The Perfect Fit

New St. Louis Search: International PR Manager #10123

International PR Manager #10123
Location:  St. Louis County

General Description:
As a result of our client’s continued growth, this new position will be responsible for refining the global PR infrastructure, speechwriting, message positioning and incorporating meeting planning into a tactical marketing plan.  You’ll manage a support team to help coordinate a marketing communications plan that will incorporate the consistent development of new products into the existing Marcom calendar.  Our client is an inventive leader in the animal nutrition and feed category, who has grown consistently for decades.

Primary Responsibilities:
•    Support product/market positioning through the development of a significant global PR/communications infrastructure for long term, repeatable impact.
•    Integrate PR, product introductions, events and e-Marketing to drive business plan.
•    Oversee the geographic coordination of consistent messaging in support of the tactical marketing calendar.
•    Create a baseline (including tradeshows and e-Marketing) and repeatable model for PR
Including industry pubs and key partner channels (NGOs and Associations).
•    Coordinate the global delivery and development of a fundamental “share of voice” by identifying and developing relationships with strategically significant media outlets.
•    Create a “text bank” to track all text collateral in a searchable format.
•    Formalize relationships with content providers to ensure a reliable and agile “flow” process to deliver content based on calendar educational opportunities.
•    Travel up to 20-25% in support of these activities

Experience:
We’re looking for candidates with a marketing degree and 10-15 years of marketing communications experience, across multiple marketing channels and specifically with PR.  A blend of agency and client side experience would be desirable, as would international experience and knowledge in the animal nutrition/feed category.  Viable candidates will have experience writing for publication, speeches and interviews.  They’ll have experience developing and utilizing relationships with media (traditional and new).  You must be confident, hard working and with an ability to multi-task with simultaneous complex global projects.  You should have successfully and profitably lead teams.

Compensation:
Our client has a history of a market leading compensation package.  That comp plan includes a premier salary (plus target performance bonus) along with a substantial family-friendly benefits package including insurance (medical, dental, disability, life), EAP, Wellness, exceptional 401K and more.

About Our Client:
Our client is a mature, diverse company that has consistent growth as a result of product innovation through research.  They are a category leader in animal health, nutrition and feed and continue to expand their global footprint.  One of the most desired companies to work for in the St. Louis area, offers an above average compensation package including a competitive salary, generous bonus, and outstanding benefits.  Come work for one of the few companies in town that has continuously hired through the recession.  EOE

Please apply through www.Bishop-Partners.com.  Please email a cover letter detailing your interest and specific qualifications directly to Bob.

References, Job-Hoppers and Talent Shortages

My good friend and colleague of Egret Consulting and irsa has written an article for his newsletter "The Buzz" that I think resonates and deserves more exposure.  Ted and Egret specialize in the electrical manufacturing industry.  What he says about that industry applies identically to marketing and advertising.  So, with a very minor edit or two, here are Ted's thoughts.

"We’ve conducted roughly 70,000 interviews over the past 11+ years. We’ve successfully placed over 500 new employees and we’ve weathered two deep recessions, so we feel pretty good about our track record. Nationally, “WE” are facing a talent and hiring condition that has never been faced before. Despite the daily dirge of bad news about unemployment, let me give a few other statistics:
•    The average tenure of a new employee is 34 months (and that includes CEO’s)
•    The unemployment rate for college graduates is 3.8%
•    The predicted number of jobs for Gen Y employees is 8 jobs before they’re 40 years old
•    Reference recommendations correlate to performance at a value of 0.29 (which in statistic-speak means the predictability is less than 9%)
•    Over 35% of resumes are fraudulent, over 75% have mistakes or ‘little white lies’
•    The level of open job postings has hit a record high level
Most companies don’t believe there is a talent shortage. With 9.8% unemployment it’s easy to assume your next engineer, branch manager, marketing director or operations manager is sitting outside your door with his/her resume in hand and the desire to go to work on Monday at a 25% discount in compensation. If only it were true.

The talent pool is very thin right now. We only work in this industry so our view is limited to people who work and succeed in the electrical (marketing/advertising) industry and we don’t recruit people out of automotive, healthcare or paper companies. The pool is additionally thinned by the housing market; relocations are very problematic for a household to move if their house is currently at a low equity or under water. The ability to sell the house and provide cash to buy into the new market, despite the lowered values is in many cases untenable. Job security for most companies has been seriously damaged by the deep recession and companies’ reactions to that through aggressive downsizing, so we’re at a unique confluence of competing challenges; employees are more open to leaving their current company, but they’re very limited in where they can go, geographically.

