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More than One Route through the Search Process

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:04:35 +0000

Recently, I came across this sign posted in front of one our local churches

Google has a number of great solutions but indeed it cannot solve every search ….neither can any search engine, job posting site, mobile recruiting, phone sourcing, social media or any other new strategy or tool that comes out. I’m not saying they don’t solve many and I am sure someone will come out to debate me on the subject as there often are but really there is no one set way of doing things. Not every search is the same and most definitely neither are the recruiters who conduct the search or the candidates and employers we work with.

So why do I tell you this. When Ryan approached me about writing a blog post I tried to think about something I could write about that I am most passionate about in recruiting. What I am passionate about is not one particular part of the recruiting process but the search itself and the evolving ways of conducting a search.

Every day I get hit with emails and phone calls trying to get me to buy “the” product for recruiting today, switch over to “the best” applicant tracking system around, purchase postings on “the best” new or old job board out there, etc. I am sure many of you either are getting these solicitations or are in a sales role but who determines who or what is the best? There are arguments back and forth every day about why someone thinks their way is the best. If every one of these were actually the best and the only way to work then why aren’t we all doing the same thing? Wouldn’t we just get the same results?

Instead of exhausting yourself trying to do things the way someone else is telling you, work in a niche you really don’t like because it’s “the” hot industry today or emulate the search process of a self-proclaimed guru, explore a little and find what works for you. Most likely the answer will be you enjoy what you do, the searches will come easier and candidates and employers will notice how genuine you are about the process.

Here are a few thoughts that may lead you along your own path.

Plan Each Search

Even if it takes 2 minutes and most of the process is repeated like checking your ATS first or reaching out to your network for referrals, try to make a plan for how you are going to conduct your search. Plan for change, it’s inevitable. Whether it’s the needs of the job or the availability of candidates, whatever it is we are dealing with people and life and people are not static. Even Google as an example – if you sat on Google with the same search string plugged in for a week most likely your results would change from beginning to end. The more complicated the search, the longer the process the more that changes.

Time

Know how much time you have to devote to a search and what needs to be accomplished during any particular time period. Stick with what already works but if you have time explore something new. You cannot use every tool in every search but by taking a few minutes to plan your search especially if you have multiple searches running at once you will find time savers and wasters. As it happens often it will also keep any online recruiting time directed at searching not surfing.

Budget

Searches can involve paid or free tools, ad posting, research, whatever. Know what your budget is and what you feel comfortable using. Just because “everyone” is using a tool does not mean that you should blow your budget on something that might not work for you.

I wanted to purchase a piece of software once that I knew I would only use for a week or two at max. I called a sales rep explained the situation and they said no problem what you are looking for is really inexpensive, it’s only twenty nine ninety-nine. Luckily when they told me the amount that would be charged to my account it was phrased as two thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars. Their inexpensive was $2995.00, mine $29.95. Does it mean I wouldn’t spend $2995 on a tool if I felt it saved me more time and money than the cost, no but for that particular tool I was not willing to go above a couple hundred dollars. What’s fits into your budget?

Skill and Comfort Level

A tool or technique is only as good as the recruiter using it. Whether it’s technical or presentation skills are you really going to be comfortable with your skill level and knowledge to utilize a particular tool or technique?

Last year at SourceCon both Dave Copps and Michael Marlatt blew me away with some of the mobile recruiting technology they discussed. I’ve listened to follow up discussions by Michael and am an avid visitor to his site. Now do I still think mobile recruiting is going to soon be a part of our main stream recruiting culture and can be very useful? Yes. Do I have the budget to implement an SMS campaign and the skills to make it happen? You got it. Do feel comfortable enough with it to actually use it? Heck no!

There are a lot of discussions lately about whether Social Media is useful as a recruiting tool. Those who have not at least experimented I think are missing out but if they have tried an avenue using Social Media and they just are not comfortable using it I completely understand. And those of you trying to cross them over, why would I debate a competitor to use something I have success with that they have no interest in using? I’d rather they don’t use it, more for me. Like SMS, there are things I know I have the skill, budget and knowledge to utilize but I just haven’t gotten comfortable with yet. You’ll find phrases or scripts people use when marketing candidates to new employers that may work perfectly for them but if you try to repeat them in it may not work for you.

Listen to what others might have to offer but find your own voice.

Prepare Your Environment for Your Work Style

This may seem a little geeky and will definitely give you insight into how organized I do things but every day I track things with lists and spread sheets. I think I’m probably one of the few women who gives her husband to-do lists on the weekend that come directly from a categorized spread sheet. I keep track of things constantly to keep organized the ever evolving piles of information. Every day seems to be a new site, a new trick or technique, a question or a way to phrase something. I may not use them right away or have time to try each one out but I try to explore a little each week and see what new things I can incorporate into my arsenal.

When I worked in a bullpen office setting I was amazed to see how each cube was different yet the person with the quietest voice, sparsely decorated environment who came in an hour early every day was equally as successful as the loud boisterous one who was always late and whose cube you required only the sense of smell to locate. It didn’t matter the environment or the words they used when speaking with candidates and employers because they used what worked for them. My endless organizing would drive someone else batty but it works for me. Some people strive for the paperless office. That’s a great accomplishment but if you find yourself happy and productive finding the best candidates to fill the jobs and it means you turn off your computer, use sharp #2 pencils with a polka dot notebook, go for it.

On the technical end, just like customizing your surroundings, maybe try configuring your computer browser to use the tools you most need as well. IGoogle is still a favorite of mine but there are endless to choose from Opera, Alefo, Netvibes, myYahoo, GoogleChrome, etc.

