No doubt, if you’ve worked as a sourcer for any amount of time, you’ve heard what you consider to be some ridiculous comments from the recruiters you support. Here are some of my favorites that I collected from sourcers this week.

1) “Great! Can you go ahead and submit them to the hiring manager and get them set up for an interview? I’ll take it from there…” (translation – Please do most of my job for me, then I’ll swoop in at the end and be the hero.)

2) “Perfect fit for my job! Can you send me some more resumes in the meantime?” (What happened to ‘perfect?’)

3) “The hiring manager is going with an internal candidate who came in at the last minute…” (Thus negating potentially weeks of sourcing for external talent.)

4) “I made this hire.” (Yeah… with MY sourced candidate! Share the accolades please…)

4) “Pass.” (Okay.. why? What didn’t you like about the candidate? What should I change in terms of my search? No details, just ‘pass’?)

5) “I know what I’m asking you to find doesn’t exist, but that doesn’t change the fact that the client wants to see more resumes.” (Sourcers thought: “Your lack of ability to manage your client does not constitute an emergency on my part.”)

6) “Can you put them in the ATS for me?” (Sourcers thought: “Do it yourself.”)

7) “You need to be more innovative, have you thought about using LinkedIn or maybe doing Boolean searches?” (Sourcers thought: “That’s all I do.”)

8) “Will you meet with the agency to let them know what you are doing to find candidates?” (This one requires no further explanation.)

We’re joking about it here, but the tensions between Sourcers, and Recruiters, can have a negative effect on productivity.

How do leaders proactively address this problem?

• Start by establishing very clear role definitions that all parties can refer to when they aren’t sure who should complete a certain task.
• Create a service level agreement between sourcers and recruiters.

We will share additional insight into development of these documents in a future post.

(Recruiters: this post was from a sourcers perspective, but don’t worry, the solutions will address both sides of the issue.)

Sourcers, do you have any other statements we should add to the list? Leave a comment below.

Confused Businessman Photo from Bigstock

I have managed to survive my first three days as Editor of SourceCon!   My primary focus this week (apart from learning to use a Mac again) has centered on two themes:

• One of the first things I jumped in to was preparing the agenda for SourceCon Seattle  - I need your help on this…  If you know of anyone that you would like to hear speak, or if you have any ideas for sessions, please be sure to email me. My predecessor, Lance, left me with a list of speakers he had started conversations with. I am continuing those conversations and reaching out to other prospective presenters. Look for more details on the final agenda early in June!
• My second priority is recruiting additional contributors for SourceCon - Whether you have never blogged before, or you are a seasoned veteran, we should talk. What has made SourceCon so special over the years is that it has been a place for practitioners to share knowledge with the rest of the sourcing and recruiting community. I would love to hear from all of you interested in contributing guest posts. Are you sourcing with a new tool? Have you discovered a new way to source a site that you want to show your peers? If you aren’t sure what to write about, I would be happy to give you some ideas to get started.

Early this week I selected four of my favorite SourceCon posts that I think are timeless.

• The Boolean Five All-Stars: Fame, Fortune, and a Free Happy Meal - John Childs 8/16/2011 – John Childs is a former engineer that has a unique ability to train people to write Boolean srtings.  This post is an essential read for people new to Boolean search. If you’re a person responsible for training people, John’s simple logic will help you break down the process of writing Boolean search strings in to simple steps that anyone can understand.
• Top 10 Candidate Sourcing Best Practices - Glen Cathey 1/10/2011 – If you’ve been around the sourcing world at all over the last 5 years you know that Glen is one of the most respected thought leaders in the space. In this piece Glen unpacks a lot of his ideas in to 10 primary best practices.  You should read more of his work on your own, but this quick read will give you a great start.
• 10 Common Mistakes of Sourcing - Amybeth Hale 10/26/2011 – Using the opposite approach as Glen Cathey in the previous link, AmyBeth discusses the top mistakes sourcers make.
• Building a Sourcing Strategy Beyond Linkedin – Lance Haun 10/16/2012 - SourceCon contributors have written a number “How To” posts over the years. Lance shares some of the best in this article.

What should you expect in the next week?  I’m now fully integrated into the team and ready to go, so expect me to pick up the pace next week. I am working with military sourcing expert, Dean DaCosta, on a 3 part series about sourcing for military candidates.  Expect the first post in the series early in the week. I will also be sharing sourcing tips and tricks from 2 other guest contributors.

What do you want to see more of on SourceCon? Let me know in the comments section below.

Many organizations do a good job of diversity recruiting at the college and mid-management level, but often fall short when it comes to the senior management ranks. It is well-recognized that having women and people of color in the top spots will assist in your overall diversity sourcing efforts as well as in retention of diverse mid-managers and entry-level employees.

Dedication to attracting talented women and people of color who often are underrepresented at the senior management and board levels of many organizations has now become a priority.

Traditional sourcing methods used by internal recruiting departments, such as posting jobs and identifying individuals in similar positions may not yield the desired results when attempting to build an inclusive workforce. Thus, hiring organizations often turn to search firms, insisting on an inclusive candidate slate, but often are disappointed with the results.

