As many of you know, my background is in staffing and recruiting.  I still love the thrill of a new job order/requisition and thinking about how to fill it.  What networking opportunities can I leverage? Where is the best place to post? Could the perfect candidate be in my own database?  I’m sure these are some of the same thoughts that go through your head each time, you start working a new order.  Many times I’ve thought about asking the flight attendant to announce a job opportunity in a particular place I was flying to or coming back to.  Nothing is out of the question!

I was recently with a recruiter that showed an incredible knack for capturing talent right off the street!  Needless to say I was in awe, and inspired  to share the experience with all of you.

After a business lunch a group of us were walking back to the office.  It was a drizzly winter day, making us walk a little faster to stay as dry as possible.  As we approached the entrance of the building a well-dressed gentleman asked for directions to a business.  My first thought was to duck inside the door to keep my hair from going completely flat.   I was not familiar with this particular business, but my lunch companion was.  He knew it to be one of their customers, and knew that someone interested in finding them must have some kind of experience in development.  Instead of simply giving the directions he told them they were a client and he had their address in his office and invited him in.  During the walk he asked about his work finding out he didn’t have an appointment, but wanted to drop off his resume in hopes of an interview My companion asked him about his specific skills and what he was interested in doing.  He took the time to find out about this person, making him feel important and possibly interesting him in working with his firm..  He quickly told him of a couple other clients he worked with that looked for similar skill sets.  You could see the excitement on the gentleman’s face; he felt that is was his lucky day he stumbled upon us!  The address of the business was still provided, but a resume was also acquired.

I have not followed up since to find out the end of the story, but the beginning was plenty for me!  What is your team doing to recruit top talent?  Are they willing to literally walk up  to people on the street?  Although the crunch for talent isn’t as tight as it was a few years ago, it’s still tough to find those great candidates!

Next time I’m asking the flight attendant to announce my job opening.. at least I know I have tried!  Do you have a great recruiting story?  We would love to hear it.

Well that might be a little bit of an overreaction since they do have some use like leaving funny notes for your co-workers.  They are pretty good for brainstorming new ideas too.  However, they have lost their place at the table when it comes to tracking job orders.

It doesn’t surprise or even amaze me to hear that very successful staffing and recruiting companies are still using whiteboards to monitor jobs, candidates and statuses.  What does surprise me is the inability to even think about letting it go!  A few months back I was onsite with a company and spotted the whiteboard.  I had to fight the urge to walk over and erase the board with all of its detailed information.  Each of the staffing specialists and recruiters could find the exact same information on their computer screen.  So why is it so hard to let go?

Staffing, as any other industry has processes, procedures or even tools that have worked well in the past.  If something is working why change it?  Well how about productivity and profitability?  Yes I have touted both of these in many of my ramblings, but how productive is it for you or your staff to write or change information about a job order or a candidate on a board?    And how profitable is it for you to not know exactly what is going on with each order?  Can you track time to fill or sources methods from a board?  How about the dollars lost on duplication of work?  Unless you have an amazing white board that is linked to your staffing software, the information is going nowhere.  Just because it used to work does not mean there is a better way to do something.  Companies that have the ability to quickly change and adapt to new technology are generally the ones still standing during tough times because they have learned how to do more with less.

Cons of using a whiteboard:

• Double work.  Writing it on a board and then entering it into your staffing software.
• Time for someone to write it all out. (If you are still using this method, do a time study for one week how much time is being spent writing, erasing, adding, etc.)
• Who else can see this information?  I certainly would not want my name being broadcast to everyone who walked into the office (most of the whiteboards I have seen are in plain view)
• Divulging who your job orders are for.  I’ve mentioned before that applicants are smart, if they think they can go directly to the source, they will.
• Difficult to get metrics and reports from a whiteboard.
• No audit trail.

I could go on and on with the cons of using a whiteboard, but I think you get my point.  It’s a lot of work for something that really isn’t going to offer much in return.

Pros of using a whiteboard:

• Everyone can see what orders you have, and I mean everyone.

I’m sure there are a few more pros, but I think our time will be better served talking about making the switch.

