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Michael Glenn – Professional Nerd Herding Blog

3rd Party Resumes and the Blind Eye Job Boards

Written By: Michael Glenn - Mar• 22•13

photo3Here is a new trend. Actually it’s an old one but it wasn’t as common then as it is now. You get all your recruiters a job board license and tell them to fetch some active candidates and they come back with nothing. Recruiting managers are baffled. How can so many recruiters not-find-a-single-resume-from-all-the-paid-job-boards? Well…that’s because all the active candidates on the job boards are 3rd party resumes. In fact, it’s so bad now these staffing companies have gone to putting up old resumes without phone numbers and a “temporary” email address.

If you’re a recruiter that has access to expensive job boards, then you know how frustrating it is to keep constantly getting 3rd party candidates and to add to the problem, if you email the candidate you are guaranteed to get on their spam list of “available candidates”.

These agencies have come up with some creative names similar sounding famous people to grab your attention. Names like Brad Putt, Tom Banks, and I even saw Tim TeHaw.

Here is my advice. Never email them. Just call them first.  If you decide to leave a message, then don’t leave your full name or your company name.

I hope that enough recruiters will complain to their account reps about this blatant bait and switch tactic. In fact, I think the future job boards will be destroyed if they don’t act quick enough. Most of your high skilled professionals are starting to avoid job boards because of all the crap they get called or emailed with. Same thing for the recruiters too, we are getting tired of all these 3rd party resumes. The job boards have recently turned a blind eye to these imposter resumes because it adds to their resume volume.  It’s a very bad path that is hard to turn back from unless something is done soon.

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The Mountain Three Wolf Moon Shirt (must have for recruiters)

Written By: Michael Glenn - Jan• 28•13

Two ways to look at recruiters. One who has the power of The Mountain Three Wolf Moon mindset and everyone else. What’s the difference between these two recruiters? Simple. One is easily able to exude confidence over the phone while wearing the The Mountain Three Wolf Moon Tee and while the others seem to stammer nervously explaining to their hiring managers they can’t find talent.

Look, if you don’t have Mountain Three Wolf Moon tee, then you need to get some confidence stupid. Maybe you don’t have a Wal-Mart near you or it’s too cold to where you live to wear a T-shirt right now. That’s ok. What you should probably do is sign up for SourceCon. You can get some recruitment training. You can learn something about sourcing candidates at SourceCon without having to always wear The Mountain Three Wolf t-shirt. SourceCon is in Atlanta. Sign up and howl at the moon. You just got  hires reading this awe inspiring blog post.

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The Ric Flair of Recruiting – Styling and Profiling

Written By: Michael Glenn - Nov• 26•12

Hey, recruiters! You know what we have become? A nation of robots! No. Wait. Actually, a nation of wimpy-ass robots! Every morning you get your marching orders for the day. You’re asked to pull people out of companies. You’re asked to source candidates from tech forums. They want you to build relationships (online mind you) with passive candidates that aren’t looking just so that one day they ever decide to leave their company, you’ll be Johnny-on-the-spot ready to roll out the red carpet. Do you do all this crap? You betcha sweet ass you do. And, you know what? This chews up a lot frickin time. A LOT of time that you probably will never get paid for and when you’re on death bed wondering where all the time went…well it actually went to trying to find someone to come work for company for the same damn salary and the same benefits. You know how hard that is? Of course you do. But your hiring managers don’t. And they don’t give a frog’s fat ass either. They just want someone that’s a rock star at Wal-Mart salaries.

Woo!

So, I want to give you some inspiration.  I want you to have some swagger. Some…some…balls! Yeah, there I said it. I want you to be the Ric Flair of Recruiting. Now, if you’re like me a kid that grew up in the 80’s then you should know this wrestler. He was full of himself. He was proud and arrogant and he was also the World Champion Wrestler. And, he tooted his horn when he won!

You need to be more like Ric Flair these days when you get a hire. Let everyone know you’re good…you’re damn good. And, you need to be proud of your work. You need to be like Ric Flair when you talk about your bidndess.

Woo! And, enjoy.

