Fall 2012: The Pulse of the Workforce

If I could teach one thing about life, it would be my passion, fly-fishing. It has taught me several lessons such as how to adapt, persevere and keep life in perspective. These lessons are also illustrated in this issue of the Baylor Business Review, which focuses on the workforce.

You will read how several alumni have persevered along career paths by using creativity in job searches and taking new directions to discover a career passion. You will see how several alumnae are keeping life in perspective as “mompreneurs” — while raising their children, they are also running successful businesses.

Through our new Nonprofit Technology Internship Program, Management Information Systems students are helping local nonprofits adapt to technological demands. Assistant professor of Marketing Ann Mirabito’s research discusses how employers are adapting to employee healthcare needs by establishing on-site clinics. Additionally, job seekers can learn to adjust to workforce requirements as alumna Heather Gray shares employers’ hiring criteria.

The Baylor Business Review has adapted in order to communicate with readers on an additional content platform with our new BBR iPad app. The BBR app offers an enhanced magazine experience with videos, audio podcasts, interactive features and extra photos not published in the magazine. Search “Baylor Business Review” on the iTunes App Store or visit bbr.baylor.edu/app to download the free BBR app today.

Fly-fishing has also taught me that the pleasure is in the journey. I hope you make the journey back to campus in November to celebrate Homecoming with your Baylor friends and family.

Terry S. Maness
Dean, Hankamer School of Business

 

 

Baylor Business Review, Fall 2012

by Eric Krell

In the 1967 film “The Graduate,” businessman Mr. McGuire delivers pithy career advice by whispering “plastics” into the ear of Dustin Hoffman’s main character. Today, Mr. McGuire might whisper “information technology” or “accounting” into a business school graduate’s ear. Or, he might utter “social media” or “analytics.”  Or “healthcare.” Or “any science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) field.”  Or “ethics,” “creative problem-solving” or “leadership.”

Actually, “all of the above and even more” might be the best career advice anyone could dispense in 2012.

Just ask Scott Smith (BBA ‘89, MBA ‘90), senior vice president of human resources operations for AT&T. “Our perfect candidate,” Smith reports, “is one who has the underlying technology foundation along with key self-directed leadership abilities such as collaboration, creativity, critical-thinking, communication and customer services skills.”

Or, ask Pam Paglino (BBA ‘90), human resources manager of salaried personnel for Ford Motor Company. “STEM fields are extremely critical for my company and our country as a whole,” Paglino explains. Technology represents a huge need at Ford, in research and development as well as in many other areas of the company, including on the plant floor. “Even with our hourly positions, we are looking for a much more technologically sophisticated and educated person,” Paglino continues. “We have a number of PhDs on the plant floor.” Yet, Ford and other companies want even more than technologically savvy applicants. “We’re also looking for what you might call 21st century skills — collaboration, teamwork, communications, problem-solving, creative thinking,” Paglino asserts.

These requirements, combined with spending restraints caused by ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty make companies want to derive valuable returns on their talent investments, especially when that talent consists of new workforce entrants.

“In today’s market, companies are far more educated about ensuring that they invest in job candidates who have very strong chances of succeeding in their culture and organization,” observes Ken Buckley, director of Career Management for Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business Graduate Business Programs. “Companies have become much more astute in evaluating talent.”

This type of opposing dynamic — companies spend less on recruiting efforts while expecting more from their recruiting investments  — also characterizes the current occupational outlook:

• Organizations crave STEM skills, yet they also want candidates with cultural intelligence, creative problem-solving talents, leadership skills and related abilities previous generations deemed “soft”;
• Employers have a pressing need to replace retiring baby boomers, but also want new workforce entrants to possess significant real-world experience;
• Certain STEM skills (including IT, accounting, engineering) remain in high demand, yet employers say they prefer applicants with multiple, or “bundled” skill sets as opposed to specialists;
• The U.S. unemployment rate remains high (north of 8 percent), yet millions of jobs remain unfilled because employers cannot find qualified applicants.

