Successful Blog

Should You Be Prone to Hiring Big Data-Skilled Workers?

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Keyboard With Key LearnShould you be hiring candidates with big data skills?

As big data becomes a big part of many businesses’ operations, there are more candidates out there who have gained big data skills either through their job, or by specializing in big data during their studies.

If you’re considering taking on candidates with big data skills, what can those skills do for your business?

Big Data and Business

Big data has a wide variety of uses for your business. Sometimes the difficulty is deciding what to focus on first.

You can use big data to analyze your customers’ behavior.

This could include anything from purchasing trends to how they interact with your website. You can gain insights into who these individuals are, where they are, what they want and how they interact with you.

You can use big data to track your business processes and finances.

From tracking the way sales ebb and flow throughout the year to analyzing data from different departments, big data can give you insights into the way your business works.

You can use big data to keep your social media game on top form.

From figuring out which posts are getting the most customer engagement, to finding out what customers are  saying about you, big data gives you insights via social media.

Where to Find Your Big Data Candidates

So just where can you find your big data candidates?

There are two main ways:

Hiring a candidate who recently studied big data, or looking for someone with experience. Both have their advantages.

With more schools offering big data courses these days, you can find candidates who have been taught an in depth knowledge of big data.

As the article “Hiring Smart: The 5 Best Schools Cranking Out Big Data Job Candidates” says, big data students will have learned while training on real data sets, giving them the skills your business needs.

You can also hire candidates who already have experience in the field.

With more businesses making use of big data, so more professionals are learning big data skills and applying them in their roles.

Whether you hire a dedicated data scientist, or a skilled multi-tasker with big data smarts, experienced candidates will bring expertise to their role.

Big Data Can Be Applied In Many Roles

With so many uses for big data, there is the potential for you to make use of big data skills across departments.

Candidates with big data skills will bring an in-depth knowledge of how big data works, and how to make the most of it. Those skills can provide a real boost to your business; giving you candidates who can undertake in depth analysis and use the insights they gain to drive your business forward.

From analyzing data about your business processes, to streamlining your marketing efforts, candidates who can handle big data can do a lot for your business.

As well as hiring someone specifically for the role of data specialist, you will also benefit from looking for big data skills in any candidate who will be in a position to use data to gain insights.

There’s no doubt that big data is here to stay.

By hiring candidates who are confident handling big data, you will be providing your business with valuable skills that will benefit you in the long term.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Tristan Anwyn is an author who writes on a range of topics including social media, SEO that works, and how to make big data work for your business.

Who do you want in the trenches with you?

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Spoiler alert: this post contains a spoiler about the conclusion of Celebrity Apprentice.

You’re building a business. It has some similarities to going into battle.

  • You don’t really know what’s going to happen.
  • You need to equip yourself properly.
  • You must be in it for the long haul.
  • You need a strategy.
  • You must know what you want to get out of it. What’s the mission.
  • You need to have a thick skin and confidence.
  • You have to be able to handle unexpected events.
  • You need to know when it’s time to retreat with honor.

And.

You need the right people in the trenches with you.

Band of Brothers in the trenches

But how do you know who will be there, handing you the last cigarette as the artillery fire is landing all around you? Who will jump out of the trench with you and charge into the unknown, eyes fixed on the next hill? Whom do you want to share victory with?

Perhaps I’ve watched Band of Brothers one too many times, but I’ve always known that surrounding yourself with the right people is crucial to success. Jim Collins calls it “getting the right people on the bus.”

How can you discern who will be really invested in what you’re doing…as a colleague, partner, or customer?

How can you ensure that you have the right people?

