Candidates are often approached directly by recruitment consultants or companies by phone or via business networks such as Xing or LinkedIn, even if they have not actively applied for a job. The HR experts at HR Consult Group AG wanted to know how candidates feel about this unsolicited contact. They investigated this topic in a survey in which more than 10,000 participants responded. The aim of the study is to get to know the candidates even better in order to tailor the services offered by recruitment consultants as closely as possible to their wishes and needs.
The result is clear: an overwhelming majority of participants (97 percent) agree to be contacted even though the candidate has not actively applied for the position. Of these, 35 percent stated that they only want to be contacted directly in connection with a specific offer.
Only 7 percent want to be contacted exclusively via social media (e.g., Xing and LinkedIn), and a total of 3 percent do not want to be contacted at all.
No prospective candidate wants to spend hours searching job boards or filling out tedious application forms dictated by applicant tracking systems. In comparison, being approached by a recruitment consultant is easy, quick, and very convenient for the candidate. The recruitment consultant makes it easy for the candidate and can position themselves as a friendly supporter and partner. At the same time, the fundamental willingness to change jobs is very high in the current job market, so that personally suggested, attractive offers often lead to a successful placement," explains MIRKO BAHR, recruitment consultant at Senator Executive Search Partners GmbH, commenting on the survey results.
After completing his studies in automotive engineering and industrial engineering, he began his professional career in the automotive industry in the areas of sales, development, and marketing, and also spent a year in Japan with one of the largest automotive suppliers.
He then moved to a world-renowned premium car manufacturer, where he was responsible for product marketing for Japan and South America as well as marketing strategy for North and South America.
In 1994, he decided to become self-employed and founded a personnel consulting firm in Munich, where he has been driving development and expansion for over 20 years. As managing director, his industry focus is naturally on the automotive world as well as mechanical and plant engineering.
His doctorate in the field of aptitude diagnostics ideally complements his areas of expertise, particularly in relation to human resources and management consulting. His dissertation deals with the identification and verification of typical personality traits of engineers and the definition of areas of development for a successful career.
These are scientifically derived and presented in the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz" (Aptitude Diagnostics in Practical Use).
At the same time, he focuses on establishing networks and cooperation models as well as the continuous development of systems and processes in HR consulting.
Over the past 20 years in HR consulting, he has developed several brands that continue to operate successfully on the market today.
Many aptitude assessment methods currently available on the market only determine absolute values for candidates' personality traits and, in most cases, can only reflect these against a demographic group, if at all. The test result is therefore only of limited value. The absolute result of a personality trait does not indicate whether this value is good or bad. Only when compared with candidates from the same occupational group can a statement be made about the quality of the trait.
One example of this is the problem of relativity. Consider the following example: In the high jump, the question arises as to how high the bar is set. However, the height alone is of little significance. The jump only becomes interesting when the height is put into relation to the other high jumpers. What may be very good in terms of school performance is not competitive at the Olympics.
Figures such as 80%, which are still commonly used in aptitude testing procedures, are irrelevant because they are not compared to a reference group. Only a comparison with a group or a group of top performers allows a statement to be made as to whether a value can be classified as good or bad.
The aptitude assessment system developed by HR Consult Group involves comparing candidates against one of currently 115 standard and best practice profiles of individuals who are successful in the market. This enables the assessors to not only compare the proposed candidates directly with each other, but also to compare them with a much larger group of candidates who are successful in the market. This explicitly visualizes development potential as well as personal strengths in relation to the specific occupational group.
If a candidate's result falls within the color-coded range, as shown in the example (see figure: Candidate's deviation from the comparison group), the candidate is within the comparison profile. If the result is lower, i.e., to the left of the comparison group's distribution, the candidate has a clearly different assessment of this characteristic than their comparison group. If their result is to the right of the color-coded range, they rate themselves higher than the comparison group on this point, which usually reflects a strength. The percentages listed on the far right indicate the exact values of the comparison group average, the candidate's value, and the resulting delta, i.e., the exact deviation from the comparison group average.
