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How
can Encore afford to have such low margins compared to the
rest of the industry?
Encore
was founded with the goal of maximizing efficiency and minimizing
overhead. For an example of minimizing overhead, take a look
at the address here on our letterhead: our offices aren't
at the most glamorous address in Silicon Valley, but we've
taken the saving from choosing a lower profile office and
we've passed them on to our clients and customers. We won't
skimp on technology or paying for the best talent, but by
minimizing overhead wherever we can without affecting our
performance we've been able to beat the market in pricing
while outbidding them for available product.
As
for efficiency, Encore is built around the knowledge that
technical staffing has dramatically changed in the past few
years, and continues to do so at an alarming speed. Staffing
companies are spending less time building proprietary databases
and more time mining the ultimate database: the Internet.
Our processes are focused on riding the wave of technology
to maximize efficiency.
How
can Encore provide the top talent for a lower price?
It's
a technical consultant's dream market right now. Everyone
is having trouble finding talented technical consultants.
Encore doesn't claim to have a secret pool of all of the best
consultants - no one does - but we do claim to be able to
offer our consultants a wage that is higher than most of our
competitors. These days when a talented contractor comes off
of a contract he/she receives a large number of job offers.
Encore's low margins enable us to offer the candidate a better
rate than our competitors. We count on our ability to provide
you with the best talent because we know that we can provide
the best wages for our consultants. And as you well know,
a well-paid consultant is a happy and productive one.
How
does Encore stay abreast of its clients' needs?
Encore
is proud to have its executive staff as members of The Northern
California Chapter of SIM - The Society for Information Management.
This distinguished group of CIOs from Bay Area companies meets
on a monthly basis to discuss issues of interest and common
challenges. This is one of the many resources that we use
to stay in tune with the changing nature of technology and
how it affects our client base.
How
is Encore qualified to provide screening and matching of candidates
to job requirements?
Encore
knows that providing precise matches to our clients' job requirements
is the single most important part of the staffing business.
We are committed to providing our clients only with candidates
that they would hire: if not it is simply a waste of our time
and yours. To ensure that we provide only great matches for
our clients' requirements we have developed solid processes
that help us evaluate which candidates to present to you.
| 1. |
Our
Job Order forms have been designed to provide our recruiters
with a detailed description of the job requirement. Additionally,
we encourage our Account Executives to put clients directly
in touch with the recruiters so that they can hear first
hand what our clients want. |
| 2. |
Working
from the Job Order form and the results of their conversation
with the client, our recruiters use cutting edge tools
to begin their search for the perfect-fit candidate. In
addition to our extensive internal database of precisely
coded consultants, we use the latest technologies to comb
'cyberspace' for all available candidates that match the
requirements. |
| 3. |
There
is no technical substitute for the human aspect of recruiting.
We are not in a 'match-the-dots' business of finding candidates.
Our recruiters are highly experienced at placing mid and
high-level technical contractors in the Bay Area. Our
staff utilizes the tools of technology to aid them in
their recruiting process, but they rely on their knowledge,
instinct, and experience to properly evaluate the suitability
of each candidate. |
| 4. |
Past
performance is the best indicator of future performance.
Encore provides three detailed reference checks for each
candidate that we submit to a client. We check with prior
managers to develop a profile of the candidate based on
his or her: |
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Technical
skills
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Years
and Breadth of Experience
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Interpersonal
Skills
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Manageability
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Ultimately,
it is simply inefficient to try to submit candidates that
are not a match for our clients' needs. In fact, in the rare
event that Encore receives a request for talent that we feel
we would be unable to provide, we will give the client a realistic
assessment of our ability to fill the order and will try to
refer the client to someone better suited to providing that
kind of skill. This gives the client the service they want
while it saves us from wasting time on something that is not
our focus.
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