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Survey Shows Thank-You Notes Influence Hiring Decisions, But Only Half of Candidates Send Them
Your mother told you to do it, and now a new survey shows she was right: Sending a thank-you note not only displays impeccable manners but also may give job hopefuls an edge over other applicants. While nearly nine out of 10 of executives polled (88 percent) said sending a thank-you note following an interview can boost a job seeker's chances, they also estimate that half of applicants (49 percent) fail to do so. The good news: More candidates are following up post-interview today than five years ago.
The national poll included responses from 150 senior executives -- including those from human resources, finance and marketing departments -- with the nation's 1,000 largest companies. It was conducted by an independent research firm and developed by Accountemps.
Eighty-eight percent of executives said they consider a post-interview thank-you note influential when evaluating candidates, a slight increase from when executives were asked this same question five years ago (86 percent in 2002).
Executives polled said half (51 percent) of the candidates they interview send thank-you notes afterward, compared with 39 percent five years ago.
Executives also were asked, "How do you prefer to receive thank-you messages from candidates following interviews?" Their responses:
| Handwritten note | 52% | |
| 44% | ||
| Prefer to receive both | 3% | |
| Don't know | 1% | |
| 100% |
"Regardless of how someone believes he or she performed during the interview, sending a short thank-you note afterward demonstrates initiative and courtesy," said Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps and author of Managing Your Career For Dummies (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). "Conveying appreciation in a well-written message is not only polite, it also can distinguish a job applicant from others vying for the same position."
Messmer added that the best strategy often is to send an e-mail shortly after the interview, followed by more formal correspondence. "E-mail ensures immediacy, but hiring managers still favor the personal touch of a handwritten note," he said.
According to Accountemps, thank-you notes should be just a few paragraphs in length and accomplish three objectives: Express your appreciation for the opportunity; reinforce your interest in the job; and restate the value you can bring to the organization.
Article courtesy of Accountemps with more than 350 offices throughout North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, and offers online job search services.
Posted by Candice Arnold on October 9, 2008 at 11:36 AM | Leave a Comment (0)
According to research conducted by employeescreenIQ's quality service division, the group found that approximately 10 percent of education verifications completed by the global employment screening company during the second quarter of 2008 uncovered discrepancies between the information it obtains through its investigations and facts provided by job candidates. The item most frequently falsified by applicants was the completion of their high school education.
"False information about ones' educational history is the third most common discrepancy we uncover while conducting verifications for our clients," said employeescreenIQ's Vice President of Quality Service, Kevin Bachman. "As we released in our 2009 background screening trends, due to the tightening of the job market, we are predicting a rise in the number of individuals that "fluff" their resume, including their educational history. Our facts show that if it wasn't for proper screening, for every 10 people a company hired, one would have obtained employment while lying about their education, a very important aspect in most jobs," said Bachman.
employeescreenIQ's research also revealed these interesting facts:
"EmployeescreenIQ's findings are in line with insight we receive from our employer clients," said Steven Rothberg, president of CollegeRecruiter.com, the premiere information source for college students and recent graduates that are seeking employment, continuing education and business opportunities.
"When it pertains to education, job candidates are more likely to inflate their academic experience than to outright lie. Few will claim they graduated from a school they didn't attend, or state they have a business degree when they actually graduated with a major in communications. Given the reluctance of many, and perhaps most schools, to delve into details about the academic qualifications of their alumni, these exaggerations can be very, very difficult for most employers to identify," said Rothberg.
Due to the difficult nature of completing successful education verifications, it is important employers work with an employment screening company that utilizes best practices methods. In addition to education verifications, hiring professionals should check with their screening company to make sure they have the ability to conduct professional reference interviews and license verifications. These three elements play key roles in exposing applicants attempting to falsify their education credentials.
Article by, Nick Fishman and courtesy of EmployeescreenIQ
Posted by Candice Arnold on October 9, 2008 at 8:01 AM | Leave a Comment (0)
An applicant who was denied a job after disclosing that he was in the process of becoming a woman won a discrimination lawsuit against the Library of Congress.
