By Kelly Murray

When Linkedin arrived on the social media scene in 2003, many of those in the recruiting and staffing industry did not anticipate how much it would impact the way they recruited. A whole new way of networking had been introduced and candidates could quickly be found literally at one’s fingertips. Nearly a decade later, recruiters are taking advantage of another medium to meet job seekers and network with them: the virtual career fair.

Just last week, CBI Group’s team of recruiters attended a virtual career fair sponsored by the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS). I sat down with CBI Group’s Recruiting Guru Dave VanderDoes to discuss his experience with the recent fair and get some insight on what he foresees in the recruiting industry’s future.

Kelly: Thanks for sitting down to talk with me, Dave. Can you tell me a little bit about CBI Group’s experience with virtual career fairs?

Dave: Sure, no problem. This is the second career fair sponsored by RAPS, and the third virtual career fair overall for the team.

K: Tell me about this one in particular – the RAPS Virtual Career Fair.

D: Six other companies were in attendance including some healthcare and manufacturing companies. The fair lasted from 10am to 6pm. Three recruiters from our team, Colleen, Karesa, and myself, attended through out the day.

K: How many people came into your booth?

D: There were 800 people registered to attend the fair. Two-hundred people stopped by our booth. Attendees had the option to not go into the booth, but were able to just look at the jobs posted and could submit their resume if they were interested. Last time, they could “drive through” the booth without submitting any information – not the best feature. But this time we had the option of getting their information.

K: Wow, that’s a ton of people. Any luck with the resumes you received?

D: We already have one candidate submitted for Regulatory Affairs that [our client] is interested in speaking with. From the last Fair, we had a candidate hired within three weeks of contacting them at the fair for a position that had been open for a few months.

K: Any likes or dislikes?

D: Yea, the first thing I liked about the fair is that it allows you to brand the company by building an actual [virtual] booth. Attendees can come into the booth, see our logo, see videos, company literature, employee testimonials, look at all our openings, and apply directly through the fair. It’s a great way to see the company.

Because it is virtual, it allows individuals to come in from all over the country, and its something they can do from their desk at work, or their Iphone/Ipad. It’s a much easier way to get in. I had the ability to initiate some chat conversations, gauge interest, and schedule follow-up conversations.

K: How do you feel about this type of recruiting – the virtual aspect – do you embrace it?

D: This type of recruiting is good. In a chat session its hard to get a lot of depth but its a good way to make initial contact. Overall, its a great way to recruit.

K: How do you feel recruiting will change in the future?

D: I think there will be more recruiting events like this in the future. It’s another tool for recruiters and it will probably catch on quickly. The key is, if its sponsored by an association [such as RAPS], it will likely be more successful.

For more information on the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society and their upcoming events please visit www.raps.org.

CBI Group President Chris Burkhard is featured in the Cecil Whig‘s Fall Sports Preview – as head coach of Elkton High School’s varsity soccer team!  In the article, Chris discusses building culture within his team and setting long-term goals for his players.  CBI Group wishes the team a successful season – Go Golden Elks!

Click on the image to read the full article on CecilDaily.com.

Chris recently wrote a blog about his personal investment in coaching the soccer team, and how he applies his years of leadership experience both on the field and in the office. Check it out here!

So, if you haven’t heard already, I am coaching Varsity soccer at Elkton High School.  The joke is that I probably have told you. I’ve told anyone and everyone that will listen…and be wary when asking me a question about business! (I will turn it into a soccer metaphor in a hurry.)  Why all the soccer talk these days? Well, coaching soccer is a Bucket List moment for me.  It’s something on my List that I’ve been wanting to achieve for a long time.

Coach Varsity soccer.  Check! 

Elkton High School Varsity Soccer 2012

Everyone should have a Bucket List of things they hope to achieve some day.  These things do not happen on any given day, you know. I find I may check off one moment per year at best.  And this particular one gives me a chance to use what I have applied and learned about leadership in my attempt at mastery of the subject.  Running a company?  Being Leader of a not-for-profit?  Running two companies?  Being head coach of a soccer team?  It is all the same. It all requires leadership.

