: How much do I have to worry about what people who are part of my far-flung "virtual" corporation do when they're not working directly for me? I can't share too many details because the situation is touchy, as you might expect, but basically I have someone working for me as a writer, contributing material for my blog, and I have been hearing that he's writing some pretty far out, offensive material on other sites. Do I need to worry about it?

A: This is a difficult situation, no question, and one that comes up more and more as we've moved away from employee-as-chattel-for-life and towards plug-and- play cogs in all the machines of the modern economy. I wrestle with this myself too - every time I add a short note on this site saying "thanks to Kevin" or "Leo" or whomever, do I need to worry about their other work?

My short answer: yes.

Here's the longer explanation: When you hire people to join an organization, you are getting “the full package”, not just their output. If you hire a receptionist who molests children at night, you’ve got a child molester on staff, not just a receptionist.

When you have someone working for you, someone whose name is know by the rest of the community, by your customers, then you need to know more about them than just "do they turn in their projects on time?"

A more realistic example: the man you've hired to write some of your content might well be a rabid poster to a hate 'zine, or write articles for a racist, sexist, bigoted or other non-mainstream publication, something that is not only against your company policy, but perhaps against your personal beliefs too.

The question you need to ask yourself is: what would happen to my company's reputation if a customer put two and two together? And what if they then posted it, blogged about it, or even sent it as a tip to one of your industry publications of record?

This isn’t about numbers, or spreadsheets either, it’s about the credibility and, ultimately, viability of your business.

A book publisher who releases screeds and hate materials is forevermore tainted by them and inevitably loses credibility in the industry. A consultant who has an axe to grind is eventually out of work as potential clients learn of her biases and inability to be objective. A writer who can’t differentiate between professional work and personal writing similarly has their integrity called into question – and reasonably so – as it seems like might well be happening with your situation.

Remember, too, that if your customers are starting to talk about the other interests of your team, then you must listen and respond. If you don't, then you have a huge problem, because a Web site, blog, or even print publication that doesn’t listen to its community is an organization that is doomed to remain irrelevant and, ultimately fail in the marketplace of ideas. In this day and age there are tons of other places people can get their news and information, and there are certainly other venues for companies to advertise their products too.

I hope that helps clarify what I believe is the core issue surrounding whether you need to pay attention to what your team does when they're not working for you. It's frustrating, and it's something that should be irrelevant if everyone is acting in a completely professional manner, but it's proactive damage control. Because if something does break, something that makes your company -- and you -- look really bad, then it might be a lot more difficult to extricate yourself without looking terrible.

And that's a sobering reality.

Entrepreneur, writer, and management consultant Dave Taylor answers your thorniest questions, both business and technical, at the popular http://www.askdavetaylor.com/ - Ask Dave Taylor Web site. Don't forget to inquire how you can syndicate his content - for free - on your own site too.

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ot long ago, weeding through DBA applicants with a tech interview was a straightforward process. You'd ask candidates 200 or so technical questions. If they got 100 correct answers, you knew they'd been around the block; 150 or more and you knew you were on to superior talent. But once the Oracle Certification Program (OCP) became popular in the late 90s, the traditional tech interview lost its effectiveness. These days, candidates can answer 180 questions correctly and you still won't know whether they're talking from experience or simply regurgitating what they memorized at OCP a few weeks earlier. Although it has become increasingly difficult to determine whether you've found a seasoned, highly qualified DBA or a newly minted OCP Graduate, there are ways.

First, start by throwing out the questions. Any candidate who has been through OCP knows the answers—all of them. That list that helped you find superstar employees in the past is unfortunately useless now. Second, if you are a manager without solid database experience, enlist the help of an experienced DBA to help you prepare that critical interview. IT Managers have varied backgrounds and here it's important to pull from the right background, be it yours or someone else's.

You also need to analyze your needs. If you're looking to hire a junior person and mentor them, the OCP program ensures that the candidate has been exposed to most areas of the Oracle RDBMS. You can assume you'll have an employee who knows the commands and has a general concept of how a database works. But if you select an inexperienced OCP candidate thinking you're getting a skilled veteran, you'll be in for countless unpleasant surprises. Typical horror stories sound like: A DBA restores the backup for the first time in a real-life situation, finds out the backup strategy was flawed and loses the whole database. S/he probably also forgot to make a backup of the database before attempting the recovery, therefore rendering Oracle support intervention nearly impossible.

