KeenHire Blog by Margaret Graziano

3rd Party Recruiting- You Don’t Want to Do The Heavy Lifting, Let Us Do it For You!

Some say the great thing about being a third-party recruiter is that there are no firm rules on how to recruit. Well, this is just not true. If there wasn’t a right and wrong way to recruit it would simply fall apart. Every client differs, every position differs, and every candidate differs: this is a fact, however, the way that you recruit your candidates and make your clients happy is all the same.

Third party recruiters provide a service to their customers, not a function to their employers. If a recruiter can ensure successful hiring process that results in less waste and an increased return on investment, they must have a system set in place. A proven process that allows any company to close-the-door on expensive mis-hires and unwanted employee turnover is the engine that drives 3^rd party recruiting.

A process must ensure one thing; the right person in the right role, for them and for the company. This is the only way to ensure employee retention. While sales professionals only have to deal with customers’ emotions, recruiters have to deal with both customer and candidate emotions. The candidate’s motivational drivers, methods of interacting, ways of acting and reacting, thinking strategies, and leadership behaviors are all brought into context by the recruiter. It’s not just the traits of someone that predict their performance; it’s how traits interact with each other that calculates success.

Along with each client, each job must be addressed differently while apply a solid hiring process. Great companies spend time isolating what great performance is in the role they are searching to fill. Invest more time in defining what the candidate needs to do to achieve great performance, and even more time proactively assessing and defining the right behaviors, values, and motivators of that the right candidate should have.

No matter what the job is, if a recruiter has a process that involves assessing who the employee needs to be to do the job, they will come out successful. A strong hiring process includes selecting behaviors, talents, traits, willingness, “want,” power, skills, experience, and even education- the whole nine yards!

Check out KeenHire’s conscious hiring process for an example of great third party recruiting with a process in place for success!

By: Emily Eastman

Rising Unemployment Tax Calls For A Drop In Hiring

The rise in unemployment tax is giving companies around the country a reason not to boost hiring.  Having a significant rise on taxes such as this forces companies to dish out to their laid off works instead of focusing on their currently employed or creating jobs and hiring more people. “More than 30 states have had to borrow billions from a federal fund to cover unemployment benefits for their jobless residents in recent years.”

 Those billions of dollars are doing nothing for our economy, employer are getting slammed with taxes and employees are fighting for their jobs everyday, if they have one at all. Plus, this is only the first of two tax spikes employers are being challenged with, on both the state and federal level.

The president of Strategic Services on Unemployment & Workers' Compensation tells the nation that, "unemployment taxes, which were a relatively low bottom-line cost in 2008, are now becoming a significant cost," Holmes said. "It discourages companies from electing to hire new employees."

So what does this mean? Well for a lot of people it means the continuation of losing jobs, and for recruiters its just tough to watch. Knowing and having a hiring process that works and could decrease unemployment by giving people the right jobs and having them stick.  A conscious hiring process is so key to retaining top talent. Not just creating jobs but putting the right people in the right roles ensuring long term career paths is what puts companies in a better position to have less laid off workers.

By engaging in a Conscious Hiring process you hone in on the key elements it takes to produce consistent results in your sales organization and you learn to identify the core behaviors, values and competencies needed to achieve those results reliably over time.

Some states however are trying to spare their employers; California for example borrowed its $303.3 million interest payment from a disability insurance fund. "We did not want to increase the tax burden on job creators," said Ben Johnson, spokesman for Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services. With the state, employers and recruiters all working together it can maximize the workforce, and ensure lower unemployment and higher employee retention.

By: Emily Eastman

The Retention Issue: How To Assess Candidates, Perfect Selection and Retain Top Talent

According To Noah Webster, retention is the act or power of keeping or retaining, but Corporately, retention is the power to keep employees actively engaged and committed to being an integral part of the organization. So what is retention like in this day in age? Are employers on the same page as their employees when it comes to effective performance and talent management?

According to the SHRM Workplace Forecast of 2011, our workplace trends are directly related to talent acquisition, selection & retention. All of these being consecutive to one another and going hand in hand with creating a successful business.

A recent survey on employee performance and retention conducted by Express Employment Professionals, one of the nation's largest privately held staffing companies, found that employers are more disconnected than ever from their workforce. Express' survey revealed that 77 percent of leaders say retention was not a problem or only a slight problem in 2011, while 91 percent of employees said they are willing to switch jobs. These extreme figures should be waking up the employers of our nation, and creating a call to action that something’s not right.

