WorkPuzzle

Recruiting Women: What Do Women Really Want?

Earlier this year, Michael Silverstein and Kate Sayre, two Boston Consulting Group Partners, released their findings regarding some interesting research on the impact women have had on the economy.  Part of the research involved the launching of a survey website called What Do Women Want? The responses of thousands of women across the globe were analyzed.
 
You can read some of the early results on the survey website, or read a recent Harvard Business Review article on the topic.  As I looked through the results of this research, I was surprised by the overwhelming impact that woman have on the economy.  HBR puts it this way:

“Women now drive the world economy.  Globally, they control about $20 trillion in annual consumer spending, and that figure could climb as high as $28 trillion in the next five years.  Their $13 trillion in total yearly earnings could reach $18 trillion in the same period.  In aggregate, women represent a growth market bigger than China and India combined—more than twice as big, in fact.  Given those numbers, it would be foolish to ignore or underestimate the female consumer.  And yet many companies do just that, even ones that are confident they have a winning strategy when it comes to women.”

You would think that with this much opportunity at stake, more companies would focus their marketing efforts on reaching women. And, it turns out that many have given it a try.  However, most companies have failed miserably.  Why?  Because they don’t understand the needs and intricacies of women.  These failures are important to understand if you are selling any sort of product or service (including real estate), but they can also teach us a lot about recruiting.  Unless you’re able to craft your recruiting message in a way that resonates and impacts woman, you’ll be missing a significant opportunity.

The research on this topic is too extensive to try to summarize in this article, but it may be helpful to highlight one idea that really impacted my thinking:  When marketing to women, it is important to recognize the “stage of life” they are currently occupying.  This concept is summarized in the following graphic:

The research defines each of these segments, including how much of the population and income potential comprise each category.  Here is a summary of each segment:

FAST-TRACKER
24% of population; 34% of earned income
Economic and educational elite
Seeks adventure and learning

Subsegments:
STRIVING FOR ACHIEVMENT
15% of population; 19% of earned income
Job and recognition are priorities

INDEPENDENT WOMEN
9% of population; 15% of earned income
Works the most
Prizes autonomy

PRESSURE COOKER
22% of population; 23% of earned income
Married with children
Feels ignored and stereotyped

Subsegments:
SUCCESSFUL MULIT-TASKER
10% of population; 14% of earned income
Feels in control

STRUGGLING FOR STABILITY
12% of population; 9% of earned income
Constantly battles chaos

RELATIONSHIP FOCUSED
16% of population; 13% of earned income
Content and optimistic
Isn’t pressed for time
Has ample discretionary income
Focuses on experiences, not products

MANAGING ON HER OWN
10% of population; 9% of earned income
Single again (divorced or widowed)
Seeks ways to form connections

FULFILLED EMPTY NESTER
15% of population; 16% of earned income
Largely ignored by marketers
Concerned about health and aging gracefully
Focused on travel, exercise, and leisure

MAKING ENDS MEET
12% of population; 5% of earned income
No money for beauty or exercise
Majority lack college education
Seeks credit, value, and small luxuries

From a recruiting perspective, here are some important questions to ask yourself:

1. Which group of women are most successful in your organization today? Will the same group be successful in the future?
2. Do you know of women who are at one stage today, who could be inspired to move to a more desirable stage by building a career inside your organization?
3. Would it behoove you to spend less time focusing on particular groups of women in your recruiting efforts, so that you can increase your focus on the groups that have the highest potential return?
4. Can your messaging to candidates (advertising, phone screening, interviews) be customized to tap the interests and needs of the group with which your communicating?

As any guy will tell you, this is not as easy as it looks!  There is much more to learn and it may be frustrating, but the opportunities warrant the effort.  Happy New Year! 

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Merry Christmas From WorkPuzzle: Og Mandino's Christmas Story

I'm going to republish an article we wrote last December that seems to have impacted many of our readers. I hope you enjoy it and find some new hope and inspiration during this holiday season.   Merry Christmas!

