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Mar 02
0

What do Interviewers Expect when Asking: “Do you have any Questions for us?”

By | Blog, Interview, Job, Questions | No Comments

We’ll start with one statement: The interviewers expects you to be genuine.

We know there are probably hundreds of online and printed articles about the smartest questions you can come up with. It all comes down to you and the opportunity in front of you.

Let’s start with you.

There are a lot of things that are important to you, and only a handful that is crucial. Those are typical aspects that reflect what you expect of your life, career, the people or things that make you happy and fulfilled, and not least your health (this is a short list, you certainly have your own). You are there because in one way or another the job opportunity you’re interviewing for contributes to what’s critical to you. Once you’ve figured that out, think about what kind of questions you could ask that will clarify whether pursuing the job opportunity will contribute to what’s critical to you.

For instance, you may think: “In the long run, I want to be an outstanding business consultant, however, I don’t have any experience right now, so it’s crucial I get a job that helps me grow towards that ideal role.” so your question for the interviewer might be: “How does the company plan for professional development/growth?”

Or you may think: “it’s crucial that I work for organizations that value a healthy culture that encourages creativity, instead of a top-down” so your question to the interviewer might be: “Could I meet some of the people I’d be working with?” If they are open to the idea, it will be a good way to tell what kind of culture you’d be dealing with.

Then continue with them

In the same way, think about what’s important to the company, why have they even posted this job? Is it because they’re growing? Is it because someone left? Is it because someone got promoted? Is it because it’s part of their strategy? Some questions you may ask:

“How does this role help the company?”

“What made the person before me successful in this role?”

“Why has the person in this role decided to leave?”

Or you can direct your question toward the interviewer himself:

“What do you like most about working here?”

“If you were to change anything for the better at this company, what would it be?”

“Why did you decide to work for this company in the first place?”

You also want to get a clearer understanding of how they thought the interview went:

“How do you think I and my qualifications match the company’s and hiring manager’s expectations?”

Do your homework

Employers do spend the time to put Job Descriptions together. But that’s not all that they have on their webpage that can give you an idea of who they are and what they do. Their “about” page will help you know how they think, what they value (value/principles), where they’re going (vision), and how they’re going to get there (mission/objectives). Then review their “products/services” section of their website. Is there any aspect in particular that intrigues you? Is there anything that you think might be related to your job?

Ask a few specific questions that will help you have a complete picture:

“How do you measure the effectiveness of that product or services?”

“I noticed one of your values emphasizes the importance of people. How do I pursue this value?”

“How often can someone get involved in corporate social responsibility initiatives?”

Notice most of the questions are open-ended. This approach ensures you get the most out of your of conversation with the interviewers.

How they respond is an important indicator of that organization’s values. Did they provide honest and meaningful answers? Were they specific or generic/quoting from a “textbook”? Etc.

So be genuine, be yourself!

 

Feb 27
0

What do Recruiters look for in a Resumé at First Glance?

By | Blog, Career, Job, Recruiting | No Comments

To get the best talent for the client, a recruiter will spend the time to evaluate resumes in accordance with the target profile. They will look at the resume components that relate to the candidate’s potential to be successful in the client’s organization. They will try to understand both tangible and intangible facets of a candidate’s background in relation to the client’s requirements for that position. Here are 10 specific areas that recruiters look at:

  1. What kind of organizations, teams, and cultures has the candidate worked in (i.e. corporate vs entrepreneurial, teamwork vs individual/expert consulting focuses work, focused on innovation/continuous improvement, etc.)?
  2. Is there any recent time gap in the resume? Could that kind of gap affect the relevancy of the candidate’s skills for the role they are applying for?
  3. If a candidate has focused on contract work, it may appear like job hopping – clarify whether a job was a contract or not by mentioning it in the resume. It could be that for the current job the client is looking for loyalty to previous employers (i.e. 3+ years average) or for someone who can come in and solve a problem and move on.
  4. Amount and relevancy of quantifiable achievements/facts – i.e. for each job, list top 3 achievements, and top 3 activities you’ve been involved in.
  5. The resume should not be too long (more 3 pages), or too short (less than a page), and with just enough info to strike a good balance between keeping it brief and having enough facts.
  6. If you are a recent graduate, fill in the page with the main school, extracurricular or internship projects that you were involved in – what you did and what were the outcomes.
  7. Resumes must be customized for each role in the sense of emphasizing the skills and expertise relevant to the role that the candidate is applying for.
  8. With today’s tools available online, there’s no reason why a resume would not be verified for grammar and spelling accuracy.
  9. Finally, the resume should be structured in such a way that it’s easy to read, without using difficult or unusual fonts (mainly sans serif fonts are easier to read – such as Arial, Segoe UI or Verdana)
  10. Make sure to insert page numbers if your resume is longer than a page. It makes it easy to follow through multiple pages.