With Employee turn over in the US at 16.4 percent what is there to do? How do you shift your talent management, selection and retention in a way that that increases your profit, your employee satisfaction and turnover?

First of all strong leadership is imperative right now in order to enhance your management operating style, implementing accountability systems, while building and developing high-performance teams.

Talent acquisition can only be beat one way: putting the right people in the right roles. How do we do that? By perfecting selection. Selection can be managed with internally, with a 3^rd party recruiter or using both. Whichever your company decides to go with you must ensure that their skills, personality, and values align with the job and the company. Developing Interview strategies that include pre-established critical screening questions, an in-depth career history review and custom built behavioral interview models prevent the unhealthy corporate impact as well as the high cost of a mis-hire.

Over all the corporate response must be to link employee performance and its impact on the organization’s business goals. Doing this will keep employees goals align with the company’s, creating increasing accomplishment and happier on track employees.

So try something different, create a new hiring process, change the way you interview and beef up your leadership training and finally retain the talent you need. 

To learn more about retention, talent management and see how to create a conscious hiring process, visit us at keenhire.com. We equip companies with systems, processes and people to hire & retain with clarity and insight.

By: Emily Eastman

Cutting Edge Talent Analyst Position Now Open! San Jose

You are a full life cycle recruiter who loves what you do! You experience yourself as a person who operates with a high level of integrity, and you want to work in an environment that rewards your high quality standards and precise candidate recommendations. You are an analytical and service-minded professional with a solid and stable work history, 5 years of expertise in recruiting, and 3 years of selection-based hiring and recruitment process efficiency. You have well defined organizational and planning skills and a strong desire to make a difference for people in their careers, lives, and workplaces. 

As a KeenHire Talent Analyst you are a key staff person responsible for quality assurance and for delivering in Top Grading and Recruitment initiatives on time and within budget. 

You pride yourself on your solution-oriented behavior; your critical thinking skills and your excellent follow up and follow through as well as your highly effective talent evaluation and matching skills. You enjoy a highly productive, fast paced work environment where you have to juggle multiple priorities daily to meet your customer and candidates’ needs. You thrive in a role where you are the ultimate quality assurance person responsible for making an organizational impact, achieving quality standards and strengthening customer relationships. 

We are KeenHire Talent Management; we provide the next generation of recruitment and retention solutions to growing organizations where hiring the RIGHT mission critical, key contributor and leadership talent for the right roles is imperative to their success. We are growing and need the right person to work as an integral part of our team and act as a key contributor in this very important Recruitment, Project Management and QA role.

The ideal opportunity for you is one that you are challenged at every day, where you get to continually learn new concepts, skills and processes and one that allows you to work with a team of committed individuals who are out to make a difference and shift what is possible in the workplace.

You enjoy working in an upbeat, inspiring office with a committed team. You are excited about the monthly opportunity to travel and grow your career. The ideal role for you for you allows you to play to your strengths, be a ‘go to’ team member add value and make a difference for your customers and peers. 

Job Requirements 

• 5+ years full cycle recruiting
• 3 yrs selection-based hiring and recruitment process efficiency 
• Excellent phone voice
• Persuasive communicator
• highly attuned analytical skills
• MS Office

Get excited about a career with KeenHire! Click HERE to apply now!

Conscious Hiring: An Operationally Efficient Sales Hiring Process That Gleans World-Class Results

As business leaders of scaling organizations you know that the success of your organization  depends on the quality of the people inside. KeenHire Talent Management’s Conscious-Hiring webinar enables you to learn how to identify the right people for the right roles directly impacting your ability to achieve corporate sales objectives.

Registration for Conscious Hiring Webinar is FREE

Date: August 2, 2011

Time: 10:30 - 12:00 PST

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

During this high-powered webinar you change the way you think about your employees' impact on your business while raising your level of expertise and control in choosing your sales team wisely.

By engaging in this Conscious Hiring process you hone in on the key elements it takes to produce consistent sales results in your sales organization and you learn to identify the core sales behaviors, values and competencies needed to achieve those results reliably over time.