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In 1968, a recovering alcoholic and failed insurance salesman named Og Mandino wrote a Christmas story called The Greatest Salesman in the World.  This book was the result of several years of self-study and a single night of inspiration. 

Although the book was written 40 years ago, you can still walk into any Barnes and Noble and pick up a copy.  The book launched Og Mandino’s career, and he went on to write many more books, selling more than 50 million copies and became a very prominent public speaker.   

He died in 1996, but his legacy lives on.  If you’ve never read this story, pick it up over the Christmas holiday.  You don’t have to be a salesman to enjoy it.  In fact, I’m reading it to my kids in the evenings this week, and last night they said, “Dad, don’t stop reading now, we want to know what happens next!” 

I won’t spoil the story, but the basic premise is that a “lowly camel boy” named Hafid gets exposed to the ancient wisdom contained in ten secret scrolls.  By applying this wisdom, the boy goes on to build the greatest trading company of all time in the Middle East. 

The purpose of the book is to share the ten business/life principles contained in the secret scrolls. I’ve read this book several times over the last decade, and two of the ten principles have had particular impact on my life.   I’ll share those today, and hopefully you’ll be curious enough to read more on your own.

The Principle of Love:  purposing in your mind to show love to the people you meet and interact with on a daily basis.

"For [love] is the greatest secret of success in all ventures. Muscle can split a shield and even destroy life but only the unseen power of love can open the hearts of men and until I master this art I will remain no more than a peddler in the market place. I will make love my greatest weapon and none on whom I call can defend against its force.   My reasoning they may counter; my speech they may distrust; my apparel they may disapprove; my face they may reject; and even my bargains may cause them suspicion; yet my love will melt all hearts liken to the sun whose rays soften the coldest day.

…And, how will I confront each whom I meet?"   In only one way -- in silence, and to myself, I will address him and say, "I love you!" Though spoken in silence these words will shine in my eyes, unwrinkle my brow, bring a smile to my lips, and echo in my voice; and his heart will be opened. And, who is there who will say ‘Nay’ to my goods when his heart feels my love?"

The Principle of Perseverance:  purposing to focus on the long term, push through obstacles, and see difficulties and setbacks as necessary ingredients for  a successful life.

“In the Orient,young bulls are tested for the fight arena in a certain manner. Each is brought to the ring and allowed to attack a picador who pricks them with a lance. The bravery of each bull is then rated with care according to the number of times he demonstrates his willingness to charge in spite of the sting of the blade. Henceforth will I recognize that each day I am tested by life in like manner. If I persist, if I continue to try, if I continue to charge forward, I will succeed.

…The prizes of life are at the end of each journey, not near the beginning; and it is not given to me to know how many steps are necessary in order to reach my goal. Failure I may still encounter at the thousandth step, yet success hides behind the next bend in the road. Never will I know how close it lies unless I turn the corner. Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail, I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult.

…I will be liken to the rain drop which washes away the mountain; the ant who devours a tiger; the star which brightens the earth; the slave who builds a pyramid. I will build my castle one brick at a time for I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.  I will persist until I succeed.”

In the end, you’ll learn how Og Mandino masterfully weaves these principles into the familiar Christmas narrative, but you’ll also get the opportunity to view it from a new perspective.  No doubt you’ll enjoy the story, but you may find some inspiration for the New Year as well.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

What You’re Saying and What Your Candidates Are Hearing May Be Two Different Things.

How can a group of companies spend $5 billion each year on advertisements that focus on one message, but be remembered for something totally different?  A recent marketing study has pharmaceutical companies wondering the same thing.  The lessons being learned through this research go beyond pharmaceutical sales, and can be applied to your communication efforts with candidates.

The study was highlighted in Business Week and conducted by a company called Verilogue.  The researchers set out to learn if consumers were able to remember the marketing messages of various drug companies who were advertising on television.

