The Journey Takes An Interesting Turn

In my previous Post, “You won’t believe this…” I shared with you my experience of directly contacting the VP of Talent Acquisition and my subsequent experience. Well, my journey with the same organization takes an interesting turn.

I was contacted by a colleague, not employed by the organization, and informed that another VP in the same organization (Talent Acquisition) was interested in speaking with me about providing Consulting services to the Talent Acquisition team. I am sure you that you can appreciate the irony in the twist of events. I was interested and excited to meet with the VP and begin to develop a strategy of how we could partner together to work with the challenges that we were going to face.

Our meeting lasted 35 minutes (scheduled for 30), it was professional, cordial and open. I was impressed with the philosophy of the Talent Acquisition team in partnering with the Hiring Managers in the supported line of business within the company. It appeared to me, based on my brief discussion, that the “partnering” was challenging on a behavioral level for the Talent Acquisition team. The Hiring Managers were saying; “This is the way that it is and will be.” The Talent Acquisition team was saying; “Okay, but…” I will not bore you with the particulars; I know that you all understand.

I inquired about accountability of the Talent Acquisition team and the accountability of the Hiring Managers to each other. I was informed: “The Hiring Managers are challenging at times.” I continued to probe and received the same reply.

I then suggested that this is where I viewed our first challenge: Gaining a commitment from the Talent Acquisition team and the Hiring Managers to ensure each other’s success. I framed this by stating that we had to engage the Hiring Managers and Talent Acquisition team in discussions about specific behaviors, time frames and deadlines to occur. This is when the VP said that there was another meeting that needed to be attended. Thirty five minutes had passed. We thanked each other and I said I would follow up by phone the next day and we agreed upon a time. I followed up with an email summarizing our conversation and stating that “mutual accountability” was a key to success.

Upon my next day’s follow up, I was informed that the Hiring Managers would “never buy into an aggressive approach” and they would be “too uncomfortable” with the approach. I attempted to overcome the objections and was unable to.

Here is my take. We, as Talent Acquisition Specialists, must hold ourselves accountable for our behaviors. We must take ownership and make commitments to the Hiring Mangers that are mutually agreed upon and that we know we can keep. We need to model the desired behavior. We can begin this modeling by facilitating a dialogue and process by asking two very simple questions of all involved: “How can we help each other and the Talent in hiring for the position(s)?” and “What do you need from me to ensure our success?”

STOP pointing fingers at each other and engage each other thru helping each other to be successful by sharing meaningful content. Partner, eliminate the “uncovered agenda” of the hiring and interview process.

Yes, I have a template for this; yes it is going to be uncomfortable for us as Hiring Managers and Talent Acquisition Specialists. Change and growth always are. We (Hiring Managers, Talent Acquisition Specialists and Talent) are in this together. Are we all committed to our mutual success? I am.

You will not believe this....

Recently I was attempting to secure a position with a large financial services organization as a Sr Talent Acquisition Specialist. I did what I do and I went to LinkedIn and searched for the VP of Talent Acquisition and called. To my pleasant surprise I was immediately connected to the person, not a voice mail! In the course of my conversation I was told that the organization does not accept phone calls from candidates or resumes sent directly to the recruiters. I was told that if one of the "excellent recruiters on the team" determined that I was a "fit" for the position I would be contacted. This was stated in a very professional cordial manner and I was complimented for my tenacity. I did attempt to overcome the objection to the call and my asking to send a resume directly to a recruiter or calling the recruiter three times and was denied three times, again with the utmost professionalism. I do respect the VP's position. I was informed that because of the volume of applicants that managing individual contacts was unproductive.

Wait, this is a Talent Acquisition position we are discussing correct? Aren't Talent Acquisition professionals tenacious by definition? We hunt, source and seek out new Talent by definition, correct? When I was managing Talent Acquisition pros I was impressed if they called a Sr Manager directly to introduce themselves and the reason for the call. I encouraged and modeled the behavior. I have had a successful career doing this and I have trained others who are currently being successful using this technique among others to the "right thing."

If organizations want to Post and Pray when seeking a specialized talent/skill set so be it. I would be so bold as to say good luck and if you don't want to interview a Talent Acquisition Specialist that is tenacious, then you may want to re-think your Talent Acquisition Strategy or do much praying. Just saying...

Announcing a Social Recruiting Strategy Service Offering

I am pleased to announce that I am now adding Social Recruiting Strategy to my portfolio of Talent Acquisition Services. If your organization is searching for a way to understand and implement a Social Recruiting Strategy I am inviting you to contact me and begin a dialogue.

If you are Talent seeking an opportunity I am inviting you to contact me and we can begin a dialogue regarding how I can assist you in developing your Personal Brand and marketing yourself using LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook and other Social Networking platforms.

I maybe contacted at 1 401 294-1079 or dgrazj@yahoo.com.

