And the search begins.   Our recruiting partner starts talking to target candidates about our need.  Our employees start talking to people they think might be a fit.  Even we start pinging our network for leads.  Before long, resumes start coming in, interviews start to be scheduled, and the selection process is in full swing.

We pick 2 or 3 candidates to meet and bring in our top candidate for the first interview.  We are pleasantly surprised to find that they have almost every skill we were after.  Jackpot!  Then this funny thing happens.   We bring in our 2^nd pick candidate and when we meet candidate “B” we find that although their skills aren’t as close a match to the job description as our first pick, they have a few skills we hadn’t thought of.   Really interesting skills so we say “add them to the job requirements!” and suddenly candidate “B” moves into the top slot.   Then candidate “C” comes in and has skills that are a stretch from the newly revised job profile so we initially think they’re not a fit.   But then another funny thing happens.   Candidate “C” has another set of skills we hadn’t thought of that we decide are absolutely essential to the job.  Your recruiting partner is frustrated, the selection team is confused, and you yourself no longer feel sure about the fit of any of your top candidates.  It isn’t long before our original job description is tossed and we’re on the hunt for something completely different.  Is that so wrong?  Not always.    Ineffective?  Almost always!

This is a classic example of Cart before Horse.   As hiring managers, we should thoroughly understand our need before we start our search, not come to that understanding during the interview process.  If we don’t, we end up using the skills of each new person we meet to introduce a new flavor, which begins an endless cycle of job profile revision that will confuse your recruiting partners, your employees, your interview team and, even worse, confuse your candidates in the talent market.  Inevitably, you’ll be sending the message to everyone that you don’t know what you’re looking for.  And that would be pretty close to the truth.

There are a lot of reasons why it’s worth taking the time up front to create a success profile before launching your search.  Here are two that stand out in particular:

• Targets your search profile to close your capability gaps. Understanding where your team or your organization has high vs. low capability in the competencies most important to your business helps you to target your job profile toward those skills that help to close your capability gaps.   The alternative?   You risk creating a profile that serves to duplicate your strengths.  Ok, not the worst thing in the world.  But don’t forget there are two sides to duplicating what you already have.  For every strength you duplicate, you are likely duplicating just as many weaknesses!
• Aligns your selection team for effectiveness.  Taking the time to create a common understanding among the selection team about the capability you are looking to bring on and why creates the alignment necessary to enable success across the entire process.   Similar to any team sport, making sure all the players understand the goal and how they contribute toward it will eliminate the confusion and insecurity that comes with lack of clarity.    Everyone will be speaking the same language.  Commitment to the purpose of the role will increase.  Assessment of talent against the requirements will be more accurate.  Consensus on final selection will be far easier to reach.

Whether you create a formal job description, a job profile, or a competency score card, you are effectively describing what success looks like in the role you’re seeking to fill: success for the role individually, success for the role as part of a team, and success for the role as part of a larger organization.   The format matters less than the accuracy and clarity of the description and the understanding and alignment among your selection team.

Hiring is a highly strategic activity for companies of any size.  Every hire your team makes is an investment in the future of your organization.  Knowing what your capability is today, where you need to take it tomorrow, and what the gaps are between the two is a critical component to creating a robust and effective selection strategy as well as aligned momentum for everyone involved in the selection process.

Article written by Guest Blogger Jasmine Jeske.

Jasmine Jeske specializes in Organizational Excellence, helping her clients assess organizational and talent capability and design targeted initiatives in the areas of talent strategy, organizational design, change, alignment and culture.

info@momentumiq.com
office:   +1/503.224.4912
mobile: +1/971-221-5959
www.momentumiq.com

When I first became an executive recruiter, there was no computer on my desk; just a shoebox full of 4×6 note cards with contacts’ information. Newspaper advertising was still an effective means of generating a candidate pool, and the ‘facsimile’ was the vogue way to transmit résumés. The trusty telephone –and a healthy network- served as the primary means for finding needles in the haystack.

Today, social media affords easy access to a surfeit of talent-related information; the haystack has mushroomed into a ‘hay mountain’. The executive recruiter who keeps up with the trends and technologies can search smarter, farther and harder for a whole handful of talented ‘needles’. Greater choice allows our clients more exacting selectivity and less compromise on job requirements.

With that said, these tools are also responsible for increased job shopping and job-hopping, altering the structure and behavior of the executive recruitment landscape. The speed and frequency of talent flow between companies has been on the rise, in spite of the flat economy.

Although fewer people are using the phone, it remains an excellent tool for connecting the dots between the glut of data in the virtual world and the thickening relationship mesh in the physical world.

More information ≠ Better connections

While it’s easier than ever to find names, titles, email addresses, and numbers, the wide avenues of communication have simultaneously created new hurdles to connecting authentically. We must now compete with the constant clamor of emails and updates, tweets and texts. Today, sustained performance hinges on the ability to prioritize hundreds of messages, responding only to the information most relevant and critical to immediate objectives. Unless disgruntled in their current role, most executives will understandably overlook or ignore messages that aren’t relevant to their responsibilities.

