Using LinkedIn to Recruit Passive Candidates? Yep!

It’s a fact that companies are still filling 80% of their jobs with active candidates – candidates who are actively seeking other employment. Yet, most of the A-playing talent is found within the passive pool, a much smaller pool. How in the world will you be able to hire quality passive candidates if they are not applying for jobs? The most valuable and effective tool for finding and communicating with passive candidates is LinkedIn!

After reading this tidbit of interesting information; how many of you have been in or have known someone in that very same position? They are brought onto a job into a position that is more or less meant to be a mere stepping stone for what they truly want? Honestly; how many of us can say that we have never been at that same position?

LinkedIn is one sure-fire way to locate those prime-candidates that are not actively seeking other employment. It's as if you are walking around outside the local restaurant, not paying attention, and "OH!" there is a $20 bill that is off to the side, stuck in a bush. Now, you weren't looking for a $20 bill, and oh what an odd occurence that you have found one minus the effort. LinkedIn is your bush to find your $20 bill...uh...candidate.


The quoted first paragraph is from Strategic Advisor, Jennifer Millman.

7 Questions to Consider Before Hiring

Almost ready to bring aboard a few new hires? Super, but wait a tick...there are a few questions that should be addressed.

1. How Fast Do You Want the Candidate?
How many times can you count on one hand that there is an "immediate need" for a candidate, but it seems that hiring managers are sitting on their hands, twiddling their thumbs in lieu of staging interviews? This could be a misinterpretation to your candidates indirectly showing them that you and your company are not interested in them, coaxing them to possibly take another offer elsewhere. Be clear and concise with you recruiters if you have planned a vacation, sick leave or if you are just plain unavailable so they can re-evaluate the best time to bring in a potential hire.

2. Is Your Gut Really Correct?
It's widely thought by many hiring managers that they are absolute of who they want to hire within 5 minutes of meeting with a candidate. I have actually been told this in past interviews, personally. These are for the most part biased, subconscious feelings and can actually overlook good candidates in favor of a candidate that closely resembles what the hiring manager sees as a greatly packaged product. This can be labeled as "Mirror-Image Hiring" and can be very detrimental to an organization as it can lead to a stagnant state or a plethora of brown-nosers. Nobody likes a brown-noser; sniffing too hard could be hazardous to your integrity. Step outside of your comfort zone to take a look at more skilled candidates that will possibly bring great challenge and promise to your company.

3. How Important are the Candidate's Skills?
There have been studies to back the notion that managers will hire for cultural preferences rather than for the candidate's raw talent. Not always the greatest way to go about this method of hiring. Try locating an assessment evaluation, which can be found online and it is automatically scored with easy-to-read/understand results, giving you a better outlook on your candidates.

4. Behavioral Assessments: Yes or No?
If anyone of us has been in an interview (and we all have), dependant upon the hiring company, they will give out behavioral assessment tests. Time consuming, sometimes redundant, but these are fairly valuable to the hiring managers. Not just to see who will take the time to complete these tedious pieces of work, but it will provide you with a much better understanding of you candidates. These also can provide lenghty and and in-depth interview questions to dig deeper into the candidate's behavioral aspects. If you're a 3-minute decision-making hiring manager; you may want to try this out.

5. Are You an Early Adopter?
Video interviewing will become the norm in the next few years as it helps reduce travel costs associated with flying in candidates, eliminates the scheduling hassles associated with phone screening. and proves its value as a more revealing tool when trying to determine who is worth bringing in for the face-to-face interview. The question may be: What are you waiting for? Do you fear process change or new technologies? Are you getting or giving push back when you are approached with new technologies that could make your hiring process easier? Are you still holding on to your rotary phone?

6. Are You Compliant?
Despite who your gut tells you to hire, you are required by law not to discriminate against protected classes such as race, gender, and age. If your gut for instance is always telling you your candidate is too old, too black, or too feminine, then you may run the risk of non-compliance with a cute-little band of fellows called federal entities such as the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. Drawing their ire could bring fines, not to mention bad press and lower employee satisfaction, "YIKES!". As mentioned earlier you must step outside your comfort zone when hiring and employing a diverse workforce is a great way to do this.

