Search Results - difference

Blog Post: You Need Customer Success Software, Especially If These 3 Things Happen: If you’re on the fence about buying customer success software, or if you recently have, you’re reading the right article. Naturally, you want assurance of what kind of return to expect from this…; Added by Phil Strazzulla at 1:42am on October 23, 2022

Blog Post: Interview Scheduling Tips to Nail International Planning: For most people, having a job usually consists of traveling to the office to perform your daily tasks. However, as technology develops, the office is no longer the…; Added by Ngan Pham at 2:04am on June 18, 2021

Blog Post: Taleo vs. Workday — Which Is Right for Your Business?: ‍Taleo and …; Added by Phil Strazzulla at 1:13am on October 28, 2022

Topic: Meet Brian Kevin Johnston: "Seeking Extra Ordinary People This World Needs More of": eries please click here. QUOTABLES: "I tell my wife and children every single day before bed and when we get up, that I LOVE them dearly" "I have realized customer’s buy from people they know, like, and trust, and a fancy office, and corporate brand in this business is overrated." "Your the kind of person this world needs more of because you live what you believe in and make a difference" "I believe staying on top of the latest trends in social media, lead generation, and following up (auto responders/direct-email marketing) with customer is essential. If you are not using technology to leverage your brand, and relationship, you going to be swimming upstream in the near future." • RecruitingBlogs Profile • Linkedin • Facebook • Twitter • Website • Personal Blog • YouTube Profile • Community Volunteering: Coach/Team Manager for Temecula Valley Soccer Academy, Club Soccer/TVSA Hawks, and Temecula Youth Baseball • Personal Causes: Financial Support/Volunteer for Rancho Community Christian • Office: 951 639 0288 • Cell: 619 861 8653 • Email Q&A with Brian Kevin Johnston Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world. Brian: I have been married to Tracy for 12+ Years, who I met in College at Chico State University. We are blessed with two children, Jacob, 9 and Madison, 4. We have two pets a Dog, and a cat. " align="right" border="2" /"> Our family is a very strong “unit”, and if you are like most powerful, faith based families you realize it takes hard work and dedication to be successful, which is much like recruiting. Both of our children are in competitive activities/sports, so we enjoy spending free time traveling for tournaments and competitions. It is NOT for everyone, however we have made a decision as a family to support activities and community that encourages teamwork, dedication, winning and losing gracefully, and physical fitness. I tell my wife and children every single day before bed and when we get up, that I LOVE them dearly and that “GOD has big plans for you today.” (Creating expectations) Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? Brian: I have been in the third party recruiting arena for 12 year as an Engineering Recruiter in “niche” market, Medical Devices, Media/Broadcast, and Data Storage, with over 250 hires. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Brian: In late 1997 I was approached by a girl I went to high school with, and she mentioned her firm was hiring degreed sales professionals interested in a dynamic career in staffing industry. (It has been a creative/wild ride!) Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Brian: There is a recurring event that has the most impact on my career, and that is when a client or candidate thanks me for matching them together. It reminds me that my career vocation has “meaning”. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Brian: My mentors are my parents. They taught me that if you want something in life you need to go get it, through massive action. My Dad is in the medical/optical sales field, and he always told me to focus on prospects/leads/people that have a need or pain, and work your ass off to fulfill that need, and you will have a career in sales for life. (He was 100% correct) Six Degrees: Tell us about your staffing firm: Brian: I run a small boutique staffing firm, and I run my own desk, and outsource all of things that I am not good at or bore me (bookkeeping, sourcing, etc) so I can focus on what I love, recruiting and selling. I am a client focused firm, and while we are not huge, my customers are not only fans, they are personal friends, and we like it that way. I have worked for a billion dollar a year staffing firm, and a 2 person outfit. I have realized customer’s buy from people they know, like, and trust, and a fancy office, and corporate brand in this business is overrated. Six Degrees: (A) What other companies' recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples? Brian: I enjoy and respect the work of Bill Vick, Bill Radin, Lou Adler, and Scott Love to name a few. (B) In what aspects are they superior? Brian: More than anything, they are ethical, honorable folks in our industry, and they strive for greatness in the people they surround themselves with. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Brian: I heard someone say the other day, You are either in the internet business, or you are out of business, and I agree with this. I believe staying on top of the latest trends in social media, lead generation, and following up (auto responders/direct-email marketing) with customer is essential. If you are not using technology to leverage your brand, and relationship, you going to be swimming upstream in the near future. Six Degrees: Tell us about your broader involvement within the staffing industry Brian: I DO NOT attend staffing industry events, because the ROI is not there for me personally. I do however attend niche industry events, like storage networking world, and National association of broadcasters. I have spoken at some event in Southern, CA, however this is an area I am interested in and would be interested in to giving back more to my community. I want to speak at events where there are Executives that need me to help with their staffing solutions. I love all recruiters/HR, but the executives with hiring pains is where I want to invest my time. Six Degrees: Can you detail how the recession has affected your particular industry niche? Has it effected your job or that of your fellow team members within the organization? Brian: My business in 2009 was down 10% from 2008, and I believe the future is very bright. While I feel bad for the folks who have lost their jobs, it actually has created A LOT more business into my pipeline. When you have been through 2 recessions, and done well, people start to notice your ability persevere, and it proves you are an industry expert in your niche to key people, and decision makers. Six Degrees: Aside from simply the generic term “Networking” what specific efforts have you made on your own behalf, or on behalf of colleagues to broaden your opportunities. Brian: I use Linkedin, Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook to start a conversation, drive traffic to my website (which I track on Google Analytics), then if it makes sense, I do what any expert sales professional does, I pick up the phone, and build rapport. Six Degrees: Given your own Trial and Error experiences as a Networker, what advice do you have for your peers on what NOT to do? Be specific Brian: Great question! Do not go to a social event and start talking about your product or service to someone. (icky) Genuinely show interest in someone first, start a conversation, and engage. If I go to an event and someone hands me there business card, and starts to give me there elevator pitch, I kindly give the card back and tell them to go talk with the used car salesman down the road. SHOW PEOPLE YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR THEM PERSONALLY/COMMUNITY, the universe will take care of everything else! Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Brian: I want to reach the million dollar mark in a year as far as billings. This is a unique fraternity in third party search industry, but I know I will do it soon. I need to hire/outsource more than I already do and totally immerse myself in client/candidate development. (I actually want to even start outsourcing my email) …; Added by Dave Mendoza at 12:19am on February 8, 2010

