November 2007

As many of you know, I recently got back from chairing the Annual Meeting of the National Assn of Personnel Services (NAPS) - our national professional association. You could say it was an intimate gathering for 700+ of my closest friends & acquaintances! All kidding aside, it was a week of intensive learning, sharing, and (of course knowing recruiters) partying as well. The main topic of conversation was everyone bemoaning the fact that good, experienced, qualified talent is very hard to find in any discipline in today's marketplace. In terms of "sharpening the saw" in recruiting techniques, a lot of emphasis was put on examining your reputation and defining the "differentiating factors" that make you unique in the recruiting world and give your clients and candidates a good reason to want to partner with you. I thought I would share with you some things that came to mind for me about my service to you and about Whitaker:

*I have over 30 years total experience in the recruiting and search industry (yes I was five when I started ;-)) *I have over 20 years of search experience specifically in the refining/downstream industry *I am active in, and scheduled to become Chairman of our national professional association so I'm tapped into the national market trends *I'm frequently called upon as a speaker and trainer both in my industry and in yours, particularly on topics about the growing shortage of experienced talent in the workforce *Whitaker has ALWAYS emphasized search methodology - finding the perfect "hand in glove fit" of candidate to position, regardless of whether the search is retained, contingency, or contract staffing *Whitaker believes in truly partnering with both clients and candidates to ensure a long-term "fit" - we're not "all about the placement" but rather about what's in the best long term interests of the candidate's career and the company's strategic plan *We take the time to really get to know you both as a potential candidate or a client/staffing partner so we understand your long term goals and don't look for the short term fix.

These are just a handful of some of the things I've come up with on the spur of the moment. I'd really like to hear back from all of you about this as well. I'd welcome this opportunity to have you share with me the things that you think make Whitaker (and me) unique and different among our peers. And all constructive criticism is welcome too as it's important to us to continue to strive to provide you with the highest quality of search services available!