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Pictures from 2012 NYC Marathon in Central Park

Written By: Michael Glenn - Nov• 05•12

The race that never happened…happened unofficially in Central Park. Here are a lot of pictures of the runners that decided to show up for the canceled 2012 NYC Marathon

2012 NYC Marathon runners

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What Happens When Your Job is Canceled

Written By: Michael Glenn - Nov• 05•12

NYC Canceled MarathonJust as I was boarding the plane to New York, they canceled the NYC Marathon that evening. My wife had trained all year long. We thought that the race might be canceled but were very optimistic on Friday morning that the race was still on. Sometimes jobs are canceled in the 11th hour and that causes a huge let down for recruiters. What do you tell the candidates that just interviewed or the ones that were about to get an offer? How do you keep recruiters going after a big let down? Why wasn’t the job canceled long before?

There are a million reasons why jobs are canceled last minute and yet nobody catches more blame than recruiters for them. I’ve worked on jobs that were so urgent that even recruiting managers were fretting over them but in the last minute they were canceled for the lamest reasons. And to make it even worse, the jobs were reopened a month later and the hiring manager doesn’t understand why none of the interviewed candidates are still available.

Sometimes jobs are canceled last minute and there is no way to avoid them. It just happens. But when they do occur, it causes a ripple effect in recruiting. It’s better to ask a lot of questions up front to verify if the job is solid. To avoid the sketchy jobs, look for signs (i.e. waiting for approval, or weak job details) that potentially lead to cancellations.

Yeah, they canceled the ING Marathon in New York at the last minute. But we still went anyways. And recruiters will do the same, they will work it even when it’s 50/50 chance it’s canceled.  They will work a req knowing that it will probably be canceled because it’s far better to have resumes for a job than risk not having candidates at all.

On a positive note, a lot of the runners ran the race anyways in Central park. It was touching to see people out there giving it all they had. I saw a blind man being led. Teams of runners from other countries ran with their flags. Runners for their charities ran. Folks that had trained all year long ran AND without any water stations, and large masses cheering them on they ran it too. It was just a small crowd of people that kept running the race and a small group of us that cheered them along the way. That may have been the best marathon that NYC never saw, dedicated folks that kept on running even when the race was called off. They say NYC never sleeps, it never quits too.

***I’ll have some pics of the runners on another page once I get them loaded up.

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10 Steps to Build a Talent Pipeline

Written By: Michael Glenn - Oct• 19•12

Hey, recruiters! When the economy is down the people you meet typically say “Oh my God! You’re a recruiter?!” and then they ask for your help. When the economy is up, the people you meet might look at you and think, “My gawd. Another recruiter!” and then dive behind a large office planter until you leave. We have that kind of reputation. People either love us or hate us. It’s true. To make matters worse. Recruiters don’t return calls when the job economy is down and they can’t get candidates to return calls when the job demand is up.

So….

When the economy is down, recruiters need to keep making calls EVEN if when they are not hiring. It’s important to build a strong talent pipeline before things pick back up in order to increase call backs and candidate responses.

Here is a simple step by step plan to build a talent pipeline

  1. Meet with hiring manager and get all the facts on the job opening like the top 3 skills.
  2. Research similar jobs in the market to help you create an appealing job description
  3. Post the jobs to right target audience like on Linkedin groups and niche boards
  4. Automate overnight searches on the resume databases for active candidates (use tools like Infogist).
  5. Develop Boolean search strings that are saved as bookmarks or saved as an RSS feed.
  6. Use the email signatures in Outlook and save your best emails that promote your job.
  7. Keep making phone calls to candidates that haven’t returned your calls.
  8. Go into your ATS and review all the resumes and call the ones that are qualified.
  9. Search your database on a regular basis and email those candidates.
  10. Call it day, work out, eat some dinner or have a brew and decompress.

*** For those that are not recruiters, then you always need to be looking. Sorry to say that but the times have changed. This is what we’ve become. Expensive homes, food, and school are just a few reasons that people should always consider new opportunities to avoid being left behind in career and salary growth. And call us back!

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Doostang Acquires JobFox

Written By: Michael Glenn - Oct• 08•12

Job board aggregators, how to put this delicately, are rip-offs. I mentioned JobFox once because they were using my jobs without my permission to load up their resume database.  Job seekers accused JobFox of running a rip-off resume writing service too. They got hit with lawsuits. They seemed to be a revolving door sales folks and Veeps. Now they are gone but not really…they are now part of Doostang. And it appears that Doostang is just picking up where JobFox left off.

