Category Opinion and View

Sales and the Future of Recruiting

The business of recruiting is not just about sourcing your candidate and interviewing them. As economic concerns creep, unemployment rises, and competition in the field of recruiting increases, recruiting is more about selling then recruiting. It’s more than selling the candidate the position and selling the candidate to your hiring manager. It’s about building relationships and loyalty.

As the market continues to tighten, those who sell and understand what both the candidate and the hiring manager want are going to be the clear winners on the staffing battlefield. Understanding your customers (both the candidate and hiring manager) buying motives is an important first step. You wouldn’t buy a car without viewing consumer reports, right? So why wouldn’t you google your candidate, research the industry and market, and survey recent hires on what motivates them to buy.

What differentiates good salespeople from great salespeople is not the product they’re peddling, is the way you relate and engage the candidate. By doing so, you’ll be able to make a job offer that is truely customized to the candidate.

As recruiters, it’s our job to build those relationships and treat every candidate like a celebrity. I’m not saying roll out the red carpet and ask for an autograph. Small gestures are what differentiates a great sales person from the rest. I am a firm believer in returning each and every candidate’s phone calls regardless of if they were selected or not. I send a handwritten note to each and every network contact I meet at a seminar or event. It’s the little things that make a lasting impression.

No matter how you look at it sales is an important part of what makes a recruiter successful. Sales techniques can be used in most every part of your everyday life outside of work. Adding these sales tools to your recruiting tool box can only make you a more respected, successful, and confident recruiter.

10 Things Recruiters Should Know About Every Candidate They Interview

Interviewing candidates and gauging their fit for a culture and position is one of the most indispensable tasks a recruiter performs. The more a recruiter knows about a candidate, the better equipped they are to add value to the hiring process. That’s why getting to know the candidate and understand what they are looking for, along with overall qualifications, is so critical.
But there is more about candidates you should uncover if you want to do the best possible job of providing information (read: value) to hiring managers. Below are ten points in key areas that all recruiters should investigate for each candidate they interview — before they present the candidate to the hiring manager.

Complete compensation details. Understand exactly how the candidate’s current compensation program is structured. This means more than the candidate’s base salary; the base salary is just part of the overall package. Be sure that you ask about bonuses; if, how and when they are paid out, stock options or grants that have been awarded. Compile a complete list of benefits and how they are structured (e.g. PPO vs. HMO; there is a difference) and know when the candidate is up for his or her next review, because this can alter cash compensation.

Type of commute. Commute is a quality-of-life issue and discussing it is important. A ten-minute commute against traffic is very different than taking the car to a train and having to walk five blocks to the new organization. If the commute to your organization is worse for the candidate than it is in his or her existing job, bring it up and see how the candidate responds. If the commute is better, use it as a selling point. By all means, be sure that you understand the candidate’s current commute and how they feel about the new one.

The “what they want vs. what they have” differential. Most candidates do not change jobs just for the sake of changing jobs. They change jobs because there are certain things missing in their current position that they believe can be satisfied by the position your organization is offering. This disparity is called the “position differential” and it is the fundamental reason a person changes jobs. Know what this position differential is and you will be able to know if you have what the candidate is looking for. If so, you will be able to develop an intelligent capture strategy when it comes time to close.

How they work best. Some candidates work best if left alone, while others work best as part of a team. It is your job to know enough about the organization’s philosophy and the way the hiring manager works to see if the candidate will either mesh or grind. Beware of recommending hiring a candidate who does not fit into the current scheme, because, at times, style can be just as important as substance.

Overall strengths and weaknesses. Be sure to get some understanding of the candidate’s strong points and the candidate’s limitations. All of us have strengths and weaknesses (even John Sullivan has weaknesses, but he won’t tell me what they are). Our role is to identify them and be able to present them to the hiring manager. Hint: Ask what functions the candidate does not enjoy performing. We are seldom good at things we don’t like.

What they want in a new position. Everyone wants something. Find out what the candidate wants in a new position. Be sure to do whatever is necessary to get this information. Feel free to pick away during the interviewing process with open-ended questions until you have all of your questions answered. It is difficult to determine whether a given hiring situation has a good chance of working out if you do not know what the candidate is looking for in a new position.