Change Your Approach

When using search engines explore other options besides Google and Bing. Try posting the same search to various engines and watch the different results. Some of my favorites are Google, Exalead and Clusty but now we have search engines just for specific types of search like TwitterSearch, Bloglines, Icerocket, Everyzing, Whozat, Pipl, Wink, etc. If you are bored with the way you view results try SearchMe or Viewzi. Or better yet create something that resembles your own search engine using RSS Feeds or Yahoo Pipes. The list goes on but the idea is to experiment.

Too often we fall into a routine of using the same terms to describe the same jobs and often get the same results. It’s always good to shoot first for the easy target but when that fails, find out what else a title or skill could be called. I like Broadlook’s Title Research tool and the dictionary or thesaurus. I also look at competitor’s ads online, note different wording on resumes I receive or use sites like Onetcenter.org and Wikipedia for detailed job descriptions. Use your stand by descriptions but try incorporating some new ones and see what results you gain.

Only you know what motivates you’re the best. A manager can ring a bell, hold a contest, buy everyone pizza for lunch, etc but they are just grasping for ways to find something that is going to motivate you. If you get stuck in a rut try a different approach. Maybe work from a different desk, stand when you are on the phone instead of sitting, take on a new persona if you are phone sourcing (it will at least be fun for a phone call or two), blast some music for few minutes between calls or take a quick run around the block. Don’t wait for someone else to motivate you, find you own motivation.

Listen and Learn from your Candidates, Your Employers and Your Colleagues

Recently someone was on Twitter complaining that it was crazy to follow other recruiters online. To each their own, seriously, but I have gained so much knowledge by following other people in our industry its amazing. Sites like RecruitingBlogs.com and ERE.net have really opened a dialogue for people to share ideas. Twitter, Plurk, even the beloved Recruiting Animal Show are an expansion to continue the dialogues in real time. Industry experts who offer webinars and host sessions at events, bloggers who open themselves up for endless comments and coordinators of small one or two person events to coordinating large conferences are all people you can learn from. If everyone is following someone and you don’t know why that’s even more reason to reach out to them. Know who you are learning from. If you connect with someone online and find them interesting, reach out, pick up the phone and talk to them. Hold a discussion that entails more than 140 characters at a time.

People love to talk if someone seems genuinely interested. Take the time to ask the right questions and Candidates and Employers will give you the answers. How did the employer find the last person that started with them? What works what doesn’t? Where do they hang out online and in person, go there. You get the idea.

The essential thought I am trying to convey is to take what you know already works, listen and learn from others exploring new options but ultimately clear out the clutter and find new success however it works best for you.

About Shannon Myers:

Shannon Myers is the Managing Partner of Walton Search, recruitment and sourcing firm that specializes in the Healthcare Industry. Prior to founding Walton Search in 2007 she began her career in a combination of photography and higher education, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and working as both a photographer and in Student Affairs at fine arts colleges. She made the transition to recruiting in 2001 beginning as a sourcer quickly moving to full cycle recruiting in healthcare. Shannon is always exploring the newest sourcing methods and was a Grandmaster Sourcing Challenge winner for SourceCon2008. In addition to her recruiting effort at Walton Search Shannon also trains others on the use of Social Media and remains active within the arts community.

Work hard on honing your soft skills!

admin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:10:41 +0000

Work hard on honing your soft skills!

As an outsourced recruiter, my main responsibility is to find qualified candidates – plain and simple. While Social Media Optimization is something that I am passionate [ahem, obsessed] about, I need to always stay focused on filling my reqs first, and proposing New Media solutions second.

While a lot of this might sound familiar to most of you, there are plenty of talent acquisition specialists that are overlooking the obvious and it is affecting their time-to-fill metrics and retention ratings. Since there is a new Twitter app or blog article highlighting a new technique coming out every day, let’s spend sometime to go over the basics of any successful recruiting campaign. New recruiters, listen up, this one’s for you!

If you have a large, untapped pipeline – why add to it?

This will sound familiar to you if you’ve ever been to Glen Cathey’s blog (booleanblackbelt.com – if you haven’t I suggest you do so immediately). It is a concept that I completely agree with. The key here is to identify the talent that is already in your ATS (or other candidate tracking software). It is not efficient to add to your pipeline if you don’t really need to. Start with Boolean search strings – they always bring me better results than the built in search engine, so they should be second nature to you. Also, don’t just look in the reqs that you are working on for that day – find older reqs that required similar skill sets. While some candidates apply to every req that posts on Monster, others might submit an application and move on. In other cases, candidates might apply to a job they “want” but aren’t ready for yet; reach out to them and point them to a position that is right up their alley. There are more job seekers than there are open jobs, and it is our job to find them and guide them in the right direction – and if you do, I can guarantee you will get major props when they interview with the VP of HR. Which brings me to my next point…

2. Make sure you are value-oriented.

Look for ways you can make an impact in addition to filling your reqs with top-caliber candidates. As a recruiter, you are on the front lines and should be aware of hiring trends. Also, if you’ve been doing this for a while, chances are you know exactly what candidates are looking for because you’ve had conversations with thousands of them. In my experience, I have dealt with many hiring managers who may have had unrealistic expectations of an ideal candidate (they want you to “chase the purple squirrel”, so-to-speak). It would be nice to get a tenured sales professional into an entry level sales role, but that is unrealistic. By building relationships with your hiring managers, you can offer insight into what could be a great hiring decision. Also, make sure you prep your candidates if they are granted an interview – they are representing your recruiting ability! Later on in the consideration process, make sure you work with the hiring manager and HR to ensure that an offer is sent out promptly (ever worked with a manager that wanted a month to think about it). By bringing in the best quality talent to your company, you will be recognized as an asset.

