Category: Tips for Hiring Managers
It’s Time to Reengineer Your Relationships with Recruiters
By: Leslie Stevens-Huffman Engineering managers count on third-party recruiters to find talented professionals for contract and full-time positions, even on short notice. But relying on a reactive, last-minute approach to talent acquisition and outsiders may result in higher bill rates and fewer engineering candidates to choose from in a competitive labor market. Treating recruiters as… Read more »
5 Ways to Get an Engineering Contractor to Accept Your Offer
By: Leslie Stevens-Huffman Engineering contractors are in high demand these days. So much so, that an experienced professional with desirable skills and credentials may receive multiple offers. Losing your top choice to a competitor can hurt your firm’s ability to take on additional projects, lower morale and increase stress. And who has the time to… Read more »
Staffing Firms vs. Independent Contractors: What Engineering Managers Should Know
By: Leslie Stevens-Huffman On the surface, the differences between an independent contractor (IC, or 1099) and a contract engineer supplied by a staffing firm may seem negligible. But employment status can impact the way you select, manage and interact with interim workers. The main difference lies in the fact that contractors from staffing firms… Read more »
Stiff Competition for Acquiring Engineering Grads
By: Leslie Stevens-Huffman The competition for engineering grads has reached fever pitch on college campuses this spring. U.S. employers are planning to offer signing bonuses to more graduates in 2015 than they have in the last five years. Chemical engineering majors are expected to receive the largest bonuses at $5,250, followed by general engineering majors… Read more »
Four Easy Steps to Becoming an Expert Interviewer
By: Leslie Stevens-Huffman Engineering managers expect candidates to come prepared to interviews, but did you know that managers have a similar mandate? While you’re evaluating a contractor, they’re evaluating you. A candidate’s interview experience strongly influences their opinion of you and your firm based on the results of a recent survey. Nearly 8 in 10… Read more »
How to Hire an Interim Project Manager
By: Leslie Stevens-Huffman If your management team lacks the bandwidth to tackle one more engineering project, hiring a short-term project manager (PM) is a popular and viable solution. An experienced freelancer is capable of shepherding projects with diverse objectives, duties, technical tools, budgets and deadlines as this post explains. Moreover, a quality contract PM not… Read more »
How to Engineer a Just-in-Time Talent Pool
By: Leslie Stevens-Huffman Imagine having a group of experienced engineers at the ready. A collection of qualified professionals with diverse skills who are willing to start work at a moment’s notice. It’s not a fantasy. Project-oriented organizations across the country are stealing a page from manufacturing’s playbook. Their leaders are thinking outside the box to… Read more »
Workforce Planning Tips for Engineering Managers
By: Leslie Stevens-Huffman For many businesses, the ebb and flow of the number and size of engineering projects makes it difficult for managers to predict future needs for engineering talent. But to workforce forecasting experts like Brian Wilkerson, managing director of Revolution Advisors LLC, unpredictable projects and workloads make it all the more critical to… Read more »
Engineering Solutions to Today’s Talent Shortage
By: Leslie Stevens-Huffman Engineers are among the toughest spots to fill in the U.S., with 49 percent of employers struggling to find talent. In fact, employers advertised more than 280,000 open engineering positions in 2013 – setting a new high. While Congress and universities have enacted programs to support the education and future development of… Read more »
Screen for Success: What to Look for in Contract Engineer Resumes
By: Leslie Stevens-Huffman Engineering managers instinctively look for a stable work history with no employment gaps when reviewing resumes. While those may be valid screening criteria for professionals seeking regular full-time employment, it would virtually eliminate experienced engineering contractors who have earned their stripes by hopping from project to project. Naturally, formatting, presentation and grammar… Read more »