There could have been a complex answer about call and interview stats, but for me it boils down to how many people we introduce to a client before an offer is made, and how long it takes to find the ideal hire.

Our goal is to keep that ratio low and the timeline short, so that everyone’s time is respected … so that we are like snipers hitting the right target on the first shot.

As a general rule, a successful search means that we introduced 4 or fewer candidates within 3-4 weeks and someone great was hired.  When this to happens all of the following were probably true:

1) We knew exactly who we were looking for and found them

2) The hiring manager trusted our pre-qualification and didn’t need to date a dozen people before he/she knew what a great looks like

3) Expectations were realistic (the ideal candidate really exists and would take this job)

4) The company and hiring manager had real motivation to fill the job

If we send more than 7-8 resumes or we are at week 4 of a search without being close to an offer, one of these things is missing.

Whether you are a hiring manager or running a recruiting firm, you need to know whether you are on track with every search.  Make sure that the answer is YES to all of the above points before investing resources and spending time chasing your tail.

Happy hunting.

This reminds me of my early lessons recruiting in the late 90s when the tech market was booming and the war for talent was intense.  We’re in a very similar place today and the challenges of signing the perfect candidate are the same.  We’ve got multiple offers, counter-offers, and my personal favourite – the Tire Kicker.

If you are a tech company looking for an exceptional leader or contributor, you may think your biggest challenge is getting your name out there and ensuring that people know why you’re SO much better than the rest. Granted, these are critical parts of the recruiting equation. But, getting attention from the right people is only part of the equation. You’ve built enthusiasm into your recruiting pitch and balanced the selling of your opportunities with sound selection and evaluation of fit. This is all good stuff. Now you’re thinking “if I didn’t already run the company, I’d take this job!”

So why is it that, after you’ve invested hours in the courtship process and crafted a masterpiece of an offer, your hot candidate goes cold on you.  You ask yourself … Where did this other offer come from?  Why does he need to go and talk to his current boss before he decides?  Why does she need a week to think about it?

One secret of a successful recruitment outcome is thinking about closing the candidate, from your very first conversation and at every step along the way. You need to begin with the end in mind.

All of your interviews should include these 3 questions:

 1. Why would you consider a move now – are you unhappy in your current role? 

• The financially motivated candidate may be persuaded to stay with a raise
• If the response is that there is nothing ‘wrong’ with their current job, but this might be ‘better’, you need to understand this reality.  You may be dealing with a Tire Kicker.
• At the very least, understand what ‘better’ needs to look like; and whether or not you can offer it.

 2. What is happening in your current job – Are there things that could change and make you want to stay? 

• It may seem counter-intuitive, but you’re wise to suggest that a candidate go back and ask their current boss to make those changes … before you invest more time with the selection process. In most cases, the desired changes won’t materialize because there’s no compelling event for the boss. But, if the request comes when the employee is ready to resign, the smart boss is more motivated to make a bold counter-offer, complete with salary and role changes. If that conversation has already happened, the candidate will detect the boss’ desperation and motives.

 3. What else are you looking at and how do we compare? 

• Strong candidates who are active on the job market WILL have other offers. It’s important that you know what else they they are looking at.  Understand the competition and what criteria your candidate is using to compare opportunities.

I haven’t lost my last candidate to a counter-offer, and following my best advice won’t ensure that you land every great candidate. Always assume that you are competing for talent and bring your ‘A’ game, every time.  Invest time early in getting to know what motivates your prospect, and it’ll pay off now and when you start to think about keeping them happy as your next star employee.

Maybe it’s just me, but ‘acquisition’ sounds a lot like a purchasing function. And perhaps this is symptomatic of the underlying challenge that these businesses have with recruitment. If you are looking to purchase some talent, you might put up some postings, clearly stating the skills and experience that you’re looking to buy. Then when the sellers of talent come to show you their wares, you’ll scrutinize them carefully and try to negotiate the lowest, fair price for the product. Sound familiar? Wonder why the talent for sale seems mediocre, or doesn’t show up at all?

