KeenHire Blog by Margaret Graziano

Talent Strategy 3.0 - Vail Colorado December 14 & 15

About the Program

With a rocky economy, hot new emerging industries on the rise, three generations in the workforce, Sr. level leaders on the verge of retirement/re alignment and a sea of recruiting alternatives knocking at our clients’ doors, it is time to start thinking about how we as an industry are going to align ourselves as strategic business partners rather than as transactional service providers. As the economy begins to recover it is imperative that you brand your firm as the human capital provider of choice.

The Society of Human Resource Management reports that 6 of the top 10 Workplace Trends are directly related to talent acquisition, selection & retention.

The number 1 trend to most likely have a major impact on the workplace is workforce retention, and the most critical HR function effecting business strategy is Staffing/Employment and Recruiting.

The above issues are not separate -they are looked at as Talent Management and there is no other group of people on the planet better equipped to empower corporations to solve these problems than people like us, top tier staffing & search professionals who work on the front lines of talent acquisition, every day.

The KeenHire™ Human Capital Strategic Consulting Series empowers search & staffing professionals to take a new look at search and staffing - a look from the shoes of an employer. Strategically speaking, retention begins with selection and effective workforce planning and we as an industry have everything to do with ensuring that the placements we make that need to, have a place in the succession plan.

Join us for this provocative, insightful and fun program that delves into the corporate strategic talent issues and highlights innovative solutions you can provide to solve them. Let’s face it, now more than ever your clients have recruiting alternatives. There is off shoring, in-sourcing, RPO and on line systems that streamline the work of recruiting. Even large global HR consulting firms are trying to cash in by getting into the recruiting game. Your ability to grow is directly contingent on your ability to adapt to the changing market as well as on your ability to meet and exceed your clients increasing needs.

Astute recruiters and search professionals are looking down the path for what they can do to offer a deeper level of service and provide holistic solutions to their clients human capital needs and therefore differentiate themselves from the sea of recruiting options available to their clients. In the past you had to be good on a daily basis to keep your clients coming back for more, NOW…..you have to be great and you have to commit to their end game, or someone else will.

Course Outcomes

Empower yourself in understanding and responding to corporate retention issues, dispel the myths and uncover critical issues affecting your customers’ ability to attract and keep the right people.

You gain hands on experience in uncovering the real Cost of unwanted Employee Turnover and the impact that it has on your customers’ companies ability to achieve its strategic objectives.

You gain competence and capacity to impact your customers’ recruiting and hiring efficacy.

You learn a strategic approach to assessing your customers’ REAL human capital needs, proactive workforce planning and a comprehensive approach for implementing a 3 –step top grading approach that positions you to build your customers’ organization with high performers in key roles.

You leave the workshop with an array of bolt on and augmented talent management strategies that meet the needs of leaders, managers and the multitude of front line customer facing and operational impact staff in your clients’ workforce.

You walk away with the power and prowess to influence the Talent Mindset throughout your entire customer base.

To register call 1-888-533-6447

$1299.00 per person

What They’re Saying

"This course was by far well worth more than the cost I paid to be here". Karen Richards-Fidelis Bio Pharma, Dallas Texas.

“I am pleased to recommend Margaret Graziano as a foremost authority in personnel recruitment, assessment, selection, and retention. I have paid to attend training and certification events with Margaret as the leader, and feel that the value was exceptional. Beyond her incredible knowledge of the aforementioned subjects, she brings a sincere passion to the training, and presents useable information in such a way that it is actually useful in a real-life setting. She cares about the people she works with and truly wants to advance our industry by helping others thrive as “true professionals”. Her training has helped me in my professional development, and the development of my organization. I believe that even if you are a “master” in this business, you can certainly increase your personal productivity and profits from her training, speaking, and the products offered by her company, KeenHire.

