Recruiter Chicks

Please note:  This is a re-post of an article, “Hiring For Keeps – What Does Recruiting Have to Do With Retention?”, that I originally wrote for the Jobsite.com blog , where I am honored to be a regular contributor!

Recruiting is a Business Function

I don’t think anyone who knows me, sees me speak, or reads anything I write would argue the fact that I love the Recruiting Profession. In business, Recruiting is one of the most important functions that ANY of us do — it is the building of our teams, it is how we achieve our goals, our success.  Unless in your work, you only need to count on yourself, a business cannot be successful without doing Recruiting well.  But what does Recruiting have to do with Retention?  I say it has a lot to do with it.

Why Discuss Retention?

Maybe retention is not one of your MBO’s or tied to your fee, but if you want to be the best, if you want to be different from the rest, if you want to last in this industry as the world changes, you should recruit with retention in mind!

What is On the Line? Having “Skin in the Game”

I remember the first time I introduced retention – keeping employees employed with your company – as a performance goal to one of my recruiting teams and they looked at me like I was crazy. I understood their questions — they had no control, they weren’t making hiring decisions, they weren’t managing them or their environment, etc.  The fact is – no one has total control — or as my friend Ed Newman says, hiring is always a crap shoot. But I wanted them to go beyond what other recruiters did – I wanted them to have skin in the game – and that was exactly my purpose.

Recruiters Need to Own their Work.

I talk a lot about how we elevate the Recruiting Profession to match the importance of the function itself. I believe we do that by truly owning it — and by becoming as much a part of the business as the people we are helping to build their teams.  To do that, we have to know the industry, the business, and even the teams — maybe even better than they know (or want to know) themselves. It is not enough to understand the required and desired skills of the job specs and expect to find the right candidate/fit for the role. You also have to go beyond the resume — get to know your applicants and candidates, beyond the check-boxed skill sets. If you take the time, they will often share more with you, the recruiter, than they will with the hiring manager/team, whom they know are the ultimate decision makers.

So, What Does This Have to Do with Retention?

People don’t leave jobs; they leave bosses or companies that don’t fit. There is so much that has to be uncovered to find a fit. You can take an A-player in one company and put them in a similar position in another company and it could be a disaster. Different environment, culture, players, organizational structure, challenges, objectives, performance measures — shall I go on? As a Recruiter, you should know these things about your organization/teams. Do these things align with what the candidate needs or what motivates him? To know all this, one must take the time, be curious, pay attention, listen, ask questions — as well as having the confidence and credibility to advise and consult those who depend upon your expertise.

What Really Matters -

The simple fact is it does not matter if the company thinks the candidate is a perfect fit for them, if the company is not a fit for the candidate — and vice versa. Unfortunately, neither side (jobseeker nor recruiter) usually takes the time to make sure it is a fit on both sides. The Recruiter can play that devil’s advocate or objective party — that person who is not too emotionally (or conveniently) invested in filling the seat or getting the job. I am by no means saying that this is how it happens — I am simply saying that in order to elevate this profession – that is how it should happen. Where there is fit, there is retention – so I ask, why wouldn’t recruiting be relative to retention?

In today’s competitive marketplace, it is becoming increasingly important to companies to craft an employment branding message that differentiates you from the competition.  It is also important for your Recruiting team to provide a consistent message to candidates in the sourcing and interviewing process.  Your employment brand is an integral part of your company’s talent attraction and retention strategies.

For some organizations creating an employment branding message is easy because it ties directly into your company’s overall branding message.  I recently wrote a blog post on Mercedes Benz’ employer brand and they have created a brand message that can be felt, experienced and utilized across the board.  It is important for HR to weigh in on new marketing messages and strategy for the company to ensure that the overall message will represent the organization well to top candidates in the fields in which they recruit and current employees.

I have laid out 10 key question to ask below to assist in the process of identifying and creating your company’s employment branding message.

10 Questions to Ask to Develop Your Employment Branding Message

1.  What is our corporate strategy?

2.  What are our key corporate goals?

3.  What are we known for doing well today?

4.  We want to be known as an employer who?

5.  What cultural elements of our brand are not negotiable?  This is key when developing a global employer brand.

6.  Why do our employees choose us over our competitors?

7.  What is our organization’s long-term strategy?

8.  What 50 words describe our culture?  Narrow those down to the top 10 and focus in on those.

9.  Which employees in our company best exhibit our culture and brand promise today?  How would you describe those employees?  Solicit their involvement in this process.

10.  Who is the right fit for our company based on our overall goals?

Compile the answers to these questions and use them as a foundation for determining your company’s employee value proposition.  Once you have developed the employer brand message, implement a plan that works well for your company to get the word out externally and internally.  Take purposeful and intentional steps to ensure that this message does not die on the cutting room floor.

In conclusion, keep in mind that your employer brand is only as good as an employee’s daily experience of that brand promise.

As a recruiter, I am often asked by those that are looking to transition to a career in Recruiting or recent graduates about characteristics of a great recruiter.  Let’s face it, every Recruiter is different and we all bring different styles to the table, but when it comes down to it there are some basic elements that must be present to succeed as a recruiter.

