Pete Jay DuCharme's Posts - RecruitingBlogs2024-03-28T11:20:49ZPete Jay DuCharmehttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/PeteJayDuCharmehttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1526949779?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=0e66ym8qb3166&xn_auth=no5 Factors a Hiring Manager Should Not Ignoretag:recruitingblogs.com,2017-08-10:502551:BlogPost:20367072017-08-10T17:00:00.000ZPete Jay DuCharmehttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/PeteJayDuCharme
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<p><strong>5 Factors a hiring manager should not ignore when selecting candidates</strong></p>
<p>Many small businesses depend on the expertise of their hiring managers when making crucial recruitment decisions on the company’s behalf. Although selecting the right candidate to fill a vacancy within…</p>
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<p><strong>5 Factors a hiring manager should not ignore when selecting candidates</strong></p>
<p>Many small businesses depend on the expertise of their hiring managers when making crucial recruitment decisions on the company’s behalf. Although selecting the right candidate to fill a vacancy within a company can be demanding, certain factors exist that can help solidify and improve the candidate selection method. Listed below are five factors that hiring managers should not ignore when selecting applicants for an available position. </p>
<h2>1. Past Experience</h2>
<p>The most prominent indicator of a candidate's future potential is his or her past performance. If a candidate was highly motivated, hardworking, creative, and team-oriented throughout their last job, the same is highly likely to be true in his or her new role. Similarly, a candidate who lacked the energy and drive to surpass expectations in their prior role will oftentimes carry that same attitude toward performance into their new position. Of course, that is not to say that people cannot develop more productive habits and traits when working, only that it is often difficult to change these characteristics without hard work.</p>
<h2>2. Interpersonal Skills</h2>
<p>Candidates that can create strong personal and professional relationships with their colleagues help to enhance the overall atmosphere at work. Stronger relationships bolster communication amongst employees, and this leads to increased productivity and creativity. You want to hire people who abide by your company’s values, and also people who believe in your company’s vision and mission. When a candidate demonstrates that their personal goals align with the goals of your company, it shows their aptitude for the position. Furthermore, a candidate who already possesses an understanding and knowledge of the operations of your business will allow a more seamless transition into that role, helping to save time for both the employer and employee.</p>
<h2>3. Appreciation For The Position</h2>
<p>Another key aspect to watch for when screening potential candidates is determining their appreciation for the position on offer. Someone who feels overqualified or underqualified for a position will not be able to deliver their best, thus impacting their overall productivity. The right person to higher is someone who feels that no task is above or below his or her standard. You want to higher someone who performs and approaches every aspect of their job with the same motivation, passion, and attitude that they demonstrated when they interviewed for the position.</p>
<h2>4. Firsthand Observation</h2>
<p>Watching candidates perform some of the tasks for which you wish to hire them is the most reliable method of judging their competence. For this reason, an increasing number of companies today hire candidates on a temporary basis, in the hopes that the employee displays the necessary competence to perform adequately that position.</p>
<h2>5. A Fitting Personality</h2>
<p>Regardless of how impressive a candidate’s resume is, if their personality does not match well with your team, then the decision has to be made if that person is right for the job. Qualification and experience mean nothing if the candidate cannot work well with others. Asking personal questions and background details will help you take a good peek into the applicant’s personality and help you decide if they are suitable for the position.</p>
<p>What did I miss?</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-factors-hiring-manager-should-ignore-pete-ducharme" target="_blank"> </a></strong></p>
<p>Pete DuCharme</p>
<p><a href="http://mailto:Pete.DuCharme@confianceanalytix.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Pete.DuCharme@confianceanalytix.com</a></p>
<p>708-390-1626</p>
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<p>As I discussed a few weeks ago, diversification within the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) sector is a major issue. Although the majority of the workforce is comprised of women, very few women have tech jobs. And a similar issue is posed with minorities. Diversification within the tech industry is a slow-going revolution. Which strikes me as…</p>
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<p>As I discussed a few weeks ago, diversification within the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) sector is a major issue. Although the majority of the workforce is comprised of women, very few women have tech jobs. And a similar issue is posed with minorities. Diversification within the tech industry is a slow-going revolution. Which strikes me as odd given the numerous proven benefits of diversification within tech companies, benefits such as;</p>
<h2>Returns on Investments:</h2>
