Today I was reading a friends Blog, he happens to be active in Iraq (I have a link to his Blog on my Blog but here it is again.  http://amobilizedyear.blogspot.com/) He was discussing his experience with IED and a most recent attack that he faced.

“…I did not see the aftermath of the explosion behind us, but the one in front of us disabled a "white truck" (a TCN-driven vehicle) traveling south. I (along with the rest of my crew) was remarkably calm throughout the entire event. Our reaction was well-rehearsed and automatic, which I’m sure was the primary reason we took the event in stride. While I didn’t expect us to react in an out of control manner, I was just somewhat surprised at how relaxed everyone was—like it was "just another day at the office.” As I said in an earlier post, ‘slow is smooth, smooth is fast’ and that’s how we performed.“ Amobilized Year Blog Nov. 21 2005

Thank god everyone is ok!! And I hope he and all soldiers comes home safe soon!  I do not want to confuse anyone about what I am writing about  so I will not be discuss any more about his experience in Iraq. You should check out his Blog he is a great writer and an aspiration to us all!!!

What I do want to discuss is how his statement or strategy of “slow is smooth, smooth is fast” has helped me articulate my recruitment management philosophy!

I am not sure why this statement impacted me so much that I have to write about it. But is seems so simple & true and it represents my recruitment methodology that I have been using for the last 13 years.  Now I am starting to feel old :  )  For the last 7 years  I have shared, trained  and showed recruiters how to grow their own business to become the best in their field. No, I am not an ego maniac! No, I do not have a trophy stating that I am the best recruiter in the world and No I am not the sharpest tool in the shed. Maybe the second sharpest tool in the shed  :  )

I built my personal recruitment best practices into three attributes.

1# you can not coach speed

2# Discipline

3# No fear of the phone

The first thing is easy to address you can not teach a person to have a sense of urgency or being ethical you either have it or you do not. The nice thing is that you do not need look at Harvard to hire some one with both of these assets! These professionals are out there and affordable.

Now the second major piece to this puzzle becomes much trickier to explain, because it can encompass a lot of business aspects. So I am going to make the assumption that your recruiters are doing a little bit of business in each core area a day to keep all of their funnels full. If they are not that is a different story at a latter date. The third is self explanatory.

Lets focus on for now the “slow is smooth, smooth is fast” principle, if I can call it that.  I have recruited, networked and watched some of the best recruiters, researchers and sales people in the talent acquisition industry it is evident to me why some people sink and some swim. I believe it has to do with the 3 attributes and how we manager’s grow our talent. It is about our styles, politics, training and especially the on boarding process for our new hires. All of these things impact our new hires ability to be successful. Now let’s make another assumption that you have hired or one of the people with the 3 attributes I am talking about.

Then the ultimate goal for your department or staffing company is profitability.  In our industry to increase profitability or reduce cost of service we need to focus on reducing the amount of uncertainty and/or surprises we face during our sales and recruitment cycle. In reality we do not control the candidate and/or customers. We are only influencers for example: We can create a sense of urgency with our customers or candidates by giving them 24 hour exclusivity on a job or candidate). I guess I would relate it to standing in line waiting to get into a bar only to find out there is no one in side. Why the hell was I standing in line? A few hours later the place is packed. The perception was it is hopping place by making people stand out side.

So how do we reduce the amount of uncertainty, surprises and manage our activity. Discipline! Most of our companies are breeding recruiters who let the activity run them instead of running the activity hence “slow is smooth, smooth is fast”! Why don’t companies put a structured process in place to help recruiter manage their interview processes in order reduce the amount of uncertainties and increase productivity. Answer our process are inbred from years of sharing what people have been taking from their old jobs. We need to take a step back and look at how we can improve our business habits or process we can commit to memory. Similar to the military they practice it until they do not have to think about it. It allows them to add more skills and capabilities.

Here is the cliff note version of my memorized interview process to reduce surprise and implement rules of engagements.

       Take Control- Interview will take approximately 45 min after that we will know if we are fit your career needs visa versa.

       Assess  Expectations: first we are going to assess your expectations to make sure you are realistic in what you are looking for, position, title, reason for leaving, $$ etc…

       Wish List: Secondly we would like to know what exactly you are looking for, goals, accomplishments etc…

       Rules of Engagements: Finally we are going to discuss how to do business with us. What our expectations and what you can expect from us. To me this is the most critical part of the interview if they are an A or B candidate.

1.         After the client interview: Bring .50 cents stop at a pay phone bring your cell do what ever you have to do to beat our customers call back.

2.         Debriefing- Once you call we are going to separate $$ from opportunity. We will discuss if this is the right opportunity if it is we will then discuss $$$.

3.         No Surprises: during the process I am going to work very hard for you and it is important to let me know if anything changes during our job ID process for you i.e. sense of urgency, $, training, education, relocation, radius or commute….

4.         Pride Myself: Joe candidate I pride myself on giving you all of the information for you and family to make an educated decision on any opportunity. At any time you are unclear or need more info will you please ask me?  Is that fair? Ok I want to be clear; what is unacceptable to me is at the time of the offer you let me know that at the time of the offer you need more information than what you are telling me is that I have not done my job. And that is not fair. Do you agree?

There is a ton more I hope you are getting the point I am trying to make. I do this process with every single most placeable candidate I meet with. My process does not deviate at all this allows me to not have to think about what I have to say next. It allows me to listen and direct my questions to truly interview and assess this candidate.  Also these habits give me peace of mind because I addressed most of the common issues that can arise during the hiring process. Furthermore, I become an expert at this pitch and it allows me to keep adding any new issues that come up because of trends, economy or major events.

I am a firm believer of plant seeds with my candidates and customers so it is a mutual relationship. This process works for all aspects of our business (sales, reference checks, managing your staff etc…). The key point that I want you to take away from this is that this habit or routine allows me to have more time to think about business strategies, address business needs and/or challenges.  It becomes a thought out form and function not what come out inconsistently from top of your head.  Moreover I can measure and track my success because I am consistent in my approach. I can see if I change my process a little or a lot if it has a positive or negative impact quickly! It makes me more profitable and greater ROI. 

In summary committing these habits or patterns to memory has allowed us to work smoother and more efficiently. My staff is more productive, better at multitasking, proactive no reactive and the look for measurable ways to improve their performance. That is how I am defining “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast” for our industry! Putting in place process that reduce uncertainties and surprise not panic when drama hit because they have

If you would like to discuss this more in greater detail give me a shout. Sorry about any grammar or run on sentences. I am free form writing :  ) I am hoping one day to make this a habit that I can successfully improve.

Have a great holiday!!

Joel