AIRS® CERTIFICATION COURSE
Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
www.airsdirectory.com
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0 Copyright © 2013 AIRS, 67 Etna Road, Suite 400, Lebanon, NH, 03766, All Rights Reserved. AIRS is a registered trademark of RightThing, LLC. The ADP logo is a registered trademark of ADP, Inc. No part of this book may be used or reproduced, duplicated, disclosed, published, transcribed, stored, translated, transmitted or reverse-engineered, in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher. For permission contact AIRS, 67 Etna Rd., Suite 400, Lebanon, NH 03766. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Copyright of any screen captures in this book are the property of the software’s manufacturer. Mention of any products in this book in no way constitutes an endorsement by AIRS. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of information herein. DISCLAIMER: AIRS IS NOT PROVIDING LEGAL ADVICE OR DIRECTION REGARDING ANY TOPICS INCLUDED IN AIRS TRAINING COURSE BOOKS OR DELIVERED MATERIALS. ALL ATTENDEES SHOULD CHECK WITH THEIR OWN LEGAL COUNSEL FOR ADVICE REGARDING ALL EMPLOYMENT RELATED MATTERS AND THE LEGALITY OF INTERNET SOURCING TECHNIQUES IN RELEVANT JURISDICTIONS. (PRC_V2_121313)
Table of Contents CHAPTER 1: THE RECRUITER___________ 6
CHAPTER 4: SOURCING________________42
A Great Time To Be A Recruiter______________ 7
Sourcing_______________________________ 43
The Bigger Context________________________ 9
Today’s Candidates_______________________ 44
A Profession in Transition_________________ 11
Pipelining with Google®___________________ 45
Different Roads To Success________________ 12
Gathering Resources_____________________ 51
What the Candidate Wants_________________ 13
Analyzing Job Boards_____________________ 55
What the Company Wants_________________ 14
Best of the Web Directory__________________ 57 What You Need to Know About Boolean_______ 58
CHAPTER 2: THE RECRUITING PROCESS___18
Limiting By Location______________________ 64
The Recruiting Process___________________ 19
Social Media… and it’s Place in Recruiting____ 65
Foundations of Recruiting_________________ 21
Networking… Natural Steps________________ 69
The Recruiting Pipeline___________________ 23
Sourcing Roadblocks_____________________ 70
Metrics________________________________ 24
Finding Contact Information_______________ 71
Recruiting Metrics_______________________ 25
Measure Success________________________ 72 The One Thing You Need to Know___________ 73
CHAPTER 3: PROFILE_________________28 Why is Profiling Important?________________ 29 Tools: The
AIRS®
Profiling Guide____________ 31
The Importance of the Soft Skills____________ 34 Working with Hiring Managers______________ 35 Problems That Can Occur_________________ 36 The One Thing You Need to Know___________ 39
CHAPTER 5: CONTACT AND SCREEN______76 Why are Contacting and Screening Important?_____________________________ 77 Types of Contacting Activities_______________ 78 Communication Guidelines________________ 79 Why is Communication Important?__________ 80 Questions: The Crux of the Process__________ 81 Cold Calling____________________________ 83 Key Points of Cold Calling_________________ 84 The Telephone Screen____________________ 86 Setting up the Telephone Screen____________ 87 Conducting the Telephone Screen___________ 88 Contacting Problems that Can Occur_________ 90 The One Thing You Need to Know___________ 95
CHAPTER 6: MANAGE_________________98
CHAPTER 9: NEXT STEPS______________140
Why is Managing Important?_______________ 99
The Journey Ahead______________________ 141
Candidate Management__________________ 101
The AIRS® Career Map___________________ 147
Further Candidate Management...__________ 106
AIRS® Tools and Services_________________ 148
Client Management_____________________ 107 Service Level Agreements________________ 111
APPENDIX_________________________150
Managing Problems That Can Occur________ 115
Glossary______________________________ 151
The One Thing You Need to Know__________ 116
Recruiting Metrics______________________ 154
CHAPTER 7: CLOSE__________________118
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification Desktop Reference___________ 155
Why is Closing Important?________________ 119 What’s Important to Candidates____________ 121 The Six Closing Potholes_________________ 122
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0 Search Guide_____________ 156 Tools: The AIRS® Profiling Guide___________ 157
Closing Problems That Can Occur__________ 123
Tools: The Candidate Satisfaction Survey Example________________________ 159
The One Thing You Need to Know__________ 125
Tools: The Quality Hiring Survey Example____ 163
CHAPTER 8: LEVERAGE_______________128 Why is Leveraging Important?_____________ 129 What is Leveraging?_____________________ 130 Find One, Find Them All__________________ 131 Demonstration: Using Technology to Expand Personal Networks and Social Networking Tools__________________ 132 Leveraging Problems that Can Occur_______ 135 The One Thing You Need to Know__________ 137
Tools: Service Level Agreement Example____ 166 Tools: Recruiting Competency Self Assessment Example________________ 169
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CHAPTER ONE THE RECRUITER A Great Time To Be A Recruiter The Bigger Context A Profession in Transition Different Roads To Success What the Candidate Wants What the Company Wants
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
A Great Time To Be A Recruiter This is an amazing time to be a Recruiter. Innovations, economics and an unparalleled level of accessibility to talent has enhanced the lives of recruiting professionals around the world. As a profession, recruiting has been around for eons and it has continuously adapted to changes in the economy, and technology. Today’s recruiter is not limited to a job board strategy of posting jobs and hoping that the perfect candidate will apply. Instead, well thought out strategies to find and attract the talent needed to make the organization successful commence before the talent is needed. This can happen during the annual budget process or as anticipated projects are about to start. Talent is a major determinant of our company’s success, positioning a Recruiter to have immediate impact. And we want that impact to be significant. Today we will explore a variety of facets that will be inherently important in achieving success.
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Recruiting is a bellwether for the economy. Mark Mehler Principal CareerXRoads®
Sometimes we forget that the most important human resource activity is whom we bring through the front door. Coleman Peterson Former CHRO Wal-Mart®
The next killer app in recruiting is – the recruiter. Michael Foster Founder & Chairman Human Capital Institute®
As a Recruiter, you are one of your organization’s most forward facing individuals. You will be the company’s advocate and set the expected engagement level within the organization. Owning the process of recruiting, from initial intake, to screening, to offer, to hire, to onboarding, it’s all part of the Recruiter’s role. This is a huge opportunity to contribute to your organization in a very real, tangible and meaningful way.
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The Bigger Context The increasing importance on recruiting is a result of the economy and the pace of the world which requires our workforce to be able to add value to the products and services they deliver. Recruiters become an important cog in the wheel of finding the right talent to fit the company needs. Recruiters need to find candidates that are also a good cultural fit so they stay and continue to contribute to the growth and direction of the company. • Intangibles phenomenon – Up to 80% of the value of a company is determined by intangibles such as brand, customer relationships, ability to innovate and the knowledge, skills and competencies of its people. Financial analysts, investors and academics are trying to better understand how to value talent. • Ascendency of talent as a key competitive advantage – As technology, business processes and other breakthroughs become widely available, the remaining key variable is talent. The ability to attract, focus and retain the right people is the pathway to enduring profits. Ironically, the best way to improve the bottom line is not to manage to it, but to attract, focus and engage your talent. • Leadership and the talent pipeline become board-level issues – Over 50% of the boards of companies are directly imposing themselves on issues around the pipeline of leadership talent. More than 75% of companies do not have adequate talent pipelines, and the Board of Directors want to know why. • Blur – Companies have to respond faster than ever before. Increasingly, there are two types of companies: the quick and the dead. Intel for example, must continue to innovate or it loses its business advantage: 70% of its revenues come from products that did not exist a year ago. Competitive landscapes change within a matter of weeks and months, not years.
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• The Global Talent war - Global talent pools are now just as valuable as diamond mines, oil reserves and rich forests have been in the past, and the battles will be just as intense. It’s clear that “Intel® goes where the IQ is” and they are not alone. The competition for talent top draft picks, as Thomas Friedman, author of “The World Is Flat,” says, is worldwide. • Dual focus employee - The old distinction between personal and professional life is fuzzy at best. Companies that win the war for the minds and hearts of their employees are concerned about work-life balance, a flexible working environment and a collegial atmosphere. Recruiting is not simply a matter of making a good technical match.
Microsoft® CEO Steve Ballmer’s first job with Microsoft was as a recruiting coordinator
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A Profession in Transition In addition to these external factors, recruiting itself is evolving. More than 15 years ago as the first job boards and applicant tracking systems were arriving on the market, recruiting took a huge leap forward. Recruiting professionals have embraced the opportunity to develop and set measurements of success. Now, it is not only important to find the right talent to fill your requisitions, but to engage all potential candidates and further your employment brand so that each time you return to your “talent pool”, you will have candidates with interest already piqued. It will be a matter of finding the right job to match up to the stable of talent you have waiting. Recruiting has often been seen as the underbelly of Human Resources. Being criticized for practices considered to be dubious and in some ways duplicitous to obtain candidate and competitive information. Today we push forward a competency model that encourages you to be your best. We will thoughtfully consider steps in the process and how you can engage in these steps in a way to promote an ethical yet successful recruiter image. Let’s think first of what candidates want from recruiters.
Recruiting Becomes a Profession
THOUGHT LEADERS
STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE METHODOLOGIES
STANDARDS
CERTIFICATIONS
HISTORY
METRICS
RECRUITING PROFESSION
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AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
Different Roads To Success In the past recruiters were fearless sales professionals using their wits to generate leads out of cold calls and networking. These “old school” recruiters characteristically deliver more than they promise and smoothly manage candidates and hiring managers. They’re ready to jump at an opportunity and are on the telephone while others contemplate next steps. They firmly believe that the most important tool in their recruiting toolbox is the telephone. Today’s Recruiter’s are ready to jump on the internet and with a few quick keystrokes locate the information that may have required several telephone calls to nail down. Recruiters still get on the telephone, they still cold call. But now they use additional technology to get the job done. A call, a text, an email, a message via Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin – they’re all viable resources for today’s recruiter to use to reach the talent they need. And just like their predecessors, they use their ability to be fearless and network to leverage online and offline access to talent they need. At AIRS, we believe there are many tools that can help you find the talent you need as well as attract them to your company. Using the internet to explore leads and post jobs is just one of the tools you should work to be proficient in. You should also gain a level of comfort and experience in calling candidates, whether a cold call to gather information, warm call with a candidate that has initially reached out to you or telephone interview. You need to master all of those and be able to integrate all of those techniques to be the best recruiter you can be.
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What the Candidate Wants • Responsiveness – From initial application to every question and interview, the candidate wants to feel valued and that they are your top priority. • Direct Answers – Providing direct answers about the company, the job, etc. increases your credibility and leaves the candidate feeling knowledgeable. Own when you don’t know the answer, and get one. • Details – Share the details about the job, but in particular the interviewing process. Set basic expectations of the process and make sure the candidate is aware of issues as they come up. • Reality Check – If they are not a fit, tell them so. Be direct.
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What the Company Wants • Advocate – Knowledgeable about the company and business units. Able to explain and showcase the reasons why it is a great place to work. • Results – Use the tools and technology in conjunction with time management to provide solid results. The right candidates into the right jobs.
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Activity: Additional Introductions 1. What do you think is the perception of recruiters in general?
2. What about in your company?
3. Would you characterize any of your current teammates as “old school” recruiters? Why?
4. What changes do you see coming for recruiting?
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CHAPTER TWO THE RECRUITING PROCESS The Recruiting Process Foundations of Recruiting The Recruiting Pipeline Metrics Recruiting Metrics
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
The Recruiting Process Recruiting is both an art and science. It is strategic and tactical. It is strategic because recruiters must be forward thinking, as well as incorporate judgments, intuition, chance encounters, creative approaches and out of the box initiatives to stay ahead of their competition and secure the right talent for their openings. The tactical aspect comes into play with the methods, process and technology that can be consistently and repeatedly applied when recruiting and closing talented candidates. Both are essential to success. In terms of how we act, the left side of the brain is better at scientific activities and the right side at the artistic or creative. While we will allocate more time to the science of recruiting, there are still many opportunities for “right brain” creative activities within an established framework. Methodologies should be simple and relevant. Recruiting can be broken down into a number of steps, but the essential activities are depicted below.
PROFILE SOURCE CONTACT & SCREEN MANAGE CLOSE LEVERAGE
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AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
• Profile – Working with the job requisition and the hiring manager, determining the qualities of the job and of the successful candidates. • Source – Finding excellent candidates for the job. Quite often this entails creating a multifaceted strategy to find and attract the talent you need. • Contact and Screen – Creating a warm relationship, transferring authentic qualities of your organization in each exchange and thorough screening of candidates based on behavioral interviewing strategies, not just resume or CV review. • Manage – Being able to work with a number of open jobs, hiring managers and candidates effectively • Close – Overcoming objections and hiring the best person. A good recruiter, much like a good sales person, is always closing and leaving the candidate on a positive note. • Leverage – By creating warm relationships, we have the ability to exponentially develop our reach into the talent pool. We can do this with telephone calls as well as adopting the latest technology to continue connecting.
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AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
Foundations of Recruiting Each step in the recruiting cycle is discussed further in this course with examples, tools and guidelines. But there are a few critical recruiting foundations to keep in mind, and they will be revisited during the course because of their importance. These foundations are repeated often in the work of great recruiters.
Foundation 1: Proactive, not reactive recruiting. Recruiters need be on their game every single day. Being completely aware of your company’s needs and future goals while seeking out the right talent is paramount to achieving success. Waiting until the job requisition hits your desk is the wrong mentality in this age of technology. You should find and attract talent constantly.
Foundation 2: “Recruiting is just sales with a crummy budget.” John Sullivan’s quote always amuses but it’s true. Recruiting is about sales, competitive positioning, benefit statements, overcoming objections, and meeting candidate’s needs. People do things for their reasons not yours, and this needs to be understood from the onset. People who do not embrace these sales and service principles should not become recruiters—the path will simply be too tough. But remember, as recruiters we are opening up valuable opportunities for people to take the next step in their professional career. This is a great higher purpose and one that not many professions have.
Foundation 3: Recruiting is a business process. As you doubtlessly already know, recruiting involves a number of people, activities, deliverables and outcomes. It gets complicated very quickly, especially with 20 to 30 or more job openings or requisitions on your desk. It is easy to get overwhelmed unless a systematic process is followed. A key lesson from third party firms is the use of a Service Level Agreement that clearly stipulates who does what, when. Expectations are clear from the start. This type of agreement can add a whole new level of professionalism to the recruiting process. At the same time, recruiters need to maintain high-touch with both their candidates and hiring managers. A recruiter cannot lose that approach by being inundated in both the process and the use of technology.
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Foundation 4: Recruiters wear many hats. First and foremost you are a representative of your company. You are the initial impression a candidate has of the company and your authentic excitement about your employer is key. It makes the marketing, sales, communications and psychology of recruiting flow. Project management, consulting and business based decisions will rely on your professional work background. A passion for your company and your career as a recruiter will make daily tasks much more manageable. It’s a dynamic and fulfilling career and you have the opportunity to help your company and your candidates.