<p>Everyone wants higher ROIs, regardless of what it is that you’re doing. Diversification has proven benefits in multiple ways when it comes to ROI. Within Fortune 500 companies alone, those who had three or more women directors saw the following benefits;</p>
<ul>
<li>At least 53% increase in return on equity compared to those who had fewer than three women directors.</li>
<li>At least 42% increase in return on sales when compared to companies who had fewer women directors.</li>
<li>At least 66% increase on invested capital return in contrast to those companies who had less than three women directors.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Less Capital</h2>
<p>On average, women who ran start-ups successfully started their companies with 1/8th of the funding as the start-ups that were run by men. Less start-up capital means fewer investors that have a stakehold in your company, and fewer paychecks are being written to non-employees, which keeps more residuals in the company’s pockets. However, it would only be fair to point out that 93% of investor money goes to male run start-ups leaving women with the mouse’s share of the money (7%.)</p>
<p>While there is no definitive explanation as to why women were able to successful start a start-up with less capital, it shows the tenacity of female entrepreneurs and certainly demonstrates how they could be an asset to any company.</p>
<h2>Higher Revenues</h2>
<p>Even with less start-up capital, women were able to produce higher revenue and a better ROIs on average than male-run companies. On average women-run companies (similar to companies with female executives) had a 35% higher ROI. While women run venture-backed companies earned 12% more income on average than venture-backed companies run by men. Again, while there is no definitive reason for this large jump in income, it’s worth taking note of when it comes to the benefits diversification plays in a business.</p>
<h2>Cumulative Intelligence</h2>
<p>When all male businesses were tested on their cumulative intelligence (or their average collective intelligence as a team) they scored lower than those who had women on staff. As I argued a few weeks ago, different genders, races, and cultures all have a different perspective and unique knowledge they can offer the team as a whole. Thus, bringing up the cumulative intelligence score. Diversity is also a key competent to innovation and ingenuity when it comes to the performing team as a whole.</p>
<h2>Women within Fortune 500 and Fortune 1,000</h2>
<p>Women CEOs within Fortune 1,000 companies were compared to men within S&P 500 on how well they could increase ROI and grow the business as a whole. On average, the women of Fortune 1000 produced <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/03/03/women-led-companies-perform-three-times-better-than-the-sp-500/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">226% more return on equity</a> than the men of S&P 500. While there is no definitive reason as to why this is, Karen Ruben offered this for reasoning; “Most think it has to do with how hard women have to work to become CEO at such big companies in the first place.”</p>
<h2>To Further the Argument for Diversity</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/employment-and-growth/how-advancing-womens-equality-can-add-12-trillion-to-global-growth" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">According to the calculations from McKinsey</a>, if more women were funded within the tech sector, by 2025 $12 trillion (yes, with a ‘t’) could be added to the global GPD by 2025- just a few years from now. However, as much as $28 trillion could be added if the movement to diversify the workforce within tech were taken seriously.</p>
<h2>What Can Be Done?</h2>
<p>If a real effort is to be made, “Tech companies must take the lead to publicize what they're doing and how they’re doing in diversifying their workforce.” <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/6/2/11834380/craig-newmark-women-tech-funding-gender-gap-diversity" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Says Craig Newmark from Recode</a>. With an additional layer of transparency, we can see what- if anything- is being done to better the diversity within tech. But we need more than just transparency, we need a revolution, "If we’re going to solve the toughest problems facing our communities nationally and globally, we must foster a culture of greater diversity and level the playing field for talented women in tech," says <a href="http://file///C:/Users/pducharme/Downloads/womenwhotech.org" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Allyson Kapin from WomenWhoTech</a>. There is more to this issue than talent, culture, big organizational mangers, and pipelines alone- everything needs to change before we can see true diversity.</p>
<p><strong>What are your thoughts on the way companies handle diversification? What do you think needs to be done about it, if anything? Let me know your thoughts below!</strong></p>7 Eye-Opening Statistics About Women and Minorities in Techtag:recruitingblogs.com,2017-02-24:502551:BlogPost:20051732017-02-24T17:20:39.000ZPete Jay DuCharmehttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/PeteJayDuCharme
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<p>It’s not a secret that the technology sector has massive gender gaps between men and women, even though women make up the vast majority of the working force, the gap is nowhere near closing. It doesn’t appear to be an education issue either, as women hold more Bachelors and Graduate degrees than men. Many companies argue that the gender gap is a simple pipeline issue,…</p>
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<p>It’s not a secret that the technology sector has massive gender gaps between men and women, even though women make up the vast majority of the working force, the gap is nowhere near closing. It doesn’t appear to be an education issue either, as women hold more Bachelors and Graduate degrees than men. Many companies argue that the gender gap is a simple pipeline issue, that is to say that there aren’t enough women and minorities studying for STEM (science, tech, engineering, and mathematics.) But the numbers reveal that there is certainly another reason for such a lack of diversity within the STEM sector. The same can be said for minorities in tech, even though diversification leads to a higher cumulative intelligence score and more company earnings overall, the tech game is still a white male dominated arena. You can look at the stats below to decide for yourself where the problem lies.</p>
<h2>56% of professionally held jobs are held by women</h2>
<p>If this number surprises you, it should! Since women have such a low hold rate in technology (more on that below) and we have such few women leaders (never mind the incredible rarities of women leaders in tech) the fact that the majority of professionally held jobs are taken by women is quite surprising.</p>
<h2>What Women Are Doing:</h2>
<p>Women hold 11% of executive roles at Fortune 500 companies, and 4.6% hold the title of CEO. And a similarly small number of women own tech start-up, averaging a whopping 5%. But the strangest thing is that women are starting businesses at 1.5x the national average, meaning that more women are starting more businesses, and faster than men.</p>
<h2>Minorities in Large Tech Companies</h2>
<p>According to <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/07/30/tech-companies-diveristy/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Fortune’s study</a> on large tech companies, on average, women hold only 1/3 of the tech jobs in large tech companies like Intel, Microsoft, HP, and LinkedIn. Within the same companies, minorities hold even a smaller share of the jobs; Native Americans being the smallest percentage with an average of 0.2% (<1%.) Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders were tied around 0.3% (<1%.) Blacks held the third lowest percentage of jobs, averaging 5% and Hispanics held about 7% of the jobs at these large tech companies. LinkedIn had the largest percentage of Asian workers, averaging 40% of their employees, and out of the largest companies polled, HP had the lowest rate of diversity across the board- Asians alone held only 14.4% of the jobs.</p>
<h2>Leadership within Large Tech Companies:</h2>
<p>Within leadership, the stats become even more dismal, Native Americans and Native Hawaiians hold 0.1% of leadership roles each (<1%.) On average for the largest tech companies that were included in the survey, 76.42% of leadership roles were held by Caucasians, leaving the remaining 23.58% of roles to other ethnicities.</p>
<h2>Women within Smaller Tech Companies</h2>
<p>When smaller tech companies are included women only hold 25% of the tech jobs available on average. Although there were no formal statistics that I could find on the topic of minorities within smaller tech companies, one would be inclined to believe that the ratio of minorities to Caucasians would also be lower.</p>
<h2>The Benefits of Diversification</h2>
<p>In the next few weeks I’m going to write an entire article covering the benefits companies have seen when they make a real effort to diversify their talent pool, but for now, I’ll keep it short. Companies have seen a boost in equity, retention, acquisition, and cumulative intelligence- all from simply hiring a more diverse pool of workers. Even though this seems surprising on face value, under the surface it’s not so surprising. Different genders, races, and cultures all come from different paths, which give them different perspectives and fresh takes on how to improve a business or a product. When you add additional diversity, you open up the door to innovation, which leads to a better work/life satisfaction for employees, which leads to better retention- and all of it adds up to more money in the end, which leads to happier stockholders and more equity. It’s essentially business 101.</p>
<h2>So… Why is it Not Happening?</h2>
<p>Even though diversification has proven benefits, there is still a major gap- not only for women, but also for minorities! According to <a href="http://file///C:/Users/pducharme/Downloads/womenwhotech.org" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">WomenWhoTech</a>, 40% of females say that companies don’t spend enough time ensuring diversity has been addressed, versus 82% if men who says that companies have spent enough time addressing diversity. Since the vast majority of the hiring within the tech sector is done by men, one could argue that this stat has some valuable insight into not only the gender gap, but also the gap between Caucasians and minorities. However, most companies argue that it’s either <a href="http://www.themuse.com/advice/solving-the-pipeline-problem-how-to-get-more-women-in-tech" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">something to do with the pipeline</a>, or something to do with the way women are <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/10/the-lack-of-women-in-tech-is-more-than-a-pipeline-problem/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">being raised to keep with status quo</a></p>
