Blog

Florida National University Names Director for New Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) Program

Florida National University retained Wolfe & Huntsman Executive Search to spearhead the search for their Physical Therapist Director position.

Hialeah, FL (PRWEB) February 27, 2013 - In an effort to serve the community and fulfill the workforce demands, FNU (formerly Florida National College), will be extending its program offerings by adding the Associate of Science in Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) to its list. Dr. Loreto Almonte, the institution’s Allied Health Division Head, said the decision to add the PTA program was based on the United States Labor Department reports that state that the PTA profession is expected to grown by 35% from 2008 - 2018.

In order for FNU students to be eligible for their state licensing test, FNU’s PTA program most hold a programmatic accreditation granted by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapist Education (CAPTE). This challenge to earn the accreditation status falls on the program's newly named Director, Dr. Kelly Krenkel.

"Besides her outstanding qualifications and credentials, Dr. Krenkel has the perfect attitude and disposition to develop and lead FNU’s PTA program," said Dr. Almonte. "She plans to develop a curriculum utilizing her years of experience as a student and as a practitioner in order to forge a path to lead our students to be successful as entry-level PTA practitioners, as well as encourage them to further their studies within the Physical Therapy field."

Dr. Krenkel has spent much of the past five years working in the clinical setting as a Physical Therapist at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Miami, FL. She is a graduate of Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Health Science. Dr. Krenkel received her Doctorate in Physical Therapy in 2008 from the University of Miami, where she graduated with Honors.

FNU retained Wolfe & Huntsman Executive Search, headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, FL to spearhead the search for this key departmental position. "Our challenge in conducting a successful candidate search for the caliber of professional this type of position demands was two-fold," said Thad Greer, Vice President of Talent Acquisition with Wolfe & Huntsman Executive Search. "First off, you must have someone that meets the rigid educational and clinical requirements dictated by the accrediting body - in this case, CAPTE. Second, our goal was to target truly 'passive' candidates: individuals who not only were NOT actively looking for a new job, but in this case, were open to the idea of making a dramatic career change by transitioning from the clinical setting to the classroom."

Wolfe & Huntsman Executive Search's management team selected Mr. Greer to lead the search based on his previous experience as the Campus President of an Allied Health college in Florida. "The goal of today's Allied Health schools is to give students the firsthand knowledge and skills they need to step out of the classroom and into the clinical setting as seamlessly as possible. By hiring Dr. Krenkel FNU is ensuring that their students will receive an education that reflects the 'real-world' environment as closely as possible."

This projected growth trend in the PTA professional is supported for the increment of people that are going to need this specialized service. This increment is due to:

- Changes to restrictions on reimbursement for Physical Therapy services by third-party payers.
- The increasing elderly population. The elderly population is particularly vulnerable to chronic and debilitating conditions that require therapeutic services.
- In addition, the large baby-boom generation is entering the prime age for heart attacks and strokes, further increasing the demand for cardiac and physical rehabilitation.
- Medical and technological advances permit an increased percentage of trauma victims and newborns with birth defects to survive, creating added demand for therapy and rehabilitative services.
- Replacement of workers who permanently retire from their occupations as PTAs.
- Also, Job opportunities should be particularly good in the existing and projected acute hospital, skilled nursing, and orthopedic settings, where the elderly are most often treated. Job prospects should be especially favorable in rural areas, as many physical therapists tend to cluster in highly populated urban and suburban areas.

Florida National University is regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), and has been providing quality higher education since 1982. To learn more about FNU, visit http://www.fnu.edu. To learn more about Wolfe & Huntsman Executive Search, visit http://www.wolfe-huntsman.com. Thad Greer, Vice President of Talent Acquisition, can be reached at 877-448-9406, x110 or tgreer@wolfehuntsman.com .

Analysis of "The Law of Success"

Despite being an avid reader of non-fiction, I didn't get caught up in the hype surrounding the book "The Secret" when it was published a few years ago. Sure, I had heard of it but I just assumed it was some flavor-of-the-month-self-help guide driven by a great marketing campaign.

