TORC

Clear evidence is emerging that many employees are waiting keenly for the economy to pick up so they can jump ship to pursue new career opportunities; and I guess after years of gloom this is quite understandable.

I recently met the HR Director of a multinational finance company in Dublin which has a voluntary redundancy offer open to about 20% of the workforce – incredibly those taking the offer have no interest in applying for the 100 or so open vacancies in the company although well qualified for the roles! – and these roles are hard to fill.

Of course it is a concern when employees would prefer to leave rather than stay.

How can companies protect themselves from the prospect of losing their highly trained and valuable staff whenever the opportunity arises?

“Employee engagement” refers to an employee’s job satisfaction, loyalty and inclination to expend discretionary effort toward organisational goals.

The key drivers from an employee perspective are:

Communication – this will always be at the core of any successful engagement process. Leaders should ensure that staff know where they stand, how the business is performing, how they and their work contributes to the business etc

Self Awareness & Career Planning  – formal processes are increasingly being implemented by our clients

Skills Development and Social Learning – does not need to be a major investment – a lot can be achieved in a series of modular, on-line workshops, webinars, learning networks

Empowerment – having the right environment and tools to do what needs to be done

Wellbeing – address physical, mental and work-life balance issues

Reward – check to see if the C & B structure recognizes effort, contribution and fits with overall business strategy

Companies typically measure engagement through an annual employee survey but there are simpler ways of gauging the current engagement baseline. From there, a menu of strategies and interventions will most likely be necessary to overcome any weaknesses.

Above all for an engagement exercise to work it must be supported and driven by the leadership team – each team member will have a key role to play depending on individual management style.

If you wish to see some relevant case studies:

1. Talent Management

2. Onboarding

When you put your profile out there, into the vast universe of online content, you want to make sure to do your best to increase your visibility so that potential employers and recruiters will find you!

Feedback from our recruiters, after looking at dozens of candidate profiles, is that they have noticed some trends that work in favour or against a person trying to be found in the online world. Based on their observations we have compiled a list of tips below.

We hope this will help you maximize your chances of being most visible in the online world.

1. Profile Headline

It’s a way to explain what you do and how you do it (in as few words as possible) to the world in a most clear and simple and obvious way. If at all possible, try NOT using your Job Title. Your Job title is listed in your work history already. 

Some good  Examples:

“Educating today’s Business Leaders on the Power of the World’s Largest and Fastest Growing Professional Network”

“Senior Executive Recruiter with broad sectoral expertise; consultant – talent management strategies & career management”

“Engineering/Operations Professional with considerable experience obtained from blue-chip FMCG companies”

“Seeking new opportunity in a Senior HR or General Management role”

“Accomplished CIPD qualified Senior HR Leader with extensive Irish and international multi-sector experience.”

“Global Curriculum Design & Program Lead Manager”

“Production Manager with wide ranging experience across SME and Multinational sectors”

“Independent Renewables & Environment Professional”

2. Keywords – Summary, History, Skills and Expertise

Optimize your profile using proper keywords. Experiment – try searching Google keywords associated with your profession to see on which page your profile appears.  How do you rank? When filling your profile, use specific words and describe your achievements particularly. Avoid jargon words like “well rounded individual”, as recruiters will not type that into Google while looking for their catch! Expand details about jobs.

Keep your title succinct and add in the name of your current company. If your title is a bit unusual, explain in similar words your responsibility, so the recruiter will understand what you were doing. Expand the Summary section – make it as dynamic and specific and strong as possible.

List your Skills and Expertise!

If you are in doubt, get in touch with a friendly recruiter in your area and ask them what they look for when they search for people with your qualifications.

3. Join Groups

The types of group you join tells recruiters what your main focus is. Recruiters join many of the groups and post information about upcoming vacancies in them. Participate in the groups you join by posting and answering questions. Always have something to bring to the table and people will notice you. Every once in a while, re-evaluate your LinkedIn groups and decide if you should stay or leave. Remember not to join more groups than you can personally handle because networking in LinkedIn groups requires time and effort.

4. Make it easy to contact you

There are several ways to do this; most popular one would be to go to settings section called: ‘ADVICE TO PEOPLE WHO ARE CONTACTING YOU’. Enter your email address in the provided box.  Your email address will appear at the bottom of your profile.

Another way, which I see people using more and more these days is to bravely enter your email address into your Profile Headline. 

