Would they Back Out of the Job Offer?

So, say you’re a recruiter or HR manager for your organization. You just closed a job search for a Systems Engineer role in Minot, North Dakota. The candidate met every qualification the hiring manager wanted, plus the team really liked the candidate. They believe he will be a great addition to the team. He accepted the verbal offer and will begin work in three weeks. It’s been a 75-day recruiting search, and the team is ready to move on to other talent searches.

Fast forward, and now you’re five days away from the arrival date of the candidate and the organization is prepared. The team has his office set up with a new computer and an email address has been assigned. The only remaining concern in your mind is that he has not sent back the written offer letter you mailed him and there has been no communication. Are you worried?

Later, when you return from lunch, you check your voice mails, and there is one message from the Systems Engineer candidate. In the voice mail, he begins by saying that he really appreciates the opportunities offered by your company, and the time everyone spent with him, but his tone seems somber. Then, he drops a bombshell. He is declining your offer and says he is staying with his current firm. He explains that they not only matched your offer, but also gave him a 5 percent higher salary and other incentives. Your worry now turns to abject frustration. It is needless to return his call. The day’s gone from great to terrible!

This may seem somewhat far-fetched, but it happens every day in the tough business of talent acquisition. Hiring proven talent away from other firms is often risky when you don’t necessarily know all of the motives of the prospective candidate. To be fair, a job candidate has the absolute right to accept or reject a job offer. A company should be prepared to be jilted at the altar. If you are a recruiter or Human Resource Manager or Hiring Manager, you have probably experienced a similar situation. So, how do you avoid this in the future?  Here are some tips to consider:

• Have a total plan in place regardless of the acceptance of the verbal offer:

After a tough job search, exuberance is a fair response when the prospective candidate accepts a job offer. But, be mindful that there are many variables at play in the mind of the job searcher. Never assume the search is over. Take a cautious approach before sending out those, “Thanks, but no thanks,” letters to candidates who weren’t given the offer. At a minimum, the recruiter should continue communicating with the department to establish a fair evaluation of the remaining candidates should the candidate decline the offer. Why?  These candidates may be next up in the hiring process.

• Always stay in contact with the candidate who accepted the verbal offer:

Avoid the trap of going silent with a candidate after verbal acceptance has been given to you. Have the candidate provide best methods and times to communicate with them during this transition period. Build a working relationship with the person through the waiting period between offer and arrival. Do not wait until the person walks through the door. Quickly send out a written job offer and get this offer in the hands of the candidate ASAP. Use an overnight service and follow-up with an email or phone call to ensure receipt of the documents. Require the written job offer to be accepted and returned to your organization no more than seven days from the verbal offer date. Call the candidate at a minimum of two times each week to find out if they have any questions or concerns. Provide a newcomers website where candidates can learn about the company and find out what they can do to prepare for joining the company in advance of their arrival. Talk with the candidate to determine if they have any questions about the special arrival website or general questions about the new job. Respond promptly to questions and do not be afraid to show the candidate your interest in their arrival. Be active, but not overpowering. Remember, you are investing in this person and want them to be a part of your organization. Build on this relationship. It is a business necessity to build up the relationship before the first day of employment.

• Never assume anything in the world of talent acquisition:

Changing jobs or leaving a company for a new job can be very difficult for many candidates. In recruiting, one should never assume this process is simply a choice of saying yes or no. Safety and security are important to many. Be sensitive to these concerns. Motive is very difficult to establish for every candidate. It is fair game to ask a candidate how they would respond if their current company makes a counteroffer.

“If offered a job by our organization, what will be your response if your present company counters our offer to you?” A possible follow-up comment to the candidate could be, “What makes you worth more today than yesterday to your current company, other than our offer?”

When making an offer of employment to a candidate, ask the tough questions as it relates to their decision to leave their current organization. Your organization is investing time and money in this selection. Never assume anything in the recruitment process.

