Recruiting Center

More Business Speak

2010-01-27T18:41:00.003-06:00

Take it offline
The “let’s take this outside” of the business world; often thrown around when people begin to disagree too openly in a large meeting.

Net-Net
The end result, the bottom line, etc. ad infinitum, ad nauseam. "Net-net, we're still ahead."

Repurpose
To take a process or system designed for one task and use it for another -- usually in way unforeseen by its creators. Repurposing has become a viable substitute for true innovation.

Enail
An email sent for the sole purpose of making a point in writing, usually at another person's expense. Most effective when cc'ed to as many senior people as possible.

Fun Interview Question

2009-07-11T18:22:00.003-05:00

Interviewer: "I have a company, and my marketing team gave me their plan for selling Hockey pucks. The plan says that it cost us $50 a dozen to produce them and that we will sell them at $30 a dozen and that at the end of the year it will make me a millionaire. How is this possible?"

Interviewee: "You are already a billionaire"

I am back

2009-04-28T20:12:00.004-05:00

Ok, I am guilty; I have not posted an entry (excluding twitters) on my blog since January 4th. While I have no excuse for the lack of postings, my first quarter both business and professionally was fast paced, filled with difficult decisions and was focused on moving forward.

As I look back since my last post, corporations in the first quarter had to make business decisions based on market factors that were affecting their business. Being a business news junkie, I found myself reading stories about the recession being the predominant theme repeatedly in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Bloomberg.com. While the stories are relatively the same, capital reductions, workforce reductions and cost containment, I found the overall messaging to be consistent. Statements like "live within our means", "right size for business conditions" and "making tough business decisions" are a few of the phrases that were embedded in every article.

While I am in now way am I making light of the serious conditions we are currently facing, I thought over the next few blog posts, I would list my favorite "Business Speak/Phrases and Definitions" that are commonly used. Some of the following I find myself of using (actually overusing), some I made up, and some are just funny.

Please feel free to add to this list.

Deck: word for a PowerPoint presentation.

"Please send me a copy of the most up-to-date deck before the meeting"

Administrivia: trivial tasks/items that everyone has to do even though you personally do not see the value.

"Sorry, I can't help you right now, I am up to my neck in administrivia"

Ego surfing: Searching the web (Google and Yahoo) for references to yourself.

When you are done ego surfing, could you join us for the meeting you arranged"

Multi-slacker: employee who can perform many unproductive tasks at the same time -phone conversations, instant messaging, and web surfing on company time

"Jonathan should be proud, he is the best multi-slacker I have ever seen"

Irregardless: merger of regardless and irrespective

I can't even use this one in a sentence because it is NOT a real word.

2009 - What will be different

2009-01-04T13:11:00.004-06:00

Well, 2008 came to us on a high note and ended on what many have said is the lowest of lows. Mortgage crisis, housing decline and the US automotive industry on brink of collapse were the highlights of the low lights.

Going into 2009, what can we expect recruiting? I do not have a crystal ball, or even a magic eight ball, but I would venture to say to following should happen in your departments during the upcoming year:

Companies will continue recruiting but the focus will be on up-grading positions and selective replacements.
Companies will rely more on in-house recruiting than 3rd party agencies. In-house recruiters will have to dust off their Rolodex's and get in the trenches to source candidates.
Web 2.0 networking will be critical - good recruiters always work on their networks, even during the tough times.
Alternatives to sourcing will need to be explored and maximized. It may be time to add some pep to your ERP program and/or strengthen your military recruiting program.
Recruiting departments will need to go through some level of business process re-engineering to streamline processes and take costs out.
ATS optimization - training your recruiters to get the most out of what you currently have.
Re-evaluation of metrics - Does it make sense to focus on time to hire, when upgrading talent is the goal?
Business acumen - this is a great time for recruiters learn more about the business they serve. Recruiting leaders should be doing everything they can to aid in this process. Cross functional projects, sites visits or attending operational reviews should all be considered during this time.
HR acumen - Recruiters that have interest in other areas of HR should take this time to build their internal networks, learn about other discipline's within HR and participate in cross discipline projects. I guarantee that learning as much as you can about compensation, especially executive compensation, will help build anyone recruiting competency.
Prepare, Prepare and Prepare, so that when things start to turn around, you and your departments are leading in the war for talent, not lagging.

Moses on Management

2008-11-16T17:53:00.009-06:00

I just finished a book by David Baron called Moses on Management : 50 Leadership Lessons from the Greatest Manager of All Time. I must say this book gave a unique perspective on a subject that has been extensively written about within organizations, Management Principles.

Baron calls out that if we are able to embrace the the ten commandments and the other 60 603 "laws of human kindness", they will also balance business and the ethics involved. Ten words can be interchanged to describe Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt and though difficult times to leading and managing people in a business environment.

Accept: One must accept the role of leadership, even if reluctant, unwilling, and feel unequipped for the job. Moses on the surface appeared to be the least likely to be a leader, but he was able to step up and lead magnificently. Those that do not see themselves as leaders are the ones with the most innovative ideas.

Assess: Just like Moses has to constantly assess his situation, ( the Egyptians, Jews, environment, terrain) leaders have to also make continuous assessments. Items like assessing your staff, management, culture and goals of an organization are always top of mind.

Connect: Just like Moses made a connection with G-D and the people around him, a manager must also make similar connections. One must establish connections with the goals of the organization and connect with the people you manage.

Deliver: Let's face it, if you deliver results, you earn the respect of your colleagues, bosses and the organization. Moses not only delivered G-d's message to the people, he passed on prayers and pleas that the people had for G-d. A good manager engages in two way communication to his/her subordinates well as management.

Persevere: Moses guided his people for forty years and it was his perseverance that made success possible. Leaders in business must do the same, you must demonstrate that no matter what obstacles arise, you are there for them.

