The reason: They’re having trouble accepting the “new math” of today’s marketplace.

What is the “New Math”

Are You Looking For a Job? Contact Dan Today!

By Dan Simmons

Are You Looking For a Job? Contact Dan Today!

1. Do you provide a challenging and stimulating work environment?
2. Are there opportunities for growth and advancement for excelling employees?
3. Are there chances for recognition on accomplishments?
4. Is there an outstanding leadership team with vision and direction?
5. Do you provide a healthy work/life balance with an accompanying flexible schedule?

You may have said yes to a few of these and no to a couple as well. Ultimately, you want to give superstar candidates reasons to work for you . . . not reasons not to. Make sure your recruitment team is well equipped to offer top talent the very best. These candidates won’t just be accepting a recruitment call from you, they’ll be knocking on your door to come interview if the benefits you provide are well presented.

Daniel C. Simmons is a Certified Personnel Consultant who has been recruiting since 1991. Dan has won over twenty awards in the last decade with the Top Echelon Network, America’s leading placement network including Placer of the Year in 2009 & 2010.

Frequently Dan also is a recruiter trainer and has been featured at various Top Echelon Conventions and online as a speaker for various webinars. He has also been published in The Fordyce Letter the recruiting industry’s #1 magazine.

Is Your Company Looking for Great Candidates? Contact Dan Today!

]]> http://www.consearch.com/employers-providing-these-5-things-attract-top-talent/feed/ 0 http://www.consearch.com/is-it-time-to-audit-your-current-employer/ http://www.consearch.com/is-it-time-to-audit-your-current-employer/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:00:56 +0000 Dan http://www.consearch.com/?p=1933

By Dan Simmons

With a new year upon us, this is the opportune time for fresh starts.  When it comes to your career, this question begs for an answer : “Does your fresh start for 2012 involve your current employer . . . or another opportunity?” Time for an employer audit!

There’s a good chance that, like most people, you’re continually seeking ways to enhance your career.  For some employees, they have chances to do that at their current company.  However, for some employees, that’s simply not the case.

What about you?  Are you looking forward to 2012 and tackling the challenges and taking advantage of the opportunities that await you where you are now?  Are you unsure about those challenges and opportunities awaiting you —or question whether they exist at all?

Asking the right questions

If you’re not 100% sure that where you are is where you should be, then it might be time to audit your current employer.  What does that mean?  It means taking a hard look at your current situation and asking questions about your employer that you may not have considered before, questions like the ones listed below:

• Are there opportunities for advancement?  If so, what are those opportunities?  Are you able to engage those opportunities?  If not, why not?

• Does your employer have clearly defined goals for future achievement and success?  If so, what is your role in those goals?  What specifically will you contribute to the pursuit of those goals?

• Are you excited about going to work every day?  Is the company culture conducive to creating (and cultivating) excitement among its employees?  Do you enjoy what you do (i.e., your tasks and responsibilities) on a daily basis?

• What kind of work/life balance does your current position afford you?  Is there truly a balance, or is the situation more lopsided than you would like it to be?  If so, will you be able to regain a satisfactory balance in the near future?  And how will you regain it?

Your answers to these questions will better help you to figure out where you stand in your current employment position.  In other words, they will help you to audit your current employer and determine your best course of action.  The course of action you plot could involve a shot at a promotion or it could mean a move to a new employer, one that will provide you with the advancement—and the satisfaction—that you’re looking for. However that action plan takes shape, make a decision to take a hard look hard at your career goals and plan to make that dream job a reality situation.

Daniel C. Simmons is a Certified Personnel Consultant who has been recruiting since 1991. Dan has won over twenty awards in the last decade with the Top Echelon Network, America’s leading placement network including Placer of the Year in 2009 & 2010.

Frequently Dan also is a recruiter trainer and has been featured at various Top Echelon Conventions and online as a speaker for various webinars. He has also been published in The Fordyce Letter the recruiting industry’s #1 magazine.

Are You Looking For a Job? Contact Dan Today!

(By Dan Simmons)

Maximizing your resources and reaching your peak potential as a team is the goal of any good manager, and while many companies have been attempting to do more with less over the past couple of years . . . is that the best approach to achieve that goal?

Not if you’re not handling the team that you have in the correct fashion.

It doesn’t matter how much talent is on your team, if you’re not handling that talent correctly, then you’re not reaching your peak (no matter how much you’d like to think that you are).

1. Communicate, communicate, communicate—This can’t be overemphasized, as you might have guessed.  Clear communication is essential to the success of any team, and that communication must exist on a daily basis.  If you strive to over-communicate, then you’re probably communicating just enough.

2. Set concrete expectations—Confusion will only bog the members of your team down.  They need to know what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, why they’re doing it, and everything in between.

