An executive search firm specializing in the design professions
Who We Are
The ending song of the Broadway hit musical, Rent beings with these words:
“Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundreds minutes,
How do you measure a year?”
Of those, the average person spends roughly 140,400 minutes a year working or more than 6.5 million minutes during the course of their life. Given how much time spent in work-related effort, we started The Talent Bank in 1984 with this premise:
“Life is too short to have a job you hate.”
We believed that not only did people have the right to find that fit but that it was their responsibility to find the best use of their talents and skills. We would become the bridge between great places to work and great people. Knowing we had a lot of competition, we set out to be a different type of recruiting practice based on the following principles:
• We would only accept those firms as clients that we would want to work for ourselves;
• We would seek to establish long-term partnerships with our clients, through which they would come to see us allies and friends;
• We would never present any candidate that we would not be personally willing to hire ourselves;
• We would get to know our client and our candidates so thoroughly that there would never be any question as to the qualifications of or suitability for a particular assignment;
• We would provide the best value and longest guarantee in the industry;
• We would never actively recruit any one away from one of our clients;
• Anyone associated with our company would have an unblemished reputation for honesty, integrity, kindness and fairness in all of our dealings;
• Our competitive advantage would be a blend of providing outstanding candidates as well as a rewarding experience throughout the process.
" Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die…Think big.” - Daniel H. Burnham, Chicago architect. (1864-1912)
HR Audit and Recruitment Analysis
What is a Human Resources Audit?
A Human Resources Audit is a comprehensive method (or means) to review current human resourcespolicies, procedures, documentation and systems to identify needs for improvement and enhancement ofthe HR function as well as to ensure compliance with ever-changing rules and regulations. An Audit involvessystematically reviewing all aspects of human resources, usually in a checklist fashion.
Sections of review include:
Hiring and Orientation
Benefits
Compensation
Performance evaluation process
Termination process and exit interviews
Job descriptions
Form review
Personnel file review
The purpose of an HR Audit is to recognize strengths and identify any needs for improvement inthe human resources function. A properly executed Audit will reveal problem areas and providerecommendations and suggestions for the remedy of these problems.
By maintaining a satisfiedand productive workforce, an employer lessens the expense associated with costly turnover of staff.Losing one employee is estimated to cost a company 50 – 150% of the lost employee’s salary in timeand money spent to replace that employee.
Company HR Strategy
The core of every company rests on a solid overarching strategy developed from the company’s overall strategy and a closely aligned HR strategy. This alignment ensures that the most critical resource to the company, “its people,” are linked with the company’s mission, vision, and goals.
An HR Strategy can include:
Strategic Planning
Human Resources Forecasting & Planning
Organizational Performance & Development
Succession Planning
We can assist with your HR Strategy by:
Facilitating and developing the business and/or human resources strategic plan
Evaluating and aligning your human resources activities with your business strategies
Establishing your human resources function
Conducting a human resources audit to determine compliance and identify areas for improvement
Developing succession planning and emerging leader programs
Recruitment
Finding qualified employees can be the most difficult and time-consuming function of HR. Recruitment, the “marketing” function of human resources, requires lots of creativity to find quality candidates that will fit with the organization’s culture and remain with the company over time; the average cost of turnover is 50 – 150% of an employee’s salary. Recruitment plays an integral part of getting the employeestarted on the right foot, which is key for increased retention and reduced turnover.
Recruitment often includes:
Determining the best strategies for finding candidates and creating attention-grabbingjob advertisements
Reviewing (screening) the applicants’ resumes and phone interviewing the top candidates
Recommending and managing the candidates through face-to-face interviews
Participating in face-to-face interviews
Conducting reference checks, background checks and employment testing
Partnering to make a hiring decision and extending offers to candidates to seal the deal
Developing and facilitating new employee orientation
Drafting press releases and media plans to announce strategic new hires
We can assist with your recruiting efforts by:
Analyzing and recommending improvements to recruitment process and strategies
Creating a recruitment plan to ensure the best approach and strategies are used to filleach position
Creating job descriptions for on-line and/or professional society job boards
Serving as a repository for blind recruiting ads for confidential position recruitment
Developing retention strategies to reduce turnover and improve retention
Oursourcing the recruiting process to manage all or pieces of the entire recruitmentprocess
Providing a contract recruiter on a short- or long-term basis
Enlisting a contingent recruiter on a placement fee basis to search for top talent
Benefits & Compensation Analysis
Total compensation, the benefits and compensation package that a company provides to employees, is one key piece of the puzzle that affects employeeretention. Many components go into this total compensation package thatrequire constant monitoring to ensure competitiveness in the marketplaceand appropriateness for the employee population. Benefits and Compensationcan include any of the following:
Insurance - Medical, Dental, Vision, Disability, Life, Etc.
