Posted on Wed, Apr 03, 2013
Recently, Elliot, my son told me that gum chewing was beneficial to academic performance. Since he is 14 years old, I thought this just might be his way of preparing me for a potential call from school regarding a rules violation.
Well, I never did get a call from school (thank god); however, I did decide to do some of my own research to validate the benefits of gum chewing.
Since researchers believe that the chewing or chomping process is essentially a form of exercise, I really should not have been surprised to find out, like other exercise related studies, that physical activity can produce a mental performance boost. In fact several studies found that chewing gum led to an overall increase in cognitive functioning, particularly working memory, episodic memory and speed of processing, but only when gum was chewed prior to taking a test, not during. The effect was strongest just when a person finished chewing gum and only lasted for about 20 minutes afterward.
They even have a fancy scientific name for this effect: “Mastication-induced arousal”
So if mastication-induced arousal truly improves cognitive ability, like memory formation and speed of processing, then it must be good for Recruitment Process Outsourcing too. I believe all RPO service providers are looking for an edge to increase results and this seems like a really simple and cost effective method. At Pinstripe, we provide our recruiters with other tools, like Talent Relationship Management technology and sourcing training, to improve efficiency. These investments are quite intensive while gum is relatively inexpensive. So why not put gum in the supply drawer along with stables, paper clips and sticky notes.
Let me know how this works out and I’ll let Elliot know that he just may have come up with the next big thing in RPO.
Contributed by Barry Diamond. Follow me on Twitter @bddiamond
Posted on Mon, Mar 25, 2013
Little-known FGCU beat San Diego State 81-71 on Sunday night, its second NCAA tournament upset of the weekend. Just like in their opening win over second-seeded Georgetown there were plenty of laughs, dunks and dances.
It took Florida Gulf Coast about 48 hours to go from the butt of jokes to one of the most memorable NCAA Basketball tournament stories in history. But just how unlikely was it for the team to have reached the Round of 16? Based on the Nate Silver’s calculations, from the FiveThirtyEight blog, the odds were just 3.3% that Florida Gulf Coast would advance to the Sweet 16.
It is because of the success of the underdog FGCU Eagles that every once in a while I take a chance on an RPO opportunity where the odds are not really in Pinstripe’s favor. Sometimes I just get a gut feeling that an opportunity might not be so far-fetched and I go after it. And if I don’t win the Recruitment Process Outsourcing deal, I have at least got our name out there for the better and made a great impression.
The point is simply that the NCAA tournament and RPO RFPs offer lots and lots of opportunities for highly improbable things to happen. More importantly every now and then, we do win the whole thing and, like the Eagles, we celebrate our success with lots of arm waving, big smiles and high-fives.
Contributed by Barry Diamond. Follow me on Twitter @bddiamond
Posted on Fri, Mar 15, 2013
Recently, I stayed at the Westin Colonnade Coral Gables along with my co-workers, Angi Calkins and Sadie Zobel. When we arrived at the hotel, there was a problem with our reservations. While our reservations were in the Starwood computer, they were not in the Westin system and the hotel was fully booked for the night.
If you think that this situation is heading for disaster with me ranting on and on (like I did several years ago when my Hilton Honor points magically disappeared) and declaring a boycott of Starwood properties, then you are absolutely wrong!
Here is how the Westin turned the situation around and made me a happy customer:
The 1st thing was that the front desk personnel promptly said “Mr. Diamond, I know we can’t find your reservations and the hotel is booked, but we guarantee you’ll all have rooms for tonight. So why don’t you relax in the lobby while we fix the situation. And while you and your friends are waiting, beverages are on us.”
Situation resolved and life goes on…but wait there's more…
While I was roaming around waiting for the room glitch to be resolved, I noticed a placard in the lobby inviting all guests to a 6:45 AM refreshing morning exercise walk hosted by the hotel General Manager, Michael McMahon. So the next morning, I joined Michael for a 45 minute jaunt and discussed the hotel business, Recruitment Process Outsourcing and our customer service philosophies.
