World Class Recruiting

Recruiting Top Talent and Creating World Class Recruiting Organizations Were The Common Threads in SMA's Event This Year.

The day began early as usual, with a gracious opening from Chloe Rada.  The day went by quickly as the speaker line up had many top-notch Industry Thought Leaders, Talent Acquisition & Sourcing Experts.  The Keynote was Andres Tapia, who provided us with compelling insights and practical information on why recruiting and retaining diverse talent is a business imperative for any organization.  Among the speakers, as always a crowd favorite Gerry Crispin who was a great moderator with a five star panel of experts such as Annie Chae, Chris Gould and Tito Magobet.  This session proved to be very informative.  Each speaking openly about their background's,  experiences and shared with us a few of their successes. I am sure everyone learned something from this session.

What a great day for LinkedIn!  The company went public, how exciting for many. Another great panel joined Kevin Krantz, Enterprise Relationship Manager, LinkedIn and discussed the many uses of LinkedIn as a tool for recruiters.  The panel consisted of Suzi Edwards, Diane Hughes and Michele Portfilio.  The day ended with a session on Recruiting Metrics, nicely presented by Steve Lowisz.

This powerful professional community was warm, and friendly, often sharing their own experiences with each other during  sessions, in private and during the event's breaks.  The evening cocktail party  sponsored by us, Sheila Greco Associates was very joyous one.  The room was filled with laughter, buzz around the topics discussed and it was quite obvious people really enjoyed being there and with each other.  This Chicago SHRM is one of a kind we really enjoyed it since it gave us a chance to reconnect with clients, friends, and develop new relationships with future clients.

Again we want to thank Michele and Chloe for giving us the opportunity to be part of this event.  We were a proud sponsor and look  forward to being part of this community.

If you work in Human Resources, Recruiting, Talent Acquisition, and/or Executive Search in the Chicago area you need to be part of the SMA of Greater Chicago organization.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Bob Dylan!

Imagine Recruiting Bob Dylan? Imagine Interviewing Bob Dylan!

Today, May 24th is Bob Dylan's Birthday and he turns 70. In an article written by Jon Pareles in the Rolling Stones Magazine May 26, 2011 issue nicely describes Dylan's life, top 70 hits and lots more. His #1 hit is Like a Rolling Stone!  A few of my favorites are Tangled Up in Blue which is #3, #5 All Around the Watchtower and It's All Over  Now Baby Blue #11!

If you like Dylan the article is worth a read.

Happy Birthday Bob!

 

Executive Recruiting Trends

The Importance of Human Touch and Pipeline Development are Center Stage for 2011's Executive Recruiting Trends

The Top 5  SGA has Heard Lately………

#1 In-sourcing vs. RPO:

This trend is toward selective, not full, recruitment process outsourcing. We will see outsourcing occur more often in the recruitment of high-volume, repetitive roles, and for the function of candidate sourcing only. There will be more RPO growth in the U.S. than Canada; more Canadian markets are focused on building internally. More executive recruitment functions are moving in-house, which is reflective of a growing transparency in the market. Increasingly, candidates can go online and see for themselves who holds which recruiting or leadership positions at a company, for example, rather than being forced to stay in the dark or play the guessing game to get in contact with the correct person.

#2 Talent Pipelining:

The importance of building a talent pipeline, as it helps employers get more return out of their recruitment efforts using the fewest resources, build a stronger employment brand, and create better relationships with candidates. Talent pipelining needs to be built into the recruitment process for key roles, as the push of relevant content and information to “nurtured” candidates helps build a company’s employment brand and increase passive candidates’ engagement and trust.

#3 Human Touch is Needed:

A poor or lengthy recruiting process can really hurt your organization’s chances of bringing the best talent onto your team. Just as candidates must sell themselves to you, you must sell your company to candidates. What’s your employment value proposition; how are you attracting, engaging, and retaining quality talent?

Begin to create a more candidate-centric recruitment process by adding more of a “human touch” to your process. Communicate with candidates when at all possible, and let them know where they stand as the process moves from phase to phase.  View all candidates as a customer or potential future customer, client or employee.

#4 Social Media for Recruitment:

Social media: It can be really overwhelming. Most of us are familiar with the major social media platforms — and they are playing an increasing role in recruitment as companies realize they must diversify their recruitment efforts to stay on top. Mobile technology is emerging as a recruitment channel, as companies are also realizing the power of texting and mobile apps for recruitment. Even location-based social networking sites like Foursquare have growing possibilities for businesses and recruitment. Tablets like the iPad are also becoming more popular for work use as these devices increase the business applications offered, and companies are beginning to examine the power of tablet applications to help strengthen their employment brand and company profile.

Video interviewing is a trend that more and more businesses (and candidates) are starting to pick up on, and platforms like Skype, the largest network on the Internet, are also becoming more popular for use in interviews or for virtual meetings.

