I am truly amazed and ashamed at the way most of our service-related peoplekind treat their customers – even themselves or fellow employees IN FRONT OF YOU.  I can remember an era when service was KING and companies actually wanted your business enough to manage, instruct and oh my god NO – supervise their employees.  There were business ethics and those expectations flowed all the way down each rung to the bottom of the business ladder. 

But things change.  For longer than I care to remember, I’ve had to control myself from slapping some smart a** sales clerk, waiter or service rep who could care less if you ate/bought/worked right/lived.  (Yep, my patience isn’t what it used to be.)  I keep thinking – WOW – if I managed this group – I’d fire every one of them and start over.  I believe that this is a direct result of the loss of the ethics I talked about above – the embarrassing, financially devastating, greed and power grabbing that has infested our businesses and politics every where you look. As I am sure you can attest, we have suffered grievously because of it.

But things change.  I may be taking too early a temperature – but I wonder if the issues we have gone through/still are going through are spinning a reversal.  Lately, I‘ve worked with  the nicest, eager to please/want to help – are in it for the long run with you till its fixed kind of employees and service peeps.  It is such a great juxtaposition that the good attitudes and cheerful “how can I help yous” really stick out. Outrageously better. And I’m finding this wonderfully pleasing attitude everywhere.  People want to help me.  People want to do their jobs.  WHAT A CONCEPT.  Despite doing the work of 3 people they are happy to have a job – and want to keep it? And they have pride in what they do?

Things Change. I know we still have a huge mess that needs fixin (excuse my Texism here) – but perhaps those hard working peeps somewhere near the bottom of the ladder who have realized what is important and express/display good business ethics and joy in what they do can infect those at the top?  We can only hope.

When you need help with a search, what are you truly looking for?

Superior Performance – Top Talent – Uncompromising Ethics? 

Search firms and corporate clients outsource for a variety of needs and reasons, but they are all looking for the same things: they want superior service and comprehensive, individualized solutions on a per project basis bundled with the trust a true partner brings.

I’ve been in this business a long time and I have found that it is the finest RPO’s (Recruiting Process Outsourcing) skill sets that set them apart and enable them to serve clients in multiple capacities and every industry.  They look out for the client’s best interest, first and foremost.  Their out-of-the-box ideas and creative approaches allow their clients to reap the benefits of a complete solution – on time, on budget with professionalism.

The most successful partnership is that of a vested/interested/communicative client and superior RPO.  Are you looking to outsource?  There are many avenues you could choose.  Check them out.  What’s in their arsenal?

I am the world’s most organized person. Well, it doesn’t hurt to think that way at least. Not until I’ve filed and catalogued so much I don’t know where the heck it all is anymore. Like a pre-schooler who does not like one food group to touch another, I diligently bookmark into categories all worldly pertinent info that catches my eye. Pertinent and important in my world of sourcing that is. Of course I bet you I have stuff filed from 5 years ago and the URL no longer even exists. Yep time for some cyber spring cleaning…..ah the sweet scent of springtime!

The sourcing masters from SourceCon have shown us so much. I bow to the great ones. I don’t do half of it I admit (though I’d like to be set up like ‘em all “slick and click” but I haven’t got to the “just do it” part yet) but like they say, “set-up and use what you are comfortable with”, and therein lies the golden key.

So I do my own home grown version with a little tweaking. I have my links grouped in a few main areas as a quick go to and would like to share.

1. Search Engines (includes the custom ones & some spider automation type tools)
2. Professional & Social Networking (boy is this group going crazy!
3. Locator Tools (all those yellow and white page types –Pipl, Whoozy, 123)
4. Job Boards & Resume Databases (paid and free)
5. Subscription sites (what we pay for other than job boards)
6. Sources – Biz Related (like Layoff Trackers and those snazzy Visual Mapping sites)
7. Salary & Compensation
8. Knowledgebase (for all the stuff I subscribe to enhance my self learning)
9. Find – my catchall category for various Glossaries, Patent search sites, campaign donor sites (yeah, can you get some names off there & I don’t care a hoot for political affiliations!) and any off the cuff really interesting stuff I come across.

So what’s the big deal?
Now I go one step further in my fairly simplistic common sense approach home grown methodology. Within a group I re-name the site urls. For example within the Search Engine Group I have several links that specifically search Twitter and yes, for the most part they have those names that start with the proverbial “TW-this” or “TW-that” but I re-name them so the file name becomes something like

“TWITTER – Actual Name of the Site – any other description info”

When I alpha sort my link, all my go to sources for searching on Twitter are all listed together. Power in team work!! Besides I make sure I am covering my bases

Perhaps some of you already do this (so indulge me) and some don’t (so hope this was somewhat helpful)

Some day, post all the spring cleaning, I hope to be super cyber slick clickety-click organized! For now this will do. Sorry what did you need? Oh shoot, now where in the world did I file…hmm…come out come out wherever you are!!