Metrics can be powerful when coupled with the right imagination and vision. Billy Beane’s story, Moneyball, teaches us that when there is too much information – no sport has more data than baseball – it is time to rethink what and how we measure success. Success in baseball is winning; success in sourcing and recruiting is hiring. And like the journey to winning in baseball, the path to hiring as viewed through the eyes of data will help us determine what activities lead to success.

Adapt or Die is the motivation that will lead us there. In order to make our metrics and new understanding of recruiting and sourcing work, we need to pay attention to what our target audience, i.e. candidates, want and work with them in the communities in which they participate. At the end of the day, we need to take the info to which we’re privy and have the courage to move forward on it.

In baseball, John W. Henry serves as a perfect example. The futures and foreign exchange trading advisor and former owner of the Florida Marlins went on later in his career to purchase the Boston Red Sox. As owner, Henry hired baseball writer, historian, statistician and developer of sabermetrics, Bill James with the goal of ending the Curse of the Bambino. Henry’s payoff came two years later, when the Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals to win the 2004 World Series after beating the Yankees in the greatest postseason collapse in baseball history. Henry, James and the Red Sox turned the metrics and their theories into a reality, by having the courage move forward with their data and vision.

When performance is structured, benchmarked and measured, you should be confident to make decisions based on that data, even if it challenges those things you already “know” about recruiting. It seems like a simple, logical step, but it’s often the most difficult to adopt.

Thanks for joining us for this special guest blog series. Moneyball Sourcing Lessons 1, 2 and 3 are currently available on the Talent Function Group blog. If you’d like to learn more, you can view Marvin’s recent webinar on Moneyball Sourcing on ERE.net and join the Talent Community Development Group on LinkedIn.

According to BtoB magazine, only 10 percent of website visitors or searchers are ready to engage, make a purchase decision or opt-in right away; but over the course of the subsequent 12 months, with the right value-added communication, that number skyrockets to 87 percent. At Microsoft, we’ve experienced similar results, which is why Moneyball Sourcing Lesson 3 reiterates the importance and benefits of candidate relationship management (CRM).

Moneyball Sourcing Lessons 1 and 2 have shared how powerful metrics can be when coupled with the right imagination and vision. But the Oakland A’s and Billy Bean’s story should ultimately guide you toward building a strategic candidate farming system that focuses on building relationships with candidates.

In the now evolving, traditional recruiting scenario, recruiters face a mixed talent pool of those who might be right for open positions – or future openings – but aren’t quite ready to commit to a company. In an ideal state, recruiters should regularly communicate with these candidates to keep them interested. But, even with the breadth of tools available to us, this may be more challenging than it seems at first glance.

Unfortunately for recruiters, our audience is restless and expects updates regularly, sometimes daily. What’s more, a traditional social contract is now broken. Professionals are no longer loyal to employers; they’re loyal to their professions. So, when leveraging CRM tools, be sure your messages are clear, consistent and genuinely reflect your company’s employment brand. Tell your restless audience what makes your organization different and memorable – they’ll want to know what’s in it for them.

Consider these communications an opportunity to invite candidates to participate in the company’s online social communities. Rather than rely on the content of one database – your applicant tracking system, for example – engage a community of communities that includes social media networks, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Participate in discussions, using all networks to engage members and make them feel connected to your company. Don’t be afraid to use what you learn within those communities to better understand the talent and resources that are currently available.

Stay tuned for the fourth and final installment of this guest blogger series, “Moneyball Sourcing Lesson 4: Having the Courage to Believe the Data.” And remember, bringing candidates in for the run is a multi-touch process. With each interaction, they’re one base closer to applying, and you’ll be one step closer to finding the perfect hire.

We’ve learned our first Moneyball lesson: conventional wisdom isn’t always relevant wisdom. Now that you’ve deconstructed what you thought you knew about effective sourcing methods and understand why candidate relationship management isn’t going anywhere, it’s time to understand how you can ditch a “gut feeling” approach to making HR decisions and swap it for a data driven one.

In baseball, general managers rely on sabermetrics to help them understand the capabilities and performance of the league’s players. In Moneyball, Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta, then both of the Oakland A’s, used that data in new ways, helping them build a high-performance winning team of players who were previously undervalued. Recognizing that scoring is a process, and that games are not won with home runs alone, Beane and DePodesta assessed players’ on-base percentage (OBP) as a key to victory. Getting on base creates the conditions for the next step in the process.

