welcome to talented people on princeton television i hope you have a great day i'm jeannie murphy and happy to have our guest in studio today his name is jim lentz he's the president of regional personnel services serving in the new jersey central new jersey it's rounding areas  welcome to our show thank you pleasure to have you here thank you i know our guest out there are always wondering what's going on right now with you know what's going on with the economy as far as placement goes and everything but tell us about yourself a little first sure i'm president of original personal services located in lebanon new jersey and i've been doing this for quite some time on and off and i spend about twenty years in pharmaceuticals and along the way i had imagined my whole career and  to the greater central jersey area and it's mostly around office management bookkeepers and things like that but we do everything from temporary or right on up to direct hires all right so i want everybody to know that  on a demand and most companies that bring us up are in need of staffing they need either someone who is a permanent employee or they need a temporary for a project based opportunity so typically they don't have an inside a charkha component they don't have town search component inside and we're kind of their outsource partner in terms of finding the right persons to vet and present to them for the opportunity that they need the need that they need right away and with thinking about  these is there a certain size company that it's really what you guys serve there out there people are thinking you know i mean they're corporate and we have it like is that too small perhaps to afford it or i don't even want to call because i'm afraid to find out i would tell us about that it's really all over the place because the biggest companies they call us when they can't find any when they're stuck and we like those those are the tough ones and we'll spend time because we have the resources and the network to find people so companies that even have  apartments and they have talent recruiters inside they'll exhaust their you know their avenues by which they typically find candidates and vet them and they'll come to us and say listen you guys take a shot at this and so sometimes we get some very challenging ones which are really f rewarding but it's all the way down jeanie to the ones that are one or two people shops the mom and pops because they obviously don't have a chart partner aunts and talent search internally with recruiters and things so it's all over the place and it's cross every industry that there is so it's really the confinements really central jersey is geography right well and i think there's so many reasons that a company would need to know that you're here because people go on maternity leave something happened small business so you're saying even smaller business it's not unusual for them to call on you or know that these you know they're there and they know you're there yeah they need qualified yeah and it and also part of that formula is they need them quick  they have these various leaves of absence is and we have a database we've built over in one thousand years so we know and we keep a lot of data and lot information every candidate that we've interviewed that we've deployed so we know the right fit we know the right match we know which ones might fit better in certain situations and other so it's quick we can turn around quick for those sort of things and on the long term ones where there's a permanent need for a permanent hire you can take your time and fill those those take two or three months typically and we get very close are our it's to figure out you know really what they need i mean when they call and say need someone tomorrow we can put them in but it's on the long term permanent basis we take our time and we can we can vet carefully and really get to know the candidates that we present to them and i think that's really the excitement that we have so on sometimes you are telling me that you go into an office looking for a candidate and they'll say this is what i think i need and you all are like you need that but you also need to understand this because that's what your expertise this right so can you tell us a little bit about that what distinguishes your and your services yeah a lot of times when we're asked to start a search we always like to go on site and speak with the hiring manager the people that are going to be responsible for this person success and the decision at the end of day whether hire him or not and a lot of times we get in there we start talking a lot about what their real needs are and because i think we know the marketplace because it's dynamic it's changing every week like right now i think the whole marketplace in new jersey start heat up because we're finding yeah there's there's candidates that are coming off the market if you will because they've accepted positions they have multiple offers so i can feel it you can see the g d p numbers i watch them coming out every month in israel you're kidding me that yeah yes yeah i'm going to do yeah so it's all heating up so a lot of times we say they give us your wish list but we go in and talk to them and really understand a lot of what's not on the wish list and then when we go on sort of vetting candidates we could look at dozens of candidates and say you know what this person is a perfect fit but they don't necessarily have this part of it so that's where the negotiation comes in we're kind of a guidance we provide guidance or were advisor to our clients and say you know if you relax on this one parameter they need to be within the twenty mile commute well distance to she or he is twenty five if you give up on that parameter in the profile look at what we can present to you so it's an ongoing communication between us and the cloud in a candidate is just paramount you have to keep talking because it's evolving now i love it and so and also like you said you get to know your candidates so well because you place them in different situations that when someone comes in and they need someone fast you can actually break them when it could really help their business immediately train perhaps they could be actually training be on the phone some of the things that they seen and other companies that have been you know innovative or you know are thinking you know that's a good point because one of the things that i came out of the consulting background and one of the things is that when you go from company to company company and you do project at the project no one company at any given industry does everything well and that's where best practice come up so we see a lot of the companies and i get to talk to business owners every day which is really a thrill because i get to know them i get to know their industry but i also get to know their pain points and i'm a business owner too so i have the same pain point many times with people trying to fill  but one of the things that is exciting is to be able to take those people to your point and they move from place to place and they can take best practices with them so a lot of times they come in and they say you know we want to do x y and z but they turn out that they say you know what we didn't realize this person can do this and we don't have this opening and we didn't tell you guys about it but we'd like to hire them and so a lot of times people find this is an avenue to find that full time job and temporary temp to hire is a lot of the companies now and this is a new trend i think we're finding too is that many of my clients are asking for higher and higher skilled people as temporary temp to hire were really for a lot of the higher more highly skilled people that are out there would only take permanent positions and of the downturn in the economy i  that the purpose of that highly skilled temp to perm position also is kind of a learning experience for both the company and the candidate yes yes yes that is and it's a great opportunity for the obviously the company get to know the candidate and see if we got the fit right but it's also an opportunity for the candidate to feel if that he or she is a good fit for the company the culture because one of the things also and you can see it on the matching talent with the with culture since one thousand nine hundred seven is that they saw the company and trying to understand the fit we have to first start with the interview with the kid the client to get a sense for the culture and if you go into you know this company this company this company even though they're in that same industry the fit the feel the vibe is very very different and having a date database we know what people would would connect with that kind of a world if you will much fun yeah yeah it's a lot of fun so tell me about the experience just since second or two i mean minutes when you and what i want to also ask you is ok so if i'm a company and i'm just all business owner and i would like to reach out to you is it going to cost me anything to call you up to find out more about your services like and what was that about know right up front first of all we never charge the candidates that has to be clear we never charge a candidate because there is a different license a new jersey you have to have to do that so we don't and we wouldn't anyway on the can't on the client side there's no cost but there is a type of search that we would want to set up as a retainer and that's where every you trunk up the final cost over three over three months for sample and the third month you get the final but those are very high in difficult searches to do and everyone knows it's risky and that's why we structured that way the other types on the other in the spectrum we get no money until we fill it and that's typically there's there's much less risk in that type of a search and we all feel confident going to we're going to fill it right well i want to own the thinking is that just companies out there people out there who are watching the south thank you by the way if they just wanted to reach out to you so that they could find out that you do provide the services with the type of candidates and that need somebody you might be able to very much quicker get to the right person yes and i'm all about like the people who just like you know go immediately to the want ads you know the newspaper or craigslist or something i mean it's not it's an expertise there's a lot of revenue hiring and using you know turnover yes can you talk about that a little bit yeah fact many of times the first question we ask is what have you done so far why is that position open and many times they tried on their own because the really the one of the best ways to get someone in a smaller company is through a personal referral because you know you know who they are you know they're coming from in the friend or the intermediary knows what you're in that's that's what but when they exhaust those sort of things they typically will come to was to do all of that in of i'd like to tell people we like to learn what's not on the resume and we get very personally involved have a lot of conversations with the candidate but it starts with a lot of conversation with the client and being around a local in new jersey we typically go on site for that first introduction introductory meeting but we're taking notes about the culture in the environment but we really want to know who's going to be hiring what are they looking for and we find out a lot more about what's not in the job description or where the company's going as a as a strategic focus because sometimes candidates want to know right like you know ok i'm taking a chance because the candidates are taking a chance right with a company and if i know the big picture which i like to do being a consultant the being a strategy consult the map on so i like to understand the big picture and why is this position open and what can they do to grow because again i came out of managing my own career so i help people manage their careers and i try if i can help them see a big picture and see where they belong in that big picture it's a it's a much better  relationship at the end of the day between the candidate which i always say i'm not delivering candidates i'm delivering employees what about like let's talk a little bit about that you were saying candidates are taking a chance like you're you know i think for the most part people out there who are if you're called to be a candidate it's like oh my god i hope i get the job there's someone here that has got my life in their hands you know if i have to impress you and not that you are going to be your name on meet them and so how does that like work what how would be advice would you give to the person who's been called upon to meet you that competition and then what about on the other side questions that they should feel comfortable asking you because you're kind of the say that yeah it's a it's a level of trust the credibility in the conversation is immediately whether or not the parameters of the profile of the needs of the client fit where they want to go i can see where they are in there what they've done on  resume but what is that really where they want to go forward so the first thing is that the sky is where you want to be is that something you'd like to go and discuss further and it's full disclosure you know one of the things i like to say is that if we've had no surprises after the candidates been on the ground there for a month or two we did our job and the other thing too is you know just to ensure the that there's there's enough information and that we get out of the way one of the things we like to do is get out of the way because i like that i like that them the best i can present them to class my client and then at that point i get out of the way and let them discuss and say what did you hear what did you hear what did you not hear when that we were on the other side of it and we're filling in the gaps because there's a language you know there's a whole cultural conversation that needs to happen or develop well like you're doing a preliminary math kind of thing and then qualified yep qualified match and then when they finally get together they have to find out that report that connection there and like you said the goals you were mentioning website and it's thinking about you know one of the predictors of future success just bridging off what i saying earlier is that you're trying to look at the resume that's what they've done that's a report card but itself reporting it's what they think and you try to get down to it but what's a real predictor them taking the putting the had on of a business owner what predicts the future success of this person so you know it's a it's a it's a it's a team effort you know the company has to welcome them in there has to be a transition period and have to take time a thirty to forty percent of someone's time has to be taken in with working this person into their company and it's you can't just hit somebody and somebody down and say ok here you go here's a computer get started right so that's where i try to coach the candidates one before they start and they get bought on boarded t some questions day one and say you know what how do we know we're going to be successful here what's what's what do you think success defined success for me in this job and you start building a report but you also start building a contract a verbal contract with if i do x y and z very well you're going to think you know this is a good guy this is a good fit there's a good person you know interesting that you're talking about how you guide the candidates to do this because to me if i were someone i was talking to you as a business owner considering your services i would think of that as a very much value added because that's a really important thing to know what about on when it comes to the candidate and your first you know you're on the phone you call me up and i've got all the skill sets it looks like that on the resume you want to know more about what's not on the resume right do you have any do's and don'ts for those people to do people come to you with some kind of a red flag of the get go that you know you will be like there is no chance of that i'm going to place this person or  there's anything to do so i know it's a good thing i use the analogy of pushing a rope and you can do it virtually over the phone and you can do it with a commitment to have something sent after you get off the phone with them like you can you send a revised resume and sometimes i turn around it's on my computer the minute i get off the phone other times you wait three or four days and you say ok this person really is they didn't understand it enough or they're not interested enough to take the time to do that so it's kind of like pushing a rope with a candidate and you hope they grab onto it and then you have a you have you have a connection so if they're talking to i mean i just got the follow up with the candidate this morning and she was gushing with this opportunity that i brought to her and i thought you told me earlier it's a it's one of these tough searches and i found somebody that was a perfect and she was excited she you could hear through the phone and the wording for i mean yeah really this exciting yeah well they got wind you do you have someone immediately reply like you said is there any kind of they were all that's too fast or too competent or is there is there something wrong with asking do you really they're saying they're going to spend nine hundred twenty grand can i get one hundred forty like as the candidate how were  you know that's a great point or kind of bridges or what you said earlier to is you're trying to assess an attitude there's a resume jim's telling you this might say only this but it's an attitude you're trying to get right from the minute you call them up and sometimes you you catch them off guard you say i'm jim lynch i found your resume this way and i'm send you my information so you know who i am because it's it's basically a call call but you know one thing you don't want to do in terms of building trust you want to understand what they want as this next moves and sometimes if you get the you know the process and they want to renegotiate and say you know like i said earlier i know i said one twenty but i'm thinking one forty feel like i don't think that's going to that's not a good sign but tell me why tell me what happened between when we spoke first and now we're speaking for the could be on the writing reason the market may change i may have an offer at that level so i'm always trying to understand saying ok so then so even though it's a little bit of a trust issue breaker you know there's some consideration that the person has some explanation as to why they want this crazy change or not the case and then ok so you were also talking a little bit about the geographical size like the twenty miles or whatever and maybe there's a reason that they will be interested in even taking a pay cut if it's closer or something but what is their own turnitin like the number of hours or tell us about the work week and what's all that going on with tele communicating so yeah you know i could sum it up in one hyphenated word work work life balance three words of but i think you know some people we've we've look at the resume and sometimes we said there's no real way this person what i want to take this other job it's either it's a lesser job but we call them anyway many times in sometimes it's totally surprised my team will come back in the say here she's very interested in because it will help with like a family issue it's very close to home it's a minute away i have a son that's going to you know son or daughter going into high school i want to be there for the team in they want they want to just bring it down a level and increase their quality of life so there's all kinds of reasons why someone would leave for example it's just because you like you think could be the perfect timing yes situation a time because one of the first things we ask is what your rationale why would you want to make this kind of a move that's one of the first questions we ask and we talk them because we're like looking at the resume and you know sometimes they don't understand what we're asking what the job is right off the bat but sometimes they come back and say you know it's a shorter commute i just want to be around more for my family i'll take a pay cut so it's truly increasing the quality and i think after we've gone through this whole two thousand and eight thing you know with the economic downturn and all that i think people are starting to take stock in what they really want to do with day to day so like now let's speak about it from your client perspective and that you've gotten the report you know this customer pretty well you know their culture you talk with them often they're in the need for an executive and you find me and i say ok i'm interested tell us a little bit about how you take that information back to your client what happens i mean again it's a lot of a lot of communication with the in the front end you have to have a lot of a lot of understanding with the client what their needs are what the needs are go and at the end of the day you bring this this candidate to them and you present them in a way that says i personally and validating that this is a good fat fit this is a good match for what you need and sometimes it takes some polling or more discussion if you will with the car with the client because they don't necessarily see it and sometimes it's really i have to keep them on the phone and say listen you need to let you need to hear me out because i know this is what you're looking for but i think i found what you need and i love it i think that's just incredible i think it's great because i think a lot of people again think they can do it themselves and not everybody is he's good at everything and so it's nice to have a service that actually does if you're really going on yeah i think i mean certain industries are certainly on an uptick and i think if especially in new jersey i mean there's no i came out of the pharmaceutical industry the financial industry spills over from new york those are not necessarily  growth area for miss just kind of a stagnant right now and the telecom is a little bit stagnant right now but you know there's a lot of pockets within the jersey central new jersey of companies that are starting to spawn out of ideas and innovation and that's i love innovation and i think that's where there's going to be a lot of opportunity for people to jump in take chances because you know they're there just prior to the big corporate so i don't think there's a lot of big corporate positions but that said there are some very large corporate entities that are moving into like the bridgewater area princeton area so there are some very big companies coming they've made commitments the come here to new jersey and we keep track of that there's real state publications out there with these huge leases that are being signed because they want to promote the businesses so we keep an eye on what companies are coming home to a big corporate companies are coming out and i think they're coming back maybe as a better way to put it what about the each like to talk about that because i thought you were just saying that there were a lot of executive levels at this moment that these clients don't care really they want skills that they want skills they don't care and they shouldn't i mean we can't by law die from an a i get it but there's there's some fantastic skill sets that are out they're that are either very new to the world and they are very interested in trying to understand where they are at the beginning of their careers and other people who are at the other end of their careers and want to change and so it's worth gnostic as far as age goes but we hear the out effect where we come back to the attitude someone who's excited about the opportunity sees value when they can bring day one they and a lot of things these things will take their own momentum and it takes it out of our hands is the greatest candidate is the one that says and runs with it almost had the small him down and  doing it by themselves is there anything you can share with yeah i think you know coming from the consulting world they can call us up and we can have that conversation about what are your what what are your needs what are they now where are they going to be and then we can keep it on the it's nice to know where companies going to be instead of getting that frantic call on a friday my phone rings off the hook on friday night and saturday mornings because they realize that in do anything about that fill that gap so we'd like to like to be on the front where we can do all our homework and get really close to the client so you know right now they can call us up and get a half hour phone console to talk to us about what their issues are what they will be in we can actually just help from a consulting point of view maybe guide them towards with your business and then you know you're able to just like you have a really fun personality got is that a lot of fun and so while you're out there finding people and meeting people you know you should know that you're great represent to have your own company as our listeners that you have so much going on watching talented people