SkyWater Blog

You have an exciting job offer and you’ve quit your existing job, eager to get started in your new role. Now your current employer has asked for an exit interview, the thought of which fills you with dread. What do you do?

It’s HR policy in many companies to request an exit interview. This gives the hiring manager the chance to find out exactly why you are leaving the company and your views on working for them. This can be a difficult situation for many employees, especially if your time with your employer has not been a happy one. Do you air your grievances about your co-workers and your boss or do you smile and claim it’s “nothing personal?”

The decision is up to you, but as with every interview, preparation is the key. Our tips below will provide you with a good starting point.

Companies often turn to recruiters when looking to find the top talent in their market. However, choosing the best executive recruiter to work with can often prove to be a challenge. There is undoubtedly a wide choice of good recruiters, but today’s employers have high expectations. How exactly can an under-pressure hiring manager differentiate between ‘good’ and ‘great’?

Yes, greener employers do attract more talent!

To be honest, when I started writing this April’s SkyWater blog in honor of Earth Day, I wasn’t planning to talk about recruiting. Every April, we write an Earth Day blog, and this year, I’d been inspired by an MPR podcast hosted by Angela Davis, about the growing landfill crisis in the Twin Cities. Here in the metro area, we produce 3.3 tons of trash each year, roughly one ton per Twin Cities family – so much waste that our local landfills have become overwhelmed.

The role of self-awareness in making the career move that’s right for you.

A few weeks ago, my good friend and long-time colleague, Melissa Albers invited me to be a guest on The Self-Awareness Journey, the podcast she hosts with JJ Parker. She wanted to talk about The Great Resignation and how pandemic-inspired job decisions can affect our careers and, more importantly, our lives.

Earlier this year, SkyWater Search Partners was invited to join the Ramsey County Inclusive Workplaces Cohort. The group had its third monthly meeting in December 2021. We would love to share what we have learned and continue the discussion.

You may be asking yourself: Is it worth it to pay a headhunter? 

Working with a recruiter to fill your company’s key roles and source the best available talent is a benefit that many employers recognize in today’s competitive employment market. How can hiring managers ensure they fully benefit from working with a search company?

If you’re like most employers, you might be underinvesting in this critical hiring and retention tactic.

According to a 2021 Gallup article, 70% of employees who would rate their new employee onboarding experience as “exceptional” also say they are in “the best possible job.” Yet, according to that same article, nearly 20% of employees say their recent onboarding experience was either poor or nonexistent. What do these statistics tell us? At a macro level, it seems obvious: employer onboarding practices are almost universally abysmal. But at the individual employer level, they point to a real opportunity. In this age of employee attrition, labor shortages, and general uncertainty about future staffing stability, these numbers suggest that there is a reason for optimism for any organization that is willing to invest in robust, multi-level onboarding practices.

6 Elements of a Perfect New Employee Announcement

If you’re hiring, here’s something you already know: you’re competing with other top employers for a handful of superior candidates. 

But if you’re not currently hiring, here’s something you may not have considered:  you’re still competing.  Every day.  And the competition is fierce.  All of your employees, from new hires to old-timers want to feel welcome, engaged, challenged, successful, and appreciated.  Every day.  If they don’t, greener pastures are just a recruiter’s email away.

Each year we carve some time out of our busy schedules to take care of a stretch of highway in our community that we have adopted through the MN Department of Transportation's Adopt a Highway program. If you've been looking for ways your company can make a contribution to a cleaner environment, this is a great program to look into. 

Thanks to recent, remarkable successes in vaccination rollouts, a growing number of Chicago businesses are reopening their doors and ramping back up. This surge in activity is, of course, a reflection of optimism that the U.S. economy is in recovery mode. As organizations prepare for strategic growth, we are seeing a spike in demand for accounting and finance professionals.