UpSearch Blog

Learn How to Respond to Accepted Counteroffers

2006-10-01T16:23:00.000-04:00

Counteroffers: Part III is the third of a three part series. Part I addressed the argument against counteroffers from the job seeker's perspective. Part II addressed the argument against counteroffers from the employer's perspective. Part III addresses how to respond to an accepted counteroffer, and why counteroffers are a poor response to an employee's resignation.

Learn How to Respond to Accepted Counteroffers in Three Easy Steps

by Joe Kenderes, CPC

The hiring process doesn’t always end when your offer is accepted by a prized recruit. This reality is often overlooked, and when something unexpected happens after a search is “supposedly” completed, ill prepared hiring managers get caught like a deer in headlights. I am specifically referring to a candidate who has accepted your offer of employment, and subsequently accepts a counteroffer from their current employer.

In this article, you will learn how to respond to accepted counteroffers, and why counteroffers are a poor response to an employee’s resignation.

You’ve just been given word your prized recruit accepted a lucrative counteroffer only three days before orientation. Your first instinct is to match the counteroffer, right? Wrong! Your first step should be to sit your hopeful new hire down and remind them of their original motivations for exploring employment opportunities. All that’s really happened is your new hire’s current employer got scared when they learned their top performer resigned. They did the first thing that typically comes to a hiring manager’s mind: throw a bag of money in their lap.

And, it’s only natural for job seekers to get excited over a substantial financial increase. Your prized recruit needs to be reminded of their original motivations for exploring employment opportunities and accepting your offer. Was it your flexible hours? Was it the growth potential you provided? Was it the office politics and micromanagement they were trying to get away from?

Salary increases are probably the most widely associated benefit job seekers realize when changing employers. That’s primarily because compensation is tangible compared to other reasons, and much easier to talk about with family and friends. More important motivations almost always exist, at least for top performers. It’s your highest responsibility to remind your prized recruit the reasons they originally decided to leave their current employer, as they likely still exist.

The next step is to educate your prized recruit on why it’s dangerous to accept a counteroffer. In Counteroffers May Be Tempting; But DON'T Bite the Apple, I offered multiple reasons why counteroffers should not be accepted by job seekers. Consider also sharing this alarming statistic:

In a study conducted by the Wall Street Journal over a three year period, within eighteen months, 93% of individuals who accepted counter-offers had left, some voluntarily and some fired. All the remaining 7% were actively seeking new employment.

So what happens when a counteroffer is substantially higher than your offer? If you’ve sequentially moved through the first two steps without success, then cautiously consider the third step: being financially flexible. If you still want your prized recruit to join your team, I recommend considering a good faith attempt to sweeten their compensation package. In my experience, an incentive / bonus program, signing bonus, or slight increase is starting salary is usually enough to earn their attention. I do not recommend matching the counteroffer, unless the dynamics of your situation warrant such dramatic actions.

One of our clients recently found themselves in the following counteroffer situation.

UpSearch successfully recruited a top performing Executive away from a well-known regional consulting firm, and placed them with one of our long-time clients. The candidate’s motivations for exploring employment opportunities had little to do with compensation, as they were already well compensated. Their motivations were professional growth and better lifestyle balance, two criteria their current employer failed to meet. Our client’s offer was immediately accepted, which include a 7% increase in their current base salary.

As the process of resigning unfolded, it quickly became clear how important our candidate was to their employer of record. Executives were flying in to personally make their case. New titles and extra responsibilities were proposed, as well as a 20% increase in base salary.

Shortly afterwards, we received the “I need to consider a counteroffer” phone call. The candidate was torn because the long-sought-after attention and 20% pay raise felt good. We immediately gained the candidate’s agreement on another conversation with our client before making any final decisions.

That’s all our client needed, an audience. They took a congratulatory tone and expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to touch base. By then directing the conversation toward the candidate’s original motivations and sharing a few facts about counteroffers, the hiring manger earned the right to continue courting their prized recruit. Our client decided it made good sense to increase their offer to an 11% increase, still far below the counteroffer’s 20% increase.

By focusing on three easy steps, our client successfully retained their new recruit without breaking the bank. Remember to move through the following steps sequentially;

1. Remind the candidate of their original motivations for exploring employment opportunities.
2. Educate the candidate on the pitfalls of accepting a counteroffer.
3. Be prepared to demonstrate your interest with a little financial flexibility.

The potential risks associated with not methodically working your way through counteroffer situations can be extremely expensive. You risk loosing large sums of your company’s resources by hiring the wrong person, and miss a unique opportunity to improve your team. How many opportunities do you really get to improve your team’s performance from the outside in?

If you’ve come to the conclusion the job seeker’s primary motivations are compensation, then they probably aren’t the right person for you. Furthermore, if someone has already gone through the emotional process of disengaging from their current employer and then decides to stay for a few hundred dollars more per month, it’s a sure sign there’s a problem. They’re either primarily motivated by money or simply aren’t ready to leave. Either way, its time to move one as it’s a chase that shouldn’t happen.

In summary, the more emotionally in control you remain the better you will be able to facilitate “the counteroffer conversation.” Be prepared to go after what you want the right way. But, also be prepared to walk way.

Joe Kenderes manages the hiring needs for a national portfolio of manufacturing and distribution clients. Joe can be reached at 888.830.1904 x251 or jak@upsearch.com.

Emotional Intelligence: The Secret Sauce to Success

2006-10-01T10:38:00.000-04:00

by Luigi Pecoraro

You might say a good sauce is a matter of taste. Your right and I know. As a person with a strong Italian heritage, I pride myself on making a good sauce. But while we might all have a hearty discussion about whose sauce is really better (Mom’s of course), because of our own developed tastes, the ingredients are pretty much the same.

Fundamentally you have good tomatoes (I prefer fresh roma), fresh minced cloves of garlic, virgin olive oil, fresh onion, and then flavored with beef (meatballs) or pork (sausage links or ground), and finally sprinkled with a unique blend of herbs like maybe some basil, oregano or parsley. From there, you’re on your own to “customize” your brand. Perhaps some sugar or various pepper options, or whatever you’ve learned to like.

Regardless of the final blend, with the core ingredients in place, a good sauce smells great and elicits wonderful emotions. To this day, I still feel the love of my mother and the warmth of her touch in the smell of a good sauce.