High Unemployment and Vacant Jobs

The U.S. unemployment forecast looks cloudy on two fronts: it remains high but it also obscures a potentially bigger problem, a growing global STEM skills gap. The gap relates to demographics (i.e., retiring baby boomer employees in many industrialized countries) and globalization (i.e., fast-growing economies in Brazil, Russia, India and China — the BRIC countries — that have rapidly growing appetites for STEM skills and other professional capabilities).

“If you look at the job market, we really ran off a cliff a few years ago,” Buckley notes. “College graduate hiring has picked up … and it’s a much better market [for job-seekers] than it was a few years ago.” Yet, most U.S. companies of any size contend with aging-workforce issues. “Companies recognize that, and they’re looking to bring in college graduates,” Buckley continues. Yet, these organizations remain highly selective because they have less to spend on recruiting and on training and development.

Companies also are spending less on compensation. For the third year in a row, U.S. employees can expect median pay increases of 3.0 percent in 2013, according to a Hay Group survey. This is well below the 4.0 percent increases seen from 2005 to 2008, and if this trend continues, it could significantly (and negatively) affect many employees’ long-term earning potential.

Given a growing global STEM skills gap, companies do appear willing to pay more for certain skills, such as IT, accounting and higher-end healthcare skills, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statics projections.

“Today, many high-paying STEM jobs in our industry and others go unfilled as candidates lack necessary technical skills, training or post-secondary degrees,” Smith notes. “With millions unemployed, this skills gap is alarming.” For the U.S. to continue to operate as the innovation engine of the world, Smith adds, “We need a steady stream of STEM students graduating from our colleges and universities.”

In addition to the strong and growing need for STEM skills, employers contend with other talent-management challenges. The 2008-2009 global financial crisis depleted many retirement accounts, forcing employees in the baby boom generation to delay retirement until the balances in their defined contribution plans (i.e., 401(k)s) regain their pre-crisis levels. This development has also allowed many employers to avoid, for now, having to replace large swaths of their workforces. “One of our PhDs here likens the demographics dynamic to a python swallowing an elephant,” says Paglino. “The baby boomer portion of the workforce remains an elephant, albeit one that is taking longer to move down the python than most labor and talent experts anticipated.”

U.S. companies will soon deal with an elephant-sized hole in their workforce, just as other industrial countries with similar demographic situations, like Japan and Germany, already confront. To address this gap, companies can either hire experienced workers at a relatively high cost or hire new workforce entrants and less experienced employees at a lower cost and then spend money to train and develop them.

“Many companies have gone through cost-reductions and staffing cuts, so they have fewer resources to train new [and less experienced] employees,” Paglino continues. “It’s much easier to go out and buy experience, but that approach perpetuates the demographic crunch. When all of these experienced, highly skilled people walk out the door 10 years or even five years from now, will that cost the company more than investing in less experienced employees?”

 

Changing Workforce Demographics

Ford and other companies that invest in new workforce entrants still want to get the biggest bang for their talent buck. That means hiring new workforce entrants who possess enough experience and qualities to help keep training and development budgets lean. Jeff Lupinacci, global director of human resources at Kimberly-Clark International, says cultural intelligence and creative thinking represent valuable qualities across all disciplines and industries.

“Are you able to associate with people from different cultures?” Lupinacci asks. “Are you able to understand the context of where they may be coming from and be able to interact with them appropriately? As businesses become more global, these skills become more important.”

Lupinacci says he and his team evaluate how innovative candidates may be, regardless of whether they work in research and development, human resources or manufacturing operations. “We need people who can keep pushing new ideas as they address problems and opportunities,” he adds.

Of all the organizational functions affected by the exit of baby boomers from the workforce, the sales function is likely to experience the greatest impact. Sales is the most people-intensive part of most businesses, and its evolution — which recently has accelerated thanks to the widespread embrace of business systems such as customer relationship management (CRM) and sales force automation (SFA) as well as social media — paralleled the working lifecycle of the baby boomer generation.

