May 7, 2012
Staffing & Employment News
April Showers Turn Out to be a Drizzle.
April didn’t shower us with an abundance of jobs; with an increase of only 115,000 net, and 130,000 in private payrolls. This slow-down disappointed after March’s 154,000 new jobs and February’s 259,000. The biggest gains were in professional & business services at 62,000, retail trade increased by 29,000, health care rose by 19,000, and leisure & hospitality added 12,000. Goods-producing jobs increased by 14,000 after a 38,000 rise in March. (more…)
March 5, 2012
Republished with permission from the UBM Midsize Enterprise Strategies February 2012 Newsletter strategy section.
Finding And Hiring The Right IT Staff
By Alicia Stein
Many middle-market CIOs lack the resources—staff and budget—to fulfill all of their organization’s IT initiatives. Even though the last recession displaced millions of workers, it still remains difficult for CIOs to find individuals with the right mix of talent and skill. (more…)
January 9, 2012
Staffing & Employment News
Growth Stronger than Expected
from Redfish Technology
December’s employment report showed progress in job creation with a stronger showing than expects. The unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, December payroll jobs hit a fairly healthy 200,000, private payrolls hitting 212,000. (more…)
December 19, 2011
Happy Holidays from our team to yours!
Whether you will get merry at Christmas, illuminated at Hanukkah, or dec’d out for Kwanzaa, we hope you have a great yearend!
Redfish is celebrating a great 2011.
 Rob Reeves, President, CEO – Redfish Technology “Amid the Noise and Haste of 2011, we’ve managed to stay the course we set and solidify our partnerships in both the Tech Sector and the Clean Tech Sector. (more…)
November 21, 2011
 Anna Mathieu Building an Organizational Social Media Policy
By Anna Mathieu, Marketing Communications Manager, Redfish Technology
Social media as a marketing tool for spreading a business’ name and mission has become invaluable in many industries. A company’s social media marketing strategy aims at building the company brand, recruiting new talent, fostering collaboration and communication, and driving innovation.
When considering a social media policy, a company must consider the opportunities and threats in terms of: a) employee work-related social media use, b) employee personal use of social media on-the-job, and c) employee personal use of social media outside of work. The use of social media by employees both at work and off work can have both positive and negative consequences, ones that should be thought through by each company in light of their marketing strategy, company mission, and other individual aspects. (more…)
November 7, 2011
Staffing & Employment News
The economy grew last quarter at the fastest pace in a year (yeah!), but job growth remains fairly anemic.
The economy grew last quarter at the fastest pace in a year (2.5%), however that growth was still insufficient to push down the unemployment rate. GDP is estimated to grow at just over 2% in 2012, and 2.7% in 2013, a gradual improvement.
ADP estimated Thursday that October private payrolls rose 110,000. Friday the Labor Department reported that payrolls expanded by 80,000 jobs in October, and the September figure was revised upward to 158,000 (from 103,000) and August was revised upwards to 104,000 (from 57,000).
While October saw less job creation than forecast, the unemployment rate did dip to 9% (from 9.1% last month).
Insperity Inc.’s latest business confidence study found that 26% of small to midsize businesses plan to add staff and 66% plan to maintain current staffing levels. Nearly half of small-business owners think that the economy will not improve until the second half of 2012, with 44% anticipating an economic rebound in the second half of 2012 or later. The CMO Survey finds that CMOs are planning on increasing marketing spending over the next year, by 7.2% on marketing hires.
IT and Clean Tech recruiters, such as Redfish Technology, report a very strong quarter. Solar and Software as a Service being two leading sectors of employment at this time. Online job posting activity is up by 11% year-over-year according to the Monster Employment Index.
The Redfish Monthly Newsletter
The Redfish monthly newsletter features original articles from executive recruiters and guest bloggers, and covers topics such as:
- Staffing & Employment News
- High Tech Job/Industry Trends
- Green Job/Industry Trends
- Career Tips for Passive & Active Job Seekers
- Employer & Human Resources Best Practices
September 12, 2011
Overcoming Relocation Hurdles in Talent Acquisition and Retention
 Greg Schreiner By Greg Schreiner, Executive Recruiter, Clean Tech Talent Manager
Despite the high rate of unemployment, finding the right talent remains an issue. A recent survey by Robert Half reported that just over half the executives reported that it is difficult to find skilled professional talent currently.
When finding the right talent locally doesn’t pan out, relocation is often the only alternative. And while relocation adds to the human resources expense, the majority of firms recognize the importance of this component in attracting the talent they want. The 2010 Atlas Van Lines Corporate Relocation Survey reports that 67% of companies offered incentives to encourage relocations in 2010. Financial and other incentives can overcome the hurdles to relocation. (more…)
September 5, 2011
Staffing & Employment News
Losing Momentum
Friday’s BLS economic report clearly shows that momentum in the labor market has stalled: nonfarm private payrolls increased by a meager 17,000, but as government payrolls declined by 17,000 the net job creation for August was nil. This is the lowest increase in private payrolls since February 2010, and the 4th consecutive month of weak growth. In the last consecutive 18 months, the economy did add 2.4 million private sector jobs.
