Fistful of Talent

Immigration Coherency

Most of the talk on the national stage has been about the economy.  The latest job-related numbers include 7.6% unemployment and 11.6 million unemployed.   One defensive reaction to this is to limit immigration, that they are taking "our jobs".  Beyond the face of such thinking being inhospitable, it overlooks how the U.S. benefits from immigration over the years.  These include: 

• 1 in 4 foreign IT firms in the U.S. were founded by immigrants.
• Nearly half of the immigrant entrepreneurs surveyed came to the U.S. as students and started their own businesses within 12 years of entering the country. Note in 2006 there were 6 million businesses with 500 or less employees.  For the same year there were 18,000 businesses that employed over 500 employees.
• Other successful immigrants can be found here. Perhaps those of us who grew up in the U.S. could learn from what immigrants did to be successful.  

Even with the current “mood” in Congress being one of restricting immigration, we could do better.  Here are some simple, but effective recommendations by Brian Sommer that could go a long way to improve immigration policy:

• Enforce existing law: Sure it’s obvious, but there is nothing like inconsistency to cloud the real issues. Silly things like buy-a-house-then-get-citizenship, breaks down the trust among everyone.  As of January 2009, there are 11.6 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.
• Have H1-Bs mean something again: Originally defined as highly specialized, scarce skills. Companies have stretched this to now include the just-received-my-diploma undergrad with coding skills. Set clear priorities associated with the visa. How many should be granted and why?  
• Address labor arbitrage: U.S. businesses who want foreign labor for pennies can be “cured” of this motive. Set a schedule, akin to the federal minimum wage, but have it based on market rates (tie to Radford Survey). Immigration costs should be excluded from such a schedule. 

Improving the economy means improving businesses and improving businesses means improving talent. Extending benefits and offering public works is but a stop gap solution.  Immigration is only part of the talent equation, but let’s makes it better.  This sort of diversity has made us better and stronger both historically and now.  Let's just make it more understandable.

Photo by Brooklyn Hilary

Your CEO Feels Guilty, Do You?

It isn’t easy being the leader of a company these days. Corporate executives have been found guilty in courts and excoriated on Capitol Hill. Now, they have no friends, are vexed and doing stupid things:

The CEO of Netflix wrote an opinion editorial in the New York Times. It was an open letter to the president asking that he and fellow CEOs be taxed even more (from 30% up to 50%).

Brian Williams, anchor of NBC’s Nightly News, says that he can’t relate to the millions of people suffering because of his millions ($10M annual pay) that he earns.

The difference between you and your CEO may be the amount of experience, skill level, industry knowledge and, perhaps, market dynamics. These factors come into play when negotiating your compensation whether it is your role or that of a senior executive. If your CEO feels guilty about their success, should you? Or is it the order of magnitude giving you safe haven?

CEO’s already “limit” their compensation. After so many wins, money ceases to be a meaningful measurement for executives. Once you can afford the college-days Top Ramen budget a thousand times over, significance starts to play a bigger role. By “significance”, I mean starting to solve other, perhaps even bigger, issues than running a company or a major part of one. Key examples include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Larry Page and Sergiy Brin’s One Laptop Per Child, U2’s One Campaign and George Soros’ Millineum Project. True, you don’t have to be a millionaire to give, but large scale giving leads to enormous impact. Successful business people give freely.

If our executives are taxed more or don’t spend their earnings, how does society benefit? Perhaps the rest of us should limit our compensation too and do our part. Here's a short list of how executives or you and I can mitigate any guilt of being over paid:

• Hold a bake sale and raise money to off set your earnings, giving it all to charity.
• Say “no” to any monetary offer from your employer, be it a raise or a new job. Just tell them, “I just want to work here.”
• Offer to “cap” your work hours. Someone also wrote a witty letter to President Obama. This request was to put a cap on workweek hours. Work less, earn less.

Or, get a grip on reality and read Ayn Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness.

Airing your compensation guilt publicly isn’t virtuous. It’s narcissism. Don’t talk about, but rather do some good.

Have you hugged your CEO lately?

Photo by David D. Muir

Last Picked and Verbal Offers...

I don’t recall ever being team captain in elementary school.  This isn’t some Generation X angst thing or a heads up for therapy - I just don’t have any memory of being grammar school deity during recess.  Perhaps you, along with me, were lined up on the white line, waiting to be picked, present, and willing to apply our energy and enthusiasm.  Sometimes we were picked last or not at all.  Soccer, kickball, basketball – you name it, the team captain made the selections, and the rest of us had to live with it for the next 10-30 minutes of recess.

