Time & Material vs Fixed Price contracts - How does it effect staff?

I've discussed before issues that are totally unique to fixed prices contracts and how many firms mismanage them because they try to use a T&M model.  From a business perspective, failure rates are high to those that don't understand the differences.  But, what kind of issues face a billable person that works on a fixed price contract?

Let's start with the work itself.  More times then not, the actual deliverable will be better defined.  If your working for a company that uses structured methods and process, there should be a clear cut contract or statement of work (SOW).  It's important for the staff person to have full knowledge and understanding what these items and when are they due.  It's important to try and front load the work.  This allows for the final stages of the project to be used for refinements.

Now the sticky part:  Money.  Your strongest point for negotiating your compensation is at the start.  Usually, all raises are fixed way before a bit of the work is started.  It doesn't matter if you did a great job or just average.  Now, if you didn't do the job as explained early on, expect not to last till the end.

With a fixed price contract, the reporting and status process becomes very important.  The management structure within you client community probably must report regularly to their upper management.  Do not, I repeat, do not go light on the documentation.  If you get later in the project and when issues arise, and they will, people will look for reasons for blame and correction.  Don't let it be you.  Even if you did a great job on the work and nobody knows it because your documentation and status reports are weak, expect to get that resume ready.

Remember, before you accept a position, get a good understanding if the contract is time & material or fixed price.  Ask questions about the time frames for completion and the expectations of the client.  I'm not saying the T&M contracts are a cake walk, but special consideration must be given and understood on fixed price situation.

Awarded ISO 9001:2009 Certification

We have completed the challenge of ISO certification for Chameleon Integrated Services.

This is a lot of work but I feel the rewards for a professional staffing company are huge.  It requires a commitment from management/recruiters and sales folks all. 

During the process, you walk through your entire process and operation and it's a great time to re-evaluate how well you really are servicing your customers.  It can be easily interpreted as just creating more paperwork and process hassles.  If this discussion occurs, you're probably not in the right frame of mind to tackle it yet.  Use this time for reflection and self viewing of how well you stack up against your competition.

We utilized a software package and consulting from ISO 9000 World and I would recommend them strongly.  We started the work at the beginning of April and was awarded the certificate 6 months later.  From the feedback I received we did this at a extremely fast pace, but we really were wanting it to take to market for government proposals. 

If you think your company is ready to climb the ISO mountain, I think you'll get back all the blood, sweat and tears, it takes.

Recession a blessing to the staffing industry?

I was reading an article on msnbc.com by Allison Linn, Amish see the recession
as a challenge and a blessing about how the Amish had been changing their lifestyles during good times and become less focused on their families.  Family and simple living are a vital ideal of their religion. 

I got thinking about how that also has happened in our industry.  Have we gotten lazy about keeping in touch with clients and candidates?  Have we let the software tools and job boards become too vital to our personal success? 

Maybe short term wins and starts have become too short sighted and our recruiters and sales folks have forgotten to invest time and effort into planting more seeds.  Have they just moved on to another field if there wasn't anything there to harvest?

Remember, we never want to stop pushing for the close, but also remember as a manager, it's up to you first to make sure you're making that investment that will payoff next year, not just next quarter.

Are you a multi-tasker?

How many people do you know that have to stop what they are doing to answer a question?  Bet they aren't recruiters.

I've read that today's "I-Pod generation", (10-14 years old) can carry on 5-7 conversations at one time.  That's between IM, cell and texting.  We should have a good deal of new recruiters trained early.  This is one trait I see in the best recruiters.  They are not bothered by other conversations or noise while they are working.  They can listen to a number of conversations at one time and keep them going. 

I believe this is also why some of the best recruiting teams are in a pool environment.  I also like to sales sitting next to recruiters.  I want them to listening to each other and gaining ideas for new tactics and possible deals.

When I'm interviewing potential recruiters or sales folks, and they ask if they get a private office, I usually put a big red X on that resume.  Are you trying to hide something???  The answer usually is that they can concentrate better in a quiet setting.  Hum, not much of that around here.

ISO 9000 Internal Audit completed!!!

Well we've accomplished a lot by getting to our first internal audit.  Just as an fyi, I had scheduled 3 days for this and it took us 3 weeks!! 

The person chosen (drafted) had no ISO experience and did her best, but it turned into a learning and tedious experience to say the least.  She did a thorough job and did need to step away at times while not getting caught up in too much detail and "pickieness".  We ended up with a good detail and summary report.

We did poorly in one area not thought to be very important, Purchasing, but after consultation and evaluation, decided we needed to do a better job in this area.

Awarded ourselves another Corrective Action report on the misuse of training manuals, but learned a good lesson.

