Monday, April 27, 2009

Easier or more difficult to discover candidates?

The escalated rate of unemployment gives employers more confidence about their ability to discover new candidates.

Nonetheless, many have found that the most suitable candidates are hunkering down and staying with their current employer because:

1) They don't want to risk their "safe" status with their current employers

2) They don't want to be the "last person in" with a new employer, in case the new employer has a reduction-in-force, making them the most vulnerable

3) Fear associated with change is heightened in an uncertain economy

Consequently, employers have become frustrated or surprised by the lack of suitable candidates.

Xtra Effort needs to be sensitive to these employees' concerns, and not appear self-serving in creating exaggerate fears.

However, we would be remiss NOT to share exciting new opportunities with potential candidates, while also gently reminding them of the inherent risk of staying still, missing out on new career opportunities, and being blind sided by an unexpected Reduction-in-Force from their current employer.

  • Employees who are NOT looking for work, your comments? Our clients would like to know.

  • Employers who are frustrated with hiring results, YOUR comments? Your peer hiring managers would like to know.

(anonymous comments are fine)

How did you discover your new job?

Candidates -and sometimes hiring managers - frequently ask Xtra Effort "what is going on out there?".

We sometimes answer with detail about the types of clients hiring and what they are looking for in candidates. Other times we simply say things are slowly improving. We are not quite sure what the inquirer REALLY wants to know, i.e., "are things improving and am I going to be OK?" or a polite way of asking "what specific jobs align with my background?".

An Xtra Effort service that may be of additional value would to have more specific answers about how and where candidates recently discovered their new jobs:

1) Through a recruiter, previous co-worker, friend, etc.?

2) Was the position budgeted an established, or was it as a result of the candidate's unique strengths and how they aligned with a company's current situation?

3) Was the position a replacement or expansion position?

4) Why the candidate was chosen instead of the #2 candidate?

5) The size of the employer, and what they make and sell?

I think you would agree this content could be of value. Xtra Effort will do our best to ask these questions and post the answers, but YOU can immediately help by POSTING YOUR COMMENTS (anonymous is fine).

Can you help us help you?

Please COMMENT.

Thanks!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Restaurants, the circus, the mall,and David Gergen

Another naive observation: have you noticed the increased attendance at restaurants and the mall? We were also at the circus over the weekend: there were a whole lot of people buying $4 popcorn. I know there are bigger GDP indicators than mall parking lots, restaurant waits, and circus popcorn - but it makes you wonder, could things be opening up, at least a little bit?

Separately, I saw David Gergen speak at a Umass alumni breakfast gathering. Among his many impressive comments:

1) Don't select people (political or employment) for having the least red flags or weaknesses, but instead for how their dominant strengths align with your needs. Dominant strength alignment is a greater predictor of success than weakness avoidance.

2) Today's younger workers respond better to frequent and candid communications (and feedback) than a centralized command and control culture

Both of these comments struck me as insightful.

Still hot: Data storage, virtualization, and data encryption

Although IT budgets are down, Xtra Effort's recent client discussions indicate Data storage, virtualization, and data encryption projects are still being funded.

This Computerworld article elaborates: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9131321&source=NLT_NET

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Killer Apps with undeniable and hard ROI's

By coincidence, Xtra Effort is working with two clients whose sales transactions are partially fueled by the down economy.

Our first client provides software that analyzes banking transactions and detects fraud.

The second client provides software that analyzes enterprise accounts payable, expense reimbursement, and procurement related activity on a real time basis. The outcome is cash leak prevention by stopping erroneous transactions (whether they are fraudulent or unintentional).

Both companies have hard dollar return on investments within six months of installation.

These solutions are not to be confused with more the common compliance, role segmentation, or audit technologies - although their customers receive this functionality as a secondary benefit.

In today's econonmy, enterprises' can't help but to investigate and often purchase their solutions because they provide a near definite means to drive more cash to the bottomline. What a way to create a hero out of your customer!

The challenge of course is getting the enterprise's attention, and proving vendor viability and solution legitimacy (no easy tasks). However, once the proper enterprise executives are engaged and due diligence is executed, the results speak for themselves.

Both clients have several globally recognized enterprise customers who serve as showcase references.

Separately, in the same spirit of ROI, Xtra Effort is also working with a company who specializes in helping the hospitality industry improve their e-mail marketing effectiveness. Although it does not have the same hard cash ROI as the above companies, hotels, cruise lines, and casinos are enjoying the superior cost effectiveness of e-mail marketing as compared to traditional print marketing only.

http://webconnect.sendouts.net/CN_main.aspx?key=cn&id=XES represents a link to specific Xtra Effort client career opportunities.

Friday, April 3, 2009

West coast versus Central & East hiring demand

This week's client dialog has repeatedly informed Xtra Effort of their being greater hiring demand for Central and East coast people than West Coast.

The reason is lack of enterprise scale projects or procurement activity, at least as compared to the other regions.

This data was derived from IT infrastructure solution companies, and from application solution vendors.

What are you seeing?