The Capabilities Profile is a proprietary strategic planning tool designed to help you hire smart and drive real growth—the first time.

Translate business aspirations into effective operations

Reduce hiring and recruiting costs across the board

Connect hiring investments to bottom-line impact

A Capabilities Profile is a custom blueprint of your organization which supports swift, educated, strategic decision-making. The blueprint objectively describes:

The precise mix of talent required in your context to meet your challenges and goals

The bottom-line impact of the proposed talent investment

A Capabilities Profile leverages a suite of leading HR strategy tools to help you make the most informed, sustainable hiring decisions possible. We collaborate with our client stakeholders across 10 key questions and corresponding assessments. 

Each assessment involves a combination of retrieving internal data and records, interviewing stakeholders, and researching industry benchmarks. This data surfaces objective, actionable answers to the following key questions: 

Which critical jobs are not getting done?

What kinds of talent do our business goals require moving forward? 

How many of each talent type do we need now? And in the near future?	

What should we expect to pay to compete for the best talent available?

How will talent costs impact overhead and revenue?

How should we structure our team so they form the most effective unit possible?

As our team evolves, how can we support their development and reduce risk by complying with current labor laws?

In terms of calendar time, it can take at least a month to complete this process. We've refined the process of developing a Capabilities Profile over nearly 10 years to make it as efficient as possible. Nevertheless, it involves 10 distinct analyses, each with distinct stakeholder interviews and research tasks. Several factors can lengthen this timeline:

Contract negotiation and kick-off time frame

Stakeholder responsiveness throughout the engagement

Note: While these processes cannot be completed without executive stakeholder involvement, the process is designed to take as little of an executive's time as possible—ideally only a few hours per month throughout the engagement.

What is the “shelf life” of a Capabilities Profile?

All deliverables from the Capabilities Profile are interactive and may be updated in light of new information, year over year. During the first year following an engagement, we'll check in every quarter to help facilitate any updates, so your team continues to feel comfortable and confident leveraging this powerful tool to drive strategic growth. 

The Cape Agency is a team of veteran human resource strategists and talent recruiters with over 50 years of combined experience empowering business leaders to plan, source, and engage their workforce. Our client experience ranges from small business, all the way up to publicly traded enterprise companies. 

Meet our Lead Advisors. 

What does it cost? Are payment plans available?

A Capabilities Profile investment has a direct impact on enhancing team performance while reducing talent acquisition and turnover costs. We quote Capabilities Profiles based on company size, scope of work and value contributed. These can start around $20k and reach high-six figures for enterprise organizations. 

We do our best to make these valuable planning tools as accessible as possible through monthly payment plans.

5 Strategies to Reduce Talent Acquisition Costs Anyone Can Use.

Mention “recruiters” in a roomful of business folks having a nice time and just see what happens. 

Thanks to inconsistent results and soaring commissions, let's just say recruiters and business leaders are...frenemies.

Under these circumstances, the simple motivation behind our “no recruiters” manifesto is not to dismiss recruiters completely. We're here to recommend five strategies to help companies consistently attract high quality talent apart from recruiting. This "zero recruiting" system tends to be a more sustainable and cost-effective alternative for growing organizations.

Each of the five building blocks for a “zero recruiting” organization pull their own weight to reduce talent acquisition costs. Together, they can help realize $100,000s in long-term savings. Achieving “zero recruiting” status requires coordination and long-term investment. But every little bit helps, and any organization can start right away.

Job descriptions are a snooze to write and aren't exactly a thrill to read either. But a job description’s ability to go deep and set clear, granular expectations for a winning candidate is its super power. A good job description can help both candidates and hiring managers ensure the right individuals land the right roles the first time (and happily stay there). A job description should be able to clearly answer several key questions:

What does this role require? How will we tell if someone's experience is relevant? 

What does success look like for this role? How will we know if someone is doing a good job? 

How will responsibilities in this role grow? What will this role equip someone to do next?

Where does this job end and someone else’s begin? 