While we all know the nose is the most powerful sense, the sixth sense that is most significant in relationships and business is Emotional Intelligence. This is not a vague intuitive sense of how to relate to people, but a specific set of ingredients that must be combined, exhibited and experienced by others in order to be effective.

The Hay Group has worked for over 45 years to study, research, define and validate the key competencies that are learned and formed into Emotional Intelligence (EI). Those tested who demonstrate EI, consistently were rated as “Outstanding vs. Typical performers”.

I recently was trained as a facilitator of the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI), a 360 degree assessment instrument that looks at how well you demonstrate the 18 overall competencies that make up Emotional Intelligence which is defined as “the capacity to recognize our own emotions, and those of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions in ourselves and in our relationships.”

I experienced the assessment first hand, and gained tremendous insight into how I see myself and how others experience me. Like a sauce, there are 6 core competencies that must be included; Emotional Self-Awareness, Accurate Self-Assessment, Self-Confidence, Emotional Self-Control, Empathy, and Influence.

Of the remaining 12, a combination of 5 others will add up to EI.

So it could be Transparency, Optimism, Service Orientation, Developing Others, and Teamwork and Collaboration that get you the rest of the way, for a counselor or educator type.

Or a combination of Adaptability, Achievement, Initiative, Organizational Awareness, Inspirational Leadership, Change Catalyst and Conflict Management that complete the profile for an executive leader type.

Neither is right or wrong or better, they are just different displays of Emotional Intelligence.

Regardless of where your strengths are, with some added awareness, feedback, and learning, we can all sharpen our ability to inspire ourselves and others to greater performance.

If you would like to explore how to incorporate this assessment and development tool in your workplace as a performance improvement tool, please contact Luigi Pecoraro at 888.830.1904 x253 or lap@upsearch.com.

To Counteroffer or Not to Counteroffer: The Employer’s Perspective

2006-09-01T08:50:00.000-04:00

Counteroffers: Part II is the second of a three part series. Part I addressed the argument against counteroffers from the job seeker's perspective. Part II addressese the argument against counteroffers from the employer's perspective. Part III will review why counteroffers are a poor response to an employee's resignation

To Counteroffer or Not to Counteroffer: The Employer’s Perspective

By: Joe Kenderes, CPC

It’s Friday. The past week has been one of the busiest of the year. You still aren’t sure if you are going to meet all your deadlines. Business is great but it looks like you and your staff might have to come in on Saturday to finish a project for your top client. All the sudden your door opens. It’s one of your most productive employees. She informs you that she has accepted an offer at a competitor and is putting in her two weeks notice.

Sound familiar? I’m sorry if it does. Employees suddenly leaving are a harsh reality affecting nearly every manager in every company.

Your top performers are the ones you really don't want to lose. If he or she approaches you about accepting an offer at another company, your first instinct is “how can I keep this person?” Let’s look at some other things that may be going through your head:

* This couldn't be happening at a worse time.
* This is one of my best people. If I let him quit now, it'll wreak havoc on the morale of the department.
* I've already got one opening in my department. I don't need another right now.
* This will probably screw up the entire vacation schedule.
* I'm working as hard as I can, and I don't need to do his work, too.
* If I lose another good employee, the company might decide to 'lose' me too.
* My review is coming up and this will make me look bad.
* Maybe I can keep him on until I find a suitable replacement.

All of the aforementioned motivations lead you to the desire of extending a counteroffer. We explored the dangers of accepting counteroffers from the candidate’s perspective in last month’s article. Making the decision to extend a counteroffer only prolongs an awkward situation.

If you truly want this candidate to stay, then attempt to find the real motivations behind why he or she is leaving. Financial reasons may play in part of the decision but are never the sole reason why someone leaves (not the top performers at least). The real motivations behind making a career change usually have something to do with a lifestyle benefit (less hours, closer to home, more flex time, more vacation time), working for an ‘employer of choice’ (leading company in the industry), an opportunity to make a difference in the world (charities, medical research, etc.) or opportunities that may be a big risk for the employee with a big reward (most sales opportunities). Once you are able to locate the true motivation behind your employee wanting to leave, see if you can offer that to him/her. If you can adjust the environment to please this employee (without negatively affecting productivity and staff morale) then offer that.

Not all counteroffers need to be big pay increases.

If you are unable to meet the needs of your employee then wish him or her good luck with their new venture and ask for a referral or recommendation of someone who could be an adequate replacement. Maybe the next bright star is already on your payroll and ready to move into the new vacancy?!

Now keep in mind that every employee that quits will not always reveal their true reasons for leaving. Perhaps the employee has begun an intimate relationship with another co-worker and is attempting to leave before anyone finds out. Do your best at extracting information in the exit interview by keeping cool. Remember, how you handle departing employees is a reflection of your management style. Don’t give in, however, to matching their offer or attempting to top it. This solution will not negate the real reasons your employee is unhappy.

The best thing to do to avoid this situation is preventative maintenance. If you start to notice your employee acting differently or showing a decline in energy or enthusiasm, take him or her aside and talk with them. Attempt to find out what is troubling them or what is weighing on their mind. Be prepared for the canned answers “Everything’s fine” or “Nothing’s wrong. I’m really happy.” Counter these responses with a reminder of how valuable they are/have been to the team and let them know you will do whatever you’re able to make this a positive environment/experience for them. Your employee may not be ready to reveal his or her stress just yet. But the fact that you shared recognition and have made an effort to help out goes a long way.
Next month, we will discuss counteroffers from the employer's perspective.

Joe Kenderes manages the hiring needs for a national portfolio of manufacturing and distribution clients. Joe can be reached at 888.830.1904 x251 or jak@upsearch.com.

Counteroffers May Be Tempting; but DON’T Bite the Apple: The Employee's Perspective.

2006-06-28T16:08:00.000-04:00

Counteroffers: Part I is the first of a three part series. Part I addresses the argument against counteroffers from the job seeker's perspective. Part II and III will address the argument against counteroffers from the employer's perspective, and how to successfully manage the counteroffer situation.

Counteroffers May Be Tempting, But DON'T Bite the Apple.
by Joe Kenderes

You’ve just accepted a new position with another employer. You’re about to embark on the next exciting phase of your career. There is only one final step before you start your new journey; letting your current employer know that you’re leaving.

After you finish unveiling the unfortunate news, you start hearing some intriguing words and phrases you’ve always wanted to hear from your boss. “Pay increase”, “promotion”, “more responsibilities”, “more freedom”, promises, promises and more promises begin to grace your ears. Suddenly you feel like you struck a gold mine and you’re sitting on top of the world. Feels good, doesn’t it?

Not so fast!

Let’s think about some of the things that were likely going through your boss’s head as you gave your resignation:

We are so busy right now. This could not be happening at a worse time.
This is one of my best employees. If I lose her, the department's morale will be horrendous.
How will this look on my review?
I'm already trying to hire for two other positions. I don't need a third opening!
Maybe I can keep her until I locate a replacement.

These are typically the real motivations behind counteroffers. As you can see, they are only skin-deep and don't address your real needs.

Some optimists in our audience would like to give their employer the benefit of the doubt. “They really do care about me and they’re looking out for my best interest,” we hear them say. There is nothing wrong with optimism, except when it clouds reality.

Countless studies have shown the realities of counteroffers are more complex than meets the eye. The bottom line is that an employer's efforts to counteroffer are rarely about doing what's right for their about-to- leave employee.

Here are some reasons why you should leave counteroffers on the table and walk away:

You are now viewed as an “expense.” Your higher salary has delivered an unexpected blow to the budget.
You have now become public with your dissatisfaction of your current situation. Your loyalty will remain in question from this day forward.
Where is this ‘extra money’ coming from? Most companies (especially ones who do not pay their employees what they’re worth) operate on a tight budget. Your new pay increase is likely what would have been your upcoming raise or your bonus that you will no longer receive. It could also have come from the company-wide bonus program. Let’s hope your co-workers don’t hear about that!
What kind of company do you work for when you have to threaten to leave in order for them to pay you fair market value?
Most counteroffers qualify for what is called a “band-aid fix”. This means that keeping you on-board (on a higher salary) is just a temporary solution until they find your replacement at a much cheaper price.
Statistics compiled by the National Employment Association confirm over 80% of those who accept counteroffers will either elect to leave or be terminated by their company in less than six months.
What were your real motivations for seeking another employment opportunity? Typically the reasons are not solely financial. Has your new raise eliminated the fact that you were unhappy with company politics, management direction, lack of growth potential, unsafe environment, etc?
When times get tough and your employer has to make cut-backs, they'll remember who was loyal, and who wasn't!
Don’t burn bridges. By saying “Yes” to an employer (accepting their offer) and then turning around and saying “No” (accepting a counteroffer from your current employer), you are most likely damaging your chances of ever working for that company or any of the people involved in the hiring process.

As you can see, there are a multitude of reasons why counteroffers are dangerous and it is best to walk away from the tempting apple dangled in your face. However, if your employer offers a counteroffer package that seems too good to pass up, my advice is to protect yourself.

Draw up a contract that includes a two or three year “No Cut/Fire Policy,” in which the only way your employment will be terminated is by your own accord or company elimination. If your current employer is not willing to do this (as this is asking for a large investment on their behalf), then trust your gut and walk away.

Next month, we will discuss counteroffers from the employer's perspective.

Joe Kenderes manages the hiring needs for a national portfolio of manufacturing and distribution clients. Joe can be reached at 888.830.1904 x251 or jak@upsearch.com.

The Corporate Need for Business Literacy

2006-05-30T09:44:00.000-04:00

by Kevin Cochran

Companies are under tremendous pressure to grow revenue, manage expenses and re-deploy capital for a strong return. Though most managers and employees understand the importance of improving financial performance, few understand how they directly impact the financial condition of the company through their every-day decisions. And, fewer yet understand the importance of generating a strong return on assets which senior leadership, directors and investors are looking at with tremendous scrutiny. With the pressure of ambitious financial goals, aligning the organization around the internal and external decisions that drive results has become critical. Managing profitability, and ultimately shareholder value, is an enterprise-wide endeavor.

Enabling Managers
It is essential that managers understand how to connect with an organization’s key strategic and financial drivers if they are to deliver the results that build shareholder value over time. Long-term success of the company depends on the whole management team. Because of its impact on how capital is deployed within the organization in the form of people, time, and effort, the organization must help connect managers at every level to the decisions that drive the greatest return. However, because decisions often involve trade-offs between adding capacity and operating expenses, many managers become short-term focused and miss opportunities to increase long-term value.

Decision-making must be tied to the economics of the business and linked to business strategy. Managers, in turn, must share information with employees to provide them more concrete direction about what they should do, and how they should do it, within their division, department, or function. This helps create an environment where value creation becomes a daily discipline that is actionable, observable, and measurable. Only then can management hold employees and themselves accountable for growing revenue, managing operating expenses and re-deploying capital that achieves wealth creation for everyone in the company.

Enabling the Workforce
Many companies have been successful in recent years in installing process improvements which have led to improved quality, increased productivity and lower costs. They have achieved higher levels of quality through a knowledgeable, skilled and committed workforce. To help managers and employees reach the next level, it will be important to help them understand how the company makes money and how they individually impact profitability. They need to understand the key financial drivers that impact results, and especially how results impact their compensation and job security.

Towers Perrin conducted a survey on the level of motivation that managers and employees exhibit when they are “connected” to their company’s key success factors. The survey results were telling:

“Among employees who said they understand what makes the business successful, 84% said they were motivated to help create that success. In contrast, among employees who didn’t feel they understood the business success factors, only 46% said they were motivated.

The study also found among managers and employee who said they understand how they can help achieve company goals and who believe their own activities influence success:

“91% said they were motivated to help create success. But among those who don’t understand how they directly impact the key financial drivers and consequently, how they impact results, only 23% said they were motivated”

Delivering a business literacy program elevates a workforce to another level. By connecting managers to the key financial drivers like return on assets, return on capital and managing working capital, you will enable your organization to deliver even higher levels of value for shareholders. Engaging managers and employees in a business literacy program can achieve three objectives:

Help them understand how the company makes money and how they contribute to the company’s financial “scorecard”
Teach them how to identify profit improvement opportunities at the individual job or department level that can improve quality, increase productivity and reduce costs
Strengthen manager and employees commitment to the company and to take personal responsibility for contributing to the company’s financial performance through creative ideas, and strong knowledge of business and the company’s key financial objectives.

Kevin Cochran, of Aarthun Performance Group (APG), develops and customizes high impact, financially oriented, sales and professional/managerial training programs that deliver bottom line results. He is currently working with nearly 100 of the Fortune 500 companies across 20 industries. He helps organizations build better business people through a high energy and creative business simulation built around your key financial drivers, strategies and performance management objectives. Kevin can be contacted at 440-239-1930 or kcochran@aarthun.com.

