Recruiting Strategy 2

(Oct 31, 2008) Recruiting is chartered with "finding the right talent". So, how do you know what that is? Should Recruiters "know" the business? Should they specialize in functions or niches?  How do you link/align Recruiting processes, outcomes and technologies with the goals of the organization?

Effective Recruiting requires that Recruiters do more than simply respond to the flow of requisitions. It is critical that the Recruiting team understand the goals and directions of the business itself and the industries in which it operates. The desired shape and attributes of the overall workforce and the nuances of each specialty are the province of great Recruiting Strategists.

One of the most positive aspects of outsourcing the entire Recruiting Process is the way it forces the organization into a more strategic posture. The only RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) projects that actually work have a heavy emphasis on Requirements definition. This means business alignment by design. A useful experiment in the development of a Recruiting Strategy is to write the spec for outsourcing the function.

The best specifications create a framework for decision making. Knowing the context and objectives of the organization is the starting point for the development of great Strategy. The reason that development of a spec helps is that it forces the team to think of Recruiting as a strategic additive. The team responsible for managing an outsourcing contract must, by definition, manage for strategic advantage.

You just have to get the spec right.

Overall, that’s going to be the driving dynamic in the continuing evolution of Recruiting: getting the spec right. It will have to be done at the individual level, the work unit, the broad functional divisions and at the enterprise level. There are precise descriptions of required states and measures of tolerance. It’s just like any other function.

Along the way, we’re going to have to jettison sloppy generalizations. We’ll move from "Attrition Rate" to Retention bands subdivided along age, gender, ethnic and professional discipline lines. Gross generalizations about diversity are going to come under serious scrutiny. Noticing that retention has a high correlation to age will become an increasingly important vector to manage.

In other words, the responsibility for managing the shape and content of the workforce (obviously a Recruiting charter) is becoming vastly more sophisticated than the imprecise language we’re currently using. Many of our unwritten assumptions are out of date. Take "HR is the enemy", for instance. In more and more cases, the head of HR is a Recruiting leader. Although the vendors work the angles pretty hard, HR stopped being the enemy 10 years ago.

We’re charging towards an era of increasingly detailed specification and measurement. It’s important because it allows (even encourages) us to take ever more control of the direction and health of our organizations. Recruiters are about to learn to tell the difference between a placement that improves the health of the company and one that denigrates it. Targets fot the "right" talent will get both increasingly precise and simultaneously more open. You can improvise once you’ve mastered the scales.

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Recruiting Strategy 1

(Oct 30, 2008) The word sure gets kicked around. "Recruiting ’should’ be a strategic partner in the enterprise." Most of the current array of ideas about Recruiting Strategy are self referential and make really bad assumptions about the role of the Recruiting Organization, the structure of the workforce, the desired end state. Uniformly, they assume that the organization’s leadership (including the Recruiters) know what they want. There’s a lot of cart before a really tiny horse.

Look at these definitions of Recruiting Strategy:

A recruiting strategy gives recruiting managers guidance about what they should do more of and less of. It also helps ensure that everyone on the recruiting team understands the priorities of the business and how recruiting can have an impact on the business. That’s why, when putting together a recruiting strategy, it’s important to make sure that the process one uses to develop the strategy is logical and straightforward. (BNET)

… all recruiting strategies fit into two categories: “you find us” and “we find you.” The “you find us” category is the most commonly used, where a firm essentially posts a notice that it is looking for someone to hire and then sorts through those individuals who respond. The more proactive category, however, is the “we find you” approach, where a firm instead attempts to identify the names of top performers as individuals and then contact them directly. The first approach almost by design attracts “the masses,” while the other is more targeted to minimize the volume of applications and maximize the quality of the applicants. (John Sullivan, ERE)

Recruitment strategies are exactly that, a strategy to recruit the best possible candidates and future employees for a company, regardless of the industry. Recruitment and hiring processes require the same attention to detail as other aspects of running a successful business. The placement of a classified employment advertisement is just the beginning of the recruitment process for both the candidate and company. The purpose of such advertisements is to evoke interest and to see what the candidate and company have in common, ultimately resulting in an in-depth interview. (Stuart Neil, Vault)

The strategies of recruitment usually are not deeply analysed per se, as an autonomous phases of the match between labour demand and supply. They are considered together with selection processes that have been object of several economic, sociological and organisational studies. But according to the PEMINT goals, we need to distinguish these two processes and to focus our attention mainly on the first. In fact, the firm’s strategies of recruitment concern the ways to reach workers suitable for a job, while strategies of selection concern the ways to select the best among them. (PEMINT)

As you can see, there is little agreement about what a Recruiting Strategy actually is. Some frame it as a specialized communications strategy. Some simply write it off to "a method for prioritizing media purchase decisions." In no case is a comprehensive approach that aligns with organizational direction ever articulated. All of the supposed strategists simply assume that the input about what the organization wants is obvious.

