UNITED STATES
Top Candidates Are Moving, but Employers Fear They Won’t Find Them
Increasingly, hiring managers are finding themselves in a strange quandary, feeling like the drowning man dying of thirst. Headlines every day are shouting of high unemployment, long lines at work centers, and avalanches of resumes after every job posting. Yet, finding top candidates remains as hard as ever.
In a recent survey conducted by several MRINetwork offices, three out of four respondents said they were still having a hard time finding the right candidates. One hiring manager said, “We have too many positions open and not enough support to fill all of them in a timely manner.”
Another manager, looking further in the future noted, “Lots of retirements are coming up, and not a lot of people are ready. When the economy recovers, many employees will retire, but there’s a small pool of leadership talent available – we have a dilemma coming up.”
Despite the efforts to fill vacancies, managers note that they are looking beyond just filling empty seats. Less than five percent of respondents said they are only focusing their hiring on replacement candidates.
“This is a time in the economic cycle when employers are able to really pick up the type of impact players who will drive their organization,” says Jack Downing, managing partner of WorldBridge Partners - Chicago, an MRINetwork affiliate. “Companies are taking this opportunity to top grade their talent, and just generally increase the capabilities in their companies even if positions aren’t open.”
The portability of candidates, though, is a double-edged sword and managers are frightfully aware of it. Before the recession, it is estimated that 30 percent of top talent were looking for new opportunities, today as much as 70 percent are.
“It is difficult for us to achieve the goals we have set for our company without talented people in place,” said one manager.
According to the Labor Department, the quit rate, the ratio of people who voluntarily leave their job in any given month compared to the total U.S. workforce, has been steadily increasing since bottoming out late last year. As it grows, it indicates both the willingness and ability of employees to change jobs. | One method respondents cited to save their best employees, strange as it may sound, is to hire someone else. Even with raises, bonuses, and promotions, overloaded employees become frustrated, eroding the corporate culture and leading to inevitable departures. Bringing in new talent early to ease that burden can raise morale and help retain the top talent that already exists.
As one respondent put it, “Without the right people in place, we spend a lot of time training, teaching, coaching, disciplining, hiring, and terminating. The right people make most of that go away, as well as increasing employee engagement and improving culture because the people fit well together.”
“It’s no real surprise that 99 percent of companies list talent acquisition as one of their top five priorities,” notes Downing. “What is surprising is how many holes employers see in their hiring processes, yet leave them unfilled.”
Only 10 percent of respondents believed they have outstanding talent acquisition processes in place. “We should have a more dedicated effort toward recruitment and keep on track,” says one manager. “We lose people in the process.”
©2010 Management Recruiters International, Inc. An Equal Opportunity Employer. Each office is independently owned and operated.
MANAGEMENT RECRUITERS OF VANCOUVER |
September 2010 Volume IV Issue 9
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UNITED STATES
It’s That Quantity/Quality Thing Again
With the sheer size of the U.S. labor market, there really isn’t an easy way to talk about it other than by the numbers. Four-hundred and seventy-three thousand unemployment claims last week, 14.6 million people unemployed in the United States, 46 million workers with bachelor’s degrees in the country. The use of these figures makes workers sound like commodities, easily comparable and easily interchangeable pieces.
Nearly one in ten people who want to work don’t have a job. It would seem that hiring a great candidate would take no more than putting up a help wanted shingle for an afternoon. You might even believe that, unless you’ve tried to hire someone in the last year.
“Regardless of the state of the economy, there is nothing easy about identifying great candidates,” says Tony McKinnon, president of MRINetwork. “Trying to find that impact player who you begin every search looking for, is like trying to find a popular toy on Christmas Eve. You can go to a big toy store with a thousand different options, but that doesn’t make your search any easier.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics obviously can’t give figures about the quality of workers. They can, however, report on one of the most basic indicators of quality: education. Workers who have completed a bachelor’s degree have an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, less than half the national average and down .3 percent from just three months ago.
“Employers look at how many applicants there are for every job and assume they’ll be able to have their pick of quality people,” says Mickey Kampsen, president of Management Recruiters of Charlottesville. “What once would have been interviews of a few highly qualified candidates can turn into cattle calls as employers cast wider nets. With so many candidates, more stages are added to the interview process. People who truly are the top candidates aren’t given the personalised attention that would encourage them to take a position. Employers don’t always know how to tango.”
With a 2.2 percent job-opening rate, there are currently nearly four unemployed people for every position. In 2006, when the
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Recent MRINetwork® Analysis
“It’s almost like social media has replaced the white pages,” Ms. Halverson said. “Recruiters don’t even know how to find you if you don’t have a presence online. It’s nonnegotiable — you have to have a profile on a social networking site.”
- Nancy Halverson
MRINetwork SVP of Learning and Talent Development
As quoted in the New York Times, August 25, 2010
Notable International Events
• Despite austerity measures in the United Kingdom, GDP grew at 1.2 percent in the second quarter, beating estimates of 1.1 percent. Expectations are for growth to reach 2.2 percent in 2011.
