Southwestern Family of Companies

Candidate Abandonment: Why Your Offers Just Aren’t Cutting It

Is your company facing candidate abandonment? In an era of swift decision-making and unnecessarily long hiring processes, 10 -15 % of your best candidates will abandon your position for every inessential week of delay. However, long hiring processes may not be the only reason you’re being disregarded by your top applicants.  Candidates who interview with poorly reputed companies and experience…

Beyond the Screen: Real Connections in Remote Teams

In a world where over 70% of employees work remotely at least once per week, virtual isolation is becoming increasingly common and overwhelmingly visible in the secluded workforce. The recognition of digital possibility has forced employers to give remote work a second glance and embrace the flexibility and efficiency of this new and arguably improved career style. Despite countless studies…

10 Reasons Why People Quit Their Jobs

By ThinkingAhead

Every day more and more Baby Boomers retire, and with the workforce gap between the Millennial Generation and Baby Boomers, employers are going to have to work harder at retaining employees. Money is not the only factor in keeping the workforce alive, management is the key reason an employee decides to leave or stay within a company. So how do…

The Surprising Ways Modern Recruiting Is Like Online Dating

By ThinkingAhead

Human beings are incredibly complex, but recruiters specialize in understanding their motivations, particularly what makes them psychologically suited for specific jobs and professional arrangements. As with most relationships, long-term success is based on a compatibility of core values and personality traits rather than a superficial matching of needs and capabilities. Recruiters can identify these characteristics and parse them in ways…

Civil War in the Workplace: Millennials Vs. Baby Boomers

By Cathy Moll, Partner and Practice Lead, Life Sciences

Employers today are the unwitting hosts of a cultural civil war: a battle that is playing out in workplaces across the world, where older traditionalists are clashing with a younger new order. Any Monday morning office meeting could be a prime example of this clash of generations. While older employees arrive fifteen minutes early to the conference room, casually trading banter about their weekends, younger…

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…

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…

What should I do if my company announces a “Restructuring”?

By Tim Knight, Vice President, Banking

With the economy growing and unemployment at its lowest levels since before the Great Recession of 2008, we have not heard of many companies needing to restructure or the need for the dreaded reduction in force. In recent weeks, we have talked with professionals whose situations have changed due to their companies need to make necessary organizational changes through restructuring…

Succession Planning: Don’t Overlook Your Most Precious Assets- Current Employees!

By Kay Linder, Partner and Practice Lead, Healthcare IT & Innovation

Employee turnover in today’s workplace has reached a new level of volatility. The average employee will change jobs up to 15 times during his or her career, seeking better pay, more benefits, or additional challenges; additionally, high-performing college grads with work experience are constantly being recruited by your competition. Savvy leaders must always be on their toes — and prepared for employee…

Contingent vs. Engaged Recruitment

By Matt Lewis, Partner and Practice Lead, Banking

Defining and managing expectations is critical for every client-recruiter relationship to ensure that the objectives for every search are reached. As such, clients and recruiters typically agree to either a contingent recruitment or engaged recruitment plan in order to define and manage those expectations. Clients managing costs would love to conduct each and every search under a contingent arrangement. What…