Don’t be a Caterpillar

Let’s face it.  Times are tough all around.  Business is down in just about every industry except bankruptcy attorney’s and “repo” men.  Every time it looks like things are improving, something happens to slow things down again.  What can you do? 

 I remember an old adage that goes, “find a need and fill it”.  It used to work for you.  Why isn’t it working for you now?  The answer may be that the need you used to fill doesn’t exist anymore or, the demand for it has diminished to the point where there isn’t enough business for all the providers.  In other words, the pie is smaller but there are still as many people at the table. 

My partner and I have had this happen to us in our business.  We are knocking on every door we can find to fill business orders but, our customer base is just not interested in engaging either because they have no need for new resources or, they are going to sources that offer what they perceive as the same service for free or at a very low cost.  It doesn’t help us to tell them they are losing the professional consulting, screening and time saving we have always provided.  They aren’t interested in the value proposition.  They are only interested in minimizing their cash flow today.  They will worry about the consequences later. 

Having encountered this new situation for our business, we put our heads together and came up with a plan.  We polled our customer base to ask them what they really needed to help them survive and even grow in the current economic environment.  We gathered this information and came up with a model that addresses their stated needs.  Next, we prepared a presentation for the executive team of a major corporation (largest Application Software Company in the world) where we presented our concept and our plan to propose it to their resellers.  Bingo!  We got an enthusiastic response with a commitment to help us refine our offering and a commitment to help us select and close a pilot site.  They saw this as a win for them because it would increase their business by increasing their reseller’s volumes.  The reseller’s would also increase their business and profitability and we would also see a win from a new revenue stream.

Is this our core business?  No it isn’t but, it is finding and filling a need within our customer base.  It allows us to continue to serve our customers and it creates a new revenue generating business.  It also allows us to maintain the positive relationship we have with our customers and when this storm passes they will need our core product again and we will be there to fill that need.

Back to basics on how to find a new job:

·         Network Network Network

o   Make sure you touch everyone within your network. Given the amount of noise in the talent pool, you need to separate yourself from the noise by leveraging your relationships in your network so that they can help you get to the top of the pile of other resumes. Follow up religiously.

o   Expand your network 2-3 degrees from you

o   Include trusted headhunters in your networking portfolio.

·         Make sure you can be found- Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc…

o   If we can’t find you, we can’t help you.

·         Finding a job is a full time job

o   Rule #1- have a job when you’re looking for a new one.

o   If you don’t have a job, dedicate the same number of hours daily and weekends to find your new role.

·         Identify your targets

o   A lot of companies do not openly advertise open positions on their websites or openly post due because they don’t want to be deluged with crappy resumes (they use their own networks to find candidates).

o   If a company is posting everywhere, rest assured the noise quotient is high and you will need to adjust accordingly- read- avoid HR and focus initially on decision makers. HR will have to buy in at some point.

o   If you find a company of interest to you, do your homework, identify those in your network who may have relationships within the target company, leverage your network to get introductions, if you have to go in cold find a reason to make it warm.

o   If your current role precludes you from pursuing your target companies, share your target list with a trusted headhunter that can make those introductions on your behalf.

·         Use the phone 

o   Go old school and pick up the phone and talk to people, the goal to pique enough interest to arrange a face to face meeting.

§  People include hiring managers, decision makers, executives, career coaches, headhunters

§  Make sure you have something good to talk about

·         Avoid HR

o   Unless you are reaching out to a decision maker avoid the gatekeepers in HR.

Please feel free to comment and add your suggestions. My next post will be on how to work with recruiters and headhunters.

Several of our customers and many more of our prospects now feel that they can find great candidates by putting out a solicitation for employment by posting their openings online versus engaging a professional search firm.  They feel they can save money because of the number of people currently available in this labor market.  Sometimes they can get lucky but, oftentimes they can get burned.  I would like to share a couple of examples of this type of folly.

 One of our clients recently hired a new employee they found from their CL posting.  They were impressed by this candidate’s resume and he seemed to be a perfect fit on paper for their job posting.  However, we, as a professional recruiting organization had already reviewed, researched and rejected this candidate.  Our research included reviewing this individuals profiles, pictures, postings and general information found on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Ning and others. Based on our review, we had not presented this candidate because we had determined that not only had this candidate falsified his resume but, the candidate was a drug dealer and had numerous web postings of his ability to sell drugs and drug paraphernalia.  Not only that, his web postings also advocated the use of drugs to be “mind expanding”.  He had also not worked for the companies he listed as his last two employers.  He had only worked as a temporary, part time, contract resource.  I am sorry to say he was hired into a company of 20 to 30 year old employees that now have their own “drug dealer” on site.  At best the entire company culture may now be turned upside down at worst this “bad apple” can be the downfall of the company.  Is this what you want?

