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Archive for the ‘Recruiting Buzz’ Category

‘Two cents’ from the road

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

As I have mentioned in the past, I am one lucky “recruiting guy” because I get to interact with talented recruitment professionals throughout the world on a daily basis. 

With our Solution engagement, I also get to become a ‘teammate’ of many recruitment organizations!  With our Benchmark Study, I have intimate interaction with many, many more!

This unique opportunity always provides me with many thoughts/observations/insights! 

Some  recent “Lean, JIT ‘Elite’ Recruitment Thoughts” from the road:

Discipline, sense of urgency, and self-direction are a few of the most important ELITE recruiter competencies you can possess.

  • The busier you get, the more time you need to plan your perfect day. If you are not planning at least 30 minutes a day . . . I bet you are 10-50% less productive than those that do!
  • You can plan all you want but . . . if you are not “true to your schedule”, if you do not commit to crossing off your TO DOs (ETFs, MTNs), starting/stopping meetings ON TIME, etc., IT IS WORTHLESS!

Trust is also very important.  If your hiring managers don’t TRUST that:

  • You understand their business
  • You have an eye for the talent they want/need
  • You know how to find top talent
  • They will continue to:
    • Ask to see all resumes before setting up interviews
    • Always want to “see more”
    • Not listen to your salary/offer recommendations, etc.
  • To earn trust, you must learn their business by attending staff meetings, learning from employees/candidates AND become an expert at performing intake sessions and setting SLAs

A strong ability to solicit interest is equally important.  With technology, social media, it is much easier to FIND passive candidates . . . but still very difficult to SOLICIT THEIR INTEREST.

While there are many facets to recruiting, if you:

  • Are able to plan for, and execute more Perfect Days (with passion :) )
  • Have earned the trust of your hiring managers via knowledge and engaging/executing flawless intake/SLA sessions.
  • Have mastered the ability to engage and recruit top talent.

You are pretty darn ‘elite’ in my book!

My ‘two cents’ from the road . . . Please share any of your ‘two cents’ from the field!  :)

I hope you have (or had) a good spring break!

The 80/20 Rule

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

Author: Karen Antrim – Lean Human Capital  

Years ago, my boss said to me “this place has too much of the 80/20 rule.”  “80/20 rule?” I asked.  “It’s when 80 percent of the work gets done by 20 percent of the people.” he answered.

In my real life, when I’m not sourcing or teaching sourcing, I’m a mom.  I volunteer at my kids school, at our church, and for little league.   I often observe the 80/20 there.  You’ve probably noticed this in your real life too.  80 percent of the work is done by 20 percent of the parents.

Weekly, I read about a new tool, technique or process that is going to change the way we source.  Or, I get an email for a class on how to improve and write better Boolean strings to find resumes or lists on the net.  I’m all for constant learning and constant improvement.  It’s the mantra our firm is based on.  However, I work for recruiters who have very little time and a mountain of openings to fill.  So my ability to get them accurate prospective candidates in a short time is a priority.  My sourcing techniques must provide the biggest return for the effort.  They must adhere to the “80/20 rule”.

The principle applies to recruiters who do their own sourcing. They have even less time for each activity in the recruitment process without a sourcing staff to assist them.  The “80/20 rule” should become a guiding principle.

Simply put, the 80/20 rule is how to get 80% of your candidates with 20% of the tools and processes of sourcing.

Let’s take some specific examples.  We all know that Linkedin.com has the largest community of profiles of any social professional network.  If you have time constraints on your recruitment process, why use any other network?  Get 80% of your prospects, build 80% of your network, start 80% of your conversations in LinkedIn.

Here is an inverse example.  I understand the appeal of long and sexy Boolean search strings.  As a Boolean geek, I dig‘em.  But as a person who must be pragmatic in her practices, they do not return enough bang for the buck.  They don’t adhere to the 80/20 rule.  For example, the popular string (Intitle:resume OR inurl:resume OR intitle:cv OR inurl:CV  OR etc..) generally finds resumes that have been posted on a personal website or perhaps a university faculty bio. There just isn’t a large population of these out there.  One can spend a great deal of time playing with keywords in this string and not get a large return for their time investment.  This is an example of the 20/80 rule.  20% return on 80% of the investment.

