Sourcing Evolution From Recruiter to Sourcing Talent Manager

Sourcing Evolution From Recruiter to Sourcing Talent Manager I was recently on a great webinar by  Jobvite  entitled: The Art Science of Sourcing: A Virtual Round Table. One of the discussion points was focused on the role of the recruiter versus a dedicated sourcing consultant and/or researcher. With a number of different perspective there were some great take away lessons.  The sourcing gurus and contributors on the webinar were:  André Boulais  (Lead Sourcing  Strategist   Global Recruiting at  Exact Target);  John Keuhn  (Critical  Talent  Associate at Devon Energy);  Brad Cook  (VP Global  Talent Acquisition at  Informatica);  Will Giese  (Team Development/Staffing at  Flipboard);  and (one of my favs!)  Larry Hernandez  (Sourcing Guru at  Zappos  Family of Companies). The one thing that everyone agreed on, was that whether you have an internal or onsite recruitment function, the landscape and expectation of the recruiter is dramatically changing. A  recruiters  ability to source the right candidates from different channels, with more advanced knowledge of creative sourcing techniques is in greater demand. Its been changing for the past few years, yet it is still a challenge for many HR and Recruitment managers to change old recruiting behaviours and get their people on board.  As HR and Recruitment managers look to take the recruitment capability in their businesses to a new level, many are finding that the slower a recruiters ability to evolve and move with the needs of the business, the slower the organisation will take to adopt innovative and up to date attraction, sourcing and talent management solutions. As I continue to have these conversations with many managers, the question is.do you lay down the  gauntlet  of expectations and  behaviors  and hope that they get on board, or do you continue to try and change old habits?  The other question is, are great sourcing consultants made or are they born? I find that good sourcing consultants are curiousthey want to understand what else can be done, how to do it better. That is more an attribute than a skill.  Gone are the days when a recruiter would receive a job from the hiring manager, put an ad up on a job board and then wait for the response to come in. Well those days arent actually gone but thats the difference between having an  active sourcing strategy  or a passive one!  Its time for recruiters to become masters of their business line or critical skill focus and start to build sourcing strategies that will guide their business managers and candidates to a successful meeting point. 1) Understand the Business Needs and Objectives of Your Hiring Community: One of the discussions on the webinar was the fact that recruiters are no longer just there to find talent but they are there to attract talent. Their role is one of selling. Selling the opportunity, the company and the all the benefits that go with that. So as recruiters need to up the anti when it comes to selling, doesnt it follow that they really need to be engaged in the direction the business is heading? This would, therefore, allow them to build targeted talent pools, communities and networks not only for now, but for the future. The key question that recruiters need to be asked is: Where does the business that Im recruiting for need to be in a year, two years, 5 years?  Its not only up to the recruiter but it is also up to the business to  recognize  that its a partnership. Their recruiter and talent partner is unable to build proactive and focused strategies if they are not invited and included at the table when those discussions are happening. Some of the greatest and most successful partnerships that Ive experienced, is when youre able to provide your recruitment expertise, within a conversation based on business objectives and commercial outcomes. Why? Because empowering your recruiter to be a partner and not just a process manager allows them to come up with innovative and compelling sourcing strategies for your target community. 2) Build a Sourcing and Recruitment Strategy Through Review and Consultation: If the business needs to hire 1000 people this year then the question is, when and where? When do they need to be hired by in order to affect the bottom line and create efficiencies  in the business and where will we find them? Have a  strong and focused sourcing plan  when its based on growth can start the proactive cogs turning.  