Recruiting within the legal field is a deeply nuanced profession. When your firm or corporate legal department is hiring, you’re seeking more in a candidate than the required legal credentials. You’re seeking an individual who can embrace your organization's values, clientele, and approach. Legal recruiters play a central role in bringing that talent to you. But to be credible in this industry, being a very successful general practice executive recruiter simply isn’t enough. A legal recruiter needs to bring their in-depth, personal experience in the legal field - and the degree to prove it.
At 14% of Minnesota’s total GPD, manufacturing is its largest private sector element, according to a recent article. The sector currently employs one in seven people living in Minnesota, equating to approximately 306,000 and supports jobs in other sectors. Directly or indirectly, manufacturing supports a third of all Minnesota jobs.
Over the past several months, a handful of major U.S. companies have announced "Return to the Office," aimed at bringing back the traditional workspace dynamics that served them well pre-pandemic. Each time I read one of the headlines, I am struck by the fact that these directives occur in the midst of increasingly compelling data suggesting that remote and hybrid work models are becoming the standard, not the exception. From what I see as an executive recruiter, turning back the clock doesn't seem to work very often.
Yet one of the most consequential - and frankly, easy to control – tools in the hiring manager's toolkit continues to go under leveraged: delivering an excellent candidate experience.
A recruiting strategy is never just about filling roles; it's about building a bench of talent capable of sustaining a brand’s competitive advantage. When your talent acquisition strategy works, it's a game changer, empowering your organization to achieve business priorities and exceed growth goals. When it doesn't, it slows performance, frustrates senior leadership, and forces current team members to work around the gaps left by each vacant position. A few things can torpedo morale or breed employee mistrust, such as working in an understaffed department.
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.
