Confessions of a Data Engineer: One Man's Journey

Whitfield retires, Enspire Partners announces expansion

Brian Whitfield, one of our founding partners, retired in June.

After beginning his career as a Developer, Brian moved into staffing leadership more than 25 years ago. During this period, he built and sold three different IT staffing firms and was responsible for placing over a thousand people, many which became long-term customers.

For Enspire Partners, Brian has been responsible for managing our recruiting staff and running back-office operations. Combining his real-world experience and good business sense, Brian has been a key contributor to our company for the last ten years. His leadership through the most challenging months of Covid lockdowns was critical to our business. Enspire Partners wouldn’t exist without the hard work and leadership which Brian provided, and we already miss working with him.

Brian is an avid diver and underwater photographer. He has spent more than a year of his life in Cozumel on one week vacation stints and plans to spend a lot more time there and exploring Europe during his retirement.

With this announcement, we have been able to bring on additional investors to our business funding an expansion in our recruiting staff and enhancing our technology systems. Some of this is necessary to cover the many roles Brian performed for us, but our goal is to use this opportunity to significantly enhance the reach and quality of our services as we begin our second decade of helping clients and consultants.

Once more...You get what you pay for!

I am obsessed with decorating my house for Halloween. Last year, in the midst of the pandemic, we had over 150 kids to come to my house, and this year, we are planning for more…

As I write this blog, it is September 2021, but I have been thinking/planning/purchasing Halloween items on-line for the last three months. (Fortunately, my wife doesn’t read this blog.)

Last year, Home Depot came out with one of the most iconic Halloween props ever - a twelve foot skeleton with these creepy eyes that seem to follow you. This animatronic became an instant classic to people like me. It sold out so quickly that a black market of sorts was created where this item, which originally sold for $195, was being resold at sites like eBay for over $1000. Then, this year, Home Depot raised the bar even further.

The companion piece to the 12’ skeleton this year is a 12’ “pumpkin inferno skeleton”. If you haven’t seen it in person at Home Depot, google those three words to get a feel for this beast. It has a pumpkin head, a glowing “inferno” chest and its body seems to be formed from twisted roots. It also has the same creepy eyes as the skeleton, and did I mention it’s TWELVE FEET TALL?

The problem is, it is $295. And, while I could find the money to buy it, I understand divorce attorneys are even more expensive nowadays, so I decided it was best to just say no.

But, fate had something different in mind for me, and eight weeks ago - when most people weren’t obsessing over Halloween - Facebook pushed an ad to me where I could buy this same prop for $100 direct from China with no shipping cost. Better yet, I could buy both the pumpkin creature AND the skeleton for $160 total (or $80 each)! Thinking outside of the box, I convinced my business partner that he “needed” to buy the skeleton for $80, which would allow me to get the pumpkin prop for $80 - what a bargain!!

After paying for these items, I received an email receipt written entirely in Chinese - not English. Maybe this should have been the first clue that something was off…

Four weeks later, without additional correspondence from my supplier, I sent them a note asking for an update. That day, I saw another ad on Facebook promoting the same items - this time for $29.99! Uh oh, I thought, I’ve been scammed because you can’t even ship these items from China for $30. So, I stopped payment on the card. That same day, however, I received an alert that the U.S. Postal Service was anticipating a delivery for me from, you guessed it, and think how Donald Trump would say the word: CHINA.

Nevertheless, I thought even this could be part of a scam, and hearing nothing further, I reconciled myself to having no pumpkin inferno skeleton this year. Life went back to normal - and I found a few other ways to spend my $160 for Halloween - until a month later, last weekend, actually, when I received notification that USPS had a package to deliver to my office on Saturday. Looking back at the tracking history, they had shipped this package from China to New Jersey. From there, it had made its way to Atlanta, then to my local post office in Suwanee, Georgia.

I was excited on several levels. First of all, I was getting this incredible prop. Next, I was getting it at a fantastic price. And, maybe that price was $0. I would happily pay the $80 for each of the two pieces, but I wasn’t even sure they were organized enough to ask for it having gotten the items to my doorstep only after I stopped payment over a month earlier. And, I have to admit, I felt pretty smart to have bought this item for $80 when other suckers were buying it for $295 (or $1000+ on eBay).