The feelings that go along with being picked last (or not at all) stink.  Watch Dodgeball if you've forgotten, it's a story of kids who were never picked.  As recruiters we a) visit these feelings on others when we decline candidates (I talk about this here) and b) we also get these feelings when our candidates decline us.  Yes, there are a myriad of factors that go into why we’re rejected, but there is one move that can reduce your chances of being declined: the verbal offer.  

At my company, hiring managers used to be the ones to make the written offer.  It was pretty stressful.  Let’s face it, most hiring managers are good at what they do on a regular basis, but typically, making offers isn’t one of those things.   After experiencing enough rejections, my staffing team discussed moving the offer process to the recruiter.  However, it wasn’t just a mere transition.  Recruiters began extending offers to their top candidates in two steps, something along these lines:

 

1. After securing required signatures of approval, the recruiter would contact the candidate and say something like this, “Hi Jeanne.  We’d like to make you an offer, if you’re  ready to make a decision about this role in our company”  Do you have any other questions that need to be answered first so you can make a decision?”  If the candidate’s response is that they are ready to make a decision, then the recruiter would continue, “As I have mentioned earlier, we would like to make you a verbal offer of [offer details].  I am looking for a verbal response, ‘no’, ‘yes’ or clarification about the terms.”

 

2. If there is a positive verbal response, then the recruiter draws up the written offer and either meets with the candidate in person for signing or emails, in PDF-format, the written offer with a short expiration date.

 

The details of an offer are indeed important.  However, making a verbal offer clears up the recruiter-candidate conversation at the end of the vetting process.  Does the candidate need more information? Are they mentally and emotionally ready to commit?  With a verbal offer, you know that the candidate has picked you.  Isn’t that a great feeling, as opposed to being left on the white line at recess?

Photo by shawnzlea

Editor's Note - William Uranga is the Director of Talent Acquisition at TiVo, where his team is responsible for all staffing strategies and recruiting programs for the organization.  He also moonlights as an instructor, teaching in the Certificate Program in Human Resource Management of the University of California Extension in Silicon Valley, and helped co-found and lead the Bay Area-based Recruiting Leadership Forum, a network for those who are leading recruiting in a corporate function and are just trying to get better at it.  Check out his blog at Talent Alchemy and don't say "DVR" when you call him...

Why Your LinkedIn Prospects Are Laughing At You...

The following InMail (Linkedin’s email-within-it users) was sent to several targeted departments at my company recently:

Dear {recipient’s name}

Good Afternoon 

My name is {recruiter’s name} and I am a senior technical recruiter here at {company’s name}...while searching LinkedIn I came across your profile...I would love to speak with you. 

We are looking for passionate engineers who are interested in joining a team of equally passionate high performers here at {company’s name}. I was hoping that you might be interested or you would know a few people that would be. 

Please call my recruiting partner, {recruiting colleague’s name & phone number) at your earliest convenience, we would love to find out a little more about you. If you’d rather send your resume directly to {recruiting colleague’s name & email address), that would be great too. We will review your resume with the appropriate hiring manager to see if you would be a possible fit for any of the positions we currently have open. Within a week of receiving your resume, we will get back in touch with you via phone whether or not we decide to move forward with you in the interview process. 

We look forward to explaining to you all of the exciting things going on here at {company’s name}! 

Thanks, 

{recruiter’s name}

Was I offended by my fellow employees receiving this InMail?  No, I use InMail to recruit too.  Was I embarrassed?  Yes, but for my fellow recruiter.  The above InMail was the subject of ridicule and laughter by the recipients.  Why?  Here are a few observations:

Understand your audience

Whether you’re writing a blog or email, the cardinal rule is “know your audience”.  The author doesn’t demonstrate that they know anything about their recipients.  Yes, the best way to identify recipients in Linkedin is by the company and title fields – but don’t stop there.  Tip: Linkedin demographics show that they aren’t dolts, so segment your list and tailor a message that will mean something to them in their language.  Have someone in your organization, of that skill set, help you write it.

Burnish your credibility

Including your title, especially if it’s a recruiting one, are empty calories.  In addition, the mentioning of your organization’s name will likely not be of substantial help.  Even a world renowned brand needs a compelling reason why someone should read your InMail.  Tip: Drop a name (hiring manager, key leader) that will have credibility with your audience or a remarkable product.

