Articles for Laundromat Owners, Laundry Room Managers, HR Professionals, Recruiters, Sales People, Job Seekers.
Sounds like an odd mix of subjects right? Ev has had solid careers in all these areas. His brand is "A Heck of A Nice Guy," so he wants to pass on knowledge to others.
Published with a touch of humor from someone in the trenches.
Sometimes it is easy to understand why fate makes you cross paths with certain people. Someone who was a positive influence on my life, career, and future goals has agreed to be interviewed for this blog. This person brought me into their company and gave me the freedom and encouragement (and commission) to become the best salesperson I could be and it was a pleasure working for them.
Back in in 1997 I had just joined a company called Job Connection. Two weeks later I received a call from the owner of our biggest rival at the time, WisconsinJobs. Apparently I had made a sales call on a mutual client who impressed upon this owner that he should hire me. Our paths crossed for the next four years as I saw him at job fairs. Eventually I would become one of his top sales reps for the next seven years, becoming what our main competitor called “the faces of the company.”
I present to you...Brian Weis!
Everet Kamikawa:
When you started WisconsinJobs.com in 1997, online job boards had just started to tear down the wall of classified job ads built by the newspapers. By 2005 newspaper classifieds were hurting and now they are almost nonexistent. Do job boards still hold the value for employers looking to find jobs?
Brian Weis:
Great question. There will always be a need for employers to advertise their job openings and a place for job seekers to seek open jobs. I think the Internet is an effective media and job boards the right meeting place. Right now is a unique time, the unemployment rate is very high in comparison to the last few decades and it is an employer market place. There are so many candidates out there seeking that companies do not need to do as much advertising. In years to come when the unemployment rate shrinks the candidate pool will tighten and companies will need to do more advertising.
EK:
How has social media impacted job boards? Do they have a future?
BW: I think of Twitter (GolfTrips Twitter page)and Facebook (GolfTrips-Facebook page)as a social platform for people to sound off, share their thoughts, post birthday photos, etc. Sure like minded people congregate. For employers/recruiters it is a candidate pool. I think it is an arrow in the quiver for companies to hunt for employees. (and for job seekers to job hunt) Will it replace job boards, probably not. Large companies with a diverse set of hiring needs will always need to a variety of tools - job fairs, campus recruiting, job boards, radio, social media, etc.
EK:
In addition to WIJobs.com, you also started a national recruiting board called LocalCareers.com that had at least one website in all 50 states. Before you sold the domains, how many job boards did you have under the LocalCareers.com banner and what inspired you to build a national network when most local job board owners were happy to just stay in their market?
BW:
I stopped counting after 100 sites. We had a national umbrella with LocalCareers.com and then a regional focus with state sites like ArizonaJobs.com, WisconsinJobs.com, we then branched out in industries like RecruitingJobs.com and later added diversity sites.
EK: At the same time you launched WiJobs.com you also started RecruitersNetwork.com. What was the purpose of that site? Are you still involved in that site?
BW: Recruiters Network branded itself as the Association for Internet Recruiting. Like I said we started when Internet Recruiting was barely a strategy for company. Ina few years we built a huge directory of resources and published a weekly newsletter. I am no longer involved in that organization.
EK: SalesResources.com (SalesResources.com)is another of your sites, which you recently sold to SalesProgress. When recruiting was your focus, why branch out into sales?
BW:
As mentioned be got into several job board verticals focusing on industries with high turn over and higher hiring frequencies like Jobs4Sales.com. Advertising and reaching the passive job seeker was expensive so we built portal sites to funnel job seekers into the job board. I didn't have kids back then so I was able to worked 18 hours a day.
EK: Looking back at your recruiting career is there anything you would have done differently?
BW:
I am a glass half full kind of guy. I cannot think of anything. Last time I checked you cannot change the past so I spend very little time worrying about what I should have done. I certainly try to learn from it, but as far as regrets....hmmm...I am drawing a blank.
That is a look behind. For what Brian Weis is doing now, look for part two soon. Thanks Brian! EvEven though we haven't worked together for almost two years, I still get asked by cleints whatever happened to this owner. I thought it would be fun for you to read all about what he has been up to in his own words.
I still have people that don't believe in the power of the internet and social media. Do you know any people in your network that believe the same thing? Maybe send them the link to this page.
We have a lot of to be thankful for living in this country. I'm thankful for my family, clients, and you for taking the time to read this blog! Give thanks for all you have and for all the struggles that make you better.
