iRecruiter – How to Recruit more like Apple

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Open position… Job posting… Mass distribution via automation… Rinse, repeat.

What’s that? You took a flyer on social recruiting and it hasn’t delivered any real results for you?

There are a million things for people to read on the web. With that in mind, if you want the right people to stop, read and take action on an open position at your company, your goal should be to entertain them with your recruiting pitch – or at least not bore them to death.

Join Fistful of Talent for our August installment of the FOT webinar, “That’s Your Pitch? How to Raise Your Recruiting Game By Acting Less Like ACME and More Like Apple”, as hosts Kris Dunn and Andrew Curtis (from iCIMS) deliver the following:

1. The Top 5 Traits of Successful Marketers and Advertisers recruiters should use to raise their promotional game. We’ll deliver this in true Mac vs. PC style. What do great marketers do to generate interest?

2. How to Prevent Your Job Postings from Being Lame. We’ll show you what to include with live examples ripped from the companies we love.

3. How Cool Companies are Experimenting with Elements Beyond Text (including video, audio and more) to deliver some pop to traditional recruiting campaigns.

4. We’ll play a game we like to call, “That’s Your Freaking Pitch?” – where we peel back the cover and take a hard look at traditional messaging that flows through your recruiting function today after the job posting goes out – including ATS messaging, live call recruiter scripts and more

5. A Plan to Customize Your Social Distribution Message Across the Big 3 (LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook). You know the same message doesn’t work across all social channels, we’ll tell you how to do it.

Stop thinking like a recruiter and start thinking like your marketing friends down the hall. Join us for this webinar (sponsored by iCIMS) and we’ll help you breathe some life back into your candidate outreach.

Register Today – Click Here!

Great HR Doesn’t Come from Big HR Shops

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Tim Sackett

We here it all the time:

“They’ve got to much to lose to take that kind of a risk.”

Or statements similar to this.

As I travel out and about on the fall HR conference tour (most State level SHRM conferences happen in the fall) I’m reminded constantly that Big HR Shops (Fortune 500 companies, Big Government, Giant Non-Profits, etc.) are not who you should be turning to for the next great HR ideas. Maybe you can turn to them for Best Practices – but is best practice – where you want to be? Best Practice is by it’s nature – solid and fully vetted – for years. It’s great HR from 5+ years ago. Safe. You can’t go wrong with Best Practice HR. But please stop trying to act like it’s “great” HR – it’s not – it’s more of the same HR.

There’s actually a name for this, it’s called Loss Aversion theory, which is basically:

“people’s tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains. Some studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains.”

What this all boils down to in HR is what you have to lose by taking a chance. Want a industry changing benefit program? You have to get way out of the box. Big HR Shops don’t get way out of the box. By the way – Google is a big HR shop – Giant. So are most of the other companies you continue to use as examples of “Great” HR, but they really aren’t “great” HR. I say this because I’m tired to hearing “more of the same HR” practices at conferences being played off as “Great HR” practices, and seeing my HR peers buy it as life altering HR. It’s not – unless you have a Delorean that can’t go back in time to when it was.

So you want Great HR, you want HR that will change industries in 5 years? Don’t get caught up with a brand – get caught up with an idea. Too often we want the “brand” – “Oh, look Southwest Airlines HR is going to be talking – I MUST go see them!” Stop! Southwest was great 20 years ago – they aren’t anymore – they are the same now – which is still good – but not “Great”. You don’t want to be like Southwest Airlines right now – you want to be like Southwest Airlines 20 years ago. You’re goal is to find that session with that person you’ve never heard of – they have nothing to lose – they will probably have better ideas.

I’m probably on an island with this one. Because everyone wants to hear about how the “Big Boys” are doing it – because if they are doing “it”, “it “must be good. But you know I’m comfortable on this island – this island is full of start-ups you’ve never heard of and they are fighting to make it ever day and that fight propels them into a space the “Big Boys” won’t go. This island has a bunch of creative HR pros who don’t have books published and aren’t paid to speak – they get their hands dirty, they make mistakes – they – make – great HR.

