Terri's Takes on Hiring Rainmakers

The Secrets of Hiring Great Sales People Finally Revealed

2008-11-20T18:03:00.002-07:00

Lou Adler hits it on the head "again"! Many of the salespeople I have interviewed over the years have said they can sell anything. Their track record in a variety of industries would seem to back up their assertion. But oftentimes a client insists that a person has to have worked in THEIR industry or they won't even consider them. Makes me wonder if they are really looking for the industry experience - or the book of business???

Here's Lou's take on hiring great sales people: (seen on ERE.Net)
"Over the years, I’ve been involved in developing hiring tools for sales representatives in a variety of industries including high technology, financial services, industrial products, consumer products, auto sales, woman’s cosmetics, business services, medical products, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare.

Surprisingly, most sales managers make the same bad decisions, regardless of the product or industry.

Here’s the list of where most sales managers go wrong. Start eliminating these error-producing behaviors and just about all of your sales hiring mistakes will go away.

They think their job is unique. They’re not. There is a common sales process behind each one, that when understood can be used to benchmark any candidate’s past performance against.

They overvalue first impressions. First impressions don’t predict performance. People with great first impressions are frequently incompetent and people with marginal first impression often have a track record of great success. It’s best to measure first impression at the end of the interview and then determine how the candidate’s first impression affected their performance in consistently achieving quota. From what I’ve seen, the best sales managers don’t worry about first impressions, they worry about the candidate having a track record of achieving good sales results selling similar products, to similar buyers, in similar situations.

They overvalue their gut or instinct. This is only acceptable when the sales manager has a track record of hiring all top performers who all make quota in combination with very low department turnover. Emotions, intuition, or instinct are poor predictors of on-the-job success. A track record of past performance selling similar products or influencing similar buyers is a great predictor.

They don’t know the job. Sales is a process that starts with lead generation and ends at closing. Certain aspects of the process are more critical than others. If a sales manager doesn’t know what these are, it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to accurately assess them in the candidate. As a result, the sales manager shifts the decision criteria to first impressions and gut instinct.

They assume they’re great managers. Most great sales people aren’t great managers, yet this is the person most likely to get promoted. It takes a great deal of work to build, develop, and manage an effective sales team. As part of the assessment process, the sales manager has to assess the fit between her style of management and how each person on the team needs to be managed. This directly relates to Hershey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model.

keep reading…

10 Great Ways to Make Bad Hiring Decisions

2008-09-26T12:36:00.002-07:00

With his tongue firmly in cheek, I'm sure, Lou Adler's article gives advice on how NOT to make hiring decisions! Here's a quick peek at the article:

"I wrote a rather controversial article last week comparing Obama vs. McCain using our 10-factor evidence-based assessment system. The stated purpose of the article was to propose that Presidential candidates should be vetted just as rigorously as any candidate for any job.

The underlying purpose was to demonstrate the point that many important decisions, especially hiring decisions, are based on invalid assumptions, false impressions, personal beliefs, and lack of objective data." Read Lou's article 10 Great Ways to Make Bad Hiring Decisions by clicking on the link.

Enjoy!

Are Your Sales People Farmers or Hunters?

2008-09-19T11:15:00.008-07:00

I read Jeffrey Gitomer's articles, books, and newsletters every chance I get. I think Jeffrey is one of the top experts on sales - how to do it, how to manage those who do it; and his advice in his newsletter is always top notch. You can subscribe to his Sales Caffeine newsletter by clicking on the link. Do it now while you're thinking of it!

I read this article in Jeffrey's most recent issue of Sales Caffeine and it reminded me of how often employers hire the wrong type of sales person for their company. Many candidates have made hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and when they apply for a job, the potential employer is very excited thinking they will be able to do the same thing for their company. However, they should look into that person's previous sales track record more closely to see what KIND of sales they have done. Read David's article to see how that is possible.

Farmers or Hunters
by: David Steel

Are your salespeople a bunch of dummies or, probably more likely, are they just lazy? In response to this you have likely set up a lot of company rules and regulations designed to force them to work instead of goof off. Unfortunately, such rules and regulations are about keeping control instead of giving motivation or incentives to produce -- and it's those latter things that salespeople really need and thrive on.

The kind of salespeople you've probably unwittingly created are Farmers. These Farmers don't break new ground by getting new clients -- they just till the same old soil (already existing clients). And what's really bad about that is that once someone becomes a Farmer they get so comfortable that it's extremely difficult to change most of them back into the Hunters they were meant to be.

You see, Farmers know all their clients well and are old friends with them. Farmers don't have to do the difficult work of convincing total strangers to trust them enough to become clients and friends, but even though they would make much more money for themselves -- and you -- if they did, the money they get from Farming, which is like a salesperson's "busy work,” is just good enough in exchange for being allowed to stay in the comfort zone. Indeed, there's a place for Farmers in the sales force of most organizations: they keep the existing clients very happy and that brings in a certain dependable cash flow.