If you need to hire 200 people in Q1: How will you do that? Where will they come from? How will you track your success? If it doesnt happen then what is the knock on  effect? If you need to then hire 400 people in Q2 and 300 in Q3 and then 100 in Q4 due to seasonality then what factors are going to affect your ability to successfully meet those targets? Will it be through social recruiting and building an audience and community, will it be through major referral drives across the business or will some of it need to be through search, internal, agency, talent pools? As the old saying goes, If you fail to plan, you plan to fail and many recruiters fail to ask the questions need to drive more critical thinking.  The other issue are businesses who are unable to workforce plan in order to allow their recruiters to become proactive talent managers. 3) Deliver Engaged Talent Pools and Communities: Getting better at the way that we engage with candidates is a must.  Its now a candidate driven market and organisations who are not interested in two way communication will become less desirable to candidates who are  receiving  personal communications from businesses that want to listen as well as talk. The talent pool has been around for as long as I can remember, but the more I speak to businesses the more the I find that its not something that is done very well a lot of the time. It starts well but then recruiters change or focus changes and the talent pool lapses and becomes inactive or forgotten. The other issue is that if you have a number of recruiters working on a single talent pool then they each have different ideas of what the criteria for entry should be. Agreeing as a team what the focus is and why is the first step to successful talent pooling. If the team understand the commercial viability of the talent pool the WHY we are building this and what the benefits will be, as well as what the criteria for entry to the talent pool should look like, then hopefully everyone feels that its going to be a great source of quick reference. Putting candidates who came 2nd at interview or even those who were shortlisted generally are some of the basics. Another focus that many recruiters miss when it comes to talent pools is that if you engage them in the right way, then your talent pool may become a talent community, recommending other great candidates to you because they love the information that you send, they keep up with the jobs and share that information with colleagues and friends. I heard a number of friends tell me that they are part of a talent pool for X organisation and even though they arent looking right now, they do like getting the updates about whats going on with that business. Be interesting and its amazing how much that information will be talked about! 4) Know Your Sourcing Channels: When I was a recruiter, one of the things I loved to own in my role was the source mix. It meant that from day one, when recruiting for a particular business division, that I could show what percentage of each source my hires were coming from. It helped me make decisions when building the recruitment strategy for that business group as to what our activities were going to be, what events were were going to run and which channels my best candidates were coming from. We needed to reduce recruitment costs, so how were we going to increase direct, referrals and internals? What campaigns were we going to run? It made me think outside the box for new and fun ways to engage both our external and internal talent. It also provided the opportunity for me to do a Employee Value Proposition (EVP) project for my group so that I had some great message to go out to market with and attract candidates ourselves with a compelling and real message. By knowing where candidates are coming from, it gives the recruiter more of an ownership point. This allows the conversation to be more than just process driven and can deliver a more fulfilling and interesting outcome when it comes to sourcing strategies. None of this is new information, its about driving change on an ongoing basis to create more engaged,  influential, innovative and successful recruitment teams; and the great thing is that everyone benefits in the end! Whats your great recruitment challenge when it comes to either securing or upskilling proactive and engaged recruiters and sourcers who deliver more? Let us know in the comments below.