“Does it seem like you hear the phrase 'ask your doctor' every time you turn on the TV?  There's a reason.  Drug companies spend about $5 billion a year in the U.S. on ads imploring people to talk to their physicians if they think a pill they've read about or seen on TV might help them.  Such ads are so pervasive one might assume viewers are heading to the doctor knowing which drugs they want.  But new research based on recordings of conversations in physicians' offices suggests most patients aren't asking for drugs by name.  Or they're only asking about scary side effects, which drugmakers have to include in ads, often in stomach-turning detail.

Market researcher Verilogue recorded 12,500 patient-doctor conversations in 2008 and found only 23 requests for specific drugs.  And according to the new study, … the most expensive ad campaigns did not prompt the greatest number of inquiries.  Eli Lilly spent $179 million on ads promoting its depression drug Cymbalta in 2008, making it the year's most pricey pharma campaign.  But the most frequently cited drug by patients was Boniva, for osteoporosis, which GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Roche co-marketed.  The Boniva campaign, starring actress Sally Field, cost half as much as the Cymbalta blitz.”

It is easy to chuckle at the drug companies for being so naive, but is it possible that you’re doing the same thing in your candidate interviews?  Let’s face it—being a real estate agent can have some very scary side effects, such as working on full commission, going without a steady income, giving up the safety net of company-provided benefits, competing under difficult economic circumstances, etc.  And when a hiring manager attempts to optimistically sell the benefits of working as a real estate agent, these side effects take on a life of their own and may drown out your intended message.

How can you avoid this from happening during your interviews?  The Verilogue study may give some insight here as well:

“Companies can also adopt another proven strategy:  promoting drugs using real patients who also happen to be famous.  It worked for Boniva.  According to researcher IMS Health (RX), prescriptions for the osteoporosis drug were up 11% last year, and sales of the drug grew 25%, to $675.6 million.  Sally Field, who played the Flying Nun on TV, as well as Norma Rae on film, happily tells everyone Boniva halted and reversed her bone loss.  'The term you hear across the board in advertising is authenticity,' says Richard 'Erik' M. Gordon, assistant professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business.  'People want to believe a celebrity isn't just doing this because they were paid a pile of money.'

Now most of us can’t hire celebrities to help us during interviews, but we can use third parties to help us communicate the benefits of a career change.  As a hiring manager, think of a person on your team who is similar to the candidate you’re interviewing.  Have that person share their story....and become your Sally Field.  What did Sally do to overcome the fear of making a change?  What unexpected obstacles did Sally face in the first year of her new position?  What are the benefits and side effects that Sally can articulate regarding her experience?

As the article mentions, the key to this dialog is authenticity.  The more a person can connect their experience with a real life example, the more authentic the process will feel.  This minimizes the risks of the forementioned "side effects," and helps the candidate see the benefits with more hope and excitement.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Inspiring Candidates to Take the Next Step in Their Careers

It has been a few months since I have shared anything from Peter Weddle with you.  As you may recall, Peter is a recruiting expert I admire, and I’ve referenced his work a few times (1, 2) over the last year. 

Last week, Peter wrote an outstanding article that does a lot to answer a question we hear quite often from our clients:  

How do you inspire someone (during an interview) to take the “leap of faith” necessary to change careers?  

...Especially if that change requires them to risk the security and comforts of a stable situation for something that could potentially be more engaging and rewarding in the long run.  Here’s how Peter’s article answers that question: 

“Over the past decade or so, social scientists have been trying to figure out just what happiness is and where it comes from.  While many of us think the answers to such questions are intuitively obvious, it turns out that we may be selling ourselves short.  Humans have the capacity not only to experience happiness, but to experience joy, as well.  And those two states are very different. 

Joy is an emotional state.  It is derived from our relationships with family and friends.  When those interactions engage and satisfy us, when they enable us to be the best of ourselves with the others in our life, we experience joy--one of the human species' greatest gifts. 

