The Beneva Group

Organizations Begin to Backfill and Restart Hiring

2012-02-20T11:25:00.002-05:00

Over the past several months, private employment in the U.S. has begun to rebound in an increasingly strong way. Through all of 2011, the private sector averaged 160,000 new positions per month, exceeding the monthly rates of population growth (about 140,000) and labor force growth (only about 20,000).

“Everyone is hearing about continued debt concerns in Europe, but when it comes to not hiring in America, it’s used as an excuse not to hire, rather than a reason,” notes Rob Romaine, president of MRINetwork. “Except for companies with heavy exposure to the European market, businesses are making hiring decisions based on the customers walking through their front door, not uncertainty surrounding sovereign debt an ocean away.”

A recent survey of MRINetwork recruiters noted an increase over the last six months of employers backfilling positions that had been left unfilled for two years or more. As one respondent said, “I believe [employers] cut so deeply over the past two years that productivity has suffered. Today, they are hiring out of necessity and a belief that the economy has begun to turn.”

The evidence that the economy has turned is mounting. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.8 percent during the fourth quarter of 2011, the fourth consecutive increase. U.S. GDP in 2011 grew 1.7 percent, not a rapid growth, but a far cry from projections of a double-dip recession.

Such growth numbers are, compared to past periods of recovery, rather weak. Yet, most important is where the growth is coming from. In 2011, MRINetwork saw placements in the construction space grow by nearly 50 percent, industrial placements by more than 30 percent and consumer products and services by more than 20 percent.

“Increased hiring of senior-level talent in these sectors is promising for the general economy,” says Romaine. “It indicates a confidence and a willingness by employers to invest in talent across broad swaths of the economy despite headwinds that still persist.”

But just as employers seem to be ramping up their hunt for senior talent, the availability of such talent may be shrinking as well. Over the last six months, employers have continued to increase their use of counter-offers, hoping to retain top talent long enough to backfill their positions. In highly technical fields, such as chemical engineering or biotechnology, employers have been forced to sweeten counter-offers because there simply aren’t as many candidates as there are job openings.

Indeed, the unemployment rate for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher—perhaps the broadest definition of the skilled, professional workforce—fell in December to 4.1 percent, its lowest rate in nearly three years.

“A full-blown, double-dip recession in Europe could have a chilling effect on hiring in America. But, until it does impact the U.S. directly, businesses are beginning to return to more normal hiring patterns,” notes Romaine. “Companies are backfilling vacancies and investing in new positions. We are in the midst of the slow, but seemingly stable, rebound that had been projected.”

Your Résumé vs. Oblivion

2012-02-02T13:12:00.000-05:00

Inundated Companies Resort to Software to Sift Job Applications for Right Skills

By LAUREN WEBER

Many job seekers have long suspected their online employment applications disappear into a black hole, never to be seen again. Their fears may not be far off the mark, as more companies rely on technology to winnow out less-qualified candidates.

Recruiters and hiring managers are overwhelmed by the volume of résumés pouring in, thanks to the weak job market and new tools that let applicants apply for a job with as little as one mouse click. The professional networking website LinkedIn recently introduced an "apply now" button on its job postings that sends the data in a job seeker's profile directly to a potential employer.

While job boards and networking websites help companies broadcast openings to a wide audience, potentially increasing the chance the perfect candidate will reply, the resulting flood of applications tends to include a lot of duds. Most recruiters report that at least 50% of job hunters don't possess the basic qualifications for the jobs they are pursuing.

To cut through the clutter, many large and midsize companies have turned to applicant-tracking systems to search résumés for the right skills and experience. The systems, which can cost from $5,000 to millions of dollars, are efficient, but not foolproof.

Ed Struzik, an International Business Machines Corp. expert on the systems, puts the proportion of large companies using them in the "high 90%" range, and says it would "be very rare to find a Fortune 500 company without one."

At many large companies the tracking systems screen out about half of all résumés, says John Sullivan, a management professor at San Francisco State University.

What happens to a resume after it's submitted online? Job seekers who apply to positions online complain that they rarely even receive a confirmation, let alone a personal response.

