Consultant Exchange - A HotGigs blog

Axium / Chimes Files Bankruptcy

Axium / Ensemble / Chimes (The largest VMS player) files bankruptcy.

This week, Axium International, Inc. who is the parent company of Chimes Ensemble Group filed chapter 7 bankruptcy which has shaken the contract & contingent staffing industry.

Chimes clients included major players such as UnitedHealth Group, GM, Toyota Motor Company, Ford, Perot Systems, Morgan Stanley, Kaiser Permanente, AT&T, Bell South and many more who are now scrambling to either find a replacement MSP/VMS or to bring their contract workforce management back inside the company – which is a daunting task.

Many of the staffing vendors have been told that they won’t get paid for most of November and December 2007’s billable time – which leaves firms (and their consultants) in a really bad situation, not to mention the companies who have outsourced their entire contingent workforce management to Chimes.

This was a huge surprise to us in the staffing industry – and even to many of the Chimes employees who we work with everyday at major client accounts. Axium purchased Chimes from Computer Horizons in February of 2007 – so it hasn’t even been a year since the acquisition, which adds to the confusion, especially the inflated price of $80 million which had most of us in the industry scratching our heads.

There is some speculation that the writers strike has a role to play in the downfall since Axium was a major player in payrolling the TV/movie industry which has all but been shut down since the beginning of the strike, however, the majority of people close to the business said it was mainly because of poor management and a complete failure of the integration of the Chimes business into the acquiring company, and a very paranoid set of lenders who jumped to swipe the bank accounts shutting the company down.

Most importantly, these companies will have to figure out how they’ll regain the confidence of their staffing suppliers, who are most likely not going to be happy losing 1-2 months of billable revenues (especially after they’ve been margin squeezed already), which could result in a large volume of contractors leaving their accounts with the pending loss of pay and future instability.

Some companies have reportedly converted the Chimes on-site program teams to their own full time employees – and are re-establishing direct vendor relationships with their vendors to return to their pre-outsourced state of internal and manual management.

Some staffing firms are excited about the collapse, with the prospect of working directly with their client managers again – and not having to deal with what they called bottleneck of the MSP/VMS program to fill contract positions, however, their excitement is tempered with trying to isolate the damage they may have suffered with any consultants currently engaged in the accounts.

For consultants in affected accounts - they should surely be in touch with their firm to find out if they'll get paid for the Nov/Dec time frame, and if future hours are in jeopardy of not being paid.

CONVERSATION:

• Are you working as a consultant in any Chimes managed accounts?
• Have you been communicated with regarding your billable time (getting paid)?
• How has this effected you if so?
• What are consultants attitudes towards working in MSP/VMS managed accounts?

Do's and don'ts of business blogging

Business blogging can be a useful marketing medium for consultants to promote their knowledge and expertise. But this story about a Nintendo worker who was fired because of the job-related content posted on her personal blog,has me thinking about consultants out there who may have business blogs with questionable content.  It can sometimes be hard to judge what material is 'blog-approved' and what posts might have your future clients furiously clicking the 'back' button on your site.  So I've put together my own "dos and don'ts" list. Feel free to add to it.

Dos:

• Try to balance facts and opinions within each post
• Link to reliable sources in your field
• Include an 'About Me' link on your blog's main page with all relevant contact info
• Maintain professionalism when responding to comments/e-mails
• Have guest authors, if appropriate for your blog topics
• Use your blog service's 'Stats' page to see where your site visitors are coming from, or check out StatCounter or Site Meter for free visitor and site referrer information

Don'ts:

• Don't use your blog to vent frustrations concerning clients/co-workers/bosses
• Don't dig deep into your personal life, try to keep the blog's focus business related
• Don't over-promote yourself - there are times for self-promotion, but not in every post
• Don't post anything you don't want Google to pick up
• Don't use client names in posts without express permission or consent

Like the former Nintendo employee, it might be too late to salvage your contract or client relationship once you start seeing comics created about your blog's inappropriate content. If you're new to the blogging arena, it might be helpful to check out this post on How to Start a Blog.

- Colleen

Colleen Williams is the Consultant Community Manager for the HotGigs Staffing Exchange.

The IT gender gap persists - but will Gen Y break the mold?

Guest post by David Southgate.

