Recruiting Process - Finding Candidates

• Look not to replace lost skills; rather, look at where the team needs to go, the skills they will need, and close the gaps.
• Going for more senior talent rather than "going for bulk"
• Monster.com, Workopolis.com have helped gain access to more high quality candidates
• Cast your net wider to get a greater pool from which to pull candidates - we no longer look at JUST the defense industry - has given a much better set of skills
• Just have to "suck it up" on relocation costs for key, unique skills
• Young guys however are cheaper to relocate (no families, possessions will fit in a car)
• larger pool of talent on the east coast, particularly for non development skills (such as QA)
• "If you have a trend, kill it" - you are placing a lot at risk, plus you have the risk of not getting the best guy
• you need a good pipeline, and you don't want other avenues to people to dry up
• Monster.com, the web in general, have opened things up, made it easier to find and attract top talent
• We have an internal headhunter - particularly for software sales / marketing talent which is not widespread in Ottawa. Found this more effective than hiring an external headhunting firm

Recruiting Process - Landing & Keeping Candidates

• Keep sales effort going once staff is in - keep selling them on being part of a great company
• Hunt for the right people, don't just take those who come
• Do proper due diligence
• Don't expect full performance out of new hires out of the gate - allow ramp-up time
• Be public about company values - promote them, hire only people who fit
• Make it a good place to work, make that known
• Don't get sucked into offering escalating extras
• Get a good number of resumes, make sure they all get read
• Take the hiring process seriously
• Don't hire serial "bouncers" if you want a core team
• "look for big brains, not big heads"

Recruiting Process - Interview

• Management involvement is a key part of the recruiting process
• Panel interviews are the only way to go, this gives you consistency across the process, especially when it comes to recommending hires and salaries
• HR has to be part of internal interviews
• Signing bonuses don't work
• Getting people excited about the job, what they'll be doing, who they'll be working with has a much greater ability to lock people, get them aboard than just hiring bonuses
• Comp structures MUST be flexible
• if bring in at too high a salary, net result will be pain as they hit the upper level of the allowable salary range
• "Stay the course on what salary you believe people should be brought in at, even if they are demanding less than your salary guidelines indicate they should get"
• keep good candidates warm, they may be valuable for another opening
• Time to hire is a bogus statistic - we can get a "bum in a seat" in one week - need 6-8 weeks to hire top talent.

Recruiting Process - Co-ops?

• Have been using new grads instead of co-ops for executing on entry level tasks; do lots of filtering first based solely on paper (i.e. must have had scholarships, were likely TA's, have something on their resume that indicates they are sociable, use BrainBench as part of the evaluative process). This also makes available government funding, but it requires lots of red tape to gain access to it.
• because of our name, we get many good co-ops, have a difficult time placing them all in full time roles, although they do have some ability to keep new grads on contract for up to a year.

Top Talent - What characterizes it / them

• 90% of hirings occur based upon candidates tech knowledge; 90% of firings occur based upon their ability to interact with others"
• Soft skills are becoming more important; as a result soft skills are now part of our performance tracking system
• Skills just shine through on the resume
• Look for someone who is keen to learn
• look ofr someone who is a fit for the company, someone who will latch onto the vision of the company
• Attitude, problem solving skills

Top Talent - Easier or Harder to please

• Easier - they operate at a higher level - but Harder if you aren't meeting commitments - they keep management on their toes
• Top Talent is actually far easier to please
• Easier to please if you meet their top 5 needs
• Creating Teams that work discourages Prima Donnas - having egoless programming practices
• Need to create a good social environment

Top Talent - What kills motivation for them?

• Allowing Prima Donnas can kill motiviation
• Allowing idiots onto the team
• Unfair Pay practises

Performance Appraisals

• Comp decisions used to be made on a 1-2-3-4 "assigned" rating that was very subjective; recently moved to a version based upon evaluating a series of questions - much more objective
• On TRAAC is our version - it is an acronym for our 5 key drivers (Technology, Expertise and Innovation, Results Driven, Attitude, Accountability, Customer Focused)
• "Objectivity is key"

Comp - Are there creative ways of compensating people?

• Stock options are extremely limited, forced them to look at other methods of comping, such as spot bonuses for teams involved in many late nights putting together RFP's
• Mid year promotions help
• Grass roots rewards for shipping (low cost)
• (aside) - use of CMMI, other processes, reduce the need for "hero's" to rescue problem projects
• Shipping bonuses, patent bonuses both employed.
• Did use to do management by objectives, but the system got flattened out over time - has degraded to a flattened system

How do we retain staff?

• Too late to do anything about it once they have decided to leave
• We can't compete with Nortel or VCs when they are spending based upon an unsustainable model - no sense trying to pay to retain

Random Facts

• # of applicants for most postings down from 100 to 60 over the last year or so

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