Topic: What do you think about this article in the Boston Business Journal?: By Mary Moore Kim Dukes-Rivers has expanded a Cornell University diversity program to Boston. A new diversity certification program being offered in Boston by Cornell University highlights the business case for encouraging differences in the workplace, including how generational differences can affect a company’s culture. Diversity can mean differences in race, economics, marital status, job status, age or sexual orientation — and each of these can affect a worker’s perception. To date, 13 executives from local companies and organizations are participating in the $9,000, five-month program, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Tufts Health Plan, Putnam Investments, Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada, University of Massachusetts Lowell and The Home for Little Wanderers, among others. The classes finish with an exam, and participants who receive a passing grade end up as certified diversity professionals. From February through May, another 28 people from area companies and organizations are taking an additional set of shorter diversity seminars, also offered through Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Cornell expanded its diversity program to Boston — only the second time the program is being offered outside New York — through the finesse of Kim Dukes-Rivers, founder of Diversity Staffing Pros, a year-old Boston firm. Dukes-Rivers said she knew of the program’s national reputation, and from her experience matching diverse candidates with employers, she was well aware of the need for Boston-area companies to deepen their understanding about diversity in the workplace. “This issue has moved from affirmative action to diversity to inclusion. It’s the difference between someone being invited to have a seat at the table and inviting them to be part of the conversation,” said Dukes-Rivers. And a business case can be made for workplace diversity, said diversity experts, centering on the fact that competitive companies and organizations are those that reflect the communities and markets they serve. “If we look at this only through the lenses of companies, they’ll say we’re all compliant and we’re very inclusive. But if you have a sales team that’s not reflective of the market, how successful are you going to be in penetrating a target market?” asked Darnell L. Williams, president and CEO of the Urban League of Massachusetts, which hosted a recent daylong seminar on diversity. In addition, it is more costly for a company to recruit and hire a new worker rather than make the environment comfortable enough for workers to stay. That’s among the reasons Blue Cross has four employees participating in the Cornell program, said Joyce Beach-Small, the health insurer’s director of diversity. Blue Cross wants to build a “workforce that reflects communities we serve. We want to be seen a market leader and an employer of choice,” she said. Most important, said Beach-Small and other workplace diversity experts, the Cornell program underscores the reality that workplace diversity has shifted from a conversation about compliance and the legal requirements of affirmative action to a deeper discussion about how to create an inclusive working environment. “There’s been a lot of talk about companies saying workers are their most important asset. How do you treat a best asset?” asked Robin Vann Ricca, senior director of workforce learning and development for The Home For Little Wanderers. “People respond to different things.” To that end, age and generational differences have become critical issues for employers to consider, complicated by the fact that, when groups form in the workplace, “age trumps ethnicity,” said Beach-Small. Younger workers of different races and ethnicities tend to bond and have more in common with each other, especially around technology, than with their older counterparts. “I wouldn’t say we should lose sight of other diversity issues we focus on,” said Beach-Small. “But the generational realities are phenomenal. Just phenomenal.”…; Added by Kim Dukes-Rivers at 4:59pm on February 16, 2010