Ed Keil, CPC, CERS, Owner, Reliance Recruiting
hired Margaret as a Consultant/Coach/Trainer in 2006 , and hired Margaret more than once

“Margaret Graziano has proven to be one of the torchbearers of progressive Human Resource/Human Capital initiatives. Her insight to what Corporate America wants and needs in order to help their company grow and prosper is truly leading edge and spot on. She has wowed her contemporaries with her "Keen" insight to the marketplace and has produced products and services which will revolutionize our industry. If anyone has any questions about Margaret's ability, just let me know. There is no one better equipped to assist you with Talent Acquisition and Talent Management issues for your firm. Do yourself a favor and get her involved with identifying and helping you solve these HR issues.” October 21, 2008
Jeff Wilson, CERS, CPC , Managing Partner/Owner , Key Corporate Services, LLC

Some Aspects For Staffing Companies To Think About

A trend I have noticed is those who cut all costs necessary to operate their businesses are financially in worse shape than those who have methodically evaluated where to focus cost cutting.

I call these "knee-jerk" blanket cost cutting decisions Emotional Management and will suggest that everyone be wary of it. Are you cutting costs because of a fear of the unknown - the length of the recession, the direction of the economy, the ability for you to make a sale next month? Or are you cutting costs because you are determining which costs are necessary for survival, which are necessary for growth, and which costs are "lifestyle” costs? Food for thought.

 By Adam Peterson, CEO, Vipe Inc

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It is all about differentiation.  Keen recently surveyed over 25 large staffing and or recruitment firms, what is on everyone of their minds is how to generate more business and come out ahead of the rest. The following is a brief summary of what they said.

1. You are either the largest in your niche and you differentiate because you are the biggest

2. You have some new innovations that separate you from the competition

3. Your price is better

4. You have a means like RPO or VMS that catapults you to the front of the line.

5. You dominate multiple markets all selling to the same end user

6. Your brand is known to all

Think about it.....what is it for you? If you don't know, figure it out, and figure it out fast.

Best to You 

Margo

What I Love About Working With Recruitment And Staffing Businesses

Someone recently asked me why I enjoy working with staffing and recruiting people.  The answers probably have something to do with why I myself, spent 25 years as an active member of the industry.

Lets start with the industry as a whole; overall the staffing industry, temp, perm (oops direct), contract staffing and executive search all have something in common. We surround ourselves in people contact all day, every day; as an industry we have a better finger on the pulse of why people stay at companies and why people leave companies than any other industry on the planet.   We also know what the job market needs and what it wants, before the newspapers and CNN have even begun to think to ask.  Additionally we are amongst the first that feel the onset of a recession, so in some ways we are pretty astute economic fortune-tellers.  As an industry we put people to work, we give people hope, dignity and purpose.  As an industry we make new friends easily, keep friends and maintain our networks.

When I look at the people who flock to and make it in the staffing industry, I see so many commonalities, many which bring a smile to my face, some don’t and I’ll list those as well.

Most people I have met, are friends with, or have assessed all share a strong sense of urgency about their business, how they make decisions and how they serve their customers.  They also are for the most part bit on the competitive side, they like to win the games they play and the business they go after. They like a lot of action and enjoy the frenzy of the flurry of the deal or multiple deals coming in or closing at once. They know the numbers tell the story so they watch the numbers and encourage healthy activity.  They learn from their mistakes, as one can only spend so much time with the wrong candidates, clients, prospects, orders or co-workers.  They also like being evaluated on performance, the bottom line. They do or they don’t, trying is not something an experienced successful staffing person enjoys saying or hearing, especially out of their own mouth.

I would say most of my colleagues in staffing have a good sense of humor, and learn as time goes by, to find the humor in every no show, mis hire, client debacle, lost fee or candidate betrayal.  What starts out as a disappointment or angry rant typically dissipates into some long lasting joke or key lesson for future hires to laugh over and learn.

On the not so cheery side, most people in the staffing industry have a very healthy dose of Ego, with a capital E. At times that Ego, while shielding them from rejection also gets in their way of getting better, hearing the truth and making needed changes – in business and in personal relationships.  I know this because I have lived it.

And then there is the shoemakers kids, the staffing industry by far a has the worse turn over of any professional services industry. Although the BLS does not track our industry independently, most agency owners report close to a 45% turn over of established staff in tough times and 65-68% fall offs of new people hired who lack the right stuff to stay long enough to make the impact the company needed to justify the hire.  That is darn scary. Some people attribute the turn over to us making the job look too easy, because we are just so great at it, others say we adopt the practice 'place the best and hire the rest', and others say it's because we take care of ourselves and our businesses last.  