Pick your top 3-5 successful sourcing activities, and stick with those.  Mine are:

  1. Site command to harvest linkedin.com
  2. Subscription resume database such as Monster
  3. My ATS
  4. Finding associations and membership lists
  5. Target companies to raid with call campaign

As a recruiter, you may change out #4 for working your own existing network.

Regardless of whether you’re a recruiter doing your own sourcing, or a sourcer supporting recruiters, putting 20% of your time in these activities will produce 80% of your prospect list.  That leaves a whole lot of time for other tasks, such as candidate interaction, building your network, or branding yourself and your organization.

Happy Sourcing!

Compelling Time to Fill (TTF) data — It can be misleading

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

In a recent blogcast, (Time to Fill – Are You Managing A Key Metric You Are Measured On?), we discuss how time to fill can be misleading and . . . not a good indicator of hiring manager satisfaction and overall “responsiveness” to the truly critical hiring needs of the organization.

While most organizations might be able to track TTF by job category, they only report the overall average to key stakeholders. Unfortunately, this statistic becomes a “blended” rate of all positions regardless of priority, cost of vacancy, criticality to organization, difficulty to fill, etc.

And if an organization is not structured to truly support priority, critical to fill, or difficult to fill positions, there often is a big gap with respect to TTF between what we call Business As Usual Req’s – (AKA – BAU’s – repetitive positions that most often are filled by active, internal or referral candidates) and  priority/critical/difficult to fill ones. 

Some very intriguing data from one of our healthcare clients illustrates this point.

While there overall TTF for Q2 was 33 days (very, very good especially compared to our benchmark median of 41 days.

  • 300 positions were filled in an average of 23 days
  • While 49 positions took on average 89 days to fill!

This provokes the questions:

  • Do you have the right organizational structure to support BAU and priority/critical/difficult to fill positions?
  • Do you have the right process to support these distinctly different types of positions?
  • Do you have the right resources to effectively screen through the active pool of candidates while proactively sourcing top talent not found in those circles?

If you haven’t done so recently, I would slice your TTF data by BAU and priority/critical/difficult to fill categories and analyze how well you are performing. 

If your data is similar to the organization outlined above, then seek to develop strategies, processes, etc. to improve timeliness on the positions most critical to your organization!

I hope you’re having a good week. 

Interesting data from ‘Elite’ Recruiter Competency/Skills Assessment Study – some advice to share!

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

We are proud to announce that we have had over 1500 recruiters participate in our ‘Elite’ Recruiter Competency/Skills Self-Assessment Study!   If you haven’t participated, we encourage you to do so! It is free! :)

It is interesting to see that outside of normal areas that recruiters always seem to rate themselves “low” (areas for improvement :) ):

  • Use social networking tools to source qualified, passive candidates (rating of 2.94 of 5)
  • Engage and recruit passively-looking top talent candidates (3.20 of 5) 

The next two lowest scores were related to managing the search process:

  • Sets Service Level Agreements with hiring managers: 3.22 of 5.00
  • Manage and control the staffing lifecycle efficiently: 3.39 of 5.00

We have written articles/posts on this subject that have received positive reviews I thought I would share: 

The Most Important Service Level Agreement

When are you available versus what do you think about this candidate?

Do you have credibility with your hiring managers?

We have also helped many organizations implement an “easy to use” one page Service Level Agreement document to be used when qualifying a new position (especially when it is a new hiring manager). If you would like a copy – please email us!

The scores above point to a skills gap with respect to a consultative approach to managing the search process. If you think this is an area where you need/want to “sharpen your ax”, I hope some of the information provided will be of value!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Getting through the Dog Days of Summer . . . HAVE SOME FUN!

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

In my 17 years as a recruitment coach/mentor, I have found that the beginning of August usually brings with it a common case of “Recruiter’s Rut.”   Many of us drag ourselves into work on Monday after a long weekend of fun in the sun wishing we were still outside playing!  We wake up realizing that the summer is almost over after it just began!  We start to wonder “Where has it gone?” 

