Search Results - opportunities

Blog Post: How can you boost retail sales using visual merchandising?: Although the likes of Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser have fell on tough times, there’s still plenty opportunity for retail stores to maximise their sales…; Added by Caitlin Purvis at 9:48am on November 1, 2018

Topic: Meet Maha Akiki, RBC Regular: d and I recently celebrated our ten year anniversary. We have two boys. Damian is 6 ½ and Aidan is almost 2 years old. Princy, the cat, has allowed me to share her space for the past 12 years. Damian started first grade in September, and this is his third year attending a French school. He is already the star mathematician in his class, and is a very good reader. Aidan is on his way to becoming champion of “How to get what I want,” as all three of us spoil him rotten – except for Princy, she goes into hiding whenever he approaches. We’re a multicultural household. I was born in Lebanon, lived in Greece for five years, in Southern California for two years, before settling in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where I met my husband who was born in Egypt. Both of us had travelled a lot in our childhood, and extended that into our adult life. Even Aidan is shaping up to become a world traveler, having been to Greece at the age of 8 months. He will have difficulties catching up to his older brother though, who has already been to Greece (twice), Spain, Italy, and Jamaica – he can also claim being to Egypt and Lebanon when he was in mommy’s tummy. Six Degrees: How many years as a recruiter? Maha: I have been in recruitment for the past ten years, starting as a third party recruiter, and moving into the corporate recruitment world shortly after. I have been working as an Independent *Corporate* Recruiter for the past 6 years. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Maha: I always knew I wanted to be a recruiter when I grew up. No, not really. With a BSc. in Psychology, and having completed my Masters coursework in Marriage, Therapy, and Child Therapy, at the University of La Verne (California), I had no knowledge of the existence of that species. I came to Toronto 12 years ago, and had my first exposure to Agency Recruiters. I found myself more interested in what they did, as opposed to the job they were telling me about. I knew then, it was a career I needed to learn more about. I started recruiting for the engineering industry, and did that both as an agency recruiter, as well as working for a Consulting Engineering company. I also worked in the Finance Industry, and later found my niche in the Life Sciences industry, whether be it pharma, biotech, lab equipment, or, currently, medical devices. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Maha: I cannot think of one single event that strongly impacted my career in recruitment, or left a significant mark in my life as a recruiter. I believes it was a series of small *dents.* I, like many others, never had any formal training in recruitment. I was lucky, though, to have started around the same time the internet was becoming more “public.” And in 1999, I discovered ERE (at the time when headhunter.net was free, and information on the internet was more free-flowing), and became an avid reader of each and every article, every forum - there were no blogs then -, and even had the opportunity to attend one of Barbara Ling’s seminars in 2000. As more personalities emerged and forged a name for themselves in the world of recruitment, I followed them – okay stalked them. As more tools became available, I grabbed them (thank you Shally for the LinkedIn invite in 2004), and learnt how to use them. As communities were built, I became part of them. And I read, and I studied, and I tried, and I failed, and I succeeded. And when I look back at my life, I can say that, ten years later, those small dents definitely left a big mark. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Maha: I owe a lot of my on-the-job learning to Art Boyle, my boss at Canpro Executive Search. When I worked with him back in 2000-2001, he was the owner of an exclusively retainer agency. Art did not post his roles. He did not believe in job boards, or even in Newspaper ads. Cold calling and getting references were his tools. He taught me how to use those tools; and he taught me the power of forging relationships, not only with the hiring managers, but more importantly with the candidates. Whether you have placed them, or not, he believed, one day you will need that individual on the other side of the line; either to place in two, three years from now, when they have gained more experience, or to ask for a referral; or maybe, even, as a client. Six Degrees: Tell us about your work Maha: When I take on a contract, I am often a sole recruiter supporting the organization. As a corporate recruiter, I support all businesses in their recruitment needs, and manage vendors. I am involved in all aspect of the recruitment process, from assessing and understanding the needs of a hiring manager, and how it relates to the company objectives; sourcing; screening; interviewing; feedback; reference checking; and negotiating and presenting the offer. Six Degrees: (A) What other companies' recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples? Maha: Organizations in Ontario have a long way to go to become leaders in recruitment, and, unfortunately, I cannot think of a company which I can say stands out from the crowd. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Maha: One cannot hide from the current situation and the economical downturn. Will it negatively impact my current consulting role? At this time, I don’t think so. While other companies are downsizing, we are still going strong, and looking at increasing the workforce by 50% within the next six months. Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Maha: To keep doing what I am doing. Keep learning, and improving. I enjoy working on a consultant basis, joining a new company, looking at how they view recruitment, showing them the value of recruitment, improving their process, and most importantly bringing new talent on board. Recommendations For Maha “I had the pleasure of working on the same team with Maha @ IDEXX and partnered with her on several occassions. Besides being a delight to work with, Maha brings a professionalism and wealth of experience to the table which is invaluable. I highly recommend Maha's work and hope to partner with her in the future.” May 19, 2008 Ann-Marie Abbott, Contract Healthcare Recruiter, IDEXX Laboratories “Maha is a well-rounded recruiter with experience in the corporate, staffing, and executive recruitment fields. She brought a wealth of strengths to our team including knowledge of the Canadian market, outstanding sourcing and research skills, creativity, technical savvy, and professionalism. She is a seasoned recruiter capable of learning quickly and tackling new challenges. It was a pleasure having Maha on my team. I counted on her expertise to launch a successful recruiting program across Canada.” May 14, 2008 Cydney Runions, Sr. Recruiter (Reference Labs Recruiting Manager), IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. “Maha is an exceptional Recruiter and team member. Though Maha and I had a long distance working relationship, we worked extremely well together. Maha is very detail oriented and has great work ethic. Maha always made herself available for questions and had excellent follow through. Maha was able to work through difficult situations by keeping a calm presence. She will be missed!” May 13, 2008 Jessica Warren, Employment Coordinator, IDEXX Laboratories “Maha was a very responsive, knowledgeable & trusted member of HR who greatly facilitated my integration into Bayer.” March 12, 2008 Rahul Ghosh, Brand Manager, Bayer Inc. “Maha is truly a professional in her field. She has a keen sense of urgency that I appreciate as a salesforce manager. Her expertise and ability to screen potential hires has enabled me to focus on what I need to do and mimimize my time interviewing poor candidates. It has been a pleasure working with Maha.” April 27, 2006 Ernie Chow, Corporate Recruiter, Amex “Maha and I worked together at American Express, although our time was brief she showed extreme professionalism in her work.” February 27, 2006 Ted Pierni, Manager, Talent Acquisition, American Express “It was a privilege to have had the opportunity to work with Maha at Amex. She is a professional, resourceful and dedicated Recruiter. She is a master at building relationships, sourcing candidates and ensuring that her clients' needs are met. It was truly a pleasure working with and getting to know Maha.” February 23, 2006 Mariam Medina, Corporate Recruiter, Amex Canada Inc. “I had the priviledge of working with Maha during her tenure with American Express. I found her to be a very positive, enthusastic and dedicated Recruiter. Maha's ability to build relationships with her Business Leaders was evident in the feedback our department received with regards to her performance. As a colleague she was great to work with and with her great sense of humour, great fun.” February 20, 2006 James Britton, Corporate Recruiter, American Express “It was a pleasure working with Maha at American Express. We were able to not only develop a professional relationship but a personal one as well. She is very knowledgeable in her field of recruiting, and will continue to keep in touch hoping our paths will cross again in the future.” February 19, 2006 Natasha Wakefield, Recruiter, American Express “Maha is the epitome of today's corporate recruiter: She's highly resourceful; research oriented; technologically savvy; and adept at relationship building.” February 19, 2006 Nigel Peña, Human Resources Business Partner, Wyeth “I highly recommend Maha for her exceptional ability to build networks which exponentially impact her ability to connect her clients with top caliber talents. Maha is a very talented and ethical person and her work was greatly appreciated at Wyeth.” April 3, 2006 Peivand Pirouzi, Ph.D., M.B.A., Professor / Corporate Trainer in Clinical Pharmacology, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals “I highly enjoyed working with Maha. She is a very solid hands on HR person who has a sense of urgency in booking interviews for talented candidates and as well, is fair when reviewing candidates' backgrounds. It felt like a team working towards the same goal. February 13, 2006 Linda Boufford, Wyeth “As a fellow ERE contributor with Maha I have observed first hand a sharp intelect and willingness to explore all options to get the job done.” December 22, 2004 Shally Steckerl “I worked closely with Maha during a major pharmaceutical sales force expansion. A large project such as this can be a stressful time. However, Maha's ability to prioritize and exceptional time management skills allowed the project to come to a successful conclusion. She was a pleasure to work with and she treated me - her supplier - as a full member of the team. A true professional!” December 22, 2004 Laird Holms, Recruitment Consultant/Recruitment Specialist, RBC “I was impressed with Maha's resourcefulness in finding passive candidates and her professionalism in dealing with all levels of staff.” February 25, 2006 Alexandra Small, Bilingual Recruiter, RBC Financial “I have known Maha for about three years. She's a pleasure to work with, knowledgable and extremely professional. What she did best was partnered with the business and clients. She will be an asset to any team she joins.” February 15, 2006 Ryan Lutchman “I worked with Maha at RBC. Maha is a great person, she excels in everything she does. She is full of knowledge and always willing to share her information with others. Maha is a solid HR/Recruitment professional.” February 14, 2006 Cathy Taylor, Talent Acquisition Specialist, Ceridian “Maha and I worked together on a hiring project for RBC Financial Group in 2002. Her dedication, expertise, and communication were invaluable as we faced high volumes and tight deadlines. She is a true teamplayer!” December 28, 2004 Tina Iantorno, Recruitment Consultant, RBC Financial Group “Maha is one of the most professional and respectful recruiters I have ever worked with, offering a high degree of integrity, creativity in her candidate sourcing, a clear focus, and a calm and clear-headed approach to managing any challenge. Maha was a lead contributor to RBC's critical recruitment initiatives.” December 22, 2004 Lisa Kruger, Recruitment & Retention Specialist, RBC Financial Group…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 11:17pm on December 21, 2008