Finally, make sure that the resume shows the real you. After all, a resume is a document that shows not only what you did, but what your potential is for your next employer. Use it wisely!

 

Feb 16
1
search firm

How do you make the most out of Working with a Search firm?

By | Blog, Recruiting | No Comments

 

There’s a question that every company will consider when engaging an outside search partner: “How do we manage this search partner so that we make the best of it?”

We’ll start by stating the most important part of our answer: the fact that an organization has to “manage” a search firm says a lot about the kind of deal and expectations that were set in the first place! If you have to manage a search firm, then we do question whether they are the right fit for you. Their role is not just to find the best candidates, but to act as a consultant that lays out a clear path to hiring the “needle in the haystack” candidate for you.
The difference between managing a vendor and being consulted by a firm also can be pictured as (1) a very basic buy and sell agreement, or the latter (2) as two partners working towards a common goal. Anything less than a win-win attitude will lead you to an imbalance of benefits in that relationship.

Before you can talk about tools and processes, you need to clarify the conditions of engaging a search firm.
Choosing the right search firm can enable a high return on your investment. That can only happen when communication and transparency are both guaranteed and mutual, which help build trust that doesn’t need to be managed but relied on.

Define what success means for your partnership before starting anything. Aspects such as the conversion of presented candidates into hires, time that a position was opened until a hire is made, cost per hire, etc.

Clearly state your expectation that you need to be in the loop at every stage with clear goals, milestones, and progress. That can take the form of weekly reports and reviews, KPI measurement, as well as feedback from the candidates.
Require that both your team and the search firm team act as one. There’s nothing more confusing to candidates than to be passed around by multiple parties in the process of being interviewed/hired for the same role.

Go beyond job descriptions and resumes. Perhaps one of the most costing mistakes is to reduce jobs to job descriptions and candidates to resumes. Every job has different complexities including who the person will interact with, how, when, etc. It will also be subject and cause to the organizational culture – it will either contribute to it or affect it. When it comes to candidates, resumes are a great start, but beyond those 2-3 pages of summarized experience and skills, there’s a human being. A person with aspirations, wishes, dreams, family, and complex personality.

A search firm partner needs to complement what already works in your process. One of the challenges of today’s labor market is to identify enough candidates to go through your hiring process. The unemployment rate has been at its lowest at 3.8% since 2000. That’s particularly true of the top tier professionals. If your current process gives you the right outcome but not fast enough or doesn’t get you enough hires, then engaging a search partner to help at the top of the funnel can provide you with what you need.

Use technology to fit and improve your own processes. Software tools support all of the above, but important nevertheless. We have seen status updates in ATS client portals, as well as simple and clear-cut summaries delivered via email that worked for everyone involved. A search partner has to provide the client with a few options and go for the one that best reflects the communication preference of the client.
So whether the client organization asks the search firm to use their ATS or the firm’s ATS, or both, is really dependent on the terms of the deal. For instance, a client organization might want to and agree with the search firm to access all candidate profiles that were sourced in the process, not just the ones that were shortlisted or even hired.

To summarize: engage with partners, not vendors, set the right expectations upfront, keep them accountable, have them provide you with options and recommendations.

 

Feb 09
0

What are the best Answers for “Why Should I hire you”?

By | Answers, Blog, Career, Interview, Job, Questions | No Comments

There are many details one could use to respond to this kind of question — for instance, you could highlight quantifiable achievements that match up to what’s requested of you. It’s a bit obvious but they would not have invited you to the interview as well as the other 15 people who have a similar skill set.