“We are approaching the largest turnover in the sales profession in the history of this country,” says Hankamer’s Andrea Dixon, associate professor and holder of the Frank M. and Floy Smith Holloway Professorship in Marketing. Dixon is also executive director of the Keller Center for Research and the Center for Professional Selling, which administers the Professional Selling major, a highly experiential program with seven courses designed to address the rigors of selling in a post-CRM business realm where social-media-equipped customers have much more information and power.

 

“Today’s sales professionals have the skills and capacity to help consult and build solutions for a company at a more strategic level,” Dixon notes. “It’s no longer a matter of just selling a product. This requires students leaving campus who are differentially prepared as problem solvers, and who can engage across all levels of an organization via their sophisticated business acumen.”

Problem-solving abilities figure prominently in the influx of military veterans transitioning into the civilian workforce. More companies are creating recruiting and on-boarding programs designed to tap military-veteran talent. These endeavors give companies access to an under-utilized talent pool; the unemployment rate among veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq is roughly 25 percent higher than the overall unemployment rate in the U.S.

“We’ve hired a lot of veterans in the manufacturing world because they walk in the door with leadership skills and other qualities that you can’t necessarily learn on a college campus,” says Paglino, who notes that Ford has a long history of hiring military veterans. “It is a school-of-hard-knocks experience.”

AT&T created a site (www.att.jobs/military) devoted to recruiting veterans while assisting them with the transition from military service to the civilian workforce. Smith points to numerous benefits achieved by military veterans, including access to leadership and team-building skills, a diverse talent pool and professionals who tend to manage adversity well, understand health and safety standards, and operate efficiently under pressure.

Implications on Workforce Entrants

Given the comprehensive demands of employers seeking new workforce entrants, recent graduates should consider the following steps when preparing to enter, or re-enter, the workforce:

• Get experience. “With our on-campus recruiting, we try to find people who have had really practical, good, hands-on experiences, either through internships, summer jobs or other activities while they are in school,” Paglino says. “We are looking for people who have experience so they can hit the ground running and not require as much up-skilling and training time.” Baylor University’s associate director of Career Services Kevin Nall notes that students with internship experience on their resumes can command a 20 percent higher starting salary compared to a recent graduate without internship experience who lands the same job. “Overall,” he adds, “the most important thing students can do to be competitive within the job search is to have some kind of internship experience on their resume.” Hankamer’s approach to internships, a required component at the graduate level (as are a pair of career development classes), “is not about how to perform certain tasks,” Buckley emphasizes. “It’s about how to deal with ambiguity, how to set yourself apart, how to get comfortable with change and how to develop a work ethic.”

• Continually track job-growth trends. In addition to her work instructing Hankamer students on the latest IT skills and concepts, associate professor of Management Information Systems (MIS) Hope Koch also runs a scholarship program with her husband that awards $500,000 a year to high school students in her hometown of Cameron, Texas. Recently, Koch added a requirement for those scholarship applicants: they have to scrutinize the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook and identify a profession with a promising jobs outlook. “It’s sort of like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs,” Koch notes. “You have to meet your basic needs, and once those are met, you can start pursuing jobs and responsibilities that are more interesting to you.” Koch also emphasizes that many of the job areas with rosy growth prospects, like IT and accounting, also are much more interesting and creative in practice than they might initially appear.

• Bundle your skill sets. As Paglino, Lupinacci and other HR leaders assert, employers want new entrants to have it all: top-notch classroom education and real-world experience; STEM skills and sharp team-building capabilities; risk-taking savvy and ethical mettle. Alas, the trend toward flatter organizational structures, virtual reporting relationships and declining training and development budgets means that employers also are less likely to devote time and money to help employees develop new skill sets. As a result, notes Dixon, “The talent coming out of universities today has to be focused on self-development. The employer of the future is looking to buy bundles of skills. A general degree will not get you a job in the future — I’ll stake my job on that. It’s the bundled skills that will get you a job, and that generally comes from the experiential development you get while earning your degree.”

