• “I just happened to fall into recruiting.”
• “I wanted to try something new, so I figured I’d give recruiting a whirl.”
• “I was asked to recruit at a job fair and really enjoyed the experience, so I decided to make the move into recruiting.”

How many times have you heard similar comments when talking to recruiters or interviewing prospective recruiters for your team? I’m guessing just as much as I do, which is quite a bit.

Now, how often have you heard these lines:

• “I grew up wanting to be a recruiter.”
• “I selected my university specifically because of its excellent recruiting development program.”
• “I wanted to carry on the family tradition of being in recruiting.”
• “I had several recruiting job offers when I graduated.”

Again, I’m guessing you’ve heard these lines just as much as I have, which is hardly ever.

Recruiting has an ever-present, non-discriminating welcome mat at the door, with talent coming in from a multitude of sources. Unlike physicians or attorneys, who amass deep academic knowledge in their fields and are required to fulfill testing, licensing, and practical experience requirements to formally practice, recruiting is an open-door type of field. With the right attitude, aptitude, drive, and personality, the possibilities from where recruiting talent can come from are endless.

There are scores of talented individuals who have extensive expertise in a variety of fields and real-world settings; fortunately, they decided on their own to put their skills and talents to use in our space.

Serendipity is a great thing, but it is not a sustainable formula for success in breeding recruiting talent without at least some help. What are we doing to excite people about recruiting as a career and drive them to our door?

And for the talent we do have, how are we keeping it in recruiting? Are we setting out to influence individuals’ career choices and attract people to recruiting versus waiting for luck to deliver? Isn’t it about time we put all the strategies and tactics we use for our clients to work for our own field?

We’ve had some help already. With the War for Talent showing no signs of abatement, recruiting has become a sought-after profession for some. But “some” is not enough. It’s time for us to take up our own cause to make recruiting a destination and not a drive-by career or one discovered by happenstance.

Here are seven suggestions to help us in our own cause:

1. Simply put, recruit for recruiting. We spend much time extolling the virtues of the jobs our clients pay us to fill to candidates. And what about for our own jobs? Do we invest even a fraction of the effort? When talking to students who may be undecided about a career choice, highlight recruiting. It’s an excellent way to learn a business and what it’s really like to be in a specific role. After all, when it’s one’s job to know the role and the ideal candidate to fill it, one can virtually ‘try”a new role without ever having to “buy” just by staying in recruiting and working on a variety of interesting jobs.
2. Promote the talent-acquisition part of the talent-management field. Yes, there is such a thing. There is a core body of knowledge that defines talent acquisition, from laws that shape how we recruit to cutting-edge strategies and technologies that talent scout pioneers are testing out every day. Get schooled in recruiting and learn the basics (especially if you “fell” into recruiting and never received formal training). Attend forums and classes sponsored and conducted by recruiting subject-matter experts such as ERE, AIRS, and SHRM. Educational opportunities abound, so don’t overlook them. Even seasoned veterans in the space benefit by keeping up with how the profession is evolving.
3. Get certified. Consider becoming certified by the Human Resources Certification Institute; there is an entire curriculum dedicated to workforce planning and employment as part of the certification. AIRS and several other reputable institutions offer certification programs as well. Although perhaps sometimes used more as status symbols than for their true purpose of conveying deep expertise, accreditations and certifications in any field mean a lot. As recruiters, we know what it means to an R&D hiring manager when they see the initials “PhD” or “MD” after a name; it is no different when an HR or other business leader sees AIRS-certified or PHR following a recruiter’s name.
4. Strive for excellence in every aspect of the recruiting process and focus on quality over quantity. Recruiting can be quite lucrative, but it’s a double-edged sword. One can make money recruiting the “good” or “bad” way. Demonstrate integrity, good judgment, commitment to excellence, and innovation in how you recruit, and success will come. This doesn’t mean don’t be competitive and don’t take risks; it means that if are you in recruiting to make a fast buck by placing warm bodies, it won’t take long for your technique to be exposed and your clients to abandon you. Bring more credibility to our art; don’t undermine it by lackluster efforts and results.
5. Coach and mentor others, including those not in recruiting. Every individual is a talent scout, no matter what the field. Everyone knows great people, so coach everyone on how to turn knowing great people into matching great people with great opportunities. Chances are you will net a few great individuals yourself by raising their awareness of recruiting and helping them feel the passion it brings.
6. Share your expertise with others. Many articles on ERE are focused on the “how,” but not everything works for everyone. The goal is to share knowledge so colleagues in the field can have the most robust information to help make strategic choices in recruiting. Recruiters know their clients and industries best; share that expertise. You don’t have to be a writer with a column on ERE; it could be as simple as influencing a hiring manager to pilot a new way to attract biostatisticians to the company. Sharing knowledge with others, whether clients or colleagues, will contribute to raising the level of professionalism and credibility of our field. Ultimately, it demonstrates to all that recruiting is a destination and a profession.
7. Got ‘em; keep ‘em. Given that some folks don’t plan to come to recruiting in the first place, there’s a likelihood they may not stay when they do come. Recruiting is not for everyone; let’s not be naive. But educate people enough about the possibilities and you just may help turn a “stint” in recruiting into a lifelong, fulfilling career for a talented individual. Build a career ladder in your organization so recruiters won’t feel they need to look elsewhere to advance or develop new skills. Pay your recruiters right, give them development, reward them heartily for their results and contributions, and you just might get them to stay.

Unlike that relative we all have, talented recruiters can be the visitors we don’t mind making themselves at home in our place. And when they do come, do your part to give them every reason to stay.

You’re at a dealership seated at a desk across from the sales manager. Right across from you on the showroom floor is the very car you’ve had your eye on for several months. One hour until the dealer showroom closes, the sales manager has a contract in front of you stating what he says is “the deal of a lifetime.” Do you sign? It’s a moment of truth.

Another scenario: You think back to your New Year’s resolutions for 2008, with eating healthier at the top of your list. You attend your first business meeting of the year, and it comes complete with sandwiches, salads, and the ever-popular tray of desserts. You finish your salad (sans dressing), sip your water, and eye the cookies. “It’s one cookie,” you say to yourself. “But it’s only January 2,” you counter, “and already temptation is setting in. What about the ‘new’ you?” Do you take one little cookie? It’s another moment of truth.

Many of us have faced our own moments of truth, with varying degrees of impact depending on the circumstances. But how often do we in recruiting (actually, make that all of HR) think about the various moments of truth our employees experience throughout the course of their careers with our organizations?

Our organization has spent a great amount of time researching and understanding the employee experience and related moments of truth, and we’ve found that there are a multitude of moments of truth that span an employee’s lifecycle with a particular organization, starting with the moment he or she is introduced to that organization. These 10 moments of truth are summarized below, with food for thought about how to approach each to ensure the best outcome for the employee and organization when a moment of truth is at hand.

