Rick Zabor is the founder and Search Consultant with Peoplestaff. Peoplestaff is an Atlanta based Search firm founded in 1988, which has specialized since 1994 in the placement of the Industry‘s best PeopleSoft and Enterprise IT Talent across the USA. Rick has a BS Physics and MSME. He welcomes your comments and referrals by email: Zabor@peoplestaff.com or through www.peoplestaff.com.

Why is it so hard to get hired for a good Peoplesoft opportunity these days?

It is difficult to get hired for a good Peoplesoft opportunity today. This difficult for the hiring manager, the candidate and the recruiter (if he is involved). The difficulty goes beyond just the Peoplesoft marketplace and is prevalent in just about any marketplace that is hiring at a higher skilled level. Even though the hiring marketplace is heating up it is just difficult to get hired for a good Peoplesoft job.

Some estimate that less than 20% of the jobs posted on the internet are filled through the job boards yet they generate tremendous volume of resumes and postings. Whether this number is accurate or not would be hard to determine, but it is a fact that many candidates and hiring managers are disappointed at the time and effort necessary to get a good hire these days. A quality 'hire' requires a good fit between a company and candidate's need and compensation level.  I believe there is a fundamental problem in today's career marketplace and that it will only be resolved with some fundamental changes in the corporate recruiting process.

As the enterprise HCM products like Peoplesoft continue to evolve and are utilized, the recruiting process will become more automated in an effort to save time and shorten the time to hire. Unless a fundamental change occurs in the way that companies approach the recruiting process, the automation processes will not be successful. Even with changes the automated systems will still need to be supplemented with incentive driven recruiters for the most effective placement of key employees because there will be too many candidates that will turn up as ‘qualified’ or the best candidates (who are probably gainfully employed) will not be applying.

Today I believe there is difficulty in hiring for Peoplesoft opportunities because of:

- poorly defined job descriptions and hiring criteria which results in,

- too many candidates applying for the job which results in,

- Inadequate matching Methodology

- poor follow through

With a fundamental change in the ways that hiring managers and candidates look at opportunities the recruiting process can be made more fruitful. The fundamental change that is necessary is a change from a Skills Based approach to a Performance Based approach to hiring.

The Skills Based Job Requirements approach to hiring is one where the job description is based on requirements for skills as the main approach to hiring. Below is a sample of the qualifications needed for a Peoplesoft Architect opportunity in California recently posted on a job board. The position gave a nice description of the company and the job responsibilities but then listed the required qualifications of the candidate. The Qualifications are noted below.

Skills Based Job Requirements Qualifications:
7 years of full life cycle development with an emphasis on incremental, iterative development and deployment.
5 years of OOD experience which includes deployment of large distributed systems for large audiences.
3 years of experience using Microsoft SQL Server and/or other relational databases.
2 years experience with BEA Weblogic / Tuxedo
2 years experience with People Tools and /or PeopleCode
1+ years experience with SOAP/XML based middleware
4 year college degree in Information Science, Computer Science or related field, MS or PHD preferred.

If they like the company and location, any candidate that is unemployed or seeking change that has 3 or more years in development and some PeopleSoft development experience will apply for this job and it will generate several hundred applications. Somewhere on the candidate’s resume you will find references to at least some of the key words OOD, Peoplesoft, SQL Server, Tuxedo, middleware. Candidates will send their resumes and cover note indicating how they meet the job requirements and then patiently wait for a call or reply. The problem is that the hiring manager or recruiter may find many candidates who meet these criteria but just are not right for the job!

The Performance Based approach can help identify candidates that have the skills and have already ‘Performed’ the tasks required for the job or something similar to it. The hiring manager (or recruiter) will have an easier time seeing this and so will the candidate.

The Performance Based approach takes into account what the candidate needs to have done to be successful in the position. The job description, as above, can still give a nice description of the company and the job responsibilities but then lists the  requirements from a Performance perspective The same requirement written from a Performance Based approach is noted below.

Performance Based Job Requirements

- should have played an instrumental role in the development, delivery and support of PeopleSoft 8.x services to an internal client base.

- should have lead Technical Architecture Design, System Sizing, PeopleSoft System Installation/Configuration/Administration of Peoplesoft 8.x systems including PeopleSoft data models (Financials, CRM, HR), and their relative Integration and customization tools.

- should have proven experience in application and database tuning in the ERP environment including backup and recovery strategies.

- should have technical leadership experience in architecture assessment, transition and sequence planning, security planning, legacy system integration, information architecture, and business process engineering to build an enterprise-level solution.

-The candidate will have worked closely with vendors and hardware architects to ensure that platforms are sized to meet anticipated user load and that supporting operating systems are compliant with applications, including required patch levels, hot fixes, and revisions.

