Kaye/Bassman's Marty Shapan Featured in Construction Today Article, "The Skills Contractors Want"

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Kaye/Bassman's Marty Shapan Featured in Construction Today Article, "The Skills Contractors Want"

Dallas, Texas, 2/8/2012:

In early summer, before layoffs began sweeping across Wall Street, billboard-sized photos of employees were plastered on the walls, pillars and elevator banks of Credit Suisse Group AG's offices in the United States and abroad.

The museum-quality prints, depicting workers from administrative assistants to senior executives, were emblazoned with motivational words like "Proactive" and "Partner." By mid-July, however, the photos disappeared and the Swiss banking giant began laying off 2,000 employees.

Security guards prevented employees from taking cell-phone pictures as the posters were stripped away, according to one employee who was present.

"It sent an entirely wrong message," said an employee, who was not authorized to speak publicly. "Management literally threw away that kind of money on something so trivial, while planning to cut thousands of jobs."

A bank spokeswoman declined to comment on the internal campaign or the employee's comments.

Credit Suisse's timing illustrates the unanticipated dangers of rampant job-cutting, which tend to run in cycles on Wall Street. Employee morale often plummets at a time when survivors are asked to pick up more responsibility and customer relations can suffer as service and relationships deteriorate.

What's more, layoffs inartfully constructed can come across to shareholders as Band-Aid solutions that at best temporarily cut expenses and at worst pare away reserves of talented people.

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"They finished cutting the fat and now they're into the muscle and bone," said Tim White, a managing partner who specializes in wealth management at the recruiting firm Kaye/Bassman International in Dallas.

Marty Shapan, a Managing Director and Construction recruiting practice leader at Kaye/Bassman International was published in a featured story in Construction Today.

"I am lucky in that I feel I have the greatest job in construction. I am an executive recruiter and specialize in helping construction firms attract and hire top-talent. Every year I talk with roughly 4,000 (15 daily conversations over 250 business days annually) employers. I have been doing this for 10-years so to take it a step further I have had roughly 40,000 conversations with CEOs and vice presidents asking them one simple question, “What’s the one person you could use right now that could impact your bottom line?”

These conversations have allowed me the insight into how the industry has evolved. It’s no longer good enough to just be a solid project manager. Today’s construction professionals have to be the complete package. College football coaches would call that person the best all-around athlete. Based upon talking with many hiring managers if I could give construction professionals advice it would be to work for a firm where they invest in the best technology, training and pursue projects that will allow you to have the most diversified resume. Make sure you are the one managing your career because more often than not your firm won’t do it for you.

In addition, firms want people who take the initiative to stay on top of the latest technology and training. This has become important as more work has become technical such as life sciences, healthcare and data center projects. Even corporate campus and multi-family projects are employing Building Information Modeling technologies. In talking with firms that perform these sophisticated projects I realize the need for construction professionals to be up-to-speed on BIM products like Revit."

Read the full story.

About Kaye/Bassman
Founded in 1981, Kaye/Bassman has grown to become the largest single-site executive search and recruitment firm in the United States with the simple mission of impacting companies and enhancing careers by providing the finest in professional, executive, technical and scientific search. Kaye/Bassman provides strategic recruiting and executive search solutions in over 20 industry practice areas including construction recruiting, healthcare recruiting, banking executive search, energy recruitment and many more. Next Level Recruiting Training, a recruiting training organization, Next Level Exchange, a recruiting training best practices information exchange, and Next Level Marketing Communications are also Kaye/Bassman companies.

For additional information or a sample copy, contact:
Darren McDougal
Kaye/Bassman International
(972) 931.5242
(972) 931.9683
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Source: http://digital.construction-today.com/nxtbooks/phoenix/ct_201201/index.php#/14

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Kaye/Bassman's Marty Shapan Featured in Construction Today Article, "The Skills Contractors Want"

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