Solve: Business is about solving problems as they always come up. Don't give up, find partners to help if you need to. Moses was always solving problems, finding food, teaching them how to survive and preparing them for a new life. Innovation is probably one of the most critical competencies in business today just like it was back in Moses' time.

Search: Search out people and ideas that will help you. Moses sought out information from many sources, including Egyptian royalty, his family, his experiences from his days when he tended a flock. Just like Moses, a leader in business draws on information from many sources, not just one.

Enforce: As managers, rules must be enforced and if they are not enforced, then they are meaningless. Just like the Ten Commandments prescribes a code for humanity, organizations have policies the procedures that must be followed.

Endow: Moses gave his people a mission, to secure the Promised Land, a belief system and to survive. Managers also endows their subordinates with a mission for the future and beliefs about what a company stands for.

Depart: Know when to pass on the role of leader. What concerned Moses towards the end of his life was making sure his people thrived after he was gone. Good leaders also make plans for the for the next generation to take over and lead.
Note: -- the above was STRONGLY paraphrased from pages 278-285.

If you have a chance, I strongly recommend you take time a read this book. I can tell you that it was a quick read, packed with useful information that ties our past managemen skills to the present.

Commentary re: Snack Vendor -- or Undercover Job Recruiter?

2008-10-04T10:15:00.003-05:00

I read the article Snack Vendor -- or Undercover Job Recruiter? the other day in the WSJ and I have to tell you I am not so sure I would want to retain a firm that would use such non traditional methods to recruit candidates on my companies behalf. Paying janitors for a phone number and going undercover as a snack vendor is not my idea of a search firm best representing its clients brand and image. Having said that, I do believe recruiters have to be creative in sourcing candidates and always looking for new and innovative ideas. Just remember, search firms work for the company, not the candidate. We hire you find the best individuals in the market (that are recuitable) who not only have the skill set we desire, but have the competencies and values that would make them a fit in the organization. Ask yourself before entering into the "gray area" when sourcing, is the method chosen to source and develop the short list, in the best interest of my client.

Rest in Peace Reggie Dunlap

2008-09-27T09:56:00.006-05:00

Paul Newman -1925-2008

Reggie Dunlop: Let 'em know you're there! Get that stick in their side, let 'em know you're there! Put some x@#%'in lumber in their teeth, let 'em know you're there!

Reggie Dunlop: How about it tonight, guys? Old Time Hockey!

Footnoted.org

2008-08-24T19:39:00.002-05:00

As a Talent Management professional who has been involved with executive recruitment, it is always a challenge to make individuals whole on certain components of their compensation. I found a website the other day that highlights unique aspects of executive compensation as reported in the SEC filings. Check out www.footnoted.org and let me know what you think.

Executive Interview Questions

2008-07-20T13:50:00.003-05:00

Having recruited at the executive level, I thought I would share some of my favorite interview questions I have used in the past.

Tell me a significant mistake you have made in rolling out a new business strategy?
What type of decisions are most difficult for you to make?
What have you done to develop/grow your team?
Describe a major decision you made this year that affect your companies overall strategy?
What three qualities does a ".........fill in the position...." require in order to be successful?
What has been your biggest success in developing someone? What did you do?
How do you get your team to work at it's peak potential
Give me an example of how you handled risk?
What metrics do you use to track your organization?
Describe a decision you made, that looking back, you would do it differently if given another chance?
What have you done for your current company that you will be remember for?
What would you do in the first 90 days?

Obviously I am not the creator of most of these questions, I just have found them to be very effective when interview executives .

Hope they help.

Leadership - A leader is like a shepard, he stays behind the flock......

2008-06-22T13:58:00.007-05:00

Recently I read an article in the Harvard Business Review that changed the way I look at leadership and the competencies of a good leader. In the article "Where Will We Find Tomorrow's Leaders" by Linda Hill, she talks about leadership in the global economy and where the next generation of leaders will come from.

Linda indicates that when it comes to finding good leaders, business needs to look in different places than we have in the past. It takes different competencies to be a leader in an emerging market that it does in existing ones, but emerging countries at this time do not have what we consider top tier talent. She goes on to say, "we risk assuming leadership models developed in the United States or Western Europe will work elsewhere".

Leading from Behind

Nelson Mandela was quoted in his book, Long Walk to Freedom, as saying "A leader is like a Shepard, he stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the other follow , not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind." This quote made me stop and think, what is he mean. That is not my vision of leadership, When I think of leaders I think of George Washington, Alexander the Great, The Duke of Wellington. These men stood tall, they were in front, they were heard and seen by their men, not standing in the shadows pushing and prodding their men. Hill goes on to explain why she see this as an emerging style of leadership. Leaders create a culture where others are willing to lead and move the team forward based on their strengths. This model is not a command and control environment, it allows for agility and collective leadership. The "main" leader does not abdicate his/her responsibility as the overall leader, but acts as a guide to make sure the team in going in the correct direction (akin to a Shepard) and has the skills needed to succeed.

I highly recommend this article as must read for all talent management professional who operate in multi-national organization, it will open your eyes as it did mine.

All we have is our reputation

2008-05-04T09:34:00.010-05:00

When I read the article "Former HR Chief at AIG, Others Charged in Alleged Headhunting Scam" late last year in Workforce Magazine, I was extremely disappointed that the recruiting profession was exposed to this negative press regarding a situation that was extremely avoidable.

In 2005, John J. Falcetta, a former vice president with AIG’s life insurance division, allegedly conspired with 3 other individuals to falsely invoice his employer for search work that was never authorized that resulted in fees over 1 million dollars. In return, Falcetta received over 40% of the fees as kick backs from the three firms funneled into a shell corporation he had set up. Last December,this scam finally caught up to him and Falcetta was arrested by federal authorities at his Nantucket home on charges of mail fraud.

