Call Us Today: 215.283.9799
What if you could select and retain “Front Line” / Hourly staff who would grow your employee and customer base? Now you can with Predictive Profiles and iSelect.
iSelect is an online (SaaS based) candidate application and screening system to help your franchise, multi unit operation better source, recruit and retain employees. This web‐based screening tool sources top candidates, tracks and manages candidate applications, provides hiring recommendations, and streamlines the process of hiring top candidates.
Predictive Profiles will also provide an ROI analysis using annual turnover ratios that shows how you are saving on you’re your hiring costs and Predictive Profiles will also provide annual validation reports to prove our performance.
I would be more than happy to answer any questions, discuss how easily iSelect can be deployed as well as provide case scenarios.
Jeff Schonberg
215.283.9799 x385
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Taking on a new role encourages people to look ahead – planning the next months and years of their lives. So with a new job offer in hand, it’s not surprising that some people put little time or effort into making sure they resign from their previous job on a good note. Here are our tips …
Prepare:
Think of resignation as you would a job interview. Put time and thought into it. Prepare what you are going to say, in what order, and to whom. You can do serious damage to working relationships if you tell the wrong people first (even in confidence) and somebody influential finds out second hand.
Be honest:
Don’t withhold the truth from your employers and colleagues. Tell them up front that you are leaving.
Be succinct:
Whether telling your boss in person or in writing, get straight to the point. Explain why you are leaving, but try to avoid expressing negative feelings.
Be flexible:
If you can, negotiate a finishing date that suits your employer as well as you. Cooperate fully in handing over the files, documents, projects and clients you are working with prior to leaving.
Be realistic:
If your resignation is coming “out of the blue,” expect a reaction from your employer. Allow time for the reaction to your news. If your manager becomes aggressive, confrontational or upset, don’t respond with similar behavior. Revert to your prepared comments.
Be diplomatic:
If you think it is important to express your negative experiences, do it face to face. Don’t do it in writing. Again, use your prepared comments rather than doing this off the cuff.
Be appreciative:
Thank your employers for past training and other opportunities. Thank your colleagues for what you have learned from them. Accentuate the positives – find something good to say.
Follow up in writing:
Always send a letter of resignation to confirm – in writing – when you are leaving the organization.
Don’t burn your bridges:
You might need to rely on your previous employer for references, advice or even a job! You also never know where people from your current place of work may end up in five or ten years’ time.
Look after number one:
Make sure you know what you are entitled to when you leave, such as unused vacation or sick time. Get someone senior in the company to give you a reference.
Keep in touch:
Be proactive about keeping in touch with the valuable contacts and friends you have developed in this role.
Dealing with a counter-offer:
If you receive a counter-offer, take time to consider it. Has anything really changed? Is this what you really want? Think about the reasons you decided to take the new position in the first place. Given that you have already resigned, will it be easy for you to continue working in the same company? If you are seriously considering accepting the counter-offer, think about the impact it may have on your relationship with your new employers – you may deal with them again in the future.
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The article below appeared in Foxnews.com today. Please note that MRI Ambler-Philadelphia can help you with tips and strategies regarding career decisions, choices, etc …
During tough economic times, it might be uncomfortable to ask your employer for a raise, but if it’s well deserved, you shouldn’t hesitate to ask.
Knowing how to approach your boss and successfully present your case is essential to scoring a pay raise you’re hoping for.
It’s all about the preparation, experts say.
“Take stock of what you’re providing and being able to create a vision to the leadership,” says Jim Camp, CEO and founder of Camp Negotiation Systems and author of two negotiation books.
Here are four expert tips for a raise:
1. Plan Ahead
Frances Cole Jones, president of Cole Media Management and author of How to Wow, recommends arranging a review with your boss 90 days prior to negotiating a raise.
“At no point in this review do you need to mention a raise,” Jones says. “It’s about you working toward being your best self. This shows your boss your willingness to be responsible for your career and gives you room for improvement.”
