It’s the dawn of 2012 – the year we’ve all been waiting for, thanks to the Mayans and their spooky calendar forecasting the end of the world in December. Some of my friends have jokingly threatened to max out their credit cards, take up smoking, stop exercising, move to a beach house, and live it up this year. Why not, right? If the end time is coming, who cares about bad credit scores, smoker’s cough, or expanding waistlines?

I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet. The Mayans may have foretold doomsday, but I’ve got my own set of predictions for 2012. I’m not suggesting who’s going to win the next election or the Super Bowl. My predictions are less about events and more about dynamics – the nature of the dynamics between us and our companies, our colleagues, our families and friends, and our communities.

If we’re not careful, gridlock will become a way of life. In 2012, we’ll continue to see gridlock in politics (neither side of the aisle is willing to compromise), travel (out-dated and under-funded infrastructure vis-à-vis our roadways, the FAA, and a lack of fuel-efficient travel alternatives), and customer service (a generally lackluster and synthetic approach to handling customer service issues). Whether it’s in politics, travel, or customer service, gridlock is evidence that assets have been overleveraged; that there is little more to give. So, if all signs point to more impasses, more stalemate, and more logjams, is gridlock something we’re going to have to get used to? Maybe not… I think 2012 has the potential to be the year of anti-gridlock.

What follows are 10 things I think will influence all of our relationships in the coming year to help push through the gridlock that was 2011, whether the Mayans were right about the End of Days or not.

1.  Non-traditional education is in. We all agree that computers (and iPads) should be used in school, and that we should tailor teaching to the way our kids learn, not the other way around. In 2012, we will see the needle move in our antiquated education model. There will no longer be a devotion to one-size-fits-all. The curriculum is no longer a sacred cow. The Khan Academy and Moodle are testaments to this. Open source learning platforms like these will make it possible to get curriculum from anywhere in the world, quickly and inexpensively. This is a game changer.

2.  Tablets will rule the day. The same way smart phones revolutionized the way we navigate our world (now, we can even use our phones to pay for a cup of coffee at Starbucks) so too, will tablets. Tablets are going to be an essential part of our everyday lives, for everything from reading books to shopping to doing our jobs. American Airlines is even allowing its pilots to use iPads in the air versus carrying on hefty flight manuals and charts, and the company estimates it’s going to save over a million dollars a year in fuel costs as a result. Just another environmentally-friendly step closer to eradicating paper. In fact, I think tablets will be the nail in the coffin for conventional newspapers.

3.  Videos, videos, and more videos. Whereas social media was the hot item in 2011, mobile media will be all the rage in 2012. I’m not talking about high-end production in terms of video quality. No, it’s all about the content. It’s so easy for anyone, anywhere, to capture a moment, an experience, or an event and then quickly distribute it worldwide; and what’s going to distinguish all of those feeds will be the content. People will gravitate to what’s most valuable.

4.   The ball is in the employee’s court. Throughout the late 2000’s, providing an excellent client experience was the focus of the most successful companies. But beginning in 2012, we’re going to see the emergence of a talent war which will force companies to not only provide an excellent client experience, but also a superior employee experience. Even though we still have high unemployment rates, there are tens of thousands of jobs available because there is a lack of qualified workers to fill them. There is going to be more competition for talent than ever before, especially in highly technical fields. Those who are qualified will be a hot commodity, and employers will have to compete to attract and keep the best and brightest.

5.   Stories still sell. This is a prediction that would probably come true every single year, not just in 2012. We, as human beings, are always going to be compelled by the will-to-win story, the story of a person or a company who had to struggle to overcome a challenge. We love the underdog because their stories give us hope, which is something we always need. So, stories will be the continued medium for how we communicate – and how we sell.