The Facts
David Schroer served in the U.S. Army for twenty-five years, including a stint as a Special Forces Commander leading a team that tracked international terrorists. After retiring as a colonel in 2004, Schroer applied for a terrorism and international crime research position at the Library of Congress.
According to Schroer's attorney, Schroer received the highest interview score of all the candidates who applied for the position. He was offered the job in December 2004.
Before starting the job, Schroer had lunch with his new boss, Charlotte Preece. During lunch, Schroer disclosed that he was transitioning to become a woman named Diane. Schroer testified that after the disclosure Preece said, "Well, you've given me a lot to think about. I'll be in touch."
Preece then put a halt to the processing of Schroer's employment documentation. She then allegedly expressed concern about whether Schroer's "transitioning" would be a distraction and whether it would negatively affect his/her security clearance, contacts within the Army and intelligence community and ability to credibly represent the Library before Congress.
The next day, Preece called Schroer to inform him that the Library was withdrawing the job offer. Preece allegedly told Schroer that "after a long and sleepless night, based on our conversation yesterday, I've determined that you are not a good fit, not what we want." Preece then filled the position with a male applicant who had a lower interview score than Schroer.
Schroer sued, claiming gender discrimination in violation of Title VII.
Continue reading "Transgender Applicant Wins Discrimination Suit"
Posted by Candice Arnold on October 7, 2008 at 11:25 AM | Leave a Comment (0)
Are you an employee? Want to get fired fast? Lie.
Are you an employer? Want to get sued fast? Lie.
According to a batch of recent studies discussed on FoxNews.com, it appears that lying is getting more and more rampant in the workplace.
What's behind this phenomenon? It's simple: we want to look good.
According to researcher Jennifer Argo, "We want to both look good when we are in the company of others (especially people we care about), and we want to protect our self-worth." Not surprisingly, her study found that people are "more likely to muddle the truth with our co-workers than with perfect strangers."
E-mails in particular were identified as a hotspot of "untruthiness." "There is a growing concern in the workplace over e-mail communications, and it comes down to trust," said Liuba Belkin, co-author of another study. "You're not afforded the luxury of seeing nonverbal and behavioral cues over e-mail. And in an organizational context, that leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation and, as we saw in our study, intentional deception."
What does this mean for employers?
Thinking back on all the employment lawsuits I've handled over the years, I'd have to say the #1 thing that executives do to get themselves and their companies in trouble is to lie. Almost all other infractions can be forgiven, but lying (particularly during an investigation or as part of an attempted cover-up) can cancel out years of built-up personal goodwill.
It's critical that employers foster a culture of integrity, starting at the top. If employees see their leaders distorting the truth they're likely to follow suit.
All managers should be trained on the importance of keeping communications honest. Documents that distort the truth -- including everything from performance evaluations to discipline notices to run-of-the-mill e-mails -- can wind up as defense-killing exhibits in litigation. I've personally seen entire lawsuits undone by a single e-mail that made the company look dishonest.
The bottom line: tell the truth.
Article by Mark Toth, Chief Legal Officer of Manpower's North American operations, and courtesy of Manpower Employment Blawg. Mark also serve as Chief Compliance Officer and Vice President of Franchise Relations and serve on our Global Leadership Team, North American Lead Team, Executive Diversity Steering Committee and Sarbanes-Oxley Steering Committee.
Posted by Candice Arnold on October 7, 2008 at 11:20 AM | Leave a Comment (0)
"How do you negotiate when you need to make a positive impression? The answer may depend on your gender," states a new study by Jennifer Overbeck of USC's Marshall and Jared Curhan of MIT's Sloan School of Management. When people try to make a positive impression, they may behave in ways that contradict gender stereotypes, but not necessarily to their benefit, according to the study which assigned 190 MBA students to same-sex groups to represent either a high-status recruiter or a low-status job candidate engaged in a standard employment negotiation simulation.
