Sept 2008 Journal

Focus: Planning AheadYou can’t predict the future. But why not come close?(page 3).

Using Scenario Learning to Drive Innovative

Recruitment Strategies 3Michael R. Kannisto, Ph.D. of Bausch & Lomb

Also in this issue:

Get Your Money’s Worth When Using Contingent Agencies 11Dan Nielsen of Towers Perrin

Scalable Sourcing and Recruiting Strategy & Metrics 16Ravi Subramanian

Recruiting the Tired, the Poor, andthe Wretched Refuse 18RichardT. Herman and Raghav Singh

Ramping Up at the U.S. Border Patrol 22An interview with Joe Abbott, recruiting director

DASHBOARD 27

Recruiting and Retention • Undermanned CanadiansStuffed In-basket • Unemployment

published by

Volume 3 • Issue 9 • September 2008

I just spent two days at a national conference of business and governmentleaders interested in issues related to compliance and diversity.The hottest topic among the billion-dollar companies in attendance, and the

high-ranking Labor Department officials, was not gender, race, or the election.Nor was it the online-recruiting rules you’re probably familiar with, regarding

who is and who isn’t an “applicant” for compliance’s sake.Nor was it even the earthquake that rocked Anaheim during the conference.It was disabilities. A perfect storm will mean increased attention to them for years to come.

First, the IraqWar has (finally) been a huge victory, and whoever’s president will continueBush’s plan to keep sending soldiers back home, some hurt.Second, the ongoing skills shortage will mean employers will take a second look at the

disabled, who have high unemployment rates but are often able and eager to work.Lastly, employers will find many steps they take to attract and accommodate disabled

candidates will help in retaining boomers.Recruiting the “disabled” will pay off (I use quotes because some studies have shown they’re

more productive than those without disabilities), and not doing so will cost.The governmentwill be paying increasing attention to companies’ hiring processes, including their careerswebsites.The Job Accommodation Network at www.jan.wvu.edu/ is a great, free service for employers

with questions on the topic.They may even give you advice about your careers pages. KurtRonn, over at HRworks, is also a good resource. So is Northrop Grumman, which is involvedin hiring the severely disabled. Also, look into theWork OpportunityTax Credit, for hiringpeople with disabilities.Neil Romano, assistant secretary at the Labor Department, says he’s “sick and tired” of

convincing people how many disabled people can and want to work, contrary to the myth thatthey’re receiving a lot of money and doing nothing.Romano is right.They will enter the U.S. workplace in large numbers in the years to come,

an earthquake as big as when gender and racial barriers fell.

Todd Raphael, Editor in [email protected]

2 Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership | crljournal.com | September 2008

Editorial Advisory Board

Jeremy EskenaziManaging PrincipalRiviera Advisors

Engin CrosbyChief, Workforce Analysis& Forecasting OfficeCivilian HR AgencyDepartment of theU.S. Army

Kent KirchGlobal Director ofRecruitingDeloitte

John SullivanProfessor and Adviserto ManagementSan Francisco StateUniversity

Catherine KeownDirector ofCorporate and FieldRecruitingLowe’s

Rodney MosesVice PresidentGlobal Talent AcquisitionCoca-Cola EnterprisesInc.

Ron Chapman Jr.,ShareholderOgletree Deakins

Michael KannistoGlobal Staffing DirectorBausch & Lomb

Thomas E. McGuireDirector, Global TalentAcquisitionThe Coca-ColaCompany

Kevin WheelerPresidentGlobal LearningResources

Danielle MonaghanDirector of HRMicrosoft China R&D

Dear Recruiting Leader,

EDITORIAL OFFICE

ERE Media

580 Broadway, Suite 304

New York, NY 10012

tel. (1) 212-671-1181

Email: [email protected]

www.crljournal.com

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Todd Raphael

[email protected]

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Elaine Rigoli

[email protected]

Kate Bruener

[email protected]

Madeline Tarquinio

[email protected]

SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER

Danielle Zittel

[email protected]

SPONSORSHIP DIRECTOR

Kevin Plantan

[email protected]

tel. (1) 804-262-0189

MARKETING DIRECTOR

Scott Baxt

[email protected]

PUBLISHER

David Manaster

[email protected]

CRLJOURNAL.COM WEBSITE

Jim Dalton

[email protected]

EDITING & CREATIVE

Barbara Hodge

[email protected]

Judy Gouldthorpe

[email protected]

Eachweek it seems as though yet another large organi-

zation has mademajor adjustments to its recruitment

strategy in order to compete effectively for the ever-

dwindling supply of talent.Whether it be the development

of recruitment materials specifically designed for the

parents of Millennials, or a new policy regarding time off,

organizations seem to be constantly scanning the external

environment and adjusting policy as a result.This comes

at a tremendous cost to companies—not just

in terms of the change itself, but also the

repercussions any change has on both

current and future employees.

Many business leaders, after having hung

up with another Boomer parent demanding

a copy of the rate schedule for his or her

daughter’s medical benefits, must certainly

have wondered aloud if there were any way

they could have predicted what today’s

employment market would look like so they

could have been better prepared.

Scenario LearningIn the 1950s, scientists at the RAND Corporation

developed a tool to aid in future planning and strategy

development called Scenario Learning.While it’s not a

tool that can be used to predict the future with absolute

certainty, it can be remarkably useful for organizations

that want to prepare for likely outcomes. Proponents of

this methodology sometimes refer to the use of scenarios

as “Learning from the Future;” indeed, many companies

have used this powerful tool to guide the development of

their business strategy.

The Workplace TodayMuch of what we recognize today as the “modern

workplace” was put into place by people who

incorporated many of the military strategies that were

successful in the war (personality and aptitude testing,

top-down management, training junior “high-potentials”

by putting them in low-risk situations, etc.). As large

numbers of Boomers subsequently entered the workforce,

they were forced to compete for a limited

number of jobs by mastering the organiza-

tional culture already in place. This has

created a work culture that has changed very

little—particularly as many of the senior

leadership positions in large companies are

currently occupied by those very same Baby

Boomers who entered the workforce in the

late 1960s and have not shown much

interest in changing a culture that they have

now mastered.

Despite this, subtle changes have in fact

crept into the modern office. Consider the following

description of “recruiting season” at Purdue University

from the classic 1950s book The Organization Man:

The descent, every spring, of the corporations’ recruiters has

now become a built-in feature of campus life. If the college is

large and its placement director efficient, the processing

operation is visibly impressive. . . . In the main room some

students were quietly studying company literature arranged

on the tables for them; others were checking the interview

timetables to find what recruiter they would see and to which

cubicle he was assigned; at the central filing desk college

TRENDS

What will the workplace and work-life be like in 20 years?We don’t knowexactly, but smart organizations should consider the various scenarios that

could take place, and what they mean for recruiting.

By Michael R. Kannisto, Ph.D., Global Staffing Director, Bausch & Lomb

Using Scenario Learning to DriveInnovative Recruitment Strategies

Baby Boomers havenot shown much

interest in changinga culture that theyhave now mastered.

©2008 ERE Media, Inc. Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership | crljournal.com | September 2008 3

TRENDS

PREDICTING THE FUTURE

employees were sorting the hundreds of names of men who

had registered for placement.Except for a murmur from the

row of cubicles there was nothing to indicate that scores of

young men were, every hour on the half hour, making the

decisions that would determine their whole future life.*

At first blush, this may seem quite similar to what still

takes place each fall at many schools.Yet the differences are

palpable.While 40 years ago, it was imperative that a career

services director be able to persuade recruiters to both

recruit at the school and have a regular physical presence,

today’s career services office will be orchestrating numerous

forms of interaction in addition to in-person visits:

electronic résumé databases, virtual career

fairs, sponsorship opportunities, case studies,

etc.Company literature can now be reviewed

24 hours a day online. Interviews are

assigned by electronic bidding systems, and

(of course) women are now active partic-

ipants in the process!

Most notable of all, though, is that the

notion of selecting a single company for the

duration of one’s career is long gone.

Using Scenario Planning to Predict theFutureSo then, even within this short paragraph, significant

changes in how companies attract and hire talent are

evident. Clearly, being able to predict future trends would

prove invaluable for any organization interested in

maintaining an edge in recruitment; this is where Scenario

Planning comes into play. By working through a simple

process, organizations can map out likely future scenarios

and build their strategies to accommodate these scenarios.

This article is not meant to serve as a comprehensive

tutorial in developing scenarios, but rather is intended as

an introduction to a remarkably powerful tool that has

significant relevance to the current state of recruitment.

A typical scenario has four key elements: (1) Driving

Forces, (2) Logics, (3) Plots, and (4) End States. Driving

Forces are external influences that will impact the future

state of a business. Logics are applied to the scenario to

determine how the driving forces are most likely to

influence the scenario. Plots are narrative descriptions of

different ways the driving forces will influence the scenario.

And End States are descriptions of the logical outcomes

of the future state as a result of the driving forces.

It’s important to note that a scenario is not a

“prediction,” and perhaps as a way of de-emphasizing that

notion, probabilities are generally not assigned to the

likelihood of one outcome over another. Similarly, scenarios

are not meant to necessarily provide comprehensive

pictures of the future state. Rather, they are used to simply

provide insights into how the Driving Forces impacting

your industry could shape the future state of your business.

