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You know You are an Elite Recruiter if…..

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

For those that attended the ERE webinar – Going from Good to ‘Elite’  – - I hope I inspired you to take action J!

For those that missed it we discussed the competencies/skills of Elite Recruiters.  I have also started work on another fun project related to this subject… 

Shamelessly stealing from Jeff Foxworthy – - “You know you are a redneck if . . . “comedy routine, I am trying to develop a LONG list of “You know you are an Elite Recruiter if . . . “.

This fun exercise has also been inspiring me to reflect on what it is to be an Elite Recruiter and what I need to do to be one!  Performing at an elite level doing anything is very difficult.  Recruiting is no different. 

Documenting these attributes in a fun way helps keep this passion burning and top of mind.

So OK – - You know you are an ‘Elite Recruiter’ if . . .

  1. You get referrals from candidates you turn down for a position. 
  2. Your hiring managers ask you who they “should hire” . . . And listen to your advice.
  3. Candidates seek your input on preparing for the interview with the hiring manager, making a decision on an offer, etc. 
  4. You keep track of all the people you have hired and have kept up an ongoing relationship with 90% of them. 
  5. You track your performance (quality, efficiency, responsiveness/ delivery) on a quarterly basis. 
  6. You quantify the ROI of your services to your key stakeholders.
  7. You have clearly written quarterly Performance Improvement goals.  
  8. You spend time each week helping those less fortunate find employment, craft a better resume, prepare for an interview, etc.
  9. You invest at least 15 minutes to ½ hour developing a written – hour by hour – daily plan of action that you deploy before each day.
  10. You have received gifts from candidates/hiring managers for “changing their life” for the better.

PLEASE – WE ARE LOOKING FOR MORE ADDITIONS TO THIS LIST!  Can you please email us at info@leanhumancapital.com with your ideas!  

 _______________________________________________________________________________

‘Elite’ Recruiter Benchmark study!

Our goal is to get 2500 recruiters to participate in our free self-assessment benchmark study!  To provide more granularity, we have decided to categorize ‘recruiters’ as outlined below.

To participate, just find the link that best describes you and . . . sign in!  It will take you about 15 minutes to complete.

NOTE: This is for your OWN self-improvement!  With that said, for us to have fair and accurate benchmarks, please take this seriously and respond with honestly. 

We will publish the results at a later date to use as a benchmark!

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Healthcare

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Financial Services

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Retail

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Technology

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Third Party

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Manufacturing/Engineering

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Other

Posted in Changing Role of the Recruiter, David, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Sales, Relationship Recruiter, Sourcing, Strategic Business Partner, Uncategorized | No Comments »

7 Deadly Sins of Waste in Recruiting: Overproduction/Inventory

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

For those of you that missed our recent webinar – 7 Deadly Sins of Waste in Recruiting – -one ‘deadly sin’ always seems to drive a lot of feedback/discussion - Overproduction/Inventory!  In the Lean Six Sigma world, the word “Overproduction” is defined as “Production ahead of demand.”  The word, “Inventory” is defined as all components, work in process and finished product not being processed. 

Arguably these are the biggest offenders to creating waste and . . . the time/cost required to eliminate them.   

Examples of these areas of waste in talent management and solutions: 

  • Overproduction/inventory in postings.   Most organizations, as part of their staffing process, post each and every position to their website and a large job board (like Careerbuilder or Monster).  While this seems to be a quick, cost effective sourcing solution, for those positions that do not require additional applicant flow and/or positions that have a very low probability of being filled by this source – - the cost/time associated with managing the unqualified applicant flow far exceeds the benefits.

Solution(s): When you receive a new position, evaluate the historical source of hire.  If 80% of the time this type of position was filled through internal applicants or referrals, why not exhaust those channels before publishing the position to the masses?  If less than 5% of the time a position is filled by large job boards, investigate more effective sourcing solutions (direct sourcing, niche job boards, etc.) before generating a routine posting on a large job board.  Also remember that job aggregators (simplyhired.com, indeed.com, etc.)  are going to “wrap”  any posting you put on your own site anyway.  

  • Routing multiple candidates to the interview stage.  Historically, managers have requested (and we have provided) a ’slate’ of candidates for each and every position.  Minimally, the rule of thumb has been the magical  ‘3′ candidates per position.  In some cases, we find recruiters routing 5, 10 or worse yet – – – all the candidates that applied for the position.  To the definition, every candidate routed to the hiring manager that does not get hired is WASTE. 