All in all, the staffing industry houses some of my favorite people, fondest memories and life long friendships, not to mention every aspect of my entire adult business life.  I am glad to be a part of it and happy that I am working with so many great new comers, established professionals and successful business leaders. In an effort to better serve our readers and customers we are asking that you click on the following link and take this Keen offerings survey. Thank you for your partnership and your support.

https://app.e2ma.net/app2/survey/25372/15365/9edbcfae7b/

Hard Won Staffing Lessons And Where We Go from Here

 

Although staffing employment traditionally is a leading indicator of recovery, professional recruiters today look forward with caution. This recession feels different -- not just a slowdown, but a disruption of the way business has been done.   As you formulate a strategic plan for 2010, ask yourself: "Can I afford a return to business-as-usual?"  Monster spoke to leaders in staffing whose hard-won wisdom points to a better future.

Staffing Solutions that Innovate

Dan Boersma of Laguna Source in Laguna Beach, CA specializes in finding talent for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device makers. He's managed the downturn with a three-part strategy of client service, industry knowledge and old-fashioned hustle.

"In this recession, you're working twice as hard to make three quarters as much money," Dan asserts. "The big positive is you have a little bit of free time, to say, 'Hey, we have some time on our hands, what can we do that's going to help us long-term?'"

Talent shortages in his niche have helped, but as even successful companies try to do more with less, Dan finds he has to narrow his focus to develop deeper relationships with clients. This is the time to listen, to learn more about coming technologies and the skills needed to harness them, and to build trust.

Dan and his team watch for announcements on venture funding and company earnings that signal staffing opportunities. Press releases and news articles are obvious conversation-starters with potential clients. Less obvious is Dan's observation that his best currently-employed candidates are more reluctant to move to a new employer. They need reassurance that a medical technology firm, for example, will have staying power. Whether positive or negative, industry developments point to hidden corners where top talent and new prospects on both sides of the recruitment equation are open to change. Dan says, "If a company's doing layoffs, I want to be the first to talk to their people."

And then there's plain old bearing down in tough times. "In a downturn, recruiters tend to get down on themselves and the business," Dan says. "It's easy to blame things on a bad economy, but we get here early, stay late, work on weekends…staying aggressive like this has just kept us going."

Service, research, and hard work deliver. It's a simple plan, and it works for Laguna Source.

Rethinking Staffing Services

Margaret (Margo) Graziano of KeenHire in San Jose is taking the reinvention route; she believes that the fundamentals of staffing have shifted, and the future belongs to those who broaden their services.

Margo has moved her Talent Management Division from "getting people into chairs" to a form of human capital management consulting. KeenHire's clients, also caught in the disruptions of the Great Recession, face many hiring complications that boil down to doing more with less. They profit from expertise she's developed across the entire talent acquisition timeline, such as:



Risk Mitigation
"Clients are asking us to help them not hire the wrong people, because they can't afford to make mistakes," says Margo. Staffing can't just supply candidates and hope it works out (or blame a bad hire on a client's managers). Risk mitigation means helping a client design teams. What's the right mix of talents for a new initiative or product? How should the team work? Can the company adapt, and how?

It also means retention. "We see a lot more effort and money being spent on keeping the good people," observes Margo.

Hiring Improvements
Job descriptions can be a vise, squeezing the wrong person into a job because she happens to have the right skills. Margo counters this problem by assessing people well beyond skills. "I look carefully at the people who are already doing well in the job and build what we call a 'DNA thumbprint' of what the ideal candidate looks like -- not their resume but their values, beliefs, competencies and behaviors. We actually find and staff organizational development professionals, industrial psychologists, training and development people, HR, talent management people, talent acquisition, full-time and contract recruiters."

Human Resource Management
Human capital consulting from staffing companies can add value to processes like onboarding, top-grading and retention strategies. Once the staffing company has supplied great talent, it can help the client hold onto those people. This is more service, and while it reduces churn (and -- let's admit it here -- churn can make short-term profits for staffing companies) it deepens customer attachment and creates new services to sell.

"It goes beyond the hiring moment," Margo concludes. "We work with companies to help them develop coaching programs and training and development programs for their high potential people."

