The recruiting landscape has changed. Maybe not as much if you are searching for a CEO or an entry level role, but at the professional and mid-level management roles, the landscape has changed dramatically. Without diving into the reasons for the changes or speculation on future state, let’s focus on the realities of today – […]
The majority of those talent prospects referred to in hiring circles as “A-Player” talent are employed and engaged in their current company. What is your strategy to get their attention?
A few common factors to keep in mind within this “A-Player” talent pool:
Since the truly “A-Players” need to be assessed and sold simultaneously, it requires a team approach with both a hiring authority and an experienced search professional. If you have a strong internal search resource or partnering with an external search vendor, it is exceedingly important that your search partner has the business acumen and soft skills to maneuver the “A-Player” through the recruiting process.
We developed PinPoint Talent in response to our client’s needs and, since its inception, it has grown at an impressive pace. PinPoint Talent is not a traditional RPO (recruitment process outsourcing). We do not take on a client’s entire hiring process but rather we provide tools, training and people to augment existing client’s teams and processes. PinPoint Talent provides customized ‘bolt-on’ recruiting services without the cost or uncertainty of contingent recruiting services. Our clients pay one rate for dedicated recruiting services which creates a strong and value-added relationship and partnership.
In some cases, PinPoint Talent becomes an extension of our client’s talent acquisition department or sometimes we are used exclusively to focus on high volume or critical openings. For example, some of our services have included recruiting for a new technical center consisting of 10 Automotive R&D engineering roles, recruiting of over 65 Executive/Leadership roles for a client over a five year time period, recruiting over 200 Engineering and mid-management roles for one Aerospace client and recruiting for a new division involving staff, management and director level roles resulting in filling over 50 positions in a six month time period.
For more information visit pin-pointtalent.com.
Over the last 10 years, the firm’s spend on various databases, social media, job boards, etc has increased as a percentage of our total company spend. Bottom line is that in today’s competitive environment, you have to invest in order to be able to execute. Internally we talk about pulling all the levers in order to successfully execute for our clients. Our candidate database has over one million contacts, we utilize all recruiting channels and our research department is stronger than it has ever been. We have learned that we need a variety of resources, working in tandem with one another, to meet the needs of our clients.
We are starting 2015 out on a high note by adding three talented and experienced individuals to our team. In total, these individuals bring a combined 45+ years of recruiting and search experience along with additional practice area expertise and new market segment experience.
Our Recruiter Development Program has taken flight. Most strong internal talent strategies include a component focused on building your own talent from the ground up. We are no different. We have found that it is essential to our future success to build programs that teach our people quality processes, philosophies and partnering skills so that we can continue to provide our clients with outstanding support.
Our research department is also a critical success component for us, one that we continue to invest heavily in. The ability to quickly and effectively tear apart an industry and find new talent is an absolute core competency for us.
Quite simply, it has been about increasing our capacity to perform. Our family of companies has grown to 28 professionals, working across three distinct internal operating groups, while serving six primary end markets: Industrial, Chemical/Materials, Technology, Aerospace, Automotive and Medical. Our strategy for success includes a focus on building extensive partnerships with a defined number of clients in each of the markets we serve. This allows us to maximize the number of companies to recruit out of for our clients. Our end goal isn’t to become the largest talent acquisition firm, but to become the ‘go to’ partner and top performing vendor to our clients. The bottom line is that everything we do is about increasing our ability to execute – those that execute flawlessly, always outperform their competitors.
Change is always the constant and the world of talent acquisition is no different. Continued globalization, demographic changes with the retiring of the baby boomers, skill gaps and talent shortages require us to continually invest internally to outperform our competition. We make investments in training our people, adding resources and practice area expertise so that we can stay ahead and be prepared for the change curve.
Our team at Westport Intl wishes you a successful and prosperous year ahead. We thank all our clients for helping make 2014 a great year for the Westport Intl team as well as our sister divisions, PinPoint Solutions and PinPoint Talent Services. Across our three divisions, we filled 180 searches at the executive, professional and mid-management levels.
