Risky Business – Slow Hiring Decisions

Good talent is difficult to find whether the economy is strong or the economy is less than stellar. The notion that a bad economy allows a hiring manager to slow the process is false. In the famous words of Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory…Relativity was a great idea. This is a notion and a rather sucky one at that.

There are several negative consequences of a slow hiring processes. Here are a few.

You could possibly lose top candidates during the late stages of your recruitment process — when gainfully employed top candidates decide to explore opportunities, they are likely to be quickly contacted with prospects and offers, which means that often they will only be on the job market for a matter of weeks or less.

An extended hiring process does not improve the quality of the hire — One could think that taking more time to make a hiring decision would result in better hires...because you had more time to gather information, to gather feedback, and to mull over the finalists. Unfortunately, slow hiring has the opposite effect. The longer you take, often the lower the quality will be. The primary reason for this drop off, as mentioned in the first section, is that with an extended hiring process, all of the top candidates will likely drop out.

You will lose revenue and productivity because vacant positions are open for too long — a stretched-out hiring processes means that vacant positions go unfilled for months. Each day a position is vacant has a significant dollar impact on productivity, innovation, and revenue generation.

You potentially may have to pay new hires more in salary because they will have other offers — If you have an extended hiring process, there will be ample time for other firms to recruit these same top candidates. And once multiple firms start fighting over and literally bidding on one of your candidates, their salary demands will invariably increase once they realize their true market value.

Your image of being slow decision-makers will cause you to lose many top prospects —The appearance of slow decision-making will damage your hiring results. This is because many top candidates view the long time it takes a firm to reach a hiring decision as a reflection of the corporate culture and what business decision-making is actually like.

Your employees will also feel the negative impacts of slow hiring —Your employees will be asked to do double duty and/or overtime, which will negatively impact their morale and retention rates. Employees who came from other faster-hiring firms will get frustrated because they know that these extended vacancies aren’t necessary.

If you are targeting “passive candidates,” realize that slow hiring may result instead in the hiring of actives — The passive candidate may take a longer time to decide whether to explore your opportunity, but hiring managers must realize that once they indicate even a potential interest in your opportunity you have to move fast to keep the momentum and interest rolling. An extended hiring processes will give you a low probability of securing these highly desirable passive candidates.  Because slow recruiting processes are not capable of hiring these targeted passives, firms with slow hiring processes typically end up with most of their hires coming from the active job seeker pool. But even then, slow hiring decisions means that you will likely lose the best from among these active job seekers.

Scot Dickerson, CPC
President Capstone Search

How to Have a Rockstar Interview

A few days ago my daughter asked me when she was going to get her phone back. We took it away from her awhile back due to some poor choices. I told her that we should talk about that, but also said to her, “You do realize it was never meant to be a punishment but instead to protect you from yourself... So when you get upset about something you wouldn't text, tweet or post something that could come back to haunt you later.”

Last night I was bringing her home and I was singing along to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. She punched me in the arm. I asked her what that was for and she replied, “I am only protecting you from yourself.”

Okay so I’m no Sam Smith or Barry Manilow (did I just say that?!), so thank goodness Liberty Mutual Insurance came out with this catchy and very informative video about preparing for a job interview. Give it a look and listen. It really is entertaining and full of great tips and info. Just click on the link below.

Rockstar Interview by Liberty Mutual can viewed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy1TxbATlDA

Scot Dickerson

Capstone Search

Who is Alotta Candor?

I was talking to a job seeker yesterday. This individual contacted me about a position I’m working on. When I responded to them they told me had they known I was a recruiter, they never would have contacted me. Ouch. Talk about judging without getting to know someone!

I told the person that I trust they have had a poor experience with a recruiter previously. They told me that they’ve never had a good experience, and this article they sent to me, summed it up.

http://www.jobschmob.com/showJSArticle.cgi?id=35

This is the type of information floating around the internet that does absolutely no good to anyone. This was written by, do I dare say, someone who has no doubt not done their job correctly on their end. Someone who has become disillusioned and decided to trash everyone in a group. Gee….what do we call that in our society?

