Archives 2006

Recruiting Value

Contributed by Mohammed Senin of Clownfish Marketing

According to the latest research from the Carbon Trust, consumers are more likely to buy products and services from a business they think is tackling climate change¡­ Euan Murray, strategy manager at the Carbon Trust, said: “There has been a definite shift in behaviour. Fifty-three per cent of people felt that in the last year, climate change had become more of an issue for them¡­Consumers want to use their purchasing power to reduce their carbon footprint and that of the UK as a whole¡±.

This is further confirmation of what many other articles and reports have already claimed. And in order for consumers to make easy and quick purchasing decisions, they need brands. Brands help to ¡°edit¡± choices on their behalf, saving them the need for exhaustive research and allowing them to behave in the way they want.

I don¡¯t disagree with that but I would like to put a slightly different concept out there¡­

Sustainability initiatives are often driven from the most senior levels of organisations. It has become the vogue for large companies to boast positions such as ¡®Chief Ethics Officer¡¯ or ¡®Director in Charge of the Environment¡¯ to bolster their claims to good governance. This is nothing more than window dressing unless the ethics and values of sustainability and social responsibility are embedded throughout the organisation and the brand that it brings to market.

For example, the performance and remuneration of individual staff is often assessed against ¡°key performance indicators¡± that have little to do with values or sustainability. Few are the companies that reward their staff for reducing their carbon footprint or developing socially beneficial products.

The human resources industry has a lot to contribute here, since HR directors are closely involved in the development of job descriptions, performance criteria, and remuneration structures. If HR is equipped with the knowledge and support to do so, it can start introducing ethical, environmental, social and values-based criteria into this process. This is one of the most effective ways to infuse such values into the lifeblood of the corporate machine.

WWF¡¯s recent report, ¡®Let Them Eat Cake¡± (downloadable from http://www.clownfishmarketing.co.uk/clients_wwf.html) found that the majority of employees consider themselves to care more about sustainability than their employers do. Furthermore, very few companies reward employees for environmental and social performance. Only 6% were rewarded for carrying out environmental and social screening of suppliers and associates; a meagre 11% were encouraged to consider the environmental and social impacts of what they were marketing; and only 6% were encouraged by their employers to support environmental causes.

This trend must be reversed. Brands of the future will be rewarded for their commitment to sustainable development and social practices, and as such, they must behave as good corporate citizens in everything that they do. CSR values must be incorporated into recruitment and reward systems, because there¡¯s nothing like the prospect of a bonus to change employees¡¯ behaviour.

Recruitment has a critical impact on the performance and future success of any organisation. With increasingly fierce competition for the best candidates, and the proliferation of (sometimes dubious) qualifications amongst candidates, values and sustainability can help to attract and retain the very best.

A successful recruitment and selection strategy must consider CSR values in order to remain one step ahead of the game. Successful brands, therefore, not only need to be successful in the commercial market, but also in the recruitment process.

Candidate Bill of Rights

how to treat candidates and working professionals. We call it respect or graciousness. Accolo gets right to the heart of the matter by providing a Candidate Bill of Rights at their website. This is a good thing.

Confidentiality

Individuals are entitled to the security and confidentiality of their personal and professional background and data. Any decision to make that data available to others must be at the specific request of the individual.

Credibility

All advertised positions must be verifiably open and available to job-seekers, with the intent of the hiring organization to make any and all efforts to fill the open position.

Accuracy

The description of an open position should accurately and specifically identify the unique attributes of that position as they relate to the Hiring Manager, organization, geography, work group, work to be completed, and performance measurement criteria.

Consideration

All interested candidates, from all available sources, should be considered for an open position based upon their ability and aptitude, and that consideration should be free from racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice and intolerance.

Consistency

Hiring decisions will be made based upon on a set of specific and defined criteria that is relevant to the position, consistent across all candidates and applied objectively.

Follow Up

All applicants are entitled to consistent communications regarding the status of their candidacy, regardless of the outcome of their application.

Preparation

Each individual should expect that they will be provided with all relevant information about the organization and hiring manager in order to best prepare them for success during the interview process.

Respect

Scheduling of interviews will occur in a manner that connotes respect for the candidate, their time and their efforts.

Communication

Every inquiry regarding the status of candidacy or application is worthy of a response.

Information

All applicants will be provided with the necessary information about the company, hiring manager, compensation, performance expectations, etc. in order to make an informed career decision.