What exactly is wrong with calling recruitment ‘Recruitment’? Does it sounds a little salesy, maybe too aggressive? Competition for talent is intense. A sales strategy and some creative aggression is exactly what you need. You are not purchasing the skills and effort of the individual, you are crafting and pitching an opportunity to a person who has options and wants to be inspired. If anyone is purchasing in this equation, it is the ‘Talent’.

Start thinking about your recruitment function as marketing and sales. Job descriptions should tell the prospect why the job is great, and what it’ll take to succeed. Interviews should balance qualification with a sincere effort to assess fit for both you and the candidate. Treat prospective employees like your most important new customers and partners and you’ll see your ‘Talent Acquisition’ challenges disappear and your ‘Recruitment’ success begin.

For some companies it will be a model based on goodness: changing the world with medical breakthroughs or green energy, by delivering education or information, or creating a safer internet, or finding love… Others will be inspired to innovate… to solve important problems or apply technology to an existing passion, perhaps for music or books or movies. Companies like Rypple, are inspiring their people (and their customers!) to create more fulfilling workplaces. They get it! Without losing sight of the profit motive they are attracting, retaining and motivating great employees who want to make a difference in everyone’s workplace.

Other companies recruit solely by seeking and getting attention. They promote a culture that is fun and funky. And many will say it works! These employers may get volumes of people knocking on their doors – all of them wanting to have fun at work. But, you see the problem, right? Are these the best people? Is a team that is having fun necessarily productive? Is fun sustainable? To find the best talent, and to get these individuals fully engaged and focused on your business objectives, you need to touch them somewhere deep, and fun just scratches the surface.

So while the demand for great talent is increasingly fierce, I believe that companies founded on a purpose will outperform the rest. Because, while there are lots of jobs out there for great people, if you can get the message out that you’re doing Work that Matters, then your message will be heard and embraced for the long term.

While I agree that social media will transform recruiting, I don’t think it will make things any easier

The arguments go like this:

• Social media tools (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, blogs etc.) will change the way companies find prospective employees. Search will be faster and more targeted.
• Companies will use these tools to build relationships with pools of highly qualified individuals (who might work for them tomorrow or sometime in the future).

Here’s my take on how things will look and work after this big online wave washes over us.

What happens when everyone can find anyone

Imagine a utopia where everyone has a detailed online profile. Every recruiter will be able to ‘see’ all of the talent and companies will have equal opportunity to market to candidates.

A world like that will soon be overflowing with competing messages.

Generating a targeted message that will be heard above the noise will become increasingly difficult – and more critical. More than ever before, companies will compete for the top people in every industry.

The war for talent will rage, but it will do so in an online world.

How to win an online war for talent

The companies that attract talent will be those who:

A) Deliver a compelling story

Recruiting great people will be like marketing and selling a product. A company’s message will not be the only one that candidates hear. HR will need to borrow strategies from PR.

Companies will need to understand what motivates talented people and offer a ‘product’ (aka job description and career page) that gets them excited. For instance:

Will they work with leaders and innovators?

Will they build revolutionary products or solve meaningful problems?

Will they be challenged professionally and be given opportunity to grow?

Remember, these people will probably be happily employed elsewhere. In order to entice them, the company must offer a compelling opportunity.  And the product message must be delivered professionally by real people who can answer tough questions.

Finding the best candidates will be easier, but attracting them will be more difficult.

Companies will also need to . . .

B) Build long-term relationships with future candidates

Smart companies will stop looking at recruitment as a reactive process characterized by bursts of frantic activity.

Social media tools will enable companies to build an engaged audience of individuals interested in their message and their vision.

Teams will be built based on the value great people can bring, rather than qualifying against a grocery list of skills and keywords.

Many Recruiting Companies and Recruiters will Drown

I am actually hopeful that a big wave of change is coming in the world of recruitment. I won’t miss the high-churn personnel agencies selling mediocre talent to desperate companies, or the recruitment departments that act more like purchasing teams than sales teams.

In many ways this apocalyptic change will be good. The new world of recruiting will be smarter, faster and tougher. The role of the recruiter will change.

As in every apocalypse, only the resourceful will survive.

It’s not about how many people think you’re great. It’s who, and why.

Brains over beans

I work with young tech companies who, by their very nature, are selective in who they employ. Most really are great places to work. Some have foosball tables.

