LEAN, Just-in-Time Recruiting!

It helps humanize the process!

I am always inspired when I have the opportunity to spend time with recruiters and their leaders hearing how they have applied the methodologies and best practices that we teach in our RACR Training Program. Here is a terrific example from Avi Nardia at Integris Health about how his relationships with hiring managers has been impacted, as well as a great quote I took away from our interaction.

Avi said, “I like using the weekly communication process with my hiring managers because it humanizes the hiring process.”  When I pressed for more detail in his explanation, he shared that he gets a better response from hiring managers on requisitions that are “stuck” now that he sends them a weekly communication report.  In his weekly communication, Avi includes the names of the applicants he has already sent to his hiring managers, and asks for feedback and a status update.  When he can, he includes a bullet point summarizing the qualities that sets them apart from the others.

His managers respond back with more urgency to this type of personalized communication about the candidates than ever before.  He feels that he has successfully included more of the human element in the hiring process for managers by including names.  It’s an easy trap that both hiring managers and recruiters can fall into because we get so caught up in the “process of hiring” that we forget to focus on the person behind the resume.

Considering the importance of helping hiring managers understand they have a shared responsibility in the hiring process and that they contribute frequently to a requisition being “stuck,” it is important to be able to influence a hiring manager to keep moving the process forward.  Emphasizing the human element behind the recruiting and hiring effort is a great way to remind all involved what it is that we do every day.

Deb Vargovick
LEAN Human Capital
dvargovick@leanhumancapital.com

Mindset for a Perfect Day

I had the opportunity to spend the day with a great group of recruiters the other day. I was facilitating, arguably, my favorite Certification Module, The Perfect Week, A Perfect Day,  our time management and productivity educational session for recruiters (on steroids).

After the session, recruitment manager Don Kling shared a great quote/mindset that captures 100% of the Perfect Week, A Perfect Day philosophy.

“Just Win the Day.”

The concept is simple. After you thoughtfully plan out your day, approach it with passion and purpose.  Don’t worry about what happened yesterday. Don’t think about what is in the future.

Adopt the Fish! Philosophy. Choose your attitude, be focused and be “present”.  Meet and greet each hiring manager and candidate with the goal of “making their day”.

Just Win the Day.

Sprint through the day crossing off important, “Move the Needle” activities.  Avoid being distracted by CIEs – those non-important calls, interruptions and emails. Once the day is over, be done with it.  A great quote/mindset to end the day with is:

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The next day, start all over again with the attitude “Just Win the Day!”

Anyone that knows me appreciates the passion I have for this mindset.

Don – thanks for sharing this great quote with me!

For other thoughts on this topic, check out our free resources section on Time Management and Productivity.

I hope you are having a Perfect Day!

David Szary
Founder
LEAN Human Capital
dszary@leanhumancapital.com

Keeping your eye on the prize helps you achieve it!

I’ve been collecting best practices around the topic of recruitment meetings.  How often should you have them, what are the topics, how long should they be, who attends, etc.?  So often I hear (and have experienced myself) that recruiters have a hard time experiencing what we call at LEAN a “Perfect Day” or a “Perfect Week” because we are asked to participate in so many meetings that end up taking us away from what we get paid to do – recruit great people!

A client that I worked with recently created a spreadsheet of all of the regular meetings that recruitment attends, whether they were team recruitment meetings, HR departmental meetings, meetings with customers, you name it.  Then they added up the time per month each recruiter spends attending these meetings. Next, they assigned a point value to each type of meeting and came up with a total score for each meeting.  By looking at the points assigned to each type of meeting, they were able to prioritize which ones were critical to achieving their recruiting goals, and which were not as impactful.  Even without assigning point values, by documenting the meeting time on a spreadsheet or calendar helps you create a visual business case.

By using this data with their leader, they were able to agree on reducing the frequency of the meetings that were least impactful to the team.  What did they do with this gained time, you ask?  Well, some of it naturally went back into recruiting time, but some of the additional time was reinvested in a brief, weekly “Team Huddle”.

