Happy Tim Sackett Day, y’all.

If you don’t know what Tim Sackett Day is, you’re not alone; I just found out about it this year. The point of Tim Sackett Day is to honor unsung heroes in the recruiting industry. In the past they’ve honored some bloggers and practitioners I really respect – Kelly Dingee, Paul Hebert, and Victorio Milian. And this year is no different.

The recipient of the Tim Sackett Award this year is the Recruiting Animal. If you’re in recruiting and haven’t heard of him, I’ll assume now that you’re living under a rock. See, Animal isn’t one of those “sit behind the scenes and write commentary” style recruiters but rather one that will push buttons and ask questions. You can’t miss his blog posts because his content is centered around thoughts and ideas he wants to test and challenge. I particularly appreciate Animal’s perspective because rather than writing things just to be controversial, he pulls quotes from people in the industry and forces us to defend ourselves.

Inevitably, when people get called out for something they say, it tends to feel like a personal attack. But when it’s coming from him, I’ve felt honored – not put out or targeted , which is rare in an industry where we habitually beat ourselves up and even have Facebook groups created with the sole purpose of embarrassing and highlighting mistakes from our industry colleagues.

He consistently challenges his radio guests to question their own thinking and doesn’t accept the status quo. You don’t get to cite some bullshit statistics when you go on the Animal show; you have to believe your idea and have the balls to back it up.

His unique approach is exactly why he deserves this honor and why I hope he keeps posting and forcing all of us to stop and have conversations instead of putting our foot down about taking an approach to recruiting that’s squarely in one camp or another.

If you want to see all the odes to the Recruiting Animal, go on Twitter and check the hashtag #TimSackettDay.

See the original post at KatrinaKibben.com.