Talent acquisition requires creative sourcing; sharp interviewing skills; plans for success or possible failure; tough negotiating skills; and the ability to sell and close the deal with the prospective candidates. Once the deal is made, it is important to follow the Sales model of building and developing a customer relationship with the candidate to get them in the door. Excite the candidates about the organization and the job. Show them how important they are to the organization’s growth. Don’t think the talent acquisition process ends simply because the candidate gave a verbal “yes” to your offer. Keep working the deal in a patient and forward thinking manner. How do you handle your job offer process?

To learn more about human resources and talent acquisition, register for the 61st HRM conference, on October 6-7, 2015. The conference will take place at The Club in Birmingham Alabama. More information on our website.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google + , LinkedIn or visit our website for more info and news about Professional Development, Human Resources and how to improve your professional profile.

Article by Larry Baldwin, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, MBA – Director of the Human Resource Institute at Culverhouse College of Commerce in The University of Alabama. A former HR Management executive and professional with over 30 years extensive experience management experience.

Happy Father’s Day

Did you ever wonder why it took such a long time in our country’s history for fathers to be celebrated with an official holiday? After Mother’s Day gained popularity in the early 20^th century, many people thought Father’s Day would be a good idea, too. Out west, Washington observed the first Father’s Day in 1910, but only on a state level. But, when President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day an official federal holiday in 1914, Father’s Day didn’t follow suit. It would take 58 years for dads to get the ole “atta boy” on the national stage.

History would teach that fathers have been around for quite a while. Why did it take so long for that national pat on the back? Is it because people aren’t as sentimental about their fathers? Well, OK. I’m a proud mama’s boy, so I get it. I’m also a proud father, but, I still get it. Taking second place to moms isn’t too bad. But, in honor of Father’s Day, I want to pay homage to the dad.

• This is the guy who is the stone wall of his family.
• This is the go-to guy when times are tough.
• These are the guys whose children believe in more than Santa Claus.
• This is the guy who you watched heading off to work each day.
• This is the guy who taught you to do it all yourself, to take care of your own family.

He is the figure standing tall when there is a violent storm and reassuring you that everything will be all right. When the thunder rolls, his smile grows wider with confidence and his strong arms seem to be able to stop a tornado. Fathers raise their sons to be men, and are an example to their daughters of what a man is supposed to be. Yes, that’s daddy, pop, father, old man, step-dad or whatever term of endearment you might use. So, this Father’s Day, let him know that you appreciate him.

From your friends at Bama At Work, have a very Happy Father’s Day!

What is The Name of my Game?

Every day our organizational management is confronted with the rush to Big Data and its impacts on organizational metrics. However this rush is failing to understand one critical factor in making a decision. Consider this scenario. It is a dreary, overcast day and so you decide to go to the mall to do some shopping. As you enter your favorite big box store, you see an 18-year-old blonde blue-eyed girl head directly to a particular display. I am not trying to create a stereotype but rather to demonstrate the basis of Big Data.

Marketing has spent large sums of money to create an experience based on Big Data to create a vision of the why that 18-year-old would head to that particular display. Their models extensively study the correlation behind the demographics and desires of certain population groups and how they result in purchases by these groups. In the readings on the implications of Big Data in HR one article suggested the use of a tool called predictive analysis. The example they provided was that Big Data had told an organization that every time a certain manager interviewed a candidate for an open position the hire resulted in a failed hire. The extended logic was that if this hiring manager was the next manager up for an opening, the odds were that the hire would not last. Correlation is great for certain aspects of the organization, but HR needs to see if the causality of the human capital management issues are clearly understood.

Return to our predictive analysis example we discussed above. It is critical that when we have a problem with a process, it is almost never a people problem. If this is correct then the fact that a particular manager is interviewing failed hires is not the grounds for a valid correlation but rather a sign that something is something is wrong with the process. Is the reason that the hires fail due to the wrong cultural fit? Is the reason the hires fail due to the wrong skills for the position? The use of the continual process improvement methodology provides you with the tools to discover the root causes of the process problems that a concentration on correlations does not and cannot.