• The Chilean economy mostly sidestepped the depths of the recession by the government releasing capital reserves to prop up its banking system. After a devastating earthquake in February, GDP growth is on track to exceed 5 percent in 2010.
• After contracting by 1.8 percent in 2009, South Africa’s economy is on track to grow by 2.9 percent in 2010.
unemployment rate was 4.4 percent, the job opening rate was 3.3 percent, almost a one to one ratio.
“The truth is that the top candidate you want coming out of a recession is the person who has been battle tested, so by definition, these candidates are usually employed, and they are elusive,” notes McKinnon. “They are often risking the job they already have just by talking to you, and if they don’t feel like they are being personally sought out, their motivation to participate can evaporate and the candidates you are left with aren’t the best you could have had.”
Employee confidence in the job market continues to teeter with shifting news. The recent bounce back of the quit rate from 1.3 to 1.5 percent seems to be remaining stable, though well below its rate from a few years ago. After a .1 percent fall in consumer spending in June helped fuel talk of potential deflation, spending rose .4 percent in July, beating expectations.
“Estimates now say unemployment won’t significantly decrease until mid-2011, but before that happens employers are obviously going to have to ramp-up hiring,” says McKinnon. “The attitude employers take when approaching candidates after such a long downturn is going to be as important as any other factor in the recruiting cycle.”
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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Country Proves Both Stability and Agility in Maneuvering Global Financial Crisis
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The revelation that Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates’ flashiest states, was near default on its debt late last year was a surprise to the world and signaled a new phase of the global economic crisis. Abu Dhabi, its wealthier cousin state, had to step in to help Dubai remain solvent. While the terms under which Abu Dhabi received its aid weren’t made public—and rumors have suggested the terms weren’t very favorable—the move has been enough to push the issue off the front page.
“It happened. But in this part of the world, people still want to do business in Dubai and the UAE. There might be rumors about the debt crisis, but that doesn’t really affect the viability of doing business in the region,” says Praveen Manghnani, managing director of MRI Worldwide United Arab Emirates.
Manghnani says that Dubai has become a clearinghouse for talent in the Arabian Peninsula. Employers from neighboring Saudi Arabia will often find talent in Dubai, bring the employees to Saudi Arabia for a job and as the job wraps up, they return to Dubai looking for their next assignment.
Saudi Arabia itself is undergoing impressive population growth at a rate of over 2 percent per year fueled by a fertility rate almost twice that of Western European countries.
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By comparison, in 2008 the world grew by just 1.17 percent and the United States by .92 percent.
As the UAE continues to establish itself as the business hubof the Middle East, the prevalence of rumors over transparency has become of concern. The UAE Minister of Economy, Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, recently laid out the beginnings of a rewrite—and often Westernization—of many of the nation’s business laws including arbitration rules.
Such rules, the UAE hopes, will help make the country more attractive not just to foreign companies but to entrepreneurs and potential investors.
In addition to businesses though, the UAE is working to attract more educational opportunities. Beginning this fall, a class of 150 hand-selected students from around the world will be starting at the new NYU Abu Dhabi Institute. But as the school takes pains to point out, it is a university unto itself, not just a satellite campus.
“The quality of talent on the peninsula for both local workers and ex-pats remains phenomenal. Through the recession, employers have become more selective, yet the talent pool has risen to their expectations,” says Manghnani.
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CALIFORNIA Taking The Steps Towards Stability
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The story of the California economy has never been one of straight lines. California has perhaps had more booms than any other state in the country. There was the gold rush, the oil boom, a hi-tech boom first of hardware, then of dot-coms. And most recently what might be considered a boom-boom: the collision of so many booms that the price of real estate inflated even more than the rest of the country. And then it burst.
“Late last year was maybe the darkest period that we had seen in California since I started recruiting here,” says Trent Overholt, president of Management Recruiters of Los Angeles-South Bay. “Both in terms of activity and just feeling.”
Perhaps the most visible effect of the recession in California is a budget deficit nearing $20 billion and the cantankerous fight it has caused in Sacramento. Governor Schwarzenegger, a Republican, recently announced his intention to pay all 200,000 state workers minimum wage until a budget was passed. The State Treasurer, Bill Lockyer, a Democrat, resisted the Governor’s order claiming he didn’t have the authority, a position that has not yet been resolved in the courts.
California’s budget issues, while triggered by the recession, can be almost as easily blamed on the taxpayer revolt of the late 1970s resulting in some of the tightest restrictions on a state’s ability to raise taxes in the country. Proposition 13, passed in 1978, prevented reassessing home values
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for tax purposes unless a property is sold or remodeled. Adjustments for inflation were also capped at just 2 percent, well below increases in real estate market values. While the state had learned to live with the restrictions to some degree, when the real estate bubble popped the prices of property plummeted—in some areas as much as 50 percent—homeowners requested reassessments, locking in steeply lower property taxes.
