INFOMAXIUM
Companies are facing urgent, short-term staffing needs but do not want to spend their money on recruitment fees or other hiring-related expenses, and this is creating new possibilities for job-seekers with networking skills.
One approach involves personal referrals from friends and colleagues, which can be leveraged to get in front of a prospective employer that needs to solve an immediate staffing problem.
A second approach involves talent pools -- loose collections of people with related skills that share business contacts, information, and job opportunities.
In the current business climate, companies have implemented very strict headcounts, so new work gets delegated to existing staff. Efficient and inexpensive talent pools give senior managers a tool to solve their staffing problems without permanently increasing their payroll costs. A single point of contact into a pool of people with "hot" skills can do this for them.
Members of talent pools can introduce themselves to many potential employers with a little bit of legwork, and fortunately, cold calls are getting more attention from inside companies than ever before. If you leave a message for someone clearly explaining your qualifications, chances are good that your message will be forwarded to a potential buyer in the organization.
Corporate Web sites offer another way to introduce your talent pool to prospects, using the standard résumé submission or contact e-mail functions.
"Get yourself into a talent pool by letting others know who you are, what you do, and how to find you. People are linking up through bulletin boards, setting up their own Web sites, and linking to group portals. It's really cheap and fast to build a personal network these days,"says Peter Ferrante, a partner with recruiting firm National Executive.
John Davies, an information technology professional with 18 years of experience, both with large firms such as Xerox Corp., Telus Corp. and the Toronto Transit Commission and with smaller dot-coms, is now an independent consultant who participates in talent pools. "Many different roles, like strategic planners, Oracle DBAs [database administrators], developers, and project managers are being filled by word of mouth. Someone tells someone they know about an open position. Pretty soon, the message fans out over many talent pools and an appropriate candidate is often located without incurring the cost of advertising or recruiting fees," he says. Being part of an external talent pool is not the ideal situation for someone seeking full-time employment, and may prove to be only a stop-gap measure. However, in the current job market, this approach provides job seekers with an opportunity to earn business income (and hence some tax benefits, if they're self-employed), and remain active in a chosen career while remaining in front of prospective employers.
Candidates looking to join talent pools should be careful to avoid groups that charge a fee to represent them. They should also be careful not to enter into formal arrangements that would restrict their future employment opportunities. Since talent pools are loose collections of professionals seeking opportunities, there is no value in being exclusive. Many people join several talent pools at once.
If paid work is unavailable, members of talent pools can offer their services as interns to demonstrate their credentials to organizations they will want to join one day. The company gets a low-cost resource, while the candidate gets an opportunity to retain marketable skills and to build a stronger résumé while the economy continues to mend.
In any case, becoming part of an external talent pool provides an opportunity to stay in the game.
Mr. Lohia suggests using the executive sponsor's authority to ensure that everyone in the initiative sticks to the objectives that were established.
It is too easy for a simple plan to produce a basic blue suit to be turned into a complicated project for a three-piece, double-breasted, pinstripe suit that ends up costing several times more than the original budget and takes twice the time to build.
Build a dedicated and qualified team.
Nancy Stonelake, system architect at Sprint Canada, says the team or organizational structure is a key element to the project's success.
She offers the following advice:
"Screen prospective team members, whether they're coming from inside the organization or being hired into the organization, and test them for such characteristics as team fit, ability to learn, problem solving and adaptability."
Be prepared to offer training and incentives to the team members, and continually instill with a sense of team spirit for the duration of the project.
Establish clear project governance, accountability and communication channels.
To George Hart, engagement management director with Deloitte Consulting, project governance, accountability and communication are vitally important.
He suggests that executives must take accountability for a project and be active participants throughout its lifecycle.
There can never be enough communication between the different members and levels of the project team and the governance bodies. This communication must be honest and forthright to support proper decision making. Optimistic or pessimistic reporting is not helpful to anyone.
Conduct a thorough risk assessment and develop risk-reduction strategies.
According to Mr. Hart, a list of risks and strategies to reduce risk should be maintained throughout the project. This must include a rigorous examination of all the things that can go wrong during the project and what to do when they do -- or how to avoid them entirely.
Implement a streamlined set of management processes and financial controls.
Management processes are often described as unproductive overhead, but
"this is not the case," Mr. Hart says. "Use financial controls, project plans, milestone dates, status reports, and weekly status meetings to stay on top of every project. Ensure that there is enough budget allocated and available to pay for quality deliverables at all times."
Prove your solution through a limited pilot project.
Try a test run, or a small version of your project, and if you run into trouble that's a sure warning of problems looming down the line.
Ms. Stonelake says this risk can be reduced by developing a "proof of concept" before committing to building the full solution.
"The proof of concept allows you to test all your assumptions and ideas while giving you an opportunity to change your mind at a relatively low cost."
Discourage office politics.
Mixed-individual agendas are another problem on many projects. This results in office politics as people try to advance individual interests at the expense of the organization's interests. Office politics are destructive because they take focus away from the project's objectives and consume energy better spent elsewhere.
Learn from past mistakes -- either your own or someone else's.
Mistakes will happen even in the best of circumstances, or despite the most careful planning. Being prepared to minimize their impact, while learning from personal or third-party mistakes, improves your chances for successfully delivering the project as a whole. Look for examples of success in related projects anywhere you can find them even before you begin.