Situations like this get me angry, there is no other word for it! As recruiters we have conduct business with the utmost regarded for ethical integrity. When I first started in recruiting ( many moons ago), I remember working with an executive recruiter who gave me some advice that I still hold onto to this day. He told me " as a recruiter, all we have is our reputation" We went on to discuss how the decisions we make with follow us our entire careers and that taking short cuts will always come back to "bite" you in the end. I found this advice to be not only great but timely. In 1999-2001 were crazy times in technology ( IT and Engineering) business and as a corporate recruiter who dealt with agencies, I can tell you that the path from my office to the General Counselors office was worn due to the unethical offers headhunters would offer me to get our business. I think I heard and was offered every kickback scheme imaginable if I hired candidates from their company; vacations, large gift cards, gift baskets and cash were some of the items that were presented to me. As "tempting" these were, and I say tempting in my most sarcastic voice I have, I kept on thinking of the advice I received and this kept me focused.

Remember, there are no short cuts in life and if you want to be successful, hard work and strong ethics will get you anywhere you want to go.

Market Intelligence - Linkedin

2008-04-27T16:54:00.004-05:00

I know I am late to the game and this topic has already been covered on some of the major recruiting blogs, but I just had to comment on Linkedin's Companies section that can be seen on people profiles.

I find this feature as a valuable tool in providing market intelligence to recruiters whether they are new recruiting or are veterans. With one click of a button, the user can see who in their network is linked to them at this company, recent hires as well as recent title or job changes (see example). Linkedin also provides interesting demographics about the company that are also useful. Items such as Career paths of employees before and after they worked for the company as well as a breakdown of tops profile locations also reside on the site. By partnering with BusinessWeek, the site is also able to provide key demographics and research that can be shared with the users.

I have to hand it to Linkedin, this new feature is a great add to their already free toolbox. I can't wait to see what they come up with next...

Recruiting in a Down Economy

2008-04-22T19:44:00.003-05:00

On Sept 25, 2007, I posted my thoughts about recruiting in a down economy and in that blog posting I reference an article from Dr. John Sullivan. Just the other day, Dr. John Sullivan posted another article around the same topic (this time he has some tips for not only recruiting, but for the HR function) and I thought it was worth posting on my site.

Enjoy......

Corporate Recruiting: Action Steps During a Recession
Things that recruiting and HR can do to protect the budget
Dr. John Sullivan

Anyone who has worked in corporate recruiting for any period realizes they work in a profession that has dramatic up-and-down cycles. Unfortunately, the down cycles following rapid growth tend to be the harshest. Who can forget the literal "implosion" of world-class recruiting functions like those at Cisco, Nortel, and Trilogy after the 2001 downturn? Those dominating recruiting functions have never recuperated.

During the "great recruiter massacre" that followed the tech crash, many of the best recruiters from a wide spectrum of firms were forced to leave the profession for good. Whether there is a large or small recession, and whether it occurs this month or in six months, it is critical that you be prepared for it, regardless of when it actually occurs.

If you manage or work in a corporate recruiting function, now is the time to come to the cold realization that another downturn in recruiting is about to occur. You can refuse to acknowledge this possibility (as most in HR choose to do) or instead you can confront the likelihood and as a result, perhaps spare your recruiting function some of the trauma that corporate recruiting functions have undergone during past downturns.

If you're new to the profession and don't realize that your job security may be at stake, it's incumbent on you to speak out and take action now, so that you might be the last recruiter to remain on staff.

"It's better to be prepared...then surprised"

Action Steps to Minimize the Impact of a Downturn

If you're part a corporate recruiting function that is likely to see less demand for recruiting and hiring (it's important to note that some industries like healthcare, pharmaceuticals, oil, green energy, etc. will be somewhat exempt) here are some tips and action steps to consider:

Beware of vendor reliability. If you rely heavily on vendors for recruitment outsourcing, ATS, VMS, or Web technology, an economic downturn might threaten the reliability or even existence of some vendors. The recent sudden failure of the RPO firm Axium and its subsidiary Ensemble Chimes might be a warning sign; vendor failure has occurred during past recessions, so re-assess your situation.

Fight any attempt to institute a hiring freeze. Once your CFO believes that your business is about to enter a downturn, they frequently take the knee-jerk reaction of instituting a corporate-wide hiring freeze. Obviously, a company-wide hiring freeze makes everyone begin to think of cutting the recruiting budget. After all, without hiring, why do we need recruiters? But other than weakening the firm's recruiting capabilities, there are many other reasons why hiring freezes are a dumb idea that need to be preempted by strong arguments from recruiting and HR. Across-the-board freezes make no sense, because in any firm, there are business units that are growing while others are shrinking, and as a result, a selected spot-freeze makes more sense. A "new" approach is known as constant churn, where you continuously seek out top talent in high need or mission-critical areas while simultaneously releasing talent with antiquated skill sets or poor performance. Hiring freezes also cause managers to retain weak employees out of fear they won't be able to refill their position. Because other firms will be actively releasing top talent during downturns, a complete freeze prevents you from "cherry picking" from this rarely available pool of top talent.

Determine recruiting results. During downturns, executive focus shifts either toward cost containment or revenue generation, primarily the former. Both are critical, but given the extremely small size of the recruiting budget, the area where recruiting can have the largest impact is in increasing revenue. The first step in developing a "revenue impact" focus is for recruiting to begin to convert its results into dollar impact on revenue so there is no doubt about their impact on the bottom line. Work with the CFO's office to convert talent-management results (i.e., quality of hires, speed of hire, strength of the employment brand, and recent hire retention rate) into the actual dollar impact that they have on revenue. If you can demonstrate that HR and recruiting actions directly increase revenue, you will avoid many of the budget cuts that are targeted toward functions considered to be "overhead cost centers."

