Building Talent Pipelines vs Lean/Just-In-Time Recruiting - Talent 42 Keynote

1. Photo credit: Xiaojun Deng http://bit.ly/1rEJbKj How to BuildTechTalent Pipelines Presented by Glen Cathey @Talent42 2014 Photo credit: btr http://bit.ly/1oPVmza

2.  Glen Cathey, SVP,Talent Acquisition Strategy and Innovation, Kforce  Architect Kforce's sourcing, recruiting and social strategy for 1000+ recruiters  Manage: ▪ Hyperspecialized delivery team (BI/big data/mobile) ▪ Offshore sourcing ▪ Technology evaluation and implementation ▪ Digital strategy  Develop sourcing strategies and sling strings for critical roles  17+ years recruiting  Professional staffing ▪ I.T., Engineering, F&A, Healthcare I.T., HIM, Federal, Clinical Research  Global RPO delivery  Top producing I.T. recruiter  Sourcing/Recruiting Blogger  www.booleanblackbelt.com  15K+ unique visitors per week from 110+ countries  Speaker  7X LinkedInTalent Connect speaker (US, CA, UK)  7X SourceCon speaker  2XAustralasianTalent Conference (Sydney & Melbourne)  2XTruLondon  2X HCI  2X SIA EF  2XTalent42  Top 25 most connected on LinkedIn globally  Top 5 most mentioned and retweeted person onTwitter by recruiters

3. In theory, building a talent "pipeline" sounds like an ideal strategy, ensuring that you always have a steady supply of the talent you're looking for

4. Photo credit:WillieAngus http://bit.ly/1xCvdcr In reality, there are many issues with building talent pipelines, and they all "leak" extensively

5. "I have been solely focused on building pipelines for various critical skills at Lockheed Martin since 2007, with my primary focus on the Cyber Security pipeline. The success I’ve had with my pipeline efforts has helped build a trusted advisor relationship, not only among recruiters, but within our business units and in the field. It isn’t about just finding resumes.You have to understand the needs of both the candidates and the business units and then make the stars align when the timing is right. It’s about building and maintaining relationships and establishing trust. Success fosters success; the more success I have with candidates, the more the word gets out. Former pipeline prospects that get hired make referrals, which lead to new pipeline prospects, and so on. " Source: LinkedInTalent Blog - Strategic Sourcing at Lockheed Martin - Peter Bugnattos, Strategic Sourcer @ Lockheed Martin

6. Source: LouAdler

7. Photo Credit: Chris Parker http://bit.ly/1rEdkt6 After people make a change (promotion, new role, new company, etc.), they estivate* for an unpredictable amount of time *A prolonged state of dormancy. During long dry/hot periods, the ornate horned frog will estivate until it rains/cools down.

8. Once you contact someone and find out they might be interested in future opportunities with your company, they will not be indefinitely available. After you contact and "pipeline" a person who wasn't necessarily looking, they are highly likely to start exploring alternative employment options and no longer be available when you actually do have a hiring need. Photo Credit:William Warby http://bit.ly/1sjOoES

9. Care about candidate experience much?

10. "Incorporating Supply Chain Management successfully leads to a new kind of competition on the global market, where competition is no longer of the company-versus- company form but rather takes on a supply-chain- versus-supply- chain form." Source: WikipediaPhoto Credit: Nick Perez http://bit.ly/1jdUDtX

11. the REAL "war for talent" is really being fought at the HumanCapital Supply Chain level - consistently finding/attracting, recruiting, developing and retaining top talent Whether companies realize it or not,

12. Supply chain/production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Essentially, lean is centered on preserving value with less work, and is derived mostly from theToyota Production System (TPS), an integrated socio-technical system with two pillar concepts: Just-in-time (JIT) or "flow", and "autonomation" (smart automation). Learn more about Lean: • http://bit.ly/1hOGahx • http://amzn.to/1mMTGJh

13. • Long-term philosophy • The right process will produce the right results • Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface. • Use the "pull" system to avoid overproduction. • Level out the workload (Heijunka). • Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right from the first. • Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment. • Use visual control so no problems are hidden. • Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes. • Add value to the organization by developing your people and partners Learn more aboutTPS: • http://bit.ly/1p60SiW

14. • Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others. • Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company's philosophy. • Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve. • Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (Genchi Genbutsu); • Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options (Nemawashi); implement decisions rapidly; • Become a learning organization through relentless reflection (Hansei) and continuous improvement (Kaizen). Learn more aboutTPS: • http://bit.ly/1p60SiW

15. 1. Inventory 2. Overproduction 3. Motion 4. Transport 5. Waiting 6. Over Processing 7. Defects Lean: Seven DeadlyWastes

16. Overproduction Whenever more product is produced than is required at that time by your customers (production in excess/ahead of demand). Generally considered the worst waste because it hides and/or generates all the others. Overproduction leads to excess inventory, which then requires the expenditure of resources on storage space and preservation, activities that do not benefit the customer. In sourcing and recruiting, overproduction happens every time you attract, identify and engage more candidates than needed to deliver to your customer. Examples: • Proactive candidate pipelining • Producing more than 2 candidates for hiring managers without getting specific feedback • Posting jobs and receiving tons of applicants Inventory Inventory, be it in the form of raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP), or finished goods - any of these three items not being actively processed to add value is waste. Candidates engaged but not interviewed representWIP inventory Examples: • Candidate pipelines and talent networks • Producing more than 2 candidates for hiring managers without getting specific feedback • Posting jobs and receiving tons of applicants Transport Each time a product is moved it stands the risk of being damaged, lost, delayed, etc. as well as being a cost for no added value. Examples: • Requiring multiple interviews per candidate • Can you think of any others?

17. Over Processing Over-processing occurs any time more work is done on a piece than is required by the customer. Example: • Engaging and screening candidates without a specific hiring need Waiting Whenever goods are not in transport or being processed, they are waiting. Example: • Candidates sitting indefinitely in WIP talent pipelines Motion People or equipment moving or walking more than is required to perform the processing. Example: • "Activating" passive candidates by contacting and engaging them without a current hiring need. This can spark the candidates into actively looking for work and not be available to be recruited when you finally do have a need Defects Exist whenever the product does not meet the customer's specifications, and include the effort involved in inspecting for and fixing defects.

18. Qualifications • Stays current on industry trends and formulates an opinion on the pros and cons of each • Practitioner of Agile/Scrum and test driven development • Expert level proficiency of the Java language • Easy to work with, stays confident and optimistic in face of resistance and challenges • Experienced at software performance, scalability, maintainability, reusability and security • Good foundation in computer science, with strong competencies in basic data structures, graphs, algorithms, JVM concurrency, thread- safe design, OO design and architecture for solving day to day problems • Ability to lead design sessions and participate in architecture and code reviews EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science / MIS or equivalent experience required. Minimum five (5) years experience in software engineering and design. REQUIRED - Experience in many of the following: Agile, Java, Web services, REST, JAX-RS, Jetty, NoSQL, Cassandra, CQL, Python, Fabric, Maven, Git, Guava, Guice, DSLs, serialization frameworks, Graphs, Algorithms, Design Patterns, OOD, OOA, AWS, EC2, Cloud, JUnit, TestNG Mockito, Hamcrest, JBehave, TDD, BDD Preferred - Experience in one or more of the following: Hadoop’s MapReduce, Avro, Pig, Hive, Machine Learning Algorithms,Titan, Tinkerpop, Graphs, Item Response Theory, Bayesian Probabilities, Probability and Statistics, Semantic Technologies

19. Photo: JustArd Taking orders from hiring managers rather than performing effective req intake sessions?

20. "This past year we experimented with a new way to determine success. Specifically for Cyber Security, I looked at how many of our pure-play Cyber Security job code requisitions excluding college/entry level were filled by external candidates rather than internal transfers or external incumbent captures. Of those, I looked at the percentage of those jobs filled by candidates developed from my pipeline efforts. From January through October 2013 it was 34%." Source: LinkedInTalent Blog - Strategic Sourcing at Lockheed Martin - Peter Bugnattos, Strategic Sourcer @ Lockheed Martin

21. 34% seems like a solid number, but one must ask: • Why isn't the percentage higher? • How much waste was produced in the process? • How much time and effort was spent in proactively building and maintaining the cybersecurity talent pipeline resulting in candidates that were not able to be hired or produce referrals who were hired? • Could the time and effort used to proactively build and maintain the talent pipeline have been used in another way to result in more than 34% of the hires? (the opportunity cost of attempting to pipeline talent) • What was the net effect on candidate experience for all of the pipelined candidates who never had the chance to interview or be considered for a real position?