3. Give team members a measure of control over what they do—Simply put, micro-managing stifles innovation.  However, by giving employees a sense of freedom and the ability to exercise some control over what they do, you might be surprised by the quantity (and quality) of the ideas that result.  Besides, if you don’t trust them, maybe you should replace them.

4. Encourage feedback and input—Employees want to know that it’s safe for them to voice their opinion.  Such an atmosphere is conducive to the exchange of ideas, and the creation and implementation of quality ideas is a great way to reach your peak potential.

5. Make training readily available—If your team members want to better themselves, then by all means, don’t stand in their way.  Give them what they want . . . and what you want, too.

6. Improve your onboarding process—How quickly do new employees get up to speed?  How quickly could they get up to speed, with some strategic changes in your onboarding process?  The faster they’re contributing, the faster they’re contributing.

How well would you grade yourself on the points outlined above?  In which areas do you believe you—and your team—can improve?  The answers to these questions are the first step toward making sure that you reach your peak.

Daniel C. Simmons is a Certified Personnel Consultant who has been recruiting since 1991. Dan has won over twenty awards in the last decade with the Top Echelon Network, America’s leading placement network including Placer of the Year in 2009 & 2010.

Frequently Dan also is a recruiter trainer and has been featured at various Top Echelon Conventions and online as a speaker for various webinars. He has also been published in The Fordyce Letter the recruiting industry’s #1 magazine.

Are You Looking For a Job? Contact Dan Today!

(By Dan Simmons)

You might have read the title of this article and thought that it was about enlisting in the Army.  After all, that’s one of their slogans: “Be all that you can be.”

Well, it’s not just good advice for members of the armed forces.  It’s also good advice for members of the workforce.

Yes, I know: many of you are overworked as it is.  You figure that you’re already being all that you can be, to the point where it’s stressing you out.  Regardless, the points I want to make in this article are worth contemplating and putting into action.

If you’re looking to be all that you can be, bolster the value that you provide for your current employer, and position yourself for future career success, then heed the steps below:

1. Engage in additional training—Seek out training opportunities, no matter what form they might take.  If your company has a formal training system, take advantage of it.  If it doesn’t, then take the initiative and find the training materials you need.  Even if your company doesn’t have training of its own, it might be willing to pay for you to attend webinars or one-day sessions.

2. Attend industry events—Conferences and conventions are good not just because of the training opportunities that are available, but for the networking opportunities, as well.  You never know what you’re going to learn and you never know who you’re going to meet.

3. Ask your supervisor for ways you can improve/become more valuable—You can’t go wrong with this one.  Your initiative will be appreciated, and more than likely, you’ll receive some very straightforward and frank feedback that will help you immensely.

4. Participate in a mentoring program—Once again, some companies have formal programs for mentoring and knowledge exchange, and if yours doesn’t, seek out a more experienced member of your department and ask if they would like to serve as your mentor.  Don’t enter into a mentoring relationship lightly, though.  If you say you want to do it, make sure that you hold up your end of the bargain.

5. Keep current regarding industry trends and developments—There’s a saying that states if you read about something for an hour every day, you’ll be an expert about that subject at the end of one year.  Read journals, blogs, e-zines, and news outlets dealing with your particular field, and strive to do so as much as possible.

Being all that you can be is not just for the Army . . . it’s for you, too.  Let’s face it, the modern marketplace can be likened to a battlefield—and you need to be ready.

Daniel C. Simmons is a Certified Personnel Consultant who has been recruiting since 1991. Dan has won over twenty awards in the last decade with the Top Echelon Network, America’s leading placement network including Placer of the Year in 2009 & 2010.

Frequently Dan also is a recruiter trainer and has been featured at various Top Echelon Conventions and online as a speaker for various webinars. He has also been published in The Fordyce Letter the recruiting industry’s #1 magazine.

Are You Looking For a Job? Contact Dan Today!

By Dan Simmons

During a recession, one of the popular mantras in the workplace (or perhaps more accurately, one of the most over-used ones) is “Do more with less.”  While resources – including budgets – are limited, workloads and projects are not scaled back accordingly.  In fact, in some cases, it may seem as though workloads are increased.

Situations such as these and the challenges they present call for creative and effective solutions.  Operating in a recession doesn’t mean you have to abandon your hiring strategy.  It just means you must sharpen its focus and devise a workforce planning initiative that will allow you to leverage the resources you do have in order to finish important projects and accomplish stated goals. So how do you go about hiring during a recession?

Eight is enough

That initiative can involve a number of components, all of which are designed to provide flexibility for those companies seeking to “do more with less.”  A list of these components, along with a description of each, is listed below:

1. Contracting – Hiring workers on a contract basis is an excellent way in which to finish projects and meet deadlines, especially since money for contract workers is often taken from a different budget than the one tied to full-time employees.

