The ART and SCIENCE of Recruitment
I was recently watching a night-time talk program that discussed the “Six Degrees of Separation” concept that has been a heavy topic of discussion in the past year. An experiment was conducted with two individuals labeled as “high society.” Their goal was to find a struggling athlete in the Bronx, using only a name and picture. During the latter half of the show, this young athlete, with no “high society” connections, was tasked with locating a Broadway dancer. The program presumed these two diverse worlds don’t interact and set out to determine the “degrees of separation” by chronicling how many contacts each individual would make before finding their assigned person.
While the “Six Degrees” concept is experiencing recent popularity, it has long been a practiced art and science in the recruiting world. Making connections and networking is how good recruitment is done. A minimal degree of separation is how we fill jobs faster.
Consider your toughest, most difficult-to-fill position. How many people do you have in the pipeline? How many people can you call today that will place you in the network of people with whom you need to be speaking? Finding ways to seek out and make contact with both passive and active candidates requires a blend of the art and science of recruitment. What’s the difference you say?
The “SCIENCE” of our jobs is really about the process we use to build pipelines of talented people. Consider your tough-to-fill positions and your “profile” or “evergreen” (similar positions that you fill most often) requisitions. What systems, processes and tools do you have in place to target this talent most effectively? Do you have the right sourcing and recruitment resources working on these positions? What types of recruitment “traps” do you have set up that enable you to minimize the degrees of separation between your company and the next great candidate?
The “ART” of recruitment requires the ability to source, attract and retain both active and passive talent pools. The degrees of separation with passive candidates will be inherently greater from the start of your search. Consider the recruitment talent you have on board. Are you utilizing the full potential of your sourcing and recruitment resources? Do they have the right tools to research, target and build lists of the kinds of candidates you are looking for? What methods do your recruiters employ to keep good talent pipelined for your next open job?
Establishing consistent processes that answer these questions (and more) will help ensure a minimal degree of separation from your company and your next BEST HIRE!
Michelle Zeigler, Director, Field Services
