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Archive for May, 2010
Friday, May 21st, 2010
 We get asked this question all the time…Mike Sipple Jr. weighs in to share his thoughts and opinions!
“The first step is to be sure you truly know what you’re looking for. Who are the decision-makers in the process? Have you all met around a table to agree upon what the ideal candidate profile looks like?
Have you agreed upon the benchmarks for the candidate evaluation? What do you want to be different than the last leader who held the position? What similarities and differences do you want in the next candidate compared to the past individual and others on the leadership team?
What behaviors should you be looking for in candidates? What are the behaviors needed today, and what’s needed to get your company where it needs to be in the future?
Once these questions (and more!) have been answered and agreed upon, we suggest you start by looking to an outside advisor who specializes in the process of recruiting and attracting talent. Also, look to people in your network who know you and what you are about. Who do you know and trust? Who understands and appreciates your business and culture? Who can identify and refer you the leadership and talent that will fit your organization?
This is where Centennial is especially strong, because we’re constantly out meeting people and networking. We are regularly communicating with the top leaders, whether they’re currently looking for opportunities or waiting for the “right time.” We invest the time with our clients to understand goals & objectives, challenges, opportunities and “fit” and match this to the leaders who can meet and/or exceed expectations.
If your preference is to use the job board process, that’s ok too, as long as you have the proper expectations. In this scenario, you’re really only looking at the best of who applied. There’s a difference between this approach, versus proactively communicating a message, networking and searching for candidates. You may be able to find an “A” player on a job board, but how can you be sure? How could you benchmark that?
It’s critical to understand and clearly communicate not only “what” you’re looking for, but also “who” you’re looking for. The “what” is defined by the role, responsibilities, and critical success factors to meet goals and objectives. The “who,” which is equally as important, is defined by the intangibles – chemistry, culture and character. They key is knowing both “who” and “what” you want, so you’re able to hit the target on the first round and the bulls-eye on the second round!”
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Tags: candidate engagement, employment brand, recruiting, recruiting process, recruiting talent, talent acquisition, talent engagement, talent retention
Posted in Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employment Brand, Hiring & Recruiting, Leadership, Recruiting & Executive Search | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 21st, 2010
Mike Lynch was recently asked the question, “What are effective resume tips that will help get me noticed?” and he shared the following to assist those in a career transition.
 The biggest mistake that job seekers make with their resume is that they list their duties and responsibilities for the positions they’ve held throughout their career. Instead, you should be detailing your accomplishments. It doesn’t matter what you did, as much as it matters that you achieved results doing it.
Be sure to include keywords that are also listed in the job posting. Many companies today are using automated scanners for resumes, and they’re looking for specific words. Try to leverage their same language in your resume.
If you’re able to include a cover letter, it can be an effective extension of your resume. There, you can drill down into detailed reasons why you’re a good fit for the position. The cover letter MUST be tailored for the specific job opportunity – a standard “form” cover letter is the kiss of death.
Share your top tips and recommendations of writing effective resumes…what tips have you learned over the years?
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Tags: Career Coaching, cover letters, coverletters, Interviewing, job application, job seeker, resume submission, resume writing, resumes
Posted in Career Coaching, Interviewing, Recruiting & Executive Search | 4 Comments »
Friday, May 21st, 2010
When asked, “What should be included in a job description to ensure highly qualified candidates?”, Mike Sipple Sr. shares the following with his clients and relationships.
You should create the job requisition, which typically includes a list of criteria. You should then sit down with the decision maker and the people who will be influential to this role – ideally in a group meeting. Ask for feedback; ask for what’s missing; ask for what’s really needed to be successful in this role. This process tends to get more into the culture, character and chemistry fit. The experience and skills are a given today. You have to be able to do the job, but you must also be a fit with the ‘intangibles.’
As you gather this information from the influencers and decision-makers, you must be able to get consistent feedback and a consensus on what the ideal candidate needs to possess. If you don’t have a group discussion and clear consensus of what you are and are not seeking, it will only cause disagreement regarding potential candidates later. It’s critical to get consistent feedback from the whole team – it can’t be just one person’s input. Typically more than one individual will be involved in the final decision as you hire a new executive and leader.
You should also consider what the role will be six months to two years from now. Consider what will be needed and recruit accordingly today for what’s required in the future. Part of the candidate assessment should determine if the person has the ability and/or interest to grow into that bigger role as they progress in that career position.
