Talent Partners

Passive Passé

In the mid 90s the internet began a recruitment revolution. Our reach became great and immediate. Sourcing candidates began a new and fantastic phase. The attempts at monetizing the recruitment supply chain through this new technology became monstrous faster classified ads and for the most part remain that way today.

A few concentrated on automating parts of the recruitment process and found ways to source and capture relationships with ‘Passive Candidates’ a tried and proven part of the old recruitment supply chain. Passive candidates were properly defined as those prospects currently working, happy and with no resume. The technology concentrated on privacy, ease of use and choice.

When I founded Hire.com, we were on the leading edge of the move to support the attraction of Passive candidates. We learned a great deal back then, at the beginning, and like all other areas of life, we must learn, adapt, and change our thinking to stay ahead of the curve. Below is a part of that evolution of/my - our thinking.

Today, every Applicant Tracking System (ATS) states they capture passive candidates and many job boards position their ‘passive’ candidate capabilities. They don’t. In fact, asking for a full name in order to ‘enter’, join or see jobs is antithetical to a permission based web experience and then a promise that ‘we’ll keep you private’ may be true but doesn’t engender enough faith from the masses to believe you. Passive has become marketing spin and it is time to accept that prospects are not as passive as they have been in the past. More people are interested in work. As we position in the book Talent Force – people are becoming aware of jobs/work all the time everywhere. There is so much information available. Alerts, RSS, blogs, etc., they make it easier for one to know a great deal of data about new opportunities and ‘Personalization’ technologies on the horizon will make a person’s knowledge base and experience much stronger. People will not rely on a job board or someone else’s technology to keep them informed.

Dick Tracy – for real… Loved that comic book watch and the fact Tracy could communicate with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Here we are. Prospective candidates can communicate with any company, recruiter or network to learn, verify and judge work just like Dick. And that availability is increasing not decreasing.

Long message and thanks for reading this far. The point: passive is passé… Next week we’ll define the new talent to engage and what we believe to be the better term going forward…stay tuned.

An Open Letter to U.S. Governors and Mayors

Hey elected Leaders,

We need some help!

In our book, Talent Force, we call for the development of Free Talent Zones.  We have seen successes from local to global Free Enterprise Zones created with subsidies to attract businesses in order to put local talent to work.  But what about the development of Free Talent Zones, where the catalyst for business development starts with the support of people as the foundation for business development.

We see it this way.  Here in the

U.S.

we have at least two great natural resources that can be drawn upon.  We have land and we have people.  We have lots of land where businesses and new towns can be developed.  We also have people.  Lots of good people who are looking for the American dream….to be a little better than the last generation.  They just need the help to get there.

Here’s the question.  How hard is this to do?

Governor Richardson of

New Mexico

, Governor Bayh of

Indiana

, Governor Perry of

Texas

and every other Governor in the

United States

, here is what you can do.

Pick a rural location in your state.  One where there is not much going on and one where you today do not see much hope of things getting better (no growth in population, no growth in tax base, not much good going to happen without some help).

Now, pick an industry that represents your state.  You each have one.  It’s the one where you have campaigned to make sure that it doesn’t leave or die.

Now go to your legislators and present the concept of developing Free Talent Zones for this industry and these locations.

Tell the legislators that you want to immediately pass simple legislation that does these things:

-Any company within the designated state industry who will commit to establish an operation within the designated location with a commitment of employing 100 or more employees in this location and staying in operation there for greater than 10 years with 100 or more employees,  will have the opportunity to employ as many people as they can up to 1000 eligible employees at any given time,  who will then in turn be eligible for a 50% reduction in state income taxes for the first 5 years of their employment.  They get this if they currently live in the designated Free Talent Zone or if they move into the Free Talent Zone to become employed or transferred there by the Company.  Further, all dollars, up to an amount of 25% of the employee’s gross annual pay that the Company spends on Training or Development of this employee will be reimbursed dollar for dollar by the State.