Happiness, on the other hand, is a cognitive state.  It occurs when we are tested by meaningful challenges that stimulate us to express and experience our fullest natural potential, our talent.  These challenges can occur anywhere, but they are most prevalent in the workplace.  In other words, our best shot at achieving happiness occurs when we put ourselves in a position to excel at what we love to do.

That is the essence of the American Dream.  It is a personal commitment, a determination to devote our Life and exercise our Liberty to the accomplishment of two tasks:

1. To discovering our natural talent or what we love to do and do best.
2. To working only where we can use that talent to achieve satisfying goals.

The outcome of those tasks will be unique to each of us, but the tasks themselves are the same for all of us.  They represent our right to the Pursuit of happiness.

Those two tasks are also the key to a successful job search and a rewarding career.  Whether we're in transition or currently employed, they enable and empower us to control our destiny, to shape it to an end that is important and fulfilling to us.  It is our right, to be sure, but it is also our responsibility.  For only we can take the first step, only we can decide to set off on our own personal Pursuit of happiness. 

Why should we bother?  Because as wonderful as the joy is in our relationships, we deserve more.  We spend at least one-third of our lives at work, and that experience should offer more than frustration, anxiety and despair.  It should be, it can be a source of profound fulfillment.  Or what the founding fathers called Happiness."

See if you can apply these principles in your next interview.  High-quality people--especially young people--love to be engaged on this level.  

If you can truly help a person discover their natural talents and then paint a picture of how those talents can be used to achieve satisfying goals on your team, you’ll not only win the “most inspiring hiring manager of the year award,” but you’ll also see better results!

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Black Friday Recruiting: What Are Your Candidates Experiencing? Part 2

On Monday, we discussed the poor circumstances that most candidates encounter when they look for a job or investigate a career change.  When simple research techniques and metrics are used to quantify a candidate’s experience, it is no wonder that job changes are constantly cited as one of the top stressors in a person’s life.

While you can’t change the employment landscape for everyone, you can make sure that the candidates who interact with your organization are experiencing something positive and out of the norm.  If managed proactively, this can become a significant competitive advantage for your company.  The most talented people will be naturally drawn to organizations where they feel respected and valued for the contribution they can make to a team.

Here are some ideas regarding how you can take the negatives from Monday’s discussion and turn them into positives in your company:

1.  70% dissatisfied — 70% of the candidates and 28% of hiring managers indicate they are dissatisfied with the hiring process (Source: Staffing.org):

Ask yourself this question:  Why do retail companies go through the trouble of ensuring that their customers are having an enjoyable experience in their stores?  It is obviously because those customers are the source of the company’s revenue.  I don’t mean to sound overly harsh in this statement, but if you run a real estate company, where does your revenue come from?  That’s right—your agents and (looking into the future) your perspective agents.
Maybe it’s time to change your frame of reference.  Treating candidates like you’d treat a customer makes much more sense from a business perspective. 

Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes—what kind of experience would you want to have if you were interviewing with your organization?  Try surprising the candidate with something that would exceed their expectations.  Even if a candidate does not become an agent, the person could still eventually become an actual customer that takes advantage of your company’s services.

2.  46% failure rate — 46% of U.S. new hires must be classified as failures within their first 18 months (fired, pressured to quit, required disciplinary action, etc.) (Source: Leadership IQ):

Keep in mind that these metrics represent the hiring results of companies at large—many real estate companies are even worse.  What causes someone to fail in a job?  There are many reasons, but one cause that researchers consistently identify as being at the top of the list is that the new hire is a poor fit for accomplishing the tasks necessary to be successful in the job.  In hindsight, the mistakes made in the hiring process usually become clearer.  But, how do you recognize the problems before the hire?  

As earlier suggested, treating candidate like you’d treat a customer can help you avoid these missteps.  Think about how real estate is sold—the essence of the agent’s role is to help the client make a connection between their personal and financial circumstances, and the house that best fits their needs. 

Helping someone make a career change is very similar.  People need assistance and coaching as they try to figure out how a job change could work in their life.  What they don’t need is a judgmental attitude, trait responses, or indifference.  If you’re willing to take on a positive career counseling approach with high-quality candidates, I think you will find you’ll become better at making the right selections.

