Posted on Wed, Feb 08, 2012
“We hired Skype Guy,” a colleague of mine proudly announced at our team meeting. Skype Guy, who had reached near-mythical status with our team the prior week, represented an interesting challenge for our recruitment team – a break into video interviewing. Skype Guy, a candidate that presumably had a real name, presented a not-unfamiliar challenge – he could not travel to an in-person interview, but the hiring manager insisted on “seeing the whites of his eyes” before making a hiring decision. It’s not an uncommon sentiment. Non-verbal cues that we get through in-person or video interaction help reduce ambiguity and uncertainty. For a hiring manager making an important decision, it’s not surprising that they’re looking for as rich of a media as possible. It would be easy for a recruiter to let this fall apart, simply blaming the circumstances and saying “it didn’t work out.” But in a technological world, top recruitment teams can do better.
With the proliferation of broadband, webcams and reliable software, video interviews are easier now than they’ve ever been. If you’re looking to connect with candidates via video interviews, you’ve got a wide range of options, each with its own pros and cons.
- Skype – Skype is the most widely used video calling software in the world. It’s free to make a Skype-to-Skype call which you would most likely do for a video interview. The downside is that it requires the installation of software, which in many corporate environments can involve contacting the IT department and cutting some red tape.
- Google Hangouts – A recent solution to video interviewing is a Google Hangout. A feature of Google’s social network, Google+, Hangouts don’t require software and can be private. For the culture of some companies, Hangouts may be a bit too informal, but it can be a quick, easy solution to getting some face time.
- Montage – If you’re looking to use video interviewing on a larger level, you may decide to go pro and contract with a paid service like Montage. Montage and similar paid services offer a full suite of features – live tech support that logs in to each call, no software to install, recording and playback, and a scheduling system. If it’s something your company gets excited about, a pro service can add a lot of depth to your interviewing experience.
Video interviewing doesn’t suit every organization or every purpose, but all signs point to increased use of video interviewing each year. It will come up in your organization if it hasn’t already. A perked up hiring manager will visit your office with a bright-eyed exclamation – “I just thought of the coolest idea…what if we did interviews through Skype?!?!” As you acknowledge the idea, you can tell him all about the options available to make it happen and volunteer him to help with the pilot run. That way, your next team meeting can begin with “We hired Skype Guy/Gal” instead of “we couldn’t make it work.”
Post contributed by Adam Godson
Follow me on Twitter @adamgodson or connect with me on LinkedIn
Posted on Tue, Oct 04, 2011
Post contributed by Jeff Jurinak. Follow Jeff on Twitter @JeffreyJurinak
The more I started to think about Cowlicks, HR and Recruitment Process Outsourcing the more interested I became, so I jumped on Google, to search for articles on Cowlicks…Page after page of results yielded definitions and stories on how to “manage” cowlicks, work arounds such as electrolysis, waxing and even cosmetic surgery!
Have you ever thought how many hairs you have on your head? Just for you to know, an average person has about a 100,000 hairs…so many of them going in the same direction and they work to fit seamlessly with your style. Compare this to your sales, manufacturing, distribution and research teams; they are on the same page with your goals and direction. Then you come to your recruitment/talent need s, no matter how many people you hire to find talent, your shortages stand out like the famous cowlick. Eventually you face the facts, that cowlick is there like it is for a great many people or companies and how does one manage that?
Managing your cowlick means embracing it. Understand it is that unique part of the whole that has its own approach to success. The cowlick goes in just as many and unique directions as your talent needs. Recruitment Process Outsourcing can embrace a swirling and unique need and mold a process around your unique identifier (or cowlick), adapt to manage it (hiring needs) and bring that cowlick back into line with the rest of your business by operating a system across strains to understand, locate, and satisfy those needs and deliver a strategy that brings that cowlick back into place and makes its fit with the rest of you. That is what is great about RPO and conversely challenging for a traditional HR department.
