Playing with the A Team, Staying with the A Team

My regular followers on Twitter will know that I spend my Saturday mornings in Autumn and Winter watching my son play rugby for his school.

When he was first picked in Year 7, I was a little surprised…he hadn’t really played rugby before, and we are hardly a rugby watching family, but the traditional recruiter in me thought ‘ School Rugby right through to Upper 6ths looks good on a CV’ so he was given lots of encouragement.

Starting in the B team, he finally made the A team a couple of years ago and has stayed there since.

Just.

In truth, whilst originally picked on merit, he’s no longer an automatic starter for the A team and tends to be a sub unless someone is ill or gets injured. In the main he waits on the sidelines and comes on for 10 or 15 minutes when the game is already won or lost.

Two weeks ago was the first game of the season…he was a sub…they won 57-0…and he played the last 15 minutes.

The journey home was one of those difficult moments for a parent…whilst needing to give him encouragement…and realising that he may only continue with rugby because he thinks it makes me happy – well makes the traditional recruiter in me happy! – I told him that at the moment he is unlikely to get a start with the A team and he would probably be better off playing for the B team where at least he could get a full game every week and sharpen his skills.

Not easy to deliver, as in his eyes I’m implicitly saying that I don’t think he’s good enough for the A team. But then I had a feeling that his coach may be thinking the same way so, whilst not the most popular message, I had at least prepared him for that eventuality.

I could have taken the easy route…told him he was great, just needed a chance and should keep with the A team. I could have been a pushy parent and asked his coach why he didn’t get to start more often and get a chance to prove himself.

But I guessed that he needed to prove…to himself as much as others…why he was worthy of the A team squad.

Come last Friday, that eventuality materialised. He was in the B team. Thankfully my words the week before had clearly stayed with him…his reaction was that he wanted to show the coaches what he could do.

And those of you following me on Saturday will know that it worked. He scored 2 tries and was man of the match. He was aggressive and determined. The B team coach said to me afterwards ‘I’d love to keep him for a few weeks but I’ve got to recommend that he gets a proper run out in the A team. He just needs to play like that every week’

( Actually I hope he gets to stay in the B team for another week or two, to show that it wasn’t just a one-off effort, that he can prove himself over time)

In the end I was really proud after a Saturday morning rugby outing for the first time in ages, and he was energised and on a real high all weekend.

Why had I said that to him the week before? Well, it was sixth sense, maybe from my time coaching and managing Under 16 football (a few years ago now) or maybe from having been around a number of businesses over the years…

We all need a reality check sometimes…need a chance to prove that we really can do what’s expected of us…that we can step outside of a comfort zone and rise to a challenge…that we do really deserve a place in the A Team

Does this apply to anyone in your A team?

Is there anyone in your top talent who may be coasting and maybe needs to earn the right to stay there?

When you choose your ‘top team’ do you give people a chance to show why they should be there?

Let me know what you think?

Four Reasons why Recruitment Sales is changing

Last week I posted a blog about the landline phone and how I thought its days as a major business communication tool were numbered. It got a lot of views and comments, for which I am most thankful. Interestingly the comments shifted from the use of the phone to the future of selling, and certainly divided opinion. There were 2 comments in particular that I found interesting:

“65 calls a day with x percent being effective” raises the question of what is effective. I suspect effective in this context means an instant sale or at least a warm lead to follow up. But these sales and leads are to people who are easily susceptible to influence, often from people who don’t have the balls to hang up on their telephone tormenter. They are a quick fix. Very few will become long term sustainable customers. That’s why you have to keep a permanent telesales team; to compensate for high customer churn.

If telesales created long term sustainable relationships by definition they would not need to exist – but they do, albeit as a dying breed. They will become extinct as increasing numbers of companies latch on to the fact that there are far better ways to build proper lasting relationships with their future customers by leveraging new communications technologies and brand building.

Sales is dying. The future is all about creating and maintaining relationships that will make your future customers come and find you rather than you trying to hunt them down in packs”

(Jon Weedon – Internal Communications Manager, Betfair)

“I would be more willing to returning a phone message by email rather than a cold call. I am very busy and it also gives me a chance to research before the call”

(Chris Frede – Human Resources Partner, Fleishman-Hillard)

I have highlighted these 2, not just because they are great comments, but because they are from 2 people who are clearly potential client contacts for most recruiters.