A clear request

This InMail does tell the recipient what they’d like them to do (refer or apply), but it’s pretty naked in its aggression.  1/3 of the InMail focuses on “resume” and the selection process.  If the recipient isn’t looking, you have 1) insulted them and/or 2) given the recipient nothing to intelligently refer someone from their network to you.  If they are looking, telling them the process and promise of responsiveness is also empty calories.  Tip:  Focus on what you do want them to do.  Be direct and lose the extra words.  If you do want referrals, include your direct email account and direct phone number. 

Remember that: 1) InMails have a higher response rate than email because the trust people have in Linkedin.  Add that to the reality that you have a finite number of InMails to use each month.  To take every advantage of InMail and Linkedin, dig into Jason Alba’s blog and book all about Linkedin or take a Shally Steckerl webinar on Linkedin.

You have tips on InMailing?  Let’s hear them!  With a little effort, you can avoid prospects laughing at or, worse, ignoring your InMail.

Editor's Note - William Uranga is the Director of Talent Acquisition at TiVo, where his team is responsible for all staffing strategies and recruiting programs for the organization.  He also moonlights as an instructor, teaching in the Certificate Program in Human Resource Management of the University of California Extension in Silicon Valley, and helped co-found and lead the Bay Area-based Recruiting Leadership Forum, a network for those who are leading recruiting in a corporate function and are just trying to get better at it.  Check out his blog at Talent Alchemy and don't say "DVR" when you call him...

Photo by Olivia  

When Should I Create Value? Now.

Last week, Jobvite held their first customer summit (we’re a Jobvite customer at TiVo).  Despite the economic times, attendees were both forward leaning in giving ideas and in sharing what they were doing to effectively recruit these days.  It was an invigorating time and I certainly spotted a few folks whom I need to get to know better.  I had the honor of being a guest presenter.  Trying to encourage bigger thinking, I spoke about four trends and corresponding practical steps to take advantage of each trend.  Here are some of the highlights:

Economic shift

The U.S. economy is transitioning from a knowledge economy, where value is added to data or analysis, to a conceptual economy, where original ideas are developed to address problems through specialization and networking.  Question: Are you just commenting on (knowledge) or are you creating (conceptual) value?  Practical steps: Minimize the minutia.   For example, use templates in Outlook signatures for your top ten commonly asked questions.  Add all of your reading sources to an RSS feed (and analyze the feed for reading habits, eliminating what you don’t get to/find as useful).

Free agency

The growth of the U.S.workforce continues to drop.  In the 1970s, it was 2.6%, 1990s, it was 1.1%, and since 2000, it has averaged at 0.4%.  In addition, the U.S.birth rate continues to decline (even with immigration) and highly-skilled workers continue to be in ever short supply.  Around 10% of the U.S. workforce are now self-employed (non-agricultural) according to the Department of Labor.  Question: How you are going to deliver the necessary talent for your organization?  Practical steps: Get flexible with “recruiting yoga” in talent delivery.  Be able to deliver alumni, boomerangs and retirees.  Enable easy writing of contracts with 1099s and on-board temps in days based on the skills you typically hire 

employees for. 

“Gen” thing

While events will continue to affect Gen Y’s work experience, they continue to exert their own view, too.  As a part of the U.S. workforce, Gen Y will grow from 16% (2004) to 37% (2012).  For them, in general, security comes from community, promotion is based on enthusiasm, loyalty is to colleagues and respect is earned through authenticity.  The concern for recruiters isn’t just “appealing” to this group of workers, but how to enable all generations (including Boomers and Gen X) on how to successfully work and collaborate with Gen Y.  Practical steps: Deliver cultural transparency of your organization.  Everyone will respond to authenticity.  Also, expand the dialogue by training all on generational value differences and how to bridge them.

Value Shift 

Do you know how your CEO thinks?  In its Annual Global CEO Survey, PriceWaterhouseCoopers found that 84% of CEOs see their people as top of their agenda, but only 43% have enough faith in HR to support that part of the agenda.  CEOs already see networks as a key way to collaborate – even more important than getting the lowest price in procuring materials (57%) and expanding knowledge and learning (73%).  Practical steps: 1) Get proficient in translating HR into your executive’s lingo (product management, development, IT, operations, customer service etc.).  Please, don’t make them learn “HR-ese”.  2) Cultivate a network.  Not just one for finding candidates, but one outside your company – full of people who can give you new insight to opportunities, vet ideas to address challenges, and learn even more about your industry.

