Demand for College Graduates Climbs as Availability Continues to Fall

Most Americans do not have a college degree. Less than a third of the labor force over the age of 25 has a bachelor's degree and only about 10 percent have graduate degrees. Yet, for most professional or managerial jobs a bachelor's degree is not just preferred, but required. During the recession, with high unemployment and large perceived candidate availability, more roles began requiring advanced educations.

According to Burning Glass, a job boards analytics company, five years ago, just 12 percent of dental laboratory technician positions required a college degree, today, 33 percent do. Five years ago 43 percent of farm product buying and purchasing agent positions required bachelor's degrees, today 77 percent do. Other occupations including cargo agents, insurance adjustors, and engineering technicians have all seen similar degree inflation during the recession.

"Degree inflation comes both from employers trying to better filter resumes, but also from the growing technical requirements of many positions," says Rob Romaine, president of MRINetwork. "A draftsman used to need to go to a technical school to learn how to translate an architect's designs into blueprints with a pencil and a ruler. Today, that position requires the use of computer-aided design software, and understanding of architecture, mathematics, science and technology. And increasingly frequently, a bachelor's degree in architectural drafting and design too."

The portion of job postings for architectural drafters requiring a bachelor's degree has grown from 41 percent to 56 percent over the last five years according to Burning Glass.

The unemployment rate for bachelor's degree holders has fallen from 5 percent in late 2010 to 3.8 percent in November and it is just one small indicator of a lack of available professional talent. While more jobs may require bachelor's degrees, employers are also seeking candidates with more experience, something not necessarily obtained along with a degree. For those between 20 and 24 years old who want work, which includes recent college graduates, the unemployment rate is 12.7 percent, nearly twice the 6.5 percent unemployment rate for those over 25 years old.

"In general, unemployed bachelor's degree holders are younger, less experienced, and less likely to be a match for the most critical mid-career vacancies," says Romaine. "While there are clearly exceptions to this profile, finding the exceptions is one of the hardest parts of hiring in this economic environment."

Even while the economy has been growing over the last year-albeit slowly-the impact on employment levels for those with lower levels of educational attainment has been devastating. Total employment for those without any college experience has fallen by 535,000 jobs in the last twelve months. For those with college experience, however, total employment has grown by more than 2.5 million positions, with 1.9 million of those jobs going to bachelor's degree holders.

"For a company's most critical positions you have to hire someone who already has the education, skills and needed experience on day one. For many roles there is little room for on the job training and if there isn't an internal promotion possible, they will have to hire from the open market. That open market is a candidate pool which even in a struggling economy is extraordinarily tight," says Romaine.

Handling Employee Turmoil

We all have probably all been the topic of gossip at some point in our life, most likely in middle school.  But what happens when the dramatics of middle school enter the office?

Honestly, I was shocked when I started my research for this post. Unfortunately, this is a growing problem in all sectors of business.  In fact, a survey for Randstad USA found that 60% of employees list gossip as the Number One problem in the workplace.  It also found that only 8% of the issues get reported.

Gossip and harassment take a toll on not only the individual, but on the office as a whole.  This type of an atmosphere does not foster a team environment, causing productivity to suffer.  If a situation is allowed to escalate, it can create a hostile work environment, leaving not only the tormentor, but the employer as well, open to legal repercussions.

So how can you, as a manager, foster a positive work environment?

1. Address the issue and let the staff know that kind of behavior will not be tolerated.
2. Encourage communication between both parties with a manager present, while remaining impartial.
3. Have a policy in place to deal with workplace harassment.

Contributed by Tiffany Worstell, Eye Care Staff Recruiter-Nationwide. To contact Tiffany, call 540-491-9112, or email at tworstell@etsvision.com

Positive Momentum Grows as Fiscal Cliff Nears

Home prices have now been rising for eight months, and are now up more than 11 percent from a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors. The current supply on the market fell 1.4 percent in October, representing a 5.4-month supply, down from 7.6 months a year ago and the lowest level of supply since early 2006.

If home prices continue to rise as expected, it will have two significant effects on the labor market in the coming year and years ahead. The most direct result will be the increase in U.S. home construction. Not only did new home starts jump at an annualized rate of 15 percent in September, existing home sales often also results in more construction jobs as home owners renovate before selling or after purchasing.

"Construction employment is still down by 2.2 million jobs compared to its pre-recession peak and has had virtually no recovery," says Rob Romaine, president of MRINetwork. "Despite being less than 5 percent of the total U.S. workforce, that represents more than half of the 4.2 million jobs deficit from the pre-recession peak. Any economic activity that can increase employment for the sector will have the most immediate effect of reducing total U.S. unemployment and increasing U.S. consumer spending power."

