“California needs more engineers to achieve the improvements to our roads, schools and other infrastructure that voters envisioned when they passed the Strategic Growth Plan bonds last year,” says the Terminator in a day after Christmas message.

How many is more? 20,000 in 10 years, according to the press release that reads, well, like even the government writers are on strike.

While the governor’s office churned up statistics projecting a shortage of 40,000 engineers by 2014, the number is a little shaky. A 2003 Rand Corporation suggested the U.S. was not lagging as far behind other countries in the production of PhD engineers as the hand-wringers might fear. Then last year, The Wall Street Journal’s CareerJournal.com carried this comment by Richard Tax, president of the American Engineering Association, “Companies are looking for a five-pound butterfly. Not finding them doesn’t mean there’s a shortage of butterflies.” The context was that companies are looking for engineers with so many credentials and so much experience and ignoring those without it that it makes it look like there’s a shortage.

Note that we are talking engineers generally. Mechanical, structural, civil and other engineering specialties, while hardly a dime a dozen, are no where near as in short a supply as are computer and electrical engineers.

California’s plan to increase the number of locally grown engineers won’t be fully outlined until after Schwarzenegger’s State of the State speech on January 8^th. However, the press release offers a glimpse of the plan which includes establishing programs specifically for military veterans with engineering training at the state’s graduate and undergraduate schools; the creation of an engineering education council to generate more private funding for the public universities and colleges; and, enhancing the charter school program (a California experiment turning over public schools to private groups) to encourage the expansion of private High Tech High to build out engineering-focused charter schools throughout the state.

The release of the study follows the first full-year of the new SEC disclosure rules around executive compensation, which require public companies to describe the compensation packages of their top executives to shareholders via proxy statements. In addition to the correlation between greater responsibility for revenue and increased stock-related compensation, the report also reveals a number of other interesting trends about the compensation packages of top executives:

• The highest median total compensation of $3.9 million went to CEOs in the utilities, food and tobacco, and insurance industries with CEOs in the construction industry coming in right behind the CEOs in the leading industries. CEOs in the financial services industry ranked last, at $733,000 in median total compensation, among the top executives in the 22 industries surveyed.

• The highest median cash compensation, which is described as a total of annual salary, bonus and non-equity incentives, was earned by the CEOs in the insurance industry at $1.6 million.

• CEOs of the smallest companies are holding 11 times their annual salary in stock and stock options versus their counterparts in the largest 10% of companies, who are holding over 80 times their annual salary in company stock and stock options.

The authors of the survey note that CEOs of larger companies accumulate stock and stock options over time giving them more “skin in the game” and that the practice of granting more stock-related compensation should align CEOs with the goals of shareholders. The CEOs of smaller companies may have the ability to affect results more quickly, via new products or marketing processes, thus using salary as an incentive for those CEOs might be more appropriate than relying on stock appreciation.

I still remember the first time I heard about the Millennial generation. I was at a recruiting conference in New Orleans about 10 years ago, and one of the presenters was commenting about how the boomers were about to turn 50. He said the bulk of workers who would be replacing them would be coming from a generation we now know as Millennials.

I can still see the crowd’s reaction as the speaker talked about how this generation would be particularly coddled (raised by overly indulgent parents), have off-the-charts self esteem, and focus on a “what’s in it for me?” attitude.

I have to confess that I overheard more than a few staffing professionals remind themselves to check on the status of their IRAs when they got back to the office, as they were seriously considering retiring early rather than be forced to conduct campus job interviews with students who brought their parents along with them.

That was 1997, and here we are 10 years later. Amazingly, just about everything that speaker said has come true (I think he worked for an insurance company). The Millennials are here, they want it all, and they want it now.

Just like you, I’ve experienced the drama of the college kids who have their mothers negotiate their offers for them, the new MBA who tells the vice president that she won’t travel unless she has “at least two weeks’ notice,” and the interns who refuse to stuff binders. The chilling fact, though, is that we ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

The first boomers only just turned 60 last year and have not yet started leaving the workforce in significant numbers. As staffing professionals, our job during the next few years will be to replace a generation of almost 80 million people with these Millennials.

Before I go any further, I need to do some disclosure and point out that I am in no way an expert on this subject. If you’re interested in the characteristics of the four generations currently working side-by-side in today’s workplace, I highly recommend a book called Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069 by William Strauss and Neil Howe. If you want to learn more specifically about Millennials, I recommend Cam Marston’s book Motivating the “What’s in it for me?” Workforce.

While the arithmetic challenge of replacing these hires is daunting, there are other considerations that will make this shift especially complex. These considerations include your ability as a staffing professional to find and attract job seekers you’ve never targeted before, your ability to truly understand what motivates this generation, and your ability to prepare your organization for this inevitable change.

This is a huge responsibility. I know some days I feel like celebrating just for getting our applicant tracking system to work. How will I ever be able to lead what amounts to a total revolution in how my organization views talent?

Fortunately, unlike many other changes we encounter in life, we already have a great deal of information available to us. The Millennials are the most studied and analyzed generation in history; we know what motivates them, we know what’s important to them, and we know how they view themselves. A few well-spent hours researching this topic can really help prepare you to guide your organization through the next few years.

Once you’re done, see how you answer these three questions:

1. Do you know how to find these job-seekers? The building in which I work has been renovated several times throughout its history. In the conference room near the staffing department there is a door that opens up into the front yard along the street. While it’s currently used as an emergency exit, it has a nice awning over the door, which is different from the strictly utilitarian design of the other emergency exits in the building. Someone finally explained to me that the door was once used by the “Personnel Department” to receive walk-ins who literally walked up to the building and filled out an application for employment! What a long way we’ve come since then. Nearly all of us now post jobs on specialty websites and do the odd bit of branding to attract passive job-seekers. Some of the braver among us use social networking sites and virtual worlds to recruit new hires. Do you know where inexperienced hires are looking for their first jobs? Do you know how they want to learn about your company, or even what questions they’re likely to ask you when you meet them? If you don’t know any Millennials personally, find some and talk to them. This generation has great clarity around what they want from their careers and will be glad to share their insights with you.
2. Is your organization appealing to these job-seekers? In nearly every meeting I’ve attended where the topic of recruiting Millennials was discussed, someone has vowed out loud that they’ll never hire someone who isn’t willing to “pay their dues” like they did. Boomers value hard work and don’t take kindly to people who don’t see the value in “putting in their time” before they begin to realize the rewards such hard work inevitably brings (i.e., a bigger office, a loftier title, more money). Interestingly, the Millennials aren’t motivated by the same things their boomer bosses are.
3. Do your hiring managers and leadership know how important this is? If your organization is like many others, you’ve probably never sat down and taken a “generational” look at who currently comprises your workforce, who runs things, and how your reward structure is configured. Many organizations today are run by boomers for the exclusive benefit of other boomers. Getting in early, staying late, and appearing to work hard is rewarded. People probably brag about how they came in on the weekend, or that they answered a Blackberry message in the middle of the night. People who navigate these organizations successfully are rewarded with corner offices, drive expensive cars, and enjoy the ability of having people obey their directives without a lot of discussion.

In a few years, the workplace will be significantly different. People will come and go to suit their schedules (some companies already offer employees unlimited vacation as long as their work is getting done); employees will change jobs much more frequently, so rewards will take the form of training and development; and titles and corner offices will take on less significance as good employees challenge ideas no matter who comes up with them.

Question: Does this workplace vision sound better or worse to you than your current work environment?

Answer: It doesn’t matter what you think because the changes will take place regardless of your buy in.

During the Great Depression, my grandfather walked into the headquarters of one of the Big Three automakers, was hired on the spot, and worked there for 40 years. Today’s Millennial job-seekers will have a very different experience: they’ll work for perhaps a dozen employers, participate on virtual project teams with team-members located around the globe, and probably integrate their work life and personal life more effectively than any previous generation.

I’m quite excited about seeing what life will be like when the world is run by a generation that has never known a time without computers and cellular phones. Getting your leaders to acknowledge the impending changes will allow your organization to get the edge on your competitors and make you a hero.

Maintaining beneficial relationships with hiring managers improves the chances of making a quality hire and creates an open arena for shared knowledge and effective teamwork. When it comes to closing the deal, the candidate’s opinion of the interview process could be the deal-killer.

After a scheduled interview with a potential employer, it’s best for recruiters to get the candidate’s feedback within one hour. This gives us information fresh on the candidate’s mind and a chance to clarify any misconceptions they may have developed during the process. Misconceptions can lead to deal-killers if given time to settle in.

Using a standardized interview feedback form, you can get immediate, meaningful feedback that helps clarify your candidate’s interest after each interview and learn more about the position, hiring manager, and the company.

A feedback form can be tailored to fit your needs, but some basic questions to ask the candidate should include the following 10 approaches:

1. How long were you there?
2. With whom did you meet?
3. What did you learn about the opportunity?
4. What did you like most about the position?
5. What did you like least about the position?
6. If they came back and made you an offer, would you accept it?
7. Did you discuss a compensation plan?
8. How did they leave you after the interview?
9. Any comments, questions, or concerns?
10. Remind the candidate to make a follow-up call and email.

The next (and most important) step is to “Feed it Forward.” This is the practice of getting in touch with hiring managers after each candidate’s interview steps and providing them with critical insight about the candidate’s overall experience. Because a hiring manager often uses hiring staff to conduct interviews, they don’t always get to hear a candidate’s opinion of the process.

The Process at Work

The “Feed it Forward” process accomplishes the following steps:

• Provides the hiring managers with insight about the interview experience from the candidate’s point of view. Good feedback can reinforce the steps the interviewer is doing to impress candidates, and negative feedback can determine which adjustments to the interviewing style and behaviors need to be changed. Interviewers, for example, might take more time to carefully plan for the next interview if a recruiter tells them that a candidate thought the interviewer was unprepared, which can be a turnoff. Also, candidate feedback will help managers understand how well their interviewers are doing in terms of “selling” candidates. Quality feedback will allow them to locate breakdowns in their process, which carelessly lead to withdrawal or rejection of quality talent.
• Gives insight into candidate’s interest. It also gives the hiring manager an idea of a candidate’s interest in the position, helping to close the deal or determine the roadblock to a decision.
• Provides clarity. If we “Feed it Forward” that the candidate was not overly excited about the interview, it can help the hiring managers decide whether to end the process or try harder to impress the candidate. Either way, you’ll get action.
• Begins the closing process. Once we “Feed it Forward” that a candidate was really impressed and wants the job, it “warms up” the hiring managers toward closure. Hiring managers often favor candidates who want the job, rather than ones who come across aloof or show only a mild interest.
• Motivates the interviewer to provide their feedback. As recruiters, we wait days on end for feedback from an interviewer! One sure way to get them to connect with us sooner is to tell them you want to share feedback from the candidate. This technique almost always motivates them to get back to you sooner. Interviewers usually want to know what the candidate thought of them.

For these reasons, among others, the “Feed it Forward” process serves a role in getting a commitment between the two parties. As we all know, time kills all deals, and using the “Feed it Forward” approach to motivate an interviewer to connect with you is, by far, the most beneficial.

If you’re an iCIMS client you’ll be getting a twice-annual checkup on how your use of the company’s talent management system compares to other iCIMS clients. Here’s what the company’s press release says: “The 60-point Report Card is a full audit on a client’s usage of iRecruiter benchmarked against iCIMS’ growing customer base.”

Are you thinking this is just what you need? Yet another way to remind you of your recruitment shortcomings and even a grade to compare you with the so-called “Best of Breed.” Not to worry. You get the report, not your mom or your boss, unless, of course they insist.

All kidding aside, what iCIMS is doing is offering its customers a way to measure their use of the company’s products against what others do. Again to the press release: “The program will provide tangible metrics that organizations can use to measure their platform adoption as well as how progressive their Talent Management function is. iCIMS’ hope is to bring customers closer together through the iCIMS user community, creating a powerful network and ultimately advancing innovation in the area of Talent Acquisition and Management.”

