• Has your organization evolved to meet their needs, or is it business as usual?
• Do you have a compelling employee-value proposition covering all the facets that will attract and retain employees?
• Can your recruiters and hiring managers articulate this consistently to all candidates?
• Can your recruiters determine what is most compelling to each candidate they decide to pursue?

Let’s start with a quick definition: A value proposition is the sum total of people initiatives, standards, and programs that support business goals. A strong value proposition differentiates one company from another and the great companies from the mediocre ones. With this in mind, if you want to have the best candidates buy what you are selling (in other words, accept your offer over the offers of competing companies), the value proposition needs to be strong enough to make the sale. Consider the following:

• Corporate Culture and Values: What makes your company unique, and what do the people in the company care about? What do prospective employees think about your company? What comes to mind for them and what is attractive to A-players? Is it the casual dress code or the professional environment? Is it the fact that all employees have offices or the openness of a cubicle environment? Is it the communication style or the decision-making style? Is it the type of people with whom they work: smart, fun-loving, intellectual, family-oriented? How do employees have fun at work? How are decisions made, and how do employees work as a team? What about access to leadership and the ability to suggest the unpopular? All of these and more are critically important to the overall oneness that makes up your company.
• Corporate Citizenship: How does your company contribute to the greater good of your community? This aspect has become increasingly important to A-players, especially those of the youngest generations. It is not all about work anymore – they want to feel they are making an impact on the community. So what are you doing to make the changes that will appeal to those who genuinely care about the world around them? One well-known organization we know gives four hours off each week to do community or volunteer work with full pay. Are you doing your part to make this a better world? By doing so, you will also be doing your part to craft a better company and a stronger value proposition.
• Rewards and Retention: Are your rewards based on performance or seniority? A-players want to know they are eligible for differentiated rewards based upon their performances and contributions. In addition to monetary rewards, A-players want good benefits that meet their needs as opposed to the same things you’ve been doing forever. For example, offering adoption benefits in a 20-something workforce is probably not going to resonate, but bringing your dog to work might. What about the ability to work on interesting projects, aggressive career growth, real recognition for a job well-done, and a genuine effort to create a meritocracy that feels like one as opposed to promotions based upon seniority?
• Growth and Career Runway: What opportunities for growth exist, both vertically and horizontally? By horizontally we mean this: Can a strong individual contributor become more influential in a company without becoming a manager? How clear is it to employees what they can do to move up or become more influential within the firm? Can people move up as easily within the organization, or (as is usually the case) is the best way to get a promotion, more money, and a higher title to quit and take a new job?

As recruiters, you’re the only people who can answer these questions. You must understand that these questions make up the very foundation of how successful you’ll be in hiring the best candidates and, to a great degree, how successful your company will be at attracting and retaining top talent. Remember that the key concept here for the future thinkers among you is value – the value proposition your organization brings to the candidate’s overall existence, lifestyle, and needs, as opposed to the outdated notion of simply offering them a job – because time put in for a paycheck is simply not what it’s all about anymore. Employees do two things at companies: They come and they go. Those pivotal events can become the most significant actions in not just their lives but the lives of the companies they impact. (Steve Jobs left Apple, and the company was in a free fall. Steve Jobs came back, and look at Apple today. Get the point?) Who comes, who goes, and the reasons why candidates come and go can be the primary recruiting markers that separate the great companies from all of the rest.

A good deal of this movement depends on the value proposition your organization has to offer. Make it a valuable one, and impressive things can happen that will change the course of where your company is positioned, how profitable it can be, its perception in the marketplace, and how quickly it can leapfrog as it invents the next great whatever. Fail to do so, and you will be playing the same tired game: losing great employees to companies that are differentiated from you by the fact that they have a great value proposition and you simply do not.

• You as the recruiter must believe the hiring manager’s plan for the candidate, i.e. the process or the course of action being proposed, is flawed.
• You must be able to suggest a different course of action that will yield a better result.
• You must have a convincing argument that will make the hiring manager seriously consider that your approach will yield better results.

