Best Ways to Hire for Your Lending Business

Hiring for a lending business

Financial industry jobs are anticipated to grow by 10% by the year 2026. This means it will soon become more important than ever for financial services recruiters to know how to find, hire, and retain talent.  Lending service hiring is a very specific process. It has challenges that make it more difficult to find the right people to fill open roles than other industries may have. Your company’s financial services recruitment strategies need to be on point if you want to land the most qualified candidates.

What Are the Challenges of Financial Services Recruitment?

Every industry is unique when it comes to best practices in recruiting new candidates. However, many would argue that the financial industry is the most difficult. A large reason for this is simply a lack of suitable talent. In fact, 76% of accountancy and finance employers said a shortage of suitable applicants is the biggest obstacle they face when it comes to hiring. When you add the fact that financial industry jobs often require niche skill sets, navigating a small pool of candidates is even more challenging. Finally, financial employers are often competing with many other sectors for new talent. Many young employees today are pursuing jobs in fields like tech over finance. So, you’re not only competing against your direct competitors but companies in other industries as well.

How Can You Improve Your Lending Service Hiring Strategy?

Despite these challenges facing the industry, there are ways you can position your company ahead of the competition to land some impressive new hires.

Improve Your Employer Branding

If you want to get the attention of quality candidates, you will need to invest in your employer’s brand. You should begin by researching how potential candidates perceive your brand and the things they really want to know about you. Then, you can analyze how those expectations differ from what you’re actually showing them. How can you influence potential candidates’ perceptions about you to appeal to even more people? For example, you’ll likely be competing with new, fintech companies that have a youthful, engaging brand. If that is something many candidates are looking for, they will skip applying to your traditional, conservative brand. In order to be competitive, you’ll need to make sure your company comes across in a way that resonates with the people you consider to be your ideal candidates. 

Use Recruitment Marketing Strategies

Lending service hiring really is a form of marketing and it doesn’t end with your company branding. You’ll also want to consider how you can employ strategies that will help you build an extensive pool of qualified candidates. This pool can be used for both current and future job openings.  You’ll want to use digital tools such as programmatic advertising to help get your open positions in front of the right candidates. Another effective strategy is to create ideal candidate profiles for any job openings. This will help you identify the attributes that are most essential to success on the job. It will also help you employ programmatic advertising that targets the candidates with the skills you’re looking for.

Expand Your Sourcing Strategy

Are you looking in the right places to find new hires? Your open positions should be posted in relevant places like social media platforms and online job boards. Online job boards are one of the best places to advertise your openings since 71% of finance professionals said they look for work through these platforms. You can utilize general job boards such as LinkedIn or Indeed and specialist lending service hiring boards. College job fairs and other recruiting events are another great way to expand your sourcing strategy. These are especially effective in meeting entry-level candidates. If the results of these strategies aren’t satisfactory, utilizing a recruiting agency like Brightwing is an excellent option. We can help you create a more effective sourcing strategy and even take some of the work off of your hands.

Make Growth and Inclusion Part of Your Employee Value Proposition

Today, employees are looking for more than a place to earn a salary. They want to work for a company that encourages their personal growth and prioritizes inclusion. Candidates should hear your employee value proposition (EVP) and immediately know there’s nowhere else they’d rather work. Can you offer training opportunities that your competitors can’t or won’t? Are there clear paths for advancement within the company? Do you hire people of all backgrounds? These are all things that should be an integral part of your EVP. 

Connect Through Email and Social Media

Email and social media are highly effective ways to reach the younger generations of applicants. Consider utilizing email as a way to stay in touch with candidates who didn’t make the cut. You can maintain a relationship and nurture them to keep them in the loop for future job openings using email. Professional social media sites like LinkedIn are also useful for connecting with candidates. If you’re not convinced it’s a place to spend your time and money, consider that 49% of professionals follow relevant organizations on social media to keep up with their recruitment processes. You already know they are looking there, so why not reach them where they’re already active?

Start An Employee Referral Program

There is no one better to vouch for your company than someone who already works there. Inevitably, your employees will know people who work in similar industries or at other companies. Getting employee referrals is an extremely easy and efficient way to reach new talent.  You can start a referral program by rewarding employees for recommending employees they think would make great candidates. Employee referral programs lower the time to hire and also help save on recruiting costs so you are not sourcing. In addition, you already know these candidates have a good relationship with your current employees, which is a win-win.

Lending Service Hiring is Hard

There’s no denying that recruiting in the financial industry is hard. Talent is in short supply and the competition is fierce. That’s why lending service hiring and recruiting has to be an active process, not a passive activity. You need to show potential employees why working for you will be the best choice for them. That means marketing to job seekers in a similar way to how you market to your customers.

