In This Issue

• Global Hiring Trends
• The One Thing You Need to Get Ahead
• The Duplication Effect of Leadership
• Kensho Contract Staffing Services

Success Story

Star Candidates

Current Searches

Quick Links

The Kensho Group

Testimonial

MRINetwork Insight into Global Hiring Trends - Sep 2010

[Each month, MRINetwork uses the combined expertise of over 1,100 offices in more than 35 countries to publish an update on hiring prior to the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers released on the first Friday of the month.]

“Regardless of the state of the economy, there is nothing easy about identifying great candidates,” says Tony McKinnon, President of MRINetwork. “Trying to find that impact player is like trying to find a popular toy on Christmas Eve. You can go to a big toy store with a thousand different options, but that doesn’t make your search any easier."

It's That Quantity/Quality Thing Again

With the sheer size of the U.S. labor market, there really isn’t an easy way to talk about it other than by the numbers. 473,000 unemployment claims last week, 14.6M people unemployed in the United States, 46M workers with bachelor’s degrees in the country. The use of these figures makes workers sound like commodities, easily comparable and easily interchangeable pieces.
    Nearly one in ten people who want to work don’t have a job. It would seem that hiring a great candidate would take no more than putting up a help wanted shingle for an afternoon. You might even believe that, unless you’ve tried to hire someone in the last year…
    “Employers look at how many applicants there are for every job and assume they’ll be able to have their pick of quality people,” says Mickey Kampsen, president of Management Recruiters of Charlottesville. “What once would have been interviews of a few highly qualified candidates can turn into cattle calls as employers cast wider nets. With so many candidates, more stages are added to the interview process. People who truly are the top candidates aren’t given the personalized attention that would encourage them to take a position. Employers don’t always know how to tango.”… Read more »

The One Thing You Need to Get Ahead - by Christine Lee

Think hard work is all you need for career success? Jeffrey Pfeffer disagrees.

In his latest book, “Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't,” Pfeffer, Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a BNET columnist, argues that the notion of a non-hierarchical workplace is nonsense and that what you need to succeed in the workplace is, above all, power.

BNET: Why write about power?
JP: I always look for some phenomena that is important for understanding organizations, but that people are not writing about. There is, surprisingly, much less research on power than you would think. And power is good for you! You can monetize it; you can use it to get things done. Michael Marmont and other people have done research that suggests that having power over your work environment actually helps you live longer.

BNET: What can you do to improve your power at work?
JP: The first thing you need to do is to become more aware. What makes a great baseball hitter? Sportscasters often say, “This person is really seeing the ball.” Part of this is just awareness, being tuned in to what’s going on, and looking behind what you see.
    The qualities that seem to be associated with power come under the two categories of will and skill. Will is drive, energy, and ambition; skill is sensitivity to other people and understanding what their motivations are. You ought to evaluate yourself, or have your colleagues evaluate you, and ask yourself, am I willing to do what it takes to be strong on my weak qualities? Then develop a personal development plan.

BNET: What else?... Read more »

The Duplication Effect of Leadership - by Todd Smith

We have all heard about the importance of leading by example, but the benefits are more than meet the eye. Albert Einstein spoke to this: “Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means."

Whether or not you hold the formal title of “leader,” there are people around you looking for someone from whom to take their cues in any number of situations. By the end of this post, you’ll realize that your role in leading others is much more significant than you currently believe.

Who Set the Best Example?
Imagine a company where employees are expected to be at their desks by 8 a.m., yet their manager often strolls in around 8:15 a.m. It doesn’t take long for the staff to follow suit, regardless of the official start time.
    Here’s another illustration. I have two close friends who are CEOs of large companies. CEO #1 takes pride in his emails. They include a friendly greeting, are properly formatted, and deliver well-written messages. CEO #2 sends one-line emails that look like text messages.
    What’s been interesting to watch over the last ten years is that most of the people at CEO #1’s company send friendly emails that are well formatted and convey a professional brand, while most of the people at CEO #2’s company send one-line emails.
    My guess is that neither of these two CEOs knows the impact that their personal emails are having on the way their employees are branding their companies through their email communications.

Leading by Example
It’s critical to recognize that in any leadership position, every LITTLE thing you do or don’t do is noticed and, in most cases, duplicated. This duplication effect can influence every person who falls directly or indirectly under your leadership, and it can continue for future generations.
    Other leadership qualities are vital, but none compare to the example we set... Read more »

The Kensho Group Offers Contract Staffing Services

Hiring on a temporary basis allows our clients the opportunity to augment their staffs and seize opportunities to grow their business in this challenging economic downturn, while keeping their risk low.

As we see signs of improvement of the economy, many companies are positioning themselves for the inevitable growth phase that will emerge from this downturn.
     Focused exclusively on Medical Device professionals, we are able to provide you with exactly the right type of individual you seek for short- to long-term contracts. Using contractors is an ideal way to add the extra horsepower to a critical project, augment the team with a critical but time-limited skill, or to carefully evaluate someone in a contract-to-hire scenario.
     With the backing of our $B parent company - CDI / MRI - we are able to provide a full back-office function - and thereby provide you with contractors working on a W-2 basis or Corp-to-Corp - whatever works best for the employee. W-2 employees working through our firm and MRI Contract Staffing also get access to key benefits such as medical insurance and 401K plans that allow them to enjoy a more traditional work experience while on a contract assignment at your firm.
     Our Contract Staffing solutions include: Contract/ Project Staffing; Interim Staffing; Temp-to-Hire; and Contract Conversion. For more information, download our Contract Staffing Brochure, Email us or Call us at 610-395-6923.
     We would like to discuss how The Kensho Group can help augment your team's capability with our Contract Staffing service.