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Wednesday, September 19, 2007
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It is tradeshow season...or at the very least, the next wave of tradeshows has arrived. This week I attended a show in San Francisco as an Exhibitor. I always enjoy the opportunity to talk about our product and listen to other companies promote their products and services, but the thing that rejuvenates me each and every time is the engaging conversations happening inside, outside and during the information sessions.
Some of the best tips I’ve ever heard, were usually offered over a bagel and coffee during a break. Some of the best ideas are born out of spirited debates during a break out session. There’s always something new, different and open for consideration. Some of the best ideas and learning happens in the art of networking. And you’ll never be able to completely automate or codify good networking. While we’re working on buying more time, the overriding theme I heard from corporate recruiters, staffing professionals and consultants is the importance of learning to master the art of relationships – identification, maintenance and endurance.
As we explore Web 2.0 and what that means and does not mean to recruiting, as we work to optimize tools and streamline processes and metric ourselves into well oiled machines...I hope the one thing we never lose, is the element of touch. So much of what makes recruiting rewarding is bringing people to the right career at the right time. The best recruiters I’ve ever known are not only proficient; they are passionate about the significance of what they do. They are advocates, career counselors and professional seers. Good recruiters impact lives. Hokey? Possibly, but still valid. Sometimes I wonder if all the solutions that are born everyday to take some of the “time” out of the process aren’t also taking some of the “think” out of the process. As we try to endear ourselves to the ones who determine out yearly recruiting budgets, it is so easy to make it all about the process, and less about the skill and art of recruiting. We forget, touch.
The element of relationship building is a critical skill that some people are born with, but most learn over time. There’s no way to automate that. There is no solution on the market to cheat your way through that vital step in our process. All the employment brands, candidate experience packaging and metrics maneuvering will never replace the ability to identify talent, nurture it, present it effectively and close the deal. Our business is still the business of touch.
This week, I watched people sharing ideas. I watched people talking about their experiences, comparing notes on technology and different ways to touch people where they live, work and play. I also heard a lot of metrics and numberese. But one point remained crystal clear:
All the tools, processes and automation will definitely make us faster but developing the talent that is searching for the talent, will truly make us better.
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I’ve been hesitant to jump on the MySpace wagon as a suitable vehicle for recruiting. Sure, it is touted as one of the top five most popular English-language websites and everyone including your grandmother might have a personal page there...but size aside, my opinion on networking or community based sites as recruitment gold has been skeptical at best.
When I first tooled around with the site a few years ago, it was to look into some of the bands I admire. It was a great way to get information on new releases and club dates for some lesser known acts. Then of course there was the social networking element. But after a few months of seeing the types of content that wound up in my In Box, I decided that MySpace was sort of like Times Square. It's a fun place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. At the close of my experiment I needed something different.
And a good flea dip.
After some time away from the mega world of MySpace, it occurred to me that perhaps I needed to rethink my stance. Funny how life sends you clues. When chatting with a friend recently, I asked her if she'd ever been recruited by way of MySpace. Lots of personal jokes aside, she confirmed that she had not. Patty is a successful VP of Sales & Marketing with impressive experience and a solid track-record both as a hiring manager and as an employee. She is a sought after talent in a great location but while she receives consistent recruiter contact on LinkedIn, she said she never would expect or respond to recruitment activity on MySpace.
Her reaction was priceless: “MySpace is a personal site...not a work related site. It's like running into a recruiter at a singles bar who wants to discuss my skills and experience. My immediate reaction would be to look at him or her and go...huh??!”
Exactly my point. The people on MySpace who you want to take you seriously, won't. The ones you wouldn't take seriously, you'll have to beat away with a stick.
I say all this, feeling all self-righteous and smug in my assessment. It's become my favorite hobby as of late, to make snarky comments about those MySpacers with their pages and pages of friends and cute or provocative notes...but I realize maybe for some positions, perhaps it does add value. I just don't know if I'd be willing to take the time in the hectic world of recruiting to find it.
Now Twitter? That’s a horse of a different color. Or, so I think.
Once it’s stable, Twitter might just be the fastest way to build a professional network ever. Founded in October of 2006 (and incredibly popular at SXSW in March), Twitter is a microblogging service that allows people to stay up to the minute on what’s happening in the lives of those around them. Personally. Professionally. Globally. CNN, tweets. (“tweets” = small quick communications sent to your “network”) So do Barack Obama and John Edwards. And I bet so do many of those slippery candidates you’re working to build referral relationships with. Professionals are already finding new ways to stay connected during the workday beyond the standard instant messaging tools. There are hosts of alternatives entering the scene already for microblogging, including Jaiku.
