The Young, New-Age Workforce
2:45 PM EDT Wed. Jun. 21, 2000
From the June 21, 2000 issue of VARBusiness
That quirky approach to corporate image-building and recruiting may make Gearworks.com seem a lot like Mike the Headless Chicken, i.e., a freak of nature. Not so. Like many dynamic solution providers today, Gearworks.com has realized that it takes more than stock options to recruit top, young tech talent today. After all, everybody is showing prospects the money. Now, they're offering to show them a good time, too.
In many top solution-provider companies, the cultural divide between corporation and college campus is shrinking. This story looks at this cultural revolution in action, as solution providers unbutton their collars and set up pinball machines to attract young tech talent.
Clean Slate
Thanks to the IT labor shortage, most college grads with degrees in anything relating to computer science are hot commodities today. Not that long ago, their lack of on-the-job experience might have counted against them. But in the anti-establishment Internet world, it's actually a plus. They come without any "preconceived notions or methodologies," says Keith
Lauver, Gearworks.com's president. "They often not only can think outside the box, but can take that box apart and put something entirely new together."
Gearworks.com's desire to attract original thinkers is one reason why it sponsors the Headless Chicken event. The festival fits with and publicizes the company's quirky, fun-loving-but-persevering culture. The eChicken Virtual Pet site leverages the publicity of this annual event and provides an "outside the box" recruiting tool. People who own a Palm OS device and "have taken the time to download this application are probably early adopters of technology and may be programmers," Lauver says. "They can be the kind of candidates we want."
The need of young professionals to be part of an "exciting place where they can make a contribution" also makes them good hires, says Margaret Gillette, staffing manager for San Francisco-based integrator Digital Island Ltd. "They're eager to do what it takes to make the company great, and tend to be loyal to the company that gave them their first break."
In 1997, Ali Nazar turned down multiple job offers because he wanted to be "part of the wave," he says. His math degree from the University of California at Davis and experience building Web sites quickly led to several job offers, including one from a top international consulting firm. Instead, he took a job with Digital Island. "I wanted to be part of an exciting, entrepreneurial start-up where I could help build the company," he says.
Good recruiting tactics also played a part in Nazar's decision. When Nazar finished his 45-minute drive home from his first interview with Digital Island, he found a job offer waiting on his voicemail. He accepted, and Digital Island didn't give him time to get cold feet. "I started two days later," he says.
"Our approach is speed, rather than courtship," Digital Island's Gillette says. "We recognize the candidate we want and give them an offer very quickly."
To facilitate that speed, Digital Island requires recruiters to evaluate prospects, set up interviews and report on those meetings in a matter of minutes and hours. "Speed has been far more effective than wining or dining," she says.
Adding the personal touch to a recruiting process also sets a company apart. Gearworks.com, for instance, was wooing a candidate from a warmer climate who joked that he'd need long underwear if he moved to Minnesota. "When we sent him a ticket to come in for an interview, we included new long underwear in the FedEx package," Lauver says. The candidate is now on staff.
A personalized approach to fitting people and positions attracted Harvard grad Marc Sheff to Scient Corp., an e-business solution provider in San Francisco. He made it clear in interviews that he wanted his work to be fun, creative and flexible. "I didn't want to be just a code monkey," he says. "Scient offered me the ability to move around and try different things."
Challenging work has kept Nazar on board the Digital Island ship. He started as a Web content manager and is now an advanced customer systems manager, directing a team that designs and develops Digital Island's extranet services. "I haven't pursued [a job] with another company because I am happy," he says. "To be 26 years old and managing something as different and dynamic as extranets is very exciting."
Sense of Community
Young IT professionals are also looking for community. That's why the career pages of many professional service companies' Web sites mention their team-building events, in-house Ping-Pong tables, pets-can-come-to-work policies and so forth.
Scient promotes its community-centric corporate culture from the get-go, inviting prospects who've done well in campus interviews to a four-day event jam-packed with presentations, interviews, games and parties. "Our selling point is our company culture, our innovative work and our leadership position in the marketplace," says Mark Steinke, Scient vice president of recruiting. "We give candidates a crash course about what it's like to work for Scient."
Working for Scient is like being part of "an incredibly invigorating community," Sheff says. In his first visit, he was blown away by the caliber of people working at Scient. "All the people I met were incredibly smart, and at the same time really fun," he says. "They've pointed me to a lot of events and activities outside of work that I wouldn't have known about and that have enriched my life."
Young techsters want mentors as well. "The talent you have on staff has a magnetic effect," Lauver says. "The more talent you have on board, the easier it is to attract talent."
Along those same lines, it's true that a company that can't retain employees is going to have a tough time recruiting top, young talent. Even worse, it will have more staffing vacancies to fill. During recruiting, promises about advancement potential are made, a corporate image is presented and the company's lofty goals and plans for making them a reality are put forth. Following through in all of those areas is a must if the work done to recruit an employee is not to be wasted.
Scient keeps tabs on its follow-through via a chief morale officer, Joe Galuszka, and regional, elected morale officers who constantly monitor employee satisfaction, suggest policy and practice changes, and ensure the corporate culture remains consistent. They also dish up perks, parties and performance awards.
Digital Island, founded in Hawaii, recognizes stellar work with the Big Kahuna award: an all-expense-paid night out on the town. Other rewards include trips to vacation spots and work/play assignments to the company's Hawaiian offices.
Digital Island's low turnover rate and great employee satisfaction is one reason Nazar has stuck with the company as it has grown from 50 to 600 employees. "The engineers I started working with are still here as my mentors," he says, adding he would have been wooed by many outside opportunities "if the top down people started leaving."
Gearworks.com's Lauver has learned an important lesson in recruiting. The recruits who are most likely to be loyal and productive are those who aren't swayed by offers of a few thousand dollars more or a flashy car. "Attracting folks who aren't lured to Gearworks by money gives us a degree of insulation from them being lured away by money," he says. "The people we seek are those who want to be part of a great company that's creating great things."
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