Talent 911

Got data? Now what?

 

At HRU we recently replaced our 1980s era phone system with a new modern system that was a major leap forward in technology and bells and whistles.  The old phones worked fine, so why would we spend the money on a new system to replace something that functioned fine the way it was?   It was an opportunity for us to leverage the newer technology to provide us with very in depth data about how our phones were being used.  As a recruiting and staffing company a large part of our success relies on the ability of our recruiters and sales staff to find openings with companies and then find the talent to fill those openings.  Phone calls, even in the age of email and social media, is still the most critical component to closing deals and selling candidates on taking those positions.  It is a numbers game.  The more phone calls made, the more placements happen.  It is a very direct correlation.  So being able to report on specific activity on our phone activity is very valuable information.  Taking that information one step further and creating some rewards and incentives around that activity that drives our business leverages that technology investment we made and provides a return on investment.  That should be the ultimate result of any investment in technology that you make.  If you spend $50,000 on a shiny new accounting system you should be able to safely expect to streamline enough processes and create enough savings to pay for the system within a few years, otherwise you have done something wrong.  There are a few places that companies tend to go off track that may cause them to not get that ROI they want when implementing new technology, here are a few I have witnessed:

 

Overbuying-maybe you are a small company and were talked into that $50,000 accounting system when really all you needed was a $300 version of Quickbooks.  You may not be large enough to realize the ROI on such a large investment.  If that is the case you are probably buying too much system that you probably will never use.

 

Poor Implementation-I have seen many companies that buy the latest and greatest and then never fully implement the software or the functionality of a piece of hardware.  Having someone QUALIFIED leading your implementation (someone who has done this before) can have a tremendous impact on what kind of ROI you will be able to see on the investment.  I have seen major components of software packages that save huge amounts of labor such as import functions or other process automating features that were never turned on because the person implementing the system didn’t take the time to learn how to do it.

 

Training-You have to have at least one, if not several, gurus on a system you are implementing.  Spend the money to train them right and get them to learn the extra bells and whistles, not just the basics.  A system startup can be chaotic so the natural thing to do is just focus on basics and then life happens and no one gets back to implementing the fancy stuff that sold you on the new system in the first place.  It is sometimes very valuable to even do some follow up training 6 months to a year after the new system is installed to remind everyone about those features that you might not have had time to focus on when starting up.

 

Using the new Data to drive decisions/behavior- So now the system is up and running, make sure you learn the reporting tools and figure out how best to use this data.  The goal of my group is to provide accurate data to management and business owners so they can act on that information.  They may use the information to run contests that reward the behavior they need to succeed, like the phone calls.  They may use the information from a financial report to decide to discontinue a line of business or to increase the attention they give a particular customer because the data shows they are the most profitable. 

 

Be smart about how you invest those technology dollars and make sure you do the best job you can to justify those expenditures once you do take the plunge.

 

 

Justin Himebaugh leads the accounting department at HRU, (or The Necessary Evil Group as he calls it).  A Graduate of the Haworth school of business at Western Michigan University, Justin has specialized in systems implementations and streamlining the accounting function for the companies he has worked with.  Besides having a well rounded skill set when it comes to accounting he can still hold his own in the pool if a game of water polo breaks out. You can follow him on Twitter, @necssryevil

The Rosetta Stone of Recruiting

Recently we were lucky enough to hire a couple of new recruiters onto our team at HRU, which I love to do because having newbies on the team brings some fresh energy to the recruiting floor.  At HRU we do the Hilary Clinton approach to training - meaning "it takes a village" - everyone gets involved.  I'm reminded every time we hire a new recruiter that we in talent world have some language that is uniquely our own.  So, I wanted to share some of my favorite recruiting words and my personal definition of each:

Internet Recruiting: Using the internet to search for candidates. You use this when you're too  intimidated to use the phone.

Post & Pray:  Corporate recruiting

A Waffle:  A candidate that is going back and forth on deciding on whether or not to accept your offer (if you have a Waffle - you didn't pre-close well enough). You can also call this type of candidate an Aunt Jemima (which goes well with a Waffle).

Pre-screen:  A 3 minute phone conversation or email response, seeing if the person is an actual person or a resume bot.

