Posts Tagged ‘recruitment’

HR Margo Compassionate HR

This post by Meghan M. Biro, founder of Talent Culture is a transformational leader in the recruiting, and brand development community. Biro’s research in organization development and change has revolutionized the way recruiters will do business in the future. Read this insightful post, and ask yourself, “How important is culture consideration before making your next hire?” Continue reading and find out.

Meghan M. Biro Founder of TalentCulture.com

Is Emotional Intelligence the bridge between Personality and Culture fit?

Personality and how it relates to culture fit with an employer is a central theme in how I think about recruiting and helping people find rewarding career options. It also extends to social communities, something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. We choose communities in which we are comfortable, where our personalities and cultural beliefs are heard, respected, and celebrated.

There is an added dimension to determining how personality, community and culture work together to create ‘fit’ between an employer and a careerist: emotion, specifically the notion of emotional intelligence.

I’ve been re-reading Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence for insight into how emotions can help us find a good culture fit – or, poorly controlled, may ruin our chances to find personality/culture fit, sometimes over the span of many jobs.

Emotion, or the apparent lack of it – which some would call logic – is part of an individual’s personal brand. In some fields, such as computer science, rational, logical behavior is a valued attribute. In deeply technical cultures, the ability to consider things logically is a requirement to assimilate and be successful. For the person possessed of a rational, cool, deliberate personality, such a culture could offer a good fit. There are, of course, exceptions to this – think Spock and Data – but in general, an engineering-driven organization will be attractive to logical, less overtly emotional people.

On the other hand, the person driven more by emotion – heart over head – might find such a culture daunting and perhaps even isolating. In the right environment, however, this person will thrive. An emotional nature thus is an equally valid component of personal brand; such an individual might be valued for his or her quick judgment, passionate beliefs and creativity. Since we are on a Star Trek analogy, Jim Kirk uses his emotional intelligence to lead, inspire and manage a range of difficult, new situations.

Heart or head, however, the key to career happiness (dare I even say life?) is personality/culture fit. Where does emotional intelligence come into the calculation? I would argue – as does Goleman – that emotion is a necessary complement to the rational, and may in fact determine how successful a person is. Only by understanding one’s emotional and rational selves – and we all have emotional and rational minds – can an individual forge a compelling and resilient personal brand.

In Margo’s interesting post on Career Anchors, she explores Edgar Schein’s model of organizational development and advocates for the need to match candidates to appropriate cultures. I will take her advice a bit further. When working with candidates to develop a personal brand – one part emotional intelligence, one part personality, one part skills/attributes – I recommend to my clients starting on a process of personal discovery, aided by tools (personality inventories, soul seeking, walks on the beach, whatever it takes) counsel (maybe a career coach if it feels right) and market research (finding the right type of employer/workplace culture). See a list of activities you can undertake in your own quest for personality/culture fit here. (editors note: scholarly OD Cultural fit articles are linked- What follows is an interview with Daniel Goleman, conducted by the Harvard School of Business. Meghan’s post follows beyond the video) editor’s note concludes.

I recommend that you make room in the quest to discover personality/culture fit for social community if this makes you happy. Seek one out, build one yourself, and participate. It is in the company of others that we learn most about ourselves. That’s why the TalentCulture.com community is as broad and deep as it can be. We are creating a social community that is a metaphor for the workplace, focused on building a culture of innovation, awareness, creativity and understanding – one in which CEOs and entrepreneurs can learn about the most current workplace strategies, a place of resources that engage people, where leadership and discovery pull participants in to learn about the forces that affect 21st century companies and virtual social friends.

Our social community is a resource for individuals building a personal brand, managers who want to know what makes their people tick, where social entrepreneurs can develop ideas and viable channels for good, venture capitalists looking for the pulse of innovation, What else? It’s likely I do not need or want to know all the answers. Perhaps the sky is the limit. We are all on a quest for personality/culture fit. Sign me up please.

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If This Video doesn’t give you chills, and a sense of gratitude-nothing will!

Our differently abled Americans need recruiters, and hiring managers to value their talent. Our veterans and differently abled workforce become invisible, they fall through the cracks sight unseen. Yet, their voices must be heard. They WILL be heard on an upcoming episode of Compassionate HR with Josh LeTourneau, Gerry Crispin, Steve Levy, and Dave Mendoza. Please read Josh’s Post From Fistful Of Talent.