But if any of these companies wanted to invest in a marketing campaign to make sure everyone knew about their ‘hip environment’ and the bean bag chairs in their office, I would think that they had lost it.

Don’t get me wrong. I think that a company’s employer brand – its reputation with employees and prospective employees – is absolutely critical. I just have to look at the tech companies in my own backyard to see how employer reputation directly impacts their success and ROI.

Marketing to future employees is a lot like marketing to future customers, it is all in the targeting.

Let me give you two real-world examples:

Company X is well known in the region and across the country. They get a lot of great press and are generally well regarded as a company with a good product idea and a bright future. I would even go so far as to say that a decent percentage of the population would think it is a good place to work – they probably have little trouble finding loads of people to apply for their jobs.

Yet I would argue that they do not in fact have a great employment brand. Sounds crazy, I know, but while they may win the popularity contest with the general public, the opinion of the people the company really needs to hire may be different.

When Company X comes up in conversations with great technical, marketing or leadership talent, the reaction is a rolling of eyes and a sad shaking of the head. “Neat product idea, but I hear that place is full of mediocre people. I wouldn’t want to be on the B team” they say.

They don’t care about the beer in the fridge or the company camping trips, they want to solve hard problems with a bunch of the exceptional people, and they want to be on a team that will only accept the best.

Company Y on the other hand has a very low profile. I can safely say that the general population is largely unaware that they exist at all.

But if you were to talk to the very best software professionals in their field, they would not only know the company, they would seriously consider leaving their current job to work for them. Company Y has an incredible employer brand. They have a solid reputation for hiring only the most talented people, and working to solve highly complex and important problems. The leaders within this company have exceptional backgrounds and great track records.

Employer branding is not a popularity contest. It’s about making sure that top-tier talent knows what you do, how you do it, and who you have doing it. It never hurts to offer cool perks, but the best people want more.

I know of companies who train receptionists to block recruiters’ calls, and ensure that Monster and Workopolis are banned from company internet. Heck, while they’re at it, why not block LinkedIn, Twitter and halt conference attendance and rendezvous’ with former colleagues and miscellaneous strangers in coffee shops.

If you are losing top talent to the competition, it is logical to want to keep headhunters at bay. But the truth is your people have lives that extend beyond your four walls. In reality, trying to keep your people from connecting with headhunters is like building a fence around your yard to keep the birds in.

Good news> Your best employees are probably not out there actively looking for a new job. They are too busy working, and solving problems, and networking on behalf your company.  As your people build ties for your business and learn and grow professionally, you benefit  - even though it makes them more visible.

The top headhunters have the tools and the networks to find your most talented people – and your brightest stars have free will and are clever enough to entertain a conversation. Your best employees are not only talking to headhunters, they are investigating opportunities, learning about your competitors and evaluating who has the best team, the best technology and the best environment.

The trick is not to keep the headhunters from finding your people. You have to make sure that your employees will always choose you even when they know what other options exist – because they just can’t imagine being more fulfilled somewhere else.

If the headhunters are circling, it means that your people are the envy of your competition. But …if your people are never recruited it is not because you have a great ‘no-headhunting’ policy. It is because you have mediocre talent and maybe you need to deploy some good headhunters of your own.

Maybe you’re looking for the job of your dreams – or perhaps a headhunter is courting you for a role.

Either way, there are right approaches and wrong approaches to the job-finding game – and they have a lot in common with the early stages of romance.

Here are three tips for putting your best hiring foot forward.
Tip 1: Don’t Be a Jobstitute

Would you describe your ideal mate as ‘someone who lives nearby’ and is ‘interested in you’? Of course not.

Yet some people will interview for any job that comes their way – particularly if they are told that they have the qualifications

A company will not be impressed if you want the job just because the job wants you.
Tip 2: Know your ‘dealbreakers’

You know enough to prepare great questions for your interviewer, but before you go to that first meeting make sure you know what you want. Set some career and job-related goals.
Know what you want before the first interview

While you may not be THAT picky, it’s hard for both you and the company if you don’t have criteria against which to measure an opportunity.

A lack of objectives makes you look desperate – not an attractive quality in a date or an employee. Let your interviewer know what is important to you.
Tip 3: Bring muster, not bluster

Project a confident image of someone who has options and is excited about the job because it meets or exceeds what they have been looking for.

