Category Archives: Hiring

If Only They Could Hear What I Have To Say…

Posted on by
2

It’s the age old resume problem.  We’ve all had it one time or another.  When I was early in my HR career I desperately wanted to work for Nike.  I had this vision in my head that it would be such a super cool place to work, I was a huge brand advocate, Nike couldn’t have selected a better HR Pro.

I applied.  I applied, again.  I applied, again.

Nothing. Well, nothing, besides the obligatory form email telling me thanks, no thanks. Just Don’t Do It.

If only they could hear what I have to say and see my passion, there is no way they wouldn’t select me.

That was years ago, then companies like HireVue came along and changed the game.  Now any company could ‘see’ me through the use of digital interviewing.  Life was good. Too late for Nike and I to have a long successful relationship, but such is life, I had to find out how to Do It with someone else.

I thought that was it.  HR technology at its best, really no room for ‘real’ improvement, just window dressing changes from here on out.  That was until HireVue decided to hire some really, freaking, smart people that know a bunch of scientific stuff, and talk about stuff you and I wouldn’t understand.  HireVue’s scientist found out there is a level above digital interviewing.

Language and behavior analytics is the science behind what people say and how they say it.  The words they use, their expressions, their vocal infliction, etc.  Basically, you can learn 100,000 times more from this analysis, then just using a resume. HireVue launched HireVue Insights with this in mind. As I understand it the more data you collect through digital interviews, the better HireVue Insights is able to compare to top performers and make recommendations. This is really freaking cool!

HireVue beta tested Insights with one of their client partners Chipotle, which by the way just locked down Consumer Reports best burrito place! Chipotle is growing like a weed.  They’ll make 40,000 or so hires this year.  Using HireVue currently for digital interviewing, their normal digital interview to hire ratio is 10 to 1.  Since they began using HireVue Insights, that has gone to 4 to 1!  It doesn’t matter if you’re hiring 40,000 or 40, those kinds of increases will make any Talent Acquisition Pro’s Day!

I still can’t get past this idea that now candidates can actually be ‘heard’.  It’s really another game changer, when I thought the game was over being changed.  It’s the one major complaint every trench HR pro hears throughout their entire career.  I don’t get the science, it’s way over my head, and I’m fine with that.  As an HR Pro I just want the best hires, as fast as I can.  Insights just changed my world!

Just imagine if Nike would have used HireVue Insights 15 years ago to hire that mid-level HR Manager in Portland?  Right now, I would probably be having lunch with Phil Knight and Mike Jordan (I would call him Mike if I was running Nike HR, because we would be close friends!), as his right hand man, running HR for Nike.  But, No!  Nike missed out.  It’s a shame for them, I’m really good, Phil and Mike would have loved me!

 

Recruiting’s Silver Bullet

Posted on by
2

I don’t have a tattoo, but if I did it would say this:

“Pick Up The G*d Damn Phone!”

That’s it.  It would probably be one of those cool barbed wire kind of ones around my bicep, if I had biceps. Maybe I could even get it in another language so people would think it had some really deep thought or meaning.

I get asked weekly for advice on how to make ‘my’ recruiting department or shop better at recruiting.  I get asked advice on if they should have talent communities. Should they use one software, over another software.  Should they buy a LinkedIn seat or spend that money on a Facebook strategy.  I get asked if about every single tool imaginable that is sold to talent acquisition pros.

Every single Recruiting Pro I speak with wants to know the solution, the answer, the trick, to great recruiting.  Every. Single. One.

It’s not a trick, and it’s not hard.  It’s actually quite simple.  I tell them.  Then, they look at me, pause, and then they ask, “yeah, but what about…”

It’s a painful experience.  You see Talent Acquisition fails not because of the tools and processes, talent acquisition fails because the leadership in talent acquisition allows it to fail, because they want it to be something it’s not.  It’s not HR. It’s not sit at your desk and wait for magical software to deliver you magical candidates who magically want to come work for your company.

