10 really good reasons to talk to references You’ve done a great job of screening, interviewing, negotiating and courting your new hire. You’ve done the background check and verified employment eligibility – everything is good, right? Not so fast! Did you talk to your new hire’s references? At least twice a week I talk with…
Is your fear of making a bad hire impacting your business? When I coach individuals in their career searches, one of the characteristics I listen for is what I call “head trash.” This is a collection of thoughts and ideas, both objective and subjective, which have accumulated over the course of your career and can…
Talent Acquisition – The Accidental Competency I was having a conversation with a client last week during a kickoff meeting and he asked, “Where did you learn how to interview so well?” I had to stop and think about this for a few minutes. I have spent my entire career in the recruiting and human…
The credit for this month’s article goes to Don VanWinkle. Don is a management savant, master of small business finance, and generally brilliant man. I have been honored to know him as a friend, mentor and banker for more than a decade. Don and I were having lunch a few weeks ago and one of…
As a search consultant I have the unique opportunity to talk with many executives across a number of industries and in companies of all sizes. I gather a bunch of information each year about the shifts in compensation, benefits, fringes and perks. One of the hardest positions to accurately compensate is sales. Inside sales, outside…
Enjoy the webinar! The September unemployment figures are in! Colorado’s unemployment is sitting at 4/7%. That means if you are trying to hire qualified people in Colorado you are having a hard time finding them. It also means that your next employee is currently working fulltime and really doesn’t have a lot of time to…
A precursor to my webinar on October 14 I was having lunch with Mark Cicotello at Mountain States Employers Council last month and we got on the subject of hiring (smile). He mentioned that one of the main challenges cited by MSEC members was competing for talent in Colorado. It’s interesting that the pain is…
Make the most of your fall hiring season Think about it – you have 90 days to get your 2014 hiring done before we enter the holiday season. Average time to hire is 60 days – the bottom line – you don’t have a lot of time! Let’s talk about how to make the most…
The subject of Social Media in the workplace came up this week. I was talking with an executive and explaining how employees can help recruit talent by evangelizing their job, company, team on social media. Of course you can also repel talent thru social media if your people don’t like their jobs, company or team. …
Retention starts before their first day! An effective onboarding program can have a significant impact on your ability to retain great people, help them get up to speed quickly and contribute productively – sooner. The key is to make each new team member feel important and help remove those new job jitters as quickly as…