A well presented employment brand is an effective tool to attract and even retain the right people, but as with all things recruiting it has to be real; the brand, the message, the images. Your potential candidate is smart and will use his or her social media network and tools to insure your message undeniably represents the real brand.
Quality of hire is a topic of keen interest to recruiters and talent acquisition professionals and in June of 2010, APQC interviewed Yves Lermusi, CEO of Checkster, to ask him how he, and some of the organizations he works with, define and measure quality of hire. These days Yves spends most of his time consulting and analyzing the cost and effect of quality of hire.
Sourcing talent these days is a monumental task. According to the U.S. Labor Department’s latest monthly job openings and turnover survey, for every open position there are 5 potential applicants – a small improvement from the previous month’s survey. However; surely this number doesn’t include the pool of currently employed (and underemployed) adults who are so stressed by the possible loss of their job due to economic conditions they can’t imagine tempting fate by applying for an open and potentially better position, with a new employer.
There are three simple reasons interviews suck, and it doesn’t matter if you are the recruiter, the recruitee, or someone else who’s been sucked into the process.
Although there’s a lot of talk about transferable skills, identifying and articulating skills that are transferable beyond a position or industry can be challenging.
There’s just too much work and stress in recruitment. Without a wholehearted appreciation for the human aspect of what we do, one will find it difficult (sooner or later) to survive, let alone thrive, so ask yourself “…do you really want to get into recruitment?”
Your ability to listen is the most critical talent you’ll need to succeed in your career. However, only about 10% of us listen properly, according to several psychological studies published at www.CareerCast.com. In fact, most of us don’t know how to listen intelligently, systematically and purposefully.
The greatest way to motivate your team and improve morale is to teach your sales team how to increase their level of success. Individuals in our profession are consistently approaching me to find out why they or their teams are not meeting their expectations. When I asked what those expectations are the most common response was, “To do better than they’re currently doing!”
Many employees have “multiple personalities” in which they act differently toward co-workers than towards their manager, depending upon their relative position of influence. They’ve learned to “manage up,” displaying their best qualities and performance in full view of the people who hired them and who wield power over them. Managers, after all, conduct employees’ performance reviews, determine compensation, and guide their career paths within the organization. It is clearly in employee’s best interest to put their best foot forward in interactions with their managers.
Older employees may be the most loyal, knowledgeable, wise, motivated, and the hardest working human resource an organization has. The good news is many are choosing to stick around, and with Boomers staying longer, there’s still time to utilize their talent and experience, as well as transfer their precious knowledge to younger Gen X and Gen Y employees. But companies would do well to act swiftly. Boomers may be staying longer but they won’t stay forever.