Give Thanks for all the good people you've hired and all the good clients you've gained. Hug someone you love. Happy Thanksgiving! Ev A Heck of A Nice Guy
As recruiters we sometimes tend to get wrapped up trying to find sources of candidates. Don't forget to build your network of clients too! You've put on your sales hat, but how do you get started? Try more networking! Instead of a cold call, you can now make a "warm" call to someone that you've met. Even if it was only for a very short period of time it is still a great way to get the conversation going on the phone. If you don't think of networking as a vital part of your sales strategy, here is a good article to refresh what you need to do. Thanks! Ev A Heck of A Nice Guy
Business networking has a bad connotation — we have visions of meetings handing out business cards dancing in our heads. They remind us of being back in high school wondering if we’ll go to the prom or get picked for the team.
But having and supporting a business network is one of the keys to a successful job search. Even if you are not in a job search now, cultivating that business network is critical to your long-term employment security. Business networks don’t magically build themselves. You have to take action to build yours and make it central to your career planning and development.
1. Actively Acquire People This is not adding whoever to LinkedIn Google+. Nor is it having 5,000 friends on Facebook. Instead, this is deciding who is able to support your career goals and who you can help reach theirs. These people can be peers in your company or hiring managers or members of a professional organization.
Or, they can simply be people who leave your company and you, unlike everyone else, go and get their personal contact information so you can keep in touch. Fifty people leave your company you know and trust and that gives you contacts at another fifty companies where you can find out information.
Actively adding people to your network is work. Especially since this is an important, but not urgent, goal. The time to build your business network is precisely the time you don’t need one.
2. You Must Actively Manage Your Business Network Managing your network comes in two parts. First, you need to consistently communicate. It makes no sense to capture all that great personal contact information and then not talk to people for a year. You need consistent communication with your network so that you support and build relationships.
Second, most of us quickly outgrow our ability to keep track of everyone and what they are doing, so we need a “personal” equivalent to a Customer Relationship Manager program. My favorite is Jibber Jobber because of its capabilities and consistent improvements over time.
Now, we don’t like to think that our “friends” or “co-workers” or “acquaintances” need management. But they do. It’s easy to think we’re regularly talking with these people — and then realize months have passed since we did. That’s why management is needed.
3. You Must Actively Support Your Business Network Building and communicating with your network isn’t enough. The real strength of your network is your ability to help your contacts. Whether it is a recommendation, helping solve a problem, pointing the person to where they can find information they need, or providing your perspective on a question, supporting your business network is critical. Some day, the time will come when you need some support to solve some problem at work, get some perspective on a job, or find out information about a company. You want to have helped others so they are willing to help you.
Business Networks Are About Finding And Supporting Resources To Help Your Work. Too many people think networks are only about finding jobs. While that’s one part of it, the better way to regard it is that networks give you resources to help to grow your job and career. If you build, manage and support your business network, well, you’ll find that people will come to you with opportunities. Not that you will have to go searching for them.
Scot Herrick is the author of “I’ve Landed My Dream Job–Now What???” and owner of Cube Rules, LLC. CubeRules.com provides online career advice and products for workers who typically work in a corporate cubicle.
Many years ago, before blogs were born, I started sending a monthly email newsletter to all my clients and prospects. Nearly 12 years later that tradition continues, except now it has links to this blog. The email is sent around the first of the month. I then republish it here around the 15th of the month. If you haven't had a chance to read all my entries this is a good way to hit the highlights of the previous month. Below is the newsletter for November:
I'm always flattered and humbled when I hear that someone reads my blog much less likes something I wrote. I'm even more humbled when someone takes the time to write to me! In this case "Gary" is responding to what I've written about resumes and agreeing with me. Thanks Gary for taking the time to write! Ev
Hi Everet,
I was always a firm believer that you must have a basic resume that could be adjusted to the position in which you are applying for. Now that I have been doing exclusively recruiting for almost 2 years, I am convinced more than ever.
When recruiting, positions are sent to us by the hiring manager. Ultimately he wants us to send him resumes that only match his job description 100%. If he has 5 different acronyms listed as skill sets needed, then the resume has to have those listed. Even if it is obvious that the candidate has that skill, if it is not listed, then the hiring manager may not even consider the person. We have in the past tried to explain the missing acronyms in a brief summary that we would produce after speaking with the candidate. We are now telling all of our candidate prior to submittal that they will have to revise their resume, or we will do it for them.