3.  Only 30% of organizations measure quality of hire, and only a handful specifically define and measure recruiting process failure: 

If you’re a regular WorkPuzzle reader, you’ve often heard that it’s difficult to improve what you can’t measure.  Don’t assume you know what the candidate is experiencing.  Instead, collect data and act on that data.  To measure the candidate’s experience, have a third party call the candidate after the interview and collect some anonymous feedback.  You’ll be surprised what you learn. 

I’ve given you a way to address three of the twelve metrics that Dr. Sullivan documents in his original article.  Hopefully, you are getting the idea of how these issues can be addressed and turned into positive differentiators for your company.  One thing we know for sure, if your recruiting process and results systematically improve, your company’s financial results will improve as well.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

 

Black Friday Recruiting: What are Your Candidates Experiencing?

We’re just coming off “Black Friday”—one of the busiest shopping days of the year.  It marks the start of the season where most retailers must be firing on all cylinders if they hope to finish up the year with a profit.

Let’s imagine for a minute that you are a retailer and you received the following feedback from exit polling done with your customers over the Thanksgiving weekend…

• 70% of your customers were dissatisfied with their shopping experience. 
• 50% of your customers regretted at least one of their buying decisions.
• 46% of first time customers said they would probably not return to your store.
• 46% of your customers were not satisfied with your store's ability to “deliver on your promises.”
• Only 19% of your customers classified their shopping experience as an “unequivocal success.”

If your office is above the 3^rd floor, you might consider jumping out the window at this point!  Everyone knows that it is impossible to run a successful retail business when your customers are having such a terrible experience in your store. 

 

But this is exactly what most organizations do with regard to their recruiting efforts. 

 

This analogy is based upon a recent article written by Dr. John Sullivan.  The stats above actually relate to the real-life experiences of those interacting with the recruiting functions of various companies.

“Unfortunately, the above metrics represent failure in the recruiting and retention elements of the talent management function.  I have encountered no other business function that more completely avoids defining and measuring process failure than talent management.

Here are more details on the five statistics provided above: 

• 70% dissatisfied — 70% of the external customers (applicants) and 28% of the internal customers (hiring managers) indicate they are dissatisfied with the hiring process (Source: Staffing.org).
• 50% customer regret — 50% of the process users (both managers and new hires) later regret their “buying” decision (Source: The Recruiting Roundtable).  In addition, 25% of new hires later regret taking their new job within one year (Source: Challenger, Gray)
• 46% turnover — 46% of new hires leave their jobs within the first year (Source: eBullpen, LLC) and 50% of current employees are actively seeking or are planning to seek a new job (Source: Deloitte).
• 46% failure rate — 46% of U.S. new hires must be classified as failures within their first 18 months (fired, pressured to quit, required disciplinary action, etc.) (Source: Leadership IQ).  In addition, 58% of the highest-priority hires, new executives hired from the outside, fail in their new position within 18 months (Source: Michael Watkins).
• Only a 19% success rate — Only one out of five of the process output can be classified as unequivocal successes (Source: Leadership IQ).”

Here are some additional metrics that Dr. Sullivan sites from the management (i.e. organization) perspective: 

• 66% regret hiring decisions — Nearly two-thirds of hiring managers come to regret their interview-based hiring decisions (Source: DDI).
• Bottom performers produce less — Hiring and retaining below average, or even average performers, have real opportunity costs because top performers can increase productivity, revenue, and profit by between 40% and 67% over average performers (Source: McKinsey & Co.).
• Only 30% of organizations measure quality of hire, and only a handful specifically define and measure recruiting process failure.

To say the least, this is a dismal report card for those who depend upon recruiting for their livelihood (this would include nearly every real estate company in business today).  But, it is also an opportunity to exceed the performance of your competitors. 

