Paul Hawkinson
on Dec. 31, 2010
I will do whatever is necessary to make the Year 2011 the best year of my career. I will divest myself of those activities that will not promote this objective. Paul Hawkinson
on Dec. 31, 2010
Editor’s note: Going back through some of the Fordyce Letter archives, I discovered Paul Hawkinson’s resolutions for managers for the year 2004. As you will read, these resolutions are timeless and certainly apply today as much as they did seven years ago. I proudly share them with you today as part of the Best of Fordyce – may they inspire you to make 2011 your best year yet!
Ron McNutt
on Dec. 30, 2010
The former off-Broadway musical, Rent, opens by posing this question: ”525,600 minutes…how do you measure a year?” As 2010 draws to a close, I have some questions for you. Have you invested your past 525,600 minutes the way you had planned as you watched the ball drop on New Year’s Eve in 2009? One year ago, what were you envisioning for your future? Did you plan to be more healthy and happy…to have better and richer relationships…to have a more successful business and greater financial independence? How’d you do?
Amybeth Hale
on Dec. 29, 2010
We know you are anxiously awaiting the announcement, so here it is! Get ready for Fordyce Forum 2011, recruiters… we’re heading back to Vegas.
Very soon, we will be launching the Fordyce Forum 2011 conference site where you can read up on speakers and get yourself registered for this annual event that brings together the best of the best in the search and placement world. Get ready to fill your brains and your notepads with tips and success principles shared by some of the best and brightest minds in the business – who also happen to be your peers and friends!
To get things kicked off and to help get you excited for the conference, here is a video chat with this year’s Conference Chair, Jenifer Lambert.
John Zappe
on Dec. 28, 2010
With the US beginning its fourth year of a sour economy that is taking its toll on consumer credit scores, the EEOC signaled last week that it is taking a hard look at employers who use credit checks as a screening tool.
Kaplan Higher Education Corp. was sued last Tuesday by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over its use of credit checks. The suit claims Kaplan denied jobs based on credit histories in such a way that it had a disparate impact on blacks.
The EEOC said Kaplan “engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawful discrimination by refusing to hire a class of black job applicants nationwide.”
Amybeth Hale
on Dec. 27, 2010
Lots of attention is paid to good client relationship development, but how much time do you spend working on how you are perceived by your current and potential candidates?
Yes, it is important (arguably more important) to work more on those client relationships, because the clients are the ones who pay the bills. But since candidates are your “product,” and the only “product” in existence that has opinions and typically isn’t afraid to share them, making sure you are seen in a good light by your candidates is also quite important.
Amybeth Hale
on Dec. 23, 2010
My boss has kindly given us a few days off around Christmas to celebrate with our families. But before I take off to enjoy spending time with my family, I want to wish each and every one of you Happy Holidays!
This has been a fun six months for me, getting settled in to a role that was held for over twenty years by an industry legend. One can never replace someone with that much industry influence. I still occasionally get an email from Paul with encouraging words and I love the fact that he still remains interested in and observant of the business.
I appreciate the warm welcome all of you have given to me along with the encouragement, contribution, and community you have so warmly shared. I thank you for helping keep Fordyce a must-read for recruiting professionals!
I am very excited about the coming year, and I will plan to share some of my thoughts in a wrap-up article during the last week of 2010 here on FordyceLetter.com.
In the meantime, I hope that your clients pay their balances to you before 12/31, that your candidates ace all of their interviews, and that you get to really enjoy quality time with your families, friends, and loved ones over the next couple of weeks.
Happy Holidays everyone!
~Amybeth
Tim Honn
on Dec. 22, 2010
In August 2001, my dream of going back to work for the US Government fell through, and I was subsequently adrift without a backup career plan. At this time I entered graduate school full-time with the goal of becoming better educated while trying to determine the next step in my working life. In December 2001, while feeling the disappointment of not having a definitive career goal, I went to go see my parents’ next-door neighbor, who just happened to own a search firm, seeking career advice. I figured he could point me in the right direction or somehow give me a professional epiphany. Low and behold, after several conversations I was offered a position in his firm. In January 2002 I started my career as a professional recruiter. I worked for this boutique search firm until November 2004 at which time I transitioned onto the corporate side of the “recruiting desk”.
Why this transition? When one works in a boutique search firm he/she tends to learn a lot about the crucial foundation of recruiting. But, what a “young” recruiter fails to learn in a search firm is how a corporation works regarding the important synergy and integration between the corporate business and the role recruiting plays in its success.
I came to the conclusion that I needed to know this information and get this experience if I wanted to become successful and last long-term in this highly Darwinian business.
Lori Barry
on Dec. 21, 2010
How many of us remember the days before Google, LinkedIn, and other social media sites… When sourcing was a primary function of recruiters, who relied on phone sourcing as the primary means of connecting with potential candidates. When recruiters resorted to purchasing phone directories of targeted companies and then figured out how to break through a phone system to reach the desired department, often resulting in many misconnections that somehow lea to the right person.
Phone sourcing has become somewhat of a lost art form – which is interesting considering that we live in a world of connectivity yet have lost the personal touch of picking up the phone and calling, regardless if you are full cycle recruiter, a sourcer, or a researcher.
Jeremy Sisemore
on Dec. 20, 2010
As we finish the fourth quarter of 2010 and enter a New Year, I encourage you to consider a New Year’s resolution around the idea of generating more business and candidate leads through referrals. That being said, a question arises that has been asked for as long as recruiting has been a profession: Should we pay for referrals?
More and more executive recruiters are being faced with the question of “referral fees” by professionals we are contacting in our day-to-day recruitment campaigns. I know my firm has seen a real increase in the past year or two and this raises many questions. As an industry, how do we want to respond to this dilemma? As a recruiting firm owner, how do I train my Account Executives and Recruiters to respond to this question? Is this ethical? How do I capture this expense in my accounting? Do I need to file a 1099 when I pay someone a “referral fee”?
This is kind of a “HOT” topic with many in our industry.
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