DECEMBER 22, 2000
HIRING LINE
Recruiting Q&A: Forrester Research | Amy Nostrand and Lianne Marshall discuss their strategies, which are crucial for keeping the market researcher on a rapid growth track
| No one has an office at Forrester Research, including Chief Executive and founder George Colony. Like the rest of his staffers at the Cambridge (Mass.) market researcher, Colony works at a desk in a large open room where people are clustered according to what they do. Laptops and plenty of outlets to hook up to the company's computer network let employees work wherever they want -- appropriate at an outfit that studies how technology is shaping business and society.
Each month, Forrester analysts pump out more than a dozen research reports and briefs on everything from the viability of business-to-business Internet exchanges
to consumer attitudes about online shopping. Among Forrester's clients are Fortune 100 companies as well as emerging startups -- not to mention the media (including The McGraw-Hill Companies, owner of Business Week Online), which regularly turns to Forrester for data and analysis.
With 12 offices worldwide, including newly opened ones in San Francisco and Tokyo, the company enjoyed an 83% increase in revenue, to $109 million, during the first nine months of 2000. In a report released last month, Forrester forecast that its revenues will grow 50% next year, thanks to new-product launches and further expansion overseas. Recently, Business Week Online Reporter Jennifer Gill spoke with Forrester's Director of Strategic Growth Amy Nostrand and Director of Employment Lianne Marshall about how they recruit sales professionals and research analysts. Here are edited excerpts of that conversation:
Q: How many hires have you made this year, and what's the outlook for 2001?
Nostrand: We hired about 350 people worldwide this year, which is about 50% growth. We anticipate next year that we'll add another 300 to 350 positions -- about one-third in research, one-third in sales, and one-third in infrastructure.
Marshall: One challenge is finding really good people in a timely manner. The research-recruiting process is typically about a six-week cycle. Our offer-acceptance rate, once people have made it through our entire process, is over 90% on the research side. For sales, [the recruiting process] is probably two to three weeks.
Q: What skills are you looking for in research analysts?
Marshall: We are opportunistic in our hiring on the research side in that
we are looking for people who have strong analytical skills, strong intellectual
capabilities, a real curiosity, and a real desire to learn. They have to have a passion to write for a living. They also have to be able to work with clients and think on their feet.
Q: Should they also have expertise in a particular industry?
Marshall: It's a combination of both. More often than not, we are looking for people with 10 to 12 years of experience and skills that are transferable across many different [research] areas.
Q: What skills are you looking for on the sales side?
Nostrand: Our salespeople have to understand the product. They have to understand what's going on out there and why businesses need to buy our product research reports. [New hires] are brought in with a good amount of sales experience, preferably in the technology space. People who have sold to the top people in organizations are very important, because obviously, we try to talk to as high a person as we can, whether it's the CEO, CTO, CIO, or even top business line manager.
Q: What are your primary ways of recruiting?
Nostrand: Almost 60% of our hires are through employee referrals. After a new
hire reaches their three-month mark, the employee who referred them receives a $2,500 bonus.
We also post on all of the online job sites that you could possibly think of, and [those resumes] are filtered into our online tracking system. Recruiters here [Forrester has 12] only have to use one system to find all the people who have applied through these various online sites.
And then, when we have to, we use agencies. We certainly don't like to because it's more costly. But [for] some jobs we turn to agencies because we are having difficulty finding the right person with the right background. Those tend to be more senior-level sales positions -- our top vice-presidents, regional directors, and so forth.
Marshall: We've also opened up some different channels, which include looking at people coming out of MBA programs and PhD programs. We have had a full-force initiative this year to recruit people from different schools across the country.
Q: Is this the first time that you've actively recruited MBA graduates fresh out of school?
Marshall: Yes.
Q: Is there much promotion from within?
Marshall: Very much so. We have organically grown this company. Forrester is 17 years old, and we've only acquired two companies. One of the things we do very well is develop our people. We are on a quarterly bonus system, which also means a performance review on a quarterly basis.
[The performance review] outlines for people what we need to do, but it also gives them feedback on what they need to work on and what their strengths are.
Q: I noticed on your employment Web site that you're looking for a director of learning and growth. What types of training do you offer employees?
Nostrand: Learning and Growth is our training organization within Strategic
Growth, which is our human resources organization. Forrester has been growing so fast that we need to make sure that we have more formal training and leadership-development programs in place. [This director] will look at things like leadership development, succession planning, and competency development.
Q: What's the gender breakdown at the company?
Marshall: About 53% of our organization worldwide is men, and 47% is women. About one-third of our executive team is female.
Q: Can you describe Forrester's corporate culture?
Marshall: [CEO] George Colony has always said that if he's not having fun, then he's not doing this anymore. That's the feeling throughout the entire organization.
We are in this journey together. We have company meetings once a month, in which both Bill Bluestein, who is our president and chief operating officer, and George share our results from a financial perspective [and] new initiatives that we are launching.
People definitely don't eat at their desks. It is a very collaborative environment. No one does anything alone. You rarely ever see one person's name on [a report].
It's a place where many of the people are gone by 6 p.m. Granted, there are peak times when people tend to put in more hours. But I think if you look around at 6 or 6:30 each night, about 80% to 90% of the people are out of here. We have a strong recognition program, especially on the sales side, which Nostrand can describe in greater detail.
Nostrand: [We have] the "Quentin Cup," which is given to the sales region or team that is highest in achieving its numbers each quarter. [The name of the award] comes from the name of the bartender at a favorite bar that the original group of Forresterites used to patronize and, I think, still patronize. We're not right next door to [the bar] like we used to be, but the history is brought through to everybody else who wasn't here when that happened.
Q: Regarding your offices overseas, is recruiting handled locally?
Nostrand: The first global office opened in Amsterdam, and we did move some people over there to help get it started. Then we hired locally from there. London and Germany were acquisitions, and they are growing by hiring locally. Cambridge [headquarters] right now does not recruit for Europe.
We are, however, recruiting for Tokyo and getting that office set up. Once we have a managing director, we eventually will hire a strategic growth director over there who will handle recruiting.
Q: What benefits do you offer?
Nostrand: We have wonderful health and dental and life-insurance division programs. We also have a 401(k) program and an employee stock-purchase plan. There's tuition assistance -- people can receive up to $5,000 a year for an accredited course.
We have free on-site massages that people can sign up for every other Friday. We have an organization that we contract with called Resources on Call. If you're an employee and need an electrician, and you don't have the time to make calls to find one, you make one free call to Resources on Call, and they'll send you names of three or four people that they've talked to.
Q: Dot-coms have been dropping left and right. What impact has that had on your business?
Marshall: To be honest, it has created a great opportunity for us in many ways, especially from my perspective.
Q: So, it has opened up a new talent pool?
Marshall: Absolutely. Some people have really gone through some tough journeys.
[Compared to other consulting firms] we also differentiate ourselves because we don't have the same travel. Our travel for analysts is no more than 25% a year. There are many people who don't want to travel, who want to be home with their children, but they don't necessarily want to sacrifice the intellectual component of their job, either. We're able to offer both.
Q: Have you seen people who left Forrester to go work at a dot-com -- and
are now coming back?
Marshall: We had three or four people, within the last year, who came back to see whether or not the doors would still be open. They definitely were.
Nostrand: We also have set up an alumni program through a company called
Corporate Alumni. A Web site has been created [for Forrester alums]. It allows us
to keep track of where people are. We also see that people who leave here are getting really great jobs -- directors, vice-presidents, CEOs. That's really satisfying for us. And hopefully, they're buying our research, too! We have had two hires within the last year who've been referred by alumni. So, our arrangement with Corporate Alumni has paid for itself.
Q: How's turnover?
Marshall: In research, this year it will be less than 5%. We've only lost three analysts [who left] voluntarily.
Nostrand: Voluntary turnover for the entire organization for this year will probably close out around 16%.
Marshall: For the past couple of years, we've done a satisfaction survey with all of our employees [in which] we're compared against 83 similar companies,
like-sized, like-industry. We ask people to rate things like top leadership, working conditions, job security, quality, innovation, the work itself, pay,
benefits, supervision, planning. Forrester did really well, especially compared with other companies.
Our scores improved from 1999 to 2000, because I think we're really good at working on those issues [that need improvement] and making it a good place for people to work.
Q: What was an area that needed improvement?
Marshall: In 1999, we got hit pretty hard on [the issue of] planning. The executive team took this feedback to heart. Their No. 1 initiative was to have a very strong plan in place for the year 2000, completed by Nov. 1, 1999. [The plan] turned out to be an incredible motivator for the entire company. It was very clear. Everybody knew what our initiatives and goals were for the year. Everyone knew exactly what their individual role was within the organization.
We've hit our numbers every quarter for the past four quarters, and we'll most likely hit our numbers for the fourth quarter of this year. Those are huge accomplishments for us as an organization. And I think the planning component has really helped.
We followed the same process for 2001, and we have our entire budget finalized for next year. We know exactly what our initiatives will be, what we need to do -- and who we need to hire.
Want to find out more about Forrester? Look it up with our company search tool
|
Copyright 2000, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Printer-Friendly Version