Are you hiring college grads in these cities?  Get ready for some competition!  CollegeRecruiter.com

Plenty of talent to share in this pool.  Virtual Handshake.com 

How good is your organization at “spotting talent?”  Phil Haynes at AllianceQ

Ripping your hair out? You’re not alone.

What?  You aren’t recruiting here yet?  Gautam Ghosh

Writer’s Note:  By the way, I am experimenting with different names for this entry- I’ll happily take suggestions!

In a webcast on August 13th on this topic,  Lori Blackman, President and Founder, and Allison Kaplan, VP of Talent Acquisition Solutions at DNL Global, they shared their “professional services” approach to search.  The genesis of this approach is that recruitment is a profession, and similar to a partnership an organization would form with an attorney or accountant.  Referencing the adage that “what gets measured gets done”, Blackman and Kaplan believe the best recruiting partnerships set expectations on the front end with statements of work.

Additionally, DNL Global has tailored their business approach to focus on the outcomes desired by the partner- not just the processes.  Some of the interesting questions we heard during the webcast.  We’ll ask everyone to weigh in!

• How can this kind of business approach be linked to the overall talent management/succession plan?
• What is the impact of clear expectation setting on hiring manager? candidate?
• How can organizations balance the need for a “deep bench” of talent with the ever-shifting business climate?

The title of this post could easily be “Who Will Lead U.S.?” since our focus in today’s webcast is on hiring and developing tomorrow’s American federal government leaders, presented by Tom Fox of the Annenberg Leadership Institute, part of the Partnership for Public Service.  “The Partnership for Public Service works to revitalize our federal government by inspiring a new generation to serve and by transforming the way government works” through building communities of support, securing the right talent, and fueling innovation.

The Annenberg Leadership Institute “is an innovation and leadership laboratory where rising leaders are given the opportunity to learn the best management practices and apply them to strategic issues confronting their agencies.”  Tom goes on to describe some rising trends in federal talent practices, and spends significant time describing how some “best in class” private AND public sector case studies were examined for relativity and emulated.  These include leadership development and hiring practices from the likes of GE, Boeing, Proctor and Gamble, and GAO.

These are the questions I am planning to ask Tom- what are your thoughts? 

Why is it so critical that our government be comprised of the most talented, innovative and committed experienced and young leaders?  Why are more citizens not compelled to seek careers in federal government?  What plans does our nation have to attract the Millennials, who are being called “the most philanthropic generation?”

According to Dr. Ken Lahti, in today’s webcast, “[i]nterviews are an integral component of selection, yet they remain highly subjective & inconsistent, creating potential exposure to legal challenges.”  

What is a “good” interview?  Simply speaking, a good interview does what it says it will do:  actually predicts amongst candidates who will be successful in the job and who won’t.  Designing a good interview, however, is not so simple, but it should always be scientific, and hinges upon a couple of key components.

Job Analysis: What are the requirements necessary for the job and how is the work performed?  It is such a basic statement, yet it is shocking how few companies have current and accurate job analyses.  This process is work intensive, but is so critical for a majority of other human capital management practices.  The challenge exists to workforce scientists to invent a way to make this process take less time.

Interview Structure: Poor interviews lack consistency, and are unable to reproduce similar results from one session to the next.  Not surprisingly, this leads to an inability to fairly assess a group candidates.   Inconsistent interviews also leave mortar-sized craters of legal and compliance fears and true risks.

Interviewer Ability:  I used to begin every hiring manager interview debrief with this rhetorical question:  Is it a fact or is it a feeling?  It is woeful how inadequate most interviewers are at assessing talent quality- especially when coupled with how good they think they are.  As a profession, we really need a group or organization to design and offer a certification process for interviewers.  Any takers?  Training can easily address such deficiencies as interviewer bias, lack of skill, and proper preparation.

Let’s not forget the endgame of interviewing:  hiring the right person.

Are your hiring practices “middle of the road?”  Bill Taylor on Game Changer

Wow, that person I just interviewed was AWESOME!  Gautum Ghosh reviews The Halo Effect

Sure, hiring decision makers can have good ideas and bad ideas.  What’s the right way to disagree?  Marshall Goldsmith on Ask the Coach

Looking for that next great female leader?  Have you sourced Russia or China?  Sylvia Ann Hewitt on Recruiting in the Ex-Communist Bloc

How deep is your organization’s talent pipeline?  How many years will it serve?  If you are one of many industries in the world facing looming talent shortages, these questions are of critical importance.  And let’s face it, those talent needs are not going to be satisfied simply be playing the recruitment version of musical chairs.  Is it your turn to hire that one local professional that every competitor in town has employed for 2 years?