What a fabulous thing Michael is doing! Every morning he connects with his customers, finds out what is on their minds, and learns how he can make the Westin Colonnade Coral Gables a better hotel. Starwood and Westin take notice, clone this guy and make the “walk” a replicable GM best practice.
And to my RPO service provider friends, here's my recommendation:
Take a walk with your customers, ask questions and spend time listening. You’ll learn a lot and the exercise will be good for you too.
Post contributed by Barry Diamond. Follow me on Twitter @bddiamond
Posted on Tue, Mar 05, 2013
About a month ago, I heard author Dan Slater interviewed on NPR. Dan Slater’s new book, “Love in the Time of Algorithms,” explores the history and modern-day implications of the explosive growth of online dating, now a $2 billion business in North America. His book offers an interesting history of computer-aided matchmaking and an investigation into the mystery of whether science, with the help of a computer program, can actually predict love.
When I heard Mr. Slater interviewed on public radio, I naturally thought of all the possible RPO algorithm applications. It seems to me that it would be so much easier for buyers if they could go to RPOmatch.com or RPOharmony.com enter some data, have some automated reasoning applied and out comes their RPO service provider soul mate.
No more RFPs. No more site visits and lengthy presentations. The entire recruitment process outsourcing vendor selection would be completed by buyers’ and service providers’ profiles being connected through mathematics.
For example, if a Recruitment Process Outsourcing buyer entered the follow characteristics:
- Pure play RPO
- Financial Services Life Sciences, Healthcare, Technology and Consumer Brands industry focus
- Has exclusive TRM technology
- Loves challenges, directness and innovation
Then the algorithmic RPO service provider output would be:
Fascinating!
I like everything about this revolutionary matchmaking method except, there would be no need for sales people anymore and I’d be out of a job.
Yeah, now that I think about it, RPO algorithms would never work.
Post contributed by Barry Diamond. Follow me on Twitter @bddiamond
Posted on Mon, Jan 28, 2013
Living in Wisconsin has its benefits especially if you like weird and offbeat news. I know all places have odd happenings and news stories, but it seems like our state has more than our fair share. Just ask someone from Sheboygan, WI if this is true. In fact, in a scene from General Hospital on March 16, 2011, Alexis tells Luke and Ethan that they belong in Sheboygan, WI. She was referencing Sheboygan because Sheboygan has the distinction of being the 17th strangest city in the US. If you want to read more about Sheboygan’s quirkiness, then check out the site: Only in Sheboygan.
And Sheboygan is not alone in Wisconsin for its wackiness (we are the only state with 3 cities ranked in the top 25 of weirdness; Madison is 3#, Sheboygan is #17 and Milwaukee is #21). For example, this week two dancers at a Juneau, WI exotic club brawled over $1. When the sheriff arrived, he reported that both women were “tussling on the floor, 
punching, slapping and pulling each other’s hair” because a customer tried to give a dollar to one of dancers and the other dancer took it. And to add to the insanity of this, one of the women is pregnant.
As I envisioned this scuffle (thankfully no pictures accompanied the newspaper article), it kind of reminded me of a few RPO deals this past year where the battle to win seemed way out of proportion to the revenue potential and any associated industry prestige.
So why do we treat these RPO opportunities as duels to the death? Why have an epic battle and try to obliterate the competition over a smaller recruitment process outsourcing opportunity or project? Joe Namath once said “If you're not gonna go all the way, why go at all?” Is that why some RPO service providers act like the 2 Juneau, WI strippers fighting over a client’s single dollar bill? Maybe in sports and exotic dancing the “win at all costs“ attitude works, but this is not how we should conduct ourselves in RPO. Right?
Since it is January and I’m still working on my 2013 resolutions, I will add the following to my list of New Year pledges; if I have to do something equivalent to mud wrestling my competition in a speedo as perquisite to winning a fringe deal, then I will find another opportunity more suited for Pinstripe.
Post contributed by Barry Diamond. Follow me on Twitter @bddiamond
Posted on Wed, Jan 16, 2013
Recently, Barbara, my wife, had surgery (fyi - she’s doing well) and needed a couple of days to recover. To pass the time as she recuperated, she watched seasons 1 and 2 of Downton Abbey.
