Saturday January 31st, 2009
But if you AREN'T there, people wonder

So this week was the HRPA (Human Resources Professional Association, Conference: a three-day bacchanalia (if such a thing is possible in HR) of workshops, networking events and, most importantly, a trade show with 230+ exhibitors all anxious to get their hands on some of the billions of dollars spent on HR-related services each year in Canada.

The HRPA Annual Conference is billed as the second-largest HR conference in North America (I have no idea if this is true, but it's certainly considered 'the' HR event in Canada and has been for years). There are plenty of seminars, workshops, breakout sessions, keynote addresses, sometimes with name-brand speakers, plenty of high-priced sponsorship from blue-chip brands, and hundreds of people descend into the bowels of the earth (otherwise known as the South Building at the MTCC) from 7am on Wednesday until 2pm on Friday.

But here's what I find most hilarious about the HRPA conference: in all the years that Head2Head has been participating in the HRPA conference (this week marked the fourth year in a row that Head2Head has had a booth in the tradeshow part of the conference), I have never, at any time, heard a single person say anything like, "Wow! The HRPA conference is only a couple of weeks away - I can't wait!"

HR professionals (whose companies have paid $1200 each for them to be there!) don't exactly wax rhapsodic about the workshops and seminars; exhibitors treat the whole thing as 3 days of wasted productivity, and lament that they'll never see an ROI on the $5000 (minimum) they forked over to be there.

The tradeshow floor becomes the scene of sustained guerilla warfare: the delegates (typically intermediate-level HR types with little or no decision-making power, who treat the conference as a 3-day vacay) slink past the booths, eyes alert for good swag that they can dart in and grab without actually making eye contact with the booth staff. Meanwhile, the exhibitors lurk in their booths, with one mandate: to collect as many business cards as possible. Because we all know that if you collect 438 business cards, sales are sure to follow!

Right?

Of course, HR-related tradeshows are always going to be a little odd: You'd be hard pressed to find a more diametrically opposed set of people than 'HR professionals' and 'salespeople in tradeshow booths'.

So why do we all continue to participate in HR conferences year after year? Do we really have more than anecdotal evidence to support an ROI?

I look forward to your comments...

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Friday January 30th, 2009
7 Habits for Effective Relationships Blogging

Blogging, like any other exercise recruiters engage in, is all about the people you meet. The people we meet via this platform express their opinions, talk about their experiences and reveal themselves. That openness itself is brave and worthy of respect. Like any other blogger, I've been depressed by the recent drop in the number of comments. More recently, I've realised that I can do something about it!

Here are seven rules I now follow in the hopes of creating highly effective relationship blogging. Call it a manifesto for relationship-based recruitment blogging, if you will.

1. The golden rule of blogging is: you comment, I follow. If you leave a comment on my blog, I will return the favour by visiting your blog. It builds community, introduces us to new voices and perspectives and is just polite. Comment spammers, however, just don't count.

2. If you inspire me, if I am referred to information resources via your blog, or pick up a thread or discussion topic as a result of your work, I will credit you and link back to your source.

3. I recognise that writing for interactive media means using interactive tools. Polls, surveys and other tools help ensure that we keep in touch with our audience. Without that feedback from the wider community, internet content might as well just be a paper bulletin circulated by homeroom teachers.

4. I will try harder, to respond to comments the way I respond to prospective clients or candidates: to learn more about them, about what they want, what they can do and how I can help them do it. Too much of the Internet world is rife with trolls, argument, and one-up-man-ship. Recruiters do better than that on the phone, they can do better than that through blogging.

5. I recognise that creating opportunities for discussion is not entirely my job. Sometimes, I need to take on the less important role of referring others to existing discussions. Since I am used to competing with other recruiters for the best placements, it is difficult to hold back when it comes to blogging and embrace the cooperative nature of interaction.

6. I believe that traffic must flow. I do not own my readers. I do not need to fear that, if they read another blog -- or write their own --that they have somehow cheated on me. By providing them with links to other interesting voices, I create opportunities for the traffic they generate to flow in both directions.

7. I comment on others work before I expect comment on my own.

Simple, really, isn't it?

link to image source

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Saturday January 24th, 2009
TUMBLR: Just what you needed - another bloody social networking site

Now that you've installed Facebook for Blackberry, set up your Twitter account, updated your LinkedIn profile and watch YouTube on your iPhone, you probably thought you were a fully up-to-date member of the online social networking cognoscenti, didn't you?

