How are Retailers looking in 2011?

Supermarket News reveals sales among the Top 75 food retailers in North America recovered from a slump in 2009, rising 7.7% during 2010, compared with a cumulative drop of 0.2% a year ago. Total revenues, encompassing sales of food and nonfood merchandise, totaled $960.3 billion last year, compared with $891.4 billion in 2009. Revenues among the 10 largest companies on the list rose 2.2% to $666.1 billion in 2010.
Stores like Walmart and Kroger, Meijers, and Giant are ranked in the top 25 retailers.
In terms of rank, there was little movement from the year before as Wal-Mart sits comfortably at the top of the list. Kroger is still number two, but number three Costco is closing the gap. Safeway has passed Supervalu for the number four spot with the rest of the top ten unchanged.
What will each of these stores do with the economic challenges in 2011?
Meijer continues to expand in the Chicago suburbs with plans to open small-format, grocery-focused stores this year in Berwyn and Melrose Park. Meijer operates 13 stores in the Chicago suburbs and three in Northwest Indiana.
As for this weekend, it appears that shoppers are not letting the economy effect their Valentine's Day spending.
Only than three months after joining the Walmart merchandising organization as an EVP, Duncan Mac Naughton has been named chief merchandising officer for the U.S. stores division. Prior to joining Walmart U.S. last fall, Mac Naughton had served as chief merchandising officer of Walmart Canada since 2009.

Online Recruiting Strategies for 2011

By JOE LIGHT

As recruiters wade cautiously back into hiring mode, they're throwing out their old playbooks. Rather than sift through mounds of online applications, they are going out to hunt for candidates themselves.

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Bloomberg News

Sodexo's U.S. unit has cut job posts on third-party sites since the recession started. Above, its Paris offices.

Many plan to scale back their use of online job boards, which they say generate mostly unqualified leads, and hunt for candidates with a particular expertise on places like LinkedIn Corp.'s professional networking site before they post an opening. As the market gets more competitive again, they are hiring recruiters with expertise in headhunting and networking, rather than those with experience processing paperwork.
Inundated by online applicants, McLean, Va.-based government contractor Science Applications International Corp. plans to cut the number of job boards it uses in the coming fiscal year to six from 15 or so, says company vice president Kara Yarnot.
SAIC has asked its 125 U.S. recruiters to find candidates for analyst, engineering, and other jobs on professional social networks instead.
"It's almost a throwback to the old, dial-for-dollars method of recruiting," says Ms. Yarnot. "We need to reach candidates earlier, before they're being pursued by competitors."
About 24% of companies plan to decrease their usage of third-party employment websites and job boards this year, according to a December survey from the Corporate Executive Board Co., a business consulting firm. Meanwhile, nearly 80% of respondents said they plan to increase their use of job-board alternative methods this year, such as employee referrals and other websites like Facebook Inc. or LinkedIn.
Food services company Sodexo USA, owned by Paris-based Sodexo SA, slashed the number of jobs it posts to third-party job boards by more than half since the recession started, says vice president of talent acquisition Arie Ball. The number of applications to some executive openings at Sodexo rose more than 50% to 300 since the downturn started, Ms. Ball says, but the increase brought many unqualified candidates.
"Recruiters had to put in all this extra time to read applications but we didn't get benefit from it," she says. Now, the company is hiring different types of recruiters who specialize in headhunting, including finding candidates to poach from competitors, rather than those who are good at processing and filtering applications.
Companies are adapting their plans as they start hiring again after the downturn. Between November 2009 and November 2010, the total number of job openings rose 32%, according to the Labor Department.
Job seekers who were reluctant to leave their existing jobs—as well as unemployed workers sitting on the sidelines—have begun casting about for opportunities, too. Between December 2009 and December 2010, recruiters saw a 17% increase in applications per opening, according to the Corporate Executive Board.
The trend has in many ways been a boon for job boards, which say they haven't noticed any impact from some companies' pullback. But some of the largest sites acknowledge that the new environment means they must do more to keep customers happy.
In the coming months, Monster Worldwide Inc. plans to roll out technology that ranks candidates based on how well their applications fit requirements set by the recruiter, says chief global marketing officer Ted Gilvar. The product has been available to some customers since late last year.
Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc. remains concerned that relying too much on job boards could be bad for business.
Melissa Mounce, the company's senior vice president of corporate talent acquisition, says the company became concerned that its slow response time to applications was hurting its retail bank's brand. "Someone who applies for a bank-teller position might also be a customer or potential customer, and we were letting those applications fall into a black hole," she says.
PNC has reduced its overall spending on general job boards, such as Monster and CareerBuilder, but still uses niche boards, like Dice.com for tech professionals, when the need arises. "We used to post everything, but in this environment, you have to think strategically," she says.
Additionally, the company is currently reorganizing its recruiting staff to better handle the tens of thousands of applications it receives in a given month. Instead of using senior recruiters to filter through the company's applicants, lower-level screeners process them first and only hand off the most-qualified. A separate set of recruiters actively searches for more experienced candidates who aren't likely to come in through a job board.

