The Power Of Proper Goal Setting In Recruiting (Talent Attraction, Talent Acquisition)
In 1969, I set an aggressive Goal to hitchhike from Beltsville, MD to LA in 5 days. The following summer, I set a more aggressive goal to hitchhike from Beltsville, MD to Samta Barbara (stretch goal) in 5 days, take two English courses at the University of California Santa Barbara, then hitchhike back to Beltsville, MD in 5 days. Was U successful? Of course I was successful! Plus, I received an A grade in each of my courses.
Some business people questioned the ability of SCAMPS to successfully set and achieve goals in business. Would you agree with them? You should, and I understand the question. Hitchhiking was an adventure and business goals are “different.”
Fast forward to 1993, just before using the Internet to search for candidates was possible. My client was MCI Telecommunications. You may not remember how their products “Friends and Family” and “1-800-COLLECT” set the telecom business on its ear.
I was approached by my client, the Commercial Billing Director of MCI Telecommunications, and was delegated to create the recruiting strategy to relocate the 200 member New Commercial Billing System Development team from Pentagon City, VA to Cedar Rapids over 20 months, with a minimum of 120 IT (Data Processing in those days) Professionals from January 1, 1993 to December 31, 1993. (during the first conversation, I did not know what state Cedar Rapids was located – hey! I grew up inside the Capitol Beltway!).
I asked several HR professionals in Pentagon City where Cedar Rapids was located. They did not know. I looked up Cedar Rapids in my webster’s Dictionary, and saw it was located in Iowa. Yep! I thought the same thing you are thinking – no Internet, no other recruiters, just me.
The first S in SCAMPS is “A goal needs to be Specific with a Strategy to achieve the goal.” The initial goal was to recruit a minimum of 120 IT Professionals from Senior Manager level to Junior Programmer/Analysts, and they must be sitting in their seats on December 31, 1993. The following 80 Programmer/Analysts needed to occupy their seats by August 31, 1993. I also needed to recruit a strong recruiter to replace me as an employee supporting NCBS.
After researching the IBM Mainframe employment market in Cedar Rapids and beyond, I met with the management staff to present my strategy.
In my strategy, I would work directly with the Hiring Managers so I could best understand their needs and priorities.
I received the approval for Human Resources to approve the opening of requisitions as needed based on the candidates recruited (initially, we had 80 open positions as needed). Human Resources would handle drug testing and background investigations. They would immediately create and send offer letters once I verbally extended the offer and received an offer acceptance. They were very cooperative and key members of my team.
My strategy was to take teams of 3 to 4 Hiring Managers on the last 2 weeks of every month to 2 to 3 cities and interview 18 to 24 candidates daily. That evening, over dinner, we would discuss the candidates. When we wanted to extend an offer, the Managers would determine the position and compensation. We tracked all of our offers to ensure the offers were not too high or too low compared to current candidates.
After dinner, I sent an mcimail to my Human Resources Professional. I gave the position requisition number, candidate name and contact information, and our compensation offer (we had a standard relocation benefit depending on candidate level). Our offers were contingent on the results of the drug test and background investigation.
Once the candidate passed our background investigation and drug test, we offered to pay for a trip to Cedar Rapids to meet other members of the team and offered a tour of Cedar Rapids. The team of Mary Penney and Sue Byers at Iowa Realty were amazing! They gave new employees a tour of Cedar Rapids and the various neighborhoods where they could rent or buy. They even included the twin stadiums in the tour.
It was a grueling adventure! At times, first thing in the morning, I had to look at the area code on the hotel phone to remember which city we were in.
On December 31, 1993, we counted new employees in seats. We recruited 133 IT Professionals with one recruiter (me) and relocated all but about 25 of the new employees. This was a tribute to my team of HR Professionals and Hiring Managers who needed to schedule around 2 new NCBS releases during 1993.
