Healthcare Insurance, Managed Care, US News

Successful Hiring of Candidates

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As the economy continues to improve, it becomes more difficult to attract talent to your organization. If you are lucky enough to gain interest of the “A” players in the market, it is becoming harder and harder to bring them aboard. With the increasing demand, candidates now have the upper hand. Here are some tips to hire those that are desirable.

  1. Sell your opportunity: The days of “the candidate should be lucky we are interested in them” is long gone. You need to make sure you tie in the benefits to the candidate of why this role and your organization is right for them.
  2. The Hiring Process: The process needs to be on point and succinct. The mindset needs to be that this candidate is not only interviewing with you, but with others as well. Time kills. I am not saying to cut your process, but just keep it moving.
  3. Compensation and Benefits: The comp and benefits also need to be attractive. Companies will overpay to get the talent they want. If your comp and benefits are not on par with your competitors, you will lose the top talent. Also, keep in mind things such as working from home, flex hours, PTO, 401k, and other fringe benefits. Understand the candidate’s expectations prior to making an offer.

You need to approach going after top talent like you would acquiring new business. Put your best foot forward, sell your company, and put the right pricing on the table.

Accounting, Financial Services, Manufacturing, US News

Best Career Choice 2013: ACCOUNTING!!

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Accountants are always in demand.  Every company in every industry of every size needs an expert to manage the money.  The accounting profession ranked at the top of the charts as the best career choice for 2013.

Most accountants work as public accountants and maintain financial records and tax services for all types of clients.  These can be large accounting firms or individual practices.  There are also large companies and other organizations that will need management accountants. 

“The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects accountant and auditor employment growth of 22 percent between 2008 and 2018, adding 279,400 more positions to the 1.29 million already-existing jobs.  The accounting profession is often tied to the growth of the economy.  More business creation means more clients.  Despite the recession, The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the numbers of accountants to grow faster than the national average for job growth” Kimberly Palmer

Accounting professionals will continually be in demand and an excellent career choice for future college graduates, including the lost generation, who has heard nothing but negative feedback regarding their employment future.  There is significant potential for upward advancement for accountants and the need will continue despite the bleakest economic conditions. 

It is critical for all hiring authorities to be proactive and know who the key players are in the market in order to secure the very best talent to manage their finances.  And remember top talent is in demand and getting very hard to attract and hire. 

For assistance or additional information, please call The Richmond Group USA.

Krissy Colley Whitaker
Director of Accounting & Finance Division

Life Sciences

Professional Labor Market Continues to Heat Up in the Depth of Winter Cold

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As of late, we at The Richmond Group have noticed something: that those A players-those that could transform your company – are really hard to come by. As this article states, those unemployed in the technical fields, such as the Life Sciences have reached full employment. In addition, candidates out there know it and employers face a true conundrum when trying to find top talent. On the one hand, the top talent in the Life Sciences is reticent to leave where they are because of a lingering perception that the job market remains highly unstable. On the other hand, candidates also believe that if pass up your opportunity, there will be others out there from which they can choose. As a result, candidate turndowns – or those who reject an offer – are up due to a variety of reasons.

To solve this problem, employers must change their attitudes regarding employment: candidates will no longer come to you on a silver platter. Instead, you will have to sell your opportunity to them. Moreover, lengthy hiring processes will more often result in someone else snatching up your candidate at the last minute, turndowns of offers due to another company whose process has moved faster, or counteroffers by their current employer to retain their top talent. Let us help you sell your opportunities to the passive talent out there and work with you to streamline hiring processes so that you can get to those impact players before your competitors do.

Manufacturing

Dow moving back over 14,000

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The recent US Employment figures showed a slight increase in overall unemployment, but that news and the news of revised job creation numbers for 2012 helped the Dow Industrial Average shoot past 14,000 for the first time since Oct 2007. Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics was quoted as saying that “the revisions point to a fairly healthy 181,000 per month trend in 2012, which is more than strong enough over time to bring down the unemployment rate.” This is more good news for a healthy start to 2013. While overall manufacturing employment hasn’t changed significantly since the middle of 2012, the pool of technical talent keep shrinking. We are seeing the return of aggressive hiring tactics by companies, like sign on bonuses, to land the talent they need to maintain and build on the positive results of the last 2 years.

We are now fully experiencing a candidate driven market where companies will continue to struggle to attract and acquire top talent. With the number of open positions growing there are less “unemployed” candidates. Even those individuals who are currently without a job are finding that they have a higher number good employment choices compared to last year at this time.

Monthly BLS Report, Uncategorized

BLS Employment Situation Report: January 2013

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In January, total employment grew by 157,000 positions, while
the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 7.9
percent.  Revisions were also released for all of 2012,
showing an additional 647,000 jobs were added throughout the year,
including 150,000 in the fourth quarter. Since the low point for
U.S. employment in early 2010, the economy has now added back more
than 5 million jobs. The service providing sector of the economy is
more than 700,000 jobs above its 2007 pre-recession peak.???

???Inside the numbers, some of the many fundamentals show that the
job growth continues to be strong with permanent positions being
added across the economy. Workforce participation rates are stable
and the number of discouraged jobs seekers appears to be falling.
The average length of unemployment also fell in the last quarter.
In October of 2012, the average length of unemployment was nearly
20 weeks. In January, it dropped to 16 weeks.

Management and professional unemployment rates continued to edge
downwards as well, falling from 4.3 percent a year ago to 3.9
percent in January. Salespeople, however, have seen an unexpected
rise in unemployment, growing from 8.2 percent a year ago to 8.5
percent this January. As has become all too common in the recent
economy, though, unemployment has disproportionately affected those
without a four-year college degree. In January, the unemployment
rate rose for everyone except those with a bachelor’s degree, for
whom it fell from 3.9 to 3.7 percent.

Specialty trade contractors, both residential and commercial,
continued to add jobs at a high rate in January (26,200 positions),
possibly a continued effect of the damage wrought on the
northeastern seaboard by super storm Sandy. There wasn’t however, a
noticeable impact of the decreased government spending which led to
the -0.1 percent U.S. GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2012.
While there was a net loss of 9,000 government jobs-across all
levels of government-in January, the losses were in line with
losses throughout the last year.

After that surprising negative GDP growth report earlier in the
week, the January BLS report provides a renewed confidence in the
positive improvement in the economy. The revisions also confirm
stronger employment growth in 2012 than earlier estimates. While
previous establishment surveys didn’t see the level of employment
growth necessary for the amount that unemployment was indeed
falling in the household survey, these most recent revisions bring
those two metrics closer into alignment.

Food & Beverage, US News

U.S. restaurant industry grows in 2012

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Recent data from the NPD Group shows that the U.S. restaurant industry expanded between 2011 and 2012. According to QSR Web, there were more than 616,000 restaurants in the nation as of fall 2012 – a 0.7 percent year-over-year increase. Additionally, researchers found that the number of full-service establishments, including casual and fine dining restaurants, rose 1.1 percent.

“The changes in spending, consumer visits and unit growth while slight are, at least, on the positive side,” NPD Group spokesperson Greg Starzynski told the news source.

Meanwhile, restaurants in some portions of the country expect significant gains in 2013. For example, CultureMap Austin reports that industry experts are predicting that Texas restaurants will gross $40.8 billion in profits this year – a 5 percent increase from 2012.

Growth in the U.S. restaurant segment may impact the nation’s job market. More positions could become available in the industry, and establishments could hire more qualified staff members to fill important roles with their teams. In fact, restaurant professionals may assist establishments throughout the country, as these workers possess the expertise and skills to help business owners boost their sales and attract new customers.