When calls to the reservation line at Choice Hotels International Inc. surged after an ad campaign earlier this year, Don Brockway, Choice’s vice president of world-wide reservations, found his call centers short-staffed. So he quickly arranged to add as many as 20 agents per shift.
It is a hot business idea of the moment, a growth formula embraced by General Electric Co., American Express Co., Progressive Corp. and many others. But a growing chorus of skeptics question the value of the “net promoter” concept advocated by consulting firm Bain & Co., market researcher Satmetrix Systems Inc. and author Fred Reichheld.
Managers like to say employees leave companies because of bad bosses or lack of career growth. A new report suggests a more straightforward reason: money. In a survey of about 1,100 U.S. employees, 71% of top performers listed pay among the top three reasons they would consider leaving their employer. Yet in a sister survey
Psychology professor Richard Griffith is on a mission to stop “fakers.” To Dr. Griffith, of the Florida Institute of Technology, fakers are people who misrepresent themselves on personality tests increasingly used to screen applicants for entry-level jobs at call centers, retail stores and other customer-service positions. The tests typically ask candidates to agree or disagree
Two years ago, Rod Bond, an executive at a U.S. unit of French food-services company Sodexho Alliance SA, accompanied female colleagues to a meeting of the Women’s Food Service Forum, where he was a rare man among roughly 1,500 women. “That’s a profound experience,” says Mr. Bond, 57 years old. It prompted him to wonder
Go out and mingle with top headhunters — those gregarious talent scouts who are constantly scouring the world in search of managers to fill the top executive jobs — and these days you’ll find some most happy people.
Developing strong ties with executive recruiters can pay off. Many organizations rely on them for help in finding senior talent and negotiating job offers. We asked Kimberly Bishop, senior client partner in the New York office of Korn/Ferry International, for advice on how to initiate and nurture lasting relationships with search professionals. Prior to joining
WITH DEMAND FOR SENIOR MANAGERS ON THE RISE as the job market and economy heat up , a flurry of counteroffers are expected to rain on executives who give notice this year. “Counteroffers always go up in a climate like we’re now seeing, and my clients are now talking about candidates they’re trying to recruit
Applying a dedicated and systematic approach to locating a job can simplify the process of finding a job. The goal of each process is to make contact with a prospective employer for the purposes of setting up an interview. Here are a number of a useful techniques and resources that can be used to find
The messages law enforcement personnel sent one another — more than 5,000 — were crude, referring to people as animals, using profane terms as labels — and, worst, containing some horrifying jokes implying violence. They were fired. That was in Camden County, N.J., where 11 white prison guards lost their jobs for racially insulting texts
Q: Two of my employees seem to have absolutely no interest in doing a good job. They arrive late, ignore deadlines, and drag out every task to avoid additional work. If I bring this up, they threaten to call in sick and stay out for several days. Because we work for a large retail chain,
This is mainly a guy thing, but it affects women too. They retire, perhaps earlier than expected, and haven’t a clue about how to go about living the rest of their lives. Mickie Schroeder and Jeff Jans took early retirements in April 2008, got married in May 2008 and by September 2008 were sitting
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Many American workers don’t really leave work. Emails, phone texts, pager alerts and phone calls pepper what once was personal time. And that’s not including on-call shifts or beeper time, which require workers to be ready and able to work at a moment’s notice. When is it time to call
Q: A few months ago, my colleagues and I got a new manager who makes our lives a living hell. “Kristen” has no management experience and nitpicks everything we do. She gets angry about small stuff and talks to us like we’re in third grade. She has also allowed the office to get disgustingly
Given the tough competition that we have in the job market with fresh graduates still perky to grab the spotlight and early retirees updating their resume with more experience, grabbing the job of your dream becomes more challenging than before. Today, it’s a matter of who can amaze the employer more and make a memorable
The Winter Olympics are well under way and there’s one story line that just won’t go away: many people feel that Sochi hasn’t lived up to expectations. From high threats of terrorism to homeless canines running amuck, unfinished living accommodations to egregious human rights propaganda, the negativity surrounding this year’s Olympic host has been
SEATTLE — Expedia has laid off an undisclosed number of employees in the wake of its acquisition of one-time rival Orbitz. Expedia said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week that employees will be cut from Chicago-based Orbitz as part of a restructuring resulting from a merger of the two companies. Expedia, based
CHICAGO — Tyson Foods announced that it will close one of its Chicago plants next year as it consolidates production at other facilities. The shutdown of the facility, which will occur before Oct. 1, 2016, will mean the loss of 480 jobs. The company also plans to close a pepperoni plant in Jefferson, Wis. The
Good news for summer job seekers: Jobs should be more plentiful this year and a majority of employers have jobs paying more than $15 per hour, according to a new report. The $15-per-hour wage has been highlighted this week by thousands of demonstrators at McDonald’s headquarters, where workers demanded higher wages for frontline employees at
Q: In the family business where I work, the owner and his son have very different perspectives. The owner is always looking for growth opportunities, while “Stan” tends to focus on maintaining the status quo. Although I have good relationships with both of them, the owner and I tend to think more alike. Whenever I
