Articles - Newsletter
RSS FeedAssessing Team Skills
Topics: The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent, Newsletter
For most of us, cooperating with people, discussing ideas, collaborating on projects, influencing others, and working on cross-functional teams typically represents 50-75% of most workdays. Team skills are critical and those that do it well are rewarded in terms of influence, support, promotions, and bigger reviews. Those without it are avoided, shunned, or assigned to the proverbial closet. Working with people without decent team skills literally sucks the energy out of the rest of team, bringing everyone down.
» Continue reading "Assessing Team Skills"
Seven Deadly Sourcing Sins
Topics: Newsletter
You all know about the seven deadly sins. Commit any one of these and your eternal future may be in jeopardy. Today, I'll reveal the seven deadly sins of sourcing. While their eternal consequences may not be quite so dire, their negative effects on your ability to attract the best talent are an absolute certainty. For those of you who are well versed in classic literature, now would be a good time to recall Dante's seven levels of hell or some of the more graphic Greek tragedies. If I remember correctly they don't end well. So, to avoid similar consequences you might want to pay careful attention to these common sourcing pitfalls:
- Sourcing before understanding the real job. Don't even think about engaging in any sourcing approach without a complete understanding of the job. Here are just a few of the questions that must be answered before starting any sourcing approach:
- Why would someone who is good at this type of work want this particular job?
- What does the person need to do in the job to be considered outstanding?
- What will the person do, learn, and become with this job?
- Why is doing this job at your company better than doing the same job at a competitor?
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.
» Continue reading "Seven Deadly Sourcing Sins"
Assessing Leadership Using the Two-Question Interview
Topics: The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent, Newsletter
As a recruiter, and as part of a rather callous objective of maximizing income in the shortest period of time, it became quickly apparent that being a better interviewer than my clients was a critical skill. The quest to achieve this was how the two-question Performance-based Interview and 10-Factor Candidate Assessment scorecard were born.
» Continue reading "Assessing Leadership Using the Two-Question Interview"
Get Ready for the Recovery - Now Is the Best Time to Build a Proactive External Talent Pipeline
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
Now is the time to get ready for the recovery. It may sound strange, but if you have been in recruiting for any period of time, you know that hiring fluctuates—it goes up and down, expands and pauses. These cycles come with the territory. Some shifts are more dramatic than others, and currently it appears we are in a more profound slowdown than we would like. The signs are all around us with the housing crisis, gas prices, and layoffs recently announced in some industries. Some leaders may be quick to question what recruiters are doing when there is little or no recruiting going on. Be ready with this answer: creating a proactive pipeline of great candidates for future openings.
Use an Evidence-based Assessment Process to Hire More Top Talent
Topics: The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent, Newsletter
Sometimes the best person for a job is not the best interviewer. Most often the best interviewer is not the most talented among a group of three or four candidates. Frequently the best person for a job, who is a good interviewer, is underwhelmed by the opportunity available and comes across as quiet or uninterested. On top of these problems, add hiring manager bias, lack of understanding of real job needs, temporary nervousness on the part of good candidates, and lack of preparation on the part of the interviewing team members. Collectively, it's fairly obvious why current interviewing and assessment techniques are poor predictors of on-the-job success. All this suggests that the traditional unstructured interview as well as the structured behavioral interview are inadequate in overcoming these hiring process problems.
I recently had the opportunity to discuss this topic as a panelist on a Human Capital Institute web program with Cathy Lee Gibson, the former Director of the Human Resources Program at Cornell's Industrial and Labor Relations School. The focus was on how to better "manage" hiring managers. This is a point of significant interest to any of the recruiters among us who have lost a good candidate because one of our clients made an incorrect assessment. It should also be a point of major interest to any hiring manager who is at odds with their recruiting or HR group regarding how to best measure candidate quality.
During the webcast I described the evidenced-based assessment approach we've developed as part of Performance-based Hiringsm to specifically address this all-too-common problem. Our solution was to change the method used by the interviewing team to decide whether to hire someone or not. Rather than add up a bunch of superficial or biased yes/no votes, the idea was to delay the assessment until all of the interviewers could present their findings. Once this is completed, the group collectively makes the hiring decision based on all of the evidence presented. Cathy summarized this whole point succinctly by saying it was akin to being "a juror, not a judge," during the interview.
» Continue reading "Use an Evidence-based Assessment Process to Hire More Top Talent"
Building Your Personal Recruitment Brand
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
When your clients or hiring managers think of you as a recruiter, what words come to their minds? Reliable? Insightful? Unresponsive? Bureaucratic? Whatever the words, these concepts define our personal recruitment brand. Hiring Managers may not communicate these directly to us in formal meetings, but they definitely share their opinions among their peers. Below is a short quiz which should help you get a jump start on where you stand with your personal recruitment brand. Ask yourself each of the following questions and be honest in your answers. No one’s looking, I promise.
» Continue reading "Building Your Personal Recruitment Brand"
A Dozen or So Different Ways to Ask the One-Question Interview
Topics: The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent, Interview Training, Newsletter
Early in my search career I realized that many of my clients weren’t very good at evaluating candidates. This made me have to find more candidates than necessary to complete most searches. To minimize this wasted effort, I created the one-question Performance-based HiringSM interview, primarily to better defend my candidates from weak interviewers. Once I became proficient with the technique, I started training my clients how to use it. This helped prevent good candidates from being excluded due to bad interviewing, and required fewer candidates to be seen on each assignment. Here’s how the process works:
» Continue reading "A Dozen or So Different Ways to Ask the One-Question Interview"
Effectiveness of Recruiting Tools/Techniques
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
It seems like every day you hear about a new recruiting tool or technique. The question is how many of them are really being used by recruiters? And more importantly, how many of them are effective? We asked that question on the Adler Group's Recruiting and Hiring Challenges Survey of 2008 to try to get some sense of how recruiters rate the tools and techniques they are using. The actual question was, “On a 1-5 scale (5 is best) how would you rank the effectiveness of these recruiting tools?” A rating of 3 means pretty effective, 4 means animportant resource, and 5 means an invaluable tool. In analyzing the results, a tool needs a rating of 3 or higher to be considered effective.
