He was nothing less than extraordinary. It’s been more than a decade that I last saw him, and in all these years I have not come across a more talented person than him. And the best part is, he makes talent look simple, and not complicated.
He topped the University in MBA and got the gold medal. He set a record of 5/5 CGPA. But strangely, I never saw him reading the books. He was early to bed. You can always find him chatting up with friends.
He did not seem to have any special skills per say be it communication, or leadership or any great knowledge of management, or any super abilities.
In fact he had several limitations. He had only one kidney because he donated the other to sister to save her life. He was thin and frail. He was from a small town, financially weak which forced him to do all kinds of odd jobs to support his family and education of his siblings.
Back then I wished I had a crystal ball or a magic mirror to see how he was able to accomplish so much without sweating a bit. Fortunately now, my recruitment experience and opportunity to observe talent at close quarters has helped me to solve this riddle.
All along he possessed certain traits which were sublime yet so powerful in defining the success.
For instance he had extreme customer service orientation. No matter what hour of the day or night, whether you ask or at times even unasked he would help people around him. He did this to the extremes that you would wonder that how can someone sacrifice his/her own pleasures and comfort to help people without expecting anything in return. There was no way he could turn a blind eye to something he could fix, or someone who needed support. He did this as a teller at ANZ Grindlayz bank and he did as a student doing MBA, and now he is doing it as a store clerk at a charitable trust.
The second trait he possessed was the ability to view things from multiple perspectives and this gave him the great ability to connect with people around him and they in turn felt they could relate to him. To do this he used to go out of his way to understand what people feel rather then what they say. This gave him the ability to understand what are the needs, aspirations, fears, and dreams of people around him and modify his conversations and context accordingly. He was a great listener and equally good communicator. You don’t have to tell him what you expect of him, he has this uncanny ability to decipher that by himself. In fact every one that knows him would feel that they are his best friends.
He was a great personalizer too. He could in a split second sound intellectual and ordinary. He would sound philosophical and practical. Depending on what the other person liked most or needed most he could morph himself. He always knew your hot buttons, he always knew how to get you worked up. But he always used this knowledge not for his personal gains but to help you understand yourself better. This way he could make people know themselves and change themselves.
He was extremely busy guy. He would attend the sick guys in the hostel, you would find him serving lunch in the dining hall, practicing the lines for the drama, helping weak students understand the basic concepts of accounting. He would be busy meditating, gardening, repairing, playing, and all sorts of “ing” forms. I have never seen him complaining that he is tired or exhausted. Mind you, he has only one kidney but yet he has never allowed that as an excuse to avoid physical strain. For him being busy is not about achieving, but it was more about contributing. But yet, in his desire to contribute he could accomplish so many grand things that when you add up everything his achievements are phenomenal.
He was a great initiator and stimulator too. There were so many activities he started during our college days. Cultural activities, competitions, social work, spiritual congregations are just a few to name. His energy was contagious. He was always cheerful, happy and positive. And he used to spot the good things about others and compliment them and make them feel better. In way he used to reinforce the good habits and attitudes in other people so that the individuals take pride in what they do and keep doing it.
One last trait that I would like to mention is his focus. Probably this trait is the one which has allowed him to be the jack of all and master of fun. In spite of spending all his time for the sake of others and leaving literally no time himself he still was able to top the university and this was because he had extreme focus on his goals. Every day he used to progress a bit towards his goal, never rushing and hurrying but never stopping in that path either. Since he knows he has less time at his disposal, whatever time he had he focused all his senses, every nerve every atom of his being in to the task at hand. He had a photographic memory, critical thinking coupled with practical application, creativity, and above all courage to be different and to be selfless.
This individual is now working for a charitable organization with minimal pay. Had he been in corporate world he would have been an accomplished executive with a fat pay check. But he choose to be different as his definition of success was different. Like the famous mathematician Ramanujam, this friend of mine too, can learn everything about the corporate world by extrapolating whatever he already knows and can know from his limited exposure to the external world. That I feel is talent. Its inherent, innate and inseparable.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Top 5 Mistakes that "Star" Recruiters do & "Good" recruiters dont
If you are a recruiter, and even if you are a star recruiter, make sure that you dont do the below mentioned mistakes as part of your recruitment process. They are criminal and not excusable. Just because your time to fill and cost to fill metrics are good does not mean that you can get away messing up with the process and system.