Preparing the Client

Active participation is vital to the success of any search, but recruiting efforts with a diversity focus need special emphasis from the hiring organization. Whether dealing with external search firms or independent sourcers, to ensure the best outcome, the hiring organization must:

• Ensure that the consultant conducting the search is well-connected and networked into various diverse organizations, and that he or she has gained membership trust in order to  be effective in identifying candidates and sourcing;
• Provide appropriate information about your company, its goals and its culture;
• Inform the search firm of any special considerations or concerns, even those of a confidential nature;
• Share information about any internal candidates and companies that should or should not be included in the search;
• Offer timely feedback at each stage of the process;
• Schedule candidate interviews promptly, once appropriate individuals are identified;
• Have a strong commitment to a diversity placement from everyone at the client organization who will be involved in the recruitment process;
• Move swiftly with a competitive and compelling offer once the right candidate is identified, as top candidates are in high demand;
• Provide a clear plan for successfully integrating the new executive into your organization and its culture.

What, then, should hiring organizations and managers do?

Well, they should select sourcing professionals and search firms that have an extensive database which includes women and people of color, and that is knowledgeable about the use of online diversity research tools. The search firm also should be familiar with directories and periodicals that identify women and people of color, and it should have solid relationships with diversity-focused organizations.

Effective Onboarding

It also is vitally important that the organization has a proven, solid, on-boarding program for all hires regardless of gender or race. The program will need to overcome the hidden skepticism and suspicion of acceptance in the culture that women and people of color may bring with them. It also should include a presentation about the community to which the candidate will relocate, particularly with people of color, with respect to demographics, housing, schools and churches.

The successful candidate’s decision to accept an offer will be driven primarily by the opportunity and how it plays in his or her career aspirations. However, acceptance of that person’s family into the community, neighborhoods, schools and churches also will be drivers.

Now, the candidate may more than likely have researched that information for him or herself prior to acceptance. But inclusion in the on-boarding program will send a message of caring about potential concerns of the new hire. Additionally, it will give him or her on-the-scene perspective rather than one from pure data.

More tech startups than at any time in the last four years will be looking to hire this year, says Silicon Valley Bank, but they worry they won’t be able to find the talent they need.

Even as most leaders and founders of the firms surveyed by the bank for its annual Startup Outlook say conditions in the U.S. are better this year than last, the number of them who report hiring talent is their biggest challenge has grown. Nine out of 10 executives report finding and hiring the talent they need is their biggest challenge.

The annual survey, says 87% of the tech startups reported plans to add staff this year. That’s up four points from last year, and 14 points from the first survey conducted in 2010. The strongest market for startup hiring, according to the report, is Texas. The Boston area and metro New York are 3rd and 5th respectively. (more…)

A colleague recently told me that she felt like every job she has had has helped to prepare her for the role she just accepted. I feel the same way about the long, winding path I have taken through the talent acquisition world. It’s been a fun ride, and I am excited to take all of those experiences with me as I embark on a new adventure. On Monday, May 20th, I join ERE Media, Inc. as the editor of SourceCon.

I am humbled and excited to have the opportunity work with the SourceCon community and the ERE Media team. I have been to two SourceCon events in recent years (New York and Dallas). The lessons learned, and the contacts made, have definitely helped to shape who I am as a professional. (more…)

Between January 1, 2010 and March 2012 there were 157 venture capital transactions, totaling $966 million, funding companies focused on solving HR and recruiting challenges. That’s great news for the HR industry because it means access to new tools and technology designed to help source, recruit and retain new talent.

But here’s the bad news: Three out of four of these new businesses will never return investor capital — they’ll fail. But what if the problem isn’t with their technology? What if the problem is our fear of failure?

I’m going to ask you to make a big assumption: That the reason these businesses are failing is not because of the viability of the idea they’re centered around. Even in the entrepreneurial-friendly climate we’re in, funding an idea typically means verifying that there’s a market for the idea and, at least, a founder or founding team capable of bringing it to life. (more…)

The document was made public recently due to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Michael Morisy and posted on Muckrock.  The request was filed on April 13 and  fulfilled on May 8. The document appears to have been created to help government operatives understand how to retrieve information on the web.

Though last updated in February 2007, it contains massive amounts of data that will help sourcers and recruiters as they work to improve their sourcing skills and understand how the internet works.  (more…)

Here are a few of the tools that can make your mail more manageable:

Followup.cc — Follow up is a must-use tool for recruiters. Often there is something in your Inbox that you want to act on, but not right away. Or maybe you want to reply to a message and follow back up if you haven’t heard back within a certain amount of time. Followup.cc is a life-saver in these situations. I’ve been using it for over a year, and it’s one of a small number of things I can credit to making me almost bulletproof in my ability to follow up. It’s relatively inexpensive and very easy to use. (more…)

Both suck down the waste you don’t want. Both will also suck down the occasional thing you do want, like a misplaced ring, or an email from a friend who uses exclamation points like a kid eats candy and doesn’t know enough not to capitalize every other word.

And, from time to time, both need attention.

Here, though, is where the analogy ends. Unlike your kitchen sink, your desktop spam filter is almost certainly the second (or even third) system disposal for email. Unless you invariably use webmail, and religiously check its junk folder, I can almost guarantee you are missing emails that no one would ever think are spam.

The culprit here is Gmail. (more…)

No worries. The report from the U.S. Department of Labor this morning said 165,000 new non-farm jobs were created last month, while the unemployment rate declined slightly to 7.5%, even as the size of the workforce ticked up slightly. (It is still lower than at any time in more than three decades.)

The government also adjusted up its initial numbers for both February and March, increasing the new job estimates by a combined 114,000. With the revisions, job growth in the first quarter totaled 618,000. That’s just slightly behind the 208,000 monthly average during all of last year. (more…)