Goldieyes and the Golden Egg: "Not One Answer to Finding Great Talent"By Peter Weddle
There once was a recruiter named Goldieyes. She was especially good at finding great talent hidden in the overgrown foliage of Deadwood Forest. But Goldieyes had a problem. A mean liege had taken over the corporate castle. This fellow loved organizational bling—a big office and a private parking spot—and he demanded that all of his servants address him as High Ring Man. He was way up in the organization chart, and he was down on Goldieyes.
“Goldieyes,” he bellowed, “the qualified candidates you’ve recruited in the past are no longer good enough. I, the High Ring Man, want more. I want better than qualified candidates for my kingdom.”
“But sire,” replied Goldieyes, “you’ve cast the sorcerers out of the castle. And, it was their magic which helped us uncover the talent hiding in Deadwood Forest.”
“Don’t bother me with details,” the High Ring Man said. “I am too busy being high up in the organization chart to sully my robes with such low level concerns.”
“But, sire, …” Goldieyes began.
“You know what you need,” High Ring Man interrupted. “You need your very own pair of rose tinted glasses. I wear them all the time. And look how smart I am.”
“Where do I find such magical devices,” asked Goldieyes.
“I got mine in the Valley of DoMore4Less, and they’ve served me quite well. In fact, those rose tinted glasses are what made me the High Ring Man I am today.”
So off Goldieyes went to search in the Valley of DoMore4Less. She set out early to avoid the commuter traffic at the drawbridge and by noon had wandered through countless shaded glens and several sunny meadows. She still hadn’t found a pair of rose tinted glasses, however, and she was starting to grow tired. That’s when she spied a small cottage in the distance.
She walked up to the little house and rapped politely using the brass ring fastened to the old wooden door. No one answered, so she rapped again. When there was still no reply, she called out in her most candidate friendly voice, “Hello, is anyone home? My name is Goldieyes, and I’m looking for rose tinted glasses.”
At that moment, the door unlatched all by itself and swung silently back on its hinges. These kind people must have an open door policy, Goldieyes thought to herself. She leaned carefully forward and peered into the neat little cottage. She couldn’t tell who lived in the home, but her attention was quickly caught by what lay on the table directly across from the door. There, sitting on a golden plate were three pairs of glasses.
Goldieyes put on the first pair and they were definitely rose tinted. When she looked through them she saw a job board. It posted jobs and candidate resumes and offered some content on job search techniques. It had everything an active job seeker needed, but provided nothing for passive prospects. And Goldieyes knew that High Ring Man considered passive prospects the most princely of candidates. So, she took off that pair of rose tinted glasses and, with a sigh, put them aside.
Feeling just a tad guilty, Goldieyes turned and looked back out the door to see if the homeowners were returning. A curtain of gloomy silence lay upon the land. Maybe, she thought, the cottage has been cursed by the Foreclosure Fiends, and she was in great peril. No, she told herself, the homeowners had clearly done their best to optimize their visitors’ experience, so she turned back toward the table and put on the second pair of rose tinted glasses.
She peered through the lens and saw a social media site. It was filled with wondrous connections among passive as well as active candidates. There was even an audio track playing Lady Gaga in the background so she knew that this was a most modern medium. There was just one little problem. The site had millions and millions of users and networking from one-to-another to find just the right candidate would undoubtedly take her a very long time. And time was the one treasure she didn’t have. High Ring Man had commanded that she fill a legion of openings for his next big campaign with the dragons of the Big Bad Global Marketplace. These were mission critical, he harrumphed, and must be filled without delay. So, Goldieyes shook her head in dismay and took off that pair of rose tinted glasses too.
As she was putting the glasses back on the golden plate, however, she noticed something odd about the third pair. They had the exact size and shape as the first two pairs, but the lenses on these glasses were different. They weren’t rose tinted. And that put Goldieyes in a quandary. What should she do? After all, High Ring Man had told her that the secret to success in the kingdom was rose tinted glasses. So, should she even bother with these less fantastical specs?
She thought and she thought and finally, she asked herself, “What can it hurt?”. So, she put on the clear glasses and suddenly, she had much a better perspective than ever before on how to meet High Ring Man’s requirements. Despite the magic tricks of all the court jesters, she could now see, there was no one magic answer to finding great talent.
Yes, job boards are an effective sourcing method, but recruiters have to select those sites with features and functions that attract people who aren’t looking for a job as well as those who are. And sure, social media sites are also useful, but only if they are focused on those positions where time isn’t a factor and used in a way that ensures compliance with the laws of the land. And as even the king’s fool knows, there are many other productive sourcing strategies ranging from a castle’s employee referral program and candidate fairs to its campaigns for connecting with the searching masses at Google, Bing and Yahoo!.
Goldieyes shook her head in wonder. How could High Ring Man be so shortsighted? And in the blink of a bat’s eye, the answer came to her.
The End
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