Alicia Conners is a Director of Placement at Gallman Consulting!
Happy birthday to an amazing colleague and a shining personality who brightens up our workdays!
Birthdays mean a fresh start; a time for looking back with gratitude at the blessings of another year. It is also a time to look forward with renewed hope for bigger blessings. May you find true bliss as you face your next milestones. Happy birthday Alicia!
Enjoy your day, your way!
These Candy Corn and White Chocolate Softbatch Cookies are amazing for Halloween and Thanksgiving!
“An abundance of candy corn and white chocolate chips add texture and an extra pop of sweetness to these softbatch-style cookies. They’re so soft, buttery, tender, and just melt in your mouth. The dough uses both cornstarch and cream, which help keep the cookies supple, light, and extra soft without being cakey. If you’re wondering what to do with all the leftover Halloween candy corn, this recipe will help take it off your hands. Baking this dough longer than about 10 minutes could result in undersides of cookies become overly browned. Strategically place candy corn so that it’s not baking directly on cookie sheet because it will melt, burn, or turn runny if it is. The candy corn pieces need to be in the interior of the cookies, shielded and buffered by dough.”
“Yield: about 20 medium cookies
Prep Time: 10 mintues
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Total Time: 3+ hours, for dough chilling
1/2 cup unsalted butter, soften
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cream or half-and-half
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt, optional and to taste
1 1/2 cups candy corn (10 to 11 ounces)
1 cup white chocolate chips (or salted peanuts)
Recipe from Averie Cooks. All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or simply link back to this post for the recipe. Thank you.”
Please join GPS and Gallman Consulting in wishing a Happy Birthday to MJ Sorrell & Debbie St. Mark!
Ladies, happy birthday to wonderful coworkers and good friends. You’re a pleasure to work alongside, and we look forward to many more birthday celebrations with you two!
Here’s hoping that this day will bring you both the happiness and joy you deserve!
Happy Birthday!
A few years ago, TIME Magazine ran a cover story that made headlines of its own. In “Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation,” the magazine outlined in black and white all of the stereotypical horrors of Generation Y. The author used studies to back up the notion that millennials are the laziest, most self-absorbed generation in history.
There’s only one problem: Every generation gets labeled as the laziest and most self-absorbed of any in history.
Generation X was the “Slacker Generation.” Baby boomers were the “Me Generation.” It’s only natural for older folks to look down at young people and write them off based on the wisdom they have accrued since they too were new to the world of work.
The Millennial Myth
A quick Google search about millennials in the workplace kicks back results laden with adjectives like selfish, impulsive, careless, unenthusiastic and inattentive. However, when you dig deeper, you see that underlying these supposed traits are things like a drive for personal and career development, the desire to find meaningful work, the desire to lead, the ability to multitask and more.
Stereotyping is never a good thing, especially when it comes to recruiting. Misconceptions about millennials — or any generation — can lead to bias and even discrimination. Just as an individual should not be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, gender or socioeconomic background, they also should not be defined by their generation.
Consider this: Generation Y spans in age from college students to parents in their mid-30s. Painting millennials with a broad brush isn’t just unfair; it simply doesn’t work.
Just How Different Are the Generations?
You might be saying to yourself, “There have to be differences in generations. I see it all day long at my organization!” If so, you’ll be interested to learn that a recent IBM study looked at the differences between generations in the workplace and concluded that millennials really aren’t that different from their older colleagues. In fact, the only significant difference found was a higher technical aptitude among Generation Y.
IBM reports that people from every generation are equally likely to seek out meaningful work, want to make a positive impact on their employer, and value diversity. They also learned that older people are equally as willing to leave a job for money or incompatibility as their younger cohorts.
So why do millennials get labeled differently?
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin wanted to know and discovered that the differences between generations are a product of perception, rather than actual differences in values. In other words, we see what we want to see when we group a generation of people together. And while some differences in motivators exist, different generations really aren’t so different at all.
How to Break Through the Stereotypes
So, if millennials are stereotyped and misunderstood, how can you make sound judgments throughout the recruiting process? Behavioral interviews are one important tool that hiring teams can use to evaluate whether or not an individual is a good fit.
Another useful tool is a personality test. Psychologists have found little evidence to show that our personalities change significantly over time, so an individual’s personality at age 14 will look very similar when they are 24, 34, 44, etc., which lends accuracy to the testing.
When used together, personality tests and behavioral interviews can paint a detailed picture of how someone is likely to behave on the job. When you understand the behaviors that drive success in a role, you will be better equipped to match candidates with the behavior patterns you are looking for.
