That was the week that was…
- Author: Amitai Givertz
- Posted: June 30, 2007
- Category: Recruiting
- Tags: No Tags
- Comments: 2
Week ending June 29, 2007
A round-up from the recruiting industry’s group blogs, portals and individual archives:
John Sumser’s “Take Five” on Recruiting.com:
Monday: Five Techs Worth the time for sure!
Tuesday: Random Five An eclectic selection
Wednesday: Web Five Spinning a trap
Thursday: Five Techie stuff 2.0
Friday: Searchin’ Five On hide and seek, seek and find
“Quote for the Day” on RecruitingBlogs.com
Monday: On the recruiting technology “Productivity Paradox”…
Tuesday: On “actions speak louder than words”…
Wednesday: On leadership development, nature or nurture…
Thursday: On “just-in-time” recruiting…
Friday: On HR going hungry at the table, bellyaching…
A Successful Journey in Profiling: Land-ho!
- Author: Anna Kassulke
- Posted: June 27, 2007
- Category: Profiling
- Tags: Center of Excellence, Performance Staffing, Profiling, STREAMline Training, Training
- Comments: 2
The Right Fit: Profiling In Relief, Part 3
In Part 1, From Pears to Plums: The Changing Employment Landscape, we explored mapping the changing employment landscape. In Part 2, Taking the Wheel: Charting Your Course, we went forward with how to navigate this challenging topography. In this last post of this series we will take a closer look how to use the profile we have created.
Here is something to think abouit: Good hiring does not happen by chance. It is the result of careful planning and execution. Yet many hiring managers rely on their intuitive reasoning instead of a rational and structured process that includes interviewing to profile.
The interviewing process takes place over time, and gathers a range of data from differing perspectives, so that ultimately the data is not a reflection of people’s perceptions at specific points in time; it constitutes accurate, objective, analyzable data. The process also involves a degree of psychological profiling. Data here might include measures of intelligence, emotions, insight, decision-making abilities, ambition, problem solving, and aptitude for leadership. Once your profile has been scientifically validated from multiple perspectives, you will definitely have a strategic advantage over your competitors.
You will know precisely who you are (and are not) looking for, to source for specific positions. You will no longer be relying on instinct, or the tides. Once profiling has been completed, your business, along with all those that have been engaged in the process, will gain a deeper understanding and consensus about what it is to succeed in each position.
By working together on profiling, everyone is able to reaffirm his or her alignment with the goals of your organization, and these are stamped and endorsed by executives and managers. The end result? You have validated profiles of the right candidate for each job family which you can archive and source whenever needed.
Signal to Noise Ratio
- Author: Shally Steckerl
- Posted: June 26, 2007
- Category: Business Matters
- Tags: Industry
- Comments: 1
What started in 2004 as a risky move when a few of us stuck our necks out to vulnerably make public our thoughts in an open forum, has in a quick staccato grown to a cacophony. In the ancient history of our profession, around the turn of the century, there were only a few voices, but they were clear as a crystal bell.
These voices broadcast ideas through unidirectional vehicles like newsletters, both in print and online, as well as static websites that required considerable skill to publish. Comparatively a rank amateur in 1996, I was lucky to be a barely discernible junior voice among the ranks of big influencers who started revealing secrets online about our industry as early as a year before my meager beginnings in this industry.
Some of those ancient leading voices have grown very strong while others are returning after a long hiatus. But who cares about that? After all, it’s a forgotten time and things have changed.
Well, the truth is I care. Lately I have been having increasingly more disturbing conversations with my peers, mentors, apprentices, customers and business partners, about the growth of the signal-to-noise ratio. With the maturing of the “click here to post” blog technology, not only has the amount of new voices increased but also their volume is rising as is the diversity of opinions they represent.
Signal-to-noise is the ratio of information to interference in the medium. In other words, when the ratio grows it gets increasingly harder to tell the useful information from the background noise. While I strongly believe our industry will benefit from numerous conversations among people of widely varied opinions, trying to listen to all of them will shortly be impossible. Good voices are being drowned out by noise and feedback loops. So, I’m doing something about it.
