Research Careers Blog

What are the career opportunities in the marketing research industry?

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Nick Hague

Editor’s note: Nick Hague is a founder and director of B2B International, a London-based research firm.

Most people don’t set off on their career path with marketing research in mind but of those who fall into the market research industry, I am sure most would agree that it is not only a rewarding career choice but also a vibrant and continually evolving industry. In fact, I would go as far to say that being a market researcher is arguably one of the best jobs in the world. Where else could someone with a curious mind be paid to find out what is going on, explore motivations and actively seek the truth?

Market research is almost always a team effort and most projects involve a small battalion of people. Most market research jobs are either found to be within market research agencies or on the client side at manufacturers, retailers, service providers or government/non-profits who rely on research to make decisions within their organizations. In the past, those on the client-side often had market research departments but a lot of these have now been subsumed into wider marketing departments. Also job titles using the phrase “market research” are disappearing from many business cards and being replaced by titles like “market insights manager” or “consumer insights analyst.”

Organizational structures vary from company to company but client-side research departments are either like an internal research company acting and carrying out the research solely on behalf of their brand or sector department or like internal consultants who subcontract all of the work to external research suppliers.

When starting out on a particular career, it is sometimes difficult to comprehend the path that one could take. Therefore, using B2B International’s structure as an example of the type of positions held within a market research agency, here is a typical structure of what the key positions are:

Executive positions

Research director: The most senior position and takes overall responsibility for the design and delivery of all the market research projects.

Research manager: Has responsibility for design, implementation and management of research projects. Takes the principal responsibility for the project running smoothly and liaising with the operations director. Will typically be the main point of contact with the end client.

Research executive: Takes part in the development of projects and directs the operational side of a project. Works closely with the research analyst and research manager in developing the research design and data collection as well as preparing the final report.

Research analyst: Looks after data analysis and presentation development and plays a role in testing of questionnaire routing.

Fieldwork/operations positions

Operations director: Arguably one of the most important jobs. Oversees a number of departments including data preparation, sampling, data entry, tabulations, questionnaire scripting and the telephone unit. The operations director makes sure that projects are delivered on time and against cost constraints as well as quality assurances.

Fieldwork manager: Oversees the recruitment, training, management and evaluation of telephone and face-to-face interviewers. Will often have various members on his or her team that take responsibility for training, quality management and sample creation/management.

Statistician/data processing: Members of the team may focus on all or specialize in one or more of the following areas of the data processing department: statistical techniques, scripting of surveys, data processing/tabulation creation and market modelling.

The market research industry has changed dramatically in recent years through the continued move toward globalization and the digital revolution and therefore the opportunities for a career path are almost limitless. If you want to be part of something that will challenge you, inspire you and take you to places you hadn’t previously visited, then a career in market research is for you.

Posted in Corporate Researchers, For Employers, Research Vendors, The Business of Research | Comment

Avoid canned speeches: grow your meeting facilitation organically

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Kevin E. O'Connor

86530492Editor’s note: Kevin E. O’Connor is a facilitator, medical educator and co-author with Cyndi Maxey of Fearless Facilitation: The Ultimate Field Guide to Engaging (and Involving!) Your Audience. For more information visit www.kevinoc.com.

Farmers and chefs know that we love to eat foods described as organic, because we know it means natural, pure and without pesticides. Most people have never seen advertisements for an “organic meeting” or one featuring an “artificial speaker,” yet meeting attendees will tell you that interactive games feel stale, group discussion questions seem generic or many speakers give a canned speech.

When done well, an audience views facilitation – defined as, “the act of productively making collaboration easier for an audience” – as a normal, important conversation. When you fearlessly facilitate, the audience will know that they are in good hands.

It’s easier and less expensive to bring organic content to your next meeting than you might think. Consider these three tips:

1. Engage with caution.

Most organically-grown food is less well-known than other brands; often it isn’t branded at all. The same holds for the activities designed for great facilitation. While off-the-shelf games, case studies and role-plays can certainly be used to help people learn and apply concepts, use caution. Today’s audiences quickly figure out when they are being manipulated to employ a strategy or system. When you develop customized discussion topics, surprise interventions and audience involvement from scratch, you stand a better chance of engaging people. You also bring the wonderful element of surprise to them.

