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Managing Your Talent Pipeline: Making Small Contributions

Once you have permission to follow-up with someone (see yesterday’s article), it then becomes important to make some sort of small contribution to the candidate’s life in subsequent conversations.

When you contemplate how to make one of these contributions, think of things that are small and thoughtful rather than large and flashy.  Here are three ideas that I’ve seen used effectively:

1.  Recognize an accomplishment.  Our world is more transparent than ever before.  With various websites, online social networks, blogs, and other venues, there is a lot of information available about people.  It is not uncommon for people to publish both their personal and professional accomplishments in some kind of online environment.  It’s also easy to search and find such information.

For example, your candidate might be part of a large company that recently won a large contract from the government.  A quick email letting the candidate know that you noticed the accomplishment is a natural way to make a connection.  If the person had direct involvement in the deal, of course it would be appropriate to congratulate that involvement specifically - If not, the general congrats is still worth the effort.  Good news is good news, and people like to talk about it.

2.  Recognize an accomplishment of someone close to the candidate.  All of us have relationships and we care about what happens to the people in those relationships.  It’s quite natural to strike up a conversation with a person and talk about their spouse, their kids, their activities, etc.  During an initial conversation, take some mental notes on these relationships and activities, and then keep your ears open for things that naturally take place around you.

When you find some tidbit of information, let the person know that you noticed their accomplishment.  This can be a simple email that says something like, “Bill, I noticed that your son’s football team made it to the district tournament.  You must be really proud.  We’ll be pulling for the team—I hope they make it to state!”

3.  Recognize a mutual contact.  Psychologist Stanley Milgram is commonly credited for conceptualizing the six degrees of separation theory.  Milgram (and now many others since then) has shown us that we're surprisingly connected to those around us through a web of relationships.  When this web is discovered, people naturally find it interesting.
 
When you find out that there is a common contact between you and the candidate you’re trying to recruit, make a point to acknowledge it.  This too, can be a short email that says something like, “Bill I ran into Paul Graham last night at Costco.  He mentioned that he did some work with you a couple of years back and had some nice things to say.  Hopefully, you two will connect again soon.”

As you make these contributions, remember the objective—keep the balance of value in the relationship tipped towards your candidate by making multiple deposits.  If the person always gets something good from you (such as kind words and attention), or hears something positive (such as remembrance of an accomplishment or relationship), or just feels some encouragement, then good things are more likely to result on the recruiting front.

Managing Your Talent Pipeline

Here is a question we often receive from hiring managers:

“I’ve identified someone who I think would be a great addition to my team, made initial contact with that person, but realize that the timing is not quite right for them to leave their current job.  Now what?  How do I stay in contact with this person over time in a way that will eventually result in a hire?”

This is where a lot of people get stuck.  They make the initial contact with enthusiasm, but there is not enough substance in the relationship to initiate further contact without feeling awkward.

Over the next couple of days, I’m going to share some things that we’ve learned on this topic from some of the best recruiting companies in the country.  Hopefully, you’ll be able to take some of these ideas and apply them to your talent pipeline.

There are two basic rules that I recommend you follow when working with your candidates:

1.  Ask for permission.  Seth Godin made his debut into the consulting/marketing world by figuring  out that people like to be respected in the marketing process.  In fact, they respond much better when they are treated with respect.  In his bestselling book Permission Marketing, Godin makes the point that respect is shown by asking a person if it is OK if you market to them.  By the way, this is where the concept of the “opt-in” email originated.

Recruiting is marketing.  When you make initial contact with a candidate and you believe there is some potential for the future, ask a simple question:  “Would it be OK if I followed-up with you occasionally?”  It is a natural question to ask, and most people will say yes.  By dong this, you show respect and you set an expectation for future contact.

2.  Add value with each subsequent conversation.  John Sumser, a recruiting expert and author, often makes the point that any communication with a candidate must provide the candidate with something of value.  More specifically, the value of what you provide in the conversation must exceed the value of the candidate’s time and attention to take the call or answer an email.  If this does not happen during each conversation, the candidate will no longer want to talk with you.

Think of it like a scale that rests on a center fulcrum - If you’re extracting value from the candidate (you want their time and attention), the scale tips towards you.  You’re getting something, but not giving something in return.  Only dysfunctional people put up with this type of imbalance.  Good hiring managers make sure the scale is always tipped toward the candidate, and not just a little bit--a lot.

