Fistful of Talent

Happy Holidays: FOT iPhone App for Recruiting Pros

I'm not an iPhone user, but I'm pretty sure I can be one of these guys who develops an App (that's Application for non-iPhonites) and within a few weeks is raking in the $.99 per App fee at the iStore and making a million dollars, seemingly overnight.  How hard can it really be - minus the fact I don't know how to program or code or whatever it is they do to make those thingys do what they do. I'm creative, I'm an HR Pro, I know what boys people like/want (The Waitresses - I Know What Boys Like).

I got my inspiration from a Newsweek article titled My Turn: How We Built a Successful iPhone App where the authors are two guys living on Beaver Island, MI who designed an App using your iPhone to scan bar codes of products in stores as you are shopping, and the phone will then search for the lowest price of the same product at other stores. Neat idea - they said it had some bugs - but still sold quite a few. So, it seems from the App development side, you don't have to be perfect, because for .$99 people don't hold a grudge - I'm in!

FOT iPhone App ($.99)

The FOT iPhone App is the latest recruiting application that guarantees results in contacting, filtering and screening potential candidates for any and all positions within your company or organization. No matter what industry, no matter how many openings, our App can handle it.  In our year long development phase, the FOT industry insiders took great care to ensure ease of use in design - if you can use a phone - you can use our App!

Tested with millions of potential clients, we guarantee if you use our App, you'll get more top flight candidates than if you were not using our App. Sham-Wow, we aren't kidding! Here's how it works:

Step 1: Pick up an iPhone

Step 2: Download the FOT App for iPhone - paying meFOT $.99 per download.

Step 3: Dial potential candidates phone number (presumably from resumes they are sending you, or various other sources - like referrals, social media, etc.)

Step 4: Ask potential candidate hard hitting prescreen questions (not included with this App - but for additional $.99 you can get the FOT Hard Hitting Prescreen Questions for iPhone)

Step 5: Make a decision on whether you like candidate or not

Step 6: Invite Candidate in for face-to-face interview

Step 7: Perform interview process & decide whether to make offer or not

Step 8: Sham-Wow! You got a great candidate using the FOT iPhone App! 

IT's That Easy!  For only $.99 you can't go wrong!

I'm amazed each day at how hard we try to make recruiting...pick up the phone, dial the number, say hello. That's all there is to it. Seriously! And, generous me, I'm feeling the holiday spirit. I'll give you this one for free. Pick up the phone, dial the number, say hello. 

Editor's Note: Tim Sackett, SPHR is the Executive Vice President of HRU Technical Resources in Lansing, MI. Tim loves everything talent acquisition, and believes every corporate recruitment department in America can and must get better.  He has 15+ years of human resource leadership experience, across multiple industries, on both the corporate and agency side – so he gets it from both sides of the desk.  Want more?  Um, OK... He has a Master’s of HR and....well, he was recently voted #5 best assistant little league coach of his son’s five team league.

What Afghanistan Reminds Us About Recruiting - Get Out to the Front Lines

Innovation and technological advantage are highly sought after in the Recruiting and Talent Acquisition world, aka "The Recruitosphere."  Press releases about new products, daily webinars, product launches at tradeshows, articles among our industry's wider read networks, blog posts... and frankly, the majority of the Recruitosphere's Twitter stream revolves around these topics.  You might say it's somewhat of a reinforcing loop. News and chatter begets more news and chatter.

This thirst for technological advantage doesn't only exist in the Recruitosphere (or the B2B world, for that matter).  Consider national defense and the notion of "modern warfare" for a moment.  Examples of technological advantage range from weaponry to mobility to communications, etc.  UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) Drones allow an operator (meaning a human battlefield resource) to deliver air support from a laptop.  Heartbeat sensors and thermal sights attached to weapons allow for quick identification of enemies that may be hidden to the human eye.  Lightweight armor allows relative protection while allowing for operators to quickly and quietly move in and out of situations and environments previously non-negotiable.  The list goes on and on.

And despite all this technological advantage, the modern battlefield renders many of them useless.  Case in point: Afghanistan, a country whose sand and rock is stained by thousands of years of bloodshed.  The mountainous regions, treacherous terrain, caves and tunnel systems, etc. are such that many of our advantages are rendered moot.  The enemy is so "dug in" that, in many cases, the only way to get them to move their location is to "smoke them out."  Yep, we have millions of dollars in weapon systems, mobility systems, etc. ready to be employed... yet we can't employ them.  The Soviets, with all their defense superiority, lasted 10 years before their withdrawal in 1989.  As of 2009, the U.S. has already been there 8 years, only to find that the Taliban has grown stronger while we today debate troop strength and overall strategy.  The enemy isn't "out in the open" - rather, they have mastered the art of condensing and shrinking the battefield to suit their own strengths (ergo the Battle of Thermopylae or "300").  They are so primitive that they force you to 'play their game'... meaning become more guerrilla-like and primitive yourself, hence recalling memories of the Vietnam War.