A DBA recommends technical implementation decisions based on limited experience with a single user database that has 10 tables of 100 rows each. Of course, the system hangs a few hours after the launch—as soon as 10,000 users start pounding on a 500GB database.

The most damaging aspect of newer DBAs is that they don't know when they are in over their heads, or how to plan properly. Senior IT professionals, no matter their field of expertise, have a gut feeling when it's happening. They know they have to step away, talk things over with a peer, roll everything back, and try another day. Inexperienced IT professionals are fearless and can therefore be dangerous, especially if they're expected to run the show.

So how do you find truly qualified DBAs in an OCP World? Put them to work—in the interview, that is. Create real world situations where candidates are allowed full use of any familiar online resources, and see what they can do. Some examples:

Want to check out their data modeling skills? Give candidates a hypothetical business that everyone understands, like a video rental store, and a basic set of business requirements. Put them in front of a white board and let them create a model that meets the stated requirements. You play the role of a subject-matter expert who is decidedly non-technical, and have them walk you through the results.

Wondering how they handle troubleshooting? Set up a database with various performance anomalies such as poorly written queries, missing indexes, and internal resource contention. Have applicants deal with the issues and walk you through their methodology. They can't use automated tools. The Oracle Data Dictionary and OS basic facilities must suffice.

Want to see if they know how to minimize downtime? Pretend you're a client who wants to upgrade a 500GB database from version X to version X+1. It's a 24/7 environment and each hour of downtime costs $10,000. There will be downtime regardless, but the DBA should be able to generate scenarios to keep it at a minimum.

Whatever skills you're looking to assess, make sure you test candidates in situations they can't prepare for and can't fake. The new interview process isn't quite as easy as those trusty old 200 questions. It requires more up-front planning and often more time in the interview room. But if it saves you from having to fire incapable employees who wreaked havoc on your database, it's probably worth it. A little advance preparation can save a whole lot of time, money, and hassle down the road. And isn't that all we're looking for in this crazy, mixed-up OCP world?

Robert Hamel
DBA Team Lead
Rob has served as the applications architect for one of the largest government databases in the world, as well as a primary architect on a database with one of the world's highest record of transactions per second. Before joining The Pythian Group in 2000, he worked for numerous corporations and government agencies, including Human Resources and Development Canada and Elections Canada. An acknowledged expert in the field, Rob excels in application architecture and application performance tuning.

Rob graduated from the University of Ottawa in 1987 and has been working with information systems ever since.

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What do you mean you need to push back the launch date?" Says the CEO. Says the CFO. Says the user community. CTOs, CIOs, and all officers who oversee major development projects have had to deliver the dreaded message. But a deadline for the sake of a deadline is a dangerous pitfall that can consume an entire project and stymie it to the point that it never launches. Over the years I've come up with six simple rules that help deadlines become more meaningful, while keeping the developers, the user community, the CFO and the CEO all satisfied.

1. Always have minor version control throughout development. Group functional requirements into minor versions so that core functionality is prioritized and so that the entire development team is generally active on the same minor version.

2. Always target minor version releases every 2 to 4 weeks.

3. Always begin testing immediately once each minor version is complete.

4. Always prioritize bug-fixing to the highest level upon the completion of any testing.

5. Never allow a problematic functional enhancement to be a showstopper. Negotiate with the user community and the CFO or CEO for a delay in, or removal of, the delivery of that functionality.

6. Always launch the product on time - as long as the most recent fully completed minor version is functionally equivalent or better than the current production system. Launch it, no matter how far you are from 100% complete.

So I want you to launch an incomplete application? Let's just call it "functionally challenged". This is what I call the 70% solution. The deadline doesn't move and the developers deliver a fully tested, bug-fixed version on time and within budget. This gives management the opportunity to evaluate further investments into application functionality while reaping the benefits of any developments to date.

Don't blame the developers. It's more likely a project runs over budget and over deadline because of optimistic cost planning or scope creep than poor developer skills. Following these rules ensures delivery of the best product the development team can achieve within a set budget or period of time. Even in an environment where scope creep becomes a factor, escalating requirements can be scheduled into minor versions so they never hold back the launch of the "functionally challenged" application.

