Banking, Financial Services, Lending Services, Placement Annoucements

Jon Burkhart & TRG Commercial Banking Complete Successful Commercial Relationship Manager Search

by  • 

(Richmond, VA) June 24, 2014 –  Jon Burkhart and the Commercial Banking Team of The Richmond Group USA (TRG) are pleased to announce the successful conclusion of a Senior C&I Lender search in Austin for a successful and established Texas-based regional bank.

Our client reached out to us in the middle of the second quarter with an opportunity for a senior C&I lender in Austin in an effort to diversify the bank’s Commercial Real Estate-heavy loan portfolio.  Before they called us, the bank had tried for two months to fill the position on their own.  The senior lender not only needed to have great credit skills combined with excellent business development skills, but they also needed to be well-known and established in the Austin/Central Texas market with C&I-specific relationships that would allow them to immediately hit the ground running.  

Due to the specific qualifications this role required, a comprehensive search was conducted to uncover and attract a pool of qualified candidates in Austin and its surrounding suburbs and communities.  Because of our deep, already-existing relationships in Central Texas, we were able to identify and attract the right lender within two weeks.  

The new Senior C&I Lender has already hit the ground running, bringing over 5MM in new C&I relationships right away.  Our client is happy to have found someone who is well-established with a C&I portfolio of loyal clients and can help build a solid C&I portfolio and strong lending team in the coming years. 

As your business continues to grow, so does your need for talented individuals. What are you doing today to secure the future talent needs?

Should you desire additional information about this successful search or about our firm please contact Jon Burkhart and the Commercial Banking division at 804-285-2071 or email Jon at jonb@richgroupusa.com

Construction, US News

Report shows construction employment growing in most of US

by  • 
construction

Commercial construction

Employment in the construction industry increased in most states over the last year and in a majority of states between April and May. According to a report from The Associated General Contractors of America, 40 states gained jobs over the year and 30 in the last month. Washington, D.C., also saw growth both throughout the year and in May.

Between April and May, Minnesota added the most jobs, with 3,800 people in the sector going back to work. While Wyoming gained only 900 construction positions, it experienced the highest percentage growth, at 4.1 percent.

Over the year, Nevada saw the biggest employment boost by percentage, adding 7,000 jobs, or 12.5 percent of its total. Minnesota also posted strong gains, with an addition of 9,700 positions, or 9.7 percent growth. California’s addition of 37,700 jobs, while only representing a 5.8 percent growth, was the largest number of new positions. Wyoming was not among the most active job creators for the year.

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that some of the over-the-month gains were offset by losses in other states. Actual growth in the sector was only an increase of about 6,000 jobs. However, that was still enough to significantly shrink the unemployment rate, which fell from 9.4 percent to 8.6 percent.

Engineering, Manufacturing, Marketing, US News

US Unemployment Is Now At Its Lowest Level Since September 2008

by  • 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment was down to 6.3 Percent in May 2014.  This is a significant achievement when you consider that unemployment was at 7.5 percent in May 2013, and 8.1 percent in May 2012.  Good things are happening.  Approximately 217,000 jobs were created in May.  At least 200,000 jobs have been created each month since February, which is the longest 4 month growth period since September 1999 to January 2000.   Like last year, the stock market continues to reach historic levels and economists are still projecting manufacturing to continue its current pattern of growth.  The natural churn in the employment market is creating tons of new openings, and pushing up salaries as companies are having to get more aggressive to land the talent they need.

Bruce Peacock
Vice President of Business Development
The Richmond Group USA

 

Accounting, Financial Services, Manufacturing, US News

Welcome to Accounting, where everybody counts!

by  • 

As predicted, the job space has experienced a significant swing from an employer driven, to a candidate driven market.  It’s simple, with organizations experiencing more success and more confidence, comes the creation of new positions.  The demand exceeds the supply; therefore, we are seeing a war for top talent!

Business is driven by the bottom line and those who can improve it.  So, how do we handle this crisis and find these superstars? By acting now!  Waiting to reactively hire, when there is a need will create a trickle-down effect of challenges, including hiring the wrong person, not hiring at all, or losing the existing overworked staff.  And all will come with a monetary cost to the organization.

A recent article illustrated this very scenario:

“Imagine you’re walking down the street and see $1,000 on the sidewalk. Would you pick it up? What if you didn’t have enough room in your purse or wallet for ten $100 bills? What if you were tired or in a hurry? A good employee is the business equivalent of that stack of $100 bills. A top performer earns the company 67% more than an average employee. It takes a special kind of stupid to step over an opportunity to earn money simply because the timing isn’t perfect. Something so simple for someone to understand in their personal life is utterly thrown out when they become a business owner.” (LinkedIn.com)

All business leaders must keep an open eye for the next great addition to their team, open position or not, because the alternative will be costly.

Banking, Financial Services, Lending Services, Monthly BLS Report, US News

Two Banks for Every Candidate

by  • 

There has been a major shift in the banking market for candidates and employers within the past few months.  While there is an influx of unqualified candidates applying to banking positions, as we discussed last month, the opposite is true for the truly qualified banker.  We are increasingly seeing more than one bank heavily courting one banker.

What does this mean for you, as a prospective employer?  It means that each candidate you are interested in hiring is, more than likely, considering your bank as merely one of several options.  This means one important dynamic needs to change in your process in order to successfully attract and recruit the best employees.

Timing.  Gone are the days when a potential employer can put a qualified candidate on hold for more than a few days in between interviews while shoring up other business within the bank.  Chances are great that, during this time, your candidate is moving quickly through a faster process.

Should this mean that you short-change your process?  Absolutely not.  But it does mean that a greater number of touches are required between steps to hold the candidates interest.

One of the most important things to keep in mind in this environment is the importance of relying on The Richmond Group to help manage the recruiting process with qualified candidates.  Our high-touch, relationship-oriented approach allows us to uncover other opportunities the candidate may be considering and help differentiate and solidify your opportunity as the best option.

As always, we look forward to helping make this a banner year for your team.

Biotechnology, Engineering, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Monthly BLS Report, Quality Assurance, US News

Competing in a Candidate Driven Marketplace

by  • 

The quest for talent in the life sciences and for professional talent overall seems to be heating up just like the weather. Just this morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported another 227,000 jobs were added to the economy in May. Furthermore, according to the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), venture capital in Q1 for biotech was over a billion dollars and venture investment rose 28 percent in the medical device sector to $558 million. In other words, VC investment was a pretty healthy amount. Because of these facts, and despite all the talk of merger mania in our industry, the fact remains that candidates are hard to come by for several key roles within life science organizations from bench level scientists and engineers to the C-Suite.

According to this article, in order to compete remember three important things: (1) Streamlined hiring processes are the most successful in attaining top talent. That doesn’t mean sacrificing thoroughness for the sake of expediency, but it does mean that the longer a process lasts for whatever reason(s), the more likely candidates are to be turned off or to be lost to other opportunities. (2) Make sure that branding of the company remains consistent throughout the entire process. If there are conflicting messages being given by different actors, you can kiss that impact player goodbye. (3) Compensation packages need to be aggressive not just market competitive. If a candidate is interviewing with you, they are likely interviewing elsewhere and you will have to put your best offer forward to attain top talent, since they will have more than one offer to choose from.  At the Life Science division of The Richmond Group, let us be your partner not only in finding candidates, but also in improving your hiring processes so that you can win the war for talent.