Articles - Recruiting
RSS FeedThe Hub and Spoke Model for Passive Candidate Sourcing
Topics: Recruiting
Over the past few months I've been making some not-so-bold predictions about the demise of job boards and the rise of the "hub and spoke" sourcing model for finding a better class of active candidates. Rather than repeat the prognostication here, I'd suggest that despite the shift to this new and improved sourcing model, in the long run it might not really matter.
» Continue reading "The Hub and Spoke Model for Passive Candidate Sourcing "
Recruiting Top Talent 2010 - Are You a Traditionalist or a Web 2.0 Free Radical?
Topics: Recruiting
Regardless of how tepid the recovery, sometime in early 2010 the demand for hiring will pick up, exacerbated by an increase in involuntary turnover. Once this happens, panic will ensue, with everyone gearing up to hire the best people they can find, at the lowest cost possible, and in the shortest period of time. How you respond to this pickup will be based on whether you're a traditionalist or a Web 2.0 free radical.
Traditionalists are those companies who will respond to this increase in hiring by aggressively seeking candidates to fill these open positions using the latest niche sites, adding Facebook pages, expanding their social networks, pushing their ads to blogs and user groups, and adding Twitter feeds to their new crop of career pages. By itself this is a reactive approach, built on using silver bullet tactics. It's a form of the classic req-driven, "needle in the haystack" sourcing model. With a well-known employer brand, it actually might work. However, when you strip away the bells and whistles, it's based on the flawed premise that top people will respond to negative, boring, and exclusionary ads if you post them in enough places.
Back to the Future: January 2010
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
Fast forward to January 15, 2010. What are some of the hiring challenges you're now facing?
» Continue reading "Back to the Future: January 2010"
An Action Plan to Convert Your Corporate Recruiters into Headhunters
Topics: Recruiting
In normal economic times, search firms make a lot of money placing candidates corporations should be able to find on their own.
» Continue reading "An Action Plan to Convert Your Corporate Recruiters into Headhunters"
What is Your Recruiting Strategy?
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
Do you have a recruiting strategy, or do you just adopt the latest fad and see if works? This probably won't work. Tactics don't determine strategy; strategy determines tactics. And when business conditions change, a company's strategy needs a corresponding change. So does the company's recruiting strategy. Some of these strategic changes are brought about by technology innovations, demographic shifts, changes in government policy, and economic cycles. Regardless of their causes, incorporating these changes and shifts into the business planning process allows companies to remain competitive.
» Continue reading "What is Your Recruiting Strategy?"
Outliers and the True Secret to Success
Topics: Recruiting
For a number of reasons, Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, Outliers, is a good read for recruiters and managers, in fact, for anyone who wants to get ahead in life.
» Continue reading "Outliers and the True Secret to Success"
Is Your Recruiting Department behind the Eight Ball?
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
The expression "behind the eight ball" refers to a difficult position from which escape is highly unlikely. In pool it's not good to be behind the eight ball because hitting the eight ball first is an automatic loss. Most (not all) recruiting departments are in heavy reaction mode, struggling to keep their heads above water, or out of the line of fire until the economic storm recedes. Most are not investing in the future nor preparing for the turnaround. This mentality is a sure recipe for being well behind the eight ball as this recession clears. There is good news. Most economists agree that we are at or near the bottom of this economic downturn.
» Continue reading "Is Your Recruiting Department behind the Eight Ball?"
Adler's Recruiter Self-Development Plan
Topics: Recruiting
About 25 years ago when the self-help gurus came on the scene, I heard Jim Rohn say something that still sticks:
"Things will get better for you when you get better."
Sage advice indeed, and now might be the best time to take heed.
» Continue reading "Adler's Recruiter Self-Development Plan"
How to Do Twice As Much With Half the Recruiting Team
Topics: Managing, Networking, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Sourcing
Times are tough. Even those companies that are doing reasonably well are cutting their recruiting teams by a minimum of 30% to a maximum of 90%, and tightening up expenses to the absolute barest minimum.
» Continue reading "How to Do Twice As Much With Half the Recruiting Team"
Use a "Skunk Works" Mentality to Rebuild Your Recruiting Programs
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
Are you ready, getting ready, planning on getting ready, or waiting for some direction?
While most companies are struggling and profoundly reducing their recruiting expenditures, there are a few who have established a below-the-radar "skunk works" to get ahead of the competition as soon as the downturn bottoms out.
» Continue reading "Use a "Skunk Works" Mentality to Rebuild Your Recruiting Programs"
Adler's 'Crazy Metrics' for Progressive Recruiters
Topics: Recruiting
As the economy tumbles, and companies right-size their recruiting departments, the bottom half is the first to go. Under this scenario, those formerly in the relatively secure 2nd quartile are now in the bottom half. So be wary or get better.
» Continue reading "Adler's 'Crazy Metrics' for Progressive Recruiters"
Recruiting Lessons from 'Fast Company'
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
The March 2009 issue of Fast Company lists its take on the 50 most innovative companies in the world.
» Continue reading "Recruiting Lessons from 'Fast Company'"
Benchmark Your Recruiting Skills Using the New 10-Factor Recruiter Scorecard
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
Back in 1999 I developed the first competency model for corporate and third-party recruiters. It's still relevant today, but not quite perfect. Here's a free online version (with instant feedback) you can use to assess yourself and your team.
We're now putting a new recruiter assessment tool together, and the following are some of the updated factors we're considering. Please look them over, rank yourself and/or your team and tell us what you think. Then, text the word "sourcing" to 96625 and enter your score to see where you stand.
» Continue reading "Benchmark Your Recruiting Skills Using the New 10-Factor Recruiter Scorecard"
"Early-Bird" Strategies for Sourcing Top Sales People, or Sourcing Secrets of Top Recruiters - Lessons from a Top Candidate's Search
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting, Sourcing
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.
Are You a Web 2.0 Wannabe?
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing, Working With Hiring Managers
If you don't invest in finding tomorrow's candidates today, you'll become history.
» Continue reading "Are You a Web 2.0 Wannabe?"
The First 100 Days - Recruiting in 2009
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
Do you think our new president will have it bad in his first 100 days? The recruiting industry is looking even worse. In late December we launched our annual survey and the results continue to roll in. We're keeping the survey open for a few more weeks so we can get the broadest picture possible of what's happening out there. You still have time to participate in the survey and receive the executive summary of our results, so if you haven't had a chance to fill it out, please take a moment to do it now by clicking here. Don't delay.
» Continue reading "The First 100 Days - Recruiting in 2009"
Don't Fire Your Recruiters Just When the Recovery is About to Begin
Topics: Recruiting
Hiring will start to recover in Q2, 2009, and now is the time to rebuild your recruiting team and massively upgrade your sourcing and hiring processes.
» Continue reading "Don't Fire Your Recruiters Just When the Recovery is About to Begin"
The UAW, the Detroit Bailout, and Related Sourcing Issues
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing, Working With Hiring Managers
A top-down command-and-control structure leads to power grabbing, not power sharing. It prevents people from seeing the bigger picture as groups defend their turfs and fight off change at all costs. This sounds like Detroit, and until Detroit develops and implements a customer-driven strategy with a culture of success before self-interest, the bailout won't work.
» Continue reading "The UAW, the Detroit Bailout, and Related Sourcing Issues"
Don't Sell the Job, Sell the Next Step!
Recruiting Lessons from a Winning Football Drive
Topics: Recruiting
Too many recruiters rush the closing process, trying to push the candidate across the finish line before the race has even started. If you want to win the recruiting game, stop the Hail Mary's.
How to Develop a Talent-Driven Hiring Strategy in Changing Times
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
One of our clients asked us to lead a full-day sourcing strategy review session for their recruiting and hiring leaders. The company believed they were moving in the wrong direction and needed to rethink everything they were doing very quickly. The catalyst for all this was the impact of the economic slowdown, the recent elections, and the company's overall strategic redirection and its desire to remain extremely competitive regardless of the current economic cycle.
