Whenever I'm having one of those down days when I start feeling a bit despondent, be it that I can't find the right candidate for an important position, or that a star candidate has been turned down in favour of someone else, or just that stress starts creeping in, I have a little something that always manages to make me smile.

I phone my placements.

There is nothing better than checking in with placements and hearing how much they are enjoying their new…

When I first talk to a recruiter who is looking for a new job, I will always ask them 3 questions.

The answers separate the good recruiters from the average. They tell me whether a person takes their recruitment career seriously or are just hopping from one job to the next .They indicate whether a person is really committed to securing a new role or just dipping their toe in the water. They also highlight if someone is not telling the whole truth and has maybe…

1. Build talent pipelines and recruitment strategies to key business groups

Business units love to engage and buy-in to recruitment strategies that are tied to their groups and units vs. the whole company where job requirements and competencies can get watered down to meet all requirements.  Sourcing and recruiting to fill a specific pipeline for…

As the markets in Asia Pacific continue to grow at rates from 6 – 23.5% (in the case of SG’s 1^st Quarter 2011!) the ‘…

Is Twitter experiencing Facebook envy? Or, do they just want to be creepy? Google is doing something really cool with their image search and that's a good thing for social recruiting. Plus, Jim Stroud shares the love. Download the show notes for all the links to the stories covered in this video and more!…

When you are starting to build your Talent Community (or Talent Network), it’s extremely important to think about this question.  In understanding why candidates want to be part of your Talent Community, you can start creating communities & messaging that better appeal to your best target candidates.

So the question remains, when a candidate opts into your Recruiting…

Dear Penn State Undergrads,

You have just been hit between the eyes with a hard dose of the real world.  I notice that you are not handling it very well so let me try to give you something to think about besides  your folk hero and the game on Saturday.  As i have listened to your comments ,i am reminded of the time many moons ago when my world consisted of Wildcat football games, painting the "A" at the University of Arizona, boondockers with a keg or two and once in a while a…

We recruiters often talk about how candidates need to give more to their employers and how they need to be seen to want to add value, to want to drive for good outcomes but it is a game of two halves and as Employers we all have to look at how we attract, retain and develop our people - do we have a formal employee engagement strategy in place?…

Poor HR, employee engagement is their responsibility, yet it is definitely one of those things that cannot be done alone. Employee Engagement is one of those things that companies really struggle with when it comes to prioritizing, surveying, implementing and monitoring effectiveness; why? Well it is overwhelming. When we think about engaging our employees and our teams we want to be sure that we have all of the pieces together, we want it to be successful and repeatable and there are a lot…

“Today more than ever, the fate of an organization depends on its ability to recruit, retain, and, when necessary, replace talent.”

–        Emmett C. Murphy, Talent IQ

In his best selling book, Talent IQ, Emmett Murphy lays out a very clear and researched process for increasing your company’s productivity and profitability. It all…

Last year around this time, Dawson had a Customer Service Open House - we advertised on job boards, our website and spread the word on our personal social media accounts.  This brought us about 30-40 people that we were able to help! 

Today, we abide by the same rules and hardly have anyone walk through our door…what are we missing?

Has anyone else experience this struggle?  It comes with the Staffing territory, I know, but this "drought" seems to be lasting longer than…

Last week I read a post about how social media killed job boards (yes, again!). Whether or not you agree with the argument (and as you can surmise, I don’t), the piece inadvertently brings up a larger issue: are job boards still relevant to job seekers? After all, this is all about the job seeker, right? Many social media evangelists would have you…

I meet with a number of Recruitment Consultants every week who are looking to move on from their current position, or step up to their next opportunity…  I probably speak with a further 10, or more on the phone….

 And, to be perfectly honest I’m lucky if I meet with one a week who I consider a good, old fashioned ‘A’ Candidate…

It’s not to say that these candidates are not fantastic on paper… On paper most of these candidates look great…. On paper most of these…

Ok, so I have no idea where this diversity series is taking me....but hopefully you’ll come along for the ride.  I just got back from speaking on a discussion panel so my mind is going a mile a minute on this topic.  What I’d like to address is how, we as recruiting professionals can help our organizations continue to hire and grow awesome, diverse talent.  Here are a few thoughts:



Pipeline - Build a big,…

Remember that cute little blonde you had a crush on when you were ten but were to shy to approach or even kiss during that awkward game of spin the bottle. Well you're a big boy know so you better start taking action, especially if you're in Human Resources otherwise some big finance guy is going to waltz right in and sweep Blondie off her feet. It’s time for…

That’s what I heard every day for 2 years from my boss.

Every time I talked with a partner in a public accounting firm or a corporate attorney or a commercial banker he would tell me that they only returned my call because I worked for him. They only referred clients to me because I worked for him. Yes, he had a huge ego.

I believe he thought if he said it enough to all his recruiters they would believe him – most did. None of us had signed non-competes – he told us he didn’t…

You call them ‘clients’ and you think they see you as a business partner. Take this quick test and maybe… think again! Tick each statement that applies to you.

1. They won’t meet you to provide a new job brief. It’s emailed, or given over the phone, or maybe its just a few lines in an email.
2. They give you jobs in…

I had an interesting conversation with a former candidate this week. This is someone who got the position I recruited him for and by all accounts is doing a fabulous job. Nothing unusual about that, until you understand that recruiting this candidate just about drove me nuts.

When I first sourced him, he was terrific. Had the skills and education (very specific, prestigious university grad) my client wanted. Excellent culture fit – really brought the right “start-up…