As Dale Carnegie said, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”  How you react to unexpected circumstances can directly affect your business and how your employees, shareholders, investors, etc. perceive you.

None of us has made it to where we are without being handed “lemons” or, as I prefer to call them, “unmet expectations” or “circumstances”.  There are times when things flow smoothly for a while and “bam” you get hit with something unexpected. It is these irregular times I find people have the most difficulty with. Those who get hit with circumstances on a more frequent basis may have better developed the skills with which to handle these situations more effectively. Regardless of your situation, however, prior to reacting to circumstances it is imperative to remember one critical factor; we all have circumstances in our business (and everywhere else in life). The question you must ask yourself is, “Am I going let my circumstances manage me, or am I going to manage my circumstances?”

The most effective leaders make a practice of managing their circumstances.  They have taken the time to learn how to best manage situations that take them by surprise or don’t look like they think they should.  Effective leaders can “bob and weave”.  They have the ability to look at the “lemons”, assess them, and act accordingly.  They have the ability to speak to their staff in a way that gets them working together.  They look at what will best work and what’s not working.  They don’t blame, point fingers, or attempt to diminish someone’s self esteem.  They work towards solutions that are best for the company and its’ employees.

Being an effective leader takes work and self-exploration.  The most effective leaders use the work they’ve done to make this process look simple. It’s a commitment and it pays off in the health, brand and revenues of your company.

There is one question that is imperative to ask before you can begin to answer the question of how to reward high performers without putting them in the spotlight.  ”What motivates the employee you’re looking to reward?”  Different things motivate different people.

If it’s a money-motivated type, cash is typically king.  Is the person you’re rewarding an hourly employee?  Salaried? Commission based?  Do you think that acknowledgement at a company wide function, newsletter, or some other public display (“talent on parade”) is enough, or even what they care about?  Maybe it’s cash.  Maybe it’s PTO.  Maybe airline tickets and hotel to someplace they want to go. Be creative.  You already know how much money you’re going to spend to “reward” the individual.

If you want to reward someone, give him or her something they desire.  Ask what they’d like as a reward.   This not only makes them happy, but also will help you retain them because you’ve made the effort to make the reward about them.

I worked for a search firm for 9 years.  Every year there was a “quota club” trip for anyone achieving at least 100% of quota.  The 2 principals always decided where to go.  It was typically within a 3 – 4 hour flight of NY and it was 5 days and 4 nights.  It was typically a resort of some sort, except for the year it was a weeklong cruise to the Western Caribbean.  The company paid for our flights, hotel room, and 1 company dinner.  It was always a very expensive resort where we paid for each and every meal.  This would usually add up to several hundred more dollars in meals/drinks.  It always irked me that they’d fly us to some expensive resort and expect us to pay for everything outside of our flight and hotel room.  To me, this was no “reward”.

I typically only joined the trip every other year.  This was because the trips were often to places I had no interest in visiting.  I’m a scuba diver, so if I was going on a trip I wanted excellent diving. Otherwise I’d just spend my time on the beach drinking, and I only have so much interest in that boring activity.  The president of my company used to get so angry when I decided not to go.  His opinion was that this was a gift and a bonding activity for the achievers.  Did it ever occur to him that his employees might not care about that?  In addition, they would only pay for a guest if you were married or they determined, arbitrarily, that you were in a “significant” relationship.  Really??!!  That set me sideways for the entire time I was with them and made club, which was the last 7 of 9 years.  The president would always ask me what would motivate me.  I’d say, “money”.  Give me money instead of a trip so I can use it how I want.  He’d always answer that they didn’t do it that way, which was about them, not their employees.  That’s the lesson here.  Make the reward about the employee, not the employer.

The 64 thousand dollar (maybe 1MM given inflation) question these days is how to attract top talent to your organization.  Different candidates respond to different tactics, so you need to use multiple methods.  Each of these methods needs to have a common thread to tie them together.  The first thing you need to do is ask yourself if you are hoping (never an effective strategy) top talent finds you, you’re actively going out to find it (recruiting), you want your employees to refer top talent to the company, or some combination of the three.