Rising home prices will also add to U.S. spending power in another way--increasing equity. The cumulative growth in home equity has added $760 billion in equity to the U.S. economy, nearly equal to the $787-billion economic stimulus package approved in early 2009. Yet, that program was phased in over three years, whereas growing home equity will add another $1 trillion in the next year. While home equity can't immediately be spent on groceries or a new TV, especially if a mortgage is underwater, it can make obtaining credit easier, and can make consumers more confident to spend the cash they do have. Receipts from the holiday shopping season are just starting to be tallied but projections suggest total revenue in 2012 will grow by 4.1 percent, above the 3.5 percent average growth in the last decade.

"About 700,000 temporary retail jobs have been created this holiday season, up from last year. But retail jobs are just the last link in a long chain of jobs created by Black Friday and the weeks after it," says Romaine. "Should projections for a strong holiday season pan out, revenues over the last five weeks of the year will spur a new round of hiring for product development, design, manufacturing, supply chain, marketing, and branding professionals and managers to create and sell products for the 2013 holiday season."

While the economy's momentum continues to build, several significant and fast-approaching storm clouds remain on the horizon. Lawmakers have pushed several critical decisions into the post-election season. Consequentially, before the new year, a lame duck session of Congress will need to revisit a series of temporary tax cuts set to expire, new taxes set to be levied to support the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), expiring extended unemployment benefits, a 30 percent reduction in Medicare payments to doctors, and the first of eight annual $109 billion cuts in defense spending.

Collectively known as the fiscal cliff, should the laws stand as they are now written, more than $500 billion will be removed from the economy in 2013, causing a projected 0.5 percent drop in GDP. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this double-dip recession could cause the unemployment rate to surge back to 9 percent by the end of 2013.

"No one expects the fiscal cliff to occur in its current form, but what compromises will be made are still largely unknown," says Romaine. "Should the compromise be modest enough to prevent a double-dip recession, momentum in both the residential real estate market and consumer goods sectors bode well for unemployment to continue to decline next year as demand for professionals across industries will remain strong."

Practice Owners: 8 Simple Steps to Preparing a Business Plan for 2013

I am very pleased say our business has more than doubled over the past four years – a time period when more than 50% of the recruiters in the country exited the recruiting business due to the difficult economic environment. Certainly, much of our success here is due to our outstanding team of Account Executives/Recruiters, but I also attribute much of our success to taking the time and making the effort to write a comprehensive business plan every year. Even a talented team needs a plan! 

Every week our Account Executives/Recruiters speak with hundreds of practice owners. We have found that a surprisingly small percentage of business owners actually take the time and effort every year to develop a business plan, and that most of the truly successful practices we work with do have a plan in place. 

A business plan consists of three parts, which I will break down into eight steps: 

1. A statement of what you want your practice to be in the future. (Step 1)
2. An assessment of where your practice is today. (Step 2)
3. A realistic breakdown of the steps you need to take in order to get from where you are to where you want to be. (Steps 3-8)

The 8 Simple Steps to Preparing your Business Plan:

1.  Develop a Mission/Vision Statement for your practice – Simply stated, why does your practice exist? Who do you serve? What do you offer patients that they can’t get elsewhere? 

• Vision – Write out a compelling description of a future desired state of your practice. Make sure you can clearly picture what your practice will look like in the future. Think in terms of where you want to be. The purpose of the business plan is to lay out the steps between where you want to be and your current reality. 
• Values – What do you stand for? What are the guiding principals by which your practice operates? Values motivate us before we achieve a goal and determine how satisfied we are once we attain it. Does your current culture support your values?

2.  Assess Current Reality – In a few paragraphs summarize your results for 2012. It helps to look at your monthly financials.

• Positive Effects on Growth – In which areas of your practice are you experiencing the most success? How do you optimize those to produce continued results? 
• Negative Effects on Growth – In which areas of your practice are you experiencing more challenges? What do you need to change in order to obtain positive results? 
• Current Office Structure – Diagram current office structure. Will your current team, with their current duties and responsibilities help you achieve the vision for your practice?
• Understand your key metrics – What is the average per patient production for each doctor in your practice? 
• SWOT – Draw a box with four quadrants: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Be honest with yourself. Give a lot of thought to each area.

