Tag: talent attraction

Fraction Talent Acquisition and how you can maximize results without breaking the bank.

Unlocking Growth and Flexibility: The Power of Fractional Talent Consultants

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Uncategorized

In today’s fast paced business environment, flexibility is the key to success. Whether you’re a growing startup or an established enterprise, access to top talent is critical for sustained growth. But hiring a full-time talent acquisition professional can be costly. Enter Fractional Talent Acquisition Consultants, an innovative solution offering companies the expertise of recruitment professionals without the overhead of a full-time salary. Let’s explore how this benefits both consultants and companies and dive into other fractional roles that can bring immense value to any business.

The Consultant’s Advantage

For consultants, working in a fractional capacity offers several attractive benefits:

  1. Diverse Client Portfolio: By working with multiple companies across various industries, consultants can leverage diverse insights and remain agile in their approach to problem-solving.
  2. Enhanced Work-Life Balance: Fractional work provides flexibility, enabling consultants to take on projects that align with their schedule and personal life.
  3. Increased Earning Potential: Working on multiple projects at once often results in higher overall income potential compared to a traditional full-time role.
  4. Expanding Skills: Exposure to different companies’ cultures, tools, and hiring needs allows consultants to continuously sharpen their skills.
  5. Authority in the Field: As fractional consultants are typically engaged for their specific expertise, this role positions them as a trusted advisor in the realm of talent acquisition and recruiting.

The Company’s Advantage

On the other side, companies gain immense value from hiring fractional consultants:

  1. Cost Efficiency: Hiring a full-time talent acquisition professional can strain budgets, especially if the demand for recruitment fluctuates. A fractional consultant allows companies to only pay for services when needed, making it a more cost-effective solution.
  2. Access to Expertise: Fractional consultants bring deep expertise to the table, having worked across multiple sectors. This often leads to faster, more effective recruiting and onboarding processes.
  3. Scalability: Fractional consultants can adapt to your needs, whether that means scaling up recruitment during a busy hiring season or scaling down during slower periods.
  4. Reduced Overhead: No need to worry about benefits, paid time off, or other full-time employee perks, which can significantly lower overall costs.
  5. Faster Hiring Process: With the ability to source, recruit, and onboard top talent efficiently, fractional talent acquisition professionals reduce time-to-fill, helping your business meet its goals sooner.

How Fractional Talent Acquisition Consultants Help

Fractional Talent Acquisition Consultants provide the full spectrum of recruitment services:

  1. Sourcing & Recruiting: Consultants use proprietary tools, advanced sourcing strategies, and techniques to identify top talent, ensuring your company gets the best candidates quickly.
  2. Recruitment Process Optimization: Consultants streamline the recruitment pipeline, from posting the job to final offer, cutting unnecessary steps and reducing time-to-hire by up to 25% or more.
  3. Onboarding: The role doesn’t stop at hiring; onboarding is also a critical function that fractional consultants can manage, ensuring new hires are smoothly integrated into your organization.
  4. Technology Integration: Consultants bring knowledge of the latest AI-driven technologies, reducing recruitment spend and increasing applicant flow.

Other Fractional Roles Your Company Can Benefit From

Fractional work isn’t limited to talent acquisition. Here are other high-value fractional roles companies should consider:

  1. Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO): Perfect for companies needing marketing leadership without a full-time commitment, fractional CMOs can develop and execute marketing strategies aligned with growth objectives.
  2. Fractional Chief Financial Officer (CFO): Managing budgets, financial planning, and growth strategies are crucial, but hiring a full-time CFO may not always be feasible. A fractional CFO provides strategic financial insights when needed.
  3. Fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO): For companies navigating complex tech landscapes, a fractional CTO offers technology leadership to drive innovation, enhance product development, and implement tech strategies.
  4. Fractional Sales Leader: When sales strategy and leadership are key but you don’t need a full-time executive, a fractional sales leader can improve revenue streams while maintaining flexibility in the workforce.
  5. Fractional HR Consultant: These consultants offer strategic HR services, including talent management, employee engagement, and compliance, without the cost of a full-time HR department.
  6. Fractional Operations Manager: Focuses on process optimization, scaling operations, and driving efficiency, especially useful during periods of rapid growth or restructuring.
  7. Fractional Sales Directors
    Helps develop and implement sales strategies, mentor teams, and boost revenue growth on a project or part-time basis, enhancing sales performance without committing to a full-time role.
  8. Fractional Digital Marketing Experts
    Manages digital campaigns, SEO, and social media strategies, enabling companies to enhance their online presence and drive traffic without the overhead of an in-house team.