1. Not entering the data into the Applicant Tracking System.
Lot of so called star recruiters hide behind the excuse that data entry is too tedious and time consuming and that in their already busy day of recruitment they have very little time to do administrative tasks at the cost of loosing hires. What they dont understand is this data is the property of the company. Tomorrow whether the recruiter is there with the company or not this information needs to be with the company. Also reporting is one of the key facets of performance management/improvement and more importantly it provides the business intelligence to the company and reporting cannot be accurate if the data itself is inaccurate.
2. Not following up with the candidates after getting the hire
You get the most number of hires in the team does not mean that you do not have to care for the remaining applicants who are active in the process any more. Remember recruitment is like an investment, dont be too shortsighted. A bad word of mouth publicity due to a bitter candidate experience will create ripple effects down the line that the company will have difficult time getting top talent.
3. No respect for the process or support staff
Respecting others work is important. Always plan the work ahead and keep the people involved in loop. For instance, if you know the candidate will start late, let your hiring manager know. If you know the candidate is travelling so and so date to attend the interview, let your travel desk know ahead of time, if you know the Hiring Manager needs atleast 48 hours notice of interview scheduling stick to the SLA.
4. Candidate Experience
Many a time recruiters are only focused in screening the candidate and do not care about the candidate experience. They dont update the candidate about the number of steps involved int he process, the time involved or dont give enough notice to the candidates for an interview, dont share adequate information etc. Worse they dont update the candidates after the interview or assessment, dont respond to the candidates calls once they feel the candidate is not the right fit etc.
5. Confidentiality
Lot of recruiters do the mistake of sharing too much information with the candidate with the intention of helping the candidate look good in front of the Hiring Manager. What they do not realize is that the candidate might perform well in the interview with this information but will not measure up to the job requirements tomorrow. This will lead to a very undesirable position both for the candidate and the company down the line. Yes, the recruiter should share the process information, the expectations, the job role information etc but should never disclose what would be the possible pet areas of the Hiring Manager or what is the content in the assessment test etc.
1. Not entering the data into the Applicant Tracking System.
Lot of so called star recruiters hide behind the excuse that data entry is too tedious and time consuming and that in their already busy day of recruitment they have very little time to do administrative tasks at the cost of loosing hires. What they dont understand is this data is the property of the company. Tomorrow whether the recruiter is there with the company or not this information needs to be with the company. Also reporting is one of the key facets of performance management/improvement and more importantly it provides the business intelligence to the company and reporting cannot be accurate if the data itself is inaccurate.
2. Not following up with the candidates after getting the hire
You get the most number of hires in the team does not mean that you do not have to care for the remaining applicants who are active in the process any more. Remember recruitment is like an investment, dont be too shortsighted. A bad word of mouth publicity due to a bitter candidate experience will create ripple effects down the line that the company will have difficult time getting top talent.
3. No respect for the process or support staff
Respecting others work is important. Always plan the work ahead and keep the people involved in loop. For instance, if you know the candidate will start late, let your hiring manager know. If you know the candidate is travelling so and so date to attend the interview, let your travel desk know ahead of time, if you know the Hiring Manager needs atleast 48 hours notice of interview scheduling stick to the SLA.
4. Candidate Experience
Many a time recruiters are only focused in screening the candidate and do not care about the candidate experience. They dont update the candidate about the number of steps involved int he process, the time involved or dont give enough notice to the candidates for an interview, dont share adequate information etc. Worse they dont update the candidates after the interview or assessment, dont respond to the candidates calls once they feel the candidate is not the right fit etc.
5. Confidentiality
Lot of recruiters do the mistake of sharing too much information with the candidate with the intention of helping the candidate look good in front of the Hiring Manager. What they do not realize is that the candidate might perform well in the interview with this information but will not measure up to the job requirements tomorrow. This will lead to a very undesirable position both for the candidate and the company down the line. Yes, the recruiter should share the process information, the expectations, the job role information etc but should never disclose what would be the possible pet areas of the Hiring Manager or what is the content in the assessment test etc.
Candidate Experience
For the good recruiters handling candidate experience is a natural talent. Some thing they do as part of the recruitment process with or without being conscious of it. A great candidate experience helps the recruiter in more than one way.
Better Screening
First of all, the candidate opens up more than he/she would usually do. So recruiter gets to know more about the candidate, his needs and aspirations, strengths & limitations, hot buttons or even red flags and this gives a better insight of the candidate. This helps the recruiter know whether the candidate suits the role or not.
