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Self Branding

Other than a painful, drunken practice of Frat Brothers and frontier cowboys or the latest topic on Oprah, I’m not sure this term should actually be used as a verb. 

I prefer the noun: “Personal Brand”

As with a corporate brand, your Personal Brand may be something you “manage”  but it is created by the way you work and may not be as you intend.

In corporate America, those of us who do the work of the company (separating from the C-level executives to whom NONE of this applies) are annually evaluated on not only what we’ve done in the last year but how we’ve done it.  Typically a bi-modal evaluation program like this results in great “what” score and a confusing “how” score that is less than anticipated.

Why?

For one simple reason; measuring your Personal Brand (i.e., reality checking it internally at the company) is virtually impossible.

Now HR practitioners will argue that a 360 degree review (where your Mgt, co-workers and subordinates are all anonymously polled and the feedback provided to the individual) account for this internal Personal Brand check but anyone who has been through a 360 knows that’s not true.  So not true that I once completed one for a manager of mine and in our next 1:1 she said to me “I heard your voice in my review”!!  I had been honest and made some grueling recommendations for improvement in her “how”, was assured it was confidential and low and behold – she parsed the comments out and knew what I had said.

Needless to say, any 360 degree review I was involved in from that point forward was a highly edited, cliff notes of what the true feedback could be.  This is true for a large majority of people being polled in these “feedback” sessions.  Your true Personal Brand is what is said about you around the water cooler.

So what does this look like (inability to accurately access your true Personal Brand) in real life?  Let me ask you if you know this person at work:

1. Considers himself a “SME” (subject matter expert).  Note; I said “considers himself” not “is considered by the team/group/company!
2. He’s always adding his 2 cents to a conversation, even when he’s not really part of it.
3. Acts like he’s always too busy so that any time he gives you is perceived to be at a premium.
4. Asks for ideas and input but does what he originally intended to do in spite of it.
5. Lets everyone know every time he has a conversation with an executive and it always seems to be that this Exec asked for his advice.
6. Eats lunch alone.
7. Is never invited to the after work impromptu beer gatherings
8. Has been in his same job for 10 years + (consistently passed over for promotion)
9. Bugs you.

Now when someone asks this guy how he’s seen at work, he’ll rave about how he’s respected, consulted and admired.  But, is that the way you really feel about him?

Before we can go about “managing” our internal Personal Brand, we have to find a handful of honest co-workers, supervisors and subordinates who will tell us the hard-to-hear truth.  And then we have to accept it with grace and go about changing the things that caused us to shudder when we heard them.

Fact is, YOU have some things you can change today to make your self-brand better – are you willing to hear them and do the hard work to change them?

Recruiter Match Race

Since Thoroughbreds were first brought to the American colonies more than 300 years ago, match racing — featuring one man’s horse against another man’s horse — has been an important part of the sport of racing. In the 1800s, match races took place with regularity.

None was bigger than Seabiscuit vs. War Admiral (you may have seen the movie).

So I just read the “Recruiting’s Smart Experiment with Social Media” article on ERE and in it one of the quoted Recruiters said;

“As the only recruiter, it’s hard for me to sit there and Tweet all day (something she says often goes on with independent recruiters). I’m not a beginner with Twitter. I think I know more than a lot of people out there. But it’s time-consuming. I am glad I work really fast. I’m glad I can multitask. My cell phone is loaded up on tweets. Some people just Tweet all the time.”

I also read a great article by Seth Godin about what people really want out of social media and other “connections”;

…….the fact that what people really want is the ability to connect to each other, not to companies. So the permission is used to build a tribe, to build people who want to hear from the company because it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, it gives them a story to tell and something to talk about.

So I got to thinking; if I put together a “Recruiter Match Race”between a modern, Social Networking Recruiter vs. an old fashioned “smile and dial Recruiter”, who would win?

I believe Seth, that people connect with people not with companies.  Maybe the hardcore Apple fans will argue that they hang on every word the mother ship utters but few people will argue that they really enjoy connecting with a company.  Even employees don’t necessarily connect with a company!  Heck, that’s why employee engagement is such an illusive subject for HR folks!

So if you are a recruiter who believes the size of your facebook “Tribe” or the number of people following you on Twitter make you a better recruiter (better than my headhunter with a research list) PLEASE send me an email or comment on this post and tell me why you think that.