Presenters today often confuse noise, repetition and ego for useful, engaging content. Traditional speakers say, “Audiences won’t want to participate,” “Facilitation is too hard!” or “All they want to do is listen.” The experienced speaker, though, knows that it’s nearly impossible to connect with a group of seated people in a windowless room by talking at them for several hours and then expecting them to learn!

2. Go natural.

Fewer pesticides and carefully-supervised growing conditions make organic foods healthier. The common tomato is a clear example; bright red plump tomatoes from your neighbor’s garden carry more nutrients than the pinkish, waxy imports grown in a commercial greenhouse. When involvement – led by a skilled facilitator with a watchful eye – occurs naturally, conversation becomes more natural, productive and fun.

At your next meeting, consider being the skilled farmer who tends to the participants, watches them closely and arranges them in specific ways. For a meeting with a small group, arrange attendees in a circle with no tables (yes, this is possible!) and begin the discussion at the point of their pain (e.g., current stressors, challenges or No. 1 priorities).

3. Don’t strive for perfection.

Fearless facilitators see perfection as the appearance of imperfection. When a speaker is too polished or perfect, audiences see the presenter as unapproachably distant. Furthermore, because traditional training emphasizes “giving” over “probing,” these sessions omit the audience’s innate brilliance, experiences and contributions. There are many ways to enhance and perfect the flow of organic discussion.

Solicit “burning questions” (i.e., what people most want to learn after their time with you). Because outcomes are vital for the meeting planner and participants, a good set of burning questions, gathered at the start of the meeting, will create an informal agenda. Meet, address or answer those questions and you will have one happy audience! Form small groups to discuss or solve a problem and let them talk to one another.

Toward the end of your allotted time, pull out one question at a time and ask, “What did we say about this one?” Don’t answer it yourself, but have them do so. Write what they say on a flip chart and have them explain it to one another. They know more about how it hit them than you do and this is a great way for you to discover what outcomes they really received. Ask how they will apply the skills that they just learned tomorrow, at their next team meeting and in one year.

Give your content in targeted chunks or “lecturettes” of no more than eight-to-12 minutes before you ask the audience to talk again with one another. If you believe that you need to talk for 45-60 minutes, know that you have lost them by the 13th minute! They may appear to be paying attention but they are certainly thinking elsewhere.

Revise your internal mind-set

Move your audiences in a direction that will engage their astute listening and creative thinking on the spot. It will not always come easily; it takes time and many imperfect attempts to discover the timing and appropriateness of the involvement.

Acknowledge what few professionals allow themselves: it is okay, and often preferred, to be imperfect and to go with the flow. Know that your audience is there for the experience together and not just for the experience with you.

When you take the stage, call the meeting to order or begin your presentation, remember that engagement is always more important than the notes that the audience takes. At so many conferences, people fill legal pads with ideas, yet rarely apply them to their everyday work. When you facilitate a dialogue that produces engagement, learning and partnership, you build connections and develop influence and you help them begin to implement, which is the goal of the meeting anyway!

Posted in Corporate Researchers, Research Vendors | Comment

Research employers, stop looking for a unicorn

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Karen Morgan

123392318Editor’s note: Karen Morgan is president of Morgan Search, a Santa Monica, Calif., recruitment firm specializing in the marketing research industry.

There’s frustration all around when it comes to hiring in the marketing research industry and beyond. Companies complain they cannot find “the right talent” and potential employees feel they can never meet all the requirements.

As a recruiter for this industry, I’ve been listening to this circular frustration for months now and feel that it’s time for some change. We have great minds in this business and we need to bring them together to start really talking about what’s going on.

More responsibility needs to be put back on the companies doing the hiring. Everyone wants people who can hit the ground running. What this really means is the majority of companies are no longer demonstrating a commitment to training and investing in developing and growing their talent.

Departments are leaner than ever before, so everyone feels stretched already. However, if companies don’t invest in their employees, how can they expect to gain their trust and loyalty and keep them motivated? Turnover is costly on so many levels. Why are we not looking ahead and investing in our talent?

Companies want an unprecedented combination of skills in one individual and yet they aren’t paying enough to attract talent. People are literally leaving the industry or choosing not to pursue research as a career because other professions pay more competitively (e.g., marketing, strategy). We already have a so-called shortage of talent in research so there is an urgent need to focus on training and development and to start being more creative in our approach. That means looking for talent that can be developed rather than expecting to find the “perfect” person to do the work of two or more.

