Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category
A Talent Strategy Conversation with Susan Burns - Part 1
Posted by Jason
One of the great outcomes of spending time on social networking sites like twitter is the opportunity to engage with and meet people worldwide. Earlier this year I met Susan Burns - first online, and then a few months later in-person at a Conference. Since then, I’ve grown a tremendous amount of respect for her thoughts, views, and strategies around talent. I recently had the opportunity to catch up with Susan to discuss Talent Strategies.
Jason:
Focusing on talent, what do you see as the biggest opportunity (or opportunities) for organizations to consider as we plan for 2009 and beyond?
Susan:
Alignment, structure and clarity of the company’s talent philosophy are three opportunity areas for companies to address that will strengthen the overall talent foundation and support increased agility and speed – which are increasingly important for success, competitiveness and sustainability. At first, it may sound like a lot to address but these opportunity areas are closely related, complimentary, and play off each other to strengthen the talent function and drive overall momentum.
Alignment frames how the talent function intersects with the organization’s business strategy and planning process. Intersection with the strategic planning process should be a high priority for the staffing function since it provides insight into how to plan for the future and informs key decisions. Alignment between staffing and the business strategy process influences where and how recruiting resources are allocated and how growth and investments, or contraction, are prioritized. The information derived also informs workforce planning, which is obviously critical for the recruitment function. Whether it sits in the recruitment function or not there needs to be purposeful overlap and a continuous, two-way open information loop so recruitment can be proactive. I personally believe that workforce planning should sit within recruitment, if not be led by the recruitment function, for simplicity, efficiency and for the greatest value to be delivered to the organization’s business objectives.
While this may all seem straightforward there are still too many indications that active discussions between staffing leaders and business leaders are not happening, leaving staffing in a reactive position. When the staffing function is in a reactive position it is not as well-equipped to contribute strategic value, experiences increased costs, and also results in recruiter stress and burnout – besides a lack of time for recruiters to pursue personal development opportunitites. One more important point about intersecting with the organization’s business strategy and planning process - learn the language of your company’s business! Understand the important components and metrics that guide and measure the business and the related decisions. How do your decisions, actions and metrics tell a compatible and supportive story?
Periodically looking at the design and structure of the recruitment function ensures it’s agile, efficient, aligned with the company’s talent philosophy, and producing results that deliver a competitive and sustainable strategy. We continue to see an increasing number of channels, tools and technologies emerging that can benefit talent attraction and acquisition strategies. However, unless you can smartly organize around these to improve the value-add of recruiters, process efficiency and results, they potentially become more problematic, add complexity and dilute the existing strategy. As you breakdown the drivers for your overarching strategy do you assess whether what you want to get done can be supported by the existing structure? Here’s an example - Social Media! Not only is it increasingly important for the organization to have a presence on social networking sites and incorporate social media into their attraction strategy but to derive value from these channels there needs to be a dedicated resource to make the strategy sustainable. It is simply not possible for a full-cycle recruiter to allocate sufficient time to build and nurture an online community presence. Revisiting the structure to see where budget and/or roles could be reallocated to support a community manager role would support a successful strategy.
Alignment and structure work together to address one of the biggest challenges for a talent function – increased complexity. The amount of complexity is significant, primarily because of the disparate number of tools and technology used within the talent function, but that problem isn’t going to be solved any time soon and it’s much more difficult to address. But, complexity can be addressed by looking at those things that are controllable, and should be, if the function evolves, keeps pace with business and becomes a value-added partner. The more that can be done to reduce complexity the more time there is to invest in truly value-added activities like candidate attraction, engagement and selection.
Clarity around the company’s talent philosophy is often taken for granted, and the absence of clarity is a significant contributor to inefficiency and turnover. Being intentional and purposeful in communicating what the company is trying to accomplish streamlines efforts, increases momentum and strengthens the employment brand and value proposition. Are candidates receiving the same message from recruiters? From hiring managers? Is a new hires experience consistent with what they learned on your website and through the interview process? What happens when they want to take advantage of development programs? When their ready to pursue another opportunity in the company are they supported? These are just a few areas for Recruiting to assess, clarify and develop in partnership with their HR peers and design a persistent communication plan to cascade through the organization.