Cowlicks are invetiable as we all have at least one, just like most of us have at least one specific talent challenge or need considering the alternatives to solutions other than plastic surgery can be an excellent strategy!
For a different view on Cowlicks view my colleague Barry Diamond’s blog on RPOlosophy.
Posted on Fri, Sep 23, 2011
Thanks to Pinstripe Social Media Specialist Brittney Horn for this timely post.
As the competition between Google+ and Facebook heats up, Mark and team are turning out revisions to stay at the top of the market. Like, love or despise the changes, we all have to accept and adjust. Much has been written about the new Facebook features and what they do. But what about what they mean?
At this point most companies have jumped on the Facebook page bandwagon, and smart companies have learned that using dedicated pages for recruitment can pay off. The buzz term “talent community” has taken off in the last few months, with most uses meaning nothing more than a replacement for the standard “sourcing pool.” But with the new Facebook, the best companies (that are truly trying to build strong communities of interested people with business-imperative skills) are being handed an amazing opportunity… if they have the content to take advantage of it.
This new Facebook can be a game changer when it comes to truly engaging fans and potential employees. Sharing a brand’s message is going to be simpler than ever, but so is ignoring it. With the redesign, company sites have the potential to be more “sticky,” in the words of Mashable.com. The “Subscribe” button allows people to fully control what comes up in their news feed. So if a company’s content is light, irrelevant or just plain boring, it isn’t going to be viewed, circulated or shared. To attract people into a talent community, companies need to drive engagement with their postings. Companies have to work harder than simply posting open positions and press releases. It is necessary in the new social environment to share news articles, engage in discussions, address comments and concerns, and encourage users to interact with your organization. Oh, and automatic responses and robotic postings isn’t going to cut it anymore. People want to share and be heard by a real human representing your organization.
500 million people log onto Facebook every day. The talent you are looking for is on Facebook. Facilitate conversation that is interesting to the talent you want to attract and they’ll share it, and they’ll share it, and they’ll share it, and they’ll…
(And yes, “investigating” latent candidates will be easier too thanks to the more transparent options for sharing, but that’s not popular to talk about publically, so you didn’t hear it here first.)
Posted on Mon, Aug 22, 2011
HRO Today’s RPO Baker’s Dozen list recognized Pinstripe for the first time in 2008. Coincidentally, 2008 was also the year that I started working for Pinstripe. Since that momentous year, Pinstripe has been included each year the survey was conducted, including our most recent ranking announced last Friday. While my mother believes that Pinstripe’s consecutive recognition directly correlates with my presence in the office, I think that our consistent ranking in the top ten is a team effort. Pinstripe’s success is a direct result of the talented recruiters and employees who blog on Recruitalicious, Talent Boost and RPOlosophy and the business development team, and strategic leaders who guide the company down untraveled paths. We have clients who trust our expertise enough to let us implement creative (and sometimes crazy) recruitment ideas that differentiate us from the competition.
Click here to view the official press release about the 2011 HR Today announcement.
Posted on Tue, Aug 02, 2011
Post contributed by Jeff Jurinak. Follow Jeff on Twitter @JeffreyJurinak
Today’s unemployment, restructuring and outsourcing have really put the recruiting function in an interesting light. Giving a quality experience to candidates and hiring managers is essential – but it can be difficult. Given the high volume candidate flow some recruiters contend with, dealing with over-anxious candidates can be challenging and push recruiters to venting in inappropriate ways. If you are in HR or in recruitment, I would imagine you have all experienced the “stalker candidate.” The one that calls an extreme number of times a day/week, sends disparaging emails, and is just bewildered that he or she has not been selected for the opportunities to which they have applied. It’s ok to admit you know what I am talking about. It happens to us all. How do we deal with this?
On one hand, we want to deliver a positive experience to all of our candidates and hiring managers to ensure good relations now and in the future. The solution I have found is trusting your HR “gut” feeling and staying consistent. I understand that staying consistent can get boring and not what you feel like doing, but it is important.