No wonder: Starbucks Corp. attracted 7.6 million job applicants over the past 12 months for about 65,000 corporate and retail job openings; Procter & Gamble Inc. got nearly a million applications last year for 2,000 new positions plus vacant jobs. Both companies use the systems.

Although they originally evolved to help employers scan paper résumés into a database, do basic screening and trace an applicant's path through the interview and hiring process, today's tracking systems are programmed to scan for keywords, former employers, years of experience and schools attended to identify candidates of likely interest. Then, they rank the applicants. Those with low scores generally don't make it to the next round.

The screening systems are one way companies are seeking to cut the costs of hiring a new employee, which now averages $3,479, according to human-resources consulting firm Bersin & Associates. Big companies, many of which cut their human-resources staffs during the recession, now spend about 7% of their external recruitment budgets on applicant-tracking systems, the firm says.

At PNC Financial Services Group, which has used the tracking software for 15 years, an applicant for a bank-teller job is filtered out if his résumé doesn't indicate that he has two to three years of cash-handling experience. PNC emails rejected applicants within a day, suggesting they search its website for jobs for which they are better qualified, says Jillian Snavely, senior recruiting manager.

A recruiter reviews applicants who make it through the first cut, which includes the résumé screening and a brief questionnaire about relevant skills. Those applicants get a live or automated phone interview.

Tracking software has its pitfalls. It may miss the most-qualified applicant if that person doesn't game the system by larding his or her résumé with keywords from the job description, according to Mark Mehler, co-founder of consulting firm Career Xroads, which advises companies on staffing.

But the idea isn't to replace human screeners entirely. Experts say the systems simply narrow the field to a size hiring managers can handle. They also stress that, despite advances in the software, the single best method of getting a job remains a referral from a company employee.

One small error, such as listing the name of a former employer after the years worked there, instead of before, can ruin a great candidate's chances.

"There are some things parsers are just too stupid to figure out," says Bersin & Associates Chief Executive Josh Bersin. And they do add to job seekers' impression that submitting applications online is largely futile, even after that person customizes a résumé for a job that seems a natural fit.

"I kind of wonder if some of the jobs I'm applying to even exist," says Asa Denton, a 31-year-old software programmer in Reno, Nev., who has been job hunting for four months.

Elaine Orler, president of Talent Function Group LLC and an expert on the tracking systems, says they should be more candidate-friendly. In the future, she says, forward-thinking companies will allow applicants to check the status of their applications online. The bottom line, she adds: "Candidates deserve respect."

For all their flaws, recruiters generally prefer the automated systems. Texas Roadhouse Inc., a restaurant operator with 350 locations, plans to adopt a tracking system this year to handle the flow of applications for hourly jobs.

Julie Juvera, head of human resources at the chain's headquarters in Louisville, Ky., says she gets as many as 400 résumés for a job opening within 24 hours after listing it online. "We used to hand-write a postcard to every single applicant saying 'thank you so much for applying.' But that's become too overwhelming and tedious."

Now the company sends an automated email to an applicant to tell him his résumé is being reviewed, and that it will contact him if it considers him for a job.

Résumé overload isn't just a big-company problem. Job seekers often are surprised when they don't hear back from small businesses. These businesses rarely hire enough people to make an applicant-tracking system cost-effective, but even a one-time posting on a well-trafficked job board like Monster.com can garner hundreds of responses.

Only 19% of hiring managers at small companies look at a majority of the résumés they receive, and 47% say they review just a few, according to a recent survey by Information Strategies Inc., publisher of Your HR Digest, an online newsletter.

When Mr. Denton, the software programmer, sent his résumé to Google, Inc. and Walt Disney Co., he wasn't terribly surprised when he received nothing but an email acknowledgment, but he expected a more personal response from a small Reno company.

When he called to ask for an update on his application, he was told the company's vice president was in charge of hiring, and surmised that the executive was too busy to read through the submissions. "What I'm going to do is turn up on their doorstep," says Mr. Denton. "I really have nothing to lose."

— Rachel Emma Silverman contributed to this article.