<p><strong>Have you made up your mind as to why there is such a large gap in the tech sector? If so, I want to hear from you, comment below!</strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557609808?profile=original" target="_self"><br/></a></p>5 Signs it’s Time to Consider Hiring a Consultanttag:recruitingblogs.com,2016-12-05:502551:BlogPost:19953902016-12-05T16:00:00.000ZPete Jay DuCharmehttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/PeteJayDuCharme
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<p>A few weeks ago I discussed some recruiting and hiring trends that were on the rise in 2016, and are expected to continue rising in 2017. Although that was by no means a thorough examination of the current composition of the average business environment, the reoccurring theme was, in short: increased use of technology.</p>
<p>Both in the business and technology world,…</p>
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<p>A few weeks ago I discussed some recruiting and hiring trends that were on the rise in 2016, and are expected to continue rising in 2017. Although that was by no means a thorough examination of the current composition of the average business environment, the reoccurring theme was, in short: increased use of technology.</p>
<p>Both in the business and technology world, advancements are made almost monthly in order to stay ahead of the curve. This requires a professional prospective on what’s currently on the market, what is going to work for your business, what current market trends are on the rise, and what’s needed to streamlines your business’ processes.</p>
<p>There are some new consulting trends on the rise that every business owner should be aware of. If your business falls into one or more of the trending categories below, it’s highly advisable that you consider hiring a consultant to help with your specific needs:</p>
<p><strong>1. You have a large staff</strong></p>
<p>Manpower is the key to on-boarding. Traditional in-house IT departments simply can’t handle the workload of on-boarding a large number of employees, while simultaneously doing their own job. Even if you have an amazing team, they probably weren’t hired for their on-boarding qualifications and it will eventually just lead to more problems and a back-load of work.</p>
<p><strong>2. Your staff is internationally based</strong></p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161020005073/en/Top-5-Emerging-Trends-Impacting-Global-Consulting" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">one source</a>, many companies are now outsourcing work overseas to Eastern/Asian countries. This poses a major technological gap within the company, which could compromise the security of your files—among other issues—and requires a more robust software set-up in order to compensate for this issue. Again, this is an area where a team of technology consultants would be useful to keep operations flowing smoothly within your frequently changing business. </p>
<p><strong>3. Most of your staff is virtual</strong></p>
<p>As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the surge of freelancers in the workforce is astounding, and many companies are turning to them for work. This poses a similar problem to companies who outsource work overseas. The idea of managing a team of freelancers is mind-boggling when you consider; they are most likely all from different geographic locations, transfer work through questionably-secure sources, and act as a payroll nightmare.</p>
<p>In order to manage any virtual team, you’re going to need a robust software platform to manage your whole team as time and cost-effectively as possible (otherwise you may end up with a giant mess on your hands.)</p>
<p><strong>4. Your business wants to be environmentally conscious</strong></p>
<p>Environmental concerns have been on the rise within both businesses and consumers. <a href="http://www.journalofbusiness.org/index.php/GJMBR/article/download/1555/1458" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">One study suggests</a> that you may even lose customers if you don’t take your carbon footprint into account. Compounding the issue, the software and tech industries rapidly produce products that replace their predecessors, so there is always a need to buy new software and technology to stay on top of it. This cycle produces massive amounts of waste and pollution and many businesses are looking towards IT professionals to solve this problem with greener software.</p>
<p>One of Technavio’s specialists, Angad Singh, commented on the trend, “Organizations are increasingly focusing on reducing their carbon footprints to gain acceptance from governments and clients. Also, adopting environment-friendly technology saves resources in the long run.”</p>
<p><strong>5. Cloud based infrastructures</strong></p>
<p>Many organizations have been slowly shifting over to cloud-based infrastructures over the past five years. Ideally, this allows for a secure and cost effective way of business management. The issue lies in the complexity of the technology transfer in addition to its proper integration with other technologies already being utilized within the company.</p>
<p>Without proper integration and migration of technologies that are currently in place, your business could be temporarily unable to function, or worse, seem to function fine until a problem is spotted down the road that calls previous data into question.</p>
<p>With a project of this magnitude, it’s highly ill-advised to take the do-it-yourself approach. Instead of taking the risk, just hire a pro.</p>
<p></p>4 Recruiting Trends You Need to Know Abouttag:recruitingblogs.com,2016-11-17:502551:BlogPost:19940452016-11-17T16:00:00.000ZPete Jay DuCharmehttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/PeteJayDuCharme
