A Marketing Perspective Let's take a lesson from our marketing departments. Companies spend millions of dollars trying to figure out how to attract new customers and hold onto existing customers. So our comrades in marketing conduct research and ask lots of questions. Who is the target market? What are their needs? How does our product/service satisfy those needs? How do we differentiate ourselves? Marketing collaborates with other departments such as engineering, R&D, finance. They work with focus groups. Based on their research results and collaboration, they develop a marketing plan. But their work doesn't end when the ink dries on the plan document. They continue to ask the questions. Why? Because needs change. They continue to gauge what the competition is offering. Why? Because consumers have choices. Take a minute and think of your employees and candidates as your customers. You need to develop a living marketing plan on how to get them and keep them. This is where many companies fail. They fail to plan. Some plan steps take years to develop. Do you have well established relationships and networks that will help make identifying candidates easier? Is your strategy to "grow your own"? If so, what development plans are in place for your people? Should you have a formal feeder program such as a co-op program or a management development program for new graduates? If each time an employee leaves, you can smell the rubber from the manager's soles as they squeal into HR looking for a replacement and everyone is clueless on where to begin, you got problems. It is very important to have a well thought out, written strategy and plan in place for attracting and retaining the talent you need to meet your business objectives. And when developing your strategy and plan, remember, your employees and candidates have choices. So begin the development process by answering the following two questions: Why should they choose you? Why should they stay with you? -- Anne Mahoney Glose, Vice President/Principal Please join EKW&A as the BNHRA Breakfast Series continues with a unique opportunity to hear from a local panel of marketing and PR experts. Creating the Right Image and Visibility - for Your Company as an Employer - for Your HR Department - for Yourself! Date: Thursday, April 7, 2005 Place: Hyatt Regency Buffalo Time:  7:45 AM - 8:15 AM Registration 8:15 AM - Breakfast Served 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Panelists Register: www.bnhra.org For more information, contact E. K. Ward & Associates at 716-626-1188 or please click here.

OI Partners - E.K. Ward and Associates  March 2005 Newsletter Our March newsletter focuses on attracting and keeping strong talent. It certainly is what everyone is talking about these days, but talking is not enough. Is your organization making the necessary efforts to develop a sophisticated plan on how to identify, hire and retain the right people.right for both the job and the company? Really knowing your employees and your culture are important elements to consider when developing your staffing plans. "I take candidates on a tour and have them speak with employees, because our employees are our best recruiters. Our employees are very good at what they do and take a lot of pride in their work, so our culture, which is one of mutual trust and respect, works well for us," says Don Davis, staffing manager for Moog, a worldwide manufacturer of precision control components and systems. Other things you may want to consider when developing your plans, including protecting executives from outside recruitment, evaluating the skills that are available in the marketplace, changing workforce retention rules and onboarding, are among the topics in this month's issue. Sincerely, Anne Mahoney Glose OI Partners (Williamsville, NY) Please click on the links below to read the complete articles. Can Flexibility Motivate and Retain? In companies of all sizes, more attention is being paid to motivating employees through means other than increased compensation and benefits. Successful employers in this endeavor point to increased flexibility for employees as a key success factor. Indeed, organizations that accommodate employees' lives through flexibility send a clear message they want employees to want to work there. Skills Availability and Finding Qualified, Appropriate Talent A recent survey of 2,900 senior HR and development executives that indicates 44 percent believe as many as half their employees will begin looking for new jobs once the economy improves. We appear to be headed for a severe shortage of skilled talent. We need to develop and execute flawlessly on multiple strategies to find, attract and rapidly bring onboard, exceptional new talent. How to Protect Company Executives from Outside Recruitment Creating the right environment can help ensure your executives never want to consider leaving your company to join another. Dan Depuydt, managing partner of OI Partners (Iowa), a global career consultancy; and Bob Berg, vice president of human resources for Stanley Consultants, a provider of engineering, environmental and construction services (recently rated by CE News as one of the 2004 Best Civil Engineering Firms to Work For), both agree that giving executives growth opportunities, meaningful work and authority are usually much more satisfying to them than a paycheck. OnBoarding: A Bridge to New Leader Effectiveness When an executive joins a corporation, the first three to six months are critical to setting the stage for both the individual's success, as well as the organization's. Statistically, 40 percent of new executives will typically fail in their new roles within 18 months of being hired. Hiring an "OnBoarding" coach is proving successful in accelerating an executive's ability to be productive, while helping to improve new job satisfaction. "Old School," "New School:" Changing Workforce Retention Rules When we were children in school, student "retention" was a bad thing, the bane of school boards. Now, as adults in the workplace, workforce retention is a good thing, the quest of corporate boards. As different as are children from adults and schools and from the workplace, so are the rules regulating workforce retention in the 21st century. Click Here to subscribe to or unsubscribe from this newsletter To learn more about OI Partners, please click here.