Influence Happens In A Context

By John Sumser

As the Top 100 Influencers project unfolds, we’re going to provide a guided tour of the industry. After all, it’s a little illy to say “these people drive the thematic rivers of our industry without being really clear about the industry itself. For starters, we’ll just get the lay of the land.

The HR-Recruiting Industry is a vast assemblage of 80,000 companies and over 1,000,000 working professionals (1.5 Million by some estimates). Generally, one percent of the workforce earns a living in the HR-Recruiting Industry. Depending on who you ask, Recruiters make up as much as a third of the total number.

Tallies of size and complexity are complicated by the fact that the role is performed informally in smaller companies even though vendors deliver HR products and services to the tiniest of companies.

There are two coexisting components of the industry. An ecosystem of experts, recruiters, accountants, payroll processors and benefits managers serve the needs of the professional HR community, their management and stakeholders. The two sides, buyers and sellers, serve the needs (in the domestic American MArket alone) of 50 Million discrete job transactions per year as well as the payroll and benefits of the 150 Million in the American workforce.

The elements of the industry are

• Benefits
• Payroll
• Compensation Analysis / Management
• Training
• Organizational Development
• Talent Acquisition
• Succession Management
• Talent Management
• Workforce Planning
• Staffing
• Recruiting
• Vendor Management
• Labor Relations

Typically, each of these segments has a range of vendors providing a range of services. HR is rarely practiced as a standardized discipline. It’s more common to see each company develop and execute its own cultural approach to the HR question.

Over the last decade or so, larger companies experimented with Outsourcing

• HR in its entirety (HROs)
• Ownership of employees (PEOs)
• All or Part of the Recruiting Process

Recruiting and staffing are unique. According to Elaine Orler, VP of the Talent MAnagement practice at KnowledgeInfusion, “Recruiting must move at market speed. The rest of HR can readily move at enterprise speed.” What she means is that Recruiting focuses on meeting critical needs on the open market while the rest of HR is a purer overhead function.

This bifurcation of HR leads to conflict “in the house”. The administrative component wants careful movement and is a fundamentally conservative function. The Talent Acquisition team, on the other hand, has to be extremely resourceful and competitive. There is real and sustained difference between the mindsets.

There are about 7 Million companies in the American economy. Each of them delivers some form of HR to its employees. It’s a vast market with huge differences based on geography and industry.

Additionally, the industry behaves differently based on company size. The Fortune 2,500 are typically referred to as “enterprise companies”. They use industrial strength solutions like Oracle, SAP or Microsoft. Workday, a newcomer founded by the fellow who started Peoplesoft is a promising up and comer.

The remainder of the industry, the other 6,997,500 (or so) companies use a patchwork quilt of products and services,

Over the coming weeks, we’ll look deeper into the details of the industry on a niche by niche basis.

This is the environment n which influence is earned, delivered, purchased and deployed. While most marketing discussions treat the HR-Recruiting MArketplace as if it were monolithic, it is tremendously fragmented with most companies developing unique solutions.

Influence is therefore really important. Each company tries to navigate its way through the hurdles of regulatory requirements, talent needs and employee perks. The greatest HR-Recruiting Managers think for themselves. The issues are complex enough that the hint of truth is good enough to make decisions, sometimes.

Digging Into RecruitingBlogs.com v2.04

Digging Into RecruitingBlogs.com v2.03 Who’s the Techie

(Jan 23, 2009) It’s a downturn. Skinnying back means letting go of the niceties of outsourced web work. This week, I’ve been learning how to do my own IT. I used to do it; made enough money not to and have started again.

It’s easier to be your own tech guy today than it was 15 years ago. HTML nearly writes itself. All you have to do is figure out the nuances of a couple of pieces of software,

I’m using Google Apps, Wordpress, and Gmail. I’m looking for a good piece of mail list software (any suggestions?). I’m thinking about using the Salesforce.com integration with Google Apps (for CRM) but I’m open to suggestion. There are several thousand relationships that I need to track and manage for everything from email lists to schedule coordination.

With downturns come liberations. As I get used to doing it myself, I’m reminded of the explosion of creativity that happens each time we go through this cycle. It’s no surprise that my phone is ringing with calls from new vendors entering the space and old friends with new ventures. I really get excited about seeing new products and talking with the people who build them.

This week, I spent some time on the phone with Dimitri Boylan and Mike Johnson from Avature. Mike was my second experiment with the Spend an Hour with… project. We talked last week for an hour. This phone call with Mike and Dimitri was an outgrowth of the first conversation.

