Skip to content

Welcome to our Blog

We hope you find that the information presented here is helpful in meeting the challenges you face every day in the ongoing management of talent (recruiting, retention, and market trends). Your suggestions for topics AND your feedback on topics/blog posts are always welcome!

Archive for July, 2010

Beginning Year 15!

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

August 1, 1996 – the day we opened our search firm. The original team, Ken and Mary Abeln and I (David Magy), had a plan for creating a high quality retained search firm with multiple goals/objectives. At the end of year 14, we look back and smile (for the most part). Our goal of creating our team-oriented firm where each of us can be directly involved with our clients and candidates has been more than realized. From the team of 6 that now make up Abeln, Magy, Underberg & Associates . . . . .

Let’s start with thank you!

To our clients, past and present, we thank you for your support and business. Our business, literally and figuratively, is nothing without you and we know that incredibly well. Thank you seems inadequate – but thank you none-the-less.

To our candidates, past and present, it has been a pleasure to get to know you. Each of you have amazing talents. We wish we could select and place more of you. Your understanding of what we do and our goal of ‘fit’ with the client is appreciated.

14 Years of Trends

Since August 1, 1996, we have been through a few major economic cycles. History is an interesting teacher. That said, I wish we had a crystal ball.

  • What goes down, must go up. We are all immersed in today’s economic turmoil. Watching the stock market and earnings reports on a daily basis will make a person become insane. What has remained constant is that companies now and always need good talent. Their pace changes depending on the economic time, but talent needs remain.
  • Technology versus culture. Technology has impacted us greatly, but people still have to connect in a meaningful way. Our communications go faster with all of the technology available to us. Regardless of how quickly we can e-mail each other, cultural fit still wins out as key to any hire.
  • The War for Talent is a long war. The original work was done in 1997 (some say 1996). Two major recessions and our ever lengthening life span has impacted this topic in many ways. Regardless, the War for Talent is best won with proactive strategies regardless of your belief in the studies. There is one truth – baby boomers will retire and there are not enough people to replace them in our current market.

The list is much longer – more coming in future Blog entries.

Happy New Year!

As we enter year 15, let us wish you all a fantastic 2010/2011 and great business and career success. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

David/Christi/Rick/Mary Lee/Ken/Debra

Posted in Retained Search

Boundaries

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

I just called a candidate about a President search we are conducting. He answered the phone on the second ring. I heard multiple voices in the background; I also heard a strong wind. I asked him if I had caught him at a bad time. He said no – he was simply at the beach. Upon further questioning, it became clear that he was on a family outing (likely a vacation).

AND my next call . . . . .

My next call was to another candidate – same search. He was not able to talk . . . . he was in a meeting. So – why did he answer the call? Does anyone have a phone without a voicemail system? (Hitting ’send’ will re-dial the number anyway if no message is left and the curiosity is overwhelming.)

My kids would say I am simply old-fashioned

Has technology and the ability to always be connected helped us or hurt us? When my family or business associates need to reach me, it is nice to have the technology to do so. It is rare, however, that any message I get – personal OR professional – would cause a major problem if I did not receive it for an additional hour or two. My three wonderful young adult children know that cell phones are not allowed at any meal. They have never missed a critical call (I am sure I would know of it if they did).

You never get a second chance to make a first impression

There are books written on this topic; there are also advertising slogans that give us this same message. The experts on interviewing talk about the importance of the first few seconds and minutes. We want to be prepared for everything – a meeting, a presentation, an important interaction, an interview. Why is a phone call from a number you do not recognize any different?

Judgment . . . . . did I learn anything about these candidates? Each interaction is one data point of many that will be considered. Can I project their behavior forward to being the leader of my client company? In one case I can – the candidate was in a meeting at work. In the other case, I can either admire his dedication or question his sense of balance (again with a number that would not be known to him).

Going back to one of the above statements . . . . .

  • You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Posted in Career Management

The news is not upbeat, but . . . . .

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

We, as a micro-version of the retained search industry, is seeing some interesting trends. While the data from varying studies is all over in terms of direction, search firms like Abeln, Magy, Underberg & Associates that work in different locations/cities are seeing some positive economic signs.

Incremental Gains in Manufacturing

Our manufacturing clients, regardless of specific product line, have been reporting incrementally improving results – since November 2009. While not back to pre-recession levels, they are seeing positive signs of improvement.

Unemployment level for people with a 4-year college degree (and over age 24)

We reported this in a past Blog entry – while today we learned of a ‘lowered’ unemployment rate (to 9.5%), we also learned that the rate for the category listed above dropped to 4.4% (see http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t04.htm). In any economic model, this is considered full employment.

What trends ARE we seeing?

The retained search industry is often considered a 6-month leading indicator of the economy. Here is what we are seeing:

  1. Pent up demand: companies are starting to fill positions that were budgeted for in late 2008 (for filling in 2009). The initiatives that were to be started are coming back.
  2. Operational excellence and revenue generation: operations and sales (high-level individual contributors or leaders) are commonly the two functional areas that lead companies out of a recession. We are seeing those positions from our clients.
  3. Retirements are being talked about again: when the Dow was at 6500, people postponed their retirement plans. When it got to 10,000 (regardless of this past week!), these discussions started again. Companies need to back-fill these key roles.
  4. Difficulty filling roles: as mentioned in the past, companies are having difficulty finding people to fill their key roles. We are seeing more searches where the client is not seeing what they want through their web postings and advertisements. Simply put, they are again turning to search.

Is this a trend or a short-term ‘blip’?

I wish my crystal ball was clearer . . . . . we have been seeing the above trends since March 1st – four full months. Interestingly, the clients that came to us in March had been seeing their business incrementally increase for four months, for them starting the prior November (2009).

We’ll commit to keeping you up on what we are seeing. Stay tuned!

Posted in Economic Update