Testing? Who needs testing? So you didn't follow the six rules, you're past the code freeze date, and you're supposed to be in final testing but there are still more things to implement. The user community and the CEO want to know if you'll be able to launch on time regardless. That's when it hits you— if only we could "streamline" the testing phase we could still make it. Very bad idea. The cost of backing out due to insufficient testing can cost more than the project itself. Recently I witnessed a botched implementation of a customer service application that almost cost the company in question its three largest clients—and millions of dollars.

Work your mediation magic. Application development managers have to be part negotiator and part magician. They need to keep all sides happy, even if product expectations and budget restrictions are in conflict. No one really wants the 70% solution, but everyone can live with it. And when no one's 100% happy, you know you're probably doing it right.

Read more in Case in Point: "The Thursday Rule"

Steve Pickard
CEO, Founder

Working actively with Oracle since the early '90s, Steve has architected and developed everything from large data-warehouses and decision-support solutions to award-winning instant Web applications.

Steve has degrees in Mathematics and in Management of Information Systems from Ottawa University. Before founding Pythian, Steve worked as a consultant for numerous companies as well as the Canadian government. He remains the key architect of Pythian's highly sophisticated internal applications and business process systems.

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As a result of the dot com meltdown and the decline of the NASDAQ in 2001, many organizations had no alternatives but to lay off many talented IT professionals. Currently, the pool of available talent in the labour market is large. Over the long haul, the impact of shifting population demographics on the labour pool will be staggering. As the baby boom generation continues to age, we can expect acute labour shortages similar to the ones we experienced in the high technology sector during the dot com boom. While there is still a surplus of talent in the market, it is important for organizations to take proactive steps to attract the brightest and the best and thereby fuel their organization's growth. The days of placing ads in the newspaper and receiving a flood of resumes from qualified applications are drawing to a close. Companies that want to ensure that they have a steady stream of applicants will have to think outside the box to broaden their repertoire of talent recruitment strategies.

For high technology organizations, attracting, hiring and retaining the right talent is critical. Add the right players to your team and you have a key source of competitive advantage. Attract the wrong talent and you will have difficulty meeting your strategic goals and objectives. Your first challenge is to generate a large enough talent pool from which you can draw when searching for top talent. The second is to develop an effective process for screening and selecting the best candidates.

Out of the Box Recruitment Strategies

Putting the right long and short term strategies in place will ensure that you attract the right talent now and into the future. Short term strategies to explore include:

- talent auditions;
- job fairs;
- incentives and contests for employee referrals;
- the use of web based resources such as job boards and job distribution services.

When we recently conducted our behaviour based interviewing workshop in Singapore, a Vice-President who attended the session indicated that his company had sponsored an employee's participation in a high profile sporting event. The company received so much publicity and exposure that it was more than worth their while to allow the employee to take time off to attend practices and compete in the event.

Longer term strategies could/might include:

- giving executives and senior managers time off to become actively involved in the leadership of professional associations or the alumni associations of universities and secondary schools from which they graduated;

- giving executives and senior managers time to broaden their network of up and coming professionals by teaching at university or community college (this can be done on a part-time basis or through sabbaticals);

- summer and co-op placements for high school and college students;

- providing scholarships for high potential high school graduates from low income families in exchange for a certain number of years of service;

- sponsoring tutoring and upgrading programmes at elementary and secondary schools with high failure and drop out rates;

- partnering with local juniour high and secondary schools to arrange field trips and site visits to company locations.

Some of these strategies may seem far fetched but the talent has to come from somewhere. If we don't help the schools to grow it, the talent may not be there for us to buy when we need it.

Other long term strategies involve positioning your organization as an employer of choice. A lot of it has to do with the corporate culture that you shape and the way you treat your employees. During the last recession, some employers took advantage of the fact that it was a buyer's market. They offered new employees rock bottom wages and treated the members of their team in a harsh and demanding manner. When the economy picked up, those organizations experienced a mass exodus of talent and severe talent retention challenges. It is important to learn the right lessons from their experience. Some long term strategies to explore include:

- initiating tele-commuting, flex hours, job sharing, and part-time work to tap into the female labour force on a long term basis;

- investing in the members of your team by providing opportunities for training and development, an area that is typically cut in turbulent markets;

- increasing your organization's public exposure by making it possible for employees to participate in high profile activities (e.g the Olympics and other major sporting events, acting) even if means giving them some time off work. Like Home Depot and McDonald's, you can then feature them in some of your advertisements;

- attracting media coverage and publicity by shaping a unique and vibrant corporate culture and environment where up and coming young professionals will want to work.

