Essential Research Tools Every Recruiter Should Utilize

While data from CareerBuilder shows that 52% of employers currently use social networking sites to research job candidates, up significantly from 43% last year, that still leaves roughly one half who unfortunately aren’t doing so. In today’s world, there’s simply no excuse to ignore the vast array of useful technological tools to research candidates for your most critical hires.

However, the range of tools available is enormous, ever-changing and evolving. Additionally, the technology that delivers these tools has changed dramatically, allowing the profession to search for candidates in different ways. For instance, per data cited in a recent webinar, since 45% of active candidates have applied for a job via a mobile device and 60% of passive candidates view career opportunities sent to their mobile device, it’s become much more important to make job postings and career websites mobile-friendly. That’s why determining which tools to use to is often so challenging.

The overall goal of this article is to describe broad categories of recruitment tools available so that readers who are corporate buyers of recruitment consulting services will know the right questions to ask when interviewing external recruitment/search vendors about their experience and qualifications in using these tools. Recognizing that every search is unique, just as every position and its associated challenges are unique, our intent is to provide a general guide when embarking on a relationship with an external executive search consultant. We’ll also cover savvy ways that capable recruiters can shortcut a search or bypass a dead end when working on a particularly difficult search.

Change is constant

Compared to even five years ago, literally hundreds of new tools have been brought to market. According to Towers Watson, the recruitment technology industry is now a $8.1 billion industry (for further reading, link here).  Some tech providers tout sophisticated algorithms to find passive candidates; others aim to streamline the process. Much attention, in particular, is being paid to technologies that meet the “2-3 thumb swipe rule” by engaging candidates who view job postings and emails on their smartphones by minimizing click-throughs.

While every search firm may subscribe to different products, at a minimum they ought to be able to prove their expertise in advertising the position in the most effective and targeted manner possible (see sidebar) and prove their prowess within three different categories of tools.  These tools are by no means mutually exclusive nor do they all necessarily need to be employed in the context of a single search. The specific tools a recruiter selects when starting a search should always be the culmination of a measured and strategic decision based on the likelihood that a combination of particular tools will turn up the best candidates in the shortest possible timeframe.

Before even turning to the selection of tools, however, every reputable search firm will insist on a pre-search kick-off meeting with their client to discuss the ideal candidate for the job, compensation, as well as the corporate culture, potential challenges, etc.  One of the critical outcomes of this meeting is a position profile written to attract potential candidates and to develop a “value proposition”.  As a next step, savvy recruiters will also create something we refer to as a “sizzle sheet” for advertising and research purposes, and when contacting candidates by phone. Only then do we turn to selecting tools from the following general categories described below:

CRM and ATS

Tracking – whether in the form of a candidate relationship management (CRM) system or an applicant tracking system (ATS) – is vital. So, before engaging an outside search consultant, make sure that they are using one. It is also quite common and advantageous to have contract recruiters use your organization’s ATS system so that you are able to retain all the information on each contact for future openings. As for retained searches, we make it a practice to provide our client with a “dashboard report” identifying all of the candidates we have contacted.  Also make sure to ask about a potential vendor’s own proprietary database. At TalentRISE, we maintain and update a database of nearly 400,000 names which we mine as a first step when assigned any search. This database has proven to be invaluable as we continue to build groups of candidates by function and geography, experience and expertise.

Public/Social Business Networks and Forums

Social networks, with LinkedIn Corporate Edition leading the pack, are some of the best tools that recruiters can use to find passive candidates via their digital footprint. Examples of such networks include chat rooms, association forums, and LinkedIn groups. We also use listservs to communicate with groups, especially academic forums, about job openings. A recent example of a search in which a listserv played a useful role was for a job with a specialized medical organization requiring a PhD. By leveraging highly specialized academic listservs, we were able to identify qualified candidates.

Be sure to ask a prospective vendor which networks they will use to find candidates for your specific open position. Depending on the functional role you are filling, ask your potential vendor about their expertise with directories such as  Ziggs, Zoominfo, Jigsaw and Spoke. And does the consultant make it easy for individuals to share opportunities through their own personal social media channels with their colleagues?  Depending on the level of the position, don’t discount the value of Facebook – while a VP of Engineering is not a likely target on Facebook, success can be found with more junior level technology positions.

Thought Leadership and Media

A category of tools less frequently utilized but perhaps even more useful than that offered by social networks mines potential candidates’ contributions and quotes in the media as well as their current employers’ websites and blogs. Self-published blogs, articles, personal websites and twitter feeds are also valuable for research and will often lead the way to the ideal candidate.

Typically, a recruiter will search under certain keywords to find a candidates who has published on a specific topic. For example, when looking for a consultant with expertise in healthcare management on behalf of one of our clients in the professional services field, our researchers may search for articles in healthcare management publications and then do further research on the most frequent and prominent authors, speakers at conferences or individuals who are quoted as experts in their field. Similarly, we will often monitor twitter feeds as well as blogs to research and identify individuals who stand out as thought leaders and may fit the qualifications of our clients’ job description. Various tools, such as Broadlook/Capture streamline the process of filtering such information from what often ends up being hundreds of sources.

Correcting Course

As we all know, things don’t often go as planned. In anticipation of Murphy’s Law, it’s also important to question your consultant about their “Plan B” if and when a particular search tool strategy does not yield the anticipated results. An experienced recruitment consultant will know when to switch gears and adopt a new strategy to avoid going down the same wrong path again and again, wasting time and energy when the traditional sources for candidates aren’t surfacing the right qualifications. There is a need for workarounds particularly when what you are looking for is not really obvious. A recent search we filled, for instance, required very niche skills –  both fluency in Japanese and an engineering background. In cases like this, a knowledgeable researcher will create an algebraic search using a boolean search string. In a recent instance, for example, we were able to uncover several candidates for a senior level executive role requiring a security clearance using a Google search that looked something like this: (intitle:resume | inurl:resume) (director OR engineer) (windows | MCSE | exchange) (ts/sci | poly | polygraph | secret) (VA | Virginia | DC | Maryland | MD) -jobs -send -submit -your -sample).

Summary

In our opinion, one of the most critical roles in any search is the researcher.  The role is not unlike that of a master sleuth looking for that often very small and elusive handful of candidates best qualified and credentialed for a certain role. The researcher also needs to be an expert reader of people and their personalities to find individuals who will best fit the culture of your organization. Finally, the researcher must also possess the sales skills to interest the candidate to pursue the position further. Given all these hats a researcher must wear in order to be successful, it’s only common sense to equip him or her with the best tools possible to do his or her job.

Asked to summarize the main theme of the Spring 2016 ERE conference I attended in one word, I would say “data”. Just about every single presentation focused on how data is already an enabler of innovation and will increasingly play a major part in all aspects of the talent acquisition process in the future. However, as presenter Corrine Sandler, author of Wake Up or Die, warned, data is useless unless it leads to an opportunity that helps you accelerate your brand, hire better talent, make better business decisions to grow your business and mitigate risks. Dr. John Sullivan also highlighted this in his presentation by stating that collecting metrics related to talent acquisition has had, to date, no real impact because recruiting functions typically have not done anything with the data collected.

This theme was reinforced in several other sessions and got me thinking more deeply about how we, as talent acquisition professionals, can better use data to “sell” our internal customers on the need for continued investments in the function itself. For example, in another session, a panel of recruitment leaders (Jeanna Barrie and David Watson from Avanade and John Ricciandi from ERE Media) shared best practices on applying data to manage the talent acquisition function. They argued that recruiters often don’t use data as effectively as they can to communicate in “business speak” with hiring managers and thereby miss opportunities to make the case that recruitment can, indeed, make their world better. Talent supply and demand analytics tools (like the Conference Board’s “Talent Neuron” or Careerbuilder’s “TalentStream”) should be in every recruiter’s toolbox as they bridge the “business speak” communication gap with hiring managers.  Bottom line, It’s really about turning data into numbers to represent hard dollars and illustrate the business impact of recruiting decisions.  As another presenter, John Murphy of Aspen Dental commented, this is critical to ensuring that the business “gets and understands the value of talent acquisition.”

TalentRISE was invited to facilitate a panel discussion on Veteran Recruitment Best Practices at this annual conference for professionals within the Records and Information Management Industry.  

Panelists Emily Garrity of TalentRISE and ConnectVETS.org, Laura Mitchell of Jackson Lewis, Brian Moriki of First Hawaiian Bank and Donna Hauk of Iron Mountain shared their experiences and tips. Most of the discussion focused on the compliance aspect of veteran recruitment and on the success profiles that work best in this industry.  Unlike the typical HR and Recruiting industry events where we present, this conference content was focused on information relevant to business owners of records and information management companies.