7. Will Everyone But You Get Blamed for the Bad Hire?
Simplified answer; NOPE! You as the hiring manager will be partly to blame as well, not just the HR/recruiting segment of the workplace. HR cannot fully understand all the nuances, complexities, and skill requirements of each department. The hiring manager must be involved in the hiring process from start to finish ensuring they are getting the candidates that best match the skills and behavioral attributes necessary for the job. This way time is not wasted unnecessarily.

So, are you ready to hire some candidates?!

The Hiring Manager's Guide to Working WIth Recruiters

If you have dealt with recruiters or if you yourself is a recruiter, then you are well aware that recruiting is a team effort. It works the best when the parties that make up the team move quickly and effectively through the tedious process to get the job done. No doubt that this is much easier said than done, but why don't we take a look at the three primary members of this brilliant team:

1. The CANDIDATE
2. The RECRUITER
3. The HIRING MANAGER

Any of these three parties fails to perform as expected, then this "decorated" process turns to suffering - and can break down completely under certain circumstances. This can lead to all types of problems and frustrations that relate to the successful acquisition of a new employee.

On top of that, you risk wasting time and money — as well as creating bad blood with respect to the candidate — if the hiring process is mishandled. Fortunately, most recruiters I come in contact with understand the necessity of driving the process forward and making things happen as quickly and as smoothly as possible. On the other hand, most candidates are simply looking to explore a given opportunity. But because candidates exist outside of the company, they do not fall under the expectations of organizational processes or expectations. Oh boy. This leaves us with the hiring managers, who can be a real problem if you are looking to be a more successful recruiter. If you the recruiter want to be more effective, you will need the full and ongoing cooperation of your hiring managers. Those individuals, in conjunction with the interviewing team they appoint, will be the people who will most influence your ability to be successful in building great organizations.

Hiring Managers: Here’s How to Get the Most Out of Your Recruiting Partners
According to Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager, “None of us is as smart as all of us.” This is the essence of teamwork, and that is just what recruiting has become — an exercise in teamwork, with people working together to hire the best employees and build the best companies. With this in mind, and in order to be assured that we are operating in a smooth and effective manner, ask the following:

• Let me know when you have a position open as soon as it has been approved. The sooner you let me know that a position has been approved, the sooner I can meet with you, the sooner I can clearly understand what you are looking for in the candidates you want to hire, and the sooner I can begin my work in sourcing these candidates. Good candidates are not easy to find, so the more running room I have to develop an intelligent sourcing plan, the better off we’ll be.
• If I call or email you, please respond. I understand you are busy. So am I. What I’m probably most busy with is trying to do all that is required to fill your position. I know that running your organization is a top priority, but hiring is a major part of running a business, and I need you to be responsive to me when I reach out. That’s how a good and productive team works.
• Please respond to resumes quickly. Most candidates have a very short shelf life and little patience for organizations that do not respond quickly. Talent is tight and good people can go to a number of other employers in a flash. If I get a resume in front of you, please respond as quickly as possible so I can move the process on to the next step. I am not just concerned about whether your answer is “yes” or “no.” What makes my life very difficult is no response at all, and being stuck between a hiring manager who is not reactive and a candidate who is calling me looking for an answer to a simple question: “Does the manager want to see me or not?” Please do not put me in that position, because it makes all of us look foolish.
• Please see that your interviewing team is ready. The candidate interviewing experience is critical to the ongoing success of the organization. Remember that prospective employees of today can become the customers or partners of tomorrow. They can refer others to your jobs. Be sure your interviewing team is ready to do a world-class job in all candidate-facing activities. This means they should have reviewed and understood the position for which they are interviewing and read the candidate’s resume before the candidate arrives. The team should be prepared to discuss the candidate with you after the interview is completed.
• Inform me as to what you see as the next step in the process. Please get back to me with your thoughts, ideas, or questions right after the interview has taken place. Be advised that I can, in most cases, keep the candidate warm for a reasonable time, but I can’t say or do anything without hearing from you. Once again, make us all look good by being responsive and moving quickly as this is in everyone’s best interests.
• Be sure to only ask questions that relate to the position. We live in a highly litigious society, and as your partner in the hiring process, it is my job to see that we never have a legal problem as a result of inappropriate questions being asked. Please remember that all questions asked should pertain only to the candidate’s experience as it relates to their ability to perform the duties of the position for which they are interviewing.
• Remember to sell the company. Whether or not the candidate joins our organization is far more in your hands than in mine. But if you want to have the candidate join our company, you will have to sell it to the candidate. If the candidate is interviewing elsewhere, that is exactly what the competition will be doing. Be sure to let the candidate know why they should be seeing us as their next place of employment, and what some of the advantages are at our company. Remember, we always want the choice about whether to move forward or not to be our choice, not the candidate’s.
• Please help me to close the candidate if I make that request. Landing a candidate is not always an easy thing to accomplish. As the marketplace tightens and top talent becomes harder to find, candidates will very often have multiple offers. I will do whatever I can to pre-close the candidate, get them prepped for an offer, and everything else necessary to make things happen. However, at times I will need a bit of help to make things happen and close the deal. If I call you to set up a meeting or phone call to lay out a capture strategy (see my article entitled How to Develop a Capture Strategy), please work with me on this. Together, as a team, we have a far better chance of successfully landing the candidate.
• Leave the offers to me. Extending offers is a big part of my job, and I know exactly how to do it. Extending an offer is asking for the sale, and it has to be done at the right time, in the right way, and under the right circumstances. Please let me handle it as I see fit. (By the way, if you are the one who determines compensation, let’s talk, because low-balling the candidate is a catastrophe of major proportions!).

