KeenHire Blog by Margaret Graziano

Hiring and Retaining Difference Makers

It's no secret that a major driver of corporate success is putting the right person in the right role the first time.  In fact, statistics from the Harvard Business Review and other leading human resources thought leaders indicate that as much as 60%-85% of the retention problems many companies face are directly related to defects in the hiring process.  To properly reverse this trend, hiring authorities in high touch, high tech markets must be able to benchmark the role; that is, to develop a complete understanding of the job itself, and the skills, experience, traits, values and motivations necessary for success.  Once complete, a systematic process for behavioral interviewing and talent selection must be employed to identify, select, on board and retain true difference makers. 

What is a difference maker?
A difference maker is someone who is willing and able to fill all aspects of the role with confidence, one who consistently delivers on objectives, and who leads her team to peak performance.  In many cases a difference maker shakes things up, brings forth change, demands results and at times, is not the most popular person on the team.  They hit their targets, and inspire their teams to do the same.

Difference makers are motivated.  Difference makers tell the truth, they don’t cover up mistakes, and they are completely accountable for what works and what doesn’t.  They take responsibility.  Proactive, solution-oriented leaders, difference makers take action.  Their values align with those of the organization, and these values drive day to day behaviors that pursue excellence.

The Truth About Hiring Recruiters....At Least...My Version Of The Truth

I hear often that in times where good people are hard to find, if someone is on the street looking, I should wonder why.  So if you are looking, and you know that the ‘already always listening’ is this…the question is…How do you separate yourself from the sea of competition? AND for the record…there is a SEA of competition. 

I recently posted a contract recruiter position and within 4 days I got over 400 submittals.  Ugggggh. Now I know how my clients used to feel before they met me?

 
Unfortunately, here is a look into what I saw….typos and misspellings on resumes, zero mention of accountability, inconsistent information, absent information from previous jobs, half completed resumes and 6-1 resumes were from recruiter  wan-na -bees.  The sad part is, some of the wan-na-bees took more time to position themselves than some of the veterans.

If you are a serious player, and you want to separate your candidacy from the sea of competition I suggest you take your job search seriously, even if it is for a contract recruiter role.  You may be asking yourself, what does she mean take it seriously? First of all, to me seriously means…..take your time;  who you are being in your job search IS a reflection of who you will be on the job.

National Association Of Personnel Services - New Certification

CERS

Full Service Talent Management programs, HR Consulting, and New Innovative Staffing solutions are rapidly taking hold and changing the landscape of the recruiting and staffing marketplace. Companies are looking for answers to human capital problems and there is no one else on the planet better equipped to solve these problems then members of the National Association of Personnel Services.

Regardless of the countries economic instability many companies are dealing with core strategic issues that impair their ability to remain competitive, they need to find, select and keep good people.  The facts are clear, The War on Talent is a major strategic initiative in 65% of all companies; whether they are at the start up level or tier 1 players, competitive companies can not get where they are going without the right people doing the job in the right way.

“A recruiter without an in-depth bandwidth of human capital solutions and a road map of how to apply those solutions in their business is like a commuter who takes the same road home even when that road is under construction and there is only one lane open."

Yes they still get home; it just takes twice the time and triple the aggravation.

NAPS, Margaret Graziano and the CERS program guarantees you taking your business to the next level, increasing your bandwidth and knowledge in human capital, new sources of revenue, and an increase in market share with both current and new customers.

KeenHire Press Release Announcing KeenView

KeenHire to Launch KeenView™ Behavioral Interviewing & Selection Software at Upcoming HR Technology Conference & Expo

 

First software solution designed to improve recruitment & selection and eliminate bad hires in high tech sales, engineering and leadership positions

 

 

Chicago, IL – September 12, 2008 – KeenHire, a full service talent management solutions firm announced today that it will debut its behavioral interviewing & selection software solution at the upcoming HR Technology Conference & Expo in October put on by Human Resource Executive magazine.  The product has also been entered into the Annual Top Human Resource Products contest. 

 

KeenView is a proprietary, web-based software solution for human resource executives, hiring authorities and executive recruiters in the high tech industry.  The system employs job benchmarks, scientifically proven assessments, and behavioral interviewing and selection best practices that reduce the time, cost and negative impacts of making a bad hire.  The solution ensures that high tech sales, engineering and leadership jobs, as well as the ideal candidates, are well defined – diving deep to include not just the required skills and experience, but also values, behaviors and cognitive abilities that must be present in the right candidate.  

 

Last year, employment turnover cost the U.S. economy a trillion dollars.  The estimated costs of hiring the wrong person for the job run from three to seven times a person’s salary.  “This is especially true in high tech.  Making a bad hire isn’t just an inconvenience.  It can devastate an organization, resulting in lost sales and alienated customers,” stated

Margaret Graziano, KeenHire’s founder.  “That’s the primary reason why 64% of companies today say that addressing the talent shortage is their number one objective,” Ms. Graziano continued.

High Tech. High Touch. Sales Management Hiring.

An expert from Recruitingblogs.com. Peter Marinilli - Boston, Mass.

Sales recruiting is a unique profession because of the wide array of innate traits and learned skills required to be successful. It can be a difficult field to get into, and even more difficult to excel and last at, because of certain requirements that simply cannot be taught. This also makes it a very competitive field, which means you have a lot of options when choosing a sales management recruiter.