“Cutting-Edge” Benefits - Long Term Care, Sabbaticals, Etc.
Time Off - Vacations, Leave Of Absence, Sick Time, Etc.
Alternative Benefits - Child Care/Elder Care/Work-Life Options
Alternative Work Schedules/Telecommuting
Employee Assistance Programs
Job Descriptions
Pay Policies for all employees
Incentive And Bonus Plans
“Creative Compensation” Strategies
Savings And Stock Plans
Profit-Sharing Programs
We can assist with your Benefits and Compensation needs by:
Analyzing competitiveness of current employee benefits
Identifying creative alternative benefits (i.e. low cost / no cost)
Conducting Job Analysis/Evaluation in order to develop job descriptions
Analyzing and designing compensation structure
Researching industry salary survey data
Developing merit- and performance-based compensation plans
Developing incentive and bonus programs
Creating recognition and rewards programs
Communications
There is no such thing as “too much” communication. However, communication must be targeted correctly and often to be effective. It is important for an organization to figure out what methods are most successful for reaching its employees and that the methods used are effectively producing results. Effective communications ensure that employees are “in the know” at all times and feel like a part of the “team”.
Some Communication vehicles include:
Employee Opinion Surveys/Focus Groups
In-House Publications
Annual Reports, Policy & Procedure Manuals,
Newsletters, Postings, Memos
Community Relations Programs
Recreational/Social Events
Employee Recognition Programs
Suggestion Programs
We can help your corporate communications program by:
Conducting employee opinion surveys and focus groups
Developing an employee/company newsletter (i.e. Paper, Electronic, or Intranet)
Designing an employee suggestion program
Creating effective communication tools with our marketing HR expertise
Designing a reward and recognition program
Employee Relations
The most important and often most expensive resource a company has is its “human” resource. Because of its cost and importance it makes sense to ensure that this resource is operating as productively as possible. Sometimes this may mean dealing with conflict issues in the workplace and at other times it may mean finding proactive ways to keep employees happy and productive.
Employee Relations often includes:
Employee issues
Management coaching
Discipline
Harassment
We can assist with Employee Relations by:
Advising on how to handle and document corrective action plans and disciplinary actions
Identifying retention solutions to help improve turnover and employee morale
Community Relations Programs
Recreational/Social Events
Employee Recognition Programs
Suggestion Programs
Absenteeism
Termination
Retention strategies
HR Tools
Human resource departments have many different aspects that can be forgotten or become unbearable if they are not well organized and well constructed. No matter what the size, we can help to make sure that your human resource function is at its best and most efficient.
We can help by evaluating current high value-added human resources practices and tools and then improve them or create those that you don't have. Some of the different aspects we evaluate are:
Policies and Procedures
Employee Handbooks
Forms, Templates, and Checklists (i.e. Call in form, attendance calendar, Personnel Evaluation)
Recruitment Tools (i.e. Application, Reference Check, Interview Evaluation)
Benchmark Survey of Practices
Outplacement Consulting
In times of economic uncertainty, sometimes, layoffs and downsizings are inevitable, despite the performance and loyalty of individual staff . At those times, in addition to meeting all of the legal requirements such circumstances dictate, many firms choose to make the transition to being unemployed a little easier by retaining us to provide individual outplacement consulting to the affected individuals. In this case, our staff will:
• We will work with your HR staff to prepare separation packages for employees who are being terminated do to downsizing, economic conditions, mergers/acquisitions or other reasons not “for cause.”
• We will work with candidates to develop presentation strategies for their resumes, cover letters and portfolios.
• We will help employees format and post their resumes on electronic job boards such as Monster, CareerBuilder, etc.
• We will provide candidates with our proprietary roster of nationwide online design job boards of available positions.