Another example is which we helped a customer not hire someone who looked good on the outside but, after careful screening, broke apart.  This individual knew how to cover up to a limited extent but, when challenged, he folded like a cheap tent.  We determined this by a screening test (DISC) which the potential employer would not have used for screening purposes.  We found this candidate could cover up his true personality until challenged in specific areas.  When we challenged him in these areas, he could not respond with his “cover” personality and reverted to his true personality.  This response indicated that he was unable to follow through with the sales cycle because he could not take criticism or challenge to his opinions. We directed our customer to not hire this candidate (this on a contingent search) and ultimately our customer decided to roll position into another. We lost the commission but gained the respect and credibility with our customer.

You can’t always get this type of screening from yourself or your HR department.  There isn’t enough time or resources to cover all the bases, all the time.  This is our job.  We are accountable to you for the success of each candidate.    

 Deal with professionals.  We will do the screening for you and make sure you have a “cultural fit” within your company.  It only takes one “bad apple” to spoil the bunch.  Times are hard enough without tarnishing the professional reputation of your company.  Use a professional search company to effectively provide you with candidates that will not only do the job but, you can be assured they will be the right fit for your company’s culture. 

John Edwards 

jedwards@scpartnersinc.com

www.scpartnersinc.com

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/zpiester

New Searches-

• VP of Marketing and Principal Architect for stealth start up in Palo Alto…very promising company with a known CEO / Entrepreneur
• Product Manager for rapidly growing marketing automation software company
• Director Mobile Ad Sales in Chicago
• Senior Java Developers in Los Angeles
• New relationship with online video company, tough space but very unique offering
• SAP B1 openings across US and Canada
• We are hiring internally for Business Development and full life cycle Recruiters
• We are developing several strategic alliances to provide our services to companies receiving stimulus funds.
• We started twitting this week!
• SAP Major Announcment of our success with the RAP Program

Silver Creek Partners continues to grow and offer our core expertise in helping other companies solve problems so they can focus on meeting their goals and objectives.

Zach

zpiester@scpartnersinc.com

www.scpartnersinc.com

Recruiting Assistance Program from SAP
Gains Ground With SME Partners in Canada

More than Half of Small and Midsize Enterprise Partners in Canada Availed of Recruiting Program in 2008; Additional Services to be Introduced in 2009

TORONTO — Feb. 25, 2008 — SAP Canada Inc., a subsidiary of SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and Silver Creek Partners Inc. today announced the continued momentum of the recruiting assistance program from SAP, designed to assist small and midsize enterprise (SME) partners in Canada to recruit SAP-skilled professionals to support their businesses.

“After only a year since we launched this program with Silver Creek Partners, more than half of our partner network in Canada has benefited from the addition of highly qualified SAP talent to their workforce,” said Conrad Mandala, vice president, SME and Channels, SAP Canada, and SAP Business One, SAP North America. “Silver Creek Partners delivers the quality pool of talent and services that we need to empower our partners to continue delivering superior value to SAP customers.”

Silver Creek Partners co-developed the SAP recruiting assistance program, which provides qualified sales, pre-sales and implementation consultants for SAP channel partners under the SAP^® PartnerEdge™ program, the award-winning partner program from SAP that provides tools, resources and support to successfully deliver SAP solutions to customers.

 “During these tough economic times, SAP partners need to ensure that they are utilizing all their assets to gain and increase competitive advantage,” said Zach Piester, president, Silver Creek Partners. “They should look into strengthening their businesses with the best talent in the industry. The SAP recruiting assistance program provides them with an easy and affordable means to ensure they have the appropriate human resources to seize and leverage business opportunities.”

In 2009, the SAP recruiting assistance program will include additional services to help partners develop strategies and plans to predict and minimize risk, increase competitive advantage and optimize opportunities for growth.

Partners who have availed of the SAP recruiting assistance program say:

 “We spent a lot of time and energy internally and with other recruiting firms and had limited success in recruiting qualified SAP talent initially,” said Ron Mondor, CEO, Zantek Information Technology. “Through the SAP recruiting assistance program, we leveraged Silver Creek Partners’ expertise and now have a stronger team that is well-positioned to service our current and future customers.”

 “The current economic slowdown has created a tremendous opportunity for small and midsize businesses to enhance their business processes and address other strategic corporate initiatives,” said Moodi Mahmoudi, founder and CEO, KBMS Inc. “We are seeing tremendous activity across all our practices in this segment, and are working closely with Silver Creek Partners through the SAP recruiting assistance program to attract talent to best serve our customers.” 

For more information on SAP PartnerEdge, please visit: http://www.sap.com/smallbusiness/partners/opportunities/partneredge.epx

View the release on the SAP website http://www.sap.com/canada/company/press/press.epx?pressid=10985

About Silver Creek Partners Inc.

