Bearing Fruit Consulting

Talent And The Edgeconomy: Relationships and Context

I came upon an interesting post today at Leading Questions on what Ed Brenegar calls "an emerging culture of business as an Edgeconomy where light beats heavy; open beats closed; free beats paid; and, good beats evil".  Ed quotes from Bubblegeneration author Umair Haque and his numerous posts on this emerging culture.  Here is the money quote:

What matters in the edge culture is context. Every client, every customer, every vendor exists in a different context. Haque refers to these contexts as micro cultures.  This is certainly my experience. Not a single one of my clients are the same, have the exact same issues, and the projects have never been exactly the same.

As a result, what happens is that I come with a tool box instead of a formula. We decide what the project needs, and then select the tools appropriate to the it. This is the opposite of a one-size fits all formula that squeezes the client into a box that doesn't fit their situation. For some clients, this is a strange experience because they are used to buying a standardized product instead of a customized solution.

I don't know if any of these thought are particularly ground breaking or "emerging" as this trend has been developing for 8 or so years but I do know these ideas are significant and Ed does an excellent job of succinctly identifying and describing them.  The culture of multiple context/micro cultures and a tool box vs. formula approach are HUGE in talent acquisition and talent relationship management.  Here are a few quick thoughts on how this "emerging" culture impacts the world of recruiting.

Give Thanks For The Gracious Gifts Of The Most High God

Contrary to our elementary school lessons that establish a meeting between pilgrims and native Americans as the first Thanksgiving, the truth is actually a far more poignant story.

As those who know me well will tell you, I am a very serious student of the American Civil War and I have been studying the war since I was 15 years old.  Naturally I have an affinity for many of the leaders of that period but Abraham Lincoln’s courage, leadership and faith have always stood out to me.

The truth about the first official day of national Thanksgiving and Praise in the United States is directly attributable to Lincoln.  Please note that the addition of the word Praise was not mine; it was a critical component to the first National day of Thanksgiving in this country and the pre-eminent reason I felt compelled to draft this post.  There is a very interesting spiritual and faith based fact about Lincoln and his Thanksgiving and Praise Proclamation that I wanted to share here today, the 144th Thanksgiving Day.

Blogging By The Numbers

My good friend Jim Durbin (who is the consultant working with me on this blog) posted some interesting blogging statistics yesterday that he picked up from Blog World Expo who compiled the numbers.  Take a look at them as they certainly demonstrate the power, reach and revenue possibilities of blogs. 

Perhaps they are available, I didn't research it yet, but I would be curious to know a few things:

1. Of the 12 million American adults who maintain a blog, how many of them are active?  Meaning, how many of them are adding new and meaningful content on a weekly basis?  Blogging seemed to catch on as something of a fad in recent years and I imagine a large number of people started blogs but quickly tired of the novelty and no longer add content consistently.  The impact of lagging or non-existent content certainly diminishes a blogs value.
2. 89% of companies surveyed said they believed blogs will be more important in the next 5 years.  That is certainly interesting given that most of the clients I work with don't have a corporate blog, a recruiting or talent management blog or a strategy to launch one any time soon.  I agree they are going to be more important and we have only scratched the surface of their value but why are so many companies resisting starting blogs?  I have a lot of of thoughts on this and I will address them in the not so distant future. 
3. Blog readers average 23 hours online each week.  How much of that time do you think is spent online during the work day reading blogs and tinkering around on the Internet?  How much of that time is actually spent reading blogs? Since the statistic apparently just examines time on the Internet it would be interesting to know how much time is spent actually reading blogs.  How does this number relate to worker productivity in the United States?   

Great Recruiting - Knowing Your Offer Will Be Accepted

When we conduct recruiter training, one of the modules of the Bearing Fruit Recruiting Methodology is focused on making offers that are always accepted.  Essentially recruiting skill is all about preventing counter offers, establishing expectations at the front end of the recruitment process etc.  This module also happens to be one of the more enlightening and useful modules to the recruiters we train.  We start this section by asking a simple question  - "When you make an offer how certain are you it will be accepted?".  Asked another way, "What is the probability the offer will be accepted?"  I am routinely shocked at the utter lack of confidence recruiters and recruiting leaders have that the offers they make will be accepted.

Kris Dunn over at HR Capitalist recently wrote about Hiring Probability.  In the commentary around hiring probability he makes some excellent points but also exposes a glaring shortcoming in the skill arsenal of most recruiters and recruiting leaders.  Here is the part of the blog post that is alarming to me as a recruiting strategist:

My favorite time to get a reality check regarding hiring probability from my team?  During the offer stage and once the offer has been signed, sealed and delivered.  The reason to check hiring probability at the offer stage is obvious enough.  We're preparing to negotiate, and trying to figure out the best way to close the deal.  Lead with our best offer?  Hold something back because we think the candidate fancies themselves a negotiator?  It all depends on the situation, and we'll go a variety of directions with the offer to maximize the ultimate hiring probability.

The crazier time is when the candidate has accepted our offer, and we have everything back - the signed offer letter, background package, etc.  How could the hiring probability not be 100%?  counter-offers, guilt trips by current employers, promises to love the candidate more moving forward - they all conspire to reduce the hiring probability below 100%, even when everything is signed.

Great recruiters and great recruiting leaders don't negotiate deals after the offer has been delivered.  Negotiations, closing and preventing counter offers has to begin at the very outset of the recruiting process when the recruiting call is made and continues throughout the recruitment process.  It is the skill and competency of maintaining recruiting control throughout the recruiting process.  Great recruiters do this and, with limited exceptions, they know the offer that is made will be accepted and any counter offer won't be accepted.  In fact, great recruiters who exercise proper recruiting control can prevent a counter offer from occurring in the first place. 

And The Hits Keep On Coming - Why We Hate HR Redux

HR is taking hits again.  Remember Why We Hate HR?  In case you missed it, this was the FastCompany article published in August of 2005 that indicted HR by stating they should add value to the business through talent acquisition, talent management and talent development. The article found that according to many business leaders HR was falling short in adding this value and was more focused on administration, policy development and implementation then the mission critical people strategies necessary to fuel the business. Not surprisingly the article sent business leaders cheering "I told you so" and demanding more from HR while HR leaders and professionals scurried into defensive positions and led to a sharply pointed HR finger right back at business leaders. Despite all the buzz the article generated in the HR community, along with the inflated view that this article was the harbinger of change in HR, it appears nothing has really changed.

The evidence comes in the latest study by Veritude entitled Working Together, Working Apart which comes on the heels of a spring study by Deloitte entitled "Aligned at the Top", which found that senior business leaders "perceive HR to be more focused on transactional activities...and HR operating efficiencies rather than high-level strategic people issues".  I was all set to offer a summary and commentary on the Veritude study when I read John Hallon over at Workforce Blogs summarizing both the Veritude and Deloitte study very well in his blog post Survey Says: HR Still Doesn't Get It.