Coming out of a recession, the right employees can help a business thrive during the recovery.

As the economy attempts its slow climb out of the recession, many businesses are once again looking to fill positions. This could spell relief for some of the millions of unemployed Americans. However, a recent survey of job seekers conducted by Infinity Consulting Solutions found 59 percent of hiring managers tend to favor candidates who are currently employed over those who are unemployed.

Smart managers know to file away this school of thought — and the stigma attached to those left jobless —with other outdated thinking. The reason? During the prolonged recession, many highly skilled employees lost their jobs through no fault of their own, and those very people can bring desirable attributes to a forward-looking company.

Taking a fresh look at prospective employees during this historic economic downturn is just one of the challenges, and opportunities, facing human resource managers. New hires made in the next several months will have a significant effect on a company’s success in emerging from the recession. That is why it is more important than ever to make hiring a thorough and strategic process.

Here are several steps a company can take to help avoid costly hiring mistakes:

• Conduct a needs analysis. Smart hiring starts with making sure the company is ready to take on additional staff. A needs analysis should look at whether the current workforce is being properly utilized and whether recent business growth supports the new position. It also should identify essential functions and performance criteria. Additionally, all costs associated with the position, ranging from recruitment and wages to training and benefits, should be determined.

• Develop a good job description. Managers ready to hire should develop clear job descriptions. Not only does this make the recruitment process easier, but a good job description can also serve as an important legal document and compensation tool. A clearly defined job description outlines what is expected of the person hired for the position, including job title and tasks, expectations, goals, skills and education, as well as the working conditions provided. Avoid ambiguity by making sure the information is straightforward and simply communicated. A complete job description helps applicants better understand the company’s expectations, and it can be a useful interview aide for managers. Remember, a job description also provides a candidate’s first impression of your company, so make sure it is well written.

• Don't dismiss the unemployed. Résumé gaps tend to be red flags for hiring managers who view unemployed applicants less favorably that those currently employed. Yet, the huge number of layoffs during the worst of the recession left many talented people idle. Don't dismiss such candidates before digging a little deeper. Taking the time to ask an extra question or two — for example, what did the applicant do during the gap to remain productive? — could turn up a future star. Hiring managers also should consider that some job candidates may have taken interim jobs outside their chosen field to make ends meet. It is no secret that jobs have been scarce, so remain open-minded. What is important is that these individuals have remained active and that their temporary jobs, paid or voluntary, have complemented and even enhanced needed skills in their chosen field.

• Maximize recruiting tools. Managers learned very well how to trim and sometimes slash costs during the recession. But any temptation to cut corners on recruiting can easily lead to mistakes that will be more costly in the long run. Savvy executives need to consider all recruiting options, from conventional methods such as advertising through newspapers’ classifieds to posting on social networking sites, to positively impact the hiring process. In fact, a 2009 CareerBuilder.com job forecast survey found more employers turning to the Internet to find potential employees. A quarter of those surveyed said they plan to use newer media, such as blogs, as well. Industry organizations also can be useful. In addition to providing good networking opportunities, many trade groups maintain online job banks where members can review available jobs and post their résumés.

• Invest in background checks. Assuming that all job candidates provide honest information on their résumés or in interviews can haunt hiring managers. There is little doubt that a percentage of job candidates fudge the facts or simply lie, and a bad hire potentially can hurt a company’s revenue and productivity. Nearly half of hiring managers surveyed by CareerBuilder.com in 2008 reported that they had caught candidates lying on their résumés. A year earlier, a survey by the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations revealed that two-thirds of the small businesses surveyed said that up to half of their job applicants had lied. While no one can control a job candidate’s honesty, businesses can decide whom they want to hire. Background checks are both vital and cost-effective measures to help protect a company and its employees. These include obtaining information on a candidate’s work history, possible criminal record and personal references.

Just as the recession taught companies how to be more efficient with resources, the economic recovery can lead them to new practices for making strategic hires. While it may be tempting to immediately bring in new employees to relieve overworked staff, making new hires without first analyzing the company’s needs and available talent thoroughly could lead to regret or worse: the costly process of finding a replacement.

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Tim May is a team manager for Administaff (http://www.administaff.com), a professional employer organization that serves as a full-service human resources department, providing small- and medium-sized businesses with administrative relief, big-company benefits, reduced liabilities and a systematic way to improve productivity. The company operates 50 sales offices in 23 major markets.

