Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category
Six Sigma Recruiting
Posted by JasonGoogle it, and you’ll return 9.5 million results… Six Sigma was pioneered by Motorola in 1981, and is one of their registered trademarks. As of 2006, Motorola reported savings in excess of $17 billion – as a result of Six Sigma.
Six Sigma’s implicit goal is to improve all processes to that level of quality or better, and can be applied to recruiting. While the methodology doesn’t come without criticism and certainly isn’t new, in general and within recruiting, we know improvement opportunities exist in a majority, if not all companies recruiting and hiring process.
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?
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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