‘…what you gonna do
When the new wears off and the old shines through…’

The whole song:
Well I got a good friend who’s got a good life
He’s got two pretty children and a real nice wife
But he never seems quite satisfied
I said I know what’s on your mind
But you better think about it before you cross that line
The grass aint always greener on the other side

Then what, what you gonna do
When the new wears off and the old shines through
And it aint really love and it aint really lust
You aint anybody anyone’s gonna trust
Then what, where you gonna turn
When you cant turn back for the bridges you burn
And fate can’t wait to kick you in the butt
Then what

Well I aint saying that looking’s a crime
Well I’ve done my share from time to time
It dont mean that you gotta take that leap
When you’re standin’ on the brink
Before you jump you gotta step back and think
There’s price for ever promise you dont keep

Then what, what you gonna do
When the new wears off and the old shines through
And it aint really love and it aint really lust
You aint anybody anyone’s gonna trust
Then what, where you gonna turn
When you cant turn back for the bridges you burn
And fate can’t wait to kick you in the butt
Then what

Do want you want, do want you wish
It’s your life but remember this
There’s bound to be some consequences
Sneaking under other fences

Then what, what you gonna do
When the new wears off and the old shines through
And it aint really love and it aint really lust
You aint anybody anyone’s gonna trust
Then what, where you gonna turn
When you cant turn back for the bridges you burn
And fate can’t wait to kick you in the butt
Then what
******

THEN what?
;)
Do something today you don’t think you can do.

The roadside it littered with recruiting strategies that are directly related to trying to be an early adaptor and catch the next big wave or gain that competitive advantage. If we boil down my article in 2 simple points (maybe I should have written a 2 point article in the first place :-) it is this:

(1)If you are going to test out a new tool/approach??Measure the heck out of it and even if it might not be quite right now revisit at a latter day if you think it is a possible winner and test and test and test some more. But, please measure it vs. sticking your finger in the air to gauge the wind.

(2)Don?t get sucked into the innovation spiral as you can never win (like buying a TV). I see it akin to betting on the penny stock market. You might hit a winner once in a blue moon that pays off big but you also have to look at how much time/energy/money you have invested along the way. The issue is that most business leaders have little patience for running a business like playing the penny market as they are looking for as much as a sure thing that produces results as often as possible.

Example: I love a certain social networking tool and I continue to look at different ways that it can yield the best results but at this stage we are still early adopters where it only produces a small fraction of the hires. I am not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater as I know that there is something there and I am trying to position the firm at the top of that wave I think is coming???But that wave is still a little way off in the distance IMHO so my investment and approach reflects that.

I will continue to evaluate and scan the landscape for new tools and approaches, but maybe the gray hairs I have collected over the years remind me that when the geek in me see?s something new and cool I stop and remind myself that it might just be a penny stock play. I do not turn my head and go bar-humbug but I do weigh it up carefully against where my time and companies money needs to invested.

Rob

When it comes to quality, it is important that the tools used relate to the niche you are in. If you are recruiting for technology, you should be using tools geared towards technology. If you recruit for contract and consulting positions, you should not be only looking on general job boards, but also boards specific to that niche. Likewise with other industries such as finance and engineering. If you go straight to the source of the types of candidates you are looking for, you will spend less time finding them and more time filling positions. Competitors and Niche sites are a great way to find quality. General job boards are a great way to find quantity.

They are telling us the truth. Why? Because they don’t stand to economically benefit from lying to us.

Rob’s article comes from a guy who operates a highly-successful Sourcing Function day in and day out . . . ‘in the trenches’ at at a 40-ft level, not 40,000 feet.

As IBM so creatively displays the point of innovation in its ‘Innovation Island’ commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ9N8v7kl0M) . . .

‘The point of innovation is to make actual money!’

They have like 30-50k users – in no particular geographic concentration, no specific professional orientation or age group or anything. Your local newspaper is focused advertising by comparison.

If you are going to fish in that pond, why not go to World of Warcraft – they actually have over 10,000,000 paying users.

All top talent in their industry, for certain…

If we are going to recruit people out of ‘games’ then why not go to the Boston Marathos or the Iron Man in Hawaii or even your local church softball league. I think your odds will be much better.

I liked the article.

As such, I will avoid that type of response and call attention to his broader concept of presenting a solid argument that puts innovation clearly where is should be; under careful scrutiny until it clearly shows its ROI and ability to make a consistent, ongoing and measurable difference.

