Stop Selling When Interviewing Candidates

When I was a recruiter, interviews started off with a little overview of the organization.  I’d tell them a little bit about what it was like to work for our company and also cover information about how the interview and hiring process worked before launching into questions.   I often had the chance to sit with hiring managers interviewing candidates as well.   The difference in how the hiring manager handled the first part of the interview related to information about the company was always interesting.  Some said very little if anything about the organization or their department and/or team, while

Is it a Fantasy Draft or is it Talent Acquisition?

Do you know the difference between a snake draft and an auction draft in fantasy football? (If you said no, help is here!) Most people who play have a pretty solid preference for one or the other. I’m here with the unpopular opinion that it doesn’t matter which style you use (gasp!). When you draft a player to your team, snake or auction, what matters is whether that player’s skills match up with your needs in the most strategic, beneficial way.  Do you know what fantasy football really is? Talent acquisition. Recruitment and selection. When we evaluate a pool of

3 Ideas to Help Your Recruiting Efforts

In our last post, we discussed strategies for retaining talent in a difficult labor market.  Hopefully, you’ve focused efforts there, but most likely, you also need to figure out the best ways to recruit talent. Here are some ideas for doing so: 1. Expose Yourself! Exposure is a key problem in attracting talent, especially for B2B companies.  Developing programs that expose people in the community to your company and jobs are important. We aren’t all Apple and Google. You can do this through partnership with schools in your area, marketing campaigns, involvement in community and charitable endeavors and by giving your

5 Tips for Using Assessments in Hiring

In a difficult hiring market, it is hard to think about adding another layer to your hiring practices that potentially screens people out instead of in.  As one hiring manager said to me last week, “I just need people with a pulse.” But one reason why you may be hunting for people that are alive and not much more is because you aren’t hiring the right people to begin with, so turnover is a challenge and a cost to you in more ways than one. If done correctly, assessments can be a valuable part of your hiring strategy.  To maximize

Are We Taking the Human Out of Human Resources?

My first job in HR was with a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) in Virginia. It was a great opportunity for me to learn about the HR field very quickly and I loved it. But there was one thing I absolutely hated about my job, and that was having to terminate employees over the phone. We managed clients in the 48 continental states and whenever a client needed to terminate an employee, that task fell to me. Imagine a manager half way across the country pulling an employee into an office and saying “I have HR on the phone to speak