WAHM groups

www.work-at-home-forum.com
Great source to look at for feedback.
If  you are attempting to work from home  watch for at home scams.
Chain Letters/Emails

If you are a frequent visitor of the Internet, you might have come across chain letters or emails promising that if you send a specific amount to the top addresses on the list and pass them on to more addresses, you can get your name added to the list, and thus you can become a millionaire because other people will send you money as well. Well, these mails are framed in such a manner that only the top names receive all the money, leaving you trapped in cases of fraud.

Typing At Home

If you are a frequent computer user, then your typing speed is bound to be good, and what better way to capitalize on it other than getting to do some typing work at home. Well, don't jump on all such opportunities, as most of them are deceiving. Such advertisements send you a disk and printed information, for a fee. All you need to do is to type these home typist ads, place them on the Internet, and sell them to more people like you. So, you see this scam is trying to turn you into a scammer.

Well, besides these two work at home scams, there are many more baits lying there for you. So, here we give a list of some of them.

* Email processing – Just read emails and get paid $3/per mail.
* Craft assembly for $600 a week. You have to call them and they send you a pamphlet with 100 companies to call, these companies will ask you to send $20 or $30 just to get the start up kit.
* Email processing
* Typist- All you need is a computer and internet connection. What they omit to tell you is that you have to post the same add you responded too.
* Newspaper clip assembly. Get your local newspaper and send particular clips for $5/clip.
* Stuffing envelopes for $2. And the list goes on.
* Pyramid schemes

Besides most work at home scams do not offer salaries nor do they guarantee a regular income. For some of them, you have to invest a small fee to be part of the members or buy the product and they neglect to tell you that you have to work quite a few hours before you can ever see a penny. Never give out personal information. You can check the credibility of the company via the Better Business Bureau and see if they are legal or had any complaints or you can check with the FTC (The Federal Trade Commission) call them toll-free at 1-877-FTC-HELP. That's 1-877-FTC-H-E-L-P.

Note: If you feel suspicious about an opportunity, do a search on Google.com with keywords: COMPANY NAME Scam. You'll most likely come across discussions pertaining to the opportunity, if it's a scam.

[Post edited 05/31/08 - Admin]

How to Be an Effective Leader and Manager

Green, who is the author of More Than a Minute: How to Be an Effective Leader and Manager in Today’s Changing World, was kind enough to share some of the ways she helps managers inform, inspire and then engage their employees in today’s workplace.  In the first of a three-part series, below is a checklist for the first part…
Step One: Inform  – 7 Key Topics
The first key step to engaging employees is to keep them informed. That is, make sure your employees are clear on their goals and the goals of the company. You want to align your employees and get their buy-in, so this step involves taking a moment to consider these goals. Start by discussing with them the following areas:

1. Mission – Why does your company/team/role exist?
2. Guiding principles – How will you behave?
3. Value proposition – What do you offer key stakeholders?
4. Destination – Where is your company going?
5. Strategic priorities – What are the areas of focus for the organization?
6. Key initiatives – What will you do to get there?
7. Impact – What difference do these efforts make to the individual? The job? The team? 
8. --Careerbuilder.com

The Two Most Important Words In Sales

Unemployed or Underemployed? Why Demos are for you!

