Excellent Opportunity for a Lean Leader

CMS has been tasked with a new job managing the implementation of lean processes & philosophies into a large steel mill. This is a great opportunity to showcase you lean, project management and change management skills to senior players of a very large parent company.

Please take a look at the posting at this link and if you feel this is a good step for your career, get in touch with us or send us your resume directly.

Of course you can always view all of our jobs here.

If you'd like to be kept in the loop as we add more positions, please follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

How Engaged Are Your Employees? It's Up To Your Management

A new study released by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the UK reveals that employees take their queues to 'go the extra mile' from their management.

Obvious factors from management, such as feedback, praise and guidance were all elements that affect employee engagement - but the study went on to reveal that autonomy and empowerment from management also go a long way and the level of interest the manager shows in an employee.

This is a huge area for management to consider, given this article published by the Edmonton Journal which points to the Edmonton Research firm Psychometrics Canada where of 368 executives polled, nearly 70% found the level of employee engagement to be problematic. The study by Psychometrics can be read in full at this link.

Employers, you should look to CMS Management Consulting Services is in order to assess the level of engagement at work and what can be done to optimize it. In the mean time, here is an article regarding the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's study.

The extent to which managers provide guidance, feedback and the appropriate level of autonomy for staff is key to whether employees go the extra mile for their organization, according to research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in the United Kingdom.

"The central role of managers in boosting individual and organizational performance is well recognized…” said Ben Willmott, senior public policy adviser at CIPD. “But managers need more specific, tried-and-tested guidance on what they can do on a day-to-day basis to fulfill this key role well.”

The research asked employees what management behaviours supported them in focusing on what they do; feeling good about themselves in their role; and acting in a way that demonstrates commitment to their organization’s values and objectives.

The most frequently mentioned management competencies for supporting employee engagement were:
•reviewing and guiding
•feedback, praise and recognition
•autonomy and empowerment
•level of interest the manager shows in employees as individuals

"In today's tough economic environment, how managers manage is even more important in supporting employee commitment and motivation in the face of job cuts, pay freezes and cuts to training and development budgets," said Willmott.

New Challenges in Obtaining Work in Canada

Over the past several months, we at CMS have been encountering increasing problems in the justice system in terms of obtaining criminal record checks. The majority of our clients hire background checking firms to assess any candidates they are interested in hiring. The background check includes a criminal record check.

CMS encourages the use of background checks and historically this has been a straight forward procedure. In recent months however, the systems have been failing and have been returning inaccurate results. So people who have no criminal record are mistakenly being identified as “unclear” (indicating the individual has or may have a criminal record).

Later it is being identified that the system made a mistake and confused a person with someone with the same name who is actually of different gender or birth date. The trouble is that the only way it was eventually determined that the report was wrong was after the candidate, in attempting to prove their innocence (having been accused of being guilty) had to have their finger prints taken and resubmitted into the system to prove who they are and that they don’t have a criminal record.

The further problem is that this process takes up to six months and in that time the opportunity for the job has been lost. One has to wonder what the criminal justice system does with those finger prints once they have them. Will the upshot of this be that one day our finger prints will accompany all of us to a job interview? It makes me think of my time in China training HR managers who had very little work to do in assessing someone’s work history because their personal file contained every bit of information about them and followed them from one job to the next.

The enclosed article by Derek Sankey, as printed in the 02.05.11 edition of the Calgary Herald, paints an interesting picture of the 'bottle-neck' in today's background checks. I would call it a 'must read' for job seekers and employers alike.

Cindy Saunders
Principal - CMS Management Consulting

Background checks hit bottleneck

New RCMP rules delay hiring process for months

By Derek Sankey, For The Calgary Herald

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/Background+checks+bottleneck/4229038/story.html#ixzz1DbgcWp1N

Recruiters are struggling to deal with a surge in criminal record checks under new RCMP rules for "vulnerable sectors" and private screening firms say the backlog is creating some difficult human resource challenges.

Vulnerable sectors include construction, medical, law enforcement, volunteers, lawyers, retail jobs involving cash, the financial sector and many more.

"It is a massive issue," says Ainsley Muller, director of business development for Express Pardons. "It certainly has escalated since mass layoffs have occurred. There is an onslaught of (job) applications."