At this point it’s a good idea to mention the concept of diplomacy. Churchill once said, “Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.” Our advice on diplomacy is simple: if you have it, use it. If you don’t have it, get some. Diplomacy and tact are critical in influencing a new course of action. Delicate egos and “that’s not how we do it here” mentalities run rampant even in the best of organizations. It’s up to you as the recruiter to do whatever is necessary to run the show and make the right things happen in the right way. Let’s consider the following very typical workplace scenarios and how you might pushback to create a winning situation: A hiring manager wants to fill a position by the end of the month. It’s the first week of the month. You know this is not realistic. What would you say?

1. “Okay.”
2. “I will do my best.”
3. “I have a lot of other requisitions on my plate and will not be able to commit to that timeframe.”
4. “Let’s review your timeline and agree on a ‘contracted time to fill.’ May I ask you a few questions to determine a mutually agreeable timeline?
   • “Are you suggesting we have a person actually in the role by the end of the month, or just identified?”
   • “Is there a particular reason for the urgency? A project deadline or a sales target to meet?”
   • “What are your travel commitment and your interview team’s travel commitment this month? What days will you not be available to interview?”
   • “Are you considering only local candidates or candidates nationwide? If we are considering all candidates, we have to factor in travel time.”
   • “Do you want to conduct phone interviews prior to in-person interviews? How many interviews will we conduct?”
   • “Since this is a niche position, I do not have a ready pipeline of candidates. It will take me X days to develop an initial pipeline utilizing all my resources. Do you have any recommendations of people I should speak to or any leads or referrals to get us started?”

If you answered #1 or #2, you are counting on a miracle to save the situation and salvage your credibility. If you answered #3, you are pushing back, but are breaking the cardinal rule of pushback&nbsp:ó engaging your hiring manager in solving the problem with you. If you answered #4, you are on the right track. Once you have all the data you need, you can make a compelling case, saying, for example: “While you are traveling next week, I will pull together all my resources to build a pipeline of qualified candidates and start the phone interview process. This position will require a lot of networking; these candidates are typically not active. While this will be my top priority, networking is time intensive, but we are both committed to quality and this is a proven way to find quality candidates. “Upon your return, I will schedule the top candidates for phone interviews. This will take us into the third week of the month. Depending on the candidates’ availability, we can target the fourth week of this month and the first week of the following month for interviews. After the interviews and a thorough debriefing, we can extend the offer. While the offer is being negotiated, we will put the finalist through a background check, which may take as long as five days. If all goes well and the candidate accepts, we would expect him or her to give two weeks notice, as a professional courtesy. Does this timeline sound reasonable?” In most cases, this way of working should lead to a reasonable degree of cooperation and satisfaction on both sides by identifying a rational contracted time to fill. Let’s try another. You want to undertake a diversity initiative, but the hiring manager holds the budget. The hiring manager asks why she needs to spend additional money when she has already invested in postings, advertising, job fairs, and competitive intelligence. You reply:

1. “There is a need for more diversity in your organization, and I have to advertise or post on diversity sites.”
2. “The best companies in America have diverse workforces. We have to improve our diversity mix and conduct very specific searches to reach a diverse audience.”
3. “Before I tell you why I want to lead a separate initiative, let me explain why it is important to have a diverse workforce and specifically how it affects your business. (Explain why.) Now let me explain how your organization looks and where we are underrepresented. (Show her the layout of her current organization against your utilization data.) While our current efforts are building an extensive general pipeline, we are not succeeding in branding our company as a great place to work for minorities. We have no grassroots representation in the places our target audience works and plays. I suggest we go about introducing our company and our positions. Here is what I estimate the cost to be. This is what I estimate the return on our investment to be (could be hires, referrals, or PR).”

