Hiring Great People During a Candidate Advantaged Job Market: 4 Things to Do NOW!

We have entered a period when we have been experiencing explosive business growth following a period of severe contraction following the 9/11 attacks. More and more businesses are are discovering that their time-to-fill metrics (the amount of time it takes to fill a job) are getting longer as they discover fewer qualified people available to hire.

Now for worse news (I hope I scare you with this statistic):

During the next seven years, approximately 73 million people are scheduled to retire.

Put differently, almost 24% of the current US population is scheduled to retire in the next 7 years.

And you thought it was tough to fill jobs now! Just wait!

NOW is the time to make changes that position your firm as a leader in people's minds and advantage you when hiring NOW and in the future.

1. Don't just fill jobs. Find great people and make room for them.

This is a philosophical shift for many firms who, unintentionally, look at human capital like machine parts. We need a programmer with certain skills. We need a receptionist on 14. This works fine up to a point. We all know that great people will make a difference in an organization. Why not make room for people who can make a difference at a high level.

Tell your current leadership that they are important to your firm's success not just for what they do but for the ideas that they contribute that can make a difference. That you want people who can do
great things AND offer ideas that cn move the firm forward in the next ten years and position it as the leader in its industry.

Somewhere in the last 20 years that notion has been lost.

2. Impress all talent. It should go without saying, but whenever someone interviews with you, they should walk out impressed and wanting to work for your company.

Everyone from the security guard in the lobby, to the receptionist in HR, to the HR person who interviews them, on and on, should be talking about what a great firm you are to work for.

I'm not saying to hire everyone. Standards need to be observed. But in this interconnected social networking world we live in, a bad impression will be magnified tremendously and broadcast throughout the world.

3. Network. Network. Network.

Everyone knows about LinkedIn (if you want to connect with my 1000 person plus my public page on LinkedIn is at http://www.linkedin.com/in/thebiggamehunter,

Do you use Jigsaw to recruit? Jigsaw will help you find people cheaply. People with certain titles and job functions. In Europe, Xing is particularly strong.

How about your own alumni (see my other article in this issue).

4. Treat your recruiting sources as allies instead of annoyances. This means you need to evaluate your recruiting sources, too, and not just ask them to work on your jobs just because they happened to call.

This next one may be a little controversial--work witth firms who are not on your vendor list if they have a person who fits a need. Why not accept a great referral from someone who isn;t on your "list?" How did lists become so important anyway?

The organization that becomes a leader isn;t always the smartest or work the hardest, although those are two great qualities. Organizations become leaders by being alert to opportunities.

The same needs to be part of your talent scouting process, too. As an organization that wants to be great, or thrive or prosper or fulfill its mission statement (you know the corporate mission statement don't you?), you will need to acquire great talent and give it room to operate.

These four steps will help you do that simply and powerfully.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe. to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, or to learn more and sign up for his VIP Personal Search Agent service, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Boing. Boing. Is That The Sound of Your Next Hire?

"Meet the new boss

The same as the old boss”

--“Won’t Get Fooled Again,” The Who

Although that lyric from The Who, a 60’s band consisting of Pete Townsend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwhistle and Keith Moon, were singing of revolution and rejecting the status quo, there is something suggested in their lyrics that you can use to hire more staff more easily.

It is something that The Big 8 firms (the eight largest accounting firms) did for years during their peak of power and prestige. It is something that you can do NOW to plant the seeds for future hires—something that will become critical as the boomers start to retire and leave the workforce.

Form an alumni group and have someone on point for it so that you have a chance to hire your former workers in the future.

Minimally, collect information that allows you to re-contact former employees by email and do so every 9 months.

Help them get interviews for their next job with other former employees. Help them make good decisions about their choices.

Re-hire people whose skills and temperament fit your needs. Let them "boomerang" back to you.

Why shouldn’t you re-hire the programmer who worked for you three years ago if their knowledge and experience can help you solve a problem?

Maybe they were mismanaged by their boss or released during a down turn in the economy.

Why not bring them back?

The fact is that in the next few years, the number of skilled people will be leaving the workforce because of retirement will be in the millions. Unless we miraculously replace them with immigrants who know your business instantly, you should as few boundaries to hiring down as possible.

By creating a climate where talented boomerangs will want to return to your company and (making it comfortable for them to do so by giving them previous benefits toward vacations, for example) your business will be helped in many ways.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe. to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, or to learn more and sign up for his VIP Personal Search Agent service, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Behavioral Interview Questions: Decision Making

Discuss an important decision you have made regarding a task or project at work. What factors influenced your decision?

Everyone has made some poor decisions or has done something that just did not turn out right. Has this happened to you? What happened?

Give an example of a time in which you had to be relatively quick in coming to a decision.

Give an example of a time in which you had to keep from speaking or not finish a task because you did not have enough information to come to a good decision.

Give an example of a time when there was a decision to be made and procedures were not in place?

Give an example of a time when you had to be relatively quick in coming to a decision.

Give me an example of a time when you had to keep from speaking or making a decision because you did not have enough information.

How did you go about deciding what strategy to employ when dealing with a difficult customer?

How do you go about developing information to make a decision? Give an example.

How do you involve your manager and/or others when you make a decision?

How have you gone about making important decisions?

How quickly do you make decisions? Give an example.

In a current job task, what steps do you go through to ensure your decisions are correct and effective?

Talk about a time when you had to defend a decision you made even though other important people were opposed to your decision.

What kind of decisions do you make rapidly? What kind takes more time? Give examples.

What kinds of problems have you had coordinating technical projects? How did you solve them?

What was your most difficult decision in the last 6 months? What made it difficult?

When you have to make a highly technical decision, how do you go about doing it?


Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

6 Reminders When Hiring

Having worked closely with managers and business owners for many years, I have seen their hiring process fall on its face because they have forgotten several important rules. Forgetting any of these principles may bog you down, slow down your hiring process and ultimately foster the new hire failing even if you stumble into the “right” person.

1. Don't expect to hire a replica of yourself! You are not the “be all and end all’ of great talent and, as such, don’t expect to hire a clone. First of all, one factor to consider when hiring may be to hire someone who complements your skills and talents rather than replicates them.

If you are looking at junior staff, you may accidentally place an angelic halo around someone because their experience or behaviors may remind you of yourself and, by doing so, may fail to adequately investigate their experience.

Lastly, by doing so, you may foster an environment where you fail to adequately interview and hire people from racial, ethnic, religious and other backgrounds and experiences far different than your own that may foster “lock step thinking” and behavior and, obviously, bias.

2. Know exactly what you expect from your new hire. It may seem obvious in an era where job specs are approved at many levels before a person is actually hired but, again from experience, I know how often people ignore what is on the job description to hire someone who doesn’t fit in some key way or another (for years, the Wall Street Journal would publish a statistic that approximately 20% of all people hired did not fit the job description. That was 20% who admitted it!).

3. Know exactly what you expect from your new hire. What will someone need to do in order to be successful in your job? Do you know? How will you know that this person can actually perform as you hope they will? What will you ask to find out? No matter how junior or senior the person is you need to be able to know your expectations of them and how you will measure their potential for success before you actually hire them.

4. Set aside time. T may seem obvious but you can’t hire someone without making the time to interview them and making sure that your team has time, too. Try to anticipate when there is a lull in the action and avoid interviewing people when you and your team have far too much to get done. Don’t expect that job hunters will be willing to keep visiting your offices or plant time and again because you are too busy. They get the message that they will be overworked and that manners are not important. After all, they took time off from work or to make arrangements to meet you at a time that you said would work. How rude is it on your to push them away and make them return.

5. Create a training program. It may be a simple as “When you have questions, ask Jeff over there” how to handle it. Far better that that is a few days of immersing the new person in your company or group’s practices and processes so that they know what is going on, they know how to handle the basics, and that they learn the informal rules of the road.

6. If you aren’t sure, ask for advice or help. It never hurts to get a second opinion from someone if you are wavering. And after you get the second opinion, if you still aren’t sure, reject the person and keep looking!

Taking the time to do these things will go a long way toward helping you as a manager, a business owner or as an HR professional focus in on the success points to hire someone who will succeed for years to come.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, or receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

Behavioral Interview Questions: Communications

Describe a situation in which you were able to effectively “read” another person and guide your actions by your understanding of their individual needs or values.

Describe a situation when you were able to strengthen a relationship by communicating effectively. What made your communication effective?

Describe a situation where you felt you had not communicated well. How did you correct the situation?

Describe a time when you were able to effectively communicate a difficult or unpleasant idea to a superior.

Describe the most significant written document, report or presentation which you had to complete.

Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully communicate with another person, even when that individual may not have personally liked you , or vice versa.

Have you ever had to “sell” an idea to your co-workers or group? How did you do it? Did they “buy” it?

How do you keep subordinates informed about information that affects their jobs?

How do you keep your manager informed about what is being done in your work area?

How do you go about explaining a complex technical problem to a person who does not understand technical jargon?

What approach do you take in communicating with people? What kinds of communication situations cause you difficulty? Give an example.

Tell us about a recent successful experience in making a speech or presentation. How did you prepare? What obstacles did you face? How did you handle them?

Tell us about a time when you and your current/previous supervisor disagreed but you still found a way to get your point across. Tell us about a time when you had to present complex information. How did you ensure that the other person understood?

Tell us about a time when you had to use your verbal communication skills in order to get a point across that was important to you.

Tell us about a time when you were particularly effective in a talk you gave or seminar you taught.

Tell us about an experience in which you had to speak up in order to be sure that other people knew what you thought or felt.

Tell us me about a situation when you had to speak up (be assertive) in order to get a point across that was important to you. Tell us me about a time in which you had to use your written communication skills in order to get an important point across."

Describe the most significant written document, report or presentation which you had to complete.

Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully communicate with another person, even when that individual may not have personally liked you , or vice versa.

Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully communicate with another person, even when that individual may not have personally liked you.

Have you ever had to “sell” an idea to your co-workers or group? How did you do it? Did they “buy” it?

How do you keep subordinates informed about information that affects their jobs?

How do you keep your manager informed about what is being done in your work area?

How do you go about explaining a complex technical problem to a person who does not understand technical jargon?

What approach do you take in communicating with people?

What kinds of communication situations cause you difficulty? Give an example.

Tell us about a recent successful experience in making a speech or presentation. How did you prepare? What obstacles did you face? How did you handle them?

Tell us about a time when you and your current/previous supervisor disagreed but you still found a way to get your point across.

Tell us about a time when you had to present complex information. How did you ensure that the other person understood?

Tell us about a time when you had to use your verbal communication skills in order to get a point across that was important to you.

Tell us about a time when you were particularly effective in a talk you gave or a seminar you taught.

Tell us about an experience in which you had to speak up in order to be sure that other people knew what you thought or felt.

Tell us me about a situation when you had to speak up (be assertive) in order to get a point across that was important to you.

Tell us me about a time in which you had to use your written communication skills in order to get an important point across.

What challenges have occurred while you were coordinating work with other units, departments, and/or divisions?

What have you done to improve your verbal communication skills? How have you persuaded people through a document you prepared?

What are the most challenging documents you have done?

What kinds of proposals have your written?

What kinds of writing have you done?

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com


Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com