Four trends to help give perspective.  Four trends to help us not just add value, but create value.  Shall we get started?  8~)

Photo by tarotastic

Editor's Note - William Uranga is the Director of Talent Acquisition at TiVo, where his team is responsible for all staffing strategies and recruiting programs for the organization.  He also moonlights as an instructor, teaching in the Certificate Program in Human Resource Management of the University of California Extension in Silicon Valley, and helped co-found and lead the Bay Area-based Recruiting Leadership Forum, a network for those who are leading recruiting in a corporate function and are just trying to get better at it.  Check out his blog at Talent Alchemy and don't say "DVR" when you call him...

Obama, The True Recruiting Maverick

What has been a long “conversation” with the American people is finally, mercifully over.  Policies will continue to be debated and budgets (earmarks and all) will be haggled over.  However, the big winner for Election 2008 was the recruiting game plan.  Voters responded to the one who best courted them consistently and continuously.  The scoreboards of the Electoral College (349 to 162) and popular vote (52% - 46%) clearly show this.  Obama was a recruiting maverick.  Let’s take one of the pages out of his play book group this week for a closer look: Don’t “use” social media, embrace it. 

Most recruiters view social media as a tool, much like a job board, business networking, contact management systems and applicant tracking systems.  This is probably because we miss what social media is truly about.  Let’s review basics and dynamics of social media:

--Definition - Wikipedia has a clinical description here. Isabel Hilborn has a great definition too.  My definition: Social media is the sharing, collaborating and publishing of content on the Internet. 

--Composition - It’s diverse , big  (caution, some profanity) and growing.  Pick what suits your style and where you want to cultivate your audience: blogging, microblogging, pictures, video, niche networks, social networks, etc.    

--Redefines “brand” - Because everyone is a brand manager.  You have an impact on your personal brand, your professional brand, and your corporate brand.  Are you helping or hurting them?   

--It is about people, not technology - Sure, it involves the Web, but that isn’t the focus.  Think of it as more social science where: a) authenticity must be shown, not told and b) the conversation can be influenced not controlled.

How you can embrace it?

--Listen – To the conversations that are going on in social media.  Quit trying to first get your message across.  Learn something about them first.  Also, be sure to study other social media practitioners that are not even in recruiting or your industry.  Give me a shout if you need some initial suggestions. 

--Determine your voice.  Who are you speaking for?  Yourself, personally?  Representing your profession or corporation?

--Engage – Ask questions.  Contacts, like candidates, want to talk about themselves, their experiences and views.     

--Give value – Maybe it’s a cause for them to join, make them feel better about themselves (sincerely done), or something that is remarkable.  As Seth Godin says, “No one talks about you because you want them too”.  They have to want to on their own accord.  What can you give that is worthy of them bringing your name into their conversation?  Your title or the name of your organization on its own is insufficient.  

--Cultivate – If your organization doesn’t use social media, help them set up one (before Legal does), build resources for and coach others in your company to be better involved in social media, remember they are brand managers, too.

When it came to recruiting the American electorate, John McCain wasn’t the maverick.  Obama proved himself to be by embracing social media as shown here.  Quit trying to “use” social media and end up being the laughing stock that Josh LeTourneau so aptly describes.  If you embrace social media, then you too will be a recruiting maverick.  8~)

Photo by Pixarman

Editor's Note - William Uranga is the Director of Talent Acquisition at TiVo, where his team is responsible for all staffing strategies and recruiting programs for the organization.  He also moonlights as an instructor, teaching in the Certificate Program in Human Resource Management of the University of California Extension in Silicon Valley, and helped co-found and lead the Bay Area-based Recruiting Leadership Forum, a network for those who are leading recruiting in a corporate function and are just trying to get better at it.  Check out his blog at Talent Alchemy and don't say "DVR" when you call him...

"Inbox" Relief Is Spelled Backwards...

What keeps you from being creative? In a knowledge workforce (that’s a lot of us here in the U.S.) we get overwhelmed with the minutia and administrivia of our work. It’s tiring and deflates the joy right out of the profession we otherwise love. What can you control? Let’s start with something simple: email.

There are between 100-200 billion emails sent global each day. Spam is a constant struggle as you try to get the right balance in your filters(3). If you don’t have an ATS, your email IS your ATS. So what do you do?

Front end: There are plenty of productivity gurus discussing how to better manage your inbox. For Gmail, I’d recommend Steve Rubel. For general email strategy, there is Inbox Zero by Merlin Mann. If you have another favorite, please let me know.

