Bearing Fruit Consulting

Presentation or Performance - What Matters More

Remember the Titanic?  Of course you do.  And you likely remember Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet frolicking all over the decks of the most amazing ship ever to sail.  I really hope this not your only frame of reference to the Titanic.

You also likely know that Titanic was indulgent, elegant, elite and allegedly unsinkable.  All of these descriptive words made a ticket aboard its maiden voyage the hottest ticket in town.  All of this glamor, glitz, pomp and circumstance masked the tragic fact that the ship was indeed sinkable and no level of presentation and style was going to keep it afloat under the circumstances it found itself engulfed in that cold night in April 1912. 

Interviewing and hiring could learn a thing or two from this tragic story.  If all you knew of the Titanic in terms of evaluating its worth as a sea faring luxury vessel was the information available prior to April 14, 1912 you would likely be in buy mode.  Once you dig a little deeper and look at after sail (analogy after hire) performance you would run for the nearest life raft and stake your claim. 

Rage Against The Talent Machine - Blog Style

Kris Dunn over at HR Capitalist has hung out the help wanted sign.  Seems there is an as yet unnamed blog being launched that will provide an edgy, opinionated, provocative, engaging and witty perspective on all things talent.  Specifically it looks as if it will touch on talent management, talent acquisition, hr, organizational effectiveness etc. from real practitioners.

What is even more interesting is the vast disciplines, experiences and generational differences the assembled group of misfits might come from.  Kris even uses the term dysfunctional which makes us even more interested. 

As any follower of ours knows, we are well known for taking the course less traveled and espousing and executing tactics that have often been met with controversy.  They have also been met with great success and performance that far exceeds the average recruiting team.  Whenever you take risk and challenge the norm you have the opportunity to be great.  Doing the same old things and expecting different results is...well...do I really need to say the rest?   

Sounds like it won't be your run of the mill blog.  Worth keeping our eye on I suppose!

How To Hire Great Recruiters - Part 4

So now we have come to the half way point of our discussion on what behavioral competencies a recruiting leader or organization must interview and select for when hiring recruiting talent.  I call them the Great Eight (because there are 8 of them - how original of me huh?).  In parts 1, 2 and 3 we discussed interaction, spoken communication and commitment to task. 

When hiring a great recruiter it can be relatively obvious, or you can test for, what skills and knowledge a candidate has with respect to recruiting.  Asking direct questions about past performance and the context in which that performance was achieved can also be an indicator of the type of talent you might have in front of you.  But without peeling back the layers of the candidate and really understanding what lurks beneath the surface (motivation, self concept and trait) of a candidate you are likely to make significant mistakes in hiring recruiters.  That said, let's move on to competency number four.

Friday Frenzy February 22, 2008

So things have been busy here at Bearing Fruit Consulting this week.  Our current work involves helping our clients implement a new ATS (despise that term) and utilize it as a TRMS (Talent Relationship Management System), engineer a more effective and productive recruiting process, build an ongoing sustainable internal recruiter training program, find great Director of Talent Acquisition talent and train recruiters through our multitude of recruiter training modules.  Those are but a few of the things we have been doing just this week. 

There is much going on in the recruiting, HR, business and leadership blogosphere as well.  In addition to the things you read here this week we offer up these other great reads in today's Friday Frenzy!

• The Cheez asks what's the ladders really worth?
• Eric Boehme says don't take job descriptions too seriously.  He takes a rather humorous shot at traditional job descriptions and gives some advice on what a candidate should ask a recruiter about the job.  He is correct about job descriptions and he offers essentially basic advice.  However, the savvy and intelligent candidate asks what they actually have to do and what results they must achieve using the Utopian list of skills, education, knowledge and experience most companies list on their job descriptions.
• Seth Godin tells real estate agents to quit now.  Well, not entirely.  I think the same argument can be made for recruiters.  Well, not entirely.
• Are people getting tired of the notion of work/life balance?  That is what they are asking over on Slow Leadership.  Very interesting read for those of you who feel that the plate spinning is getting more and more demanding.
• Willy Franzen of One Day One Job fame has now fired up One Day One Internship.  I think this is a very cool concept and an awesome site.  Direct from the site:

  One Day, One Internship is the insider’s guide to unique and exciting internship opportunities for college students. Immerse yourself in our employer profiles and discover how you can become a smarter internship searcher.

And that is it for this weeks edition of Friday Frenzy.  Let us know what you think and have an awesome weekend!

 

Recruiting Made Sexier With iPod Shuffle

Looking for a new way to market your company or search services?  Trying to differentiate  yourself from your competitors?  Need a new way to get your ideas or information in front of the right people (prospective clients, candidates etc.)? 

Why not hit him with an iPod Shuffle?

Apple announced this week that they are dropping the price for their wee bitty shuffle to $49 for the 1GB version and rolling out a 2GB version for $69. These price points suddenly make this an incredible recruiting tool. 

Your options for use as a recruiter are endless but the first that comes to my mind is that of creating an exceptional and hip candidate experience.  For those super hard to get talented passive candidates or candidates in hard to fill or mission critical positions you can offer them an iPod shuffle after they have interviewed with your organization.  I am not suggesting you use it to bribe them into interviewing with your company but, rather, offer it as a surprise thank you for your time gift after the interview.  You can pre-load it with a personal thank you message from the CEO or senior most leader of the division they have a chance to work in.  The message should be directed specifically to them by name and their needs as uncovered by the recruiter during the needs analysis phase of the recruiting call.  The message can include all the nice warm fuzzies you might imagine but also share some insight into important projects they would work on, touch on the major decision making criteria the candidate would use to decide, share personal insight about the future of the business etc.