Solution:  While psychologically I can understand that a manager wants to review his/her ”options” before making a critical decision like hiring a new employee, if they trust that the recruiter has exhausted all candidate/sourcing options in order to come up with the best, and they understand the concept of waste, then there is no reason that there should ever be more than 3 candidates routed for consideration unless of course those first three don’t meet the requirements. If this happens, it indicates that not enough time was spent up front understanding the requirements of the position and how each candidate would need to demonstrate that they are able to perform the required tasks. The more time spent up front with the hiring manager and those participating in the interviewing process to ensure all are in alignment and to validate how the candidate will be selected; the less time wasted in sourcing. 

For high volume hiring and/or for managers that have experience hiring for a certain position, evaluating each candidate against previous hires (and more importantly – - the competencies/skills necessary to excel in the position) is a much better predictor of success than evaluating one candidate against another. Challenge the old-school mindset of “3+ candidates routed per position!”

  • Developing a slate of candidates for positions that go on hold.   Ok – – how many times have you developed a slate of candidates for a position that . . . goes on hold!  Now in fairness to hiring managers, there are legitimate reasons that this happens that for the most part are out of their control.  But unfortunately, we know that other managers often post positions ahead of approval that have a high probability of never being approved.  Talk about WASTE!  The time spent sourcing/pre-screening candidates for positions that go on hold for some organizations is astronomical! 

Solution: Consider making approval processes mandatory, or holding off on the sourcing process for 48 hours to double check the position approval status.   For those of you that want to be more progressive – gain approval to implement a “charge back” policy!  Charge back to the manager/line of business for openings that are put on hold and waste the valuable time and effort of the staffing function!

While we will never eliminate all of the overproduction/inventory in our hiring process, taking simple steps to incrementally remove waste will exponentially save you time and money!

Posted in Bradley Savoy, David, David Szary, Deadly Sins of Waste in Recruiting, Elite Recruiters, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Sales, Recruiter Top Gun, Recruiter Training, Relationship Recruiter, Sourcing, Time Management, Transactional Recruiter, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Spend less time searching for resumes and more time searching for people with intelligence!

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

OK - You have a critical, difficult-to-fill position and you have performed all the ’normal sourcing tactics’ to fill it.

  • Posted on your website and a large job board or two
  • Networked with key employees
  • Surfed the Internet for candidates
  • Checked out LinkedIn

And unfortunately, you still don’t have any interested, qualified candidates.

Does this sound familiar? What do you do next?

For many, the next step is the ‘wait, hope & pray’ tactic.  You wait, hope and pray that some qualified candidates fall in your lap :) . 

For others, that have the time and expertise, you dive into deep Internet mining tactics (Boolean/semantic search) scouring remote databases/information for the elusive, ‘passive’ candidate. 

From my experience, very few recruiters immerse themselves in identifying people that will KNOW the people you are looking to find and talk too!  

This fundamental shift in thinking is so simple but very powerful. If implemented, this technique will transform the way you source candidates forever!   

Instead of asking the questions:  

  • Where can I find qualified professionals?
  • Where should I look for them?
  • What search techniques should I use to find quality talent?

Ask:

  • Who would know the person I am looking for?
  • Who can I talk to within a particular company (that has the talent I am looking for) that would know the person I am looking for?

For many creative sourcers, as part of the search strategy, they try to identify key words to source such as:

  • Competitor companies
  • Similar job titles
  • Key tools/technology the qualified candidate uses to perform their job

Now drive laterally through these questions with: 

  •  Who works with/for the person you are looking for? What is their job title?

And your search becomes more three dimensional.

Now drive straight down the middle with the question:

  • Who has recently left that company that knows the person I am looking for in that company?

And you can strike oil!

Let me explain.

The first question – - Who works with/for the person you are looking for? – - will exponentially increase the # of people you can talk to to locate the person you are looking for (you know – - the whole 7-degrees of separation thing).

The second question – - Who has recently left that company that knows the person I am looking for in that company? – - will connect you with folks that have left an organization and probably do not have a vested interest in withholding sensitive, confidential intelligence. Heck – if they were let go, they are even more willing to assist in providing information that might help you and . . . unfortunately . . . ‘hurt’ their former employer. 