2. Evaluate your Productivity
Evaluate your contributions at work and ready a list to present to your boss, suggests career coach Dr. Adele Scheele.
You can’t expect the system to promote you and this list will show why you deserve a bigger paycheck.
“You have to ask yourself questions regarding history and future at the company,” Camp says. “Have you met the requirements of the positions and then gone above and beyond expectations? Can you continue to grow in this environment?”
3. Make YOUR Case
Set up an appointment with your boss to discuss your performance and future at the company; don’t just walk into his or her office.
Plan your presentation, anticipate questions and come up with thorough answers. You want to be prepared, yet conversational during the review.
“Look at the current salaries and revenue at the company,” Scheele suggests. “Outline your case for the leadership in your office and list your accomplishments, total revenue you brought in, deals you closed, etc. Ask for more than you are hoping for to make room for negotiations and create a list of additional duties in return for the raise. ”
Jones says employees’ needs to be armed with specifics on any claims and accomplishments listed during the meeting.
“Throughout, it is critical to keep the conversation factual, not feelings-based,” Jones says. “A comment comparing someone else’s pay raise or personal situation in comparison to yours undermines your professionalism.”
4. Remain Cool…Even When Things Get Heated
Jones said before you sit down with your boss, anticipate the worst three comments your boss might have.
“For example, ‘I’m glad you asked to speak about your performance– there are a number of issues we need to address’; or, ‘as you know, money has been tight the last year,’” Jones says.
In this situation, Jones suggests to answer with a “yes” and acknowledge you understand the situation. She recommends sitting up and forward in your chair to avoid looking “sulky or too-cool-for-school.”
If your boss makes suggestions for improvement in your performance, taking notes is a great way to physically demonstrate you are paying attention.
Meanwhile, the experts say to anticipate your boss’ rejections. Stay calm and ask for an explanation, remain understanding and suggest another meeting in the coming months.
“Understand the situation, but ask, ‘when can I expect it?’” Scheele says. “Don’t threaten to quit and learn from the experiences. Stepping up to the plate to ask is a great success skill.”
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How much is that open position costing you?
There are numerous costs associated with an unfilled position in any company. Many of these costs are difficult to quantify, but nonetheless are very real, and can be very costly.
Consider the following:
CALCULATING THE COST OF A VACANT “COV” POSITION:
A LIST OF THE POSSIBLE “COV” FACTORS
By Dr. John Sullivan
If an airline bought a new 747, and then let it sit for two months on the runway because they didn’t have a pilot, what would the cost be to the airline? In other words what is the cost of a vacant position?
Many firms calculate the cost of a hire, and some go so far as to calculate the cost of a bad hire (which have been estimated to be as much as three (3) times the persons annual salary), but few have taken the time to calculate the cost of a vacant position. These costs can be significant: anywhere from $7,000 dollars per day to $50,000 per day for an engineering position. Key leadership positions may cost as much as a million dollars per week. Couple these amounts with the fact that the length of many vacancies often exceeds 100 days, and you are talking about some serious financial impacts ($7,000 X 100 days = $700k).
ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT VACANCIES
:* Delaying product development and time to market in a fast changing industry means:
1. Lower margins, (as much as 10%)
2. A loss of first entry dominance
3. A loss of PR
4. Potential loss of market share (up to 30%)
* Great ideas and products come from people, not from equipment, buildings or capital. If you don’t have great people . . . you won’t have great products. And without great products you won’t have a great company.
* If the vacancies are a result of slow recruiting process, it is important to also realize that a failure to fill vacancies rapidly will probably also mean that all of the top candidates will be gone by the time you make a hiring decision. So you will likely re-fill your vacancies with lower quality hires (especially because the best are usually the first to quit)
* Vacancies in a single team can have an impact on many other teams (because of interdependencies), which can cascade throughout the entire company.