Hiring managers often use criminal record checks as a screening tool to immediately rule out anybody who comes back with a positive result for a record. The problem is that oftentimes, the 24-hour check flags people with absolutely no record -- just the same name and date or place of birth as a criminal.

That type of check has two possible results: "clear" or "may or may not have a record."

"They tend to throw out a lot of really good candidates based on the check coming back with a positive hit," says Muller.

Under new rules introduced last July by the RCMP, a person is also matched by birthdate and gender -- but not by name -- against a list of 14,000 pardoned sex offenders.

Thousands of people are being incorrectly flagged, while the number of longer and more in-depth fingerprint checks has skyrocketed.

It's an imperfect system, and one that police are working with pre-employment screeners to resolve, but the concept behind it both helps and hinders various organizations in their search for the best and brightest talent.

"Your gut feeling is only 50 per cent of the equation," says Julie McLean, with preemployment screening firm Canpro HR Services Inc. "Criminal records and education are the two things that we see most often that don't match up to what the individual says."

It does, however, create some pressing HR challenges for recruiters. Long wait times -- it can take three to five months for some fingerprint criminal record checks, says Muller -- makes many volunteers simply move on, while good employees are also being overlooked.

"Until they know what their (criminal) record is, they can't make an offer of employment," says McLean. "Who's going to risk hiring someone for maybe eight months to a year and not know what the 'unclear' result is for?"

She says she's working with RCMP and industry to find a solution that works for all parties and does not put the RCMP at risk of liability for providing potentially inaccurate results.

Human rights legislation varies by province in Canada, with some areas protecting individuals from discrimination for not being hired due to a criminal record with or without a pardon, depending on province.

In Alberta, for example, neither pardoned nor unpardoned records are protected. In B.C., both types of records are protected.

Muller says recruiters need to arm themselves with the tools to handle the delicate subject of criminal records appropriately and in a way that puts matters into perspective. His job is to help people clear their names by working with employers to get pardons for past minor offences -- a process that can take six months to a year or more by itself.

Muller refers to Mike Quinn of IBM Canada when approaching the subject of criminal records, who put it this way: "The operative phrase is to apply common sense and judgment to these situations. A person who did something silly 25 years ago when he was still in high school would be looked at differently than somebody charged with bank robbery three years ago."

Background checks include more than just criminal record checks. They include credit checks, personal reference checks, credential and academic verification and any other requirements unique to any given field.

The current problem is the delay in finding out what the criminal record is for, given the lengthy wait times to access a definitive result from the RCMP and the Canadian Police Information Centre.

There is also the possibility that a positive result with one police force will not yield the same result on municipal databases and people also change names, confusing things further.

In Calgary, the average time for police checks is about six weeks, exceeding its target of 10 days to two weeks, but measures are being taken to reduce the wait.

derek.sankey@telus.net

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

Mobility is key to economic growth - pack your bags!

A New report released earlier this week by the Boston Consulting Group and the World Economic Forum says that as certain skills become in higher demand, the ability to move is crucial to the global economy.

The reports says that China for instance, will need to double its talent base by 2020. Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States will need more immigration and better education to balance the loss of talent from aging workforces.

It says the highest demand will be for highly educated professionals, technicians and skilled managers, adding health care research & development will create huge demand world-wide. The report is clear in saying that if you do not have critical knowledge or technical skills you will be left behind.

So, are you ready to move? Ready to improve your level of experience? Get in touch with one of our headhunters to discuss what we can do to help. It always pays off to follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Here's the press release from BCG and WEF;

• A new report on looming labor and skills shortages finds that global mobility of talent is as critical to economic growth as global mobility of goods and financial capital.
• To retain their growth momentum, most economies will need to import highly skilled professionals, technicians, and managers, and act fast to develop and diversify their domestic talent bases.
• China will need to double its talent base by 2020. Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States will need more immigration and better education to balance the loss of talent from aging workforces.

Industries and countries worldwide will require major increases of highly educated people in their workforces to sustain economic growth, argues a new report prepared by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report, Global Talent Risk -- Seven Responses, analyzes projected talent shortages by 2020 and 2030 in 25 countries, 13 industries, and nine occupational clusters. The report concludes that:

• Demand will be biggest for highly educated professionals, technicians, and managers. Professionals will be in particularly high demand in the trade, transportation, and communications industries in developing nations.
  