Better Offer Negotiation
Powered with this information recruiter can better engage the candidate. This would be of tremendous help during process delays or offer negotiations or notice buy out or competing offers etc.
Employment Branding
Another advantage is that the candidates who had pleasant experience are more prone to spread the word around about the recruiter, the opportunity and the company even if they don't get selected. The employment branding piece remains intact or perhaps even gets added mileage due to the positive image being spread around.
Networking
Happy candidates will give recruiters more referrals and get you introduced their peers. This way every new candidate recruiter gets in to touch with and creates a positive vibes can expect to have his network increase by many fold.
Better Screening
First of all, the candidate opens up more than he/she would usually do. So recruiter gets to know more about the candidate, his needs and aspirations, strengths & limitations, hot buttons or even red flags and this gives a better insight of the candidate. This helps the recruiter know whether the candidate suits the role or not.
Better Offer Negotiation
Powered with this information recruiter can better engage the candidate. This would be of tremendous help during process delays or offer negotiations or notice buy out or competing offers etc.
Employment Branding
Another advantage is that the candidates who had pleasant experience are more prone to spread the word around about the recruiter, the opportunity and the company even if they don't get selected. The employment branding piece remains intact or perhaps even gets added mileage due to the positive image being spread around.
Networking
Happy candidates will give recruiters more referrals and get you introduced their peers. This way every new candidate recruiter gets in to touch with and creates a positive vibes can expect to have his network increase by many fold.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Interview Tips for the Hiring Manager
Well, I know Hiring Managers don't like to be coached on how to do interviewing. But I think they don't mind reading a blog and making those necessary changes... so here I go with some tips.
1. Doing Structured Interviews
Often Hiring Managers do not have a structure around their interviews. When I say structure I don’t mean the sequence of questions but I am referring to more about the logic. For instance not many hiring managers know about the concept of using CAR (context, action, result) or STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result ) models which are really helpful. If the candidate says that he has been able to hit a revenue of X Rs (or $) in the very first quarter of his last job, asking context related questions such as what was the target, how well established the product is, what was the most sales done by anybody in team. Action related questions would be some thing like, what did the individual do get that sales, was it any different from any one else, what specific actions he has taken to cross sell or up sell the product. Questions related to Results center around, what percentage of total sales he contributed, was there any dip in costs related to their sales or did it cost more, did he end up exhausting the sales pipeline has success allowed good references and hence a perennial pipeline. To put it simply what was the context, which actions the individual took that made the difference and how did it impact the top or bottom line.
2. Interview Notes taking
Its a good practice to take interview notes. Agreed that it is difficult to keep an eye contact with the candidate while simultaneously taking notes, but as long as you tell the candidates upfront that you are making notes, it will make more happy and attentive too. The advantage with notes taking is, it will be easy to see whether or not the candidate suits the role. Cross comparing candidates that you meet over a period of over a week or two is easier. There are times when you will be impressed by the candidate but your Interview notes may not show enough reasons or facts which go in favor of hiring the candidate. The common mistake Hiring Managers do it they observe the candidate and straight away jump to evaluating the candidate. There are 2steps in between which are Recording and Classifying which a necessary to make intelligent and prudent hiring decisions.
3. Taking Decision
HM’s tend to keep candidates on hold. It is ok to keep a candidate on hold till a Hiring Manager sees at least 3 candidates. This helps to compare the candidates and take a good look at the talent available in the market. But keeping candidates on hold even after meeting the 1st three candidates would mean that the HM is indecisive and is going to waste both the candidate and the recruiter’s time. All the hiring manager has to take is a HIRE or NO HIRE decision. No sitting on the fence. Again using the above two techniques (Structured Interviwing and Notes taking) it becomes so easy for a Hiring Manager to take a decision.
4. Employment Branding
The Hiring Managers will assume a new responsibility as part of their interview process. Irrespective whether or not they like the candidate they have to make sure that the candidate experience is taken care off. Often times Hiring Managers are too occupied with testing the candidates abilities and spend little or no time to see whether or not the candidate is getting excited about the Opportunity or not. Some sensible Hiring Managers the moment they arrive at a hiring decision will spend the rest of their conversation during the interview to tell the prospective candidate about the career opportunities that lie with the specific job and company in general. But going forward Hiring Managers will be doing this to every candidate that they meet. Logic – If a candidate is meeting up with hiring manager it is obvious that the candidate has passed the assessments (if any) has shown fitment in the Recruiter Interview, and in some cases passed the technical/peer interview. So even if the candidate is not a 100% fit he is a decent prospect in terms of promoting the company. Birds of same feather flock together. Impress the guy with the opportunity with you, so that even if he does not get selected he will not bad mouth the company but rather feel that he missed an opportunity with a good company. Chances are that he might share about the opening with a stronger candidate than him. Your candidate becomes your recruiter !!!!