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What is Technical Recruiting and Is It a Good Career Choice?

Technical Recruiting as a Good Career Choice

If you identify as a person with excellent communication skills, a strong curiosity streak, and have knowledge of technical career fields, then becoming a technical recruiter could be a good career choice. 

What is a technical recruiter? 

A technical recruiter is a recruiter who specifically looks for talent to fill technical roles, which are jobs that require certain skills and expertise (usually in IT and engineering). Often, technical recruiters have at least two years of experience in the industry field they will be recruiting for, and formal education gives a prospective technical recruiter a competitive edge.  Technical recruiters match people with opportunities to create a pool of qualified candidates for sustaining a pipeline of talent.

What does a recruiter do? 

To decide if technical recruiting is a good career choice for you, it’s important to understand the duties and responsibilities of a technical recruiter. 

Build recruiting strategy 

Recruiters are responsible for building a pool of qualified candidates for a talent pipeline, a task that is critical to securing a  recruiting firm’s success and longevity as they target the skillset. The importance of the task means that recruiters will have to strategize how to best find new talent and build relationships with them. The process involves reaching out through social media, job boards, text messages, emails, and phone calls.   

Identify sources of high-quality talent

A technical recruiter needs to identify the spaces where they can find qualified candidates for a technical role. This process often includes finding the right circles on recruitment-friendly websites such as LinkedIn and searching for candidates through social media. It’s also important that recruiters maintain a strong digital presence to present themselves as reliable and approachable. 

Reach out to prospective hires

This task is likely the first thing that comes to mind when you think of becoming a recruiter, and it’s a task that requires some tough skin. Technical recruiters will have to reach out to candidates who they identified through their searches who would be potentially good fits for the roles they are looking to fill. Recruiters will also have to be able to market different job opportunities to a prospective candidate. Often, it means reaching out to people who are not interested and being unfettered by blunt responses, rejection, and silences.  

Screen and interview prospective talent

Technical recruiters have to ensure that the candidate is qualified, which is why having industry knowledge is important for the job. The process often includes interviews, technical assessments, and other screening techniques-–often with multiple steps to guarantee talent and experience. To fully assess if a candidate is suitable for a role, a recruiter will need to have strong interpersonal skills and critical thinking. At Brightwing, we use our tried and tested BRIGHTView Process to guarantee we find qualified individuals for our targeted positions. Beyond gauging a candidate’s technical capabilities, Brightwing technical recruiters dive deeper to learn about a candidate’s soft skills, career aspirations, and potential cultural fit. Brightwing recruiters spend time with the candidate themselves, as well as with previous managers and co-workers to get a 360-degree view.

Recommend prospective hires

Once a technical recruiter has found a candidate they think will be a good match, the candidate will likely be submitted to the client for the role. It is also a recruiter’s responsibility to present the recommended candidate in the best light. 

Coordinate and consult on client interviews

When a client decides to interview submitted candidates, the technical recruiter coordinates the interview scheduling and coaches candidates on how to perform their best during the interview. They’ll follow-up after each round of interviews with feedback from the client and tips on how to best approach the next phase of the process.

Offer and negotiate job offers 

Once the client decides they’d like your candidate to join their team, recruiters will have to contact the candidate with an offer and close them. The conversation can include questions and conditions from the candidate, during which a recruiter will have to answer and negotiate effectively to convince them to accept the offer. 

Represent businesses at job fairs

Recruiters will often be present at job fairs where they will promote and represent their business while also searching for potential employees and candidates. 

Is recruiting a good job? 

High Demand and Potential for Growth

There is currently a recruiter shortage. Today, companies are not only facing a staffing shortage, but also difficulty finding recruiters who can fill those shortages. As such, recruiting jobs are in very high demand with ample opportunities and chances that pay well. According to Indeed, the average technical recruiting job in the US pays around $60,737 a year, while Built-In says the average is closer to $85,000 The recruiting industry is also expected to grow in the coming years, which means that there will be growth reflected in both your salary and in recruiting firms. Entering this industry means you won’t be short on good opportunities. 

Work with Purpose

It’s hard to feel motivated by a job if you feel like you’re not making any sort of difference. But as a technical recruiter, your efforts will be tangible. You will be matching people with their best-fit opportunities, which means that with each placement you make, you have brought in new talent to a business. You can feel that you are doing valuable work both for the people you recruit and for the clients you serve.  Your efforts will also clearly be reflected in your pay, as successful placements will give you commission fees and high-quality recruiting will lead to significant bonuses. 