The rise of fractional talent, particularly in talent acquisition, provides a win-win for both consultants and businesses. Companies gain access to high-level expertise without breaking the bank, while consultants enjoy flexibility, diverse opportunities, and competitive pay. In a world where agility and cost-effectiveness are paramount, embracing fractional roles is a smart strategy for forward-thinking organizations.

Considering fractional support for your business? Get in touch to discover how a Fractional Talent Acquisition Consultant can transform your hiring process, or explore how other fractional roles can boost your company’s success.

Now you might ask how can I sell this up the ladder? A Fractional Talent Acquisition model can benefit a wide range of companies and fit various business scenarios. Below are common scenarios and target companies that would benefit most from adopting this model:

Scenarios for Fractional Talent Acquisition

  1. Scaling Startups
    • Scenario: Startups experiencing rapid growth need to hire quickly but cannot afford full-time HR staff or recruiters.
    • Why Fractional Works: A fractional talent acquisition consultant can manage high-volume hiring efficiently without the long-term financial commitment.
  2. Project-Based Hiring
    • Scenario: Companies with short-term projects or contracts require specific skills on a temporary basis.
    • Why Fractional Works: Consultants provide agile support by sourcing and hiring talent for temporary or contract roles, saving the company from hiring full-time staff for short-term needs.
  3. Expansion into New Markets
    • Scenario: Companies expanding into new geographical regions or markets need local talent quickly.
    • Why Fractional Works: A consultant experienced in various markets can handle recruitment efficiently, tailoring the process to the specific needs of new regions.
  4. Seasonal Hiring Peaks
    • Scenario: Industries with seasonal spikes in demand (e.g., retail, hospitality) often need to scale up their workforce for a short period.
    • Why Fractional Works: A consultant can manage the seasonal surge in recruitment needs, ensuring the company is adequately staffed without long-term payroll obligations.
  5. Internal Recruitment Overload
    • Scenario: Internal HR or recruitment teams are overwhelmed by multiple open positions and high hiring demand.
    • Why Fractional Works: A fractional consultant can step in to relieve pressure on internal teams, handling the overflow and enabling quicker placements.
  6. Niche or Executive Hiring
    • Scenario: Companies need to hire specialized talent or fill executive-level roles, which requires a targeted search and niche expertise.
    • Why Fractional Works: Fractional consultants often have experience in specialized areas, making them ideal for niche or senior-level hiring, without the hefty fees associated with traditional headhunters.
  7. Company Reorganization or Restructuring
    • Scenario: Companies going through restructuring or downsizing still need to hire selectively but can’t justify a full-time talent acquisition team.
    • Why Fractional Works: Fractional consultants provide flexible and cost-effective recruitment services during periods of uncertainty or transition.
  8. New Product Launches
    • Scenario: Companies launching new products or services may require specific talent quickly to meet development or sales deadlines.
    • Why Fractional Works: A fractional consultant can quickly source talent in product development, marketing, and sales to ensure the successful launch.
  9. Limited Recruitment Budget
    • Scenario: Small to mid-sized companies need to hire strategically but face tight recruitment budgets.
    • Why Fractional Works: Hiring a fractional consultant helps companies optimize their recruiting processes at a lower cost, providing expertise without the overhead of a full-time salary.
  10. Crisis or Emergency Hiring
    • Scenario: In case of unexpected departures or urgent hiring needs, companies must quickly replace critical staff.
    • Why Fractional Works: Fractional consultants can mobilize quickly, filling roles without the delays of a full-time hiring process, and minimizing disruption.