We’ve seen a significant increase in companies adding talent over the past 90-120 days. All of these positions are net-adds, not replacements. So the market has already shifted, the talent pool is poised to hearing options, but the creativity of those options will have to cater to the needs of the prospective new employee.

There is never a ‘perfect’ employee, just as there isn’t a perfect employer, yet employers are still functioning as if the talent pool is unlimited and they have the ability to design the perfect employee on an assembly line; complete with a life-time guarantee. That isn’t reality, the talent market right now is considering multiple offers, expecting significant flexibility in work/life balance and not anticipating finding their ‘last job’, but gaining experience and building a resume for the next challenge.

Separating Executive Role 'Engagement' From Job 'Satisfaction'

In a recent article in the ExecuNet Newsletter ("Market intelligence and insight for maximizing executive talent management") written by Joe McCool, I was struck by how important the difference between "engagement" and "satisfaction" is.  I was also struck by how significant that difference is to every kind of organization, and for every level of employee in that organization.

Here's what Joe wrote:

"The second annual Executive Retention Report by ExecuNet and Finnegan Mackenzie found that over 90 percent of U.S. CEOs and other management leaders believe an executive can be engaged in their work and with their employer but still open to considering new career opportunities. This was reflected in their attitudes about their own sense of engagement and job satisfaction.

Exactly 93 percent of CEOs, presidents and top business executives report they're engaged in their current role, but only 75 percent say they're actually satisfied with it. Also, roughly 7-in-10 other 'C-Suite' executives and others at the vice president, director and manager levels are likewise engaged in their day-to-day work, but only 5-in-10 say they feel a sense of overall job satisfaction.

"Companies should take the time now to consider how their potential failure to retain their best management executives will weigh on corporate productivity, financial results and succession plans in the coming year," says ExecuNet's Mark Anderson. "Even before this recovery takes full effect, it's clear that surprisingly high numbers of executives are restless and eager to explore what a more growth-oriented economy has in store for them."

Further, Anderson commented, "If companies can't retain their executive leaders and don't have the right teams in place, they simply won't reach their business objectives for the coming year. For that reason, retention risk should be on the corporate agenda now."

To stave off key executive defections, says Richard Finnegan, principal of Finnegan Mackenzie - The Retention Firm, and author of Rethinking Retention In Good Times And Bad, companies should consider conducting 'stay interviews' to rebuild trust with key business leaders, get them re-engaged and explore what the company could do to increase their job satisfaction, and get them focused on the potential upside of staying."

Having 50% of your organizations' leadership satisfied with their job obviously means that 50% are not satisfied.  That will affect productivity, morale and the company culture in a negative way.  It's easy to understand how improving  satisfaction on the job (at every level) will increase productivity, morale and culture.  It will also make the employee happier and much more likely to stay for the longer term.

The idea of "stay interviews" is so simple . . . and so powerful.  Why are employers so afraid of actually spending some time intereacting and getting to know their employees?  The result o that interview doesn't necessarily have to mean additional 'expense' for the employer.  My bet is that employees would be thrilled to have a "real" conversation about their professional goals with their boss.  I think the idea behind having the conversation would have significant value in itself.

I've previously written about the "restlessness" of employees at the moment (resulting from their feelings of overwork and undervalue).  I've written about how important succession planning is, at every level of the organization.  The ExecuNet article is just more evidence of how consistently proactive organizations must be to maintain (or create) a healthy culture.

Are you engaged or satisfied?  If you had the opportunity to sit down with your boss for some personal career planning, would you know what you'd like to ask for (beyond more money and/or time off)?

Create "Richer" Resumes With New Technology

Resumes and portfolios are only two of the elements necessary to make a powerful first impression when presenting yourself to a new employer (or recruiter!).  There are a myriad of additional elements which can help separate you from your colleagues when being considered for a new career opportunity.

Testimonials, recommendations, white papers, case studies or other "documents" (In this case, I'm using "documents" to include images, videos or any other kind of media file.) that you may have can help show your career achievements and your ability to add value to your employers.  It's surprising to me that more top professionals don't utilize what their employers, peers and clients have to say about their performance on a particular project or team.  It can be anything from an email from a either a client or your boss thanking you for a job well done, to a formally recognized achievement, like an award.  Your LinkedIn Profile is certainly one place where displaying recommendations can be a significant credibility builder.  Having someone else say something positive about you is obviously better than saying it yourself!  I believe it's a powerful marketing technique and frequently use it myself, for example on our website.

It would be terrific if there was a place to "host" those compliments, recommendations, white papers and other media files, so that they could easily be incorporated into letters of introduction and resumes.  The ability to create a free blog has been taken advantage of by many who want an online place to "host" all of the documents relevant to a job search . . . and they work very well. 

