RIGHT RECRUITING

Our last few White Papers have taken a clear-eyed view of unemployment, the unemployed and the professional labor market. Many of the themes floating through them have, frankly, had a flavor of pessimism. Unemployment is a very unhappy subject. Some days I feel like I am a social worker, giving counsel to and hearing from people looking for work. Despite the fact that it is not a recruiter’s job to “find someone work”, it’s hard not to get caught in the humanity of a situation rather than do what your client actually pays you to do.

But then I started getting my tax info ready for my accountant so that, for once, I could get my business taxes ready early. For the first time in my life an accounting interaction was a happy event. Who would have guessed? Accounting turned me into an optimist. Oddly, money had nothing to do with it.

You see, recruiters meet people and companies at an interesting place. We see people at their most optimistic, as they ambitiously change jobs, and at their most pessimistic, when they’ve been laid off. We see employers when they are growing and we see employers when they are shrinking. Whenever we cross paths with clients or candidates, they are in a state of change, for the better or for the worst.

I don't know about other recruiters, but I try to never forget that I am speaking with an actual person. They are at a point in their life in which they are considering changing one of their most important possessions, their career. Often, they are at a crossroads in their life and we become a small part of that. We are more of a participant than a contributor to that change. The heavy lifting is done by them. We have ringside seats.

I remember most of the people I’ve placed in jobs. I remember their names and backgrounds; Dave Zane at Atlas Building Systems, Ilya Bleeker at Pennwalt, Tom Dougherty at A-S-H. They were my first placements in 1980. I hope they are thriving. Gosh, at my age, I hope they are alive.

So, when I was looking through this year’s billings when preparing for my accountant, I didn't really see the numbers. I saw names. I saw people.

Amidst all that is written about the economy, my trip through this year’s business reminded me that there are still people who have moved their careers and lives forward. I would just like to share some stories with you.

Let's start with a fresh grad. Let's call her Amy. With all the noise about kids not being able to find work and their college degrees being wasted, Amy was able to climb on board the Great American Dream Machine.

Our assignment was to find a junior person to help start a client’s new eCommerce initiative. Our client was investing significant money in this project and needed an energetic and intelligent person to coordinate the project. The work was detail oriented and not glamorous, but the initiative was important. This was a great opportunity to hire someone with potential who could help with the project while being trained at the same time. The job specs revolved around intangible skills like energy, communications and commitment rather than a skill-set checklist. They wanted to hire a person, not a resume. By the way, there are still employers that think like that. I’ve built my business around them.

Amy graduated from a good, public college with a general business degree. Of course, she graduated in a lousy fresh grad market and probably had college debt. She was living around 30 miles from my client with her new husband. I think he had already gotten his first professional job. Amy was working in retail to pay bills and loans, while at the same time trying to start her career. She seemed happy but I could feel she was anxious. She was in a hurry to enter the professional working world.

Like Proust’s Madeline, our first conversation brought back memories. A looooong time ago, when my young wife and I moved back here from Penn State, I was in a similar situation. My wife, who is both smarter and prettier than me, got her career started quickly while I treaded water selling men’s socks at Strawbridges. It can be tough watching a spouse move forward while you feel like you are standing still. You can almost see them recede into the distance.

To make a long story short, after 3 interviews, Amy was hired. She was upbeat throughout the entire process. Some cracks appeared at the end when the offer was delayed because we needed approval from a VP who was on vacation. I could hear the nervousness in her voice when I told her that we would have to wait a week for the offer. She had worked hard to stay optimistic but I swear I could hear her lip quiver a little in anticipation of potentially bad news on the horizon.

As you can guess, the story had a happy ending. Amy got hired and I hear she is doing well. I will always remember what she said to me when the offer was approved. She said, “Thank you for finding me for this job. You changed my life.” Of course, we all know that I didn't change her life - she did. I just had the pleasure of watching while she did it.

