Southwestern Family of Companies

How To Turn A Candidate Into A Long-Term Hire

By ThinkingAhead

Attracting top talent is a top priority for most businesses: after all, you need the right people in the right roles to really be successful. But businesses should make keeping the best individuals as much a priority as attracting them — you need to become a “destination employer,” a company where employees want to work for a long time. Becoming a destination employer isn’t…

10 Reasons Hiring Managers Should Use a Professional Recruiter

By Jay Boone, Partner and Manager, Banking

  Professional recruiters know that successful collaborations begin by educating clients about how a recruiter can provide value. Understandably, many clients believe that the time and assets they have invested in their in-house human resources efforts should suffice. However, given the dynamic nature of modern hiring and evolving sensibilities of candidates (who expect to change positions many times in their career),…

Recruiter Spotlight: Stephanie Maas Talks Corporate Matchmaking

By ThinkingAhead

Stephanie Maas, Partner with the Commercial Banking and Finance Team for ThinkingAhead, has been an invaluable asset to the company for almost 20 years. We talked to her about her history at the company, her thoughts on recruiting for the financial industry, and her evolving role. Attracted to recruiting and consulting early in her career, Stephanie became a recruiter and Sales…

3 Reasons Why the Hiring Process Should Be Expedited

By ThinkingAhead

Every hiring manager, HR professional, and recruiter knows that the hiring process is constantly changing thanks to evolving technology and shifting expectations between companies and candidates. We live in an increasingly fast-paced world where every transaction — from making dinner reservations to securing a spot in yoga class — has been accelerated by technology. Today, job seekers are overwhelmed with information and options; for…

Job Hopping: Four Things that Keep Employees from Bouncing to Competitors

By ThinkingAhead

Millennials are now the largest generation in the American workforce, according to data from the Pew Research Center and from the US Census Bureau. They’re also the least engaged members of the workforce, and the most likely to leave your company. Of course, employees of all generations leave companies all the time, and disengagement affects different workers for different reasons: they may…

Attracting Talent-It’s All About the Messaging

By Christy Farrell, Partner, Healthcare Technology & Innovation

Think the Googles and St. Judes of the corporate world have a reputation that attracts only the best talent? You’re right: Business Insider recently included them on a list of the 50 best companies to work for. But if you think that as a newer company, you can’t compete for the same talent, you couldn’t be more wrong. High salaries, great benefits, and an established reputation aren’t the…

Rounding the Bases: Recruiting, Careers, and Baseball

By Jay Boone, Partner and Manager, Banking

Rounding the Bases: Recruiting, Careers, and Baseball It’s baseball season, and baseball has long been an enduring part of American culture. The sport teaches us the values of discipline and teamwork; for this (and other) reasons, baseball is a powerful metaphor for our lives — and our careers. Every professional has endured their fair share of strike outs, home runs, and dramatic…

The Rudiments of Attracting Fresh Leadership

By Sean Sposeep, Partner, Life Sciences

Leaders with a unique perspective and a desire to make a difference aren’t necessarily attracted to the Amazons or Googles of the corporate world. Rather, a solid internal culture and proven organizational support mechanisms at smaller or lesser known organizations will often appeal to motivated leaders (or leaders-in-the-making) more. Many leaders have priorities for the first 90 days of their new job — and for the…

The Struggle is Real for Job Seekers

By Shayne Merrick, Partner and Manager, Sales

Overqualified?! “We’re very impressed with your resume, but we feel you’re overqualified.” For an active, eager job seeker, the word “overqualified” can deflate egos and derail the entire job hunting process. It’s the human resources version of the dreaded relationship ender: “let’s just be friends.” Sometimes, hiring managers use the “overqualified” as an excuse to cover a perceived flaw that’s hard for them…

Is Telecommuting in Your Company’s Toolkit? The Future is Here!

By Kay Linder, Partner and Manager, Healthcare Technology & Innovation

As emerging technologies continue to “break down” brick-and-mortar walls in the workplace, more employees want to work from home on a full-time or part-time basis. Savvy companies are seeing huge leaps in productivity by enabling MVP job recruits to thrive in remote work arrangements. Offering work-from-home programs boosts employers’ ability to attract — and keep — top talent. According to Global Work Analytics [1], 3.7 million American employees…