3. Describe what your practice will look like in 2017 – This is the fun part. Now is the time for specifics. There are plenty of ways to grow and be successful. In fact, some practices even choose to shrink and be profitable. It is up to you. 

• Will you limit your practice to a certain type of patient base?
• Will you cater to patient needs by expanding hours, days and providers in your current facility?
• Will you expand your facility to accommodate greater patient demand?
• Will you expand your presence in a market by acquiring or building new practice locations?
• How many patients will your practice see?What clinical services will you offer? 
• Will your equipment be all state of the art?
• Will your practice thrive because of your strong engagement with and ties to the community? 

4. Commit to your 2013 Key Initiatives – Decide on a small, achievable set of initiatives that will help move you toward your goal. In most cases, you can’t achieve your vision in just one year, but you can take steps toward reaching it. Typically these initiatives fall into one of five categories:

• Improving office efficiency – Improving your responsiveness to current patient demand by treating more patients, maintaining or improving the quality of care with the same number of resources (team members and operatories) by eliminating inefficiencies in your current systems and processes.
• Broadening your level of services – Providing your patients with more clinical choices, which in turn improves the value and revenue from each patient visit. 
• Increase Demand – Do a better job of filling your teams schedule through advertising, referral programs or adding new/profitable plans. 
• Add Capacity – Add new Optometrists or Ophthalmologists to your practice to satisfy demand. (Don’t take this step until you have the demand and efficiencies to add someone profitably). 
• Buy or create a new patient base – Serve a new patient pool by buying or starting a new practice. 

5. Break your goals up into Bite-sized Chunks – Figure out what your 2013 objectives mean to each team member. It is critical that you involve your team. If you involve them in the process it will improve their buy-in. They will probably be the source of many of your best ideas. Define what the plan means to each team member:

• Does it mean they need more training in a certain area? 
• Does it mean they need to schedule more efficiently? 
• Does it mean they need to improve recall? 

6. Install Guardrails – Make sure each member knows their daily, weekly and monthly goals. 

• This is as simple as taking your annual goals and dividing them by the number of working days in a year.
• The key to exceeding your goals every year is to exceed them every day. 
• Make it a routine to share results on a daily and weekly basis. 
• Reinforce how important each team members part is to the practices overall success. 
• Celebrate the daily and weekly victories. 

7. Create a Budget – This is the tough part. Budgeting is the toughest part of the process because it makes you say no to things you really want to do. Tips:

• Zero based budget – Challenge each cost. Don’t assume you have to pay for something this year, just because you did it last year. 
• Never count on revenue from a new hire or new initiative until it becomes a reality. Most practices count a very rosy picture when a new team member joins their practice. 
• Fund new initiatives off the excess. Don’t buy something or hire someone unless you can survive a failure. Don’t borrow money and risk your practice because you think a new Associate, new location, new piece of equipment will produce. Wait until you can afford a failure. “Plan for the worst, Hope for the best”. 

8. Print and Bind the Plan - Commit to the plan. Don’t just put it in your desk drawer.

• Carry it with you.
• Check progress weekly.
• Refer to it in team meetings.
• If you are falling behind, be aware of what needs to change and take action immediately.
• Celebrate the little victories and share them with your team.
• Bankers and perspective team members will LOVE you when you show them your plan.

You can do this! In fact, you should do it right now! You don’t need an MBA, CPA or Law degree to write a Business Plan for your practice. Certainly, advice from a trained professional is helpful, but in most cases you have what it takes to get the basics down on paper. 

You are the leader of your practice. If you are serious about growing your practice, offering new services, expanding your reach, serving new patients, and preparing for a comfortable retirement, you need to write a Business Plan. If you haven’t done so already, start your plan today!

Written by Mark Kennedy, Owner/Managing Director of Executive Talent Search (ETS Dental, ETS Vision, ETS Tech-Ops). To find out more, call ETS Vision at (540) 563-1688 or visit us online at www.etsvision.com.

A Decline in Productivity Could Lead to Growing Employment and a Self-Sustaining Recovery

In recent months, initial unemployment claims have edged down and the four-week moving average has fallen from over 400,000 claims a year ago to less than 370,000 a week. In September, the reported unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent crossing the critical psychological barrier of 8 percent for the first time since early 2009. U.S. consumer sentiment has actually reached a five year high in October according to the University of Michigan index.

"There is good reason to look at the economic data and say that the workforce situation continues to improve," says Rob Romaine, president of MRINetwork. "People continue to see friends and neighbors going to work and nothing will rebuild sentiment faster than that. Consumer debt, which is increasing after years of consecutive quarterly declines shows that people have more confidence in their jobs and in their economic future."

