MORE PLEASE: On Making Your Job Postings Suck Less

The bar is so low people.  I know, I know.  You have legal requirements.  You're an EEO/AA employer. You've got standards.

All those are reasons you won't get outside the box. 

Fine.  Then keep your awful job description and spice it up on the front end to make people think you have a soul.  Here's a great example from MEC Labs in Jacksonville (which brought us legends like Limp Bizcut and Tim Tebow  Jacksonville, not MEC):

"Quick quiz: Why do you think most people buy a ticket to a Van Halen concert?

1. The pretty flashing lights
2. The delicious food at the concessions
3. The guy in the back who won’t stop yelling “Sammy Hagar was better!”
4. The content

You’re a pretty savvy job seeker, so we figure you know the answer to this one – it’s all about the content (although, you gotta admit, it was all downhill after David Lee Roth left)."

You're a big red tape machine. You can't write custom copy for job descriptions. You're worried about getting sued.

No excuse for you not to put some custom copy in the header and footer of your job descriptions (which goes global to all job descriptions), then change it out regularly.

The bar is low. All you have to do is try a little.  It's a zero expense item that can make you look like a great place to work, without spending the money I describe as necessary in this whitepaper.

h/t to Capitalist friend and reader JN.

ASK THE CAPITALIST: Do I Have a Legal Case Against This Recruiter That Sold Me Out?

Oh boy - here we go.  Fasten your seat-belts for a slimy recruiter story kids...

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KD - 

OK...here's an interesting dilemma for you.

I recently contacted a recruiting company. I've been at my current job for 3 years, and thought I'd check out the market.

Then, less than a week later, my boss calls me into his office. He asked me, "So who have you been talking to at [recruiting company]?"

It turns out that my contact at this recruiting company CALLED MY BOSS to tell him I was looking. He also contacted the HR team at my current employer to let them know I was looking, too.

When I first contacted this recruiter via email, I had explicitly asked for confidentiality. 

So...do I have a legal case against this recruiter? Should I go to his boss with this information? 

Kind of lost in this mess right now.

Jen

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Hey Jen - welcome to the wonderful world of scummy recruiters, of which there are many varieties (full disclosure, I'm a recruiter too).  In this case, I'd say you're dealing with the "dual desk" species of recruiter, where the recruiter gets paid to sell searches to companies like yours as well to fill those searches (which is why that recruiter fielded your call).

There are a bunch of great recruiters out there - dual desk included.  Just like any profession, there are some real jerks and shortsighted folks as well.  Any recruiter worth their salt would not have done what this recruiter did, even if they were currently working with the company when you called.  Instead, they would have told you about the conflict, promised confidentiality and then delivered just that.

A good recruiter takes your call, tells you why they can't help and their conflict, then releases you back into the wild.  They then track you to congratulate you for where you land and use the fact they did you a "solid" to potentially ask for business referrals into your company.

Unfortunately, this recruiter was a troll. You really don't have any legal grounds to pursue.

You could always be like a professional or college coach and have a third party present you in the future - at least by doing that you have plausible deniability.  

Stay strong - KD

PREACH IT: White Dudes + Aliases = Nothing Good

Here's a sexy topic for you - the use of aliases that are uncovered via background check.

What do they mean?  More than you know.  Nothing other than someone changed their name, which is their right.  Everything in between.

Some quick background - My company (Kinetix) does work for a former friend of mine turned entrepreneur.  As part of that talent work, we do transactional things in the talent life cycle like background checks for the people he's thinking about hiring.  One of our coordinators CCs me on those so I know he's taken care of, which is important to me.

The other day I see a background check come through for a developer and he's got 2 aliases in his past of the social security number trace.  2 seems like a lot.  Background was clear other than that little thing.

I started thinking about it.  Here's my practical rules for how to view aliases on background checks:

1.  Aliases + charges/convictions means walk away.

2.  Females have a lot of latitude to change their names.  They get married and have to change their name, and you can see when that happens.  Stalkers and weird vibe guys abound.  Sometimes a lady has to change her name to get a husband in or a freak out of her life.  Check.

3.  People with highly ethnic names that change them to more standard American names get a pass as well.  Welcome to America, Mr. Smith.

4.  WASPy american born males that change their names in their adult life - what is up with that?   Red flag.  I get that someone might have changed their name due to a stepfather/father situation, but you generally don't see that out in the marketplace when someone is in their mid to late twenties and beyond.

What did I miss?

So yeah - I'm talking to you white American males.  What's up with multiple aliases in your adult life?  Are you Jack Bauer, recently retired from the CTU?   Witness protection program after a run at the lower levels of the Soprano family?  I think not.  Seems like a reset for whatever reason looms in your closet.  Child support?  Jumped ship in Tibet before you fulfilled your commitment to the Peace Corp?

