Problem or Opportunity?

In an article from Monday by Dr. Sullivan titled;

Managing Recruiting During an Economic Downturn: The Top 10 Action Steps to Take

he also mentions “10 Recruiting Problems You Might Face During Tough Economic Times”.  Problem #4 is of high interest to me.

An increased volume of traffic. Normally, all great recruiters focus on the employed candidate (the so-called passive candidates). However, layoffs and high unemployment may mean that some high-quality people are now available among the ranks of the unemployed. Unfortunately, if you actively recruit during tough times, the volume of mediocre but enthusiastic unemployed people who will apply for your jobs will also increase dramatically.

So I’m a glass half full guy and see this as an opportunity and not a problem.  Increased flow of applicants during times of higher unemployment is one of the greatest opportunities a company has to cement its employment brand as positive.  How you treat the “mediocre but enthusiastic” (really judgemental and subjective and NOT my words) applicant today dictates your success when the unemployment rate dives and we are back fighting for talent.

Here’s the logic.  When you have 5 openings in marketing (as opposed to 55 during high growth boom days) it is very easy to classify really good candidates as “mediocre and enthusiastic” because it’s a sellers market and you and your hiring manager can be as picky as possible for these few hires.  But when the market comes back and it is once again a buyer’s market (we all know it will happen) how you treated these candidates will come back to bite you.  Remember, we are still in the age of Facebook, myspace, the vault etc. so if you fail to make a positive impression on the hoardes of people who need you today, you will find yourself wanting when you need them.  And you will.

Here’s the action plan (so simple it’s crazy that it isn’t being done by most companies):

  1. Disposition everyone.  No, not only in the ATS to cover your EEO butt but actually communicate with everyone who has applied to your company through the automated email process available in everyone’s ATS.  Most companies don’t understand that not communicating with someone who has applied is NEVER an acceptable business rule.
  2. Talk to anyone who meets minimum qualifications.  Really, you don’t have time?  5 openings in Marketing?  What are you doing if you aren’t talking to candidates?  Find the candidates who meet your needs today or who MAY meet your needs in future growth times and treat them like diamonds, not dirt.
  3. Give people reasons.  Again, most ATS vendors allow you to add a reason; doesn’t meet minimum qualifications, wrong location, salary too high etc.. but recruiting departments turn off this functionality because they don’t want to “upset” a candidate (meaning they don’t want to have to defend their decision in the event a rejected candidate calls)
  4. Don’t trust me, trust your candidates.  Again, you have time (I know you do) so hold an impromptu candidate focus group and find out what your candidates (selected and not selected) want from you.  You’ll find they simply want communication and not to fall into the black hole that corporate recruiting departments create to protect themselves.

The true measure of your employment brand is how you treat the people you CAN’T hire, not how you treat the people you desperately need.

October 22, 2008 | Filed Under Industry Commentary, Industry Perspectives | Leave a Comment 

A Bear Necessity

The economy is in the tank, unemployment is rising and the financial services industry is in mid collapse.

Ahhh, it reminds me of 2001.  You see, 7 short years ago I was a the heart of the last “collapse” - the dot.com industry was collapsing, 9/11 had rocked our economy and faith in all things good, the stock market was plunging and people were losing jobs at an alarming rate.

Like then, our situation today is simply a Bear necessity.  When markets are oversold they correct themselves.  An internet company with no revenues can not support a $300 per share stock price and no, people who make $40K a year can not afford a $500K home.  No matter how we try to break the natural order of things, the world corrects itself.

But this is a recruiting blog, not an economics lesson so what does this bear necessity mean for YOU as a corporate Recruiter?

  • You will see a lot of your friends get laid off.  When I left a company in 2000 called CommerceOne (dot.com) we had 32 people in our department.  4 months later, there were 4. 
  • You will be asked to do more with less.  Tight budgets mean a return to basics; headhunting, free recruitment solutions, networking etc. All the things great recruiters use when the paid subscriptions dry up.
  • You will FINALLY have time to be a consultant.  With less open positions, now is the time to get face to face with the executives in the company and teach them a few things about recruiting!!  Don’t hide!
  • New and improved technologies and strategies will emerge.  Before the last collapse, we had no Linkedin, Facebook or YouTube so spend this time researching and experimenting with new techniques and technologies and be on the lookout for innovation.