Transferable Skills and Industry Freedom

A recruiting job is basically a sales job, which means there are countless soft skills you will learn from being a recruiter that you can transfer to other jobs. From excellent listening skills to critical thinking to negotiating, having a recruiter’s skillset prevents you from feeling trapped in one industry, and multiple doors will be open to you in the future

Become a recruiter

Here at Brightwing, we hire and invest in our people to help them reach their potential. Learn more about our careers today and send in your resume to see if becoming a recruiter with Brightwing is the best opportunity for you! 

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How a Recruiting Company Can Help You Fill a Job Faster As an employer, sifting through the numerous applicants received for every open position can be exceedingly challenging. Not just because it takes time and effort above and beyond a hiring manager’s normal set of responsibilities (though, of course it does). The challenges of hiring in today’s market are greater than in recent memory. How, when, and why we work has been disrupted over the last couple of years. Shifting priorities make hiring the best people harder than before. That’s where a specialized recruiting agency comes in extremely helpful. Recruitment companies yield more consistent and speedy employee and employment searches, results, and substantial, long-term employment of the best employees for a given role. Not least because they don’t wait for applications to come in – they work proactively to find top talent that may not even be looking to make a change. In this article, we’ll discuss what a recruiting agency is, the leading-edge benefits of using one, and how to make the most of a recruiting company.  

Why Outsource Your Talent Recruiting?

  In an ever-changing and evolving job labor market characterized by increasing recruitment and acquisition challenges, high turnovers, unfilled job openings, and changing candidate expectations, many have turned to recruiting firms to find their next career role or to find their next valuable employee. The average cost per hire in 2022 using traditional means is $4,425, and filling the average position takes 36-45 days. Moreover, the cost of a bad hire can be a third of one’s salary. A recruiting company acts as an expert mediator between employers and job hunters. They work for a company to understand their people’s needs and then find the most ideal matches. They have a broad view of the market in that skillset, and they have well-developed pipelines of candidates – some who are actively job seeking, and others who are not.  As a result, the best recruiters are prepared to garner top results for employers and job hunters, and save valuable time, money and energy for both. In contrast to an employment agency that focuses on hiring unskilled applicants (or laborers), recruitment agencies are highly beneficial to both employers and skilled applicants. A skilled applicant possesses the experience and certifications, as well as the motivation and the soft skills to fill a role on a particular team well. The recruitment agency works with their clients to qualify job requisitions, then engages in recruitment processes that vary from firm to firm. In the case of Brightwing, we’ve developed the Brightview process to thoroughly vet our candidates, as an example. These tasks include meaningfully reaching out to candidates through various networks, identifying the most ideal for a job through their database and various networks of existing relationships, vetting these potential employment candidates, and presenting the resulting top candidates to the employer.  

Benefits of a Recruiting Company

  Traditional hiring and job-seeking methods are less reliable and efficient than using a recruiting company. They are more expensive and time-consuming in numerous ways, and less able to yield the best results for both hiring manager and candidate. Some of the top benefits of using a recruitment company such as Brightwing to achieve your hiring goals include expert recruitment knowledge and assistance, easier and faster hiring, higher-quality candidates, extended reach and access, specialist knowledge of the job market and current trends, full support for employers and job hunters, less wasted time and resources, and a more competitive edge for both employers and job hunters.  

Expert Knowledge and Assistance

The entire job and focus of a recruitment company is finding the best candidates with expert knowledge, resources, connections, and extensive experience above the average employer. Not only do they post compelling job ads, but they maximize interest in the position by leaning on their longstanding relationships with leaders and up-and-comers in the field.  

Easier and Faster Hiring

An employment recruiter dramatically shortens the time it takes to fill a role with expert knowledge, assistance, and increased focus toward the end goal. What’s more – hiring managers will spend quality time looking at three qualified candidates, rather than sifting through hundreds of applications that are not necessarily qualified at all. The hiring manager or job hunter gets the gift of gaining back their time.  

Higher Quality Candidates

When working with specialized, agency recruiters, employers receive only the highest quality, skilled candidates in their industry. Hiring managers work through a handful of expertly referenced, pre-screened, and interviewed candidates, rather than a vast pool of unvetted incoming applications.  

Extended Reach and Access

Alongside expert knowledge and assistance, employment recruiters also have extended reach and access to wider pools of candidates in diverse industries, including ideal candidates that are less easily accessed and/or who may not be aware of the ideal job opportunity.  

Specialist Market and Trends Knowledge

Recruitment agencies provide clarity on current job market trends, with deeper knowledge and investment in up-to-date research and reports. They provide valuable information and informed advice on how to best achieve goals and improve your employer brand or your job hunting profile.  

Full Support

The best employment recruiting teams communicate actively with both employers and job hunters, find ideal candidates for various roles and job vacancies individual candidates are ideal for. They engage, make impactful connections, and provide full support, feedback, and suggestions to both.  