  
• In the next two decades, demand for professionals in manufacturing will peak at more than 10 percent in developing countries, exceeding 4 percent across all countries sampled. (Labor-demand growth rates are compounded annually.)
  
  
• Health care research and development alone will generate enormous demand for skilled labor worldwide.
  
  
• Employees without critical knowledge and technical skills will be left behind.

If left unaddressed, talent scarcity will become a threat to sustained growth, particularly in knowledge-based economies. "Human capital has replaced financial capital as the engine of economic prosperity," said Hans-Paul Bürkner, BCG's president and chief executive officer.

The roots of the global talent risk include the widely uneven quality of educational systems, erratic employability of the workers in the Southern Hemisphere, and demographic changes in the Northern Hemisphere, where retirement of the baby boomers will result in an unprecedented talent deficit. In Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, expected immigration and birth rates will not offset the workforce losses caused by aging populations. Today, foreign-born workers with university degrees or equivalent qualifications make up just 2 percent of the European labor market, compared with 4.5 percent in the United States and nearly 10 percent in Canada. Improved education and training must go hand in hand with increased labor migration.

"The global problem is no longer a mere talent mismatch. The scale of the predicted talent gap requires concerted action, starting with -- and going well beyond -- removing barriers to the mobility of talent," said Piers A. Cumberlege, senior director, head of partnership, World Economic Forum.

The report proposes seven core responses to global talent risk:

• Introduce strategic workforce planning to address imbalances between labor supply and demand.
  
  
• Ease migration to attract the right talent globally.
  
  
• Foster "brain circulation" to mitigate brain drain.
  
  
• Increase employability by advancing technological literacy and cross-cultural learning skills.
  
  
• Develop a talent "trellis" by focusing on horizontal and vertical career and education paths.
  
  
• Encourage temporary and virtual mobility to access required skills easily.
  
  
• Extend the pool by tapping women, older professionals, the disadvantaged, and immigrants.

Members of the Global Agenda Council on Skills and Talent Mobility, as well as more than 100 high-level experts and practitioners, contributed to the recommendations in the report and to the talent mobility dialogue hosted by the World Economic Forum online and at meetings in Brussels, Doha, Davos-Klosters, Dubai, Montreal, New Delhi, and New York in 2009 and 2010.

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011 in Davos-Klosters will seek to catalyze a pragmatic, result-driven action focused on effective sharing of good practices.

For more information about the Global Talent Risk -- Seven Responses report, please contact:

• Anna Janczak, Associate Director, Head of Professional Services, World Economic Forum, by telephone at +1 917 562 0533 or by e-mail at anna.janczak@weforum.org
  
  
• Eric Gregoire, Global Media Relations Manager, The Boston Consulting Group, by telephone at +1 617 850 3783 or by e-mail at gregoire.eric@bcg.com

About The World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas.

Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in 1971 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no political, partisan, or national interests (www.weforum.org).

About The Boston Consulting Group

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a global management consulting firm and the world's leading advisor on business strategy. We partner with clients in all sectors and regions to identify their highest-value opportunities, address their most critical challenges, and transform their businesses. Our customized approach combines deep insight into the dynamics of companies and markets with close collaboration at all levels of the client organization. This ensures that our clients achieve sustainable competitive advantage, build more capable organizations, and secure lasting results. Founded in 1963, BCG is a private company with 71 offices in 41 countries. For more information, please visit www.bcg.com.

Two New Surveys Anticipate Employment Growth in 2011

Now that the new year has begun, employers are thinking about growth much more than they were at the beginning of 2010. Two new surveys were released today but Harris Interactive and The Business Roundtable which both provide encouraging news to the employment market.

The Business Roundtable is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with nearly $6 trillion in annual revenues and more than 12 million employees - many of these CEOs oversee Canadian operations as well. Their study shows that 80% of these companies expect an increase in sales and more than twice as many companies expect staffing growth when put in contrast to last year's Q4 study.

On a more Canadian front, a study by Harris Interactive for Career Builder shows that 70% of Canadian employers believe they are in a better position this year compared to this time last year. A whopping 33% of Canadian employers in the survey plan on hiring full time staff (which blows 2009's figure of only 18% out of the water!) A further 20% plan on hiring additional part-time staff and an overwhelming 51% of respondents said that they would be hiring temporary & contract staff in 2011.

