What’s possible is so much more than what we are typically going for, what we are currently positioned to do.

Business shouldn’t just be about making a profit, solid average growth, making it work. It should be about What’s possible. If you could bring in the right talent, build a certain team with certain skills, what could you do? What could you build?

Figure out what’s possible and go build it.…

Maybe it’s more like little skirmishes in individual situations, but it’s happening. Josh McDaniels, the New England Patriots Offensive Coordinator, was said to have accepted the head coaching position with the Indianapolis Colts and then changed his mind and turned it down.

Did McDaniels get a counter offer? Sounds like it. He’s not the only one. Any time you get unemployment down to pretty low levels you are going to have some degree of a war for talent. Companies are growing and…

Most jobs, not all….. but most, that you recruit for require a college degree. This is a basic first requirement for a lot of searches that recruiters work on. Most of the time, required means required. Must have.

Sometimes, degree required means degree preferred. For the right candidate with the right skills and background, we can deal with them not having a degree.

Two thirds of adults in the US do not have a college degree. That’s a startling statistic when you spend much of…

The right fit is not always there on your schedule. Too many times, in recruiting, we run into a friend, acquaintance, or candidate that is looking for a change and they want or need it to happen now. Out of a job, can’t stand where I’m at, finally realized that this isn’t the right fit or best fit for me.

This is your schedule and the rest of the world doesn’t adhere to your schedule. While there is surely a better fit available, it may not be the right fit, a great fit. All…

The other day I heard about a friend of a friend who had been out of work. This was a company move and layoff because of the move. No fault of the employee, and by all indications a pretty talented guy.

Regardless of the talent, he’s been looking and hasn’t found anything for about six months. He is an experienced candidate and he interviewed recently for an entry level role. Not the right fit. The company is interested in him and willing to hire him at the entry level or near entry…

How will your business look at the end of 2018? Hopefully better. If things are good now, you still want better. Better parts, better business.

Companies are putting plans in motion to improve this year. Those plans will involve a lot of recruiting to replace weaker parts and to add businesses, product lines, or divisions. Identifying key areas for improved or additional talent is critical and will lead the way to a better business by the end of the year.…

In sports, acquisition of talent and development is the name of the game. You win with better talent and better development of that talent.

Alabama and Georgia in college football. Duke and Kentucky in college basketball. The Patriots in the NFL, the Yankees in major league baseball. Any team that rises to the top is successful because they acquired and developed better talent.

The drive to obtain the best talent in sports is relentless and great businesses are no…

Maybe not for you. In recruiting we tend to fall into the trap of the ideal candidate. While there are tremendously talented people that any company would benefit from having on board, there are too many talented people out there to make any one candidate the ideal fit for every business.

One particular great candidate is not for everyone and maybe not for your business. Focus on fit is extremely important. What will this candidate do in your particular business? What kind of impact…

The hiring manager comes to you and says I need this and I need it yesterday. That’s typical, but definitely not optimal. If you need it right now, it’s late, and you’re at a disadvantage. This leads to mediocre hires, maybe even bad hires. Mediocre hires build mediocre businesses. Bad hires…..well, you know the rest.

If the long range plan is that you will need someone with xyz qualifications, but there is no plan in place to get to the point where the business really needs that…

With the new tax law, corporate budgets will change. This will impact recruiting on all fronts. More money for recruiting budgets, to spend on ads and outside help, to hire more internal recruiters. More money to push a company’s reach out further and to draw in the talent they need.

More money to hire more key people. When cash flow increases, the first thought is to figure out how we can best use the increase to grow the business. Hire more salespeople, open a new plant, develop a…

The first reason that you recruit is to solve an immediate need. The hiring manager recognizes a need, a strategic change, or some deficit that is preventing the business from achieving an objective. He or she comes to HR or recruiting and says you need to find me this. Whether you are patching, growing, or replacing there is an immediate need that you have to take care of.

The second reason you recruit is to build a better business, a great business. You have a vision for the…

If your business model requires proven profitability for a given hire, you may use some form of trial hire to make sure your new hire is profitable. Some 100% commission sales positions are a fit for this. Other roles typically involve a high percentage of hires that don’t stick for one reason or another. If the job is difficult and not very high paid, employees may have a tendency to give up or there might be a good number of unreliable candidates in that field. Other roles are technically…

Robots are going to take your job, but not your opportunity.

For decades we have heard talk of robots taking our jobs, but we are getting a lot closer now.  By all accounts, AI is making big strides and everything from manufacturing to brain surgery is going to be handled by robots at some point.  Some say that by 2060 we are all out of a job.

This is, of course, extremely short sighted.  We’ve lost jobs to robots and automation little by little over time.  The manufacturing…

The Objective section of a resume is typically the most fluffed up and useless thing in the resume.  Rarely do you see this section saying anything worth reading.  Candidates struggle with what to put there and how to say it, resulting in a couple sentences of nonsense.

Much more effective is a Key Skills section in replacement.  Right at the top of the resume.  Too often the first question from a hiring manager is something along the lines of…..

Is this guy…

Overall hiring strategy is a momentum game.  Slow hiring, lack of hiring, and reluctance to move forward and hire to improve the team will kill momentum and leave the business stagnant.

One really good hire makes an impact and gets the ball rolling.  A strategy to make a number of key hires over a specific period of time is better and will pick up momentum as you move forward.  The key is to make the first hire strong and one that impacts the bottom line.…

Last week we had a strong jobs report.  261,000 new jobs is not a great number, but it’s a pretty good number.  Considering the fact that this included significant disruption from multiple hurricanes, the number is impressive.  This brings us down to 4.1% unemployment.  The lowest number since 2000.

Yes, we still have a good number of non-participants in the population, not looking for a job, and a good number of underemployed.  Regardless, the raw number is still really good and…

Sometimes it’s tough to pull the trigger.  This candidate fits, well enough, but we’re not excited about them.  Maybe we can find better.

That’s fine, and a good reason not to pull the trigger.  Just make sure that you are aware of the risk.  If you look for someone better, a candidate that wows you, you may lose this one.  Every situation is different, but if the risk of losing this candidate is something you can deal with then you probably don’t want them at all.…

Firing up the troops is temporary.  Promoting positive thinking, PMA, and rah rah type motivation will provide a short term boost.  But a short term boost is not what we are after.

Process works.  Strategy, focus, and putting the pieces in place to accomplish something works.

Fire up if it makes you and the team feel good, but don’t forget the process.

Todd Kmiec…

Recent reports show that we are experiencing a wage growth barbell.  Wage growth on the far ends of the income spectrum.  So the highest paying industry, Information Technology, is experiencing wage growth while the lowest paying industry, Leisure and Hospitality, is also seeing wage growth.

This signifies broad based wage growth across the spectrum.  If this holds, it should lead to real economic growth.  A solid improvement in business conditions.…

Great employees have an enormous impact.  They are fun to work with, make other employees better, and make entire teams more efficient and effective.

They also make the environment much more attractive to potential employees and they make it less attractive for other good employees to consider leaving.  One great hire can be a springboard to building and keeping a great team.

Todd Kmiec…