Comments

Hi Tom,

Long time admirer since 1980's.

That is an interesting audience because a recent statistic says that 94% of people applying for a job online never receive a response.

I'd like to ask that you potentially consider challenging them to:
1) Get that rate lowered somewhere closer to zero as it has a negative brand impact on their client when no response is received and is not courteous.
2) Ask how they are doing in terms of measuring competencies instead of keywords like current employer and job title that encourage hiring that has no correlation to actual ability.
3) Please ask how they are doing with identifying gaps caused by September 11th and scoring those appropriately goign forward - they won't have the cookie cutter career track these systems presently rate the highest.
4) How are they incorporating blogs into the recruiting process? Thought leaders, friction reducers and people who are innovating verticals are readily available, yet applicant tracking software does not take these issues into account.

The leaders of the future are regularly missed by the current broken recruiting process, it's time to start a serious high level conversation about the ways to solve that. Our future depends on it.

Posted by David at September 10, 2007 2:41 PM

Thank you for posting the slides.

The most compelling argument for turnover reduction I find it is the economic one. Specifically that losing employees costs a lot(cca 200% yearly salary). And generally the main reason for losing employees is bad (inhumane and/or incompetent) management.

Nowadays companies have the great opportunity of focusing on wellness and prevention and making money at the same time. Studies are unanimous that engaged employees increase productivity, eps, etc.

Now, on the talent issue, I have to disagree a bit with Tom, although I completely applaud his intentions.

Talent sometimes comes with a price. You call them freaks, crazy, etc. Yes, they are vital for companies feeding on innovation. Still teams made only with the best players usually do not perform as well as their talent sum.

We still need soldiers. Good, reliable, serious, getting-the-job-done soldiers. They might not have the best talent but they are what keeps companies together. They have no dreams of leadership, they like what they do, their job is a (sometime pleasant) mean towards supporting their family.

Yes, extreme talent is needed in leadership positions, but there are so many jobs where simple common-sense is enough. The extremes should focus on the extremes, let's not 'extremize' the core.

Thank you Tom for inspiration.

Posted by Octavian Mihai at September 16, 2007 4:11 AM