The middle of a calendar year is a time for reflection and self-improvement. We all ask ourselves how we can make ourselves better in our personal and professional lives. All too often, our grandiose plans for self-improvement fall by the wayside with seemingly more pressing life tasks, but here are a few ideas to get back on track that can be accomplished whenever you have a few minutes to spare.

HONE YOUR WRITING SKILLS

Too often, Recruiters grossly underestimate the need to write well.  Clear, concise writing is an integral skill to recruiting and often determines whether one can get the candidate (and their respect) or not.  A focused job description will help to ensure that your post will generate quality candidates, and well-written office memos will clarify your policies and eliminate unnecessary confusion among your colleagues. The key to writing well is writing often. Try to make time to write something every day. The subject is irrelevant. Even taking ten minutes to compose a descriptive paragraph about the view from your window or your impressions of last night’s dinner will keep you in practice. Simple exercises like this will turn the mechanics of writing into second nature, and the next time you have to write a proposal, the words will flow easier. If you need inspiration and/or assistance writing about unfamiliar topics, pick up a copy of William Zinsser’s superb book “On Writing Well”; it has discussions and examples of a variety of topics, and Zinsser’s writing style is perfect for a quick read when you have a few moments between appointments.

REFERRALS

Just like improving our writing skills, asking our clients and candidates for referrals is something we know we should do, but we seem to overlook it. Remember that referrals can expand your business exponentially, so it’s important to ask on every call. Sometimes a reminder is all you need, so write yourself one, on as big or as small of a piece of paper as necessary. Now think about the places your eyes travel when you’re on a call. Find the place where you always look (computer, office wall, calendar, desk) and place your reminder where you will always see it. Need something more substantial? Try outlining your basic calls from opening to close (with referrals tucked in near the end of the call), then follow it until asking for referrals becomes a natural part of the call.

SOCIAL MEDIA

As everyone in recruiting knows, social media networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have revolutionized the business. It is still a fairly new phenomenon, so there’s always room for improvement and reconsiderations. Be sure that your company has an effective presence on all of the major platforms, and don’t stop working on it after you’ve done the initial setup. Take a few minutes to read over the pages—even if you wrote the original yourself. Are there ways to improve the grammar or to sharpen a point? Can you find ways to engage your audience by posting questions on your wall? (Facebook’s “talking about this” statistic continues to carry more importance than the simple “like”.) Write up your suggestions and encourage your fellow employees to follow suit. It truly takes a village to proofread and define a website, and with the importance of social media in recruiting, it is a necessary effort.

None of these techniques will take up much of your time (much less than the frequently procrastinated trip to the gym!), but with a concerted effort, you can make these small changes a permanent—and pleasurable—part of your daily routine.

It is a scenario that repeats itself with unending regularity: You, the recruiter, have found the perfect candidate, the client makes a generous offer, and then the candidate informs you that he has received a counter-offer from his current employer. Consider what has actually happened: the current employer, realizing that one of their employees is on the verge of departing, has gone into panic mode, and they offer more money to “keep them onboard”. Well, even if you didn’t warn your perfect candidate of this possibility, there’s no reason for you to go into panic mode. Why? Simple. It’s not just about the money!

For whatever reason, the candidate agreed to talk to you and pursue a career change despite having a current position. So it follows that your candidate has a mental list of all the things at his current job that drive him crazy. Those reasons, usually unrelated to the financial rewards, will play a part in the candidate’s eventual decision. However, the promise of a large amount of money can cloud his judgment. So it’s important to remind your candidate that the extra dollars or change in title will not change the company’s faulty business model, improve the sagging office morale, eradicate the office politics nor rid him of annoying co-workers. In fact, those problems are likely to get worse if your candidate accepts the counter-offer.

Betrayal is one of the deepest ways we humans can hurt each other. It has a devastating effect on personal and work relationships. Regardless of intent, the employee who looks for another job is considered a betrayer. Betrayal breeds mistrust. Should the employee accept the counter-offer and stay with his current employer, he will be suspect any time he takes a day off. No matter how legitimate the reason or illness, the employer will assume that the employee is out looking for another job. Because the employee has “shown his cards”, he is likely to be passed over for promotions and more likely to be first on the chopping block when layoffs occur. Statistics show that most employees that accept a counter-offer end up leaving the company within three years, either through being laid off, or because the other aspects of the job made life at work unbearable, even with the extra money.