Following is a quick summary of the ten core areas we discussed. These could be a helpful guide for you if your company's business conditions are rapidly changing. Thinking through the process ahead of time is far better than reacting to across-the-board restructuring edicts from on high.
» Continue reading "How to Develop a Talent-Driven Hiring Strategy in Changing Times"
Use a Cross-Functional Perspective to Implement a Just-in-Time Sourcing Strategy
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
Progressive companies are now implementing Just-in-Time (JIT) sourcing programs to ensure they have a ready pipeline of top talent once the economy recovers. This will provide early adopters a significant competitive advantage and an increased share of the best talent.
Obama vs. McCain, Jobs and the Role of Advertising on the Winning Candidate
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
Are you aware that there were 101 million searches conducted last month on Google with the word "jobs" in the search string? Here's the link to Google's AdWord site to verify for this for yourself.
While this article is not a political treatise on how advertising influenced who you will vote for (or have voted for), it is an article on how recruitment advertising is rapidly coming of age and what you must do to attract top applicants for your job openings. It's also an article on introducing our annual Compelling Advertising Contest for 2009, but more on this in a moment. Search engine optimization will be a critical new aspect of our search contest this year, so a little background on this is in order.
» Continue reading "Obama vs. McCain, Jobs and the Role of Advertising on the Winning Candidate"
Recruiting in an Age of Uncertainty
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
On my way to a recruiting event in Chicago last week I came across a fellow whom I'll call Chicken Little. He told me the sky was falling. I asked him how he knew and he told me six of his candidates just reneged after accepting offers, the company then implemented a partial hiring freeze, and the CEO slashed their recruiting department's budget by 50%.
» Continue reading "Recruiting in an Age of Uncertainty"
Bailing Out the Recruiting Industry - a Time to Advance or Retreat?
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
In battles, victory almost always goes to the bold and confident. Many companies are feeling the strain of the economic situation, but how will the bold react? Last Friday was week one of our October Recruiter Boot Camp Online. The economic bailout bill had just been signed into law and I believe there was a short sigh of relief followed by a whole lot of anxiety. We asked our new class of eager recruiters to identify any challenges they now face as a result of the growing economic/financial crisis. Below are some of their comments:
» Continue reading "Bailing Out the Recruiting Industry - a Time to Advance or Retreat?"
Use Job Satisfaction to Increase Your Placement Rate
Topics: Recruiting
I've always used a multi-factor approach to ensure candidates evaluate career opportunities across multiple factors, both short and long term. These typically included things like job stretch, impact, growth opportunities, learning, benefits, and compensation.
» Continue reading "Use Job Satisfaction to Increase Your Placement Rate"
Barack Obama, The OFCCP, and The Presidency
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
Note: this article has raised some controversy. Feel free to comment on Lou's Recruiters Roundtable blog.
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.
» Continue reading "Barack Obama, The OFCCP, and The Presidency"
Run Recruiting Like a Factory Manager if You Want to Hire More Top Prospects
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing, Working With Hiring Managers
I've been around a lot of years, and 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.
» Continue reading "Run Recruiting Like a Factory Manager if You Want to Hire More Top Prospects"
Go for the Gold!!! Shifting from a Traditional, Reactive Corporate Recruitment Model to a Strategic, Proactive Framework
Topics: The Science of Recruiting, Newsletter, Recruiter Training, Recruiting
In the spirit of the Summer Olympic Games, let's go for a gold level of service in recruitment – striving to be winners by providing best-in-class service to your clients.
Recruiting has been in a state of change for several years. As Applicant Tracking Systems have found their place in the hiring process, leaders are shifting their focus to finding ways to improve service levels to both candidates and hiring leaders. While there is no one solution for this next level of problem solving, one area of focus getting attention is the notion of shifting from the traditional, reactive corporate recruitment model to a more strategic, proactive framework. Currently this approach has a few different paths that it is taking – for some, it is a complete organizational redesign of the recruitment team, creating internal sourcing and research groups, alignment by function or job type, and one point of contact for hiring leaders; for others, they are dabbling in the concepts, applying what makes sense for their organization. Either way, it presents change of varying degrees with the potential for exciting results.
Random Chance and How Managers Make Faulty Hiring Decisions
Topics: Interviewing, Newsletter, Recruiting, Sourcing
Hiring is too important to leave to chance, but that's exactly what hiring managers do when hiring experienced outside people.
Consider this: managers typically make three different types of hiring decisions – an internal move (either a promotion or lateral transfer), hiring a rookie right out of college, and hiring an experienced outside person for an open position.
What's surprising is that a different set of rules applies for how each decision is made. More surprising is that the success rate for recent college grads and internal moves is far more predictable than for an outside, experienced hire. This suggests that it might make sense to change the outside hiring decision to more closely mimic the process used for college grads and internal promotions.
» Continue reading "Random Chance and How Managers Make Faulty Hiring Decisions"
Recruiting Passive Candidates in Tough Economic Times
Topics: Networking, Recruiting
Consider this as a basic truth: in tough economic times every job looks better, especially the one you already have.
» Continue reading "Recruiting Passive Candidates in Tough Economic Times"
How Fast Can You Respond to Change?
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
"Even if you're on the right track,
you'll get run over if you just sit there."
– Will Rogers"If everything is under control,
you are going too slow."
– Mario Andretti
It is a cliché these days to say that the only constant in the business world is change, but that doesn't make it any less true. Here are some great statements about the way conventional wisdom gets turned on its head:
"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
– Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Patent Office, 1899"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
– Harry Morris Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers, 1927"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
– Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
– Bill Gates, 1981
If these guys can get it so wrong, is it any wonder that the rest of us poor mortals have trouble predicting what's going to happen next? Who could have foreseen the depth and breadth of the current housing slump and its affect on the economy 12 months ago? How often do you see a merger or acquisition coming from down in the trenches? How many of us have seen our companies go from a hiring frenzy to a hiring freeze in just a few months?
» Continue reading "How Fast Can You Respond to Change?"
6 Steps for Hiring the Best Every Time
Topics: Interviewing, Performance Profiles, Recruiting, Sourcing
Over the past 30-plus years, I've been involved in thousands of searches, worked with hundreds of hiring managers, trained 3,000 to 4,000 recruiters, and worked closely with dozens of major companies. Following are some of the common threads among the best techniques, processes, and tools that I have seen and used.
» Continue reading "6 Steps for Hiring the Best Every Time"
Three Common Sense Secrets to Hiring Outstanding Sales People
Topics: Interview Training, Newsletter, Recruiting
Over the years, we've helped many companies apply the principles of Performance-based Hiringsm to find talented and productive sales people. When we first engage with these companies their conversations often begin with similar words… "Help me find sales people who are aggressive, multitaskers, closers who don't take ‘No' for an answer. It would be great if they came from our competitors and brought with them a few clients, contacts, or knowledge that will help them hit the ground running. And oh, by the way, I need them NOW." At this point in the conversation we have to intervene and help our clients think differently about the process of consistently hiring outstanding sales professionals. Below are three common sense secrets for doing just that:
» Continue reading "Three Common Sense Secrets to Hiring Outstanding Sales People"
Abraham Maslow, SPIN Selling, and Recruiting
Topics: Assessment, Negotiating, Recruiting
Understanding human behavior can help you recruit more passive candidates.
When filling a job order, most recruiters search through virtual stacks of resumes hoping one stands out, matching most of the skills and experiences listed on the job description. When calling a person, the recruiter attempts to gain this same information by first describing the job and then asking the person to describe his or her background. If there's a fit, the selling process begins.
» Continue reading "Abraham Maslow, SPIN Selling, and Recruiting"
Perfect Candidates and Other Mythical Creatures
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
Most of us outgrow our imaginary friends. We give up Santa Claus in elementary school, lose faith in the tooth fairy once we have our adult teeth, and stop believing in unicorns and leprechauns well before puberty. Beloved childhood fairy and fantasy tales are put away and saved for the next generation.
» Continue reading "Perfect Candidates and Other Mythical Creatures"
The Passive Candidate Recruiter's Scorecard – How well do you measure up on these 10 critical recruiter skills?