Less Wasted Time and Resources

There is less waste of time and resources expended toward candidate searches, engagement, and recruitment by using an experienced recruitment agency. Expedient recruitment that provides higher-quality candidates saves time, money, and the results pay for themselves.  

A More Competitive Edge

By providing expert knowledge and assistance, easier and faster hiring, higher-quality candidates and resulting employees, extended reach and access, specialist marketing and trends knowledge, full support, and less wasted time and resources, employment recruiters give employers and job hunters a more competitive edge in their diverse industries of the job market.  

Experiences Without a Recruitment Company

  Without an employment recruiter, employers and job hunters spend much more time and resources searching for candidates or jobs on their own through numerous conflicting, and potentially misleading sources of information. The results are ill-fitting employment matches and connections that lead to inefficiency, high turnover and ultimately make reaching organizational goals more difficult and more expensive. Not to mention, any drawn-out in-house recruiting places an additional burden on team members. This additional work can lead to excessive burnout and increased expenses.   

How to Make the Most of a Recruitment Company

  To yield the best results, have a clear idea of your needs and desires for both the employment recruiters and the open role before you engage with a recruitment agency. The best recruiting agencies will press you for clarity on both of these. Provide a clear job description, a list of requirements, and important skills and attributes for the position. Be clear to yourself and toward the recruitment company on your ideal candidate so they know what to look for. And consider carefully which skills or attributes are required versus nice to have. As an ideal candidate, be clear on your own needs, desires, top skills, and attributes to match with the most ideal job for you. Work with your recruiter to develop questions so that you interview hiring companies as much as their interview you.  

Getting Started With a Recruitment Company

  Employment recruiters at Brightwing are ready to provide you with expert consultation, and highly efficient results that save valuable time, money, decrease turnover, and increase your teams’ work quality, focus, capabilities, performance, and competitiveness. Whether you are looking to find a job or your next top employee, a recruitment company can help you fill a job faster. For the best employee and employment matches, reach out to us to start a conversation.

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If you are looking for a new job in tech, you might be anticipating what questions you will be asked in your interview.

Employee Retention Strategies

Effective Employee Retention Strategies in the Wake of the Great Resignation

2021 was a year of change and struggle for many people, resulting in a wave of resignations which have cost companies millions of dollars in hiring, restructuring, and more. It seems like everywhere, businesses are short-handed and searching for adequate workers. Sometimes called the “Great Resignation,” sometimes the “Great Reshuffle,” millions of employees have switched jobs and even careers in search of a better work environment. Effective employee retention strategies are the key to keeping your employees satisfied and content in their job. 

Employee Retention Strategies 

While there are many strategies for retaining your employees, some are better than others. It is easy to think as an employer that your employees have everything they need, but it is time to consider what might help your employees enjoy their jobs to the fullest. 

Perks and Benefits

While this may seem like an obvious employee retention strategy, it could be the deciding factor between your workplace and a similar job that wants to hire your employees. 

Benefits

If you can make it happen, offer your employees benefits! Access to healthcare and a 401k are the bare minimum in today’s market – can you add other less expected benefits like employee discounts or tuition or childcare reimbursement? Not only do programs like these benefit your workers, but it benefits you as the employer as well. Employee benefits are tax-free, and often it won’t cost you much more to provide them. It also ensures you have a healthier, happier workforce with fewer sick days and more long-term employees. 

Paid Time Off

Another perk or benefit you can easily offer is generous paid time off (PTO). Burnout is a huge contributor to the great resignation. Paid time off can help reduce burnout and provide opportunities for vacations, family time, and needed leave for important other events like doctors appointments or funerals. Everyone needs time off, but a lot of companies make their employees take time off without pay, which can make things difficult for those employees. There are other cultures where everyone has time-off, but people don’t feel comfortable using it. We’ve all heard of the intense work environments where needing time off is looked at as a weakness, and never taking a vacation is rewarded with promotions. Offering generous PTO – and then actually encouraging employees to take it – is a great way to support your employees’ wellbeing and help them to stay with your company. 

Other Perks 

When a company offers perks, it is important not to slight the more important benefits and go straight to fun solutions. However, these fun perks can be effective employee retention strategies, especially in companies where you offer good benefits but need another reason for your employees to stay. Some of these perks are things like gifts over the holidays, contests with prizes, and even remote work options. These can be as exciting and fun as you want them to be! Creating a stand-out work environment can help your employees to see what is so great about your company. Sometimes perks can also look like nice office space, a stipend for office decor or supplies, paid lunches once a month, or even a free gym membership. Get creative! Help your employees see what makes your workspace special. 

