WorkPuzzle

6 Things You Need to Know to Successfully Address Compensation Issues

In our most recent discussions, I’ve attempted to provide some insight regarding how candidates who work in traditional jobs perceive the real estate industry.  When we talk about this topic, the elephant in the room is compensation.  How do you get an individual who is used to working in a “normal” occupation to quit his or her job and take on the risks that are inherent to working as a full commission real estate agent?

While this is a challenge, it is not impossible.  There are many talented people among the 13 million individuals who find themselves unemployed.  There are also an additional 26 million people who have jobs today, but are constantly looking to apply their talents to new career opportunities.  Many of these people have great skills, competencies, and motivation, but they’re frustrated, lack opportunity, or think they’ll find themselves unemployed in the near future due to circumstances they can’t control.

When the individuals in one of these two groups start to consider real estate as a possibility, the first and most significant obstacle that must be overcome is compensation.  Unless a person can see a clear and highly probable path for making income, there will be immediate resistance and most people will disengage--especially the talented ones.  Here are some ideas on keeping this from happening:

1. Discuss Compensation Early in the Conversation.  Acknowledging the issue and addressing it early in the conversation frees a person up to hear the rest of what you’re going to say during an interview.  It is not hard to say something like, “I bet your number one question about real estate is how you’re going to get paid for doing this kind of work…”  Avoiding the issue or waiting until the end of an interview to discuss compensation makes candidates think you have something to hide.
2. Answer the Most Common Questions Before They’re Asked.  The most talented people among us have more than one employment option.  They want to know whether the option you’re offering is better than the others they are considering.  They have questions like, “What percentage of the people who work with you make my desired level of compensation?”...“What are the obstacles that tripped up those who are not making it?”...“Do you have two or three people who I can talk with who were in my situation a year ago who are meeting their compensation goals today?”
3. Learn About The Candidate’s Other Options.  Ask questions about what else a candidate is considering for employment.  Talented people always have options, so if you can get a person to articulate these options you can start to have a fair discussion regarding whether real estate is right for them.  Try to maintain the perspective that you are an objective third party who is honestly trying to help the person make a good decision about their future.  Validating the existence and viability of other options is the best place to start.

Once a person feels heard and believes that you understand their circumstances, they are much more willing to consider the things you have to say.  There is still the hurdle of getting someone who is used to a normal salary with benefits to feel comfortable with a real estate compensation model.  Here are some ideas to help you over this obstacle:

1. Discuss the Decline of Traditional Jobs with Benefits.  As mentioned in an earlier post, about 30% of the workers in the United States now work as independent contractors, and this percentage is trending upwards quickly.  Some experts expect this level to exceed 50% in the next 15 to 20 years.  As the traditional job becomes scarce, opportunities to succeed will naturally follow this trend.  Teaching someone to operate in the independent contractor world is a valuable contribution you can make to an individual's career.
2. Discuss the Long Tradition Americans Have of Becoming Business Owners.  The U.S. Census Bureau reports that there are 23 million businesses in the United States.  Of this total, over 17 million are businesses that have zero employees.  Think about that number... There are about 17 million people who own their own business by themselves.  And these aren’t just goofy businesses, they contribute almost $1 trillion to the gross domestic product.  Use the paradigm of starting a business when you introduce someone to idea of becoming a real estate agent.  While such a change may still feel scary, it can make it seem more normal, doable, and even exciting.
3. Discuss the Idea of Duel Careers.  Many real estate companies resist hiring “part-time” agents.  This policy has some merit because there is a lot of data that suggests that those who work part-time do not maintain the necessary focus to be successful.  For the large majority of people who have been involved in real estate in the past, this has been true.  However, there is an emerging trend among working individuals that is worth noting: many of the most talented people in our society want to work more than one job for the sake of interest and flexibility.  The real estate industry has an opportunity to tap this resource in some new and exciting ways.  I’ll write more on this topic in a future blog, but for now be on the lookout for this issue when you interview highly talented individuals.

