Welcome
I have been asked many times about where the tag line for my blog and upcoming book came from - recruit or get out of the way. The answer is in fact quite simple. After more than 18 years of experience working with both internal and external recruiters and recruiting organizations, it became quite obvious that we have a tendency to blame our lack of success on everything and everybody but ourselves. For example, I have seen many recruiters set the stage for uncooperative and unresponsive hiring managers by the way they inadvertently train their managers to respond.
Now don’t get me wrong, there are difficult to find candidates, hard to manage clients, and other limitations that we have to contend with every day. The difference is that many involved in the recruiting process - hiring manager and recruiter alike - constantly complain about what they don’t have as apposed to leveraging the tools and skills they do have (or should have!).
The function of Talent Acquisition is one of the most important roles in any organization. It’s time that as professionals in the industry, we come to understand our roles as problems solvers and business partners and quit complaining about what we cannot do or the time we do not have.
The purpose of both my book and this blog is simple - learn to recruit effectively, or get out of the way so someone else can do the job. I encourage you to visit often and share your comments, thoughts, and perspectives.
I’m no master chef - just ask my wife! I can make awesome scrambled eggs. I’m a master at the grill. But ask me to whip up a soufflé or anything that takes more than a few ingredients, and it’s likely to fall flat. What can I say? I know recruiting, not baking racks.
Self-rated assessments tend to raise a few eyebrows, if not all-out skepticism. Suspicion is not without warrant. Job applicants anticipate “testing.” They know what job they are applying for, and can guess what to say or not to say. The “truth” can easily be stretched, embellished, or altogether “faked.”
a strategy because of the perceived need for speed. The pressure is always there: “Do it now; get it done; make it happen - today.” Much of the time, experienced recruiting managers can pull this off with minimal damage. But every once in a while when the stars and moon don’t align as planned, a serious misstep can occur and be darn near lethal. In the rush to solve problems or take advantage of opportunities, executives take shortcuts - and they should, provided they pause periodically for a sanity check to ensure they’re not sacrificing quality for speed. (Sounds a bit like time to fill versus quality of hire - I will save that for another blog!) 
Sad to say, but the last days of summer are almost here. My kids are gearing up for school and my season of conference gigs and speaking engagement starts full force in less than 3 weeks. With little time left, it may be a good idea to make the most of the mild nights and golden afternoons August has to offer. We all deserve a rest and the recent economic conditions showed just how hard the American worker can and should work.