Note: A job description is different from a job posting. A job description lays out the nuts and bolts of a role, and a job posting is a marketing vehicle for that role. Think of it this way: a job description is like the assembly instructions for a chair. It's technical and rote. Meanwhile, a job posting is like a styled picture of the final, shining article. The description tells readers how to build the chair; the posting sells the chair. Of course, we’ve all seen great ads for things that don’t live up to the hype. “Selling” an opportunity on the team that hasn’t been carefully developed via a job description is like offering someone a seat on a two-legged stool. Good luck duping candidates with that trick twice.   

Learn more (or ask us) about the components of strategy #1:

There’s a common misconception that job postings deliver inferior candidates compared to candidates “sourced” by a recruiter. Yet in a side-by-side analysis, candidates who apply to jobs themselves get the job about as often as candidates sourced by recruiters. If this is a competition, we’d have to call it a tie.

In a zero recruiting environment, it’s essential to master the advantages of job boards. The truth is, they do turn up excellent candidates and tend to do so more quickly than prospecting candidates one at a time.

Learn more (or ask us) about the components of strategy #2:

We all work to get paid. Lowballing talent is the fastest way to ensure nobody applies for your job. And zero applications are a serious threat to a “zero recruiting” organization. Before advertising a role, it’s important to benchmark the salary you’re offering against the current labor market and average cost of living. 

However, if you're struggling to match or beat current market salaries, take heart. The so-called “war for talent” is not always won by the company offering the highest salary. Leaders who can offer salaries and raises in the ballpark of their competitors have other ways to make up the difference and let their talent know, “I see you, and I appreciate you." Even when there isn’t more capital available, there’s a lot you can do to maximize your employee’s sense of wellbeing and reward their contributions to your organization. 

Learn more (or ask us) about the components of strategy #3:

The so-called “war for talent” is not always won by the company offering the highest salary.

It’s no secret that when you’re seeking talent, you’re competing with other prospective employers. In the past, competitive pressure has led business leaders to provide superficial, headline-grabbing perks. These can be fun and helpful (like paid lunches, free snacks, in-office massages and happy hours) but they don’t materially impact an employee's sense of financial or mental wellbeing. In fact, some perks can have the opposite effect, keeping employees at the office working harder and longer.

Nowadays, surveys indicate that the most alluring packages to a prospective employee offer protections for physical and mental health. Perks like flexible work hours/location and benefits that genuinely support individual wellness and balance can help you win scores of talent away from competitors. 

Learn more (or ask us) about the components of strategy #4:

Professional Development & Mentorship Programs

Every hiring process leaves more candidates out than it welcomes in. It’s common during every hiring process to discover someone “interesting... but not a fit for this role." Don’t lose those folks. Keep their information. Save their resume. They can be a game-changer next time. At the very least, starting with the best candidates you saw from a previous hiring process can save time and talent acquisition budget.

Learn more (or ask us) about the components of strategy #5:

Already implementing these 5 strategies? Ready to go deeper? 

Contact us to discuss optimizing your talent acquisition strategies and systems.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility

M&A Due Diligence & Post-Merger Consolidation

Performance Management & Continuous Feedback  

All practice areas compliant with latest national and regional labor laws.

Elena is a strategic HR business partner with over 20 years of experience leading people operations across a range of industries including: Professional Services, Construction, Commercial Real Estate, Technology, Entertainment and Marketing. She has most recently led the HR function for several subsidiaries of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), and has steered these companies through varying stages of growth, including mergers & acquisitions. Elena is a USMC veteran and member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at Arizona State University’s College of Integrative Sciences and Arts. 

She leads The Cape Agency’s Los Angeles office.   

She specializes in: 

Performance Management & Continuous Feedback

Marta is a strategic HR business partner with over 20 years of experience across a range of industries including Manufacturing, Non-profit, Technology, Marketing and Advertising. She was most recently a Director of Human Resources for the Omnicom-owned agency, Integer Group. Her additional client experience includes HR leadership roles for SKF, Oracle, Catholic Charities, and MillerCoors.

She specializes in: 

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility 

Barak is a workforce planning and talent acquisition leader with over 10 years of experience designing teams and sourcing talent across a range industries, including: Manufacturing, Technology, Financial Services, Education, Marketing and Advertising. His client experience includes: Acura, Nissan, Prophet Brand Consulting, and Finance of America.

In addition to supporting Cape Agency clients, Barak directs original research projects and leads the Nashville office. 

