We Need to Hire Recruiting Animals, eh?

A recent Mercury News article has Yahoo complaining again - like most SV companies - of a talent shortage. Perhaps its the ubiquitous liberal media bias where news organizations - with the exception of the conservative Fox empire - think the country's employment situation is beyond dire. In the linked article, the author writes...

For the minority of people with the right skills and right experience, life is good again as they field multiple offers that result in escalating salaries. But for many others, the job market remains firmly shut, forcing them to accept jobs well below their experience or to consider a career change.

Here's the problem - EVERYONE is looking for elite people and searches will extend out for months while hiring managers say, "Nope, not good enough; find me more. And add this requirement and that skill set - believe me, I'll know 'em when I see'em." Recruiters huff in exasperation and go back to their networks to find that 3-5 year engineer with a minimum of five issued patents. Yet there are millions of people who are described as "sub-elite" (which Edge doesn't believe is an accurate tag but this is for another day). These are fine people with more than sufficient skills to get the job done - and certainly, by the time a search is extended out in time and completed, would add tremendous value to projects stuck in holding patterns by managers who cannot make up their minds.

Why does this continue to happen? Edge can assure you that it's not the fault of the hiring manager. It's because HR's backbone has gone the way of the appendix and other vestigal organs (like Edge's hairline). Corporate recruiting excellence for many is still an afterthought, one that virtually ensures long-term paydays for external recruiters (I can hear them saying, "Oh no Mr. Edge, please don't help the fix it!").

With all the organizational planning that supposedly takes place, don't you think that everyone in SHRMee land would want to have strong internal recruiting organizations? Edge is all for saving money but too many internal recruiting functions seem to be focusing on tactical areas without planning out the ramifications of hiring recruiters whose learning curve is precipitously steep. And you don't hire toy soldiers to fight a war.

But there is a solution. And with apologies to CH-the RA...

Companies need to hire recruiting animals, creatures who can strategically source and hire from a range of competitors and non-competitors, and do not fear the hollow words of those recruiters who do not possess neither the skills nor the business savvy to do the same. Indentured servitude is dead, long live Abe! Yo, you don't own me.

Companies need to hire recruiting animals who really know the market and have the spinal material to professionally and politically challenge the mindset of uneducated job requirements and compensation objectives.

Companies need to hire recruiting animals who know that developing relationships with hiring managers is about reading the same journals as they read, subscribing to the same newsletters as they do, attending the same professional association meetings, and educating them about new publications or websites found along the search.

Companies need to hire recruiting animals who know that their job really is 24/7 and that leaving an airport, adult drinking establishment, Starbucks, soccer practice or Home Depot without a business card or a promise-to-contact is a cardinal sin.

Companies need to hire recruiting animals who know that technology is not THE solution but another arrow in their quiver. They know that a tool that isn't integrated into the overall recruiting plan is a potential fissure in the dam wall. You can still run a fine referral network without spending a mint.

Companies need to hire recruiting animals who give and take and after asking for and receiving the desired referral always ask - and mean it - "Now what can I do for you? And I'm not hanging up until I feel I've helped you as much as you've helped me." People who network without giving back are leeches and are not recruiting animals.

In the end, companies need to hire recruiting animals because it is becoming difficult to rely on HR to say the things that need to be said to company leadership about talent acquisition - recruiting needs to be strong, aggressive, and business educated; our company cannot compete at a high enough level if we don't do the things we need to do to attract the right people. Give the recruiting animals the power to plan, control, execute, and sit at the same level as HR...then watch us perform.