After 20 years, experience tells me the most important method of attracting top talent is to find and recruit it.  There is a multitude of ways to accomplish this, some of which newer recruiters won’t be privy to.  And real recruiting takes time and energy.  The other 2 methods above need to be used too.  You should also have a system in place to help top talent find you and reach out directly.  All these methods have one thing in common, messaging.

I’m going to assume that you have a strong, positive, and effective message in place already.  If not, you need to get this handled before you take another step to attract high quality individuals.  It is always in your best interest to be proactive rather than reactive in business.  Doing damage control takes time and money that could be saved by being proactive.  The last thing you need is negative press to handle with candidates you want to attract and hire.

Both customers and potential candidates will be able to readily see this message on your website, through social media, and in any advertising.   Your messaging/branding must be consistent in all these areas.  If not, get it done.  It’s imperative that any employee who is speaking about your company to a potential candidate be clear about this message and is able to effectively convey it accurately.  One thing you can’t control, however, is the reality that no matter how great your message is, not every top tier candidate will be a fit for you or you for them.

As for attracting high quality candidates you need an experienced, competent recruiting staff (or 3^rd party agency) to go out and find candidates, get them to want to speak to you, engage them in conversation, capture their interest, and give them a quality “candidate experience”.  To accomplish this task takes alignment, planning, a solid talent strategy, and teamwork.  This does not get done in a vacuum.

If you are also looking for candidates to find you, your social media strategy must include a positive way for them to get in touch with you without making them jump through a million hoops first.  You need to be prepared to receive interested candidates in a way that makes them feel good, even if they are not what you’re looking for.

Here’s an excerpt from an article that illustrates some of the points I’ve made.  It may be an extreme example, but it’s one to consider.  This CEO clearly doesn’t have any sort of alignment among the executive team, business strategy, and talent strategy.

Goodson says the service manager posting included “Must be currently employed” because he wanted someone “at the top of their game and not people who have been unemployed for 18 months.”

He spent three years seeking the right person and sifting through résumés was time-consuming, he says. Ultimately, he chose someone within Crestek to fill the vacancy.

“This was the only time we ever advertised that way and we only ran it when the other ads failed to produce any viable candidates,” says Goodson. “For this job, I wanted somebody that’s in the service business and is employed. If someone is out of work for 18 months, my concern would be that their last job was in a bakery or pumping gas.”

Be responsible and accountable when employing a strategy for talent.

There are some basic, yet important questions we need to ask prior to investing time and energy into improving teamwork skills.  These will directly impact your success in this area.

1. Do you have a clear, defined culture you hire for?
2. Do you have clear, defined, measurable list of skills and abilities necessary for all positions in your company?
3. Have you assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals on your team so that you best know how they need to be managed and what motivates/de-motivates them?

If you don’t have these things in place and you have disparate hires on your team, you may well be swimming upstream and the exercise of developing teamwork skills could likey be futile.  For example, if you have a team member who is a lone wolf, getting this individual to work with a team may be next to impossible.  If you have a member of the team who has communication issues, you have a whole other problem to deal with first.  You need to get these critical alignment and hiring issues in place before you attempt to develop teamwork skills.

Let’s say these items are in place and effectively being hired for. Now you’re cooking with gas.

The first thing I’d recommend you do is to gather your team and tell them what you’re up to.  Tell them that you’re committed to bettering your team and will do what’s necessary to make that happen.  Tell them that the outcome of this exercise will be a well-oiled “machine”.  It will create a team that is happy to be there and working in harmony and without drama.  Be straight with them and do it in an authentic way.  They’ll know if you’re blowing sunshine up their skirts.

Next, ask each of your people to make a list (give them a “by when” to complete it) of what’s working and not working for them when it comes to the team.  Be very clear that they have the freedom to speak their minds with NO negative consequences, even if the comments are about you and you don’t like what you hear.  The reason for this is to give each of your people an opportunity to express him/herself without any fear of what others will think, especially if this is your first time going through a process like this.

Once you’ve collected each of their comments, sit down one on one and discuss what each has to say.  Be present and listen.  Ask questions.  Be curious.  All these things will have them feel heard and engage them more fully.