Adding weight to the deluge of economic figures, GDP grew at an annualized rate of 2 percent from 1.3 percent in the second quarter of the year. The figure was more positive than many economists projected, yet it still is unlikely enough to pull growth in 2012 as a whole over 2 percent. Such growth, though, is not typically enough to drive substantial improvements in employment markets, and certainly not enough to push unemployment down half a percent in two months. Yet, that isn't necessarily cause to think that either the employment or GDP figures are incorrect.

One potential cause is that productivity, which has increased through both the recession and the recovery, has reached a peak and employers are finding they can't keep running with the same level of staff. The current level of economic growth has become less of a temporary condition and more of the new normal. Managers can no longer count on staff to continue working under emergency conditions, especially as corporate America continues to see record profitability. Since the economy's peak in October of 2007 corporate after tax profitability has grown at nearly three times the rate of GDP.

Since about 2008, the number of employees voluntarily leaving their jobs fell significantly as people didn't want to, or couldn't change jobs at the rate they once did. The U.S. quit rate fell as low as 1.2 percent in late 2009, but has since recovered to 1.6 percent. The rate among workers who feel overworked or under-compensated is understandably even higher.

"Even if a company isn't cutting its staffing levels, it likely is losing employees to churn at a higher rate today than they were two years ago," says Romaine. "While though the recession managers might have tried to cover those losses with existing staff, today companies have reached a point where most positions vacated need to be backfilled. If a salary lasted in the budget through the recession, it was a position worth keeping filled."

If hiring is increasing, however, that could very well help add buying power to the economy just in time for the holiday season, giving a possible boost to fourth quarter GDP.

The United Kingdom recently experienced a similar situation where employment was growing while GDP was shrinking. The counter cyclical employment growth was puzzling to many economist giving it names like 'the employment paradox' and the 'economic puzzle.' Whatever the cause though, the increased employment likely helped to lift the UK economy out of recession in the third quarter.

So whether the dog wags the tail, or the tail wags the dog, 2013 seems to be building the potential for some upside surprise for both the economy and labor market.

Dating and Hiring an Optometrist – They are Just Not That into You

Hiring an associate optometrist is a lot like dating. A job seeker will do their best to impress while digging for information. A practice owner will tidy up and try to show the best face of the practice while probing for future issues. Both sides want to know if the other is interested but do not want to seem too anxious. Sound familiar?

As the process moves along, often the associate candidate will continue to push for the job even after the point there they realize that they would rather “keep dating other people.” It is important for the hiring practice to stay on the look out for warnings and clues before making an offer or, worse yet, hiring an optometrist who really does not intend to stay with the office over the long term.

Here is a list of red flags to look out for, as well as advice on how to deal with each:

Commitment to the Process

When a candidate’s commitment to work with you is in question, you may wish to ask, ‘I am sensing that you are not 100% committed to making a career change at this time, and that is 100% acceptable.  Am I reading this correctly?’

--Candidate doesn’t do research on the practice.

• Ask how committed the candidate is to making a job change.

--Candidate coughs, clears throat, acts nervous.

• Don’t be afraid to ask the candidate to explain his/her nervousness.

--Candidate does not reply promptly to calls or emails.

• Don’t be afraid to ask the candidate how important the opportunity is to him/her, how serious or interested he/she is in the position.

 --Candidate resigns from current job before accepting an offer.

• Ask them directly for their reason for resigning ‘early.’

-- Candidate does not respond to your requests.  Returns calls at odd hours or doesn’t return calls at all.

• State that ‘this is my last phone call to you’ to force a response.

 --Candidate nit-picks parts of an offer, deflecting your attention.

• Ask how committed the candidate is to making a job change.

Willingness/Availability to Relocate

When you have questions about a candidate’s willingness or ability to relocate, consider asking them if they will speak with realtor or relocation coach.

 --Candidate agrees to relocate his/her family when significant other has a good job and children are in school.

• Talk with significant other, recruit him/her and confirm that relocation is acceptable.

 --Candidate has shared custody of children.

• Ask how this will affect a candidate’s decision to move forward on an offer.

 --Candidate has high school age children.

• Ask if the candidate has discussed the potential of a move with the entire family.

 --Candidate has recently purchased a house.

• Ask candidates how long they have owned their homes or how much equity they have in their homes.  Ask candidate if they have checked with their accountant regarding their state’s capital gains tax laws.  (Some states require you to own a home for a specified number of years.)

