The Career Tree Network Blog

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to attend a celebration in honor my wife’s great uncle: Father V. Anthony Dolski. Since June of 1959, Father Tony has served as a Priest in the Catholic Church. In his 50 years of service he worked in a variety of cities across Wisconsin, but since 1986 has been at a church in DePere (near Green Bay). The celebration included a special service followed by a wonderfully prepared luncheon held in the school gymnasium.

In his remarks at the event, Father Tony shared highlights from his life journey and spoke about the importance of finding purpose and meaning through the work that you perform.

As someone who helps people find career opportunities, this message was especially insightful. I believe that while everyone wants to be fully engaged in their work, many people simply go through the motions each day.  Just this morning a friend updated her FaceBook status with, “Glad it’s Friday!  I hope the day goes quick!”  If this invidivual found purpose and meaning in her work, perhaps her status would be, “Sad it’s Friday!  I wonder if the boss will let me come in tomorrow!” 

During Father Tony’s homily, I found myself taking notes and I enjoyed the opportunity to learn from someone who has enthusiastically held the same job for 50 years! I will not be able to recreate his message in this post, (as the saying goes, “you had to be there”) but I would like to share a few takeaway points that have stuck with me.   

1. We are called and chosen. We are placed on this earth and are here for a reason. With this understanding, it is important to take advantage of this great opportunity. “We are always getting ready to live but never living.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

2. To experience joy; seek happiness in others. When your work helps others and makes them happy, that happiness and joy will return to you. Motivational speaker Zig Zigler said this in another way, “You can get anything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.”

3. Bear fruit and do good things. When we were born, we came equipped with mental and physical gifts that can be used to accomplish many things. Over the course of our lives we learn, grow and develop those gifts. Our talents must be used to do good work. “And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required” (Luke 12:48)

I walked away from the event with a renewed sense of energy and passion for the work that I’m able to perform each day. It has challenged me to look closely at ways to develop my business in order to further realize my life calling.

Here are two questions to leave you with: Does your work give your life meaning and purpose? If not, what are you going to about it?

Many in the HR and recruitment fields are going gaa gaa over Twitter.  Ad agencies and consultants are coming out of the woodwork as “experts” in using Twitter for candidate recruitment.  Allow me the opportunity to save your organization some money.  In this post, I will share how to use Twitter for recruiting in four easy steps. 

First of all, what is Twitter?  It is a social networking website where people can post 140 character updates on what they are doing.  Twitter is bacially the “status update” feature of Facebook.  Twitter would probably fall within the same ranks of Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace. 

Bottom Line:  The power of Twitter and Social Networking lies in the positive or negative feelings that the receiver has towards the sender of a communication message.   

In other words, if I like and respect the sender I will listen to their message.  And if I think the sender is a jerk, I won’t pay any attention to the message.  With that in mind, here are the four steps to start using Twitter for recruiting (you can probably also apply these steps to FaceBook): 

Step 1:  Find an Interesting person in a leadership role within your organization.  (maybe even you…)

Step 2:  Set them up with a Twitter account.  (Takes 10 minutes).  

Step 3:  Encourage them to write “updates” on a regular basis on a variety of topics that they find interesting.  The posts should not all be work related.  For an example, see my twitter page:  www.twitter.com/brianweidner.  You’ll notice that I mix personal and professional updates.  In order to recruit candidates, occasionally sprinkle in posts related to your current hiring needs.  A successful aproach on Twitter is not a direct sale but rather an awareness building effort to keep your organization in front of your target audience. 

Step 4:  Promote that your interesting person is on Twitter.  Include a link to their Twitter profile in your email signature, on the careers website, within job postings, etc.  If the updates are interesting…the word will spread organically within the Twitter community. 

Now that you’ve saved money by not hiring a Twitter consultant or ad agency, consider spending more of your recruitment budget with the Career Tree Network.      

A few weeks ago, I was at an event in Milwaukee and had the opportunity to strike up a conversation with a random guy, let’s call him Andy.  Our conversation gravitated towards food and he told me about this great sandwich shop in Milwaukee that makes Philly Cheese Steaks.  I learned about the owner’s life story, how he was born in Philadelphia and imports all authentic ingredients to make the perfect sandwich.  Andy spoke about it with such enthusiastic conviction that I immediately fell in love with the idea of visiting this establishment.