Institutional budget issues will give the recession long coattails in the government’s revenue, but in the broader economy, Californians seem to be becoming more optimistic.
“The biggest demand we are seeing right now is for regional sales managers,” says Overholt. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that companies are seeing increased sales, but it does show that they have growing confidence. The fact that this confidence is becoming more widespread indicates it is not just wishful thinking.”
The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book reported that retail trade and services have firmed over the last six weeks in its San Francisco district. Many businesses reported an uptick in requests for bids, even though those requests have not yet turned into sales. Hi-tech manufacturers saw outright growth in orders for semiconductors and other IT products. According to the Beige Book though, capacity utilization has remained low, meaning companies won’t need to make large capital expenditures to be able to start hiring.
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| | ©2010 Management Recruiters International, Inc. An Equal Opportunity Employer. Each office is independently owned and operated. |
Applying for a new job? Chances are that if your resume makes the grade, your new employer is going to plug your name into Google long before ever picking up the phone to call you back in. Just think about how often you do a quick Internet search before or after meeting a prospective client, supplier, hire, date, etc. In a recent survey of 100 executive recruiters by execunet.com, 77 percent of respondents said they use the Internet to uncover additional information about candidates. A third of those managers had eliminated applicants based on what they found. So while your work history might be spotless, a scandalous photo on Flickr.com, a tasteless comment on YouTube.com, or even an ill-advised political rant can get you blackballed. The first 3 pages of search engine results reveal a lot about a person. But the idea is: If there's enough content about you that's positive, it will camouflage the negative. Take the following steps to ensure that the next time your name gets typed into a search engine, those results uncover a spotless reputation. Start a BlogThe benefits to starting a blog are many. One of the best is credibility. If you start a blog about your area of business expertise and write insightful stories on a regular basis—with proper grammar and all of your i's dotted and t's crossed—that can position you as an expert in your field and can help overturn any negative press or comments that may have been posted about you online. And because blogs are endorsed by their authors, they usually appear first in search results, which are ranked in order of recent updates, originality, and authoritativeness. To get started with your own blog, take a look at the top three most popular blogging services: Blogger ( www.blogger.com); TypePad ( www.typepad.com); WordPress ( www.wordpress.com) Create a Web folioShort for website portfolio, a Web folio is a simple website that showcases your resume and other accolades. In other words, it's a website about you where others can go to learn more about you. The domain name should be your first and last name and the more of your accomplishments that you exhibit here, the better. Potential employers, and anyone else visits your Web folio, will want to not only view your work experience, but also get a feel for who you are and your personality. If you communicate all of this in a friendly, yet professional tone, convincing a recruiter or potential business partner that you're not the wild party animal that Flickr makes you out to be might take only a few minutes, as opposed to days or never. Here are a few good examples of what a Web folio should look like: Logan Kugler ( www.logankugler.com); Chris Saribay ( www.chrissaribay.com); Linda Formichelli ( www.lindaformichelli.com) Flesh Out Your LinkedIn ProfileNearly 20 million business professionals are on LinkedIn. If you're not one of them, you're missing out. Not only is it the best networking tool in the world, but your LinkedIn profile can double as your online resume, even if you don't actively use the website to network. However, getting your LinkedIn profile page to appear first in search engine results will require you use the site to its full capability. While LinkedIn is incredibly useful in so many ways, one of the best ways to counter any e-skeletons you may have hiding in your closet is by getting people you've worked with in the past to write short recommendations about you which appear on your profile. Here's a great article by Guy Kawasaki about how to make sure your LinkedIn profile is operating on all cylinders: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/01/linkedin_profil.htmlPromote Your Web PagesThe best way to increase the ranking of your favorable web pages is by doing some guerrilla marketing. When you write a great story on your blog that you think others would be interested in, submit it to websites like Digg ( www.digg.com) and Slashdot ( www.slashdot.org). Another great way to increase traffic is by sending a link to the top blogs covering your industry. For example, if your blog is in the realm of technology, you can send a link to your story to top blogs like Gizmodo ( www.gizmodo.com) and Engadget ( www.engadget.com) as a news tip. Just make sure the story is new or original—blogs don't like using anything but the latest content, especially the bigger ones. And if you haven't already, add a link to your Web folio and mention your LinkedIn profile in your e-mail signature. Finally, don't forget to utilize your LinkedIn connections. Once you've got a few posts up on your blog, send a note to all of your connections asking if they'd like to subscribe to your blog. Written By Logan Kugler
