Sunday, March 23, 2008

Know When to Fold Them or Maybe There's Another Way.

I often hear this story from managers and business owners (for many reasons, HR professionals don't do it).

"Jerry is a terrific person. Smart, affable, a really 'good guy.' He loves what he does and is passionate about it. It isn't enough. No answer to a question is right the first time. Work goes on for too long. I feel compelled to monitor whatever he does more than anyone else. He isn't incompetent; he's semi-competent."

Every company wants to hire knowledgeable people who require no oversight. At the same time, there are some employees who are almost competent. They torture you with their potential only to consistently disappoint.

Replace them.

To avoid such problems in the future, hire people on a temp-to-perm basis--that is they initial work for you as a temp with the plan to convert them to employee status in 90 days. Establish criteria in advance that will allow you to determine whether to convert them to employee status.

If they fail to meet that criteria within 60 days, spend the next 30 finding a replacement.

As an article I wrote some years ago observed, pebbles in your shoe never go away, despite how much we wish they would. They often cause hip and back pain that can be debilitating. Better to eliminate a problem than torture yourself and your organization indefinitely.


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

© 2008 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.

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com Register at the site and you will receive free copies of The International Job Board List and a Guide to Resume Writing.

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

Plus

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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Are Your Politics Keeping You From Considering Some Very Talented People?

It is popular to be opposed to the war in Iraq, just as it was to be opposed to the one in Viet Nam before that.

No one likes to think of themselves as biased and there are certainly "valid and objective reasons" for not considering these men and women as candidates for positions.

At the same time, these are individuals who have leadership experiences far beyond their civilian counterparts at the same age.

Who have had the experience of working as part of a team or leading teams of men and women toward a common goal.

Who have worked under extraordinary circumstances with a desire to serve.

Who are motivated by furthering the mission and are extremely disciplined.

If they have attended graduate school, they may have applied under the most incredible of conditions--taking calls from admissions officers in the field with shells flying over them.

There may be cultural differences between what they are used to and what they might have in civilian life. They may have physical challenges as well.

At the same time, dismissing people for no more reason than they are ex-military or based upon your assumptions of what they will be like does not serve your organization well.

HireVeterans is a site you can use that caters to ex-military men and women; another is HirePatriots.

I hope you open your eyes (or continue to reach out) to these men and women.


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

© 2008 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.

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com Register at the site and you will receive free copies of The International Job Board List and a Guide to Resume Writing.

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

Plus

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Saturday, March 08, 2008

Out-of-the-Box On-Line Recruiting

When most people think of recruiting on the web, they are talking about running ads on job boards. You know those dry job specification advertisements that demand 325 different skills and experiences and do nothing to describe the ojb or how wonderful the employer is to work for.

Yet the public statistics on the source of new hires is says that recruiting on job boards fills an extraordinarily small number of positions (I think the figures in these surveys are extremely low; after all, employment agencies are listed as a separate category and many of them find their candidates from job boards. Why shouldn't many of the jobs credited to agencies be attributed to job boards?)

Part of successful marketing in the employment field is creating an online persona for your firm--an online brand--that is attractive and makes the right people favorably disposed to joining your company before they walk in the door.

After all, when I say "Google," you have an impression and, statistically, speaking the impression is extremely favorable. When I say, "Ox and Ox" (a name I've made up; if there is a business by this name, I did not find it in the first few pages of Google searches), you have no impression or are somewhat quizzical.

For many of you, your recruiting brand is slightly above Ox and Ox.

Here are a few ideas to improve it dramatically--not instantly but over time.

Write your job ads with the employee in mind, too. Why should they join your company? What's in it for them? And don't write dry copy. Make it friendly and warm.

Develop short videos for YouTube and your company's website. There was quite a bit of buzz about some online ads that Sony Ericcson developed last year that highlighted their work space, information about their US headquarters environment and much more.

Develop an interesting looking career site presence for your website. Most are extremely boring. Take a look at some of the jobs developed on the site www.standoutjobs.com. The page is interesting and leaps out at you. I'm not endorsing the servie; just the look and organization of the pages. Which brings me to

Blogging about your company. Why aren't the top people in your firm taking two minutes with twitter and blogging bout your company. Why don;t you have the CFO, COO, CTO and Director of HR, Head of Engineering, blogging about working at your company? Which brings us to

Develop an online presence. Why aren't all them on Facebook, myspace, LinkedIn, Xing and others developing an online persona for your firm to attract talent.

