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.

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 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).

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

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 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).

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?

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).

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.

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).

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

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 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).

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

“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).

What Do You Really Want?

5 Things to Evaluate for When You Hire

Statistics suggest that 60% of getting hired is just getting an interview with you. From that point, the field needs to narrow based upon criteria that you establish for evaluating and assessing candidates for their qualifications and suitability for your group and company.

What should you look for?

1. Skills competency. Each position has a certain number of baseline skills that qualify someone for being hired. For example, a liquor company asked me to locate someone who be involved with wood procurement. This is the professional way of describing someone whose job is buy the wood from which casks are made to age their product.

They required someone with a degree in forestry who had purchased certain types of woods before in a certain industry. They had determined that a particular set of skills and experiences would qualify someone for the job.

But as we identified 20 or so people who had comparable skills, we started to evaluaten some of the additional criteria that would help them be successful.

2. Self confidence. The job seeker with confidence and competence will help them step securely into the job and, through their very presence, create trust in others that will help smooth their transition into a job. They may not know any more than someone lacking confidence but the group or team of colleagues will believe that they have less reason to worry about the person.

3. Chemistry. How will this person fit with the team? Will they dominate? Inspire? Shrink in their presence? Do they seem like a bull in a china shop in a field of lambs (or the reverse)? Have you had them meet their future colleagues and then sought out their opinions? Have you spoken with your staff about how they would evaluate someone for the job working next to them? You, as the officer, will have a different view of what will make someone successful than a soldier will. The soldier will view the person from a tactical perspective—is this someone I’d be willing to go into battle with and trust that they’ll watch my back. Have you asked them what they would look for in a person for a job?

4. Charisma. Charisma is self-confidence cubed. It is the quality that makes someone magnetic and helps them to stand out from the pack. Bill Clinton had it. Ronald Reagan had it. Here were two men on complete opposite sides of the political spectrum. America loved them both and followed them wherever fate took them. They ay not have always agreed with their choices but they were willing to follow their lead. Is their something in the candiate’s presence that attracts you and others . . . or repels them.

5. Personal leadership. This is the question of character. Are you able to trust someone sufficiently because you believe you can rely upon them? Can you trust their judgment sufficiently because they have been tested by fire?

Everyone knows that they need to hire someone qualified by virtue of sills to do a particular job. But it’s important to consider other variables when you evaluate and assess people

Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, has successfully assisted many corporations identify leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines as employees or consultants 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.

For additional job hunting or hiring tips, go to http://www.sayhi.to/JeffAltman While you’re there, sign up to receive a daily digest of jobs emailed to you as we learn of them.

To subscribe to Head Hunt Your Own Job, Jeff Altman’s searchzine, go to www.sayhi.to/JeffAltman

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).

Phone Interview Mistakes

Phone Interview Mistakes
Stop Turning People Off and Start Turning Them On!

Now, more than ever, companies are doing initial screening by telephone in order to speed up their evaluation process. After all, why block out 30-60 minutes of time to meet with someone when in half the time, people can be effectively screened.

Yet, companies are misusing the process and often doing themselves harm.

Using accents and not poor oral communications as a reason for rejection. It is true that some people speak poorly and they will be in jobs that require excellent oral communications. But some jobs don’t require “perfection”. Some jobs simply require being understood (so that direction can be followed and tasks performed correctly). Sometimes, people are understandable and then held to an unnecessarily high standard. With the available choices in the US workforce changing, rejecting people for whom English is a second language or for whom American English is an acquired skill without offering inexpensive remedial speech courses is a mistake.

Failing to have clear questions that are useful when evaluating someone. Standardized questioning that fits the job, yet is flexible enough to permit exploring areas of curiousity are important in order to make sure that success criteria are measured. What difference does it make if you and the potential hire laugh and joke with one another if you don’t take the time to sincerely evaluate them?

Missing the appointment time and leaving someone waiting at the phone. It’s bad manners when a job applicant misses an interview or shows up late. Emergencies happen and appointments even need last minute re-scheduling. But it is better to stretch yourself and be on time than expect a marketable person to be forgiving of you all the time.


