Global Recruiting

Today’s guest blogger is Liz Carey, network coordinator for NBN. NPAworldwide and NBN merged in September 2014, and our two networks are working toward a full integration effective January 1, 2016. We look forward to having Liz as a regular part of our blogging team.

Employment in banking fields is blossoming as the industry emerges from the financial crisis. The problem is, everyone is looking for the same types of candidates, and those candidates are hard to find.

“Everybody’s looking for people from 3 to 7-8 years’ experience,” said recruiter Jim Pruitt of Bankers Crossing in PA, an executive search firm founded in 1984. “There’s actually more jobs out there than there are people. There’s such a shortage.” Read the rest of this entry »

Have you heard? There are 100 finalists for the job opening called “Mars Astronaut.” That is right, an organization (www.mars-one.com) is planning a manned mission to Mars on 2024. They are narrowing down their candidate shortlist. There are many interesting facts about this trip on this site but here are a few I have read about on various sites:

• 24 people will be selected from the 100
• Cost of the mission is estimated at $6.0 Billion
• The trip will take more than 200 days
• No one is returning to Earth…aka one-way!
• Astronauts could start dying in less than 100 days due to oxygen issues

This got me thinking about really difficult recruiter assignments. This assignment might be easy when it is new and there is a novelty about the “position” as there is now. In time, this would be a very challenging position for global recruiters to work. I currently think about global assignments as being difficult to attract and gain candidate commitment for, but what about those not even on our globe?

The position description is not listed on the site but the characteristics of the successful candidate are. The major requirements for this extra global assignment are resiliency, adaptability, curiosity, ability to trust, and creativity. I think I would add thrill seeker, death wish orientation, and good in tight spaces. Those with close friends and good family relationships need not apply.

Today’s guest blogger is Liz Carey, network coordinator for NBN. NPAworldwide and NBN merged in September 2014, and our two networks are working toward a full integration effective January 1, 2016. We look forward to having Liz as a regular part of our blogging team.

The accounting industry is faced with change. Tighter financial regulations are causing both small and large firms to battle for talent. This competition for talent is leading to more – and better – opportunities for accounting and finance professionals.

Financial professionals are needed in various industries, from jobs in Big 4 firms to roles with professional services firms, hedge funds and banks. As the economy recovers, executive and senior level roles are opening up, and companies are having a hard time finding accounting talent for roles with the potential for advancement to become partner, director or CFO.

For example, on a recent networking conference call with nearly 20 of the top accounting and finance recruiters in the US, firm owners were seeking to fill hot job orders such as associate director of commercial contracting and government reporting, director of accounting and reporting, director of corporate compliance, international account executive, and VP, retail product manager.

There is a growing shortage of entry-level professionals with leadership skills as companies look to groom new hires for executive-level and partner roles. A recent survey of corporate executives, done by Competency Crisis and the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), found that leadership is the most needed – and least possessed – competency skill.

The problem isn’t finding a good accountant, companies say, it is finding an accountant who has the right interpersonal skills to develop into a manager in three to five years. Most are only in public accounting for three to five years, so it takes skill to find one that stands out.

The need for this accounting talent is pushing companies to “up the ante” to entice financial professionals into accounting jobs. Recruitment has been aggressive. Because of the demand, firms are offering better work/life balance, relocation considerations, additional training, competitive salaries and bonuses, and travel and work experience opportunities.

The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey indicates hiring growth across most global markets compared to Q4 2014. The outlook is generally positive across all global markets on both a quarter-over-quarter and a year-over-year basis. The Manpower survey includes some 65,000 employers in 42 countries. Global markets on the whole are predicting steady growth as opposed to dramatic increases in hiring. Below are some of the key findings: Read the rest of this entry »

If you track the future of recruitment and you do not know Bob Marshall, you should tune in. Bob’s site is www.themarshallplan.org; he is great at providing recruitment analytics and fact-based information on the current status of employment and how it will impact recruitment. Recently, Bob shared some new details in his newsletter regarding the strong positives for the 2015 recruitment forecast.

For global recruiters working the United States as a part of their market, the US GDP increased at an annual rate of 5.0% in the third quarter of 2014; that is an 11-year high water mark. So businesses are doing well and the impact on the search for talent and need for quality employees should have a direct impact on recruiters in 2015. While other global markets and regions are performing at different levels, it is rarely a bad thing to have the US economy doing well.

