Have you ever been speechless during an interview?

Picture this — you have been looking forward to interviewing this top caliber candidate with an amazing history of accomplishments.  The day of your interview finally arrives and you can tell the candidate is nervous but seems prepared.  After the icebreaker small talk you ask your first question and the candidate is stumped; the candidate has no idea how to answer it.  Or worse, there is something negative about the candidate or their work history and you happen to nail that right at the beginning of the interview.  How should you expect a top caliber candidate to respond?  Well, you will just have to read out September newsletter to find out.

Let us know what has been the toughest interview question you have asked or been asked during an interview.

Getting Healthier All The Time

Whether you are an executive in a company looking for ways to make your company healthier or are looking for a new career opportunity, you will enjoy reading our March newsletter.  Our first article will give you some ideas for improving the health of your company.  The second article will help those looking to make a career change.  We would like to hear from you if you have some suggestions for articles in our future newsletters.  We are always looking to improve the lives of our newsletter subscribers by delivering interesting and useful articles.

JK Consultants’ December Newsletter will be Delivered to our Subscribers today

I hope you will look forward to receiving our December edition of the JK Consultants’ newsletter. We are sending it out today – one week earlier than usual because we know many people will start traveling for the holidays and we did not want you to miss these two great articles. The first is on how utilizing contract employees and executives can save money, reduce risk and give you the staffing flexibility that many companies need right now. JK Consultants can help you with your contracting needs. The second article is on Trade Secrets. Many CEO’s don’t even realize they are not protecting their valuable business assets as trade secrets until it is too late. We hope you enjoy reading these articles. If you are not receiving our newsletter, visit our newsletter and sign up today on our website:  www.JKSuccess.com

 

A New Look at Job Descriptions

Job descriptions generally all have the same content – they list the desired experience, skill, industry and academic requirements.  Candidates who believe they meet the checklist items will send their resumes to the hiring authority who will compare it to the job description checklist and either eliminate them or schedule an interview. Most executive search firms will use this same approach to select candidates to present for hiring consideration.

We are an executive search firm that takes a different approach.  We encourage our clients to take a new look at job descriptions so that they will not overlook top performers.  We encourage them to use the job description to build a strong foundation for the employment relationship by defining the actual job tasks, responsibilities and deliverables. We encourage them to be flexible and consider fitting the vacant job to the person when we encounter a high impact top performing candidate.

As an example, if a job description contains a graduate degree requirement, candidates who do not have the graduate degree will either not apply or will be eliminated from consideration as soon as their resume is received.  But consider our approach to job descriptions that gives the flexibility to consider hiring a high impact top performer who has been successfully performing the actual job and delivering results.  The graduate degree?  Well, they may not have it because they were already performing the job without it but they can agree to get it as soon as possible while they work for you.  You hire a great employee and they enrich themselves by obtaining the graduate degree.

How do you use job descriptions? We can help you take a new look at job descriptions as well as the hiring and on-boarding process.

Emergency Succession Plan – Do you have one?

In our November newsletter, we have written an article on creating an emergency succession plan.  Yes, emergency succession plan.  When most people think of a succession plan, they think of a long-term succession plan to eventually replace the CEO/President of the company.  But what will you do if your CEO/President or your Chief Information Officer meets with a sudden, unexpected accident while enjoying their favorite hobby?  Who will fill in during the next 8 months while they focus 100% on regaining their health?

You don’t think it can happen to your company?  Well, on October 25th Steve Odland, chairman and CEO of Office Depot, suddenly resigned.  On October 26th, Robert Benmosche, CEO of American International Group, Inc. announced that he was diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing “aggressive” chemotherapy.  If it can happen to these large, well-known companies, it can happen to anyone.

I can help you with your succession plan – emergency and long term plans.  Many of  our articles are written because we have discussed the topic with our clients.  For example, we are routinely asked to help with succession planning, strategic hiring of available top performers, the interview process, the hiring decision and the on-boarding process.  Yes, we are executive recruiters and we do specialize in recruiting those hard-to-find high impact executives but we like to partner with our clients and teach them to really use all of our expertise for maximum impact.  We want to help make every single one of our clients successful whether that is to help you to hire the right person or bring you information that will help you to be a stronger leader.

