Starting the Fall Campus Trail

Fall is my favorite season! There is a distinct smell in the air that comes with Fall and what's not to like about hoodie weather, pumpkin spice everything and leaves in every color! The other reason I like Fall is because it's back to school time... not just for my son, but for my candidate pool as well.

This week I've booked my campus travel schedule and mapped out which Sales Managers and Alumni Account Executives will be joining me as I road trip to various campuses across the Midwest. I've also mapped out the next two campus season(s) branding strategies and how we will pipeline for the large ramp of new hires we plan for Q1, Q2 and Q3 of 2014.

I can hardly contain my excitement. For me - I'm in my element on campus, as I love the energy level I get to exude. I often refer to it as hustling, "Everyday I'm Hustling" (Cue LMFAO) haha!

It surprises me how wrong people can be about the Millennial population sometimes. I see this first hand on campus. Sure, there are some entitled kids out there that went to school because mommy and daddy paid for them to go and it was an excuse to get out of the house, join a frat and party. However, I see a great deal of smart go-getters out there that want to make an impact on a company, learn and absorb as much as they can. It is those "go-getters" that are our future! They make a difference and are part of the war on talent from a grow-your-own talent perspective.

The key is having a recruiter that can spot the go-getters and sell the opportunity of making an impact at your organization. Sure branding is a HUGE component, but that is a different post. Weeding out the entitled from the go-getter is not all that hard, but is indeed a learned skill. Some of the things I look for on campus are:

1. Dressed professional and prepared at the career fair
2. Mapped out a plan for which employers to speak with, their openings and did some research on the company
3. Prepared with copies of their resume and pitches for why they are a candidate that should be considered
4. Activities, Philanthropy, Student Government, Internships, Sports, Collegiate Activities/Groups on their resume that showcase that this person is INVOLVED and used to juggling responsibility
5. Energy level and willingness to introduce themselves (you would be surprised how often this is missed)
6. BONUS: Prior to fair, emailed resume or applied online and mentions they will visit your booth (I love this one - extra points!)

Some of the red flags?

1. Sloppy appearance
2. Not prepared
3. Crumpled resumes
4. No research, no map, no plan, no clue
5. Busy socializing with their friends and not actually engaging employers
6. Resume with only school and summer jobs
7. Low energy level (I am not talking introvert here - but literally like they had an all night keger the night before and decided to show up anyway)
8. No real clue as to what types of jobs they are targeting
9. Just hitting the booths for free swag or chotchkies

So... with that said, my campus season starts next week. The chotchkies are ordered and packed in my trunk with my booth, business cards, flyers and maps! They will remain in my trunk until end of November. Now let's just hope no one rear-ends me and we have yet again another stellar recruiting season!!!!

If data is not important...then I dont know what is!

Does anyone out there still keep manual spreadsheets? (My hand is raised btw)

Data is so important.. I know this, you know this and everyone else across the globe knows this. However, myself and a bunch of my corporate recruiting friends all have the same complaints - reporting!!! Now maybe it is because the group of people I know work at companies that have not made applicant tracking system reporting a priority or maybe there are more people out there with these same issues than I personally know?

In terms of fortune 500 level companies or companies with employees under 2500 (which I am most familiar with) they do not invest is systems that I drool over like Success Factors or Kenexa. We typically have Taleo business edition, PC Recruiter, Virtual Edge and even icims. What is frustrating is that a lot of  these ATS systems are not designed the same as the actual recruiters workflow. Maybe even the person who implemented the system didn't understand the workflow (which is more likely the culprit). Therefore, the data is not recorded in the same fashion. Most of the systems are customizable (which is one of the reasons it was purchased in the first place) but there are a ton of add-on costs in order to configure dashboard reporting. Instead of getting fancy dashboard reports that executives want to see (let's be honest we want to also see), you get raw data that you dump into Excel.

Mind-numbing raw, stinking-freaking RAW data. So, then you have to manipulate it to make it fancy but that is a lot of bloody mindless work.... when surely a system can do that, right?! 

