SkyWater Blog

It’s been a year of near-constant economic headlines that are sometimes conflicting and often confusing. If you’ve been reading the latest economic reports with mixed feelings and some uncertainty about the 2023 economy, you’re hardly alone.

In their recent assessment, Bloomberg writers Rich Miller and Enda Curran describe the current state of affairs as “A Job-Market Riddle…” with layoffs occurring in some tech and financial sectors, while overall hiring and unemployment rates remain largely unchanged.

As we approach Thanksgiving this year, it would be difficult (and probably unwise) to ignore the possible changes and uncertainties that lie ahead. While inflation is slowing and fears of a recession are cooling, for many people, there are lingering worries that the economy may take a while to fully bounce back.

What if the scariest thing spooking your candidates is you?

Welcome to every job candidate’s nightmare.

For most hiring managers, filling an open role has become a frightening proposition. Finding, vetting, and interviewing candidates can feel like you’re trapped in a house of mirrors, filled with illusions, distortions, and endless dead ends. Why do the best candidates keep disappearing, just when you thought you were closing in on them?   

You’re right to feel frustrated and very, very afraid. But before you blame it all on today’s horrifying market or flighty talent, consider this:

It might be you.

At SkyWater Search Partners, we strive to strengthen our communities in many different ways and we are incredibly proud of the strong spirit of volunteerism we see among all of our team members. Each quarter, we honor a top-performing team member with the gift of a substantial financial donation, in that employee’s name, to a nonprofit organization that holds special meaning for them.

This quarter, we are thrilled to say,

Congratulations, Brian Rudolph, Senior Director, Consumer Products and Sales!

Are you stuck in a job you hate? Over the course of a career, most of us will endure a bumpy patch here or there: moments of feeling overworked, unchallenged, underappreciated, disappointed, badly bossed – or just plain bored. They’re awful. But they’re usually brief.

As part of our commitment to our communities, SkyWater Search Partners has developed an Employee of the Quarter Award. Each quarter, we honor a top-performing team member by making a substantial financial gift, in their name, to a nonprofit organization of their choosing.

It was yet another conversation with yet another highly talented candidate. The job I was recruiting had everything on his extensive list of must-haves, and nearly everything on his wish list. He, in turn, brought the credentials, experience, and stellar communication skills my client needed most.

Yet, I didn’t leave that conversation ready to place him at the top of my shortlist. Here's why...

At the core of the SkyWater Search Partners promise is our commitment to the twin cities community. One way we celebrate that commitment is through our Employee of the Quarter award. Every quarter, we honor a top-performing team member with the gift of a substantial financial donation, in their name, to a nonprofit organization that is meaningful to them.

This quarter, we are delighted to say…

The concept of workplace flexibility is one that is front and center of nearly every client conversation we have at SkyWater. We hear employers describe their worries that dispersed teams will be less able to collaborate, engage, perform, and lead than teams who physically come to work every day. We empathize. At SkyWater, we knew we’d invested mightily in creating a shared work environment that facilitated closer connections and that hard-to-define but so important sense of belonging.

It's a tough mindset to rethink. But we have. And we continue to do so, paying careful attention to how our team members are doing, and what they’re telling us. The key has been our own willingness to be flexible, adaptable, and open. It’s also been about one additional, critical factor: the willingness of our own executive team to walk the talk. We hold ourselves to the same expectations that we establish for the whole team. Turns out, this may be even more important than we realized.