Category: Human Resource

Places To Research A Prospect Before A Sales Call

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

Every sales cycle has some very important steps. However, small they seem their importance gets highlighted only when business deals do not take off as planned or the response of the prospect is not forthcoming. Before making any sales call, it is imperative to do some research about the people and the organization that one is trying to reach.

One of the first things that most people need to understand when they are doing research and they are going to call on sectors and clients is really to understand who their target customer is. Targeting the RIGHT person is crucial. Secondly, it’s important to make sure of the fact that what we are trying to sell is in line with what one is looking to buy. Simply pushing a product will never serve a purpose. This scenario is the same as your pushing a customer to buy a baby product when she is actually looking for a cosmetic. Hence, understanding the need of the client is essential. Once this is clear and reaches a meeting level, we need to keep ourselves updated about the structure of the organization, the industry, the news and the details of the person we are interacting with. It is best to go to the meeting as prepared as we possibly can. With information readily available on our fingertips through computers, phones, tablets and even by cursory googling; it is best advised to keep ourselves equipped with all the right information before the meeting.

Experts opine that LinkedIn is by far the best platform for any prospect research. LinkedIn helps to check the following areas of the prospect’s profile.

Experience at the current job, former experiences, shared connections, groups and recent activities. While the current job lists out duties or projects that the prospect is involved with, former experiences show their career history. If there is a common connection with the prospect, it adds to our advantage and could act as a referral opportunity. Groups and group chats give a fair idea about what is being discussed about. Recent activities also help in looking into what the prospect has recently purchased, where and shared.

Twitter account goes a long way in finding out an individual’s interests and posts. At the same time, the company’s Twitter account helps in discovering what the company has been promoting to its customers and how. This helps us to understand how to present ourselves to the prospect.

It’s important to keep ourselves abreast about the prospect company’s recent press and media releases that give information about recent acquisitions, change in leaderships, product releases, financial statements, events and more. Checking out the company’s recent financial reports and problems are also a good step in this regard. In addition, the company’s blog or a prospect’s blog must be read and commented on during the call or meeting.

There might be instances where your interaction with a prospect is at first, but the prospect might have checked you out already. Hence it becomes necessary to search for the prospect in the marketing automation system for any interaction history. This could largely influence your approach in the buying –selling process. At the same time it is necessary to find out if another sales team member has approached the prospect in the recent past. And if so, what the outcome was. This helps to change or modify your approach to suit your needs.

In the todays’ competitive world, a competitor’s recent announcement may impact your offering. It may act to your advantage. At the same time, your prospect may feel your offering may be an unnecessary expense. The key factor in such a situation is shrewdness in assessing the situation and turning it to your advantage.

The relation between a sales person and a prospect is a delicate one. Often the first few questions asked determines whether the relation continues further. The sales person must evaluate the prospect at different levels. The organization or the company need, whether there is a specific need or a challenge that should be overcome and whether it’s feasible to implement a particular service or product. Time is the most precious asset for any sales person and it’s it is better not to waste it on ‘Closing’ every deal but clinching a handful of the best deals. Ultimately, it makes sense to conclude that every sales person dreams of achieving targets. But this process of achieving targets depends on his foresight, ability to judge a prospect’s need, convincing abilities, negotiation skills and lastly a positive attitude.

Employee Reward System

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

These days, several companies are being plagued by low level of employee engagement. With rapidly changing global markets, technological advances, and companies doing cost reductions, job security has become a major concern for the employees. The stress levels have increased, affecting their loyalty towards the company. As a result, HR professionals are being challenged with negative attitudes, low productivity, reduced employee retention rates and increased absenteeism from the workplace.

To deal with these challenges, every organisation requires a strategic employee reward system that can address compensation, recognition, benefits and appreciation. In most of the rewards systems existing in business world these days, one or more of these elements are missing, and even when these elements are addressed, they are not aligned with other corporate strategies and core values. Employees need to know, and must be informed if they are doing bad, good, or excellent. Recognising their value, offering benefits, and providing a good life/work balance are quite effective employee motivator.