Talent Acquisition ScenarioFor this exercise, let’s choose two Driving

Forces that, as we have seen, are already

influencing the state of recruiting and talent

acquisition today: the way technology

changes what constitutes “work” today, and

generational considerations.

What is “work,” and how will technology

continue to challenge our definition?

The biggest change in how we work has

come about as a result of technological

advances. “Work” traditionally consisted of

objects (or documents) moving physically

through an organization, and being touched by different

people. Meetings were held in person. People punched a

clock, sat at a desk or work area, and either did something

to a product or did something to a document and then

passed it along to the next worker. It’s interesting to talk with

people who have been with an organization for a long time,

and discover how powerful their memories are of those times

when technology changed their jobs—people can recall

vividly the arrival ofWang computers, the demise of the

telex, sharing a single telephone (without voice mail), the

introduction of email, getting access to the Internet, how

journals andmagazines used to circulate via interoffice mail,

and a hundred other examples. Recent years have seen the

growth ofWeb 2.0 technology such as instant messaging,

video conferencing, and a proliferation of handheld devices.

This accessibility is already driving pointed discussions

about working from home, and alternative hours.The rising

cost of energy is adding urgency to these discussions, and

Scenarios are notmeant to necessarilyprovide compre-

hensive pictures ofthe future state.

*From The Organization Man,William H.Whyte (NewYork: Simon & Schuster, 1956)

4 Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership | crljournal.com | September 2008 ©2008 ERE Media, Inc.

TRENDS


many organizations are finding few answers to employees

who demand: “Why should I spend $15 in fuel costs to

come in today just so I can be seen sitting at my desk at 8

a.m., when I worked from home last night, held a video

conference with Asia to make final revisions to the presen-

tation, and already delivered it to the customer?”Why

indeed! It’s unlikely that technology’s influence on the

workplace will dwindle, so this seems like a good candidate

for one of our Driving Forces.

Generational InfluencesThis is well-trod territory. The first wave of Baby

Boomers will turn 62 this year, and despite what appears

to be a general reluctance to leave the workforce (whether

for financial reasons or purposes of self-actualization),

they will eventually start to leave. Many organizations

have noted the conflict arising as they try to attract

Millennials to companies that are still firmly run by

Boomers. Some organizations have elected to push

onward in “business as usual” style, but are not finding

many 20-somethings who express interest in following a

traditional career path with a single company (that frankly

may not be interested in what the new hire’s work-style

preferences are). Similarly, even organizations that were

very proactive in their efforts to understand Millennials

and create environments that would appeal to them are

finding the task much larger and more complicated than

it first appeared. Organizations that printed brochures for

parents and created processes for Millennials to receive

the feedback they prefer are finding new challenges as this

generation moves from “job-seeker” and “new hire” to the

next stage in their careers.More challenges certainly await

the leadership of any company that employs Millennials

as they become first-line managers, pair off and begin

families, and start planning for retirement. Again, this is

an influence that will be with organizations for years to

come, and can be regarded as another Driving Force.

With two Driving Forces selected, we next plot them

out thusly as a scenario matrix:

Now, using two Driving Forces, we have four very

distinct scenarios to explore. Imagine it’s now 2028 at an

office headquarters. You’re visiting with several other

company representatives to discuss the current state of

recruiting.The hosting company begins the meeting . . .

“Same old thing, just a little faster”Technology advances incrementally;Millennial influence is minimal.

“Welcome to our headquarters. I’m glad we were able

to reserve the ‘good’ conference room for this meeting—

our VP has a lot of influence here and we call upon him

now and then!”The meeting would be very familiar to any

modern-day employee. People take turns going around

the room and introducing themselves, and someone

fumbles with the new projector. The leader begins

delivering a presentation, and starts by reviewing some

recent hiring data.The presenter notes that there was a

certain amount of activity in 2008 to attract Millennials

by addressing some of their unique work-style

preferences, but now in retrospect, they really weren’t all

that different from any of the other generations. Sure,

everyone wants to be treated well and likes to be

promoted, but once the Millennials realized there were

processes in place to identify and prepare workers for

advancement and development, they eventually came

around. Furthermore, thanks to recent legislation

regarding retirement and pensions, many of the Boomers

are still working well into their 70s and enjoying it very

much. The younger workers may not love it, but

everything seems to be working out just fine.Technology

has improved: emails can be unlimited in size, most

companies are fine with people texting from work (as long

as it doesn’t get out-of-hand), and better image-scanning

technology has all but eliminated faxing.


“Just make sure you’re in your cyber-cubefirst thing each morning.”

Technology advances radically;Millennial influence is minimal

“Thanks for joining us for our virtual meeting—from

which country are you all beaming in today?” This

meeting would certainly look very different to the modern

employee.The meeting is taking place through the latest

virtual-reality technology—people can turn left and right

and see what’s around them in their “virtual” meeting

room, and can even have sidebar conversations; yet these

people are not physically located together. Indeed, the

company sold the headquarters building off a few years

ago, and maintains only a small physical presence. New

hires go through detailed simulations before they actually

start training for their jobs, and each employee’s unique

strengths and weaknesses are taken into account when

development plans are created. In some ways, though, the

workplace will seem curiously familiar.

The new technology and life-extending medicines

allow aging boomers to “be at work” much later in their

lives—even from their bedrooms if they choose.You can

sense the frustration at the meeting.The Millennials are

now turning 40, and despite moving from job to job near

the beginning of their careers, they eventually found that

every company culture was pretty much the same. Hard

work was valued, rewards took the form of the latest

gadgetry, and they were told that while they were

certainly doing some impressive things with the

technology, nothing replaced patience and good old-

fashioned hard work as the keys to success.

One of the meeting attendees asked the group if other

companies were having trouble with employees abusing

the technology. TheWall Street Journal had recently run

an article about employees who were setting up their

computers to make it seem like they were working from

8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but in reality they were not working at

all during the day. True, they were getting their work

done, but it struck many of the meeting attendees as a

little dishonest. After all, they noted, relationships and a

good attitude are more important than just getting work

done. “Oh, well,” they sighed. “Fortunately, we’re still

here to coach these young 40-somethings.”

“The kids have taken over!”Technology advances incrementally;Millennial influence is significant

“Yo—welcome to our meeting!” The host starts the

meeting off by selecting some good music to play in the

background, and then IMs a colleague to see if she plans

to join the group. “It looks like she has something else

going on right now; maybe she’ll drop by later.” One of

the Boomers in the room speaks up: “Janet’s known about

this meeting for weeks. I think she should be here.”The

Millennial running the meeting looks quizzically at the

Boomer. “We’ve talked about this before.Why would Janet

drop what she’s doing just to come to a meeting? She can

read the minutes later, and if anything comes up, I can just

IM her. She actually has very little to contribute at this

meeting—why waste an hour of her time?” Without

missing a beat, he starts the meeting, yet makes a mental

note to ask the others at the meeting for their feedback on

how he handled the situation.

A lot has changed in the recruiting world lately.

Recruitment starts much earlier than ever before, and in

fact people can’t even believe that college students once

met company representatives for the very first time

during their senior year. How could they ever make a

decision about where to work with only a brief meeting

and a visit to a website? Performance reviews are given

after projects, not just at the end of the calendar year.

Employees form cross-functional project teams with

remarkable frequency, and insist on detailed feedback

from one another at the conclusion of each project.

Some of the more seasoned workers are frustrated by the

lack of regard for standing meetings, the chain-of-

command, and tradition. Yet privately, they are also

impressed by the ability these young workers have to

uncover a business opportunity, benchmark with friends

(even those working for a competitor!), find the right

person to provide the details (“She marched right into

the VP’s office without an appointment!”), get a team

together, and deliver results.

“Welcome to the workplace of the future!”Technology advances radically;

Millennial influence is significant

TRENDS



TRENDS


In this scenario, both technology and generational

influences have brought about such changes in the

workplace that it’s scarcely recognizable.Worker identity

is now driven mainly by functional knowledge, and not

so much by company allegiance. People use technology

to connect with others who share their professional

interests, and make it an ongoing relationship so long as

it serves them. Job-seekers select companies where they

will be challenged, and stay with them for short periods

of time.Technology allows people to move from company

to company without going back to square one on their

benefits; many companies have opted in to a voluntary,

private national “portable benefits” model to

accommodate changing work habits.

Companies have also moved away from a

“recruitment-based” approach to talent

management, and now focus more on

“talent retention.” Careers are managed in

real-time with the latest in training

technology, and feedback is ongoing.

Employees can log in any time to a

personalized account to determine what a

next job could be, and create a plan to get

them there.

This model has changed significantly from what was

once a very passiveWeb-based learning system (in which

people took classes but had no idea if and when their

efforts would ever result in new career opportunities) to

an incredibly interactive one (where people map out career

paths that are all but guaranteed to happen). People can

work from anywhere, and are indeed encouraged to do so

in order to preserve natural resources.Work is less about

whom you report to or how long you’ve been employed,

and more about which opportunities you choose to take

on and where you deliver value. Employees are no longer

at an advantage by being located at headquarters; even the

salesperson operating in the middle of nowhere can engage

in meaningful contributions using the latest interactive

technology. People can leave to volunteer for causes that

are important to them, and the company supports them.