2. Temp-to-hire – This “try before you buy” contracting technique allows you to assess workers for a specific period before deciding whether or not to hire them full-time.

3. Retiree re-staffing – Retirees are an excellent source of knowledge and experience.  Bringing them back on a contract or part-time basis can help you to maximize your team’s performance while keeping costs at a minimum.

4. Interns – At a cost of little to no pay, interns can also provide considerable value to your team.  In addition, they are often eager to learn and motivated to perform at a high level.

5. Cooperative education programs (co-ops) – Similar to internships, co-ops differ in the fact that they combine paid employment with academic study.  Still, they’re a very attractive low-cost solution, as well.

6. Part-time – In the same fashion as contractors, part-time workers can be plugged in when and where they’re needed, also providing a significant measure of flexibility.

7. Consultants – These workers can be hired for a clearly specified period of time, lending expertise designed to accelerate the completion and enhance the quality of larger, more important projects.

8. Project work – By focusing on specific projects and hiring workers through any of the methods outlined above in order to complete them, you can more effectively maximize your resources, as well as increase your team’s output.

There’s always a need for flexibility

The best part about adding these components to your workforce planning strategy is that they’re just as valuable during good economic times as they are during tough ones.  While resources might be more plentiful in a growing economy, the need for flexibility in certain situations still exists.  Through the experience you’ll gain by implementing these various components, you’ll have a better idea of when to use which ones, further increasing your company’s productivity while keeping costs at a minimum.

Your budget might be tight at the moment, but that doesn’t mean work has to fall by the wayside or that deadlines and objectives can’t be met.  You can add to your team on whatever budget you currently have, and by selecting a strategy that best fits your needs, you’ll be setting yourself up for even more success once the market starts to rebound. Hiring during a recession doesn’t have to break the bank. Make sure your team is steady through all the ups and downs of an ever fluctuating economy.

Daniel C. Simmons is a Certified Personnel Consultant who has been recruiting since 1991. Dan has won over twenty awards in the last decade with the Top Echelon Network, America’s leading placement network including Placer of the Year in 2009 & 2010.

Frequently Dan also is a recruiter trainer and has been featured at various Top Echelon Conventions and online as a speaker for various webinars. He has also been published in The Fordyce Letter the recruiting industry’s #1 magazine.

Is Your Company Looking for Great Candidates? Contact Dan Today!

Recruiting, like any other task, has a formula for success.  Whether you’re trying to find a receptionist or a CEO, there are steps for identifying, attracting, and hiring the right person for the job.  Shortcutting the process often leads to poor hiring, mismatches and early terminations.  All of these are costly.  While there is a definite process, it doesn’t have to be complicated.  In fact, it can be boiled down to seven steps that will make for one successful recruiting experience.

Step #1—Clarify the need and the opportunity by determining the three key aspects of the role.  These are the immediate and long-term business objectives of the role and the culture of the organization; the traits, knowledge, and experience necessary to meet these objectives; and the personal and financial rewards that come from achieving the objectives.  By clarifying your need, you will be able to create the profile of the successful candidate and define the opportunity available to the new hire.

Step #2—Reach out using a variety of networking techniques to create a list of prospective candidates.  It has never been easier to reach out.  Internet job posting, social media, print employment ads, employee referrals, professional recruiters, resume banks, university contacts, and government programs are all resources you can use to create a pool of prospects.

Step #3—Once you have prospects, share the opportunity with them, and not just the job requirements.  Share the challenges involved, the way that this position contributes to the organization’s goals, and the rewards for being successful in the role.

Step #4—Screen interested prospects in depth to see if you have a cultural fit and a person who has a track record of achievement using the skills you desire in a function that shows they can achieve the objectives of the position.

Step #5—Determine with the candidate whether accepting this opportunity would improve their life and if this is the right time and place for the change.  Look for candidates who will improve their lives by accepting the role and who possess a passion to accept the challenges and core functions of the job.

Step #6—Have an informative, efficient, timely, and thorough interview process.  Make certain all decision makers are in agreement on the criteria for the candidate.  Have them explain the good and bad parts of the position, along with the rewards of experiencing success in the role.  Use situation-based questions to determine the person’s skill level and thought process.  Make certain you have a fit.  Use reference checks to address areas of concern and ways to coach for success.

Step #7—Make an offer they can’t refuse.  This doesn’t mean you overspend on the hire.  Make a complete offer that addresses relocation, training, benefits, advancement opportunities, job title, work week, flexibility of the role, and of course, compensation.  If the role has the flexibility, advancement, challenge, good commute, and culture the candidate desires, the money simply needs to be enough to keep their present employer from matching it with a counter-offer.  Remember to have a process in place to get the new hire on-board and productive quickly.  Have multiple people involved and one person directly responsible for this.  By using this process, you should be able to hire the person who fits the role and will enjoy the challenge and functions of the job for a long time.

