In the News
Talent Show
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Minnesota Business - By Elizabeth Millard
Just after 9/11 Damian Martin was going through a professional transition. Realizing that the sputtering economy would make the search take a bit longer than he liked, he decided to stop in at a few temp agencies to see what might be available. None of them called him back.
“My feeling was that they didn’t know what to do with me,” he says. “My skill set wasn’t what their clients needed.” Not only did Martin have an MBA from St. Thomas, but he’d served as a senior executive at several companies, gaining expertise in sales and marketing, strategic initiatives and project management. Temp agencies that specialize in clerical duties didn’t quite know where to place him.
At the same time, he began to ponder the place of older executives, who amass skills and competencies and then retire just as they’re at the height of their strategic prowess. “As a society, we put people out to pasture way too soon,” notes Martin. “The combination of the temp experience and the recognition of talent that might be being wasted really struck a chord with me.”
He began chatting about the issue with his sister, Mary Christensen, a human resource professional with deep knowledge of the health care industry, who had been contemplating starting her own company. The pair saw the opportunity to build an organization that could fill an unmet need: placing seasoned executives in high-level temporary positions.
Health Plan
After some market research that confirmed demand for just such a service, they launched Experienced Resources in 2005. They dubbed their workforce the “FlexGeneration,” defining that group as a “transitional generation of experienced, highlyskilled workers who seek meaningful employment with a high degree of flexibility.”
For some, interim assignments might be a nice add-on to retirement, while others prefer the temporary projects as a way to spend more time with family, or simply work fewer months out of the year. Although each professional’s path to Experienced Resources may differ, they all have one thing in common, notes Christensen: extensive knowledge that can be put to good use.
When the company first launched, it was similar in scope to a temp agency, which serves just about any industry. The talent came flooding in, Martin recalls, so finding skilled professionals wasn’t an issue. “There are a tremendous number of qualified executives out there,” he says. “But we needed to find where they would go, we started to think about who might need professional workers at this high level.”
Martin and Christensen quickly realized that a broadbased approach would be less effective than choosing a specialty, and since Christensen knew the pain points of health care, it seemed like an ideal industry to target.
“Early on, health care became the focus because I have over 15 years of experience in that industry, and I could [understand] what health care providers were going through,” she says, adding that for many providers, their health care leaders are approaching the time in which they think of exiting the field. A knowledge drain is looming, especially at upper levels like project management directors and C-level roles.
Christensen notes that this particular challenge has already begun for many health care organizations, and the soft economy makes it even tougher to fill those top positions. Because of this one-two punch to their operations, health care firms have been coming to Experienced Resources in greater numbers, sparking continuous growth. In 2009, the talent management firm’s revenues will be up nearly 250 percent over the previous year.
Match Game
“The first few years, we were just trying to find our way,” says Martin. “Our efforts were all going into educating employers about our model, which is different than what they might have encountered before. Now, with the economy the way it is, and more understanding about our model, we feel we’ve created a unique niche that’s driving our success.”
Christensen adds that the firm is often compared to a consulting company, but it differentiates itself from that framework because its professionals do hands-on work as well as consult.
“We’re bringing an individual who can dig in,” she says. “He or she stays with an organization to customize a solution that works with the client. We’re able to help them get around barriers that have prevented them from success.”
She feels that health care consultants might provide insight on a client’s needs, perhaps even an action plan, but those in the FlexGeneration group have the experience to take on tasks like shepherding major financing projects, for example, or restructuring an entire department. They can look at the root causes of inefficiency and will stay with a client until those foundational processes or problems are changed. Also, since they work on a perhour basis, they tend to be lower-cost than consultants, Christensen notes.
With over 600 executives in their talent pool, matching an executive to an assignment isn’t difficult, but Christensen says that very careful consideration is made in terms of cultural fit. An executive might have the necessary skills, but if they don’t match up with the client’s culture, they won’t get the assignment. The careful matching process is another differentiator, the co-founders believe.
“We take our talent through an assessment process that drills down deeper on their softer skills,” says Christensen. “We know how they show up, what they bring. So, with clients, we talk not just about what outcomes they’re looking to achieve, but what type of person they want in there doing the work.”
Now that clients understand the model better and the matching process is in full swing, the prospects for more growth look particularly bright. Even if the economy begins to pick up, Martin and Christensen don’t anticipate that Experienced Resources will take a hit as a result, since health care is changing so dramatically.
Within the past nine months, the industry has felt the impact of the economy and has had to make tough staffing decisions, Christensen notes. Consequently, they’ve had to change their operations, and it’s likely that they’re not going to go back to their old models once the recession fades. She says, “Things will gear back up, but decision makers will likely wonder if the recovery is real or a blip, so for the next few years, we foresee that they’ll bring in our executives more often. Then, there’ll be a stage where there’s a real uptick of tapping into this energy.”
Having a professional on hand for crucial projects, and paying them only by the hour, gives health care organizations more flexibility, and the executives themselves will likely keep appreciating the chance to lend their expertise without having to be locked into a full-time position. “There’s so much talent available and so much need in health care to utilize that experience,” says Martin. “It just makes sense to create these matches.” MB
BizBrief
Experienced Resources, LLC
Headquarters: Bloomington
Inception: 2005
Employees: 4
Sales: $1M in 2009 (est.)
Description: Talent management firm that provides executives for projects and interim assignments in health care.
Website: flexgeneration.com
Leader Profiles
Mary Christensen
Title: President & Co-founder
Age: 39
Education: Human Resource Management, Cardinal Stritch University; Health Care Management, University of Central Florida
First Job: dishwasher at a deli
First Professional Job: health care receptionist
Family: husband, Kent
Damian Martin
Title: Vice President & Co-founder
Age: 46
Education: B.B.A., University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire; M.B.A., University of St. Thomas
First Job: tree trimmer at a Christmas tree farm
First Professional Job: corporate trust account representative
Family: single