• Brand yourself. Gaining experience represents only part of the process; job applicants also must be able to articulate that experience — quickly, engagingly and in a way that resonates with their audience (i.e., a job interviewer). “A lot of students have great experience, but their resume sometimes reads like a laundry list of tasks they did on an internship, as if they’re regurgitating the job descriptions,” Nall notes. “You have to be able to articulate the value that you can add to an organization. That’s critical.” And this isn’t just at Baylor; one of the world’s top accounting and advisory firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers, publishes a five-step personal brand workbook as part of a Personal Brand Week initiative designed to help graduates more effectively articulate their value.

• Above all, be ethical. Given the recent spate of corporate scandals (e.g., rate-rigging, excessive risk-taking in the financial services realm, money laundering and more), personal integrity represents an increasingly valuable organizational asset. These scandals have highlighted the need for companies to exhibit more principled performance, especially in the “language of business,” notes Anthony Herrera, lecturer and director of Internships and Career Development for the department of Accounting in the Hankamer School of Business. “Ethics is the foundation of our profession. If accountants don’t have ethical standards, our entire industry falls apart.” Lupinacci observes that companies feel the same way about nearly every other profession. He sees more organizations incorporating the same type of ethics-related questioning into the applicant-screening process that Kimberly-Clark has long used. “More companies place a high value on finding graduates who are trustworthy and who have a moral mindset,” he notes. “Ten or even five years ago, many companies would not have thought to include ethical considerations in the hiring process.” Not that ethics weren’t important back then, he adds, but recent instances of unethical organizational behavior have helped demonstrate to all companies how important it is to hire employees with the right set of values.

To attract the attention of increasingly discerning recruiters, new graduates need to develop the right set of skills and values. And it’s no longer a secret that there is no pithy formula for developing this bundled skill set. “We are now looking for so much, all in one person,” Paglino adds.

Check out this “Workforce Planning Study” infographic, courtesy of Compliance and Safety.

 

 

 

Baylor Business Review, Fall 2012

by Kristin Todd Stires

Forget about a standard nine-to-five work schedule, and log on for a Skype call to China at 10 p.m. instead. Take a risk and discover your career passion. Start using creativity in your job search. Network to enter into a new industry. The workforce and our work environments are changing, and we caught up with a few alumni who shared their stories with us.

 

 

Baylor Business Review, Fall 2012

by Augie Ray

The topic of employees’ right to privacy and expression in social media has been front and center of late. Social media employment news has included Delta’s getting called out for the non-work activities of an employee, Facebook’s stand against employers’ asking for job candidates’ social network passwords, and the latest in a long line of employee firings for things they had posted to social networks.

While social media continues to evolve — and much will change in the years to come — every employer and employee should understand a few simple things. Being ignorant of social media risks, best practices, and laws is no excuse for employees’ making career-ending mistakes or employers’ stumbling into costly legal and brand reputation errors.

Here are three things employers should know about social media:

1. Training and communication about corporate social media policies are essential: Some companies have nosocial media policy, but most have come to recognize that existing communication policies are insufficient to protect employers and employees from the nuances and unique risks of social media. Other organizations have a policy but fail to educate employees on the risks and ramifications of their actions in social media; this is almost as dangerous as having no policy at all. Simply put, your employees — particularly younger ones who are social natives — are ill-equipped to understand the corporate, regulatory and legal risks of their social media activities. If you are not reinforcing to them what is expected, what will get them and the company in trouble, and the consequences of mistakes, your brand is accepting needless risks, and you are not doing your employees any favors.

