06Oct

How We Are Giving Back, with Purple Squirrels

There are more than 10 million nonprofit organizations that exist worldwide. From fighting world hunger to medical research, all nonprofits better their respective communities in one way or another—and it takes a village of dedicated and passionate individuals to create these much-needed changes.  

Nonprofit organizations employ about 12.3 million people in the United States, accounting for about 10% of the country’s employed citizens. While these numbers prove the importance of nonprofits in our workforce, staffing for non-profits is becoming more challenging with the competitive talent market today.  

At Curate Partners, we make it part of our mission to help staff nonprofits as part of our effort to support the communities we work in. 

Our work with Pan-Mass Challenge:

We saw the power of working with nonprofits first-hand when we joined forces with Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC). The Massachusetts-based bike-a-thon raises funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute every year. Known as the country’s highest-grossing single athletic fundraising event, PMC aspires to aid doctors and cancer researchers in their fight for a cure. Since its inception almost 40 years ago, PMC has donated $1 billion to the cause. 

While PMC made great strides on its own, they were facing challenges building out their digital infrastructure. There is much more to scaling a nonprofit than inspiring supporters to reach for their wallets. This is only half the battle; the other half is hiring passionate employees who can support the organization from all angles to amplify their digital presence. And this is where Curate Partners saw a chance to step up and help out 

To build their team for future success, we aided PMC in their search to find their next Director of Digital IT. Finding the perfect fit for this position was more important than making a sale; We wanted to be a small factor in helping them double their donations in the next decade. Our founder Dan Foley, says it best in his LinkedIn post about our partnership 

“In an effort to give back, I am eager and honored to announce that Curate Partners is teaming up with the Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) to find their next Director of Digital IT. This is a pro-bono executive search that we are doing to help raise awareness for the cause while also tapping into our incredible network of tech professionals as we look for their purple squirrel!” 

This job post received a ton of engagement. Which, in the end, raised more awareness for the cause and inspired people to apply for the job. Our public search also inspired our network to show their support on social media. With almost 300 reactions and many comments from industry professionals, our transparent staffing strategy and network of IT leaders helped us find PMC’s passionate new leader, Jennifer Schachter. 

We are eager to watch her success unfold as she builds digital experiences across many user spectrums; from riders to their donors, to the volunteers, all the sponsors and everyone who makes the PMC a success! 

To learn more about the PanMass Challenge, click here.

22Sep

Curate Partners is a 2022 Fastest Growing Staffing Firm Winner by SIA

Curate Partners Named on SIA’s 2022 List of Fastest-Growing Staffing Firms

SIA’s Annual List Recognizes US Staffing Firms That Achieved Significant Organic Growth Over Five Years

September 21, 2022 – Curate Partners announced it has been named to the 2022 List of Fastest-Growing Staffing Firms. Published annually by Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) – the global advisor on staffing and workforce solutions – the list ranks US firms by compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for staffing revenue over five years.

There were 122 staffing firms included on the 2022 ranking, and the median CAGR for all firms listed is 30.3%. To be considered one of the Fastest-Growing Staffing Firms, companies must meet a minimum revenue threshold of $1 million in 2017 and have had a CAGR of at least 15% between 2017 and 2021. The Braff Group, a leading mergers and acquisitions advisory firm, sponsored this year’s list. Each staffing firm is profiled online at fastestgrowing.staffingindustry.com.

“The 2022 List of Fastest-Growing Staffing Firms displays a masterclass in perseverance. Emerging from the pandemic with organic growth is a true achievement and testament to the staffing industry’s strength, even in the most turbulent of times,” said SIA President Barry Asin. “Our list of staffing firms more than doubled this year and SIA is honored to present these resilient staffing firms to the world. A huge congratulations to our 2022 honorees!”

About Curate Partners

Curate Partners is a talent solutions provider that specializes in solving tomorrow’s business challenges by deploying better infrastructure, leveraging customer-driven insights and investing in digital innovation today. Our people-first approach has fostered a network of digital and tech experts who drive meaningful impact for any business transformation.

About Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA)

Founded in 1989, SIA is the global advisor on staffing and workforce solutions. Our proprietary research covers all categories of employed and non-employed work including temporary staffing, independent contracting and other types of contingent labor. SIA’s independent and objective analysis provides insights into the services and suppliers operating in the workforce solutions ecosystem including staffing firms, managed service providers, recruitment process outsourcers, payrolling/compliance firms and talent acquisition technology specialists such as vendor management systems, online staffing platforms, crowdsourcing and online work services. We also provide training and accreditation with our unique Certified Contingent Workforce Professional (CCWP) program.

Known for our award-winning content, data, support tools, publications, executive conferences and events, we help both suppliers and buyers of workforce solutions make better-informed decisions that improve business results and minimize risk. As a division of the international business media company, Crain Communications Inc., SIA is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in London, England. Learn more at staffingindustry.com.

Media Contact

Jess Rousseau, Senior Marketing Manager 

Curate Partners

jess.rousseau@curatepartners.com | 833.828.7283| www.curatepartners.com

14Sep

The importance of respect, inclusion, and transparency in the workplace

In the U.S., more than two in five (45.5%) of LGBTQ+ employees said they had experienced unfair treatment at work, including being fired, not hired, or harassed because of their sexual orientation at some point in their lives—and nearly a third reported experiencing this within the past five years. 

