Confidential Search Assignments Increase

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Confidential Search Assignments Increase

I am not sure if this is a new market trend or it is results of our Berman Larson Kane past successes, but over the past 4 weeks we have pick up over 10 new assignments in this category.

For those not in HR or Staffing space  a confidential search is ordered when a client wishes to hire additional talent in a specific skill niche or title and does not want the opening brought to the attention of current staff.  Sometimes this is done because of the sensitivity of replacing a current employee because of skill or personality deficiencies.  Another frequent reason is that the organization has outgrown the talent scope of the employee’s abilities.  But the bottom line is confidential searches are order for numerous reasons.

So we at Berman Larson Kane approach these searches with extra precautions with the most important mission of first protecting the confidentiality of the client using many of the following steps:

1 – Recruiitng talent without revealing the employers identity until the 11th hour.

2 – Focusing recruiting efforts on passive candidates that will bring value to the client’s mission.

3 – Sometimes once finalist are isolated having them sign a NDA (Non-Disclosure-Agreement) so that the additional risk of clients opening spreading back to the hiring division is minimized.

4 – As part of the NDA making sure finalist do not post via social media or personal networks solicitations of information pertaining to the client.  In todays LinkedIn and Facebook world word of an opening can go viral.

5 – Arranging for interviews to be conducted off site or at our BLK Offices.

For our clients we are so please to put our experience to work on your behalf and thank you for your continuing trust in our talent discovery processes. We so appreciate your confidence in allowing us to add value to these sensitive and timely challenges.

If you are a potential client I would love to listen to your unique discipline challenges and see if we at Berman Larson Kane can recommend a cost efficient staffing solution.

Labor Day 2013

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Labor Day 2013

 Our BLK clients are revving up for an aggressive fall hiring schedule. 

We have witnessed a slow down during the summer, but compared to the past 3 summers it was relatively busier.

Areas with the most aggressive hiring schedules remains, Information Technology across many job titles including programming, web developers, data warehousing, data base analysts and business analysis.

The technical sales hiring remains the most competitive environment with aggressive poaching between competing companies.  The business service sector continues to show additional improvements, with real estate development returning to the hiring cycle.  The clinical area has returned to hiring as consolation in the pharm industry has leveled off.  Demand for machinist continues to increase as the aging of this work force segment continues to advance.

So the bottom line that we at Berman Larson Kane continue to remain optimistic for the remainder of 2013.  We so thank our loyal clients for their continuous support and welcome the continuing additions of new clients to our services.

Enjoy  your labor day weekend it is the best market for employment in several years, although plenty of room remains for improvement with still so many struggling to find meaningful employment

Job Market Confused ???

Posted by boblarson on

August is upon and Labor Day is around the corner.  What is going on with the job market?

We here at Berman Larson Kane (www.jobsbl.com) have witness a steady increase in orders during the first few weeks of August.  We have witness a surge in IT technical openings with an emerging   shortage of talented java-developers.   Clients are finding that their talent discovery process is strained to meet this demand.  And we at BLK are delighted to offer our assistance in attempting to meet demand.

But as for the real job growth that our economy really needs to prosper; unfortunately the majority of new employment is being generated by part time employment and a growing demand for food service workers.  These are not the highest quality of jobs with at best limited benefits and future career growth.

So for the remainder of the year we are predicting a continuous growth in the IT technical sector, continuous competitive demand for software sales staffing, with modest growth in the professional service space and a continuation of modest job growth over all.  Our predictions for the unemployment rate that is will probable remain in its current 7.2 – 7.8% range and possibly begin to lower toward 6.2 % second quarter of 2014.

The Berman Larson Kane  team thanks our steady clients for their support, are delighted to service technology needs for  new and existing clients and are focused on having achieved a record direct hire year.

Career Report July 2013

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Do You Know What Signals You Send at Work?