But that can't be permitted to be good ENOUGH for everyone or for your business.

In order to push the right salespeople to become Hunters (and you need some of these, for sure), every new salesperson you hire should be fully expected to: seek out new prospects; develop new relationships; and maintain the status quo with existing clients at the very same time that they are bringing in new business.

And -- that's just about ALL that these salespeople should be doing, all the time. And one of the best things to help free them from Farming tasks or make them flow faster and easier is the tried and true friend of business: technology. Your salespeople should be equipped with the latest and greatest technology that can contribute to their having more time on their hands so that they can use it to do more selling. It's "work smarter, not harder" put in motion.

And there's a side benefit to hiring and cultivating Hunters: they will either inspire or guilt-trip everyone else into working harder through their attitude. From out of the ashes of the Cain and Abel style friction that will arise will come a phoenix of productivity. Give the new Hunters old, underworked accounts; give them powerful titles when they earn the rights to them; and most of all, deliver on every incentive you promise and deliver it on time.

This is the beginning of how you let your sales force bring in more business than you can handle.

David Steel is one of the nation’s leading experts on the topic of Sales Motivation. He’s a popular and widely recognized author and motivational speaker who works with businesses and individuals as a sales management consultant, offering insights into hiring, compensation, goals and strategies, and teaching the use of sales management skills to build and maintain highly aggressive sales teams. To download a complimentary copy of his book "The Care and Feeding of Highly Aggressive Sales People" please visit www.feedyoursales.com

McCain vs. Obama Using Adler’s 10-Factor Scorecard

2008-09-04T15:23:00.003-07:00

I am a long time fan of Lou Adler - I read his books and use his one-question interview technique a lot when I interview candidates for job openings. But I have to say, I'm glad the President isn't chosen using Lou's 10-Factor Scorecard! Here's a teaser from his newsletter on this issue (you'll have to click on the link to read the whole article! *smile*)

"In my book, Hire With Your Head (John Wiley & Sons, 3rd Edition, 2007), I introduced the idea of using an evidence-based assessment process when evaluating and comparing candidates. This is based on using ten factors that have been shown to accurately predict on-the-job success, and on having the hiring team rank each one in a group meeting on a 1-5 scale after the interviews are completed. Click here for a sample of the form we use for staffing and middle-management positions. I thought it would be interesting to use this 10-Factor Scorecard to evaluate who would make a better President, Obama or McCain." Read the full scorecard here

THE TWO CRITICAL INGREDIENTS FOR A SALES PERFORMANCE TURNAROUND

2008-05-25T11:44:00.004-07:00

In today's tough economy, sales managers who take over struggling sales organizations are under enormous pressure to perform. Those who don't make visible progress toward a turnaround – and make it quickly – are likely to find themselves looking for another job. Yet despite the intensity of this environment, many managers do succeed – and some do so spectacularly. How? To answer this question, two Bain & Company partners conducted an extensive study of what successful managers do right - and what some do wrong.... For More See:

Five Questions Every Sales Manager Should Be Able to Answer

2008-05-25T11:37:00.002-07:00

Every sales manager knows the basics about his or her sales team and selling process – which reps are the A, B, and C performers; the length of the sales cycle; the dollar amount of the average deal, and so on. However, successful management requires much more in-depth awareness of what's going on in a sales organization. For instance, do you know the common stalling points in your sales process? Or which competitors you lose the most business to and why? Find the answers in Selling Power's Sales Management Newsletter
You will need to sign up to read the rest of the article, but it's FREE

Why Good Salespeople Often Turn into Mediocre Sales Managers

2008-05-09T10:35:00.003-07:00

A topic dear to my own heart, turning your best sales person into a mediocre sales manager! Check out this article:

Why Good Salespeople Often Turn into Mediocre Sales Managers by Dave Kahle

We've all done it. Promoted a good salesperson, often our best, to sales manager. My files are full of cases where the results were below expectations for everyone involved. Principals and CSOs are often disappointed in the lack of results, and the sales managers are confused and frustrated with the lack of achievement of their teams.

A variation on this theme usually produces even more angst. A good salesperson, without any real management experience, is hired from outside the company to fill a sales manager position. When these decisions go bad, the hurt feelings, negative attitudes and difficult situations which result can be ugly.

Not that this is always the case. Many CSOs and executives rose through the ranks in just this fashion, contributing exceptionally at every stage. But, these cases are generally the exception, not the rule.

The rule is that few good salespeople make good sales managers.

Why is that?

Consider the unique blend of strengths and aptitudes that often mark the character of an exceptional salesperson. Exceptional salespeople often have very high standards for themselves and everyone around them. They are highly focused on the customer, often to the determent of their relationships with their colleagues. It's not unusual for your star salesperson to irritate and frustrate the people in the operational side of the business, with a brusque and demanding attitude. After all, they think, I'm extending myself to take care of my customers, why shouldn't I expect everyone else to do so also?

