The Recruiting Inferno

[recycled – and modified – Levy post]

From somewhere on the Internet, I saw these questions; I think they hold potential:

• Which of the “Facts of Life” girls are you most like?
• If you were a deodorant would you be a roll-on, stick or spray?
• Do you prefer Emmanuel Lewis or Gary Coleman?
• Would you rather have Ebola or Smallpox?
• Would you rather have bamboo shoved under your nails, Chinese water torture or your ankles chewed off by a pack of wild dogs?
• If you were a fruit/marsupial/despotic leader of a third world country/[fill in the blank], which would you be?

Questions like these are asked in an attempt to unearth some special insight into a person’s psyche as a means to ascertain fit (or perhaps mental instability).

I just think they’re asked because someone doesn’t have enough sense – or ability – to define the performance profile of the job in question. When someone asks these, all they’re doing is creating a smoke screen so people can’t see how little they know about the real job.

Don’t miss #HFChat Noon – 1:00 PM EST when the #HireFriday community gets together to pay it forward. It’s Social Media Week!

#HFChat is where the #HireFriday community meets to help the #jobseeker find work…Noon – 1 PM EST today. It’s Social Media Week!

#HireFriday meets #socialmedia today Noon – 1 PM EST #jobs #jobsearch #recruiting #HR #sourcing

Margo Rose has asked me to assist in moderating today’s #HireFriday chat; she’s ducky, hunky and dory and will be back on the saddle next week.

Before we delve into today’s questions, the #HFChat team has a request to those who lurk but don’t participate…please, please, please – jump into the water! You won’t drown (I’m a Jones Beach Lifeguard – I can save you if you get over your head)…

If nothing else, introduce yourself before you head back to the lurking bench. However, we would very much like you to offer your perspectives and your experiences on today’s topic. We promise that #HFChat is a “No Judgment Zone”…

Did you know that there are hundreds of #socialmedia sites (Click on the link and check this out)? How does one choose? Which ones are most effective?

Q1: How has #LinkedIn changed the way you look for a job/look for a candidate? # HFChat
Q2: Do you use #Facebook to search for a job or look for a candidate? If yes how? #hfchat
Q3: Besides #HireFriday and #HFChat how do you leverage twitter for job search/candidate search?
Q4: What does your email address say about you? Recruiters: does the addy tell you anything? # HFChat
Q5: What other online tools do you use to search for jobs/candidates? # HFChat

Remember: Use Tweetchat with the hashtag #HFChat to participate in (or just lurk – it’s OK) in today’s #HFChat where we discuss #Socialmedia…

Before Old Man Sumser was talking about influence in no uncertain terms, his Electronic Recruiting News (aka ERNIE) was THE must read. I might be mistaken but John has been the longest writing recruiting curmudgeon in our profession; his is one opinion – agree with him or not – that you must read if you want to be at the bloody edge of recruiting.

I came across my ERNIE review of 2006 while cleaning out files; reading one’s older work can be sobering especially if your MO is to stick your neck out. Overall, I think I did pretty well…

Top 10 in 2006 (V7)

(December 26, 2006) After years, we finally met Steve Levy this fall. For some reason, we had him pictured as a shortish older fellow with really big ears (It’s probably the impish quality in his writing). We were surprised to find a young energetic noticeably bald guy. At least we got the impish ears right.

That’s the way it is with people you read online. You develop these incredible, usually inaccurate mental maps and decide you know the guy. Usually, nothing is farther from the truth than an image you create with limited feedback. So it was with Mr. Levy.

Occasionally here, more likely here, Levy’s voice is biting, sarcastic and very, very clear. It’s a must read. As is usually the case in great writing, having an opinion matters. Levy knows how to have one. Here’s his take on 2006:

2006 has been no different that any other year in recruiting – really, the more things change the more they stay the same. Recruiting has always been like the Matchmaker song from Fiddler on the Roof. New technology comes and goes, productivity increases then decreases then increases – it’s like the building of roadways around New York City by Robert Moses in the mid-1900s: traffic increased, more roadways were built, these roadways became clogged again, build another road, etc. The basic premise here is still moving from point A to point B as expeditiously, comfortably and safely as possible. Just like recruiting – finding the best person for the opportunity as expeditiously, comfortably and safely as possible. How has 2006 changed this?

Not at all.

