WorkPuzzle

Four Trends Affecting the Future of Recruiting

I’m sure you’ve read articles that claim to have figured out the future or have insights about some developing trend.  However, when you refer back to the article a few months later, you quickly see that the author wasn’t quite as good at prognosticating as he thought.  It’s rare to find something that still rings true a year after it is written.  Well, I think perhaps I have...

About nine months ago, I read an article that I have referred back to several times.  Lou Adler is a recruitment industry consultant who has studied recruiting trends for many years.  His consulting company, The Adler Group, provides executive staffing and recruitment consulting.  The article he wrote last year is called Four Trends Affecting the Future of Recruiting.

Mr. Adler identifies the four trends as:

(1)  The Merging of Candidate Sourcing and Consumer Marketing
(2)  Increasing Reliance on Metrics, Forecasting, and Workforce Planning
(3)  Recruiters Becoming Partners with Their Clients and Consultants to Their Candidates
(4)  Referrals Will Become the Primary Sourcing Channel for All Positions

I believe that these trends resonate with me because these are some of the issues our company’s most progressive clients ask us to address on a regular basis.  I’ll cover two trends today and then two more tomorrow.

(1)  The Merging of Candidate Sourcing and Consumer Marketing:

When performed efficiently, candidate sourcing involves getting your message in front of as many of the right people as possible, at the lowest possible price.  The traditional job board model is at odds with this principle.  When candidate sourcing is viewed as marketing, a new paradigm emerges:

“The buzz in consumer advertising is narrowcasting.  This basically means segmenting your customer base into narrow subsets (i.e., professional single women between 25 and 30 who live in the city) and pushing your advertising message to them using a variety of techniques.

Some of these include search engine optimization, organic search, behavioral marketing, the use of talent hubs and microsites, and pay-per-click.  The key here is to make sure your advertising can be easily found by the right audience.”

(2)  Increasing Reliance on Metrics, Forecasting, and Workforce Planning:

In an era of strained resources, companies want to make sure their recruiting budgets are producing results.  This means measuring all data and documenting outcomes to assess the effectiveness of recruitment efforts.

In our company (Tidemark), we provide our clients with real-time sourcing results.  Hiring Managers can tell how many people are viewing their ads, navigating their on-line HiringCenters, and ultimately, how many are completing employment inquiries.

Effective forecasting involves treating the recruiting process as a work flow.  A work flow is a defined process that, if followed, will produce a predictable result.  A work flow allows recruiting execution to be measured and then bench-marked over time.  It has become commonplace to compare recruiting results across organizations in similar fields to gain a perspective on how efficiently an organization is operating.
 
Application: 

If you’re a recruiter and you’re not using some of the techniques listed above, this is a great time to make a contribution to your organization in this way.  Most companies strive to operate more efficiently and would welcome this type of optimization.

If you’re a person looking for a job or coaching someone looking for a job, then it is important to understand the methodologies companies are now using to source candidates.  With this knowledge, you’ll be better able to identify opportunities and gain access to Hiring Managers. 

Furthermore, the focus on measurement doesn’t end with sourcing.  During the interview process, companies are increasingly looking for measurable results.  Does your resume demonstrate measurable results?  Do the prepared interview questions/answers you draw from during an interview illustrate a measurable track record of results?  These are important issues.  In this competitive market, it is becoming increasingly necessary to capitalize on the opportunities that come your way.

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Surviving on Cupcakes

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been discussing the research surrounding survival and resilience.  Among other things, the research suggests that about 35% of unemployed persons will come out of their ordeal stronger and more physically healthy as a result of their hardship.

If you’re going through a difficult time, it may be difficult to imagine yourself as one of these individuals.  Research is great, but wasn’t all that data collected in the past?  Maybe the economic circumstances have changed to the point where very few are going to survive under today’s economic circumstances.  Certainly these are the doubts that go through my head.

With this in mind, I came across an article this week that I think is worth sharing.  The article is from a new publication that Business Week began recently, called Small Biz, and it details the survival of a resilient few. 

