Fistful of Talent

Recruiter Goat's Gruff: Recessions Bring Out Our True Recruiting-Self...

Recessions tell us a good deal about ourselves as Recruiting Animals, don't they?  If you want me to be honest, I really wish we didn't have any, but the fact is that we do . . . and the cycle is fairly predictable.  One thing I've come to learn is that down economic periods shape our view of what is truly important in life.  For example, my grandparents often told me stories I will never forget about living through the Great Depression as young children. And as the number of unemployed grow, I find myself having more and more conversations in which the downsized candidate needs, above all things, a flicker of positivity; many simply pick up on the hope in your voice and it can change their outlook, giving them some momentum to continue pushing forward.  "These are tough times, but we will come out of this."

Yet, as I say this, I am dismayed at the number of candidate-bludgeoning articles (and today, blog posts) that come out during recessionary times such as those we find ourselves in today.  It's as if many Recruiters (internal and external) are now sporting "a gun and a badge."  At a time when we can do the most good (see David Pritchard's efforts to assist the candidate market), there are entire series coming out that do nothing but perpetuate this majority-versus-minority mentality.  The latest installment in the Egregiously Bad Candidate series, "7 Great Ways to Ensure No Recruiter Ever Reads Your Resume" was the breaking point for me.  Seriously, with 50% of the entire Recruiting population gone over the last 12 months, those of us still standing are better than this.  Let me ask: At what point did we transition from a highly skilled and passionate group of people continuously seeking to find and secure the best talent, to behaving as if we're trolls guarding the bridge?  "Thou Shall Not Pass!"

Watching more and more of these negativity-focused articles come out, I can't help but believe they're exactly what we don't need . . . and as far as the unemployed population goes, it's no wonder many are scared of (and turned off by) Recruiters.  And in that sense, I've come to some conclusions I'd like to share today.  As always, I welcome your thoughts and ask you to add to the list:

1. We, as a Recruiting Industry, have taught the candidate market many of their bad habits.  That's a fact, Jack.  For example, is it ok for us to blind mass email out job descriptions . . . but then flex on the candidate population when they blind mass email their resume?  Until we elevate our own behavior, we're nothing more than sitting in glass houses.

2. For all you External Recruiters out there, let me shoot straight with you: If you can afford to screen out on the basis of petty issues (i.e. "I didn't like their signature line"), you're in the wrong niche.  For Internal Recruiters, I'll say this: Just because the average tenure in your position is 8 - 12 months, you still hold responsibility for your organization's employment brand.

3. Just because we temporarily hold a position of power (i.e. Recruiters can screen in or screen out on the basis of personal discretion), doesn't mean that we should abuse our power.  Acton was right when he stated that, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Look, if you want to be a gun-and-badge toting monster, I understand there isn't a whole lot I can do to change your mind.  But, If I can leave you with one thing today, it's this: Don't forget what happened to the Troll in Billy Goat's Gruff.  He's no longer recruiting.  Nope, he now works at a used-car dealership and moonlights as an real estate consultant.

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.

Recruiters Should Stay in the Jungle a Bit Longer...

I'm not much of a reality TV guy - but I did catch part of the NBC series "I'm a Celebrity- Get me Out of Here" a few weeks ago and as a search consultant - it resonated with me in many ways. Celebrities were dropped off in the jungles of Costa Rica to deal with major obstacles like snakes, huge mosquitoes, tropical heat, thunderstorms and a whole host of other challenges they were not used to dealing with, to see who would survive and be crowned "King or Queen of the Jungle". 

The analogy here is that in the search business we are dealing with an environment that is also full of challenges. A crazy job market and with no certainty on the turn-a-round for starters. To my point, one day the RCI (Recruiter Confidence Index) is up. Thirty days later, it's down. I truly believe the market is turning... and it's a message I have articulated to my clients and candidates - and to the market as a whole in previous posts I've written . After all - having a positive outlook and remaining upbeat is both exciting and therapeutic for me. It's the way I roll, and it's how I'm wired. I always try to find the good in every situation. I would rather remain upbeat and positive rather than the alternative. The caveat is that I don't know when things will turn for sure and find it hard to fathom that anyone can forecast exactly when we will see meaningful signs of improvement. 

