Zen Recruiting Wisdom

Don’t just choose the better candidate, choose the candidate that makes your company better.

Next time you’re trying to choose between two similar candidates, consider which one makes your organization more valuable.

How to Read a Resume for Culture Fit

Have you ever wondered how to read a resume to get the best understanding of the candidate’s fit for the job? What’s the most important part to focus on?

Is it the objective? Is it where you went to school? Maybe it’s your last employer?

Google’s staffing director discusses how to read a resume

It’s not any of those things. Well, not according to Todd Carlisle, Director of Staffing at Google. He believes the most important part of the resume is the bottom portion, where people normally list things like hobbies, activities, volunteer experience, etc.

Candidates\’ early work experience, hobbies, extracurricular activities or nonprofit involvement—such as painting houses to pay for college or touring with a punk rock band through Europe—often provide insight into how well an applicant would fit into the company culture.” source

I think that’s a great idea, and I’d have to agree that it could be valuable for ascertaining a person’s culture fit. Many professionals drop those kinds of information from their resume in order to fit in the valuable experience gleaned at other positions, so you could be missing plenty of them with a great history of volunteering and social activities if you’re only scanning resumes.

That’s where the next point comes in…

Stop reading resumes altogether

In the video below Jerome Ternynck, CEO of SmartRecruiters, brings an even more radical approach to the one above: get rid of resumes and use “profiles” instead. I like the idea, but I don’t know how feasible it is. Frankly, it’s easier for any company to sort through ten resumes than it is to sort through ten profiles for candidates.

And despite there being hundreds of great career resources on the web, some job seekers still have ugly resumes, poor interviewing skills, and no real career plan. Then again, that does weed the technically ignorant folks from the hiring pool (at least until they catch on). Check out the video below for more ideas on how we can get rid of resumes once and for all.

Twitter-What’s in it for Me as an HR Pro?

One of the interesting things I saw at the SHRM 2012 annual conference a few weeks back was the multitude of HR professionals visiting the SHRM Hive for social media help and advice. I don’t know that there was a final count, but dozens of HR pros set up Twitter accounts during the event. However, when I tell some people about that, they just give me a blank stare.

WIIFM? What’s In It For Me?

There are several uses for Twitter for the average in-the-trenches HR professional. Here they are in no particular order:

  • Social Recruiting-Use Twitter and other social platforms to share your jobs to a larger audience, search for candidates for openings, and connect in a low-pressure way with potential employees.
  • Networking-Connect with other HR professionals across the globe. Working on a compensation plan? Someone else has already surmounted that hurdle and can offer advice. Working on your first corrective action template? Send a message on Twitter and get some samples from others in the HR community. Just want a place to talk about the crazy things your people are doing? Go for it! The connections you make could end up leading to friendships, job offers, or something more in the future.
  • Communications-Your employees are using social networks, so why not communicate with them via those tools as well? One unique idea someone asked me about at the SHRM conference: the lady wanted to send out employee-only discounts and was looking at Twitter for that. Neat idea!
  • Employer Branding-People on the web have an opinion of your company. Is it good? Is it bad? Using social tools allows you to monitor what is being said and also gives you a platform for sharing positive, interesting information about your organization that attracts candidates to your doorstep.
  • Professional Development-This one is by far my favorite. I use Twitter as a news feed (research shows that many Twitter users use it as a news feed more than a networking tool, and that’s perfectly fine!) to help me find relevant, interesting content to help me as an HR professional. I connect with others in my industry/profession and also stay on top of new developments in employment law, engagement trends, etc.

The best part about this stuff is that you are not the first one to wonder “Is this really for me?” Hundreds of others have already asked that question, taken the leap, and never looked back. Want some help on getting set up with Twitter or another social media tool? Feel free to send me an email and I’d be happy to help.

Job Feedback-You’re Doing it Wrong

I heard a new term to describe poor job feedback recently at the SHRM 2012 Conference, and I just had to share it here.

gunnysack feedback  [guhn-ee-sak feed-bak] noun
the act of saving all of an employee’s feedback over time and delivering it all at one time during an annual performance review; see also terrible management practices and how to increase employee turnover

how to give feedback at workThis is a really bad idea for several reasons.

  • First, you are not supplying the person with positive encouragement when they accomplish something noteworthy. How will they know what they are doing right?
  • Second, you are not correcting improper behaviors right away. Do you seriously think the employee really wants to do the wrong thing for an extended period of time before you get up the nerve to tell them?

In short, it violates the biggest rule with regard to comments for performance reviews: treat the other person like you want to be treated. Stuck and not sure how to proceed? Here’s a crazy idea–ask them what they want! Let’s add gunnysack job feedback to the list of failed management ideas (like using Twitter for reviews).

Anyone witnessed a manager clinging to the belief that this type of performance management is a good one?

To the Social Media Whiz Kids at #SHRM12

dinner with friends at SHRM12

Loved having a quiet dinner with friends to unwind at SHRM. From left: John Nykolaiszyn, Jason Lauritsen, and me

I started to put “bloggers” in the title, but there are so many people from the conference who started using Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for the first time, and I wanted to include those as well. These are my thoughts on where we’ve come, where we’re going, and what everyone needs to do now. Hope you’re inspired!

The SHRM 2012 annual conference is now in the books. As usual, this event consists of few days of frenzied running to sessions, meeting with old friends, making new ones, and generally having an amazing time.

Why I go to any conference

I attend these events on two levels: first and foremost, I’m attending as an HR practitioner. I’m looking for ways I can help our operations team and company be better through smarter people practices. In that role I’m attending sessions, taking notes, and trying to meet people who might have insights in our industry.

