Posted by Sandy Reynolds on Fri, Jan 27, 2012 @ 08:58 AM
Job applicants say and do the darndest things during interviews.
Come to think of it, so do companies.
The employment interview is a unique social kabuki dance that allows employers and prospective employees to learn about one another. It is also a serious business where funny things happen as applicants attempt to distinguish themselves and companies use baffling questions to find the most creative and intelligent people available.
The online job board CareerBuilder.com surveyed hiring managers about their funniest experiences. The responses included:
- The candidate who was fired from several jobs but included each one of them as a job reference.
- The applicant who included her dog as a reference.
- The candidate who had things a bit backward when he promised the more he was paid, the harder he would work.
- The applicant whose email address on the résumé had "shakinmybootie" in it.
- The applicant who insisted his time is valuable, so the company should pay him for his time spent interviewing with them.
- The applicant who said he was arrested for assaulting his previous boss.
- The candidate who only used his first name.
- The resilient job applicant who bragged she survived a bite from a deadly aquatic animal.
- The candidate who shipped a lemon with the résumé, to illustrate that "I am not a lemon." Chances are the hiring employer quickly soured on this applicant.
But employers are not above adding their own brand of fun to the job interview. William Poundstone’s recent book Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? documents the efforts of a growing number of companies to emulate the practice at Google of challenging applicants with brain teasers, logic puzzles and mind-bending riddles.
Here are some of the toughest and most off-beat questions, as compiled by Glassdoor.com:
- “How many people are using Facebook in San Francisco at 2:30 p.m. on a Friday?” – asked by Google Inc.
- “If Germans were the tallest people in the world, how would you prove it?” – asked by Hewlett-Packard Co.
- “How would you cure world hunger?” – asked by Amazon.com Inc.
- “How many different ways can you get water from a lake at the foot of a mountain, up to the top of the mountain?” – asked by Walt Disney Co.
Other companies ask applicants how many ping-pong balls would fit in the Mediterrean Sea? Can you swim faster in water or syrup? When there’s a wind blowing, does a round-trip by plane take more time, less time, or the same time?
Technology companies such as IBM were the first to use logic puzzles in job interviews, but the trend has recently spread to companies in non-technical sectors of the economy.
The best thing that a job candidate or an employer can do when confronted with an unusual approach to the interview is not to rush or get flustered. Take your time, take a breath and concentrate on your objective or the answer.
What funny or unusual stories do you have from job interviews? We invite you to share them in the response area below.
Posted by Rick Lord on Tue, Jan 24, 2012 @ 01:34 PM
The principal new initiative in Governor Deval Patrick’s State of the Commonwealth address yesterday was a call to reorganize and reorient the community college system with a centralized administrative structure and an emphasis on workforce development. AIM applauds the governor for this focus on institutions that must play a central part in meeting the employment challenge before us today.
There are 240,000 unemployed people in Massachusetts, of whom 100,000 have been out of work for a year or more. This situation is disastrous for households and individuals, who face immediate crisis and perhaps permanently narrowed opportunities.
It is also a serious threat to our state’s most important economic asset – its highly skilled workforce. Many who once possessed world-class skills are seeing those skills erode through disuse or (more likely) because employers have retooled and improved processes since they last worked.
Young people are unable to get that first good job that introduces them to the modern workplace and builds the practical skills for a long career. Employers, AIM surveys show, are hiring slowly and carefully, bringing on only those who can be productive from day one.
To be blunt: Everyone without a job in Massachusetts today is likely to need more education, more training, directly relevant to employment opportunities, before they find one.
As a statewide organization, AIM has long been frustrated by the unevenness of the community college system. Each of the 15 colleges (some with multiple campuses) has strengths, but we cannot tell our members that they can turn to their own local community college for any particular program or service. Though we value responsiveness to local needs and conditions, we are confident that the colleges can continue to respond locally within a more uniform system that will enhance their effectiveness as the first recourse for those seeking to improve their career prospects, and for employers seeking well-prepared employees.
The governor plans to move his initiative through the Fiscal Year 2013 state budget process. This is appropriate – whatever administrative structure is in place, whatever mission statement is in print, it is the flow of dollars and the incentives attached to them that will drive change in the system. The Legislature, which created local control a generation ago, and which has tended to favor institutional line-item budgeting, must recognize the need for a new approach.
