Sept 2008 Journal

Focus: Planning Ahead
You can’t predict the future. But why not come close?
(page 3).
Using Scenario Learning to Drive Innovative
Recruitment Strategies 3
Michael R. Kannisto, Ph.D. of Bausch & Lomb
Also in this issue:
Get Your Money’s Worth When Using Contingent Agencies 11
Dan Nielsen of Towers Perrin
Scalable Sourcing and Recruiting Strategy & Metrics 16
Ravi Subramanian
Recruiting the Tired, the Poor, and
the Wretched Refuse 18
Richard T. Herman and Raghav Singh
Ramping Up at the U.S. Border Patrol 22
An interview with Joe Abbott, recruiting director
DASHBOARD 27
Recruiting and Retention • Undermanned Canadians
Stuffed In-basket • Unemployment
published by
Volume 3 • Issue 9 • September 2008

I just spent two days at a national conference of business and government
leaders interested in issues related to compliance and diversity.
The hottest topic among the billion-dollar companies in attendance, and the
high-ranking Labor Department officials, was not gender, race, or the election.
Nor was it the online-recruiting rules you’re probably familiar with, regarding
who is and who isn’t an “applicant” for compliance’s sake.
Nor was it even the earthquake that rocked Anaheim during the conference.
It was disabilities. A perfect storm will mean increased attention to them for years to come.
First, the IraqWar has (finally) been a huge victory, and whoever’s president will continue
Bush’s plan to keep sending soldiers back home, some hurt.
Second, the ongoing skills shortage will mean employers will take a second look at the
disabled, who have high unemployment rates but are often able and eager to work.
Lastly, employers will find many steps they take to attract and accommodate disabled
candidates will help in retaining boomers.
Recruiting the “disabled” will pay off (I use quotes because some studies have shown they’re
more productive than those without disabilities), and not doing so will cost.The government
will be paying increasing attention to companies’ hiring processes, including their careers
websites.
The Job Accommodation Network at www.jan.wvu.edu/ is a great, free service for employers
with questions on the topic.They may even give you advice about your careers pages. Kurt
Ronn, over at HRworks, is also a good resource. So is Northrop Grumman, which is involved
in hiring the severely disabled. Also, look into theWork Opportunity Tax Credit, for hiring
people with disabilities.
Neil Romano, assistant secretary at the Labor Department, says he’s “sick and tired” of
convincing people how many disabled people can and want to work, contrary to the myth that
they’re receiving a lot of money and doing nothing.
Romano is right.They will enter the U.S. workplace in large numbers in the years to come,
an earthquake as big as when gender and racial barriers fell.
Todd Raphael, Editor in Chief
todd@ere.net
2 Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership | crljournal.com | September 2008
Editorial Advisory Board
Jeremy Eskenazi
Managing Principal
Riviera Advisors
Engin Crosby
Chief, Workforce Analysis
& Forecasting Office
Civilian HR Agency
Department of the
U.S. Army
Kent Kirch
Global Director of
Recruiting
Deloitte
John Sullivan
Professor and Adviser
to Management
San Francisco State
University
Catherine Keown
Director of
Corporate and Field
Recruiting
Lowe’s
Rodney Moses
Vice President
Global Talent Acquisition
Coca-Cola Enterprises
Inc.
Ron Chapman Jr.,
Shareholder
Ogletree Deakins
Michael Kannisto
Global Staffing Director
Bausch & Lomb
Thomas E. McGuire
Director, Global Talent
Acquisition
The Coca-Cola
Company
Kevin Wheeler
President
Global Learning
Resources
Danielle Monaghan
Director of HR
Microsoft China R&D
Dear Recruiting Leader,
EDITORIAL OFFICE
ERE Media
580 Broadway, Suite 304
New York, NY 10012
tel. (1) 212-671-1181
Email: editor@ere.net
www.crljournal.com
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Todd Raphael
todd@ere.net
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Elaine Rigoli
elaine@ere.net
Kate Bruener
kate@ere.net
Madeline Tarquinio
madeline@ere.net
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Danielle Zittel
danielle@ere.net
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Jim Dalton
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EDITING & CREATIVE
Barbara Hodge
barbarahodge@bellsouth.net
Judy Gouldthorpe
jgouldthorpe@comcast.net

Each week it seems as though yet another large organi-
zation has made major adjustments to its recruitment
strategy in order to compete effectively for the ever-
dwindling supply of talent.Whether it be the development
of recruitment materials specifically designed for the
parents of Millennials, or a new policy regarding time off,
organizations seem to be constantly scanning the external
environment and adjusting policy as a result.This comes
at a tremendous cost to companies—not just
in terms of the change itself, but also the
repercussions any change has on both
current and future employees.
Many business leaders, after having hung
up with another Boomer parent demanding
a copy of the rate schedule for his or her
daughter’s medical benefits, must certainly
have wondered aloud if there were any way
they could have predicted what today’s
employment market would look like so they
could have been better prepared.
Scenario Learning
In the 1950s, scientists at the RAND Corporation
developed a tool to aid in future planning and strategy
development called Scenario Learning. While it’s not a
tool that can be used to predict the future with absolute
certainty, it can be remarkably useful for organizations
that want to prepare for likely outcomes. Proponents of
this methodology sometimes refer to the use of scenarios
as “Learning from the Future;” indeed, many companies
have used this powerful tool to guide the development of
their business strategy.
The Workplace Today
Much of what we recognize today as the “modern
workplace” was put into place by people who
incorporated many of the military strategies that were
successful in the war (personality and aptitude testing,
top-down management, training junior “high-potentials”
by putting them in low-risk situations, etc.). As large
numbers of Boomers subsequently entered the workforce,
they were forced to compete for a limited
number of jobs by mastering the organiza-
tional culture already in place. This has
created a work culture that has changed very
little—particularly as many of the senior
leadership positions in large companies are
currently occupied by those very same Baby
Boomers who entered the workforce in the
late 1960s and have not shown much
interest in changing a culture that they have
now mastered.
Despite this, subtle changes have in fact
crept into the modern office. Consider the following
description of “recruiting season” at Purdue University
from the classic 1950s book The Organization Man:
The descent,every spring,of the corporations’recruiters has
now become a built-in feature of campus life.If the college is
large and its placement director efficient, the processing
operation is visibly impressive. . . . In the main room some
students were quietly studying company literature arranged
on the tables for them; others were checking the interview
timetables to find what recruiter they would see and to which
cubicle he was assigned; at the central filing desk college
TRENDS
What will the workplace and work-life be like in 20 years?We don’t know
exactly, but smart organizations should consider the various scenarios that
could take place, and what they mean for recruiting.
By Michael R. Kannisto, Ph.D., Global Staffing Director, Bausch & Lomb
Using Scenario Learning to Drive
Innovative Recruitment Strategies
Baby Boomers have
not shown much
interest in changing
a culture that they
have now mastered.
©2008 ERE Media, Inc. Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership | crljournal.com | September 2008 3

TRENDS
PREDICTING THE FUTURE
employees were sorting the hundreds of names of men who
had registered for placement.Except for a murmur from the
row of cubicles there was nothing to indicate that scores of
young men were, every hour on the half hour, making the
decisions that would determine their whole future life.*
At first blush, this may seem quite similar to what still
takes place each fall at many schools.Yet the differences are
palpable.While 40 years ago, it was imperative that a career
services director be able to persuade recruiters to both
recruit at the school and have a regular physical presence,
today’s career services office will be orchestrating numerous
forms of interaction in addition to in-person visits:
electronic résumé databases, virtual career
fairs, sponsorship opportunities, case studies,
etc. Company literature can now be reviewed
24 hours a day online. Interviews are
assigned by electronic bidding systems, and
(of course) women are now active partic-
ipants in the process!
Most notable of all, though, is that the
notion of selecting a single company for the
duration of one’s career is long gone.
Using Scenario Planning to Predict the
Future
So then, even within this short paragraph, significant
changes in how companies attract and hire talent are
evident. Clearly, being able to predict future trends would
prove invaluable for any organization interested in
maintaining an edge in recruitment; this is where Scenario
Planning comes into play. By working through a simple
process, organizations can map out likely future scenarios
and build their strategies to accommodate these scenarios.
This article is not meant to serve as a comprehensive
tutorial in developing scenarios, but rather is intended as
an introduction to a remarkably powerful tool that has
significant relevance to the current state of recruitment.
A typical scenario has four key elements: (1) Driving
Forces, (2) Logics, (3) Plots, and (4) End States. Driving
Forces are external influences that will impact the future
state of a business. Logics are applied to the scenario to
determine how the driving forces are most likely to
influence the scenario. Plots are narrative descriptions of
different ways the driving forces will influence the scenario.
And End States are descriptions of the logical outcomes
of the future state as a result of the driving forces.
It’s important to note that a scenario is not a
“prediction,” and perhaps as a way of de-emphasizing that
notion, probabilities are generally not assigned to the
likelihood of one outcome over another. Similarly, scenarios
are not meant to necessarily provide comprehensive
pictures of the future state. Rather, they are used to simply
provide insights into how the Driving Forces impacting
your industry could shape the future state of your business.
Talent Acquisition Scenario
For this exercise, let’s choose two Driving
Forces that, as we have seen, are already
influencing the state of recruiting and talent
acquisition today: the way technology
changes what constitutes “work” today, and
generational considerations.
What is “work,” and how will technology
continue to challenge our definition?
The biggest change in how we work has
come about as a result of technological
advances. “Work” traditionally consisted of
objects (or documents) moving physically
through an organization, and being touched by different
people. Meetings were held in person. People punched a
clock, sat at a desk or work area, and either did something
to a product or did something to a document and then
passed it along to the next worker. It’s interesting to talk with
people who have been with an organization for a long time,
and discover how powerful their memories are of those times
when technology changed their jobs—people can recall
vividly the arrival of Wang computers, the demise of the
telex, sharing a single telephone (without voice mail), the
introduction of email, getting access to the Internet, how
journals and magazines used to circulate via interoffice mail,
and a hundred other examples. Recent years have seen the
growth of Web 2.0 technology such as instant messaging,
video conferencing, and a proliferation of handheld devices.
This accessibility is already driving pointed discussions
about working from home, and alternative hours.The rising
cost of energy is adding urgency to these discussions, and
Scenarios are not
meant to necessarily
provide compre-
hensive pictures of
the future state.
*From The Organization Man,William H.Whyte (NewYork: Simon & Schuster, 1956)
4 Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership | crljournal.com | September 2008 ©2008 ERE Media, Inc.