Compensation will always be one of the major issues in discussing any employment scenario.  Being able to discuss the issue with confidence, a sense of creativity, and hope, will increase your chances of hiring talented agents.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below. 

What are Your "Competitors" Offering Your Candidates?

Last week, we started a discussion on how companies can more successfully attract talented individuals to the real estate industry.  When there is a limited number of people who are seeking out real estate careers on their own, the competition for new agents naturally has to grow beyond that small pool of candidates.  When this happens, a real estate company has to compete with traditional companies (i.e. companies that offer traditional jobs with salaries and benefits) for the attention of talented individuals.

Last week, I challenged you to find out what other companies are offering in the geographic region close to your office.  Did you do your homework?  Just in case you didn’t, I put together a couple of examples for you.

Our company (Tidemark) is located in Woodinville, WA.  This is a community just outside of Seattle.  As I search in my geographic area, here are a couple examples of what candidates are being offered:

1.  Email Marketing Manager, Classmates.com.  Classmates.com is one of the few “dot com” companies that survived over the last decade.  It appears to be a healthy company and has a good brand.  Here are the responsibilities for this position:

Manage the concept, development and execution of email marketing campaigns, including new feature notifications, segmented lifecycle campaigns, newsletter & triggered emails.

Partner with other members of the marketing team to develop new customer segmentation and contact strategies and act as the team’s resident expert of email.

Write effective, creative briefs that include campaign objectives and strategic messaging and work with our internal creative services to formulate compelling copy and design that ensures successful results.

Develop new messaging strategies that leverage the data we have on our members and provide business requirements to technical teams to construct more compelling, dynamic email.

What are the motivations of someone who would apply for this job?  The most obvious factor is the opportunity this position affords to someone who wants to make use of their marketing training and skills.  Someone who is attracted to this position would enjoy working in a team environment and interfacing with vendors (internal creative and technical service providers).  Additionally, a person who would be successful at this job would probably have a knack for understanding the needs and interests of customers.

Estimated pay for this position:  $50,000/year with full health benefits.

2. Customer Service Representative, Precor.  Have you ever went to the gym and used one of those elliptical trainers?  Most likely, it was made by Precor.  This company is also a healthy company that has a good brand and reputation.  Here are the responsibilities for this position:

Provides technical assistance to internal and external customers using both oral and written communication skills.  This includes diagnosing the problem and walking the customer through the solution.

Maintains contact with customer accounts and end-users through phone contact, email, faxes and correspondence.

Explains and administers company policies and procedures pertaining to customer service (e.g., warranty policy, parts credit, return policy, etc.)

Communicates effectively with customers (within Customer Support and other appropriate departments) on the status of current field failures, and assists in determining corrective action to ensure Precor customer satisfaction.

Assists customers with part orders through an on-line computer system, this includes data-entry of customer numbers, part numbers, quantity, etc.

A person who is attracted to this job will be someone who enjoys working with people to get problems solved.  The individual who is successful at this position would have to be a good listener and be willing to push through obstacles (both internal and external) in order to get good results.

Estimated pay:  $30,000/year with limited benefits.

Note:  Pay and benefit research was conducted through www.glassdoor.com.  Neither of the positions advertised contained detailed pay and benefit information in their job posting.

Speaking the Candidate’s Language

Hopefully, you’re starting to get the idea of what “normal” candidates experience as they look for a job.  As you consider this information, don’t get too caught up in the details.  Rather, spend your time trying to understand “the language” that the candidate is expecting to hear when they consider new employment.

More specifically, you need to be able to see things and answer questions from the customer’s perspective.  Candidates want to know…

• How do my skills and training specifically apply to what an agent does?
• Who am I going to be working with as an agent?  Am I going to like my manager and coworkers?
• Who, outside of the organization, am I going to be working with?
• Does your company have a great brand? (i.e. Will I want to tell my friends I work at your company?)
• As an agent, am I going to enjoy working with your company’s customers?

