Book Review: Success For Hire

There is a new book in town and it is a good one.  Simply put, Alexandra Levitt delivers. Alexandra brings her experiences and expertise to her newly released book, Success For Hire where she provides a 9-step guide to finding and keeping outstanding employees.

From carefully analyzing your position from both a business and cultural perspective to conducting a strong interview and making a job offer, Alexandra provides a practical road map with nuggets of wisdom along the way:

• When requiring a certain number of years of experience, quantify what a person  will be able to deliver as a result of that experience (page 7) 
• Understand your own problem-solving and decision-making process to know how any new employee can complement your strengths and cover your weaknesses (page 11)
• ALL of Chapter 3, Narrow the Field of Applicants: Assess Where They've Been and Where They're Going and the  lost art of reading a resume.

Wait, there is more. Alexandra takes you through making the job offer and developing a positive first impression at new employee orientation and leaves you charged and ready for action as she dishes out retention strategies.

This is an excellent desk top reference for entry level HR professional and supervisors. If Alexandra should ever happen to convert Chapters 3 - 5 into a supervisor training module (hint, hint), I am on it.

Are you ready to put an end to "desperation hiring?" This is the book for you!

Book Review: Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most

The way your employees feel is the way your customers feel.

These eleven words sum up the bottom line of a newly released book by author Sybil F. Stershic, Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most. A Guide to Employee-Customer Care. 

Ms. Stershic, an internal marketing expert with over 30 years experience, provides a guide to impacting two critical relationships: the relationship between employees and customers and the relationship between employees.

How does she do it? She lays out a road map and provides a audits, actions plans and numerous examples of what other successful companies are doing. One that caught my attention is the Marriott Hospitality Gold Star Program described in the chapter, "Strengthening the Internal Service Culture." In it, guests are randomly selected and asked to identify the hotel associate they found most helpful. These associates, and the guests who recognized them, are both rewarded. But the program does not stop there. Rewarded staff are then asked to identify three associates from the "heart of the house" (i.e. those behind the scenes) who were most helpful to them and these associates are rewarded too. Super!

Wondering how your employees feel about your organization, department or team? Ask them. Probe with questions such as:

• Why are you working here rather than another company?
• What would cause you to end your employment here?
• What drives you crazy about working here?

This book is a great resource for HR professionals, internal marketing managers, and supervisors who want to make a difference within their company, department or team. Regardless of your perspective or the state of your internal marketing efforts, you are sure to find a tool, tip, or golden nugget that can assist you in taking another step forward in your efforts.

This book is on tour and hitting the web. The tour started with Burns Blogs Attitude and made its way here. It will continue with a different stop around the web each day:

• On June 4th, Chris Bailey will be posting a review on his blog Bailey Work/Play: The Alchemy of Soulful Work
• On June 5th, Toby Bloomberg of the Diva Marketing blog will be posting an interview with Sybil.
• On June 6th, Becky Carroll, the blogger behind Customers Rock! will be posting a review and the results of an interview with Sybil.
• On June 9th, Paul Hebert will be posting a review on the blog Incentive Intelligence.
• On June 10, 2008, Phil Gerbyshak will be posting an interview on the blog Slacker Manager.

Check in with these hosts throughout the week. More information about this new book is available on the WME Books blog, the book page on the WME online store and at the Quality Service Marketing blog. 

Resume Forensics

Are you using the Internet to its fullest potential for recruiting?

I am not. It is too much like trying to find a needle in a haystack. With so much going on in my day, I need to prioritize my efforts on tasks that will produce more than frustration. Somebody, somewhere, take my hand and lead me through the madness. Give me a road map, point me in the right direction and make some sense out of the madness for me.

JIm Stroud from The Recruiters Lounge to the rescue. Jim has been working steadily and diligently to develop a training guide for internet recruitment. Do you want to know:

• How to search Google, Yahoo and Live for free resumes?
• How to take a job description and create multiple search strings from it?
• How to automate your resume searches so you can (literally) source resumes while you sleep?

Then Resume Forensics is for you!  

Resume Forensics makes its debut today, Monday, May 12, 2008. Resume Forensics is a guide on how to leverage the internet to find free resumes and passive jobseekers on the web. It is over 100 pages and it is priced at $0.00.

Jim's is giving this away. He will collect the feedback from readers and then use that information to make the next version of his book (Resume Forensics 2.0) even more relevant and useful.

You are invited to download a copy at http://therecruiterslounge.com/rf/rfbeta.pdf. I will be downloading it today with many thanks to Jim (my needle in a haystack finder!) for sharing this with us the way he has. Make it worth his while.  Review it, blog about it, and more importantly, provide him your feedback. 

The Connection Culture

I had a meeting today (just one? HA!). I left the meeting frustrated.

I went into the meeting thinking the questions were going to be technical but they were "philosophical." Now, I love to discuss and debate managerial approaches to issues, however; this was a larger group and not all members were responsible for developing or articulating the philosophy. Not the best forum.  Lessons learned, but still a little frustrated. There was more. 

It took a little pondering to get to the bottom of it and it came down to one thing for me - a lack of connection. I didn't feel a connection with the group. Was it the topic, the group size, the group members, everything to do with me, or nothing to do with me? Connection is important to me.

Connection can also be a source of competitive advantage and I had not thought of connection from that perspective. Have you? Well, Michael Lee Stallard did and addressed it in his manifesto, The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage.

"Connection is the key. It makes a difference in families, in workplaces, in schools, in volunteer organizations, in communities, and in nations. No one can thrive for long without it."  He may be on to something!

Book Review: Warriors, Workers, Whiners and Weasels

It's okay to whine occasionally.

It is. Really. Tim O'Leary says so. He does. Right there on page 142 of his new book, Warriors, Workers, Whiners and Weasels. His book is a guide to understanding yourself and others, and using this knowledge to increase the overall effectiveness of yourself and those around you.

Tim's writing style is straightforward, easy to read and right to the point. The four distinct personalities are very descriptive and you simply cannot read them without trying to identify yourself and your fellow co-workers in each category!

• Warriors are "usually charming, and invigorating, they are also self-centered intolerant, hot-tempered, domineering, highly critical, and often driven to the point of seeming distraction." 
• Weasels have "no regard for honesty, relationships, long-term credibility, or friendships." 
• Workers around you "take responsibility for their actions and pride in their achievements.
• Whiners let their "negativity and dissatisfaction overshadow performance."

These one line descriptions offer only a mere peek into the world of warriors, workers, whiners and weasels. Tim devotes chapters to each of the 4 W's offering full profiles, insights into motivation, tips, tools, signs to watch for and rules to live by.

Tim modestly refers to the 4 W's as "a simple classification system." Yet, the 4 W's is a simple classification system that provides value. Value because this concept was developed and refined by the author while "running real companies and working with real people in real-life settings." Value because it reaffirms "what you already innately understand." Value because it provides an opportunity to learn from the experiences, and missteps, of others.

A true Warrior at heart, Tim takes the time to reflect on what he has learned. For me, Part Six, Wrapping Up is what distinguished this book from others. Tim puts his shield aside and talks from the heart, from his heart, about balance, ego management, taking responsibility for your life and carrying lessons learned forward. Yes, sometimes taking "the next step forward . . . actually means taking a step backwards." 

What do you want from your life? What do you want to achieve? Whatever it is, "it is your responsibility to take the control." And, Tim O'Leary offers you a set of tools, and insights, to guide you.

Hey, don't let the Weasels get you down!