Boolean Logic:  More stuff that keeps you from actually recruiting.

Employment Brand: What Corporate recruiters focus on, so they don't have to do actual recruiting.

Talent Community: One more thing for corporate recruiters to waste time on and not recruit.

Pre-employment Assessments:  $75 tests that tell you what you already know about the candidate, but didn't want to believe.

Talent Management: A fancy phrase to attempt to make the job of getting your employees to perform, seem more technical than it really is.

College Recruiting:  4 hour job fairs on-site a college campus's that get corporate recruiters out of the office to find the same candidates they could get by just putting up a job posting on the college's career services site.

Social Recruiting:  Spending work time updating your Facebook status and getting people to fill out recommendations for your LinkedIn profile, so you can get a new job.

Ok, I kid - that's what I do!  I think it's important in training new recruiters to understand everything that recruiters can do to track down great talent.  What I come away with every time we hire someone new - is that there aren't any silver bullets in recruiting - yet, we are always out their trying to find one.  

Recruiting at it's essence is the ability of one person to talk another person into why working for company A, is better than what they are currently doing.  It's really that simple - and that difficult.

Tim Sackett is the EVP of HRU and has over 18 years of corporate HR and Talent Acquisition background working with Fortune 500 companies.  Tim speaks nationally on the topic of Talent and probably likes to hear himself speak more than anyone.  When he's not talking, he is probably bugging the recruiters on why they aren't on the phone - and yes, he really does look like Richie Cunningham from Happy Days ...connect with Tim.

Cross-training is Key

 

The Necessary Evil group got back to full strength this week as one of our key people came back to work after a 12 week maternity leave.  As only a 4 person department you would think that losing one of the 4 for 3 months, that we would stop functioning as the well oiled machine that we like to think we are.  If we were not cross-trained to cover for each other this would not be possible.  During these lean times where administrative departments are always asked to do more with less people it is even more critical.  It may force some people to take on and learn some areas that push them outside of their comfort zone.  I actually view this situation as a great learning opportunity for people to round out their skill sets.  Normally a lot of cross-training happens in a more theoretical way, but when you have an extended leave you have to have people covering roles for a fairly long term so they get to really learn inside and out these new roles rather than just learning how something is done by watching over someone’s shoulder and calling it good. 

 

Some of the keys to being able to handle this type of long term absence:

 

1.  Planning.  This is a luxury you don’t always have, but in the case of a pregnancy we had quite a long time to plan out how we were going to disperse the duties out to the rest of the group.  If you can have a schedule of when various duties get transitioned that is helpful.
2. Documentation.  The better your team members can document their jobs and provide instructions where needed, the smoother that transition will go.  We call this manual the HBAB manual (hit by a bus) in our department.  If someone with very limited knowledge of what you do can pick up the manual and take over where you left off it makes this a lot easier.
3. Trust.  The person leaving has to have a lot of trust in their team that they can handle their duties while they are out.  They have to be comfortable that documenting their tasks and training someone to do their job is not going to make them replaceable.  If you are really good at your job, replacements probably will not be able to do it as well, and remember the people filling in for you have their own responsibilities.  They are more than happy to give you your job back as soon as they can.
4. Teamwork.  It has to be a team effort with everyone on the same page.   If any one person slacks off or lets details fall through the cracks it can get sideways in a hurry.  It is very critical for everyone to have each other’s backs and to know that they may be the ones that need to be on leave at some point.

 

So I am happy to be back to full strength and to see that we were able to cover the 2^nd maternity leave of my 2 years here at HRU.  We continue to cross-train and prepare in case there is a need again in the future.  Because as much as you might want to just forbid your staff from breeding, apparently it is illegal (I checked).  So keep in mind the items above if you are facing an upcoming long term absence in your department and you can make it through without a drop in the level of service you provide to your company. 

 

Justin Himebaugh leads the accounting department at HRU, (or The Necessary Evil Group as he calls it).  A Graduate of the Haworth school of business at Western Michigan University, Justin has specialized in systems implementations and streamlining the accounting function for the companies he has worked with.  Besides having a well rounded skill set when it comes to accounting he can still hold his own in the pool if a game of water polo breaks out. You can follow him on Twitter, @necssryevil