In the upcoming articles, we’ll offer some ideas to help you get the scale to tip in your candidates' favor...

The Benefits of Success

Over the past several days, Dave has been teaching about the benefits of failure.  This is an important topic because it is so counter-intuitive to how we naturally think.  I hope you had the opportunity to read and digest this important information.

Dave’s last point in Friday’s article struck a chord with me due to some personal events in my life over the weekend.  My family and I attended the memorial service of a dear friend, Roger Shaeffer.  Roger passed way at the age of 88, after a short bout with cancer.

What struck me about Roger’s life was not his failures, rather his successes.  He was one of the most successful people I’ve ever known—not in the terms that we normally ascribe to success, such as personal finances, assets, etc. (although he was successful in these areas as well), but in terms of the positive impact he had on other people.

There is no way I could possibly capture the significance of Roger’s life in a short article - one of his sons wrote a letter that took 15 minutes to read during the memorial service, and he admittedly just scratched the service!  But, I can share a few things that I learned about success from Roger.

1.  Success means making those around you better individuals.  During a time of sharing memories, about 25 people recalled a happy memory of Roger.  Most of these people started the story with, “Roger made me a better person by….” 

2.  Success means encouraging those around you.  Roger loved to sing.  I knew this from being around him, but I was surprised how many others also had this memory of Roger.  He would burst into song on almost any occasion.  How can you not be happy when someone around you is singing?  What I learned last night was that he did that more for the benefit of those around him, than for himself.

3.  Success means being generous and thankful.  I don’t believe there was a person at the memorial service (and there were hundreds there) who had not received something from Roger.  For my two-year-old daughter, it was a pinch on the cheek and a bright smile.  For my sons, it was the Seattle Mariners tickets every year.  For me, it was the World War II combat stories and the encouragement to be a faithful Dad.  Everyone else had their memories as well, but the common thread was that he always gave with a belief that he had been blessed with so much.

The lesson here is that we’re all going to face failures and setbacks—especially when it comes to careers, jobs, finances, personal goals, and maybe even relationships....it's part of life.  However, Roger has reminded me (and I'm reminding you) to take the time to invest in the people/relationships that ultimately result in a truly successful life—even when you are going through difficult times.  This type of investment doesn't take a lot of money--it's more about having a warm heart and a willing spirit. 

"Me...Me...Me... I Think I'm Really Close On This One!"

As we discuss some of the best practices of working a talent pipeline, I’d like to address one major pitfall that many recruiters fall into....the oh-so-tempting art of manipulation.

When you’re working with a candidate in your talent pipeline, there is a temptation to manipulate events and circumstances in an attempt to create a short-cut to the end result of the recruiting process.  Remember, in the recruiting process, timing is everything, and it is controlled by the candidate, not you!  If the process is forced, talented candidates will quickly sense the manipulation and shy away, irritated with your brash approach.

I’ll illustrate how this can play out with a short clip from one my favorite movies, Groundhog Day.  In this movie, Phil (played by Bill Murray) is an arrogant newscaster who is trying to win the affection of Rita, an attractive co-worker (played by Andie MacDowell).   

The conversations between Phil and Rita always circle back to how Phil is the perfect fit for everything Rita is looking for in a man.  Take a look at the following clip and you’ll see what I mean:

(If you’re an email subscriber to WorkPuzzle, please visit WorkPuzzle online to see the video clip)

Of course this exchange is exaggerated for comic effect, but it’s not far from how your candidates feel when you’re attempting to manipulate them.  When every frustration or obstacle can be magically solved by coming to work for you, the candidate has every right to roll his/her eyes and feel appalled by your self-centered approach. 

While it seems more efficient to push a candidate along the hiring path, you will earn the respect of your candidates if you refrain from manipulating them, and instead allow them to process their options at their own pace.  Of course, diligent follow up is still crucial, just avoid promising them the world or solutions to all their woes.   

Interestingly, the movie teaches an important lesson.  Phil is constantly rebuffed when he pursues Rita from a framework of manipulation and self-interest.  Eventually, he resigns himself to working on his own character and truly becoming the type of guy that Rita would be naturally attracted to.

I won’t spoil the movie by giving away the ending, but I will say that Phil found a lot more success in his venture to win Rita when he stopped attempting to manipulate her and started to look out for her best interests instead.  You too, will have better success with your candidates if you follow Phil's lead - that is, do less talking and more listening..

