Achilles Group is committed to producing a great market response to your recruiting ads by implementing a well-structured process, a commitment to hire at targeted salary levels, and effective job postings. However, that means our clients must be well-equipped to manage the response pool, conduct interviews, identify top candidates, approve finalist offers, and close the deal, all while their hiring managers continue to run their daily operations! In most cases, we find that, though well-intenti...

On this Special Valentine’s Day, Achilles Group celebrates 16 years of service to our clients. We are very grateful for the opportunity to make a difference and for our talented group of people who make it all possible.  Kristen McGullion is one those amazing people, and she has provided us yet another reason for celebration.Kristen is one of our longest tenured colleagues and over the years she has contributed in almost every facet of our business.  We’ve watched her take on every challenge, gr...

Every business owner knows how critical it is to attract, hire and keep good people, yet most don’t fully appreciate what it takes to become effective at recruiting. While outside recruiters, headhunters, and temps are often very valuable, they don’t always lend themselves to a deep understanding of your organization and don’t necessarily allow you to always discover and retain good people.However, over many years of working with business leaders, Achilles Group has developed a focused set of re...

Is your company up to the task of winning the “battle” for top talent? Companies all across the world are looking for new, innovative, and cost-effective ways to attract talent to their organizations. Achilles Group is like no other organization when it comes to Recruiting Effectiveness! We strive in the beginning not only to help our clients find the best talent but also in the long term to coach and mentor hiring managers and other key players in their organizations to become more effective at...

“Don’t look back—you’re not going that way!”We like that phrase; it serves as a reminder to grow from and move past hard times and to keep focused on the path ahead. At Achilles Group we believe Houston is, in fact, moving forward, and a key indicator for us is how much our clients recruiting activities have increased!Many of the companies we serve have shifted their focus to emerging revenue streams, while -others are just rebuilding their capacity to match their upward-trending sales. Either w...

With the new year fast-approaching, it’s important to keep up with the latest and greatest predicted trends in the world of Human Resources. Many of these are driven by ever-evolving technological advances, but your business still requires that special human touch for success. Some of these predicted trends include:  More employees working from home: The number of remote workers has increased rapidly in various fields over the last few years, and easy access to Wi-Fi and inexpensive remote ...

Thanks to the efforts of dozens of generous fishing and boating enthusiasts, and some caring local citizens, more than 1,500 at-risk children on the central coast of Texas will be enjoying a very happy Christmas again this year.  Bill Bahr, one of our Achilles Group associates, and his wife Marci have participated in the annual “Toy Run” for 10 out of the last 15 years.  This year, the employees at Achilles Group were able to make their own generous donations to help Bill and Marci.Annually, for...

When you think about winning teams in professional baseball, the New York Yankees are one of the first teams that come to mind. But have you ever thought about why that is? Maybe lots of great players? Well, while they’ve certainly had many amazing players throughout the years, they’ve also been led by fantastic coaches, including Tony La Russa, Casey Stengel, and Joe McCarthy.But what does it take to be a fantastic coach? First, there are the GOOD coaches: those that create a vision for the tea...

"We reached out to the Achilles Group to assist us when we found ourselves down one person on the HR team with the absence of a Vice President of Human Resources. Because we were in the middle of working on several major projects and did not have enough time or manpower to take care of it all, we contacted Achilles Group for assistance.It was an awesome experience. We told them what we needed and they jumped right in and hit the ground running. And since we had not performed an extensive I-9 aud...

If you were about to take a hike through the wilderness, would you take a compass with you in case you got lost? Of course! And much like a compass helps you find your path in the wilderness, employee feedback helps you find your path in business.Feedback is a gift in business. It may not always seem like it, but it’s a gift that keeps on giving in that it continuously helps your business improve and grow. It requires humility to ask for and it’s not always easy to accept, but it’s ultimately gr...

Seeking feedback from your employees requires both humility and recognizing your own room for growth, your motives are also equally as important.  For example, do you really want to be great at what you do, or do you want to be seen as great? That distinction is important because it requires the willingness to give up the illusion of positional power in exchange for the ability to be aware of areas of needed growth.If you truly want to be a strong leader, helping others increase their influence ...

Inviting feedback can be hard enough, but receiving it can be even harder. Any sort of criticism (even constructive) tends to bring out all of our insecurities and defensiveness, but truly great leaders resist this impulse and readily accept feedback with grace and an open mind. It can touch on sensitive areas, but it’s important not to take it too personally and to manage your emotions and reactions.  Keep your composure, focus on understanding their perspective and work to keep the channel ope...

 “But I’m just a soul whose intentions are good/Oh lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.” The lyrics to that old blues song perfectly illustrate the importance of communicating your feedback in a clear, timely, focused and respectful manner. The goal is not to tear down your employees but to give them the gift of clarity and to help build them up into something greater. To do so, you must make sure the feedback covers something the employee can actually control and address directly. Be sur...

Recruiting the right candidate for your organization doesn’t always mean filling the position with someone similar to the person who you had in the role before. Instead, it should depend on the future direction of the company, so always remember to keep the big picture in mind. Character and experience are just as important as the required job skills in order to ensure you get the best fit to align with the company’s goals and vision.When I started working with First Presbyterian Church of Houst...

Two of the hot topics in business today—employee engagement and workplace flexibility—can often seem at odds in terms of the virtual workforce. As working from home, at client sites, or second locations has increased, this has led to a decrease in employee engagement; however, there’s more to it than mere distance. The number-one reason virtual employees are disengaged is the same reason why employees quit: their relationship with their supervisor.At Achilles Group, we understand that the value ...

As a result of Hurricane Harvey and the subsequent flooding throughout Southeast Texas, many businesses that were forced to closed may be wondering how to handle payroll and PTO issues. Here are a few tips and guidelines to help clear up the confusion:Payroll: Exempt (or salaried) employees: the employer is required by law to pay full salaries for any week in which the employee worked at least a portion of the workweek. Therefore, you cannot dock exempt employees’ pay for days not worked due to ...

A federal court judge in Texas has struck down a controversial overtime change to the Fair Labor Standards Act (or FLSA) put in place by the Department of Labor (DOL) during the Obama Administration. The rule, which was originally scheduled to go into effect last December, was designed to extend overtime pay eligibility for over 4 million workers, lifted the overtime salary exemption threshold from $455 per week to $913 per week. Any exemptions to this law are based on both workers’ salaries and...

As announced on August 29th, 2017 by the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (or OIRA), the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (or EEOC) is implementing an immediate stay and reviewing of the effectiveness of the pay data collection components of the revised Equal Employer Information Report (as known as the EEO-1 report).Last year, the commission amended the EEO-1 report to require federal contractors and private employers with at least 100 employees to include pay and h...

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey and the flooding that has engulfed Southeast Texas, many managers may be wondering how to support your employees and get your business back up and running. You can see a few tips below: Communication is key. All of your stakeholders (employees, customers, the community, etc.) will need to know what can be expected from your business, so it’s important to communicate with all of them. Possible communication channels include social media, emails, text messages, out-...

Recent studies have shown that drivers who use their cell phones while driving—whether holding the phone or using a hands-free device—have a much higher risk of collision than those who do not. In fact, one-in-five car crashes are now related to driver distraction, and texting while driving makes a car accident 23 times more likely to occur! In 2016, there were over 109,000 traffic crashes in Texas involving distracted driving, resulting in over 3,000 serious injuries and at least 450 fatalities...