Also consider this; Rob is not trying to sell anything to anyone. He is a respected recruiting leader whose advice should only be ignored at the peril of the reader. I can assure you that he has not achieved his level of success by failing to carefully evaluate where he spends his time, his money and his resources.

The internet, combined with its ?thought leaders,? has a free and open ability to sell anything to anyone in the name of innovation and promises of great things to come. This is not necessarily bad but we only have so much time, money and cycles to deal with the increasing demand for attention and evaluation of new and different ?innovations.?

I for one am not against innovation and I suspect Rob is not either. On the other hand, it is wise to remember that ?bright and shiny recruiting objects? can indeed be a great danger to your corporate health.

Can you provide us with any Data/Theory around ‘Executive Talent Sourcing’ strategies?
(exec defined as dir/vp+)

Thank you,
Jer

It is interesting, managing teams of recruiters who have only known the web/ATS world how often they hide behind technology as opposed to making calls and taking a risk of rejection. It is incredible how little they know about structured sales calls, open and closed questions etc, despite having years in ‘Recruiting’. When push comes to shove recruiting is sales and recruiters need to be able to take the knocks and make the calls not rely on technology to do the work for them.

The best source for any company should be the current employee base, yet so many companies either have no ERP program, a feeble one or do little to market the program. Use technology and marketing savvy to leverage what works by all means but do not use new tools as a screen to hide behind or as an excuse to avoid making the low tech hard work options that already deliver better.

OK rant over….

M Roland
Appendant.com

BTW, I need a more corporate word than ‘tweak’ for my new/enhanced/adjusted/refined corporate bingo card, any suggestions?

My recommendation is to take the free trial period and run it through it’s paces to see if it’s somthing that should be rolled out to the entire team. I usually have a team of 2-3 researchers test it out for as long as possible, tracking results, gathering specifc feedback. Then if it passes the test I move it out to a limited group that will most benefit test of 3 months then if it’s still proving it’s worth roll it out company wide. BUT even then I re-evaluate all technology solutions yearly to see if they’re worth keeping. Most aren’t..

I think this posting is right on, and I say this as I prepare to do a webcast for the Human Capital Institute (HCI) entitled ?Recruiting in Virtual Time and Space: Second Life and Other Online Communities?. I’ve always been an early adopter of ‘bright and shiny’ recruiting solutions. Like a lot of the folks here on ERE, I love to hear about new products and services in our space. While I can honestly say that I’ve had some great success stories, I’m equally aware of the hours I’ve waisted on new products or services that didn’t produce a good ROI.

While working on my presentation for HCI, I found myself questioning if and why I’d recommend investing time and resources in recruiting on Second Life to my recruiters. The answer so far is no, not at this time. As the practice matures, I can see a day when it might make sense for our recruiters to set up a recruiting office on Second Life, but at this time there are just too many other ways we could spend out time and get better results.

Thank said, I did become a member of Second Life and I’ll be keeping my eye on the results IBM, TMP and Semper International come up with.

Thank you for taking the time to get on your soapbox. I agree with your assessment.

Bonnie de Mets

The problem isn’t the ‘bright and shiny recruiting objects’ however. The problem is that too many people see these ‘objects’ as the next Silver Bullet. Sure, many of these ‘objects’ are long on promise and short on delivery, but there a few out there that are ‘must haves’ in this day and age. LinkedIn, for example, is a very powerful name gen and networking tool. Facebook is gaining steam as powerful recruitment marketing tool. Blogs, and other sites, such as Ning, offer great promise in both network building and delivery of recruiting media.

I get the sense from your article however that if the tool isn’t ‘proven’, then it’s not worth investing time and resources on it, and that’s where I strongly disagree. Do results drive innovation, or does innovation drive results?

Yes, spend your time and resources on the tactics and strategies that deliver the greatest quantity of quality talent. But to ignore tools and sites that offer you access to tens of millions of people is rather short-sighted in my opinion.

What is important is to take a critical view of these ‘objects’ as they come along, and assess if they have any potential to add value to your short and long-term recruiting efforts. Take a few (there really are only a few) that fit this mold and discover how to maximize your effectiveness with them. I typically find that most people just dabble a little here and there, don’t get any results, and declare the ‘object’ a failure. In terms of investments however, the most you typically need to invest is your time, the bright and shiny objects I use don’t cost me a cent.

If one of these ‘objects’ unearths even just one great candidate that you may not of found otherwise, hasn’t value been added in exploring their use? If effective use of just a few of these ‘objects’ results in identifying quanities of quality talent and in helping to spread your recruiting brand, weren’t the investments worthwhile?

Bottom line is what you choose to use is just another tool in the toolkit.