Is the candidate interviewing elsewhere? This is big; I don’t like surprises and neither do hiring managers. I always ask the candidate what else they have for activity. If the candidate has three other companies they are considering and two offers are arriving in the mail tomorrow, this is absolute need-to-know information. If the hiring manager wants to make an offer, it’s time to advise them as to what the competition looks like and move this deal onto the express lane, fast.

What it will take to close the deal. This is a first cousin of #6 above but it is more specific and flavored with a “closing the deal” mentality. #6 relates to what the candidate wants in a new position, but this one quantifies that want. For example, if the candidate wants more money, this is where you will assess how much it will take to close the deal. As another example, while #6 will let you know that the candidate wants to work on different types of projects, this one will tell you exactly what types of projects those are.

Can the candidate do the job? Even though, as the recruiter, you might not be able to determine if this is the perfect candidate, you should exit the interview with an opinion as to whether or not the candidate can perform the functions of the position. Furthermore, that opinion must be based upon information that was unveiled during the interviewing process and not just a gut feeling. It has to be based upon what the candidate has successfully accomplished and how that aligns with the needs of the current position. If you can’t offer a solid opinion on this one, you need to dig deeper until you have a solid case for why the candidate can or cannot do the job.

Will the candidate fit into the culture? Predicting the future is tricky business, but someone has to take a shot at evaluating a candidate’s chance for success. Not everyone that is capable of doing the job will have a successful run at the company, because culture does play a role in candidate success. For example, the culture of a buttoned-down insurance company in Boston is very different than the garage culture of a software startup in the valley. If you have a reason to believe that the person is the wrong DNA for an organization, it is imperative that you raise the issue.
There are few things hiring managers value more than solid candidate feedback based upon a well-executed interview. Convey this information to the hiring manager and take one more step towards becoming a world-class recruiter.

Avoid the Top 10 Résumé Mistakes

Most employers are deluged with résumés from eager job seekers. Some human resource managers have hundreds of them sitting on their desks on any given day. With competition this fierce, the key to effective résumé writing means being certain that yours is free of the common errors that many employers complain that they see made over and over again.

A strongly written résumé can be the difference between landing an interview and landing in the “no” pile. Here are 10 common pitfalls to avoid when preparing your résumé:
1.No clear focus. Your résumé should show a clear match between your skills and experience and the job’s requirements. A general résumé with no sharp focus is not seen as competitive. Why are you the best person for this particular position?
2.Dutifully dull. A solid résumé is much more than a summary of your professional experience; it’s a tool to market yourself. Avoid phrases like “responsibilities included” or “duties included.” Your résumé should not be a laundry list of your duties but rather an announcement of your major accomplishments.
3.Poorly organized. Information on a résumé should be listed in order of importance to the reader. Don’t ask employers to wade through your hobbies first. Dates of employment are not as important as job titles. Education should be emphasized if you are freshly out of school and have little work experience; otherwise, put it at the end. If your résumé is difficult to read or key information is buried, it’s more likely to be cast aside.
4.Too much emphasis on old jobs. Résumés that go too far back into the job seeker’s work history can put that person at risk for possible age discrimination. Does anyone really need to read about your high school job bagging groceries, especially if that was 20 years ago? The rule of thumb for someone at a senior level is to list about the last 15 years worth of professional experience.
5.Important skills buried. Don’t forget to bullet the important skills that make you a standout in your field. Your objective is to play up the value that you will bring to a prospective employer. Emphasize how and what you will add worth to the company, not the reason you want the job. Employers are looking for someone to enhance the organization, not their own résumé.
6.Drab looking. Try to stay away from the cookie-cutter résumé templates that employers see constantly. Show a little imagination when writing and designing your résumé. But don’t overdo it. Overly artistic or tiny fonts are a no-no, since they’re hard to read and don’t scan or photocopy well.
7.Too personal. If your Web site includes photos of your cat or your personal blog about what you did over the weekend, don’t steer prospective employers there by including it on your résumé. Keep your personal and your professional life separate in order to be taken seriously.
8.One typo too many. Your résumé is your one chance to make a first impression. A typo or misspelled word can lead an employer to believe that you would not be a careful, detail-oriented employee. Spell-check software is not enough, since sentences like “Thank you for your patients” would get the thumbs up. Ask several people to proofread your résumé to be sure that it is free of typos and grammatical errors.
9.Stretches the truth. Everyone wants to present his or her work experience in the most attractive light, but information contained on your résumé must be true and accurate. Whether you’re simply inflating past accomplishments or coming up with complete fabrications, lying is simply a bad idea. Aside from any moral or ethical implications, chances are that you’ll eventually get caught and lose all credibility.
10.Skips the extras. A common mistake is neglecting to mention any extra education, training, volunteer work, awards, or recognitions that might pertain to your particular job area or industry. Many employers view such “extracurricular activities” as testament to a well-rounded employee, so leverage such things as assets to distinguish your résumé from the hordes of others out there.