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The Recruiting Pipeline There is an art and science to recruiting, and part of the science of recruiting is the mathematics of the recruiting pipeline. The more contacts and prospects you have, the greater the likelihood of getting a top quality candidate. It’s a numbers game, just like any sales process. The art comes back in how to make the numbers more efficient. While these numbers and percentages vary depending on the type of candidate being recruited, it is important to study these relationships and your own particular context. • Names – Anyone who might be interested in the job • Prospects – People who are interested in applying for the job and are willing to consider a new opportunity • Qualified Candidates – People who have solid qualifications for the job • The Top Slate – The top five candidates in terms of both technical and behavioral fit that are passed along by the recruiter to the hiring manager • Hire – The new employee Inexperienced recruiters often think that they don’t have to go through these numbers. They also perhaps think that a candidate is qualified when he or she really is not. This pipeline underscores the value of recruiters developing and maintaining a network of high quality candidates that can be accessed as new jobs come available. With such a network in place, the pipeline begins lower down in the funnel because they are not simply names or prospects, but qualified candidates.
NAMES
100
PROSPECTS
50 20
QUALIFIED CANDIDATES TOP SLATE HIRE
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AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
Metrics Metrics are key to assessing your success, because as recruiting continues to become more strategic, it’s imperative that it is also accountable for results. 1. Efficiency measures. Is the recruiting process working well? Time to hire is often calculated based on when a requisition receives final approval and is activated in your Applicant Tracking System. With this type of system in place, you can understand why its imperative that you constantly have a pool of candidates you can reach as opposed to having to generate a new talent pool each time you have to fill a position. Many organizations strive to keep time to hire to 30 to 45 days. The cost to hire measure assumes that there are systems in place to track the costs of various sourcing techniques such as job boards, social media, university recruiting, referral programs and third party recruiters. These classic recruiting measurements are an important component of your overall recruiting strategy, but they are not the only measurements you should take into consideration. 2. Effectiveness measures. Do we hire people that do a good job? Do we hire people that stay? Do we reduce turnover? The effectiveness metric most often discussed is quality of hire as measured by performance reviews and talent calibration processes. More and more organizations are emphasizing the critical nature of effectiveness measures. Other ways to measure these factors are engagement levels of new hires, turnover rates during the first year and time to competency during the first 60 to 90 days of employment. Quality of hire should be on every recruiting metric list. 3. Human capital measures. Are we attracting high quality candidates and hiring the very best people? These are different questions even from the quality of hire measure, but they are on the top of mind of c-level executives in the organization. While a variety of factors contribute to an organization’s ability to attract and close top candidates, this area is coming under much more intense scrutiny. It would be wise to start experimenting with these new human capital recruiting measures. As Jac Fitz-enz, the international expert on metrics, has said, the number “one” measure is whatever your boss wants to measure. Each organization may have different priorities and requirements, but these are the categories and trends that AIRS hears from a number of clients across different industry segments and types of organizations.
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Recruiting Metrics The following measures may be used within your recruiting organization to determine efficiency and effectiveness.
RECRUITING METRICS Type
Description
Source of Hire
Simple count to associate each hire with a source
Source Yield
Instead of just reviewing the number of applicants per source, use this ratio to determine the actual performance of a source.
Formula
# _________________ of hires from a source # of candidates generated = Source Yield
Time To Fill
From the date a requisition opens to the date an offer is accepted.
Hire Date – Open Date = Time to Fill
Interview to Offer Ratio
Calculation based on the number of interviews per requisition to the number of offers extended.
# of Interviews _________________ # of Offers
Offer to Acceptance Ratio
The number of offers versus the number of acceptances.
# of Offers _________________ # of Acceptances
Cost Per Hire
Calculating the cost of all recruiting expenses and dividing by all hires.
Turnover for new hires
Can be calculated on a monthly and annual basis. Considers the number of separating new hires versus the number of new hires.
# of new hires separating _________________ # of new hires
Sources: http://www.shrm.org/Research/Articles/Articles/Pages/MetricoftheMonthSourceYield.aspx http://www.shrm.org/TemplatesTools/Glossaries/HRTerms/Pages/default.aspx
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CHAPTER THREE PROFILE Why is Profiling Important? Tools: The AIRS® Profiling Guide The Importance of the Soft Skills Working with Hiring Managers Problems That Can Occur The One Thing You Need to Know
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
Why is Profiling Important? A job profile is more than a job requisition. Typical job descriptions focus PROFILE only on the technical requirements for SOURCE a particular job, and while this is useful it is incomplete and can lead to poor CONTACT & SCREEN hires. Part of being a proactive recruiter is working with the hiring manager to MANAGE develop a comprehensive profile and not simply be satisfied with a simple job CLOSE requisition processed by an Applicant LEVERAGE Tracking System. An effective profile includes a much broader yet detailed array of information which is invaluable in the hiring process. A completed profile enables a recruiter to speak in detail with a candidate and be a knowledgeable representative of their company. Being able to answer a variety of candidate questions promptly and with accurate information helps the engagement process begin. Often the “profiling” component of the recruiting process is not formalized. It’s more of a general intake session, in some cases it can be just a conversation. Creating a formalized profiling document will ensure consistent information is obtained, it will save steps and reduce duplication of effort. It will also allow for pre-work to take place when same/similar positions are noted in the budget as opening within the year. Key job profile information includes: • Company and Business Unit • Position • Direct Reports • Peer Group • Behavioral Competencies • Technical Competencies • Sample Performance Appraisal • Detail on possible affiliations, i.e. professional associations
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Profiles can be developed for job families or groups, and then it becomes fairly easy to adjust the profile when a new job opens. This can save time in the hiring process and also lead to better, more qualified candidates. Proactive recruiters have profiles in waiting. And experienced recruiters find that each time they complete this process they will have much more enriched information. Each time you complete a profile for a position within your company, you will become more versed in the dynamics of each position and department. You will enhance your ability to understand quickly where you can locate the talent you need, and additional resources you can tap into. This will be important to avoid mis-hire and early terminations, or worse, the dreaded no-shows on the first day! The cost of a bad hire can be as much as three times a person’s salary.
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Tools: The AIRS® Profiling Guide
THE AIRS® PROFILING GUIDE Profile Components
Criteria
The Company
• Clayton Consulting, Inc • Multi-million IT consulting organization serving the Pacific region • Offers big projects within a small company, supportive environment • Company values innovation, creativity and responsiveness
Business Unit
• Multimedia consulting group is especially creative • Each project is staffed by a project manager and technical consultants from other groups and a multimedia designer • Each project must have its own distinctive graphic identity • Customers place extraordinarily high value on graphic components and user interface; internal Clayton consultants value technical skills more
The Position
• Graphic user interface designer • Key member of cross functional team • Works for project managers on consulting assignments; reports to VP Multimedia • 5 years of senior on line design experience • Customer satisfaction, % of repeat business and if a design award is achieved are key metrics • Competitive salary, based on portfolio
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Behavioral Competencies
Creativity, ability to innovate, ability to synthesize graphic elements, passion, ability to learn from different approaches, teamwork, excellent “right-brain” insights, customer awareness
Technical Competencies
Mastery of Macromedia and Adobe tool sets, quickly develop prototypes, rapid revisions to design alternatives
Other Critical Qualities
Travel to engagement locations
The Most Crucial
Creativity, ability to synthesize different approaches, customer awareness, teamwork and strong technical skills
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
THE AIRS® PROFILING GUIDE Profile Components
Criteria
Business Unit
Interviewing Process Actual Supervisor Position Detail
Technical Competencies
Behavioral Competencies
Minimum Requirements to Hire
Target Competitors
Possible Affiliations/ Associations
Other Critical Qualities
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THE AIRS® PROFILING GUIDE Profile Components Company Profile/ Links
Business Unit
Interviewing Process Actual Supervisor Position Detail
Technical Competencies
Behavioral Competencies
Minimum Requirements to Hire
Target Competitors
Possible Affiliations/ Associations
Other Critical Qualities
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Criteria
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
The Importance of the Soft Skills Profiles are important because they help call attention to the “soft skills” in a job. For so long, job descriptions have been primarily composed of technical skills, experiences and background. This focus is understandable, because the technical skillset will ensure that the candidate can complete the job. But the soft skills will ensure that they can adapt and engage in their new work environment. Work environments in the next decade will be multigenerational, multiracial and multicultural. But increasingly these technical competencies represent more of a baseline or entry level ticket. We now know that an individual’s success in an organization rests largely on cultural fit; 85% of the people that leave an organization do so for cultural and workforce environment issues; 15% leave for technical reasons. There is also significant evidence on the impact of Emotional Intelligence (EI) or the Emotional Quotient (EQ) when considering the effectiveness of employees, managers and leaders.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ATTRIBUTES Attribute
Description
Self-Awareness
Self confidence, realistic self assessment, sense of humor
Self-Regulation
Trustworthiness, integrity, openness to change, comfort with ambiguity
Motivation
Strong drive to achieve, optimism, organization commitment, passion
Empathy
Cross-cultural sensitivity, expertise in building and retaining talent, understanding
Social Skill
Persuasiveness, establish rapport, build networks, leads teams
Organizations such as Southwest Airlines hire for these types of behaviors as opposed to technical competencies. “Hire the best and train for the rest.” There is also strong evidence that effective leaders have twice the EI/EQ as average leaders so the criticalness of these traits becomes even more important as one rises in the organization.
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AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
Working with Hiring Managers Recruiting is a business process that sometimes can become very complex requiring a degree in multi-tasking to manage multiple requisitions, calls, debriefing interviewers and candidates alike and, reference checking and extending offers. Recruiters are at the heart of a successful process and they must have a strong presence and credibility in order to continue to “make things happen”. The recruiter often becomes the central point of contact for many of these activities. If the recruiter does not have strong presence and credibility, the hiring process can break down or be less effective. The primary internal client for recruiters is the hiring manager. Some are experienced in the hiring process; others think they are, while still others recognize their limited expertise in these activities. Some want to be actively involved while others only want to interview the final slate of two or three candidates. Some hiring managers are very clear about their expectations while others leave a great deal unsaid. But most hiring managers are very busy and have not allocated enough time to making the best hiring decisions, even though nothing is more important to their future success. The point is that each hiring manager presents a different set of conditions. Some will require review of legal parameters, i.e. the questions they can and cannot ask. While others will need to be encouraged to become invested in Performance Based Interviewing to better assess candidate experience. Each hiring manager’s experience will be different and your approach will need to be adjusted to accommodate their needs as well as the variability in positions.
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Problems That Can Occur
PROFILING PROBLEMS Profiling Problems That Can Occur
Suggestions
Profile too general
Ask probing questions to get at the real success factors. Get specific and detailed.
Profile too technical
Remember how critical EI/EQ and behavioral competencies are. Expand the job profile, coach the Hiring Manager. Ask about employees successful in the position in the past and what soft qualities they had that made them successful.
Profile too subjective
Gather data from hiring manager and colleague interviews on superior performers and past successful candidates.
Profile is too specific
You are searching for an extremely specialized, hard to find candidate. If the requirements are too stringent and unique, reconvene with the hiring manager to examine the skillset it absolutely takes to do the job.
Hiring manager doesn’t want to be interviewed
There are too many options now not to meet: mobile, Skype, before hours, at lunch, whenever the hiring manager has extra time. Remind them that getting the right hire in place will alleviate the stress and workload on their team.
Unrelated to strategy and business goals
Research diversity goals and interview people on the strategic jobs that should receive top priority.
Hiring manager gives standard answers
Ask probing questions to get at real success factors and hidden cultural factors.
Profile is simply a job description
Training and templates from good profiles are the most useful so that future profiles are more comprehensive and accurate.
Other:
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Activity: What Do You Think? The following job profile has been assigned to you. You have a meeting with your hiring manager in several hours. Make a note of the strengths and weaknesses of this profile, and what questions you might ask your hiring manager.
Sales Manager, New York City, NY Required Qualifications: • Must have a minimum of 2 years of supervisory experience • Must have experience in Digital Media, Digital Marketing or Digital Technology • Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Marketing or related field strongly preferred Desired Skills: • Experience implementing and evaluating sales strategies to exceed departmental revenue, growth and performance standards. • Prior experience developing customer contacts and measures, and audits both individual and overall group results in terms of sales, leads, territory planning, and customer relationship management. • Desire to coach and support employees involved in complex selling situations to help them develop and implement strategies resulting in attainment of sales objectives and meeting/exceeding customer requirements. Focus is primarily on retaining and upwelling the existing customer base in alignment with strategic product migration. • Prior development and implementation of action plans to ensure Account Managers have quality sales, account territory planning and customer service skills. Position Responsibilities: This role is accountable for managing a team of 8-10 Account Managers who each own a module of customers. Coaches and develops Account Managers within the Business Partnership Channel to meet/exceed revenue attainment and performance standards. Implements and evaluates sales strategies to exceed departmental recurring billed revenue, revenue growth and performance standards. • On behalf of employee and customer base, works with post-sales resources including Operations, order entry, billing and repair
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• Identify personal areas for growth and development, and access training or development experiences to address growth areas • Meet weekly with employees to provide one on one coaching • Conduct Weekly funnel calls with Account Manager performance opportunities • Coaches and develops a team of Account Managers • Provides ongoing assessment of Account Manager knowledge, skills and competencies
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Questions for Hiring Manager:
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The One Thing You Need to Know Proactively develop profiles that include technical and behavioral competencies of critical “never out” jobs. This is a primary way for recruiting to become more strategic and less reactive. “Never out” jobs vary with strategy and can change from year to year. It is imperative to understand that profiles for these and all jobs need to be more than technical job descriptions. Behavioral and cultural fits are vital for successful hires.
PROFILE SOURCE CONTACT & SCREEN MANAGE CLOSE LEVERAGE
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CHAPTER FOUR SOURCING Today’s Candidates Pipelining with Google® Gathering Resources Analyzing Job Boards Best of the Web Directory What You Need to Know About Boolean Limiting By Location Social Media… and it’s Place in Recruiting Networking… Natural Steps Sourcing Roadblocks Finding Contact Information Measure Success The One Thing You Need to Know
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
Sourcing Depending on the structure of your department, you may have access to a Sourcer, or you may not. Managing a full life cycle recruiting desk usually includes sourcing, so you need to know how to translate the position’s profile into resources, postings and ultimately candidates. What is sourcing? It consists of multiple activities and any and all of those activities can be part of your ultimate sourcing strategy. • Employee Referral Programs • Job Postings • Job Fairs • University Recruiting • Internet Search • Social Media and Networking
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PROFILE
SOURCE CONTACT & SCREEN MANAGE CLOSE LEVERAGE
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
Today’s Candidates For years recruiters have had on-going debates regarding Active vs. Passive candidates. In their purest form, active candidates are searching for and applying to job postings, using their networks and visiting job fair type events. Passive candidates on the other hand are not looking. Some have no digital footprint whatsoever and you will only uncover them with expert sleuthing, pouring through professional directories, analyzing press releases, and extracting information from company websites. And somewhere in between is the semi-passive candidate. This person may have completed profiles on various professional networks, or have an outdated CV on a major job board. They are present and looking, but not in a dire need to move from their current position.