• Consider the passive candidate. In 1998, he wrote about an HR Manager from Chicago getting all worked up about recruiters peeling back URLs to find company directories and finding passive jobseekers – she complained it was like stealing someone’s wallet right off a table. John snorted (yes, he snorts), “The idea that recruiting so-called “passive candidates” is stealing sounds like a deep rationalization for poor performance on a critical strategic task.” In 2006, more people became aware of how to identify and recruit the passive candidate – not only the ones on the Deep Web but also those who can only be reached through old-fashioned brick and mortar, pick-up-the-phone and dial-and-smile. This is utterly fantastic – regardless of how one gets to these people – the magnifying focus on the passive person is a best of 2006. Ultimately those who can deep search and phone source will find themselves at the top of the market while those who cannot…
• Consider discussions on ethics. Was there something in the water used by Starbucks in their coffee or Coke/Pepsi in their soda? Was there a sudden infarction in one corner of the Universe that mutated the genetic code of recruiters causing them to suddenly feel guilty about recruiting people away from companies? The vocal outburst by a few recruiters has been noticed by those who do not see a problem in our industry – I think I may have been one of these people (lol). If nothing else, I was certainly opinionated towards the got ethics? debate at ERE San Diego. Ah, the halcyon days of ethics in 2006.

  The issue is not so much the use of what some may consider to be unethical techniques but is more so the pervasiveness of the problem. Whether you want to believe it or not, no data exists proving that we have a problem in our profession. I called my friend at the AESC and asked about surveys that measured the breadth of “unethical behavior in the executive retained industry…no data. All in all, an entire year of discussion…but no data. My hope is that our industry does not develop an industry wide code of conduct but rather promotes education to companies, recruiters and candidates. Once educated, I strongly believe that market forces would begin to weed out the “lesser” performers – especially given the number of communication vehicles available for sharing such information. As they say at Syms, an educated consumer is our best customer.

• Consider the increase in the number of recruiting blogs. Some good, some bizarre, some serious, some comical. But the sheer number of blogs portends that many viewpoints will continue to be aired – and this is a slam dunk for our profession. In 2006, recruiter-centric threads went nose-to-nose with candidate-centric ones: The nexus of these two has resulted in a mutual, “I never knew you felt this way” – as evidenced by the number of mutual posts and comments (see Steven Rothberg’s CollegeRecruiter blogs and Jason Alba’s JibberJobber blog). This has been a slam dunk and education for everyone. But what I’d like to see in 2007 are CEOs blogging about their company’s quest for talent – now this would be revolutionary.
• Consider the escalation of staffing in SHRM. No, I’m not kidding. There are still less than 20 EMA chapters and well over 500 general SHRM chapters in North America – and far too many generalists still believe cost-per-hire is a valuable performance metric for recruiting – yet when SHRM’s LINE report (leading indicators of national employment based out of Rutgers University), finally took off in 2006, SHRM took a quantum leap in the right direction. Please SHRM – more!
• Consider the definition of an applicant. Do we have to? Has any recent government ruling generated so many puzzled looks by recruiters than the one issued by the OFCCP? Simple FAQs aside, did this ruling ever create a cottage industry for our profession: Job boards, ATS’, consultants – it was the recruiting industry’s version of Y2K.
• Consider Radio Shack. Trash 80 is now Trash 06. See? No one ever really learns – companies and recruiters. And they won’t in 2007. Incidents like these just demonstrate that Groundhog Day exists in Recruiting.
• Consider Armed Forces Recruiting. You think you have a problem because people don’t know your company well and your salary is at the 50^th percentile? Try recruiting people to join a service branch – especially a frontline one – when the media details every death and injury each day. Yet the recruiters who sit in local stations and become part of the community and try and educate people about the benefits of being a soldier, a pilot or a seaman are cursed at, have doors slammed in their faces, and are lied to every day. Despite this, 2006 proved to be a success for them in meeting their goals. I’m proud to be a COI – Circle of Influence, someone who works with local recruiters to identify and implement alternative forms of recruiting. And I’m a better recruiter for it.
• Consider Monster. Naughty, naughty. And from the recruiting industry no less. Now, where are their ethics???
• Consider that even consumer product companies are changing their ads to reflect workers. We all know that Madison Avenue still primarily presents us as geezers, using likenesses for medical ads. Yet there are changes – even I’ve-fallen-and-I-can’t-get-up has gone younger…need we even mention Viagra? What this portends – and I’ve seen the move towards ads that accurately reflect their target audiences – is that the hiring of older people will continue to grow as companies view for workers who can help them generate greater revenues. So to the younger recruiters out there – do you think you know me?

