Lisa Caldas Kappasser’s new book, The Smart New Way to Get Hired – Use Emotional Intelligence and Land the Right Job, explains how, unlike your IQ, your emotional intelligence can be improved and developed – specifically to impact a chance to get a job that is a good fit.

Importantly, Kappasser makes the point that emotional intelligence (EQ – emotional quotient) helps you “make the most of your other qualities.” Some skills (page 7):

• Adapting to change
• Knowing your strengths and weaknesses
• Communicating well
• Cooperating and collaborating with others

It is not difficult to understand how important these skills are in the workplace.

With chapters  highlighting how to apply emotional intelligence for job search, self-management, social awareness, social skills and developing emotional intelligence to achieve your career goals, Kappasser offers some practical solutions and ideas for anyone interested in improving his or her standings in the EQ realm.

Win a copy of Lisa’s book! Comment below for a chance in a random drawing!

By Beth Mulhern, GreatPlaceJobs Research Assistant

NIKE, Inc. was born on the dreams of Phil Knight, a competitive runner for the University of Oregon, and his coach, Bill Bowerman. Back in the mid-1950’s, long before the famous Nike “Swoosh” came along, Coach Bowerman wanted better running shoes for his track team than were available on the market, and Phil Knight, who graduated and earned his MBA, had a vision of marketing the best running shoes in the world in a brand new way in the US. They shared their visions and Blue Ribbon Sports, later to become NIKE, Inc., came to be, and now includes the wholly-owned subsidiaries of Cole Haan, Converse Inc., Hurley International LLC, NIKE Golf, and Umbro Ltd.

Nike, Inc., headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, was an $18.6 billion dollar company at the end of 2008, and has plans to grow to $23 billion in revenue by the end of fiscal 2011. The company employs over 30,000 people across six continents, in more than 160 countries around the globe. They directly or indirectly employ nearly one million people through their suppliers, shippers, retailers and other service providers. Their mission statement, “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete”, has at its core the belief of its co-founder, Bill Bowerman that “if you have a body, you are an athlete.” They state their corporate goal like this:
Our goal is to carry on his legacy of innovative thinking, whether to develop products that help athletes of every level of ability reach their potential, or to create business opportunities that set Nike apart from the competition and provide value for our shareholders.

It’s refreshing that a multi-billion dollar corporation features a strong policy on environmental responsibility, especially in regards to climate change.  They summarize it clearly:

Nike sees corporate responsibility as an integral part of how we can use the power of our brand, the energy and passion of our people, and the scale of our business to create meaningful change.
Nike, Inc. also takes great pride in an innovative and inspirational corporate culture, which embraces diversity, imagination and creativity.   For example, Nike has a very innovative marketing strategy, utilizing digital media aggressively to promote the brand.  They encourage their employees to think outside the box and “push out the edges of what can be.” Their record speaks for itself, as the company has been named three years running to Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies To Work For, and for the last two years was also named to Business Week’s Top 100 Best Places To Launch A Career lists. Further, The Ethisphere Institute named Nike as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for 2009.

To look for jobs with Nike, join GreatPlaceJobs.

By Natalie Roig, GreatPlaceJobs Research Assistant

SAS Institute is one of the largest software companies in the world. SAS has sustained excellence in product development and customer support since 1976 and has focused on their primary mission-delivering superior software and enhancing customer relationships. SAS products are used by over 45,000 customers worldwide and by 92 of the top 100 companies on the 2009 Fortune Global 500 list.

SAS Institute’s employee focused philosophy is if you treat employees as if they make a difference to the company, they will make a difference to the company. The heart of SAS is that satisfied employees create satisfied customers. The SAS president is quoted saying, “We’ve worked hard to create a corporate culture that is based on trust between our employees and the company.”.SAS employees work in an environment that fosters and encourages the integration of the company’s business objectives with their personal needs.

SAS is committed to being a contributing corporate citizen. Since 1976, SAS has been dedicated to academics and has been supporting educational causes. Education is one of SAS’s passion and mission. SAS provides many education opportunities for their employees. To look for jobs with SAS Institute, join GreatPlaceJobs.

