Headhunters Chase Vendors

“Musical Chairs” may be the official dance of Benton County. Pay and perks are so competitive for professionals in the local retail, logistics and meat vendor community that headhunters barely allow the music to stop.

Valentin Gutierrez, CEO of Valentin Staffing Inc. of Tontitown, opened a Rogers branch in February to specifically focus on staffing and recruitment for professional positions. His family-owned company, which does business in five states and averages 3,500-5,000 employees, is seeing a higher demand for managers throughout Northwest Arkansas.

Gutierrez said he does not like getting in the middle of competitors. But although his business is primarily temporary staffing, a growing number of clients are demanding help finding professionals with proven sales success.

About 65 percent of the time, Gutierrez said, his employees become full-timers for clients.

“In Bentonville and Rogers, it’s a constant thing where recruiters are calling for companies and offering $20,000-$30,000 more to get a good sales person to make that jump,” Gutierrez said. “It’s a huge issue, and we don’t like to get between management teams.

“But if that happens, we will help you backfill the position that you lose.”

Gutierrez said clients call Valentin Staffing because screening job candidates for coveted positions is just too time consuming. His company might spend several days checking a person’s credentials and aptitude.

Cindy Nesbitt, Valentin Staffing’s Rogers sales manager, spent eight years in the retail vendor community before joining the firm. She said customer service and “people skills” go a long way. But most staffing firms are testing job seekers to make sure they have the skill sets they claim and that employers are seeking. The results are better matches.

“Candidates for most management positions must be well-versed in Microsoft programs such as Word, PowerPoint, Excell and Access,” Nesbitt said. “Your chances of getting in with a really good company around here without those skills is basically nonexistent.”

Nina Gupta, a professor of management in the Walton College, said too often employers cut veteran workers to hire less-experienced, and therefore less expensive, talent. Even though that’s “short sighted,” she said, job seekers face a Darwinian scenario.

“If you want to be one of the ones in demand, make yourself invaluable to your company,” Gupta said. “Look for more key assignments and be more careful on the front end of projects that you get involved with.”

Nonfarm payroll jobs in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metropolitan statistical area during December, the most recent figures available, fell less than a percent to 167,500.

It was the first month in five that local jobs didn’t grow, according to the Arkansas Employment Security Department. But 3.8 percent job growth last year, coupled with the vendor frenzy, means a lot of area talent is simply swapping local gigs for greener pastures.

Al McEwen, president of Management Recruiters of Rogers Inc., said the vendor job market is harder to crack for outsiders than it once was. Just adding a computer class or even having impeccable management experience from another sector probably won’t cut it.

“Our advice to managers, especially engineers and technicians in the manufacturing sector, is don’t quit your job to move here without finding another one first,” McEwen said. “A lot of people want to break into those $50,000-$120,000 salaries. But if you’re not already working for a Wal-Mart or Target-type vendor then you’re going to have a hard time getting an interview.”