Social Recruiting...Good & Bad Guys

This was an excerpt from my thoughts on the @Animal Radio Show http://bit.ly/4khIBF.

I really am searching for what the Social Media Recruiters do and how they do it. Techniques, questions, recruiting skills.

Am I the only one that feels this way? Why do Personal Branding experts choose not to respond to a request for help in leveraging a relationship to facilitate gaining information? Inquiring minds would like to know...just saying.

A Warm Cold Call for the Passive Candidate

I have never liked the phrase Cold Call. When I was trained to become a Recruiter, we learned to use the phrase Warm Call. Well, after all, that is what the inititial call is isn't it? If the call is cold you will, well be cold. The candidate or client for that matter will be cold. It is really that simple. I don't need any "guru" to tell me differently.

I was recently interviewed on the @Animal Radio Show http://snurl.com/fzl4i. During the interview I was asked to Warm Call a Passive Candidate. This was unrehearsed and improvised. Here is the 10 minute audio clip http://cli.gs/coldcall. I will let the clip speak for itself and allow you to think what you would like to. The Passive Candidate is Craig Fisher of http://www.alistsolutions.com/ and @Fishdogs.

Social Recruiting...all that Twitters may not be a Glitter

After I participated in the @animal http://cli.gs/DBSPy9 Radio Show I became more introspective about how I use Social Media as a Social Recruiting tool. What do I use SM for? How do I integrate SM with Full Life Cycle Recruiting? How do I use SM to source new Client Partners and new Human Capital Partners? I am defining SM as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Blogs. I am sure there are more, but for the sake of this article these will suffice. I have my own bias of LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs and telephone with a healthy component of Boolean Searches to glean information.

What happens after I Source Human Capital Partners and Client Partners using all of these SM tools? Is my work completed? Do I simply introduce the two to each other and receive compensation, a multitude of referrals for new business and move to the next project?

I think not. As a Human Capital Specialist I must build a relationship personally with the Human Capital Partner and Client Partner, This relationship is built on trust. I establish this thru frequent, meaningful and professional contact with both parties. I ask the questions embedded with the Power Words "Who, What, Why, Where When and How of both Partners. I discuss with them how I have conducted myself in similar scenarios. I assist them in identifying and defining their challenges and how my brand can meet those challenges by eliciting their buy in. We create a partnership. My skills facilitate this, not SM. SM maybe the delivery mechanism for this, but SM does not make it happen. I use SM as a way of verifying what was agreed upon, better said I use email to verify and validate the level of commitment of all involved. I use the telephone to actually build the relationships with my Partners, wow what a surprise-:)! A series of in person meetings when possible is the best way, but present day logistics make this challenging. Together with my Partners we measure our progress, make adjustments and achieve our mutual goal; the hire.

My skills at asking questions as a Human Capital Specialist, which include the use of Social Media, may qualify me as a Social Recruiter. But I was successfully recruiting by using my social skills long before the Social Media tools existed as many of you were. Now we have evolved and adapted. Social Darwinism applied to Human Capital Acquisition and Client Partner development?

That is my take.

Some Thoughts on Social Recruiting

In case you have not heard, there is a Group on Twitter #socialrecruiting. This appears to be have been spawned by @dmanaster of ERE fame and @scottbaxt as far as I can determine. Another great site for this @socrecruiting. Follow these people and Sites.

This is a terrific and timely idea for the direction that the two disciplines of Social Media are heading or should I say colliding. This could very well be the “Big Bang” theory we have been seeking in Social Media and Recruiting.

How do we leverage the best of both disciplines? I have some thoughts. These thoughts are mine and in no way reflect the thoughts of anyone mentioned in this brief paper aimed at stimulating discussion.

We need to partner with the Social Media influencers and all of the experts in Social Media to leverage their clients for us to have an impact on Social Recruiting. We need a workable alliance of SM and Recruiting voices to develop an infrastructure that will allow us all to be successful in providing high quality cost effective solutions to our clients for Human Capital Sourcing and Acquisition and Social Media services. The time appears to be right for a radical shift in the thinking of corporate America on how to attract and retain Talent. Much is written about this daily. We need a blueprint and we need builders to execute this blueprint. Social Recruiting can be this blueprint. The manner in which these highly experienced and intelligent professional interact with their clients will enable us to leverage our Recruiting agenda. Without this partnering endorsement and our own efforts and experience in alliance we will have a much more difficult task ahead of us

We need people with strong influential Recruiting voices, who are willing to share their experience. We need the best of both SM and Recruiting for a thesis, antithesis synthesis to occur (my apology to Hegel) for a powerful solution to our challenge. The SM relationships and expertise and our Recruiting relationships and expertise are the mechanism for entry into the conscious of an enlightened Corporate America. We need to identify companies conducting business in the SM space being responsive to their customers by going where their customers are and listening to them. This will be paramount for our collective success.