Has Remote Work Lived Up to Its Promise?

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Has Remote Work Lived Up to Its Promise? On our worst days in years past, remote work was like a mirage. An image of perfection – of cool breezes and comfortable freedom hidden away from the monotony of the cultural desert called the “office.” It functioned like a paradise mostly out of reach. We could step inside the cool, calm hush for a day here and there. But the next morning, parked back at our desks, it might as well have been a dream. Fast forward to now, and the mirage has evaporated. The sweet, clean promise of remote work has slipped into the grimy reality of every day. Now that we’ve lived it for more than a few months, is remote work a savior? Or has easy couch-lounging transformed into a hunched living room prison sentence? We surveyed a diverse cross-section of professionals with backgrounds in financial services, engineering, manufacturing, information technology, and marketing, among others. Here’s what we found out.    

State of Remote Work, 2020

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2019, 16% of the US workforce worked remotely at least part of the time. As you’d imagine, remote work in 2020 so far has taken a giant step up. 82% of the 172 people we surveyed worked remotely at least part of the time in 2020.

Significant Upsides…

Our respondents say the most important benefit of remote work has been cutting out the commute (43%). Schedule and location flexibility come in close behind at 37%. Not needing to leave home appears to have a huge impact on our satisfaction. That could be for several reasons. Perhaps we enjoy the extra time we “get back” in our day, however we may use it. Maybe navigating traffic or crowds takes a toll on our energy or happiness. Less obviously – maybe we relish staying still. Flexibility – the runner up – has everything to do with autonomy. Even as the “where” becomes less and less flexible under lockdown orders, the freedom to choose “when” you start, end, and pick your day back up gives remote work a lot of its shine.    

…and Decided Drawbacks

Remote work is not all upside, however. The top 3 drawbacks of remote work are neck-in-neck with each other… 31% pointed to a feeling of isolation or disconnection from their organization. 29% indicated that remote work has created longer workdays with fewer clear stopping points. And 25% experience systems issues that highlight an undercooked remote infrastructure. These popular problems could reflect how quickly and unexpectedly organizations were forced to go remote. Whether through culture-building efforts, more frequent communications, or just plain old investment in technology, leadership could theoretically mitigate these issues over time.  

The Future of Remote Work

How do the negatives stack up against the positives? It all comes down to a question of how people would prefer to work going forward. And their answer is loud and clear. Remote work HAS in large part lived up to its promise.   94% of respondents prefer to work remotely – at least part of the time. 51% of survey respondents said they’d want a combination of remote and in-office work. 43% said they’d like to go all-in on remote. And only 6% preferred that they work in the office all the time. What does this mean for the future of our working lives? These results – as limited as they are – lead one to believe that remote work isn’t going anywhere. Organizations do need to embrace it as an undeniable feature of our new working landscape. And that means they’ll need to do their best to optimize it. As employers, how can we devise a framework that maximizes the value of in-person collaboration and of remote-style autonomy? Our consultants have some ideas…

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Transitioning Back to the Office: A Legal Perspective for Michigan Employers

Transitioning Back to the Office: A Legal Perspective for Michigan Employers

Transitioning Back to the Office: A Legal Perspective for Michigan Employers

Featuring Michigan Attorney A. Vince Colella Plans for the future of working life vary immensely from company to company. Some organizations have announced permanent work from home plans, while others have announced their intent to return to the office in waves or shifts. Some are sticking with remote work until they have more information, planning to make decisions sometime next year. Given how much is at stake, we reached out to A. Vince Colella, founding partner of Moss & Colella, P.C., a Southfield, Michigan-based law firm, for his legal perspective on the issue. Are employers liable if an employee gets COVID-19? What if a visitor to the office contracts it? How should employers handle employees who don’t want to return to the office? Without further ado, here’s what we learned:  

How do I protect my employees’ health and mitigate my liability as an employer?