If you’re not crafting your message in terms that the candidate finds familiar, there is often a decisive breakdown in communication that develops.  The red flags quickly go up in a person’s mind and the talented people disengage.

It’s similar to the feeling you probably get when you attend a timeshare sales presentation.  You know that there are all kinds of normal people in the world taking normal vacations, but the salesperson is hell-bent on convincing you that all those other people are idiots and his unique model of vacationing is the only way to go.  At this point, you’re looking the for the door and wondering whether the two free nights in the hotel was really worth it!

While this kind of pressure and focus may work for timeshare sales, but it doesn’t work for employment.  Helping someone consider a range of fair options in terms a candidate is familiar with hearing is the formula for building trust and getting the most talented candidates to engage.

Next time, we’ll discuss how you can better compete with traditional companies on the issue of pay and benefits. 

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below. 

Would a Smart, Talented, and Motivated Person Want to Work for You?

Last week, we discussed the coming trend in the employment market at large where the traditional “job with benefits” will become less available and employers will look to lower cost employment models to meet their needs.  The two most prominent models are (1) the independent contractor and (2) part-time employment with no benefits.  We then raised the question:  How do you position yourself to take advantage of this trend?

For a real estate company, this seems to be a tough question.  As I’ve spoken with real estate leaders over the last six months, I've learned that everyone wants to find ways to attract younger, more talented agents who are willing to dedicate those talents to the real estate industry.  But, there’s a disconnect.  These individuals are not choosing this option on their own, and they don’t seem overly interested in listening to the options a real estate company has to offer.

How can this be fixed?  The change in traditional employment will help, but that’s not enough.  Just because other options are not as appealing as they used to be does not necessarily mean that talented individuals will now choose to work with you.  Your option has to be superior (or at least equal) to the remaining options available.

This may sound like an oversimplified observation, but it is something that most real estate companies struggle to understand.  Part of the reason this blind spot exists is because real estate leaders do not have a perception of what employment options exist for young, talented individuals.  The belief is that competition for new hires primarily comes from other real estate firms.  This is not true.  The competition for new talent is between your firm and all the other non-real estate companies who can potentially hire people in your immediate geography.

Of course, this begs the question:  What employment options do talented individuals have within 20 miles of your real estate office(s)?  If you don’t know the answer to this question, you need to find out.  Once you find out, how does the employment opportunity you’re offering (becoming an agent) honestly stack-up against these other opportunities?  Be honest.  This is a more difficult question than it may seem.

There is a perception among real estate leaders that there are restrictions inherent to the real estate business model that make it difficult to compete with traditional companies.  While this is partially true, it is not a premise that the most successful leaders in the future will accept.  They know that if you ask people to make less-than-intelligent choices, they will only be able to attract B players. 

Next time, we’ll discuss what these options look like and how a real estate company can compete more successfully. 

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below. 

The Death of the Traditional Job With Benefits: How Can You Take Advantage of This Emerging Trend?

I spent some time with the leadership team of a mid-sized real estate company in the Midwest last week.  They’ve been clients of Tidemark for more than two years and have noticed that the traditional candidate pools for real estate agents are not producing sufficiently productive new agents.  I sensed deep frustration over their realization that what has worked in the past, is not likely to produce results in the future.

One of the candidate demographics that seems to be most troubling is the baby boomer new agent, whose spouse has a traditional full-time job with benefits.  The spouse provides the financial safety net for the family, and the agent’s job is to bring in extra income for needs such as college expenses, an extra car payment, money for vacations, etc.  If the real estate market is expanding consistently, this arrangement seems to work pretty well—both for the agent (standing in the right place at the right time) and the real estate company (it needs individuals to take orders and provide basic customer service).

But, as the economics of the real estate industry have worsened, this traditional arrangement has become very strained.  A new agent can no longer make an impact (or any money) without true skills and focus being applied to the real estate sales profession.  A real estate company cannot meet their financial goals by depending on this type of lack-luster talent.

