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IRES, Inc. Celebrates 30 Years!

IRES – Inter-Regional Executive Search, Inc. is proud to be celebrating 30 years of providing outstanding talent to the insurance industry.

We Thank all of the clients and candidates (many who have eventually become hiring managers themselves) who have entrusted their companies and careers with us.

1.5 million Americans were laid off during the recession of 1990-1991. At the time it was called the great recession. On January 31 Frank Risalvato filed incorporation papers to launch IRES, Inc. Many believed we would not last through the end of the year.

But for every cloud there is a silver lining. Many white collar professionals with significant experience were also caught up during this recession. This offered a wide talent pool of deep experience to build our team from.

Originally it was Hank Halat, Walter Broliwiecz, Randi Moore, Randy Johnson, who built our pharmacetial, telecommunications, insurance, and chemical engineering recruiting practices. Each having over a decade of hiring and supervising their own teams at prior companies and came with a large contact list.

Whether its the S&L recession, dot-com bust, asian crisis, mortgage crisis, Black Monday, or a pandemic crisis – there’s always plentiful reasons to not do something but rarely are all the stars in perfect alignment to launch a company.

We hope our experience offers many others contemplating making a career move to not focus on negatives which always will exist. Focus on what could be.

We thank all our early client families who placed their trust in us, many who continued doing business with us for 10, 20 and more years consecutively, for all your trust, confidence, and friendship.

Little Known Facts

Little Known Facts About:

Scheduling Human Resource Phone Screens

Fact #1

Most Internal HR recruiters or talent acquisition specialists are severely stretched even on a good day

Fact #2

Corporate recruiters often condense their telephone screens into blocks of time so as to not scatter them through the week. This often means your interview is being condensed into a day where several others are taking place

Fact #3

A typical corporate HR individual can have as many as 25 or more phone screens set up in one day. At 15 minutes each, this represents 12 phone screens in a single morning or afternoon.

Fact #4

If you schedule your HR phone screen later in the day, such as after lunch, you are likely to encounter a weary individual who has heard the same responses you are about to give over a dozen times.

CONCLUSION

Always strive to schedule your HR phone screen as early as possible or first thing in the morning.

Ask “what is the earliest availability you have in the morning?” That’s when you want to set up your phone screen. This way you will catch HR at their freshest and most attentive. By noon or later, you might find yourself talking to an HR representative who has already held a dozen or more pre-screens and your interview will struggle to stand out.  

Insurance Hiring Trends 2020

Insurance Hiring Trends

One recruiting trend evolving since mid-2018 is the lengthening timeline for recruitment. Many talent procurement searches that normally would take 30-90 days, are more commonly expanding to 6 months and even one year or more depending on the niche. The timeline currently can be triple that required just 3 years ago. Companies should be aware of this and avoid waiting until the last minute to begin their search for talent.

Several of IRES’s talent procurement projects initiated between 2018 and early 2019 took well over one year to conclude and many peers in trade organizations report the same findings. The reasons are varied. Competition is at an all time high. Compensation demands have increased. Publicly traded companies are often hamstrung by the inability to offer necessary sign-on or hiring bonuses needed to win over candidates acceptance

Some companies are encumbered by a slow process causing hesitant candidates to abort.

Here are the top 5 causes that prohibit companies to conclude successful hires quickly.

Potholes To The Corporate Recruiting Process

  1. Human Resources Limited Availability Causing Delays Arranging 1st Interview
  2. Excessive Initial Interviews Instead of Single Consolidated
  3. “Wild Card” Management That’s Not Relevant to Hiring
  4. Non-Existent Offer Remuneration Preparedness
  5. Lack of Compensation Negotiation Capabilities

AVAILABLE TALENT FEBRUARY 2020

STRATEGIC INSURANCE CARRIER OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE

DC to Boston Corridor or other major U.S. City

  • Executive with multi-billion dollar company experience including heavy Latin American & European Division management
    • Seeking COO or similar role over large company segment
    • Manage multiple SBUs with full P&L responsibility and over 1500 employees
    • Multi-Lingual
    • Multiple designations/Numerous degrees from top-tier universities
    • $300K U.S. base target

PROFESSIONAL/MANAGEMENT LIABILITY

North New Jersey/NYC

  • Senior through VP level program management and MGU experienced underwriters
  • Lawyers, accountants, architects, medical and other professional liability lines experience underwriters
    • Various salaries from senior underwriter through AVP level

ACCIDENT & HEALTH

North New Jersey (Union, Essex, Morris and other counties)

  • Specialty A&H and travel-related A&H underwriters
    • Several individuals seeking new organizational opportunities

INLAND MARINE

Connecticut

  • Senior/VP Inland Marine

P&C ACCOUNTING

Dallas, TX

  • Senior P&C Portfolio Accountant
    • Commercial P&C experienced

LIFE & HEALTH UNDERWRITING

North NJ

  • Senior Life and Health Underwriter
    • Program Management experienced

LICENSED AGENCY TALENT – P&C COMMERCIAL AND PERSONAL LINES
NJ – FL – PA – DALLAS – ATLANTA

  • Several individuals in each city resulting from recently completed searches

SURETY BOND TALENT

Mid-Atlantic Region

  • In house legal counsel/attorney/JD construction and bond experienced

Central FL

  • Contract Bond Underwriters
    • SBA/Small Contractors/Funds/Tools experienced
  • Commercial Surety Bond Underwriters
    • Small accounts and Miscellaneous experienced

