Recruiting Strategy

If you were going to attempt to recruit Tiger Woods to play for your golf team, you would realize early on that it would require the use of a different approach than most corporations currently use. Tiger certainly wouldn't respond to the traditional approaches, like ads in newspapers, or and …

After working with more than 250 organizations in 23 countries, we can attest that while the companies themselves may be different, the issues they face are not. "We're different" has become nothing more than an empty excuse for recruiters and other HR professionals to hide behind when they recognize the …

The isolated dominion that recruiting and HR in general has created for itself is often devoid of metrics, rewards for performance, and accountability. Its continued existence sends a message that recruiting cannot exist in the same competitive business climate that line managers must operate in daily. In short, it demonstrates …

The differences between the FirstMerit approach and that of most organizations comes down to the complete integration of two key recruiting concepts into every thing they do. The two key concepts that guide recruiting at FirstMerit: It's a war. While corporate recruiters occasionally use the term "war for talent," most …

A Recognized Leader In addition to the assessment that went into preparing this case study, the world-class efforts of the Valero recruiting team were recognized in 2005 by a panel of recruiting industry thought leaders that awarded them a prestigious ERE Recruiting Excellence Award. The ERE Excellence Award to a …

I have found over the years that the reasons the recruiting function fails to become more disciplined, repeatable, and data driven include: Salespeople thrive in non-data based environments. Salespeople selling things that barely work can be successful because they claim that 1) most aspects of recruiting can’t be measured or …

Recruiting Department Structure: Best Practices The recruiting team at Valero applied the management science principles of agility, “mass customization,” and customer relationship management when it designed the organizational structure of its recruiting department. Unlike most recruiting departments, which typically have a single strategy and a consistent approach that is applied …

Valero’s Metrics and Measurement Systems Valero’s business of recruiting approach is revolutionary because it is almost 100% metrics driven. Valero utilizes the widest variety of recruiting-related metrics of any corporation I have encountered. The importance of metrics to Valero’s recruiting approach can be seen in the following quotation from its …

Dan Hilbert, Manager of Recruiting When you meet Dan Hilbert, manager of recruiting at Valero, you see right away that he is someone who thinks differently from the typical recruiting professional. Among the many things that prepared him for his current role were four years of Jesuit training, an all-male …

Poaching From Other Firms The very best recruiters are employed at other firms where they keep their skills up-to-date. Those most relevant to your needs are most likely sitting behind a desk at one of your talent competitors. If you want great recruiters you need to become comfortable with hiring …