Candidate Qualification Screening, Change Management, Hiring Assessments, Leadership, Resumes, Talent Acquisition Problems
There are multiple methods for getting to the root cause of a problem.
One method is called “5 Whys” and it’s just how it sounds. You take a problem and keep asking “why” until you get to the root cause.
Another method I developed many years ago is called the TPPO method. The TPPO stands for Tools, Processes, Problems, and Outcomes. It’s pretty easy and it goes like this…whatever tools you use will dictate a certain process. That process will inevitably create certain problems. Those problems will either keep you from achieving positive business outcomes or create negative business outcomes. Last but not least…those business outcomes will almost certainly drive your personal outcomes (e.g., stress, work-life balance, promotions, demotions, etc.).
For example, if we look at talent acquisition teams using résumés, job descriptions, and traditional ATSs to screen job applicants, those tools will dictate a process of manually reviewing each applicant. This inefficient process creates problems such as wasted time and biased screening. These problems create negative business outcomes like reduced productivity and limiting DE&I progress. Ultimately the personal outcomes are higher stress, lower morale, etc.
Another example is looking at why 65% of recruiters have a tenure of 2 years or less. Why are recruiters turning over at this rate? One explanation is that they have a rough job. Why? Because they have SO MANY manual, tedious, and time-consuming tasks. Why? Because their processes like manually screening each applicant, chasing hiring managers down for feedback, etc. are very inefficient. Why? Their tools like résumés, job descriptions, and traditional ATSs dictate that process.
If you had a tool that automated job applicant screening without using a résumé, while giving hiring managers EXACTLY what they’re looking for, then you significantly improve your process. That process improvement mitigates the problems of wasted time and biased screening, which improves productivity and DE&I progress. And ultimately, provides personal outcomes like lower stress and higher morale.
In short, fix your tools and you can ultimately provide some significant business and personal outcomes!
Candidate Qualification Screening, Change Management, Leadership, Resumes, Talent Acquisition Problems
How many of you have landlines? Maybe I should have first asked how many of you remember landlines?
At one point, it was all we had. You had to hope someone was home when you called them or you left a message on their answering machine (separate device). Sometimes you had to wait at home if you were expecting a call. You had to fight with your sibling or parent about using the one phone line in the house…unless you had a fancy household with multiple lines.
From the time the telephone was invented to when we finally forced it into retirement the foundational technology evolved very slowly and only with small incremental changes.
Then we started down this path of “mobile phones” but they were the briefcase car phones or “Zach Morris phone” (bonus points if you understand that reference). But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that mobile phones became mainstream. Since then, the technology has evolved quickly and with unbelievable innovation.
We’re at an inflection point in the talent acquisition world where we desperately need to make this move from reviewing résumés (old fashioned corded phones) for screening talent to automated applicant screening technology like SmartRank. It’s more efficient, more effective, less biased, more applicant-friendly, and makes the hiring managers happier.
The old fashioned telephone was a great tool and helped us for many decades. Resumes were our best tool for screening talent for many decades, but it’s time to embrace the newer and better way of screening talent. It’s time we bring job applicant screening into the 21st century!
Change Management, Leadership, Resumes, Talent Acquisition Problems
Does anyone remember Netflix when they first came out? In the beginning they had a slightly different approach to renting movies (at the time DVDs). They would ship the movies to your house and you would ship them back. It was a decent idea. They got rid of late fees, had return envelopes to make the process easier, but they were also hemorrhaging cash and almost out of business. That’s why they approached Blockbuster Video with the hopes of being acquired for $50M. Blockbuster declined their offer, and the rest is history.
It wasn’t until they made the pivot to streaming that they truly became the disruptive Netflix we all know today. Why? Because they finally tossed out the status quo thinking of “needing an actual DVD” and began thinking how they could be fundamentally different.
True disrupters are rare, even in this technology-driven world we live in. But every once in a while a disrupter like Uber or Netflix comes on the scene at the right time and completely changes our world.
There is no department that needs disruption more than talent acquisition. Every other department in business like Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc. has upgraded their tools, technology, and processes over the past 25 years. It is time for talent acquisition to do the same!
At SmartRank we believe that we have the innovative ideas and technology to disrupt the talent acquisition market because we:
1. Ask a lot of important, detailed, and sometimes difficult questions to uncover the most important problems
2. Identify the root-cause of those problems
3. Put ALL assumptions, opinions, status quo, and the “way things have always been done” type of thinking to the side
4. Accept early objections and criticisms of our ideas because they are so different
5. Understand that sometimes it just takes time for everyone else to see the same vision
If your disruptive technology doesn’t scare people a little, then you aren’t even trying to be a disrupter.