These requirements make it clear who should apply for the position. Have you done the same or similar type work and can you show it on your resume? If you can support your experience and performance then reply and you will be selected for an interview. And if you and the company are a match in compensation, geography, culture and other ways you will probably get an offer.

The difference between the two approaches is fundamental. The Skills Based approach will identify candidates who have the required skills and maybe the right experience to do the job. The Performance Based approach will identify candidates who have proven that they have done a similar job in the past and are more likely to accomplish it again.

I predict that the Performance Based approach to recruiting will take hold over the next 10 years once hiring manager, candidates, and recruiters recognize it’s potential for finding the ‘best fit’ candidates for every opportunity.  The Performance Based approach has some additional value:

- it gets managers thinking about the work that needs to be completed for every position they are hiring for

- it gets recruiters thinking about finding candidates who can truly do the work (because the have done similar work in the past)

- gets candidates thinking about their own performance and accomplishments.

My experience over the past 18 years of professional recruiting is that many hiring managers and H. R. representatives could improve their success rate of hiring great employees if they utilized a few specific practices. These practices are overlooked because the Recruiting function isn't given the emphasis and time necessary to do them. Building a team of the best employees is the key task for every manager because it makes management more rewarding and allows the manager to reach his or her objectives. Conversly, failure to hire the best employee makes the management function tougher and the manager may never reach her objective. In this time of lean staff and a competitive marketplace work hiring the best employees just makes sense.

Every employee at every level has a talent that when applied properly can contribute to a company's success. When the employee applies this talent both she and the employer gain. The role of human resources and hiring managers should be to identify those talents and apply them in a proper and timely fashion to maximize and reach the company’s objectives. The role of the candidate should be to accept appropriate challenges so that they can maximize their growth, security, and reward. The most important time to apply these roles is during the initial hiring process because it sets the baseline of talent and opportunities from which future choices are made

Some Suggestions for Hiring Managers

- Understand the importance of the hiring task and take personal responsibility for making a good hiring decision.

- Define the position with a set of ranked Performance objects. From those objectives develop a list of the skills potentially required to reach the objective

- create a job description based on Performance objectives and use the objectives to develop a ranking system for the candidates that you interview

- develop a pool of potential candidates

- only interview candidates who have clearly demonstrated similar Performance in their past. With the proper motivation, these candidates are most likely to be able to achieve similar performance again. The initial interview should be short (15 minutes) and candidates should answer the question "based on our position descriptions please tell me how your past experiences would help you to reach our current position performance objectives.

- develop a short list of candidates and conduct a more detailed interview for position, cultural, and career match

- pursue multiple qualified candidates simultaneously adjusting timing so that you get an offer/ acceptance or offer/rejection from your preferred candidate in the order that you choose.

- close the interviewing with a final contact and a positive note. These candidates may be valuable to you at a later time.

Some Suggestions for Candidates

For successful career development you must work to find the right job! Just as hiring the right employee is the most important task for the manager, getting hired for the right job is the most important step in the professional's career development. Accepting the wrong position, even within your current employer, can side track your overall career and sometimes even derail it!

- create a resume that is chronological, accurate, and Performance based and keep it up to date

- develop a sense of your career direction  see “Eleven Things You Can Do To Further Your Career”  (04/24/2005)

- inquire about opportunities that further or strengthen your potential Performance and accomplishments

- when you inquire be sure to back up your inquiry with a letter that describes the specifics of how your past similar accomplishment will help you meet the Performance objectives of the position. If the position has been written in a Skills Based style try to anticipate the Performance objectives and respond appropriately.

- each time you follow up reiterate how your past Performance supports the Performance of the new position.

Some Suggestions When Working with Recruiters

The Recruiter's role is often underestimated in the overall process of making the successful hire. Their ultimate role is to identify, recruit, and develop a pool of potential employees AND help the manager and the candidate make a good hiring decision. This process is often undermined by the lack understanding of the overall objectives and the candidate's desire to 'just get a job', the manager's desire to 'just get someone on board' and the recruiter's desire to make a placement.

- Look for the recruiter to clearly understand the Performance objective or at least the reasonable MUST HAVE's for the position.

- Recruiters will contact you if they think you are part of a potential match but sometimes you have to help them out by making it easier for them to see EXACTLY how you fit. You do this by describing how the specifics of your past Performances are similar to the current requirements. Once the recruiter has reviewed your background and they've given you their attention that is all that you should expect. If you are a potential fit they will pursue you.

I believe that the current approach of using job boards and automated systems can be improved with a bit more personal attention. The hiring manager could craft a Performance Based job description and use a Performance Based hiring approach. Candidates could take the time to create a clearly written Performance Based inquiry for any potential job they’d like to pursue. Doing so will help us make better hires and advance in our careers.