On August 5, @shrmnextchat chatted with Allan Weitzman (@Allan_Weitzman) of Proskauer Rose LLP about "Employee Handbooks-Every Word Counts." In case you missed this informative chat, you can read all the great tweets here:    [View the story "#Nextchat RECAP: Employee Handbooks - Every Word Counts " on Storify]  ...

It’s 3 p.m. on Friday and your boss has already told you that you can head out early for the weekend.  You’re wrapping up a few items and planning to leave shortly when a coworker comes to you and asks you for some help with a project they’ve been working on.  Your first instinct is to say you’re sorry but you have plans and need to leave early for the weekend.  While that may get you a few extra minutes of weekend sunshine, you could be missing out on some valuable work experiences. ...

  A manager has an open position. He will need to work closely with the new hire. Alan applies for the job.  The manager truly loathes him.  I could say it softer but that is the reality. Alan has all the requisite skill, education and experience.  But the sound of Alan’s voice makes the manager’s skin crawl. Based on his intense dislike for Alan, the manager does not want to interview him, let alone promote him. What do you do? As human resource professionals, we all have had managers come to us indicating...

Hiring Steady in August, but Recruiting Struggles Continue for Many HR Professionals In August, the hiring rate will fall slightly in manufacturing and rise modestly in services compared with a year ago, according to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) survey for August 2015.   Hiring rates will vary in August compared with a...

  How does the thought of being able to embed a device in your body to make your job easier appeal to you? What about an embedded device to improve your health or make you live longer? Would you do it? Many people cringe at the thought, yet there may be just such a device in your future, if not already present in your life. What to embed? People get uncomfortable with the concept of "embedding" devices in their bodies. Yet many people are alive today because of embedded...

Educational Technology and Digital Content Innovator Joins Richardson;  Christopher Tiné to Head Product Development Philadelphia, PA — August 5, 2015 — Richardson, a leading global provider of sales training and effectiveness solutions, announced today that Christopher Tiné has joined Richardson as SVP & Chief Product Officer. Previously, Tiné was Vice President of Product Development for ESI International and IPS Learning — both part of the Providence Equity Partners family of companies — where he headed the group responsible for product development and design, digital strategy, curriculum, and professional services. "Chris is a seasoned education executive with a proven record of working collaboratively to create exceptional technology-enabled products," said John Elsey, Richardson CEO. "He’s an innovator who will challenge us to think differently about how we create compelling, branded, and proprietary products that delight customers." Says Tiné: "I am very excited about joining the Richardson team. I love developing innovative products that blend cutting-edge technology and outstanding content. This is a great opportunity to join a leader in the field and build on an impressive product portfolio while developing something new and exciting for the market." Tiné has spent most of his career in New York City, beginning at Oxbridge Academic Programs and then moving through several roles in television, including for the BBC, PBS, and NBC News — where his role as producer spanned digital products and content, mobile products and strategy, and digital strategy. In 2009, he helped launch NBC Learn, the education arm of NBC News, and in 2011 was tapped to be Head of Digital for NBC News’ Education Nation, where he was responsible for websites, blogs, social media, interactive journalism, content partnerships, and building cross-functional teams within NBC. In 2013, Tiné moved to Macmillan Science and Education, where he headed Product Solutions and led a full redesign of the company’s Higher Education courseware products. Since 2014, Tiné has led a global product organization for ESI International and IPS Learning with teams in Arlington, Va.; San Mateo, Calif.; London, UK; and Singapore. Tiné is the recipient of a 2010 Emmy Award for digital video and a 2012 Webby Award. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York, an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge in England, and a BA from Bates College in Maine. For more information, please contact Jim Brodo at - jim.brodo@richardson.com About Richardson Richardson (www.richardson.com) helps sales leaders prepare their organizations to execute sales strategies and achieve business objectives. Richardson has the expertise and resources to help clients scale their initiatives quickly and confidently across their entire salesforce and supporting functions. Working together, Richardson helps clients to identify sales best practices, evaluate talent, build capability and consistency through world-class sales training, and sustain necessary change. Richardson ensures that each customized solution reflects the unique culture and values of its clients, driving rapid adoption and lasting results. The post Christopher Tiné to Head Product Development For Richardson appeared first on Richardson Sales Enablement Blog.

