QualiFind and AgriFind Executive Search is seeing a substantial increase in both new search projects as well as employers that are discussing new leadership hires in Mexico for Q2 and Q3 of this year.  Additionally, we are also seeing a substantial increase in new manufacturing start-ups in northeastern and central Mexico.

President Felipe Calderon recently declared during a presentation at the 9^th Convention of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico that the Mexican economy is on the road to recovery.  He stated:

“In January, there were 34,000 new formal jobs in the country and in February, 129,000 new formal jobs were created that have been registered in the Social Security Institute. This means that until February of this year, 164,000 new jobs were created, and that since June of last year, 270,000 new jobs have been created,” he explained.

These employment figures, he said, reflect the greatest job creation in Mexico since 1996.

President Calderon’s presentation also stressed that Mexico’s main objective at present is the security of citizens and visitors to Mexico and of those that invest in the country. 

“This is precisely why we are making every effort to overcome the greatest threat to the rule of law in our country, namely the various forms of organized crime. And this is precisely why we will continue making this effort, because the rule of law is essential to the growth of any economy,” he said.

Lastly, he stated that in order for Mexico not to occupy second or third place in competitiveness, that “we must reverse this trend and utilize the economic potential of our country’s integration with the United States.  In order to achieve this, it is essential to promote more trade, give a fresh impetus to regional integration as the engine of competiveness, and work on the little details that prevent full integration,” he said.

QualiFind is seeing the increase in maquiladora start-ups in northeastern and central Mexico as being primarily linked to the perception that security in the border region is compromised in such cities as Tijuana, Cd. Juarez, and Nuevo Laredo.  Given this lengthy economic downturn, we welcome all signs of economic renewal in both the US and Mexico.

Some of QualiFind’s partner firms in IRC Global Executive Search Partners are also seeing signs of increased hiring activity that offer optimistic signs of recovery in select countries around the world.

Warren Carter is an Executive Recruiter in Qualifind, Inc. You can share your responses with Warren by e-mail at: wcarter@quali-find.com

Qualifind, Inc. provides professional and executive search services for specific disciplines and industries throughout the U.S. and Mexico. We are a U.S. based firm with our corporate offices in San Diego, California. We have branch offices and recruiting staff in the U.S. (i.e Chicago, Austin) and Mexico (i.e. Monterrey,  Mexico City).

Diversity and inclusion may be the most poorly understood issues in business today. While many of us have come to believe that investments in diversity and inclusion are primarily about compliance, political correctness, sensitivity or special treatment, the truth is something different.

Diversity means difference. Difference can show up a lot of different ways, but within the context of work we can probably focus primarily on identity diversity (age, race, gender, geography, etc.), cognitive diversity (different thinking styles, mental orientations, and mental tools), and behavioral and communicative diversity. Diversity and inclusion work at its core is about sustainable and profitable practices — especially the effective and efficient identification, support, and deployment of talent to achieve business objectives.

Not only is there still need for clarity on what diversity and inclusion are, we should also get clear on this business case stuff. Do not be confused by what you have heard or read claiming that there is no business case for diversity, or that the business case is somehow fuzzy. Hogwash. Again, organizational diversity and inclusion work are largely about successfully finding, keeping, and using talent, which is increasingly business critical. The business case for diversity and inclusion is alive and well.

A specific business case is dependent upon the organization and the nature of the actual investment, but a few of the sources of value (explored in more depth in the December 2009 Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership) a case can be built on include:

Competitive Advantage

For more and more organizations in more and more industries, innovation is the new opportunity for competitive advantage. This is no secret, as there has been a great deal of discussion and analysis regarding the evolving role of innovation. Innovation is about more than just bringing new products or services to market. It also includes other aspects of business, such as approaches to collaboration, talent management, and engaging new markets.

Despite our affection for the myth of the lone genius, innovation does not take place in isolation. It happens at intersections. It happens when different experiences, perspectives, professions, organizations, and cultures rub up against each other. Without an understanding of, and some appreciation for, the value of difference (in opinion, identity, culture, profession, perspective, etc.) organizations will be hard-pressed to drive sustained innovation. Frans Johansson examines several great examples of this in The Medici Effect, including the story of the great Bletchely Park collaboration, where an incredibly diverse group of characters gathered to break the German coding system during WWII.