Is all lost?  I don’t think so.  But the agent/company relationship will change based on the nature of employment, the economic realities of the housing market, and the continued pressure that emerging technologies will put on traditional real estate business.  Companies that can adapt to these changes will be able to capture the available opportunities in the future.

One of the trends that the real estate industry can benefit from is what many people are calling "the death of the traditional job with benefits."  In years past, a real estate company was often at a disadvantage, competing for talent against companies who could offer someone a steady paycheck with benefits.  Even commission-based sales positions in other industries (ex. insurance, technology sales, media sales, etc.) commonly offered base pay and benefits in addition to commission.  But, according to a recent CNN report, all that may be changing...

“Jobs may be coming back, but they aren't the same ones workers were used to.

Many of the jobs employers are adding are temporary or contract positions, rather than traditional full-time jobs with benefits. With unemployment remaining near 10%, employers have their pick of workers willing to accept less secure positions.
 
In 2005, the government estimated that 31% of U.S. workers were already so-called contingent workers.  Experts say that number could increase to 40% or more in the next 10 years.

James Stoeckmann, senior practice leader at WorldatWork, a professional association of human resource executives, believes that full-time employees could become the minority of the nation's workforce within 20 to 30 years, leaving employees without traditional benefits such as health coverage, paid vacations and retirement plans, that most workers take for granted today.

‘The traditional job is not doomed. But it will increasingly have competition from other models, the most prominent is the independent contractor model,’ he said.”

So, let’s put two and two together... We have real estate companies who are no longer able to depend upon B-level talent to get the production they need.  In addition, we have A-level talent in the employment market at large, who are increasingly willing to look at an independent contractor employment model because the traditional “job with benefits” is becoming scarce.

This is a trend that can be capitalized upon.  Next week, we’ll talk about some ideas about how to make this happen.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below. 

Why Understanding Generation Y Can Help Your Business

The first marketers to clearly understand the needs of baby boomers have become enormously successful.  Starbucks is a prime example.  The company capitalized on the fact that boomers had generally become isolated adults who had left the community life that they loved so dearly in the 60's, pursued material wealth, and yearned for community life (without any commitment) once again.  Starbucks also figured out that boomers love being catered to and will pay dearly for it.  Voila!  $4 cup of coffee to schmooze with people you don't know for 20 minutes!

I predict that the marketers who tap the needs of Generation Y (those born between 1977 and 1997), will also do very well.  I'm not sure exactly what that looks like within real estate, but let's look at some characteristics of this age group and see if it reveals some clues.  The following was garnered from an article in Suite 101.

"Generation Y is extremely comfortable with technology.  This is the first generation that has no real memory of life without computers, cell phones, and digital music, and members of Generation Y laugh at people who don’t have these technologies.  Walk around any college campus between classes, and you might see half of the students talking on their phones or listening to their iPods (or doing this during class, which drives professors crazy).

Generation Y is cynical.  Baby boomers started out optimistic and politically involved, but became disillusioned during the turbulent 1960s.  Generation Y started out disillusioned.  They came of age during events such as 9/11 and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and have little trust in government or other authority figures.

Generation Y has a non-existent attention span.  College students have always gotten bored easily, but the attention span of this group is especially low.  This is a generation of remote controls, hyperlinks, MTV, Facebook, and endless hi-tech college student distractions.  Professors have their work cut out for them.

Generation Y loves consumerism.  Advertisers love Generation Y because they are such a large demographic group, and because young people are easier to market to than older ones.  Thus, Generation Y has grown up accustomed to businesses trying to win their favor.  In the U.S., this is the first generation who grew up with advertisements all over their high schools and fast food in the school cafeteria.

Generation Y is more diverse than previous generations.  Throughout much of the world, young people have grown up accustomed to racial and religious integration, and more and more people are of mixed race or ethnicity.  This generation grew up watching Will and Grace, and homosexuality has won more acceptance than ever before.

