KeenHire Blog by Margaret Graziano

Goal-Setting Requires Certainty In A Job Search

With the New Year full upon us, many job-seekers are waist deep in the middle of their job search.  You've taken stock of your position, your boss, your salary, and decided that it was time to make a change.

You've shined up the resume, browsed the job boards, and met with that recruiter who called you last December.  And then worry sets in.  Are you doing the right thing  Recruiters regularly deal with this fear, and if they've done their job, the candidate is prepared to interview with an open mind to changing positions.  When the recruiter and the candidate haven't taken the time to discuss what a change really entails, your goal of getting that new job and that promotion is in danger of falling to the fear of change.

Recruiting Trends Webinar March 6th and 7th

Back in November, I was speaking at the NAPS convention in San Antonio, and decided to set up an executive briefing with some friends of mine on the trends in recruiting.

Shally Steckerl and Jim Durbin, a sourcer and blog marketer respectively, rocked the house, and I decided to do the presentation again, this time online. We're working on the video from the conference, but the three of us thought we should get together and throw a webinar for those who couldn't make it to Texas.

The topic is Trends in Recruiting, and we'll be covering my expertise, which includes personality assessments, benchmarking, and behavioral interviewing (backed by my experience running a staffing firm and recruiting in today's market).  Shally will cover the importance of Sourcing, which is changing the way that recruiters approach searching for candidates.  Jim will talk about social media, which is the use of blogs, social networks and search engines to build a community of interest to attract passive candidates.

Don't miss this. Set your plans for March 6th and 7th, and be on the lookout for registration information.  Download RecruitingTourDeForce.gif , but that's only because it looks so good.  Mark Your Calendars.  March 6th and 7th and 9:30 CST, 7:30 a.m. PST.

Are You Assessing Your Assets?

Benchmarking your employees and finding out what actually works is a vital skill for today's human resources division.  Media from the Wall Street Journal, to CNN, and CEO's with whom I’ve spoken agree that one of the top strategic initiatives of many companies is hiring not only new talent, but the right talent.

With the diminishing available talent pool, and the compelling messages about off-shore, lower skilled labor and processes, I predict that companies will recognize the need to invest in hiring and retaining key people, at key positions, leveraging their opportunities to innovate, compete and achieve their corporate objectives. The impetus for this talent 'shortage' is that growth oriented companies are demanding more of their workforce, and are unwavering in their expectations to attract and hire 'difference makers.'

Companies committed to winning the war for talent will not only have to create an environment that fosters growth, development and challenge, but they will need to implement systems and operating practices that leverage their ability to attract & retain the best. Given the amount of effort and money that will be budgeted to create extraordinary retention programs; these same companies will need to evaluate and improve their internal hiring practices so that only winners get in the door. In today’s competitive talent market, with candidates demanding top salaries, companies have the right to know what they are getting, and have the right to expect a return on investment with each hire. 

As you inspect your hiring process, do you know how to assess the capabilities of your current staff?  Without that information, how can you reliably hire new workers who can replicate, or improve upon their success?

Mission: Benchmarking Seminars

Keen Hire is my company, started to help recruiters do a better job hiring candidates for their clients, and helping staffing firms get deeper into the employment process.  HR Executives get mobbed with phone calls all day from cold-calling salesman who want job orders, but  don't understand the pain points those executives need to address.

Benchmarking is one of those areas for corporations.  Benchmarking refers to the process of studying results of your most successful employees, in order to improve the screening of prospective employees.  And I can teach you how to a) benchmark, and b) use it as a selling tool for your business.

At the Keen Hire site, we have a series of regular seminars o benchmarking we're putting on for you.  They include six live seminars in Chicago, and 3 teleseminars spread out over dates in 2008. The first is January 25th, this Friday, In Chicago.  The first teleseminar is tomorrow, January 24th.

As we move into a slower time for staffing evidenced by talk of a recession, you're going to have to sharpen your selling and staffing skills.  Providing more value to the client (value you bill for), will improve your relationship, put more money in your pocket, and ultimately protect you in a downturn.