I've been fortunate enough to see the before and after of what good HRIS consulting can do to configure Taleo. It still wasn't perfect, but you know your reports are only as good as the tracking of data in the system so...  Plus, improvement is good - perfection is unrealistic.

Any commiserate-rs? Any braggarts that want to share their awesome reporting (I am guaranteed to be jealous)?

The Politics for Making a Business Case

Corporate politics can be tricky. It can be even more tricky when you are driving change (or at least trying to). I realize we are not all in a position to be change agents, but your engaged employees should be trying to drive change... at the very least from a process improvement point of view.

With that said - being a change agent is one thing, but actually getting the buy-in from the business to implement change... is an entirely different mountain. Yes it is a MOUNTAIN! Corporate politics make it a mountain. There is red tape, personal agendas, egos, higher salaries, and even a dictatorship in some cases. Wow, that's enough to make anyone give up on their idea...even when it is for the good of an organization!

So, how would one go about making the business case for change (if they were brave enough to try)? A good friend and colleague (who is a sales professional) shared with me a story that sticks with me to this very day. He said, "I always go 80% there and let the decision makers fill in the other 20%. Works every time!". Having seen him put this into action, I am convinced his methods produce results. However, we can't all be a brave political warrior like him, so I have outlined a pretty good checklist to help you get there.

1.) Understand the problem. This may make you go back to your college research paper days to write out a problem statement. However, you also need raw data to prove that it actually is a problem. Do you have metrics that showcase the problem in a quantitative way? If so, you might want to include those.

2.) How does this affect the business? What is the current state under this condition and what is the worst case scenario over time (long-term or short-term) if no change is made?

3.) Understand your audience. Who will be at the table and have influence over the decision for implementing the change you are suggesting? Who is the loudest? Who is the influencer of others? Make a list and organize it by loudest, most opinionated and influential and put the quietest, less influential at the bottom.

4.) Fully scope out your solution. Will this be a project or an easy 1-off solution? If it is a project, then you need to map out timelines, human capital resources, costs and expected challenges along the way. Nothing looks worst then not having the answers. So, reverse engineer the meeting. Think of all the things they might ask you and have the answers researched and ready!

5.) Target the loudest most influential decision makers. Pick the top two and have a pre-close/buy-in conversation off on the side. Having two influential people already on your side, makes it easier to get the rest of them into group-think mode. Address the problem at hand and give them 80% of your solution. Back them into telling you the other 20% of the solution (that you already know). This gives them personal ownership in your business case. Be careful and tread lightly; you don't want both influencers thinking they own the same idea. Also, think of this as a trial run.

6.) Present your business case to the group and make sure your problem statement, solution, and project plan are well formed and organized in a nice power point. Be sure to give credit where credit is due, by verbally recognizing the 2 influential decision makers. Let them speak up and also sell your business case. Try your best not to leave the room without getting a confirmation on next steps, what additional information they need or in a best case scenario - an answer!

Overall this is a very collaborative approach, but it gets the job done. Just know that it takes an army to successfully implement change, even when it's a no-brainer to you and will save the company money, time or resources. Change is not something that the majority of people take on easily.

What strategies have you used to make a business case and skate through corporate politics?

Now get your brave-politico-warrior game face on .... Grrrr!

The Job Hopper

Countless times this has been the road block for many talented individuals. Frankly, I've always wondered if this is a blessing or a curse. You are probably thinking... Blessing? How can she define it as such? Well the reality is you would have had to be hired for several jobs in order to be defined as a job hopper and that means you were chosen by the employer and embraced as part of their team. They saw potential and had hope in you. The fact is, there are many people out there that are not as interview savvy and did not get that frequent of opportunity to join. Isn't that sort of a blessing to have that type of skill? You also have to wonder if that skill translates to the important skills needed in this job!

Yeah, yeah US employers don't want to invest in a person's training and ramp to productivity, only to have to restart that process a year later. However, I have to wonder if they are leaving for a reason and don't actually have the intention of being a job hopper, but are instead being held back from their ambition, micro-managed to death, or avoided a lay-off (jumped ship).

