Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Final Report: Recruiting and Selection. MS Shagufta Rafif. Hadia Tariq. Junaid Khan. Sadia Muzaffar
Final Report: Recruiting and Selection. MS Shagufta Rafif. Hadia Tariq. Junaid Khan. Sadia Muzaffar
TOPIC:
RECRUITING AND SELECTION.
SUBMITTED TO:
MS Shagufta Rafif.
SUBMITTED BY:
Hadia Tariq.
Junaid Khan.
Sadia Muzaffar.
DATE:
THEORATICAL
CONCEPTS.
PRACTICAL
CONCEPTS.
CONCLUSION!
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Recruiting & Selection.
INDEX
1. Acknowledgement
2. Introduction
3. The topic
4. Importance to the topic
4.1. Essentials
4.2. Goals of Recruitment
4.3. Future Need
4.4. Proactive ness
4.5. Recruitment Alternatives
7. Time Case
7.1. Reasons
7.2. Preventive measures
8. Recommendations
8.1. Suggestions
8.2. Definition of reference
8.3. How to Reference Referral works?
8.4. Advantages of using reference referral
8.5. Hiring advice for small businesses
8.6. The 20 Rules for Great recruitment
We bow with humble gratitude before Allah the Almighty for providing us the
ability to complete this report in very short span of time. We are thankful to our
teacher, Miss Shagufta Rafif for her keen interest and support in our studies and
especially for the Cooperation she extended towards the preparation of this
report.
Finally, we are very thankful to Mr.Tariq Saeed Manager Human Resources for
Johnson & Johnson for his cooperation and time he spent with us. The practical
knowledge he gave us is also highly appreciable.
2. INTRODUCTION
The changing world order has compelled us to take hard look at the ways and means
through which we manage workforce. Research has shown time and again that human
resource management practices can make an important, practical difference in terms of
three key organizational outcomes; productivity, quality and profit.
Founder of the faint electronics believes “The enterprise is the people.” Without people,
organizations could not function. Conversely, people need organizations so that they may
satisfy their needs and wants and also maintain their standard of living along with
modern society of global village of today.
This report is all about the Human Resource Management practices in our culture. The
theme of this report is to find out the ways and methods running in our corporate culture
and compare those procedures with the International and standard market. The targeted
organization is J&J which is dealing in baby care and beauty products. An international
business from couple of decades. J&J has their Head Office in Karachi.
We will see there that how they are doing HR practices and specially target the
Recruitment and selection activities in it. The comparison will give us the brief
information about the differences and similarities between our culture and international
market. The base of this report that will compare the practical scenario is from book,
which is written by foreign writers.
3. THE TOPIC
The topic is Recruiting and Selection. It is one of the most important and very primary
objective and purpose of any HR department. The time has gone when the companies
were doing businesses within their own domain, its no more the like that, the world is
now like a global village where each and every thing is changing very rapidly. This rapid
change also affects the consumer attitude and behavior as well, they companies are now
facing very intense competition. Each and every thing is now very demanding and in
order to be proactive and face this dynamic market, companies has to do very proper and
fit planning with the help of some creative, innovative and hardworking personals. The
task is very tough to search and keep the best in your organization. Every one is looking
for the best. Labor demand has increased due to less supply in almost all areas. Our goal
is to touch the heart of Recruitment and selection activity. How to handle this dynamic
world in terms of these activities and how to plans for the future will be our core issues.
4. THE IMPORTANCE
The importance of this topic can’t be hidden. It is one of the most primary and important
areas of HR department. This is intact one of the primary duty of the department.
In this dynamic span of time in our business market, the competition is very intense.
Firms are not going for the maximum in short but to have some average for long,
specially out of Pakistan. In such requirement, there must be some very hard working and
creative persons will be the only choice of any organization. The HR department has to
arrange this all by Recruiting and Selection activities.
4.1 Is it essential?
5. RECRUITMENT DEFINED
The word RECRUITMENT refers to the process of gather, searching, keeping or offering
potential candidates for the job. This is what we have been studied so far about recruiting
but its not just to that. Its more than this.
In order to be successful and have competitive advantage in the market, you need to have
some well organized and skilled workforce in your organization. Successful employee
planning is designed to identify an organizations human resource needs. Once there
needs are known, an organization will want to do something about meeting them. The
next step, then in the staffing function assuming of course, that demand for certain skills,
knowledge and abilities is greater than the current supply, is recruiting.
The activity makes this possible for a company to acquire the people necessary to ensure
the continued operation of the organization. Recruiting is the process of discovering
potential candidates for actual or anticipated organizational vacancies. In other
perspective, it is a linking activity that brings together those with jobs to fill and those
seeking jobs.
The recruitment process should be capable to give enough information about the job so
the each and every candidates could analyze the required with his capabilities. It makes
the whole process easy for the recruiter because by giving extensive information about
the job separates the unqualified candidates form the list and that makes the list filtered.