Sales Questions that Work You may love watching police dramas on TV, but a good salesperson never recreates the interrogation room in a prospect’s office. The foundation of a good sales questioning strategy is creating a well-paced dialogue based on asking open-ended questions. Here is a list of questions that I typically draw on in developing my pre-call strategy. They can be easily honed for specific situations and are intended to draw the other person into a meaningful conversation. What is the opportunity? What is the initiative we’re here to talk about today? Why is now the right time for this initiative? What is the driving force behind this initiative? What are the expectations? How will you recognize or define success? What changes do you want to see in your organization? What do you want your people to be doing differently How do you see this working within your organization? What are the roadblocks? Are there any champions or other stakeholders with an interest in this initiative? What are the circumstances? How have you been addressing this issue? What is your time frame for getting started? What does your decision-making process look like, and who will be involved? What are next steps and your time frames for implementation? When can we schedule time for a presentation to all of the decision makers? Who else is in the running? Who else are you considering as a partner for this initiative? What criteria will you use in making this decision? What have I not addressed that you’ve heard about and are intrigued by from other potential partners? What else might you ask? Have you thought about this aspect? It’s something that we’ve helped other clients address with XYZ. What sensitivities do I need to be aware of? What have I not asked that I need to know? Whichever questions you ask, keep these tips in mind during any sales questioning: Avoid yes-or-no or multiple-choice questions. Avoid asking multiple questions at once. Pose one question at a time, and wait for the answer. Listen closely to the prospect’s answer and, when appropriate, let it set the direction of follow-up questions. Never answer your own question; let the prospect speak instead. Never formulate your next question while the prospect is answering the previous one. Keep your attention on the prospect’s answers. Good listening goes hand-in-hand with good questioning. Questioning is one of Richardson’s Six Critical Skills for sales. Presence: Ability to project confidence, conviction, and interest in body language and voice Relating: Ability to use acknowledgment, rapport, and empathy to connect Questioning: Ability to explore needs and create dialogue Listening: Ability to understand content and emotional message Positioning: Ability to leverage client needs to be persuasive Checking: Ability to elicit feedback These are the skills that allow salespeople to create a meaningful dialogue; establish themselves as trusted advisors; understand client needs, priorities, and perspectives; and close profitable business. Each skill builds on and supports the others — and, at the heart is the ability to ask the right questions to move your sales opportunities forward. Learn more about Richardson’s Consultative Selling Sales Training Solutions. The post Sales Questions that Work appeared first on Richardson Sales Enablement Blog.

"It was like a phantom swooped in in the eleventh hour and killed the sale." We've all been there...You had a series of great meetings. You built rapport and developed a strong, trusted relationship. You uncovered (and got agreement) on the buyer's needs—needs that they didn't even know they had. You spent days working with your delivery team to scope the project and craft the proposal. You sent it off to your contact and called him at the time you had scheduled to review it: Buyer: "Thanks for putting this together. You've really hit the nail on the head outlining our company’s needs. I like the phase-by-phase approach you're proposing, allowing us to make adjustments along the way. I just need to have Brian take a look and give the green light." You: "Wait. Brian? Who's Brian?"      