Everyone has friends. Don’t make the mistake of treating someone rudely and discovering (or worse not discovering) that people don’t want to interview you because of your rudeness. By selling the merits of your company or job, you may create the conditions where people want to come to work for you in the future.

Be prepared to refer someone who is not quite a fit to a colleague who could use the skills better. You will score points with a colleague and with your management by referring someone who you interview who may not be quite right for you to them. You will be thanked a million times over and help create an environment where people support one another.


By taking the time to correctly prepare to evaluate talent, you will find it more quickly. By creating a favorable impression with everyone you meet, you will help create the buzz in the community about your firm and what you’re doing. You may also create a buzz about yourself that could help opportunity knock on your door in the future.

Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2006 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, has successfully assisted many corporations identify leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines as employees or consultants 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.

For additional job hunting or hiring tips, go to http://www.sayhi.to/JeffAltman While you’re there, sign up to receive a daily digest of jobs emailed to you as we learn of them.

To subscribe to Jeff Altman’s Search e-zine, send an email to jeffaltmansearch@gmail.com and write EZINE on the subject line.

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).

Working Well with Recruiters

Working well with Recruiters
5 Steps to Getting Moe Success in the Search Process

The North American head of Human Resources of one of gth bee large offshore consulting firms called me last week to set up a relationship with one of his business units that was going to need a lot of help with staffing next year (approximately 100 architects and program managers). I forwarded my current contact information to his person and received a call yesterday.

In 30 minutes, I received a crystal clear picture of what the division was going to need to hire, the correct profile of what they wanted to see in experience plus a review of the hiring process.

Do you think I’m motivated to work on these positions? You bet I am. I am because I understand clearly what is being sought and can now readily identify it and that translates into motivation.

How much time do you afford a recruiter when you decide that they should help you (I’m not talking about how you evaluate whether to work with them; that’s a different conversation).

What do you trll them? What do you skip over?

Let me offer a few ideas of things that will help a recruiter help you better.

1. What does your company and business unit do? It may be obvious to you but it helps to set a context for how the job fits in to the success of the organization


2. What experience are you looking for?


3. How will you evaluate those skills? Are there specific questions that the recruiter can use to evaluate people for their qualifications? I ask some clients for mini quizzes for job applicants that I forward with a resume to a client. I don’t want to know the answer because I don’t want a client to ever be concerned about whether I am coaching someone through the quiz/


4. What will the interview process be like? From beginning to end, who will this person meet, what will they be evsaluaing as part of their assessment and, under normal circumstances, how long should a successful interview process take.


5. Are gthere any “quirks” that we should know about? A colleague of mine has a client that only pays for the employee’s benefits and not for famiy coverage (Do you think that affects their ability to hire more experienced {more likely, married]) employees?

Taking more time at the beginning of the search process can help you save a lot of time reviewing useless resumes and interviewing people without the skills you want.

And won’t that help you a lot?

Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2005 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, has successfully assisted many corporations identify leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines as employees or consultants 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.

For additional job hunting or hiring tips, go to http://www.sayhi.to/JeffAltman While you’re there, sign up to receive a daily digest of jobs emailed to you as we learn of them.

To subscribe to Jeff Altman’s Search e-zine, send an email to jeffmansearch@gmail.com and write EZINE on the subject line.

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).

Are Recruiters Failing You? Maybe It's You!

I know of no employment professional that wants to fail on an assignment. Their income and future livelihood is tied up in effective service delivery.

So what's the problem?

Well, sometimes you haven't done a good enough job evaluating an agency's capabilities so you're asking them to do something their incapable of doing . . . but, ya know that isn't always true because, with interest, they'll work on anything!

For example, a new client of mine is a well-know liquor distributor. They asked me to work on a position for to find someone to buy wood for the casks they age their product in. Not exactly a job i my sweet spot.

I loved the idea of the job and am about to fill it. Why? Because they were responsive and communicative and I was motivate.

