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You Don’t Know Recruiting
You Don’t Know Recruiting
Last modified on 2011-09-12 13:10:27 GMT. 11 comments. Top.
Susan Strayer returns to the HRExaminer Editorial Advisory Board this week and she’s brought along a collaborator – Lars Schmidt. Catch both their bios at the end of this post.
You Don’t Know Recruiting
by Susan Strayer and Lars Schmidt
You don’t know recruiting like we know recruiting. Seriously. Okay, maybe you do. Maybe you’re an actual recruiter, working in a company. You have a budget, internal clients and you have to connect your recruiting function to the larger HR organization and the company itself. But if you’re a vendor, consultant, or candidate, you don’t get what it’s like on the inside.
There’s no Recruiters Anonymous where we can stand up and share our woes. No psychotherapists with an in-house recruiter specialty. As recruiting and talent acquisition leaders, we’re not looking to scream and yell or kick down your door. But the root of frustration is this: you don’t know what it means to understand recruiting from the inside out unless you’re on the inside right now.
Every consultant, expert and guru out there has an idea of what recruiters can do better—from talent acquisition strategy to social media to selection. Vendors think they know our business better than we do. Candidates complain we don’t care, we’re not efficient, and we don’t get back to them in time.
Here’s the real truth. There is a sharp disconnect between what the experts say recruiters should do, and what is feasible based on resources, time, bandwidth, and company culture.
Cue the psychotherapy. All it took was one session on the in-house blues to result in how recruiters can get you to…
…stop saying in-house recruiters ‘don’t get it.’
You’ve heard it before—in-house recruiting teams lack the sophistication, drive and motor of their agency or consultant counterparts. But the realities and priorities of an agency recruiter and the realities and priorities of an in-house recruiter are completely different.
Agency recruiters tend to be specialized: working in a particular niche, building deep networks and an intimate knowledge of their space. They search for new business and new candidates. They cultivate relationships with star talent. They make sure they’re aware of the latest news, trends and information affecting their space. They blog, tweet and make deep peer relationships with others like them.
In-house recruiters have a different reality. They juggle 10-20+ positions at any given time, rarely with much input on the types of roles they support. Every job they get is mission critical according to their hiring managers. They review hundreds of resumes for every single job. They field calls from their agency brethren who always seem to have “the most perfect candidate you can possibly ever come across for that job of yours.” They often own every aspect of the hiring process. In their spare time, they may also manage brands, technology, training, and maybe they even sleep. Maybe.
So let’s not make “all things equal” comparisons when discussing agency and internal recruiters. They’re not. This is not a knock on agency recruiters. We like them and know how hard that job can be. This is simply calling BS on the notion that internal recruiters can’t be every bit as motivated, hungry, passionate and successful as their agency counterparts. They just have to channel it into many more things.
…stop saying you should circumvent corporate recruiting at all costs.
There seems to be a lot of chatter out there advising candidates to do everything they can to avoid the “black hole” that is the corporate recruiting team, or circumvent recruiters altogether. There’s merit to the advice that job seekers should network and seize any opportunity to interact with hiring managers (or anyone) inside the company. If you have someone inside the company championing your candidacy, that’s a good thing. But listen closely people: internal recruiters are your friends, your advocates.
When recruiters find an exceptional prospect, they work to make sure doors are opened for them, now or in the future. Internal recruiters know what’s open today, and should have a sense of what’s coming in the future. Many of them are actively engaged in building talent communities, constantly searching for top talent for jobs that may not even be open at that very moment. Remember, in most companies at some point or another recruiting has to be involved; so candidates should invest as much time and energy getting to know the recruiters as they do getting to know anyone BUT the recruiters.
…stop assuming company size and brand correlates directly with available spend.
It’s great to work for a well-known brand, especially when it’s a B-to-C brand that ignites a positive reaction in consumers. But regardless of brand cache, all businesses are run differently. Revenue and margins vary based on industry and product. Forecast and budgets change sometimes as often as the stock price does. And just because we’re big, popular, and/or performing well, doesn’t mean we always have money at our disposal.
If a recruiter can’t afford your seemingly fair contingency fee or cost-effective social media widget, it’s not an excuse. Budgets can be siloed or limited in specific areas. Company strategy can mean that spend is concentrated in areas not related to hiring. Budget timing can vary in companies based on the budget year or planning cycles. It all depends. So let’s stop assuming that big business means big bucks.