My guess is that a lot of these “job board” aggregator services will go the same path of JobFox because they will have to beef up their resume database to stay in business. They will have to create “ways” for companies to use their service too (like a resume writing service).  In my opinion, job posting aggregator providers do more harm than good to recruiters. I would encourage HR managers to spend budget dollars on a junior recruiter rather than job posting services. Indeed, we need to hire more recruiters and stop wasting HR budgets on things that just don’t work.

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How to See 3rd Level Connections on Linkedin – for FREE

Written By: Michael Glenn - Oct• 05•12

I wrote an article not too long ago about Linkedin charging for every little thing including being able to see 3rd level connections. I think this was a huge mistake for Linkedin because most of their users don’t have 500+ connections and they wouldn’t want to pay a monthly fee either. The rest of us have thousands of connections but it seems the majority of those connections are in the city where we live. Thus, we get a lot of 3rd level connections outside of our location. But, did you know you can see the full name of a 3rd level connection? It’s very easy.

  • Click on a 3rd level connection. Here is an example of a 3rd level connection. Donald lives in Austin and I live in Atlanta.
  • donald-w
  • Now take a look at the URL for Donald W.
  • donald-url-11
  • You see where it says “Out of Network”? All you have to do is remove everything after his ID.  So, click and place mouse cursor starting & symbol and highlight the rest of the URL and then just delete it.
  • You should be left the URL below. You want to make sure you delete everything after his ID.
  • donald-url-2
  • Now you just hit Enter with URL you just adjusted. The screen will refresh and then you simply click on the drop down arrow next Send Donald an InMail (see below).
  • donald-drop-dwn-menu
  • And then you just click on Export to PDF. Once you download or open Donald’s PDF you can his full name (see below).
  • click-on-export-to-pdf
  • If you want to learn more, I’ll be at the HR Star Conference in Atlanta on October 11th and will be glad to show a lot of these little tricks.
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How to Become a True IT Recruiter – To Herd the Nerd You Must be the Nerd

Written By: Michael Glenn - Oct• 04•12

I was part of an undercover IT recruiting task force back in the late 90’s. My job was to infiltrate a .NET user Meetup. Get to know them, befriend them and eventually recruit them. But then, something went terribly wrong that night. It was trivia night at a pizza parlor. And, I had zero knowledge of current Sci-fi TV shows, video gaming, Fantasy books, programming or anything nerdy. So when a Battlestar Galactica question came up (It was supposed to be easy), it did me in. I was exposed. They found out I was a recruiter! Most IT professionals do not like to mix with recruiters outside of an interview room much less pizza trivia night.

So, I will share the steps you need to take to become a geeky-nerdy IT Recruiter so you can go hang out with IT folks after a meetup.

MOVIES: Rent Stargate, Firefly and X-files. These TV shows will build a good foundation and be your starting point.
GAMES: Start off with Sim City and then tackle hardcore stuff like World of Warcraft but by the hammer of the Thor, do not, I repeat do not jump into Dungeons and Dragons first.
READ: Lord of the Rings. It’s is your bible. Study it and learn it.

At this point you should notice some physical changes in your body. Lack of sun and exercise should be evident as well as some alienation among your social circles.

SPACE: Carl Sagan, refer to him at least once a week.
GRAHPS and CHARTS: Create pie charts of real obscure things like caffeine content on various sodas.
WARDROBE: Shoes choices are Converse for play and Rockport for dress. Sorry ladies absolutely no heels. T-shirts must be worn 24/7.
GADGETS: The more the better! Having an iPhone is ok, but you better off using Android.

This is where you might want to drop out. Just hang in there. But, at this stage you should be completely isolated, pasty white and prefer nocturnal activities.

BUILD: You can either opt for some figurines like lead Dragons to paint or you can go real nerdy and build a Lego icon of Homer Simpson.

At this point, you’re out of the dating scene

ACTIVITIES: Nothing screams geek like a Renaissance festival and Sci-fi convention. Go full costume and stay in character the entire time.

If you are married – you will need a marriage counselor. No. Scratch that. You will need a divorce attorney on your speed dial.

