Does your hiring process work?  Look at past hires.  Was the process too slow?  Did you lose candidates that would have been better hires?  Was it too rushed?  Bad decisions made quickly?  Have you been bringing on mediocre talent, or worse?

If the answers are yes, throw the hiring process out and start over.  If the process has been good, keep it and work to improve on any parts that haven’t worked as well as others.  If the results have been great, keep it and watch for any…

You can make a hire when key decision makers disagree but can come to a compromise.  The way this typically works, one decision maker feels strongly about the skills that a candidate has and what they will bring to the table.  Another decision maker doesn’t feel that way, but settles.  We have to fill the position, hopefully this will work.

What you can’t do when key decision makers disagree is have a great hiring process that builds great teams.  The key players have to be on the…

Your best employee.  Would you miss them if they were gone?

The answer should be yes and if it is you should take good care of them.  If the answer is no, you’ve got a lot of recruiting to do.  If they are your best and you wouldn’t miss them, then you probably wouldn’t miss any of the others either.

If you are in good shape, you would probably miss a good number of them if they were gone.  The ones that you wouldn’t miss are your top candidates for…

For the first time in 7 years the economy lost jobs.  That was a really long streak due primarily to the fact that a ton of jobs were wiped out in the downturn and we were working our way back.

The good news is that the stock market took the report in stride and reacted positively.  That’s not just a silver lining, it’s very good news.  The positive reaction to the economy losing jobs shows that we are settling in.  The market looks at this as normal ebb and flow and a good sign for…

There are some out there who think that recruiting is all about sorting through the incredible number of resumes, submissions, and contacts available.

Sorting is a minor first step.  The real key is attention.  Everybody is reachable in some way, but they aren’t all necessarily interested in engaging with you.  You have to sort to find those with qualifications that may work, but you must gain attention to engage and have a potential candidate.  Attention is the hard part and that is…

Times change and the old way doesn’t work any more, except when it does.  Every industry benefits from modern advances, new tools, more efficient work, more focused work, etc…

A lot of the new is tweaking the old.  Pitchers still pitch the way Sandy Koufax did.  They may be stronger, better conditioned, and have tweaked and advanced some pitches but the motion and most of what they do is the same.  You have to go really far back to see a significantly different basketball jump shot. …

With possible tax reform looming, hopes are growing for real economic growth.  It has happened before.  Lower taxes pumping money through the system and driving growth.

The popular example is the Reagan Tax Reform in the 1980’s.  There’s a real good case for something similar working, but we have to keep in mind that the baby boomers were hitting their peak spending years then and that played a big role in the growth that we saw.  We may have some similar forces impacting things now…

According to some studies there is no difference in the results for students going to top 50 colleges versus those going to top 500 colleges.  But the cost difference is enormous.

They don’t end up with better jobs, wealthier, happier, or healthier.

What about elite candidates?  Will one of the most elite candidates far outperform those not considered to be at that elite level?  Watch your wallet.

Todd…

It’s popular in baseball these days to look for players that are like a Swiss Army Knife.  They can do a bunch of things well.

On a baseball team that brings a lot of extra value to the table.  You can play them in different positions so you can rest different players at different times.  You can tinker more with lineups to find combinations that are more effective.  You can plug them in to do little things in certain situations that have a big impact.

Like anything team…

We haven’t seen significant economic growth for some time, but at some point we’ll see it.  Hopefully soon.  Whenever it comes, all boats will rise.

Strong growth brings more business to just about everyone.  You can enjoy it and coast or use it to build.  Going through a period of significant growth and not building the base, going deeper, generating growth in your business that will sustain,  is wasting a great opportunity.  One of the best opportunities that you’ll get for a long…

Target is raising the minimum wage that it pays employees.  Is the labor market finally getting tighter?

We know that unemployment is down, but with so many underemployed we haven’t seen any pressure to grow wages for a very long time.  While minimum wage jobs are far different than the mid to high level salaries that really drive business conditions and prosperity, it has to start somewhere.

Watch for further wage growth creeping up the salary ladder to indicate some real…

Recent SUV manufacturing plant closings have some people talking about a slowdown in auto manufacturing overall, a real bad sign for business conditions.

Or is it a shift?  SUV’s are still popular, but maybe not as popular as we tend to think.  If small SUV’s and other choices are becoming more popular, we may see plenty of business from auto manufacturing that is just shifting away from the bigger SUV’s.

We want the employment and business impact, so I’m hoping for shift…

Hard to work with is a business killer.  If you’re a pain, or inefficient, you make things hard on the person you work with, client you work for, candidate you network with etc…..then you will methodically kill business.

Easy to work with is a business builder, network extender, relationship strengthener.  A little empathy goes a long way.  Put yourself in the other person’s shoes and then make yourself easy to work with.  This will cement relationships, bring in business, extend…

Want to build a great team?  Many consultants will suggest that you should model successful companies.

That’s a great strategy.  Find a company, division, or operation that you truly admire.  But build it with better parts.  Recruit talent in every spot that you can that is better than the model and you’ll build a truly great operation.

Todd Kmiec…

Underperformers are a drag.  You can’t have a great team with an underperformer.  But some underperformers are in the wrong role and may not underperform in another role.

Good managers will see potential moves for underperformers that may motivate and improve their performance.  The biggest benefit of a move like this is the opening that you can now fill with an elite performer.  Move underperformers one way or another to open up gaps that you can fill with impact…

Recent reports say that employers expect very low pay raises next year including the lowest level spent on incentive pay since 2013.

We haven’t had real wage growth since the Great Recession and without wage growth the economy can’t get going in a meaningful way.  If the reports are correct and we see low pay raises next year it means more of the same for the economy and business conditions.

Sluggish.

Todd…

It’s not like nobody saw this coming.  Bankruptcy this year for Toys R Us, Gander Mountain, Radio Shack, The Limited, HH Gregg and many others.  For years we’ve all known that retail was changing in a big way and that the change was going to be permanent.  If retail is or was your specialty then you should have made an adjustment a long time ago.  New specialty or a change in strategy within that specialty.

If retail is your career, same thing.  The time to adjust was a while back. …

Everybody wants to know what the metrics say.  I’m a big fan of big data.  Metrics can play a big part in strategic decisions, but when the rubber meets the road you’re going to use that strategic decision to go accomplish something.

Recruiting strategy involves metrics.  Recruiting is about the part where the rubber meets the road.  What you’re building.

Todd Kmiec…

One step at a time doesn’t necessarily mean one candidate at a time.  A step can be building a team or a part of a team.

The key is to focus on the business, not a particular hire.  What are you trying to accomplish?  What you are you trying to build?  Work from that perspective and the steps will become clear.  They’ll involve hires.  Maybe one.  Maybe many.

Todd Kmiec…

….is a myth.  It’s not the one that got away.  It’s the one that wasn’t a fit, even if you thought it was a fit.  Recruiting is about the one that you are searching for and trying to attract.  When the one in your sites gets away, it’s not the one you are searching for any more.

Don’t waste time on the one that got away.  You need to be focused on the one you are searching for.

Todd Kmiec…