What you can’t ask in an employee interview

Posted on March 17, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Dave’s note:  This week, let’s welcome an expert in employment background checks, Chris Dyer, CEO of PeopleG2, to help us explore one dicey subject that gets lots of entrepreneurs and managers into trouble by being completely unaware of what they cannot ask a candidate in an employment interview.  Here’s Chris…

By Chris Dyer

Here’s a real warning to employers and managers.

A list of problematic interview questions would stretch to circle the globe at least once, if not twice.  So how do we know what questions can be asked?

Let’s break this down into two examples using Bob and John.  They are both entrepreneurs leading their “up and coming” technology firm.  As the final portion of the hiring process, each of them chooses to interview the candidate personally.  Each head of

Interview and key concept

“A list of problematic interview questions would stretch to circle the globe…”

the company will interview the same candidate, a woman named Sally – 45–years–old, married, with two children.  She is a United States citizen, but was born in Spain when her mother was stationed in the U.S. Army.

Bob begins to ask questions about past experiences, past jobs, and then turns to some personal topics.  “When did you graduate from college?”  “Were you born in the United States?”  “How many children do you have?”  “Are you married?”  In a separate interview, John asked many of the same questions.  However, Bob’s motivation for asking his personal questions was because he wants to hire younger, energetic, and enthusiastic employees. He believes they will work harder, for longer hours, and for less money.  Bob believes immigrants are lazy.  He is certain that a mother will not focus on her career, missing work to care for her sick child or to attend a parent–teacher conference.

[Email readers, continue here…]  John asked the same questions, but for very different reasons.  He knew someone who attended Sally’s university and wondered if the two knew each other.   Based on the military family background, John innocently asked about Sally’s birthplace simply out of curiosity.   He also asked about her family and marriage, as the company believes in work/life balance, and celebrates its family–friendly environment.  John wanted to know all about Sally to see if she would be a good fit within his corporate structure.

We can probably agree that Bob is a jerk, and John is a nice guy.   Nevertheless, both interviewers asked the same questions.  Does intent matter?  Believe it or not, the answer is no.  They may both have broken the law.  Especially if Sally answered their questions.

Federal and state governments have what is called “Protected Classes.”  At the federal level, examples include protections around race, color, religion, national origin, age (over 40), sex, pregnancy, citizenship, and veteran status.  At the state level, additional protections can include genetic information, sexual orientation, AIDS/HIV, medical conditions, political activities or affiliations, and many more.

Which classes apply to your company and the applicant are surely questions for a qualified attorney.  And understanding what the federal and state restrictions are that apply to your hiring situation can be the best defense you have.  If you know the protected areas, you can avoid asking questions like those listed above.

It will also help you understand other complex situations.  For example, assume Sally’s religious beliefs include that she cannot work on Sundays.  If the job does not specifically require her to work on Sundays, then questions around this topic would be inappropriate.  But, if you were hiring her to manage a team that works with the NFL, and everyone needed to work on Sunday, a careful conversation could occur.  “Can you work on Sundays because the job specifically requires this?” could be appropriate.

From hiring my first employee to the present, I have conducted over 5,000 interviews.  I have found that understanding the protected class restrictions is the best way to navigate the complicated process of asking legal questions, while still understanding the applicant and the candidate’s fit with the company.

So here’s my two cents worth to save lots more over time: develop a good list of questions, ask others in your company to give you feedback, and consider consulting with an employment attorney.  Review carefully what you can’t ask in an employee interview.

Posted in Depending upon others, Protecting the business | 2 Comments

How can I trust that my virtual employees are working?

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Dave’s note: For the second week, we welcome my co-author of “Get Scrappy,” Kim Shepherd, to give us her answer to the oft-repeated question:  “How can I trust that my virtual employees are working?”  You’ll recall that Kim is an expert here, managing her company of over one hundred employees around the world literally from a post office box – with every one of them, including herself, working from home in a virtual environment. Now that’s special. Here’s Kim…

By Kim Shepherd

  1. Hire passionate, entrepreneurial and highly professional people, and then step aside.

At our virtual company, the employees set the bar high on their own. Of course we have expectations and KPIs, but any slackers would soon find themselves very uncomfortable surrounded by results–oriented team.

But you can get a little piece of mind through “virtual time cards.” All our remote

beautiful young woman relax and work on laptop computer while working on laptop computer and read book at home

Virtual employees can be more productive.  It takes trusting management, good metrics, and entrepreneurial employees.

employees, for example, log their hours, and their calls are logged automatically. We can see if they’re working at 6 AM or 11 PM, and we can see chunks of time OFF in the middle of the day. But we don’t have to micromanage them. The work is getting done because they manage themselves better than a boss ever could.