Posted by Karen Choi on Tue, Jan 24, 2012 @ 08:12 AM
Massachusetts companies often delegate human resources to the office manager, finance department or receptionist. Some employers are just too small to hire a full-time HR manager. Others simply view HR as overhead.
But in an age of complex regulation and unrelenting competition, running your business without an experienced HR manager is the equivalent of playing corporate Russian roulette. The companies that hire AIM professionals to serve as their HR managers tell us frequently that the world now moves too fast for them to run their businesses and simultaneously monitor changing employment laws and implement best management practices.
How do you know if you need an HR manager?
Associated Industries of Massachusetts has issued a new white paper Are Your on an HR Hot Seat? that will help you take stock of where you sit. The white paper poses five common but challenging HR questions that your company will encounter during 2012.
If you can answer all of the questions without hesitation, congratulations. You know the basics. Get ready for the hard stuff.
If these questions leave you scratching your head, it may be time to rethink your HR strategy. Remember that any missteps may have significant financial and legal implications for your company.
Here are the questions. We invite you to download the white paperto check the answers.
1. Which of the following statements describes requirements for an employment application in Massachusetts?
a. All inquiries regarding an applicant’s criminal history should be removed from the employment application.
b. Companies are prohibited from inquiring about a person’s health (past/present) on an employment application. This includes questions concerning past absences, disabilities, workers compensation claims and non-work related illnesses or injuries.
c. Massachusetts requires that all employment applications include specific language prohibiting the use of lie detector tests before or during employment.
d. Due to Massachusetts Data Security Regulations, companies are required to remove social security number questions from an employment application.
e. Job applications in Massachusetts must include a specific statement summarizing employer obligations pertaining to the acquisition and use of genetic information of applicants, employees, and family members.
f. Employment applications must include language in the employment history section that invites applicants to list any verifiable volunteer work.
2. Is a company allowed to employ “independent contractors” to perform work…
a. that is seasonal in nature?
b. to supplement existing staffing levels?
c. in cases when a person prefers to be classified as an independent contractor rather than an employee?
d. is temporary in nature?
3. True or false: An employee may be classified as Exempt as long as he or she is paid on a salary basis?
4. May an employer refuse to pay overtime to a non-exempt employee who works unauthorized overtime?
5. Are employers required to keep completed I-9 forms in the employee personnel file?
AIM’s On-Site HR service allows Massachusetts companies to bring in an experienced human resource professional on a temporary, part-time or full-time basis. AIM HR practitioners are currently on the job in more than a dozen businesses, providing reliable services for companies too small to have a their own HR function; helping other companies bridge an employee leave or HR vacancy; or working with still others to set up an HR department.
Contact me at KChoi@aimnet.org for more information.
Posted by John Regan on Fri, Jan 20, 2012 @ 07:38 AM
Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) last week released Common Wealth 2012, its statement of the principles and beliefs that will guide Bay State employers on public policy issues during the New Year.
AIM engages in policy work on behalf of some employers who provide jobs to 650,000 Massachusetts residents. We do so guided by the belief that only a vibrant, private-sector economy creates opportunity that binds the social, governmental, and economic foundations of our commonwealth.
Given that objective, what are AIM’s specific public policy priorities on behalf of Massachusetts employers for 2012?
- Reduce the cost of health insurance by supporting adoption of alternative methods to pay medical providers and by encouraging employer and consumer engagement.
- Address high electricity costs in Massachusetts and any burdensome state regulations that drive those costs.
- Secure a one-year or multi-year freeze in Unemployment Insurance rates and implement long-term structural changes in the UI system
- Oppose anti-growth proposals such as paid family leave and mandated sick leave.
- Support efforts to ensure that Massachusetts maintains globally competitive schools and workforce development programs.
- Repeal the restrictive Massachusetts definition of Independent Contractor and adopt the federal definition.
- Amend the mandatory treble damages law to apply only to willful violations of the Massachusetts Wage & Hour statute.
- Retain existing legal protections for intellectual property, especially the use of non-compete agreements.