When it comes to recruiting we can take a similar approach with our data using dashboards as provided by recruiting solutions including Jobs2web and TalentBrew. Remember it’s about nurturing relationships with your candidates, and applying for a job is not a one-time transaction. Much like scoring, getting candidates to apply is a process, and we can determine how many visitors we need to get the right hire. Consider the process a series of multi-touch, trust-building stops around the candidate relationship diamond:

• First base might be when a candidate signs up for your company’s email list, an RSS blog feed or your talent community.
• When the candidate begins following your company on Twitter, likes you on Facebook, or subscribes to your LinkedIn groups, they may be reaching second base.
• The candidate could be rounding third as they download your company’s whitepapers or sign up for a webinar.
• Candidates are likely to cross home plate and apply for a position as a result of having made several smaller moves toward understanding your company and its initiatives.

Jobs2web talent community data shows that 57 percent of candidates who apply for a position do so on the first day it’s posted, but it’s important to remember that the other 43 percent do come back – after they’ve rounded the bases – and apply afterwards. Whether they are passive candidates, or needed to learn more about your company to commit to an application, your perfect hire might be a member of that 43 percent. As mentioned during Lesson 1, the days of post and pray are over. Wave your candidates on home with a solid CRM strategy.

Next at bat, with details on building a strategic “farm system” and talent lifecycle database, will be “Moneyball Sourcing Lesson 3: Adapt or Die.”

By now, most of us know that Moneyball offers much insight for employers on the value of analytics when recruiting. The best-selling book, and now popular film, details Billy Beane’s successful attempt at building a baseball club on a budget, and shares how the Oakland A’s general manager employed computer-generated data analysis to draft a winning team. But before employers can begin to transform their practices and reap the benefits of sabermetrics for HR, they’ll need to match their beliefs with current recruiting realities. This re-education essentially asks employers to challenge conventional recruiting wisdom so they can more effectively attract, identify and retain the right talent. Begin with the following curveballs:

Jobs boards are striking out. According to 2010-2011 results for key Jobs2web clients who provided ATS applicant status data, job boards are the FOURTH most effective source of hires, following sources such as Facebook, company career sites, and industry groups. As qualified candidates flock to more specialized, specific and social sources, employers are reacting. Earlier this year 24 percent of companies said they planned to decrease their usage of third-party employment websites and job boards over 2011.

Bat a thousand using candidate relationship management. According to Recruiting Roundtable survey, “Building Talent Pipelines,” passive candidates perform slightly better than active candidates. While this by no means implies that you should give up marketing to those who are actively searching for positions, it does mean businesses need to focus their efforts on candidate relationship management to attract and nurture those who might be the best fit for your company’s open positions.

Post and pray has lost its way. It’s true; the days of post and pray are over. And with the abundance of cutting-edge technologies available to recruiters today, they should be. From social media networking tools that help tap your own networks to social-minded solutions that target candidates where they network, recruiters can economically and effectively tap a wealth or qualified talent, and better yet, understand what’s working.

Keep a watch for “Moneyball Sourcing Lesson 2: The Science of Wisdom,” where we’ll discuss the next step in tossing your gut feelings based recruiting practice for one that’s data-driven.

We arrived in Delhi, India early Thursday morning. It has been almost 5 years to the day since my last trip to India with a client. Both trips similar in nature (global recruiting process alignment and recruiting technology implementation) the location are different and the clients different.

The journey from the airport to the hotel was a strong reminder of past trips to this country and the remarkable difference from anywhere else I’ve ever been. Arriving at the hotel, we were greeted like royalty. The Oberoi Hotel was designed for the experience and specifically with extreme customer care as the baseline. As you are greeted at the door, the reception staff has a folder with your arrival information and you are immediately escorted to your room. They were careful to point out all of the facilities (exercise room, spa, restaurant for dining, etc.) They asked targeted questions; where are you traveling from, how long will you stay, do you have any special needs, preferences, likes/dislikes. They spent time educating you on the features in your suite, including the power, blinds, and what I have come to want everywhere I go – the Butler Button. One push of that button and someone is at your door in less than a minute, ready to serve you and respond to any request. The power of instant human customer service was tempting – just because it is something that is so foreign in contrast to our self-service lifestyle in the U.S. Every evening was greeted with the turndown service, which included fresh fruit, special amenities, and extra attention to the things that we found important (i.e. magazines, newspapers, hotel gifts.) After the third day, it was no longer strange to be greeted by formal name by multiple hotel staff throughout the day, without the conscious ability to remember each and every representative. The highest level of service, preference profiling and genuine passion to exceed your expectations I’ve ever witnessed.