When we determine that in order to correct the obstacles to the hiring process, we need to find a driven method to empower change in our organizations. The use of the cause and effect determination is a method to drive that change. The TLS Continuum (Theory of Constraints-Lean-Six Sigma) provides a roadmap to discover the causes of the process problems.

We are not suggesting that Big Data does not have a place within our organizations. It certainly does in areas like sales or marketing. But when the success of our organizations is dependent on knowing why we are experiencing process errors, there is a better route to go with the TLS Continuum and the Continuous Process Improvement tools. To learn more about big data and the influence on HR, register for the 61st HRM conference, on October 6-7, 2015. The conference will take place at The Club in Birmingham Alabama. More information on our website.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google + , LinkedIn or visit our website for more info and news about Professional Development, Human Resources and how to improve your professional profile.

Article by Daniel T. Bloom SPHR, Six Sigma Black Belt, SCRP. Daniel is the CEO and Managing Consultant for Daniel Bloom and Associate, Inc and will be a speaker at the 61st Annual HRM conference.

Happy Easter 2015!

Boil the eggs. Prepare the dye. Dip the eggs and let them dry. Spring is full of opportunities for new projects at home and at work. The project of decorating Easter eggs has been around for centuries, but did you know that the modern practice of using artificial dyes is more than a century old, too? One of the first people to sell artificial dyes just for Easter eggs was William M. Townley. He was a businessman who owned a drug store in Newark, New Jersey. He saw the opportunity to streamline a traditional project by packaging modern dyes in single-use paper packets. The venture was a huge success and led to the formation of the Paas Dye Company in 1881. Although there are still many methods of decorating eggs, his concept is by far the most popular method in households around the world.

Townley was an entrepreneur that saw an opportunity and his business skills helped him develop a business and a tradition. If you want to acquire some skills, become an entrepreneur, enhance your professional profile and maybe one day encounter the same success as Townley, check out our website and see what is the training that is meant for you.

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Happy Halloween!

There’s nothing spookier than a workforce in need of training…

Fear not, Bama At Work is here to help you and your organization meet all of your professional development goals!

There’s no need to be afraid of the competition when you have strong leadership, sharp skills and fine-tuned processes.  Our wide variety of certificate programs can help you meet your educational objectives, improve proficiency, and advance in your career.  They can even be customized and provided on-site for companies with specific needs.

Are you terrified of not meeting your CEU requirements? Our conferences are vast in scope and well-known for their rich content, atmosphere and networking opportunities.  If you’re frightened of starting a new career, our online programs are available for you to start anytime, anywhere, at your own pace.

 Experience hair-raising, spine-chilling success in every position and profession by taking advantage of what Bama At Work has to offer. Go ahead and give us a ring at 205-348-6222 or explore our website, if you dare! Happy Halloween!

Why Do We Really Need Life Insurance?

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month – a time devoted to raising awareness and educating consumers about the importance of life insurance coverage.

The first modern life insurance policy, dating back more than 3 centuries, is testament to a long history of mankind’s financial worries when planning for life after death.  Early forms of life insurance date to Ancient Rome, where “burial clubs” covered funeral expenses for members and provided financial assistance for survivors.  Modern life insurance policies started in the early 18th century; the first company to offer life insurance, the Amicable Society for Perpetual Assurance Office, was founded in London in 1706. In the late 1760s, life insurance sales were first seen in the USA in Philadelphia and New York.   At the end of the 19^th century, other rising countries followed the trends and life insurance companies started to emerge.   In 1881, Meiji Life was the first life insurance company in Japan.  On The University of Alabama campus, the first Japanese life insurance policy (see attachment 1) is proudly displayed in the Insurance Hall of Fame.

The First Life Insurance Policy in Japan (attachment 1)

Japan, a huge actor on the life insurance scene, is the third largest market for life insurance today, after the E.U. and the United States. Today, five Japanese companies are in the top 20 of the largest providers of life insurance, and four of them are in the top 10.

