Lena Bodin is the founder and CEO of Pomona-based People Resource Strategies, “an organizational and strategic leadership development consulting firm that partners with businesses to help them achieve bottom-line results through employee performance enhancement and HR infrastructure design.” Most of Bodin”™s work involves working with businesses to develop key employees for leadership roles “while working with various departments to help operations become more aligned with a company”™s strategic goals.”
What fields do you see on the rise in staffing needs? And on the decline?
“I believe the Hudson Valley is a unique area for employment and for working individuals. We are a short commute into New York City, New Jersey or Connecticut and many folks commute out of the area for work. Those who work in the valley may commute out of their county to work in another county. The valley may not necessarily follow the general trend of the country in that we are fairly stable. Employees enjoy tenure with their companies and since the majority of employers in the valley are small companies there is less change in the work force model because companies are already running lean and mean. Over the past several years we have seen a growth in the technology, health and green sectors. The Hudson Valley houses some of the best technology incubators and we are continually looking to attract companies in technology and health sciences to move here. One area we are seeing dramatic declines is in the not-for-profit arena. Many small nonprofit companies have closed their doors or have consolidated with other nonprofits. We will continue to see a decline in these companies as government funding dries up. We can also anticipate decline or no job growth in the education sector because of state education funding cutbacks.
“As we continue to see a rise in technology, green technology, health and elder care, I see a continual drop in administrative support functions, jobs in the housing and related markets, construction. I also foresee the work force becoming highly specialized and educated to keep up with the demands of the job growth sectors.”
Is there a single interview “death sentence” that would deny a candidate a job? What is it best to avoid?
“I don”™t believe there is a single interview ”˜death sentence.”™ However, there are many things a candidate should avoid during an interview, such as asking for information about the company; discussing their previous bosses in a negative light or how they may not have liked their last position; bringing up salary, benefits, or perks or other issues until after an offer is made, to name a few. It is easy enough for a candidate to research the company on the Internet and visit the social medias to find information about the company. It is also best not to sound like a complainer since it will make the potential employer wonder if you will do the same at their company. Discussions involving salary, benefits, or perks or special circumstances are best left until the company brings it up or an offer is made. An employer wants to know what a candidate can do for the company and not what the company can do for the candidate.”
Should candidates mold their social sites to suit employers? How vital is that “social” information to prospective employers these days?
“I believe sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and some of the other more prevalent sites are searched by the hiring manager. When I work on an assignment with a client, I search the potential candidate on Google or Bing, which brings me to these social media sites as well as other activities the person may be involved in.
“What an individual posts on these sites need to be professional enough for a potential employer to find no cause for concern. Even what ”˜friends”™ post can have grave implications.
“Social information can tell a prospective employer a lot about the personalities of candidates. It allows companies to do something they have never been able to do before. Before the availability of these social media sites, an employer had to rely on what the candidate shared with them during the interview and what references were willing to share due to potential legal liabilities. The hiring manager had to fill in the rest and hope for the best. Social sites help circumvent some of the problems by allowing companies to see what their candidates are as individuals, what type of activities they are involved in, the company they keep and can provide the company with another aspect of background checking not available to them previously.
“Employers also need to use caution when doing a ”˜search”™ on candidates since not all information available on the Internet is necessarily accurate. Some sites may gather information about the wrong individual with a similar name or even wrong activity about a person, such as their employment history, etc.”
What advice would you offer an open-minded high school senior regarding studies that might open employment doors?
“The job growth sectors are in technology, health/medical and elder care, and green sustainability, which means any of these fields of study would be good to open employment doors. An MBA is almost a must for anyone who is looking to enter management or the traditional banking, financial industries. Engineering disciplines, computer science, management technology, telecommunications, human resources are probably some of the fields we can expect to see continued growth.”
What are today”™s company”™s doing differently in hiring that they were not doing five years ago?
“I am not an expert in microeconomics in the workplace so I couldn”™t provide any statistical data. If I were to guess, some of the things that companies are doing differently has more to do with the economics and the technology available to them. More companies are spending less money on recruitment and are looking to technology and social sites to help them in the hiring practices by posting opening on these sites and finding candidates based on information available about the candidate. In the Hudson Valley, gone are the days of job listings in the local paper and candidates sending in their resume via mail. Walk-ins are actually a negative for an applicant. Recruiting is done mostly on the Internet. Companies are using applicant tracking software, which searches key words and accordingly finds the potential candidate resume for review by the hiring manager.”
Is today”™s new hire less secure in his or her job because there are so many potential candidates out there? Or is the hiring process so fraught with difficulty that new hires are cherished and nurtured rather than fired?
“This is a really tough question. Does a new hire feel less secure in his or her job because of a large candidate pool out there? Normally, when a company has made a hiring decision it is after they have vetted out all potential candidates. Therefore, by the time someone is hired this person”™s job security may be no different than if there was a small potential candidate pool. Companies are not going to treat this new hire any differently than they would a new hire where we have a tight labor market. One thing this job market might create for some companies is hesitancy in the selection process for nonessential positions or those that don”™t need to be filled immediately, since companies have such a large pool to choose from and want to make sure they have looked at enough candidates before making a hiring decision. Once the person is onboard, it is not so easy to change your mind and start the process all over again ”“ it is time consuming and expensive and hiring managers prefer to avoid that.”
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