7 Ways Recruiters Can Reinvent Themselves

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Tim Sackett

It’s that time of the month! No, not that time – a better more enjoyable time! It’s the FOT monthly webinar! This month FOT will be doing Recruiter Makeovers and giving Recruiters 7 ways they can reinvent themselves as Marketers! As always it’s FREE and comes with HRCI credit for all those SHRMies.

We know – you’re feeling stale as a recruiter. We get it, that’s why we’re partnering with Jobvite for the May FOT webinar – The Recruiter Makeover – 7 Ways Recruiters Can Reinvent Themselves as Marketers. The world’s full of great products/services that became commodities, and unfortunately, there’s a lot of recruiters in danger of becoming commodities if they don’t change with the times. Odds are you feel the shift under your feet – great candidates are less responsive than ever to average recruiters, which means you have to become a more effective marketer of the brand and opportunities you represent to keep your closing rate high.

If you’re still reading, that means you haven’t been average in the past. Join us for this FOT webinar and we’ll give you the roadmap for a career makeover that includes the following goodies:

—The Ugly “Before” Picture – We’ve all seen the “before” pictures used in makeovers and this one is no different. Using your “average joe/jane” recruiter, we’re going to take a snapshot of the recruiter most in need of our makeover. Brace yourself, because “before” pictures in makeover workups all look like mug/prison shots of Lindsay Lohan, right?

—Trendspotting 101 – We can’t start prescribing the skill equivalent of makeup or liposuction for recruiters until we tell you about the trends that are causing the need for the makeover. Candidates have more options and messages flowing to them than ever before. Whether its the emergence of Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn or the social recruiting scene, recruiting is morphing into marketing. We’ll compare and contrast some of the trends to tell you why recruiters are evolving into marketers even as they keep their core recruiting skills strong.

—7 Ways Recruiters Can Reinvent Themselves As Marketers – Makeover time. We’ll hit you with our list of things you can do to reinvent yourself as a marketer who just happens to recruit for a living. You can do this. Don’t believe the naysayers that will say this is hype. Those people are just trying to keep you average.

—Our Top 5 List of Recruiters Who Have Strong Marketing Game – It’s all empty talk until we give you examples, right? The FOT crew will break down our top 5 list of recruiters who have added the marketing toolkit to their games, complete with emphasis of which of our “7 Ways” list they specialize in. Everyone in the world needs role models – even recruiters. We’ll tell you who to connect with and emulate to become a marketer in the recruiting game.

Evolving your game as a recruiter isn’t easy – it takes thought, expertise and time you don’t have, because you’re busy filling positions. Join us for the May FOT Webinar and we’ll show you how to add marketing chops to your personal recruiting brand so you don’t get left behind.

CLICK HERE IF YOU’RE A SMART TALENT PRO!

I Mostly Work For Free

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Tim Sackett

I’m an agency headhunter. I love this Dilbert comic, it makes me laugh:

The reality is, headhunting, recruiting, etc. can be a very lucrative job. Like most sales jobs, yes it’s a sales job, if you’re any good, you can make really good money. If you’re not good, you starve.

The truth about headhunting is I’m usually working for free. I don’t blame my clients for this. I completely know the deal going in, and if I ‘decide’ to work for free, I’ve made the conscious decision to do it.

Most people don’t know that about this profession. That 90% of their time is spent working for free. It’s why so many people leave agency recruiting to go to corporate recruiting. The jobs are virtually the same, except on the corporate side you get paid each day. You don’t get paid as well, but you get paid. On the agency side, you rarely get paid, but if you’re good, those pay days are big.

Those in the industry will read this and think, “well, Tim, you must not be good at what you do, because I would never work for free!” They feel like they have clients who would never asked them to do that, or they ‘qualify’ each opening before they do would take on the assignment. Others will say, “that’s why I only work ‘retained’ search”.

Our reality, agency headhunters, is that everyday we are working on something for free. My best clients will ask me, beg me, for help on a certain position. We’ll work our butts off getting them great talent. Then, we’ll get the call, “Hey, Tim, the resumes are great! We decided to go another direction. Thanks, though, we’ll definitely call the next time we have a need!”

Yep, you just worked for free.