By the way, Seabiscuit was a 4 year old (ancient in horse racing) and War Admiral was the new, innovative favorite.  Here’s how the result was written at the race track:

“When they were at the last furlong pole, it was evident that the race was over. Both jockeys put up their whips and Seabiscuit, going strongly, the Admiral a very tired colt, the bay won by three open lengths.”

Dogpile on the Job Seeker

I never watch nature shows where they show one animal eating another because I find nature very brutal.  It’s always the sick or weak or young that are getting eaten and it’s never with a knife and fork.  While my college education provided me a backdrop on natural selection and the food chain – I’d rather watch CNN.  Here, I can see many of the same predatory behaviors being acted out by civilised people in business suits.

For instance, recently there has been a rash of what I call “dogpiling on the job seeker” – spamming them with false hopes of jobs, treating them like a commodity, internet phishing scams simply becasue they posted their resume and now the worst of all – charging them money for the false hope of getting a job.

I recently received a newsletter from one of the “6-figure” job boards – it came from their CEO (as it usually does) but I can’t believe a C-level executive would put this in writing.  However, this particular job board has always charged job seekers (they let you have a “free” account where you can see summaries of jobs available and even be contacted with “someone wants to talk to you” offers but if you really want to make contact with any of the companies – who they charge for postings now – you have to pay to get connected.  Charging job seekers and employers in this market) so it shouldn’t surprise me that they view the millions of out of work people as a great revenue source. 

Here’s how the “Newsletter” read;

Good Monday morning, Phil,

…And what I’ve discovered over the years I have been in this business (9 years in job boards, none in recruiting – PH) is that it takes a professional writer, who is familiar with what recruiters are looking for, to turn your resume into a very effective advertisement of your skills, talents, abilities and background.

 …

we have seen average applicants per job rise from 15 per job two years ago to 26 today.And that extra competition means you have about 10 seconds to stand out – to ensure that your audience can find exactly what they need to know about you, and find it fast.

And those are the most important 10 seconds in your job hunt.

Are you going to leave your fate in the hands of an amateur?

 

 

So here’s a guy who’s probably reviewed 100 resumes in his lifetime (look him up on linkedin) telling his readership that they all need to go hire a professional writer to create their resumes or risk their FATE!

Whew!  I’m so freaked out I’m going to go hire a professional PR Firm to manage my job search becasue without it, I’m leaving my fate in (que the vampire music) my own hands!!

Actually, I’m just freaked out that a Harvard educated (”with high distinction”) CEO would be this transparent.  You see, neither he nor anyone in the traditional job board industry is actually interested in helping you get a job.  Proof point: if he WAS, he’d be writing about how tough the market is and that you may actually have to go get a “survival job” to carry you through this downturn.  He’d write that you may have to put your ego in check and just do whatever you can to keep your house and fancy car or even downsize and go minimalist. 

Oh, but wait, who would sign up to pay him to look at 100K+ jobs if those people who LOST their 100K+ jobs started working for less than 100K?  Hmmm…

Instead, he’s advising his “readership” to go “spend money” or risk their fate.  (transparent fear sales pressure) What he’s not telling you is that the professional writer can’t CREATE JOBS which is the only reason people are not getting hired left and right.  Remember 4 years ago?  Who was advising job seekers to get professional resume writing when the unemployment was at 4%?  No one because everyone knew (and still knows) that a resume is a poorly written document, professionally or not. 

I HAVE read hundreds of thousands of resumes in my career (17 years, look me up on linkedin) and I can tell you it’s easy to notice the “professionally written” ones from the “leaving fate to an amateur” models.

I can also tell you it made NO DIFFERENCE in my decsion as a Recruiter whether I put a candidate into a process or eliminated them.  You see, that’s what I get paid to do, decipher resumes, uncover talent and get them hired. 

The moral of the story is thus; in this economy as in ANY economy – as a job seeker you should never have to pay to get a resume, get interview coaching or get a job.  Only job board CEOs and Chicago Congressmen belive you should.

When Reality Knocks

For months now I’ve been writing about the Candidate Experience and it’s ever growing importance for Corporations in this economy.

Recently Taleo, in one of its Taleo Cafe presentations, put forth the following research metrics: 

23% of job seekers has been badly treated by a prospective employer.