As recruiters, we have to demonstrate our commitment to our process. As we all know there is a huge difference between good follow up and stalking. In the conversations we have and in emails we send, we must put forward the same consistent message. Our first instinct is usually good, if we are prepared and good at what we do. There is a reason why we did not move that person forward in the first place, and if they are following up in an aggressive way, we should not let ourselves feel manipulated. A firm but friendly consistent message stating that we actively consider all candidates’ information against the skills, qualifications, and eligibility of all interested applicants, said repeatedly can go a long way to help stave off that stalker candidate and allow us to get back to the other work we have waiting nearby.
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. ~ Emerson
Posted on Tue, Jul 26, 2011
By Kara Baskett
We’ve recently discussed the technology talent landscape and how we, as recruiters and hiring companies, can help to build and find emerging talent. Today, I’d like to talk about some ways we can not only find, but present the best of the talent that is currently in the technology workforce. There are individuals out there with the skills we need, but they can be difficult to find.
Companies often hire based on an exact skill set that is necessary for the position instead of looking at candidates for what they are capable, given their current skill set. Because of the lack of jobs a couple years ago, hiring managers grew very accustomed to being able to hire someone with the exact skill set, technologies, languages, industry experience, etc. that they wanted to fill their limited open positions. Now that the market has opened back up, we should act as partners in advising our clients and companies on the new competitive landscape.
We should ask our hiring managers to remember back to how they were hiring prior to the recession. We should coach new hiring managers to look at candidates for what they have done AND could do, versus just their previous experience. I’m not saying to hire a candidate who isn’t qualified for a position, but looking at candidates from a different perspective can lead to finding qualified technical talent.
As recruiters, we can volunteer our time not only to our hiring managers, but also to technical candidates. We can offer interviewing and resume review assistance. Many technical candidates aren’t taught how to write a resume, let alone how to interview for a job. A candidate may be extremely intelligent and have the skill set that we’re looking for, but because they don’t have much experience in this area, their resumes are thrown in ‘No’ piles, and/or if they make it to an interview they clam up. By advising candidates, we may be reaching a talent pool that others have overlooked. One of my all-time best hires had one of the most poorly written resumes I’d ever seen. Fortunately, I met him at an event where we were doing resume critiques and was able to help him write a solid resume that resulted in multiple offers. He just didn’t know how to write a resume showing his strengths.
Building and cultivating relationships with talent is important. It’s important that we cultivate those relationships when hiring is hot and even when it cools down again. Candidates remember the recruiters who worked with them, reviewed their resume and offered advice, when hiring wasn’t as hot. When the good times return, these candidates will return to the recruiters who were helpful during the bad times.
What other thoughts do you have on finding the best technical candidates to present to our hiring managers?
Posted on Thu, Jul 21, 2011
By Kara Baskett
In my previous post, I addressed the hiring environment for technical talent. So, we know there are technical jobs to fill. But, as recruiters, how do we win the war on talent and get the best candidates for our hiring managers? We can start by working together. I know, I know. It’s a competitive landscape. Why should we work together?
In the technology industry there are positions that are going unfilled. One of the biggest challenges is finding qualified candidates, with the skills to do the job. Is there really a lack of qualified technical talent, and if there is how do we build up our pipeline?
One way technology companies can find more technology talent and strengthen the up-and-coming talent pool is by forming more robust and collaborative partnerships with universities. If technology companies are doing more outreach and sponsoring programs at Universities, this will help in the promotion and retention of talent in engineering disciplines. Perhaps we’ll begin to see a positive impact on the quantity and quality of talent coming from universities. More students graduating from quality engineering programs is good for everyone.
By helping future generations of technology candidates, we elevate the talent that is available to high-tech employers. Ultimately, this should lead to quality hires for our own companies and a stronger industry.
What, specifically, do you think our companies can do in our outreach and collaboration with universities to help grow the crop of computer science, computer engineering and electrical engineering graduates?