ACTIVE VS. PASSIVE CANDIDATES Dimension
Active Candidates
Passive Candidates
Ease of finding
Easy, they come to you
Requires specific skills and programs to find excellent passive candidates
Ease of contacting
Easy, they are expecting a conversation
Difficult because they do not know you and are not expecting to be contacted
View of recruiters
Very favorable
Wary
Recruiter’s sales skills
Moderate because candidates have to be sold on the company as a great opportunity
High because candidates must first be engaged and then sold
Audience size
Small, less than 5%
Large; essentially the segment of the labor force in that job category
High quality
Less likely
More likely
Important question
Why are you interested in this job and can you be successful?
What opportunity would excite you and cause you to consider this job?
What this makes us realize, is that the War for Talent continues. All sources must be mined and used, research what works, and document successes as well as failures. So let’s begin at the beginning. You are going to become a hub of knowledge within your recruiting department. You need to prepare for the research you will have to do and with a few simple steps you can easily harness resources and have information and candidates come to you.
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“Pipelining with Google®” A Google account is a great pipelining tool for any recruiter or human resources professional and the best part is that it’s free. Use this Gmail® account to handle all informational emails and social media. Creating an account separate from work email is a way to stay better organized. There are many free options available, but for today’s class use Gmail. With an established Gmail® account it is easy to integrate some additional Google related services that are useful for various recruiting activities.
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Google News is also a great tool for competitive intelligence. Make sure to login to a Google account prior to using this service in order to save personalized results for the future.
After logging into a Goggle account, use the “gear” icon as shown to access “Personalized Google Results.”
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Use applicable industry related keywords to access target news results or names of direct competitors.X
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After adding more categories, click on the “News” button to refresh the page as shown.
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After refreshing the browser, the new category appears on the left sidebar as a new category.
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Google displays results related to each specific categy based on keywords.
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Gathering Resources What types of resources do you need? Job Boards? Directories? Associations? Lists of Competitors? Networking sites?
http://www.airsdirectory.com/mc//directories.guid As AIRS Alumni, you can find multiple resources for your searches at www.airsdirectory.com. If you are in the process of evaluating job boards, consider visiting the directories section. You will find an extensive listing of job boards that is updated and verified annually.
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http://www.airsdirectory.com/mc//directories_jobboards.guid Once you have selected the directory for review you have multiple categories you can scan through or select to search on your own.
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http://www.airsdirectory.com/mc/directories_jobboards.guid?_ind=industry%3Afood_beverage We are doing a general search for Food & Beverage related job boards.
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Related Search
SEARCH STRING: related:careersinfood.com
Quick Tip: Want more job boards similar to one you’ve located? Use the related: command at Google.
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Analyzing Job Boards If you’re new to recruiting, you’ll find yourself surrounded by promotional material. Every job board wants your recruiting budget and your task is to find the one that will deliver the talent you need. You will find, depending on your location and industry, that different job boards may meet your needs. Sometimes you will want something with a international presence like Monster®. You may wish to invest in job board aggregators like Simplyhired or Indeed. And there will be times when you prefer something very niche to address your job posting plan. Make sure you vet your job boards. Ask for demos. Do some research. Sites like Alexa and Traffic Estimate enable you to do just that. They will provide you with a well rounded look at these websites, their demographics and competitors.
Alexa Originally founded in 1996, many recruiters have used Alexa over the years to analyze job boards and more. It has ability to provide statistical information and compare web sites which is very helpful when you are tasked with deciding where to spend your recruiting budget.
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Traffic Estimate Traffic Estimate is another site to assist in your vetting. Newer than Alexa, it often has additional data you may want to have access too, like demographic representation and similar sites. After analyzing traffic to your job boards of choice, consider your tour of the site and don’t forget to access it like a candidate would. You want a complete picture of the site. It never hurts to ask for new user pricing or discounts.
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Best of the Web Directory Now it’s time to see how directories can aid us in our candidate search. We will leverage a site called Best of the Web that has been around since 1994. There are many directories online. With just a few clicks you can find industry related web sites for competitors, associations, etc. We will first click in “Business”. When we click into Business, we are taken to more categories. Since we are looking for B2B marketing experience we will click into “Business to Business.” Under “Business to Business” we now have a variety of categories, but for recruiting purposes we will look at the sub category “Marketing and Advertising.” Below there are several websites listed that are related to Marketing, however we can click into an additional subcategory to further refine our list. We will click into Consulting. Now we have a list of marketing and advertising consulting companies we can add to our sourcing strategy.
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What You Need to Know About Boolean • There are three main Boolean operators – AND, OR, NOT • There are FieldSearch commands that assist you in cutting through results to find the specific information you need. - intitle: - inurl: • XRay is an AIRS technique used to extract information from a website’s indexed web pages. - site: • FlipSearch is an AIRS technique used to find pages linked to a specific website. - link: • Keywords will aid you in developing robust search strings. It is imperative to change your keywords and think like your candidates, not just your hiring managers.
SEARCH ENGINE BOOLEAN OPERATORS AND MODIFIERS Command
Google®
Exalead®
Bing®
Ask.com®
AND
Default
Default
Default
Default
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
NOT
- (minus)
- (minus)
NOT or - (minus)
- (minus)
“ “
“exact phrase”
“exact phrase”
“exact phrase”
“exact phrase”
()
Not necessary
(OR)
(OR)
(OR)
*
Wildcard
n/a
n/a
Wildcard
SEARCH ENGINE FIELD SEARCH COMMANDS Command
Google®
Exalead®
Bing®
Ask.com®
Word in the Title
intitle:
intitle:
intitle:
intitle:
Word in the URL
inurl:
inurl:
n/a
inurl:
FlipSearch
n/a
link:
n/a
n/a
XRay
site:
site:
site:
site:
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So now that we know the commands that come into play when constructing Boolean search strings, let’s consider some template search strings you can use on a regular basis. Template search strings to uncover candidate information: • (intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) keyword keyword keyword • site:domain.xxx keyword keyword keyword • “*@domain.xxx” keyword keyword Let’s test each one to see how it is beneficial to our sourcing.
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SEARCH STRING: (intitle:profile OR inurl:profile) “sales manager” “account management” (“digital media” OR “digital marketing” OR “digital technology”) (“new york” OR ny) -jobs This classic PowerSearch string uncovers plenty of results. Let’s look at one.
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SEARCH STRING: site:org “sales manager” “account management” organization (people OR staff) (“digital media” OR “digital marketing” OR “digital technology”) (“new york” OR ny) -job -apply -submit With this search, we are examining top level domains for organizational sites. The top level domain is the final part of the internet domain name and is commonly displayed as .com, .edu or .org. We are capable of examining a variety of domains that bring back results of speakers or members from Organizations focused around sales.
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SEARCH STRING: “*@us.ibm.com” “sales manager” -jobs We are making use of the * which is considered a wildcard at Google. This particular Boolean modifier functions exclusively at Google and acts as a placeholder. It is holding a place for the employee name, however it may be structured. It also looks for email within proximity of our keywords, which in this case is a job title. NOTES
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SEARCH STRING: “*@us.ibm.com” “sales manager” -jobs These are amazing results; we’ve uncovered many contacts from IBM.
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Limiting By Location When limiting your searches to a particular geographic area, take into consideration defining elements like cities, states and area codes. Think within a region and be flexible. We are living in a “mobile phone” generation which means we need to keep in mind surrounding areas we can include in our sourcing strategy. One of the best resources to find telephone area codes is NANPA - the North American Numbering Plan Administration.
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Social Media… and it’s Place in Recruiting Social Media is an amazing phenomenon. Blogs, professional networking sites, social networking sites, microblogs, video and photo sites are all part of the social media spectrum. We can use these sites to share information about our company and job openings but also use our search techniques to extract user profiles. Social Media enables us to find and virtually engage with talent. And, in the spirit of networking, Social Media provides us with tools to keep candidates “warm”. We add them to our LinkedIn network, follow them on Twitter or friend them on Facebook to have another method of keeping in touch and apprised of company developments and new opportunities. Let’s consider some of the main players in this arena. Some of the sites you should think about integrating into your recruiting initiative are LinkedIn®, Plaxo®, Google+®, Facebook®, Twitter®, Flickr®, YouTube®, Vimeo®, Xing®, Viadeo, Spoke and MySpace®. If you have the opportunity to create or contribute to a company blog, take advantage of that too. Your goal as a recruiter is to be findable and to make your company attractive to talent. You want candidates that search on your company in a search engine to not only find company information, but find you too.
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SOCIAL MEDIA SITES LinkedIn®
LinkedIn has been a part of AIRS training since the site began and currently boasts more than 160 million profiles. It is a great place to build your network, advertise jobs and find talent.
Plaxo®
Plaxo is another force to be reckoned with in the Professional Networking space. With much of the functionality of LinkedIn, it has also incorporated a “pulse” and is very well indexed by search engines making it easily accessed with the XRay technique. Consider it an excellent site to back up your LinkedIn network.
Facebook®
Facebook is legendary within social networking. More and more recruiting professionals take the time to build profile pages specifically for their recruiting life, or in some cases, fan pages. It is another way to reach out to candidates, and push information at a very low cost.
Twitter®
Twitter made famous by the short “Tweet” that enabled users to communicate in short frequent messages of 140 characters or less.
Xing®
Xing is a professional business network that is most popular in Europe as it’s a German based company; however can be leveraged to locate candidates globally. Currently Xing has more than 11 million members.
Viadeo
Viadeo is a Professional Networking site owned and operated in France mainly; however currently has more than 40 million members globally including many in the US.
Spoke
Spoke is another large Professional Networking site with the majority of its members located in the US. Currently they have more than 60 million profiles we can search.
MySpace®
MySpace is one of the front-runners in Social Media as it was launched back in 2003. MySpace currently has over 100 million profiles many of which are based in the US. It can still be considered a viable site to find passive candidates.
Media Sharing Sites
Flickr®, YouTube® and Vimeo® all allow recruiters to “show” candidates what they can offer, whether it is accessibility by their presence at job fairs and conferences or a concentration on company benefits and community involvement. These three sites make it easy for a company to visually represent what they do and who they are.
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Google+®
https://plus.google.com/ Google Plus launched in mid-2011 as an integration across other Google products such as Google Buzz and Google Profiles. Some former users of Buzz & Profiles now route directly to Google Plus.
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YouTube®
http://www.youtube.com Use YouTube and Vimeo to communicate what it’s like to work at your company, and what your hiring needs are. Today’s candidates are the most computer literate ever and they will research your company everywhere, make sure you are accessible and branding your company on a variety of sites. Do not forget to login to a Gmail account when finding potential talent on YouTube as this is one site that allows free user to user messaging.
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Networking… Natural Steps As recruiters, we have it ingrained upon us to pass on business cards as we meet peers and candidates alike. In today’s social media climate, make sure you give your new acquaintances another way to connect beyond email. Think about adding a LinkedIn, Plaxo or Facebook address to your business card. Also, if your company has taken steps to participate in Social Media, make sure you reference where candidates can learn more about the company online. A best practice would be to include links in the email signature of your corporate account. If you’ve gathered cards, follow up with everyone in at least 36 hours. Connect and add them to your LinkedIn and Plaxo networks. Provide them with some information they can use. Share additional opportunities you’ve heard about. Most importantly, keep the conversations going. Your goal here is to keep your new connections warm and also to create rapport to develop a pipeline of referrals as well.
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Sourcing Roadblocks Sometimes sourcing is incredibly easy; with a simple Boolean search you can locate exactly who you need, when you need them. But sometimes it is not that simple. Here are some suggestions for typical roadblocks you may encounter.
SOURCING ROADBLOCKS Roadblock
Suggestions
Unclear Requirements
Expand your skillset keywords. Meet with the Hiring Manager and clarify the absolutely required skills and restructure your searches.
Use Only One Search Engine
If everyone goes to Google, everyone will be looking at the same talent pool. The reality is that each search engine delivers different results. Take advantage of Google, Ask.com, Bing, Exalead and metasearch engines to cover as much of the internet as you can.
Not Enough Candidates
Re-evaluate the profile. Is the focus too narrow? Are there any requirements that are truly preferred qualifications? Try competitor name generation techniques too.
Old Information
PeerSearch and use tools like Pipl.com, Webmii, etc. to generate more current information.
Not Attracting the Best Candidates
Re-evaluate. If you are looking for executive level candidates within a particular industry, should you really be using a job board?
Candidates “Fail” at the Interview
Create pre-screen questions that weed out candidates that don’t have the full body of knowledge needed.
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Finding Contact Information It can be frustrating to find the name of a possible lead and have no telephone number or email to use to establish contact. It can be maddening to locate this information, but there are some good techniques that shortcut this process. Think logically. If you can determine the company’s email structure, use that and send an email blind. For example, if you know BP typically uses
[email protected], you can quickly ship off an email. Use a search engine, like Google. Input the person’s name and search for an email address. Try including an “@” in your search string. Also try variations of the person’s name. Even better, take advantage of sites like Pipl, Webmii®, Jigsaw and any number of professional networking hubs to find contact information.
Jigsaw Use Jigsaw to find lists of contacts that are related to other candidates already found.
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Measure Success It is critically important to track your success. You want to be able to show return on your investment. Many companies are fortunate enough to have an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) in place which will aid you in tracking: • Source • Time-To-Fill • Percent of Hire • Quality of Hire Your Human Resource Information System (HRIS) will further enable you to evaluate: • Turnover in first year • Turnover in department
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The One Thing You Need To Know Sourcing is a skill you need to practice. You can automate much of it, and should to keep current information at your fingertips. But take time each day, even if it’s only 15 minutes to test resume searches on different search engines or plug some of those names you’ve found in to a site like Webmii.com.
PROFILE
SOURCE CONTACT & SCREEN MANAGE CLOSE LEVERAGE
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CHAPTER FIVE CONTACT AND SCREEN Why are Contacting and Screening Important? Types of Contacting Activities Communication Guidelines Why is Communication Important? Questions: The Crux of the Process Cold Calling Key Points of Cold Calling The Telephone Screen Setting up the Telephone Screen Conducting the Telephone Screen Contacting Problems that Can Occur The One Thing You Need to Know
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
Why Are Contacting and Screening Important? Since this may be the first time the recruiter actually speaks to the PROFILE candidate, it is important to establish SOURCE the right rapport and relationship from the start. As critical as candidate first CONTACT impressions are with hiring managers, we as recruiters have to constantly put MANAGE our best foot forward. It is important to not only “sell” your company, but to CLOSE listen to your candidate and to adopt LEVERAGE the mindset of “Always Be Closing”. You want to listen to the candidate to be fully aware of what they are looking for as well as evaluating if they are a good fit for your company.