After you’ve had the opportunity to sit down with each member of your team it’s time to get the group together for some uninterrupted collaboration.  When I say “uninterrupted”, that means no phones or email at the meeting.  Ask your team to set ground rules for the meeting, for example:

1. No zingers/digging
2. No one is “wrong”/everyone is “right”
3. No crosstalk
4. Effective communication
5. Listen with intent and an open mind
6. Be authentic
7. Take care of your own needs
8. Respect perspectives

Bring the lists you gathered with notes from each conversation you had. Make sure that each point gets covered.  You can also use flip charts to make a list of all the items you need to cover as a group. Make it a comfortable space to be in.  Bring in food.  Be sure to set any necessary follow up items at the end of the meeting with a date to have them completed.  Schedule a brief meeting once you’ve finished the process to get complete and cover any items that came up after the meeting.

Depending on the amount of work you need to get done will determine the time it takes to achieve your goals.  If you’ve never been through this type of exercise I’d recommend you allow 3-4 hours in an initial meeting.  I’d also recommend you find a facilitator to manage the process unless you are experienced at this.  Using a facilitator also has the benefit of you (the manager) being part of the collaboration.

Whether you’re a career professional, student just coming out of college, or a retiree reentering the workforce there is a list of items you must consider when looking for or considering a new job or career.  Many professional career coaches and/or advisors will emphasize 1 or 2 necessary things that are critical to a job search.  My 20 years have told me there are many more and each is imperative if you are going to make the right decision for you.  Each step builds on the step that precedes it.  It’s a building block method that takes into account many things.  Here are the steps you need to know about:

1. The first and most important step in the process is to determine what type of job you need to be looking for.  This is also the most difficult step to do.  You need to look back at your career, or if you’re just getting ready to enter the workforce look at the jobs, internships, or volunteer work you did while in school.  Ask yourself questions like:

i. How did I find each job?

ii. Why did I leave jobs?

iii. Why did I choose each job?

iv. What did I like/dislike about the job, manager, customers, etc.?

This is by no means a complete list, but it will get you started.  What’s important to remember is that you be truly honest with yourself and look for the common denominators, positive and negative, that show up.

2. Once you’ve come up with the answers you need to make a list of Need to Haves and Nice to Haves.  Think about this very carefully.  Your Need to Have list is gives you your deal breakers.  For example, you should have a base salary requirement and anything lower than that would eliminate the opportunity.  Use your list to qualify/disqualify opportunities when you see them posted, interview, etc.

3. Get your resume prepared.  It needs to have 6 specific items in it:

i. Targets/Positioning – The job you’re looking for, e.g. Director of Product Management. You may also choose to add a Branding Statement like: “Lead from a position of strength, focus, and results in high-profile arenas and complex B2B environments.”

ii. Summary Paragraph – Answers questions like: What have you done for me lately? How well do you play with others? What are you going to do for me?

iii. Key Skills/Core Strengths – Key words if a company is scanning for titles and accomplishments

iv. Work History

v. Accomplishments/Highlights

vi. Education/Training/Professional Development

There are many styles of resume, but they should all have these components in some form.

4. Research companies you may want to work for, vertical markets that could be a fit, and companies that are in businesses you have interest in.  I had a client I was working with and I figured out in the discovery process that he preferred not only working for companies in the B2C space, but he was very interested in companies doing sports related work.  This opened up a multitude of companies for him that had been living in a blind spot.  In other words, he had no clue this was an area of interest for him.

5. Active vs. Passive Search Methods – Active methods of search include, but are not limited to, finding out who a decision maker may be at a company and getting in direct contact, networking events and networking through social media, finding posted jobs and following up directly, recruiters.  Passive methods include, but are not limited to posting to job boards, recruiters, sending non targeted resumes, hoping the phone will ring once you’ve sent a resume.

6. Interviewing – There are many books out there that give interviewing advice, but nothing takes the place of an interactive conversation.  Find someone to mock interview with so you can get feedback on your non-verbal communication and your verbal cadence and language.  If you don’t have anyone qualified to do this, and haven’t hired a coach/advisor to take you through this process, at the very least practice in front of the mirror.  This way you can see your non-verbal communication and how you are verbally.

7. Due Diligence – It’s imperative that you do your research into the company and the people you may be working for.  Talk to current and former employees about their experiences with the company and management.  Think of this as a fact-finding mission.  Be a dog with a bone.  Start your due diligence as soon as you’re a viable candidate.  You don’t want to wait until you’ve received an offer, as this can be a labor-intensive process.  If you don’t do your due diligence and something comes up after you’ve begun working that you could have uncovered prior, you have no one to blame but yourself.