We wish we could decipher all this for you. But what we think it means is that if you are an iCIMS customer, besides getting rated against others, you also get access to a user group that can help you improve those areas of your report card where you scored below iCIMS customer averages.

Offering scores against benchmarks is a useful tool to help you identify strengths and weaknesses in how you use (in this case) the iCIMS products. Most other vendors have user groups and forums. But an actual independent scoresheet is a feature that can only help wake-up recruiters and hiring managers to what they’re missing.

Released today, CareerBuilder’s “2008 Job Forecast” report more or less tracks with a forecast issued earlier this month by Manpower. The staffing firm’s “Employment Outlook” found 60 percent of the employers it surveyed expect no hiring increase, 22 percent did. While the numbers don’t match because the methodologies are different, both surveys point to continued recruiting challenges in 2008.

CareerBuilder found that 27 percent of the survey respondents complained that the quality of job applicants had declined since last year, which may explain why 40 percent of employers have open positions for which they can’t find qualified candidates. The “Job Forecast” identified eight recruitment and retention trends for 2008:

1. Bigger paychecks say 80 percent of the survey respondents. Of those expecting to increase wages, 64 percent say it will be at least 3 percent; 17 percent say 5 percent or more. Hot prospects can expect to see bumps in their initial offers over last year.
2. Flexible work arrangements are on the rise. Sixty percent of employers offer flexible work plans now – typically shifted start and quit times or condensed work weeks or telecommuting; 39 percent expect to offer some form of flex-time in 2008.
3. Online candidate screening will grow, and not just the use of qualifying pre-app questions, but full-blown searching of social networking sites and search engine checks.
4. Boomerangs and retiree hires will increase as companies feel the steady pressure from the loss of more and more experienced workers. The numbers here aren’t large, but this is trend that won’t go away, especially since the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the number of workers over 54 will grow rapidly over the next few years while the number of young workers entering the labor force will decline.
5. Recruiting diversity workers, especially those bi-lingual in Spanish, will continue to be an important focus of recruiters. Survey respondents specifically mentioned Latinos, women, African Americans, and mature workers.
6. Contract workers will continue to be a key part of the workforce mix for 31 percent of the companies responding to the survey.
7. Perks and benefits will get more attention from companies who want to remain competitive in attracting and keeping workers. Despite the trend to shift premium costs to workers (which is likely to continue, although it was not specifically surveyed by CareerBuilder) one-in-five employers say they plan to offer more comprehensive or better health benefits. Ten percent will enhance or add perks.
8. 26 percent of the surveyed companies are likely to provide more promotions and career advancement opportunities in 2008, according to CareerBuilder.

1. Complete compensation details. Understand exactly how the candidate’s current compensation program is structured. This means more than the candidate’s base salary; the base salary is just part of the overall package. Be sure that you ask about bonuses; if, how and when they are paid out, stock options or grants that have been awarded. Compile a complete list of benefits and how they are structured (e.g. PPO vs. HMO; there is a difference) and know when the candidate is up for his or her next review, because this can alter cash compensation.
2. Type of commute. Commute is a quality-of-life issue and discussing it is important. A ten-minute commute against traffic is very different than taking the car to a train and having to walk five blocks to the new organization. If the commute to your organization is worse for the candidate than it is in his or her existing job, bring it up and see how the candidate responds. If the commute is better, use it as a selling point. By all means, be sure that you understand the candidate’s current commute and how they feel about the new one.
3. The “what they want vs. what they have” differential. Most candidates do not change jobs just for the sake of changing jobs. They change jobs because there are certain things missing in their current position that they believe can be satisfied by the position your organization is offering. This disparity is called the “position differential” and it is the fundamental reason a person changes jobs. Know what this position differential is and you will be able to know if you have what the candidate is looking for. If so, you will be able to develop an intelligent capture strategy when it comes time to close.
4. How they work best. Some candidates work best if left alone, while others work best as part of a team. It is your job to know enough about the organization’s philosophy and the way the hiring manager works to see if the candidate will either mesh or grind. Beware of recommending hiring a candidate who does not fit into the current scheme, because, at times, style can be just as important as substance.
5. Overall strengths and weaknesses. Be sure to get some understanding of the candidate’s strong points and the candidate’s limitations. All of us have strengths and weaknesses (even John Sullivan has weaknesses, but he won’t tell me what they are). Our role is to identify them and be able to present them to the hiring manager. Hint: Ask what functions the candidate does not enjoy performing. We are seldom good at things we don’t like.
6. What they want in a new position. Everyone wants something. Find out what the candidate wants in a new position. Be sure to do whatever is necessary to get this information. Feel free to pick away during the interviewing process with open-ended questions until you have all of your questions answered. It is difficult to determine whether a given hiring situation has a good chance of working out if you do not know what the candidate is looking for in a new position.
7. Is the candidate interviewing elsewhere? This is big; I don’t like surprises and neither do hiring managers. I always ask the candidate what else they have for activity. If the candidate has three other companies they are considering and two offers are arriving in the mail tomorrow, this is absolute need-to-know information. If the hiring manager wants to make an offer, it’s time to advise them as to what the competition looks like and move this deal onto the express lane, fast.
8. What it will take to close the deal. This is a first cousin of #6 above but it is more specific and flavored with a “closing the deal” mentality. #6 relates to what the candidate wants in a new position, but this one quantifies that want. For example, if the candidate wants more money, this is where you will assess how much it will take to close the deal. As another example, while #6 will let you know that the candidate wants to work on different types of projects, this one will tell you exactly what types of projects those are.
9. Can the candidate do the job? Even though, as the recruiter, you might not be able to determine if this is the perfect candidate, you should exit the interview with an opinion as to whether or not the candidate can perform the functions of the position. Furthermore, that opinion must be based upon information that was unveiled during the interviewing process and not just a gut feeling. It has to be based upon what the candidate has successfully accomplished and how that aligns with the needs of the current position. If you can’t offer a solid opinion on this one, you need to dig deeper until you have a solid case for why the candidate can or cannot do the job.
10. Will the candidate fit into the culture? Predicting the future is tricky business, but someone has to take a shot at evaluating a candidate’s chance for success. Not everyone that is capable of doing the job will have a successful run at the company, because culture does play a role in candidate success. For example, the culture of a buttoned-down insurance company in Boston is very different than the garage culture of a software startup in the valley. If you have a reason to believe that the person is the wrong DNA for an organization, it is imperative that you raise the issue.

There are few things hiring managers value more than solid candidate feedback based upon a well-executed interview. Convey this information to the hiring manager and take one more step towards becoming a world-class recruiter.

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.

A Dozen Reasons to Ban Traditional Job Descriptions for Hiring Purposes

1. You don’t need job descriptions to source top candidates. Posting detailed job descriptions was not common pre-Internet. Somehow the job boards trained us that this was the best way to attract talent. In the olden days, companies posted smaller ads highlighting their requirements. In many cases, companies posted mass hiring notices for multiple jobs with generic titles. In the career journal sections of most major newspapers, the jobs that were posted were written with interesting titles and flowery career-oriented copy. Ah, the good old days.
2. Top people don’t need all of the information on a job description to consider exploring an opportunity with a company. As more good candidates go online to look, the objective of a job description should not be to pre-qualify the person, but rather to generate interest in the position and company. You don’t need a job description to do this. Instead, a splash page summarizing a group of jobs with some facts about the company is all that’s needed. These splash pages should describe the company culture, the growth prospects, the importance of talent in the company, something about career opportunities and a few reasons why these open jobs are important to the company’s future. Once you interest a candidate in a class of jobs and the company, then you can begin a nurturing process or drive these people to specific jobs.
3. Job descriptions give managers the right to stop thinking. At best, qualification-based job descriptions are shortcuts to bad decisions. They don’t describe the work that needs to get done; they describe the skills a person supposedly needs to have for doing the work. By not describing the real work that needs to get done, lots of time is spent looking for the wrong person. Understanding real job needs is the primary task of managers. As far as I’m concerned, if managers are unwilling to spend time to clarify expectations before they hire someone, they shouldn’t be managers.
4. Job descriptions require unnecessary reporting and added technology. The OFCCP regs clearly state that you don’t need to report on people applying for generic positions. Using job descriptions requires more technology and more reporting to track individual candidates applying for individual jobs. This is unnecessary. The emphasis in the early stages of sourcing should be on attracting someone’s attention, not reporting. Consider that the OFCCP developed the requirement for reporting on Internet applicants only when companies started posting specific job descriptions. This was a problem that didn’t exist pre-Internet.
5. Job descriptions take too much time to find. A splash page for all marketing (or sales, accounting, etc.) jobs can be found in seconds. If the page is compelling and interesting enough, good people will then want to engage with the company and spend time looking at specific opportunities. On the splash page, suggest that interested candidates email their resumes. Once these are parsed into your system, the company can then determine whether the person is appropriate for specific open positions. Then email the person back. You only need to report on those who express an interest. Finding a specific job not only takes too much time, but it also prevents a company from engaging with the candidate if an appropriate job isn’t available or if the right job can’t be found. This is a huge waste of an opportunity.
6. Job descriptions exclude high-potential candidates. Most job descriptions list average skills and experience requirements. The best people tend to have less experience or different experience, but they more than make up for this with potential and talent. Since online job descriptions are boring and exclusionary, few of the best performers will apply. Even if they do apply, the person doing the screening will consider the person too light. For this reason alone, job descriptions listing absolute levels of skills and experiences should be banned.
7. Job descriptions cause fully qualified candidates to exclude themselves from consideration. Even if a fully qualified person sees the job description, the person won’t apply because it’s uninteresting. Good people apply for a job because of the work they will be doing, not the skills they possess. The only fully qualified people who do apply for boring jobs are those who are desperate, or those who are already sold on the company. Since you don’t want to hire the desperate, you don’t need the job description. And since you do want the fully qualified who are already interested in the company, job descriptions are unnecessary.
8. Job descriptions shrink the pool of high performers to zero. If you haven’t already lost the best people due to the above problems, you’ll lose anyone else remaining due to administrative problems. Some of these include “the hard-to-find the job” problem, the difficulty in applying, the problems with disrespectful knockout questions, and recruiters’ inabilities with the ATS’ built-in search engine tools to quickly bring the best people to the top of the sort list.
9. Job descriptions don’t predict on-the-job performance. A person can possess all of the skills, experiences, industry background, and academic qualifications listed in the traditional way and still not be able to achieve the results desired. This could be for a variety of reasons, including the person is bored or the person took the job for the wrong reasons. Whatever the reasons, it’s far better to prepare a high-level overview of the job with a quick description of the challenges and big projects. These types of performance-based job descriptions will quickly broaden the pool of top people applying. During the interview you can use more detailed performance profiles to accurately assess fit using our one-question behavioral interview.
10. Job descriptions are the primary cause of hiring mistakes. Interviewers on the hiring team don’t use the traditional job description to assess competency. Instead, each person uses his understanding of the real job to make a decision. As a result, their biases, perceptions, personality, and prejudices will dominate the selection process. It’s far better to get everyone to reach consensus on real job needs before starting the interviewing process. This way everyone is assessing the person using the same criteria. Here’s a technique you might want to try that doesn’t rely on job descriptions to eliminate 50% of all hiring mistakes.
11. Job descriptions are not objective. If someone without the exact mix of skills and experiences listed on the job description can do the work, then the factors listed are misleading. This excludes a lot of good people from consideration. Because something is measurable (e.g., five years of experience) doesn’t mean it’s a valid predictor or an objective measure of on-the-job performance. In fact, companies promote or move people internally who don’t have the listed skills or experiences based on different criteria (generally their past performance and future potential), but somehow we don’t use this same criteria to attract and hire people from the outside. I find this odd.
12. Job descriptions are useless from an onboarding and performance management standpoint. A good on-boarding program typically begins with a review of the real requirements of the job, including the expected results. Clarifying expectations this way has been shown to increase on-the-job performance, reduce turnover, and improve personal satisfaction. Once on the job, employees are evaluated based on what they’ve accomplished in comparison to what they should have accomplished. These types of performance-based job descriptions are far more useful than qualifications-based job descriptions for onboarding, but somehow this basic management principle is ignored when hiring the person.