Jason:
As you have had the opportunity to consult, network, and meet with hundreds of recruiting and talent management professionals what are 2 or 3 common trends you notice in today’s climate?
Susan:
The most common trends are incorporating social media and networks to attract and engage talent and expanding their company’s view of “right fit” talent and to broaden their talent reach and candidate pool.
The majority of recruiting leaders realize that social media is an important component to integrate into their talent strategy, although there are still some that question the viability for recruitment. Of those that do want to incorporate social media the most common challenges are developing an understanding of the nuances of community to design an approach and establish a sustainable strategy. Allocating time to invest in learning about social media and then implementing a strategy to engage and manage communities is often daunting. Sustainability requires considerable care for nurturing community, which is an important component of a social media strategy, in addition to learning about the various platforms and supporting technologies. I’m a firm believer in establishing a foundation for understanding the tenets of community and then building an approach to recruitment. In most cases it may even require rethinking the current recruitment team function and processes, as mentioned above, with inclusion of a community manager role.
The real value of social networks comes when you can transform transactional actions to relationship interactions. Developing and nurturing communities takes time and if recruiters have full-cycle responsibility they don’t have the bandwidth to learn the numerous technologies and platforms and effectively engage in community relationship building and interaction. The role of a community manager, which is borrowed from the consumer space, is a position that should be established when developing a social media strategy to ensure it’s a sustainable and successful investment. Depending on the size and complexity of the organization this role could be a hybrid of a sourcing strategist role. The community manager / sourcing strategist should be tightly integrated into the recruitment team so the focus and purpose of the role is intentional and information flows openly and is shared efficiently. I’d also recommend developing an incremental approach that allows the company to define success milestones by moving slowly into the social media space, focus on building a strong foundation, and address specific talent needs that will be recognized as a big win for the talent function and company.
Expanding the company’s talent view to broaden reach and attract a more skillfully diverse candidate pool has many benefits. Hiring managers often apply a narrow view to “right fit” talent because that is what they know and there is not always supporting learning and development programs to acclimate new talent. Additionally, the way talent is brought onboard doesn’t support a planned learning curve. Companies could expand their talent pool by expanding their view and focusing on individual potential and talent adjacencies - a concentric approach that looks expands the skills and experiences to be considered. This type of strategy does require a mindshift and supporting programs to on-board talent. Additionally, taking an approach that aligns with succession planning targets and places new talent prior to the incumbent vacating their position could help hiring managers become more comfortable with the approach. The benefits – a broader talent pool from which to recruit, increased diversity of the company’s talent, reduced time-to-hire, and the ability to anticipate the future and focus on progressive needs as the company’s business evolves over time.
Connect with Susan:
You can also chat with Susan each week on Talent Talk Cafe - on RecruitingBlogs.com. Just click on the cup for details!
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5 EASY Ways to Optimize your 2009 Recruiting Budget
Posted by JasonBy Jason Buss.
Amidst rising unemployment, and what some call a recession - or even financial crisis, it’s that time of year to finalize your plans for 2009 recruiting budgets. This post contains ideas on things you can do to cut (if needed) - or optimize your spending.
Once you know anticipated volumes and skills you will be responsible for finding, here are 5 EASY ways to optimize your recruiting budget:
- Job Boards. Take a good, in-depth look at your job board spend, and overall results. Besides the crappy candidate experience, it should come as no surprise job board traffic continues on a multi-year decline. Use this to your advantage - and negotiate. You should be paying a substantially less amount per posting than in previous years. Most of the big boards continue to add new services to offset posting and resume database access. For more ideas on job boards, you can read an earlier post, “What Would Happen if Job Boards Became Obsolete“?
- Campus Recruiting. Most students I’ve talked to this fall have noticed a big decline in on-campus spending, presence, and the number of jobs available. Most recruiters have been talking about a decrease in full-time opportunities, but a significant increase in interns for 2009. Be thoughtful about your approach to campus recruiting, advertising, events, and sponsorships. You can also reference “Approach to College Recruiting Planning and Strategy” and “Tips on Better Preparing Yourself for the Upcoming College Recruiting Season“.