8. Negotiating – When it comes to negotiating, remember that you got the offer and use all the things they told you about why they are making you the offer to negotiate.  It’s those items that will make you more apt to get what you need and want, especially if they don’t have a #2 candidate in the pipeline they’re willing to offer the job to.  You’ll also need to possibly time the offer if you have other opportunities in the pipeline.  Make sure you do this effectively so as not to scare off anyone.

9. Reference Checking – Companies have a number of processes they use to check on you:

i. References you provide:  Get them in order.  Make sure you know what they’ll say about you.

ii. Background Checks – More and more companies are doing this.  Be prepared and head them off if you know they’re going to find something they won’t like.  Better to bring it up and handle the objection while you have the chance rather than have them find something they don’t like and not make an offer.

iii. Social Media – If you’ve said or posted anything un-businesslike, be prepared to have them find it and possibly eliminate you.  There are many websites and companies these days that make this simple for companies.

iv. Drug Tests

v. Blind References – This is my favorite way to uncover things about a candidate.  If a company’s recruiters are any good, they know how to effectively get this information.  Again, be prepared to cough up info to a company and handle the objection.

These items should give you a jumping off point.  Be careful of folks you tell you things like they’re a resume writer or an interview coach.  Interview coaching is not what you want.  You need an interview advisor who knows how to give an outstanding interview, for example.  No one thing in this process is a panacea.  Good luck and remember that job hunting is a comprehensive process.

I received an email recently asking for articles on recruiting best practices within immature companies. It’s a solid request but broad in scope because, depending on who you ask, “recruiting best practices” will vary with the number of people you ask.  What I feel are best practices may differ significantly from someone else’s.  I say this because it was the lack of quality recruiting practices I experienced that ultimately drove me out of recruiting and into what I do now. There is a school of thought that small companies need to approach recruiting best practices differently from large companies.  At a high level I disagree.  I believe that a company, regardless of size or maturity, needs quality, effective recruiting practices and has the ability to implement them.  In determining what these best practices are for your company, a number of questions need to be asked and evaluated.  That said there are some issues early stage companies deal with that large companies don’t and vice versa.

I suspect that if I asked 100 recruiters what they consider to be best practices in recruiting I’d get similar responses at a high level and different responses at a granular level.  For example, if I asked recruiters whether or not candidates should receive a response to job inquiries I believe they’d all say “yes” (high level).  Where many people would differ is in answering the question, “How should I respond and in what timeframe? (granular level)”  Elaine Orler wrote a post recently and told a story of an individual at a large company who asked each of his recruiting departments around the world a question with a negative consequence to get ideas on how to make the candidate experience better.   It was a very interesting approach to get his recruiters to look at issues in a new way.  The bottom line is, overall there are practices that we can probably agree are positive to our organizations.  How they’re implemented is where we may differ in our approaches.

Regardless of the practices you implement and the way you choose to implement them, they need to align with your answers to the questions I pose below.  There are some questions that will be more appropriate given the size and maturity of your company, but in general there are certain questions you need to be asking to begin the process.  This list is not comprehensive but will give you a good jumping off point.

1. What is your business strategy?
2. Are you working into the business strategy and is everyone in the company aligned with it?
3. Is your executive team operating according to mission, vision, and strategy?
4. What is your turnover rate?  What is turnover costing? Why are you having turnover?
5. What is the experience we want our candidates left with?
6. What are the common denominators that appear in our successful and unsuccessful employees?
7. Are we clear on our culture and are we hiring to that along with skills and abilities?
8. Are our recruiters in partnership with our hiring managers?  Do our hiring managers see the value in the recruiters?

The questions I’ve posed are imperative to begin to determine not only your recruitment strategy but also the best practices that follow and align with this strategy.  Remember that your talent strategy (which include recruiting best practices) needs to align with your business strategy.  Without this alignment you won’t truly have “recruiting best practices.

There’s probably not a week (or maybe even a day) that goes by in which we don’t read about how technology will help you in your business, whether it be a smartphone, tablet, computer, social media, applications, etc.  I think many of us have the need to use every type of technology out there without really knowing why or even having a real need for it.  I believe it has gotten to the point that if you don’t adopt every new technology and use it in business people think there’s something wrong with you.