Anything this poorly managed can produce significant returns when improvements are made—especially if your competitors continue to lag behind.  In our next article we’ll discuss some of the things you can be doing to improve some of these metrics and create a positive impact in your company.  Until then, enjoy Cyber Monday!

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

The Case For Loyalty - Part 3: Contributing At Work

In the last couple of posts (1, 2), we’ve discussed loyalty from the perspective of personal relationships.  Without the ability to be loyal to those around you and maintain relationships with people who are loyal to you, it is difficult to find happiness and maintain a sense of well-being.

Today, we’ll turn our focus to workplace relationships and performance.  Does loyalty have an impact on how you’ll perform as an employee and a leader?  More than you might imagine...  

The authors of  Why Loyalty Matters site an extensive study conducted at Harvard Business School (Heskett, Sasser, Schlesinger), that boils down the critical elements of employee performance.  This study is unique because it focuses specifically on the factors that must be present for an employee to provide outstanding customer service (i.e. meet the needs of a customer). 

Here is what the researchers learned:

1. Capability: Capable employees can deliver high-value service to customers. This implies that employees have the training, tools, procedures, and rules to deliver good service.
2. Satisfaction: Satisfied employees treat customers better than their dissatisfied counterparts.
3. Loyalty: Loyal employees are more willing to suppress short-term demands for the long-term benefit of the organization. As such, they may, themselves, place a priority on good customer service. Loyal employees also stay with their organizations longer, reducing the cost of turnover and its negative effect on service quality.
4. Productivity: Productive employees have the potential to raise the value of a firm’s offerings to its customers. Greater productivity can lower costs of operations, which can mean lower prices for customers.

Doesn’t it seem that loyalty is out of place on this list?  I understand that a person must be capable, productive, and generally happy to provide good customer service.  But loyal?  Although it may seem odd, the research strongly demonstrates this connection.

If you are responsible for recruiting and coaching those on your team, this information should have an impact on how you perform these functions.  Can you expect an agent or an employee to consistently satisfy your customers if they do not feel loyal to you and your organization?  Don’t bet on it.  Does it make sense to hire new agents and employees who have demonstrated high performance, but have a pattern of disloyal behavior?  Again, this is not a formula for long-term success. 

But, how can we reconcile the necessity and benefits of loyalty when we work for companies, who through no fault of their own, must participate (at times) in disloyal behaviors towards their employees?  I thought the authors did a great job of addressing this point:

“So the belief by some that employee loyalty is dead is absolutely, without a doubt, wrong [based on the research sited above]. Loyalty is critical both to a company’s long-term success, and to our own happiness [see the second posting in this series].  As famed management expert Tom Peters once observed:

‘I think loyalty is much more important than it ever was in the past.  Today loyalty is the only thing that matters.  But it isn’t blind loyalty to the company.  It’s loyalty to your colleagues, loyalty to your team, loyalty to your project, loyalty to your customers, and loyalty to yourself.  I see it as a much deeper sense of loyalty than mindless loyalty to the Company Z logo.’

We spend far too much of our lives working not to derive some pleasure from it.  But doing so requires that we build strong connections with others.  And strong connections are build on loyality.”

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

The Case For Loyalty - Part 2: Predicting Happiness

If you were to collect all available research on happiness, you’d quickly notice a depressing principle staring you in the face:  Human beings are terrible at predicting what makes them happy!

It isn’t that we don’t want to be happy.  Even Thomas Jefferson realized that the “pursuit of happiness” was basic to the fabric of all human beings when he penned the Declaration of Independence.  Rather, the problem has always been finding a reliable path to get there. 

For many years, people assumed that improving one’s economic conditions would improve their level of happiness.  On a macro level, this has been proven false.  For example, in the United States, our economic conditions have steadily improved over the last 50 years.  However, our measured level of happiness has remained unchanged between 1946 and 2006 (Source:  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology).  Additionally, this same trend was demonstrated in 11 other industrialized countries around the world. 

