Bearing Fruit Consulting

Hanging Out With The Cool Kids at Fistful Of Talent

Just wanted to point you all in the direction of my latest post over on Fistful Of Talent.  The title of the post is Hanging With The Cool Kids In The Talent Pool and it appears today. 

I consider the whole posse over at FOT to be "cool kids" so I feel as though I am blessed to be in their company.  Seriously, there are some really smart, witty and innovative HR and recruiting practitioners in that group. 

I still can't figure out how I got into that group!

E Is For EDUCATE - Creating The Ultimate Candidate Experience

All You Need Is L.O.V.E.D. and the BFC "love in" on how to create the ultimate candidate experience continues.  It's probably a good idea to recap where we are and what we have covered.

First, we introduced the basics of creating the ultimate candidate experience in the form of an acronym - L.O.V.E.D.  The goal is to make every candidate feel L.O.V.E.D. 

We then began breaking down our acronym and started, logically, with L is for  LISTEN, moved on to O is for OWN and then V is for VALIDATE.  The emails on this topic have been very interesting and there has even been some discussion of these posts around the blogosphere.  Many have requested that I share a template for a Candidate Bill of Rights which I will be sure to do in a later post.

Let's move on to our next letter in the acronym - E is for EDUCATE.  More after the jump.

V Is For VALIDATE - Creating The Ultimate Candidate Experience

The BFC version of a "love in" continues today.  As we have been discussing, creating the ultimate candidate experience requires that you make every candidate feel L.O.V.E.D.  We started the series with an overview and then moved on to cover both L (for Listen) and O (for Own).  Today we move into a discussion on V and, continuing with our Sesame Street style for this topic, V is for VALIDATE. 

No, I am not talking about Stuart Smalley type validation (you probably have to be over a certain age to get that reference) and this isn't about self help affirmation therapy or anything remotely close to that.  Once a candidate is in process with you or your organization, providing validation at different steps is critical to creating the ultimate candidate experience.  That said, if this tactic is overplayed it could lead to serious problems for you when it comes time to make the offer and close the deal.  Validate as a tactic has to be used very carefully but, when executed well at the appropriate times, it becomes a powerful weapon in creating the ultimate candidate experience. 

Let's take a look at what validating a candidate means and what it looks like.  More after the jump. 

Moving from ATS to TRMS Over at FOT

Is that enough of an acronym tease for ya?

Just a quick note to alert you all to one of my latest posts over at Fistful of Talent on converting your ATS to a TRMS.  I provide some guidance on how to take your ordinary, process swamped, compliance focused, administrivia driven Animal Tracking System and tweak it to start getting more TRM from it. 

Have a read...if you aren't sick of reading my stuff  yet. 

O Is For OWN - Creating The Ultimate Candidate Experience

The All You Need Is L.O.V.E.D series on creating the ultimate candidate experience and a candidate bill of rights is continuing today.  Last week we looked at the first letter in our acronym L.O.V.E.D when we focused on L is for LISTEN.

Logically, today we move on to O.  O is for Own.  I am confident that nothing will get you more bang for your buck, so to speak, than executing well with OWN. 

Time and time again we hear from candidates in survey after survey about how they fall into some mysterious black hole or abyss when they apply for a position or talk to a recruiter.  I think it is the same black hole where socks seem to disappear to in the dryer.  If you want to get significantly better results as a recruiter or a recruiting organization you can do yourself a favor and get vastly better at owning your candidates.  Just raising the bar a fraction in this area will set you apart from virtually every other recruiting organization. 

That last statement is a sad indictment of our industry I suppose but it is true.  Recruiters and recruiting organizations are so bad at this aspect of creating the ultimate candidate experience that just being decent at it will put you head and shoulders above the rest.

So what does OWN actually mean you ask?   Great question, let's take a look.

L is for Listen - Creating The Ultimate Candidate Experience

Back on May 20th I introduced the series Creating The Ultimate Candidate Experience =  All You Need Is L.O.V.E.D.  I had a few emails asking questions about the difference between applicant and candidate experience.  This is an an important question and one I plan to address in detail in future posts but, since that is not the focus of this series, I will quickly state that applicants should have a good experience and ease of use.  Candidates need to get the Ultimate Experience as they are more likely to talk about their experience with others because they actually interacted with you and your organization.  The potential for viral impact, both positive and negative, is greater with those that actually engage with your company thought phone screens, interviews and other personal interactions.