So, how long is long enough? Say you were under the circumstances above, would you stay for the sake of longevity on your resume? A lot of people would... in fact I've heard that before so many times, "I at least have to hit the (#) mark before I consider leaving... I don't want to be perceived as a job hopper".

Don't get me wrong, I don't pick sides on this debate. I just think it is food for thought. So many employers disqualify a candidate based on resume alone because the candidate is perceived as a job hopper, but the reality is if you don't know their situation... how can you truly classify them as such and maybe, just maybe this person just had some bad luck?! The employer should use precaution for sure, but a flat out no seems rigid to me.

Maybe what we should be delving into is why they have made such poor employment decisions repeatedly and make them think hard about what they liked, didn't like and how your environment, managerial style and culture fit affect them in the role? Do they want the same things you are providing? Do their behaviors in past situations point to favorable future circumstances with you? AND... most importantly - Can you keep them?

Some risks are worth taking.... but you should also take the right precaution. Balance is key.

What sort of feelings do you have on the job hopper topic? Ever interviewed and hired someone who shocked you because they made the cut long-term?

Get Out of the SME's Way! (for your own good)

We often talk about Quality of Hire and I agree that is an important thing. However, what about when you hire a quality person but YOU (the Manager or Leader) are in fact the actual road block to their results? We've also heard the saying "Get out of your own way" but what if that is not the case? What if it is your boss that's in the way?

In this employment market (aka War on Talent), the talented professionals out there have choices, networks of people who will vouch for their super-stardom and they are not held to the same standards as the yet-to-be-determined talent. Therefore, finding them is difficult, retaining them is key and more importantly letting them drive is essential.

In a recent conversation with a new found professional acquaintance we discussed this very topic: Hiring a subject matter expert but then under-utilizing them. He said, "My owner has said flat out that he hires people smarter than him and then gets out of their way"! I echo that statement. If you are a leader hiring talent - you want a subject matter expert. If once you've hired this SME and you still feel the need to micro-manage and control their work, then there is a bigger systemic issue.

So, for all you hiring managers who are hiring subject matter experts to push your business forward...

My advice is this:

In the interview and decision process ask your self

1. If I had to take a medical leave and be out of pocket - would I trust this person to handle the responsibilities of the role successfully? 
2. Would I trust them to make quality decisions? 
3. Would I trust them to make me look good to my peers? 
4. Would they be able to push the agenda forward (results, project, resources or whatever)?

If your answers are at least 95% yes - then hire them and GET OUT OF THE WAY!
If your answers are not at least 95% yes - then DON'T HIRE THEM - keep looking!

It sounds easy doesn't it? However, we get caught up in a lot of different things like the length of time to fill the position or the competitiveness of the market and we become very reactive and we essentially do not hire the SME we can trust. Now that is a whole other blog topic!

What are your thoughts on the above? Have you experienced or witnessed this very thing? I have and it can be a costly vicious cycle that is counter-productive to moving your business forward.

Poaching Don'ts (ok... just the basics)

Ok, maybe I am venting here out of frustration...  In the last several months I have received several InMails on LinkedIn about various opportunities; while it is always nice to receive one (if only to know your value in the marketplace) it can back-fire and totally turn the candidate off!

The thing is... if you are a recruiter, head-hunter, sourcer or a hiring manager it would be a total waste of time for you to do a simple keyword search, select all on your results and send out an email. In fact, not only is it a waste of time, but it can hinder your credibility as a recruiter. In this instance: poaching a candidate from a competitor.... when done poorly, just makes for office fodder!!

To all the newbie recruiters, sourcers and up-and-coming headhunters:

1.) Do your homework PLEASE! If you poach someone for a job, at least make sure they actually have a background in the job you're poaching them for. Nothing is more off-putting than when you get an inmail for a job in payroll and you are in fact not a payroll professional. (You wouldn't want me in payroll, not a numbers person. Trust me on this!)

