I read an article this morning that I just LOVED. Wished I wrote it myself, but that is ok, just gives me something to comment on.

Six Good Things That Happen to HR Pros During Recessions

Kris Dunn has everything right. From delivering the bad news to employees to bench building. I needed a good reminder this morning to look around and see the good that can happen in this recession and that I am on the right track with what I am doing..

1.) - Movin on Up! (Tag in Jeffersons music) - Inside of movin to the East side, I am movin my way onto the home office -gas -commute -firewalls in corporate office that keep me from recruiting on facebook and other social sites that I am doing at home as it is and putting in alot of hours.. I get to all that and more hours being successful at HOME.

2.) Webinars and Online Studies.. Now that is what I am talkin about.. I will have more time to hone up on my skills even more.. Plus, Source Con is in just a few days and that always sharpens my edges - even if I can not win, I still love competition.

3.) Bench Building - Man, I love that mysterious and ever so elusive word. I am always looking to bench build verses fire fighting. In a recession market, here is the time to shine and work it. I think reaching out to social networking and in person networking (Like the Linked Cincinnat and Dayton group meetings) are the key. I have attend a few in person meetings, but not enough. I have also filled two reqs recently with my local networking verses my national networking. That has been very neat for me! And my local networking also helped me fill the City Manager position in my town. How? I called a friend of mine in Ohio that I know was a mayor a few years back. She called her network, even tho they are not City Managers, but got me contact names of 3 people who were and knew who was looking for new opportunities confidentially. One of those 3 calls was my new City Manager in Greenfield. Only downside was that it was a volunteer fill. No placement fee for that one. Thats ok tho, what I got in return was people in town I never see because I have had this crazy commute is that I am good at my profession, and they maybe should think twice the next time I run for City Council (and I will again) that just because I am not over the age of 50, I can be a very productive member of city administration. That is the problem tho. If you look at the City of Greenfield website, all the council members are over 50. At some point, old towns need to look at the young ones who can lead them too…

Ok, sorry about that trail, I was talking about HR and Recession, Right…??

Last point from the article

4.) Me time..

     Man, I havent been on a vacation in two years… But, with a recession..lol..gas prices..I dont see that happening this year either.. I will try to pencil that in for 2010.

TTFN..

Amie

I am excited to announce that I have accepted an opportunity to work at Search Wizards with Leslie O’Connor and her great team there. I start working with Leslie next Monday the 19th.

The 19th is a very big day since the Source Con Challenge arrives that day as well.. I can not wait to see what is in store.. The teaser video on Jim Stroud site was pretty cool.

I am feeling really blessed. I had a great Mothers Day, and I am not a hallmark kind of gal, so we did not go out to lunch or do anything super grande, but what I did get is alot of hugs and home made cards from my beautiful kids. They make the day for me, not trinkets..

Also, I have been super stressed, with commuting, wanting to take my career up another notch and honestly trying to be everything to everyone wasnt happening. It has been great to see how making priorities has really impacted things personally and professionally for me.

Interesting to see an imemergence of free job boards and resume boards again recently. hmm.. I dont see where it adds any value, or decreases the paid sites value. To me the quality hire isnt on the boards anyhow, just interesting to follow.

Ah, and again, someone has posted on ERE there is a War for Talent.. A drum that is beaten and beaten and beaten. So much so we are all deaf to the tone. The writer infers more to the global demand from the EU. With many EU nations taxed so high on their income, I dont see the masses here in the US flocking over to the EU. (Unless they are a democrat.. but they are also still here : ie - didnt Alec Baldwin promise to leave the US if Bush was reelected?? He is still here…)(Ok, this isnt about politics so I will stop)

The war for talent is not really a war. There is talent every where. What there is a need for is skilled, trained HR professionals to look anywhere and everywhere to find them. As in Jurassic Park, which my husband loves to quote..”Life finds a way..” Well, business also finds away. When they can not get the talent they need, they look to agencies and outside contractors.. but always, business finds a way. We just need to be there to fill that need.

I want to first extend my kudos to Josh Kahn who won the first of three challenges this year that SourceCon is offering. He fought a good hard race to the finish, as well as Julia Stone coming in a strong second.

Now that I can do more in my day than obsess with winning challenge #1, and wait patiently for challenge #2, I thought I would share what I did glean from it.

First, I was reminded how strong and valuable my connections really are. I could instantly place my thoughts on Twitter or Facebook and received feedback which helped my perspective with the challenge, allowing me to maintain focus. Rabbit trails kill in this challenge, leading you in paths which you think will help you find “The Moose” but eventually ends up being just plain dung. For example, look at this rabbit trail http://tiny.cc/5M11h which SC tried relentlessly to veer me away from, but, unfortunately I wouldn’t let go. My problem was when I found the picture which was a part of the Valleywag website. On December 14^th Valleywag had a party at Moose’s, I thought that it was a big clue, unfortunately, it wasn’t. It didn’t even pertain to the challenge.

There was a valuable opportunity that came about from this. By using my connections also came a chance for me to reconnect with them. For those of you I emailed thinking you were my link to the last clue (and unfortunately many were not) there came new chances to reconnect, something I hadn’t done in months.  You had an opportunity to know I am still out in my recruit-o-sphere making my placements and in the hunt like you are, each and every day.

The search also took me back to basics, of just making the calls and sending emails, no matter the outcome. Some of the outcomes weren’t pretty either; people didn’t want to bothered, and others had no clue what I was talking about; but for me that wasn’t a big deal. The more I talked about it, the more I wanted to win the challenge. The more no’s I did get, the more fervent my search became.

Thinking about this, leads me down another rabbit trail… (which I tend to like, bunnies are in at the moment, with Easter quickly approaching). I was thinking about recruiting and sourcing and our perceptions of online recruiting detectives (or researchers). Like Hitchcock or Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple from Agatha Christie, and Hercule Poirot, Adrian Monk, or the cute guy from Psych, Shawn Spencer, (all but one is fictional); what makes them who they are, yet so similar, and why we relate to them, is the fact they network with people on a personal level. They all need to find the answer to a mystery! They talk with others; they get led down wrong paths, but are able to use their skills and abilities to figure out whodunit. Plus, of course, you see along the way that they do upset many a person in their search

Now my point is, not that to be a good sourcer you should have people upset with you, but rather, what I am hoping to convey is that in getting to the end of a quest, what ever it may be, that there are people you may ultimately annoy. Focus on the goal, and don’t give up when the naysayers, or those who are brash, meet you along the way.

The SourceCon challenge is about an individual’s personal skills and abilities to outwit, outthink and outperform the rest in the competition; but it does take going back to the basic in any recruiting function, including third party, contract, or corporate.

The basics of physically talking, reaching out, and/or networking with people; whether it is phone or internet, email or twitter, blogs or ERE, doesn’t matter. You need the person and the people within your circle of influence, and networking is your key in finishing the race, or mystery, in first place.

Being first, for me, is the name of the game, or hunt, or mystery.

Josh was the victor this time, but for me, challenge 2 can’t come soon enough. I have my eye on the prize.