TRENDS
many organizations are finding few answers to employees
who demand: “Why should I spend $15 in fuel costs to
come in today just so I can be seen sitting at my desk at 8
a.m., when I worked from home last night, held a video
conference with Asia to make final revisions to the presen-
tation, and already delivered it to the customer?” Why
indeed! It’s unlikely that technology’s influence on the
workplace will dwindle, so this seems like a good candidate
for one of our Driving Forces.
Generational Influences
This is well-trod territory. The first wave of Baby
Boomers will turn 62 this year, and despite what appears
to be a general reluctance to leave the workforce (whether
for financial reasons or purposes of self-actualization),
they will eventually start to leave. Many organizations
have noted the conflict arising as they try to attract
Millennials to companies that are still firmly run by
Boomers. Some organizations have elected to push
onward in “business as usual” style, but are not finding
many 20-somethings who express interest in following a
traditional career path with a single company (that frankly
may not be interested in what the new hire’s work-style
preferences are). Similarly, even organizations that were
very proactive in their efforts to understand Millennials
and create environments that would appeal to them are
finding the task much larger and more complicated than
it first appeared. Organizations that printed brochures for
parents and created processes for Millennials to receive
the feedback they prefer are finding new challenges as this
generation moves from “job-seeker” and “new hire” to the
next stage in their careers. More challenges certainly await
the leadership of any company that employs Millennials
as they become first-line managers, pair off and begin
families, and start planning for retirement. Again, this is
an influence that will be with organizations for years to
come, and can be regarded as another Driving Force.
With two Driving Forces selected, we next plot them
out thusly as a scenario matrix:
Now, using two Driving Forces, we have four very
distinct scenarios to explore. Imagine it’s now 2028 at an
office headquarters. You’re visiting with several other
company representatives to discuss the current state of
recruiting.The hosting company begins the meeting . . .
“Same old thing, just a little faster”
Technology advances incrementally;
Millennial influence is minimal.
“Welcome to our headquarters. I’m glad we were able
to reserve the ‘good’ conference room for this meeting—
our VP has a lot of influence here and we call upon him
now and then!”The meeting would be very familiar to any
modern-day employee. People take turns going around
the room and introducing themselves, and someone
fumbles with the new projector. The leader begins
delivering a presentation, and starts by reviewing some
recent hiring data. The presenter notes that there was a
certain amount of activity in 2008 to attract Millennials
by addressing some of their unique work-style
preferences, but now in retrospect, they really weren’t all
that different from any of the other generations. Sure,
everyone wants to be treated well and likes to be
promoted, but once the Millennials realized there were
processes in place to identify and prepare workers for
advancement and development, they eventually came
around. Furthermore, thanks to recent legislation
regarding retirement and pensions, many of the Boomers
are still working well into their 70s and enjoying it very
much. The younger workers may not love it, but
everything seems to be working out just fine.Technology
has improved: emails can be unlimited in size, most
companies are fine with people texting from work (as long
as it doesn’t get out-of-hand), and better image-scanning
technology has all but eliminated faxing.

“Just make sure you’re in your cyber-cube
first thing each morning.”
Technology advances radically;
Millennial influence is minimal
“Thanks for joining us for our virtual meeting—from
which country are you all beaming in today?” This
meeting would certainly look very different to the modern
employee.The meeting is taking place through the latest
virtual-reality technology—people can turn left and right
and see what’s around them in their “virtual” meeting
room, and can even have sidebar conversations; yet these
people are not physically located together. Indeed, the
company sold the headquarters building off a few years
ago, and maintains only a small physical presence. New
hires go through detailed simulations before they actually
start training for their jobs, and each employee’s unique
strengths and weaknesses are taken into account when
development plans are created. In some ways, though, the
workplace will seem curiously familiar.
The new technology and life-extending medicines
allow aging boomers to “be at work” much later in their
lives—even from their bedrooms if they choose.You can
sense the frustration at the meeting.The Millennials are
now turning 40, and despite moving from job to job near
the beginning of their careers, they eventually found that
every company culture was pretty much the same. Hard
work was valued, rewards took the form of the latest
gadgetry, and they were told that while they were
certainly doing some impressive things with the
technology, nothing replaced patience and good old-
fashioned hard work as the keys to success.
One of the meeting attendees asked the group if other
companies were having trouble with employees abusing
the technology. TheWall Street Journal had recently run
an article about employees who were setting up their
computers to make it seem like they were working from
8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but in reality they were not working at
all during the day. True, they were getting their work
done, but it struck many of the meeting attendees as a
little dishonest. After all, they noted, relationships and a
good attitude are more important than just getting work
done. “Oh, well,” they sighed. “Fortunately, we’re still
here to coach these young 40-somethings.”
“The kids have taken over!”
Technology advances incrementally;
Millennial influence is significant
“Yo—welcome to our meeting!” The host starts the
meeting off by selecting some good music to play in the
background, and then IMs a colleague to see if she plans
to join the group. “It looks like she has something else
going on right now; maybe she’ll drop by later.” One of
the Boomers in the room speaks up: “Janet’s known about
this meeting for weeks. I think she should be here.” The
Millennial running the meeting looks quizzically at the
Boomer.“We’ve talked about this before.Why would Janet
drop what she’s doing just to come to a meeting? She can
read the minutes later, and if anything comes up, I can just
IM her. She actually has very little to contribute at this
meeting—why waste an hour of her time?” Without
missing a beat, he starts the meeting, yet makes a mental
note to ask the others at the meeting for their feedback on
how he handled the situation.
A lot has changed in the recruiting world lately.
Recruitment starts much earlier than ever before, and in
fact people can’t even believe that college students once
met company representatives for the very first time
during their senior year. How could they ever make a
decision about where to work with only a brief meeting
and a visit to a website? Performance reviews are given
after projects, not just at the end of the calendar year.
Employees form cross-functional project teams with
remarkable frequency, and insist on detailed feedback
from one another at the conclusion of each project.
Some of the more seasoned workers are frustrated by the
lack of regard for standing meetings, the chain-of-
command, and tradition. Yet privately, they are also
impressed by the ability these young workers have to
uncover a business opportunity, benchmark with friends
(even those working for a competitor!), find the right
person to provide the details (“She marched right into
the VP’s office without an appointment!”), get a team
together, and deliver results.
“Welcome to the workplace of the future!”
Technology advances radically;
Millennial influence is significant
TRENDS