A recent post from our friends at AffinityLabs at their brand new techcommunity.com forum discussed the issue of pay inequity among genders.  Women still lag their male countergeeks in earnings.  But as a counterpoint, Steven Rothberg of CollegerRecruiter.com cites a recent study that said women from Generation Y in some professions, and some areas of the United States, are now actually earning more than their male counterparts.

While the data on hour wages for IT consultants by gender is still scant (and probably more skewed towards skills, rather than gender), the techcommunity.com posts suggests that women still find the IT workplace to be male-dominated. This makes for a "psychologically defeating" environment for many women, who apparently have rightly griped about  less than interesting work assignments, low grade promotions and pay.

The stereotype of guys with greasy hair and smelly clothes sleeping under their desks after a long night of hacking out code still may keep some women from entering Computer Science programs.  But for those who are already working in the profession, this techcommunity.com article highlights some great action points for coping:

• Network. Look for ways to build your own brand outside the company. If one of your bosses hears that you received an award, or that you’re appearing on a panel or speaking at a conference, he will be impressed.
• Find every opportunity to volunteer or join a committee within the organization. Once your male counterparts or bosses feel comfortable with you, your relationship with them can shift.
• Stop and examine your own belief systems. Do you believe that you can’t get to where you want to go? Many women have been socialized to believe they can’t run a company or be successful within the technology or math fields.

We think these tips are great for anyone who wants to advance, not just women. And they’ll work equally well for consultants and full-time 9 to 5-ers.

David Southgate is HotGigs’ national PR consultant, working from sunny Puerto Rico.

Work directly with 3M and other premier companies through HotGigs' new Channel Vendor program

Have you ever wanted to land a contract with a Fortune 500 company, but weren't able to because you weren't on the list or didn't work with one of their approved vendors? If so, you will be glad to know that you can now work directly with 3M and other HotGigs clients who have added HotGigs to their preferred vendor list. It's all part of our new Channel Vendor Program, which we announced last week with an invitation for consultants to work directly with 3M.

How does this work for you as an independent consultant?  Through Channel Vendor, 3M’s IT division is now able to work directly with our Consultant community through a single vendor relationship. This is one example of how our Channel Vendor program gives you direct access to consulting gigs at major companies in your chosen markets.

NOTE: Our Channel Vendor program is open to all HotGigs members, including Basic (free) Members. You do not need to pay to upgrade to apply for consulting jobs through the Channel Vendor program.

(If you are a Premium Member, you may submit to not only Channel Vendor jobs, but any and all jobs on the HotGigs Exchange, including gigs with our network of firms.)

Fast facts for Consultants:

• Access 3M's open IT requirements on the HotGigs Staffing Exchange.
• Leverage our preferred vendor relationship to submit yourself to contract openings at 3M. Receive real-time updates on your submission status from our internal sourcing team.
• Win gigs at 3M and other major clients on HotGigs. (HotGigs adds a 10% markup to the client over your submitted pay rate; this does not reduce your rate.).
• Manage your gig through HotGigs: submit billable hours online, and receive payment directly from HotGigs for all engagements.

Here's a quick overview of the HotGigs Channel Vendor program and how it works for consultants.

Interested in contracting at 3M? Use this search to see all 3M contract opportunities through HotGigs. We are constantly adding new requirements, so check back often.

If you're interested, here's how to get started:

To get started:

1. Search 3M requirements on HotGigs now (and receive future email notifications).
2. Apply online by submitting your profile and rates through HotGigs.
   - Premium (paid) Membership is not required.
3. Get real-time updates on your submission status on the HotGigs Staffing Exchange.
4. Win gigs at 3M (and other major companies) and submit billable hours and receive payment directly from HotGigs for all gigs.

In the near future, we'll be posting several more opportunities with new clients through our Channel Vendor program. Stay tuned.

