While employers have long conducted education verification checks on their employment candidates, it appears that increasingly more staffing and recruiting groups are being made responsible for conducting this and other background checks as part of the employment screening process.

Education history, of course, outside of criminal records, is one of the more significant searches.   For many positions,  education is not just a prerequisite but also vital to employment candidate’s incumbent skill sets and the legitimacy they bring to the job. Those employment recruits who claim to but who do not possess the required skills can cause untold embarrassment to employer or recruiter alike.  Both can lose clients over it, and in the extreme cases incur law suits.   Read the whole article at:  http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/the-process-and-pitfalls-of

FORBESWOMAN

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Yahoo reported yesterday that starting tomorrow, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day will turn 65, a pattern that will continue for the next 19 years.”

That is not good news.

We boomers are not our parents’ retirees. We are not thinking Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) or scrap booking at Vail (MTN) while our grandchildren learn to ski.

We are thinking unemployment, foreclosure, and bankruptcy.  We are wondering where the money for our Plavix (SNY) will come from.

Women Particularly Hard Hit

For those women who have spent their lifetimes in jobs, the retirement outlook is particularly bleak with long-term job prospects worsening.

Economics professor and investment advisor, Douglas Rice, citing the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics for the over-55 set, says that the employment scene appears to be better for women (6.2%) than for men (8.1%). “When you compare unemployment figures for today’s boomer women with their numbers at the beginning of the recession,” says Rice, “the picture is far gloomier.  Only  2.9% of women over 55 were unemployed year-end 2007, so the numbers of boomer women looking for work has doubled since the beginning of the downturn.”

Add to that an average period of unemployment for boomers of nearly one-full year and you have a large and increasingly desperate group of people competing for twenty-first century work, often equipped  with only twentieth century skills.

Absent an improvement in the economy, what can the post-55 woman do to improve her chances to re-enter the job market early in the new year?

Create a Tailored Search!

Brentwood Executive Search strategist  Marcia Basichis suggests that job hunters do what any good negotiator would – learn your potential employers’ interests and tailor your resume to match them. “All job candidates,” says Basichis “should  research companies they would like to work for, thoroughly going over their websites to understand the business.”

Instead of focusing on the past – the  dead-weight contained in most resumes -Basichis recommends looking to the future by writing potential employers letters explaining  how your existing skills, education and experience can benefit the company you wish to join.

“Dont overstate,” says Basichis, “but craft your resume in a manner that makes your experience most closely match the specific job you seek.”

As Canadian attorney Michael Webster adds to my post on interest-based negotiation, there are only two questions you need to ask yourself to radically increase your chances of winning the coveted job you seek. First, ask what you would do if you and your potential employer were one person instead of two. Second, ask how you might credibly signal what both parties would need to do to achieve that goal.

You can see the full article by clicking on the attached link from Forbes Magazine.

The answer often is that companies do not easily lay off their top performers, the best of the best.   Layoffs can often be a winnowing process to “clean house.”   If the role you are filling truly requires a “financial athlete,”   a high performer who can lead and progress through your organization, there is a good possibility that that person will still be happily employed.   Often this person is deeply embedded within an organization, and as an inactive candidate they can be hard to identify.

Companies will often take their search out to contingency firms, spreading the net wide and paying commission only when a firm successfully places a candidate.   You can get lucky this way.  However the biggest pitfalls are two fold.   A contingency recruiter will often go after the low hanging fruit.   He or she will show resumes of active candidates that have come their way, throwing the resume against the wall and hoping it will stick.   Minimal effort required.    As discussed above, active candidates, those with resumes in the marketplace, are often not the candidate that is the high-flier.

When you hire a retained search firm, you are paying for extra effort and personalized service.  More often than not the retained recruiter will have a deep specialty and can more fully assess a candidates’ strengths or weaknesses.    They will have a well developed network of relationships that can help uncover the “embedded” candidate.   And they will have the skills to “pry a candidate loose.”   At Brentwood Search it is common to recruit high performing candidates who are both happy and successful in their current companies, and who have never even considered looking, let alone been active in the marketplace.

Because a retained firm is working on fewer engagements at any given point in time the recruiters at that firm will aggressively be on the telephone, calling and networking to identify and convince a top candidate to look at an opportunity.