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Hiring Pyramid According to Adler

How many of us are familiar with  Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? If you are like me, then you are possibly oblivious to the acknowledgment that Maslow even had needs. Here's a quick refresher for us all:

 Abraham Maslow was a mid-20th century psychologist who studied the behavior of high-performing individuals. In a 1943 paper, he suggested that people make fundamental and predictable decisions based on different behavioral needs. These needs range from primitive; e.g., requiring water or food to being completely fulfilled. He separated these states into five distinct levels and referred to them collectively as a hierarchy of needs. According to Maslow, a person couldn’t move to a higher level unless the needs of the lower level were satisfied first.

With that being implemented into our minds; the purpose of this article is to bring to light that both compaines and people have quite the similiar underlying needs. Bottom line; hiring top people is inefficient, ineffective, and problematic.

In the pyramid above, we see see a candidate's motivation for work; which is most likely one of three core needs: ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, or ACHIEVEMENT. The problem is that while companies all want to hire those with the need to achieve, they only consider those who first have an economic need to apply, and second,  those among this group who the screeners believe also fit some idealistic and unspoken personality and first-impression standard.

A person who is unemployed, or holding a job far below the person’s earning ability, seeks a new job primarily for monetary reasons, with the actual work less important. This is the economic need in action. The second motivating need is team-driven. Many people leave companies due to lack of a supportive manager or an inability to develop personal relationships with co-workers. They also accept jobs for these very same reasons. The third job-seeking driver is career growth: the need to achieve, grow, and become better. The Achievers leave when this is missing.
Knowing what underlying need is driving your candidate to look for another job is essential if you want to find and hire the right people for the right reasons. For example, a passive candidate who is not looking might be enticed to explore a situation if it offered significant upside potential and achievement. There is a lot of recruiting involved in this type of hire, with the emphasis largely on short-term impact and long-term career growth. On the other hand, if the candidate is driven by a short-term economic need, the person will likely be less discriminating and take a position primarily for the salary and benefits. The problem is that once these lower order economic needs are filled, dissatisfaction with the work itself will quickly follow.
Gallup’s Q12 research and Google’s Oxygen study on employee engagement and performance supports this viewpoint. Job satisfaction is driven by doing impactful work, a chance to work with strong teams, and a chance to progress and grow. Dissatisfaction is largely due to lack of a supportive manager, doing less-meaningful work, or doing work far below a person’s capability, and lack of collaboration with others. The best people accept jobs based on expectations of the former and leave them because of the reality of the latter. Much of the problems associated with underperformance, dissatisfaction, and retention occur when the hiring decision is made. Surprisingly, few companies consider this directly, resorting to fixing the problem after the fact.
The hiring trap starts by using the traditional skills- and experience-based job description for advertising purposes. These don’t appeal to anyone who is driven primarily by an achievment need. A job that emphasizes skills and experience sends a message to candidates that the company has plenty of people to choose from, and the candidates need us more than we need them. This certainly won’t attract many passive candidates to apply. These types of postings only attract someone with an economic need to apply, or someone in a sub-par job situation. The likelihood of attracting an achiever under these conditions is problematic, especially when the demand for talent is greater than the supply. (Here’s an interesting video I did with LinkedIn on how to address this supply vs. demand situation.)
