Employment in the headlines
Here is the digest from this week of employment in the headlines. Hang on.
- Employers cut 533,000 jobs in Nov., most since 1974
- More than 10.3 million Americans were unemployed in November, the most in 25 years.
- Bush told reporters: “Our economy is in a recession. This is in large part because of severe problems in our housing, credit and financial markets, which have resulted in significant job losses.”
Who do you think is on the front lines of this dilemma in our economy? Corporate Recruiting departments for one.
Layoffs are always a tough time for Recruiting departments; with fewer openings and more applicants, the tension between job seekers and Recruiters escalates. It’s like calling the cable company customer service person for the 5th time in a month - you may want to rip his/her head off even though you know it’s not his/her fault your cable is out again!
This tension is caused by the conflict of job seeker needs and Corporate Recruiter bandwidth:
- Job seekers feel more desperate in times of massive layoffs etc. It takes longer to find new employment and everyone’s senses are heightened in an environment of significant competition. During this time, job seekers NEED more attention.
- Job seekers may not “trust” that Corporate Recruiters are actually concerned about their ability to find employment and therefore doing all they can to help. Job seekers NEED reassurance.
- Recruiters are innundated with a significant increase in applicants for each job, reducing the time and effort they can give to each applicant. Recruiters BANDWIDTH is minimized.
- Layoffs in Recruiting Departments mean that at this crucial time in “candidate experience”, many recruiters are carrying larger requisition loads than in go-go hiring times. Recruiters BANDWIDTH is stretched paper thin.
So what can a corporation do to ease the fears and concerns of their job seekers and provide Recruiters with a way to meet the needs of the candidates (customers).
OVER COMMUNICATE
Many ATS systems are set up to send a “Thank you” when someone applies. Many Recruiting Departments feel this is enough effort and FAIL to communicate when a requisition is closed or put on hold or filled. The “BLACK HOLE” of recruitment gets bigger in difficult times because rather than face the tension mentioned above, companies hide from it. The effect is that the tension INCREASES instead of subsides.
Most ATS systems have the ability to automate communication when a requisition is closed (if yours doesn’t, then send this post to your ATS vendor and ask them to help you solve the problem) and ALL ATS systems have the ability to custom craft an email for this “end of the line” communication. Fix the black hole by crafting an honest, caring email and make sure everyone gets it:
Thank you for your patience while we executed our hirng process for the Accountant 2 position you applied for. Unfortunately this position has recently been closed. You’re application will remain active in our system for the next 12 months and we will certainly call you should a similar posiiton come open. In the meantime, we wish you the best of luck in your job search. We realize these are unique times and while we wish we could hire everyone who applies, we simply can not.
Or even better yet - put an offer in your email to help them find work!
Thank you for your interest in a position with <company>.
We realize that you recently applied for the Accountant 2 position. Unfortunately that position is no longer vacant. We encourage you to check our website to see if there are other positions that match your background.If you don’t see a role with us that is of current interest we would still like to assist you in finding a new position by introducing you to other great companies who may be able to give you the position you seek, right now.
<Company> is a Member of AllianceQ - a partnership of leading companies collaborating to increase our ability to find the world’s top talent.
It’s an easy, free and confidential service. Simply share your background and what you desire in a new job. In addition to being considered by <Company>, you are automatically and anonymously considered for thousands of other opportunities with leading employers every day.
To join AllianceQ or for more information, visit: http://www.AllianceQ.com/company
Again, thank you for considering <Company> in your job search and we look forward to considering you for future opportunities.
This communication is guaranteed to reduce tension and provide the job seekers hope and a continuation of their job search.
All they really want.
Business Wisdom for the Recruiting Department
An article in today’s USA Today spoke to the lengths that retailers (specifically electronics companies) are going to to “keep customers”.
”now is when I most want to keep my customers, because it’s much harder to get new ones”.
Is anyone taking this stance for candidates? Probably not. It seems that in our world of too many job seekers for too few jobs, we are more than willing to treat our candidates as if they are in infinite supply.
But this is a dangerous mistake. The candidate who applies for a role at your company today may turn out to be a customer or even worse, someone you desperately need to hire in 2010. How you treat them today WILL dictate how the perceive your company in every interaction in the future.
I’m not advocating sending fruit baskets to everyone who takes the time to apply to one of your open positions (chances are they applied for the wrong job for a myriad of reasons) but at the very least, you need to close the “black hole” and communicate with everyone, both thanking them for applying AND letting them know the final disposition of their application.
You can do it, your ATS can automate it for you. You just have to realize that it’s not a burden to do it. It IS the right thing to do and it’s just common business sense.
Joe the Plumber
I was thinking about Joe the Plumber from the election this month and why he’s a perfect analogy for the typical recruiting process.
Joe the Plumber comes to prominence by voicing concerns about being taxed under Senator Obama’s tax reform. He’s worried that the plumbing business he is buying will put him over $250K in earnings and he’ll be punished by new tax laws proposed by the Senator.
Now Joe is a national figure; mentioned in news articles, tv shows, and a very public debate.
Only, Joe isn’t what he says he is.