Very surprisingly, the Department of Energy has a published Recruiting Strategy document (It’s a word doc, not a web page). It is a really great start on the development of a sustainable strategy. It’s only problem is that it focuses so heavily on solving the near term crisis (retiring workforce) that it sets the stage for future problems.

Strategy is not an approach to problem solving. Rather, a good Recruiting Strategy crestes a context in which problems can be addressed and solved. Most importantly, a strategy articulates a clear vision of the organization’s future as expressed through the structure of the workforce. With a clear view of the dewsired end state, downturns and upswings can be easily navigated.

The primary issue in the development of a solid Recruiting Strategy is the definition of the desired end state.

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<– Previous

Dharamshala and Home

(If you’re interested, I’ve built an online album of images from the trip)

Getting from Delhi to Dharamshala was completely uneventful. I’d become so used to hard travelling that I barely noticed the ease with which we simply got on the plane and went there.

We were met at the Kangra airport by a group of monks who took great delight in tending to our needs. (If a bunch of crows is a murder, what is a bunch of monks called). We got into the monastery’s van and headed up the mountain.

In this part of town, the roads aren’t so rough. Given that were a mile high in the foothills of the Himalayas, that’s really astonishing. The snow is murder every winter. There WERE signs that the roads can be trouble. Compared to the highway between Kushinigar and Bodhgaya, this was a walk in the park.

We stayed at the Asia Health Resort (click at your own risk…somehow, this site contains a piano version of the theme from Friends), a newer hotel at the edges of McLeod Ganj (the town next to Dharamshala). Don and I were a day ahead of the rest of the travelers so we were able to get to know the town and the shops on that first night.

McLeod Ganj is less like the rest of India and more like the bar from Star Wars. You are every bit as likely to hear English spoken at the next table as an Indian variant. The town is full of wayfaring spiritual seekers of the REI encrusted jet setting variety.

The streets are an endless string of vendors hawking everything but that tour jacket and tee shirt I’ve been hoping for. If you want statues of Buddha, this is the place. Beads, paintings, books, bags, handicrafts, more statues, more paintings, restaurants and small markets. I try to stick my head into each and everyone.

Besides the aggressive tourist hustle, the area is noticeable for the happiness of the people here. This is really not like the rest of the trip.

We visit a number of interesting institutions devoted to Tibetan Cultural Preservation. Several episodes stick out in my mind.

I fell in love again at the Tibetan Children’s Village (TVC). She didn’t say much. The boys muscled her out of the way.She was patient and persistent about visiting with me. (Here’s the other pal I made there)

The village is part orphanage and part way station. As the Tibetan diaspora continues its evolution, children need shelter while their parents navigate new cultures and Economies. The TVC provides continuity and housing for kids in transition as well as a stable environment for orphans. It was very sweet to just sit and play with the kids for a couple hours

The monastery, Kalichakra temple and Dalai Lama Residence provided an interesting insight into the blending of political and spiritual values. Under what could easily be described as house arrest, the property is protected by armed members of the Indian Military. The temple included some of the most amazing examples of Tibetan art that you can see anywhere.

We got to meet with the Karmapa at the Gyuto Vajrayana University and Monastery. Though it doesn’t actually work like this, he is the most likely successor (as a visible Tibetan figure) of the Dalai Lama. It was a rushed affair. As we were leaving, a wrist mala that I had just purchased exploded. The little beads went everywhere.

I happened on this note as I was writing:

“malas are alive. my first spiritual teacher told me that when a mala breaks, it means that many karmas have been destroyed. it is a good thing. she said that one should not restring the mala, nor wear it or use it again. all the japa, all the mantras and prayers that were said on those beads have done their work of transmutation. she said that when the mala breaks, it is time to let that mala go. perform a ritual of gratitude for the burning up of those karmas, and no matter how much you loved that mala, let go of all attachment, and give it to the sea. “

Interesting notion.

We flew back to Delhi to wrap up the trip. Another Nikko Hotel across from the market. It was a real let down after Dharamshala.