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning that unemployment in the United States has risen from 9.8 percent to 10.2 percent, while shedding 190,000 positions. Revisions to job loss estimates from August and September caused the total losses over the previous two months to decline by 93,000 fewer positions than previously reported. It is not uncommon for the labor market to begin to see some improvement and for people who had sat on the sidelines to re-enter the workforce. Currently 2.2 percent of the U.S. workforce falls into that category, its highest point since 1983. While the rate of job losses continues to be substantial and the top line numbers keep declining, the most leading indicators of the job market are starting to heal. The reversal for temp workers, an increase in re-entrants, and a decrease in unemployment for those with a 4-year degree or higher from 4.9 to 4.7 percent all point towards early signs of improvement.After adding just 3,000 jobs in September, professional and business services added 18,000 jobs in October, marking just the second positive reading for the sector since the beginning of the recession. Within the professional and business services sector, the biggest winner was temporary help services which added 33,000 positions, after having lost upwards of an average of 40,000 per month in all of 2008 and the first half of this year. Other categories also adding jobs, though not as impressively, include accounting and bookkeeping services (3,800), management and technical consulting (7,300), computer system design and related services (4,500), securities, commodity contracts and investments (500). While the overall retail industry remained weak, losing just shy of 40,000 positions, health and personal care stores, home furnishings, and clothing stores added positions during the month. (Scroll Down for a list of open positions)
As Reported on Reuters.com: By Lisa Richwine WASHINGTON, May 7 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's nominee to run the Food and Drug Administration pledged on Thursday to boost public confidence in the agency with a focus on improving the safety of medical products and foods. "The American people place a huge amount of trust in the FDA. It is critical that we take steps to boost their confidence, particularly when it comes to the safety of drugs and foods," Dr. Margaret Hamburg told the Senate health committee. If confirmed by the Senate, Hamburg will take over an agency battered in recent years by a string of often deadly food poisoning and drug safety issues. Improvements in those areas will be a priority, she said. For foods, Hamburg said: "Now is the time to shift to a food safety system that puts prevention first." Close monitoring of medical products after approval would be key to identifying safety problems early and responding quickly, she said. Hamburg also said fostering innovation was a priority and that she would "strive to lead an agency that appropriately balances innovation with regulation." Democrats and Republicans alike praised Hamburg, a Harvard-trained doctor and former New York City health commissioner, as being well-qualified with expertise in public health and bioterrorism preparedness. Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat who chaired the hearing, said she would push for speedy approval of Hamburg's nomination so she could get to work on the multitude of pressing issues facing the agency. The FDA oversees prescription and over-the-counter drugs, medical devices, most foods and other products that account for about one-quarter of the U.S. economy. Lawmakers urged Hamburg to look at a range of issues from the new H1N1 flu strain to the safety of imported foods and medicines and oversight of tobacco, which Congress may put in the FDA's hands. Many asked Hamburg to fix low morale at the agency after complaints that politics has trumped science in some of the agency's decisions. Hamburg said she would aim to "create an environment where scientists feel very free to raise issues and concerns without any fear of retaliation." "I think science is best served by robust discussion," she said. On the new flu strain seen in many countries, Hamburg said she would look into whether more could be done to make flu-related medical products and laboratory tests available. (Editing by Dave Zimmerman, Maureen Bavdek and Ted Kerr)
The IRS has realized the large sums of potential tax revenue they are losing due to misclassified 1099 independent consultants who should legally be W-2 employees. When a company pays a consultant on a 1099-misc form, they avoid the following: federal and state tax withholdings, deposits and reports, the employer's share of Social Security and Medicare taxes, state and federal unemployment insurance premiums, state disability insurance premiums, Workers' Compensation costs, fringe benefits, vicarious liability for employee negligence, and EEOC regulations. The IRS estimates that it loses from $4 to $20 billion per year in unpaid taxes as a result of this misclassification problem. With the added pressure of additional revenue needed at the federal and state level, understandably, the IRS and many states have made it a priority to investigate 1099-misc forms that are turned in at the end of the tax year. In addition, a bill, The Employee Misclassification Prevention Act would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act, has been introduced in the congress which will create additional oversight for auditing and additional penalties for non-compliance. Make sure you are safe. Below is a 20 point checklist used by the IRS and legal system to determine classification. If there is a chance that your use of consultants falls within this misclassification, don’t take the risk in today’s environment. You still have the ability to bring individuals on in an hourly fashion legally, by contracting them through a staffing organization. They become w-2 employees of our organization and can legally work for your organization on a contract basis as they are no longer paid an a 1099-misc form. IRS 20 Point Checklist for 1099 WorkersSpecific factors that are used by the IRS in determining whether an individual is an employee (W-2) or an independent contractor (1099) are listed below. This listing is commonly referred to as the "20 factors" test. This 20-point checklist is only a guideline; it does not guarantee that a person is correctly classified. Most agencies and courts typically look to the totality of the circumstances and balance the factors to determine whether a worker is an employee. 1. Must the individual take instructions from your management staff regarding when, where, and how work is to be done? A worker who is required to comply with other persons' instructions about when, where, and how he or she is to work is ordinarily an employee. This control factor is present if the person or persons for whom the services are performed have the right to require compliance with instructions. 2. Does the individual receive training from your company? Training a worker by requiring an experienced employee to work with the worker, by corresponding with the worker, by requiring the worker to attend meetings, or by using other methods, indicates that the person or persons for whom the services are performed want the services performed in a particular method or manner. 3. Is the success or continuation of your business somewhat dependent on the type of service provided by the individual? Integration of the worker's services into the business operation generally shows that the worker is subject to direction and control. When the success or continuation of a business depends to an appreciable degree upon the performance of certain services, the workers who perform those services must necessarily be subject to a certain amount of control by the owner of the business. 