  “If you do open the office, you’ll need to follow guidelines from the CDC and OSHA closely,” Colella says. “To protect your employees and any visitors to your offices, and to mitigate your liability, you’ll need to take temperatures, keep health logs, disinfect surfaces, wear masks, practice social distancing, and so on. In Michigan, you’ll find all relevant guidelines under Executive Order 2020-70, section 11a.” You can find the Executive Order here. If you follow all the guidelines, being held liable for the contraction of COVID-19 by any of your employees or visitors will be unlikely. Why? As long as you’re following the recommended procedures, you’ll have done everything reasonably expected of you.  Not to mention – it would be very hard to prove that your office is the ONLY place a person could have contracted the virus. Colella adds: “Just because you won’t be held liable doesn’t mean your employee won’t be taken care of in the case that they contract the virus. They’ll be covered by the Worker’s Compensation statute.” Their medical expenses will be covered, and you’ll hold their job for them until they recover. Once they do, you restore them to their job, and they won’t be able to sue you for pain and suffering. Colella goes on: “Of course, you’ll want to weigh your options. Will the benefits of returning to the office justify the expense and disruption brought on by new safety procedures?” For some offices – especially the really large ones – the rigors of the safety procedures may make it impossible to bring everyone back. In many cases, sticking to remote work may be the more reasonable option until the threat of COVID-19 passes.

How should employers handle employees who don’t feel comfortable returning to the office?

  As you make the transition back into the office, you can expect some employees to voice concerns. Colella explains: “First, you’ve got to take their concerns seriously. People may have co-morbidities that make returning to the office a scary prospect.” Even without co-morbidities, many people are working through a lot of fear. So, how tolerant do you need to be of people who want to stay remote? The answer depends on how reasonably you can accommodate them. “If productivity depends on employees’ physical presence, then it’s reasonable to require their return,” says Colella. “If their job can be done remotely – and in the past few months, it’s been proven that many jobs can be done remotely – then it’s in your best interest as an employer to accommodate them.”  

When can we expect work life to return to normal?

  Of course, it’s the standard answer: we have no crystal ball. But be sure to check on the CDC and OSHA guidelines periodically, as they will change and presumably relax as the virus becomes less of a threat. In Michigan, Colella points out, the executive order incorporates the CDC’s and OSHA’s guidelines into law – so, if you follow the guidelines (however they change over time), you’ll be following the law.  

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Will We Work from Home Forever?

Will We Work from Home Forever?

Will We Work from Home Forever?

by Aaron Chernow  •  06/01/2020 There’s nothing like looking up after a few hours of deep focus—head still very much in the work—only to be yanked back into reality by a request to take out the garbage. Over the past couple of months, work and personal life have co-mingled more than ever. I think “work-life balance” has never been a useful concept. Achieving work-life balance is a lot like trying to balance time spent thinking with time spent breathing. Work is not separate from life – it’s a part of life. That’s always been true. But we feel it more now. There’s a great quote attributed to James Michener:   “The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.” The specifics of our lives shift – where and how we spend our time can change from second to second. But when we’re the masters of our lives, all our activities in their many forms are bound together and made cohesive by our “vision of excellence.” Or, in other words, by our foundational values. On a practical level, the order of our priorities fluctuates from day to day according to urgency and importance. If an employee calls me and needs my help, I’m going to help, whether it’s outside work hours or not. And when important personal events happen during working hours, I’ll shift to give them my full attention. Feeling good about how you prioritize comes down to being sure that you have clear values. Our values as leaders, employees, and as people have been put to the test. Some values we held closely before the pandemic are going to fade, while others have already begun to loom larger and larger. Here’s a set of (obvious) conflicting values: how do you weigh the power of in-person community against the fear of disease? Your answer will also color your response to this question: Will the office return to its central position in our working lives, or are will we mostly work from home… forever?

The last couple months have put the #WFH movement to the test.

  True, it hasn’t been a clean experiment. The Coronavirus and all its consequences are confounding variables. The virus has dragged all sorts of fear, hardship, and grief into our lives (and home offices) that aren’t usually there. When people are productive working from home in these circumstances, it’s despite many, many obstacles. But I wonder, as many have: once stay-at-home orders are lifted and the economy opens back up, how will our newly formed fears and desires reshape the workplace? Will we give up the office and embrace distributed teams as a permanent and logical way to operate? Before the pandemic, I never fully embraced the WFH movement because I thought it would lead to too many losses – of energy, culture, community. For some leaders, working from home is a scary proposition because they think accountability disappears as soon as employees know their boss can’t surprise them by walking in the room. But that’s really a hiring problem, not a remote work problem. This time has certainly proven that I have the right people on my team. My concern has more to do with understanding the people with whom I work and sharing in the collective energy. I love walking around my office, reading people’s faces and body language. Management by walking around – for me – isn’t about making sure people are at their desks working. It’s about intuiting their wellbeing, figuring out if they need something to help them thrive, and sharing in the momentum of the group. I miss being able to do that. As an “essential” worker, I’ve spent many hours over the past 7 weeks at an office that usually houses 120 employees, but instead has had only 4. The experience has thrown into sharp relief what a difference a community makes – without one, there’s so much less spirit and drive. The Brightwing team has already spent so much time together building relationships, and that has made the abrupt transition to remote work easier. We have video calls. We even use Zoom or FaceTime to be together while working separately. Telepresence has absolutely helped us through this big change. But it’s a very different story when teambuilding is virtual from the start.  