DOCUMENTATION. You must document everything in Pictures and geo-tag them.

So there you have it. With these 10 steps you should be on the road to success. Without them you have zero Greek Cred and will be forced to rely on job postings as your only recruiting source.

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Nimble is a Great Tool for Recruiters

Written By: Michael Glenn - Oct• 04•12

I look back a year ago and my recommendations for recruiting tools seems like hit or miss. But, as we move more into mobile platforms and integrating mobile OS with social media sites, it makes sense to have a CRM on your mobile device. You got to be nimble these days and speaking of Nimble.com, this is a great tool for recruiters. I think it’s going to be a hit!

You can sign-up with a Google Business Account and grab the App there. Or, you can also just sign-up on the website. This amazing tool pulls in all the people you are connected with on Social Media Networking sites. You put one contact in the Nimble CRM and it will pull all the other social media feeds about that contact into the tool.

It’s a great tool for those that are Account Managers in staffing agencies. They can stalk all their client contacts and potential clients too. The tool pulls in phone numbers, email addresses, and even home address so you can even mail them a Christmas card and cheese basket.

Check out Nimble

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4 Reasons Why You Should Stop Using Job Aggregators

Written By: Michael Glenn - Oct• 02•12

You know how it is: You’ve got tons of job reqs, angry hiring managers, and a boss that constantly wants updates on critical openings. You had coffee this morning. You worked through lunch, and you’re multi-tasking between sourcing resumes and calling candidates. You’re in a groove. The last thing you want to do is bail on your sourcing routine to review applicants that applied online. You know almost all of them are going to be unqualified. What you OUGHT to do is pull your job postings from job aggregators like Indeed.com

That’s right! Cut the feed to job aggregators like Indeed.com because it is a huge waste of time and here’s why.

Companies use job distribution software and shotgun blast their jobs all over the web. Indeed picks up job those job feeds. For example, run a keyword skill for a Project Manager in Chicago. You can get a hundred PM jobs. They all look the same. It’s laughable to think if recruiters post jobs everywhere that qualified candidates will apply in droves.

Currently, job seekers are shying away from Indeed.com because they know it’s a “black hole”. And, the amount of time it takes for a candidate to apply to couple of jobs, can take hours. It’s a waste of their time. You already know that all job seekers use Linkedin and then they use major job boards (like Monster) as soon as they get a whiff of pink slips.

Corporate recruiters don’t have time to disposition unqualified candidates off job reqs but they are required to do it. Recruiters are managing 20 to 30 reqs at a time! And, if 2 or 3 unqualified applicants apply to each job req, that could be 90 unqualified candidates. So, the amount of time it takes to review resumes from places like Indeed.com….just cut the feed, and cut the crap. Plain and simple!

Agency recruiters have more opportunities to build relationships with passive candidates because most corporate recruiters don’t have the time to do it. Successful agencies tap into talent communities rather than weed through unqualified candidates that trickle in from job aggregators like Indeed. Time is of the essence. Time is money. If it takes too much time, then money is lost. Thus, if it takes more time to weed through Indeed.com resumes than tapping into the database, then commissions vanish.

So, remove the obstacles. Stop blasting your job out there like a Spam. It’s time to stop wasting time and money. Build a strategy that works and stop crossing your fingers…hoping…praying that someone with all the right stuff will pick your job out hundreds. They won’t. They never will.

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Taleo is the Best Applicant Tracking System

Written By: Michael Glenn - Sep• 28•12

I’ve got about 15 years worth of Applicant Tracking System (ATS) knowledge and experience. Truth is. Taleo is the best. There is a reason why Oracle purchased Taleo for a Bagrillion dollars.  I have demoed almost every one of them. All of them, except Taleo, do a poor job reporting. They all brag about cutting edge features like job distribution modules and social media capabilities, but they don’t always live up to the hype. Plus, keep in mind every ATS provider have Salesmen that will hound you into using their product or stand-alone module. These same sales guys go around pushing job distribution packages and brag about the number of quality hires that come from job postings. Don’t be fooled by them EVEN if they provide “research and analysis” around the quality of external hires through job postings. They just want you to buy their product and once you’re invest in their ATS your resumes will be “locked up” forever. Sure they say you can always port your resumes to another ATS if you decide to leave but they won’t do it for you and they make it nearly impossible for you to port your resumes (in other words you are screwed).