Google for candidate leads. I developed Search4Candidates.com to simplify recruiting for passive job applicants. You enter a typical Google search into the search field and then narrow the search by clicking on LinkedIn or Xing or other services to turn up leads of passive candidates to recruit. The service is completely free.

Make finding the Career Page on your website easier. Too often, finding the career pages requires going down two or three levels on a drop down menu. It's stupid! Just put a button on your home page and every other page of your site that says, "We're hiring!" When they click it, the person is brought to the search page.

Use pop-unders like Internet marketers do. When people are about to leave your site, have a pop-under that says something like "Wait! before You Go! We're hiring! Want to search some our job listings?

There are a lot of things that you can do to incorporate online recruiting into your repertoire. Take the time and make the effort.


Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
 Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com
© 2008 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.

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com Register at the site and you will receive free copies of The International Job Board List and a Guide to Resume Writing.

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

Plus

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Thursday, March 06, 2008

Out-of-the-Box Conventional Recruiting

How do you find people to fill your requirements?

If you're like most firms, you list jobs in newspapers or on job boards, work with a few recruiters, have an employee referral program and maybe, just maybe, you have an in-house recruiting team who is aggressively trying to find people for you who are not looking for work.

Pretty standard stuff and has been used by firms since before I started in recruiting and that was 1972.

How many of you :

Create an alumni program to stay in contact with former employees and encourage them to return or offer referrals to you?

Use your data base of interviewed applicants for periodic direct emails to stay in contact and foster hiring (NOTE: Do not cheat recruiting firms that help fill that data base)?

Run contests that pose difficult questions and interview people who are successful answering it like Google does.

Establish recruiting programs for men and women who are leaving the armed forces?

Work to recruit spouses of military personnel?

Advertise at movie theaters during those times when we are waiting for the movie to start and have a captive audience?

Advertise or have a booth at trade shows or sports events encouraging people to apply to join your firm?

Advertise on mass transit (like the back or front of a bus that people who see for long periods)?

Have your company's business cards printed with a recruiting message on the back?

Recruit workers offshore (like in Canada or Mexico [taking advantage of NAFTA] or Puerto Rico) for US-based jobs?

Advertise on Spanish language tv, radio and print media

Use offshore recruiting resources to support your US recruiting efforts?

Provide small "giveaways" or premiums to people who interview with your firm?

Contact firms that are laying off people and setting up interview days?

Advertise your firm is hiring by printing bookmarks and donating them to libraries and universities?

Being creative involves thinking outside the box and frankly will become far more critical at the end of this recession when firms will want to attract superior talent and find it in far more limited supply than even now (More on that another time).

Start to put together a plan to leverage your company's brand in its industry with an eye toward recruiting.


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

© 2008 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

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Saturday, February 23, 2008

How Long Are Your Jobs Remaining Open?

Are you tracking how long your jobs are remaining open?

If managers are complaining that jobs are staying open too long, are you sitting down with all concerned parties to see whether they are screening for the same thing?

Do you have data on how long similar jobs remained open in the past?

Are managers coached about how to interview? This includes developing questions that are designed to elicit answers that discern a person's qualifications?

Do you review offer turndowns as case studies?

Are people at a manager level and above evaluated for staff retention and turnover?

Looking at the individual steps that go into the hiring process and monitoring them from beginning to end to insure that everyone is working together with the same goal in mind, that people are monitored for outcomes and the turndowns are turned into learning opportunities where all parties involved can learn (could you have known earlier that she wanted more money than you were prepared to pay; could you have sensed something earlier and investigated it that would have allowed you to determine that there was another company intgerested in him and, thus, acted more aggressively, to name two).


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

© 2008 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.

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com

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

Plus


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Does Your Interview Process Work or Interfere?

The headlines are all telling us that we are either in recession or on the brink of recession. Yet anyone connected with hiring is complaining about labor shortages.

Obviously, these shortages don't exist if you are in the mortgage business or recruiting for some areas of retail operations. Everywhere else, I am hearing complaints that is extremely difficult to find skilled AND unskilled labor (unskilled labor is a misnomer because most of it requires greater skills than it did 10 years ago).

So what can you do to streamline recruiting to insure that talent you want to hire does not disappear before you have a chance to extend an offer? Two of my clients have a lot of the process down well.