Where Staffing Goes from Here

As you plan for 2010, consider these likelihoods:

1) Staffing will see a resurgence but not a return to business as usual. The collapse of whole business areas and re-alignment of money (think automotive and health care, for two examples) means that client needs will change.

2) The super-candidate syndrome will continue. Margo Graziano suggests that staffing lead the conversation away from "Super Resume" to "Super Candidate" by finding greater alignment in values and capabilities than single skills.

3) There is no substitute for persistence and hard work, especially with your most creative employees. Open your business to their suggestions. Experiment. Be aggressive. Learn and change.

Great practitioners of staffing recognize a tectonic shift brought by such a brutal recession. Companies big and small will have to do more with less. Even as business picks up, the opportunity to lead change -- for your clients and your business -- is too exciting to miss.

By Doug Hardy: Monster Staff Writer

Contract Staffing & Executive Recruitment for Hi-Tech Talent

I am on my way back to one of my two 'homes' from the Tech Serve Alliance conference in Red Rock. My second visit to that resort in two weeks.

The Red Rock ROCKS.

It is a Fabulous venue, excellent food, great staff, spa that is to die for, reflexology extraordinaire and great up do!

Beyond the amenities Tech Serve Alliance put on great conferences.

Tech Serve Alliance was step above the other conferences is the courses it offered and the way the content was delivered. I would say they put on a strategic, innovative and progressive conference. The majority of the sessions were content heavy and highly valuable for Staffing firms wanting to stay ahead of the curve. Some of the programs I personally attended were focused on Building and Managing the Virtual Workforce, Immigration, Off Shore Staffing Solutions, Diversification, Pending Economic Trends, *Strategic Selling, Hiring the Right Sales and Recruiting Team and more. *And yes I attended the ones I led.

The mood and the conversations around the conference was very much positive-about creating value, growth in revenues and margins, innovative solutions to compelling problems. I invited a long-term friend of mine to join me at the conference and she was very impressed by the level of participants, programs and networking.

Her and I made many new and diverse friends, learned about doing business as one world, and the challenges that come with it as well as got well immersed in the world of high tech contract and direct hire placement.

The attendees were extremely open, generous and warm. I saw old friends and made many more new ones.

My love for people in the staffing and recruiting space was again deepened. I couldn't have chosen to be in a better place, to contribute, to share and to expand my network and influence.

Thank you Tech Serve Alliance for a great conference!

Branding Yourself As A Recruitment Professional Of Choice

Keen just completed leading another Certification in Employee Retention for NAPS, in the 16 hours of content course titled Talent Strategy 3.0 our seasoned search professionals were inspired, engaged and clamoring for opportunities to service their clients in a more strategic manner.

People always say when the student is ready the teacher appears, well this past week at the NAPS pre conference I experienced that when the teacher is ready the students appear. By far this was the most challenging, thriving group of early adapters I have worked with and they took me to a whole new level.

I could have worked with them for 3 more days and they would have pulled everything I had out of me and more. I completed the course excited, invigorated and ready for more.

Highlights from the course were specific strategies for building search, selection and retention programming around the recruitment process, adding value and positioning these firms as the Choice for Recruitment. These days everyone says they offer something unique yet when asked to define what and how they are unique, every firm sounds the same. We headhunt, we only work with working candidates, we have better sourcing, we know our candidates, we know our industry - well if everyone is saying the same thing, how does one stand out?

These are some of the ways we teach our firms to stand out from the competition, win their clients loyalty and be invited to the table for strategic talent workforce planning:

1. Role Analysis
2. Stake Holder Assessment
3. Talent Gap Analysis
4. Match Matrix
5. Top Grading
6. New Hire Users Manual

Keen Certified recruiters and search professionals position themselves at the table with CEOs, VPs and Sr Hiring Managers. Keen certified consultants know about the talent issues facing their clients and are uniquely poised to deliver solutions to those problems. They are trained to talk the talk and walk the walk.

Our programming and training is not for everyone, actually from the 50 or so people we have trained they tell us that they believe our training is only for the top 12% of recruiters committed to dominating their market and strategically positioning themselves as Talent Management Specialists integrated into their clients' operation.