One thing that I have learned, from fax to e-mail, from exclusive briefings to PSLs and CV races, is that once clients start wanting things to be done in a different way then the game changes.

There are 4 main things that I believe will drive the change in recruitment sales:

1)      The future will be about relationships. I happen to agree with Jon that telesales is NOT the way to building lasting, mutually beneficial business relationships. I don’t even rate it as a door opener to long lasting relationships. It’s a fast food fix that leaves you needing something more very soon afterwards. Real lasting business relationships will be built on trust, knowledge and competence, not quick fixes.

2)      Social Media offers a transparency that hasn’t existed before. When a client contact gets a call from a recruiter they can look them up on LinkedIn whilst they’re on the phone. They can see who they are, where they work, what their experience is and who recommends them. If the recruiter leaves a message, then as Chris says, she can do research.

3)      We are all connected now. Clients, candidates, recruiters, suppliers all able to connect, engage, share and learn. In the future there’ll be no hiding place. Poor practice, false promises, exaggerated claims will all be exposed. In my opinion word of mouth, or advocacy, will be key to growing business. Reputation and validation will replace marketing and patter.

4)      As you will gather from my last blog, I firmly believe that communication is changing, with relationships built online leading to face to face meetings. The young sales force that will be entering the workplace over the next 5 years will be unlikely to use the phone as a ‘door opener’ in the way that predecessors have. Face to face meetings will still be vital, in fact that generation are socially aware and quite comfortable catching up in person, but it will be the start of the relationship, the initial connection and engagement that will be done differently. No killer lines, no scripts, no closing that sale…just connect, engage, share and meet to build a long lasting, mutually beneficial relationship.

Do you see sales changing? Are you experiencing a shift already, either in approaches you make or approaches you receive?

Clients and HR Professionals – what will work for you in future?

Recruiters – are you planning on varying the approach? Or do you think that you’ll be able to find, develop and transact business in that same old tried and trusted ways?

I’d love to hear what you think.

The End of the Phone?

The way we communicate and interact is changing. This has big ramifications for business…Recruitment may never be the same again!

Let’s spin back nearly 50 years to a famous moment in music history:

“guitar groups are on the way out, the Beatles have no future in show business” (Dick Rowe, January 1962)

Mr Rowe (allegedly it was he) had just watched an hour’s audition from a new pop group and was clearly sure that although this new fangled beat music may be popular, it wouldn’t outsell the more traditional forms of popular music. It was all a fad. And he knew, because he was a successful A&R man who usually got things right.

Not this time!

How wrong could he have been?? 50 years later the group that had no future still cast a long shadow over popular music.

Of course he underestimated the power of the 16 – 25 age group to influence popular culture from the bottom up. **

What about phones I hear you ask?

Well, the great and the good of recruitment are lining up to get us back on the phone. All this new fangled Social Media may be popular but it won’t replace traditional forms of communication.

Well I think it will.

If Dick Rowe were a recruitment trainer today he would probably say: Social Media is on the way out, it has no future as a business communication tool.

He’d be wrong again.

The people we are now bringing into the workforce are from the first generation NOT to have had a landline phone as their primary communication tool. They are used to communicating through short messages…whether by text, IM, Facebook, Twitter or short mobile chats. When they organise to do something they create an event. They love social interaction but face to face is way more important than ear to ear.

Teens invariably start by using mobile Pay As You Go…not an arrangement that rewards long conversations.

Relationships are built in a very different way now.

Anyone who thinks they can bring a 21 year old trainee into the workplace and expect them to use the phone in the way we have always done for cold calling and relationship building are in for a shock. You may have been able to teach telesales…but not how to use a basic communication tool.

Ask any 18 – 21 year old how they interact with their mates and organize parties, evenings out or cinema trips and I think you’ll be surprised. But then you’ll understand why they may accept an invitation for an assessment day but not actually turn up. It’s not rudeness; it’s not a lack of interest in your opportunity…it’s just that commitment and communication happen in different ways now.

You can send a text, but then they’ve probably signed up for so many text alerts and updates that yours may not stand out.

You can send an e-mail, but then they probably won’t read it.

You can invite them through Facebook, but then they get invited to lots of things through Facebook.

You can ring, but you’ll probably be leaving a voicemail.