If you selected #1 or #2, you are talking “HR speak”. While both may be true, the statements are not backed with any data. While example #3 is very simplistic, it illustrates the importance of building a business case, preparing compelling backup documentation, presenting success metrics, gathering supporting data, and presenting your conclusion before having your plan funded. It disciplines you to talk the language of business&nbsp:ó in other words, what’s in it for them, how does it contribute to their bottom line, and why is it the right thing to do? (For example, does it reflect their customer base? Does it bring increased knowledge about a customer segment? Does it bring diversity of ideas to product design?) Let’s try one last example. The hiring manager is unsure of the type of person they are looking to hire, but she tells you “I will know them when I see them.” You reply:

1. “I might just kill you before the day is out.”
2. “Okay, let me see what kind of people we can look at by casting a wide net.”
3. “That really does not make any sense. Come to me when you have a clear position profile.”
4. “That really is not the best way to spend your time or mine. Let’s schedule some time so that we can look at your business and ascertain exactly what you need to be successful.”

If you chose #1, one of these writers really likes your approach&nbsp:ó but unfortunately, it is a bad idea. If you choose #2 you are going to waste a lot of your time and only fill the position if you get lucky. Luck is nice, but skill derived from best-of-breed practices is more consistent. If you chose #3, you are leaving the poor little hiring manager all alone to fend for themselves and that is not going to help either. If we were not too cheap to award prizes, we would give you the grand prize for choosing #4 because it is a great way to demonstrate the way a recruiter can establish credibility and true partnership with the hiring manager. Imagine spending an hour or so to help that hiring manager think through all of the things they need in a candidate to get the most mileage out of a given requisition and truly identifying what is required&nbsp:ó so that now you, too, will “know them when you see them.” This is pushback at its best, and the results will be far better understanding and respect on both sides of the relationship. Pushback is an important concept that will, in the end, give you the type of relationship with hiring managers that really is reflective of a true partnership between professionals. This alone will make business building a more manageable task for all parties involved.

1. I find out about openings after positions have been vacated. (”Oh, I didn’t know Sandy left. You needed this position filled when?” or “The agency called about their invoice. Who got hired, when, and in what position?”)
2. I’m unable to get feedback on candidates or interviews, even when I chase down managers who are supposed to be partnering with me, or else I get vague feedback: “weak,” “not a good fit,” etc.
3. I do extra or unrelated tasks for the hiring manager just to feel valued, when what I really should be doing is driving the process, providing world-class recruiting advice, and striving to hire only the best talent that is available. (”Yes, I’ll call your candidate and apologize for you not showing up for your interview, again,” or, “Sure, I’ll print out all 70 resumes in the pipeline for you to review.”)
4. I am excluded from planning sessions, kept out of critical discussions on workforce planning, and the last to know about everything that affects my function within the organization. (”Oh, another reorg? And I need to do what? In two weeks?”)
5. My manager uses me just to post positions or run ads on behalf of the hiring group. In other words, I’m doing transactional busywork, acting as an administrator, or being a “yes” person to a manager who, quite frankly, is in the dark on how recruiting should be done.
6. I forward all resumes as opposed to carefully selecting candidates I think the manager should see and presenting only the best to save their time and demonstrate my ability to raise the bar.
7. I track useless metrics and report on things my hiring managers don’t care about or shouldn’t care about, such as average cost-per-hire (or your efforts to drive cost-per-hire down to virtually zero) or average number of days to fill (without taking position titles, levels, geographic differentials, hiring manager engagement, etc., into consideration).
8. I present a more timid personal impression to my candidate and likely a timid impression of the company that doesn’t enhance my company’s brand as an employer of choice. (To the candidate: “I just can’t get hold of my hiring manager!”)