1. First Contact with Organization. The old adage of “first impressions count” couldn’t be more true when it comes to recruiting. Whether a candidate has sought your organization out or vice versa, he or she should be treated with dignity, respect, and the utmost consideration of his or her viability as a potential employee with your organization. Remember that a candidate not deemed to be a fit for one opportunity may be perfect for the next. You want to ensure the hard work you’ve done to attract and develop the candidate relationship is preserved, even if there’s not a fit. Candidates will often tell others about their experiences with your organization and your team, so make sure they convey the “right message,” as it will result in some unexpected recruiting for your organization, even if the candidate spreading the good cheer doesn’t join.
2. The Interview. Hiring managers still struggle with the concept of “mutual interviewing.” It is imperative that we, as recruiters, continue to educate hiring managers about interviews going both ways. The interview is just as much about candidates wanting us as it is about us wanting them. It’s a fact often lost on hiring managers, and it may result in you losing a candidate at the pivotal point an offer is made. The offer is just the icing on the cake; candidates’ impressions are formed at these two moments of truth, so don’t overlook their importance to the recruiting process.
3. Before Day One. The time between an offer acceptance and “day one” (the new hire’s start date) is critical. Oftentimes, the candidate is being wooed by his or her current employer, who may be counteroffering or even filling the candidate’s head with doubts about whether your organization is really the place to be. Don’t go silent during this time. Make sure both recruiters and hiring managers are keeping in touch with the candidate, whether it’s a quick “hi, we’re excited about you coming,” to a more robust exchange when information about the organization is provided. This will enable the candidate to learn about the company in advance and thus get even more excited about the choice he or she has made to join the organization. Providing information and even requisite paperwork before day one will help the candidate assimilate more quickly when he or she eventually joins, and it shows the candidate that your organization values new hires tremendously.
4. Day One. It may sound basic, but make sure the new employee is greeted and recognized when he or she arrives. Unfortunately, the stories about new employees not being able to get past security or being forgotten in the lobby by their managers are not that uncommon. Make sure the candidate is cleared to enter the facility, greeted by the new manager (or, at the very least, a member of his or her new department), and shown the rounds on day one. It’s a special and emotional day for the new hire; ease his or her nerves by ensuring he or she is welcomed, meets others, and is shown his or her space, i.e., the new home away from home. Try to minimize the amount of administrivia the new employee is subjected to on day one; use the steps outlined in Moments of Truth #3 and free up time for the new hire to have fun on day one.
5. First Feedback from Manager and Team. First, make sure this happens! All too often, months will pass as a new employee wonders what his or her manager thinks of him or her and how things are going. Don’t leave it to chance or wait for the new employee to ask. Ensure managers are proactive and timely in their feedback. At the very least, ensure managers check in regularly during the assimilation period to provide support and feedback, which will go a long way in ensuring this moment of truth doesn’t result in the “what have I done” conversation that the new employee may have with his or her spouse or friends.
6. Performance Feedback. This is that wonderful time of year when we walk into our boss’ office and wait to hear how our performance has been judged. Even the best managers sometimes struggle with how to deliver formal performance feedback, whether positive or constructive. Remind your managers of the investment the organization has made in new employees, and ensure they are prepared to have an engaging and productive experience at the formal review session. Avoid surprises, be supportive and encouraging, provide specifics, and most of all be honest. Even difficult messages are appreciated if the recipient feels the message is sincere.
7. Year-End Compensation Discussion. It’s not enough to hand the new employee a print-out detailing compensation information. Spend time talking about the company’s pay philosophies, how the employee’s compensation is determined, and honestly answer all questions. Recruiters have done a lot of upfront work to explain the organization’s pay programs and their intent, but it is the hiring manager’s responsibility to bring what the offer letter says to life when it comes to compensation and incentives.
8. Help During a Personal Crisis or Situation. Even the most seasoned managers can struggle when it comes to the twists and turns life deals our employees, such as sick parents, personal illnesses, financial struggles, and children’s learning disabilities. Whatever the situation, make sure managers provide support and flexibility to the extent possible when an employee needs it most. It is not always easy or clear on how to best balance business and personal needs, which is where HR’s support, counsel, and coaching can play a pivotal role.
9. Feedback on Succession Planning and Potential. To tell or not to tell? While this article is not intended to take sides in the age-old philosophical debate of whether or not to tell employees they are on a succession plan, it is intended to drive a spirit of open and honest communications between manager, employee, and HR as to where an employee stands and how he or she is viewed. If employees do not know or understand how they are viewed and valued by the organization, chances are they will take action and look for a place where they will be.
10. Development Discussions. Although clearly out of scope for recruiting, we do have a vested interest in how well a manager focuses on development with his or her employees. One of the big draws for a candidate in considering an opportunity is the potential for development. Managers talk a big game when trying to “win the sale,” but the real moment of truth is after the employee is on board, assimilated, and integrated into the organization. Two years down the road, he or she will want to know what’s next. If managers aren’t prepared to have these conversations or worse, not deliver on the conversations they’ve already had, word will get out.

There are several other moments of truth employees are sure to face throughout their careers, and in some ways, one could arguably make a link back to the recruitment process for each. The important thing is to know and understand these moments of truth, anticipate them, and help candidates and employees work through them. In the end, only the candidate or employee knows what’s best for him or her. However, it is imperative that recruiters work with all managers and the organization to ensure a candidate or an employee has the best, most accurate, and complete information on which to make the optimal decision in every moment of truth. Anything less, and your greatest efforts to identify, attract, and retain the top talent may very well be in vain.

Stop. Listen. Learn. Take a look at how you and your teams are spending their time, and make sure you are paying the right people to do the right things, whether it is sourcing, scheduling, arranging travel, or generating offer letters.

As an avid benchmarker, I spend a lot of time talking with members of recruiting organizations comparing recruiting strategies and processes. I was happy to oblige when I received a call from a director of recruiting at a major financial institution wanting to talk about the ideal requisition workbench for recruiters and how to optimize recruiting resources. For ease of explanation, I’ll call this benchmarker Mary.

“Our target workbench for recruiting team members is between 25 and 30 requisitions, depending on position type,” I explained.

“Really?” Mary replied, “I’m surprised your recruiters handle that type of workload.” I explained how our recruiting team was enabled by an in-house sourcing team with deep functional expertise focused solely on talent identification. She was still surprised at the workload.

I was surprised that she was surprised, so I began to probe further. “What is your current target workbench?” I asked.

“No more than 10 requisitions, regardless of position type,” she answered.

Surprised again! Surely we strive to keep workbenches at optimal workloads because, as we know anecdotally and metrics tell us, the higher the requisition loads, the lower customer satisfaction is and the longer it takes to fill jobs. But a max of 10 requisitions at any given time for non-executive positions? I had not benchmarked with anyone whose targets were that low for an in-house recruiting team (regardless of whether they were enabled by an in-house sourcing team). I completely understood Mary’s quandary of having to handle increasing requisition loads without being able to add staff.

“Tell me how you came up with a target workbench of 10,” I asked. Mary explained that she and a team of recruiters mapped the entire recruiting process for a requisition, from identifying the steps to determining how long each step takes. So far so good; I agreed with her logic.

Mary then explained that they came up with a total hours-per-week metric for each requisition and divided this by 40 hours in a week to come up with the workbench target of 10. I was now having trouble understanding why each recruiter would be spending an average of four hours per requisition per week with sourcing support; it seemed excessive. I then asked Mary what the team’s average time to fill was. “Eleven weeks,” she replied.

“So that means your recruiters are spending an average of 44 hours on each requisition?” I asked.

“Yes, I guess that’s what it comes to,” she stated, noting she had never looked at it this way.

“Walk me through your high-level process,” I asked. She e-mailed me a process map as we were on the phone. As soon as I opened and scanned it, something caught my eye. “Mary,” I stated, “It appears that your recruiter manages nearly every step in the process.”

“Yes, that’s correct,” she said.

I began to read how her recruiters were involved in everything from pre-screening resumes presented by the sourcing team to scheduling interviews, arranging candidate travel, and typing up offer letters. A familiar saying coined by my colleague Adam came to mind. “Mary, are you paying the right people to do the right things?” My question was met with a silent pause.

I then explained to her how it might be beneficial to reallocate the workload among different types of individuals to ensure she was realizing a maximum return on investment for her resources. I suggested she consider using administrative professionals to manage the administrative tasks of recruiting (such as scheduling, arranging travel, and creating offer letters), which would free up the recruiters to handle the more core-competency recruiting work of assessing and qualifying candidate slates, participating on interview teams and working closely with hiring managers to ensure the candidate pools meet their needs. “You don’t want to pay recruiters $45 to $55 per hour and have them spend nearly half their time on administration,” I offered.

Mary then went on to explain how recruiters handled many other “nonprocess” tasks, such as responding to unsolicited resumes, filling out new hire forms, and managing job folders.

We then began strategizing ways she could segregate the work and remove much of the administration from her recruiters’ plates, which would lead to reduced time to fill, higher capacity, and even greater satisfaction among the recruiting team. “Not only do I think it would make for a more optimized workforce,” Mary commented, “but I imagine our recruiters would be delighted to shed the administrivia.” I couldn’t agree with her more.

That conversation prompted me to initiate a conversation with my colleagues in Johnson & Johnson Recruiting, resulting in a full review of our end-to-end processes to ensure we are paying the right people to do the right things. This review stemmed all the way from the leadership team, who should be focusing the majority of their time helping set the course for talent acquisition for the enterprise, to the coordinator team which steadfastly handles the administration that a compliant hiring process entails. In between are our recruiters and sourcers, who are focused on the core competencies of talent acquisition, although admittedly there is some administrivia that is part of their roles that we just can’t seem to shed. (They are not alone; I assure you, we all suffer from it!)

Once again, benchmarking yielded benefits for both benchmarker (Mary) and “benchmarkee” (me). It was an invaluable conversation, and Mary and I have talked several times since, always starting out with our mantra (courtesy of Adam): Are you paying the right people to do the right things?

Stop. Listen. Learn. Take a look at how you and your teams are spending their time, and make sure you are paying the right people to do the right things.

I was in a client meeting recently and had a request from one of the participants. “Help us fool-proof selection decisions to ensure only the ‘right’ people are always hired,” he said.

Instantly, my mind started compiling a list of solutions. Targeted selection interviewing training for all hiring managers. A list of the common interview tendency “errors” such as the halo or horn effect. Competency models with corresponding interview guides to provide additional clarity on the “right” people.

Others began to chime in with their ideas.

Everyone became excited about the steps we were taking to make sure members of the group “made no more hiring mistakes” to put it in the words of one individual.

Later that day, in thinking about the meeting, I found the sometimes-cynical side of me emerging. “There’s no such thing as ‘fool-proof’ hiring,” I thought. “After all, people are people.” I’d just had an epiphany.

I thought about that statement for a number of days. I realized that no matter how much we try to design a fool-proof recruiting process, we simply can’t account for all the possibilities when people are involved. People are too unique, and sometimes too unpredictable, and their tendencies, personalities, and experiences often work their way into the hiring process.

Recruiters are intently focused on using a litany of tools and techniques to provide the highest level of coaching hiring managers. I strongly advocate this but also recommend that recruiters acknowledge and account for the diversity of people and how they are shaped by their life experiences.