To survive this bear market correction, be sure you are adding value to the process.  Put yourself in the CEO’s shoes; If you are simply pushing paper to hiring managers and creating offer letters - are you worth keeping in this economy?

October 16, 2008 | Filed Under Industry Perspectives | Leave a Comment 

Doomsday Predictions

It’s mid October and I just read my first “here’s who will fail and who will succeed” prediction article by Joel Cheesman.  I expect we’ll see them from Wheeler, Sullivan etc. coming soon just like we always see the “HOT new companies” predictions each year.

How many are really right?  In my experience, not many.

Joel mentions the demise of Itzbig as being the indicator that many, not only companies (jobster) but classes of companies (eHarmonies), will fail in the current economy.  But two things bother me about his predictions;

  1. In the loser list, he mentions that recruiting budgets are being slashed yet #1 on his winners list is LInkedin, the most expensive corporate recruiting solution (paid solution - it’s still free to use it the headhunter way) on the market.  I heard that they are getting over $200K a year from Microsoft for the pleasure of using their solution so if budgets are getting cut, how does this one win?
  2. Joel mentions;

And when employers batten down the hatches of recruiting dollars, they stay with tried and true methods instead of straying outside of their comfort zones.

To me, this is criminal if true.  What’s tried and true is old and false.  Pulling your head into the shell, putting it into the sand and hoping that the economy comes back before the C-suite realizes that the recruiting department is still costing the company too much money is why Joel also quotes an industry leader as saying “Our industry is f***ed!

If Corporate Recruiting departments stop striving to be great in difficult times, if they completely reverse the momentum they’ve created in the last few years, if they stop reviewing new technologies and techniques that can help solve once and for all the problems that plague them - then I agree,

“Our industry is f***ed!”

October 15, 2008 | Filed Under Industry Commentary | 2 Comments 

My 1.5 Sense continued…

I have a question.

At OnRec there were the usual suspects from the Recruiting Technology world; ATS vendors, Social Networking vendors, niche and other job boards and some “filters” and selection and assessment vendors.  What there weren’t were a lot of Recruiting Leaders.  Maybe with budget cuts and the economy, people are just not making investments in their recruiting technology this year.  Which makes what I’m about to point out all the more unbelievable.  (prepare for shameless plug)

AllianceQ is a strategy to solve recruiting problems.  It is generated by and for Corporate America and is the only strategy of its kind in the market today.  Oh, and it’s FREE!

Yet at OnRec for two days I watched the gurus of recruiting, the people whose job it is to review, assess and write about what’s new for Recruiting departments, walk right past our booth and not even acknowledge our presence.  Interesting but not funny. 

One prominent “thought leader” walked by our booth (a double size booth, bright, white and conspicuous as Charles Barkley in a yoga class) no less than 6 times in 2 days.  Not a smile, not a question, no interest at all.  I shook hands and said hello to another ”pundit” who failed to ask one question about what we are doing or how things are going.  The only guru who took the time to check it out was Joel Cheesman putting him, once again, at the top of the list of thought leaders in my book.  The guy is actually interested in solving recruiting problems!

I guess a few of these folks got burned by touting Itzbig as revolutionary and then watching it go belly up.  They may be gun-shy about really looking into anything new and different for two reasons:  

  1. They are vested in the paradigm of Internet recruiting (keyword matching, advertising “impressions” focused, fragmented model). 
  2. Breaking the paradigm of Internet recruiting (i.e., creating a solution instead of another way to make money from the problem) threatens their businesses.

So here is the question I need help with:

IF the “internet recruiting” industry is 13 years old (1995ish - today) AND if the thought leaders who have been around for 1/2 that time or more are truly focused on solving problems THEN why are we still doing things the same way today that we were 10 years ago?

Hope to see you at ERE this month!

October 3, 2008 | Filed Under Industry Perspectives | Leave a Comment