Many recruiters are riding out the storm, keeping their head down working - while others have been hammered by the industries they serve. It's not their fault. I sense that the number of recruiters that are actively working on search assignments is shrinking each month. It's all about survival for many as we ride out the storm anticipating a positive tilt in supply and demand.  Bailing out too early could prove to be a bad strategy. Let's face it, for some, in recent weeks the search business has improved somewhat. And...I think it will continue to improve in the weeks and months ahead. Hopefully things should be moving in the right direction by Q4 and as we roll into 2010. Our business is up over the two previous quarters and I'm bullish on a recovery. I'm just not sure when that will happen.

So why are some recruiters running to the helicopter pad now? For some, it's simple economics. Others have made the decision to listen to the media (daily) for inspiration (NOT). Some just choose not to deal with adversity. Some call it FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). Here's the problem, once FUD sets in, the downward spiral starts. It becomes very difficult to turn things around and before you know it - it's out of control. 

Hey - it's painful to not be busy or worse - take an economic hit below the belt. Many experts say when the market turns, many of us will not even know it until the recovery is in full swing. The heat in the jungles of Costa Rica  is fraught with pitfalls (bad weather, snakes, bugs and other elements). So is the search business (cancelled searches, lower retainers, hiring freezes etc). No doubt, this economy has been challenging - even for the most seasoned recruiters. But I believe if one has been in this search storm for this long, it's better to ride out the storm instead of leaving the jungle prematurely. The recruiters that remain will reap the rewards when demand replaces the current slump in talent acquisition. It will happen. In the meantime, recruiters should be providing significant value to their existing clients by offering services that may not yield a fee. Improving service levels and adding value is really a key differentiator - and clients will remember you over your competitors that only think in transactional terms. Trust me!   

So...there is a chopper waiting to take you back to safety if you decide to leave. You might consider stoking the fire, slapping on some more suntan lotion, unfold the mosquito net, spray on a bit more OFF (Tropical Fresh preferred) and keep a watchful eye out for things moving below your feet. Do your very best to protect yourself from all of the elements that are lurking in the jungle. But stay. That's right - you should hang in there just a bit longer. Soon, the clouds will open and the market will recover. I can see it now and I can't wait!

I'm staying...

Editor's Note - Tim Tolan is a partner at Sanford Rose Associates and specializes in Executive Search in Healthcare IT.  He's a closer, and you really don't want to call him unless you're ready to bring out the bazooka to bag some big game...   

17% of Americans Pee in the Pool - And Other Hard Hitting Talent Metrics...

Alright, I know, the title has nothing to do with HR, but it was from an actual article in the Detroit Free Press and it made me laugh out loud.  I mean seriously, who got up in the morning and started to write this article as real news?  It did get me thinking though about other worthless metrics, we might measure in our everyday professional life, that are meaningless.  It's a classic argument that HR Pros and every organization seems to have different metrics they use to measure the health of their people business. So, here's my list of measures you don't really need in HR:

1. Turnover and Retention- notice I didn't say "or" - companies that use both make me laugh, especially when they haven't differentiated between the two (ie., we have 3% turnover, but 97% retention - really, thanks for doing the basic math for me!).  Now, if you measure the retention of your top performers, and have a performance management system that identifies that group - more power to you - you are now in the Top 10% of HR Pros.

2. Days to Fill- When measured as an aggregate.  The majority of organizations in the world hire many different types and levels of talent.  To say our HR/Recruiting Dept. has a 43 days to fill ratio is again meaningless.  This should be broken down by hiring segment - 14 Days for Admin level, 35 for Professional, 67 for Management - or something like that.  Also, have at least some knowledge of industry days to fill for those segments you are hiring for and give your Operations Partners the comparison - even if yours is worse, because you'll then be able to show them improvement!

3. Diversity- when measured as a percentage of the whole.  So, we have 45% diversity within our employee population.  So what?  Again, this is meaningless.  What is the goal and why is that the goal?  If you can show operations that at 63% diversification our business units run 15% more productive - now you are in the Top 1% of all HR Pros in the world - make it happen - you might have to work past 5pm, but it will be worth it!  I beg of you, please stop measuring Diversity if you aren't going to have a goal and reason - otherwise all you're doing is telling every white male on staff that until we get 100% diverse we aren't done - so if you are a white male HR Mgr. - you will have to replace yourself to reach your final goal!