  1. My employees will lose control of their time and resources.

The first thing you have to do is pull “personal empowerment” off that poster on the wall and embrace it as real. Really real. Let your employees manage their own time –– but provide tools and resources. At our firm, most of our people can work any hours they want, as long as the work gets done. We’ve made a number of time management and project tracking tools available via our CRM system.

  1. Without direct supervision, performance will suffer.

[Email readers, continue here…]  On the contrary, we monitor performance better now that we’re virtual. We have to. Clearly define KPIs and expectations, create systems to track them, and then take it up a notch: reward the strong performers.

One more thing: supervisors need first–hand experience of working virtually in order to support, motivate and coach their teams. Send the supervisors home too.

  1. I won’t be able to retain top talent.

At our virtual company, we retain almost 100% of the people we want, and we do it almost 100% virtually. We do have an annual face–to–face All Staff meeting, and team members who live near one another get together when they can. But technology makes the miles disappear. Take webinar tools: you can be face–to–face and virtual at the same time. And anything that can be in a handbook can be online.

  1. There’s no teamwork or collaboration in a virtual workforce.

Are you kidding? We do more now than when we were sticks–and–bricks. We hold weekly “dodgeball” training sessions where team members toss questions at the trainers. We’ll hold tiger team sessions to tame a particularly toothy problem. We’ve set up a “loops” system, like chat rooms for specific topics. They let us build on one another’s ideas and keep stakeholders in the . . . well, you know.

Posted in Depending upon others, Protecting the business | Leave a comment

Leaping off the cliff: Making your business virtual

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Dave’s note:  I am so pleased this week to introduce my co-author of “Get Scrappy,” Kim Shepherd, CEO of Decision Toolbox.  Her firm is a model of a virtual company, with over 100 employees and absolutely no office other than a post office box.  Wow!  You’ll enjoy her style and resonate with her message.  Here’s Kim…

By Kim Shepherd

At my CEO roundtables, all too often I listen to leaders who are perfectly positioned to transform their company into a virtual one to great financial gain, but who are afraid to take the first step. These same CEOs sit in their corner offices and email the COO in the next–door office and call their VP of Sales rather than walking down the hall. What they don’t realize is that this is virtual work, and the only hurdle that needs to be overcome is ego. Ego prevents leaders from accepting that the company can function without its leaders—especially it’s CEO—as a physical presence.

In 2000, I joined the company as president, and he and I led the company on a rapid Leaping_off_cliffgrowth clip. In just over eighteen months, we were on track to double in size. Then along came September 11th. Overnight, just about every company went into a hiring freeze and massive layoffs dominated the news. Not a good time to be in the recruitment business. About 65 percent of our competitors went out of business during this time; it was our industry’s version of the Great Depression.

[Email readers, continue here…]  We brainstormed with a consultant and each other.  One idea kept rising to the top of our list: abandoning our Class A office space which had been designed and decorated with great love. It was much more than an office.  At the time, it seemed like the very heart of our firm – and to close it down would mean the end of our company—and our dream. Fortunately, our financial consultant was on hand to coldly point out that, actually, staying in the office space would mean the end of the company.

So we moved out.

The flexible work environment at our virtual company goes beyond work–from–home options.  The entire company is virtual and all of its team members work from home offices. Sophisticated, proprietary technology coupled with technologies such as VoIP phones, IM, and social networking tools keep the team linked together, while a progressive, results–focused management style keeps performance and productivity at a Get Scrappy front coverhigh level. The company has team members throughout our home state and now even the world, with three of our members working from as far as 7,500 miles away.

The glue that holds the company together is technology and our unconventional culture. Our experience hitting rock bottom helped us to open our eyes (and keep them open) to new ideas, no matter how outrageous or impossible they might seem.

Getting into a suit, commuting hours to work, spending time at the water cooler, “earning” two weeks of vacation time each year, requesting time off to tend to a sick child—technology has antiquated all of these conventional ideas.

Your leap into the virtual world doesn’t have to be dramatic; simply start with using it just one day a week, and monitor not only the productivity but the health of your culture.

(You can find the book at booksellers or by clicking here.

Posted in Growth!, Protecting the business, Surrounding yourself with talent | Leave a comment

Above all, consider the corporate gate keeper.