5. Be Active:

Link your Profile with your Blog
Link your profile with Twitter
Link your profile with any other tool that will showcase your projects, expertise
Answer questions in the area of your expertise
Post LinkedIn updates; Comment on people’s posts
Join Discussions in your Groups

Did you find these tips helpful? Have you anything to add?  We would love to hear your toughts.

Croke Park Agreement heralds a more strategic future for public sector HR

The number of public servants that retired by the Feb 29 deadline to avail of the more advantageous pension and retirement arrangements has been confirmed to be about 7,500.

Much of the media reporting has focused on this as a once-off disturbance – missing the point that it is going to be an ongoing reality because of our increasingly aging workforce.

This is a phenomenon facing governments worldwide. For instance, the percentage of US Federal workers aged 55 or older increased from 15 to 25% in the period from 1998 to 2010 – and a full 60% is now aged 45 or older.

In Ireland, Dept. of Finance data indicate that the public service cohort over 50 years of age currently stands at 40%, up from 27% eight years ago – and, from just 10%, a quarter of a century ago.

This would suggest that over the next 15 years, under the normal course of events, average retirement levels from the Irish public service will be 8000/year– which is roughly in the same ballpark as the number exiting as part of the Feb 29 plan.

This implies that the level of attention managers are having to give to planning for the fall-out from the current exodus will become a regular part of their job.

Of necessity, a new emphasis on strategic HR and workforce planning will have to be instituted and resourced.

An early harbinger of what we can expect to become the norm right across the public service is contained in a recent announcement from Cork City Council – detailing the establishment of a newly constituted Directorate of Human Resources & Organisational Reform.

In terms of the wider public sector, this is a long overdue development – moving HR from being more an administrative, reactive function to now being very much a core proactive, strategic enabler.

What will this new HR agenda look like?

Well, at one level, it will place a keen focus on talent management. Some of the key practical considerations to be managed will include: 

-  establishing the size and structure of the organisation at different milestones into the future  (eg. 1 year, 3 year, 6 year), taking due account of any envisaged changes to the budget, mission, location, infrastructure, levels of automation & outsourcing, etc

- defining the human capital needs to populate this structure across the various timelines – in terms of knowledge, skills and competencies (KSC’s).

-  mapping the retirement projections for key staff across the same timeline

-  identifying the gaps to KSC’s caused by these retirements

- actioning plans to capture and transfer the KSC’s being lost, including any changes to culture and technology necessary to facilitate same

- specifying & implementing development programmes to build a bench of potential successors with the requisite KSC’s for key roles across the projected timeline – including back-filling strategies for those being moved into new roles

- developing the coaching & mentoring capacities of key retirees – and allocating sufficient overlap time during the succession transition

-  listing the KSC’s incapable of internal replacement, that will instead have to be resourced from external recruitment

At another level, this new HR agenda will progress some related organisational endeavours to:

-  simplify and automate operations, to mininise the level of KSC’s needed in the first place–and, establishing a shared services’ approach wherever possible for non-core activities

-  promote teamwork and cross-skilling to minimise the risk of having some critical KSC’s residing with any one individual or group of individuals.

-  upskill other individuals & groups to lighten the load on more scarce resourses (eg. authorising pharmacists, nurses and other healthcare practitioners to take on some of the activities of GP’s & junior doctors).

In both respects, the central concern will be to implementing the sentiments expressed in the very first paragraph of the Croke Park Agreement:

“ … to build an increasingly integrated public sector which
is leaner and more effective … in the context of reduced-
 resources and numbers …  re-organised to … increase
 … flexibility and mobility to work across sectoral,
organisational and professional boundaries.”

But the key point here is that the essential motive force comes from the imminent retirement bulge – without which delivery of the whole Croke Park Agreement would prove a lot more daunting.

Job-matching tool takes the blindfolds off the hiring process

We recommend a new management tool which helps companies to reduce the burden of process in selection and retention. 

No matter what industry sector you are in, a company’s most important asset is its people.  People, not product, deliver competitive advantage. 

Job-matching tool – speeds decision-making
We see companies struggle to hire new employees because they become stifled by processes and procedures that inhibit clear decision making and delivering results. It is not unusual nowadays for candidates to be interviewed on three or more occasions, by a variety of different managers – and this is often followed by psychometric tests, case study presentation etc. 

Our job matching tool can be administered on-line, delivers immediate results and can save valuable interviewing time by streamlining the shortlisting of candidates for ‘final’ interview.   