TRENDS
In this scenario, both technology and generational
influences have brought about such changes in the
workplace that it’s scarcely recognizable.Worker identity
is now driven mainly by functional knowledge, and not
so much by company allegiance. People use technology
to connect with others who share their professional
interests, and make it an ongoing relationship so long as
it serves them. Job-seekers select companies where they
will be challenged, and stay with them for short periods
of time.Technology allows people to move from company
to company without going back to square one on their
benefits; many companies have opted in to a voluntary,
private national “portable benefits” model to
accommodate changing work habits.
Companies have also moved away from a
“recruitment-based” approach to talent
management, and now focus more on
“talent retention.” Careers are managed in
real-time with the latest in training
technology, and feedback is ongoing.
Employees can log in any time to a
personalized account to determine what a
next job could be, and create a plan to get
them there.
This model has changed significantly from what was
once a very passive Web-based learning system (in which
people took classes but had no idea if and when their
efforts would ever result in new career opportunities) to
an incredibly interactive one (where people map out career
paths that are all but guaranteed to happen). People can
work from anywhere, and are indeed encouraged to do so
in order to preserve natural resources.Work is less about
whom you report to or how long you’ve been employed,
and more about which opportunities you choose to take
on and where you deliver value. Employees are no longer
at an advantage by being located at headquarters; even the
salesperson operating in the middle of nowhere can engage
in meaningful contributions using the latest interactive
technology. People can leave to volunteer for causes that
are important to them, and the company supports them.
Employees laugh at the notion that people used to have
to come to work physically, attend half-day meetings, and
do mindless work just because it was their turn to “pay
their dues.”
This is where Scenario Learning gets fun! Can you
imagine your organization competing effectively for talent
in each of these future states? What would you have to
change about your process and approach in order to be
successful? It’s often helpful to get together in groups and
assign teams with the task of vividly describing different
scenarios, then developing solutions for them. Get
creative! Again, the purpose is not to develop actions that
address specific elements of these imaginary scenarios,
but rather to imagine how you could begin building a
strategy today that would make you more flexible if this
were how the future would look.
End States
So, which of these scenarios are we most
likely to find waiting for us in 2028? As
we’ve already seen, it doesn’t really matter.
What does matter is that each scenario
provides lessons for organizations to use in
building a strategy. As a matter of fact,
careful review shows that, no matter which
End State is targeted, certain themes come
through. Here are a few:
• Whether it changes quickly or slowly, technology will
continue to change
Phone calls replaced snail mail, emails replaced phone
calls, and instant messaging and “Twittering” are replacing
email.While we might not be interacting in virtual-reality
pods anytime in the immediate future, technology will
continue to change our workplaces. Does your IT
department host lunch-and-learns to demonstrate all the
different technologies in place, even if you don’t use most
of them? Do you go to the mall and watch how teenagers
communicate with one another? How about reviewing
processes that were put in place before everyone had a
computer? I’ve spoken with several companies that still
route job requisitions around the office for approval
signatures even though their ATS is equipped to manage
electronic approvals, simply because no one has reviewed
the process recently.What technology will you be required
to have in place to attract the job-seekers you’ll be targeting
in the future?
Instant
messaging
and Twittering
are replacing
email.

radical new work arrangements, agreeing beforehand with
pilot participants about what will happen if the pilot works
or doesn’t work. Recruiters will be able to tell new hires
exactly how they’ll be spending their time if they accept
certain jobs, and brochures will brag about their openness
to alternative work arrangements. Have you reviewed your
company’s policies about working from home and
vacation? Are you cutting-edge, or even competitive? Do
you provide every employee with the best technology, and
encourage them to come to you with proposals for
alternative work arrangements? At the very least, do you
survey workers who leave to determine whether your
policies were a factor in their decision?
• Technology will not solve any future
problems unless implemented appro-
priately
Email was supposed to eliminate
paper. Teleconferencing was supposed
to eliminate business travel. Intranet
websites and e-rooms were supposed to
archive institutional knowledge. In each
case, while the technology was more
than capable of producing the intended
outcome, cultural “inertia” was too
powerful. Regardless of whatever new
innovation is right around the corner, or
which generation will be overseeing the implementation,
companies will continue to struggle with deploying
technology. Best-in-class organizations should consider
moving beyond basic training and perfunctory user-
acceptance activities, and instead create cross-functional
“ordinary user” teams to evaluate new technology.
Technology should cease being a reward for positional
power (“Only the executives get the nice laptops”) and
should be pushed out to everyone. Identifying useful new
gadgets will be everyone’s job, not just the CIO’s, and they
will be implemented faster.
• Job-seekers will expect more customization from
companies looking to recruit them
If companies hope to compete for the best job-seekers
• Boomers and Millennials will continue to have to work
side by side, at least for a while
Even people who aren’t involved in recruiting and
staffing at all can now rattle off the differences between
Millennial job-seekers and the Boomers who manage
them. While forward-thinking companies have gone to
admirable lengths to bring the discussion out in the open,
and have made significant cultural changes in order to
accommodate younger hires, the fact remains that these
two groups simply prefer different work environments,
and choose to be rewarded in different ways.There is no
book I know of that claims to “solve” the problems
inherent in a multi-generational workforce; the best we
can all hope for is to continue exploring the
things that make us different, and meet as
many core needs as possible. Forward-
thinking organizations will continue
exploring this topic by creating positions
charged with finding solutions, establishing
“generational councils” that regularly
discuss how the work culture is meeting
each group’s needs, and providing clarity to
job-seekers about what kind of culture
they’ll find at the company. Does your
organization ask Millennials what they like
about your work culture, and what they
don’t like? Do you find out why they leave?
• People will continue to challenge current notions of
how their time as employees is best spent
Between the Millennials who are already in the
workplace and the technology available right now, this is a
topic that more and more companies are being forced to
confront. Job-seekers want to know if they really have to
move to the company town, seeing as their job requires that
they travel most of the time anyway. Regular meetings—
why?What if there’s nothing new to cover?With ubiquitous
fast Internet connections, mobile technology, and a global
employee and customer base, companies that want to
Learn from the Future will begin objectively rethinking
vacation and work policies that were put into place years
before everyone had a wireless device. Some will test
TRENDS
Technology
should cease
being a reward
for positional
power.

(regardless of their generational affiliation), they’ll need
to continue building upon the trend of delivering
customized messaging to their audience. Successful
campus recruiters tend to avoid email “blasts” to entire
classes, and now send notes one-by-one (perhaps adding
a customized background featuring the school mascot).
This trend is certain to continue as so-called “knowledge
workers” become scarcer and scarcer. Imagine communi-
cations that somehow take the specific educational
background of a job-seeker; tailor it to an open
opportunity; incorporate the job-seeker’s current
knowledge, skills, and abilities; and deliver a unique job
description developed just for them. Do you design
recruitment materials that target specific
job-seekers? Do you solicit feedback from
new hires to learn what parts of your
process were positive, and which were not?
How have you adjusted your hiring process
to make it a “personal” experience for
every single new hire coming on-board?
• Millennials will be looking for different
things from their employers as they
move through their careers
Now that the Millennials are finally well-
established in the workplace, it’s already time to start
thinking about how to prepare them for their first roles as
managers, develop a benefits plan that will meet their
long-term needs, create development plans to keep them
engaged, and even plan for their retirement! Companies
don’t need to wait for a crisis—they can begin working
with current Millennial employees now to start
understanding what they’ll be looking for as they move
through their careers. For example, many companies
report that new hires often don’t understand the details
associated with their benefits plans, perhaps because their
parents have been making decisions like this for them up
until now. Maybe they could create a more comprehensive
Web-based tutorial designed for young hires (some
companies have already done this). Perhaps they could
survey new hires, or have a representative group of
employees become involved early on in benefits-plan
negotiations.
TRENDS
• The role of Boomers will be an important consid-
eration (elder statesmen and stateswomen offering their
wise perspectives for consideration, or a group that will
remain firmly in charge of the workforce for decades to
come)
Most companies review their employee pool regularly to
determine who is eligible for retirement. Many organi-
zations are populated with 60-somethings who can retire
anytime they like, but are quite evasive about exactly when
they plan to do so. Executives have retirement parties on
Friday afternoon and then show up the following Monday
as consultants, there to perform the same work in the same
corner office.Younger workers are beginning
to wonder aloud,“Is she ever going to retire?
What is she waiting for?” while those older
workers can’t quite understand why people
want them to leave. “After all,” they reason,
“I worked long and hard for this title and
corner office . . . why should I give it up
when I still like my job?” Best-in-class
companies will turn this ambiguity into a
strength by providing clarity about the roles
that the different generations play in their
work environment, then rolling it proudly
into their brand message.
• Keeping people will become just as important as
recruiting them
As the earlier excerpt noted, companies used to recruit
for life. Once an employee signed an offer letter with a
company, he or she was likely to remain there. Part of that
was pragmatic; without job-posting technology, it was
more difficult to look for a new job. Most people agree
that it was also generational. Frustrated workers were told
to “just work a little harder, let the boss see you at your
desk, and eventually good things will come.” Now, new
graduates will likely work for many employers during their
careers, and may even spend time in several different
functional areas. It’s now a given that companies must
portray a compelling and truthful brand message; if it
proves to be false or unauthentic, new hires will tell the
world in blogs, anonymous postings, and message boards.
Younger workers
are beginning to
wonder aloud,“Is
she ever going to
retire? What is she
waiting for?”