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Looking for an entrance into a VC, an angel group, a bank, a CxO for a sales opportunity, or any other entity?  There are always gate keepers whose job it is to filter out the inconsequential or inappropriate, and allow through those with most promise.  That said, gate keepers can and do block some great opportunities before the decision maker even has a chance to use his or her expertise to evaluate.

So how do you reconcile this?  Getting beyond the gate keeper and finding your way directly to the decision maker(s)?  Every sales person with a bit of street history will resonate with this question.

One answer is to find someone with a relationship to either the gatekeeper of the

goalkeeper soccer player people on football stadium grass field

Gate keepers are like goal keepers: rewarded for keeping the other player out of the goal…

decision–maker.  LinkedIn might be good as a start, but beware.  Few of your contacts will be willing to use their valuable social or political capital helping you with a sales effort, and you will definitely strain your relationship with the intermediary if not a close friend.

[Email readers, continue here…] Using your attorney or accountant to find who is close to the decision maker sometimes works. After all, you have a paying relationship with these resources, and asking for help is not considered a daunting request.  Do you have any contacts or friends within the target company?   An inside name is an excellent ice–breaking opportunity.

Are you working with or selling to a particularly important competitor to your target customer?  Dropping that name will often immediately draw a response if the decision maker is curious or particularly competitive. Just remember, selling can be a strip–tease in which you reveal very little in the name of confidentiality, making it appear to be valuable comparative information.  Let me reinforce this:  never reveal competitive information to gain access or advantage.  It is unethical and your target will immediately worry whether you might do the same someday.

Another way to approach the gate keeper directly is with a strategic idea or extremely profitable suggestion that he or she can make their own, and enhance their standing within the company.  You must be willing to offer this freely, obviously ultimately connected to your product or service for implementation, but never claimed by you to be your idea.

One of my companies is in just such a position as I write this, able to offer an idea that is worth many millions and saving massive headaches, but having to make the idea owned by the gate keeper.  It takes careful presentation, lack of ego, and a real focus on the implementation tactics to make this work.  But what power.   So, after all, do consider the gate keeper as a potential partner whose “commission” on the sale is social and political approval from above.  Or, if you can pull it off without alienation, don’t take the time to consider the gate keeper at all.

Posted in Growth!, Positioning | 2 Comments

The one question to stop them in the trade show aisle.

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Wouldn’t it be magic if we could find one (unique to us) question to ask people passing the booth or table as they pass in the aisle of the trade show?  I asked a number of exhibitors that question recently, and received some surprising responses, along with tips for “reeling them in…”

“Is your mom OK?” was offered by one who said it always worked for him. A bit of a trap trade_show_aislefor some perhaps.  “Didn’t I see you looking for [an adjacent product or booth]?”  “One minute of your time and I have a gift for you,” said another.  But these all seem contrived, not at all comfortable for most of us.

Another sales manager offered that he reads the first name on the badge at least ten feet before the booth entrance (a good start, as opposed to trying to stop someone already passing by.)  “Hi Dave,” he says. “You’d make my day with just two minutes of time.”  Better.

[Email readers, continue here…]  One CEO explained to me that he tells his people to use the math to stay vigilant, even during slow times.  He states that a show with 4,000 attendees and a total of fifteen hours of exhibit time over three days (typically) will generate five people a minute walking by the booth.  “It would be a crime,” he states to his troops, “to turn away from the aisle and speak together even for thirty seconds for that reason.  Yes, traffic is not uniform. But that calculation makes a case.

Finally, my quest yielded another gem from yet another sales manager.   “Help them in, and if they are inappropriate or unqualified, help them out,” he states.  He explained that we should bring guests as far into the booth to the back or sides as possible.  A blocked entrance is an invitation for most to walk on by, he states.  And if you determine that the candidate is not appropriate, ask if you can help him or her find the object or company next on the list.  That way, he continues, you are helping your company and your guest at the same time while clearing the spot for another, more qualified candidate.

Trade shows are expensive.  There are lots of important tactical tips to help you make the most of that expense and time.  Along with spending time on the strategic goals for the exhibit, the script or focus for each member of the team, and a chart of times for in–booth service, these are a good start toward planning a productive show.

Posted in Positioning | 1 Comment

Marketing and big data: Finding that needle in the haystack

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Dave Berkus

We once measured our audience using demographic buckets, especially with the use of age groups, gender, and financial ability as keys.  Classic marketing teaches us that this is the best way to define our audience, and to make appropriate pitches that will elicit favorable response from the target audience.

Still true, but with a big twist.