- or pick a rural location - build technology and business support infrastructure and work to attract highly skilled talent in a specific industry where telcommuting is possible. Say for instance a small town in

Montana

has designs to become the location for top engineering talent with security clearance...tough talent to attract and hire. The community gets subsidies to build great schools, the technology infrastructure and provides a 'community' that some in business prefer over city living. Build an airstrip large enough to handle transport jets and boom - you have a Free Talent Zone - or the new - friendlier company town. We would not be surprised to see Raytheon or Boeing actually work with the state and local government to sponsor a town. We think it well happen.

That’s it.

Go get that passed and then go market it and hop out of the way!

Here is what will happen.  Companies will bring customer support centers to these locations, they will bring network operations to these locations, they will bring research and development centers to these locations, they will bring training facilities to these locations.  And over time when there becomes critical mass of like industry talent and experience, new companies (with their headquarters) will spring up in these locations.

The best companies will even add more incentives for people to move to these locations.

People will build homes in these locations because they can afford to do so.  They will build up savings accounts in these locations and they will feed and fuel the local economy.

And guess what, your state will be the preeminent state for the industry that was designated to be supported.

It’s a simple idea isn’t it?  Why wouldn’t it work?

And, it all starts with Talent first!

Tie CEO compensation to Talent!

A few weeks ago new SEC head, Chris Cox, detailed more ideas on how to get CEO pay under control.

We read all of the new thoughts and we don’t have much hope that it will change anything.  For those of us who have worked with public boards and have been responsible for recommending CEO pay to a Compensation Committee, the real problem is there is no standard for surveying and comparing CEO pay and no standards for the measurement of results that would warrant that comparison and truly make the pay transparent.  Seems every year it gets harder and Compensation Committees are now looking to external consultants to make it clearer for them.  But the more you look in the pool, the muddier it looks unfortunately.  There needs to be a better way to make credible comparisons that will hold up to public shareholder scrutiny. 

What the SEC should do is develop a few standards and a public reporting mechanism that they monitor and report out on a regular basis and then let peer and public pressure take over.  To do that, what needs to occur is:

First, the SEC should classify companies into business categories/segments.  They can use whatever template they want to get there.  Business Week classifies companies each Quarter into Industry segments and then makes comparisons of quarterly results.  Fortune does the same.  Not all companies like where they are classified, but they only end up in one segment.  The SEC should do the same and come up with the “official” classifications.  What this does is solidifies the peer set of CEOs so that companies and the public understand how to make real and valid comparisons.  It’s not right for a company or the public to compare an entertainment CEO to a public utility CEO.  They both might be CEOs but the experience set and the talent base available for those positions are night and day (although occasionally a utility CEO fashions himself an entertainment CEO – ala Vivendi, but we know how that story ended).

Second, the SEC should determine a set definition of business and market results to compare the company’s performance to against CEO pay.  There are the usual ones that are easy to get to: Revenue growth, Net Income growth, return on invested capital, earnings per share, cash flow, shareholder return, etc. Once these measures are defined then the SEC can come with their own index of CEO pay against these results.  That index becomes the barometer of how well the CEO is doing and can now be credibly compared against their peers.  The index could also be looked at in both short and long term, like a mutual find report, 1-year, 3-year, 10-year performance.

Thirdly, once both the comparative set is established with both the concrete industry segments and performance reporting, then the SEC has to nail down what is CEO pay and what is not.  This they are working on now and getting close.  It’s easier than they make it.  All they have to do is get rid of the concept of deferred compensation and unvested equity and then you have it done.  Just look annually, or at any point in time at all compensation (any receipt of value, goods or services that the CEO receives) as immediately in constructible receipt and add it up.  Unvested equity just gets valued against the fully vested value on that day against the closing price of the stock.  If a CEO has $5MM of vested value and $10MM of unvested value on that day, then is pay is reported as $15MM of equity pay.  Sure, the argument can be made that she or he might never see that if the stock price goes down (guess they shouldn’t should they?) or that the unvested value is for retention (yep, that’s what it is there for).  All of that noise goes away once everyone is looking at the numbers in the same way.  Then it is what it is and compensation committees will have to decide if they are, against the comparators doing the right thing.