future; rather, it is derived from the willingness of the
organization to take time to: (1) acknowledge that the
current environment will change, (2) make educated
guesses about which factors will influence those changes
most, and (3) picture ways the organization can thrive in
the future state.
Perhaps generational influences are not the major
influence-to-come on talent acquisition—perhaps it will
be the health of the economy, or a major shift in public
policy. Staffing organizations should schedule regular
opportunities to imagine what major forces will influence
the talent-acquisition function. Expert guests could be
invited in to discuss trends, and groups could go off and
create detailed scenarios.These could in turn be used to
drive strategy and make “Learning from the Future” a
regular activity.
Scenario planning is one of the most fun and useful
tools you can use in crafting a talent acquisition strategy.
Even more fun, though, will be seeing what we’ll all
actually be writing about in this journal in 2028!
Assuming that the recruitment experience is positive,
though, hiring a great employee is no longer the end of the
story.Today’s employees won’t wait around for companies
to develop them, or promote them, or train them as they
believe is appropriate. Progressive organizations will cease
the practice of entrusting the recruiting function to hire
people and then assuming that the new hire’s leadership
will take care of developing them. New hires are going to
be less interested in hearing about “secret lists” of high-
potential employees, and will instead want to know how
and when their own customized training and development
plan will begin. Companies have already noted that losing
a good employee costs many times the amount it takes to
recruit a good employee, and many best-in-class organi-
zations have already responded with Web-based on-
boarding programs, e-learning, identifying “at-risk”
employees, etc.This trend will certainly continue.
Using Scenario Learning to Build a Dynamic
Recruitment Strategy
By selecting two simple factors that are highly likely to
impact talent acquisition, and with a little imagination, it
was quite simple to create four vivid scenarios describing
possible future states. Similarly, by imagining the role of
talent acquisition in these imaginary scenarios, it was easy
to identify trends and end states that would make one’s
organization more prepared for any of the future states.
Were these the right influences to select? Were the future
states described comprehensively? Were the right trends
and pattern selected? It’s impossible to say.The value of
the exercise is realized not in preparing for some specific
TRENDS
Michael R. Kannisto, Ph.D., Global Staffing Director, Bausch & Lomb
michael_kannisto@bausch.com
Michael Kannisto joined B&L in July 2006, and is responsible for leading staffing policies and practices, the staffing team in the
United States, and global internship and co-op programs. He received a B.S. in chemistry from Hope College and a Ph.D. in
chemistry from Texas A&M University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Materials Science and Engineering
Department at the University of Michigan.

USING AGENCIES
The primary objective for most recruiting functions
is to achieve hiring goals at the lowest possible cost
without sacrificing quality. Often, an immediate target of
cost-saving effort is contingent recruiters, who are paid for
hires that could have been made in more cost-effective
ways. HR needs to ensure, however, that the good
intentions do not hinder achievement of the ultimate
objective—meeting the hiring goals. All the cost savings in
the world are no consolation to a frustrated business
leader who cannot attract necessary talent.
Too many times, HR allows contingent recruiters to
become competitors to the staffing functions. But by
treating select agencies as an extension of the HR team,
they can be pushed out of areas where they are not needed
and into areas where they add value commensurate with
their fees. And by concentrating the contingent recruiters’
efforts in the right way, the overall success of the recruiting
function can be improved.
Step 1: Understand the Business Need
As always, start with a clear understanding of the
business’s needs. Doing this well is a complex process
that’s beyond the scope of this article. However, the
outcome of the process should confirm what skills the
firm needs to add, in which locations, in what numbers,
and within what time frame.
Don’t rely on the business manager to do all the
thinking. Start by personally reviewing the documented
business plan and link that to a good knowledge of staffing
and the marketplace. Pay close attention to the toughest
challenges, including:
• Is there a need for nontraditional skills or growth in
new geographies?
• Which are the most urgent hiring needs, and what are
the costs of not filling them on a timely basis?
Step 2: Conduct Current State Assessment
Next, perform a realistic evaluation of the team’s
ability to meet the hiring objectives. Many recruiting
functions have a can-do spirit, even in the face of very
challenging objectives. This can be detrimental if
objectives can’t be achieved or if hires can’t be made in
a timely manner. Every sourcing function has some
spots that need extra support. Make sure to critically
assess the group’s abilities and address these key
questions:
• Will repeating successful efforts of last year produce the
same results this year?
• What risks can disrupt your staffing plans? (Addition
of new clients, turnover in the business, midyear shifts
in desired profiles, delayed product launch, etc.)
• Is the team able to penetrate all the necessary candidate
pools—even for the most sophisticated units of this
firm?
Step 3: Define the Ideal Future State
Many times, the best response to a sourcing issue is not
a contingent agency. If one already knows how to engage
and evaluate certain candidates and one simply needs
more prospects, a researcher may be all that is needed. If
the recruiting group is stretched and someone is needed
to do full-cycle recruiting for a period of time, a contract
recruiter may be the answer. And senior, specialized roles
may call for a retained search.
However, the nature of some sourcing challenges is
somewhere between these more obvious answers. And in
some cases, there are multiple needs that call for a blend
of internal and external sourcing to meet the demand.
While one should avoid using external recruiters for
core roles whenever possible, here are some needs that
may call for engaging a contingent recruiter:
Get Your Money’s Worth When Using
Contingent Agencies
By Dan Nielsen, Recruiting Initiative Leader,Towers Perrin

USING AGENCIES
A REFOCUS
Type of Candidate Potential Contingent Usage
Unfamiliar An agency well-positioned in a vertical market unfamiliar to you can be a
tremendous help in knowledge transfer to your group to understand what you
need, where to find candidates, how to evaluate them, and what factors drive
candidates' decisions. In fact, some recruiters are so well regarded in an industry
that you can actually “borrow” their credibility as they take your message to
the market. Consider using them as a transitional step to avoid trial-and-error
recruiting until your group can adequately perform those functions in-house.
Urgent Time-to-fill is sometimes the dominant factor in a search.When you suddenly
experience an acute need, it may make sense to bring in a contingent recruiter
who specializes in a given function/job category instead of draining resources
focused on other needs.
Opportunity Hire Many times, business leaders are willing to make room for high-impact
opportunity hires who rarely become available. In fact, some people are
considered “untouchable” because of their long tenure or management position
at another firm. However, if caught at the right time, some would entertain a
new opportunity. You may make only a few of these hires a year, but if a
contingent recruiter can help you attract a “retained” level candidate at a
contingency level fee, that is a form of cost-savings.
Agent/Candidate Relationship Some contingent recruiters have an “agent” relationship with candidates.These
candidates outsource the effort of keeping in touch with the marketplace to
this trusted recruiter who has been in the industry for many years. Some
candidates also see value in having this buffer between them and the company
during salary negotiations or if things simply don't work out.
Increased Goals Unforeseen, drastic increases in hiring goals can put your team under significant
pressure and drain resources. Sometimes, the need is too limited for a contract
recruiter to be the right option. Consider building contingent recruiters into your
service-level agreements with the business as “safety valves” if hiring needs spike
unexpectedly to a certain degree.This allows you to right-size your team based
on hiring goals, while still handling increases in need as they arise.

USING AGENCIES
A REFOCUS
In cases where a blend of internal and agency
resources are used, create a checklist of sourcing steps to
perform internally prior to engaging outside help. This
ensures that agencies are not competing with you, but
rather bringing talent you can’t reach on your own.
Some of these steps are:
• Post jobs on appropriate sites
• Solicit employee referrals
• Perform recent-hire debriefs
• Work your existing talent pipeline
• Perform competitor and other target firm name
research
• Review former candidates, especially those who
rejected your offer
• Network through traditional, social, and online means
• Reach out through professional organizations and
to those who attend or speak at industry con-
ferences
Step 4: Select Agencies
Stop letting them select you! Selection of the agencies
is directly driven by the needs you’ve defined. For
instance, sometimes knowledge of the industry is more
important than knowledge of your firm—or vice versa.
Some needs are so specialized that you require a local
agency with obvious qualifications (e.g., speaks the local
language, knows the customs). Begin by defining the
universe of possible agency partners.
Source Comments
Existing Agency Relationships Many times the best agencies are those that know your firm’s culture and
process. Even if they haven’t worked in the particular business segment, it may
make sense to stretch them into it.
Ask the Business Ask people in the business who they consider the best recruiters in the market.
If your company has an exit interview process, add a question about what
recruiter, if any, the departing employee used to identify their new job.
Retained Firms Many retained firms will perform contingent searches for roles that are not at
the retained-search level.You may want to inquire about a retained firm’s
willingness to work with you on a contingent basis.
Online Research Perform online research to discover which firms are focused on your industry
or job categories. Keep in mind that many contingent recruiters will list
several “specialties,” but the first few are usually their true focus.
Networking Personal and online networking and reference checking can give you real-life
insight into agencies’ performance from people who have used them.
Red Book Check Kennedy’s Directory of Executive Recruiters (aka the Red Book) for a list
of firms that focus on your area of need.
(on a contingent basis)