Such standard and best practice profiles do not exist per se, but must be generated from the test pool. It must therefore be ensured that sufficient tests are available to create such standard and best practice profiles. If, for example, a candidate is to be assessed against the position of a sales manager, sufficient test results from sales managers must be available to create a standard or best practice profile that can be used as a reference for comparison with the candidate's profile.
The standard or best practice profile is the average value including standard deviation of all test results per characteristic in relation to this specific group. However, in order to form these groups, more data must be collected from the candidate than is the case with most test procedures. Only knowledge of the candidate's background data, such as current position, current salary, with or without employee responsibility, etc., as well as personal information, enables the formation of appropriate groups. This assignment is unique, i.e., the candidate can only belong to one of these groups. This allows all relevant tests to be filtered from the entire database and a standard and best practice profile to be created.
A standard and best practice profile serves as a basis for comparison. This comparison allows conclusions to be drawn about the candidate's positioning in terms of individual personality traits, and potential areas for development and potential can be identified and exploited through personnel development.
TheBest Practice Profile(BPP) is a standard profile of the best performers. It is created by applying an additional filter. Based on predefined benchmarks, the best 10–20% are selected from these tests and grouped together.
The creation of a best practice profile can best be explained using the example of a car salesperson. To do this, certain criteria are used as a basis for selecting the participants who will be used for best practice profiles. The selection criteria are diverse and must be tailored and applied to each individual example. In this case, the top 10% of salespeople in terms of margin achieved and cars sold for a car manufacturer were selected as the relevant test group. The BPP created showed how the best salespeople for a car manufacturer are "wired" and which characteristics are particularly necessary and conducive to success in this job profile.
For verification purposes, the best salespeople from another car manufacturer were tested, and it turned out that the two best practice profiles showed extremely high levels of similarity.
What was particularly astonishing was that characteristics emerged across all participants where the absolute values were virtually identical, with virtually no variation in the candidates' responses. We will take a closer look at how this phenomenon should be interpreted in our next article.
The next article in this series will focus on key criteria. What exactly are key criteria? And how are key criteria defined?
After completing his studies in automotive engineering and industrial engineering, he began his professional career in the automotive industry in the areas of sales, development, and marketing, and also spent a year in Japan with one of the largest automotive suppliers.
He then moved to a world-renowned premium car manufacturer, where he was responsible for product marketing for Japan and South America as well as marketing strategy for North and South America.
In 1994, he decided to become self-employed and founded a personnel consulting firm in Munich, where he has been driving development and expansion for over 20 years. As managing director, his industry focus is naturally on the automotive world as well as mechanical and plant engineering.
His doctorate in the field of aptitude diagnostics ideally complements his areas of expertise, particularly in relation to human resources and management consulting. His dissertation deals with the identification and verification of typical personality traits of engineers and the definition of areas of development for a successful career.
These are scientifically derived and presented in the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz" (Aptitude Diagnostics in Practical Use).
At the same time, he focuses on establishing networks and cooperation models as well as the continuous development of systems and processes in HR consulting.
Over the past 20 years in HR consulting, he has developed several brands that continue to operate successfully on the market today.
Purchasing in particular is susceptible to compliance violations due to unclear rules and tempting offers from suppliers.
German companies' purchasing departments generate billions in sales. Many suppliers are under enormous pressure to sell their goods and services. This creates a strong temptation to sometimes use unfair methods to generate orders.
Purchasing is therefore particularly susceptible to rule violations. Here, uncertain contracts and unethical behavior on the part of suppliers can encourage corruption and violations of antitrust law. Criminal intent on the part of the purchasing department is not always involved; often, purchasers are unaware that they are already in a legal gray area. According to a survey by the Allensbach Institute, violations of legal regulations occur most frequently in the purchasing department, even more so than in the sales or finance departments.
