52 Limited

Today is the first day it really feels like Fall. One day it was warm, the next day the temperature has dropped considerably.Sometimes this ushers in a busier hiring season. Hiring in the summer is sometimes tough in Portland. Hiring happens for sure and sometimes it is the busiest season. But it also the season when your thoughts can be on play and not work. Maybe you stare out the window more and pretend you are outside. Just doesn’t happen as much when it’s pouring down rain. After Labor Day (maybe that makes sense) people start thinking they better “buckle down” and get to work. No time for play now, time to get busy. That can translate into more projects, more activity, more work more hiring. Not a bad thing. Here’s to Fall. �

I’ve been involved with hiring and placing workers in creative positions since the late 90’s. It’s something that is easy to do, but difficult to do well.  Most creative staffing agencies, or staffing agencies in general, will look to match paper resumes to paper job descriptions and hope for the best.

Throughout my 5 years of running the recruitment and hiring practice for a large interactive agency, I learned that making that connection is only part of the equation, and sometimes the best candidate might not appear to be the best on paper. 

While never professing to be perfect at it (we are dealing with people after all) 52 strives to take creative staffing to a level that views the whole employer/employee relationship as just that….a relationship…one that can be a good or bad, but making that determination should never be based merely on what looks to connect on paper. It’s all about nuance and knowing the people involved.  Again, easy concept but one that many miss or chose to ignore as it takes time to develop the knowledge and relationships required.

52 is excited to announce the addition of two new members to our team, Claire Sullivan and Heather Jones. 

Heather has been in the creative industry for 2+ years.  Her most recent gig was with Opus Creative where she was Project Manager and Resource Manager. She enjoyed a long career in the service industry, which helped sharpen her juggling skills (literally), and she has learned the fundamentals of the printing industry.  She is excited to be helping great people connect with great companies, and is glad she has found a home at 52ltd.  All things aside, the most important thing to know about Heather, is she is a dancing machine.  If you show the slightest dance interest, you will be a forever friend that receives invites periodically to go get your groove on.  All styles of dance are welcome; salsa, swing, hip hop… 

Claire joins 52 Limited as a Talent Manager after spending 3 years recruiting for ATSI Group, a small, local-to-Portland IT staffing company. Prior to ATSI, Claire worked for several non-profits, including a stint directing fundraising strategy as Prospect Research Manager at Lewis & Clark College. Although she is a native Mississippian (and hasn’t fully let go of the accent and love of all food southern), Claire has been in Portland for six years and considers the Northwest home. When she’s not schmoozing and recruiting, she loves riding her bike around town, writing bad poetry, reading books at Opposable Thumb and Powell’s, scouting out the weekend brunch spots with the shortest line, going to theater and music shows, and taking her dogs to Willamette Park. She chose 52 Limited because of their stellar reputation, the chance to work with creative professionals, and because, well, it’s hard to turn down a job with an office that’s home to a large stuffed Unicorn.

52 and Souk partnered to help launch RYZwear. RYZwear is a community based footwear company that uses the designs of the people on their shoes. Over 200 people attended the inaugural design competition and voted on the 5 final designs with the winner going to Caveman for his shoe design, The Creep.  The shoe can now be purchased on the RYZwear site, www.ryzwear.com.�

Hands On Greater Portland, a non-profit organization that connects volunteers to appropriate causes, is seeking creative professionals at a brainstorming session May 7th.Participate in an initial brainstorming session to help Hands On Greater Portland better communicate their story and make their website more engaging. They are looking for copywriters, brand gurus, designers, photographers and video editors to volunteer some time to improve handsonportland.org. Pizza and beer provided.More information about signing up can be found by emailing Becky at becky@handsonportland.org or by going to http://tinyurl.com/67m8gl �

Giving back, and being a good steward in the community, has always been a part of 52 values. As our business has grown, our ability to give to the community has grown as well.

The following organizations were recipients of contributions by 52 in 2007.

Project Pooch - Project Pooch pairs youths incarcerated at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility with homeless shelter dogs for over a decade. With guidance youths learn to train the dogs, groom them, and find them homes. The dogs leave the program ready to be great pets, while their trainers re-enter the community with new job and personal skills and an increased compassion and respect for all life. 