In a June 2022 survey by LinkedIn and YouGov, 75% of LGBTQ+ respondents said it’s important that they work at a company where they feel comfortable expressing their identity, and 65% said they would leave their current job if they felt they could not do so. 

Clearly, there’s still room for improvement.

At Curate Partners, our employees are our greatest asset, and we take a serious stance on ensuring that everyone feels safe and comfortable in the workplace. We recently hosted Graci Harkema, an international diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) speaker specializing in implicit bias and inclusive leadership. Here are a few tips we learned from Graci that can help any organization better serve LGBTQ+ community members.

Celebrate the importance (and history) of LGBTQ+ pride.

From Stonewall to Harvey Milk, there’s much to learn about LGBTQ+ history. The origins of Pride Month can be traced back to 1969, when police raided New York City’s Stonewall Inn on Friday night, June 28th. This raid prompted a series of demonstrations against discrimination by members of the LGBTQ+ community—and it’s these demonstrations we now celebrate during Pride Month every year. 

At its core, pride month is about supporting those who feel marginalized or discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or gender identity (or both)—and celebrating those who fought for equality socially and legally. Learning the history and understanding its importance is a great first step to becoming an ally in the workplace. 

Acknowledge and respect individuals’ identities.

It can be challenging for anyone in the workplace to discuss their gender identity or sexual orientation with coworkers or even supervisors. When hiring new employees—and interacting with existing ones—it is essential to acknowledge and respect individuals’ identities. Encourage workplace transparency about sexual orientation and gender identity by honoring a person’s chosen name and pronoun usage.

If you or your employees struggle with pronouns, consider holding office hours where someone can ask questions about how to use them correctly without being mistaken for being overly sensitive or difficult. The National Center for Transgender Equality also provides an online guide for using pronouns correctly if you’re unsure which ones are appropriate for people who don’t identify as cisgender men or women.

Make sure everyone knows it’s okay to talk about being LGBTQ+ at work without fear of judgment (or worse). If some people are uncomfortable talking about their own lifestyles but are willing to lend a hand when coworkers come out about theirs, offer a small but important gesture by thanking them sincerely every time they do so.

Learn to be an ally in the workplace.

When you’re an ally, your actions demonstrate that you support and respect LGBTQ+ people and their families. Allies can help create a safe, inclusive work environment for everyone. They also help develop an understanding of the unique challenges that LGBTQ+ employees may face in the workplace.

Developing as an ally doesn’t mean you need to be perfect; everyone makes mistakes. The key is to use each mistake as an opportunity to learn, grow, and demonstrate your commitment to improving. The role of an ally is to consider the perspectives of your LGBTQ+ peers and see what behavioral changes you can make to ensure that everyone is treated equally. For example:

  • Making sure that all employees feel welcome at lunchtime events or team outings by inviting them along or including them in group emails about these events.
  • Speaking up if someone makes a homophobic joke or comments in front of others (or even around just one person)

Allies should also be mindful of their own language, which may inadvertently exclude or alienate LGBTQ+ people. The most prevalent way we see this happen is through unconscious bias—the tendency for those who hold certain privileges and status markers within society to unconsciously favor others like them over others who don’t share those markers. An ally in the workplace should consider how their actions may perpetuate these biases if left unchecked. 

Take note of anything in your job post that may illustrate an unintentional bias. If you are hoping to promote internal talent, and are struggling to find interested employees, consider whether there are ways you can make your team or department more welcoming. For instance, is your team diverse? Are people collaborative and cohesive in spite of differences? Does everyone feel supported equally? Sometimes sending out an anonymous survey to this effect can help you determine how you can improve your team’s DEI. 

Creating an inclusive work environment where everyone can be themselves encourages positive mental health and helps build trust between co-workers. So take a moment (many moments, in fact) to think about how your company could be more inclusive of all kinds of people—whether they identify as LGBTQ+, straight allies, parents with kids in school, different racial or cultural backgrounds, or even those who simply think differently.  

Ultimately, the most important thing to remember is that everyone deserves respect regardless of their identity—and it’s up to us as employers to make sure that happens.

Learn more about our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

31Aug

Flights canceled, bags lost: How to learn from the airline industry and get through staffing shortages

Flights canceled, bags lost: How to learn from the airline industry and get through staffing shortages

If you planned a trip at some point this summer, you’ve surely felt it. Airports are more crowded than usual. Flights are continuously getting delayed, canceled, and overbooked. Traveling has gone from a respite from the grind of daily living to a challenge in itself.

Federal transportation officials say 88,161 flights were canceled through May—the second-most in the first five months of a year since 1988, topped only by the pandemic in 2020. It’s all over the news: flights are being canceled constantly; luggage is lost. The airline industry is suffering, and it all boils down to staffing shortages.

We can all learn from this. After all, the post-pandemic labor market is very different from what it looked like pre-pandemic. Employees’ priorities have changed, wanting to be compensated fairly and competitively, appreciated for their work, and provided with growth opportunities. In the airline industry, strikes have been prevalent—but other industries can expect the same if they are not investing in their people in a way that attracts and retains them.

Imagining how this all came about isn’t difficult. First, there were bans on traveling and then requirements for providing negative Covid tests to travel. The airline industry wasn’t prepared for the perfect storm that hit when travel restrictions eased. During the pandemic, they had to let go or furlough many of their employees due to travel bans. But now, travel is back in full force—and there’s a huge demand to go back to normal and explore. 

Cathy Panah, a senior account executive at Curate Partners, has an interesting perspective on what went wrong. “It seems like leaders were not prepared to accommodate the demand because they couldn’t retain employees or hire new ones fast enough,” she says. “There were unique challenges for the airline industry, but staffing plans should have been better executed to reduce the other issues.” 

She’s right. The proper staffing plan is the key to dealing with demand in any industry. Here are four things we can learn from the airline industry and its staffing shortages.

Don’t wait until there’s a desperate need to begin hiring.

It’s common knowledge that the hiring process can take a while—the average hiring time frame in the U.S. is 42 days yet candidates are off the market in 9 days. This obviously depends on how efficient your hiring practices are, but you should never wait until you are desperate for more employees to begin the process.

If you’re facing a staffing shortage, your company should do self-reflection exercises to see why you’re not staffing up the way you need to. Are you offering flexible, remote, or hybrid options? How do you pay compared to other companies in your industry? What does your hiring process look like, and how long does it take?

But Panah takes it one step further. She suggests, “What would a current employee say to a prospective employee? Would they tell them they are happy with their employer?” 

If you can answer these questions honestly, it gives you glaring insight into whether you can retain and attract employees. Of course, it’s helpful to have happy employees because they speak positively about your company to prospects, but it’s more than that. If leaders fear their employees’ honest answers, then it’s clear they need to adjust to the culture, benefits, and career development offered before they even think about hiring. 

“Leaders who are investing in their workers, paying them well, trusting them to get their work done from where they choose to work, and providing them with growth opportunities—these are the leaders who have a happy workforce,” Panah says. 

Lure back previous employees, and seek out nontraditional talent.

During the pandemic, airlines lost thousands of employees. They handed out early retirement packages, laid off some employees, and received resignations from others. So why not target a hiring campaign to the talent you know is already qualified and trained? 

Research from McKinsey shows that attracting “nontraditional” workers—those who left traditional employment in favor of gig work or entrepreneurship—means offering flexibility, meaningful work, adequate compensation, and career development. 

People who voluntarily leave their jobs—especially during and since the pandemic—are going in search of these “nontraditional” priorities. If your company can prove that it can provide what they are looking for, your hiring goals will be met and onboarding time will likely shorten.

Offer new hires what they’re worth.

If you’re in the market to staff up your employee base and want a chance to hire the best of who’s out there, you need to offer new hires what they’re worth. In the airline industry, airlines are getting creative. In June, American Airlines increased the pilot pay for its understaffed carriers by more than 50%, and Delta announced that it partnered with a private jet operator to allow pilots in its training program to log flight hours—and give them a quicker path to full-time employment.

While we’re not suggesting you offer a 50% raise to guarantee a speedy hiring process, you should provide new hires at least what their market value is. Can you offer them something besides their requested salary to sweeten the deal? Perhaps they want a hybrid work environment or a contract-to-hire opportunity to leave them open to freelancing. Maybe it’s benefits that they’re after, and you can offer paid time off and health benefits. No matter what compensation you decide, you must ensure the new hire feels valued and appreciated.

With Delta’s think-outside-of-the-box plan, they are set to hire and train more than 2,400 pilots this year. So what’s your outside-of-the-box plan for your company? How are you going to stand out from other employers? 

Don’t compromise the quality of the candidate.

You may be in need of new hires, but that doesn’t mean you need to compromise on the quality of the candidate. Always pursue those purple squirrels. At Curate, we recommend a two-week contract hiring timeline—because talent is off the market so quickly—and that includes quick feedback on resumes and interviews and fast, competitive offers.

“That may seem fast-paced,” Panah says, “But we do the heavy lifting of vetting and screening the candidates beforehand, so that timeline doesn’t compromise the quality of the candidate; it ensures that they know you are committed and confident in them for the role.”

Remember: candidates likely have offers on the table or other interviews lined up. So it’s key to make the hiring process quick, thoughtful, and seamless for all involved.

Want someone else to take the lead with your staffing shortage? Curate Partners can help.

03Aug

Five Strategies to go Agile with Your Business—and Succeed

Five Strategies to go Agile with Your Business—and Succeed

We’ve heard it time and time again: My company needs to be more “fill in the blank” [get better R.O.I.s, get to market faster, produce more]—the list goes on and on. But the struggle is an obvious one: How do you get there?

Hiring an outside firm to help with an Agile transformation can be the first step in the right direction. Not sure what that process will look like, exactly? Curate Partners has tapped the brain of our very own internal Agile Practice Lead, Richard Lovell, who’s been in the business for 20+ years and knows the ins and outs of Agile transformation. Here are five strategies to go Agile with your company and succeed.

1. Be adaptive.

The key is to be ready to pivot. When you become an “Agile” organization, you must be adaptive—not just by getting to market faster but by being more sensitive to customer requirements. You have to understand your customers because they are what drives Agile.