Yes, technology is  wonderful…when used effectively.  That’s the caveat.  Too many people have just jumped on this bandwagon without evaluating how, when, and why they should be using various technologies in business.  It has become so pervasive that some of the tried and true methods of doing business have fallen by the wayside.  I’ve given a partial list of some of the technologies used in recruiting.  Regardless of what you do you can look at these points and analogize them to your particular field.

1. Applicant Tracking Systems: Companies need ATS software to help manage their candidate pool.  There are so many out there to choose from.  Where do you start? Do you need it to integrate with payroll and HR?  Why?  Why not? Do you know the right questions to ask so you don’t end up with a product that doesn’t suit your needs or is so complex that your employee compliance is low? There is one very well-known company out there today whose product I’ve yet to hear one positive thing about from any recruiter using it. Remember, just because you recognize the company’s name does not mean it’s a product you should buy or that it will suit your requirements.  More “bells and whistles” are not necessarily a “good” thing.

2. Corporate Careers Page: How many of you have considered the pros and cons of requiring applicants to register on your careers page?  Are you thinking, “We want them to register so we can have their information.” or “We’d like candidates to feel comfortable coming to our careers page.”?  The first is about you.  The second is about the candidate.  I’m going to assert you want them to register so you’ll have them in your database for the times you need to search out candidates who have already applied.  Probably the most significant concern for applicants is confidentiality.  I know if I was confidentially looking around to see what types of jobs were available I wouldn’t want to register for some company’s website. There’s just no guarantee of confidentiality without knowing who may be looking at my personal information.  Call me paranoid, but it’s not something that gives me the warm and fuzzy’s.

I popped onto a few sites today and one F50 company allows you to search everything they have open globally without registering for their site.  Bravo for them.  I looked at several postings and there wasn’t one that didn’t have at least one typo.  Do you think the CEO would be happy about this?  This is a reflection not only on the head of their recruiting organization but on the company as a whole.  Are they this sloppy when it comes to building and selling software?  This also tells me a lot about their recruitment department.

3. Twitter: Are you spamming out tweets about open reqs or really thinking about the best way to use 140 characters?  How can you capture someone’s attention and have them take notice?  How many followers do you have?  Are your followers really reading your tweets and potentially forwarding them to their friends?  Have you really thought out your Twitter strategy and how you should be using it for it to be most effective?

4. LinkedIn: Are you using LinkedIn in the same way as Twitter?  Are you sending the same messages to LinkedIn and Twitter?  Do you connect with people in order to have quality connections or just for quantity?  If you’re one of those people who connects to any Tom, Dick and Harry, I’d assert you don’t have a strategy.  More is not neccessarily better.  I know some of you will think I’m an idiot for saying it, but LinkedIn is NOT about seeing who has the most connections.

How is your profile?  Is it professional?  Is it complete?  Is there a professional picture?  If you have a picture of you with your kids, at a bar, at a sports event, etc., put it on FB. Does is look like a resume or is it conversational in nature while showing your strengths, accomplishments, responsibilities, etc?  Does it have real content for someone to see what you’ve done and what you’re currently doing?  If you were a candidate and read your profile, are you someone you’d want to work with or connect to?

How are you using LinkedIn to source candidates? Are you sending emails to people or picking up the phone?  Why?  Why not?  People are busy.  Have you really thought about what to put in an email or voicemail so that there’s a higher probability of a response?

5. Video Interviewing Applications: There are a growing number of these and it feels like I’ve evaluated all of them.  What I can tell you is that there’s only one I like, and this is becasuse it can be customized to suit each client’s needs.  Most of the apps out there now have limited abilities or a set of questions they give you to ask in an interview.  I know that wouldn’t work for any of my clients.  Can a third party be on the call and be invisible?  Sometimes it benefits my hiring interviewers to have me on the call and invisible and sometimes they want me to be part of the interview.  Make sure you are clear about your requirements before you spend money on this “now” technology.

6. Facebook: Are you posting to your company page? Your personal page?  Is it the same strategy as Twitter and LI?  Do you have “friends” of the page who are going to see what you’ve posted?