COST OF A VACANCY CHECKLIST:
THE BUSINESS IMPACTS OF A VACANCY
When you have a vacant position, one or more of the following things may happen. Guesstimate the dollar costs of each bullet point that fits your situation:
1. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY
* Time To Market (TTM) is dramatically impacted by the entire production chain. Because departmental schedules and plans are closely interwoven, any disruption in one department may adversely affect all others.
* In industries that are seasonal (i.e. toys) this disruption may be even more costly. Vacancies in key skill positions may mean that products and projects may need to be dropped altogether.
2. TEAM IMPACTS
* Team product development may be dramatically impacted by the disruption caused by the lost productivity, lost experience, leadership, idea generation and skills of the “vacated” person.
* If a team environment exists, a disruption in team cohesiveness may occur. This can result in a longer TTM (Time To Market) and a loss of focus that can also impact TTM.
* Vacancies may affect the idea generation of others because co-workers are frustrated or overworked.
* Vacancies may cause overworked employees (because they have to fill in) to tire, which may cause increased accidents.
* Vacancies may cause overworked employees to tire, which may adversely affect product quality through increased error rates.
* Excessive vacancies may lead to increase “whining,” grievances and even union activity.
* If the team leader is the “vacancy” then “time to productivity” is likely to be even more negatively impacted.
* A vacancy may make a manager reluctant to terminate poor performing employees. Vacancies coupled with poor performers can cripple the team.
3. INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYEE IMPACTS
* A vacancy means that a current employee must do the work of the vacant position. This can cause a cascade effect causing others to have to fill in for their position, resulting in many “rusty” people doing unfamiliar jobs and decreasing productivity.
* Vacancies may frustrate other employees, causing them to lower their productivity.
* Vacancies may frustrate other employees, causing them to quit at higher rate than they normally would.
* Vacancies may cause the team to miss its goals, thereby reducing the possibility of individual and team incentives, which may further reduce productivity.
* Increased stress on overworked current employees (caused by having to fill in) may cause increased absenteeism and tardiness.
* Vacancies may hold up vacation time for current employees which may lead to increased stress or frustration.
* Understaffed departments will not be able to send current employees to training and conferences, which may lead to increased stress, decreased worker knowledge or frustration.
* If temps or “fill-ins” must be hired, they usually have a higher error rate that the average employee and they are unlikely to generate many new ideas.
* Superstar employees often resent being asked to fill in when lesser employees positions are vacant, which may cause them to quit also.
4. INCREASED MANAGEMENT TIME AND EFFORT:
* Teams with vacancies require “high maintenance” and more management attention and worry.
* Managers often have to skip their normal management planning and responsibilities in order to fill in for the vacant employee.
* When managers fill in for “vacant” employees that time can’t be spent on the best employees.
* Vacancies in management and team leader positions have a multiplier effect on productivity and the recruitment of others.
* There are opportunity costs for things a manager and co-workers could have done if they didn’t have to carry the extra load of filling in for a vacancy.
* If the vacancies are caused by top management decisions (hiring or budget freezes) it can cause managers to lose hope. This can impact morale and it may lead to a high management turnover rate.
5. CUSTOMER IMPACTS:
* Excessive vacancies may send a message to customers and suppliers that we are getting weak or we don’t care about them. It may cause a period of confusion for suppliers and customers regarding whom they can contact and the stability of the relationship. Errors caused by “vacant” employees may lose sales volume and occasionally customers.
* Any “fill in” as a sales/account rep may provide them an opportunity or excuse to look for other suppliers.
6. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE:
* Excessive vacancies may cause management to panic and to “quickly” hire some poor performers.
Once the team is saddled with a large number of poor performers, you may never be able to hire any new top performers.
* Vacancies at the CEO, CFO, CTO, and other top manager positions can adversely impact our financing and the willingness of others to partner/merge with us.