I watched my phone obsessively waiting for the alert these items had been delivered to my office and was ready to drive over and secure them in the office until I could get a truck to bring my prop home. Only later I got a notification they had attempted to deliver it, but no one was there (and they would attempt to deliver it on Monday).

I was disappointed I didn’t have my new prop in hand, but now it was only a matter of time. (I have to be honest, I had harbored doubts this was really going to happen until the United States Postal Service confirmed delivery of the package.) I debated whether to go to the post office on Saturday to try and get it, but knew I didn’t have a vehicle big enough to receive both packages anyhow.

So, on Monday, I told my office manager to be on the lookout for this delivery. I told my staff - who already know my Halloween obsession - the long story I have told you so far, and we all kept an eye out for the delivery. To be honest, I didn’t want to leave for lunch in case we missed them again.

After watching my phone all day for a status update, and thinking way too much about all of this, I had an epiphany of sorts. I told my co-workers, who must have been tired of hearing about this already that the only way I could be scammed would be if they shipped me a twelve INCH item instead of a twelve FOOT item…

Within the hour, my Office Manager came around the corner with a curious look on her face…she was holding a small sealed package. After opening it, I took the picture you see below. (For reference, my hand is not twelve feet long.) Good news: they had shipped me not just one skeleton and one pumpkin prop, but three of each of them. Bad news: they were only eight inches tall.

After getting over the initial shock, I have to admit a begrudging admiration to the scammers for their commitment to their craft. After all, they could have shipped me a brick - or nothing at all - but no, they went to the effort of manufacturing replicas of the Home Depot item in miniature so they could say I had received the item they sold me.

Besides warning you not to buy Halloween props from China, I want to remind you that you usually don’t get more than you pay for. This is especially true in today’s labor market. In my business, we have an unprecedented number of openings to fill for our clients. Fortunately, our clients are coming to understand in this highly competitive market that you need to be responsive to good candidates and you have to pay them well to attract them (and pay your current employees well to retain them).

As a recruiter, I, too, am learning to recalibrate expectations for both the candidate and employer in our new normal. While things may be quite different than they were a year ago, our goal hasn’t changed - we match good candidates with good clients.

And, yes, they may not be 12’ tall, but we do promise they are life-size.

Trick or Treat?

Charity starts with you…and usually isn’t tax deductible

During the pandemic, I’ve taken up a new sport – disc golf.  If you’ve never heard of it, it is played like regular golf except you throw Frisbee style discs into metal baskets.  It has some of the benefits (and frustrations) of golf, but is a little less expensive until you start buying hundreds of different discs – each  with different functions – as I have in my attempts to get better at the game.

After playing disc golf for several months, I began to notice a car at a local course where I play regularly, parked in an inconvenient spot for me.  It was at the end of the parking lot about 300’ from the tee area where I would throw, and while off the grass, it sat exactly on the line I needed to throw my disc to approach the basket.  And, every time I came out to play, it was parked in that same spot!  Frankly, I was frustrated someone would park a car there and force me to throw a bad shot in order to avoid it.

One day late last year, as I was ready to throw from this location, I noticed someone in the car.  So, I decided I was going to ask him to move his car.  After approaching the vehicle, I realized the person was an older woman.  I told her I was about to throw my Frisbee and asked her to move to be sure I didn’t hit her car.  She explained if I hit her it, my throw would be “out of bounds”, but knowing disc golf rules, I informed her it was normal to throw a wide angled “hyzer” shot that way, and it would only be out of bounds because she was parked in the one spot in this huge lot where she was in the way!  She then told me she had been having some battery problems and couldn’t move the car and proceeded to get  out of her car and walked off (I guess expecting I was going to hit it).  One thing was obvious – if I did hit her car, I wouldn’t be the first person to do it.  It had many dents from flying discs!  Not really having a clue as to what had just happened, I went back to the tee box and over-corrected my shot once more to avoid hitting her jalopy.