And even if you do get a message through, they won’t have a calendar or diary to put it in…only their mobile phone. Your assessment day will probably end up being the day after a mate’s birthday drinks and will gently slide from memory.

The times they are a-changing…the recruiter of tomorrow will not have the communication skills to build meaningful relationships over the phone, let alone make a cold call.

You can’t teach communication.

Business relationships of the future will be defined by the way people interact and communicate.

Like The Beatles social media and mobile technology offer platforms that will probably cast a giant shadow over how business communicates for the next 50 years.

It’s changing already. Those of you in the London area may have seen me on BBC London news a couple of weeks ago talking about how what you can say on Twitter could affect your job. One of their reporters read this blog and contacted me, asking if they could interview me. They didn’t call me and they didn’t e-mail me…they sent me a message through Facebook. And I don’t even have a link to my Facebook page on my blogsite.

I’ve written before how my favourite quote of recent weeks was the one from a Clay Shirky interview:

‘no medium ever survived the indifference of 25 year olds’

25 year olds are very indifferent towards the landline phone, e-mail, letters and long conversations..

The future workforce will dictate the way business ultimately communicates…and I’m fairly sure that it won’t be on the landline phone.

Let me know what you think.

** (To set the record straight, Mr Rowe eventually must have seen the error of his ways and signed a number of bands who would go on to dominate the music industry including The Rolling Stones, Them – including Van Morrison – The Animals and Tom Jones…will our industry thought leaders be similarly as visionary?)

Connect. Engage. Share. Learn.

Sometimes I need to go back to why I got on to social media in the first place…remember why I love it so much and am, quite frankly, a little obsessed.

For me Social Media is all about 4 actions:

Connect

Engage

Share

Learn

And if you want a fifth, then it’s Entertain!

When I’m not getting those I get frustrated, I feel like I’m standing on a crowded platform with loads of people shouting at me. And I’m not happy. That’s when I want to rant.

Luckily I’ve made some great connections, a lot of whom I have now met offline, and I’m learning things from them all the time.

I did have a blogrant a few weeks ago about too many experts, too much white noise, and self promotion and broadcast replacing engagement. It was the way I felt at the time and I needed to get it down in writing.

Wasn’t the most popular post I’ve ever written (note to self…blog rants rarely are popular posts) but it was something I felt I needed to get off my chest. It’s my blog and I’ll rant if I want to.

Today I read three really interesting posts.

First up was an excellent blog from digital marketing expert Mitch Joel – The End of Conversation in Social Media – followed swiftly by Flip Chart Fairy Tales take on the same post Social Media – The End of Conversation.

From the titles it won’t be a surprise to learn that both conclude that there is little real conversation and debate in social media and blogs now.

Then there was Jessica Merrell (blogging4jobs) with a right old rant about the hard sellers, posers, underqualified, over-enthusiastic, and those that rely solely on their charm and good looks. I love reading Jessica’s blogs; I’ve met her a couple of times and found her to be sassy and smart and someone who tells it like it is.

It’s interesting when other people get frustrated to see how it impacts on their writing. Even in a rant there will always be something that gets you thinking. A view that can  make you question your own.

And what I’m thinking tonight is that more people need to get back and rediscover why they fell in love with Social Media in the first place.

Connect. Engage. Learn. Share…it’s what makes the platform work.

The World is Your Recruiter

We used to offer jobseekers one pair of eyes…sometimes a few pairs of eyes…but now the whole world has their eyes open.

Two meetings this afternoon have really energised me and got me thinking, yet shown me how network and community are increasingly doing the job of 3rd party recruiters.

Is this the dawn of Community Recruiting? It’s free for the hirer. It’s part of the ‘Big Society’

Firstly, I had a great catch up with Marianne Cantwell today. Twitter followers will know her as Free Range Humans, career change coach and corporate life escapologist. Soon she’ll be Free Ranging in the USA!

She was very excited; she had found a business card on a bus which was part of a Facebook campaign by a Graphic Designer called Mark Winter to find a new job. He was offering 10% of his first month’s salary to whoever helped him:

Marianne had photographed the card and tweeted it out. Within minutes it was being retweeted by her network. She showed it to me and I started tweeting it out…and then decided to blog about it.

Within 5 minutes the reach of his campaign was growing fast. Who knows how many other people have seen this campaign and communicated it…from his modest number of followers many thousands are being exposed to his work.