These reasons alone should convince you to reconsider using traditional qualifications-based job descriptions as the de facto standard for hiring purposes. From a sourcing standpoint, they are unnecessary and counterproductive.

A splash page highlighting a group of jobs is all that’s necessary to entice candidates to explore opportunities with your company. This allows you to build a bigger pool of top-flight candidates without extra reporting and bureaucracy.

Once you have a particular job in mind, it’s better if you emphasize the results, opportunities, and challenges involved in the job, rather than composing a laundry list of specific skills and desirable characteristics.

I refer to this type of “new age” performance-based job description as a performance profile, but don’t post this publicly, either. Just use the performance criteria to screen and select people from your pool of interested candidates. This will result in a much smaller pool of stronger people. These are the only applicants you need to track. This alone will free your recruiters to do more creative sourcing and find more top candidates.

When you view traditional qualifications-based job descriptions as the problem, rather than the solution, completely new approaches to sourcing and recruiting are possible.

If you routinely call gatekeepers and get lines like, “You need a name to be transferred to anyone,” it could be that you are routinely doing or saying something that is causing that gatekeeper to view you as a threat to her company’s infrastructure.

Effective communication skills allow you easy entrance to most any gatekeeper’s psyche. The first thing you must do to effectively communicate with anyone is put the other person at ease when you call.

This is not accomplished by demand. It is not accomplished by over-enthusiastic and phony-sounding greetings. Nor is it accomplished by over-long explanations of why you’re calling.

Apply a Friendly, Forthright Attitude

Technology will continue to change the way we do things, but technology will never come close to the one simple thing that humans need most from each other, and that is approval.

If that gatekeeper gets just the slightest whiff of falsehood from you, she’s out of there faster than a scared rabbit. If she senses a genuine friendliness from you that signals approval (of your own self as well as of her) she is much more apt to listen and apply herself to your request.

“But I am genuine and friendly!” you’re thinking.

Are you? Do people remark on your telephone voice? Do they compliment you on your affability on the telephone? On your telephone skills?

The first thing you do when that gatekeeper answers is listen. You listen to what she says. You hear what she’s conveying. “It’s a wonderful, sunny day here at ABC Corporation, Melissa speaking. May I help you?” is a mouthful for any gatekeeper to get out and believe me, over time, the charm of it wears thin. Hesitating just slightly and acknowledging her dilemma before you blast her with your own agenda will go a long way toward making friends with her.

“Wow, Melissa, that’s a mouthful! It’s sunny here too, but we’re expecting rain later today!” will probably put her just a little off-guard and cause her to chuckle over the cross she bears so cheerfully.

Showing genuine empathy over her condition will make her just a bit more immediately comfortable with who you are and just might facilitate the communication between the two of you. Try it: I guarantee you’ll like the results.

But first, be sure you sound for real. Record your calls and listen to yourself. Get beyond the self-consciousness you feel listening to your own voice and actually listen to how you sound. What comes to mind as you listen to yourself? Do you sound real? Do you sound genuine? Do you sound sincere?

You’ll be surprised what you’ll hear in your own voice if you listen to it carefully. Take note of the thoughts that pass through your mind as you listen and heed them. It’s surprising how effectively critical we can be of ourselves when we really need to be.

If you don’t trust your own judgment, ask others. Choose people you trust to be forthright and tell them what you’re trying to accomplish. Ask them for their opinions about your telephone voice. Encourage their frankness.

Many times I have counseled a caller to speak up. Many times have I called to someone’s attention that they mumble on the phone and are hard to understand. And more times than I care to recall I have told someone they speak too fast. Critique yourself or have someone you trust do it and work to correct your shortcomings.

If you don’t quite get how these things work at first, that’s okay. Just keep doing what you’re learning, and you’ll start to get a better feel for the whole thing.

Getting Past the Gatekeeper’s Resistance

There are gatekeepers you will encounter who seem humorless and cold. It’s very important not to let one of these initial resistances throw you off and cause you to quit. The key here is to listen. What does she say? What doesn’t she say? Follow her lead.

If she sounds brusque and to the point, it’s not necessary for you to reflect her mirror image back to her. She’s more likely to respond to you if you are to the point (leave the brusque out) yourself and don’t waste her time. In instances like these, use one of the names you’ve gathered before you made the call (you did do this, didn’t you?) to offer as your admission ticket.

She cannot deny you once you’ve paid the fare.

Sometimes a gatekeeper just needs to hear a little more about who you are before she gives out her information. She is the Keeper of the Gate and some of them take their jobs very seriously, as well they should. The more you interact with gatekeepers, the better you’ll get at communicating with them. This skill will lead them to give you the information you want. Allow an older-sounding gatekeeper to assume command and follow her instructions. Do not resist her or try to get her to bend to your will. She doesn’t have to and she usually won’t.

How old does the gatekeeper sound? Younger and less-experienced gatekeepers usually offer less resistance, whereas middle-aged and older gatekeepers sometimes require more subtlety and creativity.

Just being respectful and polite to these kingdom key holders can be enough to encourage her to help you. And that’s the key: ask for her help. When I encounter rigidity, I go soft. “Can you help me? I feel so silly, I know I should know this but I don’t. Can you please direct me to…” will often engage her to the point where she will direct you into the area you need to get into. Avoid direct questions like the unforgiving, “Can you tell me who the civil engineers are there in your facility who do wastewater engineering?”

Rather, ask to be transferred to “the administrative assistant in the water group” and this less-threatening request will probably be put through. Once there, the department administrative assistant is likely to be young (though there are some older types in this bunch as well), but the idea is to forestall your defeat.

The more times you come up to bat, the more likely it is you will hit a homerun. It’s a numbers game; never forget that.

Having Fun With the Gatekeeper

Very few gatekeepers are the humorless and cold garden variety. Many of them are friendly and vivacious types who enjoy the banter opportunity the telephone occasionally offers.

If you understand that the person on the other end of the line is a human being (nothing more, nothing less), you will have a leg up in this telephone names sourcing business. It isn’t rocket science.

So make it fun for her by setting yourself apart from the madding crowd. If you’re friendly, sincere will creep in along beside it. If she senses these two things in you, she will usually tell you just about anything.

There are male telephone sourcers who can give gatekeepers hard times and get away with it. There are females who can extract the most amazing information out of a CEO himself. There are both sexes who understand the Albert Camus assertion that, “Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without asking a clear question.”

The point here is that sometimes it’s necessary to get your questions answered by asking other questions that may not appear substantive to your mission. Do you know how to do that?

When I’m telephone names sourcing, I usually strive to sound like a 9-to-5 secretary who’s bored to tears with what I’m doing and is just waiting for the whistle to blow so I can go home.

I don’t say any of this stuff, mind you, but it comes across in my delivery. When I ask who the sales managers are for all the different U.S. territories and she wants to email the list, I will at first acquiesce to her suggestion. Then I ask, “How many are there?” After she responds, I’ll daringly suggest, “Oh, don’t bother emailing them. That’s not too many. Just list them out and if I need you to repeat I’ll interrupt, I’m a fast typist!”

This quick camaraderie, along with the mind-numbing boredom cadence I attach to my request usually gets the job accomplished. Not always, but usually. Remember, this is a numbers game.

There are several ways you can solicit someone’s help that make it feel comfortable and fun for her. The important thing is that you’re having fun and you’re comfortable. Here’s a fast tip from the music industry for making yourself physically comfortable when you’re working:

Lift your chest. Place your hand at the bottom of your sternum and use it as a guide to lift the chest. When the chest is lifted correctly, the stomach muscles will lie flat; without having to suck it in, the back will be arched and the shoulders will be in a more natural position. In body language, high shoulders indicate stress, while lower, relaxed shoulders indicate confidence and control.

Talk to Her Like She’s an Old Friend

The technique of acting like the gatekeeper is an old friend is powerful indeed. Once you master this relaxed state of thinking and behaving, you’ll find that most gatekeepers will respond to you positively.

However, this does not include accosting the gatekeeper with some false hypocritical interest that betrays your intentions. Don’t insult her intelligence by inquiring after her health or her feelings. Be respectful of her position and your relationship to her position. Introduce yourself politely and ask her for the information you seek.

Remember, you may be calling this person back numerous times, and if you become a professional telephone names sourcer, there’s a very real chance that she may become a friend as you call her repeatedly in the future. There will be many more opportunities for familiarity. Don’t blow your chances in the beginning by acting like a jerk.

When All This Advice Doesn’t Work

It happens. The fact is that sometimes you’re going to meet a gatekeeper, or an administrative assistant, or an executive assistant, or an individual contributor, a janitor, a mailroom clerk, or whomever, who just won’t give it up. It happens. Move on.

You can’t bake a cake without breaking a few eggs.

You have to accept the idea that when you’re learning how to use this material that you’re going to occasionally run into someone who may not get your humor, may not appreciate your inquiry, or may not respond to your best practices.

Don’t worry about it.

My personal best practice here is to just get off the phone as quickly as possible. I like to think I do it with grace and aplomb, but I know for a fact there are sourcers who just hang up. I find this rude, and you may be eliminating the chance to try on another day. When I first started telephone names sourcing, I remember fearfully asking, “Well, what do I do if…” and I was told, “If you get too freaked out you can always just hang the phone up. It’s just a phone!” and in its own weird way the advice is right on the money.

I don’t see any point in trying to reclaim a lost cause. Cut your losses and move on. Time is money in this business and there’s always another way in. Find it.

In this final installment of the four-part series, I tackle a critical issue: making content on your careers site seem genuine. When candidates are asked about careers sites and their shortcomings, one of the biggest issues identified is the lack of candor nearly every site presents. Most candidates know that it would be nearly impossible for an organization to adequately describe every aspect of what it would be like to work for the company, but they also know that not every firm can be a recognized leader. They are looking for more than marketing points; they are looking for facts and honesty. In addition to tackling this issue, we will finish off the feature categories and briefly cover metrics for assessing your efforts.

Features That Bring the Firm to Life and Make the Firm Appear Genuine

Most careers sites provide little more excitement than reading a paper brochure. One of the goals of the website should be to include information that brings the firm to life and makes the work experience seem genuine (e.g., real or more believable). This information differs from “wow” features in that these elements are more down to earth and focus more on the operational aspects that a potential employee might be interested in. Some of these elements have also been mentioned in other parts of this article, so the purpose of this section is to show how, in combination, they can make the firm appear real or genuine.