Half of the participants were offered an additional cash incentive to make a positive impression on their negotiation counterparts. When incented to make a positive impression, men and women in the high-status role acted in ways that contradicted gender stereotypes. Women negotiated more aggressively and men negotiated in a more appeasing manner.
"The findings were surprising," says Overbeck, an assistant professor of management and organization, who has taught negotiation to Marshall MBA students for five years. "We thought the impression motivator would intensify impression response, meaning that if you were conciliatory, you'd become more so, but being aware of making a good impression made the subjects do the opposite."
In the study, women who were motivated to make a positive impression, perhaps in an effort to refute the stereotype that they are weak or ineffective negotiators, advocated more strongly for their own interests. In contrast, men who were motivated to make a positive impression, perhaps in an effort to refute the stereotype that they are overly aggressive, yielded to the demands of the other side.
While the men's strategy of behaving in a more conciliatory fashion apparently succeeded in producing a positive impression in the counterparts' eyes, the women's strategy of behaving more assertively failed to create a more positive impression. Instead, women who behaved more assertively were judged more negatively.
"Men who try to make a positive impression by being conciliatory risk forfeiting their own economic outcomes and women who try to make positive impressions by being assertive can risk damaging their relationships."
Implications
"One implication of the study is that people have a menu of options when it comes to negotiating behavior and they need to choose strategically," said Overbeck. "If you are establishing a new relationship, you can take a hit financially; when the economic outcome is more important and the relationship isn't needed or already established, more aggressive tactics can be pulled out from time to time. Our recommendation is that the more negotiators of both sexes are conscious of dynamics affecting negotiation, the more planning or practicing they can and should do."
Article courtesy of Kennedy Information Recruiting Trends providing leading edge insights and strategies for the recruiting professional
Posted by Candice Arnold on October 7, 2008 at 11:04 AM | Leave a Comment (0)
Do your employees have a sense of the bigger picture?
There is a Persian story that goes something like this: A group of villagers is weaving a basket together. A wise man walks by and asks them what they are doing. The first says, "I am pushing one straw against another." The second says, "I am making a basket." The third answers, "I'm helping a family carry food to feed his family."
Though they were all three working on the same project, they each saw their jobs very differently. How do your employees see their jobs? Is it as the same mundane pushing of one woven strip against another, or do they see a little bigger than that - which is the basket itself - or do they see a purpose for why they are doing what they are doing?
The difference is that the last villager was engaged. And similar to our notion of Corporate Relationship Deficit Disorder, for some reason, when we walk into our corporate offices, we leave behind many of the notions about personal relationships that we hold dear while we're at home. Most people are more engaged in the Super Bowl than they are with their company's results.
A very real sense of engagement is possible. We've seen several clients that have a very natural, sustainable, and incredibly magnetic manner in which they draw incredible talent. When employees feel engaged, they are captivated and mesmerized. They feel a strong sense of connection to not just what they are doing, but the purpose in which they are doing it.
There are four common traits/ingredients that enhance a leader's ability to truly engage his or her team:
Article by, David Nour and courtesy of Kenndy Information Recruiting Trends providing leading edge insights and strategies for the recruiting professional
Posted by Candice Arnold on October 7, 2008 at 10:56 AM | Leave a Comment (0)
Today, I spoke with Daniel Esty, who is a Yale professor and expert on the environment. One of the major news themes in the past year has been the environment and how companies should "go green." Daniel is one of the most knowledgeable people on this topic, so we discuss how "going green" can actually help improve a companies bottom line and attract and retain employees.
Do you think companies should embrace a "green culture" to attract and retain Generation-Y?
One of the big surprises that emerged out of the research behind GREEN TO GOLD was the importance of bringing environment into business strategy as a matter of human resources policy. Many companies report that many of today's younger employees (and potential hires) want to work for a company whose corporate culture and values they respect. Concern for the environment emerges as a core value for many, especially the most highly sought after knowledge workers.
Continue reading "All Brands Should Embrace the Green Movement"
Posted by Candice Arnold on October 7, 2008 at 10:40 AM | Leave a Comment (0)
