Hiring the best begins with a thorough knowledge of the job the individual is going to do and creating a detailed job description including the following:

1) Outline the most important responsibilities and projects in order of priority. Assign a percentage of time to each responsibility.

2) Define what the minimum experience levels and skills necessary are.

3) Clarify what the company culture is. I.E., laid back, professional, fun, etc..

4) Clarify the compensation budget including base, commissions, bonuses, options, vacation time, and benefits.

5) Clearly define what the person’s daily work would look like exactly. What should he/she be doing on a daily basis. This is different than the job description and skills requirements because it paints a true picture to the candidate of what they will really be doing.

6) Clarify if they will be leading others or working solo.

7) Clearly define what the travel (if any) requirements are. I.E, if is 25% of the time does that mean one week a month, one day a week, 3 months a year, etc… Travel means different things to different people

Create an organizational chart and clearly outline where this individual will fit within the org chart. Who they will be reporting to. The over-all chain of command.

9) Describe in detail what your company does, the size, the revenue when applicable, and any other information that will assist the candidate in determining if this is the right fit for them

The second step in hiring great talent is the recruiting process. This is by far the most difficult and time consuming part of finding great talent. Here are a few things to keep in mind when looking for only the best and brightest:

1) The best talent in the market place is already working. Very rarely are they unemployed. Especially coming off this last recession where only the best made the cut and remained employed. Individuals on the job boards are typically your middle range to poor candidates. They are on the job boards for a reason. The exception to this rule is for contract talent who commonly use job boards when their current assignments are about to end.

2) How do you recruit great talent out of companies:

a. Identify the companies that you want to target.

b. Within those companies obtain the individuals that you will want to call. This involves quite a bit of networking and cold-calling. It’s important to have a well written script for both voice mails and live conversations. Most people will be working so will want to talk during lunch time or before or after hours.

c. Once you have a candidate that you targeted on the phone you will have to have a recruiting process and plan.

3) Following is a thorough interview process that determines if the candidate is the right fit for the position:

a. Perform a skills assessment with the candidate including the following points:

i. What is your current title and what skills are you using? What separates you from your peers in terms of your skill set? Have you been promoted? If so, how many times? What were the previous companies that you worked at and what were your skill sets? Why did you leave each position? Get clear about why they are the best of the best at what they do.

ii. Find out what they have done that has caused their department or company to increase revenues.

iii. Find out what they have done to save their company or department money.

iv. Find out how they made their department more efficient.

v. Next, ask the candidate what they want in a position (not what you are looking for). Have them share with you their career aspirations, job titles, duties, etc…Have them tell you their dream job situation.

vi. Find out why they would want to leave their current job. Believe it or not money is the worst reason for someone to want to leave because if you offer them a job they will most likely get a counter-offer from their current employer or another offer from another firm.

vii. After you’ve completed this process it’s time to do your due diligence. Have the candidate complete a skills assessment test and a personality profile. This will help you determine if this is the right person for the job from a skills perspective and if they are a cultural fit to your company.

viii. If all the above steps check out then it is time to meet face to face. By this time 90% of the work is done and it simply comes down to likeability and compatibility.

If finding great talent seems like a lot of work it’s because it is a lot of work. Hiring talent involves a detailed plan, a focused and committed effort, and a tremendous amount of follow-through. Make this a priority in your organization and you will grow a company that’s on its way to great things.

So, what does all this have to do with Capturing Customers? Well, one of the greatest tools out there is Twitter to drive interest to yourself and your company and ultimately getting your followers to purchase your products or service via the internet, over the phone, or in-person. Charlie Sheen is using Twitter to drive his followers to his website, shows, and to purchase the various products that he and his team have recently created.

Now Charlie Sheen has a huge advantage over the average person in attracting followers. So, how can you attract followers to your Twitter page and ultimately to your website. First, you must Tweet with a purpose. There has to be a reason that someone wants to hear what you have to say. Your purpose does not necessarily mean what you do for a living or what your business is. It needs to be more of what people really associate you with. If you don’t know what that is then ask people close to you what they most associate you with. For example, they might think you are really funny. So, tweet funny comments, articles, etc… to keep them interested and in turn they will create a dialogue with you. Another example would be someone that has incredibly helpful information that they can share that saves people lots of time and hassle having to research it themselves.

The goal is to get your Twitter followers engaged and ultimately have them start going to your website where they can purchase your product or service. Utilize Twitter as an additional marketing tool that allows you to connect and build credibility with your customers.
One incredibly useful tool is TweetDeck. TweetDeck is an aggregating software product that allows you to send one message to multiple social networking sites including Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter, Myspace, etc… You can pre-organize your tweets to go out at specified dates and times which really simplifies your social media initiative.

Remember, all of these strategies have to ultimately lead to the sale of an outstanding service or product. If you attract customers to your business and you can’t deliver, what’s the point? Focus your attention on making your product or service the best it can be and then you can focus on customer retention and customer management because you have a large number of happy customers.

