In the Battle for Top Talent, Delay Is Fatal

In February, 192,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy, according to the Labor Department. It was the largest single monthly gain—excluding census workers—since early 2006. While not a windfall of jobs, considering the nearly 800,000 jobs lost in March of 2009 alone, it is a stark improvement.

While the figure may have improved because of delayed hiring during a stormy January, some economists suggest it is still being underreported. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics adjusts for the birth and death of companies, it often underestimates the number of new companies in times of recovery. While its survey of employers reported that 192,000 jobs were created in February, its survey of households showed a gain of 250,000 jobs.  Payroll provider, ADP, which puts out an estimate of total employment based on the millions of employees in their system, has been reporting an average gain of more than 200,000 private-sector jobs for the last three months.

None of these statistics are comparing apples to apples. Each is surveying overlapping populations and each through different means. What they all show, however, is that jobs are being added—and at an increasingly meaningful rate. They indicate educational achievement is as important as ever. They also show that service-providing industries, as well as small and medium-sized companies, seem to be creating the most new jobs. What they don’t reveal is the pain that many, especially larger employers, are feeling in the crunch for top talent.

“Today, we are seeing a position that once may have taken six to eight weeks to go from first interview to job offer, now taking two or three times as long,” says Rob Romaine, president of MRINetwork. “Once a passive candidate is considering a position, they’re no longer passive and with each week they are more likely to be considering additional opportunities.”

A delay in extending an offer risks a candidate losing the enthusiasm to take the position and if they find other opportunities, it can create a bidding situation, driving up the cost. This doesn’t make the candidate less desirable; in fact, the opposite may very well be true.

“Every employer wants a candidate who is passionate about working for them, but they also want people who are aggressive, strategic, and who will go out and create opportunities. If a sales manager candidate waits through a three-month vetting process without considering what other options are available, that on its own should raise a flag,” notes Romaine.

At larger firms, there are often vetting procedures that can’t be skipped. Background checks, reference checks, internal postings, and multi-level interviews all take time.

“Hiring managers need to work with HR to streamline the hiring process and overcome as many obstacles as possible before the interview process begins,” says Romaine. “When delays arise, the candidate needs to be kept informed of the process. Frequent updates, even just to let them know things are still on track, will help keep them primed and ready for an offer.”

In many industries and job functions, the pendulum has swung from being an employers’ market back to one favoring candidates. It doesn’t mean that getting great talent is impossible. If anything, it means that the top-performing passive candidates are going to be more willing to explore what else the market has to offer. 

MRI Network, First Friday Preview, April, 2011. Provided by ETS Dental. Find out more at www.etsdental.com.

You Can’t Compete With Me – The Legality of Non-Compete Agreements | EmploymentDigest.net

Here is a good article on Non-Compete agreements.

You Can’t Compete With Me – The Legality of Non-Compete Agreements | EmploymentDigest.net

Millions of American’s wake up every day, get dressed in business attire, and head to work- only their “job” these days is actually looking for one. Unemployment rates are still hovering around 9.6% nationally, making this job market highly competitive and hard to crack into. Employers know this, and in a lot of ways, the sheer volume of applicants per job gives them the ability to exclude benefits, cut salaries and make demands that are sometimes not only unfair, but illegal.

One such demand that employers are placing on new-hires is that they sign a non-compete agreement. A non-compete is a document that restricts where and who you can work for should you be fired or quit. Is that legal and should you sign it? In a few states, they’re generally not legal. For example, in California, a non-compete agreement is enforceable only if someone sells a business and agrees not to compete with the new owner. That aside, California employers cannot restrict the livelihood of their current or former employees. For most other states the short answer to are non-competes legal is yes-however, the agreement has to be “reasonable” to be legal and upheld in court. Before signing, there are some things you should look for within the agreement itself before signing.