Topic: The Longest Deal: job by default” At some point in every professional recruiter’s career, there is a certain deal that will be the defining moment in his/her career. A few will survive the experience and become great recruiters, while most will leave the profession, as a result. Here is the story of my defining moment; a deal that took two years to close. In November of 2009, a candidate, whom I have known for 15 years and have placed with her last two employers, sought my expertise in finding a suitable role in another country. I engaged in this search because her motivation to return to her homeland was a sincere one and there was a need for her skill-set in that part of the world. However I had no international recruitment experience and I was unfamiliar with the Asian business culture-but I thought the exposure could possibly lead to a new market for our services. MARKETING STRATEGY I went above and beyond my usual candidate marketing process on this particular assignment. I invested a significant amount of time in creating an on-line profile that would be accessible on the web. She has lived in the US for 20 years, so to market her international attributes, I created a profile that consisted of her resumes, photograph, personality test results, yearly sales performance graph, and a listing of countries in which she had reside. I also created a Twitter account, which was linked to her profile. The marketing strategy was to research/identify and follow executives/recruiters/employers; anyone on Twitter with a China interest or connection. I asked questions, participated in discussions on Asian oriented LinkedIn groups, created Google Alerts and RSS feeds for activities in that part of the world and learned as much as I could about China, as a market. In addition, I researched Asian niche job boards, created job alerts to email a link of her profile to potential hiring contacts. INTERVIEW PROCESS Two months into the strategy, one particular job lead prompted me to make phone calls to multiple people across the US in hopes of identifying the right person in China to present the candidate. I discovered that the right person was the head of the entire Asian pacific region for this global employer. The break came when one individual indicated that she would send an email along with my contact information to that individual. The challenge was to operate with a 12hr time difference; coordinating telephone interviews with folks in Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Australia and the US operations to move this 3 month interview process along. Looking back, all that effort was the easy part, because the problems started after the hiring manager decided to make an offer. CLOSING THE DEAL I learned that this particular hire would be the first of its kind for this particular region. This meant that new processes had to be created and implemented on the fly. It was also more challenging because China’s technological advancement was definitely about 10 years behind what we are accustomed in the United States. Also, the candidate’s demands from an acceptable offer perspective were even more challenging. (compensation, relocation, cost-of-living, retirement) as we had to take into account the before & after taxes, currency exchange rates, fluctuation in exchange rates and reporting responsibilities. I suggested that the hiring manager and candidate negotiate directly on these offer issues because the candidate certainly had more expertise on than I. During that period of time I received numerous phone calls of an urgent nature from the candidate -what’s taking so long? I really need to get out of here, dadadadah! After a few days without a call, I followed up with the candidate and I was shocked to learn that an unacceptable offer was verbally presented, but it didn’t matter because her current employer became aware that she was seeking to leave and is now trying to create a role for her in their China office. (A recruiter’s worst nightmare) A month later there was an announcement that her company was acquired by a competitor. I followed up with her and learned that her internal transfer was put on hold as her company now needed her skills to assist in the integration of both firms. Playing an instrumental role in the transition would create more meaningful opportunities for her career, she was told. SAVING THE DEAL She contacted me 3 months later and informed me that she is now willing to accept my offer if it was still on the table and if it was an improvement above the initial offer. I contacted the hiring manager and the offer was increased, plus a huge upfront and back-end bonus .plus relocation and living allowance; everything that the candidate asked for. She verbally accepted the offer and requested a start date of 4 months; because the Christmas holidays were approaching and it would allow her to collect her bonus that was not yet paid. And also to follow through on her present employer’s planned trip to China. Another purpose of the trip was to meet with the hiring manager, who would travel from Singapore to