The escalated rate of unemployment gives employers more confidence about their ability to discover new candidates.Nonetheless, many have found that the most suitable candidates are hunkering down and staying with their current employer because:1) They don’t want to risk their “safe” status with their current employers2) They don’t want to be the “last person in” with a new employer, in case the new employer has a reduction-in-force, making them the most vulnerable3) Fear associated with change is heightened in an uncertain economyConsequently, employers have become frustrated or surprised by the … Continue Reading

Candidates -and sometimes hiring managers – frequently ask Xtra Effort “what is going on out there?”.We sometimes answer with detail about the types of clients hiring and what they are looking for in candidates. Other times we simply say things are slowly improving. We are not quite sure what the inquirer REALLY wants to know, i.e., “are things improving and am I going to be OK?” or a polite way of asking “what specific jobs align with my background?”.An Xtra Effort service that may be of additional value would to … Continue Reading

Another naive observation: have you noticed the increased attendance at restaurants and the mall? We were also at the circus over the weekend: there were a whole lot of people buying $4 popcorn. I know there are bigger GDP indicators than mall parking lots, restaurant waits, and circus popcorn – but it makes you wonder, could things be opening up, at least a little bit?Separately, I saw David Gergen speak at a Umass alumni breakfast gathering. Among his many impressive comments:1) Don’t select people (political or employment) for having the least red … Continue Reading

Although IT budgets are down, Xtra Effort’s recent client discussions indicate Data storage, virtualization, and data encryption projects are still being funded.This Computerworld article elaborates: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9131321&source=NLT_NET

By coincidence, Xtra Effort is working with two clients whose sales transactions are partially fueled by the down economy.Our first client provides software that analyzes banking transactions and detects fraud.The second client provides software that analyzes enterprise accounts payable, expense reimbursement, and procurement related activity on a real time basis. The outcome is cash leak prevention by stopping erroneous transactions (whether they are fraudulent or unintentional).Both companies have hard dollar return on investments within six months of installation.These solutions are not to be confused with more the common compliance, role … Continue Reading

This week’s client dialog has repeatedly informed Xtra Effort of their being greater hiring demand for Central and East coast people than West Coast.The reason is lack of enterprise scale projects or procurement activity, at least as compared to the other regions.This data was derived from IT infrastructure solution companies, and from application solution vendors.What are you seeing?