Recruiting In 3D
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Just Do The Application. Please?

There are fewer things in this world that irritate me more than when someone can’t follow simple directions. For example, fill out the application (at the time after we’ve scheduled an interview of course – I wouldn’t want to enrage any of the candidate experience gods by asking for legal paperwork too early on when I should be offering a Frappa Mocha Someshit so that I can make them feel right at home.  (I kid, candidate experience is important. Just bear with me here.) Read More

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 Posted on February 26, 2014 by

 candidate relations, legal, Recruiting, Recruiting Life, References

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Is Recruiting A Result Of Darwinism Or Creationism?

I bet they blame this on Steve Jobs too.

In full disclosure, I’m a huge geek. In 99 out of 100 opportunities on any given night, I’ll watch anything that is on the NatGeo or History Channels before I watch any of that mindless drivel of reality TV. (the Real World still gets a lifetime free pass). And so I had the opportunity to get all freaky with my inner geek and watch the Bill Nye v. Ken Ham debate on the validity of both creationism and evolution. Which got me thinking…..could you have a similar argument for recruiting?

Al recruiters are most likely a product of evolution at heart. unless of course there is someone out there with the BS Bachelors Degree in Corporate Recruitment, who wants to step forward. (crickets………) Ok, great so knowing that, let’s continue. 

Baby I Was Born This Way

Uh, no you weren’t. You were in a really good job that required either A. Good sales and client development skills B. Good research and/or organizational skills, or C. a love for making money.  Nobody grows up wanting to be a recruiter. We happen to luck into to it, and for some of us (lucky ones) it becomes the found career path. We evolve from our former career self into a Recruitimus Onthphoneicus. For others, it becomes another gig they had once upon a career. And they will evolve into their next career move, maybe finding their path. Maybe not. Which brings me to my next point.

Survival Of The Fittest

Ok, so now you are a recruiter, and this is what you are going to do for a career (or to satisfy that bar tab that is inching closer to your 401k balance). You have two choices, adapt and evolve with your field and the new resources available to you, or to just continue doing what you’ve always done. Guess who eats and lives and thrives, and who eventually winds up as someone else’s doormat. Being afraid of changing technology and sticking to “what’s always worked” in the recruiting field is akin to feeding on prey that always come to you, and then wondering why you are starving when it goes extinct – because you haven’t learned to hunt and adapt to new methods of food gathering.  I’m not advocating adopting every garbage tool that someone is peddling. But you need to continually evolve beyond your comfort zone.

Beware Of Artificial Selection

It’s natural for companies to want to replicate the top performers. Those with the highest spreads at an agency, the lowest time to fill in-house roles, those who can close deals and build deep candidate relationships. But there’s danger in that. If you have an office full of recruiting robots, all programmed to function a certain way, guess what you lose? Creativity. So weeding out anyone that doesn’t fit the ONE mold, is a slippery slope.

It’s fine to have your structure and parameters in a recruiting organization. But keep in mind, good recruiters often tend to be tinkerers. Adjusting this or that, experimenting with a new method, keeping abreast on super cool industry websites is how they continually hone their craft. And thrive. And survive.

Maybe you just shouldn’t mess with the order of things. But, what do I know, I’m just a monkey who learned to talk and recruit people.

 

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 Posted on February 17, 2014 by

 Bizarre But True, Recruiting, Recruiting Life, Uncategorized

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How Can Recruiting Manage Change And Be A Partner

Ed note: This post first appeared on exaqueo.  To read the post there, click here

Many people will insist that the most important part of having a corporate recruiting team is to have a clearly defined structure, utilize metrics to drive business decisions, and to gather as much buy-in as possible throughout the organization to move initiatives forward. Most of that is absolutely correct. But what about when all of your best laid plans start to…..change?

While having the clearly defined structure is important, it’s key to remember to be flexible and open to integrating change on an ad hoc basis. It’s critical to ensure that your teams are flexible with your recruiting programs, SOPs and approach to projects. There will be almost certainly be situations where you may need to change based on unexpected situations or business needs. 

For example, within your recruiting team there may be a certain process or chain for approving requisitions or offers. But department heads or other executives may determine that a different course of action may be required based on headcount needs. The process-driven recruiter in you wants to continue to instill process and order, but that just may not be feasible at the current moment.