Sure it has its social network ramifications. Endless "tweets" about what people ate for lunch, or random thoughts that enter people's minds...but you can control that easily by picking who you add to your network and whose updates you receive. You can determine how you would like to use it. And if you've tapped into a strong network of professionals who really like the versatility and speed of microblogging, you might just find yourself tapping into a pretty nice referral network of talent. In fact, my friend Patty’s on it and so are many of the hundreds of her connections on LinkedIn.
Social media and community sites are an interesting trend that’s rapidly expanding and here to stay. The question for the recruitment professional is the same as it is for anyone anywhere: where’s the best place to hang out to meet the kind of people you’re looking for?
After all, there are only so many hours in a day.
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Wednesday, August 16, 2006
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Over the weekend, I went to the movies to catch Talladega Nights. The big marketing buzz preceding the movie was that it would break records in the areas of brand integration and product placement. And so it does. From the beginning to the very end, the movie is littered with brand placement in the typical NASCAR format. But even with NASCAR, it goes over the top in a celebration of the sponsorship/marketing rat race. What was particularly amusing were the types of products "branded" and what the movie tried to convey about Nascar, celebrity and some broader culture. Sterotypical, but isn't marketing in bed with the notion of stereotype?
Talladega, despite the over the top branding (which added to its comedic value), made a very salient point. If you show up in front of your target audience, they will be forced to "see" you. But that's only half the battle. What makes them remember you is the opinion they already have of you (or immediately create as a result of your recent effort) within their own consumer mind. Namely, their pre-existing "brand loyalty."
I purposely made myself take off the marketing hat, and put on the consumer cap while I watched the movie. For each logo my eye caught, two immediate points for each was immediately processed:
1. That's XYZ product.
2. I love/hate XYZ product.
Products that I didn't know? I didn't retain. Couldn't tell you their names if my life depended on it. But what if I was a true NASCAR fan, where company sponsors = lower ticket prices? Suddenly, seeing XYZ product, aligning itself with something that means something to me means I'm feeling all sorts of warm fuzzies. So how do you build the branding effort that gets you REMEMBERED and not just seen?
“A brand achieves its potential when added values are so great that customers will not willingly accept substitutes, even when the alternatives are cheaper or more readily available.” – Does Brand Matter: Whitepaper, Nia Creative.
Good brands are built over time. It's about the perception of quality, the belief that XYZ product knows and understands the needs of their consumer. The keystone is knowing what your target market truly wants! Yves Lemusi addressed it earlier this week in The No. 1 Frustration of Your Job Candidates. Be aware of what your candidates want. Make their concerns, your concerns. Make their interests, your interests. It is a huge part of the recruitment process, and it also plays a significant part in determining your marketing strategy
And remember - those added values must be true. Especially in recruiting. In order for a recruitment marketing brand to make any headway, it has to be an honest effort. You need to know the profile of your 'XYZ' company employee. You need to identify what brought them and what keeps them. Then you need to understand their world. How they look for jobs. How they live their lives outside of work. And then you have to go to the same places they do.
Know who your candidates are and be prepared to show your commitment to their interests completely and honestly before you attempt saturation. Otherwise, you're wasting a ton of money.
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If you have an account on Flickr, or you maintain a personal blog or receive rss feeds in lieu of watching the news or reading the newspaper - then you're already all over the notion of tagging.
It's literally a labeling and categorization system used online to quickly compartmentalize and...well...label items. Visit Consumating to see labeling done on a personal label. Brilliant!
The big recruiting debate right now is...should recruiters search for information about candidates online. Online personas, when is it ok to reject or accept a candidate based on online personal fact-finding missions...everyone has an opinion about what to do with what they find out about candidates on the web. I'm not blogging about that. (At least not right now)
Let's talk about candidates who want to be found! The notion of folksonomy is one to be seriously considered/employed. If you want a recruiter to find you, out in the great virtual neverland, what tags would you use to describe yourself? Odds are, if you can "tag" yourself appropriately, a cunning recruiter is apt to find you.
Think about it. Take 25 words to best describe yourself professionally. Then...think about the 25 words your top candidate might use to describe themselves.
Tagging has opened up a huge opportunity that requires nothing but a little creativity, some understanding of the "profile" versus the job description and some great tools that will allow us all to search the world for those candidates that "tag" as the profile dictates.
Wouldn't it be nice if recruiters could receive rss feeds of candidates out there in the world wide web that professionally "fit the bill?"
