Spotlight is on!

We were all celebrities for a day. In the coming weeks we will be screening Goldbeck’s first video, a quick introduction to the people who keep Goldbeck Recruiting running smoothly.

The day started with a flurry of primping.  Wardrobe changes, makeup, shaving…yes shaving. It was then followed by another change of wardrobe when Lougie Cabael, Producer and Marketing Director vetoed outfits left and right like a Fashion Nazi.

The creative geniuses behind the video Allan Corrigall, Hatem Zayed, and Lindsey Heal of Hotwire Media made us feel like celebrities. For most of us it was our first shoot and we required special attention.

Lindsey Heal, Allan Corrigall, Hatem Zayed

If it were not for your abundant patience and guidance, the whole video would have been me riding the bull outside our office.

Henry petting the bull

Stefania Cruz Goldbeck Recruiting

Stefania Cruz, intern at Goldbeck Recruiting was featured on the front page of the Globe and Mail. A telling article by Erin Anderssen, Is Canada’s brand strong enough to attract the immigrants it wants?

“At some point, especially looking at Canada’s competitiveness in the international migration market, we are going to have to look at immigration as national – as opposed to a federal, provincial, employer or university project – and put those frictions behind us because there is more at stake.”

Conference Overview

Employee mental health and wellness has a major impact on performance.

Wellness has become a priority for public and private sector employers, as senior leaders recognize the impact employee wellness has on enterprise performance. Health and wellness issues also continue to grow in importance as the workforce ages and skilled talent shortages become more common and persistent.

Employee wellness must include mental health.

Many organizations have taken major steps on workplace mental health. In 2010, Bell Canada announced a five-year $50 million initiative to enhance awareness, understanding, and treatment of mental illness. Canada Post launched its Foundation for Mental Health in 2008 to increase awareness and help frontline organizations, caregivers, and family members who support people with mental health issues.

These and other organizations recognize the importance of mental health and well-being. Find out why these pioneers are committing significant resources to mental health, and how they have measured mental health’s impact on performance and productivity.

Supporting workplace mental health is a sound business decision and a legal responsibility.

One in five Canadians will have a mental health challenge that will affect their work performance and their lives. The direct and indirect costs to the Canadian economy of mental health and addiction are now estimated at almost $30 billion! Financial rewards for damages caused by mental injury at work have increased dramatically, and the Mental Health Commission of Canada anticipates a perfect legal storm over employer responsibility for a psychologically safe workplace.

Understand the impact and opportunities of employee wellness.

In 2011, we focused on workplace mental health. Delegate input from this successful event prompted inclusion of broader wellness issues for 2012, with exclusive research and in-depth cases of organizations that are succeeding in both wellness and mental health.

Learn from two new Conference Board research studies.

This year’s event features two new studies, the Conference Board’s respected economists’ report The Costs of Poor Mental Health on Productivity and Competitiveness, and a special report on the return on investment (ROI) of wellness programs. These two insightful studies demonstrate the business case and performance potential of superior health and well-being, and will help you focus your spending to achieve maximum impact.

Building on success.

The Conference Board is Canada’s most respected independent research and conference development organization, attracting leading innovators and providing an insightful and enlightening learning experience for conference participants.

Connect with your top prospects!

Sponsor this event, and collaborate with senior executives, practitioners and thought leaders. Connect your brand with the solutions, and position your organization as a leader in its field.

To learn more about exhibiting, reception and luncheon sponsorship, and exclusive sponsor benefits, please contact Rhonda at (416) 481-1904 or bradbury@conferenceboard.ca.

Past Attendees

Here’s what your colleagues said about our past Workplace Mental Health conferences:

Excellent research, solid information! Congratulations on including the voices of people with substantive content knowledge, credibility, and experience (lived) with mental illnesses.

—Margaret Tebbutt, Canadian Mental Health Association

All presentations were exceptional. Appreciated the openness and honesty of the speakers relating personal experiences both professionally and personally – lots of great information I can use to build a business case.

—Judy Bridgman, Ford Motor Company of Canada

This was time well spent. What a privilege to hear from such a diverse group of professionals all coming together to share their expertise. For too long no one has been speaking up enough on these very important topics. I applaud the team on bringing these issues to the forefront and their work on putting mental health issues out in the open.

—Kate Tilsley, Stables Canada Inc.

Enjoyed the conference. It was very informative and I feel I gained a lot of information to share at work. As the message that open communication is necessary when it relates to mental illness, I totally commend our three presenters who openly spoke of their journey with their mental health issues. Learned a lot!

