My Thoughts: CIO Magazine Article Names Top Skills

Earlier this year a list of top SAP-related certifications was compiled by CIO Magazine. Here’s what my list would’ve contained.

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Today I want to discuss an article written earlier this year that I recently read in CIO Magazine. It’s called, “The 10 IT Skills Paying the Highest Premiums Today,” by Sarah White.

Now, there were things in this article that I agreed with, things that I disagreed with, and things I was surprised to see left out entirely.

Do bear in mind that the data informing the article was collected by European company Foot Partners, so it may be less relevant to the U.S.

Here are the 10 certifications mentioned in the article: 

1. SAP Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS)
2. General Data Protection Regulation
3. Lawson, an ERP software competing with SAP.
4. SAP Forecasting and Replenishment.
5. SAP Point-of-Sale Data Management
6. SAP Financial Services
7. Java Software Development
8. Microsoft Visio (a data visualization program)
9. Data visualization tools such as Tableau
10. Quantitative analysis, regression analysis, and interpreting big data

It could be that there are notable differences between the North American and European markets, but I was shocked to see that the Internet of Things and connectivity had been left off the list, along with AI and predictive analytics and robot process automation.

Also missing from the list were the in-demand skills of cybersecurity, identity and access management, governance, risk, and compliance. 

I would have included others like e-commerce and hybrid cloud projects. Clients are always chasing talent with these certifications and are willing to supply them with an enviable income.

Lastly, within SAP, we’re seeing more demand for Hybris, Callidus Cloud, and Qualtrics—something the article did not mention.

Meanwhile, EHS, the list’s No. 1 spot, strikes me as an interesting selection. We just honestly don’t see a lot of demand for SAP EHS skills.

I encourage you to read the article for yourselves. Email me if you have any questions or thoughts, I’d love to see what you agreed or disagreed with.

5 Creative Ways to Hire the Finest Talent

Five creative ways to hire the best talent for your business. 

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Today I want to discuss creative ways to land the toughest, finest talent. We all want them, but they’re a little more difficult to entice with an offer. I’m sharing five tips today that can help you nab the most challenging, talented people.

1. Ask great questions. Ask excellent questions early during the interview process. For example, what do they love about their current opportunities, and where do they want to be in three to five years? Then build their answers into your sales pitch and discuss how the role you want them for can help them get where they want to be even quicker.

2. Do something non-monetary. Find out what non-financial benefits you can provide that will make your offer stand out. Candidates don’t always just look at the salary. For example, for no extra cost, could you make the title of the position more enticing?

3. Work-life balance. Ensure your offer can provide your potential new hire with proper work-life balance, quality of life, and flexibility. These are things that are tempting to many people. Can your opportunity allow a flexible work schedule? Can you allow occasional work from home? Build these things into your sales pitch.

4. Make your offer better. Can you make your total package offer at least 20% better than your possible new hire’s current package? No lowballing, come in with the best offer right away, and maybe consider a six-month performance review in the offer letter. This allows them to feel that if they are doing wonderfully, they already know they have a chance to earn a raise.

5. Sign-up bonus. Get creative with your sign-up bonuses. When you can’t get there on the salary, what can you do creatively at sign-on? For example, offer a $30,000 sign-on bonus, but they only receive $10,000 on their first paycheck, then give them $10,000 more on their one- and two-year anniversaries. That’s $30,000 of guaranteed income right away.

If you have any further questions about hiring the best talent, feel free to reach out by phone or email. We would love to help you. We wish you a great holiday season and look forward to engaging with you more in the future.

Don’t Make These Mistakes If You’re Hiring During the Holiday Season

Many hiring authorities tend to think that hiring should slow or stop around the holidays. That’s simply not true, and I have a few reasons why.

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Today I’d like to talk about common mistakes that businesses make with regards to hiring during the holiday season.

As a recruiting firm, we’ve noticed that hiring managers, HR leadership, and other company leaders out in the marketplace tend to think that hiring needs to slow down or stop altogether due to the holidays.

That’s just not true. Some of our best months at our recruiting firm have been November and December. There are a couple of reasons why I think that is.

First, Christmas and New Year’s are times of reflection. People are always looking at New Year’s resolutions, and one of the most popular resolutions people make is to find a new job or career, especially if they’re unhappy with their current one.

November and December can be great times to continue hiring, depending on a company’s fiscal year. If you want to get a headcount filled in the calendar year, sometimes it’s better to get that position filled in the latter months of the year, on the slight possibility that the leadership within your company may cancel the role altogether.

Some of our best months at our recruiting firm have been November and December.

For another reason, companies don’t always think ahead about their calendars in terms of start dates for new hires. If you want someone to start in December, the time to start that recruiting process is now because the recruiting and interviewing cycles can take up to two weeks each.

On top of that, navigating that process while also juggling the busy schedules companies and candidates alike have surrounding the holidays can become really difficult. For many, those two weeks are shot.

Further still, while the recruiting cycle can take up to two weeks, the interviewing process to get to the offer stage can take up to two weeks, you also have the two-week notice that most people will have to give at their current job before they can start their new role at your company.

It’s very easy to see why, even if you think you want to hire someone in January, the time to get started on recruiting new talent starts right now in November. Don’t wait until late December or January, or you'll risk pushing that starting date all the way back into February or March.

Hiring authorities may just not have considered some of these things in their process, but these absolutely will impact start dates and hiring all the way into January and February. Again, don’t wait until it’s too late.

On that note, I want to wish everyone a great holiday season for 2019. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.