Posts by Susan Bormann
First Friday Preview: May
Ensure Your Job Application Process Isn’t Eliminating Top Talent Take a look around, almost everywhere you go it seems everyone is on a mobile device. These mechanisms provide us with 24/7 access and the ability to instantly connect to work, and almost every aspect of our personal lives. It should be no surprise then that…
Read More2019 Recruitment Trends Study
As global experts and leaders in the search and recruitment industry, MRINetwork recruiters conduct searches every day in virtually every industry at the executive, managerial and professional level. They have a keen awareness of the overall job market, as well as the factors and trends that shape it. In April we conducted the 2019 MRINetwork…
Read MoreInsight: Is Data Still a Watchword?
Early in my career I would never have used “Data Analytics” (DA) in the same phrase, probably not even in the same sentence and perhaps not even on the same piece of paper! Yet for the last 20+ years of my life, those words appear together ubiquitously. Just 2 days ago, I was catching-up with…
Read MoreFirst Friday Preview: April
How to Craft a Strong Change Narrative for Your Company When your company is undergoing major change, it can be a tough transition for everyone, especially your organization’s employees. After all, they may be wondering how the company’s transformations will affect them, their roles, responsibilities, co-workers, leadership and other aspects of their lives in the…
Read MoreINSIGHT: Does your Risk Management still lead to Unthinkable Consequences?
When you’ve been around manufacturing as long as I have, it’s inevitable to have moments when you wonder whether the latest “thing” is nothing more than a shell game. I remember in the mid-90’s when Six Sigma and its various belt levels was all the rage. One of my best contacts at one of our…
Read MoreWho, What, Where, When, and Why? The 5 guideposts of a short story.
As med device engineering recruiters, we can be challenged by some very difficult needs. Recently a new client had a requirement for someone with highly developed laser-cutting skills. The challenge was to recruit a person with skills in textiles and a med device engineering background. At Management Recruiters of Gastonia, we look at these challenges…
Read MoreFirst Friday Preview: March
Setting up the Change Management Process for Success Imagine this scenario: your company is preparing for organizational change now or in the coming months. Maybe you need to restructure in order to drive greater productivity and revenue. Or perhaps change management is necessary at your firm to complete a large merger or acquisition, smoothly and…
Read MoreInsight Feb: Success in the Interview
Recently we had an engineer interview for a position he was highly qualified for because of his unique skill-set. We worked with the client to help them quickly get from the candidate what they needed to ensure the technical criteria and let them focus on the cultural needs. We prepared the candidate on the process…
Read MoreFirst Friday Preview: February
How leveraging training programs can attract and retain star employees of all ages The While many employees may be comfortable in their current roles, it’s probably safe to say that most top talent want to continually advance in their career. Regardless of whether the goal is to be promoted within a company, or simply stay up-to-date on new…
Read MoreINSIGHT: Living in a Closet (stay with me on this one)
I sometimes feel as though the whole age and wisdom thing has been lost on me. It makes me wonder if I’m suffering from “too much change in too short a period of time”, or what Alvin & Heidi Toffler called “Future Shock”. I mean, really, the volume of information I have to handle in…
Read MoreFirst Friday Preview: January
Key Employment Trends Poised to Impact Your Business in 2019 The U.S. workforce experienced historic gains in 2018 as more than two million jobs were added, and wage increases began to accelerate, according to the monthly ADP National Employment Report and quarterly Workforce Vitality Report. The unemployment rate stood at 3.7 percent in November, a…
Read MoreFirst Friday Preview: December
How to Modernize Your Employee Review Practices In today’s lean, fast-changing world, traditional business practices are being shaken up. Many companies are reviewing their long-held traditions in favor of more agile, responsive ways of improving the employee experience. They are giving more consideration to the physical environment employees work in as well as the practices,…
Read MoreINSIGHT: Are you after Improvement or simply trying to Solve a Problem?
Whether the subject is Lean or Six Sigma, what I’ve seen in my manufacturing career is that too often we seek out continuous improvement expertise for all the wrong reasons. I just read an excellent article on Lean that should be required reading for everyone in manufacturing from the shop floor to the executive level.…
Read MoreSurvey: Employer Concessions & Hiring in a Tight Candidate Market
The MRINetwork Performance Management Study is the result of a survey conducted among 220 hiring authorities and nearly 200 candidates across the U.S. The purpose of the study is to assess strategies that hiring authorities are leveraging to attract and retain talent vs. what employees and candidates want employers to prioritize. Hiring authority and candidate attitudes…
Read MoreFirst Friday Preview: November
Employer Concessions and Hiring in a Tight Candidate Market In the executive, managerial and professional labor market, unemployment has been hovering around 2 percent, leaving companies across many industries struggling to find top talent. In a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal and executive advisory group Visage International, University of Michigan economist Richard Curtin…
Read MoreInsight: Evo or Revo? The $64,000 question
After nearly 30 years in and around the Medical Device space, I’ve seen success defined by both Evolutionary and Revolutionary products. Both come with their own specialized set of risks – Evolutionary is generally an easier Regulatory pathway but can easily be mistaken as a “me too” product which makes gaining the attention of investors…
Read MoreFirst Friday Preview: October 2018
3 Steps to Sourcing Contract Talent A recent NPR/Marist survey reveals that 20 percent of work in the U.S. is fulfilled by contract workers. So, no matter what industry your business serves, chances are you regularly employ contractors to augment your permanent workforce. This reality creates a continual need to source consultants, whether it be…
Read MoreInsight: Time Management – Who manages whom?
As a manager in a manufacturing environment, any time the subject of multi-tasking/project management/time management came up; I looked like a flirtatious Peacock’s tail. I mean, if you wanted to know whether I had it together, all you had to do was ask me. (Make a coughing noise while saying BS at this point.) But…
Read MoreFirst Friday Preview: September 2018
How to implement an effective contingent workforce recruitment strategy According to Staffing Industry Analysts’ Workforce Solutions Buyer Survey 2018, respondents report that 22 percent of their staff is currently contingent, and project that by 2028 that figure will rise to 30 percent. As the blended workforce continues to grow, it’s becoming increasingly important to perfect…
Read MoreFirst Friday Preview: August 2018
4 Ways to Plan the Growth of Your Company in the Instant Information Era Today’s senior business managers face not only traditional business planning tasks when driving growth within their organization, but also the need to understand new marketing challenges and opportunities presented by technologies that were not taught in business schools even five or…
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