» Continue reading "Effectiveness of Recruiting Tools/Techniques"
Sourcing Basics: Stop Throwing Away Good Candidates for Bad Reasons
Topics: The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent, Newsletter, Recruiting, Sourcing
I can't remember a time when recruiters, recruiting managers, hiring managers, HR executives and company leaders didn't complain about the lack of good candidates. When the Internet and job boards came along we were promised the solution was at hand. But more than 10 years later the problems in finding talent have gotten worse, not better. Perhaps, just perhaps, the solution to better sourcing is not better sourcing.
» Continue reading "Sourcing Basics: Stop Throwing Away Good Candidates for Bad Reasons"
Plan, Do, Study, and Act - The Foundation for Continuously Improving Recruiting
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
Plan, Do, Study, and Act is Dr. Edward Deming's approach to Total Quality Improvement. If you know anything about The Adler Group, you know that we believe hiring should be a predictable, repeatable business process. We advocate a process called Performance-based Hiring which we firmly believe allows organizations to systematically hire top talent. To make it predictable and repeatable there must be a structured approach to hiring that can be scaleable throughout an organization and a continuous process of planning, doing, studying, and acting to improve upon that process. There are four components to this process including the creation of a Performance Profile for each position, a focus on sourcing top talent (we call this "Talent-Centric Sourcing"), an evidence-based interview using our Two Question Performance-based Interview, as well as an integrated process for recruiting and closing the candidate. In our recent survey we asked candidates to measure the effectiveness of key aspects of the hiring process from the recruiter's perspective by answering the following question:
» Continue reading "Plan, Do, Study, and Act - The Foundation for Continuously Improving Recruiting"
All You Need to Know About Using ZoomInfo to Source Great Candidates
Topics: The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent, Newsletter, Recruiting
ZoomInfo and LinkedIn should be the starting points for any search assignment from experienced staff to CEO. Here's the link to an article on how to use LinkedIn for passive and active candidate sourcing. This week's article will focus on using ZoomInfo to find more great candidates within hours.
ZoomInfo is different than LinkedIn. LinkedIn is an opt-in networking site whereas ZoomInfo constantly crawls the Internet seeking out information about companies and people connected to those companies. The company information includes an overview, basic financial performance, and an easy means to find industry information, competitors, and current and past employees. The biographical information is presented in a manner that appears to be resume-like, but in reality is a web page consolidating information from a variety of web sources about the person. This includes information like someone being mentioned in a company press release or having spoken at an industry event.
» Continue reading "All You Need to Know About Using ZoomInfo to Source Great Candidates"
Recruitment and Technology
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
Technology is both the booster and the bane of people-oriented processes. The combination of the major job boards and applicant tracking systems (ATS) has transformed recruiting, but has brought its own set of problems. It's a classic illustration of Michael Hammer's views on information technology. In an article published in 1990 in the Harvard Business Review, the MIT professor made the case that companies focus on fixing the wrong issues, using technology to automate existing work rather than using it to make non-value adding work obsolete. BPR, or business process engineering, postulates that unless you review your processes before implementing new technology, you run the risk of doing the wrong things faster. At the very least, you may add an additional administrative burden without concurrent productivity gains.
» Continue reading "Recruitment and Technology"
Great Active Candidate Sourcing Ideas
Topics: The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent, Interview Training, Newsletter
There are some top-notch, fully-employed people who sometimes voluntarily seek out new career opportunities. Since they’re fully-employed and top-notch they don’t expend too much effort in looking for something else. When they get itchy or at the first hint of trouble they’ll first start networking with friends and former associates. Then they’ll contact a recruiter or two. Then they’ll probably Google for jobs (e.g., searching on the job title and a location) and check out some specialty or niche job boards. If nothing develops from these sources, they’ll probably look at the career websites of some highly regarded companies. As a last resort, they’ll check out the major boards.
» Continue reading "Great Active Candidate Sourcing Ideas"
Recruiting Metrics
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
Question 12: How would you rank your company in using the following metrics to track performance?
One of the areas we wanted to explore in our recently completed survey was the use of metrics in tracking recruiting effectiveness. We asked recruiters and recruiting managers to rank their use of a particular set of recruiting metrics in tracking their team’s effectiveness. We picked metrics that we considered to be some of the most important indicators of recruiting efficiency and success. These include:
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» Continue reading "Recruiting Metrics"
Back to Basics: Understanding Real Job Needs
Topics: The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent, Newsletter
As far as I'm concerned, to be a great recruiter you need to understand real job needs. This is the core competency of the best recruiters. I've never met a top 20% recruiter who didn't understand that the real job was not the job description. A job description just lists skills, qualification, experience requirements, and an overview of responsibilities. The real job is what the person does every day: solving problems, making things happen, influencing others, overcoming challenges, making decisions, and getting results consistently. Those recruiters who use the job description to screen candidates are little more than box checkers, missing out on some great people who have comparable but not identical backgrounds.
» Continue reading "Back to Basics: Understanding Real Job Needs"
Winning Despite a Weak Hand
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting
If you've been through our Recruiter Boot Camp, you know that we advise recruiters to stay current on the business events in their industry. In particular, news of layoffs, mergers, spin-offs and acquisitions, or anything that tends to make good employees nervous about their future at their current company. Good recruiters will immediately begin calling into those companies, using the uncertainty about their companies' future as a tool to coax top employees to jump ship. Many employees are willing to explore their options in these circumstances, so it's a technique that can be very successful.
» Continue reading "Winning Despite a Weak Hand"
10 Great Tips for Using LinkedIn to Find the Best Passive Candidates on the Planet
Topics: The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent, Networking, Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Sourcing
LinkedIn is a great tool for finding passive candidates who want to be found. This is its little-discussed power. No one would publish their profiles otherwise. While some recruiters are still reluctant to jump on board, others have been making placements since day one. Here are some ideas on how to get started right away to take full advantage of this remarkable networking tool:
The Year of the Race!--Recruiting, Restructuring, and Rebuilding
Topics: Managing, Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting
2008 is the year of races, including the all-important race for the Presidency of the United States. As the presidential hopefuls gear up for their longest job interview ever, we shouldn't forget that the race for top quality talent in our own organizations has already begun, and candidates are bolting out of the gate at a tremendous clip. Unlike the presidential race, where now nine hopeful candidates are vying for one top job, the talent race is upside down with hundreds of thousands of candidates and even more open positions. As one pundit put it last year, "The talent wars are definitely over and the candidates have won!" Just like the bloated real estate market, we've got a glut of jobs and a shortage of talent (except perhaps in Michigan), and more recruiters than ever pitching their opportunities to an ever shrinking talent pool. Even if the economy dips into the dreaded recession, we'll still have jobs for talented people. It's a buyers market even for average talent, and recruiters are going to have to step up their game if they expect to attract top people. And just for the record... it's always a buyers market for top talent regardless of the position, industry, or economic circumstances.
