Recruiters, Unite!

I was instantly alarmed when I read an article featured on Workforce.com, titled Many U.S. Firms Lack Long-Term Talent Strategy. So I really wasn’t alarmed, I was royally PO’d. This just proves that the shift of going from a reactive recruitment world to a proactive world is just an eight-month-old New Year’s resolution. The article states that most companies have no contingency plan in place and the ones that do, center around layoffs. Companies aren’t thinking of their current precious, and may I remind you, expensive talent (we all know how disgustingly expensive turnover costs can be). Further, they’re not even thinking about how they will recruit moving forward. UGH! Have I not taught you anything?

There is no excuse for organizations to still have a reactive recruiting plan, this day in age. When I was in the agency world, I wanted to slit my wrists every time an HR person or Recruiter said:

“Oh, we’re really not hiring right now”,

then I would politely say, “Well then it’s a great time for us to meet and get you prepared for when you do,”

and they would say, “No thanks but I’ll keep your information on file”.

Yeah, ok lady….don’t come crying to me when you have to hire 30 people in two weeks cuz I’m going to tell you to…well you know…

What I really wanted to say back to her was, “are you slightly retarded? Do you understand that if you aren’t hiring currently then now IS the time to develop your Talent Strategy? No, didn’t think so, that’s why you need me you idiot!”

It never failed, within a month or so, I’d get a call begging for my assistance. Except at that point, even I, as talented as I think I am, couldn’t help this poor soul because IT WAS TOO LATE! Yes, I could help her carry out her boring reactive recruitment initiative, but I wasn’t able to really show my stuff which pissed me off even more. Now because she was operating in reactive mode, I had to as well. This limited our options of media to utilize, lead time on creating a great message and of course my patience. So, unless I worked feverishly around the clock for two weeks inhaling coffee and brushing off sleep, I would fail. I hated clients like these, especially because they would end up spending three times as much to fill the positions than they would have if they had prepared and spent the necessary time creating their “employment brand footprint”. (thanks NAS Recruitment Communciations)

When I would jokingly (really serious though) tell the client, “Wow, you want a miracle here, don’t you” and they would say “well, I just learned of this, they gave me no warning-” and I would stop them and say, “well, if we had prepared all of this stuff beforehand, all we’d have to do is put the wheels in motion, but now you know for next time”. Then they would chuckle, embarrassed because they know I’m right.

It doesn’t matter if you are recruiting now or not. In fact, if you aren’t hiring new people at the current time, hello genius? take the down time to get to know your company’s corporate culture, poll existing employees about why they like working there and yes, you the recruiter should be conducting these audits. You’re a salesperson of sorts, shouldn’t you know your product through and through and not to mention, often? Corporate cultures are constantly evolving, especially as people leave the company and new ones join. With such a culmination of differing personalities working together for the common goal, it is inevitably going to change little by little each day.

Recruiters need to unite and start pressing the powers that be to allow them the budget and go-ahead to dig further into the organization to obtain this information. Recruiters need to unite and demand the powers that be to allow them to utilize different media channels, develop their branding and expand recruitment budgets. Recruiters need to unite and TELL, not ask, the powers that be that you are going to create a Talent Strategy. (If you get canned, I am not responsible, it just means you made a crappy case for yourself.)

If you know your organization, conduct regular employee audits (and please, no rhetorical questions or boring surveys with multiple choice), research the media channels that are available to you and truly devise a plan that will keep you on a proactive recruiting track, one that brands your organization and conveys compelling points about the careers your company provides, you will love your job. You will know that you have made a difference in the organization, saved company funds and maybe even get the Employee of the Month designation complete with a front row parking spot and personalized parking sign.

Now most of you will whine to me, “oh, well they just don’t listen to me.” Well, have you spoken in a way that they will listen? I bet if you tell them that careful planning=cost savings, they will listen. Set up a meeting and only write that on the white board. It’s no secret that there is a huge disconnect between what company execs think needs to happen in recruiting and what actually needs to happen. This is where you come in. You need to tell them. They won’t know unless you plead your case and present evidence.

It is sad that still to this day, HR/Recruiting does not have a seat at the executive table. And if they do, they are most likely on the VP level and have no idea what goes into the daily recruiting efforts. When and if I ever own a company, I will be inviting the people who are my “messengers” to try to bring more people to my company, to sit at my large, mahogany, executive table. (ok, so maybe it’ll be oak until I get enough money to afford a mahogany table). I digress.

If you are going to buy a house, wouldn’t you get pre-approved, figure out financing, select a Realtor, zero in on a general area, pick a type of house and nail down a price range? So…if you’re going to invest in “talent”, a real tangible thing, why wouldn’t you prepare?

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