Is this sort of recruiting somewhat more expensive?  Yes.   But the results speak for themselves.   If you are placing a candidate into a mission critical role, a mistake can be ruinous to your company.   Or at least can be costly in terms of replacement, hours lost, business lost to name just a few.     A retained firm will give you in depth referencing, sometimes referencing even the referencer.    They will insist on background screening, in all instances, but particularly in instances where the executive has fiduciary responsibility or access to proprietary information.    At Brentwood Search, we use Corra Group  to do our background screening, and find that the level of personalized service that company provides is in keeping with our own philosophy of quality service.

A company is only as good as the team that is assembled.    It is our mission to provide our clients with personalized and in depth service, guaranteeing the best available candidates match the specifics of the positions they are hired to fill.

The question we ask our clients is:  “How important is this role to the success of your company and to you?”   If the answer is very, then retained search is clearly your best option.  You will save or make money in the long run.

But what if that is not enough?   With mission critical deadlines looming and severely lightened workforces, many companies turn to hiring temporary consultants to help them deal with the overflow of work.   Often consultants are not officially considered “headcount.”   A department manager may be able to bring a contract consultant on to help with workflow, even during a hiring freeze.

Marcia Basichis, a partner at Brentwood Search, commented, “Though our executive search practice traditionally focuses on senior level retained search, we are seeing an increased volume of requests by many of our clients to hire temporary contract consultants to bridge the gap.  We love our clients and part of our role in tough times is to pitch in and help them weather the difficult times.   So we have expanded our practice to accept these type of engagements.”

Hiring a contract consultant can insure that the project gets done, and in a timely fashion.   A top search firm will work with business leaders to assess their needs and the profile of the professional that will best suit the temporary assignment.   They take the burden off our clients shoulders.  No longer does a busy executive need to take precious time away from critical work to find the right person for the job.   When an executive is shorthanded, as many are in these challenging times, the last thing he or she needs to do is devote precious work hours to rifling through resumes and qualifying candidates.  Sometimes in this situation, an executive who hard pressed, will make an impetuous decision in desperation, only to regret it.  It is no fun, having to undo work done improperly or haphazardly by someone who is not qualified in the first place.   A search firm will qualify candidates before they are presented to you, so you will get the best available consultant to fill your immediate need.

Often the professionals that are placed into consulting roles are simply in between permanent positions.   As the time required to conduct a job search and land a permanent position continues to lengthen, sometimes taking upward to six months,  contract employment can be a lifeline, providing income and stability in unstable times.   Many candidates find that the relationships made during these short term assignments often lead to full time employment - either at the company where they have been placed or through referrals to friends and colleagues of those executives with whom they are working.

Other candidates are finding that the flexibility that comes from contract work is particularly to their liking, or the variety of assignments enable them to develop and or bone up on specific skills.   For many professionals, working while searching for a new position is far preferable to spending the day at Starbucks, trying to look busy.

In either situation, your company will be able to find a top professional at an affordable price to help you through rugged times.   Marcia Basichis added, “We view this as a win-win situation.   Our clients are able to manage their workload and demands of their departments so that the company does not suffer.  Strong and reliable professionals are employed in stressful and difficult times.   And we are delighted to be of service to valued clients.”

With the recent economic downturn, the whole game has changed.    Not only are the quick turn profits drying up, but many private equity firms are finding that their portfolio companies are facing extreme challenges.   And a failure of a portfolio company creates real challenges for any private equity firm.   Many firms are reassessing their needs in light of the current climate.

A great “growth” CFO often cannot make the transition and become a CFO that will know how to rein in costs, how to restructure a firm, or how to keep a firm moving forward.   Often in these situations a firm’s best course of action is to replace its CFO.   The specific set of skills that are needed are often found in executives who have experience in knowing where and how to trim, where and how to lay a stronger foundation for future growth.

Marcia Basichis, recruiter with Steinbrun Hughes executive search, has seen an increased demand or executives who are experienced in helping companies weather such rocky times.   “We are now being retained to bring in Chief Financial Officers, who can grow companies organically, bringing real value to the bottom line.   Often restructuring CFOs have learned these skills through hard won experience in other downturns.  Picking the right candidate to guide your financial organization can mean the difference between survival and bankruptcy.”

Basichis added that Steinbrun Hughes is hired to bring in consultants on contract as well.  She noted that this is especially effective when a company needs immediate action.  Such contracting assignments can actually run concurrent with a search for a permanent CFO replacement.

Adaptability in changing times is essential for companies in challenging times   Making sure you have the right personnel in place can lead to difficult choices, but may be a company’s only choice.

Again, welcome.