You walk away with:
1. A blueprint for creating a highly effective Conscious-Hiring process
2. Insight into Role Analysis, and why it is the key to effective sales hiring
4. Understand how & why to use psychometric assessment tools
5. Review Behavioral Interviewing techniques; the when, why and how

 

The Expert

Margaret Graziano is a torch bearer in the Staffing and Recruitment industry. Her visionary ability, astute knowledge of full life cycle Talent Management and her tenure in the field, positions her far ahead of the Human Capital innovation curve. In the early 2000's Graziano shifted her mindset from recruiter working to make a placements to consultant committed to building extraordinary workforces. She added a talent management division to her staffing operation, adopted a world-class conscious hiring and placement process and significantly invested in her own personal and professional development. She utilizes her certifications in Organizational Development, Behavioral Interviewing, Psychometric Assessment usage, Role Analysis and Employee Retention to create curriculum and programs that elevate KeenHire's customers' ability to hire and retain the right people.

REGISTER NOW!

Can't make the webinar, visit the KeenHire on line store and purchase tools, workbooks, scripts, manuals, assessments, CD's, DVD's, books and more!

Does your Organization Work to Keep Its Top Performers?

Think about it: Your company's only truly sustainable competitive advantage, which cannot be copied by competitors, is your corporate culture and the strength of your leadership. Does your company reward innovation, reinforce positive results and cultivate relationships with its top performers? Or do you find yourselves consistently losing top talent?

If so, ask yourself another question: How actively does your organization identify, invest in and motivate leaders? If you ignore this important component of talent development, top performers might leave because of lack of opportunity, and your organization will never achieve its true potential.

KeenAds: An Account Executive In Silcon Valley

Account Executive/ New Business

Change the Game in Recruitment & Talent Management! 

You pride yourself your ability to build and maintain relationships and bring leading edge solutions to your customer base. You enjoy the selling and business development process and prefer for someone else to manage the details of fulfillment, service delivery and day-to-day administration. An ideal situation for you is one that provides residual income opportunity and gives you the freedom to go get new business while your account base and bank account grows.

You are an innovative, driven, successful professional with strong business–to-business sales experience and a deep Silicon Valley decision maker contact list. Your tenacity and drive rewards you with a strong income and a steady stream of new customers.  Your strategic selling ability makes you well poised to sell to the C suite and deliver high impact business solutions.

We are KeenHire Talent Management; we provide the next generation of recruitment and retention solutions to growing organizations where hiring the RIGHT mission critical, key contributor and leadership talent for the right roles for the right price is imperative to their success.

You are looking for a high impact sales role. You are keen on selling customer centric, high value, customizable solutions. You chose to utilize your natural talents and play to your strengths while generating a long-term residual revenue stream.

You are well aware that the game of business is forever changed. You are very clear that when you do not offer a differentiated value proposition, a deeper level of service, and a more effective solution that is strategically priced; then someone else will.

In the next 5 years 90% of companies report they need to improve and expand their recruitment and retention programs to compete for the best talent. Many companies state they are ill equipped to manage their expected growth, mitigate their risk in hiring, reduce unwanted turnover and compete for the best U.S. talent for key contributor, mission critical and leadership talent.

KeenHire Talent Management is Growing and needs the right person in Silicon Valley to open doors and close deals. We provide recruitment & talent management process in-sourcing (the people, systems & tools) for companies expanding or shifting their workforce; where making & keeping the right hire effects profitability, customer engagement and retention. Our customers currently do not have the internal capacity or desire to implement or manage effective spike hiring, selection, on-boarding & retention programs.

If you are called to respond to this opportunity, please check out our web site – www.keenhire.com, and the keenhire blog – blog.keenhire.com and let us know in your phone interview why you believe we are a good match for one another.

To Apply click here

 

Lets Talk Retention

According to Noah Webster, "Retention is the act or power of keeping or retaining. Corporately, retention is the power to keep employees actively engaged and committed to being an integral part of the organization."

Webster separates employee retention from standard retention. However, I have read about, seen and experienced a direct correlation of employee retention with stock price and EBITA. When a company does a great job of hiring the right people and then they do a great job of retaining them, they maximize their ability to secure and retain market-share. The businesses that have cracked the code on recruitment and talent management hold on to customers longer, are in a position to proactively solve their customers’ problems, and have the ability to be on the leading edge in offering new and innovative solutions to their customers because of a steady stream of new knowledge and solid relationships. The correlation between employee retention and profitability makes perfect sense.

