ROI Recruiting

Recovery: Step 3? of 10?

2009-11-06T05:05:00.000-08:00

The media led the recession, and the media will probably lead the recovery. A number of reports recently including stabilization of unemployment numbers, stock market climb, higher real estate sales numbers in several markets, have tipped the media buzz towards 'we're in the beginning of the recovery'.

I tend to believe this is true. Recoveries tend to be in fits and starts however, and uneven.

In HIT, things have gone from very slow, to a slight trickle, to a slightly larger trickle. We're seeing more activity, although client urgency is lacking in most cases, and many requirements are for proposed projects, that may or may not be firm. I'd say we're at about step 3 of 10. Candidates are saying regularly that they are getting more calls, more activity, but things are moving slowly, stalling, or no decision is being made. Clients' mindset is that things are slow, there are plenty of candidates, so sense of urgency is lacking. And they may or may not be committed to filling positions. In the next few weeks and months, I expect the volume to steadily increase, more positions to get filled, and the mindset to gradually change.

There are a number of predictions out there of a looming talent shortage (again) in HIT, to come sometime in 2010. Question is: how soon?

My guess is things are likely to start getting busy after Jan. 1. We'll see.

Google Wave

2009-11-06T04:55:00.000-08:00

Google Wave

Facebook

2009-10-20T05:10:00.001-07:00

www.facebook.com/john.popowski

Twitter

2009-10-20T05:07:00.000-07:00

http://twitter.com/roirecruiting

No Job and Running Out of Money

2009-09-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.thewisejobsearch.com/2009/09/no-job-and-running-out-of-money.html<

New Requirements

2009-09-21T08:01:00.001-07:00

John is seeing things picking up. New requirements for Cerner, Epic, Soarian clinicals, McKesson Horizon, PMP Project Managers ..... 1 second ago -

Epic Non-Compete

2009-09-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

Recruiting in the Epic arena is even more of a challenge than many of the other HIT vendors for a couple reasons: One, they're hot, and outselling the others, so lots of demand, and two, the non-competes and restrictions on certifications only through client and approved vendor sponsored candidates limits the number of certified resources available.

We've had many conversations with candidates trying to figure out how to get certified, or how to make a change when their current employer won't release them.

What's your story?

"Passive" vs. "Active" Candidates Revisited

2009-08-21T07:29:00.001-07:00

I was reading an Adler article this morning and saw a reader comment post in response. The article talked about the recovery and predicted candidate behavior in the coming few months, cautioning companies to focus their efforts on "passive candidate" recruiting rather than chasing active candidates. One of the readers objected to the idea that there weren't many good candidates in the "active" pool.

The whole binary of active vs. passive is sort of a misnomer; there are varying degrees of job search or new opportunity receptiveness out there, and it can vary by day, week, month or whatever. People aren't either "on" or "off". And yes there are some good people who are unemployed, or very active, for whatever reason.

However, to varying degrees, highly active candidates are by definition less desirable than passive candidates. It doesn't mean that the active person hasn't been a good employee or performer in the past, it simply means that when a person is active, their behavior is more problematic for recruiters and hiring organizations.

Active candidates tend to be less selective about pursuing opportunities, they look at everything. They tend to give positive responses about their interest in relocation, travel, lower salaries, lower titles, etc, when their objectives are really more selective than they are saying. They want to keep doors open, they want to get in front of hiring managers to try and talk their way into better roles, etc. Which is frustrating for recruiters and hiring managers who are looking for someone for a particular role.

Passive candidates tend to be very selective and more specific about what they want. If you are active, and want to be viewed as a premium candidate, try and resist the temptation to cast a broad net and be specific and somewhat selective about the opportunities you pursue. Your behavior will be noticeable to the hiring people with whom you are dealing, and may get you more serious consideration for the kind of role you really want.

Anthony Guerra MUST READ: Part I of my interview with KLAS Pres Adam Gale. We talk of HITECH, Epic and other good stuff

2009-07-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/mj46qo

Hiring Forecast

2009-07-24T04:53:00.000-07:00

We may beginning to see the first signs of the uptick I've been anticipating all year.

Referring to some of my earlier posts, the ARRA/HITECH initiative has unfortunately seemed to have had the perverse impact of further slowing down hiring in the HIT field, as healthcare providers slowed hiring not only due to general economic/budget challenges, but also due to an understandable need to 'wait and see' on the eventual criteria for stimulus monies, aka the 'meaningful use criteria' and other specifics surrounding the reimbursement.