The most innovative practice I gleaned was the use of an innovative new speaker presentation format called “ignite.”  The session was structured around five speakers each sharing “high impact” content via 20 slides in 5 minutes, followed by Q&A. The goal is to engage the audience and provide them with actionable takeaways from each mini presentation. When I was asked to fill in for a last minute speaker cancellation, I had to prove that I was up to the challenge!  After delivering my 5-minute (20 slide!) presentation on “Tips for Hiring Top Performing Sales Talent,” I was amazed at how engaged the audience was! The format of this session forces participants to pay close attention and to take notes on the tips shared. There simply is no time for multitasking to check email, tweet or text a co-worker, family member or job candidate. My presentation focused on the following three tips for success:

1)      Know your talent and business competitors and target them

2)      Have realistic expectations of the profile of the person you can attract and afford

3)      Have a compelling EVP (Employment Value Proposition)

As it turned out, the feedback was incredibly positive and the session was a favorite among the attendees. In the future, however, I would suggest that the session is repositioned as “Speaker Olympics” as this was, bar none, one of the more challenging presentations I have ever had to deliver. But the format was definitely innovative and fun!

This conference was a re-launch of an existing trade association conference that historically has been attended by career website (job board) owners and representatives from companies that provide services to, or partner with, job boards and ATS vendors. In this new, enlivened format, TA Tech’s CEO, Peter Weddle, invited employers (HR and Talent Acquisition Leaders) to attend for the first time as a way for core members to gain insights into the needs of their employer customers, and to promote and recognize innovation in the recruiting service provider, technology and job board industry.  

The new format was built around the theme of “Optimizing the RECRUITER Experience” which was quite innovative and included several interesting sessions that were very different from the often-times recycled topics presented at other HR or Recruiting industry conferences.  Conference session highlights included:

• Peter Weddle’s session on “Next Practices to Target Passive Talent” which highlighted the need for a complete overhaul of how job postings are written. Throughout, Peter offered numerous tips on how to engage top talent.  A few of the more innovative ideas included:
  • Eliminating “Employer Speak”. Instead of focusing on what YOU want from the candidate, create a job posting that poses 3-5 questions to the job candidate to mentally answer with a “yes” to align his/her needs with your employment value proposition.  
  • Avoiding the “resume black hole”. To shortcut a poor candidate experience, Peter suggested stating a specific timeframe in which a candidate can expect receive an update regarding resume status. Assuming you can then deliver on that promise 100% of the time, candidate expectations are managed and they no longer feel as though they are lost in the employer’s process.  
  • Creating a positive brand connection. Post offer, Peter emphasized the importance of creating a positive connection between your new hire and your corporate brand.  He shared an example of how Starbucks hiring managers send new hires a “Welcome to the team” snail mail handwritten note with five $5 gift cards for new hires to share with family. This immediately connects the newbies – as well as their family and friends – to the brand.

• Lindsay Stanton of www.Digi-Me.com  delivered an engaging session on the power of integrating video into traditional job postings to improve candidate click through rates, quality and volume of job applications. Citing that Google ranks video content 53X higher in search engine results over text only content,  Lindsay went on to explain that job candidates will spend 5 times longer on a career site featuring video that showcases culture, offers realistic job previews or other engaging information about a company’s unique value proposition.

• Ethan Bloomfield of www.conversationdriver.com  presented an innovative and educational session using a ficticious job board called  Bananajobs.com to illustrate how job boards partner behind the scenes with job aggregrators to “backfill” employer jobs across a vast network of job boards to drive more traffic to your postings.  The “eye opener” for employers in this session was how a whole secondary market of vendors using so-called programmatic ad buying / trading platforms like Clickcast are creating a market for employer job postings to be bought and sold in a hidden marketplace.  The value proposition is that the job boards where you spend your advertising dollars are able to drive candidate traffic to ALL of the jobs you have posted, not just the attractive, high paying jobs in major metro markets. This unveiling of the inner workings of how job boards and aggregators work together behind the scenes to ensure their paying customers are happy and renew subscriptions was fascinating.  The session opened up a lively discussion about the ethics of the brand impact and loss of control over WHERE employer jobs may be seen online when the employer, for example, thinks their jobs are only being posted on XYZJobboard.com. The session wrapped with questions around the viability of a future potential product that allows employers and job boards to “sell” unwanted job candidate resumes in a marketplace.

Employers interested in learning more about this new way of driving targeted, quality job candidate traffic to jobs should check out www.appcast.com and www.jobs2careers.com. Both of these new job board models are revolutionizing the job board industry by maximizing exposure of employer opportunities online using a more predictable and targeted approach, and by charging fees on pay-per-applicant,  performance-based pricing model. This seems to be the future of job board business models and pricing trends, according to several vendors and employers I spoke with at the conference.

Lastly, David Bernstein of Brightfield Strategies wrapped up the conference by sharing insights into the power of using talent acquisition ATS data and analytics to drive informed, strategic decisions on requisition prioritization, staffing resource allocation, investments in recruitment advertising and more. To learn more, reach out to me directly at carlkutsmode@talentRISE.com or 773 916 6801 for a demo of a new recruiting metrics benchmarking analytics tool that can facilitate analysis of your ATS recruiting performance data.

On October 3, Chicago SHRM hosted its bi-annual Full Day Conference themed “The Changing Workforce: Strategic Talent Management for the Next Generation.”  This networking and educational event was attended by over 100 HR professionals, many of whom focus on talent acquisition. Representing TalentRISE, I facilitated a panel discussion on the topic of “Innovation In the Use of Technology to Capture the Hearts and Minds of Top Talent.”  Panelists Kristy Nittskoff of Talent Savvy, Jennifer Marszalek of Havas Global, Jim Conti of SproutSocial and Lindsay Stanton of Digi-Me all did a fantastic job.  They each related several real life examples gained from their experiences to illustrate how technology plays an evolving role in the entire recruitment and HR process, from talent sourcing through engagement, retention and onboarding.

For me personally, one of the most compelling presentations at the conference, and one I hope will influence long term thinking about recruitment (as well as other aspects of employee engagement beyond the first day), was by Arthur Woods of Imperative. As a former Google employee, he studies what makes some people outperform others at work. His answer? Purpose. According to him, “Purpose-Oriented people have a psychological orientation towards work whereby they see it as a source of self-fulfillment and serving others…employees who believe work is about purpose outperform their colleagues by every measure – they are more likely to be in leadership roles, advocate for their company, have longer tenure, build stronger work relationships, and adapt to change more easily.”  In a “Workforce Purpose Study” Woods conducted of 6,333 employed adults, he found that 28% claimed to be purpose-driven in their work and that purpose-oriented workers reported staying in their jobs 14% longer than non-purpose motivated employees.  These data points were strongly supported by a similar Linkedin study which found that 41% of employed participants were purpose-driven at work, and those same employees reported 30% higher performance ratings and were 47% more likely to become brand ambassadors/promoters of their employers brand and services.   For more, go here. Arthur’s message is truly inspirational.

With over 1,000 attendees, this conference, now in its 30th year, is one of the largest in the Midwest. I was honored to have been selected to facilitate a panel discussion on “Recruiting innovation and how you need to rethink your recruitment strategy to recruit innovative talent.”  Thanks goes to my esteemed group of corporate panelists who offered three uniquely different perspectives: Charles Lilly of UBS represented the corporate employer perspective, Kristy Nittskoff of Talent-Savvy offered an employment branding consultant perspective and Mike Temkin of Shaker Advertising offered a recruitment communications and advertising strategy perspective.

Our session was attended by over 60 people, many with questions about balancing innovation with compliance as well as getting buy-in to new practices by building a business case for change.  Kristy commented on the importance of understanding your employment value proposition and ensuring that employees are able to share that message in a consistent manner when trying to recruit and engage top, innovative talent. Charles highlighted his successes moving his old line, decentralized financial services organization to a more centralized C.O. E. model for recruitment support, technology and strategies.  This enabled him to test new practices with receptive hiring managers, and then expand the adoption of a new technology or strategy by promoting successes internally.  Mike shared numerous examples of how his firm has been able to help employers take a more holistic approach to their recruitment advertising strategy by creating an integrated campaign that leverages multiple advertising mediums, pay-per-click online advertising and job postings to drive quality active and passive talent to employer jobs.  In targeting talent that has innovation as part of its DNA, my panelists agreed that training hiring managers and holding them accountable for hiring talent that is DIFFERENT than past hires is imperative.