53% of jobseekers will not purchase products and services if they have been badly treated.

55% tell at least 3 people about their bad experience.

49% of all jobseekers find the lack of acknowledgement of their application the most annoying part of hte recruitment process.

and I would add one of my own: 

100% of job seekers find the lack of closure to their application process (the Black Hole) an unacceptable business practice and all the above metrics apply.

Today is the day to focus on the candidate experience.  This time next year, you’ll be too busy, you’ll be in too many meetings and once again the Candidate will become the victim of a very bad candidate experience with your company.

Storming the Gates

Today, Recruiting departments are seeing a large uptick in the number of applications they are receiving for open positions.  Not surprising news given the economy and unemployment.  But this increase comes even as the number of open positions has plummeted, in some cases up to 70% fewer openings than this time last year.

This “storming the gates” by job seekers (both unemployed and active as well as employed and nervous) is a double edged sword for most companies; on the one hand, your recruitment advertising dollar is producing far greater return than in the recent past but the danger is that your brand is probably suffering.

Why?

Because most companies do not have a robust candidate experience plan in place and are therefore overtly or inadvertently creating a terrible candidate experience with their employment brand.

As we talk to recruitment leaders across the country it seems that most are still focused on the classically conditioned value of a recruiting organization – the candidate to fill a role.  Some have recognized the opportunity to build valuable pipelines of hard to find profiles but with so many people out of work, a pipeline you build today may or may not bear fruit when it all turns around – too much time and too many variables between now and then. 

So what major opportunity are these leaders missing today? 

A once in a lifetime chance to truly separate your brand from the rest of the pack by focusing on the gate storming candidate.

Yes, I said focusing ON- not ignoring, being judgemental of, lambasting around the water cooler or simply disdaining but being and acting GRATEFUL for their application.  Trust me, there will come a day when you will look back and wish you’d not missed this opportunity.

Those companies who treat “candidate service” like “customer service” will win the talent wars always.  It is these companies that people talk about at cocktail parties, church gatherings and other social events.  The candidate you treat well today will lead their friends, families and today, their LinkedIn and Facebook friends to your door. 

So what does it cost you to do this because we all know you have no money right?  Nothing.  Literally not one red cent.  You see, every department, every system in every company is already poised to do it.  What it takes is that “eagle path” I wrote about on Monday – being fearless in your advocacy of these candidates within your company and choosing to focus on what some consider an “intangible” in recruitment – being a company that people WANT to work for.

I have many examples of exactly how this has occurred at companies large and small across the country.  If anyone is interested – they are happy to share the secret sauce of this endeavor.

Remember this, if you choose to ignore this opportunity today, you will not get it again because EVERYONE will be talking about it when talent gets scarce again.

Eagle or Ostrich?

This is a defining time for Recruiting Leadership around the world.  Whether the profession advances in this difficult environment or recedes is dependent upon the decisions being made today at Sr. level meetings in conference rooms across the globe.  These game changing decisions rely on a single personality trait to determine if they advance our profession or drive it deeper into an organization’s basement.

I’m talking about COURAGE - that rare, defining aspect of some people’s personality that allows them to make difficult decisions and advance an industry while their peers sit on their hands.

With the economy stalled at best, VPs of Recruiting are facing a myriad of decisions; reduction of budgets, laying off of contract Recruiters and even some full time staff to accommodate reduction in work (some companies are experiencing 75% fewer openings than this time last year).  Most are spending late hours worrying about their own positions and future in the industry.  Add bankruptcies, foreclosures and mergers and the world can seem like a very precarious place from where they sit.

Typically I’ve witnessed two reactions to this scenario.  In 2001-2002 there was a micro 2009 in the dot.com industry – companies failed, companies merged and most of my contacts in the industry got out and into other professions.  The few that remained took one of the two paths I’m referencing;

The Ostrich Path – put your head down, do your job, don’t ask questions, don’t rock the boat, refuse any ideas that are not “safe” or traditional and teach your whole department to do the same.  Oh yea, and fire anyone who refuses to comply with the “head in the sand” mentality.  OR;

The Eagle Path - recognize the opportunity in front of you and seize the moment; innovate, challenge the status quo, research new and different business practices to make your department stronger, more respectable in the organization and a valued thought leader in the industry.