Prioritize and focus. When recruiting resources are cut back, it's even more important than ever to focus your limited resources on the jobs that have the most impact on corporate revenue. That means that corporate recruiting must focus whatever resources it has on high-impact individuals (recruiting innovators, top performers) and filling high-impact positions (mission-critical, revenue generating, and revenue-impact positions). In addition, business units that are growing in those that directly produce revenue should also be prioritized.

Contingent workers. During tough economic times, it's important to be able to rapidly cut costs by reducing labor costs. This often means "releasing" employees and as a result, it's important to increase the percentage of your workers who can be more easily "released" because they are contingent workers. This means replacing some vacancies with contingent workers and converting some traditional "permanent" jobs to a contract basis. Within recruiting, this contingency emphasis might also mean relying more heavily on contract recruiters and third-party vendors for peak hiring periods.

Strengthen your offer process. Even a few scattered press reports about a shaky economy can cause currently employed people to increase their fear (and thus unwillingness) of changing jobs. As a result, it is essential for recruiting to re-examine and then strengthen its current candidate "sales" approach. Work to reassure nervous individuals (and maybe even their families) that it's ok to leave their current job and to join your firm.

Strengthen your relocation process. During most economic downturns, individuals are more than willing to relocate in order to get secure employment. However, the current mortgage /housing crisis makes it much more difficult for individuals to sell their home and move to another area, so revisit the relocation process.

Prepare for a flood of applicants. If you are a well-known or a well-branded firm, as layoffs increase and the unemployment rate rises, you are likely to be inundated with a huge volume of resumes from the "soon-to-be " or the currently unemployed. To prepare for this jump in volume, it's critical that recruiting managers look at their resume-sorting process to ensure that it can handle this dramatic increase in volume while maintaining quality standards. It's also important that recruiting managers recognize that even the best employer-referral programs can be inundated with referrals during high unemployment times.

Look for global recruiting needs. If your firm is a global organization, it's very likely that there are significant recruiting needs in geographic areas where the downturn is not so severe. In those cases, shift recruiting talent to those regions or countries where great recruiting is still a business necessity.

Review workforce plans. Unfortunately, most workforce plans tend to be overly positive and many have no downturn projections of any kind. As a result, during the threat of an economic downturn, it is critical that recruiting and HR revisit their workforce plans to ensure that they include a significant "downturn component." The plans should include elements for workforce reductions, the increased use of contingency workers, and the shifting or redeployment of workers internally to areas where they can have the most impact.

Identify any low-hanging fruit in recruiting. Whenever budgets are about to be cut, it's critical for any function to look its very best and to maximize its immediate results. In recruiting, that means a shift away from long-term projects and toward activities that can produce immediate measurable business impacts. Actions that are most likely to produce immediate low-cost results include updating the employer referral program, targeting boomerangs (former employees), increasing recruiting at professional events, and targeting individual candidates who would be considered to be a superstar or magnet hires by senior management. Redesigning your recruiting and HR processes so that they fit a customer relationship management model in order to improve both the candidate and the employee experience would also be an excellent use of HR resources.

Do other things. When there's little actual hiring to be done, there are other things that recruiters can do that still add value. This might include shifting recruiter efforts toward retention, improving the onboarding process, using recruiters to shift key talent around internally, or developing the firm's workforce plans so you can more accurately anticipate and prepare for future downturns. Recruiters can also use their time to prepare a recruiting plan that enables the firm to explode "out-of-the-box" the minute the downturn is over.

Over-hire when there is a surplus of top talent. When many firms in your region or industry reduce or freeze their hiring, it becomes dramatically easier to recruit available top talent simply because there is no competition for it. Although it might seem counterintuitive, smart recruiters "over-hire" (especially relatively cheap college students and "game changing" industry superstars) during these downturn periods, because they can now get candidates they could only dream of during the recent talent war.

Improve the quality of your recruiters. Because downtimes mean that some excellent recruiters will be available in the market, take advantage of this opportunity by dumping your weak or mediocre recruiters and hiring a superstar or two.

Focus on employment branding. It's important to use any "surplus" recruiting resources to build and improve upon your branding efforts. Building a corporate employment brand takes time to develop. As a result, your improved external image is likely to appear and to have its designed impact exactly when your firm is ready to resume large-scale hiring.

Broader HR Activities to Handle the Downturn

If you have any influence on the broader HR function, there are some action steps that HR can take in order to prepare the firm for the downturn in the recovery:

Productivity improvement plans. Because increasing productivity and getting more out of your current resources are always key issues during tough economic times, an obvious area for an action plan is increasing employee productivity. These efforts might include increasing the percentage of pay that is based on performance, increasing non-monetary motivators, improving management and supervisory training, or even improving "best practice sharing" processes to speed up the adoption of productivity improvement practice across the firm.

Shift from a "buy" to a "build" strategy. When large-scale hiring comes to a halt, it's often wise to shift your HR strategy from one that focuses on "buying talent" (recruiting) to one that instead focuses on "building talent" (developing your current employees). This means shifting your HR resources toward a stronger employee development and training effort. Because there will also likely be budget cuts in corporate training, it's critical to use cheaper and faster learning and development tools.

Labor arbitrage. Because labor costs become a major issue during a downturn, HR needs to develop action plans that allow the firm to "shift" work rapidly to areas where the labor costs are lower. This focus on getting the lowest cost labor (while maintaining quality) might mean geographically shifting the work, outsourcing the work or replacing work done by people with machines and technology.

