December 2014 Jokes

This month I've changed things around and made this a visual joke list.
Enjoy and thanks for reading!
Happy New Year!
Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

                                                                           Polar Bear

A Workforce Nightmare-81% of MPS Students Can't Read

An article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published says that only 19% of the students in Milwaukee Public Schools read at a proficient level.
math-reading-scores-tick-up-low-proficiency-levels-persist 
That means 81% of students in MPS don't read at or above their grade level!
Why isn't there more outrage about this?!
Over three-fourths of students in MPS can barely read!
Even if 100% of those 81% graduate high school, just using common sense that learning gets harder as you get older because of life's twists and turns, I'll bet 75% of the 81% will still not be able to read at an acceptable adult level.

I don't normally rant about things not sales related in this blog, but an educated workforce is vital to a strong economy. Baby boomers are starting to retire and there isn't enough members of the next two generations to fill all the empty jobs. There is a talent shortage in all areas (and those areas that haven't been hit yet will be soon). The talent shortage will be even worse if the workforce doesn't have the basic skills to get by in life much less hold down a job in this digital world. 
This article puts everything into perspective.
Most people who will be in the job market in the next 10 years won't be able to read in order to get jobs to work their way up the ladder of success into careers where they can make good money.

School is hard work. Learning takes effort. Parents have to make their kids read to them and parents read to the kids. Parents have to ask to see the math homework. No matter how busy the schedule or the quality of the school, all parents can find 20-30 minutes to do these tasks. The laundry and dishes can wait until the kid is in bed. Sorry if you don't get to watch the latest episode of Downton Abbey or CSI. You're a parent, and teaching your child or reinforcing what they have learned is your job. 

A recruiter for the US Army that I worked with on several projects told me repeatedly in 2006-2010 that the army had not actively recruited in MPS high schools for roughly ten years because those graduates didn't have the basic reading and math skills to operate modern military equipment.
So much for "three hots and a cot" as a safety net for those people who needed some sort of job or career.
I can see why the army doesn't want MPS graduates because they probably couldn't read the front of a claymore mine to know to "face front towards the enemy."

The work force demands higher skilled workers even to run basic equipment like digital point-of-sale machines (we used to call them cash registers).
Recruiters for any position can't use candidates that don't know how to do math or read.
Reading and math are job skills you need at every job you can think of! There isn't a job or career where you won't need to read something or do a math problem at some point.


Here is a simple idea to fix the problem. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen more quickly than we think.
Parents read to your children 20-30 minutes a day. Do math the same amount of time, or at least check their work when they are done with their homework. That is your part.
 
Kids! 
Your part is to read to alternate reading to your parents and having them read to you. Then eventually you read to them for the whole 20-30 minutes. Explain to them how you figure out your math problems so they know the logic you are using. Then listen to their advice.
Just do it. No fussing. So what if you miss watching Toy Story or Cars. You can watch them later. When you've learned to read and write you'll understand and enjoy the movies even more because you will understand other dialog and scenes you missed when you couldn't read. Listen to your parents and do what they say. Respect your teachers too and try your best at your work! 
It may seem easier to not try and live on a government handout, but it will cost you more in the end.

I'm not worried about offending anyone with this article.The 81% who can't read will either not be able to read it, understand it, or see the logic of the examples.
They'll relay on someone else telling them what they think it means and taking it for gospel.

Thanks for letting me vent!
Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

3 Reasons Why Your Recruiting Firm May Be Underperforming

Jon Bartos has several good points here when looked at from a higher level.
Thanks Jon for the perspective.
Ev

3 Reasons Why Your Recruiting Firm May Be Underperforming
By Jon Bartos

3-reasons-why-your-recruiting-firm-may-be-underperforming

During a speaking engagement a few years ago, I asked about 350 account executives, “Can we all agree that four hours per day of phone time is critical to our success?”  Three hundred and fifty hands shot into the air.  I followed with “How many of you actually hit four hours of phone time per day?”  Just three hands went up.  Three people out of 350, yet every single person in that room knew what they needed to do.  They just didn’t do it.
It can be tempting to take shortcuts, to ignore your instincts about success.  A personal example: a few years ago, my office was hovering around 3.5 hours of average daily phone time.  My goal for each individual was four hours per day, and two people were hitting it regularly, two phone-time heroes.  But the majority of my team was just getting by with the minimum.  The new manager of a recruiting firm came to me and suggested that we lower the phone time goal to 3.5 hours per day to make everyone feel better.  Against my better judgment, I agreed.  Two months into this idea and our pair of phone-time heroes continued to perform well.  Everyone else in the office dropped to an average of just three hours per day.
I admitted my mistake, and realized that people tend to perform at or below minimum expectations for success in ALL areas of their lives.
As a business owner, someone who is dedicated to training and delivering top achievers, I’ve thought long and hard about why this is.  My three answers are detailed below:

