Comments on: India Surpasses the U.S. in Global Recruiting Leadership

By: Keith Halperin

Keith Halperin — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:37:59 +0000

I would be interested in seeing a large company which has created, implemented, and modified their hiring processes according to rigorous empirical verification, including the analysis of their underlying recruiting assumptions to see if they are valid, i.e., a company committed to doing what objective evidence shows to be the best practices, even if they don’t reflect the *prejudices of those who initially institute those practices.

IMHO, there aren’t many because too many very high people would look greedy, arrogant, fearful or ignorant if that were done….

Keith “Just the Facts, Ma’am” Halperin
keithsrj@sbcglobal.net

*Like using academic achievement/attendance as a predictor of work success or assuming large numbers of interviews/interviewers produce better hires than smaller numbers.

By: Amit Jain

Amit Jain — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:27:20 +0000

Great Article John!!
Its’ not about whose leading or lagging, important thing is what’s the business requirement and how efficiently you meet the same. Indian market is quite competitive and very different from US. For an instance, In India candidates is mostly interested in full time permanent position, they are very reluctant for contractual positions, so it becomes difficult for recruiters to convince them for temporary positions. Second example can be, normally every company has a notice period of 2 months, so if any company is working on Just-in-time hiring model it becomes difficult for them to meet the business requirements. All these different challenges keep recruiters on their toes and bound them to think innovative strategies to attract the talent pool.
Infact our Global Talent Acquisition Head Mr. Indrajit Sen gave presentation in ERE last year on “10 Secrets to Success of Employee Referrals in India” which also highlights about the same.
http://www.ere.net/2009/05/14/10-secrets-to-success-of-employee-referrals-in-india/

By: Oscar Hernandes

Oscar Hernandes — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:12:41 +0000

It does not take you recruiting hundreds of people for you to be successful. It only takes about 10 strong leaders for you to be on easy street for the rest of your life. Great leaders do things others haven’t done. Recruiting is ripe for change. We’ve been doing things pretty much the same for years. We need leadership that is taking risks and trying out new approaches.
Marketing for candidates by using the Internet heavily, using market research to figure out how to reach the candidates we most want to attract, and adopting competitive intelligence techniques to source highly skilled talent are great ways.
The Internet, new assessment technologies, and faster and more flexible recruiting processes are hallmarks of leadership in the recruiting arena.
Good leaders also build strong teams. They often hire people as smart or smarter than themselves. They pose what seem like unrealistic goals, and challenge their teams to exceed those goals.

By: Saleem Qureshi

Saleem Qureshi — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:51:35 +0000

I really appreciate your point: Use of contests, quizzes, and projects to excite top students and more accurately assess them… how about gauging the talent of graduating students through online talent assessment to help them out that what career would be suitable for them?

By: Keith Halperin

Keith Halperin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:36:14 +0000

I think I agree with Ken in general but disagree in particular. IMHO, the main, high-touch, high-value component of recruiting which can’t be eliminated or automated is the ability to get someone to do what you want them to do at any stage of the recruiting process. As I’ve said before, if you need it, it’s well worth whatever you have to pay for it. At the same time, I don’t see how technology will make a mediocre seller into a good one, or a good one into a *great one. It might allow you to make more or better-informed calls, but I’m not sure how it would enable you to make more successful ones.

Please advise.

Keith

*With the exception of sales-training/closing SW…

By: Ken Poulter

Ken Poulter — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:23:23 +0000

Brandon Excellent question. Its been my experience that the best recruiting firms (3rd Parties) have always been more creative in identifying/implementing next generation best practices and methodologies (Processes/Technology Tools) than the corporate world in general. When you need the “Best of the Best” the professional headhunter rules.

By: Nathan Shackles

Nathan Shackles — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:48:48 +0000

I would agree with you John that India has slightly moved ahead of the US in recruiting talent. I feel that the process that is being used by the US needs to be updated and simplified. One way that can be done is through software, software like http://www.applicantstack.com I am not saying one software company is fix our problem of finding talent but it may help others to realize how it can be done the right way. Applicant Tracking Software is where it can start.

By: Brandon Ebeling

Brandon Ebeling — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:36:51 +0000

John, another thought provoking missive, one that causes me to wonder…are there no examples of leading-edge progressive recruiting and talent management practices where the strategy recognizes independent influences of outside service providers? For instance, a recent HR Examiner missive highlighted Talent Manager Marc Effron who claims “most of the big ideas that move through the industry come from consultants, academics, vendors and publishers.” http://www.hrexaminer.com/magazine/weekly/weekly-reader-v1-0

I know the world is changing fast, but as recently as 2002, in their seminal work, “Headhunters, Matchmaking in the Labor Market” Finlay and Coverdill, characterized “headhunters” as the visible hands of the labor market occupying a dual role in an unusual sales process of complex, high-level front-line service worker that has a significant impact on conducting business, managing relationships, and in making decisions that are extraordinarily consequential to economic and organizational sociology.

Respectfully, I just wonder, John, in your opinion, if executive search and recruiting (generally defined as a complex job within a specialized branch of management consulting in which outside professionals are authorized by organizations to identify, attract and refer qualified candidates for important executive, managerial and technical positions) or other third-party staffing solutions have any role in leading-edge progressive recruiting and talent management strategies?

I look forward to knowing your thoughts.

By: Sajith Vasudev

Sajith Vasudev — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:16:09 +0000

Right on John !I can’t disagree with Joshua as well.Our daily interactions/experience at workplace reflect the same.

By: Joshua Letourneau

Joshua Letourneau — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:40:27 +0000

The following is an accurate, yet disconcerting statement due to the fact that “U.S. Organizations” used to generate much of our innovations by recruiting the best of the best from other countries.

“Companies in India, Singapore, New Zealand, and China have already started recruiting top scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and finance professionals from leading corporations in the U.S. and Western Europe.”

However, I’d suggest (credit: Geoffrey Colvin of Fortune) that there is no longer any such thing as a “U.S. Organization”. We’re much more global today (decentralized), which means we no longer hold a quasi-monopoly on the best talent (like we did prior to ~2000).