These studies underline what we've been seeing at CMS. The trend is definitely pointing towards a larger workforce in 2011 and as an employer are you prepared? Maybe you should review our Recruitment page for more information on how we can help you keep up with your competition in terms of growth.

And to you job seekers; are you prepared to re-enter a Job-Seekers Market? Get in touch with one of our headhunters to discuss what we can do to help. It always pays off to follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

More than three-quarters of businesses are not prepared with succession planning.

A new study from BMO Financial Group says that 82% of business owners in Canada & the US have not selected a successor for their business. Interestingly, more than one-quarter (27%) of Canadian business owners said the recession has not led to any change in their exit plans compared to 63% of their U.S. counterparts. But U.S. business owners plan to exit their businesses later (68 years of age) compared to Canadian business owners (62 years of age).

While 88 per cent of 650 U.S. business owners surveyed described the U.S. economy as being in recession, 45 per cent of 650 Canadian business owners said their country is experiencing a period of growth.

How about your business? CMS has many different services to help you locate a successor - be that through our executive searches or management consulting, get in touch with us to discuss your future!

Employers! 94% cent of Canadians say they're not working jobs that truly make them happy! What can you do?

A study released by Canadian author Phil Holmes says that only 2% of Canadians are working in their ideal job and this statistic is scary as employees are more apt to follow their hearts these days - even if that comes with a lower paycheque.

Holmes goes on to say that over the past few decades more employees are weighing the risks involved in following their happiness and choosing happiness over compensation.

So, as an employer what can you do to retain your top talent? Look into our HR Consulting services at CMS as a first step. We have a track record of improving retention and if this report is any indication, you should consider such improvements. Get in touch with one of our consultants for more information.

And employees, if you are looking for a better step in your life check out our current job openings. We're adding new positions daily and are proud of the culture inside of our client's organizations. Get in touch with us if you'd like to learn anything more about our vacancies.

Here's another sign the recession is fading - more than a quarter of Canadian employees are seeking new jobs!

A study released today by Ipsos Reid says that 27% of Canadian employees are considering a change of work-place in the next 6 months. The firm says that this number raises to 34% for those who had their wages frozen. Many respondents feel that they are still working through recessionary times by higher work-load and lower wage increases - even though the recession is technically over.

What does this mean to you?

Well, as an employer it is a good idea to look to a firm like CMS - both to avoid the pending recruitment crisis through our human resources consulting services or for our recruitment services if it is too late.

For employees; if you are considering a change you should look to our current openings. We are seeing new positions almost daily now and invite you to follow us on Twitter for daily updates of our new postings.

Forget about the stress of kids going back to school! The 'New Work Year' starts in September Too!

Fall is in the air all over Canada and it signifies a time of change - a new year of sorts. The days get shorter, your vacation time is nearly all used up and everyone is focusing on work again. This is what industry experts call The New Work Year, time to

The Canadian HR Reporter points to a study that says this is the time many employees evaluate their overall happiness at work and gives some great ideas on how to improve the work setting for these employees.

More than half surveyed said that telecommuting was a way to feel better at the work place while more than 40% said that compliments & praise from management were positive. How many said a raise? Only 31%!

So employers, take heed; now is the time to focus on how to hang on to your workforce! Look at our management consulting page for more information on how we can help you do just that through employee retention & HR consulting.

When it comes to Employment Growth Alberta is Number 1!

A study released today by the Fraser Institute that factored regional growth across all US states and Canadian provinces & territories ranked Alberta as the number 1 place for growth across the continent.

The study, which ranked 60 different regions included such elements as employment growth in the private sector, low duration of unemployment and average labour productivity. It went on to point to Alberta's investment climate as the reason for this stability & growth.

What does this mean to employers? Well, as the climate in the number one growth region on the continent picks up again, you'll need to do more to retain them - and CMS can help through our HR Consulting.

For employees in Alberta, it means you're in the right market. As a matter of fact, take a look at our current job opportunities to see if you're in demand right now - and get in touch with us if you'd like to explore any future opportunities.

CMS Management Consulting Launches New Blog!

We at CMS Management Consulting are proud to announce the launch of our new blog to keep you updated on the ever changing world of Employee Recruiting and Human Resource consultation.

CMS Management Consulting has been doing what we do best since 1988, and this blog is just another step in our path towards our goal of supplying our customers with the very best in employee, executive and temporary worker recruitment.

Please check back often, and be sure to connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn