No B. S. Hiring Advice: An Underutilized Tool in Your Staffing and Retention Practices

Jeff Altman,The Big Game Hunter discusses underutilized tool in your staffing and retention tool belt.


Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a recruiter for more than 40 years.

Follow him at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn for more articles, videos and podcasts than what are offered here and jobs he is recruiting for.
                   
Visit www.TheBigGameHunter.us. There's a lot more advice there.

Connect with me on LinkedIn 

Pay what you want for my books about job search 

Trying to hire someone? Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGamHunter.us 

Want to ask me a question via email, chat or phone ? Reach me via PrestoExperts

Are People Raiding Your Firm to Take Staff?

As job markets become tighter recruiters, both third party and corporate are resorting to raiding their competition to hire staff.

A former Director may contact 10 key people and try to bring them along with her.

A recruiter leans that four of the last 7 hires have come from your firm and is bouncing around your voice response system trying to find potential recruits to fill the job or jobs.

What defenses do you have?

1. Figure out who you don't want to lose and take time with them. Many people like to be stroked by their bosses and taking a few minutes every week or two to praise their performance and speak about opportunities.

2. Figure out who you can afford to lose. there are nice people who are adequate performers. Can they be replaced? Absolutely . . . and probably for around the same money they earn (plus interview costs and fees). Why buy them out of another offer if they are dispensable and can hire someone with better upside. This leads us to

3. Compute your break point. At what point should you walk away from losing a person to a competitor? Also, find information about what staff say about your competitors on social network sites and anti-company sites to develop responses to potential resignations.

4. This is not a job for the HR Department but for every manager and business leader. No disrespect to HR but if your culture doesn't have culture taht values HR, then having them lead this will doom it to failure.

5. Scan job boards for your own employees. There are two reasons to do this-- the least important one is being prepared for a resignation. The primary reason for doing so is to be able to sit down with the disgruntled employee and see if what is bothering them is something that can be resolved before getting to the point where they are sitting in your office ready to quit.
I addition, it affords you the opportunity to contact former employees or "boomerangs" who might return to your firm.

There are a lot more things you can do, but these are the five easiest to implement. In doing so, you will slow down losses and put yourself and your firm in a stronger position.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2008 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

• Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
• Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
• The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
• The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
• The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
• Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
• The Shopping Universe: More than a thousand stores in this mall AND help a child at the same time.

Plus

• Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
• Indian Job Network: Network for Work in India
• Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
• VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
• The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
• 4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals

Keeping Your Staff is Within Your Grasp

The Top Reasons Why People Resign Their Job

A recent issue of Fortune Magazine cited the top 5 reasons why people quit their jobs. In order they were:

1. Better compensation(including benefits) elsewhere 30%

2. Better career opportunity elsewhere 27%

3. Ready for a new experience 27%

4. Dissatisfied with career opportunities at present company 21%

5. Desire to change careers or industries 16%

To this I’ll add that people dislike their boss and leave because of that.

What’s interesting is that the Fortune list is really only 3 reasons because #2 and #4 are really the same and #3 and #5 are really the same.

As such, the primary factors why people leave their jobs are:

1. Better career opportunity elsewhere/ Dissatisfied with career opportunities at present company 48%

2. Ready for a new experience/Desire to change careers or industries 43%

3. Better compensation(including benefits) elsewhere 30%

4. Dislike their boss percentage unknown

Do you see what I see?

Boredom and lack of challenge is the overwhelming reason why people change jobs.

Review time is not the only opportunity to discuss advancement possibilities with your staff.

Your staff may be attending programs for degrees, advanced degrees, skill improvement. Ask them about what they hope to do with their new knowledge over the next year or two. Can your firm re-deploy these people or use them in a role that would let the use their new skills?

Isn’t it expensive to replace someone

You can be creative.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free meta job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to learn about his VIP program, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsesarchuniverse@gmail.com.

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com .

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Keeping Older Workers is Essential AND . . .

When I started in the search business in the early 1970's, it didn't take long for me to notice that there were very few people in their 40's who were working in technology (my focal point at the time). I remember asking myself, "What happens when people turn 40 in this business?"

Today, this is no longer an issue as firms have discovered that in the age of labor shortages, older workers are essential to firms achieving success. But a new problem has been created that few firms are addressing.

By aggressively doing things to hold on to the baby boomer generation, Gen-X workers are roadblocked and becoming increasingly frustrated with their increasingly limited advancement options.

And when companies hire people, companies often make the mistake of focusing on the boomer issue of needing to earn more when they could be adding the Gen-X issue--What's my advancement opportunities with your company. After all, one of the issues they have is being squeezed by the enormous generation of Boomers who won't quit or retire yet and the up and coming explosion referred to as Gen-Y.

What happens to this smart. self-reliant group of Gen-X adults?

So, as you look at your staff, what are you doing to create advancement options for your staff in their 30's? What are you doing to cultivate their skills.

And, as you look to hire someone in their 30's, speak to the upside that will exist for them and not just the money.

Jeff Altman

The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.vippersonalsearch.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).