However, one of the things that a recruiter will be looking at (we believe the most important) is how genuine you are. We all have different upbringings, life and work experiences, and personalities. Those, combined, are difficult to mimic. Why did you show up for that interview in the first place?

  • Do you need a job?
  • Are you passionate about what this role entails?
  • Do you like their culture and you think you’d fit right in?
  • Are you excited at the growth opportunity in that position?
  • Does the company have a great reputation as an employer?
  • Etc.

These are all real & true reasons. Pick a few and be genuine about your answer.

Do it with a spin (if possible), again staying true to who you are: how does this job play out towards your dreams, your ambitions, and your career? Think of the long run or the well-known “what do I want to be when I grow up” — how this job is a stepping stone towards that (i.e. 20 years from now), and why that motivates you to master the skills required to succeed in this role. Most employers don’t have unrealistic expectations of keeping you around for the next 10 years or even 5 years.

If you don’t yet have a picture of what the long run looks like, don’t worry about it right then, and stick to the immediate things that really pushed you to apply for this job. 

And finally: interviewers are human and will be prone to being subjective. You might have been bright and shiny at the interview, but if the interviewer had a bad day, that could have just been the only reason for rejection. Pick yourself up, and don’t give up on being who you are all the way through. Adjust the format but don’t compromise the substance.

To summarize: be genuine, paint a broader picture than that job, talk about what drives you to succeed, be genuine about it.

 

Jan 09
2
recruiters

What’s the Biggest Problem Modern Recruiters face?

By | Blog, Recruiting | No Comments

 

One can say that the greatest challenge for recruiters is staying human in an era of lightning-fast technology.

If until a few years back we could still hope to build relationships with candidates and client organizations, and act as that educated advisor (at best) for both candidates and clients, today things are changing fast. Speed has taken the steering wheel of recruiting over careful consideration of all factors that can make a professional success in the job and organization they are considering and vice versa.

Dehumanizing the whole process leads to superficial hiring and disaster (whether organizations like to admit it or not) just months after the hiring decision has been made. The later can take many forms but here are just a few: the disappointment when new hires understand that everyone involved in the process made a rushed decision, the lack of engagement and creativity pursuant to that reality check, and finally, a decision to start looking for another employer from that point on or in other cases just staying complacent (pick your own worst-case scenario!).

On the one hand, as recruiting specialists, we need to educate our clients about the risks of moving too fast (i.e. just bodies in placeholders), and on the other, consult candidates so that they are equipped to make a sound decision (i.e. right career move).

So, let’s go through some challenges of the recruiting process.

Every Recruiting Journey Starts with the First Step: Effective Sourcing

First of all, let’s look at the recruitment screening process. According to talentnow.com, 52% of talent acquisition leaders say the hardest part of recruitment is screening candidates from a large applicant pool. 

Of course, there are best practices for sourcing. These include working with a high-performance sourcing team that finds and qualifies new candidates. But recruiters need to build a pipeline for assessing the talent pool. They have to have a strategy in place and if that strategy is not properly implemented it is easy to waste time. Imagine if the job requirements are not properly analyzed or the candidate persona isn’t correctly defined. The search may go in a different direction than what is needed. Moreover, if the recruiters don’t know the tricks of the trade, the ATS (applicant tracking system) will be a lost gold mine.

For instance, not many sourcing analysts know they should start every search with the previously interested candidates who applied in the past thus using their existing database before going out in the digital world to start their search.

Following this line of thought, attracting the identified and desired candidates is not just another hurdle recruiters nowadays face. According to various recruitment statistics, attracting top-quality candidates is the biggest challenge of recruiters, period. It is one thing that 82% of Fortune 500 executives don’t believe that their companies recruit highly talented people. When becoming aware that 54% of employers currently have positions for which they can’t find qualified candidates, it’s clear that recruitment is no kids’ play. Still, in the world of high-quality recruitment services, the failure to attract talented candidates is not an option. The solution lies in making the candidate’s journey about them, and then in the recruitment processes that are constantly revised and renewed and therefore adapting and evolving.