Job-matching tool – benchmarks best performers
This tool enables companies to benchmark their best performers in order to select people with similar attributes. It develops a clear and concise profile of the best performing employees. These profiles provide a benchmark to be used in the selection of staff for similar roles. 

Good job matching means measuring how well an individual’s abilities, interests and personality ‘fit’ the requirements of the job and the culture of the organisation.   

Successive studies have shown that ‘job match’ is a critical factor in increasing employee performance and in reducing staff turnover. 

Job-matching - Harvard study
A study published in the Harvard Business Review highlighted that the single most influential factor in job performance was not experience, age, education nor gender, but was in fact job fit!   Furthermore it was shown that job matching had a significant impact on staff retention, with companies in a high turnover industry experiencing a turnover average of 46% without job matching.  This fell by almost half to 24% when job matching was applied.  Similar research on job matching and productivity showed that sales performance almost doubled for companies applying the process as part of their selection criteria. 

Job-matching – added uses
job profiling tool can also be used to: 

- Measure the gap between all team members and the top performers.
- Develop individual training and coaching plans.
- Develop succession plans to improve staff retention. 

Further information: please contact Paddy Collins, 01 662 3020, pc@torc.ie

PS. For some useful tips on how to best navigate the various recruitment stages, please click on the appropriate link here:
1. interview preparation
2. panel interviews
3. assessment centres

PPS. To review case studies relating to career change and outplacement, please click here. 

Matthew Broderick's Inspector Gadget would love the smartphone possibilities

In many ways, the smartphone is becoming the electronic version of the Swiss Army knife -   combining into a single gadget a range of relatively unrelated tools: phone, camera, calendar, map, time-keeper, alarm clock, radio, music player, etc. 

And, with more apps being unveiled daily,  the range of new uses just keeps on growing.

If your job has you on the road a lot, you’ll appreciate how these developments can lighten the load you carry; with the smartphone now capable of morphing, if needed, into also being: a mirror,  flashlight,  measuring tape, computer mouse,  powerpoint pointer, dictaphone,  scanner – even a stud finder.

Some of these more noteworthy Inspector Gadget-type apps include:

1. Mirror
This uses the front facing camera of your phone to display an image of yourself on the phone’s display. Simply point the front facing camera at yourself & tap the screen to freeze the image. Then tap to do it again, as needed.

2. Flashlight
This uses the phone’s LED to fill the screen with bright white light when you find yourself in the dark.

3. Point & Measure
This turns your handset into a measuring tape. Simply point the phone to an object you want to measure and based on the height of the camera lens and the tilt angle of the phone it will tell you the distance.

4. Mobile Mouse
This turns your handset into a multi-touch mouse for any operating system. You can use the phone’s screen as a trackpad, enabling regular mouse actions in addition to two-finger scroll, double-finger-tap, right-click, etc.

5. Pointer Remote
This turns your handset into a pointer and controller for Powerpoint presentations. It can show notes from presentation on the phone display along with a timer – as well as allowing you to advance or reverse the slides.

6. Voice Recorder
This turns your handset into a dictaphone. Functionality includes, record, pause, resume buttons. Similarly, playback has seek & pause buttons. Recordings can be onward emailed, as required.

7. Genius Scan
This turns your handset into a pocket scanner. It enables you to quickly scan documents on the go and email the scans as JPEG or PDF. Handy for scanning forms, receipts, handwritten notes, recipes, book pages, whiteboards, etc.

8. Stud Finder
This turns your handset into a device for finding the wall stud locations when you want to hang a picture or whatever. One slides the phone across the wall until one gets a signal (visual & audible) on the detection of the hidden stud-nails.

If you have other ways of turning your smartphone into a gadget, that you’d like to share – please leave details in the comment box below. Thank you!

PS. For related Torc articles, please click on the following links:
1. Which Brainstorming Apps?
2. Smartphones & Personal Productivity  
3. Decision-Making: New iPhone Apps
4. Cloud Computing & Personal Productivity
5. Career Management: New iPhone Apps
6. Interview Tips: New iPhone Apps

PPS. For related training programmes, please click on the pertinent links here:
1. Mastering Personal Effectiveness
2. Management Supervisory Skills
3. Effective Interpersonal Skills
4. Business & Report Writing  

Actor-director team Robert De Niro & Martin Scorsese on the set of Goodfellas

Movie clips can be a wonderful adjunct to individual coaching and/or leadership development workshops – when an aptly chosen character portrayal (succinctly) dramatises some key skill.