The same principle repeats itself among individuals:  Yes, poverty brings misery - But, once a person economically rises above poverty, the connection between additional money and increased happiness, dissipates. 

Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert puts it they way:

“What I’ve learned from data is that I don’t chase dollars now that I have enough of them, because I know that it will take a very large amount of money to increase happiness by a small amount.”

If money and prosperity are not the answer, what is?  The authors of Why Loyalty Matters make the case that strong, healthy, and loyal relationships are among the most important factors in the happiness equation:

“The economic engine that has saved us from the yoke of poverty has also taught us to trade our time and labor to get the things we want.  The problem isn’t that we are exchanging our time for commodities, but instead that we are exchanging our family’s time, our friend’s time, our ideals’ time to get something."

On the surface this way of living makes sense until we realize what the research reveals. From a happiness perspective, that we’ve painted ourselves into a corner…

"the most important factor that separates happy people from unhappy people is our relationships with others.  It is more important than money, and even more important than our health.  Yet we frequently trade our loyalties for things that will not make us happier, namely money.”

The authors demonstrate further that the key to developing and maintaining these essential relationships, is loyalty.  In fact, if you dig into the data even further, the ability to give and demonstrate loyalty in personal relationships has one of the highest correlations with happiness of all other factors studied.  In other words, if a person gives and receives loyalty in their relationships, the chances of them being happy are very high.

In the next WorkPuzzle blog, I’ll share how research is confirming that loyalty can also have a profound impact on your business.  In the meantime, you may want to take some time to do some self-assessment...   

Do you consider yourself a loyal person?  Can those who are closest to you depend upon your loyalty?  If those around you were to list your top five character traits, would loyalty even be on the list?  These were tough questions for me to answer—maybe that’s why I learned so much from this book!

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

The Case For Loyalty

A few weeks ago, I ran across the work of a company called Ipsos.  Ipsos is a global survey-based market research company out of France.  Their slogan as a company is “Nobody is Unpredictable.”  They predict human behavior for companies who want to primarily improve their advertising and marketing efforts.

At some point, this company figured out that the topic of loyalty is a major factor in how a company’s customers and employees experience a sense of well-being and satisfaction.  The data was so strong that the company set up a subsidiary called Ipsos Loyality that focuses fully on the subject of loyalty and the impact it has on a company’s customers and employees.

Doesn’t this seem odd?  In many parts of our society, loyalty is not considered a virtue anymore.  Companies that are struggling to stay in business are often forced to undergo a lay-off period...often more than one round.  Employees who are affected by a lay-off or see their peers experience this type of misfortune often have a tough time mustering any legitimate feelings of loyalty towards their employer.  

How about customers?  Does it really make sense for a person to be loyal to a certain company when global competition drives prices down to the point where you can get near identical products and services from multiple companies?  At that point, doesn’t it make sense to be “loyal” to the company that can get you what you want at the lowest possible price?  Costco has built a multi-billion dollar company on this principle.

And it’s not just business... This lack of loyalty has seeped into nearly every facet of our lives.  It has become an anachronism of a value system that has gone by the wayside.  It has even got to the point where some would consider loyalty to be a character flaw.  For example, when former President Carter wanted to insult the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair’s, support of President Bush, he called him “Abominable. Loyal. Blind. Apparently subservient.”

If loyalty is now such a negative trait, you might wonder why I’d take time to discuss it.  The reason for doing so is outlined in "Why Loyalty Matters," a recent book written by Timothy Keiningham and Lerzan Aksoy.  In this book, the authors draw upon research conducted by Ipsos Loyalty and demonstrate how loyalty is a necessary ingredient to happiness, meaning, and lasting fulfillment in both your work and your personal life.

In the next few WorkPuzzle blogs, we’ll discuss some of the principles outlined in this book.  I think it will challenge your thinking.  The basic premise is this:

“Fulfillment only comes when we give of ourselves to others.  Loyalty, like love, is not something you get but something you give. But, like love, giving loyalty, over time, through difficulties and trials, leads to mutual loyalty.  And it leads to relationships that are a profound source of satisfaction and happiness that cannot be built in any other way.”

