CSH Consulting Blog

Recruiter’s Corner
Written by Curt Hensley, President and CEO, CSH Consulting, Inc.

Landing the Dream Job by Marketing Yourself Online

Are you looking for a better paying job, a job with more responsibility, better benefits and a boss that listens to you? Are you trying to relocate to a warmer climate? If you are, you’re not alone. There are millions of people hunting for a better job every year. The Journal of Labor Research reports that one out of five working Americans -- over 20 million people -- leave his or her job every year.
There are several steps you can take to better your chances of getting noticed by top-notch recruiters. First, you have to brand yourself. Second, you have to raise your online profile. Third, you have to manage your comprehensive online presence.
Here is a list of the most important steps you can take to get noticed quickly.

1. Post your resume on all the major job boards to drastically increase your chances of being found for multiple job opportunities. Recruiters typically have a favorite job board they search on 90 percent of the time, and many recruiters don’t check other job boards after looking at their favorite. Contrary to popular opinion, the best recruiters still search for candidates on Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com. It’s typically not the first place they go, but they would be remiss if they didn’t use all of their resources. Currently there are 44 million resumes on Monster, and 17 million on CareerBuilder. And, there's much less overlap than most would think. There are a number of other job boards to keep in mind when you are ready to post your resume. HotJobs.com, Jobing.com, America’s Job Bank, Vault, and CareerSite.com are all worthy of posting your resume on and gaining increased visibility. Recruiters are very familiar with these job boards and they are great resources for recruiters. As a job seeker you really can’t afford to pass them up. Due to the gigantic volume of resumes on the major job boards, there’s a perception that the candidate quality is poor. Not true at all. Yes, Monster can be overwhelming for job seekers and it's much harder for the superstar to stand out because of the number of resumes listed. But great recruiters can find the stars when they take the time to look. And candidates: You can get found much easier if you post your resume on Monster and Careerbuilder.

2. Create a profile on LinkedIn as a way to search for a job without looking like you’re searching. LinkedIn is an online networking service that is quickly becoming a dynamite source for recruiters. Recruiters turn to LinkedIn to search for candidates by title, school, company and geographic location. More than 15 million experienced professionals from around the world have profiles on LinkedIn. Take the time to create a winning profile and use your LinkedIn profile like you would your resume. Make sure your LinkedIn URL is attached to your e-mail signature and encourage people to take a look. LinkedIn is an easy to use networking service. If you reach out to as many friends and business associates as you can, accept invitations when they are offered to you and add connections to friends and business associates, your 50 personal contacts will soon become a network of 500,000 personal contacts. Imagine how easy this is to network for a job by putting in a little extra time. According to LinkedIn, adding 5 connections makes you 3.7 times more likely to receive a job offer. I’m not sure how they came up with this statistic, but I do know that it’s a powerful tool to get your name out there.

3. Update your Online Directory Info at ZoomInfo.com and JigSaw.com. As an alterative to Monster.com, tap into these two powerful tools as a way to locate job opportunities. ZoomInfo is an overall business information search engine used not only by recruiters, but also by innovative business executives that are looking to find information on industries, companies, people, products, services or jobs. With more than 37 million profiles listed with ZoomInfo, most large search firms utilize this resource when hunting for talent.
According to Inc. Magazine, Jigsaw.com is “The World’s Biggest Rolodex.” And, with more than six million people registered on the site, complete with all their contact information, Jigsaw has become a key resource that recruiters depend on. You can imagine that this is a great place for recruiters to go when they are digging into the competitors of their clients in order to find passive candidates. Both ZoomInfo and Jigsaw allow you to secure a new position without making it obvious that you are looking to get out of your current position.

4. Advertise yourself on your blog by posting on it frequently. And, don’t forget to include your name, title and LinkedIn URL. Make sure to include descriptors like your current projects, technical expertise, and examples of anything you have done that shows up in the public record. Add conferences, meetings, user groups, contact management software you have used, complex projects you have run, descriptions of your certifications and leadership positions you have within your the community. Be specific with your expertise and try to include key words that a recruiter might use to look for talent. The goal is to be obvious, but not too obvious. If you don't have a blog, offer to guest post on a friend’s high-ranked blogs. You will be surprised about the attention you draw.

5. Recruiters seek out people with expertise. You increase your chances of landing your dream job by writing articles for trade publications, newspapers, and the local company newsletter. Someone who is published is going to have a better chance of getting noticed than someone who keeps their expertise confined to the company e-mail.

6. Sponsor or start a networking event for your specialty in your local area. Networking events are beneficial, especially for the person who starts the group. Why not make that person you? It’s rare to find employees that take this kind of initiative, so it automatically labels you as someone who is willing to go the extra mile. This is also a great resume builder.

The best way to find your dream job is making yourself as easy to find as possible. If you follow these steps, many opportunities could open up to you and not just job offers. If you're lucky, you may find your dream job and continue to have business opportunities knocking at your door long after the search is over.


Curt Hensley is the founder, Chief Executive Officer and President of CSH Consulting (www.cshconsulting.com), the premiere recruiting firm exclusively focused on the Payments & Transaction Industry. Headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ and a with a second office in Dallas, TX, he and his leadership team have over fifty years of combined experience in recruiting and merchant acquiring. This niche focus and deeply-rooted experience have made it possible for CSH Consulting to have placed more than 1000 professionals over the past 7 years! Contact him at 480.315.8800 or curth@cshconsulting.com.

Why Use an Executive Recruiter?
By: Curt Hensley, CSH Consulting, Inc

Successfully growing your merchant services business in today's world is a challenge. No matter your location or specialty, the need for dynamic leaders with the right mix of skills, experience and cultural compatibility is critical — leaders who can successfully guide your payments business in a rapidly changing economy. More than ever, thriving merchant payment businesses are turning to executive recruiting firms to find their next great leader. Here’s why.

Better Candidates and More of Them. The best candidates for senior management and leadership positions are passive candidates who are currently employed by your key competitors and who are successful in their current assignment. The same can be said for the senior sales executives, risk management professionals, technology experts and product managers that you need to grow your merchant services business. A good recruiter is one who is able to tap into a network of these professionals who are not actively on the job market and increase your candidate pool dramatically. Additionally, since the best candidates are already employed, many of them will deal only with a recruiter - they appreciate the worth of third-party representation, confidentiality and professional mediation.

This audience of passive candidates will not be posting their resumes on the internet, responding to classified advertising or contingency recruiters. They don't have to. They are successful in their current career and fully occupied in meeting the challenges and opportunities of your payment industry competitors.

Because of their focus on senior management recruiting, executive search firms have the processes, research departments and methodology to identify and recruit passive candidates who are currently employed by your key competitors. As a result, executive search firms are able to contact this pool of management talent that is inaccessible by most other means.

Top notch executive talent is a scarce commodity today. The limited contacts of in-house human resource departments can't compare with the wide net cast by a recruiter's network. Recruitment firms can bring in top talent from across the country and even across the globe.
Get the Advice of an Expert. Executive recruiters bring valuable objectivity and feedback to management. Executive search is a time-consuming, sensitive process done best by those with several years of experience. This experience allows recruiters to effectively help clients evaluate their expectations, review relevant organization structure and reporting, and define a realistic profile and compensation package for the open position. Search firms will provide objective feedback on the candidates and advice to the client. As experts in research and reference checking, executive recruiters can glean significant information from even reluctant reference-givers.

Think of it this way – if you run a merchant services sales team for 10 years, you become an expert in leading and motivating MLS. The executive recruiter’s field is interviewing, evaluating and placing top talent into their respective clients. I can do my own accounting or taxes, but instead I rely on my CPA firm that does this type of service every day. Usually my CPA finds ways to save me money and pays for their service. Every business owner knows that hiring a great leader for your company will pay off much more than the cost of finding him or her, and competent recruiting firms are the best way to ensure that you land that next great leader.

Confidentiality is Key. The payments industry is a closely networked group and recruiters observe strict confidentiality. Nearly all senior managers know that executive search firms handle senior level assignments and have demonstrated the ability to use discretion and maintain confidentiality. Organizations with a key opening can be vulnerable. Confidentiality can keep competitors from being tipped off to management shake-ups, new product and market initiatives, and can protect against employee and supplier apprehension. Recruiters value the sensitive information they become aware of during the search process and respect their client’s vulnerability. Recruiters are Cost Effective. The benefit of using a recruiter can be weighed against the cost of preparing and executing an advertisement campaign, screening and qualifying candidates, and operating without a needed employee for an extended length of time, compared to the relative insurance of getting the right person for the job. The use of recruiters is an investment in improving the quality of an organization’s staff. But even beyond that, the risk in not using recruiters can be great. For smaller companies – where one hiring mistake can have disastrous results – using recruiters is sometimes more important than for very large companies. People are a company’s most important asset. They can make or break the fortunes of a business. Professional recruiters can deliver the right people for today’s highly competitive business environment.

Contingency Versus Retained. There are two main differences between contingency and retained search firms: how they look for candidates, and how they get paid.

Contingency firms are transaction-oriented — that is, they get paid only if you hire a job candidate they present to you. When they find a topnotch candidate, they present the hot prospect to as many firms as possible. Contingency firms may offer a lesser fee, but work on many more jobs therefore lessening the attention on your needs. If your company is looking to quickly fill a lower level position, using a contingency firm could be a good move. Contingency firms have a great "deal flow" of candidates, which means they can meet short-term staffing needs.

Retained search firms, on the other hand, are consulting-oriented — they get the same fees no matter how long it takes to find the right candidate. Retained search firms fill your company's vacancies by getting to know your company's needs and finding a candidate with the exact skills you're looking for. In essence, they're working for you. They are best-suited for strategically important positions or senior-level management positions where there are fewer qualified candidates, and the challenge is recruiting the talent from a competitor.

With all of this being said, I’ve been asked a few times if as the president of an executive recruiting firm, do I use recruiters to fill any positions for us. The answer is yes. And I don’t just mean the recruiting firm that filled our office manager position on a temporary basis. Twice in my career I’ve commissioned an executive search firm to find me the best recruiter with a particular skill set. I realize that my specialty is recruiting in the Merchant Services and Payments industry, and I don’t have an incredible network of executive recruiters to draw from. There are a few search firms that specialize in placing recruiters, so I turned to their expertise and extensive contacts. I also used a recruiting firm to contact a candidate that I already knew. I valued the confidentiality that the recruiter could bring, and we ended up hiring the candidate.

These are just a few of the reasons successful companies now turn to search firms for the recruitment of senior executives, leadership positions and any other roles crucial to sustaining growth. The payments industry will automatically grow as it has for the past 30 years as consumers continue to pay more electronically and less with cash. But, will your organization be positioned right to reap the rewards? You can make sure that your growing firm grabs maximum market share by using executive recruiters to find your next great leader.

Curt Hensley is the founder, Chief Executive Officer and President of CSH Consulting, a recruiting firm exclusively focused on the payments industry. He and his leadership team have over 50 years of combined experience in recruiting and merchant acquiring. They have placed more than 1,000 professionals over the past seven years. Contact Curt at 480-315-8800 or curth@cshconsulting.com.

Hiring is the #1 Key to Your Success: How to Spot a Top Performer
By: Curt Hensley

Thriving in the merchant services business isn’t easy; just ask any ISO owner or agent out there working their tail off to sign merchants. When your hard work does pay off, you’ll probably have to expand your operation in order to achieve an even higher level of success. Hiring decisions will eventually become your #1 key to continued success, so we thought we’d help with some insight on how to weed out the “real deal” from the “pretenders.”

According to a recent study by Leadership IQ, 46% of newly hired employees will fail within 18 months, while only 19% will achieve unequivocal success. Contrary to popular belief, technical skills are not the primary reason why new hires fail; instead, poor interpersonal skills dominate the list, flaws which many of their managers admit were overlooked during the interview process.

Leadership IQ’s study found that 26% of new hires fail because they can't accept feedback, 23% because they're unable to understand and manage emotions, 17% because they lack the necessary motivation to excel, 15% because they have the wrong temperament for the job, and only 11% because they lack the necessary technical skills.

Typical interview processes fixate on ensuring that new hires are technically competent, but coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation and temperament are much more predictive of a new hires' success or failure. If an employee alienates their coworkers, lacks drive and has the wrong personality for the job, do technical skills really matter?

If you are a highly perceptive and psychologically-savvy interviewer you can assess employees' likely performance on all of these issues. But the majority of managers lack both the training to accurately read and assess candidates and the confidence to act even when their assessments are correct. Many times hiring failures can be prevented if managers focus more of their interviewing energy on candidates' coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation and temperament.

The financial cost of hiring failures, coupled with the opportunity cost of not hiring top
performers, can be millions of dollars, even for small ISO’s. In today's warp-speed marketplace, business survival depends on these high performers. To get those prize employees, recruiters and hiring managers must identify outstanding candidates quickly, often during the first round of interviews. So how can you get the most out of each interview and score the very best hires for your company? Let’s start with the way you structure the interview.
The typical employment interview is only 57% accurate as a predictor of future performance, according to a Michigan State University study. That’s not a great success rate considering that you could flip a coin and get 50%. The MSU study agreed with the Leadership IQ study that most employment interviews place too much emphasis on evaluating skills and personality. If you don't understand that past performance is critical, you won't succeed in identifying the best candidates.
Our work with CSH Consulting has found the same phenomenon when working with hiring organizations, and that's why we coach managers to conduct interviews focused on what each candidate has done in the past while constantly evaluating their coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation and temperament. An effectively structured interview can quickly uncover the common characteristics of most top performers:
· A track record of high energy and team leadership that lead to results
· A consistent, demonstrated record of comparable past performance
· An exceptional ability to adapt and produce in a new environment
You can develop a profile of every candidate to measure past performance and predict future performance with a Four Question Interview. This Four Question Interview was originally created by Lou Adler, president of The Adler Group, a training and consulting firm helping companies hire more top talent by implementing performance-based hiring.
These Four Questions are designed to highlight your candidate's past accomplishments as they relate to the position for which you're recruiting. While listening to your candidate's responses, focus on the candidate's individual, team, and job specific efforts. The questions themselves are designed to let you do your fact-finding while revealing the significant details of each accomplishment.
The Four-Question Interview
1. "What's been your most significant accomplishment in each of your past two or three jobs?"
· Listen for the energy your candidate brings to the descriptions
· Listen for details-how have the candidate's accomplishments impacted their organizations as a whole?
· Probe for specific examples.
2. "For each of your past two or three jobs, I'd like you to sketch out an organizational chart. Can you tell me about your most significant team or management achievement in those positions?"
· Look for span of control and team leadership.
· Get examples of the candidate's actual role, and the time and effort involved.
· Tune into interpersonal challenges and the candidate's strategies for dealing with conflict.
· Listen for evidence that the candidate can successfully motivate others.
3. "One of our key objectives for the person who is offered this position will be to… Can you tell me about your most important comparable accomplishments?"
· Look for job-specific competencies.
· Ask for specific details in order to minimize exaggeration.
· Anchor each major performance objective for the position with a past accomplishment of the candidate.
4. "If you were offered this position, how would you go about implementing ________?" (Describe top two or three performance objectives your organization has established for the position.)
· Listen for indications that the candidate expects to adapt easily.
· Look for past evidence that the candidate can contribute in a new environment.
Does this Four Question process sound simple? It is. And it takes about an hour.
The Next Step-Another Question
If you like what you hear from your candidate, here's one last question.
5. Although we're meeting with some other fine candidates, I believe you have a strong background. We'd like to get back to you in a few days. What are your thoughts now about this position?
This last question expresses your ongoing interest in the candidate. It also expands the interview to include more information about your candidate's interest in your company. Why your organization? You'll find this question reveals issues and ideas you'll explore during your next interview with the candidate -- the interview that will take place just before you make a job offer.
If your candidate has the coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation and temperament that meet the needs of your organization, and their past accomplishments back this up, then you have truly found the “real deal” and there’s no doubt that your merchant services business will thrive as a result.

Curt Hensley is the founder, Chief Executive Officer and President of CSH Consulting, a recruiting firm exclusively focused on the payments industry. He and his leadership team have over 50 years of combined experience in recruiting and merchant acquiring. They have placed more than 1,000 professionals over the past seven years. Contact Curt at 480-315-8800 or curth@cshconsulting.com.

Profitability Analyst – Atlanta, GA $50,000 - $70,000 + 10% bonus
Processing for more than 100,000 merchant locations across the globe, our client is one of the top-5 largest bank card acquirers in the world! Due to tremendous and continued growth, this organization is in need of an experienced Profitability Analyst. Primary responsibilities will be to create reports and analyses that identify customer profitability by various attributes (product, portfolio, industry, and pricing methodologies). This position combines strengths in both business and technical acumen.

A qualified candidate will have 4+ years of development experience using Oracle 9i and SQL tools like TOAD /SQL Navigator and MS Excel. While payments industry experience is highly desirable to our client, professionals with similar experience in other fields will also be considered.

To learn more, please contact JT Driscoll at 480.609.7444 or jt@cshconsulting.com.

Vice President of Operations – White Plains, NY $125,000 + bonus/equity
This client is a young and very exciting organization focused on providing a new product concept for card-not-present transactions. The Vice President of Operations will plan, direct and develop all aspects of the organization's operations policies, objectives, and initiatives. Direct responsibilities will include managing the customer service center, relationships with payment processor(s), merchant support and the technology liaison team.

Qualifications include 8-10 years of related experience with a credit card payment processing organization including managing either an internal or 3rd party call center. Experience with a web based operation a plus.

To learn more, please contact JT Driscoll at 480.609.7444 or jt@cshconsulting.com.

Call Center / Marketing Director – Sherman, TX $90,000 - $100,000 + equity

Our client is an incredibly well-funded startup ISO let by a very impressive group of industry veterans. Their business model relies heavily on appointment-setting that will be driven by this call center. In this role, you will be responsible for building an outbound sales call center from scratch.

A qualified candidate must have significant experience in developing policy and procedure for a sales center. He or she must know how to create an aggressive and motivated sales environment. Payments experience is required.

To learn more, please contact JT Driscoll at 480.609.7444 or jt@cshconsulting.com.

SEARCH PORTFOLIO

The following list is a sample of some of our recent successful placements. This list is in no ways all-inclusive and it has been provided to serve as a demonstration of the recruiting capabilities of our firm. We will be happy to provide more information about the searches that we have performed upon your request.

Loss Prevention
Vice President, Loss Prevention and Strategy – Nashville, TN – April, 2006
Director of Risk Systems – Chicago, IL - August 2005
Vice President, Strategy and Compliance – Cincinnati, OH - March 2005
Compliance Officer – Denver, CO - March 2005
Product Director, Risk Management – Scottsdale, AZ – May 2005
Merchant Credit Risk Manager – Nashville, TN – June 2005
Director of Settlement – Nashville, TN – December 2005

CSH Blogger

CSH Consulting Website.

CSH Consulting is looking for a recruiter with IT staffing background to take a one year position working exclusively with one of our clients.

The salary is $50K plus commissions - they're working with 40 positions right now, and you'd be working offsite at our offices in Scottsdale.

This is a cool office with professionals - the principals let you do your own thing as long as your bring in results - that said - the client needs a good recruiter - so expect to spend time on the phone, interviewing candidates, and making lots of money (because you'll be making lots of placements).

If this works out, we'll probably find a place for you - right now this is just for one of our clients, but long-term, we're always looking for competent people.

Send an e-mail to jt@cshconsulting.com if you know someone or are interested.

GreenSheet.com had an article about our particular niche in the credit card payment industry.

It has some great quotes from Curt about the industry and about our company.

In many other industries, this is not a new concept. For people selling financial services, though, hiring a firm-and one that knows the industry inside and out-to help fill positions by connecting job candidates with companies is a relatively new way to solve staffing problems. One recruitment firm saw a real need in a niche market and focuses only on placing the right people with the right companies in the payments industry.

CSH Consulting, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., works across the board with acquirers, processors, independent sales organizations, equipment manufacturers, software developers, payment gateway providers and just about any other type of business related to merchant services.

CSH Consulting aims to create win-win partnerships with its clients by locating the best candidates to fill openings its clients might have. The firm provides retained and contingency-based recruiting services and industry consultants; it also provides staff-related consulting services, including on-site recruiting solutions.

While some recruitment firms work strictly from the employer side, CSH is also able to refer potential employees to companies it partners with-as long as those candidates meet high quality standards-thanks to the strong relationships it has built with its client companies.

The key is that they know the business and a lot of the people involved in it. Curt Hensley, President of CSH Consulting, said the wide network he and his staff have created help them keep pace and stay in touch. They're filling sales, management, technological, executive and consultant job requirements for the fast-growing payment industry.

Later in the article:

Especially when the business you're in is very specialized, it really helps to tap into an existing network of connections, whether you're trying to fill a position or looking for one. "More than other industries, everyone works with everyone else," Hensley said. "This is a small, tightly-knit industry.

"We're a recruitment firm specializing in payments, and we've created a gigantic network across the industry," he said. "We're different from executive recruiters who work in a number of industries. We're calling on the same industry every day; our recruiters and research staff are calling the top executives for recommendations, for information on who's who."

Hensley and his partner, Vice-President J.T. Driscoll, started out working for the same company, staffing IT positions for clients like American Express, Vital Processing Services and a major POS implementer, he said. Their own careers progressed from senior recruiters to top sales executives for employer accounts. They formed CSH Consulting in August 2000 with the intention of serving those in the payments space struggling to find talented employees.

"This is a growing industry, and growing companies need to find top talent to fill positions and move them forward, push them to the next level," Hensley said. And that's where the benefits of hooking up with a recruitment firm, especially one that's industry-focused, become apparent.

So why do we bring it up? One, we're proud of the article. Two, we're checking into this blog phenomenon and seeing if it has relevance for our industry and our company.

There's more to come. The article was written in 2004, and we've seen nothing but growth in the last two years. If you have questions about what we do, or if there's something you want to see, please leave a comment.

CSH Consulting, Inc. was founded as a niche-focused executive recruitment

firm that connects the very best credit card and transaction processing industry
professionals with the leading companies in the payments space. Today, CSH
Consulting serves the increasing demand for top industry talent throughout the
United States. Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, the company’s decision-makers have
been in the staffing industry for 10 years, working with the payments industry
experts and organizations that drive the market.

CSH Consulting's flexible recruitment solutions are available on a retained,
contingency, or contract basis. We have the experience to help you assess
your recruitment needs, develop your hiring strategy and create an
outstanding team.

"In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people,
product and profits. Unless you've got a good team, you can't do much with
the other two." - Lee Iacocca

Reading the Green Sheet:

Credit Card Professionals know to regularly read the Green Sheet, one of the best sources for information on the credit card industry. If you're one of those pros, you might consider utilizing their RSS Feed.

http://www.greensheet.com/newswire.rss

An Rss feed allows you to check updated content the same way you check your e-mail, all from one site. If you bring several feeds (CNN, ESPN, other industry trade publications, your favorite blogs) together, you'll cut your surfing time while increasing the amount of information you take in each day.

Vice President and General Manager $150,000 - $200,000 + bonus

This is an exciting opportunity to run all aspects of a budding merchant services division of a Fortune-500 company. In this role you will have full P&L and management responsibility for the operations, direct sales and indirect sales groups. This is a highly visible role with tremendous growth potential.

A qualified candidate will have 10+ years of experience in leading the sales and operations functions for a credit card acquisition group (ISO or processor).

To learn more, please contact JT Driscoll at 480.609.7444 or jt@cshconsulting.com.

This is where industy news is linked.

Other posts will include job descriptions. Over time, this will allow candidates to find you.