Think about the 8 oz. glass with 4 oz. of water in it: some describe it as half empty; others describe it as half full. Even though everyone may be looking at the same object, what they “see” can be vastly different.

Think about this same example but in a recruiting context: Two managers on the same interview team interview a candidate. The candidate is very confident in her responses, is assertive, and “closes” the interviewers by telling each, “I’m the person for the job. Give me the opportunity and I’ll give you results.”

At the debrief, the interviewers confer and find they have conflicting opinions of the candidate based on some of the same observations. As they compare notes, hiring manager #1 says, “I like that this candidate was assertive, had quick responses for every question, exuded confidence, and asked for the job at the end of the interview. I really believed her when she said she’d deliver results. She’s exactly what we need here at ABC Company.”

Hiring manager #2 says, “The interview was just too ?perfect.’ She had quick answers for every question; this demonstrates a lack of thinking things through.” He continued, “She was overconfident, and the closing line at the end was too salesman-like. It felt more like a pitch for a product than why she wanted the job. Not what we need here at ABC Company.”

Sound familiar? Don’t worry; there’s good news and bad news.

The bad news is that subconscious biases influence us all to the point we don’t even realize it. A hiring manager who is interviewing a candidate who has graduated from his alma mater may have an immediate bias for the candidate simply because they attended the same school.

A recruiter may be high on a candidate just because she has a similar profile to another candidate the recruiter placed with a different hiring manager one month ago, and therefore, not consider others.

A hiring manager may take an instant liking to a candidate because the candidate reminds her of a favorite relative. Another may subconsciously dislike a candidate simply because she has a southern accent and the hiring manager is from Minnesota.

The good news is that this keeps life interesting and challenges us to see and appreciate the world through multiple vantage points. Encouraging hiring managers to invite diversity (in its broadest sense, diversity of experience and thought) on interview teams will make for an engaging debrief. It can also highlight aspects of the candidate perhaps thought to be detractors by some to be great assets a team may lack.

Have a manager who is a big-picture “sky-is-the-limit” type? Surely he will have a strong connection to a “sky-is-the-limit type” candidate as they spend their interview time talking about all the possibilities. Challenge the hiring manager on the benefits of enhancing the team with someone who understands how to translate visions in the sky to tactics on the ground.

Working with a hiring manager who insists that the ideal candidate’s experience must be identical to her own? Demonstrate to that manager the value of incorporating a different set of experiences and perspectives a candidate can bring to encourage a wider array of ideas and approaches to challenging business issues.

The key to harmonizing training, tools, and techniques with the fact that people are people is recognizing, understanding, and respecting differences, not passing judgment too quickly or inappropriately, and embracing the diversity of perspectives. Work with a hiring manager to identify the common characteristics present on his or her team, highlighting tendencies to hire “mini-me’s” or perhaps hesitance to hire “outside the mold.” Sometimes managers may not even realize how homogeneous, either culturally or intellectually, their teams are.

For a really innovative approach, have your hiring managers submit to a Myers-Briggs or DISC profile so they will be aware of their own styles and preferences, and how they work their way into the interview and hiring processes.

Unfortunately, there are times when, despite the most rigorous of interviewing, the experience and skill of the interview team, and due diligence in the reference checking process, managers make hiring decisions that turn out not to be the best.

When this happens, learn from it, think about what to do differently next time, and remember that people are people.

Let’s take a look at the “perfect” recruiting process:

It is Monday, July 2, 2007. A marketing product director at ABC Company gives notice that she’s accepted an offer with a competitor and will conclude her employment with ABC in two weeks, July 13. The manager, in a panic, calls his recruiter to discuss this unexpected but critical opening.

Within one hour, the recruiter has forwarded the manager a slate of pre-qualified and previously interviewed candidates. The manager selects the top three from the slate and mobilizes his hiring team to commit to interview dates scheduled for the following week while the recruiter invites them to interview.

That following week, July 10 to be exact, the candidates interview. The hiring team conducts a debrief immediately after the last interview to make a decision. The manager rings the recruiter at day’s end to notify the recruiter of the selection decision; the recruiter prepares an offer, calls the selected candidate as the candidate is en route home, makes the offer, and the candidate accepts on the spot.

The start date is set for July 16 (pending clearance to hire, of course), the Monday after the prior incumbent’s last day. The marketing department at ABC doesn’t miss a beat!

The scenario above might be described by some as pure fantasy of which recruiters are in relentless, but perhaps futile, pursuit. Why bother? Others might argue that while this exact scenario may be slightly out of the realm of feasibility, getting within striking distance of such recruitment perfection is possible.

I see it from the latter perspective. While each recruiting experience involves a unique set of circumstances and cast of characters that may make the perfect recruiting process elusive, there are some common aspects that tend to be very predictable and thus enable us to inch ever so closely to perfection (at least on certain requisitions). The key is understanding these factors and taking steps to design processes that anticipate glitches and head them off from the get-go.

This column is not meant to be the complete guide to conquering every potential derailer of the recruiting process. It will, though, highlight certain common circumstances that, if anticipated, can be mitigated, enabling a brush with recruiting nirvana as described above.

Circumstance #1

Unexpected resignation of a key employee in a critical role. To mitigate, identify the critical positions in your organization. While every position is important and everyone’s contributions are valued, there are certain positions that, if vacant, will have a detrimental impact to your business success and bottom line. Examples can include franchise directors for key product lines, production managers for high-capacity manufacturing plants, and recruiters for those difficult-to-fill positions in an R&D organization.

Make it a priority to identify those positions and understand the flight risk of the incumbents. Know what your competition is doing; chances are they have been busy studying your organization and have identified the key players themselves as they prepare aggressive strategies to lure them away. Getting your arms around the critical positions and what drives and motivates the individuals who hold them will allow you to be proactive and take the right steps to enhance retention and build a proactive pipeline for those areas in which you are at risk.

Circumstance #2

Instant slates! Perhaps “instant” is too strong of a word, but if you are effective in understanding circumstance #1, and have been proactive in developing pipelines, your slates will be available almost “on demand.” Workforce planning is a key driver here, helping you understand turnover trends in key areas as well as the talent markets in which you compete.

However, identifying the candidates isn’t enough. Make sure you’ve pre-screened and pre-qualified these candidates and assessed their interests as well. This will pay dividends in the form of higher and faster acceptance rates down the road as you move to offers.

Circumstance #3

A committed and motivated hiring manager. Success here is enabled by ensuring you have strong relationships with your hiring managers (even if they’re not actively recruiting) and that they understand the critical components of the recruiting process they own. By investing the time and effort in this work up front, once the manager is called to action, he/she clearly understands what he/she needs to do and is committed to doing so quickly.

Circumstance #4

The horrors of interview scheduling. Perhaps this part of the example is true fantasy. Scheduling entails an array of sometimes extremely complex logistics to synchronize candidate, hiring manager, and other interview team members’ availability.

Nonetheless, be as assertive as you can in gaining the commitment of hiring managers and interview teams on interview dates, and sticking with them so candidates don’t have to dodge moving calendars. Urge hiring managers to limit the amount of interviewers to reduce complexity in scheduling. Be sensitive to candidates’ schedules and circumstances, flexing your schedule as appropriate to theirs. Amazing things can happen when you have a highly motivated candidate and hiring manager and only those who truly need to be involved are.

Circumstance #5

Offer prepared, extended, and accepted same day as interviews. In our example, the work the recruiting team did in circumstance #2 is paying dividends. By having built proactive slates and ensured the candidates on those slates were engaged and interested in the opportunities, they have significantly increased their chances of offer acceptance. Additionally, having offer ranges pre-approved so recruiters can prepare offers without having to submit to layers of approvals further enables agility.

Turning around an offer on the spot or within hours (or perhaps a day) of a candidate’s interview will send the right message in a strong way: “We mean business; we want you!”

Circumstance #6

Start date for replacement set for before or within days of the prior incumbent’s departure. This is probably one of the more tricky areas to optimize, given the variety of circumstances that present themselves in the background checking and due diligence processes. Delays often result from information that cannot be easily verified (i.e., verification of degree information for certain universities outside the United States).

While there is no silver bullet, using a service provider whose core business is background screens and verifications may significantly decrease turnaround time. Such providers often have access to key databases and connections with regulatory agencies that permit the quick retrieval and verification of information.

Consider requesting a higher number of references from candidates to increase your chances of getting references to respond and getting them to respond quicker. If you have a candidate who has offered only three references and you are having trouble getting a hold of them, it can add delays to the process as you wait. However, if a candidate has provided five or six references, at least some will respond quickly.

Finally, keep in mind that candidates will often want to afford their current company two weeks’ notice, which can automatically build in two weeks’ lag time up front. Don’t push too hard on this one as candidates often want to avoid burning bridges on the way out the door; someday your company may benefit from such notice as well.

The list above is by no means exhaustive. There is a host of information available on how to optimize and streamline the recruiting process on forums such as ERE. Help your own cause by being proactive in finding out about the techniques and tips others have used to conquer some of the perennial recruiting “demons” (i.e., scheduling process, background verification process).

