Work in Progress
Page 2
Some companies aren't sharing their growth plans. "We don't have predictions on how many people we'll hire in 2010, though we're fortunate to be in an industry that overall is strong," says Robin Sadler, vice president of human resources for the HMO Kaiser Permanente Colorado. "In addition, our subscriber base is growing ahead of projection ... so there may be opportunities that come available."
Some have scaled back their plans to hire. Vestas, which said it planned to hire 2,500 people at its new wind turbine plants in Colorado in 2010, has stopped hiring in Colorado and has laid off workers in Europe. In its third quarter 2009 report, the Danish company indicated that "due to the credit crisis, the upgrading in the USA is not progressing as quickly as planned."
WHO WILL GET THE JOBS?
With the Colorado unemployment rate at 6.9 percent, employers can be picky. They know what types of workers they want, and they're not going to read all 300 resumes that arrive with each job post. "Companies are looking for people with very specific, potentially high-demand skill sets," Policastro says.
Hoogstrate says companies are being so selective they're extending the time it takes to fill a position. "The hire cycle time is higher now because of the wave of resumes that managers get and their willingness to wait for the perfect candidate who might come through their door," he says. He adds that the perfect candidate has experience, preferably with a competitor, and is flexible about compensation.
Some companies don't necessarily want people who worked for competitors. "We look for qualified applicants who have experience working with people," says Rogers, from Chase. "Experienced bankers and lenders are often, but not always, the right fit."
Other factors play into the hiring decisions. The Alexandria, Va.-based Society for Human Resource Management conducted a poll, "Interviewing Do's and Don'ts for Job Seekers." Fifty-four percent of hiring managers surveyed report they make their final decision to hire based on chemistry.
Jo Prabhu, founder and CEO of the Long Beach, Calif.-based recruiting firm International Services Group and a member of SHRM's Staffing Management Panel, says certain workers have an advantage in the interview process.
"Who is the corporation going to hire? Seniors who come with a lot of baggage, need medical insurance and don't have computer skills? Laid-off workers who are used to a certain type of pay scale? Or young college grads who will accept less, have a trainable attitude and can be fired just as quickly because they are not loyal and might leave anyway?"
She says former high-paid executives have an especially difficult time getting hired.
"They don't have leverage in the job market anymore because their credibility is shot," she says. Many will start their own businesses or become contractors. "The employer-employee relationship is going to change. Companies are trying not to hire full-time people anymore. They're going to allocate this percent salaried, this percent contract, this percent outsourced on an as-needed basis."
Thin-film solar module manufacturer Abound Solar plans to hire about 40 temporary workers in the first quarter and hopes to turn many into full-time equivalent employees. The Loveland-based company is hiring workers in manufacturing and in specialized areas such as engineering. For the manufacturing workers, Abound works with the staffing agency Aerotek.
"As production ebbs and flows, we get into a rhythm and we understand more about what we need," says Dennis Stoltenberg, vice president of human resources for Abound. "That's instead of offering jobs and then laying people off."
At Danielson Designs, Mark Danielson says he's looking for people with certain skills who also want to move to Trinidad, about 120 miles from Colorado Springs. He has hired, and paid to relocate, people from San Diego and Dallas. "They have young families, and the thought of raising their families in a small town sounded like a great idea," he says. For people who aren't looking to move to the area, "It's a challenge."
He doesn't get many resumes for each job opening. That's different from the experience of other employers. Jenny Shedd, senior corporate recruiter for Rally Software in Boulder, says the company will be hiring, but doesn't know yet how many people.
"To help manage the increased flow of resumes, we have incorporated an applicant tracking system that allows us to ask several qualifying questions during the online resume submittal process," she says. "This helps us to verify who has the correct skills for the role before we review resumes."
Enjoy this article? Sign up to get ColoradoBiz Exclusives. The opinions expressed in this article are solely that of the author and do not represent ColoradoBiz magazine. Comments on articles will be removed if they include personal attacks.
Readers Respond
Leave a comment
Commenting is not available in this section entry.