Following Up With Candidates in Your Talent Pipeline

One of the most common questions we get from our clients is:

“What do I say to the candidates who are in my talent pipeline?  I know I need to follow-up with them consistently, but how do I keep a person engaged and interested over a long period of time?”

This is a great question and one that we’re going to attempt to answer in this week's discussions.  We’ll start with a simple principle that Dale Carnegie once recognized:

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming really interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."

The natural way to approach a talent pipeline (our term for the pool of candidates you are most interested in recruiting) is from a perspective of “What can these people do for me?”  After all, you are recruiting them for the contribution they can make to your organization, not the other way around, right?

In the recruiting process, however, you’ll find more success by operating under the opposite perspective.  You must legitimately put yourself in a mindset where you’re asking, “How can I help this person accomplish both their personal and career goals?”  This is what makes a lasting impression in the minds of your candidates.

This may sound oversimplified, but the human spirit has a way of drifting back to self-interest unless we continually prod it to take an interest in others.

The first step in this process is to focus your conversations with candidates on what the candidate is trying to accomplish in their life.  We already know that people like to talk about themselves, so ask questions that allow a person to talk about their accomplishments, what they’re proud of doing, and how they do their best work. 

During these conversations, listen for frustrations and obstacles that keep the individual from being more successful.  Don’t act on this information at this point—just listen and catalog the information for later use.

Next, find ways to address or solve one or two of these frustrations.  These solutions will carry more impact if they come from outside your organization and have nothing to do with the recruiting process.  In fact, the most thoughtful and empathetic people are able to pick up on the smallest cues during a conversation and turn them into action. 

I’ll give you an example from my personal life: 

I was at dinner with a group of guys last week.  During the conversation, the topic of youth baseball came up.  One of the guys in the group had some apprehension about his son leaving the Little League environment (only for 12 years and younger), unaware of what options are available at the next level.  Because I have sons who have played at various levels and in various leagues, I was able to answer some questions and refer him to a couple of websites and individuals who may be able to help him make a good decision.   

While my example doesn't pose a huge dilemma of sorts, it does illustrate how you can listen for a small frustration/concern and then act upon this information to help alleviate the frustration. 

If you can integrate these types of interactions into the conversations you have with those in your talent pipeline, it won’t be long before those with whom you interact see you as a resource.  It becomes natural (and comforting) to them to imagine themselves working with people who are helpful and insightful, like you. 

Articulating Your Value

On Friday, Dave challenged each of you to figure out the compelling value that your company offers to a prospective employee.  If you’re not able to offer something that distinguishes you from your competitors, then being successful at a recruiting process will be difficult.

Over the last several years, we’ve had the occasion to work with a few companies that really struggle with this principle.  They want the benefit of bringing in many new recruits, but they don’t want to do the work of making their environment the most attractive option.  When companies are operating in such a manner, the “blind spot” that develops is atrocious.

For example, we occasionally hear of hiring managers poking fun at candidates who choose to work at other companies.  They’ll say something like:

“I can’t believe that Kristine went to work for XYZ company just because they offer a better marketing system to support their salespeople.  I told her that individual effort is what really makes the difference between those who are successful and those who aren't, but she wouldn’t listen.  What an idiot.”

There is an idiot in this story, but it’s not Kristine!  Kristine responded in a way that is common for people making important decisions.  Assuming other significant factors are somewhat equal, a candidate looks for smaller things to differentiate one option from another.

This is a critical juncture in the fight to win the decision of a candidate.  People respond to concise messages that articulate value.

For example, I met with the owner of a real estate office last week whose business model is focused on offering support to full-time agents who are well-established in their careers.  On the surface, this business model seems expensive, and the owner has to constantly fight off the marketing messages of other companies who seem to offer similar services at reduced fees.

He’s boiled his marketing message down to something very simple:

“If you’re a full-time agent who is able to consistently execute two or more transactions per month, there is no better place to work in [his State] than this office.”

Of course, he can back up his statement with tangible benefits and results.  But, the singular focus (agents who execute two or more transactions) and the sense of being elite (it’s not for everyone) articulate the value that he offers to prospective agents.

