The 5 Most Common “I Missed My Interview” Excuses

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Tim Sackett

There’s one thing that happens to all recruiters when the job market shifts from employer driven to candidate driven: candidates accept interviews, then don’t show or cancel at the last minute. Many times the candidates come up with the lamest excuses on why they have to cancel. Rarely, will they just come out and say, “Hey, I just don’t like you guys that much!” It’s the one thing, no matter how good of a closer you are, as a recruiter, you have to deal with almost daily in our business.

Since I’ve been in the business of recruiting for twenty years I’ve heard all the cancellation excuses. I’ve become numb to the entire process. Great HR Pros have to. While it is upsetting to have someone cancel, it’s not surprising. Our reality is we offer a potential candidate an opportunity and the best of us make it sound very enticing. Many times once the candidate comes back to earth, they realize for whatever reason, the opportunity isn’t for them. Being that most people are super conflict avoidant, they won’t just tell it to you straight, that make up little white lies that seem believable. Believable only to themselves, that is!

Here are the 5 most common “I missed my interview” excuses from candidates:

1. My Grandfather died! Really! Really. Really… In twenty years of recruiting I’ve had more candidates have someone die in their family than I believe is statistically possible, and I’m not just talking agency hires, this is corporate as well! At a point, I want to laugh out loud on the phone when they call in and say it. Not that I think death is funny, but it would be comical to them if they were sitting in my seat, knowing how many ‘death’ calls I take annually! Also, grandparents are the most common death, because it seems to make most sense. This is all a good excuse because most people believe they won’t get a call back from the recruiter because they won’t want to deal with the death issue!

2. I got into a car accident! But, I’m okay, just can’t make the interview. This one is a good short term excuse, but it still sets them up for a follow up call to reschedule. Still, it’s used a lot! Besides my staffing agency business, I also want to open up a body shop and funeral home all right next to each…

3. My kid got sick, I can’t go to the interview. Another very believable and understanding excuse, but, again, it sets them up for the reschedule. The problem with any of these types of excuses is they seem great when you’re leaving a message, but then you have to put up with a recruiter leaving thirty voice mails asking you to reschedule the email.

4. My employer needs me to travel out of state! We work in tech so we actually get this one a lot. This also comes with a built in reschedule excuse, “Can’t reschedule now, not sure how long I’m going to be, gotta go, big emergency, the data center is down!” Ugh. This one is tough to combat from a recruiter perspective.

5. I had to have emergency surgery! Another good excuse that doesn’t have to be as bad as it sounds because they’ll add in the ‘dental’ component. “I had to have an emergency root canal, can’t talk, will call you when I can.” Can also use it for ankles, knees, etc. Which gives the built in excuse of not being able to walk. Plus the added benefit of, “I probably shouldn’t change jobs right now, with insurance, with this going on…”

If, and after twenty years in recruiting that’s a huge if, I was a very trusting man, I would have a view of the world that I must be the most unlucky person ever to have all these bad things and unfortunate timings happen to me! But, since I’ve been in recruiting for twenty years, I get the game.

What’s the most used excuse you get from candidates who no-show or cancel out on interviews?

The 1 Reason You Can’t Find Talent Right Now

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Tim Sackett

There’s one big reason you can’t find talent right now. Here it is:

Simple economics plays a huge role in your ability to hire well. We all like to think we are super star rock star talent acquisition pros, but the reality is we are mostly just pawns in economic cycles. Sure you can have a great employment brand, and have great recruiting tools, and even have the most talented recruiters money can buy. But rarely can’t you beat simple supply and demand.

Want to know why you’re struggling to hire right now? There aren’t enough candidates for the jobs you need to fill. It’s really quite simple.

We have an extended recession where almost all employee development and employee growth programs got cut to the bone. No apprenticeships. No internships. Old people held onto their jobs because of the recession, while younger people went and found other ways to make ends meet. The stock market that was in the tank during the recession came back bigger than ever. The old people now want to retire, and they are in bulk!

Now you want to hire because business is back! You have new positions to add. You have old employees leaving you with all of that knowledge, and you haven’t seriously tried to grow an employee in a decade.

It took you 10 years to get to this point. It’s going to take you more than increased job board ads and new ATS to get you out of this. Here are few tips to get you through a Candidate Driven Marketplace:

1. Start growing your own now. No, it’s not a short term solution. But you must realize your problem is both short and long.

2. Get comfortable with stealing talent from your competitors and anyone else. Also, they’ll be stealing from you. Welcome to the show.

3. Upgrade your recruiting staff, yesterday. Yeah, I like Bonnie to, but she can’t really recruit.

4. You have to get your organization to understand your reality. Like Hillary said, “It takes a village”.

5. Learn the concept “Total Talent” and get comfortable with it. The rest of the world already has. The U.S. is a decade behind. Total talent is the concept that an organization has many avenues of talent: direct employees, consultants, contract employees, temporary employees, part time, job share, etc. No longer should you even want just ‘direct’ employees. Smart talent acquisition strategy incorporates all levels of talent, not just one. Unless your name is Bonnie.

Why Your Employment Brand Really Matters

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Tim Sackett

There’s really only one reason that you should have any concern over your employment brand and it’s this:

Job at Great Brand = High Self-esteem

Stop for one minute and don’t think like a marketer, but like a normal person. Why does a normal person want to go to work for a great brand? Why would you?