& SCREEN
The recruiting process now moves from a list of potential candidates that have been sourced to qualified candidates that are a good match to the job. This is an extremely important part of the process. Earlier we focused on the Profiling process. In depth analysis of the skills and background required for our job opening enabled us to create job descriptions to attract talent. Now it is time to screen the talent, first visually to assess that they have the required skills on their CV and then verbally, to have them detail their experience. Pre-screens, often via telephone or video, are important to accurately assess a candidate’s background prior to scheduling additional interviews with the hiring team. It is paramount that you structure questions that will give you insight into your candidates background and skill level as well as apply these questions consistently to all candidates. We would be remiss if we didn’t use a variety of sourcing tools to find and attract candidates. Keep in mind the more public the source, the more likely you will receive candidate spam, i.e. those that are performing a mass job application. Employee Referral Programs and targeted internet sourcing techniques are more likely to yield qualified candidates that meet your industry focused need.
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Types of Contacting Activities There are four broad types of contacting activities that occur throughout the recruiting process. 1. The initial contact between the recruiter and candidate. This could occur during the sourcing stage or during the subsequent telephone screen depending on the sourcing method being used. These days your initial contact could be a call, email, tweet or even a message on Facebook. The goal of this contacting activity is to develop a positive relationship that should exist throughout the entire recruiting cycle. Without this positive rapport, recruiting becomes difficult if not impossible. Before sending out any written contact, proof it, make sure you are accurately describing the reason for initiation and set a follow-up date and time. 2. Cold calling. This is a specialized form of contacting that is part of the sourcing process. Cold calling is when a recruiter gets on the telephone, follows leads and solicits passive candidates. The goal of this contacting activity is to identify and generate more qualified candidates for the company. In today’s technology driven environment it is easier than ever to generate a name to get the cold calling process started. Even more important is developing the skill to engage people that don’t know you and get them to reveal the people you need to know. 3. The telephone screen. During this form of contact the recruiter determines if a candidate is qualified for the position. Questions are asked over the telephone, and based on responses, a decision is made whether the candidate remains a prospect or becomes a qualified candidate. It is important to create structured questions that will assess the minimum requirements needed to perform the job. If hiring a programmer, seek out types of work they have done before, have them describe, verify languages used, etc. The more accurate your initial screening is, the more likely you will make correct selections to move on to the hiring team. The initial contact and telephone screen may occur at the same time or be separate conversations. 4. Continuing communications. These contacts include a whole range of communications throughout the recruiting and hiring cycle. Increase your accessibility and reach, after speaking with a candidate, connect to them on LinkedIn As they reach out with additional questions and concerns give them a variety of ways to reach you, but keep it focused in arenas you can easily control like email, telephone and professional networks. Candidates, whether hired or not, can become part of your referral pool. Throughout the hiring process your goal is to keep candidates informed and knowledgable all the way, whether hired or rejected.
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Communication Guidelines Regardless of the type of contacting activity, they all involve personal communication. It is useful to remember guidelines about both effective communication and sales principles because they are so fundamental to all recruiting activities.
SALES GUIDELINES • Every conversation is a sales conversation • People do things for their reasons, not yours • Visualize yourself in the other person’s situation • Think in terms of benefits, not features or functions • Each person values different things
COMMUNICATIONS GUIDELINES • Be prepared • Be positive and confident • Be personal and specific • Listen attentively • Control the conversation using questions • Remember that a great deal of meaning comes from body language and tone of voice. Actions can speak louder than words • Be sincere and honest • Stay in control • End strongly
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Why is Communication Important? You want to sell your company and share all the positive aspects of working there. But it is also important, for your hire to be successful, to have a realistic picture of what it is like to work at your company. If it is typical to have long work days during project deadlines, let that be known. If compensatory time comes into play for long hours, let that be known. Explain it all, but end on a positive note.
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Questions: The Crux of the Process The most important way for a recruiter to control the conversation and find out needed information is through the questions that are asked. Most people think that control is accomplished by performing well rehearsed speeches, but it is best accomplished through questioning. Questions keep the focus on the candidate and should yield valuable information to inform the qualification decision. There are several guidelines about the best use of questions. Establish rapport from the beginning, pleasantries are pleasant, but really should be just a small part of the conversation. Unless you’re on a cold call, you will have some type of biographical information to review regarding your candidate. Preparation is important. It will afford you the opportunity to segue into a real conversation and demonstrate your genuine interest in the candidate and not make it appear that this candidate is just one of many you are screening. Create open ended questions, follow-up on loose ends and maintain control of the conversation. Close ended questions can be used to confirm statements, or to tie out a specific topic of conversation. While the difference between closed and open ended questions may seem trivial, in reality they are actually quite significant. Closed ended questions are those that can be answered by one word, usually yes or no. An example is “Is this job similar to the last position you held? The answer here is either yes or no, and it usually halts the flow of the conversation. An open ended or probing question requires the responder to supply more information such as: “Please describe the similarities between your current job and this new position.” This requires a much different level of response from the candidate.
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But closed ended questions do have their role and purpose. They reconfirm important decisions and help recruiters to test assumptions and features of the offer letter. Some very beneficial closed ended questions are: • Do you see any obstacles to accepting this position? • I assume that if we fix this issue, you will agree to the offer? • So international travel is not a problem, is that right? • As I understand your top three priorities are challenging work, career development opportunities and a comprehensive medical benefit package, is that correct?
USEFUL OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS • Explain the specific skills you have that will enable you to be successful in this role? • What type of challenges did you face in your previous job? • How would you like your next job to challenge you? • If you could custom design your next job, what would it be like? • What prompted your interest in this job? • What would you be able to contribute to our team? • What kind of qualities are you expecting? • What would your former co-workers describe as your strengths?
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Cold Calling Cold calling is oftentimes a standard activity in a recruiters day. Many recruiters would rather have a telephone in hand than access to the internet! We can define cold calling as an opportunity to make contact with a person we don’t know to see if A) they would be interested in the opening we have available and B) determine if they can refer us to the right individual if they are not available. Even if you are an online networking genius, there will be assignments that dictate you cold call candidates. It is a numbers game. Know that the more people you call, the more leads you will generate. And, if you can make the conversations that are paramount to your cold calling success natural and engaging, it will become easier and easier to complete them with positive results. A true cold call is contacting a candidate that has not applied to your company for a job. They quite often are completely unaware that you have an opening and they might even be currently employed by one of your competitors. Obviously it’s much more comfortable to contact people “we know”.
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Key Points of Cold Calling • Be Confident. Remember you are your company’s advocate. You know that you have an awesome opportunity to work for a highly respected employer that is supportive of its employees. • Be Genuine. Introduce yourself. If you talk fast, slow down. Don’t mislead a candidate to gain their interest. Your cold call can be the first step in a long recruiting relationship. Put your best foot forward. • Be Conscientious. If you are calling into a work environment, determine if they can speak with you. Try to pursue the opportunity immediately, but realize some candidates are in a cubicle or open office environments that don’t lend themselves to discrete discussions. • Be Service Oriented. You are bringing the opportunity to the candidate. Know your opportunity. Have web references easily accessible. Offer to email more information. • Listen. Ask open ended questions and listen to the answers. • Interested? Have a quick screen readily available. This should be a brief 5 minute screen that can lead to the scheduling of a much more detailed interview. • Not Interested? Before you get off telephone and move on to your next prospect, offer to connect online. The prospect that isn’t interested today may be interested tomorrow, the week after, or the month after. Connecting online enables you to positively promote your openings with a soft sell. • Seek Out Referrals. Whether a prospect is interested or not, ask for referrals. Let your prospect participate in the opportunity to “pay it forward”.
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Typical Conversation Model • Opening • Purpose of call • Positive reaction? Pre-qualifying questions • Not interested? Ask to connect online and seek referrals. • Indicate next steps • Appreciative Close
Is Cold Calling Easy? No. It’s not. You need to be prepared to face rejection. You will also face gatekeepers that you will need to work around. But practice and perseverance will yield success.
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The Telephone Screen In today’s marketplace, the telephone screen has become an essential element in the hiring process. You will perform these with every position you have in your queue, and will standardize the questions. As positions dictate, you’ll incorporate specific skill-set evaluation questions, and those will be necessary to assess the candidates level of expertise before forwarding them on to the hiring manager for review. This is your moment as a recruiter to shine, not only at selling your company but at asking questions and listening to the answers. Consider developing your questions around these key concepts after describing the position: • Is the candidate on the job market? • Are they ready to make a move now? * I f you find they are not on the job market now, that’s okay. Turn the conversation into a referral call. You want to find someone just like them, do they know anyone on the market? Offer to connect on LinkedIn in case they think of anyone at a later date. This will keep the communication going, grow your network, and, when they accept your invitation give you a peek into their connections list. • What is motivating them to make a change? • What do they feel are their relevant qualifications and achievements? Any similarities between their current job and the one they are applying for? • What skills does the candidate have that the job opening requires? Which do they feel are their strengths? How can they validate those skills? • What is motivating the candidate to look for a new opportunity? Does the job and the company match their needs? • Discuss compensation. What are they making now. What is their expectation to make a move. • Begin a close. If this is a candidate that you are sure will be moving on to the next step, highlight how their motivations, interests and skills match up with your company and the opening. Depending on the level of the position, initial telephone screens can take 5 to 30 minutes. When you set a time to speak with a candidate, set a reasonable expectation. They may be calling you from work and need to be able to end the call at a specific time. Be conscientious and respectful of their needs.
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Setting up the Telephone Screen The key is preparation and practice. Remember, this part of the process is key to eliminating candidates that are not a fit for the job’s requirements. Structure and consistency are important to ensure fairness to all candidates. Take the time to create a template telephone screen, we have included a sample in the appendix. With each job requisition you will have supplemental questions that are unique to evaluate skill and level, but most of the core questions will be the same. Document candidate answers as accurately as possible. Observations on behavior, attitude, etc., should be held to the end of the evaluation in the summary. Prepare your environment, whether you are in a cube at the office, or on the telephone at home: • Set up your space • Wear a headset • Choose the best time for calling • Block out concentrated periods of time • Set your telephone to voice mail and don’t check e-mail • Compose your voice mail message to leave when no one answers • Have a comfortable place to record answers on the protocol form • Have a very good understanding of the job and critical requirements • Anticipate questions, and have options at the ready to direct the candidate to online if possible Practice is a great teacher. If you are a new recruiter, are working with a new or different hiring manager or are recruiting for a different type of position, it is very beneficial to connect with a mentor and role play or practice telephone screens. Consider sitting in on your peers telephone screens to get the feel for the flow of conversation, standard questions to ask, and effective transitions.
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Conducting the Telephone Screen Now it’s time to get on the telephone. Remember the sales and communication guidelines that were presented earlier and apply these whenever possible. Remember the goals of the telephone screen and your ultimate objective. The context of this call is that an individual has either applied for the job and is therefore waiting for this call, or is a passive candidate and has indicated an interest in talking further. The typical telephone screen process is as follows: Greeting: Friendly and positive introduction. Provide your name, position and company. Look for a connection to build rapport; examples would be the company, location or recent event in the area. Don’t ask bland, generic questions such as “How are you today?” The greeting should last no more than 15 or 20 seconds. Candidates want to get to the substance of the call. Purpose: This is a clear statement about the purpose of the call, the position being discussed, and the importance of seeing fit between the candidate’s skills, abilities and interests and the requirements of the job. Let the candidate know that the telephone interview should take no more than eight to ten minutes. Remember that the greeting and purpose statements are very different for active and passive candidates. Active candidates are waiting to hear from you, while passive candidates are not, you need to communicate why they want to hear from you. You may have to ask some questions to determine what they want first. Example for active candidate: “Luke, my name is Kirk Mace and I am the Lead Recruiter for Jasper & Sons. I see you have submitted an application for our consulting group, would now be a good time to have a brief conversation regarding your interest in our opening?” Example for a passive candidate: “Richard, my name is Jamie Organa and your name was given to me by Logan Sherman as someone who is truly an excellent Molecular Biologist. My company, ENW Labs, is actively seeking a lead scientist for its new research project that has just received full funding from three large international foundations. This is an incredible opportunity and I was very excited when Logan gave me your name. Would you have time to discuss our opening and answer a few questions about your experience?”
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Qualifying Questions: Refer to your prepared protocol. It’s easy to get into the first question by saying something like “Let’s start with an obvious question: are you still interested in this job?” This is a soft way to get into the session and continue to build rapport. The majority of probes come in the questions on previous jobs, relevant skills and valuable strengths. Make sure that time is left to identify what’s most important to the individual and what can get the person passionate and committed to the company. The compensation discussion is also usually fairly brief, but don’t side step this issue because it will negatively reflect on your abilities as a recruiter. Direct conversations about compensation tend to enhance the candidate experience. Let them know that there is a full package of benefits and monetary compensation in play. Clarify what they have now and what they want. Q&A Opportunities: Provide opportunities to answer any questions that the candidate may have. This helps to establish a dialog and demonstrates an interest in the individual. This is also the time where you can highlight the perks of working at your company as well as the reality of being there. Detail the culture and work environment so the candidate knows what it’s really like. Appreciative Close: Thank the candidate for his/her time and interest, let them know the next steps in the process, be open to future contact, and reinforce that you will be in contact with them soon. Remember to follow up with an email or connect on your professional network of choice.
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Contacting Problems that Can Occur
CONTACTING PROBLEMS THAT CAN OCCUR Problem
Suggestions
Not enough qualified candidates
Pipeline issue; go back to sourcing to get more candidates in the funnel.
Poorly qualified candidates
Probably a profile issue; may have the wrong profile or possibly the telephone screen is letting in under qualified candidates. Re-assess with the hiring manager the “must have” requirements and detail the questions to eliminate the unqualified.
Candidates losing interest in applying for the position
A candidate management or communications issue. The recruiter may not have established a strong rapport to be able to understand the most important motivations for the candidate. Let your candidates know where they are in the process, next steps and expected timeline for follow up. Clear expectations and follow through on your part ensures a quality candidate experience.
Too much time spent on poor candidates
Classic problem. Do a better job in qualification. Spend time only with the top candidates. Don’t get distracted by unrelated conversations and complete all of your skillset qualification questions. If something is unclear, clarify before closing the telephone interview.
Takes too long to fill positions
Client management or qualification issue. If a telephone screen really yields top candidates, the process should work much more quickly. Keep in contact with your hiring manager on availability, schedule candidates within a reasonable time of telephone interviewing to continue interest and engagement.
Turnover rate is high for first year hires
Share in the interview process the real expectations of the job. If a performance appraisal form is available, give the candidate an idea of what they’ll be evaluated against.
Other
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Activity: Screening Potential Candidates and E-Mailing a Passive Candidate After researching profiles on the professional networking site Viadeo.com you locate two potential prospects for the following job description. Which appears to be a better match? Create a greeting, purpose and a few qualifying questions to use in a call with this candidate.