Headcount fat assessment. HR needs to work with the CFO to identify the ideal number of employees you need. Establish an ideal ratio of either the revenue per employee ratio (i.e., the number of employees divided into the total company revenue) or the dollar of employee costs to revenue ratio (i.e., dollar of employee/labor cost divided into revenue generated by the firm). Use one of these "target" ratios as the baseline standard to determine where the firm currently has too many or too few employees given the amount of revenue that it is generating. In addition to identifying overall corporate headcount fat, there needs to be an action plan to continually identify the specific jobs and individual business units where the actual surplus of employees is occurring.

Release bottom performers. If your organization has traditionally lacked the courage to release (fire) bottom performers, that attitude should change during an economic downturn. HR should consider increasing the number of individuals on performance management, shortening the time and individual is allowed to stay on a performance management program or the outright releasing of poor performers at the beginning of any downturn. Another option is to "swap" employees, which means that you actively look for replacements for these poor performers and only when you have clearly found a superior candidate, do you actually replace them.

If-then scenarios. The best way to prepare managers for potential problems is to force them to participate in "if-then" or "what if?" scenarios. What this means is that at least once a year, key managers would be asked to prepare "if-then" plans that are designed to handle each of the people-management problems that would most likely occur during a downturn and the recovery.

Conduct a "mock" layoff. Many in HR literally squawk when I suggest this action. But preparing for something doesn't cause it to actually happen. In a mock layoff, you go through the organizational chart with individual managers and you jointly identify which positions would most likely be reduced if your firm were to have a layoff of 1%, 5%, or 10%. You can also identify the specific employees in those jobs who are most likely to be laid off, should layoffs occur. The results can be kept confidential. Other options include putting these individuals on an employment contract, or if you're bold, you can warn them individually that their job is at risk, so that they can work to increase their skills or so that you can minimize any surprises to them.

Pay freezes. Most employees might choose job security over the short-term need for an increase in pay. Unfortunately, limiting compensation opportunities for top performers only drives them to seek the increased compensation that they believe that they have "earned" externally. Instead of across-the-board compensation freezes, consider requiring any additional pay to be based strictly on superior performance. In a similar light, some organizations freeze promotions. This approach is just silly, as it drives top performers to seek higher positions at other firms.

Retention plans. If your analysis indicates that the downturn will affect your company disproportionately within your region or industry, your action plans should include steps to handle the likely increase in turnover among your top performers as they invariably migrate toward "non-struggling" companies. On the other hand, if you forecast a broad downturn, sometimes you can put less emphasis on your general retention efforts because fewer individuals leave a secure job during a broad economic downturn. In either case, it is still essential to retain your key employees and top performers. Schedule one-on-ones with each of them to make sure they know how important they are to the firm.

Fast recovery plans. Because all downturns eventually come to an end, the very best firms accurately forecast the "end" of the downturn, and HR develops talent-management plans that allow the organization to rapidly "scale-up" and recover, just as the downturn is ending.

Final Thoughts

Every strong leader knows that in the face of a large disaster, the very best employees and managers often confront the issues and come forward with bold solutions. If you are an individual corporate recruiter, now is the time to demonstrate your value both during high- and low-volume hiring. In addition, you can help your teammates by actively contributing to the plan to handle the potential downturn.

If you manage the recruiting effort, it's time to be proactive and preempt any attempt to make major cutbacks in the recruiting budget. Don't let the ugliness of 2001's "recruiter massacre" return again in 2008!

Most Influential Headhunters

2008-04-05T10:56:00.005-05:00

On January 31, 2008, BusinessWeek announced the "World's most influential headhunters." BusinessWeek considered multiple items when choosing their list including their "individual reputations; their years of headhunting experience; the global scope of their recruiting practices; their accessibility and responsiveness; their high visibility within the client markets they serve; the recognition they enjoy within their firms and/or global executive search communities."

Upon reviewing the list, I can say that I am fortunate enough to have worked with or met a number the recruiters on the list. I thought I would take some time comment on some a few that I know that made the list (please note these comments are mine and do not reflect my current employer).

Steve Watson, Stanton Chase, International Chairman: Steve is a "go-to" search executive and a "workhorse". Steve and I have had the opportunity to partner on multiple seniors level searches within organizations where I have worked. Steve has the ability to partner and communicate effectively to all those who are involved in the search process. He approaches each search as an unique activity and adapts his methodology to support his clients needs. He truly makes working with a search firm a true partnership!

Trina Gordon, Boyden World, Chairman: : Trina is a "power broker" among "power brokers". She knows everyone and can open doors. Her knowledge of executive competencies and what it takes to be successful at seniors levels is priceless. Trina and I have had the opportunity to work on searches in the Middle East and I found her to be a joy to work with.

Lousia Wong Rousseau, Bo Le, Group Managing Director: Who doesn't know Lousia! If you are a star candidate or an influential hiring managers (usually one in the same) in Asia, you have most likey spoken to Lousia. What I like about Lousia is that even though she is extremely busy, she makes time to immediately follow-up with clients when they have concerns no matter that if the time is might be inconvenient for her. Lousia and I have had the opportunity to work on a difficult search in Indonesia and I found her network to be invaluable.

Congratualtions to all those who made the list and keep up the good work.

ERE 2008 - San Diego

2008-03-30T09:16:00.006-05:00

I am off to San Diego tomorrow for the Spring 2008 ERE Expo and I am excited to network with folks to see how our profession has progressed over the last 6-9 months.

Listed Below are the top things I want to do/accomplish while at the Expo.

Hear John Leech speak about The Employment Brand "Circle of Trust"
Hear John Sullivan speak "Building your Employment Brand by identifying and Sharing Stories"
Hear Dr. Stanaland speak on a "An Economist Perspective on the Future Planning for Recruitment An Economist Perspective on the Future Planning for Recruitment"
Learn more about what sourcing tools are on the market. Bounty Jobs, Climber.com, Dillistone Systems, Jobs2Web and TalentHook are a fews booths I plan on stopping by and learning more on what they offer.
If time permits, see a little of San Diego
Network, Network and did I say Network.