First of all, they are large firms that hire many people in a year. One has two core people doing recruiting; the other has many and follows the same procedure.

Both spend time interviewing and evaluating their recruiting sources. Once a recruiter becomes a vendor, they receive a lot of information about each job with which to do an assessment. Specs are not simply, "We need someone with 2-4 years of experience with x" or "We want someone with 15 years experience with a with emphasis on b". Specs provide useful information about the skill in the context of the job to be performed so that I can adequately describe the role and the function the person will be performing.

Once a resume has been submitted, HR and I discuss the person so I can learn how they evaluate and assess people for the job, saving time when I evaluate others.

HR does no interviewing with the first firm; they prefer to have candidates interview with 2-3 people from the department. If that goes well, a Managing Director may choose to schedule an appointment and interview the person; they may not. An offer is extended.

The second has HR do an in-depth initial interview and then will fly a group of people in for an interview day on a Friday. The flights will occur Thursday afternoon and evening prior to the interview so that if there are flight delays it generally will not impact the interview schedule. The candidate is met at the airport by a car and driver and they are put up overnight at a hotel near the interview site.

Candidates are interviewed by no fewer than three people and as many as five before a car returns them to the airport for the flight home.

The interviewers commit to communicate their decisions in writing no later than the following Wednesday (usually, they are received on Monday). If they want to hire the person, the candidate then completes an application and provides wage verification and an offer is extended.

Visa transfers are OK.

Notice how quickly this occurs?

Does your interview process come to a conclusion within 10 calendar days?

(By the way, if your process occurs too quickly you may scare some potential hires and cause them to turn down your offers).

There is competition for talent, that there is no doubt about. I hope you want to compete for the best and not chase the leftovers.


Jeff Altman

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

© 2008 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.

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhiredNOW.com

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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Saturday, February 09, 2008

I-9 Verification

Most of the stories about illegal immigrants working have been written about people working illegally for subcontractors to Wal-mart or for Swift foods.

The stories as reported have been with maintenance workers and blue collar workers.

What's to stop white collar workers from entering legally on tourist visas and obtaining the same false IDs and working illegally?

I assure you, the day is approaching where we will be reading this news item, too.


Jeff Altman

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

© 2008 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.

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhirednow.com

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

Plus

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Cutting Fees

A colleague of mine received a call from an old client asking her to cut fees.

"Are you dissatisfied with my performance?

"No."

"Aren't the last ten people you've hired from me still working for you?"

"Yes."

"Isn't my interview to hire ratio with you 1 hire for every three interviews?"

"Yes."

"And didn't the last three people you hired from me develop systems that created several million in new revenue and the previous 4 save approximately 1.7 million?"

"Yes."

"So why are you trying to cut my fee?"

"With economy slowing down and more people looking for work, we thought you should charge less."

"Have others agreed to this change?"

"Yes."

"Well I won't. You see, I'm going to charge you the same price I charge my other clients because I don't want to give you the best of what is left over after giving the first choice of talent to the firms that respect my work sufficiently to continue to pay me fairly for my time and effort."

"So let me tell you a quick story. If you go to the store and bring a $25 package of steak to the register and offer to pay $15 for it what does the cashier tell me to do?"

"Put it back."

"That's right. I'm going to continue to charge you the same fair price I charged when times were booming, when I didn't attempt to raise them and it's up to you to recognize one thing--no professional will give you their best quality at a discount without giving it to your competitors first. If you want the "leftovers," that's what you have committed to getting from those firms with their agreement to this cut."

"If you want first cut at the best people, we'll continue to work at my existing fee. I respect you too much to threaten you with recruiting from your firm; I won't do it for some time; but people will call me and ask why I'm not working on their jobs and I'll tell them that you wanted them to interview less than the best."

"OK, let's continue as we have."



Jeff Altman

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

© 2008 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.

He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhirednow.com

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

Plus

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Thursday, February 07, 2008

Management & Staffing:Lessons from The Super Bowl

I have been Giants football fan since I was a boy and have vivid memories of listening to the radio as the Packers ran all over the Giants. I remember crying months after the Giants won their first one, being elated after their second one and disgusted after they lost to Baltimore.

Nothing prepared me for the feelings I felt after they won on Sunday.