Weekly huddles allow you to keep your eye on the prize. In other words, keep your recruitment goals at the top of your mind every week, discuss progress or obstacles to obtaining these goals, and brainstorm on solutions to anything that gets in the way of achieving these goals.  By discussing progress against your key goals on a weekly basis, you keep the entire team aligned on their efforts towards reaching these goals, and it’s a great opportunity to share best practices and recognize the team on a regular basis for their hard work!

Here is a sample huddle agenda that I recommend to help keep your eye on the prize:

• Time-to-Fill (TTF)
• Number of Open Positions
• Customer Satisfaction
• Quality of Hire
• Reward & Recognition

Let’s briefly look at what is covered in each of these:

Time-to-Fill:

• Overall TTF for each business unit and the overall system compared to goal.
• Job titles or key positions open over 60 days:
  • What is the strategy to get these closed?

Number of Open Positions:

• Number of open positions by business unit and by job family:
  • What is the strategy to get these closed?
  • Key accomplishments from last week.

Customer Satisfaction:

• Share customer compliments.
• Share results of customer surveys (Hiring Manager, Candidates, New Hires).

Quality of Hire:

• Feedback from hiring managers on your recent hires.
• Survey results measuring quality of hire.

Reward & Recognition: (THIS IS THE BEST PART!)

• Customer compliments.
• Peer-to-peer compliments.
• Any efforts that demonstrated teamwork.
• Any innovative solutions that impacted the goals.
• Any initiatives from team members that demonstrate commitment to continuous improvement or learning.

Often, we do not take the time to recognize and celebrate our achievements.  As soon as we close a requisition, 10 more are approved, leaving us little time to slow down and slap ourselves or our teammates on the back for a job well done!  There is no better way to end a meeting than on a positive, celebratory note!

Keeping the team unified and updated on progress towards goals helps you stay focused on your goals.  I have never worked with a recruitment team who has not been successful when using this approach to weekly huddles.  To add your suggestions to team meetings and communication, I invite you to SEND YOUR SUGGESTIONS to me!

David Szary
Founder
LEAN Human Capital
dszary@leanhumancapital.com

Impact 3 More Recruitment Initiatives this year with a strong sourcing plan.

I recently had the pleasure of facilitating a webinar that introduced the Top Recruitment Initiatives for 2013 covering both healthcare and non-healthcare settings.  The 246 survey participants from across the country overwhelmingly chose “Creating/Improving a Sourcing Strategy” as their number #1 priority.

When you look at the next top three initiatives, it becomes clear that a strong sourcing strategy and/or sourcing function is truly the root cause or foundation that impacts each of these other three in a huge way! Those three initiatives are:

1. Improve hiring manager customer satisfaction.
2. Improve quality of hire.
3. Reduce turnover to reduce costs.

Let’s first look at improving hiring manager’s satisfaction.  Through our work surveying hiring managers with our HMART^sm Voice of the Customer analysis, we have learned that having a slate of qualified candidates ready to go is high on the hiring managers’ list of expectations.  In fact, if recruiters had a ready pool, hiring managers have told us they would be “Raving Fans” of their recruiters.

A dedicated sourcing function and strategy enables recruiters with the ability to network and build a pool of highly qualified candidates that are “ready to go.”   David Szary recently wrote that an effective employee referral plan can generate 50% of candidates without costing you a dime.  In fact, current top applicants and recently applied candidates also provide recruiters with the ability to create a vast network of “referred” candidates that do not cost a single cent except investing the time to talk with these folks!

An effectively executed sourcing strategy also drastically improves the quality of the hire.  Think about it. If 50% of candidates are referred by employees, and an additional percentage is referred by applicants, chances are these folks are referring people that have high qualities like themselves.  The ability to network with potential candidates referred by employees or others also gives you the time to get to know them better before the an interview.  You can screen better for fit, thus resulting in a better quality hire.

Lastly, you can draw a direct correlation between quality of hire, – (one that fits the culture of the organization and department,)- and performance.  They are a more engaged, productive employees, typically staying longer in the organization.