When it comes to how you’re judged at work, you might think that the quality of your work is all that matters. But, according to an article published by U.S. News & World Report, human perceptions are a lot more complicated than that, and you might be sending signals that you don’t realize or intend. Here, from the article, are five of the top ways that you inadvertently send signals about yourself at work–and how your boss and co-workers might read them:

1. Whom you hang out with at work. No matter how good your work is, if you’re always hanging around co-workers who only do the bare minimum, have a complaint about everything or don’t get along well with their managers, you’re likely to be perceived as sharing those same traits – even if you don’t. Likewise, if you spend time with the office’s high achievers, you’re likely to be perceived as having a similar work ethic and values (and those things can rub off on you in reality too).

2. What time you leave each day. If you watch the clock and leave every day at 5 p.m. on the dot, prepare to be seen as someone not especially committed to work, and only putting in what’s absolutely required. That can impact you when it’s time for raises and promotions. On the other hand, if you always stay hours longer than everyone else, you might be seen as committed – but you might instead be seen as someone struggling to handle his or her workload. Better than each of these is a more balanced approach – not running out the door at the stroke of 5 each day, but leaving around the same time most other people do.

3. What you wear. “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have” is an old saying for a reason. You might get away with wearing jeans and ratty shirts in your role, but if the people above you look more polished, you’ll probably go further by wearing more business-like clothes. Fairly or not, people have an easier time picturing you managing others, doing higher-profile work and dealing with clients when you look polished and well put together. Rather than thinking of the dress code as telling you the minimum you can get away with, think of your work clothes as telling other people how you’d like to be perceived.

4. How you behave in meetings. If you sit silently in meetings without participating, you’re signaling that you don’t have much to contribute, or that you don’t care enough to contribute. Even worse, if you spend most of the time checking texts on your phone or reading sports scores, you signal that you’re unengaged with the company’s business. So try to participate if you can – and at an absolute minimum, make sure you look attentive.

5. How your office is decorated. If your office is utterly barren – no photos, no décor, and no evidence that someone inhabits it – you might signal that you’re just passing through, that you’ll be on your way as soon as you find something better. It’s easy to bring in a lamp and put an art print on the wall, and it will make a difference in how people see you. On the other end of the spectrum, don’t go overboard: If every surface in your office is covered with photos, art and figurines, you’ll look like your focus is somewhere other than on work. You also want to avoid a messy office, which can make you look disorganized and unconscientious.

Additonal BLK News @ https://www.jobsbl.com/about/report/report.php?issue_num=161

June Graduations and Employment

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My informal survey of friends and families with college graduates this May-June is overly represented by  “I’m going to grad school in the fall”.

The question is do students need advanced degrees to secure jobs in their chosen fields? Will a masters increase odds of securing employment? Or are we delaying the realities of the new job market and setting up for future failure?

I think there are no simple answers.

The one constant that I have witnessed in my 30 plus years (Berman Larson Kane) of earning my living discovering talent for organization is that transferable, usable, value adding skills are always in demand.  Usable skills I am presently seeing in demand are data analysis, programming, new media (creative, technical. marketing), industry certifications, interdependence and independence.  Also a maturity factor has emerged favoring young adults who know what they don’t know and are willing to listen and learn from others experience.

Recent graduates, non-graduates and post graduates that can demonstrate success in these skills whether it be school projects, internship, part time work or just plain old experience will secure the new jobs.

So the only crumb of advice I offer to the new graduate students is if your goal is securing employment in your chosen field?  Make sure you are somehow, someway acquiring practical skills that employers are willing to hire and pay good wages.

Just a simply reminder education is usually the best path to learn new and exciting usable skills.  Good Luck Class of 2013 it is a new, exciting and complicated world.  Something’s remain the same J Looking for motivational quotes to keep going visit https://www.facebook.com/BermanLarsonKane .

Free Will Hiring Process Always Present

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Here at Berman Larson Kane (https://www.jobsbl.com/)the issue of “free will” is always present, as this toaster purchase so profoundly illustrates.

Visualize going to an appliance store and purchasing a simple low-tech toaster. You review the models, colors, features, warranties, and prices and make your selection. Now imagine the toaster having the ability to “review” YOU. What color is your kitchen? How many slices of toast will I be making each day, week, and month? Do you have plans to upgrade your kitchen in the near future? If you remodel, what assurance do I have of fitting in with the new décor? How many vacations will your family take? (So I can plan my non-toasting rest.) How often do you replace or rotate your appliances? Will you be cleaning my crumb trap regularly? What are your expectations of my toasting speed?