How to Beat the 'Black Hole'

You don't have to be an astronomer to know about one kind of black hole: the online job application process. But have hope. There are things you can do to increase the chances of getting your résumé through employers' applicant screening systems, say experts Josh Bersin, CEO of human-resources consulting firm Bersin & Associates and Rusty Rueff, career and workplace expert at Glassdoor. Below, five tips to up your odds:

1. Forget about being creative. Instead, mimic the keywords in the job description as closely as possible. If you're applying to be a sales manager, make sure your résumé includes the words "sales" and "manage" (assuming you've done both!).

2. Visit the prospective employer's website to get a sense of the corporate culture. Do they use certain words to describe their values? If a firm has a professed interest in environmental sustainability, include relevant volunteer work or memberships on your résumé. The company may have programmed related keywords into its resume screening software.

3. Keep the formatting on your résumé simple and streamlined—you don't want to perplex the software. With a past position, the system "sometimes gets confused about which is the company, which is the position, and which are the dates you worked there," especially if they're all on a single line, says Mr. Bersin. To make sure you hit all the categories, put them on separate lines. And "don't get cute with graphics and layout," says Mr. Rueff.

4. Some screening systems assign higher scores to elite schools. You may not have gotten your B.A. from a top-tier university, but if you attended a continuing-education class at one, include such qualifications on your résumé.

5. But don't ever lie or exaggerate just to get through the screening process. Recruiters and ATSs are savvy about tricks jobseekers use (such as typing false qualifications in white font). "You don't want to get through the black hole and find out it's a worse hole you got yourself into," Mr. Rueff says.

First Friday Preview, January 2012

2012-01-25T14:50:00.000-05:00

UNITED STATES
Economic Outlook is Modest, with a Chance for Surprise

In the final moments of trading on the final trading day of the year, the S&P 500 dipped .04 points into the negative for the year, or -0.0032 percent. In many ways it seemed like a fitting conclusion. The questions and concerns that investors, consumers, employers and employees faced in the United States and abroad over the last year have been both foundational and astronomical in their scope, with many left unresolved.

In Europe, a growing chorus of critics has brought into question the future of the world’s largest currencies. In Asia, countries with a massive slice of the world’s global population have started to remove the term “emerging” from their economies’ status. Many Latin American countries, for the first time in modern economics, seem to have survived a crippling global downturn with successful monetary policy. In the United States, we saw a credit rating agency report that America’s debt, for the first time in more than 70 years, was not without risk and economists began to build economic models for how the global economy might function without the U.S. at the top of the pile.

“For the last few years, we’ve gotten to December, looked back and had to admit it wasn’t as good a year as we were hoping it would be. Now, no one wants to risk being too positive about 2012 and what it could mean for the economy and jobs,” notes Rob Romaine, president of MRINetwork. “At the same time, there is enough information to at least say, ‘this is one that could surprise us.’”

A recent survey by the Conference Board said consumer confidence rose from 55.2 to 64.5 points between November and December, while its Expectations Index rose from 66.4 to 76.4 points. The Conference Board also cautioned against optimism while reporting a 1.28 percent increase in its Employment Trends Index from 102.42 to 103.7.

“In the management and executive ranks, we’ve seen an increase over the last six months of employers seeking to back-fill positions vacated because of resignations, showing an improvement in the portability of talent in the labor market,” says Romaine. “Employees are finding and accepting new jobs, and their former employers are

discovering they can’t leave those positions open.”

Top employed candidates sticking their proverbial foot into the labor market have added to the pool of available talent over the last half of the year. The demand for candidates has also increased, with the number of job postings calling for a bachelor’s degree having risen by nearly 20 percent in the last year. Many employers’ processes for screening and interviewing mid- and senior-level candidates has continued to elongate and the amount of time top candidates remain on the market has actually shrunk, while multiple offers have increased in frequency.

“There aren’t any large single events on the calendar in 2012 that are going to take up the slack in the labor market, and we have no reason to expect that issues hanging over the global economy are going to come to an immediate or even a positive resolution,” says Romaine. “At the same time, there is a pretty solid foundation of reasons to suspect that the economy will maintain a modest pace of growth and that total employment will continue to slowly improve. And, there’s even a chance that the economy could do better than we expect.”