96. Understand the Company’s Direction. This element provides the potential candidate with some insight into where the company is headed. It might include the company’s stated goals and announced geographic and product expansion plans. It also lists the firm’s strategic partners. It might also include a link to the annual report.
97. Profile of the CEO. Applicants often want to know if the CEO for whom they will work is a real or down-to-earth person. Providing a profile of not just his work history, but also of his hobbies, community work, and recreational interests can make the company’s leader seem more genuine. The website can also include links to his or her recent speeches or even a video of what the CEO says when welcoming new hires.
98. Understand the Company’s Employees. In order to ensure that the potential applicant gets an insider’s perspective, links to blogs written by company employees are provided. Employees who have positive profiles on social networking sites could also be listed.
99. Understand the Company’s Products. This element highlights the company’s product lines. It profiles some innovative products and their features and provides links to product specifications. Dates and locations of product demonstrations and announcements are also provided in case the individual wants to experience the products firsthand.
100. Know the Company’s Customers. This element provides information on the customers who buy the firm’s products and services. This information can be powerful if it demonstrates that your firm’s products and service offerings are so good that the best firms use them.
101. Exciting Equipment and Facilities. By highlighting unique and advanced equipment and software, you can excite individuals who are focused on the tools that they will have available to them. In the same context, unique or advanced facilities can also be profiled.
102. Exciting Projects. By providing profiles of recent major projects, you can give potential applicants insight into the type of projects that they might have an opportunity to work on.
103. Detailed Information on Employee Benefits. Rather than the generic list of employee benefits that most websites provide, links would allow the individual to learn additional details about specific benefits. In addition, your firm’s benefits would be compared directly to those of competitor employers using a side-by-side chart. If the company’s salaries are, on average, above mid-range, this information could also be provided.
104. A Special Focus on College Students. The careers page should highlight (or provide a link to a separate university page) topics that are of special interest to college students. Information should be targeted specifically to current students, recent graduates with undergraduate degrees, and graduate students.
105. A Special Focus on Different Generations. If your firm buys into the concept of generational differences, the website should contain links to segmented information that uses the language and focuses on the needs of the different generations.
106. A Focus on Retirees. If your organization is targeting recent retirees for either part-time or full-time work, there should be profiles of employees who represent this group. There should also be links to information that would be relevant to this group of potential employees.

Features That Assess Job Qualifications

Few websites have the capability of quickly assessing the qualifications of individuals while they are active on the company’s site. However, implementing this capability allows the website to customize the information provided and to change the application process to expedite those who are determined to be highly qualified. And, even though it’s often difficult to get applicants to provide you with qualifying information without incurring a percentage of early drop-offs, the problem can be reduced if you continually excite them at every step of the application process. Key elements of this qualifying feature include:

107. Assessing Their Fit. Advanced websites don’t just assess an individual’s qualifications. I also assess the individual’s fit with the organization’s culture, values, and way of doing business. This element can include a self-assessment tool that would allow the individual to determine for himself whether this was the right organization for him. If it’s a required assessment, the need for it must be justified and it must be completed in less than two minutes. You can also let potential applicants know that if they are a match, their applications will be expedited.
108. Technical Skill Assessment. It’s becoming increasingly more common for firms to conduct technical skill assessments online. However, you must excite your applicants with a great employer brand or an exciting careers website if you expect most of them to take the time to go through a skill assessment process. You can certainly make it optional, allow for self-assessment (so that they can self-select out), or you can let individuals know that a good score will move their applications immediately to the top of the pile. Online simulations and games are good choices because they can be in themselves exciting. You can also link to sites that offer technical assessments.
109. Judgment Assessments. You can provide careers page visitors with “what-if” scenarios, and assess them on the steps they take (or don’t take) in response to the scenario’s problem or opportunity.
110. Mini-Questionnaire Interviews. Future websites will have the capability of providing the candidate with an opportunity to sit through a mini-interview. This online feature is essentially a short multiple-choice questionnaire that lasts under five minutes. It can be an optional feature or candidates can be made aware of the fact that a high score on it guarantees them at least a telephone interview.

Features That Provide Feedback to Candidates

Most websites are one-way communication tools. That impersonalizes them and makes them less effective. So, it’s important to provide immediate and accurate feedback whenever possible if you want candidates to believe you’re being honest with them. Some of the elements of this feedback feature include:

111. Instant Feedback. Little excites potential candidates more than immediate feedback indicating they are the type of person that your firm is looking for. Positive feedback encourages them to stay on the website and to eventually take the time to apply for a job. If you decide not to provide feedback to every applicant, the website should, at least for highly-qualified candidates and those applying for hard-to-fill jobs, automatically provide positive feedback whenever the candidates provide information that indicates that they meet or exceed the firm’s expectations.
112. Live Q&A. Websites can have the capability of live chat, in which questions can be posted and answers can be immediately typed in by someone on your recruiting staff. This ability to get instant answers to “your” questions sends a clear message to potential applicants (even if they don’t take advantage of this feature) about your responsiveness and your interest in them. Other Q&A options include “next day” responses and posting frequently-asked questions on the site.
113. Probability of Success Feedback. At any time during the process of providing information, individuals could be notified of their approximate likelihood of getting an interview (e.g., “Based on the information you have provided so far, you have an 85% chance of getting called in for an interview”). This probability is relatively easy to calculate based on the qualifications of previous applicants for jobs that were granted interviews.
114. A Phone Link. When highly-qualified candidates or those who apply for hard-to-fill jobs visit the website, they could automatically be provided with a telephone number or a VOIP connection to a recruiter (or your call center), so that they can get an immediate and personalized response. (For example, “Mr. Woods, we’d love to have you on our golf team. Can you call this number immediately so that we can talk further?) Text messaging can also be used to communicate with potential applicants who are not currently on a computer.
115. Feedback After They Apply. Even after applications are completed, the website could provide e-mail updates to let candidates know where they are in the hiring process, and, on average, how many days until a final decision will be made.
116. Referral Feedback. Candidates from employer referrals should get immediate feedback when they enter the website. The feedback should make them feel welcomed (they are prized because one of your employees prescreened and presold them on the company). Immediate and periodic feedback encourages employees to refer others based on the positive experiences that the colleagues they referred received.

Elements That Build the Relationship over Time

When you are attempting to attract either potential candidates who are currently employed or top performers who are in high demand, you should realize upfront that there is a low probability that you can even interest them in jobs on the first contact. Most of the time, these highly sought-after individuals must build up a level of trust before seriously considering a company. The best approach, whether you’re utilizing a website or not, is to build a relationship with them over time. A website can help you begin to build this relationship. The key is to use their visits to your company’s home page, product page, or careers page to get their permission to keep in touch. Not everything that your firm does to build a relationship will go through a webpage, but it is an important starting point. Some of the relationship-building approaches that can be utilized include:

117. Send Them an E-Newsletter. Provide individuals who visit your website with the opportunity to opt-in and to give you permission to periodically send them a “friends of the company” e-newsletter. The purpose of the newsletter is to keep them informed about what’s happening at your firm. It can contain information about new products, exciting projects, and other things that help build their respect for your firm (such as Google’s “friends of Google” e-newsletter). You should also encourage them to sign up to receive company blogs or podcasts.
118. Push Information on Updates to Your Website. No more than once a quarter, let them know about exciting features and information that you’ve added to your corporate website. Then, encourage them to visit and solicit their feedback.
119. Push Opportunities to Attend Corporate Events. With their permission, send them invitations to corporate events in order to aid in the process of them getting to know you. Consider inviting them to new product announcements, executive speeches, internal corporate training classes, or even corporate parties.
120. Provide Them with Your Products. You can send them trial or sample products or product discounts. This helps build the recruiting relationship because if they learn to like your products, it increases the odds that they will consider working at your firm.
121. Push Jobs Announcements. This is the most job-oriented element of the relationship-building options. Ask for their permission on the careers or jobs page to periodically send them information and a link to the jobs that are directly relevant to them. Don’t overdo it or you will lose them.

Geographically-Localized Features

If the corporation has openings in many locations, the careers site should have a feature that changes the information that is provided to the visitor to fit the region or country where the potential candidate either is currently located or where he or she wants to work. In addition to the geography-specific features mentioned earlier, here are some additional localization features to consider:

122. Electronically Identify Their Locations. Start the localization process using their IP addresses to identify where visitors are coming from.
123. Provide a Local Information Option. Whether or not the location can be determined, visitors should be offered the option to quickly identify their locations from a drop-down menu or map, and then immediately have the screen change so that it now provides localized information and jobs.
124. Multilingual Capabilities. Make sure that all of your sites have multilingual and translation capabilities.
125. Consider Regional Subpages. Some organizations choose to develop separate webpages that focus entirely on a particular country or region. Make sure that the information on these targeted sites is tailored to the unique needs and cultures of the candidates in that region.
126. Facility Information. Make sure there are links to information about features of the local facility, the city, and its surroundings. Also, include information that might be relevant to the family of a new hire who is moving to the region.
127. Localized Pay and Benefits. Include a link on your corporate or regional pages that allows individuals from around the globe to view and understand the local salary structure. It’s also important to educate both locals and expatriates about the different benefits offered in this particular geographic region.

Other Things to Do Related to the Site

In addition to developing these actual features, there are some other things that you need to do in order to build a successful website. They include the following:

Metrics and Program Assessment

In order to identify website features and elements that work and those that don’t, it’s important to gather metrics and to assess results.

• Measure the volume and the performance of those hired as a result of the site to determine if the website produces superior hires compared to other sources.
• Ask new hires during orientation what attracted them and caused them to accept. Identify whether the website was a major contributing factor and, if so, what features were positively or negatively received.
• One of the key metrics to use is one adapted from sales; it is called the conversion rate. It measures the percentage of participants in one stage that advance to the next stage of a predefined sales process. You should also track the percentage of all visitors who actually complete an application.
• Track where candidates come from and go to (using a cookie) after they hit your site to see if you are attracting the right people.
• Survey a sample of your visitors in order to identify your site’s positive and negative features and to get a better understanding of what features should be added.
• Track the percentage of visitors that drop off and how much time passes before they typically do so. Follow up with surveys to find out why.
• Run an ROI analysis to identify the economic value of the website.
• Use mystery shoppers (such as employees or vendors) to periodically visit your site to test to see if the sorting and other features actually work as designed.
• Measure the satisfaction of website users (applicants, hires, drop-offs from the site, recruiters, and managers) and use the information in order to improve.

Miscellaneous Things to Do

In addition to metrics, there are some other things you should do in order to develop a world-class corporate jobs site. They include:

• Before beginning the recruiting process, conduct a survey of top employees in order to identify what they would look for in a website and what frustrates them on a careers website.
• Identify the websites (of any type) that your top performers visit the most and attempt to have your careers site link to them.
• Realize that as corporations become more global, companies become larger, and travel becomes more difficult, remote hiring will become the norm. And, as a result, recruiting will require more remote (not face-to-face) finding and assessment tools, so include them in your site at the very beginning.
• Form an advisory group of top performers to help you design and improve the website.
• Get your site ranked or written about in leading publications, blogs, and websites (such as CareerXroads) in order to increase traffic.
• Have your site evaluated by outside experts and targeted candidates. Make sure that it is unique and that it isn’t your typical jobs page.
• Compare your website to that of your direct talent competitors. Continually improve it to ensure that it gives your firm a competitive advantage. Where possible, design it so that it is hard for your competitors to copy it.
• Link your company’s “who’s-who” database (a list of previously identified and highly-rated individuals) so that it can match the names of those who hit the website. When a match occurs of a previously identified target candidate, the website should morph to treat them differently.
• Make sure there is a process to thank candidates for applying, and be sure to notify them when they’re no longer being considered. In your database, forever store the names of key highly-qualified candidates and applicants for hard-to-fill jobs.
• Consider offering a small gift or payment for submitting a qualified resume for a hard-to-fill job.

That’s it. A “wow” careers site is a lot more than a simple front end to an ATS application. It is a mechanism to communicate and service a population of people that may someday work for your organization. Too many companies take the design of their careers sites too lightly, asking more about what it can do for them versus what it can do for candidates. A great effort takes resources, time, and lots of dedication. Best wishes in your next redesign.

• Lawsuit filed after a 58-year-old job applicant was allegedly told the employer was looking for someone “not quite so old and with as much experience.”
• Transsexual allegedly told she would not be a “good fit.”
• Restaurant allegedly refuses to accommodate an Islamic headdress.

Phong, a smart Vietnamese-American student majoring in accounting, has had three solid job offers this year, and she doesn’t graduate until May. Other students report increased interest from employers who, after many years of relative apathy, are now looking at campus hiring with vigor. Some of these organizations are fearful of losing their baby boomers to retirement and of not having anyone to replace them. Some are just trying to build bench strength as they grow and find that they need more managers than they have. A few are seeking foreign students to hire and then employ back in their home countries.

