Talent Fit: An Art or a Science?
Google and Facebook, two of the hottest employers today are not only popular for their technologies, which bring people together, but also for their unique business models. Candidates globally are vying for the opportunity to work at either firm. Google alone can receive up to 75,000 applications in one week. Given no shortage of qualified candidates, these two firms put applicants through a gauntlet of interviews and tests; to not only decipher technical prowess, but more importantly fit. The way a potential employer compares candidates for fit, needs to ensure fairness and uniformity. It’s a science. But it’s also an art.
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Covering Talent Issues: A Reporter’s Perspective
I sit on the Board of our local talent acquisition non-profit group, RecruitDC. And since the inception, we’ve been lucky enough to have exceptional keynote speakers at each of our sell-out conferences. This year, with so many economic and government factors affecting our local talent landscape, we’re taking a different approach.
Washington Post reporter Sarah Halzack will lead a panel of executive HR leaders to address some of these issues. Halzack, a Capital Business Reporter and Web Editor for the Post, has a unique perspective on the area’s talent market. In advance of RecruitDC’s May 23rd Spring Conference, I sat down with her to talk talent, reporting and her own unique job. Read More…
Tech Shoppers Beware: Don’t Buy Candidates From This Guy
As I head to InfluenceHR in two weeks to talk with HR vendors about how to sell into the space, I’m continually amazed by the tactics people use. I’m not a career salesperson, but I have spent quite a bit of time in the buyer’s seat, and now that I run a consulting firm, new business is constantly on my mind. So I understand quarterly goals, year-end stress and pressure to make numbers. But I’ll never understand why people think the mass contact strategy will work. Sales = relationships. But some recruiters still don’t get it.
Please Stop Hiring Rockstars
When I think of “rockstar,” I think of Mick Jagger, Slash, James Hetfield, Ozzy Osbourne, Adam Levine. I think of long hair, tattoos, decibels, backstage mayhem, and decibels. “It’s Freedom Rock, turn it up.” When I search “rockstar,” I get energy drinks, Rolling Stone, a gaming company and “rockstar abs.” To be a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rockstar, think talent and longevity. To be inducted you had to have been in the business for at least 25 years.
Your latest junior developer? Not a rockstar. This is news to many of our start-up and high-growth clients who are just looking for a hip way to say they want the best talent. Stop doing this. Now.
Why You Should Care About Candidate Experience
We’re marketers. That’s what we are. Talent acquisition is about promoting opportunities. Driving brand loyalty. Evaluating customer sentiment. Participating in the conversation about our brand. Whether you like it or not, if your game is talent, your playing field is strangely similar to a marketer’s. And that because it’s all about the experience.
Memo to Executives: Women Don’t Want It All
There are a million voices in the debate on women in the workplace. And I was reticent to add another. But there’s a perspective no one is talking about and that’s the work. Until the work changes, the ratio of women in leadership positions won’t change. My latest post in Forbes addresses just that. What if women don’t want it all? What if it’s not about promoting us but rather whether we even want it? This is an important conversation. I’d love your take. Check out the Forbes article and then share your perspective.
New Whitepaper: The State of the Workforce
At the end of 2012, exaqueo surveyed the U.S. workforce to see what role the economy plays in job seeking. Are more employees willing to jump ship as the economy gets better? Is the down economy the main reason they’ve been staying put? What we found may surprise you.
On the heels of today’s jobs numbers, you won’t want to miss this.
Read, download and share: State of The Workforce.
Employee Engagement: Can Data Save Your Organization?
This blog post was co-written by: Lars Schmidt of Amplify Talent
As the economy continued to tank in 2011 and 2012, employee engagement dropped with it. Down economies often impact organizational loyalty in a negative way and Mercer’s 2012 report confirms that. According to the report, 24% of organizations are reporting lowered engagement up from 13% just two years ago. And while organizations continue to invest in employee engagement, or some form of loyalty strengthening activities, popular HR analysts and bloggers are challenging the notion of engagement score value.
Companies do care about employee feedback: 96% of Fortune 100 companies and 65% of mid-sized companies use some sort of employee survey. But is fighting for increased engagement scores a good use of executive time and attention? And are increased scores really that valuable to your business? Read More…
Employer Brand: It’s What You Measure That Counts
If you could predict with a high degree of precision that investment in your employer brand strategy would deliver value wouldn’t you increase your investment?
Employer Brand International’s (EBI) 2012/2013 Global Research study found that 39% of companies plan to increase their investment in employer branding initiatives in 2013. The important consideration in this statistic is just how much of this investment will add value and how much will be wasted. For many companies it may lead to an outcome that many marketers are only too well aware of: half of their investment is wasted, they just don’t know which half! Read More…
How NOT to Get a New Job
Here at exaqueo, we take on a few career coaching clients each month. And inevitably, some cringe when they realize how much hard work is required for a successful job search. Every once in a while we have to really be clear—and sarcasm does the trick. Check out my latest post on Forbes: How Not to Get a New Job in 2013. If this doesn’t make an impression on your favorite lazy job-seeker, nothing will!
Inauguration Wisdom: Knowing Your Business From the Front Lines
Four years ago today, I was up early, on the Metro and headed to The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, DC at 22nd and M Streets. Suit, overcoat, heels, gold nametag. I was going to be a doorman for the day: Inauguration Day.
At The Ritz-Carlton, it’s something called lateral service. You help out others where needed, developing your own skill set along the way. Sometimes it’s planned, like for events like this where a particular hotel knows it’s going to be busy. Other times, it’s unplanned–a business trip to Naples, Florida once turned into a housekeeping lesson when I learned the team there was short-staffed.
Job Search Advice You Can’t Miss From Twitter + NPR
It’s that time of the year–THE busiest time for job searching. If you’re a job seeker, this is your Super Bowl, your Miss America, your World Cup. And just in time for your big, mecca moment, NPR and Twitter have pulled together a team of experts (including me!) to help you with your search.
Stop Being Selfish: Doing Good Business Deeds
It’s been a big year for me. Got engaged. Revamped my business plan. Pivoted the business. Got married. Took three weeks off for the first time in 10 years. It’s this kind of year where you realize who people really are. Really. I tried to ask for help. Sometimes it worked. More often, it didn’t.
Someone said to me recently: “you’re really good at paying it forward and you’re not so good at promoting yourself.” I’ll admit, I took that as a big compliment. I get more value from helping people than almost anything. I champion self-promotion to others in every way possible. I tell coaching clients to make big asks. I tell organizational clients to use multiple channels to promote their brands. But I don’t do it so well myself.
Forget Work-Life Balance. I Mean It.
I’m pretty sick of the work-life balance argument. It’s not one or the other. Or sublime balance all the time. It’s flexibility how and when you want it, understanding that working less may mean earning less. But it’s your choice. Read my latest Forbes post “Forget Work-Life Balance: Give Us Choices Instead.” I’d also love if you added your comments here and/or on the Forbes site–this is such an important topic for women and men.
How to Really Find the Best Talent: Meet the Author of The Rare Find
A recruiter’s job description can be narrowed down pretty simply: find the very best talent. And that’s what we all aim to do. We experiment with different search tools, search strings and partners day in and day out. And while technologies have changed, our methods really haven’t. We want that perfect fit. Read More…
Your Brand Promise Means Nothing…
…Without Delivery. That’s the proposition I make in my latest Forbes blog. Think the hurricane hit people hard? Try the brand promises that were made, and not delivered upon by brands like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. I’m passionate about the role employees play in brand delivery and times of crisis really test a brand. I’d love for you to take a read and share your thoughts.
What Makes a Great Employer Brand?
We know why we need an employer brand and what a good, solid brand does for our business. But what makes a great employer brand? You know, how do you get one? We all want the press Zappos gets. Or to be awarded like the Container Store or SAS has been. So we try to mimic them, but that’s the wrong approach. Read More…
QUIPS #3: What Your Employer Brand is Desperately Missing
QUIPS = QUIck Problem Solving*. Quick ways to begin to address and solve common talent challenges when resources to tackle the challenge holistically or over time aren’t an option. Here is QUIPS #3: What Your Employer Brand is Desperately Missing.
You know your organization. You know the politics, the business, the industry, the challenges. And you know the people. At least you think you do. Especially if you work in HR. But you don’t. You may have a pulse on their happiness or engagement, but do you know who they really are? If you don’t, then you can’t build or execute a real employer brand. So what do you desperately need?
Introducing “Social Evidence”
When Jamey Jeff and Scott Rothrock first reached out to get my feedback on their start-up, RemarkableHire, I was intrigued. After all, as a recruiter, talent acquisition leader and now consultant, I’ve lived and managed the same woes that drove Jamey and Scott to found the company–measuring talent by a traditional resume doesn’t work.
Coining the term “social evidence,” Jamey and Scott have created a tool to help recruiters and hiring managers find and evaluate talent through the “collective voice of the crowd,” providing a proof point behind candidates’ knowledge and expertise. The tool crawls sites like GitHub and Quora for actual evidence of skills and expertise allowing recruiters and hiring managers to pinpoint target candidates quickly.
I’ve just joined the team as a member of their Board of Advisors and I’d love to introduce you to the RemarkableHire team, or share a demo with you. Just let me know!
Why You Should Care About the Jobs Report
Another day, another jobs report. That’s what it may feel like. In talent acquisition, we spend so much time thinking about jobs to fill and plans for our own organizations, that we don’t often pay much attention to the larger picture. Sure, we listen to the jobs reports, we grimace when the numbers aren’t what we think they should be, and we move on. What can you do? For starters, you can care. Read More…