2. Give employees every opportunity to vent in private and appropriate channels: Nothing a company does will prevent some employees from turning to social media to voice complaints, because social media sharing is second nature to too many people. Nevertheless, that should not prevent companies from trying to prevent as many social media problems as possible.
The answer is not to prevent social media access at work — employees all carry their social networks in their pockets or purses nowadays — but instead to furnish multiple ways for employees to share feedback within the company.

This includes passive solutions, such as offering intranet forums where employees may discuss concerns, and proactive solutions, such as organized employee gatherings and groups to collect feedback. The best solution is nothing new: strong, active, open and engaged leadership that listens to employees.

3. Do not ask for candidates’ or employees’ passwords: Asking for employees’ and candidates’ social media passwords is problematic for several reasons. First, doing so might expose you to information that the person is in a protected group, which could then open the company up to a discrimination claim. Also, your organization could suffer a blow to its reputation if a candidate or employee discloses the practice.

In hiring situations, you might lose a qualified candidate concerned that your organization demonstrates a hostile and distrustful relationship with employees. Finally, this practice requires employees to violate Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which states, “You will not share your password… let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.” Some assert there are legal risks to asking employees and job candidates for their passwords. I am not a lawyer and cannot advise you on the legality of checking social media for information on candidates, but asking for passwords is a dangerous and risky policy.

Here are three things employees should know about social media:

1. If you manage people, never discipline an employee for what you see in personal social media profiles without consulting legal or human resources professionals: Imagine a scenario: You visit an online forum or social network and find your employees disparaging you, your peers, or your company, in full view of prospects, customers, and vendors. If you were to discipline the employees or consider a request that they refrain from further criticism, your actions could result in a variety of legal problems, including charges of unfair labor practices by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Some employee complaints are protected by law; others are not. The NLRB is actively shielding workers’ rights to use social media to discuss the terms and conditions of their employment and criticize their employer. Recent NLRB decisions have ruled against companies that fired employees for complaining about co-workers’ promotions, company policies, or managers. Managers cannot know every employment law or ruling, but your HR and legal department resources do. Use them, and do not take unilateral action that can cause you more problems than a whiny employee.

2. What you say and do in social media can get you fired: You probably know that social media can help you land a job; if so, it should come as no surprise that social media can also help you lose one. Though the First Amendment may guarantee you the right to free speech, it protects you only from government infringement on your rights and does not apply to private companies.

The NLRB may be actively seeking to protect workers’ rights to use social media to complain about working conditions, but that hardly means you have an open invitation to gripe. The NLRB has upheld many employee discharges for social media posts, and chances are you do not and will not recognize the difference between a protected post and an unprotected one. Even if you do, relying on legal recourse rather than common sense is a very bad career idea. It won’t help your reputation at your current organization or with potential future employers if you become known for publicly griping about co-workers, bosses, or company policies.

Do not post anything in social networks — even ones where you presume the right of privacy — that you would not say or send to a boss or co-worker. If you have concerns about your employers’ policies, you are much more likely to bring about positive change and protect your job by communicating these issues within your organization rather than on Facebook or Twitter.

3. Your employer has a good reason to monitor you on social media: It has been my experience that many employees are concerned about having employers keeping an eye on their posts and tweets. This concern is understandable — there is an uneasy element of Big Brother to monitoring by an employer — but it is also important to recognize that employers have good and reasonable reasons to do so. A lawyer friend of mine recently said, “Companies do not monitor to pry into the personal lives of their employees. They monitor because they are required to.”

Corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to protect the company’s assets, and those include the reputation of the firm. They also have a legal responsibility to protect everything from trademarks and patents to private information about customers. Moreover, the FTC has indicated that companies must monitor the people who have material relationships with the firm to ensure they disclose the relationship when praising the company in social media. If your firm is in any sort of regulated industry, there are probably a host of regulatory agencies with rules that require monitoring, record retention and auditing policies.

