Thursday, October 18, 2007

An Overlooked Source of Talent

A commuter I travel with regularly was recently faced with a crisis. An experienced compliance officer, her firm was being acquired and she received a message from her boss that she would probably not survive the cuts.

She came to me for advice and we discussed many alternatives . . . and then she remembered one.

At her exit interview from a previous job, the Chairman of the bank she worked for wrote next to the eligible for rehire check box on the form he used the words, "ABSOLUTELY!" twice, something HR said they had never seen before.

He also planted a seed with her at that time that should she ever be in a situation where she was looking for work, to consider coming back--and that is what she is doing.

Using exit interviews to plant the seed of opportunity to return with desirable former employees can supplement your recruiting efforts and allow you to hire people who understand your firm's culture and be able to get up and running faster than the average hire might.

The accounting firms have known this for a long time.

Now you do too.

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 practicing psychotherapist and is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues.

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 ezines, Head Hunt Your Next Job and/or Natural Selection (his free recruiting ezine), or to find out about his VIP Personal Search Agent service, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff or locating consultants, 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).

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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Foreign Nationals Starting to Head Home--The Other Side of the Immigration Discussion

I have been in the recruiting business for more than 30 years and for as long as I can recall, the US has been an extremely desirable place to live for foreign workers. The US was a leader in research and, despite the challenges posed by how the H-1b system was implemented (years of indentured servitude to one employer, low wages, less interesting work, an INS that is exceedingly slow to process green cards), this was the country to move to for opportunity.

Recently, I have had several instances that have opened my eyes to the possibility that our skilled immigration problem may become even harder to solve than I thought and that stems from some quick conversations I have had with several people working in the US on H-1b visas.

Each complained about being captive to the US and unable to visit family. They were frustrated with INS delays that caused what is supposed to take a very little amount of time to process dragging on into years.

But there was something new. Several started to talk about how good work was now going overseas and that currency depreciation was starting to make the US far less desirable than a few years ago.

You may have seen the recent articles about how Canadian currency was now at parity with the US dollar for the first time in 25 years. On my recent trip to Singapore, where you received $1.46 for each US dollar, I was surprised to read that it was expected to reach $1.20 by end of year.

That's almost an 18% currency depreciation projected over the next few months!

Couple this with the shortage of university students expected during the next few years (New York schools are being encouraged to recruit foreign students in the face of a 14% shortage of students projected to begin during the next few years) and it begs the question--Where will you be getting your new skilled talent from?

So, as we start to see rising prices for foreign made goods and services, we may see an exodus of H-1b, green card and foreign born US citizen-workers and few people to replace them just as The Baby Boomers start to retire. It suggests looking at F-1 visa employees as replacements for junior staff and examining longer term alternatives.

And the only answer I can see is to increase the number of H-1b employees into the US, sooner, rather than later.

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 retired 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.

Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series

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