“While being faster to the marketplace, you gain an advantage by not missing opportunities,” says Lovell. “There are so many companies I’ve worked for who take ages to do things. And by the time they get it out there, their competitors have already gotten it out there.”

The issue, Lovell says, is with being first to market. And an employee’s lofty education doesn’t necessarily translate into successful Agile transformation. “You see these guys,” he continues, “they have MBAs, and they get frustrated. I tell them, ‘Well, it was a really good plan—a year ago.’”

2. Start small and test your product.

Many companies think they have to have a fully fleshed-out plan to go Agile when the opposite is true. “It’s about speed and not trying to build a Rolex, right?” Lovell admits. “When you build something, you build it just good enough so that you can test it with a customer, and then the customer can tell you their opinion. [That gives you the opportunity to] pivot without having spent a lot of money.”

Lovell sites Amazon as a great example of starting small. “You notice these little changes to the site and app, and go, ‘Wow, that’s really cool,’ or ‘Oh, that’s confusing.’ And two weeks later, the changes they’ve made have become even bigger and more developed. It’s a way to develop products or services in an iterative fashion so that you don’t invest too much when you fail.”

When you fail, you can pivot quickly (as previously mentioned) because you haven’t invested millions. “I’ve watched so many big companies, in the traditional way of things, go for funding and say, ‘Hey, I need $50 million,’ and then proceed to present a 100-page business plan with fancy Excel graphs, market studies, etc.—and they completely miss the point,” Lovell says.

The point Lovell is referring to is going out and testing the product or service. Then, for example, build microsites, take a small sample of your customers who sign into your website, and direct them based on their IP address. “Agile makes it cheaper to understand your customer,” Lovell says. “You’re more successful when you actually do launch the final product, and you know you’re going to win. You stack your own deck in your favor by not building great, big $50 million things from the get-go.”

3. Get buy-in from the whole company.

While using different strategies for each employee is not ideal, try other tactics.
The strategy is to get buy-in from everybody and get the whole team on board. Then, with an outside firm, have them create a tactical execution. “Fundamentally, you need people to buy into the concept that their lives are going to be easier because they’re not trying to build something big like a Rolex from the start,” Lovell says.

Lovell compares an employee’s time to working towards a Rolex versus working towards building a $35 watch like a Timex. “I might be perfectly happy with a Timex at the moment because it still tells me the time. And then I can add a dial on the outside, a stainless steel band, and all of the extras later—but they’re all fundamentally the same,” he says. “It’s a difference in how you roll it out to people and how you go out and sell it. With large organizations, it’s going to take longer because you don’t want to ‘blow up the factory.’”

By “blowing up the factory,” Lovell means shutting down production entirely for significant changes all at once. “If you blow up the factory, nothing is going out the door. There’s no revenue, no sales—and that doesn’t work either.”

His suggestion is to keep developing products but to do so in a more timely and iterative way, and, most importantly, to not do it the old way and fail miserably. It’s all about the capacity for the organization to change.

4. Change the culture.

Speaking of change, the fastest way to get buy-in from the whole company is by changing the culture. In the beginning, employees will likely disagree with the change. “There was this one client,” Lovell says, “that was resistant at first. But six and a half months later, they realized we were right. We had about an 80% change in that time frame. We changed the minds of that many people because they finally started showing up.”

Lovell admits, “We’d put a meeting on their calendar, and at first, they would ignore it. By the end, everybody showed up. And the employees were actually sorry to see us go once the project was completed. They admitted to learning so much, so anecdotally, I think we were able to make a big change in the culture—and that’s what matters.”

When targeting the employees for change, sometimes it’s best to start at the top when you want a full-on culture change. For Lovell, that means offering a customizable CEO advisory to their personality and the problem they’re trying to solve.  

5. Save time, not necessarily money.

When it comes to staffing, you can either work smarter or harder; but you don’t necessarily want to save money when it comes to finding the right hires when you’re aiming for an Agile transformation.

Lovell warns that if salaries don’t match or surpass industry standards, you could risk hiring subpar employees because the pay doesn’t equate to what people expect for their experience levels. “As an example, if you’re hiring in the Washington DC area, there are a lot of big technology and government companies,” Lovell says. “So you’ve got a lot of competition. So let’s say a developer makes $100k on average. You can’t offer $80k and expect to get good people.”

The strategy here is simple: If you hire one outstanding developer at $150k, would they be worth three people at $80k? To entirely go Agile, you have to risk hiring expensive employees.

“We did an experiment with this one client,” Lovell says. “We hired a couple of really expensive contractors. We put together teams in Boston, North Carolina, and offshore. We had completed the assignment in about five months [in Boston and North Carolina], and the team in India hadn’t even started yet.” Lovell continues, “So what’s the cost of that missed opportunity of eight or nine months? There’s value when you’re first to the market.”

Looking for an Agile transformation for your business? Curate Partners can scale companies big and small. Reach out today. 

25Jul

How to be Strategic in Today’s Talent Market

How to be Strategic in Today’s Talent Market

We’re all familiar with talent competitions like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. But when it comes to staffing your company, there’s a different kind of talent competition afoot—and it doesn’t involve singing or dancing. In a post-pandemic world, there’s a hiring race for competitive advantage, and if you don’t have a deep understanding of what candidates are seeking in their next position, you’ll likely miss out.

