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 Right Fit - Sisters' firm help
Companies find employees
Deborah Sullivan Roberts of Wilmette, left, and
her sister, Mary Dewyer of Northbrook, run
Career Success Services, a firm which helps
companies screen candidates for skills that are
critical to working well with people. For many
owners or managers of small companies, hiring
people is almost as painful as the understaffing
they’re trying to fix. Over a period of weeks,
their own work piles up while they place ads,
sift through hundreds of resumes
and do their best to size up finalists
in a short meeting or
two.
For all that effort, it’s a hit or
miss effort. The new hire who
looked so promising on paper
and made a good sales pitch in
the interview is gone in weeks
after spotting the job they really
wanted, or after making life impossible
for their bosses and coworkers.
The problem, according to
one of the North Shore area’s
newest employment firms, is
that the traditional focus on
qualifications and experience
misses half, or more, of what it
takes to make a good hire.
Deborah Sullivan Roberts of
Wilmette and her sister, Mary Dewyer of Northbrook, run Career
Success Services, a firm
which helps companies screen
candidates for skills that are
critical to working well with
people.
“Having the right qualifications
is only a starting point,”
Dewyer said. “Unlike most recruiters,
we focus on E.Q., too.”
Emotional intelligence
E.Q. stands for Emotional
Intelligence. While I.Q. measures
left-brain intelligence,
E.Q. quantifies right-brain or
“soft” skills. Harvard psychotherapist
Daniel Goleman,
who pioneered the E.Q. concept
in the 1980s, said E.Q. encompasses
five traits: communications
skills, empathy,
self-awareness, self-control and
inner motivation. Dewyer and Roberts specialize
in high-E.Q. searches, filling
positions such as account managers,
executive and administrative
assistants, supervisors
and paralegals. They began the
firm about a year ago and focus
on companies which have
fewer than 100 employees and
no human resources department.
Dewyer has been involved
in various aspects of
career consulting and training
for 20 years. Roberts, an attorney,
also has a background in
corporate management and
communications.
“I wanted to do something
more fun and with people.
That’s how I turned to this. My
background in communications
really lends itself and I
like helping people,” Roberts
said.
Initial reviews
Dewyer said their process
starts with writing an advertisement
for the job and interviewing
the employer to get a sense
of their personality and values
and culture. She said they are
able to start ranking candidates
relatively quickly from their
written material. They might
get anywhere from 50 to 500 resumes.
“We always ask for a cover
letter. A lot of personality can
come out in the cover letter that
might not come out on the resume,”
Dewyer said.
The two go through go
through a prescreening interview
with the most promising
candidates in their Glenview
home office. Dewyer said they
look to see if the person has a
sincere interest and passion for
the job, and they also make
sure to explain the environment
they will work in. Someone
who has advancement as a
top goal won’t be happy in an office
with few opportunities.
They also try to match the personality
and values of a candidate
and the employer.
Figuring out someone’s E.Q.
Right fit
Sisters’ firm helps companies find employees
‘I wanted to do
something more
fun and with
people. That’s how I
turned to this.’ Deborah
Sullivan Roberts
is not a simple task, but it boils
down to things most employers
want.
“Does the person like themselves,
do they get along with
other people? Do they have that
kind of common sense where
they have their feet on the
ground and they’re able to
make good decisions,” Dewyer
said.
In the end, they pass along
several recommended candidates
and suggestions for questions
in their interviews. The
final round of evaluations and
hiring decision is the employer’s.
Keeping employees
The goal is to make hiring
less random and more successful.
In the current economic climate,
many people are trolling
for whatever job they can land,
and many people who do the
hiring at smaller companies
have limited expertise and limited
time.
“People get jobs because
they’re available but they stay
because the job fits them. They
say 80 percent of success in a
job is due to that emotional intelligence,”
Dewyer said. “We
do really put a lot of weight on
that and I think that is what
makes us stand out from everybody
else.”
Roberts said their service is
cost-effective because the cost
of a bad hire is high, not only in
aggravation, but in real dollars.
It’s not unusual for a company
to spend upwards of $10,000 in
the course of hiring someone,
but a bad hire ends up costing
about 14 percent of the annual
salary based on additional
search costs, lost productivity
and training expenses.
One of their clients is the
North Suburban Library District,
a regional association
serving more than 600 area libraries.
Judy Scarnato, an administrative
team leader, said
Dewyer and Roberts helped
find good matches for three
jobs last year. Compatibility is
important in an office where
people have to work closely
with each other to be effective.
“We’re a small, busy office
with 30 people,” says Judy Scarnato
of the North Suburban Library
District, a not-for-profit
library association serving
more than 600 area libraries.
“For us, it’s not just about having
the right skills, it’s about
finding the right fit.” K
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