Month: July 2007

Hire Finishers!

By: Tim Augustine

Finishers are people who get things done. Here’s how you can find and hire them.

In today’s competitive business world, organizations that sustain profitability and continue to grow are firms that can attract, hire, and retain finishers. This article will cover methods that you and your firm can use to find and hire people who can get things done.

Through my experience, I have developed a list of characteristics that I feel describe finishers.

1. Ability to prioritize tasks and do what really matters
2. Ability to make a decision
3. Ability to execute
4. A clear perception of reality
5. Never satisfied with status quo
6. Ability to understand deadlines and schedules
7. Ability to recognize accomplishments
8. Ability to show aptitude
9. Practical approach to problem solving
10. Proactive

Finishers lead by example and have the drive and tenacity that is contagious to those who surround them. They are reliable and have the ability to build trust within organizations and teams.

Think about the individuals in your organization who you rely on. What makes them dependable? Most importantly, what do you accomplish by having them on your team? Imagine if every hire you made brought the same energy, dedication and enthusiasm to your team.

For the entire article go to Inc.com

Corra is surprised most of the time when anyone gets anything done. What with employees hanging around the water color or tending to their online shopping, dating or health needs it is small wonder much of the work time is not particularly productive.

Employers face the dilemma of whether to use the carrot or the stick, positive reinforcement or fear, or a little of both to get they people moving. Of course this is not a one way street, and as the article attests your key people should lead by example. Company culture is very important, and if yours is culturally deficient then you can be facing major problems.

Part of the key is to hire the right people. Hiring the right people begins with a preemployment background check on all your finalist job candidates. Conduct the nationwide criminal background check or county criminal checks for your candidates and perhaps even run cyclic updates on your employees. For candidates who will be involved in your finances you may want to run the Federal Criminal check to see if they have ever been implicated in white collar crimes.

Make your employees finishers. Don’t let them finish you. Check the out before you hire.

The Office: No Further Questions

It’s enlightened of you to have your employees interview potential hires. Nonetheless, it’s driving everyone batty.

From: Inc. Magazine | By: Leigh Buchanan

When I interview job candidates I always ask: If we had a party, what would you bring? Some people come up with fun answers (one woman who was married to a radio personality offered to supply the DJ). Some offer panegyrics to their acclaimed artichoke purée with garlic pita crisps. Some say, “The napkins.” And some look annoyed and ask me what I’m getting at.I’ve always justified the party question as one that provides insight into a candidate’s personality. And it does–a little. Mostly though, I ask it when I still have 10 minutes to kill before shuffling the poor applicant off to his or her next meeting. That’s after I’ve dutifully reeled off the same six or seven unimaginative questions (“What kinds of things would you like to work on?” “What accomplishments are you most proud of?”) that everyone before me has already asked and everyone after me will ask again. As the candidate trots out an answer that probably felt fresh when he sat down with the CEO three hours ago, I wonder what exactly I’m supposed to be adding here.

I understand why leaders want to expose prospective hires to an array of employees, and vice versa. CEOs demonstrate respect for their staff members by soliciting their participation in personnel decisions. Employees are more likely to accept colleagues they’ve vetted themselves. Different people may detect different strengths and weaknesses. And job candidates can use this experience to assemble a fuller picture of the company experience.

Yet while employees interview job candidates all the time, rarely does anyone advise them how to do it. Should managers ask one type of question, peers another, and underlings still another? What is each group trying to assess, aside from the vague notion of cultural fit? Even personality can be tough to gauge under such strained, artificial conditions.

Then there’s the peculiar role reversal that takes place when interviewers are as eager to impress as the interviewed. Employees who are insecure because they’re new or low level or simply lack confidence often want to distinguish themselves in the prospect’s eyes. A piece of their brain attends to what the candidate says, while the rest darts off in search of an insightful question. They envision the candidate conversing with his spouse back home: “…and this one guy, Brad, struck me as super sharp. I could learn a lot from him.” Others, unnerved by a prospective hire’s perceived superiority, use the opportunity to do some early turf-staking. “I’m pleased to hear you’ve worked with such large energy concerns. Of course, I handle all those accounts here, but it’s always nice to have someone around who sympathizes with me.”