6.   Grit is the new currency. This goes back to #5: we will really begin to appreciate people who have worked through hardship and persevered. The more challenge you’ve overcome, the more trustworthy you are. In fact, grit is the leading indicator to trust. There’s something pure about someone overcoming a challenge versus someone who’s won the lottery or who’s famous for being famous (Hello, Paris Hilton! Hello, Snooki!). The latter do not inspire compelling, lasting relationships built on trust. They’re the antithesis of grit, and people will soon tire of them.

7.   Advice is a must. In a world where competition is fierce, people will be looking for every edge they possibly can. With fewer resources, less energy, and less to leverage, every decision becomes more critical. They’re looking for the newest, the best, the tried and true – whatever it is that’s going to help them move forward more quickly and efficiently. From consulting to continuing education, if it’s going to help folks net better results, people are going to be into it.

8.   Emotional intelligence finally breaks into the MBA programs for real. At last, the idea that ones’ emotional intelligence is as important to their success as their IQ will become institutionalized, and it will happen in an incredibly important place: the programs that train our business professionals. The notion that it takes more than book smarts to be a great business leader has been teetering on the brink of mainstream thinking for quite a while, but this year it will finally take flight in American MBA programs. It’s about time.

9.   This will be a reinvesting year… again. 2012 will not be a year to make withdrawals, but rather to continue making deposits. Reinvest, reinvest, reinvest, reinvest. I know we’re all tired of this. We’ve been doing it ad nauseam for three years now. But it is what it is, and we can’t expect the economy to be massively different than it was in 2011. Don’t expect to work any less hard. In fact, be prepared to work twice as hard, and be prepared for it to take twice as long to get us back to a pre-2008 economic landscape. We will probably have to do the same thing again next year, too. I know that’s blunt, but there’s no way to sugarcoat it. This is our new reality. It’s about living within our means. Being pragmatic with our finances. Investing in relationships and reinvesting in our companies, in our infrastructure, in our health, and in our communities. Trust me; these investments really will pay off… eventually.

10.   Gratitude is the common ground. Despite the difficulties we’re bound to face in 2012, we still have a pretty unique opportunity in this country. So if we want to find something to rally around, it would be in the form of gratitude, because it can always be worse. Our situation is not permanent. It’s not the end of the world. We have such incredible freedoms and opportunities, and so many choices compared to people in other countries. Sure, we have challenges headed our way, but at least we can be grateful for another year to be who we are, to really begin to share our perspectives with each other, and to listen to one another’s stories, because I believe that could actually move us out of gridlock and into a brighter tomorrow.

Joe Mechlinski is the President of entreQuest and has partnered with countless leaders to effectively improve their team’s performance, their clients’ experience, and their company’s profits.

Isn’t it strange that even with an unemployment rate of nine percent, people still feel uncomfortable saying that they are looking for work? It seems to me that people hesitate sharing this information because they think the only way to tell someone they are looking for new employment is to use words and phrases like, unemployed, seeking a new position, and between jobs which have negative connotations. So, often times the approach is to say nothing… but as a recruiter, I can’t help but argue the exact opposite.

Admitting that you’re looking for new employment doesn’t make you any less desirable than everyone else in the job market, especially  if you know what to say, how to say it, and who to say it to. 

Each of us has countless interactions every day with a wide variety of people. We talk to family, friends, neighbors, the Starbucks barista, the owner of the local dry cleaners – the list goes on and on. But what people forget is that any one of these interactions could result in their next career opportunity. Rather than keep quiet, you should tell anyone and everyone who is willing to listen you’re looking for a new job. You never know, your neighbor might work at a company that is looking to hire someone with your exact skill set, or a family friend may have a great contact for you to interview with. The key here is to get out and talk about it; explain to people your current situation! 