2.) Poaching should not be sending an 8 paragraph email, because a 2 paragraph email should suffice. You don't want to waste the person's time before you even know if they are interested and if they have to sift through all the mumbo-jumbo to figure it out.... they most likely will not bother!

3.) It would be wise to summarize the following things:

• Who you are and your company
• The position title and key qualifications you are seeking (making sure they match your candidates background)
• Why the opportunity is exciting (your pitch or elevator speech)
• Why you are sending them an invite to discuss further
• Your contact information (beyond just responding through LinkedIn)

4.) Double check your grammar (although we are all guilty of this occasionally), spelling and the actual name of the person - because getting their name right is essential! Let me repeat - get. their. name. right.

I am done venting now...  but I had to "go there" because having 4 instances in 2 months was weird and frankly I was starting to question who was schooling these newbie peeps on poaching!?

The actual inmail that pushed me far enough to blog about it included a wrong spelling of my name, a position I clearly would not be qualified for and never left me with the person's contact information in case I wanted to actually call them back. Just saying...

Culture or Context?

Culture is one of those buzz words that candidates ask about and employers try to articulate, but in my opinion - you really don't fully know the culture until you are breathing it, living it and judging it for yourself.

Sure employers want to identify culture and use or spin it in a positive light for purposes of branding, attraction and retention. Why not use every arsenal possible?? However, the reality is that often times the way an employer describes their culture is not actually how being in the culture is. If you had an opportunity while investigating whether the company was right for you, wouldn't you like to ask several people of different levels how they would describe the culture of the company? Objective people that have no care for whether you get the job or not? The answers vary sometimes and don't always line up....but when they do, that is also something to pay attention to. I've experienced many cultures in my staffing days and then also as an employee for several.

I have defined a few below (but I am sure there are many other definitions my blogger friends have too):

Brainwashed: This is where the employee brand, mission, vision and values are drilled into the minds of all employees (over and over again) in an attempt to have a uniform voice. Makes sense strategically, but what happens when you start the job and you are subjected to said brainwashing only to find yourself in the job 3 months later going...this is well....Bologna!

Severed Voices: This is where there is no real message and no actual work done on defining the culture. When you ask multiple people, you get varying of answers. One says something cliche' like "we work hard, play hard", while another spouts off some canned response like "our culture is one of collaboration and innovation". These are meaningless to a job seeker because they do not actually represent the culture.

Real Transparent: Very rare, but sometimes employers are open enough to allow a candidate to shadow for the day or attend a company event with the hopes of allowing the candidate to define the culture for themselves. This is unique and it takes a level of confidence on the part of the organization to say, "Who am I to define it? Define it for yourself!"

Foundational: This is usually found in organizations that have the money to actually pull off the whole culture branding thing. There is a person in a desk that owns accountability for this and probably a team of deployment peeps as well. From the website, to the office and through on boarding - you see consistency and the culture is representative even when the honeymoon phase  is over. This is a hard fete and some big companies can't get there because their vision and corporate politics clash.

My advise to a candidate is this: Ask the culture question, hear the answers but know that you will never really know the culture until you experience it for yourself. Each person's experience and definition will vary inevitably. Even the company with the best plan for cultural immersion and employment branding still has the office gossip, the negative nancy, the company champion, the canned responder and the blank stare person.

When on the interview - take in your surroundings. Are people smiling? Are people working together? Or are they whispering by the water cooler? When deciding on the offer - visit the companies facebook and social media pages and look at their pictures and posts! Scope out the LinkedIn profiles of their employees and past employees too. If you see a ton of people who came and went - maybe that is a red flag, but maybe it's not. Be careful with sites like Glassdoor.com, because people typically review a company when they are pissed off. Very rarely do people go.... I love my company culture so much I think I will post a review on Glassdoor! What I think is the most telling is when a company has a high percentage of employee referrals!

So maybe the right questions are:

What percentage of your hires come through employee referrals?
What is the average tenure of your employees?
What do your people like most about the culture?
How can I get a better feel for what it will be like to work for your company?