For many years companies have touted the power of Employee Referral Programs as a primary source for recruiting top candidates. This year at the ERE Expo in San Diego, one of Microsoft's top recruiting strategists announced that ERP programs didn't work at Microsoft. His conclusion was that Microsoft should focus their sourcing efforts on other sourcing channels. Personally, I was shocked with this revelation. It is entirely counter to what we experience with most of our customers. So, I decided to take a behind-the-scenes look at last year's ERE winner for the best ERP Program and get an update on what's happening today. Perhaps employee referral programs only work in booming economies and tight labor markets, and they completely fall to pieces in economic downturns. I had to know, so I called up Ron Bower, Director of Recruiting and Employee Relations at AmTrust Bank to get the inside scoop on their world class ERP program. They won the ERE award for the Best Employee Referral program in 2008. Stay tuned for some real life surprising "hard knock" lessons from a true ERP Champion.

When I worked in the high tech field in the 1980s and 1990s, IBM was the biggest player in the industry.  They were the 800-pound gorilla in the room.  Their sales pitch went something like this.  "Buying IBM is safe."  "No one ever got fired for buying IBM."  "You'd have to be crazy to choose anybody else!"  Even if there were better systems and software on the market (and there absolutely were), for a long time IBM won the lion's share of the business because they convinced managers that buying anything but "Big Blue" was RISKY.  Their goal was simply to sow doubt and fear about their competitors.

Guy Kawasaki, who was at the time a famous product marketer at Apple, had the job of breaking through that barrier.  He would do outrageous things to shake up his competition.  He would send very expensive custom mailings to the product managers at IBM thanking them for their support of Apple.  These mailing weren't addressed directly to the product manager, but rather they were written as if they were being sent to all of Apple's customers, when, in fact, they only went to a few selected product managers at Apple's core competitors.  This would create havoc within the competition's marketing departments as they would try to invent even more expensive campaigns to counter what was perceived as a huge attack.  IBM wasted a lot of time, money, people, and resources chasing Guy's phantom promotions.  He would then focus his energy on activities that really made a difference with his customers and, not surprisingly, he won market share. Two lessons for Guy's antics:  first, focus on activities that really make a difference with your customer; second, be positive and project that positivity into your customer, markets, and candidates.

Yes, I know the title is a bit audacious, but we at The Alder Group absolutely are not afraid to ask for help.  I'll be the first to admit that I can't quite handle this topic alone.  That's why this week's article is designed to entice you to participate in our annual 2009 Recruiting Outlook and Challenges Survey.  You can take this year's survey by visiting http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB228MEAHSVHN.  It's live and ready to go right now.

Today in board rooms around the world, business leaders are meeting to make plans on how to best weather the current economic crisis.  None of these seasoned leaders, however, truly know the extent of the financial crisis or how long it will last.  Their strategies will include such things as cutting costs, increasing marketing expenditures, selling off assets, buying struggling businesses, and reducing – or in some cases expanding – their work forces.  These decisions will quickly trickle down through their organization creating a whole host of emotional reactions.  In some cases there will be paralysis as leaders struggle to define a clear direction.  If you happen to be in one of the few recession-proof industries like health care, you are probably counting your blessings.  If not, you are wondering what changes you need to make to thrive in the current and coming storm.  

It seems that an increasing number of our clients are undergoing frequent, and in some cases constant, audits by the OFCCP regarding their hiring practices. The audits are costly, nerve-wracking, time consuming, and often monopolize the entire focus of the department under scrutiny. This week the Democratic National Convention roared into my newly adopted home town of Denver, CO. It's quite the spectacle. The streets are closed, security has never been tighter, and the excitement is hard to contain. Michelle Obama hit a home run on Monday night with her speech. Edward Kennedy never looked statelier. Hillary Clinton took the podium on Tuesday, and Thursday we'll hear from the star of the show, Barack Obama himself. No matter what your political persuasion (and I won't reveal mine in this article), I can't help feeling a bit proud of our country for selecting a diverse candidate for the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

Some people just think differently. Einstein developed most of his theories while watching the sun rise and set. He asked a lot of questions that other people weren't asking like, "How does a beam of light travel through the universe?" and voila – he invented the Theory of Relativity. I recently listened to the book on CD, Freakonomics, by Steven Leavitt. The entire book is about using common sense, logic, and data to answer some interesting and challenging questions. For instance:

If you were able to answer these questions with some degree of specificity, you may now proceed to the next six sins. All good sourcing activities require deep job knowledge, so it amazes me how many recruiters expect to attract top talent without it. Your ability to create a compelling pitch, post a killer ad, or convince a candidate who's on the fence to move forward all comes from job knowledge. Job knowledge also allows a recruiter to understand what the benefits are for the candidate (i.e., opportunity, growth, stretch). Otherwise, all you have left is compensation and benefits, and in this market, that's not nearly enough.