Here are some tips:

  • Work with someone smarter. Surround yourself with people who inspire you with their resourcefulness, their savvy, and their education. If you need to be the smartest person in the room, you’re not cut out to be a business leader.
  • Work with someone who knows something different. If your special skill set is marketing, hire someone who’s an ace at finance. Know your own strengths, and choose people who compliment them.
  • Work with someone who’s been somewhere different. Find people who have a different life story, a different perspective. You don’t want to be surrounded by yes-men and yes-women. Find people who will argue with you if you’re wrong.
  • Give your people a way to shine. Leeza Gibbons won Celebrity Apprentice this week because she consistently took advantage of her team’s talents and allowed them the room to perform.
  • Stop trying to convince people. As an entrepreneur, your resources are best invested in people who already “get it.” When you describe your mission, look for the light to go on in the other person’s eyes. If it’s not there, you don’t have a good fit, and it’s best for both of you if you move on.

Who’s in the trenches with you?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

How to Work with a Web Design Firm; 5 Questions with Andy Crestodina

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When you’re starting a business, one of the first items on the agenda is putting together a website. But it can be really tricky to figure out who can help you get it done.

site is under construction

Luckily, I managed to snag some time with the very busy Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media. I asked him some questions about how to hire and work with a reputable web design firm. (Thanks Andy!)

Every entrepreneur starts out thinking they can cobble together a decent website with HTML, spit, duct tape, and the design knowledge they picked up in college. How do you know it’s time to get professional help?

You know your website is bad when you hope that people don’t visit it. It sounds like a joke, but it’s not uncommon. You tell people the address, but add a disclaimer: I’m still working on it… I made it myself… I’m planning to redesign it soon…

If it’s not obvious from a lack-of-pride, it may be obvious in your Analytics. If traffic isn’t up from last year and if it’s not turning 1% – 3% of visitors into customers and leads, something is probably wrong.

What are some critical indicators that you’re talking to a rip-off artist rather than a professional web design shop? Some of them look pretty convincing.

If you connect with the company through a referral, that helps. Beyond this, I recommend asking some specific questions:

  • Can I meet the team? This will tell you if they’re a company of full time people, or a collection of freelancers. There’s more risk of issues if they’re all freelancers or if they outsource the work.
  • Have you ever done a similar project for a similar company? Ideally, the answer is yes. Ask about the return on the investment and the results in Analytics.
  • What kind of support do you offer after the site goes live? If they have a team dedicated to helping clients post-launch, you’re more likely to be happy in the long run. If their support team is the same as the project team, they may not be great at service over the long run…

They should be really excited to answer your questions. You should be able to feel some passion. If they sound worried about your project, you should probably be a bit worried about trusting them with the project.

What should we expect in an initial consultation with a web consultant? Do we need to have anything prepared in advance?

You should expect to get a demo of their process. Most web companies have a process that they believe in. Seeing this will give you a sense for what to expect. The process should emphasize the people, the scope and the timeframe.

Listen for evidence that the process and the projects are focused on results. Listen for signs that they understand Analytics. They should talk a bit about search engines, visitor psychology and future updates. This shows they care about the three most important things: traffic, conversion rates and easy updates.

How often should a website be re-designed or refreshed? If it’s working well, do you still need to change it periodically?

Website content should be updated regularly, but that doesn’t mean you have to blog everyday. In a recent post about how often to blog, we suggested that blogging and email frequency be aligned to the sales cycle in your industry.

But if the site performs well, it should be years before a complete redesign is necessary. The lifespan of a great website is three to five years!

What’s the most common web design mistake you see small businesses making right now? You don’t have to name names.
There are so many common mistakes! Here’s a quick list…

  1. Generic Navigation
    If the navigation looks like this… “About, Services, Blog, Contact” …then you’re probably missing opportunities to communicate quickly to visitors and indicate relevance to search engines.
  2. Contact Pages Without Forms
    If the contact page doesn’t have a form, it doesn’t have a thank you page, which means you can’t easily track leads in Google Analytics. A contact page with an email link is a problem.
  3. Long Paragraphs
    Remember, visitors are busy. They want to scan. Be concise.
  4. The Home Page Title Tag Says “Home”
    This little bit of text is the single most important piece of SEO real estate on the website. You wouldn’t write a book and call it “Book” so don’t make the title of your home page, “Home”
  5. Abandoned Spaceship Syndrome
    The about page should have names and faces of the team. Better yet, make a page for each person. People buy from people, so add personality to the site. Small business have an advantage here, but a lot of small companies miss the opportunity.