Having a level of flexibility in situations like these actually helps you more than you might think. Executive teams recognize when they have team players who can be highly adaptable, and perceive them as strong business partners. Being viewed in such a way can be critical when you are trying to “sell” your department’s initiatives. What I’ve learned over the years – sometimes the hard way – is that you just need to “play ball” sometimes and see how things turn out.

There are a few things to keep in mind the next time you encounter a situation where your recruitment team is having some change thrust upon it.

1. Keeping good metrics can help to draw tangible conclusions as to whether an experiment or pilot actually worked. It can also help to identify where the most/least successful areas are for making changes. As one of my former bosses told me “facts are our friends”. Feelings are not. People tend to ‘feel’ a lot of things in the hiring process : “it feels like this req has been open for 4 months” (and its been 17 days). This is the opportunity to influence change through facts.

2. Ask questions. Be sure to ask probing and clarifying questions when changes to your program are being suggested. This allows you to accomplish two things. First, it allows you to understand what the motives are behind the change, which could lead to additional solutions or parts of the solution. Secondly, it shows the other party that you are genuinely interested in how you can assist.

3. Remember that exhibiting flexibility puts you in a good light with your peers and executives. Executives tend to gravitate to those that they feel can be open-minded and those that they perceive are able to see the ‘big picture’.

4. Manage the change down. When working with your recruiting teams – if you want real buy-in – be sure to give them both the political side of the change and the action that needs to be taken in order to be successful. Challenge them to stretch themselves beyond their comfort zone and you may be surprised how many people embrace the change. Be approachable and willing resource who can answer questions throughout the change process.

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 Posted on January 22, 2014 by

 Recruiting, The Hiring Process, Uncategorized

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A Recruiters Manifesto to Engineers

This post first appeared on recruitDC.org

Recruiters are frustrated. Especially those doing technical recruiting in hotbeds like San Francisco, New York and D.C. They can find the talent that they want out there, but they can’t get them to respond. And frankly, I get it. Engineers must feel like slabs of meat in a recruiter-filled nightclub, when it’s well after 2 AM. 

But that’s not you. You’re not that meathead who is just mass-spamming engineers about their “NEXT GREAT OPPORTUNITY! But to them, you might be. It’s hard to stand out and prove your not like all the rest. And I’ve always thought about just being brutally honest with engineers and seeing if we could go back to the good ol’ days when I had a career proposition for someone, and they were happy to hear from me. I suspect if that was ever sent, it might look something like this:

Dear <insert code for pre-populated NAME field here>,

I feel like I need to explain myself, so you can understand me a bit more. I think we’ve gotten away from the core of our   relationship, which is ultimately quite symbiotic, and I want us to fix that. And I think we can get through it without therapy. Just hear me out……

Why I Reach Out

I have to. This is my job.  I know that you’d rather just find me when you’re ready, but unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. I’m supposed to go out and find the best and most talented engineering minds so that they can join our team and help make us all more successful.  Chances are, if you are getting a message from me, it’s because I’ve researched you and have decided either you are exactly what I’m looking for, or you might be willing to network with me to point me in the right direction. 

I Don’t Code, But I Respect It

I could NEVER do what you do. It’s just not how my brain is wired. And frankly, I’m in awe of what you are able to create with your mind and some code. This is why I always make sure to take care of an engineering team when they helped me out.  I might have the right ideas, but they help bring the idea to life.

But I’m not going to have all the answers to your deep technical questions. I’ll tell you when I haven’t got a clue or I’m in way over my head. But my primary goal here is multi-faceted:

  • I want to assess if you share the mindset of our team.
  • I want to make sure you fit our culture. 
  • I’m assessing your commitment to best practices. 
  • I want to find out what YOU want in your next role. After all, I’ve got the job, but it’s your career. 

Help Me Help You

If there is a best way to communicate with you, let me know. If you are a Twitter-centric person, let’s do that. I’m flexible and can communicate with you on your terms. HipChat? G-Chat? I can work with all of that too. There are days I hate the phone too, trust me. And I want to work with you in the way that you work.

