Networking, Collaboration and Best Practices Galore!

One of the great things about my job is I get the opportunity to get out of my 'foxhole' every once in a while and go network and collaborate. Today, I actually was honored to be on a panel of experts at the monthly Project SAME meeting at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD. Project SAME is lead by Bob Corlett, one of the great HR and Recruiting facilitators and thought leaders in the Washington area. Bob asked me a month ago to be on this panel with Mary Vail of CoStar and JJ Heffley of KPMG to help lead a roundtable discussion about what practical strategies are helping us and others to win battles in The War For Talent. I feel honored that Bob thought I had something to contribute and was thrilled to participate.

The meeting was attended by about 30 fellow HR and Recruiting colleagues, and a great discussion ensued. Mary, JJ and I shared some of our best practices, especially around employee referral programs, open houses, and maximizing relationships with our hiring managers.

There was heavy audience participation as everyone was open to sharing what was working well for them. One recruiting manager described the reward structure of their referral program that included rewards that increased in value with every subsequent hire that an employee made. There were several comments around the importance of following up on referrals and rewarding successful referrals at various stages of the process.

One topic that struck a chord with everyone was the success that people were having with posting jobs on Craigslist. Having made a hire or two from there myself, I could certainly relate. The subject came up when Bob asked what job boards were working for people. Silence ensued. Someone mentioned success using a niche job board (which I will certainly check out for myself now), but when the subject of Craigslist came up, the room came alive with stories of success. Amazing how something so simple can be so effective.

Almost everything we discussed however came back to one key component, communication. Effective communication with referral programs, with active and passive candidates and with hiring managers was the real bottom-line key to success in almost every circumstance. Overall, today's Project SAME meeting was a wonderful collaborative event. Thanks again to Bob for asking me to participate. I'm off now to follow up on some leads I got from the post meeting networking. Back to the foxhole...