3. Always be aware of new tools and tricks of the trade.

Web 2.0 is a term that is tossed around frequently and rightfully so. Advances in interactive web content have changed the way that we communicate and these changes are directly affecting the way that companies position themselves online and attract new talent. Companies both large and small now have employee-managed blogs, Twitter profiles, YouTube accounts, and even live chats set up. These advances are both mutually beneficial for potential candidates as well as recruiters and hiring managers. Chances are if you are reading this, you already knew all that! My point? Be aware of these progressive new techniques and implement them if appropriate. If you are not finding the people you need, you should look at your existing methods and refine them before adding something new. However, if you are 100% certain that you have exhausted your search, definitely switch it up! Einstein said that insanity is, “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” While what you’re doing might not be insane, you get the idea.

As I was writing this, I read an awesome quote (which I obviously retweeted) from @zappos: The best businesses are those that have figured out how to combine profits, passion, and purpose.

Combine your passion and purpose for recruiting into a strategy that leads to a profitable hiring solution for your client or employer.

Cheers.

About Adam Fields:

Adam Fields is a RPO Consultant for Seven Step Recruiting in Boston, MA. He specializes in delivering high-volume recruiting solutions and is an advocate for customer-service oriented delivery. Adam is a young-gun within the recruiting community with only 2 years under his belt, but is rapidly developing a myriad of soft and technical skills. Adam’s passions are snowboarding, Subaru rally cars, and Twitter!

twitter: http://twitter.com/fieldsy4life
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/adamelliotfields
linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/adamelliotfields

What to do about all those great candidates … New Rules of Engagement

admin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:00:07 +0000

What to do about all those great candidates … New Rules of Engagement

You have spent the last however many years building up your candidate pool. It’s impressive. There is a tremendous amount of talent in that pool, many that you have identified as MPC’s or Most Place-able Candidates. And you know, having survived in the industry this long, that there are many consultants, coaches and bloggers out there telling you how to use your candidate pool to help you obtain job orders and garner the relationships with clients. That is great advice, in normal years.

Seriously, one of the first things I learned as a recruiter “back in the day” (and that was even before caller ID was around!) was to have an MPC to open the door with and talk to the hiring manager. Once the door was open, you were “on” and you were connecting. You stayed in touch with your MPC’s and your candidate pool and you were able to send over 4 or 5 rock star candidates within the first 48 hours…

Fast forward to today. We all know we have had unprecedented times over the past 12 months. You don’t have to be an economist to know that it’s tough to be a recruiter today. Yada yada yada… We hear it daily. (Ok, I have to mention here that my niche is Financial Services Recruiting, say no more right??) Clients have stacks of resumes of overqualified candidates, often times they don’t have budget approval to use recruiters… if they have jobs at all. (again, financial services folks!)

Meanwhile, we have candidates calling and emailing us. We’ve all dodged a phone call, were slow to return an email…admit it. But what should we REALLY be doing right now when we are not recruiting for the handful of roles on our boards? How do we manage our candidate pool when, in reality, they are circling the drain instead of floating on top waiting to come ashore?

It hit home for me last week when one of my former hiring managers, who has been out of work for the better part of 2009, called me and I let the call go to voice mail. I hate to admit it. I did it. I called the candidate back, but the sense that I had nothing to offer was overwhelming.

I sat down that evening and wrote up a list of what I can offer to a candidate today. Forget the client for right now, what could I do for these hundreds (and yes, I mean hundreds) of candidates that are hanging on out there?

Here are the rules of engagement that I decided to put in place that I believe will carry me through until the tide turns: (and we know it will!)

1. Connect and stay connected. Candidates are not a commodity. It’s standard stay in contact with them and not only when you have a possible job for them in normal times. Make a point to contact them at least quarterly to say hello. To be there for them. Keep your emails fresh. Forward them a news story you just heard. No matter how you do it, stay connected. Use social media to connect as well, but don’t forget the power of picking up the phone or dropping a personal email.

2. Offer to help. Sure, you might not have any jobs for them, but there are jobs out there at companies that you do not know of. Help them. Offer to review the job posting and their resume and/or cover letter. Let them know you would be a reference for them if appropriate.

3. Be a friend. A candidate’s circle of contacts and friends changes when they are not working. Be someone they can count on to pick up the phone and chat or to answer an email.

4. Be honest. It’s a hard time for candidates and recruiters alike. I took a look at my spreadsheet and compared it to last year and it’s vastly different. Be honest with the candidate and let them know that you don’t have anything for them. Talk to them. They know how recruiting works and understand and are glad for the time on the phone.

5. Keep it professional and ask for their help too. When chatting with candidates, you want to find out what they know regarding who is hiring etc… And yes, it’s ok to ask and find out where they are interviewing and with whom. They know it’s tough out there for you too. But be careful and not get too involved and into the gossip side. Keep your head and stay sharp. Remember this is a business relationship.

If you do the above, I guarantee that you will build a business relationship that will benefit you in the long run, and I am not just talking about when the economy picks up and companies are using recruiters fully and consistently again. If you stick to the above, you will have a network of people who will be willing to help you out to find key candidates. You might even end up with a handful of new clients, all because you maintained your integrity and your connection to a person, not a commodity.

Finally, you might just help change a few minds about our industry along the way and you know what? In reviewing the above, I think I will do the same for my clients as well….