USING AGENCIES
A REFOCUS
Choose the smallest number of agencies (it may be just
one) to fill in the need you’ve defined.While this is more
art than science, the following questions can help to
narrow the number of agencies:
• What is the agency’s success history with your firm, the
particular business unit, and other companies in the
industry? (e.g., completion rate, days to fill, etc.)
• What is the specialty and focus of the firm?
• Is it restricted by off-limits agreements with your
primary targets?
• Does it have the resources to cover the industry to the
degree you need? (Some of the best results come from
one-person operations, but for some needs, a larger
firm is necessary.)
• Is the agency willing to work within your fee structure?
Step 5: Prepare and Engage Agencies
All of your recruiting efforts, both
insourced and outsourced, depend on an
accurate and compelling value proposition
for the marketplace. Document this value
proposition; we did ours in two forms. A
PowerPoint gave the complete story with
deep details, and a one-pager was designed
for external distribution.These documents
should clearly articulate the benefits of
building a career within each business of
your firm.
These documents allow employees and
recruiters to do effective outreach, keep interview teams
on message, equip professors at key campuses to educate
top students about the organization, and—when they are
widely distributed within the organization—can even
support retention efforts. Recruiters will make hundreds
of calls on your behalf, and a compelling value proposition
will do more than help them find the right talent; it will
also act as a brand builder and free advertising for your
organization.
Earlier this year, Towers Perrin decided to use
contingent recruiters for a search and asked a business
leader to spend an hour with them to review our value
proposition. These sessions not only equipped the
recruiters with our talking points, but also had a surprising
benefit of honing our messages.These agencies were able
to share recent insights from candidates and competitors
that helped us distinguish ourselves even further in the
marketplace. The momentum created by the business’s
participation in these sessions drove quick results, and we
received on-target candidates within 24 hours of some of
these meetings.
It takes far more than title, duties, and money to attract
top prospects.Your value proposition has to not only cover
why high-performing prospects should want a particular
role, but also sell them on the firm, industry, and a path
of career advancement.
Again, a good start to developing the value proposition
is to review the unit’s business plan. Armed with that
information, you should draft a value proposition that:
• Describes industry trends that cause ongoing need for
your company’s products and services.
• Explains the different services and pro-
ducts your firm offers that align with (or
better yet, lead) the industry trends.
• Highlights areas where your firm is the
“first, best, or only” one providing a
product or service.
• Is as fact-based as possible, drawing from
industry awards or rankings, employee
surveys, press coverage, etc.
• Gives details of the current careers as
well as opportunity for advancement that
exist within the business. (Be sure to stay
positive about your own strengths rather
than being negative about others in the industry.)
• Highlights cultural selling points about your firm such
as flexible work arrangements, generous benefit
packages, work/life balance, etc.
• Includes specific selling-points related to particular
roles. (This may include details of the types of project
the candidate would be exposed to, potential for
visibility and advancement, or even comments about a
manager’s style.)
The importance of the employment value proposition
cannot be overstated. It impacts everything from your
ability to engage prospects to sustaining them through the
decision to leave their current, secure job and join your
company.
The importance
of the employment
value proposition
cannot be
overstated.

USING AGENCIES
A REFOCUS
Step 6: Evaluate Performance
Evaluating the performance of a recruiter is a mixture
of quantitative and qualitative analysis based on your
specific goals. For instance, if you engaged a firm to fill a
particular technical need and expected to draw on its
existing relationships, time-to-fill would be a crucial
metric. However, if you are directing the agency toward
more senior, opportunity hires normally targeted by
retained firms, then success may be defined as one or
two annual hires.
Some of the things to expect from third-
party recruiters include:
• No surprises. They should be filling in
the gaps on a résumé, gathering deci-
sion-drivers, and adding context that goes
beyond a candidate’s written profile.
• Nearly 100% of their candidates should
be worthy of a face-to-face interview.
And, when presenting an off-target
profile, they should acknowledge it and
explain their reasoning.
• Their acceptance rates should be higher
than average because they should be
advising you when a candidate simply
isn’t ready for an offer and actively
“closing” deals for those who are ready.
• Vendors should focus on identifying previously
unreached candidates, not competing for people you’ve
already contacted.
Be aware that some contingent recruiters may not have
a high interview-to-offer ratio. This is because they
generally reach out to prospects who are not active in a
search, but are willing to learn more about your position.
Forging a Strong Partnership
In today’s environment, HR must be highly discerning
before recommending higher-cost staffing solutions, while
recognizing that high-priority, specialized needs may call
for a customized approach. Often, a greater impact is
made in the mind of a hiring manager by filling a single
tough position rather than several standard openings, and
a contingent recruiter can be of great value in these
situations.
If you are willing to engage the right
agencies and direct their efforts, contingent
recruiters can be steered away from being
your competition and be strong partners
that contribute to your overall success.
Third-party
recruiters’
acceptance rates
should be higher
than average
because they should
be advising you when
a candidate simply
isn’t ready for an
offer and actively
“closing” deals for
those who are ready.
Dan Nielsen is the Recruiting Initiative Leader for Towers Perrin, a global professional services firm.
dan.nielsen@towersperrin.com
In his role he is responsible for developing, leading, and executing recruiting initiatives across the organization.This includes
implementing prospect outreach programs as well as other tools and methods that increase overall recruiting effectiveness and
efficiency. Before assuming his most recent role, he partnered with Towers Perrin business leaders in the United States and internationally to
manage staffing efforts across many of the consulting units of the firm.

SOURCING
One always wonders how some organizations are able
to hire the best-in-class talent while some struggle
to fill ordinary positions.There is no secret sauce here, but
a carefully built sourcing strategy that complements the
recruiting efforts will help address this issue.
Though there has been an increasing shift toward more
proactive recruiting strategies, the reality is that most
organizations have a reactionary, requisition-driven
sourcing and recruiting model that is often not scalable.
They also track overhead metrics such as cost, efficiency,
and speed.
These traditional metrics, while still important
measures of overall efficiency, are not effective measures
for proactive recruiting, according to Staffing.org. In fact,
these metrics could ultimately reduce effectiveness by
necessitating that team members are compensated to act
in reactionary ways, such as:
• Filling a need as fast as possible with the wrong
candidate instead of waiting to find the right candidate
for an important role.
• Waiting for requisitions to be released to identify and
build relationships with best-in-class talent, at which
point it might be too late.
• Screening and sorting quickly vs. networking to find the
best person.
To drive a higher return on investment from recruiting,
employers need to do two things:
1. Develop a scalable model to build talent communities
ahead of demand.
2. Replace the traditional measures of efficiency and
quantity with measures of effectiveness and quality.
How does an organization go about doing this? I suggest
the following two approaches for achieving the above-
mentioned objectives.
Approach 1
• Set up a SWAT team to source and build talent
communities exclusively for your game-changing
positions that directly impact the bottom line; and
• Measure the sourcing team on key performance
indicators such as the number of qualified individuals
they identify and the relationships they create.
Approach 2
• Outsource the sourcing function to a specialized provider
whose only focus is to source best-in-class talent for a
specific domain and functional area.The advantage of
using this approach is that the customers can capitalize
on the expertise of the provider in proactive sourcing that
the in-house recruiters may lack.
– Research shows that having in-house recruiters
work on proactive sourcing and recruiting is not a
scalable model, as most in-house recruiters have an
increasing requisition load coupled with adminis-
trative responsibilities to keep them occupied.
– In addition, the competencies required of recruiters
for proactive sourcing are much different from those
of the in-house or contract recruiters, who very often
do not want to be bogged down by the process.
Here we shall delve deep into Approach 1, which
encourages clients to look at proactive sourcing and creation
of talent communities as a qualitative and not quantitative
service. I believe that proactive sourcing is not a crap shoot
but actually a science. As always, I would recommend that
you align your model to your business goals and ensure that
your model caters to attracting best-in-class talent and helps
you move up the value chain from a recruiting perspective.
One must be aware that the entire concept of proactive
sourcing and pipelining of candidates is a time-drawn process
that is deeply entrenched within your branding strategy.The
Scalable Sourcing and Recruiting
Strategy & Metrics
By Ravi Subramanian, Management Consultant

SOURCING
10 STEPS
process involves a long-term sales cycle to source and close
a candidate, educate them on the opportunity, and funnel
them to you, ensuring return on investment.
To build a model that is scalable, organizations need to
follow these basic steps:
1. Create a functionally aligned sourcing team that
includes Accounting & Finance, IT, Legal, Sales,
Marketing, Corporate, and Executive or any
combination that is suitable for your organization.
2. Craft clean job descriptions that
a. Are in compliance with local and federal
employment laws
b. Conform to industry standards
c. Are attractive enough to entice prospects to apply
d. Include all the necessary information about:
i. the company
ii. the business unit
iii.why the candidate must join the company
iv. compensation, benefits, and perks
v. EEO
3. Identify Critical to Quality (CTQ) elements from which
the profile of an ideal candidate could be created that will
help in devising the sourcing strategy. Please ensure that
the following areas are addressed in the CTQ document:
a. Culture and role
b. Sourcing strategy
c. Value proposition
4. Create a sourcing calendar that highlights the following:
a. Weekly goals
b. Tasks
c. Timelines
d. Accomplishments
5. Compile a comprehensive list of sourcing avenues and
tools to source talent from:
a. User groups
b. Industry associations
c. Social networks
d. Telephone name sourcing
e. Competition
6. Integrate the referral program with branding.
a. The referral message should be consistent with
employer branding.
b. Include a referral program highlights document.
c. Create a one-page sell sheet about the company, its
values, why someone should work there, and any
accolades such as “most admired company.”
7. Establish an SLA between the sourcing team and the
recruiting team.
a. A well-structured SLA will ensure that recruiters and
the sourcing team know exactly what is expected of
each other and how success is measured.This helps
set accountabilities to ensure success.
b. This SLA should cover supported services, sourcing
team responsibilities, recruiting team responsibilities
(internal client), service measures, reporting and
metrics,penalties for noncompliance,incident report-
ing and management, and change management.
8. Create a good screening document that addresses all
the questions that need to be answered.
a. Technical or functional skills
b. Culture fit
c. Value fit
9. Develop a good feedback mechanism.
10. Develop an interview debrief process to understand
why candidates are being accepted and rejected so the
sourcing strategy can be fine-tuned.
What cannot be measured cannot be improved, so
organizations should track the following metrics to study
the efficiency of the sourcing process:
• Time to submittal
• Submittal-to-interview ratio
• Interview-to-hire ratio
• Sourcing efficiency
Like all initiatives, this one involves change at the
grassroots level, which must be supported by the leadership
to be successful. Organizations need to do a current-state
analysis on where they stand with their recruitment efforts
and identify gaps, after which they can build an ideal future
state incorporating one of the approaches suggested here.
Please note that this is not a one-size-fits-all approach, so
customization will be required for each case.
Ravi Subramanian provides consulting services to marquee Fortune
1000 clients in the areas of Recruitment Process Outsourcing,Off-shoring,
TalentAcquisition,Talent Management,Talent Retention,Staffing and HR.
E-mail:ravi.linkedin@sbcglobal.net