So here is my Bucket List Leadership for today:

• Players, employees, and volunteers respond well to cultural values.  Not rules.  Give a group values and it inspires and empowers.  Give them a rule book?  They will show you how to break them.  Trust comes from values.

• Expect a lot.  Good coaches know how to get more from a player than they do on their own.  Believe in your people, support them, teach them, give them a great environment, and they will thrive.

• Feedback really matters.  But don’t be vague.  “Good job” leaves people lost.  As I told my team, I can be tough on you but fair every day. Demand greatness and you can be the best we can be; or you can be content and happy everyday with no real challenge until we get beaten badly on game day.

• Change is hard whether you are 14 or 44.  I changed forty years of tradition at Elkton High School this year.  It seems that freshman have carried water forever.  This was the “initiation” of sorts.  Do your time rookie!  No more.  Today we will all carry water led by upper classmen.  We are all leaders and teachers.  Modeling the right behavior is important for any leader from pitch to boardroom.

• Half-Full matters to me.  I will not live with negativity.  I don’t want to hear it.  Don’t get me wrong – I can handle something that is wrong, broken, or that needs discussion.  But I will not tolerate anyone that is half-empty in my complicated world of leadership.  My list is too long, and time too short to be around it.  In fact, our value on the team is Hear no negative, Speak no negative.  And it works.  The boys correct themselves and each other.  They get it.  It wastes time and energy.

At CBI Group, we’re known for our high-quality recruitment solutions, staffing services, and of course, comedic routines (A horse walks into a bar…). Could Tattoo Design soon be added into the mix?

Every quarter, the CBI Group Sales Team gathers together for a day-long Sales Retreat where we conduct sales learning activities and discuss all things sales, of course! For our latest Retreat, the Marketing Team came up with a great exercise to tap into the well of creativity that lies within all CBI Team members: a temporary tattoo design competition.

The premise was simple: Create a design that incorporates all three of our brands – CBI Group, Placers, and Barton Career Advisors – during our lunch break. At the end of the Retreat, the Team would vote on their favorite tattoo design and the winning design would be made into a temporary tattoo and magnet! We were given a blank sheet of paper (fitting for the CBI Team, no?)…a few markers…and BAM! the race was on the create the very first CBI Group temporary tattoo.

We’re proud of our designs, and while we acknowledge that none of them will ever end up as featured tattoos by Kat Von D or Ed Hardy, we’d like to share them with you! Check them out below:

Which tattoo design do you like best? Check back soon when we reveal the winning design and the tattoo graphic!

8/29/2012 Update: Congrats to Lisa Van Ess for the winning design, receiving the most votes from the team for her design, 3 Companies, 1 Goal!

In October 2011, CBI Group partnered with Nemours  to staff a brand new, state-of-the-art hospital facility located in Orlando, Florida. The project was a great success and we’d like to recognize two of our employees on their transition from contract to permanent hire status!

Allyson Beaver and Sophia Crompton have worked as contract coordinators at the Nemours project for the past six months. Effective August 20th, Allyson and Sophia start working at the Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando. We would like to congratulate Allyson and Sophia on their success and acknowledge them for their hard work!

For more information on the Nemours health care system, please visit www.nemours.org.

Guest blog by Karesa Blagrove, CBI Group team member

Every company has a culture and no two companies’ cultures are alike. Entreprenuer.com defines corporate culture as, “a blend of the values, beliefs, taboos, symbols, rituals and myths all companies develop over time.” Culture is often aligned with the organizational values and mission, and plays a key role in how the company markets their products, services, recruits and retains employees. A company’s culture can be the factor that makes or breaks an organization’s success. Therefore, it is imperative for organizations to define their culture, and make it a mission to ensure that their culture is understood, and practiced by all employees!

Why is corporate culture so important you ask? The answer is simple. If a company is unable to define their culture and communicate it to their employees, it will be difficult for employees to align themselves with the company’s values and mission. Fitting into a company’s culture is like buying a pair of jeans. Ultimately, you are looking for a pair of jeans that fits your personal style, provides comfort, and falls within your budget. Should you purchase a pair of jeans that doesn’t meet these criteria, you will most likely feel unhappy and return the jeans. The same can be said about employees fitting into your company’s culture. It has to be a next-to-perfect fit for employees to feel aligned with the company’s values and mission, or else, the working relationship will only last a short time.