Brand Manager – Santa Clara, CA This is a senior role within the Line of Business Marketing Team. A central team that supports the local marketing teams. The successful candidate will be responsible for the Go To Market strategy for new products , the medium/long-term strategic planning and development, and the business management of the Workstation LOB for all Channels. Workstations are sold in all channels but with a focus on small business, medium business and Channel. Part of the business is marcom driven but the majority is sales driven. Engaging sales & local marketing and supplying them with the right tools is critical to be successful in this role. Specifically, the individual will have responsibility for delivering the product, message and marketing strategy for profitable growth of Workstations. The individual will be responsible for defining the strategy including: • Quarterly business plans including financial goals, promotional roadmap, partnerships, programs plans, Channel plans, go to market plans etc. • Reporting back to the organization on business results including action plans to address the situation • Messaging • Go to market strategy • End to end product launches including training, PR, social media, online, sales etc. • Segmentation • Manage the information flow towards and from the marketing managers and business development managers • The individual will be responsible for working with other functions e.g. Local marketing & merchandising, Sales, Central marketing, Online and Creative Agencies, to merchandise these offerings across all demand generation vehicles including print media, Online Demand Generation (Email, Affiliates, Banner Adverting and Search), companyXYZ.com and sales. Bringing these offers to market in a customer focused, timely and effective manner will be a key measure of success.
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• A key part of the role is to engage with regional marketing & business development managers to ensure they have the latest information on business performance, marketing activities, LOB strategy, roadmaps and status of products going to market. • The preferred candidate will have solid business acumen and will have strong communication skills - both verbal and written. They will be comfortable dealing with ambiguity and will have the ability to influence individuals from multiple functions to rapidly solve business challenges. They will have a solid understanding of how the Direct and Channel Business operates and have shown the ability to solve complex business challenges through creative thinking. Experience with developing marketing programs for medium business and Channel is essential. Qualifications: • Extensive professional experience including significant time in Marketing, Business Development or other similar functional areas • Knowledge of the Small and Medium Business Electronics industry and/or another rapidly changing, fast-paced market environment • Experience with Medium business and/or Channel marketing • Experience with Workstation marketing and/or Sales • A passion for Technology • Ability to work in a rapidly changing environment • Ability to make rapid business decisions based off data analysis • Ability to drive results through others • Solid Business Analysis skills • Ability to present and communicate effectively up to the Executive level Key Competencies:
• Business Acumen • Financial Acumen • Customer Focus • Creativity and Innovation • Drive for Results • Dealing with Ambiguity • Organizational Agility
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Candidate one: William Chin Brand Manager from Hewlett Packard®, a direct competitor with 7 years of experience in Marketing and Brand Management for their computer LOB. William has an MBA with a focus in Marketing.
Candidate two: Emily Dubois Brand Manager from Intel with 12 years of experience in Marketing and Brand Management for their Server Processor LOB. Emily has a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from an Ivy League University and speaks fluent Spanish which is not required but would be an additional value being so close to to the Latin American Market. Draft a greeting, purpose and a few qualifying questions to use in a call with the candidates:
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Situation Two: Contacting a Passive Candidate via E-Mail You are still looking for a Brand Manager for the Mid-Atlantic and Canadian region of our PC product line. In one of your conversations, a great candidate suggested that you look at Plaxo to identify some top performers. You have done this and have found Ken Larsen who happens to work for the company’s main competitor. You have not been able to reach Ken by telephone so you are writing this e-mail in the hopes of initiating contact. Draft your e-mail to him.
Tips for E-mail: Draw the candidate in. Give them links to your openings, and all of your contact information. Remember to follow up if no response is received, your email could’ve hit their spam filter. Do you have an alternate plan? What site have we already discussed in class that could yield more information when all you have is a name and email?
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The One Thing You Need to Know Any type of communication is important. It sets expectations and conveys an image of the company and yourself. It builds a rapport with the candidate that is vital in being able to understand what is important to each person. Often the most powerful communication tool is the question. Develop a set of open and close ended questions that you can use and reuse in conversations, interviews and screens. Also remember that a great deal of meaning is conveyed by non-verbal communication, especially body language and tone of voice.
PROFILE SOURCE
CONTACT & SCREEN MANAGE CLOSE LEVERAGE
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CHAPTER SIX MANAGE Why is Managing Important? Candidate Management Further Candidate Management... Client Management Service Level Agreements Managing Problems That Can Occur The One Thing You Need to Know
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
Why is Managing Important? There are a lot of moving parts in the recruiting cycle. Different people, milestones, expectations, unanticipated events and outcomes all need to be coordinated and staged properly. This is hard enough with five key jobs, let alone 20, 30 or 40 open requisitions at a time. Each activity or step in recruiting is not some mechanical or procedural step, they are all important because they involve decisions about people’s goals, abilities and dreams.
PROFILE SOURCE CONTACT & SCREEN
MANAGE CLOSE LEVERAGE
At this part of the cycle, the recruiter works like a Project Manager. It requires being organized and detailed with a strong emphasis on follow through and implementation. Among the moving parts: • Multiple jobs • Multiple candidates • Multiple hiring managers • Roles and responsibilities of each participant • Milestones and deliverables • Schedules • Expectations and Service Level Agreements Part of taking a more business-based approach is to examine the recruiting process, its strong and weak points in the search of continuous improvement. Gather data and discover what works, what takes too long and where improvements can be made. Toyota has had success in the automotive industry not only through lean production policies or systems, but the work on individual production teams (who knows best what works) to continuously challenge convention and seek better ways to improve quality and reduce cycle time. Recruiters can do the same thing.
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Activity: Group Discussion – How have you been managed as a candidate? We have all been in the situation of being recruited and starting a new job. What was this experience like? How well informed were you? What did you expect and what actually happened? What did the recruiter do that you felt was very helpful? Notes:
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Candidate Management What do you think candidates expect? What causes them to be anxious or nervous about the series of interviews and meetings they are going to experience? How can you help them through the process as smoothly and effortlessly as possible? As the primary source of contact for candidates, the recruiter plays a vital role in managing expectations and properly preparing candidates for interviews and the next stage in the hiring process.
WHAT CANDIDATES WANT TO KNOW • The steps in the recruiting process • When and how decisions will be made • What the hiring team is looking for • Feedback on his or her candidacy • The hiring manager’s qualities and requirements • The company culture • When the final decision will be made
An important part of candidate management is the evaluation of what was effective and what needs improvement. Business leaders are always looking for data on how to improve quality, process and outcomes. Recruiters should have a similar approach. AIRS has developed a sample candidate satisfaction survey that should be part of the continuous improvement process for recruiters. This survey can be distributed in hard copy, or consider taking advantage of one of the many survey sites online and integrate it into your hiring program.
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THE CANDIDATE SATISFACTION SURVEY EXAMPLE We are extremely pleased that you have joined ________________________________. Our success as a company is our talent and you are a great addition. We continually work to improve the hiring process so that it can better serve candidates and the company alike. Please take a few minutes and provide us with feedback and guidance to enhance this most important process. Your response will be held anonymous. All candidates who complete this form are automatically entered into a quarterly drawing to win a dinner for two. Thank you again for your assistance and good luck.
The position you interviewed for:
Talent Acquisition Manager
1. How did you learn about the open position? a. Job posting b. Job board c. Company career site d. Campus recruitment
X e. Contacted by internal recruiter f. Contacted by external recruiter g. Other: 2. Overall, how would you rate your experience during the hiring process? a. Excellent b. Good
X c. Average d. Poor e. Terrible
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3. What are the three top reasons that you decided to join our company? 1.
The opportunity to join a company expanding internally is exciting
2.
Fast moving, fast paced company
3.
Strong reporting relationship to VP of Talent Management, not HR
4. What did you particularly like about the process and experience? 1.
Friendly people
2.
Quick process
3.
Brief negotiation was handled professionally
5. What improvements can you suggest?
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1.
Interview questions not that great. Little coordination among interviewers.
2.
Did not use other assessment techniques
3.
Job expectations not fully explained
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
6. Please rate the following specific factors: Factor
Terrible
Poor
Average
Good
Quality of information about the company Expectations clearly established
X X
Communication throughout the selection process
X
Ample opportunity to present my own qualifications and ideas Seamless flow of activities
X X
Questions were answered quickly and completely
X
Length of the selection and hiring process Interviews were systematic and fair
Excellent
X X
Interviews were conducted on time
X
Rapport with the recruiter
X X
Rapport with the hiring manager Offer package was clearly explained
X
Follow through from recruiter
X
Follow through from hiring manager
?
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7. How many interviewers did you meet? a. 1 to 3
X b. 4 to 6 c. 7 to 10 d. More than 10 8. To what extent did you come away from the hiring process convinced that you could make a significant impact in the company? a. Completely
X b. Mostly c. Somewhat d. Not much at all 9. To what extent do you believe that this job is a great fit for your abilities and the company’s needs and culture? a. Completely
X b. Mostly c. Somewhat d. Not much at all
Thanks again for your candid insights and recommendations. We are committed to continually improving the selection and hiring process. If you wish to register for the quarterly prize, please provide the following information. Name:____________________________________________________________________ Phone:__________________________________________
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Further Candidate Management... Quite often Companies will run special hiring events. This may include Job Fairs, University Interviewing Events, On-Site Professional Interviewing Events, Online Job Fairs, etc. It is important to evaluate your event at the end of the day. Before a candidate leaves, ask them to complete a short survey to evaluate the time spent with your company. It will assist your company in viewing the event from the candidate’s perspective and assist in making your process more enjoyable for everyone.
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Client Management An often overlooked part of the recruiter’s responsibility is client management. Because recruiters are often the first point of contact for candidates, this management responsibility is clear. Client management is no less important, and in many cases the more difficult challenge. The key client “customer” is the hiring manager. There are other second-level internal customers such as those involved in the interview process, but the hiring manager is principal. Many hiring managers are excellent assets in the recruiting process. They view their job as being just as much of a recruiter as you are. They recognize the importance of talent, designate interview time, are good at assessing talent and act quickly when speed is of the essence. They are real partners in recruiting activities and take their responsibilities seriously. All hiring managers do not, however, have all of these qualities. In fact some may be challenging, but most are just too busy or inexperienced. The following are typical hiring manager challenges • Too busy • Hard to schedule time for discussions and interviews • Doesn’t accept responsibility for his/her role and commitments • Not trained to be an effective interviewer • Not acting quickly enough • Doesn’t understand the importance of recruiting top talent Some of these issues are controllable by better information, training and honest discussions. Attitudes, when encountered, are more difficult to overcome. In this case your manager should become part of the solution.
WHAT HIRING MANAGERS WANT TO KNOW • The steps in the recruiting process • Specific responsibilities and commitments • Schedule and decision dates • How vital this candidate is • The key benefit and selling points for the candidate • How quickly decisions must be made
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THE QUALITY HIRING SURVEY EXAMPLE We are committed to making the recruiting and hiring process as effective as possible. Your feedback and insights are crucial to achieving this goal. Please take a few minutes to answer these questions as they relate to your recent experience as part of the team that hired (name of new hire) 1. Overall, how would you rate the quality of hiring experience that you have just participated in? a. Excellent
X b. Good c. Average d. Poor e. Terrible 2. What did you particularly like about the process and experience?
We got an excellent person so the end result was terrific Overall process was not smooth Took too long
3. What improvements can you suggest?
Better process Stronger role by recruiter, not sure he added any value Hard to schedule interviews with everyone’s busy schedule
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4. Please rate the following specific factors: Factor
Terrible
Poor
Average
Clarity of expectations and roles
X
Recruiters knowledge of the market
X
Recruiters rapport with candidates
X X
Sourcing plan
X
Timeframe for initial candidate list
X
Quality of information provided to candidates
X
Quality of candidates
X
Quantity of candidates
X
Diversity of candidates
X
Process of assessing candidates
X
Timeframe for final selection and hiring
X
Communication from recruiter throughout process
X
Management of the hiring process
X
Avoidance of serious risks and objections
X
Closing effectiveness
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Excellent
X
Initial meeting
Follow through and responsiveness of the recruiter
Good
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5. To what extent did the recruiter add value to the recruiting and hiring process? a. A great deal b. A considerable amount
X c. Somewhat d. Not much at all 6. Overall, how would you rate the quality of this hire?
X a. Excellent b. Good c. Average d. Poor e. Terrible
Thanks again for your candid insights and recommendations. We are committed to continually improving the selection and hiring process.
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Service Level Agreements An important lesson can be learned from third party recruiters. The best of them insist on a letter of agreement or contract called a Service Level Agreement (SLA). The purpose of the SLA is to be very clear about roles, responsibilities, deliverables and time frames during the recruiting process. These are agreed upon for the recruiter, hiring manager, candidate and other people involved in the recruiting process. This practice just makes good business sense; it is how any business should be run; and internal recruiters can do the same thing. The value of the SLA is that everyone is clear about what is going to happen, expectations are established, and it sets the stage for future success. Great recruiters also see the SLA as a chance to over deliver, get things done faster and add even more value. There is no one correct form for an SLA. In large organizations with established business practices the agreement could be several pages long with very detailed responsibilities. In smaller organizations, it may be a single page with bullets and focus on the most important aspects of “who does what, when.” In either case, the SLA should have places for signatures of key stakeholders.
