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Unemployment is at 7.2% according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is a relatively scary number. Right? I have no doubt if you are unemployed or your company is contracting.
Allow me to offer some insight related to statistics most people never see. Each month I spend time on the U.S Department of Labor’s website evaluating a variety of statistics and trends. (I know, you wonder why and how I find the time.) The sight has some wonderful tools that let you select your criteria. I’d like to share information from a report I ran in January shortly after the bureau published its December unemployment rate.
The unemployment rate for individuals (men and women) of all races that are 25 years and older with a college degree is 3.5% (for December) and 2.6% for all of 2008. I assume this criterion is much more representative of the types of individuals you hire. Furthermore, the rule of thumb related to the unemployment ratio is that 3% means virtually everyone is employed when you take into consideration the number of job openings and hires each month (of course another report you can run). Another interesting trend is that number of job hires has exceeded the number of job openings for the last several months.
Have you seen this reflected in your hiring process?
Many of my clients hired throughout 2008 and I see their hiring has already picked up as we enter 2009. One of the biggest mistakes I observed was organizations losing their best candidates as they carefully waded through the significant number of potential applicants because they thought they had the “luxury” of a robust candidate pipeline. Many of these candidates were unemployed and the simple fact remains that the truly talented and best candidates are usually employed and passive and lose interest as time drags on.
My suggestion for 2009 is to revert back (or at least start) to more aggressively pursue the strongest individuals and not let them time out of your process while you evaluate all those candidates.
One thing I preach to my clients is that some criteria are far better
predictors of recruiting and retention success than others. Below
is a passage from a recent press release I’d like to share with you. It
centers on some of this criteria and its relative importance in recruiting
successfully. You can view the press release hereat www.prweb.com/releases/milewalk/2008-6/prweb980054.htm.
Research indicates that evaluating a candidate’s cultural fit first, capabilities and achievements second, and specific experience third leads to greatest success in recruiting and employee retention.
Even as the economy may appear to be softening, the process of hiring high-performance information technology, consulting, and software executives becomes even more critical. According to Andrew LaCivita, CEO and Founder of milewalk in Park Ridge, IL, while many of his clients are hiring aggressively, they are finding it increasingly difficult to secure the greatest resources because current employers are going to great lengths to keep them.
He believes organizations need to broaden their approach in evaluating recruits. Most employers include the typical criteria of skills and experience, but omit the most critical factors such as the candidate’s cultural fit and reasoning and decision-making processes.
"Organizations, regardless of their industry, need to adjust their hiring processes to evaluate and secure the most talented individuals. We've observed many companies focusing heavily on a candidate's skills and experience while neglecting the more predictive criteria. Our research indicates that organizations need to evaluate cultural fit first, capabilities and achievements second, and specific experience third. The order is vital in ensuring not only a successful recruiting campaign, but also in establishing a long-term relationship with the employee", LaCivita says.
He adds, “While we consider the cultural, capability, and experience components to be core to the process, we feel the candidate’s emotional factors as well as external influences such as current employer, family, and confidants are equally important. This follows the theory that people buy with emotion and justify with logic. Changing companies is analogous to making any big purchase in life. Ultimately, you need to separate the candidate from where he is today to achieve hiring success. Without a clear understanding of the candidate’s emotional decision points, recruiters might find themselves merely hoping for success rather than building the highest probability of achieving it.”
milewalk is in the early stages of developing software to help organizations predict recruiting and retention success. The software provides employers with a probability of success based on several factors from both the candidate and company side. They are currently simulating results based on historical placements, and initial data shows this predictive approach to be promising.
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Andrew LaCivita is the chief executive of milewalk, an executive recruiting and human capital consulting company located in Chicago, IL. He has consulted for over 80 companies throughout his career and publishes this free newsletter to the human resources community in hopes it will help you attract the top talent and improve your ability to motivate your employees. After all, as Jim Collins indicates in Good to Great…people aren’t your greatest asset, the right people are. For a more complete biography, please visit the milewalk website. |
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This quarter, milewalk is offering complimentary sessions on evaluating your recruiting techniques. For more information on milewalk or to schedule your complimentary consultation, please email info@milewalk.com or call |
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