Netflix built a culture over the years based on the idea that they are not a family, but more of a team.  Like a professional sports team.  The basics are, we are focused solely on results.

You can take time off when you want or work when you want, but you have to produce.  If you produce, great.  If you don’t, we don’t need you.  You could be great at what you do, but if it doesn’t produce what the team needs then we have to move on.  So you’re not really fired.  It’s more like…

My son, who is in middle school, was telling me about his day the other night.  He said, “so we’re in class, Technology and Innovation a.k.a. Wood Shop.”  I asked him what he meant by a.k.a. Wood Shop.  He said that’s what it is.  They basically take blocks of wood and use tools to make things.  Technology and Innovation Class.

Wood Shop has value, but calling it Technology and Innovation Class is sending the wrong message.  We’ve got a real skills gap in this country.  It’s closing,…

The JOLTS Data is out and shows that job openings have reached a new high.  Not just a blip up, but a new high with a new average high for the trailing 12 months.  In other words, the trend is up.  6.17 million job listings in the US.  That’s a big number.

We also have a record low labor participation rate currently.  Some believe that this indicates that the job openings in general don’t pay enough to lure workers back to work.  If businesses in general are going to have to increase…

Making mistakes on your resume is a sure way to get you overlooked.  Presenting yourself in a less than favorable light will do that as well, but not just on the resume.

Jobvite’s 2016 survey of 1,600 recruiters and HR professional found that 72% of respondents had a negative reaction to typos. Other social media sins include sharing photos of marijuana use (which 71% of respondents couldn’t stand), oversharing in general (60% of respondents weren’t fans), and posting pics of alcohol…

Airlines are complaining about a pilot shortage.  A recent article stated that the shortage is best understood as an obvious manifestation-and perhaps the nadir-of a long-term deprofessionalization of what was once a solidly middle-class career: We made the pilot occupation so unattractive, so tenuous and poorly paid, that people stopped wanting to do it.

That’s how you shrink a candidate pool.

Todd…

It’s that time of year again.  Fantasy Football.  Seems like it is everywhere.  The popularity of fantasy football shows how fun it is to put together an unrealistic team and to go compete with it.

Falling into that mode in your recruiting program can be a big mistake.  Fantasy teams aren’t real, but great teams are.  You can’t build a dream fantasy team in your business, but you can build a great team that is incredibly productive.  Trying to build a fantasy team in business diverts…

John Wooden, famous UCLA basketball coach and one of the greatest coaches in any sport ever used to preach that you must focus only on the things that you can control.

Great advice for hiring managers and recruiters.  You can’t control a turn down.  You can impact it by providing an attractive opportunity and offer, but you still can’t control it.  You can’t control a crazy salary demand and you definitely can’t control the size of the candidate pool for a certain skill…

Lost productivity due to eclipse watching was reportedly over 700 million dollars.  That’s a day off or two for a bunch of people.  Not everyone, but that’s a lot of productivity out the door.  With the recent hurricanes we have a bunch of days off for fewer people, but still a lot of lost productivity.

These numbers are minor compared with the lost productivity that we see every day from poor effort, lack of effort, and wasted time.  Employees who are dedicated and work hard are…

Inflation is now running around 1%.  That’s really low.  There are financial benefits to low inflation, but low inflation generally doesn’t help businesses grow.

We know that salaries have not been growing for quite some time and until they do start to grow, it’s better to have low inflation.  A better scenario would be a little more inflation and equivalent salary growth.

Todd Kmiec…

Recent reports of ageism in Silicon Valley and and other places bring attention back to the subject.  This is a tough topic because there are valuable workers on the wrong end of it.

Older workers have more experience and there is a lot of value in that.  However, younger workers bring new skills, motivation, and a desire to work hard.  They tend to be willing to work long hours and they cost less in salary.

In some cases the experience is more valuable.  In some cases it’s…

The state of Maine is making a concerted effort to bring candidates back home.  Companies in the state are targeting candidates that grew up there, went to college there, or have a significant history there.

It’s a good strategy for stability.  People who have experienced life in a certain part of the country and want to come back are more likely to stay for the long haul.  Creating opportunities for candidates like this makes sense for businesses that will benefit from stable…

Americans starting new businesses is at a 40 year low.  The biggest factor is the maturity of the nation and economy.  Everything seems covered.  It used to be that you could look around and see what the area needs and start a business with little or no competition.  Now they don’t need another dry cleaner in town, or another Thai restaurant.

There are, of course, lots of opportunities in new technologies and holes to fill there, but even those are getting filled up pretty quickly.…

The number of Americans relocating peaked in……….ready for this………1985.  Last year only 10% of people in the US moved.

The problem with this is that people are not getting to where the jobs are.  It’s not just that companies don’t want to pay for relo.  That is certainly true and is a factor, but candidates don’t want to move.  The average time spent in a given job has been getting shorter and candidates know this.  So uprooting the family and moving away from the place that you’ve…

….in order to generate higher pay rates.  It’s an economic truth.  If there are too few of something the price goes up.  More demand for that widget than there are widgets to satisfy the demand will make them more expensive.

In recruiting it takes more than just scarcity.  Try finding a Diesel Mechanic when you need one, or good Manufacturing Technicians with PLC programming.  They are hard to find and there are more needs for them than there are qualified candidates to fill…

Some good earnings reports in the last couple of weeks may be a real good sign for business.  Companies like Boeing and Apple are reporting good numbers.  Leaders in different industries like this showing solid earnings growth has a big impact.

These companies impact all of their suppliers and other companies that they do business with.  If we continue to see industry leaders doing well we can expect widespread growth.  Something we have not see for some time.…

Reports are saying that real revenue growth is driving earnings versus just cost cutting which drove earnings for the most part since the recovery began.

Real revenue growth from the actual sale of products and services would be a welcome change.  Probably not enough evidence to say for sure at this point, but if that is what we are starting to see it will be very good for business conditions.

Todd…

We are currently in the third longest economic expansion ever.  It’s also the slowest expansion ever.  We’ve had growth of less than 2% for 9 years.

Significant economic growth is a high tide that raises all boats.  Less than 2% growth is not that.  A real expansion with significant growth is fun.  It accelerates business growth.  The reality is, growth has been slowing for decades.  Not just the last 9 years.

Demographics are not in our favor with the baby boom generation…

In baseball, wins above replacement is a statistic measuring how many wins a player would get you instead of having an average AAA minor league player in that slot.

What is the value of a new hire over average to the bottom line of the business?  Or the loss of a good current employee versus the average in their spot?

Worth considering.

Todd Kmiec…

Whether you like Donald Trump as President or despise him, he brings some interesting perspective to the table on a regular basis.  Recent actions involving Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions highlight Mr. Trump’s ability to look at every situation without emotion.  It’s just business.

When you aren’t productive and helping the cause or the mission, you’re out, you’re fired, we don’t need you.  When that changes, no love lost, the past doesn’t matter, if you can help us succeed then we…

Foxconn, the iPhone manufacturer with operations primarily in China, announced last week that they are building a plant in Wisconsin.  For a good 10 years now we’ve heard stories about about onshoring…..bringing operations and jobs back to America.

The wage gap has been closing for some time and coupled with incentives and other advantages, like reducing shipping costs, it can be a more attractive to manufacture in the US.  It’s a really good sign and the best part is that there is…