At about the time the baby boomers begin retiring from the work force, the flow of additional workers will just about grind to a halt. For every young person entering the workforce from high school or college, an older person will be leaving the workforce and heading for retirement. Time Magazine has predicted an unprecedented employment gap when that happens. Reports show that the rebound in the industry is bringing up concerns for future expansions and succession planning. Where does this leave your company?
Here at RSI, our staff has been diligent in locating those hard to find candidates so our clients can continue to grow as their employees leave to enjoy their golden years. With each search assignment, we uncover dozens of other highly qualified candidates that did not meet the skills needed for that particular search. That leaves us with numerous excellent candidates who are currently employed, reasonably happy and doing a good job but are keeping their eyes open for the next step in their career.
Since the Filtration Group of RSI does not just scour the internet for candidates, we find those candidates that cannot be found through traditional employment ads and job posting boards. We specialize in all areas of the industry; our knowledgeable staff stands ready to talk to you about your distinct need and is ready to customize a search to go directly after what you need and minimize the learning curve in your open position. Feel free to contact me at our toll-free number if we can be of assistance in any of your recruitment needs.
Lisa Sprowls
The Filtration Group
Recruiter Solutions International
800-992-3875 ext. 313
lisa@rsipeople.com
www.rsipeople.com
Succession Planning
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Forward Thinking Drives the Filtration Industry
As previously published in 2009
Innovation and technology are the lifelines this year for the filtration industry, according to a recent conversation with Knowlton Technologies Director of Technology and New Business Development, Jamie Lee. Knowlton Technologies is a world leading manufacturer of engineered Specialty and Technical Media, Performance Nonwovens and Filled Composites constructed from metal, glass, polymer, ceramic and natural fibers.
“For most of our peers or competitors, the year will be challenging. Anyone in the direct OE automotive line of filtration market for on-the-road has no business growth to look forward to, in my mind, for several years,” Lee said, while noting that the OE automotive supply chain is down 60 to 70 percent while other industries may be down 30 to 50 percent. He believes this is because cars aren’t selling and there is a tremendous backlog of filtration parts for the on-the-road industry.
The survival of the filtration industry rests with companies possessing the ability to produce higher value, longer life products, he said, because these companies can chew- out market shares with innovation and technology.
Additionally, off-road filtration systems such as those used in construction will rebound more quickly than on-road products in part with the help from the government’s stimulus and recovery plans to improve infrastructures. But even in this field, the catch phrases will be higher value, longer life products, he said. Products which eliminate the need for frequent changes will sell. Discounting a product by 5-15% percent or so will not get sellers to their long-term goals.
“Some people will go out and buy the cheapest filters but that’s not a deal if you ruin an $8,000 engine. The future lies not with companies offering the lowest price for their filters but rather with companies making the best filters.”
Lee said filtration manufacturers would do well to explore making filters for water purification systems, the medical market, earth sciences and energy. He believes these markets provide the best opportunity for future growth.
“Micro fiber filters used in the medical separation field are manufactured from the same high quality fibers as those used to make scotch,” he said.
He points to bio fuel as another example, saying the development of bio fuels will require the use of many new filters, other than those used in common petroleum -based fuel production.
About the Authors
Lisa Sprowls of the Filtration Group of RSI has successfully placed a wide range of positions in the Filtration, Water and Wastewater industries. She has developed a clientele ranging from successful, small, privately held companies to the corporate giants of the industry throughout North America. To learn more about their recruiting services visit them at www.rsipeople.com/filtration
Copyright © Lisa Sprowls 2009
Innovation and technology are the lifelines this year for the filtration industry, according to a recent conversation with Knowlton Technologies Director of Technology and New Business Development, Jamie Lee. Knowlton Technologies is a world leading manufacturer of engineered Specialty and Technical Media, Performance Nonwovens and Filled Composites constructed from metal, glass, polymer, ceramic and natural fibers.
“For most of our peers or competitors, the year will be challenging. Anyone in the direct OE automotive line of filtration market for on-the-road has no business growth to look forward to, in my mind, for several years,” Lee said, while noting that the OE automotive supply chain is down 60 to 70 percent while other industries may be down 30 to 50 percent. He believes this is because cars aren’t selling and there is a tremendous backlog of filtration parts for the on-the-road industry.
The survival of the filtration industry rests with companies possessing the ability to produce higher value, longer life products, he said, because these companies can chew- out market shares with innovation and technology.
Additionally, off-road filtration systems such as those used in construction will rebound more quickly than on-road products in part with the help from the government’s stimulus and recovery plans to improve infrastructures. But even in this field, the catch phrases will be higher value, longer life products, he said. Products which eliminate the need for frequent changes will sell. Discounting a product by 5-15% percent or so will not get sellers to their long-term goals.