Impacting your company’s ability to retain your key contributors, mission-critical players and next-level leaders begins with you understanding where people are at from a  of view.

It is important to note that today’s workplace psychological state is at an all-time low—peopleare too discouraged to go the extra mile; they are waiting for the other shoe to drop. The workforce of 2010 is mistrustful and skeptical. The top issues affecting workplace psychology and employee engagement are “warm chair attrition,” when the body shows up but the mind and heart have been left at home, and “corporate cocooning,” when the mature, highly experienced worker is hoarding information, afraid to share with or train others for fear of being replaced. Yet another is young working parents choosing their families first. Many in this group opt for working at home or only going to the office part-time. A great many people in this demographic are looking for “life/work navigation,” as they have seen firsthand how putting the job first and family second is crippling, un-fulfilling and littered with false rewards. One thing for sure is that in most situations and for most of your workforce: Corporate Loyalty Is Dead.

Competitive, astute employees are adopting a free-agent mentality and building their own relationships outside the company with vendors, customers and ex-employees so they are always ahead of the networking curve. Additionally these mission critical players, key contributors, and highly sought after next-level leaders are constantly improving their skill set so when the ax falls, they have opportunities lined up and waiting.

Recently HR Executive magazine conducted an engagement survey with hundreds of high-performing high potentials from all over the nation, and what they published was somewhat surprising, to say the least. Their study reported that 45% of all internal “candidates” within anorganization’s promotion pipeline are currently looking to leave the organization.

In another survey, conducted by Harris Poll and CareerBuilder, the results were just as compelling:

• 41% of employees are not satisfied with their jobs
• 46% say their workload has increased
• 33% feel they’re at a dead end at their current job
• 78% believe they are coping with “burnout”
• 56% are not glad they chose to work for their current employer
• 63% believe their top management does not display integrity and morality.

Any company that values the power of their human capital, believes that their people are their competitive advantage, is aware of the cost of replacing a great employee, and does not have a progressive talent strategy in place should be nervous. If you are not, take a look at this chart. It makes a great visual. Think about if your company lost their best salesperson to the competition. These days even your ironclad non-compete would most likely only slow them down. They might not call on your customers, but they can take their brain and everything they learned while in your operation and use it against you.

The problem is a big one and a strategic, systemic one at that. Not having enough knowledge-workers leads to longer development times, lower sales coming into the organization, fragmented customer service, a reduction in innovation and, eventually, lost customers. Hiring the wrong people because you are in a “rush” leads to more unwanted turnover, and that turnover comes at a high cost. Not knowing what makes your people tick leads to an incubation of the “free agent mentality.” The bottom line: the demographic and psycho-graphic challenges facing our companies cannot be avoided or ignored. Furthermore, the cost of doing nothing far outweighs the cost of being proactive and creating high-impact solutions that affect your bottom-line profitability and stakeholder equity.

Your company must decide if people are your competitive advantage, and if they are, you must strategically cause a corporate transformation, adopt a talent mindset and lead the way. Once you adopt and engage the rest of the leadership and management team in the talent mindset,you need to develop a people, or better said, talent strategy that lives and breathes throughout the organization.

Shifting The Context For Employee Performance Reviews

You walk into the manager’s office and close the door. It has been nearly a year since you last sat in this room. Today is your yearly performance review, but as you both shuffle papers, you haven’t a clue what is going to be discussed.

You’ve done great work, but does your manager know that? When’s the last time the two of you discussed your objectives, or you received any kind of feedback? Every day you work hard, but what’s it all amounting to?

If this scene is familiar, or if your organization also struggles with performance management, you’re certainly not alone. It’s a common problem for companies, especially during performance reviews. At KeenHire, we traced performance management issues to a few deficiencies, specifically a lack of performance indicators, misplaced priorities and improper managerial training.

Optimize Performance Indicators

Without clear, established performance indicators, it’s difficult for both managers and employees themselves to measure success. Many times, a manager will establish performance metrics, but won’t develop a way to effectively measure and track those indicators.

Along those lines, if metrics are not tied to a company’s objectives or if the position lacks a well-defined purpose, it’s hard to measure an employee’s long-term success or improve corporate performance.

Improve Performance Management – Make It Priority No. 1

If a company doesn’t consistently dedicate time and resources to performance management, it won’t develop a culture of ongoing growth, especially if performance reviews are conducted on just a yearly basis.

