Talent Attraction Safari Series #2

By RecruiterGuy | August 2, 2023

Does Your Company Have To Recruit Like The Herd?

During my recent safari in the Pilanesberg National Park in South Africa, we came upon these Impalas feeding around a danger sign.

Initially, I found it hilarious because they had no clue what the sign said. They were simply feeding inside the potential trap.

Then I thought of the many Human Resource Recruiters that I have “worked with (or around)” since 1981. When they believe, or were taught, that recruiting was simply posting a position on the various job boards or the company website, they followed the herd.

If you are interested in Attracting the Best Qualified Candidates for your organization, please read the balance of this Talent Attraction Safari Series Blog.

Like the Impalas, they were fearful of trying something to separate themselves from the herd. Now, unfortunately for the Impalas, there is a life or death danger for them. I understand their reality.

However, for the average Human Resource Recruiter, the problem is not life or death. There is only the fear of doing something differently from the herd of HR Recruiters. Well, there is the compliance training that they all receive – and that works against their success.

On one of my contracts with a large Insurance company, the HR Manager who was assigned “to support a Vice President and their organization” required me to take HIPPA Training before they granted me access to the company’s Applicant Tracking System to source candidates for them. I protested that resumes have no medical information (My wife was an ICU Nurse at the time). They said that since they were an insurance company, it was required (compliance).

When I completed the training, they sent me a form to sign that I successfully completed the HIPPA Compliance training and agreed not to release anyone’s medical information (from a resume?). At the bottom of the form was my line to print my name and signature. Below the line for my signature was “Employee.”

I copied and pasted the form. Then I created a second form where the word below my signature was Contractor. I signed both forms and dropped them off at the HR Manager’s office with a note saying to use the form they preferred. As a Talent Attraction Consultant, I advised that they not use the original form. If the Federal Auditor somehow found that form, they would have been fined for misreporting my relationship with the company – and would have experienced a more extensive audit.

You cannot make this up!

Oh, and then they still did not give me access to the ATS despite this being the 4^th time I recruited for them (worked with a more knowledgeable Human Resource Manager on the 3 previous contracts). In my first contract with them, in 8 months I recruited 23 Internal Auditors and IT Auditors across the US. Then coached the VP Director of Internal Audit on how to attract a VP of Internal Audit whom I identified and built a relationship to hire for an open VP of Internal Audit in a division outside the US. My consulting with them advised which 2 locations to close their Internal Audit offices, relocate the strong auditors, and release the balance.

My suspicion was this Human Resource Manager was afraid that I would have found the perfect candidate who was languishing in their ATS.

Many Human Resource organizations developed another ploy to avoid paying recruiting fees. Their “Recruiting Practice” is to wait until a fee-based recruiter introduces a great candidate to them. Then they search their Applicant Tracking System to determine if that candidate is languishing in their database. If they are, the HR Recruiter happily announces to the recruiter that they “HAVE the candidate” in their database. Therefore, they will not pay a fee for their introduction.

Executives, ask your Recruiting Manager if that is their process. The downside of that policy is that your relationship with that recruiter has changed from being a provider of great candidates to your company to the company becoming a SOURCE Company. Hey, great candidates must work somewhere! SOURCE companies are important.

Executives, Do you want the best recruiters to recruit the best talent from your company and introduce them to their new clients, your competition?

My policy in my contract is to promise my client that I will never recruit out of them for 5 years after the end of my contract with that business. I never recruit from my clients.

Look at your organization’s talent acquisition process from a candidate’s perspective. Follow the process by responding to an opening on your website. Does your company’s process require a professional candidate to complete an application before they submit their resume? If so, only the desperate candidates apply. The best candidates will not take 20 or 30 minutes out of their life to complete an application – and never receive a call from your company. Your applicant tracking system screens a person’s resume against, typically, a poorly written job description and grades them against the keyword match. Keep in mind, only one type of candidate spends the time to ensure they match your keywords perfectly – the desperate candidates. Do you want to hire them? Your company’s talent acquisition process is letting your company down. Many of your managers complain that they do not see the level of candidates they need to propel the business forward.

This is the reason that Executives reach out to me directly. They need the top performers, not the desperate candidates.

Is this time that your company breaks away from the HR herd and ATTRACTs the Best Candidates?

Talent Attraction is Better than Talent Acquisition!

#1 Google Ranked “Talent Attraction Consultant”

With 40+ years of Expert Professional Talent Attraction Consultant experience mingled with 26+ years of Expert Career Coaching Experience, Bill is uniquely qualified to Speak, Author, and Consult on Talent Attraction, Career Search, and Proper Goal Setting.

If you would like a conversation on how to ATTRACT talent instead of using an Applicant Tracking System or HRIS to screen them out, we should chat. Click on Contact – RecruiterGuy to set a time for us to chat.

If you are an Association Director, would you like to increase the benefits to your members? Recruiting is a problem for most companies. I can help.

My Talent Attraction speeches benefit your Association Membership and your Organizations. Please consider – If my Speech saves your members or company only ONE Recruitment fee, it has paid for itself.

Attracting and integrating Top Talent gives your company an industry edge. The process is worth the effort by improving productivity, innovation, and profitability.

Retaining Top Talent keeps your industry knowledge inside your company – instead of with the competition.

The RecruiterGuy.com Top Talent Attraction business model is my differentiator. I focus on one client at a time and charge a flat monthly fee. This model enables me to attract new talent to your organization while identifying and suggesting improvements to your company’s Talent Attraction process, including Manager Interview Training. https://recruiterguy.com/

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