Source: Google

Fire.  It is somewhere in each of us.  It could be a defining moment, a key placement, the victory of passion at overcoming change, the very definition of staffing success - multiple fills/accepted offers and outcomes.

These past 6 months more change that I can ever remember at any time in my life have come to pass than I can even fathom, it seems the year of 2014 has come and gone faster than I can ever remember another year going by.

Change has been the one constant, just when I was used to something the proverbial rug was pulled out from underneath me in more ways than one.  It is in this environment where you can't get comfortable, it is also this environment which can cause your momentum to swing in a vast pendulum arc 360 degrees and back again.  I can think of a few personal examples of this change which can cause one to become perhaps so overwhelmed that a temporary mindset checks in and where your very rock solid results can only be maintained with a few extra hours in the day and perhaps some limited sleep.  I think I have never truly realized how truly remarkable of a year 2014 has been, how momentous and truly how varied.

Here are some of those changes:

• Moving to a New Home and New City.
• Changing from a Full Office Bound Employee to a Full Time Telecommuting Employee.
• The very nature of the processes and staffing steps transforming before my very eyes in my company.
• The scope and breadth and depth of the type of positions I am working on.
• Seeing a spin-off finalize before my very eyes in my company.
• Watching my children grow and change and my wife accept new Church Responsibilities.
• New doors opening and others closing, departure of cherished colleagues and friends, and the very nature of the clients I am working with changing.
• A New Applicant Tracking system.
• The Macro environment - locally, nationally and internationally changing before our eyes.

Just a few things, there are others, but it has been entirely a very momentous year.  As one enters into the Thanksgiving Season and Holiday Season, there are a few things that define one's very direction.  Your staffing desk is an extension of who you are in many cases.  The way you conduct your phone screens, the way you interact with hiring managers, the very way you transform lives by the decisions you make, and by the hiring and offers you present.

So it has had me thinking these past few days, what defines us as Recruiters.  Why are we drawn to a profession that goes through as much change as we face.  Why is it that we go at a few more rounds of calls, a few more moments of focus, and keep driving to solidify fills in the midst of all of this, and quite frankly HOW do we do so.  HOW do we stay motivated.  HOW do we keep facilitating those incredible fills of incredible and massive proportions?

I guess I call it, reigniting your staffing desk.  I can outline day in and day out what defines my desk, but what also reinvents my passion and staffing resolve.

Here are some of those very things:

1. Staffing Fills - Offers are amazing.  Presenting an offer to a candidate, incredible.  Having them accept, even more invigorating.  When you have struggled, sought for, pushed, and prodded, followed up, and negotiated - when the offer is accepted. NOTHING, and I MEAN NOTHING is as powerful as that.  It means you have facilitated one of the most incredible marriages of opportunity in the business world.  The fill, the placement, the match.  Something about that CANNOT be beaten.
2. A Difficult Hiring Manager sings your praises - We have all been there, that seemingly hard to please manager, the manager who just can't be placated.  The manager whom just can't be brought to relax, and is constantly, consistently, and fluidly impatient, the one whose expectations are perhaps a new definition of the terms "Purple Squirrel Definer" and "Picky".  We all know them.  Perhaps more satisfying then anything is seeing such a manager get a little bit gushy, almost humbled by the fill in their midst, to hear them say I AM HAPPY, is perhaps the most reinvigorating outcome of all.
3. The Hard to Close Candidate Accepts your Offer - think on this, the deepest and toughest to close fills, are without a doubt connected to a high caliber super-star candidate with multiple offers in hand.  Perhaps nothing is more satisfying that you get an offer acceptance from this type of game changing candidate.  I can remember one such superstar - one of my 6 figure placements.  I remember that one well because it was the most I have ever offered a candidate, and that person to this day is still with the company I placed her at in 2008.  Something that feels good when you still get a note every now and then of THANKS and I AM HAPPY.  Love that.
4. Helping The Job Seeker Succeed - you have had them, the ones that don't get selected for your role.  Perhaps you have offered a kind word or two to such candidate.  IN their struggles, you got that key advice that would help that high potential candidate turn the corner.  Just some candid advice about what may have been done better or how they could have interviewed in a more compelling manner.  TO hear a THANKS I Made it.  THANKS I LANDED.  Something about the grateful candidate whom you shared that most important of feedback it shows them that they aren't just another number in your wheel-house of candidate interviews, that they are actually HUMAN to you.
5. The incredible number of hitting a certain milestone of placements at your current company.  For me it was the amazing 300 hire number.  Hitting that number at ADP was without a doubt the most incredible moment of my career.  Somewhere along the way, there were those who moved on from the company, those who transformed your vision, those that wrote to you and said thank you - I AM STILL HAPPY.

You know these are things that reignite my staffing desk.  They re-instill within me the WHY of what I do every day.  It is a time of year to push forward and close 2014 with as much passion, grit and determination as when the year began.  It is also a time to review your dedication to details, the down and dirty proverbial little things that can make a staffing desk go from good to great.  I have often pondered what gets you there, how is it that you can arrive when all you have strove for finally comes to pass.  It is in those tough searches you can pull out of yourself that inward fire to reignite that staffing desk momentum.  When the tough searches come, when you have sourced, called, screened and presented only to have candidates back out, your desk turn your momentum into a rut, or whatever temporary hurdle staffing throws your way as it surely will, it is remembering those key days, the moments where staffing momentum turns to gold, where the invigorating outcomes create a Rainbow to the Golden Pot in the proverbial success train, it is this very thing that drives recruiting success deep down.  The key really is not to lose perspective, to not get stuck in a temporary mind-set.  To be heard, and to stand bold in your staffing convictions.  To be consultative and provide the voice of thought provoking value added advice to hiring managers, candidates, clients, et al.  Where you nail down placement after placement, day in and day out, making and changing lives along the way.  A few of your placements may move on from the spot that you placed the candidate in.  Only to come full circle when they might hire you.  It happens.  Staffing truly is one of the only professions in this world which opens as many doors as it does.  Along the way perhaps a few miracles of Thankfulness, and Thanksgiving will find you in a place of pondering and decision.  It will be then reinvigorated, and re-enthused, that you will pick up the phone, make some more calls, and deliver some more results, and perhaps ultimately negotiate that outcome that is the culmination of every staffing endeavor.  THE PLACEMENT.  And that I think is the ultimate motivator.  Whether Boolean Search, LinkedIn connections, a networking contact, a referrel, or perhaps one you ultimately knew from another chapter in your career.  It is this very matching process which is the heart of why we do what we do.  I think that definition of the recruiting profession fits best.  "I MAKE MATCHES THAT LAST".  To me that is the most satisfying of matters to behold.  AND I TAKE GREAT PRIDE IN THAT - Reigniting your Staffing Desk can be a goal we can all have EVERY DAY.