The Employee Factor Where employees drive the experience

To set yourself apart from your peers, we have often talked about the importance of upgrading your skills. In these tough economic times, it may be critical. There is great news for all those in an economic pinch – 12 top-notch universities offer free business courses online. Yes, we did say free!

 

Thank you EduChoices for pointing us to a great list of free courses.

 

If you are looking for work or wanting to move up in your organization – here is a great way to learn for free!

 

Have a look.

 

Posted under Trends, Uncategorized, Word of Mouth

McDonald’s is taking “pot shots” at Starbucks. To this point, Starbucks has declined to join the conversation.

I am a huge Starbucks fan, but even I am questioning the large spend on a coffee. Given the economy is in a downturn and people are starting to question every expenditure – do you think Starbucks should join the conversation? I think it might be time that they did…

 

 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted under Customer Experience, Trends, Uncategorized, Word of Mouth

With thousands of employees being let go every day – the key to success will be to differentiate your skills from others. That’s right – last year we talked about the imminent labor shortage – now we are talking about an increasingly competitive marketplace.  

 

Have a look at this Yahoo! Video which talks about the new competitive marketplace. It is a fact that hundreds of individuals with similar skills are all out looking for work. If you are indeed looking for work, you may want to answer the ten following questions before you start “pounding the pavement”.

 

1. What is your personal brand?
2. What will differentiate you from your peers?
3. Are you willing to sacrifice a title and/or pay for a job?
4. How much are you willing to sacrifice?
5. What are your potential targets looking for in a candidate?
6. Are you abreast of the trends in your prospective industry?
7. Are you equipped with the right language to land the opportunity?  
8. Are you staying fit?
9. Are you trying to constantly reinvent yourself – skills/education?
10. Who can you call on to help you in your search?

 

The job environment will probably become more competitive. Be sure to set yourself up for success.

Posted under Trends, Word of Mouth

Come on – unemployment rates are climbing so why do you continue to employ surly, non-customer oriented employees? What is wrong with you? If you want to survive this economic downturn, it will take more than cost cutting to get you through it. It will take great customer service and happy employees.

 

Well, today our experience at Sobeys supermarket was marred by a young, arrogant, non-customer oriented employee. Not only was she chatting with her friend during our entire interaction, she was surly, rude and incompetent.

 

Why on earth would a company continue to employ such a person? With so many people on the street looking for work, why would any company want their brand tarnished by someone who obviously doesn’t care about their brand, their company or their customer.

 

Our advice – get rid of all of your surly, non-customer oriented employees or at least take them out of customer-facing roles. Otherwise, we will take our business back to Wal-Mart where we only expect low prices NOT service!

 

Comments?

 

 

 

Posted under Employee Engagement, Trends, Word of Mouth

 

Have you ever heard of Jiibe? Well Jiibe is a kind of eHarmony for jobs. It’s a user-powered online service that helps job seekers find companies that fit their values and work styles. First, job seekers complete a free personality and values test. Then, Jiibe points job seekers to companies that are a cultural match, based on the real-life experiences of the people who already work there. Given the fact that we have written a great deal about employee engagement and happiness in the workplace, we think Jiibe is a very interesting concept.

 

Jiibe has recently announced the creation of a game called the Jiibe Connection. It’s their take on the popular old TV show, Love Connection:

 

Here’s how it works:

 

Claire is a job seeker looking for the perfect employer. Match Claire with one of the three real companies to find her perfect ‘connection’. See how your match-making skills stack up against your peers, and be entered into a draw to win an iPod.

 

If you are looking to engage employees this may be an interesting way to test your matching skills!

 

Comments?

Posted under Employee Engagement, Trends, Word of Mouth