But for at least a solid year you couldn't walk into a chain bookstore without running headlong into a pyramid display of the small hardback with the eye-popping graphics. I flipped through its pages one afternoon and came across several quotes from a guy by the name of Joe Vitale, a well-recognized name in the internet marketing industry which just further reinforced my belief that this was nothing more than some re-hashed and re-packaged Tony Robbins motivational speech.

The ongoing marketing campaign for "The Secret" was everywhere and difficult to ignore, but I honestly didn't give the book a second thought until a few months later when I attended a dinner party and struck up a conversation with an affable young man whom I'd never met. He was a guest of a friend of the host and was unfamiliar with virtually everyone in attendance.

He inquired as to my occupation and upon hearing I was an Executive Recruiter, began asking my opinions on the economy, job market, growth predictions, etc. I mentioned that I had recently published my first book, "The Executive Rules", a best practices job search guide and not only did he seem genuinely impressed but was interested to learn more.

I would characterize myself as a "controlled extrovert": I like to meet, talk, and be around new people, and I typically try to adapt my conversation style and topics in a way that I think will make them feel at ease, however in this situation it was the other way around - he was driving the conversation and doing so in a disarmingly polite and thoughtful way.

"Have you heard of the book 'The Secret'?", he asked me. I told him I had, but couldn't really comment about it not knowing any more than what I did. "It's excellent. It has changed my life," he freely admitted.

"Really? In what way?" I asked.

"Well, one of the topics its explores is 'The Law of Attraction', which basically states that in order to get what you want out of life you have to start by identifying those people and things that you want to be associated with and then start taking specific actions to incorporate them into your life. For example, in the past, I never would have struck up a conversation with someone like yourself at a party like this."

Someone like myself?, I thought. My mind immediately went negative. Even though I didn't say it, apparently "What's wrong with me?" must have been written on my forehead because he then went on to explain what he meant.

"I knew there would be a lot of successful people here tonight and I'm really just starting my career. Before I would have been too intimated to walk up and introduce myself to someone like you, must less carry on a conversation. But now I realize that if I want to be successful, then I need to not only surround myself with successful people, I need to make them a part of my life."

Direct compliments typically do not have much affect on me, but I do pay close attention to off-the-cuff remarks and needless to say, his comments were incredibly flattering.

Having a renewed curiosity about "The Secret," I began doing some further research and discovered that one of the author's biggest inspirations for writing the book was "The Law of Success" by Napoleon Hill, published back in the 1920's. I was somewhat familiar with Napoleon Hill, having grown up with a father that listened to any type of motivational tape he could get his hands on. I immediately ordered the book and dove into it as soon as UPS dropped it off.

According to the book's publisher, "The Law of Success" was written based on a series of manuscripts that Hill wrote over a 25 year period and claims to be the definitive blueprint for "success", however you define it. The chapters are presented as lessons, each one presenting a specific topic that the student is encouraged to embrace and master before moving on to the next one. What strikes me the most about Hill's work is not only his timeless insight and direction, but the simplicity with which it is communicated.

It seems as though every time I arbitrarily flip through the book I come across a new quote that speaks directly to me. It's for this reason that I feel an in-depth analysis would be beneficial for those individuals that, like the young man at the dinner party, are looking to bring more success into their lives. I anticipate this to be an undertaking that will unfold over the next year or so and I look forward to not only sharing with you the insight I have finally discovered, but my own growth potential.

Employer Incentives: Part I - Building the Candidate Profile

"As soon as you recognize what someone's incentives are, you can begin to predict how they will make decisions." ~ Steven Levitt, author of Freakanomics

As an executive recruiter, I spend a lot of time trying to understand what the incentives of other's are - namely, our clients and candidates. You might say that "To find a great employee" and "To find a better job" are over-simplifications. Maybe, but at the same time they are legitimate answers. There are literally dozens of different ways to say the same thing:

- "We need someone that can grow a new product line in 18 months."
- "I need a Regional Manager to resurrect a territory that's fallen behind."
- "I want a job where I don't have to travel as much."
- "I'd like to work for a company that has a broader range of product offerings."