* Vacancies in key positions may send a message to analysts and the stock market that you are getting weak.
* Vacancies may send a message to competitors that you are vulnerable, which can lead to increased competitive pressures.
* A large number of vacancies means we are losing employees, which means weakening our culture.
New employees with new values may change or dilute our values and “corrupt” current employees.
7. IMAGE AND RECRUITING:
* Excessive vacancies sends a message to your competitors you are getting weak. This might encourage them and improve their own confidence so that they become bolder in the product and employee poaching market.
* Vacancies may impact new recruiting because vacancies send a message to future recruits that we are not easily able to recruit replacements.
* Large numbers of vacancies may also send a message to our current employees we are headed down hill.
* High vacancy rates may over-stress our recruiters and recruitment process.
* Vacancies may send a message to outside recruiters that we are vulnerable, which can lead to increased “headhunter” activity.
8. OUT OF POCKET COSTS:
* Having to hire high-cost consultants as “fill in help” could mean higher costs. If hourly employees are involved it probably means additional overtime costs.
* Vacancies can mean the underutilization of plant and equipment.
OTHER MISCELLANEOUS CONCERNS (AND COSTS) THAT MAY ARISE:
* The new hire may be a lower quality (low performance) candidate.
* New hires are unlikely to be immediately productive, thus resulting in increased costs.
* Some “vacating employees” take others with them soon after they leave. A “break in the dike” of one leaving may cause the whole intact team to leave.
* Many new hires don’t work out and must be replaced within 6 months, essentially stretching the length of the vacancy.
* In a tight labor market vacancies in hard to hire jobs may not be replaceable, at any cost.
* In start-ups and small departments, where there is little cross training, the cost may be more dramatic. If you only have ten employees and you lose two, you have a 20% vacancy rate (big deal!).
* Spending the time to avoid vacancies may have a huge ROI especially if your former employees go to a competitor with “your” ideas, causing their revenues to increase as yours go down.
This is an authorized reprint from The Fordyce Letter, P. O. Box 31011, St. Louis
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THE COST OF AN UNFILLED OPENING
How much is that open position costing you?
There are numerous costs associated with an unfilled position in any company. Many of these costs are difficult
to quantify, but nonetheless are very real, and can be very costly.
Consider the following:
CALCULATING THE COST OF A VACANT “COV” POSITION:
A LIST OF THE POSSIBLE “COV” FACTORS
By Dr. John Sullivan
If an airline bought a new 747, and then let it sit for two months on the runway because they didn’t
have a pilot, what would the cost be to the airline? In other words what is the cost of a vacant position?
Many firms calculate the cost of a hire, and some go so far as to calculate the cost of a bad hire (which have
been estimated to be as much as three (3) times the persons annual salary), but few have taken the time to
calculate the cost of a vacant position. These costs can be significant: anywhere from $7,000 dollars per day to
$50,000 per day for an engineering position. Key leadership positions may cost as much as a million dollars per
week. Couple these amounts with the fact that the length of many vacancies often exceeds 100 days, and you
are talking about some serious financial impacts ($7,000 X 100 days = $700k).
ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT VACANCIES
* Delaying product development and time to market in a fast changing industry means:
1. Lower margins, (as much as 10%)
2. A loss of first entry dominance
3. A loss of PR
4. Potential loss of market share (up to 30%)
* Great ideas and products come from people, not from equipment, buildings or capital. If you don’t have great
people . . . you won’t have great products. And without great products you won’t have a great company.
* If the vacancies are a result of slow recruiting process, it is important to also realize that a failure to fill
vacancies rapidly will probably also mean that all of the top candidates will be gone by the time you make a
hiring decision. So you will likely re-fill your vacancies with lower quality hires (especially because the best
are usually the first to quit)
* Vacancies in a single team can have an impact on many other teams (because of interdependencies), which
can cascade throughout the entire company.