If you’re a regular on RBC, you’ve certainly seen Avature’s investment in the community in the form of various ads and sponsorships. They realize that we’re a group on the cutting edge and look to set their agenda by having a conversation with us. More than anyone I’ve spoken with, they understand the idea of community engagement as a marketing strategy. (Oh, by the way, they sponsor the Spend An Hour with… project.)

But, I had no idea what Avature did.

Last week, during our conversation, Mike gave me a tour through the basic Avature toolset. It’s a Software as a Service CRM package designed for Recruiters who want to build relationships with their candidate pool. It’s slick, fast, flexible and comprehensive. Mike and Dimitri know about the ATS marketplace. It shows in the product.

There’s a weird relationship between extended good times and complacency. It seems like success always produces the seeds of its own downfall. And, it’s the downfall that produces real transformative renewal.

Have you noticed the bursts of energy around RBC? Redesigns, new careers, renewed passion and commitment. As our colleagues meet the challenges of changing times, they are doing amazing things.

Digging Into RecruitingBlogs.com v2.03 Verbal Summary

Have you been following the de-friending trend? The notable tip of the iceberg is the Burger King campaign offering a Whopper in exchange for deleting friends on Facebook.

In an industry known for indiscriminate and promiscuous linking (Recruiting), Jason Davis has started what might be the Social Software version of the Slow Food movement. “Having Friends”, Jason’s post on RecruitingBlogs.com is an introduction to introducing ourselves to each other. How you use your networks is a question of what you want and what your network wants. Jason is wrestling with the question of what the network wants. He introduced the “An Hour with….” project to underline the emphasis on intimacy.

As I waded into the deeper relationship mine field, I was handed a number of opportunities. I asked Craig Silverman to spend an hour with me and we’re going to do it on the 26th. Wednesday morning, I spent an hour talking with Michael Johnson from avature. It was a great start and we’re talking again next week.

My first experience with the power of this idea came from Jerry Albright who posted “Wanna be my friend? It’s easy – just call me – 260-347-1715 – let’s get real”. It’s exactly the sort of thing JD was trying to promote. So I called him. We talked for an hour the first time. Into the conversation, it became apparent that he had built a product called Verbal Summary. Ultimately, I asked him to give me a demo. Jerry was so focused on delivering value to recruiters that I had to see what he was talking about. (This video will tell you a little bit more about Verbal Summary)

So, earlier this week, I got on the phone with Jerry for a demo of Verbal Summary. It’s a cool tool. At $50/license/month, there are few purchases that will give you a better return on investment. The software does three things really well:

1. It helps your client (hiring managers) distinguish great potential hires from run of the mill candidates.
2. It tracks the Resumes you send and the customer’s handling of each individual resume.
3. It brands your product with your logo and identifying information. Resumes are sent as PDF files that can be easily configured to include your branding)

The tool gets its name from its most observable feature. With Verbal Summary, you can easily record, edit and store recordings of interviews and job descriptions. The software makes it easy to create, send, archive, forward and manage audio files. The idea is that hearing a candidate in her own voice will distinguish one resume from another. Jerry says that it is a great value-add for recruiters. The idea is sound (no pub intended).

The second feature, tracking is a fantastic way to get your customer’s pulse. Are they opening the emails you send, are they looking at the resume? The dashboard summarizes customer transactions with your products. Until now, the only way to do this has been a cumbersome and very manual process using read receipts in Outlook. With Verbal Summary, you get immediate information when your customer reviews your materials.

Branding and the ownership of data are hot buttons for recruiters. By automatically adding your branding information, Verbal Summary allows you to preserve the value you create while your product travels around the customer. There is enormous comfort (and great risk reduction) associated with knowing that your materials are tagged with your information.

The great thing about Verbal Summary is its focus and simplicity. The tool does three very useful things and doesn’t try to be more.

Jerry told me that he’d give RBC members a discount. I think it’s a bargain at $50/month. If I were you, I’d get Jerry committed for a long term contract. The service is worth more than he’s charging for it and the price is bound to go up.

As I said at the outset, “it’s not the shovel, it’s the garden.” That means that the tool is not as important as what users do with it. Both Verbal Summary and An Hour with…. are great examples of using technology to improve the lives of users.