Now, I’m not telling you to go shout it from the rooftop and sit back waiting for job offers to flood your way – you’ve got to think strategically.  Simply telling people that you’re looking for work isn’t enough.  Here are a few tips to help you get started thinking about what to say and how to say it:  

• Be straight forward
• Be specific
• Be Authentic
• Never Assume
• Focus on the positive
• Ask for advice, not a job

Now that you have a better idea of what to say and how to say it, who do you tell? I recently read an article stating that 60 percent of all new hires come from referrals and a recent study conducted by Facebook and researchers at an Italian university found that 92 percent of Facebook’s users are connected by four degrees of separation. So, that means that at any given time you are only three friends away from connecting to the hiring manager at your next job! With statistics like that, what are you waiting for?  

Social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide a superb platform for referrals because you can easily keep people in your network up to speed on your current job situation. It is vital to utilize as many of these tools as possible to further your ultimate goal of securing a new position. Additionally, more and more recruiters are using the same tools to seek out new talent.  For them, it’s a cost effective and efficient way to secure candidates and for you it’s a simple change to your profile that will undoubtedly increase your odds of finding you next job.  

So, what are you waiting for? You know what to say, how to it, and who to say it to – tell someone! 

Donal O’Donoghue is an account manager at entreQuest who specializes in expanding work forces by finding the best talent with the ideal personalities to place in a wide range of positions across all types of industries.



Over the past few months, I have encountered several job candidates whose resumes revealed a past position which they had only held for a mere matter of months.  For the most part, all of these candidates had stellar work history before and after this particular position so it struck me as very odd.  I know there are two sides to every story but after conducting interviews with each of these candidates, there seemed to be one common thread to their tales.

Each person had been set up to fail in their respective role.  Now obviously this was not a conscious decision by their employers.  No one sets out to fail but as a direct result of the employer’s actions, failure was the end result.

So what happened, you ask?

All of the managers had done their due diligence when it came to their hiring process.  There were several interviews conducted between the important decision makers in the company and the candidates.  All references were followed-up and proved excellent.  The offer was extended and then accepted so naturally corporate confidence soared as everyone felt they had done their part to make recruiting a success. 

But within a few months, each one of these teams was back on the search for a replacement.

The reason that this happened was clear in all situations.  Nobody at the organization took the time to explain the company’s expectations for the new employee and more importantly, training was either inadequate or nonexistent!

It is essential for every new person to get a comprehensive orientation and training program.  No matter what skills and prior experience a candidate brings to a job, every company has their own way of doing things.  It is completely unfair to assume that a new employee will automatically know what these idiosyncrasies are.  To quote Benjamin Franklin: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

While training is vital for all new employees, it is equally important to put down in writing your expectations for the employee.  If a salesperson should have sold $20,000 in the first 3 months and they did not hit this goal, you will need to have a candid conversation.  This chat will be very different depending on what was said at the start of employment.  If you did not explain to the employee that this was a requirement, it is almost impossible to hold the person accountable for not hitting the goal.

While it may seem like common sense, many companies fail to do these best practices when onboarding new talent:

1. Have a complete orientation packet in place for all new employees.
2. Give a complete job description to all new hires.
3. Ensure that there is a comprehensive training program in place for every position.
4. Have each manager sit down and clearly explain the job expectations to the new member of the team (this could include check points at 90 days, 6 months, and a year to keep everyone on the same page).
5. Provide adequate support to all staff members to help them become as productive as possible.
6. Be frank and open in all communications so that expectations are not misconstrued.

While it may take some time to initially get organized, the long-term results will fully outweigh the short-term inconveniences of putting a plan together.  For example, if it takes 2 months to source a new employee, another month to complete the hiring and onboarding process, and they then fail after 6 months due to lack of training, what is the net result?  You have just lost 9 months of time, energy, and effort.  Not to mention the cost of having to repeat the process all over.  However if all this could have been avoided by two weeks of training and a clear explanation of expectations at the start of new hire’s job, which would you rather choose?

Muhammad Ali put it best:  “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”

We here at entreQuest work daily behind the lines with our client companies to make sure that everyone on their team has the best chance in their dance.  But whether you take up our assistance with your recruiting process or initiate improvements on your own, don’t neglect incorporating the six best practices listed above into your job placement process.  Make sure that your new hires are set up to win every time.   