Unfortunately, conflicting schedules did not allow time to attend other sessions. However, the top themes addressed were related to the following topics:

• Developing innovative ways of reaching diverse talent pools using the latest technologies
• Conducting effective employment opportunity and branding communications outreach
• Ensuring efficient tracking and compliance as well as measure success

The annual HRMAC Summit is among the most well attended HR events in Chicago, drawing over 300 HR, Talent Management and Talent Acquisition leaders from all over the Chicagoland area and surrounding states.  This year’s Summit served up an especially broad selection of interesting topics. Of all the sessions, two in particular stood out for me. These presenters highlighted innovative approaches to challenges most employers know exist, but need to move to top of mind in 2017 as they consider future recruiting investments:

• Dr. David Rock, Ph.D of the New Leadership Institute delivered a powerful message on how to successfully implement “Strategic D&I” initiatives that eliminate bias. According to Rock, we first need to accept that bias is happening, then label it and, thirdly, put action plans in place to mitigate it. The key principles he outlined centered around developing a common language – and for HR to stop talking about D&I programs and initiatives. Employees consider “D&I speak” as something they HAVE TO DO, and are measured on; therefore it is often perceived negatively. Conversely, as an unintended consequence of focusing on the “programmatic” execution of D&I initiatives, your organization’s diverse talent may feel singled out in the event you engage them to help you recruit more diverse candidates.  Instead, Rock recommends that HR engage all employees in an exercise to evaluate the top ten business AND people decisions that went wrong in the past, and analyze how could they have been mitigated by eliminating bias during the decision-making process. This activity raises the level of awareness from a business, recruiting or retention perspective so that everyone understands how their respective bias contributed to the poor outcomes.  And encourages change with an eye toward the future.
• My other favorite HRMAC session was delivered by Jim Knight of www.rock-n-grow.com who focused on strategies to create a “Culture that Rocks!” Jim defines culture as all about EXPERIENCING the PRESENT. He further describes culture in terms of a collection of people with unique behaviors and shared experiences.  His premise is that most employers focus on celebrating the heritage of their culture (where they started and how they have evolved over the years) and then highlighting what they perceive their culture is today.  In fact, the real culture that every new job candidate or employee perceives should be based upon that person’s EXPERIENCE of your brand at every touchpoint of their interaction with your company.  People crave personalized, differentiated experiences and this is what employers need to focus on creating, living and promoting.  Bottom line, Jim’s closing statement says it all: “Corporate values matter, but employers who create MIND SEARING EXPERIENCES… consistently, will ROCK a culture that attracts and retains the best talent!”

While this was my second time attending this conference, it was my first time as a speaker/presenter.  I was surprised by the rather unique format this time around.  The conference producer, HR Executive, decided to host two separate conferences at the same location on the same dates – The Talent Acquisition Technology Conference and the Recruiting Trends Conference. After navigating a bit of confusion at the shared registration desk, perusing the conference agenda booklet and shared expo hall, I soon learned through word of mouth that we were able to attend sessions at both conferences!  

My session topic was “If you want to hire veterans, you need to change your strategy” and I facilitated a discussion with a very engaged audience of about 50 people with my two panelists, Emily Garrity of TalentRISE and founder of ConnectVETS.org and Laura Mitchell of Jackson Lewis.  We had an Q&A session that generated several key takeaways for veteran recruiting and compliance success:

1. Start with a plan.  Don’t just jump in and start spending dollars on veteran career fairs and job postings. First, identify your executive sponsors and the roles in the organization that offer the best opportunity to translate military skills into civilian jobs.
2. Approach your strategy like you would a marketing strategy.  Identify your targets, do market research to locate where talent with the skills you desire resides within the military (rank, level and titles) and then build your strategy and recruiting plan accordingly.
3. Identify and leverage your existing veteran employees to help you recruit, onboard, develop and retain new veteran talent. They speak the same language, can offer a sense of community that veterans need and often want to be “of service” to your organization. Establish a veteran employee resource group as a first step to formally engage this population’s support.
4. Build a business case and promote small wins. Promote early successes to gain additional support and financial backing to expand your initiatives. It’s statistically proven that companies who employ a high number of veterans reap a higher bottom line. Veterans are also loyal, dedicated employees.

The overall conference theme was focused on the Candidate Experience, and of the many sessions I attended, a few stood out for their innovative perspectives:

• A presentation by Mercer on the use of gamification in their hiring process to improve diversity hiring.  They shared their successes using a custom-built series of online games to eliminate recruiter and hiring manager bias in their recruiting process. By having prospective job candidates anonymously complete a series of brief, online games using their “MercerMatch” assessment tool, they were able to assess career and culture match attributes of job candidates against 40 pre-built talent profiles. Those who scored high were considered formally and their resumes with contact information were then reviewed and queued for a phone screen by a recruiter. The results correlated to a significant improvement in equalizing gender and racial diversity hiring and, ultimately, improved veteran hiring statistics by doing a better job mapping transferable skills and competencies to potential Mercer jobs and company culture BEFORE revealing the candidate’s name and contact information.  Mercer found this worked extremely well for pipeline sourcing and talent pooling in advance of need and for veteran recruitment. Lastly, this approach minimized compliance risk concerns as people were not applying to specific roles when first engaged in the process.

• A session on “Transforming the Candidate Experience” by Chris Hester of Capital One, a Candidate Experience Award winner. Chris highlighted some interesting research and best practices starting with an understanding of how the job candidate experience linked to his organization’s business relationship success. Key takeaways included:

• Over the past five years, candidates surveyed reported that 41% are likely to take their business elsewhere when they have experienced a poor candidate experience.
• Conversely, 64% who report a great candidate experience say they will increase their business relationship with the company/employer.

Chris stated that his success relied on personalizing the candidate experience by ensuring that his team is regularly listening to candidates’ needs and adapting the recruitment approach accordingly. He noted several things to keep in mind when optimizing a candidate’s experience:

• Define and communicate company wide WHO the customer is. Everyone needs to know that the CANDIDATE is the customer, not the hiring manager, leadership team or recruiter.
• Offer a centralized way to regularly train recruiters in three areas: (1) process (2) interpersonal skills and (3) how to pitch the EVP. These are needed to ensure a consistent, high touch experience is delivered consistently for all candidates.
• Invest in tools and empower recruiters and hiring managers to hold each other accountable using candidate satisfaction survey data as the driver of change.
• Focus performance metrics on measuring quality of candidate over volume / quantity of candidates presented for each job opening. This ensures alignment and minimizes the risk of candidate experience being sacrificed to achieve a speed or quantity metric goal.
• Treat people how you would like to be treated.  Own mistakes and apologize immediately. You will find people are very forgiving.

Switching it up a bit, I also attended several sessions at the Talent Acquisition Technology conference in the same venue. By far, my favorites were the Ignite Sessions in which 8 presenters spoke on an impactful topic for five minutes each, using a self progressing slide deck of 20 slides.  Topics ranged from the “Evolution of the Gig Economy” to “Engaging Millennial Talent” and “The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Recruiting”.   Takeaways included information from the following presenters:

• Erin Peterson VP of Talent at NFP cited that 35% of US workers are working “gigs” today and this is increasing exponentially each year. Employability is the new area of focus for how talent leaders assess full time versus gig talent hiring needs. If generalized knowledge is needed, according to Erin, it’s okay to use gig workers. On the other hand, when specialized or industry expertise is needed, she makes a strong case for using full time employees.
• John Karsten Baum of Talent Tech labs predicted that in the future, recruiters will become “agents” for the best talent, shifting their value proposition to being candidate career brokers, connectors and advisors, as opposed to employer’s agents who spend their time hunting for candidates.
• Alex Cavoulacos of theMuse.com shared several innovative ways to communicate an authentic company culture. Claiming that “your vibe IS your tribe”, she stated that 89% of new hire failures are linked to poor culture fit. The key to success is to link your brand to your culture through action. As an example of that, Alex mentioned that Starbucks sends friends and family gift cards to new hires before their start to establish that bond early.

Lastly, Shally Steckerl, CEO of The Sourcing Institute, conducted several sessions on the latest tips and tricks to ensure online sourcing success. The two most innovative sourcing tips and tools he shared were:

• Search google images (http://images.google.com) by job title, target company name, job keywords and/or location to find bios of people and resumes posted on company, association and conference websites that you may not otherwise find on LinkedIn. It’s also a powerful way to search for (or confirm) diverse candidates  – visually.
• Search on www.millionshort.com to find pages in the deep web that aren’t typically generated on the top search result web pages on the major search engines. Each search engine indexes the web differently and this one provides a way to eliminate the more popular results everyone sees so that only lesser known or hidden sites and resources are returned for your review. For example, search on candidate names of your ideal current employee or a sample resume you want to clone and the search will bring back people like that person. Use advanced filters to remove jobs, popular media sites and e-commerce sites to focus mainly resumes, bios and profiles for consideration.

