Recruiting Animal

Marko Attila Hoare

From a normblog profile

Can you name a major issue on which you've changed your mind?

... the one that required the most agonizing - was realizing that 'anti-imperialism' (or 'opposition on principle to Western military intervention') was something highly negative and reactionary, rather than positive and progressive.

What philosophical thesis is it most important to combat?

The misguided belief that true morality lies in attachment to a set of dogmas - be they religious, political or other - and that these dogmas must be rigidly adhered to, by ignoring evidence that undermines them or changes in the world that render them obsolete, and by suppressing one's own sense of scepticism.

What philosophical thesis is it most important to disseminate?

That positive principles, goals, societies and individuals should continually grow, evolve and be reinvented, while those that remain rigid and unchanging will stagnate and cease to be positive.

... There's a price to be paid for human progress, but that doesn't mean one should look back nostalgically to a mythical 'golden age'.

Tracking Progress

Thursday Bram says:

1. It's the only way to prove progress to yourself or someone else.

2. Tracking something daily helps you become aware that you are on a path that is going forward.

3. Daily records prove to other people what you have done on an ongoing basis.

4. Your initial measurement is call a Baseline. It's the starting point.

5. A record of the times a problem occurs can give you hints about its causes. As in, "It only happens when your brother comes over."

6. Make it easy or you won't do it. This is a good reason to limit record-keeping to a bare minimum when necessary and to avoid it when possible.

Short To Do List

Zen Habits says

1. Only schedule three essential things to do per day.

2. Plus a list of smaller tasks that can be done one after another in 30 minutes.

3. Use a calendar for appointments

Animal Comment: The 3 essential tasks must be comprised of a number of smaller action items. If you are recruiting a Marketing Director. You have to:

- create a list of target companies.
- telephone source those companies and or internet source them
- then recruit potential candidates

If you want to recruit names you already have, you write down Recruit Marketing Director. You don't list the ten calls you want to make as essential tasks.

But you still have to plan a well-defined list of action items that can be done on that day (under the heading of Recruit Marketing Director).

Is Good Old Sourcing Dead?

Miles Jennings from Talentbar says:

1. Linkedin, Facebook, mySpace, JigSaw, Zoominfo are making people easier to find.

2. That changes the recruiter's function from sourcing to selling candidates on jobs and assessing them for the client

3. To perform these tasks well, a recruiter has to understand the business she is working in better than ever before.

4. The key to differentiating yourself is now an intense knowledge of a specific industry so that you can be a valuable resource to your clients. "It's time to know as much about their business as they do."

Animal Comment: This sounds better in theory than practice. In some business sectors, you will find a lot of people online. In others, very few

Moises Lopez sees the sourcer's role as changing as well. To that of a master networker. Not because names are so readily available but because companies are blocking internet sourcers from site flipping and x-raying.

Analyzing Body Language

I'm a fan of the neo-necon. She's a psychotherapist who was raised as Democrat but swung to the centre-right. So, she's not voting for Obama.

The other day, she analyzed his body posture in a way that might be of interest to recruiters.

What’s up with Obama’s head tilt?

in conversation and interviews, Obama seems to have a perpetual head tilt

a head tilt to the side gives the message that the listener is intent on hearing what the speaker is saying. It reads as “open-minded, concerned, caring.”

these are characteristics of Obama’s that have impressed people from his earliest community organizing and law school days...

But a President is much more than a listener.... A President needs to take stands and to make decisions....

Neo does bring in knowledge of Obama's career but isn't she saying here that the persistent tilt of Obama's head disqualifies him for a leadership role -- because it means that he's a people-pleaser who lacks the guts to take decisive action?

Is she an incisive critic or has she gone too far? If someone has a pronounced way of holding himself physically, can we draw some bold conclusions about his fundamental mental disposition.

Would you venture to make this kind of judgement on a candidate?

Cut Out Wordiness

A simple guide

How To Get The Truth From Liars

Reference: Paul Hebert, Fist Full of Talent.

No one is honest when there is a punishment for honesty.

Ask an employee if the incentive program drives her performance and she'll say no. Why? Because she doesn't want to admit (or believe) that she is influenced by a small reward. Then, ask she ever checks her score against her colleagues. Of course she does. They all do.

The lesson? Often, you can't ask people questions directly and get a straight answer. Instead, you have to probe for clues. When they can't see where the question is leading, they'll tell you the truth.

One of the best things to ask about are their very specific behaviours.

Asking Year of Graduation

Robert Fulford in The National Post quotes Rhonda Shirreff, an employment lawyer at Heenan Blaikie in Toronto.

Requiring candidates to provide details about the years they attended school or the name of the school itself could reveal the candidate’s age, religious affiliation and place of origin.

Hey! When I get resumes that don't have dates on the education my clients tell me to go back and ask the candidates when they graduated. Is that illegal?

Often the candidates don't include any history beyond ten years in the past. It's obvious that they didn't start their careers as managers. Should the law prevent us from asking for the rest of the resume if that is going to reveal the person's age?

Is age relevant? Lots of people think so. If they see that you are 40 and you've been in the same job for five years, hiring managers think of you differently than someone who is, say, 30 and been in that job for five years. Career progression is said to be one sign that separates good from mediocre candidates.

Onrec Recruiting Conference $895

Chicago, Sept 9-10 2008, $895.

Online Tools To Find Passive Candidates

- takeaway guide with 400+ references to find passive talent
- boolean search strings
- peel back resumes with Firefox
- leverage one site with another (Google, Jigsaw)
- Facebook, Technorati, LinkedIn, Twitter, Digg, Ning, mailing lists, blogs

Date: Thurs Sept 18, 2008
Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM Eastern Time

Teacher: Geoff Peterson. SIGN UP HERE