Without feedback from managers, employees can’t improve performance, learn and grow. Also, without regular interaction, the employee-manager relationship suffers, which directly impacts the effectiveness of performance reviews. If managers don’t understand the day-to-day activities of their employees, how can they accurately evaluate corporate performance?

Performance Management 101

If managers are not trained in how to provide effective, meaningful feedback, no matter how accurate a position’s performance metrics or how regular evaluations are, a performance review is still destined to fail.

Especially if managers don’t like to give criticism, reviews can become overly lenient, biased and ultimately ineffective, which makes performance improvement difficult.

The KeenHire Solution

At KeenHire, we believe to optimize performance management systems you need a strong, well-designed hiring process. Without a good hiring practice, companies fail the first test of performance management – matching the right people to their ideal position.

However, “most companies have problems with performance management because they either have not identified clear metrics for effective performance on the job, or do not measure those metrics objectively or haven’t tied them to development and rewards,” says Stephanie Marberry, PhD; Organizational Development consultant and Keenview product manager at KeenHire.

That’s why we developed the KeenHire 5 Pillar Conscious Hiring and Selection process. With it, we help your organization build a solid foundation and improve performance management.

• Organizational Workforce Planning
• Key Contributor Benchmarking and Role Analysis
• Candidate Sourcing
• Selection
• On-boarding

We’ll help you every step of the way, from thoroughly defining a position’s unique purpose to outlining its performance management metrics and long-term objectives. During performance reviews, you’ll have all the resources necessary to measure the position’s success and accurately evaluate the employee.

If you’re looking to learn from the finest recruiters and Organizational Effectiveness consultants, join us at our certification program KeenHire Talent Management’s Talent Strategy 3.0. You’ll learn to:

• Build and develop your people strategy
• Create an employee brand proposition
• Search for and select the perfect candidate
• Improve your on-boarding, training, and optimize performance management and employee development programs

After becoming certified, you can use your knowledge to improve corporate performance management systems across your organization and develop and retain your employees.

To learn more about Talent Strategy 3.0 and other seminars, head to our KeenHire seminars page. To see how a KeenHire consultant can improve performance management systems at your company, contact us today.

After becoming certified, you can use your knowledge to improve performance management systems across your organization and develop and retain your employees.

To learn more about Download EmployerofChoice-TS3.0 and other seminars, head to our KeenHire seminars page. To see how a KeenHire consultant can help improve your company’s performance management systems, contact us today. 888-533-6447

KeenHire Recruiter Certification Training - November 11, 2010

Performance Based Hiring Model Certification Training Agenda 11.11.10-11.13.10

THURSDAY AFTERNOON – Margaret Graziano

1:00-1:40         Montage, KeenHire Story, Charter  

1:40-2:10         Business Case

2:10-3:15         KeenHire Business Model Presentation

3:15-4:30         Conscious Hiring Presentation

4:30-5:00         Download 26step Conscious Hiring Process

5:00-6:00         Keen Case Studies (Duncan, Discovery, Clark, Les Mills)

6:00                  Social

7:00                  Dinner – Thea, San Jose  

FRIDAY MORNING – Margaret Graziano

8:00-9:30          Benchmarking/Role Analysis Overview

9:45-10:45        KPI Role Play

10:45-11:15      Task Analysis

11:15-11:45      Cluster Tasks

11:45-12:30      Selection Criteria (working lunch)

FRIDAY AFTERNOON -  Dr. Stephanie Marberry

1:00-2:15         Assessments & Behavioral Interviews - Why are they keys to hiring success?

2:30-4:00         Assessment Presentation

4:00-6:00         Introduction to Behavioral Interviewing Presentation and Software

6:00                  Social

7:00                  Dinner – Maggianos, San Jose  

SATURDAY MORNING – Dr. Stephanie Marberry

8:00-9:30         Behavioral Movies

9:30-10:00       Matrix Ranking

10:00-10:30     Pick Questions & Overview of Keentip and scoring (recruiter)

10:30-11:00     Mock Interview Role Play I

11:00-11:30     Mock Interview Role Play II

11:30-12:00     Rapid Recall

MANUALS & RESOURCE MATERIAL

• 26 Step Process
• Behavioral Interview

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

• 26 step overview (in manual)
• Sample Assessments (KeenClues, TriMetrix, Achiever)
• Behavioral Scan
• Training documents for sending and pulling assessments