How to green up your consulting business

Even though Earth Day was a couple months ago, I just read a great article on Electronic Recruiting Exchange (ERE.net) by Dr. John Sullivan, Green Recruiting: Building Your Environmental Employment Brand. This article urges firms to market their current green strategies to prospective candidates and also highlights how firms can become more environmentally friendly, using specific examples from other companies who are already actively turning green.  John uses Google as an example of an environmentally conscious company with these practices in place:

• $5,000 subsidies for employees buying hybrid cars
• Company dining facilities that serve organic sustainable foods
• Charitable contributions to organizations that fight global warming
• On-site farmers markets
• On-site composting of food waste
• Use of green fuels and solar power
• Fully subsidized employee bus pools for commuting employees

As consultants, we may not be able to incorporate all of Google's practices, but we can do other things, such as using mass transit, or only using 100% recycled paper.  I was curious about what green strategies were out there for consultants, so I asked Andrea Coutu, the creator of ConsultantJournal.com and here are her own tried-and-true suggestions she incorporates into her consulting business:

• Work from home (no commute and use less gas overall)
• Install a programmable thermostat which can automatically turn down the heat when you are out of your office
• Turn off your computer when you are not at your desk
• Use an all-in-one multifunction printer (less office equipment) and turn off when not in use
• Recycle all office paper
• Live in an urban location with the ability to walk to office supply stores and business meetings
• Focus on knowledge-based companies, instead of resource-based companies

Do you have your own green practices?  What are they? Do you market this to your clients? On the flip side, do you have a preference for working with clients that have set 'green guidelines'?

---Colleen

Colleen Williams is the Consultant Community Manager for the HotGigs Staffing Exchange

HotGigs' Doug Berg in BusinessWeek and the New York Times

In the past week, HotGigs has garnered some significant media attention. Last Monday, BusinessWeek.com published an interview with HotGigs founder Doug Berg. The main topic was the rise of contract workers as a significant segment of the US workforce. An excerpt from the Q & A:

What's driving the rise in contract-based workers that we're seeing?

We're mid-course in a major shift in the employment picture in the U.S., particularly in the technology-rich professional areas. Due to compressed market cycles, the old way of doing business just won't work too much longer. This specifically applies to the area of work-force planning and recruiting.

To succeed in the future, those working in corporations and staffing firms, as well as the workers themselves, have to understand the forces at play: cost and on-demand access to short-term labor, preferences among laborers, and technology innovation.

How fast is this contingent-staffing industry growing?

Fast! The growth of the staffing industry is also something that's very indicative of shifts in the labor supply. Data show that the staffing industry has doubled in just the last five years, from about a $60 billion a year industry to an over $120 billion a year industry, and analysts project it will become a $200 billion industry by 2010.

You can read the entire interview here.

This morning, HotGigs was mentioned in an article in the New York Times on sites like TheLadders.com and HotGigs that charge candidates a membership fee for access to some portion of their specialized jobs. Doug's comment can be found at the end of the article (in fact, he literally has the last word).

Both articles are linked in our News Archive on HotGigs.com.

--Andy

Andy Keith is the product manager for the HotGigs Staffing Exchange,

Are we a community yet?

Here's the short answer: no.

Here's the long answer: thriving user communities, whether online or offline, don't come ready-made -- some assembly is required. Actually, make that a considerable bit of assembly, done largely by the community members themselves. And it's not something that can be scheduled and rolled out, as though it were a product release. Communities are built from the ground up, by people who share common interests.

By now, we're all well-acquainted with the Web's marquee online communities, and can rattle off their names in a familiar litany: Slashdot, MySpace, FaceBook, LinkedIn. Each of these online communities provides its members with tools for self-expression, social networking, knowledge sharing, and mutual support. These communities are wildly successful because they enable their members to make personal and professional connections.

Writing for ERE.net on why talent communities matter, Kevin Wheeler observes:

What makes communities special? According to academic research, communities offer a feeling a membership, the ability to influence decisions, the fulfillment of needs at some level and a shared emotional connection to other members.

This is probably a good time to take a breath and explain who I am and what I'm doing standing on this particular soapbox.  My name is Andy Keith, and I recently joined HotGigs as product manager for the HotGigs Staffing Exchange. I won't go into an extensive recap of my background -- if you're interested, see my profile on LinkedIn. Prior to coming on board at HotGigs, I worked for Analysts International, a major IT staffing and consulting services firm headquartered here in Minneapolis, where my focus was on building and managing talent communities, as part of its New Equities division. Earlier, I worked for TechRepublic, a highly-regarded IT portal and online community, now a division of CNET. I also worked on and off as an independent consultant.