Demographic Changes

We are approaching a point where racial and ethnic minorities and women will represent 70% or more of new entrants into the workforce. Organizations that are not good at attracting, engaging, and retaining women and people of color need to fix that quickly, or they are going to be competing for a shrinking percentage of the available talent. Companies that only fix part of this will find themselves with costly retention and engagement problems. Real commitment to workforce diversity is no longer optional.

Talent

Regardless of our intentions, diversity is one of the social variables that can drastically diminish our ability to actually identify talent. In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell shows us an example of this from the world of art. In the not-too-distant past, classical music was largely the domain of white men. “Women, it was believed, simply could not play like men. They didn’t have the strength, the attitude, or the resilience for certain kinds of pieces. Their lips were different. Their lungs were less powerful. Their hands were smaller. None of this seemed like prejudice at the time. It seemed like fact, because when conductors and music directors held auditions, the men always seemed to sound better than the women.”

As part of the push for legal protection, benefits, and fairness in hiring, musicians wanted the audition process to be formalized. This included erecting screens between the auditioner and those evaluating them. “In the past 30 years, since screens became commonplace, the number of women in the top U.S. orchestras has increased fivefold.”

Some of the women who stood out the most in these new auditions were the same women that had auditioned numerous times before the screens were added without making the cut.

I am not talking here about hateful people intentionally discriminating against others. That is another topic altogether. I am talking about human nature getting in the way of our identification of talent. If we want to improve our ability to really identify talent, we have to be aware of the influence of human nature and work to offset it as individuals and organizations.

People, teams, and organizations that are indeed serious about talent must also be serious about diversity and inclusion. Once, again, I am not talking about being tolerant or being sensitive. I am talking about understanding the value of difference and understanding what can easily and quietly get in the way, regardless of our intentions or our character.

The future of your organization may very well depend on it.

http://www.ere.net/2009/11/24/why-diversity-matters-now/#more-10816

Warren Carter is an Executive Recruiter in Qualifind, Inc. You can share your responses with Warren by e-mail at: wcarter@quali-find.com  Qualifind, Inc. provides professional and executive search services for specific disciplines and industries throughout the U.S. and Mexico. We are a U.S. based firm with our corporate offices in San Diego, California. We have branch offices and recruiting staff in the U.S. (i.e Chicago, Austin) and Mexico (i.e. Monterrey,  Mexico City).

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Paul Joegriner hasn’t worked since March 2008, when he was laid off from his $200,000-a-year job as chief executive officer of a small bank. But you wouldn’t know it by appearances.

His wife, Marzena, shuttles their two young children to private school every morning. The family recently vacationed in Virginia Beach, Va., and likes to dine on Porterhouse steaks. Since losing his job, Mr. Joegriner, 44 years old, has had several offers. He’s turned each down in hopes of landing a position comparable to what he held before.

When Severance Falls Short

Paul Joegriner attends a job fair at a university near his home in Silver Spring, Md.

The family’s lifestyle over the past year and a half has been propped up by a $200,000 severance package and another $100,000 in savings — funds the family has burned through rapidly. By Mr. Joegriner’s own calculations, the family will be out of money in six months if he doesn’t find work.

“It will be D-Day,” he says. “But on the outside, no one has any idea that we’re in trouble.”

Mr. Joegriner is a member of what might be called the severance economy — unemployed Americans who use severance pay and savings to maintain their lifestyles. Many lost their jobs in 2007 and 2008, and thought they’d soon find work. Now, they’re getting desperate. Last week, lawmakers passed a bill extending unemployment benefits up to 20 weeks. Unemployment benefits, which typically last about 26 weeks, were expected to run out for 1.3 million people by the end of the year, according to the National Employment Law Project.

All of this is happening as the long-term jobless rate hits its highest point on record. More than a third of those who are out of work have been looking for more than six months, making this category of unemployed the biggest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking it in 1948.

Overall, companies have been eliminating or trimming severance packages. For those who do receive severance, the median pay allotted is 12.5 weeks’ salary, down from 21.8 weeks a decade ago, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

But this downturn has brought heavy layoffs to the financial and auto industries, two places where generous exit packages remain more common. The dramatic changes in such sectors mean that many of the eliminated jobs will never come back. Some workers may suffer a permanent hit to their standard of living.

Those affected often have trouble accepting their diminished prospects. Hefty severance packages, while intended as a safety net, can lull the unemployed into a false sense of security. Some people continue spending as before.