The Fractional Talent Acquisition model is a powerful solution for companies looking to scale quickly, manage short-term hiring needs, or optimize their recruiting process without overcommitting financially. Whether it’s tech startups, retail businesses, or healthcare organizations, fractional consultants offer expertise, flexibility, and efficiency that traditional hiring models cannot match.

By embracing this approach, companies can stay nimble, reduce costs, and hire the right talent at the right time.

#FractionalConsultant #TalentAcquisition #BusinessGrowth #FractionalHiring #Recruiting #HR #CostSavings #BusinessStrategy #FlexibleWork

The Truth About Older (50+) Salespeople

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Diversity, Employment Retention, Employment Value Proposition, Generational Gap, Hiring, Interviewing, Latest News and Articles, Millennials, Workforce Cuture

Wisdom is the knowledge base that will assist our future leaders.

Imagine if you will a time when you are getting a little bit older, a touch grayer and you start reflecting on what are you going to do when you get too mature for the industry you are in.

I have always had this question, but never bold enough to write about it. I’ve had a lot of opinions on this as the market is getting younger by the minute. People want to put millennials on pedestals and assume they are the next coming of…well whatever. I do not. But what I do say is they are dang smart. We Xers can learn tons from them.

The problem, however, is they lack the experience of hitting a curve ball. This can be taught of course, but won’t happen until they have failed a number of times. Knowledge and wisdom come from experience, not case studies.

I don’t fear getting older. I love it. I don’t fear millennials, I encourage them. 1+1 = power. Let’s embrace learning from one another. By the way, I am not 50+!!!

~The Organic Recruiter

Published on

The Truth About Older (50+) Salespeople

 | Technology Sales Author, Sales Researcher, Founder Heavy Hitter Sales Training, USC Faculty

It is still hard times for salespeople (and sales managers) over 50 today. When companies downsize, they find themselves five times more likely to be let go when compared to their younger counterparts. They also have a more difficult time finding new jobs because younger sales managers have five basic fears about hiring someone older than themselves:

They are Un-coachable. Younger sales managers fear older salespeople are set in their ways and won’t take their directions.

They aren’t Technically Savvy. Younger sales managers fear they haven’t ingrained technology (smartphones, e-mail, and web-based sales force automation) into their daily working routine (nor are they up-to-date on the internet, social media, etc.).

They are “Washed Up.” Younger sales managers fear older reps are burned out from too many years “carrying the bag.”

They Have a Poor Work Ethic.  For a variety of family, personal, or health reasons, younger sales managers question how hard they will work.

They Really Want My Job! Perhaps the biggest fear of a younger manager is that he is hiring someone who may upstage him or her in the eyes of senior management in order to fulfill an ulterior motive of taking over their job.

Given these fears, I would like to offer five factors sales managers should consider when choosing between younger and more senior salespeople.

  1. Do you have to Sell to the C-Level? The C-level Executive sell is based upon establishing credibility and trust. Who do think has an easier time establishing rapport with senior executives; a 26 or 56 year old salesperson?
  2. It’s about relationships (not Rolodexes). Never hire any salesperson solely based on their Rolodex (if you’re under 30 you might have to look this word up) of customer contacts they claim to possess. Hire the salesperson who has a successful track record at penetrating new accounts and proven their ability of turning aloof prospects into close friends.
  3. Wit. Most companies make previous experience in the same industry their main criterion for hiring. Since these salespeople command the industry nomenclature, they are assumed to be qualified candidates. A more important hiring criterion is how candidates respond to pressure. In other words, how quick-witted or fast on their feet are they? What is their ability to learn quickly? Are they able to solve complex problems in real time? In this regard, don’t judge a book by its cover and assume a little gray hair means a lot less grey matter.
  4. Sales is a Mentor-based Profession. Sales organizations are mentor-based environments. Inexperienced salespeople don’t know what they haven’t seen for themselves. Usually, it’s through the “school of hard knocks” that they gain their experience. Unfortunately, this takes time. The entire sales team can benefit from emulating salespeople who have accumulated a reservoir of experience working with customers.
  5. Who Do You Trust!?! Peek into the cockpit as you board your next commercial flight. Chances are you are putting your life in the hands of one of the 70,000 airline pilots that are over 50 years old.