The WFH movement has had its ups and downs over the last few decades.

  IBM had a highly distributed work force from the 1980s until they worked to bring them back on-location in 2018. Yahoo had a remote work policy until Marissa Mayer ended it in 2013. #WFH evangelists are shouting from the rooftops, now, about how finally we’ll all experience what they’ve been preaching. On one hand, it’s been shown that remote workers are on average more productive than their in-office peers. But on the other hand, sharing an office allows for spontaneous collaboration and innovations that could outweigh gains in productivity (named the “water cooler effect”). Distributed teams allow you to cut overhead costs, but team- and culture-building become significantly more difficult. A hybrid model may be the right solution. We’ve had a flexible model at Brightwing for years, but it’ll require some tweaking as we re-open the office. Here are a few considerations: WFH days could be reserved for deep work and in-office days for collaboration and coordination. Company- or department- wide WFH schedules may be set. When everyone can choose their own WFH day(s) of the week, the office can feel half-empty every day. If everyone works from home on Wednesdays, the office is full and energetic for the other 4 days. Make your sick day policy generous, and genuinely encourage staying home at even the first sign of illness.

I do know this – whatever answer we arrive at for Brightwing, it won’t be permanent.

  Like we’ve learned and recently felt so acutely, circumstances change quickly. And we need to recognize the change and respond as well as we can. In a month we may mix remote and office work, and in a year, we may need to throw in options for working from the moon. But as a team with a clear set of values, I know we’ll rise to the occasion.  

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3 #WFH Tips from the Experts

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3 #WFH Tips from the Experts Everyday, we hear another announcement that a tech giant’s employees can expect to work from home permanently. Even for those who still plan to return to the office, the road back may be longer than we thought. How do we adapt to our new circumstances? Watch the video below for 3 pieces of advice from the experts. And keep scrolling for some of the best resources on how to thrive in remote work. Transcript of the Video Remote work isn’t going anywhere. And that raises a lot of questions. How do you avoid burnout over the long term? How do you strengthen team bonds? How do you motivate (and stay motivated)? Here are 3 pieces of #WFH advice from the experts…  

1.  It’s all about the boundaries, baby!

  The pre-pandemic commute was useful. It helped you shift mental gears. Dr. Sara Perry of Baylor University says you need to preserve that mental shift when you’re at home — “even if you’re just moving from one spot on the couch to the other.” Set a time to end the workday, and stick to it! Put your work things away and make room for home life. Dr. Perry says it’s critical to do this because “you’re already being challenged in terms of your personal resources. You still have to take that recovery time from work.” (Jen A. Miller, “How to Work From Home, If You’ve Never Done It Before,” NY Times)    

2.  All you have to do is call… you’ve got a friend!

  “When there’s no office to influence spontaneous informal communication, you must be intentional to weave it into your day. Create an always-on video conferencing room that your team can work from. (And remember, in a remote setting, it’s OK to look away! Schedule regular virtual coffee chats and happy hours using a video call.” (The Remote Playbook from the largest all-remote company in the world, Gitlab)  

3.  Eyes on the prize!

  “In remote work, we don’t need micromanagers. We need ‘macromanagers‘ to highlight our contribution to the team and reinforce the broader purpose of our work. One of the most meaningful parts of a manager’s job is making other people’s jobs more meaningful.” (Adam Grant, Organizational Psychologist at Wharton School of Business) As a leader, connect projects to the larger story. Why is it important? How does it get us closer to achieving our goals? What progress have we made? As a team member, ask the questions that get you (and the rest of the team) to see the “why.”    

Great Resources for Remote Work

    Do you have your own #wfh tips? Let us know and join the conversation!