Thousands of pairs of eyes.

After meeting with Marianne I caught up with an old candidate who was coming to the end of a long contract with a major global brand. It’s been really good for her, especially as it came following a redundancy and prolonged period of job searching. She knows a lot of recruiters. Did any of us find her this lucrative contract, which has given her a great development opportunity and a brilliant name on her CV? No. It was through a friend who has nothing to do with recruitment or HR, but who knows someone, who knows someone, who…you get the picture. Now I appreciate that this kind of referral recruitment has long been around, but it has now been given added impetus and strength by connectivity, network and a real sense of wanting to help.

Time was that people would job search in private. Certainly using friends, friends of friends and family to spread the message is something more recent.

Friends and family, network and community.

Then I fire up the laptop this morning and start by reading Day 13 of the #MyJobHunt daily blog series from Gary Franklin. I don’t know if you’re following this series, but you should. All 3rd party and inhouse recruiters, and anyone involved in the hiring process should.

He talks about a role that was passed to him. He mentions the company name and the role. It’s  not a role for him, but in his capacity as founder of the Forum for Inhouse Recruitment Managers he is able to inform relevant candidates, passive and active, of this role.

So it looks like we’re all recruiters now!

I’ve been thinking about where recruitment goes next. Whilst some niches, sectors and locations may find its business as usual I think that there are clearly many challenges ahead for the majority. Social recruiting and direct sourcing are just two, but not the only two.

So it could be time for a change on this blog. I feel myself in more philosophical or reflective mood, keen to blog and debate about some of the key challenges that I see and to get your input.

It’s time for the dinosaur to evolve and move on! T Recs may well remain in some form…but I think this may be time for a more agile and forward looking image!

Watch this space…and as always, let me know what you think…

HR & Marketing…Do You Think They’re Overlapping?

HR and Marketing…they’ve certainly been making eye contact.

And it’s moved on…there’s a definite frisson in the air. They’re beginning to discuss needs, share information, and work on internal and external communication. In fact engagement, branding, communications are clearly concerns and interests common to both. And Social Media seems to be bringing them closer.

Those terrible twins Recruiting and Talent, whilst appreciative of the sterling job that HR has done raising them as a single parent, are growing up fast and long for the creative input that Marketing could bring to the family.

At Stopgap Group we speak to many HR and Marketing practitioners and can sense the closeness developing. That’s why we’ve devised a short survey to try and get a feel for how other practitioners see it.

You can do the Marketing & HR Overlap Survey here – will only take a minute…we’d really appreciate your input.

By way of an introduction, I’ve given the rest of this post over to Callum Saunders…he’s the Marketing Manager for Stopgap Group and he’s giving you his take on this growing overlap:

HR & Marketing – in bed together at last?

Despite the (unfortunately all-too-common) perception amongst my peers that all I do is ‘play around on Twitter and Facebook all day’, my day-to-day role at the Stopgap  Group is in fact rather diverse and indeed, unique.

For those of you that are still unsure as to what I actually do (including my other half!), I look after the marketing and Social Media functions for Stopgap, Fitzroy and Courtenay; marketing, executive and HR recruitment firms respectively.  Whilst this variety in brands affords me an enjoyable amount of diversity in my day-to-day role, it has also allowed me to look at both marketing and HR from a holistic viewpoint.

If I look back to when I started in the Marketing department here in late 2007, I wouldn’t be alone in claiming that HR and marketing were separate entities requiring different methods of thinking, marketing and strategy.  Move the clock forward to 2010 however, and Social Media has been a huge catalyst, I believe, in bringing these two functions closer together.

I first gained my first real glimpse of this at the well-received Connecting HR event in March.  I attended the event in a professional capacity representing the marketing function of Courtenay HR, but soon found I had more in common with the HR community than I had previously thought.

Several insightful conversations with various HR practitioners caused something of an epiphany for me.  Listening to these HR professionals discussing the role of Social Media from a human resources perspective, I found that this new medium has blurred the lines between marketing and HR exponentially.

Employees are now much more accountable in terms of ‘employer branding’ than ever before.  Traditionally, it has been marketing departments that have set the agenda for controlled communications.  ‘Digital Democracy’ however, has given all workplace denizens a voice – and thus an opinion that audiences listen to.

