Monday July 26th, 2010
Second annual Social Media for Recruiting Survey

We've just launched our second annual Social Media for Recruiting survey!

It'll only take 4 minutes, and you could win a $50 VISA gift card (more importantly, it's the only comprehensive survey of social media for recruiting use in Canada - and we all need those statistics!).

Just click here to get started!

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Monday July 19th, 2010
Struggling to create a personal brand? Think of yourself as a chocolate bar.

Want to build a big personal brand or just raise your profile among recruiters in your field?  Start by taking a lesson from candy bar brands.

Four basic ingredients.
Almost infinite positioning.

No industry has done a better job of branding a commoditized product than what the North American confectionery industry has done with chocolate bars  (or 'candy bar', if you're in certain parts of the USA).

Fundamentally, 99.9% chocolate bars are exactly the same:  50g of the same four basic ingredients (chocolate, sugar, caramel and peanuts), combined in different ways.

And yet somehow we know that

• OHenry's are for when you're really hungry
• KitKats are for when you just want a break
• MARS bars are a good sporty snack
• Smarties provide hours of amusement
• Hershey bars are somehow as patriotic as a bottle of Coke (for Americans, anyway)

It's time to start thinking of yourself as a chocolate bar

These days, anyone who takes their career seriously and is even moderately ambitious knows they need to have some kind of personal brand, even if it's just something they use to position themselves in the job market or workforce.

So what's stopping them?

Most of the time, it's that they don't really believe they're all that different or special than everyone else. 

"I mean, I'm good at my job and I know I've learned a lot over the years, but I'm not exactly a visionary," they say.  "There are lots of other people doing what I do, and I'm not kidding myself that I'm some kind of genius. So what would my brand be about?"

While that thought is admirable - the people most likely to think they're geniuses (and aren't shy about it) are the ones least likely to be geniuses - it misses the point. 

Branding is all about turning a commodity product into a special, premium or beloved one.

Sure, there may be 6 billion people on the planet, and quite a number of them may be smarter, harder-working, or just plain better-looking than you are.  That doesn't mean you can't stand out from the crowd.

It's just a matter of positioning your professional equivalent of 50g of chocolate, peanuts, sugar and caramel in a way that makes people think:  "Whenever I need to solve a [insert business challenge here], I always think of [insert your name here] because s/he is an expert on [insert solution to previous business challenge here]."

For example:  "Whenever I need to find top talent in the oil and gas industry, I call Bob Smith because he knows the oil and gas talent marketplace better than anyone else."

It's all about how you combine your 50g of basic ingredients

Whenever I'm looking for insights into interviewing, resume writing, or long-term career management for recruiting professionals, Maureen Carroll is the first person I call.

Is she the only person in North America who knows this stuff?  No.  Heck, Googling 'resume expert toronto' gets 2.8 million search returns alone.

But that doesn't mean Maureen doesn't have a terrific USP (Unique Selling Proposition). 

Her recruiting knowledge and experience is her 50g of basic ingredients - in other words, she's not unique.  But her USP lies in the fact that she's the only recruiting professional I know who not only enjoys doing media interviews, but is great at doing them.  She can churn out the kind of pithy soundbites mainstream media producers love, with less than 10 minutes lead time. 

In other words, she's taken her 50g worth of basic ingredients and combined/packaged them in a unique way.  More importantly, that combination is one that solves a business challenge:  "Whenever the media calls me looking for a resume/interviewing expert, I think of Maureen because she not only knows her stuff but comes across really well on radio and on-camera."

You do have a great USP.
You just don't know what it is (yet).

Here's the thing:  If you really are (a) good at what you do; (b) trying to be a little bit smarter today than you were yesterday; (c) looking to be better than just 'average'; and (d) genuinely passionate about your career and your profession, chances are you're already combining your 50g of basic ingredients in some kind of unique way - you just don't realize it.

So ask 5 colleagues for their input:

• Ask your boss why s/he hired you.  What made you stand out from the other applicants?
• Ask your co-workers what they think you're particularly good at
• Ask subordinates/direct reports what they've learned from working for you

...and prepare to be surprised by the answers. 

Once you know whether you're a moment of bliss or a nice light snack, coming up with your personal brand 'angle' will suddenly get a lot easier.  Really.

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Sunday July 18th, 2010
Getting candidates who don't reflect your brand? Ask these 5 questions.