Middle East & North Africa

A Year After the Arab Spring

January 2011 saw the beginning of an unprecedented wave of uprisings throughout North Africa and the Middle East, resulting in the ouster of the governments of Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt and significant government changes in at least a half-dozen other nations. A year later, with the exception of protests against the interim military government in Egypt and the Assad government in Syria, much of the dust has settled.

The short-term economic impact on the region though, as expected, hasn’t been positive. Tourism revenue, which in 2010 was the second-largest source of foreign exchange earnings for Egypt has seen steep declines, as have other countries in the region. Tourism is important not only because it brings fresh currency into the economy, but also because its labor-intensive nature requires a certain level of employment. Foreign investment, too, has been impacted, as investors remain leery of the interim governments.

In the past decade, many of the region’s non-oil-exporting countries have actually been experiencing modest GDP growth, averaging between 3 and 4 percent per year. It may be another year until foreign investment and tourist dollars return to previous levels, allowing these countries to see the same growth.

Economists estimate that as many as 48 million jobs will need to be created over the next 10 years to help reduce an unemployment rate in the region topping 10 percent and a youth unemployment rate of 24 percent.

Many of the changes that have come about because of the Arab Spring, however, are likely to help make that possible. The increased transparency and social and economic reforms the protests spurred will make many of the non-oil-producing countries more attractive for foreign investment in the private sector –if stability returns. In fact, many of the non-oil-producing nations in North Africa and the Middle East are among the least internationally-connected economies in the world.

The Arab Spring was caused in large part by rising unemployment, which itself was brought about by the plummeting price of oil in early 2009. As the price of oil fell from over $100 a barrel to as low as $37 a barrel on January 16, 2009, construction projects throughout the oil-producing states, especially in the UAE, were put on hold. Those projects employed mostly laborers from North African countries like Egypt and Tunisia whose visas were revoked after their employment ended.

Today, the price of oil has returned back above $100 a barrel and construction projects are revived, and with them, both labor and professional jobs are back on the rise. As those jobs return, they will help to provide a short-term boost to employment while their economies begin to cultivate more robust domest

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Region Likely to be Unscathed by Federal Budget Cuts

The Washington, D.C. area is home to nearly 15 percent of the federal government’s workforce. So as the talk on Capitol Hill and in the presidential primary continues to focus on debt and deficit reduction, there should be no region more concerned than the metro area. In fact, as much as one-third of the region works directly for the federal government and its contractors, with most of the remaining two-thirds almost all indirectly employed because of the existence of the federal government.

“Among contractors in the defense industry there is understandably a great deal of concern since many of those cuts have not yet been formalized,” says Eric Beebe, president of Management Recruiters of Gaithersburg in Maryland. “But outside of those, the contractor community is actually rather confident going into 2012. The types of services they perform for government agencies—ranging from network engineering to custodial services—can’t be cut and those services are expected to stay at a similar level throughout the next year.”

Because of the sequestration provisions of the Congressional compromise over the debt ceiling in August 2011, the Department of Defense will be cutting nearly a half-trillion dollars from its 10-year budget. The exact cuts have not been announced, though they are expected to be made public in late January. The same sequestration provision is requiring that more than another half-trillion dollars be cut from the remainder of the federal budget over the next 10 years.

Beebe says, “The majority of cuts are unlikely to come from either federal employees or contractors in the D.C. area. The agencies are more likely to cut or consolidate services from across the country rather than substantially reduce their district-based operations.”

The U.S. Postal Service, which has been under pressure to reduce its $75 billion annual budget, is proposing to do just that. In plans released last month, the USPS will close 487 postal processing facilities and 3,700 of the 32,000 post offices across the United States.

“Spending cuts may even be a boon to contractors as agencies cut back on having a physical presence in smaller communities, possibly relying instead on contractors to provide the on-the-ground delivery of services in those areas,” notes Beebe.

At 10.6 percent, unemployment in the District of Columbia is well above the nation’s 8.6 percent rate. Yet, the District’s two neighboring states, Maryland and Virginia, which are home to many government employees, contractors, and agencies, both hold unemployment rates well below the national average, at 6.9 and 6.2 percent, respectively.