1. Doing Structured Interviews
Often Hiring Managers do not have a structure around their interviews. When I say structure I don’t mean the sequence of questions but I am referring to more about the logic. For instance not many hiring managers know about the concept of using CAR (context, action, result) or STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result ) models which are really helpful. If the candidate says that he has been able to hit a revenue of X Rs (or $) in the very first quarter of his last job, asking context related questions such as what was the target, how well established the product is, what was the most sales done by anybody in team. Action related questions would be some thing like, what did the individual do get that sales, was it any different from any one else, what specific actions he has taken to cross sell or up sell the product. Questions related to Results center around, what percentage of total sales he contributed, was there any dip in costs related to their sales or did it cost more, did he end up exhausting the sales pipeline has success allowed good references and hence a perennial pipeline. To put it simply what was the context, which actions the individual took that made the difference and how did it impact the top or bottom line.
2. Interview Notes taking
Its a good practice to take interview notes. Agreed that it is difficult to keep an eye contact with the candidate while simultaneously taking notes, but as long as you tell the candidates upfront that you are making notes, it will make more happy and attentive too. The advantage with notes taking is, it will be easy to see whether or not the candidate suits the role. Cross comparing candidates that you meet over a period of over a week or two is easier. There are times when you will be impressed by the candidate but your Interview notes may not show enough reasons or facts which go in favor of hiring the candidate. The common mistake Hiring Managers do it they observe the candidate and straight away jump to evaluating the candidate. There are 2steps in between which are Recording and Classifying which a necessary to make intelligent and prudent hiring decisions.
3. Taking Decision
HM’s tend to keep candidates on hold. It is ok to keep a candidate on hold till a Hiring Manager sees at least 3 candidates. This helps to compare the candidates and take a good look at the talent available in the market. But keeping candidates on hold even after meeting the 1st three candidates would mean that the HM is indecisive and is going to waste both the candidate and the recruiter’s time. All the hiring manager has to take is a HIRE or NO HIRE decision. No sitting on the fence. Again using the above two techniques (Structured Interviwing and Notes taking) it becomes so easy for a Hiring Manager to take a decision.
4. Employment Branding
The Hiring Managers will assume a new responsibility as part of their interview process. Irrespective whether or not they like the candidate they have to make sure that the candidate experience is taken care off. Often times Hiring Managers are too occupied with testing the candidates abilities and spend little or no time to see whether or not the candidate is getting excited about the Opportunity or not. Some sensible Hiring Managers the moment they arrive at a hiring decision will spend the rest of their conversation during the interview to tell the prospective candidate about the career opportunities that lie with the specific job and company in general. But going forward Hiring Managers will be doing this to every candidate that they meet. Logic – If a candidate is meeting up with hiring manager it is obvious that the candidate has passed the assessments (if any) has shown fitment in the Recruiter Interview, and in some cases passed the technical/peer interview. So even if the candidate is not a 100% fit he is a decent prospect in terms of promoting the company. Birds of same feather flock together. Impress the guy with the opportunity with you, so that even if he does not get selected he will not bad mouth the company but rather feel that he missed an opportunity with a good company. Chances are that he might share about the opening with a stronger candidate than him. Your candidate becomes your recruiter !!!!
A look @ Sourcing with a different Lense
In the coming years, there's going to be phenomenal change in terms of how recruiters/companies source for candidates. Just the way traditional newspaper job ads were replaced by Internet job boards, there will be major shift in the ways and means of sourcing. Given below are few of my predictions around how sourcing channels are going to change…No I am not clairvoyant I am just a recruitment specialist who says things as it is..
1. Job Boards will go under the scalpel
Yes, you read it right. I don’t mean to denigrate the usefulness of job boards. They still will exist but definitely not in the same form and shape. They got to change. The problem with the Job boards is companies will increasingly perceive that active candidates hanging around in job boards as C players who are not "HOT" and who do not have either enough performance credentials or enough contacts to find themselves a job they dream. May be they will give links to the candidates profile on the other social networks. May be they will give ratings to the candidates. May be they will allow recommendations to be attached as part of the resumes... I cant predict from here which way the wind will blow... but its going to change the direction in someway or other.