COST OF A VACANCY CHECKLIST:
THE BUSINESS IMPACTS OF A VACANCY
When you have a vacant position, one or more of the following things may happen. Guesstimate the dollar
costs of each bullet point that fits your situation:
1. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY
* Time To Market (TTM) is dramatically impacted by the entire production chain. Because departmental
schedules and plans are closely interwoven, any disruption in one department may adversely affect all others.
* In industries that are seasonal (i.e. toys) this disruption may be even more costly. Vacancies in key skill
positions may mean that products and projects may need to be dropped altogether.
2. TEAM IMPACTS
* Team product development may be dramatically impacted by the disruption caused by the lost productivity,
lost experience, leadership, idea generation and skills of the “vacated” person.
* If a team environment exists, a disruption in team cohesiveness may occur. This can result in a longer TTM
(Time To Market) and a loss of focus that can also impact TTM.
* Vacancies may affect the idea generation of others because co-workers are frustrated or overworked.
* Vacancies may cause overworked employees (because they have to fill in) to tire, which may cause increased
accidents.
* Vacancies may cause overworked employees to tire, which may adversely affect product quality through
increased error rates.
* Excessive vacancies may lead to increase “whining,” grievances and even union activity.
* If the team leader is the “vacancy” then “time to productivity” is likely to be even more negatively impacted.
* A vacancy may make a manager reluctant to terminate poor performing employees. Vacancies coupled with
poor performers can cripple the team.
3. INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYEE IMPACTS
* A vacancy means that a current employee must do the work of the vacant position. This can cause a cascade
effect causing others to have to fill in for their position, resulting in many “rusty” people doing unfamiliar jobs
and decreasing productivity.
* Vacancies may frustrate other employees, causing them to lower their productivity.
* Vacancies may frustrate other employees, causing them to quit at higher rate than they normally would.
* Vacancies may cause the team to miss its goals, thereby reducing the possibility of individual and team
incentives, which may further reduce productivity.
* Increased stress on overworked current employees (caused by having to fill in) may cause increased
absenteeism and tardiness.
* Vacancies may hold up vacation time for current employees which may lead to increased stress or frustration.
* Understaffed departments will not be able to send current employees to training and conferences, which may
lead to increased stress, decreased worker knowledge or frustration.
* If temps or “fill-ins” must be hired, they usually have a higher error rate that the average employee and they
are unlikely to generate many new ideas.
* Superstar employees often resent being asked to fill in when lesser employees positions are vacant, which
may cause them to quit also.
4. INCREASED MANAGEMENT TIME AND EFFORT
* Teams with vacancies require “high maintenance” and more management attention and worry.
* Managers often have to skip their normal management planning and responsibilities in order to fill in for the
vacant employee.
* When managers fill in for “vacant” employees that time can’t be spent on the best employees.
* Vacancies in management and team leader positions have a multiplier effect on productivity and the
recruitment of others.
* There are opportunity costs for things a manager and co-workers could have done if they didn’t have to carry
the extra load of filling in for a vacancy.
* If the vacancies are caused by top management decisions (hiring or budget freezes) it can cause managers to
lose hope. This can impact morale and it may lead to a high management turnover rate.
5. CUSTOMER IMPACTS
* Excessive vacancies may send a message to customers and suppliers that we are getting weak or we don’t care
about them. It may cause a period of confusion for suppliers and customers regarding whom they can contact
and the stability of the relationship. Errors caused by “vacant” employees may lose sales volume and
occasionally customers.
* Any “fill in” as a sales/account rep may provide them an opportunity or excuse to look for other suppliers.
6. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
* Excessive vacancies may cause management to panic and to “quickly” hire some poor performers. Once the
team is saddled with a large number of poor performers, you may never be able to hire any new top
performers.
* Vacancies at the CEO, CFO, CTO, and other top manager positions can adversely impact our financing and
the willingness of others to partner/merge with us.
