On occasion I come across a totally serious, well researched business related article that is just almost too funny to be true. I guess a lot of it has to do with how well or humorously the article is written – but nontheless, let me talk about and share one I came across recently.

It is an article from Maclean’s, published on the Canoe network on November 19, 2007. Title… “Why Useless bosses always hire idiots”. It goes on to highlight in the sub title “Insecure bosses create office -pods of incompetence-”

All this based on a European study, but I’m sure with universal application. The kicker for us HR folks out there is this… The author goes on to write that WE have failed to halt the cycle of poor hiring and, subsequently, are partly responsible for that whooshing sound created by the sucking of mediocrity and sub-par talent that speeds to the top of the org chart as key leaders retire or exit the organization. From hiring to performance management and culture building – we, the HR peeps, need to step it up and go on idiot patrol.

There’s truth in humour, no?

Here’s the article by Jason Kirby, for your reading pleasure:

To be a good boss, surround yourself with great and talented people. It’s one of the most oft-repeated bits of advice from business gurus like former General Electric honcho Jack Welch, while whole chapters of management books are devoted to its practice. But incompetent bosses have found a better way to survive the modern work world – they just hire employees who are even more useless than they are.

A new study by researchers in Europe has added to the growing swell of evidence that managers who feel they aren’t good at their jobs tend to surround themselves with less competent employees. Researchers at the University of Granada in Spain and University of Lovaina in Belgium suggest insecure bosses do so in order to “try to prevent subordinates from becoming competition for them.”

Numerous studies in recent years have pointed to a proliferation of crummy bosses and their inept underlings in the workplace. This is a serious cause for concern, warns John Hoover, author of How to Work for an Idiot. He says bad bosses are forming ever-expanding “pods of incompetence.” When truly good executives move on to other jobs or retire, a vacuum forms at the top. “The loud sucking sound you hear is all the pods of incompetence being drawn one level higher on the organizational food chain,” he says. “That’s how incompetent leaders find themselves wielding incredible power and influence.”

Hoover says human resource departments at companies have largely failed to halt this cycle. “HR executives ultimately sit by helplessly as bad bosses hire sycophants,” he says. By the time HR types do step in, the damage to the company has been done, and fixing the mistakes is next to impossible.

Of course, this all raises some interesting and awkward questions. Studies have found anywhere between one-quarter and 75 per cent of employees think that they could do a better job than their bosses. But if those same bosses hired them, maybe grumbling employees should ask themselves why they’re there in the first place.

A couple of years back (okay, well, almost a decade ago), I had the pleasure of meeting an individual named William Stewart. William was a good friend of Trevor Wilson, a workplace diversity guru and evangelist. William has been running his own diversity business called Equitek – more or less a one stop shop for all your diversity recruitment needs. The thing I have always liked about his service offering, is that as I moved company to company and had different requirements around diversity, his company was always able to somehow fit in.

Furthermore, during my tenure at Air Miles, I was able to work with William to help his business adapt their technology to move content electronically and securely between us, his service and his partners – providing a seamless end-to-end diversity solution to bring us qualified candiates from over 30 different sources. I should mention that, for all the service we received, Equitek’s fees were a drop in the bucket compared to what we were spending on job boards.. let alone the additional spend on agencies, magazines and newspapers.

I’d like to share an article on Equitek that was published earlier this year on February 14 in the Ottawa citizen and on the Canada.com network. Check it out, if you are evern remotely thinking of diversity sourcing, if you need an informal or formalized diversity hiring strategy or especially if you are a regulated employer.

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More than being a good corporate citizen, valuing diversity is sound business strategy

Louise Rachlis
The Ottawa Citizen

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

These days, Ontario companies are looking at the lowest unemployment rates in 30 years.

And they will be looking to aboriginal peoples, visible minorities, the physically disabled, women, and internationally-trained professionals to fill some of those positions.

“The crunch is on, and companies are realizing that they have to augment their strategies to find that new hidden pool of talent that traditional techniques often exclude,” says Will Stewart, Director, Canadian Operations, of Equitek Employment Equity Solutions, which is filling that niche market.

“A company’s strongest contingent is to have the best and the brightest people,” he says. “This is a hidden labour pool.” He stresses that “diversity and employment equity is not a quota law; it’s about making sure that everybody has an equal opportunity to see the job and apply for the job, he says. “We provide the employers with that reach into the community. We’ve built a network of employment counselors within those four groups and extend the reach of that employment opportunity. The counselors go through their lists of candidates and determine who is best qualified for the job.”