When they become sales managers, they expect all of their salespeople to be just as hard driving and achievement oriented as they were. Unfortunately the reality is that most of their salespeople don't share the same degree of drive and perfectionism that they had. If they did, they would have been promoted to sales manager.

That means that the sales manager often is frustrated with the performance and attitudes of his charges, and confused as to how to change them.

The exceptional salesperson is often an independent character, who thrives in a climate where he can make his own decisions, determine his own call patterns, and spend time by himself.

Alas, he loses almost all of that when he is promoted to sales manager. He's expected to work a consistent, well defined work week, to spend a certain number of hours in the office, and to fulfill certain administrative functions. The freedom to make his own decisions, to determine his own days, is gone. So, he often struggles with how to adjust to this new work environment and still be productive.
read the rest of this article here

Wish List Aces Hiring Shenanigans!

2008-02-28T12:10:00.005-07:00

Reading an article from Kevin Wheeler today Why Do We Love Hiring Shenanigans?reminds me of why I decided to use a "Wish List" when getting down to the nitty gritty of what a company REALLY needs their sales person to do to be successful.
Kevin related 4 good and bad things about practicing this elitist approach to hiring, and some reasons why it is so hard to not practice it:
"Acceptance rates go up. If you want your candidate acceptance rates to go up, make getting accepted really hard and stressful. We all like to believe that we are special, gifted, or better than others. If we are asked to take some sort of test or go through an initiation process that supposedly selects the best, those who get accepted feel superior to those who do not. This belief, even when not supported by facts, is a motivator for people to accept an offer from you. The more exclusive the choice seems to be, the more rigorous the selection process (regardless of its rationality), the more likely a potential hire is to say yes to your offer. A recent book by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson called Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts carefully and clearly relates story after story about the power of belief in superiority. They conclude the section with these words: "The results are always the same. Severe initiations increase a member's liking for the group."
Short-term retention may go up, but longer-term retention may go down. While I have no empirical evidence to support this claim, I do believe that being part of an exclusive group of similar people at first makes life easier and fun. Social patterns, likes and dislikes, language, and academic experiences will be similar and compatible. Organizations that select employees with rigid criteria tend to have little diversity. Over time this can become a limitation. As an employee grows more mature and finds that she is competing against similar people with similar advantages or not progressing as rapidly as she would like, she may leverage the exclusivity and desirability that belonging to the organization has bestowed on her to get another position at the competition or to start her own business.
Hiring managers like it because it validates their superiority. Hiring managers are usually enamored of tough interviewing processes and rigorous selection criteria because it supports and underlines their own skill, insight, and wisdom. They can boast that they have chosen the most talented or gifted team of employees. It can also provide a sense of security: If I have the best people working with me, we must be making the right decisions. This is one of the problems that Enron encountered. They had so many smart people that no one believed they could make bad decisions. When selection is based to a significant degree on suspect interview criteria and unverified reactions to events, it is very hard to account for success or failure. It provides a way to discriminate. Unfortunately, rather than creating workplaces full of contradictions and differences where creativity thrives, the practices described above create a workforce made up of similar people in thought, attitude, background, education, and belief in their own superiority. All real creativity occurs at the edge, at the juxtaposition of opposite ideas and experiences. The healthiest and most creative workforces are those where people are assembled almost at random. The creativity of Silicon Valley, for example, has been correlated to the influx of diverse people and ideas from all over the world. It was the coming together of these people that created the integrated circuit, the Apple computer, and computer games. Organizations should embrace diversity as a means to creativity and innovation.
In the end, good selection is based on matching candidates' competencies and skills to the particular set of activities an organization needs to have completed or outcomes that need to be achieved. These competencies can be identified with a variety of objective tests and properly constructed behavioral interviews.
Whether someone can answer the manhole question, has a 4.0 GPA, or has gone to Harvard makes no difference at all to potential performance."
So, in the long run, my "wish list" aces these hands down! I ask the client to tell me what are the 5 most important things they want the person to have done in the past and the 5 most important things they want that person to do for them. They are far more likely to find the perfect person for their job opening!

11 rules that students do not learn in high school or college.

2007-06-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's different in other parts of the USA, but when I look around at high school and college students today, I wonder what on earth is going to happen when they get out into the real world of work. A perfect example is a young high school freshman I know. One of her teachers gave her an assignment and reviewed it before she submitted it for grading. The teacher told her she needed to cite her sources at the end of her report and gave her a URL to learn how to do this. The student went there and immediately complained that she couldn't figure out what the page said. I looked at it with her and pointed out the page covered how to cite sources from newspapers to web sites, magazines to books.

The problem? She had to actually read the whole page to learn how to cite the sources she had used! Maybe it's the Internet age - we are used to instant gratification now. How did we ever wait 3-5 days for a letter from a friend?

A great article on Training Systems, Great Training for Great Employees, lists 11 rules that students do not learn in high school or college from Bill Gates' book "Business @ The Speed of Thought"

RULE 1 - Life is not fair; get used to it.

RULE 2 - The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3 - You will NOT make 100 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.