So what makes life insurance so important? A life insurance policy is a contract between the insurance policy holder and the insurer, where the company providing the insurance promises to pay to a beneficiary, designated by the holder in advance, a sum of money upon the death of the insured person.  This kind of insurance is critical to avoiding a huge money crisis in the event of a death. A life insurance policy provides a way for survivors to pay off debts and loans and to remain in the family home.  It allows the family time to grieve and to recover without the added pressure of financial stress. Long term illnesses can be financially catastrophic, and a life insurance policy is the best protection from this.

We are proud to join the movement and help raise awareness for life insurance.  We will hold in October 8^th, 2014 the Alabama Insurance Day on our campus of Tuscaloosa. Check our website for more information about this event or to learn more about life insurance. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to stay in touch with us and get the latest news about insurance.

To Frack or not to Frack, That is the Question…

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been a topic of debate between the mining community and environmentalists for many years. While proponents of fracking advocate economic benefits of readily accessible natural gas, the opponents are concerned with the environmental impact of this alternative form of drilling. To address this controversial process and the history behind it, Mark Parker, technology manager for Halliburton Oil will be speaking at the 2014 Alabama Mining Institute.

Fracking is the process of extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth. Certain geological formations may contain large quantities of oil or gas, but have a poor flow rate due to low permeability, or from damage or clogging of the formation during drilling. To increase the flow rate, miners will use this well-stimulation technique in which rock is fractured by a hydraulically pressurized liquid. This high-pressure fluid is injected into a wellbore to create cracks in the deep-rock formations through which natural gas, petroleum and brine will flow more freely.

Fracking as a method to stimulate shallow, hard rock wells dates back to the 1860’s. Soon after the first commercial U.S. oil well in 1859, dynamite or nitroglycerin detonations were used to increase oil and natural gas production from petroleum bearing formations. On April 25, 1865, Civil War veteran Col. Edward A. L. Roberts received the first of his many patents for an “exploding torpedo.” It was employed by oil producers in the U.S. and was later applied to water and gas wells.

While the mining community advocates fracking, the environmentalist proponents have raised concerns over the damage it causes. These concerns have included ground water contamination, risks to air quality, the mishandling of waste and the health effects of all these.

Regulations regarding fracking vary all over the world. In the United States an estimated 35,000 wells are processed with the hydraulic fracturing method. Studies estimate that up to 80 percent of natural gas wells drilled in the next decade will require hydraulic fracturing to properly complete well setup.

To learn more about the hydraulic fracturing process, be sure to attend the 2014 Alabama Mining Institute Conference, September 10-11 at the Bryant Conference Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Visit our website  to learn more about the  Alabama Mining Institute and register online.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google + , LinkedIn or visit our website for more info and news about professional development, conferences and how to improve your professional profile.

Article by Kevin Lake, Communications Specialist for The University of Alabama College of Continuing Studies. Kevin also  currently serves as the Vice President of Communications for the Public Relations Council of Alabama West Alabama division.

You’re Stronger Than You Think You Are: How Yoga Continues to Help Me Heal.

I am a Marine Corps veteran, yoga skeptic, turned yoga student, turned yoga teacher. It’s been quite the journey from my “it’s not worth exercising unless it kicks my butt” military days to where I am now. I’m still both a student and a teacher at all times, though. I am a recovering perfectionist; I was raised by a career military father, strict mother, have been a competitive athlete my whole life, and became a United States Marine. I’ve got plenty of interesting baggage to work with. We all do. Realizing that I’m not special in that regard – that we’ve all got baggage, insecurities, and (mental and physical) injuries – has helped me immensely.

