Recently I had the opportunity to review the book 101 Strategies for Recruiting Success by Christopher Pritchard for the SHRM Store. As an HR Generalist for a small company, recruiting is one of those activities that I do occasionally but not often enough to really be creative. I learned some great ideas from the book that I’m looking forward to testing out, and I’d like to share seven of them.

1. Develop a process map (pg 26)-Recently we took a few hours to map out our new hire process to help the operations team have input into how they would like to be notified and to make sure we are completing all necessary tasks associated with a new hire. One of our ninja admins developed a high-level flow chart and a set of checklists designed for accounting, HR, security, and administrative tasks. Having this in place ensures that the team is on the same page.
2. Do a customer satisfaction survey (pg 34)-Wouldn’t you like to know if you are doing well or not? I would! The author suggests using a very simple, two question survey sent to hiring managers (or you can be really open and honest and send it to candidates as well!), including the following questions: Are you A) very satisfied, B) somewhat satisfied, or C) dissatisfied with the recruiting process? What would you improve?
3. Provide status updates to candidates, managers, and up the chain (pg 35)-I know that we often hear about candidates needing updates on the status of the process, but it’s even more important to make sure hiring managers know the status of the hiring process, too. I work with remote leaders and try to update them once every day or two on any pertinent updates to their candidates. Keep everyone in the loop that needs to be!
4. Use metrics to gauge performance (pg 38)-We use metrics for other activities, so why not for recruiting? I’m not a fan of the normal “time to fill” metric, because it can be misleading and difficult to calculate if there are a lot of starts and stops in the process due to managerial needs. The book mentioned a “submission to hire” ratio that I did like. Basically you look at how many candidates it takes to get a hire (10 to 1, for instance). Then try to work on narrowing that gap to 5 to 1 to save time and resources.
5. Reach out to alumni (pg 57)-Assuming the people left in good standing, they could be fantastic resources for referrals or other information. We have two people who left but were thrilled with the experience they had with us. They just wanted to do more of what they love, and we couldn’t offer that at this time. Just because they are gone doesn’t mean they won’t help if asked sincerely.
6. Utilize military outplacement programs (pg 67)-We often hear the statistics, but the truth needs to be said. The unemployment rate for veterans is higher than the national average. What are we going to do about it? Well, we’re going to look into programs like Operation Impact and work with organizations (local and national) such as Still Serving Veterans to try and find qualified candidates to fill our positions. If they can lead a group of men and women into battle to protect our freedoms, don’t you think they are worth your time to consider for a position?
7. Pre-close candidates (pg 120)-I’m a big fan of this one. It’s all about preparing candidates by getting them excited about the position, manager, and company. If they are emotionally invested, then there is a good chance they will take the interviews seriously and do their best to get the job. I’d rather have 3 great candidates fighting for a position than 3 so-so candidates who we wouldn’t want to hire anyway.

There was one “bonus” idea that made me stop and think. Utilize internal promotions when possible. I’ve pushed for it in my own organization, but sometimes it slips your mind when a hiring manager reaches out to open a requisition for a new position. In my mind, it’s usually easier to promote from within and recruit for the lower level/less experienced position than it is to find someone from outside who is unfamiliar with the organization yet capable of filling the role.

Again, here’s the link to the book. If you’re one of those generalists who does recruiting on the side, or if you are new to recruiting and looking to fill your toolbox with ideas to try out, I think 101 Strategies for Recruiting Success is a great book for you.

Do you practice any of these at your own company? Which have you had success with?

Today I spent some time talking with Bryan Wempen about small business hiring and how to recruit in a high-touch, intimate way on the DriveThruHR radio show. Recruiting for a small business lets you do some things that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to in a larger company, and it’s a great look into what makes the hiring process tick in a smaller organization. Click the link below to listen to the show.

Think  this social recruiting thing is a fad? 80% of employers are using it in some form or fashion to find talent, so that theory doesn’t fly. Check out the video below for more observations from the new Jobvite report on the state of social recruiting.

Email subscribers need to click through to view the video.