For any employer interested in empowering their recruiters and sourcers with the latest sourcing tips and strategies, check out Shally’s online university courses, webinars and custom live training at The Sourcing Institute.

In summary, while there were some kinks to work out in the format of this joint conference,  I really liked the variety and content of the sessions I attended.  Unfortunately, a prior commitment kept me from attending the Candidate Experience Awards Gala hosted by the Talent Board, however now I have a reason to attend next year!  To see this year’s winners, CLICK HERE.

For me, as the leader of a recruitment consulting and talent solutions business, ‘tis the season to reflect on what happened this year and ponder what lies ahead for us, our clients and how best to serve them.

Newsweek magazine’s recent cover story about how robotics and artificial intelligence will soon redefine our entire economy — and the types of jobs that will emerge or disappear — hit home again (recall McKinsey’s seminal piece on the rise of the mobile app-induced self-service era) to reinforce that we are becoming a veritable “tech-onomy”.  Couple this with a clear, steadily growing desire by highly skilled professionals to be independent “freelance” workers and we’ve hit on the primary trends (or revolutions) that keep me up at night.

There are pros and cons of an “on-demand” workforce, of course.  In seasonal industries, for example, it may be ideal and is not a new concept.  And we certainly leverage such in our own business model, deploying a network of specialized recruiters for urgent client hiring needs.  But cons include the erosion of loyalty and pride, the risk of a workforce of pure multi-taskers and no specialization, and perhaps even an entire generation running from gig to gig with little financial stability.  If this trend is inevitable, how might it impact talent acquisition?  As the McKinsey article suggests, one answer is to “fight fire with fire” by finding better ways to connect job seekers with jobs, with an emphasis on “mobilizing one’s own strengths — including scale, superior resources and access to customers — to redefine service offerings, harness digital technology, and improve the customer experience.”

Specifically, what might this look like for a recruitment function?  The end goal of getting the best workers deployed most quickly at the least cost possible will not change.  But how you get there will.  Envision an integrated solution that works much like Match.com, rendering the traditional applicant tracking systems and job board channels irrelevant.  Imagine compressed hiring cycles where a candidate is screened, reference-checked, assessed, video-interviewed, made an offer and hired within hours rather than weeks and months without stepping foot over a brick-and-mortar threshold.  Will Facebook Jobs help efficiently capture the cultural fit attributes of a candidate to bring this process full circle?  Is Google’s just-announced foray into the recruitment industry with its machine-learning search technology another material step toward such an end game?  All of these concepts and developments could create strong demand for highly innovative recruitment process outsourcing solutions.

What lies ahead?  I don’t know for sure, but as Yogi Berra once said, “The future ain’t what it used to be.”   

Focus on the Real ROI of RPO

Viewing recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) through a cost lens alone can cloud your vision and obscure many of its most critical strategic impacts.  While the initial rationale for outsourcing all or portions of the recruitment process is typically to reduce hiring costs, the true positive impact of RPO extends far beyond hard-dollar savings. That’s not to minimize the importance of cost-reduction. However, focusing on savings alone can be somewhat short-sighted.

At the strategic level, a well-designed and executed RPO solution can, for example:

• Provide the scale needed to rapidly address market opportunities
• Promote a strong and consistent employment brand
• Better engage candidates
• Enhance the hiring experience for candidates and for internal customers, i.e. hiring managers

The result is better hires who more closely match your job requirements, culture, values, and overall workforce—exactly when and where you need them. Getting the right people in the door can positively impact productivity, retention, and a host of other contributors to higher performance and a better bottom line.  This is supported by research conducted by a number of analysts, including:

• Aberdeen Group, which found that fully 41 percent of companies say they are using their RPOs to fill specific roles and job families that are closely tied to organizational performance and productivity, compared with just 11 percent in 2011 (source).
• The Outsourcing Institute, which contends that “Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) has undergone a transformation. What once was a function focused on cost, scale and “filling seats,” today is a strategic workforce initiative that includes comprehensive, talent acquisition solutions that benefit buyers’ businesses” (source).

Achieve Scale, Quality, and Speed
To illustrate the full impacts that an effective RPO can generate above and beyond cost savings, consider three critical elements that impact talent acquisition performance: scale, quality, and speed. Once you achieve scale to meet the hiring demands of the business, quality and speed will soon follow.

Scale. Many buyers look to RPO as a solution to manage spikes in hiring volume, whether seasonal, cyclical or upon entering new markets. More important than the ability to quickly scale up to meet your needs is the ability to scale back without impacting responsiveness. An RPO partner can offer an efficient, variable cost process for accelerated sourcing and screening via best-in-class technologies and scalable staffing to ensure more mistake-proof, on-demand hiring. By leveraging sourcing and recruiting infrastructure across multiple clients, an RPO provider can offer substantial flexibility as well as specialization across skill sets and industries—to a degree typically out of reach to a single organization.

Quality. No one sets out to hire low performing employees, but that rarely stops unqualified applicants from lining up for consideration. Any recruitment process should be engineered to quickly identify the best-qualified applicants, so that hiring efforts focus on “screening, assessing and selling” the opportunity to the right individuals as opposed to eliminating non-qualified candidates from the process. Talent communities help organizations pre-qualify talent in order to streamline sourcing.  As candidates move through the hiring pipeline, skill and behavioral assessments can help ensure initial impressions ring true, as pre-hire evaluations are proven predictors of post-hire performance. Ensuring a great candidate experience will also drive higher engagement, a critical contributor to better productivity, performance, and retention.

Speed. Unfilled jobs are costly, stalling productivity, deteriorating morale, and hampering revenue generation. An efficient recruitment process compresses the hiring cycle, reducing the time that open positions remain vacant, while increasing the potential for better hires. Active talent communities and a strong employment brand engage candidates early, decreasing the productivity and performance ramp for new employees. Talent pipelining eliminates the need for start/stop sourcing, allowing businesses to tap into a ready-made database of interested candidates as hiring needs arise. Technology accelerators, such as video interviews and automated scheduling tools, can streamline some of the most time-consuming tasks in the recruiting process. Finally, better visibility into the overall process allows organizations to adjust speed and change course as needed and is a valuable strategic tool to ensure optimal outcomes.

Everest Group reports that RPO buyers look for value beyond cost and scalability. They place increasing emphasis on strategic value-added services. These include talent communities, analytics, employer branding, workforce planning, assessment, and process reengineering.

The Hidden Costs of Getting Hiring Wrong
While the quality, speed and scale considerations associated with RPO enhance its value to an organization, poor hiring practices often impact the other side of the equation and make an equally compelling business case for RPO. Given that surveys show that as many as 98 percent of CEOs report that finding candidates with the competencies and training to fill open positions is a problem, affecting all skill levels needed — from entry to the most highly technical (source), an inadequate, disjointed or ineffective hiring process is a huge drain on the bottom line.

Compounding this issue is that the metrics typically used to measure recruitment solutions may obscure the hidden costs of poor practices. This is due to the fact that recruitment key performance indicators embedded in terms of service level agreements are typically ones that are familiar to HR leaders; not ones that measure direct impacts to the business itself. Metrics such as cost per hire, time to fill, and interview-to-hire ratio are important, but it is equally critical to understand how poor hiring practices can erode business results:

• Higher turnover can negatively impact P&L.
• Being overstaffed or understaffed during peak times can have a significant impact on the financials.
• Inability to scale hiring can lead to missed market opportunities.
• Poor candidate quality can impact customer loyalty.
• Less than perfect matches can create disharmony within work groups and lessen overall team effectiveness, resulting in lower output and missed deadlines.
• Create longer new hire time-to-productivity gaps  

Take A Strategic View to Achieve Better Outcomes

Bain & Company’s 15th Management Tools & Trends survey showed 74% of executives believe innovation is more important than cost reduction for long-term success, underscoring the importance of having the right people on the team.

Viewing recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) through a cost lens alone can cloud your vision and obscure many of its most critical impacts. It can blind you to the potential opportunity for better strategic outcomes.  That is where ROI is best measured. With a more strategic view of recruitment, you may achieve the agility to scale to your needs at any time; you will attract higher-quality, better-matched candidates; you will see higher engagement and greater productivity from those you hire; and performance may exceed expectations across the board. Getting recruitment right can impact performance in ways you never anticipated. When you expect better outcomes, you have an opportunity for a higher-value solution and greater returns on your talent acquisition investments.

For more on this topic by Jason, click here.