Fourth, the Compensation Committee should report and have to enter into the SEC database, the figures for the CEO twice a year and everyone has to do it, regardless of when their fiscal cycle is, on January 1 and July 1.  This way, again, all public companies are treated the same and shareholders can easily see the results in an open and fair way.  Those companies that miss the deadline will be called out and fined by the SEC (their stock price hit would be just as bad if not worse if they didn’t report for some reason).  And Compensation Committees would be held responsible for signing off on the data as being right with associated penalties if it isn’t…just like the Audit Committee must do every quarter.

Lastly, we call for, in the book Talent Force, for one of the new defined and quantified comparative measures to be against the retention of Talent Capital.  While this can be much more complex and in-depth, in simplest measure, CEO pay should be tied to the retention and turnover of Section 16b Public Executive Officers (these are the executives who have material influence and information about the Company).  It’s a simple measure…% of retention of these executives over a 1-year, 3-year, and 10-year period.  The reason this is important is that the message of retaining Talent starts at the top.  If the Board doesn’t care, then the CEO probably won’t either.  If the CEO doesn’t care, for sure no one else will.  Start measuring this as part of CEO pay and watch the change within the Company. 

Why this is important as a part of CEO pay is that Talent Capital (Human Capital) is the last intangible asset within corporations today.  Some would say it is the only assets within a company that can actually appreciate vs. depreciate.  Regardless, we know it is important and it does not get enough public attention from shareholders or analysts until it is too late.  The asset needs to be measured and opened up. It should be tied to CEO pay.  It should be transparent for all to see.  In Talent Force, we detail a simple chart that companies can use and that we think the SEC should pay attention to. 

Maybe someday they will!

Round Rock

We are now just a little over two weeks since the launch of our book, Talent Force.  To each of you have purchased the book, we can only humbly say thank you.  We have nearly sold out our first publishing run of the book with little to no public relations or marketing.  That means that you, our friends and colleagues who understand the value of Talent have stepped up.  Again, a sincere thank you.

Last week, we were again humbled (there is a lot of humbling that occurs when you publish a book) by the other end of the spectrum. 

We had three incredible book signings in

Austin

last week. Wed night to Texchange, an entrepreneur group, Thursday to Friends of Hank at the Austin Club and Friday….Well, it was just after 8pm on a Friday night in Round Rock,

Texas

.  There we were, two, new, unknown business book authors sitting inside 20 feet of the entrance of a

Hastings

. 

Hastings

is more than a bookstore; it is better described as a mega media center.  Books are their heritage, but somewhere along the way, they (rightly) moved into other media to ensure growth.  While we might have wanted to romanticize this Friday night in the bookstore as a Harry met Sally crowd of intellectuals sharing decaffe lattes, this was not that scene.  Let’s put it this way, there weren’t many people coming in to purchase business books on this Friday night in rural

Texas

.

So, yes, we were humbled by the fact that while we sat there behind our stack of newly printed books, no one came. But there were two conversations we had that night that humbled us even more.

The first was by a middle-aged (we can say that…we are middle-aged now) gentleman, dressed in jeans, tee-shirt and a leather motorcycle jacket.  He projected the “techie” look.  He stood at the book table and read the inside covers and the entire back jacket.  He then put the book down and looked at us and gave us a two-word book review, “cute idea”. He knew he caught our attention.  Given the traffic for the night for us, he had our full attention anyway by the fact he was actually at the table (smile).