Personal Branding Interview Darren Hardy - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Branding Interview Darren Hardy - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, I spoke to Darren Hardy, who is the visionary force behind SUCCESS magazine as its Publisher and Editorial Director. He is the author of The Compound Effect. In this interview, Darren talks about the compound effect   of success, why successful people cant be good at everything, why its important to establish a routine, and more. Why did you write The Compound Effect? And why now? Well, to be very candid Dan, I wrote it because I was ticked off. Our current society has grown up with a microwave mentality expecting success and the results on effort to be immediate. Coupled with mass commercial marketing and in its competitive zeal has exaggerated their claims of overnight success appealing to our weakness of wanting immediate gratification. We are constantly bombarded with increasingly sensational claims to get rich, get fit, get younger, get sexier… all overnight with little effort for only three easy payments of $39.95. These repetitive marketing messages have distorted our sense of what it really takes to succeed. Then those with the sincere interest in learning what it takes to be more successful continually get bamboozled, distracted, frustrated and disappointed when they don’t experience the results they are after. I was tired of watching it happen! I wrote this book to return people to the basicsâ€"the truth and the core fundamentals of what it really takes to succeed. I wanted to clear the clutter, demystify the truth and tell it straightâ€"with no fat or fluff included. I have been part of the personal-development industry for 16 years, and as the publisher of SUCCESS magazine, I’ve seen and heard it all. There are 5,000 books produced every year in the personal-development and success space. To break through the noise of that sheer volume, so many “gurus” today have resorted to sensational claims of great “secrets” or “new scientific breakthroughs” and the like. It’s marketing gimmickry, and it does more harm than good for the people who are looking for real self-improvement answers. The truth is, there are not 5,000 things one needs to do well to be successful. There are about a half-dozen things that need to be done well, 5,000 times over to be successful. This book brings clarity and focus to those half-dozen things and offers a specific and actionable plan on how to do them well. Master these fundamentals, repeat them consistently over an extended period of time, and the payoff will be extraordinary. Why do people who are successful in one area of life often fail miserably in another area? Mostly it is because people end up chasing the dreams and value systems defined by society, their peer group or their parents, instead of discovering and living in alignment to their own definition of what’s important to them in life. Having to live up to someone else’s expectations can become insatiable obsession that can cause an overemphasis in one area of life (usually financial, status, title, identity pursuits, etc) to the sacrifice of others (usually relationships, health, contribution, spirituality, etc). Identifying your true core motivation and values is essential to finding passion and life’s zest. In The Compound Effect I outline a process on how to unearth your core motivation, strengths and passions. Follow the process and you will discover some things about yourself that might surprise you! You discuss the power of establishing success routines. Talk to us about why that is important and what are some of your routines? The problem Dan is most people don’t turn knowledge or intention into action… and action that is made consistent. Some of our best intentions fail because we don’t have a system of execution. When it comes down to it, your new attitudes and behaviors must be incorporated into your monthly, weekly, and daily routines to affect any real, positive change. A routine is something you do every day without fail, so that eventually, like brushing your teeth or putting on your seatbelt, you do it without conscious thought. If you look at anything you do that’s successful, you’ll see that you’ve probably developed a routine for it. These routines ease life’s stresses by making our actions automatic and effective. To reach new goals and develop new habits, it’s necessary to create new routines to support your objectives. Let me give you a for instance, I was constantly being told I needed to stretch more. I would do it for a week or two then forget about it. It wasn’t until I inserted it into a predictable sequence of steps, ala routine, that I do every morning did it take hold. When I get out of bed the first thing I do is put on a pot of coffee. While the coffee is brewing I do a stretching routine that only lasts 8 minutes. By the time I am done the coffee is ready and I continue on with my morning routine sequence. In the book I reveal a lot more about my high-performance routines that has been responsible in helping me achieve much more in less time than many others. You talk about how significant success stems from very small changes. How does that work? Dan, you will remember from high-school physics class Newton’s First Law, also known as the Law of Inertia: Objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless acted on by an outside force. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. For most people, it’s that first step that is the hardest. To take a step, even a small one requires someone to come to a decision. The small step is taking action on that decision. One there is forward motion, even if it is small, breaks the inertia and redirects the trajectory of all steps from that point forward. Then we see one behavior change begets another. Someone decides to start jogging. They then don’t have time to hang out with co-workers after work drinking and eating fried appetizers. They join a running group and make new associations. Their energy is improved which makes them a better performer at the office and friskier with their spouse and more joyful for their kids… and the ripple effect continues to COMPOUND. If the fundamentals of success are so simple, why doesn’t everyone have the wealth, health and relationships they desire? That is the multi-million dollar question, isn’t it Dan? Well, what is easy to do is also easy not to do. The one thing successful people have in common with unsuccessful people isâ€"they both hate to do what it takes to be successful. The difference is, successful people do them anyway. The reality is the process of success is laborious, tedious, sometimes even boring. Becoming wealthy, influential, and world-class in your field is slow and arduous. As I mentioned before, Hollywood and commercial marketing will fool you into believing otherwise so it’s easy to get faked out. If one learns and focuses on the core fundamentals of success and repeats them with discipline consistently, they will eventually incite the magic of The Compound Effect to catapult them into the stratosphere of extraordinary success and get the honor of their friends, family members, colleagues and neighbors calling them “lucky.” Darren Hardy is the visionary force behind SUCCESS magazine as its Publisher and Editorial Director. As a leader in the personal development industry, Darren is a product and embodiment of the principles he teaches. Darren as an entrepreneur was earning a six-figure income by age 18, more than a million a year by 24 and by age 27 was a self-made millionaire with a company doing more than $50 million in revenue. In his latest book, The Compound Effect, Darren reveals the core principles responsible for his success and the many super-achievers he interviews in SUCCESS. To learn more go to: www.TheCompoundEffect.com