On another level, I’m attending as a blogger. I’m trying to gather content, I’m trying to make connections, and I’m trying to find out what my audience is looking for in the way of great content (hint: sessions that are filled/overflowing would be good topics to explore in blog posts).

My hope for the social media community

Whether you’re writing a blog, participating in the fantastic HR-related chats on Twitter, or building a Facebook community, I hope that you take the connections you’ve built to another level. I’m already talking with a few people from the conference about working on some partner projects (Heather at A Leading Solution, for instance).

Why?

Because I want to learn from them. Because I want to be energized by them. Because I want to help both of our audiences be exposed to another person who is on fire for this HR thing. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll make this profession better one person at a time.

We are just like you, only we talk louder

Those of us in the blogging community aren’t any smarter than your average HR professional. We don’t even talk more than the average HR pro. We just do it louder. We channel it through the social tools to help us reach a larger audience.

When people come up to me in awe because they recognize me from my photo or blog, I just smile. I’m just a guy who likes to write and share what he’s doing right (and wrong) so people can learn a little bit. I’m no different from you, and I hope you can tell that when you’re standing there waiting for some brilliant statement to come out of my mouth, and I have nothing to say. :-)

Small victories are still victories

If you looked at the Twitterstream flowing from #SHRM12, you might have seen quite a few tweets about HR professionals visiting SHRM’s Hive area for social media advice/help. SHRM (and Curtis Midkiff, especially) did a great job of pulling in those of us passionate about using social tools in HR and leveraged our strengths and knowledge to be ambassadors for those without social media experience.

We helped set up Twitter accounts, discussed LinkedIn for recruiting purposes, and talked about using HR blogs for professional development. Each person helped was a small victory. Did we reach all 13,000 attendees? No way. But if we reached even 500 people (which isn’t an outrageous number based on the traffic we had each day), then that’s a win in my book.

Keep up the momentum

I had several conversations during the event about how people “like us” have been using social media extensively for the past 3+ years. At times, it seems like the topic is old and stale, because surely “everyone” knows how to use it by now. But then I run into an HR professional at a local SHRM meeting who wants to know what Twitter is or if they should have a corporate LinkedIn page, and I realize yet again that the number of HR professionals using social tools is still relatively small compared to the size of the group overall.

Closing thoughts

On Monday I start back to work. I get back into my routine. And it would be incredibly easy to just keep going like I have been going for the past year. Or I can take the time and make the effort to keep up with the connections I made at SHRM. I can keep the promise I made to keep educating HR professionals and recruiters on the value of social tools. I can work to incorporate the things I learned at the event into what I do at work.

Only time will tell which direction I take, but what I do matters much less than what you do. Well, what’s it going to be? I’m waiting…

#SHRM12-Keys to Corporate Recruiting Leadership

On Monday at SHRM 2012 I was able to attend 5 Keys to Corporate Recruiting Leadership led by John Vlastelica. I’ve been recruiting in this job for nearly a year and a half now, and I really enjoy the hands on part of it; however, I haven’t put much thought into the overall strategy involved. As an HR Generalist, when I hear the siren song of recruiting start up, I usually am working to get it finished as soon as possible and then move onto other “important HR tasks.”

In other words, I sorely needed this session. 

Here are a few of my big takeaways from John’s presentation.

Think bigger than the job

There are three levels to focus on-the organizational level, the departmental level, and the requisition level. It’s easy to get sucked into each position and not consider the big picture. How does this position fit into the mission and goals for the organization? What about for the department/workgroup? What does the ideal candidate look like?

It’s not just an open job requisition.

When you hire someone, you’re not adding them to the team. You’re creating an entirely new team with different dynamics and social norms. Remember that every person you hire is going to change the existing team (some positions more than others); don’t ever lose sight of the importance of a single position.

Don’t solve problems that aren’t problems

John shared a story about a workgroup who was using twelve people to interview engineering candidates. Instead of approaching it as a problem to be solved (“Hey, dummy, stop wasting resources!”), he tried to listen and learn the rationale for the practice. It turned out that higher than average turnover in the department was being mitigated by allowing more of the incumbent workforce to meet and select the person they felt was the best fit for the job.

The reduced turnover more than offset the cost of additional resources allocated to the interviewing process, so what originally seemed like a problem was actually a very smart hiring practice.

There is more great content that I gathered from this session, but this is all I was able to process so far! Look for a sequel coming soon with even more information and ideas on how to rock your recruiting function. Anyone else ever get stuck in a rut and need a kick in the pants to start focusing on what matters in recruiting?

#SHRM12-Twitter Doesn’t Make Managers Better

Yesterday, Jose Berrios of SHRM spent some time talking about diversity, and he mentioned using a Twitter-like tool to let managers give employee feedback in short, 140-character snippets. Many of the audience members agreed that it was a good idea, but I was quick to point out that it isn’t really that easy. My alternative solution:

In response to my comment, someone else came back with a (poor) excuse for why my idea wouldn’t work:

I can’t help but laugh. HR pros need to be forcing managers to manage well, not giving them a free pass to be poor communicators. If they are not talking with their employees, that’s not going to change by offering to let them talk to their employees with a software program in snippets too small to give real, useful feedback.

Let’s fix the problem with managers who don’t take the time to talk with their people. Then we can discuss software tools that help to supplement the feedback process with more frequent, informal pieces here and there. It’s not an either/or answer–both can (and should) be used effectively.