About the Author:  Steve W. Martin is the author of the “Heavy Hitter” series of books for senior salespeople on the human nature of complex sales. The Heavy Hitter corporate sales training program has helped over 100,000 salespeople become top revenue producers. Steve is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review and he teaches at the University of Southern California Marshall Business School MBA program. Visit www.stevewmartin.com to learn more.

A Speedy Sourcer’s Guide To Conquering The Intake Session

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Hiring, Interviewing, Latest News and Articles, Tools, Uncategorized

There are many ways companies want to set up their processes to find the right people. From finding the people,to who talks to them first and how many people are in the interview process. One thing is for sure, you need to hire people. So why is it taking so dang long? This is the first time I read an article from Nicole Nespeca and I find myself to be in love with what she has to say about sourcing.

Time to fill is taking far too long. You can blame it on the supply (just ask me for supply and demand information), the economy or even the election for some weird reason. But I think it is time for some reflection and accountability that you are just getting in your own way.

Let’s look at the 5 techniques Nicole has put in front of us and see if that makes it easier for you to make that sound decision quicker.

~ The Organic Recruiter

elephant-700x467

By  Sourcecon

Now that the election is over, we no longer have to listen to donkeys or elephants. However, if you are a sourcing professional, you probably don’t mind purple squirrels and pink elephants and the PETA-approved hunt. Consequently, you will need to do the quintessential intake session and must prove just how valuable you are to your company’s talent acquisition team.

So where do you start? Should you read the job description first and start researching, or wait until you speak to with the hiring manager? Every recruiting paradigm is different and therefore will continue to shift. Some talent acquisition teams have intakes between the sourcer and the hiring manager and some are with the aligned recruiter only. The most advantageous are with the hiring manager and recruiter as it’s more streamlined. Anticipating the needs of your hiring manager and/or aligned recruiter is crucial to your success in finding the right candidate.

Here are five speedy techniques a sourcer can do to master the intake meeting.

  1. Forget about refreshing your Facebook page every two minutes, you need to research as quickly as possible before the intake session. I recommend focusing on market intelligence, specific demographic candidate pools, and the potential difficulty of the search.

Primarily, you must research the demographic of the open position as well as the candidate supply and demand. You can get this free data from Salary.com, Glassdoor or just by using a search engine. You want to know what the market looks like. Research this before the intake so you can speak to the statistics of the candidate pool and how you will circumvent any supply challenges. You want to come to the intake session armed with as much information as possible. This leads to my second action you should as a subset of research.

  1. Remember the old adage “In a race, I never look back?” Well, ironically it’s just as important when knowing your competitor.

Know your competitors and the market intelligence of the industry you are hiring for.  Sourcers are quick studies. They are fast and know how to speed read. One must be able to do this expediently prior to the intake session. Understanding the back story is pertinent to the search. You will impress the hiring manager and recruiter alike if you know what companies are downsizing candidates that could fit into the open opportunity. Furthermore, gaining knowledge as to where to find untapped talent is paramount.

  1. Use past resumes to source candidates in the future. Nothing compares to reading a resume in terms of learning about a person.

Once I reviewed a resume that had “Atari” as a skill. Until I saw that, the candidate looked like a match for the open requisition. You need to see resumes of previous candidates to succeed in a hire. Consequently, please get the resume of the person in the position being filled and read it carefully. Use the keywords in that resume to make Boolean searches and resume matches on social media. If the hiring manager or recruiter doesn’t have the resume, you can usually find it in your company’s ATS. If it’s a new position and therefore no resume exists, ask the hiring manager what keywords you should look for in your search and where the hiring manager has hired from previously in terms of competing companies to your own.