“Some people will go out and buy the cheapest filters but that’s not a deal if you ruin an $8,000 engine. The future lies not with companies offering the lowest price for their filters but rather with companies making the best filters.”
Lee said filtration manufacturers would do well to explore making filters for water purification systems, the medical market, earth sciences and energy. He believes these markets provide the best opportunity for future growth.
“Micro fiber filters used in the medical separation field are manufactured from the same high quality fibers as those used to make scotch,” he said.
He points to bio fuel as another example, saying the development of bio fuels will require the use of many new filters, other than those used in common petroleum -based fuel production.
About the Authors
Lisa Sprowls of the Filtration Group of RSI has successfully placed a wide range of positions in the Filtration, Water and Wastewater industries. She has developed a clientele ranging from successful, small, privately held companies to the corporate giants of the industry throughout North America. To learn more about their recruiting services visit them at www.rsipeople.com/filtration
Copyright © Lisa Sprowls 2009
Friday, June 26, 2015
Why Recruiters Are Worth What They Charge
WHY RECRUITERS ARE WORTH WHAT THEY CHARGE
"When I need a heart by-pass, rest assured that I won't select my surgeon on the basis of what they charge." That's what an ailing executive recently opined when he was informed by his doctor about his arterial blockage problems.
Why then can corporate executives be so tightfisted when dealing with what is so commonly thought of as the "heartbeat" of their companies . . . top talent?
Companies think very little about paying the often exorbitant fees charged by their outside accounting and legal firms . . . or even to the gaggle of consultants who promise cost-cutting and streamlining miracles in other areas of operations.
Yet, when faced with brain drains, talent deficiencies or the need to replace an employee with a better one, their thoughts too often turn to parsimony. This Wal-mart mentality belies and contradicts their stated objectives to "hire the best," especially at pecking order levels below the "big picture" executive suite inhabitants.
Of course recruiting fees can vary from firm to firm but, when they do, you will almost always find that those on the low side are sure to exclude some very key portions of the process, all of which are vital to providing the indispensable services necessary to satisfy the needs of the employer.
So why are recruiters worth what they charge? Just a few of the often unspoken reasons are:
Expertise - Nobody knows the employment marketplace better than a professional recruiter . . . nobody! In-house human resources, no matter how effective, view the marketplace through an imperfect or misrepresentative prism and tunnel vision is their occupational hazard.
Just as physicians are cautioned against treating members of their own families, so too is it folly for an in-house H/R professional to believe that they have an undistorted and unbiased picture of the employment landscape. They are vulnerable to the pressures of internal politics and cultural dimensions which do not hinder the outsider.
Street-smart recruiters already know the neighbor-hood, including the unlisted addresses so often overlooked by the HR insiders.
Cast a wider net - A professional fisherman will always have more to show than a weekend angler. Recruiters are in the marketplace day in and day out. They know the un-fished coves, reefs and inlets that are unknown to others. The job-hunter bookshelves are filled with lore about the "hidden job market." The same holds true for professional recruiters who have a detailed roadmap to the hidden talent sources which will never be accessed by newspaper ads, alumni associations, applicant databases, the Internet or any of the other more familiar sources of people.
There are occasional pearls through these sources (and someone inevitably wins the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes too) but you have to shuck an awful lot of smelly oysters to find them. Recruiters only give you oysters proven to contain pearls. Your only job is to determine which pearl is the best.
Want to catch what you're fishing for? Hire a guide!
Cost - There is a misconception among employers that the cost of a hire equals the cost of the ads run to attract the person hired. Nothing could be further from reality.
Try adding these to the true costs and you'll see just how cost effective an outside recruiter can be:
Salaries and benefits of the employment/recruiting staffs plus those of the line managers involved in the hiring activity (who are not productive in their normal job pursuits when they're out recruiting); travel, lodging and entertainment expenses of in-house recruiters; source development costs; overhead expenses including (but not limited to) telephone, office space, postage, PR literature, applicant database maintenance, Internet access, reference checking, clerical costs to correspond with the hundreds of unqualified respondents, etc.
Unbiased third party input - Contrary to what some believe, recruiters don't try to put square employees into round jobs. A recruiter's stock-in-trade is their integrity and their reputation for finding someone better than a company could have found for themselves.
For a mid-level to senior executive, the average recruiter may develop a "long list" of a hundred or more possibilities. Each must be called and evaluated against the position specifications as well as the personality "fit" with the company and the people with whom they will ultimately work. Once this is winnowed down to the "short list," an even more intensive interviewing process begins to narrow the search to a panel of finalists for review by the client.