All of the above answers can be reduced to these two distinct and specific goals. Let's start with "To find a great employee."

When it comes to our employer clients, I don't necessarily feel the need to specifically ask "WHY do you need a great employee?" because I just automatically assume every hiring manager wants great employees.

My typical line of questioning has more to do with the vacancy of the position itself. An organization's decision to add a new employee(s) can be easily explained in one of three ways:

1) This is a new role that's going to help us grow and better address current needs and opportunities.
2) This is an existing role in which we want someone to continue on the path of the predecessor and achieve the same, if not better, results.
3) This is an existing role in which we want someone to forge a new path than the one the predecessor took and achieve better results.

That's it! Building an accurate candidate profile starts with determining which of the above situations is most appropriate for the role in question. Again, you may be thinking this is an over-simplification, but I challenge you to come up with another explanation.

Recruitment Hypocrisy

When it comes to writing articles about the recruiting/executive search/talent acquisition industry, I don't worry about sharing opinions or personal insights that could seemingly undercut our core business - namely recruiting/executive search/talent acquisition.

Does anyone really think that if Kentucky Fried Chicken were to reveal to the world its eleven herbs and spices recipe that overnight everyone would start frying their own chicken? (They won't - trust me. Frying chicken well takes some serious talent and yes, I'm dead serious).

Much of my underlying philosophy on talent acquisition was heavily influenced by one of the most (if not THE most successful) business books of all time, so it's not necessarily original or a closely guarded secret. "Good to Great" by Jim Collins has been a massive best seller, due in no small part to the fact that the principles it outlines for building and sustaining an enduring business is based on years of empirical data on successful companies, not merely one person's observations or business philosophy.

"Get the right people on the bus, get the wrong people off the bus, then figure out where to go." It's pretty simple - find and recruit talented people, make sure they're doing the jobs they're supposed to be doing, get rid of those employees that have either outgrown their roles or never should have been hired in the first place.

You'd be hard pressed to find a well-thought out argument against Collins' talent acquisition strategy, but it's equally as difficult to find a company that actually embraces and employs it.

"If I can give you one piece of advice," the Vice Chancellor of Education told me shortly after I accepted my new role as Campus President of one of Florida's largest colleges a few years back, "It's to hire slowly and fire quickly." Even though it was a cliche that's been beat in the ground for decades, I was comforted (albeit temporarily) in thinking there was at least one person within the school that shared my management philosophy. I quickly realized the obscene hypocrisy of his statement as over the coming months I witnessed firsthand some of the most haphazard, knee-jerk, emotional hiring decisions an organization could possibly make coupled with a termination process that was neither expedient nor productive.

It was painful for everyone involved, namely:

1) The new hires that were thrown into jobs they were grossly unqualified and unprepared for and then berated for not immediately producing unrealistic results.

2) The "dead man walking" employees that knew they were on their way out the door as soon as the managers jumped through all of HR's endless hoops.

3) The productive employees that were disheartened by having to carry the weight of the new people while watching incompetent co-workers draw a paycheck for doing little to nothing.

4) The hiring managers that were denied the recruiting resources they desperately needed all the while enduring for months on end those employees that they needed to terminate.

Napoleon Hill once said that "Action is the true measure of intelligence." It's one thing to understand and accept a concept. It's another thing entirely to embrace and rigorously implement it.

Sharpening the Sword

On the eve of the Vice Presidential debate here in Kentucky between Vice President Joe Biden (or "Uncle Joe" as I prefer to call him*) and his Republican counterpart Congressman Paul Ryan (or "Jack Ryan" as President Obama tends to call him - not necessarily because he likes to rather I think he sometimes thinks that is, in fact, his name.**), I thought I would weigh in on last week's Presidential debate, make a prediction about tomorrow night, then try to formulate some takeaways for job seekers. All in less than 500 words (yeah, right).

From an observational standpoint, I'm not sure what I can say about the first Obama/Romney debate that hasn't already been said. I've been to Denver a couple times - on my first visit I had to give a presentation to the CEO of a Fortune 1000 company and their Human Resources department shortly after I hit the ground. The presentation went great, we landed the client and still maintain a working relationship with them to this day.

