…ring, ring

Me:  This is Chris

Jeff:  Chris, this is Jeff Smith, man how are you?  I need your help!

Jeff Smith is calling and needs my help?  I immediately get into my normal excited state knowing that something great is coming.  Either he needs to hire a new team member or perhaps has a client that can utilize the support of my team for their hiring needs or recruitment training.

For years Jeff was consistently a top competitor when we worked together at the same company, relentlessly trying to outperform each other in a very positive but “A” player sort of way. Not just making the President’s list but getting the shiniest trophy and most time with the CEO and other Sr Managers.

Me:  Jeff how can I help you? What is going on with the greatest global sales manager I know?

Jeff:  Nothing good, I was just released (from Fortune 225 Company) last week…

Wow, not the call I expected from Jeff. How will they manage the millions in revenues he has brought in over the years?

…Pop, pop, pop CK is sending me instant messages.

Me:  Hey CK, what’s up, how hot is your desk right now?

CK:  Not so great, I need your help.

Me:  Can you give me 5 and I will call you, where are you in the US today?

CK:  At home, not sure I can talk right now.

Ok, if CK is IMing me and needs my help then we must get ready to put a new staff member on her team or she has a project she needs us to help recruit on which they have sold. After all, she is 300% above budget for the year and the last hire we made produced revenues in her second week! CK is the top GM for her niche and is great about not only hiring, training and managing her people but also the strongest operations manager I know.

Me:  Ok, must be swamped how can I help?

CK :  Need a job, and a few minutes tonight to help me walk through where I might have gone  wrong

Me: Job? Did you quit lol

CK:  No Sir, they cut my entire staff 30 minutes ago, including me and replaced us with a support team from home office

If you have not clued in yet, the two examples above are “A” players in their industries and have been released from their respected (well not by them any longer) companies. See, I am writing to bust a myth I keep hearing and reading about from various periodicals, organizations and “people in the know;” Talent Management, SHRM, NAPS, SalesDrivers, News Paper Writers and Editors, Employment Gurus, Trainers, and Business Coaches. The myth which seems to persist is that “A” players don’t or are not being cut nor impacted by the current economic conditions. WRONG!

Ridiculous I say, spend a week on my phone or in my email and I can show you hundreds of “A” Players who have been impacted over the last 20+ months now, and it continues. For definition, an “A” Player is someone at that top 3-10% level in any company, any skill set and in any industry. Some are only known internally in large-mega organizations while others are known internationally or industry wide. It has long been a myth, and more so true with the current economic conditions, these people just don’t get released, laid-off, downsized, or whatever your terminology is for them losing their job while still being at the top.

So why do the top 10% of any job category get impacted?
Too expensive – Top 10% performers generally receive compensation rates commensurate to the level of their performance. One way companies perceive they can impact the bottom line and make true reactionary decisions is to cut the most expensive people and replace them with technology, jr-level home office support or in some cases they do nothing with the expectation that it will not negatively impact the company’s revues or client retention.

Marginalized business – Many companies and some industries operate on such low margins that any blimp on the economic cycle creates major cash-flow and credit issues, so the top just have to go and more jr people or senior management get handed business or jobs the “A” players worked so hard to attain.

Poorly supported region or geography – Lack in upper management leadership or true “out of site out of mind” support for a region that may be profitable but not large enough or unknown to senior management is likely to get the axe.

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) – As we have seen in all industries, the consolidation has created duplicate roles or left individuals and their projects totally unsupported or not needed as the new company has a different vision and/or resources.

Person was miss-hire to begin with – Some of these cases are truly a miss-hire and the company was overly ambitious or sometimes exceedingly lucky to gain the addition of an “A” player in their industry. The company has just not been able to keep pace with this individual and in many cases their production has lead to cash flow, product production or servicing issues for smaller companies

Why this blog piece? I thought it was important to highlight the reality behind the unemployment numbers as we continue to hover around >10% in the US. These 8 million or more impacted are not all the bottom performers of our workforce, nor just hourly, nor retail or manufacturing, nor in outdated industries. In fact, many were high-earners for their employers that for some reason or another their organization just could not “afford” to keep that individual onboard. So I caution, before over-looking the unemployed take a minute to truly study this individual’s background and track-record. After all, unemployed is not, and should not be a four letter word when hiring for top talent!