You may be getting lots of candidates - from your recruiting agency, recruiting team, or company website - who look great on paper, but if they just aren't a good fit for your company, you're not attracting the right people. 

A hamster may fit in the shoes of the previous person in the role, but ultimately he's not going to be able to walk in them very effectively.

Anyone who's worked in recruiting for more than 5 minutes is familiar with the problem:  The client - internal or external - gives you a set of criteria for a role (skills, experience, education, etc.); you find candidates who fit the criteria to a tee and send them on interviews, only to have them rejected one after the other.

You ask the client for feedback, and all they can say is "He wasn't a good fit." 

After Rejected Candidate #10, you try to pin the client down, but the client's still talking vaguely about 'fit'.

RECRUITER:  "But, Ms Client,  he had all the criteria you asked for, and I know he presents well in interviews.  So can you give me some more specific feedback?"

CLIENT:  "I just think we're kind of a dynamic environment here, and he seemed too conservative or something."

RECRUITER:  (sigh)

Clients understand about brand personality and how it's expressed through employees.
They just don't always know how to articulate it to recruiters.

Recently, American Apparel generated a lot of negative buzz  in the blogosphere when their recruiting and hiring practices were made public.  Former employees say that American Apparel only recruits/hires good-looking people, even if they're incompetent; American Apparel says they hire people with a good fashion 'style', and that it's perfectly reasonable to want employees in a retail clothing chain to reflect the spirit of the brand.

Both groups have a point:  No one should be rejected out-of-hand simply because they don't conform to some perceived stereotype of 'beauty'; at the same time, we all know that employees are the most effective marketing tools organizations have - so they need to reflect the brand just as consistently and positively as other marketing efforts.

But 95% of clients aren't marketing professionals themselves, so they don't always know how to articulate feedback beyond talking about "fit". 

And of course most employers are petrified that if they talk about a candidate's appearance or personality or style, it'll come across as discrimination and they'll be in big trouble.  But saying "Our brand is all about being unobtrusive, serious and discreet; an employee with a green mohawk doesn't reflect our corporate values" is the same as "Our brand is all about being unobtrusive, serious and discreet, which is why we require all our client-facing staff to wear suits and ties at all times."

5 questions to help you identify the candidates with the 'fit' the client is looking for

Asking these 5 questions before the sourcing starts will help reduce the amount of candidates rejected on the basis of 'fit'.

1. In terms of your organization's personality, would you say you're more like Google or more like a big bank?
2. You've given me the required skillls, experience and education for this role.  What about personality and temperament?  Do you need someone who thrives on change, deadlines and adrenaline, or someone more slow-and-steady?
3. If you could choose 3 words to describe the ideal candidate, what would they be?  How do these relate to the company's overall brand and positioning?
4. What kind of personal 'style' seems to be most successful in your office?  Quiet and reserved, or outgoing and effusive?
5. Do new employees get training/guidelines about 'living the brand'?  Can I see a copy of these?

These questions not only ensure the client rejects fewer candidates on 'fit' - they'll generate better feedback when they do.

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Sunday July 11th, 2010
The beach vs the GDP: Climate and workforce productivity

WORKIDEX (noun; fr. 'humidex'):  How much work you aren't getting done because it's too bloody hot

Now that we're into the second week of this brutal heatwave in Toronto, I often find myself wondering:  How the heck does anyone in Florida, Louisiana or even South Carolina ever get any work done, especially in the summers?  Or maybe it'd be more accurate to ask:  "How the heck does anyone without air conditioning get any work done in these places?"

Turns out someone has done a little research on the connection between temperature and productivity.  A recent study by Alan Hedge, a human ergonomics researcher at Cornell University, says that once the office temperature dips below 23 degrees Celsius, productivity declines. 

Unfortunately, this seems to be another one of those pseudo-scientific 'studies' which end up 'revealing' what we knew already:  When workers are comfortable (not too hot, not too cold), they stay at their desks longer, take fewer breaks and are more focused on their work and are therefore, unsurprisingly, more productive. 

But this doesn't really address my question, which was more about the effects of weather/climate on the productivity of workers overall. 

Do workers in 'extreme' climates work less (and less productively) than workers in more temperate climates?

Now, I'm no statistician, but looking at the productivity indices across 50 countries, here's what I see:  The majority of the top-performing countries are 'cold' ones (Iceland, Poland, Finland, etc.); the majority of the less productive countries are 'warm', I'd-like-to-vacation-there ones (Italy, Portugal, Spain).