That was the week that was…
- Author: Amitai Givertz
- Posted: June 23, 2007
- Category: Recruiting
- Tags: Archives, Blogs
- Comments: 0
Week ending June 22, 2007
A round-up from the recruiting industry’s group blogs, portals and individual archives:
John Sumser’s “Take Five” on Recruiting.com:
Monday: Five Tools for recruiters
Tuesday: Five Lives Virtual worlds where recruiters play
Wednesday: Five Starters Recruiting and social stuff
Thursday: Five More Social media and recruiting
Friday: Today’s Five A bit of this and that
“Quote for the Day” on RecruitingBlogs.com
Monday: On communal blogging and “free speech”…
Tuesday: On the future of recruiting technology…
Wednesday: On Feng Shui and retention best-practice…
Thursday: On the brain drain…
Friday: On sucky recruiters’ excuse making…
Healthcare Recruiter, Are You Ready to Go-Go?
- Author: Amitai Givertz
- Posted: June 20, 2007
- Category: News and Events, Recruiting
- Tags: Print Media, Sourcing Strategy, USA TODAY
- Comments: 0
The cost of recruiting nursing, physical therapy, imaging and other hard-to-source healthcare talent has gone through the roof. One reason is the inflationary cost of recruitment advertising and the lack of responsiveness from an audience of mostly passive candidates. Another reason – believe it or not – is the cost of aviation fuel and the price of room and board.
For example, to travel from Denver to North Florida and then to Los Angeles stopping off at Chicago is not inexpensive. Of course that assumes 14-days advance notice. You are packed aren’t you?
Even so, networking and connecting with the country’s leading professionals as they meet at their annual shindigs may net you more candidates than just sitting at home and hoping the ad in Sunday’s paper generates some more paper on Monday morning.
A case in point: consider the upcoming events in each of the above cities respectively:
- Annual Conference of the American Physical Therapy Association
- 2007 Convention of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses
- 11th Annual Meeting of the Clinical Magnetic Resonance Society, and/or
- The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Annual Conference
As a healthcare recruiter, it is never easy being in the right place at the right time with the right people, when so many airports, hotels and unfamiliar cities are involved. Unless, of course, you happen to be a high-profile USA TODAY recruitment ad published in each of the host cities where our bannered feature for healthcare will be appearing, timed to coincide with each of these events.
Recruiting passive candidates under the best of circumstances is often tiring. Try getting through security at four major airports in as many days with a full day of recruiting in between, and you’ll have to admit the virtues of targeted print over cross-country trekking are irrefutable. Some of the markets for this advertising opportunity are looking a little tight for space. Don’t fly standby if you really don’t have to.
Contact me for availability in the markets of your choice — 25 advertising print markets to pick from — deadline information and space reservations, or email me if you prefer.
Hey, if you pay with a credit card and get frequent flyer miles for next year’s recruitment travel you’ll be killing two birds with one stone!
On Humility and Other Leadership Qualities
- Author: Gil Keough
- Posted: June 19, 2007
- Category: Employee Retention, Business Matters
- Tags: Employee Retention, Leadership Training, Management
- Comments: 1
Editor’s note: This was originally published as a comment to Eric Jackson’s post, Building Smart Leadership. Here is Part 1 of Gil’s commentary titled The Qualities of a Successful Leader/Manager.
What is a leader, but one who knows how to follow the leadings of those he or she serves. Who is a wise person, but one who is aware of how little they know, and how valuable the knowledge and experiences of others are when considering decisions.
Quality: Humility
Henry Ford was by far one of the most successful businessmen of his era. As testament to that fact, his legacy lives on through the automobile company that still bears his name. And yet, by his own admission, Henry was not the smartest man among his contemporaries. Knowing this about himself did not deter him from pursuing success and becoming a great leader within his industry. He overcame the challenge of his own limitations by surrounding himself with the most intelligent people he could find.
That is one of the qualities of a successful manager or leader; the ability to recognize the experience and abilities of others, and humility enough to admit that one does not know everything. This is an especially challenging mindset for those who hold “papers,” like degrees or diplomas from institutions who have convinced the recipients that they know how to think, and reason, and make decisions within their field. A degree is beneficial, but it still does not indicate that a person knows everything, nor that he possesses management skills. All a person knows is what they know.
We are each the repository of an immense amount of knowledge and experiences that are filtered by our own perspective. It would be foolish to believe that a person who does not have a degree isn’t as intelligent or as capable as a person that does. Two words…Bill Gates.
Taking the Wheel: Charting Your Course
- Author: Anna Kassulke
- Posted: June 18, 2007
- Category: Profiling
- Tags: Center of Excellence, Performance Staffing, Profiling, STREAMline Training, Training
- Comments: 0
The Right Fit: Profiling In Relief, Part 2
In Part 1, From Pears to Plums: The Changing Employment Landscape, we explored mapping the changing employment landscape. Now we go forward with how to navigate this challenging topography.