The bottom line – the ROI gained by creating or reinvesting resources in a sourcing function pays off in dividends that will be felt for years to come!

I hope you are having a Perfect Week!

Deb Vargovick
LEAN Human Capital
dvargovick@leanhumancapital.com

By Using Service Level Agreements!

At its core, achieving great customer satisfaction is pretty simple.  Not always easy, but the concept is simple.

To turn your customers into raving fans, you need to:

1. Set expectations – make sure it is clear what you will deliver and when you will deliver it.
2. Get Buy-In – ensure they are comfortable with the terms.
3. Meet them!

Probably the most difficult part is ensuring your customers are comfortable with the terms of service.  But from experience, it is achievable with some work!

I was recently asked to provide thoughts on this very important subject by Rebecca McNeil from HealthcareSource.  Check out the Blog Post.

If you are interested in relevant additional advice on this subject and many others, check out our Recruitment Resources!

I hope you are having a Perfect Day!

David Szary
Founder
LEAN Human Capital
dszary@leanhumancapital.com

It’s all about technique (versus task)  - Timing is Everything!

OK – if you haven’t read the first two parts on this topic – It would take a couple of minutes to do so by going to our LEAN Blog Page.

As discussed, identifying the right employees, engaging with them and asking great Investigative Questions (IQs) is a recipe for success!

The Third Key is Timing.

While every engaged, ROCK STAR employee is a good referral source, the referral POT OF GOLD can often be found with new employees during orientation.

Think about it. These are new employees, excited to start their new life with your organization.  Orientation is like the “honeymoon”.  Everything is fresh, exciting and new.

In addition, these folks have just recently left a former employee for a reason.  I would hope that their loyalty is with their new employer and that they still have close ties with former ROCK STAR co-workers that they would love to work with again.

For this reason, if you do not have a slot in orientation to discuss your referral bonus program and to engage them in a dialog using Investigative Questions, you are missing out on a HUGE opportunity to land quality referrals.

Again, the key to success is engagement and asking good IQs that help them help you.

Don’t just talk about the referral program and then end with “let me know of anyone interested in a new career with us.” Your results will be limited at best!

We have worked with organizations for years utilizing this tactic, and have had great success.

Want to spice it up? Hold a “raffle contest”. For every quality referral, a person gets 1 raffle ticket. Every month (or three months pending hiring volume) raffle off a prize.  Of course, this is in addition to the normal referral bonus!

New employees are great referral sources if you engage them correctly.  About the only down side is you don’t know if these folks are going to become great performers within your organization.  But you have to think positive and that you hired them for good reason J.

For more pragmatic sourcing methodologies, tools and techniques – I encourage you to participate in our Recruiter Academy Certified Recruiter Program with me. J

I hope you are having a Perfect Day!

David Szary
Founder
LEAN Human Capital
dszary@leanhumancapital.com

It’s all about technique (versus task)  - The Art of Investigative Questioning!

In our last Blog, we developed the foundation for increasing quality employee referrals by 50% WITHOUT additional MONEY being spent.

The first key to success is engaging the right employees. By doing that, you eliminate unqualified applicant flow and focus on referrals from your engaged, ROCK STAR employees!

The second key to success is the The Lost Art of Investigative Questioning.  This is a simple concept that, if executed well, will exponentially increase quality applicant flow and help you identify additional sourcing resources for your difficult-to-fill requisitions.

I honestly believe more engaged employees would like to assist us (recruiters) with finding quality referrals.  The problem is that when we ask for referrals, we often ask at the wrong time and/or make it very difficult for them to help us.

Two questions I would recommend you NEVER use again when referral sourcing are:

“Do you know of anyone interested in this position?”

“Do you know of anyone looking for a new opportunity?”

Both questions have been used for years by recruiters, are closed ended, and usually result in responses like  “Let me think about it” or just plain “No, I don’t”.

The keys to mastering this Art of IQing is to engage your employee in a friendly conversation and ask questions that “take the thinking” away from them.  Make it EASY for them to help you with your search.