For companies that have 10 or more employees go with Taleo. You won’t be disappointed. They have great customer service and more tracking features than the “other” ATS out there.

And if you would like to learn more about my experience with Taleo or even some of the “other” ATS out there, I will be glad to give you my Pros and Cons for all them. But for now Taleo is the top dog when it comes to Enterprise level Applicant Tracking System.

Happy Friday!

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How Recruiters Can Use their iPad at Work

Written By: Michael Glenn - Sep• 27•12

Come on admit it. The first time you got your iPad you took it everywhere with you. You toted it to your kid’s baseball game (yawn), into restaurants, the beach, Disney World, and yes even in the bathroom. Admit it, you did. But, did you ever whip out the iPad at the office and actually use it for work purposes? My guess is that you have threshold of nerdiness and using a iPad instead of your laptop might get you labeled as the office goober, but all that is about to change my recruiting brethren. Yes! I implore you to take your tablet to work and use it instead of your laptop!

Here is how you can get your geek on using your iPad at work.

You’ll need to plop down $9.95/month for GoToMyPC on your work computer or home computer. The GoToMyPc app for iPad is free. Once you install the software on your computer and load the app on your iPad, you are now in control…anywhere and everywhere you want to be you can access your computer!

Next, load up on the proper office apps. Start out using Apple’s own Pages, Numbers and Keynote if you want to work off an iMac or MacBook. Let me say, using Mac apps is good idea because they are integrated into iCloud and are automatically synced. Otherwise Quickoffice Pro is an excellent iPad app and you can always use Dropbox, Evernote or even Google Docs/Drive to stay synced with your computer.

Now, why would you want to use your iPad instead of your laptop or computer?

An iPad is cheaper than a laptop or computer. You are ultra portable with an iPad so you can be in a conference and actually pull up reports on your iPad or even run a search on resumes from a client meeting.

Plus, as we move more to Cloud based systems, it makes sense to work from an iPad which is simply a screen to all your files and applications that is securely stored on a server. Finally, you are a recruiter and recruiters are just nerdy and what better way to show the office your nerdy ways…AND will never be outdone by stuffy HR managers that just got on Facebook!

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Indeed to be Acquired by Recruit

Written By: Michael Glenn - Sep• 25•12

salary-secretsRemember Indeed.com? You know that job aggregator that found huge success by riding on the backs of all the big job boards like Monster and Careerbuilder. Indeed was a great resource for recruiters too. We knew that we could push our jobs out to the paid boards and free boards and Indeed would surely pick up our postings. Jobseekers loved Indeed too because they had one stop shop to search for jobs.
Then one day, Indeed became a resume databank and access to resumes were FREE! But only for a short while were they free and as soon as it became a paid service, Indeed was on the path for #failure. And failed it did.

I was a big fan of Indeed. I thought it provided a great service to jobseekers and recruiters. Unfortunately, their pricing pay per click model is no where near what I think is fair. Essentially, they are charging expensive job board prices for what was already a saturated market. And, with tons-o-free niche job boards that give recruiters the ability to reach specific people, most of the job boards are struggling to keep current customers.

Now that Indeed.com has been sold to an internet Japanese firm, let me tell you…honestly…as an Indeed former user, they had to sale the website. The ROI was never there. NEVER. Sorry to say, but smart recruiting managers track where job postings work. Indeed.com is not even a blip on the radar when it comes to hires.

However, jobseekers did apply to open jobs through Indeed. If, loading up your company ATS with resumes is all you care about then Indeed does an average job, but not for hires. Nope. Nada and you are wasting recruiter’s time by making them sift through unqualified resumes.

Today, savvy recruiters know how to navigate social media websites to post jobs to the right audience. Some recruiters still rely on the post and pray method. That’s ok. But, the need for expensive multiple job boards is coming to an end.

I’m still a big fan of Monster and Dice. I think they are still expensive but I have found some success with them. I think they are very valuable and still very much needed in sourcing talent. I can’t say the same of Indeed because the ROI is just not there. I think they saw dollar signs when they launched their resume database and now they see dollar signs on selling “the #1 job site” during this period. Yeah, bye-bye Indeed.com and thanks for playing.  Indeed is not the #1 job board for recruiters (anymore) and recruiting budgets….not even second, or third.