The talent competition: It’s very real, and we’re here to help you have that competitive edge.

Executives and HR departments are struggling to staff, with 69% of employers struggling to fill positions, according to ManpowerGroup—and even that number seems low. It seems you can’t throw a rock without coming across the next piece talking about this “competition,” and while you won’t necessarily get “voted off,” businesses are paying the price.

After learning the perks of working flexible hours, remotely (or hybrid), and getting added benefits, potential hires are not only seeing their value—they’re enforcing it by being more selective with where they choose to work. The result: HR departments and staffing agencies have to be more tactical in today’s talent market.

One surefire way to access more talent is to consider contract employees. Contractors have seen it all, especially in tech. If you need someone to join your project and don’t have the time or resources to train them, an experienced contractor can ramp up quickly. You’ll get a resource in the door faster who will hit the ground running, adding immediate value to the team.

Technical talent is in high demand now more than ever. Companies are making record-breaking investments in digital transformation this year, up 65% from 2020. So if you want your digital investment strategy to reach higher returns, it all comes down to transforming operations, moving digital efforts forward, and showing results.

While initially in the late 1990s, the competition for talent intensified because of demographic shifts, nowadays it has been exasperated due to the mass layoffs and furloughs brought on by the pandemic.

The Great Resignation is still happening. The priorities of workers have changed, and as employers, you have to pivot and adapt to get the best candidates to apply—those purple squirrels are out there.

But what’s the best way to win in today’s talent market? Improving your hiring process and efficiency is a start. We see organizations constantly losing candidate engagement due to a tedious hiring process.

Our vice president of business development, Dave Paglia, suggests putting people first. “They are the core and life of all highly successful businesses,” he mentions. Paglia recommends defining what’s really needed for the role and offering flexibility where feasible.

“The majority of all candidates we speak with want clarity and a sense of purpose or belonging,” Paglia says. “In my opinion, offering those at every step of the candidate’s experience is a contributing factor as to why so many people make changes in their careers and can be a big reason as to why your offer is selected over others.”

While Paglia doesn’t suggest company-wide policy changes to clients, he does suggest companies think and ask themselves what small things could make a big impact on someone deciding if this is the right opportunity for them.

“We recently worked with a CEO who needed to add a member to his executive leadership team,” he says. “His biggest regret was not acting on the first candidate that checked every box. It’s always nice to survey the competitive talent landscape, but keep in check the cost of waiting to find that same person if it takes 6+ months.”

He’s right. Candidates grow tired of waiting for responses and the constant back and forth of needless interviews. Foregoing a lengthy interview process could mean being able to hire your top choice, rather than having them scooped up by a competitor.

“Ideally there are no more than three rounds to make a sound decision,” says Paglia. “Every member interviewing should have a series of thoughts and questions prepared in advance. We see it quite often where a company doesn’t promote its business enough and where said individual could really help accelerate the overall vision.”

While we have many ways of helping our clients, it all starts with being great listeners. It’s the key to everything in life, but it is crucial when sitting down with clients and understanding what is needed to find the next purple squirrel employee. “Part of our process also includes educating our clients on market conditions and ways in which to help them stand out,” Paglia says. “We take a lot of pride in being fully transparent and upfront with what’s happening in each market segment and particular skill set.”

The way to have your company attract a “purple squirrel” and stand out to candidates is simple: Offer them contract work with benefits like working remotely or at the very least offering a hybrid environment. When candidates know they’re able to have a flexible schedule and know from the get-go not only what the hiring process is, but what is expected of the new hires, it paves the way for success—both yours and theirs.

Need some help being tactical in today’s talent market? Reach out.

13Jul

Hiring at Scale, Amid the Great Resignation

Hiring at Scale, Amid the Great Resignation

A year ago this month, Anthony Klotz, a psychologist and professor of business administration at Texas A&M University, coined a now-famous phrase: He said “the great resignation is coming,” and that was that—or so we thought.

A lot has happened in a year. According to CNN, 47.4 million jobs were left voluntarily last year—an admittedly staggering amount—for greener pastures. But what started it all? And how can business owners keep up?

Resignations will continue at a higher rate for at least a few years, according to the original prognosticator. But what started it all is as simple as changing priorities during the pandemic. Americans are continuing to evaluate what it means to have a healthy work-life balance, and people are deciding to follow their dreams instead of staying put.

In February, nearly 4.4 million quit their jobs in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and that’s about 100,000 more people than quit in January—and just shy of the 4.5 million record set in November. But despite all of this, the unemployment rate is at 3.6%. That means there are about 6 million unemployed people in the U.S.

The workforce is focusing on their personal priorities. They aren’t settling for just any job—so how do you make sure your company attracts talent and is staffed for the future? Despite these sobering statistics, there are ways to win the war for talent if you follow these five steps.