12 Questions to Measure Employee Engagement

1.Do you know what is expected of you at work?
2.Do you have the materials and equipment you need to do your work right?
3.At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?
4.In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5.Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?
6.Is there someone at work who encourages your development?
7.At work, do your opinions seem to count?
8.Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?
9.Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?
10.Do you have a best friend at work?
11.In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?
12.In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

Learning to mind your own business

ASPIRING entrepreneurs now have access to an innovative, government-funded course with practical tuition on starting their own business ventures.

The course, which started at Shanghai University yesterday, will feature a series of lectures teaching students how to discover opportunities, and implement team-building, networking, marketing, investment and financing plans.

It is the result of a joint project between the Shanghai Technology Entrepreneurship Foundation for Graduates – a government-backed organization funding student companies – and local universities.

A group of renowned entrepreneurs from both home and abroad will be invited to share their own business-starting experiences with university students or Master of Business Administration candidates during the courses.

For instance, David Dan, former president of Intel China who has started the company D Square Transformation Consulting, gave the first course session about business-starting opportunities in China to more than 50 Shanghai University MBA students yesterday.

Foundation officials said entrepreneurs’ sharing their real-life experiences made the course stand out from similar courses run by other universities.

“We came to be aware that business-starting is a totally different practice in which hands-on experience is a must,” said Li Jun, a foundation official.

Li said the Ministry of Education started the country’s business-starting education effort at nine domestic universities in 2002. But the training was less than effective because most of the courses were taught by academics.

Key issue for China’s new labor law: enforcement

By Jude Blanchette | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

Shanghai, CHINA – The comprehensive labor law that China’s top legislative body passed Friday includes provisions that have appeared in previous legislation. But what may be different this time, some observers say, is the government’s willingness to enforce mandates protecting workers’ rights.

Scheduled to come into effect on Jan. 1, 2008, the law stipulates that employment contracts must be put in writing within one month of employment. It also says that employers must fully inform the worker of the nature of the job and of their working conditions and compensation. Furthermore, it limits the ability of employers to use temporary laborers.

But the law’s impact lies in how the government interprets and enforces it. “As is always the case with China’s laws, the real question will be in whether the new laws are enforced, how they are enforced, and against whom they are enforced,” says Dan Harris, an expert at the law firm Harris & Moure.

But, he adds, “there is a feeling the new labor law is more likely to be enforced than the old and, in particular, will be enforced against foreign companies.”

Indeed, organizations representing firms doing business in China have objected to certain provisions they say are unclear. In comments last year, the US-China Business Council warned, “The Draft Law may … reduce employment opportunities for PRC workers and negatively impact PRC’s competitiveness and appeal as a destination for foreign investment.”

On Friday, Xin Chunying, the deputy chairwoman of the National People’s Congress Law Committee, tried to allay the fears of foreign companies. “If there were some bias,” she said, “it would be in favor of foreign investors because local governments have great tolerance for them in order to attract and retain investment.”

The law gives oversight power to labor unions for collective agreements and the implementation of new employment regulations, but because independent labor unions are illegal in China, this duty will fall to the government-sponsored All China Federation of Trade Unions, an organization with deep ties to the Communist Party and local government officials.