This process is not, as some believe, simply romping through the file cabinets, job boards or putting the job opening out to others on the recruiter's network with crossed fingers that someone good will show up.
It is highly unlikely that a professional recruiter will be plowing brand new ground with your opening. They deal within spheres of influence far more familiar with your needs than any internal recruiter and, more often than not, view the finalists as people who are competent to solve client problems rather than just fill an open slot in the organizational chart.
Because they want to do business with you again and again, they are looking for (and challenging you to excellence by hiring) the "truly exceptional" rather than the "just satisfactory" so often settled for by in-house hirers.
Confidentiality - Advertising or otherwise publicly pro-claiming an opening, aside from its cost and demonstrated ineffectiveness for sensitive senior level openings, often creates anxiety and apprehension among the advertiser's current employees who wonder why they aren't being considered or worry about newcomer transition problems. Just as often it alerts competitors to a current weakness or void within the company.
Speed - The recruiting process is always faster through a search professional who is continually tapped into the talent marketplace than one having to start the process from scratch. For every day that a key opening remains unfilled, a company's other employees must grudgingly do double duty. And this doesn't factor in the profit opportunities or competitive advantages lost to a company because a position remains unfilled or done on a part-time basis by others less qualified.
Post-Hire Downtime - Not only is speed an essential part of the professional recruiter's process, the ability to locate a person who can immediately "hit the ground running" with a minimum of "ramp-up time" saves time after the hire. All too often, a hire selected through less effective sources, offering a smaller talent pool, requires several months of expensive training and orientation.
Reality - Professional recruiters often recognize and have a duty to inform clients that they may be mistaken as to the type of person sought, the salary required to attract them or the possibilities that the solution might just lie in areas outside the traditional target industries . . . something an internal recruiter is politically disinclined to do. Too many hirers fail to understand that a professional recruiter's pr i-mary function is not necessarily to fill a slot but to provide the right candidate to solve a problem.
Negotiation - Master negotiator Herb Cohen says that "negotiation is the analysis of information, time and power to affect behavior . . . the meeting of needs (yours and others) to make things happen the way you want them to." As a buffer and informed intermediary, the professional recruiter is better able to blend the needs and wants of both parties to arrive at a mutually beneficial arrangement with-out the polarizing roadblocks which too frequently materialize in face-to-face dealings.
Prioritizing company resources - It is often amazing to see how much of a company's revenues are squandered on non-productive perks for existing high-level employees while they penny-pinch on what is every company's life-blood . . . talent acquisition.
Club memberships and the like may be fine, but no one with an IQ higher than Forrest Gump's believes that these expenditures contribute to a company's profit margin. But one well-placed employee can be the cause of a company's profits skyrocketing. And the fee for having hired these people pales in insignificance when compared to the contributions they make to the bottom line.
The next time you think a recruiter's fees are too high, put them in the proper perspective before asking for that bargain Blue Light special or spinning your wheels thrash-in about trying to fill vital openings with less effective (but not necessarily less expensive) do-it-yourself methods. Savvy executives learned long ago that the fee paid to a recruiter is a shrewd strategic investment, not an extraneous expense.
Written by Paul Hawkinson, Publisher of The Fordyce Letter (www.fordyceletter.com)
Lisa Sprowls
The Filtration Group of RSI
Recruiter Solutions International
800-992-3875 ext. 313
lisa@rsipeople.com
"When I need a heart by-pass, rest assured that I won't select my surgeon on the basis of what they charge." That's what an ailing executive recently opined when he was informed by his doctor about his arterial blockage problems.
Why then can corporate executives be so tightfisted when dealing with what is so commonly thought of as the "heartbeat" of their companies . . . top talent?
Companies think very little about paying the often exorbitant fees charged by their outside accounting and legal firms . . . or even to the gaggle of consultants who promise cost-cutting and streamlining miracles in other areas of operations.
Yet, when faced with brain drains, talent deficiencies or the need to replace an employee with a better one, their thoughts too often turn to parsimony. This Wal-mart mentality belies and contradicts their stated objectives to "hire the best," especially at pecking order levels below the "big picture" executive suite inhabitants.
Of course recruiting fees can vary from firm to firm but, when they do, you will almost always find that those on the low side are sure to exclude some very key portions of the process, all of which are vital to providing the indispensable services necessary to satisfy the needs of the employer.