UpSearch Hires New Practice Manager

2006-03-13T20:21:00.000-05:00

UpSearch, Inc. Hires New Practice Manager

Joe Kenderes to Serve as First Manufacturing and Distribution Practice Manager

CLEVELAND, OH – March 13, 2006 – UpSearch, Inc., an executive search and management consulting firm, hired Joe Kenderes as their first Manufacturing and Distribution Practice Manager. Joe will manage a portfolio of national clients and all aspects of their recruitment needs, including the development of customized hiring programs and the execution of those programs.

“We are excited to have Joe Kenderes join our team of professionals,” said Shawn Upchurch, Managing Partner of UpSearch. “As the first manufacturing and distribution specialist in our five year history, Joe brings rich experience in helping similar companies improve their profitability through the establishment of professionally designed and executed hiring programs.”

Joe spent the past three years in a similar capacity for a regional recruiting firm. He successfully completed engagements in the following industries: Aerospace and Defense, Automotive, Chemical Manufacturing (plastics-composites-rubber), Metals Manufacturing, Consumer Products, Communications, Financial Services, High Technology, Insurance, Pharmaceutical, and Biomedical.

About UpSearch

Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, UpSearch is a professional services firm specializing in the development of customized hiring programs that enables shareholders and executives to accelerate business value. The firm’s dedicated market offering is 93% accurate in predicting on-the-job work performance. Unlike recruiting companies that specialize in functional or industry niches, UpSearch brings a unique approach to recruiting through a vertical focus on the hiring process. For more information on UpSearch, visit www.upsearch.com or call 888.830.1904.

The State of UpSearch

2006-01-17T13:00:00.000-05:00

2005 was an amazing year at UpSearch. For the second straight year, we doubled our capacity and found an immediate and reciprocate effect on total engagements completed and revenues. Needless to say, demand for our brand of accuracy is extremely robust.

But the accomplishment we’re most proud of, and how we ultimately evaluate our performance, is our ability to help partners accurately predict on-the-job work performance. And, we are happy to announce we completed the third straight year with getting it right the first time. That means we experienced zero turnover in the people we placed with our clients in 2005. Furthermore, we earned an average grade of 95% in predicting on-the-job work performance for 2005, with our lowest score at 84%. Even our lowest grade was much better than the 57% accuracy rating of traditional hiring methods.

By continuing to get it right the first time, and earning such high grades in predicting on-the-job work performance, 2005 was a nothing less than a smashing success.

We made it through the challenges of our infancy years with a tremendous amount of momentum. That’s because of you, the best partners in the world. Thanks!

Our 2006 growth strategy focuses on two objectives.

The first objective of our 2006 growth strategy is to expand our "RPO" (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) market offering. As some of you know, I made the decision to launch a RPO market offering in the fourth quarter of 2005. We are currently working with two new clients to launch separate hiring projects of 30 and 50 positions. In both cases, we found our core competency of building customized hiring programs that accurately predict on-the-job performance well-aligned with the challenges of large scale hiring projects.

We also decided to acquire the experiential knowledge and build the core competencies associated with these first two engagements, before we formally announce a RPO market offering. You can expect to hear more about our newest market offering late second quarter.

The second objective of our 2006 growth strategy originated from your feedback. We noticed a pattern in your feedback throughout the year that ultimately told us you view UpSearch not only as Hiring Experts, but also as a trusted source of education on hiring and retention related topics. Your feedback was also often followed by requests for more training and coaching opportunities. Hence, the second objective of our growth strategy centers on launching an on-line coaching service. Of course, this service will be FREE for our existing clients. The whole purpose of an on-line coaching service is to help you, and your interview teams, make better hiring decisions. And, better hiring decisions lead to better retention rates.

So for UpSearch, 2006 will be a great year. We are growing our team, expanding our capacity and market offerings, and partnering with only the most progressive clients who value accuracy based hiring. Trust the same is for you.

Good Hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch!

www.upsearch.com

Martin Luther King, Jr.

2006-01-16T15:30:00.000-05:00

On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" oration from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. This particular speech is probably the most amazing, and most thought provoking of King's speeches, and maybe of anyone's.

Let me direct your attention to one specific line of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Focus for just a moment on the phrase "content of character."

It’s specifically in "content of character" that King gave us tremendous insight into how each of us can make the world a better place, a place where all men are created free and equal.

This is not about affirmative action, or diversity recruiting, but rather the critical importance of building equitable recruiting programs.

One of your highest responsibilities as a leader in your organization, with hiring responsibility, is to build equitable recruiting programs. Let’s define equity as the assurance that your hiring program gives every qualified applicant a fair and equal chance to be selected. An equitable hiring program:

Is based on initial performance standards that are applied consistently.
Uses the same initial performance standards for all applicants.
Screens out applicants for job related reasons only, not because of their diversity.

As you reflect on 2005, and review your recruitment programs and strategies for 2006, please keep in mind the importance of “content of character” and the equity component of your hiring efforts.

Good Hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch!

www.upsearch.com

Myth: Nobody Hires in December

2005-12-12T01:16:00.000-05:00

Bah Humbug!

Although the holiday hiring season may bring to mind images of Scrooge, the facts are December is one of the most robust hiring times of the year.

Throughout my ten plus year career, I found December to be my busiest and most successful month. It's no exaggeration to say I have made job offers on Christmas Eve, and came in the day after Christmas to complete paperwork so a new hire could start immediately after the holidays.
Yet the misconception that nobody hires in December is commonplace, as is the pathetic advice "you might as well take the month off." It may seem counter-intuitive, but the opposite is true. Holiday job-search myths have been around for a long time. Like any other myth, they're fantasies shatter when scrutinized on a deeper level. Here are some of the most common reasons companies hire in December.

Many companies must spend the money in their budgets before year end. Hiring heats up in December because hiring managers are trying to meet budget deadlines.

People want to tie up loose ends before the holidays. Hiring managers, human resource representatives, and executive recruiters are like the rest of us who feel a sense of urgency as the holidays approach. Hiring managers naturally want to fill open positions before holiday vacations.

Many requisitions open late November and early December because its a convenient time of the year for people to resign. The holidays create a longing to be closer to family and roots. And, many people plan resignations with just enough time before the holidays to fit in a two week notice. This allows them to be home for the holidays, and recharge their batteries before starting a new position after the holidays.

