuous in the interview, etc. But is this really the case? It could be, but there is one crucial piece of the equation that goes unexamined . . . management. This is a touchy subject with a company because you have to confront their perception. Most managers believe they are doing… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Importance of Your Boss
Sales & Marketing Management has a quick hitter of a story regarding an Adecco survey about the worker-boss relationship. I think most people are aware of this: “The relationship between a worker and his/her manager has very real implications for both employee satisfaction and performance,” says Ray Roe, president of Adecco North America. But here is a survey result that I found somewhat surprising: The younger the worker, the less impact the boss has on overall happiness. Among Generation Y workers, 53 percent said their relationship with their boss had no impact on their work-life happiness. However, 62 percent of baby boomers report their bosses have influence over their day-to-day… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Hooky Entitlement
The Pioneer Press posted this AP story – Playing hooky a popular pastime – Absence from work at 7-year high. I guess there are still companies that offer sick days as opposed to PTO. First, the breakout of sick day excuses: It found that personal illness accounts for only 35 percent of unscheduled absences, with the rest due to family issues (24 percent), personal needs (18 percent), stress (12 percent) and entitlement mentality (11 percent). I found the “entitlement” reason quite entertaining. I suspect some employees feel they have earned that time and choose to use it their own way. The piece of information I find most interesting is the… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Job-Hopping Path
CareerJournal.com has to be one of the best sources for hiring information on the web. Today is no exception as they release this article – Job-Hop to the Top Of the Corporate Ladder. To cut to the quick of the article: If you want to make it to the top of the corporate ladder, job-hopping may actually be the only way to get there… Yup, this is a common strategy amongst the younger generation. We wrote about it in this article from earlier this year. Our perspective focused on the manager’s viewpoint while the CareerJournal article focuses on the employee’s viewpoint. First, from the CareerJournal article: Identify what you want… Read More
Continue ReadingHow To Retain Employees
Earlier this week we posted on employee turnover via a survey that found 75% of jobseekers believe they will find greater career success elsewhere. As jobs become more plentiful and workers more scarce, employee retention is going to be a top 3 topic for most companies. Steve Rothberg posts on the CollegeRecruiter.com blog a handful of tips to increase your company’s employee retention rate. Please read them – he is spot on. The suggestion that stood out to me in terms of the younger generations: Keep it fresh. Create new ways to ensure your employees continue to learn and grow within their related field and your company.
Continue ReadingSelling Power Daily Video – 2
As I stated in my previous post I would keep you updated as to the effectiveness usefulness of Selling Power’s daily video clip. I have been watching them off and on the past couple of weeks and each time I find a usable tidbit in them. For instance, today Gerhard Gschwandtner is interviewing John Roberts – CEO Sugar CRM. As you would expect, the interview is on the effectiveness of CRMs. The one point that I pulled out of today’s clip is on what John Roberts sees as the biggest reason for CRM failure is user adoption. His clear point – quality of CRM training drives user adoption up. A… Read More
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