58% of College Students Are Willing to Lie

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Tim Sackett

According to a recent study by NetImpact – What Workers Want in 2012 58% of College Students (1,726 total in the study) would take a 15% pay cut to work for an organization who’s values matched their own. In another study, I’m willing to coach the Los Angles Lakers for less than half what they are paying their current coach (1 total in this study)!

These studies are silly – it’s hypothetical, college kids still believe in things – like fairness and equal opportunity and you’ll always be able to drink 12 beers and get up the next morning and run 3 miles. Let’s wait for all 1,726 college students who took the study to get a job and then 5 years from now when they are employed we’ll go to them and force them to make a choice –

1. You keep your current salary and stay with your current job

2. You take a 15% pay cut and move to Employer A which happens to have the same values as you, under the current leadership team

I will bet my entire life savings that less than 58% of those people would choose to leave their current employers (no matter what job they have) and take a 15% pay cut! In fact I would be fairly confident to say only about 10% would take us up on our offer, and they were already looking or getting pushed out. So, what does the study really say? That college students being asked silly hypothetical questions for a study about how they will act in the future, are willing to lie.

Why do I think these studies are silly? Because solid, well meaning, HR Pros will go out and start recruiting folks to their organization who have the same values that “they” have. “They” being the key word. Who is “they”? Well, Tim, we went to our leadership and our managers and our employees and we did value assessment and we found that 73% of our folks valued honesty and integrity over 67% that valued hard work and a fun work place. Oh, you’ve got it figured out…

Here’s what I’m thinking – values are hard to hire – but you think they aren’t. I can hire for skills, I can hire for past performance, etc. When it comes to values and morals, I’m really throwing myself down the rabbit hole. Hiring for values and morals puts the selectors values and morals into play way too much. If Peggy is your main screener – you better damn hope Peggy shares the exact values and morals you’re trying to hire for – or you’re going to be in for a surprise down the road.

I’m not saying don’t do it – I’m saying you better weight it appropriately with some other criteria. I seem to be in the minority who still believes having the fire power to do the job, and some past performance to back it up, is still fairly important when selecting candidates. And if Humility doesn’t seem to be a part of their value chain, I think I might be able to work around that – if they can perform!

3 Reasons Good Recruiters are Good at Recruiting

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Tim Sackett

I was reminded this past week that recruiting is very hard. No, it’s not hard to post a job on your careers page and wait for a resume, that you won’t screen, and just pass along to the hiring manager -that’s not hard. Recruiting is hard – when it comes down to finding talent that really doesn’t want to be found and has no desire to go to work for your bad culture and crappy manager who turns over people constantly – that’s when recruiting is hard!

I think there are 3 main differences that separate good recruiting from bad recruiting. They are:

1. Good recruiters have the ability to change your mind about an opportunity, before money is even discussed. Bad recruiters lead with the money. Good recruiters believe in their organizations, believe in the position, and believe in the hiring manager as a great leader. Then they make you a believer!

2. Good recruiters know your rejections before you know them and address them as such. Relocation is probably the toughest one that comes to mind – next to relocation and a spouse who doesn’t want to relocate (that’s like Kryptonite to a Recruiter!). Getting someone to relocate for a new position, new company – when they are a great talent with a great organization – takes a recruiter with an exceptional ability to connect the dots for the candidates. This becomes the – this is why you need to be here, right now kind of moment that great recruiters come up with instead of just hanging up the phone and calling someone else.

3. Good recruiters know how to dig, and love to get dirty. Let’s face it, you mining the Monster database isn’t recruiting – I can easily find a $10/hr admin type who can do that and they’ll actually be more engaged doing it! Good recruiters love the search – yeah, it can be frustrating and heartbreaking, but when you uncover that hidden gem – it very much is worth the work!

The last four or five years have given us an environment where newer recruiters just coming into the industry, didn’t have to be good – they had to be present. Being present isn’t a qualification, necessarily, to becoming a good recruiter. High unemployment and low jobs, gives you an abundance to candidates and usually qualified candidates as well. This doesn’t make you a good recruiter – it makes you a good screener. In many industries we are now seeing the value of good recruiters come back, as certain job markets are opening up in a big way and candidates, even bad ones, are no longer advertising themselves as available.