Consider: The combined cost of losing an employee and hiring a replacement can be as much as 200% of the position’s annual salary.
The development of a talent management strategy is vital to all organizations today, regardless of their size or industry. Profiling will give your organization the competitive edge when it comes to recruiting, hiring, and retaining the right people. It can take time, months or even years, but those who have sought expert guidance know that the bottom line pays off; the costs involved in poor hiring will be eliminated.
We would be willing to wager that 100% of those organizations that have been through this absolutely critical process would never turn back; they have a distinct advantage right now. Think of it in these terms: profiling is a great and rewarding business process, it will deliver ROI, and it will mean that you will take to the waters knowing who you want in advance, rather than believing or thinking that you do.
Companies spend an average of 36% of their revenue on human capital expenses
What have we all traditionally done? We have normally reacted at the point when a position becomes open, not before. Sound familiar? We place a print ad or post a job to get candidates to find us when the position becomes open because we have no available talent pool. Organizations that do not have a talent management process in place are at a distinct disadvantage in today’s environment.
That was the week that was…
- Author: Amitai Givertz
- Posted: June 16, 2007
- Category: Recruiting
- Tags: Archives, Blogs
- Comments: 0
Week ending June 15, 2007
A round-up from the recruiting industry’s group blogs and portals:
John Sumser’s “Take Five” on Recruiting.com:
Monday: Five Bits
Tuesday: Five Oldies
Wednesday: Five Flies
Thursday: Five Worldviews
Friday: Five Cheeses
“Quote for the Day” on RecruitingBlogs.com
Monday: On personal brand……
Tuesday: On lying…
Wednesday: On outsourcing and knowledge workers…
Thursday: On slacking off…
Friday: On defining quality employees…
TGIF
- Author: Amitai Givertz
- Posted: June 15, 2007
- Category: News and Events, Recruiting, Business Matters
- Tags: Center of Excellence, Performance Management, STREAMline Training, Training
- Comments: 0
Let’s play a game. Which of the following is the odd man out?
Engineering Manager, VP of Administration, Hiring Manager or Production Supervisor; CFO, Plant Manager or Director of Nursing?
If you picked “Hiring Manager,” good job! No, not because in most instances the term “hiring manager” suggests a task and not a function but because hiring managers – in most cases at least – are not measured or held accountable for recruiting outcomes in the same way as a recruiter is. Of course, there are exceptions. There always are.
I’ve said before, recruiting is not an easy job even though great recruiters make it look that way. Assuming the recruiters “most obvious” job has been flawlessly executed we could expect that the sourcing and screening and selling of the job have resulted in a good stable of well-qualified, interested and engaged candidates for the hiring managers to play their own game of odd man out.
Here’s the reality. Unfortunately, very few hiring managers know much about selection or what it takes to interview a candidate and assess how good a job the recruiter has done in producing candidates. Most hiring managers do not understand how to asses a candidate against critical success factors like organizational fit, competency levels and potential, personal motivations and so on.
The problem with interview training for hiring managers is that whatever they learn they forget just as quickly. What they don’t forget they don’t apply. Yes, yes, there are exceptions but those simply prove the rule! Better yet, recruiter training that addresses these things and enables them to properly manage hiring managers and the selection process is likely to produce much better long-term results.
On Tuesday, June 26th we will be sharing some new approaches to dealing with this reality and sharing some techniques for actually changing it. Our STREAMline Recruiter Training Boot Camp and program primer will be held at the Marriott Perimeter Center, Atlanta, GA nd I would like to invite you to join me there.
Will you?
Talent Management or Brand Management?
- Author: Amitai Givertz
- Posted: June 13, 2007
- Category: Talent Management, Employment Branding
- Tags: Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employment Branding
- Comments: 3
From The Impassioned Workforce…
In my professional capacity I operate in the field of Marketing and Business Development, helping the organisation establish and grow its brand presence and convert prospects to advocates. Why then, some might ask, am I speaking/writing about employee engagement, recruitment and retention issues and other such stuff? Surely these are HR topics and belong to the realm of human capital experts? But not so. These topics are critical to everyone wishing for the success and longevity of an organisation, and with brand equity increasingly becoming the domain of the CEO, it is vital that everyone plays a part in creating and sustaining an impassioned workforce.
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