I was living at sea level at that time of that trip and didn't notice any adverse affects of the altitude once I got to Denver. In fact, the realization that my atmospheric environment was somehow different than the one I can from never even crossed my mind until I sat down to write this article. I'm going to go ahead and give Al Gore the benefit of the doubt and assume he was joking when he suggested that might have been a factor in the POTUS's crappy performance.

I watched virtually every Republican primary debate and after about the eighth one - despite the fact that I genuinely enjoyed the theatre of the whole thing - I began to wonder how much longer this was going to drag out. This primary was starting to feel longer than the entire series run of "Arrested Development." Did Republican-leaning voters really need twenty 90-minute debates to figure out who their guy (or gal) was?

Having watched a razor-sharp Mitt Romney relentlessly point/counterpoint/attack Obama, it didn't dawn on me until afterwards that the seemingly endless stream of GOP debates had done nothing if not thoroughly prepare heir candidate to stand toe-to-toe in the crucible that is the primary.

Obama, having not given a press conference in months, apparently thought the ladies of "The View" and David Letterman (sans teleprompter! - I give credit where credit is due) would hone his debate skills enough to thwart any Romney attack. He was embarrassingly over-confident going in, naively caught off-guard once the debate began, and alarmingly unprepared throughout the entire ordeal. Or as my Dad would turn to me and say 30 minutes in, "Is it just me or is he getting his ass handed to him??"

And while I don't think anyone, anywhere, at any point in time would ever accuse Joe Biden of having an over-reliance on a teleprompter, he has apparently taken cues from his boss on how to prepare for his big night. Joe has not given a formal, sit-down interview in over 5 months, while the VP contender Ryan has given upwards of 175+ interviews over the same time period, most of which have been televised.

The reality is the Obama campaign probably estimates the liability of a free-wheeling Biden spouting off to the media would be significantly more damaging to their re-election prospects than anything he could say or do during his upcoming 90 minutes on stage with Ryan. In speculating as to how tomorrow night's scene will play out, I don't expect a repeat of the Presidential debate in that Biden will seemingly allow Ryan to steamroll him. When compared to Obama, Uncle Joe is a superior debater not only because he's a smooth talker that thinks quick on his feet - he genuinely tries to connect with people. Joe's problem is what he says - Obama's is what he doesn't say. Sometimes I'm not sure which is worse.

As a jobseeker in today's uber-competitive market, you are going to judged based not only on what you say, but what you don't say.

Lack of preparation on your part manifests itself by not allowing you the opportunity to engage in an intelligent, meaningful conversation with a potential employer and depending on your personality, it leads either to periods of uncomfortable silence or trips down rabbit holes that aren't relevant to the conversation at hand. What would keep someone from doing the appropriate homework necessary to make a great impression in a job interview setting? I can only think of two: over-confidence ("I'm smart enough to wing this"), enthusiasm ("I honestly don't care if I get this job or not") or some combination of the two.

*As much as I'd love to take credit for "Uncle Joe" - I can't. This was the monicker given to him by Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette in his book "No Easy Day" about the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Bissonnette said that having met the VPOTUS at a White House reception for the SEAL team, Biden reminded him of someone's drunk uncle at Christmas. Nice.

**Jack Ryan is the name of Tom Clancy's fictional CIA agent who ultimately became POTUS and was played by Harrison Ford in "Clear and Present Danger."

Critical Job Hunting Mistake

My friend Marc Mencher, CEO of GameRecruiter out of Fort Lauderdale, FL recorded a great video that he posted on GameRecruiter's Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/GameRecruiter ,where he discusses an often overlooked aspect of resume writing - namely, that resumes are no longer being read by humans, they are being read by computers, or more specifically, software programs called applicant tracking systems (ATS's).

I spent a couple years working for CareerBuilder.com back in the day so my experience with ATS's goes back at least a decade. ATS's are basically mini-search engines that Human Resources professionals use to try and identify the "best" resumes. Online job boards have these search capabilities built into their databases, which is helpful when you're trying to sort through 100 million+ resumes. Software programs like BullHorn, ZoHo, BrassRing and Taleo allow HR professionals to sort through the resumes they receive regardless of where they came from: their online job postings, career website or unsolicited.

