Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter's No B. S. Hiring Advice

Saturday, January 20, 2007

6 Steps to Guaranteeing Successful Hires

Hiring people is not a science. Like riding a bike or cooking, it is a skill that can be learned.

Try to master the six points I’ve made.

Don’t be distracted by appearances. Substance should be your most important benchmark for hiring

He or she arrives and they are treated like a rock star. They are good looking and have a great wardrobe. Their credentials speak for themselves. You’ve Googled the word “success” in your industry and their picture is the top response.

If you think I’m kidding, I’m not. People are too readily influenced by unimportant qualities such as appearance to the point where they do not investigate the individual’s credentials adequately. The questions asked are easier. They are given “a pass.”

It is important to scratch below the surface and get into the muck of the individual’s experience to see if there is something worthwhile there.

An early lesson I learned before becoming The Big Game Hunter was to ask simple open ended questions early in the interview, listen and then become progressively more pointed with my questions.

For example, I might start with the usual soft question of, “Tell me about yourself and what you’ve been doing professionally?” Eventually, I might progress to, “You say you increased sales by 42%. How much of that would you attribute to a better product offering for your firm and how much for you?”

“You increased your sales by 42%. How much did your costs increase during that time?”

“What might you have done differently that could have improved them to 46%”

“Everyone makes mistakes. Tell me about a professional mistake you’ve made and what you learned from it.”

And I’ll ask detailed questions based upon their answers.

Make sure you’ve decided what someone really needs to know and how you will measure for it. Communicate what is needed to the search firm, agency or recruiter.

It is fascinating to read some job descriptions. They go on for pages and spell out in incredible detail what is being looked for. Then, following an interview, when I ask the candidate what was asked and what was explored, I hear about questions that don’t in any way relate to the position description. As a result the search goes on far longer than it need to with suitable consequences to all concerned.

Try to identify the four or five key points or experiences your new hire must have in order to stand a chance of being successful and then, ASK QUESTIONS TO DETERMINE THE SKILLS OF THE PEOPLE IN THOSE AREAS.

Communicate what you want to the search firms, recruiters or agencies you’re working with and how the requirements and your thinking evolve. Recruiters are incapable o mind reading. You’ve hired them to help you hire someone. Tell them what you want and they’ll find it for you more quickly than if they have to piece things out based upon the information you share when you reject someone (BTW, the person is never “too light.” Tell them where their skills or experience was deficient).

Make sure everyone who is part of the hiring process understands their role and what they are there to determine.

It seems peculiar for the programmer to reject the project manager for their management experience yet it happens all the time. It is also odd to have the programmer ask esoteric questions, interviewing by the seat of their pants. Insure tat everyone knows their role I the process and what they are there to evaluate.

Put an end to wishful thinking

If a person has only worked in temp jobs or as a consultant, it is probably not their fault that they have worked at a lot of companies. Sometimes, layoffs occurred. Sometimes, projects were abruptly cancelled.

Many times, though, if you investigate, you’ll find that the person plays the employee version of “My way or I take the highway.” As skilled as they are, you can’t fix them.

Be prepared to answer one question

When you are about to extend an offer to someone, answer this question:

Why does this person fit my job better than anyone else I’ve met?

Compare your answer with your “Must have” list and your preferences.

Correct mistakes quickly.

The biggest mistake you can make is one you don’t fix. Putting your head in the ground and praying for a miracle will lead to both you and your employee being shown the door. Correct your mistakes quickly. Remember it is YOUR MISTAKE, not the employees. Arrange for a kind severance. Do not blame them or the search firm for your hiring misjudgment.

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.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.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 meta job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to learn about his VIP program, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://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.

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,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).

Thursday, December 28, 2006

The Myth of Passive Job Applicants

What Makes Them Better Any Way?

One of the common myths of the search industry is that the passive job applicant is, in some way, superior to the active one. The logic is that the passive applicant is too busy being successful in their job to look at job ads and answer them. Passive applicants are superior to the out of work job hunter because the out of work person is “someone else’s dead wood” or someone else’s “reject” or just being “mercenary.”

Are any of these criticisms of active job seekers true?

Sometimes.