For the next 15 minutes we heard the story of a man who has spent the last ten years working in a company where he cycled from a place where his dreams were soon to be achieved to now feeling trapped and angry that any day now his job would end up being done by someone overseas who was a cheaper part of the supply chain than himself.  He hesitated to tell us where he worked because he said that people get fired for being overheard talking about the people practices of the company.  He of course gave us enough descriptors of his company that it was easy to figure out.  His role was one of the technical people who scouts out and sets up overseas locations for the next operation to be moved away from

Texas

.  He spoke of his job like that of a prisoner who did death-row work for the warden and guards so to be on their “good side” until his day was to come.  He told us how he was once two weeks from having his options be worth retirement money only to have the stock crash and put him back to work for what now looked like an indefinite time.  He described eloquently the commoditization of people, and like the person who rants about the salaries of professional sports athletes and says it’s the fans fault for paying high ticket prices and buying advertised products, he said that as long as there are people who need to work, that this well-known high profile company would find the next person to hire and insert into the commodity people supply chain.  So, the idea of paying attention to Talent and even more so, working for a company that values the idea, was not much more than “cute” to him.  He did buy the book.  He even asked us to sign it, but to not put his name on it because if it was found moving through the halls with his name on it, he was sure he would be fired.

Another 45 minutes or so passed and another gentleman stepped to the table.  A little younger than the last he seemed full of energy. He scanned the back cover and then looked at us and said, “You know the problem don’t you…it’s Wal-Mart”.  He then went on to provide his version of what we describe in Talent Force as “Free-Talent Zones”.  His perspective was not so optimistic though.  It ended with a cycle of employees underpaid, living from paycheck to the day before paycheck, capped at 32 hours a week,  without health benefits, funneling a high percentage of their earnings back into the store to purchase their goods, because 1) they couldn’t afford to shop anywhere else, 2) there wasn’t anywhere else to shop anyway.  We came to find out that he was a high school chemistry teacher who left the business world ten years ago because he didn’t want to work as hard as he needed in business for something that he didn’t “believe in”.  He believed in teaching and imparting knowledge to others and does so at a minimum wage, qualifies for food stamps, and fears for his job each year (Texas we came to find out does not have teacher tenure) because of test scores (which he said are manipulated to ensure that the district receives funding) and teacher cut-backs.  He railed on text books as the money makers for schools and described “cartels” for text book publishers and school districts where generic text books are underwritten and marketed as “written and funded for Texas schools” but the exact same book can be found in Oregon with the imprinting, ”written and funded for Oregon schools”.  This gentleman left after his conversation without buying our book.

As we drove away from Round Rock towards the airport, we reflected on what we had heard and learned that night.  We sized the market again in the U.S. as somewhere around 25 million people in the U.S. who had some form of management or hiring responsibility and who might think that Talent Force and the principles in the book as helpful.  Within a few hours though we had met two people who live on the other end of the barrel and who look at the value and development of talent as nothing more than cynics for they live the daily impact of not being valued and worse, had no hope that any of this could change.  They live the bottom of the spiral without any place else to go. 

We don’t believe that there is no hope.  We wouldn’t have written the book if we felt that way.  But those two honest conversations with strangers did make us stop and think.  It should make us all stop and think.  It should make each of us who do have the chance to make a difference, get after doing so. There are people who are depending on us to be different than the rest.

Round Rock, in the same honesty we received from those two guys, was good for us.

Launch!

After 30 or so months…lots of phone and email collaboration and large doses of optimism in the face of pessimistic forecasts, our book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business, has officially launched.

www.talentforce.net

January is a blur. Our business pursuits have become what businesses are supposed to become – busy and the activities associated with the book launch have taken more time than anticipated. As a result, this activity – our blog has suffered.

We will get back in the blogging rhythm next week, but for now we just want to say thanks to those who helped make the book a reality.

Thanks Kelli Jerome, Paula Sinott, Larry Heikel, Andrea Carlos, Anne Schott, Kayla Dugger, and Angela Wiley. A great team willing to nudge and politely suggest…we appreciate your wisdom, patience, and passion for this project.

Special thanks to Patti and Liz…the better half of Rueff and Stringer.

Thanks All!

Onward!

Hank and Rusty

Vince

If you watched the Rose Bowl last week, like most of us, you experienced quality talent that transcends ‘normal’ and if we look past the natural God given talents displayed that day, we find valuable lessons we can apply to our lives in life and business.