Talk to Your Employees

While creating a happy work environment and exciting job package is always beneficial, it can’t replace a great conversation. The best employee retention strategies include several steps: 

Have a One on One With Each Employee

Many companies begin by issuing a company wide survey that gathers quite a bit of data. Then, move on to create a one on one with each employee. If this isn’t possible for you to meet with each employee, ask your managers to step in and meet with some of them. Record your impressions and ask questions such as “What could we do to make your job better?” or “What is your biggest frustration right now in the workplace?”. Make an effort to listen and make your employee feel validated. If you’re already friends, this can be an amazing discussion. Don’t make them feel like you are interrogating them or that if they say the wrong thing, they could lose their job. If that happens, the employee might even feel like they should leave due to these meetings. Be aware of your own shortcomings, and be willing to take some criticism. 

Compile Your Findings 

Notice what your employees say to you. Is there a common thread? What seems to be the biggest frustration of your employees? Maybe take a survey as a part of your meetings. Find what would help your employees to feel happiest in their individual jobs. 

Address the Issues You Find 

Once you have the evidence you need, make changes. Address the issues through effective employee retention strategies. Upgrade the office if needed! Give raises to the employees who deserve it! You will find that your employees will tell you what needs to be corrected if you only listen to their needs.

Growth and Opportunities

One of the most effective employee retention strategies that especially works well for Millennials and other younger employees is the opportunity for growth. Some people are happy staying in the same job for the rest of their lives. Employees often hope for growth, especially when they enter a job at the entry-level or are near the beginning of their careers. Most entry-level employees never grow in salary even after they are much more valuable to the company, prompting them to leave once they have more experience. A great way to combat these employees leaving is by offering scheduled raises or having yearly performance ratings and following up with the employees who go above and beyond. Reward your good employees, without them having to ask for it! 

Upgrade Your Office Equipment 

If your company has been using the same computers for the last 10 years, it’s time to upgrade. If an employee is struggling to complete their work tasks because of a computer, that makes them feel frustrated and like they have no control over their duties. Upgrading your office decor, space, and appliances can also impress clients and visitors to the office, making your employees proud to work there. Upgrading your office hardware can make your office more productive and also help the employees to feel valued and rewarded. Not only does this benefit them, it also benefits you as the employer.  Employees who feel listened to and have what they need will stay where they are. Creating a safe, sustainable job environment is the most effective employee retention strategy. While it is not easy being an employer, it is hard to continue hiring and rehiring employees who are unhappy and leaving. Do what works for you and your business, and you can gain a loyal employee group that will keep your company running. 

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Hiring for Your Financial Services Teams

What to Know When Hiring for Your Financial Services Teams

Financial services recruitment can be difficult, especially in a world full of fraud, scams, and untrustworthy individuals. When you are looking to add data scientists, risk analysts, financial analysts, or accountants to your team, there are several steps to help you choose a good candidate. 2022 is a great year to look for new hires, as many people are looking for change in their jobs or may be seeking new employment. Hiring the right person with the talents you are seeking is a great way to set your business up for success. 

Hiring A Financial Services Team Member

Depending on the type of financial role you are trying to fill, take into account what qualifications you are seeking. A financial manager is responsible for the health of your business! Taking into consideration the kind of person you will need is key. Hiring a financial advisor can be difficult, so it is important to lay out what you would want your financial manager to do before you start the hiring process. It is much easier to find a candidate you want when you are prepared with a job description and your desires.  

What Does a Financial Services Job Entail?

As mentioned before, a financial manager would be responsible for the overall health of your company. Some other unique responsibilities might include: 
  • Fraud monitoring: A fraud specialist may be in charge of tracking and monitoring illegal transactions on clients’ accounts without proper authorization from the account owner. Fraud specialists may also report any suspicious account movements and unusual transactions that may be risky to the bank and/or their clients. 
  • Train and develop staff to create a great customer experience.
  • Delegating tasks to various employees.
  • Developing strategies to increase sales and retention
And that’s just the beginning! Financial services recruitment always comes down to finding someone you can truly trust. Completing those responsibilities in a timely and organized manner is important, but trusting that person with keeping your books and avoiding any issues with your finances is even more important. It is essential to identify a candidate who can work well with you, manage their responsibilities, and be trustworthy. 

