We can't contain our excitement any longer – the secret is out!
Posted Wednesday October 5th, 2011

We're so proud to welcome you to our new Head2Head website, and our fresh new look!

 As great as everything looks, we understand that you might be wondering – what happened to the Head2Head 'heads'?

 

Eleven years ago, Head2Head was founded by Paul Dodd and Stan Hamersak on a simple premise – when it came to recruiting in Canada, there had to be a better way. Their idea, to recruit recruiters, caught on throughout the industry, and since then Head2Head has grown to offer a network of over 4,000 recruiters with a wide range of expertise. In addition to that, the services we offer today are just as comprehensive and varied. From contingent workforce management to an innovative recruiting solutions department, and so much more, we have established ourselves as one of the most dynamic forces in the Canadian recruitment market, and we're proud of it.

 We'll always feel a connection to those heads that made such an impression on customers and candidates alike. Quirky, charming and fun, they represented Paul and Stan, and their desire to approach recruiting with a fresh perspective. However, as we continue to expand and break new ground in the recruitment industry, our new look celebrates growth and change – today, we're so much more than two guys in a basement with a big idea. We're a continuously expanding team of recruitment professionals working together to bring our customers and candidates great value, innovative approaches and a brilliant experience through every stage of every project.

 

In addition to the new look, we've added some new features to make your Head2Head experience a little more enjoyable:

• The site now easier to navigate, with drop-down menus and convenient search tags in our blog and article archives,
• We've added a brand-new job search feature, which will allow you to find the open positions closest to you,
• And we’ll be launching a new mobile site, so you can have access to everything Head2Head from your smartphone!

 And that's just the beginning! There's so much more to come, so check back frequently as we continue to add more insightful content and exciting features in the coming weeks.

 

Please take a moment to explore the new website – we think you'll like what you see.

 

Something Big is On The Way
Posted Thursday September 29th, 2011

Lately we’ve been up to something... something very big.

As you may already know, we’ve never been afraid to make some serious waves here at Head2Head – try something new, take a risk or two – and over the past year, we’ve been making some changes that we just can’t wait to unveil!

The big reveal is coming, so mark your calendars and be sure to check out what we’ve been up to here at www.head2head.ca on October 3rd!

We think you’ll like what you see...

Hiring outside your comfort zone
Posted Wednesday September 28th, 2011

This week I was speaking to the leadership team of a smallish-but-growing organization.  With 40 employees and revenues of $25 million, they're doing well and are operating in an industry that hasn't been hit too hard by the current global economic situation, but sales have plateaued in the past year and they couldn't figure out why.

"We just can't seem to drive incremental sales increases," they told me.  "We think we've got a great team, but somehow we're not making inroads into some of the new markets we'd hoped for."

Maybe you love the team because they're all like you

They had a great product, a strong brand in their marketplace, and their sales and delivery team was quite good.  

But having worked with this organization for some time, I had a good idea of what the problem was: The people on their sales team are all too much alike.  They all have similar education and experience backgrounds, they're all within a limited age range, have similar working styles, and don't really reflect the diversity of their potential target market.  Sure, they were doing fine - but without some diversity among the team, they were limiting themselves without really realizing it.

"We've thought about taking on different people," they said.  "But...we're worried that we'll end up with personality or style clashes.  And what if our brand suffers?"

You can't grow without taking some risks

Smaller organizations tend to be most nervous about hiring outside their comfort zone - after all, in a smaller working environment, a close-knit team atmosphere not only prevails but can be crucial to long-term success, so it can be scary to think about disrupting it with someone who may not 'fit in'.

But long-term growth depends on maximizing your appeal to as large a target market as possible, and that means building an organization that not only reflects that target market, but which contains people who will push the organization out of their comfort zone and into new horizons.

Here are some things to consider:

• Does your team reflect the cultural diversity of your current/potential target market?
• Do you have a wide variety of selling styles within your sales team?
• Do you have a couple of 'oddballs' that you count on to keep you ahead of the curve in specific areas?
• When you ask your management team for 'innovative' ideas, do you get some really out-there suggestions?
• When you look around the office, do you see a lot of different personalities, ages, and working styles?
• In meetings, do you get healthy debate about new policies and procedures?

If the answers to most of these questions are 'no', it's probably time to start casting your recruiting net a little further, and start rethinking your ideas about your Ideal Employee.

From the front lines: 5 tips for retail recruiting
Posted Thursday September 22nd, 2011

Recruiting for retail  can be tough:  high turnover, low margins, and super-fast turnaround times all add up to a thankless task.