  1. Lighten your link’s load. It only takes two seconds to make a Bitly.

Every sourcer should construct a Bitly link because it makes campaign drivers and website pages much shorter for sharing on social, email, and SMS and directs applicants to an application typically. I highly recommend you write a catchy social media blurb to drive prospective candidates to your open requisition. When speaking with your hiring manager and recruiter on the intake you should share the blurb you will use on social media and ask them to share the same blurb. Leveraging another’s network is significant in giving visibility to the open requisition.

  1. “Organizations, schools and trade shows…oh my” as I say in my best Wizard of Oz impression.

When summarizing the job on the intake, make sure you ask about any organizations, schools or trade shows the team hiring might belong too. Part of being a good sourcer is uncovering lists of candidates online from job fairs or symposiums for example. In order to find these types of lists, you must delve deep into the hiring manager’s repertoire. Also, connect on LinkedIn with your hiring manager. Not only is doing so good for building a relationship, but it also allows you to see your hiring manager’s connections which could yield a hire.

Researching fast prior to your intake will help you establish credibility right away with your hiring manager and recruiter. You must perform this due diligence in order to be effective in hiring. Coming to the intake already understanding some of the challenges involved and then sharing resolutions to circumvent these issues will impress on the intake. Coming prepared is tantamount to being a successful sourcer. And all triumphant sourcers study and educate themselves on each position they recruit for. I hope these five tips will help you nail your next intake and if you can get a hold of an old Atari to play after a hard search, even better.

Gone in 6.0 Seconds

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Hiring, Interviewing, Latest News and Articles, New Job, Uncategorized

That’s how long it takes a recruiter to go to the next resume if they spent some time on yours.

According to most articles in the last 5+ years, recruiters spend no more than 6 seconds to disqualify you. So you better make an impact quick. Ladders wrote: Recruiters spend 80% of their six-second scan looking at these 4 areas:

  • Name
  • Current Position: Title, Company, and Dates of Employment
  • Previous Position: Title, Company, and Dates of Employment
  • Education

I am curious, I created a copy of my resume in the same 1 sheet format that is circulating with Yahoo!’s Marissa Mayer. Hers is getting mixed reviews, mostly good, but from the traditional, old schoolers I am seeing they are not so excited about it. From the more progressive, creative recruiters it is getting much praise.

my-experience-2016 (b)How do you put detailed accomplishments; numbers; accolades; history; culture fit; education; philanthropy and other details into a 6 second read? I am not quite sure that can be done.

So what do you do to get the recruiter’s attention quick because they do not have time to go through your 4 page resume? Some would say call the recruiter but the recruiters will tell others how that annoys the heck out them. Others would say use your network. I recently sent an email out to 164 recruiters I know in my network asking for help for a friend. I received 4 responses back. These guys and gals are busy. Getting back to you on a hope, is not that easy. In my case it was 2.4% return.

It’s not they don’t want to speak with you. It’s more about having 30 jobs to work on, hiring managers saying where are my resumes while turning down the ones the recruiters spent hours interviewing, prepping and dissecting their skill-sets. As well as sourcing like crazy and spending 6 seconds on your resume. We cannot blame them for not getting back to everyone, although it would be nice. But the best way to get noticed is to be noticed.

How quickly do you get noticed in a crowd? If you are in an analogue world without a smart phone, I am sure you do not find your friends at a concert so easily. Same with your resume. The analogue, dot-matrix format your resume is in is quite frankly just that…out-dated.

Now I am not saying throw pictures of your family and pets on it, rather I am saying find a way to professionally get the recruiters to notice you. Once they call you, get them to know who you are and how you are perfect for that job as it is their job to sell you. Ask them what the manager is looking for that is not plainly written in the job description. Then have some backup ready to articulate that in 6 seconds so when the recruiter sells you, it pops out.