…stop ignoring the importance of employment laws.
Let’s take the video resume. It’s hip. And it’s the king of popular content online these days. But in the U.S. where employment laws have to be followed, recruiters have a responsibility not to open their companies up to additional risk. And video resumes are risky in numerous legal areas. That means in-house recruiters at big companies can’t admit them in the process. It doesn’t mean those recruiters aren’t cool or hip to the latest technology. It means that they know their company risk strategy (and legal teams) really well.
The same goes for the application process. Do you think recruiters want it to be complicated? No, but U.S. laws require certain steps. If we don’t follow them, we open ourselves up to risk—risk of not being able to handle an EEO audit. Risk of lawsuits. Risk of negative PR about these issues. Risks of not being able to comply with Federal and state laws that change. All the time. Have you heard of e-Verify?
And for organizations that have contracts with the government, there’s an additional set of laws to follow and great companies want to be ethical and completely in compliance at the same time. So yes, you do have to apply online and follow the process, even if you’re a referral from Mr. Important Executive. The law says so.
…stop assuming we can give feedback and reply to every candidate.
Recruiters are often drawn to this field because of the opportunity to connect with candidates and get to know them over weeks and months, and the unique satisfaction they get when they help candidates find a dream job. Without candidates, we wouldn’t exist (well, doing this at least. We might be in ad sales, or hosting a talk show, or following that lifelong dream of being a ninja for hire).
We do love candidates. But we can’t interact with all of them all the time. Consultants and candidate experience experts love to remind recruiters that they should respond to every application submitted, proving detailed feedback as to why candidates weren’t selected. Sorry, but that just can’t happen.
As mentioned earlier, the average in-house recruiter has 10-15 open jobs at any given time. Depending on the company and the economy, they may receive 300-500+ resumes for every one of those jobs. Good recruiters are also looking for you on job boards, LinkedIn, blogs, social media, networking events, while performing all their other responsibilities. Recruiters can’t possibly provide detailed feedback to everyone who applies based on this workload.
But if recruiters did give feedback, it would very often be one of these four replies:
1) “Make sure you have at least the basic skills and experience required before applying.”
2) “If the posting requests a cover letter include it. You likely won’t be considered if you don’t.”
3) “Typos are sloppy and show us you’re not serious enough about this job to proof your application. This helps recruiters narrow the pool in the beginning.”
4) “You’re right. Your background is a great fit for the experience we’re looking for. But we’re also looking at how people get work done, their behaviors, and you were not a fit for this position at this time based on your interviews. Or, maybe you were, but there was another candidate who was slightly stronger in one or all of the abovementioned areas (which leads us to….”
…stop wondering why you didn’t get a job you thought you were perfect for.
Every recruiter can commiserate with the call from someone who applied for the job, had great experience that was a perfect fit and is astounded they weren’t selected. It probably happens around the world every 6.5 minutes. Here’s the thing—a great recruiter brings in five of those perfect specimens for an interview and there’s only one position. It’s not about the perfect fit on paper at this point—the skill sets of those five have to be somewhat similar. It’s about the perfect fit with the team, the business, the clients, the culture or something that’s key to the role that makes one applicant stand out above another.
Recruiting isn’t a puzzle with pieces that snap perfectly into place—it’s a nuanced process driven by a number of factors beyond “can she do the job?” Plus, many organizations may continue to take resumes even when there are already candidates in the pipeline. Even if a company has given an offer to a candidate they may keep the job open in case the candidate doesn’t accept the offer. Unless a job has a “posted on” date, you could be the first or the 500th perfect candidate.
Internal recruiting is a “different world.” While all recruiters are searching for the right person for the job, internal recruiters are faced with demands, priorities and requirements that are unique to both their position and their company. Broad generalizations about recruiting would send most internal recruiters to therapy—if they had time.
Susan Strayer
Susan Strayer, HRExaminer Editorial Advisory Board Member
Lars Schmidt
is a passionate recruiting and talent management leader with over 14 years experience in Technology, Web, Media, Non-Profit, eCommerce and Consulting. He’s a fierce HR advocate with a strong track record building and leading progressive recruiting teams. He’s a bit of a digital geek. He’s a friend of technology and social media and a foe of bureaucracy and ‘old school’ HR. The term ‘personnel’ makes him cringe. He’s a dog lover, traveler, husband, rabid FSU fan, challenge seeker and all around good guy. Lars has worked in the Recruiting/Talent space since 1998. He currently leads Talent Acquisition at NPR where he is the voice behind @NPRjobs and provides leadership and advocacy for company-wide talent acquisition initiatives that align with NPR’s strategic mission and core values. Prior to NPR, Lars was the VP Human Resources at Ticketmaster in Los Angeles where he oversaw global talent acquisition, internal communications and employee development. You can find him on LinkedIn, Twitter, About.me, Twylah.