About Julie:

Wearing many hats, Julie Hankins is Division Director of Wealth Management Recruiting for RJ & Makay, is the Founder of eChirpy.com (newly launched!), and has recently stepped into a role as National Account Manager for eCompliments.com. A consummate geek for technology and networking, Julie has written for various blogs/websites and is pretty much one of “those recruiters” who loves the game and cannot believe she gets to recruit every day! A proud momma to a crazy and adorable 5 year old boy, Julie loves to hang out with family and friends, drink a little wine, and then head back up to the desk to work some more… did I mention recruiting is a disease for her? She has been involved in the Recruiting World for just over 10 years now, having had her first life (read: career) as a national level gymnastics coach. (Hmm – another obsessive, competitive role….. )

This 4 Prong Approach – How Recruiting at Freeman Strategically Aligned with the Business

admin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:05:54 +0000

BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL PARTNERSHP

How Recruiting at Freeman Strategically Aligned with the Business

* This article is published for ERE

As the world’s leading provider of integrated services for face-to-face marketing events, Freeman has long been recognized for our ability to develop winning relationships with our clients that help bring about a customer experience like no other. Through teamwork and dedication, Freeman consistently leverages all its available resources to provide a one-of-a-kind experience for our customers. That same commitment to partnering became a primary strategy for the recruiting team, one of our most critical support functions. The recruiting function has successfully aligned its efforts and resources to meet the growing demands of the business through a partnership approach including effective communication with hiring managers, process improvements, fully utilizing existing technologies, targeted training and key metric development (see figure 1)

The Freeman Recruiting Team began implementing the partnership strategy by first examining its existing processes. This evaluation discovered that even though a firm foundation existed, each recruiter managed the recruiting life cycle differently. With this realization, each recruiter was charged with blueprinting their individual process. They presented their findings and through a collaborative workshop, developed a uniform recruiting work flow that created standardization at each critical recruiting touch-point. They also focused on increasing and improving dialogue with the hiring managers.

The impact of these changes resulted in the team’s ability to deliver a consistent and recognizable recruiting experience, facilitate increased communication opportunities with hiring managers regarding their position/candidate status, deliver a consistent approach from which accurate and objective metrics can be applied, and allow for dynamic job postings which increases candidate interest more than standard static postings.

After streamlining the process, the recruiters began to actively engage hiring managers at the point of requisition creation. Whether it was a newly created position or a replacement, the recruiter would contact the hiring manager to discuss specifics requirements outside of the existing job description, identify potential candidate leads or desired sourcing areas, and outline a delivery schedule for filling the position.

“We needed to more fully engage and understand the needs of our hiring managers in a way that made them a partner is the success of the recruiting experience” states Pamela Wills-Ward, Vice President, Employee Relations and Recruiting. These informal service level agreement discussions not only enhanced the recruiters knowledge of the impacted business area, but allowed them to better focus their recruiting efforts (i.e. targeting specific recruiting sites, following up on leads, prioritizing work load, etc.) and engage the hiring manager throughout the recruiting process. This process of setting expectations created an opportunity for both the recruiter and hiring manager to have ownership throughout the process.

With the process reengineered and hiring managers fully engaged, the recruiting team had a better understanding of the positions they were working and able to more quickly respond to the managers needs. This positioning allowed for the final phase of the process improvement effort, pipelining talent. With a better understanding of our business owner’s needs and a process that dramatically shortened our time to fill, the recruiters were able to become proactive instead of reactive.

The team leveraged its newly acquired knowledge to begin pipelining efforts to strategically source frequently needed talent. The pipelining implementation started by targeting critical business areas to such as Sales and Operations. Pipelining talent required new skills to be developed and utilized by the recruiting team. Time was sent shifting the current mindset from “filling” to “sourcing”, asking probing questions about a candidate’s potential versus ability to perform a specific task, and creating relationships versus selling a position (see Figure 2). Recruiters began to research candidates through various sourcing methods, developed comprehensive search strings and continued to work with our internal business partners to anticipate future opening for these newly sourced individuals.

With the process and sourcing strategy set, the Recruiting Department realized that it needed to maximize its existing technology to support and drive these efforts. The recruiting team identified that their current Applicant Tracking System (ATS) could be better leveraged to attract and manage candidates through the sourcing and hiring process.

The first action item was to update the posting language to generate increased applicant interest and higher click-through activity. Many of the jobs posting language had not been reviewed or revised in several years. Next the team developed reports that analyzed the productivity and efficiency of individual team members, the overall group’s performance and how well the recruiting resources (i.e. industry postings, job boards, etc.) were performing. These metrics were used for trend analysis, performance reviews, and budget modeling. Finally the ATS was thoroughly overhauled to ensure every resource it provided (pre-screen questionnaires, candidate ranking, compliance reporting, etc) was used to its fullest potential.

After the ATS was buttoned up, the focus shifted to analyzing the effectiveness of other e-tool areas such as job boards, social networking sites, niche industry sites and Freeman’s career site. A campaign was initiated to encourage employees to refer qualified individuals, whether a friend or someone they met at an industry event, by giving them “Recruitment Cards” which directed individuals to our Company’s careers website. This focus on our sourcing efforts resulted in a 30% increase in visits to our Careers site in a one-year period and an increased our applicant pool by 23% in the same period of time.

With the process streamlined and the support systems in alignment with the overall strategy, the next area the Recruiting Team addressed was education and training. The changes that were made through process improvement and increased utilization of our existing technology created education gaps that were bridged with targeted training. Training was focused on hiring managers and the first deliverable for this group was the creation of a Hiring Manager Guidelines booklet.

