Action Steps For “Leading Edge” Recruiting Managers and Recruiters

ere.net Webinar - January 13, 2009

© Dr. John SullivanProfessor, Author and Advisor to Management

www.drjohnsullivan.com

 Emerging Talent Acquisition Trends for 2010

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I have four goals for this webinar

1.To give you some insight into what is likely to happen during 2010

2.To provide you with some advanced action steps to consider

3.To make you think

4.To answer your questions (Please feel free to submit them throughout the webinar using the Q&A Module)

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Topics that I will cover today:

1.A quick snapshot of my predictions for 2010

2.How to predict the turnaround at your organization

3.The first step is to become “more businesslike”

4.Plans for handling “the churn” during 2010

5.The return of intense competition for talent

6.Prioritizing recruiting tools

7.Benchmark firms to learn from

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I. A quick snapshot of my predictions for 2010

Description of last year – Continually badDescription of this year – Churn, with a mixture of ups and downs

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My predictions for 2010Mixed news – the recession will be officially over

by March, but business confidence and risk-taking will not return immediately

Prepare with – an industry and internal analysis looking for precursors that indicate when “your” turnaround should begin

---Good news – a mid-year start of the turnaround

(beginning of the end for freezes) Prepare with – a new business case proving the $

impact on revenues of delaying hiringPrepare with – a ramp up recruiting plan to

revitalize the recruiting function

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My predictions for 2010Bad news – another down cycle following a brief

upturn is highly likelyBad news – the possibility of a catastrophe Prepare with – an agile recruiting plan that

includes both growth and downturn elements---

Bad news – slow hiring growth and under budgeting for another year

Prepare with – a plan to focus on low cost but effective recruiting tools and leveraging employees time to help in recruiting… until budgets increase

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My predictions for 2010Mixed news – Assume uneven growth. Some

products will be exceptions, some regions will be exceptions (China, India) and some industries will be exceptions (healthcare, defense, homeland security, alternative energy, stimulus related work, mobile technologies)

Prepare with – a prioritized recruiting plan that focuses on growth areas (regions, products, jobs and business units)

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My predictions for 2010

Mixed news – technology is now capable of replacing much of what employees used to do

Prepare with – a plan to offer advice on when robots, hardware and software should be considered in lieu of hiring people

---Bad news – retention will become a major issuePrepare with – a retention plan and increased

hiring targets to make up for losses

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My predictions for 2010Bad news – housing issues will continue to make

relocation difficultPrepare with – a localized recruiting strategy and

“remote work” jobs

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II. How to predict the turnaround at your firm

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How to predict when your firm will ramp up hiring

Turnarounds follow a repeating patternIdentify industry and economic precursorsIdentify industry first mover/leader firmsLook for internal business precursors from

previous turnarounds (change in sales, sales projections, production projections, inventory levels, budgets and strategic plan changes)

Look for recruiting precursors from previous turnarounds (increase in OT, hiring more temps, salary increases, loosening of hiring freezes)

Have a ramp-up plan ready for whenever it occurs

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III. The first step is to become “more businesslike” in order to increase your credibility

among business executives

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Become more “businesslike”

Before ramping up, executives will expect:A Failure analysis – identify what we did right

and wrong last time… with plans to improve eachA competitive analysis (website/new-hires)Risk analysis – calculate the risk of ramping up

hiring too soon or too late (the $ value added… as a result of being the first to ramp up hiring)

Other pocket costs – develop a process to identify any unintended consequences (slower time-to-market, less innovation, higher error rates, etc.)

Mirror the supply-chain model – a shift towards database decision-making in recruiting

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Become more “businesslike”

Before ramping up, executives will expect:Alternatives to hiring permanent employees –

be prepared to provide advice on less permanent substitutions to hiring employees including… contingent labor, outsourcing, offshoring, etc.

Focus – A focus on revenue generating positions, innovators and game changers

Better actionable metrics – a shift away from historical “efficiency metrics” for continuous improvement in decision-making

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Become more “businesslike”

Dollarize recruiting impacts on rev. in these areas:Revenue losses due to excess position vacanciesPerformance differential – the dollar value of

increased performance between a top-performing new-hire and an average one

$ impact of hiring innovators/game changersCost of a bad hire that must be terminatedCost of early turnover among new-hires$ value in lost sales from dissatisfied applicants

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IV. Plans for handling the churn

Churn – the continuous adding and releasing of

employees and labor capabilities

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Seven characteristics of employee churn

Employee churn means…

1. Hiring in some jobs, regions and business units… when all other hiring is frozen

2. Laying off in some business units or regions… while simultaneously hiring in others

3. Higher rates of turnover due to poaching, easy job search and reduced loyalty

4. The need to move labor internally to areas of higher return/ROI

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Seven characteristics of employee churn

Employee churn means…

5. The need to rapidly increase labor capabilities by increasing productivity, hiring contingent workers and outsourcing

6. The need to rapidly reduce labor costs by releasing contingent and regular workers and reducing flexible outsourcing

7. A sudden need to acquire new skill sets due to product innovation and skill obsolescence …when there is no time for retraining

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Action steps for handling employee churn

Develop an agile recruiting strategy Rather than a constant approach, the strategy

“flexes” as economic and business conditions go up and down

Recruiting resources are shifted periodically, rather than once a year

Recruiters have extra capabilities, so they can add value when there is little hiring (retention, outplacement, customer service, etc.)