Getting the interview is the hardest part as it is like professional baseball. You have so many divisions, in our case levels of people to impress. But if you know where you are awesome and equally important, you explain in detail where you may have failed or lost an account / project, then you are ahead of the curve.

The challenge is to get noticed or you will be gone in 6.0 seconds.

~The Organic Recruiter

For Job Seekers, the Black Hole Persists

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Employment Value Proposition, Hiring, Interviewing, New Job
By LAUREN WEBER

Why am I not getting calls back for my application? What’s the deal…am I not good enough? These are the thoughts of job applicants these days. They are being treated like a piece of paper and not an actual person.
People invest time in their career. Isn’t it fair to treat them like humans, not paper? Referring back to my Optimization page (Gail and Richie) depicts the life of a recruiter and how hiring managers think of applicants, “where’s my resumes?”. 
People, we need to open our eyes as this article shows, recruiters are acting as if these real people are merely a piece of paper and it is okay if we don’t call them back. I’m here to tell you, it is not. These people want to work for you and they should not have to put their lives on hold until (if ever) they hear from you. 
Thank you, Lauren, for this great article below. ~The Organic Recruiter

Most of today’s online job applications still enter a black hole.

Frank N. Stein had a stellar resume—he was an Ivy League graduate, with stints as a corporate recruiter at Johnson & Johnson and Russell Reynolds, and his CV was loaded with the keywords needed to float to the top of today’s automated job-applicant software.

He was also not a real person, a fact noted at the bottom of his one-page resume.

Even so, recruiters at only two of the 100 companies where he applied for jobs read far enough to discover that Stein was a fiction designed to “mystery shop” the job-seeker experience. The ruse was created by recruiting consulting firm CareerXroads, according to a report released Monday.

What does that tell Mark Mehler, a founder of CareerXroads?

“Recruiters read the first three paragraphs of a resume,” he said. “That’s all the job seeker is going to get.” And that only counts those whose resumes pass through the automated keyword screening that winnows a set of applications from hundreds to a few dozen.

Every year, Kendall Park, N.J.-based CareerXroads submits a fake resume through the career websites of the companies on Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work Forlist, to assess the recruiting practices of some of the most well-respected employers in the country, including Google Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Deloitte LLP.

The results are generally dismal, as they were again this year. Job seekers’ main complaint—that they shoot their applications into a black hole—was confirmed.

Out of the 100 companies, 64 never sent Stein any notification that he was not being considered for the job for which he had applied. Months after submitting his resume, he “was left hanging in the breeze,” said Mehler. Overwhelmingly in job seeker surveys, candidates tell CareerXroads “they just want to know, ‘am I in or out?’ They don’t want to keep chasing and wondering.”

Six of the employers followed up with Stein wanting to schedule interviews, two uncovered the ruse, and 28 eventually notified him that the position had been filled, or at least that he wasn’t in the running.

Worst of all, 28 is the highest number of companies extending that courtesy in the twelve years CareerXroads has conducted the Mystery Job Seeker survey.

There’s no excuse for those oversights, Mehler said, given that those communications can be automated easily in today’s applicant tracking systems, the software that stores job applications.

Most systems have the capacity to do this, but major corporations don’t use those features because they’re scared that opening the lines of communication will lead to lawsuits, too many phone calls to recruiters, and too many questions they can’t answer, he said.

There were bits of good news from Frank N. Stein’s experience. Nearly all employers now send an email acknowledging receipt of a job application. In addition, career websites are easier to navigate than in previous years, and employers have gotten better at streamlining the application so that it takes less time to complete – in most cases, 10 minutes or less.

Another pleasant surprise, according to Mehler: Stein had been unemployed by choice for a year (he had rejected six job offers as poor fits for him, then took a 6-month sabbatical to bicycle across the country), and still received interest from six of the 98 employers who thought he was a real person. “That’s huge,” said Mehler. “It shows that if you write a good resume and have great experience behind you, you can still find a job.”

Lauren Weber

Reporter, The Wall Street Journal.
Lauren Weber writes about workplace issues and careers for the Wall Street Journal.