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

Plus

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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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