Productivity Get Up Early (or Stay Up Late) - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Productivity Get Up Early (or Stay Up Late) - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career If you want to truly succeed in life, you need to get up early! The earlier, the better! While all those other slackers are getting up at 5:30 am, youre just finishing your workout! Unless, that is, youre more of a night owl. In which case, you need to stay up late! The later, the better! While all those other wusses are crapping out at 9:00 and 10:00, youre just getting started, and have another 4 hours to go! How many productivity articles have you read that extol the virtue of one time of day or another? Ive read plenty of articles that demand I get up by at least 5:00 so I can get in a good workout (yeah, right), and then race to the office so I can get started at least an hour before everyone else does. Ive read a few (much fewer) articles about the virtues of staying up late because everyone else is in bed, and I can get a lot of uninterrupted work done. And Ive ever only read one article that says I need to follow my bodys own circadian rhythms and get up and go to sleep whenever Im most productive. Thats the one that made the most sense. The problem with these other articles is that they try to impose the authors way of doing things on everyone else, because they think that its only a matter of making a few tiny tweaks in our lives to make everything EFFING AWESOME! (I hate the over-the-top Tony Robbins-esque enthusiasm of these early morning greeters, but thats a different post.) But what authors in both camps forget is that everyone is not wired like everyone else. Not everyone is good at getting up early, and not everyone is suited for staying up late. I hate getting up at 6:00 am, and when the alarm goes off, my sleep-addled brain tries to do the math that will allow me to sleep 20 more minutes. By the time Ive figured it out, Im too awake to change it. But I know plenty of people who bound out of bed at 5:00, do a victory dance because they beat their alarm again (for the 97th day in a row), and race through their day. Personally, I hate these people, and feel a smug sense of satisfaction when I tell them that I usually go to bed three hours before they woke up. They stare at me in bewilderment, trying to wrap their heads around how and why anyone would (or could) stay up three hours longer than their usual bedtime. Do what works for you Ive always been a late night guy. Ever since college, Ive stayed up after everyone else has gone to sleep. Midnight is early for me, and I feel like Im slacking if I go to bed by 11. Conversely, there are people who are out of bed before 6 am, even if theyre on vacation. They think theyre wasting the day if theyre not up and rolling by then. But heres the thing: it doesnt really matter. As long as you dont have a job that requires you to be at your desk by 8:00, it doesnt matter when you work. The only reason we have an 8 â€" 5 work day is because of our agricultural heritage. We worked from sun up to sun down back when we were all farmers, and the bias toward the Protestant work ethic â€" the one that says youre wasting the day if youre in bed past 7:00 â€" is still with us to this day. For some people, they love it. Others think the early-morning enthusiasts are insane. With todays technology and the move toward the Results Only Work Environment (ROWE), its beginning to matter less and less when you work, and more that you got it done. The key is to find whatever works for you. Maybe youre a freelancer who does your best work after dark. If thats the case, schedule your day so most of your productive time is freed up after dinner. Stay up late, sleep in, and have breakfast at the crack of noon. Maybe you need to squeeze in a workout, and you love the feeling of beating the sun and all normal people each morning, so youre up at 4:30 am to go on a 30 mile ride before breakfast. Youve reached the age by now to know whether youre more suited for early or late work. You know whats better for you, when you get the most work done, and when your body starts/stops functioning at peak efficiency. So feel free to ignore all those articles that tell you that everyone must conform to one schedule or another. Pick what works for you, and stick with it. And if youre one of those early morning risers, let me hear from you. Just not before 8:00 am. Author: Erik Deckers is the owner of Professional Blog Service, a newspaper humor columnist, and the co-author of Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself and No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing. His third book, The Owned Media Doctrine, will be available this summer.