Article continued at

http://employmentdigest.net/2011/03/you-cant-compete-with-me-the-legality-of-non-compete-agreements/

The Questions that Could Save Your Dental Practice from Ruin

In many ways, the dental community is isolated from the rest of the business world. While the corporate world is encroaching, most practices are still built around the owner who, generally, has little formal business training and may well remember the days when a handshake was enough.

As recruiters, we often start our relationships with dental practices who have recently gone through a frustrating and often messy termination. Unfortunately, the doctors who leave the biggest messes easily find other employment only to leave a similar wake of destruction in their next office. Why is it so easy for these doctors to ruin one practice after another?

Dental Practices, as a group, routinely fail to protect the practice, staff and patients by performing a simple reference check. The importance of reference checking is well-documented in the larger business world. Many articles have been written on the subject, including some very helpful resources.

Simply checking license history is no longer enough. You have the right to ask for references, and you should not settle for personal references. Ask for contact information of previous employers or faculty, if appropriate. Here are some practical steps to help making a reference check call easy, informative and less time consuming.

Confirm the details
Do not be shy to ask how the reference knows the job seeker. Find out how long they have known each other. If the reference is a former employer, ask for dates of employment. Ask what their function was in that position.

Decide what you want to know before you call
When we perform reference checks on behalf of our clients, we ask the reference to rate the job candidate on productivity, the quality of their work, their oral and written expression, their working relationships, their motivation and initiative, and their punctuality and attendance.

Know what he/she does well
Ask the reference what they would consider to be the job seeker’s greatest strengths in the position. Also, ask what the employer’s expectations were and how well the job seeker fulfilled them. Do they work better independently or under direct supervision?

Know where the job seeker could improve
This is a great way to ask for constructive criticism in a way that will not make the reference feel uncomfortable about giving a bad reference. Be sure to ask if the job seeker was open to critique and if progress was made toward improvement.

Would the reference hire or re-hire the job seeker?
This is straight to the point. If you hear “No,” make sure that you know why.

When you finish the reference check, be sure to thank the reference for the time that they spent with you and the information they provided. They may well have just saved you from a bad decision or enabled you to sleep well with the decision you will make.


Written by Morgan Pace, Sr Recruiter at ETS Dental. You can reach Morgan directly at (540) 491-9102 or mpace@etsdental.com. Find out more at www.etsdental.com.

Where Are The Jobs?

I am sure you, too, are probably sick of hearing this question. With all of the talk in the media about jobs, or the lack thereof, one might assume that dentists are in the same boat. Generally speaking, this is not the case. What the media fails to report is that, even though the overall unemployment rate is at a very high level in the upper 9% range, the fact of the matter is that among those with a college education, the unemployment rate is actually in the 4% range. Additionally, according to government estimates, there will be a shortage of 14 million college educated workers over the next 10 years.

Here at ETS Dental, we see this reality as we are contacted regularly by dental practices who cannot find an associate. The problem practices are experiencing is due to the fact that dentists, as a group, are at full employment. It is also a fact that over the next 10 years, there will be more dentists retiring than will be coming out of dental school, which will further exacerbate the problem.

Another job inequity in the dental industry is that the distribution of dentists is not equal on a per capita basis. Many practices that approach us for help finding an associate are located in outlying areas which are considered “underserved” because doctors tend to prefer working in a metropolitan area. This had let to a saturation of dentists in the big cities.

That said, there certainly are dentists who are feeling the negative effects of the economic downturn, and they are even more pronounced with some of the dental specialties. Over the last couple of years, Orthodontists have experienced the most difficult times in memory as the treatment they provide is something that can be viewed as “elective” or postponable by people during a tough economy. Another specialty that has taken a hit has been Endodontics as more general dentists have been keeping more of this “in house”.

Where are the jobs? For dentists they are out there. They just might not be where you are looking, but they are there.

My advice to practice owners would be to do your due diligence on associate hires, but do not drag your feet. There are a lot of other practices who are looking, and the unemployment numbers you are hearing from the media are not reflective of the employment of dentists.