He specializes in: 

In our original study of how modern marketing teams distribute over 50 marketing capabilities, we carved out a key question to ask leading marketers:

When–and why–do contractors or agencies get called in to share the load?

Small Business Marketing Leaders (up to $38M)

Midsize Business Marketing Leaders (up to $1B)

Enterprise Business Marketing Leaders ($1B+)

Process expertise is table stakes. Across all segments, this reason for leveraging contractors or agencies ranked highest. Marketing leaders bring in firms or individuals to perform a role when they effectively can't. Probably no surprises there. But the descending reasons marketing leaders give for selecting external entities reveals a mix of opportunities, potential blind spots and risk areas for contractors and agency leaders. 


Speed. Marketing leaders want to be able to access a fully formed capability faster than it would take to align internally.  


Cost. Marketing leaders perceive a net savings with an agency where the process will require more trial and error (i.e. hidden costs) to attempt in-house. 

These opportunities can give contractors and firms insight into how they can position themselves for new work. Assuming expertise is "table stakes," what are the prospective client's expectations around timing and value? What is the client's perception of how fast and economical they would be operating internally on their own?

Anticipating these values and learning more about a prospective client's calculus can surface competitive positioning advantages.

What is the client's perception of how fast and economical they would be operating internally on their own?

Flexibility (Or "Choice"). Marketing leaders say they want options. They want to be able to access various capabilities without committing full-time resources. This may not come as a surprise, but we're labeling it a risk for agency leaders who might over-invest time and resources into "winning" business that simply isn't on the table yet. Watch out for marketing leaders who are just browsing. 



Capacity. This one goes out to contractors or firms with a tendency to take the ball and run away with it. Some clients are not looking for "new." They're looking for more capacity—more bodies, if you will—to run playbooks that already work pretty well for them. When selling to this type of client, innovation is not the goal. Instead, you need to offer more of the same quality as their current operation.



Clarify a FT Need. Small and midsize companies use agencies to produce work from time to time while they audition whether it makes sense to bring the same work in-house. This means a contractor or agency may bring great value to a client in the form of expertise and speed. But, with time, you still run the risk of being replaced regardless of the quality of your work. According to our data, this sort of replacement risk is not as present in enterprise organizations. One explanation is the sheer size of enterprise operations. External contractors and agencies are required at practically every level of the business and are therefore less replaceable. But for agencies serving small and midsize companies, this is a good reminder to 1) keep new business pipelines as well stocked as possible and 2) communicate with clients often about their perception of the value you're bringing. Doing so will help minimize the sudden shock of losing an account—and adjust beforehand.

Anticipating these risks and learning more about a prospective client's intent at each stage of the relationship can reduce account losses and strengthen business development efforts.

Apply for a presentation of the complete study

10 Reasons Marketing Leaders Use Contractors & Agencies

3 Strategies to Reduce Employee Turnover Anyone Can Use

“Employee turnover” is shorthand for “people don’t want to work here.”
 

Employers resent turnover for good reason: it’s expensive. Departures interrupt business operations and ding efficiency and profitability. Departures also scrap any initial investment in onboarding and training. All in, an employee leaving costs their employer between 10% and 30% of their salary. That's on top of wages already spent plus the cost to source their replacement (Source: American Progress). 

At some level, turnover is a natural part of life and business. People move. Family situations change. Work aspirations evolve. We can't control these natural dynamics. A "Hire Once" company does its best to control for all the other reasons employees leave a workplace: lagging compensation, toxic culture, and few options for professional growth. To mitigate these turnover risks, “Hire Once” companies have three basic goals. 

Each element can help drive retention on its own. But taken together, they form a powerful and comprehensive retention strategy. And while a “Hire Once” mindset takes some practice and time to implement, it’s the antidote to the financial misery induced by high turnover–$100,000s in savings.

Already implementing these 3 strategies? Ready to go deeper?

Contact us to discuss the next stage of your talent retention efforts.

The Capabilities Profile is a proprietary strategic planning tool designed to help business leaders re-calibrate after a workforce reduction. 

