The phones goes and I don’t know the number; it’s either a Cold Call or a Head Hunter / Recruiter. I’m in the Office so I find an empty meeting room to take the call and answer.
It’s a recruiter. He goes through the usual story. Would you be interested in Company ABC. Pre-IPO, all the sales people are making more many than they can spend (I exaggerate but any sales person will know the drill). (Why is it that Head Hunters sound like a broken record? Maybe another Blog for another day?)
Now, I need to say that I’m not looking for a new role, but anybody like myself, who is “out there” will get these calls from time to time.
Back to the call. I ask the name of the company the recruiter is working for and (as I’ve got my headset on) type it into Google. Find that one of their Execs has been arrested for a minor offense (it happens) and go to their website. Don’t really understand the messages on the website, so I ask the Recruiter. “What does “We’re a global strategic consulting firm that specializes in helping companies solve their strategy execution challenges through a suite of integrated services.” mean?.” It’s a direct quote from the website. Then wish I’d hadn’t, as he struggles to explain.
On reading such a company (not customer) focused piece of jargon filled rubbish, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to work there. With him still struggling to give me an explanation, it gives me time to check them out on LinkedIn.
Great, I have a contact who works there, which would have been great, as I would have spoken to him, had I decided to have taken it further.
I now look at the LinkedIn profiles of the people who are second degree away and it’s all very uninspiring.
I politely turn down the approach from the Recruiter.
Now, I’m not having a go at this company, I’m sure they are well meaning managers and probably have an amazing product. But in their search for talent, they are dead in the water.
So while if you are in Human Resources or a recruiter and reading this, I would agree that maybe “Social Selling” is right for you. But maybe an “Employee Advocacy” program is.
As I hopefully demonstrated through that call I had with the recruiter, your website and your employees LinkedIn profiles are an extension of your brand.
Finally
Two great friends of mine @StandardofTrust and @ronmci posted this article on Facebook this morning, quoting the following statistic “7 out of 10 employees are disengaged and 1 out of 10 are actively sabotaging their employer.“
Now I’m in no position to argue with that, I just hope it isn’t true!
Should Employees Be Encouraged to Tweet? http://mitsmr.com/1E1K9Dp via @mitsmr