Talent Acquisition is sales. It’s about me talking you into something.  Like a car, but it’s not a car, it’s a job.  There a reasons you want the job, and reasons you don’t want the job, just like a car.  I have to convince you that you can really live with a green car, instead of a red car, because the green car is a better value or more reliable or something you’ll agree to.  Say hello to recruiting.

I know of one Silver Bullet in recruiting.  It’s as deadly today, as it was twenty years ago.  It’s called activity.  The recruiter with the most contacts will always fill more jobs over an extended period of time.  Bam!  It is that easy. And, that hard.

 

The #1 Technical Recruiting Firm In The World

Posted on by
Reply

I’m happy to announce that today that my company, HRU Technical Resources, is the #1 company in the world when it comes to Engineering and IT staffing!  Yay, me! Is that freaking awesome!!!  Wow, unbelievable, I’m so excited.  If you want to work with us, the #1 Technical Recruiting Firm in the World, just give me a call – 517-908-3156!

How’d we get that honor? Um, next question. We are #1!!!

Let’s face it, I’ve known for so long that my company is number one.  It’s pretty easy to see.  I have a rock star team of recruiters who get it at a level that far surpasses everyone else I’ve seen.  I have an Account Management and Biz Dev team that grinds every day, and my back office is full of chicks on mental steroids.  It’s always great when, not only are you recognized as number one, but when you truly deserve it as well.

My company has never gotten a position it couldn’t fill. True story.  Knows how to recruit socially and non-socially.  They literally breakdown walls in recruiting everyday.  I’m glad we decided to finally recognize ourselves for who we really are, the #1 Technical Recruiting Company in the World!

Have you really ever wondered how this stuff is measured?  Sometimes there are third party organizations that claim to be unbiased, but they only exist if those companies they are touting actually pay them some money to keep them in business.  Analyst really aren’t any different.  They do research, but at the end of the day, someone has to sponsor that research, or they can’t pay their bills.

I would say the only true measure of deciding who is better than whom would be if an organization is willing to work with you over your competition, but we know that is bogus.  Time and again I’ve run into companies who are working with #2 companies in our industry because they have a relationship, or they gave me tickets to see Katy Perry, or they drop off bagels the first Monday of every month.  This has nothing to do with who is better.

Sometimes it’s based on total revenue or number of hires, but that to doesn’t make you better, it just shows you’re bigger.  Our industry loves to use revenue as a key to success, then you’ll see staffing and RPO firms who are growing like weeds and losing money.  Is that success?  Well, yes, if you’re goal is to just buy market share.  I’m sorry but I can’t say a company is number one in anything if they’re losing money.

BusinessWeek had an article that helps straighten this all out:

“The organization in charge of policing this dispute and the several dozen like it in the U.S each year is the National Advertising Division. There are laws against publishing misleading advertisements, and in the early 1970s it seemed as if Ralph Nader-style consumer groups would result in more regulations. “There are ticking sounds that we hear in all the pressure groups, congressional hearings and other forums that are meeting to decide our fate,” said Victor Elting Jr., the chairman of the American Advertising Federation, at the time.

So the advertising industry founded the National Advertising Division in 1971. While various federal agencies and state attorneys general have authority to regulate misleading advertising, the division is the way for the industry to handle things before they get to that level. Cases often originate with one company complaining about a competitor’s sketchy claims. NAD holds hearings and asks fibbers to cut it out. While it has no enforcement power, it does have an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission that it will look at any case in which the violator doesn’t change its ways. That threat is usually enough to keep companies in line.”

So, now you know, the NAD will let us know who’s number one.

Until then, I’m still happy to announce we are #1!

Resume Objectives Sent from G*d

Posted on by
8

This is an actual resume objective from an actual candidate’s resume that was submitted for a position at my company (HRU Technical Resources) this past week:

Objective:
1. Move out of my apartment after 4 years of living there.
2. Buy house
3. Buy ring, find girlfriend, marry her.
4. Continue investing for retirement
5. Go to florida on vacation
6. Make documentaries
7. Do what I do best. Intovate.

