Study: Workplace Rudeness is Contagious
If a smile can be contagious, it only stands to reason that rudeness can be, too. A new University of Florida study found that even those who are not the target of a co-worker's bad behavior can still suffer its ill effects. >

Ready or Not, Here it Comes.
Eileen Shue, SPHR, is ready for the flu season. Shue is vice president of corporate resources for The Sterling Group, a property management company that builds and develops apartment communities and self-storage facilities. >

Study: Flexibility Programs Gain Ground in Hard Times
Most companies are conducting layoffs and eliminating bonuses and salary increases to survive the recession, but they are preserving programs that allow workers to set their own schedules, according to a study. >

This month’s lead article comes from our friends at staffing.org, a data-driven organization that helps corporate staffing departments become more efficient and aligned with corporate strategies and objectives.

Despite a desire to create a more proactive approach in the recruiting process, with many companies it remains just that—a desire. However, a way to reinvigorate the process is to develop talent pipelines regardless of what reqs are open at any given time. Writer David Earle from staffing.org outlines how this method would work from a communication perspective, the key to how it would all work. If the article piques your interest, be sure to check out their website (www.staffing.org) for more on the subject. It makes for very interesting reading.

How CRM-based Recruiting Works By David Earle
In Staffing.org's July 27th Weekly Research UPDATE we suggested how a CRM (Customer/Candidate Relationship Management)-based approach to corporate staffing would reinvigorate the process-centered, requisition-driven function that has been running in place statistically over the past decade, despite huge changes in the job marketplace. We listed 10 reasons related not only to better business outcomes but also to a better quality of life for recruiters.

Taking one part of the analysis a step further, let’s look at the CRM model from the perspective of communication.
Communication is the foundation of a good hire. Insufficient communication carries multiple penalties, ranging from
wasted effort in the hiring process to the costs of underperformance and early departure. Ample communication on
the other hand permits more extensive due diligence by both parties, increasing the odds for a happy, productive,
long-term relationship. It also supplies the qualitative information that automated systems cannot provide. Today’s
recruiting technology does a moderately good job of parsing the hard, factual data in a resume, but it cannot handle
soft, behavioral data. Programmers today aren’t even close to programming a chip that can compete with a human in
selecting the best candidate from among 10 with similar paper credentials.

Today’s time-constrained, requisition-driven staffing process severely curtails communication. For example, below,
it only allows for a couple of weeks to establish preliminary contact with 10 likely candidates, then two more weeks to
make definitive judgments on five of them. Multiply this vetting process by the number of open requisitions in the
average recruiter’s portfolio and you have a system that can only work by using shortcuts – i.e., limiting
communication to what is doable rather than desirable.

Communication with candidates drives the success of a CRM-based recruiting system. Candidates enter the system
through all the traditional channels, using a hub and spoke process where all spokes lead to the corporate job site,
which is also the communication center. But instead of disappearing into a static database where they may or may
not ever resurface, candidates enter an extensive, easy-to-use, attractive recruiting center. Here they can browse for
both corporate and job-specific information while asking to be placed in a communication process tailored to their
specific needs and status.

The front end of the system is mostly automated and self-service simply because the numbers can be quite large.
Candidates access a robust library of static and interactive materials designed to answer the majority, if not all, of
their preliminary queries. (By robust we mean significantly better than what appears on 80% of today’s corporate job
sites.) Such automated communication is perfectly acceptable to today’s Internet-savvy candidates so long as it
meets best practice standards of quality, presentation and usability that they have come to expect.
A well-developed, CRM-based recruiting system has the same stages as the traditional system – sourcing, selecting,
interviewing, and hiring, with the major differences occurring in the first two.

Sourcing
CRM sourcing is not requisition driven. It is continuous, anonymous, extremely user-friendly, and available to any
candidate who chooses to participate. There are few if any barriers - such as the infamous candidate registration form
- to examining detailed information, both company-related and job-related. Candidates provide personal information
only when they feel ready. In this stage, they can use self-assessments, benchmarks, or tests to gauge their
competitiveness and to de-select themselves instead of cluttering up the system. Candidates may remain in this stage
as long as they wish, perhaps for only a few hours if highly motivated and active, or for many months if they are early
stage and passive. Candidates leave this stage when they formally register their credentials and ask for additional contact.

Selection
This is where the CRM process departs most radically from the traditional system. The purpose here is to replace the
rushed, truncated, superficial matchmaking process with a more careful, gradual, thorough process that produces
better and more consistent outcomes. This is accomplished by building relationships with a significant pool of
interested, pre-vetted candidates that can be tapped quickly for jobs as they arise. In this process time is the ally, not
the obstacle.

At its core, this is recruiting by design rather than by demand, enabled by technology that allows recruiters to create
and maintain active personal relationships with a large number of individual candidates on a customized basis.
Information sharing is the name of the game. All the traditional tools such as newsletters, announcements, press
releases, and job notices are available, along with all the newer Web 2.0 social media tools (which are especially
useful in the CRM model).

The pool functions like a community, interactive and dynamic, the antithesis of the static, traditional resume
database. A small company of 500 employees might have an active community of 50-100 people in various stages of
discussion, managed by a single recruiter. A company of 5000 employees might have 1000. The large number of
engaged candidates, coupled with the astonishing viral capabilities of social media, creates a multiplier effect that
expands the actively managed candidate pool. A successful CRM-based recruiting system, well supported by the
employee base and an engaged candidate pool, provides the professional recruiter with a large and potent support
group of adjunct recruiters. Hires from the pool, which includes internal transfers and referrals, can fill 50-75% of all
openings in a medium-to-large company and more in a small one.

Summary
Is the CRM model proven and practical? Yes, it is. Experienced recruiters, particularly those working with hard-to-find
and executive candidates, already use variants of the CRM process.

Can the CRM system be adapted to high volume hiring requirements in a large company? Probably not for all positions
and certainly not all at once. But it can begin with upper level and specialty positions where quality is important and
recruiting lead times are already long. A well-implemented CRM system will make traditional systems more efficient
by making more good candidates more available more quickly. And it is absolutely the preferred model for companies
wishing to move toward a more strategic, long-term recruiting orientation.

We're packing up our files, pens and of course the candy jar.

Alstin's relocating!

As of October 1st,
Alstin will be located at
121 S. Broad Street
(Broad and Sansom)

You can reach us at the same number, 215.568.3200.

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