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Tag Archives: Recruiting

What Companies Are Getting Wrong About Social Recruiting

Today, I spent time looking for companies that have social recruiting – i.e. recruiting via social media – right. I looked at all the big guys, almost all of whom have Twitter pages dedicated just to attracting candidates, and yet, after seeing a few, I quickly became disappointed. Quite frankly, many of them were bad. They had few followers and little engagement, as in very few retweets and favorites. This was surprising, as you’d think these feeds would be popular, simply because who wouldn’t want to work at some of the most famous and recognizable companies in America? And yet, …Read more »

No Work Experience? A Big Company Might Be Your Best Bet

If you have no experience in a given industry, it’s logical to assume that a smaller, less prestigious company would be more willing to give you a job than a larger, more prestigious company, right? Well, that assumption would be completely wrong. According to a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, larger, more prestigious companies are actually twice more likely to hire candidates without experience in the field than smaller, less prestigious companies. Why? According to the study’s researchers, UNC Professor Camelia Kuhnen and Stanford Professor Paul Oyer, larger companies are more able to take bigger risks …Read more »

The Scientifically-Proven Best Way To Hire

Time and time again, we hear the same mantra in business: it is all about getting the right people. No strategy, no piece of technology can overcome bad talent, whereas nothing can hold back the right group of people. That’s a great platitude. But how do you really know who the great people are? Obviously, everyone wants to hire just the best, but if you have a stack of resumes for a position, what’s best way to determine who should get the job? Well, science has provided an answer. In an exhaustive 1998 study by University of Iowa Professor Frank Schmidt and …Read more »

The Greatest Recruitment Videos. Ever.

Just about every mid-size-to-large company today has one on their career site: the recruitment video. The vast majority are so alike – stock music, shots of smiling workers, people raving about working there – that they all pretty much blend together. And, for that reason, they become ineffective. We get it, your video says you can move up at your company – but every video says that, so can you really? We get it, your video says your company is a great place to work. But every company’s video says that, so is it really so great? And then, you …Read more »

Study: The Most Important Characteristic In A CEO Is…

What’s the most important characteristic in a CEO? Korn Ferry, the world’s largest executive search firm, conducted a study to find out exactly that. And what they found was surprising – the one characteristic that correlated most directly to an executive’s success is… drum roll please… “learning agility”. I’m going to guess the first question that comes to your mind, directly after the eye roll that comes after hearing a quintessential corporate buzzword like “learning agility”, is “what the heck is that”? Well, The Wall Street Journal asked Korn Ferry CEO Gary Burnison that question, and this is what he said: “It comes down …Read more »

The Two Recruiting Metrics That Actually Are Worth Measuring

In the mid-2000s, a key metric for customer service reps at Dell Computers was “handle time,” or the amount of time they would spend on the phone with a customer. The concept was it would encourage customer service reps to handle problems quickly. What happened, though, was that it incentivized customer service reps to transfer customers with complex problems to someone else. What was happening was that their personal “handle time” was low, and they graded out well, but the actual amount of time customers spent on the phone went up, as customers wasted hours getting transferred from person to …Read more »

The Problem With McDonald’s “As Tasteless As A McRib” Ad

  Facing their largest drop in sales in at least 10 years, increased competition and protests across the country demanding higher pay for their workers, McDonald’s is in desperate need of some goodwill. Unfortunately, their attempt to build exactly that is going down as well as a Big Mac for a guy with chronic acid reflux. A new McDonald’s ad entitled signs (shown below) is basically a photo gallery of McDonald’s signs after tragedies and marking community events set to perhaps the most tear-inducing music possible. The description of the commercial on the McDonald’s YouTube channel is, “For years, McDonald’s …Read more »

The Hiring Problem That’s Killing Companies And Driving People Bananas

What if I told you that 80 percent of a particular workforce thought they had a great understanding of what they were doing and what was expected of them. And yet, when you talk to the group that workforce is serving, 61 percent of them say they really don’t. That’s the equivalent of 80 percent of cooks thinking they are serving great food, but 61 percent of the customers saying it isn’t very good. Or 80 percent of accountants believing they are the next George Oliver May, yet 61 percent of their clients go to bed each night worrying about …Read more »

The New, Essential Quality To Look For While Hiring

How can Vineyard Vines get away with charging $38 for a shirt with a whale on it, when there’s something on Amazon for half that price? And when there are countless shirts at Walmart for $6? How can Tiffany’s charge twice the price for diamond rings that are the exact size and quality as their competitors? How can Whole Foods charge more than other grocery stores for similar products? The reason, according to several recent reports published in the New York Times, is authenticity. And it is becoming more and more necessary in an experience-fueled economy where all the basic product sales are being chewed …Read more »

The Critical Lesson SNL Teaches About Hiring Millenials

By any measure, Saturday Night Live is one of the most successful shows of all time. The NBC hit has lasted 39 seasons, won 36 Emmys and nearly two-dozen characters created on the show have been turned into movies (i.e. Blues Brothers, Wayne’s World, Coneheads). And year after year, it is one of the highest-rated shows in its time slot. So what’s its “secret to success”? Well, the most amazing part about SNL is that the only constants about it are success and creator Lorne Michaels. Writers and players have come and gone, the vast majority lasting less than five …Read more »

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