Companies often want to start the New Year with a bang. Forward thinking companies forecasting profits want to have key people in place in order to start the year off well. Sales organizations often schedule national sales meetings in January, and that means sales staff needs to be at full capacity prior to January 1st.

December is still a month employees are paid to work, so let's stack the deck for '06.

Good Hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch!

www.upsearch.com

Learn About Background Check Limitations

2005-11-08T16:46:00.000-05:00

After months of searching for the perfect candidate, you’ve finally set your sights on someone. Your entire hiring team is in agreement, this is the one. The candidate is expressing an extremely high level of interest. It’s the kind of interest you’ve only witnessed in the best producers on your team. “Are the stars finally aligning?” you think to yourself after a long and grueling search.

You successfully navigate through a few more nerve racking moments during the negotiation phase. Finally, you let out a sigh of relief as your offer-of-employment has been accepted, and a start date set. All that’s left now is the background check.

A week later you receive a disappointing phone call from your Human Resource department. Your perfect candidate is not so perfect after all. Their background check came back unsatisfactory. You hang your head in disappointment. Frustration begins to set in as you think to yourself, “there must be a way to find these things out before so much time and energy is invested into a candidate.” You grimace as reality hits. You’re starting all over from scratch, and your exhausted hiring team is not going to take this well.

Unfortunately, we’ve found ourselves in a similar situation recently. So it just makes good business sense for us to share what we learned, and how we’re moving forward. This weblog article is dedicated to helping you make better decisions on who to spend time interviewing.

A client of ours recently extended an offer of employment, which was accepted, and we established a start date for a promising candidate. Unfortunately, we found out after the fact that the candidate was listed on the national sex offender's registry. Here's the real shocker, the candidate's background check came back clean as a whistle!

It was a general internet search that tipped us off to a potential problem. The candidate's name was found in an article as the subject of an FBI sting on a potential internet sex predator. We immediately went to the national sex offender's registry, and to our dismay, found our new hire's name. When we explored the situation more carefully, we learned the candidate had a recent misdemeanor charge for solicitation, not a felony charge. Regardless, the charge was so new that it didn't show up on a criminal background report, and we're not confident it would have because it was a low level misdemeanor.

At the beginning of the hiring process, the candidate expressed confidence that their background check report would return satisfactory. When the topic was re-visited after our discovery, the candidate was shocked a problem existed since the offense was only a misdemeanor. Apparently, his attorney's advice was that pre-employment screening only searched for felonies.

Here's a summary of what we learned through this situation.

Although traditional background checks are necessary, they are simply inadequate.

Candidates may not be purposefully misleading, but rather their reference point may be different.

A nation-wide criminal records check simply does not exist. The only thing close to it is the FBI criminal database, also known as the NCIC (National Crime Information Center). This database however, is NOT public record and cannot legally be accessed by anyone other than criminal justice agencies.

County records searches are more reliable than state records searches, because state criminal indexes receive their data from each of their respective counties. This means that if a county fails to report criminal data to the state, the statewide index may not be complete. Furthermore, it may take weeks, or even months, for state records to reflect the most common source of a criminal record.

Not all court systems have public access terminals to check records with, as they may not have yet developed a system separating public records from non-public ones.

Other resources include thousands of separate criminal indexes maintained at the numerous, parish, township, and city levels throughout the United States. Conducting a nationwide search extensive enough to include resources, such as these, would require accessing each individual index. This would be difficult, time consuming, and prohibitively expensive. While there are various investigative firms advertising that they provide "Comprehensive Nationwide Criminal Records," it is apparent that what they are advertising is too good to be true.

In summary, we suggest launching a background investigation with a well thought out application that does two things. First, the application should require residence details for at least ten years. Without this information, it’s almost impossible to properly investigate. Lastly, your applications should require the applicant to approve investigating their background, including criminal records, at the beginning of the hiring process.

The information applicants provide should be enough to begin searching the appropriate criminal indexes, and launch a general internet search. Again, there are no guarantees. But, you now have more than a gut feeling to evaluate a potential new employee. Remember, it only takes one mistake to severely damage your brand.

As a result of this incident, UpSearch now provides a general internet search on all candidates. Although searching the internet is not a substitute for engaging a pre-employment screening firm, it does help reduce the risk of hiring someone with an unsatisfactory background.

Good Hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch!

www.upsearch.com

Surviving vs. Thriving

2005-10-07T18:36:00.000-04:00

There are few things in business more imperative than hiring the right people. Without the right people, no amount of money can make a company thrive. Dot.com companies clearly point out how tons of money did not create success.

While hiring the right people may appear more critical in small, entrepreneurial companies, it is also important in larger companies. Even well established incumbents fail occasionally. Montgomery Ward is an example of a giant company folding. Could the right people have made a difference? Probably. The right people might have had the foresight to help Wards adjust, and re-establish themselves as an industry leader.

Some companies depend on their employees to perform services, others sell goods or manufacture products. Regardless, every company need the right people to grow sales, manage costs, and redeploy assets.

Even government agencies and public organizations need the right people to perform their functions well. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina painfully brought this reality to our attention.

The bottom line is that there's an organic side to business, one that requires people's rational decision making ability. Only the right people can make the appropriate decisions necessary to grow sales, manage costs, and redeploy assets.

Unfortunately, scores of managers feel they have too much work to spend time interviewing prospective employees. If you have ever caught yourself feeling this way, you need to realize that there are few things more essential to your career than having knowledgeable people to support you. No matter how good you are at what you do, you cannot do your job as well as you could with the right people on your team. The right people make all the difference between surviving and thriving.

Good Hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch!

www.upsearch.com

4 Year Anniversary

2005-09-10T18:49:00.000-04:00

UpSearch has reached another milestone. We’re celebrating 4 years of sustained and spectacular growth.

Although many things have changed since our founding days, our commitment to accurately predicting on-the-job work performance has remained steadfast. Our hedgehog concept of “accuracy” is arguably just as important as earning a profit. In fact, the two are forever intertwined to our long-term success.

Thank you for celebrating our 4th anniversary with us. We appreciate the privilege to assist you in recruiting top performers. We realize you have many choices and are honored you have selected UpSearch as your recruiting partner.