No matter how much federal government spending may vary, notes Beebe, the one event that seems to substantially impact the district area economy is when the White House changes parties.

“When the presidency changes parties—Democrat or Republican—all the priorities change. As those new plans are being drawn up, spending in the district slows for about a year as the budgets get sorted out,” says Beebe. “And whether or not that will affect the region in 2013 won’t be known until November 6.”

Breaking an Unbreakable Cycle

2012-01-25T14:41:00.000-05:00

UNITED STATES
Breaking an Unbreakable Cycle

During the third quarter, U.S. GDP grew at an annualized rate of 2.5 percent, reducing fears of a double dip recession for now. In August, there were more than 4 million hiring events. That equates to 3.1 percent of the total U.S. workforce getting a new job. In September, the unemployment rate for those with a four-year degree fell to 4.2 percent and the unemployment rate for those who most recently worked in a management, professional or related occupation was just 4.4 percent.

That is good news for a lot of people—namely those with jobs in fields that require specialized experience and education. But there are also nearly 14 million jobless Americans who want and are searching for a job. The average duration of unemployment now exceeds 40 weeks, excluding those who have taken part-time work or given up searching.

“The country emerged from recession more than two years ago,” says Rob Romaine, president of MRINetwork. “The stock market has in large part returned and corporate earnings are at record highs, but everyone—both consumers and companies—are behaving as if we are still in a recession. Consumers continue to delay purchases and companies are choosing to sit on record amounts of cash rather than invest in resources and human capital.”

To be saving cash in uncertain times makes perfect sense on the individual level. However when looking at the country as a whole, it means hundreds of billions of dollars less in spending and the spending which does occur is at significantly lower profit margins.

“High unemployment doesn’t benefit anyone. As long as spending remains anemic, employment levels will fail to rise significantly, and those who have been out of work for more than a few months are likely to remain out of work for even longer,” says Romaine. “But in a classic catch-22, spending is going to remain weak as long as unemployment is high.”

Like any vicious cycle, this one needs to be broken. Yet, nothing will happen overnight and it might not be possible for there to be one bold action from the government or one strong economic signal from the economy to fix everything.

“This cycle will be broken on the individual level. Individual companies will look at their business and say, ‘despite the macroeconomic outlook, our business is sound and we need to invest to make it better,’” says Romaine. “Unemployed individuals will also have to dig deep and reevaluate what kind of career and lifestyle they are willing to accept.”

For someone who hasn’t found a job after 40 weeks of searching, their prospects aren’t going to change because of a simple resume tweak. Most long-term unemployed are going to have gain additional skills while lowering their salary or title expectations more than they ever thought possible to rejoin the workforce. Yet, these are the individual sacrifices which will break the cycle.

“Coming out of this there hasn’t been and there won’t be a ribbon-cutting moment, just a long series of small decisions that will slowly turn the tide,” says Romaine. “Companies who don’t invest in talent and resources will lag the recovery cycle and eventually fall behind their competition.”

Economic Growth Stays Fractured

2011-10-06T11:03:00.000-04:00

GDP is an easy way to look at the economy; it’s one number, it’s positive or it’s negative, it’s a series that goes back 70 years. In the second quarter of 2011, for example, U.S. GDP grew by 1.3 percent. However, no one has been hired or fired—outside of politics—because of GDP. One industry could double in revenue, while another could halve its revenues resulting in massive hiring and layoffs, yet, GDP would remain flat.

“It’s our nature to want to generalize—‘The economy is great!

The economy is horrible!’—but the actual picture is always much more granular,” says Rob Romaine, president of MRINetwork. “You can’t define the winners and losers in today’s economy with a broad brush. There are companies in almost every industry and in almost every market that are seeing the best year in their history while across the street, another company is flailing.”

The current recovery has been highly fractured, with many positive trends being countered by many negative ones.

For example, according to the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, Chicago saw strong back-to-school retail spending in August, while Atlanta saw retail sales slow over the same period. Kansas City and Cleveland saw strong auto sales, especially for fuel-efficient cars, while auto demand softened in New York and Philadelphia. Manufacturers in St. Louis reported an increase in business, with several firms planning to open new plants and expand operations, while New York, Philadelphia and Richmond manufacturers reported declining overall activity.

