Each month I publish a review of the month’s IT news on our website. “The Industry News” is supposed to be a Cole’s notes of most significant happenings that does not include product announcements and hyperbole … mostly! If you want more detail behind the following synopsis you can find it at the link above. (PS. It won’t be there until tomorrow … Wednesday.)

February was not a particularly busy month for M&A activity, with a few “smaller” deals involving household names like Oracle, HP, Symantec and Google.

RIM continues to await the outcome of a court ruling, but Gartner tell us the Blackberry led the global pda market in sales last year. There were numerous reports about the IT job market, higher demand, higher wages and more movement between jobs! A recent survey tells us that security attacks on corporations are up significantly (tell us something we don’t know!) and more people are buying stuff online!

CGI got a new CEO, Fon could be a start-up to watch in the Wi-Fi world and both Oracle and Affiliated Computer Services announced significant layoffs.
On the reporting front, CSC had good news but Amazon and Sun had tough quarters. CGI reported higher profits but lower revenues. Good if you are a private company but not so good in the public world.

There is also a report that a new blog is created every second … so my blog might not even get noticed!

As I went through deleting my junk emails this morning I was reminded of an article I read some time ago suggesting that junk email would account for more than 90% of email traffic! This weekend a virus carried in some 3.2 million junk emails attacked UK businesses. Our technology team tell me that our little company receives and deals with about 420,000 junk emails a month! That, in addition to those that sneak through, and I had 120 of those over the weekend. (That will soon be fixed by a move to a third party provider). In 2004 an article suggested that junkmail accounted for about 60% of email traffic on the web … there are those who suggest it is now between 85 and 90%!

There is an old joke about a couple of guys flying across the Atlantic on a 4 engined plane, in which one by one the engines fail until there is one left. With each engine failure the time of the flight is increased by an hour. With just one engine left one passenger turns to the other and says, “Jeez if the other engine goes we’ll be up here all night!”

“Jeez, the way things are going with junk email that’s all we’ll have before long!”

The IT Staffing Industry is beginning to see the benefit of an improved economy. There is an increased demand for IT professionals, particularly with hot skills … this is all good, right? Well … yes, and no.

With the changing markets Staffing Companies face different challenges and one of the challenges of a “hot market” is the “questionable tactics” employed by some companies and by some individuals. Here is what we are seeing at an increasing pace, today …

• Contractors leaving contracts for a few extra dollars;
• Contractor’s committing to contracts but changing their mind and taking different contracts;
• Contractors going on interviews with no intent to take the job; and
• Recruiters persuading contractors to bail on commitments for a few extra dollars.

If our industry is ever going to reach its potential as a key strategic resourcing partner for the 21st century we need to get on the same page with ethical standards. Independent contractors need to act in a way they would want to be treated and staffing companies need to embody the highest of ethics!

Business ethics, wow that is a heavy topic, eh(that is a Canadian eh)? There are institutes for business ethics, there are many universities focused on the subject, there are magazines devoted to the subject … and of course there are many horror stories on the subject of business ethics.

Today I’m not really talking about Enron, Worldcom or some huge corporation, I’m talking about the day to day decisions business leaders like myself need to make. Should I sign a contract that I know I cannot deliver to … even if the client has dictated the problem? Should I agree to a margin rate that is not acceptable because it will give me market share at the expense of my competition, but continue to erode our industry’s already skinny profits? Should I accept responsibility for service level agreements knowing that nobody can step up to them and eventually the client will figure that out?

The “pragmatic” bottom-line focused business person will say, “do whatever it takes to get the business and deal with the issues as they come”. There is certainly an argument that says if that’s what the client wants then give it to him.

Alternately you could ask yourself, “Is this consistent with the core values of my company?”. “Am I contributing to a situation that is detrimental to the client, my industry and certainly my competition just to make a few bucks?”

Its tough to walk away from business, but if you are not going to be true to your core values where is that “line in the sand”? When do you slide to the depths of the latest corporate scandal?

I believe you have to build a company based on principles, not on dollars!

As a staffing company we are often challenged by clients about the cost of a contractor versus an employee. At first glance the hourly rate paid to contractors may seem expensive – it can certainly look like a lot of money, particularly when multiplied by 240 days and 8 hours. But are companies really looking at all of the pertinent factors? Consider the following:

The contractor is ONLY hired when needed, and you ONLY pay for time on the job. Therefore you are NOT paying for:

· wait time, while budgeting is approved;
· vacation time;
· benefits;
· cost of training;
· training time;
· sick days;
· mental health days;
· maternity, long term disability or other such time;
· trips to the dentist; or
· any other miscellaneous reasons that reduce the productivity of the average worker.

Another cost rarely factored into the equation is management time. Any manager will tell you that HR issues will burn more time than any other management activity. There are really no significant HR issues with contractors, if there is a problem they are gone. No mess, no fuss, no severance!

One of the biggest benefits of using a contractor is that you have the pick of the market to ensure the person coming in has relevant skills. Often we force-fit employees to do a job because they are available. Contractors hit the ground running and get the job done quickly … the cost of missed deadlines needs to be potential factor too!

If you need a job done and are weighing up hiring or bringing in contract help, make sure you consider all of the facts. It’s a big corporate cost and commitment to hire people, and while contractors are not always the right answer, neither are employees!

I am often contacted by people who are looking for work, and it can be a very humbling insight into lives that have been disrupted by “progress”. Their skills have become less “in demand”, they have somehow become out of step with the latest and greatest, yet they are people with good experience and good skills. Often all they need is a break and someone to believe in them, yet that is not always an easy thing to find.

In the past I have been contacted by people at all levels, and clearly some of them are handicapped with an edge that leaps off the “email page”. How do you say to someone, “Well … maybe people just don’t like you!” … I’m not sure employment law would let me get away with that! However, it’s a huge issue for some people and employment is hard to find if you project an image that is “edgy”. I wouldn’t hire someone like that!

Today’s email was from an IT professional in Western Canada, frustrated that he cannot find gainful employment in a market that is as hot as any in Canada. One of my employees recently made the statement that “if you have a heartbeat, you can get a job” in Western Canada right now. Clearly there is more to it than that, so what should a person do in this situation?

There are no guarantees in life, but I do believe that we all hold our destiny in our own hands, so it’s important to take full responsibility for ourselves. Take a methodical step by step approach to finding work that will examine our skills, our weaknesses, our desires and match the outcome with potential opportunities. It’s really a sales exercise.

You need to create a selling document for yourself, that can be customized for each individual selling situation (I never said this would be easy). You need to identify potential; target “clients” and understand what is important to them. You need to be able to tailor your skills to meet their demands … easy to write, not so easy to do. Often people take time out to reflect on life, their chosen occupation, the potential for other occupations and to maybe choose a different career path. I think the most important thing is to treat the job search like a job, to believe in yourself and to convey that sense to others who might value your skills.

I have never met the person who wrote to me this week but I was immediately struck by their ability to articulate their situation in clear English, a rarity these days! They have many years of technology experience in an older technology and the ability to communicate. Surely there is a good place for someone like this in a market like Western Canada! I have asked my General Manager to help, so we’ll see how it works out.

Each month Eagle’s Regional Vice Presidents put together this cross Canada look at the market … here it is hot off the press!

In the West and across all six of the western cities where Eagle has operations (Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina and Winnipeg), IT hiring activity remains very active and in some cases acute shortages are starting to directly impact the ability for organizations to execute their project plans on time. In parallel, the speed at which clients are making decisions on interviewing, hiring and not hiring resources has definitely increased in response to the market demand and to ensure they can secure the right people that they want and need for their teams before losing them to other organizations. An interesting sideline observation – there has been a steady flow of expatriates coming back from their international assignments and projects, to work back here in Canada and these individuals have been very well received by many companies. The hot, hot skills in demand in the West today include: Testers, Livelink Experts, Documentum Specialists, TIBCO resources, JD Edwards resources (both functional and technical), SAP (everything) and .net Architects.

In the Toronto region, the New Year brought new budgets and projects, and with that came the flood of many staffing requirements, keeping the Eagle Team very busy!! The month of January was this region’s busiest month since the start of the fiscal year back in September 2005. Clients in the GTA have a renewed sense of urgency which is starting to catch up to the boom being experienced in the West. SAP skilled resources are still in HOT demand with the focus being on functional rather than technical skills. These SAP skills are in short supply as many other regions have sought the GTA resources to meet their SAP skills shortages. Skills that were in demand over the last month included: Project Managers, Project Coordinators, Business Analysts (SOX, AML and BASEL) and Cobol, IMS/DB2 Developers. In addition, many data warehousing projects have gotten underway creating a new demand for BI and ETL skills. The Ontario Government continues to keep busy as many projects are being driven to meet fiscal year end deadlines. The staffing demand within the Ontario Government has also focused on Project Managers and Developers.
Overall, the job market in the GTA is gaining strength with many candidates being presented with multiple offers. As a result of this trend, many clients have become quicker with their response times in order to ensure they get the candidate they want. As we look forward to the warmer weather, we also look forward to the continued increased activity from clients and are poised to meet these needs. As the contracting market becomes more robust, contractor retention will prove to be the biggest challenge for all of us!!