Experiment with different approaches as you seek to fine-tune your process and continue striving for recruiting nirvana. Know that you have a lot of company on the mission with you.

If you work in corporate recruiting, third-party vendors are an integral part of life. Sometimes welcome, sometimes not, I have my fair share of dealings with vendors, a good number of whom I believe generally understand the recruiting field.

Vendor offerings in a host of buckets from niche job boards to automated reference checking systems use a similar pitch as part of their marketing strategy: help make recruiters more effective and efficient.

While I am a fan of progress and anything that makes life simpler and easier for all involved in recruiting, I offer caution against “over-automation” of the recruiting process, especially when it comes to technology. Sometimes, too much of a good thing is detrimental to success.

An example of how this could happen came to mind recently when I attended a vendor presentation at a recent conference. I was listening in the back of the room as the vendor representative extolled the virtues of his company’s applicant tracking system.

His closing comment was this: “Our system is so efficient that it practically eliminates the need for you to have to speak to anyone.”

In my mind, I immediately questioned this vendor’s true understanding of the recruiting space beyond the mechanics of process and technology. I couldn’t imagine why he would make such a statement to a group of people whose very essence of their jobs is talking to people!

I couldn’t resist asking a clarifying question about what he meant by the comment. He went on to explain that “the system could do the talking” when it comes to all candidate notifications, particularly notifications of non-selection where conversations are sometimes awkward and difficult. He then used an example of how difficult it is for some hiring managers, or even recruiters, to deliver “bad” news to a candidate that he/she didn’t get the job.

“So our system does it for you, with our customizable electronic form letter templates. No more difficult conversations!” he said proudly.

What I thought I heard was what I heard. Interesting that this vendor, who claimed to understand even the most subtle nuances of recruiting, prides himself and his company on how to let a system replace the good-old-fashioned courtesy of picking up the phone and notifying an interviewed candidate that he/she would not be moving on.

While the form-letter templates within applicant tracking systems are critical and valuable tools to help manage enormous loads of incoming resumes and job applicants, I draw the line when it comes to “automated rejection letters” for every candidate who interviews for a position but doesn’t get the job.

Integrating Technology with a Human Touch

Here are two examples to illustrate why automated rejection letters aren’t the best:

Scenario 1: One of the hiring manager’s own employees is a candidate for an open position in the department. The employee turns out not to be the successful candidate. To handle this situation with the grace and sensitivity it warrants, a carefully choreographed sequence of communications must be executed to ensure the employee hears the “right” message from the right person the right way (i.e., person to person).

Imagine this employee getting a system-generated form letter that says, “Thank you for interviewing for the Financial Analyst position. We’ve selected another candidate whose skills and qualifications more closely match those sought for this opportunity. Please continue to apply to future positions with ABC Company.”

I know how I’d react. I also don’t think the hiring manager would be too appreciative. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the employee walked into the manager’s office, carrying a print-out of the “efficient” form letter in hand, asking for an explanation, and expressing her opinion on the process.

Scenario 2: There are two top candidates for just one position. After much discussion and debate, the hiring manager finally makes a decision and instructs the recruiter to reiterate to the non-selected candidate how interested Company ABC remains in her and plans to consider her for the next opening in the department, which is expected to become available within 60 days.

Instead, the candidate gets the “Thank you for interviewing for the Financial Analyst position?” rejection letter. Not knowing just how close she came, when the next position opens up, that candidate is long gone as she’s turned her attention elsewhere to other companies. She might even end up at one of Company ABC’s competitors.

It’s in situations such as these where the live conversation, whether by phone or in person, is invaluable. Instead of feeling the sting of a cold (yet efficient!) rejection form letter, the candidate walks away in both scenarios with an understanding of the context of the outcome, a sense of where he/she stands, and how much the company wants to make an opportunity happen in the future.

As I continued to listen to this vendor pitch in that session, an analogy came to mind. Think about a time when you’ve gone to the doctor and the doctor recommends you take a certain test. You show up for your scheduled appointment, complete the test, and nod on your way out as the technician says, “Someone will get back to you with the results in a week.”

A few weeks later, a report arrives in the mail with a series of numbers and medical jargon, which leaves you wondering if life is good or you are one step away from your deathbed. Not able to get an appointment with your doctor for several weeks, you began to search WebMD to figure out for yourself where you stand, and will probably draw an incorrect conclusion.

Replay. You receive a call from your doctor one week after the test, who says you will be getting your report from the lab in a few days, but she wants to talk through the results to make sure you are clear on your state of well-being. The results may be in the mail but you are already in a “good place” because you’ve had the benefit of the discussion in understanding what’s happened to you and why.

The key to being both efficient and effective in today’s recruiting race is the art of integrating technology with the human touch in the right places throughout the process.

In our perennial quests to be productive, and vendors’ perennial pitches on solutions to do more with less and be all things to all candidates, remember that sometimes the most efficient process isn’t always the most effective.

Relying too much on a host of technologies and services will not necessarily deliver the promise of an effective, efficient, and personalized experience for all involved.

From the time I had my entree to recruiting many moons ago, I’ve been convinced recruiting shares many of the same attributes of the sales and supply-chain functions, with a little process-excellence and creativity on the part of recruiters and hiring managers thrown in to keep things interesting.

You’ve read many articles on ERE about how recruitment encompasses elements of both sales and supply chains, so no need to re-hash them here.

While I still draw parallels between recruiting and these functions, I’ve recently changed my tune a bit, inspired by a conversation with the president of one of our medical-device companies. He was sharing his excitement about how one of the company’s newest products was poised for aggressive growth, and proceeded to highlight some of the elements of the marketing plan that he believed would propel the product to capture the lion’s share of its target market.

As I listened, I was taken back in time and realized he was sharing a real-life version of the “4 Ps of Marketing” I learned about in graduate school (but never personally used). These are Product, Promotion, Price, and Place.

Essentially, the 4 Ps of marketing represent another repertoire of tactics, tips, and tricks to use in recruiting. Here are some ideas on how to directly apply these concepts to recruiting:

• Product. In the world of marketing, a product is what a company sells to make a profit. In the world of recruiting, the product arguably is the opportunity you are selling to your target audience, or candidates. Landing the right candidates will hopefully translate to profits for your organization. Think about the product as not only the job to be filled, but as a “career bundle” entailing the organization and all the reasons why someone should want to work for it; the actual job opening; the career progression the job can lead to; and the engaging experience being part of the organization can provide. As you think about your product, consider that marketing often bases its decisions on product development and features/benefits to highlight on the findings of market research. This can be easily adapted to recruiting. Consider conducting research on what features and benefits you should highlight in marketing your product. A great place to start might be with your own employees; it could be as simple as asking them why they came to your organization and why they stay.
• Price. Marketing people spend a lot of time and effort on pricing products right. So should you. How you “price” your opportunities (i.e., a compensation package) could determine which of your target-market segments you will most likely attract. Many candidate surveys claim that compensation is not the primary driver of a candidate considering an opportunity. That may be so, but I can tell you from nearly every candidate I speak with and what my recruiters share with me, it’s high on the list and should not be ignored. Make sure your compensation packages are competitive and creative. Communicate the total value of what you’re offering, including base salary, bonus, perks, and benefits. It’s no different than marketing, as consumers consider the value of what they are getting for the price. Your candidates are doing the exact same thing as they consider your opportunities and offers.
• Place. How a product or service will be made available for purchase by the customer is the focus of this P. For recruiting, place represents where you will make your product (opportunity) available in the talent market. Will it be nationally, regionally, or locally? General populations or targeted niches? Another dimension of place is where your product is made available, such as company career websites, job boards, print advertisements, associations, and networks. Think about your channels carefully and be selective, since the “kitchen sink” approach is usually not economically feasible, cost effective, or targeted enough for a good portion of opportunities.
• Promotion. This refers to the techniques for communicating information about products to consumers, and includes advertising, selling, sales, and special promotions, and public relations. How will you promote your opportunities and organization? Do you currently have an employment brand? Is it aggressively promoted? If you answered yes to these questions, assess the effectiveness of the efforts by determining how you are viewed in the talent marketplace. How do your own employees see the organization? What do candidates tell you? You need to ask these questions to determine whether the messages you’re conveying through your promotion are the messages that are actually getting through and yielding the desired response (i.e., candidates are interested in and applying for your opportunities).

In addition to these four Ps, one other to consider is position, which focuses on how one differentiates itself from the competition. As outlined in the classic business text Competitive Strategy, Michael Porter describes three potential generic strategies: cost leadership (leading on the basis of cost, such as a Wal-Mart), differentiation (based on unique features and benefits, like a Wegmans), and focus (targeted to a certain group, such as Lexus targeting the luxury car buyer).

Translate these strategies to your product. Cost leadership can be translated to an organization’s position in terms of total value of the opportunities (i.e., be a market leader, lagger, or just keep pace when it comes to salary and benefits packages).

