The Competition for Talent Continues in an Allegedly Down Economy

I'm not saying that I am in denial that we are in a down economy, we are - no doubt about it. But the magnitude of the down-ness is exacerbated by the amount of people who use it as an excuse of some kind. But that's not really my point....yet.

I want to start with the way jobs are posted these days. The roles are posted looking for the perfect person to fill the role, some one whose resume reads like the job description, from the right companies and schools to back it up. That's great. I can't deny that a company should be looking for perfection...but it is not out there.

What is out there are people with talent. People who really want to work, prove themselves, and take the next step along their career path. If the company is looking for some one who has the same exact job somewhere else then what is to entice that person to become a candidate? New commute? Now office? More money? Not that these things may not be attractive to some candidates, but the companies hiring those folks will potentially be making a mistake.

The primary reason why people LOOK to make a change is management. However, their comfort level, tenure, etc. in their current environment will make then stick it out unless there is a significant pot of gold or greener grass to go to. Those who make the change for that reason often find the same issues with management and upon close inspection see that the grass is not as green as they thought (perhaps it is a sprinkler problem).

The primary reason people MAKE career changes is because they are offered the opportunity to grow. Their responsibility increases, the money is good, and they have new work to sink their teeth into that challenges them in new ways. These are the people companies want. These are the people whose resumes read as "so close" but not quite the perfect match to the job description.

These are the people that it takes a REAL recruiter to find. there are a lot of recruiters who work on the "match and attach" principle. They look for the match, attach it to the requisition and send it to the manager. Kind of like processing a sandwich order at a deli. If you want a sandwich with mayo lettuce and tomatoes but no pickles, we'll make your sandwich match your order. Or like picking the options on a new car. To sunroof or not to sunroof? We can easily do this with inanimate objects or food, but it is ultimately less effective with people.

The sandwich and the car will never be anything more than the sandwich or the car. In fact, once you eat the sandwich it is gone (short term satisfaction) and in a couple years the new car is obsolete (lack of long-term sustainability).

So, as the recruiter or hiring manager what do you really want to look for? You want to see demonstrated growth, you want to see that the candidate knows how to do a variety of things, that they have adapted over time, hit the ground running is some areas, evolved to meet the challenges in others. You want to find out what they think of the job you have posted, do they have a vision for success in the role and what is it. And here's the really really interesting part. That vision doesn't have to be what the recruiter or even the hiring manager is looking for. It just has to be a good vision. Because that means the candidate has vision. And if they show their adaptability, flexibility and evolution on their resume and through an interview, they'll be able to adapt, flex, and evolve to the manager's or company's vision.

In many companies today we need the people who can do this. We need tuna sandwiches that can become roast beef. We need to be buying a car that can become a truck down the road. We need candidates that meet a job description that won't be doing that same job in a year or two.

Ultimately the question does come down to what a recruiter really does for a company. A "match and attacher" is merely performing a service. But a recruiter can and should be so much more for a company. This is a person who sells the entire company to some one. Sales sells products, staffing sells the company, the culture, the vision, the future. It is an awesome responsibility that few executives really understand and often take for granted.

So a recruiter who keeps this in mind gets their hands into a lot of other very important areas for the company growth and success over the long term. If the recruiters are portraying a positive and exciting culture and that's the first view candidates have of the inside, then the recruiters are influencing the culture. If the recruiters follow the business effectively then they can go beyond "match and attach" and really help the manager's understand what they need and how the presented candidates will make it happen. In this way they truly are helping to grow the company in an incredibly value added way.

On another angle, many recruiters want to present candidates to the hiring manager that they hope the manager will just say, "OK, bring him/her in - they'll start on Monday". But that never happens. What needs to happen sometimes is the same hard-sell job to the manager that the candidate did to the recruiter. Show them why and how the candidate will do more than the job description, why the skills and environment they came from will help move the company in the right direction. Recruit the manager into taking the candidate.

I can't remember who I heard it from but I heard once that a business, "needs to treat it's vendors as it wants to be treated when it is a vendor." In this current economy we need to help hiring managers to understand that they need to give candidates the same consideration they want when they are candidates. And in this economy, that could be sooner than they think.

So I called the Down Economy "alleged" for a reason. It is a down economy, no question, but it is really opening up a lot more opportunities for people to get more creative, expand their horizons and quite frankly have an easier time shopping (for those who can still afford to). Stores are less crowded, parking at the mall is easier, and every restaurant seems to have a $5 deal of some kind (especially the sandwich places).

In order to get out of this funk we're all in, more people have to get to work - we know that's the answer. So to do that I am hopeful that we can find more ways to hire people for who they are and what they can do than exclude them for not being a perfect match.