Author Archives: Albert Klein

Parental leave is a wonderful and important time. But your LinkedIn profile should show it too!

 

To fill vacant positions, I specifically approach suitable candidates on LinkedIn. But only if you fit the search profile and I believe that you’re open for a change now.

However, if I cannot see from your profile that you’re currently on parental leave, an information gap arises for me, leading to an unnecessary approach. If I had known about your parental leave status due to an up-to-date LinkedIn profile, I would not have contacted you for a currently vacant position.

Thus, transparent information about your parental leave status helps to avoid misunderstandings and unnecessary communication. This contributes to making the recruitment process more efficient and targeted.

AKlein-Consult: Great Roles in FMCG 🛒, LifeScience 🧪and Asia 🌏.

🌟 Are you looking for the best talent in 2025? 🌟

Have you lately struggled to fill key open positions? That’s completely understandable. Much like the quest for the finest truffles, finding the ideal candidate in today’s competitive job market can be quite challenging.

I’m here to help you successfully fill your vacancies in the new year! 💼✨.

With my industry expertise and management experience from Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola, combined with 20+ yrs. of active sourcing for FMCG and Life Science roles and in Asia, I am well-equipped to assist you.

By leveraging your detailed brief, I will personally reach out to and identify the best candidates who align with your company’s needs.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch for a no-obligation conversation. Let’s collaborate to attract the best talent for your team! I look forward connecting and supporting you in filling your open positions.

AKlein-Consult: Great Roles in FMCG 🛒, LifeScience 🧪and Asia 🌏.

The Importance of Timely Feedback in Recruiting.

In recruiting, timely communication is the key to success. However, one of the biggest challenges is delayed feedback from Hiring Managers. Why is it important for hiring managers to provide quick feedback?

Headhunters are tasked with finding, evaluating, and presenting talent. With no timely feedback after presenting candidates or conducting interviews, the following occurs:

  • Delays in the hiring process = poor candidate experience. A swift hiring process is crucial to securing top talent. Candidates expect timely and transparent communication. Delays in feedback lead to frustration and disappointment. As a result, qualified candidates quickly lose interest. Such negative experiences damages the reputation of companies and headhunters and deters potential talent from interacting with the respective company or headhunter.

 

  • Lost talent. In a competitive job market, delays make the difference between hiring an outstanding talent and losing it to competition. Companies that act quickly and efficiently have a clear advantage.

 

  • Increased costs. A prolonged hiring process incurs additional costs. This includes not only direct costs like additional interviews, but also indirect costs due to unfilled positions that can impact productivity and team morale.

 

Thus, timely feedback from Hiring Managers to headhunters is crucial for a successful recruitment process. It helps to secure the best talent, to improve the candidate experience, and to reduce costs. Companies that take this seriously gain a competitive advantage and build a strong employer brand.

 

AKlein-Consult: Great Roles in FMCG 🛒, LifeScience 🧪and Asia 🌏.

 

Have you ever ghosted a recruiter?

 

Candidate ghosting in recruitment is the abrupt and unexplained cessation of communication between a candidate and a recruiter. This can occur at any stage of the hiring process: From initial contact to follow-ups before or after the interview. Ghosting can be no response to emails, neglecting scheduled calls, or simply disappearing without notice.

Here’s why you should NOT ghost a recruiter:

You’ll miss learning opportunities: Constructive feedback is invaluable for professional growth. When you ghost a recruiter, you miss the opportunity to receive insights into your strengths and weaknesses, you hinder learning and improvement for future interviews and career endeavors.

Your reduced job market visibility impacts on your overall career path: Ghosting can contribute to your invisibility in the job market. A recruiter recalls your reputation for ghosting and thus will not contact you again for future opportunities. This will limit your opportunities, making it challenging for you to secure positions aligned with your skills and aspirations.

In summary, candidate ghosting has profound consequences for you as a job seeker. Professional recruiters play a crucial role in mitigating these effects by fostering a culture of open communication, providing constructive feedback, and treating a candidate with respect. A commitment to transparency not only benefits you as a candidate in the short term but also contributes to a healthier and more ethical recruitment ecosystem in the long run.

