A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to participate in the Thought Leadership Institute's Corporate Sourcing Leadership Conference. As with any discussion around sourcing today, we talked about Social Media sites/Web 2.0 tools as it relates to sourcing top talent.

For larger companies, regulating access to these sites has become a big issue and debate.

• Should we allow access to employees?
• If we don't, will that negatively impact our brand identity and how the public perceives our organization?
• If we deny access, does that really stop them from accessing these sites via their mobile computing ...

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While talking "shop" on a recent visit with Sylvia James (Manager of Talent Acquisition at Spectrum Health), she had some excellent, practical advice that I thought would be worthwhile to share!

We were discussing how often hiring managers request more "candidates to review" (even after we have given them a quality slate of 2-3) and the negative impact that has on process efficiency and time management.

On the surface, there almost seems to be distrust on behalf of the hiring manager that:

• The candidates submitted for consideration are NOT all high quality and worthy of being hired.
• That we haven ...

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I wanted to update you on some exciting things happening with our organization!

As many of you know - - It's my 20th year in recruiting (I can't believe 20 years already!). Reflecting on the past 20 years has brought me a renewed passion around four topics:

• Lean Recruiting
• Just-in-time hiring
• The Changing Role of the Recruiter
• Success attributes of 'Elite' Recruiters

With that said, we have recently partnered with industry experts in analytics, process improvement and employer branding to create an enhanced service offering through our new entity - LEAN.

Our enhanced Solution will help organizations:

• Reduce waste/cost - associated ...

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I recently wrote a blog post titled - "How many friends do you have?". In this piece, I defined a "friend" and discussed the importance of building your network of friends!

Well . . . I would like to do just that!

I would like to add individuals to my 'friends' network that I can exchange relevant, insightful information, network, etc. Since LinkedIn makes it easy for us - - I figured we could 'connect' using their useful platform. So if you are interested, please link in with me!

On the subject of LinkedIn, at the Kennedy Conference Sourcing Summit Shally Steckerl shared something I didn ...

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I had the chance to sit in on Simply Hired  CEO, Gautam Gadhwani's presentation at the Kennedy Conference the other week. His presentation topic was Recruiting Buzz Index: What's hot and why?

As always, he provided invaluable insight into what is going on in the world of social networking, SEO, Internet Search and Web 2.0 tools. He kicked off his presentation with a cool video I thought I would share with you today - Did you know? 

Gautam makes a compelling argument that we are heading into unprecedented times. I would add that the only thing that is ...

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In my blog post last week, we talked about the differences between transactional recruiters and relationship recruiters.

Among the many characteristics defined, I mentioned that relationship recruiters invest time in developing relationships with professionals within the industry/skill set they recruit for and have a lot of "friends".

So how many "friends" do you have?

Well - before you answer that question, I want to define what I believe a "friend" is in the context of this discussion . . .

A friend

• Will call you back within 24-48 hours after you contact them (if they are not traveling, etc.).
• Is a professional within ...

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In preparation for a conference speaking engagement last week on sourcing best practices, it became apparent (in my mind!) that there are distinctly two different type of recruiters:

1. Transactional Recruiters
2. Relationship Recruiters

In this "era of abundance", we have access to millions of prospects via job boards, social networks, blog sites, and Boolean searches, etc. While on the surface, this seems to be a good thing (and for the most part - - I think it is), I also believe it can provide a false sense of security.

These tools can provide the security that if you just keep digging ...

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I found this article on ERE interesting. It is always nice to get an objective, not completely negative perspective on our current situation. Some points made by John Zappe:

• While unemployment is at its highest level since November of 1983 (8.5%), 4.4 million people were employed in March of 2009.
• That is just slightly lower than the 4.5 million people employed in January of 2009.

To be sure, John points out in his article that this number of hires nationally is well off the recent high of 5.63 million workers in July of 2006.

And I ...

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OK -

I have to shamelessly plug Mr. Scott Clatur (Manager of Talent Selection at Henry Ford Health Systems) again.

I asked what advice he would give a recruiter whose requisition load was "light". His insightful comment:

"Of course, this is an ideal time to pipeline candidates for future needs and/or look to top grade current staff members that are not performing to expectations. The question I always use to get my hiring managers into the proper frame of mind for this discussion is . . . "

"Would you enthusiastically rehire each and every one of your staff members?"

This thought provoking question ...

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After playing some of the worst golf of my life during a recent spring break trip, I finally had enough!

While I have never been a strong golfer, I could at least keep the ball in play and finish the round with a little pride. But over the last year, it seems I get worse each time I play.

For years, friends have been telling me . . . �??You won�??t get better until you get some instruction.�??