SAS Institute in the news:

On June 15, 2009, SAS was ranked as one of the top employers in information technology by Computerworld magazine. The magazines annual “Best Places to Work in IT” featured 100 working environments for technology professionals. Categories include benefits, diversity, career development, training and retention. More than 27,000 IT workers were surveyed. SAS was ranked 19 in this year’s survey out of 100.

On May 28, 2009, SAS developed a product called SAS for Mobile Interaction which was named Communication Solutions Product of the Year by TMC Group. SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services. SAS for Mobile Interaction combines capabilities from SAS Digital Marketing and SAS Marketing Automation to improve customer intimacy via mobile devices. The Product of the Year Award exemplifies the best this industry has to offer. With hundreds of applications this year, the judging process was difficult. SAS demonstrates a commitment to quality and continued development of the communications industry.

By Natalie Roig, GreatPlaceJobs Research Assistant

Arnold & Porter LLP is an international law firm that practices in more than 25 areas of law. The Arnold & Porter law firm conducts business on six continents world wide. Their extensive experience in practicing law allows them to work across the world. Their commitment to their clients, values and communities makes Arnold & Porter one of the most sought out international law firms.

This is how they describe their workplace:

Our working environment is spirited, open, welcoming, and fast-paced. Our firm is a collection of independent, diverse personalities who share a common devotion to first-class legal work. We value individuality. We encourage our lawyers to be themselves. All attorneys, regardless of experience level, are encouraged to participate fully in the work of the firm and to express their views on client issues and firm matters.

Arnold & Porter offers legal resources to represent all of their clients’ interests and is proud to hold true to their core values. They maintain a diverse workplace, a mutually respectful working environment and a strong commitment to detail. In this vein, they Arnold & Porter offers pro bono legal counsel to clients who cannot afford their services.

To look for jobs with Arnold & Porter, join GreatPlaceJobs.

By Natalie Roig, GreatPlaceJobs Research Assistant

QuikTrip is a convenience store found in nine states that offers guaranteed gasoline and a truck fleet diesel fueling program. QuikTrip has been listed on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to work for since 2003. QuikTrip’s mission statement

The mission statement of QuikTrip exemplifies a commitment to quality: “To be the best gasoline, convenience and food retailer in the eyes of our customers, our competitors and our employees.”

QuikTrip takes great pride in their store employees by offering great career salaries, flexible job schedules and great job benefits. QuikTrip hopes to advance their employees in all aspects of their careers. QuikTrip has five core values:

1. Be the best.
2. Focus long term.
3. Do what’s right for QuikTrip.
4. Never be satisfied.
5. Do the right thing.

Applying these five core values encourages employees to not only be the best representatives of the company, but also to grow in the corporate world. QuikTrip has many opportunity for employment. There are two types of full-time assistant manager positions. Part-time employees include clerks that assist in the operation of the store during peak sales periods. There are also several hundred personnel in non-store employment positions throughout the company.

QuikTrip also offers student employment opportunities.  Students are placed as assistants working the night schedule and as part-time clerks. The students are then eligible for $4,400 a year worth of tuition in addition to their career salaries. To look for jobs with QuikTrip, join GreatPlaceJobs.

I first meet Ellen Sautter and Diane Crompton, co-authors of the book, Seven Days to Online Networking, last April, and wrote about their presentation sharing some details from the book. I have since had the opportunity to get to know Ellen by attending a weekly networking event with her. Anyone looking forward to reading the book should know that Ellen really lives by the philosophy of helping job seekers connect and goes out of her way to be generous and helpful to anyone who requests her advice and assistance.

Ellen and Diane’s book really does cut down the clutter to help job seekers and others dive into social networking in a short amount of time. By first explaining WHY you would want to network with millions of people (!), exploring the issue of how to find the time and identifying the importance of social networking, they bring the reader to the “guts” of the book – How to Stand Out in the Cyberspace Crowd.

With a market flooded with profiles, blogs and digital dirt, can one person really make inroads and “be someone” online? The answer is yes – if you know what you are doing and how to get there! Ellen and Diane offer an easy to understand and digest tutorial to help even the most resistant networker join the fun online.

Readers will learn the “do’s and don’ts” of online networking, how to optimize their use of blogs (their own or others’), various professional networking sites to explore (such as XING and Ryze) and how to start thinking about a “webfolio” – information on a website identifying skills and accomplishments.