I’ve written of some personal favourites (in the realm of negotiation skills) in previous blogs:

    – Pride As A Negotiation Pitfall

    – Women Make Better Negotiators

    – Streetwise Tactical Negotiation.

Learning from the movies – the advantages
The utility of this approach to learning is twofold.

First, one benefits from having the subtleties and nuances, involved in whatever skill/behaviour being featured, uniquely illuminated in the masterly hands of some of the world’s greatest directors – Spielberg, Scorsese, Tarentino, Hitchcock, etc.

(And, you ask yourself: why mess with amateur role-plays, when you can call on this line-up of assistants!)

Second, because we’re all so attracted to the big screen,  we effortlessly get sucked in to the learning topic – leading to very high levels of engagement,  analysis & discussion among learners.

Learning from the movies – accurate portrayals
Detractors may scoff that fictional movie scenes (especially those drawn from the old black & white classics) can’t really be very relevant to the leadership skills demanded of the current day workplace.

But, fundamentally, great writers and directors are the most fastidious observers of real life – their powers of perception often underlying the sublime artistic skills they bring to chiselling out some universal/essential meaning on screen.

Emerson’s words put it well:

“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.”

And Wilde too:

“Art imitates life more than life imitates art.”

Never mind Margaret Thatcher’s endorsement of the BBC sitcom, Yes Minister, as:

“a most accurate portrayal of what goes on in the corridors of power”.

And, some directors go to no end to get it right, as when Samuel Goldwyn famously offered Sigmund Freud $100,000 in 1925 to consult on a film he was making – such was the importance he placed on ensuring that his on-screen character depictions were psychologically accurate.

Learning from the movies – the challenges
That said, one has also to acknowledge the many challenges to be managed in using movies as learning tools:

Copyright.  Film clips are covered by copyright. Thus, except in special cases, permission has to be got in advance from the copyright owner for any group screening.

Relevance.  Whatever segment one wishes to highlight, it’s relevance has to be immediately explicit – not requiring learners to search for analogies or intuitive leaps to see the meaning.

Logistics of use.  One has to decide on how best to deploy to minimise disturbance. If screening a clip during a live training or coaching session, one has to put a lot of preparation into ensuring the setup is crisp and glitch-free.

Taste Considerations.  Any clip used has to be carefully checked to ensure that it doesn’t give offfence. Behaviour or language that  may be quite acceptable in the cinema can be sometimes out of place in a meeting or classroom.

Diversity Sensitivities.  Any clips with undertones, no matter how tangential or innocent, relating to particular ethnic or socio-economic groups, gender classifications/orientations, political/religious persuasions, etc, should be avoided.

Length of Segment.  Watching a video is largely a passive activity, one should seek brevity at all costs.

Learning from the movies – opens minds
Still, in spite of these health warnings, it is hard to think of any other learning/coaching tool that so easily facilitates reaction & discussion among learners.

This is something to which psychotherapists have long cottoned - as popularised in the catchy-titled 1998 book: Rent Two Movies & Let’s Talk In The Morning.

For, like case studies, their most obvious written equivalent, movies offer a safe (third-party) medium to explore aspects of our own behaviour with which we might be very slow otherwise to engage.

In this regard, learning facilitators/coaches should look on movies more as tools to open the mind of the learner than to directly impart information per se.

Or, in the words of Sam Goldwyn himself, to:

“Go see it and see for yourself why you shouldn’t go see it.”

PS. To request details on Torc courses, using this Learning From The Movies©   approach, please leave a message in the comment box below. Examples include:

1. Learning From The Movies© – Management Supervisory Skills
2. Learning From The Movies© – Change Management Skills
3. Learning From The Movies© – Emotional Intelligence Skills
4. Learning From The Movies© – Negotiation Skills

Minister Howlin speaks to the Croke Park Agreement in his Budget speech

For the Croke Park Agreement, 2012 is the year when the rubber hits the road in earnest, reaching a very pivotal juncture, in terms of implemention.

The first 18-months of its existence have allowed participants to test the parameters, clarify terms and overall deepen their engagement with the various changes being proposed/initiated.

Croke Park agreement – 2011 progress
Progress, though substantial, has been mostly targeted at the low hanging fruit, as echoed in those words from the introduction to the Implementation Body’s First Progress Report:

“a good start has been made”.