The job market is set up in ways that discourage loyalty. A person who remains with their employer for a few years may expect a 3-5% increase; one who changes jobs may receive a 10% – 20%. So, for the $100000 worker, they may receive a raise to $105000 by remain loyal and $115000 for changing. Over 5 years given the same 3-5% increase at their new employer, the difference in earnings will be about $55000 by changing jobs once. If they do it a second time after three years, their earnings will be more than $75000 more.

Does this make them mercenary? Does it mean they are taking care of their family and personal responsibilities, rather be “taken advantage” by a system that creates disincentives for loyalty? Can you afford to “forget” about $75000? Most people can’t.

Are you interviewing someone else’s “dead wood” or “rejects”?

Possibly, but, unlikely. Most layoffs or firings occur because of adverse business conditions, rather than incompetence. Hence the person has been caught in a budget squeeze that has occurred because the company isn’t selling products or services like it once did. Should an accountant be punished for that? Should an engineer with less seniority be criticized as being a retread or loser?

Most people change jobs because they are underpaid to market and want to catch up, are having a conflict with their manager, want to improve their work, work conditions or work environment or perceive that career advancement possibilities are being limited and want to expand them again.

When reaching out to the passive job, you are approaching them with more money (making them mercenary and underpaid to the market), talking with them about better work, perhaps closer to home with a manager that they can respect and with better career conditions—all the same criteria that you criticize the active job seeker.

Now, if you say you want to widen the pool of talent to insure that you are evaluating as broad a pool as possible, I understand that.

But what happens when that “passive applicant” sees that he or she has interviewed well and decides to explore other choices. Do they stop being a passive candidate (good) and become an active one (bad)?

And where do these passive candidates come from?

Referrals
Data mining companies
Social networks
Forums where they may have posted messages
Mining your own data
Search engines

This makes them superior?

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

© 2006 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).

If you would like to link your company’s career page to Job Search Universe, Jeff’s Google-powered free job lead tool (www.jobsearchuniverse.com), email to the url for your company’s career page to him at jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com (no employment agencies, please).

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Job Hunting Rises to Astonishing Levels

Take a seat for a moment before you read this next paragraph.

More than 75 percent of employees are looking for new jobs, according to the 462 employees and 367 HR professionals surveyed in the 2006 U.S. Job Retention Poll released today by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and The Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal.com. According to HR professionals, on average, 12 percent of their organizations' workforce had voluntarily resigned since the beginning of 2006. Non-management employees were the most likely to resign, according to 71 percent of the HR professionals surveyed.

Seventy-three percent of HR professionals indicated that they were concerned about the voluntary resignations at their organizations. In an effort to retain employees, nearly 50 percent of the HR professionals reported that their organizations had implemented special retention processes.

The size of the sample is pretty typical the sake of discussion, let’s say they are off by half. Are you prepared for a turnover rate of 37.5% in 2007?

Can you imagine the amount of time you will spend replacing employees if these numbers are vaguely accurate? Come to think of it, you might not be involved with hiring the replacements because you, yourself, might find yourself at a new organization hiring staff.

Statistically, most people leave their jobs because of a desire for a salary increase; the system as it currently is, rewards the new hire to a greater degree than it does the current loyal employee (most companies pay larger salaries to hire the new employee than raises you pay to return your current talent).

So what can you do if your budget is locked in?

Look at retention strategies proactively with your managers. Ask them what they should do to head off losing three quarters of their staff. Is there a training budget to help improve skills? Is mentoring available for critical employees to head of departure?

Do you have an effective program to permit internal transfers?

Even if some of these strategies fail as an alternative to wage increases, they will help you become an employer of choice and help attract new staff.

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

© 2006 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.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.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 new meta job lead tool, Job Search Universe, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://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 jobsesarchuniverse@gmail.com.

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com . For information about personal job search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.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)

Saturday, November 25, 2006

My, Oh, My!

How the Job Market is Changing!

Wherever possible, I like to share anecdotes to illustrate a point.

This week, a client of mine wanted to extend an offer to a person with a good background. The person is an auditor who has done a lot of work in the hedge fund space. She has changed jobs, on average, over 18 months since entering the field and, at one point a two years ago, worked for a competitor.