22. If talent pipelines are wasteful and problematic, are talent communities the answer? No – they consist of a largely transient population, produce significant waste and have massive challenges. Photo Credit:StanleyWood http://bit.ly/TXgycWLearn more about the limits of talent communities: http://bit.ly/1q6sNCN

23. Photo Credit: Scott Liddle http://bit.ly/1n63my1 Additionally, recruiters often ruin "talent communities" Learn more: http://bit.ly/1q6sNCN

24. If proactively building talent pipelines and communities aren't the answer to your talent acquisition challenges, what could be?

25. Just-in-Time • Having "the right people, at the right time, at the right place, and in the exact amount" based on actual demand • Producing and maintaining unused inventory is a waste of resources • A means to improving performance of the system, not an end Learn more: http://bit.ly/1gHwTN8 Photo Credit: Pascal http://bit.ly/1r1nIsx

26. Do your hiring managers want "off the rack" candidates you happen to have in your pipeline or bespoke candidates custom "made to order" for each specific hiring need? Source: AskMen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvleYsviZdc

27. Photo Credit: Alexey Kljatov http://bit.ly/1xCPtL9 I.T. talent cannot be commoditized - each person and hiring need is unique

28. Source: http://www.geekwire.com/2014/hr-advice-hire-velocity-learning/ Alex Weinstein, head of product development at Wetpaint, formerly Microsoft Live Labs, argues you should not hire for specific skills (e.g., Spring, Jenkins, Puppet), but the ability to pick up new skills. "Wait… what are you saying? If I have a Ruby on Rails app, I should hire someone who’s done Django and PHP and C++ but no Rails over someone who’s been doing Rails their entire career? Yes.This is exactly what we did at Wetpaint: most of the developers we hired had no or little experience in Rails. Yet we are a Rails-based site with 100 million monthly page views and a significant codebase.We hired folks who’s experience has shown that they can pick up new technologies quickly. So they picked up Rails quickly; and then when we needed to do Hadoop, they picked that up too.And responsive design. And machine learning. I have little doubt that we’ll do great with the fancy new technologyX that surfaces next year and revolutionizes the industry – because high velocity of learning is a core competency of the team." If you can, hire for ability to learn instead of specific technologies

29. Let's say your hiring manager needs to hire approximately 1 person/mo w/a specific skill (e.g. Cassandra). Are there any real benefits of contacting someone 2 months prior to need vs. Just-In-Time?

30. A recent LinkedIn Talent Trends Survey of >18,000 fully employed workers in 26 countries found that 85% of people are open to at least talking to a recruiter. If 85% of the people you could ever possibly want to recruit are at the very least "recruitable," it significantly reduces the perceived need to proactively identify people who might be looking (pipeline).

31. Successfully achieving Just-In-Time recruiting requires technology, just as companies leverage technology in their Supply Chain Management efforts to achieve JIT. If you don't already have the right technologies now, you should be looking into acquiring them as you are at a competitive disadvantage.The right search and match technology is a significant enabler of Just-In-Time recruiting.

32. Successfully achieving Just-In-Time recruiting also requires highly effective candidate messaging strategies and tactics. If you are able to achieve high response rates from "passive" candidates (people who were not actively taking any efforts to explore career opportunities), you can effectively recruit from at least 85% of the working population, enabling JIT recruiting.