7: Telephone: You may be thinking that the phone isn’t high tech.  When you’re right in one respect but sorely lacking in another.  I could, and probably should, write a post about the art of the telephone.  How are your phone skills?  Do you say “um, uh, you know” a lot to fill space?  Shame on you if you do.  Some people may think I’m a dinosaur, but I firmly believe there is no other technology more important than the phone (your oral skills).  The phone is where you get to know people, build relationships, and gain trust.  No other technology can do this for you.  Not even lots of LI recommendations.

I’d like you to look at the examples I’ve given and put a percentage of use to each.  Are you using some more than others?  Why? Is the percentage you spend using 1 or 2 far outweighing the others?  Is that large percent of time you use a particular technology returning that amount in candidates? In other words, if you’re spending half your time in your ATS is that generating half your candidates and are they qualified?  If not you need to reevaluate your processes and procedures to align with your company’s strategies.

The big takeaway here is that no technology will fix a process that doesn’t work, is ineffective, and/or lacking quality recruiters to implement it.  Technology must be looked at as an adjunct to enhance a quality, well thought out process.  It is really nothing more than a tool to help you do your job.

I really want to hear your thoughts on this.  My request is that you answer any or all of these questions in the comments sections (or you can send me an email directly) and ask any other questions you’d like to see addressed.  This way I’ll be able to write a follow up to this post.  Thanks in advance for your participation.

There are many facets to running a successful company and without effective, intentional communication you won’t thrive. Communication consists of three parts:

1. Oral (Verbal)
2. Non-Verbal
3. Written

Each of these is necessary and they work together in concert.  It’s imperative that your communication is consistent from the CEO to the lowest levels of your organization.  Without consistent, clear communication you will encounter a multitude of problems within your company.  Inconsistent messaging and communication will consequently cause perception problems outside.  Do you really want negative publicity running around the country?  Here is an example of what I mean. It’s a bit long, but I believe it’s important to tell the whole story so you can see all the mistakes that were made.

Chelsea has just received her bachelors degree.  She had an internship with a prominent firm in NYC the summer following her Sophomore year of school.  They liked her so much they invited her back the summer following her Junior year.  Before she went back to school to complete her Senior year she was told by everyone she worked for (including HR) that they wanted to hire her after she graduated, and that she was as good as hired.  They told her to reach out early this year, which she did. The HR person she had dealt with during her internships (Mary) had been promoted and told Chelsea to contact the person who had backfilled her position (Karen).  Mary said she’d let Karen know to expect to hear from Chelsea.  Chelsea proceeded to email Karen to let her know that she still wanted to come to work for the company and would like to set up an interview.  It took 3 weeks for Karen to respond to the emails (Chelsea sent 2 more over this time).  After finally hearing back from Karen, Chelsea said that she could be available any Monday or Friday (she was still in school) for an interview. Karen just told her to let her know when she’d be in the city and they’d schedule time to interview. Chelsea made it clear that any Monday or Friday would work.  Karen still wouldn’t commit to an appointment to see Chelsea. This was mid March.

In mid April Chelsea emailed Karen again and then called her 3 days later.  There was no response to either communication.  In addition she left a voicemail for Mary (the HR person to hire her for the first internship) to let her know she hadn’t been able to get anywhere with Karen for over a month.  Mary got right back to her and told her that Karen was out of the office and would be back at the end of the week.  On Sunday night at 8pm Chelsea received an email from Karen asking her if she could come in to interview with her the next day at 3.  Chelsea, still very interested in working for this company, rearranged some items and agreed to the interview.

Chelsea met with Karen the following afternoon as planned.  This was the first time there was any verbal contact between them. Karen proceeded to tell Chelsea that she could probably tell her more about the position and culture than she was aware of as she’d only been with the company for a few months. At the conclusion of the interview Karen informed Chelsea that she was to meet with 2 account managers for one of the accounts she might be working with, which she did.  Chelsea was very concerned about her meeting with the 2 account managers because, not having been informed of this, she was unable to prepare for the second interview.  She did the best she could with no preparation and powered through.  As soon as Chelsea got home she emailed thank you notes to all 3 people she met with and also hand wrote notes and mailed them.