He articulates the importance of coaching veterans how to interview. He articulates how we can support our vets through transition. Josh, Gerry, Dave and Steve are on to something here. Their work is groundbreaking and I invite each of you to get involved (call to action time). Read Gerry Crispin’s inspirational article, he invites us to join a worthy survey effort regarding the disability candidate experience.  Imagine, being in a wheel chair, arriving on time for an interview, only to find you can’t make it up the stairs? Let’s change that.

Our workforce can only be strengthened when we put our differently abled veterans to work.

The Disabled American's are Differently Abled-Not Dis-Abled. They have strong skills and are worthy of a great job!

Many of our veterans have been rendered with disabilities by wars. They are NOT disabled. They are differently abled perhaps, and they deserve our respect. Our veterans, and people of different ability are still strong and capable human beings who can and want to work.

Don’t patronize a disabled American, hire them; they are gifted, and able human beings. A poignant article by the FederalTimes.com reports that The Federal Government is not doing enough to attract retain, and accommodate these incredible workers.

Unfortunately, many erroneous perceptions exist about their plight. For instance when a military veteran, fresh from the field returns homes, the business community doesn’t welcome them with open arms. As Steve Levy said on my show last week, “Hiring managers are afraid they are going to go postal,” whatever that means: it’s hogwash. Levy started a movement, 1000 recruiters of light. Veterans will be paired with a recruiter and will receive one to one coaching on how to get prepared to re-enter the workforce. Gerry Crispin and Dave Mendoza have embarked on a similar mission, and are working tirelessly to mentor, help and find jobs for our military veterans.

Today, and everyday ask yourself, what can I do empower our gifted, all too often invisible veterans and disabled workers in transition?

Please comment, share an experience. If you are a veteran, share your thoughts. Your voice is important to me. You matter in my life. And, if no one has told you “I care about you,” today, let me be the first.

Your twitter pal,

@HRMargo

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PunkATL Eric with two great women of HR Laurie Ruettimann and Chris Havrilla

Eric Jaquith

Eric Jacquith is ubiquitous, he’s an enigma, and  he wants to keep it that way.  He’s so successful exactly because he lurks in the shadows sourcing,  providing recruiting strategy, and executive project management for global talent management initiatives.  He’s a consultant extraordinaire.  Just ask anyone in Atlanta.  Just ask anyone in the sourcing & recruiting communities.  He’s a back channel ninja, in search of the candidates that don’t want to found.  He finds candidates that other recruiters miss because he looks in places others don’t.  Because of his low profile, his clients can trust that he can keep their secrets in confidence.  Eric is a man of integrity and loyalty, that’s what his clients appreciate.

Last week, I interviewed him on the phone.  He spoke candidly about his background off the records.  As a blogger of integrity, when someone tells me “this is off the record,” I respect their confidence, and that is why I’m able to interview the best HR/Recruiting professionals.  What I can and will do is review his session from SourceCon and ERE.

SourceCon was by far the most valuable conference I’ve attended in the past 5 years. One session stands out heads above the rest.  Eric Jaquith’s presentation was brilliant.  I loved how he described his method of internet competitive strategy.  While I can’t share everything in one post, I can tell you this much.

His session detailed the importance of having the competitive advantage without becoming a “target.”

According to Jaquith, sourcing is about GETTING Coverage, and finding people.  Finding the right person for a position is a science, and an art. 

He asked, “how many people in the room were just sourcers, and how many were recruiters” Less than half the attendees were sourcers and the other half were full life cycle recruiters.   Then he asked how many of you have more than one profile on linkedin to attract a wide range of candidates. Let’s see a show of hands?  If you don’t have more than one linkedin profile; you don’t belong here.  Jaws dropped, controversy stirred, I smiled with glee.  In the back of my mind I was thinking, “I really like this guy.”  He knows how to break things down. 

For instance, he suggests that sourcing can be broken down 3 ways.

3 sections of sourcing/recruiting are as follows:

1. The Find
2. The Engage
3. The Share

Some people are better at finding information better than others. People are better suited to different areas of recruiting based on their temperament. Sourcers are specialists. One of the more interesting points Jaquith made is “ how NOT to use social media.”   With a plethora of people discussing how to use social media, it was refreshing hear how not to use it.  He described the strategy.

