"There must be a better way!"

 

It's a thought that requent crosses the minds of most recruiting and HR professionals on the corporate sides they struggle to fill the openings that loom before them.

 

"There must be a better way!"

 

Certainly, sifting through resumes isn't the better way.  Job boards simply opened the spigot.  No, its more like it opened the fire hydrant and our job is to drink from a fire hose.  There are so few . . .so very few qualified people who apply.  Don't applicants ever READ job descriptions?  There are so many . . .too many . . .resumes.  Is this what I went to college for?  To waste my time . . . .my life . . ..reading the resumes of people who are clearly not qualified? Clearly they have proven they either do not or cannot  read the position description.  Now the thought shifts between:

 

"This is its own special kind of Hell"

 

and

 

"There must be a better way!"

 

There is a better way.  If you are not finding the people you need through job postings, simply become proactive by targeting passive instead of active candidates. (That's what we do at The Good Search: see www.thegoodsearchllc.com )Why leave it up to chance that the person you need will simply swim by your job posting and be seized with the impulse to apply.  Targeting ideal candidates is faster-better and costs less.  It is a no-brainer. Moreover, when you target people who are right for the job can demonstrate due diligence, candidates, which makes hiring managers very, very happy. 

 

So stop the insanity. Stop wasting your time and start living again by taking control of your search destiny.  Proactively go after ideal candidates and you, your team, and your hiring managers will be so much happier because you will succeed like never before.

Do you have a search that's got you stumped?  Are you finding too many candidates, too few contenders? Too many searches, too little time? Do you need to find a more affordable way to fill your openings? Do you have a search that is simply taking to long? Or a position a search firm has been unable to filled? 

Ask any search-related question and we'll get you the answer.

Good Question! is a complimentary Q&A newsletter to which recruiters on the corporate side can subscribe.  It's our way of giving back,getting to know you, and assisting you whenever possible over the course of your career.

 

Simply visit: http://www.thegoodsearchllc.com/html/subscribe.html

We look forward to becoming better acquainted.

Ever since the founding of my company more than a decade ago, I've evangelized the use of candidate pipelines.  In my gut, I knew that focusing on research and sourcing (the execution engine of search that identifies and develops candidates) was the way to drive results and improve search performance. 

We recently published a whitepaper detailing the actual effectiveness of pipelines, which can be deployed to fill a single opening or a range of openings at virtually any level from senior level executive through experienced individual contributor.

 

I knew our pipelines powered by human capital intelligence were good, but I didn't know how good until we did the math. The searches we tackle are often searches that other firms have been unable to fill.  Often clients tell us as launch that there are no candidates left that they haven't talked to and therefore no apparent way to to fill the thing. When we finally stoopped and checked the metrics, we discovered that on average, our pipelines delivered the candidates who ultimately were hired within just 18 business days. 

 

At a time when a growing number of firms are seeing business slow due to the economy, ours is rapidly expanding.  It seems word is spreading that pipelines (whether offered by a vendor or home grown) are simply faster-better that traditional search.

 

For those on the corporate side who want to check the metrics of a new kind of search,simply visit:

 

 

 

 

Recruiting is a cyclical business subject to the vagaries of the economy. I've seen scores of corporate recruiters laid off at in recent months . . .

 

If you are one of those still standing, in addition to updating your resume and teeing up your next opportunity, you may want to consider taking proactive steps to increase your ROI at your current company.

 

One suggestion I have is for you to walk over to whomever is in charge of your company's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practice -- it often goes by different names like "sustainability" or "compliance and ethics" or "environmemtal responsibility".  They, too, may be worried about their longevity, and the two of you should join forces. 

 

Employee attraction and retention is one the primary dividends paid by a company's CSR practice. Yet remarkably HR and CSR rarely talk to one another   So . . . if you have yet to leverage CSR branding in your reruiting pratice, nows the time, as it will grow your ROI.  And if the CSR personnel have yet to tally their impact on employee attraction and retention, well, they should start running the numbers.  For more on how candidates feel about great companies that also happen to be good, check our survey at http://www.thegoodsearchllc.com/html/survey.html

 

In fact, increasing your ROI may be a better strategy than teeing up your next opportunity, as those are getting increasing harder to find. For more on CSR, check

 

 

( If you'd like to discuss further, feel free to contact me at 203-227-8615.  )

Much has been written about social networks. But check out The Anatomy of Buzz, a book by Emanuel Rosen.  If social networks provide the infrastructure, the buzz is the energy that flows over it.  Buzz has become increasing important  in this day and age when we have too many advertising messages, emails, text messages, voicemails with which to contend.  No one has the time to research every new product and service.  Instead, most of us rely on a friend or an associate to recommend a product or to mention it.  Get enough mentions, and you've got a buzz going and the social network fires up in response.

 

So consider social networks like LinkedIn. They're the conduits. If you really want to use a network effectively, then you need to fire up the buzz.  It may be that you're an employer-of-choice, or the leading recruiter in a particular industry, or that you just did something amazing. 

 

Buzz is fired up with information that your social network consumes. Not SPAM. Not ads.  But word-of-mouth on how good or bad or cool or interesting or worthwhile something is. 

 

So let's think of it as a tool. For a candidate, the buzz would be how he/she as a candidate is a hot prospect that prospective employers ought to snatch up.  For a recruit, the buzz would be about a hot opportunity or hot company (employer-of-choice).  You cannot control buzz, but you can spark it. 