In the recruiting profession, the strategy at the top of the hierarchy is a "recruiting
culture" strategy. Nicknamed by many as "the ultimate strategy," a
recruiting culture strategy is one that transforms every employee into a 24/7 talent
scout. Visiting an organization that employs such a strategy is a take-your-breath-
away experience — because recruiting, rather than being some obscure function
buried within the HR bureaucracy, is recognized as a primary driver of business
success.
Yes, the business success, not HR success. The single factor that makes a
recruiting culture unique is the realization among executives, managers, and
employees that great recruiting is essential in order to "move the needle" of
business success. This realization enables recruiting to permeate the very fiber of
the organization. Using any criteria, building a recruiting culture should be the
goal of any recruiting director worth their weight in salt.
For organizations that have achieved implementation of this pinnacle strategy, the
mere thought of shifting responsibility or ownership of a business-critical success
factor to an outside vendor via outsourcing is laughable. This elite group
understands the value recruiting can bring to the bottom line and have a lot of
lessons to share.
The first step in accomplishing this is to build a "dead bang" business case which
convinces the CEO and the CFO that recruiting impacts business results as much
as other critical functions like marketing, R&D, and sales. Once buy-in has been
achieved, the next step involves the CEO making it clear to everyone that he or
she is the Chief Recruiting Officer for the organization, and as such, he or she
will lead the charge to ensure that there is excellence in recruiting throughout the
organization.
The business case must also be designed to convince every manager and
employee that they too must play a critical role in recruiting. In effect, every
manager and employee must be convinced that their personal business results,
bonuses, stock value, and even their job security depends on them working
alongside the very best people in the industry, and that the only way to ensure that
they work alongside the very best is for everyone to work tirelessly 24/7 as a
talent scout for the organization.
Perhaps two examples can further distinguish how recruiting cultures are unique:
In order to give you a clear picture of the key elements of a recruiting culture, will
highlight the key elements that are generally required to be classified a true a
recruiting culture.
Referral program. The primary recruiting tool is the employee referral program
because not only does it produce the best results but it also involves every
employee in the recruiting process. While referral bonuses might be offered, the
key driver is convincing employees that it's in their own best interests to build a
team of employees that can drive business results. In a recruiting culture, referrals
are expected not just from employees but also from consultants, vendors, and
even customers.
Competitive analysis. The strategic goal is for recruiting not just to be "good
overall," but to be a sustainable competitive advantage for the firm. As a result,
the recruiting department completes a competitive analysis which directly
compares its recruiting program, practices, and results to those of the firm's
primary talent competitors. As part of this side-by-side comparison process,
"competitive slotting" (hiring to counter the strengths and weaknesses of your
competitors) is also an important part of the strategy.
Source impact. The recruiting department constantly gathers data to first identify
and then to focus the organization's efforts on the sources that have actually
produced top-performing hires. This data generally shows that recruiting should
focus on recruiting away the very best at other firms using referrals and
industry/professional events.
A sales and marketing approach. All recruiting cultures realize that recruiting is
just another form of selling and as a result, the recruiting department works
closely with the sales and marketing departments to ensure that recruiting
practices "mirror" the very best sales strategies and approaches.
Jobs are prioritized. Even in a recruiting culture, focus your recruiting efforts
and resources on the jobs that have the most business impact. As a result,
recruiting cultures identify mission-critical jobs and key business units and then
they prioritize their time and budgets to match those priorities.
Evergreen jobs. Most recruiting cultures realize that there are certain skills that
the organization will never have too many of. As a result, a few mission-critical
jobs are designated as evergreen jobs, where hiring is continuous without the need
for an open requisition.
It's also important to note that firms with recruiting cultures don't automatically
have the most industry-leading best practices. Although having best practices is
important, the key distinguishing feature is that recruiting cultures have an
integrated approach that permeates the entire organization. It is this integration
coupled with the sharing of the recruiting role that delineates them from best-
practice leaders. Some of the organizations that currently are or are striving to be
recruiting cultures include:
Quicken Loans: The one to watch with some take-your-breath-away plans that
could make them the best of all time.
Google: No one has invested more in recruiting than Google, and its top
executives are an integral part of all hiring.
FirstMerit Bank: An amazing track record that will be hard to maintain now that
its recruiting director has left.
Booz Allen: It does amazing things with referrals, internal movement, and
boomerangs. An integrated approach that is second to none.
The Container Store: It has turned recruiting into an art form in the retail field
that seldom celebrates recruiting. The #1 Best Place to work in America two
years in a row, it has made selling boxes into a glamour job.
Baptist Health Care: It does the impossible in an industry that routinely claims
that successful recruiting is nearly impossible.
MGM Grand: With the CEO's sponsorship, this firm has done some amazing
things without bragging .