Read all 11 rules here Retain Young People

11 Challenges Facing Hiring Managers

2007-06-06T01:06:00.001-07:00

In a recent article that I saw on Recruit, Inspire & Retain they listed 11 challenges that hiring managers face today.

One of the things listed was not having a formal sourcing strategy in place, so companies end up hiring the best of the bunch - and not THE BEST. Here are the top 3 challenges:

Most companies lack a formal sourcing strategy and end up hiring the best of the bunch rather than THE BEST. Top talent needs to first be found. In a robust economy or tight labor market, many of the best people are working. In other words, they are passive candidates that need to be located.

The wording in typical job descriptions limits the number of qualified people who will apply for the position. Rather than looking at what people are exceptional at, abilities and talents that are instinctive, many companies make their hiring decisions based on what people have learned, acquired and experienced to date. Because the essence of people is not what they have learned, acquired and experienced, hiring based on those limited aspects will bring limited results.

Most companies only list the "necessary" skills, experience and knowledge required without appealing to the real reasons top talent accept new offers.
You can read the full article here:Cool Recruiting Tips

Waking the Sleeping Giant - Passive Candidates Won't be Passive for Long!

2007-06-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

I hear so much about active and passive candidates and it used to be true that the best sales rainmakers never had to "look" for a job. We called them passive because they had people chasing after them, begging them to work for them, without ever looking at job ads online or in a newspaper.

Things are changing now though. Just as it isn't common for employees to retire after 20 years at the same company, the Rainmakers are looking for much more in a career than the highest pay - and they are willing to shop around for it quietly.

This article Waking the Sleeping Giant - Passive Candidates Won't be Passive for Long! by Bryan Johanson goes into great detail on how you can attract these Rainmakers. The recruiter can't do it alone - everyone on your hiring team has to work at wooing the best!

Baby Boomer Rainmakers - Are you writing them off as candidates?

2007-05-29T20:13:00.000-07:00

Everywhere I look there are headlines shouting about the baby boomers retiring:
VARs Face Brain Drain as Baby Boomers Retire
Job market to boom as baby boomers retire
Preparing for Baby Boomer Retirement

But the truth of the matter is Baby Boomers don't really WANT to retire! At least, many of them don't. Unlike the days of our fathers when the average life span was about mid-50 to mid-60, baby boomers are still healthy and active now in their 50's and 60's. And they want to keep working - in the same industry as they have been in or in a new career altogether - they just aren't ready to lay around all day.

More often than not, it is the perception of employers that stands in the way of these baby boomers remaining in the workforce and ultimately that is going to be the cause of an economic crisis when these experienced workers are forced to retire.

Not long ago a potential client told me that he didn't want someone too experienced for his job opening because they thought they knew it all and wouldn't learn new ways. I asked him how much his average "entry level" sales person was selling and he gave me a number that seemed very low to me. I pointed out how much more an experienced person was likely to bring to the table with very little "learning".

So, how can you take advantage of those baby boomers who are looking desperately for new jobs?

Hire them!

Allow them to share their experience with your less experienced sales people and turn all of them into Rainmakers too!

Don't let your biases stop your company sales from soaring. The job market might boom, but it will take twice as many people to make those sales until they get up to speed. Do you want the job market to boom? Or your sales to boom?

Finding and Keeping the Best Employees

2007-05-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

After posting my follow up comment to Ford Harding this morning, I saw this fantastic article from Mark Hewitt of Allyis on Workforce.com's Blog. This company appears to really "walk the walk as well as talk the talk" where their employee's are concerned. Having a retention rate of 95% is the "proof of the pudding", as my grandma used to say!

Read the full article here Finding and Keeping the Best Employees: 3 Ways To Ensure That Employees Stay

The Cult of the Best

2007-05-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

Is it the people or the system?

When I read this article by Kevin Wheeler (who is one of my favorite experts on recruiting, by the way), the very first paragraph made me sit up and take notice:
"If there is one phrase that almost every recruiter, hiring manager, and executive uses, "We only hire the best people" would be it."

I admit it - I'm guilty of using the phrase myself in the past. I try to find the best person for every job order I get. But how DO you really measure the Best person for the job? Check out Kevin's article here: The Cult of the Best Is it the people or the system?

Marketing Is Not A Cost – A CEO Who Doesn’t Understand Marketing Is!

2007-05-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

In all my years of recruiting, I've noticed one thing happening over and over. The more sales drop, the more layoffs occur. And one of the first departments to suffer (get laid off) is the Marketing department. What happens as a result is a very unhappy Sales department as they can no longer do "their" job - SELL! They have to spend more time finding new leads because there is no longer a Marketing department doing that for them. Have you ever noticed that?

Not too long ago, a potential client contacted me to find a VP of Sales and Marketing for them. The job description included a personal sales quota "until the department is up and running." Huh??? I asked several questions to be sure I was understanding the person's role correctly. They would create all marketing brochures, web marketing materials, recruit, hire and train new sales people, AND have a sales quota of their own. After trying to provide some insight into the actual separation of the two roles, I had to tell them I didn't think I was the right person to conduct that search for them.