What is the differentiating value that you can offer your prospective candidates?  Once you figure this out, spend some time boiling the concept down to a single sentence that you can repeat to those around you on a regular basis.  By doing this, you’ll internalize this value and be able to naturally communicate it to your candidates.

Why Do People Make Career Moves? - Part 2

Let’s suppose you make contact with a candidate, Brian, who you feel would be a great fit in your organization.  More than likely, you will have spent time and resources locating and contacting this person.  
 
After making a connection with Brian over the phone, you convince him that it would be mutually beneficial for you to set up a short, informational interview with the Hiring Manager, Nancy.

You follow up after the interview and discover that the Hiring Manager loved the candidate.  A quick call to the candidate reveals a similar feeling:  

“This is a great opportunity and I appreciate you setting up the interview with Nancy.  We really hit it off, and I can see myself working on her team and thriving under her leadership.”

Like many high-quality candidates, Brian is already immersed in his current job and does not really need to pursue the opportunity immediately.  He has a good income, a family to support, and a network of friends and contacts who regularly share new opportunities with him.  The next part of the conversation often goes something like this:

“I have a lot to process from what Nancy shared with me.  I’m also in the middle of a significant project at work that is going to take a lot of focus over the next couple of weeks.  Can you give me a call in a few weeks, after I'm done with the project?”

Now, what happens if you call Brian in a couple of weeks and ask him if he wants to work at your company, and he says he’s not ready to make a decision?  Many recruiters communicate a message something like this:

“Brian, I appreciate the time you’ve taken to learn about the opportunity in Nancy’s group.  You have Nancy’s contact information.  If you decide that you want to move forward with the opportunity in the future, just give Nancy a call.”

Of course, you never hear from Brian again.  Nancy never hears from Brian again.  Both of you have moved on to the next candidate, starting back at the beginning of the process.  If you're like many recruiters, you rationalize this course of action by telling yourself that if Brian were really a good candidate, he'd chase you or Nancy down and show initiative on his own.

This thought process is not reality.  It is your bruised ego telling you to justify an emotional decision.  "You'll teach that candidate for blowing you off!"
 
The reality is you’ve wasted the sourcing time and resources it took to originally make contact with Brian.  You’ve also wasted the time that both you and Nancy spent teaching Brian about the benefits of working in your organization.  This type of waste makes the recruiting process inefficient and frustrating for you, the managers you recruit for, and your candidates.
 
How can this be remedied?  Here are some thoughts:

1. Stop insisting that your company’s timing takes precedence over the candidate’s timing.  The best candidates have lots of opportunities and make career moves according to their schedule.  You need them, they don’t necessarily need you - At least not today.

2. Stop playing a numbers game you can’t win.  On occasion, you will happen upon a high quality candidate whose life circumstances have caused him/her to make a job change in perfect sequence with your company’s need to fill a position.  But as you well know, this doesn’t happen very often.  The candidates who immediately jump at your opportunities are often misfits, losers, and desperados you don’t really want anyway.

3. Approach your candidates with humility and empathy rather than arrogance.  The high quality candidates that you want to attract to your organization have lives.  They are going to respond to thoughtful and empathetic dialog much better than to someone implying they’re an idiot for not jumping on the opportunity that is in front of them today.

If you want to recruit the Brians out there, don't give up so easily.  Follow the advice above and be diligent in your follow-up.  When these candidates are ready to make a change, you will be there to guide and entice them to consider joining your team.

Why Do People Make Career Moves?

The quick answer to this question?   ...Because they have to make a change.

About a month ago, I wrote an article highlighting Po Bronson’s book, What Should I Do With My Life?  Bronson later published a follow-up article in Fast Company Magazine highlighting the most common misconceptions regarding finding meaning in one’s work.

The misconception that I’d like to discuss today is:

“People are the architects of their own change.”

Bronson notices:

“Extremely few people quit because of career ennui.  Rather most are pushed into change:  they’re laid off or can’t make ends meet or have at-home family demands or find their new, postmerger boss to be an absolute jerk.  They are not naive idealists.”

If you are a Hiring Manager or are responsible for recruiting in your company, this should be a principle you should consider nearly every day.  From a recruiter’s perspective, timing is everything.  Being in the right place (in the back of the candidate’s mind) at the right time (when the candidate is being forced to make a change), has a lot to do with your success.

This is one of the most important differentiators in separating successful recruiters from those who struggle.  It only makes sense that if these right place / right time interactions are left to chance, they are not going to happen very often.
 
