Because quality issues are a focus of mine in the recruiting industry, I have a lot of people coming to me and asking me to weigh in on quality of hire. How do we measure it? What does it really mean? I’ve started referring to quality of hire as the Holy Grail of Recruiting,... [full article »]

A colleague of mine recently pointed out that his organization’s executive management does not count savings in time created through process improvement unless it can be shown as a reduction in headcount. That is to say, saving a recruiter an hour a day through some kind of process improvement is not assumed to mean... [full article »]

Quality can be such an elusive term, particularly in recruiting and hiring. It is inherently subjective, and its definition varies depending on whom you talk to and what’s at stake. But when we talk about Six Sigma and process improvement, quality is best defined as meeting the customer’s requirements. In other words, the customer determines... [full article »]

After covering some of the main tenets of Six Sigma in previous articles in this series, I am going to throw another term at you: Lean. You might be thinking to yourself, “Lean? My budget and headcount have been cut so lean that I’m amazed we can still get anything done!” While the term Lean... [full article »]

You’ve done it. You and your team have established a dashboard of metrics for your recruiting department or staffing firm. You are carefully tracking and reporting on your activities with metrics that are representative of your efforts. Now what? As metrics become more of an entrenched part of recruiting management, there is a need to... [full article »]

Over the past decade, the process of recruiting has gone through a dramatic evolution through the use of database technology and the Internet. Though most organizations have by now adopted new technology to replace labor-intensive methods, many have still fallen short at truly innovating how they operate. Like many things in business and life, we... [full article »]

In my previous article on Six Sigma, I gave a brief overview of the term, hoping to demystify it, and discussed its application to the staffing function. There continues to be more buzz in our industry about this process-improvement methodology, and senior recruiting management may be wondering if they should jump on the Six Sigma... [full article »]

From recent boom to ongoing bust, many recruiters and staffing departments are using the current time to adopt and implement some form of internal process improvement. Six Sigma is definitely the most talked about process-improvement methodologies used in business today, but it raises several questions among recruiting professionals: What is Six Sigma exactly? And how... [full article »]

With budgets still tight at many organizations, a new applicant tracking system may be a pipe dream for your department. Though you may view your current technology as a museum piece, and probably long for the latest and greatest, your organization may not truly lack effective tools. Maybe you’re just not effectively leveraging what you... [full article »]

Which one of these examples most resembles the email you send to confirm an interview with a candidate? Example A: Steve, You are set for your interview with Brian Bannister at 2:00 on Friday. We look forward to seeing you then. Example B: Steve, You are set for your interview with Brian Bannister at 2:00... [full article »]

My last article (Permission Marketing For Recruiters: Building a Targeted List) spoke about the concept of permission marketing and gave some specifics about building a list of potential candidates through networking and other means. Today, I’ll offer some content guidelines to help you use email to build a relationship with these candidates over time. As... [full article »]

If you’re interested in taking a more strategic approach to your sourcing efforts, the most important area to start focusing on is long-term relationships. You’ll also need to focus on the process of constantly identifying potential candidates who are “above the funnel”?? that is, individuals who are not candidates today, but are potential candidates in... [full article »]