Because of this interest and the increased competition, it is getting more difficult to attract the best college graduates. Just a few weeks ago, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) released a report entitled “Job Outlook 2008,” which indicates that employers expect to increase college hiring by 16% during 2007-2008. And, this demand is spread across many majors, not just engineering and the sciences, but also for graduates in business, government, accounting, and communications.

It is especially hard to get your offer accepted. Today’s students are more challenging to hire. They are not particularly inclined to work for large corporations and would much prefer a smaller, entrepreneurial firm where they perceive they have a chance to make a difference. They are looking for organizations that are flexible, fun, and fair. They want challenges and they want to be paid more for what they do than for how long they have worked for you.

This puts challenges on traditional organizations and makes it hard to come up with an attractive offer or a good answer to the questions these students are now asking more and more, such as: “Why should I work for your organization, and what’s in it for me?” If the first time you have seen or spoken to prospective graduates is in the few months prior to their graduations, you are going to have a difficult time making the quality hires you are seeking. Organizations that have both a strong employment brand as well as a relationship with a variety of students on campuses tend over time to have greater success in getting students to say “yes” to their offers.

Internship programs have been around for decades and provide students with valuable work experience and skills. They also provide employers with the opportunity to assess the culture fit, work habits, and skills of these students so that offers can be made to the best ones. They allow students to learn firsthand whether or not their needs and interests will be met at your organization.

But, many corporate internship programs are poorly thought out and do not capture the hearts or minds of the intern. They are based on assumptions and habits of 20-30 years ago. Hiring managers often treat these programs as a way to get extra help at bargain prices or as a service to students who need some extra spending money, rather than as strategic tools to build a continuous pipeline of talent.

Programs that are not built on long-range strategic goals tend to be much less effective and become regarded as relatively expensive programs that do not deliver much to the organization. The NACE reports that the average employer converts only around 43% of interns to full-time employment after graduation. Looked at in another way, almost 60% of interns do not go to work for the sponsor of their internship.

In order to develop an effective internship program that entices and sells the organization to the most capable students and converts them to regular employment, organizations need to invest time and money in thoughtfully constructing a program. Here are some steps that will lead to a program that will be regarded as a success and produce most of the college graduates you need.

Develop a Strategic Foundation for the Internship Program

As you consider putting an internship program in place, you need to answer some basic but very important questions: What do you expect to get from the program? Do you want to develop a pipeline of potential hires? Do you want to provide a public service to students who need some sort of income? Do you want to have access to professors and their research? As recruiters, you should be primarily focused on developing a pipeline of the talent that is the most difficult for your organization to find and hire.

For example, if finding enough computer engineers is a problem, then encouraging new engineering students to major in computer engineering by offering them internships might be a very strategic way to solve that issue over time. It is also the way to build a business case for getting the funding you will need to advertise and support the program.

There may be secondary goals for these programs, but, to make financial sense, converting many of these interns to full-time employees needs to be the ultimate goal. At the same time, any human resource policies that inhibit conversions or that make it difficult to attract interns should be re-examined and rewritten.

A question that is almost as important as the ones posed above is when to start recruiting students for internships. Should they only be approached after they have declared a major, or should you start the program very early and provide the students some career guidance on majors your organization would find useful? Often, today’s students are unclear about what organizations are looking for and which majors are appropriate. Guidance early in their school careers, along with carefully designed internships, can be effective in creating talent pools that can be tapped 3-4 years later.

Structure the Program with Conversion in Mind

Surprisingly, many employers do not make conversion of interns a core piece of their intern strategy. They focus on providing students with real-life experience or with doing a service to their key colleges and universities in the hope that their benevolence pays off in future hiring. No one tracks conversions very carefully, and often no effort is made to hire the interns after graduation.

However, programs without specific hiring goals don’t achieve much. While they may get some local acknowledgement for providing work for college students, they lose a potentially great source of talent every year. I know of a company where they have had interns for more than five years and have not tried to convert any. In fact, the few that have expressed interest have been discouraged from applying, because this organization focuses on hiring experienced people.

On the other hand, many organizations make the internship experience the primary entry door to new talent and provide the quality of program that encourages the best to apply.

Provide Students with Real Work That Is Exciting and Meaningful

Students who have suffered through boring internships are not likely to want to work for your company. While this is obvious, a large percentage of internship programs do not actively engage the students in meaningful work. The Gen-Y students you are recruiting today want to be part of project teams and want to use their skills to help the team accomplish its objectives. They do not want to work alone or on routine activities that, while necessary and perhaps even essential to the organization, are not developing the skills the students feel will help them in their careers.

I know of a finance student who was assigned to help a department controller. This involved collecting data, building a spreadsheet or two, and sitting through some very boring financial reviews. While this is actually what a controller does, and it is the kind of position the student might end up filling as a new employee, it was not challenging. It did not allow him to use the concepts he had learned in the classroom, and his manager was not a good coach. The experience was not positive, and the student went elsewhere. A little twist on the assignment, perhaps a project to look for ways to cut costs or something, combined with a better manager would have made this intern an easy conversion.

Assess the Interns Realistically and Coach Them Well

Students are used to fairly frequent feedback in the form of tests and professor comments. Gen-Y is a generation that has been mentored and coached throughout their youth, and they expect that at work as well.

Going into the work environment can be a strange experience because they suddenly get much less information on how they are doing. Interns want feedback, especially feedback that is constructive and is combined with coaching or development. Serious interns want to be part of projects that are important to the organization and that will stretch and motivate them. They need to get feedback on how their contributions helped the project or slowed it down. They need to know where their skills need improvement and where they are strong. Giving this kind of feedback is hard for almost all managers, but particularly hard to give to young people who are not employees. Managers of interns need to be carefully chosen and need to have skills at mentoring and teaching. Assuming that interns are just a pair of hands to help out an overworked staff is a common mistake and a fatal one when it comes to converting the students to full-time employment. Remember, the manager they have as interns is the model they will carry forth for all managers.

Make the Conversion Process Clear and Smooth

There may not even be a smooth process in place for making conversions from intern to employee. One firm I was talking to requires that each intern fill out an application, go through the normal interview process, and then be hired into an open slot that could also be filled with an experienced hire. Obviously, many interns are put off by the need to apply and interview once again, and many hiring managers would rather use that position for an expert rather than for a rookie.

Good programs waive the application and interview process. After all, these people have filled out some sort of application for the internship and have been assessed for weeks or months as interns. These organizations have also set up some structure or process to allow interns and college hires to fill positions reserved exclusively for them. A semiconductor firm that I am well acquainted with reserves 5-15 positions each year, depending on the economy, for college hires and conversions. The hiring manager has to pay the salary, but the head count is carried as corporate for one year.

Separate the Poor Performers and Maintain Contact with the Good Ones

If your goal is to build a useful pool of talent, performance assessment is critical to ensuring you have quality candidates. Each intern should get a progress report at the end of each year. Interns who are not performing well need to be told that and they should not come back for another year. I have talked to many interns who were uncertain about how they were perceived.

On the other hand, if the performance and fit have been good, your relationships should not only continue but grow. E-mail and other electronic tools can make staying in touch easy. A regular e-mail to all high-performing past interns, a newsletter or blog, and even an occasional phone call can make a huge difference in how they feel about your organization. Let them know if you want them back again or what the process of conversion looks like and what they can expect. Clear next steps, definite timelines, and objective feedback will lead to many more conversions.

Phong is considering a position at a small start-up of 30 people. She has turned down offers from some of America’s best corporations because they had never approached her until a few months prior to graduation. They did not have her trust nor did they make her see the possibilities and opportunities they have. They focused their offers on money and on their own reputations and what that would do for her resume. She was looking for a relationship, for learning opportunities, and for a chance to do something that would impact the bottom line. It would have been easy for these firms to reposition their approaches as they have much to offer, especially if they could have offered her an internship long before her graduation.

“What we can take from this study is that employers can no longer presume that a candidate with a certain education level will necessarily have the cognitive ability to take on-the-job tasks,” says David Waldschmidt, director of Research and Development with Wonderlic. “Cognitive ability measures a person’s ability to be trained and to learn, along with their ability to solve problems. The more complex the job, the more the employee must learn on the job everyday and the greater the relationship between cognitive ability and job performance.”

Cognitive ability is measured through administration of a series of questions with varying complexity, often structured as analogies. Waldschmidt says that more students are graduating from high school and that more high school graduates are moving onto college. Given the increase in educated candidates, there’s a larger variance of aptitude among the graduates, so degrees and diplomas are no longer sure-fire indicators of cognitive ability.

As a solution to the challenge, Waldschmidt suggests that recruiters analyze each job they are required to fill in order to understand the tasks and the characteristics that are necessary for success, along with the learning requirements for the position. Collection of that information will determine the need for cognitive ability, and when coupled with the required knowledge areas and personality traits, recruiters will be able to build a total applicant capability profile for each job they fill. Using exit information from terminating employees, closely monitoring turnover stats and re-surveying jobs are ways to uncover problem areas and ascertain if the skills of the applicant pool are generally fulfilling the job requirements.

“Recruiters may need to look to additional sources and a larger applicant pool to fill their needs and secure candidates that have the appropriate level of cognitive ability for the positions.” says Waldschmidt.

Numerous studies have confirmed that nearly everyone who eventually gets hired by an organization visits the organization’s corporate careers site at some point prior to being hired. Most leave disappointed, having had received no value whatsoever from a site that is supposed to be all about them. The first two parts of this series presented a lot of ideas about how to change that, but we are only half way there.

This article focuses on gathering information from visitors and on presenting content to sell visitors on the prospect of joining the organization.

Other Information-Gathering Elements for All Visitors

In addition to assessing qualifications and capturing resume details, there is other information you should attempt to get from all visitors, whether they are active or passive, during their visit to your site. Elements under this feature include:

57. Capture Their Job-Switch Criteria. This element requires applicants to list the criteria they would use when they decide to switch jobs. By identifying applicants’ job search criteria, interests, or job acceptance criteria, you can better sell them on your firm and the job.
58. Identify From Where They Came. If individuals are visiting from a computer owned by a particular company, you can identify that by its IP address (this allows you to treat visitors from target companies differently). In addition, technology often allows you to identify the last website they visited right before yours, which might (if they came from another firm’s jobs page) help you determine what other firms they are considering and whether they are active job seekers.
59. When Do They Need a Job? Great websites treat active job seekers with a sense of urgency, because you are likely to face competition in landing candidates. As a result, you should attempt to find out if visitors are actively seeking jobs at this time. Usually just asking them to tell you the number of weeks before they desire to have a new position or the number of firms they are presently considering will tell you all that you need to know. If they do not specify, you should now classify them as “non-lookers,” and assume that you’ll have to treat them differently in order to convince them to apply and accept.