My friend?  He hired the guy.  Software developers are hard to find.  It's not show friends, it's show business.  

I WANT TO BE: A Head Ball Coach

It was that time recently at my son's elementary school - each kid had to answer the question - what do you want to be when you grow up?

My youngest son (9) had to answer that question, and he could have said "lawyer" (Mrs. Dunn) or "HR guy/evangelist" (me), but he didn't.  That would have been boring.

Instead, he went with "coach".  He'll change his mind later when he finds out the lack of money in the profession.  Here's some pics from his day along with my notes on why you're seeing what you're seeing (email subscribers, enable photos or click through for the web version):

Picture #1

My take - I like the way he's pointing in this picture - kind of the "that's not good enough" or "drop and give me ten" type of thing.  Identifying yourself as the coolest coach makes sense as well - no reason to wait for others to bestow that on you.

Picture #2

He took my podcast headset for the day, which is clearly not "Beats" by Dr Dre.  He's also sporting a trendy UnderArmour coaching shirt that's 5 sizes too big.  

Picture #3

He labled the headset "head ball coach" after I spent the better part of a weekend saying "head ball coach" 1000 times after I saw Steve Spurrier had "HBC" on the top of his headset during a TV game.  You guessed it - Steve Spurrier has bestowed the title "head ball coach" on himself.  Gotta love it.

Picture #4

Smart kid.  He gets to stay in the house for another year.  He's got great judgment and tremendous upside if this suck up attempt is any indication.

GIVE ME ANOTHER HIT: LinkedIn Endorsements, The Lab Rat and Lowest Common Denominators....

I don't want to go on a rant here, but LinkedIn went total lowest common denominator a few months back with the launch of LinkedIn endorsements.  Here's the press release description of this brave new world from the LinkedIn Blog:

"Starting today, we are introducing Endorsements, a new feature that makes it easier to recognize them for their skills and expertise.

With just one click, you can now endorse your connections for a skill they’ve listed on their profile or recommend one they haven’t added yet. Think your connection is great at programming AND project management? Let them know!

Here’s how you can endorse your connections:

• On the top of a connection’s profile, you’ll see recommended endorsements for them. You can suggest additional skills as well.
• You can also endorse them from the new Skills & Expertise section that now showcases these endorsements."

The dirty little secret? The system serves these up to you in a window at the top of your page, with four profile pics and a suggestion on what to recommend that person on.  Click on one to endorse, and the space is automatically replaced by a new person/suggestion.

Like a test lab rat, the system will allow you to click endorsements ALL DAY LONG to your connections.  It won't stop you.  If you're willing to click, it's willing to call the action you took an endorsement.  Here's what my "endorsement" board looks like.

That's right suckers.  I've got 270+ endorsements.  Total time taken by my posse to endorse me across all these "KD kicks #@@" actions?

Under 5 minutes. Total.  

Which is the problem and where LinkedIn talks out of both sides of it's mouth.  They shut me down a few years back when a couple of people said they didn't know me when I wanted to connect.  But - they're all to willing to allow meaningless banter when it fits their engagement/adoption/feature road map.

It's OK for LinkedIn to be superficial.  But if you try to be superficial?  You'll get banned from sending any more invites.

PS - I would have rolled out the same feature.  Anything I could do to give you that endorphin rush from LinkedIn, I would do it.  I'd let you draw bad mustaches on people you didn't like and have the world see it (but the person it question couldn't) for a period of 15 minutes if it would help the business plan.

OK - I wouldn't do that.  

Hold on - maybe I would.

In the time it took you to read this, I just endorsed 55 people.  For things like "Building Relationships"  I endorsed you.  You're welcome.  It's special.

Endorse me today.  Don't cost nothing. 

CLONES: When Employee Referrals Make Your Average IQ Go Down...

You and I love employee referrals.  We wish we could get more of them.  But, for the rare company that can generate 25% or more of it's annual hire goal from this source, employee referrals can actually weaken the company DNA.

Here's why.  High volume employee referrals mean:

1.  Your company is whiter (or whatever color is your majority.  Full disclosure - I'm white.  I'm Irish.  That means I'm really white.  Don't hate.)

2.  Your company has a declining average IQ

3.  You company is more Blue as a result (or Red)

4.  Your company can hold the alumni meeting onsite without anyone getting in their car.

5.  Your company is getting less attractive with each new hire class (which wouldn't be a bad thing if the candidates didn't know someone in the company)

Confused?  Jump over to my post today at iMomentous (a Kinetix client BTW - that's called a Fraunheim Disclosure) and check out the details.

Everything You Need to Know About Mobile Recruiting You Can Find In Your Bedroom...