Good recruiting is invaluable to a good HR shop – and bad recruiting is the quickest way for your HR shop to lose credibility with your leadership. So, what can you do? Don’t allow bad recruiting to live in your barn! Good Recruiting is hard, and it shouldn’t look easy and it doesn’t work 40 hours per week, 8 to 5 pm, Monday thru Friday. But, bad recruiting is betting on the fact that you don’t know the difference, or you are to lazy to do anything about it.

Can You Hear Facebook coming LinkedIn?

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Tim Sackett

This is old news but – last week Facebook announced that Facebook Jobs is coming! You can almost hear the Jaws theme music playing in the background, can’t you!? CareerBuilder, Dice, LinkedIn, etc. – all the job boards – you can bet are taking note. 900 Million users – everyone from your Grandma to your Mom to your cousin Mary – from Brain Surgeons to Alligator Wrestlers – Facebook has got them.

My good friend Lance Haun wrote about his over at TLNT last week – What Is Facebook Thinking? Do We Really Need Another Job Board? From Lance’s post:

“The strength is obvious: imagine you’re applying for a job at XYZ company and you find out that a friend’s family member works there. Or what if some sort of robust search capability were added to the site? Or what if Facebook could recommend certain career options based on your activity beyond career-related postings?

The problem is that it would also come at the expense of privacy and the sort of digital wall that many people have put up to differentiate between their Facebook life and their LinkedIn life. Yet, the sheer numbers potential is attractive in it’s own right.”

This is the argument that LinkedIn has been hoping you will buy! And so far you have been! LinkedIn is for Professional, Facebook is for Personal. It’s a 2008 argument. Most people don’t want to live two lives – they would prefer to live one, but they feel they can’t be themselves professionally – they need to be this watered down version of themselves – at least when not at a conference – then anything goes. Let’s get real for a second – everyone is on Facebook – Your Mom, Your co-workers, Your boss, the owner of your company, your HR Manager, your ex-boyfriends, your current boyfriend – everyone. Your not hiding anything – even with your ‘privacy’ settings. It’s time to stop living the double life and be yourself.

Here’s what is really exciting about Facebook Jobs – We finally get access to everyone! Well, almost everyone – at least 7 times more than LinkedIn – and all those ‘Passive’ candidates! Even if Facebook only goes for the quick cash grab and does postings for a fee – it’s still better than just posting on a Job Board or LinkedIn. People like to look, lurk and see what’s open – it’s human nature. Facebook is the perfect place for this. Just like when LinkedIn started and HR Pros were actually encouraging their employees to get on, to ‘network’ (don’t we look stupid now!) – no one will consider a person on Facebook to necessarily be job hunting. It’s the perfect safe environment for this to happen. Plus, it easily allows people to engage their personal networks when they see something interesting that someone in their personal network would have interest in.

LinkedIn should be nervous – good talent is already leaving or ignoring them at this point – recruiters have taken it over – it’s become spammy. Facebook is an open frontier – the best recruiters are already finding ways within Facebook to network and source. Facebook Jobs – or whatever they decide to do – could be a big game changer for recruiters.

4 Annoying Ways To Follow Up After An Interview

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Jenny Foss (@JobJenny) had a good article over at Forbes recently, 4 Non-Annoying Ways To Follow Up After An Interview, where she gave some tried and true job seeker advice out for post interview contact. If was what you would expect from a Forbes article: Ask about next steps, send a thank you note, connect via LinkedIn, etc. Safe stuff. Not knowing Jenny, I looked her up on her blog – JobJenny.com and after learning a little about her – I think she probably wanted to write the 4 Most Annoying Ways – but didn’t want to throw her Forbes gig out the window – so I’m here to try and do it for her. Let’s face it – Forbes isn’t asking me to write any time soon!

The one thing that all HR and Talent Pros can connect with is having to deal with stalker candidates who are relentless at contacting you after an interview. The ironic part of this, is they are most likely following someone’s bad advice – usually a parent (If you don’t call them, they won’t know you’re “really” interested), or a grandparent (Back in my day we would go back the next day and knock on their door again to tell them how interested in the job we were) telling them what they needed to do. Even worse – many times they are following the advice of a Pseudo HR Pro who is shoveling out free career advice like they actually know what they’re talking about – until you realize they haven’t actually worked in HR since the 1970’s. For those of us in the trenches – having to deal with overly aggressive candidates following up can be the biggest pain of our day.