Keep the Candidates’ Interest in Mind

Another challenge is keeping the balance between how aggressively you present the opportunity to potential candidate’s and what they want for their career. The key term is “potential”. When we talk to candidates we don’t want to assume they’re (by default) interested. Rather, start your discussion with a candidate by asking if it’s the right time to make a career change. We need to care about his/her plans since that determines if it makes any sense to even talk about a job opening. Fellow recruiters would you like it if somebody reached out to you and started telling you about an opportunity without any considering for YOUR plans? We are working with living and breathing human beings and if we don’t care we don’t have any place in this line of business.

The Interview is also the Candidate’s Interview for Your Company

What comes after candidates engage with recruiters? An interview. Another challenge recruiters face is the hurdle of developing an interview structure that’s interesting enough for candidates who applied for that role. The recruitment process must be a professional and positive experience for your prospective candidate. If you are a recruitment firm, the recruitment process must be highly attractive to your client as well. The point is that regardless of the industry you are navigating through, the job market you are sailing or the candidates pool you are choosing from, your recruitment process must be top-notch and offer a convincing experience for your clients and for your prospective hires. When the recruiters have sourced candidates and then interviewed the interested ones, the recruitment project managers make sure of two important things. First, they build an interview that highlights technical and behavioral skills that are needed to meet the job requirements. Second, they conduct the interview professionally. The first one is to please the client and the second one is to motivate the candidate. Either way, quality is key. Interviews are the perfect opportunity to show candidates what they can expect from your organization down the line.

Build a relationship

The interview leads to the next difficulty, which is maintaining the candidates interested while the hiring manager interviews and chooses the one that best fits the opening. Although you want to recruit a candidate as soon as possible, you don’t want to compromise, and only want to hire the best talent possible, and that usually takes time. This means that when someone is selected for an interview with the hiring manager, he or she must wait for weeks until other candidates are interviewed as well. During this time, the recruitment project manager makes sure to stay in touch with all of the viable candidates to build rapport with them, keep them interested and engaged.

Problem: “Ghosting” is a phenomenon in which job candidates schedule an interview but fail to show up, or they get hired but don’t report to work – without so much as a phone call. It may be hard to rationalize such bad behavior, but human resource professionals say it could be candidates’ way of paying employers back for their indifference during the recession. Jobs were so scarce that companies often received hundreds of applications for a single job, but many failed to acknowledge the time candidates took to apply.

Candidates who are not a fit for the role will still want to hear back from you about where they stand. Don’t ignore them. They need to be handled with care because although they were not selected, they are candidates who could be a great hire for future openings. Recruiters need not be biased by their lack of time and get back to the candidates making sure they are appreciated not only for their qualifications and experiences but also for the time they invested in the recruitment process.

In conclusion, when recruiters face challenges it not only affects them but the entire recruiting process, and thus their clients and candidates. But when challenges are identified they can be transformed into learning and development opportunities. At SourceMatch, recruiters are in a constant process of improving themselves as they strive for the best outcomes. Feel free to check it out here.

 

Dec 18
0

End year Review for 2016

By | Blog, Job, Questions, Recruiting | No Comments

Yes, you read that right. End year review for 2016.It would make sense to look at 2015 and do an end year review, but I’d like to throw down the gauntlet to you: imagine this is Dec 2016.

What would you like for 2016 to have looked like?

Have you consistently pursued your goals? We live in a fast pace world economy and that means that unforeseen opportunities arise which can build towards our goals or lead us away from them. This is why, focusing on our goals is a daily/weekly/monthly discipline amid all the noise. For that, a one page year-long / high-level strategy document is quintessential, which helps benchmark where any new opportunity might fit in or not. On the other hand, use your imagination and creativity, and think of those unforeseen or highly improbable opportunities: what did it take for them to become realities? Would it have made sense to consider them as part of your yearly plan?

What was a success, or where did you fall short, and why? Now, of course that you might say that “there’s no way for me to know what will be certainly bring success,” and you are right to think that way. The one thing you can do, however, is increase the probability of that success, by planning for various scenarios, starting with a best case to a worst case (be slightly paranoid if you have to  ). Not to be ironic about it, but the best way not to do make mistakes or experience failures is to avoid them. So, plan ahead on what needs to happen or not happen! Do you know what brought you success at the end of 2016 or was it all just “luck”?