For those unfamilar with the show, Downton Abbey is a British period drama television series. The series, set in the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey, depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the Edwardian and post-Edwardian era — with great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy.
Several of the story lines revolve around the issues between the British aristocracy (the people who live upstairs) and the manor staff (the people who live downstairs). The priviledged upstairs lords and ladies want everything to stay the same, while many residing downstairs look to embrace change and rise up in the evolving world order.
As the New Year begins and I survey the Recruitment Process Outsourcing landscape, I see some characteristics of Downtown Abbey in our industry. There are a group of RPO vendors at the top (with "top" being simply defined by size) that are clinging to the old ways of doing things…what they deliver today is basically the same as what they delivered a decade or more ago. Some have maybe repackaged their steadfast products and changed their website, but at the end of the day there is not much difference in what they do and how they do it. Pricing models have not evolved; SLAs look basically the same; and resource org charts are still filled with the same labels.
Conversely, there are RPO service providers who are embracing the new; new delivery models, no governannce structures and new technologies. As these RPO firms look up at the “aristocracy” they see that some of these top firms are starting to lose existing clients and marketshare because yesterday's solutions are not sufficient for the dynamics of today's market. The downstairs RPO providers are truly attracting attention with their ideas, differences and boldness. And while these "downstairs" RPO providers might not be winning every deal, they are turning heads and making progress.
And where does my company, Pinstripe, fit in to Downton Abbey RPO analogy? At Pinstripe, while we are a Baker's Dozen RPO company, we continue to act like we did in the beginning; our attitudes around evolving and transforming continue to drive our success and we refuse to get caught up in our own success and become complacent. Our goal has always been industry substance over industry status. In my opinion, this is the only approach to long term sustainability and professional satisfaction.
Happy New Year and have a great 2013!
Post contributed by Barry Diamond. Follow me on Twitter @bddiamond
Posted on Mon, Dec 17, 2012
Ken Jennings is one of America’s most recognized game show contestants. Jennings is noted for holding the record for the longest winning streak on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy and as being the all-time leading money winner ($3,172,700) on American game shows.
And for 2012 holiday season, he just published his newest book: Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids. The book looks at 125 classic mom-isms and then either proves or debunks these yarns through the miracle of science.
Here are 4 examples that are examined and explained by America’s trivia guru:
- Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis
- Don't cross your eyes or they'll stay like that
- Swallowed gum stays in your stomach for 7 years
- This will go down on your permanent record
Is any of it true? If so, how true? Armed with medical case histories, scientific findings, and even the occasional experiment on himself (or his kids), Jennings exposes countless examples of parental wisdom run amok.
So, while I'm clearly not in Ken Jennings’ league, I do want to share my top RPO industry tales that many believe as fact, but are mostly fiction:
- Recruitment Process Outsourcing is primarily about cost savings. Clearly cost is a consideration but so many organizations have been burned over the last decade by engaging with the lowest cost RPO provider that current buyers are looking more and more at value and Return on Investment versus simply price.
- A majority of HR professionals know what RPO is. In a recent market research study, I learned that a lot of HR leaders still grouped RPO with agency hiring and contract/temporary staffing. In fact, survey participants identified RPO services with some staffing companies that did not even have an RPO offering. It is disturbing that RPO service providers have not done a better job educating and sharing what we do and our value proposition.
- RPO only works for hourly, high volume hiring. The notion that RPO is best suited for job families like retail or call center needs to be debunked. At Pinstripe, just as much effort is on professional hiring like engineering, sales and nursing. Every organization has different needs and for RPO to be effective it must address these needs regardless of the type of hiring.
- HR leaders lose control with RPO. They might lose direct report headcount but this should not be equated with control. My experience is that HR leaders in fact gain control because they have so much more available data and service provider consultative resources to make fact-based decisions and talent acquisition improvements.
- All RPO service providers are created equal. If this was a true statement, then all service providers would all be expanding by the same general RPO market growth rate. This is not the case and those that follow the industry closely know that in 2012 there were definite RPO winners and RPO losers.
Have a great holiday (and safe) season!