Well, as you can see, if a toaster had a free will, this simple purchase would become a very complicated, free-wheeling exchange. Each party – the purchaser and the toaster – has a free will, each has its own agenda, and each is looking out for its own best interest. Any answer that is not satisfactory to either party will negate the exchange. The possibilities of this purchase taking place are diminished with each question.

Now, take this toaster’s free will a step further, and imagine the toaster having legs, giving it the ability to leave your kitchen for any reason. When it arrives at your counter it decides that your kitchen’s color doesn’t compliment its own, so after two days the toaster leaves and returns to the store and awaits another buyer. Or worse, after 88 days of adjusting to its workings, the toaster decides that your microwave is unfriendly and departs. Even more insulting, the toaster runs off to your neighbor’s falsely perceived clean white kitchen, believing you neighbor only makes toast on Sundays, and leaving you with UN-toasted bagels.

Well, I am sure by now you get the point. Replace the toaster with “job-seeker” and the purchaser with “employer” and you can envision the complications of the hiring process. Or you can replace toaster with “employer” and purchaser with “job-seeker”.

Employers and job seekers should never lose sight that this free-will exchange is a continuous challenge to both parties during and after the hiring process.

At the very least, it continues to make the staffing business so fascinating to me. Even after 33 years of attempting to facilitate these freewheeling exchanges here at Berman Larson Kane (https://www.jobsbl.com), I am always surprised by some new unique spin. Such is life as a recruiter.

Like us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/BermanLarsonKane to receive our current job posting.

New Competitive Landscape Develops for Talent Acquistion

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We at Berman Larson Kane have witnessed a shift in the “IT Technology and Sales Staffing” that requires labor intensive steps to isolate the best talent. If this change has occurred in a few niches the majority of the market is not far behind. To recruit the best talent a recruiting plan that isolates the passive non-job-seeking candidate has always been the core of the BLK’s 33 years success. So to bring the best talent to your door we fish in three pools continuously.

Pool #1 – Qualified but Not Looking Talent – The majority of talent is not looking for a new job. Even if they are not 100% satisfied most employees are sitting at their desks doing a good job and bringing great value to their employers. Reaching out to this pool requires: organization, automation, tenacity, persistence and a very labor intense effort by our staff here at BLK. In organizing a work plan we at BLK need to discuss with the client: competitor sources, optional titles that this person might bear, email blast lists, lures to temp a passive candidate into speaking with the client, advantages to working for our client, career path, current and potential compensation and competitive advantages. All of these steps and many more require a very organized detailed plan and communication and sales skills by our recruiters.

Pool #2 – Qualified Actively Looking Talent – These are the millions of job seeking candidates that have their resumes displayed on the web. Whether displayed on the public, private, and niche or discussion boards. Sifting through this vast resource to isolate the “unique” requested talent is an art and a science and requires seeking, qualifying, and as the market becomes more competitive luring talent.

Pool # 3 – Actively Selective Looking Talent – These are what we refer to as web surfers. They do not have their resumes displayed on the boards nor are they sending out mailings to announce their availability. This is a group of talent that checks the job boards and selective websites on a regular basis looking for the ideal position or career move. To get the attention of this group one needs an organized web campaign that includes: job boards, social media, niche sites, corporate sites and agency sites. Attractive image, reputation, tenure and ethics presented correctly yield the best responses from this group. However, to attract the correct “unique” talent” using this method always means sifting through the 1,000 of incorrect responses to isolate the few correct ones.

So as you look to fill your jobs or find the best talent, remember jobs and hiring are very serious undertakings and the step of isolating the best talent is a very labor-intensive undertaking. We here at Berman Larson Kane have been attempting to get it right for the past 33 years and continuously are modifying and improving our systems to attack the “Best Talent the Market Has to Offer”.