Projects and organizations that helped you be a better professional (or not) during 2016? Looking back, it’s great when we can enjoy a fruitful year, but isn’t being busy equally mesmerizing? It’s important to align our own professional development with business goals and ensure that we play to the tune of our strengths, experience and background. This makes you picky, and that’s OK. Some of the organizations and stakeholders whom you interact with might understand that right off the bat and will respect you for it. Others will need to be educated about it, and you’ll need to make pitches as to why your involvement isn’t a necessary or added value step. Saying “no” can be tricky and can be even more difficult than to convince someone you’re critical to a project. At the same time, you don’t want to remain in a status quo. Challenging yourself is what will make you a better professional by learning how to deal with uncomfortable situations, projects, and people.

Are there persons that held you back? Perhaps one of the most challenging areas (or hats) of our professional lives is working with people. If you are in a position to choose whom you are working with, you could be well underway towards efficient collaboration. A common trap is to have in your organization or team only people that you like or who always agree with you. To avoid it, consider that it boils down to their character and ethics, since personality traits, temperament, and background will always be different (as for skills and performance, for me at least, they’re key to success, but always come second to character and ethics). So choose (hire and fire) wisely. If you are not in such a position, you still have a choice. You might want to take on the challenge to deal with people that hold you back by spending the extra effort to compensate for some of their lacks. Otherwise, if any compromise on your side would cross the line of your own principles/values, it could very well be the time for you to make a significant change in your career. Weighing in on the right time for such decisions can save you a lot of effort, frustration, and stress.

Here are a few more questions for you to consider:

  • How was 2016 in comparison to 2015 (that means you would have done the same exercise for 2015?
  • Did you persevere in your growth/development in 2016 versus 2015?
  • How do 2015 & 2016 fall into your professional development long-term plan?
  • Oh, do you have a long-term professional development plan?

I would love to hear how did 2016 go for you!

Nov 09
0
outsourcing can be a good thing

Outsourcing and its Alter ego (hint: Frugal Innovation)

By | Blog, Future of work, Recruiting | No Comments

Perhaps one of the leading misconceptions about outsourcing is that a company that outsources needs to cut the jobs of current employees. For sure, there are instances where we see that happening. But that is a result of a flawed mindset deriving from an early stage of outsourcing history where increasing the margins (for the sake of profit) was the only purpose. It works, but it’s short-sighted.

Outsourcing done right has a lot to do with frugal innovation. Navi Radjou coined the term and defined it as a mindset exhibited by individuals and organizations that strive to do more and better, with less. Most managers will translate this: “Ah, I need to cut costs while keeping the same revenues level.” Contrary to this understanding, frugal innovation rather translates to “How can I maintain my current level of expenditure while increasing the efficiency of output and revenues?” In other words, how can I increase value to my customers, while at the same time not spending more towards that purpose?

Outsourcing is undergoing a shift in mindset

This switches the angle from which managers look at outsourcing: it becomes a strategic decision (i.e. from cost-cutting to cost saving). The outsourcing partner comes in to complement an existing organization, and act as an extension of its teams in order to tackle larger projects or peaks in demand. Besides bringing in raw capacity, the outsourcing partner will contribute (if selected well) with a strong focus on end results, since their business with that organization depends on it.

stark-lightbulb

But let’s take a step back and think through the model of frugal innovation. Without any doubt, it’s quite easy to find a solution by spending a lot of capital (especially if it’s available and this seems like a good cause, right?!). However easy that may be, it actually drives down innovation and creativity (since most likely an existing solution will be chosen, one that can be bought off the shelf). While taking the decision to outsource is a step forward, it’s hardly the only one you need to take. The other critical step in reaching higher levels of value is the innovation process through which old practices and processes are entirely re-thought or upgraded. That puts the outsourcing partner (and whether they like it or not, the organization as well) in a tight spot that doesn’t allow for any status quo such as using piles of cash as a safety net. As Renault-Nissan Group CEO Carlos Ghosn once said “In the West, when we face huge problems and we lack resources, we tend to give up (too) easily. Frugal Innovation is about never giving up!”

