Shira Harrington Since 1994,She has specialized in helping employers and job seekers discover their mutual purpose. With a focus on executive recruiting, interview training and career consulting, She provides the bridge to secure the optimal long-term match between both sides.
Shira also is a consultant and presenter on managing the multigenerational workforce. As a subject matter expert, she brings her extensive research and her unique, ‘real world’ perspective of the world at work to bridge the perceived gaps between the generations and prepare executives for the coming labor shortage. She has been published in the monthly magazine of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, quoted in Federal Computer Weekly, profiled in the Washington Business Journal (June 1, 2007), interviewed in Bottom Line Briefing (January 2009) and is a contributing editor to a book, Motivating the Millennial Knowledge Worker (Spring 2009).
Shira plays an active role in the Washington, DC metropolitan human resources and association communities. She is past President of the HR Leadership Forum; she was the Vice President of Programs for the Human Resources Association of the National Capital Area; and she runs a monthly brown bag lunch for HR professionals in the nonprofit and association sectors. She is also an active volunteer leader in ASAE (American Society for Association Executives) and founded an executive peer roundtable entitled SAFE (Small Association Forum for Executives) which provides a forum for best practice sharing among small staff association executives.
Shira is a regular speaker at local job support groups including Beltway Job Search Partners, MBC Career Network Ministry, Jewish Social Service Agency and 40-Plus of Greater Washington. Shira earned a Masters degree in Public Relations with a focus on employee communications from the University of Maryland at College Park.
What is an engaged employee? The easy answer: someone who wants to be in their job. Engaged employees are motivated, innovative team players who will add to your bottom line just by being themselves. When you hire new employees, it is vital to identify what motivates the new recruit and to begin the conversation during the recruiting process. Your managers can improve their interviewing skills by learning how to probe for skill fit, culture fit, and fit with a candidate's career aspirations. Interviewing and hiring can be stressful because your organization has a lot riding on those new hires, you can reduce stress with a training from Purposeful Hire.
The newest entrants to the workforce over the last 10 years, the Millennials (aka Generation Y) have made a profound impact on the way organizations strategize about employee engagement. Challenging our thinking around traditional concepts of loyalty, work ethic, communication, technology, and work-life balance, clearly the tools for engaging this next generation reside in a toolkit far different than the previous two generations.