Year: <span>2012</span>

During the interview process for a potential candidate, HR may fall into a trap of asking the same old questions: “Tell me about your sales history at company X” or “What types of machinery did you work on at Engineering firm Y” or “Why did you leave this company to work for the next one?” These are relevant questions; however, they do not give any insight to who the person really is, their work style, or their true personality. These elements could very well be game changers if the candidate does not fit the company’s culture.

One company took this concept to the next level. Reckitt Benckiser (RB) is a consumer goods company located in the United Kingdom. They are the world’s largest producer of household cleaning products and a major producer of healthcare and personal products. RB recently launched a personality evaluation on their website as well as on Facebook. It is made to resemble more of a game than a test. The user is asked a series of twenty questions given in the “would you rather” format, which is how the assessment got its name. Upon completion of Would you Rather the user is shown four different categories that fit their personality, for example “fearless, direct, ambitious and cool-headed.” It’s an element of recruiting that is used to better understand candidates and their fit for a particular job or team. After taking this assessment, a candidate can also access RB’s job openings and the fit. This is an example of how a company is putting a new face on personality tests and the insight given to understand people more deeply.

At InPursuit we do much of the “heavy lifting” for our clients. Before our client speaks with any candidates, people have been meticulously evaluated by our sourcing team. This means our clients are only speaking with exceptional candidates that are qualified for the position and will add value to the organization. InPursuit uses a number of personality and leadership assessment tools to delve deeper into our candidates and the quality of fit from both the company and candidate perspective. This is what sets us apart from other recruiting firms. We take pride in finding the best candidates for the job!

Check out the article: http://bit.ly/TtaS7y; Check out RB: http://www.rb.com/home

Good Feedback from HR Professionals on Search Firms

Companies Care about the following in a Search Firm:

• Sound recruiting process.

• Speed to hire.

• Accuracy - understanding the job and locating candidates that are interested and qualified for the position.

• Acceptance - when the final candidate is selected the individual with accept the position under reasonable terms.

• Longevity - external hires placed by a search firm need to stay at the company for a minimum of 3 years to justify the placement fee.

• Deeper and broader reach - companies expect search firms that can uncover candidates that they can’t reach.

1. The need for the Search firm to be patient and persistent with prospective clients.

The Recruiting Dept Heads in the webinar explained that they receive 4-6 calls/wk from Search firms wanting to start a relationship. The response from the Dept Head was that they don't return the call until after 6-8 calls or even 6 months of phone calls. Their reasoning was an enormous amount of time wasted with firms and people that come and go. These firms might never do business together.

InPursuit:

Hopefully you appreciate our persistence. Our history and how we do business has always been to develop long term relationship with clients. WE ARE ALL IN WHEN YOU ARE READY!!!

2. Companies don’t want to deal with Rookie Recruiters.

InPursuit:

We are seasoned business professionals working as Recruiters. Bob Burfeind and Dave Zimmel have over 50 years of combined HR and Recruiting experience. We are experts at the complete recruiting process including sourcing (based on current technology), assessment (in-person candidate meetings) and integration (defining and measuring performance upfront).

3.Companies are seeking people that "understand their business" and don’t want to continue to reinvent the wheel every time there is a new search with another firm. Niche firms are take more time to keep up to speed on the company.

InPursuit:

We have an emphasis on working as generalist to go deep and broad with a company which creates the knowledge to sell the company to high potentials. Our approach is to work as an extension to the company to located top talent. A smaller client list that provides a broad base of business is our growth strategy.

4. Companies are seeking multi-discipline firms that can work on a broad range of positions.

InPursuit:

Our strategy is to develop the best sourcing, recruiting, assessment and integration process in the marketplace. We have experience in all functional areas including General Management, Engineering, Sales, Marketing and Business Operations. We can site successful projects across the board in all of these areas in several different industries.

Check out the link: http://bit.ly/SHICZy

There are many different functions within Human Resources and it has been long-argued which of these is most important when it comes to bottom line profitability. So our friends at The Boston Consulting Group put this debate to an end. Drum roll please…

Recruiting comes in on top! When it comes to having the best employees, there are two ways of accomplishing this. The first is to take an average person and develop them into a high performing employee. This approach takes a lot of time and money. The other option is to see who the high achievers are in the market and recruit them into your company. This takes less time and money.

With recruiting at the forefront having a profit growth of 3.5 and a profit margin of 2.0 its total improvement score is 5.5. This means that recruiting alone is 5.5 times the impact of a low level HR function. One thing that sticks out in this table is employer branding. When this is combined with recruiting the total improvement score doubles. Employer branding is an intangible piece of recruiting. With this dynamic duo working together the performance bar is raised to a 10, meaning recruiting and branding together have 10 times the performance of a low HR function.

Knowing the different levels of HR functions is important for companies to be competitive in the market. You want to have the best employees possible on your team, this will intern have a positive effect on the profitability of the company.

At InPursuit we are extremely experienced in the recruiting and placement of excellent employees. We are a personable executive search firm that works hand in glove with our clients, working first to define the needed position in detail. Then, we deploy a search strategy using advanced technology to find exceptional candidates for the position.

With recruiting being the top Human Resource function it is crucial to have a solid recruiting team. That’s us!

Check out the article at: http://bit.ly/RCeKBI

There is a big difference between employee potential and performance. And the variance between business success and failure business hinges on the ability to decipher this difference in both employees and candidates.

The topic is discussed in a recent article on the Software Advice blog, High Potentials vs. High Performers: A Manager’s Guide to Identify, Assess, and Develop. High performing employees stick out by exceeding expectations and completing difficult projects. High potential employees on the other hand are a little different. They may show good aptitude in the beginning but may peter out as time goes on. Employers must figure out where their employees fall between performance and potential, and this will help with employee development. In the end, turning potential into performance will result in overall company improvement.

At InPursuit we are dedicated to finding the highest caliber of employees for our clients. High performance along with high potential is on our minds throughout the search and placement process. We pride ourselves at finding out exactly what our client is looking for in a new hire. We concentrate on the specific performance expectations in the first six months in our on-boarding process call FirstView™. These expectations will have metrics attached to them, and will help a manager guide the integration of a new employee through a “quick start.” This means each party knows how the other operates, insures a strong working relationship, and transforms potential into performance.

Check out the article: http://bit.ly/S7U4hF

We are happy to announce the additional of Jack Daggett to our sourcing team.

He is challenged to use his manufacturing background along with a business management degree while developing his abilities in the search and talent management field. His passion is for assisting people on their career path and finding their dream job while locating top talent for our clients.

Jack’s prior experience includes a marketing internship with DeZURIK Inc. in Sartell, Minnesota. DeZURIK is recognized worldwide for top notch products, including valves and actuators for many water industry applications. He also has considerable experience in other manufacturing companies such as Hutchinson Manufacturing Inc. and Pride Solutions. With this manufacturing background, Jack was very interested in InPursuit’s work with search processes, sourcing and candidate research for companies in this industry sector.

Jack is a recent graduate of St. John’s University where he majored in business management and minored in coaching. Jack was a four year member of the SJU football team under Coach John Gagliardi. He currently lives in Minneapolis and is an avid outdoorsman, enjoying time on the lake along with hunting and fishing.

Please welcome Jack to our team!!!

Jack Daggett - jdaggett@inpursuitsearch.com, 651.695.7386