This week we spoke to Susan Nuttall, a pharmacist who owns and operates a big Shoppers Drug Mart store in Ancaster, Ontario.  Though not a recruiter by profession, she's learned a lot about retail recruiting after 25+ years in the retail industry and a total staff of 100+.  Here are her 5 tips for retail recruiting.

1.  Employee referrals aren't always a good idea

Most of the time, recruiters will tell you that referrals from current employees are a great source of candidates.  Not so much in retail.  "Hire too many 'friends' of your employees, and suddenly you have a social club at the store," she says.  "And that can create problems in a retail environment." 

2.  Customer referrals

"Because we're a pharmacy, we have an opportunity to really get to know some of our customers," says Susan.  "And we've found that referrals from long-term customers can be a good source of top candidates."  Customers who have a relationship with a store tend to refer people they trust, because they feel a certain loyalty and want to maintain that positive relationship.

3.  Get involved in the neighbourhood

"We get a lot of great people just by being involved in the neighbourhood," Susan says.  "Sometimes it's as easy as putting a sign in the window which attracts current customers who are already familiar with the store, and other times it's because we participated in a charity event and have met people that way."  Hiring from the neighbourhood tends to reduce turnover and improve customer service, since your new hires feel more invested in their jobs.

4.  Involve department specialists in the process

Stores need to make sure that there is a hiring decision maker within each department.  Says Susan:  "The department leads know what works best within their specific areas, such as cosmetics or cashiers.  Putting just one person in charge of hiring across all roles leads to higher turnover in the long run."

5.  Make sure management is involved

Retail owners or managers who don't bother to meet new hires or get involved in the onboarding process end up with higher turnover rates and less engaged staff.  "When new employees know that the owner/manager knows who they are and is invested in their success, they in turn become more invested in their new job and their long-term role, "  according to Susan.  "And that's a win-win for everyone."

Your job descriptions are costing you great candidates
Posted Wednesday September 14th, 2011

Ah, the job description, otherwise known as the bane of the recruiter's existence.  Either it doesn't exist, or it needs to be changed, or the marketing department is mysteriously in the process of writing A Great One, or it lands on your desk and doesn't reflect anything that the hiring manager told you about the position, or it's 2 whole single-spaced pages and was last written in 2005.

A couple of weeks ago we talked about how most recruiters don't love the 'administrative' part of their job.  Here's how too little effort on your job descriptions are costing you top candidates.

1.  They aren't reflective of top performers

You're working from an 'official' job description that specifies that applicants should have a business degree.  Except that in the 4 years since that job description was written, you've discovered that the top performing hires in the position actually have liberal arts or communications degrees.  So when you post ads, all the best candidates - the communications grads - are self-excluding and don't even bother to apply.  

2.  They aren't an accurate reflection of the day-to-day job activities

We see this most often for sales-related positions but it happens across the board:  The job description indicates that, say, 25% of the job is generating new clients, but in reality what the company is looking for is someone who will work the phones 24/7 to drum up new business.  So instead of attracting hard-core salespeople who love to drive sales, you attract 'farmers' who aren't as comfortable with a high-pressure sales environment.

3.  They make the job sound boring

Sure, your internal list of requirements for a particular job may be a long, long list of bullet points - but long lists of bullet points do nothing to engage the emotional interest and passion of an A-list candidate.  And every additional, non-essential bullet point ("2 years of experience with Microsoft Publisher") increases the chances that an otherwise perfectly great candidate will self-exclude.

4.  They make the company sound boring

An internal job description - the one for 'the files' - is not the same thing as a job ad.  If you're not bookending your job description with some interesting information about the company and why it's a great place to work, you're sending a clear message to potential applicants:  "Don't bother applying, because this place is just as depressing as the place you're working now."

5.  They're difficult to read and/or understand

The goal of a great job description is to get a potential applicant to say:  "Aha!  That's me!  I'm applying for this position right now!"  Long lists of bullet points without some kind of friendly descriptive paragraph about what the ideal candidate looks like aren't going to elicit the response you want.

6.  They're riddled with spelling, grammar and formatting errors

Here's the thing:  People who care about spelling and grammar care about spelling and grammar a lot.  And they have a hard time getting excited about potentially working with people who don't care about them.  What's more, in this day and age, you want candidates who have good written communication skills.  So there's no excuse for poorly-written job descriptions.