My advice to dentists looking for a new opportunity is to expand your parameters and consider areas 45 minutes to an hour outside of the area that you feel you want to work. You may just find that there is a lot to be said for being a bigger fish in a smaller pond rather that a little fish in a big pond. The rewards can be much greater all the way around!


Written by Gary Harris, Dental Specialist Recruiter at ETS Dental. You can reach Gary directly at (540) 491-9115 or gharris@etsdental.com. Find out more at www.etsdental.com.

ADA: American Dental Association - Recession slows dental spending

ADA: American Dental Association - Recession slows dental spending

February 21, 2011

Recession slows dental spending

First annual decline in 50 years

By Craig Palmer

Washington—Patients spent less out-of-pocket and dental spending declined slightly in 2009, the first year-to-year decline since government analysts began tracking the National Health Expenditure Accounts in 1960. Dental spending per capita also declined.

The economic recession that officially ended in June 2009 "profoundly influenced" health care spending during the year, according to a report prepared by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary National Health Accounts and described in the journal Health Affairs.

Government analysts said a slower rate of growth in consumer out-of-pocket spending for health care compared to 2008 "was due mainly to declines in out-of-pocket spending for dental services, services provided by nursing care facilities, and physician and clinical services, sectors that account for a relatively large share of out-of-pocket spending.

"These declines were largely the result of decreased use, as consumers delayed getting medical care because of recession-related drops in household income and loss of health insurance. Cost-sharing was reported to have increased in 2009 as employers responded to the economic downturn. However, this increase was partially offset by reduced household income, which caused people to be more cautious in their spending."

Overall health spending grew by 4 percent, albeit at the slowest rate of growth in 50 years, and grabbed an increasing share of the gross domestic product as health spending continued to outpace the general economy.

The declines in dental spending and in out-of-pocket spending for dental services from 2008 to 2009 were the first reported since the NHEA began tracking health spending 50 years ago. Dental spending increased inexorably and annually from just under $2 billion in 1960 to $102,273,600,000 in 2008 but declined by 0.1 percent in 2009 to $102,221,900,000. Out-of-pocket spending for dental services grew apace but fell from $44.9 billion in 2008 to $42.5 billion in 2009, a 5.5 percent decline.

Health insurance, private and public, paid $59.3 billion of the nation's dental bill in 2009 and other third-party payers and programs, primarily state and local general assistance and Indian Health Services, covered nearly $500 million.

Private sector insurers spent $50 billion on dental services or 6.2 percent of the private health insurance benefits for personal health care expenditures in 2009. However, the recession led to slower growth in private health insurance expenditures and impacted household, government and provider investments in the health care economy as well, the government analysts said. Providers reduced their spending for capital investments by 2.7 percent in 2009.

On the public side of the dental ledger, federal and state Medicaid and state Children's Health Insurance Programs spent $7.9 billion, the Department of Defense $1 billion, Medicare $290 million and the Department of Veterans Affairs $77 million.

Health care spending totaled $2.5 trillion in 2009 or $8,086 per person. This includes $332 per person for dental services, a decline from $336 in 2008, said Joseph Benson, dental analyst for the 2009 NHEA.

"The economic recession that began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009 was the longest of all recessions since World War II," the NHEA team said. "The health care sector felt its effects more quickly than was the case in past recessions, leading total national health spending in 2009 to grow at a historically low rate.

"Although the recession contributed greatly to slower health spending growth, the burden of financing health spending increased for households, businesses and governments as the resources available to pay for that care declined. By the end of 2009, the United States was devoting just over one-sixth of its available financial resources to its health care system, a system that in 2010 embarked on an ambitious reform aimed at expanding coverage, improving health outcomes and slowing spending growth," the CMS authors concluded.

The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research determined that the recession ended and a recovery began in June 2009.