For real.  There are no dirty pictures involved.  

Did a guest post today over at iMomentous on the topic, a great mobile recruiting startup that can make your boring careers site totally mobile. (full disclosure - they are a Kinetix client)

Not an iPhone app or that kind of thing that everyone downloads,then forgets.  Mobile.

Find out why the key to needing a mobile recruiting presence at your company is linked to the bedroom by clicking here.

SLIDES: Impress Me Or You're Dead - Ways for Recruiters to Improve Findability...

Hey - did a webinar last week for the good people at Workforce.com and Jobvite entitled "Impress Me or You're Dead v2: More Rules for How Candidates Judge Recruiters."  We had a great time, and the focus this time around was what recruiters can do to influence how candidates view them as value-added partners.

We focused on 4 things:

-Having a social media plan
-Findability once you have a decent social stream as a recruiter
-Likeability as a recruiter - so everyone doesn't think you're a dud
-The concept of "best in breed" vs the "suite" recruiter 

Slides below on the concept of findability.  The four things we mention specifically - email signatures, ATS messaging and header/footer space on posted jobs - sound common sense, but we ran a poll and almost no one was utilizing all three.

Plus - download Wisestamp ASAP to make your social streams more compelling and "must see" from the candidate's point of view.

Good Candidates Age Faster Than Homemade Bread....

It's true - the clock is always ticking with good candidates.

With bad or average candidates, you can really do what you want.  Take your time, be indecisive, lose focus - whatever - bad to average candidates will be there whenever you get your act together and actually want to make a hire.

Good to great candidates are different.  They've got a lot of reasons not to switch, or if they're an active candidate, they've got good to great options on the table.  They don't have to wait, and in most circumstances, they'll be gone in 14-21 days.  That sounds like a lot of time, but it's not... mainly because you have 3 to 4 points in your interview process where things usually stall out.

With bad candidates, you can stall at all of those points and have limited risk of losing them as candidates.  That's why they're bad candidates, right?

Good to great candidates age faster than homemade bread with no preservatives/chemicals in it.  

Stall at your own risk.  Forward this post to a hiring manager if needed to emphasize the best candidates in the candidate pool will be gone by the time they get back to the hiring process.  Or they won't trust you after that and simply stop returning your calls - mainly becuase the heavy courtship present early stalled out.  

You've got 14 days from the time of the first call - max.

WEBINAR: Becoming an Employer of Choice Through Your Interview Process (HRCI Credit)

Let's face it - candidates become fans of your company if you hire them.  But there's a bigger question....

Do candidates become fans of your company when they apply for an open spot, maybe even get to the phone or live intereview stage, then are told, "no"?

When thinking about becoming an employer of choice, companies tend to think about pay, benefits, workspace, etc.  All good choices, but we think there’s something missing – we think your interview process alone should make people want to come to work for your company.  What would happen if your interview process was actually so engaging and cool that it made candidates refer others, even when they didn’t get the job?

Is that even possible?  We think it is.

Join FOT (my other blog) this Thursday (1pm ET) for our October webinar (sponsored by the good folks at HireVue) – “Before the Rose Ceremony: How to Become an Employer of Choice Through Your Interview Process”, where we’ll explore the following and compare it to the meat show on the Bachelor/Bachelorette:

1. <Bring Flowers> What pre-interview, pre-phone screen features subconsciously tell a candidate that you’re different from your competitors and help you plant the initial “why you want to work here” seed.
2. <Sincerity, Please?> The 3 things that need to be present in your initial outreach to a candidate to prevent their BS meter from exploding (aka momentum killers).
3. <Places Everyone!> 5 Key Features of the live interview process at your company that sell your culture as a Great Place to Work – regardless if you hire the candidate or not.
4. <Interrogation with a Smile> FOT’s Top 7 Interview Questions for uncovering great info andselling the candidate on your company as an employer of choice – they won’t even realize you’re doing it (and you’ll get great info as a result).
5. SEND IN YOUR LESS ATTRACTIVE FRIENDS TO GIVE APPROVAL! (That’s FOT in this case.)  We’ll end with a simple audit process that you can use to determine if your interview process is contributing as much as it should toward your company being viewed as a destination of choice for candidates.

Join us for “Before the Rose Ceremony” and install a couple of the interview process features we discuss, and candidates will start to view you less as the Motel 6 and more like the Ritz.  Or wherever it is that feels like an upgrade from the Motel 6.  Maybe the LaQuinta?  The W?  You tell us.  The point is when you say no to people and they still love you, you’ve arrived – just like the bachelor or the bachelorette.  We think the way you interview candidates can help you accomplish that in the recruiting process.

**This program,ORG-PROGRAM-124798, has been approved for 1.00 (General ) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute.

Register Now!