Key Skills for Turbulent Times

Once you have ensured that your organization has access to a pool of talented IT professionals, the next step is to be rigorous in your screening and selection processes. To be successful in the turbulent high technology industry, employees need much more than strong technical skills. They must also be able to:

- embrace change;
- tolerate ambiguity;
- learn quickly;
- produce high quality work within short time frames;
- maintain constructive relationships with team members, team leaders and clients;
- juggle multiple projects, tasks and priorities multi-task.

It can be challenging to assess how well candidates will fit your environment. During periods of job shortages and intense competition the job market, candidates develop strategies to present themselves favorably during traditional interviews. Many candidates receive:

- assistance in designing resumes;
- image consulting regarding dress;
- coaching to improve their effectiveness in handling typical interview questions.

This preparation can mask a candidate's deficiencies. Although interviews are the most widely used selection tool, they are not the best predictor of on the job performance. Strategies such as assessment centres, job samples and rigorous reference checks will uncover much more reliable data. Whenever possible, these strategies should be used in conjunction with selection interviews.

Interviewing Do's and Don'ts

To ensure that interviews yield the best possible data on which to base selection decisions here are some tips to share with your executive and management teams. First let's look at some interviewing pitfalls:

Avoid questions which make it easy for candidates to bluff their way through interviews.

For example, if you are still using such dinosaurs as:

- Tell me about yourself?
- What is your greatest strength?
- What is your greatest weakness?
- Why do you want to work for us?

as part of your standard battery of interview questions, you will miss key information that you need to assess potential employees.

Don't inadvertently screen candidates out because they don't fit your non-job related pre-conceived notions about your ideal candidate

(e.g. Caucasian, attractive, mid thirties, plays golf, no foreign accents).

Make sure that you don't inadvertently "telegraph" the right answers to the candidates

(e.g. "We are a very fast-paced company. How well do you deal with pressure?") This is a very common interviewing error.

Don't be fooled by a smooth interaction style during an interview.

Dig deeper. You may be dealing with a charmer or a con artist who will, at best, fail to produce results and, ultimately, cost you money.

Don't neglect to contact the candidates last 3 immediate supervisors for references.

Some candidates try to impress potential employers by supplying as references the names of high profile executives with whom they are personal friends. Sometimes, these individuals have no direct knowledge of an individual's work styles or habits.

Don't get so caught up in the intense pressure of a turbulent industry that you fail to do some long term manpower planning.

Decisions made in haste because filling a particular position is left until the need is urgent can be costly.

Don't leave the bulk of the hiring up to inexperienced managers and then fail to give them adequate training or tools.

Their mistakes can cost you time, money and even get your company involved in a human rights complaint or discrimination in hiring lawsuit.

Here are a few ideas to help your team improve the effectiveness of their selection interviews:

To improve your selection decisions, use a panel of 2 - 3 interviewers instead of relying on the judgment of one person.

Pre-plan the interviews with structured interview guides and questions.

Develop a clear picture of the type of corporate culture you want to foster and the values that will support that culture.

Design behaviour based questions to give candidates an opportunity to provide specific examples of when they have demonstrated those values. ("Please describe a specific situation in which you took a stand regarding a tough ethical dilemma at work even though there was a personal cost.")

Develop a realistic picture of the constraints of your working environment and prepare questions to help candidates describe when they have successfully performed under these constraints.

("When have you successfully executed a project within a tight time-frame and with a limited budget? What project management tools and methodologies did you use to ensure success?")

To get a balanced picture of a candidate's skills, develop some questions to give candidates an opportunity to describe when they have not handled situations effectively.

("Tell me about a time when you became so overwhelmed that you were unable to deal effectively with a change at work that you did not support.")

Make training available for all inexperienced managers and for experienced managers who have made poor hiring decisions.