“Organizations which operate nationally or internationally must create strategies which work across a majority of the markets they serve. Yet, they also need to have the flexibility to move staff and infrastructure quickly to take advantage of localized opportunities,” notes Romaine.

That is one of the reasons post-recession job growth is often led by small and medium-sized companies. A small credit union in St. Louis can notice an increase in qualified commercial credit inquires, ramp up their capacity to sell and service those loans and get the business before the national banks even see the trend.

“Many larger companies are getting back that agility through the use of contract labor—side by side with permanent staff—not just to fill one or two critical roles or test candidates, but rather to fill out entire departments and capabilities,” says Romaine. “One of the biggest advantages a smaller company can have is the ability to affect rapid change in its workforce. The use of contract labor helps medium and large-sized companies regain the advantage by adding back that flexibility.”

Not only is there less risk should positions become unnecessary, contract positions can often be filled with significantly less HR process. Should the role become permanent, the employees are already in place, making the onboarding process little more than a technicality.

When the advance estimate for 2011 Q3 GDP is released at the end of October, it will give us a better idea of the direction of our economy as a whole, and whether another recession is possible. However, business leaders who are looking for clues about where their company or industry is heading should look a little closer to home.

TURNOVER LEADS TO OPPORTUNITIES

2011-08-30T12:46:00.001-04:00

Looking at an unemployment rate that has been stuck at more than 9 percent for over two years, it would stand to reason that the employment market is static. Little more than 100,000 jobs are being added each month to an economy that employs more than 130 million people.

Yet, the labor market is far from static. Total employment in the United States is turning over at a rate of more than 3 percent per month. That means each month, more than 4 million people start a new job and more than 2 million people voluntarily leave their job. This may seem like taking one step forward while taking one step back, and in terms of lowering overall U.S. unemployment, it is.

At the same time, every month, 4 million hiring managers are looking at their businesses and the economy and deciding they would be better off hiring someone. But when they make that decision, it’s not about just replacing a warm body; it's an opportunity to change the direction of their workforce.

“A few years back, when someone resigned, HR pulled out the old job description and started to replace them. Now when that same person leaves, a manager’s first thought is more likely to be, ‘How should this role change,’” says Rob Romaine, president of MRINetwork. “At a time when many departments have a difficult time adding positions, reexamining every job description as it opens up can be the lowest friction way to reshape a workforce and with proper planning, large changes can happen relatively quickly.”

In the professional and business services sector the monthly turnover rate is closer to 5 percent, which means that with a clear workforce plan in place, a company’s entire focus can be altered in less than two years.

“Backfill workforce planning requires more foresight than just eliminating one position, while adding another. However, it maintains the continuity of business operations, lowers separation costs, and avoids potential morale or public relations issues,” notes Romaine.

In a backfill workforce plan, the target for where the organization is heading needs to be defined, but the path on how to get there must remain dynamic—changing based both on which positions open up, and what candidates are available. The plan itself should be less about creating a pre-defined organizational chart and more about the capabilities and capacity of the target organization.

“When someone leaves the company, you start by looking at what capabilities that person had which are required immediately,” says Romaine. “Then you can work with a search consultant to understand what talent is currently available to fit your basic requirements and which additional capabilities of the target organization you may be able to include in the role.”

Working with an experienced industry-specific search consultant can bring needed expertise to both formulating and implementing a backfill workforce plan.

“Redefining positions as they open up can lead to only the priorities of the day being addressed,” notes Romaine. “Working with a search consultant to create a workforce plan with a long-term horizon makes larger, more substantive changes possible.”

Recent MRINetwork® Analysis:

Even with the unemployment rate unchanged at 9 percent, Jason Breault, managing director of LifeWork Search has noticed an increased level of confidence in his candidates. "This year we have seen candidates finally taking control of their growth potential, leveraging frustrations in their current roles and taking advantage of the opening job market. Many employees feel they have hit a wall in their current roles, yet at the same time have been pushed harder, putting in longer hours, and taking on more responsibility without being properly compensated."