Colorado Springs/Denver, CO

  • Surety Bond Account Manager/CSR
    • Seeks carrier or agency support role as either UW Assistant/Account Manager

Charlotte Metro, NC

  • Contract Surety Bond UW’s
    • Small-to mid-sized contractor experienced

Nashville, TN

  • Surety bond specialists with various skills

Pennsylvania

  • Contract Bond UW – Mid-Atlantic territory capabilities with mid-to-large contract bond accounts

Dallas, TX

  • SBA, small contract-focused, production/premium driven, surety bond underwriter
    • Knowledgeable with funds administration and other necessary tools for small contract bond underwriting

Western US

  • Commercial surety bond regional leader
    • Decades of agent/broker relationships along with strong account following
    • Seeking A or A+ paper with large T-listing suitable for moving business

Greater Cincinnati Metro, OH

  • 16+ year experienced contract bond underwriter with both home office and field experience.
    • Ideal for work-from-home or office, bond underwriter role
    • Proficient with small contractor and related agents

Columbia/Greenville/Spartanburg , SC

  • Bond UW trainee position sought for bond agent with 13 years banking/insurance experience

Northeast US

  • Surety bond junior executive with large to small contract Surety Management over large swatch of US branches.
    • Seeks leadership role leveraging more than 15 years management experience

The Many Definitions of a Recruiter

When it comes to finding an appropriate title that describes what a recruiter does, the vocabulary in the English language falls completely flat. The term recruiter can take on many meanings depending on which profession it is being applied to in the moment.

For example, in collegiate sports, recruiting is used to funnel athletic talent onto a team that is guaranteed to lose its senior class each year to graduation. In the fine arts, such as musicians, actors, and performers, recruiting can be a talent agency constantly on the lookout for the next big star.

Hospitals recruit physicians and technicians, while nursing homes continuously recruit nurses often from multiple countries. There are recruiting firms that specialize in recruiting hospitality staff for five-star resorts and those that cater (pun intended) only to supplying sous chefs to small restaurants. Universities also use external recruiting firms for recruiting provosts, presidents, and other posts in academia. Law firms use recruiters. Cities, counties and municipalities use recruiting firms for heads of transportation, education, and other department leadership. Name 1000 specialties and I can tell you there are 10 search firms serving each niche.

As a founding partner of IRES, a talent acquisition firm soon entering its thirtieth year, I’ve sat in countless boardrooms, conference rooms and executive offices from mid-town Manhattan to Los Angeles, and Mexico City to Toronto including financial hubs of Europe. From this experience, I have come to realize even C-suite executives, and those comprising of their upper management teams, have little realization of how much expertise a capable executive search consultant possesses. It’s not their fault as recruiting outside of the company is for most, like replacing the roof on your house: it’s something many executives do not get involved with each year.  

Here are a few of the skills my team and I must bring to the table in order to deliver consistent results:

  1. Social Worker
  2. Career Consultant
  3. Marriage Counselor
  4. Family Planner
  5. Behavioral Therapist
  6. Human Lie Detector
  7. Travel Coordinator
  8. Logistic Manager
  9. Project Manager
  10. Corporate Culture Converter
  11. Psychotherapist
  12. Vacation Consultant
  13. Retirement Advisor*
  14. Wealth Planner
  15. Event Coordinator
  16. Cheerleading Captain
  17. 401K Advisor
  18. Tax Consultant*
  19. Strategic Planning
  20. Estate Planning *
  21. Investment Advisor*
  22. Merger and Acquisition Consultant
  23. Reference and Employment Verifier
  24. Background Check Professional
  25. Joint Venture Advisor
  26. Dress and Fashion Wardrobe Consultant
  27. Private Investigator
  28. Social Media Reputation Consultant
  29. Communication Advisor
  30. Proofreader
  31. Editor
  32. Communication Specialist
  33. Raconteur
  34. Resume Evaluator
  35. Venue Selector
  36. Restaurant Coordinator

Above all a professional executive recruiter MUST be knowledgeable with all Federal Compliance Laws affecting hiring including but not limited to:

  1. FMLA
    1. ADA
    1. PDA
    1. USERRA
    1. ERISA
    1. COBRA
    1. HIPAA
    1. FLSA
    1. EPA
    1. ADEA
    1. IRCA
    1. NLRA
    1. DFWA
    1. GINA
    1. Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
    1. I-9 Compliance
    1. FCRA (pertains to reference & background checks)
    1. Title VII

So, there you have it! More than forty different underlying skills are necessary to be a successful recruiter (occasionally I perform those skills in one of 4 languages). The simple title of recruiter does a very poor job of explaining what a recruiter actually does. I’m thinking magician might be more apropos!

