Corporate directors kept CEO pay largely flat in 2012. But chief executives took home more money as the bull market swelled the value of prior stock-based pay, including some particularly profitable awards made during the financial crisis, when stock prices were weak.

The findings emerged from an analysis of annual proxy statements by consulting firm Hay Group and The Wall Street Journal, and highlight the challenges of measuring executive pay.

Even as annual total compensation for chief executives at big U.S. companies is coalescing around roughly $10 million a year, there are still elements of pay packages that can cause compensation to vary widely—even in the same industry.

Such payouts are more controversial now that investors have become more vocal about CEO pay in the wake of a federal law requiring companies to put their compensation policies up for regular advisory shareholder votes.

Though the unemployment rate dropped by .2% to 7.7%, a lot more needs to be done. For example, if you total: a) Unemployed (12 million) b) those involuntarily working part-time (8 million) and c) those who have just given up looking (2.6 million), the aggregate figure only fell 100,000 from last month (from 22.7 million last month to 22.6 million Americans this month)!

Fortunately, there is a three-pronged approach to increase job seeker’s probability of success:

1. Developing a quantitatively laced resume.
2. Selectively using recruiters
3. Networking, which is the most important of the three!

Let’s take these from least important to most important. First, having a resume is a necessary evil. Most hiring managers (especially human resources) require it. Therefore, you need to mold your resume into a quantitative one. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/interview-preparation-tips/interview-preparation-tips.php and review my 1st Commandment of Interviewing. The key is seeding your resume with numbers (e.g. % improvements or dollar savings to employers).

The Second prong is the selection and use of recruiters. I recommend using both recruiters who place full time and temporary positions. Access both: a) The Directory of Executive and Professional Recruiters for full time and b) the website http://www.americanstaffing.net/jobseekers/find_company.cfm for temporary agencies. There is no magical formula to selecting recruiters. Instead, develop a list of questions to ask, contact them and select a few that you feel meet your needs. However, DO NOT RELY UPON ANY RECRUITERS! Some may provide some assistance, but the primary way to land a good job is through networking.

Finally, the third and most important of my recommendations is networking. There are two types of networking: a) the old fashioned form of meeting people and b) e-networking. Please refer to my 2^nd and 3^rd Commandments of Interviewing for more information. However, one of the cornerstones of any networking approach is developing and applying a 20-30 second elevator pitch. During this pitch you want to quickly convey three things:

1. Who you are?
2. What you are looking for (be specific)?
3. Your 2-3 greatest strengths.

Practice pitching this information aloud into either: a) a tape recorder or b) the mirror at least 50 times until you feel it is very concise, “rolls off your tongue” and conveys everything you wish to convey very powerfully. Also, time yourself with a stopwatch until you can complete it in no longer than 30 seconds!

Once you have a pitch finalized that you feel comfortable with, you want to use it on everyone you know and meet. Also, use the written version of this pitch on social media sites like LinkedIn. Join appropriate business groups and meet people. When you meet someone new, don’t forget to share your 30-second elevator pitch because you don’t know who might know about your next job.

This is a very tedious process that requires a lot of diligence, but there is no secret to landing a job especially in this terrible jobs market. You have to be work harder than everyone else since there are so many people now out of work! Finally, remember that networking is your most important tool. As part of that you need to develop a very strong, 30-second elevator pitch.

As Big Data becomes a fixture of office life, companies are turning to tracking devices to gather real-time information on how teams of employees work and interact. Sensors, worn on lanyards or placed on office furniture, record how often staffers get up from their desks, consult other teams and hold meetings.

Businesses say the data offer otherwise hard-to-glean insights about how workers do their jobs, and are using the information to make changes large and small, ranging from the timing of coffee breaks to how work groups are composed, to spur collaboration and productivity.

The caveat is workers have to become more and more cognizant of their actions. Otherwise they risk being disciplined or laid off. This is especially true during these tough employment times when about 16% of the workforce is either: a) unemployed b) underemployed (e.g. involuntarily working part time) or c) has just given up looking!

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 312,000 new jobs have been created during the last two months. Furthermore, anecdotally, I have observed that many of our clients have significantly ramped up hiring since January 1st. Unfortunately, few have prepared for this momentous recruiting increase.

As a result, I recommend a 360-degree audit of your staffing needs for the next 18 months including:

1. Full assessments of all your department’s requirements.
2. Thorough evaluations of your talent needs in comparison to: a) manpower availabilities in the current job market and b) your competitors’ needs and current recruiting efforts.
3. Researching new methods for securing talent for your organization.
4. Increasing the recruiting prowess of your hiring managers.
5. Brainstorming sessions among all key managers to discuss actual and projected regulations and how they will affect your abilities to secure key talent in the future.