Wegman's Food Markets: Its CEO's long-time involvement at the store level
has built a culture that was recognized as the #1 best place to work in America as
a grocery store, proving that it doesn't take glamour to be a recruiting
machine.
HealthEast: My personal favorite, it has done what many would say were
impossible things in recruiting and workforce planning, despite its size and
location.
The New York Yankees: In the one area where recruiting is always king, sports,
this organization has made recruiting the very best players its number one
business goal, regardless of costs.
Intuit: With Michael McNeil leading the team, the sky is the limit.
A recruiter must ensure that the labor he is looking for some project or company
should reflect the same cultural ethics. It should not be from external and totally
isolated background from the culture where its going to act.
Globally, when we are doing recruitment, we must ensure the relevant labor
market in order to have better understanding of cultural values, attitudes and
behaviors or individuals so one or the whole company can have better output in
means of communication and most importantly productivity as well.
This is to some extent, not a very common case in fact it all depends upon the
requirement and the nature of business as well.
A recruiter must ensure this as well that the availability of the labor he is looking
should be the most relevant to the field in which he requires candidates. Most of
the organization just compromise in this regard that whatever the education or
experience a candidate have, they just select him due to some special references
or salary compromise by candidate.
In our country and other developing countries, these cases are very common. Its
not with the whole picture but the exceptions are always present at every stage.
Small scale businesses and to some extent middle scale also does this for just to
save some money on the cost of company image, productivity and the efficiency.
It should not be there in real means, we must ensure the right man for right job ,
not the wrong choice for right place.
Recruiters have typically been slow to adopt technology. Probably less than 30%
of all organizations use applicant tracking systems, although they were the first of
the tools available more than a decade ago. Though most large companies have
put them in place, in many cases they have done so to deal with the administrative
recordkeeping that is required by Federal law.
Job boards are the next most commonly used form of technology. Perhaps
because they are cheaper and easier to understand than applicant tracking system,
even more organizations are using them. Recruiting websites are also common
now, but most organizations have implemented very simple ones that do not use
much technology.
Most organizations recruit essentially the same way they did 30 years ago. The
only obvious difference between recruiting today and then is the increased use of
job boards and email and the decreased use of newspaper advertisements and
paper resumes.
The answer is that technology can and will over time significantly improve the
efficiency and the quality of recruiting, but it must be adapted with care and only
after a strategy and implementation process is in place.
Well-implemented software can reduce the number of recruiters you need or let
you deploy them more effectively where humans still have an edge — in
sourcing, branding, and selling your organization to candidates. Let the
technology assume the responsibilities for screening and initial assessment.
Technology can improve candidate quality, reduce the number of candidates you
have to produce before a hire happens, and let you know more about your
successful candidates so you can find more of them.
The technology is one of the core issues in almost every area of the business. It
becomes a very compulsory tool to make ourselves competitive and challenging
for future demands. There are some examples and names of different foreign
companies who are using different techniques and technology for their recruiting
and staffing functions. These are here with their name, function and the
information of the technology they are using. Let’s see that to what extent
technology have affected recruitment and staffing.
Staffing
VCG Inc. has released WebPAS 4.0, the newest version of its popular recruiting
and staffing software. This software tool includes new functions designed to
streamline a number of administrative processes for recruiters. For example,
WebPAS now offers e-mail integration with Microsoft Outlook, which allows
users to select specific or multiple e-mails with a single click. In addition, the
software can generate new job candidate profiles automatically from an e-mail if
needed. The software also provides recruiters and staffing managers a complete
record of all electronic communications with clients or job candidates related to
specific job placements.
Virtual Edge Corp. has announced the release of VE Salute, a new tool for
improving the orientation and training of new hires. VE Salute is designed to
streamline and accelerate the process of integrating new hires into an organization
and help ensure that they become productive and valued employees. The new
software tool features a self-serve portal that provides new hires with the
information they need to perform their jobs. VE Salute automates and streamlines
many orientation procedures that HR managers have to administer manually.
6. INTRODUCTION TO J&J
Founded in 1886 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Headquarters
situated in New Brunswick for more than 115 years.
International expansion started in 1919 with J&J Canada.
The development of the first ready-made, ready-to-use surgical dressings by Johnson &
Johnson in the mid-1880s marked not only the birth of a company, but also the first
practical application of the theory of antiseptic wound treatment. A new product, based
on a new surgical concept, led to a dramatic reduction in the threat of infection and
disease, which claimed an appalling number of postoperative victims.
The story begins with the discoveries of Sir Joseph Lister, a noted English surgeon, who
identified airborne germs as a source of infection in the operating room. He called them,
with grim aptness, the "invisible assassins." Medical science was beginning to
understand, however imperfectly, the need for greater care in protecting the wound area.