If this sounds familiar ó be afraid; be very afraid. In fact, if you think you are running your business, you are sadly mistaken ó your business is running you, and the power of pushback is just what you need to get things back on track. The Power of Pushback Done appropriately, pushback can elevate you from sitting on the bench to playing on the field, from being an order taker to becoming an advisor whose input and views are solicited before anything takes place involving talent acquisition. If this sounds like the type of respect you feel is deserved based on your talent, experience, and ability to get the job done, pushback is one of the most effective methodologies we have to move you out of that helpless feeling and into a place where you can add real value to those on the line. Here’s why:

• Pushback builds trust and respect. If you simply do what you are told, the value you add is diminished.
• Pushback allows you to establish the rules of engagement and act as a peer who can engage in intelligent discussions on the reality of talent acquisition.
• Pushback sets clear roles, responsibilities, and timelines for successful partnerships. Once established, it will lead to a far more effective working relationship.
• Pushback enables an honest exchange of ideas and open dialogue in areas of disagreement, which ultimately translates into doing the right thing for the hiring manager, the candidate, and the company. (If you don’t use pushback to do what you think is right, you’re relegated to being a recruiter doing business as opposed to a businessperson that does recruiting.)
• Pushback demands accountability from your hiring manager and yourself as it relates to the quality of the process, the interview experience, and the candidate experience. Without this accountability, there is little chance that the processes you have in place will ever go from good to better to best. Pushback educates and informs your hiring manager as to the candidates, the market, the desirability of the position, sourcing strategy, obstacles, compensation levels, capture strategies, intelligent offers and teamwork required to close the deal.
• Pushback sets expectations around reporting on meaningful metrics and measures of success for the search. Different organizations look at different metrics, but once established, realistic expectations can replace irrational ones and subsequent searches can be evaluated for quality based upon best practices and organizational experience.
• Pushback provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate your value not only in hiring, but in competitive or market intelligence as well, which is usually valuable knowledge for the business units to have in gaining a competitive edge. If this is not part of the information you are providing, you need to consider just how much more credibility this type of activity will bring to your team.

Now comes the hard part. If you have not been in the pushback mode, how do you do it with out being defenestrated? (Great new word, yes?) Or put another way, how do you establish pushback so that it is seen as a positive experience that will enhance processes and improve results? Here are some tips to start with that will even work even in organizations that do not encourage this type of behavior:

• Do not select your most difficult hiring manager to practice on and be sure you prepare for the conversation in advance. For example, if you are pushing back on the way candidates are being treated in interviews, make a list of what the behaviors are and why they are detrimental. Be sure to appeal to what is important to the hiring manager, such as a bad interviewing experience translating into a lost customer who spreads the word.
• Never confuse pushback with rudeness, disrespect, or antagonism. Always approach the topic in a respectful manner and be prepared to lay out a well-considered case while being open to new ideas. Remember that roles in HR are usually advisory and influential in nature ó our clients (if we have built the trust and credibility) may choose to follow our advice or not. It all boils down to whether they see us as resume jockeys or trusted advisors.
• Pick your battles. Decide what is most important to change, and focus on one or two topics at a time. While some hiring managers welcome feedback and change, many struggle with it. Bringing a laundry list of complaints to the table may put your hiring managers on the defensive. Don’t be afraid of a healthy dialogue. At times it might resemble an argument, and that’s okay as long as the conversation is productive and the end result is positive for both parties.
• Do not put on a long face if you are overruled. You cannot and will not win them all. Besides, you’ll have the chance to pushback again at some time in the future. Perhaps under different circumstances, your ideas will be considered in a more serious light. (If you expect to change the whole company in a week you are in for the longest week of your life.) Do not allow yourself to become discouraged. Understand in your role as a recruiter, you are expected to make talent acquisition as effective and world class as the organization’s infrastructure will allow.

In summary, spend some time reflecting on how you run your business today. Identify what may be keeping you from being as successful as you should be. Think about pushback as a tool to open lines of discussion and unplug the bottleneck. Plan your communication strategy, come to the table armed with research, advice based upon experience and case studies, and be prepared for some healthy pushback on your pushback. Bottom line: Stop whining and start pushing back! You will be a better recruiter and more effective at supporting organizational objectives as you build a better company. Note: Part 2 of this article series will be written around real-life situations from people who can suggest ways to pushback that are effective. If you have an idea or experience as to how pushback has worked for you, please email them to either of us. We would love to include your ideas.