To assist your efforts, we have prepared a list of 12 key tips we recommend for recruiting. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/technical-recruiting-tips/technical-recruiting-tips.php to learn more.

If you would like more information about this topic or need any assistance with your staffing needs please contact me at 312-944-4000 or e-mail ssargis@strategicsearch.com

My strong interest in the recent NFL coaching carousel, which left eight head coaches with “pink slips”, extends far beyond my fervent curiosity for the sport. A paradigm of sound versus shaky recruiting practices can be observed. Case in point the Chicago Bears versus the Philadelphia Eagles. Both cities have blue-collar roots. Furthermore, both teams interviewed almost a dozen candidates before coming to final decisions today. Fortunately the Bears’ was based upon sound recruiting practices versus the Eagles’ was based upon a lot of hype!

The Bears General Manager Phil Emery, was slow, methodical and thorough in his approach. He formulated a long candidates list, crisscrossed North America to interview them, graciously quickly alerted candidates when they were out of contention and then quickly pared his list down to three finalists. Then he and the organization moved swiftly to both re-interview all three and then secure their man, Marc Trestman.  Coach Trestman quickly proved his mettle by selecting Aaron Kromer, from the high-powered New Orleans Saints offense, to be his offensive coordinator on the same day he was selected head coach!

By contrast, meddling Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, approached many candidates who go contrary to NFL success. Historically, very few successful college coaches have had any success in the NFL! The ones that do, like Jim Harbaugh, were very special cases (e.g. his dad, Jack, was a successful coach and he had a very successful NFL career). Most other college coaching “gurus”, such as Nick Saban (15-17-1 in two seasons with the Miami Dolphins), Steve Spurrier (12-20 in two seasons with the Washington Redskins) and Bobby Petrino (3-10 in one season with the Atlanta Falcons), failed miserably! Even Pete Carroll, who had a marvelous season with the Seattle Seahawks, failed twice previously (with the New York Jets and New England Patriots respectively)! Now Lurie tries to woo two college coaches named Kelly before finally selecting one named Chip. This goes contrary to all historical recruiting data for the NFL.

If you get a chance, I’ll be live on WGN Radio on Saturday, December 29th from 12:30 to 1 p.m. CST (720 on the AM dial) discussing a new, lower-cost alternative (10% of the cost) to outplacement for displaced workers, called World2Work™

You can also listen in to this broadcast live on the Internet at http://www.wgnradio.com/about/listen/ and then click on “Click here to listen live” towards the top of the page.

Lastly, please let me know if I can be of assistance.

Here is a tip that can help you with your job search CandidateTips 6-9-09-Interviewing Tip #1 A-MPEG-4 Improved NTSC for CD

Seventy-one years ago, our country joined World War II after being attacked at Pearl Harbor. Because the worldwide jobs market continues to be assaulted, we may be dragged into another international calamity, global depression.

Beginning the week was a report from the Institute for Supply Management that the U.S. manufacturing sector fell back into contraction last month and employment weakened sharply. Ending the week was today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report that stated that even though: a) the unemployment rate dropped to 7.7% and b) 146,000 new jobs were created last month, there are still 22,700,000 Americans that are either unemployed, under-employed or just gave up looking and are not even counted by the BLS unemployment rate!

Our firm, in partnership with several leading experts, has decided to take action to address this crisis! We are developing a new, trademarked, low-cost alternative to outplacement, called World2Work™. Currently, only a few companies offer outplacement, to only a small sampling frame of displaced workers and with only very limited results. One of the major impediments is outplacement’s high cost (e.g. $10,000 or more per person). Instead, I stepped back in history to my social work days to borrow some ideas from the highly successful Alcoholics Anonymous http://www.aa.org program, which fosters self-help using both small groups and sponsors. Research shows that over a long period of time A.A. has succeeded in helping exponentially more people at a far lower cost than one-on-one therapies.

Adapting A.A. to job hunting, we will deliver: 1) small group training to 10-20 subjects at a time 2) 1/10th to 1/20th the cost of outplacement to mass layoff companies (so they are more willing to offer it to greater numbers) 3) a formula for selecting and employing “sponsors” (i.e. fellow attendees) to jointly apply the tenants of the program and 4) comprehensive job hunting instruction involving four modules that attendees will simultaneously revolve through during the one-day session including: a) core training (e.g. based upon both http://www.strategicsearch.com/real-benefit-exercise.php and http://www.strategicsearch.com/interview-preparation-tips/interview-preparation-tips.php ) b) speech and on-camera skills (Key: the most important part of landing a job is selling yourself in the interview and delivery is an integral part of that success) c) resume development advice and d) research guidance including optimal use of online resources and job boards plus future homework that will guide attendees towards mastering the four modules and landing their next job.