Step One: Lock in Your Existing Resources

Promoting a healthy work culture is more than politeness and “thank yous”. It means recognizing your employees holistically as people—not just workers. To do this, you must prioritize the well-being of your employees, from healthy habits to mental health. This can look like encouraging employees to relax on their days off, to take actual lunch breaks instead of working as they munch, and to share fun facts about their lives outside of work. Offering team-building exercises, meet-ups, get-to-know-you events, and the like, can help create a sense of camaraderie and fun in the workplace. But there’s more to it than that when it comes to a healthy culture; offer competitive pay, feedback and goal setting meetings, recognition for successes, and employees will feel valued, secure, and seen for their hard work.

For the remote workforce, it can be as easy as having chat channels for different interests or having themed days of the week where employees are encouraged to share pictures of their pets, DIY projects, kids, or travel adventures. When employees feel respected and seen as full people—not just worker-bees—they become more engaged in their work-life, improving their attitudes and productivity. This translates to inclusivity and a feeling of belonging.

Step Two: Cut the Fluff

An easy way to kill a job candidate’s interest in your company is by dragging out a long hiring process. No one likes spending six months—or even 6 weeks—interviewing for one position. Aim to cut down on the decision-makers and number of interviews, video interviewing to increase availability (which should be your primary interviewing method), and speed up the hiring process. If your company isn’t equipped to keep the hiring process on track, consider outsourcing to a third party. The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports that the average time to fill (the time it takes to make a hire after a position opens) at 42 days across all industries, yet the best candidate is off the market in 10 days. So if your process takes longer than that, you’re missing the mark.

An analysis of data on LinkedIn showed that for positions filled between June 2020 and March 2021, it took an average of 49 days to hire engineers and an average of 44 days to hire IT professionals—but when it comes to contractors, that wait time gets nearly eliminated. Contract employees are a great move if you’re looking to hire quickly, as they also cut down the timeframe for the hiring process. Not only can they typically start sooner than full-time employees,   they’re ready to dive right in having the expert knowledge in the role they are hired for. Contractors are a fixed cost—with no overhead costs to consider, no maintenance around training—and they are task-oriented. Remember employee turnover is expensive, but contractors are cost-effective and require less onboarding paperwork.

Step Three: Be Flexible

About 88% of knowledge workers say that when searching for a new position, they will look for one that offers complete flexibility in their hours and location.

Gone are the days of the strict 9-5. Today, flexible work schedules are king. Translation: As long as the employee gets their work done prior to their deadline, does it really matter if they start work at 7 a.m. rather than 9 a.m.? Or if they opt to contract with you Monday through Thursday so they can always take a three-day weekend?

But flexibility doesn’t only lie with the times they clock in and clock out. If a kid is sick, or an employee has to go to the doctor, they shouldn’t feel like they can’t ask for time off. The key here is simple: Clearly outline whether roles are in-office, remote, or hybrid, and what’s expected of employees. Employers that offer some level of flexibility will come out ahead.

Step Four: Evaluate Your Goals

Obviously, you want your future hires to be happy during their time with you, but this isn’t just about them. The Great Resignation has also triggered plenty of employers to reevaluate what their goals are for their employees and what a success “position” looks like during their time with the company. Are you looking for long-term hires? Contractors? Project Teams? When it comes to evaluating goals, employers need to shift their interest towards how the work gets done and not the status of the employee.

One great option is to consider contract-to-hire employees, that way you can have a trial run to make sure that it’s a good fit before making a long-term commitment. While hiring contractors provides the benefit of having employees that are not full-time it also allows the employer to assess the contractor’s skills and cultural fit before making that investment toward a full-time employee.

Step Five: Encourage Development

Encouraging development goes beyond the standard onboarding. It’s more than just compliance training, too. Schedule more frequent one-on-one reviews and performance assessments with your employees to understand what their future looks like. This also allows them to voice any concerns they may have. After all, an employee who feels more in the know is more confident with their employer.

But how else can you encourage development? Check in with employees and see if they have goals for their future with the company. Do they want to upskill and reach a certain career trajectory? Offering discounted or free education incentives could not only encourage them to grow with your business but also increase their worth. By 2030, 30-40% of all workers in developed countries will need to move into new occupations or upgrade their skill set significantly. Keep this in mind, and don’t fall short of your digital aspirations.

Another way to encourage development is by dropping the annual raise and switch to more frequent pay reviews. This helps you be more competitive when searching for talent while keeping pace with rising wages.

The Great Resignation may very well be a misnomer. Maybe it should be called the Great Aspiration—forced to make abrupt and significant changes under pressure, Americans are aiming to live the lives they want. They are reaching for what they once thought was unattainable, and they are going for what they thought was simply aspirational. For organization growing their digital/tech efforts, you may also want consider this; IT and digital skills are so in demand (more so than others), which means that these steps are even greater to address if you are aiming to grow your IT and/or digital efforts. A failure to address any of these steps and you can expect your job openings to drag on forever.

With a workforce aiming for the jobs they always dreamed of having—it’s time to ask yourself: is the job I’m offering dream-worthy? Cut the fluff, and create a great culture that includes flexibility, a strong mission, and employee development—and the answer will be a resounding yes.

Need help hiring at scale in this market? Reach out.

27Jun

Purple Squirrels: What They Are and Where to Find Them

Purple Squirrels: What They Are and Where to Find Them

Purple squirrels are changing the game in IT and digital innovation—but what are they, and how do you find one?

