Modis: Geek Chic - American Executive - RedCoat Publishing - American Executive

Modis: Geek Chic

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Written by John Zorabedian

Tuesday, 01 April 2008

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Information technology is back—bigger, faster, and more dynamic than ever. IT fizzled after the late ’90s dot-com bust and got outsourced to India at the start of the new millennium. Now, business wants increasingly flexible and on-demand staffing for IT projects. Companies want the best workers for the best money, and they want those workers to be knowledgeable where the work is located, not across the oceans.

Jack Cullen, President

Recruiting an on-demand contract IT workforce is too expensive and time intensive for inhouse human resources departments. But traditional staffing firms don’t make the cut because of the highly technical nature of the work, and recruiters need to be knowledgeable enough to know what to look for. According to Staffing Industry Analysts, a consultant in Palo Alto, Calif., the pent up demand for highly qualified IT workers boosted the IT staffing industry to $22 billion in 2007.

“Companies are smarter about how they hire,” said Jack Cullen, president of leading IT staffing firm Modis, Inc. “In the ’90s, companies would hire an IT worker for a six-month project and keep them for three years. Employers are now hiring for the duration of the project, and they are specific about deliverables and project timelines.”

As the North American IT staffing business unit of the global staffing company MPS Group, Inc., Modis has the size, resources, and flexibility to provide staffing solutions for clients wherever their needs arise. But what makes Modis such a big player in the US IT staffing market (with revenues of $513 million last year) is its proven system for recruiting IT workers of the highest quality to meet the requirements of its clients, Cullen said. Concerns about the quality of work done overseas and the need for on-time completion of critical projects has boosted demand for the services of local and rigorously vetted IT workers.

Competition over the domestic talent pool is stiff in the IT staffing market, from large staffing companies like Tek Systems, Robert Half International, Comsys, and smaller regional staffing firms in each of its markets. Modis looks to differentiate itself on quality. “Nobody has command of the marketplace,” Cullen said. “We focus on providing the best worker, as opposed to the worker that can just do the job. We know technology and learn about our clients; we can help connect companies and workers.”

The secret, Cullen said, is finding quality people and using them as resources to find more quality people.

Social networks
With 53 US offices and a staff of more than 500 trained, professional recruiters and account managers, Modis is in all of the top markets in the country. The company’s database of IT workers exceeds 1 million workers, and Cullen said those people are the best network for finding other highly qualified IT professionals.

“Good people that like who they work for like to refer other good people to work for the company,” Cullen said. “Most people we’ve placed on assignment have either worked for us previously or have referred people to us that they have worked with on previous assignments. That’s the first place we go to when looking to fill a job order.”

Modis recruiters also keep tabs on where their consultants are working, what they are working on, and when they will be available again to work for another client. “We work tirelessly to keep our database up to date so we know when somebody is finishing up an assignment,” Cullen said. “The world of the IT contractor is dynamic, so understanding candidate availability is critical to meeting a client’s real-time need.”

The company also networks with quality IT people through technology user groups, forums, and blogs, as well as the job boards. “We really keep our hands on people who are active in the job market so we can make them available to our clients the minute they need them,” Cullen said.

“A lot of companies are scouring the job boards, looking for someone that might appear to be a fit for what a client is looking for,” Cullen added. “Our clients deserve and pay for a service that includes extensive sourcing, screening, and verification of the qualities and background of the candidate they want. The Modis commitment to deliver those services remains a key reason for our customer loyalty and retention.”

Recruiting recruiters
Through a rigorous testing and vetting process, Modis weeds out unqualified candidates on behalf of its clients. And Modis’ focus on quality extends to its internal employees—the recruiters and account managers who are the gatekeepers for clients. Cullen said the company looks for “PHDs”—poor, hungry, driven individuals who are looking to excel and perform at a high level.

“Hiring the right individual who is willing to work long hours and has a passion for success is one of the major business objectives of our management team,” Cullen said.

During the first six months, new recruiters within Modis participate in a proprietary training program that covers technical screening, interviewing, reference checking, testing, and determining the cultural fit of a prospective IT consultant.

“Our front-line recruiters have the opportunity to become Modis business development managers and eventually pursue a management role in the company,” Cullen said. “A clear career path for our top performers allows us to attract leaders and motivated individuals that have a sense of urgency and responsibility. When we identify these top producers, we want them to have a long career with Modis.”

As the supply and demand of workers within specific skill sets ebbs and flows, along with the technical needs of clients, Modis works to keep up on the latest trends in the industry. Although larger companies will continue to outsource a portion of their IT work overseas where possible, the new workforce of contract IT professionals in the US allows even smaller companies to upgrade their technologies and improve their IT processes for the same quality, without the expense of managing an unwieldy staffing operation internally. Modis has positioned itself to perform that job.

“Whether companies expand their IT staff or seek higher levels of productivity from their existing workforce, we want to maintain our position as our clients’ vendor of choice for all their IT resource needs,” Cullen said.

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