» Continue reading "The Year of the Race!--Recruiting, Restructuring, and Rebuilding"
Inside the Mind of the Top Performer - Part I
Topics: The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent, Interview Training, Negotiating, Networking, Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting
Top performers are different than average performers both on the job and how they look for a new one. Simply defined, a top performer is a person who consistently exceeds expectations. While you might be able to determine a person's potential to be a top performer in 30 days or so, it takes at least a few months to determine if a person is a top performer. This has to do with motivation, team skills, and the consistent achievement of results. For a variety of reasons, just because a person can do the work, it doesn't mean the person will do the work. Generally speaking, if a top person takes a great job that perfectly fits his or her needs and aspirations, it's unlikely the person would even consider changing jobs in the first year or so. The person is typically on a steep learning curve, making an impact, and highly satisfied with the current work and the potential future opportunities.
» Continue reading "Inside the Mind of the Top Performer - Part I"
The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent
Topics: The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent, Interviewing, Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Sourcing
Everybody - from the Board and CEO down to every manager and supervisor - talks about the importance of hiring top talent. But only a rare few have converted the concept into reality. A number of companies have actually succeeded in embedding the idea into their corporate cultures, but in most cases, even these leave the "how" up to the recruiting department and each individual manager. Creating a road map on the "how to" of hiring top talent is the purpose of this book. It's now more important than ever. The worldwide demand for talent has increased as the supply of trained, talented, and available labor has declined. Even a temporary economic slowdown will not alter demographic trends and the long term need for talent.
» Continue reading "The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent"
Defend Your Candidate from the Competition and Superficial Assessments
Topics: Interview Training, Interviewing, Newsletter, Performance Profiles, Recruiter Training, Recruiting
I wrote a version of this article for ERE in April 2007. It seemed worthy of repeating as a year-end reminder of the critical role that recruiters need to play to ensure that bad decisions don't preclude the best person from getting hired. As you'll find out, the key point of the article is that good candidates, who we spent a great deal of time developing, can often be lost for easily preventable reasons. Setting up some process or check-point can prevent the problem from arising in the first place. If this isn't possible, you need to have some counter-measures ready to employ to mitigate any problems that do arise.
» Continue reading "Defend Your Candidate from the Competition and Superficial Assessments"
Don't Let The Grinch Steal Your Recruiting Season
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting
Last week Lou gave you our prelude to the holidays using the "12 Days of Christmas" theme. Today we'll take a look at the realities of recruiting in today's tough market through the eyes of none other than The Grinch himself. So let me begin by quoting rather liberally from the beginning of one of the greatest holiday stories of all time. My apologies in advance to Dr. Seuss and to my eight children.
» Continue reading "Don't Let The Grinch Steal Your Recruiting Season"
12 Great Sourcing Gifts for the Holiday Season
Topics: Interview Training, Interviewing, Networking, Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Sourcing
If you want to generate one great candidate day after day after day, follow my 12 golden rules for sourcing the best. These are this year's stocking stuffers whether you're hiring active or passive candidates.
» Continue reading "12 Great Sourcing Gifts for the Holiday Season"
Translating Marketing into Recruiting
Topics: Newsletter, Sourcing
Translating Marketing into Recruiting
I've always thought there were a lot of similarities between marketing and recruiting. Both are often considered "overhead" positions. Both work at proving their value to the business. Both can be poorly understood at the executive level. And both are often undervalued – after all, anyone can be a recruiter (or marketer), right? I once worked at a company where my predecessor as SVP of Marketing had previously been the VP of Engineering. He hadn't worked out in engineering, so they moved him over to marketing – after all, how hard can it be to run marketing (or recruiting)? He was actually there for over a year before he was eased out of the company.
» Continue reading "Translating Marketing into Recruiting"
How to Overcome Early-stage Recruiting Objections
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting
After finding some interested candidates, transactional recruiters send in a stack of resumes to the hiring manager hoping one will fit. This isn't recruiting. This is roulette.
The best recruiters use a very sophisticated sales technique called solution selling during the sourcing process based on deep job matching. This starts by working with the hiring managers to clarify job needs, define the performance objectives, and develop an employee value proposition. From this, targeted sourcing approaches are developed that involve convincing the best people why they should consider your opportunity. Done properly far fewer candidates are presented to the client, all are seen, and one of them is hired based on an offer package emphasizing opportunity rather than compensation.
» Continue reading "How to Overcome Early-stage Recruiting Objections"
The Official Rules for Writing Creative Ads
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting, Sourcing
Don't overlook online advertising as a means to find top talent. As described in an earlier section ("Understanding Top Talent"), it was made clear that top people look online for new career opportunities whenever they experience a "job dissatisfaction moment." While these online excursions are short – ranging from 30-90 minutes at a time – a well-positioned and compelling ad can often snare a few top performers. In this section we'll cover some of the tactics you can use to implement a targeted ad campaign strategy to attract this group of top performers.
» Continue reading "The Official Rules for Writing Creative Ads"
The One Question Interview Challenge
Topics: Interview Training, Interviewing, Newsletter, Performance Profiles
Two months ago I gave a presentation to a room full of HR managers and executives from an engineering company in Omaha, Nebraska. After the presentation I had several conversations about their hiring challenges with individual managers. I ended up giving three people copies of the audio CD, "The One Question Interview," with the challenge that they use this approach on their next big hire and report back on their results. Last Thursday I received the following voice message from John Martin of Cascade Engineering. Here's what he had to say:
» Continue reading "The One Question Interview Challenge"
The Secrets of Top Recruiters Finally Revealed
Topics: Interview Training, Interviewing, Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Sourcing
I'm very proud of the fact that I've helped hundreds (maybe thousands) of recruiters in the U.S. and around the world increase their monthly placement rate by 50-100% and in some cases much more. As part of our planning for our 2008 "The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent" tour, I've put together my list of "recruiter essentials" we'll cover during the workshop. These are the secrets that every top recruiter follows in order to maximize their placement rate. [FYI: We've incorporated these same points into our final Recruiter Boot Camp Online program for this year (the four-part course starts Nov. 2, 2007) and our San Jose LIVE: Performance-based Hiring Tour 2007 event on December 5, 2007.] While there are about 20 key techniques we teach during the workshop, in my opinion the following 10 techniques represent the difference between average and great recruiter performance:
» Continue reading "The Secrets of Top Recruiters Finally Revealed"
Rethinking College Recruiting
Topics: Networking, Newsletter, Recruiting, Sourcing
College recruiting, like all recruiting, continues to evolve as the demographics in the US shift. Generation Y, also known as "Millenniums," have some distinct preferences in the way they look for work and the way they approach their careers. Even those companies that don't recruit entry-level people need to pay attention to these preferences. Gen Y, those folks born after 1980, make up close to 25% of the current and potential workforce. As the Baby Boomers begin to retire, this group and their attitudes toward employment will increase in importance to employers.
