I nominate the calculating of “cost per hire” as the single most pointless and damaging exercise in recruiting. Even though the cost per hire metric is widely used, that certainly doesn’t mean that it adds value, and it may in fact actually hurt the recruiting function. Years ago when I …

By Dr. John Sullivan, who is renowned around the world as a strategist in the field of human resources and talent management 99% of job seekers are outsiders, because they have never been a corporate recruiter. As an outsider, you’re automatically disadvantaged because you can’t know the recruiting secrets that …

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that when business revenues are down, it simply doesn’t make sense to carry a large-scale recruiting effort, but if you’re smart, you know that once an economic turnaround begins, the competition for talent will again be fierce. Starting a major …

Talent acquisition functions spend thousands of hours and millions of dollars designing processes to hire top performers, innovators, and game changers. Unfortunately few of those dollars or hours are spent fixing the biggest roadblock in recruiting A-level talent: weak hiring managers. Everyone seems to intuitively know that managers are the …

(Incidentally, the same arguments can also be applied to existing weak employees in cases where layoffs or terminations are being considered.) The Top 30 Arguments against Hiring … “Butts in Chairs” a.k.a. Warm Bodies, “C” Players and Homer Simpson Business Impacts of Butts in Chairs Lost productivity — a new …

One of the worst-kept secrets in recruiting is that source of hire data is inconsistently gathered and rarely accurate. To many corporate recruiters, the validity of source of hire data is a non issue; after all, once the hire is generated, their role is over. However, if you view recruiting …

It would be pretty hard to throw a stone in most HR organizations without hitting someone who manages an antiquated process. Despite significant changes in how people live, work, and play, many HR practices continue on as if they were operating in 1960. For years employment advertising specialists relied on …

Finding a Tiger Woods is the Easy Part A common complaint among both hiring managers and recruiters is that they have difficulty in hiring top caliber talent like Tiger Woods. Some call these extraordinary individuals top performers, while others call them game changers or innovators. Regardless of what they are …

If a 14-year-old walked into a liquor store, for example, they would be told to leave. Someone driving up to a Ferrari showroom in a Bentley would be more likely to be served ahead of a potential customer riding up on an old bicycle. Banks routinely discourage customers with small …

Nearly every firm that has studied recruiting effectiveness has come to the conclusion that employee referral programs are the most effective way to find and hire high quality employees. What makes referral programs so effective is that they “multiply” the number of recruiters that a firm has available. Instead of …