Good Hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch!

www.upsearch.com

Herding Cats

2005-08-21T10:08:00.000-04:00

The infusion of raw energy, enthusiasm and ambition younger employees bring into a company are vital to long-term success. However, not all executives recognize how to motivate younger employees. This segment of your workforce requires a different way of thinking and some careful planning.

Visualize your efforts to lead younger employees like herding cats. If you have what they want, they’ll follow. Otherwise, good luck!

Here are a few tips on how to effectively lead younger employees:

1. Face the facts, you will probably never know as much about the latest technological gadgets as your younger employees. But, you’ll instinctively know how these advancements can help your organization. Consider asking them to educate you on what you need to know.

2. Give them lots of space and they'll be happy. I’ve yet to meet someone who’s figured out how to manage their cat. Set the direction, provide the resources, and make yourself available to answer questions. Lead by getting out of the way.

3. Make no mistakes about it. You are accountable for your team’s results. Talk about the vision frequently, reward teamwork, and be prepared for a lot of coaching. Your primary responsibility is to keep your team focused.

4. If you have what they want, they’ll follow. The best way to find out what they want is to ask what motivates them as individuals. Countless studies have illustrated that quality-of-life is more important to Generation X and Y, than stock options. Consider guaranteed childcare, extended vacation time, or cash bonuses instead of traditional benefits. Be willing to give your staff the liberty to set their rewards.

5. Why make it any harder than it needs to be? Only hire those that fit into your culture. Great teams start with the hiring process. Garbage in … garbage out!

6. And -- in the spirit of all things young -- it’s not so bad to hold mandatory staff meetings at the beach or before a professional sporting event. Think young to lead young!

Good Hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch!

www.upsearch.com

Candidate Rejection

2005-07-20T14:18:00.000-04:00

Let's face it, when a candidate rejects your offer of employment - it hurts. Even though rejection is a normal part of the hiring process, it's never easy to accept. When a candidate rejects an offer, it can feel like a setback and blame tends to fly. Your ability to pick up the pieces and quickly refocus your interviewing team's efforts is critical to overall hiring success.

Rebounding from the loss after a candidate rejects an offer should be your primary focus. It's no easy task as recruiters and hiring managers work hard to get a candidate hired. The process is rarely short and simple. A lost candidate can symbolize months of lost effort. It's imperative to keep in mind that rejection is a fact of life in recruiting. Regardless of the rejection, you still have a job to do. Remember, after a candidate rejects an offer, all is rarely forsaken. Though it may appear that you'll have to reinvent the wheel, this is rarely the case. The contacts and experience amassed in the initial hiring exercise will put you ahead as you recruit a replacement.

As for your hiring team, it's important to help them rebound from the setback as well. No one likes to be rejected and the group will have its doubts. Questions like "What went wrong?" are sure to surface and the tendency will be to point fingers and lay blame. For the sake of the hiring effort, its vital to display leadership and refocus the team on constructive actions from the get go. If they have questions, offer solutions, not just explanations. Be proactive and present a plan of action to get new candidates on board. Refocus the team from the loss of the former candidate to the goal of filling the position and completing the job.

Analyzing all available candidates should be your foremost concern. Recycling one of the alternates from the interview pool might be suitable, but only if the choice among candidates was close. If the team was split between two people, they might be accepting of the second choice. In which case, you need only make an offer. However, if the alternates did not sit well with the team, your best bet will be to recruit a few fresh faces. After a "thumbs down" is rendered by the team, it is very difficult to sell them on a candidate's merits. Your time and energy in situations like these are likely better spent on recruiting new candidates.

Another important contribution you can make is to document the case. Though your first focus should be on reviving the hiring effort, you should also document the facts of the hiring snafu for later analysis. A rejected offer represents a real financial loss for the company. To help management identify trends and pinpoint flaws in the hiring process, document reasons such as compensation, culture and benefits for reasons why an offer was not accepted. Documentation can lend insight into why offers are being rejected, and hopefully activate corrective action that supports a greater success rate down the road.

Your main perogative when it comes to handling candidate rejection should be damage control and fast recovery. Crying over the spilled milk of a lost candidate is unproductive when a position still needs to be filled. Your ability to be proactive in a time of confusion, and to turn your teams' energy around, is critical to getting the hiring effort moving in the right direction. There will be plenty of time in the future to ask questions and to analyze the reasons behind the missed opportunity. Document the rejection, compare it to other similar cases, and recommend changes in the hiring process to avoid repeat situations later down the road.

Good Hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch! www.upsearch.com

Asking the Right Kinds of Questions

2005-07-02T14:06:00.000-04:00

Since the mid 90's, I've been advising companies how to hire right. More than a decade later, I still shake my head in amazement at how many hiring managers wing the interview process. The single most impactful interviewing skill you can improve is learning how to ask the right kinds of questions.

By asking the right kinds of interview questions, you immediately improve the odds of hiring right the first time and better predicting the interviewees on-the-job work performance. Let's not forget how important it is to be legally compliant.

Great interview questions keep you focused, and help you maintain control of the interview. The best questions are probing, and require candidates explain "who," "what," "when," "where," "why," and "how."

Let's use a practical example. The next time you interview a candidate, find out whether he or she will like your management style by probing attitudes toward former supervisors. Here are questions that will produce results:

Tell me about the best manager you've worked for, and why they were a good manager? What would your ideal boss be like?
What was your least favorite manager like? How did you handle the things you didn't like about them?
Tell me about a disagreement you and a previous supervisor had, and how you resolved it.
If I were your boss, what would be the most important thing for me to say or do to support you?

These questions double as an integrity test, because you can compare candidate's responses to their former supervisor's evaluations during background checks.

It's also important to keep a watchful eye on how candidates respond to your questions. How a candidate responds is as important, if not more, than their actual answer. If they fumble for answers, or speak in generalities, odds are good that they're hiding negative information.

Again, asking the right questions will help you more quickly discover if the person sitting across your desk is the right candidate for you.

Good Hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch! www.upsearch.com

It Matters Who We Hire

2005-06-10T13:58:00.000-04:00

Any parent would attest that one of the most important decisions made by their children is the friends they choose. Bad choices made by teenagers can have a potentially devastating impact on their lives.

Our choice of whom we employ is just as important as our teenagers' choice of friends.

How important is it to identify and hire the right people, who match well with our respective cultures and share the same values?

Here's a story to illustrate the answer: Centuries ago, the slave Aesop penned a fable about a mouse who always lived on the land. By an unlucky chance, this mouse formed an intimate acquaintance with a frog that lived, for the most part, in the water.