Agile Strategy Article: http://bit.ly/6DkWhB

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Action steps for handling employee churn

Develop a sophisticated contingent labor strategy Drop the “old school” non-integrated approachSet contingent goals to meet maximum up and

down cyclesDetermine the appropriate “type of labor” for

each job family (i.e. part-time, temporary, seasonal, contractors, retirees, outsourcing, etc.)

Treat all “labor types” in a similar fashion, so they are integrated into the team (training, meetings, communications)

Contingent Labor Management Article: http://bit.ly/5Hgdv3

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Action steps for handling employee churn

Develop a process for continuous internal movement Stop relying on slow internal job posting systemsProactively “guide” your employees and

contingent workers toward areas of higher impactDevelop the capacity to move both individuals

and teamsReward managers for “releasing” and accepting

top talentEducate everyone on future growth areas

Improving Internal Movement Article: http://bit.ly/8SDtcQ

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Action steps for handling employee churn

Develop an “explode out of the box” plan Do a gap analysis between projected recruiting

needs and current capabilitiesAssess your brand strength and negativesIdentify jobs that are likely to open up firstRevitalize low cost/high quality recruiting tools

that leverage the time of others (employee referrals, professional events, employees active in social networks, etc.)

Explode Out of the Box Recruiting Plan Article: http://bit.ly/8O02e6

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Action steps for handling employee churn

Coordinate with training and on-boarding

JIT training may be needed because many new-hires will have been underemployed or unemployed

Effective on-boarding will be required to get new hires up to speed and productivity rapidly

Re-educate hiring managers that are likely to be rusty and unaware of new recruiting tools

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V. The return of intense competition

and a shift in the “power”

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The return of intense competition

Action steps for handling intense competitionSurvey your talent competitor’s websites to

understand where you compete head-to-headCI - Ask recent hires & candidates about the

strengths/weaknesses of competitor’s rec. processCompare your job descriptions to theirsAssess the visibility of your jobs (SEO)Survey new-hires during on-boarding to identify

what worked and what didn’t during the processA “blocking strategy” to protect your own

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A shift in the power requires a new approach

Action steps for handling the shift in powerShift from active candidate tools & strategiesEducate hiring managers about the power shiftSurvey candidates to understand their current

“job acceptance criteria”Improve the candidate experienceSchedule interviews during off hoursUtilize live remote video interviewsImprove the “offer process”

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VI. Prioritize these recruiting tools

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Prioritize these recruiting tools

Adopt direct sourcing tools – the increased visibility of almost everyone makes direct sourcing, utilizing social media and social networks, the hottest skill set (emerging tools increase feasibility)

Revitalize your employee referral program – it needs to be closely integrated with your social recruiting strategy and expanded into college

Boomerang re-hires – if you released a lot of good employees, an alumni network and a boomerang process should get top priority

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Prioritize these recruiting tools

Social media action stepsUtilize all types of social media, not just LinkedIn,

Facebook & Twitter (videos, blogs, Second Life, meetups, forums, ad words, employee reviews)

Counter CIO objectionsInvolve / leverage all employees Develop templates for profilesIdentify the sources of hire (during on-boarding)ROI metrics including quality of hire

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Prioritize these recruiting tools

Utilize the mobile platform

Because of the wider usage of smart phones

Because it can handle any message or media

Because mobile phones are almost always with

the candidate

I am forecasting that the mobile platform… will

become the most effective messaging and

communications tool in recruiting

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Prioritize these recruiting tools

More recruiting tools to followGreen recruiting must be more sophisticatedOn-line assessment continues to grow and

improveCRM software – alternatives to ATS’s growIntelligent decision software – allow your human

resources to be managed more scientificallyContests to identify candidates or to gather

external ideasYour corporate web site is probably obsolete

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Keep an eye on these recruiting tools

Over the horizon but some are already trying theseBuilding online talent communities based on

learningCrowdsourcingUtilizing credit card and financial information

for sourcingVirtual simulations for assessment100% remote hiringPersonalized recruiting (individualized)

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Other actions to consider

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Other action steps to consider

Recruiter competencies need to be dramatically updated

Rewards for great hiring and retention for both managers and recruiters

Service-level agreements Link performance management with hiring Get serious about diversity hiring Revisit college hiring (remote hiring) Hiring recruiters from sales and marketing Be careful of hiring out of date recruiters

Benchmark firms that are ahead of the curve

Google

Microsoft

DaVita

Sodexo

Zappos

Aimco

Deloitte

NY Yankees

U.S. Army

Intuit

Capital One

Enterprise

Southwest Airlines

Booz Allen

E&Y

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Did I make you think?

How about some final questions?

www.drjohnsullivan.com

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