UPDATE: Jeff went on to take one of three offers, running the West coast Division of another fortune company. CK is managing a new company that has a unique service offering, adapted to the changed economy we now love.

Chris

To hire The Recruiting Guy as a speaker or trainer visit The Recruiting Guy or contact The Wellington Group @ info@thewellington-group.com.

Now, yes now is the time to get proactive for the upswing in the economy and the coming job market. As we headhunters know, companies are hiring again and new positions are being approved daily. And this is not just a US based movement but an international lift to the global World of Work.

Great news right? Yes, but with so many people either out a of job, in a temporary or “quick fix” job or looking to change jobs you better be ready for the competition! One of the best ways to get noticed quickly on the web in our current technological times is with an internet resume. What the heck is that?

An internet resume is quite simply a way for perspective employers and professional recruiters to find you quickly and easily on-line. More than just a LinkedIn or Twitter account, having a true-to-form resume existing on the internet, outside the mainstream jobs boards, can help you get noticed instantly and more efficiently. Without getting too technical or giving away all my trade secrets, it’s like typing in your name, experience and a company you have worked for and WHAM the internet delivers your resume right to my computer screen.

Some great examples of internet resume building and hosting resources are Google Resume, Visual CV, Resume-Builder and getmyonlinecv.com. For a little more time and investment into your future you can build your own custom site like my friend Scott Corwin has done. As I mentioned above, your internet resume should be outside a pay-to-play job board or niche network and more public so you can be found. Thus, Google, Yahoo, and personal URLs are great places to build, house and control your internet resume.

Need help developing that perfect resume, no problem as the internet has you covered. Many sites and services like CVTIPS and iProfile exist with ideas on formatting and keyword building to help make your internet resume even more attractive to current technology. Or, you can always visit us at The Career Store to receive expert advice from Linda Gutin and others on the team.

So get busy and get your resume online. How else am I supposed to find you for that next great career opportunity? Good luck. 

Chris

For questions or help on this and many other ideas on how to make your career search more effective visit The Career Store or contact The Wellington Group @ info@thewellington-group.com.

Released just over three hours ago and already a lot of web-chatter, news announcements, emails and calls to my office about the latest job numbers from the US Department of Labor. The summary report can be found at Department of Labor New Release.

So what is all the hype about? 331,000 reported job losses for the month of July. Now that may seem like a very high number but its more “normal” than the losses from November 08 to April of this year, which averaged almost twice as many at 645,000 job losses per month. Total unemployment was down by.1 percent to 9.4%, not a significant change. The sector which had job gains continues to be Health Care with an increase of 20,000 jobs.

Since my ear is constantly to the ground for the staffing and recruiting industry, I had to take notice and point out the impact of the past 10 months. The temporary help market has lost 844,000 jobs while the entire business services sector has been impacted by 1.5 million jobs lost. The release notes this decline has lessened Substantially over the past three months. These numbers reflect the contract, contract to hire and consultant employment areas and not so much the direct hire or executive search services.

While this appears to be good news, the job losses we are still seeing in the staffing and recruitment industry to me is a key indicator that the US is yet to hit the “bottom” of the job loss portion of this economic turndown. In studying trending data for the last 25 years, until we begin to see a rise in staffing numbers we have yet to make a full turn in the positive. With staffing companies (IT, Engineering, Administrative, Day Labor, Etc) still laying off internal staff I don’t see a lot of confidence or stability in overall employment for the US.  

So, is it good news that perhaps the US is slowing on the job loss front? Unemployment seems to have stabilized for now right at 9.5%, not at the 10% plus which so many news media and talk show host predicated. Unfortunately I foresee these numbers rising again for a short period of time this fall as government and state budgets get approved, many of which will call for job cuts.

Chris

OK I SAID! Now that I got that off my chest let me point you to the root of my angst. Recruiting, like any other profession, has it s own social media / networking sites where we all get to share insight, tips, tricks and yes even humor. One such site is ere.net. The post getting all the attention today was “Bullet Point to the Head” by Matt Charney.