From Wall Street to Main Street, highlights five individuals who have been laid-off from major Wall Street firms.  All five of these people saw their lay-off status as an opportunity to start something new...and they did.

My favorite story of the five is about Jessi Walter who was the Vice President of Credit Strategy at the now defunct Bear Stearns.  Ms. Walter is now the proud owner of New York's Cupcake Kids!, which facilitates hands-on cooking events for birthday parties, schools, and corporate functions.  The company also offers teacher training. Ms. Walter employs five part-time cooking teachers.

“I learned what was happening to Bear Stearns [they were in deep financial trouble] last March by watching TV.  Friday your life was one way; Monday it was nothing like that.  So I took a step back to consider what to do next.  I love food, I love kids, I love business.  I cooked for my boyfriend’s nieces.  They asked me to host cooking birthday parties, which generated a lot of word-of-mouth interest.  After losing my job in June, I decided to go for it.

Birthday parties are our largest revenue source.  Whole wheat pizza is popular and everything is from scratch.  Kids learn learn how the main ingredient is grown and why dough rises.  It’s a whole new adventure.”

Will Jessi survive?  I think so.  The business she recently opened may fail, but she seems to have the knack for picking herself up and looking for new opportunities.  If she does this enough, she will eventually win.  There is also a good chance she’ll “win bigger” than if she stayed in a corporate job.

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eHarmony for Jobs

Earlier this week, I received an email from a job board announcing they had found a “job match” for me.  The email profoundly announced that I would be a great fit for a Pharmacy Technician position that recently opened in my local area.

That’s odd.  I have no background in pharmacy, I’ve never had an interest in pharmacy, and I really don’t like drug companies.  On the spectrum of medical healing options, I lean much more toward natural healing options than supporting traditional drug therapies.

If this were an isolated case, I would brush it off as some kind of anomaly.  But, unfortunately, this is becoming quite common.  I’ve never received a job match from any service that comes anywhere close to my interests and talents.  These companies regularly send me job-match emails that miss the mark completely. 

I’ve often wondered why no one has been able to come up with a viable “eHarmony for jobs”.  There has to be some folksy shrink like Dr. Neil Clark Warren out there who could make a go of this business model.  Right?

An article I ran across by John Sumser this week makes me think this may never (successfully) happen on a large scale basis.  Mr. Sumser wrote the following critique about the marketing propaganda of a new job-matching start-up called eHire that claims to be the “eHarmony for Jobs”:

“Thank goodness, what we’ve been missing is one more eHarmony for Jobs.  Here’s the list so far (If you have any additions, I’d love to see them.)  Climber, Google, Itzbig, Jiibe, JobFox, Jobster, JobStick, MBAInteract, Optimatch, RealMatch, Trovix, Zumeo..

What’s surprising is that someone would launch a service [eHire] with this sort of branding this late in the game.  Although Harry Joiner said it best, there has been an endless supply of articles detailing the problems with matching.  To summarize Joiner, there are five reasons that eHarmony won’t work for jobs:

1. Companies often don’t know what they want the new employee to do
2. Many jobs have no defined skill set
3. All candidates are liars
4. People are terrified to specialize
5. Resumes and online 'profiles' aren’t people"

What can we learn from this?  If you’re a recruiter or a hiring manager, there is no substitute for getting to know your candidates as human beings.  While an assessment or a skills-match can give you some hints as to how a person may fit in a particular role on your team, it cannot replace the need for personal involvement.  After all, even eHarmony is designed to get you a first date with someone who is in the ballpark of being compatible with you - The rest is up to you!

If you’re looking for a job or if you are coaching someone who is looking for a job, don’t put too much faith in the role of technology for your job search.  Personal connections produce results.  Work hard at making personal connections and becoming relevant, helpful, and engaged with the network of people you already know.