So this lends the question: Is there a lesson for Recruiting in Afghanistan?  I believe there is.  See, it's often the case that the Recruitosphere (and again, the entire B2B world) engages in a race for technological advantage.  Many organizations copy the competition or those cited as "highest performing" or "award-winning" because they want to achieve the same accolades, or at a minimum, attain perceived parity.  Some even engage in a flat-out spending war, priding themselves in staying on the "bleeding edge."

And just like in Afghanistan, as the Soviets and U.S. have learned, technological advantage yields little to no benefit.  What's most important on the modern battlefield is not technology, but moreover, the 'will to fight'.  The same is true of Recruiting organizations - your competition may have the most sophisticated sourcing applications, the best contact management system, a better branded careers site, etc., but that doesn't mean they share your 'will to fight', or better, your 'will to win'. 

What I'm suggesting is the following: Through nothing more than 'primitive technology' (i.e. a phone, email, etc.) and engaged recruiters who care and are committed to winning, you can render the competition's technological advantage useless.  While their technology may offer them certain advantages, it also encumbers them and creates points of weakness - it's your job to identify those soft areas and weaken them further.  Pat your fellow brethren and team members on the back with the Roman Legion motto, "Strength and Honor" (or if you prefer, "Get Some", as we say in the USMC infantry) and get out to the front lines right now with pride that the 'will to win' trumps everything else.

Editor's Note - Josh Letourneau is the owner of LG and Associates, a Strategic Sourcing, Executive Search, and Human Capital Intelligence firm based in Atlanta.  Prior to founding LG & Associates, Josh worked as a Sales & Marketing professional in the software biz and was a hard-charging Sergeant in the Marines.  In his spare time, Josh enjoys shooting at other sourcing and search professionals as available in random paintball games.

HR Tech Rundown: The Fiesty Award, and Get The $#*% off of My Cloud...

I'm at HR Tech, one of the best HR/HR Tech shows that you've never heard of.  If you haven't heard of it, consider coming in 2010.  One of the reasons I love it is because most of the conversations revolve around talent/HR, viewed in the framework of how technology can make those who manage the talent smarter and more efficient.  That makes it cool - and not boring...

Today's Tech Analyst panel was moderated by show chair Bill Kutik, and included industry insiders Josh Bersin, Naomi Lee Bloom, Jim Holincheck and Lisa Rowan.  It was the usual panel stuff, but you always pick up nuggets of wisdom.

Today's FOT nugget from HR Tech - you always find a speaker at a good conference who is a breath of fresh air.  With that in mind, the Feisty award for HR Tech goes to industry analyst Naomi Lee Bloom.

I hadn't been around before to hear Naomi speak, and she's great.  She's like the mom who tells you exactly where you stand - without much by the way of apology.  At least if she's being blunt with you, you know you're OK.  She's by far the most direct, unapologetic speaker at the conference with the exception of the godfather, conference co-chair, Bill Kutik.  But you knew that about the Godfather (who deserves his own post), so I'll focus on Naomi.

By my count, Naomi rattled some sabers at least 4 or 5 times, including the blunt observations that most HR pros can't tell her what makes their company profitable.  Ouch.

Even if she was going after those of my ilk, it was good to see Naomi in action and ranting a bit against the buzzwords, and generally not going out of her way to make people feel comfortable.

Case in point: the term cloud computing...

Cloud computing has gotten tons of buzz over the last year.  All your apps are going to cloud, dude!  You may never need another laptop!

While the laptop thing could be true at some point, Naomi correctly pointed out that while the software as a service market is red hot and there's a real need for quality on-demand solutions, all the hype on cloud computing is just that - hype.  There's still infrastructure behind the scenes, people, it's just being hosted in huge production data centers that look like they came out of the Matrix instead of in the server room in your building.  Cloud?  Child, please...

Naomi referenced this video of Larry Ellison of Oracle, which I had not seen, but which is... simply...awesome.  Watch the rant as Larry breaks it down.  Keep in mind he hates Salesforce, but what he's saying is still true...

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