Here at CBI Group, our culture is embedded in everything we do; we eat, sleep, and breathe our company’s culture. Our Outside-In® philosophy drives our company’s culture, and is reflected in how we conduct business. One area that is evident of our culture is our office décor. You may ask, what does office décor have to do with an organization’s culture?  Believe it or not, culture sets the tone for the office décor. Recently we were challenged by our fearless leader, Chris Burkhard, to redecorate our work space to further reflect our awesome personalities, and the end result was… well you be the judge!

(Click on the slide image for a full view!)

As you can see, every desk uniquely identifies the individual that occupies it, and allows everyone to work in a space that reflects who they are.

Similar to how our office décor reflects who we are individually and as a company, that is how our Blank Sheet of Paper concept works. Our Blank Sheet of Paper concept, one of the 20 tenets in our Outside-In® philosophy, is how we build recruitment solutions for our customers. It allows us to view each customer’s recruiting challenges individually; therefore we are able to build recruiting plans that are customized for each customer’s business. Our recruitment solutions are not a “one size fits all” model, so our customers are guaranteed that the plan they receive will work for their business.

The culture here at CBI Group is anything but cookie cutter – you could even say we prefer to color outside the lines. That is the same philosophy we use to solve our customer’s recruitment problems. We work in teams to solve problems, but we are encouraged to retain our identity. Our culture is cultivated by us, and is the foundation of our decision-making process.

In closing, every organization has a culture, and it’s important for the leaders to define the culture and manage it. With that being said, it’s equally important for the employees to keep the culture alive and carry it out each day. Are you aware of your company’s culture? If so, how does your company work to keep it present each day?

Last month, Haley Marketing, the industry’s largest marketing firm focused on staffing and recruiting, selected our website as a sample of their work on their blog, Ask Haley. We love how they incorporated our company’s culture and personality into the site design. Thanks for the shout out Haley! We appreciate you taking on our challenge and we love our site!

To view the post on the Ask Haley  click here.

 CBI Group President Chris Burkhard serves as Chair of the Junior Achievement of Delaware 2012-13 Board of Directors. At CBI Group, we value the impact of volunteerism and outreach in our community, and we would like to share this press release on behalf of Junior Achievement of Delaware. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                                                                                     MEDIA CONTACT:

August 16, 2012                                                                                                                             Rob Eppes, 302 654-4510

30+ VOLUNTEERS COME OUT TO REVITALIZE THE

LOCAL JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT HEADQUARTERS

ING DIRECT’s Sixth Annual Orange Days of Giving Lends Helpful Hands to Community Projects in Wilmington

Wilmington – Associates at ING DIRECT believe strongly in giving back to their communities. To put their beliefs into action, more than 30 volunteers are lending a helping hand at Junior Achievement of Delaware on August 16. The projects are part of ING DIRECT’s sixth annual Orange Days of Giving.

“We enjoy a strong and productive partnership with ING DIRECT in the delivery of our educational experiences for young people,” said JA of Delaware president Rob Eppes, “so it comes as no surprise to us that they are also willing to lend a hand to help keep our unique learning environment looking fresh and new.”

ING DIRECT associates are prepping and painting the office areas of the Delaware headquarters for Junior Achievement.  Junior Achievement of Delaware serves an average of 20,000 K-12 students annually with volunteer-led curriculum around Work Readiness, Entrepreneurship, and Financial Literacy

To date, ING DIRECT Associates throughout the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast locations have dedicated thousands of hours during the Orange Days of Giving toward charitable causes that support the bank’s mission of assisting communities through economic empowerment, financial education and life skills. ING DIRECT and Associates work year round on projects to instill the basics of earning, learning, saving, spending and investing so others can make informed financial decisions and improve their quality of life. When financial education is coupled with life skill lessons, those in need are given the building blocks to a more secure future.   During the course of a year, ING DIRECT provides more volunteers and volunteer hours than any other organization in support of Junior Achievement of Delaware.

