Articles - Recruiting and Candidate Dev

Since I was born, I have never lived in a house, apartment, or dorm that didn’t have a full size, hard cover copy of Roget’s Thesaurus.  My grandmother was a stickler for using proper grammar, and passed that down to my mother, and on to my brother and I (just kidding! …and me).  Along the way, an attention to spelling and the origins of words were folded into my family’s values. 

I’m the guy that buys the Dictionary of the Future and the Greatest Speeches in American History books so cleverly located in the impulse-buying section of Borders, right near the checkout.  One of my favorite reads of all time was Martin Luther King, Jr on Leadership, partly because of the story behind the man, but also due to the behind the scenes look at the great care and thought he put into his speech writing.

Because of this obsession with the written and spoken word- and really, words in general- I have become a great fan of metaphor and often find myself somewhat egotistically gratified upon coming up with a new analogy that lucidly and succinctly makes a complex issue simpler to understand.  It’s a key in storytelling, and clearly what helps to make professional speakers engaging and interesting.  So, as I was working on a blog to shed light on the employment situation facing America right now and into the future, the following metaphor came to me and gave me a little tingle up my spine… I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed developing it…

Employers in the US today are fishing in an aquarium.  Eager hungry fish are desperate to find food, and when an employer drops the lure in the tank, there’s no consideration from the fish that the food may not be desirable.  Its food and they need it, no matter what.  On the employer’s side, they aren’t worrying about which lure to use- no special techniques, no consideration as to where to cast off.  Employers over the past 18 months have become accustomed to walking up to the fish tank, dropping in the worm on the hook, and pulling up a fish.

If it’s not big enough, or doesn’t look healthy enough, they’ll simply toss it back, and pull up another in no time at all.  The problem is that most of the desirable fish, the fastest, strongest, and rarest, aren’t in the aquarium.  Sure, there’s a couple token special fish here, just enough to keep the site tourists coming back, and of course, there are a small few of many, many varieties.  The problem now is that soon, the aquarium will be empty of those top-quality, exotic species, as the employers over fish this limited resource.  And that time is coming fast.  If not already, the time is coming soon for the fishermen to set back out on the open seas in search of a treasured catch.

Of course, as times have become tight, and the aquariums supplying enough fish to keep them going, the owners of the fishing boats have cut their crew.  The fishing boats of today are sparse of crew, lack the appropriate bait, and in many cases, are captained by land lubbers, as the experienced seafarers have been released or have left to run their own operation- unwilling to guide their crew around SeaWorld. 

The young captains, many of whom don’t know they’re way around seas, and lacking the knowledge that only comes with age and experience, are ill-equipped for fishing in the open waters.  Yet that’s where they’ll soon be sent.  And quickly, they’ll find that those exotic fish are harder to find in the open ocean than they anticipated.

It’s time for employers to reinvest in their recruiting programs.  And by reinvest, I’m not suggesting they throw money at headhunters or hire outside ad agencies to guide them where to fish and which bait to use.  It’s time to reinvest in their own staff and their own proprietary knowledge and skills.  It’s time to re-examine your recruiting strategy from the ground up- identify skills gaps and operational inefficiencies, develop sourcing plans for the recruiting environment of the future, and rebuild your programs from the ground up.  Soon, employers will have no choice but to set sail.  Some will set out naively thinking they can figure things out from the charts they purchased.  Others will rely on tour guides to get them where they are going.  The most successful, however, will have a fully trained crew, a strong understanding of the seas, and will set their own course.

As the old saying goes, buy a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach that man to fish and he’ll eat for a life time. And you know why old sayings become old sayings? Because they’re true.

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Biography

Jason Blais currently works with a global talent acquisition company specializing in pre-employment screening and recruitment technology. Previously, Blais held a director level position with a recruitment media company for several years, where he cut his teeth in Employment Branding. Blais began blogging in 2004, as he researched the value of social networks and new media for employers and job seekers.  He has written and presented numerous HRCI-certified seminars in the areas of recruiting, employment branding, social media in HR, and employee engagement; and has been a featured speaker at several state HR conferences and trade associations.  Blais is a contributing writer for JobsInTheUS, and has been featured in various news outlets including Fox News American News HQ, the Wall Street Journal, and local ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates across New England. To compliment his experience in recruiting, Blais has also worked closely with thousands of job seekers through his work with state agencies, college and university career centers, and local economic development entities.  Blais is currently developing a new conference for job seekers focused on using social networks and new media to find work, which will launch in the Spring of 2011.  Blais resides in Northampton, MA, with his wife and their one child.

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