CBI Way blog spot by Lisa Van Ess, Recruiter On-Demand and Managed Staffing Practice Leader

Those of us in the service provider business are well aware of how service and success easily get tied to the engagement of that one-and-only-knows-my-business-resource. The client has been working with this one sourcer or recruiter since the beginning and no one you have in your entire fleet of talent could ever replace that individual…there is some truth to this, but so much can be done through a great transition, yet – that is a subject for a future blog…

This blog is about the benefits of going from working with My Favorite Sourcer to the (gasp!) Anonymous Sourcing Pool. At CBI Group, we look at sourcing as a multi-step process that begins with the research of potential candidates through all available pipelines and ends with the profiling and production of an interested candidate submitted to a CBI Group or corporate recruiter for entry into the interview process. We have a sourcing methodology and process to find all sorts of needles in the haystack. Yes, some of our talented sourcing team has more experience with financial services, others in pharmaceuticals and others in manufacturing but when our internal and external clients limit themselves to only work with their Favorite Sourcer they miss out on some great benefits.

Sourcing is about creativity, the more variety of opportunities given to a talented sourcer, the more creative they become, and this goes for every client. Having a strong vertical/niche is great in terms of knowing where to start the hunt but having different sets of eyes and different approaches leads to a wider variety of pipelines and candidates. When a sourcing team is behind you, they rely on each other for coaching, ideas, and support (you tend to get more than the Favorite Sourcer you might be paying for) and when your Favorite Sourcer goes on vacation, your recruiting pipeline does not go on hold for a week. Oh, and how could I forget to mention, your Favorite Sourcer is part of the nebulous Anonymous Sourcing Pool so you still do get their work included…

Remember – the whole is greater than the sum of its parts (or the one part you are most attached to!)

The CBI Way blog series explores the tools and practices used in Talent Acquisition. CBI Way is CBI Group’s recruiting approach and methodology – it’s how we do what we do! Check in with CBI Way for insights around workforce education and training, the latest trends in recruiting technology, and how to best utilize these tools towards improving your own recruiting practices.

CBI Way blog spot by Lisa Van Ess, Recruiter On-Demand and Managed Staffing Practice Leader

So as a recruiter your #1 goal is to find the best fit for a position. You assess the position requirements, responsibilities, team and company cultural fit and interpersonal interactions with the manager and the team, you begin recruiting against all these hard and soft responsibilities, and find the perfect person. How’s that for a happily ever after?

So what happens when this top candidate gets in front of the hiring manager and the message back to you is: I want someone younger/older/male/female? We all have or will have to face this at some point. Below are three suggestions on what to do when the inevitable occurs:

1.      Ask why - There are sometimes valid (and lawful) reasons to ask for an otherwise protected characteristic. For example, if the job requirement is to model women’s dresses, the most ideal candidate may very well be a woman, or if a job is to design apps targeted for the under 30 market’s use, a Millennial may be the most qualified candidate. It never hurts to ask questions to gain clarity.

2.      Educate – In the absence of a valid reason, it is always recommended you educate (teach don’t preach!) your hiring management about non-discriminate hiring and most importantly the value to the organization of having diverse teams. (Start by reminding them their clients are diverse!)

3.      State your purpose and get back to the first sentence – your job is to find the best fit for the position — to enable the new hire’s, team’s and company’s success! If the first two suggestions don’t yield any traction from your hiring manager, it might just be best to go back to the drawing board and find the best fit!

The CBI Way blog series explores the tools and practices used in Talent Acquisition. CBI Way is CBI Group’s recruiting approach and methodology – it’s how we do what we do! Check in with CBI Way for insights around workforce education and training, the latest trends in recruiting technology, and how to best utilize these tools towards improving your own recruiting practices.