This is a great model for a business with low margins, restaurants with up-sell capabilities, gyms, and spas for example. It allows the business the opportunity to attract new customers AND make a profit at the same time. This is also a very good model for a new business looking to attract long term customers and get their name and brand out into the market-place. You literally could end up with hundreds (if not thousands) of sales over-night in addition to brand recognition in the hundreds of thousands. It is important that you calculate the long-term value of a customer as opposed to the short-term profit gain. In many cases you will break even or possibly LOSE money on a groupon deal. Look at this as more of a marketing cost than as a short term profit center.

There are also disadvantages to using Groupon. Remember, you will need to reduce the price of your product by 50% or more. Let’s use the example of a $30 meal discounted to $15. Then, split the $15 with Groupon leaving you with $7.50 to produce that meal. If you can’t up-sell chances are you will lose money or at best break-even. Also, you will be competing with your already existing customers and lose the profit margin on that. Additionally, you will be flooded with hundreds of calls from customers wanting to redeem their coupon. If you don’t handle this well and have the infrastructure in place to deliver it can really leave a bad taste in people’s mouths and hurt your business. I had an experience where we purchased house cleaning services from a company and when we called to redeem they told us they had over 5,000 orders and could not schedule anyone to come out for 4 months.

Currently Groupon has a waiting list of over 6 months for the average city. Approximately 40% of business’s who use Groupon say they will not use them again. 60% say they will use Groupon again and that it has helped their business tremendously. If you choose to use Groupon do your research first. Remember, everything is negotiable and don’t be afraid to negotiate the deal that works best for you. Look at this as more of a marketing spend than a profit center.

Your website is the face of your company. In today’s business environment a potential customer can tell a lot about you by the look and feel of your site. Is it up to date? Is it clean and professional? Do you have a clear and concise value proposition? A potential customer will do a lot of research on a product or service via websites PRIOR to ever picking up the phone and calling you. Your website is either driving a lot of business to your site or driving a lot of business away. Updating or creating a new site is not as expensive or laborious as you might think. If you are looking for resources to assist you on the cheap go to www.elance.com or www.rentacoder.com. Here you can put your project out to bid (similar to an Ebay model).
Bottom line. Update your site, find a good SEO provider, and drive customers to your business.

• Videos that are accurately indexed with Google utilizing a proper site map have about a 50 times better chance to appear on page 1 of Google than sites utilizing text and indexing – Nate Elliott, Forrester Research

• Napster’s in-house marketing team conducted an A/B test using testing technology they developed in-house. Innovate Media, an online video production company, created the video. The test reached a 98% confidence level. Visitors came from a combination of direct traffic, PPC traffic, and affiliate-driven traffic. All PPC ad offers matched the offer on the page. The splash page was the first page they saw.The only difference between the two versions was the addition of a 40-second “What You Get” video on Version A. Version A generated an 18.5% lift in paid subscriptions and free trial sign-ups.

• According to PGi Worldwide, on average, the numbers of page views per visit is 287% higher for video viewers. On average, time spent on site is 344% higher for video viewers. Browsers who view videos are 98% less likely to leave the site without viewing additional content.

Video Recommendations:
1. Define clear goals for a “visual” plan
2. Review distribution & usage as part of the plan development
3. Invest in a secure, reliable hosting solution like www.innovatemedia.com
4. Think about a visual strategy in terms of the entire organization; all departments; domestic and international usage
5. Review different production strategies as part of your planning process (i.e. internal management with outside production staff or internal production resources etc.)

As Managing Direct and co-founder of KoreOne Technologies, an award-winning technical recruiting firm, Quarles has an expert’s perspective on hiring trends in 2011. Here are a few of his insights:

Less is More

“The economy is improving and jobless rates are down, especially in the IT sector. However, the way employers are hiring is changing,” says Quarles. “The trend is to hire candidates who have strong skill sets and can hit the ground running. Companies are trying to do more with fewer resources.”

Consultants with Industry Depth and Knowledge

There is a stronger emphasis from our clients on industry depth and knowledge,” adds Quarles. “Filling seats is one thing, but they are looking for a consultative partner who will work closely with them to understand their corporation’s needs and help grow their teams with high quality talent.”

Social Media and mobile are driving demand

According to Quarles, “There is a definite need for highly skilled IT and Creative professionals who understand mobile technologies and can implement them effectively. Our society has gone mobile and companies are striving to keep up.” Social media (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the Ipad), etc…are here to stay and changing the way employees communicate with each other internally.

Generalists not Specialists

“Along with the need to do more with fewer resources, employers are looking for candidates who can contribute across a variety of business disciplines,” Quarles says “The generalist is often more sought-after than the specialist.”

Slow but Steady Growth

Quarles sees indications that things are improving. “Slow but steady growth is emerging. In the long run, this is better for the economy and helps build a stronger foundation for continued growth throughout the year and into 2012.”

About KoreOne (www.KoreOne.com)

KoreOne Technologies is a provider of Technical and Creative consulting and talent placement. We are in business to help you maintain your competitive advantage by cost-effectively delivering highly skilled technical and creative consultants when and how you need them most.