Ha!

Because here comes Tumblr.com, a sort of combination of MySpace (in that you can add multimedia and customize your profile), a blog (in that it's meant to be updated frequently and be fairly organic), and Facebook (in that it connects people and information).

So far, Tumblr is proving popular with the 20-something set, especially creative types who like how easy it is to make their 'Tumblelogs' look like aesthetically appealing artwork, with all kinds of multimedia, and less emphasis on lengthy prose.

For example, comparing the words 'recruiting', 'hiring' and 'jobs', we find that while recruiting and hiring score quite low, jobs has been mentioned many times. 'Facebook' is mentioned far oftener than 'MySpace'. And 'religion' is mentioned much more than 'atheism'.

It's a neat feature - and one, no doubt, Tumblr will end up making a heck of a lot of money on.

Anyway, not sure how any of this has the potential to pay dividends for recruiters - but it's yet another networking site you might want to keep your eye on.

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Friday January 23rd, 2009
Youth, Imagination, Passion and Relating

Our friends at DECODE have just released a new paper on Building Valuable Relationships. The paper focuses on how these times of uncertainty shaping how youth look at the world and seek to define their place in it.

"As Young Adults enter the workforce they are bringing with them a unique set of priorities as well as their own models of success and leadership that are bound to shape our future," says the paper. "Tomorrowʼs competitive landscape will look drastically different and todayʼs youth will be driving that change by challenging the status quo."

At a time when most of the recruitment blogosphere is taking a more conservative view and pledging "back to basics", this tone of passion and imagination is a welcome change from the new status quo.

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Tuesday January 20th, 2009
Two Facts About Recruiting to Save Money

There are two things all of us know about the recruiting industry and growth:

1. Spending on recruiting overall hasn't risen, compared to other professional services, over the past decade.

2. Individual recruiters are earning more. Between 6 and 15% more.

How are these two facts both true?

The lack of industry growth? The commission-based model of payment per hire is based on an overall percentage of the new hire's salary. It's a stable 20%, but salaries haven't been rising. The increase in recruiter earnings? We work with a model that weeds out ineffective recruiters pretty quickly and rewards those who perform.

Where does that leave companies who are in a tight spot and can't afford the cost of tracking down the best candidates who could turn things around for them?

One cost-saving option is the pay-per-hour search. Instead of opening up a search to all the third-party recruiters in the area or industry, work with the one with whom you have had the most successful relationship. They know your culture, you know their methods and quality of referrals. Paying them a set hourly-fee on retainer to find your perfect person will certainly work out tp less than 20% of the perfect person's annual salary.  

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Monday January 19th, 2009
Head2Head HR exclusive: The Double SmartRewards Event!

But it just got better.

Refer a new client to Head2Head HR between now and June 30. If they make a purchase before December 31, 2009, you'll receive double SmartRewards: a VISA gift card for $500!

How to submit a referral

We look forward to hearing from you!

The fine print: Double SmartRewards apply only to new clients who make a purchase through Head2Head HR. This includes contract and permanent HR professionals and HR consulting. Referrals must be received prior to June 30, 2009 to be eligible; clients must make a purchase before December 31, 2009.

For more information, please visit our SmartRewards page.

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Wednesday January 14th, 2009
The Better R-Word? Resilient

It's interesting that this Toronto Star article about independent bookstores can hold so many lessons for recruiters, or indeed, anyone who is feeling a bit threatened these days.

Survival is a business issue and there is plenty to be learned from those who have shown the determination, positivism and interest in staying alive. Independent booksellers have faced down threats from big box stores and online retails, and yet, they remain. 

Here are the lessons the survivors have learned and the recruiter's equivalent:

1. It's all about community.

For Bookstores:

"Type Books, which has opened three stores in just over two years, runs weekly literacy classes with three local schools," says the article.

"They also do a children's story time and have a gallery in the basement at the Queen St. W. store (the others are in Forest Hill Village and on the Danforth).

""We use these services to make ourselves a real hub in the community," said Type Books co-owner Joanne Saul. "We've made it more than a retail experience. We try to make it a vibrant place to be so people will want to come and share the experience of books,"" says the Star piece by Jason Miller.

The Recruitment Equivalent:

Make a commitment to the community. You don't have to be like the fire department and tell every school child not to play with matches, but the wider world should know who you are and what you do.