If you see me there, stop me and say hello.

Upcoming Recruiting Events

2008-03-16T18:01:00.006-05:00

Listed below are recruiting conferences and events for the next few months. Please feel free to contact me if you would like me to add items.

March

March 31 - April 2: ERE Expo - San Diego, CA

April

April 14-16: SHRM Staffing Management Conference-Nashville, TN

May

May 7: Managing Talent: A Blueprint for Success - Chicago, IL
May 13-16: Recruiting 2008 Conference and Expo - Las Vegas, NV
May 27-30 NACE Annual Conference - New Orlean, LA

June

June 4-6: Fordyce Forum 2008 - Las Vegas, NV
June 25: Retention Conference and Expo - Chicago, IL

July - Dec 2008: I will list later in the 2nd quarter

Millennials - are we ready for them, we need to be! Part II

2008-03-08T19:30:00.004-06:00

I was sent this 60 minutes video the other day and it turned out to be a nice addendum to the post I placed on this blog last September.

Enjoy !

The Millennials Are Coming!

Jonathan

Reducing Voluntary, Avoidable Turnover Through Selection

2008-02-24T09:25:00.003-06:00

I would like to thank Dr. Zimmerman for giving me the opportunity to speak to his graduate and undergraduate classes at Texas A&M. I had a great time, and I think I actually taught them something on what it takes to be a successful recruiter.

During my time at Texas A&M, I spoke to Dr. Zimmerman and Dr. Boswell about their research papers they have published and over the next month or so I will be highlighting their findings.

Dr. Zimmerman sent me a copy of his research report he co-authored with Murray Barrick, titled "Reducing Voluntary, Avoidable Turnover Through Selection" that was published in The Journal of Applied Psychology, June 2005. In this paper, selection methods and practices are analyzed in regards to reducing employee turnover. "Specifically, systematically explore whether applicants with high turnover propensities can be identified prior to organizational entry."

"When making hiring decisions, organizations have historically focused on trying to determine which job candidate will likely be the best performer. However, as it becomes more difficult to retain employees, organizations have started to show interest in also determining which candidate will likely stay with the organization"

The seven hypotheses that were explored were as follows:

Hypothesis 1: Employees who had a longer tenure with their immediate former employers will be more apt to stay with their current employers than employees who had a shorter tenure with their previous employers.
Hypothesis 2: Employees who were referred by current employees will be more likely to remain with their current employers.
Hypothesis 3: The more friends and family employees had at the current organization at the time of hire, the more likely they are to remain.
Hypothesis 4: Employees who have a greater intent to quit prior to hire will be more apt to do so than those who are not intending to quit.
Hypothesis 5: Employees with be less likely to quit than desire for the job.
Hypothesis 6: Employees with higher self-confidence will be more likely to stay with the organization than those with lower self-confidence.
Hypothesis 7: Employees who are more decisive will be more apt to stay than those employees who are not as decisive.

Findings:

"Overall, the results revealed that prehire dispositions, attitudes, and behavioral intentions predicted voluntary, organizationally avoidable turnover, whether it was assessed with clear-purpose retention scales or disguised-purpose retention scales. The results also supported prior findings (Hom & Griffeth, 1995) that biodata is an important predictor of turnover. This study extends previous work by examining the incremental validity of these biodata predictors beyond the variance explained by the attitudes, intentions, and dispositions measured in this study." Also this study also "provides some assurances that organizations using these predictors would not incur adverse impact based on age, race, or gender." The results also show that ..."practitioners would substantially benefit from....to selection batteries designed to reduce turnover."

I will say that this study opened my eyes. The following statement really places everything in perspective for me, some employees plan on quiting their next job even before they start! ".... the results of this study show that some people may intend to quit even before starting the job. The construct of intent to quit may need to be reconceptualized as a decision that is not just affected by what employees find out about the job once they are hired but also as a decision that may be made even before they start their new position. These findings suggest that where intent to quit is placed in a model of turnover is in part dependent on whether it is assessed before or after organizational entry."

Again, thank you to Dr. Zimmerman for inviting me to speak and sharing is research.

Do you belive in Miracles?

2008-02-10T09:42:00.001-06:00

During the past week, I have been preparing for a presentation that I will be giving to undergraduate and graduates students studying Human Resources at Texas A&M. I have decided to speak on what makes a good recruiter in today's market and while I was developing the "back-story" I across some interesting facts that I thought worth sharing.

1.3 million - the number of jobs added to the US 2007
166 million - the number of jobs in the US by 2016
Currently 3,700 students are in petroleum engineering programs down from 11,000 in 1986
From May, 2003, to May, 2006, U.S. petroleum engineers enjoyed a 17% pay increase, compared with 9% for electrical engineers and 11% for civil engineers

To me, these statistics along with others show that we are in store for some rough roads ahead in finding, training and retaining talent, especially in regards to petroleum engineers.

Later in my presentation I speak about a recruiter’s role in assessing the right candidates for an organization. I wanted to emphasize this point as I see a key role in the partnership we share with our hiring managers. As I was getting ready for work one morning, I turned on the TV while having my morning cup of caffeine and there I saw on HBO a documentary on the "Miracle on Ice". This brought back many feelings and emotions as I looked back on that fateful day during the winter of 1980. Herb Brooks coached a group of college students to a victory over the Russians in hockey. This victory was not only important because the United States won an important victory on the ice as well as in the Cold War, it showed that goals and objectives can be achieved if the right team is put in place.

The following quote to me sums it up best on assessing candidates.

Patrick: "You're missing the best players."

