Placement FAQs
Why are Women@Work Network candidates of a higher quality than would be found through other sources?
Are Women@Work candidates at a particular level and compensation range?
Does Women@Work specialize in a particular industry or company size?
How have the returning professional women in your network continued to develop their business skills?
Why should our company pay attention to work force flexibility issues?
What does flexibility really mean? Is giving in to flexibility opening the door to one big “free for all”?
Do all Women@Work placements involve flexibility?
How are Women@Work candidates screened?
What are Women@Work’s placement fees?
What if we are not happy with the placement?
Why are Women@Work Network candidates of a higher quality than would be found through other sources?
We realize that any employer would like to avoid paying placement fees. But finding high-quality candidates on your own can be a frustrating and time-consuming task.
Top-quality candidates typically do not look for employment opportunities in newspaper classifieds, on-line job postings or through typical employment agencies.
It’s even more significant that 60 to 80% of job seekers land positions through networking. We know that this is true, but we put a finer point on that data. The fact is that the majority of top-quality candidates find jobs through networking. Top-quality candidates move in the same circles and look to each other for significant job leads.
And networking is particularly important for returning professionals. Since they have been out of the work force, they are not typically on the radar screen of headhunters. For returning professionals Women@Work is a one-of-a-kind resource customized to their unique needs and interests.
Women@Work, first and foremost, is a networking organization—now nearly 4,000 smart women helping other smart women in the New York and Boston metropolitan areas. In our non-traditional recruiting process all job postings are sent to every woman in our core network—regardless of their areas of interest—and the very powerful networking engine very quickly generates an amazingly targeted and qualified group of candidates.
Are Women@Work candidates at a particular level and compensation range?
Women@Work currently conducts searches for positions that range from $50,000 to $1 million in compensation—and the high end of that range continually increases. Positions range from administrative to executive levels in all industries. Our top-notch administrative candidate pool is atypical—including many current professionals who are looking to get off the fast track and many returning professionals who are interested in rebuilding former careers. At the high end of the scale are many current professionals who are willing to make some compromises with regard to title and compensation in favor of more work-life balance.
Does Women@Work specialize in a particular industry or company size?
We are working with industry giants such as JP Morgan,
McGraw-Hill, Pepperidge Farm and Pitney Bowes, as well as many smaller companies in a very wide range of industries. Current searches underway involve sales, marketing, technical writing, engineering, financial planning, corporate training, technology, investment banking, communications, finance, trading, public relations, travel, consumer products research, radio, administrative work and much more.
How have the returning professional women in your network continued to develop their business skills?
During their absence from the work force, these women have not been idle. Some women have pursued occasional project work. Many others have been high-level volunteers. The former founder and director of the Stepping Stones Children's Museum, a vice president of the National Charity League, a president of the AAUW, the founder of a national health advocacy association and many very able PTA presidents are just a few examples of women in our network who have applied and continued to develop management and organizational skills in volunteer settings.
As with any new hire at any level, some on the job training is required. With the caliber of Women@Work Network candidates, however, only a brief "ramp up" period is necessary. The majority of women are graduates of top-tier colleges and universities and many have advanced degrees. Their resumes often include officer-level Fortune 500 and Wall Street experience.
Why should our company pay attention to work force flexibility issues?
Work force flexibility is a major issue for today's employees—especially for women who find that inflexible work environments do not allow a balance between work and family. Many major companies have a dearth of women at
the senior level and they cannot afford to continually deplete their leadership pipeline. The loss of workforce talent is the major issue—very soon employers will not be in the cat bird seat able to pick and choose among many qualified candidates. Very soon employers will not be able to easily replace women who leave in search of work-life balance. The fact is that very soon employers will need to attract a smaller pool of qualified employees through offers of flexibility.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that there will be a 4% shrinkage in the working age population between 2000 and 2050. The U.S. economy will have 6 million more jobs than people to fill them due to Baby Boomer retirement. And the problem isn’t just looming in the future, it’s here. In 2008 the first big wave of Baby Boomers will begin to retire, forcing the first huge gap in the overall workforce population. As this “demographic destiny” unfolds, employers will have to think creatively about identifying and attracting talent. One way that your company can prepare for this talent shortage is to begin to work toward new workforce structures that will attract and retain valuable employees.
What does flexibility really mean? Is giving in to flexibility opening the door to one big “free for all”?
Employers want to control their work environments—and rightfully so. There’s lots of work to get done, and work does mean work! But productivity levels do not need to suffer at the hand of flexibility. And flexibility does not require a major overhaul of your workplace. At Women@Work we offer employers some basic wisdom on the matter of flexibility: Don’t think outside the box, just redesign it.
Some relatively minor changes to your workplace structure can have a powerful impact on your overall recruiting and retention. Even something as simple as allowing employees to arrive later than 9am so that they can take their children to school can motivate a very qualified prospective employee to accept your offer
for a more than full-time position. The key is to institutionalize flexibility just like every other employee benefit so that there are very visible guidelines for employees to follow. Rather than creating a Pandora’s Box of one-off deals with individual employees, employers must establish company-wide flexibility policies. Women@Work helps companies explore reasonable and practical flexibility strategies that have a minimum of workplace disruption.
Do all Women@Work placements involve flexibility?
No. Women@Work recognizes that not all companies are ready or able to offer flexible options. Although all the women in our network are striving to achieve a greater degree of work-life balance, many are used to working within very traditional full-time structures and expect to continue to do so. Women who are currently commuting to New York City are particularly interested in full-time opportunities closer to home—because the lack of a long commute is a major form of flexibility.
How are Women@Work candidates screened?
Women@Work acts as a referral agent and makes every effort to match employers with suitable, high-quality employees. We request that all prospective employees provide references, and we recommend candidates to employers based on available information and our best judgment. Ultimately, it is the employer's responsibility to check all references and make their own hiring decision.
What are Women@Work’s placement fees?
The Women@Work placement fee is a percentage of the cash compensation (salary plus target incentive bonus) paid to the employee either (1) during the first year of employment for permanent full-time or part-time placements, or (2) for the duration of the assignment for project or consulting placements lasting less than one year.
For more specific fee information, please contact
Karen Fernandez, Business Development Associate, at 203-762-7263 or
kfernandez@womenatworknetwork.com.
What if we are not happy with the placement?
Women@Work has very high placement and retention rates (see our Client Testimonials), but we realize that unforeseen circumstances can occur that are completely out of anyone’s control. Despite the fact that references may provide stellar reports, supposed “star employees” can for whatever reason fall short on your job.
There is not much that can be done if an illness or a husband’s job transfer suddenly transpires, but we believe that most on the job “settling in” problems can be detected, addressed and solved within the first three months of employment. It is important to view Women@Work as your partner in a collaborative placement process. When we are alerted to problems as soon as they happen, we can help to find solutions for both employers and employees.
In the unlikely event that you or a candidate deems a permanent placement unsuccessful, or for whatever reason the employment agreement is ended within the first 90 days, Women@Work will make every effort to find another appropriate candidate. If a suitable replacement is not found within 45 days, Women@Work’s fee will be prorated to apply only to the time the candidate was on the job.