Over the past 25 years, David Magy – Principal
at Abeln, Magy & Underberg and a
member of the IACPR’s Small Search Firm
Planning Committee - has earned the reputation as “expert” in the field of
retained search, corporate recruitment and workforce consulting. His firm is
recognized as a respected partner in recruiting key talent within a large array
of businesses. Here he talks about his experience at the IACPR Small Search
Forum and Leadership Strategies Summit held this past October.
This past week, I had the
opportunity to attend two one-day conferences – the International Association
for Corporate and Professional Recruitment (IACPR) Small Search Firm Forum as well as
this same association’s annual conference , with the theme of BuildingEffective Leadership Teams.
I came back with pages of
notes – many things learned as well as more ideas and concepts to talk about
with my work colleagues and clients. Before I get to some of the takeaways, I
must say that it was incredibly energizing to be part of the Small Search Firm
Forum – to sit in a room with 25 small search firm owners and learn together.
This was not about competing (yet one of my best competitors from this market
was sitting right next to me); it was about all of us learning together – and
being better for our clients and candidates. The other people in the room
were from across the country and globe.
Some key learnings:
If you want to know
what your clients want, ask them. We
conducted a survey of corporate clients and asked what they valued from their
retained search partner. Their list was important to hear. Some of the
items they highly value are:
- Sourcing skills to identify passive candidates
- Industry knowledge (or the ability to understand/tap into it)
- Understanding of culture fit
We have written
about organizations that exist where you can arrange for someone to give you a
fake reference OR verify a degree if you do not have one. We learned about sources for more deception. Just
google Fake Your Resume – quite concerning.
Recruiting different
generations – one size does not fit all!
We as firms need to better understand corporate culture and norms of behavior.
Equally important. we need to discuss these generational-specific issues with
our clients – and then with our candidates.
We discussed
relocation trends. Home buying is coming back!
Midsize companies are increasing their relocation budgets as the war for talent
heats up.
Offer letters (and
contracts, if used) need to state the principal office location. With more and more people commuting long distances to
work or assuming more work-from-home time than the employer is planning,
location expectations need to be better defined – to assure there is a mutual
understanding of location/presence intent.
My favorite quote
(from the main conference):
John Gerzema, one of the
authors of the book The AthenaDoctrine: How Woman (And The Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule The Future,
spoke to us about the study he (and others) conducted on the leadership
attributes that are guiding companies to prosperity. He quoted many of the
people he met with around the globe. One quote that was extremely powerful, for
business and politics, was from Shimon Peres, President of Israel.
“We are in a new
world with many old minds.”