['Productivity' here is defined as GDP per hours worked.]

Looks like the hot countries work a little less, too.

Hours worked per person per week (average):

Iceland  35
Poland  38
Finland  33

Italy  35
Portugal  34
Spain  31

AVERAGES:
Hot countries 33.33
Cold countries 35.33

My admittedly unscientific conclusion?

You now have the data you need to ensure you get more vacation time this summer:  "The thing is, Mr Manager, studies have shown that when it's hot like this, my individual contribution to GDP plummets, and that's not good for the business - or the country!  So it's better if I take 2 or 3 weeks off now, and just make up the time in January/February when I can be more productive."

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Friday July 2nd, 2010
Strange but true: Stories from the recruiting front lines

Our favourite stories – the best stories – and the times that we learned the most are almost invariably the same ones. Just as in any campaign, some of the best recruitment battles are won by situations that force us to think creatively, improvise, and handle sudden changes in tactics -- not to mention take a tough hit or two.

We've seen it all: Attempts to stand out that work a little too well (like the fellow who put his picture and phone number on a billboard by the side of the Gardiner Expressway); ultra-creative applications (like the fellow whose resume was set up as a newspaper article, complete with headlines like "Man spends $210,000 on post-secondary education"); and thank-you-for-the-interview notes spelled out in icing on giant chocolate-chip cookies.

Or great-sounding candidates who show up in biking shorts and Birkenstocks, accompanied by their spouse or mom along for support.

Inappropriate hobbies and interests listed (a href=" http://community.ere.net/groups/strange-but-true-recruiting-horror-stories-and-les/discussions/18307/">really, we don't need to know!).

There are even people like that candidate who decided that he’d had it with being interviewed – and now he was going to control the conversation.

And that's just scratching the surface. Have a great recruiting story? We’re sharing some of our favourites – funny, horrible, triumphant and touching – in our Great Recruiting Stories series on the Head2Head blog throughout July, and would love to hear from you.

All stories will be attributed to their respective authors, complete with links to your site or blog (unless, of course, you’d like to remain anonymous). Post your stories in the comments - and come back to read them on Friday afternoon while you're waiting to leave work early!

Until next month, happy recruiting!

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Thursday July 1st, 2010
Interview 101 for Supply Chain Professionals

What supply chain professionals need to know

There's nothing like a new job opportunity to help us take a step up the professional ladder, to give us the chance to acquire new knowledge, or even to reinvigorate our promise and potential.

Whether you're actively looking for a new position, or just 'staying open' to possibilities, here are some important interview guidelines that all Supply Chain professionals should keep in mind:

1. Interviews are your opportunity to sell yourself

In the same way you would communicate with a new client for your company, you communicate with a potential new employer…only the product and the service is you!

2. Create and practice your 'elevator speech' whenever you can
Great salespeople have an 'elevator pitch' prepared at all times. When you're job hunting, you need to have one for yourself, too. That two-sentence script about who you are and what you do shows immediate confidence, competence, and knowledge.

3. Research the company and the interviewer as much as you can before you meet anyone
Web sites, company brochures and, most importantly, professional reputations will tell you how a company works, their position in the industry, and whether it’s a place you want to work.

4. Have a good understanding of your value in the marketplace.
While you’re conducting research online, make use of salary calculators and surveys in your region and industry so that you know how much to ask for. Asking for too much or too little will just make you look deluded or easy to take advantage of.

5. Remember, it’s all about details
Be prepared to talk about the tools and methodologies you use in your day-to-day activities. This is where you will be able to show how your experience and expertise are put to good use in the job…wherever you may work.

6. Don’t be afraid to show your personality
It's easier to build rapport with the interviewer - and to come across as personable and a good team player - if you're genuinely friendly. Revealing your personality in the interview stages will also ensure that when you're offered a job, it'll be the right cultural fit.

7. Know your resume inside and out
Be able to talk to the metrics with confidence, as well as accounting for any gaps or areas that could cause concern.

8. Come prepared with metrics
All organizations are looking for people who have made a demonstrable, measurable difference. In supply chain, this is particularly important, because employers are looking for people who'll help them reduce costs, increase the bottom line, improve efficiencies, etc. Part of the reason you got the interview in the first place is because you included metrics on your resume; make sure you have additional details to talk about in your interview.

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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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