Differentiation focuses on communicating an organization’s features and benefits (such as how Southwest Airlines focuses on being a “fun” place to work). Focus targets specific types of candidates, similar to how commercial airlines recruit pilots from the military.

Consider putting some, or all, of these marketing approaches to work for your organization to stay fresh in your approaches to talent acquisition. These classic approaches applied in new and creative ways can help keep you ahead of your competitors and, of course, make the all-important sale. In our world of recruiting, this means closing the deal by landing the best candidates.

Finally, I have not yet figured out how I can adapt some of the basic approaches in research and development (i.e., the Scientific Method) to recruiting, so if anyone has any ideas, please share with the rest of us. We’ll then have a complete parallel between the recruiting and the major line functions of the business world.

You’ve seen many columns on ERE devoted to increasing the level of engagement of the players in the recruiting process to ensure an enriching experience and successful outcome for everyone involved. Many such articles are focused on the hiring manager and candidate experiences, such as providing strategies, tactics, and tips for recruiters to drive to the ultimate success.

Yes, hiring managers, candidates, and recruiters are essential parts of the recruiting engine that powers talent acquisition, but I use my space on ERE today to spotlight a group of partners (probably not top of mind for most) who can and do play just as critical a role in a well-oiled recruiting machine.

Even though we many not spend much time talking about them, it’s important to ensure you are just as engaged with them on a regular basis as you are with your hiring teams. They are your friends in the Law, Relocation, Security, Medical, and Affirmative Action/EEO departments.

Here are some highlights that may help make clear the correlation between what these partners do and a successful and compliant recruiting process that ensures fairness, equity, and the elements of attraction.

Law Department

Often, when HR people think of the law department, it invokes recollections of conversations that outline what we in HR and recruiting can and can’t do. Always attuned to the ever-present risk of litigation from candidates who may not graciously accept the outcome of a hiring decision, the law department may be seen by some as the “No!” people (think David Spade in the Capital One commercials) more than a partner who looks for ways to help us be creative. I’ve worked with both the “police” type and the “partner” type, as I’m sure many of you have.

A partner-type team of law professionals and attorneys who understand the complexities of a recruiting business can help you navigate candidate and hiring-manager challenges. Need to rescind an offer? Need objective advice on what to make of a poor reference check and how much to factor it into the decision to make an offer? Thinking about implementing a targeted sourcing strategy that may inadvertently exclude certain populations? Talk to your employment counsel. He/she can help make sure you take the right path that balances the need for fairness, equity, and legal compliance with the subjective and “creative” aspects of the recruiting process.

Although you might think many conversations between recruiters and attorneys are focused on how to mitigate or reduce legal risks in select hiring decisions, you can also proactively focus on providing an engaging and legally sound recruiting experience for all.

Something as deceptively simple as the development of an employment application comes to mind. Last year, I worked closely with my employment attorney to re-vamp and streamline our employment application. Our goal was to provide a compliant, consistent, and simple-to-complete online application that could be used by our many operating companies across the United States.

This was no easy feat in that all of the Johnson & Johnson operating companies are individual legal entities and operate in multiple states governed by a multitude of sometimes-conflicting regulations from state to state.

With the sound counsel of Donna and her team of legal professionals, we were able to come up with an employment application that was compliant with all U.S. state and federal regulations and therefore could be used by all Johnson & Johnson business units in the United States (yes, even in California!).

The result: a consistent application that ensures we capture the right information in the right way consistently for all candidates, making it much easier for our recruiting teams to use and assess the information provided.

Relocation Department

Often, the recruiting process involves relocation, which as we all know, sometimes turns out to be a deal-breaker. How do we ensure that the relocation policies and procedures of the company balance our need to be competitive, while maximizing financial resources needed to sustain the relocation program? This is where your relocation partners come in.

Develop a strong working partnership with relocation and you may even find yourself invited to provide input and feedback on what relocation policies should entail to be competitive. Regularly share candidate feedback on the relocation packages and policies with your relocation team; they will value your input on ways to make the processes easier and quicker without compromising the quality of service relocating candidates receive.

Security Department

I remember when I first met the head of corporate security. Having heard he was an FBI alumnus with an extensive background in law enforcement and criminal justice, my initial approach to our relationship was to lay low and stay off his radar. After working with him just a short time, any fears I had about him being a hard-nosed law-enforcement type like Sam Gerard of The Fugitive were quickly put to rest.

Security can help you in many ways, from determining whether a conviction discovered in a candidate background check is serious enough to rescind an offer, to helping ensure you are asking the right kind of questions on an employment application, to how you approach credit checks for select positions. Develop that strong partnership, which will be instrumental in helping you make the right call when you get those “you’re-not-going-to-believe-this-one!” type of candidate situations.

Medical Department

Fortunately, the recruiting process is not a life-or-death matter that requires urgent medical attention (although some hiring managers would have you believe it). Nonetheless, the medical department plays a key role in the recruiting process, from helping interpret responses to interview questions focused on one’s ability to perform the essential functions of a position to individual candidate situations that may require a more comprehensive assessment prior to making a hire.

Ideally, your medical department is actively engaged in the hiring process, from conducting a pre-placement health screening with every candidate to assessing special needs of both candidates and departments with respect to health situations.

Rely on the expertise of these experienced medical professionals to provide the appropriate guidance when the worlds of hiring and medicine become intertwined through candidates.

Affirmative Action/EEO Department

Any recruiting organization would not be complete without a line of sight to diversity and affirmative action. I’m sure your affirmative action team plays a key role in ensuring you are driving a consistent, fair, and equitable hiring process that meets all OFCCP requirements while keeping a broad line of sight to an inclusive recruitment effort. Last year, we worked closely with the AA/EEO team to refine our internal procedures so we could ensure we were well-positioned to meet the new definition of an applicant.

Other examples of working closely with this team involve using candidate availability data by region and position classification types as you seek to cast a wide net in your quest to hire the best and most diverse talent. The AA/EEO team surely has a role to play in helping you meet these objectives.

I’m sure you can think of many other partners who enable you to deliver a recruiting experience that allows you to attract the best and the brightest to your organization.

Think of it this way: the recruiting engine that powers talent acquisition requires a lot of high-performance fuel, like recruiters, hiring managers, candidates, and the partners noted above. Make sure you know not only what powers your recruiting engine, but how to get the most out of it with what you’ve got.

There I was, with three key clients: Stephanie, Suzanne, and Lauren (not their real names). These senior HR leaders within Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical business and I were engulfed in a lively discussion about talent acquisition in the pharmaceutical industry.

We had just spent an hour talking about the key business priorities of one of our growing franchises and how to translate them into talent acquisition and development strategies.

“We need to look at China,” said Suzanne. “Yes, definitely,” echoed Stephanie. “We need to better understand the market dynamics of this growing economy and what it means for us in our ability to attract top scientists to Johnson & Johnson.”

“We also need to think about new Europe,” Suzanne said. “China? New Europe?” Lauren chimed in, “I’d just like to figure out California!”

The banter continued for a few minutes before Suzanne said, “We should hire a consultant to look at the market for scientific talent. Where it is, what they want, and how talent shifts across the globe can impact us.” “Excellent idea!” said Lauren.

They then turned to me and said, “Lisa, do you know of any consultants who can help us with this?”

It was a defining moment. “Of course I know consultants who can help with this,” I thought angrily to myself. “Our entire Sourcing organization is focused intently on not only becoming great miners and assessors of talent, but also in developing an acute knowledge of the business environments in which we compete for talent. Why don’t they know this?!”

Taking a moment to calm myself, I answered lightly, “Yes, I do.”

“Great!” said Lauren. “Would you work with the consultant to prepare an executive summary of key issues in the global talent market, with a particular focus on Asia, and present back to us in a few weeks?”

“I’m already on it,” I responded.

Pause.

For those who think this is an article about the global talent market or the dynamics of recruiting top pharmaceutical talent in Asia, sorry to disappoint. (I’ll write another column on that one day.) The point of today’s article is the key role that marketing the services, products, and capabilities of your internal talent acquisition team plays in ensuring your organization knows of, understands, and appreciates the value that you bring to the organization above and beyond the filling of empty seats.

In short, leaders of internal recruiting teams everywhere: blow your team’s own horn!

For those organizations with established internal recruiting or talent-acquisition functions (like we do at Johnson & Johnson), it’s easy to have a false sense of security that your organization knows what “horsepower is under the hood” when it comes to the knowledge, skills, and abilities of your internal recruiting engine.

The conversation above is one of many similar conversations I’ve had with clients across Johnson & Johnson over the last few years. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the phrase “Recruiting does that?” when having discussions about what we focus our time and energy on in Johnson & Johnson Recruiting.