Guest blog by Chris Barton MBA SPHR, President at Barton Career Advisors

Over the last three years I have learned a lot about being an entrepreneur.  I would say that 50% of what I have learned has come from actually “doing” my job as a leader of a business that is innovating in the outplacement industry.  The other half of my learning has come from a combination of sources: reading (I’ll share my list shortly), networking with other leaders of high-growth organizations, business development wins/failures, insight and collaboration of partners, and a confidential entrepreneurial mentoring relationship.  If I was put on the spot, it would not be easy for me to assign a percentage to each of these channels of information.  I’ll say this though, with 100% certainty, you are going to need all of it.

Being an entrepreneur can be lonely – particularly if you have experienced rejection from others who do not share your passion for changing the world.  So, finding and defining trusted channels of information is critical.  There is a statistic that is widely quoted from a study done by Inc.com and the National Business Incubation Association.  Simply stated, 80% of new entrepreneurial businesses fail within the first five years of operations.  That’s a mind-blowing number for most people and more than enough to convince many not to take the chance.

If you are considering launching a new venture or interested in joining one as a leader, you should take some time to reflect on your resolve.  It goes without saying that your “risk tolerance” should be high.  But that is not enough. If you are going to make your “roll” on the big craps table of entrepreneurship, I’d like to share just a few diamonds of information distilled from my learning over the past three years since launching our outplacement business.

Define Your Values Early On

When you get started with any new venture, it always seems as if the mere momentum and passion for your new idea are going to be enough.  Trust me, it will not be.  Becoming an entrepreneur is a whole lot like getting married.  If you want the relationship between you and your company to last the test of time, then you better get clear on values right from the beginning.  I am not talking about personal values.  I am referring to the values you want your organization to live, breath, and display every day.

Defining and knowing business values early on can give you some solace when the monthly revenue numbers are not going your way.  We have a set of ten values that we live in the outplacement business.  One of the most prominent is “Investing in People. Investing in the Future.”  I ask myself each and every day, ”Are we true to our values? Did we make a difference for this client?” I know if we get the values right that the P&L will take care of itself (for the most part).  Further, one can go back to their values regularly (particularly when you are feeling stale) to regain energy and passion for the long fight ahead.

Measure Your Performance

Many start-up ventures, including mine, do not hit their initial, overly optimistic financial projections.  This does not however excuse the fact that a line in the sand has to be established somewhere.  You have got to figure out the key performance indicators for your business and attend to them like a hawk!  If the numbers don’t say what you like against the plan, resist the temptation to lower your goals.  It might make you feel good today, but you will pay for it down the road when it is time to ask for funding and other outside assistance.

There is yet another reason to measure performance.  Celebrations!  There is nothing more important than planning a reasonable reward for yourself and your team when the business exceeds its projections.  Celebrations and rewards are an affirmation of your hard work, diligence, and intelligence when it comes to “making it happen” on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis.  You are going to need this because there will be many times when you have to say, “No celebration this quarter. We missed our numbers by 9%.”

Know Yourself

I am still amazed at how some professionals will strike out on an endeavor without having some knowledge of their individual attributes as a person.  Specifically, if you want to be an entrepreneur, you better know yourself.  Let me say it again.  You better know yourself.  Why is this so important?  Well, there are some things that you are just not going to be good at in business and you will need to find others to help.  Further, it is important you understand your skills, personality attributes, desired work, risk tolerance, and working methods.

An example from my own personal background might be worth the effort here.  My Myers Briggs personality type is ENTP.  In the assessment we use in our outplacement business, I am described at a high level as a “Classic Entrepreneur and Inventor”. Sounds great doesn’t it? My personality seems almost perfect for someone in my line of work!  My “dark side” comes out when I recognize the opportunities for growth in my personality.  Specifically, I like to design things and then move on to the next thing.  This is not always a good thing.  I have learned to surround myself with great project managers and structured people who can bring necessary order and rhythm to the business.  Where would I get this insight from had I not invested the time to get to know myself?

Pick Great Partners

I am fortunate to have had picked some great partners as I began my quest to change the outplacement world.  Specifically, I get to work every day surrounded by a great bunch of entrepreneurial minds at CBI Group and Placers.  These are people that understand what it is like to structure a business, build a business plan, develop a culture, and be the driving force behind a dream. More importantly we share a set of common values that allows the combined group of entities to share resources and key market insights.  Even more powerful is our ability to scale and capture business opportunities only available due to our combined competitive advantage.