Similarly, ‘brand advocates’ within an organisation are being increasingly used to market the company.  In our own organisation, we have several prominent Social Media users whose primary function within the organisation is not marketing.  Nevertheless, their blogs, tweets and LinkedIn interactions have all combined to create an additional Social Media marketing / branding function that has undoubtedly complimented the more ‘established’ marketing efforts coming from my direction.

HR and marketing have so many similarities.  Both aim to engage groups of people.  Both functions wish to market an organisation in the best possible light.  Both look at new ways of communicating and engaging – the list is endless.

Now these similarities are not ‘new’ – these principles have been fundamental to these two disciplines for a long, long time.  However, the way we as humans communicate is shifting dramatically – and this can be ascribed almost wholly to the advent of Social Media.

As long as HR and marketing remain intrinsically about connecting and communicating with people, I have no doubt that Social Media will be the catalyst that draws these functions even closer together – and why not?  Marketing and HR are natural bedfellows and I believe it’s crucial for early adopters of this way of thinking to champion this union and achieve some very big things.

Expert, Texpert…Don’t You Know The Joker Laughs At You?? (Everyone’s on Twitter, Everyone’s a Star)

Whole forests have been pulped to enable Beatles obsessives to speculate/pontificate in print over the exact meanings of John Lennon’s lyrics to ‘I Am The Walrus’ – don’t worry, I’m not about to add any – however I do like the accepted explanation of the line

Expert, Texpert, Choking Smoker

Don’t you know the Joker laughs at you

The expert/texperts are all the academics, teachers and journalists who analyse and try to find hidden meanings in his lyrics, being laughed at by Lennon’s Joker…laughing because the meanings that they see just aren’t there?

There’s a lesson for social media enthusiasts in there somewhere. Every day more experts, gurus, consultants, advocates, enthusiasts, specialists, advisors and commentators spring into view with blogs, journal articles, tweets, newsletters, forum threads and speaking engagements, all passing on their wisdom.  Everyone has a view, an opinion to share.

Don’t get me wrong, some of the stuff churned out is useful, enlightening and entertaining…but the rest is self-promoting, attention seeking noise. Personal brand positioning by association.

Forests aren’t being pulped…but there’s a cacophony of white noise in the echo chamber.

My twitter timeline positively collapses under the weight of it some days.

On top of that everyone now seems to be consulting or advising. We have speakers, guest speakers, keynote speakers, facilitators, hosts, track leaders, live tweeters, bloggers…everyone sharing their thoughts and insights.

I followed a live feed from ILSHRM last week regarding a ‘speaker’ – oh how well the unconference set-up does away with the need for expert ‘speakers’- who appeared less enlightened than some of his audience, who were commenting, less than approvingly, on a live twitter feed. Good blog from Mike Vandervort summarises.

Now I don’t have a problem with this. Proper live speakers have always been able to handle hecklers and mischief-makers. Previously if you sat in a talk or presentation that you haven’t enjoyed, you used to have to wait for the coffee break to share your thoughts with people. Not any more. The immediacy of social media allows instant comment and observation. If you can’t deal with it…get off of the platform (in more ways than one!)

At this point I’ll hold my hands up, as clearly I’m not a complete outsider…you’re reading this on a blog, and I’ve been known to host the occasional tracks at unconferences, and live tweet. But then I’m a recruiter; I’m not really looking for speaking or consulting gigs. Although happy to oblige if offered, I’m really not trying to pass myself off as a consultant, adviser or speaker, merely voicing my thoughts on what I see, hear and experience.

For me, Social Media is really all about connecting, engaging, sharing and learning. It’s not about looking good, looking smart or looking well connected.

So where will it all lead?

An excellent blog from Trish McFarlane – In Search of Normal – got me thinking. Are the social media non-adopters, naysayers, cynics and deniers really Lennon’s Joker, laughing at us for seeing something that they don’t think is there?  If they were to eavesdrop our online conversations would they just see a rash of self-serving, self-referencing micro PR releases masquerading as engagement? A ‘conversation’ where nearly 30% admit retweeting without even reading what they’re retweeting?

Maybe social media gives us all the chance to shine…remember what Marilyn Monroe said?

Everyone’s a star and deserves the right to twinkle

I’m just worried that the modern social media take on it is

Everyone’s on Twitter and deserves the right to be an expert

Let me know what you think…

Think Before You Tweet (A Twitter Recruitment Tragi-Comedy in 5 Parts)

It had to happen one day.