Recruiters have different personalities, backgrounds, industries and functional expertise as well as expertise levels.  Chris Havrilla and I have the great fortune of living in Atlanta where there is a rich recruiting community — one that has organically grown and is seen as one of the hotbeds for global recruiting talent.  We both are honored to live in a city with Talent Acquisition experts like Eric Jaquith, Glen Cathey, Tom Darrow, Jon Bryant, Michael Marlatt, Shally Steckerl, Leslie O’Connor, Jenny DeVaughn, Michael Glenn, Stephanie Lloyd and Jim Stroud to name a handful.  Each of these individuals have a wealth of talent acquisition knowledge and expertise — and they have each given back to the global talent acquisition community in many significant ways.

This elite group possesses all of the characteristics of great recruiters.  What are those?  Let’s explore them further.

Characteristics of a Great Recruiter:

• Credibility
• Effective communication skills
• Results-oriented
• Consultative approach
• Business knowledge and industry expertise
• Collaborative
• Ethical
• Intuition and instinct
• Persuasiveness and influence
• The will and drive to shatter the competition (in a healthy, non-confrontational way)
• Tolerance to the ambiguity of this profession
• Passion and heart!

Stop clamoring for a seat at the table, people – make them clamor for a seat at yours.  Honestly, I think this whole prospect of a “table” at all is a little silly.  Aren’t we all in this together?  We should be.  Frankly I am not much interested in working where it is not this way.  If you don’t trust your clients, business leaders, or hiring teams, you shouldn’t be there – and vice versa.  My philosophy has always been, my objectives are the same as the team, company, or client that I am serving – and I need to do my part to help achieve these goals.

It should be obvious to your client that you are interested in everything about their team, business, goals, challenges, etc.  If you aren’t, good luck trying to fake it.  I don’t understand how you can truly add value or make a real impact without this.  Maybe I am just lazy, but I want to work smart, not hard.  The more I know, the better I can help.  I can tell you this, there are two things that have served me well over the years – curiosity and resourcefulness.

Even when I was a Software Engineer, I wanted to understand who I was building applications for and why.    How else was I going to make the system usable, adoptable, valuable?  Maybe it sounds arrogant, but how did I know what they were asking for was the right path/solution?  Maybe what they were requesting was limited to what they knew was possible.   Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have all the answers either – but collectively we could get there.  It is the same with Recruiters, Consultants, or any service providers.

Let’s just focus on Recruiting though.   It’s important to ask questions, request to be included in meetings and distribution lists where appropriate — and help them understand what is in it for them.  Don’t be disruptive  – listen and learn.  Please don’t expect to be spoon fed everything — resourcefulness is as valuable here as it is in finding candidates.  Read and study.  Learn strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats – understand how people and functions interconnect.  Study the dynamics.  Know your market(s), competitors, talent pools.  When you run across things you don’t understand, do some research first.  The homework you have done will be appreciated when you do need to ask questions.  But don’t worry about asking dumb questions, you can learn just as much from them as the smart ones!  Listen and learn from your candidates too – they are an excellent source of information.

The key takeway is this:  Be curious and resourceful.  The insights you will gain will be invaluable – to you and your clients.  Not only will this help you find and assess the right talent your team needs, but you can also make an impact by sharing market and competitive intelligence you find.  Do this and trust me, they will be at your table….

Oh hells yes.

That was an actual question someone tweeted to me after this past #HRevolution.  I was a little shocked by the question at first.  I have been attending since the first event in Louisville back in 2009 — and I can honestly say it had never occurred to me to NOT go and be a part of it.  When Trish McFarlane, Ben Eubanks, Steve Boese, and Crystal Peterson first took on the challenge of starting this alternative to the more traditional HR conferences, I was sold.

HR, Social Media and Technology, all weaved together in a more informal, less structured format — with people you knew from their tweets and their blogs were not afraid to voice their opinions.  I think for many of us that attended that first event, that was the real draw — it was for me.  It was a chance to go beyond the blogs, tweets, and many off line conversations and bring it all together.  A group that  would share their experiences, frustrations, ideas and be willing to not only challenge the status quo … but also each other.

So fast forward to this most recent HRevolution here in Atlanta — and the question posed to me.  Is there much there for Recruiters?  I am glad he asked because I think Recruiters would be well served to understand and be a part of the dialogue that happens at these events — and all of the days between in this fabulous community of professionals.  I believe as a Talent Acquisition professional it is important to understand not just recruiting, but all that surrounds developing, managing, and retaining talent in your organizations or clients.

This year’s event was the best yet.  My only problem was I wanted to attend every single session – but I could not.  So I personally set out to spend time in sessions covering topics that would expand my awareness and knowledge beyond my area of expertise.  My other goal was to participate in such a way that might do the same for others.  I love that the attendees come from various disciplines of HR and Business – and aren’t afraid to share.  This is not your typical HR, not your typical conference – I don’t think one session I was in was without respectful debate and f-bombs.

Recruiting to me is not about butts in seats.  What we do is serious business.  Companies have few means to truly differentiate themselves – their talent is one of the primary ways.  All of the HRevolution topics discussed have an impact on Recruiting – and if you don’t believe that, call me…we need to have a talk.

** Special note:  Thank you to all of the fantastic session leaders and attendees – as always I walked away a better, more enlightened person.  Part of that was spending time with the friends made at past events, deepening friendships with people I had only previously known online, and making some new friends I can continue to expand online.  It was also a surprise and honor to be among the three time attendees recognized…very nice touch.  Which leads to my biggest thanks to the sponsors and planners – your best event yet…really.