Spotlight on Innovation

Traditionally, Spring and Fall are prime time to attend HR and Recruiting industry conferences for those of us eager to learn about future trends, best practices and innovation. Themes may vary from year to year but what stays the same is the hard work that conference organizers apply to differentiate their events. As always, the challenge is to provide relevant and actionable content while balancing an exceptional sponsor, exhibitor and attendee experience.  This year, I saw considerable innovation in the conference session format itself at several events where I was invited to speak, lead an expert panel discussion or attend. More on that follows at the end below.

As far as takeaways related to new tools and practices within recruitment itself, here are the top themes related to innovation gleaned from the more than half a dozen conferences I attended in 2016:

• Increasingly, recruiters are utilizing robust talent acquisition data analytics and business intelligence dashboards to drive significant recruiting performance improvements and cost reduction. This involves investing in tools and technology to manage and provide meaningful interpretation of the data. Tools like www.recruitics.com, ERE Benchmarking and www.visier.com appear to do some pretty cool things related to talent acquisition metrics dashboards and are worth checking out.  Google docs and Tableau Software seem to be the preferred low cost option for those on a budget but, if you are considering either, I’d recommend seeking advice from a consultant on how best to set them up to meet your needs.

• The future of online recruitment advertising is shifting away from traditional paid job postings on standalone job boards as pricing models are moving toward pay-per-performance models.  Examples include pay-per-click (www.Indeed.com and www.SimplyHired.com) or pay-per-application (www.Appcast.io, www.Jobs2careers.com ). These job aggregator sites utilize backfill job posting and programmatic online job advertising to drive highly targeted candidate traffic to job postings and leverage sophisticated data analytics to predict the budget needed to fill a specific role. Employers should use these sites with caution when there is a need to control where openings are posted and who may see them, i.e. for a confidential search.

• Passive candidate sourcing and engagement tools are getting smarter and enable recruiters to more quickly identify and engage candidates currently employed by target competitors. The newest generation of tools like (www.entelo.com and www.engagetalent.com) scan the web for bios, resumes and contact information found on various social network profiles, company and event website pages and create standardized talent profiles rich with personal information.  Recruiters can then access a database of candidate profiles containing personalized talking points to engage the candidate in a conversation about something other than a job opportunity.  A West Coast newcomer, www.Talentiq.co, automates this process by extracting an employer’s ATS data and appending numerous data points it finds online in a similar manner to create a more complete profile.  Once the dataset has been thoroughly updated, the system then updates ATS data directly on a regular basis  – saving hundreds of hours of recruiter and coordinator time manually researching the info online.  Sites like www.AssociationCareerNetwork.com take a different approach by networking hundreds of professional association career sites together so that your jobs can get maximum exposure to highly targeted, passive industry professionals.  For organizations with in house executive search functions or sourcing teams, investing in these tools provides access to millions of passive candidates, many whom would not be found via a typical Linkedin search.

• Technological refinements now allow online video to be search engine optimized to rank content 53x higher than text only content online.  Video can significantly increase applicant volume and quality when used to showcase your corporate culture, provide a realistic job preview or to promote specific opportunities by embedding job videos in text job postings and email campaigns.  Video used as a screening tool can cut interview travel costs and accelerate hiring decisions when candidates are asked to record a video of their answers to a few key behavioral prequalifying questions.  Companies like www.digi-me.com, www.rivs.com, www.montage.com and www.hirevue.com offer a variety of innovative video solutions to promote your jobs, prescreen candidates or engage passive talent for future needs. In an emerging trend, many ATS and CRM vendors are now embedding video into their technology platform, minimizing the need to integrate a standalone solution.

• New, very cool “bots” will help you win the war for talent. Employers are increasingly investing more in high touch candidate recruitment practices, processes and technology solutions like www.Brazen.com, which uses chatbots to automate a high touch candidate recruitment and initial pre-screening experience. As we all know, technology alone needs some level of human interaction to make it work.  Lou Adler has long touted that creating a high touch candidate experience starts with the recruiter and depends on how consistently he/she applies high touch practices to the recruiting process.

• Creating MIND SEARING, MEMORABLE experiences is the key to a winning culture and exceptional candidate experience.  Employers often highlight their culture in terms of their historical evolution of an idealistic view of what they want their culture to be, but not necessarily what it actually is today. This point was driven home at the HRMAC conference by speaker Jim Knight of Rock -N-Grow Talent. He defines culture as “people experiencing the present”. Knight states that by creating
  “Mind seering, memorable experiences” for employees and candidates, the culture IS that experience.  Chris Hester of Capital One, a multi-year Candidate Experience Award winner, states that the key to a great candidate experience is to treat every candidate the way you would want to be treated, consistently. Chris asserts that “defining the candidate as the customer, not the leadership team, hiring manager or recruiter” is critical to getting everyone aligned with the right behaviors and decisions to ensure an optimal candidate experience. Lastly, according to Hester, employer measures of recruiting performance should focus on quality of candidates if you want to minimize the risk of sacrificing the candidate experience in order to hit a misaligned speed or quantity performance goal.

Finally, one hot new trend I witnessed at these conferences is how selected, high energy breakout sessions are being run. At two of these events, content was delivered in fast-paced 60-90 minute sessions (appropriately called “Ignite Sessions” at the Recruiting Trends and Prism conferences) involving multiple speakers who share a focused “high impact” topic for five minutes each. The presenters’ goal is to share a unique perspective and a few key tips or actionable takeaways.  The catch is that the speakers have to present content that is being shown on 20 self-advancing slides in a manner that is engaging and impactful.

I found that these tended to be among the most well attended sessions and received consistent, positive feedback when compared to other traditional formats.  Which leads me to believe that this format will likely define future conferences in an age of short attention spans, and real time information exchange via social media sites like Instagram (sharing stories through photos) and Twitter (sharing real time news and information in 140 characters or less). The sessions certainly captured the audience’s attention,  leaving no time for attendees to check work email or text a candidate lest they risk missing the golden nugget of insight being shared by a speaker.  For the presenters, the session format offered a unique challenge to put their public speaking skills to the ultimate test. I aptly re-named the format “Speaker Olympics” after being asked last minute to fill in for an Ignite speaker session cancellation at the PRISM conference I attended in May.

To read more about some of the top innovation themes I gleaned from each individual conference I attended in 2016, please continue reading below:  

April 2016: ERE Conference in Las Vegas, NV 
May 2016: PRISM International Conference in Bonita Springs, FL
September 2016: TA Tech in Las Vegas – The Association for Talent Acquisition Solutions Providers
October 2016: Chicago SHRM’s Annual Conference
October 2016: Wisconsin SHRM Annual One Day Conference, Wisconsin Dells, WI
November 2016: HRMAC Summit, Rosemont, IL
November 2016: Recruiting Trends Conference, Austin TX

What You Need to Know in 2017

Compensation is, let’s face it, probably the single most important tool in the recruitment toolbox. Sure, other factors such as corporate culture and career advancement opportunities play critical roles but, when all’s said and done, salary and benefits are typically the prime motivator for any single individual deciding whether to make a job change.

As a recruitment consultant, employers often look to people like me for recommendations on market competitive compensation. In today’s environment, with unemployment at 4.7% (the lowest since 2008) my advice is pretty blunt: you need to get real about compensation. Too many employers are still disconnected from reality and too many hiring managers still think they are in the buyer’s seat when negotiating compensation with a currently employed, top performing job candidate.  They pursue their competition’s top performing “A” players who are typically earning top salaries and receiving annual increases way above the 2.5-3 percent average cost of living increase. Employers then attempt to save money with lowball offers below the comp the person is currently earning.  And wonder why their offer is turned down!

Job candidates have the upper hand in negotiations today so do your homework on market comp for your specific roles. Most employed job candidates tell me that they are unlikely to make a lateral move for anything less than a 15-20% total comp increase. (For more on this from Indeed, link here.) Conversely, they are wary of those employers paying 50% or more above market for the role which raises questions about the history of that role and how much turnover it has had — and why.  

A couple of other tips as we enter 2017:

• Evaluate your entire employment value proposition (EVP) to be sure it is competitive with the A player’s current EVP.  Asking A players to commute one hour to work inside an office when they currently work remotely and go into the office only as necessary is a negative and will result in an offer turn down.  Flex schedules, and work location are top negotiable items that won’t cost you money and are more easily won in the negotiation process.
• Assess the market competitiveness of your benefits programs – in particular, assess the employee contribution percentage to benefits. These have been increasing and savvy job hunters are calculating these often “hidden” costs when comparing offers.  The employee contributions toward health insurance itself may not be negotiable, but be prepared to give in on something else.
• Understand the current status of your professional development programs – many companies’ professional development budgets were cut in the recession and have not been brought back.  If that’s been the case at your organization and if you can’t budge on base salary, use this as a good negotiating tool. At many of my clients, professional development comes out of a separate budget. So, if candidates are asking for training and development, negotiate an amount for attendance at professional conferences or for classes to achieve their goals.