First step in a new job is to figure out what it is

First step in a new job is to figure out what it is Most jobs turn out to be very different than what you were told about in the interview. So your first task in your new job is to figure out what the job really is. Most people dont do this which is why there is a whole cottage industry of people who coach for the first ninety days of a job (heres a book and a web site for starters). You must realize that each new hire has political motivations. Its your job to uncover the politics behind your position so you can figure out what you should really be doing instead of relying on your official job description. A good example of this situation came up in Fortune magazine this week. Garry Betty, CEO of EarthLink said, Google only has three engineers working on Wi-Fi. [CEO] Eric Schmidt laughingly told me in a meeting that the best hires they ever did was when they hired those three Wi-Fi engineers and put out a press release. The market cap went up $10 billion. In fact it was never Googles intention to be a huge Wi-Fi provider. But Wall St. Analysts loved the idea that Google hired some top Wi-Fi engineers. By hiring three people, the stock price went up significantly. Certainly enough to justify the three salaries. So in fact, these three engineers didnt need to do anything. For these engineers to thrive at Google, they needed to understand this situation, and decide where to go from there. So before you get giddy about your new job, dont get too attached to the job you think you got. Spent the first ninety days figuring out what people really want from you but couldnt tell you in the interview. And then, instead of complaining about bait-and-switch, recognize that its part of corporate life it is, in fact, very hard to predict exactly what someone might do once they get to an office. So just do the job that needs doing. If you do it well, you should be able to finesse your position into something you like in no time at all.

What Lady Bird can teach us about student life - Debut at university

What Lady Bird can teach us about student life - Debut at university This post was written by an external contributor.  Christian Lynn discusses how the film Lady Bird can relate to university life.   It can be hard to find a piece of entertainment that truly captures the ups and downs of the student life. However, indie darling Greta Gerwig has found a gap in a cycle of films that haven’t quite got it right. Her 2017, Oscar-nominated coming-of-age movie  Lady Bird  is not only a beautiful piece of filmmaking, but a template how to represent the feelings of being a student. People tend to have a picture of an ideal life where we get full marks, have loads of friends and drink our troubles away. Lady Bird sees it differently. P.S there will be spoilers ahead! Be true to who you are Yes, we know its a cliché. Especially seeing as we often feel like we must ‘fit-in’ with certain social crowds as a student. However,  Lady Bird  demonstrates the often heart-breaking outcomes of denying who you are for sake of popularity/society. In one scene, the lead character, Christine, abandons her part in a high school play so she can appear cool and join rebellious mean girl Jenna for some afterschool mischief. She loses her closest friend, Julie, as a result. For another example, we see Christine discover her boyfriend, Danny, kissing another boy in a cubicle. Danny hides his homosexuality from just about everyone, unsure how to come out in one devastating scene. Lady Bird doesn’t give any obvious answers, but I think you get the message: there’s no joy to be found in lying to yourself. Life doesn’t make it easy to be who we really are, but the pros far outweigh the cons. If you’re stuck, then simply talk to someone. People might surprise you with their responses. Keep your friends close The best friends are the ones who truly care about you and make you happy.  Lady Bird shows Christine abandon her best friend in favour of another, far less fruitful partnership, for the sake of her social cred. Eventually, she decides enough is enough and chooses to rekindle with her friend Julie once again. Having true friends around is one of the great joys in life and really helps refocus our minds after a hard day’s graft. So, never second guess those that are loyal to you. Keep them close, as they’re an invaluable resource during stressful periods. Theyll fuel you up with the joyous energy you need to get through those terrible textbooks. Persevere with your ambitions During the film, Christine’s main end goal is to end up at a New York college. However, she is told time and time again by family, friends and tutors that she won’t succeed. Their concerns aren’t exactly far-fetched. Christine isn’t the strongest academically, but that’s beside the point. Because what Lady Bird shows us is that, despite what we’re told, we can achieve what it is that we want if we only put our minds to it. Your focus should be on getting to where you want to be, irrespective of your academic accomplishments. Everyone has a place in the world, and you’ll find yours. As we see in the conclusion to Lady Bird, against all odds, Christine ends up studying in New York. Sure, she was helped along by a little mischief here and there. But the film makes the firm point that it’s her unbreakable desire to get there that seals the deal. Three lessons, all equally important. It can be a challenge to balance your goals and life, whilst maintaining that bright spark of individuality. Yet Lady Bird is an optimistic little beacon that reminds us that it’s possible. Continue to push yourself, with a supporting line-up of friends to help power you through, and you’ll get to where you want to be. Download Debut  and  connect with us on  Facebook,  Twitter  and  LinkedIn  for more careers insights.