As do most start-ups, Barton Career Advisors needed to establish both formal and informal partnerships to grow the business. While CBI Group and Placers represent our formal partnerships we also have developed informal linkages to complimentary referral sources, executive search firms, business leaders, consultants, clients, and friends who share our vision for the future.  These informal partners have become an invaluable part of our support network and a community of believers that perpetuate the story of a new paradigm in outplacement and career transition.  Great partners, both formal and informal make the odds of success in entrepreneurship just a little less daunting.  If you want to win as an entrepreneur you need to create a fellowship of believers and supporters. Pick your partners wisely!

My Entrepreneurial Reading List- As Promised!

Here are a few titles that are on my reading list.  All great reads for those of us with entrepreneurial ravings!

• Mastering the Rockefeller Habits – Verne Harnish
• Delivering Happiness – Tony Hsieh
• Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson
• Losing My Virginity – Richard Branson
• When the Little Things Count…And They Always Count - Barbara Pachter
• The One Minute Manager - Ken Blanchard, Ph.D. & Spencer Johnson, M.D.
• Born to Win – Lewis Timberlake with Marietta Reed
• Business Relationships That Last – Ed Wallace

Guest blog spot by Lisa Van Ess, CBI Group team member

Those of us in the recruiting and HR business have used a lot of terminology over the years to describe what can simply be defined as an employee service. Clear communication (even to the point of corporate jargon interpretation), match-making, coaching, and advisory business are all components of this service. The newest descriptive term happens to be Talent Acquisition. Perhaps it is my years in financial services, but this one has the same ring to it as Human Capital.

Both terms seem to monetize people; which, while I have built and sustained a career in the solid belief that people are any organization’s greatest asset, looking at them as purely dollars and cents feels like they are just numbers. Companies, leaders, and recruiters don’t really get and keep talented people through acquisition (unless your organization merges with or takes over another firm), or the occasional bidding war for talent that may feel like a hostile takeover, especially when you lose this compensation-based battle.

Recruiting is really all about identifying, attracting, and retaining the talented individuals that fit the culture and values of your organization and who can take your team to the next level. A really simple process for this is:

1. Know your client, company, or team’s business and culture; and know the job you are seeking to fill really, REALLY well.
2. Identify and reach out to networks of talent whose experiences and values are a fit for open opportunities and genuinely tell your client’s or company’s story with detailed information about the job.
3. Those who respond to your story will be potential ‘fits’ for your opportunities, follow-up and don’t let a talented person slip into that legendary recruiting/HR Black Hole!
4. Thoroughly screen and get to know your candidates – A very wise recruiter once told me that there are only two questions you need answered in determining if a candidate is a fit for a job: “Can this person do the job? Will this person do the job?” I focus on the ‘Will’. Will they do it? Will they be happy doing it in the long run? Will the team/organization be happy with them? I have learned along the way that someone who ‘Almost Can’ but ‘Definitely Will’ can be taught the necessary skills while a ‘borderline willing person’ may never fit.
5. Set clear expectations about the job, culture, company, career and compensation advancement – the good , bad, and the ugly. Let people be fully knowledgeable about signing up for something, eliminate surprises!
6. As a leader, HR, or recruitment practitioner deliver on the expectations you set and invest in your newly acquired, talented employee! Lead, coach, tour-guide and mentor – acclimating to a new job is never easy. Remember why you selected this talented person and support them, you won’t be sorry.

So, whatever we call it next year, the constant practice of finding, attracting, relating as a human and collaborating honestly through the recruiting and on-boarding process, investing in and supporting people will always result in the building and retention of talented teams!

Guest Blog by Kelly Hocutt, a CBI Group team member

At CBI, we have added four new people to our team in the past few weeks. One of the first things we share with new team members is our Outside-In® culture and we have done so by sharing stories about one tenet each week. This week is Open Book. I first learned about what it meant to be Open Book from Chris’ father, Alan Burkhard.