Silver Creek Partners Inc. is a firm delivering industry-focused advisory and strategic development and recruiting services with over 75 combined years of Sales / Marketing/ Operations/ Human Resources and Executive Management experience.

Silver Creek Partners has been engaged by domestic and international clients (both publicly-traded and privately-owned) on diverse assignments, delivering our core capabilities to evaluate, build or acquire mission-critical teams or to architect and execute business growth and recruiting roadmaps to achieve strategic goals. We are well known for our ability to deliver in highly complex environments according to aggressive timeframes.

For more information, please visit www.scpartnersinc.com

About SAP Canada Inc.

SAP Canada Inc., based in Toronto, is a subsidiary of SAP AG (NYSE:SAP), the world’s leading provider of business software*. SAP delivers solutions to help Canadian enterprises of all sizes to create efficiencies across supply chains and business operations, optimize performance and profitability, reduce costs, and increase competitive advantage. In addition, SAP Labs Canada, a division of SAP Canada Inc., develops cutting-edge software for a wide array of SAP applications from its Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver locations.

http://ping.fm/zcYa5

I am new to blogging and as part of my naiveté in writing about recruiting; I have started reading other blogs by those in the recruiting world.  I have found some very good articles and posts and unfortunately I have found a whole lot of noise. This may be adding to the noise, fair warning!

I came across a post in the blog Fistful of Talent. It is an interesting article that really shows the huge divide between internal recruiters and agency recruiters.  Agency recruiters need to find new business and internal recruiters need to justify their own existence. What I find fascinatingly absent is the loss of the focus on why both sides exist, which is to rapidly identify, attract and retain talent so hiring managers can meet their business goals and objectives. So if we are trying to solve this problem for hiring managers why is anyone cold calling an internal recruiter, who by their very existence  and justification of their own job is to not use outside help unless as a last resort or as directed by a hiring manager?

Generally speaking it just doesn’t make sense to me to approach an internal recruiter for anything. I can think of a many more productive things to do with my time like trying to understand how I can solve a specific problem for a hiring manager (which may include the VP of HR). What problem am I going to solve by calling an internal recruiter?

I say to all of the agencies out there to keep smiling and dialing HR, and while you’re talking to HR, we are talking to the hiring managers and solving problems.

Here is the post that I reference.

http://www.fistfuloftalent.com/2009/02/wax-onwax-off-the-corporate-recruiter-rant-against-bad-cold-callers.html

The team at Silver Creek was recruited specifically to allow us to have peer to peer conversations with the executive leaders we support.  Our Principals and LP’s include: Former VP Sales Xerox, VP of HR at Tier 1 global companies and highly successful startups, President of global communications company, CEO of 3 startups all with huge exits, CEO of 2 startups with 1 big exit, and a host of others. 

http://ping.fm/hyLe3

I often think back to events in my life that helped shape my character.  Some were positive, some were negative and some were a mixture but, all helped shape who I am today.  These cumulative events shaped the values and beliefs that guide the decisions I make every day.  I want to share one experience with you that instilled my belief in teamwork.  It’s a short story and I hope you will enjoy it.

I grew up in Miami, FL before it became the cosmopolitan city it is today.  At the time I was growing up there were still Seminole Indian villages in the Everglades.  These people lived a subsistence existence off the bounty the land provided.  They lived in what are called chickees.  A chickee is ideally suited for the everglades.  It is four posts supporting a platform with a thatched roof overhead.  They also used dug out canoes and cooked community meals in a big pot in a separate kitchen chickee which served the entire village. 

My father always had an extended community of friends.  I remember a host of eccentric characters coming to visit my home and one of those characters was a Seminole Indian named Mike Osceola.  Mike was always coming by with game to share.  One time he invited my father to go hunting with some of the men from the village and he encouraged my father to bring along a couple of his friends.  My father eagerly accepted Mike’s invitation and invited two of his friends.  One was the owner of a swamp buggy and the other was a friend who had a son my age.  Before I continue with my story, I should describe a swamp buggy.  It is an open air automobile like contraption with over size tractor tires and it sits very high off the ground.  This allows it to go through the water in the Everglades without drowning out the engine and the tractor tires give it additional traction in the boggy swamp.

We left before dawn one morning and rode the swamp buggy about five miles off the Tamiami Trail to the village.  It was on a hill surrounded by water covered with sawgrass.  This is called a pine hammock.  The pine hammock was high ground and had a forest of trees which provided shade and shelter.  The village was a collection of chickees and it was made up of about a dozen families.  My father and the other men left me and my friend in the village with the other children while they went into the everglades to hunt deer, hogs, turkeys and other game.  During their absence my friend and I were cared for by the women of the village and we spent our days with the village children.  We fished, gigged frogs, paddled around in the dugout canoes and played games.  What a great time we had!  When the men returned from the two day hunt, we packed up our gear and headed back across the Everglades in the dune buggy.  As I said before the Tamiami Trail was about five miles away.  After about three miles, we blew out a tire on the dune buggy and we were stranded in the middle of the “sea of grass”.