Three weeks later Chelsea had still not received feedback of any kind from Karen and sent her an email.  Another week went by with no communication from Karen.  She emailed Karen again and finally heard back 5 days later.  Almost 5 weeks had passed between the interview and feedback.  Karen said there were no positions they were hiring for (contradictory to what she had been told) at this time but to let her know when she’d be back in NY in case something else came up.  Chelsea had made it perfectly clear in one of her prior emails, in which the thread was included, that she would be back in NY full time by May 15.  Even so she emailed Karen when she got back to town.  Again, no response.

Chelsea was concerned by both Karen’s lack and quality of responsiveness and assumed that this meant she’d blown the interview and they were no longer interested.  Her father advised her to contact Mary about what happened and Mary responded that Chelsea needed to do research and be more prepared when she was to meet with the account managers of an account.  Chelsea emailed her back immediately and explained that Karen didn’t inform her of the second interview until the end of their interview.  Had she known in advance she would have prepared adequately for the second meeting.  Five days later (Sunday night 5/22) Karen sent an email apologizing for not being responsive and asked if Chelsea was available for a call the next morning at 11.  Karen asked Chelsea if she could come back into the office on 5/24 and meet with a different account team.  Needless to say, she was prepared and Karen sent her email quickly asking for 3 references.

I spoke to Chelsea on 5/25 and she told me that she had lost almost all interest in the job and was now keen on looking into other options.  She felt that everything she had been told about their interest in hiring her was bunk, and told me she’s considering taking the job if they make her the offer but will continue to look for something else.

OK.  I’m sure many of you are horrified at this fiasco.  I’m shaking my head as I’m writing this because it distresses me so.  It’s just so unnecessary to have something like this happen, but it happens all the time.  Let me list all the errors:

1. Karen’s total lack of response from the initial contact until the request for references 2 months later is totally unprofessional and disrespectful.
2. Karen never once picked up the phone to call Chelsea to have even the most basic of conversations.  Every communication was by email.  I know everyone is busy.  I may be old school, but I firmly believe that we must maintain the art of oral communication.  There are just too many things that can be misinterpreted in email as it’s very hard to convey emotion effectively.  That isn’t to say that I don’t believe there’s a time and place for email.  I use it all the time, but not when oral communication is warranted.
3. Karen admitting to Chelsea that she knew less about the company than Chelsea did.  Really!!!??  What was she thinking?  What was the company thinking?  How do you hire any new employee and not make sure they have correct and consistent messaging about you?
4. Karen’s lack of interest, professionalism, cognizance, etc. that she wouldn’t set an interview with Chelsea, even though she’d been told any Monday or Friday would work.  Chelsea should have made a more concerted effort to actually get Karen to set a time to meet.  She should have given Karen 2-3 specific dates that would work for her.  Maybe this would have gotten Karen to commit to an interview, though I’m not at all convinced it would have made any difference.
5. Karen emailing Chelsea on Sunday nights after 8pm to see if she would be available the following day.  Now I get that things can happen at the last minute, periodically.  This should not be a usual practice.  Also, Karen should have had the common sense to pick up the phone, call Chelsea, and tell her that she knew it was last minute and make the request for her to come in the following day.  She could have told her that the time had gotten away from her or that she had heard back from the team late or even that she’d dropped the ball.  Chelsea would have much greater respect for Karen if she’d just made the time to speak to her and establish a relationship.
6. Not telling Chelsea about the 2nd interview on that first day in the office.  Chelsea now knows that she needs to ask anyone scheduling an interview if she will be meeting with anyone else that day.  Yes, Karen dropped the ball, but as a candidate she needed to be responsible for this.
7. Karen getting back to Chelsea after 5 weeks and telling her there were no positions rather than just having enough respect for Chelsea to be honest about what had happened.
8. I was told that this company doesn’t like to pay a lot for these entry level employees.  That may be, but this candidate has already lost interest.  Remember time is money.
9. Chelsea’s father told me that this is common at this company and they have trouble getting the right people and keeping them.  He knows this because the Sr Executive VP is an old friend.
10. A promise to hire someone is NOT an offer.  Chelsea knows this now.

I’ve looked at just one example of how lack of communication (oral, written, and non-verbal) can significantly affect your ability to attract and hire the best people.  I hope I’ve conveyed the importance of effective communication in all areas of business and the possible consequences of ineffective communication.