Today in my role outside of a corporate recruiting department I see these two paths daily.  I had a meeting last week with an SVP of Recruiting at a Fortune 10 company.  After an hour conversation this person was eager to hear more about what we are doing (innovation) and how we can help him advance his organization.  Clearly an “EAGLE PATH” Leader.  No fear, no excuses, no reasons for being too busy to talk – just an Eagle.  Unfortunately, this is the exception to the rule.  We see many more Ostriches than Eagles these days.  So many of this Eagle’s peers are scrambling to make sense of their world, cover their butts and keep the peace that they can’t see the forest for the trees.  I feel for these folks – it must be disheartening to find reasons NOT to do great things and then find out that people around you are.  It must be tough dinner conversation to explain to your spouse “I kept my head above water today, I didn’t ruffle any feathers and my badge should work tomorrow when I go back to do it all over again”. 

These are challenging times but in any conflict lies opportunity.  In order to see this you have to have the right perspective and vision.  From an Eagle’s point of view – it is easy to see the opportunity, swoop in and take advantage of it.  From the Ostrich’s point of view – the view never changes, its just sand.

Why Is Change So Hard?

My company is trying to change an industry, an industry that hasn’t really changed much in the 17 years I’ve been in it.  Apparently change is hard for human beings:

How many people were still driving their supercharged V8 super SUV when gas was over $5 a gallon?

How many people continue to rebuild a house on the same plot of land even after multiple floods wipe them out?

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We ARE the Stimulus Plan

How to simulate the economy seems to be the front and center conversation in the media and in homes across the country.  When AIG isn’t dominating the headlines and people are really thinking about solutions, they think of economic stimulus plans.  Most agree that creating jobs is task #1 and the thinking goes that if more people are working, more people are positive and therefore more people are spending money.  Basically any Government stimulus is simply supposed to spark OUR (the consumer) spending so there is more money in the system and we can return to our times of prosperity.

But wait, taking government stimulus money and repaving roads (like Bev Perdue is doing here in North Carolina) is wasting the taxpayer’s money.  It creates short term jobs but not long term employment and confidence. 

In essence, the government leadership is probably the least qualified to stimulate our economy and create jobs and confidence in the working population.  So who then should take the reigns?

YOU.

You, the American worker.  You the American entrepreneur.  You the American genius.  Why?  Because it’s always been YOU that has stimulated this economy, not government programs! 

How do we do it?  INNOVATE!!  Every age of innovation has created more prosperity than any government stimulus plan since the “New Deal” of the 1930’s.  Think about it.  The last time you were probably feeling flush and having the time of your life was in the 90’s.  The technology boom was in full swing and we were all jumping on the World Wide Web.  The age of the internet has spawned more innovation than we’ve seen in the last 50 years.  So it starts with innovation.  I’m watching Steve Wosniak on Dancing With The Stars and although he’s a really bad dancer, the guy is a certified American Genious.  He created the Apple Computer and launched the company behind your iPod, iPhone and i-everything. 

As innovation spurs new product development, consumers buy and buy and buy.  So I’m advoacting a “new” New Deal based on radical innovation.  In the last 5 years, there has been little innovation.  The IPhone created a stir, Blackberrys get smaller but there has been little to get the consumer inside us all excited and spending money.  More than ever, we need to innovate and create some excitement in our world.

But Phil, I’m a Recruiter – what can I do to innovate?  Anything you can think of.  Remember, part of the New New Deal is that people need to get working.  Let your mind go and takes some chances and risks – these are the building blocks of innovation.  Start that new recruiting business, moonlight helping unemployed people figure out how to get the jobs that are out there – do that one thing that you’ve been thinking of for years but that little voice in your head always says “no one will buy that”.  They will if you take the chance.

This country was built on the risk-taking, innovative backs of the people of the country.  We have to stop looking for help from our Government and take control of our own stimulus options.

Frustrated Job Seekers

Here is an interesting article that comments on the frustration most job seekers experience in online recruiting.  Speaking of the difficult time job seekers have of actually finding their “dream job” online, Jennifer Hamm says;

Still, trolling job boards remains a very time consuming process, contends Richard H. Beatty, author of “The Ultimate Job Search.” There are over 40,000 career websites, including mega job boards, industry-specific sites and listings on company sites.