Another important point here is the person’s level.  While first instinct may be to go “to the top” and call the SVP or VP (like in a traditional sales approach), you may have non-compete issues that cause the contact to be reticent to provide the information you need.  Don’t avoid this level, but be mindful of it. You may have greater success with peers and/or individuals that worked for the person you are seeking to identify.    

Some examples to illustrate this concept:

  • Searching for accountants — talk to actively looking controllers
  • Searching for .com developers — talk to actively looking SQL – DBA’s
  • Searching for OR nurses — talk to actively looking anesthesiologist.
  • Searching for Market Research professionals — talk to the Account Manager at the research firm.

Note – I referenced ‘actively looking’ in each of these examples. Probably the best person you can ‘network’ with is an active candidate that has recently left an organization. 

Not only will they know the person you are looking for, but they often will provide un-sanitized information about the people you want to connect with. Add in other thought provoking questions to your conversation like – - Who were the top performers? – - Who worked best under pressure? – - and you might gain valuable insight to pinpoint your search.  

A simple, straight forward approach to contacting them: 

John:

 I wanted to reach out. I saw you online and saw you worked for _________.  I  was hoping I could network with you and see if you could help me - and potentially one of your peers - out.  

I have a great opportunity for the right person…. I am seeking ___________________________. I thought you might know the ________ folks at __________ that might be interested in this opportunity? 

Were there some folks that you thought were really good that I should connect with?

Anyone that was not very happy I should connect with?

Any advice you would give me to help me with this search? It is a great opportunity for someone! 

________________________________________________________________

Then when closing, I would always recommend asking them how you can assist them in their job search: 

I really appreciate all your help. As mentioned, I found your information online.  

 How can I help you? – - what are you looking for?  

What have you done so far to find a new opportunity?: 

Have you tried www.indeed.com and/or http://www.simplyhired.com/   

I will keep my eyes/ears open…, etc . 

 

The key to your success in engaging individuals is your sincere interest in helping connect individuals to excellent opportunities!  

Too often I think we spend too much time searching for resumes versus people with intelligence that can help us with our search.  We wrote a similar post on this subject that you might want to check out – The Indirect Networking Call.

Happy Hunting :)

Posted in Bradley Savoy, David, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Boot Camp, Recruiter Sales, Recruiter Top Gun, Recruiter Training, Relationship Recruiter, Sourcing, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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.

Posted in Bradley Savoy, Changing Role of the Recruiter, David, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Top Gun, Recruiter Training, Recruiting Buzz, Relationship Recruiter, Strategic Business Partner, Talent Aquisition, Time Management, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Developing an Effective Recruiter Training Program

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Perhaps one of the most neglected functions for on-going development is the recruiting function. Most organizations hire recruiters based on previous experience and then expect them to apply that experience into their culture and hiring processes with minimal instruction.

The majority of training for recruiters is focused on technology training, whether it’s the applicant tracking system, the candidate database, performance management, or HRIS system. These are just the technology elements of the job.

A career recruiter will bring a strong foundation of skills in sourcing, screening, creation, and closing of candidate offers, etc. Those coupled with technology understanding are the fundamental skills any recruiter will need to be successful.

However, there are a few things that a company will need to provide in order to make the recruiter successful in your company environment:

  • What is the detailed employment value proposition that makes your company more attractive than your competition?
  • Within the department or group of jobs that the recruiter is aligned to, what are the aspects of that department or job that makes it more attractive? What are the pitfalls?
  • What are the opportunities the recruiter can “sell” that differentiates your company from another?

Here are some best practices in developing an effective recruiter training program:

Design your program to address gaps in the competencies of your recruiters.

First, you need to gain an understanding of the fundamental competencies that are most important for your recruiters. If you looked at your most successful recruiters, which competencies or behaviors set them apart from the others? Do they know the business for which they recruit better than their peers? Are they better “closers”, securing more hires per offer than their peers? If you don’t have a sense of this, then consider creating a Success Profile.

Conducting a series of focus groups or interviews with your recruiters, and the subsequent analysis, creates a tool that acts as a roadmap to management and all recruiters demonstrating the traits and competencies of your best recruiters. Once this is complete, you can then analyze the gaps within the rest of your department. Once you have this gap analysis completed, you can then design the elements of your program. These program elements would address gaps that exist in your current staff, not teaching them something they already know.