- Use SEO, SEM, Social Media, and Blogs. As the traffic declines with the boards, use search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and social media tools to recruit. These have been a hot topic for a couple of years already, and there is enough proof, case studies, and white papers highlighting success - especially with SEO. No, I’m not talking about a .jobs domain that re-directs to your careers site… On the Social Media front, focus on networking and hiring from sites like Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Plaxo, LinkedIn and others.
- Recruiting Events. Carefully assess your attendance at recruiting events. When you make one-off decisions throughout the year you can typically justify attendance. There are some industries and jobs where an event (such as a career fair) might make sense. The truth (for most) is events have never made the top of the list for sourcing effectiveness. There may be reasons to attend (branding as an example). If that’s the case, your Marketing group can fund the event. Be clear about why you want to be there, and what results you are striving to achieve.
- Get aggressive with sourcing. Reduce your reliance on external providers where it makes sense. Don’t wait for the talent to find you. Sounds easy - it starts with equipping recruiters with the right tools and training.
While there is no “one size fits all” approach, take a leadership approach and maximize recruiting and the value it brings to your organization while not jeopardizing quality.
By Jason Buss.
Recruiters want strong relationships with their hiring managers. It’s one thing to want, and another to deliver and earn. Strong relationships are not granted - they are earned by producing results. One sign you have work to do is when a new position is opened, he/she contacts an external provider before talking to you. As the late Rodney Dangerfield used to say, “I don’t get no respect”. Start now. Own it, and make it mutual.
Here are 5 things you can do now to increase the trust, respect, and appreciation with your hiring leaders:
- Know your competitors better than your Hiring Manager. It’s one thing to know the list of companies you are competing against, but it’s another to know what positions they have open, who their “A” players are, who’s looking, and who would consider the right opportunity. Do you read their press releases, are you signed up for e-mail alerts, RSS feeds, watch their stock (if applicable), or follow their employees on social networking sites?
- Set expectations up front, and drive accountability. Not just what you will do, but what you expect of them throughout the recruiting and hiring process. Do you use service level agreements? Read more about the purpose and benefits of using SLA’s for recruiting, or key steps in establishing SLA’s for recruiting. A blast from the past - people have been talking about the use of SLA’s in HR overall for years but very few organizations do it effectively.
- Source talent. Sounds easy, right? Most hiring managers do not want a bunch of Resume’s forwarded to them from you. They are looking for pre-screened, assessed talent, based on the position priorities and competencies he/she described when the requisition was opened. If you have a conversation in your initial meeting - or ask - about what job boards, niche sites, or associations he/she thinks you should post on, you have work to do.
- Have a 95%+ acceptance rate. Sure, candidates turn down opportunities for a variety of reasons, but the best recruiters anticipate needs or objections throughout the process prior to the offer stage.
- Deliver on every commitment. Provide the right number of updates, with the right content, in the right way. Don’t be a high maintenance recruiter. If you say you are going to do something, do it ahead of time, or on time.
While Hiring Managers absolutely own part of the process, recruiters facilitate a majority of it. Recruiters that are influential with the interpersonal skills, confident, and competent will win every time.
This is a 2 part series on Service Level Agreements, and includes:
- Part 1: Service Level Agreements Purpose and Benefits
- Part 2: Key Steps in Establishing Service Level Agreements
Part 2:
Before establishing a service level agreement, it is important to consider the overall purpose and benefits, as well as assess the overall readiness for your organization. Overall, SLA’s can be an excellent tool in improving communications, managing expectations, clarifying responsibilities and building the foundation for a win-win relationship.
The key steps in establishing a Service Level Agreement include:
- Gathering background information
- Ensuring agreement about the agreement
- Establishing ground rules for working together
- Developing the agreement
- Generating buy-in
- Completing pre-implementation tasks
- Implementing and managing the agreement
Gathering background information. Both the customer and the internal business partner need to start by gathering information so that each has a solid basis from which to negotiate. Before eliciting commitments from their service provider, customers should carefully review and clarify their service needs and priorities. And before making any commitments to customers, service providers should examine their service history and determine the level of service they can realistically provide. In addition, service providers should assess customer satisfaction to clearly understand customer concerns and establish a baseline for assessing service improvements.
