Recruiting is a Triathlon, not a Sprint
I competed in my first triathlon this past weekend and overall I was really happy with the results. I walked off the course, knowing that I put everything I had into the race and beat a few of my friends in the process (which was the goal).
As I look back at the event, there are a few things that I came away with that I think fit really well with recruiting. Here are my takeaways:
Actual results trump Perceptions every time: When I finally was able to see my times for the Triathlon, I was surprised. After crossing the finish line, I thought my bike stage was by far the part where I made up time on everyone else with the run being the slowest of the three stages. But in looking over my recorded times, the run was actually my best event. I was able to finish 15th in my age group because I ran the 12th fastest run.
The key here is that my perceptions of where I excelled turned out to be very different from the actual results. It is important in recruiting that you don’t allow your perceptions of what works best to cloud your judgment when evaluating your best recruiting channels. Collect the right recruitment metrics and make sure your perceptions actually tie into the actual results.
Wear many hats but always have your favorite: For the triathlon, I had to train and get comfortable in three main areas (swimming, biking, running). I needed to know that I could do the distances for each as well how far I could push myself. But all through the process of training, I knew my favorite event would be the bike. While not my best event, the bike allowed me to set the tone for the run and where I was in the pack (and it also allowed me to put some serious distance in between myself and my friends in the Tri).
As a recruiter, you need to be flexible in the positions and people that you specialize in filling for your organization. Wear many hats in helping fill positions across the organization and always look for opportunities to match up candidates with other positions your company is hiring (not just your own.) But the key is to also know and understand your sweet spot as well whether it’s Java Programmers, External Sales or Customer Service. Those are the areas you really shine and can add the most value to your organization.
Preparation is the key to everything: As I was training for the triathlon, I made sure to master the distances for the Triathlon and then some, ultimately being able to do 1.5 times the distances required. Without this training wouldn’t have known I could push as hard as I did and I would have had a much worse time. I also knew in the back of my mind that I had done all this before, so I could build on all my previous efforts instead of recreating them.
For Recruitment Marketing, preparation is key as well! There are many ways to prepare for recruiting and here are just a few:
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- Decide what recruiting channels are the best to use for a given position by looking at your recruitment metrics.
- Identifying candidate contacts in your Recruitment CRM or Opt-In database that meet the skill sets for the position. Reach out to them. (If you don’t have a CRM or Opt-In option on your careers page, I highly advise you get one.)
- What does the interview process look like and who’s interviewing the candidates? Make sure to know this so you can set an expectation for qualified candidates.
Recruiting is a long and hard road. However, continued and sustained success in this area can lead to great benefits and growth prospects for your company. Make sure to think of recruiting efforts as a triathlon (or marathon or journey) where preparation, metrics and flexibility can lead to continued success. Thank me later!
Recruitment Marketing Articles of the Week 7.17.10 to 7.23.10
Here is our weekly feature in which we share the top articles we enjoyed from the past week about recruitment marketing. This week’s topics include questions that will help you hire better people, 3 ways to improve employee innovation, 2010 engagement trends and why we can’t lose creativity!
Here are the articles that interested us this week (in no particular order), enjoy!:
10 Questions to Help You Hire Better People by Kevin Wheeler (@Kwheeler)
Nice piece on identifying the character traits you are looking for in potential employees and how you can display these in your organization.
3 Principles for Creating Innovation by Chris Ferdinandi (@chrisferdinandi)
Short but spot on piece about encouraging innovation within your organization.
2010 Employee Engagement Trends by Monster (@Monster_WORKS)
Are you engaging with your employees? Monster provides 6 ways to start engaging with your employees today. I really like number 2!
Blinded by Science by Steve Boese (@SteveBoese)
We talk a lot about recruitment metrics on this blog but it is always good to remember that is the creative recruiting ideas that make great recruiting organizations. Metrics are a great evaluation and validation tool for these ideas but creativity is essential.
Hope you enjoy the list. If you have any articles I should add to the list feel free to add them to the comments or send me an email at chris@smashfly.com or follow us on Twitter @smashfly.
Recruitment Metrics: Not for those with commitment issues!
I spend a lot of time on this blog speaking about the importance of setting up the process of collecting and tracking recruitment metrics in your recruiting process. But in the end, that is only the first step of the process!
The second step is harder and probably more important. It is showing a commitment to the metrics you collect and integrating these metrics into your overall decision making process. This is where most recruiting organizations fall off, however, it is extremely important that metrics become a part of the long term plan.
The power of recruitment metrics comes from the iterative nature that they possess. The more data and metrics you collect, the better you can understand your recruiting process and make important recruiting decisions. It makes no sense to collect and track these metrics in your process if you never look at them when you are making decisions.
If you are not yet convinced, here are three reasons why a commitment to metrics is necessary:
Avoid Costly Mistakes - Recruitment Metrics help you identify what’s wrong in your recruiting process. Whether it’s an expensive job board that is driving only a few applicants to career site or the application process you have where a majority of your applicants drop off, recruitment metrics can help you identify and remove these problem areas: saving you money and increasing the amount of qualified applicants in the process.
Identify Important Trends - Metrics can help you identify key new recruiting channels that are up and coming for your industry. By keeping on top of the metrics, you will be able to see what recruiting channels are growing and what are languishing and accurately plan your recruitment mix and job ad distributon for the future.
Quickly Test Ideas - Recruitment metrics are a great way to quickly test if you ideas and decisions are sound. By carefully monitoring the right performance metrics against recruiting activities that you already do, you can quickly identify what recruiting campaigns you should continue and which ones are not worth your valuable time.
So as you are building out of the processes for collecting and tracking your recruitment metrics, please know that this is not the be all end all. Now starts the most important part of the process, using these valuable metrics to strengthen and optimize your recruitment marketing efforts.