Some great IQs include:

• “Where did you work previously?” Or, “I know you worked at _____ before you came to ________?”
• “How many peers worked with you in your group?”
• “If you had to create a “Dream team” of former co-workers you would like to work with again, who would be on that team?”
• “What associations do you belong to?” “Could I get the membership list for networking purposes?”
• “What conferences have you recently attended? Could I get the attendee list for networking purposes?”
• “Are you in LinkedIn?” “Could we sit down for a few minutes to review your network?” Maybe there are some people you would suggest I contact and/or network with.”

These questions are only limited by your creativity.  The key is to keep them open ended and thought provoking.

Help them help you.

Also, don’t forget lateral and/or indirect relationships.  For example, If I was looking for an Operating Room Nurse Manager, I could network with surgical Tech’s, Operating Room RN’s, Anesthesiologists, Doctors, etc.  They may all know great Nurse Managers that they worked with at previous organizations.

Identify the right employees, engage with them and ask great IQ’s.  A recipe for success!

For more pragmatic sourcing methodologies, tools and techniques – I encourage you to participate in our Recruiter Academy Certified Recruiter Program with me.

I hope you are having a Perfect Day!

David Szary
Founder
LEAN Human Capital
dszary@leanhumancapital.com

It’s all about technique (versus task) – How to Engage the Right Employees!

As unemployment rates inch down and the market heats up for top talent, most organizations will desperately seek ways to find/source candidates for their Critical/Difficult/Visible (CDV) positions.

At the top of everyone’s sourcing ‘tool kit’ are referrals from employees.  Based on studies performed by industry experts, employee referrals are THE BEST SOURCE of quality new hires.

Referrals from employees typically cost less money to secure and the new employees outperform their peers on the job and stay longer with your organization. A well functioning employee referral program can generate 30%, 40%, and even 50% of total external hires!

And while I am an advocate of rewarding employees for referring a quality professional to the organization, I DO NOT believe that when the market heats up . . . you keep increasing the bonus to generate more referrals.

First off, I would hope that my engaged, top employees would refer candidates WITHOUT any financial rewards.  Wouldn’t they do it to benefit their friend (better job/better organization) and their own company?

Secondly, if I have employees “holding out” for the special referral bonus tied to a CDV position, I probably have a whole other set of problems!  I would wonder if the candidates they refer are going to be the quality I am seeking (i.e. birds of a feather flock together).

So how do you improve employee referrals for CDV requisitions by 50% without spending more money?

The secret is in your technique . . . not just the task at hand.

From my experience, the key to your success is dependent on three things:

1. Engaging the right employees (without creating waste).
2. Investigative Questioning.
3. Timing.

We discuss these keys details in our Recruiter Academy Certified Recruiter Program.

In today’s blog, I will tackle some of the highlights of Engaging the Right Employees. In future blogs this month, I will discuss the keys to success with respect to Investigative Questioning and Timing.

Engaging the Right Employees!

With the explosion of social media, I have seen many new products and services aimed at pushing out your job opportunities via your employees through their social media outlets (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.).

Honestly, I struggle with these new tools for a couple reasons:

1. For the most part, these tools don’t isolate who the message is going out to.  Do I really want more referrals from poor performers who are likely to refer more unqualified, underperforming candidates?  One of the biggest issues organizations face is managing the volume of unqualified candidates that apply to their organization.  Many of these tools drive more unqualified applicants, not QUALITY, interested professionals.
2. “Pushing” out opportunities to current employees doesn’t allow you to build rapport, understand an employee’s centers of influence, and effectively tap their network.

With that said, I think some of the target tools available through LinkedIn make sense, especially if you are a large organization.

So what are some of my recommendations?