4. Employee Engagement  - I can't think of a more worthless metric!  Once a year we, the HR Dept., are going to justify our jobs for a month as we roll out our annual Employee Engagement Survey and then act like Nazis and throw pizza parties in the attempt to get everyone to fill one out. Then send the next month collecting all the data and making the largest PowerPoint presentation on the planet, so we can show our senior executive team the good, bad and ugly. Finally, we add fat free pudding to the cafeteria menu as a response to our two month project.  Really!? Is this adding value?  Lou Holtz said it best "Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.”

5. Training and Development Class Surveys- This probably should be #1, if this wasn't a completely tongue in cheek post.  Has anyone really ever filled one of these out, for in-house training - I mean unless you were made to or didn't get paid!  That is the new standard for Organization Development folks, "you must fill out this survey of the class to show that you were here and get paid for the time spent" - if you're in Org. Development and doing this - Stop It!  It sucks, and you suck if you do this. If you have great training, you'll know it, people will talk about it, and other people will track you down to be a part of it. 

What measure would you like to see go away?

Editor's Note - Tim Sackett is the Executive Vice President for HRU Technical Resources, which really means they just ran out of titles between Director and CEO.  Tim's job is to make sure everyone is happy and productive – for those who have worked in staffing firms, you know exactly what that means. HRU is primarily an engineering and technical contingency firm that specializes in the manufacturing sector in defense, consumer products, automotive, higher ed, etc.  HRU is based in Lansing, MI – but has close to 500 employees all over the country. 

On Declined Job Offers & Why Sometimes, I Really Believe Recruiting is Like Dating...

I am not sure when it last happened to me... but the other week, I had a candidate turn down a job offer. In this economy? I know. And it was a great, fair offer. The feeling of rejection? Slightly piercing. Okay, deeply piercing. I mean... it's been a while since I've had anyone reject me for anything... a date, a job. It just isn't something I'm used to! Ha! I kid! Being rejected though... it reminded me of an ongoing disagreement I've had with my best friend on his dating strategy and the parallel lessons for recruiting.

My BFF? He's a good looking guy. He's handsome, charming and sweet. He has a good job, no particular oddities or freakish tendencies and he's a ton of fun. I love him to death and think he's a great package - I even dated him myself at one point. If I had to liken him to an employer, because after all there's a point in all of this, he'd be one of those great places to work and have a kicking employment brand. People are drawn to him and he doesn't have to do much recruiting. But in some ways, he has a bit of a retention problem as at 34, he's still single. His turnover rate? Well, let's not go there because that would make ME just another statistic. There's voluntary and involuntary turnover though. He's ready to meet "the one" though. So what gives?

My theory is that it's his approach to dating. He casts the net wide, pulls 'em in, and because he's a great catch, he always has lots of options. The kicker though? He juggles multiple gals at once because his theory is that he should have backup options. If one gal doesn't work out, he wants to have alternatives who are lined up and ready for him. So on any given night when we are out on the town, I can watch my BFF working his phone and flirting with any or all of the dames. And it's entertaining, trust me. (Except for those fateful nights where they all show up at the same place in which case I have to run some major interference. Oi vey...)

My issue with his approach? He's too unfocused. I have long nagged him that each and every one of the gals he "talks to" can sense that he's not entirely present. There's just no way he can really give a gal the attention she deserves and probably wants out of him because he's spread too thin. He's not fully engaged - with any of them. If he really wanted to court someone? I have always argued that he should focus a bit more and give his attention to one girl a time. A gal can tell after all when her suitor is distracted so give her complete, undivided attention and then if she's not the one, move on. Yet my BFF thinks that it's opportunity lost. He doesn't want to be left standing in the cold alone if the object of his attention doesn't pan out. He wants a pipeline of gals.

But back to my declined job offer... We were all in love with the candidate and thought she was the one. We pulled out all the stops - the equivalent of red roses, love poems, wining and dining and all. I was singularly focused on her and getting her in the door... but then she said no thanks and I felt like I had been dumped and left out in the cold. And I can't help but to sit here and wonder if maybe my BFF is on to something.

Editor's Note- Jessica Lee is a Sr. Employment Manager for APCO Worldwide, a global PR firm in D.C. Like most upscale HR pros, she spends half of her time on recruiting, the other half on ER, Training and OD.  When she's not hammering a candidate to determine Motivational Fit, she's thinking about the future of HR, and wondering how she can avoid using the job boards to fill the next spot in her organization...

