The Hire Sense
A business blog dedicated to all topics pertaining to successful sales recruiting, hiring, managing and retaining in today's evolving market.
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Proper Interview Follow-Up
As an employer what type of follow up should you expect from a candidate? Should you receive a thank you? Should that thank you be a hand written mailed thank you, an email thank you or a quick text on your cell phone? Did that last one get your attention? It did mine as I read a post from Steven Rothberg. The post used a couple of quotes from hiring managers that were offended by candidates sending out an email from a blackberry within minutes of the interview and a text message to... |
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2009 Prediction Time-Talent Management
The Herman Trend Alert offers up some expected predictions, some insightful ones and some surprising ones for 2009. Here is one that falls in the expected/not surprising category: 1. Certain Skill Sets Continue to be in Short Supply. In spite of the global economic slowdown and massive layoffs, certain skill sets are in short supply. All but the most short-sighted employers will continue to respect talented workers in all fields for their contributions. I don’t think that is surprising... |
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The End Of The Keyboard
Nothing like the end of the year and the obligatory futuristic predictions. Yahoo offers a story that predicts the end of the keyboard as we know it: “Talk and touch are common technology interfaces. People have adjusted to hearing individuals dictating information in public to their computing devices. In addition ‘haptic’ technologies based on touch feedback have been fully developed, so, for instance, a small handheld Internet appliance allows you to display and use a... |
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BBD-Pay For Customer Service
BBD=Bad Business Decision. I am always amazed that companies want to charge for customer service, but obviously it must work for them. I can see where computer customer service is a difficult thing since you often have uniformed end-users. However, this abcnews.com story is over-the-top (my bold): Many consumers are used to getting customer service on the phone from international call centers, but now some companies are offering domestic aid for a price. I just laugh when I... |
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Liars For Candidates
Remember the old joke, you can tell when they are lying because their lips are moving? Selling Power provides this article which opens with this statement: Did you know that 50 percent of candidates lie on their resumes? (This includes people who omit things, stretch the truth, and those who outright lie.) That seems optimistic to me. This lying problem is rampant in hiring as we have seen first-hand. I think candidates believe they can state things that are difficult to verify... |
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Top 10 Ways For Admins To Get Fired
Work for an American automotive company. Ok, that was my contribution. SalesHQ.com offers up a rather dry article for administrative people to avoid being fired. However, most of the points seem rather self-evident. I took note since my wife works in an administrative role. I wanted to enjoy this one but… 5. Drink at Work: One of the quickest ways to be shown the door is drinking too much at lunch and walking into a wall. Administrative assistants must keep... |
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Tips For Hiring Superstars
Great article here from SellingPower.com - The Best Ways to Turn Off a Star. I am a big fan of showing people how not to do something. That is a powerful format for teaching. In that light, here are 6 tips from the article (in a “what not to do” vein): Talk about yourself and your company. You really don’t need any information about the candidates; it’s all on their resumes anyway. Wait for them to call you. Make them wait. Hey, if they really want to work... |
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Online Job Ads Down
Recently Cheezhead mentioned that online job ads are down again in November. According to the Conference Board Help-Wanted Online Data Series online job postings declined 70,200 to 4,369,200 in November. Job postings for the September to November period were down 264,000. The data they collected shows declines in the Northeast, the South and the West. In the Northeast Pennsylvania lead with a decline of 19,900 postings and in the south Texas lead with a decline of 37,800. Our state, Minnesota,... |
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Funny Job Ad Titles
I recently stumbled across this article and blog - 51 Funny Craigslist Job Titles and Listings. Now sometimes a catchy title may catch a candidate’s eye, but most of the time you run the risk of not being taken seriously. Here are a couple that I thought were rather good: Attractive, Busy Professional Seeks Very Attractive Personal Assistant The easiest “SALES JOB” – EVER GONE FISHING WITH DYNAMITE? Get Paid to Wave and Dance!!! |
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Pre-Call Prep
I have been in sales since 1992 and have seen the marketplace change in drastic ways. Today, we are in the midst of the information age where knowledge is king. Preparedness is a necessity for successful selling. In all honesty, this trait has never been one of my strengths. However, I have made changes to my approach (in order to survive!). The reason is found in this SellingPower.com article - Pre-Call Planning: It’s More than Just Research. The author shares... |