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mRecruitingcamp: The Greatest Recruiting Conference You Will Ever Attend

Written By: Michael Glenn - Sep• 07•12

Y’all better redneckerize! I’m from the South. I live in Atlanta and everyday it’s fresh roadkill, guns, Bibles, SEC football, Tattoos, and cold PBR. At some point, in whatever profession you’re in you will come to Atlanta. Everyone does. It’s the hub of the South. Right now is the perfect time to come to Atlanta if you are a Recruiter. It’s called mRecruitingcamp and it’s the only largest mobile conference for recruiters in the world and it’s right here in Atlanta.

Maybe you’re a noobie recruiter, maybe you’re the clueless HR manager, maybe you’re the crusty old Staffing manager with a short leg and extremely bad halitosis or the struggling job board salesman with a comb-over…whatever!…whoever you are you need to get your buttocks down here in Atlanta for the mRecruitingcamp on September 14th and here is why.

Laptops are expensive, very expensive and everyone expects a laptop too, even the building janitors! Plus you have to load tons of software on them. Today, we have iPads. They are a fraction of what one laptop can cost.

Now is the time to replace all laptops with iPads or tablets. I like the iPad but I hear Microsoft’s new tablet is very good and of course you have Android based tablets that are really taking over. Whatever you choose, it’s time to fit your recruiter with a tablet.

Plus, we have Apps that can handle Word Docs and Excel spreadsheets. Check out QuickofficeOffice2, and Documents to Go. All three of these Apps can handle Word documents and be used to create Word documents too. Typical cost is less than 20 bucks for these Apps.

Some recruiters meet with candidates, or meet hiring managers. When they are away from the phone, they are away from getting a candidate screened for a job. Not anymore with Mobile Apps! I can be on my iPhone using Lync (Microsoft App) to take a call when I’m not at my desk. How does it work? You simply configure your direct office line within Lync and now all your calls will come through Lync. You activate your Lync App on your iPhone and you will never miss a call again! Sshhhhhh, I can hear all the Staffing Managers screaming for their recruiters to download Lync to their iPhone right now while they are lunch…ooops sorry recruiters, guess you have zero excuses for not talking to that candidate anymore.

I am not a Speaker for this years mRecruitingcamp, but I can promise you there are tons of cutting edge, mind blowing, nerdy, techy, mobile recruiting solutions being presented. So, I leave with you this thought. If you are a recruiter, now is the time to move over to the nimble, efficient, and affordable mobile platform and leave the bulky computers, phone lines, and pokey recruiting software. See you at mRecruitingCamp.

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How to Close the Candidate: What a Recruiter Needs to Do

Written By: Michael Glenn - Aug• 29•12

Here’s what my kids say on every road trip, “Are we there yet?” just as we get about 2 miles down the road. Then ask again about every 20 minutes. By the last hour they are screaming “Are we there yet?!” I think this is hereditary. We actually have a “Are we there yet” gene that we pass down to our kids. As a recruiter, sometimes I feel like this with my candidates. Only it’s me asking them, “Have you thought about our offer yet?”

When I have to follow up with candidates about an offer, I know it’s going to be tough to close them. But, if my candidate calls me asking about next steps for an offer, then I know I’ve got a hire.

Three things you need to tell your candidate upfront in order to close the candidate. Tell them what exactly the company is like, the role, and the salary. Yes, tell them what the job pays or you’ll just waste everyone’s time.  If the candidate is not interested after hearing about the company, job, and salary, then you will never be able to close them. You will never be able to close them even if you have a pool table, free snacks, and free health insurance.

So, the secret of closing the candidate is actually closing them on the opportunity before they even interview. Most recruiters just rush candidates into the process and hope they will be given an offer with a little help from others. That never happens. In fact, HR and hiring managers will do their best to run off candidates. If you are a corporate recruiter, you really know this is true. How many of your candidates withdrew during the interview process? Unfortunately, the recruiter gets blamed every time.

Of course, there is an art to closing the candidate but it always boil down to their interest in the opportunity after you given them the simple facts. I’ve got hundred closing techniques, and a thousand ways to sale the candidate on an opportunity but it always boils down to job, money and company. Close them on those three things first, and you got a shot at getting them hired.