Each hiring manager was provided a readymade reference book that clearly articulated Freeman’s hiring process, provided helpful interview techniques and document templates for use throughout the hiring process. Immediately following the deployment of the hiring guide was a series of recruiting webinars which covered topics on our Company’s hiring process, available recruiting resources, interviewing techniques and specialized session such as “The Art of Closing a Candidate”. Our webinars not only provided managers with needed and condensed information, but also demonstrated the team’s commitment to partnering throughout the recruiting process. Each information-packed 20 minute webinar was given numerous times each month to allow for maximum participation. These sessions were well received because they provided necessary information while avoiding disruption to the daily activities of the management team.

The final of part of the recruiting maturation process was the creation of viable and objective metrics. Appropriate measurements needed to be developed to ensure continuous improvement in team and individual performance and to justify recruiting related expenditures.

With the goal of improving the partnering relationship, each hiring manager was given a survey to establish a delivery expectation baseline from which recruiting goals would be developed. A SWOT analysis was also completed. The newly initiated partnering approach resulted in a 94% overall recruiting department satisfaction rate.

The survey allowed the team to establish a goal of decreasing time-to-fill and in the subsequent year the team experienced a 55.3% improvement in this area which translated in 28.2% increase in hires for the year. These numbers validated the efficiency of the recruiting function and the value it delivers to the overall organization.

This four prong approach transformed the Recruiting Department from a reactive, inconsistent function to a proactive, knowledgeable business partner that specializes in talent acquisition with an emphasis on timely, effective, and desired deliverables. Through process improvements, training, maximizing technology and developing objective metrics, the recruiting team has been able to transform itself into a strategic function and value added department for all levels of the organization.

About Michael:

Michael Goldberg is the Recruiting Manager for Freeman, based in Dallas, Texas. Michael has over 17 years of overall HR experience with the last 10 focused on Talent Acquisition. He has been with Freeman for the last two and a half years and has been successfully able to build great recruiting partnerships and reduce time to fill by 50% over the last year and a half and maintain a Hiring Manager Satisfaction ratio of 95%. He spoke at the Kennedy Recruiting Conference in Las Vegas and will be speaking at the Kenexa World Conference this fall.

Contact info: Michael can be reached at either email address:

Michael.Goldberg@freemanco.com or recruitingforward@gmail.com.

Steve Levy’s Predictions for 2006? Radio Shack?

admin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:00:39 +0000

(December 26, 2006) After years, we finally met Steve Levy this fall. For some reason, we had him pictured as a shortish older fellow with really big ears (It’s probably the impish quality in his writing). We were surprised to find a young energetic noticeably bald guy. At least we got the impish ears right.

That’s the way it is with people you read online. You develop these incredible, usually inaccurate mental maps and decide you know the guy. Usually, nothing is farther from the truth than an image you create with limited feedback. So it was with Mr. Levy.

Occasionally here, more likely here, Levy’s voice is biting, sarcastic and very, very clear. It’s a must read. As is usually the case in great writing, having an opinion matters. Levy knows how to have one.

Here’s his take on 2006:

2006 has been no different than any other year in recruiting – really, the more things change the more they stay the same. Recruiting has always been like the Matchmaker song from Fiddler on the Roof. New technology comes and goes, productivity increases then decreases then increases – it’s like the building of roadways around New York City by Robert Moses in the mid-1900s: traffic increased, more roadways were built, these roadways became clogged again, build another road, etc. The basic premise here is still moving from point A to point B as expeditiously, comfortably and safely as possible. Just like recruiting – finding the best person for the opportunity as expeditiously, comfortably and safely as possible. How has 2006 changed this?

Not at all.