What goes into being communicative? Well the first and most important thing is a useful position description otherwise, we're off wasting a lot of time we don't have. I don't mean the description that says, "2-4 years of this or that." I mean one that actually speaks of the detailed experience and functionality they need to know and how to evaluate it from your perspective.

Two investment banks trying to hire a mid level Java developer for a trading systems project will do completely different evaluations. On paper the jobs are identical, yet in practice they're different. Be as specific as possible.

The second thing you need to do is provide useful feedback when someone comes up short. Is it useful to say the person was "too light?" Of course not. State where the deficiency was and suggest ways that a recruiter can evaluate for it in the future.

One of the most effective things you can do is call or email a recruiter and show them "some love." All of our jobs are hard. A two minute call or one minute of email goes a long way toward making the search professional feel cared about enough to help you. This may sound goofy to you but don't you like it when your boss praises you for something or just stops by to say, "Hi." Christmas is an ideal time to just drop an e-card to someone.

There are a million ways to get better results; these are a few launch points that will help you get better results.

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

© 2005 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, has successfully assisted many corporations identify leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines as employees or consultants 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.

For additional job hunting or hiring tips, go to www.thebiggamehunter.net.

To subscribe to Jeff Altman’s Search e-zine, send an email to jeffaltman@cisny.com and write EZINE in the subject line.

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).

Technology a Dead End Career? No Way!

Technology a Dead End Career? No Way!!

According to the US Labor Department, the demand for IT professionals has returned to levels last seen in 2000 at the height of the dotcom boom. Concurrently, the importance of information technology as the underpinning of corporate life has become obvious even to the most strident corporate Neanderthal. More organizations like Google are seeing that technologists with good technical underpinnings and business savvy can create wealth.

At the same time this is going on, fewer computer science graduates are coming out of America’s universities because students learned through what happened to their parents in the last recession that technology was no longer the fast and secure path to happiness, prosperity and wealth. That’s what happens when all those stock options became worthless and hundreds of thousands of IT professionals lost their jobs and new ones were created overseas.

O unless more people enter the labor force, more jobs will shift overseas to lower cost centers and America’s intellectual capital and advantages and technology advances will expire in a fit of outsourcing not caused by cheap labor but by lack of talent sources.

A number of things need to occur concurrently in order to stem the tide and get US students back in the game.

1. Every child in every classroom in America must have a computer or Internet accessible device with full features to help them learn and explore. We all know the stories of the music protégés and young athletes who took up the game very young and were able to achieve greatness because a violin or tennis racket was put into their hands when they were very young. Let’s have kids learn computer basics as they learn to read and play age appropriate online games until then.


2. Make computer science a required course for every major in the universities. Te Despite George Orwell’s fears, technology has become a liberating path


3. Why can’t students spend an additional year in universities interning between their junior and senior year? It makes more sense to me than the programs that send students abroad to study at foreign colleges. Social work students spend 20 hours per week doing field work at social work agencies, providing a source of cheap labor. Why are university students in computer science incapable of providing a comparable contribution?


4. “Code monkeys” or people who program in a vacuum are a dying breed. Make sure that even the most junior staff learns the importance of programming in the context of a line of business.


5. Finally, and what may be most important, the industry has the reputation for drudgery—for being the modern day equivalent of factory work. We have to re-think the industry and make it fun again!

Tick. Tick. Tick. Time is running out/ unless we take action in the next few years that lack of supply will send all the jobs overseas . . . and once that happens, what had been US businesses will follow.

Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2005 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, has successfully assisted many corporations identify leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines as employees or consultants 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.

For additional job hunting or hiring tips, go to http://www.newyorkmetrotechnologyjobs.com.

To subscribe to Jeff Altman’s Search e-zine, send an email to jeffaltman@cisny.com and write
EZINE on the subject line.

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).

Survey explains reasons for hiring failure

A recent study of over 5000 hiring managers indicated that there was a serious failure in hiring in the executive to middle management ranks. These managers, who hired more than 20,000 people over three years, reported that almost half the people they hired (46%) failed within the first 18 months of hire.