Exploring the Job Candidate Bill of Rights

What a long, strange trip it¡¯s been. OK, maybe not that strange, but over the last several weeks we have broken down the Job Candidate Bill of Rights created by Accolo¡¯s John Younger. We¡¯ve covered everything from confidentiality to communication, and now we have arrived at the end. Number 10 on John¡¯s list is ¡°information,¡± something that candidates feel they¡¯re just not getting enough of:

Information

All applicants will be provided with the necessary information about the company, hiring manager, compensation, performance expectations, etc. in order to make an informed career decision.

Information, or the lack thereof, is such an important topic to job candidates that The Wall Street Journal actually included it twice in their bill of rights:

¡°5. I want to know the details. Companies that provide details about their benefit plans get my attention. They can easily explain the basics on their website with a PDF, instead of a brief, meaningless overview that does me no good.

¡°6. I want to learn about you. ¡°Day in the life¡± profiles help me see myself in an organization.¡±

For some job boards, a lack of information isn¡¯t the real problem. Instead, it¡¯s the lack of usable information. These boards are filled with countless details, but none of them really give the candidate a better understanding of the job, the company, the work environment, or anything else:

¡°For the job seeker, the problem is the same: when they look on giant job boards they see a bunch of undifferentiated jobs, often posted by clueless headhunters that provide all kinds of information you don¡¯t need (¡±A leading provider of whatever¡±) and none of the information you do need (what¡¯s the name of the company? Do they make nuclear bombs? Will they give me a private office and a big monitor? Free M&Ms? Are they sloppy hacks or quality hackers? Can I use Ruby on Rails?)¡± (From Joel on Software)

The last ten weeks have given us the chance to see what¡¯s on the minds of most of the job candidates out there. As we see it, there just isn¡¯t a source right now for candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers to effectively connect and communicate. As we¡¯ve said before, change is coming, but it won¡¯t just be for candidates. After all, there are things that recruiters and hiring authorities need, and we hope to explore those topics in the future with a comprehensive Bill of Rights for each group.

Survey: Job Seekers are Stretching the Truth

Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources, CareerBuilder.com

There’s marketing yourself on your r¨¦sum¨¦, and then there’s flat-out lying. Many job seekers are crossing the line.

Although just 5 percent of workers actually admit to fibbing on their r¨¦sum¨¦s, 57 percent of hiring managers say they have caught a lie on a candidate’s application, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey. Of the hiring managers who caught a lie, 93 percent didn’t hire the candidate.

When r¨¦sum¨¦ inconsistencies do surface during background checks, they raise concerns about the candidates’ overall ethics. Forty-three percent of hiring managers say they would automatically dismiss a candidate who fibbed on their r¨¦sum¨¦. The rest say it depends on the candidate and situation.

Stretched dates to cover up employment gaps is the most commonly-caught r¨¦sum¨¦ lie, with nearly one-in-five hiring managers saying they have noticed this on a candidate’s application. Other top r¨¦sum¨¦ lies include:

Past employers (18 percent)

Academic degrees and institutions (16 percent)

Technical skills and certifications (15 percent)

Accomplishments (8 percent)

Reasons for lying range from the innocuous (not being sure of the exact employment dates) to the more sinister (intentionally being deceitful to get the job). To ensure your r¨¦sum¨¦ is accurate but still portrays you in the best light, heed these tips:

If you don’t have much formal experience… Highlight any activities or coursework that could be relevant to the position. Volunteer activities, part-time jobs and class projects can all provide transferable skills and training.

If you didn’t quite finish your degree… Do not indicate on your r¨¦sum¨¦ that you graduated. Instead, name the university and list the years in which you attended.

If you were out of work… Don’t stretch the employment dates to cover the gap. Instead, keep the dates accurate and address the gap in your cover letter. Be sure to mention any classes you took or volunteer work you performed during this time to keep your skills up-to-date.

If your company uses unfamiliar titles… This is one of the only circumstances in which it’s acceptable to change your title to something more recognizable. For example if your title was “primary contact,” and you performed the duties of an administrative assistant, you can clarify your title by writing “Primary Contact/Administrative Assistant.” Giving yourself a promotion to “office manager,” however, crosses the ethical line.

Rosemary Haefner is the Vice President of Human Resources for CareerBuilder.com. She is an expert in recruitment trends and tactics, job seeker behavior, workplace issues, employee attitudes and HR initiatives.