Use an external party to train.

The biggest mistake a company can make is to have their staffing or HR executives act as coaches to the people they manage everyday. The executives are to act as everyday coaches and developers of the talent, but in a forum such as this, the executive’s supervisory capacity can conflict with his or her role as a trainer.

In addition, the external party can bring best practices outside of the company’s environment that have worked across multiple organizations. Finally, an external party creates a more open environment, in which dissenting opinions, everyday issues, and other frustrations can be voiced in a “safe” environment.

Have a plan to evaluate success.

It can be as simple as a training evaluation form that is completed by attendees at the end of the course, or a focus group conducted after the session. The key is to gain a sense from the attendees that the content mapped to the competencies you planned to address in the training. This will entail setup on the front end and analysis of the results of the evaluation forms/focus groups, but this is a key step.

Commit to on-going training & effectiveness.

Establish a focus group with recruiting leaders 3 months after the training program to determine the effectiveness of the program and address any remaining areas for improvement. Commit to providing the same training program as on-boarding for ALL new recruiters that enter your organization. Finally, plan to update your training every 6 months and launch the program once a year for all recruiters.

Posted in Bradley Savoy, Candidate Pipeline, Candidate types, Changing Role of the Recruiter, David, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Boot Camp, Recruiter Training, Relationship Recruiter, Talent Aquisition, Transactional Recruiter, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Thoughts from the road!

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Over the last few weeks, I have had the opportunity to participate in numerous industry events allowing me to talk “shop” with many talented staffing professionals.

 As always, these events allow me to learn from others and provide me time to incubate thoughts/ideas that often turn into future strategies. 

 Some interesting thoughts/ideas from my travels:

  • Ideally, I think most would agree that hiring people based on competencies (versus skills) will drive better hiring decisions. Unfortunately, because it is not easy to assess someone’s competencies, we most often hire based on skills.  With internal candidates, we should have a more accurate understanding of past performance, candidate competencies, etc. allowing us truly to focus the hiring decision based more on competencies versus skills.
  • Probably only 5 to 20% of all hires need some type of direct sourcing activity. Do you understand the positions that will NOT be filled by active/internal candidates before you dedicate time, money, and resources on active/internal strategies that take precious time away from direct sourcing activities?
  • Shally Steckerl challenged the thought that one’s internal website is a “source of hire” – rather, it is a destination.  Think about it.  Most often candidates search for jobs via ‘google searches’, job boards, sites like www.simplyhired.com or www.indeed.com, SEO/SEM, social networking, advertising, etc. If one source of hires is your website, you probably do not truly understand how your candidates ‘found’ your opportunities. 
  • For those of you that have multiple license agreements with large job boards, how many of your recruiters actually use them on a regular basis?  Many companies have saved money by cutting back on licenses!
  • David Lord had some interesting statistics on retained executive search firms. 
    • The submitted candidate to hire ratio for retained search firms was 6.5 to 1 in 07 and 5.2 to 1 in 08.  Is this more efficient than your internal team?
    • 4 out of 10 retained executive searches fail!  WOW!   
  • While most executives see recruiting as “essential”, do they really perceive it to be strategic to their organization? One way to shift their thoughts is to answer the question, “How does recruiting solve corporate problems?”
  • Here’s an idea – Create an annual report for your 2009 recruitment activity/ performance. Present the report to CXX level.
  • To truly create an effective Talent Relationship Program, you need to get hiring managers involved with the ‘relationship management’ activity.
  • If your sourcing team does an effective job of identifying/sourcing quality talent for key job families over time, your sourcing team will spend less time “identifying” talent and more time developing relationships with the talent found!   
  • Create questions to ask your hiring managers:
    • What positions are most critical for changing the market value of our company?
    • What positions are less critical and really only need good people? 

Posted in Bradley Savoy, Changing Role of the Recruiter, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Boot Camp, Recruiter Sales, Recruiter Top Gun, Recruiter Training, Relationship Recruiter, Social Media, Sourcing, Strategic Business Partner, Talent Aquisition, Transactional Recruiter, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Growing your “friends” network

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Each day we’re deluged with multiple resumes, phone screens, and interviews of hundreds of candidates. But it’s our search for the right candidate that is the primary driver of our work. Of course a key to your success is developing relationships (”friends”) within the core areas for which you recruit.