For several years, on one of my other blogs, I have written articles called "Job Search Lessons from The Super Bowl" to call attention to things people can do to apply winning formulas to their job search. This arrticle is designed to call attention to a number of lessons that can be derived from both the Giants and the Patriots and how they go about their business.

Both Coach Belichick and Coach Coughlin are former assistants of former Giants, Patriots and Cowboys head coach, Bill Parcells. Coach Parcells ran a tight ship with a simple philosophy--you are what your record says you are. If you were 8-8 and had injuries to key players, you are an 8-8 team.

He hated "talkers"--players who talked to the press and criticized him behind the scenes. Victory came on the field, not in the newspapers.

He admired "warriors"--players like Lawrence Taylor on the Giants and Brian Cox with the Jets and Tedy Bruschi on the Pats.

With the exception of the head coach, general manager and owner, the management of this team bears little resemblance to the one that won the first Super Bowl for the franchise seven years ago. Assistant coaches have come and gone (Romeo Crennel taking over in Cleveland; Charlie Weis at Notre Dame). Young protegies like Eric Mangini have taken over the head coaching job with The Jets.

Yet quality people have remained in place to maintain the winning systems that have helped Coach Belichick succeed year after year. Player leaders, coaches who rose through the ranks to assume responsibility for the offense (Josh McDaniels) and defense (Dean Pees). Promotion from within comes from stability and a commitment to success.

That success, also allows the team to attract great talent, maintain a wage structure and systems that have helped to perpetuate the success of the team.

In contrast, Coach Coughlin took over a team in disarray. A year after a Super Bowl loss, the team collapsed in total failure. He implemented a team structure, including a requirement for players to arrive early for meetings. Arriving on time was considered late. You had to be there at the early time. He defined roles rigidly, probably little different than Coach Belichick but received tons of opposition from the players and criticism in the media.

The rebellion against the Coach reached a crescendo after last season when his team jumped out to a 6-2 start only to finish 8-8. His star running back, Tiki Barber, announced his retirement midseason and made it clear that he didn't want to play for Coach Coughlin.

With the press cry rising for him to be fired, Coach Coughlin met with the owners after the season and was asked what he will do differently. He committed to being a better communicator with his team, forming a leadership group of players to help him get his ideas out to the team better. He also agreed to hire a new defensive coordinator to implement a new philosophy on defense.

“I made up my mind to do a better job communicating with the players,” Coughlin said. “We formulated a leadership council and that council represented the team in various aspects. And they did a very good job communicating to the rest of the players what we discussed in these meetings."

When his defensive star, Michael Strahan, held out of training camp, hoping to negotiate a new contract and deciding whether to retire, the Coach chose not to criticize him.

When the previous General Manager retired at the end of last season, an internal candidate who understood the exsting systems and philosophies was promoted to the job.

And the etam continued to struggle until Coach Coughlin made a key decision--despite having clinched another appearance in the playoffs the week before and with nothing to play for that week, with the media all suggesting that he hold out his key players and concede defeat to New England, an undefeated opponent trying to become the second team in league history to finish undefeated, Coach Coughlin decided his team would play to win.

After a predictable opening running play, his maligned quarterback, Eli Manning, faked another handoff and passed 30 yards down field to his receiver Plaxico Burress for a big gain. The team scored, played aggressively and were it not for a few plays in the third quarter, might have won, only losing 38-35.

Other teams were favored in each of their playoff games but the Giants played hard in Tampa in hot weather, against Dallas, a team that had pounded them in two regular season games, in Green Bay in conditions that had wind chill down to 24 below zero, before fighting back from a four point deficit to score a touchdown with 35 second remaining to win the Super Bowl.

So let's disect a few of these stories.

Each coach arrived as a disciple of a previous winning coach.
Each coach implemented systems that had worked before and attempted to identify players who could succeed within that system.
Despite turnover in his staff, Coach Belichick promoted people who supported his philosophy; Coach Coughlin, facing mutiny, made changes to his management style to involve more people.
The team philosophy was maintained by promoting a GM who understood the team's systems.

Finally, the Coach made a difficult decision, subject to second guessing that, in the last week of the season, with nothing concrete to gain by winning but pride, to try to defeat the team that was judged to be unbeatable and, by coming close, brought his team together as a team.

Your corporate needs may be different than those of these two organizations, but I believe that these factors can play well into helping organizations succeed. They speak to immediate success and long term success (having promotable people and staff leadership in place) that few organizations commit to these days.