In addition, the reality starts to set in that the year is 60% complete and . . . there is still a lot to accomplish!

It is at this point you can wallow in self pity or . . . inject some fun and passion back into your recruitment day!

I first wrote about “Recruiter’s Rut” back in 2002!  I have personally seen this infectious ‘disease’ rip through entire recruitment departments with ease.  The best cure is to gather your peers and develop a strategy to fight it.

Some ideas?

Well, since at the end of the day, each and every recruiter is measured on their ability to identify and recruit top talent for their organization . . .  fun contests centered around generating quality candidate flow is always a great cure!

Recently, our sister organization implemented a contest for August that might help you to steer clear of ‘Recruiter’s Rut’.

  • They are holding three sourcing call blitz sessions each day (from 7:30 to 8:30, 11-12, and 4-5).  These times were carefully selected as times that they had the best opportunity of getting someone live on the phone.
  • These are ‘optional’ sessions for all recruiters recognizing there are other activities that might prohibit you from attending all of them.
  • For each session, they are tracking:
    • Number of dials
    • Number of appointments set
    • Number of “live” conversations   
  • Points are awarded as follows:
    • 10 points: For attending a call blitz session  
    • 25 points: For a candidate submitted to hiring manager from the call blitz
    • 50 points: For a Hiring Manager Interview
    • 75 points: For an offer
    • 100 pints: For a hire

In just the first week, we have seen more productivity, a spike in activity and . . . a little mojo back into the day.

Another fun contest you might deploy is the Recruiter Decathlon .

Even the most motivated, passionate recruiters I know (including me) sometimes need some assistance getting through the dog days of summer.  If you feel Recruiter’s Rut settling in with you and/or your team . . . inject some fun back into the day!

LinkedIn + Persistence + Phone + Respect = Success – Don’t stop until they say, “NO!” – A TRUE STORY

Friday, June 18th, 2010

My colleague (Kristine) recently received an executive level, ‘niche skill-set’ search opportunity from one of her clients/hiring managers.  As many savvy recruiters do these days, she developed a targeted sourcing strategy and:

  • Identified all competitor companies and companies that employed people with the skill set she was looking for.
  • Then defined all the different titles that this person would/could be called within these target companies.
  • She then started to seek potential candidates and individuals she could network with in this market (the client didn’t want to relo if possible) via LinkedIn. 

Armed with this intel (and a compelling Value Proposition Statement/Attention Grabber) about this opportunity, she made contact (via Inmail or directly via business/personal email) with all the potential applicants/networking professionals. 

While this is a very common practice among thousands of recruiters, her subsequent actions are often not.

  1. She sent two to three electronic messages out to each and every candidate.  While her response rate was good, she didn’t receive feedback from many and most importantly . . . she did not connect with the A+ talent her client demanded and deserves.
  2. She didn’t give up. While most recruiters would give up on these “prospects” in search of others, she identified phone contact information (this is part of her normal process) for all candidates that had not yet responded to her Inmails/emails and started an out bound telemarketing campaign. 

Covering all bases and having resilience:

She caught one individual around 7:30 am (knowing she was a manager, she called before meetings started – - usually around 8).  Her brief discussion that morning led to a subsequent discussion that led to . . . . an interview, offer and hire for a critical to fill position with interface with the COO, CMO and CEO of a Fortune 500 company!

One day after the candidate (now new hire) accepted the offer, she sent the most wonderful email to Kristine.

“Kristine, I can’t thank you enough for being persistent and making contact with me.  Honestly, while I was intrigued by your emails, I probably wouldn’t have called you back simply because I get so busy during the day with work, life events, etc..  Your persistence has allowed me to find an unbelievable opportunity for me and my family.  I am grateful for your efforts!”

WOW! 