Although I currently work in business development at GP Strategies, my first nine years with the Company were in project management. I managed countless implementations, migrations, and upgrades for learning and talent management systems. As technology changed, as functionality was enhanced, as clients became more sophisticated, and as project scope became more complex and advanced, one thing stayed constant: My clients were never completely satisfied with the product they were using. Even if it was the market leader and the latest release, it never met every single requirement. And the most common complaint was that it could not accommodate an existing process. This is where, as a project manager, as a product expert, and as a consultant, I struggled to understand the reasoning. How could this product not be able to do what they need it to do? Were their requirements so unique and so complex that no software company had yet to develop and incorporate the functionality or configuration they asked for? What I soon learned was that these organizations had done things a certain way for so long, and despite this major technology initiative they are going through, they still plan to continue executing their processes the same. The issue is that, in the past, those processes had always been done simply because of the existing limitations within the organizational environment (people and technology) that existed. However, the system implementation changes that environment; therefore, they have the ability to change processes. Too often the technology is blamed because it appears to fall short as far as its functionality goes if it cannot support an organization’s existing business processes. Everyone knows change isn’t easy, but with all that these systems are offering in the competitive marketplace today, organizations may be able to easily improve their processes if they welcome change and allow the system to meet their needs. Clients get stuck on, "We’ve always done it this way" and don’t think, "Well, we’ve got an awesome new product, so maybe it’s time we change our processes to work with it!" Stop expecting or demanding that the software works with you, and instead, work with the software. Then the software will work for you. Technology, particularly cloud technology, is leading the way in learning and talent management, and it might be time to rethink long-standing processes and give your organization new life. What’s holding you back from trying a new way of doing things? You might be happy with the outcome.

Often the people who need to use government services the most are those who find it the hardest to do so. They don’t want to interact with us - they have to. Joanne Schofield - content designer, DWP I’m a content designer with the team building the digital Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claim, a benefit for those who have difficulties as the result of a health condition or disability. We want to make the digital PIP claim as effective as possible and I make sure what we write meets the needs of the users clearly, simply and quickly. If you’ve seen the existing paper application form for claiming PIP, you’ll appreciate this is no mean feat. I recently joined our user researcher, Simon Hurst, at Sense, a national charity that supports people who are deafblind. Deaf-blindness is a combination of sight and hearing loss that can affect a person’s ability to communicate, access information and get around. There are about 250,000 people who are deafblind in the UK, many with varying degrees of vision or hearing. We met with five deafblind users to get their views on how we could improve our latest version of the digital PIP claim. The importance of assistive technology This was my first user research session with people with sensory impairments and it was clear that assistive technology can massively affect the quality of life and independence of its users. There are a range of innovations - that magnify the screen, change the screen colour, read the page content aloud - to make it easier.  These technologies are going a long way to minimise the frustrations of using a computer and going online for many people. We asked our users to look at the latest version of the digital PIP claim using laptops that were available in the Sense office. A screen from the prototype digital PIP claim tested with users at Sense Although assistive technology was available on each machine, it became clear that the unfamiliarity of the browser, the size of the screen and the layout of the keys all had a significant impact on the usability of the laptop for our users.  At our next session at Sense we will encourage users to bring their own, familiar devices. Using assistive technology The way the users interacted with our digital service varied. Marcus and Atif had helpers who would read the content of a page out or type for them; Steven and Margaret relied on screen readers; Norman, Marcus and Atif used screen magnifiers; Atif had a hands-on sign language interpreter (he would touch the interpreters hand to understand what was being signed); and Marcus would print a page out, memorise the order of the questions, hand-write the answers, before then completing it online. Whichever approach they relied on, it was apparent that completing a transaction online can be a long process and exhausting for both the user and the helper or interpreter. Regular breaks need to be taken. We’re developing a ‘save and continue later’ function for the digital claim which we hope will make this easier. Joanne Schofield and Simon Hurst from the Digital PIP Claim team The session also highlighted that not all assistive technology interacts the same way with our webpages. The pages worked well with one screenreader but less so with another, so we’ll be making sure we work closely with experts in assisted technology to understand the differences better. And, we’ll be testing the online journey with as many different types of assisted technology as possible. The impact of second or third languages The session was my first experience of seeing hands-on signing. There are roughly 150,000 people in Britain who use British Sign Language and it’s the preferred language of 50,000 to 70,000. English was the third language of Atif, after sign language (his first) and Urdu. So he had to translate everything through two other languages before being able to gain any understanding of what the digital claim was asking of him. When trying to explain something as important as his quality of life, it became apparent how draining and frustrating this would be. Making services clear, simple and accessible So, we’re going to go back on a regular basis and work more closely with Sense (and other organisations that support people with health conditions and disabilities). We need to make the digital PIP claim - and all government services - clear, simple and accessible to all, especially for those who find our services the hardest to use. This won’t just make our services quicker and easier for all our users, but for many, it’s essential.