Joshua Letourneau's Blog (71)

Change Management Visuals - 'Positive Response' and 'Negative Response'

This was inspired by the Talent Talk Cafe today when the notion of change was discussed. Here is the negative response visual:

And the positive response visual:

Can you dictate which curve you're more likely to encounter? Sure, you can . . . but some things are out of your control. Come on' - what do you think, the world is black-and-white? :)

-… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on August 19, 2008 at 4:00pm — No Comments

How Do You Tell A Client That Their Relo Program Sucks?

I have a client whose relo program and coinciding early onboarding process is an absolute comedy of errors. When I try to let them know, I get the age old reponse that "this is how we've always done things around here."

The more I speak about how important the candidate experience is, the more defensive some get. "We've done it this way thousands of times." Yet the same company has trouble retaining > 24 months . . . .

. . . Meaning they come back a lot, which is the… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on August 19, 2008 at 1:50pm — 1 Comment

What A Stoic Philosopher (A 'Real One'!) Taught Me About Recruiting

If you've sat through a Philosophy course or are just interested in the differing schools of thought, let me toss out a few tidbits and how they shape our view of recruiting:

That's Marcus Aurelius above. If you don't have his post-humous compilation, "Meditations", I'd recommend it in small doses. [Note: Sorry… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on August 15, 2008 at 1:57pm — No Comments

What An Alpha-Baffoon Taught Me About Recruiting . . .

I met with an interesting candidate yesterday - let's call him an Alpha Baffoon. When sitting down for lunch, he threw his folder on the table from 3 ft out, making a loud "thud" . . . which was an instant red flag. At a later point, he berated a waitress because his food wasn't "up to par." The other interesting form of body language was him stretching in such a way as to claustrophobically impend on surrounding patrons . . . and it was obvious he enjoyed barreling through the crowds like a… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on August 6, 2008 at 9:00am — 1 Comment

Job Boards Present An Even Distribution of Talent? (Um, Really?)

Over my gin & java this morning, I've been reflecting on a comment from a VP of Staffing from a huge, publicly traded staffing-firm this last week. In a nutshell, his comment was, to a degree, a defense of the major job boards. He referred to what he believed to be an "even" distribution of talent on job boards (i.e. Monster, CareerBuilder, etc.) Now, forgive me for being a little of a math-head, so I'm going to try to keep this short & simple (as I don't have too much time and there's… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on August 5, 2008 at 8:47am — No Comments

"Run For The Fallen" - Can You Run 1-Mile To Commemorate Our Fallen?

I was thinking that perhaps asking anyone here who reads my sporadic posts may be off-topic, but then, it's a social network . . . so why not. :)

Every once in a while, we have a chance to take part in something much bigger than ourselves. Here's that chance.

4690 U.S. military members have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you can run 1-mile to commemorate our Fallen. Here are some details - I… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on August 4, 2008 at 9:02am — No Comments

Observation: Does A Candidate's 'Short-Name' Tell Us Anything?

I understand this may be an unusual post, so bear with me for a moment. I've recruited a great deal of 'Elizabeth'-named candidates. Most reply with 'Liz' after establishing some dialogue and a relationship. You know what I mean -- after a couple conversations, people let down the whole-name barrier and let the gate down slightly. For example, my friends call me Josh, but my whole name is Joshua (which is what I use on my email signature.)

However, today, I had a candidate reply back… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on August 1, 2008 at 10:50am — 1 Comment

Rudyard Kipling's "If" - Thought I'd Pass On As A Reflection of a Headhunter's Life

A friend of mine passed this on the other day, and although I don't have much use for poets personally, this isn't bad. It reminds me of the life a true Headhunter (an entrepreneurial one) lives as you walk in many different circles:

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on August 1, 2008 at 10:37am — 1 Comment

What The ^%$&??? - Candidate No-Shows Me For An 8:30PM Interview?

Wow, you have to love what you run into in our biz.

You just gotta love it when your night gets thrown off when a candidate no-shows you at 8:30PM.

Thanks for hearing my rant - now I think I'll go beat up the sparring dummy at the gym with some knees and elbows :P

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 28, 2008 at 8:48pm — No Comments

Social Media Has Changed The Marketing (and Recruiting) Game . . . The Heat Is on, And How You Play Will Determine Winning Vs. Losing

So I posted a response to Bill Vick's question about 'interview preparation' today ("Should recruiters outsource the interview prep to other professionals?") . . . and noticed that there had been some positive and potentially negative responses to the vendor that Bill spotlighted. That's not a bad thing -… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 28, 2008 at 8:37pm — 2 Comments

50 Cent Sues Taco Bell Over Value-Menu Stunt

Ok, this isn't recruiting related . . . but personal branding related. What would you do to protect your personal brand?