The resume is then automatically hyperlinked back to the company’s HR department. “It saves the company a lot of time, because all they have to do is put a job on their job board, and we use The Equitek Diversity Portal, www.equitek.ca, as a centrepoint of contact,” he says. “It goes right through their normal application process. We give them one-stop shopping; a complete turnkey outreach program, without actually having to maintain those contacts.”

The concept began over a decade ago as the brainchild of Trevor Wilson, Global Human Equity Strategist and author of Diversity at Work:The Business Case for Equity. “At the time the diversity business was focussed on training,” says Mr. Stewart. “I decided when taking a look at this business, that there were an awful lot of trainers there, and soon everyone would be trained. My company started as a resume data base, and over the years I have perfected the method. The last two or three years, diversity has become an industry.”

A core client of his for nine years has been Loyalty Group Airmiles. “They are always willing to go along with my experiments and push the boundaries of what I’m doing,” he says. “Geoff Ramey, formerly of Loyalty Group, suggested that it would be nice for companies to be able to go to one place for newspaper advertising, online advertising (working.com) and diversity outreach (Equitek).”

That partnership was created last February, with CanWest Mediaworks joining with Equitek to provide organizations with employment equity solutions.

As Equitek moves into more of a relationship arrangement with their clients, the networking event in Ottawa on February 15th is brand new. A similar one held in Toronto as the Global TV Diversity Reception was a huge success. “It wasn’t a job fair, it wasn’t a career fair. The centres of influence from diverse communities and Global TV were there,” he says. “In Ottawa there will be eight companies, and we’ll see what happens. We’re evolving to create a networking group of outreach partners under one hub.”

Equitek is not an employment agency. “We specialize in providing one-stop outreach solutions,” he says. “Our outreach programs assist corporations to generate an applicant flow through a proactive recruitment network of employment counselors, job coaches, and mentors that represent diverse talent from all of the designated groups including internationally trained professionals.”

“Equitek’s Employment Equity Solutions program will help companies augment their recruitment tools, allowing them to access qualified candidates that may be difficult to reach through traditional channels,” says Kim Peters, general manager, working.com. “This will enable employers to enhance their candidate pool and ensure they find the most qualified person for the position.” According to The Conference Board of Canada, recent immigration patterns have sharply internationalized Canada’s labour force.

Approximately 13.4 per cent of Canada’s population is now comprised of visible minorities. Moving beyond traditional search tools will allow human resource professionals to gain the attention of the various cultural groups within this country and ensure they reflect the diversity of Canadians within their organization.

This Equitek venture with CanWest Mediaworks marks the first time in Canadian history where, under one corporate brand, recruitment advertisement strategy can combine traditional print recruitment advertising with CanWest’s national chain of newspapers, and online recruitment advertisement with working.com, accompanied by a diversity recruitment network from Equitek Employment Equity Solutions, providing Canadian corporations with a seamlessly integrated solution for all of their recruitment advertising needs.

“Every company is a collection of individuals,” says Mr. Stewart. “Ultimately, the strength of a company is how well it utilizes the diversity of the qualified individuals. Today’s progressive companies actively promote the principles of equal opportunity and encourage applications from all qualified persons.” The newest partner of CanWest MediaWorks and Equitek is the Ontario First Nations Technical Services Corporation (OFNTSC).

Through the Equitek Diversity Outreach Network, OFNTSC’s extensive client network of 134 First Nations groups, 15 Tribal Councils and various provincial and territorial organizations receive daily electronic delivery of job listings across Canada from Equitek’s extensive clientele of top corporations, CanWest MediaWork’s network of 12 Canadian newspapers and working.com.

The Canadian Institute (www.CanadianInstitute.com) is presenting a conference on Social Media – flyer at www.cprs.ca/files/CDNInst/CDNInst-SocialMedia.pdf.

Why do I bring it up?

I am presenting a session on using Social Media for Recruitment, and specifically, how we use it at Yahoo!

The conference is primarily targetted to marketers, but based on the initital attendee demographic breakdown provided by CI, it looks like a good mix of industries and roles.