Jason Breault, LifeWork Search an MRINetwork Affiliate

As quoted in Supply & Demand Chain Executive

August 12, 2011

Notable International Events

China’s manufacturing index rose from 49.3 to 49.8 in August in a preliminary reading. The figure still indicates a contracting manufacturing sector in China, but at a very slow and improving rate.
GDP growth estimates for Latin America were recently cut by Morgan Stanley, from 4.6 to 3.6 percent across the region, indicating a deceleration of what was seen as a dangerously overheated economy. By mid-2012, economists project Brazil will begin cutting its benchmark interest rate, the SELIC, from its current 12.5 percent which was set to help slow the economy.

RENEWED SENSE OF URGENCY MARKS HIRING FOR SECOND HALF OF 2011

2011-08-02T11:10:00.001-04:00

Unlimited talent pool is a myth, according to MRINetwork®

(Philadelphia) – As the economy gains speed and companies staff up to reach their 2011 revenue goals, hiring managers are concentrating on finding experienced top performers who can hit the ground running. Despite this urgency, many companies are taking too much time when seeking to hire good talent, according to recruiters at MRINetwork® (www.mrinetwork.com), one of the world’s largest search and recruitment organizations.

“It’s unwise to assume there is an unlimited talent pool in this market,” says Rob Romaine, president of MRINetwork. “The best talent is most likely already working, particularly in fields such as healthcare, science, and technology. While the first challenge is finding qualified candidates, the bigger challenge is closing the deal and hiring them. Why? Because they have options.”

This is especially true for college-educated professionals. “The unemployment rate for those with a four-year degree is down to just over 4, nearly half the national average. Over the last decade, total U.S. employment has grown by a meager 1.5 percent. Over the same time, however, employment for those with a four-year degree has grown by more than 20 percent,” points out Romaine.

“As companies accelerate hiring, they are almost entirely hiring for positions which require four-year degrees or better. If they are looking at high unemployment rates and expecting they’ll be able to easily find high-quality candidates, they are going to be surprised when the best candidates aren’t beating a path to their door,” he continues.

Romaine believes that candidates are vetting prospective employers just as carefully as the employers are vetting them. “In today’s job market, an employer must realize that a highly qualified candidate will not tolerate an inefficient interview process,” he says. “In fact, top performers use the interview process to size up the organization. Delays and indecision signal weakness in the organization and the best candidates tend to move on.”

Just because a candidate has agreed to an interview doesn’t mean they will stay committed to an opportunity. “All it means is that they may be ready to take the job if it is the best opportunity at the time for them and their career,” says Romaine. “If the candidate is greeted by interviewers who are late, unprepared, or not fully engaged, only the weakest candidates – with the least amount of options – will remain interested in the role.

Once candidates know that they are attractive to other organizations, there is a very short period of time to make the hire. “If there is a delay, candidates who were initially excited about a job can easily become enamored with an opportunity that presents itself in the meantime,” cautions Romaine. “In our experience, the longer the interview process gets dragged out, the more likely a hire won’t occur.”

If this scenario is happening repeatedly, Romaine advises companies to reexamine their hiring process. “This isn’t a short-term situation that companies can ‘wait out.’ We are in a perpetually advanced economy that requires an increasing number of workers with advanced skills in order to grow,” says Romaine. “When key positions are waiting to be filled, a sense of urgency may be the key to ensuring that the company is able to meet its goals.”

About MRINetwork®:
Management Recruiters International, Inc., branded as MRINetwork®, is one of the largest executive search and recruitment organizations in the world. A subsidiary of CDI Corp. (NYSE:CDI), a global provider of engineering & information technology outsourcing solutions and professional staffing, the MRINetwork has approximately 850 offices in 35 countries. Visit MRINetwork at www.mrinetwork.com.

Waiting for Growth but Finding Top Talent

2011-07-08T11:31:00.002-04:00

How long will it take for the labor markets to return to normal? It will depend on any number of factors, foremost among them: what is normal?

In a recent poll of MRINetwork recruiters asking what was holding managers back from hiring, only 11 percent cited sales not yet rebounding. The leading cause of employers not hiring was that efficiencies found during the recession have allowed companies to do the same with less staff (28 percent).