• Have a need for workforce planning to help you ensure you understand your current workforce, consider future needs, and determine steps to prepare for the future? We can help. We have tools and methodologies we’re excited to share. (Heck, we’ll even come out and do training for your HR folks who may not be as well-versed in it.)
• Trying to better understand your organization’s standing and stature in the employment arena? Ask us: we know. This world of selling candidates and conveying the value proposition of working for your organization is our oyster. Count on us to be honest in telling you what the candidates really think of your organization.
• Want your line leaders to play a more active role in campus or career events, but not sure where to start? We’ll tell you why it’s critical for your line leaders and managers to be involved in career events and what role they can play to be most effective. We’ll show you data that highlights the correlation between line-management participation in events and hires and acceptance rates.
• Yes, we can conduct a market analysis of the labor market in China. We’ll tell you not only about the market, but about what competitors are doing, what we need to do keep pace with or surpass them, and even make recommendations about where you locate your business to maximize the investment and take advantage of untapped markets. We’ll save you thousands in consulting fees because it’s research we do everyday as part of our mission to ensure we deliver to you the extraordinary people who will deliver extraordinary results to the business.

That insightful day, I went back to my office, rang two of my colleagues in Sourcing and asked for their help to collaborate on the research for and preparation of the executive summary for our clients.

Four weeks later, we presented “Global Workforce Deployment: Considerations and Trends: A White Paper on Shifting Talent Pools” to the leadership team, which helped contribute to one organization’s decision to accelerate its investment in an R&D presence in China. The research we did and compelling data we presented helped affirm the organization’s decision that building R&D capability in China was a top priority.

Shortly after that, I rang my colleague in Advertising to discuss a recruitment-branding initiative. “Let me guess,” said Ray, our account executive, trying to anticipate what was coming his way, “a new branding initiative targeting biostatisticians or PhDs?”

“Actually, we’re targeting Johnson & Johnson Recruiting,” I began. I think I took him somewhat off guard, but we talked for a long time.

Shortly thereafter, Johnson & Johnson Recruiting developed its first-ever explanation of the range of services we provide, the value we add to the recruiting process for candidates and hiring managers, and the impact of our work on helping deliver extraordinary talent to the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies.

We still have a ways to go, and the efforts need to be ongoing. However, my colleagues and I notice we’re getting the “I know this isn’t directly relating to filling positions, but can you help us with?” type of calls more often. We’ve yet to turn a client down.

Here’s the bottom line: We in recruiting need to continually market the range of our capabilities to clients, and talk beyond the simple filling of requisitions and requisite recruiting metrics.

There is one major caveat here. Be careful not to over-promise and under-deliver. Conduct a vigorous and honest assessment of your recruiting organization and its capabilities. Focus on highlighting those areas where you are strongest and most confident in the ability to consistently deliver high-quality service. Then, market them to all your clients and leaders.

At the same time, target those areas you want to develop capability in and focus intently on building it. Before you know it, you’ll have a lot more to talk about with clients.

It was a Tuesday morning and my 9 a.m. appointment just arrived at my office. The appointment was with one of my recruiters; we were meeting for a quarterly business review of his accounts.

He came prepared with a list of his accomplishments from Q4 and full-year 2006, including a summary of his performance against key metrics such as agency utilization, time to fill, and customer satisfaction.

As he outlined his results, I listened with great interest, taking notes on what he described as his key wins: Filled 89 positions, achieved time to fill of seven weeks, and ranked third in client satisfaction out of 20 recruiters.

Rich (not his real name) paused, then put his papers down. “What do you think about what you’ve just shared with me?” I asked.

He smiled and said, “I had a great year.” There was a pause, and he asked, “What do you think?”

“My first reaction is that you are meeting expectations,” I told a smiling Rich. “But my second reaction is so what?”

Rich’s smile turned to a frown, and he appeared taken aback. I wasn’t surprised; I had chosen these words deliberately.

“Don’t get me wrong,” I explained. “I’m not saying this in a negative sense. It’s another way of asking you what impact these results had on your clients.” Rich sat back in his chair, looked at his notes again, fidgeted somewhat, and said, “I’m not sure I understand?”

I then talked about the importance of articulating not only what the results were, but how the results helped clients achieve their business goals. In other words, did Rich help his clients “move the dial” by doing what he did as a recruiter? Was he able to clearly communicate the WIFFM (What’s In It For Me, from a client’s perspective in this example) to the clients? Did the clients understand the value and impact Rich personally had on their business through his results and contributions?

Put yourself in the shoes of Rich’s clients. If you were a vice president of sales, which of these statements would be more compelling to you?

We filled 89 positions in the central region with an average time to fill of seven weeks and at a cost per hire of about $5,400.

or

We filled 89 positions in the central region with an average time to fill of seven weeks. Filling the positions in this timeframe allowed the newly hired representatives to get onboard and subsequently complete their sales training early (i.e., in the April class rather than the May class), which means they were in their territory an average one month earlier than planned. Do the math. For 89 positions, this means you have:

1. Eighty-nine additional months of territory coverage, which not only preserved the market share of Achiphex in the region, but actually increased its market share despite a competitor’s product launch in the same timeframe.
2. An additional 89 months of sales revenue generated by these representatives, allowing you to exceed your overall business plan.
3. You may not go as far as to say this, but it also means the vice president of sales will probably get a bigger bonus.

Better yet, which of these statements demonstrates the value of the recruiter and his accomplishments to you and your business?

Isn’t the purpose of being in business to bring value to the customer through one’s products or services? If so, and it’s done right, the profits will follow. So why wouldn’t we in recruiting seize every opportunity to translate our accomplishments to the value it brings to our clients? This is not only about what sales or marketing contributes to the P&L, folks. Recruiting contributes to the bottom line, too. It’s up to all of us to demonstrate how.

It’s Not Only About Metrics

Recruiting, like most of HR, does not do a stellar job of linking activities, initiatives, and results to impact. It’s not enough to highlight activities; in some industries, it’s not even enough nowadays to show results.

To really get ahead, where the business case is king, you’d better be prepared to not only talk about what you do and how you do it, but about the positive impact your contributions have on the business. Demonstrating impact brings credibility to what you do, and underscores your value to the organization.

In HR’s perennial quest to get a seat at the table (or for some HR organizations, keep it), we’ve turned to metrics to try and quantify our results and contributions. The past couple of years have seen an explosion of metrics, from industry consultants helping develop metrics that matter to statistical software tools to help translate results to data, complete with jazzy graphs and diagrams.

Everyone seems to be measuring, or trying to measure, everything. HR organizations now have sophisticated dashboards and balanced scorecards that analyze cost, performance, and productivity. So what? In the metrics frenzy, don’t lose sight of the “so what.”

Although fancy charts and green dashboard lights are important and required, they simply can’t articulate the value and impact of the results we in recruiting deliver to the bottom line.

Take, for example, telling a vice president of research, “By hitting or exceeding these metrics and achieving these results, we’ve ensured you have the specific scientists you need to achieve your business goal of starting an oncology therapeutics area by 2008. By decreasing our agency usage and finding this talent through our internal sourcing team, we’ve avoided nearly $1 million in agency fees, which you can use to invest in building this new area. By achieving a quality of hire of 97%, we can say with confidence you have talent you need to make this happen.”

I guarantee this vice president’s comment won’t be, “So what?” And don’t be surprised if she says, “So tell me more!”

Many a column on ERE and other staffing forums advise companies on how to increase their presence in the employment market space. Companies spend mega-dollars on advertising agencies and public relations consultants in the name of employment branding to increase name recognition, position themselves as employers of choice, and develop glossy detail pieces that help differentiate their companies from others.

I take this opportunity to highlight the hands-down greatest source of employment branding, a source so powerful it can reach millions of people worldwide, without a single print advertisement, brochure, radio ad, or dollar spent.

That’s right, it’s free. It requires minimal human resources and zero capital resources, and in some instances, you may not even realize your organization is using it.

Though an effective source, it also comes with a big “handle with care” label that you’d be remiss not to heed.

In fact, the source is no secret. It is none other than the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of candidates your company comes into contact with each year. These are individuals who apply to your company, are interviewed by your company, and/or are made offers to join your company.

Even though many candidates are not qualified, are not the right fit, or simply don’t mesh with your corporate culture, they may be one of your company’s greatest sources of employment branding.

Some of you may remember the old Clairol Herbal Essences shampoo commercials that ran in the late 1970s. A young woman was so excited about the effect the shampoo had on her hair that she told two friends. And they told two friends, and so on, and so on. Before long, there was a litany of women extolling the virtues of this shampoo.

This “tell two friends” quasi-game of telephone is alive and well, and perhaps working right now against your organization. How?

Any time an individual has a bad experience, he or she usually vents about it to someone. Candidates are people, too, so if they have a bad recruiting experience, they will likely tell someone. There are many situations that might invoke candidates to spread a not-so-flattering word or two about your organization, such as not getting a response to a job posting, hearing a vague response when inquiring about an application or interview, or getting blown off by a hiring manager who forgot about the interview.

Chances are, candidates have had one or more of these experiences, and have told at least two people. And so on, and so on.

For example, assume Company Z fills about 5,000 positions annually, with over 100,000 candidates applying for these positions. That means that only 5% of candidates will be successful in their quest to work for Company Z, and 95% of candidates will walk away with only their experience to talk about.

If each one of those 95,000 candidates tells just two friends about their experience, Company Z has gained exposure to nearly 200,000 people (and perhaps potential candidates) without spending a single penny of the advertising budget!