About Junior Achievement of Delaware

Junior Achievement of Delaware serves students in Kindergarten-12^th grade with engaging, volunteer-led learning experiences around Work Readiness, Entrepreneurship, and Financial Literacy.  JA of Delaware recently hosted the 2012 JA Global Titan Challenge, where students from China, Russia, Poland, Canada and the U.S. competed as CEOs in a virtual economy.  Last week, JA of Delaware announced it is the recipient of a Metlife Entrepreneurial Award for the JA Innovation Hub Career & College Readiness Experience they developed to introduce young people to STEM careers and educational paths by allowing kids to discover how they can change the world.  For more information visit www.jadelaware.org

About ING DIRECT

ING DIRECT, the nation’s largest direct bank, is dedicated to inspiring Americans to become a nation of savers. Since its inception in 2000, more than 7.6 million Americans have entrusted their Savings with ING DIRECT, building the bank to nearly $83.0 billion in deposits as of December 31, 2011.  ING DIRECT has developed a comprehensive social media Savers Community, including Twitter, Facebook and it’s We, The Savers blog.

ING Bank, fsb, and its subsidiaries, including ShareBuilder Corporation, have been acquired by Capital One Financial Corporation and are no longer affiliated with ING Groep N.V. (“ING”). The trademarks ING, ING DIRECT, ING Lion, and the ING Lion logo, alone or as a part of any trademark, logo, work or domain name are trademarks of ING and are used by permission.

Guest blog by Lisa Van Ess, CBI Group team member

Hi Everyone! It’s me again, still hanging on to the catch phrase Talent Acquisition. Most of us, whether we are corporate or agent recruiting professionals, spend the vast majority of our time practicing “Fill-the-Open-Job” recruiting and often, in doing so, stumble across some really great talent.

Hmmm…so you stumble across a Wildly Talented Individual and don’t have the open requisition. What to do?

Those of you in the retained, engaged, and contingent search space may dust off your “Most Place-able Candidate” hats and begin to market this person to your favorite partner clients, and/or start researching companies who just might have the opportunities for this unearthed treasure. On the corporate recruiting side, do we do the same?

Many of us are still realistically dealing with an economic and employment market where approved requisitions are carefully managed, perhaps resulting in an avoidance or difficulty in marketing talent to internal or external clients when there is not a direct fit to that super-duper, triple confirmed, approved headcount detailing the exact requirements of the recruited talent.

I’ll offer some thoughts and techniques to use in any market under any hiring condition:

1. My last blog focused on determining whether or not a person can and will do an open job, so the first item of business is to offer to your hiring management how wonderfully this talented candidate will culturally and behaviorally fit with the team, company, or client.

2. Have your homework done on what exactly they can do! Can they perform a ‘hard to fill’ job that, when open, takes forever to fill but just isn’t open right at this moment? Can they do two different jobs or portions of responsibilities needed to ’round out a team’? Do they possess the specialized industry, competitive, or technical experience needed?

With these thoughts in mind, don’t pass up on the pleasant surprise of finding ‘Will Do Talent’ – in fact, plan for it! Engage, market, and explore the opportunity to make your clients and candidates even happier and even more effective!

On Thursday August 9th, CBI team members Kathy Jones and Chris Barton participated as Special Guest bartenders at the wildly successful Guest Bartending Night @ BBC, a fundraiser held at the Brandywine Brewing Company in Greenville, DE. The benefit aimed to raise money for The Metro Wilmington Boys & Girls Clubs  of Delaware, a non-profit that, according to its website, works “to inspire and enable all young people, especially those in need, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible, and caring citizens”. 

Chrs Barton shows off his bar tending skills at Brandywine Brewing Company

Kathy and Chris are avid supporters of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Delaware and were excited to be part of the special night. The event was a great success with over 150 people in attendance and a grand total of $1500 raised! Tips for the guest bar tenders and a silent auction served as ways to donate money. In addition to its team members, CBI Group donated a 4-pack of Phillies tickets that went for $200 at the silent auction. Many thanks to Kathy and Chris for representing CBI and making a difference in our community!

For more information on the Boys & Girls Clubs of Delaware and ways you can help, please visit www.bgclubs.org.