Purple squirrels: A term used by Curate Partners to describe a person with just the right mix of experience, training, skills, and passion to succeed in today’s dynamic environment. They stand out from the sea of resumes and of course they’re the most in demand talent. But the real value in bringing in quality purple squirrels? Seeing a return on investment for digital and IT projects.

Harvard Business Review got it right when they said digital transformation is less about technology and more about people. A person’s ability to adapt to a digital future depends on hiring unique individuals that can develop skills and close the gap between talent supply and demand—and in doing so, it future proofs your potential and that of others.

We’ve all heard of job applicants that stand out from the pack. They’re not just humdrum resumés with standard qualifications; their expertise practically jumps off the page. Essentially, that’s a purple squirrel, and hiring purple squirrels is key to waging in the talent war—and winning.

To us, purple squirrels are sought-after and highly valuable contributors.

“These people are caring, motivated, and represent the company with the highest integrity,” says Nathaniel White, Recruiting Manager at Curate Partners. But finding these “purple squirrels” is sort of like finding a four-leaf clover: often talked about but rarely accomplished. That’s why Curate Partners stands out.

“I coach colleagues to really get to know the people they are working with,” White continues. “To not only search for the skillset needed but the personality and drive to succeed. We look for the total package when we present to our clients and really strive to build solid relationships.”

When it comes to IT and digital innovation, purple squirrels are changing the game. “They are a perfect mix of a genuine person and a value-adding employee,” says Corina Olsen, a senior recruiting consultant at Curate.

These candidates are sincere, personable, humble, and transparent. They are top performers with quality experience, and they are adaptable and innovative in nature.

“Purple Squirrels come in all shapes and sizes; from different backgrounds, locations, and even industries,” Olsen continues. “But the one common denominator is that they will always be the best person for the job.”

These unique hires are seemingly hard to come by, but one thing to keep in mind is that you have to look deeper than what’s on a LinkedIn resumé.

“Anyone can have experience in IT, but not everyone has the pureness that is found in the purple squirrel candidates we place,” Olsen says. “I encourage my peers to really get to know the candidate and to always trust their gut. Things move fast in this industry, but if you take the human factor out of it and only focus on their career experience, you lose the true value in what sets us apart from other staffing agencies.”

At Curate, we not only find current purple squirrels, but we coach candidates and help them reach their full potential to become purple squirrels as well. Many of our candidates become close friends that stay in touch with our recruiters even after they move on to new opportunities. And how do we harness that level of care? By putting people first.

“Curate is full of people that genuinely care about me inside and out of work,” White says. “I am empowered to help the company grow and create positive change.”

Olsen agrees. For her, Curate is the one company she’s worked at where people are put above all else. “We have a family culture in our company, and that translates to treating our clients and candidates as family as well,” Olsen says. “They instill in us that each person we interact with both internally and externally is a human who deserves respect, trust, and compassion—they’re not just a number to us and never will be.”

It’s this level of drive and commitment to tracking down purple squirrels that not only empowers our employees but also motivates them. “The founders are some of the most inspiring, driven, and intelligent leaders I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with,” Olsen says. “They motivate us all to be the best we can be, both personally and professionally. This company never loses sight of what matters most, and that’s people.”

Are you a purple squirrel looking for your perfect fit? A company looking for your next unique hire? Reach out.

13Jun

How to make the Great Resignation your Hiring Opportunity

How to make the Great Resignation your Hiring Opportunity

The Great Resignation of 2021 is happening, and companies are paying attention: 1 in 4 tech employees are likely to quit between August and December of 2021. While tech and knowledge workers are accustomed to the ebbs and flows of the job market, they’re also in an environment deeply changed by COVID-19. And perhaps feelings about work have changed, too: demand and workloads in tech are ever high, and so is burnout. Many employers see the Great Resignation as a threat to recruiting and retention, fearing that more movement will hurt morale and productivity.

But what if the Great Resignation were an opportunity? What if employers could embrace a more dynamic working model, access a vibrant pool of diverse candidates, and reinvigorate their hiring culture to be more agile?

We believe you can. Here’s a few steps your organization can take to take advantage of the moment, and pivot to a better way of working.

1. Embrace remote work as more than a stopgap.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many felt that remote work would be a stopgap solution. Yet 1+ years in, combined with the continuing uncertainty of COVID-19, remote is here to stay.

Companies must embrace remote work to hire competitively and keep employees safe. Yet, remote work can also democratize access to employment and widen the talent pool that your organization can access. Now, people with the right skills can apply to your roles from anywhere, granting you a much wider pool of talented candidates that already know how to be effective in this environment. For workers, remote work also offers flexibility, a highly coveted benefit, and the freedom of upward mobility and career growth in new places.

At Curate Partners, we’ve long prioritized democratized access to technology roles and have already optimized for building an experienced remote workforce. Our consultants know how to collaborate in a remote-first environment and will deliver the results you need, no matter where they are.

2. Move fast to hire right—especially now.

Today hiring is moving faster than ever—and organizations willing to bet fast on the right candidate can reap the rewards if they move quickly. After all, the average candidate is on the market for a total of 9 days—if you take longer to hire, you’re likely to lose out on the best candidates. Further, today’s candidates often have 2-3 offers before accepting one. The top employees and consultants will have many choices— but in the era of the Great Resignation, they’re on the market; two years ago, they might not have been looking.