So why are recruiters worth what they charge? Just a few of the often unspoken reasons are:
Expertise - Nobody knows the employment marketplace better than a professional recruiter . . . nobody! In-house human resources, no matter how effective, view the marketplace through an imperfect or misrepresentative prism and tunnel vision is their occupational hazard.
Just as physicians are cautioned against treating members of their own families, so too is it folly for an in-house H/R professional to believe that they have an undistorted and unbiased picture of the employment landscape. They are vulnerable to the pressures of internal politics and cultural dimensions which do not hinder the outsider.
Street-smart recruiters already know the neighbor-hood, including the unlisted addresses so often overlooked by the HR insiders.
Cast a wider net - A professional fisherman will always have more to show than a weekend angler. Recruiters are in the marketplace day in and day out. They know the un-fished coves, reefs and inlets that are unknown to others. The job-hunter bookshelves are filled with lore about the "hidden job market." The same holds true for professional recruiters who have a detailed roadmap to the hidden talent sources which will never be accessed by newspaper ads, alumni associations, applicant databases, the Internet or any of the other more familiar sources of people.
There are occasional pearls through these sources (and someone inevitably wins the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes too) but you have to shuck an awful lot of smelly oysters to find them. Recruiters only give you oysters proven to contain pearls. Your only job is to determine which pearl is the best.
Want to catch what you're fishing for? Hire a guide!
Cost - There is a misconception among employers that the cost of a hire equals the cost of the ads run to attract the person hired. Nothing could be further from reality.
Try adding these to the true costs and you'll see just how cost effective an outside recruiter can be:
Salaries and benefits of the employment/recruiting staffs plus those of the line managers involved in the hiring activity (who are not productive in their normal job pursuits when they're out recruiting); travel, lodging and entertainment expenses of in-house recruiters; source development costs; overhead expenses including (but not limited to) telephone, office space, postage, PR literature, applicant database maintenance, Internet access, reference checking, clerical costs to correspond with the hundreds of unqualified respondents, etc.
Unbiased third party input - Contrary to what some believe, recruiters don't try to put square employees into round jobs. A recruiter's stock-in-trade is their integrity and their reputation for finding someone better than a company could have found for themselves.
For a mid-level to senior executive, the average recruiter may develop a "long list" of a hundred or more possibilities. Each must be called and evaluated against the position specifications as well as the personality "fit" with the company and the people with whom they will ultimately work. Once this is winnowed down to the "short list," an even more intensive interviewing process begins to narrow the search to a panel of finalists for review by the client.
This process is not, as some believe, simply romping through the file cabinets, job boards or putting the job opening out to others on the recruiter's network with crossed fingers that someone good will show up.
It is highly unlikely that a professional recruiter will be plowing brand new ground with your opening. They deal within spheres of influence far more familiar with your needs than any internal recruiter and, more often than not, view the finalists as people who are competent to solve client problems rather than just fill an open slot in the organizational chart.
Because they want to do business with you again and again, they are looking for (and challenging you to excellence by hiring) the "truly exceptional" rather than the "just satisfactory" so often settled for by in-house hirers.
Confidentiality - Advertising or otherwise publicly pro-claiming an opening, aside from its cost and demonstrated ineffectiveness for sensitive senior level openings, often creates anxiety and apprehension among the advertiser's current employees who wonder why they aren't being considered or worry about newcomer transition problems. Just as often it alerts competitors to a current weakness or void within the company.
Speed - The recruiting process is always faster through a search professional who is continually tapped into the talent marketplace than one having to start the process from scratch. For every day that a key opening remains unfilled, a company's other employees must grudgingly do double duty. And this doesn't factor in the profit opportunities or competitive advantages lost to a company because a position remains unfilled or done on a part-time basis by others less qualified.
Post-Hire Downtime - Not only is speed an essential part of the professional recruiter's process, the ability to locate a person who can immediately "hit the ground running" with a minimum of "ramp-up time" saves time after the hire. All too often, a hire selected through less effective sources, offering a smaller talent pool, requires several months of expensive training and orientation.
Reality - Professional recruiters often recognize and have a duty to inform clients that they may be mistaken as to the type of person sought, the salary required to attract them or the possibilities that the solution might just lie in areas outside the traditional target industries . . . something an internal recruiter is politically disinclined to do. Too many hirers fail to understand that a professional recruiter's pr i-mary function is not necessarily to fill a slot but to provide the right candidate to solve a problem.
Negotiation - Master negotiator Herb Cohen says that "negotiation is the analysis of information, time and power to affect behavior . . . the meeting of needs (yours and others) to make things happen the way you want them to." As a buffer and informed intermediary, the professional recruiter is better able to blend the needs and wants of both parties to arrive at a mutually beneficial arrangement with-out the polarizing roadblocks which too frequently materialize in face-to-face dealings.