Careers Page Features That Sell Them on the Firm

In most cases, it is necessary to convince visitors that you are a viable employer before you sell them on jobs. Selling them on the firm or organization is usually done on the initial landing pages of a site. The key to success is identifying the compelling and differentiated features that make working at your firm unique and exciting. Elements that are generally effective in this selling-them-on-the-firm feature include:

60. List Best-Place-to-Work Awards. Nothing builds your employment brand image faster than winning a “best place to work” type award. Each page should highlight your awards and provide information on each of the national and local “best places to work” awards that the firm has received. Be sure to highlight the specific features that helped you win the award. Whenever your firm was among the top firms in your industry, make sure that visitors are aware of that fact. Also include when your firm is listed among the “most admired” firms or when it is recognized for excellence in diversity hiring.
61. A Recruiting Video. Provide a five-minute or less recruiting video (Google has an excellent example of one) featuring a few of your employees. It can either be professionally done or done in a more amateurish fashion by one of your employees (to make it appear more genuine).
62. Show the Physical Aspects. Many candidates want to know about exciting physical aspects of the firm. You should include a list with examples and provide pictures or a virtual tour of the headquarters or local site. Include aspects like an onsite gym, great food, recreational aspects, “green” features, modern technology, and equipment. In order to identify these physical features, survey recent hires and employees to identify what might excite visitors.
63. A Live Web Cam. Providing a live Web cam showing the hustle and bustle and the energy can be a powerful tool. You can also utilize multiple cameras to allow them to choose different views of your facility (including the lobby, onsite childcare, the cafeteria, the gym, and the weather). Another option is to provide taped footage.
64. Employee Testimonials. This element provides short testimonials (video, audio, or narrative) from selected individuals on why they find your firm to be a great place to work.
65. Demonstrate Your Firm’s Success. Provide graphical information to show the successes of the firm that would impress potential applicants. Consider successes in the stock price growth, profit growth, market share increases, growth in employee headcount, expansion into new geographic regions, and the fact that the firm has had no major layoffs. Include positive comments by industry analysts or from the leaders of admired firms that are your customers.
66. Demonstrate Your Firm’s “Greenness.” As more potential recruits expect firms to have an excellent environmental record, it becomes increasingly important for organizations to demonstrate what they’ve done on their home pages and careers websites. Highlight both the actions you’re planning and those you have completed in the areas of sustainability, minimizing your carbon imprint, utilizing alternative energy, recycling, purchasing locally, utilizing electric and hybrid vehicles, encouraging the use of mass transit, and the support you give your employees so that they can reduce their impacts on the environment.
67. A Day in the Life of an Employee. This element provides a more detailed profile of the activities of a typical day of one of your employees. It can be a narrative, audio, or video format, and it could include a question-and-answer feature as well.
68. “People-Like-Me-Already-Work-Here” Feature. This element allows individuals to see that people with similar backgrounds and interests already work at the firm. The simplest format is to provide profiles of your employees (narrative or video). You should also consider a search that allows them to both enter their interests, background, education, demographic features, sexual orientation, hobbies, university affiliation, etc., and to seek out similar profiles of individuals. On the opposite end of the spectrum, profile employees who have won major awards and honors. Some firms make the profiles anonymous (to avoid raiding) while others provide only the first name. However, providing the picture and the full name has a more powerful impact.
69. Highlight Your Diversity. Merely stating that you celebrate diversity will have little impact on applicants. Instead, you must demonstrate your diversity in the most desirable jobs (manager and professional positions). You should also use statistics, employee profiles, lists of diversity-related activities, use of diverse suppliers, community activities, and your firm’s support of diverse affinity groups.
70. Illustrate Your Culture and Values. Provide information illustrating your company’s values and unique aspects of your culture. Listing them is not sufficient. You need to provide examples that show how the company actually lives up to its values every day.
71. YouTube Links to Demonstrate Excitement at Your Firm. Include links to videos that appear on YouTube or similar sites that positively highlight the firm or demonstrate the energy and excitement associated with working there.
72. Meet the Manager. The careers page will have a “meet our managers” feature (video, audio, or narrative) that allows visitors to understand the culture and management style of your firm by seeing the profile of one or more of your managers. It may be general in nature or it can provide the specific profile of the manager who they might be working with. Profiles should include how managers communicate, involve workers in decisions, encourage innovation, and praise or recognize their employees.
73. Profile Opportunities to Learn. The careers page should provide detailed information on typical growth and learning opportunities. It’s important to note that general statements or lists of educational benefits is not powerful enough to differentiate your firm or to convince potential applicants that managers are superior to what they have now. Consider including video clips of some seminars that are offered, a listing of specific courses, a sample employee learning plan, or the average amount of money or number of hours of training that the average employee gets (compared to the industry average). Also, consider a profile of the learning experiences of a selected employee whom you profile.
74. Profile Outside-of-Work Activities. The site provides information about outside-of-work activities, such as community involvement, employees’ sports teams, sponsored recreational trips, and other fun events the company helps organize.
75. Profile Technical Accomplishments. Include listings of the firm’s recent patents, innovations, technical awards, and technological advances to demonstrate that your firm is on the leading edge.
76. Press Releases. Include a link to recent press releases to let visitors see for themselves what’s happening in the company.
77. Articles Highlighting the Company. Include copies or links to articles from leading publications that mention the firm or its key employees. Also, include the best articles written by your employees and a listing of books and key research reports they have written.
78. TV Show Clips. When technology allows, include video clips (links or transcripts) from TV shows featuring the firm and its employees.
79. Professional Presentations. Provide copies or links to samples of professional presentations and speeches given by key employees. It can be as simple as a link to the presentation slide show or a video of the presentation.
80. Highlight Your Firm’s Alumni. Demonstrate how your firm is an excellent training ground for future leaders by listing the firm’s alumni who have achieved fame in the industry or in public service after leaving the company. In the same light, consider listing the names of some new hires and their credentials to demonstrate the quality of people who are joining your firm.

Jobs Page Features That Sell Visitors on “This Job”

No matter how exciting the company appears on the website, you won’t get very many applicants unless your follow-up jobs page (where actual job openings are listed) also excites the visitor. Some of the elements that can help sell visitors on your individual jobs include:

81. Exciting Job Descriptions. The action with the most impact on the jobs page is to write position descriptions so that they’re compelling. Unfortunately, most job or position descriptions that are posted on websites are painfully dull. Don’t let compensation write whatever you post on the Web. Instead, the duties and responsibilities should make the job interesting. When appropriate, make sure to show that the job involves teamwork, innovation, and the latest equipment, and that the job’s output is important to the company. Work with marketing to ensure that each description makes the job sound like something that would be a step up from the ordinary. Test them to make sure that they have the desired effect of exciting the potential candidate.
82. FAQ’s About “This” Job. If individuals have questions about a particular job, it causes them to hesitate before they apply for it. The best way to avoid this problem is to provide a link to frequently asked questions and answers about this particular job or job family. Unless it’s a brand new job, you should be able to identify the likely questions by surveying candidates and new hires in those positions. You can also identify the typical frustrations that people in those jobs and at other firms frequently face, and then provide information to show that those frustrations are less likely to happen at your firm. Be sure to test your answers to ensure that they clear up anything that could be vague. As an alternative, you can allow potential applicants to e-mail their personal questions to a designated recruiter.
83. Job Search Feature. It’s important to make sure that the search feature on the jobs page (there might also be a search feature on the careers page) allows potential applicants to enter terms related to skills, tools, responsibilities, locations, or their hobbies in order to display the jobs that fit their interests (even if they don’t know the job’s title). If visitors used your jobs page’s keyword search feature to identify their relevant opportunities, use technology to highlight each of the search terms they entered within the actual position description, so that they can see its relevance.
84. Selling the Location. Because most jobs are location specific, the jobs page itself should provide a link to positive information about the facility and the city in which the job is located. This information could include compelling features of the job facility as well as information about the region’s weather, low crime rates, great recreation, cultural activities, clean air, easy commutes, low housing prices, or superior schools and universities. Global jobs, in particular, need to provide more detailed information to convince leery potential candidates.
85. Convince the Family. Because family and friends can influence an individual’s decision to seek a new job, the careers page should target information that also helps to sell anyone who might influence this individual. For those who are part of the millennium generation, information should be included to help convince the parents, should they get involved in the job-search process (Enterprise Rent-A-Car excels at this).

Unique Treatment on the Jobs Page for Targeted Jobs and Highly-Qualified Applicants

In some cases, hard-to-fill jobs and high-volume positions need to be treated differently than other opportunities that are posted on the jobs page. In the same light, individuals who are assessed to be highly qualified should also be treated differently. Some of the elements of this targeted approach include:

86. Direct-Contact Opportunity. For highly-qualified individuals or for any nearly-impossible-to-fill jobs, the site should provide an opportunity for direct personal contact (phone or e-mail) with current employees who are in or are familiar with the position (the Cisco “friends” program was an excellent example of this concept). When direct contact is not feasible, having an employee write a blog related to the particular position can also have an impact.
87. Profiles of the Team. Consider linking hard-to-fill jobs and high-volume hiring jobs with brief narrative profiles of the hiring manager and team members in order to give potential applicants an idea of what kinds of individuals they would be working with. Employees can be profiled in a baseball card format.
88. Additional Information for “Hard-to-Fill Jobs. Any jobs that have been historically hard to fill should receive special treatment. That is an opportunity to view more in-depth information in all areas in order to increase the number of qualified applicants.
89. Additional Information for High-Volume Hiring Jobs. Jobs that involve hiring a high volume of individuals during the year should also get special treatment. Potential applicants should be given the opportunity to link to more detailed information (including short video clips of workers in this job) in order to increase the number of qualified applicants and help reduce recruiter’s workloads by decreasing the number of unqualified ones.

Features That Make it Easy to Find “My” Job

Many times, visitors don’t want to read through the painfully long list of job openings that is found on the jobs page of a corporate website. As a result, it’s critical that the page prior to it (usually the careers page) contain a search feature that allows an individual to go directly to the job that is the best fit for him. Although on the surface it might seem easy to find the right job, it often is not because different firms use markedly different job titles. If you want to avoid frustration and ensure that applicants apply for the most appropriate jobs, your website must have a sophisticated job-finding feature. Some of the elements of that find-a-job feature include:

90. “Find the Right Job” Search Feature. The jobs search engine on the careers page allows a visitor to find a job without knowing its title. Like any search engine, this feature would allow you to enter job titles, skills, and responsibilities and instantly call up any relevant jobs. Like a Google or Yahoo! search, it should rank in descending order the jobs that the search feature finds based on how closely they fit the search string the candidate entered. The search feature must be continually tested to ensure that it brings up all relevant jobs without any omissions.
91. A “Suggest a Job” Element. This element is similar to many shopping websites in that it identifies other jobs that previous searchers who looked at a particular position also applied for. By providing the visitor with suggestions about similar jobs that he would likely be interested in (based on the search experience of others), you help ensure that he easily finds all of the relevant jobs.
92. Jobs That Fit the Targeted Region. The job search feature on both the careers page and the jobs page should only pull up jobs that are within commuting distance of where the individual wants to work. Remote jobs would appear regardless of their targeted geographic area.
93. Jobs That Fit the Targeted Pay Range. Much like shopping sites, this job search feature would allow you to enter a minimum salary and would only provide jobs that have the potential for meeting that minimum. In addition, if the individual only wanted a job that included full benefits or certain perks, only those positions would be listed.
94. A “Closed Position” Search Element. Because not all positions are open whenever a potential candidate visits, this element allows the visitor to search all existing jobs. The individual would then be told how frequently a selected job comes open. In addition, he or she could sign up for an automatic “push” notification via e-mail when that position does open up.
95. A College Student Search Element. The search feature would allow students to search for internships or co-op or part-time positions that would be of interest to undergraduates. It would also allow soon-to-be graduates to identify the types of jobs that recent graduates have successfully obtained at your firm.

Hopefully, you can see that creating a “wow” career site really is all about servicing the candidate. In the next and final issue of this series, I will tackle the remaining feature categories and a few miscellaneous things you should do.

That’s the conclusion of the latest salary survey on pharmacy personnel conducted by Mercer. The semi-annual survey contains detailed information on pay levels and pay practices for pharmacy personnel reported in more than 380 metropolitan areas across the U.S. The position of regional pharmacy operations manager earns median total cash compensation of $130,400 compared to $122,100 in 2006, which is an increase of 6.8 % and more than twice the pay increase of 3.1 % in 2005. Similarly, clinical pharmacists saw pay raises increase from 3.9 % in 2006 to 6.3 % in 2007.

Here are some of the results from the Mercer survey — year-over-year pay comparison of select pharmacy positions.

