Passive job seekers – those who are currently employed and not looking for another position – are often popular prospects for IT hiring managers. “They typically take their careers and jobs very seriously,” says career coach Megan Pittsley-Fox, a focus which employers tend to translate into desirable traits such as expertise, motivation and responsibility. But traditional recruiting approaches often don’t work well with this group. Here’s what you can do instead to reach out to passive prospects.

• Use social media. A recent Adler Group study revealed that 83% of LinkedIn users are passive job seekers. With 225 million registered users, you’ve got an impressively large pool of candidates to consider. Facebook and Twitter also offer opportunities to reach out to passive job seekers.
• Dangle the right carrot. Over time, many organizations tend to take even their top talent for granted. Boredom can also set in. So rather than focusing on money, lure passive job seekers with how much their work will be valued, or the new, exciting projects and technology that await them.
• Don’t come on too strong. Passive candidates tend to be skittish – after all, they already have a job that they are presumably happy with, and they don’t want to jeopardize that. A low-key approach during a networking event, or having a mutual professional acquaintance reach out, are great ways to gently initiate contact.
• Expect to do some hand-holding. “People who are comfortable in their current jobs have a deep-seated worry that they could be giving up something that makes them happy if they move to a new company,” says Bridget Frey, VP of engineering at Redfin. In this case, information is the answer, and the more, the better. Reassure passive prospects by giving them plenty of opportunities to get familiar with the people, the culture and the corporate mission.
• Be patient. It takes a lot longer to recruit a passive job seeker. Even if your initial efforts fail, keep the prospect apprised of great happenings in your organization. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of the right bit of news reaching the right candidate at the right time.

While passive recruits are often seen as the most desirable, it’s important not to get tunnel vision when hiring. Don’t ignore potentially great candidates just because they are currently out of work. Perhaps the best hiring strategy, espoused by Go Daddy talent acquisition manager Tara Lee, is this: “We don’t ask who is looking for a job — we ask who would be great at the job, and reach out to them — whether they’re working or not.”

With more than 15 years of specialized recruiting experience, Triumph Services can deliver the best IT candidates for the job regardless of their current employment status. For more information on how we can bring top technical talent to your organization, contact us today!

The economy has picked up – and so has your workload. The good news is that you’re doing well enough to hire more IT staff. The bad news is that it takes time to find the right person for the job. Here’s how to keep your overworked staff going strong until you can make that hire.

1) Be there for them. Now, more than ever, is the time to be an effective manager. You may be busy sorting resumes and interviewing candidates, but you still need to be available to support, guide and cheerlead your existing employees.

2) Consider cross-training. Training current employees on each other’s jobs opens up a lot of options when staff is stretched thin; you can easily shift workers around depending on need. It also helps staffers understand what it takes to do the other’s work, increasing empathy and efficiency.

3) Keep communicating. Don’t keep your staff in the dark about your hiring efforts. Stressed-out employees are more likely to hang in there without despair if they know you are working hard to find them qualified help, so provide regular updates on the process.

4) Use technology. This is a great time to see if there’s any software or hardware available that can lighten your staff’s load. Any increases in streamlining or efficiency can help improve both morale and productivity.

5) Do some outsourcing. If there’s no technology that can help ease the burden, consider bringing in a short-term contractor or two. The easiest way to do this is to find a specialized IT staffing agency, who will have an up-to-date list of pre-screened talent readily available.

6) Set priorities. When a department is short-staffed, it’s vital that both managers and employees remember the differences between “urgent”, “important” and “can wait”. Learning to give the proper things the proper amount of attention in the proper order can reduce stress and improve output.

7) Work as a team. When resources are scarce, people tend to get protective and territorial. Team-building efforts can reduce this instinct and encourage employees to pull together to get things done.

8) Set specific goals. Determine what things are realistic to accomplish while you are understaffed. Include employees in the discussion – their buy-in is critical to success.

9) Create a plan. Once you have established goals, you need to create a roadmap for achieving them. Determine who is responsible for what items, and how everyone will communicate. Once again, it’s crucial that you include your employees in the process.

10) Stay relaxed. Management sets the tone for the rest of the department. If you are stressed and irritable, you can expect your employees to be the same. A tense atmosphere can also drive away good job candidates. Acknowledge the challenges, but focus on maintaining a positive attitude while you are trying to hire.

Whether you need short-term help, or a long-term hire, Triumph Services can deliver top-notch, qualified IT professionals who can immediately contribute. Contact us today to learn more about our services.

