Comments on: Can’t Find Talent?You Must Be Kidding!

By: Poker Bruce

Poker Bruce — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:10:00 +0000

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By: Philip Dana

Philip Dana — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 03:11:00 +0000

I thought your article was superb on ERE. I am a prior-enlisted Naval Academy graduate that came out after 14 years of service scared to death and did not know what career to pursue, interviewed for 8 months at military job fairs, using search firms, and posted resumes to the wind. Luckily, I was one of the few than landed a career with a great company, a fortune most-admired company in fact, and worked my way to become a Director of Talent Management, attending those same fairs, national industry conferences, and college career fairs to place the best of the best. I now reside with Jeff Kaye?s team as the National Marketing Manager for his Military Specialty Practice and have one simple answer for those that have the statement of, ?Where has the best talent gone?? ? The MILITARY!! The Military is already the sole bridge between Gen X and the Baby Boomers that now sit at the Director/VP/Chief level. The quote below did a great job of spelling that out. Three statistics within this past week have struck me ? 72% of our youth between 17 and 24 fail to meet entrance requirements to the military; on 6/24, the USMC will start providing bonuses of up to $80k for re-enlistment; and the DoN has convinced Congress to bend the old rules and are allowing bonuses of more than 6 figures to keep the hard-skilled talent such as Nuclear Engineers. That all leads me to the statement to add to your article of holy cow, Corporate America had better get onboard because the companies that have found their way to front-row seats and head-of-the-line pickings of this Talent will continue to pull away from the others.

BusinessWeek?s April 2007 issue career section stated that it?s ?time to call in the military.? Author Kurt Ronn went on to explain that the ?War for talent is on.? I?m sure few in the recruiting world would disagree with him. With 250,000 men and women entering the civilian workforce each year, talent is the word that should be focused upon. It?s now as simple as this. Companies who invest in establishing and improving pipelines of talent coming from the military will enjoy long term advantages over competition. Staffing has become and will continue to be a clear differentiator separating great companies from struggling ones. Military recruiting, like any other long term strategy, requires a holistic approach.

Philip M. Dana (USNA ’98) | National Marketing Manager – Military Specialty Practice
pdana@kbic.com | direct 972.265.5200 | mobile 817.689.1481

Ranked#1 ‘Largest Retained Executive Search Firm’ by The Dallas Business Journal
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By: William Uranga

William Uranga — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 05:44:00 +0000

‘Whole-heartedly agree with the article. We are tracking source of hire every quarter as a sort of market indicator on what is working for us AND doing a bottom’s up review on resources every fiscal year (not just to justify specific items/amounts, but to stay with/ahead of the competition for talent).

This past year we’ve cut our job board vendors by half, added a sourcing role in the team, and taken some risks in new advertisement tactics.

It certainly isn’t easy, but the challenges are invigorating.

Don’t survive, thrive.

By: Rachel Schneider

Rachel Schneider — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 04:33:00 +0000

Great points. Just to add onto that:
1. Recruiters/sourcers need to work harder. In abundant times, salespeople (for example) become order takers. In lean times, only the really good salespeople continue to find and develop orders. Good recruiters/sourcers will continue to find talent regardless.
2. As mentioned, employees will not stand to be ‘treated like crap’ organization after organization. The good managers/companies with solid reputations will continue to attract quality candidates. Blogs and connections can really help in the process of attracting or detracting candidates.
3. For smaller businesses, a review of the employee base may be in order. The phrase ‘A players will work for A players’ is very true. If you have mediocre management or workers, it will be difficult to attract and moreover retain the high performers and trailblazers.
4. As other articles highlighted, ‘define talent’ – what is talent in the context of the particular organization? One person’s definition may differ from company to company. Define, target, and attract!
5. Memory is strong. For those companies who treated people badly, did not respond to follow ups, or were arrogant – guess what you have now!

The talent is still there, maybe it is time for an organizational assessment of why it isn’t coming.

Rachel

By: Kenneth Capper

Kenneth Capper — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 03:43:00 +0000

Dr. Sullivan,

Interesting article to say the least. One important factor, which was not mentioned, is the availability of the current talent. I am able to find talent, in many ways you suggested. However, luring those people away from jobs that frankly pay better, have more vacation time, and better benefits, is the struggle I have faced in the current market. I work in an area where wages are low, standard of living is moderate, and is cold in the winter. We still have to pay high gas prices, housing does not come cheap, and pay $10.00 to have a decent lunch. However, companies are still paying their employees like it is the mid 90′s. In my opinion, every company should pay an equal wage, for equal work, no matter what part of the country you live in.