With one day off before traveling to Dubai, we booked a driver and a car to take us to Agra – the city that hosts the Taj Mahal. The maps suggest that the drive is just under 3 hours, but knowing the complexities of India traffic, we expected it to be longer – and it was. We set out at 2:30 in the morning to arrive at the Taj Mahal in time for sunrise. We were there close to our expected time. The drive to Agra was mostly in the dark. The arrival to the common area by the Taj was early dawn and cloudy. The cultural differences were masked by the morning fog. Touring the Taj Mahal is a blog post in and of itself. It holds a very spiritual and emotional connection to everyone that visits it and as one of the ‘new’ 7 Wonders of the World. It was worth the trip there and the trip back.

Our travels back to Gurgoan and our 5-star hotel waiting to cater to our every need were at the other extreme. While having been to India before, I am still never fully prepared to handle the extreme lifestyle differences. A four hour journey back to the hotel was met with the afternoon lifestyle of a Saturday at the market – every market, every town. The roads are crowded with any and all forms of transportation – camels, tractors, motorcycles, trucks, cars, oxen, carts, horses… all sharing the same two lanes as if they were 5, all acknowledging each other with horns, bells, shouts. The concept of traffic in the U.S. has no traction in this atmosphere. The streets were crowded with makeshift carts, and stands, selling their produce, goods and trades. Hundreds of people lined the streets; all engaged in what was a typical Saturday afternoon. It was common to drive pass men getting a ‘shave and a haircut’ in a chair along the side of the road and kids sharing a bucket of water while they bathed. Dogs, monkeys and other livestock roam the streets at their leisure. The World Bank estimates that 80% of India’s population lives on less than $2 a day. This was made very clear to us as we made our way through the countryside back to our hotel.

My impression of India and our visit there is the summation of a ‘constant state of extremes.’ It is the first place where I experienced the extreme difference in the care, service, and attention of a world class hotel, with the reality of the social, economic, financial effects right outside the main gates.

While this post doesn’t have a direct association to staffing and recruiting, I can’t help remembering the purpose for this trip is exactly that – staffing and recruiting efforts. My client is committed to developing talent in India, and recruitment and growth are why we are there. To expand the recruiting efforts and implement the technology and processes that will improve the recruiting results, even in a constant state of extremes.

View many of photos that I’ve taken while in India here.

On our last day of meetings in Hong Kong we were able to take the afternoon to do some shopping before heading to the airport en route to Delhi, India. We were the most excited to go to one of the market’s areas known as Jardine’s Crescent. We talked to several local contacts, as well as former travelers to the region and area on what to expect. Everyone told us to anticipate tight quarters, crowed booths, and plenty of bargains. We were also told expect to bargain. Some suggested that we bargain aggressively because it was considered a sign of ignorance if you didn’t.

We were looking for local gifts to bring back to our friends and family in the States. Each booth was similar in merchandise and most very crowded with shoppers. Each experience was what we expected – except one. One booth had this sign prominently displayed alongside the handbags and goods they were selling. We were surprised to see it, and even found ourselves challenging it. The shopkeeper was firm in his position, and, ultimately, we moved onwards to find other shops that fit our expectations. I couldn’t help relating this shopping experience to what happens with our candidates as they approach company career sites.

Candidates are inundated with information on how best to reach the organization in which they are interested. In many cases our career site visits are much like walking down a crowded market street. We have in mind what we think we want, but we’re open to what the experience presents to us. How often are candidates told, coached, and advised:

• We have a social media presence (Facebook/Twitter) = we are social
• Register your information so we can stay in touch with you
• Meet us face to face at an event (college, job fair)

In each of these cases candidates know what’s expected: they need to express interest.

Does our process promote an experience that once they engage, is not realized? Do we build out our marketing strategy, branding strategy, and promote the value of ‘quality talent’ only to present to the candidate, a “we’re not interested in you,” experience?

Customer service is key to candidate relationship management. Customer service starts with setting an expectation of what service is and the customer experiencing that expectation.

As the holidays are here and we’re preparing for 2012 – a new year of budgets and competitive recruiting efforts, consider this: When was the last time you were a customer to your own recruiting experience? If you haven’t been a ‘secret shopper’ to your experience, take an hour or two and see things through the candidate experience. You might find that you are promoting one experience and delivering another.

While traveling with a client in Hong Kong this week, I found myself fascinated not only with the culture, the architecture, and the rich history, but with the scaffolding of all things.As newer buildings were being erected and other buildings being modified or maintained, the one thing that was consistent was the scaffolding, to which the workers are entrusting their lives . The material uses for the scaffolding wasn’t steel, bricks, or even concrete. It was bamboo.