It was only later in the round I came to my senses and realized what was going on.  That car had been there for months – it was broken down and not going anywhere, and the woman I just ran out of her “home” was living in that car.  In my defense, I have to say this park is in an affluent area in Alpharetta, Georgia.  You don’t see many homeless people here, and it seemed unlikely someone could be living in a car (permanently) in this municipal park.  Nevertheless, I felt bad about the whole exchange and decided I would give her some cash.  

When I approached her the second time, it was clear she was on her guard given our first interaction.  And, when I offered her $20 she asked me “what she could do with it?”  In effect, I think she was asking what she needed to do for it, but after I assured her she could do anything she wanted with it, she accepted it gratefully.  After the ice was broken, she warmed up and complimented me on my red Mustang.  It turns out, this lady, probably in her early sixties, was bright and well-spoken.  She explained to me this parking lot was actually a FEMA site where people who needed assistance could come and stay with access to electricity and water. 

As December approached, my wife suggested we could do something more for this woman and provide her with a nice Christmas.  So, my wife helped to put together several bags of essentials, snacks, clothing and some cash for this lady.  Not even knowing if she would still be there – although she had already lived in this spot for most of 2020 by my observation, we approached her again.  This time, she immediately recognized my car.  We gave her the things we had for her and had a nice conversation about her situation.  We learned her name is Emily.  What was most striking to us was this woman didn’t seem much different than us.  She clearly was an intelligent person who seemed to have fallen on some bad times.  There was no apparent substance abuse and she was making the best of a difficult situation.  To be sure, we probably had doubled her net worth on earth with the few things that we gave her.  When I saw her tags were due in January like mine, I commented we must have the same birth month.  (Fortunately, someone had helped her push the car out of a direct path to the disc golf basket.)  That night was very cold, and my wife and I both wondered what it must be like to live in a car while we were in our comfy bed…

Having told this story to my mom, my mom offered a used, but very nice coat she had dry cleaned for me to take to Emily.  January had a lot of rainy days, so I didn’t get out to the disc golf course for several weeks, but I made my way there yesterday intent on giving Emily the jacket along with some snacks my wife had provided.   Once more, she recognized my car, and as I got out, I noticed she had an envelope in her hand.  After thanking me for the coat, she gave me the envelope.  Surprisingly, it was a birthday card for me! 

She told me:  “I remembered it was your birthday, and I thought you might come back some day.” I think both points are meaningful.  She thought enough of me to remember my birthday was in January, and she expected I just might come back again some day (even if it was the middle of February).  In the image of the card above, you may be able to see she had re-purposed her own birthday card for me.  I guess you could say someone gave this gift to her; she then gave it to me, and now I am able to share with you!

Last year was challenging in many ways and still many political and socio-economic divisions in our country remain.  Not surprisingly, most people want to claim the moral high ground and believe their opinions, values and beliefs to be correct and good (even God inspired).  I am reminded of the words of Abraham Lincoln spoken during the Civil War, when he said: “In great contests, each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God.”  It is natural to claim moral superiority, and like most people, I’ve expressed strongly what I think is “right” for our country (and in some ways, my opinions of what is right for other people).  But, the truth is, it is easier to improve my own behavior than to change everyone who disagrees with me. 

If I really believe in helping others, I don’t need to wait on Congress to legislate it.  I can do it myself.  As my business partner at my company has often said:  “Charity starts with you…and usually isn’t tax deductible.”

If you want to feel thankful today, help someone who has less than you. Their reaction will probably blow you away, just like it did me.  It truly is better to give than to receive.  We have things we throw away which could change their lives.  Whether you give your money, your stuff or your time, you can change someone’s life.  At the very least, I expect you will change your own.

Contract to Hire - a Win-Win in Tough Times

Over the last couple of weeks as we begin to navigate the changing business norms resulting from the pandemic, we have put together a couple of contract-to-hire engagements with our clients matching them with highly qualified candidates who start on my company’s payroll as consultants with the plan of converting to the client’s payroll in the future. Contract-to-hire (CTH) engagements are projects where a client has a need for a permanent resource, but is unable to add headcount to their payroll immediately. Obviously, many companies find themselves in this predicament at this time. We have found there are definite advantages in CTH engagements both for companies with critical resource needs (but limited ability to hire people currently) and for candidates anxious to get back to work.