Two Heisman Trophy winners on one side of the ball, a young man about to make his mark on the other and a host of talent, NFL scouts and General Managers drooling over all three. And the talent did not disappoint…hats off to both teams for great seasons and for giving us a game of a lifetime.

There is a spectrum of talent and though we all can’t be Reggie or Matt or Vince, we can understand and emulate the attributes that make them successful. Here are a few gleaned from the post game interviews and all the data sportscasters could possibly provide.

Goals: Each of these men is driven by personal goals. They know what they want and remain focused on the goals set forth.

Prepared: Reggie and Vince have superman God given talents and Matt is an elite pocket passer perfect for a career in the NFL. But natural talent is not enough and these talented performers understand that putting in the hours of hard work to be prepared for all the game challenges they and their teams face is the only way they can succeed.

Optimism: Reggie may have started taking over football games at age 8 but he has had a relentless optimism that has allowed him to overcome obstacles and life challenges. Vince was hit by a car at age 9 and spent time in the hospital…he has a long scar up his belly as a reminder of the surgery it took to fix him. The scar serves as a reminder that he will prevail if he stays positive and works through the challenges he faces.

Grace: With the bright lights on and the whole world watching these men were gracious winners and losers. They kept the situation in much better perspective than the fans and broadcasters. Reggie and Matt visited the Texas locker room after the game and in post game interviews Vince congratulated USC on the game, their season and abilities.

In our world of ‘gotcha’ politics and news shows it was a welcomed pleasure to see how these ‘stars’ of the moment conducted themselves on the national stage. We all should learn an important lesson from their actions.

So what does all this fawning over sports figures have to do with quality talent in the talent force? Sports are a metaphor for business because it works. We all need personal and business goals, we must prepare ourselves for the work we do, optimism is the first step to finding solutions and we should practice graciousness daily as we could stand more ‘niceness’ in our world…at home, at work and abroad.

So much for the corny blog comparing a game to work, however we all must admit, ( and writing from Austin I am biased ) the Rose Bowl 2006 will be remembered as one of the, if not THE greatest American sports competition in our lifetime.

Thank you Trojans, Longhorns, Reggie, Matt and Vince…you all are special

CEO Check-Up Part II

Last week we provided you with the first six items for a year-end check-up list.  Below are another six to give you a full 12 days of Christmas.  J

7. Does everyone get a response when they apply to work for your Company?  It has been debatable for years whether or not it is better to respond in some shape form or fashion, or just make the assumption that a candidate knows their information got to you, and that there is some unspoken approval that it is okay to not respond because it “irks” the candidate to get something impersonal like a letter or a postcard.  Here is the way we think about it.  How does it feel to not get a phone call returned? How does it feel to not get a second phone call, or a third phone call returned?  When the person’s name comes up that you have been trying to call, what do you say about them?  Well, a candidate for your Company has put much more of their personal time and effort into applying for your Company, than your one, two or three phone calls, and then they get no response?  Guess what they say when someone brings up your Company’s name?

See below on our suggestion on how to ensure you know if someone is getting the right responses.

I like to start my responses back to those who send me notes, letters, emails, applying to the Company, with this line:

“I am always humbled when someone of your talent and experience has interest in becoming a member of our Team”.

See the difference?

8. Ask for the data on what candidates tell your recruiting team about why they turned down the job.  This is simple stuff.  It’s an easy spreadsheet that codes the reasons why they turned you down.  From there trends can be built and actions taken.  This is more important than you think, because the world is moving faster than you know.  Salaries, amenities, opportunities, etc. shift very quickly.  You need to be up to date and the best way to understand why someone turns you down is to go ask them.  You will find very rich data here. And if you don’t believe your recruiters are getting truthful evidence don’t be afraid to use a third party to conduct surveys to get the answers. If you are experiencing too many ‘offer rejects’ do what it takes to get to the source of the problem as quickly as possible.

9. Ask those who joined the Company to give you first-hand information on what was good, bad and ugly about the recruiting process.  Another simple, but powerful exercise.  Ask your HR Leader to give you the email addresses of the last 10 people hired and send them this email:

Hi there.