I knew she was earning $86000 in her current job and asked her how much she was looking for. She told me that title was very important to her and that one company, a former client, had put a job offer together with a “powerful title” which I learned was an Assistant Director’s title.

And what salary where they offering?

$115000.

I was shocked. An almost $30000 raise PLUS bonus plus a title to join the firm.

After checking references, I told my client what this person had received in the way of an offer and, to put it mildly, they were surprised, too.

And then they matched the salary offer and offered her a VP position.

Folks, I keep saying that we have entered a period where talent will need to be rewarded to attract AND retain strong people.

Do you know who the top 10% of your staff is and what are you doing to keep them?

Are the performance reviews serious? Are they receiving positive and constructive field back? Are they receiving challenging assignments?

Are their raises exceeding what your competition would offer them if they went looking?

Jeff Altman

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at:

thebiggamehunter@gmail.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 new meta job lead tool, Job Search Universe, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com . For information about personal job search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.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).

Becoming the Employer of Choice (Part 3)

How Are You Shaping Your Company’s Message

Have you asked yourself the question, “What is the message you want the market to know about working with your company?”

“What is the view I want the job market to have about my company?”

In the last issue, I wrote about the value of “the buzz” around a company. Google is the current media darling. Microsoft once was. Whose next? What will be the buzz around that firm?

Yours may not be a glamorous company. It may be a door knob manufacturer, a neighborhood business or an enormous company that creates boring things. Yet there is a way to create an image for your firm.

Go to YouTube.com and look at a video for Great Lakes Brewing. They are selling their business in this video and do a nice job of creating a feeling. There’s another from the Charlestown Fire Company, a fire company that put something together to show what they do. The Romanian production company, Demo Mediana, does a nice job of selling their work.

What are you doing? Have you thought of tailoring an existing commercial, putting the tailored commercial on YouTube or one of the other sites have it work for you.

Could you be creative and pull a few managers together and create a spot for your company?

Consciously shaping your company’s message for employees will go a long way toward making yours an employer of choice.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com . For information about personal job search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.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).

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Becoming the Employer of Choice (Part 2)

(Second Article in a series)

Among the reasons for becoming the employer of choice in your market area and in your industry is the ability to attract all the talent you want with relatively little effort. People seem to know your brand and have a favorable disposition to it. It’s almost as though there is a halo around the organization—people think well of the firm and have the idea that working there would be fun and advance their career and interests.

Businessweek recently published an article about the best places for beginners to start their career and pointed to a characteristic when comparing firms. That characteristic is the second factor about an organization--there’s a “buzz” around the firm.

What’s “the buzz” about your company?

What do your employees think about working there?

What’s does the street gossip say about your company?

Do you know?

Have you ever surveyed your employees and asked them these questions:

What are the best things about working for us?

What would you want to improve about working here?

If you’ve ever published the positives have you ever announced changes based upon the areas that needed improvement?

What is your employee turnover rate? Do you conduct exit interviews and make changes based upon the results (I’m not talking about firing a manager because a of a disgruntled employee; perhaps it can be hiring additional staff or consultants because because the overtime required is excessive)?

Are you putting out press releases that deal with business successes or just hoping that your company gets noticed?

Do you have formal announcements to acknowledge great achievements or just expect people to do their job?

One of my clients caters a modest breakfast for the staff once a week in every office around the world. They even pay for benefits for the employee AND their family including dental. Do you think this company has a leg up competing with your firm?

Oh, I forgot to mention that they have a higher than normal match on their 401K, start employees off with three weeks of vacation and through a quarterly party for the staff.

Firms that go out of their way to cater to the needs of their employees incur an obvious expense but also gain a big advantage when competing for superior talent. Getting “the buzz” around your company can be achieved in thousands of ways over the course of time. What’s most important is that there is a positive buzz around your company that makes people stop in their tracks and become favorably pre-disposed to working there.

Jeff Altman

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

© 2006 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, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.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).

A View from the Other Side

Someone forwarded an article to me the Kansas City Star entitled, “Hr Gatekeepers Keeping The Skilled Out” (http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/15848818.htm ). It paints the usual picture of the mistreated worker (you know, the one—well-educated, high level, out of work longer than you would imagine, generous, kind to children and small animals) victimized by the system.

