200 Words: Mobility and Relocation Belong to Talent

These are cost savings that can go under the radar.  The use of agencies can take center stage, but not all agencies fees for management exceed $40,000, but many relocations for those position do. Find out if you have savings. Look at the 2009 hires  – both using internal and external. Include promotions and transfers. Spreadsheet with req as column A, column B are any fees associated with agencies or excessive spends, and column C is the relocation costs associated. Which is the biggest number and the more frequent occurrence?

Don’t stop moving people – start thinking differently. First, explore relocation necessity and strategy. A transfer from another location using relo should be career enabling, fit a need, and increase retention.  If it does not do those things, why are you moving an internal vs hiring a local external? Second – look at patterns. You may start to see options for using advance mobility solutions to change how work gets done. If you want a strategic conversation with leadership, show them how you will save X million with a mobility solution that you can staff to. They will listen.

This saved money may not be yours, but definitely take the credit for the savings.

200 Words: The Difference between Recruiting and Staffing

Yes – there is a difference. IMHO, RECRUITING is defined as the activities performed to convert a non-employee or non-interested party into an qualified, motivated, affordable interested party in regards to employment. STAFFING is defined as the activities performed to convert an interested party into an actual hire.

RECRUITING is about getting and confirming interest, while STAFFING is processing that interest to completion and acceptance. The skill sets for RECRUITING are completely different than STAFFING. Not sure why, but organizations tend to bleed the two together, and to a fault. We separated accounting and finance, manufacturing and logistics, and so on, but we did not necessarily separate recruiting and staffing.

Some companies would argue that they have researchers or sourcers, and thusly they have separated. But recruiting does not equal research or sourcing. A strong talent organization is likley exceeding 40% employee referrals, and accounting for another 15 to 35% through employment branding – both of which are part of RECRUITING. But how many sourcers / researchers are charged with the employment brand strategy, or creating employee referral programs nationwide?

If you want to start transforming into a high performing talent organization, start evaluating a separation of RECRUITING and STAFFING.