So, here are 4 Annoying Ways To Follow Up After An Interview (if you’re a candidate, stop doing this!):

1. Use Your Inside Connection in my company to get feedback. Nothing screams cheesy more than doing this! Hey, my uncle works in tech support, I’ll just have him contact Tim in HR to see how I did. When this happens to me – I go overboard to the connection on how bad they did, so much so we are actually rethinking your employment because of your relationship.

2. Send me a Thank you note to my Home. Yes, this has happened to me – and yes it was way creepy. The last thing I want to deal with when I walk into the door of my home is some crazy candidate from work. No, it does not show initiative – it shows your propensity to be a stalker.

3. Ask me to be Facebook friends. Look, I don’t even want to be work friends if we hire you, and I certainly don’t want you picking around my Facebook page. I would rather you tattoo a picture of my on your chest and put it on a billboard before befriending you on Facebook. Don’t do this!

4. Leave me a voicemail everyday for 2 weeks. Again, this doesn’t show initiative, it shows desperation – Like the veteran running-back who run into the end-zone and tosses the football to the umpire – act like you’ve been there. You can follow up once – a quick “thank you” and a “I’m definitely interested” is all that it takes.

I can’t even begin to tell you some of the crazy ways that candidates have tried to stay in touch and get noticed over the years – but most bordered on insanity and just helped me screen them out as a possible selection. The ones who seem not interested, are the ones I usually had to stalk myself! (Seem familiar ladies!?) I would tell you to just use common sense – but that seems to be thrown out the window on most folks – so I’ll say less is more and be respectful of the hiring managers time.

A Job Post with Your Name On It!

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Tim Sackett

I was in a conversation the other day with another Talent Pro and she was asking me for some advice on getting better applicants to apply for her postings. I asked a number of questions but one that really got the conversation moving was:

Do you know who you want to apply for this position?

She told me “Yes” and then went on to give the specifications of the job description. I said “No”, do you know the Name of the person you want to apply to this position? She laughed – she thought I was joking – I wasn’t. Well, I half-wasn’t. It was a quirky idea, but in the right environment and small to medium community you could really make a splash by actually naming your post after the person who you really want to take the job. Can you imagine!

Wanted “Michael Smith – Chemical Engineer” – please apply today!

The obvious issue at play here is – well – if I knew the name of the person I wanted, why wouldn’t I just call them up and ask if they wanted the job!? GREAT question – why don’t you? It’s actually fairly easy to find names of competitor employees you might want to hire. So, why don’t you call them up and ask them if they want the job you have? You know why? Because it’s F’ing hard to do! That’s why the search industry is a multi-Billion (with a “B”) business.

So, instead of calling them – just make a job posting with their name on it – and go float it around town – through your social channels, on your website, maybe a job board posting, etc. Believe me – it will get back to the person you are looking, and if they are interested – they will come calling. Seems silly, but I bet it would work far more than it wouldn’t. People like to feel wanted. How much more wanted can you get than a company creating a job posting with your “actual” name on it! THIS job is for me! You would say to yourself.

In a tough talent marketplace, sometimes it’s the easy, simple things that make the difference. Sometimes people just want to know they’re wanted. We make this search game so difficult sometimes. I always tell people I have the easiest job in the world. I just have to ask people if they are interested in a job, I have open. Pretty easy! I’m not trying to launch the space shuttle or fix someones heart – I just need to see if they would have interest in making a job change. The rest is just market variables, all of which, are probably pretty similar to the next guy. Many times, it comes down to only one thing – me showing interest in them, and their current company not showing the same level of interest in keeping them.

I say give it shot – what’s the worse that can happen – you get your community talking about your company and how aggressively you’re going after people? That’s not all bad – either way!