Yet, this concept of myriad living organisms, unseen and deadly, remained beyond the
grasp of many surgeons in the 19th century who were doubtful or even contemptuous of
Lister's work.
One man who did not question his theory of antisepsis was Robert Wood Johnson, who
heard Lister speak in 1876. For years afterward Robert Wood Johnson nurtured the idea
of a practical application of Lister's teachings. What he had in mind was a new type of
surgical dressing, ready-made, sterile, wrapped and sealed in individual packages and
suitable for instant use without the risk of contamination.
Prior to Lister's discoveries, the postoperative mortality rate was as high as 90 percent in
some hospitals. Surgeons could not bring themselves to believe they were contaminating
their own patients by operating ungloved with un sterile instruments.
Lister's methods required complex and cumbersome equipment suited only to the largest
hospitals, of which there were few. A solution or a spray of carbolic acid bathed the
operating room and the patient in a foggy mist. Still, it was a major advance over
accepted procedures: unclean cotton, collected from sweepings on the floors of textile
mills, was used for surgical dressings; surgeons operated in street clothes and wore a
blood-spattered frock coat like a badge of honor.
Robert Wood Johnson concluded there ought to be a better way. Mr. Johnson joined with
his two brothers, James Wood and Edward Mead Johnson, who had formed a partnership
in 1885. Operations began in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1886 with 14 employees
on the fourth floor of a small building that once was a wallpaper factory. In 1887 the
Company was incorporated as Johnson & Johnson. With few hospitals in the United
States in 1887 large enough to use Lister's methods of antisepsis, Johnson & Johnson
entered the surgical dressings industry.
The first products were improved medicinal plasters containing medical compounds
mixed in an adhesive. Then a revolutionary surgical dressing was quickly developed and
placed on the market. Recognizing the critical need for improved antiseptic surgical
procedures, the Company designed soft, absorbent cotton and gauze dressing that could
be mass produced and shipped in quantity to hospitals and every crossroads physician
and druggist.
Johnson & Johnson also extensively promoted antiseptic surgical procedures. In 1888 the
Company published a book, "Modern Methods of Antiseptic Wound
Treatment," which for many years remained the standard text on
antiseptic practices.
Fred Kilmer was also responsible for the birth of one of Johnson & Johnson's most
famous product lines in 1890. In response to a doctor's complaints of patient skin
irritation caused by the Company's plasters, Kilmer suggested sending the patient a
container of Italian talc to soothe the skin. The Company began packaging the talc with
the plasters, and soon customers were asking for more of the powder. The scented talc
was soon being sold as JOHNSON'S® Baby Powder, which remains one of the most
recognized and trusted products in the world. This led to the introduction of a number of
other baby products, and a series of advertisements proclaimed the new line of products,
"Best for your baby, best for you."
By 1890 Johnson & Johnson was treating cotton and gauze dressings by dry heat in an
attempt to produce not only an antiseptic product but a sterile one. In 1891 a
bacteriological laboratory was established and, early in the following year, the Company
successfully met the requirements for a sterile product through a continuous method of
handling dressings so they were kept under aseptic conditions and subject to repeated
sterilization during production.
The new sterilization processes, first by dry heat and then by steam and pressure, was the
genesis of the Company's slogan: "The Most Trusted Name in Surgical Dressings." In
1897 the Company developed another major contribution to surgery, an improved
sterilizing technique for catgut sutures.
Johnson & Johnson spread its roots to the world’s largest democracy,
Pakistan, during the endemic post-independence turmoil of 1947. It was
Mr. Patrick Whaley who set about with confidence and determination during this period
of turbulence to begin the wok of establishing Johnson & Johnson in the subcontinent.
Things progressed quickly and by 1948, Johnson’s Baby Powder was being
manufactured by British Drug House in Prabhadevi, Bombay, and marketed by the
company.
Other consumer products like TEK toothbrushes, Johnson’s Baby Cream and Prickly
Heat Powder followed suit. However, highly specialized products like Belladonna
plasters, pharmaceuticals and Permacel Tapes were imported from the parent company. It
was only ten years later that the company began to manufacture its own products.
In September 1957, a new company, Johnson & Johnson India Ltd. was created and
registered with twelve employees on its rolls.
In the 50 years since its establishment as a modest 12-employee outfit, Johnson &
Johnson Ltd. has gained a reputation for delivering high-quality products at competitive
prices. Our success, we believe, stems from our staunch commitment to caring for and
catering to the needs of our customers and employees.
In 1910, the Company's first president, Robert Wood Johnson, died. Under his
direction the Company had become firmly established as a leader in the health
care field. James W. Johnson succeeded his brother and was president until 1932.
Over time, international affiliates of Johnson & Johnson were created in more
than 50 countries. For example, companies were begun in Australia in 1931,
Sweden in 1956, Japan in 1961, Greece in 1973, Korea in 1981 and Egypt in
1985.