- Continue predictable, responsible and long-term state fiscal policy.
AIM looks forward to working with the Patrick Administration and the Legislature during 2012 to create an environment to encourage the ingenuity and entrepreneurial energy that has historically driven the Massachusetts economy. AIM stands for jobs, economic opportunity, fiscal predictability, business formation, innovation, education, and a government that acknowledges that the private sector has the unique ability and responsibility to create the Common Wealth for the people of Massachusetts.
Posted by Jack Derby on Thu, Jan 19, 2012 @ 02:44 PM
Editor’s note – One in an occasional series of articles on sales and sales management in a difficult economy. Jack Derby is CEO of Derby Management in Boston and lead presenter at the April 1-3 AIM Sales Management Boot Camp.
Nothing’s easy.
Sometimes, I will hear in a sales meeting..."but it's simple", or, "it's just basic." My attitude when I hear this type of thing is "Well, if it were so simple, then why are we talking about it?" My frustration with "It's simple" goes right along with the comment from one's boss that often begins with..."It will only take a minute.", which absolutely never...takes a minute.
Selling isn’t easy, marketing is increasingly complex, and, in reality, there’s nothing in the world of B2B sales, that comes as a result of picking “low hanging fruit”- a phrase only spoken by people who’ve never sold much.
With most of us locked into kickoff-the-year sales meetings this week or next, we’re going to be drinking from multiple fire hoses of new content, stretched objectives, updated tactics, and, just perhaps, become overwhelmed with way too much to do. By the way, after giving up a couple of days to meetings, we also need to do our day jobs and make January’s numbers.
So, a couple of quick ideas…
1. The Rule of Three - Attend anything - a seminar, sales meeting, or boot camp - and you should try to walk away with no more than three things that you’re going to put to work almost immediately. In executing our day jobs, it’s almost impossible to remember more than three new things in the day-to-day, and even if you could remember more than three, you don’t have enough time or resources to focus on more than one or two of those during the entire year.
Remember, making progress in your sales career and executing on your quarterly plans is not the result of an exam scoring what you learned and didn’t learn in a sales meeting; it’s measurement of how you practiced a small number of tactics that gave you the ability to put points on the board and win the game.
2. Create Two Buckets - There will be tens and tens of new ideas and tactics floated in these sales meetings in the next few weeks. I'd recommend that you put each of these into one or the other bucket.
First, ask yourself, “Can I put this to work in the next 30 days such that it will have impact on my numbers this quarter?” Quick tactics, somewhat easy to implement and immediately impactful measured with such specifics as leads received, leads qualified, and the numbers of Discovery meetings achieved. That’s for the short term, and there are not going to be many of those.
Everything else will take a lot of time. Sales strategies and tactics, in order to truly move the needle, take intricate planning, rehearsed and highly practiced training sessions and weeks and weeks of review, refinement and implementation. So, as you listen to countless presentations over the next few weeks, and as you probably nod off a couple of times as a result of Death by PowerPoint, force yourself to focus continuously only on what you can put to use that will impact your own personal sales plans and numbers over the next two quarters.
Think of these meetings as a result of one giant experiment where idea after idea is going to be presented. Your job is to not to run the most experiments. Your job is to find the formula that works for you.
Part of that answer will come as a result of attending the AIM/Derby Sales Management Effectiveness Boot Camp April 1-3 in Boston. We know from our experience of five years of Boot Camps that a retuning, a look at new ideas and the opportunity to talk to other management professionals, is just the thing to accelerate the productivity of your sales team for 2012.
Guest speakers for this session will include executives from Brainshark, HubSpot, Time Trade and Salesforce.
The Early Bird Discount, which ends this Friday, is $200 off our low price/high value program if you sign before the end of the day on Friday. Plus you can get an additional $100 off each for you and any other managers that accompany you from your company. Finally, all attendees receive a free half day Whiteboarding Session scheduled at their convenience anytime during the following six months.
Just email me at jack@derbymanagement.com, and I'll set up a 10 minute call to answer your questions and walk you through the details of how to register. Good Selling!
Posted by Brad MacDougall on Wed, Jan 18, 2012 @ 05:01 PM
The Massachusetts Legislature overwhelmingly approved a supplemental budget last week that would freeze Unemployment Insurance tax rates for 2012 and head off an automatic 31 percent tax increase for employers.