So sure, have job applicants meet with Jeff in accounting and Abby in marketing and Bill R. and Bill J. in R&D. But when scheduling the interviews, tell each one what specific insights you hope he or she can supply. If all you care about is personal chemistry, let them know that. Then they can relax and concentrate on whether the stranger in the expensive suit seems like someone they want to share a mini-fridge with for the next five years.

Leigh Buchanan is an Inc. editor-at-large. She can be reached at lbuchanan@inc.com.

For the entire article go to Inc.com

Corra believes a good HR interviewer can bring out many facets of an employment candidate. As anyone who has conducted interviews can tell you, it’s not just the questions, but more the answers and the body language that accommodates the answers.

Sometimes you have to put your candidate off guard by asking seemingly innocuous questions. Innocuous questions, if delivered properly, can sometimes reveal more about your candidate than the same questions asked and answered in a dozen interviews just like yours. Your candidate may have those stock answers down by rote, but not be prepared for something a little less direct.

When you you have completed the interview process and decide to put out an offer to a candidate, it always pays to have a comprehensive preemployment screening program in place. A good background check will not only reveal additional information but will verify at least some of the information the candidate provided on his application and in the interview.

Corra mandates a criminal background check and the social security trace. Corra believes a credit report can be very revealing, as can a Motor Vehicle Report of Driving Report. Be complete with your background traces. It’s a strange world out there.

Check them out before you hire.

Avoiding Trade Show Faux Pas

Six tips exhibitors should know.

From: Inc. Magazine | By: Christopher Hosford

Bob Uhle had a challenge on his hands. As director of sales and marketing for a start-up called the Aviation Technology Group, it was his job to build interest in and book deposits for the Javelin, the company’s slick new private jet. Competition in the private jet industry is pretty intense, however, and buyers certainly have every reason to eschew an unknown company. Further complicating ATG’s efforts was the fact that the business was still in the prototype stage and wouldn’t be able to deliver planes to customers until 2009.With these chips stacked against him, Uhle decided to bet a big chunk of his budget–more than $200,000–on a major industry trade show held annually in Las Vegas. That’s a large sum for most companies, but in the airplane business it’s peanuts, especially for a launch. To introduce the brand (and maybe sell a few planes) ATG designed a 50- by 60-foot booth that included a full-scale model of the plane and a flight simulator and arranged to send 25 executives, technicians, and salespeople to the event.These days, many companies are returning to trade shows, which slumped following the terrorist attacks and recession of 2001. Event organizers are reporting gains in revenue, attendance, and the number of exhibitors, and many exhibition halls are expanding, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research.

Making a trade show pay off can be tricky, however, because “the cost per contact is the highest of anything in the marketing tool kit,” says Ruth P. Stevens, a professor at Columbia University’s business school and the author of Trade Show and Event Marketing. On the flip side, “the benefit of trade shows is that they can be extremely efficient for having a series of meaningful conversations with a targeted audience,” Stevens says.

To have a successful trade show, you should prepare months in advance. In fact, Stevens recommends that you think of a show as the midpoint, if not the culmination, of a marketing campaign. What should you hope to accomplish at each stage in a campaign built around an expo? Here are some pointers.

For the entire article go to Inc.com

Corra has been to trade shows. Trade shows can be tricky. You have to prepare in advance, and then you have to allow for a whole bunch of contingencies. You have to have the right people, doing the right thing, meeting, shmoozing, recognizing business opportunities. They have to be organized and able to prioritize so they don’t waste time on lousy prospects while ignoring more viable ones.

Trade shows are fast, chaotic and then they are over quickly. Good trade show people have to initiate contact and then do follow ups, not neglecting second contact until memory fades.

Background screening will help determine your choosing the right people for your trade show efforts. Let’s face it, these are the guys who bring home the bacon so spending a few dollars to screen them makes a lot of sense. to be sure run a criminal background check, and a credit report will help determine if they will be spending your money wisely. An education verification is often a most and a motor vehicle report is necessary, especially if they are driving for business or even chauffeuring potential clients.

Check them out before you hire.