AIRS® GUIDELINES FOR SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS • Position profile • Projected hire date • Steps in the recruiting process • Recruiter responsibilities • Hiring manger responsibilities • Training and support required • Schedule with specific dates for each party • Metrics and success measures • Follow up activities • Signature and date for acceptance
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SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT EXAMPLE The following Service Level Agreement (SLA) is designed to help expedite an effective hiring process. The hiring process involves a number of different people, activities and events. They all need to be coordinated and aligned to insure that the process functions smoothly and that the best possible candidate is hired. Please review the following aspects of the SLA and then sign to indicate your approval and commitment to these steps. Position Profile: The position that we are filling is the Director of Recruiting. A complete profile of this position includes the following characteristics: Job description, job’s importance in the company and department, experience, technical competencies, behavioral competencies, other requirements, compensation and benefit package, and projected hiring date. This profile is attached to the SLA. Projected Hire Date: The Director of Recruiting must be hired by June 22nd Steps in the Hiring Process: The following are the steps in the hiring process 1. Initial session with hiring manger and recruiter to review profile 2. Finalize profile and sign off. Hiring manager and recruiter approve. 3. Source candidates. Recruiter’s responsibility 4. Screen candidates. Recruiter’s responsibility 5. Recruiter presents top five candidates. Recruiter’s recommendation. 6. Interviews are scheduled. Recruiter arranges 7. Interviews conducted. Recruiter, hiring manager and other key staff 8. Additional assessments conducted. Specify additional assessments 9. Final selection meeting. Recruiter and hiring manager convene 10. Close top candidate. Hiring manager closes with recruiter’s assistance 11. Revise as necessary 12. Organize for start date. Recruiter starts process
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Recruiter Responsibilities: The recruiter is responsible for managing the hiring process. They take the lead role in finalizing the profile, sourcing candidates, organizing the assessment of candidates, orchestrating the final selection with the hiring manager, assisting in closing the candidate and conducting negotiations if required. The recruiter will then also put in place the early components of the on-boarding process. The one part of the hiring process that the recruiter totally owns and is responsible for is the finding or sourcing of candidates. The other activities are done in conjunction with the hiring manager and others involved in the hiring process; and the recruiter is responsible for project management, guidance, quality control and facilitation of these activities Hiring Manager’s Responsibilities: The hiring manager is responsible for making the best possible hire in a timely manner. While the recruiter and others will offer recommendations on which candidate is the best fit for the job and organization, the decision is made by the hiring manager. The hiring manager also has the responsibility to participate in key recruiting activities all throughout the process and to keep to schedule commitments outside of extremely urgent situations. These interim dates and commitments are important because the hiring process can become unwieldy if dates start to slip. Training and Support Required: Everyone involved in the hiring process needs to attend a 30 minute overview of the process provided by the recruiter. This session outlines the steps in the process, reviews the hiring profile, discusses legal and compliance issues and provides opportunities for questions. Individuals who have not been trained in behavioral interviewing techniques must attend this two hour class. Key Schedule Dates Search begins: May 1 Candidate slate of 5 top prospects: May 15 Interviews and assessments completed: June 10 Final decision: June 12 Hire date: June 22 Start date: August 1
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Metrics and Measures of Success: There are several types of metrics that should be monitored. The first is time to hire and cost to hire. These are recruiting efficiency measures. It is evident that the hire date is important to meet or improve upon. The second type of metric is quality of hire; the two most significant of these metrics are turnover within the first 6 months and year, and the quality of work performed by the new hire. The results of performance reviews after six months and one year are primary quality of hire indicators. Three key metrics 1. Time to hire less than 50 days 2. No turnover within one year 3. Performance ratings of 80% or greater in first year
Andrew Finnigan
Marie Pearson
Andrew Finnigan
Marie Pearson
Name
Name
Recruiter
Senior Manager
Position
Position
May 1
May 1
Date
Date
Signature
Signature
The recruiter should also follow up with the candidate to find out how the process worked from his or her perspective. The recruiter starts the on-boarding process soon after the offer has been accepted Signature Block: Both the recruiter and hiring manager sign the letter of agreement to verify their understanding and approval
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Managing Problems That Can Occur
MANAGING PROBLEMS THAT CAN OCCUR Problem
Suggestions
Hiring takes too long
One reason is that the process is not well managed; interviews and milestones are missed because of poor client management.
Candidates start to drop out
Candidates are not being communicated with throughout the process, don’t know their status and begin to question if the company is really interested in them.
Poor candidates are hired
Several potential reasons but one is that not enough time was spent by the recruiter in qualifying candidates and the hiring manager in assessing them.
Interviews are poor
Train interviewers on behavioral interviewing techniques.
Milestones are missed
Poor client management.
High turnover in the first six months
Several possible reasons but this often starts in the recruiting process when wrong or insufficient information is presented and an incomplete picture of the company is conveyed.
Other
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The One Thing You Need to Know If you aren’t a good project manager, the process becomes disorganized. Implementation and execution are essential, especially when the interview team has a limited amount of time. Many recruiters work on 20, 30 or more open requisitions at a time, and these must be prioritized and filled. Key people along the way must be interviewed, guided and supported in their roles and responsibilities. Remember to manage both candidate and client side activities.
PROFILE SOURCE CONTACT & SCREEN
MANAGE CLOSE LEVERAGE
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7
CHAPTER SEVEN CLOSE Why is Closing Important? What’s Important to Candidates The Six Closing Potholes Closing Problems That Can Occur The One Thing You Need to Know
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
Why is Closing Important? As we’ve seen so far, a full life cycle recruiter has multiple priorities to PROFILE manage. And, along the way candidate SOURCE management is crucial. While we have saved this Closing chapter for now, CONTACT & SCREEN after you’ve learned how to perform the activities of your job including sourcing, MANAGE we want you to accept the concept that closing is a process. Truly you should CLOSE Always Be Closing (“ABC”). From the LEVERAGE moment you first initiate contact with a candidate you should be listening to their wants and needs in a new job. What will it take to get them to your company. If you are a careful listener and reinforce how your company and job will meet their needs and wants, the close should come easy. As the top slate of candidates becomes clear, each discussion you have with each candidate should reveal greater clarity around personal motivations and key issues for the candidate. It is important to probe, to help the candidate weigh the pro’s - and you will know those thoroughly as well as the cons. Now, no misunderstanding here, as tempting as it is to “sell” the candidate on your company and the job, make sure you paint a realistic picture. That they understand the company and culture and the work they are being asked to do. Of course you are a company advocate, but what no recruiter wants is for a candidate to not make it through the first week, first month or first year of employment. Remember those metrics we discussed earlier? It is important that employees are hired and that turnover is low. The “testing out” process is key because it focuses the discussion and helps to avoid any surprises when and if a final offer is made. From a recruiter’s perspective, you have worked very hard to get the process this far, now it is time to take the last step. Sales, communication and negotiating skills are all important, especially when a little extra effort is needed to get the candidate over the last objections or uncertainties. The objective is to close the candidate in a strong positive way that leaves everyone with a good feeling. Remember the market is competitive. This is exactly the situation that you will be facing with all candidates. Candidates always have a choice, don’t assume if they’re unemployed that they will choose your company if the compensation or job or culture aren’t a fit. Be aware of what they want and need and what you have to offer.
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Activity: Close One Candidate at a Time The real key to closing, is to remember that each candidate is unique. If you try to close on factors that are not important to the candidate you are wasting your time. Focus on what is truly important to that individual. As mentioned before, listening and asking the right questions in all steps of the recruiting process is important. Consider this conversation between Bob the Recruiter and Jennifer the Candidate: B: OK Jennifer, now that we have those questions out of the way, I’d like to know what made you interested in this position? J: I’ve been at company XYZ for 2 years and the commute is getting to me. I really like the company and my job, but my quality of life outside of work is starting to suffer. Ideally I’d like a job like this one that is closer to my home. B: What specifically are you looking for? J: Ideally I’d like to move up in my career. Currently I’m an Accounting Manager within a 10 person department. I handle Accounts Receivable and the General Ledger. If I make a lateral move in title I’d like to grow my experience by adding in oversight of Accounts Payable with a path towards becoming a Controller. B: If you could design a position for yourself, what would that be? J: The job you have available is pretty close to perfect. I like the idea of managing a department on my own, interacting with department managers on budgeting and administrative issues as well as getting further supervisory experience. I really like it that the office is just 6 miles from my home. B: Do you work with managers directly now? J: Yes, I do but as I mentioned, I split responsibilities with a co-worker. I like solving real business problems and assisting people directly…
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER 1. What have you learned about Jennifer? 2. Did Bob ask good questions? 3. Did Bob primarily ask open or closed ended questions? 4. What could Bob have done differently? 5. Future issues Bob may need to address?
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What’s Important to Candidates Benefits and Work/Life Balance are more important to Candidates, no matter what “generation” they are a part of. Fit will be unique to each person, but now is when your careful listening comes into play. What benefits have your candidates mentioned they are interested in? Have you explained the benefits picture thoroughly? Many of the following benefits will be attractive to your candidates.
COMMON BENEFIT MOTIVATORS • Compensation
• Company Stability & Financial Strength
• Challenging Work That Makes an Impact
• Company Values & Social Responsibility
• Career Growth
• Company Reputation
• Flexible Work Arrangements
• Innovative Culture
• Working in a Great Team
• Performance Based Pay
• Work Life Balance
• Family Benefits
It’s important to know your candidate. While there are many laws in play that prohibit recruiters from asking questions regarding a candidate’s family status, age, etc. you’ve met them and should have a feel for what could appeal to them. Challenging Work that makes impact in a career path will appeal differently to a variety of candidates. Work Life Balance and candidates today want stability and a place to share their career knowledge. Appeal to those wants as you begin to close. In general, there are benefit statements for the company and for the job and work environment. Once you learn what is important to a candidate, you will want to have benefit statements for both company and job. Some examples are provided below.
BENEFIT STATEMENTS Company Benefit Statements
Job/Work Environment Benefit Statements
• 50 year old firm with a strong balance sheet and a world class management team
• Work in a dynamic team environment focusing on project work that has impact on the company’s success.
• Technology leader with 75 patents on mission critical technology used by 8,000 corporations • Top 50 corporations list with a flexible work environment and onsite child and medical services
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• Develop your career with a cross functional role that involves international travel and regular world class employee development programs. • Balance your work and your life with flexible work arrangements and telecommuting options.
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
The Six Closing Potholes At any point in time in the recruiting process, your progress can be derailed. As you get to know your candidate, keep a running list of your own to anticipate objections, i.e. items on their want lists that you may not have addressed. The six most frequent closing potholes are: • Compensation – Get it out there early; don’t avoid the topic; know about current salary history for two years; be willing to share a salary range. Be honest if you can’t meet their expectations, highlight the full package. • Competition – Be knowledgeable of other opportunities the candidate is pursuing; develop benefit statements that show advantages over competitors; sell aggressively • Making the Offer – Be clear and direct; have the offer in writing; have previously tested every key part of the offer; reiterate the benefits statements to avoid concerns that may arise later • Counteroffers – Let candidate know that this is a typical part of the hiring process; discuss the facts that 75% of people who accept counteroffers leave within four months; ask the question: why did it take another job offer to get this response? Reflect back their early reasons for pursuing a new opportunity. If it was location based, how long will money make up for the fact they are still doing a long commute? If limited telecommuting is offered, how long will that be incentive when they know they have an opportunity within miles of their home for comparable pay and great environment? • Hidden Objections – Get them out in the open; the stronger the personal relationship with the candidate, the more likely they will discuss their concerns with you; continue to ask probing questions such as “Do you see any obstacles to accepting this position?” or “Have we addressed all of your concerns?” • Cold Feet – Listen for real issues; reinforce the benefits and selling proposition; provide additional information as needed; discuss this as a normal reaction; sell aggressively but be prepared to walk away
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Closing Problems That Can Occur
CLOSING PROBLEMS THAT CAN OCCUR Problem
Suggestions
Candidate drops out inexplicably
Recruiter has not established a good relationship and not asked the key questions to uncover important motivations.
Candidate loses interest in the job
Probably another issue has arisen that the candidate may not want to share; try to reengage by meeting offsite.
Last minute surprises
Key provisions were not tested with the candidate beforehand.
Family/personal issues prevent acceptance
Should have asked questions in the recruiting process to determine if personal issues were significant.
Old company doubles salary
Say goodbye; this is why several candidates need to be in the pipeline.
Candidate declines offer
Try to get to the real reasons, not simply the stated reasons. Learn from the experience.
Candidate starts to negotiate
This is expected; prepare beforehand; know your limits; try to see their perspective; strive for win-win; be prepared to walk away.
Other
AIRS Tip: If your candidate drops out of the hiring process and they were viable and you would bring them in again, reconnect with them. Reach out to them a month after they decline and see how the new job is going (or the old job for that matter). Make sure you’ve added them to your online networking databases. And don’t just reach out in a sell mode, make sure you’re sharing real information that benefits them and gets them interested in your company.
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Activity: Research on Competitive Salary Levels One important piece of information in both creating job profiles and closing the candidate is gaining information on competitive salary levels. There are expensive consulting reports that contain this information, but there are also web sites that can be easily accessed. In the next 15 minutes, follow these steps to find relevant salary information. 1. Go to three sites: glassdoor.com; salary.com and indeed.com/salary. Find comparative salary data on the position of a Brand Manager in New York City, NY. Make notes on your findings and be prepared to share with the group. 2. Now take several job placements you are currently working on and do comparative salary research. These are important data points for recruiters to be familiar with because it may be that some of your jobs offer salaries that are below competitive levels. This is important information for the recruiter to pass on to hiring mangers and others within the department. Notes:
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The One Thing You Need to Know Closing happens all throughout the recruiting process, not just at the end; just as selling happens all throughout the recruiting process, and not just at the end. Closing, like any part of the recruiting process, benefits from being prepared. The key points are: • Always know what is most important to each and every candidate • Always be closing and always be selling • Test out key points in the offer all the time • Anticipate objections • Know your limits in negotiating and try to establish a win-win • Be willing to walk away if demands are unreasonable • Close with integrity and follow through on commitments • Keep in touch with hired candidates as well as top candidates that weren’t hired
PROFILE SOURCE CONTACT & SCREEN MANAGE
CLOSE LEVERAGE
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CHAPTER EIGHT LEVERAGE Why is Leveraging Important? What is Leveraging? Find One, Find Them All Demonstration: Using Technology to Expand Personal Networks and Social Networking Tools Leveraging Problems that Can Occur The One Thing You Need to Know
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
Why is Leveraging Important? Closing would seem to be the last activity but there is one more; and like closing, this activity occurs throughout the recruiting process. Leveraging is using the contacts and candidates you have to get more and more names. Leveraging is about building up your personal candidate network and expanding your most prized asset as a recruiter.
PROFILE SOURCE CONTACT & SCREEN MANAGE CLOSE
LEVERAGE
Jack Welch, the retired CEO of General Electric®, has said that virtually every conversation he had was about talent; he was always looking for more, trying to make a better match between individual and company needs and striving to become better prepared for the future success of GE. Great recruiters have the same attitude. They are always looking for more qualified candidates for present and even unnamed future jobs. They are always asking “are there other excellent people that you can recommend for this position?” Great recruiters are scanning the social media profiles of their talent for reference names and leads. They view every conversation, whether at work or in a social setting, as a means to get better at what they do. Many recruiters that rely on their cold calling skill-set are also masters of leveraging. They understand intuitively that this is a key value that they provide. These recruiters know that names are the currency of recruiting and that networking is really the best way to “get a lot of great candidates, quickly”. A solid “names” recruiter can take a list of five qualified candidates and turn this into 30 more names in a matter of hours. But so can our next generation recruiter, although differently. Our next generation recruiter uses technology to expand their network and mental rolodex. Each adds value in their own way, but even greater value could be created by using both ways.
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What is Leveraging? Leveraging is using the information you have from one candidate to build a funnel with the new names you’ve received.
Leveraging Quality It is essential to understand that leveraging must be done selectively. Just as we know people whose movie or restaurant recommendations are less than great, the same applies to candidates encountered in the hiring process. Some candidates are not very good, under-qualified and do not have the full set of skills are required. It would not be useful to seek additional references from these individuals. However, knowing how Social Media and online networking sites work, that they are quite often based on degrees of separation, you will want to connect with your talent online. First degree references should be carefully vetted. Leverage names only from qualified candidates. When these new candidates are, in turn, qualified; do this carefully and develop a segmentation strategy. Identify A, B and C players. “As” are can’t miss, absolute stars and top 10%. “Bs” are excellent performers with substantial potential, and “Cs” are solid and capable employees who will do well and be strong team members.
