I am looking forward to participating in & facilitating an Executive Briefing a the NAPS conference on November 1st in San Antonio with my three colleagues:
I am a runner. I bike. I swim. I compete in triathlons: not to win, just for fun and adventure. I really thought I was doing all this training to look and feel great in my fabulous forties. I did not realize that all this training would actually position me to become better at my job. But training has re-built the stamina that got me here in the first place. Training has enhanced my ability to climb those recruiting hills and glide down the other side.
Before the Fordyce conference, I planned to change my approach in my business. I was set to launch my new consulting firm in October and slowly hand over my recruiting business to another. At the conference, my love for the actual art of recruiting was re-awakened. There’s just something about making the right match and creating the right placement I can not give up. I figured out what I was causing me to feel burned out from doing the day to day hunt. When I came back, I made a declaration to become a Recruiting Tour De Force and committed myself to making the necessary changes I needed to make to have that happen.
After analyzing my business, it became clear that we had a pretty large base in one general industry that I have now labeled as Drug & Medical Information. With only a few changes of ink, I re-branded my company as specializing in that field and I flew out to the DIA conference only 3 days after I returned from the Fordyce forum. My son went online and built a plan for me so that I could use my 4 hours of time as wisely as possible when I arrived in Atlanta. I quickly walked the floor of the exhibit hall and met the players I set out to meet, made my contacts as an EXPERT in Drug & Medical Information and flew back home the same night. I came back and called every referral I had and within 2 months, I had five new key clients in medical education, drug launch, and drug development.
My message to these companies and candidates is clear and simple. I am the person to know in the Chicago market. I am different because I benchmark each role. I meet the key players. I assess not only the candidate, but each opportunity, and the company, and I only present the best of the best. Oh..…and I almost forgot the caveat is that I source names of people who are already working at your competitor or a targeted company or in a targeted industry of your choice. AND it is working! My largest customer even delivers me a fresh list of source names to call each month.
Yes all these changes are positive and things are working out. I won’t mislead you: My team and I are still building and working hard to build the new brand and the database. One of the things that keeps us going is when a staff member does something they never tried before, and the fear that previously consumed them is released into LOUD, JOYFUL HURRAH – that growth process feeds everyone else and give us the power to keep pushing forward.
I am going to share my lessons learned from the last 6 months, including my experience of what’s hot, what’s not, what’s worked and what hasn’t, as well as some training tidbits from some of my seminars. What’s HOT with SOURCING?
RPO –complete sourcing & selection teams Sourcing training Direct Recruiting Ethical head hunting Social Media Networking Page Ranking through Blogging Niche disciplines -Everyone knows the expert Virtual recruiting — Work Life Balance –Stay-at-home moms raking in the dough Contract recruiters making $25.00-$105.00 per hour Split boards Internal Sourcing teams Off Shore sourcing Active network association memberships Agency High Performance teams-sourcers, evaluators, relationship managers Sourcing systems, processes and planning
What’s HOT with SELECTION?
Pre Employment screening Pre Employment testing Background checking Credit checking Social security trace DMV trace Google searching Lie detector testing Benchmarking Personality assessments Behavioral based interviewing Values based Assessment Competence testing Skills testing Pre Interview – On line testing Committee interviewing Team based assessments Communication style assessments Hiring systems Clear expectations at time of interview Pre employment on-boarding Score and rank systems comparing candidates
Dos and Don’ts of being a RECRUITING TOUR DE FORCE:
DO 1.Get your clients’ commitment to you conducting the search. 2.Find out who your competition is – inside the company and out. 3.Find out what else they have done to find this person or these people. 4.Set the stage for you to control the hiring process. 5.Require they put some skin in the game ($, time, resources). 6.Create a benchmark of values, behaviors, competencies by assessing the current key players on the team. 7.Gain more buy-in that you are the recruiting force to be reckoned with. 8.Get a list of industry movers and shakers from the executives. 9.Get a list of companies to source from the executive directors. 10.Make it clear that all their competitors are calling the same list. 11.Clearly define the state of the talent pool and the challenge ahead of you. 12.Create a plan of action that utilizes 10-15 different resources for the search. 13.Set a goal to generate 10 new names per day and reach out and touch 5 per day. 14.Limit your time on the boards. 15.Source good resumes. 16.Set the pace to harvest 5 names from each resume. 17.Give the client a “by when” list that they can expect to get either result from you or reports on results from you. 18.Make a list of the social networks or resources you will use -Linked in -Ning -My Space 19.Make a list of the traditional or recently traditional resources & boards you’ll use -Monster -Career Builder -Dice -The Ladders -Other niche boards 20.Run searches to see who comes up. 21.Contact the people who come and see who they know. 22.Ask for introductions. 23.Ask for referrals. 24.Be an expert when you make those calls. 25.Use every call to brand yourself, and your company, and your discipline. 26.Ask who they know, like themselves, who is excellent at what they do and might be interested or able to route you in the right direction: remember birds of a feather flock together. 27.Use some sort of system to qualify candidates so you can spend your time with the right people and generating more contacts. 28.Qualify your top candidates and compare them to the benchmark you established. 29.Continue to give your clients a view into the challenge of your search. 30.Be in communication about things like good candidates you are taking out of the running, new & similar search assignments or pending candidates that you might be presenting. Let them know you are working for them. Stay in the loop on their progress as well.
DON’T 1.Don’t jump into a search before you know what you are truly looking for 2.Allow yourself to be treated like a vendor 3.Take a brief specification or download the job description from company website 4.Overlook the importance of meeting or speaking with the players. Assess them through your own instinct or using appropriate tools 5.Under estimate the power of an RPO or Large vendor presence 6.Get trapped into the find-the-right-resume game 7.Only recruit off the boards 8.Get lazy or complacent 9.Under value the time you’ll need to spend on shaking the referral tree and building your network 10.Avoid planning 11.Ignore your promises of what you said you’d produce 12.Reject documentation or tracking of your results 13.Work for free 14.Spend too much time in one resource 15.Let the candidate or the client run the show
Staying ahead of the curve means being abreast that there is a curve. Stay alert, read, hire someone to scour the internet, make changes you need to before you need to, do all this and more become a Recruiting Tour De Force.