There’s also a Facebook group related to the conference that you can track down, if you want some first hand industry buzz on the conference – see what your peers are saying. Copy and paste http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5069374863

I’ll check back in after the conference to add some comments on how it went. But of course, I’ll see you all there.

Here’s a copy and paste of a recent RNG article I put together based on a conference session I recently moderated. It’s been published online at www.recruiternetworkinggroup.com…

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If you’re a recruitment agency, and you call my voicemail, you’ll get a friendly but direct invitation to write down my e-mail address so you can send your marketing collateral to me before you’re encouraged to hang up without so much as leaving a message.

I’m not trying to be mean. I’ve never been bitten by a vendor. And, I’m not all that socially awkward that I don’t want to make new acquaintances. However, with more than two thousand salivating profit driven (and, who wouldn’t be?) recruitment related vendors in the Toronto area alone, being in HR or Talent Acquisition at a well recognized brand puts a pretty big target on one’s back!

Just recently at the RNG conference on September 6 & 7, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel of three well respected representatives of the staffing industry speaking in front of their peers and a room full of corporate recruiters. The purpose of the session? – to talk about ways of putting some value back into the partnerships between staffing firms and corporate recruiting departments. To change the “us” and “them” to a “we”. And, to find ways for both parties to build long term relationships so that each can benefit for effective and efficient joint recruitment processes.

Let me begin with one realization I had only shortly before the session began – as a corporate recruiter I either staff up my recruitment department and operate efficiently to meet the needs of my clients, or if I fall short, my hiring managers find someone else to fill the void – enter staffing agencies. I’ve seen this happen many times, where corporate recruitment teams struggle to keep up with open requisitions – just barely keeping the collective recruiter heads above water when in swoops a vendor with “the perfect candidate” and the hiring manager shows up on the recruiter’s doorstep pushing the virtues of both the vendor and the candidate. Now, forced to bring that candidate in the door, the recruiter is behind the eight ball negotiating rates, guarantees, ensuring correct corporate messaging and branding, and the list goes on.

Wouldn’t you rather be in a position where you’ve already partnered to build effective relationships with top vendors? Your partner is able to anticipate your needs and bring you that one in a million gem when the timing is right? Someone you trust to share your business strategy, your org charts, your values and even your challenges?

Some of the key take away thoughts from the discussion that took place at the conference focused on partnerships built around consistency, trust, relationships and accountability. Sounds like the same principles you would seek in a friendship, from the candidates you hire for your company, from family members and even your cat or dog. Well, for those of you with cats, you’ll know that getting them to be accountable for their actions may not be so easy. Point being, corporate recruiters and staffing agencies need not exist like oil and water but rather should build foundations early on to be more like oil and vinegar (on a nice leafy salad) – Mmmmmmm.

Some of the tools you can use to ensure success? Put in place Service Level Agreements (SLAs), set ground rules, do an onboarding exercise as you would with new employees, regularly report on delivery metrics, solicit feedback from recruiters and hiring managers, meet face to face regularly to discuss successes, challenges and/or shortfalls.

For the vendors out there who think you’re different from the other 1999 down the street – you’re not. That you have better candidates – you don’t. That you have a product offering that I just can’t refuse – I can. That you worked with my predecessor so you know my business and should work with me – maybe. How do you get a response from me after running up against that brick wall in my voice mail? Sometimes you will and sometimes you won’t.

When will you? Maybe when I do in fact have a need or a tough to fill position. However, I’m more likely to speak to you when you’ve made a genuine effort to build a relationship, not just make a sale. You’ll hear from me when a colleague recommends your firm, and I pick up the phone to call YOU. It’s not your service offering that sets you apart (well, at least not 99% of the time), it’s your long term investment in my needs, your deep understanding of my business, your ability to sell my value proposition to candidates and the fact that you stick around when I have little to throw you. In fact, most of the vendors I use today are the vendors I started using one decade and four jobs ago!

The session at the conference and this article is a wake up call to corporate recruiters to make an effort to establish partnerships, and true partnerships with your vendors – stop treating them as order takers. It is a lesson to vendors to stop making sales pitches and cliché sales calls – figure out how to become an extension of your client’s business and provide the best value to clients. Recruiters are networkers and just like they’ll network to find the best candidates, they should be networking to find the best vendors.

Think differently. Get these things right, and I may just stop telling you to move along.