This is what they believe (and I quote):

Good candidates aren’t getting through corporate front-line resume screening systems.

Or, if their resumes are reaching the eyes of actual hiring managers, they’re getting no feedback as to why they’re not getting interviews.

“We can’t get past the HR gatekeeper,” one said. “If we’re blown off, we don’t know why.”

. . . the hiring system is broken in many companies.

Blame the flood of Internet applications.

Blame downsized human resource departments that can’t handle the application volume.

Blame front-line screeners who don’t understand what they’re looking for or at.

“It’s a loss of etiquette,” one of the participants complained.

More precisely, it’s a loss of human contact.

You and I both know that these are romantic notions that belie the fact that you would interview a chipmunk if their resume looked like a fit for the job you were trying to fill.

It is hard to screen every resume you receive given all the responsibilities and priorities you have. HR systems are often handled by the least experienced person who may not fully understand the skills sought. That may not be the case in your organization but it is the case in a lot of them.

Is there a way to set up an email address for ad responses that gets an auto response acknowledging that you have received the resume, will review it and will be inviting in several [ep[le who are a tight fit with the requirements? That if you do not hear from the firm, it is because your experience does not appear to be as tight as others’?

For many of you, these people are consumers of the products and/or services your firm sells thus a minute of time invested (which is al this takes, can have terrific pay off.

Jeff Altman

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free meta job lead tool or to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com For information about personal search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.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).

Sunday, November 12, 2006

The Disconnect Between Management and HR

I used Google to search for the function of a human resources department and found
a pretty typical description:

The Human Resources Department acts as a business partner working with and
for the employees, divisions, and units of the Cancer Center, including staff and
academic employees, supervisors, and management.

This was obviously written as a description for a hospital but, substituting
a word or two, it could just as easily been written for your organization.
Yet would it be true.

Would you truly see human resources as a business partner, or an encumbrance
or a nuisance to hiring?

Unfortunately, too many managers and business owners refuse to partner with
their human resource people, during budget formulation, during the process of
developing a specification or during the recruiting process. Conversely, many
human resource professionals perceived and believe that they are treated as
“less than” their line management brethren, rather an integral part of the
recruiting process.

In fact, when done well, human resources, is very much a social work process
(to use the lingo of one viewpoint) and a killer application (to use Jack & Suzy
Welch [Jack of GE fame}).

I can examine the roots of the “disconnect” between the ideal (the killer
application/the good social work process) and the current one that may reside
in your organization (a disrespected nuisance), but, frankly, believe that each
organization has its own history of how this was created.

It is only necessary to go into the past to communicate with one another where
the problems originally occurred, see how they can be fixed going forward and
get everyone back to the table with one another to (re)create the partnership.

What is critical in a climate of labor shortages that all cylinders be working
and that the car is pointed in the right direction.

My friend, Dennis, is a martial arts instructor who went to his sensei for permission
to learn a second discipline. In his explaining his refusal to grant
permission, the sensei explained,

“When a dog chases a rabbit, he can catch it; when a dog chasses two
rabbits, he catches none.”

When organizations are going off in multiple uncommunicative paths to finding
and retaining talent, the enterprise is stressed unnecessarily. When everyone
works together, there is a great opportunity to unify efforts and get better results.

If you have a question that you would like me to answer, email it to me at: thebiggamehunter@gmail.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 new meta job lead tool, Job Search Universe, or to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com

For Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, NaturalSelection Ezine, to help human resources professionals, managers and business owners make even better hiring decisions, ,subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com . For information about personal job search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.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).

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Labor Shortages Now Worldwide

Manpower, an international staffing firm, completed a worldwide annual survey of 32000 employers of all sizes (at least 1000 in the US). The survey looked at companies in many industries came to some startling conclusions.

First of all, the days when you could extend a job offer and offer someone two choices (take it; leave it) are over for now. More and more firms are noticing something that I have been warning people about for the past year—labor shortages are now a part of the corporate landscape.

45% of employers are finding it difficult to locate engineers, nurses and accountants.

38% of firms are already paying higher salaries.

29% are finding it extremely difficult to find talent (not just the categories above).

25% are already paying higher wages than they were a year ago.