The HR professional establishes a set of search criteria based on what they're looking for, namely, keywords they believe SHOULD appear in the resume of the caliber of candidate they're looking for and VIOLA, they ATS identifies a selection of stellar candidates. Makes perfect sense, right? Not quite. The problem with this strategy is that the only resumes that are returned are the "keyword rich" resumes - not necessarily the best candidates. One could argue that the top candidates will possess keyword-rich resumes, but I don't believe that to be the case. Some of the best candidates out there do not even have resumes! All this strategy does is produce those candidates that are the best wordsmiths or at the very least, paid enough money to have their resume written by a professional that knows how to manipulate applicant tracking systems.

I 100% agree with Marc in his assertion that candidates SHOULD have keyword rich resumes - I'm all about beating (or at least circumventing) the system. My issue has more to do with this simplistic recruiting approach - if HR professionals would go back to looking at candidates, not resumes, they would make better overall hires. But then if that were to happen, there would be no need for recruiters like me.

Continued Growth for Retained Executive Search Industry in 2011, According to AESC

NEW YORK, Mar 05, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- 2011 data just released by the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) shows that the retained executive search industry experienced continued momentum during 2011 with a 9% yearly increase bringing total industry revenues to an estimated $10.41 billion. 2011 saw the third highest revenues on record for the industry, not far off from all time industry high of $11 billion reached in 2008.

AESC President, Peter Felix, commented: "The continued growth within the executive search industry during a period of sustained global economic volatility illustrates how critical and valuable the services are that our member firms deliver each day. While not all industries and regions saw growth in executive recruitment in 2011, the overall trends were positive and show areas of opportunities for senior executives around the world."

The global, average number of new executive searches started in 2011 rose 5.4% over 2010 figures with North America and Europe contributing the most growth, up 9.7% and 4.7% respectively. Asia Pacific remained flat with only 0.2% growth and Central/South America saw a slight decline of 1%. Industry market share remained relatively flat across the board with the biggest growth seen in the Industrial (1.5%) and Consumer Products (1%) sectors. The financial sector decreased its share of the market by 2.3% and technology decreased by 1.2%.

Felix continued: "It is encouraging to see how strongly the search industry has come back from the deep recession of 2009, and that clients continue to actively employ executive search to combat the underlying talent shortage. We remain in very challenging markets but I am convinced that retained executive search will continue as a key part of the management toolbox when looking for long term competitiveness and success."

A full copy of the AESC's Q4 2011 report is available upon request to AESC members and the press.

The Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) represents the best retained executive search consulting firms around the world and promotes the highest professional standards in the industry. Visit www.aesc.org for more information about AESC, The International Executive Search Directory or BlueSteps, the AESC's career management service for senior executives.

SOURCE: Association of Executive Search Consultants

Gainful Employment Regulations: Preventing Mortgage Crisis 2.0?

“The Department of Education’s gainful employment rule is a modest and important first step to protect students and taxpayers from subprime academic programs that have a demonstrated track record of failure,” said Senator Tom Harkin, who along with President Obama, has spearheaded the initiative to place more regulations on the for-profit school industry.

Subprime, subprime...now where have we heard that before?

Proponents of the new gainful employment regulations for for-profit schools have been making the inevitable comparisons to the mortgage crisis for the last couple years, claiming the industry is on a near identical path to disaster. So who, ultimately, shoulders the majority of the blame for the fact that students attending for-profit schools default on their educational loans twice as much as those attending public institutions? The students or the schools?

The Obama administration is pointing the finger of responsibility squarely at the schools, charging them with pushing programs that do not offer a reasonable rate of return (namely earning potential) on the tuition they’re charging. Last summer the Government Accountability Office began investigating a handful of the major players in the for-profit school sector in an attempt to crack down on what they termed as “deceptive” college admissions practices.

Seeing as how parallels are being drawn, I’d like to open this discuss by sharing an article I published on October 4, 2008 entitled “Are Salespeople to Blame for Mortgage Crisis?