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you.  In our October newsletter, we published our offer to send one of our free E-books entitled Promote Internal or Hire External Candidate? to everyone who sent us a request.  I thank everyone who ordered it and now ask that you let me know what you think of this E-book.  Your opinion matters to us very much.  I want to continue to publish useful and interesting information.  We have decided to run this offer again in our November newsletters so we can be sure that everyone who wants to order it has the opportunity.

Also, in October we published our first installment of our Onboarding article.  We intended to publish the second part of the article in our November newsletter but decided to offer to send the entire article to those who did not want to wait.  We received so many requests for the entire article that we decided to publish it in our Quarterly State of Employment that was sent out later in the month of October.  Again, thank you for your interest and your requests for the entire article.  Let me know what you think of it.  Did you find it useful?

Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act

Did you know that the average unemployed worker has been unemployed for ten months.  These unemployed include workers who were laid off when their company downsized as well as recent graduates.  Imagine how grateful someone will be to have a job after being unemployed for some time.  Now, add an incentive on top of that.

The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act provides major incentives for employers to consider hiring unemployed workers and, once hired, to retain them.   The HIRE Act is a $17.5 billion legislation, signed into law by President Obama on March 18, 2010, that gives a potential tax exemption and credit to businesses.  The HIRE Act targets the unemployed who have had difficulty finding work for some time.  For example, the HIRE Act grants businesses that hire workers who are unemployed 60 days or longer an exemption from the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll taxes for each worker for the remainder of 2010. And, if the workers are retained for one year, participating businesses  get a tax credit of $1,000.  The maximum value of the incentive is $6,621 per qualified employee, which equals 6.2 percent of the Social Security FICA maximum wage cap of $106,800.

The goal of the HIRE Act aims to provide hiring incentives to stimulate the economy, restore some of the jobs lost in the latest economic recession, and put Americans back to work.

What are your thoughts on the HIRE Act?  We encourage you to share your thoughts with us.  And, of course, you are welcome to contact us if you would like to learn more about it.

Look forward to our July Newsletter

If you would  like to see us tackle a particular topic in our future monthly newsletters, drop us a line and let us know.  We are working hard on our July newsletter and we are very excited to be sending it out shortly. We selected one article on creative thinking and one on negotiating. We hope that you will enjoy the July issue of our newsletter.

Free Consultation and Job Fit Survey

Free Job Fit Survey with Consultation

Each month we speak confidentially with dozens of CEOs and senior level executives and answer their questions about their recruiting needs for their business. We can answer your questions too if you reserve a free telephone consultation with us.
You will receive one telephone consult session relative to your recruiting needs at the end of which you will receive one FREE Job Fit Survey for a position in your firm and a follow up telephone consult to discuss the results of the survey, a value of $1,500. You will receive all of this for FREE.
There is no catch. Our point is to offer you a taste of the value we can bring to you.
You will consult with Fred Khachi, President of JK Consultants, and, if needed, one other team member.
Call us today to schedule your telephone consultation or to ask any questions you may have.
Contact Fred Khachi, President JK Consultants, 209-532-9999
Visit our website at www.JKSuccess.com

Why and How to Develop an Annual Employee Background Check Program

Everyone understands the necessity of running background checks on applicants during the recruitment process.  But, did you know that it may be just as important to have policies and procedures in place to perform annual background checks on current employees to continue to protect your organization.

Once we hire a good candidate following a clear background check we tend to relax.  Statistics show that companies should diligently monitor and screen their current employees throughout their term of employment.

For example, in 2008, retailers lost $65 billion to shrinkage, defined as loss of product between point of manufacture and point of sale.  Other reports show that only 21% of losses are caused by shoplifting.  This means that the vast majority of the losses may be attributed to employees or employee collusion with outside partners.  An estimated 75% of employees in all business sectors steal from the workplace and do so repeatedly. In addition, employee theft of personal information is a leading source of fraud. According to the FBI, virtually every company experiences losses due to pilferage; from “the removal of products, supplies, materials, funds, data, information, or intellectual property” to the filing of falsified employee expense reports.

