Being a sole practitioner means juggling a lot of things at once. Like the lady in the picture it may seem like not only are you juggling many things, but all of them are on fire. When you are the only one, getting it all done is definitely a balancing act.

One of the harder items to manage can often be the sourcing and recruitment of new staff. Especially if multiple positions are open at once or if your company is in growth mode, spending the time necessary to find new staff may seem like a daunting task. Many sole practitioners want to be proactive. They want to embrace social media and stop their reliance on job boards or a more passive approach but can not figure out how to squeeze in the time that being proactive takes. How do you sit at your desk to search LinkedIn for potential candidates when you need to work on open enrollment or the latest employee issue or the five people standing outside of your office because their paycheck is wrong?

It is a fair question. One I have a few suggestions for.

Get Training Social recruiting is not something that a novice can jump in to and see immediate results. If you are unfamiliar with how to create search strings or how to determine the best social site for your audience then your efforts may be in vain. More often than not, individuals who give up on social recruiting because it is not working for them are the ones who did not take any time to understand it before jumping in. It not working has more to do with their method than anything else.

The great thing about social recruiting training is that it can be done anywhere, anytime. There are blogs, webinars, conferences and individuals who will come to you on your time. A quick Google search of just the words “social recruiting” returns 212,000,000 results. Find some free time to learn to do it right before jumping in.

Start Slowly and In Conjunction With Your Current Methods Try one thing at a time. Do not switch completely to social recruiting and stop posting on job boards or the other methods you are using until social recruiting is really working for you. Maybe you want to spend a little time on LinkedIn and see how that goes before branching to other sites. Maybe you want to build a Facebook page and make sure you can manage that before moving to Twitter. Social recruiting (and social media in general) does not have to be all at once. Ease into it, see what works and then grow it.

Make It A Priority I’m sure you have seen the quotes about saying you do not have the time means it is not a priority. It is true. You will make time for things that are a priority. If you are not happy with your results from your traditional search methods you have to make changing those a priority. This may mean talking to your boss about shifting priorities or sharing this responsibility with another leader. Either way, it has to become a priority or it will never work.

Sole practitioners may think they do not have time to worry about this social media stuff, but they are missing out on great opportunities to find the best fit for their company rather than hoping the best fit applies along with 5,000 other bad fits. It does take a little time, but can be managed throughout the day and can be implemented slowly. You will never know if it works for your company until you get started.

What would you suggest to someone new to social recruiting?

Photo: MagnusAson

Two words that make me absolutely cringe when I hear them used interchangeably are “orientation” and “on-boarding”. They are not the same thing.

Orientation is a one time event. It usually lasts a day (or less if you do it well) and is an opportunity to share a ton of information that people must know.

Like:
Where the bathrooms are.
What time everyone takes lunch.
Where to park so you do not get towed.

Orientation is meant to share the essentials. It is intended to ensure that new hires get the very basics of what they have and usually includes a lot of paperwork filling out time. It is not very interactive and certainly does not help the new hire after it is over.

On-boarding is much longer. It takes place both before and after the hire. It could last weeks or months – the longer the better. It is meant to introduce and ingrain the company culture and way of working. It should reinforce everything the new hire was told in the recruiting phase. It should incentivize new hires to do their best work until they can do better. Then it should incentivize them to do better. It should make them happy with their decision. It should develop, coach and mentor. It should turn a great hire into a great employee.

See the difference?

Is your company putting new hires through an orientation or an on-boarding?

Sabrina,
I had an interview last week with my dream employer. Everything was going great and the hiring manager and I seemed to have really good rapport. We were even joking about things not related to the job and he mentioned how he felt good about being able to work with me. Then I did something completely stupid. He asked a question about when the unexpected happens and how I deal with it. I have no idea why, but I started my answer with, “well once you get over the initial what the f*&^ just happened moment you have to blah, blah, blah”. I could see his face change. I do not think he even listened to the rest of my answer and I know the tone of the interview changed after that. He finished the interview and said they would call me on Monday. I fear they won’t call and that I blew a perfectly good interview because I got to comfortable. Is there any way to recover this or am I completely screwed?

Sincerely,
Stupid Job Seeker

I totally get how this happens. There are certainly times as a recruiter that I have a great call with a candidate and we both get more relaxed in our speech because the conversation is going so well. I have had candidates tell me things I never wanted to know simply because they got comfortable and nervous energy leaving their body made them share too much – or drop f* bombs.

It is important for job seekers to remain completely focused on the fact that no matter how relaxed the environment is or how comfortable the hiring manager and you seem to be together, it is still an interview. Regardless of their demeanor, you as the candidate must always remain professional.

But you know this right? So what do you do now?

The honest, cold hard truth is that you may have blew it. If they told you they would call today you want to wait through today to see if they do. If they call you want to fess up to the mistake and apologize. Regardless of what they say, make a point to bring it up and apologize. Even if they tell you they want to move you on to the next level and it seems to have not affected your candidacy, I would still bring it up. Here’s why. You may be one of two final candidates. At the final decision stage all things being equal you may be the only one who dropped an f*bomb in the interview. So even if it did not affect your chances at this point, it still could down the road.

If they tell you that they are not moving forward, then bring it up and apologize. Again, even if they don’t. If it is the reason they are not moving forward, maybe your acknowledging what happened will make them reconsider.

If they do not call today, I would reach out tomorrow and leave a message if you can not get anyone on the phone. Apologize and share your hope that it does not affect your candidacy.

The moral of the story is to not drop f*bombs in an interview. If it happens, just like every other mistake in life, you have to own it, apologize and accept the consequences.

Have you said something stupid in an interview that could have hurt your chances? How did it turn out?

Photo: Kassch

My toddler has a new favorite saying. He first said it about three weeks ago when he was trying to get daddy to play with him. When Jim was not doing exactly what B wanted he said, “Do the right thing Daddy.” Because it caught Jim and I off guard and because it was one more new thing he was saying, we laughed. Because we laughed, he now says it all the time.

No doubt you have heard the story of the three girls held captive for over a decade in Cleveland and of the tale of Charles Ramsey who was the one who heard the screams and kicked in the door to let them free. A person who certainly “did the right thing.”

Thinking about doing the right thing reminds me of a post from Laurie Ruettimann about saying something when you see that it is not right. You can read it here.

We love to talk about how busy we are – present company included. It is amazing though how many times we overlook the opportunity to really make a difference. It isn’t that we try to do the wrong thing, we just decide the right thing is too hard or time consuming or might make people not like us. People like to seclude this type of behavior to high schoolers, but the reality is it is more prevalent in adult life than anywhere else. And that is kind of sad.

So do the right thing. Whether it is playing with your kid, kicking down the door to years of captivity or just speaking up. It might be hard, scary, or overwhelming, but it will always be right.

Employee referral programs have been around for decades. Many employers today claim to have an employee referral program and some even put it in writing. An interesting observation I have made throughout my career is that an employee referral program either works really well or not at all, there is little middle ground.

Recently while working with a client to fill a position that has proven very difficult, we created an employee referral program that finally helped to fill the position. They key to this program rested in three very simple steps.

Keep It Simple
If it takes the referrer one year to get the reward or if they have to jump through special hoops (read needless documentation) then they are less likely to refer. The easier it is for them to reap the rewards, the more likely they are to refer. Keep the tenets of your program simple, let your employees know about it and send them off.

Make Sure The Reward is Rewarding
Let’s be honest. Your employees do not want a t-shirt with the company logo on it. They do not want movie tickets or $250 towards a class at the local college. They want cash. You can throw whatever reward you want out there, but if it is not actually rewarding, it will not work.

Think Outside The Company
Everyone loves a little extra cash given to them for minimal work. Open your employee referral program up to the general public and you might be surprised at the leads you get. People know people. Read that line again because it’s brilliant. Using others is a top technique used by skilled recruiters who pick people very strategically to ask if they know anyone fit for a job. You may have tapped your internal employee’s resources, but you can never completely tap the outside world.

Employee referral programs can be very effective ways to expand your applicant pool and receive qualified leads on hard to fill roles. They do not have to be complicated. Keeping just these three simple steps in mind can help you create the referral program that will produce amazing results.

What is the most creative and effective employee referral you have heard of?

Photo: mostafamourad