Oh wait...we can do that, can't we? So why aren't more people doing it?
Maybe it's time to develop a tag list for each of those job descriptions. Maybe...it's time to get rid of those job descriptions altogether.
Just a thought...
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It never ceases to amaze me how much you learn each time you become a candidate.
I recently changed my role/company/career focus. I was an active/passive candidate - depending on the day. I went from active to passive to a combination of both. There have been a million theories about how it happens, the transition from active to passive. A bad day...the sudden realization that what you're doing is not your joy...maybe just another day of feeling like what you're doing doesn't matter. Whatever the reason, the transition can happen in seconds, hours, days or months.
Candidate experience is so much more than making the recruitment and on-boarding process smooth and streamlined. It's about understanding the need of the individual you've encountered, validating a culture fit and seeing what opportunities can be developed from that exchange. I realize in the "real" world of big business, these types of exchanges take more time then any recruiter is ever afforded...but let's face it, ours is STILL a relationship business. So how do you make the process faster, but still ensure you can engage your candidates in meaningful conversations that lead to smart job offers, increased verbal acceptance and happier attrition rates?
Optimize. Optimize. Optimize. But that in itself is another posting.
What did this last go as a candidate teach me as a "recruiting mind?"
1. My job didn't come to me as a posting on a site. It began through a professional relationship.
It was a great conversation between a somewhat active candidate who suddenly had some clarity on exactly what they wanted to do, and an employer that had just done some brainstorming on exactly what they needed.
2. The exploration of a job should be flexible, reviewable...and tailorable.
Yes there are skill sets required to do each and every job out there. But what truly lands that "active/passive or sometimes both" candidate, is YOUR ability to truly identify what matters for that position to be successful...and what does not.
3. You never know when that perfect job/perfect candidate is going to come along, so be ready to pounce when it does!
A huge part of candidate experience is being able to meet the candidate's need. And It's not just returned phone calls or an alert that tells them where they are in the process. It's can be as simple as taking the time to build some "intel" on that candidate. To effectively sell the job, you need to also sell the company, the vision and the fact that this opportunity affords that candidate everything they are looking for. You don't find any of that out without cultivating a relationship with each potential candidate you meet.
...and you can't cultivate a relationship if you don't have an efficient way of managing the candidates that you find... ;)
But that's another blog for another day.
Stop back and visit soon. Recruitment Spin is back up and powered to go.
Oh, where did I land? Talenthook. Stick around, it's going to be a lot of fun. They'll be much more on candidate optimization, compliance, sourcing automation and everything else that keeps us spinning.
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I can remember my early days in recruitment advertising, when trying to sell a media buy that included banner ads was about as easy as milking a snake. (If you didn't see Lemony Snicket, then that means absolutely nothing to you)
The bad rap on banners was tracking ROI, the complicated nature in buying them based on click-thrus and all sorts of complexities that clients were hardly interested in giving a second thought. After all, how many of us were REALLY able to tie hires to banners?
That was then, but it still is, now. We still struggle with justifying branding spend in the recruitment world. Having been on the client side for a few years, I have a deeper sensitivity to trying to sell the brand dollars to the masters of our ever dwindling budgets. But let me tell you why it might be time to take another look at banner ads.
Remember the old days when you inadvertantly clicked a banner, landed on some page, growled and deleted it before it finished loading? Today's new banner technology includes banner designs that engage the user on a completely different level. Want a crash course in what today's banner ads can do? Visit PointRoll to see how they've grown up.
Some of the key improvements on the old technology include:
- data capturing (as in, you don't even have to click through, to let me know you want to talk to me)
- rollover functionality (for the truly creative)
- video/audio streaming
- aggressive space and size availability to allot for more compelling visual effects (kiss that two panel "flash one message and then the next" nonsense goodbye)
- floaters (yeah, I hate them - but they ARE effective)
I'm just giving you the quick and dirty. And hey, if you spend anytime online, you've probably noticed how banners have evolved. Stop and think about how that new technology and innovation can have impact on the recruiting world? How can you make a banner ad that actually allows the user to plug their information INTO THE BANNER, work for your leads generation campaigns?
Think short term, campaign based attack, preferably event driven. Think about how a clever banner ad, leveraging data capture, leads generation and strategic choice of media venue can create a innovate supplement to a heavy recruitment campaign.
How do you get those flashy banners in your major contracts with the super sites? Tell them you don't want the red-headed step child of banners. Tell them you want your banners supersized.