The lesson from emerging markets

Although frugal innovation has been associated more than often with emerging markets (and for good reasons), more and more organizations in developed economies are considering this mindset because of the rising consciousness that resources are limited (i.e. see the Skills Gap for human resources or fossil fuels). The last economic crisis that swept many western markets off their feet has contributed towards that same consciousness.

stark-grinder

Outsourcing based on that mindset is probably one of the soundest decisions that an organization can make (where applicable, see the organization’s core or niche specialty capabilities that represent its trade secret), especially because of its sometimes harsh but healthy side effect: it enables that same organization to innovate faster, better, and cheaper (without giving up on any of the three). All of which are quintessential to success in the New Economy where capital takes the back seat, while talent drives.

Here’s a challenge that takes you out of the comfort zone, out of a profit-only or damage control mindset. What will you do?

Oct 05
0
Threat or opportunity

Skills gap | Threat or Opportunity?

By | Blog, Career, Future of work, Job, Leadership, Recruiting | No Comments

Even in a world flooded with information accessed at a distance of a “click” – one that fuels a competitive and constantly changing global economy – the workforce market is faced with a widespread challenge: the lack of skills required to tackle today’s business environment. How do we go about solving this issue?

The global competition demands a different skill set

Technology has changed the way the world is connected. Competition is global and it doesn’t matter where you are located on the map: Romania, India, US, etc. because you have lots of competitors for the same market share and talent. As a result, there is a constant need for skills in the market. Employers have high expectations and want to see a strong mix of a positive attitude towards work, technical knowledge, proactivity, solving issues in a timely manner, entrepreneurial skills, and social skills. Young graduates have fewer chances to get hired, as their current skills (or lack of them) don’t fit employers’ reality.

Studies show that around 80% of graduates work in a different field than the one they have graduated from. Still, they invest energy, time and money to graduate from a University and obtain a degree that they thought would be key to enter the marketplace.

And that raises the question: “Where is the disconnect?”

How do young graduates get a dream job when organizations don’t give them a chance?

The idea is simple – employers don’t want to invest in graduates if they don’t have the required experience. The reason? The risk for new hires changing their jobs right after having been trained is significant, especially with so many available jobs on the market. This pushes employers right back to square one.

Why not change the Educational System?

Young people go to universities with the hope that after getting their degree they can enter the workforce right away and bring value to it with their fresh enthusiasm. Disappointment sets in quite rapidly when they face reality: the market does not accept them unless they are properly prepared. All starts from the ground-up: the Education System, which offers too much theory and insufficient practice.

Now what?

To begin thinking about a solution there are 3 key matters that need our attention:

(1) restoring communication between universities and organizations in the marketplace, thus offering students the chance to get prepared for what the marketplace actually needs;

(2) keeping the information always accurate and in accordance with the demand;

(3) offering them practical training while still in school, by implementing a strategy in which internships are a significant part of the grading system, right from their first year of studies.

Both companies and young graduates would benefit from this.

There is a significant amount of change that needs to be done if we want to see graduates find jobs that they can bring value to from day one. It boils down to teaching students what they really need to thrive in a global market, and focus their educational process on pragmatic skills (i.e. problem-solving, creative collaboration, effective communication, thinking out of the box), not just theory. That can only be achieved with the help of organizations that need to transfer back into education the very skills that they wish to see in graduates.

Let’s get to work!

Oct 05
0

Will Talent make or Break the Future of your Organization?

By | Blog, Future of work, Leadership, Recruiting | No Comments

The concept of Talentism has been coined down by Charles Schwab (founder of the World Economic Forum) back in 2012 as being the only logical era to replace capitalism. Capital has been one of the key drivers for the industrial era, fueling technology innovations as well as the development of private companies to carry out the entire process from product creation to market delivery as opposed to being state-owned and state-driven. This improved productivity and enabled consequent competitive advantages that stood for a few decades.

The New Economy is not fueled by capital, but rather by talent.

Whereas capital is important, it is no longer the presence of it that significantly influences the potential to succeed of an organization. It was capital that made it possible for the main technologies to taken certain industries from zero to one: i.e. the steam engine which multiplied the potential of many industries tenfold. Information technology plays a significant role as well being among the revolutionary advances (i.e. 3D printing – which leads the democratization and digitization of manufacturing), being considered by some economists as one of the general purpose technologies along the telegraph and the steam engine.