If Google and Apple Agree Not To Poach Each Other's Employees, Is That an Anti-Trust Violation?

Think about it.  You're Google, Apple and Yahoo.  You've all got great brands at various stages in the brand life cycle, but the thing that drives you nuts is when you poach each other's employees.  Sure you feel great at Google when you lift a design person from Apple, but then you look up and Apple's lifted a premium web developer from the Google team.

So, at some point, your CEO says "enough", and directs the COO to put a call in to the other megabrands.  The message?  "Why are we stealing each other's employees?  Let's make a deal not to lift talent from each other, because at the end of the day, we can agree not to poach and fill our needs elsewhere in Silicon Valley from all the smaller companies - and the bigger ones that don't have our employment brand attractiveness.  We're all supermodels - so let's agree to pick talent from the ugly kids, not each other..."

Quick - is that an anti-trust violation?  The Justice Department thinks it might be.  More from the Washington Post:

"The Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether some of the nation's largest technology companies violated antitrust laws by negotiating the recruiting and hiring of one another's employees, according to two sources with knowledge of the review.

The review, which is said to be in its preliminary stages, is focused on the search engine giant Google; its competitor Yahoo; Apple, maker of the popular iPhone; and the biotech firm Genentech, among others, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

"This could be collusive restraint on trade, which could have a serious impact on competition," said Albert Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute. Such an agreement would underscore the fierce competition over top engineering and business talent.

Google has long been known for its exhaustive recruiting process to find people who fit into its culture and create innovative Web technologies. In 2005, Microsoft sued Google for hiring away Kai-Fu Lee, Microsoft's vice president for Web Interactive services, to head Google's operations in China."

What say you?  Is that an anti-trust violation.  Interesting that the one dominant tech name you don't hear included is Microsoft.  It's OK to agree not to poach each other's talent, but let's pillage Redmond as much as we can?... 

For my money, the common board relationships at Apple and Google make for an interesting backdrop, but it's hard for me to believe that companies couldn't resist picking off a great engineer from one of the listed companies if they had a chance.

The truth?  It's lying on a Microsoft Exchange server somewhere, right?

Editor's Note: By day, Kris Dunn is the VP of People at DAXKO, a cool software firm dedicated to providing solutions to the best membership-driven organizations in America. At night, he morphs into a blogger at The HR Capitalist and the Founder and Executive Editor of Fistful of Talent. That makes him a career VP of HR, a blogger, a dad and a hoops junkie, the order of which changes based on his mood. Tweet him @kris_dunn...

What Won't You Do To Get A Job?

A recent Wall Street Journal article, by Joann S. Lublin, raised the question: "What won't you do for a Job?"  Which got me thinking about what are those things I wouldn't do for a job.  First, I had to set some parameters around the question:

1. Not just any job (I can get any job) but a really good job.  You know the one: your career Camelot - great pay, benefits, work, boss, co-workers - plus you're out by 4pm everyday! 

2. Also, I can't go to prison for what I would do - I'm short and soft - meaning, I'm fairly certain I would end up someone's wife in prison.

With the parameters set the question really set me free to think about what I wouldn't do for the "perfect" career opportunity.  So, I'll give you the short list:

1. I won't kill anyone in my immediate family (wife and 3 sons) - everyone else is open season.

2. (probably goes back to the prison thing - I'm soft, plus my grandma would hate it).

3. I won't eat bugs or cauliflower (yes, I consider them the same food group).

4. I won't work for free - everyone has a price and mine is above "Free"

5. I won't stay past 5pm (or any other arbitrary time) just because my boss stays past 5pm because he doesn't have a life and thinks everyone should stay past 5 or their not dedicated or hard working.

6. I won't allow my opinions to be squelched by the man! (oh wait, yes I will, but it will cost them!)

     7.  I won't allow myself to be chased around my desk and sexually harassed by my attractive, much  younger, opposite sex, boss (ok, I might, but only if my benefits pay for divorce).

So, what won't you do for a job? Send me a comment and let me know...

Editor's Note - Tim Sackett is the Executive Vice President for HRU Technical Resources, which really means they just ran out of titles between Director and CEO.  Tim's job is to make sure everyone is happy and productive – for those who have worked in staffing firms, you know exactly what that means. HRU is primarily an engineering and technical contingency firm that specializes in the manufacturing sector in defense, consumer products, automotive, higher ed, etc.  HRU is based in Lansing, MI – but has close to 500 employees all over the country. 