—Hannah Greeley, Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Government Services

One of the best Conference Board conferences I’ve attended. So well done, such wonderful speakers! Many thanks.

source: advisor.ca

Stuart Foxman / May 01, 2012

It’s time to fill a position. Contracting out the placement can be one of your smartest hires.

What it is

Recruiters, search firms, staffing agencies, headhunters—by any name, they help you find the right fit for a job opening.

Why you need it

Representatives from these firms can source and screen candidates, check references, and assist with interviews. When hiring on your own, “you can be swamped with resumés, and waste a lot of time going through [CVs from] people who are under-qualified,” says Vivian Fung, senior recruiter at Goldbeck Recruiting in Vancouver.

While you’ll still have to interview recruiters, you’ll be looking at a handful rather than hundreds of candidates. And, once you find the right firm, you can use it for future searches.

How it helps

Consider the direct and indirect costs of taking on recruitment. Beyond time, they include lost opportunities and productivity if the job remains open too long; workplace stress if personnel assume additional duties; and the chance of a less-than-ideal (or wrong) hire. Those costs can easily exceed the recruiter’s fee.

Good to know

With recruiters’ databases and contacts, “we can tap into an entirely different pool,” says Danielle Bragge, partner at The Headhunters in Edmonton, Alta. She notes a lot of high-level candidates work with recruiters exclusively, and don’t look at job boards or apply for jobs directly. This lets you access better talent, quicker: Bragge can sometimes have qualified candidates within days.

Search experts support HR efforts in many other ways, says Shadi Ghani, senior director of client services at IQ Partners in Toronto. For financial services clients, her firm has handled searches for positions ranging from product managers to sales reps.

Services can include consulting on job descriptions, providing insight on compensation trends, and assisting during negotiations. The right tactics increase the odds your preferred candidate will accept an offer, says Ghani.

How do you know if you’re getting the best recruiter?

Lisa Porlier, Toronto-based managing director for search firm Russell Reynolds Associates, gives these tips: Ask about experience and processes, and check references (ask how the recruiter kept other clients informed and handled challenges).

Price Tag—$25,000*

Source: By Jeff Haden | Inc.com Apr 5, 2012

shutterstock images

There’s been a flurry of recent coverage praising Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, for leaving the office every day at 5:30 p.m. to be with her kids.  Apparently she’s been doing this for years, but only recently “came out of the closet,” as it were.

What’s insane is that Sandberg felt the need to hide the fact, since there’s a century of research establishing the undeniable fact that working more than 40 hours per week actually decreases productivity.

In the early 1900s, Ford Motor ran dozens of tests to discover the optimum work hours for worker productivity.  They discovered that the “sweet spot” is 40 hours a week–and that, while adding another 20 hours provides a minor increase in productivity, that increase only lasts for three to four weeks, and then turns negative.

Anyone who’s spent time in a corporate environment knows that what was true of factory workers a hundred years ago is true of office workers today.  People who put in a solid 40 hours a week get more done than those who regularly work 60 or more hours.

The workaholics (and their profoundly misguided management) may think they’re accomplishing more than the less fanatical worker, but in every case that I’ve personally observed, the long hours result in work that must be scrapped or redone.

Accounting for Burnout

What’s more, people who consistently work long work weeks get burned out and inevitably start having personal problems that get in the way of getting things done.

I remember a guy in one company I worked for who used the number of divorces in his group as a measure of its productivity.  Believe it or not, his top management reportedly considered this a valid metric. What’s ironic (but not surprising) is that the group itself accomplished next to nothing.

In fact, now that I think about it, that’s probably why he had to trot out such an absurd (and, let’s face it, evil) metric.

Proponents of long work weeks often point to the even longer average work weeks in countries like Thailand, Korea, and Pakistan–with the implication that the longer work weeks are creating a competitive advantage.

Europe’s Ban on 50-Hour Weeks

However, the facts don’t bear this out.  In six of the top 10 most competitive countries in the world (Sweden, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, and the United Kingdom), it’s illegal to demand more than a 48-hour work week.  You simply don’t see the 50-, 60-, and 70-hour work weeks that have become de rigeur in some parts of the U.S. business world.

If U.S. managers were smart, they’d end this “if you don’t come in on Saturday, don’t bother coming to work on Sunday” idiocy.  If you want employees (salaried or hourly) to get the most done–in the shortest amount of time and on a consistent basis–40 hours a week is just about right.

In other words, nobody should be apologizing for leaving at work at a reasonable hour like 5:30 p.m.  In fact, people should be apologizing if they’re working too long each week–because it’s probably making the team less effective overall.