I could see a long and frustrating relationship in the making with everyone being unhappy in the end

The article by Michelangelo Celli of The Cornucopia Group starts out:
"If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard a CEO say, “we want to get as much marketing as possible for the least amount of money,” I would be a rich man. Believe me. I have measured it. Why is it that so many CEOs and their management teams are still approaching marketing from the position that it is a cost? Because they have absolutely no metrics to justify how they are spending their marketing dollars."
Marketing-Is-Not-A-Cost--A-CEO-Who-Doesnt-Understand-Marketing-Is
This is the last of a 4 part series and I think it's a must read if you want your company's sales to soar.

Serious Disconnects between Employers and Employees

2006-04-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

According to a press release from Spherion back in November 2005, there's a serious gap between what employers think their salespeople want and what those sales rainmakers REALLY want! How well prepared are you to retain your best Rainmakers?
http://www.spherion.com/press/releases/2005/Emerging_Workforce.jsp

The following chart clearly shows the significant disconnect between employers and employees on what will keep workers in their current positions:
Drivers of Retention
Employer View Employee View
1. Management climate (80%) 1. Financial compensation (69%)
2. Supervisor relationship (80%) 2. Benefits (68%)
3. Culture & work environment (65%) 3. Growth & earning potential (64%)
4. Benefits (61%) 4. Time & flexibility (60%)
5. Growth & earning potential (58%) 5. Management climate (60%)
6. Training & development (54%) 6. Supervisor relationship (57%)
7. Financial compensation (49%) 7. Culture & work environment (54%)
8. Time & flexibility (35%) 8. Training & development (49%)
Note: Based on percent indicating “very important” when asked what are the most important drivers of retention.

Making the most dangerous leap in sales: Salesperson to Sales Manager

2006-03-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

Jeffrey Gitomer is one of my all time favorite sales gurus. Here's a question from his recent newsletter that backs up my own personal thinking on what happens when you promote a salesperson to a sales manager. I'm not suggesting it can never work. I'm just recommending that you give serious thought to what you are losing and what you'll gain before you do it.
Gitomer.com

Question: Jeffrey, What are your thoughts on taking our best and senior salesperson and making him/her a sales manager? What are the benefits and downfalls of doing this? Michael

Answer: This is a great idea if you want to gain a bad manager AND lose your best salesperson. The most difficult jump in business, for two basic reasons, is from sales PERSON to sales MANAGER. The first reason is companies don’t train managers BEFORE allowing them to take the position. And second, the company doesn’t beef up the sales force to absorb the loss.

Sales Rainmaker Managers may be ready to jump ship!

2005-12-09T08:26:00.000-07:00

Talent Management
by Sam Lloyd

Most organizations are becoming aware that finding and retaining talent is about to become a very big challenge! According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, executive and managerial positions will experience the greatest turnover by the year 2008 (nearly 3 million jobs)!

In a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management in 2003 about 83% of U.S. managers and executives said they likely would seek new employment when the job market improves. All indications are that an exodus of management talent is around the corner!

The October 10, 2005 issue of Business Week magazine provided some evidence about the importance of this issue. One of the sources they used was the Hewitt Associates' 2005 list of great places for leaders.

18 of the 20 companies on their list have beaten the S&P 500 Stock Index companies' 156% total return over the past decade. 85% of these companies hired their current CEO from within company ranks. Only 68% of other companies did. Good evidence that growing your own talent produces results!

The 500 largest U.S. companies anticipate losing half their senior management in the next 5 to 7 years!
Click here for more ideas on how to keep your sales manager rainmakers (Seen on jobing.com)

Don't Hire Dysfunctional Salespeople

2005-12-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

"Don't Hire Dysfunctional Salespeople
Common 'disorders' found in sales professionals that recruiters must catch"

In a few of my "past lives" I have been a salesperson, a sales manager, and a sales trainer. It did not take me long before I began to notice dysfunctional sales personalities sneaking past hiring screens. These folks interviewed well, talked a great game, and had the right "gut feel" from the hiring manager's perspective — but they still turned out to be chronic low performers.

Was it the salesperson's fault? Was it the hiring manager's fault? What went wrong in the hiring process?

Read the full article here

Trying To Retain Rainmakers

2005-11-29T15:41:00.000-07:00

Seventy-six percent of employees are looking for new employment opportunities, according to the 2005 U.S. Job Recovery and Retention Survey released today by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and CareerJournal.com Sixty-five percent of HR professionals indicated that they were concerned about the voluntary resignations at their organizations. To prevent a mass exodus, nearly half of the organizations surveyed are implementing special retention processes to keep their employees.