The biggest opposition that I have heard about letting go of the whiteboard is the motivation factor.  Many of the supporters state the whiteboard motivates them and it’s fun to get up and erase a job order that has been filled.  Or it’s exciting to see how many orders have come in during the day.  My response – dashboard.  With Avionté each user has counters to see new orders that have come in, new applicants or even applicants who are available today.  Want a little more information?  An integration with Qlikview offers a higher level dashboard to see in real time what is happening in each location.  Even better, reports can be generated in real time to fully understand what is going on with a specific branch or even customer.  Can your whiteboard do that?

Although I would like to see everyone who is reading this article jump up and remove their whiteboard, that simply is not going to happen.  When it comes to change management, baby steps are always best.  Talk with your staff as to why they are continuing to duplicate work.  You will then need to address their need to see a visual on the wall of this information.  Often times it is a lack of understanding of their software.  In the case of Avionté

it is very easy to see all the open job orders and who is available to fill them.  When a job order is filled, it simply drops off the list.  No need to get up and erase it (and risk getting marker on the side of your hand!)

One of the biggest hurdles will be the level of comfort.  Very few people embrace change quickly.  If they have worked in staffing for many years, this is comfortable to them.  Offer to have a push report created so each day at 4pm everyone in the branch or company receives an email with the key metrics for the day ie: new orders, new fills, resumes sent, interviews scheduled, etc.

Good luck to all in making the change! As always, I like to hear what is going on in your world.  Feel free to add a comment as to how you make the change over.

-Angela

I used to be quite particular with my staff when it came to posting jobs on the web.  Whether they posted it on our job portal or on an external site; this could very well be a first (and possibly last) impression to a prospective applicant or even customer.  Not only does it matter how the job is presented, it matters what information you are presenting.

Go ahead, take a look at your own postings and see if you spot any of the following:

One or two sentence descriptions.  I know it’s a posting for a TIG Welder and what you really want is to find someone with previous TIG experience.  However, the reader wants to know more about what it might be like to work for this particular company.  What kind of projects will they be working on, what type of benefits (other than traditional) might they expect?  Does this position have the possibility of going long term or even a direct hire?  Think about what is going to attract the right person that you want for the job.  I hear it all too often that people just “apply” to every open position.  Maybe you aren’t giving them enough to think about before applying?

Job Descriptions that are copied word for word from the client. First of all, I used to love this – on my competitors web sites.  Why?  I would simply take the first few lines, copy and put them in Google and search to see who they were recruiting for.  Next, I would call the client and see if I could work on the order.  Your professional level applicants are smart too; don’t think they aren’t trying to figure out who you are recruiting for.  We both know that an applicant would, in most cases, rather work directly with a client than go through a recruiter.  In most cases this is an applicant who is not aware of the many benefits of working with a recruiter.  In any case, try to use your own wording for the job description.

I thought about posting some samples, but then all of you would Google and see who it was, thus reveling the not so innocent.  So instead, take the time to check out your own postings.  Could they be better?  Are you attracting the right type of talent with your job postings?  What changes can you make right now?

Thank you to all that participated in the 2011 Avionté Client Connection Forum.  If you didn’t have the opportunity to attend and are thinking about joining us next year, check out what some of our attendees had to say. ?

• “To all those at Avionté who helped to make last weeks Conference so productive, oh and so FUN too, thank you so much for your efforts to make us a better Company!!” – Lynda
• “Thank you so much for inviting me to attend your Client Connection Forum.  It was wonderful to watch your clients interact and how much love and respect that they have for all of Avionté.  It was really something special to see.” – John
• “It is very refreshing  to see how interested you are in what your customers think and how important it is for you to make changes to ease the process for us.  I am certain that we have chosen a vendor that we share the same values with and that is very satisfying.  This was by far the best software session that I have ever attended.” – Annette
• “I cannot begin to express what a great job you and John and the whole crew from Avionté did this past week. It is no wonder why you have such loyal clients. Yall did an awesome job and I hope to come back next year!” – Dee
• “Another great forum.  I have quite a bit of information to bring back to the staff” – Mark
• “The Client Connection forum was put together very nicely and it presented us with opportunities to hear from others and learn more about Avionté”  prospective customer
• “The networking events were great, it was nice to hear how other users are using the Avionté”  -Katie
• “Great experience!  Thank you for all your team’s hard work in putting this forum together and providing a great experience!” -John
• “Great job, very beneficial” -James
• “Very much appreciated the one-on-one opportunities with the Avionté folks throughout the forum” – Kristen
• “It was fabulous!  Enjoyed the content, food and entertainment” -Amber
• “Your team is warm, friendly, easily approachable and very helpful” -Lauren
• “Great conference!  Really informative and should help me to implement training strategies and refine employee use!” -Sheri

I love the opportunity of visiting with other staffing professionals.  I enjoy hearing about what they are doing, how they have overcome obstacles, new lines of business they are pursuing and overall what is working for them.  In addition, I like to share my experience.  Prior to joining Avionté I spent over ten years in staffing and recruiting.  Although not an expert, I saw my far share of action and learned a lot along the way.