Share your process to build your market. Work with universities and colleges to lead seminars for students in job search skills, networking and professional behaviour.

If you're the kind of person, like J.P. Winkler describes in this article, who only has five friends, you might want to work on your connections to the outside world.    

2. Specialize, but keep your generalist skills sharp.

For bookstores:

"Our niche is art, design and photography," Eleanor Johnston, manager of David Mirvish Books, told the Star. "We have focused on that specialty while providing a little bit of everything else. When it pertains to our specialty we're a bit ahead of the curve than most big box stores."

For Recruiters:

If you're managing relationships properly, and keeping general skills sharp, you should be able to help clients even when they need something outside your current specialty. 

3. Be unique.

For Bookstores:

"We've seen things go up and down during the tough economic period," Matt Sturrock manager of Nicholas Hoare told the Star. "We've survived because we carry things you just don't see anywhere else. Our specialty in British books offers the customers a reason to come to our destination. Customers get a chance to experience a beautifully designed store. We spend a lot of money on creating a pleasant atmosphere to shop in."

For Recruiters:

Make sure you're different by communicating your brand in unexpected ways. Announcements of charitable gifts and initiatives, the previously mentioned educational campaigns, and volunteer projects are all places where no expects recruiters to be found. Change that, and people will remember.  

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Monday January 12th, 2009
Recruiting Could Be A Lot More Fun

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/105760/Snack-Vendor-or-Undercover-Job-Recruiter

I've seen stories like this before - stories about a particularly creative tactic a recruiter has used to make contact with prospective candidates - but what struck me about this article (other than the fact that, as a WSJ piece, the sources are likely to be real, not half-remembered apocryphal reminiscences) was that these executive recruiters seem to be having fun.

There's a sense of adventure in infiltrating an organization, tracking down the secret phone number of the CEO's private washroom or masquerading as a waiter at a corporate party.  It's got to be more fun than sitting at a desk cranking out one scripted call after another.

But we can't all be executive recruiters, able to bribe janitors with $100 bills to get the info we need.  

Doesn't mean we can't have a little more fun than we're having.   

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Friday January 9th, 2009
Job Tips Group Writing Project

Our friend Jacob at Job Mob has been hosting a Group Writing Project in which bloggers submit their best post from 2008 that contains job search tips. Reading over the comments on the post, I was surprised that more recruitment bloggers didn't submit tips.

The public needs our advice. Let's give it to them. Our blogs are the perfect tool to help those facing the most difficult challenges in this changing economy.

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Monday January 5th, 2009
Recession Proof Recruiters

When Forbes published its list of "recession proof professions," the response was rather controversial. When Head2Head published its annual Recuiting Salary Report last month, no one wanted to believe recruiting salaries were continuing to rise by 6 to 20%.

To add to the controversy, let's have a poll about what skills recruiters can capitalize on to make their position "recession-proof."

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Saturday January 3rd, 2009
The (supposedly) tanking economy: More media hype than truth?

How do I know?

Well, a couple of weeks ago, Head2Head released its 2008 Recruiting Salary Report. With data from more than 2000 recruiting professionals representing more than 250 organizations across Canada, the Report found that salaries are up by 6-15% over 2007.

Last year when we released the Report - which found that salaries were up by 5-20% - the media was all over the story. Most of the major Canadian news agencies published articles about it, and it was fairly big news.

This year - not so much. It seemed odd to me: after all, with all the negative economic stuff in the media, wouldn't the Report results make a welcome change?

So I called a couple of journalists from credible publications and asked them: "Why aren't you as interested in this story as you were last year? Isn't this good news?"

The answers I got can basically be summed up like this: If the Report had concluded that recruiting salaries were down by 6-15%, that would have made the news. Editors are telling reporters that they are looking for more sensational, 'doom and gloom' stories - and that it'll be another 6-12 months before they're going to start wanting more positive economic stories again.

The moral of the story? The next time you find yourself reading yet another story about yet another store closing or round of layoffs, remember that there are probably many more positive stories out there - they just aren't making the news.

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About the Authors

Paul Dodd
Co-founder and President
Head2Head Canada

Paul has one simple goal: To help companies hire great people - and get the most out of every recruiting dollar they spend. That's why he's recognized as one of the best recruitment-industry thinkers in Canada.

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