What were we to do?  At that time there were no cell phones and we did not have a radio to call for help.  The only option was to get into the swamp and walk two miles to the highway where we could find help.  The water came up to my chest and sometimes as high as my neck.  My friend was about my same size so he had the same difficulty.  The walking was hard because the ground was not firm but had a thick layer of decomposed grass on the bottom that we call muck.  It would suck at your feet with every step.  We also had to carry our .22 caliber rifles over our heads.  This is when I learned about teamwork.  My friend tired first and I offered to help him by carrying his rifle along with my own.  This allowed him to recover some of his strength.  He then asked me if he could help by carrying both rifles for awhile.  I readily agreed as my arms, by that time, were burning like they were on fire.  After awhile, I took back the rifles and so we alternated for the two miles we had to walk.  We also helped each other by pointing out where the drop offs were in the swamp and we both looked out for snakes and alligators.  Most importantly, we kept each others spirits high by relating stories, telling jokes, sharing riddles and singing songs.  By the time we reached the highway we were exhausted, but our spirits were high because we had accomplished something together that may not have been possible if we were alone. 

Where were the men during this hike?  They had their own challenges because they were carrying their own rifles as well as critical gear.  Most importantly though, they recognized they did not have to help us because we were helping each other.  They saw we were practicing teamwork and they knew that would be enough to keep us going. 

The same is true in business.  Building an atmosphere of teamwork can result in success for all.  A team can help each other get through the rough spots and provide a synergy of resources by shared experiences and talents.  It is important to build an environment in your business that nurtures and encourages teamwork.  That is one of the foundations of our company, Silver Creek Partners.  We not only work together as a team but, we build teamwork with our customers.  We feel we are part of their team and their corporate culture.  Whether we are providing recruiting assistance to attract, hire and retain key employees or, if we are providing consulting assistance, we are part of the team.  Our values are fundamental.  Find what helps our customer and do it.  I hope this story helps you focus on the value of teamwork.  We welcome the opportunity to be part of your team.

www.scpartnersinc.com

jedwards@scpartnersinc.com

This week has been interesting in that we have signed several new customers and engaged with several existing customers and like everyone else had several push farther out. Fear and uncertainty continue to dominate the marketplace. The net new customers were those we have developed relationships with over the course of the past year but have not engaged in any formal business.

We have spoken with many leaders this week who are just about equally divided on how their internal recruiting teams are supporting them. Many feel their teams are effective and delivering the value and support that is needed and expected. I applaud these teams and their efforts to bring high quality people into their companies.

Just as many feel their teams are ineffectual, providing the same low quality garbage from the boards with an occasional gem (just enough to justify their contract) and delivering no added value. I recently spoke to an HR Director who has a new mandate to deliver the high quality candidates his hiring managers require. He inherited a recruiting team that admittedly flung resumes (in the hundreds) to the managers they were supposedly hired to support. He has kept this same team of slingers and has tasked them to become solution oriented executive level recruiters overnight. Good Luck!

The good news is there are leaders recognize the value of solution oriented recruiting. This is why many of today’s executive leaders continue to partner with external resources that they trust to add great people to their teams and do so with a process that doesn’t waste their time. It is with these leaders and with those HR VP’s who truly recognize the value of great people joining great companies regardless of where they come from. Balance that with some fiscal responsibility and you have a match made in heaven. This is why agencies exist and why firms like Silver Creek Partners will weather this storm as we have weathered all of the others.

Look out for several press announcements towards the end of February. Great things are happening!

I have heard the following this week:

“The position is a critical hire and we can’t function without it” It’s been open for a year.

“I would introduce you to our internal recruiting team but I like you too much.”

“We would like to retain you for this search but for only 6K as I got a call yesterday from an agency that said they would do it for 5K. Oh and please make that fully refundable with a 180 day guarantee”. Click! You got to love the no barrier to entry market that recruiting has become. I guess all the contract recruiters that were bleeding budgets dry have found themselves out in the real world.

“We are going to hire him despite the fact that he sells and advocates the use of marijuana”.

“I’m a Talent Acquisition Specialist” ,… what does this mean? What happened to headhunter or recruiter?

“There’s lots of people on the street, we’ll hire one of them as they are cheaper” You get what you pay for.

“Oh those 65 positions on our website, they aren’t really real, we are building up our database”

Contact us to learn how we can help without wasting your time.

Zach