However, if you’re not used to working directly in the recruitment field in can be difficult to know what to look for when shopping around for different firms. Recruiting sales people can take time, and you don’t want a recruiter to rush a potential hire, but you don’t want to waste time either. When you start looking at upper level positions and need a sales management recruiter, the stakes are higher and the process can quickly become more complicated.

Recruiting sales people for entry or mid-level positions is different than recruiting for sales management; a recruiter looking for senior positions needs to put a lot more time and effort into finding the right candidate(s) because of the nature of the position. This is true in every industry; the higher up the position, the more skills and experience are required, which means fewer applicants meet the necessary requirements.

Are Assessments An Unneccessary Bottle Neck In the Hiring Process?

A Recruiters Concern For Using Selection Tools In The Hiring Process.

Margo,

You have obviously created something significant and unique, have worked very hard to get it off the ground, and I salute you.

I have seen just about every way to try to make money in the "staffing" (for lack of a better term) industry and the only thing that always works is picking up a
telephone, calling a president, owner, or GM, getting sendouts, then closing immediately for an up or down decision. That has always resulted in great success. To my way of thinking, anything which detracts from quick decisions harms our business. Perhaps I am unclear about KeenHire, and I can see a lot of utility for using it  for hiring recruiters into search and placement firms but, frankly,  I would not want to see a hiring company add it to their hiring process. It seems to me that KeenHire adds a step to a hiring process,  is an "assessment tool", brings "logic" rather than emotion to the process (people buy on emotion), and results in slower hiring decisions.  Quick decisions are what the entire placement planet desires because we all know the passing of time kills placements. Worth noting: to me, "quick decisions" does not mean "bad hiring decisions made hastily". It means good hiring decisions made quickly.

Neil P. McNulty
McNulty Management Group
Virginia Beach, VA

Neil, I can appreciate your concern. Let me   shed some light on first why I developed KeenView and secondly how it is used to not lengthen the process yet how it is used to manage, control and shorten the hiring process.

As a top producer for many years myself and having relationships with many different companies and hiring authorities; I saw how many companies were adding dimensions to their hiring process that I had no control over.  Many of my clients were using some type of selection tool in the final stages of the hiring process. In several cases I found myself and my team at the affect of another 3rd party, one that did not have the knowledge that I did about the client, the job market or the candidate. As I conducted more research and asked more questions, the information that I gleaned brought me to new possibilities in recruitment and new openings for actions for my career and for our industry. 

KeenHire was not created to lengthen the sales, recruitment or closing cycle, it was created to arm 3rd party recruiters with better tools to serve their clients with on the front end.  When used appropriately behavioral interviewing (KeenView) places the recruiter as an expert in selection. It sews the recruiter into the selection process and eliminates last minute ‘think about its”. Given the process for effective behavioral interviewing begins with benchmarking the role; the recruiter immediately positions themselves in the key strategic conversations that true account development and management are made of, and frankly is allows for more recruitment process control across the board. 

When the traits and questions are created and agreed upon, a good account manager will manage the recruitment process and hone in on putting the right candidates with the right stuff into the top of the funnel. Whether you delegate or conduct the sourcing yourself knowing what your client needs from a behavioral stand point alters the course of the search.  By the time the candidates are submitted to the client, the client is well aware that these are the top tier candidates who are clearly the best fit for the role and there will be no need to see anyone else.  Another point I want to make is that the candidates are also clear that they are the best person for the job, as candidates who are not serious about the role will not waste their time in the assessment process.

KeenHire also is a distributor for some of the top personality assessments in the market place, my intention with this service offering is not to get in the recruiters way; it is to arm them with the knowledge they need up front to recommend their clients use the appropriate assessment in their hiring process. If the person accountable for finding the right talent understands and has a say in the tools their employers are using, they are equipped to submit candidates who will fit the bill. On the contrary when a recruiter is out of the loop on the products their clients are using to evaluate their candidates’ abilities, they are left in a vulnerable and powerless position. All assessments are not created equal and in many cases companies are using inferior or inappropriate products to evaluate their/YOUR candidates; with your knowledge comes power, with your power comes insight and with your insight comes solid recommendations from you for the ‘right’ product. 

At Alliance HR Network, (my previous company) we assessed the role we were recruiting for up front. We sourced, recruited and evaluated candidates in the beginning of the process for their viability for a specific client, if they were not a fit, we held on to them for something else; however we did not try to fit a square peg into a round hole.  For direct placement this worked. We made money, had exclusive contracts and mastered the ability to replicate quality hires on a large volume. 

At Keen Consulting, (KeenHires’ search recruitment process outsourcing  and consulting business) our model is; we charge the companies upfront for our consulting services which begin with evaluating their needs from an organizational perspective,  assessing the key stake holders that this role impacts and benchmarking the role in question.  What this leads to is a better understanding of our clients, stronger insight into the key performance indicators and a strong focus on ‘what right looks like’ in the company and in the role. This entire process directly impacts client’s organization effectiveness, which leads to profitability and a higher return on the hiring investment. When I approach my sales calls for search and recruitment consulting & outsourcing with this results orientation, companies are hard pressed to say no to my (keens’) offerings.

The bottom line is that most companies are using some sort of tool to evaluate ‘our’ candidates and in many cases; ‘we’ have nothing to say about it. 

Keenhire changes the game and puts the recruiter in the power position of being the Talent Acquisition/Human Capital Consultant. The breadth that one can reach in that role is much deeper and wider than putting the right butt in the right seat.