SkyWater Blog

During this Black History Month, I hope you and your team have enjoyed immersing yourselves in some of the celebrations available to us all this February. As we approach the end of the month, it feels like the right time to step back and reflect on how we can take the lessons of Black History and use them to do better as employers and community members. What can we do to advance the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion? How do we ensure they reverberate for our teams and shape our efforts going forward? At their core, these ideals are not only about becoming wiser, more inclusive human beings in our personal lives. They're also a rallying cry, encouraging us to reconsider the systems, practices, and structures that continue to get in the way of achieving diversity and equity in the workplace.

Here are some things we're learning along the way that are important for all employers to remember as we continue on our journey.

Since it was first introduced on NBC's sitcom Parks and Recreation, Galentine’s Day has become a real thing, embraced around the world as a day for women to celebrate and support each other. For me, it’s also become a day of revisiting some very real leadership lessons shared by the show’s iconic lead character, Leslie Knope.

At SkyWater Search Partners, we specialize in recruiting for multiple disciplines, each led by industry experts. including the fast-paced, constantly changing IT sector. Here’s our take on current trends affecting the IT sector and our advice to hiring managers seeking top talent in 2024:

"There is no American history without African American history.”  

Sara Clarke Kaplan, executive director, American University Antiracist Research & Policy Center (ARPC), 2022 interview with NPR

Unemployment rates are low which means hiring (and retaining) talent must be a priority.

Hiring managers may claim they want to attract the best candidates to their brand, yet they are stifled in their ability to do so by what we call ‘internal equity’. This problem typically occurs when the hiring manager fails to hire an outstanding candidate because they can’t meet their salary expectations of $120k as the equivalent manager in the next department is only earning $100k. The result is that the employer makes an unsatisfactory offer to the candidate their business desperately needs. The candidate turns the offer down and is swiftly employed by a competitor willing to meet their salary expectations.

There’s a Hidden Talent Market Out There

Here’s How to Find, Recruit, and Hire Today’s Top Candidates

The 2023 changes to Minnesota employment laws are here and they are so sweeping that Minnesota’s commissioner of labor and industry, Nicole Blissenbach, lauded them for making Minnesota into “the best state for workers and their families.”

Video interviews are commonplace in today's hybrid work economy. If you're interviewing for a role, you may find yourself attending an interview that is conducted over Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or others. The mistake job seekers often make is to treat the video interview less seriously than an interview that takes place in an employer’s office. The next time you are invited to a video interview follow these tips:

Over the past many months, we have all watched as the term DEI (for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) gets batted around by political figures, the media, and of course, social media.

Before I continue, let’s pause to acknowledge the obvious. These three words, “Diversity,” “Equity,” and “Inclusion” are self-explanatory:

At SkyWater Search we know from our experience of talking to candidates on a daily basis that a growing number of disgruntled employees are desperate to quit their current job before securing their next career move. If you are intent on resigning without a formal job offer from a new employer, take our advice and read this article.