Though no one can master job-hunting during one session, our main goal is to provide the necessary tools and self-help framework (e.g. sponsor) to ensure continued future success. Furthermore, our research shows that many related experts currently exist across the country. Unfortunately, they lack standardization and interconnection. Our hope is, with the success of this program, we will attract many of these resources under one umbrella and standardize the delivery model to more quickly and efficiently address the needs of the growing masses of job seekers.

The 171,000 increase in jobs reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today was only the tip of the iceberg. We have noticed over the last few weeks an exponential increase in search inquiries. This has been across the board and across the country ranging from several CIO positions to many hardware and software engineers to even an R&D chef, which is a position no one has inquired about for several years!

Unfortunately, countless companies have significantly reduced HR staff over the last few years. Furthermore, they have demanded a lot more from the remaining staff. This has over burdened the Personnel department and created a recruiting vacuum in scores of organizations. As a result, I recommend that all hiring managers sharpen their recruiting skills. One tool I have to offer is the 12 Commandments of Recruiting. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/technical-recruiting-tips/technical-recruiting-tips.php to learn more.

Despite the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reporting recently that unemployment rate had dropped by .3% to 7.8%, there are still a lot of candidates for every open position. This is the case because, in addition to the 12.1 million unemployed reported by the BLS, there are also 8.6 million who are involuntarily working part-time. Fortunately, the web offers a solution.

If you go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/technical-recruiting-tips/technical-recruiting-tips.php and click on #10 (below) you will see that my 10^th Commandment of Recruiting recommends expanding your vetting process to include social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. A very thorough investigation of these sites will often uncover past poor behavior including alcohol and drug abuse, aggressive tendencies, sexual assaults or cases of plagiarism. I don’t recommend using this information as a sole indicator, but when you have other suspicions then this can be another tool to see “the bigger picture” on someone.

One constraint is most companies lack the time, resources or inclination to vet every candidate’s social-media presence. With all the other information one needs to investigate, such as references and educational credential verification, this can be overwhelming. However, the cost of hiring the wrong person can be disastrous!

One tip to shorten this process is to Google candidates to learn more about a project they were involved with or because a red flag was raised in an interview, recommendation or somewhere else. Then if you do uncover some questionable practices, you can devote extra time to more thoroughly investigating that candidate using social media sites.

With  both conventions concluded it appears that the Democrats won the battle of speeches. Beginning with the spirited keynote from mayor Julian Castro and continuing through Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden and President Obama, the convention hall rocked to persuasive claims of: a) 4.5 million new jobs created b) a reinvented auto industry and 1 million jobs saved and c) plans to cut the deficit by $4 Trillion. But are these claims factual and are we really better off than four years ago?

Evidence shows the contrary. Our national debt just passed $16 Trillion for the first time in our history! Of that $1.16 T and $1.12 T are held by China and Japan respectively. Furthermore, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)http://www.bls.gov reported today that only 96,000 new jobs were added in August (67,000 less than the previous month) and the unemployment rate at 8.1% was the 43^RD straight month of 8% or greater, which is an all-time record since record since BLS started record keeping in 1948!

Past U.S. attempts at big government and new society programs have mostly failed dating back to 1791 when our first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, prodded the federal government to add about $18 million to our domestic debt of $65 million after taking on states’ debts from the Revolutionary War. Furthermore, they have failed worldwide, which is why the Soviet Union collapsed and countries like Greece are now in trouble.

Instead: what is needed is to think small, as in doing more to cultivate small businesses, which have historically generated almost 80% of the net new jobs and have produced 13 times more patents per employee than large firms according statistics by the Small Business Administration. Politicians cannot create jobs. When they try, they actually stifle jobs creation by draining scarce resources from the real jobs engine, small businesses (e.g. Solyndra).

Many of my clients are begging to add new jobs, but are scared away by all the red tape and uncertainty created by President Obama. His lack of business acumen rings loud and clear in his policies, which stifle the main job creator, small businesses.

If the government does want to help, one answer may be to substantially expand successful mentoring programs like SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives, a counseling arm of the Small Business Administration). It has a specific mission and a proven track record in instructing small business owners how to better succeed in their chosen field of endeavor. This unleashes the time tested “Invisible Hand” of Adam Smith to create more jobs, which will more quickly drive our economy out of its malaise than anything the government can do directly. Another is to focus on balancing the budget and drastically reducing our national debt, which is at dangerously high levels!

The alternative is to be cast into the abyss like Greece!