I’ve been injured – a lot. I really shouldn’t be alive. (No really, I’ve been hit by a car and struck by lightning, just to give you a couple examples). I can get mired down in that story sometimes, though, believing I’m the only one who’s been through what I’ve been through (which I’m not). And yoga, for all its feel good niceties, bendiness, and fit bodies, isn’t all sunshine and butterflies all the time. Yoga brings your tough stuff up, too. It’s sort of supposed to but it doesn’t always mean that’s a pleasant experience. Yoga can be the refining fires that we need to walk through, but don’t want to.

The question is, how do we meet the challenge of the fire without getting burned up?

Admittedly, I usually turn to yoga to make me feel better. When it doesn’t, I sometimes get mad. I think, “There’s no way anyone else in this room has sustained the injuries I have” or “no one’s been through what I’ve been through; my body is housing more trauma than yours.” I become defensive against the inaudible – yet very real – arguments and naysayers in my own head. Honestly, I don’t look around a lot during yoga class – usually. But last month, I caught myself getting frustrated with my body and doing just that: looking and judging (myself). It was awful. Talk about a slippery slope! It took a millisecond to leap from “I am present, I am peaceful” to moving into a posture I couldn’t do (yet everyone else in the class seemed to be able to do with ease and grace) and thoughts of “wow, I am still so screwed up and I’ll never be ‘good’ at yoga” to flood my brain.

Theodore Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy,” and I’d have to agree. You don’t know what anyone else has or hasn’t been through. You don’t know if they were abused or loved, a dancer or a footballer, a military veteran or a “regular” college student, a newbie to the practice or an experienced guru. They good look like they’re doing the posture with ease, but they might be miserable. Or you could pity someone for not being able to touch their toes, yet they could be thrilled with themselves that they’re even in a yoga class at all. You have to meet yourself where you are and accept that in that moment, that’s what your mind and body is making accessible to you.

“Meeting yourself where you are” is a dance between complacency and perfectionism, coupled with trusting that you are stronger than you think you are. It’s not even about finding balance; it’s about being comfortable with the rhythm of your authentic ebb and flow. As Jon Kabat-Zinn says “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”  Learning to find your intelligent edge that fosters growth, versus pushing yourself to further injury, can take a lifetime to master. Striving for growth is very different than striving for perfection.

“Perfect” is an outwardly focused standard based on others; growth is fueled by healthy introspection. Omni-present comparison isn’t a sustainable attitude. That’s what helps me let go of it. It’s tempting and seductively destructive to self-bash. But it’s not sustainable. Accepting that comparison will kill you, along with these three simple yet powerful reminders help me work through painful and frustrating yoga classes. I hope they help you, too:

1.Good thing it’s all about the breath. Yes, it’s that simple. Thank God it is. I usually laugh when I catch myself self-destructing about something ridiculous (she is so much bendier than I am), and then I breathe. I take heart in knowing even if I just sit there without touching my nose to my toes, if I am breathing mindfully, then I am doing something good for myself.

2. Modifying doesn’t equal cheating. There are lots of yoga theories out there, some of which think that props are crutches. I strongly disagree. If I need to modify a posture by throwing a block under my booty or a strap ‘round my foot so I can enjoy the intended opening and keep my breath smooth at the same time, great, I’m going to do it. Modifying without props by utilizing the diversity of our own body is another way to tangibly meet ourselves where we are.

3. This is your karma. Injuries are not your “karma” as in “what goes around comes around” or “you deserve this,” but as in “your healing is your karmic action.” As you heal, you make space for others to heal. Doing yoga for you is the action you can take to heal yourself, previous generations, and future generations. We must change within before we can expect to change the world.

Look, I can’t do forearm stand. I can’t do sundial. I can’t do cow face pose. I most certainly cannot sit in full lotus. But I can move. I can breathe. And most days, I can meet myself where I am. When I do, I remember to allow for surprise. Sometimes, I can do full wheel without crushing pain in my low back. I have seven herniated discs in my back, a few of which are in my lumbar spine, and I had been convinced for years that Urdhva Danurasana was one of those “pushing yourself to the point of pain” postures for me. That is, until I had a gifted teacher guide me and tell me to think of the opposite of fear as I am about to lift up into the pose. For me, that word is “courage.” I silently say, “Courage, courage, courage” and every once in awhile, it gives me wings.

