McCall staff relish and take pride in our ability to be of assistance to people from all walks of life ... in all manner of professions ... at all stages of their careers. Being able to open doors to new opportunities for our candidates is the source of our own career satisfaction.
At the same time that we are driven to help, we are also keenly sensitive to the challenges and frustrations associated with a job search. We go out of our way to be honest and realistic so as not to raise false expectations that waste a job seeker's time and emotional energy.
That is why we don’t list actual "real time" job orders on our website. You see, if we are serving our clients effectively, we are making temporary referrals and assignments within hours of receiving a client job order ... meaning that in reality a website posting is unlikely to actually be available to a newcomer to our site. And, while direct-hire referrals take longer, we begin our recruitment by looking to our database resources first!
The McCall client base is pretty evenly split between business and non-profit organizations. The latter account for a higher percentage of our temporary business (and temp-to-hire activity) while, with a few larger exceptions, small and mid-size private companies account for 90% of our direct-hire activity.
We offer both temporary and direct-hire placement opportunities as well as temp-before-hire referrals. While our service "roots" were in administrative and executive support (and this focus does still dominate our temporary opportunities), direct-hire job orders vary greatly across many disciplines --- truly ranging from entry-level to expert!
The good news is that beginning in 2016 we have been experiencing a continuing upswing in demand and there are certainly more opportunities for our candidates and temporary employees than there were just a year ago! Since January of 2017 this has been notable particularly in the number of Direct-Hire recruitment requests coming our way. Temp-to-hire conversions are way up as well!
However, the reality is that there certainly aren't as many opportunities coming our way as there are very talented and wonderful people seeking our assistance. The resulting imbalance of candidate supply versus available job opportunities has not only negatively impacted compensation levels, it has also changed the type and requirements of the job orders coming our way and changed how we go about our filling them.
This job market has had a radical impact on how we are able to make assignment selections. For example: in past job markets we rarely had to submit resumes before an assignment --- now “resumes first” is a usual circumstance, a requirement that used to be reserved for direct placement referrals. And, “overqualified” used to mean “better qualified” as a predictor for assignment success.
Currently clients are focusing on “has done” over “can do” --- with an emphasis on most recent work experience (including recent titles and hands-on responsibilities). Even reception and junior administrative support jobs are requiring more experience than was historically required. While certainly ‘entry-level’ assignments remain available for recent entry-level college graduates, now we are usually asked to refer the grad who has already had some administrative/office support experience.
The number of temp-to-hire conversions greatly increased in 2016. However, instead of our knowing about the possibility of direct-hire in advance of assignment, most are happening as a result of a good assignment match where our employee has been able to showcase their abilities. (About 45% of these conversions are for the more entry-level assignments.).
Employers seem less inclined to afford agency fees for entry-level hires; as a result, the direct-hire job orders we are receiving generally have very specific experience and skill-set requirements. And, rather than concentration in our original administrative-support niche, they vary greatly…with the only common thread being that there is a specific area of experience or skills required that our client could not easily find through resume boards or their networking.
We generally do not schedule an in-person meeting with new direct-hire candidates until we have a logical position fit to first discuss by phone. Our networking and recruiting begins reviewing the resumes and compensation information retained in our database.
The decision to interview new temporary employee resources is dictated by the type and volume of temporary orders we are receiving from our clients. We don’t want to take someone’s time until we reasonably expect to have fairly immediate prospects for assignments.
When demand slows, we stop interviewing new resources so that we can concentrate on keeping our established temporary employees busy. [This is particularly true between November 15 to January 15, typically a slower period for temporary assignment opportunities.]
As soon as the pace of demand picks up, we turn to our database to schedule new interviews.
In order to be a ready resource in advance of new opportunities through McCall, you may add your resume (with compensation requirement information) to our database by using the Submit Resume link. An explanation of what happens next is available on our Registration Process page.