Carl Bradford

Archive for the ‘Recruiting Process’ Category

A whitepaper’s – The ninth Source of Hire report from CareerXroads – key findings report that, on average, 41 of the country’s larger businesses filled just over 50% of their job vacancies in 2009 by internal transfers and promotions.

That’s the greatest percentage since CareerXroads first reported the information in 2002.

Predictions for 2010

Regarding 2010, however, 48% of the participating businesses believe they will hire and hire aggressively. The prediction is for a 29% growth in hiring. Only 10.8% of the interviewed employers anticipate hiring a lesser number of employees in 2010. Compare those percentages to the Source of Hire Report issued a year ago and you will discover that 100% of the businesses forecasted they would employ fewer employees.

The reports authors, Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler attitributed this to an increase in internal movement resulting from the US economic downturn, thus effectively obscuring many other sources of hire.  They expect internal movement (promotions and transfers) to return to more typical levels in 2010.

HR’s Disconnect with Contingent Workforce

Another key finding – and something recruiting managers and Human Resource professionals need to quickly get a handle on – is that 30% of the respondents were unaware for the size of their contingent labor force.

Amazingly, the survey preference selected from the 30% was that we “do not really know and can’t even guess” the size of the contingent employed pool. Of those who did report a size, the average was 13.6% of the labor force was considered contingent.

Another very interesting thing discovered is that forecasts call for these businesses to increase their contingent staff size to as much as 25%-35% in the coming years.  If that is correct, this only serves to point out that the HR and recruiting staff professionals have a very big ‘disconnect’ that has to be resolved.”

It should be pointed out however that the majority of the reports results deals with the source of employment of full-time staff.

Sources of External Hires

As Crispin and Mehler have reported for the last eight years, referrals are the largest supply of external hires. Not only were 26.7% of the external hires produced from recommendations from their workforce (who are the reason for the largest share), vendors, alumni, customers, and the like, but referrals are a powerful applicant resource.

A side note: If you’re reading this summary report, and are an active job seeker, this is a big, big clue on how to bypass the traditional recruiting application process and get recommended by an insider.  What, you don’t know anyone? There is a strategy for getting past that hurdle, but that’s part of what I coach my candidates on how to do.  You’ll need to contact me for that level of advice.

Just how effective is the referral system” “The yield for referrals is one hire for each 15 referrals, making this category essentially the most effective source by far and away,” say Crispin and Mehler.

Close to referrals, company job sites, at 22.3% of the total external hires, produce the most hires.

This is likely due to the fact that job seekers find the organization website from elsewhere; probably from the search engines or perhaps a employment post website link or an email from a friend.

Add these two top percentages together and you discover that 49% of all external hires come via referrals and the company website.

You’re probably wondering where job boards weigh in on source of hire.  The report indicated that job boards averaged 12.3% of all external hires.

Now the total for all three sources are 61.3%.

That leaves almost 39% of hires from other sources. Part of the difficulty in reporting on the 39% of external hires can be attributed to HR’s poor tracking systems, a portion of it is traceable, but attributed to a host of smaller sources.  One of the emerging sources is social media, but the ability to track that is still being developed.

An additional observation

LinkedIn accounts for 60 percent of all hires attributed to social media. Now, again if you’re a job seeker this is a big clue you must utilize in your job search.  The problem is, very few job seekers really know how to maximize LinkedIn’s effectiveness beyond the obvious.  For those that do, it is a treasure-trove of job opportunities, often yielding job opportunities with little or no competition.

The score is 21 -20 and your team’s score is 20.   The referee has just called time out at the final 2 minute mark.

Your team has possion of the ball when time resumes and you’re on your own 20 yard line. It’s a one possion ball game. It’s time for your 2 minute game plan.

Like top football teams, every top recruiting team needs a 2 minute game plan.

When You Need a 2 Minute Strategy the Most

You must have a 2 minute game plan when you have to move a candidate through your recruiting process in a very short period of time.

This happens most often when too much time elapses in closing top candidates already in your hiring process and you discover your top candidates now have competing offers.  You do communicate often enough with them to make that discovery don’t you?

This can also occur when you source a top candidate that is already well into their job search and have or about to have competing job offers.

What’s your strategy? How can you benefit from a 2 minute drill and what would that look like?

A Culture of Playing To Win

It starts with developing a winning culture. In today’s fast-paced competitive world, there’s little time for error or waste in hiring top talent.  Just like a well-disciplined football team, recruiters can adapt the techniques of winning football teams to ensure their hiring teams move the ball, score and win.

All too often employers are defeated while the clock is still ticking and they miss out on top talent!  HR/Recruiting Departments and their hiring management are frequently bogged down by sluggish recruiting practices that stifle change. They are unable to pick up the pace when necessary to score and win.