Interview Gal

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Tim Sackett

I love listening to Jim Rome, Sports Radio and TV Sports Talk show host, and one of his classic bits is to go off and some of the crazy types of personalities we see in our every day lives – Slow Pitch Softball Guy, Travel Baseball Dad Coach Guy, Crazy Soccer Mom, etc. We see these people go from normal everyday accountant to something we can’t even recognize anymore! Wait is that Steve from the office?! No, it’s Slow Pitch Softball Guy – acting like a fool and playing like it’s game 7 of the world series when it’s really just a lazy Wednesday night with a bunch of guys trying to get away from the family for a couple of hours and have a beer and play a game!

I see this in our HR lives as well! My favorite is “Interview Gal“! You know her! She’s the lady who comes in to interview for your position – and you realize right away she probably escaped that morning from the mental hospital!

Here’s what Interview Gal likes to say during her interview:

“Why did I leave my last job? I didn’t feel it was right for my soul.”

“Haa haa haa, snort, haa, snort, ha ha!”

“Um, do you have anything else besides water or coffee? I really like tea!”

“Why do I want to work here!? Duh! The money! No, really just kidding – ha ha, snort – I need a position to help me pay my bills.”

“My strengths? I’m strong at a lot, and I’m not really late very much, I mean traffic is crazy around here, but I always try and leave early to get to work on time.”

“Is it hot in here? I’m roasting – must be those hormones!”

“So, I don’t want to bring this up, but if you hire me – I need to leave early every other Tuesday for my group. And one Monday per month I will take off all together – but that should be it. Do you let everyone out early on Fridays?”

I would have an “Interview Guy” but those comments would consist of “Yes” and “No” and “You know” and not much else!

I love HR for the simple fact, almost daily, candidates give me great joy and stories to share with my friends and family. I have a theory that people aren’t necessarily crazy, but the actual exercise of performing an interview makes them crazy! Kind of like when you bring out your video camera and your kids immediately lose their minds trying to crazy stuff in front of the camera. The same things happens to candidates and we (HR) are the cameras!

Got’em Right Off The Boat

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Don’t know if you’ve seen this, but a company called Blueseed recently announced their plans to build a ship to house Technical start-up workers off the shore of San Francisco, far enough off shore to in ‘International’ waters. Makes you trying to get around the Visa issue just a little easier, now doesn’t it!? What we’ve run out of H1B’s for the year – don’t worry about it – just hire them and put them on the boat! Gives a whole new meaning to “off-shoring”.

Here’s the explanation from Blueseed:

As a foreign national, to legally earn a paycheck in the United States, you would need a valid U.S. work visa. To live and earn a paycheck aboard the Blueseed vessel, you will only need a passport.

If you are outside of the U.S., you’ll have to enter the U.S. first before boarding the Blueseed vessel. The best way to do this, and to be allowed to legally come to mainland, is to obtain a B1 (business) or B2 (tourist) visa. These visas are easier to obtain because they don’t grant the right to work in the U.S., are usually valid for 10 years (check validity for your country here) and are often combined into a B1/B2 business/pleasure visa. Nationals of 36 industrialized nations are exempted from this requirement for travel periods of up to 90 days, under the Visa Waiver program.

I like it. I like when someone finds away around the system legally – or so they’ve interpreted it to be legal. It’s creativity, in business, at it’s best! We have a problem (not enough technical workers) – we’ve found a solution (building a big barge and anchoring just off the shores of the United States for you to ~~hide~~ house such workers). It causes everyone to have an instant opinion – you either think it’s legal or that it’s not legal, or you think it’s good for business or bad for business – it’s polarizing. It’s change. It’s fun!

I’d like to see some company take it one step further – put a floating work place in International air space! Sure that would make your work place 12 miles straight up in the air – but can you imagine the base jumps down to the ground! Talk about an extra benefit for your employees – even your employment brand would rock – “Working Here Is A Thrill A Minute!” or “Jump Into Your Career with Us!” – I mean the ideas are endless. Plus, with my airspace idea you won’t be hampered by just living hear water – you can move that sucker anywhere on Earth!

So, what do you think about Blueseed? Good idea or cheesy-creative attempt to get around U.S. Immigration and Labor Laws?

The Tim Sackett Project

TA & HR Expert, Dad, Backup Point Guard on my over 40 men's team

Category Archives: Sourcing

Great HR Doesn’t Come from Big HR Shops

“LinkedIn? Is that the Facebook for Recruiters?”