Media training can help you be ready for planned and unplanned interviews.

Have you considered what a crisis would do to your organization? Think media planning.

Wow, how an image and reputation can be destroyed overnight!

If you’ve had your head in the sand, thinking it can’t happen to you, the recent events that have tarnished confidence in the financial industry, celebrity images, company reputations and brand trust should be enough to make you and everyone else sit up and take notice.

After decades of good business or years of good deeds, it takes only one mistake to make all your hard work vanish. Even knowing this, many corporate leaders and public personalities tend to put off planning for when, not if, something happens that will negatively affect their corporate reputation or personal image. Or, even worse, they wait until the damage has been done and then call in the public relations pros to clean up the mess. It’s not surprising that the image or reputation rarely fully recovers when only reactive public relations has been used.

As most of our society lacks true understanding of the public relations discipline, people of great distinction too often fail to recognize the invaluable asset of planning a proactive approach to crisis management. In much the same way attorneys are involved in and integral to many organizations’ business, PR counselors should be involved in and integral to any organization’s business plan or a well-known individual’s image management. And these counselors should always know the good, the bad and the ugly in real time, not after the fact. When PR practitioners are provided adequate knowledge and time, they will be able to make strategic recommendations and manage issues before they become crises.

Have you considered what a crisis would do to your organization? In better times, we’re so busy keeping up with in-your-face daily demands that we rarely think proactively and plan for the unexpected. I relate crisis communications planning to insurance: you may not need it, and let’s hope that you don’t, but when you do, it’s invaluable. Many organizations have experienced a slowdown in daily operations during this challenging economic climate. Why not use the small amount of extra time provided by the slowdown to commit to a complete communications audit and development of a crisis plan?

Some of you may be thinking, “I already pay enough to our attorneys; let them handle it.” Allow me to suggest to you that your attorney will be valuable behind the scenes of a crisis. But do not make the mistake others have made of having your attorney serve as your spokesperson or even provide talking points for the face of your organization. This is an area where an experienced PR counselor really shines. Such a person is able to step away from the “business side” of the situation, see the entire picture, determine how the crisis may affect each of your audiences and then create channels of communication that speak to each of them.

Different audiences have specific concerns during a crisis, and they need to be heard and responded to appropriately. Public relations can provide (1) A thorough review of the processes you already have in place, (2) Recommendations for what you should modify or create, (3) Ongoing environmental scanning to identify pain points early and (4) Proactive issues management to prevent a problem from becoming a crisis.

How do you communicate to those audiences when there is an unavoidable crisis? This is where media training is so critical to your crisis plan. Even the most experienced public speakers can become weak in the knees when a reporter shows up. Again, you can be prepared if you engage an experienced media trainer to conduct one-on-one sessions with your designated spokesperson. (Note: Your president/CEO/head honcho should not be your spokesperson.)

Media training can help you be ready for planned and unplanned interviews, as well as in-person and telephone interviews. You’re not protected just because there’s a phone line between yourself and the reporter. Also, don’t think that a print journalist won’t show up with a video camera. As online news has become so prevalent, even print reporters will post video on their websites. Speaking of video, camera operators have their own “tricks of the trade” for which you need to be prepared. Media training can help you think big picture and make you aware of pitfalls that may have never crossed your mind.

Don’t be misguided into thinking that “damage control” is a smart plan: It’s like building your house with straw. And don’t take this quiet time for granted. Instead, engage a public relations professional today to prepare yourself for the worst while helping you and/or your organization strive to be the best.

Editor's note: Erin Jenkins Pagán is director of public relations at Patterson/Bach Communications (www.pat-bach.com). Her 12 years of experience with corporations and public relations agencies include media training, crisis planning and management, and media relations.

Don't neglect intangible assets, which can be equal to or even greater than the value of the tangible assets.

Whether you’re planning a business acquisition or just trying to get a sense of where your company stands, business owners frequently want to assess their financial statements and see what their company is worth. That said, it’s not uncommon for business owners to become frustrated by the process because what’s on paper doesn’t always reflect the “true value” of their companies.

Although determining the value of tangible items — such as buildings, equipment, receivables and debts — is somewhat straightforward, what about the worth of customer relationships? How do you decide on a value for trade secrets or patent applications?