He stated, “The opposite of recruiting is privacy and confidentiality.” Some clients want do not want to advertise a position, but they want to know who is the best candidates might be.  That’s where good sourcers come into play.  Many candidates that fit the description don’t have linkedin profiles, or resumes.

Interestingly, Eric doesn’t tweet, blog, nor connect with professionas on facebook.  He said it’s because his clients don’t want him to, and he doesn’t want to found.  He does NOT give away his competitive advantage.  That’s why he’s so good at what he does.  Here’s his strategy in a nutshell—in order to be really competitive, working privately, and confidentially is very important.

The next critical point he made gels with my knowledge of personality typology.   For the past decade I have led seminars and led groups to interpret their MBTI and DiSc profiles.  People have individual temperaments.  Based on their temperament, they are going to excel some skills, and not at others.  For example, Jaquith said there are two primary types of sourcers:

1. Typers
2. Talkers

Recruiting is a team sport.  Typers are the research people.  Researchers (internet sourcers) are typers.  The talkers are the phone sourcers.  Sourcers are the people who get the leads.  Most “typers” would rather lie on a bed of nails than talk on the phone.  They want get off the phone, and give what they find to the “talker.”   Then there are logistic experts.   According to Jacquith that is his specialty.

In order to be a good sourcer, one has to be innovative, curious and have the mindset of a hacker.  I liken it to being like a scent hound.  You catch the scent, and follow it until you find it!  Eric introduced us to lots of tips and tools.   Some of the tips were simple, for instance, when speaking with a candidate, always ask for a number where s/he can receive texts, and where he can send secure email.  Most candidates can’t, and should receive recruiter correspondence at work.  So he makes sure he compiles his candidate’s information in a safe and effective manner.

Here’s a laundry list of tools Jacquith suggested we add to our sourcing tool kit.

1. Get a Jigsaw account-data base of business call data.  1 million people have accounts. It has information other sources don’t have.
2. Ixcitable for I Phone is a great app. “Ix” will give you valuable information to compile data.
3. Zip-code.com can search jobs in a zip radius

Google’s navi-guide, takes in zip code and the center where the loc is Circle radius center

Microsoft users:  He suggested sourcers set up separate profiles to compile information from each tool.  He even suggested using the names of family members to keep them separate.  Set up another user for different accounts e.g.: Microsoft 2010 is in beta, Firefox.

He also recommends investigating the following tools:

1. Outlook Social Connector
2. TOKBOx
3. OOVOO 6 way party calling with web cam conference call. Candidates don’t have to have soft ware.  Use it cheap and easy with colleagues.  This allows you to do one to one
4. Gist.com It allows you to bring information in about your contacts from twitter, facebook, and LinkedIn.  He recommend that you don’t load all the contact information at the beginning of the set up.
5. LinkedIn Connector: this is a tool he believes every sourcer ought to use.

Jaquith is like a breath of fresh air.  If you have more questions, I suggest you contact him.  This was by far the highlight of my ERE/Sourcecon experience

Eric Jaquith is on linkedin http://linkedin.com/in/jaquith

Email: Eric@dailyresumes.com
Calls preferred +1 (770) 598-2751

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Today, I spoke with the brilliant, Recruiting/Social Media Consultant, Eric Jacquith.  My next post will feature my review of his session at Sourcecon, and a few professional insights as well.

Later, I will review Glen Cathey‘s session about Sematic Search and Artificial Intelligence.

In addition, I will write an informational post about my guests on Monday 4/5 Compassionate HR blogtalkradio program.  The “Monster” show promises to be quite the eye opening experience.  The show will be expanded from the 30 minutes to 1 hour to accommodate the extraordinary information that my guests will share about corporate philanthropy, and the joy of volunteer work in the community.  My guests include Lew Karabatsos the Vice President, Corporate Philanthropy and Workplace Communications for Monster Worldwide; John Kofi Sanful is the Executive Director of Career Gear, and Suzanne Elliot, Executive Vice President of Resource Development and Strategic Marketing at Dress for Success.

I have so many exciting things in the works and I look forward to sharing all of them with you, so stay tuned.

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