It is important to take great care in explaining these scenarios to your candidate. There is an inevitable risk that the candidate will feel trapped, or worse, sympathetic to their current employer. So use the sales technique of reinforcing the decision. Counter the scenarios of what could (and usually does) happen at the old job with the benefits of the new job. Certainly, there are the possibilities of new experiences and new co-workers with a new position, but use your knowledge of the new company to explain and reinforce the other benefits of the job (whatever they may be). Build your argument on the simple equation of old job vs. new job and leave yourself out of it. The only part that you can play is to convince the candidate that you have their best interests at heart, and that rejecting the counter-offer is the only wise move considering the aforementioned risks.

Employers and Agency Recruiters: you can easily build your own custom recruiting team (unique to you only) and seamlessly communicate new requirements to your team with FeeTrader’s “Preferred Recruiters” functionality. Here’s how it works:

Employers: Simply add Preferred Recruiters (PRs) to your account which will automatically place job requirements (for bid) onto your PR’s “Job Invites” page. When your PR logs in each day and checks their “Job Invites” page, they can immediately take action and bid on your jobs.  You’ll still need to accept their bid as usual.  This process just gets immediate attention of those Agency Recruiters that you’re interested in hearing from.

We’ve all been there, right?  We have come across the perfect candidate on LinkedIn, we’re out of InMails or don’t want to shell out the money for them in the first place.

Is this the end of the road?  Absolutely not!  What I’m about to show you isn’t completely foolproof, but it will provide you with enough information to be able to make an educated guess at what your “perfect” candidate’s email address is.

Here’s how it works….

As an example, let’s say we found the profile for John Doe on LinkedIn and John currently is a Software Engineer at Qwest in Denver (at least for now- until the CenturyLink acquisition is official).

The first thing you need is the company’s domain name as this is typically the same as their email addresses.  In this instance, I already know that Qwest’s domain is qwest.com.

Once I have that, I plug the following search string into Google:  “email**qwest.com”

Keep in mind that the * operator is a placeholder in Google, so you may have to experiment with the number of asterisks you use in the search string.  I always start out with two and then go to one and then three if I don’t find what I’m looking for.  Also, the quotations are important.  Don’t forget to add them!

So you may be asking yourself….what exactly am I looking for?  What I’m looking for are a couple of email addresses for individuals at Qwest.  They don’t necessarily have to be the exact person I am looking for, but if I find a couple of email addresses with which I can corroborate how they have set up their email aliases (e.g., first name.last name @ company.com), I can assume with a high degree of certainty what the email address is going to be for the person I am looking for

Here’s what I found using “email**qwest.com”:

Even though I didn’t find the specific email address for John Doe, I was able to figure out that their alias is typically firstname.lastname@qwest.com which, in this case, would likely be john.doe@qwest.com.

I would venture to guess that, when using this technique, I get the email address correct at least 85-90% of the time.  However, there will be instances in which companies add a person’s middle initial to their email alias (e.g., john.h.doe@company.com).  When that happens, there is not much you can do if you don’t know the middle initial, but the good news is I don’t run across that very often.

Happy hunting!

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Our guest blogger, Travis Scott, is a Talent Sourcer at Microsoft

Social media has become a domineering force for today’s recruiters, and cyberspace is loaded with battles between programs competing for the same markets. While Tumblr is Twitter’s only real competition, Google + is trying to grab some of Facebook’s audience (this despite a considerably late start) and Facebook’s partner BranchOut is vying to be an alternative to LinkedIn. It’s unlikely that any of these new competitors will disappear altogether even if the old standbys continue to dominate the field, but presently recruiters should have accounts on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and be prepared for any changes. Not all social media are created equal, and each of these platforms have their strengths and weaknesses, especially in the recruiting arena.