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Posting Comments:  Have you ever posted a comment on a blog?  If not, you should try it.  It’s a fun way to get involved in the discussion and find out what others are thinking.  If you’re a shy person or want to maintain a higher level of privacy, just use your first name or a screen name.  Your email address will not be visible under any circumstances.  We’ll all benefit from hearing your thoughts.  To post a comment, click the comments tab below this posting.

What's a Hiring Manager to Do? - Part 2

I’d like to introduce you to someone today.  Peter Weddle is a recruiting expert who has published many books, runs a bi-weekly recruiting email, and has recently started a blog site called WorkStrong. He is a very smart guy, but I think you’ll enjoy his sincerity the most.

Many of you are not hard-core recruiters, so Peter’s insight would not be something that would interest you on an on-going basis.  However, today I’m going to share something from his most recent newsletter that relates to our current topic.

Many recruiting organizations are sitting around twiddling their thumbs, unsure of which direction to go right now.  They previously spent their work days acquiring candidates and placing them into positions.  (In smaller companies, the Hiring Manager may be responsible for this.)

When recruitment activity slows, or even comes to a stop, what pro-active steps can Hiring Managers take to make the most of their down time?

Mr. Weddle suggests that we use this time to work on solidifying and building upon the network of candidates we already have.

“Implement a communications campaign that is designed to leverage every applicant’s initial interest in your organization.  They made the effort to apply for one or more of your openings, so tell them that you intend to make the effort to get to know them better.”

The question then becomes:  How do you manage such a dialog?  Peter gives this advice:

“To be successful…this campaign must be positioned as a two-way street, a dialogue rather than a soliloquy.  It shouldn’t be only you talking to them about how great your employer is or only them sending you an unending stream of updates on their employment qualifications.

The best approach is to create an interaction that provides value to both parties.  You want to pre-sell them on your employer as a great place to work and acquire additional data about them to help you achieve your goal of putting the right talent in the right opening…

These communications should be regular – no less than once a month – but not intrusive – no more than twice a month.  They are not corporate memos or marketing collateral, so they should be written in a friendly, conversational style and be free of promotional hype and hoopla.

Over time, this two-way exchange will enhance familiarity and trust between your recruiting team and the applicants whose resumes are stored in your database.  Those two factors are the pillars of genuine recruiting relationships.  They enable you to transform your resume database from a static stack of useless documents into a reservoir of talent that is pre-screened, pre-sold and prepared to be considered for your employment opportunities.  That’s an asset any organization would be pleased to have and, therefore, equally as loath to lose those who created it.”

There is a lot of wisdom in Peter’s advice. The bottom line… We still have a lot of work to do!  But, it’s probably not the same work you’re used to doing.  To be relevant, it is important to adjust your actions to the current conditions.  For sure, inactivity is not a path to relevance.

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Posting Comments:  Have you ever posted a comment on a blog?  If not, you should try it.  It’s a fun way to get involved in the discussion and find out what others are thinking.  If you’re a shy person or want to maintain a higher level of privacy, just use your first name or a screen name.  Your email address will not be visible under any circumstances.  We’ll all benefit from hearing your thoughts.  To post a comment, click the comments tab below this posting.

What's a Hiring Manager to Do?

As you may know, our company sells (among other things) web-based software to help recruiters and hiring managers work more effectively.

I was sitting in a conference room with some of our employees last week, when one person made the following observation:

“I feel like we are selling fly rods to trout anglers, but every time our customers step into the stream, the trout pool around their legs.  Maybe we should be selling nets, not fly rods!”

While there are some industries that are healthy and still hiring, there are many others that have pulled back significantly, or have stopped hiring all together.

If you’re a hiring manager or recruiter (i.e. someone responsible for building a team), there is a temptation to take your eyes off the horizon and just concentrate on what’s in front of you.  That’s a mistake.  Now is your opportunity to get ahead of the game.

We speak with hundreds of candidates every week and have noticed that when people are looking for a job or are concerned about the stability of their employment, they are very open to new information, advice, networking opportunities, etc.