I highly recommend Seven Days to Online Networking to anyone who is overwhelmed at the prospect of jumping online, but recognizes how important it is for career success. WIN a copy! Leave a comment here and at my other blogs for a chance in a random drawing!

Keppie Careers

Examiner.com

Secrets of the Job Hunt

Sometimes, it pays to  hire a coach to teach you everything you need to know! Need some help getting your job search jump started? Not sure you can put all of the great tools at your disposal to good use? Need a great resume? Learn how I can help you propel your job hunt forward.

Some may ask, “Can I really work on getting a promotion? Isn’t it more about waiting for the good news from my boss?” If that is your approach, RUN, don’t walk to get a copy of 30-Day Job Promotion by Susan Britton Whitcomb. So much about your career is in your hands, and you need to have good information and advice to empower yourself to drive to the next stop in your career plan!

Susan takes the reader, step-by-step through a series of tasks and considerations. First stop? Figure out what the promotion will really do for you? Are you sure that is the job you want? The fact is, while you may have a more prestigious title and earn more money, it is important to consider how a promotion will impact your life and day-to-day happiness.

There are many important factors when considering seeking a promotion. A few covered in the book: timing and your promotability. With detailed charts, checklists and explanations, the author helps the reader uncover key issues and outline a game plan.

Susan reminds readers that being promoted is “all about value” (p. 132). You need to know it AND you must be able to communicate it well if you expect a positive result. Suggestions of what to research, sample scripts and success stories round out this useful book for anyone thinking about taking the next step in his or her career.

Win a copy of 30-Day Job Promotion by commenting here or on these blogs. Comment on all of the posts to improve your chances  in the random drawing!

Examiner
Keppie Careers
Secrets of the Job Hunt

Why Managers Should Care About Employee Loyalty
By Timothy Keiningham and Lerzan Aksoy

The landmark Ipsos Loyalty Study, the largest study of loyalty ever conducted, found less than 30 percent of US employees say they are loyal to their company. Only about 25 percent of US employees think their employer has earned their loyalty.

The long-term success of any company depends heavily upon the quality and loyalty of its people. Few corporate executives would disagree with this idea conceptually. But it is also true that most treat the economic value of employees in enhancing customer relationships and company profits as “soft” numbers, unlike the “hard” numbers they use to manage their operations, such as the cost of labor.

The problem with this is that when the going gets tough, managers focus on the hard numbers. And the reality is that at some point every company will go through tough times. That is the nature of business cycles.

The result is that today we are overwhelmed with downsizings and restructurings. Layoffs make the front pages of our newspapers regularly. And while Wall Street often rewards layoffs by treating them as a sign that management is serious about getting a company’s financial house in order, the reality is quite different. Most organizations that downsize fail to realize any long-term cost savings or efficiencies, which necessitates even more restructurings and layoffs.

Disloyalty Is a Two-Way Street

Although the cost benefits tend to be mirages, the corresponding pain to customers and employees is all too real. Research using the American Customer Satisfaction Index found that those firms that engaged in substantial downsizing experienced large declines in customer satisfaction. Unfortunately for those firms, the index has proven to be a good predictor of future earnings. The study’s authors note that “the current trend toward downsizing in US firms may increase productivity in the short term, but the downsized firms’ future financial performance will suffer if repeat business is dependent on labor-intensive customized service.”

The impact on the organization’s culture is also severe. Downsizings result in a rumor-filled paranoia. When Coca-Cola instituted a restructuring that resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs, the company became so awash in far-fetched stories that executives were forced to take the unusual step of intervening to quash them.

Worse still, employees that remain often find themselves jaded. It isn’t hard to find employees who feel exactly like Dan after his company’s layoffs in Mitchell Lee Marks’ Charging Back Up the Hill:

“There is no loyalty here; no one is going the extra mile after this. Two years ago, we worked sixty-five-hour weeks. People were willing to do it, because it was a great place to work and we were doing something that mattered. . . . From here on in, it’s just a job for me. I’ll put in my forty hours and that’s it.”