Post contributed by Barry Diamond. Follow me on Twitter @bddiamond
Posted on Mon, Dec 10, 2012
2012 has been a great year for Pinstripers and our clients. All year, we have been sharing insights that help with the unique challenges and opportunities in talent acquisition and management.
We’ve assembled a round-up of the most requested content to help you hit the ground running in 2013. Throughout the month we will tweet about each piece so make sure you follow the hashtag #talentmindset on Twitter. And feel free to give the gift of knowledge to your colleagues and share any interesting learnings with them. Enjoy!
1. Quality of Hire: Myth or Measurement
Take a look at the historic problems with measuring quality, view the challenge through a new lens, and learn to establish a definition of quality for each position, develop standards to measure quality of hire, and investigate new screening and selection tools to proceed in a more effective way. Request Download >>
2. RPO 2.0: Paradigm Shift in RPO Value Proposition
According to a report from global research and advisory firm Everest Group, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) has evolved to what it describes as RPO 2.0 to address the new challenges facing HR leaders in making business impact through their talent acquisition and management practices. Learn More >>
3. Get It Right to Get Results: Creating the Business Case for RPO
The current uncertain economic climate may be the ideal time to consider the benefits of partnering with an external recruitment provider. According to many studies, Recruitment Process Outsourcing solutions consistently achieve results equal or superior to alternative models. This whitepaper includes a thought provoking framework beginning with the definition of RPO, moving to sharing the financial and operational benefits, and ending with a helpful guide for spreading the discussion across your organization. Request download >>
4. HR Executive Magazine: Thinking Global, Hiring Local
In this article, Pinstripe Executive Vice President Angela Hills shared her thoughts on how HR leaders should select and work with a recruitment process outsourcing partner for global hiring. Learn more >>
5. Corporate Recruiting: How Does Your Organization Measure Up?
A strong talent acquisition function enables organizations to source and select the best talent for driving success today and prepares the business for tomorrow’s needs. In this on-demand webinar, Kim Lamoureux, principal analyst for talent acquisition at Bersin & Associates, presents benchmarking data from its 2011 Talent Acquisition Factbook study and shares key insights for improving the quality of each hire. Access on-demand webinar >>
6. Investments in Recruiting: Getting the Most for Your Sourcing Dollars
In this report, we highlight where talent acquisition dollars are being spent, where investments are being made for sourcing and from where new hires are actually coming. This report has been excerpted from the Bersin & Associates Talent Acquisition Factbook® 2011: Benchmarks and Trends in Spending, Staffing and Key Recruiting Metrics. Request download >>
7. Recruiting Analytics: Key Metrics and Approaches for Improving Quality of Hire
In this report, we share quality of hire metrics and approaches for improving quality of hire. This report has been excerpted from the Bersin & Associates Talent Acquisition Factbook® 2011: Benchmarks and Trends in Spending, Staffing and Key Recruiting Metrics. Request download >>
8. Lights, Camera, Action! Is Video Interviewing Right for You?
In this on-demand webinar, Grant Burrall, Strategic Partnership Manager, and Michele Ellner, Director of Marketing, at Montage, a leading video interviewing solutions company, provide an overview of the basic mechanics of video interviewing and discuss how it improves the pre-hire screening process. Access on-demand webinar >>
9. Milwaukee BizTimes: Be Bold: Culture of Innovation drives Pinstripe's growth
Pinstripe’s executive leadership team was profiled in a Milwaukee BizTimes cover story entitled, Be bold: Culture of innovation drives Pinstripe’s growth. Read the complete article and view photos of the team >>
10. Talent Management: Take Employer Branding to the Next Level
Pinstripe Executive Vice President Angela Hills was quoted in the September edition of Talent Management magazine in an article entitled Take Employer Branding to the Next Level. Read the complete article (beginning on page 24) >>
Posted on Fri, Nov 09, 2012
This past weekend Barbara, my wife, and I went to see the Ben Affleck movie, Argo. Based on true events, Argo chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis-the truth of which was unknown by the public for decades. On November 4, 1979, as the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But, in the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed, a CIA "exfiltration" specialist named Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with a risky plan to get them safely out of the country. 
