Archive for the ‘ recruitment media ’ tag

I Answer to Many

I Answer to Many
One of the hallmarks of the Talent Acquisition Group at The Arland Group is that we work as an extension of our clients’ recruiting teams. One day I might be writing job descriptions, the next could involve identifying key trends in source of hires or assisting with the implementation of a multi-faceted social media campaign, and in between I could be researching CRM’s or wrapping up the sale of a career site. Much of our company’s success depends on the interaction between Arland and the client or “partner.” And, because of the nature of the projects on hand, I “report” to a specific project lead at each company and I become part of that partner’s team. My contact varies on each assignment. I work with recruiters, HRIS leaders, marketing folks, recruiting admins, managers, directors and VP’s of recruiting and human resources; vendor managers, procurement, retail operations and legal teams. Because of the different levels of interaction, I think of my role as a game: adjusting my style, my personality, my skills and knowledge to fit into a particular company’s recruiting structure and process. If I don’t adapt, I don’t succeed. Success is eminent though if I work effectively with each new “boss” and deliver strategic solutions that fulfill needs, budget and timeline.

By the way, if you are known for hating every boss you work for, you shouldn’t work in recruitment marketing sales. I technically have about 45 leaders in my life, all and I answer to each one as if he or she is the President of The Arland Group. My friends ask me, “How annoying is that, reporting to so many people?” I don’t have to think long before responding, “Yeah, sometimes it’s not so fun and can be overwhelming, but I love what I do!” I am still in awe that after 2 years on the job I still get excited when starting my work day. I consider myself pretty lucky as many people I know can’t stand what they do for a living. For me I find satisfaction in that every day at Arland is different. Every day I learn something new. Every day I get to make an impact on our partners’ recruiting missions, saving them time or money or improving their brand equity. And, I enjoy the challenge that comes with juggling multiple projects. Trust me! There is never a dull moment in my life! This is a very good thing for someone like me who has adult ADD. Most of all, I love the relationships that develop along the way. So many of my clients become good friends and there is wonderful sense of camaraderie- who could ask for more? I’m happy to say that I answer to many chiefs and dig every minute of it!

Posted: June 29th, 2010
at 2:07pm by Deb Andrychuk

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Prevent a Job Posting Tragedy

I was out on one of the large job boards today and ran across this job listing:

ADMINISTRATIVE ASST -
P/T, 25-30hrs a week. Word, Excel a plus. Fax resume to 941-XXX-XXXX.

Uh, really?  Why would anyone be compelled to apply?  I wanted to yell, “Yoo-hoo, Owner–of –Pathetic-Job-Posting! Guess what?  You are on the Internet- you know, World Wide Web aka unlimited space to write what you want and the ability to convey real opportunity, your company story and culture to hundreds or even thousands of budding candidates?”   This is a complete posting failure!

In today’s job market, candidates are savvier and have higher expectations about the marketing document that you call a job posting.  Job seekers demand basic information about your opening so they can make an informed decision before hitting “apply now”.  You can protect your brand and company image; make a better match with more qualified job seekers by following 5 simple rules.

  1. Use industry accepted job titles.  If your company has an unusual name for a position, don’t use it!
  2. Put your job posting components in order of importance to the job seeker.  What is the position? Why should anyone work for you? Outline basic requirements, benefits to seeker and how to apply.
  3. Use applicable keywords in your title and in your job posting to help elevate your job’s placement in search results.  Most search engines are based on keyword relevance so this can help you get greater exposure.
  4. Bullet point large chunks of information so you can keep the seeker engaged.
  5. Give your posting a “once over” to make sure that all words are spelled correctly and that you have used correct grammar and punctuation.

Simple enough right?  Now, all you job board gurus, relax.  I know there is more to posting a great ad than the 5 rules above, but faced with a potential posting tragedy, isn’t this a nice alternative?  I want employers, big and small, to have a straightforward posting strategy.  Let’s keep the train wrecks where they belong, in the movies and away from the information superhighway.  And, to all you would-be job advertisers, I wish you calamity free candidate matches!