Prioritizing company resources - It is often amazing to see how much of a company's revenues are squandered on non-productive perks for existing high-level employees while they penny-pinch on what is every company's life-blood . . . talent acquisition.
Club memberships and the like may be fine, but no one with an IQ higher than Forrest Gump's believes that these expenditures contribute to a company's profit margin. But one well-placed employee can be the cause of a company's profits skyrocketing. And the fee for having hired these people pales in insignificance when compared to the contributions they make to the bottom line.
The next time you think a recruiter's fees are too high, put them in the proper perspective before asking for that bargain Blue Light special or spinning your wheels thrash-in about trying to fill vital openings with less effective (but not necessarily less expensive) do-it-yourself methods. Savvy executives learned long ago that the fee paid to a recruiter is a shrewd strategic investment, not an extraneous expense.
Written by Paul Hawkinson, Publisher of The Fordyce Letter (www.fordyceletter.com)
Lisa Sprowls
The Filtration Group of RSI
Recruiter Solutions International
800-992-3875 ext. 313
lisa@rsipeople.com
Friday, June 19, 2015
Recruiting in the Filtration Industry
Lisa Sprowls is an Executive Recruiter specializing in serving the needs of the Filtration Industry. She works on a national basis on both contingency and retained searches. Positions range from General, Plant and Production Management, all areas of Manufacturing, Sales, Quality, Engineering, Human Resources, Financial and Technical, to the most Senior-Level Management positions in a company. RSI’s affiliation with BackTrack Inc. allows us to conduct full background checks on finalist candidates as a value-added service to our clients.
Lisa’s clients are primarily manufacturers, distributors and municipalities which range from the largest domestic and international companies, to small successful privately held organizations. Some areas include but are not limited to: Water, Oil, Gas, Air, Industrial, Cartridge, Chemical, Filtration & Separation, Membrane, Reverse Osmosis, Filtration Equipment, Filter Media, Fibers, Filtration Supplies, Wastewater, Storm Water Environmental, Dewatering Equipment, Woven, and Nonwovens.
Lisa, along with her team, appreciates the opportunity to introduce themselves to you and would look forward to working with you in the future. Please feel free to contact us at any time.
Lisa Sprowls
The Filtration Group of RSI
Phone – 800-992-3875 x313
E-mail lisa@rsipeople.com
Visit us at www.rsipeople.com/filtration
Has achieved pacesetter status
Member of The Water Environment Federation
Corporate Sponsor of American Filtration & Separations Society
Member of National Air Filtration Association
Member of INDA
Contributing Editor of Water and Wastewater.com Blog
Member of The Fluid Power Society
OAESP Member (Ohio Association of Executive Search Professionals)
Recruiter, Filtration, Water, Wastewater, Filtration Industry, Filtration Recruiter
Lisa’s clients are primarily manufacturers, distributors and municipalities which range from the largest domestic and international companies, to small successful privately held organizations. Some areas include but are not limited to: Water, Oil, Gas, Air, Industrial, Cartridge, Chemical, Filtration & Separation, Membrane, Reverse Osmosis, Filtration Equipment, Filter Media, Fibers, Filtration Supplies, Wastewater, Storm Water Environmental, Dewatering Equipment, Woven, and Nonwovens.
Lisa, along with her team, appreciates the opportunity to introduce themselves to you and would look forward to working with you in the future. Please feel free to contact us at any time.
Lisa Sprowls
The Filtration Group of RSI
Phone – 800-992-3875 x313
E-mail lisa@rsipeople.com
Visit us at www.rsipeople.com/filtration
Has achieved pacesetter status
Member of The Water Environment Federation
Corporate Sponsor of American Filtration & Separations Society
Member of National Air Filtration Association
Member of INDA
Contributing Editor of Water and Wastewater.com Blog
Member of The Fluid Power Society
OAESP Member (Ohio Association of Executive Search Professionals)
Recruiter, Filtration, Water, Wastewater, Filtration Industry, Filtration Recruiter
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Filtration Recruiter
As a Filtration Recruiter in the industry, we are always looking for good quality individuals that are looking for that next step in their career. Feel free to contact me directly or email me to discuss your background and see what opportunities we have. As always, all information is confidential.
Lisa Sprowls
Recruiter Solutions International
800-992-3875 ext. 313
lisa@rsipeople.com
www.rsipeople.com
Lisa Sprowls
Recruiter Solutions International
800-992-3875 ext. 313
lisa@rsipeople.com
www.rsipeople.com
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