Another recruitment analytic to consider is regarding job growth. To a large extent, growth is coming from employers with fewer than 500 employees. Seventy-seven percent of US job growth is from small to mid-sized companies. For the average recruiter that is not a part of a large employment brand, this is great news. The future of recruitment should be strong for the small recruiter working with the small and mid-sized employers. So for contingent recruiters, if you have lost your focus on the smaller employers and are working on exclusively bigger employers, your need to consider a shift based on this recruitment analytic.

Finally, unemployment is quite low in the area where most contingent recruiters work: with degreed candidates. Unemployment is just 3.2% in the US for people with college degrees. That is quite low and as we are frequently told, full employment will never be 0%, so 3.2% is close to full employment. Needless to say when we are close to full employment, client companies will be more open to paying for the services of a recruiter. So the near-term future of recruitment looks quite positive in the US.

Get busy building a plan and working that plan. The recruitment forecast is for good times ahead!

Wow! That is a title that evokes fear and perhaps a chuckle at the same time. For anything to keep the attention of the media or perhaps even maintain the interest of our information overloaded minds, it needs a catchy moniker. The Beatles started the “British Invasion” that “Baby Boomers” all know. The Boomers have moved onto “Reality TV” and “hashtagging.” Lots to be said for a well-crafted handle!

The “Silver Tsunami” is the title associated with the aging workforce demographic that threatens to overwhelm employers. While it is a global issue, this issue is most alarming in the U.S. and in Western Europe. Global talent will be more difficult to find and retain as the older employees retire in record numbers. Employers will be looking to recruitment professionals to locate the unique skill sets that will be lost in the decades ahead.

Every day in the U.S., 10,000 people turn 65 years of age. This has been the case since 2011. Many older workers have extended their careers and continued their employment as they waited for their retirement portfolios to recover from the Global Financial Crisis. During the GFC, many that were not prepared to retire were laid off or were forced into early retirement. With portfolios recovering, more baby boomers are making a conscious choice to retire now.

Some facts from the U.S. Census to consider:

• In 2012, 21.3% of U.S. men over the age of 65 remain in the labor force.
• In 1990, only 17.6% of men over 65 were working.
• In 2012, 13.4% of women over 65 remain working.
• In 1990, only 8.4% of women over 65 were continuing to work.
• People over 65 represent 13.7% of the total U.S. population
• In 2010, 19% of the total workforce was made up of employees over 55.
• It is expected to rise to 24% of the workforce by 2050.

What is interesting is that the Silver Tsunami is working both sides of the same issue. Older worker are leaving in high numbers which is one challenge and on the other hand, older workers will make up more of the workforce moving forward…a different but related issue.

As a recruiter, HR professional, or employer do you have a strategy to find, keep and value older workers as a part of your work force plan?

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Exciting times are reportedly ahead for independent recruiting firms as the REC Jobs Outlook Survey recently reported a 9% growth in the next two years. For firms, this is a good time of the year to focus on a sector that is rapidly growing, or try to change their focus to include those industries that have hit the top of the list. For students and job seekers, a new survey from Michigan State University has reported that hiring for new graduates is expected to jump by 16% next year. This increase is due to cautious hiring demand the past couple of years that is now taking off. While most of these will not surprise you, it is a good way to stay on top of the year ahead.

1. IT. A healthy 24% of the respondents to Computerworld’s 2015 Forecast survey said that their companies plan to add more IT employees in the year ahead. These were listed as the top 10 IT skills that would be in high demand in 2015:

• Programming/application development
• Project management
• Help desk/technical support
• Security/compliance governance
• Web development
• Database administration
• Business intelligence/analytics
• Mobile applications and device management
• Networking
• Big data

2. Engineering. This is an industry that will be seeking experienced candidates with more needed year after year. Highly experienced candidates are leaving due to retirement and the next generation needs to be able to fill in those gaps. Graduate recruitment for engineers will definitely experience a big drive in 2015.

3. Finance and Accounting. Clients in the financial services sectors are projecting huge increase in demand for staff. Financial analysts, area sales managers and relationship people, risk specialists and analysts as well as all of the associated IT, marketing, accounting, HR and other back-office people will all add to this sector growing in 2015.

4. Oil, Gas, and Energy. As oil becomes an even greater commodity, other forms of energy supplies will also start to develop, so specialists within the market will be at high demand with industries such as fracking and shale coming to front of the industry.

5. Life Sciences. Any industries that involve healthcare, pharmaceutical or sciences are going to also continue to see growth for years ahead because of the way the world is developing. Increases in the life span of the human race are causing more positions and more specializations to constantly pop up.

If you are looking to start expanding your recruitment firm in to another industry, a good way to do so is through help from other firms and recruiters that you can work with in a network organization.