Qualifications

When you suspect that a candidate has lied, exaggerated or generalized their qualifications or experience, you need to ask specific questions and obtain written documentation that verifies his/her claims.

--Candidate says he/she cannot share production figures because those numbers are confidential.

• Reference check to assess candidate’s accomplishments. 

 --Candidate provides unusually larger production figures

• Verify their payment structure and ask them what their W2 income was last year. Simple math will verify if the production number was more or less accurate. Ask for a copy of the W2 if you feel it is necessary

 --Candidate’s resume states an accomplishment as ‘number 5 producer in the region.’

• Ask for specifics.  There might only be 6 in the region.

Unrealistic Expectations

It’s relatively easy to recognize when candidates have unrealistically high expectations about their next career moves.  What’s not as obvious are candidates who apparently lower their expectations for their future roles.  

--Candidate is unwilling to lower his/her expectations about compensation or is inconsistent about their desired salary.

• Ask the candidate why he/she deserves a certain level of compensation and explain what level is realistic. 

 --Candidate insists that his/her travel expenses for interviewing be paid up front by the company

• Question the candidate’s commitment to making a change.

References 

Candidates may provide incomplete or inappropriate references, or resist providing any references.

--Candidate can’t provide references; says they won’t compromise their current situation.

• Explain the importance of good references.  Make an offer contingent upon satisfactory reference checks. 

--References are all peers, subordinates, patients, suppliers.

• Be proactive by outlining what kinds of references are acceptable.

 Material provided by Management Recruiters International. Contributed by Chante Smith, Account Executive/Recruiter for ETS Vision, www.etsvision.com | csmith@etsvision.com | 540-491-9105.

Longer Tenures Create Opportunities for Workers and Challenges for Employers

It’s become gospel in recent years that workers jump from job to job to job. Some reports say that the average person entering the workforce today will go through as many as 20 jobs in a career. It’s been cited as a symptom of a new crop of workers who avoid committing to a single employer more than a few years. Job hopping has become so mainstream that staying with a single company for more than three or four years now needs to be justified with evidence of accomplishments and career advancement, much in the way job hopping has had to have justification behind it. 

 

It’s a trend that was true of male workers from the early 1980’s through the late 1990’s. In that time frame, the current tenure of wage and salaried male employees over 25 years old fell from 5.9 years to 4.9 years. Since 2002, however, the median male tenure actually grew from 4.9 to 5.5 years. Over that same period, the median tenure of women grew from 4.4 years to 5.4 years—tenures of women had also grown in the decade and a half when male tenures were falling, but that is largely attributable to a change in the career mix of women which began to favor longer tenure-professions. 

 

 

“The 1980s and 90s was a period filled with tremendous opportunity, when employees discovered the power of being free agents and the salary advantages of changing jobs. Since the turn of the millennium though, the economy has been markedly less stable, and employees have been less likely to seek out unnecessary instability by changing positions,” says Rob Romaine, president of MRINetwork. 

 

While consistent tenures of less than three or four years can still cause negative perceptions, being open to change careers in a slow economy like today can be an effective way to jumpstart a career. During the recession many employees took on added responsibilities without receiving a promotion, and those who did see promotion, often saw them in title only. The slow economy caused annual salary adjustments to stay in the low single-digit percentages, yet job changers who succeeded at adding value to their organizations throughout the recession can now find salary increases of 10 or 20 percent or more with new employers.

 

“In sectors of the economy that have reached, or even far surpassed their pre-recession levels, like technical consulting, accounting, or healthcare, rising tenure can mean even fewer experienced candidates are available for mid-career opportunities,” notes Romaine. “But, it also means that opportunities for those willing to change positions will be both more plentiful, and have more potential for reward.” 

 

Median tenure for the healthcare industry over the last decade has increased from 3.5 to 4.4 years, lengthening by three-tenths of a year since just 2010. Professional and technical services median tenure has grown even more—from 3.1 to 4.4 years since 2002. 

 

For employers trying to find top performers, workers staying in their positions longer means simply finding them becomes more difficult. The longer someone isn’t actively in the job market, the older and more out of date their discoverable footprints become. LinkedIn profiles go unmaintained. Resumes in databases grow so old they are irrelevant. 

 

“Finding top talent that isn’t trying to be found requires constant surveillance and proactive network-building. There is nothing automated about the process and it’s challenging for an internal recruiting apparatus to proactively build a pipeline for key positions that a company may only be hiring for every few years,” notes Romaine.