» Continue reading "Rethinking College Recruiting"
How to Control Your Hiring Manager Clients and Make More Placements
Topics: Interviewing, Managing, Newsletter, Performance Profiles, Working With Hiring Managers
Our clients do a lot of dumb thing that cause us recruiters to work too hard. These all seem to fall into big buckets of lost opportunities. Here are the ones that head the list:
» Continue reading "How to Control Your Hiring Manager Clients and Make More Placements"
Get a Life! AND recruit candidates at the same time.
Topics: Networking, Newsletter, Recruiting, Sourcing
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.
» Continue reading "Get a Life! AND recruit candidates at the same time."
The Official Rules for Advertising Your Jobs
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting, Sourcing
- Show some R.E.S.P.E.C.T. This is the most important rule of them all: treat candidates as exceptional people and show them at least as much respect as you show your customers. It seems that retail organizations and those close to their end customer clearly understand this. From a sourcing standpoint this means you emphasize what's in it for the candidate over what's in it for the company.
» Continue reading "The Official Rules for Advertising Your Jobs"
The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent
Topics: Assessment, Interviewing, Newsletter, Performance Profiles, Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers
Every sport has rules, even pickup games. We even have rules for our kids - when they can watch TV, play video games, go to bed, etc. Business has rules for just about everything - important things like capital expenditures, accounting, SEC reporting, and product design and testing; or less important things like how to dress, when to come to work, how to earn vacation, and how to fill in expense reports. What's surprising is there aren't any rules for what's supposedly the most important thing a company needs to do - hire and retain top talent.
» Continue reading "The Official Rules for Hiring Top Talent"
To Poach or not to Poach - is that Really the Question?
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Sourcing
Last week on one of our free public webinars someone asked whether I thought it was okay for recruiters to "poach" another company's employees. This got me thinking about where the term "poaching" originates. Here are some definitions:
» Continue reading "To Poach or not to Poach - is that Really the Question?"
Fixing Corporate Recruiting
Topics: Networking, Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Sourcing
Last week I met with a Director of Recruiting from a major Fortune 200 company in the Midwest. In a recent meeting with one of her top corporate executives, the executive made the comment that he finally considered the recruiting department "fixed." The Recruiting Director was so taken back by the comment that she didn't really know how to respond. She was genuinely troubled by his comment. What does he mean by "fixed"? Perhaps it was a backhanded compliment or maybe he meant "fixed" in the sense that he's crossed it off his to-do list—he's no longer worried about it. Perhaps he believes that because they recently installed a new ATS system, added two or three additional recruiters, and restructured their sourcing department, he doesn't really need to worry about it any more.
» Continue reading "Fixing Corporate Recruiting"
Work Smarter, Not Harder
Topics: Interviewing, Negotiating, Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Sourcing
I'm in Australia this week working with a number of different recruiting organizations. In Australia the talent supply is far short of demand, so getting assignments is relatively easy, while finding and closing strong candidates takes exceptional sourcing and recruiting skills. Candidates always have multiple offers and counter-offers are standard. To meet this challenge head on, the recruiting teams I'm working with wanted to figure out how to double their monthly production within six months.
» Continue reading "Work Smarter, Not Harder"
Compared to What?
Topics: Interview Training, Interviewing, Newsletter, Performance Profiles, Recruiter Training, Recruiting
I spent the first half of the '90s working at GE. This was in Jack Welch's heyday: best practices, work-out, and management course from Harvard professors at the training center at Croton-on-Hudson (affectionately referred to as Camp GE.) It was a great experience, but there were a few things about GE's personnel policies that didn't really make sense. One of these was what we called the 10-80-10 policy.
» Continue reading "Compared to What?"
Are You Masking Your Hiring Process Problems with the Wrong Solutions?
Topics: Interview Training, Interviewing, Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Sourcing
Just about every corporate recruiter has too many requisitions to handle as effectively as possible. The problem is magnified when good candidates get excluded for dumb and preventable reasons, generally weak interviewing skills on the part of the hiring manager or a candidate who wasn't at his or her best. Sometimes good candidates are excluded before they're even seen because they don't have exactly the right background. Sometimes good candidates pull themselves out to of the process because the job doesn't seem interesting or the candidate didn't like the hiring manager. Few companies address these problems directly--instead they avoid them, focusing most of their energy and resources on hiring more recruiters or developing new sourcing ideas. This is comparable to buying more raw materials than necessary for a factory that has an excessive scrap rate rather than fixing the scrap problem.
» Continue reading "Are You Masking Your Hiring Process Problems with the Wrong Solutions?"
Unmasking the Well-Prepared Candidate
Topics: Assessment, Interview Training, Interviewing, Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting
It's back-to-school week here in Colorado, so my eight children are beginning yet another year of school. It's always interesting to me to gauge their reactions to their new teachers. They form their impressions very early, and some of those impressions are negative. Last night my son told me about his new sixth grade math teacher from you-know-where. "Oh dad, she is absolutely awful! She's extremely strict, she doesn't allow talking in class, and home work has to be in on time. If it's a minute late you get zero credit. She's way too serious, no fun, and she's the hardest, worst teacher in the school. Can you help me transfer out of her class?" We've all had teachers like this one, but what's interesting to me is that as you go through this process over and over with so many kids, you realize that the first day of school is very much contrived. It's a huge multi-act play. Every teacher has on his/her game face. Some try to scare the kids into submission while others try to win the students over by being open and friendly. Each has their own strategy and it's all carefully orchestrated to set the stage for the coming year. In two or three weeks once the impact of the teachers' "first day of school" speeches wear off, I'll start to get the "real" scoop. Sometimes the toughest teacher becomes my child's favorite. What I really care about is simply their ability to teach my children their subjects well.