How to Find a Good Candidate

Once you have identified what exactly you are looking for, you need to put out an accurate job description. Whether you hire a recruiter or post a job listing, be clear on what you want. Are you seeking an applicant with several years of experience? Would you like for them to have a degree? Make it clear in your listing what you are willing to accept from a candidate. Then, be open to candidates who fit the basics. Remember that years of experience don’t always make an individual trustworthy. The hiring process is one of the most difficult parts of running a business, but once you hire the right candidate, your business will thrive. The main steps to hiring someone in financial services are simple: 
  1. Building the job description – how to make your job opening more attractive than the others flooding the job boards? There are a finite number of candidates and it is important to create a job description that is appealing and unique. This is a critical step and needs to be executed well. 
  2. Reaching out proactively to candidates – in this candidate-driven market, you can’t wait for the best talent to come to you. In this market, employees are less driven to search for jobs when people may be recruiting them already. Good candidates are hired quickly. Get ahead of it by proactively reaching out.
  3. Screening candidates thoroughly, yet quickly– how do you make sure you’re hiring the RIGHT person without losing them to other offers? Candidates will often accept a role that they find gratifying and well-paying. If your process is slow or cumbersome, then you will have likely lost out on any number of great people. 
This may seem easy, but it can be hard if your applicants are not what you are seeking. This can happen for a number of reasons. You may not have a good job listing or an accurate description of the requirements of the job. Maybe your area is lacking in people who are qualified. Perhaps you need your job filled quickly, as the current employee might be leaving soon or already has left. This can make this process even more complicated.  You will want to ask for referrals from your best workers or use a better job seeking site to post on. Finding a trustworthy candidate is absolutely essential, and unfortunately, people sometimes lie on their resumes. 

Why Use a Recruiting Agency

Let’s face it, hiring a great candidate is an exhausting and time-consuming process. Hiring is just one of many aspects of a manager’s role, and it is a different type of effort than what a manager is accustomed to doing on a daily basis. Managers often have strong skills in many areas aside from hiring though. When it comes to financial recruitment, a recruiting agency takes a lot of the stress and worry out of hiring. Most people running a business find it difficult to take the time to hire and vet resumes while still accomplishing all they need to get done. A recruiting agency should go above and beyond for you to help you find the perfect applicant. 

Good Recruiters Matter

Experienced recruiters who truly care about finding a great hire are key when it comes to financial services recruitment. Finding a great fit has a lot to do with knowing the available applicants well. A good recruiter knows their candidate inside and out. They know their job history, their strengths and weaknesses, and their trustworthiness. They’ve already done the reference and background checks, and they know what kind of job their candidate wants. Then, they bring them to your business, fully vetted. All the groundwork done. 

Relationship-based Recruiting

Good recruiters get to know the candidates, and they get to know you and your business. They ask all the right questions to know exactly what you might be looking for. Let’s say you are seeking an experienced credit analyst with at least 5 years of experience, but the applicant having an MBA isn’t as important to you. Your recruiter can work through their pipeline of talent – some of whom are actively looking for new jobs, and many of whom are not – and get you interviewing with better candidates, faster than if you wait for applications to come in. Simply posting a job and resting on your laurels while waiting on resumes just does not work any longer. You will certainly miss out on a number of great people by not being proactive. Proactive outreach is more critical now than ever. 

Financial Services Recruitment

Recruiting a financial services team can be difficult, but it is possible to find a new hire who can complete your team and help you in your company mission. A great way to make it easier on yourself and your team is to hire a recruiting company to find you the perfect match! Reach out today to Brightwing and we can help you find the perfect candidate. 

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Find Great Employees for Your Engineering Team

How to Find Great Employees for Your Engineering Team

Creating an effective engineering team is all about choosing the right members. Just like any job, who you work with makes a huge difference. Engineering is a field where the engineering talent of your team can affect every aspect of your growth, output, and production. Finding the right candidates to join your engineering team takes time and effort, but it is definitely worth it to find the right person. This is why most engineering companies use experienced recruiters like Brightwing to bring the talent to them.  

Attracting Engineering Talent in 2022

Building a team of talent in 2022 can be difficult in some ways and easy in others. In 2021, millions of Americans quit their jobs in search of new opportunities. At this point, there is a large gap in opportunities vs. candidates, which means that the job market for hiring is competitive; however, there are a lot of good candidates to be found. Creating a solid team in 2022 is very possible as a lot of people have left their jobs even after years of working for their prior companies. Finding experienced workers and newly graduated students alike is relatively easy, but attracting them to your engineering firm may be a little easier said than done. 

Job Offers

Creating a unique job offer to appeal to engineering talent is essential in today’s hiring scene. What does a unique job offer look like? There are a few ways to make your offer the best one on the table: 

Competitive Salary

Obviously offering a competitive wage is important, but including things like bonuses and room for pay raises and growth will help you stand out among the crowd. Millennials especially tend to take a job that will promise them a career path and scheduled raises rather than a high-paying job where they can’t grow. Offer salary vs. hourly, whatever may work best for you. A competitively priced job offer isn’t just important in this market, it is absolutely essential. 