We wanted to highlight a few of the top retained search successes at Westport Intl for 2014:
VP/GM — $3B Aerospace Company
VP Sales — $19B Global Science and Technology Innovator
VP Global Sales — $19B Global Science and Technology Innovator
VP Americas — $19B Global Science and Technology Innovator
VP BD & Strategy — $300M Consumer Distribution Company
VP Sales & Marketing — $8B Heavy Duty Vehicle Company
VP Marketing & Strategy — $19B Global Science and Technology Innovator
2 VP Marketing — $19B Global Science and Technology Innovator
VP Global Operations — $19B Global Science and Technology Innovator
2 Director Sales — $2B Aerospace Company
Director Marketing — $1B Consumable Durables Company
Director Corporate Communications — $2B Aerospace Company
2 Division Controller Directors — $3B Aerospace Company
Director Operations — $1B Aerospace Company
Global Director Quality — $8B Heavy Duty Vehicle Company
Senior Director SCM — $8B Heavy Duty Vehicle Company
OD & Talent Director — $20B Consumer Durables Company
Director Human Resources — $8B Motor Vehicle Parts Company
Executive Director Human Resources — $8B Motor Vehicle Parts Company
Group Director HR — $3B Aerospace Company
We hope 2015 brings you professional success and prosperity.
In the world of manufacturing, companies often have preferred providers, those vendors that they have strong relationships with and depend on, day in and day out to supply materials. They have trust in one another, they have ridden through the ups and downs of the business cycle together. They have strategically aligned themselves to one another. In the world of talent acquisition, why should it be any different?
Our organization is not just about filling job searches, it is about building strategic relationships with our clients. Our firm was founded on strategic relationships with a handful of core clients. From there, the voice of the customer has resulted in the expansion of our service offerings. For example, we have ongoing dedicated recruiting projects at both the mid-level and retained executive search levels that have existed for five plus years.
These relationships are successful because we have taken the time to understand our clients – their business, their markets, their culture and their operating principles. With a depth of knowledge like that, finding the right talent for your business becomes less challenging. With our partnership, we have a much greater understanding of who you are, how you operate and the type of talent you are looking for.
So what exactly does a strategic partnership look like?
Additionally, we have provided referrals on executives for free, recommended companies that have become acquisition deals, provided market intel and introductions resulting in new large business orders, advised internal talent teams on where the talent is and even helped clients build out their internal talent teams.
Simply put, we view ourselves as an extension of our clients. What adds value for them eventually adds value to us. We don’t view our clients as just a revenue stream, we view them as a strategic partner and that makes our relationships very rewarding – for both us and our clients.
Human Resources has been a focus practice area since the inception of our company. While we are not a one dimensional pure HR search firm, we have expertise in finding HR senior leader talent in many industries, across the U.S., and for all size organizations. We have the experience and expertise to identify true HR business partners for your critical positions.
Searches for Human Resources talent continues to top our list as one of our most active practice areas. There is a marked increase in the number and the caliber of talent and organizational development roles inside the organizations we support. We have seen a shift in which many organizations are now combining organizational development, talent management, learning and talent acquisition. The need for leaders with broader overall talent management skills is on the rise.
We have also seen an increase in organizations reaching out to us to help them build, improve or supplement their internal talent acquisition functions. As more organizations recognize the criticality of a strong acquisition function (as part of an overall talent management strategy) , it has become clear that hiring contract recruiters off the street is not going to achieve the ROI and performance needed.
As a result, we have taken our PinPoint Talent Services assessment tool and recruiter development program to our clients. We have assisted our clients with upgrading their internal talent acquisition team performance and also with supplementing their recruiting needs with short and long term recruiting arrangements. As an example, we are pleased to announce that we have added an additional team member to our project team supporting a large aerospace client with their recruiting activities in Europe.
2014 has been another strong year in finding great HR talent including the following key placements:
We are also currently conducting searches for the following:
Our clients are demanding more of their Human Resources leaders. They want HR leaders who speak the language of business first and functional expertise second. They want demonstrated capability and success in leading large scale change, expertise in talent management, culture change, managing global workforces, strategic thinking, market space understanding and a healthy dose of understanding business financials and metrics thrown in as well.
At Westport Intl, we understand the ever-changing talent needs of the world today and commit to finding the very best the market has to offer. Find out more.
What are the internal metrics and vernacular that most recruiting and search organizations have around performance? Usually you will see metrics such as new search engagements, job orders, paid first retainer, paid second retainer, total administrative fees invoiced, etc. All of these are measures that have been traditionally used by search firms to track their success in transactional business terms. But what about internal quality of work vs. quantity of work? What about also measuring client satisfaction and development?
At Westport, our metrics are focused on the quality of work we do for our clients, not selling more volume. Being a client focused organization is the very core of our business model and operating principles. We achieve over 80% of our growth revenue from current clients and referrals. We believe that our performance speaks for itself. Do we love getting new clients – absolutely! The difference being that when we do get a new client, our focus is on executing for them not selling to the next one.