Because this might possibly the best resume objective ever written, I wanted to break all seven of the objectives down:

1. Shows great forward thinking and longevity all in one simple sentence.  I want more, but I’m willing to work to get there.

2. Big goal #1 – set the foundation. Smart!

3. I’m heterosexual, just in case you were wondering.  Plus, I do things a little different.  I want to get the ring before the girl. That way I’ll know for sure the girl will like the ring that I can afford, since it will already be bought. I might even show it to her on the first date, just so we don’t run into problems later down the road.

4. Long term planning. Conservative. Can’t rely on Obama to plan for my retirement.

5. But, I like to party and have fun in the short term.

6. I also have a serious side and a creative side.  I’m the full package.

7. Do what I do best! Intovate! Not spelling. He was so proud of it, I had to look it up and make sure I wasn’t missing something! You know I’m grammatically challenged! Nope Intovate is not a word, but it sure sounds like it should be!

There is a reason that resumes are dying, and this might it.  For certain positions you need a resume, but for most you just need to fill out the application, no resume needed.  Some how, at some point in our history, everyone began to feel like they need a resume. That’s when this happens.

Happy Searching my recruiting friends! Go forth today and Intovate!

 

The Search For The Smartest Employee

Posted on by
Reply

Yo! I’m on vacation this week, don’t try and come rob my house, it’s a ‘staycation’!  I’m going to run some oldies but goodies so I can let my creative juices focus on Gin and Tonics. Here you go:

I couldn’t sleep the other night, probably because of the 14 Diet Dews I had throughout the day, but I had an Epiphany while staring at the ceiling in the dark.   I figured out a way for HR Pros to find the Smartest Employee in their Company!  It isn’t a complex algorithm or a set of cognitive assessment tests – it’s a simple matrix – but it’s very effective.  Now, you might be asking yourself:

 “Why do I need to find the smartest employee in our company?”

Which would be legitimate – unfortunately at 2 a.m. I didn’t ask myself that same question – I just thought I came up with some crazy Einstein type shit!  But, like most things I deal with, I can come up with a plausible argument to why it’s important to find the smartest people in your company.  My reasons:

1. Smart people have the potential to do smart things.  In an organization you want to make the right decisions – usually dumb people don’t.

2. Smart people usually know other smart people. In an organization you want to get rid of your dumb people, and hire more smart people.

3. Smart people know the fakers.  Organizations make people selection mistakes, it happens all the time, don’t be embarrassed, just don’t let one decision turn into another by keeping a mistake.  Smart people know your bad hiring mistakes, because they can read through the B.S.

Now for the Matrix!  Like I said it’s simple – which is also why it’s genious, because anyone can do it.  It goes a little something like this (hit it!) –

First Step: down one side of your matrix list your employees by level of responsibility. Most responsible at the top, down to the least responsible at the bottom.  Some of these you’ll just have to do the eyeball test on, and slot people as you see fit – don’t get to worked up over this – just get the most responsible up top, the least down low – the ones in the middle don’t matter anyway.

Second Step: Across the top of the matrix list total compensation of each person to the corresponding column.  For the most part you should end up with a sheet that shows the most responsible person in your organization, making the most money, and slowing but surely working your way down to the least responsible, least amount of money.

Third Step: The Smart Employee Search.  Here’s where the rubber hits the road!  Now, look at your matrix and find the highest paid employee, with the corresponding least amount of experience.  Boom! You just found your smartest employee.

I told you it was easy!  This person has figured out how to, relatively, make the most money by having virtually no responsibility.  Say what you want – but that is one smart person!  You need to pull that person in and find out how to get them more engaged into your daily operations.  Don’t take this as a joke – dumb people don’t figure this out – you just don’t fall into a highly paid, low or no responsibility job – you have to work to get there.  Don’t underestimate this person’s capabilities – because guess what – everyone else has!  That’s why your working your butt off until 6pm, and they’re out the door at 3pm going to their golf league – for about $4000 less than you make. They’re going home with no stress, while you’re on your 4th therapist – this year.   They love coming to work – you have a hard time pulling yourself out of bed.