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More Bad Economy
As a follow up to my earlier post, I give you this Inc.com article. The opening sentence: The economic crisis has kids worried about receiving fewer gifts this holiday season, according to Node Research. Where to start on that one? Could this be a push poll? Why even do this poll? Are kids primarily worried about how many gifts they receive? Is that the purpose of Christmas? Would fewer gifts be traumatic? I could go on, but you get my point. I think... |
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The Economy Has To Be Bad
The economy is not in good shape right now, but the economic reporting by the “mainstream” media is abysmal. For instance, this article from CNNMoney.com shows the writer working hard to present the positive data are really being gloomy. The opening sentence sets the table for the writer’s theme: Stores and online merchants were busier this weekend than they were a year ago, according to figures out Sunday, but signs persist that holiday shopping will suffer in the weakest... |
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Giving Thanks
It is already looking like Thanksgiving here at Select Metrix so it seems like an appropriate time to say thank you to all of our customers, our associates, our friends and our readers. Many of you span more than one of those categories. Thank you for your support through this year of change. May all of you have a happy, safe and blessed Thanksgiving! |
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Fragrance Follies
CareerBuilder.com has a post regarding an overuse of perfume and cologne by employees. The author asks a good question: Apart from sharing the story, I’m writing this to ask how you think managers should handle “strong fragrance” issues in the workplace. It seems like a sensitive issue because people wearing the cologne or perfume must not realize that it is SO noticeable for the people around them. Let me be a little crass - I heard a funny story from a sales manager we met with yesterday. ... |
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Odd Resume Inclusions
In first reading this I thought I was reading a line from one of Jeff Foxworthy’s jokes, “You know you are a redneck if you write on your resume, “hobbies include sitting on the levee at night watching alligators.” Nope, this is one of many odd resume inclusions from an article on CareerBuilder. If you have ever run a recruiting process you probably can come up with your own list, but CareerBuilder has put together some beauties: Candidate included that he spent summers... |
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Job Change Motivators
I like to say that people are the ultimate variable - there are almost limitless possibilities, variations, surprises, etc. One aspect of hiring that often gets overlooked is motivation. In sales, money is the common, assumed motivator. In many cases this is accurate, but money motivation can manifest itself in different forms. Our website illustrates some subtle differences between motivators. Selling Power has an article that speaks in slightly more general terms. I think these 4 are... |
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A New Green Initiative
Here is a good Friday anecdote - I was doing some research on a company and I came across this line on their website: Expansion of our business recycling programs to include employees What in the world? This is a fairly sizeable company so I am surprised no editing occurred on the site. However, it is rather humorous. I’m not sure I want to know how they recycle employees. It certainly seems to take “green” to a whole new level. |
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Keep The Perks
The Herman Trend Alert has a surprising report on a survey looking at employee perks for 2008. The economy may be tanking, but employers are aware of the need to retain talent. In spite of the drastic effects of the economy on the labor market with announced workforce reductions up 30 percent, a surprising majority of companies (66.7 percent) have chosen to preserve their employee perks. Ten percent of those employers said they had considered trimming perks, but decided to leave them at current... |
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10 Ways To Help Out Your Employees
ManageSmarter has a good article that provides 10 ways that you can help your employees through the economic crisis. There are some simple ideas on the list that a manager should do regardless of the economy. What better way to retain your employees than to show your appreciation for their efforts? Shortening the work week to four days with extended work hours will increase productivity and give a welcome break for people. Consider giving turkeys to employees for Thanksgiving and accompany... |
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Know Your Customer
If a salesperson’s customer relationship is based in the purchasing department you have trouble. It is difficult to build a strong relationship with purchasing in that they are incented to cut your margins, shop your competition and demand ever-improving terms. Clearly you have to have a good relationship with purchasing if your typical sale goes through that department. However, it is high risk to base your customer relationship on that department. Selling Power offers up an article... |