In my role here at HotGigs, I am hoping to take the lessons learned in these and other previous lives and apply them to making the HotGigs Exchange a place where consultants, staffing firms and hiring companies do business, but also where we get together to meet and talk about the consulting marketplace, and to help each other become more successful. How that happens depends, in large part, on you.

Back in January, HotGigs announced our newly redesigned website, which laid the foundation for community development and growth:

The redesigned and easier to use HotGigs.com provides separate portals for each of the exchange’s three distinct audiences — consultants, hiring companies and staffing firms. Each portal features Web 2.0 enhancements such as RSS content syndication, blogs, social networking, data on skills in demand and automated agents for marketing contractor opportunities and resources across 17 workforce categories, including IT, healthcare, HR, creative, marketing, accounting, financial and administrative.

Consultants and contractors who join the HotGigs.com exchange can market their services to more than 19,000 companies and staffing firms, and broadcast their availability for new projects to previous and potential clients. They can include ratings from past employers, customized search agents, peer networking tools, and one-click contact between employers and contractors.

This blog is one element of that vision -- a place where we can share our thinking on this and other topics, and get your point of view and ideas to help shape the further evolution of HotGigs. So here are some key questions to get the ball rolling:

• What kind of consultant community would you like to see take shape on HotGigs? How should it be organized?
• As an independent consultant, how would you like to network with and link to other consultants, as well as consulting firms and hiring companies?
• How can consultants with widely different skill sets, interests and expertise come together for mutual support? Does it make sense to?
• What features and capabilities would you like to see to enable and support community development (e.g. linking and social networking,  online forums and groups, knowledge bases and wikis)?
• If you already belong to one or more online communities, which one(s) and what do you like/dislike about them?
• What should we at HotGigs contribute and what do you want to contribute?

This last question is essential, because the HotGigs community is mostly you. In a blog post last year titled "The Art of Creating a Community", Apple legend Guy Kawasaki talks about the need for an "open system":

There are two requirements of an open system first, a “SDK” (software development kit). This is software-weenie talk for documentation and tools to supplement a product; second, APIs (application programming interfaces). This is more software-weenie talk for an explanation of how to access the various functions of a product, and it’s typically part of a good SDK. I’m using software terminology here, but the point is that you need to provide people with the tools and information to tweak your product whether it is Photoshop, an iPod, or a Harley-Davidson. Here's a non-tech example: An open system school would enable parents to teach courses and provide a manual (SDK) for parents to understand how to do so.

What does that look like as applied to HotGigs?  What would you like to see in terms of an open system that goes way beyond the standard job board paradigm and provides capabilities that enable you to creatively market your expertise as a consultant to a growing network of thousands of companies and staffing firms? In what ways would you like to personalize your consultant profile to reflect your unique abilities and differentiate yourself? Please share your ideas in the comments area below.

And if you have suggestions for topics for this or other HotGigs blogs, drop me a line at akeith @ hotgigs.com.

-- Andy

Andy Keith is the product manager for the HotGigs Staffing Exchange

The phone is definitely NOT ringing. HELP!

When I was going through blog comments I came upon a complaint that pops up periodically: "Companies seem to be ignoring me. What gives?"

It's frustrating when you see all those juicy contractor jobs, find a couple that are perfect fits, submit your profile and hear nothing. Did they get your submission? Are they still considering you? If they've hired someone else, why is your status listed as "New/Reviewing" for that project?

Most often, the problem is that hundreds of resumes are being submitted for the same job. These guys are literally swamped by submissions, and most have developed defensive strategies to handle it. Many send, at best, a polite form letter acknowledging receipt and promising to call if interested. Others post disclaimers in the job listing itself--"we get too many resumes to respond to each one." Still others have simply decided to only contact and update status only for the candidates that interest them.

So...if you've not been contacted, it could be a sign that the employer isn't interested. It could also mean that the job is on hold (or canceled), it's changed to something else, or that they're still in the selection process. (LOTS of things can hold up the selection process) Sometimes the job description wasn't very well written and the hiring manager really wanted something else.

Don't write them off. We've had candidates contacted months after they submitted a profile for a job. Sometimes it's the same job. Sometimes the resume was kept on file until a fit came along.

It's easy to click the submit button and sit back to wait for jobs to come along, but the key to success is using HotGigs.com as a long-range marketing tool. We post hundreds or thousands of new jobs every day--we're now one of the largest sources of contract work in the industry. And we're working hard to educate employers and recruiters on the need to cultivate a strong consultant pool. The best already get it.