A second, very different situation also came to mind. This was about someone in a different place in life. The assignment was to find a first-line supervisor for a client in South Jersey. They needed someone with a lot of energy who came from a lean environment.

One of the candidates, Sam, had about 20 years of experience with only two employers. He had been laid off from both and been out of work for a year. The first time I spoke to him I could hear his kids in the background. As we were speaking, Sam talked about wanting to get back to work but it didn't seem to be about money, though I am sure that was important. He didn’t talk about bills or mortgages, as the long-term unemployed sometimes do. His basic theme was one of accomplishment. He wanted to be a part of something again. Time with the kids was great but, as a person, he wanted to be part of society.

This client has a very long interview process, 3 separate interviews over 4-5 weeks. To a candidate out of work that can be frustrating. To a candidate who had other employment possibilities evaporate, it can be nerve wracking. Imagine spending a month waiting for that one phone call that would bring good news, while steeling yourself for the very real potential of bad news instead. I’ve seen candidates surrender. They basically throw in the towel. They become permanent pessimists.

But Sam had a great attitude. I was afraid that the inevitable delays and changes would wear him down. He might peel like an onion and a core of defeatism would appear. Eventually, I feared, he would start whining and questioning each delay, reading the worst into innocent schedule changes. For many, that becomes a tool to inoculate themselves against bad news. For employers though, any sign of a negative attitude in a prospective employee is a warning sign. A visible slide into pessimism is akin to shooting yourself in the foot, for a candidate.

To my surprise, Sam was different. Each change brought an interesting response. Instead of personalizing the slow pace and schedule changes, he saw the process as an opportunity to show that he could adapt. He could be a team player. He could outlast the competition. Guess what? It worked.

By adapting to a staccato interview process, Sam increased his odds. What started as a 1 in 5 chance became 1 in 2, as his competition dropped out or showed signs of anger at unavoidable delays.

As we got close to the finish line, angst about salary began to appear. This is normal in people in his situation and I have seen it become self-destructive. Having felt abused by the system, a tendency develops to expect the worst. The excitement of a positive outcome turns into an expectation of a low salary offer. They don't want to be taken advantage of.

When I told him he was the top candidate and an offer was forthcoming, Sam’s first question, was whether I knew salary details. I did not, but told him but this company had always been fair. I could tell he was dubious but I could also tell he was hopeful. It was clear that the excitement about returning to the world of employment was trumping any ego-driven concerns about salary. After all, they couldn't offer him less than he was making at the moment, could they? He’d been out of work for a year.

When the offer came, it was actually a bit more than his last salary. He immediately accepted. I remember that, as we were figuring out a start date, he said to me, “Jeff, I have to take a few days to make day care arrangements.” I've never heard someone so happy to need to find day care in my life. I think he finally got his identity back after a year in the wilderness. Coach had put Sam back in the game.

Many of the calls I get from other parts of the country have a common theme. Most of the people calling are around 30 years old. They are often from our region but live elsewhere. They either just got married or just had children. It’s time to come home and let the family reintegrate. It's time for the children to know their grandparents. It's time for free babysitting. Not necessarily in that order.

One of our clients was looking for someone with about 10 years of experience. I’ve found it useful to keep track of each year’s fresh grads in certain disciplines. For this project, I had someone reach out to everyone in our files that was a 2001 grad with the right major. We needed to see if any of them had moved their career in my client’s direction and, if so, whether they would be interested. We got one nibble. Phil had gotten married right after college but they left the area for his first job. They had just had their first child and were thinking of moving back here next year. Our call was timely. Why wait till next year if there is a good opportunity right in front of him? Phil fit our client’s needs and his wife’s family lived 10 miles from the job location. This was one of those odd coincidences that occur if you put your head down and do your job. After all, who could predict that we would find someone living 3,000 miles away who was originally from a small town 10 miles from our PA client?