The percentage of organizations implementing special retention processes had increased to 49% in 2005 compared with 35% in 2004. HR professionals have found that competitive salary, career-development opportunities, promoting qualified employees and flexible work schedules are among the best employee-retention strategies. Although salary increases often are perceived as the most valuable incentive for employees to stay with their current jobs, they also are among the most difficult to provide because although the economy is improving, organizations are still somewhat cautious to increase spending.
Seen on recruiter.com Read more here

Will Your Sales Rainmaker Leave You Because of Gas Prices?

2005-11-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

Employers Face Retention Challenges in the Wake of Record Gas Prices

The pinch at the pump is taking its toll on the American worker, according to a recent survey by Manpower. Among the 1,300 participants in an online survey conducted in September and October, more than two thirds indicated that rising gasoline prices are affecting their ability to get to work.

The most common ways that employees are adjusting in response to soaring fuel costs include:

Searching for a job closer to home 35%

Other 12% (i.e. driving more fuel efficient motorcycle, shortened driving route)

Increasing use of public transportation 6%

Purchased a more fuel efficient vehicle 5%

Carpooling 5%

Have changed jobs for a shorter commute 4.5%

Working from home or an alternate location 3.5%

No Change 29%
"It seems we have finally crossed a price threshold, and consumers are ready to make lifestyle changes in reaction to high gas prices," said Melanie Holmes, senior vice president for Manpower Inc. "This is a red flag to employers. The survey results show that 4.5 percent of people have already changed jobs and another 35 percent are thinking about it in order to reduce expenses associated with commuting. Clearly, the price at the pump is the newest threat to employee retention."

There are steps employers can take to avoid turnover attributed to the rising cost of commuting.

Provide employees with information about public transportation options, including bus and train routes, park and ride options and pricing details

Add onsite services, such as dry cleaning and banking

Offer telecommuting

Establish a corporate carpool program

Provide accommodations to support people who use other forms of transportation, such as bike racks, lockers and showers

Implement parking discounts to help balance the increased cost of fuel

Raise mileage reimbursement to the new rate announced by the Internal Revenue Service in September - 48.5 cents per mile (for use of personal vehicles for business travel)
"Companies are facing hardships related to the spike in gas prices, but they need to be sensitive to the fact that employees are experiencing a similar budget crunch," said Holmes. "Rising fuel costs are not just an operational business issue - there is a human resources component that must be addressed too."

60-Second Guide to Rainmaker Recruiting

2005-11-03T11:41:00.000-07:00

A small business owner was looking for a few good employees for his alarm company. In the past, he advertised in the classifieds. Then, it dawned on him that the kind of employee he wanted probably wasn’t sitting at home reading the “help wanted” ads. His best workers had always come to him with personal recommendations. That’s when the first brainstorm hit. He chose a select group of customers and sent them a letter asking their help with his recruitment drive. He got his referrals and the unexpected benefit of engendering goodwill with his customers, who were flattered to learn he thought so highly of their opinion.

In just 60-seconds, you will learn how to recruit and hire good employees.

0:60 Take Recruiting & Hiring Seriously
The lesson here is to treat your employee recruitment efforts as seriously—and creatively—as you would any other business-related endeavor. A new employee is a major investment. There’s the cost of training and the cost you want to avoid—the mistake of hiring the wrong person.

0:46 Use Your Network to Find Good Employees
When you set out on your candidate search, do as the small business owner did and solicit referrals from customers. Ask acquaintances, colleagues and current employees as well. Other avenues include college placement offices, trade and professional associations and employment agencies.

0:38: Set up an Interview Schedule
When you begin receiving resumes, you’ll want to contact the best candidates and set up an interview schedule. Prepare a list of questions to ask each candidate. By asking everyone the same interview questions in the same way, you will be able to more fairly compare their responses.

0:20 Pay Attention to Your Initial Impression
Check the candidate’s references, but be warned that you may not get an accurate picture. Sometimes people will give positive references because they fear legal action. It’s better to rely on insights you glean from the interview and by paying attention to your own gut feeling. Ask candidates you are impressed with to come back for a second interview.

0:11 Be Clear About Responsibilities
During the hiring process, be clear about the new employees’ role within the company. Set expectations by defining job responsibilities before hiring the candidate. A job description clarifies everyone’s duties and heads off confusion about whom is responsible for what tasks.

0:03 Make the New Hire Feel Comfortable
Put your best employee in charge of training the new hire, and consider starting off with a three- or six-month trial period. If you approach your employee recruitment efforts with the same creativity and drive you do other business projects, chances are you won’t have a thing to worry about.

About Author

Brought to you by SCORE “Counselors to America’s Business” Visit www.score.org
Seen in Recruiting News August issue.

New Rainmaker Hires -- Covering the Bases

2005-09-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

When you hire your next sales Rainmaker, you want to be sure you've covered all the legal bases. Here's a great article to help you do just that. Seen in Jean Sifleet's SmartFast newsletter:

There's an old curse "may you have many employees."

For many business owners, handling employee matters is at the top of their list for problems. So, what's a small business owner, who is already wearing too many hats, supposed to do to avoid employee problems?

