Thursday, June 18, 2009

For Internal Reference Checks, Keep the Salt Handy
There’s no arguing that references are an essential part of the hiring process. They offer valuable insight into a candidate’s workplace accomplishments and character. At EdgeLink, we conduct a thorough reference process when screening candidates, vetting their resumes and track records with former employers and educational institutions. All that said, there is one kind of reference check (whether it’s positive or negative) that you should consider with a few extra grains of salt. It’s the informal, internal, word-of-mouth check many employers conduct by asking their own internal team members whether they know the potential candidate or have friends who have worked with the candidate. Polling your internal talent to get the “street’s” perspective on a potential hire sounds like a great idea at first. You may learn insights directly from former colleagues and get an in-person perspective on the individual’s performance and workplace personality. But what may seem like a no-brainer, no-cost vetting effort rarely yields the most reliable insight. Here’s why: Fair critique requires perspective. To give a fair analysis of a candidate’s job performance, the evaluator needs perspective. While colleagues have day-to-day contact and often collaborate, they are not mandated with the task of measuring, critiquing and improving each other’s performance. An individual, who may seem to be extremely busy and hardworking, might turn out to be very weak at final delivery and execution when management takes a bottom-line look. On the other hand, some of the most productive employees try as they may, might not be achieving the standards required to be truly excellent in a role. Supervisors who are responsible for the individual’s job performance not only have clearer insight into the work and results delivered, they have a personal stake in their employees’ success. That added stake adds more weight and more insight. The less emotion the better. People spend a lot of time in the workplace. It can be hard to get along with everyone, but it is also a place where strong friendships and loyalties are built. It’s hard to ascertain whether a word-of-mouth critique of a candidate is tinged by personality conflicts, shaded by the devotion of friendship or objective enough to yield real insight. How reliable is the grapevine? Few will argue that many misunderstandings occur through grapevine communications and second-hand accounts. As the degrees of separation between former colleagues and industry acquaintances increase, the chances of misinformation and misunderstandings clouding references rises as well. That must be factored in when gathering internal references. You must account for change. This final point is true with all references—people change. At EdgeLink, we know that the reference checks we conduct are excellent for fact checking: hiring and exit dates, work accomplishments, career paths across an organization, educational background, test results and workload. However, when it comes to workplace character (work ethic, team building skills, professionalism, etc.), we have learned that people change—sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Just recently, in fact, a client refused to interview one of the IT consultants EdgeLink had recruited due to a poor internal reference. One of the client’s staff members had worked with the candidate years prior and had not been impressed by his workplace professionalism. EdgeLink, on the other hand, had conducted extensive interviewing and reference checking and felt certain this candidate was a great match for the job as well as a highly professional technologist. EdgeLink convinced the client to give the candidate a shot and encouraged the staff member who gave the reference to join the interview process. The client ended up loving the candidate and the internal staff member was also impressed by the interviews. The candidate was hired and has been a productive and valued team member ever since. The lesson: We all have our career high points and low points. Allow for the possibility that people can change in numerous ways, especially when significant time has passed. So what do we at EdgeLink recommend? A ban on internal reference gathering? Absolutely not. We just want to remind business leaders and hiring managers to proceed with caution as you gather staff feedback prior to interviews and testing. Consider the reference information provided, the source and even structure interview questions to address any information you have learned. Above all, don’t base a hiring decision on internal references alone. You run the risk of missing great hires or, even worse, hiring and investing in professionals who have great internal connections but turn out to be poorly suited to their new roles. Make informed hiring decisions by tapping into a rich portfolio of candidate information and conducting a thorough, neutral interview process. Labels: Mike Miadich, Recruiting Recommendations
Posted by EdgeLink at 10:46 AM  |  0 comment(s)

Friday, January 27, 2006

FUN AT WORK!
Are you kidding me? When was the last time you had fun at work? Fun in the workplace seems to be a requirement here at Edgelink. Not only do we work hard, we play hard too. We set our goals on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. When we achieve those goals we are rewarded with a FUN day! We strongly believe this promotes teamwork, a drive to be the best in our field, and an overall positive work environment. Our most recent fun day, which took place on January 13th, 2006 (that's Friday the 13th), for example, the Edgelink team ventured outside of the office for our yearly goal setting meeting and then when the clock struck noon, we put on our bowling shoes. Wait, not only did we put on our bowling shoes, we (being the highly competitive lot that we are) made every aspect of the rest of the day a contest. Starting out, we split into three teams. Each team then created a team name and complimented that with “fabulous” costumes. To take the bowling competition up a notch or two, we added the challenge of bowling each frame in a different fashion. What I mean by that is; one frame was granny style, another time we pushed the bowling ball with our feet and so on. I am sure that you get the picture. Oh, you should see the pictures! We had contests for the best form, best score, best style and best team score. My team was the winner of the highest score, so I have to say, “Go Team!” All in all, healthy competition is always fun, especially when it is done the EDGELINK way! How does your company celebrate success? Labels: About EdgeLink, Juli Waterman, Recruiting Recommendations
Posted by EdgeLink at 11:26 AM  |  1 comment(s)

Thursday, October 06, 2005

What's up with QA?
We have noticed a recent staffing “up-tick” in the area of software quality assurance. After such a long dryspell within this area, it appears that all the technology companies in Portland decided simultaneously that it’s time to start recruiting and hiring QA Engineers. Now, that’s great news if you’re a QA engineer and bad news if you’re seeking to hire a QA engineer. Unfortunately, it seems to me that QA is often one of the first things to “get the boot” when things get tough, and therefore puts more pressure on software engineers to develop “quality products.” This appears to be one of the many sacrifices that companies make when things get tough financially. Consequently does this mean that companies are beginning to make enough profits to justify pumping up their quality? The sudden surge of quality assurance engineers to be hired in the market appears to be a solid indicator in the optimism of the economy. One of the challenges (as recruiters) we face is locating available QA engineers, and due to the fact there has been minimal hiring in QA over the past two to three years there hasn’t been much “draw” for people to get into the field, thus resulting in our current shortage of talent. I’m excited to see things picking up in this area, but how do we keep up with the recruiting!? These are my thoughts and I’m curious to hear if anyone has any other thoughts or theories to the situation? Labels: Industry Insight, Jeff Miller, Recruiting Recommendations
Posted by Jeff Miller at 3:16 PM  |  2 comment(s)