Winning means preparation before the game even begins. Once into the final 2 minutes, it means being able to communicate quickly and effectively, seizing control of the situation, adjusting quickly and – above all – executing!

A Frequent Symptom of Playing To Lose

One telling sign of a culture playing to lose can be seen where employers have adopted an attitude of “if we don’t get this person, there will be others that we can hire” and they just don’t seem to care about winning and getting a top employee.  This would be akin to a football team say, “we’ve already lost this one, but there’ll be other games.”

Any football coach that took that attitude and didn’t play with determination to win until the clock runs out would be fired quickly!

Develop Your 2 Minute Drill with 11 strategies

Improving your recruiting process, especially when competing for top candidates, can be achieved through applying the same principles that football teams do when executing their two-minute drills.

Top professional football teams must combine speed and execution. Winning teams often use both offensive and defensive talent during this time. They aren’t afraid to use talent in different roles during critical times when winning is on the line.

They practice working as a team and execute well-designed “play packages” – especially when there are just seconds left in the game and they need to score to win.

Here are 11 key elements of a winning 2 minute recruiting and hiring drill.

Select a leader. During the final 2 minutes leadership ultimately goes to the quarterback. It’s up to him to execute the 2 minute pre-game plan, but it goes beyond that.  Even after the coaching staff has called the play, he must analyze the defense in a matter of seconds and possibly call an audible play depending on his “read” of the defense.  Who on your recruiting team is accountable for orchestrating the overall 2 minute drill among your players?

Know the score. The quarterback must know the number of points required to win the game. Will that be a field goal or does it have to be a touchdown. Your hiring team must know what it will take to get the candidate to say yes. This goes beyond just compensation and likely includes other factors that are important to the candidate. Have you clearly established what is important to the candidate and whether you can provide that and if not, can you offer other things that might get the yes answer?  Knowing what will close the candidate means you know the score.

Operate with a sense of urgency. Seconds are critical to a football team during the final 2 minutes. Every play counts and every decision is magnified. Every team member on the field must execute their assignment with precision in a time compressed environment. Does everyone on your hiring team do that?

Keep track of the clock. The amount of time taken between plays, stopping the clock, and knowing just when to use remaining time-outs all become critical as the quarterback “manages the clock.”  Do you know how much time you really have before your candidate accepts another offer?  Have you built in some time for quick negotiations before time runs out?

Use the appropriate package of plays. The number of plays available during the 2 minute drill does not include all plays in the playbook. Plays in the 2 minute plan are typically designed to quickly move the chains (see below). This means abandoning certain ‘bread and butter” plays that are part of the overall game plan.

The 2 minute plays are often  much higher risk plays such as long pass plays.  We’ve all seen the “hail Mary” plays before.  When everything is on the line, do you have a plan that might even include higher risk solutions to win the candidate?

Play the right players. Having the right players on the field is critical. Use the talents of individual players for the good of the team. This often means using defensive and special team players in roles that are different from their normal position. Understanding the strengths of players during this time-compressed period becomes critical. Have you identified certain players on your recruiting team – or players who could become part of your 2 minute team – that bring a special background to help close certain top candidates?

Move the chains. This strategy is winning yards in at least 10 yard amounts thereby getting the opportunity to continue get ever closer to scoring the winning points. This means that often the best strategy isn’t the “hail Mary” pass, but getting concessions a little bit at a time in order to improve the odds of scoring. A top 2 minute recruiting drill might include getting a series of smaller yes responses from the candidate in order to overcome all concerns and getting the final yes to accept your offer.

Generate momentum. Positive momentum is contagious and energizing. The 2 minute time frame is as much mental as it is anything else. When your recruiting team consistently wins, every player gains confidence and improves their game. Are you winning most of your games, even the close ones?

Play Hard to the end. Top football teams know that it’s not over till it’s over! They strive to play at the top of their game through the final second. They realize that execution is the key to winning the game. Knowing the plays designed for your 2 minute drill and fielding the best players in each situation can mean the difference between winning and losing. The best hiring teams don’t take no for an answer and never give up till the game is truly over. Close the candidate, then celebrate.

Recognize your opponents 2 minute defense. The team on offense isn’t the only one to have a 2 minute drill. Top football teams know that when they begin their 2 minute drill, their opponents have a 2 minute defensive strategy. The tempo of the game changes. Mistakes are magnified. Split second adjustments are required. Gaining an understanding of your candidates motivators is critical and when they get down to making a final decision on your job offer, you must know how to close them. Time is short. Effective communication is critical. How are you doing when recruiting completion is really keen?