As I researched this common practice, I came across the following description:

Bamboo has long been used as an assembly material in china, particularly Hong Kong, because of its versatility. One of the most interesting applications of the wood is its structural function for scaffolding. Extremely eco-friendly and cost-effective resource, it continues to be used for this purpose because it is durable enough to support the weight of builders, their equipment and materials, but is lightweight itself. Unlike typical metal scaffolding, bamboo can also be cut and tailor-made to suit any contour of construction – it can be configured into a variety of shapes and follow irregular architectural features of a building, and takes very little time to build-up. It is light and easily transportable to other sites and no machinery is required to assemble the scaffold and put it in place. When one job draws to a close, bamboo can easily be recycled and used for another project.

It struck me that this description is similar to what I hear from clients related to their recruiting technology goals and challenges. After all, what organization doesn’t want these as the core attributes?

• Cost-Effective
• Durable enough to support the weight of the users, business, and volume
• Lightweight (easy to use)
• Tailor-made, configurable (Customized) to the irregular features of the business
• Easy to implement
• Recyclable for different business needs

Like scaffolding, recruiting technology is the framework to building the business – it is what we stand on as recruiting professionals as we identify and recruit the right talent for our organizations. We sometimes think we have to have steel supports, or even go about building our framework in concrete. I wonder how much more agile and effective we could be if we took a serious look at our core material and realized that our scaffolding might be better designed and leveraged in bamboo.

2. Analytics are the next big thing. At least, they’re all the buzz. The idea is that analytics will give HR professionals the insight and support they need to fully understand their organization and pick at its levers. Key to their value is that analytics go beyond reporting, offering dashboards that provide information in actionable and easily interpretable ways.

3. Companies care about the candidate experience. With the inaugural Candidate Experience Awards kicking off at this year’s conference, The Talent Board can attest that companies realize how important a positive and productive candidate experience is to their recruiting strategies. Recognizing the relationship is symbiotic is the first step.

4. We’re gonna need a bigger block. We loved the Mandalay Bay, so much that we wish we could have stayed there. Next year’s conference will be returning to Chicago, but rumor has it that the event will head back to Vegas following. Whether the draw is steakhouses or sequins, Lake Michigan or Carrot Top, we have two friendly bits of advice for conference management: Block more guest rooms, and please do your best to keep sessions, meeting rooms and the exhibit hall closer together.

5. Good things come to those who wait. While attendees are known to skip out on the final day of any conference, those that hung around (and there are many who did) may have sat in on two of the event’s best sessions, both on social media. A panel discussion, “Social Media Recruiting Technologies: Bubble, Bauble or Boom?” provided real insight to behind-the-scenes implementation challenges, and Jim Holincheck’s Closing Keynote, “Face-Linked 2020: The Social Network Changes Talent Management,” shared an inspiring vision for the future of social networking and HR.

So, a round of applause for the organizers, staff, vendors, press, analysts and practitioners that make the HR Technology Conference so important and successful. Let’s hope that what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas, but rather permeates and improves our daily practices.

Watch the slideshare presentation here...

Listen at 39:20 to hear Talent Function mentioned…

Taking a sales-based approach to recruiting, companies can standardize and stand out during the interview process – from the first point of contact, to extending a job offer – to identify the right candidates and deliver an experience that better resonates with those individuals. Employers have the opportunity to take interview strategy beyond describing the position for more targeted employment branding and candidate attention. Filling in gaps in hiring managers’ interviewing and selling skills, businesses that take advantage of a strategic approach can provide a competitive edge and an experience that will make the right candidate want the job.

Consider physical elements. What would a candidate encounter that might make them drop out or decline an offer? From providing stellar travel accommodations to making sure directions are clear, carefully consider all the details and design the experience that best meets a candidate’s expectations.

Provide detailed and personalized information. Ask questions that demonstrate your company cares about the candidate’s priorities and path. Help your brand to stand out from competitors’ by personalizing content about your company and selling candidates on how the job and organization meet their unique needs.

Implement technologies that enhance communication and add convenience. From iPad applications that deliver customized company, culture, job and role information to digital interviews, and mobile solutions that help communicate information and collect feedback from candidates, technology is available to help streamline the process and nurture qualified talent.

There are also many solutions on the market that aid businesses in interview process management. Look for those that support recruiters and hiring managers in collecting information, but more importantly, provide the tools for collaboration and informed decision-making.

Recruiting has evolved: understand what qualified candidates seek and sell them on the experience and career opportunities your organization has to offer. You can hear from those companies who do it best during The Talent Board’s First Candidate Experience (C&E) Awards, which recognize organizations that deliver outstanding candidate experiences. Winners will be honored on Tuesday, Oct. 4 during an awards ceremony at 11:00 a.m. PT, and a special reception at 5:30 p.m. PT in during the HR Technology Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.