This “openness” is something that can be leveraged for your group’s future success.  While you may not be hiring today, you can be building a network of people who could potentially be part of your team in the future.

Can you identify 20 to 30 people who fit this description right now?  If not, this is a lucrative task to put your energy toward during a slow hiring period.

The best way to build this network is through traditional “networking” and through the many social networking / Web 2.0 opportunities available.  If this does not yield adequate results, now is a great time to run a few job ads because the return on investment (R.O.I.) is so high right now.

For example, our Hot Jobs Account Manager just contacted me this week with “recession specials” in an effort to increase their client base.  In addition, the number of candidates who are responding to traditional job ads is quite high right now.

You would be wise to take advantage of these favorable economic conditions and use this time to build your candidate pool.  (By the way, be honest in your ads by letting candidates know you may not be hiring for more than 6 months -- By doing so, you will gain credibility, attract higher quality candidates, and avoid building false expectations among those responding.)

Tomorrow, we’ll talk a little more about what to say to candidates once they’re a part of your network.

Before I sign off for today, let me throw a few questions out to the group:  What are you doing to bring people into your network?  What techniques have you found to be effective in developing new business relationships?

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Posting Comments:  Have you ever posted a comment on a blog?  If not, you should try it.  It's a fun way to get involved in the discussion and find out what others are thinking.  If you're a shy person or want to maintain a higher level of privacy, just use your first name or a screen name.  Your email address will not be visible under any circumstances.  We'll all benefit from hearing your thoughts.  To post a comment, click the comments tab below this posting.

The Psychology of Being Laid-Off: Effort and Reward

As many of you know, we work with a lot of real estate companies.  More specifically, we help these companies design their hiring systems to significantly increase the number of candidates they are interfacing with on a weekly basis.

Companies hire us to do this work because, on the surface, it is difficult to successfully attract candidates into an industry that has been so battered and bruised in recent years.  To be successful, we must understand and apply the psychology of work. 

While there is some complexity to how this is done, one principle we observe continually is that people innately want a connection between the effort they put forth and the reward (compensation, recognition, perks, etc.) they receive for completing the job.

When the effort-reward connection is missing, talented people become frustrated and ultimately, dissatisfied with the companies they work for.  We constantly interface with people who have good jobs, excellent educations, and above average competencies, but are deeply frustrated that they are not rewarded for their efforts.

The real estate industry certainly attracts the people who most acutely feel this pain.  However, it should be a red flag to anyone who desires to preserve their job and grow their career.  Why?  Because businesses tend to value people they believe contribute directly to the organization’s success.  That value is communicated through a visible effort-reward relationship.

If you find yourself in a role where you don’t frequently get recognized (via compensation or otherwise), it is an indication that your contribution is not viewed as valuable.  This may lead to you being laid-off if your company needs to cut expenses.

To combat this situation, look for opportunities in your existing organization where your efforts can be noticed and rewarded.  Don’t wait for something to come your way—be proactive and seek out new responsibilities.  Like the principle of autonomy, this is a win-win for you and your employer.  Your personal sense of well-being will increase if you’re appropriately rewarded for your efforts.

If you’ve already been laid-off and you’re looking for a job, consider positions where there is a direct connection between effort and reward.  This may force you to look into some nontraditional areas of employment. 

If you’re willing to consider these nontraditional areas, there is a win-win here as well.  Lots of people shy away from jobs where their performance determines their paycheck.  This means there is less competition for these jobs.  If you’re motivated and “wired” to perform the tasks associated with the job, high performance in such a role can lead to job satisfaction beyond what you’ve experienced in the past.

The Psychologyof Being Laid-Off: Complexity

During any recession, there are a large number of people who “need” a job.  As Abraham Maslow taught us, when there’s a mortgage to pay and kids to feed, the goal of finding self-actualization at work gives way to the need for security.

An employer who is hiring during a time when there is a surplus of talented candidates may be tempted to select people who are exceptionally qualified for a position.  While this certainly makes sense on one level, it is important to understand the need individuals have for complexity in their work.