The headline achievements in 2011 have included:

- Pay bill savings of €289m, mostly resulting from a reduction of 5,349 in staff and a 5.2% drop in overtime costs.

- Non-pay savings of €308m, mostly involving property rationalisations, better procurement and changes to service delivery.

Croke Park agreement – urgency is key challenge
The big challenge identified by the Implementation Body relates to a need for greater urgency in bringing forward savings in such areas as:

- Rostering in the Healthcare sector
- Local Government restructuring
- In Education, using the extra teaching hours and the rationalisation of VEC’s
- In Justice, implementation of revised Garda rosters

To this end, Minister Howlin, in his Public Service Reform Plan of Nov. 17, 2011 and again in his budget speech of Dec 5, 2011, outlined the government’s intent to inject the needed momentum.

He reiterated the Implementation Body’s verdict:

“The Croke Park Agreement simply has to deliver. We have made a good start but we have a way to travel yet.”

Croke Park agreement – 2012 goals
His reform plan sets out 62 major headings and 202 sub-headings to be worked on, to achieve efficiencies across 13 major themes – with deadlines for completion firmly set.

In 2012, the public service pay bill must fall by another €400 million; staff numbers by 6000; overtime costs by 10% and allowances and premium payments by 5%.

Further, 48 existing agencies will be culled by merging with others or by incorporation back into the Departments.

And a wide array of other issues have also to be progressed, yielding tangible savings from changes to premium payments, allowances, expenses, working hours, rosters, privilege days, agency rationalisations, shared services and other administrative simplifications – together with targeted programmes of redeployment and early retirement.   

Croke Park agreement – middle management critical
The capacity to implement this level of change, within a 12-month timeframe, isn’t to be underestimated.

It needs careful programming; but, as well, the changes need to be culturally embraced on the ground – as this is what ultimately proves most decisive, in determining success.

For, at the heart of the Croke Park Agreement is the degree to which the leadership-at-all-levels takes ownership for delivering the desired changes, by actively engaging with colleagues and stakeholders, galvanising support & drawing out the best in all concerned.

This requires a complex set of intrapersonal and interpersonal skills to navigate and resolve the inevitable ambiguities, arising at local level.

Thus, the biggest challenge in 2012 will ultimately fall to the middle management ranks to deliver the necessary changes on the ground – engaging with staff to find the workable solutions that meet the spirit of the agreement at the frontline interface with the public.

PS. For related Torc training programmes, please click on the following links:
1. Essentials of the Croke Park Agreement 
2. Managing Merger Integrations
3. Change Management For Managers
4. Managing the Human Aspects of Change
5. Managing the Process Aspects of Change

PPS. For related Torc articles, please click on the following links:
1. The Croke Park Agreement: Local Implementation
2. Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast
3. HSE Transformation: How Is The Medicine Working?
4. Fiscal Emergencies: Ghosts of X-Mas Past

Talent Acquisition has come a long way since Lord Kitchener's days

Recent research* by Bersin & Associates conducted in 2011 in the US and the UK has some very interesting findings:

1. The Cost of Recruiting – UK companies spend more than ₤5,300 per new hire, over twice the amount spent by US firms.

2. The Agency Model – the once-entrenched agency model in the UK is starting to decline mirroring the US where companies use agencies more selectively – particularly for senior level and hard-to-fill positions. More progressive companies are turning to professional networks, social media and candidate relationship models (CRM) as sourcing alternatives.

3. The Changing Role of In-house Recruiters – in-house recruiters need to act as true consultants to hiring managers. They will also need to understand trends in the labour market, use various sourcing tools to build talent pipelines, and be versed in engaging and converting high-quality candidates.

4. Job Boards – Not Dead but Dying – in the past job boards have been very successful in attracting “active” candidates ie those looking for jobs. Progressive organizations are reducing their spend on Job Boards in favour of new tools that source both active and “passive” candidates. These tools include professional networking sites, search engine marketing and CRM technology.

5. Internal Mobility – approximately one in every five UK and US open job requisition is filled by an internal candidate.

Recognising the importance of retaining top talent, progressive companies are creating and promoting internal mobility programmes – not only to fill vacancies but also to bolster employee engagement and generate fresh thinking.

6. Employer Branding – irrespective of economic circumstances, employer branding can convey a positive identity to potential and existing employees – reinforcing the image of the organization as a great place to work and helping the engagement process internally and externally.