33. Increased recruiting efficiency Ability to acquire the right people, at the right time, at the right place, and in the exact amount based on actual demand Significantly reduced (waste): • WIP talent inventory • Over-processing of candidates • Overproduction of candidates • Defects (candidates that do not match actual hiring needs) • Waiting (of candidates for actual opportunities to be hired) Improved candidate experience

34. Vinayak Joglekar • Founder and CTO Synerzip • Hires & Mentors Agile Software DevelopmentTeams for Social,Mobile,Big Data & Cloud Technologies Blog post – 4/30 • Lean Hiring- An Experience Report

35. "We are not sure about the outcome when we start Software evolves as new information comes in. Similarly job requirements change to accommodate new needs or bar is lowered for reasons of non-availability and urgency. Sometimes a professional is internally transferred from another project and the need to hire simply goes away." Source:Vinayak Joglekar: Lean Hiring - An Experience Report

36. "Large Batch Sizes (A.K.A.Waterfall model of development) If you think of software development and hiring as workflows; often managers try to maximize utilization of resources at each step of the workflow by handing over work in large batch sizes. Its not unusual for an HR manager to source more resumes to improve the chances of finding the right candidate.This results in pile up of half doneWIP before the bottleneck, which is wasteful. Theory Of Constraints and Kanban address this problem by putting aWIP Limit on the size of the batch to be handed over at each step of the workflow. Using Kanban to manage hiring is not new." Source:Vinayak Joglekar: Lean Hiring - An Experience Report

37. "Delayed Feedback Large batch sizes also result in longer iterations and delayed feedback resulting in wasted cycles of recruiters and developers working on what they think is needed which often turns out to be different. We load the hiring managers by arranging many interviews without asking feedback about the interviews that have already happened. We need to ask, learn from the feedback and use that learning to improve the quality of candidates in subsequent cycles." Source:Vinayak Joglekar: Lean Hiring - An Experience Report

38. "Ambiguous requirements Its not unusual to start developing a software product with some high level idea and a few whiteboard sketches. Similarly we often hear managers giving high level directives to hire “smart developers” or “kick-ass salesmen”. Dynamic marketplace Both software product and hiring opportunities are not permanent.They go away with changes due to technology, competition, new ideas and realization." Source:Vinayak Joglekar: Lean Hiring - An Experience Report

39. "Waste resulting from unused code or resumes sourced We often write more code than required.We often build more features thinking we are adding value. Similarly we often source too many resumes and interview too many candidates to improve our chances of finding the best match. Unused code and resumes represent the waste we should be attempting to minimize." Source:Vinayak Joglekar: Lean Hiring - An Experience Report

40. "Vague acceptance criteria and definition of done Software development and hiring can go on in perpetual loops because the end states are not well defined. Both software development and hiring reach states where doing more work would cost more than the value you get out of it.That’s when you should stop.There is no definition of 100% completion. But the good part is you can start using the software even if all its features are not yet implemented. Similarly you can start using a team that is not yet completely staffed. Best value is derived by prioritizing must have features in software or must have skills while hiring." Source:Vinayak Joglekar: Lean Hiring - An Experience Report

41. "Short iterations with quick feedback Long and “hyped up resumes” were consuming a lot of our recruiter’s and hiring manager’s time.We overcame this problem by using a 500 character micro-resume covering important facts including relevant skills, project experience, notice period and expected compensation.This semi- automatically generated micro-resume was made actionable with “detailed resume”, “accept”, “reject” and “call” links. Hiring managers were encouraged to view these on their mobile phones to provide quick feedback.The printed version of this micro resume also helped us populate the Kanban board." Source:Vinayak Joglekar: Lean Hiring - An Experience Report

42. "Using the learning from the feedback The recruiters asked the hiring managers to give a good idea of “must have” and “good to have” skills. Based on this information the recruiters shortlisted top 3 candidates whose micro-resumes were shared with the hiring managers via email and text message.We waited for the hiring manager’s response before sharing any more micro-resumes. One such iteration ideally got over within a day. At the end of the day we either had a shortlist of selected candidates or valuable learning that improved the next iteration. Due to the “anytime anywhere” nature of mobile phones; iterations were quicker where the hiring manager was more mobile savvy." Source:Vinayak Joglekar: Lean Hiring - An Experience Report