There are a dozen other common mistakes, but these ones are pretty easy to fix. Hope this is helpful!

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Photo Credit: jakeisdead via Compfight cc

How Much Can the Wrong Hire Cost You?

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Hiring a new employee carries some risk.

The person you choose to hire may look and sound great during interview, but he or she may turn out to be a poor performer in the end. It is essential that you try to avoid making a wrong hire, because it can cost your company dearly.

According to The Harvard Business Review, about 80 percent of employee turnover results from poor hiring decisions. Here is a look at the potential costs of a bad hire.

Financial Loss

In a survey conducted by CareerBuilder, about 41 percent of companies estimated that a bad hiring decision cost them more than $25,000 and 25 percent said that it cost them more than $50,000.

The financial cost of replacing a bad employee can vary greatly depending on his or her position in your company.

The Labor Department estimates that the average cost of replacing a new hire is about one-third of his or her annual salary.

Some of the expenses that are involved include interview expenses, orientation and training, employment assessment, termination costs, potential legal expenses for wrongful dismissal, relocation and career transition. A large portion of the financial loss results from the need to repeat the hiring process to find a replacement.

Lower Productivity and Work Quality

Poor job performance is usually the main reason why a particular employee is considered a bad hire.

An employee who is not making enough effort to fulfill his or her job duties satisfactorily can have a significant negative impact on the overall productivity of your company.

If he or she is constantly failing to meet deadlines and delivering poor quality work that needs to be redone, it will take a longer time for your company to complete projects and possibly cause your workforce to become more disorganized.

Negative Work Environment

Hiring the wrong employee can also have an adverse effect on the morale and satisfaction levels of other employees.

Competent employees may be required to pick up additional work because of the incompetence of the new employee, and they may feel dissatisfied as a result of that.

If the new employee has an attitude problem, he or she can undermine teamwork and create an inharmonious work environment, which can in turn hinder your business performance.

Reputation Damage

Employees who deal directly with customers are the “face” of your business, and their attitudes and behaviors can affect your customers’ perception of your company.

If the new employee occupies a customer-facing position, he or she can jeopardize your relationship with your customers. Poor service and negative attitude can upset and frustrate customers, and cause them to lose loyalty. A bad employee can cause significant damage to your business reputation even if he or she is with your company for just a few months.

A good workforce is one of the key ingredients for business success.

As such, you have to take the necessary measures to ensure that you hire the right people for your company.

Photo credit: pinnacleplacement.com

About the Author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who writes on a wide range of subjects, from human resource management to online reputation management services.

Manage Your Milennial New Hires With Loose Reins

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By Barry Welford

A large proportion of the people you will be recruiting will come from those born since 1980. These are often called Generation Y and the younger of them are known as Generation Z or Millennials. Likely they will be technologically savvy and will be well informed on the job market place and what it has to offer. What are they looking for in working in your company, and what do you need to have them achieve for success?

There is much online help for this significant recruiting challenge and there are even webinars that can set out effective strategies for recruiting Gen-Y.

The recruitment process can only be regarded as a success if both the candidates selected and the company achieve their goals through the contributions of these new hires.

Establishing A Loose Reins Culture

A company culture that is likely to resonate well with these new hires is what the Harvard Business Review calls the “Loose Reins” approach to management. Sometimes, the best management is little or no management at all. Sometimes, effective order and engaging experiences can be achieved with the most simple rules.

The article gives examples of how these principles are applied and gives the following summary of what it is all about:

The power of this kind of self-organization suggests that creativity and innovation might best be achieved not through rigid hierarchy and central controls, but from one or two simple but vital agreements. These agreements are often implicit, ones that everyone understands and is accountable for, yet that are left open to individual interpretation and variation. When we provide the right social context and then let things be, employees self-organize and produce better environment and better results than managers imposing control.