Generation Y is used to chaos.  Young people today expect they will have to deal with a confusing global economy, political crises, and social transformations.  But unlike previous generations, they are used to this.  They expect to have multiple careers, homes, and social circles throughout their lifetimes.  This generation follows the REM motto:  'It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.'"

Ponder the above for a while and let me know if you figure out ways that this information will impact real estate and business in general.  Also, think about how to best recruit and retain Generation Y agents.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn.  Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.  

Forget What You’ve Learned From Motivational Speakers: Doubt Yourself

How many times have you attended one of those motivational seminars where the presenter attempts to "pump you up" with the belief that greatness resides inside of you?  And, all you have to do is convince yourself (through self-talk) that it is there, and it will be "released" into your life.

 

As you might have suspected, positive self-talk is not as effective as your motivational guru promised.  In fact, you may do better doubting yourself, rather than trying to talk yourself toward greatness. 

 

A few months ago, I wrote a series (1,2,3) on Daniel Pink’s latest book called Drive.  If you haven’t read these articles, you may want to catch up on his compelling discoveries concerning motivation.  Pink recently uncovered another research study that defies conventional wisdom on this topic.

 

This study was reported in the London Telegraph over the weekend and was originally conducted at the University of Illinois. 

"In a nifty set of experiments, three social scientists explored the differences between what they call 'declarative' self-talk (I will fix it!) and 'interrogative' self-talk (Can I fix it?).  They began by presenting a group of participants with some anagrams to solve (for example, rearranging the letters in 'sauce' to spell 'cause'.)

But before the participants tackled the problem, the researchers asked one half of them to take a minute to ask themselves whether they would complete the task – and the other half to tell themselves that they would complete the task.

The results?  The self-questioning group solved significantly more anagrams than the self-affirming group."

In a second, follow-up study, the initial finding was validated by the results of a new experiment:

"We told participants that we were interested in people's handwriting practices.  With this pretence, participants were given a sheet of paper to write down 20 times one of the following word pairs:  Will I, I will, I, or Will.  Then they were asked to work on a series of 10 anagrams in the same way participants in Experiment One did.

 

The outcome was the same.  People 'primed' with Will I solved nearly twice as many anagrams as people in the other three groups.  In subsequent experiments, the basic pattern held.  Those who approached a task with questioning self-talk did better than those who began with affirming self-talk.

 

‘Setting goals and striving to achieve them assumes, by definition, that there is a discrepancy between where you are and where you want to be.  When you doubt, you probably achieve the right mindset,‘ explained one of the researchers.  ‘In addition, asking questions forces you to define if you really want something and probably think about what you want, even in the presence of obstacles.'"

These findings have a direct and immediate application to your business.  If you have responsibility for coaching those on your team, teach them to ask questions about their abilities and to contemplate their chances of success.  

"People who ask questions come from a more humble place, which creates space to come up with a deeper solution.  In other words, questions open and declarations close.  We need both, of course.  But that initial tincture of honest doubt turns out to be more powerful than a bracing shot of certainty."

If you are a hiring manager, integrate this principle into your interviews.  Ask your candidates how they approach difficult tasks.  If you get back a response that highlights their bravado...it’s a red flag.  Those who are truly successful will likely be more humble.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below. 

The Art of Asking Questions

A couple of weeks ago, Dave Mashburn wrote a series of blogs to help you increase your success when interviewing new real estate candidates.  If you have not had a chance to read these yet (1, 2, 3), I would encourage you to do so—there is a lot of great information packed into these discussions.

This appears to be an issue that bedevils a lot of people.  I spoke with a real estate owner just last week who was struggling with the issue of convincing a candidate to come on board while she was simultaneously considering an offer made by his competitor. 

