3 Ways To Change Your Life, Overnight!

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Yo!  I’m on vacation for the next week.  Instead of writing I’m gong to run old posts that no one read, but I thought were brilliant.  That’s the hard part because I think everything I write is brilliant.  Some of the stuff really gets well read, and some of the stuff just sits there and gets no love.  In 5 years of blog writing, I still haven’t found out why some pieces I write don’t get read!  I mean, I know why some do.

Everyone wants to read – “3 Ways To Change Your Life Overnight!”  There is this belief that idiots like me will somehow write this brilliant post with the 3 actual reasons to change your life overnight, but in reality this doesn’t exist.  But you click on it, because you’re hoping for a miracle.  I don’t have miracles, or I wouldn’t be writing blog posts.  I’d be sitting on a beach somewhere enjoying a margarita.  That’s how I believe miracles work. If I have one, it equals me sitting on a beach, drinking a margarita.

See!  I can’t solve your biggest problems overnight. I think miracles equal beaches and margaritas.  Which gets me back to the point – that’s where I’m going!  It’s a miracle!

I could actually just title every post something it’s not and it would get more clicks:

– The 1 Miracle Food That Will Melt Your Big Fat Belly!

– Get Pretty By Doing Nothing!

– Hire Brilliant People By Posting and Praying!

– Six Figure HR Jobs From Home!

– It’s Not You! It’s All Those Other Assholes!

– 6 Pack Abs, 6 Seconds Per Week!

– How To Kill A Hiring Manager and Not Get Caught!

See.  It works.  People don’t want real solutions, people want miracle solutions.  My miracle solution is: Beaches and Margaritas.

Sorry – that’s all I really have.

Until I get back from my miracle – enjoy the stuff you should have already enjoyed, but didn’t.

7 Habits Of Remarkably Likeable HR Managers

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Ripped from the pages of Inc. Magazine’s recent article 7 Habits of Remarkably Likeable Bosses, I give you…something slightly different:

7 Habits Of Remarkably Likeable HR Managers!

1. They are named “Kay”.  Have you ever really not liked someone named, Kay!?  Kay just seems like a friendly lady with at least 3 cats and grandchildren, a whole lot of grandchildren.  Kay is helpful.  Kay will give you a hug when you need it.  Kay brings in really good comfort food with funny names like “Redneck Bunt Cake”.

2. They dress up on dress up days at work.  You know what I’m talking about.  They wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.  They wear their normal sweater on Ugly Christmas Sweater Day.  They aren’t afraid to be apart of the festivities.  People like people who are involved.

3. They order right mix of cookies for the conference room.  Don’t even think about discounting this as ‘remarkable’!  Have you ever been late to a meeting and had to choke down an oatmeal raisin cookie!?  Likeable HR Managers know you need at least a 3 to 1 chocolate chip to raisin mix at a minimum, really high performers will forgo all raisin cookies all together.

4. They are forgetful.  You know that one holiday party where you had too much to drink and hooked up with a coworker, and your HR Manager saw? Yeah, don’t worry, she forgot on purpose, because she doesn’t want your one bad decision to haunt your entire career with the company.  Likeable HR Managers tend to forget your misdeeds (that are forgivable) and remember the value you bring to the organization!

5. They Drink the Kool-Aid.  A likeable HR Manager is one who is also an organizations cheerleader.  They support top managements decisions, and in turn help others in the organization to see the benefits as well.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Getting everyone to move in the same direction is a very powerful trait to have.  Some will view it as they are just followers, I view it as a great strategy to build influence.

6.  They cuss at your CEO.  You wouldn’t actually know about this trait, because besides being remarkably likeable, they’re also remarkably professional and only do this behind closed doors of your CEO’s office. But they do it, and they’re the only one who does it and gets away with it.  It keeps your CEO from going crazy train, and they appreciate it, as long as it stays between just the two of them.

7. They don’t rake sh*t.  You know what happens when you rake sh*t that’s been lying stagnant for a long time?  It stinks. That’s just like problems in your organization that have been laying dormant for some time.  You begin digging up and turning over stuff, you’ll find stuff that stinks.  Many times that stuff has been taken care of and is water under the bridge. No reason to rake sh*t, unless you just like the smell.

For those who will hate on this and say “I don’t want to be liked, I want to be respected!” I say, “Why, not both!?”  It’s not a one or the other choice, you can have both.  The HR Pro who can be respected and likeable is the HR Pro I want working for my team!

I Mostly Work For Free

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

Dilbert Headhunter

 

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.

 

 

Recruiting is my Drug

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I don’t take drugs.  It’s not that I’m anti-drug, I just had something happen in my formative years that scared the hell out of me, so I never really went down that path. I’m 16 years old in 1986, and I’m sitting at home watching this cool new cable show called ESPN SportsCenter and they announce Boston Celtic’s first round draft pick, Len Bias, overdosed using cocaine, and died. I was in complete shock. His friends came out and said it was the first time he ever tried drugs.  First time, dead.  I was scared straight.

Don’t get me wrong, if I’m in pain, drugs are good.  If I’m sick, give me a pill to get better.  I would love it if there was a pill I could take and never get fat.  Also, to give me a full head of hair again.  One second thought, it sounds like I’m actually pro-drug!