If you expect me to advise you to raise wage scales, well, frankly, wages are only one part of the equation when individuals are evaluating companies.

How well are managers interviewing for jobs they need to hire for? I don’t simply mean do they ask a bunch of questions and decide but do they have a clear idea of what they are looking for and have a clear sense of the questions they want to ask to assess someone?

What is the impression that human resources is creating as they evaluate someone? Is someone being greeted by a disinterested receptionist who places a form on a clip board. Will someone greet a job applicant as though the potential new hire might matter?

Will the job seeker “be sold to” about how wonderful your company is to work for, even if you aren’t interested in hiring them?

Does anyone speak about the potential of a future with your company or are you flinging job offers at people with the belief that if it isn’t this one, another will come along?

As you know, having a successful enterprise involves working with exceptional and motivated people. Treat each person as valuable when they are met with and they will feel a difference from your organization that help you attract and retain talent longer than your competition.

Jeff Altman

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search job openings, use his free meta job lead tool or to subscribe Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to, http://www.jeffaltman.com. To subscribe to Jeff’s free recruiting ezine, Natural Selection Ezine, subscribe at www.naturalselectionezine.com For information about personal search services, go to www.VIPPersonalSearch.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).

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Becoming the Employer of Choice (Part 1)

Becoming the Employer of Choice

(First in a series)

Close your eyes and imagine that your inbox is filled with resumes from the staff of your top competitors. Their key people are contacting you about joining your company. Every resume you read seems to fit the role you are trying to fill . . . as a matter of fact, there are too many great resumes for you to choose from.

If this seems far fetched to you, then your organization has work to do in order to make it the employer of choice in your market area.

Why become the employer of choice? Look at Google, the current darling of its industry.

Google has the choice of the best minds in the world and, through that, has been able to create a firm that has made its owners billions. By brick and mortar standards, it has created something out of air—a multi-billion dollar business selling adverting on web pages complimenting its web search tools. Yet from this has come the ability to attract some of the brightest people in the world.

Look at Microsoft before that—a company that developed intellectual capital (software) that is mass produced on CD’s and sold through distribution channels. How about Cisco, a firm that went to war to conquer its opponents in the router market.

Great companies share certain attributes that make them the employer of choice in their sector, Over the next few weeks, I am going to look at some of the things that great firms do to make them the preeminent company in peoples’ minds when it comes to employment.

The first quality that great firms have is a readily understandable mission statement or statement of purpose that is constantly reinforced,

A mission statement is visionary. It focuses on what the firm aspires to. It’s scope is broad, rather than narrow. It also includes actions the firm will take to help achieve the mission.

For example, Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. The mission is in two parts—the action in the first is “to organize the world’s information”; in the second, it is to make it “universally accessible and useful.”

In October 2002 Microsoft changed its mission statement from "To empower people through great software -- any time, any place, and on any device" to "To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential".

Yet a mission statement has no meaning or value if it is simply used in the annual report, company website and an occasional meeting. It must be a part of the company’s culture and focal point of decisions.

(To be continued)

Jeff Altman

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

© 2006 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, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.vippersonalsearch.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)

Thursday, August 24, 2006

At least a quarter of your staff is going to leave

by this time next year unless you proactively change some dynamics in your organization. What can you do to avoid having to hire and train so many people?

1. Is the message that you communicate about your firm congruent with what the new employee will find when they join?

Imagine going to an expensive restaurant and getting fast food and fast food service? Would you be happy with that? Of course, you wouldn't. But go to a fast food restaurant and the same treatment is OK. Why?

Because your expectations are in alignment with what you will receive.

Too often, companies set completely different expectations to what they deliver. The employee recognizes this and, because their goals are not being met by the reality of the job, don't perform as well as is expected and, eventually leaves to join an organization that will meet them.

Fix this.

2. Identify your top performers and overpay them Years ago, a large utility was an early adopter of a particular data base technology and started to become a target for other firms to hire people. Their solution was to give their staff a 40% increase. The result was that they lost no one for the next 4 years, only gave modest raises after that and, by the time that the rest of the market caught up with them, the salaries they were paying was in alignment with the market, they were able to achieve goals and were able to manage change in ways that were sensible for them.