Since the first draft of the law was made public in 2005, it has gone through three drafts and elicited more than 190,000 comments from the public.

In a statement issued Sunday, the European Chamber of Commerce welcomed the law’s passage, in part because it moved the labor market in the direction that many European countries have gone. According to a statement posted on their website, “After the comprehensive drafting process, the European Chamber is not concerned about the effect of the law on European investment in China.”

Since its emergence as an economic powerhouse more than 20 years ago, China has been dogged by criticisms of poor working conditions, the use of child labor, and willingness to placate multinational corporations.

Friday’s law comes as the government tries to deal with these complaints and dampen social unrest in rural areas. Indeed, the government is in the midst of a campaign to reduce the impact of the recent discovery of slavery-like conditions in Shanxi Province’s brick factories.

Early last month, more than 400 parents from Henan Province whose children had been abducted posted an open letter on the Internet. Their children, it came out, had been sold to work in brick factories in Shanxi Province.

It has since been revealed that thousands of others have met similar fates at brick kilns, many of which are unlicensed After Chinese journalists picked up the story, it rapidly spread around the world, causing outrage and shame in China.

Last week the draft law was amended to punish officials who ignore labor abuses with prison time or other penalties. Ms. Xin said that “The labor contract law makes detailed provision concerning this issue following the exposure of the forced labor scandals.”

Ways to Recruit Online

There are three major avenues in online recruiting.

You can advertise your job openings in the online equivalent of classified want ads and wait for jobseekers to contact you.
And you can browse online resume sites for likely candidates and contact them yourself.
You can also get professional assistance from recruiters and employment agencies who advertise their services online.

We’ll be covering each of these hiring opportunities in this Buyer’s Guide. An article from the AllBusiness.com Business Advice section, “Recruiting in the Internet Age,” gives you a quick overview of these main recruiting avenues ¨C print ads, the Internet, recruiting firms, and referrals.

Leadership – 12 Ways To Tell Your People They’re Important

There’s an old saying¡± ¡°Your actions shout so loud I can’t hear what you’re saying.¡±

Many managers feel constrained by the rules and regulations of their organizations. They feel that their hands are tied when it comes to rewarding their people ¨C that their actions are controlled by others, and there is little of any real value they can do to motivate their people. Leaders understand that recognition and reward applied on a one on one level is essential to success.

They understand the greatest sense of accomplishment and importance often comes from non ¨C monetary actions and rewards, and from positive recognition from the person who is the boss.

What are the ways to make your people know they are important?

Way #1 ¨C You have to believe the work performed by your people is important. This may sound pretty basic, but if you do not really believe that, there is simply no way you can convince your people that what they do is important.. How often have your heard ¨C or been guilty of saying ¨C or thinking ¨C ¡°Oh, she¡¯s just the receptionist¡± or, ¡°He’s just the janitor¡± or ¡°They’re just trainees¡± or ¡°They’re just a staff weenie¡±?

Way #2 ¨C Expect the best from everyone, and settle for nothing less. Nothing makes people feel more important than high expectations for their performance. Just make sure they share in setting the expectations.

Way #3 ¨C Create goals that are shared and that show the tie in of individual work with the success of the organization.

Way #4 ¨C Select the best ¨C in every opening you have. Use every tool you can to ensure that you have made a good decision on who you select.. Your people watch carefully to see who you pick ¨C involve them in the selection process. If your actions communicate that you are not careful about who you select, your people will see that as a direct reflection on themselves.

Way #5 ¨C Make sure you are your people¡¯s institutional champion! What’s that mean? When their pay is wrong, you act to get it right. When their reviews are scheduled, you act to ensure they are done accurately and on time. When their raises are due, you make sure they are handled properly and on time. Jealously guard your relationship as the go to person for your people ¨C the institutional support people can help, but you are the person you want your people to seek out.

Way #6¨C Be absolutely intolerant of unsafe, disruptive or other negative behaviors. Act on them quickly and decisively, and never let your people see you knowingly ignore a bad situation. It will not go away, regardless how much ¡°wish’in and hop’in and pray’in¡± you might do.