Employers need to identify their must-haves in terms of qualifications and experience and then be willing to teach the rest. (We fully acknowledge, of course, that you can’t teach enthusiasm, passion and drive.)

Even though the economy is improving, many U.S. companies are still hanging onto record amounts of cash, something they usually do in times of economic turmoil. U.S. companies held $1.45 trillion in cash in 2012, up 10 percent from the $1.32 trillion they held in 2011 – which at that time was a record level, according to a report from Moody’s Investors Service. So there’s no excuse not to hire.

I believe we are at a crisis point. If we are truly committed to the research industry, we need to take drastic action. This is a call to action!

Posted in Corporate Researchers, Employment Trends, For Employers, Research Vendors, The Business of Research | 1 Comment

The top 3 business writing mistakes you’re probably making right now

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Dawn Josephson

Editor’s note: Dawn Josephson is a ghostwriter, editor and writing coach. Visit www.masterwritingcoach.com for more information.

Most businesspeople have great ideas but when it comes to putting those ideas on paper, they ramble on for pages and end up looking less than professional. But in today’s communication age, with e-mail trumping the phone and deals being done via text and social media, writing skills are of paramount importance. In fact, when your writing gets to the point quickly and effectively, you can enhance your credibility, position yourself as a leader and ultimately increase your bottom line.

Following are the top three mistakes that plague most business writing. Overcome them today to boost your professional presence.

Mistake #1: Not knowing the specifics of your audience. Just as you would tailor your message depending on whether it was going to employees versus prospects, you also need to tailor it to specific demographics within the larger identified group. For example, if you’re writing promotional materials for your product or service and the majority of the people who do business with you are older, well-established professionals, you’ll want to highlight the product or service’s safety features, reliability record or guarantee. However, if your main clientele is Millennials, you’ll want to emphasize the product or service’s trendy image, quick results, or easy-to-use/understand features. If you have an equal number of clients in both demographics, then you may even need two separate sales messages. One generic message rarely cuts it these days.

Therefore, before you write a word, really think about who’ll be reading what you write. Get into their heads. Speak to their precise needs, issues or worries. And then craft your message specifically for them. The more you know your reader, the better you can reach them with your words.

Mistake #2: Writing to impress rather than to express. People who write with the hopes of impressing others with their knowledge only accomplish one thing: They lose the reader! To make sure you’re expressing rather than impressing, examine each piece you write and distill its core message or purpose down to one or two sentences. If you can’t do that, then either your writing is not focused or it’s so drawn-out that not even you can understand it. If that’s the case, then go back to each paragraph and try to condense it down to one or two sentences. String those new sentences together and then pinpoint your piece’s purposes. That’s the core message you want to express!

Mistake #3: Talking down to your reader. Have you ever reread your own writing and thought it sounded all wrong? That’s because the tone of your writing was likely wrong. Most businesspeople try to use an excessively formal tone in their writing as a way to show their expertise. But realize that excessive formality often comes from a writer who is insecure with his or her authority. By using an overformal tone – complete with arcane language or too many technical terms or referring to the reader as “one” rather than “you” (as in “one can see…” versus “you can see…”) – the writer attempts to mask his or her insecurities. Most people don’t want to do business with someone who is insecure, so keep the tone of your writing conversational and approachable.

Write it right

When you write better, you earn more. So no matter what you’re writing – whether it’s a research report, a sales letter or an e-mail – make sure you avoid these three business writing mistakes. Your ability to write clearly and succinctly will set you apart and help you reach new levels of success.

Posted in Corporate Researchers, For Employers | Comment

Employers, tap into the power of engaged employees

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Aimee Lucas

Editor’s note: Aimee Lucas is custom86532209er experience analyst at Temkin Group, a Waban, Mass., customer experience research firm.

Highly-engaged employees are easy to spot. They try harder on the job and drive business results. According to Temkin Group’s 2013 Employee Engagement Benchmark Study, they are twice as likely both to work after their shift ends and to do something good for the company that is unexpected of them.