One of leadership’s critical responsibilities, no matter what the industry, is to make strong, effective decisions within an appropriate timeframe. According to TechRepublic writer Patrick Gray, “For IT leaders especially, the pace of rapid technical change has made decision making in a timely manner all the more critical.” But not all managers live up to this responsibility – often with disastrous results, as projects stop or start, promises cannot be relied upon, and direction or follow-through are lacking.

Reasons for Reluctance

There are many reasons why managers find it difficult to make decisions. “If a manager is prone to risk-aversion, it will also affect his or her ability to move forward with decisions,” says Susan Steinbrecher, CEO of Steinbrecher & Associates, a management consulting firm. “I also see leaders/bosses/execs that get caught up in analysis paralysis. This type of leader will continue to gather more and more information — stats, figures, surveys, etc. — that ultimately prolong the decision-making process.” In addition to risk-aversion and analysis paralysis, some managers are afraid to take an unpopular stand or rock the boat. But what they don’t realize is that refusing to make a decision actually is a decision – one that can have very negative consequences for their department’s morale and work product.

Deadlock-Defeating Strategies

If decision-making is difficult for you, try these helpful techniques:

• Develop core priorities, and use those to determine which issues require the most immediate action.
• Ask more questions, instead of worrying that you may come across as not knowing enough. More information can lead to a more comfortable decision.
• Choose a devil’s advocate, and have that person be responsible for always offering a countering viewpoint. Not only will this help you see an issue more clearly, but it can often get a person who loves to challenge authority on board with your plan of action, as they will feel like their objections were heard and taken seriously.
• Set a deadline, and stick to it. Sometimes it takes a while to gather enough information, but don’t let that become an excuse for inaction. Choose a reasonable amount of time, and follow through.

Of course, as Gray notes, “There are certainly times when the timing simply isn’t right to make a good decision.” In cases like this, it’s important to keep your team informed as to why you are holding off on making a commitment, the factors that will influence the course of action, and a definitive time frame for revisiting the issue.

One easy decision for IT managers is to work with Triumph Services when staffing needs arise. Whether you need contract, contract-to-hire or direct placement IT professionals, our technology employment specialists will match the right people with the right job. Contact us today to learn more!

Employees getting picked for a long jury trial. A family emergency that keeps someone out for weeks. Or an abrupt departure without two weeks’ notice. It’s the stuff that IT managers’ nightmares are made of – and far too often, those bad dreams become an even scarier reality. The solution to getting a good night’s sleep? Cross-training, where employees – management included – are formally trained to take on functions other than their own.

Big Benefits

The smaller the company, the more critical cross-training can be, since there are fewer people likely to have a similar skill set and the ability to just step in. However, even the largest organizations can reap many benefits, including:

• Stronger Teamwork: Cross-training means that employees end up walking in the shoes of colleagues. This promotes an awareness of everyone’s contributions to the company as a whole, reducing misunderstandings, rivalries and territorial issues between co-workers and departments.
• Improved Productivity: “A ‘hot back-up’ is guaranteed with an effective cross-training program,” explains Dan Carrison, a partner with California-based Semper Fi Consulting. Employees can fill in instantly for a missing colleague, and managers also have much more flexibility to reallocate employees in response to a crisis or shifting workload.
• Increased Revenue: If work stops because someone can’t do a job, so does the flow of revenue. With cross-training, management can reduce costly downtime, resulting in a stronger bottom line.
• Happier Employees and Customers: Studies show that employees are more satisfied at work when they have the opportunity to learn additional skills. And since customer service is often one of the first things that falls through the cracks when there is a sudden absence, cross-training will keep your customers happier, too.

Best Practices

In a perfect world, employees could cross-train each other. However, in most organizations, it’s difficult for people to step away from their daily tasks long enough to properly train someone else. That’s where the savvy use of consultants comes into play. By bringing in well-chosen experts on a short-term basis, you can efficiently and effectively cross-train your staff without interrupting workflow or breaking your budget. This is an especially good approach for IT functions, where knowledge is highly specialized and constantly evolving.

If cross-training sounds like too much too trouble, consider the alternative. Jerry Osteryoung, professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at Florida State University in Tallahassee, reminds managers that, “You cannot avoid engaging in cross-training without leaving your company vulnerable to events beyond your control.”

If you’d like to take better control of your organization through cross-training, turn to the IT staffing experts at Triumph Services today. We have top technical talent with the ability to step in short-term to get the job done – ask us how they can help you!

