KeenHire Blog by Margaret Graziano

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

5 Ways to Retain Your Top Talent

While the recession is easing and unemployment figures are falling, there is another set of numbers that doesn't look so good.

Recruitment: Why Change is Good

Global employment is changing rapidly. Within the last 20 years, we've witnessed highs and lows that have redefined the way talent is acquired, assessed, and implemented into the various business environments of the modern world. This change has been a result of global events, government regulations, and a changing economic climate that has demanded efficiency. Not only is this change revolutionizing the recruitment and hiring process, but is benefiting both recruiters and growing companies alike.

Market Manager -Chicago

Market Manager

You enjoy selling and business development, creating strategic solutions that meet your customers’ needs as well as becoming an integral part of your customers strategic advisory counsel.  An ideal opportunity for you is one that affords you an opportunity to sell a unique service offering, provides residual income, a sales process that knocks out the competition and gives you the freedom to uncap your income.

You are looking for a high impact business-to-business sales and market manager role. You are inspired about selling customer centric, high value, customizable HR and Talent Management solutions. You pride yourself on your ability to establish and build long-term business relationships, open up new accounts, cross sell multiple service lines and continually grow your customer base. You are looking for the right company to join forces with, one that rewards your tenacity and drive and that affords you the opportunity for growth, development, advancement and a potential equity stake. 

If the Job Could Talk...

By Bill J. Bonnstetter

 

JOB TALK

If a job could talk, it would explain precisely what was necessary to achieve superior performance. We could ask it to tell us about the:

• Knowledge a person needs,
• Personal attributes required to drive success,
• Rewards for superior performance,
• Hard skills vital for the job,
• Behaviors necessary to perform at peak levels, and
• Intrinsic motivators.

But we all know that jobs can't talk. If they did, we would certainly hear the real story.

Choosing To Win During A War For Talent

By: John Kurzatkowski.

I currently work with Margaret at KeenHire as a Sr. Recruitment Consultant, and wanted to share with you a bit more about how to win in the midst of a war for talent. 

As the business-news media competes for our attention by flashing information on the impending talent shortage, some of us listen with a keen ear while others turn to more urgent, pressing issues. After 22+ years in the human resources business, I don’t need the media to tell me there is going to be a problem; I already feel it in my bones, similar to how my grandfather used to know it was going to rain by his knees aching. When your business is the business of finding talent you are the first to feel ANY inkling of change in the marketplace. Although I may feel like I run a best-in-class business, and I may have evidence that I know how to skin the cat better than the competitor, KeenHire is all the more faced with the challenge of locating new talent for myself and my clients in a diminishing talent pool marketplace. 

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.

Improve Your Bottom Line. Hire Smarter.

The fundamental goal of the KeenHire 5 Pillar Conscious Hiring™ and candidate selection process is to hire the right candidate for the right job in a company that values a candidates’ unique contribution.  An effective hiring process takes into consideration the strategic reason for the positions existence as well as the candidate’s individual work style, behaviors, motivation, and core competencies. The end result is a solid hire that performs in the role and produces the key performance metrics. 

While employee training and development are mandatory facets of a solid Talent Management Strategy, the results of such programs are almost always insufficient when created outside of an effective and efficient hiring process.  Any company committed to long term organizational success must build a hiring process that closes the performance management gap. We have all heard Jim Collin’s mantra, “Hire the right people, give them the right tools, get out of their way and let them perform”.  Creating, implementing & systematically utilizing a Conscious Hiring process for your business that hones in on the key elements to your organization’s long-term success is a critical element of your human resources strategy.

Our 5 Pillar Conscious Hiring and Selection Process™ defines and quantifies your company’s corporate culture and work environment, the role’s key performance indicators, the ideal candidate’s work style, attitudes, behaviors, competencies, motivations and values.  KeenHire’s Conscious Hiring process begins with strategic organizational workforce planning and company discovery and results in improved return on hiring investment, corporate profitability, workforce productivity and overall organizational effectiveness.

Keen’s recruitment, selection and hiring program takes the recruiting process and breaks it down into five specific pillars, each focusing on different element of the recruitment function; beginning with organizational workforce planning, then key contributor benchmarking and role analysis, then candidate sourcing, then selecting, and finally on-boarding. Creating a Conscious Hiring and Recruitment process is essential to the health and organizational effectiveness of any organization committed to serving and retaining customers.

