HIRING FREEZE – Talent Attraction vs. Talent Acquisition

By RecruiterGuy | April 21, 2020

Smart companies hire Top Talent during Hiring Freezes. This is a fact – 7 professionals at all levels whom I coached over the past 1 month (Mid-March to Mid-April 2020 during Covid19) received and accepted offers. Two of those professionals received 2 offers at the same time! One of those 2 professionals accepted a job as a Global VP for an international organization.

How does Talent Attraction differ from Talent Acquisition? It is All in the Mindset! The Talent Attraction mindset differs from the Talent Acquisition mindset in how the recruiting function is handled.

Talent Acquisition is the model for most companies. In the Talent Acquisition mindset, the job of Human Resources is to filter (block during a Hiring Freeze) candidates. The depth of filtering drives the most select candidates away from the company. How may an executive determine if their company has a Talent Acquisition mindset?

Must candidates apply online prior to submitting a resume? That is fine for hourly workers. Unfortunately, companies since the mid-2000’s have conditioned professional candidates their resume and application will go into the black hole. Other than receiving a system generated thank you, they never hear from the company again. On the Career Coaching side of my business, I coach professional candidates to avoid Human Resources at all costs.
During a company Hiring Freeze, call into Talent Acquisition from a neutral phone number. Ask the person who answers about Req. number 4236 (Use one of your critical open positions). They will tell you to apply online and the position is on hold during the Hiring Freeze.

Talent Attraction has a Sales mindset. Will a great enterprise sales professional continue their sales relationship selling process during a business downturn? Absolutely! When the economy turns around, they and their clients are prepared to sign contracts. This is the Talent Attraction mindset.

In its heyday, MCI Telecommunications was known to do things differently to drive different results. They were my first recruiting client in 1981. In 1992, MCI hired me and a few other third party consultants as contract recruiters focusing on IT positions. In May of 1992, the CIO requested we plan for a hiring push at the end of September. MCI had a practice of instituting a hiring freeze in August/September every year. We cautioned our Director that a Career Fair in Pentagon City, VA would cost nearly $25,000. He gave us the go ahead to plan and hold the Career Fair. Don Desjardins did a great job building consensus and planning the Career Fair. We all helped him execute the fair. We attracted 300 IT professionals. Our managers were interested in approximately 100 of those IT professionals.

Of course, two days later, MCI instituted the hiring freeze! As a group, we coached our managers to interview candidates where they had interest. Then we coached them to develop the offer paperwork so we would be prepared to extend offers when the Hiring Freeze was lifted. We also coached our candidates that everything was moving along. The evidence was their successful interview. Finally, our Director was able to prevail, and the Hiring Freeze was lifted for IT recruiting only. The day the Hiring Freeze was lifted in mid-October, all the recruiting consultants extended offers to the candidates from the Career Fair who passed muster. In one day, we extended 66 offers and received 66 acceptances. The next day, the garage doors slammed shut again for the hiring freeze. This is a better plan than to wait until the Hiring Freeze is over and then spend months to attract the best candidates.

The lesson is to prepare candidates and managers for the end of the Hiring Freeze. Then extend the offers and receive candidate acceptances.

In my experience, there are few Executive Vice Presidents of Talent Acquisition with the Talent Attraction mindset. Trina Eyring of Zions Bancorporation in Salt Lake City is one with the Talent Attraction mindset. Last week, I forwarded a resume of a qualified IT Architect whom I coached. She immediately sent his resume to the Manager of that position.

Talent Attraction requires dedication, hard work, and a SALES mentality. If your company wants to Attract Talent instead of acquire talent, I am happy to consult with you to develop the Talent Attraction mindset.

Bill Humbert is available for Speaking, Talent Attraction Consulting, and Training contracts.

RecruiterGuy@msn.com 435-714-4425

https://www.espeakers.com/marketplace/speaker/profile/23767/Bill-Humbert

USA 01-435-714-4425 RecruiterGuy@msn.com

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