 

For instance, if you have a product that does not live up to its promise. . .the buzz will ultimately be about that.  To generate positive buzz, there must be something amazing to buzz about, something special that makes you , your opportunity, or your company buzz-worthy. 

 

Once you've got that in place, you connect with nodes in your network that are highly connected and communicative.  How do you tell whether you dealing with someone who's a super connector. Chances are they called you and they're asking you a ton of questions. They have a voracious appetite for the latest information.  The next time one of those contacts calls you. Don't get annoyed.  Start the buzz and reap the rewards.

As a buyer of executive search, which would you prefer: a search firm that knows your industry like the back of its hand or one that is devoted to serving you and you alone?

 

In its early years, the consulting firm Bain & Company would only work with one client per industry to avoid potential conflicts of interest. 

 

I wonder whether a contrarian, anti-specialization approach might actually resonate with some VPs of Talent Acquisition.  I realize this flies in the face of experts who recommend that firms such as mine specialize in order to lure business away from the major retained search firms.  In fact, I've been told that specialization is the only way to do so. 

 

As neat and tidy as that seems and while specialization offers economies of scale, it poses a number of conflicts of interest. Moreover, specialization makes a search firm more vulnerable in whenever the economy takes a hit.  If your sector goes in recession, so then do you. 

 

I'd be interested in hearing whether any of you know of a firm that's refused to specialize in order to avoid conflicts of interest and off-limits list.

 

And I'd welcome discussion and comments on this and other "out of the box" ways to explore raising the bar, inspired by the realization, "there's got to be a better way!"

My daughter, all of 14, brought home a New York Times best seller the other day entitled,--I kid you not -- "Skinny Bitch:  A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous!"  The book is so hot that the authors immediately wrote a follow-on cookbook entitled Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, which, when the feminist in me is done being enraged, I find pretty funny.

 

So what does this have to do with recruiting? Everything.  (Stay with me for a moment.) SB pretty much is a vegan rant that, for a number of chapters, is designed to gross out the reader by comfronting us with the often cruel consequences of eating food with faces -- something we generally don't like thinking about. The authors vividly describe slaughterhouse practices and the vagaries of eating rotting carcasses.  In doing so, the extol the virtues of eating vegan . ..how healthy, caring, and skinny one will be if you'd just rule out meat and dairy.

 

 My Katie read passages of the book aloud to me.  In response,  to encourage her new-found teenage idealism and previously unheard-of commitment to eat her veggies, I agreed to try vegan with Katie with the New Year.  A meditation on the theme "we are what we eat".

 

Which brings me to recruiting.  Recruitment is a kind of consumption.  Companies that hire great talent that is also good (ethical, caring, inspiring to be around) will attract the same, whereas crummy, unethical, peevish, beady-eyed leaders attract similarly uninspiring talent. 

 

Therefore, search firms ought to decide what team they want to recruit for . . .employers-of-choice (also known as Best Companies to Work For) that do a better job of treating their shareholders, employees, communities, and the planet right . . .or employer that lack distinction.

Of course, we define ourselves by the company we keep.  As recruiters, we define companies by the company we keep.  One can choose the upward or downward spiral.  SB recruiting means you intend to thrive by taking the high road. You'll not only be successful, but in the eyes of those around you, you will look mahrvelous!

Search firms basically come in two flavors: retained or contingency. They are distinguished by how they are paid, not by how they conduct search, even though they do conduct search differently. Retained is generally aimed at the executive level and is a highly consultative process. Contingency firms are highly transactional. They must make rapid placements and move on.

 

Where do research firms fit in this picture? In fact, when I say "research firm", what's the first phrase that springs to mind?

 

Is it "name gen"?

 

Generally, research firms have been relegated to playing a supporting role in search.  That perception may, in part,  have its roots in residual sexism (in the early days at most search firms, researchers were women) and classism (research was framed as lower-level, administrative back office occupation.)

 

Research firms are typically the companies recruiters turn to when their hair is on fire: when they run out of names, or run out of candidates, or when they hit the wall with a "search from hell".  But research is so much more than that. While it can fix recruitng problems, it is far more powerful when it is harnessed for proactive recruitment.

 

But defining research as name gen or lists of candidates is like saying coffee begins and ends with freeze-dried Maxwell House.  That is so yesterday.  That is so not Starbucks.

 

What if you're a retained firm that offers retained search powered by human capital intelligence that finds candidates faster-better?  What if your retained search involves individual searches (as is typical), and also candidate pipelines across a range of openings, as we do? What if your firm delivers organizational intelligence (org charting, executive mapping, and profiling) and at the end of the day, delivers not only candidates but also intelligence as a product. 

 

Hmmm.  We think we've stumbled upon a new category of search firm.    We're not your typical research firm. We're not your typical retained search firm. We are, in essense, both and neither.  That makes our clients very happy and their competitors a little nervous. 

I want to extend my earlier invitation to get connected in Y2008 to include joining my personal network on Plaxo Premium to enjoy the benefits of what is shaping up to be an amazing upgrade of Plaxo. Their premium social networking sight offers social networking with contact information. 

I never really got excited before about using Plaxo.  A lot of people were put off by "Plaxo SPAM" aimed at  keeping  contact information up-to-date. But with the added benefit of business networking with keeping contact info current with being allowed to form groups . . .they've found what appears to be the perfect balance.  Finally, a social networking site that is less "work" and more "net"!

 

So, my friends on ERE,  let's get connected on Plaxo. Just sendan email to krista (dot) bradford (at)thegoodsearch (dot) net . . .and I'll forward you an invite to join my network on Plaxo.

 

Enjoy! And let me know what you think!