By Mel Kleiman, president, Humetrics While this is not an endorsement for the Indeed job board, they just issued a set of guidelines I encourage everyone to use when posting your firm’s job openings online… “Indeed is the number one job site in the world and the recruitment tool of choice for all kinds of…

By Mel Kleiman, president, Humetrics Where is your focus? Is it on staving off the impacts of the economy and/or the competition instead of on what you can do to improve the experiences of your customers and your employees? If so, to really get ahead of the game, I suggest you focus on the latter —…

By Mel Kleiman, president, Humetrics What got you here will not keep you here or take you to the next level. If you’re not changing and evolving, the world is going to pass you by. Of the three giant retailers that were startups in 1961, K-Mart is not even in the 2015 list of Top…

By Mel Kleiman, president, Humetrics As the old saying goes: “You cannot do more with less.” In other words, instead of cutting this and trimming that, look at doing it better or differently. Ask: “Are we doing the right things,” and, if we are, “can we do them another faster/better/cheaper way?” Creative problem solving is…

By Mel Kleiman, president, Humetrics Not doing everything in your power to make sure you and your managers are great coaches is the worst business mistake you can make. Although not everyone can be a great leader, most of us can be great coaches. A great coach knows how to pick the best players, find…

By Mel Kleiman, president, Humetrics Often, interviewers try to determine how well an applicant would fit the existing corporate culture by asking questions like: “Are you willing to work late hours?” “Do you prefer to be part of a team or to work independently? Is it important to you to have a private work space?”…

By Mel Kleiman, president, Humetrics Trying to cut costs and/or services to increase or maintain profitability is a common, but mistaken strategy. Yes, there probably is fat that can be trimmed and we need to look at every line item expense, but if you compromise the customer and/or employee experience, you threaten the viability of…

By Mel Kleiman, president, Humetrics While you probably do extensive recordkeeping to track how well your team meets customer service standards and goals, I doubt you track how well you are doing when it comes to taking care of your internal customers — your employees. What are you doing to ensure they keep coming back…

By Mel Kleiman, president, Humetrics It will make life easier for both you and your job applicants if you tell them what you are looking for in their answers to your questions. I like to use the SOAR formula: Situation: “Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult co-worker and things did not…

By Mel Kleiman, president, Humetrics If you want your best people to stay with you, you need to help them learn and grow. Do you challenge and stretch them? Do you share information? Are you giving them increased responsibilities and patiently teaching the skills and procedures needed to be successful? I’ve actually had business owners…