Finally, selling the concept of paying at, or above, market rate for top talent can be difficult. However, the expense of not filling a key role with a top performer can actually cost you more in the long run — in terms of turnover, lost productivity and repeat recruiting costs.  To convince others of the need to “get real”, educate hiring managers and business leaders on the new reality of compensation by doing your research and getting detailed salary info, by role, by qualifications and by geography. Websites like www.salary.com, www.payscale.com, www.glassdoor.com and www.indeed.com  are good starting points. For more robust, ongoing market intel on recruiting difficulty, compensation, talent supply and demand by geography – check out the Corporate Executive Boards “Talent Neuron” subscription based service.

Partner Jim O’Malley was recently featured in the Strong Suit podcast, “The 3 Characteristics of Rockstar Talent.”

In this revealing interview, Jim shares:

• The 3 characteristics that define a Rockstar
• A real-life example of behavioral interviewing
• When & how to sell a Rockstar on the position
• How to onboard a new hire, and set them up for success

Listen to the podcast hosted by Strong Suit’s Chief Talent Officer, Jeff Hyman:

Timeless Interviewing Tips Will Make You Stand Out Among the Competition

CareerBuilder released a survey indicating that 74 percent of employers say they plan to hire recent college graduates this year, up from 67 percent last year and the highest outlook since 2007. Despite the fact that the market is trending in their favor, 2017 grads need to realize that  competition is stiff for coveted roles (the nation’s unemployment rate is near an all-time low) and that means timeless interview techniques should not – and cannot – be overlooked.

When I was graduating from college and embarking on my first “real world” job search, there was no Internet, LinkedIn or Indeed.com to search for jobs, to research companies or to network for job leads.  In fact, most employers didn’t begin posting jobs online or accepting resumes via email until the mid-1990s. So today, when I am asked to provide advice to recent grads on landing that important first job, I have to acknowledge that the process and approach applied to corporate recruitment and job search has dramatically changed. However, there are a few very important things about interviewing that have not. Take this as free advice from someone who has been a professional recruiter and consultant to large companies on all matters related to the recruitment of top talent for over 20 years. The timeless tips I outline below offer good, common sense advice that will help one candidate stand head and shoulders above his/her competition when interviewing for a job. Feel free to pass these along to any high school or college-age kid or early-careerist who is about to join the workforce:

First of all, always do your homework in advance!  Visit the company website, review the LinkedIn profiles of the people you are meeting with, read company press releases and annual reports, if applicable.  As a good ice breaker early on in the interview, and if appropriate, ask one or two questions about something you saw in the interviewer’s LinkedIn profile that relates to a common bond or interest — i.e. you went to the same school, lived in the same neighborhood or city or earned the same college degree.  Sometimes just simply complimenting them on their career successes and asking them what they like most about the company is a good conversation starter. If the timing is right, use the information in press releases and the annual report to formulate future-oriented questions about the company and the direction that it is taking – areas for strategic investment, acquisitions and that sort of thing.

When the interviewer questions you, answer briefly and succinctly and include a relevant example that demonstrates your competencies or skills. Think “STAR” as a way to remember how to respond to questions asking for an example by stating the Situation or Task you had to address, what Actions you took to resolve the situation, and the outcomes/RESULTS.  When possible, highlight achievements to support your depth of expertise by citing awards, rankings, recognition received, etc.  Also ask questions about the role,  the reporting structure, how long the position has been open and why. If it seems that the job has been a revolving door, that’s certainly a red flag and you’ll want to probe to learn more about the cause.

Close the interview by asking politely, but not aggressively, for the job.  Ask about the timeline for a decision and what the next steps look like. Don’t hold back on asking how many people are being considered.  Let the interviewer know you are very excited about the job and appreciate the opportunity to interview. End by telling them you would love an opportunity to work there and look forward to hearing from them.

Follow up with an emailed thank you and ideally also send a handwritten thank-you letter via snail mail that very same day.

Bottom line, at the end of the day, the purpose of the interview is people connecting to people and determining if you can mutually work together. Do you fit the company culture? And do you have the aptitude to learn new skills OR currently possess the level of experience and critical skills needed to be successful in the role?  Some interviews may seem more like an interrogation at the start with interviewers focused on assessing your skills to be sure you meet the minimum qualifications before you both invest more time.  It’s your job in the interview to be sure you leave the interviewer with a positive impression of who you are as a person, and you do this by showcasing achievements that demonstrate you have the skills and can be a loyal, reliable, top performing, team oriented employee.

A good number of friends, former colleagues and clients of mine in their mid-50’s — all with previous career success — are unemployed and looking for a new job, and most of them have been in search mode for quite a while.  Having listened to each of them about their job objective, pursuit approach AND consistent frustration, I’m struck by how seemingly out of touch many are with today’s job market reality.  So, in an effort to help accelerate their search — and that of other Baby Boomers — back into the workforce, here’s my no-holds-barred view and advice.

First and foremost, you must recognize and embrace the notion that few employers really want to hire someone of our generation.  I know that may sound unfair and even brutal, but it’s the plain, simple truth, and a common sentiment you can’t ignore.  Think about it for a second.  If you could find a younger, less expensive, more technologically-savvy — and currently employed! — individual with hunger and potential, who wouldn’t choose that individual?  And the sooner you accept that fact, and adjust your job pursuit approach accordingly, you will have a better chance of landing that job…and doing so faster.  Some attitude adjustment tips:   

1.  Park the career ego now.  That means not pushing compensation requirements, title, reporting structure or common senior-level “perk” considerations such as signing bonus, extra vacation days or severance package.  These types of demands are likely to swiftly convince a prospective employer to go in another candidate direction, and leads me to my second point.

2.  Your singular focus should be to get the job OFFER.  It’s less about the specific job terms and more about seizing greater control of your situation to get back into the workforce.  And at this stage of your career, you have very little of that until someone formally commits to hiring you.  From there you may be able to negotiate some aspects of the offer package and, in the end, you always have the option of turning it down.  But better to be employed in a less-than-ideal situation while you continue to search for a more attractive gig — your marketability is infinitely better if you’re already employed, particularly now.

3.  Stay engaged.  This advice may sound obvious, but I’m talking about a thoughtful, multi-dimensional strategy.  

(a) First and foremost, secure a freelance consulting project or busy yourself with volunteer work that highlights competencies relevant to your job search.  Though it’s clearly not a full-time job, you will leave a stronger impression by showing your skills are in demand if you can refer to existing projects.  What if you’re not good at selling or marketing your capabilities for freelance projects?  There are a growing number of online marketplaces like Upwork that make it remarkably simple to present, promote, price, procure and administratively process such work, both cross-function and industry.  

(b) Second, stay regularly connected with your network of relationships: personal and professional, and any professional affiliations/memberships you may have.  And while some email, LinkedIn and other social media exchange is efficient and necessary, the personal, face-to-face contact and exchange is strongest, and a better way to develop new relationships that may help you.

(c) Third, don’t dismiss networking events and organizations specifically targeting those in transition because everybody else there is unemployed and looking for a job just like you.  Good ones, such as NSENG in the greater Chicago metro area, provide an incredible support group and platform for sharing experiences and expert tips about the job search process, exchanging senior-level contacts, and securing introductions to job leads from prior employer relationships of others.    

4.  Push hard for continued learning and discovery.  The work environment is changing at blinding speed today.  Renowned education consultant Heather McGowan, with Work To Learn, may have summed up our current situation best in a recent New York Times article: “When work was predictable and the change rate was relatively predictable, preparation for work merely required the transfer of knowledge and pre-determined skills to create a stable and deployable workforce. Now that the velocity of change has accelerated, due to a combination of exponential growth in technology and globalization, learning can no longer be a set dose of education consumed in the first third of one’s life.  The new killer skill set is an agile mindset that values learning over knowing.”  And here’s the real rub, research has shown for years that, as we age, we lose some of our learning capacity, and career ambition also takes a hit.  This is exacerbated by a drop in the ability and speed to grasp more complex matters, decreasing motivation levels and, of course, memory decline.  You need to consciously combat all of these factors by keeping your mind stimulated.     

5.  Above all else, be authentic.  Eliminating dates from your job positions and educational degrees on your resume doesn’t disguise your age; it only magnifies and raises the issue further with their absence.  At this stage, it’s really about simply wanting/needing to work, and irrespective of the compensation or status, doing so in an attractive cultural environment that allows you to apply your work passion and skills to make a meaningful difference for an organization.  Just be honest and tell that to the interviewer.