These are my major happenings for 2006. What do they mean to most recruiters? Probably not too much. Recruiting is still like politics where elections are won by shaking hands and kissing babies. Technology may help remedy the administrative quicksand that seems to be growing deeper but we still have to get out there and press the flesh. So for 2007, why not stop using that job board for one week, and take a stack of business cards, a pad of paper, and some pens down to that coffee shop (I’d recommend Starbucks) near where some companies are introduce yourself.

#JerryAlbrightHasKlout

Many experts give advice; few show you what they do (and by no means am I an expert). I’ve been interviewing companies in my search for a recruiting leadership position and I figured you might enjoy reading what my Thank You letters look like.

I know they’re not perfect but they’re me, they’re honest, and I believe they reiterate the challenges I heard and reinforce what I can do to resolve these challenges.

After first interview:

Name–

Frankly, I was hoping to have sent this note sooner but at least I made my 48 hour response window!

Thanks for Monday and for sharing as much as you did about the state of recruiting at Company. I’m not one to toss around superlatives when a healthy dose of reality is what is needed; my ears heard challenges and opportunities – but the opportunities appear to be within your grasp…our grasp…given the global impact of Company’s products.

I see a need to create and inculcate a three-year workforce plan that tracks with the PEST environments; I’ve always had success in convincing managers to buy into these plans.

I see a need to identify and take advantage of new talent pools – quasi-hidden ones – that require real relationship building to become productive pipelines; I’ll show you a great one on Monday (I’m excited just thinking about this).

I see a need to teach all employees how to be better talent scouts and hand off high potentials to the recruiting organization; it is always breathtaking when a VP comes into the office and tells us, “I met this person at the airport – and we really need them.” Same goes for recruiters who excitedly relate stories about how they met someone while on vacation who just sent them their resume.

Name, I’m very bullish about our mutual convergent needs, experiences, and professional goals. Looking forward to Monday.

Happy Holidays…

After second interview (which was delayed because of a small little blizzard):

Name–

Once again, thanks for the time and the ears last week; I’m getting a clearer picture of Company’s recruiting landscape.

Without equivocation, better planning and better pipelines are areas of interest for continuous improvement but I also hear that whoever comes in will have to partner with hiring managers as initiatives are undertaken. As far as I see it – as biased a point of view as there is – I’ve worked for many types of companies, each in different places in their business and talent cycles and will bring to Company a quiver filled with many types of arrows each useful in unique situations (I hope you don’t mind the arrow metaphor).

To reiterate my “outside” recruiting work and my social media efforts don’t take up much of my week – they’re nothing more than creating, building, and maintaining relationships that have always been vital to my recruiting. Obviously, if we go to press, I’ll jettison my recruiting work. However, those with whom I interact with through blogging, Twitter, Facebook, etc. often end up as sources of hire, subject-matter experts, and counsel. One very positive thing my writings have produced are speaking engagements – which would be done under the Company banner if our talks progress to that point.

Finally, while I have many ideas about how to create a superlative recruiting organization, I am not someone who makes changes for the sake of changing. My friends and colleagues know me as a coach and mentor – two ears and one mouth that are used proportionally.

Happy New Year and I’m really looking forward to the next steps.

What do you think? And yes, I do think I use my ears and mouth proportionally. Snort…

Everyone wants to hire a rockstar…sorry, a RRRROCKSTAR!

Okie-dokie…let’s look at a few rockstars and ask them a few interview questions:

Years ago, Ozzy Osbourne (of Black Sabbath fame although my younger readers might know him more from his family’s MTV series) showed up at a meeting at CBS Records’ Los Angeles office to embark on his solo career. His wife Sharon sensed that the executives weren’t keen on Osbourne so she had Ozzy show up at the meeting with a few live doves in his pockets and with the plan of releasing them into the air at an opportune time. Instead, Osbourne took one of the doves out of his pocket and bit its head off as the executives screamed in horror (imagine the blood spurting out of the bird’s neck stump).

Ozzy, you have quite an impressive background in generating massive amounts of revenue but your behavior is not the kind that necessarily blends with our corporate culture. Can you explain your management style and how biting the head off a dove fits in with this style? Also, can you give me an example of how you used your dove technique in managing difficult associates?

The late (what a surprise) Keith Moon, drummer of The Who (one of my favorite bands of all time) was one of the first rockstars to throw some – or all – of his instruments around stage. Guitarist Pete Townshend soon followed by smashing his Stratocaster to smithereens, and pretty soon a trend was born.