* Vacancies in key positions may send a message to analysts and the stock market that you are getting weak.
* Vacancies may send a message to competitors that you are vulnerable, which can lead to increased
competitive pressures.
* A large number of vacancies means we are losing employees, which means weakening our culture. New
employees with new values may change or dilute our values and “corrupt” current employees.
7. IMAGE AND RECRUITING
* Excessive vacancies sends a message to your competitors you are getting weak. This might encourage them
and improve their own confidence so that they become bolder in the product and employee poaching market.
* Vacancies may impact new recruiting because vacancies send a message to future recruits that we are not
easily able to recruit replacements.
* Large numbers of vacancies may also send a message to our current employees we are headed down hill.
* High vacancy rates may over-stress our recruiters and recruitment process.
* Vacancies may send a message to outside recruiters that we are vulnerable, which can lead to increased
“headhunter” activity.
8. OUT OF POCKET COSTS
* Having to hire high-cost consultants as “fill in help” could mean higher costs. If hourly employees are
involved it probably means additional overtime costs.
* Vacancies can mean the underutilization of plant and equipment.
OTHER MISCELLANEOUS CONCERNS (AND COSTS) THAT MAY ARISE
* The new hire may be a lower quality (low performance) candidate.
* New hires are unlikely to be immediately productive, thus resulting in increased costs.
* Some “vacating employees” take others with them soon after they leave. A “break in the dike” of one leaving
may cause the whole intact team to leave.
* Many new hires don’t work out and must be replaced within 6 months, essentially stretching the length of the
vacancy.
* In a tight labor market vacancies in hard to hire jobs may not be replaceable, at any cost.
* In start-ups and small departments, where there is little cross training, the cost may be more dramatic. If you
only have ten employees and you lose two, you have a 20% vacancy rate (big deal!).
* Spending the time to avoid vacancies may have a huge ROI especially if your former employees go to a
competitor with “your” ideas, causing their revenues to increase as yours go down.
DR. JOHN SULLIVAN (JohnS@sfsu.edu) is a well-known international speaker, author, and advisor to
Fortune 500 and Silicon Valley firms. He was called the “Michael Jordan of Hiring” by Fast Company
Magazine. Dr. Sullivan is also head of the Human Resources Management Program at San Francisco State
University. We thank Dr. Sullivan for allowing us to share it with our readers.
This is an authorized reprint from The Fordyce Letter, P. O. Box 31011, St. Louis
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Aside from Franchise Industry news I wanted to relay some very positive “overall” economic news from this past quarter.
~ March - payrolls were up for the 3rd time since the recession began in late 2007, that’s good news, the unemployment rate is at 9.7%. As we continue on the road to recovery, this will begin to come down.
~ March – housing starts and building permits were higher for the month;
~ February – period home sales rose sharply by 8.2%;
~ April – consumer confidence in April rebounded from a one year low on hopes that an improving economy will continue to create jobs.
THE MARKET AND LEADERSHIP
As of the beginning of March the market has begun trending upward. March 1st was a follow through day which was the kick-off of the current rally. It is a very broad based rally meaning there are a number of industries participating on the upside.
Interestingly enough, there are a few industries that are standing out, which are the ….
- Retail industry
- Technology industry
- Internet content
With signs that the economy is coming back these are the companies planning to increase spending because they feel better about the economy.
Some of the technology companies are Apple (the Ipad sure helps!), Intel, SanDisk, SalesForce.com, and Cognizant.
The retail industry is seeing signs of the consumer coming back. Stocks such as Decker’s, Guess, Chipotle, McDonalds, Cheese Cake Factory, and Dress Barn have risen as well.
Internet content firms that do the majority of their business online such as Baidu, Amazon, and Priceline have been leaders in their segment.
Even leisure industries that depend heavily on the consumer have been rising — stocks such as Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts.
Let’s hope that whatever “bumps” in the quarters ahead are minimal and the economy continues to get better!
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