43. "Small batch size Instead of inundating the hiring manager with a number of resumes ; we put a limit of 3 as stated above– which forced the recruiters to do a lot of groundwork to select the top 3 resumes from a couple of dozen that would satisfy the selection criteria. Instead of relying only on the information in the applicant’s resume we leveraged additional information available in social media platforms such as LinkedIn, StackOverflow and GitHub to determine the ranks.This motivated the hiring managers to be more responsive as it reduced the number of pending cases needing their attention.They were also more willing to provide quick feedback to enable the recruiter to learn from it and provide better choice in the subsequent cycles. In fact in some cases the feedback came immediately as the hiring manager disagreed with the ranking given by the recruiter." Source:Vinayak Joglekar: Lean Hiring - An Experience Report

44. "Prioritization of requirements While understanding the requirements we decided to check the most difficult constraints first. In the diagram below ; you can see the order in which we evaluated the constraints.This made the job of selecting top 3 resumes out of all the resumes relatively easy.This Job requirements matrix was filled in presence of the hiring manager. Limited space provided forced the hiring manager to think really hard before writing down the requirements in the appropriate space provided." Source:Vinayak Joglekar: Lean Hiring - An Experience Report

45. "Planning /prioritizing interviews: We always had the most suitable candidate in the backlog the next to be interviewed. Often it's hard to get suitable time slots from good candidates, and recruiters end up scheduling a less suitable candidate ahead of more suitable one.We made it clear to the recruiters that it's not necessary to use all the time made available by the interviewers. Interviewer’s time is a scarce resource which needs to be utilized more judiciously. Moreover if the interviewer rejects the candidate; learning from rejection of a stronger candidate is more valuable than that from rejection of a weaker one.We always played our best card." Source:Vinayak Joglekar: Lean Hiring - An Experience Report

46. "Timeboxing: Whatever happens one has to conclude the process at some point. Many times you don’t get exactly what you want but you must staff the position for business to carry on. Prioritizing and having a backup candidate in case the best candidate doesn’t show up are some of the precautionary measures one has to resort to under time pressure. Like a truly agile process we kept some of the unmet requirements for the next round of hiring and had a retrospective to formalize the learning from the previous round." Source:Vinayak Joglekar: Lean Hiring - An Experience Report

47. "WIP Limit: Having too many candidates interviewed results in a longer hiring cycle. It also results in inefficient use of interviewer’s time. The number in bracket under each step (as shown in the diagram at the top) on the Kanban board is theWIP Limit. E.g. we can’t have more than 3 candidates waiting for preliminary interview.We “pulled” a candidate from shortlist only after one of the three interviews happened and we got the feedback.This enabled us to learn from the feedback and to apply that learning to decide the next candidate." Source:Vinayak Joglekar: Lean Hiring - An Experience Report

48. Developed byTaiichi Ohno atToyota, kanban (literally signboard or billboard in Japanese) is a scheduling system for lean and just- in-time (JIT) production used to control the logistical chain from a production point of view, and improve and maintain a high level of production. Kanban became an effective tool in support of running a production system as a whole, and it proved to be an excellent way for promoting improvement. Problem areas were highlighted by reducing the number of kanban in circulation. One of the main benefits of Kanban is to establish an upper limit to the work in progress inventory, avoiding overloading of the manufacturing system. Source:Wikipedia

49. The kanban card is, in effect, a message that signals that there is a depletion of product, parts, or inventory that, when received, the kanban will trigger the replenishment of that product, part, or inventory. Consumption therefore drives demand for more production, and demand for more product is signaled by the kanban card. Kanban cards therefore help create a demand- driven system. It is widely held by proponents of lean production and manufacturing that demand-driven systems lead to faster turnarounds in production and lower inventory levels, thereby helping companies implementing such systems to be more competitive. Source:Wikipedia

50. FredWu is the DevelopmentTeam Lead for Locomote in Melbourne, Australia, where he is regarded as one of the best Ruby Developers.

