As a hiring manager are your pressed for time and tired of sifting through tons of resumes that don’t even come close to meeting your job requirements? If so it might be time to rethink your hiring strategy for 2012. Based on the below article, Recruiters Rethinking Online Playbook by Joe Light, companies are starting to transition away from job board postings and website postings to attract the majority of their talent. With the talent marketing condensing, contrary to the unemployment rate, the candidates who have the experience to meet companies’ hiring requirements are more passive. Meaning they are not actively posting qualification on job boards and need to be found thru good old-fashion networking.

So when you are looking to forecast your 2012 hiring objective, take a moment to reflect on how to best maximize everyone’s time. Chances are the resources that host a network of passive candidates will bring a better return on your investment with your talent hunt then digging through a pile of unqualified resumes.

Recruiters Rethink Online Playbook

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Has there ever been a time when you made a snap decision? If so, were you right? Now a days, experienced interviewers/hiring managers are also making snap decisions when picking a candidate. In fact, the more experienced the interviewer the more likely they are to make snap judgments. Fair or unfair, we’re heavily influenced by first impressions. If you’re the job candidate you can either complain about the unfairness of it all, or accept that fact. Below is a link to a great article highlighting some common situations in which snap decisions are made.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/small-biz-advice/9-snap-judgments-managers-make-in-job-interviews/3960

All seasoned recruiters have experienced the pain of negotiating and closing a deal, only to have the candidate not start. At the executive level, it is not terribly common and there are ways to mitigate this from happening. It’s important for employers to appreciate that this scenario hurts recruiters as much as it does the hiring company.
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In today’s society, just about everyone uses some sort of social networking in their everyday lives. Now, more and more businesses are starting to see the value in using social media as an outlet to reach their customers and target audience. Once you’ve decided to invest in social media, you might ask yourself…where do I start? Below are some quick tips to help you begin.

1.Establish Goals- Write down specific goals and objectives that you want to accomplish bysing social media. ie: Brand recognition
2.Listen- Learn about your audience. Who/Where are they? How/Where do they engage?
3.Build- Choose your channels wisely because there are many! (Facebook, Twitter, Blog, LinkedIn, etc…)
4.Engage and Participate- Make sure to participate/update your social media outlets on a regular basis.
Keep your content engaging. Listen to your audience and ask questions.

There are several questions surrounding social media, but please know that there is no right or wrong answer. Social media is the next big thing. Would you rather stay ahead of the curve, or behind it?

My hunch is that a lot of companies may get to the goal line and have their sights on 2 solid hunters. Now comes the $1MM question, which one is the right fit for “US”. I wanted to pass along an article from Paul Herbert at “Fistful of Talent” (please see below URL). Hopefully this will help all of us score more touchdowns then having to settle for a field goal.

Like Water for Culture… http://conta.cc/mcPKSS

Although no hard statistics are available, many employees who give notice are receiving counteroffers from their current companies to encourage them to stay.  These proposals can include one or more of the following:

Most of the professionals that we work with usually wrestle with major decisions when considering a job move. They evaluate compensation, scope of challenge and the work life balance that will be a part of their new position. The executive who is in the early stages of their career tends to be focused on making money. But as their career progesses and they conquer their financial desires, their motivations shift. For professionals who have become “accomplished”, they have a more global view of their career and realize it’s less about the money. They search for the challenge that will keep them engaged, interested and excited about what they do 40 hours a week . Hopefully this insight will help you evaluate where your professional career is now and where it’s headed. As you consider the next iteration of your career, figure out what you are passionate about. Are you making a move for money, challenge or a better work life balance?

When I think of investing in stocks, I must say, social media companies don’t come to mind. But as an avid user of LinkedIn, it may become a “buy” for my portfolio. I suspect most recruiting professionals would agree.

http://tinyurl.com/6c6nv7h

Recently, we asked this question. It has generated a lot of commentary via our LinkedIn groups. Below are some responses that we felt may interest you.

When a salesperson leaves their employer, what percentage of their business follows?

Having a book of business helps, but it should not be interpreted as a guarantee that business will follow. There are many variables that play into this.

I’ve worked in 5 different industries as a rep, manager, president and ceo – and I can tell you that trying to buy business by hiring a sales rep with a book of revenue that you believe fits your needs is rarely successful.
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Any rep worth her salt respects her last employer too much to basically steal business away from them, and hurt all of her former co-workers in the process. Do you want an employee who is prepared to hurt you later doing the same thing to you?

Any company worth it’s salt has a non-compete arrangement with successful reps so they can’t steal away the business. So you need to be sure anyone you hire from a competitor is free and clear as well.
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Hiring reps is the absolute hardest part of any business leaders job. At my company I would meet bi-annually with up to 70 other presidents to share best practices and help solve each others problems, those meetings would last 3-4 days. My experience with that group demonstrated conclusively that 70 other business leaders had the very same problem, finding and hiring good reps who would bring real potential to the company. More often than not the reps who looked the most likely to succeed had a history of bouncing from one job to another (so don’t hire reps who have had 3 jobs in 4 years!) – they would look great because they had diverse experience, and they would claim to have revenue to bring immediately. Only one time did I see a company president hire a great rep who did bring the business they claimed they could. The rest of the time the reps either failed in the short term, or brought only 30% or less. Conversely, when reps left these companies they did not take more than 30% of their business with them.
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