Successful recruiters do the hard (and often boring) work of maintaining a presence in the back of the most desirable candidates’ minds.  This work takes creativity, persistence, and an understanding of human nature.  Tomorrow, I’ll discuss the principles that help recruiters find success in this endeavor.

Coffee Research and Recruiting

Yesterday, I shared how I recently became a guilt-free coffee drinker due to the research that recently surfaced regarding the health benefits of my addictive obsession.

As I read more of the article yesterday, something caught eye - The article explains why coffee got a bad rap in the first place:

“Many people take their coffee with a small dose of guilt, worried that it isn’t good for the body.  That’s a holdover from studies done in the 1950s and 1960s showing that coffee drinkers were prone to pancreatic cancer, heart disease, and other woes.  These studies failed to account for cigarette smoking, which once went hand in cup with coffee drinking.  Since then, the medical community has done a gradual about-face on the health effects of coffee.”

I think there is a principle here worth considering when it comes to recruiting. 

Part of the service offering we provide our clients is the design and implementation of recruiting systems.  From an end-to-end system perspective, recruiting can look very different than it does if you just examine each component on its own.

For example, we often hear comments such as:

“We’ve tried job boards, and they don’t work for our company.”

or...

“I took an assessment in the past that indicated I would be a poor salesperson, but I’m a great salesperson!”

or...

“I’ve called and left voice mails for the candidates on my sourcing list, and they don’t call back.  We must be calling the wrong candidates because these people aren’t interested.”

Just as the coffee researchers discovered, the overall system matters most when it comes to results.  Just because your Uncle Joe drank a lot of coffee and died of a heart attack, doesn’t mean the coffee killed him...It was more likely his overall lifestyle that led to his demise, from which coffee drinking was a mere part.  Likewise, it is not likely the pieces of the recruiting process that cause recruiting failures, it is the system itself that is faulty.
 
As humans, it is much easier for us to focus our attention on part of an overall process, rather than to look at things holistically.  Why?  Because whatever is causing the pain is what gets our attention.  If you’re responsible for recruiting, that’s a mistake. 

You’ll get much better results by identifying as many parts in the recruiting process as possible and then testing to see how changing each component affects the end result.  This takes time, attention, and focus...but it works!

The Seattle Lifestyle is Finally Vindicated

I thought we’d cover a fun topic today.  As many of you know, our company is headquartered in Seattle.  Near the top of the list of things to hassle residents of Seattle about (right behind how much it rains here) is how much coffee we drink. 

It’s true -- We drink a lot of coffee.  Howard Schultz was no dummy when he founded Starbucks in this dark, dreary town where almost everyone needs a pick-me-up to face the day.

Some would say that I am particularly excessive.  A couple a years ago, we set a revenue goal as a company, and as a reward for meeting our goal, we bought the office a Gaggia automatic espresso maker.  This is a wonderful machine.  With just the push of a button, it grinds fresh coffee beans and makes two shots of steaming espresso.  

I’ve been known to drink a few of these every day that I am in the office.  In fact, after five of these double-shots within one day, I usually stop counting.  The ladies in our office claim that I’m addicted to this high-octane stuff, but I don’t think so.  I’ve always thought that it was healthy for me, and now I’ve got someone to back up my hypothesis...

Harvard Business Review ran an article this month that vindicates my position.  It turns out coffee is good for you:

“Large, long-term studies show that coffee doesn’t promote cancer and may even protect against some types.  It’s safe for the heart—so safe that the American Heart Association says it’s OK for heart attack survivors to have a cup or two a day even as they recover in the coronary care unit.
 
Results from the long-running Health Professionals Follow-Up and Nurses’ Health studies show that drinking coffee cuts the risk of dying early from heart attack or stroke.  Coffee also appears to offer some small protection against Type 2 diabetes, gallstones, and Parkinson’s disease.”

So, keep the espresso coming!  Here’s the bad news.  If you put anything in your coffee (cream, sugar, flavoring, etc.) you start to negate the health benefits. 

If you drink one of those 16-ounce Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccinos with chocolate whipped cream every day, you’re probably going to gain a bunch of weight, be depressed from an overdose of sugar (one of these drinks contains 58 grams of sugar—that’s 14 teaspoons!), and eventually die from heart disease. 

Luckily, I drink mine black....