To quickly recap, I stated in the introduction to this series that to create the Ultimate Candidate Experience you need to make your candidates feel L.O.V.E.D., an acronym with the following meaning:

• L = Listen
• O = Own
• V = Validate
• E = Educate
• D = Deliver

Let's get this discussion started with the first one, LISTEN.

Creating The Ultimate Candidate Experience = All You Need Is L.O.V.E.D.

Candidate experience is a much talked about aspect of the recruitment life cycle.  Just  Google Candidate Experience and take a gander at what you find.  The list of conversations, blogs, articles, white papers, complaints etc. is enormous.  Five months ago a question was posed on candidate experience at LinkedIn and the 21 replies were interesting.  A quick read of these responses reveals all the common candidate experience issues you can likely list right off the top of your head. 

I am a huge advocate of creating a Candidate Bill of Rights for your candidates.  I recommend this to every client I work with who wants to improve their recruiting organization and get better results.  Essentially this is a social contract with your applicants and candidates that defines what they can expect, how they will be treated and creates an environment where each candidate has a unique, customized, transparent and meaningful experience.  Unfortunately, so few organizations "get this" and commit to even a basic level of creating a great candidate experience.

When I work with our clients on a Candidate Bill of Rights we recommend that one of the main tenets of the CBR is that every candidate should be made to feel L.O.V.E.D.  To learn more about what this means you need to read more.

ATS Systems Don't Add Value

I generally dislike ATS systems.  This shouldn't surprise anyone who has ever had more than 15 minutes of interaction with me about recruiting.  Almost all of them are designed to track people, process, compliance and the bureaucratic mess that gets in the way of real recruiting. 

Recruiting is all about relationships and most ATS (Animal Tracking System to me - animals are tracked, you have relationships with people), as they are designed and come out of the box, are inherently flawed when it comes to actually adding value to great recruiting.

I recently posted on this topic at my other gig over on Fistful of Talent.  The comments were robust and fun but, as Alex Cantu of TalentFilter noted in his blog post, it was surprising that virtually no one disagreed with my premise that ATS systems are not designed to actually drive the art and craft of recruiting or get real recruiting results.  They are red tape and process tracking devices that really just automate already flawed paper based recruiting processes.

Talk about an industry that needs a serious wake up call!

False Prophets and Recruiting Sheep

I tell you what 's wrong to me the industry's ability to manufacture stars.

They churn them out like Iwo Jima makes cars.

But the blame lies not with those suits for trying.

It's the sheep that keep on buying that soulless crap.

Whatever they put in front of ya.

The hysteria of America. - 311, Plain

I open this post with these lyrics from my favorite band 311 because in many ways I think  these lyrics, originally intended as an indictment of the music industry, are equally appropriate as an indictment of the recruiting industry.  Especially the corporate recruiting industry. 

I have attended a few recruiting conferences, seminars and demoed (is that a word?) several recruiting products online over the last several months and I am continuously struck by a lack of uniqueness, differentiation and useable information that actually produce real world results for the recruiter on the front lines.  I am equally disturbed by the intense reliance on technology, the monotonous beating of the ATS drums, the over emphasis of social networking as THE recruiting tool and the exorbitant amount of time we spend talking about sourcing.

All of the tired and worn out marketing, email spam blasts about these "solutions" and seemingly endless barrage of puffed upped promises that this tool or that technology will give you all you need to be a great recruiter.  The key to being a great recruiter is not found in all of these alleged solutions.  Nope, it is in hard work, building and maintaining relationships with strong talent and practicing the actual art and craft of recruiting.  Not just sourcing, not just client management and not business development - recruiting.  It is a lost art really.  Funny how the very behavior and activity that defines us, indeed names us as an industry, is some how lost isn't it?

Sadly, recruiters keep gravitating to these things.  In part out of ignorance of alternatives and in part because of the promises that are made.  They buy services and products they don't need and are increasingly disappointed in the mysterious lack of results they achieve.  I don't blame the vendors and the service providers really, though they do own some of the blame, rather I blame the recruiters themselves for continuing to pay for and give credibility to the presentation and not the substance.  Too much show and not enough go! 

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.