Consider the passive candidate. In 1998, he wrote about an HR Manager from Chicago getting all worked up about recruiters peeling back URLs to find company directories and finding passive jobseekers – she complained it was like stealing someone’s wallet right off a table.John snorted (yes, he snorts), “The idea that recruiting so-called “passive candidates” is stealing sounds like a deep rationalization for poor performance on a critical strategic task.” In 2006, more people became aware of how to identify and recruit the passive candidate – not only the ones on the Deep Web but also those who can only be reached through old-fashioned brick and mortar, pick-up-the-phone and dial-and-smile. This is utterly fantastic – regardless of how one gets to these people – the magnifying focus on the passive person is a best of 2006. Ultimately those who can deep search and phone source will find themselves at the top of the market while those who cannot…
Consider discussions on ethics. Was there something in the water used by Starbucks in their coffee or Coke/Pepsi in their soda? Was there a sudden infarction in one corner of the Universe that mutated the genetic code of recruiters causing them to suddenly feel guilty about recruiting people away from companies? The vocal outburst by a few recruiters has been noticed by those who do not see a problem in our industry – I think I may have been one of these people (lol). If nothing else, I was certainly opinionated towards the got ethics? debate at ERE San Diego. Ah, the halcyon days of ethics in 2006.The issue is not so much the use of what some may consider to be unethical techniques but is more so the pervasiveness of the problem. Whether you want to believe it or not, no data exists proving that we have a problem in our profession. I called my friend at the AESC and asked about surveys that measured the breadth of “unethical behaviorin the executive retained industry…no data. All in all, an entire year of discussion…but no data. My hope is that our industry does not develop an industry wide code of conduct but rather promotes education to companies, recruiters and candidates. Once educated, I strongly believe that market forces would begin to weed out the “lesser” performers – especially given the number of communication vehicles available for sharing such information. As they say at Syms, an educated consumer is our best customer.
Consider the increase in the number of recruiting blogs. Some good, some bizarre, some serious, some comical. But the sheer number of blogs portends that many viewpoints will continue to be aired – and this is a slam dunk for our profession. In 2006, recruiter-centricthreads went nose-to-nose with candidate-centric ones: The nexus of these two has resulted in a mutual, “I never knew you felt this way” – as evidenced by the number of mutual posts and comments (see Steven Rothberg’s CollegeRecruiter blogs and Jason Alba’s JibberJobber blog). This has been a slam dunk and education for everyone. But what I’d like to see in 2007 are CEOs blogging about their company’s quest for talent – now this would be revolutionary.
Consider the escalation of staffing in SHRM. No, I’m not kidding. There are still less than 20 EMA chapters and well over 500 general SHRM chapters in North America – and far too many generalists still believe cost-per-hire is a valuable performance metric for recruiting – yet when SHRM’s LINE report (leading indicators of national employment based out of Rutgers University), finally took off in 2006, SHRM took a quantum leap in the right direction. Please SHRM- more!
Consider the definition of an applicant. Do we have to? Has any recent government ruling generated so many puzzled looks by recruiters than the one issued by the OFCCP? Simple FAQs aside, did this ruling ever create a cottage industry for our profession: Job boards, ATS’, consultants – it was the recruiting industry’s version of Y2K.
Consider Radio Shack. Trash 80 is now Trash 06. See? No one ever really learns – companies and recruiters. And they won’t in 2007. Incidents like these just demonstrate that Groundhog Day exists in Recruiting.
Consider Armed Forces Recruiting. You think you have a problem because people don’t know your company well and your salary is at the 50^th percentile? Try recruiting people to join a service branch – especially a frontline one – when the media details every death and injury each day. Yet the recruiters who sit in local stations and become part of the community and try and educate people about the benefits of being a soldier, a pilot or a seaman are cursed at, have doors slammed in their faces, and are lied to every day. Despite this, 2006 proved to be a success for them in meeting their goals. I’m proud to be a COI – Circle of Influence, someone who works with local recruiters to identify and implement alternative forms of recruiting. And I’m a better recruiter for it.
Consider Monster. Naughty, naughty. And from the recruiting industry no less. Now, where are their ethics???
Consider that even consumer product companies are changing their ads to reflect workers. We all know that Madison Avenue still primarily presents us as geezers, using likenesses for medical ads. Yet there are changes – even I’ve-fallen-and-I-can’t-get-up has gone younger…need we even mention Viagra?What this portends – and I’ve seenthe move towards ads that accurately reflect their target audiences – is that the hiring of older people will continue to grow as companies view for workers who can help them generate greater revenues. So to the younger recruiters out there – do you think you know me?

These are my major happenings for 2006. What do they mean to most recruiters? Probably not too much. Recruiting is still like politics where elections are won by shaking hands and kissing babies. Technology may help remedy the administrative quicksand that seems to be growing deeper but we still have to get out there and press the flesh. So for 2007, why not stop using that job board for one week, and take a stack of business cards, a pad of paper, and some pens down to that coffee shop (I’d recommend Starbucks) near where some companies are introduce yourself.

I think I did pretty well…

About Steve Levy:

Steve Levy, Principal of outside-the-box Consulting, has been graciously referred to by Jeff Hunter of Electronic Arts, as “the recruiting industry’s answer to Tom Peters” and by JobMachine’s own Shally Steckerl as someone who “facilitates the generation of fresh solutions to quagmired problems.” Others have called him a creative thought leader in recruiting but Levy prefers action to thoughts – and is actually embarrassed by such platitudes. Better to Google this phrase (without quotes): steve-levy recruiting – that’s steve hyphen levy space recruiting then press the key – it makes no sense to hide from all the recruiting and business content he’s created especially given the mission of JobMachine.

With a bevy of business experience outside of HR – sales, marketing, information technology, software development, management consulting, patent law – his expertise is on working with companies to plan, design and implement creative systems, processes and infrastructures that improve workforce planning, recruiting, and organizational development while strengthening financial and operational performance under demanding business conditions.

An incurable observer, pundit and even serious writer of all things employment, he was the Electronic Recruiting Exchange’s (www.ere.net) first blogger back in November 2004 – a few hours before Shally became the second blogger – and has for the past two years offered the bulk of his points of view on job search, recruiting, onboarding, and business on RecruitingBlogs.com. His previous blog, The Recruiting Edge, was a Blog of the Year Nominee for 2006. He is the co-Founder of the Long Island dot NET Users Group and was previously on the Board of Directors for the New Jersey Metro SMA; Steve also sits on several Advisory Committees for various HR, job search, and HR technology organizations. He is an incurable attendee at far too many professional association meetings – only a handful of which are related to human resources.

Levy has been profiled and quoted in articles on human resources, social media, and the employment landscape in Newsday, NY Post, Kennedy’s RecruitingTrends newsletter, and QuintCareers.com, as well as on many an HR and recruiting blog. Even Dave Mendoza wrote something nice about him a few years back.

Steve is a Tau Beta Pi engineer from the University of Vermont (there is no such thing as a former engineer, Marine or Jesuit) with his graduate degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (focus in research design and quantitative methods) from Hofstra University. He lives in New York and doesn’t possess a single professional certification in recruiting or human resources.

Most of all, Steve is on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Plaxo so be sure to connect to him.

Oh, and did I mention the Jones Beach Lifeguard Corps? Who’s launching the boat?

Four Creative Ways to Use Twitter

admin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:00:40 +0000

A few days ago I spoke with a lady in charge of recruiter training at an established 20-year old company. She said that the year 2009 is all scheduled and she may include my training for 2010. It was nice but I felt a bit concerned. How would I be able to predict the hottest topics to teach in 2010 when things are changing monthly if not weekly for us, sourcers and recruiters?

In this post I’d like to cover several examples of creative and productive usage of already existing, fast-changing, amazing tools and give you some ideas to think of more of your own as things change.