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How to Build Trust & Confidence in the Virtual Hiring Process

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How to Build Trust & Confidence in the Virtual Hiring Process The interview and hiring process has gone completely virtual. For most, this marks a big change in the way hiring gets done. Sure, we’re all used to preliminary screening phone calls and even first interviews over video conference calls. But the process usually culminates with an in-person meeting. In the recent past, we’ve had the means to hire virtually, but not the will. Why? We often avoided going all-virtual because some of the data we process when we make hiring and career decisions comes from non-verbal cues that are easier to decipher in person. We ask: How well would we get along with this person? How well would they get along with the team? And the answers can depend a lot on the quality of in-person interactions. Now that hiring needs to happen virtually, how can employers learn enough about their candidates to feel confident making an offer? And on the other side, without visiting the office and meeting the team in person, how can candidates get comfortable enough with a new employer to accept an offer?    

Getting to the Offer

The basics of an excellent hiring process remain the same, virtual or not.

FOR EMPLOYERS

Get very clear on which skills and strengths are most important in the role; use assessments to check on required skills; check references and use interviews to assess soft skills and personality fit.

FOR CANDIDATES

Know what your strengths are and what you need in an employer to perform at your best; use the interview process to investigate what the employer’s goals are and discover how you would help to achieve them as part of the team.

Here’s what’s changed: with virtual hiring, the hard part is getting comfortable with the “get to know you” part.

Building Trust Virtually

Video calls can be awkward – people accidentally talking over each other, unnatural pauses, accidental distractions. Whatever you do, don’t rush. Give yourself the time to get to know the person on the other end of the call. Start with a short video interview – enough to get a first impression. Then, with your best candidates, schedule a longer video call. When you’re in the same room, it’s a bit easier to get an understanding of what someone is like. Even without explicit questions, you can sense their communication style and respond to their body language. In a video call, you don’t have access to that kind of non-verbal data. So sub in a different but similar data set: ask them about their interests and about what they do in their free time and volunteer that information about yourself. Adjustments to your video call technique will help you come across as more engaged and present. It’ll also bring the virtual interaction closer to the real thing, and comfort on both sides of the interview will increase.
  1. Get the set up right. If you’re using a laptop, put it on a box or a stack of books and set it a bit back. You want your head and shoulders in the frame so that it feels like you’re sitting across the table from each other. Natural light is best, and make sure you’re not backlit. That way, the other person can see your face and read your expressions easily.
  2. Minimize distractions. That means not only silencing your phone, but also turning off email notifications, as well as anything else that could interrupt your conversation. Wearing bright, solid colors helps your face to pop on camera. Patterned or shiny fabrics work fine in in-person interviews, but in the two-dimensional world of virtual conversations, they siphon attention away from what you have to say.
  3. Perfect your video call body language. It’s natural when you’re on your computer to sit back and curve your head and shoulders toward the screen. In an interview, don’t. Whether you’re the one asking or answering the questions, you want to exude a strong presence. Sit on the edge of your chair. It’ll be easier to have good posture and project your voice.
  4. Eye contact on a video chat can be tricky. For more natural-feeling conversation, it’s easy to look at the other person’s face. But to simulate true eye contact, you’d have to look directly into the camera. Consider looking into the camera when you’re talking and looking at the screen when the other person speaks.
See the subtle but powerful difference it makes:

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[VIDEO] How NOT to Lose a Millennial in Two Years

[VIDEO] How NOT to Lose a Millennial in Two Years

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Jonathan Gourwitz, Brightwing’s VP of Sales & Delivery, weighs in on how to retain Millennial talent:

  The recruitment of Millennials is a hot topic in our industry right now. Every couple of years a new generation gets carved out, and there’s a great deal of analysis in terms of “How do we hire these individuals?” and “What are they looking for?”   Here are some key takeaways: → Millennials don’t expect to be in the same role, or even in a similar role, for more than 2 or 3 years → Develop a zig zag growth path that will keep Millennials engaged in your organization over the next 10 or 15 years, instead of just the next two. → Clearing the way for upward and sideways mobility will be worth the investment. The alternative—replacing talent every two years—is expensive.

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[VIDEO] Will Millennials Kill the Traditional Office?

[VIDEO] Will Millennials Kill the Traditional Office?