One of the keys to success when attempting to evaluate potential behavior is to focus on how someone behaves over the long term. Why? Because behavior can easily be altered for short periods of time, but inherently, we all revert back to our natural tendencies. This means that behavioral interviews must be thorough and robust, to help identify patterns that show themselves over time.
The Secret Weapon You Need
Gather a group of millennials together who all applied for the same position, and you’ll find that most of them have equal skills and knowledge. But if you spend time talking to individuals for even just a few minutes, you’ll discover that each is quite unique and brings specific strengths and weaknesses to the table.
No matter what generation a person can be classified into, a strong recruiting process looks beyond the superficial and effectively evaluates the likelihood that a candidate will thrive on the job. Even with personality and behavioral testing, this is no easy task. To complicate things even more, many internal HR teams are not equipped with the money, the manpower, the resources or the time it takes to make such strong matches.
When you partner with a strategic recruiting firm, you instantly access the tools necessary to make strong matches. Professional recruiters have the time, resources and experience to thoroughly vet all potential candidates and evaluate them for a strong fit. This frees up your internal staff to focus on business-critical initiatives while your staffing partner focuses on hiring.
Stop focusing on generational labels and start looking at your candidates as individuals with unique experiences, perspectives, talents and goals. This is the only way you can attract and retain the top talent you need to help your business thrive.
Thank you Georgette Sandifer (Senior Director of Placement) for your 17 years of service and dedication to Gallman Consulting! You truly deserve the success, and with such efforts you are sure to earn more!
Congratulations on this wonderful occasion!
Charlie Gallman & Georgette Sandifer
GPS has been nominated as one of the best employment agencies by The State newspaper. Please help us get out the word to friends, relatives and other GPS associates. The voting ends on September 11. Each person voting has to vote for 30 businesses, under multiple categories. GPS can be found under “Service” and then scroll down and click on “Employment Agency”: www.thestate.com/best.
“Rules: ONE BALLOT PER PERSON PER DAY DURING THE LENGTH OF THE CONTEST. Only local franchised and non-franchised businesses are eligible to win. At least 30 categories must be completed in order for ballot to be counted. You must provide your name, valid email address and postal code to have your opinions counted. Entries may be submitted online at www.thestate.com/best. Nomination balloting will begin on August 1, 2016 at 12:01 a.m. and will end on August 14, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. Top ten nominees from each subcategory will appear on the final (winning-round) ballot. Final balloting round to determine winners will begin August 29, 2016 at 12:01 a.m. and will end September 11, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. Upon receipt, entries become property of The State. The State is not responsible for non-submitted entries. The State reserves the right to randomly verify any provided information. All judge’s decisions are final. Businesses are eligible to win up to two different categories. The winners will be posted in The State’s Best 2016 special section Sunday October 23, 2016.” ~ The State website
by Beth Benjamin
Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2016/08/listen-to-your-employees-not-just-your-customers
August 15, 2016
In 2014, Michael Callahan, then head of customer experience at Hulu, had a mystery on his hands. When the big video streaming service surveyed customers who renewed subscriptions, it discovered, paradoxically, that some customers stayed with Hulu even when they didn’t necessarily have a positive perception of the brand overall.
It turned out that some customer service representatives of the third-largest player in the streaming video space were pushing fence-sitting customers too hard, said Callahan in a recent interview. Paid digital TV companies, which also include Netflix and Amazon Prime, face high churn. Like Hulu, they need to ensure positive perceptions among customers routinely up for grabs between the big players.
“We had a gut-check conversation to discover what it meant to truly serve customers,” Callahan remembers. “We wanted employees to act more authentically to achieve a better, more positive experience of the brand overall. We didn’t want them only thinking about retention.”
That’s when Callahan’s team took an unusual step: The team created and linked an employee feedback system to its customer feedback system, in order to flag interactions where customers and employees had different perceptions. The linked system consisted of two short surveys — one sent to employees and the other to customers — right after a transaction. The linked system allowed for more insight into customers, and managers could use the information to coach employees, to assess whether they had the right tools and resources, and to identify people with innovative ideas and leadership potential.
Many companies love customer feedback, but only a handful have devoted as much energy to employee feedback systems. “For every dollar spent on employee feedback, companies spend hundreds of dollars on customer feedback,” said Troy Stevenson, former vice president of customer loyalty at eBay, in a recent interview.