IMMIGRATION
Not the Wretched Refuse
The inscription on the plaque at the base of the Statue
of Liberty reads, in part:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
That doesn’t quite fit the entire spectrum of today’s
immigrant population. Far from being tired, poor, and
wretched, skilled immigrants in the U.S. are driving new
technology start-ups, patent filings, and the acquisition
of advanced degrees in engineering, science, and
business.
• 50% of all technology companies in Silicon Valley
were founded by Chinese, Taiwanese, Indian, and
other immigrant scientists and entrepreneurs.
• 50% of all new U.S. Ph.D.s in engineering are
immigrants, as well as 45% of all U.S. Ph.D.s in life
sciences, physical sciences, and computer sciences,
and over 40% of all U.S. master-degreed computer
scientists, physical scientists, and engineers.
• 25% of all physicians in the U.S. are immigrants.
Despite the fact that they comprise only 12% of the
U.S. population, and despite their rich talent and global
skills, immigrants remain a recruiting resource that is not
fully tapped.
There are three primary reasons for this. One, many of
the actors in the talent-acquisition arena are not fully
aware of the high performance levels within the
immigrant community. Two, a good deal of confusion
exists among employers and recruiters regarding the
employability of immigrants. Three, there is little
The war for talent has gone global. Over 200 million
people now work and live outside their country of
birth.This is the highest number in world history.Twenty-
four million civilian workers in the United States, or nearly
16% of the workforce, were born outside the U.S.
Immigrants are an increasingly important piece of the
talent equation in the U.S., particularly as baby boomers
retire and shortages of high-technology workers increase.
Countries from Canada to New Zealand are scrambling
to attract highly skilled immigrants to their shores.These
efforts usually take the form of an expedited resident visa
issued to those with certain skills or particular job offers.
The European Union’s Blue Card program is the boldest
such initiative, with the stated goal of attracting 20 million
skilled workers over the next two decades.
How well these programs succeed remains to be seen,
but one fact is certain: they will divert some of the talent
that would otherwise have flowed to the U.S.This will be
an increasing problem for certain high-tech sectors in the
U.S. such as IT, biotech, and healthcare, as employers look
to immigrant talent to supplement shortages in the native
workforce. This has created a difficult situation—with
employers claiming a need for more visa numbers, and
anti-immigrant groups opposing any increases.
With all the talk of H-1B visa caps, green card backlogs,
I-9 revisions, and other restrictions on employers wishing
to hire immigrant talent in the U.S., recruiters sometimes
overlook the rich human capital resources of foreign-born
talent already in the U.S.
This is understandable. Recruiters, like employers, often
lump all immigrants together, without discerning the
difference between talent that has little or no immigration-
related hiring issues and talent that does have significant
immigration-related employability issues.
Recruiting the Tired, the Poor, and
the Wretched Refuse
Immigrant talent in the U.S. is an underused recruiting source of high-performers.
By Richard T. Herman and Raghav Singh

IMMIGRATION
FINDING TALENT
awareness on how to effectively access this pool of
talented immigrants.
Employability of Immigrants
A few facts should be known about the legality of
employing immigrants:
• There are no H-1B visa-cap restrictions when an
employer hires an immigrant worker already in the
U.S. on an H-1B with another employer and counted
toward a previous cap. There are more than 500,000
H-1B workers currently in the United States.
• There are no immigration-related employment barriers
for foreign-born talent that has already acquired U.S.
permanent residency (green card) or U.S. citizenship.
Of the 34 million immigrants in the country, two-
thirds are either naturalized U.S. citizens
or U.S. permanent residents.
• Recent changes in immigration law now
extend work authorization for interna-
tional students graduating from science,
technology, engineering, or math
programs from 12 months to 29 months,
without requiring any sponsorship by
the employer. This work authorization
is called Optional Practical Training and is secured
for the student by the university.There are more than
500,000 international students currently studying in
the U.S.
As outlined above, there is a wealth of foreign-born
talent in the U.S. that does not require visa or green card
sponsorship in order to be employed. Additionally, there
are significant numbers of H-1B workers in the U.S. who can
be recruited and employed by a new sponsoring employer
immediately upon filing an H-1B petition without having to
worry about H-1B cap issues.
Procedures for processing a new H-1B petition for an
H-1B worker already in the U.S are fairly straightforward.
It is best, however, to involve an immigration attorney if
an employer is not experienced with the process.
Locating High-End Immigrant Talent in the U.S.
Finding immigrant talent can be surprisingly easy since
immigrant groups tend to be close-knit and well
organized. Organizations such as TiE (The Indus
Entrepreneurs), HYSTA (Hua Yuan Science and
Technology Association, for Chinese professionals), Monte
Jade (a science and technology group forTaiwanese profes-
sionals), and NetIP (Network of Indian Professionals)
are just a few of the well-established professional associ-
ations that can be a source of immigrant talent.There are
over a hundred such groups in the U.S. Many have local
chapters in major cities.
While these groups represent a rich vein of talent, they
do not exist to serve as a recruiting resource. Getting
involved in and sponsoring these organizations is a
beginning, but it takes more than that to get hires within
the immigrant tech community. On the other hand,
networking is a time-honored recruiting practice, and
given how little these groups are known, any
reputable recruiter that joins them and offers
a resource to high-value employment
opportunities will be well received.
Membership also brings access to a wider
pool of immigrant talent that extends
beyond the organization. Immigrants, for
example, often have a vast network of
immigrant family and friends throughout
the United States. Many immigrant professionals are
married to other immigrant professionals, some of whom
will have no visa or legal restrictions to employment.
In addition to building collaboration with immigrant
technology and business associations in the U.S., recruiters
would be well-served to connect their recruiting efforts to
the growing power of U.S.-based ethnic media as well as
international student associations that exist on all large
U.S. college campuses.
High-Skilled Immigration Zones: Welcoming
Immigrant Talent and Capital
Immigrants tend to congregate in gateway cities on
either coast. San Francisco, LA, New York, and
Washington, D.C., have large populations of highly skilled
immigrants. That leaves vast areas that need talent but
have no such pools to draw from.
As appreciation for immigrant talent increases, more
companies and communities that are not located in
immigrant gateways will begin crafting “international
Finding immigrant
talent can be
surprisingly easy
since immigrant
groups tend to be
close-knit and well
organized.