I think all of us find certain things that tend to get us going.  For many people that is exercise. Others like to go out and drink and have fun.  I get super energized when I’m recruiting!  I know, geeky, right!?

Like most drugs, recruiting can bring out the best and worse in me.  When recruiting is great, you have a great opportunity for someone, you find the perfect person for that opportunity, it makes you feel like you can do anything.  It’s the high!  When recruiting is bad, you have positions no one wants, you find talent without any other options, your hiring managers think you couldn’t find ice in the North Pole, well, that’s the down side of drugs.

The high brings you back, though.

The right job, the right person, when it seems like no one else has had success.  It reminds me a lot of golfers.  I golf, but I’m terrible.  I still like to golf, because out of a round you’ll get a handful of really, really good shots, and it feels so good, it makes you forget about the downside.  That’s recruiting.  The positives out weigh the negatives.

I tend to find most people in HR, and many of those in Recruiting, hate to actually recruit.  It’s not their drug.  Maybe they like FMLA or developing comp plans. I don’t get high off those, but who am I to judge the drug of another!

People will read into this (besides that I might have a drug problem) that I ‘Love’ recruiting.  Let’s not confuse love and drugs. I love my wife and kids.  I like how recruiting makes me feel when it all works well.   “Oh, it’s so great that you found work that you love!”  Slow down.  If someone would pay me to fish all day, I’d love that! Recruiting is something I found that I’m really good at.  That’s important, for all of us.  Way too many times I meet people who haven’t found that, so I’m grateful for finding recruiting.

What’s your drug?

Social Recruiting + Infinity

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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.

 

In The Trenches

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Okay, HR fans, here’s the game, I give you a real-life HR scenario and you tell me how you would handle it if your were the HR person in charge of handling it. Got it!?  Here’s the issue:

You’re a Regional HR Manager of a major chain of Pizza restaurants, most of your business is home delivery.  This means you primarily have location managers, pizza cooks and drivers.  It’s a random Tuesday in the Detroit metro area and one of your drivers leaves on a delivery to local address.  When the driver arrives to the address and goes to the door, there are two armed men there to rob him of his $37 and change, and of course the pizza. 

Unbeknownst to the would-be robbers and you, your driver grew up on the streets of Detroit, and he is legally carrying a concealed weapon of his own (gotta love the D!).  He decides he’s not giving up his $37 or his Pizza without payment, and he let’s off 3 shots into one of the would be robbers and takes off.  Your driver didn’t get hurt, didn’t get robbed, but he also didn’t deliver that pizza!  The shot robber was discovered by police at a nearby hospital and booked, the other robber has yet to be found.  (By the way – this is from an actual story in Detroit this week!) You get the call from one of your District Manager who wants to know what she should do with your driver, who is looking to return to work, he’s got a family to feed.

Now, what do you do Mrs. or Mr. Regional HR Manager of Jet’s Pizza?  (a very good pizza place, by the way.  Also, little known Michigan fact for those who don’t live in Michigan – for some reason Michigan is like the large pizza chain capital of the world with both Little Caesars and Domino’s being started and headquartered in Michigan. No one knows why.)

Classic HR theory would have us look at our policies and past practices.  What? You mean you might have had this happen before?!  It’s Detroit, it might have happened earlier that evening.  You have a policy against your employees shooting your customers? Again, it’s Detroit, the policy might actually spell out when it’s alright to shoot customers.  Regardless, something will happen to this young man. Will you fire him, do nothing, set him up with EAP, reward him so other employees do the same, etc.?

Hit me in the comments and let me know what action you would take if this was your HR shop.  I’ll follow later with what action I would take

The 1 Reason Your New Recruiting Process Will Fail

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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

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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.

Earthquake Leadership

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There was an earthquake in L.A. last week.  Did you feel it? It was almost an non-event.  I only knew about it because a few of the people I follow on Twitter were making fun of how ‘small’ it was when it happened and cracking earthquake jokes.

It is telling, though, in watching earthquake reaction.  The reaction of people in an earthquake is almost verbatim of how a below average leader behaves in almost any organization.  Let me ‘drop’ these two facts on you of what happens when there is an earthquake:

1. Everyone looks around to see if anyone else felt it.

The group need for validation is very high in an event like this. “Did you feel that?”   You know if you felt it or not, why do you need validation that someone else felt it!?  Below average leaders do this.  They don’t respect their own ability to make a decision, or move a certain direction, so they look for constant validation from the group.  “Mary isn’t doing very well, is she?  What do you think?  Maybe we, I mean I, should let her go. Do you think that is the right thing to do?”

2. Organizations evacuate the building you are in.

Science, and history, have shown us, over a long period of time, that the safest place to be in an earthquake is not running down a stairwell of a building, or in an elevator, and then out into the open street – with pieces of building falling down upon you.  But, when an earthquake happens the first thing that organizations do is start evacuating the building.  Even though they know it’s not the smartest thing, there is a necessity to do some sort of action.  Even a negative action.  Below average leaders like to do something.  If I’m doing something, I must be leading.  If I’m not doing something, I must not be leading. Action, even ineffective action, is something below average leaders do in times of uncertainty.

Earthquake leadership, you definitely know what it is when you ‘feel’ it and see it!

 

 

 

The Only Way To Hire A Recruiter

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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?