Employees are supposed to help you get more accomplished, not drain your energy. In fact, employee innovations (inventions and process improvements) are the source of competitive advantage and profitability - your success depends on leveraging them.

How you handle new hires sets the stage for employees to become high performers and contribute to the success of your business.

The first step is to select the right person for the job.

It's almost always better to "hire for attitude" and "train for skills." You can't fix a bad attitude, but you can fix a skill deficiency. You want to hire the person with the good attitude.

Don't hire in haste. It's much better to spend time on the front end and hire carefully, than have to spend time and money dealing with an employee who wasn't a good fit. Termination and/or turnover are draining for all involved.

Interviewing DOs

Communicate clearly what is expected in the job.

Strive to have the candidate talk 80% of the time.

Ask open-ended questions. For example:
What was your most/least successful assignment?
What kind of obstacles did you encounter and how did you overcome them?

Listen carefully. Is there a 'Good Fit'?
Is there a match between the company's job expectations and work environment, and the candidate's interests and abilities?
Interviewing DON'Ts

Don't ask questions about age, gender, family status, race, religion, ancestry or health.
The next step is to make an offer of employment.

The offer of employment should be in writing, specifying the job title, responsibilities and compensation (in hourly or monthly terms). The offer should specify any other requirements (such as background or reference check, physical exam). It should also specify whether you require the employee to sign other documents such as: confidentiality, non-compete, non-solicitation, and invention assignment agreements. The offer letter should state that employment is "at will" and should include a date by which the offer must be accepted.

Bringing the new hire into the workplace.

On the new employee's first day, provide an orientation that includes completing the employment paperwork, setting workplace expectations and outlining job duties.

Covering the legal bases

The legal requirements for handling employees are incredibly complex and the penalties are severe for noncompliance.

To reduce your risks:

Use a payroll service - a good payroll service can help you stay in compliance with the payroll tax requirements and make sure those withholdings and payroll tax returns are filed on time.

Have worker's comp insurance - it's required by law. If an employee is injured on the job, it's their sole remedy. If you don't have worker's comp, your liability is open ended.

Set up an organized file for each employee.
The file should include:
* Employment Application
* Offer Letter
* Reference Check
* Confidentiality/Non-Complete/Non-Solicitation/Assignment of Rights Agreements
* Orientation Checklist
* Employee Handbook (acknowledgement of receipt)
* Sexual Harassment Policy
* Employment eligibility (Form I-9 and copy of documentation)
* Federal and State tax withholding forms
* Job Description
* Benefit information (medical information should be filed in a separate confidential file)
Eventually, the file should also include Performance Reviews and any other relevant documents related to the employee, such as promotions, transfer, discipline, resignation or termination.

The paperwork is only the beginning of successfully bringing a new employee on-board. The informal dynamics of the workplace are extremely important -- you'll want to make sure the new person quickly grasps what's appropriate and not appropriate in your workplace.

Workplace expectations

It's important to explain the "unwritten rules" or "norms" of your business. Don't assume that anything is "obvious." If it's important that employees arrive "on time" and "dressed appropriately," specify what that means.

Training, both formal and informal, helps the new hire become productive quickly. Don't just send the person to their workstation. Assign a mentor, someone who will show the new person around, introduce the person around and take him or her to lunch.

Many companies rely on informal "on the job" training. This doesn't just happen; it has to be planned and scheduled.

Performance Feedback

The sooner you give a new hire feedback on their performance, the better. Constructive feedback is critical. Is the person catching on quickly? Are there any problems?

What if the new hire isn't working out?

Many times, it's apparent quickly that the employee is having problems. It's better to deal with the situation sooner rather than later.

If the problem is a skill deficiency, figure out what training is needed. For example, if the person needs to improve their writing skills, encourage the person to take a class. If the deficiencies are severe, you have to deal with the situation promptly. Allowing unproductive or disruptive employee behavior will poison the atmosphere of the workplace and drain everyone's productivity.

In conclusion, many problems can be avoided if employers are clear and consistent about what is expected. Remember that being "overly generous" can backfire. For example, when an employee asks for time off "on the fly" - it's easy to say yes and then find yourself with a problem on your hands because you gave time off to one employee and then refused another employee's time off request. The same kind of problem can arise when one employee wants to "work from home" and you agree - what's the precedent that you're setting? If your Employee Handbook spells out your policy for "time off" and "work from home," it's much easier to be consistent.

To avoid the old curse, "may you have many employees," you need to have a systematic approach. Start by covering the bases with new hires - both the "legal bases" and the "workplace bases." Of course, you'll need to weed out the weak performers and recognize and reward the high performers if your company is going to leverage the creative talents of your employees.

Jean D. Sifleet, Esq., CPA
Business Attorney
www.smartfast.com

Sales Job Ads That Don't Work

2005-09-09T09:38:00.000-07:00

There are plenty of reasons why sales Rainmakers aren't beating down your door to work for you. The wrong job ad is high on the list. Enjoy this article by Peter Weddle!