Engaged employees are three times as likely to make a recommendation for improvement at the company compared to their disengaged peers. They are also less likely to take sick days and more willing to recommend a job at the company to friends and family.

These behaviors trigger a “virtuous cycle” driving good customer experiences (CX) and stronger business results. Companies that best their peers in financial performance and in CX have considerably more-engaged employees.

Yet despite the benefits of a highly-engaged workforce, companies are not doing enough – or enough of the right things – to capitalize on this opportunity. Our research found that only one-third (35 percent) of large organizations received high scores when rated on their employee engagement efforts. Additionally, only 15 percent of HR professionals reported that they are significantly helping their company become more customer-centric.

Deep connection

Companies are beginning to see the deep connection between employee engagement and customer experience. And we expect more firms to focus on their employees in 2013 and beyond. To understand how organizations are raising employee engagement in the customer experience, we interviewed employees in over 30 companies and identified five categories of activities that we call the five I’s of employee engagement.

Inform. Provide employees the information they need to understand the organization’s vision and brand values, along with how customers feel about the organization. Employees need a constant flow of communications about company priorities and what’s expected of them.

Best practices include: Follow a thorough communication plan. Communicate across multiple channels. Make content employee-centric. Create opportunities for employees to hear from customers.

Inspire. Connect employees to the organization’s vision and values so that they believe those matter and take pride in their job and in their organization. Employees who are inspired by their employer’s mission are significantly more committed and productive.

Best practices include: Define, communicate and live by a set of values. Increase accessibility to senior executives. Tell compelling stories. Give employees a reason to be proud of the company.

Instruct. Support employees with the training, coaching and feedback they need to successfully deliver on the organization’s brand promises. Companies that want engaged employees need to provide them the knowledge and skills to succeed.

Best practices include: Launch company-wide CX training programs. Embed CX training in new employee onboarding. Use managers and frontline employees to deliver training programs. Develop specific training for manager and supervisors. Tap into e-learning for distributed employees.

Involve. Take action with employees when designing their jobs, improving work processes and solving problems identified through customer and employee feedback. Involving employees creates broader buy-in and a groundswell of engagement.

Best practices include: Develop a “voice of the employee” program. Establish a CX ambassador program. Develop employee-driven improvement processes. Facilitate cross-role, cross-functional employee connections. Invite employees to thank customers. Find simple, informal opportunities to involve employees.

Incent. Deploy appropriate systems to measure, reward and reinforce desired employee behaviors and to motivate employees to give their best. Employees do what is measured, incented and celebrated and will behave consistently with the environment they work within.

Best practices include: Enable peer-to-peer recognition. Provide on-the-spot rewards. Formalize CX incentive programs. Celebrate high-performing teams. Turn employee engagement into a management metric.

Across many groups

Mastering the five I’s requires collaboration across many groups, including senior executives, managers and frontline supervisors, marketing, IT and human resources. While all of these groups make important contributions, companies that want to raise employee engagement and improve their customer experience need their HR professionals and CX teams working together. Companies whose CX performance is above average in their industry are twice as likely to have significant involvement by HR in their efforts. CX professionals and HR leaders looking to team up should consider opportunities in the areas of training and employee onboarding, measurements and incentives, employee review processes, recruiting and hiring and awards and celebrations.

Posted in For Employers, Research Vendors | 1 Comment

Don’t make these top five résumé mistakes

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Jonathan Ciampi

Editor’s note: Jonathan Ciampi is the president and founder of Preptel, a Danville, Calif., employment firm.

Did you know that, at most companies: computers read your résumé first, not humans; at least 75 percent of résumés are discarded for using the wrong words; more than 20 119478696percent of résumés don’t make the list due to formatting issues; and only 1 percent of total applicants get an interview?

To combat this and drastically increase your odds, you should:

Not get overly creative: Perhaps counterintuitive, however, most large companies use software to filter résumés so your experience might be overlooked altogether if you try and get fancy and list your “Work Experience” as “Career Highlights.”

Not PDF your résumé: If you use PDF, you are missing job opportunities. Many people are using PDF as their preferred résumé format, however PDF is far more error-prone than MS Word, text or even HTML. If you are using PDF, you are likely missing out on many interviews because a hiring company is not seeing your whole résumé.