It’s probably happened before and I’m sure this sorry story will be repeated many times in different forms until recruiters finally understand the power of social media, and it’s use for informing and engaging not just name gathering.

This week it happened to a recruiter I know…

The Scene:

Candidate has an interview for an interim role with Company XXX. The interview goes well, and candidate is asked if they have any other interviews. Candidate says no interviews with companies, only agencies. Company XXX offers Candidate the job, a 6 month contract to start next Monday. Candidate says YES!

The Action:

Candidate goes home and logs in to their Twitter account. Candidate tweets to followers:

Got offer from Company XXX, hope to get one from Company YYY tomorrow. Exciting times.

Company XXX have people who monitor their mentions on Social Media. They see the tweet and pass to HR.

The Denouement:

Offer is withdrawn.

The Lessons:

1)      Recruiters…Get on Twitter! Find out if your candidates (and clients for that matter) are on Twitter too. If they are, follow them and engage with them. You need to know what’s going on.

2)      Candidates…If you are going to tweet about your interviews, and name the companies involved, expect your tweets to be read by both the company and the recruiter (in-house or 3rd party) because they need to know what’s going on.

3)      Clients…Be prepared for people to share their experiences of you on social media. In this case the client found out something that enabled them to act quickly. That may not always be the case. You need to know what’s going on.

The Moral:

Get on Twitter, or any Social Media! You need to know what’s going on.

Anyone experienced anything similar?

Can Social Connecting Help Us Find a Head of HR?

It’s time for my first guest blogger.

The company I work for – Courtenay HR – are recruiting a Head of HR for a really great client and we thought that this may be a good opportunity to put the strength of our social connections to the test! Our leader is Gareth Jones – who some of you may now on Twitter as @garelaos – and he has blogged about it on his excellent site Inside My Head…that blog is reproduced here:

Help me prove the concept…

Anyone who knows me, reads my blog or follows me on twitter will know that I am somewhat of a social media evangelist and right now it’s a hotly debated subject in the field of recruitment.  I believe, as some others do, that social ‘connecting’ will have a significant impact on recruitment and will be a significant enabler of people moving in and out of organisations in the future.  But right now I appear to be in the minority.

So, rather than wait for the market to produce an example where a key role has been filled through social connecting, we have decided to test the concept and create our own.  And that’s where we need your help!  We have a great role to fill, and I want to see the impact that resourcing through my social connections can have.  So without further ado:
Overview
The role is a c£80k Head of HR for a financial services (non banking) company.  They are a multi award winning organisation for both customer service and employee engagement and are in the top segment of the UK’s high performing organisations (officially measured).  I personally know the HR Director extremely well – we placed them a number of years ago.  They are one of the most credible, commercial and professional individuals I have met in HR so needless to say this is a great opportunity.

The details of the role can be found here but a top line of the kind of person we are looking for in terms of experience:

  • A solid background in generalist HR and Management
  • Strong compensation and benefits experience
  • Experience of managing centralised employee services environments
  • High levels of numeracy and attention to detail

How can you help?
Spread the word!  Some things that you can do to push the role out beyond the traditional recruitment channels would be:

  • Enter the link to this blog in your LinkedIn status message
  • Send a message with a link to this post to your connections on linked in
  • Tweet this post on twitter
  • Refer to this post in your own blog if you have one or:
  • Guest post me – put my post up as a guest post on your blog
  • Send a message out via facebook if you are comfortable with that

Getting in touch
The role is being handled by my good colleague Louise Curtis but if you have any questions you can contact either of us as follows:

Louise: Twitter: @lou_kiwi_curtis or LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/louisecurtis

Gareth: Twitter: @garelaos or LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/garethmjones

I’m not sure how we are going to measure the results as yet, but we are hopeful that the momentum we can generate together will demonstrate the power and speed of social connections made through social media.

Thanking you all in advance for your help and support.  Over to you!

Clarity, Communication, Closure – 3 Keys to getting Recruitment Right

(This post was originally written for HR Zone and published as part of their series on recruitment)

Recruiting, hiring, talent attraction, talent acquisition…whatever words you use you can’t escape the fact that sourcing and hiring new people for your business is far harder to get right than it is wrong, with new research showing that a negative experience can damage your bottom line.