human capital strategies” designed to enhance their ability
to recruit, welcome, and integrate foreign-born talent and
capital.
One group of Cleveland leaders call themselves the “The
Talent Blueprint Project” and are proposing a series of
programs that would help local companies better connect
to immigrant talent in the U.S. and upgrade the region’s
workforce. This immigrant talent initiative is being
circulated among a large group of national thought and
policy leaders, and is finding enthusiastic support from
people such as billionaire venture-capitalist and former
Google director Michael Moritz and John Austin, director
of Great Lakes Economic Initiative at the Brookings
Institution, and from Senator Barack Obama’s immigration
policy advisers.
A few of the programs proposed by the
Talent Blueprint Project are:
1.) Direct Recruitment of High-Tech Talent in
the U.S.
This would target immigrant and
American-born talent in tech-rich but high-
living-cost regions. A recent study by
BioEnterprise and NorTech, two Cleveland
economic-development organizations,
found over 5,000 unfilled jobs in Greater Cleveland’s
biotech and healthcare sectors.
Alberta, Canada, and its companies are now recruiting
H-1B tech workers in the U.S., promising them jobs and
quick access to permanent residency.
2.) Lobbying the Federal Government for “High Skill
Immigration Zone” Legislation
This would help old industrial, economically distressed
cities accelerate their transition to a knowledge-based
economy by attracting immigrant tech talent and their
employers.These zones would offer companies and their
immigrant employees:
• exemption from the H-1B visa cap (which is exhausted
almost immediately on the first day that companies are
permitted to file for the upcoming fiscal year);
• relief from green-card backlogs (which particularly hurt
professional workers from China and India because of
country-based quotas);
• work authorization for the H-4 spouses of H-1B visa
holders.
Many tech companies wishing to free themselves of the
business-crushing H-1B cap and green-card quotas would
consider co-locating to High Skill Immigration Zones.
Remember Bill Gates opening up his R&D center in
Vancouver last year solely because of H-1B cap restrictions?
3.) EB-5 Investor Green Card and Foreign Investor Regional
Center
Existing federal law permits foreign investors to apply
for green cards if they invest and create jobs in America.
Under the EB-5 program, foreign investors and their
spouses and minor children can receive a green card if
they invest at least $500,000 in a “Targeted
Employment Area” (where unemployment
is at least 150% of the national rate), or $1
million outside a TEA, and directly or
indirectly create 10 jobs for American
citizens or permanent residents.
Nearly 20 cities now have Foreign Investor
Regional Centers, which are licensed by U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services and
offer special immigration benefits to
immigrant investors. Foreign Investor
Regional Centers in Philadelphia, Seattle, Sacramento, and
other cities are attracting hundreds of millions of dollars
to their communities and creating new jobs.
There is no visa backlog in the EB-5 visa category, and
the U.S. government is eager to issue all 10,000 visas
allocated per annum, hopefully attracting $2 billion per
year to the U.S.
Cleveland seeks to leverage the EB-5 program in order to
attract foreign investors who are interested in making
investments solely, or in part, because of a strong desire to
acquire a U.S. green card for themselves and their children.
4.) International Students
Universities and colleges are the “feeder system” for the
vast majority of future immigrant tech workers and
entrepreneurs in the U.S.
The Cleveland group proposes to establish a collabo-
ration among its leading colleges and universities to jointly
attract, integrate, and retain international students.
IMMIGRATION
FINDING TALENT
Alberta, Canada, and
its companies are
now recruiting H-1B
tech workers in the
U.S., promising them
jobs and quick
access to permanent
residency.

IMMIGRATION
FINDING TALENT
5.)Welcoming and Intercultural Center
Learning from the Welcoming Center for New
Pennsylvanians, based in Philadelphia, the Cleveland
group seeks to establish a Welcoming and Intercultural
Center.
TheWelcoming and Intercultural Center would provide
the “welcome wagon” for immigrants and other new
arrivals to Greater Cleveland. The Center would also
educate the corporate and general community on the
economic benefits and strategies of welcoming global
talent. Finally, the center would also serve as the
“intercultural town hall” to promote
socializing, learning, and collaboration
opportunities for the various immigrant,
minority, and majority populations.
Why Turn Away Needed Skills and
Capital?
TheTalent Blueprint’s emphasis on skills
and capital emulates immigration programs
in Canada and Australia. These programs
were originally started to offer resident visas to
immigrants with needed skills (without having an
employer sponsor them) or who were willing to invest in
enterprises that create jobs.When Hong Kong reverted to
China in 1997, billions of dollars in investments flowed to
Vancouver. Companies such as Microsoft and Electronic
Arts have set up development centers that have attracted
several thousand high-skilled immigrants to Canada.
In contrast, U.S. immigration policy is not designed to
attract talent. The history of U.S. immigration is a story
primarily of family-based chain migration. U.S.
immigration policy has never placed great emphasis on
talent and capital attraction. However, with employment-
based green cards taking up to 10 years, with new
economic opportunities opening up in China, India and
elsewhere, and with other countries using immigration
incentives to recruit the world’s best brains, the U.S. no
longer has the luxury to assume our statute of liberty will
be the first choice of the new wave of Einsteins.
In order to continue attracting the best and brightest
job-creating minds, the U.S. needs to enact immigration-
law reform that places an emphasis on
attracting skills to fill shortages, as well as
investment capital. In light of the
compelling data that shows that immigrant
science and engineering talent are turbo-
chargers for economic growth in a
knowledge-based economy, a policy of
inclusion for international talent should be
incorporated into all aspects of business,
civic, education, and social life in
America’s communities.
Some recruiters already understand the immigrant
talent equation, but not many are plugged in to this deep
reservoir. Particularly for those recruiters who are active
in regions that are not immigrant-rich, we hope some of
the information in this article is helpful in identifying new
sources of talent.
Note:This article is provided for informational purposes only
and is not intended to offer specific legal advice.
U.S. immigration
policy is not
designed to attract
talent.
Richard Herman is a nationally renowned immigration lawyer and commentator on global diversity.He is the founder and principal
of RichardT.Herman & Associates,LLC,a Cleveland-based law firm that provides immigration counsel to global talent and world-
class companies. American-born, formerly residing in Moscow, Russia, Richard is married to an immigrant from Taiwan, and
they are raising their children to be citizens of the world.
Raghav Singh has previously worked in product management and marketing roles at several HR software vendors, and provides
expertise in ATS, staffing, and mergers and acquisitions. His career has included consulting on enterprise human resource systems,
recruiting, and HR technology direction for numerous large corporations.

HIGH-VOLUME HIRING
From military bases in Germany to cities in Middle
America, U.S. Border Patrol agents and recruiting
strategists are turning over every rock looking for
candidates. Though the positions are often regarded as
entry-level, agents have to make critical decisions, so
finding the right hire requires careful screening. In 2006,
President Bush challenged the agency to hire 6,000
additional agents by the end of 2008, a goal that required
Joe Abbott and his team to source 180,000 candidates.
Confronted by a lack of candidate
awareness and, in some cases, a poor
perception of the agency, Abbott initiated a
comprehensive recruiting and branding
campaign focused on educating prospects
about daily life as a Border Patrol agent
through repeat touches and a variety of
media.
The Journal spoke with Abbott, director
of National Recruitment and Human
Resources Management for U.S. Customs
and Border Protection, about the challenge
of getting 6,000 new pairs of boots on the ground and
how he and his team developed the agency’s multidimen-
sional initiative.
ERE: Describe the recruiting structure at the agency and your
background coming into the leadership role.
Abbott: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP,
is part of the Department of Homeland Security. I’m part
of the human resources management group, or HRM, and
my team is composed of 12 recruiters and planners who
set the recruiting strategy.The U.S. Border Patrol is our
client. The agents administer the applicant evaluations,
Ramping Up at the U.S. Border Patrol
A multidimensional, educational recruiting campaign has resulted in
nearly 6,000 new pairs of boots on the ground.
By Leslie Stevens-Huffman
interview, and make the hiring decisions in conjunction
with the HRM staff, who source prospects and conduct
the background investigations. Because they have real
experience, agents accurately describe the job duties to
candidates, and they are the most qualified people to
judge which candidates will make good agents.There are
six recruiting teams, and each team has six agents, who
are assigned to work the various sectors such as El Paso
and San Diego. In addition, we have as many as a few
hundred agents working various recruiting
events like the job fairs, and then NASCAR
has its own dedicated recruiting team.
I previously worked in employee and labor
relations in HRM and had no experience
with talent acquisition when President Bush
issued his challenge to the agency. My boss
came to me and asked me to head up the
recruiting effort, and I really couldn’t say no.
To me it was a challenge, but not so far out
that it was a dream. However, at the same
time, it was much more exciting than a
common, everyday task.
ERE: Describe the challenge issued by President Bush and
what makes the goal difficult to achieve.
Abbott: In May 2006, President Bush committed to
curtail illegal immigration and make the country safer
from terrorists by securing the borders. Part of that
initiative included increasing the number of Border Patrol
agents to 18,000 by the end of 2008. Meeting the goal
would require hiring 6,000 new agents, or as we say at the
agency, putting 6,000 new pairs of boots on the ground.
Aside from the relatively short time frame for making
“We advertise in
the Stars and Stripes
using this slogan,
which embodies our
military recruiting
brand and message:
Change your
call sign, not your
calling.”

