Linchi Kwok, Ph.D.

I recently read two discussions about company policies on employees’ grooming standards and social media. I believe they both deserve our attention, especially if we are working in the service sector. The first one is about a company’s guidelines on employee dress codes and grooming standards. Today, there are more people wearing tattoos and piercings than before. It is found that 32% of those between 25 and 29 wear at least one tattoo . Does this mean more companies will allow employees to uncover their tattoos and piercings at work? I doubt it. Based on my own research on hospitality recruiters’ expectations of job candidates and my work experience in the industry, I believe the service industry is still very conservative in dress codes and very strict on employees’ grooming standards. The question is: What policy is deemed appropriate in the work place? According to a recent report in the HR Magazine, strict work place dress codes may raise legal issues, especially wh...

Can a job candidate with exceptional analytical skills set him/her apart from the sea of applicants? Furthermore, will good analytical skills be able to help people advance their career? According to Julie Martin, the Controller and Director of Operations at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel and Conference Center ¹:    Analytical skills are very important. Sometimes, it equals to “smart” even though there are smart people who might not have good analytical skills. … People with good analytical skills will be able to present their arguments with numbers and facts, which makes their statements more convincing. … Besides “numbers,” analytical skills can also be referred to a person’s ability of analyzing a complex issue and identifying the possible solutions to the problem(s). Julie’s words remind me a qualitative study of mine in 2011 , in which I asked a group of hospitality recruiters: “What intellectual skills are important in hiring a hospitality senior? ...

The  “SoLoMo” (Social, Local, and Mobile) movement  has great impact on consumer behavior and business operations. Now than ever before, more consumers are using mobile payments. According to a recent report  @USAToday , the number of mobile payment users is expected to surge from 160.5 million in 2011 to 212.2 million in 2012, a 32% increase; likewise, the amount of mobile payment transactions will grow from $105.9 billion in 2011 to $171.5 billion in 2012, up 62%. Earlier this month, Starbucks announced that consumers would be able to purchase coffee with Square’s Wallet App starting in November 2012. Eventually, consumers will be able to place an order and settle the payment even before they enter a Starbucks’ store. When promoting mobile payment options or doing mobile marketing, however, businesses have to jump through one hoop --- they must convince their customers that such mobile app is safe and reliable and that their business is trustworthy. Recently,...

Research has shown that attractive people can not only charm interviewers (and thus get hired easier), they are also more likely to earn more as compared to those with average or below-average looks. Accordingly to a Wall Street Journal report , attractive people can earn 3% - 4% more than a person with below-average look. If such difference adds up over a person’s lifetime, an attractive person can earn up to $230,000 more than an ugly worker; even an average-looking person can make $140,000 more. Another relevant Wall Street Journal report also suggests that workers who exercise regularly can earn 9% more than those who do not. If that is the fact (I believe it is), is it legal? Can employers do that? Linchi Kwok and Otto @SyracuseU Career Fair To my knowledge, no law or regulation under EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) considers a person’s look as a protective class. It is true that people in general have an idea of what kind of person they feel attract...

Facebook has become one of the most important means for B2C (business-to-consumer) communications. When a Facebook user likes, posts comments, or shares content with their Facebook credentials, an update will appear on this person’s wall, helping companies rapidly spread information. Companies must pay close to attention to Facebook users’ reactions to the messages they send on Facebook because Facebook users’ endorsement of a message can be very important in indicating the effectiveness of a company’s social media strategy. In one of my recent studies (co-authored with Dr. Bei Yu) , we adopted the text mining techniques to identify the type(s) of Facebook messages that are endorsed (and thus propagated) by Facebook users. We analyzed 982 Facebook messages initiated by 10 restaurant chains and two independent operators and found the following results: The “more popular” messages, which receive more “Likes” and comments, contain keywords about the restaurants (e.g., menu de...

The September 1-7 issue of The Economist reported that China has become the No. 3 country by overseas-tourism spending. Between October 2011 and July 2012, the U.S. had processed one million tourist visa applications from China, a big increase of 43% for the same period a year earlier. Chinese tourists are coming to our way. In the first half of 2012, 38 million Chinese took international trips. In 2011, they spent $73 billion while traveling overseas. On average, Chinese tourists spend $6,000 per trip (per person too?) in the U.S. More Chinese are seeking “deeper” experience in a destination over the “surface-and-group” tourist activities. Many service providers have probably experienced the changing demographics of their guests. I have seen company’s effort of welcoming Chinese tourists. For example, some hotels in gateway cities have Chinese TV channels and have included Chinese breakfast items in the menu. Some hotel chains have translated every restaur...

Most of us know that the Big Brother is watching us on social media . So, whether or not we want to be watched is out of the question. The debate turns to: To what extent should we be monitored? And more importantly, are we being watched for a good reason? Twitter, for example, will soon allow advertisers to target users based on their “assumed” interests and hobbies, according to this Wall Street Journal video . Twitter is able to do that because it knows what users like by analyzing their tweets, favorite tweets, retweets, interactions with other users, keywords in Twitter search, the following list, and the follower list.   In fact, other big players in the market like Google and Facebook have been running targeted ads for a while, but I still think this could be good news because marketers will have an additional medium to reach target customers --- users on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter are different in many ways in my opinions. Besides, this could an import...