One day, the frog was intent on mischief. He tied the foot of the mouse tightly to his own. Thus joined together, the frog led his friend the mouse to the meadows where they usually searched for food. Gradually, the frog led the mouse toward the pond in which he lived. Then, upon reaching the banks of the water, the frog suddenly jumped in, dragging the mouse with him.

Enjoying the water immensely, the frog swam croaking about as if he had done a good deed. The unhappy mouse soon sputtered and drowned, his poor dead body floating about on the surface.

A hawk observed the floating mouse from the sky and dived down and grabbed it with his talons, carrying it back to his nest. The frog, still fastened to the leg of the mouse, was also carried off a prisoner and was eaten by the hawk.

The moral: It is important to choose your new employees wisely. The wrong person will lead you down the wrong path - or into the wrong pond. Unfortunately, those of us not equipped to swim will inevitably drown.

Good Hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch! www.upsearch.com

Learn How to Hire Superior People

2005-05-10T13:54:00.000-04:00

Every business needs to hire superior people. So then why do so many hiring decisions yield employees who are average performers at best, and terrible employees at worst?

It is my professional opinion the underlying cause is a lack of emphasis on the assessment phase of the recruiting process. Too many hiring managers create job descriptions that are simply a list of candidate requirements. When list-based job descriptions drive the interview process, hiring results suffer. The selection process becomes focused only on what qualifications the candidate must have in order to get the job, and rarely on what the candidate must do to be successful once they start.

Without performance based success profiles, it's extremely difficult to hire superior performers. How do you expect to attract top performers without defining what superior performance looks like inside your company? If you haven't asked yourself what your new hire needs to do for you to consider them a success, then you are not ready to begin recruiting.

Lou Adler said it best, "If you want to hire superior people, use a system designed to hire superior people, not one designed to fill jobs."

At UpSearch, we develop customized hiring programs tailored specifically to your business needs. We get "hiring" right 93% of the time. Call us today to learn more about how we can help you get hiring right more often.

Stop filling jobs and start hiring superior people.

Good Hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch! www.upsearch.com

Have You Heard …

2005-04-02T23:01:00.000-05:00

Tracking new hire quality is easier than you think!

To successfully track the quality of your new hires, it’s critical to include your hiring managers. They need to establish their position’s initial performance standards (soft and hard skills), and take complete ownership of the language used to define each one. Consider these your recruiting metrics for new hire quality. These standards should include team skills, communication skills, educational and travel requirements, and the associated hard skills to name a few.

I recommend completely finishing your position’s initial performance standards before any recruitment efforts are launched. Said another way, the “rifle approach” to recruitment is a much better use of company resources, and your time, than the “shotgun approach.”

Once a highly desirable candidate is identified, share the initial performance standards directly with them to help eliminate the number one reason new hires voluntarily terminate their employment in the first year; misalignment of expectations. Of course employees are not using “misalignment of expectations” in their exit interviews, but rather “the job isn’t what I was told (sold)…”

Finally, grade how close you came to the initial performance standards with your new hire. Somewhere between six and eighteen months after the new hire starts, ask your hiring manager to evaluate how close your recruiting efforts came to initial performance standards by evaluating the new hire. The length of time between start date and evaluate date depends on the level of position. Obviously, it would take a CIO longer to meet their objectives than a professional staff level hire.

In summary, take the mystery out of hiring by getting better at articulating your expectations. Put pen-to-paper and share well-through-out performance standards with candidates up-front. Candidates appreciate knowing what’s expected before hand. Their work place satisfaction will sore, as well as their on-the-job performance.

Good hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch! www.upsearch.com

Blogging for Candidates

2005-03-14T23:34:00.000-05:00

For the better part of a year, I have stuggled to help others climb the blogging learning-curve. Lucia Apollo Shaw, CEO of HireWorks, does an wonderful job explaining the "How to's" of blogging in her recent article, "Blogging for Candidates 101: Nuts and Bolts."

Even though Lucia and I are competitors in the search industry, I have no problem deferring to her when it comes to explaining the world of blogging. She breaks "Blogging for Candidates" down in such a way that any level recruiter can follow along.

I strongly recommend reading Lucia's article if you have any interest in learning how blogging can help you recruit top performers.

Even I took Lucia's advice, and initiated contact with her hoping to link sites. What she did not mention was the "search engine reason" for linking to related sites. The more reciprocals links you have to your site, the more recognition search engines give you. That translates into better search engine placement. The facts are, if you want to get noticed, you better earn the right to link with other well built and trafficked sites.

That goes for your blog too!

Good Hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch! www.upsearch.com

Learn How to Accurately Predict Performance

2005-02-27T13:00:00.000-05:00

New clients and prospects inevitably ask me the same question, “How do you predict new hire’s on-the-job performance so accurately?” The answer is remarkably simply. We help our client’s shift their recruiting mind-sets, and then walk them through a process-orientation approach to recruiting. Unfortunately, the hardest part is making the attitudinal shift.

Remember the space shuttle. Did you know that 50 percent of the fuel stored in those huge tanks strapped onto the bottom of the space shuttle is expended just to get one thousand yards off the launch pad? It’s true. And that’s just the way it is with improving your accurately in predicting on-the-job work performance of the candidates you interview. Half of the energy is going to be expended shifting your recruiting mind-set. Once you get over the hump, you and your team will be riding to the stars and back again.

Predicting a candidate’s on-the-job performance begins with acknowledging your current attitudes about attracting new employees. Based on your past hiring practices, ask yourself these questions.

•What have you valued more between speed and accuracy, and between hard skills and soft skills?
•What are the prices you have paid to be part of your past recruiting mind-set?
•How do you measure your recruiting accuracy, or don’t you?”

Be truthful with yourself, this is a critical component to improving your accuracy.

What we most commonly find is that speed and hard skills take precedence over accuracy and soft skills. Of course, we all know to pick the latter, but our recruiting behaviors rarely support our desires to hire the RIGHT people. Our fixation of filling positions as fast as possible (speed) is mostly to blame for hard skills’ dominance over soft skills. This is simply because it is easier to review a stack of resumes and pick out key words, or hard skills, than evaluate potential cultural fits (soft skills). The evaluation of soft skills takes time and direct interaction. There simply are no short-cuts to evaluating soft skills.

Make no mistake about it, soft skills are determining factors in work place success, while hard skills are only contributing factors. Time-and-time again, we prove the recruiting focal point should be cultural fit (soft skills).