A large raise send a message that your company rewards excellence and becomes something that people compete for.

3. Create career pathing. Where can your best people go next? If you can't answer that, then they can't answer it and they are susceptable to making a change.

4. If you can't pay them, at least tell them that you see them and that they are important to you. Don't you feel great when someone tells you that you've done something great? Employees often get a good feeling by being told that they are loved, too.

5. Create a mentoring program. A big brother or big sister who can teach and guide and support, someone who is successful in your culture will help someone persevere during the hard times.

Creating programs that allow you to target great

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Keeping Older Workers is Essential AND . . .

When I started in the search business in the early 1970's, it didn't take long for me to notice that there were very few people in their 40's who were working in technology (my focal point at the time). I remember asking myself, "What happens when people turn 40 in this business?"

Today, this is no longer an issue as firms have discovered that in the age of labor shortages, older workers are essential to firms achieving success. But a new problem has been created that few firms are addressing.

By aggressively doing things to hold on to the baby boomer generation, Gen-X workers are roadblocked and becoming increasingly frustrated with their increasingly limited advancement options.

And when companies hire people, companies often make the mistake of focusing on the boomer issue of needing to earn more when they could be adding the Gen-X issue--What's my advancement opportunities with your company. After all, one of the issues they have is being squeezed by the enormous generation of Boomers who won't quit or retire yet and the up and coming explosion referred to as Gen-Y.

What happens to this smart. self-reliant group of Gen-X adults?

So, as you look at your staff, what are you doing to create advancement options for your staff in their 30's? What are you doing to cultivate their skills.

And, as you look to hire someone in their 30's, speak to the upside that will exist for them and not just the money.

Jeff Altman

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

© 2006 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, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.vippersonalsearch.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).

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Workplace Diversity: It's Not Just the Law but a Necessity to Success

It just takes opening your eyes to see that both the global and domestic US labor market is 'less white" than it once was. As a matter of act, if yours is a global firm, according to a study conducted by Columbia University's Center for Work-Life Balance, white males represent just 17 percent of the global talent pool of individuals with graduate education.

What a surprise (I hope you have noticed the sarcasm)!

For women in almost all areas, their is the reality of coming up against "biological" issues/decisions and career. With that comes the challenge of returning to the workforce. Although almost all want to, most find it extremeely difficult to do so after a few years.

Suddenly, these achievers have taken "memory lapse pills" that make their desirabillity as employees minimal. yes, for many who work in industries where revolutionary change occurs regularly like technology, returning to the workforce may mean that much of their previous expreience is less valuable.

But how do they lose their business knowledge or their ability to manage staff or lead? How does a CPA suddenly lose their abillity to perform?

How does your organization support a diverse population? Does it make re-entry programs available to female employees to return after several years of parenting? Are their training programs for foreign born employees at relatively junior levels to improve speech and writing skills necessary for professional success.

Do you expect a fully finished product when you hire are you willing to make a small investment?

And while we're at it, why does certain kinds of work need to be scheduled on Saturdays when it excludes certain workers? Can't Sundays be viable when non-religious Christians are impacted less than religious Jews?

Organizations that look at the future and creatively explore alternative career pathing and aiding their employees in skills development will thrive during the next decade. How you persuade management to make investment in human capital will be paramount to success.

How you change what has become second nature (like the Saturday work schedule) will go a long way toward helping you attract the excellent workforce you want.

Jeff Altman

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

© 2006 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, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.vippersonalsearch.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).

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

The 10% Question

Can You Reduce Agency Fees

A recent questioner on www.ere.net posed an interesting question. After identifying advertising and recruiting firms as their major sources of referrals, they asked whether they might benefit by reducing fees from 25% or 29% to 10%, This question surfaces from time to time but it surprised me given the strong labor market where firms are having difficulty finding people.

Of course you a company can lower fees. . . but you will need to lower your expectations.

Let me ask this:

Do you expect to receive the same attention to detail?

Do you expect to receive the same level of serice.

Do you expect to get as many targeted referrals?

Do you expect to work with someone as experienced?

There are a lot more questions I could pose, but these are basic questions. If you answer yes to any of these questions, you're being unrealistic.

Why?

