The Bull's-Eye View

Nearly every company is forced to face a harsh reality in the business world—downsizing. As much as I wish that companies would make my job easier by constantly hiring and looking for new candidates, that’s not the way things work. Business grows in unpredictable directions, and companies need to address this. They hire for the areas that are strong and profitable, and cut back in the areas that are not.

I discuss how to address the issue of downsizing, both with current employees and potential candidates, in an article (free subscription required) for SellingPower Magazine. Start taking advantage of my advice with these key points:

• Acknowledge the fact that you are downsizing, and explain why.
  Honesty really is the best policy here; being secretive will cause unnecessary worry for current employees and may deter qualified candidates from applying.
• Hire from within whenever possible.
  Promoting or re-assigning current employees is almost always preferable to brand new hires, for obvious reasons (greater company loyalty, less time lost to training, etc.). If this isn’t feasible, make it clear why not.
• Apply selective hiring policies.
  Save time by pre-screening applicants over the phone to get a better feel for how they would fit within the company before you schedule an in-person interview.

Most importantly, always be on the lookout for new players who can improve your business. Your best business insurance is a pipeline full of qualified candidates who can help your company grow.

Gaining Focus – A Simple Exercise

Do you ever feel like you have so much going on that you can't focus on what needs to get done?

Does it seem like, no matter what you do, the stress and anxiety rules the moment with no relief in sight?

Well, here is a simple exercise* that you might find useful. You may need to practice it several times to get the desired effect, but remember practice makes perfect!

Instructions: Take a walk and count forms until thinking diminishes or ceases entirely, and the world appears brighter. For example: Look at a car, count one: look at a leaf, two; look at a building, count three, etc. It makes no difference WHAT you look at, just every time you observe an object count one more number. If you lose track of your counting, just start from one.

Expected Results: Insight, Improved well-being, and Recovery of Focus and Attention.

ENJOY!

Reprint permission Dr. Cheryl Leitschuh *Taken from Resurfacing Techniques for Exploring Consciousness by Harry Palmer.

"You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created."

- Albert Einstein

Steps to a Happier Life

• Think and Act Happy. You will create that state of mind for yourself and inspire it in others
• Take Control. Make effective changes in your life
• Set Goals that urge you forward, yet are still realistic
• Engage Your Skills. Seek activities that use your abilities
• Be Healthy. Eat well, exercise regularly and get plenty of sleep
• Surround Yourself with happy people and nurture these relationships
• Be Compassionate and help those in greater need
• Stay Open to new people and experiences so you continue to grow
• Take A Moment each day to reflect on the positive things in your life

- Author Unknown

Build A Workforce That Will Work Wonders

At the end of the interview, you should know all there is to know about a potential employee. Why then does it often seem as if an interviewee walks out of the office as an enigma? After all, you’re holding all of the cards. There’s no reason to feel blindsided, but you do.

An interview is your chance to get to know a potential hire and to understand those things about him or her that would best suit your business. But not everyone knows how to get the most out of an interview.

To maximize the helpful information you get from a potential worker, you must do each of three things. First, you must develop interview questions which will elicit answers that identify skills specific to the position for which you are hiring. Secondly, know exactly which answers you are looking for with each question asked. Finally, you need to have the courage to challenge the answers candidates give you, to make absolutely sure that you have the information from them that you want.

Being unprepared for an interview can prove disastrous down the line. The employer who does not properly prepare for an interview is the employer whose workplace is defined by high turnover, low morale, low productivity and frequent accidents.

Preparation is more than having good interview questions. If you are unprepared for the answers to those interview questions, you will still employ a good number of misfits.

Well-developed questions without a plan to process the answers may eliminate the stupid and the slow, but the smooth talking low-producers will slip through those big holes in your screening process.

The good and prepared interviewer designs questions to identify specific skills and talents and looks for specific answers and the manner in which the applicant responds. The result is employment of better performers, lower turnover and higher morale.

What makes this interviewer so much more successful than the others is the quality of questions asked and the manner in which he or she processes the answers received. Behind every great workforce is a selection process that includes a well-developed interview process designed to ask questions that produce detailed information. The process also includes methods of challenging answers that allow qualified applicants to rise above those that merely talk a good game.

Develop interview questions to identify specific skills, and know what answers you are looking for from each question. Challenge answers to be sure you have the information you want. By consistently doing these three things, you will build a workforce that will work wonders.

Reprint permission granted by: Lonnie Harvey, Jr., SPHR, President of The JESCLON Group, Inc. www.jesclongroup.com

Helpful Tips For Effective Computer Use

In today’s environment using a computer has become an essential part of most professions. To avoid undue stress of fatigue, loss of work, or eye strain, follow these suggestions:

• Keep your monitor screen clean by using one of the many cleaning pads available. This will cut down on your eye strain.
• If you are working on your computer and start to experience visual fatigue, blink more often. As you blink your eyes you lubricate them. It may also be helpful to get up and walk around the office for a couple of minutes.
• One of the most frustrating things about using a computer is when you lose your work due to power failure or computer failure. Avoid losing the information and time spent on it by saving your work often. An easy way to remind yourself that it is time to save your work is by using an alarm. Set an alarm for about 15 minutes after you start working on your computer project. When the alarm sounds, save your work and hit the snooze button. Most alarm snooze buttons are pre-set to go off after 9 or 10 Minutes. When it goes off again, save your work, and hit the snooze again. Then if you have a power or computer failure, in the worst case scenario you may lose only the last 9 or 10 minutes of work.

- Author Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates

Do you need a top-performing sales professional to drive revenue?

If you don’t have time or money to waste searching for a top-quality sales person that drives revenue, Target Consulting can do the sales recruiting for you. You only pay us if you hire a candidate, and we guarantee the candidate for a limited time. Visit our Client Services section.

Call us for a confidential job search

MAPS is pleased to present Danny Sarch on June 19th, 2008

DATE: June 19th, 2008
TIME: 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm
LOCATION: Home Suites Inn, Waltham, MA
COST: TBA

Danny Sarch, founder of Leitner Sarch Consultants has been working as a recruiter for the financial services industry since he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984. In 1990 he took over the predecessor firm, Leitner Consultants and renamed it Leitner Sarch Consultants.

Danny has been recognized regionally and nationally for both his excellence and effectiveness in the industry. He frequently speaks and is interviewed by major business and industry publications on trends in recruitment and career strategies in the financial services industry. He has appeared in publications such as The Wall Street Journal and at www.onwallstreet.com

MORE: See MAPS website for more information: www.mapsweb.org

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