Let’s be clear. No CEO relishes the thought of layoffs. It means that their companies are floundering. Furthermore, history has shown us that the pain often outweighs any long-term financial gains.

If companies are going to grow their way out of difficult times (and excel in good times), they need two things: (1) for their customers to stick with them, and (2) to improve their productivity. But this only happens through an organization of committed, loyal employees.

Finding the Link between Employee Loyalty and Profitability

Benjamin Schneider, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, has shown conclusively that the employee’s loyalty-related attitudes precede a firm’s financial and market performance. And there is a much greater payoff in working on improving the human factor than people think. Researchers at University of Pennsylvania found that spending 10 percent of a company’s revenue on capital improvements increased productivity by 3.9 percent. But investing that same amount in developing the employee capital more than doubles that amount, to a whopping 8.5 percent.

It is one thing to believe that employee loyalty results in positive financial outcomes, it is quite another to quantify those outcomes. But if we are going to be able to resist our natural inclinations to focus exclusively on the short-term in difficult times, then we need to get very good at understanding what the real implications to the long-term health of our business is of employee loyalty.

The place to begin at your company is by asking, “How loyal are our employees really?” Doing this requires that you meaningfully solicit feedback from all employees (management included). And you have to be willing to ask tough questions. For example:

* How do our managers’ relationship styles impact the organization’s service climate and employee loyalty?
* Does the company provide the necessary tools and training for employees to perform their jobs well?
* Is a commitment to serve customers rewarded and encouraged by the organization?
* Does the company demonstrate that it deserves the loyalty of its employees?

There will of course be other dimensions that are of concern for your particular organization or industry. The key is to identify those few, vital dimensions that are most essential for your success. Once you have identified these dimensions, you must measure them in a clear, objective, and rigorous manner.

Once you know where you stand vis-à-vis employee loyalty, next you need to tie this information to the performance drivers of your business. Typically, these come down to four things: productivity, employee turnover, customer loyalty, and revenue.

The ability to statistically link each of these measures to employee loyalty is relatively straightforward. The key is to aggregate employee data into groups that meaningfully link to turnover, customer loyalty, and revenue. For example, a retail chain might find store level analysis to be the most relevant unit, since customer loyalty and revenue are tracked at this level, and stores typically have semi-independent management.

The correlation between employee-loyalty-related attitudes and business outcomes is always meaningful from a practical, managerially relevant perspective, so it is worth the effort. In fact, a large-scale study conducted by researchers Harter, Schmidt, and Hayes presented compelling evidence that employee-loyalty-related attitudes were positively linked to each of these performance drivers. Furthermore, managers can learn a great deal by studying the performance of their most loyal business units, and how this is influenced by managers’ own relationship styles.

Despite the ability to pull this information together to gain invaluable managerial insight, most companies do nothing (or next to nothing) in this regard. The number one problem in making the link isn’t that this information doesn’t exist. It is simply a lack of management will to pull the data contained in various departments together.

Why? We don’t want to hear bad news. And without question, this kind of company internal examination always yields bad news. The reality is that employees are only as loyal to the company as they believe the company is loyal to them. This is true almost everywhere in the world! So in the end, building an organization of committed, loyalty employees ultimately comes down to demonstrating to employees that the company deserves their loyalty.

©2009 Timothy Keiningham and Lerzan Aksoy, authors of Why Loyalty Matters: The Groundbreaking Approach to Rediscovering Happiness, Meaning and Lasting Fulfillment in Your Life and Work

Author Bios
Timothy Keiningham is a world-renowned authority in the field of loyalty measurement and management, and Global Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President for Ipsos Loyalty, one of the world’s largest business research organizations. Lerzan Aksoy is an acclaimed expert in the science of loyal management, and Associate Professor of Marketing at Fordham University. They are coauthors of a new book, with Luke Williams, entitled Why Loyalty Matters (BenBella Books, 2009, www.whyloyaltymatters.com ), and creators of LoyaltyAdvisor (www.LoyaltyAdvisor.com), a web-based tool that analyzes your loyalty across multiple dimensions proven to link to your success. LoyaltyAdvisor is the product of a global effort, the most comprehensive study of loyalty ever conducted.