Last month I gave this same advice to two dear former colleagues, seemingly at the end of their rope after several months without a serious job lead.  While neither has landed just yet, each is now formally interviewing for three open positions.  I am confident both will be touching down soon.

The Why, Who and How of Establishing a CDO (Chief Digital Officer) Role

A Look Back

Within the past decade, technology purchases by lines of business (LOB) without involvement from IT have risen exponentially in both volume and scope. In fact, IDC, a global provider of market intelligence, expects the trend to continue [IDC IT Spending Guide 2017] so that technology spending by IT and LOBs will equalize by 2020. This phenomenon is largely a result of many companies’ efforts to transform into digital enterprises due to customer demand, coupled with the explosion of cloud solutions. LOBs are no longer reliant on IT to support business requirements, especially front office initiatives. Consequently, the lines between the respective responsibilities of CIOs and CMOs are starting to blur while simultaneously paving the way to the growing popularity of a new chief digital officer, or CDO, role.

The CDO role has its origins in frustration as a reaction by CMOs to the slow response and expensive implementation of digital marketing initiatives by the CIO’s office. With the consumerization of technology, the proliferation of “As A Service” solutions in software and infrastructure, and the wide acceptance of BYOD (bring your own device), the CMO and other LOB leaders are procuring their own technology without involving IT to create a competitive advantage. Specifically for the CMO, the popularity of social media as the “go-to” source of information and collaboration for consumers has elevated digital marketing to become the most critical channel to promote brands and influence buying decisions. Previously outsourced to agencies, CMOs are bringing such capabilities in-house under the dominion of the CDO’s office.

What exactly is the realm of the CDO?

When hiring a CDO, how should the responsibilities be defined and boundaries drawn between the CIO’s and CMO’s realm of responsibilities? First and foremost, the CDO must be committed to the digital transformation of the entire enterprise. In other words, it’s not just about new contemporary technology deployment: it’s a new way of running the business. Professionals occupying this role can come from a variety of disciplines including technology, data, marketing, or consulting. Regardless, it is important that the CDO is aligned with the CMO, CIO and the LOB leaders on the transformation. The CDO is not only responsible for ideation and strategy but also for the education of the C-suite and the rest of the organization. In practice, the titles or the office leading the transformation becomes irrelevant. Instead, the enterprise needs to devote the necessary resources to hiring, training, and capitalizing on the new designated in-house digital chief.

Finding the needed skills

The building of a digital enterprise needs to originate in the CDO’s office. Finding the relevant skills for the hiring of a CDO is “almost” the easy part of the task, because those skills reside in IT and also in marketing. However, finding the combination of these skills within a single individual is a far greater challenge. Being an expert in the software development life cycle is only a piece of the puzzle. Expertise in user experience, creative design, and marketing are also critical skills. Poaching talents in the IT or marketing department may not always be a recipe for success. In fact, it is not uncommon to see a new digital team emerging as separate organization consisting of the “new cool kids”, those who can easily traverse between IT and marketing. So where do these cool kids come from?

Certainly, cross training is an option but may prove too slow especially in today’s competitive environment. On the other hand, abandoning that option is also not an entirely smart move since cross training can always benefit the enterprise down the road. After all, these talents are, in fact, hard to find. So instead, consider going outside of the enterprise to recruit new talents. To increase speed to market, engage a talent acquisition expert, at least until the digital team is established. Given the requirements for team members with such unique skills, it is best to give the task to those experienced in hiring “hybrid” talents. Some enterprises have internal talent acquisition teams, but they are often too busy with other priorities and lack the experience in sourcing, vetting, and hiring the type of talent the CDO office will need. So, bring in experts from the outside with the connections and credentials filling similar roles.

Change management on hyper-drive

As the team is being established, the CDO should begin the change management process in earnest, starting at the helm and down to the field-level staff of the enterprise. Even the most innovative ideas will fail – and most likely in a very visible way – without buy-in. Remember, the CDO will be introducing new leading, and sometimes even “bleeding”-edge products, and go-to-market strategies. Most likely, the CDO will guide the enterprise into uncharted territories and resistance may emerge in the most unexpected areas. Why? Sometimes it’s due to internal politics and territorial squabbles. Digital transformation is an enterprise-wide initiative and not isolated in the CDO’s office. This type of transformation by far is the most complex and impacts everyone in the enterprise. It forces the enterprise into different business models, new paradigms, and to depart from legacy thinking.

To get started, companies embarking on a digital transformation must first pick a champion. Is it a new CDO and is the talent coming from within or the outside? Then, plan how new “hybrid” talents will be brought into the enterprise. Will you build the skills internally through training or will you buy new skills from the outside to increase speed to market? Then, put the change management engine on hyper-drive. It will be a critical success factor.

A recent report by Deloitte Digital titled, “The Rise of the Chief Digital Officer”, stated that by 2020, the CDO role will cease to exist. On face value, this seems like a short-lived tenure for the CDO role, especially given earlier predictions of its criticality in leading enterprise transformations and ultimately executing upon the corporate strategy. In fact, CDO roles doubled in 2013 with salaries ranging from $250,000 to $750,000, according to the CDO Club. Korn Ferry cited CDOs in the top three of most sought-after C-level positions in 2015. None of this is surprising, given that so many companies across multiple industries have been embarking on digital transformations led by the CDO role in recent years. So, what’s behind the claim that we ought to be mourning the CDO’s demise?

First, let’s examine the role of the Chief Digital Officer a bit more closely.  Depending on the company, titles may actually vary — CDOs may be called Chief Strategy, Customer Experience, Growth, Innovation, or Digital Marketing Officers and sometimes simply General Managers. Some might say the CDO is a “futurist” who predicts trends based on current market conditions and then works to assure that the business moves to react to those conditions. Others consider the CDO to be that executive who brings together various disciplines within an enterprise to reinvent the business, thereby creating a new competitive advantage. CDOs typically live in the intersection of technology application, customer experience, and corporate strategy. The CDO is not necessarily a technologist, a marketer, or an innovator but, in fact, embodies a combination of these disciplines. That is perhaps one of the reasons that CDO talent can be difficult to acquire (for more on that, go here).

To illustrate this unique synthesis of skills and knowledge, consider the following “real-life” profiles of three CDOs currently working in divergent industries in highly visible roles at prominent companies:

CDO in Financial Services

Companies in the financial services industry typically lead in technological advancements. This  CDO, working for a global credit provider, is charged with “leading business transformation initiatives, developing and implementing strategic technology plans, as well as business process and organizational design”, as described n his LinkedIn profile. When asked what makes his role unique, he describes himself as a leader who can serve as a translator between the business and technology realms. Ironically, he started his career in learning and development at a manufacturing company with a bachelor’s degree in English — not exactly the traditional technology training one might expect of a CDO. Along the way, he picked up technology by first volunteering to manage websites, then managing custom application development projects. Eventually, he entered the credit services business, first reporting to the CMO, then later to the COO. The uniqueness of his background was, in fact, his innate ability to facilitate collaboration across various disciplines within an organization and with its external business partners. Certainly, the ability to translate business to technology language and vice versa is critical but, in this case, it points to a capability far greater than that.  This CDO is also able to envision the possibilities and identify new channels for the credit business. In one example, he led the ideation, development and implementation of a mobile app in collaboration with a gas station chain to streamline the credit card application process for consumers. He regularly works with the business, the IT team, and digital marketing agencies to bring products to market, making him and his team a catalyst for growth.

CDO in Consumer Goods

Business-to-consumer is another market where digital transformation can make the difference between success and failure for the enterprise. In the consumer goods industry, gaining the wallet-share and mindshare of the consumer is crucial to maintaining relevance. Our next CDO is leading the global digital marketing and customer experience efforts to enable his company’s next-generation growth initiatives. Like the financial services CDO profiled above, this individual also did not start his career with a technology education or background. He earned a bachelor’s degree in politics and an MBA with a concentration in marketing. As yet another example of someone with hybrid talent, he combines marketing, technology, and leadership skills. Having managed three of the top brands in the world, this individual is now entrusted with “precision marketing” through data analytics for this consumer goods company. Understanding consumer preferences and behaviors to leverage non-traditional marketing methods is his specialization.  He has managed P/Ls and established high-performing, cross-functional teams, always with an eye into the future. Reporting to the Chief Growth Officer, he is charged with thinking of innovative ways to “woo” consumers to buy their brands. He is an expert in navigating between creatives, technologists and business leads. With a focus on “potential”, he builds a “hybrid” team by recruiting for skills and passion for the work, versus previous job titles, or departments. For him, the ideal members of his digital team come from diverse backgrounds and disciplines.