Using big data that has been mined for specific information, we can now market to Needle_haystackindividuals within classes, some of whom will not fit the stereotype and would have been missed with more generalized efforts.

[Email readers, continue here…]  Consider the soon–to–be grandmother checking for gifts for her pregnant daughter.  She visits your site for information but does not buy and doesn’t leave an email address for information.  She doesn’t fit into the demographic mold, and she will be missed when using any of the traditional marketing methods of communication.

But a good use of the log files you may not even know you keep might surface this person and permit a one–to–one marketing effort with a call to action.  Fifteen out of seventeen business sectors each store more data per company than the entire Library of Congress.  And global data storage is growing at an astounding rate of forty percent per year.

You may not be aware of all the data your company stores, or whether it is usable at the atomic level – by source location or name or IP address.  Make a short list of all the places you know you accumulate information about your customers and prospects.  Spend a little time with your tech resources understanding the form and accessibility of that data. Then decide whether there is unmined gold in those undiscovered places.

Big data – thick data – will be a competitive battlefield in this next generation of atomized marketing.

 

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Big data: Information is NOT knowledge

Posted on February 4, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Say that you have a log file of every contact to your website. Or that you are a cell phone company with a multi–billion record log file of every call made from every location to every number dialed using your network.  You can accurately state that you have big data at your fingertips.  But it is useless in this raw, usually unstructured form.

Adding context to data takes this information and creates actionable knowledge. There’s even a new term for this – thick data.  That’s data dense with information that is useful

binary data

Big data without context is useless.

and can be mined with available tools to create actionable strategies.  Google analytics provides this information at no cost for websites and pages viewed.  Google uses proprietary tools to do this quickly, with resultant information available within a day.  But once you find a similar need for other types of logged information, you find yourself in the need for a data scientist or data engineer, and the costs climb accordingly.

[Email readers, continue here…]  Such knowledge can be amazingly invasive in the wrong hands or if used without consideration for the result.  For example: What if American Express offered credit card details about purchases by competitors to a big box retailer?  Could Sam’s Club find which households were shopping at Target and even know the annual spend amount by family?  Would that be invasive – or just a great targeted marketing resource?  Would you be happy to receive coupons from Sam’s Club knowing that they found you and your shopping habits from your credit card company?

And yet, there are times when strategic marketing demands information that is readily available in files owned and controlled by you.  There are tools and a new generation of experienced data engineers ready to unlock this treasure chest of big data and turn it into actionable knowledge.  You’d be remiss to ignore the opportunity; one that even recent generations of management could not dream of gaining access.

Posted in Growth!, Positioning | 1 Comment

Email open rates: Your best marketing test

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Dave Berkus

No–one needs to tell you that mobile readers now outnumber desktop readers for your message.  A recent Experian marketing survey revealed that 52% of all email opens are from mobile devices, and that 38% of all clicks are from mobile devices.  Experian looked at three hundred brands and 21 billion emails – a few more than you or I have as a resource for our marketing intelligence.

So the very first thing to be sure you cover is that all of your communications are responsive – able to display text, photos and video clips equally well on smartphones, tablets and desktops.   If you have not done so, let Google tell you whether your web site is responsive. Go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile–friendly/ and enter your web address for a quick, free, analysis.  And treat the result seriously.

How about your emails? Same thing.  How many times do you have to open an email just to read the right side of the text or see the content, but delete the email instead

Smiling Girl Pointing To Notebook Computer Screen - For Adding Own Message

Make your emails readable on all forms of devices.

just to avoid the “work” of that extra click?  Responsive emails allow any viewer pane to display the whole message in readable form.

[Email readers, continue here…]   Now the big question:  If you have a readable format and excellent messaging, how is your open rate and more importantly your click rate?  Although both metrics vary widely between types of audience, you should work to exceed a six percent open rate and two percent click rate for your emails containing sales or marketing information.  Always, force a click to another web site to obtain the full information, in order to measure whether the reader engages or dismisses your message in short order.

If these several tips interest you, it is time to delve much more deeply into the world of detailed email marketing – through one or several of the excellent books on the subject.  Don’t waste your email budget with ineffective communication or hidden offers.

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Mailing lists, email marketing, errors, oh my!

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Using old email lists for the first time is like eating really stale doughnuts.  The taste is pretty bad, and the side effects could be disastrous.

Email companies like Constant Contact, Mail Chimp and many others all have strict rules they follow to avoid being caught in spam hell, with their servers blacklisted and worse.  Each has automated software watching over your uploads of new lists.  And each will block the use of any list they detect may be suspicious.