So, how do we overcome this information barrier? With personal connections.

Initially this may sound daunting. Working as an executive recruiter, we need to generate a critical mass of contacts for adequate reach, but this isn’t just a question of numbers. More than ‘linking in’ with others, our work still revolves around cultivating relationships for talent searches today and tomorrow.

Sparks really begin to fly when we enlist advocates: those who will repeatedly take time out of their busy days to recommend us to the bright talent in their networks. That is still the most reliable way to align company culture with candidate capabilities, competencies, and motivations. It is also the slowest. Indeed, I know of recruiters who have forsaken the phone altogether, perhaps believing that they are faster or more effective working exclusively online. I would argue that this mentality unnecessarily sacrifices opportunity.

The trick lies in finding equilibrium. Dive too deep into the ‘hay mountain’, and you risk getting lost and wasting time on unproductive research. Conversely, just poke around the fringes, and you may not find the best candidates in time. Finding and remaining in the sweet spot takes a balanced approach and sound data analysis.

We have to become adept navigators in the ocean of talent information, tapping relevant relationships to draw a map to the best candidates. Think of it as crowd-sourced recruitment. It’s the combination of new and old technology and the ability to compile more data to make better-informed decisions.

Regardless of how communication preferences and trends evolve in the digital realm, actively building and cultivating personable relationships will reliably distinguish successful executive recruiter efforts. Once we’ve researched the most promising leads online, it’s ultimately the phone that allows us to get through to an audience immersed in digital communication. Though some argue that the phone may be at the beginning of its decline, I maintain that it still has a place among the emerging avenues of communication.

It just takes some old school persistence and patience, neither of which will ever go out of vogue.

What do you think?
Have you noticed a shift in candidates’ and contacts’ preferences in mode of communication?
How has your use of the phone evolved?
Share your thoughts by fax, phone, or the comments field below.

Resigned to Resign

The moment of truth is often not when the candidate accepts your offer, but when they actually go to resign.

 As recruiters’, we often pat ourselves on the back when a candidate accepts a job offer and agrees to make the leap to a new company. However, any recruiter who has been around the block a few times knows that there remains the slim, but all too possible chance that the ‘perfect fit’ might be lured back to his or her old team. (Oh, the audacity!) Therefore, our job isn’t done until that recruit –that employee-yet-to-be- actually shows up for his or her first day of work.

The dynamics of change… have changed.

Since the economy has maintained an ‘employer’s market’ for so long, you might think that companies would make resignations smooth and hassle-free. As usual, reality is more complicated.

Because many employees have been doing more work with less pay, they’re attentively awaiting the chance to jump ship. Consequently, some companies are suffering uncomfortable employee losses, and are reacting with more aggressive efforts to retain top talent intent on resigning. As with most reactions, this is an inefficient response; if retention were truly a goal, it would not have become an issue. Questions of efficiency aside, reactive retention efforts can work if the resigning employee is surprised by a sudden showering of positive attention.  (Never mind that most of these starry-eyed folks end up leaving the company within a year, anyway.)

Relaxing before the recruitment race is truly over exposes you to unnecessary risk of failure. Aside from the time and energy wasted on an unsuccessful recruitment, current staff –already busy with their own responsibilities- may be covering the vacant position, and expecting a new hire to pick up the slack soon. To mitigate the risk of losing the top candidate at the moment of truth, recruiters should help him or her prepare to give notice.

Bolstering the resolution to resign.

• Let recruits know that resignation can be harder than they expect, but without making the whole event seem more dramatic than it needs to be.  
• Be a resource for them by offering 3^rd party information on resigning.
• If needed, offer to help them develop 2-3 concise talking points.
• Assure them that they will be fine if they just stick to their ‘script.’
• Tactfully reinforce their main motivations for making a move without being too pushy or negative about their current company.
• Reiterate why you’re excited about them joining your company.

With a little extra encouragement and preparation, candidates can have a happy ending, and a fresh start.  The best result is the most anticlimactic: the candidate leaves on good terms, cuts ties cleanly, and moves into the new position without any baggage.  Preparing for the counter-offer mitigates a considerable risk for the hiring manager, improves the likelihood of a successful switch, and boosts your chances of earning that aforementioned caloric sin.

Additional resources:

For tips you can share with candidates prior to them having to give notice, check out my post “Quit Your Job with Grace.” on how to make a graceful exit.

For tips on getting the candidate to accept your offer, read my post “Deal or No Deal: Getting Top Talent to Accept Your Offer.”

Please share your thoughts on this topic.

-      Have you heard interesting stories about key employees giving notice?

-      What is the best way to protect against a counter offer?

>>> About Notogroup: Notogroup is an executive search and talent consulting firm. We have a singular focus on providing the most comprehensive executive recruiting service so that our clients can be assured that each and every hire is a successful one.  For more information, Contact Roy Notowitz.