Make us an active part of your marketing strategy. Visit often, and explore your consultant dashboard. You'll discover tools that allow you to build your network of potential clients, track what you've been doing, build your reputation with past client rankings and find out more about what your target companies are looking for.

Also, don't fall into the trap of submitting a generic profile to every position that comes along. Study the listing and make sure your resume emphasizes the skills requested. Use our search tracking tools to figure out what keywords best describe what you do...and then make sure your profile highlights your experience in that area.

And remember: You're establishing your own business as a consultant, and that takes time and persistence. Stick with it, and you'll be successful.

Cheers--

--Doug

 

Who you know counts toward success

I can’t emphasize enough the value of networking: Who you know—and what they know about you—is probably your best single source of success as a consultant.

I’m mentioning this because I just finished reading the “Annual Sources of Hire” report by staffing consultants at CareerXroads. This report, based on a survey of US corporations with a total of 1.3 million workers, analyzes how managers find new hires. The authors also discuss the report in a telling blog post.

Their conclusion: If you're not networking, good luck finding the best jobs 'cause you're gonna need it. About 75 percent of all hires these companies made came from just five sources:

• Internal transfers and promotions (34% of all hires)
• Referrals (26% of all hires) with employee referrals responsible for a whopping 95% of all referrals
• Company website (14% of all hires)
• Job boards (8%of all hires)
• Media/print ads (5% of all hires)

Also big on the list: rehires or boomerangs, where employees who've left the company come back in some capacity. And as salaries went up, Web-based sourcing became more and more important.

Notice that 60 percent of hires in the survey came from the "who you know" side of the house, i.e., the network. It's not really surprising if you think about it; people are simply more comfortable trusting someone in their network than they are trusting a total stranger. Anything you can do to be included in their network will put you far ahead of your competition.

This is a common theme in "how to find work" seminars, and it's certainly part of the advice I give new contractors. It's easy to let relationships slip as you leave a job, or drop out of local professional associations because you're too busy. Don't do it.

Personally, I think that's one reason for the tremendous popularity of the "new" Web. Social networking sites like LinkedIn allow you not only to track your network, but cultivate and extend it.

That's one reason we opted to include networking and rating functions in your HotGigs profile. Managers and colleagues can, in effect, provide the referrals that make you part of "the network." And by using the "broadcast availability" tool, you can easily update your network on your status.

What are some other ways you build your professional network?

Cheers--

--Doug

New report lists top IT skills in demand

If you're an SAP expert, congratulations! There's a big demand for your skills as an IT consultant. In fact, demand for SAP skills tops the charts when it comes to employers and recruiters looking for IT contractors.

That's what we're reporting in HotGigs' 2007 IT Contract Workforce Report, based on nearly two million searches done over a three month period on the HotGigs Staffing Exchange. If you're a HotGigs member or subscriber you already know this; you should have received a private link to your own copy of this report in your inbox earlier this week. For the rest of you, ERP was the most-requested skill, and within ERP, SAP searches were more than double those of Oracle or Peoplesoft. Better still, if you'll check our billing rates comparison tool, you'll find that consultants with these skills make about $100 hour on average. As demand has grown I've seen bill rates go much higher, to as much as $300/hour for topnotch pros.

Searches for Web development skills came in second, most likely due to all the backlogged Web projects that were put on hold so companies could cut costs and get infrastructure updates in place. Now they're all back in the system, and as a result, we're seeing a strong surge in demand for AJAX developers, PHP skills, ASP.NET and Javascript, especially.

Not surprisingly, project management is also doing well. Might be a sign that it's time to finish that PMP certification...

There's lots more in the report -- we're tracking 30 different demand areas and how they relate to consultant skills demand. This can be a great tool for you to market yourself -- look at the skills most in demand, match them to your own and prioritize your resume with the skills you know employers are looking for.

The 2007 IT Contract Workforce Report is available at no cost to HotGigs members. To download your own copy, just sign in at HotGigs.com. If you're not a member of HotGigs, what are you waiting for? Join HotGigs at the Basic level (free) and download your copy. And leave us a comment below to let us know what you think!

Cheers,
Doug