Daniel C. Simmons is a Certified Personnel Consultant who has been recruiting since 1991. Dan has won over twenty awards in the last decade with the Top Echelon Network, America’s leading placement network including Placer of the Year in 2009 & 2010.

Frequently Dan also is a recruiter trainer and has been featured at various Top Echelon Conventions and online as a speaker for various webinars. He has also been published in The Fordyce Letter the recruiting industry’s #1 magazine.

Is Your Company Looking for Great Candidates? Contact Dan Today!

(By Dan Simmons)

(Editor’s note: This is the third and final part in Dan’s “The Difference Between Wishing For and Preparing For a Better Job” series.)

I’ve discussed your worthiness as a top candidate and the role that geography, relocation, and travel play in your quest for a better job.  But what exactly are you prepared for in that new job?  Have you thought about the details associated with such an opportunity . . . and of course, how are you preparing to tackle those details?

As before, I have some questions and relevant points of interest that will help guide you through the process:

1. What functions do you wish to perform during the week to receive the paycheck you desire?  This is a very important question.  What is it that you do extremely well and enjoy?  Remember, this must be a marketable skill that brings value to an employer.

2. How much responsibility/authority do you feel you’re ready to handle?  This could be a larger territory, managing (more) people, bigger budgets, P/L, or being a member of executive management.
3. In what size company and in what company culture do you feel you would be most successful?
4. What is your present compensation and what is it that you’re expecting?
5. Consider the following: base salary, incentive pay, company car, stock options, cost of benefits, years until you are vested in your retirement program, and other perks.
6. Does anyone else at your address know you would consider a job change, and do they feel that this is a good time?  Why is this a good time?

Once you’ve determined the job, compensation, location, travel you desire, and hurdles you need to overcome and have your family onboard, it’s time to prepare your resume, line up your references, and contact a recruiter in your field.

The next step after that is to get your interview clothes ironed and rehearse the answer to “Tell me about yourself,” so you can ace your interview.

Don’t just wish for a better job.  Prepare for it . . . and then go get it.

 
<p style="text-align: justify;"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1483" title="Dan Simmons Bio" src="http://www.consearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/divider-line-300x20.jpg" alt="Dan Simmons Bio" width="300" height="20" /></p>
<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-33" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 20px;" title="Dan Simmons" src="http://www.consearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/dan_headshot.jpg" alt="Dan Simmons" width="105" height="119" /><em>Daniel C. Simmons is a Certified Personnel Consultant who has been recruiting since 1991. Dan has won over twenty awards in the last decade with the Top Echelon Network, America’s leading placement network including Placer of the Year in 2009 &amp; 2010. </em>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>Frequently Dan also is a recruiter trainer and has been featured at various Top Echelon Conventions and online as a speaker for various webinars. He has also been published in The Fordyce Letter the recruiting industry’s #1 magazine.</em></p>

<pre style="text-align: center;">Are You Looking For a Job? <strong><a title="Contact Dan" href="mailto:dan@consearch.com">Contact Dan Today</a></strong>!</pre>

(By Dan Simmons)

It is half past December, and I can already hear you asking, “Where has this year gone?”  This is a time to look back and see what we’ve accomplished and more importantly, start planning for the future.  There will be sales to forecast, budgets to prepare, and staffing needs to consider.  Ordinarily, these are routine matters, but unfortunately, these are not ordinary times.

So how are you going to deal with these impending issues as they affect your company?

Below are some things to consider:

• Identifying the “core” group of people who run your organization
• Implementing an effective “succession plan” for those people
• Creating a meaningful program that will effectively retain key employees

Where are you going to come up with the people to implement your plan?  I believe the old adage is—you either grow them or you buy them.  If you intend to grow them, the survey suggests that companies need to do the following:

• Start investing a percentage of their total payroll into providing training opportunities for their employees
• Develop partnerships with local schools and area community and technical colleges to ensure that students are properly prepared to enter what will be a high-tech, high-performance workforce
• Make a concerted effort to become more aware of government workforce development programs

If you intend to buy them instead, from where will you get them?  You need access to the resources necessary to identify the quality of people your organization is going to require!  Take time to conduct a courtesy interview to see if a possible candidate could be a part of your succession plan!  Are you going to have the staff required to run your company for the long term?  The clock is ticking!

Daniel C. Simmons is a Certified Personnel Consultant who has been recruiting since 1991. Dan has won over twenty awards in the last decade with the Top Echelon Network, America’s leading placement network including Placer of the Year in 2009 & 2010.

Frequently Dan also is a recruiter trainer and has been featured at various Top Echelon Conventions and online as a speaker for various webinars. He has also been published in The Fordyce Letter the recruiting industry’s #1 magazine.

Is Your Company Looking for Great Candidates? Contact Dan Today!