Twitter is popular and easy to use. Its mobile function is virtually the same as the desktop version, and as a result, many users direct tweets to their phone. However, you’re not likely to communicate your job openings in 140 characters, so you’ll have to use an abbreviated URL to link to your company’s website, and if that website isn’t mobile-friendly, you may lose the attention of your viewer while their phone tries to load a large website. Don’t expect those people to remember your tweet later that night and research on their home PC. Travis Scott, a recruiter with Microsoft, recommends using Twitter to advertise events, promote blog posts, and offer updates on company news. One other thing to know about Twitter is that it is a bare-bones program; you’ll need apps to ensure that you aren’t writing manual tweets all day. Those apps, such as Followerwonk, SocialBro, TweetDeck and Hoot Suite, are all external to Twitter, and you may have to use them in combination for the best results.

Facebook gives recruiters the space they need for job posts, and it has a huge audience (already exceeding one billion). Posts can be as long as desired and, in conjunction with Facebook advertising, they can be specifically targeted to an audience. The mobile version does not duplicate the PC version—just compare the news feeds between your phone and your desktop—and it does not include advertising. Even if you just post a job opening to your Facebook wall, your mobile subscribers may not see it until they log on to Facebook at home. With these potential problems, it may be best to use BranchOut when recruiting on Facebook. The prices are lower than LinkedIn, and their audience seems to be growing along with Facebook’s.

LinkedIn was designed with recruiting in mind, so many of its built-in functions can assist recruiters. Job postings are easy here, especially because the platform was created for that purpose. Similarly, the profile pages on LinkedIn are designed for professional use, and don’t need to balance between casual and work atmospheres. In a recent blog post, I wrote about the many tools available to enrich a recruiter’s LinkedIn experience, including groups and discussions. Further, LinkedIn has a strong commitment to their mobile platforms, and they are constantly improving those products to bring them closer to their desktop counterparts. However, there are pitfalls with LinkedIn as well. The professional atmosphere of LinkedIn may be a deterrent to potential candidates, who feel less comfortable here than on the other social media platforms. There are also privacy concerns, as contact and job histories are necessary on LinkedIn. Also, as noted in my blog post, recruiters have found ways to abuse this platform through spam-like InMails and by ignoring a candidate’s preferences in Contact Settings.

There is no clear winner in this battle of platforms. One simply cannot ignore one to focus on the other two, and vice versa. I’m sure there are plenty of recruiters that will argue for posting jobs on Twitter, and those who have no issues with the Facebook mobile app or have had no exposure to abuse on LinkedIn. However, because each of these platforms require a certain amount of setup and maintenance time, it’s important to balance these powerful tools in the most efficient way possible. Whether that comes from the suggestions presented above or something completely different will depend on the user.

The family-owned company has been a staple of the business world since the “Ogg & Sons Rock Demolition Company” started up in prehistoric days. Today, over 35 percent of all corporations are owned by families, including Wal-Mart, Ford, NASCAR, Lowes and Ikea. Yet perhaps the most transparent business model is that of Tony Bennett. At 85, Tony Bennett is still performing between 100 and 200 concert dates per year. He has publicly said that he has no intentions of retiring, and that as a singer, he’s “never worked a day in his life”. Bennett’s vocal quality and stamina are legendary, but his phenomenal success over the last few decades is due to his son, Danny, who became Bennett’s manager after years of barely-adequate representation. Danny had ideas about revitalizing Tony’s career, including marketing him to a younger audience (the “MTV Unplugged” special was famously, Danny’s idea). Now, Tony has several family members who work with him, including his son Dae, a recording engineer who, until recently, ran Bennett Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Tony’s daughter Antonia is a fine singer in her own right, and she is Tony’s opening act at concerts, and Tony’s granddaughter takes all the photos for Tony’s albums.

Obviously, Tony Bennett feels very comfortable having his family involved in his career. But what about family members who work in a “normal” corporation? One thing on which many experts agree is that the incoming family member should have experience with other companies before joining the family business. Not only does this “legitimize” the hiring of a family member, it also gives the family member more substantial experience for their resume, especially if things don’t work out with the family company. Further, the family member with a vision for the family business may be able to use their other experiences to enrich and revitalize the family business. As an example, Danny Bennett does more than manage his father’s career; he is president of RPM Productions, which also manages such diverse artists as Elvis Costello and Jamiroquai.

