Recruiters Have Careers Too

Recruiters Have Careers Too

And, in today’s economy, they need to protect them! Even the best of recruiters have found themselves laid off by their employer or at a dead end in their organization.

How can you protect yourself?

Get Peter Weddle’s new guide, The Career Fitness Workbook. It’s available at Amazon.com.

The book has a number of special features:

Organized just like a physical fitness regimen, the book tells you what to do to improve the health of your career, how to do it and – unique to the Career Fitness program – how often in order to maximize the employment benefits you derive from your efforts.

From ancillary skill development and work pacing to soul work and gathering career intelligence, the book introduces a powerful blend of the best traditional practices and state-of-the-art techniques for effective job search and career self-management in today’s uncertain times.

Filled with worksheets and exercises, the book is a complete self-study program that delivers the knowledge and skills required for BOTH job search and career success.

So, get your career in shape. Get The Career Fitness Workbook today!

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Walk Softly But Speak With Big Data

Let’s be honest. Hiring managers are not our customers. At best, they are our allies, and at worst, they are our enemies. They hold the power to help or hinder our day-to-day work. But, our customers – the people who determine whether or not we’re successful – are another group altogether.

Recruiters have a fiduciary responsibility to their employers. Wikipedia defines fiduciary as “Involving trust, esp. with regard to the relationship between a trustee and a beneficiary.” In other words, recruiters are entrusted by the organization with the responsibility for talent acquisition.

While that responsibility is met at the tactical level by filling openings identified by hiring managers, the responsibility itself is a strategic imperative for the organization. What does that mean practically? Providing excellent customer service to hiring managers is essential but not sufficient for our success. We must also provide the same level of service to the c-suite. We must fill openings for hiring managers and fill in the blanks for executives. We must provide talent to the front lines of our employer’s organization and information about our efforts to do so to its leaders.

Little Data vs. Big Data

Big Data is an old idea that is enjoying a renaissance. Organizations have used data in their decision-making since the early years of the 20th century when Frederick Taylor laid out the principles of “scientific management.” What’s different now is our ability to collect far more data that is far more detailed than ever before and to do so far more quickly.

In effect, big data enables us to have a big impact on the organization’s performance. There are fewer unknowns and more people in the know. We have the information we need to optimize AND confirm performance. We have the clarity we need to remediate shortcomings efficiently AND to recognize excellence appropriately.

While big data is now being deployed aggressively in other functional areas of the enterprise, however, its introduction in recruitment is best described as “little data.” It’s been focused on making the hiring manager happy. So, we collect and report data on time-to-fill, applicants-per-opening, and (when we can agree on the definition) quality of hire. We keep the hiring manager informed and, all too often, the c-suite in the dark.

Recruit Tactically, But Think Strategically

The justification for this uniocular approach has been the longstanding indifference toward recruitment in the c-suite. That myopia, however, is now being jettisoned. More and more CEOs, COOs and CFOs are now painfully aware of the importance of talent acquisition not only to the organization’s performance but to their own, as well.

That shift in perspective creates a window of opportunity for recruiters. By recruiting tactically, but thinking strategically, they can ensure that hiring managers have their openings filled and that executives have a full understanding of the recruiting team’s contribution.

What data will enable executives to gain such insight? The best approach is a combination of strategic metrics which both educate AND inform them. These might include:

Cost per hire by source: the direct and indirect (e.g., recruiter time, administrative overhead) cost of hires made from each sourcing channel (e.g., recruitment advertising, data mining on social media sites). This metric educates the c-suite on the range of sources the recruiting team is using to acquire talent for the enterprise and demonstrates that it is monitoring the organization’s return on investment in their sourcing and recruiting activities.

Time to fill by position title: the time in days required to fill position openings in a select subset of the enterprise’s most important occupations. This metric educates the c-suite on the variations in time to fill among different demographics and thus enhances their understanding of talent supply and demand. Over time, it also can illustrate improvements made by the recruiting team through revised strategies and practices that improve productivity.

and

Requisitions per recruiter per month: the average number of open positions supported each month by members of the recruiting team. This metric helps the c-suite appreciate the workload that is being assigned to the recruiting team and thus better understand when and why additional staff investments may be necessary. In addition, it will also underscore the contribution being made by recruiters to the enterprise’s mission and success.

Big data won’t solve every challenge facing recruiters, but if used strategically, it will enhance both the perception and reality of their contribution and, as a result, their standing and security in the enterprise.

Thanks for reading,

Peter

Visit me at Weddles.com

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Be At Your Best With the Best Tools

The best recruiters use the best resources to get the job done. And, when it comes to reaching top talent online, their choice is clear. It’s WEDDLE’s Guides for Recruiting Success. Get yours today!

WEDDLE’s 2011/12 Guide to Employment Sites on the Internet. This is the 10th edition of the Guide the American Staffing Association called the “Zagat” of job boards and social media sites.

WEDDLE’s Guide to Association Web Sites. This book details the recruiting resources and capabilities that are available at the Web-sites of over 3,000 professional and technical associations.

Finding Needles in a Haystack. This one-of-a-kind guide lists over 25,000 keywords and keyword phrases, across 5,400 job and position titles in 28 industries and professions.

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Outside-the-Box Training Sessions

WEDDLE’s is pleased to offer a number of uniquely insightful and practical training programs for corporate and staffing firm recruiting teams. The courses can be tailored to your specific industry or career field focus and delivered onsite at your facility or via Webinar.

The programs include:

Creating a Corporate Career Site for Post-Social Recruiting

Optimizing the Candidate Experience

Developing an Employment Brand for Top Talent

Best Practices in Online Recruitment Advertising

Optimizing the Content for Candidates Wherever You Contact Them

Building a Corporate Career Site for Passive, High Caliber Talent

The Art of Social Recruiting for “A” Level Performers

Transforming Your Resume Database Into a Candidate Gold Mine

How the World of Work Has Changed in the 21st Century

For more information about each program and its cost, please contact Peter Weddle at 203-964-1888 or peter@weddles.com.

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Sourcing Your Own Career Success

As recruiters and HR professionals, we spend 33 percent of our day (or more) on-the-job and 100 percent of our job helping others to achieve career success.

Don’t our own careers deserve equal attention? Absolutely! And the one best way to do that is by sourcing career success with WEDDLE’s books. They include:

A Multitude of Hope: A Novel About Rediscovering the American Dream. This modern-day epic traces the journeys of three out-of-work professionals searching for answers in today’s seemingly nonsensical job market. Along the way, they discover the secret to “career security” and the pathway to real and lasting success.

The Career Fitness Workbook. This self-paced instructional guide introduces a complete regimen of activities that will help you successfully compete for and hang onto the job of your dreams. Think of it as “the habits of highly effective career activists.”

Recognizing Richard Rabbit. This fable for adults will entertain and delight you and help you out of the boxes that keep you from becoming the champion inside you. It is a novel and engaging way to recognize the talented person you are meant to be.

The Career Activist Republic. This blockbuster of a book provides a provocative yet positive assessment of the changing world of work in the American economy and describes an innovative strategy that will enable you to avoid the pitfalls and capture the opportunities in this new environment.

The Success Matrix: Wisdom from the Web on How to Get Hired and Not Be Fired. This anthology collects the best of Peter Weddle’s columns on job search and career success. It is the only book you’ll find that provides a candid and totally up-to-date look at how to get and stay ahead in today’s workplace.

In addition, read Peter Weddle’s WorkStrong blog for Career Activists. It’s a quick and easy way to stay on top of all of changes underway in today’s workplace and, best of all, it’s delivered right to your e-mailbox. Just click here to register.