I first of all want to tell you how pleased and proud I am that you have joined our Company.  As the person who has the privilege of leading this great organization, I know how important it is that we are able to attract the best of the best, which you are one!

You are also in the best position to give me direct feedback about how the recruiting process was for you?

I am very interested in this as we must always be improving in all we do and the recruiting process is our first contact with our new team members and I want that to be the best it can be. 

So, please give me your free-formed feedback. I want the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Please don’t be concerned about giving it to me straight.  I don’t ever attribute any of the feedback to an individual. I remove all of the names.

Thanks again for joining our Team!  You are making a valued contribution already!

Sincerely,

See how powerful that could be.  You will find out all you need to know.

Consider doing this with all new hires on their first day. Their revelations are an efficient way to constantly rate and improve your recruiting process.

10. Who are the interviewers on your Team?  We can’t expect you as the CEO to know every interviewer in the Company, but you can do a quick sample of your team (those who report to you) and ask them:

            -How many interviews have you done in the last month (if zero…then you should be   asking other questions)

            -What does HR/Talent Team expect from you when you interview and after?

            -When was the last time you went through Interview Training Refresher?

            -Would you like to do more or less interviewing?

            -What would make the interviewing process better for you?

            -Are interviews accomplished on time and in a timely manner?

You will learn a great deal with these simple questions.  You will find out who wants (and who doesn’t) want to be interviewing. By the way, conventional wisdom says that everyone needs to interview.  Rethink it.  Those who are bad interviewers or who just don’t care, add nothing to the process, can hurt the candidate experience, and turn out to be of no value add anyway so let them stay doing their job for an hour – that’s more value.

You will find out how prepared or unprepared the process is and ultimately find out if there is any science behind the scenes or is the whole process random.  Imagine that, our first process that a new employee sees feels random.  Whether you like it or not, a stage is being set.

11. Is a recruit, whether hired or not, armed with the right information? This always drives me crazy. It’s such a small thing, but a huge message.  Simple thing, when a recruit walks in and out of the door does she/he have the latest and most up to date collateral information about your Company?  If not, guess what floats around their house and with friends and family.  Bad marketing material is as bad as anything.  Go ask for the latest candidate package?  Tell them you need it in 5 minutes so they can’t update it. J

12. Find your Mystery Candidate: Long a staple of the retail world, the Mystery Shopper knows and tells all.  You should do the same a few times a year with a Mystery Candidate.  Have them go through as much of the process as they can from the web site to the offer process.  And at the end, as far as they make it, let them sit with your team and give the unfiltered feedback.  Do this just once and your organization will be on their toes for many years.  If they never think there is a feedback loop – who knows what occurs.  You can expect what you inspect. 

So there you have it.  12 ways to check-up this year. 

We hope it helps.  We are here for your feedback and assistance so don’t hesitate to reach out.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

CEO Year-end Check-Up: Part 1

Part 1

The end of the year is always a good time to give yourself a check-up and see how things are going around the Company. We can think of no better place to start than on the critical path of Talent acquisition. So, we offer 12 check-up and check-in items - 6 this week and 6 more next Wed.

1. Visit your website: Is your “Jobs” button accessible from your home page?

While you may not realize it, not having your job opportunity button clearly visible on your front page is sending the message that Talent is “just not that important”. For the best of the best (Quality Talent) who have many opportunities to choose from, that one extra click is one click too many. Our websites are today’s front lobbies and how they appear and what they message truly matters. If your front door was locked no one would enter. Or if someone came to your lobby to apply for a position and were told by the front desk, “I don’t know if we have any openings and I can’t tell you what to do”, would not feel welcomed and will leave. Not having your job opportunities/needs accessible from a clearly visible careers or jobs button on your front page is locking your front door - few candidates will enter.