“Job seekers are faced with the daunting task of somehow screening through this bewildering array to discover those sites that will prove most productive for them,” Beatty says. “Huge amounts of precious job-search time can be completely wasted.”

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Yankees or Oakland A’s?

I recently made my annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Major League Baseball’s spring training.  On the plane, I was reading and a collision of thoughts occurred in my head that would rival that collision at home plate between Pete Rose and Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star Game. 

For any non baseball fans out there, stick with this blog post as it WILL be brought around to talent acquisition, I promise.
First is an interesting article in last week’s Wall Street Journal.  In it, the authors propose that one of the leading causes of our current economic downturn was the profound short term thinking of Chief Executives and Boards of Directors.  They assert that the “short term gains at all costs” mentality of corporate America is a huge factor in this unprecedented economic downturn and that the people who run the most powerful companies in our country took their eye off the ball (baseball analogy) of business 101; building solid products, selling them at a reasonable price and supporting what you sell for the long term.  Granted that some of this “short timer” disease was driven by shareholder pressure to continue to grow wealth, the feduciary responsibility of Corporate America has to have a longer horizon than quarter over quarter growth according to the authors.

So what does that have to do with baseball and even more unclear, what does any of this have to do with talent accquisition??

Well, in the age of free agency in baseball, the game of building a winning team has become divided into two camps;

CAMP B: buy the talent with the best statistics from last year in the hopes you can win a pennant this year (Yankees) and

CAMP A: bring in not yet great, high trajectory, under the radar players for a fraction of the cost and grow a sustainable winning team over time (Athletics). 

There are a lot of arguments on both sides (As always, I met my Father and Brother in Phoenix, both avid Yankee fans and proponents of the “buy and try” mentality of the Steinbrenner family) but I’m making my case for the longer term horizon strategy of the Oakland Athletics.  Without going into a huge analysis (this is, afterall, a human capital blog, not one from Sports Illustrated) the Oakland A’s manage to make the playoffs or come within a few games almost every year.  They win and are fun to watch. They take calculated risks on young players and grow them in the organization for as many years as they can before the Yankees buy them. (Jason Giambi, Scott Brosius etc.) The fans in Oakland love them, even the years they come up just short of the playoffs.  Contrast that with the Yankee strategy where winning this season justifies Wall Street type compensation with short term required payoffs (in 2008, the Yankees spent over $420 Million on CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett) Their fans demand a pennant every year (just like the shareholders demand strong growth in profits and share value) especially now that they pay $70 for the cheap seats at the new Yankee Stadium.   I don’t know a Yankee fan that would be satisfied with a good run at a title this year and welcome back the team from 2009 in 2010 if they didn’t make the playoffs.  By the way, in the last 7 years (when the Yankees went really “out there” with the money they pay these guys) the yankees have only been to one World Series (in 2003) and they lost to……The Marlins (another Athletics-minded, lower budget team by the way) proving that chemistry, not just talent, counts.

Ok, so now you see the paralells; Yankees/corporate governance of the 21st century and Atheletics/desired corporate governance post economic recovery.

Now to wrap it up with the final parallel: the mentality of most companies in hiring and building teams.  “Shadow of the leader” as one of my past managers put it, dictates that the behavior modelled by the leader is what the teams beneath them see as the behavior that is desired, even when it might be the wrong behavior.  Just look at the Stamford Bank executive now under indigtment for misleading athorities in their investigation of her crooked boss!  So if the CEO’s lead by “short term gains at all costs” mentality, then it follows that this trickles down to every level of the organization.  Hiring Managers demand “no assembly required” candidates from Recruiters and many “not yet great, high trajectory, under the radar players” go unnoticed and unhired by the company.  Is your company the Yankees or the Athletics?

I’m not saying that Recruiters can fix the economy or baseball but I do believe they can take the lead in fixing the “no assembly required” hiring mentality of their hiring managers.  For a step by step “how to” guide on doing this, read Billy Ball – the story of Billy Bean, the guy who changed the mentality of the Oakland A’s hiring model.

It’s going to be a long season and the environment is ripe for a change of strategy.  Pick up some high level prospects from the waiver wire and be prepared for a champagne shower in 2011 when your “unknowns” of 2009 turn into hall of famers!