In the era of Talentism, talent becomes the driver for many of the advances that revolutionize industries (i.e. Uber, Airbnb, Tesla). We can see its impact when creativity, combined with the proper skills, tools, and information technology creates tremendous organizations (i.e. see Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc.) These no longer find themselves in the areas of activity that they initially started but have become organizations with a mission to change the world (see Google that started as a search engine trying to take the lead on autonomous cars, or Facebook – a social media platform – trying to take the Internet to everyone on the planet, just to mention a few).

None of these companies lack the capital. In fact, they have a significant amount of cash available on their hands. However, by far, they are in a group for themselves (although some consider them to be monopolies), which exist by the sheer advantage that their talent has given them. A competitive advantage that took them by an order of magnitude in technology beyond their competitors.

Talent and the future of work

Now that organizations have understood the importance of talent they are faced with the challenge of the skills gap. It has pushed them to find new ways to source talent, primarily by giving up on geographical limitations, switching to a remote work relationship (either from home or through outsourcing to vendors operating in nearshore or offshore models). That opens up a whole new way of working, bringing up other quasi-challenges such as finding the right communication means (i.e. phone, text chat, conference meetings), switching to cloud software platforms, adjusting for cultural variations, or time-zone differences. Other solutions may be found through freelancers or collaborative workspaces/hubs.

Never before was the future of work so interconnected with the past. Social media platforms provide a network of information, organizations, and individuals who can easily be accessed to locate the right talent, vet them through references and even carry out background checks.

The future of work also calls for professionals to consider that an education is not an insurance that guarantees a successful career throughout their lives. On the contrary, professionals need to be open to life-long learning alternatives (i.e. certifications or online course platforms) and developing an alternate primary skill. This gives way to varied work opportunities and increases their flexibility to switch from one project to another.

Talentism is changing the face of businesses around the world as they strive to become and stay competitive in the New Economy. How will you take advantage of the vast array of talent available across the world?

I would love to hear your experience about capital versus talent. How have both shaped your strategy in the past 5 years? How about the next 5-10 years?

Leave your comments below, and don’t hesitate to contact SourceMatch about how we can help you leverage talent for your organization.

Oct 05
0

Why Should any Service Provider care About your Business?

By | Blog, Future of work, Leadership, Recruiting | No Comments

1. You don’t like outsourcing providers, here’s why

In today’s marketplace outsourcing has lost its attractiveness and benefits as a strategic decision. That is mainly due to a lack of business fit between the client and the provider of services. Not only those expectations are rarely met, but apathy becomes the status quo throughout the delivery of each process. Providers are merely fulfilling a job description which significantly shakes the client’s interest in a long terms relationship.

2. They’re missing the point

The key to this uncomfortable and unfortunately costly situation is neither a tighter legal framework, tighter control, more experts on the provider’s side, or revamped performance metrics. It all comes down to the provider’s understanding of the client’s vision, mission, objectives, values, and organizational culture. This can only occur when both the client and provider invest effort into more than a buy-sell relationship: a partnership.

3. Walking the extra mile is not old-fashioned

In such a context, the provider steps into a role of responsibility focused on acting as an extension of the client’s team. This role requires to care for more than what’s agreed within the service level agreement: walking the extra mile. That means taking initiative in building the success of the client’s activities, collaborating with genuine interest, and consistently delivering quality and performance despite business complexities.

4. Seeing the big picture without leaving the premises

At the same time, the provider ought to carefully and objectively analyze the client’s processes, as a result of their constant focus on added value. Within the lifetime of such a partnership, changes will occur in the client’s processes and tools with results such as increased standardization, automation of certain service stages, higher autonomy on non-recurrent projects, and deeper knowledge of products/services.

5. Start with the right tactical steps

Either you are already scaling up or just beginning to think about growth, outsourcing is a strategic decision that can give you the required boost, and doesn’t need to be a nightmare. Clear cut expectations, strategies, and degree of communication will help you lay out the essential platform to a successful outsourcing partnership.

What are your thoughts about outsourcing? What has been your experience? What was it that made your outsourcing relationship work?