<– Previous

(Oct 29, 2008) If you haven’t had a chance, tune into the ERE conference. The page at ere.net is featuring live material from this week’s conference. With an emphasis on outreach and interaction, things are shifting at ERE. David Manaster continues to set a high standard for the relevancy of national conferences.

The first panel featured Gerry Crispin, Mark Mehler, Joel Cheesman, Shally Steckerl and an extremely insightful woman from Yahoo (Carmen Hudson.) It was a reprise (though en extremely interactive one) of the technology panel that has been a part of every trade show since the early 1990s. Really smart people who know about relatively obscure things coaching the audience to invest now.

I wonder if anyone can give me the name of a company that lost a competitive advantage by being slow to develop a corporate website? Why would the current (Web 2.0) wave be any different. The only urgency I can see is the urgency to enrich the consultants focused on the utilization of new technology.

Invest in the technology now or you will be a corporate laggard. Really?

An audience member asked how to get the rest of the organization blogging and twittering. “It’s al well and good that we’re recruiting this way,” she said, “but it isn’t worth a hill of beans if the hiring managers and trench level supervisors are not doing it.”

I wonder when it became the recruiter’s job to lead the organization into new technology usage. Isn’t the job to staff the existing organization? Aren’t other people supposed to be moving the technology ball forward? Are Recruiters really supposed to spend their time at the cutting edge?

Of course, the answers that will come back will center on the competition in the labor market, the importance of belong cutting edge, the labor shortage and so on.

The real problem is that technology should follow strategy, not lead it.

The panel was extraordinary and each member did a fantastic job. This question of the relationship between tactics and strategy is one we’ll follow for a while.

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 <–Previous  –  Next–>

Bodhgaya To Delhi To Dharamsala

Dom and I split off from the group for a couple of days. Instead of another long bus and train ride, we fly from the capital of  Bihar (Patna). We take a Tata driven by the fellow whose nieces I met yesterday. Annand is along for the ride.

Once again, we are in Maoist country. It looks much different from the car than the bus. The houses are close. The wood fires fro breakfast n the grass huts stings the eyes.

We stop for tea at a crossroads. I can terll from the wide eyed look of the people in the “tea house that big white guys with pony tails don’t stop for tea every morning.

It’s a modified grass hut with deep recesses and an open front. There are maybe ten long tables (like the coffe shops in the real Italian partds of north beach. It,s dark back there and staring eyes are peering out.

The flies are thick here. Annand has me sit at the table closest to the road (in case we need to jump in the car). The table is so thick with flies that I wonder if I’ll be able to sit the tea down.

I mimic the sweeping motion that the rest of the men at the tea house (no women seem to be allowed). That keeps me entertained and some of the flies at bay until the tea comes. When it comes, it is served in ceremonial clay tea cups, slightly larger than a shot glass but shaoed like a half sphere.

In the middle east and some of Southern Asia, “tea” is a hot drink made mostly with hot milk and sugar, The tea itself is like the vermouth in a very dry martini, It’s mostly there by reputation.

Three sips of tea, three big smiles of gratitude and five or six slow rolling waves at the flies and were done. It’s clear that Annand accomplished something by making the stop. We tip heavily and get back in the Tata’

From there, it’s relatively uneventful until we get into the taxi at the Delhi airport.

There’s no such thing as a taxi driver who knows his (there are no women) way around Delhi. The typical gambit seems to be … wander around for a while then, blame the customer for not knowing where they are going.

What’s really funny about this round of the taxi game is that the driver started grumbling at us just as we passed the hotel. 

The Palace Heights hotel on Conneaut Square is a very hip little place in a very upper middle classs part of town. Our room is tiny. The bathroom is so small that you have to come out of it to turn around. But, the water’s hot and the tiny beds are firm.  Our luggage takes up all of the available floor space.

After dinner, I make the first phone calls I’ve been able to make since arriving here. Walking the streets with my phone, I notice the dogs working the block.

Like cows, dogs own the streets of India. Rarely kept as house pets, they live on the streets. They’re sort of wild and sort of tame. They seem to belong to the neighborhood.

For a half an hour or so, I watch a pack of twelve dogs negotiate sleeping space and territorial boundaries on the dark side of the street. There’s a white group and a yellow group in the pack. Barks, growls and yelps coupled with firm physical maneuvers shape this nonverbal dialog. I head upstairs when it looks like they might get a little rowdy.

In the morning we head back to the airport for the trip to Dharamsala, 

<–Previous  –  Next–>

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