Using these mediums can be powerful — but the content you put out and the messages you are sending to candidates and employees must be relevant.

#5 The Demand for Experienced Recruiters:

Recruiters today are being asked to do more with less, making it increasingly difficult for them to be successful. The demand for experienced recruiters is high — and the recruiter of yesterday has changed to reflect a demand for those who have an in-depth knowledge of the company for which they’re recruiting.

What are you hearing?

Here Today Gone Tomorrow...Who is doing the updating?

People Change Jobs & Do Not Always Make Changes to Their Public Profiles!

Bad Names are a commodity! Quality Names are Not!

We all use social media and recruiting tools such as , LinkedIn, Jigsaw, SGA ExecutiveTracker, and others. Some are free and others are not, but we use them to source names for recruiting. One thing we must all understand is that fact that we need to get to these professionals today! Time is of the essence and it should be all about Quality not so much about quantity. Especially in the recruiting world.

We put our profiles out there on many free sites, but how often do we update them? How often do we answer questions, network, send over referrals? As we continue to get busier we will need to spend our time wisely, mostly focusing on things that we need to get done. Yes we will continue to network, but making instant contact is where it is headed.  Recruiters need emails, direct dials, cells phone numbers and more. Consider using tools which complement each other and be wise to the fact that not all tools will give you the hire each and every time. Tools that offer telephone verified information will win in the end!!!! Solely relying on the person to update their own profiles may not be all that smart.

Quality information yields the best results. 

 

 

 

Presenting Passive Candidates With Knowledge

Successful Recruiters Are Knowledgeable Ones!

Having Knowledge about The Candidates & The Potential Target Universe Makes You The Expert!

Chapter 5

Presenting With Knowledge. It says it all. You are totally aware of the potential talent pool! You sourced, networked, recruited and can say with confidence to your clients, we recruited the best from the companies you wanted! As you present the candidates you present the knowledge you gained during the recruiting process. You share with your clients the passive candidate research, organization charts, the top 7 and the 3-5 you believe are the best. Having the knowledge allows you, the recruiter to show that you listened and you are the expert.

Happy Hunting!

The Art Of Listening & Learning!

The Art of The Conversation!

Do We Really Listen & Learn When We Converse!

You need to.  In Chapter 4 we take you through the Evaluation & Selection process.  As we begin to make decisions as to who the "A" Players are, conduct deeper dive interviews, have the candidates tell us why they should be considered, it is also important to compare and contrast the potential candidates to each other.  The only way we can do this well is to really understand who the candidates are and how they will not only perform in the role but how they will do as a whole within the organization, with the team and will it be a win-win situation for all involved.  I cannot emphasis enough how important it is to listen to what the candidates are saying. Conversations will take you back to college, learn about where they grew up, why they went to a certain college, chose the career they did, and the moves they made in their career. Then you talk to them about their own long and short term strategies, where they see themselves in five years, seven and ten years in the future. Learn about what they do when they are not working. What are their hobbies and interests just to name a few. As you are doing this you need to listen, digest, understand and learn about each  candidate. This in turn will help you the recruiter to make the tough choices as to who you will be filling the pipeline with.

Have fun and learn, listen, evaluate and select!

Recruit! Go After The Ones You Want!

Be Proactive!

The Art of The Conversation!

Chapter 3, The Recruiting Campaign.

The Passive Candidate Research created the list, presented the recruiter with the lay of the land by showing WHO is at the right level, company and just awaiting our network and recruiting call. Begin to Network, Network, Network!!! It does get you many potential candidates to review, compare and contrast! So take advantage by calling, texting, emailing, talent your client wants, not the ones who are actively looking! I am not saying to dismiss the active candidates, I am saying that to proactively go after the passive ones! As we make a way through the list, we cannot forget to use such tools as SGA ExecutiveTracker; Linked In & SGA Live.

The recruiting campaign ultimately provides us the pipeline of candidates we will be presenting during the life cycle of the search. So you need to be giving it 100%.

Happy Hunting!

Knowing who you are looking for is the first step in finding them…

Recruiting Top Talent Requires Knowing Who You Want & Knowing Where You Need to Go to Find It!