It won't work for everyone. But if you have a fairly strong brand and a desire to do something a little different - check out the new banner technology, and think about how you can make them work for you.
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Wednesday, March 22, 2006
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Fresh on the heels of a great Diversity Summit meeting with AIRS in Houston on Monday, I'm still feeling a bit "ranty" on the topic of diversity sourcing - especially, the impact of open honest communication as it relates to the subject.
As I googled my favorite news topics this evening, I happened across two articles on diversity recruiting from different points of view - both enlightening in their own respect.
In the Daily Mining Gazette, there was an editoral indicating a less than stellar regard for collegiate diversity initiatives at Michican Tech University.
Let's face it. Desiring to create an environment of inclusion does not make you inclusive. You can allocate millions of dollars to the mission - but that doesn't change anything but your budget and your visibility in the proper venues. Until your culture shifts and you are willing to be honest with potential candidates on where you truly are in the diversity quest for greatness - you run the risk of false advertising to a highly relationship based, community focused (and highly desired) segment of your potential candidate pool.
If colleges potentially feel it in their student recruiting...imagine how you will feel it in your diversity recruiting 4 years from now.
Duke University, gets it. And if you think glossy ads and aggressive (read: short-lived) diversity recruiting campaigns are the answer - then read the article. It's about initiatives with teeth, corporate/campus culture awareness, training and long range goals not just for hiring - but driving cultural CHANGE.
And how bad can it get with diversity false advertising?
1. Seive recruiting: Diversity comes in at the top, falls right out of the bottom. Not much ROI in that, now is there?
2. Negative press in cultural populations that rely as heavily on word of mouth for "brand" information as they do your latest diversity prize publications. All the advertising in the world won't help a bad "rap" in social circles.
3. Potential legal ramifications. Massive diversity recruiting without proper corporate culture development can ensure the introduction of diverse professionals in an environment ill-prepared to truly make them feel "at home."
Three compelling reaons to stop, look and ask yourself...
"Am I as inclusive as I THINK I am?"
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Wednesday, January 18, 2006
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In the most dynamic selling environment, you are only as good as your contact management system, and your product.
Being able to access your customer's information, preferences, personal and professional interests and predispositions can be the difference between a dial tone and a meaningful opportunity.
Many of us are using our Applicant Tracking Systems as a sort of makeshift contact management system, typical of an aggressive sales organization. This makes sense, because in a corporate recruiting environment our recruiters are just that - aggressive sales people. Many of these ATS were designed to capture, report and track candidates already engaged in the requisition process, but were they truly designed or intended to be a contact management system?
More importantly, does using your ATS as a contact management system truly work for those passive candidates not yet on your side of the fence?
As the heat for top candidates continues to become increasingly creative and challenging - recruiters are being urged more than ever to go out and find those ideal candidates by hunting them down by any means necessary. The days of waiting for those candidates to come rolling in (if this ever really did happen) is long gone. We are searching, scouring, spidering and mining all over the place, unearthing hundreds of people in various stages of active and passive behaviors.
What are we doing with all of those names we're finding?
- If we can't immediately link them to a requisition...
- If they are not as readily available to discuss an opportunity as we'd like them to be...
- If they are not actively interested - but have a decent network they seem willing to share...
What happens to those names? In reality, there is a temptation by way of sheer volume to let them sit there, hanging idly in abandoned folders somewhere on your hard drive or in you applicant tracking system.
How are we managing those names of individuals we encounter who AREN'T ready to apply? What system are we using to actually reinforce the notion of relationship management to create a pipeline of candidates?
The relationship management wizards within our organizations have their own contact management system they use. And I bet you it's more process intensive, manual and tedious then they'd like for it to be.
We assign methodologies designed to make relationship management easier by whittling your contacts down to a workable, manageable number of people - but on a broad level, what system do we have that allows us to bring individual recruiter relationship management to our entire recruiting organization for contact sharing and/or continued leads development?
Is anyone out there using an off the shelf or customized contact management software in conjunction with their ATS? For large scale hiring recruiting organizations - is there value?
I'm curious to hear your thoughts. Who is using them. What they are using, or simply - your impression of the pro's and con's.
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The embodiment of push/pull lives in the constant struggle for a Recruiter working to meet the needs of a hiring manager, while ensuring the candidate has a positive experience. It's an amazing juggling act.