» Continue reading "Unmasking the Well-Prepared Candidate"
How to Assess Potential and Promotability
Topics: Assessment, Managing, Newsletter, Recruiting
In a recent email I paraphrased the following quote. My son had sent it to me in regards to training and evaluating officers in the military. He thought it would be useful in assessing managers, executives, and leaders. It's been attributed to a variety of different people, and I can't seem to find the originator, so I apologize for not giving the true author official credit.
Amateurs think tactics.
Professionals think logistics, planning and strategy.
Reformers think staff selection, retention and team development.
» Continue reading "How to Assess Potential and Promotability"
Would Your Recruitment Ads Win a Super Bowl Contest?
Topics: Newsletter, Performance Profiles, Sourcing
Ok, I admit it. Unless my team is playing, I only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. And for advertising agencies, the Super Bowl is every bit as critical a contest as it is for the football teams. It defines bragging rights, generates huge publicity, and can mean millions of dollars in future business. If you search the web for Super Bowl advertising, you get over 2.6 million hits--there is actually a site called superbowl-ads.com. There are hundreds of sites that ask you to vote for your favorite (and least favorite) ads. It's become part of our culture. Job Boards such as CareerBuilder (with their chimpanzee campaign) have used the Super Bowl to generate enormous awareness of their offerings.
» Continue reading "Would Your Recruitment Ads Win a Super Bowl Contest?"
Are You On YouTube?
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting, Sourcing
The FBI is looking for a few good interns, and they are looking on YouTube. Surprised? You shouldn't be. In June I spoke at the Arkansas Association of Colleges and Employers. As I travel I always ask my audiences, "What's new in recruiting? What have you seen that's really innovative and cutting edge?" One of the leaders of this group, Ron, mentioned the new campaign that the FBI launched three months ago on YouTube. He was so excited about it that his career center is now in the process of producing something similar to promote internships at his college. Naturally I had to take a look.
» Continue reading "Are You On YouTube?"
Assess Your Company's Recruiting Department's Performance
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
» Continue reading "Assess Your Company's Recruiting Department's Performance"
Making your Job a "Dream Job"
Topics: Networking, Newsletter, Recruiting, Sourcing
Depending on which survey you read, 40 to 60 percent of the workforce is just waiting for you to call them with a great job. The number of people who are dissatisfied with their current job seems to climb with every new report. CareerBuilder's "Dream Job" Survey in January 2007 revealed that 84% of US workers are not in their dream job. No, these are not the jobs we dreamed of as children (in case you were wondering, the most popular are firefighter, princess, dancer, and cowboy). The definition of a dream job for us "grown-ups" is far more prosaic that that. According to CareerBuilder, "Workers said they want to enjoy their work experience, apply their talents and feel like they're making an impact. Having fun at work was the most important attribute of a dream job for 39 percent of workers, which heavily outweighed the 12 percent who said salary was most important."
» Continue reading "Making your Job a "Dream Job""
Fail to Plan or Plan to Fail -
Have a plan before you pick up the phone.
Topics: Newsletter, Sourcing
Before you pick up the phone and start calling potential candidates and referrals, what's your plan? Whom are you calling? Why are you calling? What's in it for the people you are calling? Know the answers to these questions, the approach you want to take, and what you want to achieve with every call, or stay off the phone. There is nothing worse than blowing a call with a great contact because you were not prepared to speak intelligently about your company, client, or the positions you are representing. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
» Continue reading "Fail to Plan or Plan to Fail -
Have a plan before you pick up the phone."
Using the Panel Interview to Save Time and Increase Accuracy
Topics: Interview Training, Interviewing, Newsletter, Performance Profiles, Recruiter Training
If you want to increase assessment accuracy and save time, conduct more panel interviews. These are much better than an all-day series of one-on-one 45-60-minute interviews. When organized properly, panel interviews help everybody involved learn more about the candidate, even weaker interviewers, if they just observe. Panel interviews also provide a great means for subordinates to get involved in the hiring process. Subordinates should never conduct one-on-one interviews, since they usually are trying to work for someone they like, so they focus on the wrong issues. For another, they're rarely objective, and worse, many of them are weak interviewers. A panel interview overcomes all of these problems. However, I didn't always believe this strongly that panel interviews were that good of an idea.
» Continue reading "Using the Panel Interview to Save Time and Increase Accuracy"
In the War for Talent, the Biggest Talent Pool Wins
Topics: Networking, Newsletter, Recruiting, Sourcing
Last year, in 2006, a momentous event occurred - the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup (yeah!). In addition, however, and more to the point, the demand for labor statistically exceeded the supply. The long-predicted labor shortage arrived in fact. The timing and severity of the shortage over the next 50 years is subject to debate, but its existence is not. In the two decades between 1980 and 2000, the U.S. workforce grew by 54%. From 2000 to 2020, it is predicted to grow by only 3%, due primarily to the retiring of the baby boom generation. For those of us in the recruiting and hiring field, this makes a difficult job even more difficult. Given a projected gap of 14 million skilled workers by 2020, it's only going to get harder.
» Continue reading "In the War for Talent, the Biggest Talent Pool Wins"
Are You Ready for the Upcoming Feeding Frenzy?
Topics: Newsletter
The jobs report for May 2007, which came out on June 1st, showed an unexpectedly large increase of 157,000 in non-farm U.S. payroll. At the 2007 June NACE conference in New York City, recruiters were clamoring for new ways to attract college grads and undergrads, especially MBAs. At a publisher's convention starting June 3rd, 250 CEOs from small companies were desperate for ways to hire top talent. And the list goes on...
» Continue reading "Are You Ready for the Upcoming Feeding Frenzy?"
Waking the Sleeping Giant - Passive Candidates Won't be Passive for Long!
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting, Sourcing
Life in recruiting used to be simple. Recruiters had exclusive jobs to offer to passive candidates who weren't looking for a job. Recruiters were the only ones who knew about these jobs, which gave them some element of control. The internet didn't exist and passive candidates stayed passive. Today the line between passive candidates and active candidates is crossed regularly.
» Continue reading "Waking the Sleeping Giant - Passive Candidates Won't be Passive for Long!"
Leverage "Leverage" to Get More Hot Referrals
Topics: Newsletter
This could be a very good article, maybe even a great one. It all depends on your point of view. For the chance it turns out to be a great article, wouldn't you agree that it's certainly worth investing a few minutes' reading time?