2. Does it take more than “three (3) clicks" to respond to a job opening?

Ease, convenience, and time. We spend a lot of energy in our lives and work creating ease, convenience and time for ourselves and our customers. Why not do the same for our incoming Talent? Three clicks should be enough to find the job opening, answer/input the necessary information, and send it directly to the hiring manager or Talent officer/representative. More than three clicks becomes one more barrier that opens the door for the candidate to say “this is too hard”. It’s one more opportunity for them to move the cursor to the upper right hand corner and start looking for that deadly “X”. Is there really a reason why you can’t get what you need during this first interaction within three clicks?

3. Is there a message from the CEO on your careers page?

The CEO writes the annual report letter to shareholders, she/he writes the internal messages to the Company, so why isn’t he/she sending their own personal message to prospective employees? Who has a better and more compelling message to give to those who will be next to join the Company than the CEO? We all want to hear it directly from “the horse’s mouth” don’t we? What an easy way to send another of those messages that “we care” about people. A few paragraphs, a picture, a video clip, any of the above sends the right message and might well be the unique message that is different than your competitor who is after the same person. An easy win for you, the team, and your potential new employee who will have no excuse in not knowing who you are, what you stand for, and what you want to see happen with the Company. It’s a good way to get everyone off on the right foot.

4. Are you giving prospective employees a way to “stay in touch” if now is not the right time?

This is a subtle but important way to distinguish you from others. Most companies only care about Talent “now” and what they need “now”. Thus, the job openings are very specific, carrying the numbers of open requisitions (by the way, have you ever found those internal job identification numbers exciting and compelling?), and there is no place for someone to tell you that even though you might not have the opening for them today, they are still dreaming of working for your Company. What would we rather have, someone who is applying to a posted position because they need a job or someone who goes out of their way to tell you how much they are dreaming of working for your organization? We think we know your answer, but where is the place for them to do so, and what is the mechanism to tap them when the time is right? The answer is important - You don’t want to lose touch with these individuals.

5. What is the substance of the content on your job sites?

The job positions need to be written as compelling actionable descriptions in order to attract Quality Talent willing to give their time and energy to apply to your Company. The descriptions must be filled with the core truths of the position, the company, growth opportunities and the like. The growth and success of the Company can be easily understood and provable. Anything short will leave the candidate feeling like he/she are not getting the whole story or left feeling that they have an incomplete picture of the Company and the position. If that is the case, then don’t expect to get much better back from them. They can only respond to what they see and know. Also, you might want to just peruse your website to see how openly you are divulging your Company strategy by the positions that are posted. Bill Gates once told his organization that they needed to be on alert for what Google was preparing competitively. How did he ascertain this? He did so by doing a quick inventory of their job openings and then backing into what they had up their sleeves strategically.

6. Invite your Staffing/Talent Leader to come to your office.

Ask your Staffing Leader to come to your office and give the “Talent Pitch” to you as if you were a new recruit hearing about the Company for the first time. Ask them to tell you;

· the story of the Company

· the strategy

· the vision

· why someone should leave their current position to come to your Company

· the future for them if they join the Company

· the definition of success for the Company and for them

· the ability to answer questions about the Company with the same depth of expertise as the hiring manager or your investor relations officer.

Grade their knowledge, persuasiveness and truthfulness. Are you attracted by their enthusiasm and knowledge. If they don't meet your expectations be prepared to put them into training to bring them back to speed. This approach should probably mirror your sales development program for all who interface with perspective talent. You ensure sales can answer all or most of these questions...do the same for those who greet and interview your talent asset. They in actuality are the sales department for your new Talent.

Next week...6 more items for your checklist!

Ethics

Ethics: a set of moral principals

Economic booms, busts, good times, bad times and significant times. Who we are and how we act matters more today than yesterday. Companies and candidates should be prepared for renewed emphasis on corporate ethics..

Companies must be what they say they are.

In Enron’s 2000 Annual Report they list their Values as…

Communication

We have an obligation to communicate…

Respect

We treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves…

Integrity

We work with customers and prospects openly, honestly and sincerely...

Excellence

We are satisfied with nothing less than the very best in everything we do...

