My Top Ten Career Management Tips for 2008

December 28, 2007

As this is the time of year that many people start making their New Year’s resolutions - personal and professional - I thought I’d share some of the best career management tips I know. Some of these I learned from others and some I learned the hard way. In any case, here goes:

Do whatever Irene tells you to do and don’t embarrass me. This one comes courtesy of my father. My first job was doing the payroll, manually, at his codfish processing plant in Witless Bay, Newfoundland. (Photo is my family in the harbor in front of that plant last summer). Irene was the long time office manager who knew how to make things happen. Getting to know the Irenes everywhere I’ve worked since has saved me time and embarrassment.
Speak up. This one applies when you have a good idea and/or when you know that something just isn’t right. Organizations rise and fall on the quality and openness of communications between people.

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Meaning of Work, Work Life Balance | 5 Comments

Hiring by Design - Finding Job Candidates with the Right Fit

December 19, 2007

Why the quilt picture? I’m a quilter. While I didn’t make this quilt, it’s by one of my favorite textile artists, Kaffee Fasset. He makes beautiful quilts, knits, pottery and other wildly colored beautiful objects. Like the quilt shown here, they may look somewhat ad hoc. They are all, however, carefully designed in order to achieve the right balance of color and movement in the finished product.

In a previous post related to candidate assessment, I wrote about the manager’s role in helping ensure that recruiters understand the competencies and qualities that will ensure success on the job. In this recent article from Talent Management Magazine, Steve Hunt expands on strategies that hiring managers can employ to retain qualified hourly workers by investing more time in the first stages of the hiring process to clearly articulate the skills and qualities that correlate to success (and satisfaction) on the job. In this article, Steve provides step-by-step guidance on how to identify these desired candidate attributes. Specifically, he helps managers and recruiters dig below generic platitudes (good attitude) and surface job specific descriptions (dependable attendance).

Another interesting aspect of this article is Steve’s discussion of thinking about candidate fit not only from the perspective of what the individual has done in the past (experience), but also what candidate can do (potential) and is willing to do (motivation). Hiring managers often focus their attention on candidates whose prior experience directly maps to the job at hand. When they do so, they not only limit their talent pools unecessarily, but may also be setting themselves up for retention challenges with employees who will become more quickly bored with a job, vs. those who’ll remain engaged longer as they learn new skills. As is the case with the vibrant quilt pictured above, the effort managers expend in the design phase of the hiring process will pay off in a more successful final outcome - employees who are more successful and engaged in their work.

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Employee Retention, Recruiting | 1 Comment

Where is Everybody? (Home for the Holidays)

December 13, 2007

We’ve just released the results of a survey entitled “December: Vacation-Heavy Month Light on Attendance” that we conducted with Harris Interactive to assess planned absenteeism among US workers during the upcoming holiday weeks. Not surprisingly, 63% of those polled plan to take time off between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. What is surprising is that a relatively small proportion of those planning to take time off will have cleared that with their managers through an online request process. Even though a recent BusinessWeek Article “Shirking Working: The War on Hooky” indicated that more and more employers are looking for more effective and automated ways to proactively authorize and plan for employee absence, only 20% of those polled indicated that they had to request their time off through an automated system.

What are employees doing more of online? Holiday shopping. How do employers deal with this phenomenon? In a recent Christian Science Monitor article titled “Why Go to the Mall When You Can Shop at Work?” employer reactions range from those who closely monitor and restrict internet access by employees to those who leave it up to the employee’s judgement as long as the job is getting done.

For those employees who do work during the holidays - as a matter of necessity or personal preference - many find that they are super productive during a time that meetings are few and they can focus on projects that are hard to complete with frequent interruptions. Whether working during the holidays is voluntary or not, however, managers would do well to acknowledge those who remain on the job when 2/3 of their colleagues are enjoying some downtime.

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Employee Retention, Work Life Balance | 1 Comment

Measure Twice, Cut Once - Thoughts on Candidate Assessment

December 6, 2007

We have just posted a chapter from Steve Hunt’s book, Hiring Success, in the tools section of this site. The book is a great read for any manager interested in improving his/her skills in selecting candidates who can do the job at hand. Candidate assessment - and specifically the use of science based tools to help with assessment - remains somewhat controversial. One of the key questions facing recruiters and hiring managers is “ what is the right blend of art and science in candidate assessment?”

The proliferation of internet enabled hiring technologies – from job boards to applicant tracking systems to science based predictive tools – provides organizations with a growing arsenal of tools they can use to attract, screen and hire employees. While many of these tools have massively increased hiring efficiency, we still need to ensure that the hiring process will be effective in delivering candidates who can fit the position at hand. My experience with a large array of buyers of these technologies suggests that companies that balance a sound recruiting process with an appropriate level of hiring manager flexibility will always trump those who expect that technology alone will provide them with an edge.

I’m not talking about anything too fancy. Start with the basics. When a hiring manager invests time in a conversation with a recruiter about the unique requirements of a position, that recruiter will deliver better fit candidates to that hiring manager. When the recruiter and the hiring manager take the time to develop an interviewing strategy – preparing screening questions, choosing the right interview team members, deploying sound assessment tools and exercises – they will likely get a better result from the process. When they take the time to not only check candidate provided references, but also to pursue unsolicited references through the many Web 2.0 alternatives (LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, etc.), they will have more complete information on which to base a decision.

I’d love to hear from you about what’s working – and what’s not – in your organization when it comes to candidate assessment. And do take the time to checkout Steve’s book….

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Recruiting | 3 Comments

I Scan, Therefore I am… the Cashier

December 2, 2007

In today’s New York Times, there’s a short article on online shopping (New Tradition: Eat the Turkey, Then Go Online) that says that Thanksgiving Day itself (vs. Black Friday) has been the busiest online retail shopping day of the holiday season for the last four years. According to the US Department of Commerce, e-commerce sales in the third quarter of 2007 accounted for 3.4% of total retail sales - still a small proportion of total retail sales, but roughly triple the rate of online purchases from 5 years ago.

Today was my first experience with Easy Shop - a new service from Stop & Shop wherein you use a handheld barcode scanner to scan your items as you walk around the store. At the self checkout line, you communicate your purchases via a single barcode swipe vs. scanning each item individually at the checkout. You bag your own groceries. You don’t have to interact with store personnel at all if you don’t want to.

In days not so long gone past, going to the market(place) was a social activity. You met your neighbors, caught up on the news, and supported local businesses with your trade. These businesses were owned by your neighbors, and supporting them strengthened your community. I live in the smallest town in Massachusetts - Nahant. There are no big box stores in this 1 square mile peninsular community. There are small locally owned businesses where the owner knows your name, and will trust you to come back later to pay back the couple of bucks you were short when you ran into the store.

With a full time job, a long commute, and multiple community and philanthropic commitments, my time is precious, and I do much of my household shopping on the Internet. Like lots of people worldwide, I appreciate the convenience and time savings, even if it means paying a premium for shipping. None of those online businesses, however, are ever going to spot me $5 when I need milk and have no cash.

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Customer Satisfaction, Workforce Development | 3 Comments