If you have made it this far I hope you have a better appreciation of the multitude of skills a competent talent acquisition and executive search firm must bring to bear on each hiring project.

* Our involvement on such issues is limited to helping identify the need for a  CPA, Attorney, CFP or other dedicated professional.

Counteroffers and Double Counteroffers are Back!

Counteroffers and Double Counteroffers are Back!

As we’ve said in the last two years during 2016 and 2017, there’s no point conducting a search unless you are prepared to provide a sufficiently generous offer likely to get someone to accept and resign. A meager 5% increase or even 15% is often insufficient enticement. What’s generous defined as?

That’s spelled out in our job offer booklet and usually equates to a twenty-percent increase at a bare minimum. More is better.  Counteroffers are prevalent and should be factored into the offer and considered a given expectation. Just as is the case with certain real estate markets.  It’s important your job offer is set at a sufficiently high enough percentage point above someone’s current salary so as to be counteroffer proof!

But why are there more counteroffers? Competition is fierce, with a national unemployment rate at 3.9 percent, a rate that is significantly low for executive ranks, and 6.7 million positions open nationwide, there is a clear disparity between the supply and demand of talented professionals.  Because of this reality, companies will do anything to retain talent, which means plenty of counteroffers. So, how do you ensure candidates are not going to accept them?

  • Factor in that sweet spot range – Bottom line: make it a salary they won’t want to say “no” to. In our special report we reveal what the best target salary range is for job offers. This research-based monetary range can help enhance an offer, but other factors can still remain for your candidate.
  • Do your market research – Besides monetary compensation, how does your overall compensation package stack up to industry and regional averages? This can be difficult to determine, so using a recruiter to find out the hot buttons can help. Recruiters can help you move a candidate to the final offer, acceptance, and see them actually show up. Recruiters have the intel and can help companies and hiring managers sell their company to the candidates in this hot market.
  • Tell them about the environment and benefits– Lastly, what benefits and retirement contribution plans do you provide? Will there be additional bonuses throughout the year? In addition to salary and compensation, candidates want to see what other elements of the job will be satisfying to move on. The talent pool is competitive, and the competition is fierce, so incorporating this element and making sure it is a highlight will help you get them to accept.

“Ghosting” in the Work Place

“Ghosting” in the Work Place

What’s all this “ghosting” about?!

A recent article that has made its rounds on LinkedIn (and eventually wound up on the Yahoo news’ home page) which was promoted by their chief executive of hype and propaganda to shed light on what seemed to be a new phenomenon of “ghosting” in the workplace.

Upon reading, I discovered the first few sentences of the article made me believe this referred to no-show jobs where people are hired, but their ‘ghost’ so-to-speak, is the only part that shows up for the job – something that alludes to what we have heard about government and municipal positions, at times. As it turned out, after reading the article, it was not about that at all.

The term “ghosting” in reference to the workplace is just a new, catchy term coined for what those of us who are more experienced have known about for decades.

We used to call it many things such as “going radio silent” or “flaking out” but the issue was always the same: someone didn’t show up for their interview and/or job. Usually this happens at lower levels below the $100k range, but the phenomenon has no limits on salary and I have seen CFO and COOs behave the same, although at much lower frequencies.

Whether it’s called an interview “no-show”, job “no-show”, flaking out, vanishing, “going radio-silent”, or the latest catch-phrase, “ghosting”, the problem is all the same— it points to a lack of professional conduct.  The old saying here still applies: everyone you meet taking the elevator up will be the same you meet on the way down. What might embolden someone to think they can casually disregard bothering to cancel an interview will come back to haunt (pun intended) that person later when economic times roughen up and her/his recruiter remembers their unprofessional, discourteous behavior.

The moral of the story here is if you don’t want the job, call up and say so, it is much better than blocking the phone and spooking out.

Reduce your Time-to-Hire Process

Reduce your Time-to-Hire Process

Many companies we hear from each week remain oblivious to the fact that hotly contested talent in key cities from coast-to-coast have multiple opportunities and offers available to them. Between those multiple offers and counteroffers, the tug-of-war for talent is now in full swing. Only those companies with the right blend of perks, incentives, working conditions, fringe benefits, and compensation packages are going to stand any chance at winning the battle.

At times, even incentives and great working conditions may become insufficient if a company’s hiring process is lethargic. The hiring process becomes critical as organizations herd candidates along from first interview to the offer and (hopefully) acceptance stage. Only the quickest and most efficient of those companies will claim victory .

One large insurance company we’re aware of makes a great example of a company that rapidly hires and on-boards individuals faster than the competition can blink. In fact in several cities ranging from Northern California, to Phoenix, Arizona, and Dallas to Florida, they have hired rapidly while the competition lost out. Stringing along talent through unnecessary or lengthy interviews, or arduous profile testing procedures, is likely to dissuade rather than persuade. We’ve observed a few cases this year where the individual candidate decided he/she is worth much more just from making it to the offer stage suddenly increasing their salary requirement beyond the company’s budget. Another example of the pitfalls of a protracted process.