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2020-2021 Blue Signal Virtual Summit Awards

January 14, 2021 by Aylish DeVore

In 2020, Blue Signal expanded its recruiting team to 24 full-time recruiters, brought on an additional 3 operations team members, and awarded several promotions to some of its senior team members. We placed over 300 qualified candidates in exciting new roles, and despite the difficult circumstances brought on by Covid-19, we were able to exceed our annual revenue from 2019. This year our annual Blue Signal Summit looked a little different as it was held virtually, rather than in-person in Scottsdale, Arizona. None the less, we were elated to come together to review our record-breaking 2020 awards and discuss big plans for 2021 and beyond.

If it weren’t for our incredible leadership, we would not be where we are today. At the Summit, Blue Signal Owner and Executive Vice President, Matt Walsh, announced several awards to recognize some of our top performers and exemplary mentors.

Top Cash In & Top Billings 2020 - Ryan Walsh

Top Cash In & Top Billings 2020 - Ryan Walsh

Within his first two years in the industry, Ryan Walsh has achieved the awards for Top Cash-In and Top Billings two years in a row - a feat unheard of in recruiting. This past year he was promoted to Senior Recruiting Manager for his diligence and eagerness to share knowledge with junior members of the team. While accepting his award, Ryan took the time to thank his team and the fellow recruiters that worked together on split placements that all contributed to securing these milestones. He also gave a special shoutout to our Project Manager Kimberly Sjurson, who was brought on just six months ago and has truly made a huge impact at Blue Signal through her hard work and dedication. 

MVP Award 2020 - Lacey Walters

MVP Award 2020 - Lacey Walters

As the “lifeblood of Blue Signal,” Lacey Walters was recognized as the three-time recipient of the MVP, Top Contributor award. During his speech, Matt mentioned that without Lacey’s daily, behind-the-scenes work, none of what we do at Blue Signal would be possible. Over the years, Lacey has been able to grow her team, and by building an incredible support system she leads the execution of all marketing aspects for Blue Signal with ease. She is truly the company’s MVP and has proven it time and time again as she contributes to the company’s overall success and earns this acknowledgment.

Record-Breaking 2020 Awards - Jonathan Lee

Excellence Award 2020 - Jonathan Lee

In his announcement, Matt congratulated Jonathan Lee with the nickname “Jonny Excellence,” as this award was created specifically with him in mind. Matt voiced his appreciation of all Jonathan’s support, as he is always there to help with the most positive attitude and continues to put in the extra mile in all he does. As the first recipient of the Best Support Award at last year’s summit, it comes with no surprise that Jonathan is yet again acknowledged for his hard work. Jonathan is constantly focused on excellence for himself and the team and is truly a beacon of the word. We’re extremely grateful to have Jonathan as part of the team!

Record-Breaking 2020 Awards - Kelsey Campion

Top Contractor Billings 2020 - Kelsey Campion

With over $100K in contractor billings, Kelsey Campion secured the award for the Top Contractor Billings in 2020. Matt said it best when he described Kelsey as an “absolute machine” when it comes to contract roles. He mentioned her extreme dedication and work ethic as she is always making herself available by working nights, weekends, and holidays to secure her roles and keep pushing for more. Kelsey’s efforts this year played a huge part in Blue Signal being recognized as part of Forbes’ annual list of America’s Best Temporary Staffing Firms for 2020. We don’t know how she does it, but she continues to improve and outperform her personal records on a regular basis.

Record-Breaking 2020 Awards - Brent Stokes

First Year Top Billings 2020 - Brent Stokes

In order to recognize Brent Stokes’ mind-blowing performance, this award was newly created to recognize his achievements as a new member of the Blue Signal team. With almost 4 years of recruiting experience behind him, Brent joined Blue Signal in February of 2020 and was able to secure over $300K in total billings in the remaining 10 months of the year. In his speech, Matt congratulated Brent on all he has accomplished and shared his appreciation for Brent’s dedication to learning, and for serving as a role model for others to learn from. We hope to replicate this kind of success and drive in future recruiters to come.

These 5 individuals embody Blue Signal’s core values of excellence, transparency, integrity, commitment, and respect. They put clients and candidates first, no matter the circumstance; and drive the culture of the organization through leading by example. These standout team members earned their prestigious recognition, and we are all excited to see what success 2021 will bring them, and the company as a whole.

