"...keeping you great"
Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy
HEADLINES: (Theme -- sourcing employees) Sourcing employees article -- Mike Frommelt, Principal and Co-Founder of KeyStone Search (and new EO member) authored an excellent and short article on sourcing employees -- complete article under DETAILS below -- take five minutes and scan this article. Thanks Mike. 150 deep at booth for job fair -- Lois Melbourne, CEO of Acquire, participated in a MBA summer job fair and had candidates lined up 150 deep. Corporations like Wells Fargo, TI, Bank of America and others kept coming to her booth and asking "who are you guys and what did you do???" Inspired by Trench Safety -- a while back I shared Trench Safety's recruitment brochure. Based on their brochure, Melbourne designed one for Aquire -- here's a link to download a copy. Best Places to Work in Texas -- noted Melbourne, "We did no advanced marketing prep for the job fair. The students had done web research on the company prior to the job fair (as any candidate we would consider hiring does these days). On the web site they found two things they said impressed them: 1. our customer list; 2. our award for "Best Places to Work in Texas" -- here's a link -- this is why it's
important to apply for these awards! "Remarkable" word of mouth -- "At the job fair we started handing out the brochures to the candidates we spoke to that really clicked with us. We started getting people coming to us asking for the brochure
and telling us it was impressive, which told us people were showing it off elsewhere in the lobby or in the job fair," described Melbourne. Bragging rights -- concludes Melbourne "I believe this type of positioning will be more and more important to the newer generation of workers coming on board. They want to respect their employer and what to be able to brag about the workplace environment." Speaking of sourcing employees -- I'm going on my first tour of India: Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and New Delhi May 9 -- 14. I'll be leading one-day Rockefeller Habits public workshops hosted by Bob Potini with E Gen Solutions. DETAILS: Sourcing: The Missing Link to Great Hiring All CEOs interested in growth aspire to fill their teams with "A Players". Unfortunately, despite the many books and articles on how assess and evaluate talent, hiring the best every time can still be elusive. The Mindset: For recruitment, the continuum represents the entire pool of "minimally qualified" candidates in any particular region or industry, for an open position. Always available Never available Maybe available Where the A Players are So, how do you get to them? The following are six ways to start sourcing more A Players. Of course, all of these suggestions will only provide results if they are part of both a well thought out plan and sincere intent to hire the very best. Many companies I encounter claim to be "all about talent" but then refuse to make sourcing a priority in terms of time and/or dollars. Sourcing, and overall
recruiting, is like anything else - what you get out of it will be a function of what you put into it. Mike Frommelt is Principal and Co-Founder of KeyStone Search. He is also a new EO Member. KeyStone provides executive search services to CEOs who know the power of a well aligned corporate culture. mikef@keystonesearch.com,
www.keystonesearch.com
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One key reason is the lack of attention, or lack of understanding, of one of the most critical pieces of great hiring: Sourcing. If you are not fishing in the right body of water, you will never land the trophy.
Like many things in business, good sourcing starts with the right mindset.
Recruitment is a sales process, not a human resources process. Don't get me wrong, I'm not putting down the HR community. Certain HR types can make great recruiters, but they are generally trained to screen and assess, not source. Ask yourself this, "Is my HR person able (or even willing), to pick up the phone tomorrow, call one of our competitors, and solicit their VP of Sales to leave that company and join ours?" If not, you have a screener, not a sourcer. Recruiting is a sales function. It is the process of "selling" the vision of an organization, and convincing a candidate to "buy" (join the company). Because it is so similar to sales, an easy way to illustrate the recruiting process is through the 100 year old, tried and true "sales continuum". (diagram below).
On the far left are the people who are always ready to move. You know the types, 25 cents more an hour and they're gone, never been happy with any employer, no employer has ever been happy with them, etc... These are the first to apply when you put your feelers out. They scan Monster and Career Builder from their employer's PC and apply for your job, using the other guy's equipment. They will do the same thing on yours, if you hire them!
On the far right are the never candidates. You can't move them from their current position, even with a crowbar. They love their employer, have golden handcuffs, work two minutes from home, etc...
The middle section represents the maybes, the people who may move, if they are presented the "right" opportunity. This could be more responsibility, a better working environment, a chance to be a part of something really exciting,
etc. Every individual has their own hot buttons.
Studying the continuum, you will quickly see where A Players generally reside; Toward the right, closer to the "Never" category. Why is this? Put simply, these people are successful in their current companies. They may not be 100% happy, but they keep their nose to the grindstone, work hard to succeed, and are generally paid accordingly. Also, they are highly regarded by their co-workers, giving them a sort of "first among equals" status. Basically, everything you would love them to be in your company. These people do not scan the classifieds, or Monster, they work hard all week and spend their free time with family, significant others, etc... If they do become extremely unhappy, they simply take a few of the recruiter calls coming in regularly, and confidentially explore opportunities.
Formal employee referral programs rarely work. Most of the ones offering trips, cash or the like are desperate attempts to create candidate flow into an unattractive environment. The truth is, if your culture is not healthy, invigorating and well aligned around your core values, employees simply will not refer A Players. I do not know many people who will "sell out" their best friends
and top colleagues for a trip to Tahiti, or $2000 in cash. Remember, A Players are nearly always currently employed and have done well for themselves in their careers by making smart moves. If there is not a compelling reason to leave their current employer (usually cultural in nature), they will hold tight. There are many great resources available on cultural/values alignment,
including Gazelles.com, The Rockefeller Habits and jimcollins.com, just to name a few.
Happy Hunting!