Employees laugh at the notion that people used to have

to come to work physically, attend half-day meetings, and

do mindless work just because it was their turn to “pay

their dues.”

This is where Scenario Learning gets fun! Can you

imagine your organization competing effectively for talent

in each of these future states?What would you have to

change about your process and approach in order to be

successful? It’s often helpful to get together in groups and

assign teams with the task of vividly describing different

scenarios, then developing solutions for them. Get

creative! Again, the purpose is not to develop actions that

address specific elements of these imaginary scenarios,

but rather to imagine how you could begin building a

strategy today that would make you more flexible if this

were how the future would look.

End StatesSo, which of these scenarios are we most

likely to find waiting for us in 2028? As

we’ve already seen, it doesn’t really matter.

What does matter is that each scenario

provides lessons for organizations to use in

building a strategy. As a matter of fact,

careful review shows that, no matter which

End State is targeted, certain themes come

through. Here are a few:

• Whether it changes quickly or slowly, technology will

continue to change

Phone calls replaced snail mail, emails replaced phone

calls, and instant messaging and “Twittering” are replacing

email.While we might not be interacting in virtual-reality

pods anytime in the immediate future, technology will

continue to change our workplaces. Does your IT

department host lunch-and-learns to demonstrate all the

different technologies in place, even if you don’t use most

of them? Do you go to the mall and watch how teenagers

communicate with one another? How about reviewing

processes that were put in place before everyone had a

computer? I’ve spoken with several companies that still

route job requisitions around the office for approval

signatures even though their ATS is equipped to manage

electronic approvals, simply because no one has reviewed

the process recently.What technology will you be required

to have in place to attract the job-seekers you’ll be targeting

in the future?

Instantmessaging

and Twitteringare replacing

email.


radical new work arrangements, agreeing beforehand with

pilot participants about what will happen if the pilot works

or doesn’t work. Recruiters will be able to tell new hires

exactly how they’ll be spending their time if they accept

certain jobs, and brochures will brag about their openness

to alternative work arrangements. Have you reviewed your

company’s policies about working from home and

vacation? Are you cutting-edge, or even competitive? Do

you provide every employee with the best technology, and

encourage them to come to you with proposals for

alternative work arrangements? At the very least, do you

survey workers who leave to determine whether your

policies were a factor in their decision?

• Technology will not solve any future

problems unless implemented appro-

priately

Email was supposed to eliminate

paper.Teleconferencing was supposed

to eliminate business travel. Intranet

websites and e-rooms were supposed to

archive institutional knowledge. In each

case, while the technology was more

than capable of producing the intended

outcome, cultural “inertia” was too

powerful. Regardless of whatever new

innovation is right around the corner, or

which generation will be overseeing the implementation,

companies will continue to struggle with deploying

technology. Best-in-class organizations should consider

moving beyond basic training and perfunctory user-

acceptance activities, and instead create cross-functional

“ordinary user” teams to evaluate new technology.

Technology should cease being a reward for positional

power (“Only the executives get the nice laptops”) and

should be pushed out to everyone. Identifying useful new

gadgets will be everyone’s job, not just the CIO’s, and they

will be implemented faster.

• Job-seekers will expect more customization from

companies looking to recruit them

If companies hope to compete for the best job-seekers

• Boomers and Millennials will continue to have to work

side by side, at least for a while

Even people who aren’t involved in recruiting and

staffing at all can now rattle off the differences between

Millennial job-seekers and the Boomers who manage

them.While forward-thinking companies have gone to

admirable lengths to bring the discussion out in the open,

and have made significant cultural changes in order to

accommodate younger hires, the fact remains that these

two groups simply prefer different work environments,

and choose to be rewarded in different ways.There is no

book I know of that claims to “solve” the problems

inherent in a multi-generational workforce; the best we

can all hope for is to continue exploring the

things that make us different, and meet as

many core needs as possible. Forward-

thinking organizations will continue

exploring this topic by creating positions

charged with finding solutions, establishing

“generational councils” that regularly

discuss how the work culture is meeting

each group’s needs, and providing clarity to

job-seekers about what kind of culture

they’ll find at the company. Does your

organization ask Millennials what they like

about your work culture, and what they

don’t like? Do you find out why they leave?

• People will continue to challenge current notions of

how their time as employees is best spent

Between the Millennials who are already in the

workplace and the technology available right now, this is a

topic that more and more companies are being forced to

confront. Job-seekers want to know if they really have to

move to the company town, seeing as their job requires that

they travel most of the time anyway. Regular meetings—

why?What if there’s nothing new to cover?With ubiquitous

fast Internet connections, mobile technology, and a global

employee and customer base, companies that want to

Learn from the Future will begin objectively rethinking

vacation and work policies that were put into place years

before everyone had a wireless device. Some will test

TRENDS


Technologyshould ceasebeing a rewardfor positional

power.


(regardless of their generational affiliation), they’ll need

to continue building upon the trend of delivering

customized messaging to their audience. Successful

campus recruiters tend to avoid email “blasts” to entire

classes, and now send notes one-by-one (perhaps adding

a customized background featuring the school mascot).

This trend is certain to continue as so-called “knowledge

workers” become scarcer and scarcer. Imagine communi-

cations that somehow take the specific educational

background of a job-seeker; tailor it to an open

opportunity; incorporate the job-seeker’s current

knowledge, skills, and abilities; and deliver a unique job

description developed just for them. Do you design

recruitment materials that target specific

job-seekers? Do you solicit feedback from

new hires to learn what parts of your

process were positive, and which were not?

How have you adjusted your hiring process

to make it a “personal” experience for

every single new hire coming on-board?

• Millennials will be looking for different

things from their employers as they

move through their careers

Now that the Millennials are finally well-

established in the workplace, it’s already time to start

thinking about how to prepare them for their first roles as

managers, develop a benefits plan that will meet their

long-term needs, create development plans to keep them

engaged, and even plan for their retirement! Companies

don’t need to wait for a crisis—they can begin working

with current Millennial employees now to start

understanding what they’ll be looking for as they move

through their careers. For example, many companies

report that new hires often don’t understand the details

associated with their benefits plans, perhaps because their

parents have been making decisions like this for them up

until now.Maybe they could create a more comprehensive

Web-based tutorial designed for young hires (some

companies have already done this). Perhaps they could

survey new hires, or have a representative group of

employees become involved early on in benefits-plan

negotiations.

TRENDS


• The role of Boomers will be an important consid-

eration (elder statesmen and stateswomen offering their

wise perspectives for consideration, or a group that will

remain firmly in charge of the workforce for decades to

come)

Most companies review their employee pool regularly to

determine who is eligible for retirement. Many organi-

zations are populated with 60-somethings who can retire

anytime they like, but are quite evasive about exactly when

they plan to do so. Executives have retirement parties on

Friday afternoon and then show up the following Monday

as consultants, there to perform the same work in the same

corner office.Younger workers are beginning

to wonder aloud,“Is she ever going to retire?

What is she waiting for?” while those older

workers can’t quite understand why people

want them to leave. “After all,” they reason,

“I worked long and hard for this title and

corner office . . . why should I give it up

when I still like my job?” Best-in-class

companies will turn this ambiguity into a

strength by providing clarity about the roles

that the different generations play in their

work environment, then rolling it proudly

into their brand message.

• Keeping people will become just as important as

recruiting them

As the earlier excerpt noted, companies used to recruit

for life. Once an employee signed an offer letter with a

company, he or she was likely to remain there. Part of that

was pragmatic; without job-posting technology, it was

more difficult to look for a new job. Most people agree

that it was also generational. Frustrated workers were told

to “just work a little harder, let the boss see you at your

desk, and eventually good things will come.” Now, new

graduates will likely work for many employers during their

careers, and may even spend time in several different

functional areas. It’s now a given that companies must

portray a compelling and truthful brand message; if it

proves to be false or unauthentic, new hires will tell the

world in blogs, anonymous postings, and message boards.

Younger workersare beginning towonder aloud,“Isshe ever going toretire? What is she

waiting for?”


future; rather, it is derived from the willingness of the

organization to take time to: (1) acknowledge that the

current environment will change, (2) make educated

guesses about which factors will influence those changes

most, and (3) picture ways the organization can thrive in

the future state.

Perhaps generational influences are not the major

influence-to-come on talent acquisition—perhaps it will

be the health of the economy, or a major shift in public

policy. Staffing organizations should schedule regular

opportunities to imagine what major forces will influence

the talent-acquisition function. Expert guests could be

invited in to discuss trends, and groups could go off and

create detailed scenarios.These could in turn be used to

drive strategy and make “Learning from the Future” a

regular activity.

Scenario planning is one of the most fun and useful

tools you can use in crafting a talent acquisition strategy.

Even more fun, though, will be seeing what we’ll all

actually be writing about in this journal in 2028!

Assuming that the recruitment experience is positive,

though, hiring a great employee is no longer the end of the

story.Today’s employees won’t wait around for companies

to develop them, or promote them, or train them as they

believe is appropriate. Progressive organizations will cease

the practice of entrusting the recruiting function to hire

people and then assuming that the new hire’s leadership

will take care of developing them. New hires are going to

be less interested in hearing about “secret lists” of high-

potential employees, and will instead want to know how

and when their own customized training and development

plan will begin. Companies have already noted that losing

a good employee costs many times the amount it takes to

recruit a good employee, and many best-in-class organi-

zations have already responded with Web-based on-

boarding programs, e-learning, identifying “at-risk”

employees, etc.This trend will certainly continue.