Researches indicate that less than half of the organisations have reward programs. Research also indicates that the employers that do have formal employee reward system see tangible benefits such as improved employee engagement and productivity, and improved financial performance for their organisation. Business owners often think of compensation as the top reward, however the reward system needs to be based on compensating someone for the contributions being made that are important for the organisation. These could be thinking out of box, outstanding innovator, outstanding philanthropist, the risk taker, multitasker, most Resilient, or for enhancing customer relations. A recent survey by McKinsey indicated that the three most effective motivators than highest-rated financial incentives included praise from immediate managers, leadership attention and chance to lead task forces or projects.2Employee reward system should be based on the values, vision and goals of the organisation, and modifications must be done to make the entire process special and rejuvenating for the employees. A well-balanced reward system must recognize the performance and behaviour of the employees. As performance is directly linked with the final outcomes, it is easier to address. Appreciation and Recognition are the most underrated rewards, and are ignored by most businesses. These are high-return and low-cash ingredients, and must be an integral part of a well-balanced reward system. The simple act of expressing gratitude and acknowledge the performance can have positive impact on the employees, increasing their morale, and improving their performance.

Several Fortune 500 companies have been using some fantastic ideas to reward and retain their employees. Some of the key trends of the employee reward programs include:

1. Google offers free food, outdoor sports facilities, indoor games etc. to its employees Additionally, irrespective of the tenure with the company, if the U.S employee passes away while working with the company, the partner or spouse get 50% of the salary every year for the next ten year.
2. Developer of people-management software, Ultimate Software gives free vacation to the workers every two years.
3. NetApp Vice-Chairman Tom Mendoz calls 10-20 employees every day to give them special recognition, and thanks them personally for doing something extraordinary.
4. Chesapeake Energy paid bonus of more than $8 million to around 6000 employees for following safe work practices.
5. Caliper, a talent management firm gives employees paid time-off in the form of vacation
6. Checkers and Tokyo Joe’s give their outstanding employees an all-expense paid off week-long vacation
7. Employee incentive platform Snowfly gives its employees game tokens to promote productive behaviour, and points earned in the games can be converted to cash
8. To help employees deal with the work related anxieties, employees at Mayo clinic get massages in their stress-free zone.
9. Intel offers eight-week paid sabbatical and $50,000 for tuition reimbursement to its employees, Aflac hosts annual appreciation week, GoDaddy takes employees off-site during paid work hours for different fun activities, Producers Assistance Corporation offers reloadable gift cards, and Zappo has “Monthly Hero” program.

Organisations are also using more innovative methods such as recognition and reward using the social media, early recognition to improve employee retention, creating a culture of rewards and recognition with a clear tie to the core values of the company, investment in staff engagement campaigns spanning the entire business, rewarding longest-serving employees to make them feel valued and encouraging other staff members to be loyal, extending the reward to employee’s spouses and families etc.
3
Looking at these incentive programs, it can be deduced that employees want to look beyond the pay check, and expect rewards with diverse blend of incentives, business practices and benefits that help them stay loyal and motivated. A well-balanced reward system can benefit both employees and the organisations, creating a competitive advantage for the companies.

• Developers, engineers, and managers from companies of all sizes
• Technical executives looking out for the bottom line
• CTOs and CIOs seeking to streamline operations
• Technology evangelists and entrepreneurs pushing enterprise boundaries
• Researchers and academics
• Companies and professionals engaged in the mobile development and performance ecosystem

How to Build a Bigger, Better Talent Pool – Idexcel Staffing/Talent Roundup

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

1. How to Build a Bigger, Better Talent Pool

In an ideal world, when a job order comes in you always have the perfect candidate in mind and ready to go. The reality is that finding and placing quality talent isn’t usually that simple. Fortunately, there are plenty of fish in the sea — you just have to bait and catch them. Read more…

2. The Road More Traveled

Mobility programs have become a key talent management strategy in today’s war for talent, giving companies a way to deploy the best people to the right locations in support of their business goals.

And as more of these organizations expand globally, the need to mobilize their employees has steadily increased — especially as they expand overseas. Company growth and lack of local talent tied for the top factors that affected relocation volumes in 2014, according to Atlas World Group’s 2015 Corporate Relocation Survey. Read more…

3. Trust Me, the Sharing Economy Is Changing Staffing

It’s no secret to the staffing industry that trust is the cornerstone of all good business. Our clients trust us to send them good people. Our employees trust us to find them better jobs.