The economic contraction that has plagued not only the IT industry but the entire country seems to be slowly resolving itself. But as market conditions change, so must the outlook of hiring managers. With competition for top talent once again on the rise, how do hiring managers know when to hire – and when to hold out for someone better? Here are some great guidelines.

1) Hire for skills, not status. If you’re holding out for a big name, you might want to think twice. Not only do superstars come with a higher price tag, but they often bring big egos with them as well. Yes, it can be flattering when a star player is willing to consider your overtures, but don’t necessarily pass up an eager, qualified and less expensive alternative who’s right in front of you for a longer, more expensive pursuit of a “name brand”.

2) Hire for attitude, not exact experience. Experience can be overrated. That’s the opinion of publishing mogul and HR book author Jim Roddy. He says that America’s “biggest hiring mistake” is that “recruiters and hiring managers overemphasize industry experience and immediately dismiss candidates who do not have specific job-related experience.” You can teach candidates industry-specific skills if necessary, but you cannot teach work ethic, humility and loyalty. If an applicant has the skills but not those traits, wise hiring managers will keep looking.

3) Hire for productivity, not pedigree. Many organizations build inflexible, sometimes pretentious requirements into their candidate search. Applicants must have degrees from a prestigious school, or worked only at certain top companies, etc. While these candidates might look great on paper, they can sometimes flop in the real world. While premium education or a big-name former employer is nice, it should not be chosen at the expense of qualified talent with a lesser pedigree – who are often more motivated to prove themselves.

4) Hire a person, not perfection. Recruiters such as Tracie Grant in Denver, CO, are sometimes frustrated by the expectations of hiring managers. “They want the perfect candidate,” she sighs, “when the reality is, there is no perfect candidate.” Organizations that hold out too long for the “perfect candidate” can face high costs in terms of lost productivity and reduced morale of overburdened employees. Yes, it can be costly to make the wrong hire, but sometimes it can be even more costly to make no hire at all.

If you’d like even more great hiring advice, turn to the technology employment specialists at Triumph Services. For more than 15 years, hiring managers have relied on us to handle their IT staffing needs - and we can help you, too. Contact us today!

Nothing is more frustrating for IT hiring managers than investing a great deal of time finding the perfect job candidate, only to get snagged on salary differences. Naturally, employers want to be as economical as possible, while employees want to maximize their earning potential. Here’s what you can do when salary becomes a sticking point.

• Stand your ground. If your budget is fixed, or you simply don’t feel that the candidate is worth more, then you can hold firm on your initial offer. Sometimes laying out a clear path for advancement (implying a high salary down the road) will make a candidate reconsider your offer.
• Revise the offer. It’s essential to make sure that you’re up-to-date on competitive salaries. A quick visit to sites such as salary.com may reveal that your expectations need to be adjusted, not the candidate’s. If that is the case – or if the candidate is truly outstanding -then you should consider increasing your offer.
• Supplement the offer. If you can’t pay more money, consider doling out more perks instead. Flextime, telecommuting or additional paid time off can sometimes be enough to convince a candidate to accept.
• Propose a “re-opener” clause. If you’re open to paying more once the candidate has proven himself, consider including a salary re-opener clause. In this scenario, the organization agrees to reconsider salary after a prescribed period of time. Ideally, this will be 2-6 months after hiring – any earlier, and the employee hasn’t had enough time to prove herself; any longer, and the tactic loses its motivational value.

Which course of action you choose depends on several factors. Questions a hiring manager should consider include:

• How unique are the applicant’s skills? “Purple squirrels” are rare, and thus don’t come cheap. The shallower the talent pool, the more money you are going to need to spend to make a qualified hire.
• How urgently do you need to fill the position? If an open position is costing the company measurable time and money, then spending a little more on salary might save more in the long run. Conversely, if the opening is causing minimal to moderate impact, then you can keep the purse strings tight and simply move on to the next best applicant.
• How much time have you invested in this candidate? If you’ve spent months finding the perfect fit, it could cost you more to go back to square one and reopen the search. Carefully weigh the dollar difference being requested against the time you’ve already invested.

As the economy continues to improve, employers will need to reassess their current approach to hiring if they want to recruit and retain top IT talent. In addition to finding quality candidates, Triumph Services has the knowledge and expertise to help set hiring expectations that align with the current IT job market. For more information about our services, contact one of our technology staffing specialists today.