Another important step when hiring a family member is establishing specific roles for them, and their rules of conduct when representing the company. Every employee deserves to know what is expected of them, and family employees are no different. While there is a certain amount of “everyone chips in where they’re needed”—especially in smaller family businesses, a family employee should know what to expect on a daily basis, and the assurance that they’re not to get the tasks that no one else wants to do. Also, it’s important to emphasize training with a family employee; some companies have ignored it altogether when bringing in family, but there is little more important for such employees so that they can see the importance of the job they will do. It’s vitally important that a family member follows the same work rules and conduct as any other employee. Seeing a family member “play the kin card” and slough off on the job can be very detrimental to the company morale, and obviously affect production. The employee manual should be followed to the letter, and it may be necessary to add a few rules for family members. No matter what level of position a family member holds—entry level to upper management—the rules must remain; in the third-generation family business of NASCAR, the CEO must still adhere to the suggestions of the board of directors.

In the case of the Bennett family, it is clear that Tony is the reason for the company’s existence, and that he is the reason audiences come to concerts and buy recordings. As talented as his family may be, they must know that “this can’t last forever”—one day Tony will stop singing publicly and the family will be forced to find a new way to earn their living. This is a good thing for any family employee to remember. The family business must not be seen as a stopping point. Either the family member will find a new position at another company, or they will find a way to revitalize the family business in the future. In both cases, the family employee can benefit from the mentoring and structure of a family business, but they must always show that they achieved their success through their own efforts. – Thomas Cunniffe

One of my favorite pastimes is to watch old movies and TV shows to see how they predicted the future. I’m still waiting delivery of the personal robot and jet packs that we were all promised, but from the silly (The Jetsons) to the dramatic (Star Trek) to the profound (2001: A Space Odyssey), one thing that was predicted correctly was our use of video for conversations. Here we are, like George Jetson, Captain Kirk and the 2001 astronauts, using our video cameras and computer technology to communicate with people down the street or on the other side of the world. Recruiters have picked up on this technology to lessen their costs and increase their productivity.

In many ways, a job interview is like a college exam. The candidate comes in knowing to expect a number of different types of questions, but not knowing the exact questions or the way they will be presented. The candidate is under stress, because they know they must “pass” in order to move forward. The interviewer has the same task as the professor, writing and asking the questions in the most concise manner and finding the best way to present the questions to obtain the information they desire. Ideally, interviews should have the same structure as a test, with short answer or multiple choice questions up front when dealing with the job specifics, and an essay section where the candidate can expound on their knowledge using real-life situations from their past employment. The job interview equivalent to the essay question is the behavioral question.

Behavioral questions take the form of “tell me about a time when such-and-such happened and how you responded”. The answers can reveal how the candidate acts in specific situations. When creating behavioral questions, it’s important to ask about situations that can happen in any work environment, but are common with the available position. Candidates can come from a variety of workplace situations and an inappropriately phrased question may confuse the candidate and lead you in the wrong direction regarding their appropriateness for the job. It is always wise to have alternative (albeit similar) questions so that you can tailor the question to fit the candidate’s individual experiences. Also, be sure that you make the questions behavioral and not hypothetical. “Tell me about a time when you had an irate customer and how you resolved the issue” is much better than “We have our share of irate callers. How would you handle them?” The first version lets the candidate be specific about a particular situation; the second is so open-ended that is nearly useless (Why are they irate? Do we have a specific protocol to follow for these situations? How am I expected to answer this question?)

There is a well-known formula for the expected answers to behavioral questions, and it is alternately known as STAR or SAR. The acronym refers to “Situation—Task—Action—Response”. The formula is very useful for ensuring that all the important details are covered. Obviously, it would be ideal if the candidate were to answer following the exact steps of the model above, but there’s no need to insist on that formality. Listen carefully and take notes as the candidate tells their story and be prepared to ask for details if any aspects of the story are confusing. You can also tell about the candidate’s personality and communication skills in the way that they relate the story. A good communicator can be an excellent ambassador for your company.  Happy Hunting!  -Tom Cunniffe

Earlier on FeeTrader’s Blog,  Travis Scott, our guest blogger and Talent Sourcer for Microsoft, discussed how to use Google to perform an X-Ray search of LinkedIn.  Now we want to take that one step further using something called a “proximity operator.”  Travis explains below how to use this search operator for more targeted search results within LinkedIn public profiles.  Enjoy!

A Boolean proximity operator is a great tool to keep in your arsenal if LinkedIn’s premier subscription is outside of your budget- like it is for many companies.