That sounds very appealing but clearly is somewhat revolutionary. Perhaps not everyone will be comfortable in this kind of environment. The recruiting and selection process clearly is critical in making candidate choices that will be successful for both parties.

Selecting Generation Y Candidates Who Can Accept Loose Reins

Before discussing the factors that will distinguish the most successful candidates for this Loose Reins culture, it is easier to define the characteristics of those who will not fit:

Individuals who

  • are black and white thinkers and do not see the shades of gray
  • insist on clearly defined detailed rules
  • are not self-starters
  • have difficulty in making decisions

The better candidates will be at the other end of the spectrum on these dimensions. In particular, they:

  • have an attitude of getting things done
  • can cope with ambiguity and devise practical rules that work
  • are innovative in finding novel solutions
  • will involve and work with other team members

Needless to say candidates will only be interviewed if they have the necessary job and technical skills to handle the position.

What These Candidates Will Demand

What may sometimes be overlooked is that it is even more critical for the candidate that the outcome should be successful. The company can move on fairly rapidly if a wrong decision has been made, but the individual will be faced with much more significant problems if the job is not working out. You can therefore expect that the best candidates will have their own requirements that must be met. In addition to the standard terms such as salary, vacation, hours of work and working conditions these might well include the following:

  • A realistic job description
  • A list of available resources and budgets
  • A clear statement on results to be achieved
  • Possible career opportunities based on success

The bottom line on all this is that the successful candidate and the company must have a shared vision on what is to be achieved and the plan to make it happen. Without this, there is a good chance that one or other or both will be severely disappointed.

Are you a “loose reins” manager?

Author’s Bio: Barry Welford writes for Next Day Flyers. He is a frequent blogger on business performance and Internet Marketing. You can follow him on Twitter at @bwelford.

Should You Try and Hire the Competition’s Talent?

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Competition isn’t just reserved for sports, sometimes in the business world; you have to be willing to go that extra mile to solidify your company as one to be reckoned with.

As a small business owner one of the toughest challenges is hiring the right executives and CEO whose is going to beneficial to the company and actually make things happen.

Of course you only want the best of the best. Sometimes that best may be someone who is working for your competition. These industry professionals have the experience, the skills and the valuable contacts that can possibly take your company to a higher level.

Risks of Taking The Competition’s Talent

How can you steal them from their current employer while being tactful?

Before you formulate any kidnapping plans it’s important for you to know the associated risks. The specific employer could be under some type of contract so you will have to work around that.

You could also easily become known as an employee poacher or even worse; that you like to “play dirty”.

Stay Subtle

First, you should start off subtle.

Being that you are in the same industry as the rival company, more than likely you’ll have some of the same or similar contacts. You can let these contacts know that you are currently interesting in hiring an experienced employee. Casually mention the perks you are willing to offer for the “right” person.

When your contacts hear that you are hiring they may pass that along the grapevine and the information may find itself to the right person.

Get Professional

Another great option is to acquire the services of a professional executive search firm.

An executive search firm specializes in recruiting candidates that have experience in working in highly specialized positions within a company.

You can let the search firm know that you are interested in a particular person. They will approach the person from the rival company and discuss with them a possible job opportunity.

Also, remember that you have to have something great you can offer this possible new employee to motivate them to want to work with your small business. This could be a pay raise or a high position of authority.

Hiring a search firm prevents you from immediately having to reveal your identity. This protects vital relationships with business partners because the search firm is the one doing the recruiting.

Check and Recheck

Also you may want to have a background check completed on that specific employee. You want to make sure that they really are worth the risk. Although, most corporate employees don’t have a criminal history, you should still check for one.

If this skilled worker, agrees to take a meeting or interview with your company you should be very direct and upfront with them. Let them know why you feel they will be a great asset to your company and also how your business can help them grow.

Inquire about any non-disclosure or contract agreements they have with their current employer.

Finally, consult with your lawyer to get a good understanding of your options.

Photo credit: techcrunch.com

About the Author: Tina Samuels writes on how to get to the top of Google, social media, marketing, and small business topics.