» Continue reading "Leverage "Leverage" to Get More Hot Referrals"
The Most Important Interview Question of All Time
Topics: Newsletter
If you want some quick insight into a candidate's technical competency, motivation level, and team leadership skills, start by asking this two-part question: "Of all of the things you've accomplished in your career, what stands out as most significant? Now could you go ahead and tell me all about it?"
Getting the correct answer to this question can tell you 65 percent to 75 percent of everything you need to make an accurate hiring decision. The correct answer comes by fact-finding and getting complete details of the accomplishment. As an example, let's try it out right now with you as the candidate. To start, write down a short description of your career-defining accomplishment. This would be the best work you've ever done. If you don't have a major accomplishment like this you can boast about quite yet, write down a project or an assignment you worked on that made you very proud.
» Continue reading "The Most Important Interview Question of All Time"
The Best People Are Looking - Finding and Hiring Them Is the Challenge
Topics: Newsletter
The Internet has dramatically increased workforce mobility. Job satisfaction appears to be at an all-time low. Turnover is rising. People change jobs on a whim. Counteroffers are more prevalent and more are being accepted. No wonder. To find another job nowadays, all a top person needs to do is Google a few keywords, a job title, and a city. When combined with a huge reduction in barriers to leaving a company (i.e., portable pension plans, reductions in health-care insurance, and fewer fringe benefits), employees are capable and willing to leave for minor infractions or slightly better offers. Turnover is no longer considered a character flaw. In this environment, a well-positioned ad or a timely phone call is sometimes all it takes to find a top performer. To take advantage of this trend, companies need to move away from a classified ad mentality of listing boring, hard-to-find jobs and, instead, adopt a consumer-marketing approach to advertising.
» Continue reading "The Best People Are Looking - Finding and Hiring Them Is the Challenge"
Job Satisfaction as a Recruiting Tool
Topics: Newsletter
Last week we held our Performance-based Hiring Tour event in Chicago to a full house. It was a great event and, as always, I learned something new from the participants. Ed, the owner of a recruiting firm, shared a May 1 Harvard Business School article called Inner Work Life: Understanding the Subtext of Business Performance. The authors, Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer, describe the article as "the first comprehensive look at what employees are thinking and feeling as they go about their work, why it matters, and how managers can use this information to improve job performance."
» Continue reading "Job Satisfaction as a Recruiting Tool"
Recruiting Is Not Selling, and Other Misconceptions about the Most Important Part of Hiring
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
Excerpted from the 3rd edition of Hire With Your Head (John Wiley and Sons, Inc. June, 2007)
After you've made an offer, but before accepting it, your candidate is probably shopping it around hoping to get something better. As soon as a candidate accepts your offer, the person gets buyer's remorse, wondering whether she made the right decision or left something on the table. Even if the person doesn't have a better offer on the table, lack of conviction when resigning sets the stage for a counteroffer. Effective recruiting becomes the difference maker when you want to ensure that more offers get accepted and stay closed.
Retail Marketing Meets Corporate Recruiting
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting, Sourcing
Circuit City has taken a lot of heat in the last few weeks for their recent "wage" action. If you didn't hear, they recently fired hundreds of higher paid ($12/ hour) sales people only to replace them with lower paid ($8/hour) entry level sales - translated "they don't know squat" sales people. A bold but very misguided move on their part. So let's imagine that because of their recent actions they want to dramatically boost sales in the short run. They go out and hire a brand new Vice President of Sales to come up with a whole new approach to retailing. After careful thought, a few late nights and way too many "Red Bulls", the new Vice President decides that what they need is a much more structured and focused sales approach.
» Continue reading "Retail Marketing Meets Corporate Recruiting"
Advertise like the Big Dogs (on a Chihuahua budget)
Topics: Newsletter
Most of the employment advertising we see is pretty bad. It's boring; it's uninspired; it's not engaging. In fact, it's often no more than a paid placement of a company or job description that's weak and overly long.
» Continue reading "Advertise like the Big Dogs (on a Chihuahua budget)"
Recruiting Lessons from an Advanced Practice Nurse
Topics: Newsletter
A few years ago, we helped a major hospital chain prepare a performance profile for an advanced practice nurse. A performance profile emphasizes what a person needs to do to be successful in a job, rather than the qualifications and experience. While both are required, it's better to focus on what a person does with his or her skills to more accurately assess their competency and motivation. Better yet, by clarifying performance expectations up-front, recruiters can find more talented people who might not have the exact mix of skills, experience and qualifications listed on the job description.
» Continue reading "Recruiting Lessons from an Advanced Practice Nurse"
Back Woods Recruiting
Topics: Newsletter
Last week I traveled to Pennsylvania to conduct a Recruiter Boot Camp training class for a small recruiting firm in the backwoods of the Poconos. When I say the backwoods, I really mean up in the trees, out in the boonies, and completely isolated. I felt a little like I was entering into a real time warp. Just to give you a flavor for the group, it's like one big happy family. Monday nights and Wednesday nights are reserved for their regular pool tournament. They have a company team and some of them are apparently pretty good players. Tuesdays and Fridays are bowling nights. Thursday is of course date night. The CEO and founder graciously skipped her Wednesday evening at the pool table to join me for dinner.
» Continue reading "Back Woods Recruiting"
The Amazing, Confusing and Sometimes Shocking World of Government Compliance (Part Two)
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
You give 100 percent in the first half of the game, and if that isn't enough, in the second half you give what's left. - Yogi Berra
This week we'll talk about the issue of recordkeeping around individuals that have been considered for a job. (The second part of our two-part article on OFCCP compliance.) Unfortunately, it's not as easy as defining who is an applicant, following that definition consistently, and gathering EEO data on that applicant. The OFCCP now requires companies to keep records on individuals that have been considered for a job, not just on applicants.
The Amazing, Confusing and Sometimes Shocking World of Government Compliance
Topics: Newsletter
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
Now that the OFCCP's Definition of an Internet Applicant is starting to be tested in audits, confusion continues to reign around what companies should and shouldn't be doing to comply with the regulations. The best source for answers to this is the OFCCP itself. Here's a link to their continually updated FAQ. For those who want a little background, here's an overview of what the OFCCP said and some ways to make compliance easier.