I think that this approach is necessary for all applicants, even programmers. If a position calls for a Oracle Systems Programmer, just saying you have 5 years Oracle Systems Programming experience is not enough. It needs to say exactly what that included.
I am also a firm believer (for IT jobs) that although years of experience always count, past work history may not be relative. I prefer a candidate to closely look at the job description and highlight all work history with those skills.
It takes a little extra work on the candidate as well as the recruiter, but number of hires speaks for itself. When a resume mirrors a job description, success is almost certain (at least for an interview).
General counsel are tagged as custodians of their companies' most crucial, yet most sensitive and volatile asset: its employees. Henry Ford saw them as one big headache, immune from any analgesic's curative powers: "Why is it that I always end up with a person, when all I really want is a pair of hands?" But it's a person you get, and if you believe people are of value, then the question becomes how to go about managing, motivating and inspiring them -- and, just as important, learning how to unlock their embedded value. Here's a guide on the do's and don'ts to reach that goal.
First, the don'ts. Having practiced employment law for nearly 27 years, I can say with absolute clarity and total conviction that abrupt e-mails, rude comments and angry directives fail -- always have, always will. Confirmation of my subjective feelings comes from two business professors, Christine Porath and Amir Erez, whose revealing study of rudeness and its toxic effects is illuminating. They subjected two groups of study participants to varying degrees of rudeness, and they asked a third group to only imagine they were the object of the rudeness. All groups were then asked to perform tasks requiring cognitive functions. The result? In all three groups the ability of the participants to think was severely impaired. Why? They were unable to use their cognitive processing power to perform the tasks, wasting their brain wattage on mulling over and ruminating upon the rudeness, or parsing the comments and figuring out how they should have responded. This included the bystander group, asked only to empathize. Talk about collateral damage. Want to learn more? Check out "Rudeness and Its Noxious Effects" in the March issue of the Harvard Business Review.
Want more empirical evidence? Robert Sutton's book, "The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't," is brimming with studies and experiments. Work with a rude jerk and what happens? You become one as well. It's called emotional contagion, as Dr. Michelle Duffy demonstrated in her study -- which Sutton cites -- of hospital employees working for insensitive bosses who acted like jerks and condoned it in others. The employees morphed into their bosses. It's true: We ape others, especially those higher in the food chain.
One study Sutton discusses, by British researchers Charlotte Rayner and Loraleigh Keashly, translated the effects of such uncivil and rude behavior into cold, hard cash. Historical data show that 25 percent of those bullied at work and 20 percent of those who merely witness it leave their employment (once again, bystander damage). The researchers postulate that in a company of 1,000 employees, if 25 percent leave and if the average historical replacement cost is $20,000, then the annual cost is $750,000. Tack on two witnesses per bullied employee, 20 percent of those witnesses leave, and that adds $1.2 million for, as Sutton puts it, a TCA (total cost of assholes) of close to $2 million per year.
Here's one more study Sutton highlights: 41 employees carried a palm-sized computer for two to three weeks. Researchers prompted the employees at random intervals to answer questions about their interactions with co-workers and then to rate their resulting feelings as positive, negative or neutral. Here's the expected: 30 percent were positive interactions, 10 percent negative, the rest neutral. Here's the unexpected: The negative interactions had a fivefold stronger effect on mood than the positive ones and thus took much longer to get over. Talk about radioactive.
STOP THE MADNESS
So, what's to be done? Many companies promulgate a no-asshole rule, which is, standing alone, useless. Remember this: The fundamental attribution bias makes us all believe that we are better people than we really are, including yours truly. Most people don't know they are violating the rule, thinking of themselves as sterling folks; the most clueless are in management. A rule honored in its breach is harmful. Employees see the brass violating the rule, feel the hypocrisy and are emboldened to violate it themselves. It's better to have no rule at all. Instead, create a culture that operates on automatic pilot and perpetuates an infrastructure that makes it easier to avoid a gaggling of A-holes. Here are the do's.
Limit hierarchy. When someone thinks he is superior to others, you get -- in the memorable phrase of psychology professor Philip Zimbardo -- the Lucifer effect. The phrase comes from his famous Stanford University prison experiment in which students were divided into guards and prisoners, with the first group ending up abusing the second. Which are you? Sutton and management guru Peter Drucker say to listen to whether management says words like "we" and "us" as opposed to "I" and "them."