In our live webcast today, Robin Miller, Director of Staffing at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, and Susan Milliken, Executive Director of Futures for Kids (F4K) talked about BCBSNC’s talent pipeline programs and how to bridge the gap between employers, students and careers.  At BCBSNC, their strategy targets both entry-level talent and professional talent.  Their entry-level needs are served by high school partnerships, including established ventures with:

• National Academy Foundation Programs
• Business Advisory Boards
• Career Fairs and Mock Interviews
• Futures for Kids:  I have had the pleasure of working with F4K starting in a past life.  In a nutshell, F4K “bridges the gap between the hopes and dreams of our students and the workforce development needs of our communities.”  Through targeted programs at middle- and high-schools, F4K
• Uses the Internet to help students discover what makes them tick
• Allows kids to explore careers that match their unique talents
• Gives every student a career coach to talk to
• Empowers educators with information about their kids’ career goals
• Enables businesses to grow their future workforce locally
• Shows our kids careers that can make them happy

Additionally, their professional talent pipeline is filled through:

• College Internship Program- think of this as a “broad-stroke” solution designed to give rising seniors from participants universities experience in multiple facets of careers at BCBSNC
• Apprenticeship Program-  is truly a part-time experience while enrolled in university
• Direct College Hire Program- a training program that includes leadership and technical courses

I am really impressed by how thoughtful and successful BCBSNC has been in designing and implementing these programs.  Want more info about partnering with F4K in North Carolina, Canada or pilots in the world beyond?  Check them out online.

In today’s webcast, Ed Newman, President of the Newman Group, unveiled his new vision of affecting employee quality and creating a talent mindset.  It’s a doozie- what a great idea.  I’ll encourage you to check out the whole webcast here when you get a chance.

A new role for talent acquisition? 

Ed suggests that for organizations to take their recruiting abilities to the next level, they shift focus from recruiters as administrators to network collaborators.  How?

• Become a Talent Coach - Leading, nurturing and sustaining networking practices amongst the hiring team.  (And don’t charge them with administrative tasks like entering a req in the system.)
• Assist the Hiring Manager in developing and maintaining a network of enough people to hire from (20 – 35)
• Identify prospects to be introduced to the Manager’s network (avoid the old boy network)
• Provide the tools for managing the Network (e.g. LinkedIn, Salesforce.com, etc.)
• Attend industry events with the Manager and organize social events
• Assist the manager maintain periodic, systematic communication with network members
• Create a Talent minded culture.  This synergy happens when everyone at a company- regardless of position- has the same thought when they meet someone new at a restaurant, at a party or on a plane:  Could this person work for us?

Network Theory

Additionally, he presented the radical idea of using network theory as a way to measure success.  Network theory is essentially a science that measures, through graphs, the strength of said network.  Its application here is through a relatively new concept of social media analysis, and there are some amazing tools out there assisting in this… Ed mentioned www.touchgraph.com- so I quickly made my way over there.  Using my name and HCI, this is a pictorial representation of the power of my network.  Pretty cool, huh?

Having trouble filling your talent pipeline with diverse candidates experienced in leadership or crisis management?

How many veterans have you hired?

You’re not alone - the US Department of Labor reports the joblessness rate among young veterans, aged 20-24, was double the national average for all adult workers in 2006.  The unemployment rate skyrockets for wounded veterans.

This is truly a national crisis.  Regardless of one’s political opinions, these soldiers - and by extension their families- are being largely ignored by employers.

So what can your organization do to hire great talent coming out of the military?  According to today’s webcast presenter, Otis Collier, former Naval recruiter, AIRS trainers and now recruiting consultant, talent acquisition professionals should start by forming relationships at some of the many channels dedicated to placing vets in jobs, like:

—Internal Resources and Contacts (who at your company has a military background?)

—Career Fairs and Base Hiring Events

—Service Academy Career Conferences

—Job board posting and resume mining sites (there are a host of niche sites dedicated to returning military)

—Military Spouse Corporate Career Network

—Army Spouse Employment Network

—Disabled Veteran Services (like AMVETS, ASDV and foundations like The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.)

—Department of Labor (has a number of services to vets and employers- check out Hire Vets First.)

Today’s webcast will focus on work/life initiatives and how to measure the impact of these programs.  What does work/life have to do with talent acquisition?  We’ll discuss that in a bit.  First- let’s define what “work/life” is.  According to our presenter, Dr. Amy Richman of WFD Consulting, “[w]ork-life is a perspective. Companies that take a work-life perspective regard employees from a whole person point of view. They acknowledge that it is not just skills, abilities, and career goals but also work environment and personal and family life that give employees the energy and commitment to contribute fully. “

Creating, fostering, and nurturing a healthy work/life strategy is a competitive edge in talent acquisition- especially amongst semi-retiring Boomers and smart young Millennials.

Dr. Richman encourages organizations to ask this question: Does your company’s work-life effort have these components?

•Dependent care programs & policies

•Health and wellness programs & policies

•Education benefits and programs

•Financial and legal programs

•Flexible work practices

•Organizational culture that enables employees to work efficiently and manage work and personal responsibilities

•Workload and work redesign efforts to eliminate low value work and achieve business results

•Community focus and collaboration to leverage investments

Are there any  missing components?  Do you disagree with any?

Finally, Dr. Richman demonstrates how to measure the impact of work/life programs, and share some metrics from a case study at IBM.  And those metrics are pretty darn powerful- through the lens of an employee survey, IBM found that over 40% of their employees ranked work/life balance as the 1st or 2nd reason for continuing to work for the company.

A couple of weeks ago, Zach Thomas, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, presented on a webcast on Career and Social Website Evolution.

Social Technographics®

Source: Forrester’s NACTAS Devices & Access Online Survey, Q4 2006

Internally at HCI, we have a formal strategy to attract all of these users, and of course, this blog is part of that strategy.  A great fringe benefit is the heavy-lifting it will do in assisting with developing our talent brand.

How is your organization planning on capturing visitors to your social recruitment network?