As those issues are gradually being clarified, we seem to be seeing some of the providers beginnning to move forward with their plans. The short version; it appears that CPOE in some fashion will be the 'meaningful use', so those that have system rollouts underway are beginning to adjust their plans and schedules to achieve that end as soon as possible.

The result should be a strong surge in hiring around EMR specialist types, particularly in areas around pharmacy, physicians, nursing, meds, ordering and CPOE over the next 2 years.

Hopefully we'll be laughing in 12 months about how crazy it's gotten vs. how slow it has been the last 6 months.

Job Transition, Outplacement Services etc

2009-07-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

Received an email today from ere.net on www.transitionconcierge.com/contact.php. Makes a lot of sense.

Bigger corporations often spend money on outplacement services for laid off employees. I've always viewed these with skepticism; it often seems more like a means of counteracting the negative PR for the company than a valuable service for the displaced employee. Help you re-write your resume, or as the article says, go to group therapy or grief counseling sessions? As the article notes, the best way to avoid grief and frustration is to find something great, fast. And transitionconcierge evidently focuses on funneling job leads to the employees to act on. A more practical approach perhaps.

The main thing is for the laid off employee to get busy, and land something, even if interim, fairly quickly, before frustration sets in, and before the process leads to self-doubt and depression.

Many of the outplacement firms are simply organizations, including recruiting firms, looking for somewhere to cash in on the recession, since recruiting or other revenues have taken a hit. How much value they actually deliver to the employees is debatable. To answer that, we'd need to know how many people they really helped find jobs. In reality? probably very few.

ARRA HITECH Impact on HIT Hiring

2009-07-01T12:45:00.001-07:00

There are some signs the slowdown in HIT hiring the first half of this year may be coming to an end. July 1, the official start of the 2nd half, seems like an appropriate time to be finally making note of some improvement.

The first half has been kind of ironic; 2008 was a boom year, and with all the hoopla around ARRA, HITECH, EMR stimulus, etc, we've been expecting things to take off again, the question has been when.

We're seeing some signs of increased activity with our clients, not huge, but across a number of them, which is hopeful. We expected the initial increase to be in needs for resources to help with research and planning around EMR's, not the typical upgrade and rollout resources that are typically in such high demand, and this appears to be bearing out. It may yet take a while for the increase in EMR applications professionals to rebound completely, but it appears it's coming. And with the tight deadlines to receive the complete funds, we don't expect it to take long to ramp up.

Hang in there.

10 Signs Your Interview Went Well

2009-07-01T06:39:00.000-07:00

10-Signs-Your-Interview-Went-Well

Cover Letters

2009-05-20T11:29:00.001-07:00

The following is a copy of my response to a query on Linked In. Thought it was useful to repeat here:

I generally skip the cover letter and skim the resume first to see if the candidate's background is relevant to the position at hand. Most aren't, and most cover letters are over lengthy, rehash of the resume and provide nothing useful in addition. I may go back to it and skim if the person's background is of interest and the cover appears to offer anything useful. Most cover letters' impact, if any, is negative, in that it turns out to be generic, or references the wrong title, (they forgot to change a generic letter to reference the correct position), contains typos, or as noted by others, demonstrates poor writing ability (the resume may or may not have been written by the candidate). It is a rare cover letter that is well written, brief, addresses the position at hand and provides any useful information to the subject at hand.

As an aside, with resume databases and the passing around of info, it is generally advisable to include all pertinent info in one document, as emails and cover letters and resumes may get separated by scanning applications, and handlers. Always include all contact info in the resume. It's also advisable to include your cover/objective info in the resume as well to keep from getting separated.

ARRA Math

2009-05-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

EMR's are big projects. Implementation projects in general and enterprise projects in particular, are usually going to follow a process that goes something like this:

Start to think about needing something new
Begin looking at options
Formalize a more specific group to begin evaluating needs and products
Develop list of potential applications
Investigate
Short list
Demos
Negotiations/Selection or Selection/Negotiation
Form project team
Develop project plans
Hire additional resources
Execute project plans (often in phases)
Remediate issues
Repeat
Stabilize/upgrades
Ongoing support

In order to qualify for the full monies in the ARRA, facilities need to have a 'meaningful use' EMR up and running in less than 2 years.

The above list of activities will easily take 2 years (actually longer) for any decent sized medical group.

Ergo, if you are not already well underway on this list, you've already missed the boat. Which means those that have been working on EMR deployment plans have a chance to get some additional money. Those that haven't been, will have to be extremely aggressive to get it done in time to obtain all the potential funds available.