While I know most of you have an ATS, or even a CMS (contact management system) to manage candidates, leads, etc., I have found that there are other ways to connect with our quality candidates that may be even more advantageous.

The most effective way I have found is using LinkedIn and primarily, the LinkedIn toolbar. This toolbar will allow you to use Outlook to immediately connect with candidates as you exchange emails with them.

The LinkedIn toolbar allows you to build your network by selecting those people you email often, as well as seeing suggestions of who to invite based on email frequency. Once installed, you can invite others with one click to build your network faster and update your Outlook contacts with LinkedIn profile information.

You’ll also receive notifications when your contacts change their LinkedIn profiles and see LinkedIn mini-profiles for everyone that emails you. The other aspect I like is that you have LinkedIn one-click access from Outlook through a dashboard to stay up-to-date with your network.

If you have an Outlook account you can access the toolbar app here .

Now as with any technology, you must apply discipline to see the results the application promises. I have trained myself to make it part of my routine to immediately click on the mini-profile link in my toolbar the moment I exchange emails with a quality candidate. It feels pretty fluid once you do it a couple of times.

So try the app, but more importantly, apply the discipline of ensuring that you are connected to new quality candidates every day.

Posted in Bradley Savoy, Candidate Pipeline, David, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Top Gun, Recruiter Training, Relationship Recruiter, Sourcing, Uncategorized | No Comments »

What motivates you to maintain intensity and passion day in and day out to achieve the perfect day, week, or year?

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

In continuing our theme of “game changing” tactics of elite recruiters…It’s something we all struggle with, the balance of consistently maintaining the passion for what we do each day as recruiters.  For folks like me that have been doing this for years, it’s a constant struggle.  I have been in the game long enough to know what to do and how to do it, but I’m human, and we’re prone to make mistakes.  It’s honestly probably every day that each of us struggles with keeping the passion alive.  We need to maintain our passion for the profession in dealing with candidates, hiring managers, internal business partners, etc.  Everyone has different needs and wants and personalities to manage.   
 
I’ll share here a few techniques that have helped me over the years.   
 
1. Planning and time management  - David has written some great articles on this, from managing your time for sourcing  to managing your CIE’s (calls, interruptions and emails).  We also spend a great deal of time in your educational programs talking about the Perfect week and Perfect Day.  If you’d like to learn more about what we teach here, just contact me.  

To me, the key to time management is not the systems I use (Outlook, CRM tools, ATS, etc.) or the processes, but the discipline that needs to be applied.   I have always prided myself on completing my task list each day before I end the workday.  I allow myself exceptions to this, but only once per week.  So if I have 5 to-do’s on Tuesday and I only get 3 of them done, then I have to make up the remaining 2 to-do’s in the next couple of days.

2. Become focused and single minded – When I plan my days, either the day before, or the morning of, I know I must maintain a single minded focus on the task.  For example, I learned long ago to close, literally close, my email box or real time communication systems when I am on a call with a candidate, hiring manager, or client.  We all know it’s way too easy to have an email come through that upsets you and completely throws your focus from the task at hand.  So for me, no emails stay open during important phone calls. 

3. Warm up and cool down each day! – I have found that a quick launch leads to a long-term psychological effect to a productive day. Sure I do the requisite cup of coffee and peruse the emails at the start of my day too, but I only give myself 20-30 minutes for this – I literally time myself.  Once that time has passed and the coffee’s gone, I jump in, and all the way in.  If I start with a high intensity of activity right away, I’ve found that it will continue throughout the day.  When you work out, you start with a quick warm up to get the blood flowing.  It’s the same approach here.  If I start with a good warm up, it will continue.  Whether it’s a day of cold calls, meetings, or data entry, the approach is the same.  Warm up, start strong, end strong.
 
I also like to end the day like I end a workout, with a nice stretch.  As the day winds down, I try to avoid emails and jumping online to read the news.  I prefer to get out of chair and do some simple stretches.  Neck, shoulders, whatever.  The key is to have some simple blood flow and breathing to wind down.  Try it for just two minutes today, and you’ll see what I mean. 
 
