Newsletter published by the Greater Cincinnati Human Resources Association. Survey results provide snapshot of talent acquisition practices during first and second quarters 2011 and anticipated practices for thrd and fourth quarters 2011.

1. Staffing & Recruiting Survey Data
Provides Snapshot of Talent Acquisition in the Tri-State
Employee referrals top the list of the most effective talent acquisition methods for companies in the
Greater Cincinnati area. That is one of the findings in a survey conducted during the month of
July by GCHRA’s Staffing and Recruiting Forum.
Survey participants were asked to list the most effective recruiting methods for their organizations.
The top three responses: 84 percent listed employee referrals and 58 percent cited commercial
online job boards, such as Monster or CareerBuilder. The company website took third place, listed
by 50 percent of respondents.
The remaining most effective methods cited by survey takers plummeted below the top three meth-
ods. Those methods (followed by the percentage listing the method): social media (i.e., LinkedIn,
Facebook, Twitter) (22 percent); traditional advertising media (i.e., newspapers, professional
journals, radio) (19 percent); professional associations/conferences (15 percent); search firms (14
percent); job fairs/campus career services (13 percent); and “other: (10 percent).
Among the “other” responses, the methods included “Now Hiring” signs in front of the business; col-
lege students who have rotated through with clinical experience; referrals from industry contacts; re-
hiring former employees; using a centralized recruiting team; word-of-mouth; and Craig’s List.
Staffing & Recruiting Survey Data Table of Contents:

2. About the Survey
The purpose of the semi-annual survey is to determine the state of talent acquisition among companies
in the Greater Cincinnati area. Survey questions covered four major areas: hiring practices in the 3rd
quarter 2011 and anticipated hiring practices for the 4th quarter 2011; recruiting practices; demo-
graphics of survey participants and their companies/organizations; and possible questions for future
surveys.
E-mail invitations to participate in the survey were sent in early July to nearly 1,600 individuals involved
in talent acquisition, including members of GCHRA and non-members who have attended past
GCHRA events. Slightly more than 100 of the e-mail invitations bounced back and eight individuals
chose to opt-out of completing the survey.
We received 130 valid, completed surveys by the end of July. While this number of completed surveys
was higher than in past surveys, the return rate was only 8.7 percent. This rate is not strong enough to
say definitively that the data is representative of the talent acquisition community. ,
however,

3. Hiring Practices
The major portion of the survey asked about current hiring practices and projected practices for the 4th
quarter 2011. Slightly more than 84 percent of the respondents to the July survey indicated their com-
pany or organization was hiring in the 3rd quarter (July to September).
For the 17.6 percent of companies where survey participants indicated the company or organization
was not hiring during the 3rd quarter, the most frequently cited reason was “in a hiring freeze” (50 per-
cent). Other reasons included: rightsizing (35 percent); downsizing (10 percent); and restructuring (5
percent).
Survey participants seem to have forecasted a developing trend of decreased hiring for the 4th quarter.
Just 74.7 percent of respondents indicated their companies anticipated hiring between October and
December 2011, while 25.3 percent said their companies did not anticipate hiring in the same period.
Based on those who indicated their companies were hiring in the 3rd quarter or anticipated hiring in the
4th quarter, Chart 1 presents the percentage for each type of hiring in each quarter.

4. Company Hiring by Positions
The trend for decreased hiring in the 4th quarter continues when the survey looked at hiring by posi-
tion. For those companies hiring, the largest percentage of hiring is for non-exempt hourly-non-tech-
nical employees. In the 3rd quarter, 55.8 percent of companies reported hiring for the position. That
percentage dropped to 52.9 percent of companies that anticipate hiring for that position in the 4th
quarter.
The drop is even more pronounced at the supervisor/manager level. In the 3rd quarter, 55.8 percent
of companies reported hiring for supervisor/manager positions. The numbers for the 4th quarter show
a dive – just 36.8 percent of companies anticipate hiring for supervisor/manager.
Other positions showing a drop in the percentage of companies hiring from the 3rd quarter to the 4th
quarter are: exempt-technical (from 54.7 percent to 48.3 percent); non-exempt hourly-technical (from
39.5 percent to 34.5 percent); exempt-non-technical (from 37.2 percent to 29.9 percent); director
(from 23.3 percent to 17.2 percent); executive-level (from 16.3 percent to 13.8 percent); non-exempt
salaried non technical (from 11.6 percent to 10.3 percent); and non-exempt salaried-technical (from
10.5 percent to 6.9 percent).
In the category of contract/temporary employees, defined as individuals who are not on the company’s
payroll and are not eligible for benefits from the company, survey respondents reported a slight down-
ward trend from the 3rd quarter to the 4th quarter.
Comparing the 3rd quarter to the 4th quarter, survey respondents reported on contract/temporary em-
ployee positions: currently NOT hiring contract/temporary employees (from 45.3 percent to 45.5 per-
cent); adding contractors/temporary employees to fill new contracting/temporary jobs (from 41.4
percent to 33.8 percent); hiring contract/temporary employees to eventually fill a company position
(from 36.6 percent to 30.8 percent); replacing contractors/temporary employees to fill existing
contracting/temporary jobs (from 30.9 percent to 26.9 percent); and Hiring contractors/temporary
employees to fill what were formerly organizational/company jobs (from 15.7 percent to 15.4 percent).