The Unemployment Paradox

2009-03-25T05:50:00.000-07:00

Since Jan. 1, it's been quite evident that the slowdown has hit, even in HIT (Healthcare Information Technology). Although evidently not as bad as elsewhere, hiring has slowed down in the HIT sector, though that might reverse itself abruptly later this year or next, if the healthcare technology spending package proceeds.

One of the ironies of the current market is that in spite of the significantly greater number of candidates that seem to be available recently, filling perm positions is as difficult, if not more difficult, than previously.

Several factors seem to be contributing to this:

1) Many of the new candidates are consultants and contractors who have been benched or cut loose from their assignments or firms and are, at least initially, still looking primarily for new consulting or contract roles. This can change over time, and I've seen a few cases already, of those folks looking for the security of a full-time facility based position and willing to give up some of their income expectations in return.

2) Those candidates who have been downsized from perm facilities roles, have generally expressed a desire to stay put, and find another local position. Again, these attitudes can change over time as it sometimes takes a while for the realization to kick in that they might have to adjust their expectations or face a very long job search. At the moment we're only 3-6 months into the downturn, and the majority of the candidates have only been on the market since Jan. 1 or later.

The above 2 factors are pretty much standard, and we run into them in every market; consultants generally want to be consultants - travel, but not move. And perm employees want to stay put and not move or travel.

A couple of new factors:

3) The housing market; those that might be considering a move are understandably dubious about their ability to sell their house even if they find a new opportunity and location they like. No one wants to be faced with the financial burden of unintentionally carrying two homes for an extended period.

4) Maybe the least obvious; the psychology has changed. In an upbeat market, people are more confident in general, which promotes more of risk-taking mentality. They are confident of being able to sell their home, and perhaps even more importantly, they don't see taking a new position as being as high of a risk as they do now. If someone takes a new position now, moves to a new location, buys a new house (even if they sell their old one), if they end up not liking the new job, new location, whatever, they perceive their ability to up and move again, and find another new job to be much lower. They may be stuck there.

Why am I sharing this? It may seem counter-productive for a recruiter to be acknowledging the challenges. My point is that it makes it all the more important for the recruiter to work harder, dig deeper, and find the right candidates with right motivations. Recruiting passive candidates has gotten much more difficult recently; the new opportunity now has to be even more of an opportunity than before. Frankly, I also think the focus has shifted more from a focus on the job (money, position, growth, etc) to stability, security, lifestyle, family.

Right now I'm still trying to find those who really want to move. The realization for some that they have to move is going to come soon, and we will find ourselves spending more time working with those motivated by necessity than dreams, before much longer.

Something to Put a Smile On When Times are Tough

2009-03-06T04:33:00.000-08:00

The Consultant Blues (read with a blues tempo; tears optional)

You know, I have a job coming up but still
Still I have these consultant blues
Each day just goes by, goes-by without good news
No news about, about a new position to fill
I have no news, no news to bring me a thrill

Kerri is looking for somebody
But they don't sound anything like me
I say, Kerri is looking for somebody
But they don't sound anything like me
I got just one certification
And Kerri's askin for three

Everytime I see your name on my computer
I believe in hope of work lord once again
These here consultant blues done got a whole of me
When will my unemployment (checks) and troubles end

In the mornin when I rise, I look for a sign from up above
My situation is shacky baby, no recruiter textin me - no mo recruiter love
Just a hopin maybe., just a one day maybe
A Kerri-mail will unbind me, and set me free just like a dove

Credit: B.Copeland

That's someone we'd like to find a job.

Playing it Straight With Recruiters

2009-02-19T11:06:00.000-08:00

I tend to blog the most when a hot topic crosses my mind. Usually, it seems like when someone has annoyed me. Another case in point today I suppose.

FYI, the ROI blog is intended to be down and dirty and informative. Not just the usual PR pander. I'm not sure if everyone will appreciate my style, but the great thing about blogging, is you don't need everyone else's approval.

Some of this may be re-hash of other posts, but here goes:

People, if you are going to work with recruiters, make sure you understand how it works. And Recruiters! Make sure you tell people. Some people will still lie to you, but at least with a better informed population, the stupid mistakes will diminish!

Recruiters come in several flavors: company, 3rd party retained and 3rd party contigency. Company = company HR, 3rd party (like ROI) work for companies as vendors. Retained means the recruiter gets paid for working on the search. Contingency means only if they fill it.

We're going to focus on contingency today, since the majority of 3rd party work is contingency. ROI does both, but more contingency than retained.