The next day, I went to the website for the restaurant (http://www.thephillyway.com/) and it only reinforced in interest. 

In Marketing, this would be called “word of mouth” advertising.  Clearly, positive word of mouth, can be an excellent sales tool for any business.  I guess what makes it so powerful is that, in my case, Andy will receive no reward for me visiting the restaurant.  Since he will not profit from his recommendation, I trust that he’s being honest with me.   

This can be applied to recruitment in a very strategic way.  If you are responsible for hiring within your organization, you simply have too much to gain if a certain candidate accepts your job offer.  Candidates might not trust your enthusiastic answers to their questions.  What would happen if I asked the restaurant owner, if he makes a good sandwich?

The key here is to leverage your current employees within the recruitment process….and doing it in a natural way.  Your employees have no reason to sugar coat the organization and this will help considerably to persuade candidates that you have an exciting organization.  There are many ways to accomplish this, one idea would be to have current employees take prospective employees out to lunch….for Philly Cheese Steaks, of course!   

I picked up this business card at a local art gallery.  If you read the card carefully, you’ll notice that Charles Ninfo clearly has a specific routine that people must follow in order to speak with him.  I can only assume that he’s doing this to avoid unwanted phone calls. 

My sister is a Junior in college.  I find the way that she uses her cell phone interesting.  About 80% of her interactions with other people are via text messages leaving 20% to use the phone to “actually” talk to people.  She uses caller ID to avoid unwanted calls and friends often will text before dialing to see if it’s a “good time” to talk.

I use the phone to reach out to both prospective and current clients.  A good percentage of my calls go to voicemail and I leave messages, (that are usually never returned).  Often folks will respond by sending me an email message and our communication channel will then switch from phone to email.  I’m finding the email is often a better way to connect with my clients. 

Let’s get to the point!  Many organizations use a resume database to search for passive job seekers.  This is especially done when there is a shortage of candidates for a certain position, like Physical Therapists in Wisconsin (Shameless Plug:  PTCareerTree.com).  A resume database can be a great tool and the telephone is often used by recruiters to proactively contact potential candidates. 

I recommend that organizations incorporate an “email-phone-email-phone” approach when contacting people from a resume database.  This involves four steps:  send an email, call, send an email, and call.  Pretty simple right?  Messages should be developed for each of the four steps and a reasonable delay should occur between each attempt. 

With thoughtful and well planned messages the phone can still be a valuable recruitment tool for connecting with candidates.  Just don’t call Charles Ninfo, unless you know the secret routine!

Three Questions: 

1.  The Association of American Publishers estimated that in 2008 Americans spent $24.3 Billion dollars on books.  Why do people buy books when the public library lets people check them out for free? 

2.  According to MacWorld.com, Americans spent $204 Billion in on-line purchases in 2008.  These products must be shipped, which requires customers to wait for their product to arrive.  Why do people purchase things on-line when they could run out to a store and have it today? 

3.  Allbusiness.com estimates that Americans spend $5 Billion each year on car washes.  Why do people pay to get a car wash, when they can use a bucket of soap and water at home for free?

There are many correct responses to these questions, but the common answer that I’d like to focus on is…convenience.  Simply put, people are willing to pay for things that are easy and convenient.

I can go to the library to borrow a book for free, but I’m at the mall and this great book just came out, it’s only $15, etc.  I could drive out to the store, but on amazon.com I only need to click a few buttons and my purchase is done.  I own a bucket and have access to plenty of soapy water, but I’d rather watch CSI - Miami.    

Many successful businesses are built around customer convenience.  At the CareerTreeNetwork.com, our websites are designed so that candidates and employers can easily use them.  I am always on the lookout for new and better ways to make it more convenient for candidates and employers to get value from my company. 

On our websites, we have an opportunity alert system that enables candidates to recieve an email when new positions are added to our databases.  This allows them to sit back and let newly posted opportunities come right to their inbox.  They no longer have to remember to visit the website…the information goes right to them (and it can be personalized to meet their requirements)! 

And now for the call to action…if qualified candidates are your “customer”, how can you make it easier for them to engage with your organization?  Remember:  Convenience is the key!