I love these employees – I try to hang with them, learn from them – I feel like I’m an anthropologist learning about a forgotten species – they intrigue me so.  A word of caution though – don’t try and capture and change these employees – don’t try and be “smarter” than they are – and change their job or their scope or their pay.  Remember, they’re smarter than you – you’ll just frustrate yourself as they find another position – doing even less for more!

Job Seekers! Still believe college degree not important?

Posted on by
3

From University of Michigan Econ Professor Justin Wolfers and the Bureau of Labor Statistics comes the following chart on why it’s important to get your college degree:

Unemployment by educationUnemployment rate for College Graduates = 3% ish

Unemployment rate for some college = 5.7% ish

Unemployment rate for High School diploma = 6.2% ish

Unemployment rate for No High School diploma = 9% ish

The one thing I found most interesting from this chart is the closeness between high school diploma and some college/Associate degree.  There is virtually no difference.  I think this would change considerably if you pulled out those Associate degree folks who got a two year degree in some sort of skilled trade.

Otherwise just going to college, and not graduating, is virtually the same as just going to high school and graduating.  I wonder how this might all change with companies like Google claiming they will hire people without a degree?

With organizations like the Kahn Academy, you can virtually get an Ivy League education from the comfort of your parents basement.  How long does it take for those statistics to catch up with our current reality?  When does the ease of access of education online change the numbers above?

Maybe a better question is, do you ever see a time when Fortune 1000 type of organizations will not use ‘college degrees’ as a main criteria for screening out potential candidates?  That’s a huge shift in perspective, but with pre-employment screening tools continuing to advance, we aren’t too far away from having the ability to accurately measure two individuals: one with a degree, one without, to see which one would really be the better ‘job’ fit.

In the mean time – go to school kids!

 

What is your Favorite Job Board?

Posted on by
Reply

Funny thing happened last week.  Glassdoor sent me one of those email surveys that companies send out. You know the ones – please fill this out, it only takes 5 minutes and if you do we’ll send $5 to cure dyslexia of Whales in the Eastern Arctic.   Of course I support Whale dyslexia so I did it.  Here is the first screen shot that came up:

Glassdoor surveyNotice anything interesting about the list of ‘Job Boards’?

Yep!  You caught it – LinkedIN everyone’s favorite job board 2.0 made the list.  I can honestly say, this is the first time I’ve ever seen LinkedIN (LI) described by another vendor as a Job Board.  I think that is telling to how LI’s competition are positioning themselves to go after some of that LI cash!

Beyond LI, CareerBuilder and Monster both have been working hard to shed the old Job Board tag as well.  No one wants to be known as a Job Board any longer.  Although, job boards still have a very valuable spot within the industry.

John Sumser, wrote a piece over at HR Examiner last week that describes this evolution brilliantly:

“The future of job boards is in competition with its customers some of the time. This isn’t really new, but we’ve forgotten that the core business model is a market of competing self-interests. While it is delightful to imagine a world where all candidates know about all jobs and vice versa, the reality is more mundane.

If you are a big brand (and there are 3,000 or 4,000 of those), the existing value of the company’s market awareness covers the cost of candidate acquisition. If, on the other hand, you are one of the several million brands no one has ever heard of, you have a different problem.

That’s where job boards come in. Companies that are expert in acquiring and aggregating audiences (not data) can help employers find workers. It turns out that this is an extremely valuable communications channel.

Where big brands are becoming their own distribution channels, little brands need help reaching the people they need. Job boards are less useful in the big enterprise game and way more useful everywhere else.”

One telling miss from the list?  What about Indeed?  Aren’t they the biggest job board of them all?  Also, is The Ladders still in business?  I haven’t heard form them in 2-3 years!

5 Retention Fixes – No Money Down

Posted on by
5

I love SMB HR shops (SMB – small/medium sized businesses) for a number of reasons, but none more than for the simple fact, smaller sized HR shops are forced to be more creative because of less resources.