So what happens when someone else finds a more efficient way to create that trust? Or what if they compete with legit staffing companies unlawfully and without our cost structure? Read more…

4. How To Get Your Career Unstuck

You’re bored out of your mind and can’t see an obvious next step within your current employer. You might be stuck behind an ungrateful boss, or perhaps you’ve just been doing the same job too long. No matter the details, that feeling of “being stuck” saps your energy and makes you feel like there is no hope for your career.

“THBPBPTHPT!” as they say in the cartoons. That’s sheer nonsense. You just need to break out of your rut. Here’s how to get started. Read more…

How To Regain Your Leadership Confidence – Idexcel Leadership Roundup

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

1. How To Regain Your Leadership Confidence

Business can be tough. Business can be especially hard for the leader of an organization who has lost their confidence in their ability to lead. Leaders have the hard task of setting vision, unifying the team, and building structure. When a leader loses their confidence these tasks and so many more like them can become more difficult and can cause major issues in the organization. Read more…

2. Project Freedom (or: Liberate your Low Performers)

As team leader, you probably are familiar with the following situation: A member of your team is not really at his or her top performance. He may be wicked smart. You might have fought hard to get him. You might like him on a personal level. But for one reason or another, things are not working out. So what should you do? Read more…

3. The 4 Most Creative Kinds of Leaders

In today’s snappy corporate speak, forms of creative leadership are like statement blazers or ultra low-rise jeans: they’re either in or they’re out. Every year, the most popular business magazines claim that a certain type of person is the most innovative of the moment. This month, it might be the triumph of the technological guru. In the fall, it might be the rise of the artistic genius. Pundits treat innovation strategies as if they were fashion trends, hot during one season only to turn pass the next. Read more…

4. What Successful People Know that You Need to Learn!

This might surprise you, but success is all about structure. As a matter of fact, we do not get better, we do not change our behavior, and we do not become successful without it! Yet, most people don’t. Not only is having and utilizing structure a challenge, but you have the added test of incorporating the right structure – meaning a structure that fits the situation and personalities involved, including yours. Read more…

Social Recruitment- Changing Trends

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

Great people make great companies, and good employees are the biggest strength of any organization. Recruiting and retaining these employees is a continuous endeavor, which requires investments in terms of time, money and effort. Despite high unemployment rates, it is at times difficult to find the candidates with right qualifications and qualities to fill a position. Recruiters are always looking for newer and better ways to hire the right talent, and to make their hiring more effective, they need to develop new recruitment strategies covering wider channels. Ascendance of professional and casual social media sites with hundreds and millions of users worldwide has enabled corporates to use these networks as recruiting tools to research and reach out to potential candidates. Since 2011, use of social media for recruitment has seen a tremendous growth which offers unprecedented access to large number of candidates, and reach out to them directly.

As per Jobvite’s 2014 social recruiting survey covering 1,855 recruiters, a whopping 93% use or plan to use social media as part of their recruitment strategy. Respondents also stated that the use of social media improves the quality of candidates by 44% as compared to using only traditional hiring techniques such as filtering resumes and phone screening solely based on the experience and skills.

1

The key to success in social recruitment is to know where to find the right people. Recruiters have already nailed big three of social media: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and these have been extensively mined for hiring quality talent due to their large user base.

2

As seen in the charts above, the social networks are being extensively used by the employers at each stage of recruitment, However, companies need to keep in mind that it is a two way lane, and candidates are looking at them as well. Moving beyond LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, companies can use several unconventional technologies and platforms to make their mark on the net and gain more visibility to attract more talent. These different platforms are an inexpensive way to create exceptionally targeted ads, and focus on the specified audiences based on location, ages, gender and even keywords. The employer brand can be reached out to a much larger audience, and by helping candidates understand what it’s like to work in your company, it is easier to create a pipeline of the talent pool, even before the job opening is posted.

Some of the channels that can be explored for recruitment to build employer brand over social media are:

Video Hubs– You Tube has more than a billion users, and companies can use this channel to embed video clips of their company, giving a glimpse of what employees can expect. The video should be entertaining and engaging, and this can help build a good company brand.

SlideShare– It focuses on the professional content, and can be used to target more relevant group of users.