4. Must the individual personally perform the contracted services? If the services must be rendered personally presumably the person or persons for whom the services are performed are interested in the methods used to accomplish the work as well as in the result. 5. Have you hired, supervised, or paid individuals to assist the worker in completing the project stated in the contract? If the person or persons for whom the services are performed hire, supervise, and pay assistants, that factor generally shows control over the workers on the job. However, if one worker hired supervises, and pays the other assistant pursuant to a contract under which the worker agrees to provide materials and labor and under which the worker is responsible only for the attainment of a result, this factor indicates an independent contractor status. 6. Is there a continuing relationship between your company and the individual? A continuing relationship between the worker and the person or persons for whom the services are performed indicates that an employer-employee relationship exists. A continuing relationship may exist where work is performed at frequently recurring although irregular intervals. 7. Must the individual work set hours? The establishment of set hours of work by the person or persons for whom the services are performed is a factor indicating control. 8. Is the individual required to work full time at your company? If the worker must devote substantially full time to the business of the person or persons for whom the services are performed, such person or persons have control over the amount of time the worker spends working and impliedly restrict the worker from doing other gainful work. An independent contractor, on the other hand, is free to work when and for whom he or she chooses. 9. Is the work performed on company premises? If the work is performed on the premises of the person or persons for whom the services are performed, that factor suggests control over the worker, especially if the work could be done elsewhere. 10. Is the individual required to follow a set sequence or routine in the performance of his work? If a worker must perform services in the order or sequence set by the person or persons for whom the services are performed, that factor shows that the worker is not free to follow the worker's own pattern of work but must follow the established routines and schedules of the person or persons for whom the services are performed. Often, because of the nature of an occupation, the person or persons for whom the services are being performed do not set the order of the services or set the order infrequently. It is sufficient to show control, however, if such person or persons retain the right to do so. 11. Must the individual give you reports regarding his/her work? A requirement that the worker submit regular or written reports to the person or persons for whom the services are performed indicates a degree of control. 12. Is the individual paid by the hour, week, or month? Payment by the hour, week, or month generally points to an employer-employee relationship, provided that this method of payment is not just a convenient way of paying a lump sum agreed upon as the cost of a job. Payment made by the job or on a straight commission generally indicates that the worker is an independent contractor. 13. Do you reimburse the individual for business/travel expenses? If the person or persons for whom the services are performed ordinarily pay the worker's business and/or traveling expenses, the worker is ordinarily an employee. An employer, to be able to control expenses, generally retains the right to regulate and direct the worker's business activities. 14. Do you supply the individual with needed tools or materials? The fact that the person or persons for whom the services are performed furnish significant tools, materials, and other equipment tends to show the existence of an employer-employee relationship. 15. Have you made a significant investment in facilities used by the individual to perform services? If the worker invests in facilities that are used by the worker in performing services and are not typically maintained by employees (such as the maintenance of an office rented at fair value from an unrelated party), that factor tends to indicate that the worker is an independent contractor. On the other hand, lack of investment in facilities indicates dependence on the person or persons for whom the services are performed for such facilities and, accordingly, the existence of an employer-employee relationship. 16. Is the individual free from suffering a loss or realizing a profit based on his work? A worker who can realize a profit or suffer a loss as a result of the worker's services (in addition to the profit or loss ordinarily realized by employees) is generally an independent contractor, but the worker who cannot is an employee. 17. Does the individual only perform services for your company? If a worker performs services for a multiple of unrelated persons or firms at the same time, that factor generally indicates that the worker is an independent contractor. 18. Does the individual limit the availability of his services to the general public? The fact that a worker makes his or her services available to the general public on a regular and consistent basis +indicates an independent contractor relationship. 19. Do you have the right to discharge the individual? The right to discharge a worker is a factor indicating that the worker is an employee and the person possessing the right is an employer. An employer exercises control through the threat of dismissal, which causes the worker to obey the employer's instructions. An independent contractor, on the other hand, cannot be fired so long as the independent contractor produces a result that meets the contract specifications. 20. May the individual terminate his services at any time? If the worker has the right to end his or her relationship with the person for whom the services are performed at any time he or she wishes without incurring liability, that factor indicates an employer-employee relationship. NOTICE: Management Recruiters of Vancouver has provided the content of this document for general informational purposes only. You should not substitute this information for personal consultation with a qualified professional in the field, nor should you rely upon this information in taking any action. No attorney-client relationship will be created through your use of this document.