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Jonathan Gourwitz, Brightwing’s VP of Sales & Delivery, weighs in on Millennials’ influence on the American workplace:

  “If a job does not need to be done in a traditional 9-5 environment, then Millennials want to go to work on their time, in their way, in whatever location they want to work. I don’t think that it’s just Millennials that want to operate that way. I think that it’s become something that many generations are looking for. But what’s funny is we also find that there is a strong desire to be a part of a team. And so while very often Millennials want to work independently and remotely, they also don’t want to be alone. So they like teamwork. 

 

People want flexibility. But they also have a strong desire to be a part of the community. The key is to give employees the power to decide where to work, instead of mandating it.

  Years ago I was with an organization, and we hired several Millennials. We built an office space for them that was really kind of a hotel space where they had the option of coming in every single day or working remote every single day. Our expectation was that we would never see these Millennials again once we brought them onboard. What we found very quickly was about 80% of them showed up to that office every single day because they liked the community, they liked the team environment. They also liked the ability to not be there every single day and to have the flexibility, but they liked the fact that it was their decision. It wasn’t mandated. They had the ability to determine what their career looked like. I think we spend too much time focusing on flexibility. I think it’s something people want, but I think that there’s also still a strong desire to be a part of the community, to be a part of a team, and to have that interaction  

 

The best organizations are going to find a healthy balance of remote work and in-person community building.

  It’s very difficult to recognize your purpose when you don’t see the rest of the organization. To understand how you fit in and how you contribute if you never see your colleagues or  your bosses in person — it’s difficult to do. So I think the best organizations are going to understand what work can be done remote, but always give the option to let their employees come in and be with each other every single day. There’s value in team building, there’s value in relationship building, and I think the goal for every organization moving forward is to find that healthy mix — flexibility along with community building

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47 Years Disqualifying Candidates & Clients: Why Brightwing May Not Be For You

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47 Years Disqualifying Candidates & Clients: Why Brightwing May Not Be For You

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Brightwing is not for everyone.

  And everyone is not for us. Why? Because expertise requires focus. We know the difference between a good candidate and a great one. Between hiring managers that will do what it takes to get what they need, and those that won’t. Between the workplaces that are the right fit for our candidates, and those that aren’t. And we’ve got the gumption to act on what we know and stand for. We say no to clients who don’t value bringing on the right people or won’t commit to the in-depth process honed over 50 years that will get them there. We say no to candidates that wouldn’t do us proud. And the same is true for the way we build the team at Brightwing. →  We hire people who are driven to stretch their abilities and accomplish their goals. →  We work with companies that make their way in the world with purpose and care. →  We fight to give candidates opportunities to realize their potential.  

Handpicking clients and candidates since ‘73

  With the launch of the new Brightwing brand and website, we are aiming a spotlight at what it means to rule out opportunities. We are laser-focused on delivering the most value for our clients and for our talent. We choose which opportunities to pursue carefully, always asking “will our expertise and approach drive the kind of results they need?” We know to say no when it’s the right thing to do. Because saying yes to less lets us do more. #DisqualifyOrDie

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[VIDEO] How to Hire as the 4th Industrial Revolution Launches

[VIDEO] How to Hire as the 4th Industrial Revolution Launches

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How will AI and automation change work life? How do you prepare as an employee and potential jobseeker? As an employer? Watch as Brightwing VP of Sales & Delivery Jonathan Gourwitz gives his take.

  We are on the cusp of what many are referring to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. So what is the Fourth Industrial Revolution? It’s automation, robotics, AI, blockchain, the internet of things. Essentially anything that can be automated. Any duty that is highly transactional and repetitive is no longer going to be done by a human being, it’s going to be done by software.   

“The Fourth Industrial Revolution – the proliferation of AI – will mean that the most valuable employees and candidates will be the ones with the strongest strategic and analytical skills.”

  We are no longer hiring based on duties you’ve performed in the past. We’re hiring based on your ability to be strategic, to analyze and have strong analysis skills. Because the idea of sitting at a transactional job in the next ten years is probably going to go away. But we’re going to see a tremendous amount of data. It’s going to free up a lot of time for individuals. Being able to take the information we get from these systems and then analyze and be strategic and put that into play, that’s really what companies are looking for right now.   

“The savviest companies aren’t hiring based on duty experience anymore. Instead, they’re focusing on deliverables – what you can do with the information given to you.”