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
Many things have changed in the past few years regarding best recruiting practices, especially with the increased focus on passive candidate sourcing and recruiting. Based on this we decided to create a passive candidate recruiting scorecard. If you'd like to evaluate yourself, just review the following factors and rank yourself on the 1-5 scale described. This will be pretty insightful just to see where you stand if you're a recruiter, or where your team stands if you're a manager or director.
As you review each of the factors below rank yourself on the following 1-5 scale, with a Level 5 representing super star performance and a Level 1 representing absolute incompetence. On this scale a 2.5 would be considered adequate or average.
Level 1: Has no ability whatsoever, or doesn't want to do it under any circumstance.
Level 2: Has some ability, but needs urging or hasn't done it, but has the potential to learn.
Level 3: Has strong ability, has proven results, and is self-motivated to do it consistently.
Level 4: Has very strong ability with proven results and does it faster or does a lot more of it. Often trains others.
Level 5: Is one of the best in the business in this area. So good, in fact, is sought out to train others.
Four Trends Affecting the Future of Recruiting
Topics: Recruiting
This past week I spent time with a major recruitment advertising agency, a large direct marketing organization, and the top-performing office of one of the largest temp-to-perm employment agencies in the country.
These meetings revealed some trends that might help you develop your future recruiting strategies.
» Continue reading "Four Trends Affecting the Future of Recruiting"
Recruiting Darwin Awards – Not Everybody Evolves
Topics: Interviewing, Newsletter, Recruiting
Several years ago my children introduced me to the Darwin Awards. We've had a lot of fun reading some of the stories of the winners (or should I say "losers"?). These awards go to members of the human race who do something so dumb that they end up removing themselves from the gene pool – hence the name. For instance, take the guy who had a fuse in his car blow out on a long trip. He had the bright idea to use a bullet to replace the fuse. The logic was sound – it's made of metal and conducts electricity, doesn't it? Everything was going fine until the bullet heated up and exploded, leaving a big hole in his chest. As we travel the world talking to recruiters and recruiting organizations, I've become aware of some practices that, while not quite as deadly as the above example, do cause one to wonder what people are thinking. In the interest of brevity, I'm going to list just a few of the more egregious examples. I'll stop short of naming names, but know that every example is real.
» Continue reading "Recruiting Darwin Awards – Not Everybody Evolves"
The Uneven Evolution of Corporate Recruiting
Topics: Recruiting
Much of the hiring process from sourcing to closing to onboarding has changed significantly over the past 20 years. Much hasn't. And therein lies the problem.
» Continue reading "The Uneven Evolution of Corporate Recruiting"
Your Recruiting Success Depends on How Well You Manage Managers
Topics: Managing, Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers
In a recent ERE article I made the case that a tipping point was close at hand for converting recruiting and sourcing into a scalable and systematic business process.
» Continue reading "Your Recruiting Success Depends on How Well You Manage Managers"
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.
The Recruiting Tipping Point
Topics: Recruiting
I've been a judge for the ERE awards for the past three years and have attended numerous recruiting conferences around the world. As part of this, I've seen great ideas come and go, and some not so great, somehow hang on. So I'm a bit cynical with most of the hype and the emergence of the next great hope.
» Continue reading "The Recruiting Tipping Point"
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"
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"
The Imperfect Evolution of the Corporate Recruiting Department
Topics: Recruiting
Before we get to the future, a little history is in order. As part of the marketing for my retained executive search practice in the mid-1990s, I did consulting for dozens of mid-size companies through TEC (The Executive Committee) and YPO (Young Presidents Organization).
» Continue reading "The Imperfect Evolution of the Corporate Recruiting Department"
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"
Recruiting Ideas that Stand the Test of Time
Topics: Recruiting
Over the past 30 years, I've worked with thousands of managers, executives, and recruiters. While many things have changed involving recruiting over these years, a few things have stayed the same. Here's my short list of the best things I've learned about recruiting, sourcing, and hiring top talent that seem as true today as they did when I first started as a recruiter.
» Continue reading "Recruiting Ideas that Stand the Test of Time"
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"
Passive Candidate Recruiting in a Slowing Economy
Topics: Recruiting
Lack of planning and poor execution are the two most common causes of failure, whether it's fighting a war, launching any type of business initiative, or reallocating recruiting resources. When business conditions change, appropriate planning and reallocation of effort becomes even more important. When done properly, you'll be able to anticipate problems before they cause too much damage. From a recruiting perspective, this planning needs to start by understanding the mindset of potential candidates while they contemplate switching jobs as economic conditions worsen.
» Continue reading "Passive Candidate Recruiting in a Slowing Economy"
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"
The One Single Thing You Must Do to Become a Better Recruiter in 2008
Topics: Recruiting
This article describes the most important factor involved in individual-recruiter success.
» Continue reading "The One Single Thing You Must Do to Become a Better Recruiter in 2008"
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"
10 Steps to Increase Interviewing Accuracy into the 90% Range
Topics: Assessment, Interview Training, Interviewing, Networking, Recruiting
There are two huge problems when hiring is viewed as an end-to-end process. The first one involves sourcing. Most companies are terrible when it comes to advertising, recruiting, and attracting the best. Of course, as a recruiter, how I make my money is by finding top people that others can't. And, in today's Internet age, this is actually quite easy. However, this is a big waste of time if you or your hiring managers don't know how to accurately assess candidate competency.
» Continue reading "10 Steps to Increase Interviewing Accuracy into the 90% Range"
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"
Hiring and Recruiting Challenges Survey 2008 Preliminary Results
Topics: Interviewing, Managing, Recruiting, Sourcing
We are currently in the midst of our somewhat annual Hiring and Recruiting Challenges 2008 Survey. You should take the survey. Just the questions will get you jazzed. The answers, on the other hand, will make you shudder.
» Continue reading "Hiring and Recruiting Challenges Survey 2008 Preliminary Results"
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"
The Seven Axioms of Yves Behar
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
Don't use Wal-Mart advertising techniques to sell to a Tiffany's buyer - Lou Adler
Great design is at the heart of great marketing. For years, I've been preaching about the need to use advanced consumer marketing concepts to attract top talent. Every issue of Fast Company has some great marketing ideas that can be incorporated in your recruitment advertising and sourcing programs. The October 2007 issue is no exception.
» Continue reading "The Seven Axioms of Yves Behar"
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"
How to Recruit the Best Passive Candidates
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
Passive candidates are, by definition, people who are not currently looking for a job. Despite this, most people in this category would be willing to discuss a new career opportunity if it offered some significant upside opportunity.
» Continue reading "How to Recruit the Best Passive Candidates"
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?"
Hot Tip #29 - Humongous Techniques to Boost Your Recruitment Advertising Efforts
Topics: Recruiter Hot Tips, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Sourcing
I've just finished reading Dan and Chip Heath's Made to Stick - Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. This is a great book on marketing and how to influence others, and many of the ideas can be directly applied to recruiting in general and recruitment advertising in particular. When you combine this with Hire With Your Head you'll be finding more top candidates and making more placements before the week is out.
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"
The Psychology of Recruiting Top Performers
Topics: Negotiating, Networking, Recruiting, Sourcing
You've just placed a top performer in a new job. It's a great fit right off the bat. The job is as advertised, job expectations were clear, the person is making an impact, doing work she enjoys, working with a great team, and working for a top-notch manager who is a true mentor.
» Continue reading "The Psychology of Recruiting Top Performers"
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?"
Hot Tip #27 - Double Your Placement Rate in Half the Time
Topics: Interviewing, Networking, Recruiter Hot Tips, Recruiting, Sourcing
Let's start by identifying some of the biggest yield losses in the recruiting process and begin improving these. Starting with the worst, here are just basic metrics you might want to consider to achieve our goal:
» Continue reading "Hot Tip #27 - Double Your Placement Rate in Half the Time"
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?"