What is the problem?
The pundits cite: The Verizon Communications strike that caused decline of approximately 45,000 in nonfarm payrolls last month. The recent federal debt ceiling debate fiasco, the S&P downgrade, and the stock market debacle of August. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index published for the month also showed a sharp decline. The lack of demand is by far the largest problem, leading to this slow pace of hiring, especially in small firms in “core” services. And yet, thankfully, for the moment layoffs have not picked up.
Staffing Professionals Predict
Staffing organizations and recruiters seem to have a more optimistic projection. (more…)
August 29, 2011
Winning the Tech Talent War
 Andy Nacsin by Andy Nacsin, Executive Recruiter
In today’s economic situation, companies are facing multiple new challenges when it comes to staffing. According to Forrester Research, today’s recruiting growth rate prediction is at 8%. Many theorists believe that this is because of the looming talent shortage and disconnect between positions open and skills of candidates applying. Another factor is that companies, while emerging from recession, are still remaining cautious on spending and are very selective when acquiring talent, regardless of their growing need to add headcount. Our nationwide overall unemployment rate has been hovering around 10%, and yet when we take a closer look within technology these numbers are closer to 4%. Other considerations that are affecting this climate are employee turnover, Baby Boomers retiring, more restrictive policies on foreign workers, companies resistant to relocation costs, and overall reluctance from employees to change jobs. So our challenge is how to cope with a growing talent shortage within the high tech and green tech industries.
The battle for top sales people and engineers is extraordinary in Silicon Valley and New York – These are our Talent War battle zones. The majority of technology growth occurs in these two large geographic regions and they also typically house the greatest number of top tier talent. (more…)
August 18, 2011
Salary Negotiation – Tips You Can Use In Any Job Market
 Shannon Tinker By Shannon Tinker
The ‘how to’ of negotiating salaries has likely been a hot topic since the invention of employment. In reality, there are no hard and fast rules for determining salary and an Internet search on salaries can sometimes prove helpful and other times is sadly, misleading. (more…)
February 4, 2011
Staffing & Employment News:
Companies Refocus on Innovation, Competition, Hiring
Despite uncertainty, companies are refocusing on innovation, and hiring to gain/keep competitive edge. CEOs and search consultants express confidence in 2011. The biggest risks remain the recession, but talent acquisition may also be a challenge.
The latest short term data is in today. Despite a smaller gain than anticipated in payrolls, the U.S. unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly to a low unseen since April 2009: 9%. Short terms data aside, the outlook for 2011 is to refocus on innovation, competition, and hiring.
The 14th Annual Global CEO Survey [1] shows that CEOs are aiming at immediate growth and a big jump in revenue growth prospects over 2011. Confidence levels are rising across the board with more companies anticipating growing their payrolls than they did in 2010. According to the survey, as hiring plans gear up, a shortage in talent is becoming more apparent; two-thirds of CEOs believe they’re facing a limited supply of skilled candidates. (more…)
January 11, 2011
Work/Life Balance
– part 2
In December we looked at some tips for people to achieve work-life balance and put forth our own survey. Click to view the results of the Redfish survey. This month we focus on various approaches companies are taking to address work-life balance, and reap benefits from the mobility and flexibility that technology facilitates and more and more employees desire.
What Are Employers Doing About Work-Life Balance? And What are the Employer Benefits?
This month, there are several articles on strategies that companies are employing to not only help their employees achieve better work-life balance, but also impact the company’s bottom line. BestBuy, Citrix, Microsoft, Google, and more companies than you think have programs to address work/life balance and employee satisfaction, many include some form of telework (a.k.a. telecommuting, workshifting, remote work, location-neutral work, and doubtlessly some other terms). (more…)
January 7, 2011
Studies Show Teleworkers Have More Job Satisfaction, and Work Harder!
A research study conducted by Kathryn Fonner, UWM and Michael Roloff, Northwestern University, analyzed conflicting perspectives on the advantages and disadvantages of a location-neutral workforce. Two sets of employees were surveyed: traditional employees, who work in an office-based setting with their colleagues on a full-time basis; and teleworkers, who work from a location of their choice outside of the traditional office at least three days a week.
The results showed that while physical proximity provides the advantage of daily face-to-face dialogue, it “may not be necessary for an effective and satisfying work environment”. There are also disadvantages such as less effective and autonomous time management. In fact, a primary conclusion of the study is that limited face-to-face communication offers many advantages. (more…)
January 3, 2011
Microsoft’s The Evolving Enterprise website offers this video entitled the “Dynamic Workplace”.
This discussion features The Future of Work’s Dr. Charles Grantham, author of Corporate Agility, andBrian Collins, Microsoft’s Global Workspace Strategy Manager, US, Real Estate and Facilities. This 12 minute video presents a very interesting dialogue on the benefits of workplace flexibility and the significant shift in how we work, play, learn and live. (more…)
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