Customize your résumé for each position – it’s a MUST: Here is the hard truth: a single résumé will not position you properly for every job. We analyzed thousands of candidates and found a single résumé varies significantly from one job to another. Some candidates range from a job-fit rating of 9 percent to 73 percent. Since a résumé is one of your best assets, it is surprising so many candidates fail to tailor their résumé to each job. Regardless of how you get into a company, hiring companies will use your résumé to determine if you are qualified and a general résumé is a poor choice.

Always format your electronic résumé for automated recruiting: A human will not read your résumé until after it is read, parsed and classified by a computer. Even then, a human will only read it if it is a good match to the job description. It won’t matter how pretty you formatted your résumé or how well you write about your qualifications if the computer is unable to interpret the specifics.

Use keywords: Hiring managers receive a summary report generated by applicant tracking system (ATS) software that removes bias-causing problems, tracks EEOC compliance and performance and supposedly levels the playing field across the applicant pool. Regardless of how a résumé gets in front of a company – friend, job board, recruiter or online application – everyone goes through these ATS systems. Identifying keywords and knowing how you rank through ATS systems used to be guesswork but today technology tools are finally assisting job seekers in putting in the keywords that will help them get the job they want.

Posted in Corporate Researchers, Employment Tips | 1 Comment

Job applicants, you don’t know what clothes you look good in

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Sandy Dumont

Editor’s note: Sandy Dumont is a certified image consultant and author. Her latest publication, Color Me Correctly, Please, will be released spring 2013. For more information visit  www.theimagearchitect.com.

Sociobiologists tell us that buried deep inside us, we all have compelling urges related to survival. Nearly everything we do and every decision we make is related to these survival instincts. It’s in our DNA.

You think you choose colors that make you look good. You think you choose what you wear based on the results in the mirror. You don’t. Your color and fashion choices resonate from the depths of your primitive DNA. Your decisions about what you wear are based on the most basic survival instincts.

In other words, you dress to be safe. Figuratively speaking, when you leave the cave each morning, you dress to keep dangerous predators from noticing you. We do it all over the world:

  • Big city inhabitants dress in the dark colors of tall skyscrapers.
  • In the South, everyone wears floral prints and pastels.
  • People in the Midwest adorn themselves in earthy tones.
  • In the Southwest, desert colors like terracotta and mustard yellow prevail.

 

Modern-day image and color consultants compound the error of our ways. Color analysis burst on the scene in the 1980s and every book on the subject promised to make getting dressed easier. They did. You simply wore colors that matched your personality or your superficial appearance – specifically your hair and eye color.

They also promised to make you look better. In retrospect, a few people did. However, for most, it caused confusion and didn’t work. Redheads weren’t certain whether they were Autumns or Springs. A myriad of blondes from New York City and Paris noticed that they could wear black, contrary to what all the “experts” said. A great many people wondered why every season could wear one or two identical colors.

Yet, the color concept caught on, because at a certain level, it made us feel smug. “I knew it,” said all the redheads. “Rust, coral and camel are my colors!” Blondes read it and smiled. “Yes, I’ve always known pastels were for me; especially blush pink.” Sandy-haired men confirmed that their light brown suits were better than navy blue or black.

In reality, dressing to match the superficial appearance feels safe, because we don’t stand out too much. It seems so natural, and no wonder. We’re simply doing what our primitive ancestors have always done.

The truth is, it’s a terrible way to choose colors for yourself. Today’s “survival” is different from our cave dweller days. Today, survival depends on being noticed. If you’re applying for a job or vying for a promotion, you need to stand out from the competition so you’ll be remembered.

Because there’s so much confusion out there, here are a few tried-and-proven methods for looking memorable and attractive, whether you’re job-hunting, heading to work in the morning or attending a research-industry conference:

  • Avoid drab colors. They make you look drab. This includes moss green, mustard yellow, most beiges and browns and drab shades of teal and burgundy.
  • The majority of people look better in cool colors than warm ones. Wear cool navy blue suits instead of warm brown or beige ones, for example.
  • Primary colors suit the majority of people. Wear black, navy and charcoal for men’s suits. These colors suit women also but they can also consider jewel tones. Remember, food colors like lemon, lime, orange and pea green are warm and less classy than cool jewel tones such as ruby, emerald, amethyst, sapphire and magenta. Men: wear ties in bold colors like reds, violets and gold or yellow tones.
  • Tailored garments look more powerful and professional. Men: make certain your suit and shirt collar do not pull away noticeably at the neck. Women: avoid garments that are shapeless and made of limp fabrics.
  • Women: Experts agree that professional makeup gives you more credibility and clout. It also gets you 17 percent higher income. Avoid brown lipstick, black eyeliner that looks too Goth, garish eye shadow colors like turquoise, blue and green. Monochromatic shades of brown look more sophisticated and professional
  • Good grooming is important. Avoid wrinkled shirts, unkempt hair and dated hairstyles, scruffy shoes, dirty nails.