Source: Geoffrey James, Inc.com

Flickr  / NDNG

Certain careers such as those in the medical and legal  professions are generally considered to be prestigious and lucrative.

But there are costs – both tangible and intangible – involved in pursuing careers in these and other well-paying professions.

Do the benefits outweigh the costs? Read on to find out.

Dream Jobs Vs. Lucrative Professions

Let’s first distinguish between an individual’s dream job and a lucrative  profession. A dream job is often a matter of personal preference, and is one  that is particularly well-suited to an individual’s personal situation.

Thus, a working mother’s dream job may be one that allows her flexibility and  permits her to work from home when required. But flexibility and telecommuting  options may hardly be desirable job attributes for a hard-charging executive who  is intent on climbing up the corporate ladder.

The focus of this article is on the best-paying professions. Rather than  using subjective criteria to define such professions, we rely on the annual data  from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey produced by the U.S.  Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produces employment and wage estimates for  over 800 professions.

Highest-Paying Professions

The popular perception that jobs in the medical field are among the  best-paying ones is based on fact. Since 1999, when the OES survey began using a  new occupational classification system, the highest-paying jobs in the U.S. have  been dominated by the medical profession.

Surgeons top the survey from 1999, with an average annual income of $135,660,  which had risen by more than 50% to $206,770 in 2008. Other medical careers that  are among the best-paying are anesthesiologists and obstetricians /  gynecologists, which rank among the top five since 1999.

In addition, a number of other medical careers such as internists,  orthodontists and dentists, and family and general practitioners, have  consistently ranked among highest-paying professions since 1999.

Although pursuing a medical career is an almost certain way of attaining a  top tier income, other professions such as computer and information marketing  managers, financial managers, physicists marketing managers, petroleum engineers  and chief executives, air traffic controllers, airline pilots and lawyers are  also among the most paid.

The Costs

There are obvious costs involved in pursuing the best-paying professions.  These costs range from the tangible ones such as the monetary cost of education,  to intangible costs such as stress and long hours. Each of these costs is  discussed below.

Cost of education: Most of the best-paying professions  require many years of intensive study, which often leads to a massive debt load  by the time one commences work. For instance, consider the medical field, which,  as we have seen, has some of the best-paying careers.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), annual  tuition and fees at state medical schools in 2008-09 averaged about $23,500 for  state residents and about $43,500 for non-residents; the corresponding numbers  at private medical schools were $41,300 and $42,500 respectively. These figures  exclude housing and living expenses.

The AAMC also states that about 87% of medical students graduate with some  educational debt, with the median debt at graduation amounting to $155,000 in  2008.

Students who are pursuing careers in other well-paying fields that require  years of study also have a substantial debt load upon graduation. For example,  the average law school student is estimated to be about $100,000 in debt by the  time of graduation.

The only exception to this rule may be chief executives, although many obtain  expensive MBAs from top schools, others rise to that position after starting  successful businesses as entrepreneurs or obtain required designations. In the  field of entrepreneurship, a lengthy period of time in the pursuit of higher  education is not necessarily a pre-requisite.

Opportunity cost: Apart from the direct cost of education,  one also has to consider the forgone opportunity cost of not being a member of  the workforce. Students who are pursuing a degree in a high-paying profession  are often unable to work due to the rigorous academic schedule, and may lose  many years of income as a result.

For example, to become a doctor takes anywhere from 11 to 16 years to  complete the education requirements. This includes four years of undergraduate  school, four years of medical school, and three to eight years of residency  training in a specialty. Assuming one could earn say an annual average of  $50,000 during that period, the opportunity cost of not working exceeds  $500,000.

Cost of long hours: Long hours and the demands of the job  can exact a considerable toll on family life and personal relationships. Airline  pilots and other flight crew, for example, are typically away from home for five  days at a time during a normal work schedule. Exceedingly long hours are  generally the norm in the early stages of careers in the medical and legal  professions, with 80+ hour workweeks not uncommon for medical interns and junior  lawyers.

Stress: Some of the best-paying professions such as air  traffic controllers and surgeons often rank as being among the most stressful  jobs. Part of the stress for an air traffic controller may be attributed to the  huge responsibilities of the job, where lives depend on correct decisions being  made at all times and there is zero margin for error. Job-related stress can  take a huge toll on one’s physical and mental health, and can sometimes result  in premature burnout.

Cost of uncertainty: People in the best-paying jobs still  have to contend with some degree of uncertainty about their career like everyone  else. For example, commercial pilots in the U.S. face ongoing uncertainty about  their job prospects because of the state of the airline industry and the  competition from low-cost carriers. Physicians and other medical specialists  have to contend with malpractice lawsuits that can wreck their finances and  reputation, not to mention the challenges stemming from dealing with an  inefficient and overburdened healthcare system.