Suppliers can pose a major risk to companies.
It is therefore extremely important for purchasing departments that suppliers operate in accordance with ethical principles, as violations of these principles pose a major risk to companies. When companies enter into business relationships with foreign suppliers who, for example, violate labor guidelines (child labor, non-compliance with occupational safety regulations) and are prosecuted, this can cause enormous damage to the reputation of the purchasing company. A conviction of the supplier can also lead to delivery failures.
Intensive examination of the supply chain is essential.
Early and comprehensive information about existing or potential suppliers can prevent the company from violating compliance guidelines, especially in the case of partners abroad or from other cultural circles. The beneficial owner of a company is often not immediately apparent at first glance. This is especially true in the case of a complex international network of relationships, which inevitably has to be examined. In such cases, it is important for the purchasing decision-maker to allow sufficient time to research the potential supplier and identify the beneficial owner.
Purchasing and compliance must work more closely together.
Company management must promote cooperation between the purchasing and compliance departments. When conducting business, both sides can complement each other effectively, for example when it comes to defining and adhering to process specifications. The goal should always be a high level of transparency in the procurement process.
The prerequisite is always the identification of the relevant risks.
As part of a specific purchasing risk audit, the relevant risks of the purchasing department should therefore be identified and assessed. Based on a needs-based risk strategy, appropriate measures should then be derived to effectively counter the identified risks.
Eckart Achauer, studied law and business administration, postgraduate studies leading to a Master of Business Administration (MBA). In-service training as a European Quality Manager (DGQ), mediator specializing in business mediation, and Certified Compliance Manager (TÜV).
He worked for around 10 years in the international insurance industry in various management positions at a Swiss insurance group (claims department, sales, assistance) before moving into management and business consulting in 1997.
As a consultant and managing director of various consulting firms, Mr. Achauer has specialized in organizational and process optimization as well as the development and implementation of management systems—quality management, risk and compliance management.
At Senator Executive Search Partners, Mr. Achauer is responsible for compliance management. As part of compliance audits, he analyzes their organizational "compliance fitness," raises awareness and trains management, executives, and employees, and supports companies in setting up and implementing individual compliance management systems. In doing so, he always takes into account the specific risk situation of the companies. Thanks to his many years of experience as a manager and consultant, he is very familiar with the practical challenges of business.
Why are some people better at coping with exceptional situations than others? "Resilience is the answer," says clinical psychologist J. Christopher Kübler, revealing how he helps his clients train their mental resilience.
We all know them: people who have "nerves of steel," are "as solid as a rock," or always bounce back no matter what. We use expressions like these to describe a remarkable characteristic that experts refer to as resilience. They refer to an experience and behavior that not only allows us to withstand enormous stress—in line with the Latin meaning of "resilire" = to bounce back—but also enables us to overcome our challenges and even grow from them.
Anyone who thinks they were born with little psychological resilience will be pleased to hear the following: experience in counseling, coaching, and psychotherapy shows time and again that most people have resilience skills that are simply not activated. In other words, there is more to us than we could ever imagine.
General resilience factors
Thanks to extensive research, scientists are now able to identify a whole range of key resilience factors. These include, for example, intellectual abilities, social skills, problem-solving skills, good self-efficacy and self-control, and successful stress management. Resilient people also prove to be solution-oriented, sociable, open, interested, self-motivated, determined, goal-oriented, purpose-driven, positive-thinking, self-aware, calm, and at peace with themselves. With this list of ideal characteristics, which cannot be extended any further, the question inevitably arises: How can I become such a resilient person? And above all: Is it really necessary to have all these factors at my disposal in order to cope with the adversities of life?