Job Ads That Don't Work

This past fall, the Advertising Research Foundation delivered some very bad news to companies: they are wasting one-out-of-every-five dollars they spend on advertising. That’s right; a study by the Foundation found that the cost of ads that fail to communicate their message effectively now equals $50 billion per year.

What’s behind such lousy performance? The study concludes that two factors cause much of the miscommunication:

Many ads simply deliver the wrong message, and

Companies continue to invest in ads beyond the point of diminishing returns. How do these factors impact on recruitment advertising? Let’s take a look.

Ads that deliver the wrong message.

Sadly, many if not most job postings today deliver the wrong message. In many cases, that message is conveyed by using a print classified or, worse, a position description as the content for the online ad. As a result, these ads have little information, very little appeal or both. When that occurs, the message the job seeker receives is loud and clear: here’s a company that is too lazy, too arrogant or too incompetent to use the online medium to its full advantage. Said another way, here’s a place you don’t want to work.

Job seekers, in general, and the best talent, in particular, expect much more. They know the Internet doesn’t have the space constraints of the printed page, so they want employers to provide job postings that are both informative and compelling. They want ads that answer their questions before they even have a chance to ask them. They want enough detail to be able to evaluate an opportunity carefully and make an informed career decision. And, they want to be wooed. They want an ad with enough selling power to sway them into considering a new position, even when they aren’t looking for one.

Such ads transform the job posting from a print classified ad listed on the Internet to an electronic sales brochure. Ironically, this “alternative advertisement” is more akin to an old fashioned, full page print display ad, but one on steroids and at one-tenth the cost. It not only sells the opening the organization has to fill, but it makes a powerful statement about the organization’s employment brand, as well. Explicitly and subliminally, it transmits the right message: here is a company that understands the importance of hiring the best and brightest and of helping them to succeed in its employ. In short, here’s a place where you do want to work.

Companies that continue to invest in ads beyond the point of diminishing returns.

Print ads grow weary over time, and thus fail to motivate buyers as they once did. Job postings lose their effectiveness in a different way. Although they typically remain visible for 30 days or more and could conceivably suffer the same exposure fatigue, their poor performance is actually driven by their location. In other words, the ads continue to be posted at certain sites even though the quantity and/or quality of their yield is insufficient to meet recruiting requirements. The results aren’t diminishing; they’re diminished. The net effect, however, is the same: the advertiser achieves a sub-par return on its investment.

Why do ads continue to be posted at sites that generate “diminished returns”? There are at least several reasons:

Habit. Recruiters can get into ruts and continue to use sites long after the results warrant a change. More often than not, these “behavior locks” occur when an organization lacks a process by which it evaluates the performance of its ad spending at each online source and makes timely adjustments to that spending, as appropriate. Without such continuous assessment and adjustment, organizations inevitably perpetuate mistakes and guarantee disappointing results.

Finances. In some, perhaps many organizations today, the CFO negotiates a special deal with a job board and then requires all recruiters to use that site regardless of the kind of opening they are trying to fill. While this forced level of usage may justify the deal in financial terms, it all but eliminates the value of the resulting advertising in recruiting terms. Limited sourcing inevitably limits recruiters’ reach into the candidate population and that, in turn, limits the quantity and quality of their yield.

Awareness. There are, today, at least 40,000 job boards and career portals on the Internet. You can write a job posting with the right message, but if you place it on the wrong site, its yield will be just as disappointing as the yield you achieve from an ad with the wrong message. Recruiters who fail to acquire the information necessary to identify and evaluate all of the relevant job boards for any given requirement are, in effect, advertising by guesswork. And, the odds are against they’re being successful.

Online recruitment advertising can be extraordinarily effective. In the survey of recruiters that we at WEDDLE’s conducted earlier this year, over half of the respondents said they were filling a quarter or more of their vacancies with candidates sourced from the Internet. That’s proof positive that online ads do work and that online ads with the right message and at the right site work best.

About Author

Peter Weddle is a recruiter, HR consultant and business CEO turned author and commentator. Described by The Washington Post as "... a man filled with ingenious ideas," he has earned an international reputation, pioneering such concepts as Human Capital, Career Fitness and the Internet as a resource for recruiting and HR management. He has authored seven books, edited six others and published dozens of articles in professional and trade magazines. He writes a weekly column about online recruiting for CareerJournal.com from The Wall Street Journal and a monthly newsletter that is distributed worldwide. In addition, he oversees WEDDLE's Publications, the leading print publisher of newsletters, guides and directories about employment resources on the Internet.

Article seen in the March 23rd issue of Recruiting News from Recruiters Network.

Keep your Sales Rainmakers Happy - Start an Onsite School

2005-08-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

With the economy recovering, and jobs being more plentiful than they have been in a long while, the competition for the best sales Rainmakers is heating up.

It may not be feasible in all states, but where it is allowed, it could be a powerful attraction for sales Rainmakers concerned with their child's education - and being nearby in case of any emergency.
Click here to see how a Florida hospital attracts and keeps their employees happy.