Matt’s post was very well written and very much on target. Just look below the article at all the comments. Everything from “I can relate” to “no, that is not me.” In my years of living as a professional recruiter I have seen his comments in-action more times than not. Too much perceived work on a recruiter or even HR’s desk so they have to fly through resumes as fast as they can, learning tricks to skim and weed-out in what they feel is an expeditious manner. Why, because they are lazy.

Don’t believe me, ok. But here is a true fact. Most large HR groups, Staffing Firms and Professional Search Groups receive so much resume traffic they have to hire staff just to filter and scan or purchase software to totally remove the human component. I can remember weeks at Manpower where we might receive 5,000 applicants. In addition to this the recruiting publications are now telling HR and Talent Manager they NEED to automate. Check out the latest Talent Management article on “Make HR Happy.”

On top of this, many of today’s recruiting demographic has the technology / MTV curse of “if it’s not instant it’s not worth my time.” So, they expect every candidate to have a resume laid out in a similar fashion with all the goodies at scan level in 2.3 seconds. The trouble is that many professionals are great at their jobs but not with working on their resume (see my previous post on 8 Musts for an Effective Resume). Lazy recruiters are grab-and-go, great recruiters are diamond miners, polishing off the mud to find the sparkle below…many times at their own expense.

What is the solution? I think the bump we hit in the economy helped create some of the cure, causing recruiters and HR to transform their skills or try performing it from the unemployment line. The other solution, better management of both corporate and third-party recruitment practices. Accountability to the primary goal, recruitment and review with the intention of uncovering the best talent for the right job.

Chris

To hire The Recruiting Guy as a speaker or trainer visit The Recruiting Guy or contact The Wellington Group @ info@thewellington-group.com.

For those who are unaware of what Bounty Jobs appears to be here is the website; no secrets, as I truly believe success in the recruitment business all has to be transparent or the end result, the job seeker taking a position with the hiring company, will not happen. www.bountyjobs.com

Bounty, like many other “tools” or HR / Recruitment short cuts before and after them, truly does not understand the motivation of human nature. People want to communicate and be part of an engaged community. Honest people genuinely want the resources a Bounty or others can provide to help make these invaluable connections possible. Most run-of-the-mill, basement dweller or 3 month recruiters can’t provide the knowledge base, infrastructure, bandwidth or network a “tool” like Bounty Jobs promises to deliver. A couple great examples are Facebook and inside919.com. For the most part they are free and unrestricted and as a result, people are making not only money but building empires, finding careers, creating causes and even reconnecting with old friends from remote Alaska. If this is the case then why do these “tools” want to restrict the very ingredient which can make them a king’s ransom?

Here are excerpts from the “non-typical email” myself and my staff, industry peers, clients and vendors received TODAY from Bounty Jobs, cut into the pieces that one assumes to hit their message to the core.

We want total control of a process that can’t be totally controlled in order for it to be a true success.

“Unlike the typical “how it works” email… With 20,000+ registered headhunters (and counting!)…, we will be [re] moving the name of the hiring company one step further into the BountyJobs process… BountyJobs remains absolutely committed to providing an efficient communication and recruiting solution. ”

While my firm is using Bounty at the request of a couple clients, we (the team, the clients and all involved) agree the handcuffs by this “tool” inhibits communications and any chance of immediate success and long term survival of this “tool.”  How long will they be around? I am not sure, but I have seen many “tools” come and many go, with most that are remaining now on the edge of financial crises in this current economy because they do not allow for full human interaction which is the very root energy of the recruitment and HR professions.

The complete link to their new Q&A for recruiters and hiring companies on these changes can be found at: http://image.exct.net/lib/fefc1174706500/m/1/Company+Name+FAQ.pdf

My advice is think twice before engaging in these resource robbing “tools.” Take the time to ravage their sites for information on the true fulfillment rates verse just number of jobs posted and recruiters involved. After all, graduate school did teach me statistics and how numbers can always “look beautiful in the eyes of the reporter.” Best of luck in your recruitment efforts.

Chris

To engage The Recruiting Guy to train or consult with your staff visit our services page or contact The Wellington Group @ info@thewellington-group.com