Using Scenario Learning to Build a DynamicRecruitment StrategyBy selecting two simple factors that are highly likely to

impact talent acquisition, and with a little imagination, it

was quite simple to create four vivid scenarios describing

possible future states. Similarly, by imagining the role of

talent acquisition in these imaginary scenarios, it was easy

to identify trends and end states that would make one’s

organization more prepared for any of the future states.

Were these the right influences to select?Were the future

states described comprehensively?Were the right trends

and pattern selected? It’s impossible to say.The value of

the exercise is realized not in preparing for some specific

TRENDS


Michael R.Kannisto, Ph.D., Global Staffing Director, Bausch & [email protected] Kannisto joined B&L in July 2006, and is responsible for leading staffing policies and practices, the staffing team in theUnited States, and global internship and co-op programs. He received a B.S. in chemistry from Hope College and a Ph.D. inchemistry from Texas A&M University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Materials Science and EngineeringDepartment at the University of Michigan.


USING AGENCIES


The primary objective for most recruiting functions

is to achieve hiring goals at the lowest possible cost

without sacrificing quality. Often, an immediate target of

cost-saving effort is contingent recruiters, who are paid for

hires that could have been made in more cost-effective

ways. HR needs to ensure, however, that the good

intentions do not hinder achievement of the ultimate

objective—meeting the hiring goals.All the cost savings in

the world are no consolation to a frustrated business

leader who cannot attract necessary talent.

Too many times, HR allows contingent recruiters to

become competitors to the staffing functions. But by

treating select agencies as an extension of the HR team,

they can be pushed out of areas where they are not needed

and into areas where they add value commensurate with

their fees.And by concentrating the contingent recruiters’

efforts in the right way, the overall success of the recruiting

function can be improved.

Step 1: Understand the Business NeedAs always, start with a clear understanding of the

business’s needs. Doing this well is a complex process

that’s beyond the scope of this article. However, the

outcome of the process should confirm what skills the

firm needs to add, in which locations, in what numbers,

and within what time frame.

Don’t rely on the business manager to do all the

thinking. Start by personally reviewing the documented

business plan and link that to a good knowledge of staffing

and the marketplace. Pay close attention to the toughest

challenges, including:

• Is there a need for nontraditional skills or growth in

new geographies?

• Which are the most urgent hiring needs, and what are

the costs of not filling them on a timely basis?

Step 2: Conduct Current State AssessmentNext, perform a realistic evaluation of the team’s

ability to meet the hiring objectives. Many recruiting

functions have a can-do spirit, even in the face of very

challenging objectives. This can be detrimental if

objectives can’t be achieved or if hires can’t be made in

a timely manner. Every sourcing function has some

spots that need extra support. Make sure to critically

assess the group’s abilities and address these key

questions:

• Will repeating successful efforts of last year produce the

same results this year?

• What risks can disrupt your staffing plans? (Addition

of new clients, turnover in the business, midyear shifts

in desired profiles, delayed product launch, etc.)

• Is the team able to penetrate all the necessary candidate

pools—even for the most sophisticated units of this

firm?

Step 3: Define the Ideal Future StateMany times, the best response to a sourcing issue is not

a contingent agency. If one already knows how to engage

and evaluate certain candidates and one simply needs

more prospects, a researcher may be all that is needed. If

the recruiting group is stretched and someone is needed

to do full-cycle recruiting for a period of time, a contract

recruiter may be the answer. And senior, specialized roles

may call for a retained search.

However, the nature of some sourcing challenges is

somewhere between these more obvious answers. And in

some cases, there are multiple needs that call for a blend

of internal and external sourcing to meet the demand.

While one should avoid using external recruiters for

core roles whenever possible, here are some needs that

may call for engaging a contingent recruiter:

Get Your Money’s Worth When UsingContingent Agencies

By Dan Nielsen, Recruiting Initiative Leader,Towers Perrin

USING AGENCIES

A REFOCUS


Type of Candidate Potential Contingent Usage

Unfamiliar An agency well-positioned in a vertical market unfamiliar to you can be a

tremendous help in knowledge transfer to your group to understand what you

need, where to find candidates, how to evaluate them, and what factors drive

candidates' decisions. In fact, some recruiters are so well regarded in an industry

that you can actually “borrow” their credibility as they take your message to

the market. Consider using them as a transitional step to avoid trial-and-error

recruiting until your group can adequately perform those functions in-house.

Urgent Time-to-fill is sometimes the dominant factor in a search.When you suddenly

experience an acute need, it may make sense to bring in a contingent recruiter

who specializes in a given function/job category instead of draining resources

focused on other needs.

Opportunity Hire Many times, business leaders are willing to make room for high-impact

opportunity hires who rarely become available. In fact, some people are

considered “untouchable” because of their long tenure or management position

at another firm. However, if caught at the right time, some would entertain a

new opportunity. You may make only a few of these hires a year, but if a

contingent recruiter can help you attract a “retained” level candidate at a

contingency level fee, that is a form of cost-savings.

Agent/Candidate Relationship Some contingent recruiters have an “agent” relationship with candidates.These

candidates outsource the effort of keeping in touch with the marketplace to

this trusted recruiter who has been in the industry for many years. Some

candidates also see value in having this buffer between them and the company

during salary negotiations or if things simply don't work out.

Increased Goals Unforeseen, drastic increases in hiring goals can put your team under significant

pressure and drain resources. Sometimes, the need is too limited for a contract

recruiter to be the right option. Consider building contingent recruiters into your

service-level agreements with the business as “safety valves” if hiring needs spike

unexpectedly to a certain degree.This allows you to right-size your team based

on hiring goals, while still handling increases in need as they arise.


USING AGENCIES

A REFOCUS

In cases where a blend of internal and agency

resources are used, create a checklist of sourcing steps to

perform internally prior to engaging outside help. This

ensures that agencies are not competing with you, but

rather bringing talent you can’t reach on your own.

Some of these steps are:

• Post jobs on appropriate sites

• Solicit employee referrals

• Perform recent-hire debriefs

• Work your existing talent pipeline

• Perform competitor and other target firm name

research

• Review former candidates, especially those who

rejected your offer

• Network through traditional, social, and online means

• Reach out through professional organizations and

to those who attend or speak at industry con-

ferences

Step 4: Select AgenciesStop letting them select you! Selection of the agencies

is directly driven by the needs you’ve defined. For

instance, sometimes knowledge of the industry is more

important than knowledge of your firm—or vice versa.

Some needs are so specialized that you require a local

agency with obvious qualifications (e.g., speaks the local

language, knows the customs). Begin by defining the

universe of possible agency partners.

Source Comments

Existing Agency Relationships Many times the best agencies are those that know your firm’s culture and

process. Even if they haven’t worked in the particular business segment, it may

make sense to stretch them into it.

Ask the Business Ask people in the business who they consider the best recruiters in the market.

If your company has an exit interview process, add a question about what

recruiter, if any, the departing employee used to identify their new job.

Retained Firms Many retained firms will perform contingent searches for roles that are not at

the retained-search level.You may want to inquire about a retained firm’s

willingness to work with you on a contingent basis.

Online Research Perform online research to discover which firms are focused on your industry

or job categories. Keep in mind that many contingent recruiters will list

several “specialties,” but the first few are usually their true focus.

Networking Personal and online networking and reference checking can give you real-life

insight into agencies’ performance from people who have used them.

Red Book Check Kennedy’s Directory of Executive Recruiters (aka the Red Book) for a list

of firms that focus on your area of need.

(on a contingent basis)


USING AGENCIES

A REFOCUS

Choose the smallest number of agencies (it may be just

one) to fill in the need you’ve defined.While this is more

art than science, the following questions can help to

narrow the number of agencies:

• What is the agency’s success history with your firm, the

particular business unit, and other companies in the

industry? (e.g., completion rate, days to fill, etc.)

• What is the specialty and focus of the firm?

• Is it restricted by off-limits agreements with your

primary targets?

• Does it have the resources to cover the industry to the

degree you need? (Some of the best results come from

one-person operations, but for some needs, a larger

firm is necessary.)

• Is the agency willing to work within your fee structure?

Step 5: Prepare and Engage AgenciesAll of your recruiting efforts, both

insourced and outsourced, depend on an

accurate and compelling value proposition

for the marketplace. Document this value

proposition; we did ours in two forms. A

PowerPoint gave the complete story with

deep details, and a one-pager was designed

for external distribution.These documents

should clearly articulate the benefits of

building a career within each business of

your firm.

These documents allow employees and

recruiters to do effective outreach, keep interview teams

on message, equip professors at key campuses to educate

top students about the organization, and—when they are

widely distributed within the organization—can even

support retention efforts. Recruiters will make hundreds

of calls on your behalf, and a compelling value proposition

will do more than help them find the right talent; it will

also act as a brand builder and free advertising for your

organization.