Companies rarely connect the two systems. But, connecting them can create powerful feedback loops that engage employees and help companies adapt to fast-changing customer expectations, according to new research I conducted with my colleagues Carolyn Egelman, Julia Markish, Emma Sopadjieva, and Dorian Stone at the Medallia Institute. The research included interviews with more than 25 customer experience and HR executives and a survey of 1,000 frontline employees working at large companies in the U.S. automotive, financial services, retail, telecomm, and hospitality sectors.
Linking feedback systems allows companies to enlist frontline employees as agents of change. In our Medallia Institute survey, 56% of frontline employees said they have suggestions for improving company practices, and 43% said their insights could reduce company costs. Yet, a third said they were surveyed once a year or less, and more than half said employers weren’t asking the right questions.
In the case Callahan described, two screen pop-up surveys were sent to customers and employees immediately following a customer service transaction.
Customers were asked:
•Was your problem solved?
•Are we easy to work with?
•Did you enjoy the experience you just had?
Employees were asked:
•Did you solve the problem?
•Was it easy to access the tools and resources you needed to solve the problem?
•Did you feel proud to represent our brand in the conversation?
The linked feedback system prompted executives to adjust the compensation plan: customer service representatives received a retention bonus only if a subscriber remained on the rolls 30 days after an interaction.
Reducing customer churn by even a small amount can add up to a lot in a subscription-based business. For example, if linked feedback loops helped to improve retention by even one percentage point, the savings on a subscriber base of 12 million (Hulu’s current base) with a typical monthly subscription price of $7.99, would generate an extra $11 million in annual revenue.
Why don’t more companies do this? Organizational barriers are often the culprit. At one 170,000-employee big box retailer, linking the feedback systems would require approvals from three different senior executives, the CMO, the chief human resources officer, and the president of retail. The only person who could drive a linked system was the CEO.
Companies that want the insights from linked systems can navigate the organizational complexities with these six steps:
Align feedback systems around high-level business objectives. Which needle do you want to move? Hulu wanted to build more authentic relationships with customers. This drove everything from its questions to how it used the data.
Design your feedback system to aggregate data at key touchpoints. Most companies build separate, often expensive systems within existing reporting hierarchies. Instead, work backwards from the customer experiences you want to understand. For example, if your customer feedback is organized around touchpoints within lines of business, survey employees who interact with customers at those same touchpoints, such as a call center conversation or an account signup. Companies often make the mistake of organizing customer feedback systems around one structure — say lines of business or channel — and employee feedback systems around another — say geography or function.
Establish the right frequency and pacing for employee and customer surveys. Many companies, including Nordstrom, Four Seasons and Vanguard, collect customer feedback on a continuous basis and distribute it in real time (Disclosure: Nordstrom, Four Seasons, and Vanguard are all clients of Medallia). Most executives I interviewed said employees should be surveyed more than once a year but not more than once a month. Match the timing of your surveys to the pace at which you can act, so that you can demonstrate results. Surveying employees on a rolling basis, and using quarantine rules (designated times when you won’t ask for feedback) for customer surveys can minimize survey fatigue.
Encourage honest feedback and protect employees who answer candidly. Employees may worry their feedback will get them into trouble. Counter this perception by rewarding and honoring employees for raising difficult issues. After successes become clear, give even more recognition to employees whose feedback helped move the company forward.
Let people speak in their own words and capture emotional cues. As companies rely more on technology, relating to customers emotionally and pinpointing what troubles them gets trickier. Open-ended questions, text analytics and sentiment analysis capture interactions more vividly and compel leaders to act. “To hear an employee who’s deeply empathetic to the customer trying to explain a complex policy … to feel them struggle is painful,” says Callahan, who is now at Seattle-based Blueprint Consulting Services.
Act on the most important feedback, and communicate what you’re doing and why. In our interviews, we learned that a handful of companies are using feedback to create specific action plans tied to companies’ broader goals. At one company, executives use an internal website to post plans that grew out of employee feedback. Employees can see who’s leading an effort, view timelines, and track progress. They can also share additional feedback or volunteer for projects.
In a world where big data algorithms and technology increasingly dictate the customer experience, linked feedback systems give companies at least two great advantages. The connections help senior managers get a more complete picture of customer-employee interactions, including the behaviors — and emotions — they generate. And, asking employees for their input, not through a pro forma annual survey but as part of the company’s routine operations, sends a signal that employees have useful insights and that they are valued.
Ultimately, well-designed feedback loops enable employees to be more empowered and companies to be more responsive, creating the competitive edge companies need to adapt and thrive.
Beth Benjamin is senior director of research at Medallia, a global provider of customer experience management software. She applies organizational science to real-world problems, helping companies to adapt to the challenges of growth and market change.