The holiday season arrives and that infamous determination still hangs over us. Whether to be “naughty or nice?” That perception drives “holiday earnings.” Personally, I was raised in a family in which “nice” was the only option. “Nice” was smiling, behaving, complying, agreeing, and cooperating in every way. “Naughty” was pouting, dissension, talking back, and questioning parental authority. “Naughty” was never acceptable any time of year. It virtually evaporated during the holidays.

I carried forward with my “nice” persona. I feel recruiters are similarly inclined as a group. In an effort to please the hiring manager, we bend over backwards trying to comply and be as unobtrusive as possible. We’re ever service-oriented and trying to deliver to the end. What results is that the hiring manager has very little time for us and doesn’t value what we do. At the last ERE convention in Washington, D.C., one of the biggest challenges I heard from staffing professionals was gaining enough time, attention, and cooperation from their hiring managers to properly fulfill their needs. If turning ourselves inside out to please doesn’t cut it, what should we do?

Quit being nice. I don’t mean that you have to be nasty. Quit being subservient. Take the lead and control of the staffing process. Push back when appropriate. Hiring managers are engaged in whatever they do for the company, and that’s not staffing. They want to get back to their jobs as fast as they can so they can earn their keep. Since you are the staffing professional, they are expecting you to do the same. The problem comes when they just want to dump the whole thing in your lap without any consultation. It’s like, “Here. This is your responsibility. Now you fix it.” How can you snag their attention and get them to give you the information you need? Use some “naughty.” Push back!

One thing that will help you effectively apply some “naughty” is to find out the importance of a new employee to the hiring manager, the department, and to the company. What type of pain is being experienced with this hole in the organization? Ask yourself, “Without this person, what remains undone? How does that affect the company? Your department? Your customers? You?”

Managers with No Time to Give You Job Descriptions

For our purposes, pain is a good thing. Pressing on legitimate pain promotes action. Find the pain and use it appropriately. For example, you have a manager with no time to give you the job description. Here’s what to say to the manager: “This is my process to gather your information about your opportunity (describe your process). I ask for your engagement here, because we are setting the groundwork. I need to understand this position as exactly as if I worked in your department. How else can I accurately describe this to the candidate? By spending time here and setting a firm foundation, you will ultimately save time that you would spend interviewing the wrong people, and I’ll find you the best employee to solve (your pain).”

A Manager with Candidate “Must-Haves”

Sometimes, you have a manager with candidate “must-haves,” such as “a CPA with Big 4 experience” or “an MBA from a top-tier school” or “10 years of experience.” Why? Why? Why? Many times this is a knee-jerk reaction and what the hiring manager really means is “the best of the best” or “the top 10%,” but he or she doesn’t know how else to define it. Here’s what to say to the manager: “What in that past experience will relate to this position? Why is that important? What are the characteristics that are displayed in those candidates that you seek?”

By taking these marching orders too literally, we overlook candidates who possess the qualities and attributes from other sources. Sometimes, these are actually the better, more motivated candidates. As the recruiting consultant, draw this out of the hiring manager.

A Manager Who Wants to See 10 Resumes

If you have a manager who wants to see 10 resumes, here’s what to say: “Why? What will you gain by reviewing 10 resumes? A resume is a marketing piece that is designed to gain an interview. It’s a two-dimensional piece of paper that may or may not accurately represent the individual. Studies have shown that over half of the resumes presented have omissions or misrepresentations in them. It also doesn’t demonstrate candidate motivations. How helpful would it be if I screened and interviewed candidates from those resumes and presented you with the top few candidates who were the most qualified and motivated for your position? Let me show you the three-dimensional person beneath the resume.”

A Hiring Manager Who Is Dragging Out the Process

The most common response to “When do you want to start this employee?” is “Yesterday!” Yet, actions speak louder than words and delaying the process is a huge factor in the failure of placement. The best way to keep your hiring managers engaged is to have them agree to a definite timeline for hiring milestones. Dates and times for briefing, interviews, debriefing, offers, and placement should be agreed upon in the beginning of the engagement.

Here’s what to say to the manager: “It’s my job to keep us on a tight schedule here. The best candidates go quickly. It’s also the first time the candidate is looking at you as a future potential employer. Making timely, firm business decisions (like hiring) indicate to the employee what it will be like working for you.”

A Hiring Manager Who Goes MIA

Here’s what to say to the manager: “When we first spoke, you told me that we would continue until we found this employee. Has anything happened to change that situation?”

This is definitely effective push-back to press repeatedly on the hiring manager’s pain. Rude? Naughty? Maybe just a bit, but it gets the point across. Maybe, in the heat of performing his or her job, the hiring manager lost sight of your mutual hiring objective. Or maybe, things really did change. You need to know in either case.

Being “naughty” in this context really brings a payoff. We, as recruiters, take the consulting role. We set procedures and expectations with our hiring managers. We get the information that we need and bring them value and the ultimate prize. We hire the best employee to solve the problem or pain. It’s a happy ending for everyone.

Who knew that “naughty” was really the way to get what we all want?

The press release from the company states that employers are looking to align their internal and external communications and branding strategies as a way to drive employee engagement and increase productivity. The firm’s name change, positioning shift, and structural changes are designed to meet changing client needs. JWT Inside will be led by Jerry Touslee, as its president over North America, and Peter Womersley, as managing director for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

In last week’s article, I kicked off this series citing the importance of developing and maintaining a corporate careers Web presence that not only enables people to apply online for jobs, but that also excites people about the prospect of working for a company regardless of their reasons for visiting the site. To get started on architecting such a site, I outlined the first four of 18 categories of features a “wow” career site would need to have. In this issue, my attention turns to the next four categories, all of which have to do with segmenting the viewers into groups and delivering personalized, relevant content. We’ll start with developing content for high-priority visitors and end up on features for active job seekers.

Providing Specialized or Localized Information to High-Priority Visitors

If you have identified something unique about visitors or you have classified these people as highly desirable, they should then be shown specialized or localized information that would not be routinely shown to every applicant, in order to excite and sell them. The website would shift or morph (shift the information provided) into a standard template based on predetermined personalization/localization rules in order to fit their profiles. Some of the elements that you should include under this specialized information future include:

24. An Individualized Note. Applicants might receive relevant notes across the screen based on the information they provided. That note could express a high-interest level in order to excite them. If individuals appear in the customer database, the note might thank them for their patronage or designate them for customer-friendly responses if they are not selected.
25. A Deeper Level of Information. The site contains multiple layers of information that are provided depending on the categorization or the interest level of the visiting person. Important topic areas may initially present only surface-level points made up of just a few words, but they could expand with a mouse click to more detailed information, possibly even an index of supporting documentation, such as podcasts, video clips, and third-party research reports.
26. Format Choices. The visitor can choose the format in which information is presented, based on format preferences. The information can be provided using just text, or you can mix text with pictures, videos, audio podcasts, live chat, and downloadable case studies.
27. People-Like-You-Already-Work-Here Information. For example, if they tell you where they currently work, they could be provided with information on the number of your employees who previously worked at those firms.
28. Fitting Their Geography. The website could identify the IP address that the visitor originated at in order to determine their current geographic location. The information provided in the jobs listed could then automatically shift to fit their geographic location.
29. Time-to-Fill Information. If they checked off a high priority job, the site could provide them with information on how soon a hiring decision will (on average) be made on that particular job.
30. Information for the Ambitious. If the applicants’ profiles or the information they provide indicate that they are highly mobile or ambitious, the website could excite them with information about promotional rates (showing them where they would be today if they had joined the firm two years ago). Information can also be provided about average bonuses, stock options, and typical development opportunities.
31. Visitors from Competitor Firms. The IP address of the visitor to the website might reveal that this individual is working at a competitor’s firm. If so, depending on local laws, that information could be used to subtly shift the message provided to the visitor.

Personalized Features and Expedited Treatment

Using any part of the initial identifying information gathered throughout the site, the Web server could invoke rules to provide expedited or special treatment for special visitors. Some of the elements that your webpage should include under this expedited treatment future include:

32. Personalized Features. To get the attention of prioritized visitors, once you know what universities they attended, the site’s colors could shift to those of their alma mater, or their school’s fight song could play in the background. The site might also have text messaging capabilities so that personalized or automatic messages could be sent directly to the candidate by a live recruiter.
33. Expedited Treatment. Individuals who fit into priority categories might receive expedited treatment in the hiring process. For example, individuals with a high desirability score might be immediately offered an opportunity to schedule an interview using your online scheduling feature. If the website matched their names to a name in the who’s-who database, they might be asked to immediately call a recruiter or to contact the 24/7 call center. If individuals currently work at a targeted company, they might be asked to come in for an interview even if there was no current opening for their next-level job. If individuals have a great deal of experience and an interest in a hard-to-hire job, they might be shifted directly to the profile completion step. Priority candidates could also be given the opportunity to track the progress of their applications on a password-protected site exclusively for their use.
34. Dream Job Element. A build-your-dream-job feature allows highly-qualified applicants to spell out the duties and features of their ideal jobs. For these highly-qualified individuals, this provides you with an opportunity to let them know that you have a job that meets their needs, or that you’re willing to work with them to develop such an opportunity. For any position, knowing what an individual’s dream job is, allows you to identify the job-switch criteria, which is important information for any recruiting sales pitch.
35. Hiring Both. In extreme cases in which a candidate is highly desirable, you might provide him with a hire-them-both option. It’s a highly effective tool, with which you offer the possibility of hiring both him and a colleague at the same time. Obviously, the final decision couldn’t be made until you interview both candidates.
36. Remote Work Option. For exceptional individuals, the option of working remotely is a major differentiator between jobs. Information on this option would only be made available to target special individuals.

Features for Attracting Top Employed Performers (aka Non-Job Lookers or Passives)

Almost invariably, the most desirable hires are currently employed people whose skills are up-to-date. Unfortunately, most top employed performers don’t currently need a job and, as a result, they are unlikely to visit your corporate careers or jobs page. There are, however, other ways that you can capture their interests and build a relationship with them. One is to provide them with information that allows them to progress and learn as a professional.

The number one reason why people use the Web is to look for information. As a result, the best corporate sites have features or links that cause quality, employed people to visit the site periodically for either information or for fun, but not initially for a job. The best websites will provide access to the following types of content outside the domain of the careers/jobs page. The content types include:

37. Product Information. It has links to your products for potential buyers or current users. It provides information about exciting new (or coming) products. By renewing their excitement about your products, you hope to eventually shift that excitement from your products to your firm’s jobs.
38. “Wow” Technology. Provide “wow” website features or unique technology features that are so exciting they become talked about just because they’re so unique and advanced. Talked-about features are things that you will tell (or e-mail) your friends about (through viral marketing).
39. Affinity Features. This information sends a message that people who work at this firm share similar interests with the applicants. It has features that target/find candidates who think like them. For example, it excites people with unique or common interests in sports, animals, hobbies, or demographic characteristics. By providing this information about the interests of your current employees, you can convince others that many additional people just like them already work at your firm.
40. “Answer Guy” Information Features. This corporate page builds your brand as the “answer place.” It includes information, tools, or links that allow visitors to do their current jobs better. Because the page focuses on professional improvement, the best (those who are constantly learning) will visit the site on a regular basis. Include on the site industry events, the latest tools, frequently asked questions, benchmark information, and industry interviews. Once individuals realize that your firm is “in the know,” it’s almost automatic that they will eventually consider you as a future employer.
41. Draw Return Visitors. Include interesting things that might draw return visitors, such as music, news, opinions, people changing jobs, hobbies, chat, industry gossip, a contest feature (like “win a car” or other drawing contests or prizes).
42. Fun Features. The website is fun to visit because it has features like cartoons, jokes, virtual tours, compelling videos, top-10 lists, industry gossip, and even video games. The goal is to encourage regular visits and to show that your company is a fun place to work.
43. Push Future Job Openings. This element allows visitors to go to your jobs page and sign up for an automatic notification system, which will let them know by e-mail whenever a particular job becomes open. Although this feature is designed primarily for those who are not currently looking for a job, it also works for those that are actively looking. Sophisticated recruiting systems will automatically push jobs to individuals in their database who work at firms that are currently undergoing problems or turmoil (because these individuals might suddenly be more interested in moving).
44. Self-Assessment Capability. This feature allows visitors to do self-assessments of their skills in order to determine if they are ready to move up. It encourages job movement by providing information to professionals about their potential future earnings, promotion potential, or the soon-to-be-required future competencies.
45. Prequalification Element. Who hasn’t been enthusiastic and encouraged after learning about being prequalified for a mortgage or loan? Well, websites can also excite potential applicants by providing a feature that allows those not currently in the job market to be assessed and later prequalified for an interview for a particular position (though this is not a guarantee of a job). This capability allows individuals who are curious or who anticipate their future availability to find out in advance if their formal applications would be welcomed. Similar to when you prequalify for a car loan and begin shopping in earnest for a car, in the same way, this encouraging information might spur these individuals to become active job seekers at your firm.
46. Quick Application. Because these individuals are not in the job market, it’s necessary to make it easy to apply when they begin to show a passing interest in a new job. This quick application feature might even be outside your careers or jobs page. The goal is that this feature allows the individual to apply for a job in less than five minutes for those in a rush and those with a high likelihood of dropping off if they get bored with the application process. You must time the process to ensure that it is both quick and painless.

