Workplace 101: A Profiles Global Business Blog

How Talent Management Tools Help Managers

If a stranger asked you to rank your management team on a scale of one to ten in areas like communication, delegation, etc,  what would you say? Most people would rank them unrealistically high for fear that their answers would get back to their boss. How many of you can say that you would answer truthfully and honestly?

Despite all the training and coaching that management personnel can put employees through, a true manager also knows that they themselves are not perfect, and that they can always improve on their management skills. Most of us work with a variety of people, and all people require different levels and amounts of coaching and mentoring from their superiors.

Security is a funny word, strong and soothing…unless you do not have it, or you are worried about it. Everyone is concerned about their own physical safety, the safety of their family. Most are concerned about the security of their information, the things they have saved in My Documents, posted to Facebook, or shared with their online bank.

Bad hires suck up time, energy, and money. How to avoid them.
Author: Drew Greenblatt

The Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams famously said baseball is “the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of 10 and be considered a good performer.”

Maybe not the only one: The same could be said for hiring.

Hiring and retaining the best people is one of the most critical jobs the owner or manager of a company has. In surveys, most rate their success at about one excellent hire out of four. The other three either weren’t a good fit or didn’t have the ability that their training or resume indicated.

We recently launched an effort throughout North America with the intent to discover and provide solutions for the continent’s biggest sales force challenges. Through this effort, hundreds of multi-national corporations and local business owners revealed their sales force challenges for the chance to win a $25,000 Sales Team Analysis. This week, we are releasing some of its initial findings on prevailing sales force challenges. We found that:

You just interviewed a potential job candidate. You liked her. Her resume was impressive and her experience seemed to check out. But your still not 100% sure if she is the right fit for your specific open position. Do you hire her? For many employers, the job interview will answer that question. Through the traditional job interview, we can tell whether potential employees are well-spoken, energetic, and knowledgeable. We can tell whether they are bluffing on their resumes, and we can get a feel on how well they will fit the company culture.

What are your biggest sales force challenges? Are your top performing salespeople struggling with closing sales? Do you know how to effectively manage each individual employee?

Guest post by John Kenney

Turnover is a fierce headwind for leaders of Sales and HR. It is impossible to outrun the drag of vacant territories. Recently, I spoke with two Steves who faced this challenge and developed a sustainable solution. Here is their success story and an invitation to learn more best practices from SBI's “Make the Number 2013 Tour.”

Steve Storer is a seasoned business leader at Cincom Systems, Inc., a provider of software to simplify and improve business operations and customer communications. As the strategic HR partner to multiple sales leaders, Steve is responsible for recruiting and retaining top talent. Two years ago Cincom faced a serious talent issue: they could not find and keep the professionals they needed to manage their complex sales cycles.

If your startup's starting to grow, you may be considering hiring on a few new people. As you probably already know, who you hire matters at a small, growing company. The health of your operation depends on who you have working for you. There's only so much you can accomplish by yourself.

Bad hiring decisions cost money but the real loss may be in the time wasted managing poor-performing employees. A recent study by Robert Half International found that supervisors spend 17 percent of their time each week overseeing poor performers. The study also found that 60 percent of CFO’s believe bad hiring decisions somewhat affect team morale and one in three said it greatly affects team morale.

Guest post by Dr. Kurt Jensen

Surveys and studies show that lies by job applicants are on the rise, with reports of fables, fibs, and fabrications now as high as 50%. Given this disturbing trend, managers are turning to research-proven strategies to help level the playing field and expose even the most clever of con artists.

Though bestsellers like You Can't Lie to Me and Spy the Lie sport catchy titles, catching a liar is no easy task. Experts note that even the most sophisticated tools and techniques lead at best to a 50-60% detection rate. Law enforcement personnel may use polygraphs or "stress interviews," but HR and hiring managers must rely on less invasive measures to get to the truth.

Nevertheless, several hiring practices - most easy to implement - can be used to identify liars and help get them out of your candidate pool. We've compiled a "Top 10" list of strategies that are guaranteed to give you the upper hand and help you separate the cream from the corrupt:

1. Call and check every reference to verify the accuracy of academic and employment histories.