Q Definitions - 1

Talent used to be in their office working receiving the occasional call from a recruiter or friend about a job. They might take a look - they might not. They were happy, working and not in the market. It was up to the recruiter to compel the prospect to become interested and hopefully the recruiter caught them at that right serendipitous moment with the right opportunity to get interest.

These were passive candidates. Times are changing. Prospective candidates are no longer 'working, dumb and happy'...they're knowledgeable, aware, have data at their fingertips, are members of public or private networks...they have a better handle on what's going on than the 'passive' candidates we defined for the Internet in the late 90's.

Quiet.

Most prospects today are quiet...not compelled to search a job board or participate in a network - they watch, they listen and at times explore. But they don't and won't make any moves until they see good reason. They remain quiet.

The untapped source of talent.

John Sumser has a great series of articles at Interbiznet and today's is spot on. A quarter of the talent force or prospective candidates use job boards. Use boards and reach 25% - great. But what about the other 75% or the quiet source of talent?

We can source this talent through a number of means from traditional to 'relationship and nurturing' activities managed over the Internet. Use what is best for your organization - but do something.

Try:

·      Having 10 of the best people managers in your Company give you 10 people who they will contact in the next 90 days and share something good/great about your company and invite them to be sure and let them know first if the ever consider a job change.

Invest - these activities will take real dollars...not trivial. Treat talent acquisition as an investment not a cost. Talent is likely your most important asset. Treat them as such.

Try:

·      Quantifying the value of one great person who works within your competition and then convince everyone who will listen that your people, like the competitions are just as valuable, if not more so. Then go and get the new person too!

Marketing - create a marketing program for talent sourcing and acquisition. Messages...Positioning...Delivery...Measure Effectiveness...Change as Necessary! Has your marketing department ever launched product or service without these efforts? Why would we not do same in the most competitive environment for Q Talent of the past 40 years?

Try:

·      Go buy your Chief Marketing Officer dinner and ask her/him to give you someone as an extracurricular project to evaluate and then recreate the Talent brand so it holds up just as well as your consumer brand.  If you can’t do it yourself, you have to be Tom Sawyer and get others to help paint your fence for you.

Get Executive Support or Die - find the highest level executive in the company (preferably the CEO) who cares and understands the value of talent and get them to support you in all your efforts. Do this and win...don't and the company fails.

Try:

·      Get your CEO to send a message about Talent like she/he has never done. Convince him/her to send every hiring manager/recruiter a copy of Talent Force (our shameless plug) or some other book that tells it like is about the importance of Talent.  Then ask her/him to inspect what they expect by putting one key Talent acquisition measure in their dashboard for their Board.  That will send a strong message.  Go influence – it’s what you have to do!

The talent is out there...they are quietly watching and listening

If they are quiet – why aren’t you being loud?