Category: General Information

 

Hiring staff can be a tricky process. Sometimes you wish you had a crystal ball when interviewing candidates so you can look into the future to see how they will pan out as an employee for your company.

 

There are some things you can do now, during the interview process, to perhaps get a glimpse of that. For some industries, it can be tougher, especially when the need to hire is more urgent (think retail in preparation for the holiday shopping season). How can you ensure that you hire the best people for the work instead of “warm bodies” to fill positions?

 

I came across a wonderful article that made me think about this concept, and it offers some excellent suggestions for hiring in the restaurant industry:

 

1. Look beyond the application: you can have a candidate with excellent skill based qualifications, but are they really the right candidate to serve your guests? Richard Averitte, the guest blogger of this article, explains that when hiring servers, companies need to find those candidates that have a passion to serve others. While skills are helpful, the candidate with the right perspective can be easily trained on the task.

 

2. Use the interview process to really get to know a candidate in small ways: this is perhaps my favorite part of the article. The author cites several examples of how he gauges a candidate’s personality and “passion to serve” during the interview:

 

1. Drop the pen – Sometime during the interview, I always dropped my pen and waited for the candidate’s reaction. If the candidate picked it up (or at least went for it) immediately, I knew this would be a good hire. If the candidate did not even try to pick up, that told me they did not have a server’s mentality.

2. Yes sir/no sir – If they’re not going to say it to me during the interview, they’re probably not going to say it to the guest. You need to hear “yes sir/no sir” (or ma’am) in an interview. Sounds old-fashioned, but it’s actually timeless when providing service.

3. “Thanks” vs “Thank you” – This may be a personal pet peeve, but I am big believer there is a difference between “Thanks” and “Thank you”. The former sounds can be perceived as insincere and snarky, while the latter is rarely perceived as nothing but upmost gratitude. I want to hear my candidate say “Thank you” when the interview is over, not “Thanks”. I want to hear it because I’m sure my guests will want to hear it too.

4. The door – After the interview, I always walked the candidate to the door. I tried to do it when some guests were near the door. I would open the door for the candidate and observe their actions. Would the candidate allow the guests to pass first? Or perhaps take the door from me and hold it for the guests? If the answer to either question is “no”, I would not hire the candidate. The guests is the most important person in the building and they always come before staff. This snapshot told me all I needed to know.

 

Looking for personality traits in other ways, Southwest Airlines wants employees who have a “fun” personality. If you’ve ever been on a Southwest flight, it’s likely you’ve giggled at least once over a flight attendant’s or pilot’s comments.

 

 

One of the benefits for the airlines is that the FAA requires that their staff undergo training, so they do not necessarily need to hire employees with prior experience. They are another company who looks for attitude and personality during the hiring process, believing that people can be trained to do many tasks, but cannot be trained on attitude – that is something that is inherent to each individual, so they need to find the right people for the work to match their corporate culture and attitude.

 

What does Southwest incorporate into their hiring process?

 

1. Group interviews: this is a great way to not only screen many potential candidates at once, but it also gives the company an opportunity to watch the candidates to see how they interact and engage with others. In a group setting such as this one, people can be a bit less guarded and their true personalities start to come through. This helps Southwest identify candidates they want to get to know better.

 

2. Incorporate “fun” tasks to see how it is approached: by giving the candidates tasks to do, such as fill in the blank for a sentence read to the group or read a passage with humor, they can again get another glimpse into candidates’ personalities and overall attitude. Did they embrace the task, or go into it sullenly, as if it was the last thing they wanted to do? Did the candidate have fun with the task, or simply do what was required? These, much like the tips the restaurant author used above, are simple yet effective strategies to learn more about people.

 

The job market is tough, and there are many applicants for one position. This makes the hiring process more difficult. Starting with a resume and application is good, but it’s pertinent to remember that just because someone looks great on paper doesn’t mean they are the most qualified for the job. Using techniques such as the ones described below may give better insight into your candidates and help you be more successful in the hiring process.

 

 

 

 

Social media engagement is important for business, but it’s been difficult at best to show ROI on social media marketing and engagement. However, one company attempted to show how this is possible, releasing a study focused on Facebook and a grocery chain.

 

The study, conducted by Collective Bias and YetiData, looked at purchasing behaviors of customers of a large grocery chain, specifically at their purchasing habits before and after engaging with the grocery chain on Facebook. The whitepaper is available via download on the company’s site.