I think you’ll see that this principle will impact not only your company’s performance, but your personal relationships as well.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Competing With Free

A common complaint we hear from real estate companies across the country is that it has become increasingly difficult to compete with companies who are recruiting their experienced agents on very low-cost fee models (i.e. nearly free).

Here’s an example from an email subject line that came across my desk earlier this week:

“Experienced Real Estate Agents:  100% Commission plus $99/Month Desk Fee”

How does a full-service real estate broker with a significant level of overhead compete with this?  The answer…just like everyone else in the world.

Last month, Farhad Manjoo, a columnist for Slate Magazine wrote an article making the point that almost every industry now has to compete with “free” business models:

“In an earlier generation, we might have scoffed at this marketing strategy. What business gives away its products?  But not anymore.  Free is the new normal.  Today, every business that deals in intellectual property -- from software to journalism to music -- feels the no-cost push.  If you're not giving it away, the thinking goes, you must be doing something wrong.”

Real estate companies are in the intellectual property business.  Much of the value that a real estate professional contributes to a business transaction involves collecting information and then customizing that information so that it is usable and valuable to a unique individual and their unique circumstances.  If you look around the internet, you’ll find that there are many companies that claim they can do the same thing—for free.  And some do a pretty good job of delivering on that promise!

So, how do you compete?  Manjoo uses Google’s new free desktop operating system to make his point:

"Though digital prophets champion our pay-nothing future, it's instructive to consider why free sometimes fails. To return to Google's Chrome OS, sure, Google will persuade some computer makers to install the OS.  But when you consider what free really buys, the answer is not much.

The computers are likely to sell at $20 or so less than the price of comparable Windows machines (Microsoft sells Windows XP to netbook makers for just $15 a copy).  In exchange for that slightly lower price, customers will get computers that do much less -- they'll run fewer programs and connect to a smaller range of peripheral devices.  And good luck finding tech support.

Most consumers get it.  There's already a free operating system for computers:  Linux.  Yet netbooks running Windows outsell their Linux counterparts by a margin of nine to one.  In other words, free is getting trounced.”

Free (or very low cost) should be getting trounced in your industry as well, but in many cases it is not.  Here are some ideas that may help you compete more successfully for the talent that is getting lured away by the promise of free.

1.  Play up the “Hassle Factor.”  Why do nine times more people choose to pay for an operating system on their computer when they can get one for free?  Because using the free one comes with a boatload of hassles.  Most people would rather pay than put up with these hassles.  The same is true for an agent working in your brokerage, but you may have to do the thinking for them.  Quantify what kind of hassles an agent would experience by signing on with a low-cost broker and regularly articulate those pitfalls. Your agents may not be able to envision these hassles before they leave.  Then, it’s too late.

2.  Play up the “Risk Factor.”  One of the big advantages of working with a well-established, well-funded, and respected company is the amount of risk a prominent company can shoulder compared with low-cost employers.  Certainly, no one likes to be “scared into” working for a particular company, but make the point that many clients like to do business with not only trustworthy individuals, but also trustworthy, reputable companies.

3.  Quantify the Value You’re Providing the Agent.  You might want to consider making a list of all the tools, benefits, services and other tangible items that an agent receives by being part of your organization.  Then, assign a reasonable cost to each item (the amount the agents would pay if they were to buy the items on their own). 

Next, answer the following questions with complete honesty:  Does the value equation make sense from the agent’s perspective?  Are your agents using the services you’re providing? 

For a particular agent, how does the (Total Commissions – Market Value of the Services an Agent Uses) compare to (Total Commissions – Company Dollar)?  If you’re not on the right side of this value equation, you’ll have a tough time hanging onto agents.

Take on your competitors who offer ”free” as their primary marketing message.  The most successful companies in the world, including Microsoft, Apple, IBM, and HP, all compete against “free,” and win.  You can too!

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.