During that time, only 19% will achieve some level of success

26% will fail because they can't accept feedback
23% fail because they can't understand and manage their emotions
17% lack the drive to succeed
15% have the wrong temperament for the job
11% lack key skills

82% of managers reported that in hindsight, their interview process with these employees elicited subtle clues that they would be headed for trouble. But during the interviews, managers were too focused on other issues, too pressed for time, or lacked confidence in their interviewing abilities to heed the warning signs.


Te study found no significant difference in failure rates across different interviewing approaches (e.g., behavioral, chronological, case study, etc.). 812 managers experienced significantly more hiring success than their peers. What differentiated their interviewing approach was their emphasis on interpersonal and motivational issues.

This begs the question, how well are you evaluating potential hires prior to their joining your firm? Are you evaluating them in these key success areas? Do your hiring managers take the time to evaluate people on these criteria, or purely on skills competency?



Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2005 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, 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.

For additional job hunting or hiring tips, go to http://www.newyorkmetrotechnologyjobs.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).

Have you ever evaluated . . .

Have you ever evaluated the agency prior to giving them the order?

Most agents are trained to make cold calls, calling absolute strangers, making an initial brief introduction/speech, and then asking for orders.

The conversation often is, “Hi! My name is __________. I’m a recruiter with a firm called _______. We’re in the business of locating top talent for firms in the _____ industry. I understand you’re trying to fill a few positions and wanted to see if I could help you.” Based upon hearing that canned speech, hiring managers and HR professionals decide whether or not to give a recruiter a job or two or a hundred to work on.

Does that really make sense to you?

What would really be useful to you when you get a phone call like this?

Why not ask about the individual recruiter’s experience, capabilities, previous successes and size of the firm. That online brochure they have—it’s as useless as reading a magazine ad for life insurance. Fee policy? That’s good; it’s like finding out what the store will charge for something before you get to the register.

Why not make a 15 – 30 minute investment of time to meet with the person? After all, you’ll be reviewing resumes they submit, listening to their opinions and, generally, investing time with them all with the hope that they will refer people to you who you’ll hire.

Taking time with them at the beginning will help you figure out whether you should give them the opportunity to help you staff positions and whether to trust their advice.


Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2005 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, has successfully assisted many corporations identify leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines as employees or consultants 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.

For additional job hunting or hiring tips, go to http://www.newyorkmetrotechnologyjobs.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).

Not Hiring Consultants?

Not Hiring Consultants? Are You Missing a Great Opportunity?

Yesterday, I spoke with my umpteenth client who said, “Gee, we don’t want to interview them because they’ve been a consultant for so long.” I scratched my head and wondered, “Why do managers stop thinking?” Let me explain.

The bias against consultants is that they are mercenaries and are only working for bucks (unlike our charitable manager who is working for the greater good of humanity). They are not good team players. They will change jobs if they are offered $5 more in payroll. When the market gets better, they’ll go back to consulting.

Some consultants do not play well with others. They do not tolerate “politics” well and have trouble accepting decisions that make little sense. I know a lot of employees who are that way, too.

With the rising cost of everything, consultants won’t stay long in a job. Well, with the rising cost of everything, how long do you think you or your staff will accept 3% salary increases when the labor market is so strong?

But when the market gets good, they’ll change jobs! Well the labor market is good and will get even better over the next few years.

But worse yet, blindly closing the door on men and women who would like to be former consultants is plain pig headed. It excludes people who are used to handling difficult situations, are client service oriented and may have excellent reasons for wanting to give up consulting. Reasons like:

I’m tired of having to constantly market myself instead of doing what I love and do well
I’m getting older and want to settle down
I’m buying a house and need to be stable for a lender
I need cheaper benefits
I want to watch the kids grow up instead of working 80 hours a week on assignment and marketing myself
I was on a visa. It was my only way to work in the US
There were no jobs between September, 2001 and 2004; it was the only kind of work available

Blindly closing the door on consultants is wrong and bad business similar to excluding anyone based upon a prejudice. Take a few minutes to investigate and evaluate the reasons why someone is willing to give up the “glamorous life” of consulting. I suspect you will increase your choices.

Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com
© 2005 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, 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.

additional job hunting or hiring tips, go to http://www.newyorkmetrotechnologyjobs.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).

Where Are All the Tech People?

Where Are All the Tech People?

A new division of a client called today looking for a junior person. “We keep seeing people with seven or ten years of experience who are too experienced for the job. Where are all the candidates with 2-4 years of experience?”

Do you know where they are? I do.

They don’t exist.

The US economy went into a recession in March, 2001 (a recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of declining GNP; it started during August 2000 and became official in March 2004. Just as we were about to start another growth spurt, two planes flew into the World Trade Center and the US economy went into a depression. Despite the public numbers to the contrary, unemployment exceeded 10% and layoffs were enormous.

Think to what was being reported in the news—jobs going to India, out of work tech people not getting into interviews, people telling their kids to avoid tech like a plague. There were no jobs and now beginners being hired. This went on for more than three years in technology—even longer in the New York area.

So like the proverbial farm fields that are barren because the farmer hasn’t planted seeds, No one beginners so that are few juniors.

What can I do?

1. Treat your own labor force like gold. They will be someone else’s hiring solution unless you do.

2. Give everyone a raise out of the blue. Overpaying a little now may take away their marketability to another firm and keep them on the farm with you.

4. Increase the training budget. Few things make a tech happier than a new course (using what they learn is important, too).

5. Praise people for good work. Nothing is appreciated more than acknowledgement.

6. Sell when you hire people

Things in life work in cycles. The cycle where management can deal with IT staff as though they should be lucky to have a job are over . . . for now. Treat your staff like money in the stock market and your investment will be rewarded.

The Top 10 Reasons Your Staff Wants to Quit

From an employee’s perspective, management often conducts itself in ways that make no sense. When the economy is slow, jobs are few and far in between or people are fearful, staff will tolerate management behaviors and policies that are nonsensical (in their eyes) or they judge are harmful.

But when staff gets together for lunch and they start critiquing management, these are the Top 10 Reasons Why Staff Quit.

10. “My boss is arrogant and believes his own press clippings.” As a result, staff feels taken advantage of..

9. “My manager micromanages rather than trusting staff to perform.” Staff hates the boss and looks for ways to resist being over controlled.

8. “My manager is crushing my drive and desire.” Hired because they were smart and energetic, the manager is afraid that she will not be seen as the shining light (the reason for success) and crushes the very qualities that made the new employee attractive to hire (and desirous of joining).

7. “My boss guesses what is needed without resorting to data or facts.” Maybe he has the facts, but they sure aren’t being communicated leaving the impression of “It’s my way or the highway.” There are a lot of new roads being built in this country and staff will leave rather than be abused.

6. “I’m treated like a child.” Look, there are often generational differences between how managers and employees work. Younger workers may have “know-it-all” attitudes and unfamiliar techniques using technology to accomplish tasks. Staff feels misunderstood and resent their boss.

5. “Manager promotes someone from a different function who does understand the job and how to be successful.” Staff does not believe they can learn from this person, judges her to be an anchor around their department and resents that they were passed over for promotion.

4. “My boss is extremely critical.” The only way they interpret their boss is pleased is in the absence of nit picking.

3. “I get ideas lobbed at me with little clarity and I have to figure out what is really wanted.” Staff is caught between a rock and a hard place and doesn’t know the target of the task or have a clear idea of what needs to get done.

2. “I don’t have sufficient resources to get the job done.” Fitting 10 pounds of stuff into a five pound bag is pretty tough. Imagine you’re the ten pounds and have to get squeezed in there! Staff often believes they have inadequate resources to get a job done.

And the number one reason your staff wants to quit:

“My company is grossly underpaying me.” Show me the money! Staff can read job ads online and learn what their real value is. As much as they may love you and their work, eventually people realize they need to pay their bills and start to think of leaving.

