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Xerox: A Hiring Process Worth Copying

A few years ago, Xerox became interested in cutting down the turnover rate at its 48,500 call-center jobs. Specifically, the company invests $5,000 in training in each new call center employee, and wanted them to stick around long enough to make that investment worth it. So, Xerox spent six months assessing its own hires, and then coupled that with information about their background and personality types. And what Xerox found was that experience had no correlation to employee longevity, but instead creative types stayed longer at the company than inquisitive types. Naturally, Xerox began targeting employees that were more creative …Read more »

Chipotle’s Brilliant Hiring Process

With its stock price increasing by 1,080 percent and sales jumping from $471 million to $3.2 billion since 2006, Chipotle was America’s fasting-growing fast food chain of the decade. That trend looks like it will only continue, as stocks have increased by more than 20 percent so far this year. So what makes Chipotle so successful? Obviously, to have that much success, there are several reasons. First off, it does a great job of appealing to America’s changing sensibilities, as it advertises (mostly) organic, GMO-free food, as an example. It also sticks to a clearly-defined mission and has strong processes …Read more »

Want to Get Rich? Forget About the Money.

I was talking to my brother the other day, and while he was never particularly gifted with words, he gave me the best career advice I’d ever gotten. He said, “Paul, the key to work is to find something you don’t mind doing. And then you’ll spend a lot of time there and work late, because you won’t mind doing it.” Pretty simple, right? But I think the deeper lesson in those words is the true key to getting rich: ironically, you can only get rich when work becomes about something other than the money. My Evidence The world’s most …Read more »

Forget Superman. Hire Like The Hulk

Want to overtake your rival? Maybe it comes down to writing better job descriptions. For years, Marvel played catchup to its chief rival, DC. DC would come up with some new comic character (like say the Joker) or some new idea (like having all their superheroes fight together in the Justice League), and Marvel would follow suit (i.e. the Green Goblin and the Avengers). And yet, today, that’s completely flipped. Marvel is now the leader in the pack, particularly when it comes to movies, the chief revenue and interest generator of both comic book companies. After all, it was Marvel …Read more »

Don’t Hire Superstars. Create Them.

When hiring, it is sensible to hire the absolute best people, right? No matter what the cost, if you can get a star in the industry, it is worth it, right? Well, not really. A groundbreaking study by the Harvard Business Review (HBR) found that hiring stars can actually have a negative effect on the business as a whole. The study, along with dozens of case studies, reveal that performance isn’t as fungible as it would seem and bringing in prolific people often leads to higher turnover and lower morale. Instead, there is a better way to build a long-lasting …Read more »

Gates Vs. Jobs: Who Hired Better?

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. The two men are among the most successful entrepreneurs of the past fifty years. Gates grew richer, becoming the wealthiest man in the world, while Jobs touched more industries, including movies, music, TV and phones. The two men have always been compared to each other, as both men were born in 1955 and have competed against each other as they rose to success. People ask, who was more innovative? (Probably Jobs). Who had a better business mind? (Probably Gates). But who hired better? After all, both men weren’t just superstars by themselves, they had teams …Read more »

Is McDonald’s Headed For A Crash?

When Ray Kroc joined McDonalds in 1955 and built it into one of America’s biggest brands, it was lauded as the quintessential American success story, full of good, high-quality food and happy children. More than half-a-century later, that goodwill is all but gone. The restaurant chain has been a focus of protestors demanding higher wages (most McDonald’s restaurant workers make less than $10 an hour) and people are comparing feeding children a Big Mac to giving them whiskey and cigarettes. The company itself is still strong, with the stocks nearly doubling in the past five years and profits staying strong. …Read more »

Apple’s Big Day Shows How To Live Forever

Tuesday was a big day for Apple CEO Tim Cook and the company as a whole. Cook finally stepped out of Steve Jobs’ looming shadow, as he unveiled the iPhone 6, new payment systems and the new and improved Apple Watch at an Apple event Tuesday at California’s Flint Center for the Performing Arts. Although Cook has done a solid job since taking over as CEO in 2011, this was his coming-out party, where he showed off some news-making innovations. So we hate to do this to Cook, on his big day, because he is a great leader who deserves all kinds of credit. But really, Cook’s …Read more »

The Real Reason Companies Are Taking So Long To Hire

There was an interesting fact this week in the Wall Street Journal: it is taking companies 25 days to fill vacant positions, a 13-year high. This is shocking, considering the unemployment rate is still over 6 percent, and there are many more people underemployed. With so many people looking for jobs, why is it taking so long to fill one? The Wall Street Journal listed off its theories, including more intense screening processes, the advent of LinkedIn and increased expectations. But really, those are all symptoms of a core problem ERE.net has been detailing for some time: the “Perfect Fit Syndrome.” …Read more »

Is The American Worker Getting Shortchanged?

Each month, when the new jobs report is released, we are bombarded with news about the unemployment rate. And lately, the news has been mostly optimistic, with the unemployment rate slowly decreasing since its high of 10 percent in October of 2009. But what’s not being talked about is what these new jobs are. Specifically, higher-paying jobs are being replaced with lower-paying jobs, and while American workers continue to be more and more productive, wages are lagging far behind. Meanwhile, corporations – facing increased pressure by Wall Street to meet short-term expectations – have increased their profits by 84 percent …Read more »

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