An experienced search professional invests a lot of time and resources and effort to complete a search. Why should they work for a half or a third of what they could earn in the current climate (a hot market with labor shortages)?

And the successful recruiter wants to be paid for their efforts and experience, just as your company does.

Let me pose this question--If your company is approached today about selling its product or service for a half or a third of what it charges, would it sell it and support it for that?

Why should a recruiter do that unless they were selling you the best of what was left after they sold it to their normal paying clients? To say it another way, they will send their best applicants to the company that will pay them a normal fee. After all, if you referred someone who is hired at a $100000 salary, don’t you think they want to $20000, $250000 or $30000 instead of $10000?

But, I’ll offer them volume and exclusivity!

Experience says that isn’t the case and that you’ll expect them to work as hard as they do now for their higher fee.

The fact is, I know search firms who accept a flat fee of $3500 per hire for a generic staff person . . . and the experience is very generic and they require very little effort or pre-screening.

To learn more about his search services for employers, go to www.thebiggamehunter.net

To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.vippersonalsearch.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).

Thursday, July 13, 2006

What's Your Website Like?

I have looked at a lot of corporate websites over the years and found that they help me a lot because they generally do a poor job of representing firma and opportunities.

I have found listings out of date.

Cumbersome to navigate

Do nothing to present what it's like to work at the firm

Are inconsistent wigth the firm's marketing message

Do nothing to sell.

Don't treat the reader as a customer.

A recent article on ere.net, College Graduates Criticize Outdated Career Websites, focused on the experience of college graduates.

Let me add one more issue:

Who receives the responses anyway and how are they handled? Too many organizations put responses into the hands of administrative assistants or the least experienced recruiter to discern value--and often they aren't experienced enough to actually decide.

Jeff Altman

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The Prime Directive

Does Your Company’s HR Function Lead or Fail to Lead?

The July 17 issue of Businessweek carried a terrific column from Jack and Suzy Welsh entitled, “So Many CEO’s Get This Wrong” that describes how HR should function and the mistakes that corporate HR makes.

Responding to a question that points out the HR is often felt in a negative way vs. The Welsh’s claim that it is the most powerful part of any organization, they acknowledge that HR is often marginalized in organizations into the people who issue the newsletter, plan the company picnic or, at the other extreme, “the cloak-and-dagger society.”

They then call for HR to be “the killer app” within a company but acknowledge it seldom is, laying the blame squarely upon the CEO who does not put HR at the table the same way as the CFO.

They recount a story of speaking to 5000 HR executives in Mexico City and asking how many of their organizations were on the same footing as the CFO and getting fewer than 50 hands to go up. They then ask whether the Boston Red Sox would be better run by the CFO or the Director of Player Personnel (as a Yankee fan, I encourage the Red Sox to try the Welsh’s suggestion and report back in a decade or two).

So what do they suggest?

Part pastor (who can hear all sins and complaints without recrimination) and part parent (loving and caring but giving it to you straight when you get off track), they are men and women with stature and substance.

Their job is not to make people warm and fuzzy. The job is to create ways to motivate and retain people; they create review and appraisal systems that let’s people know where they stand and monitor it with the rigor that is invested in SOX compliance. Third of all, they need to be able to confront charged relationships like those with unions, people no longer delivering the goods, or those with egos as large as all outdoors but who have stopped growing.

They exhort CEO’s to elevate HR to the same level of professionalism as is expected of their CFO’s while acknowledging that few organizations are currently pointed in this direction. They ask, “. Since people are the whole game, what could be more important?”

So, what’s the focus of your work? Is it attracting and retaining great people? What are you doing to put systems in place that motivate, inspire and reward (yes, reward) talent. You know, the people you say are at the crux of the organization and its achievements and success.

And what are you doing to support people when they stop growing or stop performing. How do you get them on track or get them out?

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Look around. Half your tech staff might be leaving

According to a survey commissioned by Spherion and published by InformationWeek http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=I402CMM3J25ZEQSNDLPCKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=188700321
more than half the IT professionals surveyed were planning on looking for work.

According to a survey done by InformationWeek Research, 41% of IT staff and 37% of IT managers admitted to be currently "somewhat" or "actively" looking for a new job.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Are You Hiring Paid Assassins?

Paid assassins. King killers .