Here's the other thing:  Bad formatting - you know, the bullets all over the page, the weird spacing, the big gaps in the text, etc. - make text, especially online text, hard to read (not to mention less credible).  And it can happen on a subconscious level:  Candidates' brains get tired, and they simply move on to the next opportunity instead.

7.  They aren't leaving room for the really interesting candidates

Your job description says that the person 'must have' 5-7 years experience in a Canadian environment.  Along comes a great candidate who has only 4 years Canadian experience, but an additional 2 years in a company in France.  Suddenly you've lost a candidate with both international experience (a plus) and pretty good business French (a definite plus).  

Or maybe you have a big, bolded bullet point about the candidate needing to be super-proficient on PCs, and a potentially great candidate comes along who happens to be a long-term Mac user.  These days, does it really matter?  Most offices work on Microsoft Office, and switching from Office on a Mac to Office on a PC isn't all that difficult - and with more and more of your clients using Macs in their offices, it might actually be an advantage to have someone who knows Macs.

 

Yes, I know that you're working on 42 different requisitions, and sometimes editing job desciptions seems like a headache you just don't have time for.  But I guarantee that the time you'll save by attracting more 'perfect fits' will more than make up for the time you spend doing a little work on your job desciptions.

Do you need training - or does your ORGANIZATION need it?
Posted Tuesday September 6th, 2011

The other day, I was speaking with a recruiting leader who was frustrated that she was unable to make progress on a particular initiative within the organization.

"I don't know," she sighed.  "Maybe I just need another leadership training course."

Now, I've known this person and her organization for a few years, so I knew the problem wasn't that she needed another leadership training program for herself.  It was that her organization had some serious gaps that a bit of team training could address.

You can't always pin it on one person

In some workplaces, it can be easy to 'blame' project failures or slowdowns on an individual, and assume they simply don't have the skills to get the job done.  But in many cases it's not the individual who's at fault, but a larger problem with the organization:  Maybe there's a culture of lack of accountability; maybe no one wants to stick their neck out to get a project done because there are too few rewards - and too many punishments - for mavericks; maybe the people putting the project teams together simply don't know how to combine the best skills and experience for a task.

In my friend's case, the problem was more general:  Her company has been growing quickly in the past year or two, and the workforce has doubled in size.  So she's working with a team of people who don't really yet know their co-workers very well, who don't have a good grasp on the individual and collective skills and strengths of the overall team, and there's still a lot of fluidity in terms of who is actually responsible for what.

Sometimes a team-building, insight-generating training program is what you need

Getting big projects done successfully often requires insight into who's going to work well together, who tends to lead and who tends to be a 'worker bee', and then combining these people in the right groups. 

Sending one person on a highly specific training course isn't going to solve this problem.  What you need is a group program which will help everyone get to know each other a little better, help them see each other's strengths, maybe give them a little respect and admiration for each other, and, most importantly, build some trust.

I know, I know - it all sounds a little touchy-feely, but the more experience a group of people has doing stuff together, the more likely they are to be able to do more together.

You're one good PowerPoint slide away from a promotion
Posted Monday August 29th, 2011

Most of the best recruiters I know are great salespeople:  They build relationships, they really enjoy talking to people, and they love 'closing the deal' - matching the right person with the right job and seeing it work out well.

But, like most great salespeople, they hate administration.  They hate making charts and graphs and filling in timesheets, and their ATS system looks like a bomb went off in there.

The problem is that there are lots of people in the rest of the organization who 

(a) Really, really love administration, and think their lives can be changed by a good chart that just sums it all up for them

(b) Don't really understand recruiting all that well, because they still think that you can just post a job on a job board and zillions of terrific candidates will apply right away

The result?

Even great recruiters aren't always properly appreciated, either by their co-workers in other departments (for corporate recruiters) or by their clients (for agency recruiters).

A little admin work can go a long way

Now, I'm not suggesting that you (i.e. all you great recruiters who are reading this right now, of which I know there are many!) suddenly change the habits of a lifetime and become devoted to creating Excel charts that track your every activity.

However, you might be surprised to find how effective a little administrative work can be:

• For junior recruiters eager to demonstrate their hard work, a chart showing how many calls you've made in a day, how many resumes you've screened, and how many candidates you've spoken to can be a good way to measure your progress, both to your manager and to yourself
• Feeling like you're working harder but getting less done?  Tracking your activities for a week or two can help you figure out where you're spending most of your time - and where you're using it most effectively
• You may know you're getting great results, and that your ratio of applicants to screened candidates to hires is excellent - but does the rest of the organization?  Taking the time to create an easy-to-understand chart showing business successes like time-to-hire, cost-per-hire and long-term quality of hire can be a great way to demonstrate your value to the organization - and put recruiting in terms that they can understand.