Are You Ready For Some Good News?

This week I had the good fortune to stumble across a recent YouTube video from Mark Anderson, president and chief economist of Execunet. And...his news and predictions were more than encouraging for job seekers and recruiters that have been bottom fishing in one of the worst job markets any of us have ever seen. The Recruiter Confidence Index soared in June and it appears that the job market may have reached a bottom. We can only hope so - right! In the chart below the lines on the graph are finally heading in the right direction!

Good news!

  Confidence in the Executive Employment Market
Next Six Months

I don't wake up each day waiting on someone to give me the news I need to modify my firm's strategy. You have to look at your own market niche and activity and make decisions that you can live with. I get that. But we are all so hungry for good news - this news could not be better. While we may not be out of the woods yet - better days are clearly ahead. We have seen a surge in my firm in the last few weeks that lead me to believe that Execunet has their finger on the pulse. Activity is up considerably and that drives everything.   

The company's that "get it" are already working on their hiring plans and have started searching for talent while others are still cautious and waiting on the sidelines until the market has officially made the turn. The smart employers are in the first group and will be in a position to pick and choose from a very healthy stable of candidates while those with a more conservative approach will ...well you know how this will play out...

Let's keep our fingers crossed that the job market is finally turning. But, let's not forget where we've been. I certainly won't!

Let's get ready to rumble - let the games begin!         

Editor's Note - Tim Tolan is a partner at Sanford Rose Associates and specializes in Executive Search in Healthcare IT.  He's a closer, and you really don't want to call him unless you're ready to bring out the bazooka to bag some big game...       

Avoid Hiring a HR Dud....

Whether you are hiring for a HR Manager/Director position or interviewing to become one, you want the same thing:

-If you are hiring - you don't want to hire a dud.

-If you are interviewing - you don't want to be perceived as a dud.

See the synergy?  Nobody wants to be the dud.  Funny how things seem to work out...

To that end, check out my list of the best behavioral questions to separate the players from the pretenders in the HR Manager/Director space.

Take a look and let me know what you think.  If you flame, just remember - I'm limited to around 1,000 words in the column, so I gotta make choices... You can always tell me what your top 5 Behavioral questions would be...

What Led To The Recruiting Industry's Current Grapefruit Diet . . . And Why The Detox Is Good For All of Us

I had a rather interesting conversation with Industry Icon, Doug Beabout, the other day.  He let me know that approximately 1/2 of our industry has vaporized over the last 12 months, with many more recruiters to leave by the end of the year.  As he comically put it, "A large majority of our industry will now go back to whatever in the world they were doing before the recession started."  However, he was also sure to let me know that while the current recession has been particularly painful, the massive influx of recruiters (during a boom) and coinciding mass exodus (during a bust) is actually a quite predictable phenomenon.

So I reflected on this for a while and have concluded that the 'normalization' or 'purging of the excess' is good for the Recruitosphere.  Don't get me wrong - I hate to see anyone lose their job or have a contract come to an end.  However, if you've recruited beyond a few years, you probably know what I mean when I say there were truly some characters that parachuted onto to our scene before flopping out shortly thereafter.  "Jokers to the left of me, Clowns to the right . . . Here I am, Stuck in the middle with you."  [Compliments to the band, Stealers Wheel strumming in the background way back in 1972.]

See, during boom-times, companies hire and hire and hire.  They get fat, just like the average American's credit card bill before the bottom fell out of the market and we realized that operating in the red doesn't make good financial sense.  And as the company gets fatter, so does the Recruiting Department.  "Thought Leaders" start suggesting that you don't need to lean out -- nope, you need more division of responsibilities.  You don't need better recruiters -- nope, you need people good at doing individual functions, just like Henry Ford popularized with the Assembly line in 1908.  "Hey, you don't need better full-cycle recruiters -- nope, you need dedicated sourcers and researchers and candidate contractors and candidate developers and professional appointment setters."  That's right, somewhere we were told we needed people good at doing only one thing all day long - "If they hate speaking to candidates, no problem - just place them at station 7."  Then, when we last expect it, we're offered all types of services, tools, technologies, training and additional contractors to increase the efficiency of each resource and/or station of the assembly line.  "Yeah, we understand your total staffing expense just ballooned up 300% Mr. Talent Acquisition Leader, but if you want to get the most out of your newfound investments, you're going to have to spend another 50% on this Recruit-O-Meter Flux Capacitor."