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<p>As 2016 ends, experts are trying to predict which recruiting trends from this year will carry into 2017, but there is still some debate. Regardless of which candidate you voted for— and we’re not picking sides here —no one can deny that, with the election of Trump, the dynamics of American practices are anticipated to change. This does pose some issues with the…</p>
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<p>As 2016 ends, experts are trying to predict which recruiting trends from this year will carry into 2017, but there is still some debate. Regardless of which candidate you voted for— and we’re not picking sides here —no one can deny that, with the election of Trump, the dynamics of American practices are anticipated to change. This does pose some issues with the prediction of 2017 recruitment and hiring trends, however, most experts agree that you can expect these hiring trends follow us into 2017:</p>
<p> <b>1. </b> <b>Increase in job benefits</b></p>
<p>This was a trend we saw increase this year. Most businesses had refrained from handing out raises and, if they did, they were reportedly rather low as one study from <a href="http://www.business2community.com/human-resources/2016-trends-compensation-01686557#UC5d87I3CmI9qIIl.97">Business2Community</a> pointed out.</p>
<p>In order to make up for the lack of compensation, many companies started offering better benefits packages. These packages included health care, gym reimbursements, stock sharing, career development courses, healthier lunches provided by the company, more scheduling flexibility, and, in some instances, on-site childcare.</p>
<p>The thought behind this move was to improve the employees’ over-all satisfaction with their life, with less focus solely on their job satisfaction. This particular trend has an interesting effect on the business’ bottom line as well; with a few short-term, high-yield investments in their company, they retained more money than they would have had they simply offered raises. The data is still out on whether or not this move effected their turnover rate as well.</p>
<p><b> </b><b>2. </b> <b>Rehiring</b></p>
<p>Rehiring was also a popular trend throughout 2016, with most of the workforce admitting <a href="https://polldaddy.com/poll/9266733/">in one survey</a> that they would go back to a former employer, or already had gone back. Many businesses viewed this as an opportunity to reduce their risk/reward ratio when hiring new employees.</p>
<p>The lower risk is associated with the former employees’ knowledge of the company culture, policies, procedures, and general work while on the job. This not only greatly reduces onboarding time for a business, but also the turnover rate associated with low job satisfaction.</p>
<p>It’s unclear how this may change after Trump takes office. Most of the country (and many experts) are still divided on the matter. On one hand, there is promise to increase job availability, which may lead to less rehiring. On the other, many Americans are concerned with speculation of another recession in an unstable market and may decide to play it safe and head back to, or stay with, a former employer for job security reasons. The jury is still out on which way the average American will be swayed.</p>
<p> <b>3. </b> <b>Heavy focus online</b></p>
<p>One speculation about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/mr-business-goes-to-washington-now-what/2016/11/12/8c7f7846-a6e2-11e6-ba59-a7d93165c6d4_story.html">the effects of Trump’s presidency</a> is that traditional media will come to a complete crash. This speculation surfaced shortly after a statement he made about how you should be reading your news online instead of from the press. Traditional media, however, has been declining for years and I don’t think many of us would be surprised to see it come to an end entirely.</p>
<p>However, the speculated media crash, combined with employers reportedly turning to social media to further screen candidates, would give further credence to the speculated rise of e-hiring.</p>
<p>E-hiring was a trend we saw a good deal of in 2016. This isn’t surprising considering that it’s much less time-consuming to review applicants, hand select them, and receive more qualified candidates from a single posting. This may (or may not) directly correspond the surge of virtual work that companies are now distributing, either through actual employees, independent contractors or freelancers. On the topic of freelancers in 2016 and 2017…</p>
<p><b>4. </b> <b>Freelancing</b></p>
<p>The freelancing community grew by 2 million in the last two years. An estimated 35% of the workforce is now made up entirely of freelance workers. With a pool of talent that large, it’s not surprising that many companies are now looking to outsource some— or all— of their work to freelancers.</p>
<p>This trend seems to continually be on the rise as freelancer’s job satisfaction increases, and traditional workers’ satisfaction decreases. This is also appealing to many employers as they 1.) don’t have to pay freelancer’s taxes, 2.) can swap a candidate on the spot if it’s not working, and 3.) have a more diverse talent pool online than they would in the local area.</p>
<p>What’s more interesting, is that by doing this, you may even end up with a higher ROI in the end, as <a href="https://www.upwork.com/press/2016/10/06/freelancing-in-america-2016/">85% of freelancers feel engaged in their work</a>, versus 65% of the traditional workforce. There’s probably little need to say it, but engaged workers are critical for your business’ bottom line.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Do you have thoughts about hiring trends that you want to share? Leave a comment and let me know!</p>