The cool thing about a recovery economy is that the leverage of being able to go out and find more great clients is right there. Clients who won’t want you to work for free. Who will value the work you do for free, and not want to take advantage of that. I feel for my brothers and sisters in the headhunting game. Working for free never feels good, but you smile, you thank them for the opportunity, and we do what we do.

Hopefully, today, that isn’t working for free.

Social Recruiting + Infinity

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Tim Sackett

For those who don’t know, I do this little presentation called Social Recruiting MacGyver Style. I’m doing it in a couple weeks for a thousand HR Pros in Michigan. I have some fun with it, and poke fun at some of the things we do in our industry with Social Recruiting. From questions I get, at that presentation, I came up with this concept:

Social Recruiting + Infinity = Bad Recruiting

Here’s the math logic.

How many followers do you in your full social stream? Think all Twitter followers, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook Page followers, etc. Everyone who could possibly be in your network that you could potentially connect with to source. Big number, right? Mine is probably in the millions. The impresses my teenage sons, but that’s about all the ‘klout’ I get from it.

In this social age of recruiting, for the first time, most of us come face to face with the opportunity of limitless. Social recruiting gives us access, seemingly, to an endless array of candidates. No one else can handle limitless. A hospital has a limit on patients. Restaurants have a limit on patrons. Most things in life have limits. In recruiting, we have a limit to how many open requisitions we can handle.

But in the social recruiting world, the pursuit of infinity has become that goal.

The question I have to ask those who embarking into this world of social recruiting is, what price are you will pay for this pursuit?

It’s a question most recruiters don’t even consider when they start down the social recruiting path. When your recruiting pool is ‘everyone’, it changes the way you work. That what social recruiting tends to be like. Most begin believing they have a new ‘pond’ to fish in, and find out that pond is an ocean, an ocean where you see fish everywhere, but can see the fish you want to catch.

The corollary of infinity (an endless amount of candidates) is zero (so many candidates you can’t even find one).

Social recruiting works really well the smaller you target, not the bigger. Why is this important to you? Let’s go back to the math. We get caught up in the numbers. The number of followers. The number of people who ‘like’ us. The number of people who click. When those numbers are worthless, if they are not the people you want.

Social recruiting is not about more numbers. It’s about using tools to uncover a very specific skill set you are looking for, and networking with that skill set. Rifle versus shotgun. Unfortunately, most recruiters start by trying to connect with everyone and anyone and find no one.

The 1 Reason Your New Recruiting Process Will Fail

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Tim Sackett

There is one absolute truth in Recruiting: You (anyone who works in recruiting) will attempt to ‘Re-Process’ your recruiting process because you feel you can make it more efficient, more effective, more ‘something’. The ‘old’ process was a failure (mainly because you didn’t design it), and you have to give the process an overhaul to bring it up to today’s standards. This new process will satisfy your hiring managers, and completely revolutionize how talent is brought into your organization.

Is this true?

It is. I’ve been you. The problem is, it won’t work. The new process, is the old process, with better clip art. The new process might actually be a ‘better’ process, but it doesn’t matter. The reason it doesn’t matter is because of something you aren’t even considering. Why are you ‘re-processing’? Let’s assume it’s because you need to get “more” out of your recruiting process. You need more talent, you need more compliance, you need more satisfied hiring managers, you need more retention, you need, more.

That’s really what this is all about. If your current process was delivering you more, you wouldn’t change.

Do you know why your ‘new’ process won’t work either? You don’t really want to get more. You’re afraid of more. More opens you up to things you could hide from under the old process.

That is why your ‘new’ process will fail. Deep down, in places you don’t talk about at work, you don’t want the process to succeed.

Having a successful process means you have to open yourself up to failure. A successful process needs some things to be successful. Hard metrics, levels of accountability, a line in the sand that says “we own this”. Those things will demonstrate success, and they will clearly demonstrate failure. We love demonstrating our success. No one loves demonstrating our failure. So, we attempt to ‘re-process’ a process that will ensure our success, and also ensure we don’t fail. That is impossible. Success only works as a comparison. Here is how we succeed, because here is what it looks like if we fail.

Organizationally, failing isn’t the worst thing that can happen, but individually we fear it. This fear keeps us from designing the process our organization really needs. A process that will show those doing it right, and those not doing it right. A process that shows us where we need to improve, specifically. A process that will lead to some black and white decisions.

That is why your new Recruiting process will fail. You are not willing to build one that will show your failures.