» Continue reading "The Amazing, Confusing and Sometimes Shocking World of Government Compliance"
The World of Hiring - Changing Faster Than Most Companies Can Respond
Topics: Newsletter
Last week we kicked off our live Performance-based Hiring Tour 2007 with the first event in Washington, D.C. to a sold out crowd. On Wednesday evening, Lou Adler hosted 21 recruiting leaders in an intimate roundtable discussion about state-of-the-art recruiting in corporate America. Since it was an invitation only event - all participants were directors and vice presidents of recruiting, or Vice Presidents of HR, with direct responsibility for recruiting.
For those of you who couldn't make it, or would rather be a fly-on-the-wall, I thought I'd share a few of the issues discussed by this high powered group. These may be some of the very issues you'll want to address in your own hiring strategy for 2007.
» Continue reading "The World of Hiring - Changing Faster Than Most Companies Can Respond"
How to Expand the Talent Pool Rather than Recycle It
Topics: Newsletter
In a recent ERE article I made the contention that the talent shortage is real and things will get worse unless major new initiatives were started. Some of the people who responded to the article contended that the talent shortage is not real if we just expand the talent pool by considering untapped sources of talent, like retiring baby boomers and woman reentering the workforce. If I look at the number of the articles written by esteemed authors (FYI: I am not in this category) about the talent shortage it seems that it's running 2:1 in favor of a talent shortage. Peter Cappelli, one of the more prominent naysayers, seems to be somewhat silent of late on this score; so, maybe he's shifting his position. Regardless, when you look under the hood at some of the data and the conclusions reached, there does seem to be relative unanimity on the idea that within the U.S. borders there is an upcoming skills gap. The solution, therefore, is to somehow expand the talent pool - both domestically and internationally - to offset the upcoming skills shortage.
» Continue reading "How to Expand the Talent Pool Rather than Recycle It"
If You Build It, Will They Come?
Topics: Newsletter
The "it" I'm referring to in this case is a great career web site. Yes, I mean great; not mediocre, not so-so, not okay, not what your technical people put up for you, but great. Oh, there are lots of poor career web sites around - we work with clients to improve those all the time. Great isn't easy to do, but it isn't rocket science either. Okay, you ask, so what do you mean by a great career web site?
» Continue reading "If You Build It, Will They Come?"
Are You Ready to Interview the Class of 2014?
Topics: Newsletter
Today at 2:00, I have the distinct honor of going to my son's 5th grade class and teaching 11-year old kids basic interviewing skills. The class is preparing for their Ameritown project - when they'll actually run a small town for a day. Each student has chosen a job to do and is preparing to compete with other kids in the class for the position they want. My goal is to teach them how to ace the interview to get the best job, while beating their friends in the competition. Sound familiar? I like the whole concept. It's edgy, it's real, and it's a true taste of how it's going to be once they get out of school and into the dog-eat-dog world of business.
» Continue reading "Are You Ready to Interview the Class of 2014?"
Why Top Candidates Take Jobs - Understanding and Managing Motivation
Topics: Newsletter
Understanding candidate motivation is the first step in implementing an appropriate recruiting strategy. On a very simple level there are only two reasons why candidates look for new jobs and ultimately accept offers. One reason is a "going-away" strategy. This usually has to do with leaving a bad job situation. This could be the result of a lay-off or a spouse's relocation. Recruiting is relatively easy if the candidate's current situation is weak and future options are limited. Standards are lowered based on these personal circumstances. If you find strong candidates in this position, move fast. You have a good, but temporary, advantage. Their future opportunities will change for the better very quickly.
» Continue reading "Why Top Candidates Take Jobs - Understanding and Managing Motivation"
The Cost of a Missed Hire or Why Recruiting Shouldn't be like Dating
Topics: Newsletter
There has been a lot written about the cost of a bad hire. The cost of replacing an employee has been estimated at anywhere from one times salary to three times salary, depending on who you ask. But how do you estimate the cost of not hiring a great candidate? Or even a good candidate? How do you estimate the impact of a non-event, of something that doesn't happen?
» Continue reading "The Cost of a Missed Hire or Why Recruiting Shouldn't be like Dating"
Candidates, are they finding your company career web site?
Topics: Newsletter
In this week's article, I interview Doug Berg, CEO and Founder of HotGigs. He and his team have recently developed a new product called Jobs2Web which addresses a growing issue for many companies. This interview is not intended to be an endorsement for the Jobs2Web product, but rather an exploration of the issues that make such a product necessary for companies that want to fully leverage the internet for recruiting.
First some background. When the Internet was first invented (not by Al Gore) it was touted as the great disintermediary. No longer would we have to go through middle men to get to products and services. The Internet would flatten the world, allowing buyers to purchase directly from the manufacturer at lower prices, with greater service and more communication. Unfortunately, with only a few exceptions such as Ebay, the first wave of successful Internet companies has really just been another vehicle for middle men to tap their target markets. Job seekers still generally go through middle men like Monster or CareerBuilder.com or any number of other niche sites. With the cost of ads rising (over $400 an ad) and the reach declining, these middle men are getting top dollar, delivering less and providing a market place which does not differentiate job offerings. Doug Berg describes why companies should start driving traffic to their own websites and not rely solely on the job boards. So sit back and enjoy a different world view:
» Continue reading "Candidates, are they finding your company career web site?"
Use Multi-Channel Sourcing to Improve Candidate Quality
Topics: Newsletter
(Note: The following is an excerpt from the 3rd Edition of Lou Adler's Hire With Your Head (John Wiley & Sons) to be published in June, 2007. Email us if you'd like to find out how you can implement a multi-channel sourcing channel.)
The Internet has dramatically increased workforce mobility. Job satisfaction appears to be at an all-time low. Turnover is rising. People change jobs on a whim. Counteroffers are more prevalent and more are being accepted. No wonder. To find another job nowadays, all a top person needs to do is Google a few keywords, a job title, and a city. When combined with a huge reduction in "barriers" to leaving a company (i.e., portable pension plans, reductions in health-care insurance, and fewer fringe benefits), employees are capable and willing to leave for minor infractions or slightly better offers. Turnover is no longer considered a character flaw. In this environment, a well-positioned ad or a timely phone call is sometimes all it takes to find a top performer. To take advantage of this trend, companies need to move away from a classified ad mentality of boring hard-to-find jobs and, instead, adopt a consumer marketing approach to advertising.
» Continue reading "Use Multi-Channel Sourcing to Improve Candidate Quality"
Recruiting is Not Selling, and Other Misconceptions About the Most Important Part of Hiring
Topics: Newsletter
Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.