  So it’s less about the duties you’ve performed in the past. It’s really more a matter of how you can take stock of what’s going on in an organization and the data that you’re seeing, then do analysis and be strategic and put that into play in an organization. Not every company is operating that way right now, but the more savvy organizations are no longer looking strictly at duty experience. It’s really more a matter of deliverables and what can you do with the information provided to you and how can you then analyze and put that into play.    

Brightwing has always known that having a cutting-edge tech stack is good, but it’s not enough to make a recruiting firm great. Our recruiters are ready for the future of hiring. Are you? Let’s talk.

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[VIDEO] As AI & Automation Take Hold, What Will Happen to Recruiting?

[VIDEO] As AI & Automation Take Hold, What Will Happen to Recruiting?

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Watch Brightwing VP of Sales & Delivery Jonathan Gourwitz discuss how technology will change recruiting.

  The more certain parts of our jobs are automated, meaning the resume screening, the sourcing – the high-touch transactional parts of our role are going to go away. It’s going to be done by software and technology.  

“As transactional tasks are automated away, the most successful recruiters will be focused on building connection.”

  The individuals that are going to be successful in recruiting moving forward are going to be the ones that are very good at building connection with their clients and their candidates. Building that relationship to understand everything that can’t be found in a resume, everything that can’t be found in an employment history.  

“You are not just an accumulation of the jobs you’ve done in the past. You’re also your potential ability moving forward.”

  You are not just an accumulation of jobs you’ve done in the past. You’re also your potential ability moving forward, and that’s where we want to be spending our time. The recruiters that have a high interest in building relationships and understanding what somebody is looking for, and really making it their passion to go out and deliver that, that’s the future of our industry. Much less a matter of calling 50 resumes and doing a quick, you know, do you have the skill set screen.  

“The future of our business is going to be even more relationship-driven than it has been in the past.”

  It’s really more a matter of we know you have the skill set now, what more are you looking for aside from the duties you’ll be performing and the pay you’ll be making. Because when somebody accepts a job, it’s always more than that. It’s company culture, it’s how they interact with their manager, it’s: do their ethics align with the organization’s ethics? And while there are going to be ways technology can help us with that, it will never do as well as a human-to-human interaction will. So, the future of our business is even more so relationship-driven than it has been in the past. I think that’s a great thing.  

Brightwing has always known that having a cutting-edge tech stack is good, but it’s not enough to make a recruiting firm GREAT. Our recruiters are ready for the future of hiring. Are you? Let’s talk.

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[VIDEO] Meet Jeff & Jeff from Brightwing DFW

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[VIDEO] Meet Jeff & Jeff from Brightwing DFW

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Meet Jeff Borra and Jeff Genovich, co-managers of Brightwing’s Dallas-Fort Worth office.

 

What’s most exciting about the Dallas-Fort Worth market?

  Jeff B: It’s a really diverse market.   Jeff G: What isn’t there to be excited about the Dallas market?   Jeff B: It actually has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the entire country. It had the most amount of jobs in the last year alone in any city in the country, too. So there’s a lot going on. A lot of growth, a lot of opportunity and a lot of people we can help.  

What do you love about the Dallas team?

  Jeff G: I just like how well we get along together outside the office and inside the office. We’re more than willing to have tough discussions with each other and work hard together and hold each other accountable. But at the end of the day we’re just one big happy family. That’s what I love most about our team.  

What motivates you?

  Jeff B: When you work with clients, you’re trying to solve problems, you’re trying to solve issues that they’re having. And if you can resolve those by finding that next great candidate, once you do it’s a really rewarding feeling. And even when you’re working with candidates and they may already have a job, they may be in the market looking, but once you find that new opportunity… I mean, your job outside of your family is one of the most important things, and it’s great having a huge impact on people like we do.   Jeff G: That’s the candidate and client side, but our team. Just making sure that they can provide for their families and helping them develop and grow and just watching them blossom is very, very rewarding for both of us. [vc_btn title=”join the brightwing team” style=”custom” custom_background=”#ffc600″ custom_text=”#0a0a0a” shape=”round” size=”lg” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brightwingbdev.wpenginepowered.com%2Fcareers%2F|title:Brightwing%20Careers||”]

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3 Recruiting Insiders on Urgency in Hiring

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3 Recruiting Insiders on Urgency in Hiring