Candidates, if you are going to work with a 3rd party recruiter to try and have them help you find a position, it does you absolutely no good not to tell them about any prior applications, interviews, or communications with a company. Getting the recruiter to submit you again is going to: make you look like a cheap commodity at best, or possibly dishonest or stupid. It's going to waste the recruiters time and make them look bad to the client. Most companies will not pay a recruiter for a referral of someone they have received a resume from in the last 12 months.

Candidates like to 'forget' they had any prior contact with a firm, even if they had an on-site interview 2 weeks ago! I can ask outright, and many will lie. Others simply forget to mention.

I'll let you in on a little secret: If you get me to refer you without telling me you already have been, and the client then tells me, several things happen: I have no motivation to get you hired because I won't get paid. If you lied to me, I'll tell the client you did. And even if you didn't, it's not in my interests to have you get hired, because I don't get paid, and the position is then closed and I don't have another opportunity to find someone else. Do you really want someone talking to the client about you that knows your background in detail and DOESN'T want you to get hired?

Addendum:

To be clear: I don't believe in trashing people, regardless of how much they've annoyed me. It just doesn't pay. However the thing to keep in mind in this business is that a mediocre comment or endorsement, or a complete lack of endorsement may be far worse than a trashing. If you trash someone, you come across like someone with an axe to grind. If you simply don't have anything positive to say about someone, that tends to speak volumes. Candidates, you only want your strongest advocates talking to people about you. And this includes recruiters, and references.

An example: Since candidates provide references, it makes sense that those people would provide glowing reports right? You'd be surprised. Some haven't even given their ok to be references, some trash the candidate, some give very lukewarm feedback. If these are your strongest advocates, and they only give you a B/C rating, what does that tell people? Keep in mind with grade inflation in everything these days, C=E in my book. Failing. When I'm talking to references, I focus pretty heavily on what they don't say and what they don't stress as superlatives: areas they don't mention as strengths, areas they mention as "OK", etc.

You better be sure both your recruiter and references are talking about you in glowing terms. Especially in the market right now. Being straight with your recruiter is a good start.

By the way, if you don't feel like being straight with your recruiter, why are you talking to them in the first place? Do your own job search, or find another recruiter.

Selecting an ATS System

2009-01-14T11:54:00.000-08:00

Saw a great post today on selecting an ATS system.

Most discussions around this tend to focus on various tactical aspects - functionality, access, etc.

This note points out that the KEY to starting an ATS selection process, or any software selection process, is understanding your business and requirements before you start. Most software implementations fail, and a good percentage of them fail before they ever start for the same reason: If you don't know what you should be getting, then how do you make a good choice? Most business people proceed assuming they know the answer, and they don't:

http://tinyurl.com/7ev4jt

Reminds me of people selling their gas guzzling SUV's for a $20k hit to save $500 a year on gas.

Mozy Computer Data Back-up

2009-01-09T05:35:00.001-08:00

Here's another great tool to check out:

www.mozy.com

This is a great free data backup tool that you install on your computer and will store around 2GB of data free. You can pay to receive more storage space, or get additional space by inviting friends.

Works in the background on a schedule you set, and is very configurable to store the data you want, and not the data you don't.

Password Safe

2009-01-09T05:33:00.001-08:00

Here's some info on something I use.

http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/

This is a great secure tool for storing your ID's and passwords, instead of using post-its or recipe cards. It also randomly generates passwords for you to use.

Works great for someone on a single computer.

A bit more complicated for someone with several computers, because it stores an encrypted database on your computer, but if you have more than one computer you use, you would have to keep the databases synced up, or you could install the program on each computer and carry the database on a USB key.

I have dozens of sites, ID's and passwords for both business and personal stuff and keeping track of it all is a real challenge. In addition to the encryption protection, having a simple way to create and stores ID's and passwords makes them easier to keep track of, and provides less reason to re-use the same ones over and over, which is a security risk.

Changing Market Conditions - Stand Out from the Crowd

2009-01-09T04:45:00.001-08:00

Deteriorating economic conditions are impacting the healthcare technology space as well as the rest of the economy.

In my experience, HIT has been a consistently strong arena regarless of current economic conditions (2002-2003 for example). However, the current environment is starting to appear to be an exception, and some slowdown in spending by healthcare faclities is evident due to decreases in revenue due to more visits by economically distressed patients with challenges in paying, as well as funding challanges, continuing government reimbursement decreases and related factors.

While HIT is still much stronger than many areas of the economy, we're seeing more of an influx of resumes and candidates than we've seen in a while, longer time on bench for consultants and longer job search cycles.