Mr. Moon, while your musical abilities are unquestionably superlative and your rhythm unparalleled, we’re concerned that if we hire you, every successful project you complete will require us to buy you a new computer, desk, lamp, and trash can. Can you assure us that you won’t continue your smashing ways if we hire you?

Rockstars are known to make crazy demands for everything from food to the color of their dressing rooms. To label most rockstars as high maintenance is like making the outlandish statement that the sky is blue. I’ve read where before a big show, Mariah Carey requires a box of bendy straws and Captain Crunch cereal and J-Lo needs a white room with white flowers and white curtains – not eggshell or linen but pure white.

Mariah, we’re pleased that you’ve essentially accepted the monetary portion of our offer to join us as our Chief Diva Officer but we’re concerned about the changes you made to the employment agreement particularly the paragraph where you state that you will only work every fourth business day and require the receptionist to roll out a red carpet upon your arrival while, and I quote, “the building’s cleaning crew will line up on both sides of the red carpet in a genuflecting position while holding their brooms like sabers in a V-position crossing over said red carpet.” We might have a problem with this…

We’re all too familiar with Lady Gaga In the New York City area; seems as if every paper has been printed with her on the front page in various stages of drunkenness, undress, and playing with her middle finger. Last baseball season, Gaga showed up at the New York Mets game in June wearing a leather jacket over a bikini. But when spotted by fans and photographers, she threw a hissy fit which required Mets’ officials to escort her into Jerry Seinfeld’s luxury box, where she proceeded to flip the fans the bird – over and over again.

Lady, as you know, we conduct an extensive reference check prior to receiving an offer. Given that we believe in honesty as a corporate policy, will our reference checking vendor uncover any pictures, videos, stories or any otherwise “inappropriate behavior” that might negatively impact the positive image of our company held by our most ardent customers?

For quite some time, the then-28-year-old Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page had a long-running affair with a 14-year-old groupie; everyone knew about it but no one did anything to dissuade Mr. Page from continuing the obviously illegal and immoral relationship.

Mr. Page, the Huntington School District is pleased that you’ll be joining our staff as a new music teacher in our middle school. It is clear you have great enthusiasm for teaching boys and girls to appreciate music…

George Michael needed more than “Faith” to beat (sorry, poor word choice) his 1998 arrest for “engaging in a lewd act” in a public restroom; find the details yourself but I can assure you that no one played a father figure.

George, as you know this is a hands-on position and I’m concerned that your experience has been substantially more strategic. What do you think?

Finally, the late Freddie Mercury held a unique launch party for his 1978 album Jazz which included “naked hermaphrodite dwarves serving cocaine from trays strapped to their heads, transsexual strippers, naked dancers in bamboo cages, nude models wrestling in baths filled with raw liver and Samoan women smoking cigarettes with their genitals.”

I can’t even begin to think of a question I might have used…

Rockstars regularly exhibit bizarre behaviors, destroy things, are high maintenance, and consume mass quantities of alcohol and other controlled substances.

Do you really want to hire a rockstar?

Had a wonderful chat with a fellow at a local Starbucks about the military; at one point, this quote from A Few Good Men just came over my lips…

Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.

It’s easy in the age of Wikileaks to excoriate those who serve and call them murderers. It’s easy to make the outlandish claim that GenY doesn’t care about serving and protecting but not mention MOH recipient SSG Sal Giunta. It’s easy to ban a Charles Whittington from school because someone was afraid of his PTSD but not mention that “his instructor gave him an A and suggested that he seek publication for the piece.”

It’s far more difficult to wave off our veterans than to sit with them, counsel them, and hire them.

I’ve decided that I’m going to be one of the recruiters who will press our profession and our country to do more for those transitioning out of the military. I have some ideas – early 2011 we’ll have our first #miljobchat on Twitter – and believe that we’ll all be better off for thanking those who are serving and those who served with not just assistance but real elbow-to-elbow collaboration as they embark on their post-military careers.

Rob Dromgoole and I started 1000 Recruiters of Light in 2010 but it’s now time to make it work: If we have to we’ll go company to company to recruit recruiters who will be their company’s point person to develop and inculcate affinity groups for veterans. We will go executive to executive if needed to convince them to partner with someone currently in-service – perhaps even the same unit as when they served – and counsel them through the professional element of their transition to civilian life.

If our government won’t help them, we will.