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Here are tips from 3 Brightwing talent consultants on what it takes to meet urgent needs in this candidate-driven market…  

1. How to beat the competition when the clock is ticking for in-demand talent…

  “Earlier this year, I worked with a client whose hiring process unfolded SO WELL that I need to call it out. A software engineering manager from a major tier 1 auto supplier reached out to me about a candidate I’d posted about on LinkedIn. She took my call even though she was in China on business. → #1: she didn’t sleep on good talent (literally!) Turns out the candidate had another offer on the table, but wasn’t 100% sold. So, the hiring manager had one shot. I gave her some guidance: 1) Gather every decision maker including HR, and let’s get everything done in a single interview; 2) Move fast!! The next day, they bring in our candidate to meet with all stakeholders in a single interview. → #2: they adapted the hiring process to match the urgency of the situation. After the interview, they made their decision quickly. The candidate had an offer in-hand (for exactly what he was asking for) by the end of the following day. → #3: They took decisive, quick action! The client’s flexibility, speed and fair offer landed them an A+ candidate who is currently thriving within their organization. That’s how hiring should work…every time.” – Steve Ermak, Engineering Talent Consultant  

2. How to qualify client needs properly to land the talent who fits best…

  “I was recently in discussions with a VP of Finance about her hiring needs for the coming year. Problem was, I’d heard whispers about the company’s bad reputation. And bad reputations are problematic on a bunch of levels. But whispers are one thing, and first-hand knowledge is another. So I go out to meet the team in person. Why? We need to learn about the culture, the day-to-day atmosphere, in person. We need to meet the people that our candidates could potentially be working for… 1 – to weed out the opportunities that we wouldn’t feel good about matching candidates with 2 – to understand the environment so we can qualify the candidates who’d thrive there 3 – to be able to pitch the company well to candidates. Turns out – the bad reputation was based on a misperception about their industry. The more I talked to them, the more excited I got about their mission. They were doing something valuable and didn’t deserve the bad rap at all. Digging deeper not only let me find a client worth partnering with – but it also put me in a great position to get candidates as excited about the opportunity as I was. Goes to show: qualifying with the intention of DISqualifying can lead to surprising – and great – results.” – Joe Dombles, Finance & Accounting Talent Consultant  

3. How to use “working interviews” after proper qualification of both the client and candidate…

  ” ‘I need a bookkeeper yesterday.’ I had a client in a tough situation. The bookkeeper put in her 2 weeks’ notice. He really wanted to find a replacement before she left so they could get some training. The office couldn’t manage without a bookkeeper for any extended period of time. Enter: the working interview. Because of the crazy time crunch, we sent a candidate we were super confident about to work for a day at the office. The candidate had the time & was excited: career change is a big deal. Spending time with your new potential team is a great way to know whether it’s a good move. The client was happy to give it a shot: if it worked out, problem solved! If not, the risk was ours – Brightwing would pay for the day. A day after the working interview, I got some seriously happy messages from the client & candidate. They’d decided to take the leap together and make it official. Not the answer for every situation, but in the right circumstances, working interviews are a very effective way to make a decision for everyone involved. – Dan Start, Finance & Accounting Talent Consultant

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[VIDEO] The Power of Organizational Alignment

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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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[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

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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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Why You’re Not Closing Job Offers …and 5 Ways to Fix It

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To maximize offer acceptance, you’ve got to help candidates imagine a future where they love working for you and with you. Here are 5 keys to making it nearly impossible to turn down your offer…

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Does Employer Brand Outweigh …Comp Packages?

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A job seeker’s first impressions of your company will make or break their decision to accept a job offer — or to even apply to an opening at your company.

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Are All Hires Now Purple Squirrels? Recruiting in a 0% Unemployment Market

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With such low unemployment, finding the right candidate takes a massive network and a ton of time (not to mention intuition and experience).

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4 out of 5 Employees May Switch Jobs in 2019: What Does That Mean for Your Organization?

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Brightwing recently invited its talent network to participate in a survey to gain an inside perspective of the candidate market.

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Will Your Marketing Team Thrive or Fail Under These 3 Trends?

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The core trends influencing the marketing industry are simultaneously changing the hiring profile of the best marketing talent.

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Why You Won’t Find Millennials Working in Accounting & Finance

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So where are the Millennials that hiring managers need? Look at what they want and how they can be attracted to Finance and Accounting roles.

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