Earlier this year, Towers Perrin decided to use

contingent recruiters for a search and asked a business

leader to spend an hour with them to review our value

proposition. These sessions not only equipped the

recruiters with our talking points, but also had a surprising

benefit of honing our messages.These agencies were able

to share recent insights from candidates and competitors

that helped us distinguish ourselves even further in the

marketplace.The momentum created by the business’s

participation in these sessions drove quick results, and we

received on-target candidates within 24 hours of some of

these meetings.

It takes far more than title, duties, and money to attract

top prospects.Your value proposition has to not only cover

why high-performing prospects should want a particular

role, but also sell them on the firm, industry, and a path

of career advancement.

Again, a good start to developing the value proposition

is to review the unit’s business plan. Armed with that

information, you should draft a value proposition that:

• Describes industry trends that cause ongoing need for

your company’s products and services.

• Explains the different services and pro-

ducts your firm offers that align with (or

better yet, lead) the industry trends.

• Highlights areas where your firm is the

“first, best, or only” one providing a

product or service.

• Is as fact-based as possible, drawing from

industry awards or rankings, employee

surveys, press coverage, etc.

• Gives details of the current careers as

well as opportunity for advancement that

exist within the business. (Be sure to stay

positive about your own strengths rather

than being negative about others in the industry.)

• Highlights cultural selling points about your firm such

as flexible work arrangements, generous benefit

packages, work/life balance, etc.

• Includes specific selling-points related to particular

roles. (This may include details of the types of project

the candidate would be exposed to, potential for

visibility and advancement, or even comments about a

manager’s style.)

The importance of the employment value proposition

cannot be overstated. It impacts everything from your

ability to engage prospects to sustaining them through the

decision to leave their current, secure job and join your

company.

The importanceof the employmentvalue proposition

cannot beoverstated.

USING AGENCIES

A REFOCUS

Step 6: Evaluate PerformanceEvaluating the performance of a recruiter is a mixture

of quantitative and qualitative analysis based on your

specific goals. For instance, if you engaged a firm to fill a

particular technical need and expected to draw on its

existing relationships, time-to-fill would be a crucial

metric. However, if you are directing the agency toward

more senior, opportunity hires normally targeted by

retained firms, then success may be defined as one or

two annual hires.

Some of the things to expect from third-

party recruiters include:

• No surprises.They should be filling in

the gaps on a résumé, gathering deci-

sion-drivers, and adding context that goes

beyond a candidate’s written profile.

• Nearly 100% of their candidates should

be worthy of a face-to-face interview.

And, when presenting an off-target

profile, they should acknowledge it and

explain their reasoning.

• Their acceptance rates should be higher

than average because they should be

advising you when a candidate simply

isn’t ready for an offer and actively

“closing” deals for those who are ready.

• Vendors should focus on identifying previously

unreached candidates, not competing for people you’ve

already contacted.

Be aware that some contingent recruiters may not have

a high interview-to-offer ratio. This is because they

generally reach out to prospects who are not active in a

search, but are willing to learn more about your position.

Forging a Strong PartnershipIn today’s environment, HR must be highly discerning

before recommending higher-cost staffing solutions, while

recognizing that high-priority, specialized needs may call

for a customized approach. Often, a greater impact is

made in the mind of a hiring manager by filling a single

tough position rather than several standard openings, and

a contingent recruiter can be of great value in these

situations.

If you are willing to engage the right

agencies and direct their efforts, contingent

recruiters can be steered away from being

your competition and be strong partners

that contribute to your overall success.


Third-partyrecruiters’

acceptance ratesshould be higherthan average

because they shouldbe advising you whena candidate simplyisn’t ready for anoffer and actively“closing” deals forthose who are ready.

Dan Nielsen is the Recruiting Initiative Leader for Towers Perrin, a global professional services [email protected] his role he is responsible for developing, leading, and executing recruiting initiatives across the organization.This includesimplementing prospect outreach programs as well as other tools and methods that increase overall recruiting effectiveness and

efficiency. Before assuming his most recent role, he partnered with Towers Perrin business leaders in the United States and internationally tomanage staffing efforts across many of the consulting units of the firm.

SOURCING

One always wonders how some organizations are able

to hire the best-in-class talent while some struggle

to fill ordinary positions.There is no secret sauce here, but

a carefully built sourcing strategy that complements the

recruiting efforts will help address this issue.

Though there has been an increasing shift toward more

proactive recruiting strategies, the reality is that most

organizations have a reactionary, requisition-driven

sourcing and recruiting model that is often not scalable.

They also track overhead metrics such as cost, efficiency,

and speed.

These traditional metrics, while still important

measures of overall efficiency, are not effective measures

for proactive recruiting, according to Staffing.org. In fact,

these metrics could ultimately reduce effectiveness by

necessitating that team members are compensated to act

in reactionary ways, such as:

• Filling a need as fast as possible with the wrong

candidate instead of waiting to find the right candidate

for an important role.

• Waiting for requisitions to be released to identify and

build relationships with best-in-class talent, at which

point it might be too late.

• Screening and sorting quickly vs. networking to find the

best person.

To drive a higher return on investment from recruiting,

employers need to do two things:

1. Develop a scalable model to build talent communities

ahead of demand.

2. Replace the traditional measures of efficiency and

quantity with measures of effectiveness and quality.

How does an organization go about doing this? I suggest

the following two approaches for achieving the above-

mentioned objectives.

Approach 1• Set up a SWAT team to source and build talent

communities exclusively for your game-changing

positions that directly impact the bottom line; and

• Measure the sourcing team on key performance

indicators such as the number of qualified individuals

they identify and the relationships they create.

Approach 2• Outsource the sourcing function to a specialized provider

whose only focus is to source best-in-class talent for a

specific domain and functional area.The advantage of

using this approach is that the customers can capitalize

on the expertise of the provider in proactive sourcing that

the in-house recruiters may lack.

– Research shows that having in-house recruiters

work on proactive sourcing and recruiting is not a

scalable model, as most in-house recruiters have an

increasing requisition load coupled with adminis-

trative responsibilities to keep them occupied.

– In addition, the competencies required of recruiters

for proactive sourcing are much different from those

of the in-house or contract recruiters, who very often

do not want to be bogged down by the process.

Here we shall delve deep into Approach 1, which

encourages clients to look at proactive sourcing and creation

of talent communities as a qualitative and not quantitative

service. I believe that proactive sourcing is not a crap shoot

but actually a science. As always, I would recommend that

you align your model to your business goals and ensure that

your model caters to attracting best-in-class talent and helps

you move up the value chain from a recruiting perspective.

One must be aware that the entire concept of proactive

sourcing and pipelining of candidates is a time-drawn process

that is deeply entrenched within your branding strategy.The

Scalable Sourcing and RecruitingStrategy & Metrics

By Ravi Subramanian, Management Consultant


SOURCING

10 STEPS

process involves a long-term sales cycle to source and close

a candidate, educate them on the opportunity, and funnel

them to you, ensuring return on investment.

To build a model that is scalable, organizations need to

follow these basic steps:

1. Create a functionally aligned sourcing team that

includes Accounting & Finance, IT, Legal, Sales,

Marketing, Corporate, and Executive or any

combination that is suitable for your organization.

2. Craft clean job descriptions that

a. Are in compliance with local and federal

employment laws

b. Conform to industry standards

c. Are attractive enough to entice prospects to apply

d. Include all the necessary information about:

i. the company

ii. the business unit

iii.why the candidate must join the company

iv. compensation, benefits, and perks

v. EEO

3. Identify Critical to Quality (CTQ) elements from which

the profile of an ideal candidate could be created that will

help in devising the sourcing strategy. Please ensure that

the following areas are addressed in theCTQdocument:

a. Culture and role

b. Sourcing strategy

c. Value proposition

4. Create a sourcing calendar that highlights the following:

a. Weekly goals

b. Tasks

c. Timelines

d. Accomplishments

5. Compile a comprehensive list of sourcing avenues and

tools to source talent from:

a. User groups

b. Industry associations

c. Social networks

d. Telephone name sourcing

e. Competition

6. Integrate the referral program with branding.

a. The referral message should be consistent with

employer branding.

b. Include a referral program highlights document.

c. Create a one-page sell sheet about the company, its

values, why someone should work there, and any

accolades such as “most admired company.”

7. Establish an SLA between the sourcing team and the

recruiting team.

a. A well-structured SLAwill ensure that recruiters and

the sourcing team know exactly what is expected of

each other and how success is measured.This helps

set accountabilities to ensure success.

b. This SLA should cover supported services, sourcing

team responsibilities, recruiting team responsibilities

(internal client), service measures, reporting and

metrics, penalties for noncompliance, incident report-

ing andmanagement, and change management.

8. Create a good screening document that addresses all

the questions that need to be answered.

a. Technical or functional skills

b. Culture fit

c. Value fit

9. Develop a good feedback mechanism.

10. Develop an interview debrief process to understand

why candidates are being accepted and rejected so the

sourcing strategy can be fine-tuned.

What cannot be measured cannot be improved, so

organizations should track the following metrics to study

the efficiency of the sourcing process:

• Time to submittal

• Submittal-to-interview ratio

• Interview-to-hire ratio

• Sourcing efficiency

Like all initiatives, this one involves change at the

grassroots level, which must be supported by the leadership

to be successful. Organizations need to do a current-state

analysis on where they stand with their recruitment efforts

and identify gaps, after which they can build an ideal future

state incorporating one of the approaches suggested here.