Well, sorry.  That ship has sailed.  We never needed the assembly line, and we didn't need the coinciding bloat, either.  It's as if we just ate that triple cheeseburger super-sized with a large fries and 100 oz. Coke, at which point we sloth down into the couch because we're too stuffed to move . . . wondering why we just did that to ourselves.

So this is what I'm getting at:  We needed then what we still need today - Peter Drucker's notion of "knowledge workers" who specialize in tacit interactions; intelligent people who can handle multiple moving balls in the air, yet have an instinctive ability to understand human psychology . . . and sell all at the same time.  Isn't it funny that every once in a while, the very industry that focuses on people (who have the 'talent') needs the old, "It's the people, Stupid!" wake-up call?

So that's why our current Recruitosphere detox has been a good thing.  It might be like eating a lemon, or going on a grapefruit diet . . . but the weight-loss is necessary and needed for us to maintain our health, not to mention our sanity.

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.

So You Want My Number, Candidates? Have At It... Call me..

I saw something in the Twitterverse last week that took me aback. My friend, Chris Hoyt, also known as the Recruiter Guy in the blogosphere, did something very simple, but seemingly very ballsy. He put his phone number out there. A job seeker had said to him if a recruiter were serious about using social media to recruit, they would put their phone number out there. So he did. My response to Chris? If a recruiter were really serious about using social media to recruit, they'd put their phone number in their Twitter profile. And then he did it. Now here's someone who walks the talk.

Yet I can't bring myself to do it... yes, my little tail is cowering between my legs. Admittedly, I'm actually scared. You probably are too, because the reality is that for recruiters, we're all overwhelmed right now. I'm receiving resumes upon resumes from every which direction. I'm receiving calls from candidates by the hour. And I'm even receiving calls and emails from the boyfriends of candidates. Then there are the third party recruiters and agencies calling daily. Everyone has a candidate or is a candidate and is trying to sell themselves to me. It's a lot to deal with and my patience is tried almost daily... so to put my phone number out there to be even more accessible? I don't know...

Yet, I also don't know how I feel about building walls up around me completely. (Are we talking about recruiting or relationships? LOL!) I've been thinking about this idea of how much to put ourselves out there quite a bit of late, particularly as a job seeker asked a question of me recently... when coming across a job posting that says, "no calls please," does the employer really mean it? And if so, what's the penalty for a candidate calling? Of course, as I often do, I farmed the question out to my friends on Twitter to see what they thought and Susan Burns of the Future of Talent raised an excellent point. The bigger question is what does a statement like that say about the culture of the organization? It's kind of negative language, isn't it? And I couldn't agree more. The notion of job posting language such as "no calls please" reinforces the whole notion of companies being "big black holes" when it comes to applicants sending their resumes in... yet given the volume of candidates out there, I get why someone would do say no phone calls. I don't agree, but I get it.

So, what's a recruiter to do? If you're serious about using social media to recruit, if you're serious about recruiting in general, you have to be accessible. On my LinkedIn profile, my email address is spelled out for you. On my company's website, my actual name is listed. You can find my phone number pretty easily or call our receptionist. You can find my email address, if you click around a bit on the interwebs. The number of candidates who find and contact me, it's greater as a result. And there are days, I'd like to yank my contact information. There are days, I'd like to not pick up the phone, or just ignore candidates. But what then is going to happen when the market turns and I'm the one calling passive candidates? You know what I mean?

The tables will turn back around at some point. So let's just see what happens if we put ourselves out there. This is about accessibility. Don't be another black hole to your talent community. So if I'm going to walk the talk? Here you have it. Candidates can email me at jlee@apcoworldwide.com, or ring me. My direct dial is 202.478.3723. My apologies in advance if I can't get back to you immediately. You'll understand because the market is so plentiful and there are lots of candidates calling me - but I'll get back to you. I look forward to hearing from you.

Editor's Note - Jessica Lee is an Employment Manager for APCO Worldwide, a global PR firm in D.C. Like most upscale HR pros, she spends half of her time on recruiting, the other half on ER, Training and OD.  When she's not hammering a candidate to determine Motivational Fit, she's thinking about the future of HR, and wondering how many HR Managers nationally could pull off appearing in a Justin Timberlake video...Just like other upscale HR Pros I know and respect...