ARRA HITECH Impact on HIT Hiring

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

10-Signs-Your-Interview-Went-Well

Cover Letters

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

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

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

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

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

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.