Next step is getting those corrections in place and contacting an outside auditor.  This should be fun!!

Is there a "best" style for management?

How's that for a loaded question!  Of course, each of us that have been in the industry for a while probably have an opinion, but does it really work when applied to the real world?

Also, the definition "work" is reminiscent of an presidential answer, "depends on what ""is"" is".  Some would define it as making money, staying in business or just having a functioning group of workers that get the job done. 

Given the current business environment, I would think staying in business is a pretty good place to start.  If you haven't already cut staff down to bare bones, chances are that it will come soon.  Your remaining staff probably are wearing many hats from recruiting, selling and staff management.

In my mind, functioning with what you've got left, should be a strong focus.  That includes staff and resources.  It should include the remaining client base also.  I've seen many clients that were staffing company's primary  money makers, go by the wayside.  Take look at functioning and planning in six month chunks.  What have you got and how can you make it that long?

I really don't see many good signs yet, but it's a good time to hunker down in the foxhole and take stock in what you've got there with you.

Working both sides of the desk?

"Hi Mike...I was reading some of the posts you had on your blog.....very interesting articles. Currently I'm focusing mainly on the recruiting side, however, I would like to have my own client base and become a 360 recruiter. Is cold calling clients the only way to achieve this? I would really appreciate it if you can give me some tip to begin having my own book of business. I look forward to hearing your thoughts..."

Working both sides of the recruiting and sales duties are a big challenge that many successful independents and placements specialists have met and accomplished.  It's not easy and many times I think is a mistake for some folks.

Too many times, recruiters think they understand the sales relationship and too many times, salespeople think candidates are a dime a dozen and can be produced at any time.  Study someone you have seen as successful on the other side and understand what they have done and see if you can copy them.  AND, still do what made you successful at your current job.

The biggest complaint I get from full service placement folks is their time.  Good recruiters spend a lot of time building a relationship with the best candidates.  Good candidates usually aren't looking for a job, but are willing to listen to someone they already know and like.  At the same time, good salespeople spend time with important clients when they don't have requirements.  Clients remember that and will call those sales people first and trust them more with their opinions.

Usually, the sales side, will need to build up a stable of good candidates before they start looking for requirements.  Also, the recruiters will need to build up relationships with potential clients.  So what this means is, there is a great amount of time that will be needed up front before any revenue comes in. 

In a nutshell, it takes much more effort then either side thinks, but if you work hard and do your homework (like most things in life), you will be rewarded financially and personally.

ISO 9000 Update

Our challenge of getting our company ISO certified from scratch is progressing well.  We have moved past getting all the documentation, form and process changes in place. 

One step that really has helped up improve our business model has been the training.  It was really just re-training when it came to the recruiters and sales folks.  For those of you that work for ISO certified firms, the only real issue is that you must have a documented, repeatable process in place.  It's been a healthy exercise to walk through your processes and discuss (train) what each person is responsible for and make sure all the paperwork is done right the first time.

We have also instituted new processes for situations when a field staffer is removed from a contract.  This will help us look back over the year and see if we have any improvements we can make in recruiting to reduces this future hiring mistakes.

Our next step is the internal audit.  I'll keep you posted! 

Algorithm for predicting turnover? No Sale!

Scott Morrison of WSJ Technology, describes a program Google is working on in his article, Google Searches for Stafffing Answers, dated May 19, 2009.  Sounds like a good idea but I'm pretty sceptical that it would have really valid application when dealing with the imperfect human employee.

Google isn't publicly going into much detail, but sounds like they are taking historic information like reviews, salary data and surveys and trying to equate results. If this really it valid, it would totally discount the impact a good recruiter would have ever pulling an a happy employee out of Google.  It doesn't take in account what new opportunity the employee might be interested in.  It doesn't take into account the future at all.  It just try to measure past experiences when someone was unhappy with a raise or a boss, they resigned.  Well of course!  Personal situations and feelings change in humans.  They can be influenced, especially by a good recruiter that can articulate and "sell" a new opportunity. 

I do believe in indicators, but whenever I hear of someone trying to predict what a breathing, feeling and emotional creature like us humans might do, my red flags come up. 

Great cover letter article

I'm usually not a big fan of cover letters because too often I think candidates get lost in too much detail and the HR folks will ignore them anyway and just run the resume into their ATS for key word searches.

BUT, Harry Joiner at Marketingheadhunter.com has a great example of a well written cover letter. 10 Reasons Why this Cover Letter Rocks  There are many things about this letter that I like.  It's short and too the point, highlighting the items that the author believes will get him noticed.  And that's the key point, GET NOTICED.