When I met with Alan to learn about his life as an entrepreneur, I wondered, “What is it that Alan understands about this world that the rest of us are too blind to see? What makes him so successful, so content and so relaxed?” It’s that he has nothing to hide.

“I am fully open and honest with everyone,” he told me. He teams up with people that have the same values as him and commits to full disclosure. He will discuss anything his partners, coworkers or employees want to know. He shares his philosophy with anyone who is interested. It’s simple, common sense but the difference lies in making what you believe, what you actually do. To live and be what you believe. He teaches his philosophy to his employees and the Outside-In® philosophy has been successful in every business he has established or turned around, in seven different industries; Payroll, transfer stations, real estate, trash, horse racing, food service and staffing services… Just like it has worked for his son.

“I don’t care what the product is in my business. Great service is unbeatable because it’s free,” he says with a smile. Letting his customers call all the shots has made Alan Burkhard the successful entrepreneur he is today. “What’s the value to you? That’s the value to me.” The beauty of the Outside-In® philosophy is its minimalism. He teaches it in the classroom, he can diagram it or explain it through one of his many analogies. He could shout it from the mountaintops. But that doesn’t mean people grasp it enough to fully embrace and live it.

Thus, to put his philosophy to work in his companies, Alan leads by example. “My business philosophy is the same as my personal philosophy,” he explained. He teaches people to have their own cultures, to learn and understand themselves. He then encourages them to be who they say they are. Culture is defined by “what we do and how we act. You must live it. Be it.” Everyone has cultural traits that they rank higher than others, whether they know it or not. The big one for Alan are being direct, sharing, and leadership. With a defined culture, Alan empowers people to make decisions.

Alan believes that he and his employees are equally important and he makes sure they know that. “I give full trust in employees. There is no need not to tell them anything.” And that is exactly what those of us at CBI Group have been talking about this week. Our new team members are learning from the veterans what full disclosure, sharing and collaboration are all about. This Outside-In® approach is so simple and so human that it can be confusing. But it’s up to each and every employee to put being Open Book in to action. When one of us passes it along, it’s a beautiful thing to watch the power of full disclosure.

Chris, the Outside-In Guy: Kelly Hocutt is back with more thoughts on entrepreneurship. Three months ago she wrote her first guest post, “What does it mean to be entrepreneurial?” and she is checking back in.

One thing I can tell you is that living an entrepreneurial life goes by at the speed of light. It’s a fast-paced environment where your days, weeks and months pass by in the blink of an eye. Another thing I’ve learned about is the power of an entrepreneur’s handshake.
 
In a time when new entrepreneurs are often found sitting on a couch in their living room or local coffee shop, I’m left pondering what tools I need to be a successful entrepreneur. I have learned a lot from team members at CBI Group who value relationships first and also from the recruiting industry that relies heavily on networking.
 
It’s easy to squirrel away and use the Internet and social networking to build a successful business these days, but what new entrepreneurs may be missing is the value of old school relationships. I’m talking face-to-face meetings. Getting out of your PJs and meeting people who introduce you to people who introduce you to people. Instead of more followers, fans, sponsored Emails to subscriber lists and all counts of virtual relationships, I want to keep track of the real life handshakes I have in my career.
 
I’ve learned that real life handshakes signify commitments made and follow-up steps that you actually follow up on. And it takes handshakes to be a successful entrepreneur. So while I’m tempted by the articles about 20 something entrepreneurs that started companies equipped only with Wi-Fi and a laptop, I see way more value in meeting people, hearing their story and building partnerships on my path to success.
 
What’s your career handshake count?
 

Chris, the Outside-In Guy: I often talk about what it’s like to be an entrepreneur or offer my advice on entrepreneurial endeavors, but today I’d like to offer another view. Let me introduce Kelly Hocutt, an employee of mine who has always had an interest in entrepreneurship and came to CBI Group because our culture encourages everyone to be entrepreneurial.