by Kevin WheelerThis is a strange recession. It is not affecting employment across the board as many of the past ones have, but rather seems to be targeting specific sectors and types of work. Obviously banking and financial services, but also manufacturing and anyone in a semi-skilled job such as auto workers are especially affected. Needs are pocketed and specific. Talent shortages remain. Yet, I have had calls from search firms looking for key sales and marketing people, and for R&D talent. Senior HR executives are in demand, especially if they have global experience. Sectors still largely unscathed by the recession – healthcare, gaming, entertainment, pharmaceuticals, and biotech – are still facing talent shortages and global competition. The growth of global supply chains, increasing automation, and greater process efficiency means we can do more with fewer. New jobs are being created daily, but they all require education and skill beyond that of many current candidates. This, combined with the different attitudes candidates and employees have about work and about how they live their lives, changes how we recruit and employ people. The highly skilled, experienced, and educated will have an increasing edge in employment. And this recession should be a clarion call for an increased focus on education, training, and employment development. Everyone involved with talent will need to look at both development and acquisition as channels to meet their needs, rather than focus entirely on recruiting. There are a number of permanent changes we will see. Candidates Become Smarter, WarierThe first change is that many candidates will be reluctant to work under the same conditions as usual. Candidates have access to unparalleled information about a prospective employer through the Internet and its many sources. Reliance on a single firm for security has already eroded, and this recession will strengthen employees’ wariness about promises and deferred compensation. More top employees will seek employment contracts that include clauses that spell out layoff pay and benefits. Candidates will probe positions more deeply and they will want more influence over the type of work they do. Prepare for candidates to negotiate what they will and won’t do. Free AgencyRecessions have, in the past, increased the pool of people who decide to become free agents – contractors, consultants, and part-time workers. More people than ever are trying out life as independent workers. Many will not make it and return to the corporate fold, but they will be wiser and better prepared to abandon ship than they were before. Many others will find they would rather work on their own than go back under the very insecure and fragile corporate umbrella. Companies will have to identify and take care of their key producers better than ever. While many firms do work hard to keep key talent, they will have to increase this effort and explore more creative ways to engage those people. Charles Handy, a management writer and educator who has written numerous books on the organizations of the future, predicted that up to half of some company’s talent may eventually work as free agent, contracting to those firms as temporary staff, contractors, or part-timers. This will be a lasting change that is accelerated because of the recession. Recruiters and HR staff will have to accommodate these free agents. Our internal regulations will have to be modified to make the use of contractors legal and compliant with IRS regulations and it may be necessary to lease employees, employ more employment contracts, and learn to share talent between organizations. These changes will be fought by the legal department and more HR leaders, yet I believe companies will eventually have to embrace these ideas to be competitive. Values RuleGen Y candidates, in particular, but all employees to a growing degree, are seeking companies that hold values high and make and keep commitments to their employees and their families. They seek environmentally sensitive, charitable, and ethical firms. Gen Y is the tip of a spear followed by the even more morally and environmentally committed Gen M. They will have even higher expectations than the Baby Boomers ever did. While shareholder value will always be a core concern of the management team, they will also have to understand how important employees feel that values are and how close a scrutiny they will give every corporate action and statement. Recruiters have to understand the values of the firms they work for and find better ways to match people to those values. They will have to also convince the management of firms that what they DO is just as important as what they say and that this emerging candidate pool focuses on actions almost entirely. Flexible Work Arrangements
Employees now want to work where they want. The Internet has made it possible for most services and knowledge workers to be located far away from the physical center of their company. Designers, call-center staff, sales people, some HR folks, and most anyone who works with information, writing, or data can effectively work wherever they wish. Only a handful of people – those whose work requires their hands or eyes on the work being produced – will need to physically be present. Even jobs we cannot yet imagine being remote, such as that of a diagnostic physician, may soon be possible using instruments and video from anywhere. Recruiters will need to encourage flexible work arrangements and lobby with hiring managers to make these arrangements normal. Recruiting will be more challenging and those recruiters who like to “fill positions” will find themselves looking for other kinds of work. Recruiters will need to be proactive, great influences, technically savvy, and adaptable to emerging work trends.
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 April saw a continued erosion of pundit confidence in the economy to record lows. According to March’s unemployment data, however, employee confidence may be on the rebound. Though the number of seasonally adjusted employed persons in March fell by 80,000, those in the available workforce grew by 410,000, likely representing an influx of people who felt the job market was too difficult to break into and had fallen back on other options. “Hiring hasn’t stopped. Almost everyone knows someone who is out there interviewing and even getting hired over the last few months. That personal, though anecdotal, evidence is overriding what people are reading about the economy. It’s causing people to re-enter the job hunt, and they are right to do so,” says Michael Jalbert, president of MRINetwork. According to internal MRINetwork data, referred to as PTWeb+™, hiring authorities aren’t changing their patterns much. MRINetwork’s nearly 900 U.S. offices work in the professional, management and executive levels of virtually all industries. According to the data from these offices, hiring has been closely following its normal seasonal trend. PTWeb+ showed an edging off towards the holidays then rebounding in January to make up for lost time and the new fiscal year, and finally beginning the slow upward growth into summer. “Companies are of course looking at economic trends and being more cautious about hiring, but that caution isn’t caus-ing them to vary from their normal seasonal hiring patterns in a large way. Candidates are still out there and hiring author-ities are still seeking them out,” observes Jalbert. “One of the largest effects on the housing slowdown and credit crunch on management level recruiting might not be in the loss of jobs but the relocation issue,” Jalbert points out. “In the college educated professional workforce where home ownership rates are higher and relocations for work are more common, not being able to sell a home or get a loan for a new one can tie up a job switch for months. For an employer who is understaffed that is just too long.” While restaurants, retail and other types of services com-panies are reporting record high responses to job postings, the response has declined somewhat in the professional sector. “It is a bit like both a candidate and an employer market at the same time. Both sides are having a hard time connecting with each other,” says Jalbert. “The biggest lesson of the day for job seekers has to be, ‘just keep looking,’ because the jobs are out there waiting to be found.”