Features for Attracting Active Job Seekers (Who Want Jobs in the Immediate Future)

Although not as desirable as currently-employed individuals, it is also important to pay attention to those who are actively in the job-search mode. Active job seekers will make up over 90% of the individuals who visit your careers page. But, it’s important to note that because they are actively seeking jobs, they might be applying for jobs at several firms. Which means that if they are any good, you will have to act quickly, because the best ones are likely to be available for only a short period of time. Some of the elements that you should have under this active job-seeker feature include:

47. Profiler Tool. It’s important to make it easy for recruiters and hiring managers to assess applicants. One of the best approaches (in addition to scanning the resume) is to have the applicant fill out a quick profile or summary of their qualifications. It should only take a few minutes but this profile can help both recruiters and the ATS system swiftly qualify this individual.
48. Broad Acceptance of Formats. Your webpage should accept resumes in a variety of formats. This is particularly important if your firm does not have a strong employment brand, because if applicants cannot use their existing resumes, references, and experience summaries, you are likely going to have a high drop-off rate because they won’t be willing to take the time to reformat their resumes just to fit your system.
49. Links to Job Boards. Because you’re targeting active job seekers, it is critical that your careers page has links posted on most job boards and career-oriented sites.
50. Links to Strategic Partners. If your organization has strong relationships to its strategic partners and large customers, it’s wise to provide links to your corporate home page (in a few cases, directly your jobs page).
51. Sending Jobs to Friends. This element allows the visitor to your jobs page to forward an active job (or any element of your careers or jobs page) to a friend.
52. Critical Information for Active Job Seekers. Because active job seekers are likely to be looking at many firms, you can better assure they will apply for your firm’s jobs if you give them more detailed information than most job sites provide. That supplemental information might include salary ranges, your average days-to-fill, the percentage of applicants that are selected for interviews, and the actual number of vacancies for each posted job. The key is to provide information that causes these active job lookers to differentiate your jobs from the jobs at other firms that provide only vague information.
53. Discouraging the Unqualified. This element serves to discourage applications from under-qualified and unqualified individuals in order to both ease your recruiting burden and to minimize potential legal issues. To discourage unwanted applicants, use features like profiles of rejected candidates, a list of the common reasons for rejection, accurate and realistic job previews alongside the job listing, precise and accurate minimum qualifications (with warnings that each and every one is strictly enforced), and features that allow visitors to pre-assess their chances online before they officially apply.
54. Listing of Future Competencies to Warn Applicants. Another way of reducing the volume of applications from marginally-qualified individuals is to provide them with a list of the key competencies or skills that the firm forecasts will be essential for any employee in the next few years. It should also highlight and forecast potential industry problems and opportunities. By demonstrating to the visitor that new and complex competencies and problems lie ahead, you encourage those with these competencies, while discouraging those who are unwilling to change and learn.
55. Focus on College Hires. Ideally, the careers page would link to a separate page focused on current and former students. It would contain information on targeted campuses for visits and interviews as well as a listing of regular college and diversity job fairs that recruiters would attend. It might also include profiles (written, audio, or video) of successful interns and college hires from several different universities, and a list of the competencies and capabilities that the company looks for in recent graduates. The firm could also provide links to part-time and summer projects for students, as well as online technical contests that the company is sponsoring. The experiences of recent interns as college hires could be profiled through video, podcasts, or blogs. This page could also include information on educational reimbursement benefits for those who wish to pursue advanced degrees.
56. Listing of Contract Positions. If your firm has a significant contingent workforce, it is important to realize that active job seekers are more willing than most to accept contract or part-time work. As a result, your jobs page should include a section listing contract jobs as well as full-time and part-time employment opportunities. The site should also include language and information that encourages individuals to accept these “lesser” positions. This information might include the conversion rate for benefits that contract workers receive compared to those of regular, full-time positions. While not all ATS systems manage them effectively, emerging sites should allow active candidate to pursue both regular and contract jobs.

That’s it for this issue. In the next article, I will tackle features for collecting additional information and will start to talk about features that sell the organization to various audiences.

This article describes the most important factor involved in individual-recruiter success. From my personal dealings with over 2,500 corporate and third-party recruiters in the last five years, it seems that only 10-15% of recruiters develop this to improve their overall performance. In the past year, I’ve written a number of articles about the importance of applicant control and understanding real job needs, and, while these are vitally important, they are far less effective without this third factor in place.

But first, a little background.

We’re almost finished with our annual Recruiting and Hiring Challenges Survey for 2008. (There’s still a short time for you to participate. Here’s the link to take the survey.) While there were many problems highlighted, including handling too many requisitions, the lack of effective technology, and the declining effectiveness of job boards, five problems were ranked by nearly everyone as significant or of huge concern. Since more than 600 recruiters participated from corporations and independent recruiting firms, these results can be considered statistically relevant.

The one problem that stood out from everyone else was predictable: 96% of the respondents indicated that they were not seeing enough strong candidates for important positions, and 78% said that this was a growing problem of major concern or a huge current problem. Better sourcing will not solve the root cause problem; it will just mask it. The underlying challenge, and the most important factor involved in making more placements, is highlighted by the responses to four other questions. As you’ll see, they all involved problems with hiring managers.

Survey participants were asked to rank each of the problems described below on a five-level degree-of-concern basis, from “Not a Problem” to “A Huge Problem.”

• Hiring managers are not willing to devote the time necessary to recruit top people. Eighty-two percent of the respondents indicated this was a significant problem, with 60% considering it a major growing problem or a huge current problem. Although recruiters can’t convince hiring managers to spend more time here or to take time to recruit the best, this message is important to get across somehow.
• Hiring managers are not strong at assessing candidate competency. It’s hard enough finding good candidates, but when 85% of the respondents indicate that this is a major problem, and 60% indicate that it’s growing or it’s a huge problem now, recruiters are just spinning their wheels. This is the primary reason why new sourcing programs aren’t the universal solutions to a company’s hiring challenges.
• Managers overvalue skills, experience, and academics before seeing candidates. Unfortunately, most managers refuse to consider great candidates who have comparable, but not identical, skills, or have achieved success in a different industry or field. Eighty-four percent of survey participants said that their managers were unwilling to bend their specifications despite major sourcing challenges, and that this problem was getting worse or it was already huge.
• Managers are not strong at recruiting top people. For a variety of reasons, top people don’t want to work for managers who aren’t strong leaders and potential mentors, so this is a problem that isn’t going to go away without some type of high-level intervention. An unbelievable 87% of those taking the survey considered this to be a problem they were currently facing, and while a few from this group indicated it was manageable, 63% indicated it was worsening or it was already affecting their ability to meet their recruiting targets.

Effectively coaching, developing, and guiding hiring managers in a declining-supply-and-growing-demand recruiting environment is essential if companies ever expect to meet their hiring needs for new talent. This is the single most important factor preventing companies from hiring more top talent. However, from what I can tell, HR and recruiting executives are afraid to tackle this problem head-on.

While training recruiters can help a bit, and developing a series of creative new sourcing programs can help a bit more, nothing will overcome the bottleneck imposed by hiring managers’ attitudes and their inability to attract the best. With this in mind, here are some ideas you might want to ponder:

• Build a team of great recruiters. Great recruiters can offset some of the deficiencies in hiring managers. If you’re a recruiting manager, here’s a unique 10-factor, self-evaluation scorecard you should have all your recruiters take. This will allow you to compare your team across 10 competencies we’ve found to be the most predictive of top recruiter performance. If you are a recruiter, you’re invited to evaluate yourself, but reduce your final score by 20% for a true reading. (There’s always grade inflation in any self-evaluation.)
• Recruiters need to be partners, not vendors. Recruiters who become partners with their hiring-manager clients have the ability to minimize some of the hiring-manager recruiting weaknesses. One aspect of becoming a partner involves having real job knowledge beyond the job description. This is one of the reasons recruiters who have performed the job they’re now recruiting for have more credibility with hiring managers and candidates alike. Preparing a performance profile with the hiring manager when the assignment is taken can help the recruiter better understand real job needs. You might need to talk with a strong person currently in the job to better understand what it takes to be a top performer before you discuss the job with your hiring-manager client. Hiring managers trust recruiters when they understand the real work required for on-the-job success.
• Clarify performance expectations up-front. As far as I’m concerned, HR is remiss in not requiring hiring managers to prepare something like a performance profile to get a requisition approved. When managers know real job needs, they come across to candidates as more insightful and knowledgeable during the interview. All managers, even the weak ones, seem better when they can describe real job needs to candidates. Managers also are more likely to see a candidate who has achieved comparable results even if he or she is a little light on the qualifications. Clarifying expectations up-front has been shown to be the primary determinant of job satisfaction and improved on-the-job performance. The use of performance profiles also enables a company to integrate its hiring, on-boarding, and performance-management process into one common system.
• Conduct more panel interviews. A well-conducted panel interview can help hiring managers who are weak interviewers more accurately assess competency. As long as the panelists don’t stomp all over each other or overtly challenge the interviewee, most candidates find panel interviews appealing and appropriate. Panel interviews can also be used to mask some hiring manager deficiencies as long as there is another strong leader on the panel. This is a real aid in recruiting.
• Train managers on how to recruit. Talking and selling don’t constitute recruiting. Most managers don’t know how to recruit, but sadly, many recruiters fall into this same boat. Regardless, managers need to learn how to use solution selling and needs analysis to position their open opportunities as far superior to any others the candidate is considering.
• Use an evidence-based assessment process. In too many companies, the interview assessment is akin to a popularity contest based on an archaic yes-or-no voting system. The hiring decision should be based on a deliberative evidence-sharing process. This is particularly important when unskilled managers are given full voting rights or base their decisions on a narrow range of competencies. This change alone will prevent many good people from being excluded due to a weak assessment process.

Any new sourcing program that is implemented to meet the hiring demands of the future will be far less effective than possible unless the problems associated with hiring managers are addressed first. While recruiters can be of some assistance here, leadership at the HR-executive level is required to change the outdated and clumsy recruiting, interviewing, and assessment processes used by most companies.

Companies with great brands and compelling stories will always be able to attract the best. For everyone else, the solutions require creativity, leadership, and hard work. The effort is all worth it if hiring top talent is considered a major strategic objective.

Today, a new report out has investment banker Jeff Seely replacing Goldberg and says Goldberg will serve as Jobster vice chairman of the board.