OK, the economy may not be the best for locating work as the nations unemployment rate still over 9 % (10/18/2010) it is very difficult to find a job. The everyday Joe is competing with his neighbor who has a MBA, his wife and their recent college graduate for the same entry level data entry job!.

On the reverse side many people who have taken jobs during this stint of high unemployment maintained their previous salary, took a pay/benefits cut and the work load doubled! People with MBA's are doing data entry, fast food and retail jobs that come and go with consumer confidence. Those who kept their job are on "salary & bonus freezes" reduced benefits and when their cubical buddy goes they get the extra work load- so unemployed, the grass is not always cushier in the office either!

The great news is that the economy is showing signs-slowly- of recovery as retail is gearing up for holiday events: IE spending money on marketing! This means more opportunities open every day for promotions and demonstration work through out the holiday season and beyond.

Retail Psychology 101 - What we push, you will buy!
Companies know that once a person is in the store they can influence and even change a persons buying habit by enhancing the buying experience through sight, sound, touch and taste. The main way many stores do this is by offering product demonstrations, sampling, information and coupons to shoppers in the store. Face it you know what you need to buy and what you want to buy but stores take it one step further by switching your brand loyalty in the form of sales, coupons and trials at the store!

Product Demonstrator & In Store Promotions Event Personal: 
When you walk through the store the people standing behind those tables and around those displays sometimes work for the store but often are hired as "independent contractors" through a marketing agency working with that store. Everyone from students, teachers, stay at home parents and retired folks seeking a flexible, part time weekend schedule enjoy doing this type of marketing work as it pays well and gives flexibility. Many aspiring actors, models and artist work these types of events to work in their field while waiting to "make it big."

Independent What?
Due to the spartatic nature of this work- meaning you might have one demo or seven demos with a company in a month- it is often viewed as supplemental income. Due to this it is very important to note if the company is hiring you as a part time employee or contract employee. If you are a part time employee taxes are deducted and you might get some benefits through the company with restrictions on if you can or can not work for a competitor or similar job.

Independent Contractors are are contracted labor meaning you provide all of your own tools, equipment, supplies and such for the events. While taxes are not withheld you do get all the perks that range from write offs and deductions on items used and expenses incurred- so check with your local tax person for details! Also,depending on state laws you may or may not have to report that income for tax purposes depending on the amounts earned. You also get the flexibility of taking a assignment or turning it down if you have other plans or you work with multiple companies.

Good News for the Unemployed:
If you are unemployed, receiving benefits and work with a company as a independent contractor you can take one event or several to stay and stay under your "additional weekly earnings" typically, without impacting your benefits.Of course every state runs differently so check with your local and state unemployment office first.  

Excellent News for the Underemployed:
While your normal everyday job may not be the most rewarding, only part time or just not a good fit you can make the best of it by looking for exciting ways to work odd shifts, weekend gigs and other jobs as a contractor. This way your not taking on a second job and get the flexibility you need to balance your life!

Demos for EVERYTHING!
Demo's & Promo's covers every type of product on the planet! From Wine and Alcohol, health and beauty, cooking and sampling, street teams, pharmacy, beverages, automobiles and thousands more all use promo and demo event staff to reach the masses in big cities like New York to small towns like Price, UT! No matter where you live opportunities are out there!

Need A Place to Start? 
Check out NCiM, we are one of the oldest and largest in store marketing companies in the country and we specialize in cooking, sampling, and coupon events for many retailers across the country. We are expanding to national manufacturers who produce, spirits, pet food, and health and beauty! We hire as independent contractors and give you training with access to all the tools you need to be successful!

About the Author:
Chad is a national recruiter for NCiM who handles recruiting and training effort for about 10 states and several clients. He enjoys tech, trends, social media and helping people find and obtain "Creative Lifestyle & Time."

The Power Of Promotional Marketing