According to a June 2012 study by The Conference Board, only 47% of Americans are happy at their jobs. In fact, to find the last time that a majority of Americans were satisfied at work, you’d have to go all the way back to 2005, when 52% of US employees reported being happy in the workplace. All that unhappiness comes with a serious price tag for employers. Sharlyn Lubin of consulting firm ITM says that, “Gallup estimates that the cost of employee disengagement is approximately $300 billion in lost productivity”. Organizations also have to factor in turnover costs – replacing an employee ranges from 16% of annual salary for the lowest-level jobs, to a whopping 213% for high-level executives. As you can see, it pays to keep your workforce engaged – and having fun at work is a good place to start.

Believe it or not, there are actually companies out there who provide “entertainment-focused services” to put fun back in the office for organizations and their employees. One such company is Plum Benefits, whose Director of Client Relations, Michael Civello, notes that, “Times have changed. In the past, fun was looked at as frivolous from the employer level”. Civello says that nowadays, employers recognize that fun is not only acceptable, but an important tool for increasing morale and decreasing turnover. Here are Civello’s top suggestions for bringing fun into your workplace, and reaping the benefits of improved employee engagement.

Get Outside the Office. Many employees are still fearful of being seen as “not serious” if they have fun at work, so try offsite activities like a happy hour, food tasting or cultural event so that everyone can truly relax and enjoy themselves.

Activate Your A-Team. Identify which of your employees are thought leaders amongst their colleagues, and bring them onboard in the engagement efforts. Having them act as “ambassadors” can help bring along co-workers who are followers, and hopefully even those who are the most unhappy.

Manage Management. Employees will take their cultural cues from the top, so efforts will definitely fall flat if top executives are not involved. Make sure that management not only approves of, but participates in, the activities.

Crank Up the Competition. Internal contests can bring workers together. The best competitions use interdepartmental teams – this increases social activity across the entire company, and teaming up with employees from other departments can even help resolve any existing territorial issues.

Establish Some Excitement. Take a page from your sales and marketing teams, and create some promotional momentum. Spread your effort across multiple communication channels, from email to posters in common areas to in-person networking.

Got some great ideas for engaging your IT employees? Chime in below. And if you’re looking to recruit or retain top IT professionals, contact the technology employment specialists at Triumph Services today – we’ve got some great ideas of our own!

It might be hard to believe, but more than 65 million Americans who are looking for work have criminal records. Of course, not all offenses can or should prevent someone from being hired for a job, and in fact, federal rules about discriminating against applicants with a record have recently been tightened. But certain crimes and jobs just don’t mix. Here’s why IT hiring managers must perform background checks, and what to look for.

Protecting Company Assets - IT employees have access to a literal wealth of valuable company property, such as expensive computers, mobile devices and other technology goodies. Even more worrisome is their access to sensitive data and closely guarded trade secrets. Data integrity is an enormous concern, and such precious information could easily be sold to the highest bidder if an employee with history of drug or financial offenses saw it as a good source of funding. Not only can such a breach ruin reputations, but organizations could also be on the hook for fines if they had confidentiality agreements with any customers that mandated penalties for leakage.

Ensuring Hiring Integrity - Some people really will go to any lengths to get a job. The last thing you want is to hire someone who has done some serious resume embellishment and won’t be able to actually perform the work he or she was hired to do. Even if a background check doesn’t reveal criminal activity, the information it uncovers can still help verify resume claims. For example, if a job applicant lists a position with Microsoft’s main office, but has no past residences in that area, some deeper digging should be done.

Avoiding Workplace Liability - Employers are responsible for maintaining a safe working environment, so think twice about hiring a candidate whose background check reveals sexual harassment, stalking or anger problems such as assault. Even if you don’t have an office, you could be held responsible for anything the employee does while on site at a client’s workplace.

Like anything else, background checks are merely a tool, and an imperfect one at that. Mistaken identity is a common problem, as many people have similar names or birthdates, and computers are only as accurate as the person entering the data. Be sure, too, that you have familiarized yourself with the tougher guidelines recently issued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) before using background checks as part of your hiring process. However, the tightened rules apply only to offenses that are unrelated to the position being applied for, and since most IT jobs require working with people, valuable equipment and confidential data, the range of disqualifying charges could be quite large.

If you’re searching for reliable, top-notch IT professionals, turn to the technology employment experts at Triumph Services. Our candidates are carefully vetted for both skills and background, so you can hire with complete confidence. Contact us today to learn more!