Way #7 ¨C Remember that trust and respect are not the same thing as being liked. It is nice to be liked, it is absolutely essential that your people trust and respect you. As a comedian said: ¡°If you want to be liked, get a dog.¡±

Way #8 – Cultivate a climate of civility for your people. In your relationships with your people, ensure your actions and theirs reflect a fundamental respect for each other, and for all the others they come in contact with.

Way #9 ¨CGet everyone of your people some form of self development activity on a regular basis. It may be a seminar, it may be tuition refund, it may be a book, it may be a CD set, it may be a Community College course ¨C it does not have to be expensive and time consuming, but the act of creating added value through the investment of personal effort supported by organizational resources is a powerful way to say you care.

Way #10 ¨C Respect your people’s time ¨C it’s their most valuable asset. Start meetings on time, end them on time, keep meeting commitments. Do what you have to do to ensure your people have access to as much of their work time as possible.

Way #11¨C Keep the rules and policies to an absolute minimum. If you have a workable set of cultural and organizational ¡°Way¡¯s Of Doing Things¡± you have the basis for treating your people with individual regard. If you have managers that are not comfortable doing that, either they change or get different managers

Way #12¨C Celebrate all the successes ¨C create the opportunity for group recognition to happen all over the place ¨C if Safety is an issue, create a Safety Award process that celebrates progress.Make the events frequent, and the rewards modest ¨C but do it all the time. Frequency of awards and the opportunity for celebration are as important, actually more important, than the annual lunch or dinner or whatever. Make it fun. Make it part of your enterprise.

Did you notice one thing about all 12 Ways? Not one of them deals with lots of money, or more capital, or new policies or procedures. All do require beliefs and behaviors ¨C and they are the most challenging, most high leverage efforts we can make to improve our organizations. It’s always tempting to do a feel good seminar, or buy something ¨C or take some action that shows just how committed we are. But the truth is that the way to greater success is through a focused, day to day effort to improve the level of commitment of the people in an organization, and that takes hard work and the acceptance of change. If you can see Ways that can help you organization or your work group or yourself in this article, take them and run with them ¨C they are the basis for successful managers becoming successful leaders.

How Do I Hire an IT Consultant?

Technology changes quickly. When choosing a consultant try the following:

Look for a recent, relevant work record.
Contact references who have first-hand experience of the consultant.
Check with businesses similar to yours, professional organizations, the local Better Business Bureau or chamber of commerce, or even your accountant or attorney.

Some vendors, including Microsoft, IBM and Sun, offer official certification programs that keep consultants current on new technology. You should also ask whether a consultant belongs to a recognized professional organization such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

A Systematic Process for Hiring Top Talent

Hiring top talent has always been the goal, but these lofty results are rarely met. The primary reason is the lack of a simple and scalable hiring process that line managers will willingly use. Performance-based Hiring is a proven field-tested process that changes the rules. Using it, leading-edge companies have an opportunity to make hiring top people a systematic business process.

It starts by implementing a talent centric hiring strategy based on how top people looks for new opportunities and how these great people make career decisions. Unfortunately too many companies have implemented poorly integrated processes and systems band-aid style in the hope that something will work. Shifting worldwide demand for top talent requires a complete rebuilding of the hiring process.

Companies as diverse as the YMCA, AIG, Broadcom, Cognos, Wells Fargo, the National Health Service of Scotland, HealthEast Care Systems and Red Bull are now experiencing the benefits of Performance-based Hiring. Isn¡¯t it time to evaluate the impact Performance-based Hiring can make on your company?

Are You Wasting $25 million or More on Bad Hiring Decisions
$25 million represents the annual salary and benefits of 300 new people. Twelve simple factors indicate whether your company is spending this money wisely. One is whether members of the hiring team use an up/down voting system when deciding to extend an offer, rather than some type of balanced evidence-sharing process. Voting is not how other important business decisions are made. Email info@adlerconcepts.com to find out where your company stands on the other 11 factors.