So often recruiters are accused of “stealing your best employee.” While it is true that we do present opportunities to your employees, the fact is, we don’t steal them. To the amazement of most recruiters, the vast majority of the time the employee already has a resume prepared and ready to go.
All we do is ask them if they would be open to discussing a potential career opportunity. Virtually 95% of the time the employee replies, “Yes.” Why would anyone not want to know what is going on in the market, have a discussion around their career or just get a feel for current compensation ranges? Even if they are completely happy in their current position, this is good stuff to know.
The important, and I believe the most relevant question is,” Why, out of the 95% that are open to discussing career opportunities, do roughly 10% indicate that they are happy with their job, and although it sounds like a good opportunity, they aren’t interested in pursuing it further?”
What do these 10% have that the other 90% don’t? That is something a recruiter has nothing to do with. They generally have four things, 1) they are learning in their current position, 2) they feel they are having some impact on the company, 3) they are growing, and 4) they respect their boss. When these four things are part of a person’s job, the best recruiter can’t get them to move.
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Communication, Culture, Growing Edges, hiring top talent, Interview questions, Interviewing, interviewing mistakes, Retaining top talent, staffing, Work ethic
In Tuesday’s post I discussed how leaders understand framing issues to ensure communication is clear. That is one reason that establishing Success Factors for the positions we wish to fill is so critical. I’m a big fan of using this method of hiring established by our friends over at Impact Hiring Solutions. Some folks call the success factors by other names (SMART goals, etc.), but whatever name you use the point is to make sure you properly frame your expectations for what the job is and what success will look like.
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Communication, Leadership, Management, Success Factors, Talent
Later in life, my mother became an artist; a painter. She worked in oil on canvass. Her skills progressed as she learned more from teachers and mentors and then began to teach students herself. I remember seeing her canvasses in various states of completion and was often intrigued by how she painstakingly and carefully selected frames for the final product. She would make her own choice if the picture was to hang in a show or other display. Or she would collaborate with the purchaser to select a frame that not only enhanced the painting but would “work” in that persons home. Framing, it seems, was not a simple thing.
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Communication, Framing, Leadership, Management, Reframing, Shaping the Corporate Culture, Words
Most professional sports teams have scouts. These scouts are constantly on the lookout for talent. Most of the time these scouts are engaging potential talent long before they are ready for the big leagues. In fact, often long before they even need them.
The one thing that these teams and scouts know is that they will always need top talent if they want to win.
Who are your scouts? Are you engaging potential talent before you need them? Is this important for you to win?
Over the last few years I have asked hundreds of CEOs and key executives, “When do most companies start the hiring process?” Rarely do I hear anything other than, “When they need someone.” Then, how long does it take to hire a person? Most believe that can take between 2 and 4 months. At which point the hiring manager is so desperate that they are pretty much willing to take the proverbial, “Cream of the Crap.”
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hiring top talent, Interviewing, Retaining top talent, Sales, sourcing top talent
By now, we’ve all been told “a million times” that things have changed, will not be going back to the way they were and that our organizations must change. I’ve notice that many colleagues are in fact changing, trying new things, experimenting and, yes, failing. Many others are not making significant changes. They are afraid. What they are afraid of differs depending on the organization. Well, failure is an option, but fear and inaction is not an option if we are to survive and thrive.
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Failure, Fear, Leadership, Management
Recently, on one of the e-mail lists to which I subscribe, a colleague mentioned that he had been counseled by one of his mentors that the best thing he could do for his good employees was to fire a bad employee. Sounds harsh. Yet it is true that for the greater good, we have to sometimes admit that we will not be able to help an under performing employee to make the grade. It’s best for them and for the organization if we “make their services available to industry.”
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Growing Edges, Leadership, Management, Retaining top talent, Shaping the Corporate Culture
Back before the banking fiasco, I would occasionally advise my business clients to shop their banking needs around to the small regional banks. They seemed more responsive, understood their customers, wanted to serve them better and were more likely to “be a partner” with a small business. I no longer give that advice; at least not without qualification.
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Banking, Finance, Management
I’ve been looking at what’s going on with internet commerce these days and how folks are dealing with the explosion of websites, blogs and users. I’ve come to realize that for many practical reasons the cost of SEO (search engine optimization) has put it out of reach for many small businesses. It’s an overstatement to say that SEO is dead, but it is definitely dead as far as most small businesses are concerned. The good news is, we don’t need to do more than the basics SEO work to thrive because internet marketing has changed.
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Blogs, Communication, Marketing, Sales, SEO, Social Networks
I came across a recent article from a person who is a sales trainer (no names to avoid embarrassments and conflicts) and who seemed to have suddenly awoken to discover that consumers and businesses are no longer buying the way they used to buy. “Gosh,” I thought, “where the heck have you been?” On the other hand, the comments made the point that I and others have been making for over a year now – maybe close to two years, namely that things have changed and they aren’t coming back.
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Communication, Growing Edges, Leadership, Management, Sales
I admit to feeling inadequate. It seems as though I’m supposed to be able to multi-task, according to what I’m told by many people and according to what I observe others doing. But I can’t really. I try sometimes, but it just doesn’t work for me. I am not interested in “chatting” if I’m watching a television show (I rarely watch TV, it’s got to be something of immediate interest to me). I get annoyed if I’m deep in the middle of a spreadsheet, writing a blog post or wrestling a PC problem to the ground and the phone rings. I can’t read and also listen to music or radio or podcast.
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Communication, Growing Edges, Leadership, Management, Multi-tasking