4. Have a positive support system – Finally, I believe in support mechanisms.  I like to talk with colleagues about their day, and share war stories.  I also like to discuss the day with people outside of our profession.  Whether it’s your friend, your partner, your plant or your pet, talk with someone that has a fresh perspective on the challenges you face.  They don’t bring the jaded view we can have sometimes of our work, and can offer fresh perspectives that we haven’t thought of.

Practicing some or all of these techniques will definitely enable you to maintain your intensity and passion in your work, and I know you’ll see and feel the impact in your productivity.

Posted in Bradley Savoy, Candidate Pipeline, Changing Role of the Recruiter, David, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Boot Camp, Recruiter Training, Relationship Recruiter, Strategic Business Partner, Talent Aquisition, Time Management, Transactional Recruiter, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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.

Posted in Bradley Savoy, David Szary, LEAN recruitment, Recruiter, Recruiter Boot Camp, Recruiter Sales, Recruiter Training, Recruiting Buzz, Relationship Recruiter, Sourcing, Strategic Business Partner, Talent Aquisition | No Comments »

The backlash is back!

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

It seems like déjà vu. About 10 years ago the art of crafting Boolean search string commands, “peeling back URL’s” took the recruitment industry by storm.  Much like the Job boards did in the mid to late 90’s .   These new sourcing techniques were claimed to be the next ’silver bullet’ with respect to finding that elusive passive, high quality candidate.  Recruiters raced out to learn more about these techniques and if . . .they executed the techniques properly. . . on certain types of positions . . . they found success. 

Fast forward and 10 years later and the same phenomenon is occurring again. We have a new set of technology based sourcing tools to find candidates.

  • Blogs have replaced internet “chat rooms” (isn’t a blog what we used to call a “chat room”?)
  • Searching the Internet via powerful browsers and Boolean search string logic has become even more advanced and powerful
  • Huge databases of people have emerged in social networks

Web 2.0 is what we are calling it this time around and again . . . like 10 years ago . . . on certain types of positions . . . these are powerful tools that work!

But just like last time, the pendulum that probably “swung to far to the right” is coming back.

Over the past six months, many discussions have been focusing back on the fundamentals of recruiting. While technology-based tools and methodologies can assist in finding candidates and even developing relationships . . . we know that this is only one piece of the pie.

What about – -

  • Engaging hiring managers, identifying the skills and competencies that are required of a new employee
  • Setting Service Level agreements
  • Developing and communicating a value proposition to attract quality top talent
  • Skillful Assessment techniques
  • Candidate Interview Preparation
  • Effective Salary negotiation tactics
  • Having the discipline to manage priorities, daily time management, and goal setting, etc.

The Pareto principle (80/20 rule) probably applies somewhere in this conversation. Just like 10 years ago, with all these cool new gadgets – - it is hard not to focus 80% of your time, effort and energy trying to master them. But the reality is there is no silver bullet with respect to recruiting.  Recruiting is a balance between technology, “Boolean searches”, networking groups, and the bullets above!

These thoughts of mine were further validated at the ERE conference last week. While there certainly were some really cool technology-based sourcing and selection tools – - many of the sessions were focused more on the fundamentals, managing client relationships, and measuring success/ROI, etc.

Tony Blake from DaVita, in his excellent presentation, quoted a person stating – - “The next killer app. in recruiting is the recruiter!” (I love this quote!)

Mike Grennier from Wal-Mart in his presentation titled “What I have Learned” . . . stated – - “Don’t forget about the phone as a core fundamental recruiting tool!”

So just like 10 years ago, the pendulum is starting to swing back to the right…

“Mastering the fundamentals, while maybe not that sexy, is back in style!”

Richard Newsom from Fifth Third Bank stated the following during his sesession “Managing your recruitment department on a single metric”: “There is nothing more powerful in recruiting than a skillful recruiter managing the process artfully from “end-to-end” to achieve exemplary customer satisfaction ratings from your internal/external customers. ”

To this point, over the coming weeks we will be discussing 10 fundamental “game changers” that Elite recruiters execute flawlessly 95% of the time!

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Posted in Bradley Savoy, Candidate Pipeline, Candidate types, David, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Relationship Recruiter, Social Media, Sourcing, Talent Aquisition, Transactional Recruiter | No Comments »

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