The result for me was additional responsibility, and of course notoriety. I became the Contract Recruiting Manager in Cedar Rapids. When the VP of Engineering complained about their recruiter in January 1994, I spoke with him about his recruiting practice and explained how he needed to improve and change his practices. He refused. I received permission to end his contract. Then, I found another local recruiter who was a Superstar in his own right. The VP Engineering was excited with his efforts and results.
My group of Hiring Managers were practiced and on top of their recruiting game going into 1994. We kept the same level of activity into August when we exceeded expectations again by recruiting 88 IT Professionals instead of 80. I recruited another local recruiter to replace me. She was also a Superstar.
Were there times when I had to adjust my strategy? Of course, there were. Since MCI Telecommunications was a member of the Online Career Center (OCC) founded by Bill Warren, I was granted access to search for candidates. Unfortunately, those were the early days of job postings. Most of the candidates were engineers, not IT professionals. OCC was eventually purchased by Monster.
In early 1994, the employment market shifted. I adapted to the shift by changing some of my favorite ways to attract candidates. We moved on.
Some members of my IT Manager Team and I keep in loose touch after 31 years. Those relationships speak to the respect we have for each other.
In this article, I spoke mostly about our recruiting strategy and how we implemented it. Look below to see how SCAMPS was used.
S – Specific with a strategy to achieve the Goal – Check
C – Challenging – You Bet! This made our Goal more exciting when we succeeded
A – Attainable – We believed in each other’s ability to Succeed
M – Measurable – My weekly reports illustrated our progress
P – Public – I chose a small Marketing Firm in Dallas – Still friends with my contact
S – Specific End Date – Initially, December 31, 1993. Then, August 31, 1993
EXPECT SUCCESS!
If you are an Association Editor and would like me to write an article for your Association Magazine or Newsletter, please contact me at www.recruiterguy.com/contact/ to set a time that fits your calendar. I am happy to tailor my articles to fit the needs of your Association members.
Permission to reprint articles by Bill Humbert is hereby given to all print, broadcast, and electronic media provided that the contact information at the end of each article is included in your publication. For organizations publishing articles electronically, a live, clickable link to https://www.RecruiterGuy.com must also be included with the body of the article. Additionally, please mail one copy of your publication to:
Provocative Thinking Consulting, Inc. 2590 Norwich Street, Fitchburg, WI 53711
- Permission to reprint articles by Bill Humbert, at no charge is granted with the agreement that:
- a. The article bio be included following each article used.
- b. One copy of the publication in which the article is published is provided to RecruiterGuy.com.
- c. A fee per article will be expected for articles published without the closing bio and contact information; $300.
- Permission is also granted for reasonable:
- Editing content and industry specific example exchange.
- Length.
- Article title change.
- Electronic publishing of articles must include a live, clickable link to https://www.RecruiterGuy.com.
Any questions, please email Bill@RecruiterGuy.com. Thank you.
Bill’s BIO
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.
As a Professional Speaker, Bill has spoken to audiences on 3 Continents on “The Power of Proper Goal Setting”.
Bill began recruiting in 1981 in Washington, D.C. as a fee-based recruiter. He started his own business in 1990 and then focused on consulting and recruiting for one company at a time and charging a flat monthly fee. He has been highly successful with this model and worked with companies in multiple industries (Telecom, Construction, Financial Services, Manufacturing – Food and Consumer Products, Management Consulting, Renewable Energy, etc). His most recent recruit was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for a Restaurant Chain.
During the Pandemic, from May 2020 to May 2022, he wrote 104 consecutive weeks of #TalentAttraction #Tuesday blogs and 104 consecutive weeks of #JobSearch #Friday blogs on his RecruiterGuy.com website. For over 26 years, he has coached hundreds of Professionals in successful Career Searches.
He has written 3 Career Search books. The latest, EXPECT SUCCESS! The Science Of The Over 50 Career Search, received this 5 Star Review – https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/expect-success