Morale of Story:

  • Don’t assume that no response means they don’t want to talk, won’t help you network, etc.  Remember they are as busy as you! (Are there calls or emails that you have NOT responded to because they are not urgent or of top priority?)
  • Emails, texting, social media tools, etc are awesome and a quick way to reach out to a targeted group of people quickly.  But don’t fall into the trap of ONLY communicating via this method!  A targeted sourcing strategy including emails, texts, and PHONE CALLS is the key to successfully recruiting passive candidates.
  • Your compelling message, your tonality when calling, and the time you actually call are . . . all key ingredients to successfully engaging top talent.
  • Don’t stop until they say – “No, not interested and . . . can’t help with networking” (objection handling on this topic is for another day!)

While I am sure all of you have heard this before and/or follow a similar strategy as a matter of practice . . . I thought this was a wonderful story to share to ensure you are practicing it NOW!

In this age of electronic communication, I think it is easy for even the savviest recruiters to fall into the trap of “email & pray” on occasion! :)

‘Elite’ Recruiter Assessment Results!

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Thanks to all those folks that participated in our ‘Elite’ Recruiter self assessment!  We have just reached the 1500 participants mark! 

For those of you who have not participated, please do so.

For those that have participated, you can check out the results to date.

After reviewing the results, one skill/attribute score that caught my eye was:  

  • Acts as a trusted advisor to a candidate and articulates the career opportunity with your organization when negotiating salary offers.
    • To date, folks have rated themselves a 2.97 (out of 5). 

Over the years, I have written many blog posts on this topic including:

Don’t forget the reason we talked in the first place

What every recruiter can learn from spaghetti sauce

I know you were not looking, but you listened

52 reasons why someone should join your organization

So as you connect with candidates this week, I want you to reflect and make sure you are able to identify 2-4 non-monetary “motives” for which a candidate would leave their current position. 

If you haven’t had this conversation with them, there is a high probability that if/when you make an offer they will do one of the following:

  1. Take a competing offer from a firm that does know their motives and can articulate how their company can meet them.
  2. Stay where they are. Since it is easier to stay put than venture to new, unknown challenges.
  3. Walk away simply because you don’t have enough “ammo” to “close the deal”.
  4. Lure you into negotiating ‘monetary’ motives like salary, bonuses, vacation, etc.  All the things you DON’T want to negotiate!

Remember, once you decide you like a candidate, it’s your job to help them understand how this move will benefit their career long term based on what they’ve told you about their career goals and aspirations. Not only do candidates have to sell themselves on the idea that your job could be a good move for their career; they also have to “sell” it to family and friends. The more you can do to help the candidate see how this position fits in with their career aspirations, the easier it becomes for the candidate to do the same.

Some food for thought after a long memorial day weekend!

I hope you have a perfect day!   

___________________________________________________________________

In a recent post, “You know you are an Elite Recruiter if . . . .”, we shared some attributes we believe Elite recruiters possess.  We thought we would share other folks thoughts on this topic! If you have others – - please share

  • Your clients take you with them from company to company when they advance their own careers!Patti Yaritz
  • You know that you are an elite recruiter if former candidates/new hires seek out your advice unsolicited and without your follow-up. Some of the most rewarding pat-on-the-back compliments I have ever received have come from new hires contacting me after I have left a company. – Thomas Bolt
  • You are included on emails from the SVP of HR to members of the internal recruiting team with comments like…”Team, let’s make this happen”. – Sandra McCartt   
  • An elite recruiter is willing to share his/her knowledge with junior recruiters and is willing to mentor them to success. – Chuck Clevenger
  • An Elite recruiter gives back to the community by volunteering to freely help people in their job searches. An elite recruiter is known for his/her pro bono work.  – Chuck Clevenger
  • An elite recruiter has the ability to advise and influence HR and Hiring Managers in regards to job specifications and compensation based on their knowledge of the local/national marketplace and talent pool – Dan Helpka
  • Candidates you once turned down, turn up 1 & 2 years later, successfully compete for jobs they now can do having gained the knowledge, skills and experience you advised them to get. – Gerry Crispin
  • More students are graduating from local high schools inspired by your efforts and more of them are looking to aspire to a college degree. – Gerry Crispin
  • More college students are inspired to major in areas that will drive company performance, innovation and collaborative culture. – Gerry Crispin
  • Company alumns send you leads of high performing prospects who they believe will benefit your firm and grow in the bargain. – Gerry Crispin
  • You are a local pro-bono pay-it-forward support of time and advice to One-Stop employment centers, community organizations offering employment counseling and resource limited health care organizations is lifting the brand image of your entire community and increasingly attracting candidates who previously wouldn’t relocate. – Gerry Crispin
  • You are dedicated to assuring that their quality referrals and hires include diversity. You don’t have to be told by hiring management, “We want to see some diverse candidates in the mix.” You bring it and wow even those hiring teams who didn’t expect, didn’t want it, and didn’t ask for it. – Valentino Martinez
  • You help build an elite TEAM! – Julie Rehbein
  • The C-level in your company gives you a call when it wants to add “impact level” talent and believes you can find it. – Mat Apodaca