 

These days, there aren’t any ferocious predators lurking at our doorsteps, so it’s okay to stop dressing to look invisible. We don’t need to match our superficial appearance. We don’t need to match our surroundings either.

Colors reflect moods; that’s been known for centuries. If you want to know the power of colors, ask a psychiatrist, not a stylist. Release yourself from outdated urges and think like a brand. With all due respect to UPS, most powerful brands don’t come packaged in plain brown wrappers, do they?

You do know the colors you look good in. You’ve just sabotaged yourself for the best of all reasons: survival. In this century, the dress code for survival is different. Survival in a competitive market demands that you walk into a room and own it. You won’t do that in boring beige.

Posted in Corporate Researchers, Employment Tips, The Business of Research | Comment

Manage your research career – don’t just focus on “looking for a job”

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Karen Morgan

Editor’s note: Karen Morgan is president of Morgan Search, a Santa Monica, Calif., recruitment firm specializing in the marketing research industry.

No one teaches us to manage our careers. Some people are fortunate and seem to just “fall into” opportunities. However, for most of us it’s vital to have at least an idea of where we want to go. This doesn’t mean you have to map out the next 10 years, simply that you have an idea of the following:

• What are your interests?

• What are your strengths?

• How can these play into your current role?

• Are you in the right role?

• What skills do you need to develop in order to take the next step in your career?

• What kind of environment do excel in? Organized and process-driven or less-structured and entrepreneurial?

Gone are the days of operating within a silo. Researchers need to be right- and left-brained in today’s business environment. They need to see themselves not as researchers but as problem-solvers and solution providers. This holds true at all levels and whether you’re on the client side or research agency side.

Today’s environment is so competitive that you always need to be thinking ahead and be aware of the business as a whole rather than focused on what you are doing or even on your department. How are you making yourself valuable beyond the research? Are there initiatives that you could be taking to increase your visibility and contribution? And, as importantly, what steps can you be taking to remain engaged, stretched and challenged?

We live in a world where training is minimal and managers have less time to guide and mentor, so more than ever, you will need to seek out your mentors. This may mean finding someone outside your immediate work environment.

As for training, this may be something you will need to do on your own time – and on your own dime. You may be able to convince your company to help pay for it, especially if you can demonstrate how these new skills will contribute to the business. But even if you firm won’t foot the bill, consider the outlay an investment in a better future for you and your career.

Posted in Corporate Researchers, Employment Tips, Employment Trends | Comment

Top 10 tips for running a great meeting

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Jean Kelley

Editor’s note: Jean Kelley is managing director of Jean Kelley Leadership Alliance, an executive training firm.

Any meeting you conduct at work is a reflection of you. What kind of image are you portraying? Professional, on-target and efficient? Or unprepared, unproductive and ineffective?

Unfortunately, few people receive formal training on how to conduct a great meeting and this lack of training is apparent in corporate conference rooms across the country. Between meetings that ramble on with no agenda and no action steps to participants feeling bored and questioning why the meeting is even taking place, it’s no wonder that so many people dread going to meetings.

To conduct a meeting that boosts your credibility and helps you achieve the company’s goals, keep these top 10 meeting tips in mind.

1. Know if you really need a formal meeting at all. Before sending the meeting invites, define why you’re having the meeting. Is it really necessary? Is there another way to accomplish the result? If you have a small department or group of attendees, perhaps a “stand up” meeting will suffice. In this case, you simply get everyone to gather in the hall, say what they need to know and then everyone disbands within five minutes. It’s a quick, painless and highly effective way to get a message out.