Resilience as an individual skill
In this regard, it is important to understand the following: lists such as those of resilience factors make general statements based on a statistical average of the people studied. For coaches, counselors, or psychotherapists working in practice, this form of scientific knowledge is less useful. In their everyday work, they deal with individual people and their specific life situations. Here, the question of individual resilience competence arises. In other words: What challenges does this particular person face? What resilient behaviors tailored to them would be effective for them? And what resilience factors do they need to be able to behave in this way? A person who is constantly in a high-profile position at work, who is expected to be diplomatic (despite their choleric temperament) and who is constantly pressed for time (which does not exactly help their high blood pressure) needs skills tailored to their situation. Other resilience factors help someone who is required to maintain a high level of concentration, who tends to be somewhat phlegmatic, and who experiences more or less severe headaches at least once a day. This is precisely what resilience coaching is all about in practice: individual answers and approaches for each individual.
Practice of resilience coaching
Depending on the concept of resilience and personality, there are certainly very different approaches to coaching. One very helpful approach is based, for example, on the potential hypothesis. This states that most people do not have a significant deficit in resilience skills that needs to be compensated for or filled in some way. We have the competence we need, it is just not (sufficiently) activated (at times). Resilience coaching in this sense then means "treasure hunting" and "treasure utilization." It is about finding existing competencies and activating them. Psychological methods that each of us uses in our everyday lives for our own "psychological management" can help here – but mostly without us noticing and sometimes not as versatile and skillful as possible. This is because this "psychological management" usually takes place unconsciously and involuntarily. Experts refer to hypno-imaginative, psychoenergetic, and systemic constellation techniques, which we somehow use every day and which need to be optimized in coaching. For example, by learning to access our involuntary skills at will. Because this type of resilience coaching builds on both existing skills and "psycho-techniques" that are already used on a daily basis, there is a good chance of achieving a noticeable improvement in one's own resilience skills in a short period of time. Because, as I said, there is more within us than we can imagine!
History of resilience research
In 1950, Jack Block introduced the term "resilience" into science. Initially, however, it was largely ignored. It was not until 20 years later that Emmy Werner and Ruth Smith revisited the topic in a highly acclaimed long-term study of children on the island of Kauai. Their question was: Why do children develop so differently under equally poor conditions? They had observed that some grew up severely stressed and psychologically impaired, while others seemed to cope well with their circumstances. The researchers attributed this to differences in resilience. Since then, much of the research on resilience has focused on the question of which psychological factors cause resilience and which environmental or educational conditions have a decisive influence on these factors. The current popularity of the term "resilience" is linked to growing awareness of issues such as stress, coping, burnout, salutogenesis, and mindfulness. They all address a practical core problem: How can people promote and develop their psychological competence in such a way that they can healthily master the challenges of everyday life?
A management audit is a systematic assessment or analysis of the skills and performance potential of managers. The focus is on the needs and success of the company. These audits are used, for example, when the management team needs to be assessed to determine whether it is up to the current challenges. What measures can be taken to strengthen the management team? Another application can be seen in the context of integrating newly acquired companies. Are the management teams compatible? Such an audit can also support the targeted promotion of members of a talent pool. In addition, there are a variety of other possible applications.
This article explains how to prepare for and conduct a management audit.
In order to meet the challenges of a management audit, some preparations must be made.
The first step is to define the objective of the audit. It must be clear what the intended outcome of the management audit should be.
Depending on the intended outcome, the company names the employees who will participate in the audit. At the same time, the topics on which the company wishes to make statements are defined and discussed. A questionnaire is then created for these areas, which is specifically tailored to the topics to be examined. Based on this information and these specifications, a team of consultants is assembled to carry out the management audit. A central contact person is appointed from this team as project manager, who is available to the company at all times.
The smooth implementation and evaluation of the management audit is based on a schedule agreed upon with the parties involved.
Once all preparations have been made, the audit begins with an introductory briefing for the participating employees of the company. At the start, participants complete an aptitude assessment. This is an online self-assessment tailored to the participant's position. This self-assessment is compared with known best practice or standard profiles. The result of this comparison shows the participant's suitability, strengths, and areas for improvement in relation to their current position.