Chances are your employer does not care that you love Ron Paul, support Occupy Wall Street or listen to Lady Gaga, but many companies have established or will need to set up monitoring practices to do what shareholders, governments, and regulators expect and require. If employers are smart, they will use monitoring to find employees who are participating in social media in troublesome ways and counsel those workers before they cross a line that results in lost employment and income.

It may seem to some that social media has matured and become a way of life. That is far from true — social media will continue to challenge and change laws, regulations, business practices and the nature of the employee/employer relationship. Until the dust settles — and that will not be for many years — employers and employees alike are better off proceeding with caution. There are many landmines waiting for companies and workers in our new and evolving social era.*

 

Augie Ray is director of social media at Prudential Financial. He is the former executive director of Community and Collaboration at USAA where he led social media strategy and community engagement. Previously, Ray was senior analyst in social media marketing at Forrester. Before joining Forrester, he had 13 years of experience in interactive and social media marketing. Ray is a popular speaker on social media and social business topics. In 2009 he was named the first two-time Blogger of the Week by Social Media Today. He has blogged on social media topics for several years at Experience: The Blog  (www.experiencetheblog.com).

*This article first appeared on Experience: The Blog.

 

 

Baylor Business Review, Fall 2012

by Logan Angel

In a world where technology rules, companies are finding it increasingly difficult to stay in tune with the changing times. Nonprofit organizations are no exception and often have the additional challenge of a limited operational budget. Without the guidance and support of a sometimes costly IT consultant or IT director, nonprofits may fall victim to lengthy manual processes, system setbacks and system failures.

This is a problem for many nonprofits in Waco, Texas. After years of wanting to help but not having the resources, Gina Green, associate professor of Management Information Systems (MIS), and Erica Ancira, technology consultant for the Nonprofit Technology Collaboration and visiting lecturer at Baylor, have teamed up to offer a solution.

A resident of Waco for the past 14 years, Green has done her fair share of volunteer work and said that she has always had “a heart for service.”

“I knew there was a need for better information management in Waco nonprofits and that I had the knowledge to help, but it takes more than just an idea to put something into action,” she said.

In 2007, Green had a graduate student working on an independent study who was interested in helping nonprofit organizations make sense of their data.

“Some tools were developed, but it was on more of a small scale,” Green said.

In spring of 2010, though, Green’s idea started to take shape, when she attended a nonprofit technology conference in Austin. Ironically, due to a technological glitch by the conference organizers, she was given ample time to introduce herself to another woman who was attending, Erica Ancira. At the time, Ancira served as the director of technology and administration at the Waco Foundation. The two began discussing their passion for technology and volunteer work, and soon realized their missing puzzle pieces were each other.

“Starting back in 2009, I began brainstorming of ways I could use my IT knowledge to help nonprofits in Waco, but just didn’t have all the resources,” Ancira said. “When Dr. Green and I met at that conference, we knew we could make something happen.”

Through the Waco Foundation, Ancira then identified seven different local nonprofit organizations that would be good initial candidates for technological aid. All that was needed then was an intern.

So in 2011, Green put out an application among MIS students, looking for the very first nonprofit intern for the program, beginning in the fall semester. After an interview and discussion of skill sets, Doug Kimball, BBA ’12, was selected for the position, and the Nonprofit Technology Internship Program was established.

Kimball had his hands full in fall of 2011, starting off his internship by teaming up with a local consultant to do a complete IT assessment of the seven nonprofit organizations, which the program refers to as the “Leader’s Circle.” Once all the strengths and weaknesses were assessed for each nonprofit organization, Kimball was responsible for offering technology suggestions that would help benefit the productivity of the different organizations’ missions.

“The process was very lengthy, but the Leader’s Circle was really pleased and grateful,” Green said. “Shortly after, they started to implement suggestions that were made.”

In addition to the IT assessment task, Kimball was asked to look into possible work opportunities for future interns of the program.

“After the initial assessment, all of the organizations in the Leader’s Circle expressed the need for assistance in the basics of technology and how to use technology more effectively,” Green said. And thus, the idea was born to create a technology basics manual, a project so extensive that it is still in the works at the present moment.

