My recruitment angel
18 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in behaviour Tags: communication, job hunting, recruitment
I finally found her after almost 6 months of searching. I didn’t do it alone though, I had help as recruitment angels are very, very hard to locate on your own. I was fortunate to get her details from a close friend who knows her and recognises how special she is.
I knew immediately after I made the first email contact with her that she was the real deal. She responded quickly and suggested that although the company had no relevant roles at the time, she would keep me in mind if anything came up. Aha, I thought, I have heard this many times before and I know I will never hear from you again.
WRONG!! My recruitment angel did get back in touch with me and gave me details of a role that she thought might be suitable. Here’s where she spread her angel wings and showed me how fabulous she is.
I got the interview, exact details of where to go and where to park (with options!). I got post interview feedback the next day (unheard of!) and I got further opportunity to discuss the role, clarify my application and, within a week, I had the role.
So what made her my recruitment angel?
1. A genuine and caring approach – a real person
2. Regular communication via email and phone
3. Promises were kept – honest and open
4. I was made to feel special, my skills and experience were valued
5. I was treated like a human being
I’m looking forward to meeting my recruitment angel face to face next week so I can give her a huge hug and say a very heartfelt “thank you”.
Interested?
10 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in behaviour Tags: 4 TED imperatives, Daniel Bentley, interested, needs, Seth Godin, wants
My latest post can be found on the Women of HR blog. It’s all about being interested beyond your own needs and wants.
Click here to read…
Action and reaction
03 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in behaviour, Uncategorized Tags: graffiti, linkedin, reaction, skill. action, twitter
My Twitter account (and subsequently my LinkedIn account) was hacked this week. This is the first time this has happened to me and I was alerted initially by a good friend. It didn’t take long to fix the issue and let my connections know that it wasn’t me who had sent the nasty message to them.
After it was all over, I couldn’t help thinking how the hacker had wasted his/her skill. I have admiration for hackers as you have to be smart to hack into someone’s account but when they use their skills to spread pain instead of delight then I’m not so impressed.
Imagine if the hacker had accessed my account and sent all my contacts a message telling them how wonderful they were? That would be such a valuable use of their skill. It’s like graffiti artists, if they spent more time using surfaces that were made for art instead of spraying on buildings and other illegal surfaces wouldn’t we focus on their art rather than the illegal nature of their creativity?
Every action has a reaction. If you want reactions to your skills and behaviour to be positive then think about what your actions are really saying. Otherwise no one remembers that you have any skill, they just walk away thinking you are an idiot…
Behavioural interviewing needs Botox
22 Jan 2012 2 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: behavioural interviewing, recruitment process
Behavioural interviewing is looking a bit old and tired. It’s lost its freshness and newness and what was once tight and firm is now flaccid and floppy. Behavioural interviewing needs a lift, an injection of freshness, a new beginning. Behavioural interviewing needs Botox.
Behavioural interviewing is widely used as a method in the selection process and is based on the premise that past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour. I’m not sure…Having just been through several interviews with different companies, all (except one) used behavioural interviewing. I found myself cringing when an interviewer began the sentence with “Tell me about a time when…” It all became a bit blah, blah, blah. These questions are based on what the interviewee has done in the past. The interview becomes based in the past. The problem with this is that the past is gone, it’s over, done, finished and probably mostly forgotten (have you ever had to struggle to respond to a question about a project you worked on because you’ve moved on?) I’d much rather talk to an interviewer about what I will do for the company today and in the future.
You can imagine my delight when I attended my most recent interview, prepared with my responses to the standard behavioural questions, to find out that they were not using behavioural questioning! The interview began with a scenario that was set in the now and asked questions about what I would do now and how I would manage the issues in the scenario now. The interview itself asked really smart questions, all of which were based in the present. My CV was not referred to at all.
So, here’s where the idea about Botox comes in. In responding to questions based in the present, I am drawing on my past behaviour but I am applying it to a present situation. The interviewees get to hear how I would react now, not what I did in the past. They understand also that my CV is merely a record of past roles and achievements and does not need to be revisited during the interview. So, by not using behavioural interviewing overtly, the interviewer still gets an idea of what I have done in the past by applying a little Botox to the method.
If you use behavioural questioning in your selection process and it’s looking a bit tired, why not inject a bit of Botox and freshen the whole process up?
Brand your recruitment process
21 Dec 2011 3 Comments
in recruitment Tags: brand, candidates, recruitment process
If you are in the internal recruitment business, there are a few things you need to remember.
1. When you are fielding calls from potential candidates, sound excited about the company and the role. Offer more information than the candidate requests. Exceed expectations.
2. Treat all candidates with respect – always.
3. Ask really well thought out questions at the interview, probe where necessary and make sure the questions match the role.
4. Never make promises you won’t keep – eg “we will be contacting your referees” and/or “we will contact you on (day) to let you know the outcome”
5. Keep the candidate regularly informed of the progress of their application.
6. If a candidate attends an interview and they are not successful, let them know via a phone call. Sending an email is not good enough.
If you do these things, candidates, whether successful or not, will pass on positive comments about your organisation. If you choose not to do these things, candidates will see your organisation in a negative light and they may decide to use social media to let others know about their negative experience…
The way you recruit says a lot about your brand.
Sesame Street got it right!
14 Dec 2011 5 Comments
in behaviour Tags: change, collaboration, connection, learning and development, tribes
When my daughter was younger we watched Sesame Street together and I remember a song from the show that resonated with me. The song was about people in your neighbourhood and it was a happy, feel good, community connected kind of song. Had that song been written today, the word “neighbourhood” could be changed to the word “tribe”.
I had the song running through my head after a recent get together with some of my professional colleagues and friends. It was a gathering of like-minded learning and development people and the ideas that we generated were golden. It was a delicious collaboration of hearts and minds and I felt very connected to my tribe.
As I looked around the room at that gathering, I was reminded of all the truly wonderful people I had met in my 12 years in L&D. As you go through your daily life it is easy to forget the connections you have made and the tribe you belong to. This is the stuff of life – connect, collaborate and change the world!
Why not take a moment to think about your tribe – how do you connect with them? If you connect via an online medium, why not invite members of your tribe for an old-fashioned face to face get together (where possible)? It’s a happy, feel good, community connected kind of thing to do…
Double crossed and seeing red…
31 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in behaviour Tags: betrayal, brand, external, internal, organisation
Brand betrayal can do that to a person.
To read my story of what can happen to an employee when an organisation’s internal and external brand are diametrically opposed, click on the link below.
This post was written for the Women of HR blog.