Not willing to dedicate the time required for the lessons (and practice); I continued to flounder playing the game. Well after that last pitiful ...

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Three steps to a successful offer presentation

1. Schedule 20 minutes to deliver the offer �?? Don�??t just call up a candidate and deliver a verbal offer during the middle of their busy day. Remember, this is a formal offer of employment from your firm (or your client�??s firm). Schedule a time to present the offer to them. Make sure they are at a location where they can listen and talk freely, as well as take notes. Ideally, if they are local, I would recommend scheduling a meeting in person to deliver the offer! But minimally, schedule a 20-minute block ...

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I'm at the ERE conference in San Diego! Honestly, given the economy, I am actually surprised at how many people have attended the event. I think it illustrates that organizations want to improve their Human Capital functions by investing in learning new methodologies, tools and techniques.

On Monday I facilitated a pre-conference workshop with the renowned Shally Steckerl (www.jobmachine.net) on Sourcing Candidates with LEAN budgets. We had a great session and a ton of fun with those in attendance.

As always, the group interaction provided insight and inspiration on how I can improve my recruiting skills!

Probably ...

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In the last two weeks, I participated in discussions when this �??age old�?? question popped up!

Please allow me to Rant a bit!
________________________________

Get a room of Hiring Managers, HR/Recruiting professionals, and sourcers together and you will get a lively debate going about "Whose Responsible?"

• Who is responsible for Turnover of new hires?
• Who is responsible for 'sourced' candidates/leads that don't get hired?

Regarding Turnover:

You ask Hiring Managers and many will "blame" it on poor candidate quality.

You ask Recruiters and they are likely to blame management for the �??on boarding,�?? (or lack of), process ...

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For those that know me, I am passionate about planning, time management, and continuous improvement. Of late, I have noticed that I haven't been getting through my Perfect Day as crisply as I would like (or normally do).

The root cause is that I haven't been planning in enough CIE time!

Rather than me managing my return calls, interruptions and emails (CIE's), I have been letting them manage me!

Since I haven't been allocating time into my daily schedule to get to them, I'm constantly in reactive, "firefighting" mode returning calls/emails and responding to ...

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We interviewed numerous industry leaders to gather information for our presentation �?? �??The Changing Role of the Recruiter.�?? I thought I would share some of their insight/comments that were not covered during the webinar (due to time)!

As always, we appreciate your comments, thoughts, opinions, perspectives! (email David Szary).

• �??50% of �??outside�?? recruiters and 60% of �??inside�?? recruiters will leave the industry during this economic downturn.�??
• �??Everyone is focused on the 8% not employed versus the 92% that are employed!�??
• �??Given the economic situation, the �??perception�?? is that it will be simple to �??put the right person in the right ...

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Our wonderful economy has created stressful times for many folks. In order for some people to secure employment, relocation is necessary (providing they can sell their homes).

In a recent conversation I had with 2 individuals over lunch, I was reminded how stressful relocation can be even in positive career move situations (both of these folks were relocating for promotional opportunities with their respective firms).

Here are a few comments they made over a casual lunch.

• "I've been traveling back and forth since June. Heavy since Oct. (every week)."
• "I'm not going back home this weekend since my ...

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 While technology and web 2.0 sourcing tools are making it easier to identify talented prospects the ROI on "indirect, networking" calls is at an all time high!

For anyone not familiar with �??indirect networking;�?? it is the art of contacting, and networking with active job seekers who interface daily with the professionals you�??re trying to hire.

Let me give you an example: We are currently searching for a Senior Accountant with manufacturing experience. Given the unemployment rate, skill set, etc. you would think this would be a pretty easy search. Well �?? it hasn�??t been. We have tried ...

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Are we forgetting what we do for a living?

Are we getting complacent and forgetting how we impact an organization? Have we forgotten the critical role we play in people�??s lives every day?

Anyone that has recruited for any length of time has probably experienced a wonderful and gracious thank you from a candidate. We all know how amazing it feels when a candidate shares their sincere gratitude and deep appreciation for "changing their life" for the better.

Here are 10 things you should consider each and every day to ensure you are motivated with the proper mindset to ...

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lets eat a frog, move the needle and get out early tomorrow!

For those of you that know me, and/or, have attended one of our workshops, you know a couple of things:

1. I am a Brian Tracy (www.briantracy.com) fan.

2. I am passionate about time management, planning and continuous improvement.

Having read many books (and studied the experts) on this subject over the years, I am constantly trying to find new ways to maximize my schedule and get the most critical things accomplished in the shortest period of time.

To that effort, our team has kicked ...

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