The $130.7 million measure also eliminates a sunset provision that would have ended the popular Workforce Training Fund Program on December 31 and require state officials to post online the full cost-benefit analysis of new regulations.
The Senate passed its version of the bill 35-0 on Friday, while the House of Representatives passed its own bill by a 154-to-1 margin on Wednesday. Because of minor differences between the House and Senate bills, AIM will continue to work with both chambers to ensure that the final legislation that is sent to the Governor includes all the measures that employers support.
“Employers commend the Legislature for acting quickly to freeze Unemployment Insurance rates at the current Schedule E, a move that will avoid an automatic jump in UI costs from $715 per employee to $935 per employee,” said John Regan, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs at Associated Industries of Massachusetts.
“We urge Governor Patrick to sign it. We also hope that 2012 will be the year that policymakers make meaningful structural reform to the UI system.”
AIM maintains that the Unemployment Insurance increase is unnecessary since the fund used to pay jobless benefits in Massachusetts posted a balance of nearly $100 million at the beginning of the year. AIM projects that the surplus will grow to between $300 million and $400 million even if rates are frozen.
The UI rate increase was effective at the beginning of the year, but the Legislature still has time to approve a freeze because employers don’t have to start paying the tax until the end of the first quarter.
Three key state senators wrote a letter to Senate President Therese Murray January 5 urging the branch to freeze the rates at their current level. The letter - signed by Sen. Barry Finegold (D-Andover), Sen. Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport) and Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) - argued that freezing unemployment insurance rates would ensure economic stability for small business owners and create a climate for job growth as businesses recover from the recession.
AIM is also pleased that Legislators are looking to lift the sunset provision on the commonwealth’s flagship program for improving the skills of Massachusetts residents. The Workforce Training Fund Program has provided $193.2 million in grants since its inception to some 2,500 Massachusetts employers to train 277,351 workers.
Click on these links to review the House (H.3878) or the Senate (S.2108) versions of the FY12 Supplemental Budget.
Posted by Rick Lord on Tue, Jan 17, 2012 @ 08:23 AM
Three years after the onset of the great recession, is Massachusetts an economic success story or merely an economic story successfully told?
The question lies at the heart of Common Wealth 2012, the annual statement by Associated Industries of Massachusetts of the principles and beliefs that will guide Bay State employers on public policy issues during the New Year. AIM released the report this morning.
The innovation- and technology-driven Massachusetts economy has in many ways become the envy of the country. The Bay State navigated a four-year fiscal crisis without raising income taxes and its 7 percent unemployment rate remains well below the rest of the nation.
Economic output in Massachusetts grew almost twice as fast as the national economy during 2011. Workers here earn an average of 24 percent more than their colleagues elsewhere and enjoy third highest per capita personal income. Manufacturing productivity is among the highest in the world.
But lurking behind these unprecedented accomplishments is a sobering fact – the Massachusetts economy has not created a net new job since 1999.
Amid constant rhetoric from both Democratic and Republican administrations about the importance of job creation, there were 3,247,200 jobs in Massachusetts in July of 1999, and 3,245,400 in November 2011. The commonwealth’s employment base remains 140,000 jobs below its 2001 peak and analysts estimate that another 200,000 Massachusetts residents currently work in part-time positions because they cannot find full-time employment.
The overall numbers include profound shifts in the types of jobs driving the economy. Employment in manufacturing declined from 16.1 percent to 8.0 percent of the total job base in the past two decades, while education and health services grew from 15.9 percent to 20.9 percent and professional and business services grew from 11.5 percent to 14.8 percent.
So how are we really doing in Massachusetts? Is the commonwealth leading the nation by using its considerable university, research and advanced manufacturing assets to remake its economy for the new century? Or has it failed the ultimate measure of the success for an economy or political enterprise - to create employment opportunities for citizens?
Both statements are true. While the commonwealth must continue to nurture the infrastructure of innovative people who keep Massachusetts at the forefront of economic engines such as biosciences, pharmaceuticals, financial services and manufacturing, it must simultaneously ensure that the rest of the economy from which most residents make a living does not fall off the tracks behind those engines.