These assets, classified as “intangibles,” have a big impact on the valuation of a company. In fact, the value of these items can be equal to or even greater than the value of the tangible assets. While this is important for all business owners to consider, it is crucial to those companies in high-tech industries involved in research and development. Those types of companies often have a great deal of intangibles, and their balance sheets may not always reflect the true value of the assets.

Whether you’re selling your company or considering gift and estate taxes, it’s important to understand how to individually value those assets — and how they impact the company’s overall value.

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Intangible vs. Tangible Assets

What is considered an intangible asset? The short answer is anything that cannot be seen, touched or physically measured. Some examples include copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade names, computerized databases, specialty libraries, designs, patterns, technical drawings and goodwill.

The more complex answer is that intangible assets fall into two categories: identifiable and unidentifiable. Identifiable intangibles may have some form of physical substance. A patent, for example, is on file at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Unidentifiable intangibles have no physical substance whatsoever, such as goodwill, which is the difference between what is paid for a company and the value of the tangible and identifiable intangible assets acquired less liabilities assumed. Goodwill can have an impact on the value of the company, but has no physical substance, and as such would be considered an unidentifiable intangible.

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How to Measure

Generally speaking, there are three standards of value: fair market value, fair value and strategic value. The reason behind the need for the valuation determines the standard of value to be used. Each has its own definition of value, which is why the expert you use should be certified and experienced.

Regardless of the standard of value used, a valuation analyst must choose the most appropriate of the three valuation approaches:

• Income Approach: This is the most commonly used approach to value the majority of intangible assets. The rationale behind this approach is that the value of the asset is based on the present value of future income the company is expected to generate. When dealing with certain agreements, such as noncompete or trade name(s), this may be the best way to decide what the asset is worth.

• Cost Approach: This primarily focuses on the required cost to develop a substitute intangible asset. This approach requires the determination of the cost of labor, materials, time and overhead it would take to create a replacement intangible asset. This approach is particularly useful for valuing patents, software, technical drawings or product development.

• Market Approach: This approach requires relevant market research to obtain examples of sale transactions or licenses to use as guidelines. It isn’t commonly used because it’s often difficult to find transactions to draw comparisons.

The above are abbreviated concepts for deriving an indication of value. The valuation process is complex and requires significant interaction between the company owners and the valuation analyst. There are a number of issues that come into consideration when determining the value of a business. One significant issue for consideration is the value of intangible assets. There is no one specific means of valuing intangibles, but a certified valuation analyst will help navigate these waters and provide a clear look at your company’s true value.

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Sandra E. Breitenstein is a principal with the Orlando-based accounting firm of Averett Warmus Durkee. She practices in the assurance and accounting department, with wide-ranging responsibilities for business assurance clients. Breitenstein focuses on servicing clients in timeshare development, real estate and common-interest realty associations; she has more than 18 years of accounting and consulting experience in those areas.

To compete in your marketplace, even in the poorest conditions, focus on what you can control — and there is plenty you can control, especially regarding your customers.

The year 2009 was extremely challenging for most industries in the global economy, and the start of 2010 hasn’t been too much better. It is tough to find a silver lining in these lingering storm clouds, but it is critical that we recognize one positive truth: We cannot control the state of the economy. Read more

Beware of the seven most lethal tech sins in business.

While tough economic times linger, companies large and small are still investing in something that’s critical to their business: information technology. Whether it’s to protect data or plan for disaster recovery, streamline processes or better integrate systems, enhance remote access or mobile computing, company leaders are focusing on information technology to ensure that their operations and their people are ultraefficient today and in the future — no matter what the economic conditions. Read more

Getting an offer is only part of the job in finding new employment. Here’s how to sweeten your compensation deal.

A lot of talented folks are out of work or “in transition” in Central Florida these days, and most are doing whatever they can to land a new job. When that goal is finally reached, when someone says, “We love you; please come to work for us,” the tendency is to respond with, “Thank you, YES.” Read more

HR specialists, take note: Emotional intelligence — EQ — is the single biggest predictor of success among knowledge workers.

“Made in China” just doesn’t mean what it used to. Manual labor from the country’s 1.3 billion citizens was long considered its sole competitive advantage in the global economy. While American business has turned a blind eye to the Chinese laborer, the country’s burgeoning skilled workforce now stands as the biggest competitive threat to American business today.

How did this happen?

Forget that Wal-Mart imports $25 billion in goods from China annually — that’s old news. Today, the country has the knowledge workers needed to take hold of sectors like finance, telecommunications and computing.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be.