1. Only seek referrals from your Rock Stars. Leverage your managers to identify engaged, top performers.  Some good questions for your managers include; “What employees are engaged?”, “Who are their top performers?”, and “Who has recently joined the company and is a top performer that I should network with?”
2. White Glove Treatment! To maximize your referral source, go “old school” and meet with (or pick up the phone) and talk to these precious referral sources. Engage them. Build rapport. Let them know that you seek their advice per the recommendation of their manager. “Sue told me to talk to you about this need. She said you are a rock star within her group and that you would be a great person to network with.“

With Employee Referrals, more is not necessarily better. Minimize unqualified referral flow.  Identify your target referral sources and maximize the encounter.

In the blog next week, I will discuss the Art of Investigative Questioning!

I hope you are having a Perfect Day!

David Szary
Founder
LEAN Human Capital
dszary@leanhumancapital.com

It might be more of a marketing problem!

We dedicate an entire module in our Recruiter Academy Certified Recruiter Program to the Art & Science of Recruiting Top Talent (aka – Candidate Development).

Key Success factors in a recruiter’s ability to connect and develop relationships with Top Talent include:

• Timing – Are you reaching out when they are available?
• Tonality – Do you believe you have a great opportunity to share? Do they believe you?
• Your Cadence – Do you call? Email? Or both?
• Mobile friendly – If you are doing out reach, are your messages mobile friendly to read?
• Your Message – Is it compelling? What is the value proposition? Why would someone want to use their precious time to talk to you?

From experience, your ability to entice top talent to engage with you is truly an Art & Science. There are fundamental principles on how humans like to communicate. But everyone is different.

I found this blog post, You Don’t Have a Recruiting Problem by Erin Osterhaus to be thought provoking with respect to this topic. It includes some good insight on how companies can improve in this area! I believe these ideas can help you, so please check it out.

I hope you are having a Perfect Day!

David Szary
Founder
LEAN Human Capital
dszary@leanhumancapital.com

Observations made while working with recruitment practitioners!

I have the unique privilege of spending 75% of my time working with recruitment organizations from different industries around the world.  This provides me with the opportunity to practice what I preach – Lifelong Learning! Conversations with leading recruitment practitioners also helps reinforce the things I know and believe in.

Some recent insights/Lessons/Ahas from the road include:

Elite Recruitment Organizations – Part of the Success is Talent:

• High performing recruitment teams have a positive culture centered around continuous improvement (CI) and lifelong learning.  But no matter how eager someone is to learn and develop the skills to become an ‘Elite’ recruiter, they will always be limited by their talent competencies.  Elite recruiters have the competencies AND the desire for CI and lifelong learning.  If some of your team lacks the necessary talent, your team’s performance will be limited.

Turning Hiring Managers into Raving Fans!

• As we embark on the development of our validated HMART^sm (Hiring Manager Assessment of Recruitment Team) Voice of the Customer Survey (link to an email with subject line “Requesting More Information about our HMART), we have been researching how to turn hiring managers into raving fans.  And contrary to what we might think, your success doesn’t always mean you fill every position ASAP. Quality and depth of your relationship, business acumen/credibility, and empathy for the hiring manager’s needs seem to be much stronger indicators of developing Raving Fans. (FYI – more to come on this subject in the coming months).

Sourcing Candidates for Critical, Difficult, Visible (CDV) positions:

• It is not just a competency thing.  No matter how skilled you are at sourcing, it takes exponentially more time to source a qualified candidate for CDV requisitions.  If you truly want to develop an internal organizational model to deliver qualified candidates for these positions, recruiters skilled in the art of direct sourcing need to allocate the time required to find top talent.  We will be discussing this more during Upcoming Webinars later this year.

Validated Assessments = Quality Hires:

• Studies suggest that if you are not using validated assessment tools/techniques, (pre-assessment testing, validated online reference checks, behavioral based interviews, etc.), you cannot accurately assess if a new hire will be successful on the job.  Non-validated assessment techniques are no more accurate than ‘flipping a coin’ when making a hiring decision!

Some thoughts from the road for those who are trying to establish an Elite Recruitment Organization that can source quality candidates for difficult-to-fill positions AND turn Hiring Managers into Raving Fans!

I hope you have a Perfect Day!

David Szary
Founder
LEAN Human Capital
dszary@leanhumancapital.com