What are you waiting for?  Sessions are a easy $112 each.   Check out more information here at my site, and register by calling 1-888-KeenHire or e-mailing me at mgraziano@keenhire.com.

Benchmarking Seminar Schedule
About your Presenter, Margaret Graziano

Breaking Goal Setting Into Its Component Parts

This post might best apply to engineers, because we're taking the goal setting agenda and breaking it into little pieces, to make it easier to put back together.

The idea comes from Lynn Truong, who guest posted over at Zen Habits.  She splits goal setting apart into the areas that affect (effect?) is execution. That's not marketing speak, it's just saying what needs to be done is to find out what needs to be done.

Time, Work, Money, Connections, and Health.

What are you doing with them, and how will they effect (affect?) your goals?

Time
Reflect on what you’re doing with your time, and ask yourself whether things need to be readjusted. Make time to do the things that you really want to do—spend time with your loved ones, make a phone call instead of sending a quick birthday wish in an email, write, read, take a bubble bath. There’ll never be enough time to do everything, but there’ll always enough time to do what’s really important (yes, a bubble bath is important!).

Leverage Your Power – Set Healthy Goals, Hire a Great Coach!

The following was originally published in the Fordyce Letter, the single best resource any staffing agency can have. 

So here it is new years even of 2008 and I am reflecting on what a fabulous year I had, everything I accomplished, what I learned and how I have grown.

Wouldn’t that be a pretty incredible way to start the year, already visualizing what you intended on accomplishing already happening?

A few years ago I was introduced to a goal setting format called the “Best Year Yet”, that along with the work I have done with Jack Canfield and The law of attraction has really given me access to set clear goals and define a strategy to get there. Another key was me taking responsibility for who I am in the matter of being accountable to myself and to my goals.

A fundamental aspect to me being accountable for achieving my goals is aligning myself with a coach who can deal with the ‘Magi’ in me, as well as the ‘Margaret’, in me.   There is this fun crazy side that if someone calls and the opportunity sounds good enough, I am in, even if it is a Monday and then there is this part of me that is the don’t mess with me I am working. I suppose my greatest challenge is finding the median between the high I (fun and creative side) and the high D (dominant and intense side).

Personal Goal Setting Starts With A Person - You

It seems that most goal-setting articles start off talking about how difficult it is to lay down goals and follow through them.  For a nation obsessed with diets and get rich quick schemes, goal-setting seems to be a harsh discipline that one has to work very hard at to get results.

As most personal trainers will tell you, the problem is not the program, but the person.  Pamela Slim covers this in her wonderful blog, Escape from Cubicle Nation, where she lays out her pre-goal setting routine.  Pre-Goal Setting?  Yes.  It's a matter of putting yourself into the right frame of mind, and focusing on creating an aura of gratitude for what you already are, and then using that confidence to power your goals and their execution.

Current practice tells us that we must be dissatisfied with where we are now in order to make improvements.

 

But what I have found is quite the opposite.  You have to be satisfied with yourself as you are now in order to truly appreciate the change in the future....

When you start the goal-setting process by appreciating where you are now, you set in motion a very natural reaction:  your external world, evidenced by the shape of your body, your bank account, your home, career and personal relationships wants to mirror the beauty you have inside."

Different people are motivated in different ways.  Some have to feel distressed before they accomplish anything, but the long-term healthy way to make real improvements (and lasting improvements), is to create a rhythm that fits with a positive mental attitude.  Change that flows naturally is easier and more in tune with who you are than change that you have to fight for. 

So take a page out of Pamela's book.  Start with appreciating who you are and what you've already  accomplished, and then set goals as to your next accomplishment.  You'll achieve more and feel better while doing so, setting yourself up for even more ambitious goals in the next year.

Goal-Setting Is Hard, But Necessary

Goal Setting is no piece of cake.  There's a reason so many news stories focus on New Year's Resolutions.  Lacking willpower the rest of the year, the hope is that the promise of a new year gives us the mental fortitude to accomplish what we couldn't in the year before.