7. Measuring the Quality of Hire – most firms are at least trying to evaluate new-hire quality by measuring metrics such as new-hire turnover, new-hire performance, and the satisfaction of both the candidate and the manager. The most prevalent means of measuring quality is through a 90-day new-hire assessment, used by nearly one half of all UK companies.

But while many companies talk about quality of hire, few companies have a comprehensive and systematic measurement approach. Even companies that do collect some kind of data often fail to properly distill the metrics and make changes necessary for sustained improvement.

* Source: Bersin & Associates; UK Talent Acquisition Factbook 2011
(to request a free complimentary copy, please use the comment box below)

The Irish Context

1. The Burden of Process – my observation is that companies in Ireland are being strangled by unwieldly recruitment processes – too many people are involved in every stage from writing the job description, testing, screening, interviewing and also sourcing – too many external intermediaries are involved and only at arms length.

2. Decision Making – the old adage “too many cooks spoil the broth” certainly pertains. Perhaps this reflects the growing interest in collaborative management resulting in candidates needing to meet and satisfy not only the hiring manager and internal recruiter but also peers and other stakeholders.

3. Using the Consultant – a key problem is not making sufficient use of the huge expertise of the consultant and involving them fully in the process.

PS. To review some related case studies, please click:
1. Talent Management
2. Head-hunting
3. Onboarding

PPS. For some useful tips on how to best navigate the various recruitment stages, please click on the appropriate link here:
1. interview preparation
2. panel interviews
3. assessment centres

Business stimulus forms part of Minister, Michael Noonan's, Budget 2012

Elements in last week’s budget geared to stimulating business activity are to be welcomed.

Though relatively modest in scope, the extra tax reliefs to revive the property market, as well as, the R&D and business development incentives to assist exports, should prompt some badly needed investment.  

These business-friendly proposals include:

1. Allowing first-time buyers in 2012 to get interest relief of 25%, with other buyers getting 15%.

2. Exemptions from capital gains tax on any commercial property transaction concluded before the end of 2013, if held for at least seven years by the new buyer.

3. Reduction in stamp duty on the transfer of commercial property from the current top rate of 6% to a single flat rate of 2%.

4. Introduction of a foreign earnings deduction for a person who spends at least 60 days a year developing markets in the BRICS nations

5. Inclusion of the first €100,000 worth of R&D expenditure, on a volume basis, for the purposes of the R&D tax credit.

6. Removal of the existing tax exemption for the first 36 days of illness benefit & occupational injury benefit – that was serving as a perverse incentive for absenteeism.

7. Improvements in the tax treatment of foreign expatriates under the Special Assignee Relief Programme (SARP) to attract mobile skills.

However, business will also be asked to shoulder around €400 million in extra charges.

These  relate to changes in the statutory redundancy rebates, in the addition of employer PRSI for employee pension contributions and in the increase in carbon taxes.

A mixed bag, certainly – but, overall, this is the first budget in 4 years that has looked to offering any stimulus for business.

Now, let’s hope the international environment plays its part as well.

PS. For related Torc articles, please click on the following links:
1. Fiscal Emergencies: Ghosts of Christmas Past
2. Bankers: The Human Dimension
3. Innovation & The Smart Economy

A diversity of executive openings are requiring filling this month

Sales Director – RoI
Fantastic new role due to the steady growth achieved by our client in the Irish market. This UK plc has 4 major retail depots in Ireland handling sales & distribution of construction, infrastructure and landscaping products and supplies. Reporting to the MD – Ireland, the appointee will need to be ‘strategic’ but also dynamic, innovative and a team player.

Sales Manager – Germany
Another new role with a successful and long established Irish manufacturer and exporter in the transportation sector. They have been active in the German market for some years and, following recent successes, now wish to establish a full-time presence there. The successful candidate will have a proven track record in equipment sales to the large corporate sector in a European territory, ideally Germany.

Site Engineering Manager – Munster 
Reporting to the Site Director this is a senior management role on a large manufacturing site which comprises four product stream processing plants. Ideal for a candidate who is ready to advance to head of function level, this role will have a team of direct reports and a department of engineering staff, engineering contractors and external suppliers. Strong management and technical skills/qualifications are sought for this role which has excellent career prospects.

PS. For some useful tips on how to best navigate the various recruitment stages, please click on the appropriate link here:
1. interview preparation
2. panel interviews
3. assessment centres

PPS. To review case studies relating to career change and outplacement, please click here.