Backed by our world-class recruiting engine, our KoreOne Enterprise Solutions division is focused on helping business executives create world-class IT organizations. Our technical and creative consultative division enables organizations to choose a single, highly competent consulting partner that can provide thought leadership, best of breed solutions, and consistent delivery results. We are focused on delivering end-to-end solutions that help organizations achieve their key business objectives.

KoreOne offers Consulting, Contract, Contract-to-Hire, Direct Hire, Payroll Services, and Creative Staffing Services to companies of all sizes.

1) Attracting by thinking about what you want: Once again, focusing your attention on what you currently have, what is good/positive, what you are grateful or happy for. You are always attracting from your current focus place so if you are attracting a lack of revenue or customers you are focusing on a lack of revenue or customers

2) Attracting by thinking about what you do not want: If you are constantly thinking negatively (what you do now want) you will continue to attract from a place of lack. Thinking about what is not working, what is not good, what you do not have, etc… just keeps you in the same place. You need to change your focus of thoughts in order to change your experience

3) Attracting by default: If you are someone that is not clear about what you and simply take what comes you are attracting by default. You then end up with a unclear and unfocused life of random stuff. Once again, you need to think and get clear about what you want and then start thinking and feeling from that place

Nothing is more important than feeling good. The better you feel, the better you attract. By focusing your thoughts and attention on what you want, what you’re happy about and most importantly, what you appreciate and are grateful for you will begin and continue to attract great things into your life. If you are wanting more customers and revenue start by focusing on the customers that you do you have and feel appreciaton for the business that they are giving you.

Companies are hiring, but more often they’re bringing on temporary employees to meet their labor needs. Will a rise in temps lead to more permanent hiring?

With more than 15 million people in the U.S. out of work and the latest unemployment rate edging slightly higher, it’s hard to see how anyone could build a case proving today’s job market isn’t all doom and gloom.

Last week, The New York Times chronicled how companies are hiring again — but this time, they’re favoring no-strings, easily fireable temporary workers instead of benefits-earning permanent employees. The rise of temps, the Times suggested, was a bad a thing, putting workers in a tough spot that promised less job security. Since January, employers have added 307,000 temps, which is more than one quarter of the 1.17 million private sector jobs added in total. In November alone, temps made up about 80% of the 50,000 jobs added by private companies.

It’s true that most would prefer a permanent job rather than something temporary. But the rise of temps may portend more aggressive hiring trends ahead.

Tig Gillman, who runs Adecco Group’s North America operations, says the trend isn’t necessarily all bad news for the millions searching for work today. If anything, the surge in temp hiring over the past year signals that there’s demand for labor following a period of very deep job cuts and could lead to more permanent positions in the private sector.
“Temporary workers are the first to be let go and the first to come back,” Gillman says. Since 2007, the economy shed virtually all temporary jobs – approximately 900,000. And since the recession officially ended in June 2009, about 400,000 temp jobs have been added, meaning we’re almost halfway back to 2007 levels.

“We’re well into the temporary segment of the recovery and now we’re moving into permanent,” he says.

It’s not just executives in the temporary employment business who are so optimistic about the latest upswing in temp hiring. Economist David Autor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology says historical trends show that temp jobs boomed when the economy emerged from recession and then contracted as employers hired longer-term or permanent employees.

History of hiring

While it’s certainly welcome news that companies are hiring temps, Autor adds that the relationship between the increase in temp hires leading to a rise in permanent hires has weakened over the years. After the 1991 recession, temp jobs grew very rapidly for a decade even when the job market returned to health.

Autor says given that the latest recession is even deeper it’s uncertain how the trend might pan out this time around.

“It’s good news that someone is hiring,” he says. “It’s bad news if a large share of the new jobs created will remain temporary-help jobs, since these jobs do offer less security. But that depends on the strength of the recovery, not the temporary help sector per se.”

Certainly things are far from rosy; there are plenty of obstacles ahead. The latest U.S. jobs report showed that the economy in November added just 39,000 jobs – down from the gain of 172,000 jobs in October. And few believe this is the calm before the big job storm.

While private companies are actually adding jobs, local governments experiencing huge budgetary shortfalls are shedding employees. Just when it seemed like the unemployment rate was at least staying steady, it actually rose slightly in November to 9.8% from 9.6% in October. With governments cutting jobs, more hiring in the private sector hasn’t been enough to reduce unemployment or even to keep pace with people entering the work force.

What’s more, the number of jobs open at private companies have risen 44% since the month after the recession ended, according to the Labor Department. This is good news, but as Fortune’s Nina Easton highlighted earlier this month, there are as many as 3 million jobs going unfilled for various reasons, from mismatched skills to employers being choosier about who they hire.

So while Gillman might have good reason to be optimistic about the private sector hiring more permanent workers, other variables could very well discount the positive development. And Gillman is well aware.

“I believe we’re going to see a continued improvement in the attitudes of the private sector,” he says. “We’re going to see that move up over the next six months. The problem is that it’s not going to move enough that it’s going to reduce unemployment dramatically.”

US companies look to ramp up hiring as economic outlook improves http://tinyurl.com/3y364fn

http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/23/pf/workers_want_new_jobs/index.htm?hpt=T2