But the change of calendar isn't that motivational.  Instead, individuals and companies should foucs on what can be accomplished with goal setting, and the best time to do that is when it's no longer a cliche.  Say, January 14th?  The New Year has already started, and the only reason to set goals now is to be successful.  No pressure, except that which you put on it.

Small Business Essentials breaks down goalsetting into personal and business goals, and further breaks down goals into digestible chunks.  The idea is to make goals achievable, but relevant.  Without goals, you drift.  With goals, you need to  make sure you're reaching them.

• Accountability.
  With no goals for your business, you can feel free to slack off, work part time, not look for new clients, etc. If that’s what you want, that’s fine—but if your life plan includes running a successful business, then you should be accountable to that business.
• Progress.
  Setting milestones for your business helps you to see your progress and gives you the encouragement to keep going, much like the weekly weigh-ins at Weight Watchers.

My advice is to focus what you can do, and not on what you should do.  Should is an evil word, and brings it with the sense of guilt that you're not perfect.  Well, you're not, and it's better to focus on you what you will do, rather than on what you think you ought to do.

Hiring Trends To Look For In The New Year

Career Builder's survey of Expected Trends for 2008 is out. The pdf download for the report is here, but a quick list was out together by Maureen Sharib of TechTrak.

EIGHT MAJOR TRENDS FOR 2008
#1 Bigger Paychecks
#2 More Flexible Work Arrangements
#3 Screening Candidates via the Internet
#4 Rehiring Retirees
#5 Diversity Recruitment
#6 Freelance or Contract Hiring
#7 More Comprehensive Healthcare Benefits and Special Perks
#8 Career Advancement

Hiring trends for 2007 were below 2006, but still strong, adding an additional 118,000 jobs on average each month.  Forecasted trends show most companies planning to hold even, with about a third looking to increase full-time or part-time hiring.

hattip:  Recruiting Bloggers.

The Value Of HR Outsourcing

The promise of outsourcing is economies of scale.  Executives know their companies do certain things well, and to succeed, one must focus on one's strengths.

Human Resources has spent the last thirty years evolving into a catch all of the employer-employee relationship, and on paper, it makes sense to outsource the more troublesome, or less efficient pieces of your HR operation.  Bringing in a company that specializes in background checks, or recruiting, or employee evaluations allows your company to focus resources, training and management on the processes, materials and services you excel at.   

So why doesn't it seem to be working?  The HR Marketer asks the question that is currently making the rounds of the HR conferences:  What's the Matter With HR Outsourcing.

From an outsider looking in, it honestly does not seem like the HR outsourcing industry has evolved all that much since Exult pioneered the concept of large-scale HR outsourcing in the late 1990's (Exult went public at $10 per share in 2002 and was purchased by Hewitt in 2004 for  for $6.30 per share). Even the experts disagree about the fundamentals of HRO as captured by Jessica Marquez in her story about HRO from last year's NY HR Week Conference & Expo - I'd expect the dialogue amongst HRO experts to be a little further along at this point in time.

The issue is possibly one of complexity, but also control.  Complexity comes from the processes that are built up over time to handle a company's hiring and employee policies.  People are not machines, and so the standard economies of scale might not apply across every industry.  The deals might be too focused on revenue, and not on quality.  Or it could just be a matter of adjustment.

Outsourcing is a discipline that should be graded on a curve.  There is an adoption curve to getting the maximum value out of an outsourcing agreement, and companies just aren't far enough along that curve yet, perhaps because the rate of change in the global economy and the local workplace has accelerated in the last thirty years.

The key, as in all projects, is to focus on manageable goals.  Setting realistic milestones and  building a trust factor between vendor and client takes real commitment.  Large projects require people who mesh together well, and when the focus is on revenue, the urge to cut corners is usually stronger then getting the job done right.

Outsourcing has a strong future, but it's going to grow from small successes, not enterprise-level agreements.