Please note that this is not a one-size-fits-all approach, so

customization will be required for each case.

Ravi Subramanian provides consulting services to marquee Fortune

1000 clients in the areas of Recruitment Process Outsourcing,Off-shoring,

TalentAcquisition,TalentManagement,Talent Retention,Staffing andHR.

E-mail: [email protected]


IMMIGRATION

Not the Wretched RefuseThe inscription on the plaque at the base of the Statue

of Liberty reads, in part:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

That doesn’t quite fit the entire spectrum of today’s

immigrant population. Far from being tired, poor, and

wretched, skilled immigrants in the U.S. are driving new

technology start-ups, patent filings, and the acquisition

of advanced degrees in engineering, science, and

business.

• 50% of all technology companies in Silicon Valley

were founded by Chinese, Taiwanese, Indian, and

other immigrant scientists and entrepreneurs.

• 50% of all new U.S. Ph.D.s in engineering are

immigrants, as well as 45% of all U.S. Ph.D.s in life

sciences, physical sciences, and computer sciences,

and over 40% of all U.S. master-degreed computer

scientists, physical scientists, and engineers.

• 25% of all physicians in the U.S. are immigrants.

Despite the fact that they comprise only 12% of the

U.S. population, and despite their rich talent and global

skills, immigrants remain a recruiting resource that is not

fully tapped.

There are three primary reasons for this. One,many of

the actors in the talent-acquisition arena are not fully

aware of the high performance levels within the

immigrant community.Two, a good deal of confusion

exists among employers and recruiters regarding the

employability of immigrants. Three, there is little

T he war for talent has gone global. Over 200 million

people now work and live outside their country of

birth.This is the highest number in world history.Twenty-

four million civilian workers in the United States, or nearly

16% of the workforce, were born outside the U.S.

Immigrants are an increasingly important piece of the

talent equation in the U.S., particularly as baby boomers

retire and shortages of high-technology workers increase.

Countries from Canada to New Zealand are scrambling

to attract highly skilled immigrants to their shores.These

efforts usually take the form of an expedited resident visa

issued to those with certain skills or particular job offers.

The European Union’s Blue Card program is the boldest

such initiative, with the stated goal of attracting 20 million

skilled workers over the next two decades.

How well these programs succeed remains to be seen,

but one fact is certain: they will divert some of the talent

that would otherwise have flowed to the U.S.This will be

an increasing problem for certain high-tech sectors in the

U.S. such as IT, biotech, and healthcare, as employers look

to immigrant talent to supplement shortages in the native

workforce. This has created a difficult situation—with

employers claiming a need for more visa numbers, and

anti-immigrant groups opposing any increases.

With all the talk of H-1B visa caps, green card backlogs,

I-9 revisions, and other restrictions on employers wishing

to hire immigrant talent in the U.S., recruiters sometimes

overlook the rich human capital resources of foreign-born

talent already in the U.S.

This is understandable. Recruiters, like employers, often

lump all immigrants together, without discerning the

difference between talent that has little or no immigration-

related hiring issues and talent that does have significant

immigration-related employability issues.

Recruiting the Tired, the Poor, andthe Wretched Refuse

Immigrant talent in the U.S. is an underused recruiting source of high-performers.

By RichardT. Herman and Raghav Singh


IMMIGRATION

FINDING TALENT

awareness on how to effectively access this pool of

talented immigrants.

Employability of ImmigrantsA few facts should be known about the legality of

employing immigrants:

• There are no H-1B visa-cap restrictions when an

employer hires an immigrant worker already in the

U.S. on an H-1B with another employer and counted

toward a previous cap.There are more than 500,000

H-1B workers currently in the United States.

• There are no immigration-related employment barriers

for foreign-born talent that has already acquired U.S.

permanent residency (green card) or U.S. citizenship.

Of the 34 million immigrants in the country, two-

thirds are either naturalized U.S. citizens

or U.S. permanent residents.

• Recent changes in immigration law now

extend work authorization for interna-

tional students graduating from science,

technology, engineering, or math

programs from 12 months to 29 months,

without requiring any sponsorship by

the employer.This work authorization

is called Optional Practical Training and is secured

for the student by the university.There are more than

500,000 international students currently studying in

the U.S.

As outlined above, there is a wealth of foreign-born

talent in the U.S. that does not require visa or green card

sponsorship in order to be employed. Additionally, there

are significant numbers of H-1B workers in the U.S.who can

be recruited and employed by a new sponsoring employer

immediately upon filing an H-1B petition without having to

worry about H-1B cap issues.

Procedures for processing a new H-1B petition for an

H-1B worker already in the U.S are fairly straightforward.

It is best, however, to involve an immigration attorney if

an employer is not experienced with the process.

Locating High-End Immigrant Talent in the U.S.Finding immigrant talent can be surprisingly easy since

immigrant groups tend to be close-knit and well

organized. Organizations such as TiE (The Indus

Entrepreneurs), HYSTA (Hua Yuan Science and

Technology Association, for Chinese professionals),Monte

Jade (a science and technology group forTaiwanese profes-

sionals), and NetIP (Network of Indian Professionals)

are just a few of the well-established professional associ-

ations that can be a source of immigrant talent.There are

over a hundred such groups in the U.S. Many have local

chapters in major cities.

While these groups represent a rich vein of talent, they

do not exist to serve as a recruiting resource. Getting

involved in and sponsoring these organizations is a

beginning, but it takes more than that to get hires within

the immigrant tech community. On the other hand,

networking is a time-honored recruiting practice, and

given how little these groups are known, any

reputable recruiter that joins them and offers

a resource to high-value employment

opportunities will be well received.

Membership also brings access to a wider

pool of immigrant talent that extends

beyond the organization. Immigrants, for

example, often have a vast network of

immigrant family and friends throughout

the United States. Many immigrant professionals are

married to other immigrant professionals, some of whom

will have no visa or legal restrictions to employment.

In addition to building collaboration with immigrant

technology and business associations in the U.S., recruiters

would be well-served to connect their recruiting efforts to

the growing power of U.S.-based ethnic media as well as

international student associations that exist on all large

U.S. college campuses.

High-Skilled Immigration Zones: WelcomingImmigrant Talent and CapitalImmigrants tend to congregate in gateway cities on

either coast. San Francisco, LA, New York, and

Washington, D.C., have large populations of highly skilled

immigrants. That leaves vast areas that need talent but

have no such pools to draw from.

As appreciation for immigrant talent increases, more

companies and communities that are not located in

immigrant gateways will begin crafting “international

Finding immigranttalent can be

surprisingly easysince immigrantgroups tend to beclose-knit and well

organized.



human capital strategies” designed to enhance their ability

to recruit, welcome, and integrate foreign-born talent and

capital.

One group of Cleveland leaders call themselves the “The

Talent Blueprint Project” and are proposing a series of

programs that would help local companies better connect

to immigrant talent in the U.S. and upgrade the region’s

workforce. This immigrant talent initiative is being

circulated among a large group of national thought and

policy leaders, and is finding enthusiastic support from

people such as billionaire venture-capitalist and former

Google director Michael Moritz and John Austin, director

of Great Lakes Economic Initiative at the Brookings

Institution, and from Senator Barack Obama’s immigration

policy advisers.

A few of the programs proposed by the

Talent Blueprint Project are:

1.) Direct Recruitment of High-TechTalent in

the U.S.

This would target immigrant and

American-born talent in tech-rich but high-

living-cost regions. A recent study by

BioEnterprise and NorTech, two Cleveland

economic-development organizations,

found over 5,000 unfilled jobs in Greater Cleveland’s

biotech and healthcare sectors.

Alberta, Canada, and its companies are now recruiting

H-1B tech workers in the U.S., promising them jobs and

quick access to permanent residency.

2.) Lobbying the Federal Government for “High Skill

Immigration Zone” Legislation

This would help old industrial, economically distressed

cities accelerate their transition to a knowledge-based

economy by attracting immigrant tech talent and their

employers.These zones would offer companies and their

immigrant employees:

• exemption from the H-1B visa cap (which is exhausted

almost immediately on the first day that companies are

permitted to file for the upcoming fiscal year);

• relief from green-card backlogs (which particularly hurt

professional workers from China and India because of

country-based quotas);

• work authorization for the H-4 spouses of H-1B visa

holders.

Many tech companies wishing to free themselves of the

business-crushing H-1B cap and green-card quotas would

consider co-locating to High Skill Immigration Zones.

Remember Bill Gates opening up his R&D center in

Vancouver last year solely because of H-1B cap restrictions?

3.) EB-5 Investor Green Card and Foreign Investor Regional

Center

Existing federal law permits foreign investors to apply

for green cards if they invest and create jobs in America.

Under the EB-5 program, foreign investors and their

spouses and minor children can receive a green card if

they invest at least $500,000 in a “Targeted

Employment Area” (where unemployment

is at least 150% of the national rate), or $1

million outside a TEA, and directly or

indirectly create 10 jobs for American

citizens or permanent residents.

Nearly 20 cities now have Foreign Investor

Regional Centers, which are licensed by U.S.