Creativity and SMB HR shops, remind me of my Grandma. Grandma grew up in the depression.  People who grew up in the depression have creativity skills to burn!  They had so little, but found ways to fill their life with so many things.  Lack of resources didn’t stop them, it unleashed their creativity!  Creativity is the most underrated HR skill out their for high performing HR shops.

Having worked in big HR shops the one thing that frustrated me most was sitting around in large meetings, trying to figure out how to “fix” retention – and listening to all the ways and how much money it was going to cost.  In the end I always came back to, if we just take all this money we are going to spend on the “fix” and just go out and hand to the employees, we probably won’t have a retention problem.  Large HR shop folks don’t like to hear that!  So, for you SMB HR shop folks out there, with little or no money to spend on increasing your retention, I came up with a few ideas you might want to try before you go spend all that budget money on programs with little return.

No Money Retention Fixes:

Fire the manager with the lowest retention.  You have the data, you know who is turning people over. Your organization needs to send a message that managers, not HR and not the CEO, are responsible for retaining talent.  This has to be the first step!  Your leaders have to have a clear understanding it is their job to retain their employees, and it’s your job to hold them accountable for it.

Measure it by Department, and post it publicly for all to see.  No, don’t just share it in meetings.  Post it up in the lobby, down the halls, everywhere!  Then just wait.  It will almost change overnight.  No one likes to be at the bottom of any list, and have everyone know it.

Fire your worst performers – then use that money to compensate your best employees more.  It’s a wash.  Your worst employees aren’t helping your productivity anyway, and your best will appreciate the increase, appreciate you noticing the bad people were taking away from the team, and they’ll give you more discretionary effort.  The result – same cost (actually less if you factor in benefits, taxes, etc.) more productivity, a little less headcount.

Have your senior leadership talk about retention publicly, constantly.   That which gets measured will get changed, that which gets measured and has the eye of senior leadership will get changed much quicker!

Institute a “Save Strategy” for employees who want to leave.  Save Strategy? If an employee puts in their notice, have them go meet with your CEO and explain to her why they are leaving. You’ll be amazed at the results and how many people will change their minds.  Some people just want to know you care, and sitting down for some one-on-one with the CEO, shows that a whole bunch. Plus, it’s much cheaper than finding their replacement!

 

Revenge Hires

Posted on by
1

Sometimes you just can’t make this stuff up!

From the land of Bad HR comes something I’ve only heard about as urban legend, the Revenge Hire!

A revenge hire is when someone hires a person to stick it to another person in their organization.  I can happen in a number of ways.  Here’s a few:

1. The Fired Re-hire:  This is when an employee gets fired by one leader, then another leader in the same organization hires that person back into a job that is almost exactly the same.  Usually this happens when the first leader and employee just had a major personality difference, and another leader saw real talent in the employee, and possibly, thinks the original leader is a tool.

2. The One Level Up Hire:  This is when your supervisor overrides your decision not to hire, and makes the decision to hire someone you didn’t want.  I’ve seen this happen within a department where the executive had a relative interview and the department manager didn’t want to offer, but was forced to hire the person anyway.  That always turns out really good in the end…

3. The HR Hire:  This is the one that just happened to me!  The one thing we know as HR Pros is, we really don’t ever hire anyone or fire anyone (unless it’s within our own department).  We do a whole lot of advising on hiring and firing, but ultimately it’s up to each leader to make these decisions.  Unless, there’s some sort of issue at play where HR is going to pull their ultimate legal trump card and make the call on their own.  This almost never happens!  For me, the manager wanted to hire one person, HR wanted to hire another person, the reason had to deal with some background issues with the managers person.  HR pulled their card, hired their person, the manager was not happy.  Ultimately it took about four weeks for the manager to sabotage the HR hire, then she went over HR’s head to an executive to make the hire she originally wanted to make.  Revenge hiring at its best!