AKlein-Consult: Great Roles in FMCG 🛒, LifeScience 🧪and Asia 🌏.

Are your Job Interview Questions targeted to obtain Facts?

Do you still use hypothetical rather than fact-based interview questions?

Then let me briefly share with you why fact-based job interview questions are state-of-the art and when hypothetical questions might make sense?

Objective Evaluation of Real Examples: Fact-based interview questions focus on relevant past candidates’ examples rather than relying on speculative answers which candidates can make up. Thus, 3 points are crucial:

  1. What was the concrete objective of a project? (i.e. %-change vs py)
  2. What has the candidate done? (he himself)
  3. Which KPI results were achieved? (in comparison to the objective)

Predictive Validity: Past behavior is a very strong predictor of the future. When you ask fact-based questions about past successes, you get valuable insights into how candidates are likely to perform in similar situations in the future.

Structured Interviews: When you conduct multiple interviews by different interviewers, you secure comparability via a structured interview process with similar fact-based interview questions. You thus, reduce a potential bias in the hiring decision as all interviews consistent.

Two Examples when Hypothetical Interview Questions are Justified:

  1. Case Study Questions which are typical for the interviewed role, i.e. an annual employee appraisal, a change of priorities/timings, or an unplanned event. Thus, a case study provides insights on the candidates’ creative & innovative thinking and the ability to tackle issues that are relevant for the role.
  2. Future Orientation questions on the first 100 days on the job. This allows you to gauge candidates’ vision, goals, and aspirations within the context of the role and the organization.

In conclusion, fact-based questions that focus on candidates past experiences and achievements are key for a successful job interview while hypothetical questions such as in a case study or a plan for the first 100 days are a good addition.

AKlein-Consult: Great Roles in FMCG 🛒, LifeScience 🧪and Asia 🌏.

 

What Life Science Marketeers can learn from FMCG?

 

Many Life Science Marketeers come with a background in Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry, Pharmaceuticals or in Medical Studies. They often start in Sales and get ‘promoted’ to a Marketing role. However, in their science studies, they did not obtain a Professional Marketing education.

Let me thus, clarify what Marketing IS and is NOT and share what Life Science Marketeers can learn from FMCG Marketeers:

  • Professional Marketing is neither a service function to Sales nor is it just advertising or communication.

 

  • It is a structured way of doing business that is based on Market Research to obtain a superior understanding of attitudes and behaviors of key stakeholders such as Physicians, Patients, Health Insurances, Regulatory Affairs Authorities, etc. To understand this pattern is mandatory because attitudes drive behavior.

 

  • Importantly, within FMCG attitudes and behaviors regarding unmet needs or own and competitive products/services are identified BEFORE a product/service is launched. This verifies the business potential of changed attitudes and behaviors with a new product/service concept.

 

FMCG Marketing principles are crucial to Life Science Marketing because the development of products/services requires significantly higher investments and longer lead times in comparison to FMCG.  Thus, it is vital to identify and verify the business potential BEFORE the product/service development starts.

With a new product/service on hand, clear and convincing distribution & communication strategies need to be developed towards B2B and Direct2Patient target groups, followed by a comprehensive and efficient media plan, utilizing multiple communication channels.

Just approach me via ak@aklein-consult.com in case you need Marketing consultancy for your Life Science business…

How To Eliminate Bias in Interview Panel Decision Meetings?

 

You’ve been in interview panel meetings with multiple interviewers from different hierarchy levels? Then you’ve probably noticed that it can be challenging to have an unbiased meeting. Specifically, when senior participants share their opinion upfront and more junior participants/subordinates do not dare to express the opposite opinion.

Let me thus share with you how paper clips will eliminate bias in the decision meeting:

  • It is vital that none of the participants share their view upfront. Instead, the meeting starts with the distribution of 3 paper clips for each participant.

 

  • All meeting participants put their paper clip ‘vote’ on the table AT THE SAME TIME, choosing between 3 clips (the perfect candidate), 2 clips (a pretty good candidate), 1 clip (big doubts) and 0 clips (no way).

 

  • When all participants have voted similarly, the discussion & decision is short. Having voted differently, participants share their rationale so that the panel can come to a joint decision.

