Executive Search Firms Can Impact Employer Branding – For Better or Worse

We came across this article by Richard Wajs at www.globeandmail.com that really hit home with us. It begins by reminding companies how Executive Search Firms can enhance their clients’ brands. Then segues into how an Executive Search Firm can harm a clients’ brands. When we act as ambassadors for our clients, we are enhancing their brand with every candidate we touch. When our clients have armed us with candid and complete information about why a role is available, what the challenges are and well-defined selection criteria, we’re able to target appropriately qualified candidates and introduce them to our client, its products & markets, its history and future plans and just how the Search Project fits into the puzzle. With clients who’ve toured us around their facilities, introduced us to multiple representatives of leadership, we’re better able convey their brands.

Why Should Anyone Work at Your Company?

So, it’s a new year and we’re being bombarded, again, by articles about the war for talent, the shortage of hirable talent, the pending retirements of the last of the Baby Boomers and all are with merit. There IS a shallow talent pool to draw our next industrial leaders from – the recession eliminated a huge layer of intermediate professionals who could now be successors to retiring leaders IF their careers had continued to grow. There IS great competition to attract those few “ready to lead” professionals which gives them the opportunity to be highly selective, to deeply scrutinize prospective employers.

20/20 Foresight

We found this article by Ram Charan in the Autumn Issue of strategy+business that speaks to a need for business leaders to develop and practice perceptual acuity skills. Clearly written at the “big picture” level for corporate leaders, the core of the article relates well to recruitment strategies. We are supporting many companies who are hiring again for the first time in years. Frequently replacing retirees who haven’t developed internal replacements because “right sizing” during the recession laid off employees. Individuals who would have been ready to fill those jobs now . Usually our clients have justified selection criteria that are industry/technology/product- specific – the classic square peg for the square hole – and that’s a traditional method of recruiting. It delivers the job-ready candidate requiring minimal ramp up. While exposing the hiring authorities to minimal risk of failure – the proverbial safe hire.

8 Remarkably Effective Ways to Bring Top Job Candidates to Your Door

We regularly represent clients whose companies aren’t recognizable by name or products to the average person on the street. Yet they employ people and generate profits. When they post jobs, we often hear that the response is disappointing by way of quantity in addition to quality which is why they then enlist our support. When we approach qualified candidates and ask why they didn’t apply directly to our clients’ own postings. We often learn that one reason was simply a lack of awareness of the company. These days, candidates, especially employed candidates, tend to be cautious and highly selective about exploring employment opportunities. They’ve been RIF’d in the past, seen companies close and know there are companies who survived the recession but are fragile so sometimes “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know”.

The Top 10 Reasons Why Rejecting ‘Job Jumpers’ Is Dumb, and a Missed Opportunity

JOB JUMPERS/JOB HOPPERS!!!! We’re automatically conditioned to ignore applications from such candidates. Convinced that good employees aren’t unemployed, don’t get fired, don’t get laid off and don’t jump ship …. Right?  Well, a recession as deeply felt as what began in 2008 should change our conditioned reaction to candidates who’ve had a lot of short-term jobs recently. An article we found by Dr. John Sullivan on www.ere.net should motivate us to put our conditioned reflexes aside. And give consideration to what he calls “Job Hoppers”.

Are You Sitting In The Right Seat?

When Jim Collins published ‘Good to Great’ almost fifteen years ago. His message of getting the right people on the bus quickly became “the mantra” of that decade and into today. An article we found by Lee Schwartz provides not just a good reminder of Jim Collins’ work but a focus on getting those employees in the right seats on the bus. Certainly, in our Recruiting practice, adding the right people to the bus is what we’re engaged to do. So Lee’s article hit close to home for us. He also writes about having the courage to remove people who are in the wrong seat never mind on the wrong bus.

The Politics of Improvement: Winning the Hearts and Minds of Employees

It seems that we’re constantly reading and hearing about how Employee Engagement will impact Continuous Improvement – and of course it must, either positively or negatively. Engaged, enthusiastic employees will drive change while fence-sitters and nay-sayers are likely to undermine change. So, how do we go about winning the hearts and minds of employees in the first place. Then keep them engaged over the long haul and imbed CI/Lean in corporate culture? We found this article by John Dyer at www.industryweek.com wherein he describes some methods of earning and keeping Employee Engagement.

Four Ways to Identify and Keep The Employees You Need Before It’s Too Late

We came across this article by Shelly Dutton on our NPAworldwide web site and it struck a chord reminding us that we focus so much time and energy on hiring the “perfect candidate” that we maybe don’t take care of them so we get the retention we want. Shelley writes about “making sure employees have a future they can see” and we might offer that we make sure employees understand current state and future state. Open communications can do so much to alleviate the natural fear employees have. If they’ve luckily avoided a layoff (when will the next one be and will I be included?). If they see a drop in Sales or a warehouse too full, will there be layoffs? Or if departed employees aren’t replaced and work is spread around the remaining few.