Its long been said that you can tell a lot about a company by the way it goes about recruiting its people, and never was this truer than now, with technology and social media helping to create immediate and transparent contact between jobseekers and a hiring company, whether sourced directly or through a third party recruiter.

The process of hiring now brings your business into contact with a range of people…successful applicants, unsuccessful candidates, third parties, RPOs to name a few. And the rules of candidate attraction mean that your business will be visible through website, digital advertising, Facebook page, Linked In profile and very possibly a Twitter feed.

Getting the right person is now not the only key outcome… using the right approach is vital as those who are involved in that process now have channels through which they can vent their frustrations.

The best recruitment processes should contain the 3 Cs – Clarity, Communication and Closure – and should always manage expectations. Key questions to ask yourself are:

Why do you need to hire?

Every recruitment process starts with a need to hire, and whether you are looking for one person or a number of people it pays to know exactly why you are hiring, what role(s) you are trying to fill. Hiring managers need to put time into into scoping out exactly why they need someone, what they need that someone to do, and what deliverables will be expected…and the key question:

Do we already have someone here who can do this role, or do our people know someone who can do this role?

Many jobseekers talk of their frustrations at finding roles for which they have been interviewing eventually filled by internal transfer or promotion, or recommendation. There is nothing wrong with this, but it pays to be transparent from the start. Very often the approach is to see who is available and then compare with what you have internally, whereas the most successful pieces of hiring will often start with looking at the people in whom you have already invested time and training.

Assuming you don’t have an internal resource then a clearly defined role profile is essential before you go to market. It’s not enough to assume that the position is the same as it was three years ago, or send out the message ‘we just need a good person who can do x and y’; you need to know exactly what the new person has to achieve, what their key internal relationships are, and what scope there is for personal and professional development within the role.

In other words…clarity.

How will you find them?

As a 3rd party recruiter it won’t surprise you to find out that I still think that we are the best route! There are plenty of values based, knowledgeable recruiters out there who have a sound grasp of their markets and have built a community of some of the best talent within them. The way to approach this is not to brief a number of suppliers, with a low fee attached, and assume that this competition will deliver quality candidates. It won’t! The best recruiters rarely enter into these kinds of CV chases and you are more than likely to end up with a number of poorly matched, inadequately briefed candidates.

You should work with one or two recruiters who you have not only met, but also have taken a reference on from previous clients as to how successful they have been and how they work. It’s always useful to also go to their offices, find out a little about how they project themselves, how they are targeted, and how they deal with people who apply for roles.

Remember that the experience that your chosen recruiter gives to candidates who apply for a role with your company will reflect on you and not always the recruiter.

Should you go to market directly then a clear message will always be the key. From a well written ad, to the way that you contact all candidates, and the information that you pass on at every stage of the interview process…all of this says something about your business. Transparency is vital – everyone needs to know where they stand in the process, what is the next stage, are they moving forward (if not, why not) and when will they know more?

Clear and transparent Communication

How will you bring them in?

You’ve found the person that you want and they want to join you…what next? Well, from my experience of 20 years as a recruiter I would say that the majority of problems that lead to unsuccessful hires can be traced back to either before the candidate joins, or to their initial three months. It is important that once you have an offer and acceptance that everything runs smoothly. No waiting for contracts or other detail, regular communication between hiring manager and new hire and some clear information regarding onboarding and induction.

Many companies will leave this to HR, but I believe that those in HR need to involve not just the hiring manager but also the rest of the team in making the new person feel both welcome and valued. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve interviewed a candidate who is leaving a role after only a few months and hear ‘I knew straight away’ or worse ‘they gave me loads of information about themselves in the interviews that, as soon as I started, I realised wasn’t accurate’.

The most successful hires that you make will always be the ones who find no surprises at any stage of the process, never have to check where their paperwork is, never have to phone a week before they join to find out starting details and, crucially, walk in on day one and find not only is everything as they have been led to expect but that they have also already met everyone in their immediate team.

That is only part of the closure though…what about the candidates who didn’t make it through to this stage? A lot of damage can be done to an employer’s brand by poor communication to rejected candidates. They have invested time (research and preparation) and hope in working for your business, they have an emotional bond with you and may well want to work for the business at some stage in the future. They need to have expectations managed as rejected candidates are consumers and ambassadors for your business too.