Blue Signal Core Values

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: annual review, Award, Award winning, awards, best support award, billings, Career Goals, cash-in, company culture, Company Insights, congratulations, Contract Staffing, COVID relief, COVID19, excellence award, goal setting, goals, hiring, hiring manager, leadership, management, mentor, MVP, owner, Placements, promotion, quota, recruiters, recruiting, rookie of the year, sales, sales manager, selling, staffing, succession planning, summit, Top Recruiter, top talent, virtual culture, Work from Home, year in review

Building a Better Succession Plan

October 28, 2016 by Lacey Walters

Many companies look at succession planning only at the executive level – something that C-levels submit to the board once per year. This approach makes it easy to fall into a routine that does not reflect the reality of business today. It puts companies into the dangerous position of scrambling to find good talent when a valuable employee is promoted or takes a leave of absence.

There are many reasons to build a solid succession-management process. A competitive employee-driven market means employers are struggling to fill vacancies with qualified talent. Baby boomers are retiring in huge numbers (about 10,000 per day), leaving many vacancies in senior positions.

Employers will face new industry-disrupting regulations in the coming decade: employer healthcare, cybersecurity, net neutrality, consumer privacy, mobile data regulation, and more. Emerging technology such as IoT/M2M, near field communications, and consumer geolocation require a very different skill set and strategy than what would have worked even just 5 years ago.

Succession planning is not complicated, but it does take some time and analysis.  To build a robust succession planning program that aligns current talent development with future leadership demands, follow these five steps:

5-Step Action Plan:

1.     Identify which jobs need in-depth succession planning.

Some roles naturally have a large pool of internal candidates who could step in seamlessly (for instance, a lead engineer role in a team of several dozen engineers). For other roles, losing the employee would cause a crisis. Many large companies use a third party to conduct a risk assessment of the organization as a whole. Smaller companies can often assess their own risk.

2.     Evaluate the purpose of each job.

Start high-level. Each job should have a clear role to play within the company’s strategy. This role should align with the employee’s performance review goals.

 

3.     Identify mission-critical job functions.

In the case of succession, it should be clear what the successor will need to accomplish on a daily, quarterly, and annual basis. Document these tasks, and make sure that critical information and processes are not “locked up” in the current employee’s head.

4.     Have candidates ready to fill gaps.

An “irreplaceable employee” is a big red flag. Managers should be concerned when there is no internal candidate to take the reins if a key employee suddenly left or took an extended absence. Potential strategies for addressing succession risks include grooming internal candidate pools and building trusted relationships with outside recruiting firms.


5.     Keep dialogue open.

Good communication should already be part of company culture. It facilitates problem-solving (while bad communication leads to employees becoming frustrated and leaving). Give employees opportunities to open up honestly about their plans for the future. Good listening may save the company tens of thousands of dollars down the road.

 

Final Tips:

Accept that some things will change, and mistakes will happen.

Not only is it impossible to find the perfect “plug-and-play” carbon copy replacement, it is a bad strategy. A successor will face different goals and market challenges. There will be differences in personality, work style, and career experience. All of this is necessary for an organization to grow and change.

Do not make emotional or rushed decisions. Take a methodical approach.

It is much easier to do the planning ahead of time, instead of waiting for a crisis to hit when tensions are high. Succession planning often gets bogged down in politics, especially when evaluating internal candidates. The bottom line is that a successor will need to reach a set of goals set by the company. Either an internal candidate can get the job done, or they cannot. Politics have to take a back seat.

Look beyond succession.

An in-depth analysis is a good opportunity to address other employee-level issues, such as lack of training or poor documentation practices. For instance, a competent employee may keep all the information in their head, but the team would be thrown into chaos if this employee were suddenly absent and left no paper trail.

Building a strong succession plan is a time investment, but the benefit is that it keeps the organization strong and focused on achieving its goals. Blue Signal evaluates succession plans free of charge—contact us at info@bluesignal.com for more information.

Filed Under: Blog Posts Tagged With: candidates, employee replacement, hiring, hiring manager, how to, recruiters, recruiting, succession plan, succession planning

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