According the latest numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), IT workers have been an increasingly loyal bunch. Average time in a job has risen nearly 30% since 2010, up to the current 7.7-year stint. The national median for all occupations is only 4.6 years, so you could say that IT workers are 67% more loyal than average.

These kinds of numbers make IT hiring managers do a happy dance. After all, the cost of replacing a high-level tech employee can reach 200% of their annual salary, depending upon their skills and the company’s investment in training. But don’t reach for those dancing shoes just yet. Unfortunately for tech firms, the numbers say that the current trend of employee stability is likely a result of the poor economy. A recent Kelly Services survey of over 10,000 IT workers found that 65% are planning to search for a new job this year, a 5% increase from 2009 – and the improving job market means that more new positions are out there for those who chose to look.

So what can IT organizations do to avoid costly turnover and keep top employees? The first step to developing an effective retention plan is knowing what your employees really want. “You’ve got to offer more than salary to entice and retain people,” says Matt Chasen of Austin-based shipping company uShip. With a turnover rate that’s half the national average (1.5% versus 3%), Chasen knows what he’s talking about. Some of his organization’s key strategies include strong lines of communication between employees and management, mentoring and promoting from within, and offering perks such as an on-site chef who prepares lunches. Other firms are taking part in the growing trend of “stay interviews”, which, as the name suggests, are conducted with current employees in an effort to reveal the reasons behind their loyalty.

The Kelly Services survey revealed other attributes that can boost your retention rates. Overall, IT professionals are seeking companies viewed as “innovative”, with a “strong market presence”. A Gallup poll on employee loyalty puts yet another spin on things -the idea that employees are loyal to people rather than companies. “If you’re looking for a silver bullet, it is the quality of the relationship between an employee and his or her manager that determines the overall level of employee engagement,” says James Harter, Chief Scientist of Workplace Management for Gallup.

The bottom line, however, is that some employees feel that their only choice is to move on. In the Kelly Services survey, 55% of the respondents believed that changing employers was the key to their career growth and development. So while IT hiring managers should definitely focus on retention, they also need to develop strategies for handling employee turnover – and Triumph Services can help with both. Contact us today to learn more about the wide range of services we offer, and the 15 years of experience that keep our clients coming back for more.

One of the toughest things about hiring IT professionals is how fast key technologies evolve – today’s “hot” can be tomorrow’s “not”. So what skills really set a top candidate apart from the rest? IT TechNewsDaily asked three experts for their take on IT hiring, and what they had to say might not only surprise you; it even could change the way you interview.

Interpersonal Interaction

The days of programmers being hidden away in back rooms amidst a rack of servers are long gone. IT departments are increasingly integrated with other aspects of a business. That means that today’s hiring managers need to look for tech employees who are team players – capable of working well not only with each other, but other departments throughout the organization and even directly with customers. In interviews, be on the lookout for candidates who are articulate, outgoing and who maintain eye contact. While technical skills are important, you may want to value a friendly face over the latest cert. As Sophos IT services manager Tom Sweeney puts it, “What I look for is a desire to serve – I can teach them the rest.”

Business Knowledge

As bottom lines have bottomed out, management is taking a hard look at what role an IT department should be playing in their organization. Cash-pressed companies are looking to shift IT from a cost center to value creator – a transition that requires a healthy dose of business savvy in addition to technical know-how. Rachel Behrle of IT recruiting firm Tek Systems says of today’s tech professionals, “We just need to make sure these folks can go in to speak to the business owners and translate what’s happening.” That means hiring or training employees who can explain what technology does instead of how it works, and have the insight and ability to quantify the results of IT department initiatives in relation to company revenue.

“Can Do” Attitude

For his novel CIOs at Work, IT expert Ed Yourdon interviewed Chief Information Officers at over two dozen top national and international companies. When he asked about hiring, he found that these successful CIOs were looking for people who, “never say ‘no’ to a new opportunity, who have an open mind, and are flexible about getting into situations that they aren’t familiar with.” Consider incorporating some behavioral or situational questions, such as “Tell me about a time where you were assigned a task outside of your comfort zone” into your interview process to help uncover candidates with a winning attitude.

There’s no doubt about it – hiring great IT professionals is tougher than ever. Fortunately, it’s easy to get help from the technology employment experts at Triumph Services. Explore our award-winning website, or talk to one of our specialized recruiters today. From business systems analysts to database administrators to technical support to project management, we’ll help you find the right candidate with the right skills – right now.