Phil had a good background for our client and, when we made the introduction, both he and our employer were excited. I could sense an entire family waiting for news from him after every call from me. If you’ve ever seen the telephone scene in Bye Bye Birdie, it was something like that, I think. He and I would hang up. He would call his wife with an update. She would call her mom here in PA. Her mom would call her husband, etc..

As you can guess, the interview went well. While the interview was occurring, Phil’s wife and in-laws went looking at houses. Everyone in the process, even the VP at my client, could feel the family’s anticipation while references and background checks were being completed. If I say it was funny, I don’t mean we were laughing at him. Actually, it was sweet. Of course, that's not an adjective often used in employment but it fit the situation. I think my client actually got almost as excited as Phil and his family. They worked hard to put the offer together quickly so that the grandparents and extended family could start the celebration.

Of course, you can guess the ending. The offer was accepted and the family as reunited. Whenever I am out and see 3 happy generations together doing chores or hanging out, I think of Phil and his family.

I’ve tried to figure out what these 3 people had in common. Their ages were different. Their fields of endeavor were different. Two of the three were unemployed. I could find only 2 common factors. Choosing the importance of each one would be an example of the old chicken and egg argument. One is the cause and the other the result. I just don't know which came first.

Even though all 3 of the employers, my clients, were in different industries and of different sizes, they had two things in common. They were privately held and they were staffed by decent people. Not sure about causality there, as well, now that I think about it. But that’s a story for another White Paper.

I knew many of the people at all three firms. Despite their size, and one was a $300,000,000/yr. firm, the CEO’s of all answered their own phones. None were self-important. None were pompous. With almost no exceptions, every person I knew at all 3 companies was a pleasure to speak with. All had senses of humor. All had senses of humor about themselves too. As an aside, I have no doubt that a sense of humor is one of the best management and cultural tools that ever existed. If it could be taught, there should be an MBA in how to use humor.

Each of the 3 candidates presented themselves as people too. That may sound strange but it isn’t. Many candidates that I meet hide behind a forced interview formality when we first reach them. That makes it hard to see them as a person. Here is an example. It’s a direct comparison to Amy.

We now have another client seeking a fresh grad for a similar role to Amy’s. Just like with Amy, we identified about 30 people and sent them emails describing the job. A day later, a candidate emailed me back. Let’s call him Anti-Amy. He’s a fresh grad and, like Amy, he’s out of work. Rather than call to go over the job in a conversation, as Amy did excitedly, Anti-Amy wanted details on the company emailed to him. He wanted to do research on the company. I emailed him back asking him to call. It would be easier to spend 10 minutes on the phone in a two-way conversation than swap emails. Once that was done, his research would have context. I never heard from Anti-Amy. Let’s remember that Anti-Amy is out of work. Maybe his job search got in the way of  him calling me.

Unlike Anti-Amy, none of the original 3 candidates were afraid to talk. They weren’t afraid to put themselves out there and all came across as well rounded people. They seemed to be the type of person who you might actually, you know, like. More importantly, they also seemed to be the type of person who might actually like you in return. Just like a sense of humor, that’s a little publicized character trait that should get more attention, don’t you think?

The chicken and egg question is obvious now. Did my client’s personal connection to these candidates allow the candidates to feel comfortable enough to relax? Or, did the candidate’s openness cause my clients to relax? I don't know. Probably a little of both, in a positive feedback type of way.

My goal when I started this White Paper was for it to be a light, upbeat reminder that careers are progressing and companies are thriving. As the holidays approach, I don't want to digress into a lot of analysis. Let’s just take 2 things from this:

     1) In this world of protesting people who are angry at the world, there are still examples of people moving their lives and careers forward.
     2) In this world of buzz words, Twitter and Internet searches, there is still room for personal relationships. None of the people I mentioned had a high number of LinkedIn friends. They didn't need them.

As ever, thanks for your time and please remember Right Recruiting for all your employment needs.