The movie is about deception, bluffing, lying and trickery in order to save the lives of the six Americans. The CIA sets up a phony cover story for the six embassy staff around the making of a science fiction movie, Argo. For the ruse to be successful, the six Americans need to pose as Canadian film makers scouting Middle East movie locations as their exit strategy from Iran.
So what does Argo the movie have to do with RPO? Well, as RPO has gained popularity, some opportunistic RPO providers have taken a page from the CIA’s play book when it comes to using smoke and mirrors. Their near term goal seems to be: "fake it until they make it."
Here are the top 5 ways that some less honorable Recruitment Process Outsourcing firms are deceiving the buying community:
- They are advertising "dedicated resources" for their clients, but many critical services, like sourcing and screening, are really being transacted by a pooled group of workers who may or may not have much specific industry or client knowledge.
- While clients are paying for recruitment marketing and should have ownership of all candidates, the reality is that some RPO service providers are co-mingling client databases (and creating compliance issues).
- In the RPO world, we tell our clients that we are promoting their employment brand exclusively; however, more often than not, I’ve observed that RPO firms are either advertising under their name or co-branding with their clients. The only way to be true to the essence of RPO is to use the client’s employment brand. Anything that deviates from this formula dilutes the success of RPO.
- At Pinstripe we work diligently to fully integrate into our client's world. However, not all RPO firm make this effort and, if fact, I have been told twice in the past few months about service providers flatly refusing to take this strategic approach. I’ve even heard recent stories about RPO firms that decline to use their client’s applicant tracking system even though it creates data integrity and compliance problems.
- Pipelining, social recruiting and building talent communities is a very hot topic right now and every RPO company is saying “we do that!” but the reality is that few RPO service providers really are intergating long-term talent attraction strategies into their programs. One can speculate why, but I believe it has to do with the cost per hire pricing model (and I plan to write more about this in a future blog post).
In conclusion, there are many good RPO services providers (beyond just my employer, Pinstripe,) who are true to their RPO word and deliver on their talent acquisition promises with no deception whatsoever. Unfortunately, not all firms fall into this category and all I can do is hope that these “Argo” RPO companies have the same success as the actual rescue operation but I doubt it.
Post contributed by Barry Diamond. Follow me on Twitter @bddiamond
Posted on Thu, Nov 01, 2012
Earlier this year, Everest Research reported that nearly 400 Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) partnerships were coming up for renewal in the next two years. Wow. There is no doubt that some of these RPO clients will be rethinking first, whether the RPO model works for them, and second, whether they have the right partner. When is the last time you heard as much energy around the number of contract renewals coming up for bid in payroll outsourcing? No doubt businesses change partnerships from time to time, but rarely do you hear of organizations choosing to in-source their payroll functions after they’ve made the leap. I believe this is a key indicator of where we are on the growth and adoption curve of RPO. We’re past early adoption, experiencing solid growth as more organizations see the value in the model, and will likely continue to see growth in adoption even if the economy does stumble again.
Being at this stage in our growth curve as an industry also means a lot of attention – new entrants, acquisitions, and mergers, seem to be regular news in the industry and it isn’t likely to change anytime soon. It is a big part of what happens to any industry as it matures. What does this mean to those involved, those of us not sitting on the sidelines? What the industry looks like today and what it will look like next year or the year after will likely be very different. It seems that most players in the industry have chosen to ‘declare’ their intentions – whether it be to align with staffing, technology, HR consulting and HRO, or to remain solely focused on RPO, through the choices made in acquisitions, mergers, and other capitalization efforts. The choices each has made tell a lot about an organization’s focus, but guaranteed, several years from now, it will be different again. Small players will grow, large players could choose to focus in new directions, and someone will eventually crack the nut of what global RPO really means. For those looking to choose an RPO partner, the gaps between what current providers are today and what they may become in the future makes any decision challenging. Yet, it is also want makes it exciting. It puts us all in the mix together as we shape what talent acquisition is in the future. Watch your step, but jump on board!
Post contributed by Angela Hills. Follow me on Twitter @angelahills.