According to Bing, a Proximity  Operator is a Boolean Operator separating words or phrases in a text search that directs the search engine to locate pages in which the words are near one another in any direction, the acceptable distance varying among search engines. Simply put, it allows you to be more specific in what you would like to see in your search results.

This week we will discuss using Bing and Boolean operators to return more targeted results when performing an x-ray search of LinkedIn.

Using the search method discussed a couple of weeks ago, it would be difficult to drill down to things like current job title.  By using Boolean operators, we can now do that.

Let’s say I’m looking for someone that is currently a .NET Software Engineer with experience in C#, Azure and Silverlight and is located in the Seattle area.

Here’s the Boolean search string I would use:

site:linkedin.com “greater seattle area” current near:6 “software engineer” azure C# Silverlight

Here are the results…

Here’s how it works:

• “site:linkedin.com” — Tells Bing to only search the website linkedin.com
• “greater seattle area” — When searching a specific geographic area, you must phrase it exactly as LinkedIn does.

Now for the kicker….

• current near:6 “software engineer” — If you look at someone’s public profile, you will notice that the person current title is shown toward the top of the page (see below).  This tells Bing that I want to see results in which the phrase “software engineer” is located within six words of the term “current.”

Why did I choose six?  Just to be safe.  Believe it or not, the dot in between “Current” and their title is viewed in search results as a word.  So that automatically forces me to at least use “near:2”.  Then you have to consider the different variations of someone’s title.  They could be a Sr .NET Engineer or a Sr .NET Software Engineer or a host of other titles.  I would suggest using a different number and checking out the results that are returned to you.

In closing, you may be asking yourself, what is the benefit of this if I get the same or more results by doing a similar search within LinkedIn?  The answer is that you probably have a pretty robust network or have a premium subscription.

Because LinkedIn limits your access to the full names of 3^rd degree contacts and those outside of your network, you would only be limited to those results.  However, most people’s profiles are publicly searchable.  This means, by using Bing or Google to do a x-ray search of the site, you now have access to those people – at least until LinkedIn decides to cut this access off to people.

One of the oldest Hollywood stories involves a young Method actor and a veteran director. The actor asks the director, “What is my motivation for this scene?” and the director replies, “Your paycheck.” While the veteran director may not agree, motivation is an important element in making life-changing decisions. Discovering a candidate’s motivation is also a key to successfully placing a candidate.

The entire concept of candidate control is rather controversial. Some advocate a frank attitude where the recruiter tells the candidate that they’ve already been paid, they don’t care whether or not the candidate takes the position! Others have realized that a pushy, arrogant attitude equates recruiters with used-car salesmen. These experts recommend a nuanced, soft-sell approach built on a strong foundation of trust and empathy. The latter approach uses one of the salesman’s best tools: the probing question.

As noted in earlier editions of this blog, candidates can have any number of reasons for changing positions. Chances are that they have created their own mental list of irritants in their current position, and it is your job as a recruiter to identify those problems and provide solutions. Further, they may also have a list of requirements that a new job must fulfill, or they will just stay put. By showing empathy, developing trust and asking questions that address potential issues, you have the best opportunity to create a strong relationship with the candidate.

People love to talk about themselves, and it’s important for the interviewer to let them do so! A good open-ended question can get the candidate talking, and if the interview listens intently to what the candidate has to say, they can learn multitudes about the candidate’s motivations and their needs. The answers should lead to more focused questions which should in turn lead to a targeted solution. It’s hard to tell just when you’ve found enough motivations to move forward, but if the candidate shows second thoughts during the overall process, it’s time to probe some more. Keep in mind that some candidates may have deeply hidden reasons for not accepting a position. In one case, an excellent candidate called the recruiter to pull out of a promising new position. It was only from close listening that the recruiter discerned that there was a previously undisclosed family situation that made the candidate uneasy about relocation. The client had been suitably impressed with the candidate and adjusted their offer upward to make the transition easier.

So, in the long run, candidate control is about helping your candidates make the best decision for their career path, rather than forcing them into a position by pressuring them with tired lines about impatient clients who won’t hesitate to hire someone else. While such situations do exist, the skilled recruiter will find the way to resolve any candidate objections without making the candidate feel like they are being pushed into a decision. – Thomas Cunniffe