Executive Research & Passive Candidate Recruitment

Chapter 1 Who

Who are we looking for? We start by creating the Profile/Job Description. The description should be simple and include such things as title, reporting relationships, overall role & responsibilities, qualifications such as particular skill sets and experience, and education. You also need to know who the client is really looks for and needs & wants. What makes he or she tick.  Remember, likes like likes so you need to know as much as you can about the hiring manager, the team, what the team is good at and what the team is not so good at.You can use this information as you begin to think about the research & recruiting strategy. Why? As you fan out from the target list you have other places to look for potential talent Stay tuned. As you go through this exercise you will now begin to understand the talent you need to find, recruit, and present

Chapter 2 Recruiting and Research Strategy

This step is very process driven and simple. This will include such things as creating the target list, the appropriate level or title we are seeking, favorite companies that the hiring manager or company has had success recruiting from, not the mention the ones that have not been so favorable. Discuss direct competitors, industry leaders, back yard warriors, best of breed companies, just a few categories that need representation when creating the target list.  Keep in mind, this step is the foundation of every successful assignment and is the starting point of finding and identifying top talent and uncovering the potential talent universe.

As the target lists are created, edited and finalized, the research phase begins. This includes building organizations charts around the talent of interest at each of the target companies. As the research is being conducted, it is imperative to not only obtain the names, titles and complete organization charts, but you must also be sure names are spelled correctly, titles are exact, emails gathered are verified and direct dials are confirmed. This makes reaching out to these folks easier and with a variety of ways.

Below is an example of an organization chart used for recruiting.

Intelligence is Everything....

Hiring Intelligently is the Only Way to Hire.

Being aware of the potential talent pool is critical to your success.

How do you know you recruited the best just because you made the hire?  Well, the truth is you don't.   You need the intelligence to be sure you did.  You do this by being totally aware of the potential talent universe.  You need to have the "inside view" of the talent pool of the professionals on your target list.

Time and time again we have proven there are significant benefits of knowing where to find the best talent, who they are and how to obtain access to them.  This is all available by using passive candidate research when you recruit.  This is done by building organization charts centered around the talent you are seeking.  This process does not necessarily need to be expensive but any cost involved is well worth it.

Successful companies have the intelligence on their competitors, back yard warriors, best of breed companies and the talent within each.

In order to be competitive you need to have the best talent.  Today a company's best asset and competitive edge is its people.   Having said that, when you are recruiting and/or looking to upgrade internal talent, become aware of whom the best players really are.

Follow my SGA Playbook and come back daily for information regarding recruiting the best with knowledge and intelligence.

Monday - Chapter 1 Who

Tuesday Chapter 2 Recruiting & Research Strategy

Wednesday Chapter 3 Recruiting Campaign

Thursday Chapter 4 Evaluation & Selection

Friday Chapter 5 Presenting With Knowledge & Intelligence

Telephone Sourcing Tip of the Day

Only 1 out of 2 people tell you what you need!

Telephone Sourcing

Fresh Passive Candidates for your next searchLooking for someone specific? The perfect title? Just pick up the telephone and with a positive attitude as best you can on the telephone, ask for the leader of the team and to be connected to that person. When you get there, ask for the team members. If they give you the names, don't stop asking.If they don't try again another way. Our experience shows that 1 out of 2 people talk. Good luck and happy hunting!!!

An introduction to a mentor of mine....Marie Dygon

Have you ever heard of Marie Dygon? She is a mom, grandmother, great-grand mother, leader, inspirational, hard nosed, intelligent, determined, decisive, team player and most definately someone to look up to and admire. Who is she? My greandmother who just turned 101. She has been a leader since I have known her. As a little girl, I remember her getting up at 5:30  going to work at General Electric, coming home by 4, making dinner while making sure things were getting done around the house and bossing my grandfather around by providing him with a daily honeydo list. A leader of the family, and matriarch, a wonderful person.

Inspirational is a great way to describe my grandmother. Always thinking of creative ways to make boring chores and activities fun. Her house was always the one young and old would come to. She would tell stories, still does and life long lessons that have stayed with me to this day.

Determined, well she told us she was going to live to 100 and she did. Every day she tells her nurses and family how grateful she is to have us all around her. She continues to say that she would never be here if it weren't for any of us. She tells us to stick to a schedule, don't change anything because she is too old to learn anything new. Of course we listen.She does have a great sense of humor too!

Intelligent, she always had a book near by when she had a bit of down time. She always told us to read and it will make us smarter. For holidays we knew, even as children we would be getting at least 2 books, many of which were written by Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. When she would take care of us we would have a reading hour. Something all of us looked forward to. Now when we visit, we watch Lawrence Welk and Friends, two of her favorite videos, which I am sure she has seen hundreds of times.

My mentor...she has taught me many things, how to live, love, laugh and to realize I can do anything I put my mind too. When I first thought about starting my business, she was the first one I told and the long hug and words of wisdom encouraged me to move forward.

I just wanted to share with you  a little about one of my mentor's who turned 101  on Sunday. Love you Grandmother. By the way, I do have a post card of Grandmother we used as part of one of our  marketing campaigns used last year and a new one will be out shortly. She is as cute as a button!!

My advice to all of you, be a mentor and have as many mentors as you can. Family members can be a great place to start........