Your staff, the ones you are mistreating or taking for granted are your competition’s staffing solution (just as theirs is for you). Rather than taking their continued employment for granted, motivate them, excite them, coach and encourage them and they will go do anything for you (at almost any price).

Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2004 all rights reserved.

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

For additional job hunting or hiring tips, go to http://www.newyorkmetrotechnologyjobs.comIf 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).

Where Will Your IT Staff Come From NOW?

The labor recession is over. During the course of the recession, almost 500,000 IT positions were lost according to publicly collected data and anecdotal information suggests even more. According top a recent poll, American business will add over 200000 new IT jobs in 2005. Your staff will probably be scanning job boards to see their value and blocking access is useless; they’ll only do it at home.

So now that companies are hiring again, where are they going to find their staff of educated experienced professionals?

In most labor recessions, the group most affected by staff reductions is that of older, more experienced workers. These individuals have often accepted managerial positions that are less in demand as firms do fewer new projects and are often maintaining existing systems. Yet, initial demand during a recovery is for staff level professionals who are involved with execution, rather than managing. Thus the most affected group is the one least sought after when the recovery comes—unless they have used this time to revitalize their core technical skills and reposition themselves as staff, rather than management.

The other impact of a labor recession is that fewer young people are focusing on technology as their potential profession resulting in fewer people entering the labor force.

So your company has funded projects that need skilled staff. Where can you turn to?

1. Underutilized internal staff. Are there people on your staff who are high performers in their current role who could be trained for lower level staff positions on the project? These people may have an understanding of your business and industry that will provide subtle value on the project. Training them will help to retain them, keeping them from being picked off by other firms (Oh did I mention, that your staff is going to be poached again by other firms with labor shortages, offered salaries that you may fund shocking).

2. Consider hiring people who can be employed through TN visas. TN visas are one year automatically renewable visas that were created under NAFTA. Often, these employees will work for less than US workers. It requires an offer letter crafted in a particular manner and a check for $50.

3. Work with search firms again. You don’t have the time to speak with every person who emails a resume to you, especially people who flip resumes to every job posting like burgers at a fast food restaurant. Using search firms or employment agencies to assist with hiring will help with your time management. Interview them like you would a new employee. Once you accept them, provide them with useful screening questions in order to serve you. It is not enough to say, “I want a J2EE developer with two years of experience.” Tell them what the person should have done within those two years. Give them a questionnaire to administer pre-referral.

4. Hire people who have H1B visas. You can pay for these people as consultants where you will be charged more or you can pay for them as employees. Hiring someone with an H1B requires their completing a form on their first day of work that allows you to transfer the visa to your firm. Yes, you will help to sponsor them for their green card and that will cost money. They will pay for it with slightly lower wages and hard work. Getting someone who is early in their visa will allow you access to an employee for several years.

In 2005 and beyond, as the labor market picks up steam, you will need to be creative to attract and retain staff from your competitors. Fair wages and benefits will be one element that will help; training will be another. Yet whether you will even be able to find someone when you need them will be most important of all.

Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2005 all rights reserved.

Effectively Interviewing Job Applicants

You have a job to fill. You've looked at scores of resumes and invited several seemingly qualified people in for interviews. You'll pick one person from the eight or eighteen that you're meeting with to solve your staffing need. But after a while, they're all starting to get confusing. You don't remember who is who, Worst of all, all their answers are starting to run into one another. You've hired two or three people in your career so you don't have a lot of experience doing this. How do you organize yourself to get the person that you want to hire? After all, both your ability to complete your objectives successfully (and your ability to be promoted) are at stake.

1. Have the reception area a place where recruiting information is available for a perspective hire. Have brochure available that speaks to the quality of life at the firm, the company's financial health, benefits, the sorts of things that you would want to know if you were visiting a new employer. Make sure it is not a zone where people can be standing and complaining to one another while waiting for the elevator. As a test, walk into your reception area one day and imagine what message it would convey to a stranger. Look at the walk to your office and do the same. Is there something that can be changed to convey a better impression to a stranger?