Back end: For the email that you do want to keep for future reference, how do you archive things? An ever-growing series of folders? Perhaps an add-on offered by Outlook/Microsoft itself? How about an email upgrade?

Xobni (pronounced “ Zob-nee“) is a great solution for Outlook users. A few highlights:
* When launched, it can be a sidebar to the side or be expanded to a resizable panel within Outlook.
* Emails are indexed and parsed lightning fast
* The search bar is Google-simple. Results are shown in tiles within the app’s panel. Further refinement of the search shows in increasingly smaller tiles. It's easy to read and to view your activities.
* Any email you click will show you the author’s:
- Network
- Phone number
- Conversation threads between them and you and anyone else
- Sent/received attachments between them and you
* LinkedIn connection, when enabled, will take you to their public profile in Linkedin
* Assist scheduling appointments by creating an email filled with your availability (pulled from your calendar)
* Analytics – based on various time intervals, view your:
- Email traffic for any period of time, per person
- Unique contacts
- Responsiveness
- Follow-up delay

You don’t need a myriad of folders to track projects or find reference material. Now you can focus on your client and candidate relationships or be more creative with your recruiting programs with more confidence. Some work relief, right? Just remember it’s spelled backwards.

Speaking of backwards here's a fun music video by Mute Math. 8~)

The Dumbing Down Of Equality

The green movement has come of age. Clothed in their right mind, who is a proponent for trashing our environment? No one. The question about how you achieve “green” is the subject of much debate.

In a similar vein, equal work for equal pay is something that strikes a chord of justice in our thinking. Recently Congress has been getting ready to insert itself into the offer negotiations between employer and candidate.

The Paycheck Fairness Act is a piece of legislation winding its way through legislation. It would authorize the Department of Labor to compare pay between various jobs through publishing guidelines. The intent is to address compensation discrimination. While being for “comparable worth” is attractive in theory, there are serious flaws with this approach. Some highlights:

* This legislation expands penalties in discrimination cases, but gives little to employers to defend themselves against such accusations. There is no evidence of industry-wide collusion of employers to discriminate on the basis of gender or race.

* Proponents argue that there is discrimination because women or people of color tend to hold certain jobs. This fails to account for the possibility that the jobs themselves are not valued, not the people that do them. Gaps in wages do exist, but this in and of itself does not give evidence of discrimination.

* This legislation will lead to the employers’ confidentiality of salary data being eroded. This hurts their ability to compete with each other at the local and global level.

* Complexity in the wage gap theory is not addressed. Charts such as this one do little to explain things like:

o Regional differences, type of work experience, time in the work force etc. can be influencing factors.

o Women tend to work less hours per year and leave the workforce for longer periods than their male counterparts.

Next time you’re negotiating with a candidate on an offer, who knows your business goals and objectives better? You and your hiring manager or the federal government? Can you envision the day where due to the shortage in skilled talent a candidate demands a higher wage than your offer, but you say, “Sorry, federal guidelines say I can’t pay you that much? That is when the government has determined the individual’s worth, not the marketplace.

With the mess the government has made in managing your social security and now financial institutions, do you really think it’s smart to have them give guidance on matters of compensation?

The marketplace can figure equity out with “at will” employment and the rise of the free agent. Really, there’s no need to dumb down equality.

Photo by Cayusa

"A" Recruiters Always Have a "Plan B"...

Fannie, Freddie, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and AIG are some of the high profile failures in the financial sector. At stake are hundreds of thousands of jobs, mortgages, life savings and, lest we forget, billions in your tax dollars by way of bailouts. There are a lot of fingers to point, political and public figures to hold accountable. So why did this happen? A simple answer - people and organizations became over-leveraged.

“Over-leveraged” is used primarily in the financial sector but, simply put, is the hangover after foolishly playing with other people’s money for a loss. Or, as memorably put in Top Gun, “your ego is writing checks that your body can’t cash.” Yet many recruiters do this when they take on a new search. They just react. Most, I’ll wager, don’t have a plan b. So you can picture the sheer panic when they lose their top candidate finalist or come up empty on any talent two weeks into the search. At this point, they’re over-leveraged, forced to react: redouble their efforts, focus on another, more “winnable” order, etc.