If you have a talent acquisition challenge it is my pleasure to listen and see if we can recommend a cost effective solution. Thank you for your continuous support. Stay well. Bob Larson, CPC

Job Creation Numbers Not Wonderful Unless You are in Technology

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88,000 a good number for numerologists “infinity and beyond”; but not much for continuing our path towards
better job growth.  These disappointing numbers are a sad contrast to the optimistic  projections of 175-180,000 by analysis has a measured
element of concern.

Well to examine the numbers more closely the professional business sector had a net increase of 51,000 jobs in March, down for April but still a sold increase.  What surprised us here at Berman Larson Kane is that the computer systems design and related services added only 3,900 positions in March.  Our BLK universe is experiencing heated competition for talent in this technology space with many clients being challenged to staff IT niches. We had expected a much larger number here although technical consulting service jobs added 6,200.

Looking forward the unemployment rate in technology is at tor closely approaching full employment.  So the war for good talent will continue to become more competitive as we get deeper into 2013 and beyond.

We thank all of our clients for helping us to a near record staffing Q1 with the prospects for Q2 2013 being extremely positive in technology
and technology consulting.

Berman Larson Kane remains concerned for so many job-seeker who have either given their job search and continue to struggle looking for suitable work.   According today’s report over 800,000 are in the discourage employment category and this is such an unacceptable number.

We will continue here at BLK with our mission of offering
the “Best Staffing Options” to our clients and the job-seeker population.

 

BLK’s 33rd Anniversary “No April Fools Joke”

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Our first year in business 1980 a major monthly expense “bicycle messenger services” . Yes, in 1980 fax machine were cost prohibitive, email was non-existent (unless you had a mainframe computer at your personal disposal) and always sitting at our receptionist desk was a ready “bike messenger” on call to deliver resumes between downtown and midtown Manhattan.”

 Today, 33 years later, the staffing business moves at the speed of light. Resumes reside in clouds for instant access. Subscribers and the recruiters reviewing resumes are scattered around the globe. Work chores migrate to the “perceived” most cost effective and efficient markets. And we at Berman Larson Kane (www.jobsbl.com) struggle to remain on the bleeding edge to best service our clients’ staffing challenges.

 Adapting to these changing challenges remain the core of our business keeping us focused on supplying the “Best Staffing Options” for job-seekers and job-creators. This core value continues unchanged as the foundation of our 33 years’ staffing mission?

 Looking on the horizon, the competition for the best talent will remain extremely competitive and probably heat-up over the next 3 years. Finding, isolating, compensating and recruiting this talent will continue to increase in complexity over widening global markets. In addition, retaining your current top talent will also become more competitive as information access via social media brings all into the public domains allowing for aggressive recruiting efforts by competitors.

As president of Berman Larson Kane, I am very energized by these challenges and changes. Promising that our organization will continue to learn and adapt to the most efficient operation model. Offering the best and most cost effective service is our mission. The only guarantee for the future is that “change is a constant” and today’s business practices will become tomorrow’s “bike messengers”.

 Thank you to all for your support and business. You “Love the Journey”.

IT Talent “Hotter than a Bikram Yoga Studio”

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The IT technical area is becoming a heated  competitive landscape for the “best talent”.  We here at Berman Larson Kane  continue to assist our clients with attracting and closing this shrinking talent pool. Good developers are in short supply. And we believe that the compensation in this niche will begin to grow in the 15-25% percent range for the upper tier of talent over the next 6-12 months. 

Pockets of strength include e-commerce, software development, content management, data mining and predictive marketing.  Systems and Network support/integration  are finding a new higher demand.  As software sales staffing leads the herd in competition for best talent. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Berman-Larson-Kane/191074937686032

As we at Berman Larson Kane continue to assist our clients within this IT staffing niche as we have for the past 33 years.  It is beginning to feel like a return to the past with candidates generating multiple job offers, current employers offing lucrative counters  to keep talent and candidates asking for edgy perks. 

The winner’s in this are our clients that are adjusting quickly to this emerging competitive landscape and are keeping the interview cycle moving at the blistering pace. 

As for our future predictions, the immediate future will continue at this blistering HOT pace and somewhere in what we are calling the distant future this market will find a more reasonable demand for talent balance.

As for now continue to network with all http://www.linkedin.com/company/45958?trk=tyah