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Why Did IBM Purchase Kenexa?

Written By: Michael Glenn - Aug• 27•12

IBM’s purchase of Kenexa is a bad move on their part. Let me start by admitting that I haven’t used Kenexa BrassRing in the last few years; however, when I had to use it was awful, unbearable, dreadful or another way of putting it…ho-rren-dous! I truly think IBM doesn’t really care if Kenexa BrassRing is horrible product and here is why…….

For IBM, this buyout isn’t really about the technology that BrassRing used (in my opinion archaic). No, it is about the fact almost ALL HR decision makers are inept when it comes to recruiting software. Large HR departments have budgeted for enterprise payroll, self-service employee benefit portals and large scale Applicant Tracking Systems. And for IBM, it doesn’t matter if BrassRing is a superior ATS…it just matters if they have a huge client base.

Do you really think a billion dollar ATS is going to get cheaper? This is an eye opener for recruiting managers with budgets and just how dangerous is putting all your eggs into one giant ATS basket? Well…..recruiting budgets factor in the cost of an ATS in the cost per hire.

IBM is just trying to keep up with Oracle and SAP (can you say keeping up with the Joneses?), and that is why they paid a billion bucks for an ATS.

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10 Clever Steps For That Hiring Freeze

Written By: Michael Glenn - Aug• 23•12

glennlist_auburn2I’ve been to football tailgate parties when the beer ran out and guys wander off looking for more brew leaving girlfriends, wives, kids, and smoldering grills in hot packed parking lots. It’s not a pretty scene when we…(cough) I mean they return. Sure, we guys constantly do stupid things. Throw in beer and football and we can hardly complete a full sentence. It’s true. Guys, next time you are at a game look at the ladies. Women are communicating. They’re organized too. They brought food, plates, napkins, water, chairs and blankets. They ask for directions. They can have multiple conversations going on and probably read a book at the same time while we clumsily do chest bumps trying not to drop a cheeseburger. In fact, I’m having a tough time writing this because I keep scratching various body parts.

A slow down in hiring is like an empty beer cooler during half time. And, a lot of recruiters “wander” off. It’s hard to stay focused. Recruiters are usually ill-prepared for a hiring freeze because they are not organized. Recruiters stop communicating with hiring managers, recruiting managers and candidates. And when the communication breaks down, the machine breaks down and that’s why recruiters look lazy and stupid.

Recruiters, remember 2009? Did you look stupid because you couldn’t recruit solid Java developers when there was a lot of unemployment? Did you feel lazy for not calling referrals? You look like an idle dweeb when you don’t return a candidate’s call and a dimwit when you call them back but they already took another offer. It’s easy to get lazy and make stupid decisions during a hiring freeze.

Avoid looking like a moron during the slowdowns or layoffs. It’s time to for some recruiting strategery. Here is a good sourcing strategy to do when suddenly hit with a hiring freeze.

  1. Don’t get territorial…meaning don’t try to hog candidates and job reqs.
  2. Pool all the jobs together.
  3. Assign some recruiters to be pure researchers that just pull in resumes for current openings.
  4. Everyone gets credit for a hire that chipped in. EVERYONE!
  5. Set up a weekly meeting to present new sourcing and recruiting tools and have a recruiter present something they learned new.
  6. Create a weekly pipeline report that shows the names of candidates that have been recently captured or pre-screened that are ready to go.
  7. Clean out all the duplicate resumes in your database or ATS.
  8. Meet with the hiring managers weekly so prepare for upcoming hiring demand.
  9. Demo a LOT of recruiting tools, ATS, and sites.
  10. Close out candidates that have been sitting in the same status (reject).

If you got a sourcing strategy for that nasty hiring freeze or looming layoffs, you can saunter into the break room for that later afternoon Stickybun and diet soda feeling good about yourself. You got a plan in place. You may not be hiring, but you are freaking busy and that is being clever my friends.