Rapper Not Amused by Request to Change His Name

"Not all publicity is good publicity, at least according to 50 Cent. The rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, filed a lawsuit against Taco Bell yesterday for using his name and likeness without permission. Mr. Jackson claims trademark… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 25, 2008 at 2:55pm — No Comments

Merry Christmas, Bob (It's Motivation Time, RBC-World!)

A buddy of mine writes articles for a site called T-Nation.com (the 'T' stands for testosterone, so they're shooting for a target market somewhat adjacent to RBC :P ) Anyway, he wrote an article titled, "Merry Christmas, Bob" a few years ago . . . an article that I go back to when I need a swift kick in the butt. It kinda reminds me of what being a true-to-form headhunter feels like - it sure aint for the faint of heart. Here she is:

"So, what are you doing for a living these days?"… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 24, 2008 at 8:59pm — No Comments

Interesting Post: "10 Reasons Why I hate Recruitment Agents"

Here is the link.

Nick is an interesting fella'.

Josh

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 23, 2008 at 6:09pm — 1 Comment

LinkedIn LIONs Clicking "I Don't Know This Person"?!?!?

Question:

Why do fellow recruiting professionals with 'LION' on their LinkedIn profile click 'I Don't Know This Person' when you send them an invite.

I mean, if you have LION in your profile, aren't you saying you're a "Linked In Open Networker?" I've had it happen 2x where LIONs click they don't know me . . . and it's always been fellow TPRs'.

So I called a buddy of mine and he said the same had happened to him last month . . . so he took it upon himself to… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 22, 2008 at 3:10pm — 3 Comments

HR: Who You Recruit Today Can Kill Who You Recruit Tomorrow

I ran into an issue this morning that I thought to share with the rest of you. Let me know if you've run into similar situations:

I work in a very tight niche. In one geographic case, there are 2 competitors located approx 15 miles from one another - furthermore, there are no other direct competitors for less than 150 miles, meaning a relo would be in order if I was to recruit from same said sector. The result? A premium on local directly competitive talent.

Today, I spoke… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 22, 2008 at 9:30am — 1 Comment

WOW - Now Tell Me Social Media Doesn't Open Doors!!! (Especially After You Take Off That Orange Jump Suit!)

I thought about coming up with a rhyme to accompany this post . . . but I couldn't bring myself to do it. If you're wondering why, it'll make sense in un momento:

"McDonald's robber among finalists for new jingle"

Our boy, Tamien Bain, served 12 years after holding up (at gunpoint) a McDonalds in 1994 . . . .

. . . And is among five finalists in… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 21, 2008 at 4:00pm — No Comments

Captain-Save-A-Candidate to the Rescue!!!! ("Up, up, and away!")

Ok, well . . . not really. In putting on my cape this morning, I looked in the mirror and realized I more resembled these lil' fellas than the Superman cartoon character :P

Which leads me to ask . . . do you think a candidate would more trust one of these guys or the super-buff, super-slick, original Superman?

How about Gen-Y versus a Boomer?

With all the time spent on the art of neuro-linguistics programming,… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 18, 2008 at 9:25am — No Comments

Are You A Big Biller . . . But A Little W-2'er? (Hilarious Conversation Yesterday) :)

Ever have almost a surreal conversation . . . like you think you're being played while you're holding out for the punchline? Well, I have. This is how it went yesterday in a conversation with my buddy, Borg-Biller:

Me: "Borg-Biller, how ya been? Still Borg-Billin over there at that Big-Box firm?

Borg-Biller: "Yeah, you know me. Billin, billin, billin!"

Me: "Wow, so what's your commission over there?"

Borg-Biller: "Well, I take home 40% up to $250k, 50%… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 16, 2008 at 9:12am — 9 Comments

Zombie Recruiter Need Input . . . . . . Zombie Recruiter Need Best Practice

Take a bite out of this scenario and chew on it for a minute:

The time has come for the recruiting awards presentation and the recruiting clan is rushing from the tradeshow floor to see who won what and the coinciding presentation on best practices. As the zombie-like audience pours in, several fall over the piles of worthless marketing brochures collected over the last 48-hours. Then, several recruiting organizations are enshrined… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 15, 2008 at 9:30am — 2 Comments

Would Anyone Be Interested In An Outward Bound Excursion Only For Recruiters?

Social Media/Networking is great - Frankly, I like it. But there is also quite a bit to be gained from physical networking as well . . . and face-to-face networking is even more fun when it's not a card-exchanging fest and you have a chance to:

Climb a mountain. Explore the woods. Paddle a whitewater river. Sail the ocean.

Would anyone be interested in recruiters getting together to do the above . . . all the while discussing new ideas and sharing best practices? I… Continue

Added by Joshua Letourneau on July 11, 2008 at 2:48pm — 1 Comment