Curtail e-mail and calls. Instead, encourage face-to-face conversation. It is much easier to disrespect someone over e-mail or via conference call. Communicating via technology creates low trust. It breeds harshness and anger. It lets bullies be bullies. Fly above it.
Train corporate managers on interpersonal skills. This is not a soft suggestion. This skill lubricates the organization, reducing friction and accordingly raising efficiency and bolstering revenues. If people manage by e-mail, make them manage face-to-face. If that's not always possible, teach e-mail etiquette. If they have anger issues, require them to stop acting out, and give them help. If they can't stop the bad behavior, give them the boot. Make them understand that being an asshole is counterproductive. My mom told me that you can't change people, you can only help people. A manager with an inner jerk will always be a jerk, but you can ensure that it doesn't escape.
Mandate free expression. Those on the receiving end of abuse learn to avoid it by saying nothing (not what you pay them for) or to say only what the abuser wants to hear (also not what you pay them for). It's the latter that results in the business maxim that employees start to make up the numbers when there is unrelenting abuse to make the numbers.
Whenever I work with young lawyers for the first time, I tell them they only need to know the answer to one question: Why do airplanes crash? Usually, I get answers based on physics. But, no, airplanes crash because the junior co-pilot sees a blinking red light on the console, thinks if anything was wrong then surely the senior pilot would say something or act, and just as surely thinks to himself that he will not say anything that harms his career or gets him yelled at. So, the co-pilot says nothing and that's why airplanes crash.
Understand that it's about more than saying "please" and "thank you." In his book, "How Starbucks Saved My Life," Michael Gates Gill tells how he went from a high-powered ad agency exec to a probationary employee at a Starbucks store. Post-power, he realized that being polite to those behind the counter was not the same as understanding their value, appreciating their skills and recognizing their humanity. "Please" and "thank you" are good things to say -- if sincerely meant and not sprinkled about like air fresheners at the landfill -- but they do not and cannot substitute for authentic respect.
Grasp that money is often the most expensive way to motivate employees. Or so argues Dan Ariely in "Predictably Irrational." Ariely tells us that the work world is moving from "market norms" (paying X amount of dollars for Y amount of work) to "social norms" (employees are willing to make sacrifices for their employer, but they expect something similar in return, such as understanding when extra days off are needed). His extensive studies also show that employees will work harder, say, when they receive a personal gift worth $1,000 than a raise worth $1,000. His bottom line: "It's remarkable how much work companies ... can get out of people when social norms (such as the excitement of building something together) are stronger than market norms (such as salaries stepping up with each promotion)." Want an example? Take a look at the February Harvard Business Review's "Task, Not Time: Profile of a Gen Y Job," featuring Best Buy's program of paying employees for tasks and results -- not for time -- eschewing the Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. baby boomer ethic.
Sutton suggests a Zen take on lifting oneself out of the swamp of assholes and jerks: Live in the present, and do the right thing in the right way to the person in front of you, right now. I like that. Here's my take, albeit worn thin from use, and repeated so often its freshness bled out: "Whatsoever you would have others do for you, do that for them, for that is the law." Try to read this passage from the Gospel of Matthew as if you've never read it before. Its karmic power may be the simplest way to reach the highest return on your largest investment with minimal effort. Who would have thunk it?
Michael P. Maslanka is the managing partner of Ford & Harrison in Dallas. He is board certified in labor and employment law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He writes the Texas Employment Law Letter.
When advertising for salespeople, sales managers, or recruiters he gave a list of what things he thinks are important to judge candidates on. Since he's helped companies evaluate 700,000 sales people that is a good sign to me he knows what he is talking about. His list is below: Thanks! Ev
These are my Top 10 Sales Management Functions. The list, in no particular order is probably different, in many ways, as much for what's not on it as for what is:
1.COACHING 2.ACCOUNTABILITY 3.MOTIVATION 4.RECRUITING 5.DEVELOPMENT 6.LEADERSHIP 7.RELATIONSHIPS 8.TACTICS 9.STRATEGY 10.SYSTEMS AND PROCESSESThe following competencies, which are NOT sales management functions, do not appear on my list: ■Personal Sales ■Account Management ■Closing Deals for OthersAlso not in my top 10 are ■Territory Management ■Paperwork ■Meetings ■Travel ■Trips
Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