Whatever you want to call them, they all say kind of the same thing:

"My boss doesn't have a clue. They should have done iyt this way. The result was mediocrity. They never listen."

They talk a good game.

They seek out allies for their cabal and, together, they work to undermine the manager with gossip and attitude.

They are extremely smart and speak plausibly but are anathema to the good health of an organization, a department.

Listen carefully.

They reveal themselves in their interviews.

Run from them!

If you must hire them, they need to be brought close to the manager. Kind of like the old Michael Corleone adage from the Godfather: "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

Jeff Altman

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

© 2006 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 Own 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).

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Whatever Happened to Training Someone?

I've been in the sesarch business for more than 30 years (YIKES!).

Years ago, one of the selling points we could use to encourage someone to accept one job offer vs. another was that the person would be receiving training in some mportant technology that would serve them in their career.

Whatever happened to firms committing training toa new employee as a way of attracting them?

Think about it. In times where there are labor shortages, a company can attract a great talent, send them to a course and give them an opportunity to work with people who aer experienced in the function for $5000 - $20000 less than hiring someone with complete experience in the technology or functionality?

Why not send someone to a class?

Jeff Altman

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

“I’m Taking Another Offer”

Avoid Getting that Call or Email You Hate After Investing All that Time and Effort

Have you noticed more of your job offers being turned down? Have you noticed more people responding favorably to counteroffers and staying in their current jobs? Have you noticed that fewer people are out of work and, if they are out of work, they are out of work for far less time than a few years ago?

In 1972, I started working for an employment agency. It was my first job out of college and I was paid $125 per week to find programmers for the agency’s clients.

Salaries sound low by today’s standards—a programmer who had two years of experience with the hit technology of the time (COBOL in an OS environment) earned $12000; if he had a degree (in 1972, it was almost always a “he”), he earned $12500.

It sure seems like salaries have gone up since those days and, in some respects they have. Salaries are a lot higher than then. Yet, accounting for inflation and higher levels of skills required, salaries in most fields have declined. Even in actual dollars, salaries in most fields haven’t changed in almost 15 years. Companies that were paying $90000 in salary to fill a position in 1998 are paying the same salary today as then. Is it any wonder that job hunters are finding little difference in jobs and deciding to stay where they are?

Oh, you say that you offer a better career path than the current employer. Job hunters have heard enough stories about career paths winding up being non-existent to learn to disregard them. Even when they exist, the promise can end when the manager who made it decides to change jobs.

So, how do you attract and retain talent?

No matter how often people say they don’t change jobs for the money, most of them change jobs for the money. They hear a message in how they are perceived by the amount above their current salary they are offered.

Offering a person earning $48000 a $2000 raise or a $200000 person a $14000 raise normally will not secure the new employee . . . without a lot of talking to, promises and other phony baloney. Even if they do join, the news hire will be susceptible to the siren call of the next online ad they read or the next call they receive from their old friend the recruiter.

What can you do?

Improve salary scales across the board in your new budget. Without starting with your existing staff you are inviting them to be poached by others.

Some years ago, a large New York employer faced with losing large numbers of their staff in a hot technology, increased salaries by 40%, effectively pricing their people out of the job market. In ensuring years, the staff received very modest increases but couldn’t leave because they were priced out of the market. Five years later, as the technology started to become less important and more commoditized, their salaries were now in line with the market and they could afford to lose people and did. With that first wage increase, they bought staff stability in a critical area at a critical juncture.

Isn’t that better than replacing 15 – 25% of your staff every year?

Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big GameHunter, is Managing Directorwith Concepts in Staffing, aNew York search firm, He hassuccessfully assisted manycorporations identifymanagement leaders and staffin technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing andother disciplines since 1971. Heis a certified leader of theManKind Project, a not for profitorganization that assists menwith life issues, and a practicingpsychotherapist.

To subscribe to Jeff’s free jobsearch ezine, Head Hunt YourOwn Job, or receive a dailydigest of positions emailed toyou, go tohttp://www.sayhi.to/JeffAltman

If you would like Jeff and hisfirm to assist you with hiringstaff, or if you would like helpwith a strategic job change, send an email to him atjeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’relooking for a new position, include your resume).