Leader Garden-Helping firms Cultivate and Grow their Leaders

Advanced Employment Issues Symposium

via Advanced Employment Issues Symposium.

I’ll be speaking at this event in both Nashville and Las Vegas.

The Nashville event will be on September 30 and October 1 and my presentation schedule will be as follows:

Thursday 9/30:  TALENT MANAGEMENT TRACK – SESSION 3

Using Succession Planning to Build Talent From Within
Learn how to design and deliver a succession plan that differentiates your organization and ensures the right people receive the torch to lead your future business operations.
Presenter: Dan Ryan, The Human Capital Group

Friday 10/1: TALENT MANAGEMENT TRACK – SESSION 6

Positioning HR as a Strategic Leader in your Organization
Learn the “right” language HR Leaders us to communicate with their counterparts on the leadership team.
Presenter: Dan Ryan – The Human Capital Group (Nashville)

My Las Vegas schedule will be as follows:

Thursday 11/11: Using Succession Planning to Build Talent From Within

Learn how to design and deliver a succession plan that differentiates your organization and ensures the right people receive the torch to lead your future business operations.
Presenter: Dan Ryan, The Human Capital Group

If you are an HR professional who is looking for great information in a variety of HR areas, or if you just need to build up your HRCI credit, this symposium will be a great avenue to learn and network with your peers.

You can register by clicking at this link:

The last thing someone who is unemployed needs to be told is that they shouldn’t even apply for the limited number of job openings that are available. But some companies and recruiters are doing just that.

Employment experts say they believe companies are increasingly interested only in applicants who already have a job.

“I think it is more prevalent than it used to be,” said Rich Thompson, vice president of learning and performance for Adecco Group North America, the world’s largest staffing firm. “I don’t have hard numbers, but three out of the last four conversations I’ve had about openings, this requirement was brought up.”

Some job postings include restrictions such as “unemployed candidates will not be considered” or “must be currently employed.” Those explicit limitations have occasionally been removed from listings when an employer or recruiter is questioned by the media though.

via Out-of-work job applicants told unemployed need not apply – Yahoo! Finance.

This article was shared with me by a friend this week and in “normal” economic times there is much truth to this.  Most of the people I know in the search world are not as focused on the currently employed when unemployement hovers around 10%, but the unemployed candidate needs to have a good explanation regarding their current status.

This is a tough issue and I have complete empathy with those out of work through no fault of their own.  People making hiring decisions need to look at the entire field and not just those who have survived.

Any day now, the federal Department of Education will formally propose new regulations that would cut off federal aid to for-profit colleges whose graduates cannot earn enough to repay their student loans.

The regulations, known as the “gainful employment” rules, are an effort to rein in the high debt loads students take on when they enroll in for-profit colleges that offer certificates or degrees in fields like nursing or culinary arts. Students at for-profit colleges are much more likely than others to default on their loans.

Under the regulations, a draft of which came out in February, for-profit colleges would not be eligible to receive federal student aid if their graduates’ debt load was too high to be repaid, over 10 years, with 8 percent of their starting salary.

via Facing Cuts in Federal Aid, For-Profit Colleges Are in a Fight – NYTimes.com.

This article is an interesting companion to my earlier post about the financial woes of traditional higher education.  When you look at both you can see that there are tremendous pressures on the world of education at every level.

As the father of one college graduate and a rising junior in college I see and experience this first hand.  Different schools and states are dealing with it in different ways and I even see a difference between the public and private schools.

There will be a downsizing in the world of higher education-no doubt about it.  Just who will be a victim is to be determined, but there will be victims and there will be much more written about this topic.

I see a future where the community college plays a much, much bigger role in the post-secondary world and I also see a much bigger role for online and distance education.

It is coming-those who are prepared will reap the benefits.

Adam Bruckner-University of Washington

EVERETT, Wash. — Adam Bruckner has noticed a disturbing trend during his 38 years as a University of Washington professor of aeronautics engineering.

His tests are less rigorous. His students, less prepared. Even the format of classes is changing, morphing into something that requires less manpower and smaller amounts of state money.

Bruckner, the chair of the only aeronautical engineering program in the Pacific Northwest, is facing a crisis: a malnourished budget and a bad case of student unpreparedness.

The best students are as good as they ever were, Bruckner said. But the rest aren’t keeping pace with technological innovation in the industry.

Add this to the mix: The state’s aerospace industry is in dire need of engineers. Demand consistently exceeds the state’s production at a two-to-one ratio, and that supply gap is expected to widen as the industry’s aging work force retires in droves.

via Too few engineers to meet Boeing’s need.