During the 1920s the Company stepped up its program of product diversification,
introducing one of the best-known and most widely used of all Johnson &
Johnson products, BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages. This famous product
was invented by company employee Earle Dickson in 1921 in order to provide his
wife with a convenient means of treating household cuts and burns. The decade
also saw the introduction of JOHNSON'S® Baby Cream which, along with the
BAND-AID® Brand product line, is currently owned by Johnson & Johnson
Consumer Products Company.
General Johnson retired as Chairman of the Board of Johnson & Johnson in 1963,
but remained active in the Company until his death in 1968 at the age of 74. He
was succeeded as Chairman by Philip B. Hofmann in 1963, Richard B. Sellars in
1973 and James E. Burke in 1976, Ralph S. Larsen in 1989 and William C.
Weldon in 2002.
The current practices in Johnson and Johnson’s in Pakistan are almost same as the
other companies operating here. It is not more than the typical consumer goods
providers. They have though some very great image in the market but the internal
condition regarding the HR department is not to that extent that one can think.
The current practices mainly emphasize on the very common and usual
formalities regarding recruiting and other HR practices. It should not be like that,
the company should realize the importance of some new and efficient ways of
doing their routine tasks regarding HR. There are many examples of technology
along with HR practices as we mentioned earlier that there are many companies
using software’s and other tools to make their recruiting effort more easy,
economical and efficient.
The other side of their current practices are like, the HR department seems very
bound to the higher management which is very same as other local companies
referred as typical SEETH organization where the owner is the only person to
deal with all concerns of the business. He is the only person to take decisions
regarding any thing in the business no matter it is about staffing or budgeting.
Through this broad base of experiences, HRLDP participants can gain the
skills, knowledge and perspective required to take part in the next
generation of human resources leadership within the Johnson & Johnson
Family of Companies.
Big-company Resources
( Facilitating your development )
To supplement the on-the-job development provided by many small-
company environments, we provide extensive, globally accessible training
and development resources across our Family of Companies. You and
your manager can draw on these resources to prepare your personal
development plan. Offerings are extensive and span individual
development, team development, organization development and
leadership development. They include:
• Global Leadership Profile
• eUniversity
• School of Personal and Professional Development
• Management Education and Development
• Leadership Development Programs
As far as their Pakistani unit is concern, they are not up to their international
standard. In terms of methods and procedures, there is no such failure in their
recruiting activities but the need is to be about perfection level. The HR practices
could be more standardize and efficient than the current practices.
What I observed there, they are not very ready for their future challenges and
there is no research process on the current and future labor market by the
company. As we see, many new and advanced technologies are coming in the
market along with very new businesses hence the competition becomes dual.
Now the companies have to compete with product and the labor as well.
7. TIME CASE
The time case is about the recommendations, preventive measures for expected damages
and some suggestions for their HR practices. Let’s first see the negative side of their HR
practices.
The major HR practices there are like,
1. Number Of employees is 3
2. Strategies set by
3. Management and Board
4. Proactive measure are, Recruitment from top 14 universities
5. Specific job specification for all
6. Performance appraisals
By having such information, we can easily take such impression that the current practices
are not very professional enough to compete with other professionals even as far as their
goodwill is concern, its not up to that mark unfortunately.
What the lack in it is like,
7.1 Reasons
The reasons could be many as we are developing nation so the cultural factors
affects a lot to many business practices and the less awareness and some sort of
“sethism” is present in our culture, that’s why are not been able to cope with such
weaknesses. The other side could be, companies has to set the standards but by
keeping the cultural and social patterns so there is such fashion to just emphasize
on the most important and to be as fire fighter rather than proactive. These
concepts and theories makes our corporations very ambiguous about their
practices that what to do or not to do.
The HR could be more proactive and efficient if they just add some additional
practices about their sources, patterns and policies.
The positive side of the J&J contains the point like,
1. The presence of data bank is good sign.
2. Recruitment from top universities means they giving
options to fresh minds.
3. Both internal and external options considered when
recruiting
4. Initial screening is there for all candidates.
5. No pressure from management when recruiting.
6. Sources are very common and are very economical.
8. RECOMMENDATIONS:
8.1 Suggestions:
The best recruiting source is reference referrals when you have no budget,
little time, and don't know much about recruiting.
The concept is really quite simple. It is well known that the references
given to a firm by a candidate are almost (by definition) higher-level
performers than your candidate. Traditionally, we call references to get
their opinions about a candidate's performance. However there is a better
use for references. Start by asking yourself this question..."What are the
odds that the reference will know only one top performer (the one that is
currently applying to your firm)? Because the answer is almost always
that "they know several other excellent potential candidates also," smart
managers and recruiters need to become regular users of reference
referrals. It turns out that "A"-level references know lots of "A"-level
players.