Pinterest – It is an online pinboard for sharing graphics, images and other information, and is growing at a rapid rate. Companies can use the visual coverage to showcase their USP and build a strong brand image.

On the other hand, social media can be used by the hiring managers to gauge what an individual is like prior to time consuming process of application review and scanning. These channels can be used to get a better glimpse into the values, lifestyle and cultural fit of the candidate, which is critical information not only for recruitment, but also in engaging employees and increase the rate of retention.

3

Some of the social channels to better gauge the candidates include:

Quora – An organized question-answer forum, edited and monitored by the users, and can be effectively used for hiring. Quora enables employers to take a deeper look into the potential candidates in terms of reflective experience and competitive intelligence. It is an easy medium to gauge the experience, knowledge and conceptual thinking ability of the candidates on any given topic. Quora is also an effective channel to follow the passive candidates.

Google+ – Can be used by the employers to add candidates to their circles. The circles can be categorized, and recruiters can contact or follow them publicly or privately as per the set preferences.

Dribbble – Used by all kinds of designers to showcase their projects, works and processes. Quora was not designed for recruiting and sourcing use, however, Dribbble has been designed just for that, to generate leads for the designers. If you like any candidate, you can follow them on other channels too.

Github– A niche site for powerful collaboration, all things code, mainly for developers and coders. Employers can get a glimpse of the code, insights and reviews to get the idea of candidate’s work.

FourSquare – Not built for recruiters, however, can definitely be used to get some additional information. This tool provides a good way to interact with the candidates on a more personal level to know their personal interests and preferences, and see if they match with those of the organization.

With all these new tools and platforms, the world is becoming more technologically driven, and social networking is bridging the gap between candidates and recruiters. However, just like any other technology, use of social media for recruitment has its own set of dos and don’ts. Recruitment through social media is a new phenomenon, and as of now, it is difficult to gauge the breadth of pitfalls. Companies have to be very careful with the information acquired from the internet about the candidate, and information must be verified to avoid liability. Misuse of the information can lead to unintentional discrimination or infringement of privacy.

Social media groups are only as good as the efforts put into them, and companies need to participate and take time to develop and become integral part of the communities by being consistent. Keep in mind that social media is just another tool, and not a complete solution to recruitment. These are easy to use tools, with endless possibilities. Interact, share, comment, follow, do whatever it takes to strike a deal.

4

Key is to identify which tool and channel is able to deliver best results, and ROI on time, effort and money

Recruitment- The Changing Trends

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

Use of new technology for recruitment has been around for many years, however, there is now a seismic shift that is altering the ways of interaction between job seekers and employers. Web and smartphones together are changing the level of expectations, making recruitment systems more efficient and rewarding to use. As technology is slowly paving its way in all aspects of recruitment processes, it is reducing cost and time, and increasing overall user satisfaction. There have been many years of slack hiring, and the coming year will witness intense competition in recruitment of IT talent. As a result, recruitment teams are going to be under extreme pressure, and will have to embrace the latest technological trends to stay competitive.

Some of these latest trends have been discussed below:

Advanced Metrics– Recruitment leaders have started to follow the rest of businesses in adopting advanced metrics, and this shift to real-time metrics will enable decision makers know about the latest happenings, and predictive metrics will alert about upcoming recruitment issues and opportunities. This will give the management sufficient time to plan and act appropriately.

Career Portals– With the changing technological landscape, the expectations and long term plans of Gen Y job seekers are changing as well. They want to get accurate feel about the company, want flexible working hours, and are interested in corporate social responsibility (CSR). To cater to the needs of this generation, the career portals need to focus primarily on building a strong relationship with the candidates from the early stages. Company portals must enable the job seekers to understand their interest and competencies, and what job will make perfect sense for them in the company.
blog-graph2
Big Data– Big data is the large volume of data available on the Web which includes forum threads, numbers, blogs, profiles, videos, pictures etc. Many employers are able to identify passive job seekers using external “Big data”. Advanced metrics developed using big data are shifting the recruiting trends towards a data-supported decision model. Smart organizations are using technology to track the online journey of a candidate, such as pages viewed and jobs applied for.