Helping future talent isn’t the only way to find the high-quality candidates we need for our hiring managers, we need to be able to uncover the hidden treasures who are currently in the technology workforce. The last post in this series will discuss ways of finding presentable candidates within this market.
Posted on Thu, Jul 14, 2011
By Kara Baskett
Technical companies seem to be ramping up their fleets of technical recruiters. If you’re a technical recruiter or have ever hired for a single IT position, you’ve probably heard from one of our peers regarding new employment opportunities. So why are tech companies hiring so many recruiters? We seem to be entering a battle that technology companies are all too familiar with: Finding enough quality technical talent to satisfy the demands of hiring managers. Companies are sparing no expense when it comes to going after and bringing in top talent. With companies like Google, Facebook and Zynga placing offices in technology hubs outside their Silicon Valley headquarters, what exactly is the war for technical talent going to look like this time?
How did we get here? Only two years ago we were in the middle of a recession, and now we have one of the most competitive landscapes we’ve seen – maybe ever. Are there too many technology companies in the market? Is there a lack of technical talent? Are we going to run into a situation like the .com bubble? Is the real answer shuffling talent from place to place? So many questions – I definitely can’t answer them all; however, it’s great to open the dialogue, to see how we can help one another and ensure that we’re all getting great talent for our hiring managers. Let’s step back for a moment and consider the pipeline of candidates. We’ve definitely grown into a global talent community, when it comes to technical talent. Many of the larger technology companies do not care where a candidate comes from, as long as they are the best candidate for the job. Smaller technology companies often don’t have this luxury, and some don’t have the budget to cover relocation of talent. Even with all of these companies recruiting from around the globe, recruiters are still direct sourcing into competitors. Talent seems to be on a consistent move from organization to organization.
In addition to the established players, we’ve seen the return of the start-ups. Not that they ever went away, we just seem to be hearing more about them and their hiring practices. Many of these organizations are luring top talent with promises of titles like CTO and potential stock options. Some start-ups are using developers’ desire to be part of a fun, cool, and hip culture by coming up with clever gimmicks and fun tricks. Larger companies in turn are raising salaries, offering larger bonuses, valet parking, and expanding ‘perks’.
As recruiters, there are few key methods we can use to bolster the level of talent we find for our hiring managers. In the next two posts in this series, we’ll discuss ways that we can help to win the war on technical talent.
Posted on Thu, Jun 30, 2011
Happy Social Media Day!
Last week, Pinstripe announced a social recruiting contest in honor of Social Media Day 2011. All we asked was that you share with us your stories of social recruiting success, for the chance to win an iPad2.
We received some great entries. And, the winner is…..
Lauren Haymond. Lauren, we’ll be shipping your iPad soon!
Lauren shared her story of success at a boutique technology consulting firm that did not use outside search firms and had no access to job boards. She was able to determine that a large community of IT professionals use LinkedIn to network and manage their career information. “Through the use of LinkedIn, I was able to identify and network with candidates that would have never heard of my company. I used all of the basic search tools, joined groups and consistently added contacts. Working the network I built through LinkedIn, I was able to make better placements faster,” she wrote. Lauren was able to build a solid network of IT professionals and ultimately make more than 30 hires and increase the overall caliber of talent in the organization, with no applicable search fees.
The honorable mention goes to our friend Bill Boorman, who shared the story of his social recruiting project for the grand opening of the Hard Rock Firenze. If you aren’t familiar with Bill, check out his blog and #TRU Events.
Special thanks to all our contest entrants – we, at Pinstripe, enjoyed reading your success stories!
Posted on Mon, Jun 27, 2011
Post contributed by Barry Diamond. Follow Barry on Twitter @bddiamond
Social Media Day is June 30th and Pinstripe is celebrating by hosting a contest open to all innovative and creative recruiters.
The contest is simple: DM @pinstripetalent to share your best social recruiting success story.
One fabulous recruiter will be chosen as a winner and given a brand new ipad2!
This post was originally published by Barry Diamond on the RPOlosophy blog.