These individuals are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to employer branding, or employer bashing, for your organization.

For companies the size of Johnson & Johnson, the potential impact of this network is staggering. Over one million candidates per year apply to our positions. We fill about 12,000 positions globally per year, which means that only 1% of candidates who apply are hired and 99% are not.

Do the math: Johnson & Johnson has a potential network of nearly two million candidates who know about us simply through word-of-mouth advertising.

If these individuals have a negative perception of our company because of what they may have heard from others who have been through our recruiting process, the ramifications are astronomical. These individuals are not only potential candidates themselves but perhaps consumers of our products. Think about the impact this could have on our sales, let alone our hiring!

While the prospect of having to worry about messaging to hundreds or even hundreds of thousands of candidates is daunting, a variety of tools exist to help. Today’s applicant tracking systems have communication tools that make it quick and easy for recruiters to acknowledge and respond to candidates throughout the various stages of the recruiting process.

However, the technologies are only as good as the processes that enable them and diligent recruiters who are committed to timely follow up.

To ensure your organization is doing all it can to effectively manage volumes of candidates, particularly the ones who will walk away only with an experience but not a job (and tell the proverbial two friends), I offer some tried-and-true best practices:

1. Ensure you have a mechanism for acknowledging a candidate’s resume or bid. Most recruiting technology systems available today have this capability; ensure yours is turned on, your recruiters use it, and that the message a candidate receives upon bidding or submitting a resume clearly outlines what to expect from the recruiting process.
2. For candidates who are not a fit and will not progress to the next phase of the process, advise them promptly so they can move on and focus on the next opportunity. Whether this is via email, hard-copy letter, or a personal phone call from a recruiter, the key is clear and timely communication.
3. For candidates who will be moving on to the next phase of the process, communicate with them quickly and let them know what to expect and when to expect it. (Chances are, these individuals are engaged in the recruiting process with other organizations, too, so don’t let others beat you to the punch.) Many candidates appreciate the high response rates that advertisements and postings yield, but may not fully appreciate the amount of time it takes to prepare the slate, discuss with the hiring manager, and manage all the logistics involved in interviewing. Even if a recruiter lets a candidate know that he or she will be moving forward but the schedules are still being worked through, that’s enough to keep a candidate engaged.
4. Often times there are “B” candidates who may not be on the initial slate of candidates but remain possibilities down the road. These candidates are an important group because they are not immediately ruled out or in, meaning the door is open for a potential opportunity. (At Johnson & Johnson, our solution for keeping these candidates engaged is to ensure they receive a follow-up communication on their status from recruiters every 30 days.)
5. When you tell a candidate you will follow up, do it when you say you will. There is nothing more undermining to a recruiter’s credibility than an unfulfilled promise.
6. Once a candidate has completed an interview, follow up with a thank you and then discuss the next steps. For those moving forward, outline the timeframe. Even though it may be several weeks until all candidates are interviewed and the hiring team debriefs, the candidate will understand why there will be a “quiet period” with no news.
7. If a candidate who has interviewed will not be moving forward, a personal communication of his or her status is always your best bet. I recommend these communications happen live via phone or in person between the recruiter and candidate. While these conversations may be difficult, by engaging in open, honest, and timely communication you are being fair and true to the candidate and the recruiting process. The candidate may not like the message, but at least he or she will know where the process stands.
8. As soon as a candidate accepts an offer, contact the non-successful candidates and let them know. Thank them for interviewing, and keep them excited about future possibilities with your organization.

The tips I’ve outlined require no print campaigns, brochures, or lavish promotional spending. Good old-fashioned common courtesy and honest communication are cheap (free!) and easy means of ensuring that your company’s “serendipitous networks” are perpetuating a positive employment branding that yield immeasurable return on investment when it comes to creating goodwill about your organization.

Spread the word about candidate communication to your recruiting friends. And they will tell two friends. And so on, and so on.

Don’t take this as provocation; it is intended as advice on how to become a great recruiter. Let me explain.

Recruiters have a dual (and daunting) accountability to not only be experts in talent identification and acquisition, but experts in the businesses they identify and attract that talent to.

Therefore, it’s in our best interest to make it our business to know how our clients make money, develop and bring new products to market, beat the competition, and comply with Uncle Sam’s litany of regulations in a post-Enron world.

Without this knowledge and context, that job description you’re working off of is relegated to meaningless words on a sheet, putting you at an immediate disadvantage when you’re in sell-mode with a candidate.

To bring an opportunity to life, you need to generate excitement not only about the job at hand, but about a career filled with endless possibilities within the organization. You need to get candidates excited about the opportunity to shape the business and contribute to its continued success. You simply can’t do this justice without having the business context.

So, how well do you know your business?

The Basic Questions

First, do you know the basic financials of your company? Do you know if your company’s sales have increased from year to year? Do you even know what the sales figures are? What’s the biggest selling product? In what categories does the company compete?

Also, can you talk about the next three to four products coming out of the R&D pipeline or new markets your organization is venturing into? Is the company in growth mode? Is growth driven organically, through mergers and acquisitions, or both?

If you aren’t able to answer each and every one of these questions, stop reading this article and start learning about your business. (You can bet candidates who have a serious interest in joining your company are.)

Read your annual report and your company’s website as a start. Talk to business leaders, asking questions and testing your knowledge so you can understand the big picture. Shadow people in their roles to ensure you get first-hand knowledge of how things really work. Not only will this contribute to your level of business acumen, but it will give you even more credibility when responding to candidates when they ask, “What is the role like?” or “What will I be doing?”

If you can answer these questions, give yourself a pat on the back and get ready for the next round of questions.

The Intermediate Questions

Can you describe the life cycle of your product(s)? What are the internal and external factors that impact your business? How does the company market its products? How does the supply-chain flow?

If you work for a pharmaceutical company (like I do), can you speak to how a product moves from compound to molecule through the drug development cycle to eventually land on the shelf at Walgreen’s? (From a personal perspective, if our recruiters at Johnson & Johnson can’t speak to this, how can we possibly excite scientists about the endless possibilities of a career at a Johnson & Johnson? Even more so, how can we convince a top scientific candidate that ours is the place to be when our biggest competitors are literally right up the road?)

How did you do? If you can answer most of these questions, you are in a great position to not only help sell an opportunity, but to collaborate with your hiring managers to develop the most complete, exciting, and informative position summaries that will provide candidates with a real perspective on “a day in the life” and paint the big picture of how they will fit in both now and in the future.

The Final Challenge

And now a bonus question, perhaps the most difficult one of all.

Do you understand, and can you articulate, the cost of empty seats to your organization? Can your hiring managers? Maybe yes, maybe no.

Don’t take chances; make it a point to help them understand the impact of vacancies. When you quantify it for them, I guarantee they’ll have a renewed sense of urgency when it comes to not only filling current vacancies but planning to offset future ones.

Sales managers at one of our Johnson & Johnson companies know that every day a territory is vacant, at least one point of market share is at stake. Multiply that by the average number of days it takes to fill one of the sales positions at this company and voila, an instant sense of urgency for hiring managers!

How did you do? If you fall into the remedial group (you know who you are), don’t despair. By being motivated and focused to learn, you will. Consider four additional tips to help:

1. Talk to the clients. When was the last time you had lunch with a client to talk about the direction the business is going, versus following up with them about getting you feedback on a slate? Line people love to talk about their business. All you have to do is ask and I assure you they will tell.
2. Stay informed. Attend as many “state-of-the-business” update meetings held by the leadership teams as you can. At the very least, keep abreast of organizational announcements so you’ll know who’s who. On the outside, follow what Wall Street and others are saying about you and your competition. This knowledge will serve its purpose when selling a candidate on why your company is right for him/her. When your company wins an award or receives other forms of good press, use it to your advantage by letting candidates know.
3. Understand your market. Read the trade journals your clients read. Subscribe to industry staple publications, such as Pharmaceutical Executive if you work in the pharmaceutical industry. Trade publications do a wonderful job of keeping current with market drivers, competitive intelligence, and the impact of the political and regulatory environments. You’ll be surprised to find how you start to think “like a line person” after reading just a few issues.
4. Learn about general business. Read the Wall Street Journal or Fortune to understand what the press and the investment community think about your company, competition, and industry. Verse yourself on the basics of business: research and development, operations and supply chain, and marketing and sales. No one says you have to be an expert in all areas; focus on understanding the basic concepts and how they integrate and impact each other.

Perhaps it’s because I “grew up” in the line that I have a perennial need to keep my fingers on the pulse of what’s going on in my businesses. Or perhaps it’s because I’ve heard hiring managers applaud and express appreciation to those recruiters who demonstrate a sound knowledge of their business so many times.

Whatever the reason, developing and honing your business-acumen skills will yield a return on investment far beyond what dashboards and recruiting metrics measure. When it comes to business acumen, how do you measure up?

Perhaps you have had a conversation similar to this:

“Hello, Robyn? It’s Michelle from recruiting. Do we need to revise the staffing forecast for your group, given that it’s August and we’ve already filled more than the 350 positions forecasted for the year?”