“The depth and length of the downturn forced organizations to make structural changes which have sent productivity to record heights,” says Rob Romaine, president of MRINetwork. “Today, in a period where market growth often remains minimal, the most direct way to create the earnings improvements investors are looking for is to push for further efficiencies.”

While expanding headcounts and vacancies from resignations were the two top reasons for job openings, according to the MRINetwork Recruiter Sentiment Study, top grading of the workforce came in third, with 14 percent of recruiters claiming that it is the primary cause for openings that they see. Top grading means identifying the “C players” on a team, going out, and replacing them with a top performer.

The number two reason employers are holding back from hiring, according to the survey, is that while sales have rebounded, managers are meeting resistance in getting authorization to fill their open positions (27 percent).

“Managers are having a hard enough time today just getting approval to fill vacancies, let alone creating new positions,” notes Romaine. “This makes top grading one of the only ways to increase output in highly talent-reliant businesses without changing the headcount.”

Top grading is possible today in a way it hasn’t been over the last many years. The mantra in the depths of the recession was that employees were hunkered down, not wanting to risk falling victim to the “last in, first out” mentality at a new job. Yet, while layoffs do continue today at many firms, they are more frequently motivated by shifting business strategies rather than financial necessity.

After hitting its low in January 2010, the U.S quit rate—the percentage of the workforce who voluntarily leave their job in a given month—has risen from 1.1 percent to 1.5 percent. While still short of the 2.2 percent average between 2004 and 2007, this recent growth lends further support to the idea that for the right opportunities, candidates today are ready and willing to change jobs. In fact, the number of people leaving their positions voluntarily has exceeded the number laid off or discharged since January of this year.

“While productivity has surged, consumer and business spending has only risen modestly. Until the demand of the marketplace reaches parity with the capacity of the current U.S. workforce, we aren’t going to see a surge in headcounts,” notes Romaine. “But many of the smartest employers are taking this opportunity to find and recruit a select few top performers who will enable their companies to seize the opportunity and grow when that parity is reached.

The Best Way to Take Control of Your Job Hunt

2011-06-21T14:33:00.000-04:00

Here is an article I saw on Yahoo Finance Today.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/The-Best-Way-to-Take-Control-usnews-2785678431.html

Featured Candidates!

2011-06-21T11:09:00.001-04:00

This is just a small sample of the Impact Players with whom we are working:

Danaher trained Lean professional

Expert in Lean processes
Generated cost savings of $1.3MM
Increased on-time-delivery from 74% to 94%
Reduced change-over time by 80% at Delphi as a Kaizen Leader
Reduced inventory by 12%, while achieving 11.8 inventory turns
Increased productivity by 25%
Managed production in 2 plants simultaneously
Implemented SMED, Kaban, visual management, one piece flow, and pull scheduling

DuPont-trained and certified Growth Black Belt

Increased top line revenue by $16MM in flat volume market
Identified $100MM new product growth in 5 years
Achieved $8MM in improved profitability
Launched 3 new markets for $3MM in new revenue
Expert in value stream mapping and value chain analysis
Value capture/value pricing expert
Global Experience
Previous development, engineering, and technical marketing experience
BS Chem E, MBA, Scholarship and Honors student
Mid-career (15 years of experience), highly-promotable

Textron certified Black Belt

Lean certified 2009
BSME (1999) and MSME (2001)
Led company-wide supply chain team that saved $40MM
Delivered $1.5MM in annual material savings with a packaging change
Delivered $2MM in quality savings
Led multiple Lean/Kaizen events in sales & marketing, operations, and training
Design for Assembly & Design for Manufacturing training
Willing to relocate and travel
Mid-career (15 years of experience), highly-promotable

Whirlpool certified Black Belt

Lean certified 2009
BSME (1999) and MSME (2001)
Led company-wide supply chain team that saved $40MM
Delivered $1.5MM in annual material savings with a packaging change
Delivered $2MM in quality savings
Led multiple Lean/Kaizen events in sales & marketing, operations, and training
Design for Assembly & Design for Manufacturing training
Willing to relocate and travel
Mid-career (15 years of experience), highly-promotable