Super values, just didn’t quite work out that way. It is too easy to pick on Enron and we bet the group that devised these values believed them with all their heart. But somewhere up the line the commitment to these got lost. The company ethics were thrown by the wayside and we know the rest.

Enron was not alone, there were/are many others. Because of the Enron experience and ease of access to information today, companies must be prepared for top candidates to ask for proof and examples of the company values, a turning of the table on behavioral interviewing as it were. More candidates want to know the culture, values - ethics of any company they consider, absolutely. They want proof.

Every CEO should ask themselves and their staff today if they are ready to give and support the answer. If not, your company will begin to experience talent attraction and retention problems leading to reduced market success.

Every recruiter worth their salt understands that positioning against misaligned ethics is easy. For instance, HP is successfully recruiting top talent from Dell - why?

Where does your company stand today?

Candidates need to look at themselves…

More companies are enacting a defined ethical culture and when considering a new position candidates need to ask themselves if they align with the values of the company.

A strong Board of Directors will ask if their talent aligns with the company goals, values and ethics.

Thanks to Enron, Sarbanes-Oxley and today’s market requirements, Boards are accountable. And they see the productivity gains and results of a highly ethical and values aligned organization. Not everyone wants to work for Wal-Mart. They’ve heard stories about Saturday morning meetings that start at 7 am that include corporate cheers and patriotic songs. And some in our country today would say – not interested.

Candidates need to understand if they align with the companies they seek, because more companies are turning to the success of defined and demonstrated cultures of high ethics and values. Who can argue with the largest company in the world? Wal-Mart was built on an ethical culture developed in a small town in Arkansas by a founder with belief and conviction. Is this wrong?

The pursuit of corporate ethics is not a big change. Companies have always touted them and candidates have always sought them. Today, ethics have political, legal and market consequences…they matter.

What do you think? What are the consequences or results of strictly honoring a set of corporate ethics?

Why are we still so arrogant?

The November 16, 2005 cover story in the Wall Street Journal: “Behind ‘Shortage’ of Engineers: Employers Grow More Choosy” by Sharon Begley is topical and poignant. Ms. Begley describes a situation where employers from a number of companies in the technology sector are feeling the pressures of hiring quality engineers (or the term you read here first; Q-Talent) in a market that hiring professionals feel is shrinking (again lack of quality engineers). Ms. Bagley’s statistics actually show that we have increased our number of engineers entering the market place annually from U.S. universities by 85% from 1998 to 2004 with engineers having nearly the same unemployment rate as other professional positions.

So, what’s the rub?

It well could be that the demand is outpacing the supply. That should not be discounted. However, as the story also states, employers have been much more “picky” in their qualifications requirements. Very specific criteria is being used to screen through candidates today more than ever. Technology is allowing us to do that. Search on ‘keyword’ requirement can drive an entire screening process and negate anyone who does not have that particular skill, experience, course work, etc. On the surface, this seems “okay” as companies are doing their best to find the perfect candidate for critical roles. But, instead what is happening is that technology that is not as smart as the reasonable person is missing potentially great talent – people who can be trained and learn. Yes, they may not have the perfect experience set, but which one of us did when we changed jobs, or got our first jobs? Had we not had the opportunity to actually tell someone who we were, what we could do, and show our passion for the company and the job, we probably wouldn’t have gotten the job.

So, here we are in 2005. Technology has done great things for us. We have gotten better in many ways; we are faster, we are more efficient, we are more cost conscious, but in the way that matters the most, we are still missing the mark. We need to get back to something that we have said for a long time, “before they were candidates, they were people”. Maybe it’s time to revisit the Golden Rule and walk our Staffing leaders through what that means for recruiting and the identification and assessment of Talent. Beyond the front end screening, we also need to take some time to reassess what the message is that we are sending to our potential candidates (and potential customers) with the level of welcoming that occurs at your website and the timeliness of responses (if there are responses) and the staffing process itself.

The market is simmering again and with little or no warning it breaks to a boil. When that happens, it will be the companies that get the big picture who will win.

There is no better time than now to be in constant readiness.