2. Set expectations prior to the meeting. If a meeting is indeed necessary, create the agenda and send it out prior to the meeting so people are clear on what’s going to be covered. If multiple topics are on the agenda, include a time allotment for each item. Also list a meeting adjournment time – and stick with it. The more detailed you are, the more professional you look.

3. Facilitate well during the meeting. The facilitator’s job is to keep the meeting running smoothly, to make sure everyone gets a say and to lead people through areas of conflict. Realize that no meeting runs itself. You need to lead people through each segment of the agenda and work for a resolution to each area of discussion.

4. Beware of Parkinson’s Law. As you facilitate, keep Parkinson’s Law in mind: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” The same is true for meetings. If you’ve set an hour for the meeting, chances are the meeting will drag on to fill that time slot. To keep this from happening, announce at the outset, “If we get through this agenda before the adjournment time, we all get to leave early.” Make that the goal, not the posted adjournment time.

5. Allow conflict. If the goal of your meeting is to solve a problem, then conflict is inevitable. Welcome it. A good facilitator will recognize when emotions get too high and will step in to keep the meeting on track. But don’t strive to avoid conflict. Nothing gets solved without first having a conflict of ideas.

6. Assign action steps. In a perfect world, people would 100-percent self-manage. We don’t live in a perfect world. That’s why the meeting leader needs to wrap up the meeting by summarizing the key points and then assigning the action steps. Decide who is going to do what and by when. Also determine how everyone will follow up on the action steps. Who is holding people accountable for doing what needs to get done? The more follow-up and accountability you have, the more likely you are to accomplish the stated goals.

7. Delegate the meeting responsibility. Just because you’re a department or company leader doesn’t mean you have to lead every meeting. Delegate some meetings to others so they can gain experience in this critical skill. If you don’t feel comfortable delegating the entire meeting, delegate a part of the meeting that’s focused on a specific topic. Give everyone a turn to develop their meeting prowess.

8. Know when to lead and when to participate. When you do delegate a meeting or when you’re attending someone else’s meeting, resist the urge to take over the meeting. Of course you can be an active participant and state your opinions but let the other person do their job and have the spotlight as the leader. They may not run the meeting exactly like you would but it’s their meeting. Let their own leadership style shine.

9. Always let people out early. Remember when you were a kid and the teacher let you out of class a minute or two early? Chances are you liked that teacher and didn’t mind going back to his or her class. Adults are the same way. As soon as you start going over the stated adjournment time, people disengage and tune out. Instead, let them out a few minutes early. If you’ve followed all the other points mentioned thus far, an early adjournment should be possible. If your meeting topic still has loose ends, address those key items with the needed parties privately. Keeping everyone in the meeting to address final points that don’t pertain to the group as a whole leaves people frustrated and bored – not the kind of last impression you want.

10. Have fun! Meetings have a reputation for being boring and uninspiring, so give people a chance to leave with something other than the agenda. For example, if the meeting takes place around a holiday, put out some holiday candies or small decorations that people can take. Do what you can to make a dull meeting memorable and fun.

Get things done

Meetings don’t have to be something people dread. When you implement these 10 tips for your future meetings, you’ll gain a reputation for being an effective meeting facilitator. And rather than being viewed as time wasters, your meetings will actually get things done.

 

 

Posted in Corporate Researchers, Marketing Research Best Practices | Comment

How to avoid the four landmines of hiring

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Brad Remillard

Editor’s note: Brad Remillard is cofounder of Impact Hiring Solutions and coauthor of You’re Not the Person I Hired: A CEO’s Guide to Hiring Top Talent. For more information visit www.bradremillard.com.

In a recent survey of over 100 CEOs and their key executives, the first question asked was, “Is hiring top talent critical to the success of your organization?” Not surprisingly, everyone replied, “Yes.” Not simply important, but critical. The follow-up question was, “If it is critical, then how much time each month is spent focusing on hiring, excluding when you are actively looking to fill a position?” Not surprisingly, only three people indicated that they devoted a great deal of time to hiring.

Something that is critical to the success of the organization gets virtually zero time unless there is a current need. Is that the way most critical issues are handled in your company? No strategic planning? No thought or action discussed or taken until the problem arises? Only once the problem arises is it dealt with it?