In past discussions, we’ve explored the principles that allow people to “tap into their best work”.  More specifically, we’ve addressed the concept of psychological flow and how it contributes to an individual’s sense of well-being.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist who studied and popularized the concept of flow, discovered that a balance must be struck between the challenge of a task and the skill of the performer.  If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur: 

“A flow experience has to be challenging. Anything that is not up to par is going to be irritating or ignored.” (Interview with Wired Magazine)

It is difficult for a person who is above the "challenge level" of a job to remain engaged in their work over time.  The talented employee, who you thought was perfect for the job, may turn into someone who languishes. 

If you are a hiring manager planning to employ someone who is over-qualified, it would be wise to expand the scope of the new employee’s responsibilities to the place where he or she is experiencing a higher level of complexity.

This same principle applies if you have recently been laid-off and are among the masses of people seeking employment.  At some point, you may be offered a job that is not very challenging. There is a downside to accepting such a role—it won’t be long before you’re bored.

Certainly, there are situations where an individual can’t make the ideal choice.  If you need a job, paying the bills will take priority over landing a job that has the appropriate level of complexity and fulfillment. 

If you’re forced to take a job below your ability level, then quickly and proactively seek out ways to expand the job to your level of complexity.  While this will be good for you own well-being, it will also make you more valuable to your new organization.

The Psychology of Being Laid-Off: Finding Autonomy

As we discussed yesterday, being laid-off strikes at a person’s sense of autonomy.  In order to find meaning in work, a person must experience some level of autonomy.

Researchers have known this for awhile.  For example, Harvard professor Boris Groysberg and Linda-Eling Lee have noted:

“From classic studies on worker motivation to seminal research on work re-design, the concept of autonomy plays an important role in understanding worker attitude and well-being.  Studies highlight the idea that lack of autonomy, or control over the process and product of one’s work, leads to worker dissatisfaction…  Greater autonomy allows individuals greater input into their work process and product, engendering greater work satisfaction and commitment.”

To many people, being laid off reveals that their sense of autonomy was based on something they could not control.  Of course, this can be devastating to a person’s sense of well-being, especially if the consequences of being without work begin to mount.

As Dave outlined in previous discussions, many people melt under these circumstances and sink into varying levels of despair.  Others see the same circumstances as a pathway to better things.

Finding that pathway means exercising a sense of control.  Resilient people figure out what they can control and focus on these things.  They ignore the things they can’t control.

This doesn’t mean ignoring the lessons learned from the past, rather using negative experiences to see the possibilities for the future.  Finding autonomy in our work is a lesson that can benefit each of us.

How can this principle be applied to your circumstances?  If you’re in a situation where you’re looking for work, try to find positions where you’ll have greater control over your personal destiny.  This may require that you push into some areas that feel uncomfortable at the moment.

If you have a job, be thankful.  But, don’t be lulled into complacency.  Use the time and your current work situation to increase your own level of autonomy.  This is a win-win situation: it will improve the level of satisfaction you experience at work, and at the same time help transform you into a more resilient person. 

The Psychology of Being Laid-Off

It’s been tough to watch the news in the last few weeks.  In fact, it’s downright depressing.  Company after company, many of them brands that we all know and trust, continue to announce layoffs.   

If you really want a dose of despair, you can track the nation’s lay-offs as they happen by checking Layoff Daily.  The owners of this site now have to provide updates four to eight times a day to keep up with the news! 

If you’re a recruiter or you’re coaching someone, in the near future you’ll probably come in contact with candidates, clients, and potential clients who have been laid-off.  Have you ever wondered what goes through the mind of someone in this situation?  It might be worth some additional thought.

Over the next few days we’ll be discussing this topic.  I’ll start by sharing some recent insight I gained from Malcolm Gladwell’s newest book called Outliers.  In this book, Mr. Gladwell tells the story of how Jewish immigrants to New York City in the late 1800s had a profound effect on how a small group of people were able to become wildly successful attorneys in the 1970s.  If you’ve read any of Gladwell’s previous books, you know he’s a master at making these odd connections.

