RecruitSmart Today
A bi-weekly source of market intelligence and insight that executive-level recruiters in the corporate and search firm environments leverage to advance best practices in executive talent management.
Shaped by the voice and perspective of our widely respected industry analyst, Joseph Daniel McCool, RecruitSmart Today delivers trend and data analysis that you can use to benchmark best practices in executive-level recruiting, retention, compensation, and other key human capital functions.
We're confident that once you realize the value of RecruitSmart Today, you'll find reason to leverage the exclusive, members-only ExecuNet resources that other executive-level recruiters are leveraging to boost their human capital advantage. Whether it's our exclusive job posting, candidate search, and networking resources, or the periodic RecruitSmart Insider intelligence briefings available only to our members, you'll soon discover how ExecuNet members are keeping pace with the issues, trends and data that are driving executive talent management.
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
— Mohandas K. Gandhi(1869-1948), political and spiritual leader of India
ExecuNet Exclusive: Recruiters Institutionalizing Use Of Social Networks
Executive recruiting firms are using social networks to identify potential candidates for new and future search assignments, but they're also learning to leverage online communities for referrals, candidate screening and advertising purposes. ExecuNet research on the use of social networks by executive search firms across the United States shows that 44 percent of respondents to a recent survey have instituted social networking into their firm's routine candidate sourcing activities.
How Executive Recruiters Are Using Social Networks
Identify candidates
27.1%
Get referrals
23.6%
Build relationships with prospective candidates
19.2%
Advertise my search assignments
16.4%
Vet prospective candidates
11.4%
Other
2.3%
Source: ExecuNet Recruiter Confidence Poll 9/09
Advice To Confront The Global Economic Challenge
In assessing the state of the global economy, David Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of The Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private equity firms, offered some instructive insights for business leaders who want to forget the recent past and focus on growth.
Rubenstein, who spoke to the recent 2009 World Business Forum organized by HSM, said business executives should focus on areas most likely to grow, such as alternative energy and healthcare, and also focus on their current environment. It is far better, he said, to be a mediocre manager in a good industry or niche than to be a very talented business leader in a bad company or a lousy industry.
Rubenstein reminded the audience that there have been 11 recessions since World War II, and that recessions happen about every seven years in the United States. Recessions will come, he explained, but business leaders can face them confidently if they commit to persist through the difficulty.
"Don't take no for an answer," he urged. "Keep pushing ahead. Take some entrepreneurial risk..."
Moving ahead, business leaders in all management roles will be well served to improve their persuasion and sales skills. They would also be wise, Rubenstein added, to embrace business partners they trust and take some responsibility for the broader environments they're working in and the markets they are serving by committing to help them through community service and volunteerism.
The Future Of Human Resources Leadership
With so many businesses focused on improving results in the short-term, planning for the future may seem an unaffordable luxury.
Yet, when it comes to sizing up some of the biggest challenges that corporate human resource executives will face in the coming decade, a panel of HR knowledge leaders assembled by Workforce Management Magazine offers an interesting view.
Looking ahead to 2018, its panel predicted that corporate recruitment will become part of an integrated workforce supply process that is global, virtual and just in time.
Further, the gap between the best and brightest and all the rest will increase, making it perhaps easier to identify top leaders but also potentially harder to recruit them.
For that reason alone, employer branding and perhaps even management team branding will be paramount to attract and retain the best.
Executive Bench Strength As An Antidote To Recession-Era Revenue Stalls
As companies continue to climb out of the financial morass many have been stuck in as a result of the worst economic contraction since The Great Depression, effective executive talent management continues to emerge as an antidote to performance slippage.
The misalignment of an organization's talent bench and its strategic needs is one of the mostly preventable causes of revenue stalls experienced by companies in a period of time largely defined by recession, according to The Corporate Executive Board Company.
This stall would seem to result from the time required either to develop credible successors for critical roles or otherwise to search externally for them. Such a talent-oriented stall would likely meet with little patience, particularly in times like these when everything and everybody is focused on performance, consistency and efficiency.
The bottom-line is that since everything is now about the corporate bottom-line, human resources and talent management leaders can little afford to let people issues get in the way of organizational progress, regardless of how unlike progress it may now appear.
Having a solid, well-assessed and equitably incented bench of management talent is the best form of workforce leadership insurance companies can have, but only if the organization understands how talent and new challenges match one another.
Many High Potentials Leave Despite Recession
High potential employees aren't afraid to strike out for greater opportunities despite the continuing recession, according to a study of how the best and brightest of high potential talent have weathered the global recession over the past 18 months.
The report released by Catalyst offers a surprising overview of the current workplace and recommends that even during international economic instability, employee retention must remain a foremost concern for businesses.
The report, part of a longitudinal study of MBA alumni who graduated between 1996 and 2007 from top business schools around the world, provides a myth-busting snapshot of how corporate management views these high potentials, and how women fare compared with men in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.
According to the report, more than a third of these skilled women and men received workplace promotions, with Canadian high potentials receiving fewer promotions (23 percent) compared to European (41 percent), Asian (40 percent), and those in the United States (33 percent). This signified employers' willingness to support this talent pool. Yet, a full 20 percent jumped ship, choosing greater opportunity in the face of the uncertain economy.
The study demonstrated that job loss due to downsizing or organizations closing did not substantially affect women more than men. In addition, women did not trade the workplace for home, with nine percent leaving the workforce voluntarily but with ten percent returning. In fact, they matched men move-for-move in relocating both within and outside their countries, taking temporary international assignments, leaving for new business ventures, making lateral job moves and job-hopping.
"With few exceptions, the downturn has been an equal opportunity crisis, affecting women and men similarly," said Ilene H. Lang, president and chief executive officer of Catalyst. "Top talent around the globe remains confident in their ability to obtain new positions. Businesses cannot afford to assume that the poor economy will keep these high potential women and men from actively seeking better opportunities."
Presented by: Mark Anderson, ExecuNet President & Chief Economist and Richard Finnegan, founder of Finnegan Mackenzie, The Retention Firm
Get an exclusive, first look at the key takeaways from an in-depth survey of over 1,600 in-role business leaders across a variety of senior-management functions about the looming executive retention challenge.
Attend this webinar to learn:
5 major dynamics that affect an organizations' ability, or inability, to retain top performers
The key "stay" and "leave" motivators for today's business leaders
Who's accountable for executive retention ... Anybody?
How to improve executive retention rates, before it's too late
Presented by: Mark Anderson, ExecuNet President & Chief Economist
The greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression has changed the landscape for the leadership employment market. Attend this webinar to learn how to decipher the current macro-economic trends and how to read the indicators that will affect your business.
See exclusive new data revealed that will help you plan for the coming year including:
Where this growth is occurring
What the recovery will bring to the executive employment market
How this new landscape will affect recruiting organizations
The effect of the past year on job satisfaction and engagement and your company's productivity in 2010
Why even with hiring still under tight controls, your recruiting team may be busier than ever
2009 Executive Job Market Intelligence
Our 17th Annual Executive Job Market Intelligence Report captures the latest trends and developments in senior-level hiring, compensation and executive search.
The worst recession in decades is taking its toll on the executive employment market, but there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel. Recruiters are finding industry experts and business referrals largely by networking, according to ExecuNet's 17th annual report.