Posted: June 15th, 2010
at 8:32am by Deb Andrychuk

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Stop the Deletions

I was talking to my boss earlier in the week and he was reviewing my prospective new business report. Discouraged by the lack of new appointments, he sighed and mumbled something sarcastic like, “I could get 10 meetings a week when I was in your shoes.” At first I felt embarrassed and somewhat defensive and then it occurred to me that he was right. 10 years ago, HR or talent acquisition wasn’t the cold calling target they are today, and get this: HR would not only take your calls, but they would dutifully listen to your entire voicemail, sometimes taking notes and writing down your contact information and then actually return your phone calls, regardless of whether they were interested in working with you or not. Amazed by the thoughts of this Happy Land where caller and client are evenly paired? Well, it doesn’t exist today, so time to wake up and face the new reality. Remember that before the advent of job boards, job aggregators, applicant tracking systems; CRM’s and social media solutions, vendor to client ratios were not so wildly disproportionate as they are now. And even though current HR behavior may seem downright rude or insensitive at times, it’s obvious that these poor souls are drowning in the sea of incessant calls received from sales people hawking their wares on a daily basis. So, it makes sense that as a vendor, if you can’t find a way to stand out amongst the gazillion people leaving a message with a given prospect, you run the risk of getting deleted before you can even begin to share your value proposition. So, how do you prevent your prospect from hitting “*D” on their phone and sending you into vendor purgatory?

Here is a day in the life at Arland: I will be diligently looking for fresh opportunities to network and make new business calls, when without fail, I get the call. It’s someone in my industry- the recruitment advertising world, calling to complain about the injustices bestowed upon them by HR Directors, VP’s and recruiters alike. To hear Mr. Yukkity-yuk talk, you would believe that the HR community owed him something for his poorly constructed elevator speeches and equally dismal deliveries of said messages. UGH! It’s during these moments I wish I could just slap a giant pause button and say to my newly muted friend, “If you think about all of the technology that has been developed over the course of the last decade, you’re CUH-RAZY if you haven’t noticed that your prospect is now the target for an unprecedented number of vendor calls and emails, and the quantity of these marketing calls continue to escalate every day! “

So, how do you deliver your message to your target audience without getting discarded before you have stated your purpose? Mike Grennier who heads up talent acquisition in North America for Wal-Mart might have the answer. He recently tweeted, “Dear Vendors: Voice mails longer than 30 seconds will NOT be returned. Think twitter-length. Thank you.” Hhhmm might seem a little harsh, but seriously, maybe Mr. Grennier is on to something here. Maybe we should all take his advice…if your message is longer than a typical Facebook status update or is more than 140 characters, trash it and start again. Besides condensing your message, I think we should all think about emailing our clients first. If you were in your prospect’s shoes, wouldn’t you rather have the option to answer an email at your convenience versus feeling obligated to return a voicemail? And, I think we vendors should all receive harsh jolts of electricity every time we leave messages with trite sayings like “saves you time, money and will increase your ROI.” We can do better than that, can’t we? I for one am going to apply what I know about social media to the development of my new and improved voicemails. I pledge to keep it concise, keep it real and honest, provide true value to the recipient and I will be polite. Above all, I will strive to keep it memorable and unique. I remember a top sales person at a previous employer of mine who used to tell mini-jokes on voicemail when he couldn’t get in touch with a decision maker. He would say something like, “Wow, sorry to hear about your broken arm” to someone who he had never met before. He would then chuckle and continue with, “I’m assuming it’s broken because you won’t call me back!” Believe it or not, this unusual approach worked more times than not, probably because it was unique and he used humor to his advantage. This sales person was smart enough to realize that no one really cared about his credentials, his product differentiators, or the slick article written about his company in Fortune Magazine last month. But he knew if he could make a personal connection with his prospect he might have a shot at getting a meeting and a potential sale.
So, in true Twitter fashion, I leave you with this final thought: Dear Vendor, craft a unique message that is concise, useful, engaging and honest. Email first, call second.
PS Call me in a week and I will let you know this works for me, that is, if I don’t delete your message first…

Posted: June 10th, 2010
at 11:35am by Deb Andrychuk

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