1. Identify the top performers (top 25%) from those employees that you
have hired recently (from six to eighteen months ago).
2. Look-up the names and the number of the references that they gave
when they were hired.
3. From the list of references, identify the ones that made accurate
(positive) comments about the candidate that you hired (assuming you
still have the reference notes/ records).
4. Call the references up and say something like this: "I want to thank
them for giving us a reference for Mr./ Mrs. XYZ. Based partially on
your recommendation we hired them and they turned out to be an
excellent employee."
5. Next ask them, based on the success of your last reference, "Would
you be willing to help out again by giving us some names of some
other equally or better qualified candidates?" If they need more time to
think of names, tell them that you will call them back in day or so.
6. Ask the reference if it is OK for you to use their name as an
introduction when you are calling the people they have just referred.
7. If they seem enthusiastic, ask them to call the candidate first for you.
The goal here is to "warm up” and to "pre-sell" the person as well as
to let them know that you will be following up with a call soon.
8. Next ask them if the person they are now referring also knows the
person that you recently hired. If so, use that relationship as an
introduction when you call the new referral. Let them know that you
recently hired a colleague or friend of theirs, and then tell them how
well their colleague is doing at your firm.
9. Next call the reference referred candidate and tell them who referred
you and why you're calling. Assess their interests and then sell them
on the firm and the job. Also offer to send them additional material
about the job and the firm.
10. Even if they are not currently interested in a position ask them if it is
okay with him/ her if you put them on your e-mail jobs list. Later you
can "push" any relevant open jobs to them. Relevant job openings can
also be "pushed" to your reference referral people on the chance that
the opening announcement might remind them of possible candidates.
11. After hiring a few candidates (by using the reference referral tool)
gather metrics on the results, in order to see what works in the
reference referral process and what didn't. Then use the metrics to
continually refine your approach until you get the maximum yield out
of your reference referrals.
12. If the reference referrals give you names, consider giving them a
reward for the referral. (A small bonus for providing the names of
great prospects and a larger bonus for any actual hires).
Uses existing names and telephone number that are already in your
files.
Limits the referrals to only the references of top performers that
have a track record at your firm and thus you limit the risks you
take.
Allows you to further narrow down the reference list (from the
original three) by eliminating those references that gave inaccurate
reference information on the previous hired candidate.
Requires no training
Provides high quality candidates and hires
Reference referrals are easy to do and they produce great results!
Don't be surprised if this cheap, fast and simple recruiting tool
becomes your" go to" recruiting tool within a month of trying it.
Smaller firms need talent also, but they normally have more limited
resources and recruiting expertise than larger firms. If you are a small
business owner, here is the way to approach recruiting.
Realize that the firms with the best people win.
Most entrepreneurs spend too little time on people issues, even though
they are unlikely to beat the competition without better people. The Bulls
basketball team won because of Michael Jordan... it wasn't his shoes! If
you are to win the war to attract and retain the best, you must adopt new
tools and techniques. For example, stop relying so heavily on want ads
that have an extremely high cost and a tendency to attract low-quality
applicants (in times of high employment). Instead target the very best
talent, which generally are currently employed people that are probably
not actively looking for a job at the present time. Assume the best
candidates are currently employed "passive" job seekers that you need to
"swipe" from other firms. Recruiting other firm's top talent requires
different tools both for finding them and in order to convince them to say
yes.
What are the odds that the very best candidates are available and reading
the want ads on the day you begin recruiting? Don't rely on luck; develop
continuous recruiting processes that identify the best talent well before
you actually need it. Then build relationships with these candidates over
time, because it allows you to learn more about them and to assess them
without rushing. Don't hire "strangers"!
Recruiting sends them a message about your firm; you have to wow
the very best.
You have to make the job exciting and you must continue innovating in
recruiting in order to beat other big and small firms in the race for talent.
And by the way, top talent differs from the average person. Top people get
so many offers that you have to "wow" them with opportunities to grow
and learn. They want different things (pay for performance, challenge,
control, "open book" management, communication) and they often
demand an individualized, continuously updated deal. The best need to be
asked, "What would be a better job for you?" and then you have to offer
most of what they expect. You also need to coordinate any advertising and
PR you do with your recruitment efforts in order to spread the word (i.e.
build your employment brand) that your firm is a great place to work.
You need better screening tools if you are going to hire the very best.
Many entrepreneurs rely on "gut instincts" to select candidates.
Unfortunately their gut is likely to be wrong nearly 50% of the time.
Instead, use actual company problems in the interview (verbal
simulations) to find out how they will approach your problems after they
are hired. Also, stop asking about yesterday in the interview. Ask about
possible future problems and the required solutions for your firm.
The best recruits are net savvy and are already on the net. Use chat rooms,
list servers, and web search robots to find the very best. Drop forever the
idea that recruitment and hiring must be face to face. Use telephone
interviews to assess candidates. Develop exciting web pages that tell a
story about your firm in order to excite the candidates and show them you
are different.