Best Example Yet of Web 2.0

Gautam Ghosh brings our attention to, in my  humble opinion, the best example yet of web 2.0.  For those of you who think blogging and social media are either flash in the pan or not adding any meaningful value to business and recruiting this story should change your mind.  While Ryan Kuder was laid off and was able to turn his twittering into attention to help him find a new or better opportunity, the ramifications of this are significant for talent acquisition and talent management. 

For those company leaders who think that how you coach, lead and treat people is confined to the four walls of your company or business this ought to make you think twice.  Truth is, these sort of stories are going to become much more commonplace and the leadership, recruiting and talent management mistakes companies make will soon be available for all to read.  Transparency will happen whether you want it to or not.  Creating great candidate and employee experiences will no longer get lip service because those that fail to deliver will be outed in a web 2.0 kind of way.   

I Love My Recruiter - The Recruiter Loyalty Factor

Just a couple days ago Penelope Trunk mentioned what I have long called the Recruiter Loyalty Factor in her recent post.  Of course she did not call it The Recruiter Loyalty Factor but in essence she describes it in her post.

The Recruiter Loyalty Factor is an interesting and some times controversial concept.  Anyone who has ever worked for me or been a participant in one of our recruiter training programs knows that I have always led and taught that the number one reason a talented person chooses to work with a specific recruiter is trust.  With it a recruiter can't fail.  Without it, game over - you lose!

Another common tenant of my recruiting leadership and training programs is that great recruiters establish, form and develop meaningful, transparent and trusting relationships with talent (not just candidates) and that talent often form fierce alliances and loyalty to their recruiter; not the company they choose to work for.  This is true whether it is in third party or corporate recruiting. 

While I was the Director of Recruiting at FirstMerit Bank in Ohio I would hear at least once a week, from candidates and team members, that they took the position because of the recruiter (we called them Talent Acquisition Consultants) and the relationship they built with them.  We would often secure some incredible talent because of the relationships we built and the trust we established.  The recruiting team became the beacon to which great talent was drawn.  In a talented candidates mind the fact that recruiting was so relational, so able to be trusted, so skilled at what they were doing was indicative of the overall health of the organization and they wanted to be a part of it.

How To Hire Great Recruiters - Part 3

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, How To Hire Great Recruiters, we discussed the idea that great recruiting is the engine that drives an organization forward.  As a result, hiring great recruiters must be one of the most critical hiring initiatives of any recruiting leader or company. 

We have already presented and discussed two of the eight competencies we have to come to know predict future superior performance in a recruiter.  They are:

Interaction:  The ideal recruiter is able to communicate with others in a warm and helpful manner while building credibility and rapport.

Spoken Communication:  The ideal recruiter is able to present information clearly through the spoken word. He or she listens well and influences others through oral presentation in either positive or negative circumstances.

Now, let’s take a look at the fourth competency that can predict superior performance in a recruiter – Commitment To Task.

Friday Frenzy - Quick Hits Across The Blogosphere

If any of our readers (all 5 of them - it's good to have family) took note, we posted a Monday Morning Quick Hits once before in which we just provided some links to some things of interest.  Monday Quick Hits might come back but today I am replacing it with Friday Frenzy.  Why?  Because I saw many things that peaked my interest today and rather then turn them all into extended posts I thought I would just share them, link them and perhaps comment on them in depth later. 

Without further ado, here is the first edition of Friday Frenzy:

• The Employee Factor provides a summary of the Ten Rules of Engagement.  Beyond employee engagement I think there are huge lessons here for prospect, candidate and client engagement as well.
• Wow!  The Chad, brings the thunder on TMP and their new Work With Me Facebook referral gadget.  Basically, he calls it all show and no go.  In case you were curious, we agree 100% with the Chad on this one.
• Michael McKinney over on Leader Blog quotes Charles Handy on Managing Paradox.
• Jim Durbin is launching Social Media Headhunter next week.
• This is a bit old, January 2nd to be precise, but I think it is a an awesome tool.  Shally Steckerl gives up a list of blogging resources with What Everyone Ought To Know About Blogging. 
• From The Daily Recruiter is an offering about not accepting counteroffers.  While the advice here is solid, I didn't find anything particularly new or innovative.  I think it is a good refresher.  That said, great recruiters employ a technique (one that we teach in our recruiter training programs) that ensures a counter offer isn't even made.  If a counter offer isn't made then there is no chance your candidate will have something to consider.  No offer, no change of heart.  Look for a training tip post on how to prevent counter offers from even occurring. 

Leader as Executioner

Now that title ought to get some attention.  It's certainly not what you might think on the surface.  Though some employees in companies all over this country might have personal experience that causes them to view their leader and company leadership as executioners of the sort that pull the switch, give the command to fire or push the button for the lethal injection to begin that is not what we are talking about today.

Jim Stroup, author of Managing Leadership, had a great post recently called The Executioner.  I am not going to insult your intelligence by citing it back to you verbatim here.  You can read and digest it for yourself by clicking on the link.  Just a few quick thoughts on Jim's post before you head over there to read it.

First, he clearly states at the front end of the piece one of the most glaring issues with leadership and executive leadership today - accountability.