During a recent fact-finding conversation with a new client, we discovered they were only 33% accurate in predicting on-the-job work performance for their new sales professionals over the past nine years. What really caught their attention was that they spent more than $500,000 in salaries on those six wrong hires. This does not include the burden to employ them (taxes and benefits), training, replacement costs, sales not realized, and opportunity costs. The point is that if you illuminate the price you and your team paid for your hiring mistakes you will be more apt to change your recruiting mind-set, and the misalignments in your recruiting practices.

Dare we ask if you measure recruiting accuracy?

We have yet to find one company that measures how accurate they are in predicting on-the-job performance of their new hires. Even though the great minds of HR have pointed to the road less traveled, to the road that leads to improved shareholder wealth, it’s still the road few choose to find.

Here is your navigational system and time-tested solution. Change from using your hiring process to acquire new employees, to the understanding that a quality recruiting process is the goal. Know that the results take care of themselves. Your focus on the process blends like yin to the focus on the yang of your results.

Once you change your fixation of filling open positions fast, to a fixation of building the perfect hiring processes, something special begins to happen. You get it right more often. This is exactly how UpSearch built its brand of accuracy, by being 93% accurate in predicting on-the-job performance.

The secret to accuracy is in the recruiting process.

Good hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch! www.upsearch.com

Get LinkedIn!

2005-01-10T22:38:00.000-05:00

submitted by Shawn Upchurch

Shortly after I signed-up for LinkedIn in January 2004, I found myself building professional relationships with people I never knew before. Two in particular, Wes and Kelly, are especially worth telling you about. Wes and I have conversed on the phone a few times about his career options, while Kelly and I have exchanged a couple of introductory e-mails. Both have been receiving our newsletter long before I realized something very special about these two.

Keep in mind, I do not watch much television and am not a fan of "reality TV." So, I found myself privately embarrassed after learning long after we connected through LinkedIn that Wes was on Donald Trump's Apprentice 2. Talk about the best water cooler material!

Then about two weeks ago, I just happen to read an article announcing who Donald Trump picked as his next apprentice. The winner's name looked familiar, but it I just couldn't place the name. About two hours later it hit me and I found the biggest smile on my face. I hurried over to my computer and looked up the winner's name in my LinkedIn database. The winner was my new LinkedIn contact Kelly!

The moral of the story is that you typically don't get access to the Wes', Kelly's or Donald Trump's of the world without an introduction.

So, here's an idea that will immediately impact your career: take professional networking more serious in 2005. And, I have a practical recommendation on "how to." "Get LinkedIn!"

LinkedIn is an on-line professional networking tool that helps you discover inside connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts and business partners. Through LinkedIn, you can accelerate your business effectiveness and career success by leveraging the network you already have. LinkedIn makes it easy to receive and seek out opportunities through your extended network while protecting your privacy, your inbox and your existing professional relationships.

LinkedIn is currently used by over 1.6 million professionals across the globe. This makes LinkedIn's base of registered users three times larger than those of all other online business networks combined.

On LinkedIn, everyone's Rolodex is protected since only people they trust can see who they know. LinkedIn's referral-only approach has attracted an elite group of business people not matched by any other network. And LinkedIn works: users accept 83% of all referrals because the only way users can be approached is if one of their trusted contacts forwards a contact request to them because they believe it is an opportunity their contact will appreciate.

This gated access approach has made the LinkedIn network a web of trust where users strengthen existing professional ties and enhance their reputation by helping their business contacts with introductions.

Professionals in over 130 industries are actively searching the extended networks of their trusted business contacts on LinkedIn to discover inside connections to potential business partners, to get in touch with industry experts for advice, or to find recommended professionals to fill open job positions. LinkedIn users have performed over 20 million searches to date, and LinkedIn has already facilitated over 400,000 business introductions.

I recommend you sign-up for LinkedIn today! And, feel free to send me an invitation into your private LinkedIn network.

Operation Perfect Placement

2005-01-01T13:40:00.000-05:00

Operation Perfect Placement: Operation Perfect Placement: Your assistance requested!

Expecting others to see the "perfect match" may be unrealistic. What you can control is how you position yourself. Always remember that positioning and perception are different, and you can only control the first.

I recommendation every statement or bullet point in your credentials need to clearly state how you have saved or made your previous employers money. It’s all about justifying your existence and taking the burden off your audience from understanding how you are going to impact their bottom-line.

After a decade of facilitating the hiring process for companies of all sizes, I believe the bottle-neck in making the "perfect match" is typically on the client's side. Said another way, clients need to be more diligent in assessing the specific motivational skills, team skills, and competency levels needed BEFORE executing a recruiting strategy.

Well done! I must compliment you for realizing the significant value networking plays in your career. It is critical to expand your audience once you have clearly throught through your personal value proposition. Good work Steve!

Good hunting!

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch! http://www.upsearch.com

Creating demand for the "Art of Recruiting" using ROI selling

2004-12-29T20:59:00.000-05:00

ROI selling makes sense, but not for the faint-at-heart. As an executive recruiter, I have wrestled with quantifying the financial value of my customized hiring programs for years. The best I have to offer from tracking my performance since 1997 is that I am 93% accurate in predicting on-the-job performance.

But, what are my client's return-on-investment? Great question!

What I have learned is that I need more information from my clients than what they have available, or are willing to work toward compiling. Companies are just not tracking New Hire Quality, Recruiting Cycle Times or how fast new hires are able to perform their new job.

Human resource professionals appear to be more consumed with cost-per-hire, total recruiting fees paid and how fast someone is hired, not the quality of the new hire. I do not blame HR professionals, because most are evaluated using the aforementioned metrics.

So, the reality for accuracy based recruiters (staffing model vs. search model) like myself is that we need to help our clients create recruiting metrics. It imperative we raise the bar and show clear value in order to create demand for our beloved "Art of Recruiting."

Have any other search based recruiters ventured into the world of ROI selling?

Have any HR professionals attempted to use ROI modeling tools to quantify the financial returns their company has experienced from hard dollar investments spent on recruiting human capital?

Shawn Upchurch designs customized hiring programs for companies of all sizes, as well as providing direct recruiting services. Shawn can be reached at 888.830.1904 x208 or smu@upsearch.com.

When You Absolutely Need To Hire The Right Person - Think UpSearch! www.upsearch.com