Advantage BeKnown
Advantage BeKnown
Last modified on 2011-09-16 14:42:00 GMT. 3 comments. Top.
It didn’t take long. As of the 12th of September, around the end of the day, BeKnown‘s user count surpassed Branchout‘s. The tally:
- Beknown:1.379,927
- Branchout:1,364,341
It’s not much of a surprise.
One of a job board’s primary skills is candidate acquisition. As the company that wrote the book on the subject, Monster is uniquely prepared to build an online network. Whether or not that’s the real future of recruitment advertising is very much a different story.
There are three really difficult things to do in the job board (or related service) business:
- Get candidates to visit or join your service
- Find employers who are ready and willing to buy your services
- Figure out a pricing and value model that keeps both sides happy
Before you count the job boards as dead, dying or out of the picture, remember that the these 3 are the heart of any contemporary recruitment advertising play. Technology is way, way down the list.
The circus is far from over but the old dogs appear to be learning new tricks.
We’re busy working out the kinks of this competition and its meaning for buyers, competitors and other folks interested in the, marketplace. Our Analysis of the the social media landscape in HR and Recruiting will be shipping on October 15.
Your Friends Are Not A Network 3
Your Friends Are Not A Network 3
Last modified on 2011-09-14 13:39:32 GMT. 1 comment. Top.
Really. Your friends are not a network.
The mafia is a network. A union is a network. The computers in your house are a network. Your phone runs on a network. Electricity flows though a network. Parts of political parties are networks.
Your assembled friends and acquaintances on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or G+ are just that. A collection of friends and acquaintances.
The whole “your friends are a network” thing is a metaphor. It’s shorthand for “Your circle of friends is sort of like a network of computers.” And, they are sort of like that.
Sort of.
If you were Kevin Bacon, you’d be six degrees of separation away from every other movie star in the movie star database. If you were Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Sarah Palin or Bill Clinton, you’d be six degrees away from anyone you wanted to connect with.
And, you are six degrees away from them.
You are not six degrees away from an unnamed person who might be a good employer, employee, business connection or lover. The whole idea of six degrees is that you can find connections between two people you can identify. If you don’t know who they are, you are infinite degrees away.
So, yes, you can probably get in touch with a visible public figure in six well placed phone calls if you have a clear idea, lots of determination and a way of end running the gate keepers. But, as a model for the way things work, the tightly connected world simply doesn’t match our realities.
At best, our collection of friends, business associates and acquaintances is a gateway to opportunity. At worst, it’s a small universe that limits perspective. Usually, it’s a blend of history, blind spots, love and pleasure.
Treating those relationships like they are a direct marketing email list that can be optimized to benefit your employer, business, personal objectives or other commercial interests is a recipe for loneliness, failure and poverty. While good politicians and salespeople may practice the exploitation of personal relationships, is that really a good model for organizing the rest of the world?
Keep your eyes on this space. We’re wrapping up our first ever comprehensive analysis of social media in the HR and Recruiting sectors. The report will be available for sale on the 15th of October.
Your Friends Are Not A Network 4
Your Friends Are Not A Network 4
Last modified on 2011-09-16 13:15:33 GMT. 2 comments. Top.
You probably don’t know someone who can get you a job. Most of the people you know won’t be a good fit at your company. You are not the best judge either. The odds are that if you know someone who would be a great addition to the team, it’s hard for you to see it.
That doesn’t sound much like the land of milk and honey described by the proponents of social media as a recruiting and job hunting tool. In that land, where marketing claims are reality, you are somehow blessed with connections that either get you a job or help your employer staff the company.
It probably isn’t so.
The problem is that our universes of friends and family are there for a variety of reasons. Unless you spent time optimizing your world for career benefit, it’s likely to be better at providing love, support and an economic safety net.
The idea that, somehow, your college classmates constitute a gateway to professional oportunity is fairly odd. When you come out of school with your class, you are all starting at about the same time. While one or more of you may be able to spot an opening, none of the group will have adequate social capital to make a recommendation that can be guaranteed to produce results. While you share interests and history as a group, the ability to do each other favors doesn’t reeally emerge for a decade or so.
