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Are Candidates Turning Down Your Job Offers?

In a recent meeting with local managers, I was asked about job offers being turned down. After having spent hours in the recruitment process and narrowed the search down to the favored candidate only to have an offer rejected is a big disappointment. And, calls for some focused attention.

As the economy is revving up, hiring qualified candidates to fill the inevitable job openings will renew the race for talent. The hiring process is time consuming, and hiring managers would do well to get it right, as we describe in our recently published book, Get It Right. Get It Here!

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Where Do I Find Qualified Job Candidates?

During a recent meeting, a manager asked where to find qualified job candidates. Her experience was that a posted requisition often produced few or no qualified job candidates. “I hear managers complain that it gets harder and harder to find qualified applicants,” she said.

As we pointed out in last week’s blog, it’s important to write an effective job description that’s more than just a list of tasks and requirements, but paints a picture of a day in the life. Read more

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Job Description – Get It Right

The most important step for finding qualified candidates for your job opening is writing a good job description. Using a job description written 15 years ago may appear straightforward and easy, but in reality it will probably drive away the most qualified candidates. It only makes sense, doesn’t it? Read more

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Recruiting with Retention in Mind

Businessman interviewing millennialsMany businesses lose their new hires very soon after they come aboard because their expectations aren’t being met. Candidates need to know what the job they’re interviewing for really is. Embellishing the job or making promises that won’t or can’t be kept are serious violations of the hiring manager’s integrity. Certainly we’re not promoting giving a dismal and depressing description of the job! But make sure the interviewer panel genuinely understand the job’s requirements, tasks and challenges so they can provide honest answers to the candidates.

Millennials will make up 50% of the workforce within the next 2 years and 75% in the next 10 years

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Talent Acquisition Process

Baby boomer retired couple jumping for joy on beachTen thousand Baby Boomers are retiring every day, and if that hasn’t affected your business already, it will soon. Sooner than you might expect you will have jobs to fill as well as knowledge and process gaps that you may not have planned for.

What are you doing to fill these openings and protect your business from the loss of all that experience to retirement?

What recruiting efforts do you have in place?

How can you improve your talent acquisition quickly and strategically?

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The Challenge Takes Courage

Same Old Thinking Same Old Results PhotoIt takes courage to call a spade a spade. If you decide to step up and get honest about what is really going on, you risk people not liking what you say, criticizing you for kicking up dirt, and becoming defensive about their own low octane game.

If you observe an addict, you will see someone who denies the problem. They prefer to keep things status quo. If you challenge the addict, they will vehemently deny that the problem exists. They will make you the problem, even though you’re trying to help them stop their addiction.

There’s a payoff for lying to oneself. You don’t need to change. Everything is perfect as it is.

Or is it? Read more

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Community Support Contributes To Success

road sign pointing to advice, help, support, tips, guidance, assistanceWe’re so triggered by invitations to formulate New Year’s resolutions to join the many claiming to be on the fast track to success. But the push gets tiresome, and we find ourselves back in our old ruts and habits.

A team of psychologists from Duke University, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Colombia in Bogota recently studied people’s beliefs about self-control. They found that when it came to making choices between going out dancing and studying for a test, students depended on self-reliance exercises of self-control to resist temptation. They didn’t reach out to friends for support to help them. Read more

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Are You Ready To Rock In 2020?

Hello 2020At this time of the year, most articles, podcasts, webinars and such are asking you to focus on what you didn’t accomplish over the past year. Facebook posts are commenting that the writer is happy to close the door on 2019. That it was a terrible year.

I prefer to look back with gratitude for the many blessings. Of course, like everyone else, there were speed bumps and some lessons to be learned along the way. And, I am grateful for the learning. A life with no challenges would be quite boring, don’t you think? Read more

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A One-Page Business Plan Is All You Need

According to President Eisenhower, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything”. He said in the Army, that in an emergency, the first thing to do is “to take all the plans off the top shelf and throw them out the window.”

“But if you haven’t been planning you can’t start to work, intelligently at least,” he said. Let’s apply that thinking to your business. It is critical to plan. And a plan starts with planning. Your plan is like your GPS. There’s satisfaction in arriving at your destination.  It’s certainly better than not knowing where you are going and what roads will get you there efficiently. Read more

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Be A Connector

Be a connectorHave you ever gone to a networking event and just took a look around the room? What did you see?

Groups of people talking while others are seated at a table, munching on appetizers or nursing a drink or talking on their phones. Much of the time the groups are people who work together. By contrast, the people at the tables are usually nervous about being there. They are trying to look busy and hope that this will communicate that they aren’t available for conversation.

Go over to a table and introduce yourself! Help them break the ice. Make life a bit easier for them. And, if you are, by chance, a bit nervous yourself, you can overcome your nerves with your intention to be of service to those who are more nervous than you! This is a trick that I used for years to get myself into networking events. Usually people are very grateful for help in getting introduced and into a conversation.

Be a connector. That’s what networking is all about – building relationships. You will be remembered by the introverts at the table because you helped them feel less isolated and welcomed!  The feeling that you belong and are welcomed goes a long way and is so appreciated.