This management style often happens with hiring. Most other critical issues are regularly discussed during management meetings. Ongoing programs such as cost reductions, product development, increasing sales or market share, customer service and improving operational efficiencies are all constantly discussed and often major components of the company’s strategic plan. In fact, most strategic plans have a great emphasis on growth. Yet few ever include a strategy for hiring the people needed to execute the plan as the company grows. Except for a vague paragraph, strategic hiring is rarely part of a strategic plan.

Companies that truly want to secure top talent and do it on a consistent basis must avoid these four landmines when hiring:

1. Untrained managers. This is the No. 1 reason hiring fails. Few managers are actually trained on how to hire. Most managers have never even attended one course or read a book on hiring. For the few who have had training, it is usually limited to interviewing training. Granted, this is better than nothing, but interviewing is only one step in an effective hiring process. If you aren’t finding qualified candidates, all interviewing training will do is validate they aren’t qualified. If the job isn’t properly defined then where you look for candidates may not be the right place, resulting in unqualified candidates.

If companies are serious about improving hiring, step one is to develop an effective hiring process and then train their managers in all aspects of the process.

2. Poorly-defined job. This mistake results in the search going sideways before it even starts. Traditional job descriptions for the most part aren’t job descriptions at all. Most describe a person. Does this read like your job descriptions? “Minimum five years of experience, minimum B.A. degree, then a list of minimum skills/knowledge and certifications.” Let’s not forget the endless list of behaviors the candidate must have: team player, high energy, self-starter, strategic thinker, good communicator, etc. Of course there is the list of the basic duties, tasks and responsibilities. This traditional job description defines a minimum qualified person, not the job. So before the search starts it is all about finding the least-qualified person. Is there any wonder why the least-qualified person shows up at your door?

Instead of defining the least-qualified person, start by defining superior performance in the role or the results expected to be achieved once the person is on board. For example:

– Improve customer service feedback scores from X to Y.

– Reduce turnover from X percent to Y percent within the next 12 months.

– Implement a sales forecasting process that includes a rolling three-month forecast that is accurate within X percent of actual sales.

Now that is the real job. It defines expectations, not some vague terms or minimum requirements. For every job there are usually at least four of these results required. The job is being defined by performance. In order for the person to be able to achieve these results they must have the right experience. Maybe it is five years, maybe three or maybe 10; it doesn’t matter. If they can do these it is enough. Now go find a person who can explain how they will deliver these once on board and you have the right person.

3. Finding the least-qualified candidates. As referenced above, most companies search for the least-qualified to start with, then complain they are seeing only unqualified candidates.

The other issue causing this problem is that most companies start the hiring process too late. They wait until they absolutely need someone and then expect when they decide they are ready to hire someone, at that moment in time, top talent will magically appear on the market, find them, be so compelled after reading the minimum job description that they update their résumés and respond to the ad.

Reactive hiring must be made a thing of the past. Hiring top talent requires proactive hiring. This means your hiring managers must be in the market engaging people all the time, not only when hiring. They should be connecting with people on LinkedIn, involved in professional associations and commit at least an hour or two a month to hiring. Few managers spend any time engaging potential candidates when they aren’t actively hiring. In fact, many even discard résumés as they come in if they aren’t hiring. Finding top talent doesn’t take a lot of time each month but it does take a consistent monthly effort of an hour or two.

4. Disrespecting the candidates. Top talent, especially those candidates who are working and are in no hurry to make a job change (often referred to as passive candidates) will walk away from a manager or company if they aren’t respected in the interviewing process.

Some common complaints by candidate of being disrespected include:

  • The hiring manager being late for the interview. Few managers would accept it if the candidate is late, so why should it be okay for the manager?
  • Lack of preparation by the interviewer. Again, if the candidate came in unprepared, would that be acceptable?
  • Taking calls during the interview.
  • Telling the candidate if they have any further questions to call and then ignoring the calls. If managers don’t respect the candidate during the hiring process it isn’t going to get any better once they are hired.

 

The interview is a PR event. These candidates will make sure others know how they were treated. They may post it on a Web site, hear about a person they know who is interviewing and speak with them about their experience. Bad PR is never good. This is an easy thing to fix. All it takes is treating candidates the same way you would treat a customer.

If you are having hiring problems, taking a step back to review – and avoid – these four mistakes is the best way to start changing how your company hires.

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