 

Just try the paper clip method and you’ll be convinced by the results!

 

AKlein-Consult: Great Roles in FMCG 🛒, LifeScience 🧪and Asia 🌏.

Benefits of an At-Eye-Level FMCG HR Consultancy

Have you experienced that working on FMCG searches with large HR Consulting firms can be dissapointing in terms of candidate quality & search duration?

This is because a major part of the work is done by Junior Consultants without own FMCG experience. They are not at eye-level with potential Senior FMCG candidates and thus, cannot provide a professional response to candidate’s questions.

I do know the FMCG industry inside-out. This comes from my own international management expertise within top-notch FMCG firms. Thus, I ensure FMCG consulting services at eye-level. And, being the only point-of-contact towards candidates, I do not delegate work to researchers/call centers.

Therefore, both candidates and clients appreciate my consulting services at eye-level.

AKlein-Consult: Great Roles in FMCG 🛒, LifeScience 🧪and Asia 🌏.

Are You Still Wasting Time with Inefficient Meetings due to Endless PowerPoint Slides?

Many meetings are time-consuming and end without concrete decisions. Here are proven principles for efficient meetings that lead to fast, informed decisions:

  • Use Meetings Only for Decision-Making, Not for Information Exchange: Ban PowerPoint presentations from your meetings. Instead, send a Word document with facts, conclusions, and recommendations before the meeting. This allows participants to prepare in advance and focus on decision-making during the meeting. Require confirmation from attendees that they have read the information beforehand to ensure everyone is prepared.
  • Clear Agenda with Meeting Leadership and Timeframe for Each Item: The meeting leader ensures that the agenda with timeframes is adhered to and that all participants are guided toward a decision. If the meeting deviates from the topic, the timeframe is not adhered to, or unnecessary details are discussed, it is crucial to postpone the decision.
  • Meeting Summary with Decisions and Who Does What by When: After each meeting, a brief summary needs to be written within 24 hours, clearly documenting what was decided, who is responsible for each task, and by when it should be completed.

Efficient meetings are key for a productive and goal-oriented workflow. Optimize your time and resources with precise meeting preparation, a clear agenda with timeframes, a summary of decisions, and follow-up on results.

Contact me at ak@aklein-consult.com if you want to improve your meeting culture!

Have you tried ‘PITA’ in your Food or Beverage Company?

 

Having worked in Marketing roles for P&G and The Coca-Cola Company, I have observed significant differences in Consumer & Shopper Marketing strategies and plans for Laundry/Personal Care Products vs. Beverages.

 

Great Laundry or Personal Care Consumer & Shopper Marketing can stimulate trial and purchase and convince shoppers to buy larger quantities/multi-packs. However, larger purchase quantities will NOT increase usage. This is because you won’t wash your hair multiple times/day or do more laundry washes just because a larger amount of product is at home. The only advantage is that you won’t buy a competitive Brand as long as you’re fully stocked.

 

In Food & Beverages, however, it’s all about identifying and driving purchase and consumption occasions in the Home and Out-of-Home Markets.

  • Within the Home Market, large purchased amounts do increase consumption behind purchase and consumption occasions such as Xmas, Easter, Halloween, or BBQ.

 

  • Within the Out-of-Home Market, there are many different purchase = immediate consumption occasion, i.e. thirst quenching, socializing or travel occasions with specific opportunities for real-time communication.

 

PITA, stands for Population x Incidence x Times x Amount and thus, defines the magnitude of the business opportunity.

 

  • Population is the overall size of the Target Group (i.e. teens 12-19 yrs.)

 

  • Incidence is the % of actual shoppers/consumers with key volume drivers such as:

 

  • Times a Brand is purchased, i.e. 1x/month, 1x/day or multiple times/day. This correlates with the number and type of communicated purchase and consumption occasions.

 

  • Amont, i.e. the product sizes; 0.3L, 0.5L, 1.0L or 1.5L, depending on the occasions, i.e. 0.3L/0.5L for on-the-go consumption or 1.0L/1.5L for household/family consumption.

 

Thus, PITA is key to the success of each Food & Beverage Brand!

 

Just contact me via ak@aklein-consult.com when you need assistance to launch PITA in your Food or Beverage company.