Student. Teacher. Both. Always. This is my yoga. What’s yours?

Sarah Plummer, author of this article will be one of the keynote speakers at the Military Member to Civilian Summit, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This conference ,dedicated to the process of transition ,will be held at the Bryant Conference Center on December 2-3, 2014. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and visit our website for more info and news about veteran careers, veterans issues and the transition process.

Article by Sarah Plummer, keynote speaker at the Service Member to Civilian Summit, author, Certified Health Coach, RYT-500, and former Marine Corps Officer.  Sarah serves as a board member on the Military Advisory Committee for Service Women’s Action Network

In Iraq, Yoga Brought me Back…

 

Although I never planned to take my own life, I wanted it taken from me.

I was done. I stopped eating, not because I forcefully denied myself nourishment as a form of control or punishment, but because I had lost my appetite, I had lost my will to live. Like an animal does when it knows it’s time to go, I allowed time to take its own course with me. I faded.

I was an athletic young woman, who lost so much weight that my underwear barely stayed perched upon my protruding hips.  I basically never slept –nightmares of the rape by a comrade years before, as well as the current harassment I faced while deployed – kept me up at night.  I felt I had no purpose on this Earth. My body assumed a sunken, concave “C” shape when I was alone in my “can” (what we called our rooms in the trailers in Al Asad, Iraq). This space was large enough for a single bed, a closet, and a yoga mat.

Although I began sporadically practicing yoga in college to deal with overtraining injuries from soccer and ROTC, it was nothing more than creative cross-training to me until I was in Iraq. Without even consciously processing the higher transformation that was taking place within me, when I was emotionally distraught, yoga gave me clarity. The simple, basic union of breath and movement made space for something very important – my soul. Somehow, when I felt like I was suffocating, my soul had space to breathe. Somehow, in a body experiencing very physical effects of depression, when I practiced yoga, I had less pain. Somehow, in a world that felt like 24-7 chaos, the mat gave me an anchor point. All of my systems integrated in a way that allowed me to keep functioning when simply surviving seemed impossible.

Thank God for that floor space 3 by 6 feet because it is where I found a place where I could simply breathe without suffocating. I would get on my yoga mat and things would change. I could breathe. I could think. If I were lucky, things would release. I would stretch, and then I would run and feel free.

Stretch.

Breathe.

Move.

Breathe.

Live.

Breathe.

Connect … connect … connect If I were lucky, I would connect; first to something beyond myself, then to those around me, for I certainly was not the only one going through what I was going through. When I realized that – that my lack of “specialness” was actually a blessing in this case – the accessibility to healing became greater, deeper, and more diverse.

Yoga and faith bridged the gap and paved a path to long-term healing for me.  Certainly, different methods work for different people at different times, but yoga can be a unique and powerful approach to comprehensive, holistic healing and we are fortunate to have the data to back this intuitive feeling up.

Sarah Plummer, author of this article will be one of the keynote speakers at the Military Member to Civilian Summit, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This conference ,dedicated to the process of transition ,will be held at the Bryant Conference Center on December 1-3, 2014. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and visit our website for more info and news about veteran careers, veterans issues and the transition process.

Article by Sarah Plummer, keynote speaker at the Service Member to Civilian Summit, author, Certified Health Coach, RYT-500, and former Marine Corps Officer.  Sarah serves as a board member on the Military Advisory Committee for Service Women’s Action Network

Happy Independence Day !!!

Happy Independence Day

 

On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress, legally stating the separation of the thirteen colonies from the Kingdom of Great Britain. The whole team of Bama At Work wishes a happy Independence Day to all our fans and followers. Thank you for your support and we hope you enjoy the celebrations of this day. Keep on following us for more information and news about Professional Development, Certificate Programs, Online Training and our many conferences. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google + .