Hot Tip #26 - A Partial List of the Ten Commandments of Recruiting Passive Candidates
Topics: Recruiter Hot Tips, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Sourcing
There's a great article about recruiting in the September 2007 issue of Fast Company - "The Inevitability Of $300 Socks." Actually, it has nothing to do with recruiting unless you read between the lines. And what a great story is told between those lines! Chip and Dan Heath, the authors of the business best seller Made to Stick - Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, make the point in their article that some basic products attain premium pricing when they're seen as ideas rather than mere commodities. The Heaths cite alcohol, jeans and spa treatments as idea-based products and oil changes and fax machines as idea-free. You obtain premium pricing and margins with idea-based products and basic market returns with basic commodities
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"
Hot Tip #25 - A Partial List of the Ten Commandments of Recruiting Passive Candidates
Topics: Recruiter Hot Tips, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Sourcing
Here's a modified version of an earlier article that's worth considering today more than ever. Over my 25 years of recruiting experience, I've learned a few important principles about how to effectively recruit passive candidates. Most were learned by trial and error, and while they might not all be applicable to your specific situation, collectively they offer a pretty decent road map of what it takes to hire more top passive candidates on a consistent basis. Here are the first five of my favorite ten commandants for recruiting passive candidates. The next five will be covered in next week's Hot Tip article.
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"
Hot Tip #24 - These Six Techniques Can Improve Your Productivity by 100%!
Topics: Assessment, Interviewing, Recruiter Hot Tips, Recruiting, Sourcing
Most recruiters waste too much time doing unnecessary work. The solution is not reducing your req load, it's cutting your sendouts/hire in half. This will increase your productivity by 100%. In the process you'll start hiring more people who are top performers, but not great interviewers, and you'll stop hiring people who are great interviewers, but not top performers. Here's how to pull off this amazing feat:
» Continue reading "Hot Tip #24 - These Six Techniques Can Improve Your Productivity by 100%!"
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?"
The 10 Pillars of Effective Sourcing
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
Too many companies fall into the trap of using a "by default" sourcing strategy as their primary means to find top people.
» Continue reading "The 10 Pillars of Effective Sourcing"
Assess Your Company's Recruiting Department's Performance
Topics: Newsletter, Recruiting
» Continue reading "Assess Your Company's Recruiting Department's Performance"
Hot Tip #21 - Talent Hubs, Mashups, and Widgets
Topics: Recruiter Hot Tips, Recruiting, Sourcing
The fundamental sourcing strategy for any major corporation should be the building of the biggest proprietary database of resumes, contacts, and leads as possible. From this database candidates should then be culled and contacted based on specific job needs. Building the database and keeping it warm are two separate tasks. For this article, let's address the building of the database.
» Continue reading "Hot Tip #21 - Talent Hubs, Mashups, and Widgets"
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""
An Open Letter to Our Candidates
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
Imagine that this letter appeared on the first page of your company's career website, or perhaps on your company's home page in place of the "Careers" button.
» Continue reading "An Open Letter to Our Candidates"
The Most Advanced, Innovative Career Website in the World
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
I'm in the process of preparing a product requirement document for a state-of-the-art career website, and I need your help. While cash is somewhat limited, creativity isn't. The client has even suggested that the product spec by shared with every other company in the world as long as they help input some ideas into the design process.
» Continue reading "The Most Advanced, Innovative Career Website in the World"
Hot Tip #17 - Googling for Resumes Using Performance Terms
Topics: Recruiter Hot Tips, Recruiting, Sourcing
When cold-calling passive candidates or searching for names, lists, and resumes on line, I make a point to maximize my time by only talking with high performers. This way, even if these people are not perfect for the assignment at hand, they know other top performers who are. Of course, to be a successful full-cycle recruiter you have to be very good at getting these top people to call you back, then recruiting them and then getting the referrals (we show you how to do this in Recruiter Boot Camp Online). To save time at the front end you must limit your calling to only top people. You can do this by adding recognition terms, honors, and awards into your online searches.
» Continue reading "Hot Tip #17 - Googling for Resumes Using Performance Terms"
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"
Being a Good Interviewer is More About Recruiting than Selection
Topics: Assessment, Interview Training, Interviewing, Performance Profiles, Recruiter Training, Recruiting
I learned to become a better interviewer than my clients for only one reason: to prevent good candidates from being excluded for bad reasons. Too many of my clients were assessing candidates improperly, either overvaluing first impressions or using some narrow range of skills to determine competency.
» Continue reading "Being a Good Interviewer is More About Recruiting than Selection"
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!"
Hot Tip #11 - Time is Your Most Valuable Commodity - Don't Waste It
Topics: Recruiter Hot Tips, Recruiting
Use the idea of leveraging time to your advantage whenever a candidate decides to opt-out of your process - under the contention that your job is no better than others she's considering. Here's an example of how this scenario plays out.
» Continue reading "Hot Tip #11 - Time is Your Most Valuable Commodity - Don't Waste It"
Speed Kills
Topics: Assessment, Interviewing, Recruiting
There is no longer a hidden job market. The line between active and passive candidates is blurring. Turnover is on the rise. Workforce mobility is increasing. It's easy to look for a new job, apply, and be interviewed from your desktop. The barriers to entry and exit are falling.
» Continue reading "Speed Kills"
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"
Learn to Defend Your Candidate from the Competition and Dumb Decisions
Topics: Negotiating, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers
The demand for top people has exploded. Part of this is due to demographics, a strong economy, and a widening gap between those with high-demand skills and available supply. Matters are made worse by the increase in workforce mobility, the blurring of the lines between active and passive candidates, and the transparency of the job market.
» Continue reading "Learn to Defend Your Candidate from the Competition and Dumb Decisions"
Do You Have a Winning Sourcing Strategy?
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing, Sourcing
What's your company's sourcing strategy? Do you have a target audience in mind you want to hire, and do you have the appropriate plans, tactics, and resources in place to pull it off? If you do, you probably have this strategic plan written out with the trade-offs analyzed and argued about and each sourcing channel then optimized to produce results. Of course, before it was implemented, the plan was presented to your senior management with all of the ROI "guesstimates" for approval.
If you don't have this type of sourcing strategy process in place, you might find this article of interest.
» Continue reading "Do You Have a Winning Sourcing Strategy?"
Recruiting Circa 2010: Critical Hiring Trends You Must Watch
Topics: Interviewing, Managing, Recruiter Training, Recruiting, Sourcing
Web 2.0 has resulted in a rapid change in how hiring top talent could be conducted. But from what I can tell, very few companies are moving rapidly enough to take full advantage of this great opportunity.
» Continue reading "Recruiting Circa 2010: Critical Hiring Trends You Must Watch"
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.
Why You Must Eliminate Job Descriptions
Topics: Interviewing, Performance Profiles, Recruiting, Taking the Assignment
As far as I'm concerned, the use of traditional qualifications-based job descriptions are the primary reason companies are not finding enough top people.
In this article, I'm going to prove that they are unnecessary, counter-productive, reduce the size of the applicant pool, encourage sloppy management, and are the cause of most hiring mistakes. Of course, your comments are welcome.
» Continue reading "Why You Must Eliminate Job Descriptions"
Are You Playing the Hiring Game to Win?
Topics: Recruiting
A few months ago I made the case in an ERE article (Hiring the Best is a Team Sport) that corporate recruiting departments should not be organized to compete with third-party recruiters.
Aside from performance-based compensation, there are a few obvious reasons supporting this philosophy:
» Continue reading "Are You Playing the Hiring Game to Win?"
How to Prep a Candidate
Topics: Recruiting
Many recruiters consider their hiring manager clients a bit weak on interviewing skills, assessing competency, and recruiting top people. Of course, most managers consider their recruiters a bit weak on understanding real job needs and finding qualified candidates.
A good candidate prep can sometimes reduce this gap.
» Continue reading "How to Prep a Candidate"
The Future of Recruiting: A Retrospective
Topics: Recruiting
In a recent ERE article, I made some predictions about the world of recruiting circa 2010. Based on what I saw at the recent HR Technology Conference in Chicago, it turns out I'm wrong. It looks like the predictions will come true much sooner than suggested.
» Continue reading "The Future of Recruiting: A Retrospective"
The Disruptors: Fundamental Changes in Recruiting You Need to Put on Your Radar Screen
Topics: Recruiting
To stay on the forefront of recruiting, you might want to read the October 2006 edition of Business 2.0. The cover story pretty much tells it all: The Next Disruptors: They're Gunning for Google. And Skype. And Citibank, Ford, Oracle and AT&T. Meet 11 Companies Whose Breakthroughs Will Change Everything.
What's Hot, What's Not - and What Should Be
Topics: Recruiting
I think I have been to every ERE Expo since the dawn of the Internet, but Dave and crew outdid themselves in Florida this year. It was filled with fresh faces, new ideas, and a new take on some lingering problems.
» Continue reading "What's Hot, What's Not - and What Should Be"
5 Critical Things Recruiters Need to Do to Become Partners With Their Clients
Topics: Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers
Our recently completed 2006 Recruiting and Hiring Challenges survey revealed some significant conflicts between recruiters and their hiring managers that aren't abating. Between 50 and 60% of the survey respondents indicated these were significant problems at their companies:
» Continue reading "5 Critical Things Recruiters Need to Do to Become Partners With Their Clients"
Counterpoint: Why There is Absolutely No Difference Between Generations
Topics: Recruiting
We've been fooled: there's no difference in hiring and managing people of different age groups, whether they're 16 or 60.
» Continue reading "Counterpoint: Why There is Absolutely No Difference Between Generations"
Boom! Why We Should Blow Up the Recruiting Department and Start From Scratch
Topics: Recruiting
According to Ben Franklin, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
» Continue reading "Boom! Why We Should Blow Up the Recruiting Department and Start From Scratch"
Is the Transactional Corporate Recruiting Model Doomed?
Topics: Recruiting
We just closed our annual hiring challenges survey, with a few hundred participants describing their perspective on the state of the recruiting industry. From a preliminary review it's not comforting, especially if you're a corporate recruiter or recruiting manager. Most alarming is that things haven't gotten better since we took the survey last year. In fact, the situation has deteriorated. For example:
» Continue reading "Is the Transactional Corporate Recruiting Model Doomed?"
Is the Business Model for the Corporate Recruiting Department Fundamentally Flawed?
Topics: Recruiting
In this article, I'm going to make the case that the underlying organization and structure of most U.S. corporate recruiting departments are fundamentally flawed. In fact, in many ways they resembles the worst performing business model of them all - a not-for-profit, government-funded, bureaucratic monopoly. Worse, unless big changes are made, companies who use this outdated model will never find enough top people to meet their business needs.
How to Recruit Young Professionals
Topics: Recruiting
This is a true story about my first recruiting lesson. You might find it useful if you want to hire more young professionals.
» Continue reading "How to Recruit Young Professionals"
Recruiting is Sales: How to Become a Better Salesperson Today
Topics: Recruiting
Before you begin reading this article, write down all of the reasons your candidates and hiring manager clients give you for not moving forward.
» Continue reading "Recruiting is Sales: How to Become a Better Salesperson Today"
How HR/Recruiting Wastes $100 Million Every Year!
Topics: Recruiting
How many people will your company hire over the next 12 months? Multiply this number by the average salary (some number between $50,000 and $100,000). Now do the math.
» Continue reading "How HR/Recruiting Wastes $100 Million Every Year!"
To Hire More Top People, You Need to Become Talent-Centric
Topics: Recruiting
If you're not seeing and hiring enough top people, you have a problem. If things are getting worse rather than better, you have a bigger problem. If you're using more high-priced contract employees or more external search firms to fill in the gaps to meet hiring needs, you're masking the problem. Identifying the problems and providing a few solutions is the point of this article.
» Continue reading "To Hire More Top People, You Need to Become Talent-Centric"
Why We Lost the War for Talent
Topics: Recruiting
Over the past 67 months, I've asked 117 different Fortune 500 companies and 272 small to mid-sized companies if they've finally won the war for talent. Only a handful said yes.
» Continue reading "Why We Lost the War for Talent"
In Search of the Perfect Candidate - Part 1
Topics: Interviewing, Recruiting, Sourcing
Everybody wants to hire the perfect candidate. And why not? These are the people who have great track records, great academic backgrounds, great personalities, great experience, and have worked at companies doing just what you want done. Even better, these great people are just like you - smart, savvy, and ready to move ahead.
» Continue reading "In Search of the Perfect Candidate - Part 1"
Don't Let the Bureaucrats Win
Topics: Recruiting
There is a conspiracy preventing companies from hiring top people. The bureaucrats are behind it. We've been fighting the war for talent for a long time and nobody has won. Odd.
» Continue reading "Don't Let the Bureaucrats Win"
How to Defend Your Candidates from Stupid Decisions
Topics: Recruiting
In recent articles, I made the case that fundamental shifts in decision-making and perspective had to take place in order for a company to see any sustained improvement in its hiring results.
» Continue reading "How to Defend Your Candidates from Stupid Decisions"
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
Topics: Managing, Recruiting
This article is exactly 1,000 words long. It contains instructions on how to draw a picture. Drawing the picture will have a profound affect on your ability to think strategically. It will also make you a better recruiter. Now grab a pencil and a blank sheet of paper.
» Continue reading "A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words"
Recruiting and John Wooden's Pyramid of Success
Topics: Assessment, Recruiting
A few weeks ago, my wife of 35 years saw my eyes fill with tears as I was watching TV. Fortunately, I was watching a basketball game, so she knew it wasn't too serious. After 35 years, she knew immediately the cause, and responded, "Oh, that John Wooden fellow must be speaking again."
» Continue reading "Recruiting and John Wooden's Pyramid of Success"
10 Steps to Finding and Hiring Diversity and High-Demand Candidates
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
Here are two basic principles of recruiting that you need to apply when targeting passive candidates, diversity candidates, or any type of candidates in high demand:
- The more competition there is for a group of candidates (like nurses, pharmacists, sales reps who always exceed quota, design engineers who were elected to Tau Beta Pi, diversity candidates, etc.), the more recruiting effort is required to attract and hire them.
- Top people want top jobs, regardless of their cultural, ethnic or religious background or gender.
» Continue reading "10 Steps to Finding and Hiring Diversity and High-Demand Candidates"
How to Convert Cold Calls into Hot Candidates
Topics: Networking, Recruiting
Jim is the best recruiter at LNM, a division of a Fortune 500 company. Karen is a strong marketing manager who is not looking for a job. Jim found Karen's name on ZoomInfo, and he is now cold calling her to explore the possibility of considering her for the position.
» Continue reading "How to Convert Cold Calls into Hot Candidates"
Recruiting Basics: Making Offers
Topics: Recruiting
This article was originally published November 12, 2004.
If you've ever had an offer turned down or had a candidate say, "I have to think about it," you made the offer too soon. You've probably also broken the cardinal principle that every recruiter must follow: "Never make a formal offer until it's been 100% accepted. Test it first, test it again, and continue to test it until the candidate says yes." Then make the offer.
Here's how this "testing the offer" process works:
» Continue reading "Recruiting Basics: Making Offers"
The #1 Secret of Hiring Success
Topics: Interviewing, Performance Profiles, Recruiting, Sourcing
If your hiring manager clients are not doing a good job of assessing your candidates, you should review this article with them. No matter how good a recruiter you are, if your clients pass on your good candidates, you're working too hard doing searches over again. The key is just to assess a candidate's motivation to do the work.
» Continue reading "The #1 Secret of Hiring Success"
10 Recruiting Initiatives You Must Start Immediately
Topics: Recruiting
No matter where you are in the world or what industry you're in, no matter how big or small you are, and no matter what types of positions you're trying to fill, everyone struggles with finding and hiring top talent. The solution for everyone is the same - unless candidate supply far exceeds demand or you're the employer of choice in your industry. But before I provide the solution, some background is in order.
» Continue reading "10 Recruiting Initiatives You Must Start Immediately"
iPods and the Weakest Link in the Hiring Chain
Topics: Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers
I've been advocating the use of the iPod as a metaphor for better hiring practices. If you have an iPod, you know that it's much more than a music player. It's a complete, integrated music system. You can quickly download music and podcasts, burn CDs, and plug it into your car, home music system or Bose speaker set. You don't even have to read the instructions to do any of this stuff and get great music anytime, anywhere.
» Continue reading "iPods and the Weakest Link in the Hiring Chain"
The Ten Ps of Recruiter Survival
Topics: Recruiting
Since the beginning of the year I've spoken with over 500 corporate recruiters, asking them to describe their biggest hiring challenges. As part of this, we also conducted a Recruiting and Hiring Challenges 2005 Survey to get a better understanding of what's really happening and to see if any major trends were developing.
Here are some of the findings so far:
» Continue reading "The Ten Ps of Recruiter Survival"
Are you a Rounder or a Flatlander?
Topics: Recruiting
What if everything you thought was true wasn't?
» Continue reading "Are you a Rounder or a Flatlander?"
Get Out of the Clouds
Topics: Recruiting
My ongoing Recruiting and Hiring Challenges 2005 Survey is continuing to reveal some startling information, such as:
» Continue reading "Get Out of the Clouds"
How to Become a Partner with Your Clients
Topics: Recruiting
This article was originally published on July 16, 2004.
The single best way to become a more effective recruiter is to become a true partner with your hiring manager clients. And the single best way to become a true partner with your hiring manager clients is to know the job.
» Continue reading "How to Become a Partner with Your Clients"
Are You Chasing Your Tail, or Is Your Tail Chasing You?
Topics: Managing, Recruiting
Over the past month, I've had the opportunity to discuss talent management strategy with over 500 recruiting and HR leaders from companies across the U.S. I started these talks by asking the question, "Are you aware that most corporate executives and line managers don't consider HR/recruiting strategic enough?"
» Continue reading "Are You Chasing Your Tail, or Is Your Tail Chasing You?"
So You Want To Be a Headhunter?
Topics: Recruiting
There is a major and accelerating shift now underway at most major U.S. corporations regarding how to best recruit new talent. Corporate recruiting departments are now more serious than every before about competing head-on with third-party agencies and executive search firms.
» Continue reading "So You Want To Be a Headhunter?"
The 10 Commandments of Recruiting
Topics: Interviewing, Recruiting, Sourcing
Recruiting is like sales and marketing rolled into one. If a company has a great brand, a great job, and a great hiring manager, not too much marketing or recruiting is required. But if your company lacks one or more of these factors - or if you're targeting hard-to-fill positions - then stronger recruiters are required.
» Continue reading "The 10 Commandments of Recruiting"
4 Things Recruiters Must Do to Hire Passive Candidates
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
If you missed ERE's ER Expo 2005 Spring in San Diego, you missed a great event. You should attend one of these bi-annual event every year or so, just to stay on top of the latest trends. There is some great practical information presented by an extraordinary group of recruiting experts.
» Continue reading "4 Things Recruiters Must Do to Hire Passive Candidates"
A Look Back at 2004 from a CEO's Perspective
Topics: Recruiting
Last year, I wrote an article from a futuristic perspective - January, 2005, to be exact. The CEO of some mythical company was looking back at 2004 and thanking the recruiting team in a letter for doing a remarkable job. The point of the letter was to demonstrate what the recruiting team had to accomplish during 2004.
The point of this article is to allow you to gauge your progress in implementing better hiring and recruiting processes. Following is a summary of the letter.
» Continue reading "A Look Back at 2004 from a CEO's Perspective"
Recruiting Lessons from the iPod
Topics: Recruiting
Why is the iPod such a phenomenon?
It's not because it looks neat or works well. Those things are just a small part of it. The real reason it's such a phenomenon is that it's more than a music player, it's a music system. In fact, it's a music business system far larger than itself. Get this: 4.8 million iPods were sold in the fourth quarter of 2004 alone. At this rate, soon everyone in the world will soon have one.
There are business, management, and especially recruiting lessons to be learned from the success of the iPod.
» Continue reading "Recruiting Lessons from the iPod"
How to Recruit and Hire Passive Candidates
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
To get started recruiting and hiring top passive candidates, it's important to understand the theory of recruiting. The following has never before been revealed in print, so please tread carefully as you proceed through the balance of this article.
» Continue reading "How to Recruit and Hire Passive Candidates"
Technology Trends: Become a Better Customer
Topics: Recruiting
Every month, I do an article on the state of technology. This month is no exception.
» Continue reading "Technology Trends: Become a Better Customer"
Forget Six Sigma! One Sigma Is the Real Goal for Hiring Top Talent
Topics: Recruiting
Every company wants to make hiring top talent more predictable. Some even go as far as putting a Six Sigma task force together to begin the process. Yet they're all unlikely to succeed. Six Sigma is about process improvement. Unfortunately, you can't implement process improvement until you have a process to improve.
» Continue reading "Forget Six Sigma! One Sigma Is the Real Goal for Hiring Top Talent"
Using Root Cause Analysis to Hire Better People
Topics: Recruiting
Diagnose before prescribing. Every first-year med student learns this simple admonition. It should be applied to business decisions more often. In an attempt at quick improvement, we often try to implement solutions without enough information. This situation is not exclusive to HR/recruiting.
» Continue reading "Using Root Cause Analysis to Hire Better People"
The 2X Factor: The Real Cost of Bad Hiring
Topics: Recruiting
I'm going to make the case that the cost of a bad hiring decision for most positions is 2 times (2X) the person's annual salary. This is not a one-time cost either. It happens year after year. That's a lot of money.
You'll use this information to become a better recruiter. Here's how:
» Continue reading "The 2X Factor: The Real Cost of Bad Hiring"
Technology Trends: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Topics: Recruiting
Dateline Chicago, October 2004, HR Technology Conference
This is a story of missed opportunities, lack of vision, not enough courage, and hope for the future.
» Continue reading "Technology Trends: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly"
Thinking Outside the Box First Requires Getting Out of It
Topics: Recruiting
Sometimes summer reading can bring a new perspective on old problems. Here are a few samples, and some rather odd advice:
» Continue reading "Thinking Outside the Box First Requires Getting Out of It"
Using Retained Search as a Model for the Future of Hiring
Topics: Recruiting
First, the vision.
As I finished up my presentation for the September 13-15, 2004, ER Expo 2004 Fall in Boston, the overwhelming idea came to mind that hiring top talent can some day be a systematic business process. By this I mean that companies and their hiring managers can assume that when a hiring need arises, it will be quickly filled by a strong person. When this day arrives, the systems will be in place to automatically ferret out the best people available, using a variety of effective sourcing techniques.
» Continue reading "Using Retained Search as a Model for the Future of Hiring"
Recruiting is Marketing (and Other Dumb Ideas on Finding Top Employees)
Topics: Recruiting
In a recent article I made the contention that too much time and effort is wasted finding top candidates, when the real focus should be on finding top employees. Top candidates work hard on getting the job. Top employees work hard on the job. There's a world of difference, and the implications are huge.
» Continue reading "Recruiting is Marketing (and Other Dumb Ideas on Finding Top Employees)"
4X4: A New Take on What It Takes to Become a Great Recruiter
Topics: Recruiting
[Note: Many of you have recently signed up for our free August 2003 online semi-sourcing course. Since that happened last August -- it was an old article -- you were a bit late. However, those who attended did learn how to find top semi-active and semi-passive candidates at less than $500 per hire. For ICRs this was done WITHOUT using TPRs, while increasing candidate quality to only "A" level candidates. For TPRs (third-party recruiters) this means you could find more top people more quickly than your competitors and most ICRs.
» Continue reading "4X4: A New Take on What It Takes to Become a Great Recruiter"
10 Ways to Still Get Search Fees
Topics: Recruiting
In a recent article, 10 Ways to Avoid Paying Search Fees, I made the case that larger companies have targeted third-party recruiter (TPR) expenses as a major cost-saving opportunity. Up until a few years ago, my own prediction was that success was unlikely until these companies started aggressively pursuing less active candidates. While it might take a few more years, this fundamental shift is now underway.
» Continue reading "10 Ways to Still Get Search Fees"
10 Ways to Avoid Paying Search Fees
Topics: Managing, Recruiting
The easy performance improvements are over. As the hiring market recovers, corporate recruiting departments will be called upon to handle more work with fewer trained recruiters and with fewer good people applying. Recruiting managers who adjust for this imbalance now will be able to minimize the impact of a recovering labor market.
» Continue reading "10 Ways to Avoid Paying Search Fees"
Why Metrics Don't Matter Anymore, or Are You Missing the Big Picture?
Topics: Managing, Recruiting
Doing the wrong things more efficiently is not a good thing -- even if you do them well. [You might want to read that opening sentence again: it's a key part of this interactive article. There are a few questions based on this at the end. If you answer them, even incorrectly, they'll entitle you to a free guest pass at one of my upcoming public workshops. We're in Boston on May 26 and Washington, DC on June 23rd. The point of this article is to get everyone to start thinking about problems from a different perspective. So make your answers as odd and as different as you can possibly imagine.]
» Continue reading "Why Metrics Don't Matter Anymore, or Are You Missing the Big Picture?"
Hardball Recruiting, Part 4: Negotiating and Closing Offers
Topics: Recruiting
This is the fourth and final part in my "hardball recruiting" article series. We're down to one or two final candidates, and the offer process is about to begin in earnest.
» Continue reading "Hardball Recruiting, Part 4: Negotiating and Closing Offers"
Hardball Recruiting, Part 3: Influencing Hiring Managers
Topics: Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers
This is the third in a four-part series on hardball recruiting. The topic of next week's final installment will be how to negotiate and close offers. If you're dealing with mid-level staff or more experienced positions, you'll need to become an expert at hardball recruiting.
» Continue reading "Hardball Recruiting, Part 3: Influencing Hiring Managers"
Hardball Recruiting, Part 2: Addressing Mid-stage Concerns
Topics: Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers
Corporate and third-party recruiters can dramatically improve personal performance by increasing their control and influence at each step in the hiring process. This includes how you take the initial assignment, how you present candidates, and how you close the deal. The best way to do this is to become a true partner in the hiring process, rather than just a vendor submitting resumes.
» Continue reading "Hardball Recruiting, Part 2: Addressing Mid-stage Concerns"
Hardball Recruiting: Getting Back to Basics
Topics: Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers
Now that recruiters have to recruit again, it's worthwhile dusting off the old recruiter training manual and getting back to basics. To maximize their effectiveness, recruiters must understand and follow the unwritten golden rule of headhunting -- a.k.a. "hardball recruiting" -- revealed in today's article.
» Continue reading "Hardball Recruiting: Getting Back to Basics"
The Hidden Secret to Better Recruiting
Topics: Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers
"Do you have any more candidates" This is possibly the worst thing a client can say to you if you're a recruiter attempting to find out how well your candidates did.
» Continue reading "The Hidden Secret to Better Recruiting"
Using the One-Question Interview to Recruit Top People, Assess Potential, and More
Topics: Interviewing, Recruiting
[Note: This is a rather technical article on how to improve your interviewing and recruiting skills. This information will be important to recruiters who want to find better people, learn how to recruit and negotiate offers, and increase their influence with their hiring manager clients. Do not read this article if none of these apply. -- Lou Adler]
Using the One-Question Interview to Recruit Top People, Assess Potential, and More
Topics: Assessment, Interviewing, Recruiting
[Note: This is a rather technical article on how to improve your interviewing and recruiting skills. This information will be important to recruiters who want to find better people, learn how to recruit and negotiate offers, and increase their influence with their hiring manager clients. Do not read this article if none of these apply. - Lou Adler]
Don't Let Tactics Drive Strategy
Topics: Managing, Recruiting
Moral of today's story: Don't let tactics drive strategy. Don't mistake activity for progress.
» Continue reading "Don't Let Tactics Drive Strategy"
The Science of Recruiting - Part 10: Closing and Negotiating Offers - Advanced
Topics: The Science of Recruiting, Negotiating, Recruiting
Sometimes candidates say no. Sometimes they say it when you first call. This isn't so bad. When they say it when you're just about to make an offer, or have already made the offer, it is really bad. But don't lose total hope; there are still some things you can do to try to recover from this fateful event. The Science of Recruiting is, after-all, built on sound principles to guide the recruiter through the landmines and pitfalls of hiring top people.
» Continue reading "The Science of Recruiting - Part 10: Closing and Negotiating Offers - Advanced"
10 Outside-the-Box Wacky Ideas for Hiring Better People
Topics: Networking, Recruiting, Sourcing
Over the past few years I've made some pretty wild assertions on these pages about how to hire better people. While they have caused quite a stir, and despite the inevitable nay-saying, they've all proved out to be extremely effective. Here are my choices for the top 10 wackiest ideas on how to hire better people.
» Continue reading "10 Outside-the-Box Wacky Ideas for Hiring Better People"
The Science of Recruiting - Part 9: Negotiating and Closing Offers - The Set Up
Topics: The Science of Recruiting, Negotiating, Recruiting
Now we're down to one or two final candidates, and the offer process is about to begin in earnest. If you've uncovered the candidate's key concerns as described in earlier articles in this Science of Recruiting series you know what you have to do to move the process to closure.
» Continue reading "The Science of Recruiting - Part 9: Negotiating and Closing Offers - The Set Up"
Why Your Hiring Strategy Must Map to Your Business Strategy
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
"Each year China produces as many engineers and scientists as the United States does -- and while its numbers are going up, America's are going down."
-- Fortune, February 23, 2004.
This is serious stuff that must be considered now. But how many HR/recruiting departments have a five-year hiring plan that supports the company's business strategy and addresses issues like this one? What about a one-year plan? How many recruiting departments wait until a requisition is approved before they even start to look for people?
» Continue reading "Why Your Hiring Strategy Must Map to Your Business Strategy"
How to Win Candidates and Influence Clients
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing, Working With Hiring Managers
Here's a basic principle worth considering: a recruiter's performance is based largely on the quality of the last candidate recommended. How well you do here depends primarily on how well you handled taking the job assignment.
» Continue reading "How to Win Candidates and Influence Clients"
Use the PEI Process and Become a Better Recruiter in Four Hours
Topics: Interviewing, Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers
This is big. This is the first multi-multimedia article on the performance evaluation interview (PEI) process ever published on ERE, or maybe anywhere else for that matter. Even bigger is that I'm about to introduce the single best way for you to become a better recruiter before the day is over.
» Continue reading "Use the PEI Process and Become a Better Recruiter in Four Hours"
The Science of Recruiting - Part 5: Creating Job Stretch
Topics: The Science of Recruiting, Networking, Recruiting
The best candidates always require more information as they move through the hiring process. It has been my observation that when a candidate decides they're no longer interested in a job it's because they don't have enough of the right information. The recruiter is responsible for getting it to them.
» Continue reading "The Science of Recruiting - Part 5: Creating Job Stretch"
Isn't It Time for HR to Become a Strategic Partner? Here's How!
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
In his book, Only the Paranoid Survive, Intel's Andrew Grove describes the importance of "strategic inflection points" as both historical and mind-changing. Strategic inflection points are events that fundamentally alter the nature of a business or profoundly change the rules of the game. The introduction of the PC was one of these. So was the Internet. Cell phones with email, PDA and camera functions are probably another, especially when you add virtual keyboards and screens.
» Continue reading "Isn't It Time for HR to Become a Strategic Partner? Here's How!"
The Science of Recruiting - Part 4: Uncovering and Handling Major Candidate Concerns
Topics: The Science of Recruiting, Networking, Recruiting
The best active and passive candidates always have multiple opportunities. As a result they need more convincing that the job you're offering is better than the other opportunities they're considering. Recruiting is not about finding and hiring candidates who need another job. Anybody can do this. Recruiting is about influencing top candidates who don't need your job to consider it anyway, and then keeping them involved at every subsequent step in the hiring process.
Become Famous! Make Hiring Top Talent a Systematic Business Process
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
No one would disagree that hiring top people needs to become a more consistent and systematic business process. Too much time is wasted by too many recruiters and hiring managers doing too many different things, many of them counterproductive.
» Continue reading "Become Famous! Make Hiring Top Talent a Systematic Business Process"
The Science of Recruiting - Part 3: Overcoming Basic Candidate Concerns
Topics: The Science of Recruiting, Networking, Recruiting
The best active and passive candidates always have multiple opportunities. As a result they need more convincing that the job you're offering is better than the other opportunities they're considering. For passive candidates, they need to be convinced that your job is even worth evaluating. Convincing these top candidates to proceed in the hiring process and then to accept a fair offer is what recruiters need to do to be successful. Recruiting is not about finding and hiring candidates who need another job. Anybody can do this. These candidates will do whatever you suggest.
» Continue reading "The Science of Recruiting - Part 3: Overcoming Basic Candidate Concerns"
A Look Back at 2004 (Yes, 2004) From a CEO's Perspective
Topics: Interviewing, Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers
To: The Recruiting Department
From: The CEO
Date: 1/1/2005 I am immensely proud of the work done in 2004 by each and every member of our company's recruiting department. It has been one outstanding year, and you all are due enormous praise for doing a remarkable job this past year. And what a year it has been!
» Continue reading "A Look Back at 2004 (Yes, 2004) From a CEO's Perspective"
The Science of Recruiting - Part 2: Networking
Topics: The Science of Recruiting, Networking, Recruiting
If you want to make Performance-based Hiring a reality, having a steady source of top candidates is essential. Networking is the key to pulling this off. To me, networking represents the difference between good and great recruiting. I don't look at job boards as a primary source of top candidates. Every now and then you'll find one, but not frequently enough to count on this source. However, networking, when properly done, can be the prime source of all your best people. How to do it well is the key. This will be the topic of this edition of the Science of Recruiting. And as you'll soon discover, it most certainly is a science.
» Continue reading "The Science of Recruiting - Part 2: Networking"
The Science of Recruiting - Part 1: Making First Contact
Topics: The Science of Recruiting, Networking, Recruiting
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.
» Continue reading "The Science of Recruiting - Part 1: Making First Contact"
Magical Hiring Formula: Just Measure These Three Core Traits
Topics: Interviewing, Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers
Based on surveys and operational reviews we've conducted over these past 10 years, it appears that there is one common hiring mistake which just about everybody has encountered: hiring someone who is competent but unmotivated to do the required work.
» Continue reading "Magical Hiring Formula: Just Measure These Three Core Traits"
Boom! How to Handle the 2004 Hiring Explosion
Topics: Managing, Recruiting, Sourcing
[Note: Recruiters, you might want to send this article to your boss, your clients, and your CEO. It's about your well-being in 2004.] Here's some holiday advice for hiring managers and HR/recruiting managers, and anyone else who works with recruiters or will need recruiters to help them hire people in 2004:
» Continue reading "Boom! How to Handle the 2004 Hiring Explosion"
The Secrets of Hiring Top People Finally Revealed!
Topics: Interviewing, Recruiting
Consider this hiring puzzle: Some companies have created extensive competency models, but haven't seen much difference in the quality of their new hires. Other companies have started top-grading, but also haven't seen much difference in the quality of their new hires. Still other companies rely on the tried and true behavioral interview and -- not surprisingly -- haven't seen the quality of their new hires increase by much.
» Continue reading "The Secrets of Hiring Top People Finally Revealed!"
The Time Value of Time, and How to Get Hiring Managers to Spend It
Topics: Assessment, Recruiting, Working With Hiring Managers
If you conduct a root cause analysis of hiring mistakes, the following big issues stand out:
» Continue reading "The Time Value of Time, and How to Get Hiring Managers to Spend It"
The Hiring 2.0 Revolution: Are You a Rebel or a Tory?
Topics: Interviewing, Recruiting
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
-- Yogi Berra
In the thoughts that follow, one fork in the road leads to some minor changes in the hiring process and lots of activity, but the status quo is preserved. The other leads to a more vibrant future, and hiring top people becomes a systematic, Six Sigma business process. This is the Hiring 2.0 revolution.
» Continue reading "The Hiring 2.0 Revolution: Are You a Rebel or a Tory?"
Hiring 2.0: Moneyball, and Why You Must Defy Conventional Wisdom
Topics: Networking, Recruiting, Sourcing
Hiring 2.0 is the operating system for the next generation of hiring tools. The objective of Hiring 2.0 is to establish the standards for making hiring top talent a systematic business process.
» Continue reading "Hiring 2.0: Moneyball, and Why You Must Defy Conventional Wisdom"
Why You Should Stop Using Job Boards, Today!
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
If everyone stopped using job boards to find candidates, everything would start to improve within one week. This is one of those things that can jump start the Hiring 2.0 revolution (Hiring 2.0 is the concept that hiring top people can by a systematic formal business process.).
» Continue reading "Why You Should Stop Using Job Boards, Today!"
Implementing Lean Hiring: The Revolution Gets Serious
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
The goal of the hiring revolution is nothing less than making hiring top talent a systematic business process. Everything else is secondary -- processing resumes, reducing costs, improving time to fill, even metrics.
» Continue reading "Implementing Lean Hiring: The Revolution Gets Serious"
The Hiring Revolution: Setting the Stage
Topics: Recruiting
The systematic hiring of top people is the primary goal and mission of the hiring revolution. Read last week's article if you need any proof as to why you need to join this revolution. It's about your future.
» Continue reading "The Hiring Revolution: Setting the Stage"
There's Going To Be a Revolution
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing, Working With Hiring Managers
Dateline: New York City. Sometime in the distant future. Band of 176 Recruiters Start the Hiring Revolution This is a strange but true tale about 176 conspirators who started the hiring revolution. Their objective was nothing less than making hiring top talent a formal Six Sigma process.
» Continue reading "There's Going To Be a Revolution"
The Emperor Has No Clothes
Topics: Recruiting, Sourcing
Are our hiring processes built upon a pillar of salt? I was thinking about this while stuck in L.A. traffic recently, and it became clear to me that we're solving the wrong hiring problem.
» Continue reading "The Emperor Has No Clothes"
Why Recruiters Are Even More Important Now That the Recovery Is Finally Here
Topics: Recruiting
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.
» Continue reading "Why Recruiters Are Even More Important Now That the Recovery Is Finally Here"
Using Performance Profiles to Improve Recruiter Effectiveness - Part 2
Topics: Performance Profiles, Recruiting
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.
» Continue reading "Using Performance Profiles to Improve Recruiter Effectiveness - Part 2"
Would You Like Fries With That Hire?
Topics: Recruiting
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.
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Recruiter Boot Camp
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2009 Performance-based Hiring LIVE Tour
- Discover new sourcing techniques
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Is your career web site an asset or liability? Find out with our free 5-point evaluation. - The Recruiting and Hiring Process Audit
Click to download the slides from Adler Group & Hireability's discussion "Do You Have What it Takes to Hire Top Talent?" - Performance Profile Preparation Guide
Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating performance profiles including some great sample. Use this when taking your next assignment and discover how to change the selection criteria from skills to performance - The Performance-based Interview Guide
A complete Benchmark Interview Kit, including a Technical Product Manager Performance Profile, Structured Behavioral Event Interview, and a 10-Factor Candidate Assessment. - 10-Factor Candidate Assessment
Download our classic 10-Factor Candidate Assessment for a quick, easy, and most importantly, accurate way to assess the quality of any candidate. - 10-Factor Assessment for Corporate Recruiters
Check the recruiters on your team (or yourself!) with this 10-Factor Assessment for Corporate Recruiters. - The Corporate Recruiting Department 10-Factor Assessment of Critical Deliverables
Check your recruiting team with this 10-Factor Assessment for a Corporate Recruiting Department. - Legal White Paper
Click to download this report on the legal foundation for Performance-based Hiringsm.