Eastern Canada also continued to see increased demand in January although not to the extent being experienced in Western Canada where Alberta has become one of the world’s most vibrant economies. Experienced and savvy contractors in Eastern Canada are looking to capitalize on this job boom together with a tax and investment friendly environment and are heading West, further exacerbating skill shortages in the East. On the other side, Western based consultants, who previously readily moved right across the country to various projects, are staying closer to home with more than enough options in projects and sectors in their own backyard. An interesting debate has developed in some Ottawa media about the veracity of the tech skills shortage with the lines drawn generally around clients and talent providers clearly articulating what they see and foresee in the market as a shrinking candidate pool while job seekers say it is a media driven phenomena with little or no legs, a debunkable myth. What both sides agree on, however, is that the market is clearly asking for and rewarding different, more specialized skills than in the past, skills that change rapidly with evolving demand, definitely leaving some out in the cold. The debate rages but what is not disputable is the continued decline in enrollment in universities in both undergraduate and graduate programs in Computer Science and related programs. This coupled with the looming boomer retirement will no doubt make for interesting times ahead.
There is, however, no question that contractors are turning down more offers as they have multiple offers in hand. There are modest rate increases in some areas as the “hot” market clashes with clients’ efforts to control costs. Hot skills and roles in Eastern Canada include Project Managers, SAP resources both functional and technical, Healthcare IT resources, particularly bilingual Healthcare candidates, as well as, Cold Fusion and Documentum Consultants.

Do you ever get those calls? “Hi, this is Jeff from XYZ Incorporated. I’d like to take just 5 minutes of your time to tell you how I can save your corporation real dollars!” … Click!

I must be on every “list” in existence and those calls just help me create the “Kevin Dee No Call List!” As a CEO, in fact any senior person, time is my most precious commodity and the chances of me giving any of it to some stranger with a canned sales pitch is ZERO.

For me to take such a call that person needs to either be someone I know, be referred to me by someone I trust, know me well enough to know what is going to get my attention or have a very compelling story that happens to hit my hot button of the moment!

Please … do your homework! Preparation is everything and cold calling CEOs out of the blue just doesn’t work. Rant over!

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Kevin Dee is CEO of Eagle (a Professional Staffing Company)
Want to know where Canada’s hot jobs are?   Visit the Eagle Job Centre!
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I’m a business owner, so I guess I have a different outlook on life than many others. I have trouble understanding that so many people go to work every day with an attitude that says things like … “2,345 days and 42 hours to retirement!”, or maybe … “Only 7 hours 52 minutes till I get outta here!”. I listened to a radio show on my work today and the hosts were trying to plead a case for another public holiday today in Canada for National Flag Day. Surprisingly to me, all four listeners that dialed in said they didn’t think we needed another day off … I loved it! But I think the attitude of the show hosts was really representative of most workers.

Why can’t people in general have a positive attitude to work. We all (except for a tiny minority), need to work and probably we spend at least 8 hours there, 5 days a week. Why not be positive and happy for those hours? It’s a much better way to spend 40 hours each week than the alternative. There are always positives to find in life, good health, a good standard of living, good friends, loving family, good co-workers etc. Yet so many people go through life with a negative attitude, dragging all around them into their depths. I for one will go out of my way to avoid negative people. A fellow CEO told me that he stood up in front of his whole company and said “If you are a “glass half empty” kind of person you don’t fit in this company!” Some people ended up leaving, but it was a better place for that.

So … look for the good in your life. Bring a smile to work. Treat people with respect. Live each day fully without wishing your life away! I think you will find life to be so much more enjoyable.

Lively debate abounds on this issue. A few short years ago the tech industry was facing huge shortages in technology resources, companies were paying crazy signing bonuses, installing every amenity known to man just to keep their people and still had problems! The dot bust happened, the accounting scandals and a recession coupled with the demise of the communications industry bubble and the labor market swung. There were people laid off every day in huge numbers and signing bonuses became a thing of the past … until now!

So, is there a skills shortage or a skills surplus today? Are there companies unable to find the people that they need … absolutely and in many industries, the number is growing and those skills in demand are becoming a rare commodity. Are there qualified technology resources unemployed, underemployed and looking for work … yes! So what is going on?

It’s not really any different than the boom times of the internet. We heard companies screaming for resources, but the “older technology” workers just could not do the job. Technology gets old really fast … so people become obsolete really fast and unless you can somehow translate your skills to match those in demand your marketability decreases very rapidly. What is hot today may well bear little resemblance to the “in demand skills” of yesterday, hence the disconnect between supply and demand. The issue is complicated … we have the factors above, we have a coming hit to the workforce from retiring baby boomers, offshoring of work to India, China and other “low cost countries” is impacting many industries, particularly technology and manufacturing.

The debate that I have seen in the local Ottawa technology scene is focused on attaching blame and reaching a way to fix the problem. There is no quick answer! Training is a long term solution … we encouraged all kinds of kids to go and take tech courses four years ago, and they graduated to the worst economy in years with no job prospects. What do we say this time … hey don’t worry, it will be OK this time around? I hate the concept of Government handouts, they don’t ever seem to result in long term solutions. Personal responsibility is tough when you worked hard to gain skills that are no longer in demand, but it’s a harsh reality in a world that is probably more competitive today than I have seen in 25 years in the tech business. Business has a responsibility to its employees, to its clients and to its shareholders … it can’t afford to “beef up” with under-skilled workers and still compete in today’s environment.

So … do I have an answer. Probably not a palatable one to most, and really all parties need to do what they can to help. But at the end of the day I believe that every individual is responsible for their own future. If I found myself unemployed with limited prospects then I would retool and reinvent myself, do what it took to survive and then thrive. I don’t see any other answer.