Mercy Corps - Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities. In the last 29 years Mercy Corps has provided $1.3 billion to help people in over 100 nations. 

Audubon Society of Portland - The Audubon Society promotes the understanding, enjoyment, and protection of native birds, other wildlife, and their habitat with a focus on the Pacific Northwest. 

American Cancer Society - Cancer has touched too many families, including 52’s.  Begun in 1946, the ACS has been instrumental in the fight by funding research, education, patient services, and advocacy.

52 is committed to these causes and committed to supporting our community.  

by Steve Potestio - Managing Partner, 52Ltd.

If you build it they will come. When trying to hire staff for your company, this is the mantra to have. If you build a positive work culture, and focus your efforts in maintaining a healthy environment for people to grow and develop their careers you will have an easier time hiring top talent. It also helps to do good work and serve your clients. Paying people well is part of what makes a positive work culture, but it’s not the only thing. Resist the temptation to throw money at people to get them to join your firm. Don’t make it about money. If you have other positive factors in place, paying competitively will get people over the hump and wanting to work for you. Securing the top talent is more about your overall package, which includes your company’s culture and environment.

When searching for a new opportunity, a vice-president of marketing states,

“As a job seeker I pay close attention to a company’s culture and how it’s sustained. This is key to how well I’ll be able to thrive in the company and how my contributions will be received. A significant amount of my waking hours will be spent in a workplace; a good culture will provide me a healthy, challenging and enjoyable experience. While a good salary is an important consideration it’s not my first priority or even second. If the culture is right, I know the salary negotiation process will be a positive one.”

When salary becomes the focus of an employment equation it is generally a bad sign. Of course, people want to be paid what they are worth, but job offers should be approached by looking at the big picture. If the focus is more on salary, chances are employees will leave again when someone else throws more money at them.

According to Rich Connor, senior vice president at Portland marketing firm, PMSI, “we encourage new candidates to think long term. What type of company do you want to be working for in five years? If someone is interested in stopping to build their resume or to get their salary increased, we are clearly the wrong fit and we have a pretty good nose for that. We like to see where candidates take the conversation…. Money, Culture, Responsibilities, Future Goals. We want to know their motivations for wanting to join our team. For existing employees, we find this issue to be a red warning light. When a valued team member wants more money to stay happy or leverages another offer, that it is a bad sign for us. We hate to lose any employee for any reason but, if their base level of satisfaction has fallen to money, the important parts have fallen away.”

Salary discussions are often an employer/candidate game of cat and mouse. What are your salary requirements? How much are you looking for? What does the position pay? Questions like these are used to strategize the employment offers being extended (and those accepted or declined). I advise employers and candidates to discuss salary history but to also factor in other criteria (culture, opportunity for growth, doing good work) when determining a fair salary. Removing the cat and mouse dialogue and opening an honest discussion for both employer and candidate is the best way to start a rewarding and healthy employer/employee relationship.

Hiring top talent should be more about attraction than about enticement. You can entice someone with more money, but you want to attract them with competitive pay and back it up with the larger package of what your firm has to offer. If you consistently hire in this manner you attract talent that is looking to further their career and make an impact in a positive environment, rather than the job shoppers who are looking for the next great offer to come along. You will also build loyalty and make it more difficult for others to entice your talent away.

Build the culture. Provide opportunity for growth. Support and mentor your employees. Provide competitive compensation and benefits. Do good work. Respect your staff and clients. And you will attract and retain talent. If it’s built, they will come.

by Rick Albano - Sissyfish.blogspot.com

Wasting time. It’s something we all do pretty well, but invariably feel pretty guilty about, especially when bills are piling up, work’s bearing down, and-frankly-we’re not getting any younger. What’s your diversion? Craigslist? Cupcakes? Yacht Rock? Fantasy football? Pinot Noir? Roller derby?  There’s always something we’d rather be doing than sitting in a cubicle, staring at a screen.