I have blogged on a similar topic previously. I'd venture to say we've all had poor experiences with retail professionals, legal professionals, medical professionals, call center professionals etc, etc. But to say all are bad because of isolated experiences is simply faulty logic. I’ve been an insurance recruiter for 20 years and I’ve had less than desirable experiences myself within my own profession. I even wonder how some of these folks stay in business.

In your travels through life you are going to come in contact with people you do not click with, people that do not meet your expectations and/or people that simply put, are just plain terrible at their jobs and probably have no business being in that profession. But to blindly categorize the entire profession is very narrow minded. Sorry just said that, but I believe it is true. I’ve had poor experiences with physicians but to go blogging saying all physicians are this or that is just wrong. That is exactly what has occurred here.

Come on now, this blogger didn’t even use their real name…. Alotta Candor?? What does that tell you? Is this even real or did someone have one bad experience and then decided to trash an entire industry.

Bottom line….read my previous blogs regarding selecting the right recruiter. But do not allow your perceptions of a profession be tainted by this crap.

Scot Dickerson, CPC
President

Capstone Search

Prepared and Committed for Job Interviewing?

Since the job market slowed in 2008 we have generally seen companies tend to take more time in their interview/selection process when hiring. I believe it comes down to a combination of things. First everyone is expected to do more with less. When translated to the interview process this simply means the interviewers are far busier than they were previously; schedules are not as readily available to conduct interviews. Secondly it is also a result, I believe, of hiring managers believing that they can be far more selective in their search process. Finally, I believe hiring managers are also under the impression that people will be available longer because there are fewer opportunities.

Whatever the reasons, the selection process has indeed slowed. However, there are always exceptions. There are always going to be hiring managers that meet a candidate and immediately know that is the person they want to bring on board. The process moves quickly and then everyone is caught off guard because that simply is not the expectation.

Recently I have been working on a search for a client. This client is very good to work with and they always try to keep things moving along; however, given the nature of the search the candidate pool is shallow so just coming up with qualified candidates is a challenge.

So I meet an individual that is qualified and interested in speaking with the client. This professional is not actively looking but was interested in both the location of the opportunity as well as the company and the opportunity overall.

I presented the candidate to the client company. Within a week of the referral they flew the candidate into their office. After the interview, the client had an offer ready to present. This is definitely the exception verse the typical scenario. But the result was a very unprepared candidate. Because the speed at which the client moved caught me by surprise as well as the candidate, the candidate immediately went to reaction mode, that is, “Oh my gosh that was fast, I don’t know that I am prepared for this” type of thinking.

So how could this have been prevented?  I should have done a better job in preparing the candidate mentally for this possible scenario. So I dropped the ball. I should have had more conversations with the candidate setting the stage. The candidate has a relative who lives in the area where the client is located and they had made several trips to the area. So that was covered. The candidate had discussed everything with their spouse so that was covered. It was more of the emotional part that I should have better prepared the candidate for.

My scenario was a bit unique because the candidate was not actually exploring the market, but  I still believe there is a lesson that can be learned from this experience……if you are a job seeker and you commit to going on an interview, you should be committed to the process. Candidates should realize that if they go on an interview, an offer very well may follow. Realizing that is a possibility, they must be mentally committed to that part of the process and be prepared on how they will handle an offer should it come. Receiving an offer should always be the ultimate goal out of an interview. Whether you accept it or not is another story. Always better to have received an offer than not get one at all. So if that possibly does exist and it should, you must prepare yourself. So when it happens you are prepared to react accordingly verse going into reaction mode and coming across as though you were not prepared. So job seekers, cover your bases:

1.       Research the area where the company is located in advance. 

2.       Check out the community as best you can. 

3.       Explore schools if that is going to be part of the process. 

4.       Explore cost of living. More importantly, buying power. How is your buying power impacted?

5.       Learn as much as you can about the company. Think everything through prior to the interview asking yourself, "Okay, what if I get an offer? What else do I need to know to determine if this is something I wish to pursue?"

6.       But above all, only go on an interview if you are truly interested in making a job change (if it is the right opportunity naturally). But don’t go on an interview unless you truly believe deep inside your heart that you are ready to make a change. 