Stop Being Paranoid

Yes, I found your email. How?! Where?! Yeah, I know, you think I’m an intrusive stalker. But really, like you, I’m just doing the best I can at my job, and utilizing the tools available to me. So, yeah sometimes I need to get creative about where to search for contact information. Then again, with all the information the NSA could dig up on someone, what I’m doing is small potatoes.

I Can’t Speak For Everyone

Look, I can’t prevent companies from making bad hires, or thinking they can turn anyone who has ever talked to another human being into a recruiter. I’ll never be able to put a forcefield around you and insulate you from people robotically conversing with you as if they are running off of a checklist. I likely can’t force people to have a conversation like a human. But I promise that I’ll give you the opportunity to tell me everything you want me to know. And I’ll make sure you get the real deal from me. I’ll hold to the deadlines for updatesI give you, even if that update is that there is no update. That’s a pretty good foundation for our relationship, if you ask me. 

So what do you say? Can we start over? I think we still need each other, a little more than we both want to admit.

Let me know and I’ll call you. Or, you know, text you if that’s what you prefer.

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 Posted on January 14, 2014 by

 Can't Fix Stupid, Recruiting, Recruiting Life, The Hiring Process, Uncategorized

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Recruiters, Why Don’t We Scrum More?

By Pete Radloff

Timely. Detailed. Manager. Feedback.

When you read that, you have one of two likely reactions. They are probably either “I’m sorry, what did you say? Was that English?” or “Oh, you mean when a manager says ‘hmmm, Not a fit'”. Let’s face it, regardless of whether you are an internal or external recruiter, getting timely and detailed feedback and information is usually a challenge. Feedback and a solid heads up can very much resemble the purple squirrel we’re all always in search of. So what can we do? We’re all at the mercy of the hiring manager who makes the final call, right? Well, what if we turned the feedback model on it’s head?

Many of you who recruit for technical and/or engineering roles are familiar with the Scrum development methodology. Not familiar? NO PROBLEM. It’s not just for engineers! Scrum is a methodology that incorporates the idea of fast development cycles, frequent releases and quick stand-ups versus long, drawn out, “Death by Powerpoint” meetings. Hmm, maybe the developers are on to something here.

If we start to think and work like the client teams we’re supporting, there’s a greater chance of success of us getting what we need. For our purposes, let’s focus on the quick standup here. Consider these outcomes as part of moving toward a more Scrum mentality when working with hiring managers:

Quicker Feedback
By scheduling 10-15 minute stand-ups on the books with hiring managers, you can get detailed feedback on phone interviews, submitted candidates, and any tweaks they want to make to the profile in real time. Also, with their schedules, 10-15 minutes is easier than 30-60 minutes. Now you can get the info you need to pivot, or to keep the trains moving forward with candidates. And at the end of the day, quick feedback is an integral part of any candidate experience.

Work How They Work
Eternally, recruiters are trying to move to a model where they “have a seat at the table” so that they can be seen as business partners versus order takers. This is an ideal way to show that you get it. You understand how quick they need to move, and you want to work within those parameters.

Client Service & Personal Touch
Scrums are a much more effective way to have a personal touch point with your managers. Seeing their recruiter frequently helps build familiarity, and familiarity breeds trust. Respecting their time, and still getting what you need is a win-win for both sides. And let’s be real…..no one reads emails. A harsh truth, but a truth nonetheless. And isn’t 15 minutes talking better spent than say, 4 hours a week playing email tag?

Stay On Top Of The Needs
In addition to having your Scrum meeting with your managers, try to join in on a couple of the development scrums. Sure, most of what is discussed will not apply directly to recruiting. But during those meetings, occasionally the future needs are discussed, or they talk about where they are bottlenecked and may need additional heads. This my friends, is proactive recruiting at it’s genesis. Again, it’s part of building a sense of trust among not only the managers, but the team as well.

This might be most useful in the technical arena, but it can definitely be parlayed across multiple business units with some modifications. And, since we’re all looking to show that we can help drive the business, this is a potentially helpful way to demonstrate that to you teams.

Have you incorporated this at your organization? I’d love to hear your take on this.

Here are a couple of fun takes on incorporating Scrum in your process:

 

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 Posted on November 12, 2013 by

 Hiring Managers, Recruiting, The Hiring Process

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Recruiting In 3D

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