Donal O’Donoghue is an account manager at entreQuest who specializes in expanding work forces by finding the best talent with the ideal personalities to place in a wide range of positions across all types of industries.

How do you hire new talent? 

New candidates will have a direct impact on your business but this can be a double edged sword.  If your new person goes to their tasks and masters them quickly, they will give off a great impression to everyone they deal with in the company and particularly your outside partners and clients.  However if they are unsure of what they are doing and tend to make mistakes, this can threaten the image of the company.  One should always remember that every employee is an ambassador for the company and an individual’s shortcomings can be construed as companywide failures.

Obviously everyone needs training to develop their skills and be brought up to speed with a new position.  There will be an adjustment period but after a certain amount of time has passed, there is an assumed level that your recent hire should be performing at.  If this is not happening on a regular basis, a company may need to address how they look for new talent.  This brings us back to the initial point:  how do you hire new talent?

Let’s take for example an entry level position in sales.  The traditional recruiting practice is to judge applicants based on some prior employment as well as their educational record.  You may consider any extracurricular events they took part in as well.  The conventional wisdom is that all sales are as easy as A.B.C.  Always Be Closing.

At eQ, we believe that the C mentioned is much more about the character of the person than their college results or prior competencies.  Trainers can teach you how to sell, how to speak with clients, and how to have professional business etiquette.  But even the best of instructors cannot make you smile genuinely when talking to clients or have sincere enthusiasm when discussing the company’s products or services.  These types of attributes are something that you either have or you don’t.

People of character will make hard decisions and do the right thing even when nobody is watching.  It speaks to how they look at life and it strongly suggests that they will always maintain their personal integrity.  In almost all sales positions, you are buying the salesperson as much as you are the product or service.  Would you buy from someone you did not respect or hold in good standing?

Next time you find yourself in an interview and you look over at the candidate, what will you C?  To quote a very wise person whose own pesonal attributes have been held in admiration for generations:

“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow.  The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”  – Abraham Lincoln

Donal O’Donoghue is an account manager at entreQuest who specializes in expanding work forces by finding the best talent with the ideal personalities to place in a wide range of positions across all types of industries.

No two people are alike so it makes sense that no two candidates are the same either.

Years of hiring for companies and hundreds of interviews with candidates have certainly ground this law of human nature into our heads here at entreQuest.  Of course we wouldn’t want it any other way.  Not only have we been lucky to meet so many qualified individuals with truly unique attributes, passions, backgrounds, and skill sets but we’ve been able to place many of them in positions with our partner companies.

Before anyone can get a membership to our pool of talent though, their resume has to catch our attention.  One question that our recruiting team hears time and time again is how does one stand out in the stack?

If you have a connection, use it!  If you can get a referral, do it!  But even without networking, you can still rise to the top.  You just have to apply yourself while applying.

Here’s an example of what we mean.  We were recently contacted through our website by a young woman who graduated college two years ago and was looking for a job.  Our recruiting team doesn’t receive the emails that go through our web contact form so this hopeful was already at a disadvantage having to get through the gatekeeper first before making it to the hiring desk. 

She made it though.  In fact, she made it all the way to the desk of our President!

How?  Because she had spunk.  Not the perky kind common among cheerleaders but that sophisticated energy that intrigues through natural enthusiasm and sharp presentation. 

In her first two sentences, she managed to clearly state her purpose of contacting us AND demonstrate that she had done some serious research on our company AND make a witty joke.  We couldn’t help but feel flattered by her sincerity and be enticed by her effort so we immediately reviewed her resume.  Subsequently she was brought in for an interview.

With the job market as competitive as it has ever been, it’s not enough for unique, qualified candidates to just apply.  You have to find a way to uniquely apply your qualifications.  This doesn’t mean cracking jokes for the heck of it or submitting applications to every email address you can find on a company’s website.  It does mean though that you’ll have to use the best of your abilities before the interviewing even begins. 