Perform a post Game Analysis. Top football teams video every game from several angles. Every game is put through a post game analysis that includes a careful scrutiny of their two minute drill. This approach allows you to able to better understand your overall strategy and find elements where you are strongest as well as weakest.  From that analysis, you can tweak and refine your 2 minute drill as well as other parts of your recruiting process. When was the last time you conducted a post game analysis of your recruiting process and then purposely improved your recruiting process?  If you haven’t, when will you start?

Conclusion

• Developing a winning 2 min strategy will make the rest of your game plan much better.
• Develop your own 2 minute drill and make it part of your playbook and be sure everyone on your teams knows “the drill.”

Bottom line if you don’t have a 2 minute drill, you aren’t playing to win!

Job titles, or what some call “role titling”, can often improve the chances of attracting, retaining and rewarding top performers, especially when resources and bonus pools are underfunded as many are in today’s economy.

You don’t believe it?

Actually, a survey by Peal Meyer & Partners just surveyed 388 companies that indicated job titles are more important in times like these; i.e. times of economic stress.

The survey delt with issues such as “formal job titles” as well as a secondary title that is more specific to a particular individual’s responsibility.  The survey also reported that this seems to apply less so to senior levels of management where consistency is considered more critical.

So what are some ramifications of all of this?

For one, having a title on your business card that is specifically representative of what your role is, can be beneficial even though the official company records might have a more formal and generic job title.

For example, let’s say your official title is Engineering Fellow (usually meaning you have deep engineering subject matter expertise in a specific discipline) and your role is specifically leading the R&D initiative for new fuel cell technology.  In that case a business card and correspondence title that reflected this role would become much clearer to everyone.  For example it might read, Manager Fuel Cell Technology Development or Director Fuel Cell R&D.

This same rule also is true for titles on resumes.

Job titles often cause confusion for readers of resumes.  Recruiters and hiring managers who read resumes often let the job titles influence whether or not they’re interested enough to pursue an interview.  They often make generic, unfounded assumptions about an individual just by the choice of job titles they include on their resume.

An individual should always be truthful when creating their resume but also be practical at the same time.  If your official job title is Accountant III, but your role is really the lead cost accountant for your group, then say so.  Show your title as Lead Cost Accountant.

The intent here isn’t to deceive, but to communicate.

And for you recruiters and hiring managers, stop reading so much into job titles.  I agree that sometimes a job title can be accurate in indicating the size and scope of a person’s current or past role, but this isn’t always the case.

Take time instead to actually have a phone discussion with someone who has the right background and get the real facts on size and scope of current/past roles and find out just what the person wants in their next role.

Far too many hiring decisions are based on “reading the tea leaves” of resume content.

A highly respected subject matter expert in the recruiting field – Kevin Wheeler – wrote an article entitled “We Should be Ashamed“.  As a professional recruiter for over 40 years, I agree!

The author opened his article as follows:

“Top-notch job candidates are tired of the recruiting mess we have created in the U.S. I would guess that well over half of all recruiting functions are dysfunctional. By that I mean they have no standard process for dealing with candidates, treat some candidates much differently than others, respond sporadically to requests and phone calls, fail to follow through on verbal commitments to candidates, and let themselves be constantly swayed by hiring managers who are unaware of the talent market.”

Most of the recruiting professionals that responded to this article agreed and many of these responders are external recruiters who must battle these same dysfunctional processes when recruiting on behalf of these employers.  You’d think that when these same employers pay external recruiters large fees, they’d at least have efficient processes in place to manage the recruiting partnership.

Unfortunately this is not always the case.

One internal recruiter’s response in particular caught my eye.

Among her comments were:

“I would like to call you on this article.” “We are constantly looking for the best.” Our recruitment process is arduous as we are looking for elite developers…”

That prompted me to take a look at this employer’s web site. to see just what she was defending.  As a consultant who has been engaged to review and evaluate company web sites and their related recruiting processes, the FIRST thing I look for is a obvious link on the Home page that clearly directs the reader to their career section.

If hiring great employees and treating them as the important asset they are doesn’t merit a Home page link, I don’t know what does!  If it’s not there, it is the first “red flag” that a job seeker should consider.

This link should always be displayed and visible without having to search to find it.

Guess What?

That link is nowhere to be seen and you have to start guessing just where to find it.  I finally did find it, as a sub-link in the About section of their site.  Strike one.

Next I looked to see what their job descriptions were like.  They were a series of bullet points, not very compelling and well….quiet boring from my perspective.  Strike two.

I really can’t speak to their “back end” recruiting process once a candidate provides their resume, but given the above discoveries, I’m certainly skeptical about the former claims.

As the individual who certifies company recruiters world-wide in the Adler recruiting methods – which requires my review of employers recruiting processes – I’m not surprised.  But I am dismayed that so many employers don’t get it.

It’s not any wonder that job seekers that I hear from are so disillusioned by their job hunting experience.

You can read the article in full here.