“I’m dumbfounded,” responds Robyn, HR manager for the operations department. “I didn’t think we would be hiring much this year. I guess I was wrong. Why don’t you up our forecast to 360?”

“So you’re saying that in the next four months until year-end, the operations department will only fill 10 more positions? Are you sure?” Michelle challenges.

“You’re right,” says Robyn. “Go with 365. Let’s play it safe.”

Or maybe you’ve had a conversation similar to this:

“Sheri, it’s Adam from recruiting. I’m looking at our current resources and wanted to confirm that the sales organization is not planning a fourth-quarter expansion this year. We have an expansion in another client area in Q4 and I am planning to realign resources from the sales recruiting team to support that group.”

“I was going to call you,” says Sheri, HR manager for the sales organization. “We just got word yesterday that not only are we going to be expanding, but this will be the biggest sales-force expansion in five years. We need to fill 200 territories within eight weeks.”

Or maybe you have heard one like this:

“Sandy, I’m calling to get an estimate on what the hiring projections will be for the marketing department in 2007. We are forecasting our own resource needs in recruiting and need to have an understanding of what your hiring looks like next year so we can be best prepared to support you.” Mark waits for a response.

“Oh, Mark. If only I had the crystal ball to give you the perfect answer,” says Sandy.

Does Anyone Have a Crystal Ball?

If you work in recruiting, you have been in these types of conversations, and chances are few individuals possess the proverbial crystal ball. It is the rare recruiting professional who has boasted a robust and accurate staffing forecast to guide his or her team of recruiting professionals in supporting talent acquisition for the business.

In talking to colleagues who run talent-acquisition organizations, I’ve found the struggle to obtain realistic and accurate staffing forecasts is all too real. I’ve seen recruiting teams throw their hands up in despair and resign themselves to the fact that workforce planning and staffing is a luxury whose time has not come at their companies. And so the reactive “just-in-time” recruiting cycle continues.

It doesn’t have to be this way. By taking a proactive approach to workforce planning in its simplest form, by using a staffing forecast, recruiting organizations can not only better prepare themselves to meet client needs in talent acquisition, they can raise the bar for the entire organization by providing a line of sight to the ebbs and flows of the businesses they support.

Instead of sitting back and waiting for HR partners and clients to figure it out, take the lead and figure it out for them by making your own crystal ball.

How to Make Your Own Crystal Ball, Recruiting Style

While Dan Hilbert and his team at Valero continue to redefine strategic workforce planning in ways no one thought possible, in the spirit of crawling before walking, most recruiting teams are focusing on the basics: a staffing forecast. It’s simple to develop and entails reviewing historical workforce data and trends and accounting for future events that will impact or determine the direction of the business.

Historical workforce data: Past performance doesn’t predict future results, as mutual-fund disclaimers often cite, but in recruiting, it provides a line of sight to what typical “churn” looks like in an organization. Start with a basic snapshot of all the employees in a particular business unit (numbers of employees, titles, time in position, tenure, location). Next, analyze past trends in attrition (voluntary and involuntary), retirement, and sources of hire, and you can come up with a working number or percentage of what future “churn” looks like.

When looking at historical data, consider factors such as:

• Number and types of positions filled annually in prior two years
• Trends in hiring statistics (front-loaded, evenly dispersed, fourth-quarter “burst”)
• Types and sources of hires
• Planned moves and transfers
• Location(s) of hires (i.e., geographic region)
• Turnover/retirements/separations
• Expansions and restructurings
• Plant or facility closures

This data alone will be invaluable to helping you and your client organizations understand the steady-state ebbs and flows of the workforce. To take it to the next level and dazzle your clients, look for correlations between the data points (e.g., higher attrition seen in employees with the unit five years or less; faster promotion rates for internal hires; and higher turnover for remote locations). You will know more about their workforces than they do!

Future events: If you’ve followed John Sullivan’s steps for becoming a top recruiter, you know a key to success is knowing the business you support inside and out. If you’ve done your homework and keep pace with your business, you should have a line of sight to its strategies, goals, and objectives. (If not, forget a staffing forecast for now and concentrate on learning the business!) Nearly all strategies and goals have in them a talent aspect; the best recruiters pick up on them and translate them to specific talent needs now and in the future.

When thinking about future events, consider factors such as:

• Business expansion (mergers) or contractions (divestitures)
• Changes in product mix: new products, line extensions, etc.
• Competitor activities (such as new product launches)
• Plans to enter new markets
• Changes in markets or customer base
• Changes in government regulations
• Changes in technology or productivity improvements
• Major projects and capital expenditures (e.g., building a new distribution center)

Looking holistically at the trends that have historically been part of the business and making educated guesses about future events, you can develop a forecast that translates organization needs to specific numbers and types of talent needed in an organization. Together you and your clients will have a thorough understanding of the current workforce and a strong plan that anticipates and proactively identifies talent needs.

Maybe the crystal ball isn’t an illusion after all.

Counselor. Business Partner. Employee relations manager. Friend. Sales person. Supply chain manager. Steward of the law. A recruiter wears many hats. It is those who recognize, appreciate, and aptly wear these multiple hats concurrently ? putting on the right hats for hiring managers, candidates, and government regulators ? that distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack.

Let’s talk about how these hats converge to allow great recruiters to develop and deliver a pipeline of talent in the shortest time and most cost effective way.

Counselor: While it’s probably a fair assumption that not every recruiter has majored in Psych 101, I dare say that a recruiter fulfills the role of counselor to hiring managers and candidates on a daily basis. Hiring managers seek the counsel of market-savvy recruiters who can tell them about the market in which they are competing for talent. Recruiters “see the forest from the trees” when hiring managers sometimes can’t. Recruiters can thus challenge hiring managers on the reality and marketability of often-outdated, poorly written vanilla job descriptions that shape the hiring manager’s opinion of his/her needs. Many hiring managers have shared with me their appreciation for recruiters who ? knowing their business ? will challenge managers as to whether their job requirements really should just be preferences. They collaborate to develop exciting yet realistic job descriptions that will allow for a better sourcing strategy from the get-go. We all know that a strong sourcing strategy directly correlates with a higher quality of hire.

Let’s not forget about a recruiter’s role as counselor to candidates. Despite today’s competitive job market and the fact that candidates are frequently on the lookout for the next great opportunity, recruiters play an instrumental role in talking through what’s best for the candidate. And it’s often at a time when the candidate’s emotions are running high, self-doubt has set in, and the thought of making a potentially life-changing decision can bring even the most seasoned job-hopper to his/her knees. The recruiter becomes the voice of reason.

Employee relations manager: HR generalists may disagree (and perhaps worry about infringement on their turf), but a large part of a recruiter’s role is to head off potential employee relations issues when delivering unwanted news to internal candidates, who are convinced they are the perfect fit for the job. Or, in more extreme cases, recruiters do damage control after a hiring manager has broken the news or provided feedback in a less-than-desirable manner. It is often the recruiter who finds him or herself in a quasi-ombudsman role, helping emotional candidates come to terms with why this particular opportunity wasn’t meant to be.

Friend: I spend a lot of time talking to hiring managers, recruiters, and new hires, and I always smile when I hear these individuals talk about the friendships forged through the recruiting relationship. I recall with fondness my own initial conversations with a Johnson & Johnson recruiter as I contemplated a move to this company. When I finally arrived, I recall the excitement I felt when he took the time to personally call me and welcome me to Johnson & Johnson. Likewise, when I read a promotional announcement for one of “my” hires, I beam with pride, like a mother watching her child accept the diploma at high school graduation. The recruiter has fostered and cultivated the relationship from the start and in part enabled a new hire’s success by providing a great recruiting experience. Why wouldn’t you as a recruiter beam with pride when one of your hires goes on to do great things for the company?

Business partner: Recruiters are not recruiters just because they love connecting people and opportunities. For hiring managers, not having the right talent at the right time in the most cost-effective manner can cripple their business. That’s where recruiters play a coveted and valuable role. Their insights and knowledge of the businesses they serve enable them to help hiring managers translate business goals and objectives into types of talent that can deliver those goals. They then help the hiring managers find that talent and land it. I often hear hiring managers comment about how recruiters are great business partners who help drive their business, and I couldn’t agree more.

Steward of the law: A recruiter’s role is not just to understand and abide by a long list of employment laws in the U.S. They help hiring managers, who may hire one person every five years and are less in touch with employment regulations, understand why equity and fairness in hiring practices are at the heart of the regulations.

Sales person and supply chain manager: Recruiters cover both ends of the spectrum of the people market. On one hand, recruiters are responsible for mining talent ? finding diamonds in the rough that might otherwise be passed over ? and then moving that talent through the maze of hiring chains filled with indecisive, ambivalent hiring managers or overbearing interview teams. On the other hand, it is the recruiter who becomes the front-line salesperson for the organization for which he or she recruits, extolling the virtues of the organization while providing fair balance so the candidate understands what he or she is really signing up for.

Which hat ? or hats ? are you wearing today?