Over the past six months, I’ve worked with dozens of major companies and some of the latest new recruiting and sourcing technologies. Based on this, it’s not a reach to contend that how companies will find, recruit, and hire top talent in 2010 and beyond will be far different than how it’s been done in... [full article »]

Whenever I need an idea for an article I call Doug Berg, the CEO and/or founder, or something like that, at Jobs2Web. So to meet this week’s need, Doug suggested I write about my reticular activator. I thought this was a bit personal, and while initially offended, it turned out to be great advice. I... [full article »]

If it wasn’t for hiring managers, recruiting would be so easy. But, alas, this is not to be. Instead, we can either confront them head on, or put our heads down in despair, and find still other perfectly qualified candidates they still won’t like. Unfortunately, too many recruiters fall into this endless productivity-draining black hole,... [full article »]

Fast forward to January 15, 2010. What are some of the hiring challenges you’re now facing? As you put the list together, consider these assumptions: The trough of the economic downturn was reached in April 2009. Job losses continued through October 2009, but at a declining rate, with job gains finally turning positive in November 2009, at around... [full article »]

In normal economic times, search firms make a lot of money placing candidates corporations should be able to find on their own. “How do they do it and what can be done to prevent them from doing it to us?” is a question many corporate recruiting leaders are asking. The underlying premise here is that if... [full article »]

For a number of reasons, Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, Outliers, is a good read for recruiters and managers, in fact, for anyone who wants to get ahead in life. The basic premise is that circumstances are far more critical to ultimate success than any other factor. For example, he cites the fact that Gates, Jobs, and... [full article »]

About 25 years ago when the self-help gurus came on the scene, I heard Jim Rohn say something that still sticks: Things will get better for you when you get better. Sage advice indeed, and now might be the best time to take heed. [full article »]

Times are tough. Even those companies that are doing reasonably well are cutting their recruiting teams by a minimum of 30% to a maximum of 90%, and tightening up expenses to the absolute barest minimum. Half of these cuts are probably necessary anyway, the balance most likely an overreaction to the dismal economic conditions most companies... [full article »]

As the economy tumbles, and companies right-size their recruiting departments, the bottom-half is the first to go. Under this scenario, those formerly in the relatively secure 2nd quartile are now in the bottom-half. So be wary or get better. With this sobering news in mind, I offer those of you in all quartiles this short, 10-point... [full article »]

The March 2009 issue of Fast Company lists its take on the 50 most innovative companies in the world. As I read their analysis, it seemed evident that the lessons learned about what makes a company innovative could be directly applied to the recruiting industry. With this perspective in mind, here’s how I’d translate business and... [full article »]

The economy will recover some day. I’ll admit I was a bit overly optimistic in an earlier article this year. It must have been the New Year’s bubbly. Regardless, it will probably take at least six months of planning, testing, and search engine equity before any Web 2.0 sourcing tools you implement will have an impact.... [full article »]

If you don’t invest in finding tomorrow’s candidates today, you’ll become history. This article is one component of a Web 2.0 and rich media demonstration. It consists of a variety of simple broad-reach tools including webinars, surveys, discussion walls, Twitters, and videos. The purpose of presenting the article this way is to demonstrate how an individual... [full article »]

Hiring will start to recover in Q2, 2009, and now is the time to rebuild your recruiting team and massively upgrade your sourcing and hiring processes. If you’re still considering cutbacks in your recruiting staff, think again. Recruiting top people is a repeatable sales process that’s fundamentally different than hiring average people. Instead of cutting back,... [full article »]

A top-down command-and-control structure leads to power grabbing, not power sharing. It prevents people from seeing the bigger picture as groups defend their turfs and fight off change at all costs. This sounds like Detroit, and until Detroit develops and implements a customer-driven strategy with a culture of success before self-interest, the bailout won’t work. A... [full article »]

Over the past two years, I’ve attended 15 different recruiting events and HR-related trade shows. Surprisingly, over 95% of the recruiting solutions presented had more to do with technology, sourcing, Web 2.0, assessments, and tracking data more efficiently. Yet in our annual recruiter survey, 50% of most hiring problems are attributed to the lack of assessment,... [full article »]

Too many recruiters rush the closing process, trying to push the candidate across the finish line before the race has even started. If you want to win the recruiting game, stop the Hail Mary’s. Instead, consider successful recruiting more like a well-planned football drive, where time of possession is key. If you’re not into football analogies,... [full article »]

Progressive companies are now implementing Just-in-Time (JIT) sourcing programs to ensure they have a ready pipeline of top talent once the economy recovers. This will provide early adopters a significant competitive advantage and an increased share of the best talent. In fact, these are the same companies that everyone else will be benchmarking in 2010 and... [full article »]

We’re working with a fast-growing security software company whose CEO is using Blanchard and Hershey’s Situational Leadership model for their management development program. Our part in this is developing a new method of assessing Managerial Fit when hiring from the outside. We all know that the development skills of the manager are critical in ensuring a... [full article »]

Over the years, I’ve been involved in developing hiring tools for sales representatives in a variety of industries including high technology, financial services, industrial products, consumer products, auto sales, woman’s cosmetics, business services, medical products, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare. Surprisingly, most sales managers make the same bad decisions, regardless of the product or industry. Here’s the list of... [full article »]

Carly Simon did question the idea of using a performance profile as a means to determine competency in her hit song, You’re So Vain. However, in this case I’m referring to the other Carly. On September 16, 2008, Carly Fiorina (the former CEO of HP and McCain supporter) made the statement that none of the president... [full article »]