Topic: Meet Rob Wetzel, Recruiting Operations Manager & Three Decades of Staffing Innovation: eries please click here. • Rob Wetzel • Recruiting Operations Manager, Compucom • Rohrersville, MD • RecruitingBlogs Profile • Linkedin • Facebook • Email Rob Wetzel has served for nearly 3 decades as a strategic thinker and results driven staffing manager providing best in class recruiting innovations. His career has reflected an expertise in technology as it relates to recruiting processes, identifying talent and deploying Talent Management Systems. Rob has been responsible for creating and implementing the strategy to acquire 800 – 1,400 employees per year within North America. He partnered with business leaders across the company to understand their needs and deployed a strategic staffing solution which improved the retention rate by 35%. He created workforce planning to help forecast future talent needs, talent availability, areas of potential talent problems, and retention. Rob developed a new career website for US and Canada to focus on employment branding and talent cultivation which became the focus to show Getronics as a “best-in-class” employer and was highly recognized by Recruiting Roundtable. His contributions in ATS design and implementation led to major enhancements which increased ROI and enhanced recruiter performance by 40%. Rob was responsible for innovations in multiple system reports to build a metrics dashboard to reflect Recruiter performance, Hiring Manager performance, time to fill, time to interview, cost per hire, cost per source, etc. Q&A with Rob Wetzel Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world. Rob: I’ve been married to my wonderful wife for 27 years. We live in Maryland and have been blessed with 3 magnificent kids. It’s hard to believe they really aren’t kids any more. Our oldest daughter is successful in her career as a VP within her division. She has 2 sons that really keep us young. When my oldest grandson came home from his first day as a 6th grader, I asked him if he was smarter than a 5th grader. His response was “real funny Pap”. My younger grandson loves for me to do magic tricks for him. Our middle age daughter took up the Nursing route and works at our local hospital. She works crazy shifts and sometimes puts in 16 hours a day. She was a tom-boy growing up and played softball in high school and college. Our son is a Sophomore at West Virginia University where he is in the drumline. We enjoy attending the home football games to watch him perform. He is double majoring in Forestry Resource Management and Wildlife and Fisheries Management. He loves anything outdoors, especially hunting and fishing. Over the years, I have enjoyed building various additions to our home on my own. We have a 12 yr. old German Shepherd, a 5 yr. old pound dog who is a black border collie, and my daughters Jack Russell who has way too much energy. We also have 6 pigmy goats that everyone loves to play with. My wife and I have been very involved in all of the activities of our kids. Our daughters were selected to cheer at different Pro Bowl games in Hawaii. I coached baseball, basketball, and soccer when my son played. He also was the drum/percussion captain in our HS band. Although I’m very competitive in nature, I am a good sport. My wife tells me that I have a lot of patience, especially when things don’t always go right. I’ve learned through the years how to handle the bad with the good. Six Degrees: What do enjoy doing on your time off? Rob: I enjoy sports, the outdoors, and building/fixing things. Each year I look forward in going to the beach and hunting with my son. The family loves to travel and a few years ago we decided to take a month to travel out west. We logged just a little over 7,000 miles in our camper. It was amazing to see some of the beautiful sights of nature in person. For 10 years I was president of our local high school Athletic Boosters and my wife was secretary. I am very involved in my church and currently function as the Building Chair of a new $1.9 M facility that we are adding to our current structure. My wife and I were Youth leaders for many years. I am also a Certified Lay Speaker and have shared sermons at our church as well as other congregations. We are involved in “Partner’s In Hope” which is part of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. We look forward each month to receive an update on each child we are helping to battle that ugly 6 letter word “CANCER”. It’s gratifying to be able to help make a difference in another person’s life. My family has also been doing “Volunteers In Missions” work for 16 years with our church. We help to rebuild homes for those who have lost their homes usually by hurricanes or flooding in many states. The past 3 years we have gone to Mississippi and Louisiana in helping to rebuild from the disasters from Katrina and Ike. Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? Rob: I have been in the recruiting world for 29 years. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Rob: Since my dad owned an agency, he persuaded me to try it out for 6months. My first impression was why would I want to do this type of job and had the feeling that I wasn’t going to like it. My college education was leading me towards computer programming. After a few months I was surprised that I started to enjoy this profession and looked forward to talk with people and to figure out what made each person tick. As I look back on my interviewing techniques, I think I started doing behavioral interviewing on my own before I even became certified in it many years later at GE. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Rob: Early in my career, I helped to coach an applicant that had just moved to the states. This person was very intelligent and just needed a chance to prove herself. I worked hard in trying to find her an opportunity where she could grow with a company. After several months, I placed her with a Fortune 500 company. A number of years later, I ran into her and found that she was a Sr. Mgr. of a large technology group and was looking to fulfill a large development contract which she had out for bid. I would like to think she awarded this contract to me because I helped her out earlier in her career. She mentioned that she knew I would work hard on the project and felt comfortable that I would complete it on time. I did deliver the project on time and within budget. I have recognized over time that when you go the extra mile to help others, it always comes back tenfold. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? There are a few mentors out there, but I think I really gravitated to Jack Welch’s philosophy when I worked for GE. He communicated regularly that he wanted people to think outside of the box. I know that is an old cliché but I find myself one of those people. I’m always trying to streamline a process, increase the ROI, or finding a way to use technology to enhance productivity. Six Degrees: Tell us about your contributions in your various roles throughout your staffing career Rob: For many years I was the Recruiting Operations Manager at Getronics which recently was acquired by Compucom. My recruiting organization was honorably mentioned at ERE’s Excellence Award ceremony for “Most Strategic Use of Technology” and “Most Innovative Recruiting Process or Departmental Solutions”. I strived to make sure we had the best processes available within the recruiting organization. I enjoyed finding ways to make recruiting more efficient especially when we hired between 800 to 1,400 employees per year. I have about 15 yrs experience in developing, redesigning, and implementing several Applicant Tracking Systems. I also have served on the Advisory Board for several Talent Management companies. I enjoy mentoring my staff and working with senior management to create strategic plans to fill the staffing needs of the organization. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Rob: One of the areas is social networking. Many people have been using sites such as Linkedin, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. As more people continue to use these social networks, the dynamics in recruiting will continue to evolve as well as technology. These social avenues provide more opportunities to build larger networks and to tap into higher level forum groups. Six Degrees: Have you participated in speaking events, publications, or other recognitions where you have you represented your company: Rob: Spoke at the ERE convention in San Diego a few years ago regarding “Maximizing Your Metrics Across the Organization”. I mentioned earlier of the two awards we received from ERE which were “Most Strategic Use of Technology” and “Most Innovative Recruiting Process or Departmental Solutions”. Recruiting Roundtable also recognized Getronics recruiting website as “Best In Class” in 2006 after we spent time upgrading our branding presence. Six Degrees: Worst mistake, biggest goof, lousiest practice you thought would fly but didn’t…and how that was a learning experience? Rob: I worked for an agency a long time ago that started to use 90 second video clips on Program/Project Managers. We would invite them in and shoot a 90 second bio clip that we would share with our clients. One client that I visited had just upgraded from the old Beta tapes to VHS. Unfortunately, when I met with several VP’s to review these candidates profile, I realized very quickly that I couldn’t share the videos because I had Beta tapes. Lesson learned was to be better prepared to meet specific requirements of today’s ever-changing market. Six Degrees: How do you personally expect to facilitate change within our industry, and/or at your place of work? If you started that process, outline the problem, your solutions, and the vision. Rob: Integrating talent management modules within one application. Many companies today have multiple applications (onboarding, workforce planning, performance management, etc.) from different vendors and are having major issues in getting them to talk to one another. Getronics was one of those companies. Many man hours are spent in trying to integrate these modules and usually end up with a spider web nightmare. Most of your common ATS vendors offer these modules that integrate with one other as well as with Peoplesoft, SAP, Oracle, etc. It will cost some money on the front end but will save time, money, and many hours of frustration in the long run by purchasing these modules from your ATS vendor so you can track everything within the same application. Six Degrees: “Best practice” you are most proud of developing (now or in the past) in your recruiting career? Rob: At Getronics, I received an operational excellence award for being the driving force to streamline the recruiting process. I implemented and rolled out an electronic version of the old manual process to approve requisitions. I took a 2-3 week approval process down to an average of 1-2 days. Some requisitions were approved within hours utilizing this new application. I also was able to provide a bonus for the approvers so they could see where the requisition was in the process and who still needed to approve it in real-time. Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Rob: I’m currently searching for a management or consulting opportunity where I can be an integral part in driving and enhancing the overall recruiting process.…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 11:13pm on December 20, 2009