I hope you take some time to reflect upon the management style of these two organizations and adopt some of their best practices.


Jeff Altman

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

© 2008 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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Sunday, January 27, 2008

Great Resources--Diversity Sites

Barry Geiman (barrygeiman@comcast.net) is a researcher who is extremely generous with his time and resources.

Here are some sites he has identified that can support your diversity recruiting goals:


DIVERSITY SITES

African Americans in Science
http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/faces.html

A directory with biographies and Ph.D. statistics
American Association of University Women
http://www.aauw.org

American Chemical Society-Women Chemists Committee
http://membership.acs.org/W/WCC/

American Indian Science and Engineering Society
http://www.aises.org/W/WCC/

American Physical Society Committee on the Status of Women in
Physics
http://www.aps.org/educ/cswp/

Association for Women in Computing
http://www.awc-hq.org

Association for Women in Mathematics
http://www.awm-math.org

Association for Women in Science
http://www.awis.org

Canadian Coalition of Women in Science, Engineering and Technology
http://www.ccwest.org/english/ccwest.html

Council for African and Americans in the Mathematical Sciences
(CAAMS)
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/CAARMS/CAARMS-index.html

Diversity in Science and Engineering Resources
http://www.mills.edu/ACAD_INFO/MCS/SPERTUS/Gender/wom_and_min.html

DiversityWeb Bulletin Board
http://www.diversityweb.org/

Search or post the latest news and materials on jobs, conferences,
resources, etc.

Loka Foundation
http://www.loka.org/

IEEE Women in Engineering
http://www.ieee.org/women/

National Association of Black Geologists and Geophysicists (NABGG)
http://www.www.nabgg.org/

National Association of Mathematicians
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/NAM/NAM-index.html

National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in
Engineering and Science, Inc.
http://www.nd.edu/~gem/

National Society of Hispanic Physicists
http://utopia.utb.edu/nshp

National Technical Association
http://www.ntaonline.org/

Northern California Council of Black Professional Engineers
http://www.ncalifblackengineers.org/

Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science
http://www.sacnas.org/

Society of Women Engineers
http://www.swe.org/

The Just Garcia Hill Science Web Site: Virtual Community for
Minorities in Science
http://hyper1.hunter.cuny.edu/JGH/default.htm

the Woman Astronomer
http://www.erols.com/njastro/twa

A quarterly publication about promoting astronomy; the women role-
models in astronomy, past and present and the quickly changing
science, and hobby, of astronomy.

Women in Astronomy Database
http://www.stsci.edu/stsci/service/cswa/women

Women in Endocrinology
http://www.women-in-endo.org/Pages/index.shtml

Women in Engineering Organization
http://www.WIEO.org/

Women in Neuroscience
http://www.beemnet.com/win/

Women in Technology International
http://www.witi.com/




HISPANIC SITES

American Association of Hispanic CPA's
www.aahcpa.org

ASPIRA Association
www.aspira.org

Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies
www.ahaa.org

California Chicano News Media Association
www.ccnma.org

DC Latino
www.dclatino.com

Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility
www.hacr.org

Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities
HACU

Hispanic National Bar Association
www.hnba.org

Hispanic Organization of Professionals & Executives

Hispanic Public Relations Association
213-239-6555

Hispanic Students Business Association
csulb.edu/org/hsba/

Latin American Professional Network (LATPRO)
www.latpro.com

Latin American Management Association
202-546-3803

Latin Business Association
www.lbausa.com

Latino Issues Forum
http://www.lif.org/

League of United Latin American Citizens
www.lulac.org

Mexican American Unity Council
210-978-0500

National Association of Hispanic Federal Executives (Govt)

National Association of Hispanic Journalists
www.nahj.org

National Association of Hispanic Publications
www.nahp.org

National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services
Organization 202-797-4321

National Council La Raza
www.nclr.org

National Hispanic Business Association
http://www.nhba.org/

National Hispanic Corporate Council
www.nhcc-hq.org

National Hispanic Employee Association
www.nhea.org

National Hispanic Media Coalition
323-722-4191

National Hispanic Medical Association
202-265-4297

National Hispanic Medical Organization
202-265-4297

National Society of the Hispanic MBA's
www.nshmba.org

Professional Hispanics in Energy
714-777-7729

Society for Advancement of Chicanos & Native Americans in Science
www.sacnas.org

Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
www.shpe.org

Society of Mexican American Engineers & Scientists
www.maes.com

US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
www.ushcc.com
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Friday, January 25, 2008

Your Online Application Process

There are three things that strike me as peculiar about how many firms have created their online application process.