Herb Brooks: "I'm not looking for the best players, Craig, I'm lookin' for the right ones"

Craig Patrick, the US Assistant Coach, said this to Herb Brooks when discussing who would be chosen to represent the United States. Herb Brooks believed it was not about selecting the best players; it was about assessing each player’s strengths and weaknesses and then selecting players that complimented each other so they could play as a cohesive unit.

I will never forget that day, when Al Michaels bellowed "Do you Believe in Miracles" during the last seconds of the United States game versus the Russians. To me and most Americans it truly was a miracle. To Herb Brooks........... it was inevitable.

House Divided

2008-01-01T16:37:00.000-06:00

Motor City Bowl - 2008

Purdue vs. Central Michigan

As I mentioned in the title, this years Motor City Bowl pitted my Boilermakers against my wife's Chippewas. I can honestly say that even though this is not the Rose Bowl that we play for each year, it was one of the most entertaining games I have ever seen. Lets face it anytime a game has a total of over 95 points and is won a last second field goal, it has to be entertaining.

Congratulations to Purdue and only 252 days till the Purdue vs Northern Colorado game!

Q4 - 2007

2007-12-20T16:58:00.000-06:00

Wow, what a quarter both personally and professionally for me.

1. I was asked and accepted an invitation to fill an open Board of Director position with Direct Employers
2. Accepted a transfer to our Corporate Headquarters. There I will be adding Recruitment Marketing and Sourcing to my responsibilities
3. Attended ERE in Washington DC
4. Attended the GPHR study course in Chicago
5. Moved my family to Houston, Texas
6. Acted as the functional lead for an ATS upgrade
7. Endured the 2007 Midwest Ice Storm - 4 days with out power and 2 stays in a hotel

I look forward to what 2008 brings.

Happy Holiday's

Now that is a good idea

2007-12-14T15:11:00.000-06:00

I read this article today on Workforce Management and I just had to post it on the blog. I congratulate Wachovia on this creative initiative.

November 29, 2007
Wachovia to Recruiters: Let’s Make a Deal
Wachovia Securities, in a move to hang on to as many brokers as possible in its merger with A.G. Edwards & Sons, is attempting to woo independent recruiters with a lucrative offer to encourage them to stop picking off Edwards’ reps and moving them to rival broker-dealers.
For certain recruiters, Richmond, Virginia-based Wachovia wants to increase the commission it pays to 10 percent of brokers’ previous years’ fees and commissions, almost doubling the industry norm of a 6 percent commission.
The agreement is surprising and almost unheard of, recruiters and brokerage executives say.
Of course, there’s a catch to get that extra commission. Recruiters have to sign a contract that prohibits them from moving St. Louis-based A.G. Edwards’ reps to other firms. The 10 percent commission would be for future recruiter business with Wachovia and would max out at $75,000.
Wachovia began offering recruiters the deal last month, and one recruiter who turned it down says he sees the offer as having two potential meanings.
“The increase in fees for recruiters confirms the war for talent,” says Danny Sarch, a recruiter in White Plains, New York. “It makes sense that firms have to pay more to get recruiters to pay attention to them.”
But the offer could also “speak to an element of fear that A.G. Edwards guys are at risk.”
Wachovia declined to comment on the deal it proposed to recruiters, but said it was “pleased” with its retention levels of Edwards’ reps.
“The attrition rate is very much in line with where it was at this point in the Prudential Securities merger,” Tony Mattera, a spokesman for Wachovia, wrote in an e-mail.
The firm merged with Prudential Securities of New York in 2003.
Among higher-producing brokers, the attrition rate is “slightly better than it was at the comparable point in the Prudential deal, which ended up being about 3 percent,” he says.
The move is “smart business on Wachovia’s part,” says Mindy Diamond, president of Diamond Consultants, an executive search firm in Chester, New Jersey, that works with financial advisors and reps.
Before the deal was offered, recruiting by Wachovia branch managers could be somewhat haphazard because the branch manager determined the recruiter’s commission, she says.
Diamond declined to say whether she signed the agreement with Wachovia.
At the end of May, Wachovia Corp. of Charlotte, North Carolina., the parent of Wachovia Securities, said that it was buying A.G. Edwards for $6.8 billion. The deal closed October 1.
Wachovia, which has 10,700 reps and advisors across a variety of platforms, has been built on numerous acquisitions. At the time the merger was announced, A.G. Edwards had about 6,600 reps and advisors.
Somewhere between 300 and 400 of those reps have moved to other firms, says one industry recruiter, who asked not to be identified.
For some, Wachovia’s acquisition of A.G. Edwards has turned quite contentious.
A common criticism of the deal has been that the two cultures are not likely to mix, with A.G. Edwards being an independent regional firm run by its family owners for most of its history and Wachovia a national behemoth owned by a bank.
Ben Edwards III, the former CEO who retired in 2001, caused a stir in June at Edwards’ shareholder meeting when he read a speech criticizing the deal.
In October, A.G. Edwards filed lawsuits against at least 10 of its former brokers and employees in an effort to stop the drain of client assets. Bitter fights erupted in California over Edwards’ loss of reps and employees to Stifel Nicolaus & Co., also of St. Louis.
And there have been some big winners in the race to grab Edwards’ reps, according to industry sources. For example, Merrill Lynch & Co. has had the most success, so far bringing in almost 100 reps and advisors, one industry source said.
Merrill Lynch declined to confirm the number of reps and advisors it has recruited so far from Edwards. The New York company is making “an aggressive effort to attract select wealth management employees from A.G. Edwards,” Erik Hendrickson, a Merrill Lynch spokesman, wrote in an e-mail. “It is a firm for which we have great respect, and a talent pool whom we believe comes from a background and culture similar to that of ours here at Merrill Lynch.”
Another big winner is LPL Financial Services of San Diego and Boston, which has recruited about 80 advisors from A.G. Edwards but could bring in as many as 100 by the end of the year, another industry source says.
Some in the industry are surprised at how aggressive Merrill Lynch has been at pursuing Edwards’ reps. Recruiters and brokerage executives view Merrill’s move as payback for Wachovia Securities’ pursuit of brokers formerly with the Advest Group of Hartford, Connecticut, which Merrill acquired in 2005.
Up to 20 percent of the firm’s original 515 reps left before the deal closed that December. Many of those were bigger producers.
Merrill’s pursuit of Edwards’ reps has been unusual, industry sources say.
For example, Merrill Lynch recently offered a $300,000-producing broker an upfront bonus of 170 percent of his previous year’s fees and commissions, according to one head of recruiting at a rival brokerage firm, who asked not to be identified. A deal at that level for a lower-end producer at a wirehouse is “almost unheard of,” the executive says.
Diamond doesn’t agree with the assessment that Merrill is looking for payback against Wachovia regarding what happened with Advest.
“Every firm was hot on the trail of those guys,” she says.
The reality of the brokerage business dictates aggressive moves by many firms, Diamond says.
“When a broker is recruited away, there is extra motivation for that firm to go get a top team” from that rival broker-dealer, she says.
Filed by Bruce Kelly of Investment News, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

