Employer Resources

Phoenix Partners wishes you a Happy Holiday and a prosperous New Year. We thought we’d round up some hot topics in hiring to watch for in 2020. Read the rest of this entry »

In our last edition for Employers, we discussed ways to create a “lookalike” candidate pool by tracking and analyzing Quality of Hire metrics. In this edition, we’ll touch on ways that well-designed pre-screen testing can further refine your applicant pool.

Know What You’re Looking For

Before you design the right set of assessments for your potential applicants, it’s important to perform a job analysis to ensure that what you test for measures aspects that are relevant to critical work responsibilities and performance requirements.

That’s because testing can expose a company to litigation risks if a selection decision is challenged and determined to be discriminatory or in violation of state or federal regulations. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recommends that tests used in the selection process must be legal, reliable, valid and equitable. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the last decade, the amount of time employers spend on interviews of new employees has almost doubled, according to Glassdoor research. Companies spend more time — and money — recruiting quality candidates than ever before.

Many business pundits, like Peter Cappelli of the Harvard Business Review, argue that creating a smaller but better-qualified applicant pool will create a better yield.

Ways to Improve Applicant Pool Yield

In today’s environment where many applicants “ghost” prospective employers in the middle of the applicant process and where passive candidates may demand a king’s ransom, it’s an especially good time to reevaluate the creation and maintenance of your candidate pool. Read the rest of this entry »

In the current labor market where technical talent is hard to find, your company may feel even less inclined to introduce more transparency in your pay scales. However, recent research from LinkedIn and a similar Canadian study suggest that pay transparency can instill trust, help level the playing field, and ultimately, help create the kind of company culture talented candidates seek. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s no secret that hiring managers face many challenges in the current tight labor market. Job openings are hovering at 7.3 million according to the August Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) JOLT report, and national unemployment remains at a low of 3.7%. Year-over-year wages for information workers increased by an average of 4.2% nationally to $41.65/hr., according to ADP’s July report.

So in times like these, how do you build, and sustain, a world-class work force? Read the rest of this entry »

Humor in the workplace is not a lightweight topic during a tight employment market. With the unemployment rate at a low point of about 3.6% nationally last month, employers need to examine their corporate culture to attract top talent. Factors like a “high fun-quotient” carry serious weight in winning over recruits. Humor in the workplace can also improve employee wellbeing, foster team-building, and increase productivity while reducing healthcare costs.

Why So Serious?

Babies laugh 400 times a day. The average person over age 35 laughs an average of 15 times on each weekday, according to Gallup. Something tragic has happened on our way to the work world: we’ve lost our sense of humor. While humor might be tragedy plus time (according to Mark Twain), this tragedy is no laughing matter. Fostering the use of humor in the workplace may feel like walking a tightrope in
terms of good taste, but the payoff is substantial. Read the rest of this entry »

Data science, data engineering and data analytics are broad, ambiguous terms that describe a long list of skills and job titles in the realm of data analytics.

“From the 30,000 foot view, a data scientist needs a mastery of the tools and techniques to access, transform, analyze and leverage the data collected by their organization,” said Kay Durkin, founder of Phoenix Partners.

“When hiring data scientists or analysts, it’s important to know the roles that these people will fill and their purpose.”

A good data strategy requires a number of qualified individuals dedicated to each stage of the process from collecting, to warehousing, to analyzing and to using that data to transform the business. This means building a team of people who can write algorithms, manage and collate data, interpret the data and communicate it to key stakeholders. Read the rest of this entry »

Scott Wintrip presented the keynote speech recently at the NPAWorldwide’s* annual conference on the topic of “Just-in-Time Talent.” This topic inspired us to round up top tips to help improve your company’s speed in talent acquisition.

Is Your Hiring Process Up To Speed?

Hiring technically talented individuals in today’s incredibly tight market is difficult, labor-intensive, and stressful. Worse, quite often all that hard work goes to waste because by the time you’re ready to make an offer to a candidate, he or she is already off the market, scooped up by your competitor.

“It’s extremely competitive out there. If your company’s employment process can’t adapt to agile hiring practices, there’s a good chance you could lose out on the best candidates,” says Kay Durkin, founder of Phoenix Partners.

“Time invested in creating a well-designed, fast, efficient hiring process pays great dividends in team building. It also communicates the kind of corporate culture candidates seek,” she said. Read the rest of this entry »

In LinkedIn’s 2019 Global Trends survey and report, more than half (57%) of the companies surveyed said they struggled to assess soft skills. At the same time, 80% said soft skills were increasingly important to company success, with 92% reporting that soft skills matter as much or more than hard skills. In the age of automation and AI, workers need to possess creativity, adaptability, and collaboration skills. And if they don’t, they may become the dreaded “bad hire” that not only wastes time and money, but also jeopardizes company productivity, quality and reputation. Read the rest of this entry »