In one’s thirties, the few people who have retained close ties with their college chums are those without life partners and children. The college gang fades away as life intrudes. By the time one is placed well enough to influence a friend’s career, those relationships have often diminished in importance and immediacy.
It is possible to build an effective social network as one’s career progresses. This is more likely to be done by sales people than operations experts. There is a significant question about whether or not many people will take the time and energy to actually invest in opportunity producing social structures. Historically, the issue only rises at the time of a transition.
The use and utility of career networks varies significantly by industry and region. If you live in Detroit, work in the auto industry and need to find a job, your network is not liable to serve you well. If you live in LA, work in the movie industry and are looking for the next project, the network is your best choice. Aerospace doesn’t foster long term career connections. The military does. West Virginia mining twons rarely produce powerful cross-company networks. Silicon Valley does it all of the time.
The other really big problem is context.
Referral programs depend on your ability and willingness to identify which of your friends is a good match for the company. The trouble is that that’s not how you usually know them. While he may be the world’s greatest gene sequencer, you know him as the guy who makes Charlie Sheen look like a model of decorum. Your pal who happens to be a great coder is the guy who got the girl.
And so on.
Making great personnel judgments is not how we know and interact with friends and family. The truth is that you may well know all of the right people but, in the most human of ways, won’t be able to see them.
Keep your eyes on this space. We’re wrapping up our first ever comprehensive analysis of social media in the HR and Recruiting sectors. The report will be available for sale on the 15th of October.
Your Friends Are Not A Network 5
Your Friends Are Not A Network 5
Last modified on 2013-03-06 01:23:30 GMT. 0 comments. Top.
We are at the edges of the second generation of social media. Much of the original hype has been tested and found a wanting. It turns out that we don’t really like seeing job ads in the middle of the flow of descriptions of last night’s burritos. It seems like we don’t really want to flood our personal brag-a-thons with the story of our struggle to find meaning and work. We are not really the company’s solution to its staffing problems nor are we our friends’ gateway to work.
We like each other better when there’s less pressure to be commercial.
So, what does phase 2 look like?
- The most important thing that people are about to remember is that face to face encounters trump everything. Personal video, which has played a tiny role in contemporary social networks, will emerge as a central feature. That will be facilitated by tools that can read video to create and index transcripts. (Saygent Technology is doing interesting things with the audio portion of this question.)
- Expect at least some of the hype to soften. Social Media and its related tools are not a panacea. They are a new always-on messaging infrastructure that allows us to understand and quantify what used to be hard to quantify. That we will communicate status periodically is a given. How that evolves is much less clear. Customers are going to tire of claims that are not delivered. Vendors who act like partners will be rewarded. Customers who understand that partnership involves risk sharing will be rewarded.
- Successful users, individuals and organizations, will have an experimental attitude and the resources with which to experiment. Like Thomas Edison, who tried 3,000 theories before solving the lightbulb filament problem, competitive advantage will accrue to those who are willing to stick it out.
- As Gerry Crispin pointed out in the comments on the first piece in the series, transparency is contagious and unstoppable. The next generation will involve increasing numbers of sensors that help us understand a kajillion things that were never measured before. The importance of mobile may not be for content reception. Rather, it will be the greatest source of input for spot reviews and very brief data inputs.
- Physical get togethers will be more tightly integrated into the overall social media structure. If you haven’t taken a close look at the MeetUp movement, amazing things are happening. Networking involves people talking and listening to each other. So far, the vast majority of online networking involves broadcasting.
- The massive quantities of data we are generating will look like trickles before the deluge. Deciding what and how much of your datastream to expose will be the next frontier in personal branding.
- The world will look back at today’s notions of gamification and say, “Really, a badge for reading the news on Google? and a badge for turning in your expense report? That was supposed to do what?” Meanwhile, the hordes of people who have disciplined their personal creativity by playing advanced online games in community will have received the necessary training (from playing) to build the sorts of interactive communities that make talent pools a great place to hang out.
It’s not that social media is over. Rather, it’s just another way to communicate, one of many.
The post “everything is a network” phase will simultaneously be more realistic and impossible to imagine.
Keep your eyes on this space. We’re wrapping up our first ever comprehensive analysis of social media in the HR and Recruiting sectors. The report will be available for sale on the 15th of October.
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