• My post on last year’s survey-70% of employers perform social search on candidates
• The 2011 survey results (PDF)

My recruiting duties ebb and flow in my days as an HR generalist, but there always seems to be a new lesson to learn with every candidate I come in contact with. Working in a small HR department means that I get to learn by doing more often than not, so here are four things I wish I had known about recruiting when I started…

1. It never hurts to ask. There have been times when I’ve been hesitant to make an offer to someone because I feel like they would consider it too low. However, I have to remind myself that we never know just what is going on in someone’s life at any given time. Maybe they are fine with making less in exchange for setting their own work schedule. Maybe getting away from a toxic coworker, manager, or workplace is worth a pay cut. Whatever the case, it never hurts to ask; the worst they can do is turn down the offer, but at least then you won’t continuously wonder if you should have offered or not!
2. Minor details in your mind are major details for others (and vice versa). I worked with a guy recently and part of his package would include travel expenses. I skipped right over some of the routine boilerplate information in an attempt to cover the travel portion in detail, and the candidate freaked out because he thought I had forgotten a part of his previously negotiated offer. I realized that while organizing all of the travel details was a large issue in my mind, it was just a small portion of the big change that the candidate was facing if he accepted the offer to work with us. Find out what their concerns are and address them early to put them at ease through the rest of the process (do this step in conjunction with number four below and you’ll be on the top of your game!).
3. Communicate culture every step of the way without fail. I’m a culture nut, but this one has come in handy so many times. I actually wrote a post on how to define corporate culture to make better hires, and I’ll let that speak for itself. Take every opportunity to share how things work within your organization. It will appeal to some people and turn others away, but it will help to ensure that the candidates who finish the process are a good fit for the culture.
4. Attention and sincerity lead to trust. Last week I had a rush deal that took a lot of effort on the part of our entire leadership team. Because I had approximately 48 hours to make contact, deliver the offer, and process the candidate before he left the country, I made sure to give him my undivided attention every time we talked via phone. And during those conversations, I was open, honest, and sincere with every discussion (I had to answer, “I don’t have that answer, but I can get it for you” more times than I can count). At one point we were laughing about a part of the process, and the candidate mentioned that after dealing with me he trusted me to do the right thing for him. That floored me, because while it was true and I was working to pave the way for his successful start, just hearing him put that faith in me was astounding. Having that trust helped soothe potential frustrations and roadblocks on the high pressure, quick turnaround hire. It also put him at ease, knowing he was in good hands and would be taken care with every resource we could muster.

No, I’m not talking about recruiting your family members! I’m talking about going the extra mile and working to make the candidate’s family members more comfortable with the new company and job.

I had a great experience a few days back when I brought in a new candidate and got to spend some time talking with his wife about the company and position. I wrote about it over on RocketHR today. Click through to read Recruiting Your Candidate’s Family.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been bombarded at work lately (hence the low number of posts!). Some of that busyness is driven by projects I’m working on (recruiting, baby!). Other parts of it are self-imposed, because once I have an idea I have a hard time letting it go. The good part for you, though, is that you get to enjoy the fruits of that labor and investigation! Here are the three free HR and recruiting tools I’ve been playing with lately.

SmartRecruiters

This is a free ATS (Applicant Tracking System) that I use for recruiting where I work. While it’s not as robust as a paid service, it has some amazing features. Plus, it completely blows away our old way of doing recruiting. Opening up an HTML editor, coding a job ad by hand, and posting it on our own website. Then applicants had to email their resumes if they were interested.

Ugh.

Now I post a job in my SmartRecruiters menu, automatically share that across free job boards like Indeed.com (one of the largest job aggregators around), and get notifications when people apply. Then I log into the system and do a quick screen before sharing it with the hiring manager for review. Very simple and such a relief for an HR/recruiting department of one person!

Fun @ Work from Baudville

This is a (free) handy PDF guide with 52 ways to have fun at work included. I am always looking for new ideas to keep lines of communication open across the organization, and I have really dug into this guide to find some ideas lately. With all of the stress of work and life that employees are dealing with these days, why not help them have some fun @ work?

Zappos Culture Book

If you’ve heard of Zappos, you know that they have a legendary corporate culture. It’s unique, and it’s a differentiator for them. Employees love being there. Customers love shopping there. It’s really an amazing phenomenon. Well, in my relentless pursuit of corporate culture development, I ran across the Zappos Insights website where you can order a free Culture Book! If you sign up for one, you’ll receive it in about a week. I just got mine and have already started seeking out ideas.

And that’s how I’ve been spending a portion of my time lately! Anyone else have any neat, free tools that they use as HR or recruiting professionals? 

Define corporate culture… is part one of a series on culture. It’s one of the reasons I love where I work (and we have almost 100% retention over the life of the company). I’m hoping to shed some light on my philosophies when it comes to culture and its role in the workplace.

One of the quotable quotes from HRevolution this year was in response to someone asking what HR does to create culture. I think the role for HR is not to create it, but to communicate and reinforce it at every possible opportunity. At least that’s what I do on a daily basis. I see every opportunity to interact, whether internally or externally, as a way to share what makes us different. Some people like what makes us different and some people don’t, but that’s another post for another day.

A few areas to communicate your unique culture (just in the areas of recruiting and selection): Continue Reading »