5 Ways Mobile Recruiting is Morphing Candidate Behavior

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Tim Sackett

From my buddy Kris Dunn at The HR Capitalist and Fistful of Talent – The FOT Webinar Series presents the ins and outs of Mobile Recruiting – check it out!

I love it (I know you do too…) when companies start talking about how they block specific types of websites to prevent employees from doing certain things. One of the types of sites companies love to block is career sites. ”You’re not going to look for a job while you’re working.”

You’re right, boss. We won’t look for a job on your laptop while we’re working for “the man.” But we’ll absolutely wear it out on breaks, lunch and as soon as we leave work with our mobile device. Heck – we’ll probably do it at work from our mobile device as well.

That reality means you should probably figure out what’s going on with mobile recruiting, right? That’s why the latest installment of the FOT webinar series is all about candidate behavior on mobile. Join Ed Newman from iMomentous and Kris on Tuesday, April 1st from 3-4pm EST for Happy Hour Job Search: Driving the Behavior of Mobile Job Seekers, and we’ll hit you with the following:

– A complete breakdown of the basic demographics and behaviors of mobile job seekers, with strategies on how to use that data to influence candidate behavior.

– Inside information about power users of mobile career sites, including the level of education they’ve achieved, years of work experience and most prevalent zodiac sign (we’re kidding about the last one–but it would be cool if Capricorns were the most mobile savvy, right?).

– What behavior and life patterns surrounding mobile use cause employers to see spikes at particular hours of the day from mobile, and how that impacts your mobile recruiting strategy.

– The impact of mobile friendly career sites and email campaigns to click through rates from mobile candidates.

– Then, we’ll show you how all the factors listed above make providing highly relevant content and calls to action the key to success with mobile candidates.

A winning recruiting strategy starts with understanding the candidate you’re seeking. Where is your candidate sitting at the moment they choose to hit “apply?” What are they doing 10 seconds before they land on your site?

Odds are they’re on a mobile device.

Remember how your parents thought the Internet was a fad? Don’t fall into the same trap with mobile recruiting. Join Ed Newman and Kris on Tuesday, April 1st from 3-4pm EST for Happy Hour Job Search: Driving the Behavior of Mobile Job Seekers, and we’ll hit you with the best strategies to get the most out your mobile recruiting strategy in 2014 and beyond.

The Only Way To Hire A Recruiter

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Tim Sackett

I’m always on the lookout for a silver bullet to make great recruiter hires! But, I haven’t found one, yet!

I’ve met and been around thousands of recruiters in my career, and most have a few similar traits that make them successful at recruiting, think:

Self Motivated
Ability to drag information out of an individual
No phone fear
Quick minded
Connector of people
Etc.

The reality is, though, no one has really found the secret sauce to hiring great ‘potential’ recruiters. I say potential because it’s rare I that I hire experienced recruiters. It’s not that I have a problem with experienced recruiters…wait, I probably do have a problem with experienced recruiters. Here’s my deal, if you’re a really good recruiter, I shouldn’t be able to afford you. If I can afford you, you’re not a good recruiter. I like to grow my own. No recruiting experience, come on in and we’ll show you the ropes. By the time you end up being really good, I’ll be paying you really well and everyone is happy.

That still leaves me with a better way to find those who, potentially, could be really good at recruiting. There isn’t any ‘recruiter starter’ program at the local community college, and while Enterprise Rent A Car kids have been a good breeding ground, that isn’t perfect either. Sure, Allegis/Aerotek has used the Fraternity and Sorority route for years, and that has done well for them, but I want something that is more of a sure thing.

And, I think I might have it.

For my next Recruiter hire, I’m going to have the candidates actually recruit someone for their interview process. Game show style! Bring in three people we like from a personality standpoint, give them a requisition on a need we have with all the details, and send them home. First one to come back with a valid candidate that we would want to hire, get’s the job!

I know, I know – you can thank me later – I solved it!

Think about it for a minute. If the candidate truly wants to recruit they should be able to fumble there way through one requisition to find some candidates that are relatively close. The reality is, I want to see how they go about it, I want to talk to them once they find the person and ask them a million questions about how they did it, what they would do different, etc. I want to know that they actually want to do this. My guess is 2/3 of the candidates won’t complete the task and I’m completely fine with that, because I don’t them, and they probably don’t want me!