Happy Holidays to you all. As we enter in to the new year here are some tidbits to think about as you move forward in your career and your life. I hope all have had a successful 2007 and here's to a prosperous 2008 for all!!!! Nine Things People CARE ABOUT! People DON'T CARE how good you are... THEY CARE how good you're going to help them become! People DON'T CARE what you've done... THEY CARE what you've LEARNED and how those lessons can help them! People DON'T CARE what you can't do... THEY CARE what you CAN DO! People DON'T CARE what they hear you say... THEY CARE what they SEE you DO! People DON'T CARE what you do for a living... THEY CARE what you're passionate about! People DON'T CARE if you're having a bad day... THEY CARE how you're going to help them have a better day! People DON'T CARE about price... They care about value, convenience and risk! People DON'T CARE about your company... They care about the problems your company can solve! People DON'T CARE about being apologized to... They care about answers, solutions and resolutions!
Back in 2002 Roger Herman, Thomas Olivo, and Joyce Gioia wrote a book on a subject that many companies paid little attention to in a marketplace that recently saw the technology and stock market bubble burst. The book is called Impending Crisis: Too Many jobs, Too Few People. Over the next few years white papers started to be published about the topic, but the majority of those who saw the writing on the wall were still those focused in recruiting and staffing. This past year experts and top executives have started to discuss better recruitment and retention plans for the future. Well, the future is here and the statistics are chilling. Whether we want to believe it, react to it, or choose to ignore it, as the cliche goes "numbers don't lie" and organizations need to be prepared. As Herman writes, "The labor shortage will be much more severe than most people realize. By 2010, we'll be 10,033,000 people short in the United States. Bottom line: corporate leaders must begin now to change the way they do business otherwise they risk extinction." This means, when an individual starts to exlore other career opportunities, there will not just be one or two options but five or ten. Companies will need to sell why their company is better. They will need to become flexible and be able to make quick decisions. Once on board companies need to also focus on retaining their superstars. Those who are unable to change and lose the war, will suffer the same fate as the Dinosaur. Not the fortune 50, some will say. Anyone remember the retailer Montgomery Ward? For those who need the straight numbers here they are: •November 2007 US Unemployment Rate: 4.7% - Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics -Economists put full employment from 4-5%, since that would be the percentage of the population who are unable or unwilling to work •There will be 29 million unfilled jobs in 2008 -Source:U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics • By 2008 the number of young adult workers, from 25 to 40 year olds, will DECLINE by 1.7 million. That's 1.7 million less workers to replace the nearly 77 million baby boomers who will be eligible for retirement.
•The population of the 60 year and older group in the developed world will expand from 99 million in 1950 to 248 million at the turn of the century to 298 million in the year 2050.
•The 50 and older population from 2000-2050 will grow at a rate 68 times faster than the rate of growth for the total population
-Source: Beyond Workforce 2020, Hudson Institute
•One-fifth of this country's large, established companies will be losing 40 percent or more of their top- level talent in the next five years.
-Source: Development Dimensions International
•The replacement pool of 35 to 44 year olds will decline by 15 percent during the same period.