Hiring the right person fast is a core part of our own hiring philosophy at Curate Partners. We’re experts in helping you identify your need and fill it fast, at the right level. Early on, we saw that digital transformation and technology innovation was going to disrupt the workplace—and we adapted fast to build a hiring model accordingly. Your Purple Squirrel is out there, and we have a plan for how to get them to work for you, so you don’t miss your moment to hire opportunistically.

3. Optimize for happiness and inclusion.

The Great Resignation isn’t just about switching jobs: it’s also about re-evaluating what’s important at work. Employees want to be supported and developed; they want to be heard, for their opinions to matter. And they want to be free to be their authentic selves at work, especially now that work is more deeply a part of people’s home lives.

Younger and ethnically diverse workers are also likelier than other groups to seek greener pastures. This is a chance for organizations to pause and re-evaluate their culture—is it working for long-term employees? How about new ones? Is it inclusive, welcoming, authentic for all groups? Are you open to improving how feedback is given and received? How have you adjusted your culture recently?

Well before the Great Resignation, we’ve always believed that happy employees drive better business— and that diversity, inclusivity and cultivating a positive, feedback-driven culture is critical for employee retention and development. We strongly believe in our duty to create and foster a culture of inclusion and growth with our consultants, partner organizations, and full-time employees—because culture creates strong, long-term relationships that will weather any market conditions.

4. Try a different way to hire and retain.

You have many hiring options in the age of the Great Resignation. Even if you’re filling a full-time role, you’re not limited to a full-time hiring model. Contract and contract-to-hire working arrangements are booming, as employees seek to expand their skills and explore new professional environments.

If you already embrace flexible hiring by hiring consultants, consider extending their contracts if more work is coming. Remember that replacing someone who already understands your business will likely cost you more per hour—and may be less productive due to initial learning curves. Your consultants are part of your business today; considering the current environment, you also have an opportunity to evaluate whether they’re well compensated and happy working for you.

Our consultant and contract-to-hire working model can help you bridge the gap between contract and full-time so that you focus on the problems your organization needs to solve, while we take care of the sourcing and hiring. We’ll give you access to the people with the skill sets that you need, while also screening for the right match that thrive in your organization’s unique culture.

Embrace change to gain opportunities

Today’s employees have more leverage to choose situations that work better for them, and they’re looking for companies that fit better into their lives. For companies, it’s an opportunity to examine the way they hire, how they develop their teams, and how they approach both their hiring and retention strategies.

At Curate Partners, we understand both sides. With our help, the Purple Squirrels—those qualified, skilled, hungry professionals—will be able to find you and, perhaps, the big role of their career. And for you? The Great Resignation is your chance to transform your people strategy—and we’ll help you along the way.

23May

We are Curate Partners – your supporter, advocate, and champion at every phase of your career journey.

We are Curate Partners – your supporter, advocate, and champion at every phase of your career journey.

Thanks to the Great Resignation, job seekers are more empowered than ever to make decisions about the way they want to work. At Curate Partners, we’re paying attention—listening to what job seekers want and checking the boxes to make sure our company is meeting those marks.

We’re building a team around a new era of workplace standards, one where employees work alongside a support system full of industry veterans as well as creative and collaborative peers. Our goal is to cultivate a team where each member is valued for the unique traits that make them great, and for their contribution to our multifaceted team.

Five Reasons You Should Work at Curate Partners

1. Our company culture—we put people first!

2. We believe in diversity and inclusion.


3. You are aligned with our Cur8—our core values.


4. We care—you’ve heard of CSR, but have you heard about Curate Cares?


5. The perks—there are so many perks, like unlimited PTO.

At Curate Partners, we excel not only at staffing other companies but at staffing internally. Our company culture is unmatched, and candidates—especially in sales—love the idea of operating your day-to-day as you wish within an organization. There are no boundaries. You know what makes you a successful salesperson. And at Curate, we aren’t going to stop you from what makes you successful. As an added bonus, you’ll have the support of marketing, operations, recruiting, admin, and executive leadership.

At Curate there is open territory for your account profiles and prospecting—no bureaucracies. Sales personnel have free range on where and what verticals they want to pursue, and they implement their go-to-market strategy themselves.

After all, at Curate, we place value on deep relations rather than on metrics.

Leverage your current professional relationships how you wish. Work with clients who are building cutting-edge technologies. And best of all? Your career path is unlimited; each employee chooses their own path, whether it’s industry-driven or a specialty.

You’re not hidden behind the phones, cold calling all day. At Curate Partners, you are in the field and get to work with decision-makers, impact leaders, and even C-suite-level executives.

Besides our top-notch culture, another standout at Curate is our perks. There’s the obvious career development plan and company trips, but we also offer unlimited PTO, a hybrid work model, an annual KPI bonus plan, fitness reimbursements, a savings plan with company matching, and even what we dub “Club Curate”—where top performers and nominated employees attend an all-inclusive destination trip.

And honestly, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

So, if you think it’s time to curate your own career path, join us. We have openings in sales, agile solutions, accounting, and recruiting—and we’re excited to find more purple squirrels.

Want to stand out to us? Check out our internal job openings and apply today!