A workaround that “works” - Many companies are working under hiring freeze restrictions at this time, but are short of specifically skilled people. Contract-to-hire gives clients immediate coverage of these needs without officially taking on additional headcount.

Faster turnaround - Clients appreciate that CTH allows them to get a highly qualified person in the chair working as soon as the their background check is cleared without the usual HR on-boarding process. Candidates see this approach as the quickest way for them to get to work and their next paycheck.

Quality people/quality employers - There are some exceptionally talented people who are available right now directly as a result of the pandemic. Companies that engage candidates this way have access to some of the best and brightest people on the market. Some highly experienced consultants who typically don’t work in perm roles are interested in such programs and can dramatically improve the talent level on your team.

CTH saves you money - In most CTH engagements, we are able to build into the margin the placement fees which typically occur when companies hire through an agency. Rather than paying the fee upfront, clients pay in “installments” on every hour billed. Because we are able to create a win-win scenario for the candidate and the client, rates under CTH usually are less than the average bill rate paid in pure contract engagements.

Try/Buy - Often, the contract period under contract-to-hire engagements is seen as an evaluation period - both for the client and the candidate. While this generally is the case, we encourage both clients and candidates to not enter into these kinds of engagements unless they both are in alignment in moving forward with a perm offer at a future date. Our agreements allow the client and candidate/consultant to negotiate and move into a direct hire situation as soon as both parties are ready and able.

I would encourage companies to consider contract-to-hire engagements as an effective way to fill critical requirements, save money on recruiting fees, and improve the overall quality of people in your organization. We’ve been effective at negotiating these kinds of engagements recently and can provide both the structure and the candidates to make it work for you.

The New Abnormal

Every business, family and person is learning to adapt to changes precipitated by the Coronavirus outbreak.  This morning, Keisha Lance Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta, described our situation as “the new abnormal”.  Things are so dynamic tomorrow may cause us to adapt to our newer abnormal.  Change can be difficult in the best of times, but we all are learning on the fly how to make the best of things and (maybe, just maybe) find ways to do things better.

Working Remotely – To be honest, as I write this blog, I am the only person in my company working in our physical office space today, and that’s because I haven’t yet mastered the work from home concept and I’m not wearing pants (OK, that last statement is NOT true).  We discussed how to do this better today on our conference call.  Some takeaways were:

• Make your home workspace mirror your office setup with all of the peripherals, office supplies, etc. you need to do your job;

• Use a dedicated, quiet area and avoid distractions as it is really not possible to do two things well at the same time; and

• Insure your email system, documents, etc. are in sync as version control on multiple platforms is difficult to manage. 

• Don’t neglect system security.

Spring Cleaning – This is a good time to do things you have put off for a while.  In addition to the honey-do list around the house, in our business we are encouraging clients to identify short term projects that have been on the backburner we can help them knock out during this time. 

Available Talent – In the ERP staffing space where we are focused, there are very good people available for assignment right now.  If you are a client needing help now or in the near future, we can sort through a lot of talent to find the best fit for you.  At the same time, we are asking for consultants to show flexibility in their rates and patience with client turnaround as we position them for work.  We are open for business and still matching good people with good companies.

Family Time – One of the benefits people are experiencing during this period is we get to spend quality time with our families (and pets).  After all, you can only watch Netflix and YouTube so much!  While we are distancing ourselves from strangers, the idea of shared meals with loved ones is back in vogue.

Taking stock – Times like these make us prioritize what really matters in our vocation, family and faith.  Most of us have more time to actually think during this time…  If you are like me, there is a lot of stuff which seemed important a few weeks ago that you now find you can do without.  Watching prepper videos – yes, I admit it, it’s become an obsession – I’ve learned “the Rule of Threes”:  you can live up to three weeks without food, three days without water, three hours without shelter and three minutes without oxygen, but you shouldn’t live three seconds without hope!

We will get through this crisis and be smarter and more resilient because of it.  You may be experiencing other benefits as you go through this season in your life.  Please share with us any thoughts you would like and give us some ideas on how you are coping with your new abnormal.