Nicholas Villapana, BBA ’12, had the honor of tackling this daunting task as the program intern this past spring semester.

“I had to go back to basics with this assignment, creating easy-to-follow steps and using screenshots to outline how to use certain programs such as Microsoft Word and Excel,” Villapana said. “It was a tedious task, but it helped as a refresher over the basics. I learned some new information about programs and shortcuts that I was not aware of before. It also gave me work experience to add to my résumé that stood out to employers when I was interviewing for jobs.”

Ericson Sampson, senior MIS major and summer 2012 intern, felt similarly about having this opportunity.

“I was having a difficult time finding an internship for the summer until one of my professors suggested contacting Dr. Green,” Sampson said. “After meeting with her about my skills and interests, I was soon on my way to picking up where Nicholas left off on the technology basics manual. I’m eager to learn new things, help out where I can and get the kind of experience needed to enter the job field upon graduation.”

Mark Cummings, senior MIS major and summer 2012 intern, was told about the internship by Doug Kimball. And continuing in his footsteps, Cummings worked on a survey that Kimball started, which was made available in August. The survey is intended to be a method of assessing the technology needs of a broader group of Waco-based nonprofits.

“First and foremost we want to serve,” Green said. “We are focusing on the idea of ‘service learning’ — helping students enhance their IT and professional skills by serving in the community.”

Ancira is pleased with the program so far and looks forward to its expansion.

“This is a work in progress, but it feels good to have something to show for all the hard work that has been done,” Ancira said. “The Leader’s Circle is so very appreciative for all the time and effort that the interns have given. It is our hope that in the near future we will be able to help more nonprofit organizations and bring more interns on board.”

 

Nonprofit Organizations in the Leader’s Circle

Caritas | Communities in Schools of the Heart of Texas | Compassion Ministries | Waco Habitat for Humanity | Family Abuse Center | Meals & Wheels (Central Texas Senior Ministry) | World Hunger Relief

 
www.baylor.edu/mis/nonprofits

 

 

Baylor Business Review, Fall 2012

by Heather Gray, CPA

When I proudly walked the Baylor graduation stage in 1993, I never dreamed that I would one day have a career, much less a business, as a headhunter. I didn’t even know what a headhunter was. At the time, I had plans to be an audit partner at Price Waterhouse. I had my life all planned out. Life doesn’t always work out the way we plan it; sometimes, it’s better!

In 1995, I decided to completely change my career from the audit path at Price Waterhouse to the world of recruiting. Accounting recruiting sounded like a risk-free career choice: if I didn’t love it, I would just place myself since I would hear about the best jobs first.

Thankfully, I found a career path I never expected. I have been blessed to have a 17-year career in recruiting for accounting and finance professionals in Houston. In 2000, I recruited my husband Tony, who had been part of several successful startups, and we started Search Services. We have been fortunate to grow and thrive during good and bad markets. We owe part of our success to a partnership with Baylor alumnus, David Young (BBA ’92), with whom we established Search Technology in 2003. Today, we have three divisions which place professionals in accounting and finance, information technology and support roles.

I am grateful to have a long-term impact on people and their careers and to help my clients solve hiring dilemmas. Being a business owner is not easy, and it’s not always fun. You have to make decisions that impact the lives of many people, and those decisions are not always popular or supported. However, the rewards are great as well, and it has given me a unique understanding of the stress and frustrations of my clients who are looking to hire degreed  professionals.

What are Employers Looking For? 

There is no perfect employer. There is no perfect candidate. But most employers want as close to perfection as they can get. Every employee hired is a bit of a gamble. You can check a hundred references, interview someone a dozen times, and still make a hire that doesn’t work out. Even though my job is recruiting people for other companies, our team will still make a bad hire occasionally. You just never know what you are going to get, and sometimes you get fooled during the interview process. Employers compensate for that uncertainty by establishing a list of hiring criteria that will help them to get as close as possible to a sure bet.