China to sign the offer letter and discuss plans and strategies. Upon her return to the States, she indicated that she had some concerns about the healthcare delivery system in China as she had a health related emergency which the medical professionals suspected to be cancer. Follow-up test were done in the US and thank goodness, all results were negative. That’s the good news; the bad news was that she was so concerned about her health while in China; she returned home without connecting with her new boss. (Who can blame her, given her state of mind!) Now that her health was no longer an issue, she needed to resign from her current employer and begin making plans to start her new job with her new employer in a new country. However, the hiring manager has not contacted her or retuned her phone calls. (My calls to the hiring manager were also unreturned) The candidate was devastated as she told me (90 minutes conversation) that her new boss was unaware of her health issues and totally mis-read the situation. (Since she left China without signing the offer letter; it was portrayed as not only as a turn-down, but she (hiring manager) was played for a fool after putting her neck on the line to get her what she wanted in an offer) But upon hearing the actual story, the hiring manager expressed sorrow because she had extended the offer to another member of her team-who was not qualified to handle the job done. (At that time I realized that after 20 years in recruiting, this was the worst deal of my career; one in which everyone involved came out on the losing end, including the individual who was given the job by default.) Three months later I received an email for the China HR Director indicating that we needed to discuss my placement fee. I contacted my candidate and learned that the hiring manager had kept in touch with candidate, made some changes in the division and had re-extended the offer-which she has accepted. Also, she had turned in her letter of resignation; a start date had been determined and the relocation process was in progress. Fast forward, a few days prior to her departure to China, I received an email from the candidate, indicating that the work-permit was declined as she had failed her physical examination. (A work permit is a requirement for non-citizens to work in China) Instead of getting on a flight to leave the country, she was checking into a specialty hospital for further evaluations. The candidate called a few days later to inform me of her specific condition (it was serious) with also a dose of reality. She was unemployed, unsure of her own health situation, paying expensive cobra health insurance premiums and not knowing her next step in life. For a period of six months, the hiring manager, as well as myself continued to keep in touch with the candidate, providing guidance and support. Follow-up test were conducted and happily, the results were favorable which led to the issuance of a work permit. After another month of internal red tape and new batch of signature authorizations, I received a voicemail from the candidate (Oct 21 2011) thanking me for my efforts and that she will reconnect when she get settled in China. What have I learned from this experience? Nothing new, but this experience certainly solidified many things that I have heard before. Technology, specifically social media tools in the hands of a good recruiter, will make that recruiter more effective in creating placement opportunities where opportunity did not exist. The skills of the old school recruiter is valued more in other countries where people still care about people, and have not yet replace them with the latest, cheap, fast and easy automated solutions. To recruit top talent, it is the reputation and track record of the hiring manager that should be sold; more so than the role, the employer brand or the career opportunity. The successful hiring managers win by exceeding expectations to show how much they care. Sometime it involves breaking rules to make it possible. And, restricting a recruiter from interacting with a hiring manager is one rule that should be broken. How much pain, failure or frustration should you endure before you give up on a goal that is important to you? The candidate and the hiring manager demonstrated that you should never give up because the pain is nothing; compare to the satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment that you will receive when that goal is achieved. …; Added by Ken Forrester at 9:05pm on November 5, 2011

Blog Post: Are You Burnt Out or Do You Need a New Career?

It’s Monday. Again. If you’re dreading work, it could that you just need a little break, a mini vacation to boost your morale and not want to stab…

Added by Devin Caldwell at 2:30pm on August 22, 2017

Blog Post: Employee Perks & Benefits: 20 Ideas, Types, & Examples: In today’s candidate-driven market, employee benefits and perks can be the difference between attracting and retaining top-performing talent and losing them to the competition. So you’re probably…; Added by Phil Strazzulla at 2:33am on October 21, 2022