Blog Post: Choose Your Team Talent Wisely: What it Takes to Build the Team of Your Dreams

Have you ever thought you hired the workplace version of John Wayne, only to find out you’ve been duped and ended up with a Woody Allen? Poor…; Added by Margaret Graziano at 5:05am on October 2, 2008

Blog Post: Recruitment Strategy Development – Corporate Sourcing: RecruiterGuy has noticed over the years that the words “recruit” and” source” are sometimes used interchangeably. Sourcing is certainly part of the recruiting process, and you may be communicating…; Added by Bill Humbert at 3:01pm on August 26, 2009

Blog Post: Diversity - Strategic Recruiting and Outreach

Rich Peterson's Ten Up and Down Sides for Diversity in the Workplace:

1.) Upsides

a.) Organizations that continue to hire,…

Added by Richard Peterson at 4:32pm on October 1, 2013

Blog Post: Stop showing candidates your A S S umptions: Are you making premature assumptions about applicants or candidates? Here’s a few common categories focused on finding the right fit. Do you see anything potentially wrong with these ways of…; Added by Kelly Blokdijk at 11:19pm on October 16, 2013

Blog Post: Jobs for Sale! Recruiters, Big Data & Data Privacy: After attending a number of Recruiting and HR conferences this fall, I have…; Added by Nicole Greenberg Strecker, Esq at 12:00pm on October 31, 2013

Blog Post: Why Sourcing Isn't Dead...Yet.: My immersion into the world of recruiting and HR started in sourcing, and the…; Added by Matt Charney at 10:31am on January 3, 2014