You have an exciting role open at your company. A lot of people would be over the moon to snag it. So you post it out there, and wait for response.

And you get it. A lot of response, actually.

Now what? You don’t have time to slog through all these resumes! And even if you do, how can you be sure the right person is in there somewhere?

You don’t. But I do.

One of the most useful services you get when you work with a Recruiter is a trained eye on your candidate pool. In my role as a Executive Recruiter, I look at a lot of resumes and follow up with countless candidates. I have the proverbial 10,000 hours of experience that makes one an expert at decision-making.

Beyond that, I stay in touch with candidates even when they’re not actively pursuing a job. That means I have insight into talent that may not act on your job posting; the passive candidate.

This is a critical coup for you, because often the best candidate is the one who is not actively looking for a new job right now.

In any case, when you have a valuable opportunity available at your company, let a Recruiter like me help you fill it with the most deserving and talented candidate.

Innovation is possibly the biggest buzzword since we started thinking “outside the box” all the time.

But when it really comes down to it, what separates “innovation winners” from companies that “simply muddle along”?

Management consulting powerhouse McKinsey has some ideas based on research they’ve been conducting for years.

First of all, more innovative companies have the ability to set a “bold yet plausible aspiration for innovation” — meaning that they’re ambitious and think different, but they always have a strong idea of what economic value their innovation will deliver.

And along with that, leaders of these companies are capable of making tough resource-allocation choices about the people and funds they need to make innovation work.

And incidentally, if you’re still asking, why all the fuss about innovation?

Notably, the research also shows that innovative companies are better financial performers. There’s a direct correlation between thinking, well, outside the box and actually making more money.

For the leaders I work with at Newcastle Associates, staying grounded in financial reality while thinking big and bold is the key to success.

How does one talk intelligently about artificial intelligence?

When it comes to AI, it can be hard to tell the difference between hype and genuine potential.

I found this recent piece from The One Brief really useful in thinking through the true potential of AI.

It’s easy to fall into a pattern of thinking where the rise of AI means the mass unemployment of human beings. But industry experts, including the people witnessing the AI revolution already underway, are quick to point out this just isn’t true.

Rather, the rise of AI will make human employees more empowered to make more efficient and transparent decisions. As the amount of information available to employees becomes higher and more precise, the nature of risk is bound to change.

This is always good to hear as a Recruiter. More than other professions, I think Recruiters are uniquely tuned into the value of human intelligence.

In my nearly 30 years as a Recruiter, I’ve interacted with countless candidates and clients, and if they all had one thing in common it would be this: a deep appreciation for the type of work people can do.

Do you lose sleep at night worrying about your best employees defecting?

Even the most high-profile companies worry about losing their talent to competition.

Goldman Sachs, for instance, is pickier than Harvard. The bank receives about a million applications a year for mid-level jobs, and hires only 5,000.

Yet, Goldman Sachs’ leadership still worries about losing talent to bigwigs like Google and Amazon, and for good reason. One recent LinkedIn report found that data analysts and embedded software engineers turn over at a rate of about 22% a year.

Across every industry, increasing automation and use of data are making technical talent highly sought after. That’s good news for candidates, because companies are getting more and more competitive with their benefits.

Goldman recently announced a new parental-leave policy: 20 weeks of paid leave to all new parents — not just moms. Business Insider calls this policy “by far the most generous leave policy on Wall Street.”

In my 30+ years as a Recruiter, I’ve seen companies pull out a lot of stops to attract the best talent. This is a good time to be a candidate. If you’re thinking about a job change, contact me today.

Does your budget have $100,000 to spare?

Hiring mistakes can be expensive. Sadly not every hire will work out well in the long run.

Lou Adler, CEO of Performance-based Hiring Learning Systems, uses the $100,000 figure to illustrate his point about hiring mistakes in a recent LinkedIn Talent Blog.

He makes some good points about how to avoid such mistakes.
1. Don’t let first impressions lead your hiring decisions. Always wait 30 minutes before making a conscious decision about whether you like the person for the job.
2. Take “fit factors” into consideration — work style in particular. If the person isn’t a fit for your company culture, it’s not going to work no matter how talented they are.
3. Don’t use a surplus of talent strategy when a surplus of talent doesn’t exist. Instead, go with a “high touch” talent strategy that offers career growth.
4. Make sure any recruiter you work with clarifies the job in detail with the candidate before you even interview.

This last point is my wheelhouse. We take great pains to assess every angle of a job before making candidate recommendations. It’s my goal to send only candidates who will truly be the right fit.