Costs Vs. Benefits

Dissatisfaction with one’s job or career is not restricted only to people  with mundane, low-paying jobs. Even well-paid professionals express  dissatisfaction with their jobs, although it may be logical to expect that the  prevalence is less than in low-paid workers.

A survey of primary care physicians (a group that includes general  practitioners and pediatricians) by the Physicians Foundation in 2008 found that  60% of the respondents would not recommend medicine as a career. Furthermore,  almost half said that over the next three years, they planned to reduce the  number of patients they see or stop practicing medicine entirely.

Nevertheless, there are some obvious benefits of high-paying professions,  including:

Greater job security - It is widely recognized that  education pays. Workers without a college education are generally among the most  vulnerable to job loss.

Money on education is well-spent - From a monetary  viewpoint, the extra years spent in college seem to be worth it. For example,  the average annual salary of the top 10 professions was $181,500 in 2008, or 10  times the average annual salary of the 10 lowest-paying professions. Granted  that many are even unable to find work without some sort of education.

Affordable luxuries – High-paying professions can enable one  to pursue a lifestyle that may not be possible for the average worker.  Indulgences such as luxury automobiles, frequent overseas vacations, and  cosmetic procedures that are commonplace for high-income earners may be  unaffordable for those with lower incomes.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, whether the benefits of a high-paying profession outweigh the  costs, or vice versa, is a matter of personal choice and preference. However,  for those who want to balance personal life with a decent income, consider  careers that require fewer years of college education and that are not as  stressful. Most importantly, choose a career where you like what you do. After  all, as Confucius said, choose a job you love and you will never have to work a  day in your life.

Source: Business Insider

Job site- A straightforward indication that an employee is on the lookout for a new job is finding their resume on a job searching website. Particularly if the resume includes their current position in their work history.
Twitter – Tweets from their Twitter profile mentioning things like job openings, interviews, etc. Social networking is after all, networking as well as social, so job searches often begin there.
Facebook – Status updates on a Facebook page might also allude to a job search, or dissatisfaction with the employee’s current position. The frequency with which people are busted by their bosses making such comments on their social profiles is pretty sobering.
Blog – The employee may also have a blog where she is posting and networking about job hunting. This is another area where the level of privacy and separation between professional and social life aren’t always what the person thinks.
Email – Email responses from prospective employers may be visible in the employees inbox. Correspondence regarding job hunting should be limited to your private email account, and for that matter your personal time.
LinkedIn – LinkedIn recommendations will tip off an employer that one of their workers is actively seeking a new workplace. It’s a good idea to use confidential profiles, avoiding public access to private information like name, phone number and email address.
Desktop – An employee might have a desktop icon for something like resume-making software, which is another pretty reliable indication that all is not well in Cubicleville. Also having multiple resume copies on the desktop or job sites in bookmarks are big signs.
Resume – An employer might find the resume of one of their own employees while scanning the internet for potential candidates for current openings within the company. This could very well lead to one more opening within the company.
Silence – Another sign that an employee might be looking for an alternative job is when he stops griping about his current job. So if his boss’s inbox is no longer dotted with complaints from a disgruntled worker, it may be because he’s given up complaining, and started looking for greener pastures.
Music – Music selection on your employee’s online playlist could provide some clues as well. If she’s blasting Johnny Paycheck’s “Take This Job and Shove It” over her computer speakers, she just may be sending a message that she’s going bye-bye.
No matter the reason, a job search should never be done during company time. If you find an employee looking for a new job, let them know that is not acceptable. If you don’t know why they want a new job, this would be a good opportunity to find out if there is something you need to change for the next employee or other current employees. To employees searching- always remember not to burn bridges. You may need a reference in the future.

Author:  Jessica Miller, regularly writes for internetserviceproviders.net . She is a graduate in English literature and currently pursuing her masters in Online Journalism.

VANCOUVER, BC CANADA – April 16, 2012 – Goldbeck Recruiting Inc., a leading recruitment and executive search firm in BC, announced today the launch of its new Human Resources Division specializing in HR specific positions.

The new HR Division will cover placements in the following areas:

• Staffing Management
• HR Planning & Strategy
• Workplace Safety
• Employee Relations
• Labour Relations
• Employee Development
• Workplace Diversity
• Compensation & Benefits
• HR Consulting
• HR Technology / HRIS

Vivan Fung, Senior Recruiter at Goldbeck Recruiting will be heading the new division. “We are finding that more and more companies are recognizing the need for specialized human resource functions within their company”, says Vivian. “For example, HR generalists are seeing the increasing complexities of staffing management, employee relations, and workplace safety and are finding that these areas need to be managed by someone with more indepth knowledge.”