Ensure that all managers involved in the hiring process are thoroughly familiar with the legislation that has a bearing on hiring and selection. This will help you avoid negative publicity and time consuming human rights complaints.

© 2005 Executive Oasis International - All Rights Reserved

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Anne Thornley-Brown is the President of Executive Oasis International, a Toronto based firm offering executive retreats and consulting for rapidly changing organizations in Canada, Jamaica and Asia. Anne has extensive experience in recruitment and selection interviewing. In partnership with FIK International, Anne has travelled to Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, India, and Thailand) 7 times and trained over 1000 executives, managers and professionals to improve their talent recruitment and interviewing skills. Petronas, Malaysian Airlines, Digi, Thai Airlines, Mobil/Exxon, and Dell Computers have sent delegates to her sessions in Asia. Anne designed and executed the behavioural interviewing strategy at Bell Mobility. For over 4 years, she helped their vice-presidents, directors and managers in finance, engineering, sales, and marketing improve their hiring decisions.

Executive Oasis International, Specialists in Executive Retreats http://www.executiveoasis.com

Competency Based Interviewing http://www.thetrainingoasis.com/cbi.html

FIK International http://www.fikintl.com

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Does your company need to retain the services of a competent computer consulting firm, but you have no idea how to really evaluate “competence”? In the first part of this two-part series on Computer Consulting 101 hiring tips, we looked at why small businesses find it so difficult to hire good computer consulting companies, as well as four basic questions that you must be addressed when searching for a new computer consulting vendor. Now in this second and final installment of this two part series on Computer Consulting 101 hiring tips, we’ll look at how you can evaluate the true, often-confusing expenses of using a computer consulting company, as well as how to more thoroughly review the computer consulting company’s professional credentials and experience.

Reseller, “Pure” Computer Consulting Company, or Hybrid Technology Provider

Does your company resell various technology products, such as hardware and software? Is this a profit center or do you mind if we shop for our products elsewhere? And if we do shop elsewhere, can we still purchase your needs analysis and procurement services?

Are there any other vendors, such as ISPs or telephone companies, that your firm acts as an agent or affiliate for? In other words, do you accept commissions or referral fees for steering business toward certain vendors?

Costs, Hidden Charges, and Billing Procedures

What are your payment terms, rates and hourly billing minimums? What is billable and what is not billable?

Do you charge for your travel time? Telephone support? E-mail/online support? Remote support?

Are there any hourly rate billing premiums for after-hours or emergency service? What constitutes “after hours” or an “emergency”?

Do you offer support contracts? What are the cost and benefits?

Client Reference Accounts, Case Studies, and Testimonials

Can you tell me about one of your more long-term small business client accounts?

Can you tell me about one of your more recently signed-on clients? Can you tell me about a small business client who didn't work out and why?

Can you provide references?

Research/Developments and Keeping Skills Sharp

How do you keep up with new tech developments?

What do you bill clients for and what do you absorb internally? Are there any gray areas?

Training Approach and Knowledge Transfer

How do you feel about handholding and in-depth training with users?

What kind of user and technical training can you provide?

Will you train our internal computer administrator to become more self-sufficient, even if it takes away from your "job security" and opportunities to bill more hours?

The Bottom Line

Don't fall into the ultra-common trap of hiring an independent computer consultant or computer consulting firm that isn't a good fit for your business. Use these Computer Consulting 101 hiring and screening questions as the basis for making a more informed hiring decision for your computer consulting vendor. And if you have any doubts, don't be afraid to seek out a second opinion with another computer consulting company.

Copyright MMI-MMV, Computer-Consulting-101.com, All Worldwide Rights Reserved.

Joshua Feinberg, co-founder of Computer Consulting 101, is a 15-year veteran of small business computer consulting and an internationally recognized expert on small business computer consulting. He has appeared in dozens of business and IT trade publications including CRN, VARBusiness, Microsoft Direct Access, TechRepublic, American Express OPEN Platinum Ventures, Entrepreneur, Inc, SCORE, Small Business Computing, and USA Today. To get immediate online access to Joshua’s proven sales and marketing strategies for growing your computer consulting company’s profits, sign up now for the free one-hour computer consulting training recording at http://www.computer-consulting-101.com

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