“There is an end date when that severance is going to run out,” says Ellen Turf, chief executive of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors. “At that point, the only life preserver is unemployment or getting another job….It’s an awful situation.”

When Michelle Patterson was laid off as an executive director of marketing for a publishing company in January, she figured she could subsist comfortably, at least for a while, on the $20,000 she had reserved from her savings and severance combined. She continued to eat out regularly and made daily Starbucks runs.

“It made me feel like I was still at work,” says the 41-year-old resident of Newark, N.J. She spent as much as $250 a week on networking meals and drinks with contacts. Some days, she scheduled up to four coffee meetings a day, picking up the tab most of the time. She also spent $30 a month for pedicures and $150 on her hair.

The reckoning came in August, when she examined her finances. Her condo had been on the market for six months but she’d yet to receive a single offer. Her severance and savings were nearly gone.

She finally cut her spending. She doesn’t dine out anymore. Gone are the fancy salon visits; Ms. Patterson sips Starbucks just once a week. She downgraded her cable TV to basic channels, saving $8 a month.

Coming to terms with the new job math hasn’t been easy. Ms. Patterson’s old salary was $140,000 a year. Now she is targeting jobs paying about half that. She recently turned down a per-diem arrangement earning $250 a week, or a mere $13,000 a year, selling education software.

After working for more than a decade in New York ad shops, Chuck Hipsher moved to Detroit in 2005. He took a position at the Campbell-Ewald agency, where he helped launch the Chevrolet Silverado campaign. Raised riding in the back of his grandfather’s Chevy pickup in Iowa, Mr. Hipsher, 50, says he was “elated” at the opportunity.

He met his wife at the ad agency, and the two had a $40,000 wedding. Kelly Hipsher, 32, was laid off in October 2007 and found out she was pregnant in February 2008. A week later, Mr. Hipsher’s pink slip followed. Two months after that, the out-of-work couple moved to Greenville, S.C., to be closer to family and get a fresh start. Together, they had received about $60,000 in severance. “Now we have $600 to our name,” says Mr. Hipsher.

Although their rent was cheaper, Mr. Hipsher says the family continued to spend like before. They moved with three cars — two BMWs and a Chevy Silverado. They continued to buy cases of $36-a-bottle wine. They spent $250 a month on a cleaning lady, and Mr. Hipsher dropped $50 a week on flowers for his wife. The couple still dined out regularly.

“We were stupid,” he says. “You become accustomed to a certain lifestyle. When your world changes and things dictate that you change, you’re pretty stubborn to give things up.”

He sold the BMWs and voluntarily turned in his beloved Silverado to avoid the repo man. “It was heartbreaking,” he says. He replaced the fancy wheels with a Chrysler minivan.

Before the layoffs, the Hipshers had no debt. Today, they owe about $70,000 — including money borrowed from family members and $31,000 in credit-card debt. To hold off the collection companies that call daily, Mr. Hipsher says he is doing his best but is also considering filing for personal bankruptcy.

After a stint selling new and used BMWs on a lot in Greenville, Mr. Hipsher recently began consulting for free for a small marketing firm, “to stay busy.”

In September, a Web solutions company hired him as a marketing director. Between salary and commission, he thought he could match half his old income. But so far, he says he’s only received about $1,220. Tight for cash recently, he pawned his wife’s $12,000 wedding ring for a $2,000 loan. He has until Dec. 28 to pay back the principal, plus $500 in interest — or else he forfeits the ring.

Looking back, he kicks himself for failing to enforce financial discipline right after losing his job in Detroit. “That precious nest egg is gone,” he says.

Mr. Joegriner began his career in banking more than 20 years ago, starting out as a part-time teller in Chevy Chase, Md. Even though he was still in college, his goal was to be a CEO. He took night classes to enhance his knowledge of banking.

Mr. Joegriner says he never craved a lavish lifestyle. When the first of their two children was born in 2000, his wife left her $50,000-year-job as a paralegal.The family settled in Silver Spring rather than pricier communities nearby. Instead of tailored suits for $1,000, he bought off-the-rack styles for $300. Mr. Joegriner purchased a Mercedes five years ago, but at auction.

After losing his job, Mr. Joegriner expected to land on his feet within six months, he says. In that time, he turned down three job offers to be a chief financial officer, either because he didn’t like the salary or the description of duties, and thought he could do better. One was nearby; the others would have required the family to move out of state. All paid somewhat less than he had previously earned.

