Can’t sleep? Here might be a reason…

A poor recruiting technique

Back in the day, there was no such thing as recruiting. At least not in the formal sense. When companies had job openings, they advertised them, and candidates would submit written applications and/or resumes, which were screened by hiring managers who would decide who to bring in for interviews. And when senior positions became available, two things would happen. First, the company would promote someone from within (I know that sounds rather “quaint” these days, but really…it used to happen). If for some reason someone internal truly wasn’t available, they would start calling their networks (we used to call these “F R I E N D S”) to see who knew whom, and would find someone that way. It was simple, but so were a lot of things.

Of course, some of us actually remember what it was like before this whole “Internet” thing took off and when telephones were used for calling people.

As opposed to say…taking pictures. Or watching Miley Cyrus videos.

But I’m not being nostalgic here. Far from it. I love technology, and all the benefits it brings. Hell, I’m writing a blog. Facebook? Check. MySpace? Check. Twitter? Check. Two cell phones, a Garmin, iPod, HDTV, XM, Sirius, broadband…you name it. Check. I’ve even got Sirius TV in the family vehicle. So I’m anything but a technophobe.

But recently, I confess I’m starting to feel that we’re adopting technology for it’s own sake, and for the perceived benefits they bring, not the least of which is being perceived as “cool”.

Lately, I can’t open a recruiting site that doesn’t talk about Web 2.0 and how we as recruiters need to be adopting these technologies in order to be more effective. To be more productive. To attract the right kinds of candidates. To survive and thrive in the on-going war for talent.

So after you get in the office, get your coffee, say hi to everyone, and crank up the ATS to see who’s applied to your requisitions, sort and screen the resumes, conduct your phone screens (after playing phone tag for 3 days with the candidate), forward the good ones, schedule the interviews, eat lunch at your desk, do more phone screens, enter your new requisitions in the system, do your sourcing, cold call passive candidates, arrange travel for incoming candidates, and meet with hiring managers to get feedback regarding interviews and get intake regarding expectations around new reqs, call your spouse to say you’re going to be late for dinner again, and then commute home, only to fire up the laptop once more, check email, watch the news, and hit the sack, - ONLY THEN do you realize that you still need to search LinkedIn, surf Facebook, cruise around MySpace, and any number of other Web 2.0 social networking sites, all in the name of doing more sourcing, and being on top of the “latest thing”.

And let’s not forget all the administrivia you’re responsible for as well, making sure you’re keeping the ATS up to date, and that all the requisite paperwork is where it should be.

I won’t even mention that somewhere in your schedule you’re supposed to work with marketing to get highly creative corporate videos on your career site, and coordinate interviews with employees talking about how great it is to work for your company (and when does THAT become a commodity that no one bothers watching when EVERY company is great to work for??), and then set up meetings with IT and Legal to get chat software installed on everyone’s computer so that prospective candidates can talk live with employees about their experience in a particular job (the “experts” say you need this. How you sell this to front line managers that their employees will be required to stop working and talk with strangers about their job experience would be an hilarious conversation to witness, to say the least!). Oh, and then someone, probably you, needs to update whatever blog you’re writing, and answer questions over at ERE or LinkedIn, all in the name of “WEB 2.0 RECRUITING” and the social networking you need to be doing in order to be effective.

This is in addition to whatever social networking you’re doing that’s NOT associated with your job, because you still like to pretend from time to time that you have a life.

And somewhere in all this, you still supposed to be a great recruiter, and a great husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend, father, mother, lover, friend, roommate, whatever. Your company prides itself on its “balanced life and work” outlook, which implies that you’re still supposed to have time in all this to have a hobby or an avocation of some sort. And society says that in order to be a complete human being, you should be doing some sort of volunteer work for your church or a charity or something.

And they say that technology will never take over our lives…

So next time you wonder why you can’t sleep, it’s probably because you’ve run out of time. As the saying goes, “Sleep? I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

Web 2.0? Valuable, yes. The next big change in our industry? Very much so. But I’ve run out of time. Or as we used to say in the software space, I’m out of bandwidth. If you find yourself in the same boat, perhaps it’s time to get some of this off your plate.

And THAT, my friends, is just one reason why RPO might make sense. So you can focus on what you’re good at, still have a life, employ the latest technologies and techniques to make your recruiting efforts and processes world class, …and get some sleep at night.