Looking to build a multitalented staff? Take a few cues from Olympic athlete recruiters on creating your powerhouse team. That and more in today’s Lunchtime Links:

Go for the gold: Hiring managers are in constant pursuit of the most qualified and well-regarded employees to uphold company standards and boost business. Yet, according to Mashable contributor and ClearCompany CEO Andre Lavoie, recruiting the best of the best is easier said than done. He offers four suggestions to help reel in employees with Olympic-level talent and help them go for the gold. Among them: Make sure team members keep their eyes on the prize. “In your company, you need every employee to strive toward the same objectives from day one,” he writes. “This focused mindset allows athletes and employees alike to reach new heights of accomplishment; if they know that a medal is within reach, they’ll work that much harder to grasp it.”

Everything’s copacetic: The age-old saying “the customer is always right” is more relevant than ever these days, according to a new report. In the Temkin Group’s “Customer Experience Expectations and Plans for 2014” survey, about 84 percent of respondents said their firms’ executives are “fully committed to their company’s customer experience goals,” and 87 percent of companies in the study saw an uptick of positive business results from customer experience. So what does that mean to you? CMS Wire‘s Barry Levine explains: “Companies with the most positive [customer experience] results have above-average financial performance, understand the connection to business results, and possess the needed resources, skills, and leadership. They are also the ones that focus most on websites, phone agents, mobile, and measurement/analytics.”

No show? No problem: When it comes to meetings and events, some attendees are bound to be no-shows, even when you’ve made registration easy and communicated with them clearly and often. So why do attendees go AWOL? And how can you reduce no-shows at your events? Event Manager Blog Editor Julius Solaris provides a few pointers, including assessing precisely who isn’t making an appearance. “Who is not showing up?” he asks. “What ticket type did they purchase? What demographic do they belong to? What group of stakeholders do they belong to? Knowing all of the above will direct your marketing efforts towards more reliable attendees and will also give an indication of the allowances you can make to key stakeholders.”

What’s your no-show strategy? Share your take in the comments section below.

(Handout photo)