I had just been promoted to Assistant Manager when the company I worked for decided to start a direct hire division.  They had looked at several options, such as training internal staff to recruit for high level positions or bringing on a team that already had experience in recruiting and acquiring new orders.  This division would operate separately from the temp division, but we would share customers.

One of our customers that used us often for temporary positions contacted us about helping them fill a VP position.  This was one of the first big orders for our new direct hire division to work on.  The account manager and one of our owners went over to meet with the president and gather some information.  Upon returning to the office they shared the specs with me.  I had about one year in staffing and had mostly worked in light industrial at the time, although I had placed a couple of entry level engineers; which means that I really didn’t have much experience with this type of placement.  I scanned the information, and told them I had the perfect candidate.  My boss smiled at me, and explained that I probably didn’t completely understand what they were looking for.  I assured her that I did and I wanted to contact him and talk about the position.

At this point I should probably tell you a not so little secret about myself.  I am competitive, not just a little competitive, ultra competitive.  In high school my swim coach told me that I probably had the worst form he ever saw, but I did well because I wanted it more than anyone else in the pool.  If there is something I want, I’m relentless.  One of the greatest compliments I received while working an account was that I was a “bulldog”.

Since I knew this person well already, the initial part of the prescreen was pretty easy.  When we got to the technical portion of the interview, I was in a bit over my head.  I gathered up the information that I thought would do the best job in selling him to our client and e-mailed it to my boss.  She reviewed it, and agreed that I just might have found someone that would be a good match.  She cautioned me that most of the time clients need to see several candidates before they will even think about making an offer.     Just because that’s the way it normally happens, doesn’t mean it always happens that way.  They interviewed my candidate and made an offer within a couple of days.

There are a couple of morals to this story.  First, don’t under estimate someone who is passionate and motivated.   I figured I couldn’t lose.  We didn’t have anyone else in the pipeline, so why not take a look at my candidate?  Just because they didn’t come from one of our experienced recruiters didn’t mean they wouldn’t be a good match.

Good recruiters are simply good networkers.  Anyone can post an ad, dig through a database or ask for referrals.  Being well connected with others is what to look for in a recruiter.  It doesn’t matter if this person is filling six figure positions or entry level.  They have to know people, like people and remember people in order to be effective.  Of course you have to use all the tools available, such as the above, but having that network is the most effective.

When you find that person who shows an interest, encourage them!  After my placement I was given all sorts of tools to help hone my recruiting skills.

Who on your staff might be the next big thing in your company?  What are you currently doing to train, motivate and cultivate their talent?  You might be letting $$ slip away because you haven’t taken the opportunity to see what hidden talents your staff may possess.

Check out our FREE webinars for July.  To register simply send us an email.

Mass Mail                               July 12, 2011     10am Central

AdminTools                       July 21, 2011     10am Central

Equipment Deduction Tracking, Net to Gross, and Advance Bank

July 25, 2011     10am Central

Check out our FREE webinars for June.  To register simply send us an email.

June 7, 2011  11am Central                     Advanced Search – Digging in your database

June 23, 2011 9am Central                      Candidate Management

June 28, 2011 10am Central                   QuickPlace – How and why you should be using it

Keep watching for more FREE webinars in June

Check out our FREE webinars for May.  To register simply send us an email.

Wednesday May 11th at 11am C Using Outlook in Avointe

Learn the  differences between Exchange, POP3, and IMAP accounts. Setting up all three of these account types, and how to utilize Outlook within Avionte.

Tuesday May 17th at 11am C Deduction Setup and Transaction Types

Check out our FREE webinars for April.  To register simply send us an email.

Wednesday April 20  11am CDT – Advanced Search

Monday April 25 11am CDT – Admin Tools

Tuesday Arpil 26 11am CDT – Candidates