Envisioning Your Future

Envisioning Your Future Several years ago, I attended a very inspirational seminar.   No, it wasnt Tony Robbins.   It was Yvonne Conte, Humor Advantage.   Humor is her trademark. Heres a lead-in to the seminar I attended: Life is either one we react to or one we create for ourselves. This is a course for anyone who wants to live a more satisfying life. It is about making changes in the way we think. Changing our thinking, changes our actions and new actions produce new results. If youve just received a pink slip, if youre last kid just got married, if you are experiencing any kind of loss, if life is good but you just feel something is missing or if you have always wanted to write that novel or climb that mountain or get that promotion, but cant get started… What made her seminar such an incredible experience for me was one exercise she asked us to do.   Before heading into the exercise, however, she got us laughing.   She got us comfortable and feeling good.   (That was critical, in my estimation). Breathe Her exercise started by asking us to breathe deep and close our eyes.   (Yeah, I know, sounds a little alternative, but heck, I follow the rules) The Start of a New Day She asked us to envision that we were waking up to the perfect day.   What was the weather, what did we have for breakfast, who was with us. Where are You Going Next she asked us to think about what we would be doing for the rest of the day. I cant remember if she used the word work, somehow that doesnt seem to fit.   But you get my drift. How would we get there, how long would it take. My Day Is My Own Once we were where we would be working (keeping in mind it could have been at home) she asked us to think about What did it look like, who was there, what were the surroundings inside and outside. A Day Filled With Sunshine Hour by hour, describe the types of projects you are working on, the types of people you are working with or for, envision what you will be doing throughout a day. Tick Tock: How Time Flies When the end of the day arrives, she asked us to describe how we felt. Notice that money didnt enter into this exercise. We all absolutely know how important money is, however, it clogs the brain.   Thinking about work in terms of its monetary value is practical, yet frequently limits our ability to think outside of the box and really get in tune with our priorities and values. This exercise is short enough for you to do regularly.   Dont wait to be in job search or crisis mode.   Envision your dream and then conduct a reality check. Life is just too darn short to get stuck doing something you cant tolerate or dont enjoy.   What are you going to do about it?

Tips On Writing A Good Science Resume

Tips On Writing A Good Science ResumeWriting a good science resume is crucial if you are going to be the first applicant for the job of your choice. As soon as you are accepted, this will go down in history as the beginning of a new career. However, many people forget about their science resumes and they may even begin the process for that next big breakthrough without proper preparation. This article will give you tips on how to write a good science resume.First, it is important to clarify what you plan to do with your PhD. What kind of research are you interested in? Do you want to have your name associated with it? Are you just going to apply for research jobs or will you be the research director of a lab? Knowing the specifics of your interest will help you create an effective science resume.Second, note that you should take into account all your professional experience. All your publications, conferences, awards, honors, training courses, awards, co-authorship, etc. You will fin d that some scientists are very proud of their accomplishments. As such, do not assume your accomplishments are the same as theirs. Your resume is their resume, so the same standards apply to them as well.Last, be specific about what the scientific field of study is. The academic background is irrelevant here. Choose your career field based on the areas of study that interest you. For example, if you are more interested in the theory or area of applied physics, then choose this area of study for your science resume. Similarly, if you are more interested in biology, then choose this area of study for your science resume. For example, if you want to write a biology science resume, then highlight in your science resume all your relevant publications, grants, work with underprivileged children, etc.Finally, don't forget to emphasize the goal of your education. Do you really want to advance your career in the scientific community? Do you really want to further your education? Would you l ike to become a professor? Do you want to head a lab?Writing a good science resume will look different for each scientist. Do not focus on one particular aspect; instead, let the curriculum reflect the different aspects of your study. Perhaps your interest in applying physics applies in a different way than your interest in biology. Make sure you discuss all these aspects in your science resume.Science is an exciting field. You may be just starting out in the field, but you can still improve your odds of becoming the next big thing. Be creative with your writing and hone your presentation skills. Be ready for that new job!