Tag Archives: Talent Acquisition

Should You Chat Informally Before an Interview?

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by Brian Swider, Brad Harris,Murray Barrick

 

photo_uniqueJob interviews typically begin with a set of seemingly innocuous questions unrelated to the job: How is your day going? Got any plans for the weekend? How was traffic on your way in?

It is commonly assumed that job candidates and interviewers both prefer to start with these types of questions rather than just diving into the more rigid and formal structured interview topics. After all, small talk is typically how most interactions between strangers begin. Interviewers also believe these little interactions, academically referred to as “rapport building,” help to loosen up nervous job candidates and lead to candid responses in the subsequent job-related questioning. (Note: Although this premise is intuitive, research has yet to substantiate it.) Continue reading →

What is top talent and how is that identified?

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As a part of our talent acquisition engagements, we ask our clients how they define “top talent” and how they would assess those traits in the interview process.  Reflecting on the insightful comments we hear every day, we thought there would be great value in a new blog in which senior executives/thought leaders share their “Take on Talent.”

This is the ninth in a series of blogs/interviews with senior executives who are thought leaders in the areas of Talent Acquisition, Career Development and Leadership who will share their perspectives on this ever present question.

 

 

chris_stancombe

Christopher Stancombe is the Chief Operating Officer for Capgemini Business Services. Christopher joined Capgemini in 2005.  He has been instrumental in the growth and development of the Business Services Organization and has successfully established Capgemini as a worldwide leader in Finance and Accounting Outsourcing.  He leads the delivery organization that supports a broad range of services to clients and drives innovation across all of our offerings.

 

Continue reading →

Why Marissa Mayer’s Ultimate Talent Acquisition Strategy Failed

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by Cale Guthrie Weissman

Though the writing has been on the wall for months—if not years—Yahoo has finally been acquired. Verizon has scooped up the company to the tune of $4.8 billion. For many, this is the beginning of the end of a years-long saga to fix a seemingly broken digital media company; Verizon says it will use the new assets to build a digital media empire. For others, it’s just another chance to pile on the blame game for CEO Marissa Mayer.

All the same, there’s one big question that hasn’t quite been answered, and perhaps never will be: What exactly went wrong? While there are hundreds of facets to this broad question, there’s one big strategy Mayer opted to take as chief executive: acquisitions. Over the course of her four-year tenure, she acquired more than 50 companies and spent more than $2 billion. Continue reading →

What is top talent and how is that identified?

Posted on

As a part of our talent acquisition engagements, we ask our clients how they define “top talent” and how they would assess those traits in the interview process.  Reflecting on the insightful comments we hear every day, we thought there would be great value in a new blog in which senior executives/thought leaders share their “Take on Talent.”

This is the seventh in a series of blogs/interviews with senior executives who are thought leaders in the areas of  Talent Acquisition, Career Development and Leadership who will share their perspectives on this ever present question.

 

SanjaySanjay Arora is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Global F&A with Arvato Financial Solutions – A Bertelsmann Group Company  (Bertelsmann is a media, services and education company that operates in about 50 countries around the world. The company has 117,000 employees and generated revenues of €17.1 billion in the 2015 financial year.)

Prior to this, Sanjay Arora was the Managing Director at Accenture responsible for Pacific CMT BPO Operations.

Prior to Accenture, Sanjay held several positions in American Express for Global Reporting, Global Re-engineering & Transformation Initiatives and for setting up Global Shared Services Center in India. Continue reading →

How to Hire Without Getting Fooled by First Impressions

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By Tanya Menon and Leigh Thompson

Dr. James is a leading ophthalmologist at a major medical clinic. Passionate about medicine, he wanted to hire someone to run the business operations of his practice. He carefully reviewed over 200 resumes and conducted background checks, finally deciding to hire Mike, a highly credentialed MBA who seemed to check off all the boxes Dr. James was looking for in the new hire.

But within weeks, Dr. James realized that he’d made a big hiring mistake. Despite a stellar performance in the interview, Mike disrupted the office within his first month on the job. He communicated with the staff mostly by email or spreadsheet assignments, and when he attended meetings he seemed absorbed with his smartphone and would roll his eyes when the staff didn’t understand certain accounting or finance terms. Continue reading →