Benefits

Offering benefits will help your employees know that you care about their health and welfare. Most large firms are offering benefits like health insurance, dental and vision, and 401ks. Make an effort to offer a benefits package that will be interesting and worth it to your new hires. If you offer a plan that doesn’t cover the basics or has an extremely high deductible, that detracts from your offer. Employee benefits are also tax-free to employers, which can help your business in return. 

Perks

Fun, exciting perks don’t always have to be fancy or over-the-top. You can offer monthly competitions with modest prizes. Have casual Fridays! Have special gifts for birthdays! Find a way to bring something you enjoy into the workplace, like offering a gym membership to each employee or renting out a theater twice a year for a premiere. Sometimes something simple and enjoyable can make your job stand out over another and often turn the tide for an employee trying to decide between two firms. 

Show them Your Spark

Help people know that you offer a problem to be solved or a challenge to face in your field. Show your engineering team that you work on something worthwhile and interesting! Engineering is sometimes seen as boring or stagnant. When you have a project that piques the interest of your candidates, you have a great reason for them to choose you over a firm that just isn’t as interesting. If you specialize in something, tell your applicants. Show them what they would miss out on if they didn’t take your offer! 

Building a Team of Talent 

Creating an engineering team doesn’t mean just finding one good individual and building a team around them, it has to do with recruiting members that will work together as a whole. What makes a good team player in an engineering team? 

Team Players are Leaders

On some engineering teams, younger or less experienced engineers may feel left out or like they can’t make comments, offer criticism, or otherwise contribute beyond expectations. When teams have rigid hierarchies, non-team leads or juniors may self-censor. You certainly don’t want that – you want a team where everyone can rise to the occasion as both formal and informal leaders. Creating a team of leaders helps people to take charge and work together

How to Find the Perfect Match

Many engineering firms have a difficult time finding the engineering talent they are looking for to fill their teams. Engineers are busy and work on many different kinds of projects, and each firm may experience something different when hiring. Using a recruitment agency for engineering hires is a great way to go about building a team of talent. A renowned recruitment agency with a long-standing engineering focus like Brightwing attracts engineering talent along with other workers in design and manufacturing. Recruiting takes significant time and effort, especially when the recruiting process is optimized to get to know each applicant’s goals, strengths, and weaknesses. 

Easier for Employers

Creating a team has a lot to do with knowing each member, and it’s hard to go about building a team of talent if you don’t know the talents involved. Self-assessment is notoriously inaccurate, and worse, not everyone is completely honest on their resume. If someone says they are organized and collaborative but they really aren’t, it can have a ripple effect that interferes with your projects, timelines, and budgets. Using an engineering-focused recruiting agency to build engineering teams will save time, money and energy for employers because recruiters are experts at bringing engineers’ true soft and technical skills to light. 

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[VIDEO] Ignore Employee Engagement at Your Own Risk

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Watch Brightwing President George Opitz discuss the perils of ignoring employee engagement.

 

QUESTION:

 

Why does employee engagement matter?

  GEORGE:   Companies in the top quartile (top 25%) in employee engagement outperform companies in their market segment that are in the bottom quartile of employee engagement by as much as 202%.   So why should employee engagement matter to companies? Besides that we’re losing $400-$600 or $650 billion a year across the country?   It’s really about how your organization is performing against the competitors.   Because if you’ve got a competitor in your market space that has a highly engaged workforce, you’re getting beat every day.    

Looking to build a highly engaged team?

  At Brightwing, our Talent Acquisition approach is one-part relationships, one-part insight, and one-part results. We know it’s a recipe that can work for you.

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[VIDEO] The Power of Organizational Alignment

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Brightwing President George Opitz draws on the example of the mission to the moon to illustrate ideal organizational alignment.

  Back in 1962, JFK was touring NASA. NASA was the organization that was going to meet his mission. And their mission was to go to the moon.   He’s going through the building, and as he is being toured through the building, he sees a janitor with a mop. And so he stops and asks the janitor what he was doing.   And the janitor actually looked at him and said: “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”   That’s alignment. From the top down.   From the president of the United States who announced the mission, all the way down to the janitor at the building in NASA.   They were all wanting to get a man on the moon and they knew it.   That’s alignment.     Looking to build your team? At Brightwing, our Talent Acquisition Approach is one-part relationships, one-part insight, and one-part results. We know it’s a recipe that can work for you.

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[VIDEO] The Biggest Mistake Managers Make

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Watch Brightwing President and Management Consultant George Opitz talk about the power of exit interviews and onboarding while building your employee engagement strategy.

 

What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made while building employee engagement?