The first, and most obvious, is the requirement that many sites have of uploading a text resume, instead of a Word or Adobe resume.

Yes, I understand your system requires it but do you have a system that requires it?

Many non-computer people do not know how to convert a document to text. Does that make them less of a potential employee for you? Do you want them to think of your firm as one that "makes it hard" on people?

The other thing that troubles me is how often firms have a junior person review resumes once jobs are applied for. You know, someone not particularly knowledgeable about the job is reviewing resumes to discern fit? That seems like a waste.

The third thing that seems off is that, once in your system, resumes are never searched except to preclude agency referral. You have a data base of viable people but don't use it except to disqualify someone who recognizes someone's fit from actually affecting the hire that you were unwilling or incapable of making.

Fixing these three things would be smart for many employers to do.


Jeff Altman

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

© 2008 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

Plus

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Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Need For Speed

Despite the commencement of the US recession, the skilled labor shortages that have pervaded the job market for the past two years continue, particularly in staff level roles (or "doer roles" People who "do things as opposed to mange people who do things).

This can be explained simply by three facts:

1. The number of y0unger people entering the work force with such skills has declined from previous years.

2. The number of organizations wulling to train people to improve their skills has declined

3. Immigration of skilled labor (or H-1b's) was cut from 225000 to 65000 six years ago. As a result, there are 960,000 fewer technology professionals in the US than had the program been left untouched.

I am not debating the merits of expanding the H-1b program today; I am of the opinion that fewer jobs would be off shored today, more tax payers in the US and more jobs in the US had we permitted their entry.

Today, that is not the point.

The point is that when you see someone that your firm wants to hire, your process must be streamlined to make the hire easier because talent is going to continue to be fought over.

Assuming your intention is not to outbid your competition by fast sums of money, your hiring process, including our onboarding process must be streamlined to insure that new hires continue to have "warm feelings" about joining you and are not afforded the time to lose them.

One firm I know has a hiring process that is fast (a week to 10 days for the interviewing to be concluded and for the person to be selected; however, once selected, there HR process including referencing & background checks often take 30 days.

And they wonder why they lose people to other firms.

Reference checking and background checks do not need to be a slow process and hiring gto get the talent that will allow your firm to compete in this market should not interfere with actually hiring.

Is there any part of your process that can be down more quickly?


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

© 2008 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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Saturday, January 12, 2008

Are People Raiding Your Firm to Take Staff?

As job markets become tighter recruiters, both third party and corporate are resorting to raiding their competition to hire staff.

A former Director may contact 10 key people and try to bring them along with her.

A recruiter leans that four of the last 7 hires have come from your firm and is bouncing around your voice response system trying to find potential recruits to fill the job or jobs.

What defenses do you have?

1. Figure out who you don't want to lose and take time with them. Many people like to be stroked by their bosses and taking a few minutes every week or two to praise their performance and speak about opportunities.

2. Figure out who you can afford to lose. there are nice people who are adequate performers. Can they be replaced? Absolutely . . . and probably for around the same money they earn (plus interview costs and fees). Why buy them out of another offer if they are dispensable and can hire someone with better upside. This leads us to

3. Compute your break point. At what point should you walk away from losing a person to a competitor? Also, find information about what staff say about your competitors on social network sites and anti-company sites to develop responses to potential resignations.

4. This is not a job for the HR Department but for every manager and business leader. No disrespect to HR but if your culture doesn't have culture taht values HR, then having them lead this will doom it to failure.

5. Scan job boards for your own employees. There are two reasons to do this-- the least important one is being prepared for a resignation. The primary reason for doing so is to be able to sit down with the disgruntled employee and see if what is bothering them is something that can be resolved before getting to the point where they are sitting in your office ready to quit.
I addition, it affords you the opportunity to contact former employees or "boomerangs" who might return to your firm.

There are a lot more things you can do, but these are the five easiest to implement. In doing so, you will slow down losses and put yourself and your firm in a stronger position.

Jeff Altman

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

© 2008 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

Plus

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