What do you think? Would you take on the task?

The Great Recession Fall out on Talent Acquisition

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Tim Sackett

I have a feeling I’m about to preach to the choir. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with a hiring manager lately, that just don’t get it! (I hear you saying “What do you mean “lately” – does a hiring manager “ever” get it!) The Recession has made our job very hard, especially if you are currently trying to hire anyone with technical skills (engineers, designers, IT professionals, Scientist, etc.). During the Recession we had candidates coming out of our ears! Today, it seems like, almost overnight, technical jobs across the country have turned on like a fire hose! Everywhere companies are trying to find technical talent, in all industries, all at the same time. Remember that baby boomer Tsunami of retirement we were suppose to see? This feels like the first waves are hitting the shore in terms of technical hiring!

I’ve spoken to engineering schools that 100% graduation hires, plus companies now paying for engineering seniors, senior year of tuition! I’ve spoken to companies that have had to double their payroll projections, mid-budget year, just to have enough money to hire the same amount of projected hires at the beginning of the year. In HR and Recruiting we get this, the market moves, sometimes very quickly, and organizations have to be prepared to adjust and move with it, or risk causing some very bad outcomes to our operations. But, do our hiring managers get this?

I’m hear to say, not enough have gotten the message!

Over the past few months, it we are now having daily “conversations” with hiring managers who are still wanting to see the same 20 candidates they saw during the height of the recession, and turning down candidates for minor things like “he seemed a little shy”, “she was from Tech and I like State grads”, or “he’s had 2 jobs in the past 10 years!” I’ve had hiring managers have interviews, come back and say they like both candidates really well, but would like to see some more! When I don’t any more! It all sounds familiar doesn’t it! The Recession did this to them! It made the greedy, it made them ultra picky, and it made them believe there is a never ending pool of great candidates who only want to come work at your company. Ugh! I hate the Recession!

So what?

In HR/Recruiting this is where we become marketers. We have to start selling, and what we are selling is an idea. An idea that the world is different, they sky is falling and there’s only one person left to hire. “That person, is the stupid candidate I just put in front of your face!!!” (wouldn’t that be great if we could say that!?) Look, I understand you and your hiring managers “only want to hire the best talent”; by the way so does everyone else. But times are changing, if you want to hire the best, you better be paying the best, or at least offering the best value proposition as compared to your competitors. Lines of candidates aren’t out there just waiting for calls any longer.

It’s really just simple addition, more technical job openings than candidates + baby boomers now beginning to feel like they can retire = our job just got a lot tougher!

Do your hiring managers get this equation?

The 3 Minute Hire

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Tim Sackett

Let’s look at how 95% of people are hired. Besides a little variability, almost every person, at some point in their career, has been hired in this manner. Interview someone for an hour. If you like them, you make them an offer. Sound about right? Sure you might actually add some other steps, like phone screening first, a second one hour interview with someone else, but your reality is, it’s an hour interview, and the decision is made!

We’ve taken the one hour interview and expanded it with science. We add pre-employment screens, cognitive testing, background screens, personality profiles, etc. But, we still go back to the one hour interview. “Well, Tim tested off the charts, all the data says, he will be a rock star, but I didn’t connect with him in the one hour interview. I don’t want to hire him.” We allow our hiring managers to do this, often.

A much better way to hire would be to have the actual candidate work with you for like four to six weeks, before you actually hire them. An extended job tryout. Pay them to come interview with you for 4 weeks. That would actually be a better way. It would probably limit your options for candidates. It would leave you with people who are unemployed, the under-employed, those working consultant or temporary type of jobs, or those people who love your brand so much they would be willing to risk it all to prove to you, that they are the one you really want.

Or, you can continue on the one hour interview platform. But take away all the other stuff. In fact, take away the one hour, and just do an initial impression interview. It might take about 3 minutes. “Initially I really liked Tim! Let’s do this.” You would virtually get the same exact candidate as you do with your one hour process. But you would save so much time, effort and resources. Your hiring quality and retention would almost remain unchanged. That would be the second way.

1. Extended Job Tryout Hire

2. 3 Minute First Impression Hire

Reality is, most would be more willing to do the 3 minute First Impression hires than the Extended Job Tryout hires, even though one leads to actual better hires, and the other does exactly what you have now. We fear that changing to something we view as ‘radical’ will be worse than what we have. Even though, we know it won’t. So, we keep doing what we do. Scheduling one hour interviews and hiring those people who we ‘felt’ the best connection with.