1. Society has begun to accept (and expect) underperformance.

This is the era of participation awards.  Sports, schools, jobs . . . they all reward participation versus real achievement.  Just showing up should not be cause for celebration.  Yet today, parties are thrown for graduating from the fifth grade.  Trophies are handed out to every member of the team instead of honoring top performers.  Society seems to value mediocrity.  At soccer games at our local junior high school, they don’t display the true final score of a soccer game if one team won by more than five goals.  School officials don’t want players and their parents to feel bad.  Are you outraged?  You should be.  Because it isn’t just kids’ soccer we’re talking about.  It’s establishing the false premise that “average is acceptable.”  The truth is, there are winners and losers in life.  In the real world, we don’t get to choose to acknowledge only the scores we like.  We aren’t rewarded for simply participating.  It’s all about getting the job done better.  Don’t ever let it be okay for you or your office to be just average.

2. We don’t know what to do.

You can’t win the game if you don’t know the rules.  To be successful in business—and recruiting—you’ve got to know what you’re doing.  If you don’t understand how to make an effective marketing call, or how to set up a metrics system to manage your recruiting firm, you’d better find out.  It isn’t enough to just say you want to succeed.  You need to learn everything there is to know about recruiting.  I often wonder if people studied more in high school or college than they do when learning their profession.  You need to take every day in the office as seriously as final exams in college.  If you are primed with in-depth professional knowledge, you can’t fail.  You need to be a student of the game, obtaining all the information you can to help you be more successful at what you do.
As recruiters, we have so many great resources.  Wonderful training programs and fantastic coaches are available to you that can give you valuable, continuing education and mentoring.  Don’t let lack of knowledge stop you from achieving your goals.

3. We know what to do and we know how to do it, but we still don’t do it.

Many people know exactly what to do, and exactly how to do it.  Yet they simply choose not to.  It’s always surprising to me to see great recruiters show up to work with no plan for the day.  I guess that’s why we have superstars.  Because they are in the minority, and they always get the job done, no matter what.  The average performer knows very well he should plan for the next day before leaving the office.  But there’s always a reason why it’s more important to walk out the door at 5 p.m. today than to plan to be successful for the next.
It’s sort of like grabbing that second doughnut in the office break room.  Everyone says they want to be healthy.  Everyone knows they shouldn’t eat junk and sit around playing video games instead of going to the gym.  But many, many of us are unwilling to apply what we know and execute it by working out and eating right.
Unfortunately, the cost of failure in life is much bigger than whether or not you look fit in your suit.  When you fail to achieve career success, it affects not only you, but also your kids, your spouse, and your friends.  If you choose not to pay the price of success, you fail, and it can quickly become a habit.  Repeated over and over, dreams become distant prayers, and your true potential never materializes.  A lot of things can happen along with habitual failure, and none of it is good.
One in 10 new account executives and search consultants make it to their one-year anniversary in recruiting.  That means 90% of the people fail in this business.  Staggering, isn’t it?  It sounds like the odds are stacked against you, but the good news is that there’s a way to dramatically increase your chance of success for every new recruiter or struggling veteran.
And in my next blog post, I’ll tell you what that way is.

– — –

Jon Bartos, a guest writer for the Top Echelon Recruiter Training Blog, is a premier writer, speaker, and consultant on all aspects of personal performance, human capital, and the analytics behind them.  In December of 2012, Bartos joined trustaff Solutions as the president.  Founded in 2002, trustaff Solutions has been distinguished nationally five times by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest-growing, privately-held companies in the country.

We're All in Sales

You're a salesperson.
Don't kid yourself if you say you hate selling or your present job isn't in sales.
We are all in sales and we are always selling...ourselves.
We sell to our bosses that we can do a job and leave a good impression at the end of the day.
We sell our significant others we are worthy of their love.
We sell the cute person across the room we should get together for a date.
We sell the recruiter or HR person that we are a worthy candidate.

You are in sales. 
What you are selling is you, no matter what your degree is and what job you are going for.
Ev