When you have a small staff delays can cost you and even one hiring
mistake can be deadly. So learn how the best larger firms do it and adapt
their practices to your firm. Be aggressive and try new approaches.
You must declare war and act like warriors in order to win.
It takes an aggressive approach to get the best talent. Aggressive
recruiting starts with competitive intelligence and a strong desire to win. It
ends with the goal of continually improving everything you do so that you
can stay ahead of the competitors.
The war for talent is over. And by the way… guess who won?
Just like in sales, there's an 80/20 rule in recruiting. 80% of the profit
comes from the efforts of 20% of the employees. This means recruiting
must prioritize its efforts and focus on the managers, divisions, and jobs
that have the most business impact. Instead of treating them all the same,
it is essential to put your resources into the ones that make the most
difference. You don't have the time or the resources to do them all well.
You can improve what you don't measure. As much as 50% of the
traditional practices in recruiting don't work during high employment
times. Be sure to include a feedback loop in everything you do to see if
the practice results in hires that become top performers within a year. It is
a continuous process to identify which tools produce performers and then
to drop the tools and sources that don't...like a hot potato. You waste
scarce resources and you lose credibility with managers when you use
tools that don't produce results. World-class recruiters use metrics in
everything they do. But if you can only measure one thing, measure the
performance of those you hire (after six months and again after a year).
Measuring speed or costs without including quality is just silly.
How long is top talent in the job market? Normally the top 10% are gone
within ten days, so if you want the best you have to act quickly. Top talent
may even be gone in one day. Bureaucracy, approvals, and processes are
the antithesis of speed hiring. When you find top talent that exceed your
qualifications... make incision, make an offer and make the sale and do in
one day!
If you don’t have to fight for them… they are not superstars. Top
performers are in high demand, regardless of the economic situation.
Managers and recruiters must be aware that the best must be "fought
over." The reverse is also true, in that if a candidate is easy to attract and
sell, odds are they are not a top performer. When it comes to recruiting
talent, the easiest ones to get are the ones you want least. Focus your
efforts towards hiring away employed top performers rather than those
who are actively looking for a job. The best are currently employed and
have multiple offers, a counter offer and they expect more exciting jobs
then those outlined in most traditional job descriptions. If you're attracting
people with no other offers, odds are these are "ugly candidates" and they
will become bad hires. Send them to your competitors.
If you expect to win… everyone must be a 24/7 talent scout. There are
never enough recruiters in a company to find all of that talent in the world.
The key to recruiting success is to shift the responsibility for recruiting to
the managers and employees. Employees, because of their frequent
contact with other people, become the largest sales force you have.
Having them speak out to friends, acquaintances, customers and people
they meet about their exciting job and their company is the best sales tool
you can ever have. Employees must become 24/7 talent scouts through the
use of sophisticated employee referral programs. In addition, you need to
solicit customers, suppliers, former employees and references to be talent
scouts for your firm.
Recruiting Rule #11:
If you take the burden of recruiting away from managers they will
inevitably "get lazy" and put little effort into it. The real key to success is
to shift the responsibility of recruiting to managers and employees. They
are the ones who suffer when a position is left vacant and when bad hires
are made. They also get the "reward" and increased productivity when a
great hire is made. Because there's ample research that shows that the
candidates want to talk directly to managers and decision makers, it
becomes even more essential for them to be involved early in the process.
Recruiting must make a strong business case to convince managers to
spend the required time and effort on recruiting. Because of the rapid
change in technology and information it is becoming almost impossible
for recruiters to maintain their ability to sell applicants in technical
positions. Recruiters can do their part but managers must make the final
sale.
It is not uncommon for 30% of the hires not to work out. One of the
reasons for this is that we are primarily hiring strangers. Other then
through employee referral programs, most candidates are relatively
unknown. A few emails, phone calls, and two hours of interviews do not
really allow you to know the candidate. The secret to great assessment is
to start early and to make identifying and assessing prospects a continuous
process (regardless of whether you have openings). If you continually
identify top performers you can build a "who's who" database of your
prospects. You can then assess their abilities over time and in a variety of
ways. This makes the possibility of a rushed assessment error a lot less
likely. Pre-qualifying candidates before you actually need them (pre-need)
also gives you time to sell them on the company and the job.
In a global economy it's essential that you realize that a large majority of
the top talent probably does not live within a hundred miles of your
facility. When talent is in high demand, smart firms think out of the box
and put the work "where the talent is" or "where it wants to be." This
means flexibility on the part of managers. Options might include working
from remote locations, working at home or putting facilities where there is
a surplus of talent. For recruiters, this might mean recruiting around the
globe and it certainly means recruiting outside the geography that you are
the most familiar with.
