Talent - Andy Esparza

Andy Esparza knows what success sounds like. It's not the "ka-ching!" of a cash register or the "brrrring!" of a customer phone call, but the "clang! clang! clang!" of a cowbell. Whenever he and his colleagues land a significant new hire at Dell Computer Corp., they rattle a bell hanging in what is otherwise a nondescript office. "We jam on that bell," Esparza says. "It feels good."

Sounds good too. Like music to his ears. As the head of staffing for one of the world's fastest-moving big companies, Esparza has the monumental challenge of hiring enough people to keep pace with the company's record growth. In business, there's fast -- and then there's Dell, the Michael Johnson of the computer industry. For the past four years, its sales have shot up at least 40% annually (to more than $21 billion). And don't forget its legendary stock, hailed as the top-performing stock of the decade. Today, one of the most successful computer companies of the past 15 years faces a new question: What can it do to stay successful? The answer: In a memo sent out at the beginning of the year, Chairman and CEO Michael Dell listed the company's top 10 priorities for 1999, and for the second consecutive year, the number-one priority was people.

Andy Esparza's job is finding and hiring those people. He is a man on a mission. He printed up laminated cards that his recruiters clip to their ID badges. The cards feature the department's new mission statement: "Relentlessly recruit and hire world-class people." It's a mission that involves real challenges. Not everyone can cope in Dell's demanding, entrepreneurial environment. "We specialize in the unreasonable around here," Esparza deadpans. Esparza's search is further complicated by a highly competitive labor market -- the worst that Esparza, an 18-year human-resources veteran, has seen in the past decade and a half. "There's a war for talent going on," he says, "and we're right in the middle of it."

More often than not, Dell is winning that war. Esparza attracts top-notch executives to the company, some of whom are looking for a new job, but many of whom are not -- until he calls. While other companies are fortunate to hire a few executives a year, Dell hires dozens. Since taking over staffing two years ago, Esparza has helped bring more than 50 senior executives on board.

Hiring Is Job One

Out of sheer necessity, Esparza has created "a different staffing model than what you find in most companies." For starters, everybody at Dell recruits, not just the 100-plus employees who work in the recruiting department. "It's 'all hands on deck,' " says Esparza, who believes that the single best source for finding new talent is the pool of extremely talented folks who are already working at Dell.

Executives are constantly fishing, networking, and taking names. They even turn job interviews into recruiting opportunities by asking, "Which boss has had the greatest influence on you?" Bingo -- there's another lead. They pass names along to Esparza's department through an electronic mailbox that he set up for executive leads. Dell's leadership team contributes partly for selfish reasons: Ro Parra, 40, a senior vice president who spends up to 40% of his time recruiting and interviewing, says that hiring is one way to lighten his workload and to ensure that the company remains successful.

Even the CEO gets in on the act. "I'll call Michael or email him to say, 'We've got a recruit who has a couple of competing offers. Would you call him?' " says Esparza. "And he'll pick up the phone right away, or use his car phone on his way home -- whatever he needs to do to make that call. He's a great closer."

Another benefit of keeping everyone involved in the recruiting process is that employees themselves keep standards high. Why encourage people to join your company if you don't believe that they can get the job done? "Employees don't take the company's future for granted," Esparza says. Recently, a technician told him that he'd discouraged a neighbor from applying because hiring the neighbor would only hurt Dell's stock price. "Isn't that great?" Esparza says with a laugh. "And he's right. We need to make sure that we're bringing the right people into the company."

Because of the constant demand for talent, recruiting is a nonstop, year-round activity, like R&D or sales. The result is a steady pipeline of talent. Dell doesn't recruit strictly for job openings; it hires the best available candidates, even if that means creating a new position. "Today, we had a guy come in and talk to 10 different people," Esparza says. "He's really good, but we have no idea where we're going to put him. At the end of the day, we're going to get together and say, 'Okay, he's strong here, here, and here, so let's either put him in an existing job or create something for him to do.' "