2. Don't overbook yourself. Unless your sole job is to interview, it is hard to keep track of answers if you're interviewing three or four people a day. And don't let your appointments sit and wait a long time for you. You don't like it when you're kept waiting in a doctor's office or a gove240rnment agency. Don't be rude. In deference to your own schedule, try to make appointments during lunch or after hours.

3. If you have a receptionist or assistant, give them a heads-up about the appointment to insure that their desk is not a gathering place. If available, have them offer a beverage to the waiting person. And if you can validate their parking permit, don't make them ask for it. Have it done immediately.

4. Take notes about answers. Seems obvious, but too often people rely on their memory to make decisions. If you're like most technology managers, you're handling a lot of quick decisions in the course of a day and risk making mistakes that can cause you to miss our on someone you would otherwise hire.

5. Pay attention! As a professional interviewer, I am conscious of how often my mind wanders to something I need to handle outside of the interview -- a work problem, a call I need to make, something my wife or son said. This is not because the person I'm evaluating is inappropriate or incompetent. It's because I'm human and don't come equipped with a switch that allows me to concentrate at all times. Do your best to concentrate on the person in front of you.

6. Prepare questions in advance that will help you assess a person and their qualifications. Don't "wing it". You've developed a specification of a job that you need to fill. What can you ask to help you determine whether this person has the right skills to do the job and personality for your team and organization?

7. Sell! The person who you're interviewing may be the one you decide to hire. They may be someone who will get a call from a friend of their who is evaluating whether to come to work for you or hire you. Tell your story. Why did you join and what keeps you there? Why is this a great company to work for and a good opportunity Take the time to talk about the merits of joining your team and your organization. Sell, don't lie.

8. Finally, think about the number of things that you are uncomfortable with, embarrassed by or wanted to apologize for and correct them. For example, do people see the chaos of the work day, the office clown, the rows of empty cubicles or paper stacked on empty desks from the last layoff? What can be done to rectify the impression that is conveyed by these and other things?

If you follow these points, you'll find that you'll have more successful outcomes and waste less time making decisions.

Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2005 all rights reserved.

Pebbles in Your Shoe Don't Only Hurt your Foot But Cause Hip and Back Problems!

CIO Magazine ran an article entitled, "Ten Mistakes CIO's Too Often Make" I was thunderstruck by a mistake she sited---Pretend that your organizational weeds are really untended flowers.

My mind immediately went to a comparison with what it is like to spend a day walking with a pebble in your shoe. If you haven't done this before, imagine a pebble in your shoe, not just for 5 seconds, but what I is like to have a small hard rock under your foot for 12 hours.

It hurts, it moves around in the shoe sometimes disappearing and then re-appearing in a different place. Most people attempt to compensate by walking differently, thus affecting their posture or stride, causing pain to the back and hip in their effort to minimize the discomfort.

Too often, organizations lose their way by tolerating performance or behavioral pebbles that should be dealt with immediately. Because taking an action may cause a manager to "look bad", "develop a reputation" or in some other way appear to be poor leaders, managers develop a pattern of working around or coping with a problem rather than dealing with it.

Unfortunately, in the desire to avoid a confrontation with the mediocre subordinate, the work around solution often creates another problem like the hip and back pain derived from a pebble. Your staff knows incompetence when they see it. They resent doing extra and covering for someone else who doesn’t carry their weight. The bad job market won't last forever and these people will leave rather than continue to be taken advantage of. How smart a manager is someone to bring in a consultant to solve the problem created by a mistake in hiring.

Furthermore, the poor performer wastes your time by causing you invest time that you could be using on strategic work to create tactical solutions caused by their performance.
This market climate is one where you have an opportunity to replace poor performers with hungry eager staff. If remedial training to support the improvement of a subordinate is either unavailable or fails to achieve the intended outcome, there is no time like now to identify a superior talent and solve your problem.

Why walk around with a pebble for twelve hours when you can stop, remove your shoe and get rid of the unpleasantness in less than a minute?

Jeff Altman
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com

© 2005 all rights reserved.