Citizenship and Immigration Services and

offer special immigration benefits to

immigrant investors. Foreign Investor

Regional Centers in Philadelphia, Seattle, Sacramento, and

other cities are attracting hundreds of millions of dollars

to their communities and creating new jobs.

There is no visa backlog in the EB-5 visa category, and

the U.S. government is eager to issue all 10,000 visas

allocated per annum, hopefully attracting $2 billion per

year to the U.S.

Cleveland seeks to leverage the EB-5 program in order to

attract foreign investors who are interested in making

investments solely, or in part, because of a strong desire to

acquire a U.S. green card for themselves and their children.

4.) International Students

Universities and colleges are the “feeder system” for the

vast majority of future immigrant tech workers and

entrepreneurs in the U.S.

The Cleveland group proposes to establish a collabo-

ration among its leading colleges and universities to jointly

attract, integrate, and retain international students.

IMMIGRATION

FINDING TALENT

Alberta, Canada, andits companies arenow recruiting H-1Btech workers in theU.S., promising them

jobs and quickaccess to permanent

residency.

IMMIGRATION

FINDING TALENT

5.)Welcoming and Intercultural Center

Learning from the Welcoming Center for New

Pennsylvanians, based in Philadelphia, the Cleveland

group seeks to establish aWelcoming and Intercultural

Center.

TheWelcoming and Intercultural Center would provide

the “welcome wagon” for immigrants and other new

arrivals to Greater Cleveland. The Center would also

educate the corporate and general community on the

economic benefits and strategies of welcoming global

talent. Finally, the center would also serve as the

“intercultural town hall” to promote

socializing, learning, and collaboration

opportunities for the various immigrant,

minority, and majority populations.

Why Turn Away Needed Skills andCapital?TheTalent Blueprint’s emphasis on skills

and capital emulates immigration programs

in Canada and Australia.These programs

were originally started to offer resident visas to

immigrants with needed skills (without having an

employer sponsor them) or who were willing to invest in

enterprises that create jobs.When Hong Kong reverted to

China in 1997, billions of dollars in investments flowed to

Vancouver. Companies such as Microsoft and Electronic

Arts have set up development centers that have attracted

several thousand high-skilled immigrants to Canada.

In contrast, U.S. immigration policy is not designed to

attract talent.The history of U.S. immigration is a story

primarily of family-based chain migration. U.S.

immigration policy has never placed great emphasis on

talent and capital attraction. However, with employment-

based green cards taking up to 10 years, with new

economic opportunities opening up in China, India and

elsewhere, and with other countries using immigration

incentives to recruit the world’s best brains, the U.S. no

longer has the luxury to assume our statute of liberty will

be the first choice of the new wave of Einsteins.

In order to continue attracting the best and brightest

job-creating minds, the U.S. needs to enact immigration-

law reform that places an emphasis on

attracting skills to fill shortages, as well as

investment capital. In light of the

compelling data that shows that immigrant

science and engineering talent are turbo-

chargers for economic growth in a

knowledge-based economy, a policy of

inclusion for international talent should be

incorporated into all aspects of business,

civic, education, and social life in

America’s communities.

Some recruiters already understand the immigrant

talent equation, but not many are plugged in to this deep

reservoir. Particularly for those recruiters who are active

in regions that are not immigrant-rich, we hope some of

the information in this article is helpful in identifying new

sources of talent.

Note:This article is provided for informational purposes only

and is not intended to offer specific legal advice.


U.S. immigrationpolicy is not

designed to attracttalent.

Richard Herman is a nationally renowned immigration lawyer and commentator on global diversity.He is the founder and principalof RichardT.Herman &Associates,LLC,a Cleveland-based law firm that provides immigration counsel to global talent and world-class companies. American-born, formerly residing in Moscow, Russia, Richard is married to an immigrant from Taiwan, andthey are raising their children to be citizens of the world.

Raghav Singh has previously worked in product management and marketing roles at several HR software vendors, and providesexpertise in ATS, staffing, and mergers and acquisitions.His career has included consulting on enterprise human resource systems,recruiting, and HR technology direction for numerous large corporations.


HIGH-VOLUME HIRING

From military bases in Germany to cities in Middle

America, U.S. Border Patrol agents and recruiting

strategists are turning over every rock looking for

candidates.Though the positions are often regarded as

entry-level, agents have to make critical decisions, so

finding the right hire requires careful screening. In 2006,

President Bush challenged the agency to hire 6,000

additional agents by the end of 2008, a goal that required

Joe Abbott and his team to source 180,000 candidates.

Confronted by a lack of candidate

awareness and, in some cases, a poor

perception of the agency,Abbott initiated a

comprehensive recruiting and branding

campaign focused on educating prospects

about daily life as a Border Patrol agent

through repeat touches and a variety of

media.

The Journal spoke with Abbott, director

of National Recruitment and Human

Resources Management for U.S. Customs

and Border Protection, about the challenge

of getting 6,000 new pairs of boots on the ground and

how he and his team developed the agency’s multidimen-

sional initiative.

ERE:Describe the recruiting structure at the agency and yourbackground coming into the leadership role.

Abbott: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP,is part of the Department of Homeland Security. I’m part

of the human resources management group, or HRM, and

my team is composed of 12 recruiters and planners who

set the recruiting strategy.The U.S. Border Patrol is our

client.The agents administer the applicant evaluations,

Ramping Up at the U.S. Border PatrolA multidimensional, educational recruiting campaign has resulted in

nearly 6,000 new pairs of boots on the ground.

By Leslie Stevens-Huffman

interview, and make the hiring decisions in conjunction

with the HRM staff, who source prospects and conduct

the background investigations. Because they have real

experience, agents accurately describe the job duties to

candidates, and they are the most qualified people to

judge which candidates will make good agents.There are

six recruiting teams, and each team has six agents, who

are assigned to work the various sectors such as El Paso

and San Diego. In addition, we have as many as a few

hundred agents working various recruiting

events like the job fairs, and then NASCAR

has its own dedicated recruiting team.

I previously worked in employee and labor

relations in HRM and had no experience

with talent acquisition when President Bush

issued his challenge to the agency. My boss

came to me and asked me to head up the

recruiting effort, and I really couldn’t say no.

To me it was a challenge, but not so far out

that it was a dream. However, at the same

time, it was much more exciting than a

common, everyday task.

ERE: Describe the challenge issued by President Bush andwhat makes the goal difficult to achieve.

Abbott: In May 2006, President Bush committed to

curtail illegal immigration and make the country safer

from terrorists by securing the borders. Part of that

initiative included increasing the number of Border Patrol

agents to 18,000 by the end of 2008. Meeting the goal

would require hiring 6,000 new agents, or as we say at the

agency, putting 6,000 new pairs of boots on the ground.

Aside from the relatively short time frame for making

“We advertise inthe Stars and Stripesusing this slogan,which embodies ourmilitary recruitingbrand and message:

Change yourcall sign, not your

calling.”

HIGH-VOLUME HIRING

BORDER PATROL

6,000 hires, there are other elements that make

the goal difficult to achieve—the geography we

need to cover and the displacement of the

candidates. First, all agents start out working on

the border between California and Texas, so a

candidate from Chicago, for instance, might have

to relocate to El Paso, and eventually, they could

be assigned to Miami as part of their career track,

necessitating another move. Time is another

challenge that adds to the complexity of the goal.

While a candidate with a pretty stable work

history might finish the hiring process and the

background investigation in a couple of months,

on average, it takes anywhere from three to six

months for a candidate to complete the hiring

process. Finally, there’s frequently a time lapse

between when we actually hire someone and

when they start.

ERE:Describe the hiring process for agents and youraverage applicant-to-hire ratio.

Abbott:The agents make critical decisions everyday. Sometimes they might even save a person’s

life or protect our country from terrorists. We

need a mature-minded individual, although the

required hiring age is under 40, and at the same

time, they need to understand people and be

compassionate. Our structure isn’t like the Army,

where there’s extensive training and supervision, which

allows new recruits to take a few years to grow and

develop in their position.We don’t have the luxury of that

kind of time or structure. Starting salaries range from

$36,000 to $46,000 per year depending on the location,

which includes overtime, although after three years, agents

average around $70,000 including overtime. Candidates

take a written exam that evaluates numerous attributes

including knowledge and aptitude, a medical exam, and a

physical fitness evaluation before going through a

structured interview.

We prefer candidates who already speak a foreign

language like Spanish, but part of the written exam tests

their ability to learn a new language, because if they don’t

speak a foreign language, they’ll have to learn one as part

of their training regimen at the academy. Finally, we

complete a background investigation. On average, it takes

30 candidates to get one pair of boots on the ground, so

hiring 6,000 new agents will require sourcing 180,000

people.To meet our new-agent goal, we had to consider

the length of the hiring process, the relocation time, and

continuously recalculate the numbers to factor in attrition

rates.The way the numbers worked out, we estimated that

we would need to source 3,500 candidates each week to

meet the hiring goal by the 2008 deadline.

ERE:What information did you review to set your strategy?