Ensuring agreement about the agreement. The two parties to an agreement often have different views about the role of the SLA and what it can realistically accomplish. Both sets of views may be valid, yet sufficiently different as to cause a breakdown in SLA negotiations. Before any SLA development work is done, it is advisable for the two parties to hold an open discussion to ensure that they have a basic level of agreement about the agreement. If they don’t -and until they do- any further SLA effort may prove futile.
Establishing ground rules for working together. In this critical, but often overlooked step the SLA developers focus not on the agreement, but on the process by which they will work together to create the agreement.
Develop the agreement. This is but one step in the process of establishing an SLA; it’s not the entire process. In this step, the two parties create a structure for the SLA document and then discuss, debate, negotiate and, over time, reach agreement about the contents of the agreement. In doing so, they may each solicit assistance, input or feedback from the others in their own organization. The duration of this step typically varies, depending on the developers’ previous experience with SLAs, their familiarity with the key elements of an SLA, the demands of their other responsibilities, and the state of the relationship between the two parties.
Generating buy-in. The result of Step 4 is a draft of an agreement, not a completed agreement. Before implementing an SLA, all members of both parties who have a stake in, or responsibility for, the success of the agreement should have an opportunity to review the draft, raise questions, and offer suggestions. Using this feedback, the developers can conduct further negotiations, gain the necessary approvals, and finalize the document. In addition to generating buy-in, this step improves the quality of the final document.
Completing pre-implementation tasks. This step entails the identification and completion of tasks that must precede SLA implementation. Such tasks might include, for example, developing tracking mechanisms, establishing reporting processes, developing procedures for carrying out stated responsibilities, communicating expectations to staff, providing pertinent training.
Implementing and managing the agreement. An agreement that is not managed dies upon implementation. Management responsibilities include providing a point of contact for problems related to the agreement, maintaining ongoing contact with the other party, conducting service reviews, coordinating and implementing modifications to the SLA, and assessing and reporting on how the two parties can further enhance their working relationship.
Establishing and implementing agreements is neither a quick or easy process. Communication and buy-in are required to implement a solid SLA. Be clear about the intent and purpose of the agreement prior to making a decision to use them. And, if you are not going to measure the results or drive accountability, save your time and don’t create or execute a SLA within your organization.
This is a 2 part series on Service Level Agreements, and includes:
- Part 1: Service Level Agreements Purpose and Benefits
- Part 2: Key Steps in Establishing Service Level Agreements
Part 1:
Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) have been around for some time, and was a hot topic within the talent acquisition space dating back 6-7 years ago. I have been asked about SLA’s twice in the past week and views on driving success when implementing them in a recruiting function.
Service Level Agreements can be created for clients both internally and externally. The 2 most common I have come across in recruiting include hiring managers and HR Business Partners. What’s the purpose of a SLA?
- Define the services to be provided
- Establish the manner in which the services will be delivered
- Set quality standards to be achieved
- Determine the measurement criteria
- Outline the reporting process
I have also had the opportunity to personally implement SLA’s and have talked with recruiting leaders about SLA’s in their organization. Some have been a critical driver to establishing two-way accountability and have been very successful, while some have failed miserably. The common denominator with the successful cases: Client confidence and recruiting professionals with influence and sales ability to set the expectations, as well as ownership in the process.
When implemented properly, SLA’s have several benefits including:
- Establishes two-way accountability for a service
- Creates levels of service that are negotiated and standardized
- Documents service levels in writing
- Provides a basis for improving service levels
- Standardized methods for communicating expectations
In the end, SLA’s are only as effective as the team designing and implementing them. The piece of paper becomes meaningless without the right training, expectations, accountability, and skills to execute with clients.
Part 2 of Service Level Agreements in Recruiting will focus on the Seven Key Steps to Establishing a SLA.
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