To begin with, let me say that it helps to be open to new sites and tools as ways to keep up with the competition, especially in these tough times. I heard recruiters say that Twitter is a waste of time because there’s too much uninteresting stuff there. “My cat just walked out.” But you know what, the Internet as a whole has tons of boring and irrelevant stuff posted. We search on Google to find what we want to see and filter out what we do not; why not have the same approach to Twitter?

Here’s another question to explore. Why does one need to choose “the best” Social Network? I have seen many comparison posts about various ways to source and attract candidates. “LinkedIn is better than Twitter”. But the truth is that combining the all of the major networks (and adding the web search too) is the best way to go. Did you know that you can search Twitter Bios from Google? Did you know that you can follow your LinkedIn connections on Twitter? Did you know that you can feed your posts to Twitter? These actions using combinations of sites will make you successful in your work.

There’s another, sort-of opposite, extreme here, and that is overusing all the fashionable sites, and at the end of the day not being able to say what had been accomplished. One should spend her time wisely and not drown in dozens of new tools and sites. There are Twitter addicts (I have to admit, I got close to being one of them) who endlessly explore and try new tools. Be reasonable and only spend so much time exploring and experimenting. There are many buggy tools, too, and yet another challenge is to use a buggy application (such as Twitterator.org) patiently, or even walk away and let an application get to a functioning state before coming back.

Here are some of my favorite sourcing and recruiting tips in this new and bright world of social recruiting.

1. I will start with one suggestion that I discuss in detail in my Twitter webinar: One can use Twitter to follow and communicate with people found elsewhere. If you have a database of resumes with email addresses, or use jigsaw to grab a list of email IDs, or find email IDs in a Google search for resumes, you are able to follow all of those people on Twitter. You can create a Twitter account for one particular purpose, such as filling jobs in a certain industry, and start creating a (maybe very temporary) crowd of people to interact with on Twitter.

You can go the other way around, of course. Create a group on LinkedIn (such as a group dedicated to a specific industry), create a Twitter ID for that group and start promoting the group on Twitter and posting jobs in both places.

2. We all dislike spam; who doesn’t? Yet email traffic keeps growing for all of us. Sending an email to a candidate or to a prospect often doesn’t work as a way to establish a connection, since it lands in the junk folder, is never opened, shows signs of a mass mailing, etc. However, if you “reply” to somebody on Twitter or re-tweet them, this may seem much nicer and more attractive for that someone who is your potential candidate.

There are other new ways to reach people that do not feel intrusive:

Did you know you can share a blog post or a post on a Ning site with a list of people? Ning will do this for you.
Did you know that you can message people for free on LinkedIn if you belong to the same group?
Did you know that if you run your own group you can send a weekly message to all?
You can include a message in an invitation to join networks or to join an interesting group.

The list goes on.

Of course, you need to be reasonable in picking your audience and your message, but these new ways are great options for sending your messages to target audiences.

I’d warn Twitter users against using direct messaging on Twitter with people you do not know; I am not sure you will agree but that does seem like spamming to me.

3. To many, Twitter seems like an environment that is hard to control. If you have multiple followers, that may feel like a success – but is it, really, if those followers are not in your niche? How do you find out? On LinkedIn you can export your connections and get information about them. Did you know that on Twitter you can do pretty much the same? Create a CSV file with your followers or those whom you follow with friendorfollow.com and use Excel’s sort and search functions to learn quite a bit about those people. You can filter by their location, keywords in their bios, etc.

4. X-raying is a well known web search techniques allowing one to search within a site using an engine like Google. LinkedIn provides fantastic capabilities to search from outside LinkedIn (this is not a substitute for searches within LinkedIn but certainly has its advantages). This is how it works on Google:

site:linkedin.com

(You can manipulate the string to have it land on profiles only or company pages only).

You can X-ray Twitter as well. Search Twitter bios on Google using the “Bio * ” (Important: do not forget to use a varying number of asterisks * to get more results). You will get a list of Twitter IDs that you can multiple-follow and start communicating with.

I will stop for now. I would be interested to hear your suggestions along the same lines of using combinations of social networks to recruit.

Now let me tell you about one very new project that I have just started doing, as an experiment. I have a very positive feeling about its future. Since I am passionate about web sourcing and social media I created the “Social Media Recruiting Group” on LinkedIn and a parallel Social Media Recruiting Network. They are both one day old at the time of this posting.

Here’s what I am looking for. We are going to have many (at least a dozen or so!) moderators/leaders for the group that would help add new content and promote this new web gathering. We already have 4 co-moderators and are looking for more. Please join the groups if you’re interested. If you want to be a moderator, please shoot me an email.

About Irina Shamaeva

Irina is an Executive Recruiter, an Expert Sourcer, a Boolean Strings Master Teacher, and a Social Media Innovator. For the past five years she has been a Partner with Brain Gain Recruiting, placing senior full time employees in IT, Strategy Consulting, and Finances. She has an MS in Mathematics and a strong technical background. Irina runs the fast growing “Boolean Strings Network” (please join!) and multiple groups related to Social Media Recruiting and Internet Sourcing on LinkedIn.

Irina’s LinkedIn Profile can be found here and her blog is here. Follow her on Twitter at @braingain

10 Recruiter Pledges – Creating a Disney like Experience

admin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:00:19 +0000

It’s a small world after all

I have a song going around in my head that’s been there since I first visited Disney 3 years ago. We now have annual pilgrimages to Orlando in October and Paris for Christmas week each year, to bow at the feet of Mickey and wonder at his might. This is brand marketing in the extreme, and we always come back for more. The ride we always go on, mostly because my wife hates it is “small world.” Ridden once, you receive the brainwashing of the mighty mouse, and the tune goes on loop annually, with a subliminal message to part with your dollars, Euros, pounds and all other currencies at least once annually.