As far as the hiring trap is concerned, things are about to go from bad to worse. For most companies, the bulk of their hiring starts by selecting a subset of people from a pool of candidates who initially applied for something other than a need to further their career growth. These people are then filtered on their level of skills and experience, hoping to weed out the weakest, with the goal of selecting the most qualified, often through a strenuous technical screen that’s rarely fully job-related. Then the finalists undergo some superficial team and cultural fit assessment. Those who “perform” the best are then deemed worthy.
Consider this same process from the Maslow hierarchy perspective: companies first target those with an economic need for the job who also meet their “team” and “fit” criteria. These are the so-called “soft” skills. These same companies quickly reject people if they appear, act, or seem different than the norm, or those who make weak first impressions. On the flipside, when candidates who fit the instant “team” and cultural fit screen, managers, and recruiters alike go Lady Gaga, and go out their way to sell these candidates on the merits of the job.
What about the true achievers? Under the type of scenario described above, it’s unlikely the company is going to find many great people who also have an economic need to apply, who also make great first impressions, and who are also high-achievers.
Despite the obvious, this is the expectation. People who are driven to change jobs in order to accelerate their career growth, are stopped long before they get to the front door. Since many of the people who aspire for this type of achievement are passive candidates, they won’t follow the standard interview and apply and prepare regimen. Sometimes they’re a little different in personality and style, sometimes appear less interested, maybe too over-confident, or somewhat inflexible. The real issue is they won’t take lateral transfers and until they see the job as a real career move they won’t get too excited. Job descriptions that emphasize skills and experience, prevent and preclude these people from ever applying, and even if they do apply, they’re deemed too light.

So what's to come of this down the line? Just food for thought; go ahead and chew on that for a moment and think.

Effective Employee Referrals? Really?!

They say the way to get places these days is by knowing people. They also say that conversation is better by the water cooler than through emails. This could very well prove to be true, especially in the business world. So who exactly are they and how do they know so much?
Employee referrals are possibly more effective than we are led to believe. CareerXroads now brings forth evidence that hires from employee referrals are under-counted. Over the years we have all accepted that the average number of hires from employee referrals was somewhere in the ballpark of SHRM's 24% (for non-exempt positions) to about a third.

“Referrals permeate the recruiting process more than we think,” says recruiting consultant Gerry Crispin, a CareerXroads, principal.

Big or small, two-thirds of the respondents offer a bonus for every referral hire. Most common (44%) is $500 for a non-exempt hire. One-in-five will pay $1,000 and a few more (28%) will pay that for difficult to fill non-exempt positions.

Interesting concept that's widely happening at many companies. Hmmm, do you know anyone that you would like to refer to your current company? Their just might be a bonus in it for you.


via: http://www.ere.net/2012/01/31/employee-referrals-may-be-even-more-effective-than-we-think/

More Job Candidates Posting on Facebook

This time it is using the Facebook ads.