Change Management, Leadership, Talent Acquisition Problems
Here’s a fun exercise. Ask your significant other or your kid or a friend to sneak up behind you and scare you. Then see which reaction you have. Do you immediately start running, do you ball your fists up and raise your arm ready to swing it, or do you completely freeze up?
The amygdala is one of the oldest parts of the brain. It’s responsible for our fight, flight, or freeze response to danger. This chemical reaction in the brain and body has kept us alive as a species for a very long time. It kept us from becoming prey to a saber-toothed tiger and allowed us to avoid environmental dangers. It’s actually really cool how it works and so many of our reactions like sweaty palms or “butterflies in the stomach” are associated with this response.
Luckily we don’t face the same threats that we did 10,000 years ago, but that part of the brain is still alive and active. Today, the amygdala simply responds to a different set of fears and perceived danger.
The question is, how do you respond to danger in business? Do you choose to run away from the problem? Do you choose to simply do nothing and hope the situation somehow resolves itself? Or do you address the problem head-on?
If you look at many quotes from successful leaders in history, they almost use inaction as a four-letter word. If you’re a business leader and your go-to problem solving strategy is to simply do nothing about a problem or threat, or to run from it, then perhaps leadership may not be your calling.
In talent acquisition, there are MANY problems that desperately need to be solved. Unfortunately these problems will not get solved with “fleeing” or “freezing” as the response. It may seem like there is comfort in those responses, but the only way to truly solve those problems is to address them head-on.
Lastly, for the record, being a “freezer” or “flighter” is not a bad thing. You can even be a freezer or flighter when someone jumps out and scares you. But now that you’re aware of how that part of the brain works, you can make a conscious decision to “fight” problems when you face them at work. Is it scary? Yes. Is it uncertain? Yes. But as JFK once brilliantly said, “There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.”
Change Management, Leadership, Talent Acquisition Problems
Just to get this out of the way, this is not a religious post, but rather a business operations post.
In our extremely demanding business culture we live in today, it sometimes feels like we never have enough time to do anything we need to do. We’re too busy with tactical day-to-day tasks that we can’t step back and strategically assess our operations.
When we can’t look at the operations strategically, we can’t look at the tools & technologies that drive our processes, which dictate certain challenges, which ultimately keep us from achieving certain positive business outcomes or producing negative business outcomes.
If you get this opportunity to strategically assess your business, YOU TAKE IT!!!
Missing that opportunity will result in a never-ending cycle of reliving the same problems over and over, because eventually that opportunity will pass, and you’ll be right back to the busy hustle of just trying to get through the day. You definitely won’t be implementing any real change in process, tools, or technologies at that point.
One department that has this opportunity right now is talent acquisition. Many companies have hiring freezes in place or hiring has significantly slowed. This is not only the best time to be looking at how you should be improving your operations, but also the best time to implement new processes and technologies.
Noah didn’t build the Ark after it rained. He didn’t build the Ark while it was raining. He built the Ark BEFORE it rained.
To all the talent acquisition leaders out there where they’re hiring needs have slowed down, it’s time to build your Ark!!
Leadership
This is one of the greatest leadership quotes of all time. It’s so important because it gets at the very core of which type of leader a person really is.
We count on leaders to take care of their teams and put themselves last. As leaders it’s our job to remove obstacles, problem solve, and above all…take action.
If leaders allow their self interests or even self preservation (e.g., not getting fired) to rise above their responsibilities, then they need to be an individual contributor, and NOT a leader.
There are a lot of words people would use to describe a good leader such as; brave, strong, selfless, smart, creative, etc. Those are all accurate descriptions and there are plenty more. Leaders come in all different shapes and sizes with different strengths and weaknesses. But at the end of the day, real leaders need to take action. Being complacent, existing in the status quo when they know there are problems that need to be solved, following what everyone else does (or has done in the past), and choosing inaction as their default decision-making mechanism makes them a sheep, not a lion.
By the way, there is NOTHING wrong with being a sheep…they just shouldn’t be in a leadership role!
Leadership
New Year, same me?
❌ So many companies will fill their websites with initiatives and feel like they’ve done enough.
Actions > Lip service
For example:
Want to prove how dedicated you are to DE&I?
? Talk about your “dedication to diversity” on your website. Do nothing else.
VS
✅ Use resume-free screening to eliminate unconscious bias
✅ Screen 100% of applicants to give everyone a fair + equitable chance
✅ Weigh applicants apples to apples and quickly identify who is most qualified based only on their fit for the role
Leadership
This is one of my favorite speeches of all time. I feel like this speech captures exactly how I feel about life. Nothing more here…I hope you enjoy it and receive as much inspiration from it as I have.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