Sheila Greco

Enjoy the day!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something funny happened today at work.....

Accuracy Counts

Information is 100% the day it is presented!

When we conduct research or name generation, we like to produce organization charts. We KNOW that it is accurate the day we send it to our clients.

Just today a client called us up about his presentation regarding last weeks research and asks, how accurate is this research. I go on to say well when we sent it last Tuesday it was 100% accurate and today we would like to say 95%, but we will go back to double-check the information.

Anyway, when we went back, we had to make one change, and it just so happened that change made it 95% accurate until we went back to make it 100%....lesson learned...here today, gone or changed tomorrow so stand behind your research and it is only 100% the day you get it. Things change and people change.

Any way our client went on to say....thanks and I am glad you can say with 100% confidence, today's work is 100% accurate.

Research is only as good as the people giving us the information on the other side of the telephone. I tell people to double-check the information prior to sending the work. This includes dialing the telephone numbers (direct dials) and checking the emails again. Although you may say this is time consuming....it is a best practice method to follow...so our teams do this.

 

Calling, emailing, texting potential candidates

What came first the chicken or the egg! We know calling came first….but as a recruiter what do you do first? Call or email?? I prefer to email then call. How about you? But I must say finding emails and email formulas can be sometimes challenging. AND email formulas do not always work, but can be worth the try. Recruiters do agree that by using both emails and calling potential candidates as part of the recruiting process can and does result in a winning solution.

If you are looking for email formulas (again sometimes they work and sometimes they don't, but worth the try!).... search SGA ExecutiveTracker for free!!!!

It’s a little-known fact that searching for email formulas on SGA ExecutiveTracker is entirely free!

http://www.sgatrackerax.com/ETAX/ (S(5efiz545c10b2abij1eqh545))/UserLogin.aspx

If you see a company we don't have a formula for and you do, please forward it on to us and we will test it and post it when it works!!! Call me or email me privately if you wish at 518 843-4611 ext 221 or sgreco@sheila greco.com

So do you like to call first or email first. Love to learn about what you do and why!!!

Bad data slows down the recruiting process....

Telephone Sourcing

Name generation  gets you to the right people!

Share what's interesting to you Just looking for a few responses to gauge what is REALLY going on out there.

First I want to say thank you to all of you who privately and public ally commented about the Telephone being a social networking tool. It stirred the pot but seems to be resonating more and more...the importance of the telephone as part of recruiting top candidates.

Here is what I am interesting in hearing....

As of late we have been hearing that sorting through lots of bad data is actually slowing down the recruiting process as it compares to high quality data. Data being names in this case. Social networking is wonderful and will never go away but the ROI and understanding the importance of fresh and accurate data (contacts) is becoming of great importance. Yes we need both, but I think we all need to rethink what a recruiter is responsible for doing which is recruiting and uncovering the best in a timely fashion. So what works for you? Please let me know. Would you rather have a name or a few names (4) to network with of those who are either a great potential candidate or a great networking contact? Or 10 names of people who may or may not be on spec as you wait for a return call/email and continue to reach out to those folks who may or may not be someone who is worth the wait? Or in other words having 40% hit ratio with your efforts or 85-100% with validated good contacts? I await your responses.

Best regards,

Sheila Greco

sgreco@sheilagreco.com 518 843-4611

Thanks to all.....

I just want to say thanks to many people who have helped us continue to succeed especially in 2009! A bit difficult,but we made it and did it positively!!! To our gold clients,  I want to take this time to say thanks to those who continued to stick by our side, gave us what they had and WE did it within their budgets. Its always about working together where there is a win-win! Thank you to our NEW clients...wow, you really helped us and we welcome you with open arms!! You too are now gold clients!!And of course the returning clients from years past....great to have you back! I thrive on helping people and developing strong long lasting relationships, so thanks again to all of you who turn to us for work and turn to us to advice. Our company is in its 21st year!! Wow! It is because of the people in our firm, with the most junior research associate having 10 years with us, with our leaders having an average of 15. I love all of them and I am sure you do too as you continue to work with them or begin to get to know them. People are our #1 assets! Speak with you all soon.  

 

I look forward to sharing my wealth of information spanning over 20 years in research & recruiting!

I graciously accepted the invitation to speak at SourceCon this year. I look forward to it. Read below for discussion topic. Can't make it email me for the presentation deck!
General Session

What a Long Strange Trip It Has Been! (75 minutes)
  • Sheila Greco photo

Sheila Greco has been in and around recruiting and research since 1984. This session will take you back to the early days and bring you up to 2010 as it relates to telephone research yesterday and how it compares to today’s. Either way, telephone research has stood the test of time and continues to produce not only names, but intelligence, current/future candidates, networking contacts and clients. If you do not know about research, you should! If you know about research and how to do it, you can share it with the group