In this case, the competitor had done a great job of framing the decision around the fee structure (i.e. the overhead) necessary to be part of a real estate office.  Since the competitor was the low cost option in this category, the candidate was leaning toward joining the competitor’s office.

At this point, most hiring managers will tend to be on their heels.  How do you convince a candidate to get his/her focus off of the minor issue of fees and consider the bigger picture?  That is, without sounding defensive?

Try asking questions.  Not just any questions, but questions that are designed to move the discussion from a conflict between you and the candidate, to a conflict that exists only in the candidate’s brain.  Ideally, you want to facilitate the discussion that the candidate is having with herself until the conflict is resolved.

This isn’t as hard as you may think.  Business consultant, Steve Roesler, recently offered some simple insight that I think is helpful on this topic.

“When you keep announcing the righteousness of your position, the problem defines you.  When you respond with a question, both of you begin defining the problem and looking for solutions.  Which do you want?

Here are four model questions that will help you stay above the fray:  

• 'If this doesn't meet your requirements (criteria, needs), what can be done to ensure that it does?'
• 'If you like the idea but not the related cost, what can we do about the budget constraints?'
• 'If we can't start the project now, when do you think it would be a good time to get it going?'
• 'If you don't want to change anything and think the procedures are fine the way they are, what is it that you like about how they work now?'

You get the idea.  The first part of the question acknowledges that you heard the issue;  the second invites action from the other person.  That way, you stay out of 'argument' mode and create an environment where the responsibility for a solution is a mutual effort.”

Try crafting some questions that address the objections your candidates will likely bring up.  Practice saying them a few times before your interview so that they don’t sound canned.  And then give it a try.  Maybe you’ll be successful at tapping your inner psychologist!

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below. 

Social Networking and Recruiting - Part 3: Making a Contribution

We’ll wrap up our discussion regarding social networking and recruiting today with some insight from Omowale Casselle, a contributor to the Electronic Recruiting Exchange’s blog network.

In the previous two posts on this topic (1,2), we learned about some of the major boundaries associated with social networking (i.e. what doesn’t work), and how “relational currency” is necessary to be a legitimate part of any social network.  This still doesn’t give us much direction regarding how we should conduct ourselves concerning the regular input we offer to our social networks—especially as it relates to recruiting.

Casselle suggests our interactions on social networks have the following characteristics:

1. Be Present.  This means establishing a presence on sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter & niche) that are important to your target audience.  For each site that you join, you are going to have to spend lots of time establishing your presence.  If you do your homework, you should be able to identify 3-5 sites that are most relevant to your target audience.
2. Be Knowledgeable.  Recruiting is largely driven by the exchange of relevant information.  Both employers and candidates are looking to learn more information about each other to establish fit.  Based on your target audience, you should be prepared to highlight the major benefits of your industry, organization, and specific openings as well as respond to likely areas of candidate concern.
3. Be Helpful.  As more and more people are connecting with one another on the social web, it is important to establish yourself as someone who can be helpful.  If candidates have a question, do you quickly respond to it or do you ignore it?  If a colleague is struggling with the implementation of some new technology that you have mastered, do you reach out and offer assistance, or do you let them struggle for the solution on their own?  With all the talk around interaction and engagement, one of the major ways to establish a great reputation is to help others without expectation of reciprocity.
4. Be Social.  When you see an interesting blog post, tweet, or status update - dive in.  Don't let fear of what others might think about your thoughts inhibit you from socially engaging with others.  Expand your social network, reach out to people with peripheral but related interests.  In no time, you will start to see just how interconnected different ideas and concepts are.
5. Be Aware.  There are a variety of written and unwritten rules to social engagement.  WRITING IN ALL CAPS, only tweeting about job openings, or discussing your personal relationship status on Facebook are typically frowned upon.  However, there are also things that are not yet well-established that may be detrimental to your social recruiting efforts.  Are you always negative?  Do you only discuss or share content consistent with your point of view on a subject?  Before you engage with others using social media or social networks, take a moment to think about how your target audience will receive it.
6. Be Yourself.  Even though there might be a temptation to create an idealized image of yourself on the web (complete with amazing profile picture and embellished accomplishments), it isn't going to work.  In fact, the more you try to become someone you aren't, the more people you are looking to build relationships with will shy away.  By letting people know who you really are, you can start to truly build some real relationships.
7. Be Authentic.  No one wants to engage with someone who constantly argues point of views that they don't agree with.  If you truly don't agree with something, then by all means jump into the conversation and express your disagreement.  But, don't pretend to be against technology based recruiting while constantly tweeting job openings at your company.  If you do, you will quickly lose all credibility.  The main reason is that lots of users have a variety of interests, and they will begin to track people of interest to see what they have to say on a variety of forums.