- Don Shula
After you've made your offer, but before accepting it, your candidate is probably shopping it around and hoping to get something better. As soon as a candidate accepts your offer, the person gets buyer's remorse, wondering if she made the right decision or left something on the table. Even if the person doesn't have a better offer on the table, lack of conviction when resigning sets the stage for a counter-offer. Effective recruiting becomes the difference maker when you want to be sure more of your offers get accepted and stay closed.
Talent Rules! Are You Playing the Hiring Game to Win?
Topics: Newsletter
Geoffrey Moore's book Crossing the Chasm should be required reading for every corporate recruiting manager in the world. Next add SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham and, while you're at it, include Search Engine Marketing, Inc., by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt. There is not one single word about recruiting in any of these books, that's why they're so important. Collectively they describe how to market and sell to consumers. If you change the word "consumers" to "candidates" you'll understand what it will take to hire more top people in the next few years. Of course, if your supply of top talent is increasing you don't have to worry about this. In this case then you should read Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin to learn how to manage teams and increase employee retention.
» Continue reading "Talent Rules! Are You Playing the Hiring Game to Win?"
The Truth About Great Hires
Topics: Newsletter
The Magic Number
Three is a magic number,
Yes it is, it's a magic number.
Somewhere in the ancient, mystic trinity
You get three as a magic number.
The past and the present and the future.
Faith and Hope and Charity,
The heart and the brain and the body
Give you three as a magic number
From Schoolhouse Rock.
http://www.schoolhouserock.tv/Three.html
There are three foundational principles to the Performance-based Hiringsm system. Last time I wrote about the second, "Wait 30 Minutes". Lately I've been thinking about the third principle, "No 2s". (No, this isn't about an unreasonable prejudice against the number two.) It's based on the Performance-based Hiring rating scale of the 10 Factor Candidate Assessment, developed by The Adler Group to assess candidate competency across a wide range of variables. Often hiring managers will focus on the areas that are most important to them (such as technical ability) and consider other factors less (like team skills or motivation). These 10 factors combine competency models, required skills and technical ability with the actual performance needs of the job to provide a highly accurate assessment of the candidate. The competency levels used in the 10 Factor Assessment are:
» Continue reading "The Truth About Great Hires"
Being Found
How to Help the Hidden Job Market Find You
Topics: Newsletter
Prior to the advent of Internet job boards, savvy job hunters who wanted to tap into the hidden job market would start by identifying recruiters who had an industry specialty. Job seekers would network directly with the recruiter to get a pulse on who was hiring and what positions were open. Recruiters would keep these candidates' names on file for a rainy day; and, when they were ready to make a move they would start dialing for dollars. The Internet has changed this landscape considerably. The job boards have indeed created a fluid marketplace for talent. However, the best talent still does not look actively; nor, do they want to be found in the resume banks on the Internet.
» Continue reading "Being Found
How to Help the Hidden Job Market Find You"
How to Defend Your Candidates from Stupid Decisions
Topics: Newsletter
By becoming partners with their hiring manager clients, recruiters can use their influence to better defend their candidates from dumb decisions and poorly designed practices and policies. The key to the defense requires intervening at each step of the assessment and selection process, while fighting soft emotions with hard evidence.
Here are some things you can do to get started:
» Continue reading "How to Defend Your Candidates from Stupid Decisions"
Blink and Why First Impressions Must be Ignored
Topics: Newsletter
Recently, during a training class in Houston last week, I was asked a very interesting question. As many of you know from following Lou's columns over the years, Performance-based Hiringsm has three fundamental principles. One of those principles is to "wait 30 minutes" during the interview to assess the candidate's possible fit for the job. (Just for fun, I'll send a free copy of Lou Adler's Basic One-Question Interview CD to the first five managers who email all three fundamentals to Kathy@AdlerConcepts.com.) "Wait 30 minutes" arises from the fact that the typical employment interview renders a 57% accuracy rate - only 7% better than flipping a coin. In fact, the Wall Street Journal did a study showing that 70% of hiring managers make a judgment to advance the candidate (or not) in the first three minutes of an interview; then spends the rest of the interview gathering information that reinforces that first impression. (This first impression is based on the candidate's presentation - how he or she looks, speaks, dresses, shakes your hand, meets your eye, etc.)
» Continue reading "Blink and Why First Impressions Must be Ignored"
Putting the Great back in Hiring
Topics: Newsletter
Fortune magazine ran an article in their October 28th edition on "What it takes to be Great". If you haven't had a chance to read it, it is well worth your time. I quote liberally from the article below. On one hand, the article has nothing to do with hiring. On the other hand, the article has everything to do with hiring. Everybody wants to hire "great" employees and many managers have a vision in their minds of what would make the perfect employee, but few truly understand the essence of greatness as it relates to a particular job.
» Continue reading "Putting the Great back in Hiring"
How to Prep a Candidate
Topics: Newsletter
If you've ever lost a good candidate due to a poor assessment, spending time prepping your candidate might be the missing piece in making more placements. Doing a good job here can certainly reduce your send-outs per hire by 25-30%. Setting up one or two fewer interviews for each hire will boost your productivity and save you at least one day a week, because you won't have to do searches over again. Making sure that the best candidate gets the job - not the best interviewee or the person with the exact qualifications - is the key to becoming a more effective and productive recruiter.
» Continue reading "How to Prep a Candidate"
Diversity Recruiting is Not the Job of the Recruiter!
Topics: Newsletter
Corporate America finally got the memo; Diversity is a tool that can help build a stronger, more competitive and forward thinking company. So now, with guns blazing, diversity recruiting has become a major business initiative, often left in the lap of HR to figure out. I hate to tell you, but diversity recruiting is not the job of a recruiter; it's the job of every employee!
» Continue reading "Diversity Recruiting is Not the Job of the Recruiter!"
Dealing with Darwin
Topics: Newsletter
I recently picked up a book entitled Dealing with Darwin - How Great companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution. The book was recommended to me by John Ganley, former director of recruiting for Quest Software who was recently promoted to Vice President of Human Resources at Quest. This is another Geoffrey Moore book which focuses primarily on high tech companies; however, its lesson can be applied widely across any type of organization and functional group in any size organization. The basic premise of the book is that in order to thrive, companies must innovate. Change is of course inevitable; all innovation is not equal, nor does it provide the same level of benefits to a company or organization. Appropriate innovation is dependent