After all, they don’t say finding a job is a job in itself for nothing, now do they?!

Misti Aaronson is the Vice President of Operations at entreQuest and has spent years leading its recruiting division to make successful matches between client companies and candidates.

Around the world, the costs of commodities are coming up strong.

Really strong.  Gold and copper are at record prices.  Oil is at a two-year high.  Cotton has increased 22% already this year (and that’s after a 92% surge in 2010!).  Dehydrated garlic power prices have tripled, black pepper doubled.  Sugar, coal, wheat and cocoa – up and up they go and go.

Scrambling to act before prices increase even more, big banks are getting in on the profitable trade , mills are buying up contracts, factories are stockpiling materials.  Inflation fears have businesses mounting their inventories at such a rate, they might as well star in the next episode of that reality TV show about hoarders.

Raw materials aren’t the only commodities businesses should be concerned with nabbing up as prices continue to skyrocket though.  The time is also ripe for taking advantage of talent.

Simplistically speaking, the laws of supply and demand are just as applicable to the job market as they are to the commodity trade. Our economy’s current high unemployment rate translates to a bigger pool of educated, skilled, and personable people available for work in professional positions.  With less demand for hiring from business leaders weary of their own financial futures, salary rates have become more negotiable.  In many instances, top talent has become willing to take dramatic pay cuts for job security with a reputable employer.

As reported today, top economists predict that the unemployment rate will remain above 9% in 2011.  In time however, the economy will bounce back, unemployment will fall, and first-rate professionals will become more scarce.  Hence why we have to wonder, in applying free market principles towards the commodity of human resources, why aren’t businesses that can afford it stockpiling staff members?  Investing in their intellectual inventories?  Taking advantage of top talent?  Hoarding humans who are hungry for work?

At the same time, why isn’t every job opening that’s posted being immediately filled with the ablest of applicants, the best of businesspeople, the premium of professionals?  In commodity jargon, there is an abundance of precious metal out there.  For employers, why not seize this opportunity as the perfect time to set a new gold standard for your staffing needs?!

And for the unemployed too – why not put your worth to work as the valuable commodity that you are?!  Consulting companies that provide recruiting services for their clients have a variety of prime positions available even in these times of high unemployment.  Here at entreQuest, we’re scouting for superior talent in the areas of executive leadership, management, sales, and support across a variety of industries.  If you yourself are looking for a job, and you prize your value in energy, enthusiasm, experience, and earning-potential, we would love to consider you for placement.  If you know of someone looking for a job who possesses the aforementioned qualities, we welcome all candidate referrals.  Our current career opportunities can be viewed at this link:  http://www.entrequest.com/careers/.  

eQ makes its matches based on the best of supply and the best of demand.  Right now this country is on the cusp of an economic climax where a high unemployment rate has top talent available for work and where an optimistic outlook is beckoning businesses to restore their staffs.  There’s no better time to capitalize on this commodity market – before the cream of the crop candidates become as scarce as the cream of other commodity crops.

Kristen Zatina is a writing specialist at entreQuest who scours worldwide business news for corporate inspiration.

(Information Sources:

” Ashworth Tops Economy Survey” by Justin Lahart.  The Wall Street Journal.  Monday 7 February 2011.

“Fearing Inflation, Firms Stocking Up” by Liam Pleven and Matt Wirz.  The Wall Street Journal.  Thursday 3 February 2011.

“Deutsche Bank Wants to Join the Commodities Boom” by Laura Stevens and William Launder.  The Wall Street Journal.  Friday 4 February 2011.

“A Cotton Market Targets Speculators” by Carolyn Cui and Leslie Josephs. The Wall Street Journal.  Friday 4 February 2011.

“Pricey Cocoa Won’t Bar Hershey Profit” by John Jannarone.  The Wall Street Journal.  Friday 4 February 2011.

“Bernanke Denies That Fed Is Stoking Inflation” by Sudeep Reddy and Brian Blackstone.  The Wall Street Journal.  Friday 4 February 2011.