This article shows just one more example of the daunting problem that the United States faces.  We are heading closer and closer to a time when we will NOT have sufficient engineers and scientists to do the work and research that is necessary to keep pace and keep our “so called” lead in science in the world.  I say so-called because I believe we may already be behind.

When you read the rest of this article you will see that China and India are far surpassing our talent pool in Science and Engineering and other STEM degree types (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Science and math graduates create value.  Many other professions only redistribute value.  We need to refocus our economy on developing this type of talent.

This focus has to begin at the elementary school level and it has to break down barriers that continue to keep qualified and talented young men and WOMEN from entering the STEM professions.

I envision a day when any qualified young man or woman who wants to enter a STEM profession will receive signficant finanical assistance to do so.  We ought to be doing this now.

If you want to read more on this topic, go to Siemen’s STEM Academy site where they talk about their support for the sciences.

What can you do to help correct this problem?

I recently wrote an article for PE magazine about the career challenges facing many who are now in transition, especially those in the Engineering, Architecture and Construction world.  You can download the entire article by clicking here, but here are the high points of the article:

• Unemployment in design and construction is at 27.1% according to May 2010 numbers from ENR
• The best way to find a job is through networking
• You need to find an advocate inside your target organizations in order to be successful
• Networking must continue even after you get your next job

Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) from "O Brother Where art Thou?"

Don’ wait until you “get into a tight spot” like the article so often describes.  Always be prepared for the next twist or turn so you won’t be caught by surprise when the economy changes.

There are three ways a company can handle social recruiting, says Jenny DeVaughn. The second is better than the first. The third is better than the second.

DeVaughn, from the agency Bernard Hodes, says the first method is a centralized recruiting approach. This is a social recruiting strategy managed by recruiters. Among its faults: It’s not scalable.

The second approach is an employee-centric strategy. This greatly increases an organization’s visibility, and uses employees as the gospel-spreaders of the company, under the direction or influence of human resources and recruiting.

Method three is the “utopia,” she says: a talent community. This is a variation of the employee-centric approach, but with a longer-term focus, where connections and relationships are built over time, lots of sharing goes on, and there’s a lot of career development and learning happening. In other words, it’s not just a short-term event based around getting a job.

via Jenny DeVaughn’s Utopia – ERE.net.

Jenny is a thought leader in the recruiting world and I highly encourage you to read the rest of this article about her recent presentation at the social recruiting summit.

Jenny, keep spreading the social recruiting gospel!

We were honored yesterday to attend the graduation ceremony of our oldest son.  He was part of the class of 2010 at Vanderbilt University and we have attached a few photos to help you experience the spirit of the day.

We are so happy for Daniel as he moves into the next stage of his career.  He leaves shortly for a two-week stay with friends in the Shanghai, China area and we wish him God speed and safe travels wherever he goes.

It is really amazing how much your life can be enriched by the friends of your children and the families of these young people.  We have much the same experience with Matthew,  our younger son’s friends at Auburn University, where he will graduate in 2010.

Have a great day!  Congrats to the class of 2010 at Vanderbilt!

Latest Search Industry Outlook Shows Most Growth in Healthcare/Life Sciences and Energy/Natural Resources

Ninety-one per cent of executive search consultants hold a neutral to positive outlook for the executive search business in 2010, showing renewed confidence as the senior recruitment industry gains momentum following the downturn. The 2010 Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) Member Outlook Survey of December 2009 totaled 268 responses from AESC executive search consultants worldwide.

With 77% expecting revenues to increase in 2010 and over half reporting plans to hire more consultants this year, the latest results show a vast improvement in optimism since December 2008.

via Optimism High: Executive Search Activity to Increase in 2010.

I see some of this growth in my work now and I trust we will start to see some increase in the AEC (architecture-engineering-construction) world as well in late 2010 and early 2011.

There will be a huge backlog of projects to be designed and built over the coming years and it will take some improvement in the overall economy as well as fiscal prudence to make this happen.

The main bright light in the AEC world presently is the Federal sector, and this will have to slow down unless the Obama administration wants to print more money, leading to inflation, or borrow more funds, leading to greater challenges with our trading partners.

The overall news in hiring is good, but there will pockets of the economy, especially the low-skill manufacturing sector, that will continue to lag as more jobs are shipped off shore to lower wage rate countries.

Listen: Owen professor says no ethical breach when companies “poach” – VUCast: Vanderbilt University’s News Network.

This is what makes a “free market” a free market.