Abbott:We took a look at what was working and whatwasn’t working under our present recruiting strategy, and



our first priority was to increase our output. Our thought

was to use a wide range of applicant sources and

advertising mediums because of the time challenge; we

could always adjust our strategy later, but we didn’t have

time to experiment.We’ve always relied on traditional

recruiting sources like job fairs,Web sites, job boards, and

Web advertising, but I think the discovery of a previously

untapped potential workforce has been instrumental in

helping us meet our numbers. By looking at demographic

data on the civilian labor force such as unemployment

rates, median income, and the population under 40 by

city, I found that some cities were underpenetrated by the

agency from a recruiting standpoint.

But there was a challenge associated with the

opportunity. In cities where we have a Border Patrol

presence, the people know us and we have a positive

image, but when you get into a city like Indianapolis, we

don’t have a visible presence, and what they’ve heard

about the Border Patrol may not be all positive. Our first

goal was to educate the public and inject ourselves into

that market.

ERE: How did you attack those high-

opportunity markets?

Abbott: We found ways to incorporate

smaller surrounding markets into our job

fairs in larger markets where the Border

Patrol has a presence and recruits on a

regular basis. Now, for example, when we

hold a job fair in Cincinnati and Cleveland,

we advertise in Toledo, Youngstown, and

Southern Michigan to attract those

applicants as well.

The second thing we did was to create a

new employment brand, and we engaged

outside firms Image Media Services, Inc.,

and JWT Inside to assist us in the process. It

soon became clear that perception

management and education were going to be

critical components.We solicited feedback

from outside groups, who gave us their

perceptions of the agency. We wanted to

understand what those perceptions were and

then match our messages up against those

perceptions, so we weren’t creating recruiting

materials in isolation. It was as simple as

going into NewYork and asking a group of

people, “What do you think the border patrol

does?”Then we validated and honed our new

HIGH-VOLUME HIRING

BORDER PATROL

“The agents make criticaldecisions every day.

Sometimes they might evensave a person’s life or protectour country from terrorists.”

HIGH-VOLUME HIRING

BORDER PATROL

brand and messages via feedback from

internal agent groups.We wanted to paint

an accurate picture of life as an agent and

also dispel the negative image that some

people have about the agency.

ERE:What are some of the unique elements

of your recruiting strategy?

Abbott:We decided to become our ownjob fair vendor, meaning that we host the

event ourselves rather than having a booth

at a larger, multi-employer function.We

still participate in multi-employer job

fairs, but we thought we could get greater

traction and process more applicants by

hosting our own events. Because we have

exclusive access to the applicants, we can

educate them about the Border Patrol,

and they can interface with agents, study

for the exam, and complete all the steps in

the hiring process except the background

check.

We also borrowed a successful idea from

the Army, Navy, and Coast Guard and

developed a NASCAR recruiting team.

They piloted their NASCAR teams in

2007 with good results, and each agency

or military branch attracts a different

candidate, so I really don’t think having multiple teams

dilutes the talent pool.

ERE:What’s your methodology for recruiting veterans?

Abbott: Some 20% to 25% of our agents are veterans.

They have the maturity we’re looking for, so they make

good decisions on the front line, and they’re looking for

the training we offer.We recruit the servicemen and—

women—before they’re discharged, and they like the fact

that they know they have somewhere to go when they’re

finished with their military service. We have a good

relationship with all the military branches, so they let us

recruit and evaluate candidates on-site at the overseas

bases such as Iraq, Germany, and Korea.We also advertise

in the Stars and Stripes using this slogan, which embodies

our military recruiting brand and message: Change your

call sign, not your calling.

ERE:Which parts of your strategy are working and which are

not?

Abbott: I really haven’t found that one tactic, such asWebadvertising or job fairs, is reaching more candidates than

another. I measure all the hits from ourWeb site and the

Web advertising, and I’ve come to the conclusion that our

multi-layered approach is what’s working about our

strategy. Prospective agents are seeing us or hearing about

us everywhere they turn.We’re doing a good job of getting

the word out through the media, we have an employee



referral program where the agents compete and earn

awards for referring candidates, and so I don’t think

there’s one single thing that’s working better than another.

The concert of touches and the layers of contact are

driving applicants to us. One thing that I didn’t anticipate

was the lull in applicants betweenThanksgiving and the

end of January. It really threw our numbers of applicants

off around that time.We need to find innovative ways to

get people interested in looking for a new

career around the holidays. I did find that

activity during that period positively impacted

applicant flow later in the spring, but I simply

underestimated the seasonality in recruiting.

ERE:How are you tracking the agency’s progresstoward the hiring goal,and how are you being held

accountable for the results?

Abbott: I track all the numbers, and we havetwo conference calls every week to review our

results—one with the agent recruiters and one

with the agency’s senior executives, who

monitor our progress. I don’t use a scorecard,

but I track the number of applicants by

location and source, how many begin the

hiring process, how many offers we put out,

and how many agents we hire. At the end of

the third quarter, we were supposed to be at

75% of the goal, and we were at 79%, so I feel

confident that we are going to make it, but we

have to keep pushing forward.There’s really

no difference in accountability for results

between a government job as talent acquisition

leader or one in the private sector. I accepted

the job, and now it’s my job to get it done and

hit the numbers, but without my team, it

would never happen. It’s the same here as it is anywhere

else. If you don’t meet the numbers, the same thing will

happen to you in this job as would happen to you in any

job.

HIGH-VOLUME HIRING

BORDER PATROL

Leslie [email protected] Stevens-Huffman is a freelance writer who previously worked as an executive in the staffing field for 25 years.


DASHBOARD

TESTING

RECRUITING AND RETENTION

Top Criteria Management Use toEvaluate HR PerformanceBNA’s HR Benchmarks & Analysis Report asked

companies what their most important criteria was for

measuring the performance of their HR department.

STUFFED IN-BASKET

“There will be no job fair. It’s not needed. Morethan 1,300 applications for jobs with OklahomaCity’s NBA team have been collected by theOklahoma City Chamber of Commerce.

‘There is this aura about being in the NBA,’ saidchamber president Roy Williams. ‘It’s very appealingto a lot of people. We’re even seeing a lot of out-of-state applicants submitting résumés, people fromacross the country.’

Some applicants are creative. They submitelaborate color résumés. Others write long letters,proclaiming their love of the NBA. One personpresented the chamber with a fruit basket. Thosetactics don’t improve one’s chances.

‘It’s great people are excited to want a jobconnected to the NBA, but the team will look at yourqualifications,’ Williams said. ‘What skill sets doyou have?’

Jobs that probably will be available include:technology, project managers, secretaries,receptionists, human resources, administrativesupport, operations, merchandise sales,accounting, Web design, and community relations.”

--The Oklahoman

UNDERMANNED CANADIANS

“About 800 Canadian sailors are now patrolling thepolitically turbulent waters near Iran and Pakistan.But mustering crews to man warships near globalflashpoints has increasingly become a nightmare fornavy planners in Nova Scotia, British Columbia, andOttawa. They have 8,000 sailors on their books andjobs for 8,600. The most vexing shortages were ofelectronics technicians, stokers, and combatsystems engineers. ‘The navy isn’t like Wal-Mart,’Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Morrison says. ‘Weare having a lot of trouble getting people in the door,and the experience and knowledge of people we arenow losing after 20 years is irreplaceable. When, forexample, we lose a hull tech, we lose a jack-of-alltrades who can work as a plumber or with sheetmetal.’

‘Most undermanning stems from a lack of effectiverecruiting,’ Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Ron Meirausays. ‘The reason we do not get them is because weare not advertising well enough.’”

--Winnipeg Free Press

Recruitment and retention of employees 48%

Partnering to implement key organizational goals 39%

Internal client/manager satisfaction with HR 30%

HR cost containment and budget management 26%

Overall employee satisfaction and morale 23%

Employee training and development 12%

External customer satisfaction/retention 4%

UNEMPLOYMENT

Education and EmploymentHere are the unemployment rates, seasonally

adjusted, for civilians 25 and older, according to

the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, July data

released in August.

unemployment rate

Less than a high school diploma 8.5%

High school graduates, no college 5.2%

Some college or associate degree 4.5%

Bachelor’s degree and higher 2.4%

ERE Media580 BroadwaySuite 304New York, NY 10012U.S.A.

Subscription FormJournal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership

To subscribe go to www.crljournal.com or complete this form and send it to:ERE Media, 580 Broadway, Suite 304, New York, NY 10012, USA • Fax: (1) 646-219-6753

NAME

TITLE

COMPANY

ADDRESS

CITY STATE ZIP

TELEPHONE FAX

E-MAIL

Charge my Credit Card: Visa Mastercard Amex for $395 for a 1 year subscriptionto The Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership

CARD HOLDER’S NAME (IF DIFFERENT FROM ABOVE)

CREDIT CARD NUMBER

EXPIRATION DATE

CARD HOLDER’S SIGNATURE

Alternatively you may attach a check for $395 made out to ERE Media.

Please note, subscriptions will not be made active until ERE has received payment.

The Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership (USPS 024-202), is publishedmonthly except for August and January by ERE Media, Inc., 580 Broadway,Suite 304, New York, 10012. Periodicals Postage paid at New York, NY andadditional mailing offices. Subscription price is $395 for 10 issues (one year).

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Journal of Corporate Recruiting

Leadership, PO Box 91836, Long Beach, CA, 90809.

Documents

Sept 2008 Journal