Go Mobile– Mobile phones allow direct application for jobs, and this will become more popular as more and more recruitment-focused mobile apps are being developed. The Mobile Web Watch report by Accenture shows that more than 85% of the people access the web via mobile at least once a day. With faster mobile internet connectivity, larger screen smartphones, and latest apps, it has become much easier to connect and engage with the candidates. Almost 23% of the Google searches that contain the word “Job” are from mobile devices. However, recruiters have not been very adept at this transition to mobile. For the coming year, the impact of mobile platforms will continue to grow and expand.

Branding– Another changing trend is the employer branding as a long-term recruitment strategy. Due to social media, it is quite easy for anyone to spread their views and comments virally. The former or current employees can easily pass on their views about the work environment. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media are transitioning towards smart advertising and are opting for a recommendation-based search so that organisations can approach the right candidates with more precision. Social media can help companies actively position themselves as desirable employers to attract the top talent in the marketplace. Social sharing also helps job seekers understand a company better, its strengths and values.

Impact Analysis– Another changing hiring trend is to demonstrate the direct impact that the recruitment has on business results. Revenue is one of the principal corporate goals, and the recruiters can quantify the revenue impact of great hires, as compared to weak or average hires. Revenue impacts can be monetized, and by making business cases, recruiters can speculate the required funding for the hiring surge.

Move Away from Silos– Recruitment is an integrated process, and cannot work in silos. The succession and recruitment processes must be interlinked, and should not be treated as separate portfolios. Recruitment, talent management and reporting systems need to be integrated, ways to export data must be updated, and analytics applications need to be used efficiently to turn large amounts of data into meaningful information that can provide insights to aid better decision making. Talent management must be treated as a continuous process. Technology can help recruiters pinpoint the exact match, and avoid wasting time sifting through applications.

To save on cost and time, live video interviews are steadily growing in acceptance. They have proven to be quite effective, especially for the initial interview process. Also, many senior executives resist applying for new positions simply because they do not have time to update their resume. Firms can look at their media profiles to initiate the hiring process. This allows them to target the top prospects, who might be interested in changing.
Additionally, using behavioural patterns, biometric data, online skills testing, and proprietary algorithms can also help predict the likely fit. There are behavioural biometrics tests to capture a clear picture of innate behaviours, motivation, aptitude and character that help understand the personality type, and predict the probability of success for a specific job.

Just as advanced technology has touched every part of our lives, it is influencing the professional lives as well. Behaviours, tools, landscape, expectations and generations are constantly changing around us, and recruiters must effectively use new technology to redefine the recruitment process, while improving outcomes for organizations. Recruitment technology offers detailed ways to track sources and combine metrics around time to hire, dropout rates, acceptance rates, and competency and assessment scores. The challenge for companies now is to harness the potential of these information, analyse them, and use them to their advantage to get the best match for the required job.

Mapping the Organizations in Year 2020

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

Year 2020: Don’t bet your company will be the same as now. And by the way, don’t bet your company will change beyond description. There will be change, but it won’t be disruptive.

Recent research conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit says companies will be larger and more globally integrated, with better information flow and collaboration across borders, less centralized, a flatter hierarchy and more empowered employees.

Employees will not just be knowledge workers of today, but active stakeholders in decision-making. They will double as data scientists, not because of a decree from the boss, but because of their ability to play multiple roles. For example, a LinkedIn employee uses analytics to come up with the popular “People You May Know” feature. A Facebook team creates a new coding language. And the boss cannot turn around and say, ‘I told you so’.

Size will not matter. It doesn’t really even today. Anecdotal stories of David vs Goliath will become more routine than rare, more fact than fiction. In fact, size could well be a disadvantage. Value creation will not depend on a company being a 800-pound gorilla, but on the ability of individuals to connect with one another.
Speed to market and speed to work will be the new dynamic on demand. To study it in contrast, consider the term “spinning the tape”, a fashionable jargon used by balance sheet accountants. Spinning the tape refers to the static way of analyzing accounting data for years. The new paradigm could be described as “speeding the tape”. Eg: You could be working on a deadline that is yesterday and expected to deliver just-in-time.
Employee loyalty will get virtually extinct. Blame it on global operations, emerging markets, and demographic pressure. 360-degree appraisals will be the norm. The boss will review your performance, and you will be reviewing his. It cuts both ways.