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Tags: executive search, hiring, Interviewing, job descriptions, Leadership, qualified candidates, recruiting
Posted in Employee Retention, Employment Brand, Hiring & Recruiting, Leadership, Recruiting & Executive Search, Succession Planning | 3 Comments »
Friday, May 21st, 2010
 When asked the question, “What are the top three challenges facing leaders today?” Mike Sipple Sr. shares…
Leaders need to redefine what “leadership” means to their organizations. They should be questioning – “what do we need in our organization today that we don’t have?” Leaders should be educating themselves on what those needs are, and they should be redefining their leadership needs accordingly. What used to determine an “A” player may not be the most important organizational need today. It’s important to understand and clearly define those needs.
Leaders need to be continually learning, changing and growing according to their organization’s needs. They need to be continually pushing outside of their comfort zone and discovering how they can make the greatest impact for their organization. It’s a constant “swim upstream,” where the best leaders aren’t just leveraging the strengths they know they have, but they are constantly learning about the strengths they didn’t even realize they had. These leaders must educate themselves with good material; they must listen to good information; and they must meet new people they can learn valuable things from. It’s continuous improvement.
The best leaders will be those who, as opposed to relying solely on themselves, seek out advisors, coaches and accountability partners to help them learn, change and grow. I have always had wise advisors, who have held me accountable. I am always looking for people who can do something better than me. Leadership isn’t an island, and leaders should be seeking that wise counsel.
Read more thought leadership from Mike Sipple Sr.
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Tags: board of advisors, board of directors, business advisers, change and growth, Leadership, leadership challenges, M&A, mergers and acquisitions, mike sipple, organization change
Posted in Employee Engagement, Employment Brand, Hiring & Recruiting, Leadership, Succession Planning | No Comments »
Friday, May 21st, 2010
What’s the best way to find the “needle in the haystack” when we get hundreds of resumes for every job posting?
The ideal solution is actually not to be in this position in the first place.
Instead of managing a flood of applicants, you should always be ‘on the lookout’ for key talent that will help your company become more successful. You can cast wide net into the sea to be reactive to needs…or you cast a strategic net to be more focused on wooing the right people to your organization on an on-going basis. (The best solution is likely a combination of both.)
That’s the greatest advantage of partnering with a recruitment firm, actually. Because we’re always networking and meeting people, we can identify some of the best talent that may not be actively looking, in addition to the talent that is more openly communicating their employment needs. 
It’s important that we truly partner with our clients; so we’re not just recruiting, but we understand your business and goals. When you share your strategy for the next one to five years, it provides us with the right insights to identify the best talent to help meet your goals and objectives. As we’re continually talking with people in the marketplace, we can find that “needle” and bring them to you.
If a job posting is required, though, here are a few things I would recommend.
- Know what you’re looking for – not just from a skills and experience standpoint, but also from a chemistry, character and culture standpoint.
- Be just as aware of what you don’t want, so you can quickly sift through resumes.
- Recognize that the “best” candidate may not come to you via an online job posting.
- Engaging your network is a key factor in finding the best talent.
- Use an assessment tool as part of the process, once you’ve identifies the top candidates.
- Ensure – through several discussions -that a position with your company would, indeed, be a win-win situation for both the company as well as the individual.
View more thoughts on executive search, recruiting and talent acquisition from T.J. Bugg
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Tags: executive recruiter, recruiter, resumes, talent acquisition, talent assessment, talent engagement
Posted in Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employment Brand, Hiring & Recruiting, Interviewing, Recruiting & Executive Search, Succession Planning | No Comments »
Friday, May 21st, 2010
T.J. Bugg’s thoughts on how to attract the ‘right’ talent to your organization:
“You have to create a work environment where people want to be. This doesn’t mean you work thirty hours a week and make better money than anyone. What is does mean is that you understand who you are and what kind of people will be successful there.
Each company is unique and sometimes they’re even unique down to the department-level of the company. You must understand what that culture is and why someone would value working within that culture. Different people value different things. You have to find out what they enjoy and what they can tolerate to be sure there’s a good fit.”