This is good advice, but you may also notice it’s a lot of work.  For some, this type of “work” is going to feel natural and enjoyable, but for others it will be a burden.  If you’re in the first group, social networking can and should have a significant impact on how you recruit. 

If you’re in the second group, you’ll find that you’ll only be able to “push this uphill” for a short while.  Your energy toward social netoworking will quickly diminish and you won’t be able to consistently make the contributions necessary to be successful.  Rather than beating yourself up, I would recommend finding other areas where you can make contributions that are more in line with your talents.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below. 

Social Networking and Recruiting - Part 2: Relational Currency

Last week, we began a discussion about the use of online social networking for marketing and recruiting.  We talked about some of the principles that seem to govern this puzzling environment.  But, maybe it is only puzzling because we approach it from an odd perspective.

Earlier this week, I was packing up for a business trip to Philadelphia.  My three-year-old noticed I was loading my suitcase and asked me to bring her back a seashell from my trip.  I told her, “Honey, I’m not going to the ocean on this trip, so I can’t bring you back a seashell.”  (My last trip was to the New Jersey coast and resulted in a seashell I picked up on the beach.)  But, she was undeterred.  Before I left the house, she made the same request three or four more times, each with a gentle reminder from me that seashells were not plentiful in Philadelphia.  As my wife dropped me off curbside at the airport, she gave it one more try… "Don't forget to pick up a seashell for me Daddy!”

It is clear that my daughter now connects business trips with seashells.  Granted, she is three years old and still has a few things to learn.  But, she is making the same mistake many of us make when we approach online social media—we assume (and hope) that this environment will respond like environments where direct marketing tactics are effective.  After all, there are a whole bunch of people congregating in one place, based on similar interests (much like a direct mail list or a tradeshow).  It only makes sense that they would be open to receiving and acting on well-crafted marketing messages, right?  Wrong.  Not all business trips produce seashells, no matter how often we ask.

In social networking, there’s a principle called “Relational Currency” that seems to govern interactions.   Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson, a large publishing company, does a great job of describing this principle:

“Sometimes when I speak with marketing executives about social media, they seem to get it.  But they don’t.  Not really.  They falsely believe that Twitter and Facebook are like every other broadcast channel.  They see it as an opportunity to blast their message out to thousands of followers—for free!—and sell them stuff.  My response?  No.  No.  NO!  A thousand times, no!  Twitter is not a broadcast medium. 

Twitter and Facebook are relational tools not transactional tools. Contrary to what many think, social media rewards:

1. Generosity;
2. Other-centeredness; and
3. Helpfulness

It is a vehicle that appeals to people’s deep, God-given desire to connect.  It works when there is trust.  When it becomes just another form of spam (violating people’s trust), it fails to be effective.”

If we insist on using direct marketing currency (well-crafted messages that highlight the benefits of a product, service, or new position) in an environment where only social currency (generosity, other-centeredness, and helpfulness) is accepted, we’ll naturally experience a lot of frustration.

Michael Hyatt goes on to describe an “exchange rate” for the world of social networking:

“This [exchange rate] is what I have come to call the 20-to-1 rule.  It represents a ratio.  It means that you have to make 20 relational deposits for every marketing withdrawal.  This isn’t science.  I don’t have any hard, empirical evidence to prove it.

