"Be found first!"

Two people came up to me after speaking at the SHRM Staffing Management Association (SMA) Conference in Las Vegas last week (April 2009) and said this was the best tip they heard after four days at the conference. Of course, two out of 700 doesn't imply a trend. However, if you were Googling for "best sourcing tips SHRM SMA" you actually might find this article on the first page. And that's what being found first means. Its importance cannot be understated.

Performance-based Hiring is about recruiting top performers, and in today's economy recruiters and companies have a chance to pick up some really great talent.  The key word here is "chance." One prerequisite to finding and recruiting top talent is that recruiters must understand the mentality of a top performer.  If I had to sum it up in one word it would be "Picky"! Top performers want the right job, not just any job.  The job has to offer a challenge and be with the right company and the right people, not to mention offering the right compensation and benefits package.  While timing is important, top performers won't rush into taking just any job.  They are confident in their capabilities, and their job search is part of an overall master plan. 

This was going to be an article on how to systematize one-on-one recruiter skills. It would have included topics like how to increase your effectiveness with hiring managers and how to become more of a career counselor to top candidates.

As a recruiter, I find myself wondering why managers often approach the hiring process as though they were ordering fast food at the drive-through. First they scan the menu to see what's offered, then they pick the top three or four things they want. "I'll take one MBA, with a BSEE, a 3.5 GPA or better, and don't forget three years of marketing experience." While ordering this way at local hamburger joint almost always produces exactly what you want, it doesn't work nearly as well for hiring.

Today I'll share with you the inside scoop on Sodexho's first foray into using Virtual Job Fairs in Second Life. I recently interviewed Anthony Scarpino, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition for Sodexho, and Amy Brooks, one of Sodexho's recruiters who participated in their first ever virtual job fair. Amy recently attended our online Recruiter Boot Camp and graciously volunteered to share her experiences using Second Life to attract candidates.

Welcome to our new series of articles, The Science of Recruiting. Over the next ten editions, we'll look at every skill and technique necessary to be a great recruiter. At the end of it all, you'll have a sense of what you need to do to take your performance and success as a recruiter up another notch or two, or maybe more.

Part II It is my contention that the only way to systematically hire superior people is to clearly define superior performance before beginning any new job search. In Part 1 of this two-part series, the idea of using a performance profile instead of a job description was introduced as a means to accomplish this. The benefits of using a performance profile include more accurate assessments, a bigger pool of top candidates to choose from, significant reductions in time to hire, and -- by clarifying expectations upfront -- a more highly motivated and competent workforce.