“Coal Port Takes Its Lumps” by Joel Millman and Kris Maher.  The Wall Street Journal.  Friday 4 February 2011.)

When you think about customer service from India, what comes to mind?

If you’re anything like the many Americans whose computers crashed during the onset of outsourced call centers, you’re probably thinking back to having to say the following line over and over: “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?  I don’t understand…” 

That was the memory imprinted in my mind after spending all-nighters in college on the phone with a man ten time zones away who was trying to unfreeze my computer and the term paper it was holding hostage.  The man had a really smart brain but a really strong accent which unfortunately made the customer service call all the more traumatic.  I almost made a vow that the next time my computer crashed, I’d skip dialing New Delhi and buy a new Dell.

My shallowly devised stereotype would completely change however seven years later (and four nights ago) when I went out to dinner at a place called Akbar Restaurant in downtown Baltimore.  The food alone was divine – so much so that I hope in my next life I’m reincarnated into a piece of warm garlic naan aside a heap of anything Tandoori or Masala…  But it was the service that truly brought me and my curry-craving companions to a state of Nirvana.

On top of their friendliness and menu knowledge, the waiters and waitresses of Akbar Restaurant excelled in their service role by always being “one sip ahead” ahead of their customers.  When they weren’t serving their tables or submitting orders to the kitchen, they were standing in the corner with a pitcher waiting for any water glass in the restaurant to drop below the half-full point whcih was their cue to whisk right over and refill it to the top before that customer’s fork could even get in another bite.  And Westerners familiar with spices of the Far East know how crucial water – the universal freebie – is to a comfortable Indian dining experience. 

These days, restaurant patrons have essentially become accustomed to having to wait for our waiters and waitresses.  Spotting your server having a conversation off to the side or even pulling out the phone to text someone isn’t all that surprising anymore.  However at Akbar Restaurant, the staff seemed determined to deliver surprising service by keeping constant surveillance to meet their customers’ needs before their customers even knew what they needed.  They performed their jobs as though customer service was an art to be mastered – and in all honesty, it is!

Akbar Restaurant’s website doesn’t have much content regarding its corporate story but what they do have posted rings a true testament, especially this quote from a review by Baltimore Magazine: “You’ll feel like a pampered pasha here.  No matter how hectic the place gets, the waitstaff is unfailingly serene.”

Every single business has the opportunity to act in a manner that appears unfailingly serene to their clients even during the hectic times – especially when your industry, like most, is always in hectic times.  As displayed at Akbar, one trick to succeeding is thinking ahead and anticipating your client’s next need so that you can meet it and exceed their expectations.  Even if it’s a universal freebie like a check-in phone call, go on and master such a task to ensure your clients stay comfortable.

Water not only whetted our appetites for more off of Akbar Restaurant’s menu a few nights ago but we’re now looking forward to reserving our next experience of Indian specialties and incredible service there.  How can you stay “one sip ahead” of your clients and bring them to the same state of satisfaction?

Kristen Zatina is a writing specialist at entreQuest with an interest in everyday client experiences on which businesses can capitalize.

The 28 variables of Sales Growth:

1)     Sales Strategy

2)     Customer Gradation

3)     Account Planning

4)     Client Experience Defined

5)     Strategic Account Planning

6)     Lead Generation Program

7)     Sales Talent

8)     Sales Productivity

9)     Hiring

10)   Sales Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

11)   Sales Management

12)   Training

13)   Self-Directed

14)   Sales Structure

15)   Sales Process

16)   CRM

17)   Accountability

18)   Business Metrics

19)   Compensation Plan

20)   Communication Schedule

21)   Reporting

22)   Environment

23)   Culture

24)   Career Path

25)   Communication

26)   Morale

27)   Teaming

28)   Trust Quotient (TQ)

More later on what to do with them… but one question: are you YOUR best with them all yet?

Joe