”Home sales and property values continue to bottom out, and ultimately, who's to blame? What could have been done to prevent this? How do we make sure this doesn't happen again, or at least as bad as what it's been? Truly, what was the root cause for a housing slump worse than the one during the Great Depression?

Let's start at the pressure point: the real estate agents.

Real estate agents are salespeople. Real estate agents don't care what you buy as long as you buy something (especially after carting you around to 25 different houses paying $4 a gallon for gas). Whether they represent the buyer or the seller, they do not make a dime unless a property is sold. "Sure you can afford this. Come on, it's the home of your dreams, right? So you brown-bag lunch it during the week instead of Applebees and Starbucks." We can handle that, right honey?

Mortgage brokers are salespeople. Stated income mortgage loans? How was that concept sold to any self-respecting bean-counter? "How about I just TELL you what I make and you believe me?" The mortgage broker is under as much pressure as the real estate agent. Again, no loan = no moolah. Let's ASSUME a scenario where there is no impropriety whatsoever on the part of the broker and the conversation might go something like this: "Mr. Lender, this couple is good for the money. It's the home of their dreams. They're going to raise a family and retire here. Under no circumstances would they let this home go into foreclosure." I personally know individuals that were making $50k per year who were convinced they could afford a $500k house with no money down. Throw in the hyper-competitive nature of a good salespeople (times a million) with a little exaggeration and you can see how a mushroom cloud of bad loans can suddenly appear out of no where.

Lenders got caught up in the hype generated by their front-line soldiers, the salespeople. It's a good time to be a real estate investor.

As Yogi Berra so eloquently put it, “This is like deja vu all over again."

More to come...

For-Profit College Admissions: Does Encouragement Constitute “Selling?”

Advice

Much of the recent scrutiny from the Federal government on for-profit schools has focused on their admissions practices.

It’s not so much that the government is pointing to public or non-profit schools as the model for appropriately conducting admissions as it is they are criticizing both specific admissions practices and the overall admissions strategies employed by several high-profile for-profit institutions.

Critics of for-profit schools contend that their Admissions Representatives / Counselors / Coordinators / Advisors (they go by a variety of titles) are essentially functioning as salespeople for the school. They claim that Admissions Representatives (AR’s) are incentivized to enroll as many students as possible using a wide variety of high pressure sales tactics, not the least of which is blatantly lying to prospective students about their loan obligations and earning potential after graduation. This is in direct contrast to the public/non-profit admissions model that does not incentivize enrolling students that are not fully committed to going to school.

Having served as Campus President at a for-profit school and overseeing an Admissions department I can clearly see both sides of this issue. At my campus, many of the individuals that walked through our front doors to inquire about going to school, or back to school, had not received a lot of encouragement throughout their lives; they had never been told that they were smart enough or capable enough to attend college, get a degree and establish a legitimate career. A lot of our students were the first ones in their family to attend college.

Our AR’s often took on the role of “life coach” with their students because that’s exactly what many of them needed at that particular time – someone in their lives that’s providing encouragement and holding their hand through the decision-making process. Our AR’s became emotionally invested in our students because they took the time to get to know them and understand their respective situations, an approach that I do not think is embraced at most public institutions.

I’ve attended several public universities and do not recall ever receiving one ounce of encouragement from the AR’s I dealt with. Not that I necessarily needed to be motivated by a school official, but looking back, it was as if I had to fight just to get basic questions answered pertaining to my program, the degree requirements, job opportunities, etc.

Anatole France, a French poet and journalist, once said “About 90% of education is encouragement.” Our AR’s did not give sales pitches, but we did heavily promote a culture of encouragement. AR’s were directed to get to know their prospective students so that they might better understand their life circumstances in order to provide them with a realistic expectation as to how they could successfully integrate school into their lives. Public schools cater to the motivated student and more often that not, the individual that needs more than what they’re willing to offer will gravitate towards the private/for-profit school model that caters to the needs of their demographics.

Wolfe & Huntsman Executive Search • 1527 Highland Avenue, #4305, Louisville, KY 40204 • Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved.