While overseeing annual process review at our firm, I ran into one of our "Reference Check" templates (where we check references from a candidate's past managers/employers). Considering a reference can only afford 10-15 minutes of phone time max, I narrowed our questions to the ones listed below.

The idea being, first allow the reference to ease by asking simpler questions, and then get into the meaty stuff. For this purpose, I like open ended questions, versus yes/no questions, that allow the reference to speak (and hopefully fumble) and not provide rehearsed answers.

What's your take on these questions?

1. How do you know (Candidate)? 

2. How long did you both work together? Do you remember the approximate date (mm/yy) that you worked together?

3. What was the project about where the candidate worked?

4. What were (Candidate) primary responsibilities / role on the project?

5. What would you say were Candidate’s key strengths? Can you remember any particular area where the candidate truly excelled, versus delivering per expectations?

6. Now time for first important question.... Can you remember any particular area or instances, where the candidate's performance was below expectations? What were the circumstances? Did you offer any help to the candidate?

7. Where would you rank (Candidate) skills / compared to others on the team – Expert, Above Average, Average, Below Average?

8. How would you describe candidate’s ability to follow (or create) a structured project methodology?

9. Did the candidate provide any leadership?

10. How would you describe his/her personality?

11. No one is perfect, and everyone has some weaknesses. What were some of (Candidate) weaknesses? (See how answers align or deviate from question 6) (if I ask you what is 2+2 and again ask you what is 3+1, answer should be same)

12. How did he/she interact with the team members? With senior management?

13. Its time now to ask the REAL question - Why would you NOT hire the candidate? (This is a tricky one. Allow the reference a moment or two to absorb this question.)

14. How were (Candidate) work ethics – e.g. Coming to work on time, putting in enough hours, etc.

15. What else should I have asked you, that I didn’t?


I recommend you read another related SHRM article by clicking here

Saw this article by Bill Murphy Jr. at inc.com and thought is was worth sharing. Some of the highlights of that article below

If you are a leader, manager, or an executive, its always nice to get a refresher on what an effective leader should be "saying"

1. "This is the situation" - People want to know what's going on. Odds are, they'll find out anyway, or worse, fill in the gaps with conjecture...

2. "Here is the plan" - Your team needs to know where you're trying to take them, and how...

3. "What do you need?" - ... people need to know that you want them to succeed... you need to leverage every person's abilities to the maximum extent possible...

4. "Tell me more" - Let people know you're more interested in finding good answers than hearing yourself speak...

5. "Remember our values" - You can't be everywhere at all times... but remind people of your values (of course, that you can actually articulate shared values)

6. "I trust you" - If you can't trust the people on your team, then they shouldn't be on your team. You need to ensure that they understand how much you depend on them.

7. "You can count on me" - If your team can't trust you, then..... So tell them you've got their back, and then work like hell to fulfill the promises you make.

8. "We can do better" - Push your team to a higher standard than they might set for themselves

9. "Let's celebrate!" - Make it a practice to celebrate your wins, both large and small. This can be just to call people out for great work and congratulate them for their milestones

Do you percieve working with a recruiter as a 'Value Add' or 'Necessary Evil'?

Like in any field, there are good professionals and not so good ones.

Consider this, when working with a recruiter. A good recruiter should be creating value in your job search process via:

1. Access to jobs that are not advertised or posted
2. In depth knowledge of the client, and company culture, that the recruiter will share with candidates 
3. The ability to schedule interviews for candidates, rather than have them lost in a stack of resumes
4. The strong relationships recruiter has built with hiring authorities
5. Recruiter's ability to negotiate the best compensation package or pay rate
6. Feedback from other candidates recruiters have placed with these clients (inside information)
7. Knowledge of the market (who is growing, downsizing, merging)
8. Most job descriptions / requirements are lengthy, and hard to read. A good recruiter has inside knowledge, from experience and relationship with the hiring authorities, and is able to extract 2-3 key requirements from these wordy job descriptions.

IIT has posted an article "Before, During and After Interviews". Click here to read the article

Writing Resumes that Generate Interviews

It may seem like extra work, but have multiple versions of your resume.  Create a new version to address the specific job opportunity. Be sure to include specific things in your resume that a job requirement talks about.  Then keep track of each version of resume that you submitted.

There are a lot of things that you have done that you are proud of, but if it is not required in a specific job requirement, abbreviate (or completely eliminate) those irrelevant portions of your resume. Do not be emotionally  attached to all of your achievements.

Your resume does not need to impress you. It needs to impress your target audience (recruiters and 
hiring managers) 

If submitting a resume to a recruiter, it is OK if it is long, upto 6-7 pages. A good recruiter knows what a hiring manager wants to  see, and he/she may be able to help you with what to keep and what to get rid of

Importantly, do not lie on your resume. We see too many resumes with e.g. 5 jobs, and half the sentences are copied and pasted from one job to another. While it is true that we may do similar tasks in multipe positions, but a copy/paste job is very visible, and a big turn-off for the reader. Be creative, and rewrite the sentences. Remember, efforts put into writing a resume is an investment.  Poor investments result in poor returns...

In March 2016, D&B / Open Ratings surveyed IIT customers, and rated IIT 95 (out of a maximum of 100). This is an major achievement, considering average score in our industry is below 75. This demonstrates IIT's quality, credibility and dedication of its staff.

​D&B completed 18 surveys with IIT customers - customers that IIT supported in last 12 months - and asked them to score IIT on different criteria, including Reliability, Cost, Order Accuracy, Delivery/Timeliness, Quality, Business Relations, Personnel, Customer Support and Responsiveness. 

Contact us for a copy of this D&B report ​

IIT authored article, as published in a Technical Industry Magazine. To see the original article, click here

In this era of social media and internet, there is a plethora of data to be stored and processed. The data can be from internal resources, customer data on the web/mobile, and other external resources. In larger organizations, there would be many services or products, and there would be many applications holding various data about customers, suppliers, employees, projects, finance, and accounting. Keeping all this data accurate, synchronized and consistent is becoming a challenge as companies become more reliant on this data.

Consider an example of a bank, which offers loans and checking/savings accounts. The bank may have different system for loans and different systems for consumer banking. If a single customer has both products from the bank, and this customer relocates to a new home, will the new address automatically be reflected in both systems? In addition to this complexity, large enterprises would have varying data in applications coming from other subsidiaries and results of mergers and acquisitions. It is to solve similar issues that organizations are turning to implementing Mater Data Management (MDM) solutions. 

There are many commercial MDM products out in the market for the various verticals. The cost can be enormous for MDM systems implementations. However, if implemented properly, an established MDM system can reduce cost, automate processes and provide analytical insights. Regardless of commercial MDM products chosen, organizations must plan adequately. Several issues to consider when planning MDM implementation include: 

- Identify the business requirements - MDM is built by collaboration of various departments. The requirements that can be addressed by MDM, must be collated and prioritized. Lack of clear business objectives can result in frequent changes and increased cost of implementation. Also, organizations must assure that MDM implementation is not solely an IT driven initiative. And key business executives must be engaged in this initiative. 

- Understand the Business Process Model - The business process flow determines how the information flows through the systems for the various business activities in the organization. It is important not to confuse the business process with the business application. At the end of the day, all new IT applications must improve the processes, without having end users need to adapt their process to the new applications. There will be situations requiring compromises, but proper analysis must be done, and stakeholders need to be educated. 

- Data Governance and Data Quality - Building an MDM system just to collate data from various systems, format it based on business rule and generate a consolidated record is just not enough. A data governance plan that manages the data that goes in and out of the MDM system has to be defined. The data usage and policies, data standards, defined roles and responsibilities of contributors and authoritative sources is necessary. Data governance plan would also result in better issue resolution process, and higher confidence in the data. It is also important to look into the quality of the data being imported. Data standardization and cleansing efforts may be required prior to import, and this can add significant efforts. 

- Understand the metadata environment - In an organization, various systems would have evolved over time, on different platforms and then there are systems from the acquired companies. The recommendation is to have a single metadata definition. However, the experts in the field agree that, in certain contexts (e.g. users in different countries), different definitions exist for the same data element, and at times it is a necessity. The centralization of master metadata would limit the efficiency of the applications, whereas no control would lead to data duplication and integrity issues. It is recommended to have a 'virtual centralization' of managed metadata by allowing each department to manage its own proprietary definitions. 

- Have the right tools - In the market there are various MDM products/vendors/ service providers, and not all would be the right choice for your organization. The MDM products must be accessed based on the current and future business requirements, data integrity plans, information flow across various business process and the various master data views required. Selecting the product and then trying to bend the requirement as per the product capabilities would defeat the purpose of building the MDM system. Several vendors have their own MDM bundled along with their application package. For example, Oracle's Fusion CRM has its Fusion MDM, Microsoft releases Dynamics CRM along with the Microsoft Master Data Services, SAP releases Business by Design for Chemical bundled with SAP MDM etc. In its own, each of them adds great value. But the downside is that, since they are from different vendors, it does not communicate with each other. 

- Define phases and goals - MDM implementations are typically not deployed in a "big bang" approach where all domains are managed across all methods of use. Generally, enterprises start with a limited scope and as MDM implementations are rolled out over several phases, additional domains are added, the method of use may expand, or the implementation style may change to deliver extra business value. 

- Assemble a talented team -You can get the executives buy in, and choose the right tools, but without the right team, the implementation will be a challenge. Internally, identify subject matter experts, data stewards, project charters and a sign off process. Externally, take your time to evaluate service providers. Take into account prior experience, references, access to decision makers, vendor's size and stability, and ease of working with the vendor(s). Sometimes very large vendors are expensive and less flexible, and very small vendors do not offer breadth or stability. This will be a long working relationship. Pay particular attention to choosing the right-size vendor with proper experience that you are very comfortable working with. 

Master data management is an effective tool for the alignment of enterprise wide data. However, without proper planning, implementing MDM system may result in failures and/or increased costs. An effective MDM design would start by understanding the business process models, assessment of the existing systems, the pain-points, evaluation of the commercial products, and realistic expectations. ​

In Oct 2015 issue of its publication, Crain's New York ranked IIT #9 fastest growing business among all industries, and #1 among all IT Services firms.

To arrive at its annual ranking of the fastest growing New York businesses, Crain's editors looked at companies with $10 million or more in revenue and measured their three-year annualized growth rate.
For further information, visit Crain's website at http://www.crainsnewyork.com/features/2015-fast50

In September 2015 issue of Inc. Magazine, IIT Inc. was honored by the Magazine's Inc. 500 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies.

Highlights of IIT's rankings include:
1. IIT ranked #1 on this list - among companies in "North East United States" in the "IT Services" sector - and over $10MM in revenues.
2. IIT ranked #5 on this list - among companies in "United States" in the "IT Services" sector - and over $10MM in revenues.
3. IIT ranked #159 on this list - among all companies of all sizes across all industries.

We are honored to be included in the Inc. 500 list for 2nd time in consecutive years. Thanks to all our clients for their trust, and the IIT team for their continued dedication.

See details here

See official press release here