Just recently, the tunes been playing louder in my head and I can’t seem to shake it. The reason for this is simple, since discovering twitter and LinkedIn over the last 6 months, I while away the wee small hours communicating with recruiters across the world, trying to assist with issues and concerns whilst learning about so many cultures and more importantly time zones. It really has become a small world, where the only geography is bandwidth. This afternoon I’ve run two episodes of my internet radio show Ready for Lift Off (www.blogtalkradio.com.)

The concept is really simple; it’s a broadcast conference call lasting one hour. To get on to the show you call a number in New York. During today’s show (thanks to the twittersphere), I’ve had guests from Melbourne, Belfast, Indianna,Texas, London and other parts of the world. The concept of the show is quite simple, we are basically a collection of old recruiters lamenting the days B.C. (before computers) and discussing the challenges recruiters face and some possible solutions, based on some 300 years combined experience.

What has become increasingly clear to me is that wherever we are in the world, the problems recruiters face are basically the same. Geography really is irrelevant; we are as worried about how we make money and the state of the market wherever we are located. My biggest concern right now is not new business or making placements. I have lots of old fashioned techniques like picking up the phone and getting out and meeting people that help with that and go some way to solving problems regardless of geography. My biggest concern over the future success of the market is our candidate flow and how we treat our basic raw commodity.

It’s easy to say now that there are plenty of candidates about, and our data-bases are overflowing with resumes but what do those candidates really think of us, and are they knocking on our door out of desire or necessity? Personally, I think if you drew a pole the latter would come out way on top. That to me is a dangerous situation, because the challenge is there not only from competitors, but career coaches, corporate recruiters, job boards, web-2.00 and hiring managers themselves learning to harness technology. During todays show a hardened recruiter, and kind of game keeper turned poacher Keith Robinson (@SiteAdvisor) reminisced on how we used to talk about the candidate experience during their dealings with recruiters. I describe Keith in this way because he went from a successful career as a recruiter to launching one of the UK’s largest job sites, which makes him well placed to comment on both.

During my 27 years in recruitment, I have had many candidates that have repeatedly come back to me with help and guidance on the most important thing to them, their careers. Many of these I have never placed, but they have valued the experience and would always refer them to others. I think the candidate experience is best judged by those we don’t place, rather than those we do. I was given a stat today by Shane from Intelligence Software (@1ntelligence) that recruiters only place 1% of the candidates they come in contact with. I have no reason to think that’s wrong, so how do I keep the other 99% speaking positively of the experience even when I haven’t found them a job?

The key here is in the word experience. I have a few pledges I would like recruiters to make that I believe, those that take the pledge will stand out, and where they are based in the world will be irrelevant.

My 10 recruiter pledges for providing candidates with a Disney like experience that makes them want to come back for more is as follows:

1: I will understand that I sell people and not products and will treat each as an individual.

2: I recognize that I am assisting with one of the biggest decisions you have to make, and will take time to understand not only your skills and experience that are marketable, but also your needs and wants by conducting a full interview and not just register you.

3: I will be open with you over how I work and what your expectations should be of me. If I am unlikely to help you, I will tell you.

4: I will give you a realistic idea of the probability of me being able to help you, and will refer you elsewhere if I think it is unlikely.

5: If I make a commitment to you to do something, I will do it.

6: I will fully understand the vacancies I’m recruiting for including the company, the culture, the role, the prospects and points of appeal and the decision making process. I will communicate this to you fully before you decide whether you wish to be submitted.

7: I will ask three things of you: honesty, reliability and communication. Because I expect this of you, you can expect it of me.

8: I will stress to my clients the need for quick and helpful feedback at every stage. I will contact you when I have agreed even if it is to tell you I have no news.

9: I will give you feedback constructively and honestly in order to help you with your job search. I will not dress up bad news, but give it to you as it is (thanks to @Jerry_Albright for this one) and with guidance for next time. I expect the same from you, and if you give me news I don’t want to hear, then I promise not to throw my toys out of the pram!

10: I will deal with you as I would want to be dealt with were I in your shoes.

Nothing here is rocket science, or in fact anything new. It is something we can all commit to, and don’t really need to learn. It is dependent on building relationships, calling, talking and listening. It can’t be achieved by e-mail or social media (although it has it’s place.) lets get back to making the candidate experience a priority to make your brand and the whole “brand recruiter” stand out, or else we might be lamenting the demise of our natural resource.

It is a small world, you can catch the show any Monday at 1.00 EST or download either the international show or the European show (goes out 7.00a.m. EST) any time after the show.

I’m proud to be a recruiter, let’s protect the brand!

About Bill Boorman:

Bill Boorman is something of a recruitment veteran, having worked in the industry for 22 years. All this despite being told at his first job that he didn’t have a future in the business! At the age of 42, the industry has given him most of his experience, having worked in most market places.

Recruitment has given him an insight in to the workings of many companies and he believes that this has given him a broad based understanding of business and people in general. He bases his training and consultancy work on this experience. He describes himself as being a non-academic trainer, preferring instead to deliver “true life” training that mixes reality with theory. Through his many experiences he has many case studies that help make sense of the problems delegates face.

Bill operates three distinct brands, spreading his message worldwide:

The Bill Boorman Consultancy
The Good News Group (Recruiters)
Read for lift off with Bill Boorman
@BillBoorman

Personally, Bill is married with two children, who give him plenty of inspiration. He runs marathons around the world badly and slowly, and loves being in the great outdoors.