Update and thoughts on 2007

2007-11-23T09:05:00.000-06:00

I know it has been a long time since my last post. What can I say, I have been extremely busy over the last few weeks. A trip to Chicago for the GPHR review class, a trip to Houston to find a buy a house and participating in an upgrade project for Taleo are just a few items that have been on my plate.

It is a little early to to be writing a year in review, but I thought I would take a few minutes and jot down some of the year's highlights that I see have had an impact on Recruiting in 2007.

Mortgage crisis and the Housing slow down: What recruiter that lived through the downturn in 2001-2002 can honestly say that these events do not remind you of the past?
America's Job Bank closing down: Thousands of companies were left to scramble for a solution to remain OFCCP compliant.
Insourcing model starts to gain momentum: Companies start to bring work back "onshore".
Source: Finding good source still remains high on the list of concerns for recruiters, enough said!
Social Networks are truly here to stay: Linkedin, Myspace, Jobster and Facebook to name a few.
Metrics: Quality of the hire and the overall hiring manager satisfaction with searches continue to remain the hot metrics
Workforce Planning: It take more than sourcing and hiring good people to be a "Strategic Partner".
Millennials: Text, chat, avatars, cell phone, IM's, Facebook, MySpace, Iphone, Itouch, Icarumba.........will we ever er understand them and how do they not go crazy multi-tasking the way they do.
Retention: Good employees can switch jobs, get a +20% increase and not even have to change their parking spot all in one week. How do we compete with that!
Blogs: If I can do one, anyone can!

ERE Expo - Pre Conference Workshop D

2007-10-30T20:12:00.001-05:00

The second pre-conference I attended was Kevin Wheeler's presentation on Techniques & Tools to Adapt Technologies for Workforce Planning. His approach to workforce planning is not tactical because it focuses on what roles are critical to driving the success of an organization. Once you have figured out what your key positions are, then retaining and staffing these roles should become part of an organizations strategy. What are these "critical roles"? Obviously these vary from organization to organization, but Kevin suggested the following:

Those that produce revenue
Research and Development - those that drive innovation
Those that directly interface with the customer

Organizations that do workforce planning right not only understand their what roles are critical, but have creative and swift response plans in place to execute when vacancies take place and not operate from a "replacement" mode. In fact, if organizations can do this well, then it can even be called a competitive advantage.

Kevin helped us understand, that workforce planning is more than gathering data from our ERP and ATS systems, it is about providing strategic information that enables leaders to make sound decisions to drive the business forward.

I look forward to reading more articles from Kevin on workforce planning in the future.

ERE Expo - Pre Conference Workshop B

2007-10-22T20:10:00.000-05:00

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Pre-conference workshops on day one. The first workshop I attended was The Integrated Talent Management Technology Strategy Workshop given by Rich Fletcher of HRchitect. Having implemented 2 ATS systems and serving as a consultant for a Competency Management system, I was curious as to what the future of Human Capital Management (HCM) Systems and the strategies to integrate each "silo". As we learned, fragmented systems place organizations at a disadvantage in terms of have multiple silos, redundant information, staff inefficiencies as well as reduced ROI in the overall investment. More and more organizations are readjusting their long term strategy and implementing an HCM solution that can manage the entire Talent Management life cycle. A key point that we learned was to not to "bite off" more than could be handled. The key to success was to implement 1 or 2 key modules per year and stabilize before moving on to the rest of the suite.

A key to a successful implementation lies in the Discovery phase of the project. Here is where an understanding existing strategies is important to see how they are linked.

Corporate Strategy
HR /HCM Strategy- Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, Global Support
IT strategic Plan

By engaging in this review, HR organizations will have a better understanding of what each organization is trying to achieve in a 3-5 year time period.

Rick then went on to list key decision drivers that organizations should consider when purchasing HCM systems.

Vendor Viability
Functionality
Usability
Cost/ROI
Configurability
Technology
Service and Support - Rick indicated that if an ATS vendor could master this one, they would own the market
Integration
Scalability
Business Segmentation
Global Capability
Operational Effectiveness

Lastly, we covered Gartner Group's HCM 2005 Market Size and 3 year CAGR study. The Recruitment Management space lead the way with $660M and 20% growth, followed by the Learning Management space at $545M and 17% growth. Position three is held by the Compensation Management space with $290M and 12% growth and the Performance Management space completes the chart with $180M and a growth rate of 25%.

Great job by HRchitect in presenting this first workshop and kicking off the 2007 Fall ERE conference!