During the development of this story, he makes an interesting observation.  Jewish immigrants who came to New York City were extremely hard workers.  They commonly worked in the garment industry and would put in 100 hour work weeks. 

“When [the main character in the story] came home at night to his children, he may have been tired and poor and overwhelmed, but he was alive.  He was his own boss.  He was responsible for his own decisions and direction.  His work was complex: it engaged his mind and imagination.  And in his work, there was a relationship between effort and reward…  Those three things—autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward—are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have to be satisfying.  Work that fulfills these three criteria is meaningful. ”

With these criteria in mind, what happens to a person who has recently been laid-off?  Many perceive that two of the three legs to their “stool of meaning at work” have been knocked out from under them. 

With a good job, a person has the perception of autonomy.  But when a lay-off occurs, that perception is shattered.  Self-sufficiency was really “company-sufficiency”, and is no longer available to that person.

In addition, many lay-offs are not performed along the lines of performance alone.  A person may be a very high performer and still get laid-off.  In the short term, this disrupts the desired connection between effort and reward.  To a person going though this experience, it doesn’t seem fair.

If you’re coaching someone, it is important to address these two issues.  Helping a person conceptualize how his previous job eventually lost its meaning is an important first step in establishing a new direction.

If you’re a hiring manager interviewing a person who has recently been laid-off, it might be worth probing on these two issues:  (1) Can the candidate find autonomy in your organization? and (2) Is there a connection between effort and reward in the position you need filled?  While these may not be pertinent issues during the interview (there are a lot of people who are desperate for jobs), they’ll become retention issues at a later time when conditions improve.

Vision and Becoming a Student of the Human Condition

We interface with clients every day who are trying to make sense of the recession, the job market, and all the other negatives in our world today.  As leaders, they are regarded by those in their organizations as visionaries who are supposed to help them make sense of the future.  The perception is that employees want their leaders to be the “emissaries of the future delivering the news of how their markets and organizations will be transformed.”    

That’s difficult work in today’s climate.  But, it also may also be the wrong work to be doing if we want to be effective.  In research conducted by James Kouzes and Barry Posner, there was a slightly different, but important focus that was uncovered:

“Constituents want visions of the future that reflect their own aspirations.  They want to hear how their dreams will come true and their hopes will be fulfilled.  The data tells us what leaders struggle with most is communicating an image of the future that draws others in—that speaks to what others see and feel.”

It isn’t that people don’t have a desire to know what’s going to happen.  It just gets a lot more interesting when a leader can describe what is going to happen and then make the connection to how it personally affects each member of the team.

If you’re coaching someone, this has an important implication.  Those who you are coaching need to understand how to be visionaries.  But, they also need to understand how to communicate the vision so that they engage those they manage, work with, and even sell to.

If you’re in a recruiting role, it’s your job to outline the vision of your organization and paint a picture of the possibilities that exist if the candidate leaves their existing organization.  Wouldn’t it be more attractive to the candidate if you could weave those possibilities into the things that he or she is trying to accomplish in their own life?

There becomes two important parts to the equation:  (1) The development of a vision that appropriately addresses the future of the organization, and (2) An understanding of how that vision can personally engage each member (or potential member) of the team.  

 “As counterintuitive as it might seem, then, the best way to lead people into the future is to connect with them deeply in the present.  The only visions that take hold are shared visions-and you will create them only when you listen very, very, closely to others, appreciate their hopes, and attend to their needs.  The best leaders are able to bring their people into the future because they engage in the oldest form of research:  They observe the human condition.”

We think observing the human condition is worth the time and effort.  I hope you do too.  

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The information and the direct quotes in this discussion were adapted from a Harvard Business Review article (January, 2009) called To Lead, Create a Shared Vision.  The article was written by James Kouzes and Barry Posner.  These authors recently wrote a book called The Leadership Challenge.