He isn’t a licensed plumber
He’s had cursory conversations about taking over a 3 man plumbing business that nets $100K a year (not $250K)
He’s had two tax liens in the last year, one that is still outstanding
He’s signed up for a plumbing apprenticeship but has never finished it
He makes about $45K a year.
His celebrity was nothing by hype.
Sound like any candidates you’ve dealt with?
The McCain camp says they can’t possibly check out the backgrounds and stories of every person that may reach conversational status but they do admit that Senator McCain’s standing up for him and calling him “rich” on national TV may have been a mistake.
Hiring managers and John McCain have a lot in common. They buy the hype, they believe what they want to believe and they more often than not, hire on the news and end up firing on the facts.
As Recruiters, it is OUR responsibility to weed out the Joe the Plumbers from our process. We have to stand up to the hype and be willing to point out that all that glitters is not gold.
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):
- 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.
- 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.
- 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)
- 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.
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?
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;
- 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?
- 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!”
Wanted: Recruiters
I’ve just returned from OnRec in Chicago and am wondering;
Are there Recruiters out there?
It seems that advertising has taken over and today the Internet is being used to solicit candidates rather than find them. (apologies to Shally and Dave) If you want to argue with me, then tell me why are job boards so prolific and why are they all run by ex-advertising guys?
When I started in recruiting in 1992, I had a desk, a yellow pages and a phone. I know, it sounds like the old “hike up a hill in bare-feet” routine of the middle aged man but seriously, recruiting is about finding talent not waiting for it to come to you. The Internet should have helped this but the ADMEN got ahold of it and today it is a fragmented mess of confusion for recruiters and job seekers. Thanks Madison Ave!
The Politics of Recruiting
William Uranga NAILED IT today in his post on Fistful of Talent comparing the selection of Biden and Palin to similarities in the recruiting process. Way to go William!
For me, the net takeaway is that hiring the RESUME is the safe, conservative and least effective way to hire anyone, VP of IT or VP of the United States. (Imagine putting Sarah Palin’s resume in front of a typical hiring manager, “not enough industry experience, not enough years of expereience” blah, blah, blah)
If you want to shake up Washington DC or simply shake up the marketing department, hire the most talented, driven and potentially game changing individual you can find. Use your insticts, your advisors and an eye to the future. All it takes is courage, vision and leadership. Any hiring managers out there fit this profile?
Dating and Recruiting
I just read a great article on the ERE by Amy Kimmes.
The only addition I have is that when you break up, do it gracefully.
Recruiting Application:
Take the time to treat the candidate who has interviewed with your company with the dignity and respect they showed you.
give them feedback
give them hope
give them a link to AllianceQ!
Talent Spotting
I just read a great article by Steve Lowisz, President and CEO of Qualigence, Inc. about Recruiting Metrics and how the rules have changed for recruiters in today’s business environment (shifting demographics, workforce dynamics etc.)
I couldn’t agree more with Steve and believe the “new” metrics he suggests are fundamental to the success of any recruiting department. Shifting business environments necessitate change in the business units that support the business. Change is hard but imperative for corporate recruiting professionals.
I believe there is an even larger change that Corporate Recruiters and Hiring Managers need to make if business is to survive and thrive in the “new” labor landscape. This shift is around the ability to spot talent. Now many people are saying, “Hey, I’m a Recruiter, I get paid a lot of money to spot talent” but I’ll challenge that thinking.
For over a decade, Recruiting has increasingly relied on technology to do the “talent spotting” for them. Through key word matching, screening questions built into ATS systems and cumbersome interview processes, we (I count myself as one of the Recruiters in the room) narrow prospects to candidates and candidates to applicants and present and hire what we assume is the best person based on their talent. But are we actually evaluating talent or are we hiring the resume + best interview?
Talent is defined as:
-
a special natural ability or aptitude:
-
a capacity for achievement or success; ability:
When was the last time you spoke about a candidate in these terms? I find that most hiring managers are relatively poor judges of talent (as defined above) and rarely evaluate candidates based on their “special” natural ability or capacity for achievement /success. I’m not blaming them; they don’t get any training on how to do this. Recruiters and Hiring Managers have been conditioned to use the paradigm of job description/resume matching as first pass at spotting talent and then use interviews to narrow the field – an inexact science at best!
Let me give you an example of the “magic” that can happen when this paradigm is broken:
A Global Company I know lives and dies by its sales force as all companies do. This company’s hiring philosophy is based on the definition of TALENT referenced above and here’s the result; in 2006 their #1 sales person made $350K and won a new Maseratti! In 2004 this same person was a CHEF! By being skilled “talent spotters” (i.e., using the ability to identify talent and not just match key words on a resume) this organization has opened new channels to passive talent.
This is the future of recruiting in Corporate America – becoming highly skilled in finding and recognizing people with talent – remember: the brightest talent may not be the best resume writer or interviewer.
About the Author
I'm Phil Haynes, director of AllianceQ, seasoned recruiting professional and passionate advocate for change in recruitment.
More about me
About this blog
The purpose of this blog is to stimulate a dialogue that challenges long-held beliefs in Corporate Recruiting.
I, along with guests, will be discussing change and evolution in recruiting; two imperatives if the function is going to survive the coming "race to talent." Through inspection, dissection and robust dialog, it is our intent to explore and debate the evolution of recruitment in Corporate America.