 

Taking a look at the behaviors of 600,000 loyalty card members for the chain, the companies set out to determine if social media connections correlated to purchasing behavior in this subset of customers.

 

The findings? It looks like there is some ROI to be found in social engagement. The company looked at Facebook fans who were loyalty card members, as well as customer activity on the grocery chain’s social site and compared their purchasing habits to those who were not engaged with the chain on Facebook. The company also clarified that the social site was not solely focused on deals and discounts, so encouraging purchases in that manner was not a consideration.

 

• Facebook fans who posted 10 or more times on the grocer’s Facebook page spent over $1000 more annually than a typical customer, 95 percent more than a typical customer;
• Facebook fans who posted 10 or more times on the grocer’s Facebook page visited the store 40 more times annually than a typical customer, 2.5 times the visits of a typical customer;
• Facebook fans bought 125 more items than a typical customer, 35 percent more than the typical customer;
• Facebook fans visited the store 30 percent more than a typical customer per year.

 

Those are some pretty significant statistics, and there are some key takeaways from the study outside of the ROI implications:

 

1. Loyalty card members are one step closer: if someone has a loyalty card, they are likely already repeat customers. As a company, you are one step closer to this subset and can continue to build the relationship. Engaging them on a deeper level, whether it’s on social media, text based message, or other methods will deepen their loyalty to your brand. It’s no longer enough to simply have a loyalty program in place. Tie this into your social sites and encourage engagement for deeper connections.

 

2. Connect the dots: make sure your loyalty programs tie into social. Everyone is a bit different when it comes to social media – some prefer Facebook, while others prefer Instagram or Twitter. Make sure your customers know where to find you in the social landscape so they can connect where they feel comfortable.

 

3. Give ’em something to talk about: many of the statistics from this study revealed a correlation between active engagement on the company’s social site and their increased purchasing habits. Ensuring that your social sites are open to two way communication can go a long way in encouraging brand loyalty. While the general findings do not indicate what kind of content was posted by Facebook fans, it is likely that it is varied content, including perhaps feedback, responses to questions/contests/news items, and other relevant topics.

 

This is one of the first studies I’ve seen that can directly tie ROI to social media engagement. It would be interesting to see other studies done in similar industries to gauge similarity in findings. At any rate, this does illustrate the benefit of social engagement, with the reminder that just having a loyalty program isn’t enough anymore – continued active engagement, whether it’s social or within the loyalty program itself, is key in repeat and satisfied customers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are many ways social media and technology in general have affected us – it looks like our collective attention span is the latest victim.

 

I came across an article from a social media summit out of Dubai that indicates that users spend 8 seconds on a piece of content. 8 seconds! Out of curiosity, I did some searching of my own to support that statistic, and found this interesting chart from Statistic Brain:

 

 

Goldfish have an attention span of 9 seconds; this study reveals that our attention span is 8 seconds, down 4 seconds in the last 13 years. While there are some other fun statistics (the fact that 7% forget their birthdays from time to time), there are some interesting implications for business:

 

1. You have 8 seconds to grab a potential customers’s attention: Count to 8 and you’ll realize that’s not a lot of time at all. Short and sweet is the way to devise a home page. Customers should immediately know what you’re about, where to click to find what they’re looking for, and be given a reason to stay on your site. Images can be powerful, as can video. Consider the above image – it states that 17% of page views last less than 4 seconds, yet the average length of time a video is watched is about two and a half minutes. We know images are powerful, but maybe it’s time to consider video as a way to capture a customer’s attention and keep them on your site longer. It’s not possible for all websites of course, but it may be something to consider as customers’ attention spans shrink.

 

2. Images are powerful, and too many words are distracting: this is my one downfall – I love words. I know I can be too “wordy” and this is something I need to be mindful of. The statistics above show that when a webpage has around 111 words, almost half of the content is read. Conversely, on a more wordy page (approximately 593 words), only 28% of the content is read. This is likely due to the fact that a user will see a lot of words and not even want to begin to spend the time to read. Keep it short and to the point.

 

3. When you get them to stay, keep them engaged: Make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for, and ways to complete the task they set out to do. In as few words and clicks possible, make them see why they should buy from you and how to make the purchase.

 

With decreasing attention spans and increased competition, companies need to take a look at their websites and see where changes can be made. Accommodating a customer’s short attention span will gain traction to your site, give customers an efficient experience, and increase customer satisfaction.