Revenge hiring is like cancer. If you have it in your organization you need to cut it out immediately.  It’s not something a healthy organization can have.  As an HR Pro I always put a stop to it the moment I heard about it.  Each time it happens the leaders involved act like it’s totally something different and not a revenge hire.  They have to do this because the alternative should get them fired! It’s to think of a more unhealthy behavior from a leader within your organization.

What about you?  Any good revenge hire stories?

 

How Zappos Ruined Job Posts!

Posted on by
6

Zappos made a big splash last week announcing they were no longer going to post their jobs!  From this point forward, or as soon as they can get out of their legacy system, they’ll stop posting their open jobs.  Instead of the good ole post and pray strategy used by the majority of companies worldwide.  Zappos’s Talent Acquisition team will now only proactively search for candidates, build networks of possible candidates and always have a slate or ready candidates available for each hiring manager whenever they have a need arise.  Sounds like the same line we’ve been feeding all of our organizations for a long time, right!?!

The difference is, Zappos can actually do it, you can’t.  You see Zappos is a ‘one-percenter’.  They are one of the very few employment brands who don’t need to post their jobs to get candidates, they have more candidates than they can handle.  They have one of the most engaged employee bases known to man, who refer more great employees like themselves.  Zappos can kill job postings, because job postings, in their environment, actually make them less efficient!  Their Talent Acquisition team is smart and doing exactly what they should to kick their competition to the side – taking advantage of their greatest strengths!

I do wonder, though, isn’t Zappos very big public announcement of ‘killing job postings’ just one very, very big job post!  Ah, employment branding and marketing.  Silly rabbit.

Let’s be clear you are not Zappos.

While you’ll need to keep running your post and pray strategy, I do think there is something valuable to take away from Zappos’s new no job posts posting strategy.  Zappos has publicly shown all HR and Talent shops, you don’t really have to post your jobs!  “What!?! Yes, Tim!  Yes, we do!  You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about!”  Calm down, calm down.  There are a few shops around that will continue to be forced to run job postings do to government contracts, or other ‘contractual’ arrangements, I’ll give you that.  But there is nothing legal, for most employers, that forces you to run job postings.

Most employers can hire whomever they choose. It is a best practice to post jobs, internally and externally, to ensure you are pulling in a widely dispersed pool of candidates, and not opening yourself up to potential hiring biases, or even illegal hiring practices.  But most employers do not legally have to post a job.  And just because you post one job, doesn’t mean you have to post all of your jobs.  That is the big takeaway from what Zappos is doing.

Let’s face it.  Zappos’s operations is mainly a call center.  They sell shoes over the internet and on the phone.  They are customer service, and the best customer service job option known to man.  They are in Vegas which has thousands of crappy customer service jobs.  If you’re good at customer service in Vegas,  you’ll eventually want to work at Zappos.  They have no need in posting call center jobs!!!

You probably have similar issues.  When I worked at a large health system we had no need to post openings for cafeteria workers and lower level positions.  We had people contacting us daily wanting those jobs.  Yet, every time we had an opening, we would post the job and have to deal with hundreds of applicants.  Our ‘legal’ department made us do this.  It was do ‘reduce’ potential risk, of which, was almost zero to begin with!  It was stupid.  It made us do more work.  It wasn’t needed.

Zappos has put the entire Talent Acquisition industry on notice.  To stop doing stupid stuff, like posting jobs you don’t need to post.   If you think you can get away with not posting any of your jobs, well, good luck to that.  You’re not Zappos!

The micro-blog post, after the blog post:

You know what really pisses me off about this announcement from Zappos!?  For the next 3 years I’m going to have to go to conferences and listen to people like Stacy Zapar and Mike Bailen tell us how Zappos is changing the recruiting world! Ugh! More Zappos HR conference speakers…didn’t we already go through this with them?  Oh, yeah, I wrote about it, like three years ago and Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, actually commented on the blog post – that was really cool!  Check it out here!  How Zappos Ruined HR! 

P.S. Stacy and Mike if you guys ever want to speak together at a conference just let me know – I’m willing to ride that Zappos gravy train out with you for the next three years!