A relatively easy to implement program is an Annual Background Check.  This can be very effective because the program is “employee-centered”.  It is focused on the individual employee and is a consistent reminder that their personal integrity and accountability is valued by the employer. In addition, this type of program integrates seamlessly with other loss prevention programs to ensure a comprehensive program of protection.

In order to implement an Annual Background Check Program, you will need to address the following:

1. Ask each applicant to sign an “evergreen” Release Form that clearly informs the applicant that by signing this form, they authorize the employer to order pre-employment background checks and annual and/or random background checks in accordance with company policies throughout the term of employment, should the applicant be hired. Be sure to retain the signed forms.
2. Ensure that your policy of annual and/or random background checks is clearly defined within your organizations’ Employee Handbook and other new hire information documentation.
3. Document and distribute company policies and/or an employee handbook as to what actions the company will take should an annual or random background screen return adverse information.

Be sure to check with your legal counsel to ensure that your program is in compliance with all federal and state laws.  Also, check with your business insurer to see if you are eligible for a premium adjustment if you implement an annual background check program.

Business Ethics from the Top Down

Since Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and other scandals, we scrutinize our top executives for business ethics and value and it has made many top executives exhibit ethical behaviors in all they do. 

However, what happens to those ethics and values as we move down the corporate ladder to middle managers and to lower level employees?

The high standard of ethics practiced by top management may not change the behavior of middle managers and lower level employees.  Middle managers and low-level employees may frustrate the ethical business culture by lack of attention and no commitment. To create and sustain an ethical business culture, employees must believe that the organization wants them to act ethically in all they do.   

If the middle managers are not committed to the values and ethics it will be apparent to the lower level employees and they will not be committed either.  An organization’s ethics and values are only as strong as the weakest link as it trickles down through the ranks.

However, how do the ethics and values of the top executives translate into ethics and values that can reach the rest of the organization?

Every CEO should influence and develop the ethical behaviors and values of middle managers just as they have done so with top executives in the recent years to ensure the trickle down of the corporate ethics to every employee.   Every top executive should realize that their behavior influences middle managers and lower level employees more strongly than any words or directives. 

How do you motivate middle managers?  Middle managers have financial, operations, sales, and cost control goals to achieve. They may perceive that they must focus on these quantifiable business goals.  They may think that they cannot meet the performance goals without sometimes bending the ethical standards.  Worse, they may perceive that the ethical messages and external behaviors of top executives are for the benefit of the public and stakeholders and do not translate into anything real.

The CEO and top executives can specify the ethical behaviors and values that the middle managers should demonstrate to the lower level employees.  This sends a message that the organization is serious about ethics.  If the CEO and top executives are not serious about ethics, none of their employees will be either.  The ethical behavior of middle management will create a strong ethical culture.

 The following are just some of the things the CEO and top executives can do to influence, encourage and reinforce middle managers’ ethical conduct and behavior:

1. Always act ethically, talk frequently about the ethical values and the ethical commitment of the organization, make ethical decisions and support adherence to the values. 
2. Talk about how the ethical values and commitments apply to the work performed by the middle manager and the lower level employee and particularly to specific decisions they make.
3. Ask the middle manager what dilemmas typically arise in implementing the ethical commitments in their work and the work of the lower level employees and give guidance about how to apply ethics to those dilemmas.  Follow up to ensure that the dilemmas are resolved ethically.
4. Recognize ethical issues when they do arise and coach the middle manager to resolve the issues.
5. Let the middle manager know that their ethical performance is being watched as closely as their other performance goals and incorporate it into the performance evaluation.
6. Ask questions when the ethical action is unclear and encourage questions from middle managers prior to taking any action in which it is not clearly ethical
7. Allow middle managers to work together to resolve more difficult ethical issues.
8. Implement a system that encourages reports about unethical actions to top managers

JK Consultants’ always includes ethical considerations in their screening process for their candidates.  This ensures that JK Consultants’ candidates will positively contribute to the ethical culture of a client corporation. Call JK Consultants to learn more.

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We appreciate your participation and comments.  Please leave your comments below.  Also, forward this blog to someone and visit us often.
Sincerely, The JK Consultants Team

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JK Consultants recruites outstanding leadership talent for organizations to help them strengthen their management teams and to realize increased long-term profitability and growth.

Contact us today 209-532-7772

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