Do you have C Players on your team? Sophisticated yet basic logic for managers

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…

Show your new hires some love

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…

Are you loving your “Keepers?”

Unless you’ve been underground for the past few months you’ve probably noticed that businesses are feeling more optimistic about the economy lately. This is especially true in the Rocky Mountain Region. There is a significant uptick in hiring happening in just the last few weeks. This activity is also being felt by your employees –…

How to Tune-up a Team

Get out of neutral Last month we talked about how your company’s reputation has an impact on the candidate profiles that you attract. That’s great if you are happy with the level at which your team is performing, the personality that emanates from your internal community and the people in that community.  But what if you want to initiate a change? …

People want to work with good folks and for good companies

6 uncommon ways to build a strong brand If you work for a good company, where people are recognized, and feel that their contribution has an impact you most likely have a strong culture and are surrounded by smart people.  This reputation doesn’t happen overnight.  It also doesn’t happen because your marketing department publishes that you are a…

Keeping them is cheaper than replacing them

Low cost loyalty programs show the love If you’ve been trying to hire experienced professionals this year – especially in the engineering space – I don’t need to tell you this is a tough market.  Colorado is on solid ground and gaining momentum.  There simply isn’t enough talent to fill all the open positions. As…

It’s like dating – but don’t play hard to get!

Be interested – and interesting The media is full of news about companies who would hire, but can’t find qualified candidates to fill open positions.  Translation – there is a war for talent going on.  If you are a big company with deep pockets, a large recruiting team and a strong employment brand you won’t…

An open letter to hiring managers

From an unemployed professional In my role as an executive search consultant I split my time between hiring managers who are trying to hire and candidates who are trying to get hired.  As we continue our path toward economic recovery there are still deeply experienced, highly skilled executives who are trying to navigate their paths…

Do unto others….

A guide to the candidate experience for hiring managers  Lately there has been a lot of commentary around something called the ‘candidate experience.’  Personally I think this is just common sense, but I’m coming from the perspective of someone who works with candidates and hiring managers all the time – as a matchmaker.  Everyone is…

Reduce your time to hire!

Candidate Profiles Time to hire is one of the primary metrics we use to measure our success.  Regardless of whether you are working internally to fill a position or engaging the services of an outside recruiter – time is money.  The faster you can source, attract, interview and hire – the better your return.  Every…