Stumping Google

081126 Stumping Google

(November 26, 2008) In the office, we all use Gmail. The  array of features and overlay applications make it a “must use” tool. Google is seeping into the corners of our lives. They have become our partner and we didn’t even notice.

The holidays and shifting economic times make for a difficult realization. If Google decided to charge $500/month tomorrow morning, we’d have to pay. Google has us right where they want us.

So, we’ve been looking for the things we haven’t noticed.

Probably the most pernicious and quietly intrusive thing our new partner does is ad placement on emails.

• In the midst of an ongoing discussion about financing the kids college education, Google provides ads from lawyers who help you declare bankruptcy.
• An early version of this article, pasted into an email titled “stumping google” got ads for shoring jacks, Jump Fly (an Ad Sense service), and Dream Cricket.
• William Tincup sent me a note the other day called J to the PIE (an inside joke, I’m noodling a piece for him).  Google provided “Why Am I Fat? Parasites Living Inside You. Don’t Believe it, See It For Real“.
• Responses to invitations for the Recruiting Roadshow generate stuff from “NoNonsesenseJobSearch.com” (The Real Skinny on Recruiters)

So, we decided to invent a parlor game for the holidays. “Stumping Google” was invented as we started to try to provoke Google and predict the response. We started sending goofy emails just to see what ads they’d get.

• The email, from me to myself, said “The paternity test was positive.” Google said “Recruiters in Russia“, “Dubai Recruiting”,  “Daily Positive Attitude” and “Positive Attitude Test”
• A blank email title “Please cancel my subscription” generated two guitar chord websites, an acai berry warning and Kid Rock’s IQ (118)
• And so on

The stated object of the game, Stumping Google is to generate an email that Google can’t or won’t generate ads for. This means that you have to use GMail. You can send the mail to yourself or a friend (it doesn’t seem to matter to google).

We’ll be playing this weekend. If the idea tickles your fancy, let me know (john-at-johnsumser.com)

Population Distribution Diagrams: Dear Ray Ozzie

Dear Ray Ozzie

(November 25, 2008) Ray Ozzie is the Chief Software Architect at Microsoft. It’s a role and title directly passed down from Bill Gates. Ozzie is a software wonder-child. The current Wired magazine features a really solid article on Ozzie’s desire to restore entrepreneurial attitudes in the mammoth company. The article is by the other Steven Levy.

When your business is successful, there are only two variables that really matter: growth and decay. Sustained growth creates pressures on the system that continuously energize decision making. Growth ensures that the average tenure (and often, the average age) of the workforce stays low. Lots of new people coming in lots of people going out.

In high growth environments, there is little room for precedent or planning. Recruiting and talent acquisition get optimized for speed. The long term consequences of decision making are nearly impossible to see when the growth requirements are relentless.

When the growth is over, the organization tends to be an aging workforce with lots of precedent and lots of “This is the way we do it around here.” The company ceases to be attractive as a source of professional oportunity because average tenure is high. New employees learn quickly that the way to the top involves waiting for your boss to die or get promoted.

The American metals industry is an interesting worst case example (the auto industry runs a close second).

In the Metals industry, the average employee age is in the mid fifties. Often, the youngest person in the company is in their late 30s. New employees who join through college recruiting programs quickly discover that the difference between their age (25) and their boss’ age (50) is a very long time to wait for increased responsibility and a real promotion.

So, what do you do when you have a stagnating company and want to restore it to vibrance?

You can get quick results with Skunk Works style operations and Ozzie is doing that. Building intraprenurial operations is a stopgap measure, however. There are no examples of companies that restored their early vibrance with Skunk Works. It’s a work around.

Over the long haul, it’s a question of whether you can manage the overall workforce into the right mindset. Admonitions about performance (no matter how persuasive or how loud) play to deaf ears when tenure is rewarded. Some of the necessary spirit is structural.

Population Distribution Diagrams can help identify workforce problems, diagnose productivity disorders and model the solutions. There are significant policy adjustments required when you want your battleship to be as nimble as a small speedboat.

For instance, retention is not a single attribute. To manage agility, one wants differing levels of retention and attrition in differing areas / age bands / geographies. A clear picture of the desired demographic shape of the operation is essential. You need a good theory about what the organizational shape of agility looks like.

To return to the metals industry example, there are only two ways to restore vitality in those companies: real organic growth (acquisitions won’t work) or creation of opportunity through the elimination of veterans. You either grow or eliminate real organizational assets to pave the way for opportunity. In the end, a lower average tenure is the key to vibrance.