The alternative is an illusory economic prosperity that looks good on the surface but really worsens income disparities as fewer people fill fewer jobs with higher incomes and educational requirements that most people can’t meet.
We have stated previously that the creation of a job and a person’s ability to do it weaves together every important aspect of social and economic stability – the desire for a better life, the ability to support a family, the confidence to start a business, and the need to support efficient government management of services such as education, health care, and public safety. The current economy has strained the delicate balance of person, employer and job, not only for the 240,000 unemployed residents of Massachusetts and 13 million jobless nationwide, but also for the millions of others who fear losing jobs enough to drive home sales to a 20-year low.
It is the challenge of simultaneously developing new and established sectors of the economy that motivates the public policy work that Associated Industries of Massachusetts conducts on behalf of Bay State employers. The work takes on a particular importance at the dawn of 2012 as the prospect of federal budget reductions and continued economic problems in Europe and elsewhere threaten the growth of key Massachusetts industries such as defense, health care and education.
AIM looks forward to working with state and federal policymakers during 2012 to create an environment to encourage the ingenuity and entrepreneurial energy that has historically driven the Massachusetts economy. AIM stands for jobs, economic opportunity, fiscal predictability, business formation, innovation, education, and a government that acknowledges that the private sector has the unique ability and responsibility to create the Common Wealth for the people of Massachusetts
Posted by Christopher Geehern on Fri, Jan 13, 2012 @ 12:04 PM
The Great Recession and subsequent sluggish recovery have widened the gap between economic “haves” and “have-nots” from the local to the global level, a panel of economists said this morning.
Raymond Torto, Carol McMullen and Alan Clayton-Matthews told more than 200 business leaders at the AIM Executive Forum in Waltham that overall economic stability in the U.S. and abroad masks wide variations in the outlook of cities, states, towns, nations and individuals.
“If the head is in the oven and the feet are in the refrigerator, then on average, you are warm,” said McMullen, a veteran private investor and corporate board member.
She said that while the national economy has been growing at a steady two-and-a-half percent annually, some absolute levels of economic activity remain near recessionary levels. And the economic bifurcation is global, she said, warning that Europe stands at the verge of another recession as leaders on the continent dither over its debt problems.
“It could get really ugly,” she said.
Clayton-Matthews, a professor of economics at Northeastern University, continued the feast-or-famine theme by saying that Massachusetts is performing better economically than the nation as a whole, but still finds pockets of strength and weakness within its own borders. He noted that while metropolitan Boston lost 4.3 percent of its job base during the recession, the decline in Springfield reached 5.4 percent. The jobless rate in cities such as Springfield, Fall River and Lawrence remains almost twice the statewide average.
“It has been an extremely unequal recession,” he said.
“For communities that have been tied in with the technology sector and that have an educated work force, they have not had a recession at all. They are doing fine.”
Torto, Global Chief Economist at CB Richard Ellis Group, said that commercial real estate is likewise winnowing strong markets from weak ones and well-capitalized developers from smaller ones. He said the growth of biosciences and technology companies has remained concentrated in the traditional strongholds of Cambridge and Boston instead of spreading throughout the state.
“It’s where they want to be,” Torto said.
He maintained that the private sector nationally remains reluctant to invest its cash reserves to create jobs because business executives lack confidence in the ability of governments in Europe in the United States to resolve their debt and deficit issues.
All three members of the panel, moderated by WBZ radio business anchor Anthony Silva, agreed that Massachusetts faces a significant risk in Europe because 25 percent of Bay State exports go to the continent.
Posted by Christopher Geehern on Fri, Jan 13, 2012 @ 11:10 AM
Associated Industries of Massachusetts announced today that it has added one key member to its Government Affairs team and promoted another as the association prepares to represent employers on several complex issues during 2012.
The association named Kristen Lepore of Danvers, a former deputy chief of staff to Governor A. Paul Cellucci, as Vice President of Government Affairs. She will manage AIM’s broad efforts to control the cost of health care and health insurance for Massachusetts employers.