Scot Dickerson, CPC
President

Family Always Comes First

I’m one of those people that tend to separate my personal life from my business dealings. When I’m with family I rarely talk about business. When at work I rarely talk about my personal life. (Other than relating applicable past experiences to a given scenario perhaps.) There is no wrong or right when it comes to mixing business with personal life. And I realize it depends on the type of employment a person is involved in as well. Some people simply cannot separate the two.

While speaking with a candidate the other day, we were discussing their job history as I do with everyone I speak with. They left their most recent employer in 2014 voluntarily. They explained that they resigned their position to care for a terminal family member. And they almost sounded apologetic for doing so. They then asked me how to handle that in an interview.

My mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June 2014. Those that know about this type of cancer know that depending on how advanced it is, the survival rate can be quite low. Unfortunately my mom’s is quite advanced and inoperable. She has undergone chemo treatments and while that stopped the growth there was no hope for recovery. In fact they had to stop the chemo treatments a couple weeks ago as she is too weak to endure additional chemo.

I was visiting her Saturday and commented to her how good she looked. The fact is, you never know when you visit if she is going to even be aware you are there, but this day was different. She looked really good. When I shared that with her, she responded, “Thank you. I remember how good my mom looked when she was in her coffin. Her face was so relaxed. She looked better than she had in months.” Wow! Honestly I was, for the first time in my life, speechless. I had no idea how to even respond to what she had just said to me.

The scenario I described with the candidate above is not the first time I've had that conversation with candidates. At least a half a dozen times a year I speak to insurance professionals that left employment for a period of time to care for a terminal family member. My point is simply this, never hesitate in an interview to explain a scenario such as this to the interviewer. If they question why you would do something like that, you don’t want to work for that person anyway. That is in all honesty. Good leaders have empathy and understanding. Tyrants do not. Which leader would you rather work for?

Scot Dickerson, CPC
President

Capstone Search

Mobile Recruiting

Mobile recruiting should be at the forefront of recruiting managers' and talent acquisition business partners' minds as the continued convergence of mobile and social media have created a significant trend in the use of mobile technology by job seekers.

Recruitment professionals must be prepared to reap the rewards of the powerful digital marketing and engagement channel. But for some it is not clear what the objective is, or how to go about it.

Many companies have moved mobile off the priority list in place of social media. The problem with this approach is that social media has largely become mobile as well.

What do candidates want to do via mobile? Everything. The mobile user already knows the power of their device. The recruitment industry needs to respond to this change in the way job seekers source opportunities.

The recruitment industry’s difficulty is that today’s candidate processing systems are not always mobile friendly. They were designed to solve a different problem: mass volume of resumes sent by email.

Recruitment and Talent Acquisition must maximize candidate engagement via mobile. It’s time to start focusing on mobile as a recruitment channel. Via email and your website, your candidates are already finding new jobs via mobile with you, but the experience is not good. The recruiting industry is lagging far behind other industries when it comes to maximizing potential returns from mobile.

Scot Dickerson, CPC
Capstone Search

Tips for managing Contract Employee

To remain flexible in our present economy of continued uncertainty, hiring contract workers rather than staff employees to keep costs down, remains common place. Unlike a full-time employee, companies do not have to pay contractors a regular salary, employment taxes or an average of $12,000 annually in family health care costs.

Managers of contractors have to juggle workers who are frequently off-site, who schedule their own hours and who may have multiple priorities.

Tips for managing Contract Employee:

1.       Create guidelines for your contractors that explicitly provide project details, expectations, timelines and deadlines.

2.       Perhaps consider creating an orientation process. The first time you work with a contract consultant, have them go through an orientation process that reviews the company’s mission and philosophy, the available resources, processes and values.

3.       Schedule weekly phone conversations with your contractors and make yourself available if a question comes up.

4.       Provide constant feedback to contract employees.

All this might seem like a lot of upfront work, but it’s worth it to get them performing at the level you need them to.

You should treat contractors as an integral part of the company. A contractor who is engaged in the work is more likely to take on additional projects and more willing to accept a permanent position if one opens up.

Plus, contractors need to know that their work contributes directly to the company’s performance. Clearly illustrating how a contractor supports the goals of the company and encouraging them with praise, honest feedback will boost their loyalty.

At the end of the day managing contractors in many ways resembles managing staff employees. Communication lines need to be open and clear, values must be aligned, and feedback boost engagement.