It is no secret that organizations across the globe must constantly adapt to volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). Executives are increasingly applying this military acronym, VUCA, to highlight the environment they face. From mergers and acquisitions to re-branding initiatives, from downsizing to re-alignment, companies face hard decisions that most often impact the workforce. When companies face any type of restructure, staff reductions are taken seriously. Not only do all decisions take regulations and laws into account, but there are also decisions concerning the impacted staff that range from severance options to outplacement services. And, in today’s world of instant communication and forums such as Glassdoor and Twitter, companies must attend to public relations concerns and potential legal action if things are not executed correctly.   HR departments work tirelessly to ensure they follow the basic compliance steps. Often, their attention to … [Read more...]

“Boutique”, the word envisions a small store selling fashionable clothes or accessories; or a business that serves a sophisticated or specialized clientele.  In the world of executive search, people think of boutiques as smaller firms or niche firms that specialize in a particular area. CCI’s Talent Acquisition Practice is sometimes referred to as a boutique, but as our long-term clients know, we are a multi-disciplinary search firm, working across industry and function at the management and leadership levels, through to the C-Suite.  So, in the world of boutiques, CCI provides a one-stop-shop solution to our clients’ talent needs, which makes us perhaps a “super-boutique”.  The fact that CCI works with clients of all sizes from entrepreneurial, start-up through to large fortune 100 organizations, gives our search consultants a comprehensive range of experience working with diverse businesses, how they operate, and the top talent it … [Read more...]

Job seekers hear an array of stories about job seeking through the holidays, many of which are false.  The predominant myth is that nothing is going to happen between now and the end of the year.  A whole month where there is no business activity!  Really?  No business worth working for is going to waste one-twelfth of its year.  Just as production does not stop, the need for key people does not go away just because of the Holidays.The key to success is how hard and how smart you work at your job search.  Challenge conventional wisdom, and you might find the reality is a whole lot different than the myth!  Here are six reasons why the holidays are a great time to accelerate your job search.Competition Decreases: The funny thing about myths is that lots of people believe them.  And, the Holiday Job Search Myth is no exception.  Many job seekers back off from their job search believing that nobody is hiring.  This is great news … [Read more...]

Building Resiliency Building employee resiliency through change has gained popularity. In the last two years our clients have shown increased in interest in running Resiliency Programmes.  As organisations get more savvy as to what Resiliency Programmes have the capacity to deliver, there is a demand for more than a static one off Workshop addressing the fundamentals of 'how to be more resilient'. Organisations want Resiliency Training Tools that their employees can use to increase emotional resiliency in the short term but also have long term outcomes, action plans and measurable results.  The major trend we have seen is Resiliency Programmes that are being offered organisation wide, to both those who will be outplaced by change, and to those who will ultimately retain their roles. While resiliency was previously seen as a support tool for those who were leaving, it is now increasingly being used for all employees in recognition of the impact of change throughout the … [Read more...]

Hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of resources were published in 2016 alone reviewing the benefits of executive coaching – in peer-reviewed journals, in personal and business blog posts, and in the media. In recent years, coaching has become a buzzword, something that many organizations offer to employees who are identified as having a high potential to succeed. Despite its popularity, executive coaching is often misunderstood in terms of how it differentiates from performance management and other leadership development offerings. The International Coach Federation (ICF) defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential, which is particularly important in today's uncertain and complex environment.” As a development process, it can be hard to define what coaching is as it happens largely behind closed doors. The coaching process is highly personal, and … [Read more...]

What’s secretly killing employee engagement? Stunning reports on burnout levels in health care have forced organizations like Mayo Clinic and other major players to invest heavily in interventions.  Critical care providers are experiencing annual increases in severe burnout. One study found that 45-55% of physicians across all specialties experience burnout (compared to 26.2% of working adults in the general population!).   These burnout rates should be unacceptable to top management. Burnout is serious, and it’s a formidable enemy of sustained engagement and productivity.  Some executives are investing in interventions to counter the consequences of burnout. Their concern goes well beyond caring about employees; it’s also smart business. Unfortunately, some of our best business practices got us here. Decades of streamlining, increasing technology, and global competition have created environments that foster burnout.  The very efforts that … [Read more...]

If your company is experiencing a reduction in force (a.k.a. layoff) and you're providing employees with outplacement services, then you've done so for a number of very healthy and caring reasons:To help your soon-to-be former employees work through their career transitions more successfully. To jump-start their job search efforts by affording them the benefit of experienced career consultants who can short-cut their job search time. To expose them to a resourceful team of career coaches who have local networks of contacts and deep-dive information on the local economy and hot companies.But how do you ensure that you're getting the most out of your outplacement firm's offerings? And what should you report back to your senior leadership team about the concrete benefits that your departing workers received—which are your return on investment for the outplacement firm's costs? "First, understand that approximately 70 percent of companies offer outplacement benefits in … [Read more...]

Client satisfaction. Employee retention. Succession planning. These are not simply corporate buzz phrases. They are the competitive edge that differentiates a great company from all the rest. Mentoring is the critical component, and awareness of its importance has increased to the point that few question its value. As a result, many companies have implemented mentoring programs. Unfortunately, without thoughtful program design, few of them succeed at fully engaging both the mentors and the mentees in a long-term, transformative relationship. To help companies understand how to create a successful mentoring program, we interviewed several Nashville business leaders to understand their experience. We started by looking at how transformative a good mentoring experience can be. When talking with Carolyn Kitts of Gresham, Smith & Partners, she shared a memorable experience: “My first experience with a mentor was when I was working as an administrative assistant for the … [Read more...]

You can find it in every work environment, but most of us don’t see it.  It interferes with good management decision making, affecting everything from hiring, promotions, layoffs and teambuilding to advertising, marketing, product development and product placement.  It impacts our thought processes and can cloud our judgement. “According to Timothy Wilson, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and author of the book Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious, we are faced ­­with approximately 11 million pieces of information at any given moment. However, our brains are only able process about 40 of those bits of information at one time.  So, the brain generates shortcuts and uses past knowledge to make assumptions.  Most often, we don’t even recognize it’s happening.”1 This unconscious bias results in our making decisions based on what we expect, especially when it comes to … [Read more...]

The business landscape is shifting so rapidly that more employees with “traditional” careers need to be employing the skills that make entrepreneurs and small business owners successful. As the existence of many linear career paths fade into the distance, career planning has become a necessity in today’s job market and needs to be supported throughout the lifespan of a career and into retirement. But how does one develop a career plan in such a dynamic environment? As employers are starting to scale up and down quickly and work is becoming more project based (vs. role based), the worker now needs to engage in more mindful and proactive career planning. We now find ourselves in a team based fluid matrix model, where the structure is based less on hierarchy and defined roles, and more on the work that needs to be done.  The expectation today is that as a worker, you are responsible for navigating your own career plan. We all need to operate as our own small … [Read more...]