5. Educational Qualifications
Survey respondents were asked to indicate the educational qualifications sought by their companies for
job candidates. All responses are shown in Chart 2.
Work Experience
The survey asked respondents about the length of work experience sought in job candidates. For can-
didates seeking either an exempt position or a non-exempt position, the most popular answer was two
to five years experience. For exempt candidates, 82.9 percent look for candidates with two to five
years experience. For non-exempt candidates, 78.2 percent seek candidates with two to five years ex-
perience.
For hourly workers, 71.6 percent of respondents said the most popular length of work experience for
candidates is less than two years. This is followed by two to five years experience desired by 63.5 per-
cent of respondents.
Data from survey respondents yielded additional insights into the length of service desired in candi-
dates:
For exempt candidates – less than two years of experience (29.3%); six to 10 years of expe-
rience (57.3 percent); 11 to 15 years of experience 23.2 percent; and more than 15 years
experience (20.7 percent).
For non exempt candidates – less than two years of experience (53.8 percent); six to 10
years experience (26.9 percent); 11 to 15 years of experience (10.3 percent); and more
than 15 years of experience (9.0 percent).

6. Diversity
Respondents were asked what diversity qualifications are sought in candidates for positions in their
companies. Chart 3 displays the percentage of respondents reporting specified diversity qualifications
for candidates.

7. Salaries and Wages
In an effort to gauge the impact of the “Great Recession” upon salaries and wages in Greater Cincin-
nati, the survey asked if salaries or wages are higher, lower, or have not changed between 2010 and
2011 for newly hired employees. Chart 4 displays the percentage of responses in four position cate-
gories.
The survey also asked about the salary increase ranges companies are paying to current employees for
the current fiscal year in seven position levels. Without exception, the 2 percent to 3.9 percent increase
range received the highest percentage of responses. Within this salary range, percentage responses
for the seven position levels ranged from a high of 60.9 percent (at the director level) to a low of 52.7
percent at the non-exempt hourly –non-technical level.

8. Chart 5 displays the salary increase ranges being paid to current employees in the company’s current
fiscal year. (Just 2.2 percent reported a salary increase in the “less than 1 percent” range. That in-
crease was reported for just one position level in the range -- non-exempt hourly-non technical. That
range is not displayed in Chart 5.)

9. Social Media
There is no question that social media is a hot topic among those in talent acquisition. Several of the
suggested questions from the last survey centered on social media and one of those questions was in-
cluded in the most recent survey.
We asked survey participants “What percent of your organization’s/company’s human resources or
recruiting annual budget is allocated to social media recruiting?” The answers are in Chart 6:

10. Demographics
The survey asked several demographic questions about the industries and companies/organizations
represented by the survey respondents.
Manufacturing took top place in the industry category with 26.7 percent of respondents reporting
working for a manufacturing company. Nearly eight percent work in non-profit organizations and an-
other eight percent work in healthcare. Construction, financial (banking, insurance), and retail each
were represented by 5.8 percent of respondents. Slightly more than three percent each identified their
organization’s industry as either architectural services or distribution or hotel or real estate and prop-
erty management.
Other industries identified by survey participants:
Consulting, consumer services, defense, education, government (federal, state, local), informa-
tion technology, marketing and sales, and telecommunications (2.2 percent each)
Aviation management, brand management, biotechnology, call center, computer software,
consumer packaging goods, employment and staffing services, HVAC service and construction,
legal, logistics, media and entertainment, pharmaceutical, publishing, restaurant/hospitality,
social services, transportation, and vehicle leasing and sales (1.1 percent each)
Greater Cincinnati is well represented by companies/organization with their headquarters in the area.
Slightly more than 61 percent of the survey respondents stated that their national/global headquarters
is located here. Another 18.4 percent of respondents said their regional/divisional headquarters in
located in the tri-state area and slightly more than seven percent reported that their subsidiary head-
quarters in located in Greater Cincinnati. Just 18.4 percent of respondents reported their
national/global headquarters is located outside of the Greater Cincinnati area.
Respondents were asked to provide the approximate number of employees and the approximately
number of contract/temporary employees in the Tri-State for their company/organization. The num-
bers are provided in Chart 7.

11. Respondents also were asked to provide the total number of employees in all locations for their entire
company/organization. Chart 8 displays those numbers.

12. GCHRA Meeting Calendar
HR Academy & Monthly Meeting
Click Here for Details & to Register
Legal Briefing
Registration Coming Soon
Julie Johnson, PHR Jodi Harmeyer, SPHR Terry Wilson, SPHR
513-784-4629 513-322-5546 513-351-7383 x 1034
julie.a.johnson@convergys.com Jharmeyer@partnerps.com twilson@petermannbus.com
AnnaMarie Vollhardt Karen Brandenburg, PHR Nita Mauer, PHR
513-851-4900 513-745-6080 513-382-1922
annamarie.vollhardt@hillmangroup.com kbrandenburg@cranechempharma.comnmauer@yahoo.com
Julie Stephens, SPHR Jeanne Brauns, SPHR
859-301-0701 Wendy Clouser, PHR
513-271-2349 Perfection Group, Inc.
jstephens@bistrogroup.com jbrauns@commonwealthorthocenters.com
513-772-7545
wclouser@perfectiongroup.com
Julie Pugh, Esq., PHR
Sandra Jennings, MA, SPHR 513-629-2792
513-527-3104 jpugh@graydon.com Paul Wehner
sandyj@tirediscounters.com 513-272-2451
paul@klotegroup.com
Carolyn Klawitter
Chip Ramsey 513-871-3345
614-552-3278 Carolyn.Klawitter@peoplefluent.com Bing Spitler, SPHR
chipramsey@spherion.com 513-234-8137
Jim Scarborough, PHR, REBC bspitler@spiltlergroup.com
513-232-9992
jim@benefitresources.net
GCHRA • 4010 Executive Park Drive, Suite 100 • Cincinnati, OH 45241
Phone: 513-554-4747 • Email: gchracincinnati@aol.com