Blue-footed Boobies

by Ted Konnerth

The current talent market represents an extraordinary time for everyone. If you happen to be among the 4.5M newly terminated, or if you're one of those 90+% of people who still have their jobs but are getting a flurry of resumes over the transom, then you begin to get the feeling that we’re rapidly losing the ability to differentiate talent. This condition has far-reaching implications for all of us.

First, for those of you who are actively looking for talent, either to replace those positions where you cut too deeply, or because you've identified that the best strategy now is to add revenue-generators, the perception is that there is a glut of talent. Yet, when you finally decide to pursue talent, most people right now are having a difficult time finding the 'right guy'. In this market, with over 20M resumes in cyber-space at your fingertips (with your pricey subscription to Monster or CareerBuilder, or whatever), you can't quite seem to find the right guy. Well, welcome to our world. The largest pool of talent, and coincidentally the largest availability of productive talent, lies amongst the 'employed'. Not to disparage the unemployed as there are a lot of well-qualified people who have been discharged for varying reasons. But the reality of attracting talent is that the specific position requirements are ALWAYS unique to every company. This is why we ask our clients to carefully describe to us what a Regional Manager does, or a VP, Sales or Branch Manager. We ask, not because we don't know, but because there is always a unique twist to it; that may be the customer base, the specific product or skill knowledge requirement, or company culture. People aren’t wired to be plug and play.

I call this the Blue-footed Booby syndrome. Our client requirements tend to be narrowly defined. They may say they need a 'bird', but in reality they’re always looking for a fairly rare blue-footed booby, not another pigeon. I equate the current sea of resumes to flocks of pigeons for one reason only: how does anyone carefully discern one resume from 4.5 million without actually talking to these people? Blue footed boobies reside in the Galapagos Islands, and they’re narrowly adapted to that environment. Kind of like a sales manager who calls only on muni’s, only in the Northeast and only sells site lighting, or hazardous environmental products. There aren’t many of those birds out there, but there are a lot of sales managers out there.

Second, for those of you who have recently and unwittingly joined the ranks of the unemployed, the challenge to differentiate yourself from the flocks of pigeons is particularly daunting. When hiring managers and HR people are receiving dozens of resumes daily, the ability to stand above the flocks of pigeons is frustrating.  There are very well-qualified people currently out of work, but their ability to find the right fit; which is very complex: skills, responsibilities, education, geography, culture, money, to name a few, makes the probability of a match seemingly impossible.

Personally, this economy has created a new paradigm we’ve not seen in my 10-year career in recruiting; companies still need people, but the sheer ability to screen the potential number of 'applicants' has rendered the process unwieldy. The numbers are working against everyone. There are too many people demanding attention and too little effort paid to attracting the narrowly specified talent required. The sheer match-making efforts have overwhelmed the technology and thereby plugged up the system.

We’re operating today in an environment of inefficiency. The opportunity to attract high quality talent is possibly better than ever; uncertainty and fear makes even the best performers nervous. Yet, the best performers are likely keeping lower profiles, hidden behind a tsunami of resumes and shielded from recruitment activities by a recruitment system that is overloaded with square pegs, vying for a withering number of round hole positions.

This opportunity will pass soon enough, but for those companies who are aggressively looking to capture market share, the open season is now. Review your specifications carefully and exhaust all avenues to find the right talent. Your rare bird is out there, make sure you know how to find it.