51. Fred wrote a blog post on using kanban for managing candidates and the hiring process: http://bit.ly/1kJggxw "Hiring is usually a long and difficult process - in order to streamline and simply it, I use Kanban to manage the whole process. I believe, hiring should be as lean and agile as our development process." Source: FredWu - On Hiring: Use Kanban for Managing Candidates and the Hiring Process

52. "Using a Kanban board offers a number of advantages: • A clear picture of the candidates with their feedback from code tests and interviews • A straightforward view of where a candidate is at in the hiring process • Limited number of candidates in some stages to prevent chaos • Visual reminders to get in touch with the candidates, it’s always a good idea to keep them in the loop • A tight WIP limit for shortlisted candidates, there’s no point to shortlist too many candidates" Source: FredWu - On Hiring: Use Kanban for Managing Candidates and the Hiring Process

53. In 2011 Lonely Planet moved its digital business from Melbourne to a new Headquarters in London.With only 6 of the original 75+ team transferring to London, an orderly transition of the business without impacting the operations of a website that attracted 10m unique visitors a month was going to be a challenge. Source: Lonely Planet IT Recruitment: applying agile when everything is at stake

54. Jay Hyett - DevOps Manager at Lonely Planet (at the time of the article) Source: Lonely Planet IT Recruitment: applying agile when everything is at stake

55. "Visualisation of the work – Jay, managing the Melbourne end of the process set up an agile board in a highly visible location that executive stakeholders would walk by daily. Each candidate was on a card, with cards coloured differently for the main roles. The daily email report was still retained, to help cover the communication gaps that might arise working across a 20,000km gap. Effective, simple board design – a left to right flow through multiple steps, with visual signoff of candidates’ resumes in column 2 by all reviewers, daily standups, and retrospective-type thinking on what was working from the sourcing point to employment contract finalization." Source: Lonely Planet IT Recruitment: applying agile when everything is at stake

56. "Daily standups ensured the process kept moving and any blockers in the system were addressed promptly. Focus on flow of candidates – not obsessing with the filling of the recruitment funnel but maximizing the speed with which they could pass through the process. Many recruitment processes reward success as being the number of candidates into the top of the funnel. Prioritization of candidates needing attention – not just on the order they came into the process, but on the nature of their situation, competing offers etc." Source: Lonely Planet IT Recruitment: applying agile when everything is at stake

57. "The core agility of this case study is with the team’s obsession with learning and adapting to the changing conditions faced by the team on the project. Recruitment is a field normally dominated by scientific management thinking – mass production of candidates, automation of hiring and standardized testing processes, eliminating variation, and minimizing cost per candidate." [G.C. - that's NOT a compliment!] "With the Lonely Planet technology team’s recruitment process now visibly under control, attention was able to be put onto the cultural aspects of building the new team in London, ensuring the core agile habits were retained and that the team took the opportunity of a cold restart to make their best of their opportunity to live and work in London." Source: Lonely Planet IT Recruitment: applying agile when everything is at stake

58. Photo credit : AdarshA http://bit.ly/1p9IrIo As the ultimate owners of talent acquisition for their companies, HR/recruiting should be the experts human capital supply chain processes, leading innovation. I.T. professionals innovatively leveraging lean principles to recruit people for their teams should serve as a serious wake-up call to HR/recruiting organizations.What willYOU do?

59. Look for ways to leverage lean principles and eliminate the 7 deadly wastes from your talent acquisition processes Reduce and cap yourWIP inventory! Explore opportunities to experiment with and/or fully implement JIT recruiting Ensure a manageable req load for FLC recruiters and/or establish a dedicated sourcing team to enable JIT recruiting Implement better search & match technology and increase sourcing capability Leverage consistent daily sourcing activity levels Photo credit : FrauVogel http://bit.ly/1jQuTEs Look for ways to leverage lean principles and eliminate the 7 deadly wastes from your talent acquisition processes Reduce and cap yourWIP inventory! Explore opportunities to experiment with and/or fully implement JIT recruiting Ensure a manageable req load for FLC recruiters to allow for sourcing and/or establish a dedicated sourcing team to enable JIT recruiting Implement better search & match technology and increase sourcing & messaging capability Leverage consistent daily sourcing activity levels

60. • What is the primary and ultimate value you provide to candidates?To your clients/hiring managers? • PreciselyWHY do you maintain relationships with candidates? • How often should you stay in touch with in-process candidates? • How many candidates can you realistically maintain a “relationship” with? • Do you honestly feel that you are providing maximum value to candidates that you “keep warm,” but ultimately never even get submitted to a hiring manager in consideration for an opening? • How much time should a sourcer/recruiter spend maintaining relationships with pipelined candidates for whom they have no current needs? • What is the ideal level of candidate processing prior to actual need?