Handling Negativity

In recruiting we always have the potential to handle adversity - a great candidate lost to a more aggressive organization, recruiters behaving badly thus impacting the brand, bringing in new talent while massive layoffs at the company ping the newswires, bad decisions made by those who believe they know how to recruit but as CFOs can't do more than count beans (this is a general category which I'm sure many of you will recognize)...

...how we do it is how we are seen by our peers, potential employees and networking conduits, hiring managers, our bosses.

Like many here in NYC, we've been deluged with news about US Airways Flights 1549. Having called the airline - perhaps unfairly - US Scareways over the years, I've been dubious about using it for flying.

But seeing the caliber of the people at the helm and support of the flight during this incident, I'm reminded that talent acquisition is still one of the four most vital positions in any company (a later article). In any time, you can't run a company without great people.

So when you think about how tough it is for us out there, think about making lemons out of lemonade - or ditching in the water without a casualty. It can be done...

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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on January 18, 2009 at 9:09am

I'm simply not that intuitive so like a dutiful engineer (never a former Marine, Jesuit or Engineer) I have to ask lots of questions - many times I've referred to them as Andy Rooney moments (ever wonder why?)...

Last night I watched Being John Malkovich; this is one of those movies that if you've never seen it, rent it, buy it, see it. Being inventive is all about asking questions; most questions and ideas will be viewed as banal, inane or both but every so often a good one comes to the surface. I'm very happy that you liked this one about a plane ditching in the Hudson River and recruiting.

So the question now asked in less colorful ways is what are you specifically going to go to prove the critics wrong about the present state of recruiting?