Management could be localized while company outlook will be globalized. Cross-cultural hires will be more frequent and people with poor soft skills will not be able to get a foot in. Perform or perish will be the universal credo of all organizations.

More organizations will invest in R&D and use data silos to test product launches. The metrics will vary from division to division. For instance, Google manages its various offices at Paris and New York in different ways, for there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all for organizations in the future.
But not everything will be hunky dory. Just like it always is in all enterprise history. Serving different kinds of customers in different countries through a workforce which is equally drawn from different lands, speaking different languages, create a whole new and different set of challenges for organizations. Consider working at odd hours. Outsourcing to call centers began as a great cost-cutting idea – and still is – but the intangible costs such as employee migration, employee retention, and the emotional costs on account of graveyard shifts will pose difficult and formidable challenges.

The future workplace calls for leaders with a holistic view of conducting business and managing people. Organizations will have to speed up to the science, step out of the fast lane and work on themselves. We shall be reminded often that Success, as Bill Gates famously said, is a lousy teacher…

I am the CEO. I am the Employee.

Posted on by Idexcel Technologies

No Management. No Subordinates. Is Workspace 2.0 ready to take self-management to its logical conclusion?

How flatter can an organization get in the context of workplace 2.0 which hates hierarchy? From the Buck Stops Here to the Buck Starts Here? The knowledge worker of today doesn’t bat an eyelid cracking Dilbert jokes with his boss at the water cooler. All this is the new normal (?) and that’s why management tomes like ‘First, fire all the managers’ fly off the shelves faster than you can actually do that.

All this is oh-so romantic and utopian. But would Apple run by a million CEO workers have been better than Apple under Steve Jobs? Jobs, according to people who worked closely with him was more of an autocrat than less. Damn! Not fashionable at all. Jack Welch too by all accounts can hardly ever be a pinup idol for zero hierarchy. Of course they were all for empowering the down lines, but finally, the nuclear button vests with them.

From a historical perspective, there’s nothing “new” about self-management. Peter Drucker way back in 1953 in his classic ‘The Practice of Management’ called for empowering workers as managers and more importantly, said, it requires new tools and far-reaching changes in traditional thinking and practices.

Now that we have the new tools and think out of the traditional box, more and more companies are putting the Drucker test to practice. Gary Hamel, “the world’s most influential business thinker” according to the Wall Street Journal and author of the recently released What Matters Now, showed how Morning Star, a leading food processor, had made it to the top without bosses, titles or promotions in his analysis published in Harvard Business Review.
The California-based Morning Star, the world’s largest tomato processor handling nearly 30% of the tomatoes processed each year in the United States and with annual revenues of $700 million is not just a Drucker dream-come-true but a company which has registered phenomenal success. And that’s why it makes you pause and ponder. Is it really possible for an organization to become a global market leader where there’s no CEO, where everyone can spend the company’s money, and where each employee is responsible for acquiring the tools needed to do his or her work?

As Hamel explains in his case-study, Morning Star is built on the edifice of five fundamentals, viz. Make the mission the boss; Let employees forge agreements; Empower everyone – truly; Don’t force people into boxes; and Encourage competition for impact, not for promotions.

So why aren’t we seeing more Morning Stars shine bright? If self-management has evolved from a nice-sounding slogan to a workable sound business strategy that can enable organizations to grow to the pinnacle why is it still unfamiliar to most of us? The view from the cubicle (and even from the CEO’s penthouse) is that self-management is an idea whose time has come as much as it is an idea which is yet to really take off. Contradictory? Yes, but check your premises – and we mean your company premises. People are not ready yet. Paul Green Jr., who helps run the Self-Management Institute launched by Morning Star, is on record having admitted that not even one company to his knowledge has “fired all the managers all the way” a la Morning Star and hit pay dirt.

Self-management like Morning Star is still an outlier. Of course organizations swear by empowering people, and are eager and willing to go the extra mile to bat for a minimalist hierarchy, but as to whether go the whole hog with this, they have to wait for a nod from their Board. It’s still for the Boss to decide whether he/she can be fired…
A true answer would be to perhaps go for the middle ground. Go for self-management, and retain the boss. You can’t win Wimbledon only on the strength of your forehand…