If I was you, I’d go with the 3 minute interview. It’s simple. It’s the same. Your hiring managers will actually like the new process.

Client Respect and Love

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Tim Sackett

I dropped a vision on my team a couple weeks ago. I think it’s important for any leader to do this, but it’s also important that it be completely authentic and transparent. I say ‘dropped’ on my team, because that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t let anyone know I was ‘working’ on my vision, because I wasn’t. It came to me. Like a vision. It took me about a week to get the thoughts down in my own style, and add a grammatical error or two.

I’m not sharing my vision with you. It’s for me and my team.

I will share a concept from it. I want to work with clients who want to work with us. Not just work with us, but want to partner with us. Now, I know we throw that word ‘partner’ around a bunch. My vision of a partner is a client who respects us and loves us. We have to have both, love and respect, to get to my vision. Respect isn’t enough.

In HR many times we will say something like “I don’t need that hiring manager to like me, as long as they respect me.” That’s just a nice way we lie to ourselves that this will be a functional relationship. It’s not. You need more than respect, to be wildly successful. You need Love.

I want love.

I want respect.

I want to work with clients who respect what we bring to them from a skill and support side. But I also want clients who love us, and we love them. That I look forward to talking to them, to seeing them, and they feel the same way. That isn’t easy. But it is something I think we owe to ourselves. To work with people we love to work with, whether it’s those sitting next to us as coworkers, or those clients we work with daily.

I don’t care if I was selling staffing solutions, or the cure for cancer, my vision would not change. I don’t care if I’m running a business or running a department, my vision stays the same. In HR you have ‘clients’, all those who you support. Are you trying to get your clients to love and respect you? If you reach that level, where they do, it will make your job, your life, glorious.

Becoming A Victim Of Can’t

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Tim Sackett

I spoke in Huntsville, Al this week to a group of around 175 HR and Talent Pros for North Alabama SHRM. It was a fun group. They had a ton of energy and were willing to put up with me and my fast talking northern ways! My wife told me to be more respectful, than usual, on my way down to Alabama. She said southern women expected more manners than I was use to!

For those who don’t much about Huntsville it is a big military town, which means most people either work on the base, or work for a contractor supporting one of the many military contracts coming out of the base. There are literally hundreds of companies in Huntsville that are considered military ‘contractors’. That’s really just a big fancy term for companies that won a military contract, which is just a scope of work they need to do or deliver to the military.

If you haven’t worked a military contract before, they come with as much red tape and rules as you can expect from the U.S. government. That becomes a very big problem for HR Pros who love to follow rules! One thing that was apparent very early into the day was that some Huntsville HR and Talent Pros became very comfortable with saying the following statement:

“We can’t do that, we are a military contractor!”

You can probably guess what my answer was to that! “Yes, you can! You just have to find a way to do it!” What they didn’t expect was that my company was also a military contractor, I was going to accept any victim statements. Yes, you are a military contractor. Isn’t it great! Now, let’s find out how we can use Facebook to recruit and find you some really good talent!

But, Tim, OFCCP! OFCCP won’t allow us to social recruit! Really. It really says within OFCCP regulations that you can’t recruit on Facebook!? Well, no, but…you just don’t understand. Yeah, I understand more than you really know. I understand it’s going to be hard, but it can be done. I also understand that it’s really easy to fall the victim and use OFCCP as a crutch to why we can do our job.

I actually spoke to two pros who were going through OFCCP audits. Scary stuff for any HR or Talent Pro. But I didn’t even let them use it as a crutch. I asked them if they would get through it. Yes, was the answer. Did you get fined? No. So, now you just have to figure how to make it the sourcing you need to do, work within your OFCCP process. Not easy. But doable and needed.

The most dangerous thing we’ll ever face in our career is becoming a victim of can’t. I’m a firm believer you can try to do anything. We might not succeed, but it shouldn’t stop you from trying. Things like OFCCP are there to catch bad companies, doing bad things. I’ve never spoken to a good company, with good people, trying to do the right things, that ever had an issue with OFCCP! Ever!

Go do the right things for your organization, and in the end trust that why you might get audited, you are doing what is right. That’s ultimately all you really can do.