Instead of thinking of administrative work as a chore that you just want to put off indefinitely, try thinking of it as a marketing opportunity - and the product you're marketing is yourself!

 

Do you need to add Google+ to your social recruiting efforts right now?
Posted Tuesday August 23rd, 2011

 

So you've finally got the hang of the trifecta of social media for recruiting:  LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter - and now Google's come along with Google+, and the blogosphere is all abuzz.  

The question is, does the average recruiter need to add Google+ to their repertoire?

The short answer is:  Probably not right now, and probably not in the next 3-6 months.  Sure, if you specialize in recruiting early-adopter techno-geeks who find Facebook too trendy and LinkedIn too boring for their tastes, then you might want to get on the bandwagon.  (And in fact, if you haven't already received an invitation or signed up, you may not be able to access Google+ yet - the site says that they aren't currently accepting new signups.)

I don't pretend to be the world's greatest Google+ expert, but here's what I'm seeing right now:

Why Google+ could be great for recruiting:

• CIRCLES:  Google+ allows you to create 'circles' of people based on their relationship to you. On Facebook, it's hard to separate 'personal' and 'professional' contacts; LinkedIn remains primarily a site for professional relationships.  The 'Circles' concept - in which you assign people to groups you create yourself (such as 'Candidates' or 'Friends') - means you can keep your contacts organized and your communications targeted.
• HANGOUTS:  Basically, this feature allows you to create a video chat room for up to 10 people.  As Skype increases the prevalence of video interviewing, this may become a more valuable feature in the long term.  I can also see this having value for screening meetings.
• TAKEOUT:  You can extract all your data from Google+ (and from other Google products).  In other words, once you've created a circle with a whole bunch of great candidates, you can export that data into other formats and actually do stuff with it - try doing that with LinkedIn or Facebook.

Why Google+ isn't great for recruiting yet:

• LACK OF CRITICAL MASS:  There simply aren't enough people on Google+ yet.  You simply won't be able to get the reach you need right now.
• SEARCH SEEMS LIMITED:  You can search by name, but not by job title or function yet.  So while Google+ may be great once you've already established a relationship with a candidate and assigned them to a circle, it's not going to help you find passive candidates the way LinkedIn can.

The other big question yet to be answered is:  How desperate are people, really, for an alternative to what they're using now? The biggest complaint from most people is that social media channels are already taking up too much of their time - it's unclear whether they'll be interested in either adding Google+ or migrating to Google+ in the next year.  

The bottom line:  Keep your eye on Google+, but it's unlikely to transform social media for recruiting any time soon.

 

Are 'vacation allowances' a thing of the past?
Posted Friday August 12th, 2011

Unstructured vacation time is becoming more popular with some big-name brands.

The recruiting profession has never been a straight 9-to-5 job, and the advent of technology has definitely made it more of a 24/7/365 career than ever before.  But even though most of us are checking emails at 11pm, screening candidates on Saturdays, and negotiating offers during what was supposed to be a week away from the office, those extra hours aren't being 'credited' to us - we've come to think that they're just part of the job.

Now employers are returning the favour:  More and more companies have stopped assigning 'official' vacation allowances and personal days, and allowing employees to just take the time they need, when they need it.  Brian Halligan, CEO of internet marketing company HubSpot, puts it like this:

"...we announced our new vacation policy this week.  Our new vacation policy is that there is no vacation policy, no paid time off forms, no vacation rollover, nothing.  If people want to take time off, they can take time off."

(You can read more about his philosophy here.)

You may be thinking that it's easy for a smallish, entrepreneurial new media company to do something like this, but HubSpot isn't alone.  Netflix launched a similar policy last year, and even IBM has had a highly flexible vacation plan since 2003.

And there are a whole lot of companies which have switched to a 'Results-Only Work Environment' (ROWE), which allows employees to govern their own work, vacation and personal days.  So instead of feeling resentful that you had to spend your Saturday working on a new business presentation but then had to use a personal day to take your kids to the doctor, you can balance both.

ROWE says there are all kinds of benefits for the employee, the customer, and the company - and, as a recruiter, I know this approach makes recruiting much easier, because a policy like this says a lot about the culture of an organization.  What's more, companies who have a lot of unused vacation on their books are carrying a huge amount of overhead - when you don't have vacation entitlements, you don't have to worry about paying out 6+ months of 'vacation time' to an employee when they leave or retire.