Let’s stop setting ourselves up for these types of stress events. Let’s start developing a plan b for our searches:

What it is? A plan b is an articulated set of actions that will be executed when a search hits certain “unacceptable” points. Plan B is:

• Vetted. The time for experimenting has come and gone. Now is the time to enlist others who are more qualified and stronger in capabilities than you. Put the ego aside and call in the big guns. Note: Bringing on an eager, but unproven, agency can cost time too.

• Multi-pronged. Don’t execute just one thing (i.e. post on an additional job board). At the same time, don’t throw “everything” at the problem. Have a manageable set of tools that can run in parallel. Be aware of the lag in time when activating new sources. Ordering research and waiting for it to come in can cost even more time.

Who owns it? A plan b is agreed upon by both the recruiter and the client. Why? Two reasons:

• The recruiter needs the client’s support for incurring additional costs and changes in the role description.

• The client needs the recruiter to lead them in the search. Remember the client is an expert in their business goal needs that have to be met. The recruiter is the expert in finding where the needed talent can be found. Tips on how to manage the relationship can be found here.

When should it be discussed and enacted? A plan b rests on a couple of assumptions:

• There is a documented and agreed to timeline for the search. This includes a hire-by or delivery date.

• Factors that affect the timeline have been discussed. The client articulates the date, but the recruiter gives input on the factors that make said date realistic:

o Will the client or interview team be available, holidays, to travel or make other important deadlines?

o Most candidates need a transition period to wrap up from their current employer (typically 2-3 weeks) AND they like to take some time off before they jump into a new job.

o Conducting reference and background checks can take time depending on quality, quantity and availability.

o What current market factors (industry, geographical, etc.) will influence your a) client’s ability to attract, and b) candidate’s willingness to entertain alternative career options?

As a recruiter you don’t have to be over-leveraged. By having an articulate plan b, you will set yourself apart from other recruiters, build even more confidence in your recruiting practice, and earn the respect of your clients. 8~)

Editor's Note - William Uranga is the Director of Talent Acquisition at TiVo, where his team is responsible for all staffing strategies and recruiting programs for the organization.  He also moonlights as an instrutor, teaching in the Certificate Program in Human Resource Management of the University of California Extension in Silicon Valley, and helped co-found and lead the Bay Area-based Recruiting Leadership Forum, a network for those who are leading recruiting in a corporate function and are just trying to get better at it.  Check out his blog at Talent Alchemy and don't say "DVR" when you call him...

Photo by programwitch

Obama / McCain: What Your Candidate Selection Says About You

The 2008 U.S. presidential elections remind me of the Google selection process: long, arduous, detailed, curious criteria, etc.. The difference is the Obama and McCain know their interview concludes November 6th. Until then, you can tune it out or up your vitamin regimen to keep up with all the twists and turns.

The presidential candidates have also been recently running their own interview too, albeit on a comparatively shorter timeline. Obama and McCain’s first major decision isn’t on policy, but who will be their vice president. The pick of Joe Biden and Sarah Palin add new dimensions to the Obama and McCain teams. Why they were selected will be debated. The proof of a good or bad selection will be known soon enough.

In a similar way, your hiring manager or client will make their biggest decisions in the hiring of a candidate to be their “running mate”. True the position may not have “vice president” in the title, but if you’re on point for the hire, your success is also tied your client’s.

Here are some things to have in sync with your hiring manager:

• Agree on process – You will have enough variables with all of the candidates that need to be vetted. Don’t add needlessly add to the mix. Draw up a selection process, a sourcing game plan and a timeline first.
• Hire for compatibility in values – How things actually get done is a quick definition of culture. The candidate and the hiring manager need to have this in common or be willing to bridge the differences. All the talent and experience come to a grinding, debilitating halt otherwise.
• Pick your advisors carefully – These are who you are letting influence your selection. It should cover areas (be it skill, culture, or experience) that you don’t have or aren’t as strong as the organization needs.
• Ignore the pundits – They’d love to be the advisor group, but they don’t have a stake in your success.
• Shorten the shopping list or litmus test – It means you’re giving in to the pundits or you’re not really certain what you need. Either scenario unduly limits candidate options. As the client, you should know what needs to be done in the role for which you’re hiring. As the recruiter, you should know the possible combinations of talent and where to find them.

Here are additional thoughts on the picking of a running mate from non-recruiters:

• Timothy Burn
• Rand In Repose (note: this post discusses things from the interviewee, but is also applicable for the interviewer)
• Marc Andreesen

No matter what your political views are or who you are going to vote for in November, we can all elect to improve the selection process. It says a lot about your client. It says a lot about you.