Be as effective as possible in a downturn

Stabilize and enhance the performance of their remaining team

Lay the foundation to grow again, as soon as possible

A Capabilities Profile is a custom blueprint of your organization which supports swift, educated, strategic decision-making. Your blueprint objectively describes your current business priorities and identifies:

The minimum viable team necessary to run as lean as possible for now 

Where to prioritize headcount when business picks up again

A Capabilities Profile leverages a suite of leading HR strategy tools to help you gain perspective, recalibrate and optimize your existing resources. We collaborate with our client stakeholders across 10 key questions and corresponding assessments. Each assessment involves a combination of retrieving internal data and records, interviewing stakeholders, and researching industry benchmarks. This data surfaces objective, actionable answers to the following key questions: 

Which jobs are critical to our organization's success at this time?

What kinds of talent do we have covering critical areas? 

How should we structure our remaining team, so they're as effective as possible?

How should we be compensating and engaging our team at this time?

As soon as we're able, where should we start adding headcount again to reach our business goals?

As our team is tasked with new challenges, how can we support their development and reduce our risk by complying with current labor laws?

In terms of calendar time, it can take at least a month to complete this process. We've refined the process developing a Capabilities Profile over nearly 10 years to make it as efficient as possible. Nevertheless, it involves 10 distinct analyses, each with distinct stakeholder interviews and research tasks. Several factors can lengthen this timeline:

The Cape Agency is a team of veteran human resource strategists and talent recruiters with over 50 years of combined experience, empowering business leaders to anticipate changes in their business and engage their workforce through challenging circumstances. Our client experience ranges from small business, all the way up to publicly traded enterprise companies.

Meet our Lead Advisors.

A Capabilities Profile investment has a direct impact on enhancing team performance while reducing turnover costs. We quote Capabilities Profiles based on company size, scope of work and value contributed. These can start around $20k and reach high-six figures for enterprise organizations. 

Capabilities Measured & Benchmarked In Our Study

Product/Industry Subject Matter Expertise

Market Research and Competitive Analysis 

2nd or 3rd Party Data Acquisition and Integration 

Marketing Employee Learning and Development

Apply for a Custom Report or Free Preview

The Marketing Team Design Study Behind The Scenes

Paragraph One of the biggest hyperlink advantages of remote work is the flexibility that it provides. With a remote team, employees have the ability to work from bold text any location, at any time, as long as they can meet their deadlines. This allows them to have more italic text control over their own schedules, which can be beneficial for both employees and employers.

Research has found that remote workers tend to be more productive than their in-office counterparts. 

This is likely due to the fact that remote workers have more control over their work environment, which can result in fewer distractions and more focus.

With a remote team, employees have the ability to work from any location

Having a remote team can also help to save money. Companies don’t have to pay for office space or equipment, and they don’t have to pay for commuting expenses. This can result in significant cost savings over the long term.

Remote work provides employees with the ability to have a better work-life balance. 

They can set their own hours and work from anywhere, allowing them to better manage their time and prioritize their personal lives.

With its flexibility, cost savings, increased productivity, access to a global talent pool, and improved work-life balance, it’s easy to see why more and more companies are turning to remote work.

Key takeaway: Crafting the perfect resume doesn't have to be intimidating. Utilizing the right resources and information can help your resume stand out and make sure you get noticed.

Research has found that remote workers tend to be more productive than their in-office counterparts. This is likely due to the fact that remote workers have more control over their work environment, which can result in fewer distractions and more focus.

Having a remote team allows companies to access talent from around the world. This can give them access to a much larger pool of potential employees, which can help to ensure that they have the best people for the job.

Remote work provides employees with the ability to have a better work-life balance. They can set their own hours and work from anywhere, allowing them to better manage their time and prioritize their personal lives.

The remote workforce is becoming increasingly popular, and for good reason. With its flexibility, cost savings, increased productivity, access to a global talent pool, and improved work-life balance, it’s easy to see why more and more companies are turning to remote work.

Include any certifications, awards, and other qualifications you have received. This can help to show employers that you are a qualified and experienced individual.

When writing a resume, it is important to use keywords that hiring managers are likely to search for. This can help to make sure that your resume is more likely to appear in searches.

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JobSpa Resume Chatbot Video 1

(1) Resume Writer Chatbot - Introduction

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