As part of an extended process, multi-profile matching can be used to assess the participant's suitability for other possible positions.
Using the results of the aptitude assessment, structured interviews are then conducted based on the specific questionnaire created beforehand. Due to the dual control principle, two experienced consultants always participate in each interview. The results obtained are discussed with the project manager.
If several teams of consultants conduct the interviews, the results are validated again by the project manager.
Overall findings are also summarized by the project manager and presented to the company.
The second part of this topic will focus specifically on the evaluation of a management audit. How is the assessment carried out? Which results are intended for employees and which are important for the company?
As part of his officer training, he studied electrical engineering and graduated with a degree in engineering. While working, he pursued further studies and graduated with a degree in industrial engineering, specializing in "organization and planning" and "marketing."
After his career as an officer, he moved to a subsidiary of EADS in Paris, where he was responsible for international marketing, communications, trade fairs, and exhibitions for several years.
Back in Germany, his career path took him to a technology company, where he worked in the strategy department and later became head of a product division, eventually rising to the executive board. There, he was responsible for sales, technical studies, strategy, and business development.
In 2010, he moved to Rheinmetall to join a subsidiary as COO. After two years, he was responsible for a division with 2,500 employees as division manager. Extensive successful restructuring in Germany and Switzerland, the successful establishment of a joint venture in the USA, and representation on several political and technological committees rounded off this phase.
He used the experience he gained in technology and general management to become a member of the supervisory board at both HR Consult Group AG and the technology company MECOMO AG. After supporting the strategic development of HR Consult Group AG for several years, he was convinced to become a member of the executive board at HR Consult Group AG. Because one thing is clear: "It's all about people."
Would you like to receive regular updates from us about interesting job vacancies? This was one of the questions asked by the HR experts at HR Consult Group AG in a survey that received more than 10,000 responses. The aim of the study is to identify the needs and wishes of candidates and gain an insight into their opinions on the service and image of recruitment consultancies.
At 49 percent, just under half of those surveyed want to receive information about current and suitable job vacancies once a month. 38 percent of candidates, or more than a third, even prefer to receive weekly updates.
This shows that even candidates who are not currently applying for a specific position would like to be kept informed about new job offers on an ongoing basis. With a total of 87 percent, the offer has met with broad approval among the target group. Only 13 percent reject this service.
The candidates' great need for information clearly shows how important it is for recruitment consultancies to offer a good service. It is important to strike the right balance: if candidates receive information too frequently, they can quickly feel pressured or harassed. On the other hand, if they hear too little from their recruitment consultancy, this can quickly be interpreted as poor service. Recruitment consultants should therefore discuss each candidate's information needs and the desired type and delivery of information with them in advance. This creates a pleasant and profitable collaboration for both sides," explains Dr. Armin Betz.
After completing his studies in automotive engineering and industrial engineering, he began his professional career in the automotive industry in the areas of sales, development, and marketing, and also spent a year in Japan with one of the largest automotive suppliers.
He then moved to a world-renowned premium car manufacturer, where he was responsible for product marketing for Japan and South America as well as marketing strategy for North and South America.
In 1994, he decided to become self-employed and founded a personnel consulting firm in Munich, where he has been driving development and expansion for over 20 years. As managing director, his industry focus is naturally on the automotive world as well as mechanical and plant engineering.
His doctorate in the field of aptitude diagnostics ideally complements his areas of expertise, particularly in relation to human resources and management consulting. His dissertation deals with the identification and verification of typical personality traits of engineers and the definition of areas of development for a successful career.
These are scientifically derived and presented in the book "Eignungsdiagnostik im Praxiseinsatz" (Aptitude Diagnostics in Practical Use).
At the same time, he focuses on establishing networks and cooperation models as well as the continuous development of systems and processes in HR consulting.
Over the past 20 years in HR consulting, he has developed several brands that continue to operate successfully on the market today.