While he says he’s “not a bean counter,” Mr. Joegriner now has mixed emotions about turning down the jobs. He estimates he has sent out about 3,000 copies of his résumé thus far. His severance package included the services of an outplacement firm, but he didn’t find it helpful. “Unemployed people networking with other unemployed people has little value,” he says.

After years of being a chief executive and hiring people, it’s been a tough adjustment. Recently, he began shooting off his résumé for mid- and senior-level positions “just to try and land something.” No replies.

Mr. Joegriner’s mornings now start with a coffee run to the nearby 7-Eleven six days a week. While pouring his regular brew and a cup to take home to his wife, he calculates that by recycling the cups, he receives a 32-cent discount per $1.37 serving. That’s a savings of $3.84 a week, he reckons — even though this small “luxury” for the two of them still costs a total of about $655 a year.

Next, he typically spends a couple of hours doing home repairs. Since his layoff, he’s installed a retaining wall, put under-cabinet lights in the kitchen and tiled a kitchen backsplash for a friend. “It’s my Zen,” he says. He’s holding off outfitting a bathroom sink with a marble countertop.

By late morning, he launches into job-hunt mode. While trolling job Web sites, Mr. Joegriner toggles to a multicolored, multitabulated Excel spreadsheet that calculates the household budget, as well as the “burn rate” through the family’s dwindling savings.

Mr. Joegriner goes grocery shopping in the afternoon. Armed with coupons collected in a shoebox above the fridge, he strides down the aisles, striking out items from his wife’s list with a black pen as he goes. His brow furrows reading the fine print on a cereal coupon his wife handed him. “It says $1.50 off cereal,” he says. “But that’s only if you buy three. So, really, it’s only 50 cents off.”

He pushes his grocery cart on a Friday afternoon through the full parking lot. “Sometimes I look at all this and think, ‘Are we the only ones struggling?’ You look around and see all these cars, it’s like there’s no recession.”

Cutting expenses for their children, Ian and Skye, has been particularly tough, the couple says. Piano lessons are no more and birthday parties are small and held at home. Next year, private-school tuition, which costs $13,000 for the two children, will get the ax.

Mr. Joegriner doesn’t use the word “unemployed” in front of his children, ages 9 and 6, preferring to say that he’s a consultant and that income is patchy. Rough times have even moved him to contemplate seasonal employment this winter, “a stopgap job,” while he continues his executive job search. “Maybe something at night stocking shelves,” he says. “That way people wouldn’t have to see me.”

Mrs. Joegriner recently began looking for work as a paralegal. But finding an employer who can accommodate her schedule with the children, she says, has been difficult.

The Joegriner’s four-bedroom residence is currently worth less than their $460,000 mortgage, but they’re still making monthly payments of $2,400.

The couple is also saddled with two former residences — which they once considered investment properties. While both are income-producing, low rents and declining real-estate values mean that they barely break even. At this point, any sale would likely result in a loss.

Originally committed to staying in the Washington, D.C., area, Mr. Joegriner expanded his search. In September, the family flew to tiny Gillette, Wyo., where Mr. Joegriner was in the final interview stages for a CEO position at a credit union. The salary was $60,000 less than what he earned before, and uprooting his family from Maryland would be difficult. But they all seemed excited about a possible move.

A few days later, Mr. Joegriner received an offer and a contract. Despite the earlier enthusiasm, doubts began to surface. “What if we went all the way out there and they laid me off?” After fruitless negotiations, he turned down the job. The reason: The position didn’t include a guarantee of severance pay. Says Mr. Joegriner: “I just couldn’t take the risk.”

Write to Mary Pilon at mary.pilon@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125780714976639687.html

Warren Carter is an Executive Recruiter in Qualifind, Inc. You can share your responses with Warren by e-mail at: wcarter@quali-find.com  Qualifind, Inc. provides professional and executive search services for specific disciplines and industries throughout the U.S. and Mexico. We are a U.S. based firm with our corporate offices in San Diego, California. We have branch offices and recruiting staff in the U.S. (i.e Chicago, Austin) and Mexico (i.e. Monterrey,  Mexico City).

I usually advise professionals to think of themselves as a business or independent company with a service to sell. This seems to be especially beneficial to the inexperienced interviewer or someone who has been in the same company for the bulk of their career.

Consider that you have an opportunity to pitch your services to a potential customer (the potential employer), but put it in the context of thinking that the more you know about their needs, the better you’ll be prepared to properly communicate and “sell” the services of your business (yourself).