If you have 4,000 names and add 12,000 more, that’s a red flag. Most services will automatically block you until you fill out a form and even speak to a representative.  They will ask where you got the list, and was it single or double opt–in?  Did you get the list from any third party? Is the list tested with opt–ins less than one–year old?

[Email readers, continue here…] Now the last question is a daunting one for any of us.  Which one of us has run any of our lists through the opt–in process each year with a special email to everyone on the list essentially telling them that they must opt–in (again)

Online Marketing Signpost Shows Blogs Websites Social Media And Email Lists

Email marketing –  special warnings regarding lists from BERKONOMICS

to continue receiving material from us?  I’ll bet the answer is “none of us.”  Yet that is what some of the mailing houses insist upon if they suspect a list is not generated by you directly through opt–in sign–ups.

How about a list you have that is over a year old that hasn’t been used lately?  You can pay about a penny per name with a usual minimum of $100 to clean the list, which is quite effective. The list cleaning service will separate your list into five groups: verified (good name and not a trap), unknown (may be good but careful), undeliverable (bounced), unreachable (invalid domain), and illegitimate (known trap, monitoring domain, or black hole.)  The first group is the only safe one to trust.  Many of the common portals like AOL, Yahoo and MSN do not return a response to an email ping, leading all of those addresses to be classed as “unknown.”  And that’s a large part of anyone’s list.

Your mailing list company must protect themselves, and in doing so, protect you.  A large number of bounces or many unsubscribes in a single mailing are red flags that will be caught by the mailing company system.  Depending upon the size of the list in relation to the total size of all of your lists with that mailing company, your account may be placed on hold while you complete a form with detailed answers about where you got the names, if you got them yourself, and if you have verified them with an opt–in during the last year.

So how do you grow a list if you purchase names from a service?  The first answer is in the form of a question.  Does the service guarantee that the names have been run through their verification filter in the last month or two?  If not, the bounce rate will be as much as one percent higher for each month the list has not been trimmed.  That amounts to big numbers in a short time.

The second answer is to divide the list into small bites that are less than a third the size of your present lists in sum, and feed those in slowly into the system.

Another protection with an incremental benefit is to register your domain with emailreg.org, which will verify that your domain for mass emails is legitimate and not spam, then provide a whitelist of legitimate email servers with their domains – to reduce the chance of false positives while spam filtering.  Many ISP spam filters check the legitimacy of domains as one test before tossing your email into their spam filter.  The cost is a minimal annual fee, and may be worth it, especially if you use your “regular” email address for mass mailings and do not want to have normal email traffic challenged as spam.

The days of spam mailings to spam lists are gone, and we have all benefited by the enforcement of laws in many countries, especially in the United States.  Follow the rules and suggestions above, and your doughnuts will not be stale.  And you’ll not suffer a stomach ache or worse.

Posted in Positioning | 1 Comment

Harvest your social media contacts

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Dave Berkus

You may not know that you have access to many “free” sources of social media contacts to help you in your marketing effort.

The first semi–secret source is your LinkedIn contact list.  You probably thought it was proprietary to LinkedIn, or at worst, available only when sending messages through LinkedIn to your list.  I have thousands of LinkedIn contacts and am willing to assume you vector-social-media-concept_M1uBCnrO_Lhave a large number as well.  Go to https://www.linkedin.com/people/export–settings and select “CVS.file” or any appropriate format, and your entire email contact list with names and more will be available to you.

Here – from “Two Minute Drill” – is how to download your Twitter follower list: https://www.fullcontact.com/blog/how–to–export–twitter–followers/

 [Email readers, continue here…]  So you begin to get the idea.  Your lists are yours to use for marketing, and depending upon your mailing list server provider, duplicates can be identified and removed immediately.

These are all verified contacts, in each case having accepted your invitation, and resolving the issue from the mass mailing companies such as Constant Contact or Mail Chimp as to their opt–in status.

Next week, I’ll cover purchased lists, which are much trickier and subject to challenge by the mass mail companies, looking to eliminate the possibility of their servers being identified as spam sources.  It is enough to say here that you must be very careful with purchased lists.

Many new sites with content to offer now cover over their content after a few seconds with an opt–in “Sign up or sign in” message that can be over–ridden but will come up each time you visit the site as a very effective nag to obtain your reader’s email address and opt–in.  This is more than fair in exchange for the free content underneath, and a tool for you to consider if you offer any valuable content to your readers, even if specific to your industry or company.

 

Posted in Growth!, Positioning | 1 Comment