I.     The current state of affairs
II.    Characteristics of populations from a recruiting perspective
III.    Attributes of those populations from a recruiting perspective
IV.    Active vs. Passive approaches
V.    Qualitative objective for any recruiting campaign
VI.    Review of alternative recruiting approaches
VII.    Deciding what's right for you

Looking:
• Not as selective as a whole
• Engaged in and considering multiple opportunities
• Being introduced to more companies with or without their knowledge by recruiters
• In general, not as competent as their happy/employed counterparts
• Have time and take time to browse & respond to Merc ads, on-line postings, recruiters, job fairs, etc.

Not Looking:
• Happy and protected· Less aware of what's available
• Awareness is limited to companies with competing or related products, and to "noise" in the industry at large
• Skeptical or distrustful of recruiters, especially contingency recruiters
• Very focused on work and lifestyle - not easily distracted to consider other opportunities

The active ingredients to this phenomenon are Familiarity, Reference-ability, and Trust.

Generally, staffing approaches fall under 2 areas:

Passive: Career expo's, newspaper ads. on-line postings
Active: Personal networking, invasive recruiting, college recruiting

The people who join during the early days are risk-takers who feel the uncertainties by familiarity with people in or close to your firm.

People - Who works at XYZ Corp. and why are they there?
Products/Technology - How can working at XYZ Corp. enhance one's marketable technical skills? How visible will this work be in the industry at large? What are the threats to the mainstreaming of this technology, and does XYZ have a reasonable proposition for addressing or adjusting to these threats?
Viability - How stable is the employment scenario at XYZ Corp?
Economic - Is XYZ Corp pay-competitive? What is the stock liquidity path, and what's the leverage, now and later?

1)reinvesting in the existing network, &
2) creating and sustaining new network.

• start a database
• ask employees who they know
• participate in events like this one, technical forum, etc.
• implement an employee referral award program

Identify companies & forums which most likely produce and attract the skills that you will need in your firm.

Hire a qualified researcher or recruiter to produce a database of a cross section of these people - contact them and send them literature about your firm, addressing the four areas we discussed previously.

Run a newspaper ad.

Keep these people updated every quarter as to your firm's progress.

• By some estimates, 6 out of 10 jobs in the US will be temporary or contract engagement
• Manufacturing is outsourced, and is a boom industry, In many cases the Purchasing function related to manufacturing is outsourced as well.
• MIS is starting to e outsourced, in part or in total, by individuals or companies.
• In its earlier incarnation (1992-1994), Lydian Group led the trend of outsourcing the Human Resources department, in part or in total.
• More and more technical people are freelancing.
• EDA companies now offer consultive designers as a means of establishing their tools as a standard within a firm's Engineering department.
• People in general are searching for ways to balance work and quality of life. The typical commute in Silicon Valley is generally not conducive to quality of life!
• Project-based work is supplanting functional jobs, performance metrics are getting tighter.
• There is a tremendous amount of software development taking place offshore, for companies here in the Silicon Valley.
• The trend is for employers to hire only those people who are critical to the success of the company over an extended period. This includes key Sales and Marketing positions, as well as core technologists. As long as you have a good law firm protecting your intellectual property, and given the high cost of Attracting, Retaining, and Containing people and employment-related liabilities, this may be the way for you to go.

1. Strategically determine which positions indeed must be house within your firm for it to succeed.
2. On the technical front, adopt widely practiced development environments, languages, and methods.
3. Identify which projects can be done by "lone wolf" contributors, and which require an integrated effort.
4. Determine whether team development must be directed daily by your in-house staff, or to what extent you can specify the deliverable and have the whole project managed elsewhere.
5. Identify firms which specialize in:
a) Providing and 'employing" individual contributors within a technical specialty, on a project or time basis.
b) Providing project-managed, team development solutions.

6. Publicize project opportunities through your network and on the net . . . ba.jobs.contract is a huge newsgroup.

Run a comparison which looks at the costs of recruiting and traditional employment as compared to the premiums paid for project or time-based interim help, over a critical time period or milestone for your business. Given the costs of recruiting if you don't have a network or choose to sustain one, and given the "up-front" nature of those costs, you may get further, faster, and with more linear cash outflow by going the contract route.

Every one of the approaches described has been shown to 'work". Think outside of the box. Assemble a mix of strategies which address both short and long term needs. "Fishing" is ongoing and longer term, "hunting" is for near term, critical hiring.

Put recruiting expenses into your business plan and operating budgets - cost per hire will be between $5k and $20k. If you're using headhunters to recruit your founding team, you're looking as $25k to $40 k per hire.

Put as must though and discipline into your recruiting strategy as you do your marketing & Sales strategies. Your existing and future employees are your primary customers. Think of them that way, and use any metaphor or discipline that you would apply to to other aspect of your business to construct and drive your staffing effort. Try reading and re-reading Crossing the Chasm and view it in terms of your staffing challenge.