The Hiring Manager/Recruiter/Candidate relationship is one that can dangerously cyclical in nature. Hiring Manager says I am looking for "Candidate X." Candidate X could actually look a lot like Candidate W or Candidate Y...hey, even Candidate Z might work. So the Recruiter brings alphabet soup to the Hiring Manager hoping to snare someone as close to Candidate X as possible by using their amazing selling skills. All of those candidates (by the way) believe they ARE candidate X. Imagine their discontent when they find out that they are not moving forward in the hiring process? (Especially after we called them, in the first place!)
The Recruiter, once so confident about the candidates offered, must now go back and rain on each of those candidate's respective parades. And then, search for other Candidate X's in the making. The Recruiter may not even be confident that Candidate X is even alive and working in the world. So they go out, and group together some additional folks - whose hopes and spirits they will potentially squash.
Angry candidates, potentially frustrated Hiring Manager. Recruiter looking for ledge to leap off. Sound familiar?
If you aren't lucky enough (or strategic enough) to have a dynamic relationship with your Hiring Manager it can be very difficult to provide meaningful candidates. In an effort to get it right, a Recruiter can spend countless hours screening for perfection. I like to call this conveyor belt recruiting. Recruiter drops candidate on belt, watches for the "reject" or "approve" stamp to come falling from the sky. It's very tactical, very repetitive and a very poor use of resources.
Each candidate you touch believes their impact on this recruiting cycle as critical. And they are correct. As our candidates leave the recruitment process feeling confused, misinformed and inappropriately contacted - they risk reaching out to their network to say, "Company X really has a terrible process. I was called about this job - I apply for it, and then they tell me I'm not qualified. What did they even call me for??"
The danger in recruiting within a silo is that our efforts become wildly erratic. We augment our process, or search methodology to tailor a "unique" search for a "special" candidate for a "specific" geography in an effort to be responsive to a major need. Without some strategic planning – we set ourselves up for failure. There has to be a management of expectation. We create this for our candidates in ensuring they are communicated with throughout the process. We tell them the potential cycle - when they can expect follow up and what steps they can take to learn more about us during that time. We field their questions and scan for additional selling points to promote those we really feel passionately about.
We need to ensure the same clarification of expectation for our Hiring Managers - to avoid wasting time and candidates. We can consider the following with Hiring Managers to make candidate experience more manageable:
- Having a clear, open dialogue about the needs of the position
- Carefully noting "must haves" and separating them from "nice but not required"
- Creating the ideal candidate profile - with Hiring Manager's input and consent PRIOR to candidate delivery
- Honest communication about potential pitfalls: compensation, trouble geography, prior reputation in market and other factors that may require special attention in unearthing the best candidates
As the gatekeepers of talent, if Recruiting doesn't do a good job of partnering with our Hiring Managers on a strategic level, our candidates are going pay the price. Unhappy candidates, can do terrible, terrible things to an employer brand.
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We've all been there.
You come up with a great new company-wide recruiting initiative. Something that's going to bolster your employee referral program. An idea that's going to make your company employees spring to life and start referring individuals left and right. It's the very thing that going to reinforce the recruiting anthem, "always be recruiting."
Problem is, no one in your company seems to know a thing about it.
Navigating the choppy waters of communicating within your company culture can be mission impossible if you don't know three key things:
- How your employee population LIKES to receive communication
- What types of communications are coming out at the same time you're planning your own
- How comfortable your initiative fits into the daily working life of your audience
Know your audience. Be one with your culture.
There are two different perceptions of company culture. Who you think you are...and then who you truly are. If you work in a fast paced culture full of people moving at the speed of light, you need to craft a campaign that is easy to digest and respond to. Don't think five course meal. Think...gogurt (that lovely yogurt in a squeeze tube that children still manage to make a mess with).
This does not mean sacrifice quality. It means make the quality succinct.
Email is NOT going to cut it.
Email is a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because we use it to communicate everything, quickly and efficiently. It's a curse for the very same reasons. Every company initiative from the big charity campaign to the new sales initiative gets communicated by way of your inbox. Not to mention the flood of general work email we all receive.
Touch your audience in every place they live. Through their paychecks, through the intranet (make sure your intranet is NOT the black hole of lost content), through meetings, events and their voicemail systems. Keep the message consistent across all channels nearly to the point of annoyance. (Think of any commercial you HATE, but manage to remember the jingle for)
Speak in a language they relate to.
If your audience is detail driven - then give them details. If they aren't? Keep it short and simple - and direct them to where they can go, to get those cumbersome details.
The worst words to ever hear?
"What's the __________ program? I never heard of it."
Don't let this happen to you.
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Marketing Director
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about Cheryl Hardy
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