In order to stand out from the crowd and make yourself a real 'recruiter pleaser candidate', help yourself out do the following:

Contact the recruiters you know periodically, but not incessantly, every 3-4 weeks, unless you're working on something. DO NOT constantly apply to positions or apply to multiple positions at the same time from the same firm.

When you DO apply, make sure your cover letter outlines your parameters; are you looking for perm? w2? 1099? long term? short term? do you need benefits, can you travel weekly? only east coast? spell it out and don't waste your and their time.

Keep records of where you apply, for what, and who you've talked to.

HealthCare IT Spending Survey Report December2008

2008-12-11T06:02:00.000-08:00

Link to Healthcare IT spending report survey results, December 2008.

Lying Out Loud, for Crying Out Loud

2008-11-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

One of the necessary evils of this business is occasionally dealing with people who lie.

The amusing, or maybe bemusing, part, is that many of them do a really poor job of it.

I run across resumes several times a year from people who I've seen resumes from before, who have gone to work for a new company, and been fired or laid off in a short period, and who subsequently delete that company from their resume after having listed it before. Sometimes they'll adjust the dates of the preceding and subsequent positions to cover up the gap.

People do this on their Linked In profiles sometimes too. I guess these folks figure others have such short memories that they'll never notice. Perhaps they forget that technology these days stores emails, files, etc, like Google cache, or selecting the 'show all dates' parameter in a resume database that you can frequently recall info from a year or two back quite easily.

Not to mention that your references, and colleagues, will frequently mention that they knew you at 'Company A', then you went to 'Company B', and now you're at 'Company C'. But 'Company B' appears nowhere on your resume?

Remember: "Tell the truth, it's easier to remember".

Worth: What Are You Worth?

2008-10-23T05:52:00.000-07:00

Boy, that's a loaded question.

One could write volumes; actually many volumes have already been written about a person's worth, value of a human life, achieving one's ambitions and all sorts of variations on these topics.

But I want to focus on a more objective answer to the question, not the subjective. Because it comes up all the time: candidates are always making the comment that "I feel I'm worth X dollars" etc, or "I'm worth more than I'm making".

In economics I remember the discussions around the 4 P's of pricing, product, promotion and place. The concept applies to the "price" (or value) of a person or employee, in economic terms.

Just like a glass of water might be free, or worth nothing, from a city water fountain, and worth a man's life savings if he's dying of thirst in a desert, a person's worth varies according to place, time, circumstances, etc.

What I'm saying is that the candidate comments about being worth more, etc are nonsense, or rather sort of irrelevant. We're all worth more or less depending on the situation, but in career terms, you are worth what you are making right now. You might make more later, or less later. But right now, you are worth what you are being paid, because you have accepted that situation. If you haven't found someone else to pay you more for something you'd accept doing, then you are worth what you are getting.

It's not hypothetical question. If you find another job and are there making more, you are now worth more. If you are fired a month later, you are now worth zero for the moment. If you can't find anyone to pay you what you think you are worth, go into business for yourself and see if you can make what you think you are worth.

Everyone tends to view their worth in terms of some sort of imaginary perfect world scenario. For that matter we tend to view the worth of our tangible possessions that way also. We tend to think our houses are worth more than the agent does (we don't see the dirty carpet, walls that need painting, etc., we just know what another bigger nicer house in the neighborhood sold for $100k more than what the agent is telling us to list ours for). Same with used cars; we usually set the price based on excellent or near excellent condition, but eventually end up selling for something less... usually.

Just because you made $150k a few years ago during the boom, and got stock options, etc, while you were working 70 hours a week and traveling 3-4 days/week, doesn't mean you are worth that when you've moved from San Francisco to Memphis and now have 2 small kids, want to work 9-5 and be home in the evening.

Just because someone else with a somewhat similar background is making $40k more than you doesn't mean you are worth the same.

Our expectations tend to rise easily, and adjust downward slowly. Which is a good thing in some ways since it means we tend to constantly strive for more, which is really the basis of our entire economy. Just don't let an unrealistic view stand in the way of a good new situation, or satisfaction with one you already have.

On the other hand, if you sincerely believe you should be making more, then find another situation and prove it. That's what recruiters are here to help you do. But recruiters will be very selective about the use of their time. We pay close attention to what WE think you're worth in the marketplace.

And another thing; be cautious of squeezing every last dollar of compensation out of every place you go. That's fine if you deliver more than the boss expects on a regular basis, because then you've got additional growth potential. But if you're getting pretty much the max that your worth, and the max that you can get, someone else who is delivering more for the money is more likely to be kept around when times get tough and the boss starts looking for places to make cuts.