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How many recruiters have sent candidate after candidate to a hiring manager and for some reason, there is always a reason why they are not good enough to hire? When you, the recruiter or HR professional, initially spoke with the hiring manager, you found out some tell-tale information about the position. You found the position has been open for three months, the manager has interviewed 15 people, and there are four agencies working on it. The first question a perceptive recruiter would ask is “Is this a real opening?” If there is a real opening, is there any pain associated with not filling it? Ok, for argument sake, let’s say there is an actual position with some pain. From there you have to follow the links of the recruiting chain: the sourcing, interviewing, selection process to include notice being given and an actual start. It has been my experience that hiring managers tend to see the interview and selection process, as a process by which they look for every reason they can to not hire someone. Many of the companies I have managed recruitment processes for initially had a system set whereby candidates had to jump through several hoops in terms of assessments, several rounds of interviews with everyone in the company (all asking the same twenty questions and any one having veto power). This is a disqualification focused interview process. A screening out system.

It’s a pretty common thought that this is a difficult time of year to hire. I hear this over and over each year once the leaves stop falling. In actuality, the hiring climate changes a bit at the end of fourth quarter – so planning for it can work to your advantage. Now is one of the best times of the year for passive candidate recruitment – people seem more open to speaking – maybe it’s the holiday spirit, some free time on their hands or they are thinking about New Year’s Resolutions. Whatever the case, passive recruiting is a key part of a recruiting strategy. Smart companies look for the best people, not the best available people.

You probably don’t think too much about it, but take a step back and consider what your job applicants are saying about your organization when they finish up an interview. Do they walk out the door, jump on their mobile and update their Facebook status: “Crossing my fingers I just landed this excellent job at a cool company”? Or maybe they are tweeting about how they “Just wasted an hour at an unorganized and dismal company”. Working hard to build your employment brand? Consider all that sweat and money shelled out to build a great career page — or have a top shelf campus recruiting program. Unfortunately, negativity is viral… and damage can be done in 140 characters or less!

Kendall Knox

My dad always said, “Son, the best time to look for a job is when you got a job”. He always called me son when he was saying something that I should be taking to heart. Kind of like when he used to say “Son, if your tadpole butt could keep up with your alligator mouth, you’d be one heck of a guy!” I still use that one today. But the point of the message was very clear: Don’t wait until you need something to start looking.

Why should you work with a professional recruiter? Well first, we have to define what a professional recruiter is and what they do. Do you know what the recruiter you are working with actually does day to day to fill your position? Have you asked them? Well, like everything else in life, not all recruiters are created equal. In this article, I will talk to some of the basic value-adds I believe an authentic recruiter should bring to the table. I will not be getting into the various recruiting models — that is a topic for another article. Let’s just keep this as some basic things all good recruiters, regardless of the model, should be doing as a matter of practice.

So you need to do some hiring. You want to do it quickly, but at the same time you need full confidence that you are bringing the very best talent into your organization. Recruiting should be viewed as a business strategy, not just an operational task. I recommend taking a step back from the constant need to “put out the fires” and examine the engine you have in place for recruitment at your organization.

Social Media is everywhere! So many choices, so much time to cover it all. Where do you begin? You don’t need to jump in to everything at once – or ever! I recommend starting with the tool seems to be the most widely used for general business – Linkedin. This is a great way to network, generate sales leads, look for a job, hire great people and even reconnect with former colleagues and friends. If you are not there yet, these tips will get you started and on your way to the world of Social Networking!

The theory is good people know other good people. This has been the underlying principle driving employee referral programs for as long as I have been in the private sector. You have your superstar performers and you know if you could just get one more of each of them, all of your production, creative marketing, or sales problems would be solved. Clients would flood in and bottom line profits would soar. I just have one question. How is that working for you? The problem is the traditional employee program is a passive effort. You dangle a carrot and hope they act. The program is dependent on your employees actually going out to their network and driving traffic back. This is the same premise as a channel partnership in sales. You are depending on your channel partner to deliver a consistent, effective, and attractive value proposition with the same zeal with which you would. Don’t get me wrong, there are great employee referral program and there are great channel partnerships. Wouldn’t you make it better though if you could? The reality tends to be that unless you are a company known as an “employer of choice” (i.e. Microsoft, Google- a company where people want to be) your staff may have a hard time driving candidates to you. Moreover, many do not feel comfortable with talking to their friends about their company. Not everyone is a sales person or marketer. Some are shy and introverted. Some just will not mix social and work. Some may not really like working for your company! They may have a great network of people with skills that would be attractive to your company, but your message will never reach them. Enter Talent Retriever’s Active Referral Program (ARP). We have established a program that addresses the problems with a passive Employee Referral Program, by making it an active effort. We are working with our clients and identifying their top performers and driving referrals for them. Interested in hearing more about how this works? Give me a call. I can’t give out all of my secrets. Steve 781-425-6656

There is a change brewing. Organizations are starting to put money back into business development. I see PR people picking up speed. Companies that create and drive all kinds of marketing programs are beginning to finally close business that has been in the pipeline since Q3 2008. Great news!