SkyWater Blog

Finding and hiring the best talent is a high-stakes challenge for every organization. Whether you’re running a start-up, making your first serious management hire, or you’re a corporate recruiter, working on multiple open positions every week, filling an open job is not only time-consuming. It can be expensive, frustrating, and unpredictable.

Yet, every open job represents the future of your organization. Will this new person add long-term value – without too much short-term upheaval? Do they have the aptitude, attitude, and work style to gel with the rest of your team? By adding them now, do you move your organization closer to your vision?

Rest, Reflect, and Recognize

Sure, your calendar says that the last day of summer is September 22nd. But if you’re like most of us in the United States, you know when summer really ends: Labor Day.  For most American workers – and their school-age children – the first Monday in September is a moment of transition. Monday is our last full day of the summertime slow, lazy mornings, and reduced pressures. Come Tuesday, it’s back to the business of higher expectations and a markedly faster pace.

It may be time to rethink your Executive Assistant Recruiting Strategy

According to a very recent Deloitte study, 57% of employees report that they want to quit their current jobs to find an employer that “better supports their well-being.”

That’s a staggering statistic, given that the Great Resignation has been going on for more than two years.

But check out this far more stunning – and sobering – finding: nearly 70% of C-suite leaders say that they, too, are actively considering leaving, for the same reason. As an executive recruiter, I’m not surprised by the number. Twin Cities organizations, like those throughout the country, are struggling to attract, hire, and retain talented senior leaders. (It’s a reality that keeps me incredibly busy.) But we should all be alarmed by the reasons for these vacancies.

6 Critical Competencies You Can’t Afford to Ignore

During a recent episode of NPR’s Marketplace, David Brancaccio had a fascinating conversation with Amy Domini. If you’re like most professionals in the finance and accounting realm these days, you’re likely aware of her work in socially responsible investing – what we now call Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG). As they discussed the growing importance of ESG, they also touched on the growing difficulty that organizations face in trying to competently manage and report against ESG standards. As Domini put it, “the whole goal… is to assure that investors work toward a livable planet, inhabited by people who lead lives worth living.”

3 ways to protect your unfilled roles

In spite of national and state-wide continued strong job reports, worries about a potential slowdown are starting to show in some employers’ budgeting decisions. If you have been struggling to fill empty but critical roles within your organization, you may have heard rumblings about potential hiring freezes or worse, open positions being eliminated altogether.  

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...

Learning, Understanding, and Driving Real Change

This year, as we recognize Juneteenth, we’re also reflecting on the fundamental human right to freedom itself. It’s not true freedom without truly equal access to education, rewarding work, and the opportunity to earn personal income and assets that can lead to generational wealth and security.

Yet right here, in spite of all the national attention on the Twin Cities’ woeful racial disparities in employment and income, those gaps still exist. According to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), unemployment rates are an impressively low 3.3%... until you look at the numbers by race.  As of April 2022, Black unemployment in Minnesota was 6.7%, more than twice the state’s average – and 2.4 times the rate for white Minnesotans.

Happy Father's Day!

SkyWater has had a bit of a baby boom in the last year and a half. We would be remiss if we didn't spend this weekend's blog post highlighting the fellas at SkyWater who are brand new to parenthood. We polled Alex Bowes, Adam Rosenthal, Corey Thonn, and Ben Lehmann with the goal of gaining some insight into what it is like to be a father on fathers day for the very first time.

Here's what they had to share...

What every CPA needs to know about today’s competitive market

“If you’re not happy where you are, start looking...”  Right?

That’s the old rule. But what if you still like your job? Let's imagine that the pay is fine, the benefits are good, the career path promising. If you’re in public accounting or a CPA with a public accounting background, there’s a new rule to consider following:  “No matter how happy you are in your current role, now is the best time to be looking at what’s out there.”  Here's why: