In the real world of recruiting, we’re often overworked, underpaid, and under-resourced. We use all the tools we have the bandwidth to use to get the people our clients/employers will hire, who aren’t elite superstars because neither the pay, the jobs, nor the companies will be able to get superstars, unless we’re really lucky. We like to think of ourselves as superstar recruiters, but down deep we know most of us aren’t- just hard-working, reliable recruiting stiffs who get up in the morning, go to work everyday, and do the very best we can with what we have, because that’s the kind of people we are.

Right now, I’m working for one of the best companies I’ve ever worked for. They are very pragmatic and the hiring process is very functional. Most of places I’ve worked for aren’t like this for various reasons, and I think one of the main reasons so many companies aren’t pragmatic and functional in their hiring is a combination of elitism and arrogance- ?How can those people we’ve hired to actually do the work have any ideas about how to improve it? No, we’ll have to turn to the experts; they’ve been to the right schools and have the right type of clients to prove they know something.’

So I ask these experts:
Where do your prescriptions for action come from? Is it from years of experience working at many levels in many types of recruiting environments, both good and bad? Is it based on extensive interview-based research with hundreds of all types of coordinator/schedulers, sourcers, recruiters, recruiting managers, and hiring managers to develop workplace-tested best practices based on real-life situations? If they are, it must be a very curious group of companies you experts worked for and a very unusual group you have surveyed, because the prescriptions don’t often seem to be what I believe these people would say.

In conclusion, much of what I read as ?professional wisdom? is:
1) Marketing hype- the latest jargon served up as a juicy meal for potential Global 1000 clients
2) Warmed-over, self-evident truisms
3) Impractical, theoretical solutions to specialized problems.

Dear experts: please give me something I can use where I am with what I have!

Meanwhile, I thank you again Dr. Sullivan for creating articles which make us feel and think so strongly about recruiting.

Cheers,

Keithsrj@sbcglobal.net

As Kevin said, don?t forget the basics (respect, honesty, straightforwardness). People and businesses have to work harder at building and maintaining relationships because of current technology and doing so is more important now than ever. Human interaction will always be a key factor in relationships.

I liked this, from BLT Management: ?Gone are the days when our database consisted of index cards in a shoebox. Advances in technology and e-mail have changed the way we communicate and the pace at which we work. CV?s can be submitted at the touch of a button, and the internet has helped to streamline recruitment processes. But at BLT we still adhere to our key values of building relationships and providing an ethical service. In our view, there is still no substitute for picking up the phone.?

Great article!

http://yourutahsoi.wordpress.com

IMHO, a nail gun does not necessarily make you a better carpenter than the guy with a hammer. How does a blog or nimble TXT thumbs help a recruiter deal with counter-offers, prep a candidate for the interview, overcome objections, or give them the passion and enthusiasm that’s so vital to the success of a recruiter?

I especially appreciate the commentary from John Kennedy, my buddy Bill Vick, and Brad Attig, who hit the nail on the head about the need to have the right ‘recruitment mix.’

I actually came to the same conclusion about the internet itself when it was in its infancy as a recruiting tool. I remember going to the EMA Conference in Chicago circa 1990 where the internet was the hot topic of many workshops and speakers, and Monster was making its debut on the exhibit floor. I was working for a recruitment advertising agency at the time, and when I got back to the office – my report to my colleagues was pretty much what Bill & Brad said: The internet is just being another medium and needs to be used appropriately in the proper media mix.

I’m a dinosaur myself, with almost three decades in the recruiting industry; when I started, the fax machine was the cutting edge of technology (we called them telecopiers back then when the earth’s crust was still warm).

My point is that the new school and the old school can learn a lot from each other. Isn’t that what this forum is about?

–
Sylvia Dahlby
Phone: (480) 502-4513
http://www.smartsearchonline.com

>> SmartSearch >> Recruit the Right Way. Right away.
Staffing Management & Talent Acquisition Software from APS, Inc.

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Any views or opinions expressed in this message via newsgroup posts are those of the author only and not necessarily those of Advanced Personnel Systems, Inc.

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I’m of the mindset that you need to do both traditional law-of-the-jungle phone work (the environment I was initially trained in)and embrace new technology. Fishermen did not use sonar and miles-wide nets 300 years ago because the technologies did not exist. Would they have it if did? I imagine so.

Just as there is a new breed of IT talent (i.e. the so-called Generations X and Y), there is a new breed of recruiter; one that is tied to or at least closer in cultural and philosophical understanding to the new breed of candidate. To avoid meeting where they meet or playing where they play would be a mistake; as would playing exclusively by their rules.
A foundation in referral generation and sourcing from scratch, candidate management and process control, coupled with some of today’s relationship building tools and processes – I agree with Eric that the game is less transactional today than 10 or even 5 years ago – is probably a wise way to go. Among the 15 – 20+ year recruiting legends out there, many of them probably made most of their contacts 10+ years ago, which has continually resulted in referrals, success stories and everything that dedication and ethics is meant to drive. Look closely at those who are still very much in the game (not just teaching or writing about it) and you’ll see them not only embracing new tools and technologies, but encouraging themselves, their staff and the industry in general to be early adopters.

And thanks for the Steve Martin quote, Eric. I wonder what he’d take today? Blackberry? iPhone?

Cheers,
Sean

Here’s a question: Where did Sid Boyden get his rolodex that he took into the phone booth? From networking with folks…how did he start networking with them? From events, meetings, etc…how did he find out about those events, meetings, etc.? Maybe from calling people he met at events and getting names from them and then names from those people?

I think that a lot of folks in the industry think of ‘old school’ recruiters as ones who hit the phones, use their networking, etc., and ‘new school’ recruiters as ones who hop on the Internet, find a candidate that they’ve never spoken to before, and try to get them placed. This is giving the ‘new school’ recruiters a bad rep. This is the thought that I’m reading into the posts here.

If you’re a great ‘new school’ recruiter, you practice the so-called ‘old school’ mentality in networking, hitting the phones, working your relationships, AND you use the tools (aka – videos, job boards, networking sites, and so on) to EXPAND your rolodex. I bet Sid would have killed for a thicker rolodex in that phone booth.

As recruiters, if we have to talk to 3 people we aren’t interested in to get to the 1 we are, wouldn’t it be more efficient if we just had the 1 in our rolodex to start? Then we could work on building the relationship with them that much sooner.

It’s so true that recruiting is all about the relationships. The ‘new school’ tools are just about finding the people to build the relationships with.

Employee referral programs, classified ads internet postings, LinkedIn, Facebook, data mining, telephone sourcing, cold calling, 3rd party recruiters and on and on, all work to one extent or another. You need to use all of them depending on the position and situation. No one tool is the ’silver bullet.’

Look at recruitment advertising, most of it is really bad. Someone says, ‘let’s run an ad in the newspaper or on Monster.’ Then someone throws a badly written job description up, gets no results, and says newspapers and job boards don’t work. There is a reason, that on the box of Stouffer’s Lasagna, there is a tasty looking color photo on the front of the box and the list of ingredients is hidden on the side.

It’s the same thing with cold calling. Which message gets you interested?

‘Hi, Name, I’d like to talk to you about a hamburger, can you call me back?’

‘Hi, Name, I’m sitting here with a 1/2 lb flame grilled 100% fresh ground sirloin burger, oh, and there are hand-cut shoe-string fries on the side, and I’m looking for the person that can’t resist tasting this. Call me before it’s gone.’

My advice, work hard, cast a wide net and do all of it better than the person next to you. Run great ads, reward employees for being evangelists for you company, get on the phone and talk to people, have a great 3rd party recruiter for the tough ones and stay current with the inevitable evolution of change.

Regards,

Brad Attig
RecruitSavvy.com

In my opinion, this gift is more of a ‘mentality’, and I learned quickly it was more about locating candidates as quickly as possible and then just as quickly, determine if they were submittable and hopefully placeable. Basically, it was more about making money then it was about taking the time to build a relationship and ensure that the placement was the best possible fit for everyone involved, the candidate, the client and our company.

Now I know this is a broad brush and I don’t mean to paint the entire industry, but unfortunately I have been around long enough and met enough people to know that it is a majority of the industry. After all, haven’t we heard the stereotype that recruiters are the ‘Used Car Salesmen’ of the industry, and how do stereotypes become stereotypes?

What I find ironic in all of this, is that the recruiting tactics born out of this mentality, is exactly what has driven the rise and power of the internet. In the good ol’ days before the complete saturation of the use of voicemail, email and the internet, we had a much better chance of actually talking with someone. In today’s world, these tools are used to insulate both candidates and clients from these tactics, and they can decide who, when and how, they will communicate with someone. This makes it extremely difficult to get your message across as to why you are ‘different’, and even have a chance to start, much less build a relationship.

With all that said (sorry for the length), the Web 2.0 applications that continue to come out, are providing great tools that help combine the speed and efficiencies of the internet, with the ability to connect (and stay connected) and maintain relationships, IF USED CORRECTLY. There will always be those individuals that are able to survive utilizing ‘old-school’ tactics but as these new technologies evolve and the younger generations enter the marketplace, I believe it will be few and far between.

Think of this, you just know there was that one caveman that said, ‘I don’t give an ugh about the wheel, All you need to get somewhere is your legs and feet and that’s it…….Oh, and this paddle-ball and this lamp’ (for you Steve Martin fans)

Also, put your recruitment video right into your job posting ad. Our site allows that at no extra charge and so do many other job boards. If they don’t, push them in that direction. In the long run, job postings which work well for the client are also good for the job board.

For over a decade, I’ve observed that the most effective recruiters are the ones with the most tools in their toolkit, and the greatest skill matching the tool(s) to the req.

Lack of evolution killed the dinosaurs and, certainly recruiters who throw up barriers to new tools are doomed as well. But those who abandon legacy tools simply for the reason that they are legacy tools are equally doomed.

Living on the cutting edge is cool. Delivering consistent results is … priceless.

My two cents for what it’s worth..

The most successful recruiters I’ve met, regardless of age, experience or tools, are the hungry ones who consistently go above and beyond.

I’m an old school type (18th year), but I see value in business intelligence sites and social networking. The risk to these tools is time – it’s very easy to get lost in the info abyss.

Plan your work and work your plan – hit the sites and research in off hours. Quit reading blogs during the day. NOW GET BACK ON THE PHONE AND MAKE SOME MONEY – RECRUITING IS A CONTACT SPORT!

HAPPY HUNTING AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Best,

D.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/daveschwarz

I’d have to say there is some truth to this notion. It’s getting to the point that pretty much anyone can surf the job boards, but it does take a certain ‘gift’ (if you want to call it that) to be able to pound the phones day after day looking for candidates that, more than likely, at the moment you first contact them, have as little interest in looking for a new job than they would in having a root canal without benefit of anesthesia.

HOWEVER, judging from the articles saying that even EMAIL is more and more often thought of as ‘Old School’ among the younger crowd, I do believe knowing how to navigate sites like MySpace is going to become increasingly important for MAINTAINING relationships after candidates with valuable skills and histories are initially identified.

Quite often of course you’re NOT successful in an initial attempt to shake a candidate loose from a current position, but you certainly want to be in a position that you’re the first person the candidate calls when they ARE interested in looking for new work and I believe some of the newer sites and technologies are absolutely perfect for keeping in steady contact with candidates.

I have my feet planted in both schools. The proven basics, which is phone based and the ‘new wave’ that utilizes social media in all of it’s flavors.

One point not addressed in Sullivans article was different techniques like blogging, text messaging, video, etc. should be part of the recruitment mix if your requirements are skewed towards the millennial and Gen Y candidates otherwise the phone is the best way to reach the boomer generation.

One of the sales masters I heard speak some time ago said something to the effect that if your going to sell in China you better learn to speak Chinese. Same with recruiting. You need to learn the language of your targeted candidates be it Chinese or text messaging, or in my case telephone.

Since my focus in on the executive branch most of my candidates are boomers and the phone is my weapon of choice but I do dabble with Social Networks, IM, Blogs, etc. – just in case…

In this rush to be hip I think a lot of recruiters are losing sight of the most basic, most fundamental aspect of recruiting that the commenters above touched upon: THE HUMAN ELEMENT

And guess what, with millenials this will become a huge issue. Why you ask? Because the millenials most likely grew up knowing someone close to them who was laid off or downsized or let go by a company that turned around and paid a multi million dollar bonus to the CEO. This has bred a generation of very cynnical, jaded job seekers who are also very savvy in their ability to get info on a potential employer through all of these hip hot cool cutting edge technologies that he espouses plus add in sites like jobvent, vault, etc – all sites that millenials love to contribute the inside scoop to. I have millenials telling me things I never knew about my clients. things that make the job a ‘tougher sell’ (and frankly some that I have walked away from because I could no longer in good conscience try to convince people to work there)

In Dr Sullivan’s defense and to contrast what these commenters above have posted, my hunch is that Dr Sullivan is referring more to corporate recruiters and the commenters are in exec search (based on context). I do think there are too many corporate recruiters who are locked into old school models – not out of desire or a refusal to change – but out of the limitations imposed upon them by their Recruiting Department and hiring processes. Staffing Departments are typically grossly under resourced and while recruiters are generating great ideas and have the desire to get out on the cutting edge, they simply cant spend the time because the resources are so severely constrained. A lot of corporate recruiters are throwing up their hands and getting out. Given my past experiences, I can only imagine how superiors would have reacted to recruiters spending time texting candidates, searching through myspace pages etc etc etc

The bottom line: in the rush to the cutting edge and the newest /latest / coolest / hippest frontier, dont forget the basics: treat your candidates with respect, be honest and straightforward (this is sadly a lost art and guess what – of HUGE importance to these VERY JADED millenials) and of course MAKE YOUR NUMBERS / manage your metrics.

If you are on the corporate side of the house I think you will always need to find ways to reach more people in a way they want to be reached. Job postings are not enough.

If you are curious, here is the link to the job video?s.
http://www.vcruit.com/se/se_player.html
Feel free to pass the link to any engineering friends you might have? : )

Should recruiters be text messaging, IMing, and chatting all day with their prospective candidates? Heck no. Should they ALL be blogging? No way. None of the recruiters whom I support do any of that because that’s what I’m there for. To add the technology and social networking piece to the complete staffing package. This is my argument for a research/sourcing practice within your recruiting organization. I fully agree that recruiters MUST have cold calling and relationship building skills. BUT….if you ignore the fact that the new media to which Dr. Sullivan refers is playing a major part in the progression of recruiting, then you are in for a rude awakening.

By the way, technology is NOT always just about generating volume. Example: I used an Affinity Circles-based alumni network recently to reach out to my University of Florida alumni network and connect with some of the PR folks there. Did that produce lots of volume? Nope! But it DID result in some relationship development (isn’t that what you recruiters do?) and two individuals who are moving forward in the interview process at my company. Oh and by the way, I JUST did this outreach last Tuesday.

Kevin, I appreciate your comments about corporate recruiting being underfunded. As someone who spent 5 years in search firms and is now on a corporate recruiting team, I can respect that. That is why Kristin and I were hired as researchers/sourcers, to try some new methods of reaching out to our target audience.

Mark, for you specifically, I think the MRI training videos would classify you as a Power Broker. According to your profile (on this ERE social network) you’ve got 20+ years of experience in recruiting. That is fantastic and I’m sure the relationships you’ve developed over the years, when these new avenues were not even available, have attributed to the majority of your database and referral activity. That is what every person who works in a recruiting capacity aspires to – to have so many people in their network that candidates come to you. I used to work with a guy named Marc who was in a similar situation; when he got a new job he just tapped his candidate network and found what he needed. I congratulate you on achieving this level of recruiting and don’t by any means belittle your methods.

Interestingly, every last person who has responded thus far to this discussion either themselves has, or employs someone who has a LinkedIn profile. So for those who professed detatchment from social networks and other new media, that’s a pretty prominant social network to be participating in.

I would be more than happy to discuss these topics with anyone offline. You can reach me through LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Xing, Yahoo! Mash or Kickstart, Ning, Naymz, Wink, Spock, my blog (www.amybethhale.com) or my podcast at http://www.recruiterlife.com.

:)

Have a great day!

Come get in the trenches with us Dr. Sullivan and you’ll soon be writing a new book that makes sense.