Check out more thoughts and advice from T.J. Bugg
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Tags: attracting talent, company culture, Corporate Culture, employment brand, hiring, recruiting, talent
Posted in Corporate Culture, Employee Engagement, Employment Brand, Hiring & Recruiting, Recruiting & Executive Search | No Comments »
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
In continuation of our most recent post The Talent War Has Begun…How Will You Prevail? Part 1 we covered a few simply, yet strategic, recommendations of getting ahead in the war on talent. These are taken directly from our consulting with organizations who are either behind the curve or fighting to stay ahead of the curve!
Additional thoughts and suggestions from our team includes the following:
Don’t ‘bank on’ your network or the people that come to the top of your current employees’ minds. Just because someone came to mind quickly doesn’t ensure they’re the best fit. Low hanging fruit may get you fruit, but it may not be the highest quality provided by that tree. Engage the help of experts who focus on networking with, identifying and building trusted relationships with the top talent in a given area.
Be ready to narrow the pool of candidates and make a decision on your top choice. When you’re hiring, your reputation is being explored by qualified candidates just as much as you’re exploring theirs. By remaining focused on your talent search and making swift decisions, you demonstrate to the talent pool that you’re serious about solving problems. On the other hand, a long, indecisive process can give the perception that you’re on a ‘fishing expedition’ to see what’s out there. The best candidates won’t appreciate this, nor will they need to endure it. They won’t need to, because your decisive competitor will have just hired them.
Think and act proactively. Organizations that are consistently looking for and are open to being introduced to ‘top talent’ are 10 steps ahead of those who only meet talent when they have an emergency or immediate need. In today’s environment you should be describing the type of leaders, key team players and future contributors that your organization will need to be successful now and in the future. Share with your talent and business advisors what challenges the organization is facing, what opportunities you see on the horizon, where you could strengthen your team and the type of talent that would make the biggest impact on your business. You will be amazed over time how this strategy will pay off significantly and you will never look at recruiting the same.
Finally, consider your whole Talent Management process. Retention is becoming more and more paramount, and should be understood equally or more than recruiting. Consider how you can do a better job of retaining, growing and developing the talent you have. As the war on talent escalates, you must make the care and feeding of your people a priority, or someone else will be happy to take that burden (along with your talent) from you.
Now that we have challenged you on 7 strategic areas to focus on what will you be doing differently? Also, what other areas do you see the need to address as you look at the big picture of attracting, recruiting and winning the war on talent.
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Tags: attracting, hiring, recruiting, retaining talent, talent succession, winning the war on talent
Posted in Employment Brand, Hiring & Recruiting, Interviewing, Recruiting & Executive Search, Succession Planning | No Comments »
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
In the market today, the “noise” is at a considerable volume. There are very talented professionals, who got caught in unfortunate layoffs and are still in transition. There are highly skilled people who have jobs today, but with the positive trends in the economy, are starting to feel less afraid about making a career move. Then, of course there are the plethora of ‘others’ in job seeker mode. Their resumes look fairly solid, and they can interview fairly well, but are they the best fit for your role? How can you feel confident that you’re getting the ‘right’ person for your position? And how can you prevail against your competition to get them?
Based on our extensive experience, here are some tips and suggestions we recommend to get the best talent for your organizational needs.
- Be sure you can clearly identify and articulate the resource needs you have. Be ready to define the details of who you’re looking for as much as what you’re looking for. Understand clearly what kind of person would make the best fit (and be sure they don’t already work for you!) Also be prepared to make the appropriate investment for this talent. Do your research and be knowledgeable before you begin your search process.
- Don’t mistake resume activity for successful recruitment progress. Quantity is different than quality, and as earlier stated, there’s a lot of noise out there to sift through. Questions regarding chemistry, character and cultural fit are equally as important as understanding qualifications. Unless you are specifically targeting the most qualified people, expect that you’re going to have to sift through a massive amount of resumes…and you still may not find the ‘ideal.’
- Recognize that it’s a different market out there today. Candidates are working hard to promote themselves and to ‘fit’ into many different roles. You should explore to clearly understand a candidate’s highest and best use to determine if they’ll bring the right value you need for your organization.
We will provide more to think about in the next post…Part 2 of Prevailing In The Talent War!
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Tags: executive search, hiring, Interviewing, passive candidates, recruiting, retaining talent, talent acquisition, winning the war on talent
Posted in Employment Brand, Hiring & Recruiting, Interviewing, Recruiting & Executive Search | No Comments »
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