But I have observed that if you just keep asking people to do something—buy your book, come to our conference, sign up for our cause—without making adequate deposits, they will begin ignoring you.  Eventually, they will unfollow you and disconnect from your updates.

No one wants to be spammed.  Not today.  There are too many alternative sources of content.  If you want to build a social media presence, one where people listen to you, then you have to be a giver not a taker.  I think 20-to-1 is about right.”

Here’s the take away—don’t expect to get your marketing or recruiting message heard in the realm of social networking unless you’re willing to use the currency that works in that environment.  To be effective, you’re going to have to put in a lot of effort and be a legitimate contributor.   

Now, does anyone know where I could find a seashell in Philadelphia?  

 Source: http://michaelhyatt.com/2010/04/the-20-to-1-rule.html

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below. 

Social Networking and Recruiting

I’ve been reading a lot about social networking lately—especially as it applies to recruiting.  One of the business problems our company is constantly trying to solve is:  How do you engage the highest quality candidates possible early in the recruiting process?  Or more specifically:  How do you entice candidates to engage in a dialog about their careers before they even start looking for a change?

This is a tough nut to crack.  In the last couple of years, there has naturally been more interest in social networks as a vehicle for accomplishing this task.  Many career sites, including the major job boards, have attempted to leverage the internet traffic that social networking sites enjoy, for their own benefit.  Their efforts have been met with a lot of frustration and poor results.

Recently, many of the discussions on this topic have migrated from espousing the great potential that social networks hold, to, “Does anyone have this figured out?”  As this unfolds, I believe we’ll start uncovering some of the underlying principles that drive social networking and how it can be more effectively used for marketing and recruiting.

I wish I had a complete list of these principles to share with you at this point, but I’m not there yet.  Like many other people who are trying to understand social networking, I’m starting to notice a few things and connect some dots, but the full picture has not emerged yet.  This may take awhile!

Over the next couple of discussions, I’m going to share some of the things I’ve noticed in the process of discovery.  If you've figured out some things in this arena, please share them via email or comments and we’ll learn together.

Earlier this week, Todd Raphael, editor of the Electronic Recruiting Exchange, posted an update from a recent forum on social networking and recruiting.  The summary was titled, “A Community Few People Really Want.”  Here are some thoughts that emerged from this discussion:

1.  Social Network users are concerned about privacy when it comes to career issues.

When sharing things online, users are quick to share information about “where the party is,” or “what’s happening tonight,” but don’t want to share information that later can be scrutinized by potential employers, work colleagues, and other professionals.  If we're asking someone to share what they don't like about their current job, don't expect anyone with much intelligence to answer the question--this type of information has a way of getting to the wrong people.

2.  Nothing kills a conversation like having “big brother” sponsor it.

“One conference-goer in the session said she created an online group for college-age students and interns to interact.  Well, she tried.  They didn’t take to it.  ‘It’s been a one-way blast to them,’ she said.  ‘They would not engage.’  She said many see each other in real life every couple of weeks at an event the company puts on, which involves a short educational session followed by networking.  They also do community service projects together.  But on the company intranet, they’re not chatty.  And this is a problem because recruiters want them online so they can check them out and recruit them."

 3.  Online social networking will not replace face-to-face networking.

Another forum contributor advised that “…if you don’t capture people in the medium you want, but you engage them in some other way, that’s plenty good.  It’s about fostering community.  If the face-to-face networking events work, do more of them.  We spend a lot of time fighting what isn’t working, rather than doing what is working and saying, ‘let’s increase the volume of that, and chase those things.'”

Hopefully, this type of input will help you start to see where the major boundaries are with regard to social networking applications.  These boundaries should help us define more clearly what doesn't work.  From there, we can focus on activities that have the best potential for reaching candidates.  More to come in the next couple WorkPuzzles…

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.