Knowledge workers everywhere lean on soft skills to perform, and a flood of research during the last decade shows that emotional intelligence, or EQ, is the single biggest predictor of their success. EQ is the “something” that is a bit intangible in each of us. It gives a powerful name to the way we manage behavior, navigate social complexities and make personal decisions that achieve positive results. To be successful today, a person must maximize those skills, for it is the worker able to employ a unique blend of reason and feeling who earns the greatest results.

A 1998 Harvard Business Review article covering leadership and EQ was the most popular article in the magazine’s four-decade history. More recently, an unusually intense interest in EQ motivated a team of TalentSmart researchers to spend their summer measuring this skill in 3,000 top Chinese executives. The executives who participated in the study were Chinese nationals from the public and private sectors who completed the Chinese translation of the most widely used American EQ test, the Emotional Intelligence Appraisal.

What did the American researchers find? There were two major findings. One was expected, and the other took them by surprise.

First, Chinese executives had scores similar to those of U.S. executives in emotional awareness, the ability to understand one’s own emotions and accurately spot them in others. The surprise second finding points to what is likely a key ingredient in China’s economic success and a serious threat to America’s ability to compete in the global marketplace: discipline. American executives averaged 15 points lower than their Chinese counterparts in self-management and relationship management, the two EQ skills that have the strongest ties to job performance.

Self- and relationship management are the skills that capture an executive’s ability to use emotions to his/her benefit in managing time, making good decisions and relating to others. It appears that, unlike their American counterparts, Chinese executives use awareness of emotions to their benefit at work — and in business, actions speak louder than words.

What’s happening here?

Chinese executives are living the qualities that American executives only pay lip service to. Americans like the way EQ looks on paper, but they don’t walk their talk. The typical American leader is not willing to expend much energy in seeking feedback, getting to know his or her peers and following through on commitments. Making business personal is nothing new in China. Executives ordinarily schedule dinner meetings with their staff to talk about business trends, career aspirations and family. People expect their leaders to set an eminent example of decision making, connecting with others and improving relationships. There is genuine shame in not fulfilling these duties; people really care; everyone knows it’s important.

There’s an old Chinese proverb that says, “Give a man a pole, and he’ll catch a fish a week. Tell him what bait to use, and he’ll catch a fish a day. Show him how and where to fish, and he’ll have fish to eat for a lifetime.” Since EQ is not something we’re born with, it has to be honed with knowledge and practice. Often, fulfilling a leadership role can feel a lot like you’re the one fishing in an unfamiliar lake. If you want to increase your EQ, you’ll have to take the potentially difficult first step of testing yourself.

It’s the only way to learn where and how you can change it for the better.

Editor’s note: Travis Bradberry, PhD, is the award-winning author of “Emotional Intelligence 2.0,” a book that includes a pass-code for readers to use to test their EQ online. He is the president and co-founder of TalentSmart, a global think tank and consultancy that serves 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies. His best-selling books have been translated into 25 languages and are sold in more than 150 countries.

Take it from Will Smith. While people are scrambling to show employers they have what it takes, the secret to success may be simpler than they think.

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably spent the past year fretting about the economy, the stock market, the job market, the future. Maybe you’ve spent so much time worrying about what could happen that you’ve lost sight of the plans you had all along. You know, those dreams about getting ahead and aspiring to bigger and better things.

It’s easy to get complacent, even in the good times. But when you’re paralyzed by fear that it could all be gone tomorrow, the temptation to lie low and not make waves can be almost overwhelming.

Don’t succumb. Read more

While money is tight, you don’t necessarily have to squeeze your holiday party plans.  In fact, you can get more than you pay for.

by Tony Porcellini

As we reach the end of what has been a difficult financial year, it’s more important than ever for businesses to show their employees that they are appreciated and valued assets of the organization. And there is no better way of doing this than by throwing a memorable holiday party.

Read more

Self-promotion, if done correctly, can advance your career while maintaining your humility.

The term “self promotion” often carries a negative connotation, and with good reason. No one enjoys associating with someone whose solution to every problem starts, and ends, with the letter “I.”

At the same time, unless others know what you do — and can do — chances are they will never realize they need your services. Instead of approaching this topic as “Me: 101,” however, let’s take a different approach and focus on how to communicate your value to those with whom you come in contact. Read more

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