HIGH-VOLUME HIRING
BORDER PATROL
6,000 hires, there are other elements that make
the goal difficult to achieve—the geography we
need to cover and the displacement of the
candidates. First, all agents start out working on
the border between California and Texas, so a
candidate from Chicago, for instance, might have
to relocate to El Paso, and eventually, they could
be assigned to Miami as part of their career track,
necessitating another move. Time is another
challenge that adds to the complexity of the goal.
While a candidate with a pretty stable work
history might finish the hiring process and the
background investigation in a couple of months,
on average, it takes anywhere from three to six
months for a candidate to complete the hiring
process. Finally, there’s frequently a time lapse
between when we actually hire someone and
when they start.
ERE: Describe the hiring process for agents and your
average applicant-to-hire ratio.
Abbott:The agents make critical decisions every
day. Sometimes they might even save a person’s
life or protect our country from terrorists. We
need a mature-minded individual, although the
required hiring age is under 40, and at the same
time, they need to understand people and be
compassionate. Our structure isn’t like the Army,
where there’s extensive training and supervision, which
allows new recruits to take a few years to grow and
develop in their position.We don’t have the luxury of that
kind of time or structure. Starting salaries range from
$36,000 to $46,000 per year depending on the location,
which includes overtime, although after three years, agents
average around $70,000 including overtime. Candidates
take a written exam that evaluates numerous attributes
including knowledge and aptitude, a medical exam, and a
physical fitness evaluation before going through a
structured interview.
We prefer candidates who already speak a foreign
language like Spanish, but part of the written exam tests
their ability to learn a new language, because if they don’t
speak a foreign language, they’ll have to learn one as part
of their training regimen at the academy. Finally, we
complete a background investigation. On average, it takes
30 candidates to get one pair of boots on the ground, so
hiring 6,000 new agents will require sourcing 180,000
people.To meet our new-agent goal, we had to consider
the length of the hiring process, the relocation time, and
continuously recalculate the numbers to factor in attrition
rates.The way the numbers worked out, we estimated that
we would need to source 3,500 candidates each week to
meet the hiring goal by the 2008 deadline.
ERE: What information did you review to set your strategy?
Abbott: We took a look at what was working and what
wasn’t working under our present recruiting strategy, and

our first priority was to increase our output. Our thought
was to use a wide range of applicant sources and
advertising mediums because of the time challenge; we
could always adjust our strategy later, but we didn’t have
time to experiment. We’ve always relied on traditional
recruiting sources like job fairs,Web sites, job boards, and
Web advertising, but I think the discovery of a previously
untapped potential workforce has been instrumental in
helping us meet our numbers. By looking at demographic
data on the civilian labor force such as unemployment
rates, median income, and the population under 40 by
city, I found that some cities were underpenetrated by the
agency from a recruiting standpoint.
But there was a challenge associated with the
opportunity. In cities where we have a Border Patrol
presence, the people know us and we have a positive
image, but when you get into a city like Indianapolis, we
don’t have a visible presence, and what they’ve heard
about the Border Patrol may not be all positive. Our first
goal was to educate the public and inject ourselves into
that market.
ERE: How did you attack those high-
opportunity markets?
Abbott: We found ways to incorporate
smaller surrounding markets into our job
fairs in larger markets where the Border
Patrol has a presence and recruits on a
regular basis. Now, for example, when we
hold a job fair in Cincinnati and Cleveland,
we advertise in Toledo, Youngstown, and
Southern Michigan to attract those
applicants as well.
The second thing we did was to create a
new employment brand, and we engaged
outside firms Image Media Services, Inc.,
and JWT Inside to assist us in the process. It
soon became clear that perception
management and education were going to be
critical components. We solicited feedback
from outside groups, who gave us their
perceptions of the agency. We wanted to
understand what those perceptions were and
then match our messages up against those
perceptions, so we weren’t creating recruiting
materials in isolation. It was as simple as
going into New York and asking a group of
people, “What do you think the border patrol
does?”Then we validated and honed our new
HIGH-VOLUME HIRING
BORDER PATROL
“The agents make critical
decisions every day.
Sometimes they might even
save a person’s life or protect
our country from terrorists.”

HIGH-VOLUME HIRING
BORDER PATROL
brand and messages via feedback from
internal agent groups.We wanted to paint
an accurate picture of life as an agent and
also dispel the negative image that some
people have about the agency.
ERE: What are some of the unique elements
of your recruiting strategy?
Abbott: We decided to become our own
job fair vendor, meaning that we host the
event ourselves rather than having a booth
at a larger, multi-employer function. We
still participate in multi-employer job
fairs, but we thought we could get greater
traction and process more applicants by
hosting our own events. Because we have
exclusive access to the applicants, we can
educate them about the Border Patrol,
and they can interface with agents, study
for the exam, and complete all the steps in
the hiring process except the background
check.
We also borrowed a successful idea from
the Army, Navy, and Coast Guard and
developed a NASCAR recruiting team.
They piloted their NASCAR teams in
2007 with good results, and each agency
or military branch attracts a different
candidate, so I really don’t think having multiple teams
dilutes the talent pool.
ERE: What’s your methodology for recruiting veterans?
Abbott: Some 20% to 25% of our agents are veterans.
They have the maturity we’re looking for, so they make
good decisions on the front line, and they’re looking for
the training we offer. We recruit the servicemen and—
women—before they’re discharged, and they like the fact
that they know they have somewhere to go when they’re
finished with their military service. We have a good
relationship with all the military branches, so they let us
recruit and evaluate candidates on-site at the overseas
bases such as Iraq, Germany, and Korea.We also advertise
in the Stars and Stripes using this slogan, which embodies
our military recruiting brand and message: Change your
call sign, not your calling.
ERE: Which parts of your strategy are working and which are
not?
Abbott: I really haven’t found that one tactic, such asWeb
advertising or job fairs, is reaching more candidates than
another. I measure all the hits from our Web site and the
Web advertising, and I’ve come to the conclusion that our
multi-layered approach is what’s working about our
strategy. Prospective agents are seeing us or hearing about
us everywhere they turn.We’re doing a good job of getting
the word out through the media, we have an employee

referral program where the agents compete and earn
awards for referring candidates, and so I don’t think
there’s one single thing that’s working better than another.
The concert of touches and the layers of contact are
driving applicants to us. One thing that I didn’t anticipate
was the lull in applicants between Thanksgiving and the
end of January. It really threw our numbers of applicants
off around that time.We need to find innovative ways to
get people interested in looking for a new
career around the holidays. I did find that
activity during that period positively impacted
applicant flow later in the spring, but I simply
underestimated the seasonality in recruiting.
ERE: How are you tracking the agency’s progress
toward the hiring goal,and how are you being held
accountable for the results?
Abbott: I track all the numbers, and we have
two conference calls every week to review our
results—one with the agent recruiters and one
with the agency’s senior executives, who
monitor our progress. I don’t use a scorecard,
but I track the number of applicants by
location and source, how many begin the
hiring process, how many offers we put out,
and how many agents we hire. At the end of
the third quarter, we were supposed to be at
75% of the goal, and we were at 79%, so I feel
confident that we are going to make it, but we
have to keep pushing forward. There’s really
no difference in accountability for results
between a government job as talent acquisition
leader or one in the private sector. I accepted
the job, and now it’s my job to get it done and
hit the numbers, but without my team, it
would never happen. It’s the same here as it is anywhere
else. If you don’t meet the numbers, the same thing will
happen to you in this job as would happen to you in any
job.
HIGH-VOLUME HIRING
BORDER PATROL
Leslie Stevens-Huffman
lesliestevens@cox.net
Leslie Stevens-Huffman is a freelance writer who previously worked as an executive in the staffing field for 25 years.

DASHBOARD
TESTING
RECRUITING AND RETENTION
Top Criteria Management Use to
Evaluate HR Performance
BNA’s HR Benchmarks & Analysis Report asked
companies what their most important criteria was for
measuring the performance of their HR department.
STUFFED IN-BASKET
“There will be no job fair. It’s not needed. More
than 1,300 applications for jobs with Oklahoma
City’s NBA team have been collected by the
Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce.
‘There is this aura about being in the NBA,’ said
chamber president Roy Williams. ‘It’s very appealing
to a lot of people. We’re even seeing a lot of out-of-
state applicants submitting résumés, people from
across the country.’
Some applicants are creative. They submit
elaborate color résumés. Others write long letters,
proclaiming their love of the NBA. One person
presented the chamber with a fruit basket. Those
tactics don’t improve one’s chances.
‘It’s great people are excited to want a job
connected to the NBA, but the team will look at your
qualifications,’ Williams said. ‘What skill sets do
you have?’
Jobs that probably will be available include:
technology, project managers, secretaries,
receptionists, human resources, administrative
support, operations, merchandise sales,
accounting, Web design, and community relations.”
--The Oklahoman
UNDERMANNED CANADIANS
“About 800 Canadian sailors are now patrolling the
politically turbulent waters near Iran and Pakistan.
But mustering crews to man warships near global
flashpoints has increasingly become a nightmare for
navy planners in Nova Scotia, British Columbia, and
Ottawa. They have 8,000 sailors on their books and
jobs for 8,600. The most vexing shortages were of
electronics technicians, stokers, and combat
systems engineers. ‘The navy isn’t like Wal-Mart,’
Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Morrison says. ‘We
are having a lot of trouble getting people in the door,
and the experience and knowledge of people we are
now losing after 20 years is irreplaceable. When, for
example, we lose a hull tech, we lose a jack-of-all
trades who can work as a plumber or with sheet
metal.’
‘Most undermanning stems from a lack of effective
recruiting,’ Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Ron Meirau
says. ‘The reason we do not get them is because we
are not advertising well enough.’”
--Winnipeg Free Press
Recruitment and retention of employees 48%
Partnering to implement key organizational goals 39%
Internal client/manager satisfaction with HR 30%
HR cost containment and budget management 26%
Overall employee satisfaction and morale 23%
Employee training and development 12%
External customer satisfaction/retention 4%
UNEMPLOYMENT
Education and Employment
Here are the unemployment rates, seasonally
adjusted, for civilians 25 and older, according to
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, July data
released in August.
unemployment rate
Less than a high school diploma 8.5%
High school graduates, no college 5.2%
Some college or associate degree 4.5%
Bachelor’s degree and higher 2.4%

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Sept 2008 Journal

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