Here is his website:
http://gmanradionetwerk.com/

Previous candidate's use of Facebook for being hired:

http://patriotadvertising.blogspot.com/2010/03/candidates-hey-facebook-hire-sarah.html

Candidate lands job for $6

The creative measures taken by applicants to gain the attention from employers continues to grow. By buying key words through Google in an personal campaign Alec Brownstein landed a job for only $6.




http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2010/05/want-job-in-advertising-target-right.html
http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2010/05/vanity-googling-helps-copywriter-land-a-job.html
http://www.thoughtgadgets.com/2010/05/he-got-his-dream-job-using-google-for-6.html

SOCIAL NETWORKING - Social Networks, Recruiting, and Achievements

I came across this article about keeping your social networks updated as you hunt for new recruits.

http://www.silicon.com/management/hr/2010/02/12/hiring-new-staff-best-update-your-linkedin-facebook-twitter-39745462/

As the playing field changes, the candidates are trying to find new ways to stand out, whether it be a video displaying their attributes to keeping an updated Twitter account about their interests and showing how they actively seek out information in their field.

Candidates will be hunting for companies that share their interests and match up in their social field as well. Times might be tight right now and candidates might jump at any opportunity that shows up, but once the market levels out and more options arise, it is important to maintain and build loyalty among your recruits so as not to lose them once the economy feels safer.

Some people are saying the "ME Generation" is starting to fade due to the economic situation but there are things that remain. Candidates are looking for a company that cares and rewards their efforts but also shows an outward acknowledgement of their achievements and the achievements of the company. Keeping employees and candidates (even your customers) aware of what is going on builds the bond that they may be seeking right now.

RECRUITMENT - Pleasehire.us

This is certainly a way for candidates to get themselves noticed.
pleasehire.us
CP+B has created a site for their interns to help find them jobs. It is still in the Beta stage but it takes a different approach in helping out interns they hire short term. Thoughts?
Via AdRants: http://www.adrants.com/2009/12/tarantino-japanders-fashion-flaskwalks.php

HR - Improving Interviews by Using Forced-Choice Questions to Replace Yes-No Questions

Once you have selected a pool of candidates for a position the next step is the interview; but weeding through the potential candidates and finding the one that will fit best with your company in both technical skills and being able to work in your environment can be had to pin point because of how questions are asked in the pre-interview or interview process. The following article presents a way to help narrow down your choice by eliminating the "Yes-No" questions and replacing them with something called "Forced Choice" questions. One example of these "Forced Choice" questions involves ranking a series of options in order of importance or ability and it will help rank your candidates. Granted, they can still answer according to what they think the position will require but it may still help narrow down your choices, if even a little. Article via ere.net:
http://www.ere.net/2009/12/01/improving-interviews-by-using-forced-choice-questions-to-replace-yes-no-questions/#more-10890

INTERNSHIPS - Fighting tooth and nail for a flack internship

AdFreak posted an article about Eisen Marketing Group which will be running reality webisodes about trying to hire one person for a paid PR internship. They will begin in January. What are your thoughts on how the potential candidates would feel after running through something like this?
Check out the link below and let us know what you think:
http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2009/11/fighting-tooth-and-nail-for-a-flack-internship.html

BRANDING - IBMers

IBM's "Smarter" campaign creates an empowered point of view for those aspiring to be part of something greater, to do something more, and to possibly apply to IBM. They might not be hiring at full speed right now but this is a great way to reach out and really create a name for their brand among potential candidates as well as the communities they are part of. Take a look at a few of the videos but know that there are many more on YouTube.com. What are your thoughts on their direction?

ONLINE - E-Bay for Job Postings? Jobaphiles.com

The site is called Jobaphiles.com and right now they specifically cater to the Boston area and are only in their Beta stage. Other cities have posted on there already and they have a different way of handling their openings.

Employers post a free description of their job and they can either list the price range they are willing to pay or they let the potential employees bid on the projects/part-time work/full-time work. Employers are not required to hire anyone if they don’t like the bids or the quality of the applicants. They are also able to send private messages to candidates. Right now this style of the job board focuses on recent graduates and college students. One thing that stood out to me was the fact that employers are able to rate their employee on the website once the job is complete. Those who are bidding are also able to see other people’s responses.

This offers an interesting chance to reach out to those about to enter the job market and offer internships, paid/unpaid/lowest bid/best resume, and tap into the college talent pool.

While limited to Boston at this time, they do have an option to be notified when a Jobaphiles is available for their area.

What are your thoughts on this site? Have you come across anything like this before?