Let me put it another way. Why do you buy and wear brand name clothing? It’s not because it’s, necessarily, better made than any other brand. It’s because it makes you feel good to wear that brand. People look at you and see that you’re wearing that brand. It gives you a boost to your self-esteem.

Now, think about the brands you love. For me, I love Nike. Always have, since I was a kid. I have a lot of Nike stuff in my life. When I see someone that works at Nike, I get excited. I want to know more about how they like it, what its like, etc. I’ve applied to work at Nike early in my career, and got shot down. I know working for Nike would have made me feel good about myself and the company I was working for. I have a belief that others would have been ‘impressed’ I was working for Nike. Whether if it was true or not, that was my perception.

The only true reason your employment brand is important is because of this. People want to work an organization that is a boost to their self-esteem. Even if your brand is neutral in doing that, it’s a negative. They want to work for a brand ‘they’ feel others will be impressed by for a number of varied reasons: it’s cool (Google/Zappos), it’s important (Universities/Government/FBI), they do good stuff (Hospitals/Teachers), they make a ton of money (Berkshire Hathaway), they are innovative (hot new tech firms), they are professional (law firms/banking/professional services), etc.

Your employment brand, for some segment of your hiring population, needs to raise their self-esteem. Find out what it is about you that does that, and you’ll have employment branding figured out.

4 Ways To Find Great Talent on Glassdoor

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Tim Sackett

The next biggest recruiting play is not LinkedIn, or CareerBuilder, or Monster. It’s Glassdoor! But you wouldn’t know that, because you still see them as a place where former employees and zombies go to bitch about your company and bad managers. It’s not!

Kris Dunn and I are going to show you, in this month’s FOT webinar, how smart companies are leveraging Glassdoor in their recruiting practices to steal your talent, and it’s not the crappy talent you wish would leave!

Yep, Glassdoor is sponsoring this webinar. Yep, Kris and I made sure they knew we don’t hold back punches! That, in and of itself, is cool, because they know we speak the truth, and they aren’t afraid of the truth getting out (BTW – we have a lot of companies not willing to do FOT webinars because of this!).

Let’s face it. HR pros have a long history of being uncomfortable with sites like Glassdoor.com. After all, the only people that use Glassdoor.com and sites like it are disgruntled ex-employees that you fired, right?

Wrong. It was wrong 5 years ago, and it’s horribly wrong today. Rather than view these types of sites as a threat, smart HR and Recruiting pros are learning how to use the reputation/rating sites to manage their employment brand, connect with candidates and make better hires.

The days of the employment brand strategy with scripted photos, smiling faces (just the right amount of diversity!) and PDFs are over.

That’s why we’re going deep on reputation sites like Glassdoor in the July version of the FOT Webinar entitled,“How Smart HR Pros are Becoming Better Marketers – By Using Company Reputation Sites Like Glassdoor.” Join Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett from Fistful of Talent at 2pm ET on Wednesday July 30th, and we’ll hit you with the following:

– How the the yelp-ification of America—the trend towards consumer-based reviews in almost every area of our economy—is changing the way employees and candidates think about job search and employer brands. It’s second nature for your employees to rate a restaurant, a book or a movie online. That means that employees of all types (not just the ones who want to complain) are more willing than ever to participate in your brand through user review.

– Why the explosion of social media and deep coverage of every aspect of our lives through video and photos is changing the willingness of smart companies to increase their transparency. Every employee and candidate who interacts with your company is a potential reporter, and they expect you to share the good, bad and ugly about working with your firm openly and honestly. Old versions of employment brands won’t cut it—you”re going to have to give up some control to maximize your brand.

– We’ll cover the 5 Biggest Myths about company reputation sites like Glassdoor and tell you which ones are completely BS and which ones you actually perpetrate by not fully engaging on sites like Glassdoor. We’ll hit the usual suspects here: “The only comments are from the bad employees” and “The salary data out there isn’t factual,” and tell you why things have changed. More importantly, we’ll cover how you actually may make the myths a reality by not fully engaging on reputation sites. Think about that last sentence: You’ve got to be in the game to influence the game.

– Last but not least, we’ll give you a 4-step playbook on how to engage on reputation sites and become more of a Marketer as an HR/Recruiting Pro. It’s true—you wouldn’t have read this far if you didn’t want to learn more about how to use reputation sites like Glassdoor to maximize your company and your career. We’ll help you get started.

The outside world now has a huge say in how your company/employment brand is perceived, whether you engage or not. FOT thinks you should engage. Join us for “How Smart HR Pros are Becoming Better Marketers – By Using Company Reputation Sites Like Glassdoor” at 2pm ET on Wednesday July 30th and we’ll show you how.

(FOT Note: Glassdoor is sponsoring this FOT webinar. We’re happy to have them as a sponsor and, true to their commitment to transparency, they’re letting us talk about the myths and a lot of other realities HR and Recruiting pros have experienced related to Glassdoor—without restriction. That type of balance makes them a great partner. Join us and we promise you’ll get a balanced view—no sales pitch—as well as an insider’s guide to how to use sites like Glassdoor to become a better marketer as an HR/Recruiting pro.)

If Only They Could Hear What I Have To Say…

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Tim Sackett

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 July 18, 2014 by Tim Sackett

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 July 17, 2014 by Tim Sackett

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!

What is your Favorite Job Board?

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Tim Sackett

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:

Notice 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!

Revenge Hires

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Tim Sackett

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 May 29, 2014 by Tim Sackett

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!