CDO in Commercial Container

Bottle and package manufacturing is probably not the first thing one thinks of when it comes to digital transformation. But, for this CDO, he is doing just that for the second time in his career. With a bachelor’s degree in communications and journalism and an MBA from one of the top business schools in the nation, he has spent most of his career running divisions of businesses and owning P/Ls.  His responsibilities have always centered on “growth engine” divisions focused on electronic commerce. He is known for creating a culture that promotes creativity, agility and innovation. Collaboration and teamwork are values he promotes in the cultures he builds and, justifiably, the previous organization he led was voted one of the top workplaces in 2016. The secret sauce for this CDO is maintaining a fast-paced culture more likely to be found at a startup than a manufacturer.

What’s Next for the CDO?

Stating that the CDO role is dead may be somewhat defensible — but only because the role is dramatically changing. In a 2015 article by McKinsey & Company titled, “Transformer in Chief: The New Chief Digital Officer”, the authors indicated that 80% of the CDO’s time is spent on building relationships. They are innovators and disruptors who can lead the organization through transformation. That is certainly the case for our three CDOs. They are not afraid to take risks, mobilize a team from cross functional disciplines, and usher growth for the business.

While examining these characteristics of CDOs, it’s certainly not a stretch to compare them to the attributes of a successful CEO. The comparison is supported by, among other studies, a 2016 survey conducted by PwC which reveals the extent to which CEOs are beginning to champion digital transformation for their companies. Grant Duncan, Digital Practice Lead for Spencer Stuart, sees similarities between CDOs and CEOs, predicting that a successful CDO could work him or herself out of that job and into the CEO slot. In 2013, in fact, seven CDOs became CEOs, according to David Mathison of the CDO Club. So, if you’re wondering what happened to the CDO, visit the CEO’s office and you may just discover there is a new captain at the helm of the enterprise.

Do you find it harder to recruit Generation Y (candidates born 1981–1997) than previous generations? Are Millennials more likely to become unhappy and leave their jobs?

According to Clutch, Millennials are much more likely to rate their jobs “unfulfilling,” and over 30% plan to quit within 6 months. (For more insights, see our free eBook “From Y to Z: How to Target, Attract and Engage the Younger Workforce”.)

TalentRISE wants to know if this is your experience. What are you doing to attract — and then retain — young talent? Please comment and join the conversation below.

This is the first in a series of TalentRISE tips to help businesses secure an edge over competitors by evolving their HR and recruitment practices in the digital era.

Key Takeaways

• Referrals really work!
• There are new, great tools to make the process of soliciting referrals much easier than in the past
• The ultimate key to success is to follow-up – don’t let resumes fall into the proverbial “black hole”

Put the pedal to the metal

Referral programs can (1) speed up hiring (2) produce better candidates and (3) boost retention. No wonder they are popular: on average, 24 percent of employee hires originate from a referral.   

Fire on all cylinders

Whether your business is just launching an employee referral program or needs to reinvigorate a referral program stuck in the slow lane, there are several tools that can help you do just that.

• To proactively tap into your hiring manager social networks, connect to them via LinkedIn and share hot jobs. LinkedIn has also developed a new Employee Referral feature to automate and track your social employee referral programs.
• Crowdsource qualified referrals using tools like Wisestep and Indeed Crowd to source referrals from employees and job candidates. The latter can be used to source referrals from candidates searching Indeed for themselves.
• Turn your employees into “brand ambassadors” to engage passive talent using tools that distribute your branded content about jobs, careers and your workplace to targeted candidate populations through your employees’, and job candidates’, social networks. One such tool, SymphonyTalent (formerly QueSocial) provides a simplified way to easily distribute your branded content to engage targeted talent populations.

How these referral strategies work:

Many employers simply don’t do enough to promote their referral programs – they may casually touch upon about their referral bonus program as part of a new hire onboarding discussion, via the company intranet or periodic all-staff communications. This low-key approach leaves the candidate referral activity completely up to the highly passive / reactive decision of employees and hiring managers who choose to participate.  Those that do participate are A) motivated by the financial incentive to participate, B) have the time to proactively tap their networks and recommend candidates or C) are regularly made aware of the open “hot” jobs that they could potentially refer candidates.

Utilizing the tools noted above, employers are able to control the messaging AND proactively push jobs and branded content to engage targeted, or broad talent pools of employees, hiring managers and job candidates – as well as distribute those messages to their networks. Since these tools require “opting in” by those you ask to participate in the referral campaign, their engagement in the process and the quality of the referrals increases significantly when compared to the more typical, very reactive/passive employee referral programs most companies rely upon.

Stay in the fast lane

CAUTION!  There are a few keys to success in any referral program. Incentives, of course, are important if you want to motivate people to act quickly.  Effective tracking of referrals, using features included in these tools, also ensures ongoing program success. Most importantly, be sure to have a consistent, timely and high touch recruiter follow up and disposition process on ALL candidates referred by your program. Technology can improve your referral volume, quality and incentive tracking but the program will fail if you let the resumes you reap through referral programs plunge into the infamous resume “black hole”.

Look for another tip next month on how to engage – or even re-engage – the great candidates whose resumes may be gathering dust in the back reaches of your ATS system.  

Need more info? Contact Carl Kutsmode, Partner, TalentRISE.

One of the most exciting developments on the healthcare horizon is Artificial Intelligence (AI). It can be called a game-changer, a disruptor or cutting edge…but, whatever you call it, AI is here to stay and already making a significant impact in healthcare.

So what is AI? It’s the science of creating intelligent technology that works and reacts like humans, especially in areas of speech recognition, learning, planning and problem solving.  Think of IBM’s Watson or, on a personal, day-to-day scale, Siri on your Apple phone. Both were developed using the principles of AI.

AI is very quickly being embraced within healthcare where, according to estimates by Accenture, it will generate $150 billion in annual savings within the U.S. by 2026.  Knowing that disruptive technologies of this magnitude require workers with new skills, knowledge and characteristics, I reached out to Ted Schwab, a business entrepreneur and healthcare strategist who is intent on delivering affordable and accessible healthcare to the general population. Ted, working closely with his client Babylon Health, is launching an AI-driven medical consultation and health service in the U.S. based on personal medical history and common medical knowledge. This new AI-based technology is already used outside the U.S. with great success by gathering data points from doctors, researchers, health records and clinicians. From Ted’s perspective, this algorithmic application has the ability to change our approach to healthcare by creating access to care that is more convenient, simpler and almost free.

Given his work in this arena and unique background, Ted was more than willing to share his thoughts on the skills a healthcare executive needs to possess in this brave new world of AI.  As we speed towards the future, what does a successful AI executive look like? What skills, knowledge, characteristics and background might this executive possess? Here’s what industry leaders like Ted are looking for:

At the top of the list is a sense of wonder and imagination: Since AI is uncharted territory, the ideal executive needs to be broad-minded, forward-thinking and possess a strong sense of adventure as, inevitably, part of the job will be to push aside many preconceived notions and old ways of doing things. Coming to the AI table with an unbridled imagination will be critical for these future leaders. They need to think of themselves as technological pioneers as they venture into new and unexplored territory. From a hiring perspective, this might entail looking for executives who may have non-traditional backgrounds, experiences and degrees. Thinking “outside the box” has never been truer.

A knowledge of, and interest in, human interface design: As AI technology evolves, this type of interface will become even more critical to AI’s future. Although the field is still in its early stages, a successful executive will need to understand how this burgeoning technology will affect AI’s future, its impact on regulations and ramifications for the end user. Being a tech-curious, astute and an early adopter will only help to fuel the executive’s success.

A willingness to embrace the scientific approach: Appreciating the value, importance and criticality of those in the scientific community needs to be uppermost on the priority list for this executive. Heightened awareness around problem-solving, understanding the scientific culture and mindset plus advocating for scientists in the business setting is paramount. Perhaps the most successful executives will, in fact, bring a scientific background of their own to the table?

A deep knowledge of regulations: In the ever-changing world of AI, regulations will continue to morph at an increasingly faster pace than in the past. Top executives need to be regulatory “gurus” who aren’t content to just stay current on the latest guidelines but will also take on roles as change agents who can potentially act as drivers on the latest and greatest regs.

Just as AI technology is reshaping the way we access our healthcare, there is a need to transform how healthcare providers (and, by extension, recruitment firms like TalentRISE) hire AI specialists. Added to the challenge of finding talent that meets all the criteria of the success profile above, the supply of talent with AI skills has leveled off according to a recent survey by Indeed while, at the same time, demand for AI-related roles has more than doubled over the past three years. That’s why it’s key to partner with a search firm with an understanding of this role as well as a proven approach to find the right executive, with the right profile for your organization.

Interested in learning how we can help? Please feel free to reach out for further discussions at KathleenMurphy@talentrise.com or 847-308-3363.