Vivian is a seasoned human resources professional, and has successfully filled management to mid-level HR positions for large national organizations. She is also an active member of the BC Human Resource Management Association.

For more information visit: www.goldbeck.com

About Goldbeck Recruiting Inc.

Goldbeck Recruiting Inc. is a leading recruitment agency based in Vancouver BC, Canada. Goldbeck’s recruiters specialize in executive search and job placement of professionals in Sales, Marketing, Construction, Manufacturing, Operations, Healthcare & Biotech, Information Technology, Finance & Accounting, and Human Resources positions throughout Canada. For company information, visit www.goldbeck.com. Blog URL: hrblog.goldbeck.com.

GOLDBECK RECRUITING INC.

Caroline Lau, Media Contact, (604) 684-1428

Overview

Over the past few years, the number of specialists in human resources has increased sharply. The development of new human-resources management concepts, growing importance of manpower training and changes to legislation and work organization methods largely explain this growth. Given that these trends should remain positive, the number of specialists in human resources is expected to continue to increase sharply over the next few years.

Sources of employment

Opportunities will open up mainly through employment increase and from positions freed up by human resources specialists who are retiring or are promoted to human-resources manager positions (see 0112).

Labour pool

Vacancies will be filled primarily by candidates with a solid background in administration and human resources management, plus the relevant training (see Training).

Although the labour pool is fairly broad, it should be noted that most people seeking employment in this occupation have completed a bachelor’s degree in one of two programs: personnel management or industrial relations. According to the Quebec Department of Education, Recreation and Sport’s Relance survey, because the demand for human resources specialists is strong, the labour market situation for these bachelor’s graduates is, in many respects, better than that of bachelor’s graduates as a whole.

The labour market outlook for graduates with bachelor’s degrees in personnel management or industrial relations continues to be good, even though the number of graduates in both fields increased by more than 45% between 2000 and 2007. The outlook should continue to be bright in the future, as the number of students in these programs decreased slightly between 2005 and 2007.

Industries

According to census data, in 2006 specialists in human resources worked in all industries, but mostly in large companies. The large percentage employed by business, professional and labour organizations (13%) reflects the presence of union representatives in this occupation.

Trends

Over the past few years, the number of specialists in human resources has increased sharply.

Many factors led companies to give more importance to planning and developing strategies for hiring, maintaining employment levels, training and work organization. Some of these factors include:

• The emergence of the knowledge economy;
• Growing global competition among companies;
• Employee productivity requirements;
• The implementation of compensation methods linked to the attainment of corporate objectives;
• The adoption of statutes and regulations governing the work world, for example on employment equity or psychological harassment;
• The development of training programs that allow employees to increase productivity and meet the provisions of the vocational training act requiring a minimum of 1% of the payroll to be set aside for occupational training.

These factors should become even more important over the next few years. In fact, the processes and measures required to meet corporate staffing needs will tend to become more complex. First, employer requirements will continue to increase in terms of education, technical knowledge and various aptitudes: teamwork, communication skills, versatility, learning capacity, personal suitability, etc. Furthermore, the ageing labour force will increase the number of qualified, experienced employees to be replaced while reducing the labour pool that can meet these requirements and fill the vacant positions. Competition among employers will increase to attract and keep competent employees, and various methods will be created to reach these objectives. The development of strategies to ensure that the skills and knowledge of experienced employees are passed on to younger colleagues will be another issue that will grow in importance over the next few years.

Given all of these factors, the number of specialists in human resources is expected to increase sharply over the next few years.

Employment characteristics

According to census data, women held about 66% of the jobs in this occupation in 2006, a percentage that has been rising sharply since 1991 (43%). About 73% of people in this occupation worked full time and full-year in 2005, a percentage that is much higher than for the average of all occupations (53%). Even though the large majority of these specialists were salaried, in 2006 there were a certain number of self-employed workers (5% compared with 11% for all occupations).

Requirements

To meet these goals, candidates must demonstrate a strong aptitude for team work and problem solving. They must also possess superior analytical, communication and mobilization capabilities and an up-to-date, in-depth knowledge of the relevant legislation and its implementation (right to work, training, health and safety, etc.). Furthermore, they must keep abreast of work-organization developments and have a good grasp of various forms of compensation, as well as of assessment and classification tools (often computerized). Bilingualism is often required.

Excerpt from Service Canada Report:  2012-01-05