2. Social Media Recruitment
The loss of job boards is the gain of social networks. Passive candidates will get as much attention now as the active candidates. Recruiters will be forced to use Social Media networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo, Zoominfo, as they will be the new bastions of talent pools. No I am not talking about just having an Id and posting Job Descriptions. That will not get them any where. What they have to do is "listen", converse and interact with the talent. Which means that they would have to read stuff written in the groups, they would have to post questions, answer queries to make the top talent sit up and listen.
3. Employment Branding
Companies will increasingly put their efforts into employment brand building. They got to. They don't have a choice. Their career sites, their PR, their Job Ads, all would need to carry a strong employment branding message. Companies will have to talk about to the candidate pools about the benefits, values, or attitudes of the company so as to make sure it is attracting the right talent and repelling the candidates who don't fit their culture.
4. University Relations
Campus Recruitment is out, that’s old thinking. University Relations is in and it’s the new paradigm. You will see companies approaching the colleges right at the beginning of the year rather than just before the students pass out. Companies will partner with the colleges, collaborate and reap the benefits. To have a seamless integration what is needed is long terms efforts & yearlong investment and not a quick fix solution of campus hiring in October/November. Summer Internships & Regular Internships will grow. Companies will track the top students throughout the year, mentor and coach and build relations.
It’s no more a question of reaching candidate pool deep and wide, the success mantra now boils down to reaching top talent. If your sourcing techniques are not tailored around this then you are going to miss your bull’s eye by a mile.
Feel free to add any other major shifts in sourcing as comments
1. Job Boards will go under the scalpel
Yes, you read it right. I don’t mean to denigrate the usefulness of job boards. They still will exist but definitely not in the same form and shape. They got to change. The problem with the Job boards is companies will increasingly perceive that active candidates hanging around in job boards as C players who are not "HOT" and who do not have either enough performance credentials or enough contacts to find themselves a job they dream. May be they will give links to the candidates profile on the other social networks. May be they will give ratings to the candidates. May be they will allow recommendations to be attached as part of the resumes... I cant predict from here which way the wind will blow... but its going to change the direction in someway or other.
2. Social Media Recruitment
The loss of job boards is the gain of social networks. Passive candidates will get as much attention now as the active candidates. Recruiters will be forced to use Social Media networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo, Zoominfo, as they will be the new bastions of talent pools. No I am not talking about just having an Id and posting Job Descriptions. That will not get them any where. What they have to do is "listen", converse and interact with the talent. Which means that they would have to read stuff written in the groups, they would have to post questions, answer queries to make the top talent sit up and listen.
3. Employment Branding
Companies will increasingly put their efforts into employment brand building. They got to. They don't have a choice. Their career sites, their PR, their Job Ads, all would need to carry a strong employment branding message. Companies will have to talk about to the candidate pools about the benefits, values, or attitudes of the company so as to make sure it is attracting the right talent and repelling the candidates who don't fit their culture.
4. University Relations
Campus Recruitment is out, that’s old thinking. University Relations is in and it’s the new paradigm. You will see companies approaching the colleges right at the beginning of the year rather than just before the students pass out. Companies will partner with the colleges, collaborate and reap the benefits. To have a seamless integration what is needed is long terms efforts & yearlong investment and not a quick fix solution of campus hiring in October/November. Summer Internships & Regular Internships will grow. Companies will track the top students throughout the year, mentor and coach and build relations.
It’s no more a question of reaching candidate pool deep and wide, the success mantra now boils down to reaching top talent. If your sourcing techniques are not tailored around this then you are going to miss your bull’s eye by a mile.
Feel free to add any other major shifts in sourcing as comments
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Hello World
I am a Recruitment Professional, an avid reader, and Social Media Enthusiast. I will be using this blog space to share interesting stuff that I get to learn on an every day basis.
Blogging is like marathon, it needs passion, persistence, perseverance. And above all a purpose to keep you fired up till you reach that final destination. But like every journey, it begins with a single step.
You can reach me out on Twitter too. I post interesting tweets there.
www.twitter.com/kirangali
Blogging is like marathon, it needs passion, persistence, perseverance. And above all a purpose to keep you fired up till you reach that final destination. But like every journey, it begins with a single step.
You can reach me out on Twitter too. I post interesting tweets there.
www.twitter.com/kirangali
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