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Taleo vs Recruiters: A Managers Dilemma

Written By: Michael Glenn - Aug• 10•12

You got a team of recruiters and by gosh they need an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). So, you do what every HR manager or recruiting manager has done; you purchase Taleo the most expensive, complex and overrated corporate ATS. But hey, what do you care! You’ll have it on your resume that you implemented a large scale enterprise level recruiting ATS. And once you have done it, signed on, login Taleo, and your recruiters begin training, the following will likely occur:

  1. Loss of production
  2. Working overtime
  3. Stress
  4. Loss of hair
  5. Wrinkles
  6. High salaried data entry monkeys
  7. Stressed out
  8. Burned out
  9. Divorced, single or lonely and anger management therapy!!
  10. Pudgy from having to eat at the desk loading resumes (and grumbling)
  11. And eventually fired, unemployed and enrolled into SNAP, Medicaid, or Obamacare…

I know what Taleo can do and what recruiting managers try to make it do. Taleo is perfect for the HR department. It shows where the candidate is in the interview process. And, that’s about it. It’s really good for tracking candidates as they become either a hire or reject.

What Taleo is NOT good for is Sourcing and Recruiting. Here is why.

Taleo is not and never will be a CRM. That is what recruiters really need. We need a super duper database that has notes upon notes on all the candidates we’ve seen, touched, tasted, hired, fired and everything in between. Taleo is a colossal failure when used as a CRM because it has the worst search capabilities.  Recruiters are always searching resumes and Taleo is not good when it comes to finding those rock stars you put in there  a year ago.

Entering a plethora of info just to load a resume causes a sharp decline in recruiter productivity.  If takes a recruiter 15 minutes to load a candidate into a job req, then you can almost guarantee 90+ day old job reqs. Taleo needs to improve in this area.

Taleo is buggy. It won’t display everything correctly. It often crashes giving you an error message and forcing you to log back in. I believe it is unstable because it uses Flash and ActionScripts to display information.

But, here is the biggest reason why it’s not good for sourcing and recruiting.  More often Taleo set up in such a way that it is very time consuming for applicants to input their information and resume. In most cases, applicants just give up. Too much entering personal information and they just leave; thus, creating an incomplete profile. And can you blame them? Almost every applicant knows they are sending their resume into a black hole and will never get a call.

I have a love and hate relationship with Taleo. It’s very good at tracking an applicant, but it is horrible when I need to source candidates.

Managers, what you would rather have your recruiters do? Input data candidate in Taleo or searching and finding candidates?

So, my final message to all recruiting managers is to take your time in reviewing an ATS. If you’re going to invest in a quality CRM, then Taelo is a great ATS. If all you need is an ATS, then keep it simple so recruiters can recruit and applicants can easily apply.

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7 Steps On How Facebook Can Setup A Job Board

Written By: Michael Glenn - Jul• 20•12

Are you really going to watch the entire Olympics? I mean, Badminton! Come on, seriously. Half the events like Artistic Gymnastics won’t even get air time unless an American wins the Gold. Everyone is all jazzed up about the Olympics but we only care about a handful of events. The Facebook Job Board announcement created some buzz but nobody really gave frog’s fat ass.

The problem…

Facebook contains some wicked info about you, bro. You know, like that nostalgic photo of you and that nasty mullet back in 1986 when you’re team won AAA State Soccer Championship. If you like the Grateful Dead you might fail a drug test. Someone uploads you passed out at that football game…Facebook can get you fired. Forget about getting hired! And, you know got some some “sexy and I know it” pics of you that just ain’t ever gonna jive with an HR department so uptight that last years Christmas party was as fun as…Badminton.

So here is the deal. If Facebook wants a Job Board, then it’s gonna have to keep it separated and implement a method that will land you a job and not a pink slip. Here are my suggestions.

  1. Allow people to upload a resume.
  2. Have a skills section.
  3. All resumes and skills are kept private and that MEANS not even friends can access it. Why? Because you probably have your boss as a FB friend.
  4. Companies post jobs on their FB pages.
  5. Companies will enable a special APP that allows their jobs to broadcast to FB users with the Skills they have listed.
  6. If FB user wants to apply to a job, he downloads an APP that will allow him/her to send a resume directly to the owner of the job link.
  7. Companies never have access to a job seekers FB profile unless that user is dumb enough to keep everything public.

I hope that Facebook doesn’t rely on job aggregator feeds. Nobody is going to care. They would rather watch US Olympic Badminton team.

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