Best Practices in Moving to a Management by Fact Culture

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

McKinsey recently released results of a study of practices of 230 companies across the globe.

The firm’s primary goal was simple – what makes companies perform well?  For the sake of this post, I’ll hone in on one key point:

“Executives, in their search for ways to make organizations function more successfully, frequently adopt simplistic solutions.   A new analysis of more than 230 global businesses shows that combinations of carefully selected actions can be far more effective than one-dimensional interventions.”

McKinsey makes an interesting point here.  In some cases adopting the simple – or easy – solution is not always the best approach.  Unfortunately in many instances the decisions are made through a high degree of subjectivity and then tempered with a small depth of objective criteria (data).

Over the last 20 years, management concepts such as the balanced scorecard, process management, key performance indicators (KPI’s) and strategy deployment have prompted many executives to revisit their measurement systems.   Practices such as Management by Objective (MBO) and Management by Fact (MBF) have become increasingly popular. 

Successful companies strive to combine real world management experience with the objectivity of data.  This is not to negate the subjective experience of a tenured executive, but to aid in their arsenal of decision making tools. 

As a result, many companies are adopting objective based measurement systems.   These systems ensure objective data measurement is added to uncover the missing elements, or facts, needed to make key decisions.

So if you’re aiming to launch a new measurement system to shift your culture to one of Management by Fact, here are my top three best practices to consider:

  1. Tie your measurement criteria to the goals of the business.   Each business unit or department of your company must provide input related to their specific business goals, and the needs of their customers.  During this exercise the synergies of various departments will come to light.  For example, customer loyalty could exist across multiple departments, and the overall company strategy.  If that is the case, customer loyalty then becomes a key indicator of performance across the various departmental stakeholders.  In this example, an overarching measurement criterion may be customer retention or customer satisfaction. 
  2. Ensure adoption and accountability at the right levels.  Those parties responsible for this new way of thinking must have the knowledge and authority to manage the performance of new processes.  Establishment of a core team of metrics and process owners representing critical functions of the organization is critical to ensure the mind shift is successful. 
  3. Communication is key.  Development of a comprehensive communication strategy is critical to ensure broad understanding and acceptance.  All employees need to understand the importance of the new philosophy and their roles within this process.  Care should be taken to ensure that each employee is able to answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”  Each employee needs a clear understanding of how they, as an individual, can impact key metrics.  Creating communication aids such as learning maps and utilizing executives to act as personal communication channels can increase acceptance of the strategies as the goals of the organization are achieved.

If you’d like to lean more and see a great example of utilizing the Management by Fact approach, check out David’s article on why requisitions per recruiter is not a great method for resource planning.

Companies will achieve success by ensuring that the management measurement solutions they create tie to core business objectives and are accepted, adopted, and communicated effectively by all stakeholders of the process.

Are you a strategic recruitment business partner?

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Last week David spoke about the “backlash” and he promised some examples of 10 fundamental “game changers” that Elite recruiters execute flawlessly 95% of the time. This post will be the first of those.