Assuming you’re qualified for the job, the outcome of your employment interview will be dependent on your ability to discover needs and empathize with the interviewer.

You can do this by asking questions that verify your understanding of what the interviewer has just said, without editorializing or expressing an opinion. By establishing empathy in this manner, you’ll be in a better position to freely exchange ideas, and demonstrate your suitability for the job.

In addition to empathy, there are four other intangible fundamentals to a successful interview. These intangibles will influence the way your personality is perceived, and will affect the degree of rapport, or personal chemistry you’ll share with the employer. They are:

Enthusiasm. Leave no doubt as to your level of interest in the job. You may think it’s unnecessary to do this, but employers often choose the more enthusiastic candidate in the case of a two-way tie. Besides, it’s best to keep your options open. Wouldn’t you rather be in a position to turn down an offer, than have a prospective job evaporate from your grasp by giving a lethargic or less-than-enthusiastic interview?

Technical interest.Employers look for people who love what they do, and get excited by the prospect of tearing into the nitty-gritty of the job.

Confidence.No one likes a braggart or someone with excessive ego, but the candidate who’s sure of his or her abilities will almost certainly be more favorably received.

Intensity.The last thing you want to do is come across as “flat” in your interview. There’s nothing inherently wrong with being a laid back person; but sleepwalkers rarely get hired.

Most employers are aware of how stressful it can be to interview for a new position, and will do everything they can to put you at ease.

Other Important Factors  

Since interviewing also involves the exchange of tangible information, always make sure to present your background in a thorough and accurate manner and gather data concerning the company, the industry, the position, and the specific opportunity. It is critical, that you be prepared to engage in “informed dialogue” regarding the company and the direction they are going in.

A worthwhile interviewing goal is to link your abilities with the company needs in the mind of the employer so you can build a strong case for why the company should hire you. The more you know about each other, the more potential you’ll have for establishing rapport, and making an informed decision.

Don’t Talk Yourself Out of a Job

There are two ways to answer interview questions: the short version and the long version. When a question is open-ended, I always suggest to candidates that they say, “Let me give you the short version. If we need to explore some aspect of the answer more fully, I’d be happy to go into greater depth, and give you the long version.”

The reason you should respond this way is because it’s often difficult to know what type of answer each question will need. A question like, “What was your most difficult assignment?” might take anywhere from thirty seconds to thirty minutes to answer, depending on the detail you choose to give.

Therefore, you must always remember that the interviewer’s the one who asked the question. So you should tailor your answer to what he or she needs to know, without a lot of extraneous rambling or superfluous explanation. Why waste time and create a negative impression by giving a long-rambling speech when a short summary would do just fine?

Let’s suppose you were interviewing for an operations management position, and the interviewer asked you to describe, “What types of operations management experience have you had in the past?”

Well, that’s exactly the sort of question that can get you into trouble if you don’t use the short version/long version method. Most people would just start rattling off everything in their memory that relates to their operations experience. We’ve seen cases where the candidate begins a lengthy accounting of their entire career history leading to the experience in question. Though the information might be useful to the interviewer, your answer could get pretty complicated and long-winded unless it’s neatly packaged and can result in your entire effort being a waste when you are ultimately rejected.

One way to answer the question might be, “I’ve held operations positions with three different types of manufacturing and distribution organizations over a nine-year period. Where would you like me to start?”

Or, you might simply say, “Let me give you the short version first, and you can tell me where you want to go into more depth. I’ve had nine years experience in electronic and automotive industries with three different companies, and held the titles of Operations, Business Unit, and Plant Manager. What aspect of my background would you like to concentrate on?”

By using this method, you quickly communicate to the interviewer that your thoughts are well organized, and that you want to understand the intent of the question before you travel too far in a direction neither of you wants to go. After you get the green light, you can spend your interviewing time discussing in detail the things that are important, not whatever happens to pop into your mind.

Warren Carter is an Executive Recruiter in Qualifind, Inc. You can share your responses with Warren by e-mail at:  wcarter@quali-find.com

Qualifind, Inc. provides professional and executive search services for specific disciplines and industries throughout the U.S. and Mexico. We are a U.S. based firm with our corporate offices in San Diego, California. We have branch offices and recruiting staff in the U.S. (i.e Chicago, Austin) and Mexico (i.e. Monterrey,  Mexico City).