Is unstructured vacation time suitable for all workplaces and roles?

Probably not.  It seems to work best in workplaces with a 24/7 client-focused culture, and in roles which involve a fair amount of unstructured work.  It's less suitable for clerical, have-to-be-at-your-desk roles.  But there's increasing evidence that unstructured time off increases productivity and creativity, so we expect to see more of it in the next few years.

5 Simple Tactics to Change Your Corporate Culture
Posted Friday August 5th, 2011

Having trouble getting everyone on board with a big corporate culture strategy?

A few months ago we talked about how corporate culture can have a big impact on recruiting, retention and the bottom line, and offered our tips for creating a fantastic culture.   

But we know that sometimes it can be difficult - kind of like herding cats, in fact - to get everyone on the same page, in the same room, and on the same timeline about creating or changing corporate culture.  It's the kind of thing that can fall to the wayside when more pressing concerns come along.

So here are our tactical tips for improving corporate culture.  These are simple, small changes you can make as a recruiter or hiring manager that can not only start the change process, but provide incentivve to other business leaders within the organization to see what a difference change can make.

5 tactics that'll make a difference to corporate culture

1.  Revamp the look and feel of your employee handbook

This blog post about adding photos to your employee handbook is a good start, but it doesn't go nearly far enough.  Yes, definitely add photos to your employee handbook - but while you're at it, you might also want to add an interesting cover, a clever title, some compelling graphics and some case studies about great things your organization is doing.  

You don't have to substantially change the content, or get legal to approve a whole lot of new rules and regulations - just make the handbook more interesting to read and a little more dynamic.  Remember, the employee handbook is one of the first things that new employees read during the onboarding process, so wouldn't it be a good idea to start them off with vim and vigor rather than with 102 pages filled with 10-point text?

2.  Add some zing to your onboarding package

One of our recruiting managers used to have a 'survival kit' ready on the desk of all new hires on their first day.  It included a bunch of helpful items, like a few nice pens and Sharpie markers, a $5 Starbucks card, an energy bar, some fun post-it notes, and a couple of packages of gum or mints, among other things.  She packaged it all up in a nice container with some tissue paper.  It always had a big impact:  It made new hires feel welcomed, made it clear that someone had thought about them before they arrived, and set a positive tone right from the first day.  All for less than $20.  

3.  Create a weekly or monthly 'event'

One long-term Head2Head tradition is the 'Friday breakfast'.  Every Friday, two people in the office are responsible for bringing breakfast for everyone else (it's on a rotating schedule, so each person only has to do it once or twice a year).  Sometimes people bring cereal and yogourt; some people always bring Cinnabons; once in a while someone will go all-out and cook French toast.  I particularly like it when people bring in foods from their country of origin (the day we had homemade samosas was excellent!).

Other companies do a monthly barbeque (if they have access to a patio or can do it in the parking lot); even a monthly birthday party to celebrate all the employee birthdays in that month can be fun.  Anything that gets everyone together for half an hour to eat something tasty can be a move in the right direction.

4.  Get a team together to do a walkathon or other non-profit-related activity

If you're having trouble getting buy-in for an organization-wide corporate sponsorship or big event, consider something smaller:  We've sent teams to Food Bank Challenges, participated in Habitat for Humanity projects - we even had an  event in the office where people donated their new or gently used 'designer' products and then we held a sale, all to raise money for charitable organizations.  

These grassroots efforts are easy to implement, don't require a huge commitment, and can inspire the rest of the organization - while having a positive impact on corporate culture overall.

5.  When in doubt, try candy!

You might be surprised at the power of candy - everyone loves to come back to their desk to find that someone has left them a package of Skittles or a box of candy hearts (especially on Valentine's Day).  A good Easter egg hunt brings out the kid in everyone, and a bowl of Tootsie Pops in the lobby makes everyone smile.  Somehow, a good hit of candy (and it has to be something interesting, not a dusty bowl of weird wrapped hard candies!) makes everyone suddenly feel like they're working at Google or something.  

Little things add up

None of these ideas are particularly groundbreaking on their own, but that's just the point:  A few months of consistent effort to inject a little more fun into the workplace - without spending a fortune or sucking up a lot of work time - can deliver great benefits that can take on a life of their own.  Which is how great corporate cultures are established and maintained.