Getting Your People Optimized for Success

As with any other business, your people are the most important resource in your recruiting department. Your competitors can duplicate your processes and your technology. But they can’t duplicate the unique skills and experiences your people bring to your business.

Before you invest in an expensive technology upgrade, make sure your people are optimized for success! Here are five important questions you should be asking.

1. How skilled are your people at finding active candidates?

• Do they get the most out of the job boards? Are they up to speed about which job boards they should be using?
  
• Do they create great ads that get the attention of active candidates? Remember — their ads need to grab peoples’ attention quickly, so strong titles/headlines are essential. It’s also important for ads to explain what’s in it for the candidate rather than for the company.

2. How skilled are your people at finding passive candidates?

• Do they consistently find top candidates through referrals?
  
• Are they seeking out community gatherings and trade shows? How about local association meetings? These are often excellent sources of passive candidates.
  
• Just finding passive candidates is only half the battle. Are your people good at persuading most of their passive candidates to at least consider the job opportunity?
  
• Does their requisition knowledge go further than the job description? Your people need to really know their open requisitions before they look for candidates — especially passive candidates!

3. Are your people burning out?

• Are they energetic and constantly interacting with people? Or are they avoiding interaction by the over-use of technology?
  
• Are your people encouraged to take frequent breaks to recharge their minds? Are they reluctant to take a vacation for fear of neglecting their clients?

4. Are your people creating a clear recruiting brand image?

• Are they clearly communicating the benefits of working for the organization (that involve more than just money)? They should be able to positively present the company in the market place, and not just the specific job opportunities.
  
• Are they monitoring their competitors’ employment ads? It’s important that your people create better images for their companies than their competitors do.

5. Are your people using performance profiles?

• Do they know the top performance objectives their open requisitions require? The most successful recruiters create lists of at least five or six things candidates must be able to do to be considered successful at the job.
  
• If your people are using performance profiles, do they list performance objectives that are specific and measurable?

Getting your recruiting department optimized for success

Q. What’s the secret of recruiting departments that continuously feed businesses a steady stream of top talent? The answer isn’t too difficult.

A. Successful recruiting departments optimize their three most important elements: their people, processes and technology.

When things don’t go well for recruiters, it’s the technology (or the lack of it) that often gets blamed. Technology is always evolving, and it’s tempting to try to fix problems and inefficiencies by investing in the latest high-tech “solution.”
But before you spend serious money on an upgrade, optimize first! Start by asking some very specific questions about your people, process and technology.


1. People

• Do your people have the skills needed to fill jobs on time, and with top notch people? If not, what’s missing? Do they have a hard time getting the most out of job boards? Are they having difficulty creating good ads that get candidates’ attention? A successful recruiting department identifies weak spots — and immediately strives to close all gaps.

• Does the team know their customer and have a strong understanding of the open requisitions? Or do they instead rely on a job description and look for candidates that seem to match it? If they aren’t getting in-depth clarification about all the details of the open position, they’re not digging deep enough.

• Are your people fully trained in all existing systems and processes? If not, make such training the top priority.

• Is there a clear recruiting brand image? Can the team clearly articulate why a top candidate should join your organization as opposed to your competition?


2. Process

• Do you have established processes? Are they measurable?

• Are your processes followed by everyone on your team? Remember, consistency is key!

• Do you measure the processes end-to-end, even with third parties and hiring managers?

• Have you identified and shored up gaps and lags in the process?

• Do they have an effective means to escalate when necessary?

• Do you know what the candidate market thinks of your process? Are there any small tweaks you could make to your process that would make candidates more receptive?


3. Technology

• Is your team fully utilizing the technology available to them? Before you invest in an upgrade, make sure the technology you have now is being used as much as it should be. Does your team know the most efficient way (all the short cuts) to use your current technology? Is further training needed?

• Is your technology fully integrated?

Leveraging Professional and Social Networks

My last post discussed developing and leveraging top talent databases. Today, we’re going to discuss how you can establish strong strategic relationships that grow with your company. In other words, we’re going to talk about networking.

Networking involves developing relationships beyond the initial purpose of contact so that both parties reap the benefits of working together. It is about building relationships that meet the short- and long term needs of both parties. And it’s about reaching out to individuals who would make perfect candidates as well as individuals who can reach out to potential candidates.

There are two types of online networks that make the job of an HR Manager easier: professional networking and social networking.

Professional Networking Professional networking is used to improve and grow one’s business circle. It’s about making communication between professionals easier. It’s about building referral bases and business contacts through the “friends” features. And it’s about sharing leads, sharing non-confidential company information, and helping each other grow within their current businesses.

Used correctly, professional networks can help HR managers find qualified top talent candidates. In fact, a post on your page letting others know you’re looking for a specific candidate could generate several hundred qualified leads. And sometimes, top candidates just fall into your lap via connections—even without your ever mentioning a need.

The top professional networks are: Ryze (http://www.ryze.com/), Tribe (http://tribe.net), LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/),

Social Networking Social networking is used to build relationships with like-minded individuals. It’s about making meeting new people easier. It’s about being able to let one’s hair down.

Used correctly, social networks can help HR Managers weed out bad seeds and find candidates who more closely match the needs of their employers. In fact, locating a potential candidate on social networks can help HR managers get a better understanding of what the candidate may be like to work with on a regular basis—something that can’t be found on a resume or list of references.

The top social networks are: MySpace (http://myspace.com), FaceBook (http://facebook.com), YouTube (http://youtube.com), Orkut (http://orkut.com), and Friendster (http://friendster.com). And don’t forget alumni associations like Classmates (http://classmates.com).

In the end, professional and social networks allow HR Managers to find those needles in the haystack, obtain referrals they can trust and respect, and develop new contacts—contacts that lead to strong business relationships.