  GEORGE: We didn’t always have it right. You grow into this. I said this before. It’s not like: “We’re going to have an initiative for a quarter or for a year to create employee engagement.” It really is a commitment.   We interviewed this young lady to come into our organization as a recruiter. We loved her when we interviewed her. Everybody did. We brought her on board… and she quit. In her exit interview, which is also important –because when you want to learn and build engagement, you need to exit interview your employees so you understand where the missteps were. If we hadn’t heard this, we never would have gone in the direction we went in.   And what happened was even though everybody liked her, everybody was very tight. She had trouble breaking in. She had trouble making connections once she was here because everybody else was already so connected. And we didn’t have a process to help with that. And that’s where we came up with what evolved into our onboarding program.   And part of our onboarding program is that everybody who comes into our organization has a mentor that they get assigned to. And that mentorship has nothing to do with their particular job. It has to do with helping them connect with the organization and who the organization is.   We would never have figured that out without the exit interview. And I feel real bad that that’s what happened to this individual, but as good as we thought we were already in our assessment of bringing people on board, we had missed something. We had built a great, connected organization. We hadn’t figured out how to bring new people into it. And that’s what we learned out of that.   Looking to build your team? At Brightwing, our talent acquisition approach is one-part relationships, one-part insight, and one-part results. We know it’s a recipe that can work for you.

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[VIDEO] One Simple Tool for Driving Employee Engagement

 

Watch Brightwing President and Management Consultant George Opitz talk about the power of one-on-ones.

   

THE TAKEAWAY

  Managers should sit down with their direct reports once a week or every other week to find out how things are going and how they can help. Why? It’ll align and engage the organization from top to bottom, making it far likelier that you’ll get where you need to go.   Treat one-on-ones as an opportunity to check-in with your employee. Get a gauge on how they’re feeling, what roadblocks they may be facing, what they’re excited about. Let your questions be open-ended and your responses authentic.   If you check in only once a month – or quarter, or year, – the utility of the check-in fades away. You want to be able to talk in concrete terms about the work they just completed or have straight ahead of them. That way the conversation is substantive and doesn’t require too much recall. Infrequent touchpoints become abstract all too easily.   The key? Make one-on-ones a top priority. Don’t let them fall to the bottom of your list. As a manager, it’s one of the most important tools you have to keep your people on board and your team on track.     Looking to build your team? At Brightwing, our talent acquisition approach is one-part relationships, one-part insight, and one-part science. We know it’s a recipe that can work for you.

LET’S PARTNER UP. WE CAN’T WAIT TO HEAR FROM YOU.

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We work with dozens of organizations, & speak to hundreds of engineering professionals every week. Our recruiters gave their top engineering career advice.

Become More Marketable for Any Job Become More Marketing for Any Job   Managers are often struggling to find the right talent for their companies. In a competitive job market, follow these tips to become a more marketable and sought-after candidate!  

Bring out your inner Steve Jobs

As an engineer, you should already have a set of advanced technology skills. But what makes you stand out from the rest? The reality, is that the world has gone digital, and strengthening your tech skills will only make you that much more valuable. There are always many courses, tutorials, and training programs available– many of them are free! Trust us, boosting your inner tech savvy, will make you more marketable and desirable to recruiters.  

Dress for the job you want

It’s all about the way you present yourself. Whether it’s at a job interview, casual networking event, or simply a regular day at work, make sure you’re always putting your best foot forward. Make sure you’re clean, well-groomed and well-dressed at any occasion. Not only does it show respect to the company and the people around you, but it shows that you’re serious about your job.  

Try to avoid gaps

Especially when it comes to engineers, the best candidates are usually the ones that are currently employed. This shows that you’re already marketable! Yet, if for some reason you are unemployed, don’t worry! Take it upon yourself to get involved in organizations related to your field and become an active job-seeker.  

Passive is good

Although you may be content with your current position, companies are willing to invest a lot of time and money to make you a better offer. With such a valuable and unique skill set, keep an open mind to the many other opportunities around you.  

Are you in the right location?

In general, employers prefer local candidates. It takes a lot from a company to orchestrate in-person interviews when you live far away. For example, if you’re interested in working for the automotive industry, living in the Detroit area may grant you more offers than any other state. If you want to become more marketable for a specific company, try moving to their location for a couple of weeks. Line up interviews during that time, and make the best of the time you have there.  

Loyalty

Whether you’ve been with one company for 5 years, or 5 companies in 5 years, find a way to present your loyalty. Some companies might find you more marketable if they see you’ve been loyal to your past companies. Others, may prefer a go-getter who has achieved their goals hopping from one position to another. As always, it’s not about what you say, but how you say it. Share This Post [social-share] More Like This