TOP 20% MIDDLE 60% BOTTOM 20%
As Bs Cs
Companies devote a great deal of time evaluating their talent because they know that some people add more value than others. We see this in business, on the soccer field, in art and in any human endeavor. While companies take years and months to make such judgments, recruiters have to come to general conclusions quickly so the categorization should be flexible. A candidate, for example, could be an A for one type of job and B for another.
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Find One, Find Them All AIRS has pioneered many concepts in recruiting, and one of the most powerful is the concept of “Find One, Find Them All.” While this originally pertained to Internet searching, it has a much broader application. The central notion is that once you find an excellent candidate, you can find more via your network or simple web searches. People live in professional communities. They know others from work, conferences, joint projects, speaking engagements, books, alumni groups and web casts. People have their own social networks and relational capital based on reciprocity and trust. Once you tap into that network, a whole world opens up. There are two primary ways to leverage candidates: Traditional and Next Generation. Traditional, as you know by now, is expert at finding great candidates and then asking them questions such as: • Are there other excellent people who would be a good fit for this job? • Can you think of someone you have worked with whose work you respect who would be excited to work here? • We want to hire only the best. Do you know people who fit in with this goal? • This is an exciting, high performance place to work. Can you think of great people who would embrace this challenge? The Next Generation Recruiter has excellent technology skills and uses the Internet to provide a wealth of networking opportunities. Candidates live in web communities just like they do in actual communities. Active Internet searching can be used to uncover speakers at conferences, officers of professional associations, members of professional societies, bloggers, alumni and other networked communities. And when you find one, you can find them all. Let’s take a look.
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Demonstration: Using Technology to Expand Personal Networks and Social Networking Tools Let’s take a few minutes to see how we can expand on our personal networks to locate more candidates. First, we will look at another way to create a search string to find documents that may have a list of speaker for an industry conference. We will go back to Google to conduct this search, although this type of search can also be conducted at search engines such as Bing and Ask.com.
http://www.google.com/ Hopefully, this search will help us find documents that contain names of speakers – potentially Brand Managers in the Silicon Valley, CA area.
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SEARCH STRING: (intitle:speakers OR inurl:speakers) “brand manager” “silicon valley” We have just over 1,000 results. Let’s have a look at the WITI Conference Speakers list.
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Plaxo Now let’s look at the professional networking site Plaxo. Self described as an “address hosting network”, Plaxo has more than 50 million members. It’s easy to obtain a membership at Plaxo and, unlike LinkedIn; you are not limited to viewing your connections via your personal network. You can view the entire Plaxo membership if you join the site and reach out to connect to anyone. You can search the site using the search bar and also access Plaxo’s advanced search menu.
http://www.plaxo.com/search/abPeopleSearch?advanced We used Plaxo’s Advanced Search to look for a “Brand Manager” and have pulled thousands of results. Let’s narrow our results to 50 miles of 95054 which is the heart of the Silicon Valley, CA.
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Leveraging Problems that Can Occur
LEVERAGING PROBLEMS THAT CAN OCCUR Problem
Suggestions
Poorly qualified referrals
Probably the wrong people are making referrals.
Not enough referrals
Expand efforts to network with more people and strengthen Internet sourcing of passive candidates. Also, what type of questions are you asking to obtain referrals? Are they open ended or yes/no. Remember to have it as a goal to walk away with at least three.
Too many referrals to organize
Develop a searchable database that can be quickly accessed. Make use of sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo, etc. to organize and use your network to reach the talent you need. Remember to “back up” your network too.
Referral network is stale
Plan your marketing activities to keep your referral network engaged. Use newsletter, emails, special events, and personal meetings. Think outside of the box and add social media tools to your strategy as well.
Network is not current
Set aside time to audit your network regularly. Take notes. Be aware of who has moved on, when and where.
Other
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Activity: Peer Searching A simple yet highly effective way to expand your ability of the “Find One, Find Them All” concept is the AIRS technique of PeerSearch. As the name implies, it is focused on finding peers or colleagues of a highly qualified candidate. It uses the web to search through millions and millions of pages to find connections between the name of your highly qualified candidate and others. In Internet searching, a key issue is the clarity and specificity of the keywords that you enter into search engines. A term like “programmer” is not very useful because it will return literally millions of hits. The more specificity, the more targeted the search. So being able to add additional keywords to programmer that details the language, the version, and the type of development environment will greatly improve your search. One of the most specific keywords is a person’s name, unless you name happens to be John Smith or an equally common name. Peer Searching is a great technique for several reasons. It taps into the web communities in which top candidates reside, and it uses keywords that are likely to yield excellent results. 1. Try peer searching your own name in Google. Look for entries where other people are listed or referenced. 2. Try peer searching your boss. 3. Take an open requisition that you are working on and the name of a strong candidate, and peer search on this candidate. Look for conferences, associations, articles or other entries where additional names are likely to appear.
Bonus Tool: Pipl.com Gathered information at Google but need to finesse? Take a look at what Webmii can offer.
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The One Thing You Need to Know A recruiter’s greatest asset is his or her personal network. Think about recruiting from an economist’s perspective. Our job is finding talent and then matching it up to professional opportunities. The more input, the more output. The greater our talent network, the better job we can do. Think that every conversation is an opportunity. Every meeting has a purpose. Every candidate is a hire waiting to happen.
PROFILE SOURCE CONTACT & SCREEN MANAGE CLOSE
LEVERAGE
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CHAPTER NINE NEXT STEPS The Journey Ahead The AIRS® Career Map AIRS® Tools and Services
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
The Journey Ahead This is a time like no other for the recruiting profession. Recruiting is once again at the cusp of booming. Recruiters are being hired, and top talent is in demand, particularly as people retire. Thomas Friedman author of The World is Flat and columnist in The New York Times has said that we have moved from the Iron Age to the Agrarian Age to the Industrial Age to the Information Age to now the Talent Age. Companies and countries that attract, engage, develop and retain talent will be the winners. A great recruiter can find, attract and enlist tens if not hundreds of people who bring new ideas, skills and networks to the enterprise. These new hires become the life of the organization and the source of its future competitive strength. If this flow of talent slows or is reduced in quality, the organization can be impaired for years. Recruiters can have an additive impact on the new global enterprise. Their value can go far beyond their own individual position, salary and performance. It extends to the impact of the people they have brought in. Talent is what we do. Recruiters are no longer in the back office; they are square in the view of top executives, some of them consider themselves as the CRO or Chief Recruiting Officer. That’s the good news. The challenge is to raise ourselves and the profession to this heightened expectation. It’s not only possible, but realistic if the effort and commitment are there. The journey ahead has increasingly clear signposts.
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THE AIRS® COMPETENCY MODEL We continually work to improve the hiring process so that it can better serve candidates and the company alike. Please take a few minutes and provide us with feedback and guidance to enhance this most important process. Your response will be held anonymous. As part of an industry-wide initiative to gain greater clarity on the characteristics of great recruiting, AIRS commissioned a competency study. A variety of resources were used including reviewing other professional competency models, consulting the work of recruiting thought leaders and conducting interviews with exemplary recruiters. A draft of the competency model was developed and then shared on an industry wide web cast for over 500 people. Additional insights were gained from this public presentation when the final model was published. The purpose of this competency model is to provide a standard for future success and common language for the recruiting profession. With this standard defined, the competency model can be used as a basis for hiring, developing, assessing and guiding recruiters to the next step in their professional career. The following visual and brief discussion describes the key components of the AIRS Recruiting Competency Model.
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Three high-level groupings of competencies emerged from the interview data and review comments. These groupings, in turn, support 15 different competencies. Competencies can include knowledge, skills, abilities, and other personal factors. The first high-level grouping of competencies is Core Recruiting Skills. These are skills that have defined recruiting for many years. They commence when a job requisition lands on the recruiters desk and conclude when a candidate is hired. These skills pertain whether the recruiter resides within a corporation or an agency. They are heavily influenced by persuasion, communication, negotiation and sales skills. Technology is now central and essential to core recruiting skills. The Core Recruiting Skills are: • Profile and Plan
• Assess
• Source and Contact
• Present and Close
The second high-level grouping of competencies is Performance Traits. These are personal qualities that are exhibited on the job—not just in isolation —that separate excellent from substandard recruiters. These types of traits exist in any profession and recruiting is no exception. Successful people not only have excellent skills but an attitude and approach that make them successful. These Performance Traits are: • Drive for Results
• Relationship Builder
• Inquisitiveness
• Flexibility
• Sales and Service Orientation
• Passion
The combination of Core Recruiting Skills and Performance Traits characterize successful recruiters. But the key to ongoing, continuous success in an increasingly sophisticated and complex environment is the third high-level grouping of competencies: Executive Search and Partnership Competencies. As the name implies, these capabilities were once only the province of the most successful executive recruiters but now are more universally required. Standards have been raised; and traditional, tactical recruiting skills are no longer enough. Recruiters are now expected to have market, business, consulting and partnership abilities in addition to core recruiting skills. These new competencies are: • Market Intelligence
• Candidate Management
• Business Savvy
• Network Building
• Organizational Management
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RECRUITING COMPETENCY SELF ASSESSMENT EXAMPLE Please rate yourself on the following recruiting competencies and skills. This is provided as a developmental tool and will not be seen by others. Be as honest as you can.
Core Recruiting Skills
NOT PROFICIENT
VERY PROFICIENT
Profile and Plan
1
2
3
4
5
Source and Contact
1
2
3
4
5
Assess
1
2
3
4
5
Present and Close
1
2
3
4
5
Drive for Results
1
2
3
4
5
Inquisitiveness
1
2
3
4
5
Sales and Service Orientation
1
2
3
4
5
Relationship Builder
1
2
3
4
5
Flexibility
1
2
3
4
5
Passion
1
2
3
4
5
Performance Traits
Executive Search and Partnership Competencies Market Intelligence
1
2
3
4
5
Business Savvy
1
2
3
4
5
Organizational Management
1
2
3
4
5
Candidate Management
1
2
3
4
5
Network Building
1
2
3
4
5
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From the following list of recruiting skills and competencies, please rank the top five that you believe are the most vital for recruiters to have over the next five years. Core Recruiting Skills
Performance Traits
Executive Search and Partnership Competencies
Profile and Plan Source and Contact
Drive for Results Inquisitiveness
Market Intelligence Business Savvy
Assess Present and Close
Sales and Service Orientation
Organizational Management
Relationship Builder Flexibility
Candidate Management
Passion
Network Building
Top 5 Future Recruiting Skills and Competencies (1 is most important)
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1.
Drive for results
2.
Passion
3.
Sourcing
4.
Market intelligence
5.
Business Savvy
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Please list your personal development goals for the next six months, year and two years. Six Month Goals:
Strengthen Market Intelligence by participating in industry research studies, going out on sales calls and having an external mentor Continue to build networks by adding four new contacts per week
1 Year Goals:
Strengthen Organizational Management by interviewing several hiring managers and instituting a hiring manager survey Improve Business Acumen by working with the CFO, taking financial decision making classes, and doing ROI analysis for all major projects
2 Year Goals:
Become an external market expert by giving conference presentations, participating in panels and writing one article per quarter
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The AIRS® Career Map AIRS offers a full suite of development programs for recruiters ranging from full day courses offered to one hour live web cast events aired on a frequent basis. With 150,000 alumni and over 300+ annual training events, AIRS is the world’s leading recruitment training company. From Internet sourcing to ‘cold calling’ to diversity recruiting best practices, AIRS learning solutions provide ‘game-changing’ tools and skills to your recruiting and hiring teams. Please visit our website for a complete listing of our training course offerings.
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AIRS® Tools and Services Since 1997, AIRS solutions have transformed the way market-leading companies around the globe find, recruit, and transition world-class talent. From advanced candidate sourcing solutions to turnkey outplacement, AIRS has the experience, technology, and people to solve your toughest human capital problems. To learn more, visit our website.
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APPENDIX Glossary Recruiting Metrics AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification Desktop Reference AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0 Search Guide Tools: The AIRS® Profiling Guide Tools: The Candidate Satisfaction Survey Example Tools: The Quality Hiring Survey Example Tools: Service Level Agreement Example Tools: Recruiting Competency Self Assessment Example
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
Glossary AND: Boolean operator that tells a search engine to retrieve documents containing all items connected with the word. Majority of search engines use a space as a default for the term AND. Bing: Microsoft’s search engine; formerly known as Live.com. Boolean Logic: A field of Mathematical logic developed in the mid-19th century by the English mathematician George Boole which allows a database searcher to combine concepts in keywords search using three commands, as well as “operators” and modifiers. Browser: A software program like Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox or Safari that allows the user to access and view the internet. Cold Calling: using the telephone to follow leads and solicit passive candidates. Cost Per Hire: Calculating the cost of all recruiting expenses and dividing by all hires. Curriculum Vitae: A written and chronological description of your work experience, educational background, and skills. Also called a CV or a resume. Domain Name: The unique name that identifies a specific website. For example, “microsoft. com” is the domain name of Microsoft’s web site. Effectiveness Measures: metrics including engagement level, turnover rate, and time to competency determine whether or not the people hired do a good job and are a good fit with the company culture. Efficiency Measures: metrics to determine how well the recruiting process is performing. Time To Hire, Cost to Hire, Sourcing Yield, etc. are a measurements of efficiency. Field Search Command: A search command or advanced search, limiting to a particular field in a database. Google: Search engine; a tool for finding resources on the World Wide Web. Limit of 32 keywords in the search string. Harvesting: AIRS concept of finding additional resources on resumes and websites. Hire: The new employee Interview to Offer Ratio: Calculation based on the number of interviews per requisition to the number of offers extended. intitle: Field search command that tells the search engine to look in the title of the result for the keyword. inurl: Field search command that tells the search engine to look in the URL of the result for the keyword.
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Job Board Aggregator: a website that scours other job boards and even company websites for job postings. Ex: Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com. Keyword: A significant word, such as resume, job title, skills, which form part of a search engine query. Link: FlipSearch command used in Exalead that tells the search engine to look for hyperlinks to a specified domain. LinkedIn: A professional networking site based upon 3 degrees of separation. Names: Anyone who might be interested in the job Networking: Connecting with people having similar interest for the purpose of uncovering opportunities and recruiting candidates. NOT: Boolean operator that excludes terms from search results. Most often expressed at search engines by using the – (minus) sign. Offer to Acceptance Ratio: The number of offers versus the number of acceptances. OR: Boolean operator that retrieves documents from search engines containing either term. Parenthesis ( ): Boolean modifier that is used to group terms together in a subset for your search. Mostly used in conjunction with the OR Boolean operator. PeerSearch: An AIRS technique that uses name, email address or street address to identify additional passive candidates. Phone Screen: a standard step in the recruiting process. It is an opportunity to question the candidate on the requirements of the position and their background before initiating additional interviews with the hiring team. Professional Networking Site: connecting via a website with colleagues, and potential candidates to further expand “who you know”. Profile: Working with the job requisition and the hiring manager, determining the qualities of the job and of the successful candidates. Prospects: People who are interested in applying for the job and are willing to consider a new opportunity Qualified Candidates: People who have solid qualifications for the job Quotes ” ”: Boolean modifier that is used to tell the search engine to bring back an exact phrase, 2 or more words together.