In hiring, all employers want these eight traits:

1.    The Correct Technical Skillset

The number one prerequisite for any hire is the candidate having the correct, relevant skillset needed for that particular job. Employers always first ask themselves, “Can this person do the job?” before evaluating anything else. Except when hiring new graduates, most employers do not want to spend the time, effort or money training someone who does not have most or all of the technical qualifications for a job.

2.    Chemistry and Personality Fit

Every employer wants to hire people who fit and will contribute positively to the team. They will ask themselves during the interview, “Could I go to lunch with this person and have something to talk about other than work?” They do not want someone who will create or participate in office drama. An outgoing and positive personality is usually more likely to get hired, as long as it fits the team, role and office environment. Employers strive to create a certain office dynamic, and if someone does not fit the workplace culture, it’s not worth the headaches of trying to correct those mistakes later.

3.    Communication Skills

Employers want someone who is able to effectively communicate. They begin to evaluate someone’s written communication skills with the initial email and résumé, and if they see overly casual communication or incorrect grammar or spelling, they immediately think less of the candidate. They also evaluate interview thank-you notes for appropriate spelling and grammar. Verbal communication is equally as important. Every employer wants someone with a strong command of the English language and the ability to both understand and follow directions by their supervisor.

4.     Presentation

Upon first seeing an interviewee, an employer assumes that this is the best that person will ever look. When that impression falls short, the chance of hiring that person drops dramatically. Let’s face it, image matters. Employers are not seeking or expecting a supermodel to walk through the door, but they do expect job seekers and employees to care about their appearance and to dress appropriately for that work environment.

5.     Realistic, Reasonable Expectations

Employers look for people with a realistic understanding of what they have to offer and reasonable expectations for a career path and compensation. I meet many job seekers who have an inflated opinion of the job they are qualified for, irrespective of skills; unreasonable salary expectations; and an overly aggressive view of how quickly they should rise within an organization. Employers want someone who knows his or her current skillset, has salary expectations that fit the role and a realistic timeframe for promotions.

6.    Preparation and Interest

My clients expect people who interview for a job to be both prepared for the interview and interested in the specific role for which they are interviewing. Lack of interview preparation demonstrates a lack of interest in the role. Additionally, this is not a time to hide feelings about a role. It is expected that those who interview will express interest during or quickly after the interview, or employers assume that there is none.

7.    Strong Work Ethic

When I graduated in 1993, my generation expected to have to work hard in our careers. We expected overtime, and hoped that our hard work and dedication would be recognized and rewarded. My generation, and those preceding, are many of the people in hiring positions today. This dedication to a career is what we expect. That does not mean that employers want or require workaholics, but they all want people who will commit to doing their job and doing it thoroughly, even if that involves working some overtime.

8.    Promotability

In most roles, employers look for people who can progress within their organization. They want people who are upwardly mobile and who will be long-term employees. They look at a job seeker’s past performance as a barometer and indicator of future success, and evaluate whether the person will be able to be a long-term contributor, in whatever capacity fits the organization and the job seeker’s stage of life.

There is no magic formula in hiring. However, employers are consistent regardless of industry or size of company. They want dedicated employees who treat the company like it is their own and who care about the organization and their coworkers. The best advice to an employer trying to hire is: sell the positive aspects of your company in the interview, and work hard to create an environment where people want to work. Life is just too short to work with the wrong people!

 

Heather Gray, BBA ’93, CPA, is co-founder and senior partner of Search Services, a privately held, direct hire placement and staffing solutions company based in Houston, Texas. Search Services has three operating divisions: Search Finance (accounting and finance placement), Search Technology (Information Technology placement), and Search Support (administrative and office clerical placement).

www.searchsvc.com
hgray@searchsvc.com
713.838.1600

 

 

 

Baylor Business Review, Fall 2012