Others are less comfortable with creating the blog and organizing all the documents so that the visitor to that blog can quickly and easily navigate to the right place (document) at the right time.  For those of you who find yourselves in that particular boat, there's some relatively new technology out there that can be a tremendous asset for you.  It's called Dropbox.

Dropbox allows you to sync your files online and across your computers automatically . . . up to 2GB worth for free!  That in itself has tremendous value.  My computer was recently taken out of service for several days as a result of some killer (literally) virus.  While I had a backup laptop and was able to do some work, I didn't have access to any of the documents on the "sick" computer.  I have now uploaded all of the documents that I used on a daily basis to Dropbox.  I can now access those files from any computer with internet access . . . Fabulous!

The way Dropbox can be used on resumes and cover letters is this.  Suppose you have a number of testimonials/recommendations from colleagues or clients or other media files that can enhance your presentation.  You can now put copies of each of those documents (or other media) in a Dropbox "Public" folder.  That public folder attaches a unique link for that document, which can then be embedded in your resume.  Click here to see how I handle it, or you could link to each document or file individually.  That link is being handled through the Dropbox public folder.

Now, even your Word.doc can become a much more compelling document with the additional capabilities provided by Dropbox.  This is now a very simple (and free!) method of adding significant new information to your resume, without adding any additional pages.  I'm betting that you can think of all kinds of clever ways to incorporate this technology into your your document and your work flow.

I'm also betting you'll find the value in hosting some frequently used documents with Dropbox.

New Search: Business Meeting Producer #10112

As you know, I'm a retained recruiter specializing in marketing and advertising.  A good client has asked me to help with a contract position that they have an urgent need for.  The position will start as soon as we can find the right candidate and will run through the end of February, at least.  There is an excellent possibility for the position turning full time at that point.

General Description:
As a result of our client’s growth, this new position is responsible for handling all aspects of the production of sophisticated business meetings for Fortune 500 clients.  There are multiple simultaneous complex projects that will demand your ability to handle a wide range of strategy, production, budget and timeline issues.  This Meeting Producer will have the opportunity to demonstrate responsibility, strategic thinking, and client relationship skills while orchestrating all the components necessary for the meeting’s production.   This is an exciting opportunity, to work in an unusually energetic and collaborative shop where your outstanding performance can lead to opportunities for increased responsibility. 

Primary Responsibilities:
•    Be responsible for all aspects of daily client interface with agency, including both internal and external communications with clients, agency colleagues and vendors.
•    Lead your clients through the conversation necessary to help them identify and understand appropriate strategies and tactics to efficiently meet their meeting goals. 
•    Be project manager for overseeing that all meeting elements; creative, video, speech writers, entertainment, traffic and billing, etc., are completed on time and on budget. 
•    Negotiate and manage all expenditures and insure the profitability of all work.
•    Be accountable for the clients’ complete satisfaction while not caving into the client’s every (strategic, creative, budgeting, timeline or tactical) whim.
•    Pre-production and on-site implementation for meetings/events as appropriate (20%).

Experience:
We need an ambitious, self directed and confident meeting producer with a related degree and at least 10 years’ meeting production experience.  Someone who’s been waiting for that special opportunity to perform their magic with national clients we’ve all heard of.  Only candidates who have experience with producing business meetings will be considered.  We want someone who has proven the ability to multi-task while being extremely detail oriented and passionate about client satisfaction and creative execution.  You must be able to demonstrate the ability to be assertive with all of the personalities involved in the production of meetings, while maintaining a sense of humor and calm demeanor!

Compensation:
There is a base salary commensurate with your experience and with bonus potential.  Additionally, there is an outstanding benefits package including medical (including dental/vision option) and disability insurance.

The Client:
Our client is over 20 years old and a consistent leader in their meeting concepts and sophisticated production, working with a diverse base of loyal national clients who are leaders in their category. Their business has consistently grown year over year.  There is a veteran staff of colleagues to support your efforts, resulting in tactical executions that assure your clients’ ongoing satisfaction.  Our client’s leadership team is smart, forward thinking, nimble, entrepreneurial and innovative, always thinking about developing new ways to help their clients communicate their message.  The environment is stable, creative and professional and your colleagues are passionate about producing consistently spectacular work.  EOE

Please apply through our website.  Please email a cover letter detailing your interest and specific qualifications directly to Bob.

The position will start as soon as we can find the right candidate and will run through the end of February, at least.  There is an excellent possibility for the position turning full time at that point.