Beth Grossman is now a featured Special Correspondent for Fox 2 Detroit News. She was interviewed by the metro Detroit station. Watch the video of her Best Practices for Job Networking for information on how networking can help your career.

The ASG Banking & Financial Services team along with the team at PNC Mortgage is working closely together to successfully place candidates in the role of Mortgage Loan Officer throughout the Midwest.  We are proud to announce that to date more than a dozen Mortgage Loan Officers have taken advantage of this exciting opportunity with PNC.

As the economy recovers, companies are likely to experience as much as a 50 percent increase in employee turnover as a result of their competitors’ renewed recruiting efforts. While it may be possible to develop a blocking strategy to stem the tide, management needs to rethink how they handle exiting employees to protect their company image, according to Angott Search Group.

“Most companies routinely conduct exit interviews,” says Mark Angott, president of Angott Search Group, “but unfortunately few of them use the information they garner for the company’s benefit. And yet, a poorly delivered exit interview can affect the morale of the existing employee population and undermine the company culture.”

Angott believes that treating exiting employees with respect and conducting meaningful exit interviews with them can positively impact a company’s employment brand. “Smart companies know that their employment brand is as important as their corporate brand,” he says. “It reflects the organization’s humanity and its
culture, and it supports the people who are in front of customers every day.”

The primary aim of the exit interview is twofold, according to Angott: To learn the reasons for the person’s departure, on the basis that criticism is a helpful driver for organizational improvement; and to allow the organization to transfer knowledge and experience from the departing employee to a successor or replacement.

“The exit interview provides insight into management succession planning,” says Angott.”Good people often leave because they are denied opportunity to grow and advance. If this is happening, organizations need to know about it and respond accordingly.”

Most people who leave a job do actually possess useful – or even critical — knowledge and experience. “Departing employees are usually willing to share this knowledge, to help a successor, or to brief a management team, if only the organization would simply ask them politely to do so,” says Angott.

Angott offers examples of questions aimed at both ascertaining the reasons for the employee’s departure and facilitating the transfer of knowledge:

Reasons for leaving:

 What could have been done early on to prevent your leaving?

 What can you say about the procedures or systems that have contributed to your decision to leave?

 What specific suggestions do you have for how the organization could manage these issues better in the future?

 How do you feel about the organization?

 What has been enjoyable or satisfying for you in your time with us?

 What has been frustrating or difficult to you in your time with us?

 How could the organization have enabled you to make better use of your capabilities and potential?

Transfer of knowledge:

 How might we benefit from your knowledge, experience, introductions to your contacts, etc., prior to your departure?

 What can we do to enable you to pass on your knowledge and experience to your replacement/successor prior to your departure?

 How and when would you prefer to pass on your knowledge to your successor?

 We’d be grateful for you to introduce (name of successor) to your key contacts before you go if you are willing to help with this.

“Management will derive the most benefit for the organization and be able to give the most help to the departing employee by being positive, constructive, understanding and helpful, both prior to and during the exit interview process,” says Angott. “Treat people with integrity and decency, and generally they will respond in kind.”

According to HSZ Media, executive recruiters’ confidence in the executive employment market reached a 22-month high in April, with 64 percent of 186 search firm respondents expecting more senior-management hiring over the next six months, according to the results of ExecuNet’s Recruiter Confidence Index (RCI). ExecuNet’s April recruiter confidence register reached 64 percent, matching the tally recorded in June 2008. The confidence level was more pronounced among retained executive search consultants, indicating an increasing number of employers are investing in or expected to soon commit to strategic executive hires as the economy improves. “Recruiters are clearly expecting companies to increase management hiring in the second and third quarters, and with a variety of economic indices reflecting economic growth, the positives are starting to overwhelm the negatives,” said Mark Anderson, president and chief economist of ExecuNet, the private membership network for senior business executives and those who recruit them. “The economic recovery isn’t yet broad-based, but the confidence expressed by executive recruiters should signal to management job seekers that while some clouds remain, we’re seeing evidence of sunlight after the storm.” Introduced in May 2003, ExecuNet’s Recruiter Confidence Index is based on a monthly survey of executive search firms and recognized as a leading indicator for the economy and the executive job market. Founded in 1988, ExecuNet is a private membership network for business leaders and recruiters who believe that the right connections can produce extraordinary results in their careers and for their organizations.

• ASG received a 2010 Best of Michigan Business award by Corp! Magazine. Retained by PNC Mortgage to fill over 80 positions.
  
• ASG formally announces specialty services including Internal Interviewing, Background & Reference Checking, Contract Staffing and Market Analysis.
  
• Beth Grossman appeared on Detroit Fox news with Murray Feldman.
  
• Energy practice fills Natural Gas Supply Manager role with IGS Energy.
  
• Comerica Bank utilizes ASG’s services to fulfill Financial Advisor position.
  
• Sales & Marketing practice completes search for a Sales Engineer at R.L. Deppmann Co.
  
• Joe Giacomin & ASG featured on WWJ 950 radio.
  
• ASG becomes a member of the West Virginia’s Banker’s Association