Because the power has shifted to the talent, it is essential that we learn to
treat them in a customer service manner. This means responding to
inquiries rapidly, giving them feedback on how well they're doing and
doing post mortems to identify why they failed to accepted our offer.
Candidates need to be asked during and after the process "how well did
we treat you?" Manager satisfaction also needs to be assessed. Remember
to think in a broadest sense as a businessperson would. We might not be
able to hire them all but we certainly can turn many candidates into our
future customers if we treat them right!
HR often says that people are our most important asset but this often turns
out to be a shallow phrase. In fact, few HR departments even bother to
measure and reward managers for great hiring, retention or worker
productivity. The most important factor in changing management behavior
toward recruiting is to distribute ranked metrics to all managers on a
regular basis. This has the double impact of educating and occasionally
embarrassing managers. The next step is to include great recruiting and
retention as part of their bonus. Add metrics and rewards and you will see
a rapid change in their behavior
Recruiting Rule # 17:
The world is a rapidly changing place where tools and strategies are
quickly outdated. If you are going to win the war for talent you must
continually be on the leading edge of knowledge. This means continuous
and rapid learning about recruiting on chat rooms, list servers and through
benchmarking. I have found that the best way to stay ahead of the
recruiting game is through "parallel benchmarking", which means that you
look outside of recruiting and HR in order to learn the most. Some of the
best recruiting practices actually were derived from outside of recruiting.
You can learn a great deal from outstanding business practices such as
product branding, customer response management, customer service and
supply chain management. In a rapidly changing world fast learning might
also include forecasting the economy and anticipating the future actions of
your competitors
Recruiting is one of the few business areas that have no clearly defined
strategies. Most recruiters just do what they do without a written plan.
This can confuse managers because they don't know the goals or
objectives of the plan. Recruiting strategies can range from focusing on:
experienced people, hiring bright people," cheap people" to a strategy of
hiring raw talent and then developing it. Whatever your strategy is, if it is
to be effective it must first be communicated effectively to the managers
and second periodic measurements must be taken to ensure that it's
working and meeting its goals.
Because of globalization and the need for speed most paper based
recruiting practices are bound to hinder a company. If you need to move
fast technology becomes the #1 tool. Whether you use it for recruiting on
the Internet, for market research, for gathering metrics or just for
communicating with candidates technology allows you to do more, faster
and cheaper. Incidentally top candidates, almost without fail, use
technology extensively and they will judge your firm by how well and
how often you use technology on your web site and during the recruiting
process.
Recruiting Rule #20:
You must use mass experimentation to find new things that work.
Recruiting is actually very conservative and has changed little in the last
50 years. There are few corporate research and development programs and
almost no academic research on what works and what doesn't in
recruiting. As a result if you are to be successful you must encourage your
recruiters and managers to do mass experimentation. The key to
innovation is to continually try new things and then to include a feedback
loop that allows you to rapidly check to see if it resulted in a high
performance hire. If it fails rapidly capture the lessons learned and move
on. Is unlikely you'll get all of the innovations right but without trying
new things you can never be the recruiting leader in your industry.
Why do top candidates choose to apply at our competitors, rather than with us?
When candidates turn us down, where do they go (to what firm)? What is the
salary differential?
What are the elements of the competing offers that our finalists get? Which ones
cause the candidate to select the competitors offer? What were the "deal breakers"
at our firm?
Who are the competitor's best recruiters that steal our top talent away?
Which of the competitor's ads, web sites, or other recruiting tools had the
biggest/least impact on you?
What other offers did you receive (will you show us)?
Who else is excellent at your previous firm and will you help us to convince
them to come here?
Who else looks good (but really isn't) at your last firm?
What are the negative aspects at your previous firm that caused people to
quit?
Will you help us refine our recruiting and offer process so that we can
improve our acceptance rate when we go head-to-head with your previous
employer?
What did we do during the recruitment process that turned you off or that
almost caused you to reject us? Can you rank order our key selling points
that convinced you to say yes?
Help us understand how to motivate you and how to get the most out of you?
How well were you treated during the recruitment process? What frustrated you
the most? What elements had the most positive impact?
How long do you expect to be with us and specifically what do you think your
next job will look like?
You can also ask the candidate after three months how we treated them during the
initial orientation and do they have "buyer's regret" (this is known as a post exit
interview). "Many recruiters fail to understand that recruiting is simply marketing
with a crummy budget!"
If you are to win the "war for talent," you must realize that it actually is a war and
an essential element of warfare is gathering intelligence about what the other side
is doing. You don't have to be James Bond, to break any laws, or to invade
someone's privacy to do effective CI in recruiting. You just need a simple but
periodic process to gather the information, a "blocking" process, to keep them
from learning about our secrets and a "back-end" system to insure that our
processes and strategies change as a result of the information you gather.