From leading staffing and HR functions as well as consulting with clients, I have learned the balance amongst recruiting and Hiring Managers is an age old problem. To ensure internal corporate recruiters are seen as more than administrative job fillers they must effectively manage the perceptions of hiring managers. Recruiters must be seen as strategic business partners!

Tips to becoming a strategic business partner!

In order to effectively understand the job, you must first understand the business. How do you do this effectively? Spend time with your hiring manager!!  Spending time with your hiring manager and focusing on the nuances of their business will allow you to relate better to the talent you are searching for and the job you are recruiting for. This time spent with the hiring manager can really impact their perception of you as a true strategic recruitment business partner.

Questions recruiters can ask the manager: 

  • Who is your external and internal competition for talent?
  • What are your key business initiatives for the next quarter, the next year?
  • What are the critical skills and competencies you require in your workforce to meet and exceed your business objectives?
  • Who are your top performers?
  • What characteristics do they have?
  • What characteristics exist in those employees who are less successful?
  • What are the top 3 aspects that are critical for success in each job that I should be looking for?
  • What is your work style?
  • How do you define the culture of your department?

Just by asking these simple questions, recruiters begin to develop a collaborative partnership, earn the respect of their hiring managers as well as demonstrate the desire to not just fill orders, but to build the business.

Critical Steps to further strengthen the relationship between the recruiter and hiring manager:

  • Setting Service level agreements (SLAs): Setting SLAs will help the hiring manager develop an understanding of the recruiting process and their defined role within that process. This process will act as an opportunity to define how the process will work. A SLA is also critical to managing expectations especially with new hiring managers. This meeting can cover everything from timelines, who are key interviewers, and how the day-to-day interactions will occur. If you are interested in an example, please contact me.
  • Defining the position description: Recruiters need to drive the hiring manager to ensure they are not working on “weak job descriptions.” The job description is critical. It not only helps sell the position but also ensures that the recruiter delivers the right candidate. The recruiter is only as good at filling the position as the information they are provided during the intake session qualifying a new position. With that said, for each new job that is created, have a meeting to discuss it in depth. When we conduct our training programs, we teach our students to use a Hiring Manager Consultation/Intake form. If you would like an example of a well-structured Intake Session, please contact me.
  • In addition,we recommend that you have quarterly business review meetings with your hiring managers to discuss:
    • Key business objectives for the upcoming quarter/year
    • Future hiring needs based on business growth, turnover, and succession planning
    • Performance of the recruitment function using key performance indicators (KPI’s) for quality, delivery, and cost
    • Process Improvement initiatives/recommendations

Implementation of these simple practices will ensure that the recruiters have done their best to further understand the job and built a more solid foundation of partnership with their hiring managers. 

We have created a Strategic Partner Competency survey to help assess if you truly have a “seat at the table”. Feel free to take the survey.

If you would like your entire team to take it contact me and we will set up a personal link so you can evaluate the results.

Unprecedented Times are You Ready?

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

I had the chance to sit in on Simply Hired CEO, Gautam Gadhwani’s presentation at the Kennedy Conference the other week. His presentation topic was Recruiting Buzz Index: What’s hot and why?

As always, he provided invaluable insight into what is going on in the world of social networking, SEO, Internet Search and Web 2.0 tools. He kicked off his presentation with a cool video I thought I would share with you today – Did you know?

Gautam makes a compelling argument that we are heading into unprecedented times. I would add that the only thing that is guaranteed to remain the same is constant “change” in just about every facet of our lives!

His presentation brought to mind one of my favorite quotes by George Wood Bacon –

“Fortunes are NOT made in the boom times . . . That is merely the collection period. Fortunes are made in depressions or lean times when the wise man overhauls his mind, his methods, his resources and gets in training for the race to come.”

While the uncertain economy continues to reek havoc on many individuals, it is also the best time to reinvent how we do things to become stronger than ever!

With requisition loads down, now is the time to implement radical new recruiting strategies that you have thought about (probably for years) but never had time to do!

Now is the time to think of new, innovative solutions that you haven’t even thought about!

The one constant we have is “change”. For those that embrace it, the next 10 years can become the most rewarding yet!