-Source:U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
For additional facts visit http://www.perfectlaborstorm.com/facts.html For an except of The Bermuda Triangle of Future Jobs visit http://www.perfectlaborstorm.com/sample.html
Telephone interviews are becoming more common it today's marketplace for a variety of reasons. Many hiring executives are over worked especially when they have an opening on their team which means they have more travel, meetings and deadlines which correlate to tighter schedules for interviewing. Many positions will also look at individuals outside of their local area making it more difficult and more expensive for a first round face to face interview. Whatever the reason, it is important to realize that telephone interview skills are different than those in a face to face environment and are just as important if you want to move forward in the process. It is important not to overlook a telephone interview as trivial. Here are a few tips to help you have successful telephone interviews: The most important thing to remember about phone interviews is that there is no body language advantage to show your enthusiasm and interest, so you must let it be known in your tone and statements. 1) The main goal of a telephone interview is to move forward to a FACE to FACE interview. 2) Have your resume, paper, pen and a glass of water handy. 3) Take the call in a quiet area where there are no no distractions and disable “call waiting” if your phone has that service. On my phone it is *50 prior to the time you are expecting the call to disable and *51 to enable it back after the call. You will have to check with your service. 4) “SELL” what you know the interview needs. Make sure to go over the description ahead of the interview and have specific examples to pull from your background to support the requirements. 5) Mirror your interviewer’s voice: If he/she speaks fast, you speak at a comfortably fast pace—If he/she speaks slowly, you speak at a comfortably slow pace. 6) If you don’t understand a question, or wonder what they are really looking for, ask for an explanation. 7) Be aware of the length of your answers. Try not to speak more than 3 minutes without reengaging the interviewer 8) Don’t try to evade an answer. If you don’t know the answer, tell the interviewer you will find out the answer and call back. 9) If things sound good to you, say so, don’t play poker. The interviewer can’t see you, so he/she can’t read your body language. Ask the interviewer at the end of the conversation where you stand and what the next step is.(i.e. face to face, 2nd telephone interview, etc.) 10) Do not initiate a conversation regarding compensation! That is only appropriate at the end of a face to face meeting when the employer knows you and you know everything about the job and company. If he/she brings it up during the phone interview, feel free to discuss it, but keep it in general terms. Let the interviewer know you would be more willing to discuss compensation in person, after viewing the site and learning more about the job opportunity. The interview is basically a verbal resume…with animation. Appropriate enthusiasm is absolutely necessary. If you like what you are hearing then let it show in your voice...its the only thing you have over the phone.
The War For Talent, Forbes.com Dennis Zeleny 10.29.07 The biggest key to sustainable success for your company is hiring the right people to run it. After decades of chasing would-be silver bullets including Total Quality, Six Sigma, branding, restructuring and more, many determined CEOs have made their companies significantly better. But you’ll never be able to set the enterprise confidently on the path to long-term prosperity until you become a leader in the worldwide hunt to find and keep the right executive and management talent. This may seem more banal than profound and arcane. But the truth is that relatively few CEOs have understood, at least until lately, the crucial importance of this principle. Other than the occasional General Electric, IBM, PepsiCo or McKinsey, whose CEOs long ago recognized that talent is paramount, few companies have been excelling in this arena. That is why about two-thirds of senior leaders quit or leave an organization within the first three years of being recruited. With the retirement exodus of aging baby boomer executives and managers in Western economies in full flight, the underlying pressures on CEOs to recruit and nurture the right talent will only increase. Also adding pressure is the increasingly globalized demand for talent, including the quickly rising need for executives and managers in the developing world. As a CEO, you’re painfully aware of the consequences of being on the wrong side of the talent equation--of the instability and disruption it causes internally, with your customers, and with other constituencies. You may have a brilliant strategy for making the numbers better every year, but over time, it’s people who will make it happen or fail at doing so. CEOs can put together marketing, sales, production and business-development plans all day long, but their companies cannot win in the marketplace if they don’t have the right people to carry out those plans. And while more CEOs finally are waking up to the talent linchpin, their recognition doesn’t guarantee success in the competition for the best people or effective performance by those executives and managers once they’re in place. It may be sobering for leaders to realize that, with a given promotion or a new hire, they’re making a decision that could have significant ramifications for the company for five or 10 years, or even longer. Yet, many CEOs wrongly believe that getting a handle on "the talent thing" is as simple as putting greater trust in their skills as a people evaluator and being sure to measure up candidates during the crucial job interview. Sometimes, given the press of other duties, they can neglect to put in the proper preparation for optimizing this crucial time with their potential new hires. It should be like the tip of an iceberg: The preparatory work before a CEO even begins the interview process must be done thoughtfully and deliberately. Another mistake is hiring what they’d like to have instead of what they need--recruiting people in their own image when that’s not what a particular job requires. These CEOs don’t do proper reference checks. They may not even understand enough about what the job entails in terms of organizational requirements and fit. Instead, CEOs need to take the hunt for good talent as seriously as any of their priorities and more seriously than most. In doing so, they should apply some very clear and powerful criteria to their overall talent-development efforts and, in fact, to every single executive and managerial hire and promotion. In a multi-part series on Forbes.com, we’re going to examine the six steps to success for CEOs in the war for talent. We’ll take a deep look at each of them, present a strategy for harnessing them, and suggest some tools to help. In this first piece, we’ll present an overview of the criteria: Due to the length of this article, for the full version from Forbes.com, email michelle@mrvancouver.com and I will forward it to you.
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The 8.2 percent national unemployment rate, and even the 3.9 percent bachelor's degree and higher unemployment rate, seem to still give employers a false sense of plentiful candidate supply. It's like the man stranded on a tropical island, surrounded by salt water — yet dying of thirst.
French unemployment reached 10 percent in April, its highest point since late 1999. Socialist President Francois Hollande replaced Nicolas Sarkozy on May 15, and has been tasked with righting Europe's second largest economy. 