AIM also promoted Bradley MacDougall from Associate Vice President of Government Affairs to Vice President. MacDougall, who joined AIM in 2007, will assume responsibility for the association’s work on taxation issues. He 
currently manages the association’s work on HR-Labor law issues including policy areas impacting intellectual property and cyber-security.
The two will join John Regan, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs, and Robert Rio, Senior Vice President, in supporting AIM’s legislative agenda and managing issues of general interest to employers.
“We expect 2012 to be a critical year for Massachusetts employers as lawmakers debate issues such as health-care cost control, energy cost control, unemployment insurance reform and others. Kristen and Brad are respected and conscientious executives who strengthen the ability of AIM to advocate for economic growth and job creation,” said Richard C. Lord, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Lepore brings extensive public policy experience on both the state and federal level to her new position at AIM.
She served as a deputy chief of staff to Governor Cellucci from 1999-2001, managing the governor’s priorities in the areas of transportation, education, public safety, health care, housing and fiscal discipline. She also served as director of fiscal policy for the Executive Office of Administration and Finance, and as Assistant Executive Director of MassPort.
Lepore recently served as New England regional representative for the U.S. Department of Education. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Suffolk University and a master’s degree in public administration from Suffolk’s Sawyer School of Management.
Prior to joining AIM, MacDougall served as a congressional aide to Congressman Martin T. Meehan, where he worked with local, state and federal officials and community organizations on economic development initiatives. He previously served as Director of Programs, Advocacy and Development at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, the world’s largest education, clinical and research facility.
MacDougall graduated from Assumption College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Minor degrees in Philosophy and Psychology. He earned a Masters in Business Administration from Suffolk University’s Sawyer School of Management.
Posted by John Regan on Thu, Jan 12, 2012 @ 10:36 AM
The House Ways and Means Committee reported a supplemental budget bill today with a one-year Unemployment Insurance rate freeze that would head off an automatic 31 percent tax increase for employers in 2012.
The bill would also eliminate a sunset provision that is due to end the popular Workforce Training Fund Program on December 31.
The full House of Representatives is expected to vote on the $130.7 million supplemental budget proposal next week. It would then move to the state Senate for debate.
The UI rate increase was effective at the beginning of the year, but the Legislature still has time to approve a freeze because employers don’t have to start paying the tax until the end of the first quarter.
Freezing Unemployment Insurance rates at the current Schedule E would avoid an automatic jump in UI costs from $715 per employee to $935 per employee. AIM maintains that the increase is unnecessary since the fund used to pay jobless benefits in Massachusetts posted a balance of nearly $100 million at the beginning of the year. AIM projects that the surplus will grow to between $300 million and $400 million even if rates are frozen.
“The House of Representatives deserves tremendous credit for taking a step that will boost the economy without harming people who need unemployment benefits. At a time when states such as California, Michigan and Rhode Island are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to cover shortfalls in their unemployment systems, Massachusetts has the ability to reinvest the money it would have raised with a tax increase into the private sector for economic growth,” said Richard C. Lord, President and Chief Executive Officer of AIM.
Lord urged policymakers to move forward as well on long-term reform of the UI system.
The Massachusetts jobless fund emerged from the recession in better shape than those in other states because the commonwealth’s knowledge-based economy proved more resilient during the downturn than the nation as a whole. Unemployment in Massachusetts remains at 7 percent, well below the national average of 8.5 percent and one-third lower than the jobless rate in California.
Governor Deval Patrick and Beacon Hill lawmakers have frozen UI rates for three consecutive years. The 2011 freeze averted a $400 million tax increase and limited a $228 per employee increase to an average of $61 per employee.
Pressure to freeze rates in 2012 has built steadily during the past several weeks.
Three key state senators wrote a letter to Senate President Therese Murray January 5 urgingthe branch to freeze the rates at their current level. The letter - signed by Sen. Barry Finegold (D-Andover), Sen. Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport) and Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) - argued that freezing unemployment insurance rates would ensure economic stability for small business owners and create a climate for job growth as businesses recover from the recession.
"Our economy cannot endure a sharp increase in the Unemployment Insurance. Allowing rates to increase will stifle job growth in the commonwealth," Finegold, Rodrigues and Tarr wrote in the letter to Murray.
AIM urges the Senate to approve a rate freeze and Governor Patrick to sign it.