As a freelance music writer in LA a few years ago, I scored a job interviewing bands for a living. For a lifelong music fanatic, this seemed like a dream scenario, but my enthusiasm eventually sagged when I realized was just another Hollywood hack, writing fluff copy to sell widgets in the form of MP3s.  One day in particular sums up my experience: I was sitting at a desk (after sitting in traffic for hours), being reprimanded over the phone by Liz Phair for not writing good interview questions. It broke my heart, because I loved Liz Phair, but at the same time, I thought she’d become a complete sellout. The problem was, I couldn’t ask her why she’d sold out, because I would have gotten fired. But wait-They couldn’t really fire me, because I was never even “hired” in the first place… But I’d been sitting at the same desk for two years!

So I finally split town, moved to Portland, and took up the most unlikely hobby I could imagine: surfing. It was a head-clearing, mind-opening, finger-numbing, humbling, exhausting, thrilling waste of time that was the exact opposite of work. After my first ride, in a smelly wetsuit on a lopsided old board, I was completely hooked.

At home I read everything I could about surfing. I discovered a surf blog based out of California http://novicesurf.blogspot.com/ (the only one I could find) and devoured it religiously with coffee. Then, I decided to start a weblog of my own called Sissyfish, as a way to record my weekly adventures through journal entries, sketches, photographs and even some half-assed poetry.

The blog became an obsession and a distraction, giving structure to my scattered creativity. As a frustrated illustrator, I now had an endless amount of exciting subject matter to draw from. Miraculously, Sissyfish also reenergized my writing, giving me a bullshit-free zone to express myself in. It loosened me up.  And people started visiting. The readership grew from my mom and a few friends to ten strangers, to hundreds of visitors a day. The other night I was at a restaurant and the waiter asked me if I was “that guy with the surf blog.”

Around that time, I met with the guys at 52 Ltd. and showed them a portfolio that was the result of a newfound awareness of my creative potential. It was a box crammed full of writing samples, illustrations and photographs. Brooks rubbed his chin and wondered out loud where I’d fit in. Then, we spent the rest of our meeting chatting about our shared love of surfing.

A week later, Brooks called and told me about a new Portland outdoor apparel startup called Nau. It turned out that the first web presence that the company wanted was a blog.  Called The Thought Kitchen, it would cater to the brand’s emerging community of artists, athletes and activists. I showed the creative director-who also happened to be a surfer-my own blog and offered a few insights I’d learned in my two-year experience as a blogger: Always use good images. Keep entries short and sweet. Invite dialogue from readers. I was hired.

My current gig as curator of Nau’s blog is the best thing I’ve ever been paid to do.  My responsibilities include facilitating online conversations about the outdoors, art, sustainability, design and sports like surfing. I’m encouraged to include drawings and photos and to write like I do on my own blog-honestly and with personality.

Call it “micro-marketing,” “niche branding,” the actualization of Web 2.0 in e-commerce, or whatever. I think my mom described it best when she’d insist, “Do what you love.” Those sentiments are echoed in a campaign by New Belgium Brewery: “Follow Your Folly.” Theirs is beer. For some, it’s porn. Mine is surfing. It was a waste of time that unlocked my creative spirit and made me a more complete and satisfied professional.

52 has long struggled with the word staffing. When we first opened our doors in early 2005, we proclaimed ourselves a new hybrid business: a creative resource company. We shied away from the word staffing for fear of the historical negative connotations associated with the word. After all, we placed skilled, talented professionals, and staffing to us meant a less sophisticated and disciplined practice. A job shop if you will. But a lot of people asked us questions, like “if you don’t do staffing, what do you do?” And, of course, we’d answer, “well we do staffing, but we do it in a different way.”

When delivering a marketing message describing what you do as a business, confusion is not a good thing. So, we deciding to embrace staffing but continue to stress the difference to our brand of staffing.

So, there it is. I’ll say it. 52 Limited. Portland’s creative staffing leader.

52 is excited to welcome Gabrielle Morgan to our staff as talent manager. Gabrielle studied design at
Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, where she graduated with honors. Her first design
job was working on the Andy Warhol Retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, where she came face to face with Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis and Marilyn Monroe, to name a few. She stayed in Los Angeles for another 3 years continuing to freelance with MOCA, and adding others such as Sony, Disney, and The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising to her client list. A former bike messenger with a laugh that stops traffic, Gabrielle fell in love with the people at 52 Ltd, the powerful
possibilities in becoming a talent manager, and the idea that there’s a place at the office for her boston terrier!