GreatPlaceJobs is excited to share the updated results from our ground-breaking study comparing layoff trends between top-rated and other Fortune 100 companies.  The new findings, which consist of data from the first half of 2009, continue to clearly demonstrate that the biggest employers are not necessarily the best.

The study shows that the nation’s largest companies conducted layoffs at a rate of almost twice that of a group of companies recognized as great workplaces.  Only 44% of excellent employers laid off workers from the beginning of 2008, while a shocking 86% of the Fortune 100 companies have laid off employees in the past year and a half.

The revenue growth rate at great workplace companies in Q1 2009 was 2.3% better than the rest of the Fortune 100, and the average stock price of the excellent employers was 1.1% higher as of June 30, 2009 (compared to January 1, 2009) than typical Fortune 100 companies.

“Despite the fact that the award-winning employers have also been hurt by the current recession, most remain committed and loyal to their employees and have not included layoffs in their cost-cutting actions,” said Miriam Salpeter, co-founder of GreatPlaceJobs.  “I always advise my job-seeking clients to focus on identifying an organization to target, and this new information further confirms the fact that great workplaces, such as those who post opportunities on GreatPlaceJobs, are a terrific choice.”

The GreatPlaceJobs Great Workplace Employment Study compared the employment, financial and operating data of the Fortune 100’s largest U.S. companies with the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For.  Though both groups suffered lower revenue levels in Q1 2009 compared to Q1 2008, the average year-over-year revenue growth rate in Q1 2009 was 2.3% better at the great workplace companies.  The excellent employers saw their Q1 2009 revenues decline by 7.1% from the previous year’s quarterly revenues, while revenues at the Fortune 100 largest companies decreased by 9.4% from Q1 2008. 

A clear sign of the great employers’ competitive advantage and resilience is evident in the fact that nine of the Fortune 100 largest companies from 2008 filed for bankruptcy or were bailed out by the U.S. government in 2008, while none of the great workplace companies failed on this magnitude.

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A complete copy of the GreatPlaceJobs Great Workplace Employment Study and additional information about the methodology may be requested via email: contact@greatplacejobs.com.  For more information about GreatPlaceJobs, visit www.greatplacejobs.com. To receive regular updates about new and interesting data and reports, visit and/or subscribe to the GreatPlaceJobs blog (http://www.greatplacejobs.com/blog) and follow us on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/GreatPlaceJobs).

About GreatPlaceJobs

GreatPlaceJobs offers the largest collection of job listings exclusively from award-winning companies that have been recognized as “great workplaces.” The database currently includes tens of thousands of open jobs from excellent employers from across the U.S.  GreatPlaceJobs offers job seekers both free and premium subscriptions to its database of job listings.

If you are afraid to make a change in your career and/or hesitant to begin to take the wheel to drive your own career bus, you are not alone! Many people facing a change stop in their tracks because they can’t figure out what to do next and don’t want to make the “wrong” move.

Enter Katy Piotrowski’s book, The Career Coward’s Guide to Changing Careers.

Katy guides her readers through a series of stages to help them decide on their plans and overcome roadblocks caused by fear and hesitation. She offers exercises and support from the “discover your natural talents and best skills” stage through to the point of being ready to learn “how to succeed and progress in your new career.”

With confidence checklists and profiles throughout that demonstrate success stories and cases in point, Katy brings her (potentially reluctant) readers along and offers courage to overcome “panic points” to succeed.

My favorite chapter? Chapter 8 – Execute a Successful Informational Interview. Katy offers sample scripts to secure the meeting and step-by-step instructions to help readers know “What to Wear, Where to Meet and How to Act.” Key advice? “Take notes and leave your resume at home.” Successful networkers conduct as many informational meetings as possible. ( CLICK HERE for my thoughts on info interviews.)

I highly recommend The Career Coward’s Guide for anyone who is experiencing a fearful transition – and who isn’t?

If you’d like to win a FREE copy, comment on this blog post to enter a random drawing! Feel free to comment on all of my blogs for a better chance to win:

* Keppie Careers
* Examiner.com
* Secrets of the Job Hunt

If you need some coaching to figure out what you should do next, contact my business partner, Hallie Crawford. Once you know what you want to do, if you need some help to get your job search in gear – Learn more about me and my services.- I will help!