I have had the unique opportunity of not only working for Chris at CBI Group, but also working for his father, Alan Burkhard, a serial entrepreneur. Alan has long been a mentor for me and I thank him for fueling my interest in entrepreneurship. At a young age I would bounce my business ideas off him and as I got older, I started to ask questions and request more stories about his work and philosophy. Then one day in 2009, Alan asked if I would be interested in shadowing him for a week to see what the life of an entrepreneur is like.
 
I was honored, grateful, excited, and most of all, unsure how the experience would unfold. Well, that was a year and a half ago and now I work for Alan’s son Chris. During the time I spent with Alan, I did everything he typically does in a week: went to management meetings at his companies, met with his lawyers, looked at P&L’s, attended lunch meetings, was introduced to his friends and colleagues, volunteered at the hospital, had dinner with his wife… you get the idea.
 
What I learned that week answered a lot of questions and offered me a clearer path forward, but also “ruined me,” as Chris says. The Burkhard men frequently say that “you can only control your own career when you are your own boss“. So, while what I learned from Alan “ruined” me at the start of my career, I was fortunate to find a place at CBI Group because it offered me a chance to be entrepreneurial, make decisions for myself and be a leader, but also learn about business before jumping in to be my own boss.
 
I’d like to share a few quotes from Alan Burkhard that were brought to life for me at CBI Group.

“What’s the value to you? That’s the value to me.”

“My business philosophy is the same as my personal philosophy.”

“Culture is defined by what we do and how we act. You must live it. Be it.”

“It’s all about relationships.”

What I learned is that an entrepreneur’s work is a lifestyle. Work doesn’t start at 9 AM and end at 5 PM. For an entrepreneur, work is life and life is work. “You are your own boss,” is true when taken literally. But what is also important is that when it comes to work, you should be able to be yourself, make your own decisions, challenge and enjoy yourself. That is what I get at CBI Group, the chance to be entrepreneurial, even though “I’m not my own boss.”
 

Chris’s blog provoked my thinking and I want to pose even broader questions about the world of work today. I am not sure that by simply identifying examples of forward thinking in action, without there also being a strategic object at organizational levels, can lead to the needed wisdom for sustained and productive organizational change. I think we need to examine the forces that are giving energy to these phenomena.

To make leadership everyone’s responsibility and thereby create the most productive and professionally satisfying organizations, it is imperative that there be clarity about the tidal wave of change that has been brought on by recent economic developments. This altered context requires rethinking about how the basic employer-employee agreement is understood and what impacts follow when “leadership as everyone’s responsibility” is now the norm.

It is suggested that when the economy recovers, things won’t return to normal in the workplace and instead it will defined by its “permanent crisis” state (Heifetz et al. “Leadership in (Permanent) Crisis”, Harvard Business Review June-July 2009)

To accept this paradigm means that organizational effectiveness is contingent upon everyone practicing both leadership and “followership”. Being a leader no longer describes a hierarchy of titles, but rather an intended dynamic interaction among all levels of staff to accomplish organizational goals. Leadership is influence at its best. Influence happens in “the space in-between” individuals and is reinforced, developed and recognized through organizational structures and systems.

It can be argued that individual expectations of the employment agreement often do not align, nor do they support, the behavior of individual leadership required to do “best practices, while establishing next practices” (Ibid). The rapid expansion of varied “employment” models (project work, contingency employment) and the rise of “encore careers” as an option for boomers and talent managers alike, contributes to an urgency to re-examine the assumptions that drive today’s major HR practices .

To understand the context of today’s world of work and the altered employer-employee agreement will drive organizational transformation to expect and require the demonstration of “leadership” by all employees and contractors.

Are organizations, HR professionals, managers and the workforce ready to recognize this reality and take incremental steps toward this new world of work?

Action without thought will be unproductive.

Bill Tietjen is a certified consulting associate with the Lee Hecht Harrison (LHH) Career Transition Practice of Greater Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley Region. In addition, Bill is a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Policy & Practice and is a lecturer at Temple University’s Executive MBA Career Management Program and mentors the MBA students at Drexel University.