Don’t mistake confidence and eagerness for arrogance, however. You won’t get the job (in the same way that you wouldn’t get a second chance if you demanded that your date prove why he/she deserved the pleasure of your company.)

One last thing – smile. This may sound like silly advice, but just about everyone in the interview process – including the receptionist – must like you and be genuinely eager to see you join the team. I have met many talented people who don’t go far because they have a crusty attitude – and who would want to date that?

Knowing yourself, having objectives, and projecting a good attitude will land you a job you’ll love.

While it is true that I have seen very few bad references – I can recall just 2 instances where a reference actually said that they would NOT rehire an individual – there is still a load of value that can be derived from a well-conducted reference check.

Even though almost all references are prepared, and sometimes coached by the candidate for the call, there is still an opportunity to garner insight that adds value to both the hiring decision and the management of the individual. It is easy to verify employment, but if that’s all you do with a reference check, you’ve wasted a great opportunity to get to know the person you may be hiring.

So – in addition to the standard verification of employment questions, here are some sample questions that will help you have a valuable reference conversation:

How would you describe his/her leadership style?

How does he/she behave in a highly stressful situation?

How much direction does he/she need when given broad and complex tasks?

What do you feel that he/she is capable of as a leader? (described in terms of team size, scope, industry, change etc)
&
Where would you draw the limitations of his/her leadership capabilities?

What were some of the leadership challenges that he/she faced, and how were these handled?

Speak to me about a specific success or accomplishment as a leader that you witnessed.

How would he/she be described by the people who reported to him/her?

What advice would you give for his next employer in terms of getting the best performance?

I also ask what else they’d like to add… and then leave some dead air. People are always uncomfortable with silence and your reference will continue to talk, to fill the void.

You should keep the tone conversational, to keep it comfortable and honest. This is another form of interview really, and you don’t just want the formal answer, but the person’s insight and opinions. And you can only get this if your develop some quick rapport. This is tricky if you’ve delegated the reference check process to a less experienced interviewer or someone who does not know the candidate.  The more skilled your ‘reference-checker’, the more value you get from the call.

When you design your reference question list, look at the types of characteristics you were looking for when you designed the job and conducted interviews. If the role demands resourcefulness, your reference can be asked whether this is a strength. If your interviewers were a little concerned about the person’s ability to present to an executive team, ask a question about that. The results of your reference should validate your choice, and give additional insight into your new hire’s past work performance.

Finally, many companies are quite careful about the legal implications of letting managers give employment references for past employees. While, in practice, I have never been denied a detailed conversation about an individual’s past employment history and performance, I’ve specifically not touched on the issues around privacy laws and liability. A quick google search will give you some tips relating to regional laws – I take no responsibility.

Ideally you can take this opportunity to further showcase your preparedness, as well as your suitability and enthusiasm for the role.  And because you are not just desperate for any old job, you need to gather as much information as is necessary to decide whether this is the right job for you.

Here is a list of some questions that you may want to bring along to the interview – obviously not ALL of them, but use your judgement to determine what questions are suitable for the person you are meeting, the company and the role.

• Who does this position report to? And what does this org chart look like for this part of the company?
• What are the prospects for growth and advancement?
• How does one advance in the company?
• What do you like about working here? How long have YOU been here and why did you take the job?
• How will my success in this role be measured? formally and informally?
• How much guidance or assistance is made available to individuals in developing career goals?
• How much opportunity will I have for decision-making in my first assignment?
• Is this a new role? (If it is to replace someone you want to understand what happened)
• Why is the position open, and how long have you been looking?
• What are the revenues projections and/or profitability for the company?
• For private companies, who are the shareholders/investors? (good to know if the principals have skin in the game and how decisions are made)
• I am excited about the role and see a strong fit, do you have any immediate concerns about my suitability?
• If a senior/lead role, why was this not filled by internal promotion?
• How will the role change/evolve when the current project is over?
• How much real authority will I have and over what?
• What can you tell me about the job that is not in the job description?
• What is your vision your this role/team/project/organization?
• How senior is the rest of the team?
• Describe the culture of the team?  Do people socialize as a group?