40% of All High Performers Are Looking To Leave Their Jobs

Are your Managers at the top of their game?
 
How would you rate your employee productivity?
Are your managers capable of hiring and keeping the right people? 
Does your company have a Talent Strategy and is it linked to your business strategy?

If customer acquisition and retention important to your business, your success is contingent on the people selling and delivering your service.  If profitability and efficiency is important to your operational success than employee engagement, performance management and selecting the right people for the right jobs are critical elements to your people strategy.  
 
KeenHire Talent Management's Talent Strategy 3.0 and the National Association of Personnel Services brings to you an unprecedented opportunity to build and develop your people strategy. Our Certification program covers every aspect of building a high performance Talent Strategy; including Employee Brand Proposition, Sourcing, Selection, On Boarding, Training & Development, Retention, Succession Planning and more.
 
KeenHire & NAPS certificate in Employee Retention teaches professional Staffing, HR, Recruitment and Talent Management professionals to effectively and efficiently execute high impact people systems and processes that leverage your companies profitability.

The certification program walks you through the compelling labor issues effecting all levels of knowledge based, customer centric businesses.  Your team comes back to work with specific talent management initiatives and a plan for evaluating your company's 2012 workforce readiness plan.
 
Join NAPS and KeenHire for 2 extremely powerful days in St. Louis and be instrumental in shifting the impact people make in your organization.
 
By taking this course through the National Association of Personnel Services you save $300.00 of the normal $1299.00 registration.
 
CLICK HERE to register - the class is limited to 20 -  or call our NAPS HQ now!

Certification in Employee Retention 
Distinctions for being an Employer of Choice
**HRCI credits earned towards PHR, SPHR, GPHR re-certification. 16 credits.  
 
The National Association of Personnel Services, KeenHire and the Human Resources Certification Institute recognize the strategic human capital issues facing U.S. companies today, and this is why we collaboratively bring to you this extraordinary 2 day course. This certification course lays the foundation for you to build an effective talent strategy, one that catapults your company in front of the competition for people, for customers and for market-share.

The dates of the Certification Program are September 28th and 29th, 2010.
 
What you see above is workforce 2015. With fewer people available and interested in full-time jobs, and a sheer diminishing population, US companies will experience all time shortages of full time key contributor, mission critical knowledge and customer facing workers.
 
How will companies who need people in specific roles to develop product, solve problems and take care of their customers meet this unique challenge?

Put yourself in the position to have answers and solutions to these strategic business challenges all companies need to deal with.  Being certified in Employee
Retention gives you an advantage and gives your company an internal best practices provider.  Register now and be ahead of the curve.

CLICK HERE  - each class is limited to 20 -  or call our HQ now! 

TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY - September 28th and 29th
 
Email Margo for more detail on Talent Management products, services and packages


Raise Your Employees Level of Impact & Effectiveness
with KeenHire's Personal Training and Development workshops:

1. Emerging Leaders Coaching Program and Manager Training is for people who have strong natural talent, desire and capabilities to be leaders within an organization. KeenHire's Emerging Leader and New Manager training program is ideal for individual contributors in Operations, Sales, Engineering, Service, HR and Finance transitioning to Management and Leadership positions. Click Here for course overview.

2. Success Factor-Maximize Your Effectiveness. What would be possible if your employees brought strategic personal empowerment distinctions and a daily dose of discipline to their professional life? When your employees personal goals and values are congruent with the company's mission and vision employee productivity and loyalty soars. When employees are working for more than their paycheck employee engagement and productivity improves. When employees feel integrated into the company and that there is a bright future for them they take personal pride in delivering exceptional customer service. KeenHire's 6 week Success Factor coaching program is for high potential key contributors whose Managers want to groom for higher levels of responsibility.
Click Here for course overview.

3. Strategic Selling for Recruitment, Staffing and Talent Managment Professionals- This course starts October 4, 2010 and runs for 6 weeks on Monday mornings. 

No money or time for training? Visit the KeenHire on line store and purchase staffing, recruitment and management tools, workbooks, scripts, manuals, assessments, CD's, DVD's, books and more all designed to leverage your company as an Employer of Choice.
 
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