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Recruiting Pipeline: Consists of Names, Prospects, Qualified Candidates and Top Slate. Following this process leads to a hire. Resume: A brief account that includes the summary of one’s professional or work experience and qualifications, long-term objectives and motivations, personal qualities, skills, interests and hobbies. It is often submitted with an employment application. Search Engine: A searchable online index of pages on the internet. Search String: Boolean operators and modifiers and keywords combined to tell the search engine what to look for in its index. Service Level Agreement: a document outlining the roles, responsibilities, deliverables and time frames during the recruiting process. Signed by the key stakeholders. site: Command that instructs the search engine to limit results to those coming only from a specified domain. Social Networking: Connecting via a website with friends, family and colleagues and sharing information. Common Social Networking sites are MySpace, Facebook, Google+, etc. Soft Skills: Attributes that ensure a candidate can adapt and engage in their new work environment. Source: Finding excellent candidates for the job. Source of Hire: Simple count to associate each hire with a source. Source Yield: Instead of just reviewing the number of applicants per source, use this ratio to determine the actual performance of a source. Time To Fill: From the date a requisition opens to the date an offer is accepted. Top Level Domain: The top level domain is the final part of the internet domain name and is commonly displayed as .com, .edu or .org Top Slate: The top five candidates in terms of both technical and behavioral fit that are passed along by the recruiter to the hiring manager Turnover for New Hires: Can be calculated on a monthly and annual basis. Considers the number of separating new hires versus the number of new hires. Web 2.0: Term used to describe the transition of the web from a collection of websites to a computing platform. XRay: An AIRS technique that focuses on finding results from one domain.
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Recruiting Metrics
RECRUITING METRICS (I.E. SCORECARD) Type
Description
Source of Hire
Simple count to associate each hire with a source
Source Yield
Instead of just reviewing the number of applicants per source, use this ratio to determine the actual performance of a source.
Formula
# _________________ of hires from a source # of candidates generated = Source Yield
Time To Fill
From the date a requisition opens to the date an offer is accepted.
Hire Date – Open Date = Time to Fill
Interview to Offer Ratio
Calculation based on the number of interviews per requisition to the number of offers extended.
# of Interviews _________________ # of Offers
Offer to Acceptance Ratio
The number of offers versus the number of acceptances.
# of Offers _________________ # of Acceptances
Cost Per Hire
Calculating the cost of all recruiting expenses and dividing by all hires.
Turnover for new hires
Can be calculated on a monthly and annual basis. Considers the number of separating new hires versus the number of new hires.
# of new hires separating _________________ # of new hires
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AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification Desktop Reference
SEARCH ENGINE BOOLEAN OPERATORS, MODIFIERS AND CHARACTERS Command
Google®
Exalead®
Bing®
Ask.com®
AND
Default
Default
Default
Default
OR
OR
OR
OR
OR
NOT
- (minus)
- (minus)
NOT or - (minus)
- (minus)
“ “
“exact phrase”
“exact phrase”
“exact phrase”
“exact phrase”
()
Not necessary
(OR)
(OR)
(OR)
*
Wildcard
n/a
n/a
Wildcard
SEARCH ENGINE FIELD SEARCH COMMANDS Command
Google®
Exalead®
Bing®
Ask.com®
Word in the Title
intitle:
intitle:
intitle:
intitle:
Word in the URL
inurl:
inurl:
n/a
inurl:
FlipSearch
n/a
link:
n/a
n/a
XRay
site:
site:
site:
site:
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AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0 Search Guide
CHAPTER 4: SOURCING Find similar sites
related:domain.xxx
Template Search Strings Resumes
(intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) keyword keyword keyword (intitle:resume OR inurl:resume) “art director” -job
XRay
site:domain.xxx keyword keyword keyword site:org ”sales manager”
Email Search
“*@domain.xxx” keyword keyword “*@
CHAPTER 8: LEVERAGE Find lists of speakers
(intitle:speakers OR inurl:speakers) keywords
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Tools: The AIRS® Profiling Guide
THE AIRS® PROFILING GUIDE Profile Components
Criteria
The Company
• Data sheet on locations, size, markets, key products/solutions, revenues, growth, key executives • Strategy and Values • Business Goals • Competitive Positioning • Key Initiatives • Culture • Employment Brand • Outstanding Qualities of the Company
Business Unit/ Department
• Data Sheet on name, number of people, locations, key people • Strategic Importance and Business Goals • Key Initiatives • Culture and Fit with Company Culture • Outstanding Qualities of the BU/Department
The Position
• Position Title • Description including if a New or Replacement Job and Requirements such as travel or relocation • Experience and Education Required • Place in the Organizational Chart and Reporting Relationships • Success Criteria • Expected Outcomes • The Package: Compensation, Bonuses, Benefits, Childcare, Educational Programs, Retirement Plan, Equity Participation, Other Important Factors • Development and Training Opportunities • Likely Career Path
Behavioral Competencies
• Related to Competency Model for Superior Performers • Important Behavioral, Cultural and Emotional Intelligence Qualities for Job Success. • Look for These Qualities in Top Performers. • Examples: Passion, Drive for Results, Proactivity, Inquisitiveness, Earning Trust, Collaborative Influencing, Self Awareness, Openness to Change, Comfort with Ambiguity, Inclusiveness, Empathy, Integrity, Trustworthiness, Inspiring Others
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Profile Components
Criteria
Technical Competencies
• Related to Competency Model for Superior Performers • Technical Skills and Knowledge are often Described in the Job Requisition. • Look for These Competencies in Top Performers • Essential Technical Competencies with Level of Proficiency for this Job • Supportive Technical Competencies with Level of proficiency for this Job • Experience Requirements for this Job
Other Requirements
• Travel • Relocation • Security Clearance • Degrees, certifications or other credentials • Time Commitment • Other Important Requirements
The Most Crucial Qualities for This Job
Prioritize the top three to five qualities that need to be present in highly qualified candidates for this job
NOTES
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Tools: The Candidate Satisfaction Survey Example
THE CANDIDATE SATISFACTION SURVEY EXAMPLE We are extremely pleased that you have joined ________________________________. Our success as a company is our talent and you are a great addition. We continually work to improve the hiring process so that it can better serve candidates and the company alike. Please take a few minutes and provide us with feedback and guidance to enhance this most important process. Your response will be held anonymous. All candidates who complete this form are automatically entered into a quarterly drawing to win a dinner for two. Thank you again for your assistance and good luck.
The position you interviewed for: 1. How did you learn about the open position? a. Job posting b. Job board c. Company career site d. Campus recruitment e. Contacted by internal recruiter f. Contacted by external recruiter g. Other: 2. Overall, how would you rate your experience during the hiring process? a. Excellent b. Good c. Average d. Poor e. Terrible
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3. What are the three top reasons that you decided to join our company? 1.
2.
3.
4. What did you particularly like about the process and experience? 1.
2.
3.
5. What improvements can you suggest? 1.
2.
3.
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6. Please rate the following specific factors: Factor Quality of information about the company Expectations clearly established Communication throughout the selection process Ample opportunity to present my own qualifications and ideas Seamless flow of activities Questions were answered quickly and completely Length of the selection and hiring process Interviews were systematic and fair Interviews were conducted on time Rapport with the recruiter Rapport with the hiring manager Offer package was clearly explained Follow through from recruiter Follow through from hiring manager
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Terrible
Poor
Average
Good
Excellent
AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
7. How many interviewers did you meet? a. 1 to 3 b. 4 to 6 c. 7 to 10 d. More than 10 8. To what extent did you come away from the hiring process convinced that you could make a significant impact in the company? a. Completely b. Mostly c. Somewhat d. Not much at all 9. To what extent do you believe that this job is a great fit for your abilities and the company’s needs and culture? a. Completely b. Mostly c. Somewhat d. Not much at all
Thanks again for your candid insights and recommendations. We are committed to continually improving the selection and hiring process. If you wish to register for the quarterly prize, please provide the following information. Name:____________________________________________________________________ Phone:__________________________________________
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Tools: The Quality Hiring Survey Example
THE QUALITY HIRING SURVEY EXAMPLE We are committed to making the recruiting and hiring process as effective as possible. Your feedback and insights are crucial to achieving this goal. Please take a few minutes to answer these questions as they relate to your recent experience as part of the team that hired (name of new hire) 1. Overall, how would you rate the quality of hiring experience that you have just participated in? a. Excellent b. Good c. Average d. Poor e. Terrible 2. What did you particularly like about the process and experience?
3. What improvements can you suggest?
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4. Please rate the following specific factors: Factor
Terrible
Poor
Average
Good
Excellent
Initial meeting Clarity of expectations and roles Recruiters knowledge of the market Recruiters rapport with candidates Follow through and responsiveness of the recruiter Sourcing plan Timeframe for initial candidate list Quality of information provided to candidates Quality of candidates Quantity of candidates Diversity of candidates Process of assessing candidates Timeframe for final selection and hiring Communication from recruiter throughout process Management of the hiring process Avoidance of serious risks and objections Closing effectiveness
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5. To what extent did the recruiter add value to the recruiting and hiring process? a. A great deal b. A considerable amount c. Somewhat d. Not much at all 6. Overall, how would you rate the quality of this hire? a. Excellent b. Good c. Average d. Poor e. Terrible
Thanks again for your candid insights and recommendations. We are committed to continually improving the selection and hiring process.
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Tools: Service Level Agreement Example
SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT EXAMPLE The following Service Level Agreement (SLA) is designed to help expedite an effective hiring process. The hiring process involves a number of different people, activities and events. They all need to be coordinated and aligned to insure that the process functions smoothly and that the best possible candidate is hired. Please review the following aspects of the SLA and then sign to indicate your approval and commitment to these steps. Position Profile: The position that we are filling is the Director of Recruiting. A complete profile of this position includes the following characteristics: Job description, job’s importance in the company and department, experience, technical competencies, behavioral competencies, other requirements, compensation and benefit package, and projected hiring date. This profile is attached to the SLA. Projected Hire Date: The Director of Recruiting must be hired by June 22nd Steps in the Hiring Process: The following are the steps in the hiring process 1. Initial session with hiring manger and recruiter to review profile 2. Finalize profile and sign off. Hiring manager and recruiter approve. 3. Source candidates. Recruiter’s responsibility 4. Screen candidates. Recruiter’s responsibility 5. Recruiter presents top five candidates. Recruiter’s recommendation. 6. Interviews are scheduled. Recruiter arranges 7. Interviews conducted. Recruiter, hiring manager and other key staff 8. Additional assessments conducted. Specify additional assessments 9. Final selection meeting. Recruiter and hiring manager convene 10. Close top candidate. Hiring manager closes with recruiter’s assistance 11. Revise as necessary 12. Organize for start date. Recruiter starts process
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Recruiter Responsibilities: The recruiter is responsible for managing the hiring process. They take the lead role in finalizing the profile, sourcing candidates, organizing the assessment of candidates, orchestrating the final selection with the hiring manager, assisting in closing the candidate and conducting negotiations if required. The recruiter will then also put in place the early components of the on-boarding process. The one part of the hiring process that the recruiter totally owns and is responsible for is the finding or sourcing of candidates. The other activities are done in conjunction with the hiring manager and others involved in the hiring process; and the recruiter is responsible for project management, guidance, quality control and facilitation of these activities Hiring Manager’s Responsibilities: The hiring manager is responsible for making the best possible hire in a timely manner. While the recruiter and others will offer recommendations on which candidate is the best fit for the job and organization, the decision is made by the hiring manager. The hiring manager also has the responsibility to participate in key recruiting activities all throughout the process and to keep to schedule commitments outside of extremely urgent situations. These interim dates and commitments are important because the hiring process can become unwieldy if dates start to slip. Training and Support Required: Everyone involved in the hiring process needs to attend a 30 minute overview of the process provided by the recruiter. This session outlines the steps in the process, reviews the hiring profile, discusses legal and compliance issues and provides opportunities for questions. Individuals who have not been trained in behavioral interviewing techniques must attend this two hour class. Key Schedule Dates Search begins: Candidate slate of 5 top prospects: Interviews and assessments completed: Final decision: Hire date: Start date:
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Metrics and Measures of Success: There are several types of metrics that should be monitored. The first is time to hire and cost to hire. These are recruiting efficiency measures. It is evident that the hire date is important to meet or improve upon. The second type of metric is quality of hire; the two most significant of these metrics are turnover within the first 6 months and year, and the quality of work performed by the new hire. The results of performance reviews after six months and one year are primary quality of hire indicators. Three clear metrics for this position are: time to hire less than 50 days, no turnover, and subsequent performance in performance appraisals at the 80th percentile or greater. Follow Up Activities: An additional valuable metric and follow-on activity is the hiring satisfaction survey of all participants in the process, including the hiring manager and other important participants. The recruiter should conduct a follow up “how did we do” session to learn from successes and failures, and to share best practices. The recruiter should also follow up with the candidate to find out how the process worked from his or her perspective. The recruiter starts the on-boarding process soon after the offer has been accepted Signature Block: Both the recruiter and hiring manager sign the letter of agreement to signify their understanding and approval
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Tools: Recruiting Competency Self Assessment Example
RECRUITING COMPETENCY SELF ASSESSMENT EXAMPLE Please rate yourself on the following recruiting competencies and skills. This is provided as a developmental tool and will not be seen by others. Be as honest as you can.
Core Recruiting Skills
NOT PROFICIENT
VERY PROFICIENT
Profile and Plan
1
2
3
4
5
Source and Contact
1
2
3
4
5
Assess
1
2
3
4
5
Present and Close
1
2
3
4
5
Drive for Results
1
2
3
4
5
Inquisitiveness
1
2
3
4
5
Sales and Service Orientation
1
2
3
4
5
Relationship Builder
1
2
3
4
5
Flexibility
1
2
3
4
5
Passion
1
2
3
4
5
Performance Traits
Executive Search and Partnership Competencies
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Market Intelligence
1
2
3
4
5
Business Savvy
1
2
3
4
5
Organizational Management
1
2
3
4
5
Candidate Management
1
2
3
4
5
Network Building
1
2
3
4
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AIRS® Professional Recruiter Certification 2.0
From the following list of recruiting skills and competencies, please rank the top five that you believe are the most vital for recruiters to have over the next five years. Core Recruiting Skills
Performance Traits
Executive Search and Partnership Competencies
Profile and Plan Source and Contact
Drive for Results Inquisitiveness
Market Intelligence Business Savvy
Assess Present and Close
Sales and Service Orientation
Organizational Management
Relationship Builder Flexibility
Candidate Management
Passion
Network Building
Top 5 Future Recruiting Skills and Competencies (1 is most important) 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Please list your personal development goals for the next six months, year and two years. Six Month Goals:
1 Year Goals:
2 Year Goals:
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