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When marketing people see me, they know their jobs are safe.  I am not the creative type and I do envy those who can produce great, engaging work such as Kris Dunn and the gang at Fistful of Talent.

This year, my moment of inspiration came in the form of an internal communication for the employee referral program here at TiVo.  The the referral’s name has been redacted.  Hopefully you get a kick out of it just as much as I did when it came together for me.  Merry Christmas!

A few nights before Christmas (at TiVo)

T’was a few nights before Christmas
And all through the TiVo house
Engineers were a-stirring
Every single last mouse

Each were busy developing
As they typcially do
But they were short a PM,
That’s “project manager” to you

They needed someone to help
Track the budget you see
Remind folks of the milestones
To the nth degree

The job had been posted
Applicants had applied
But no one seemed to fit the job
All that had tried

When down the referral chain
“John Smith” made a clatter
The recruiter interviewed him,
The hiring manager was a chatter

TiVo did make “John”
An offer he couldn’t refuse
And he started this past Monday
Isn’t that great news?!

So see what happens
When a referral make?
They win, so do you
All for TiVo’s talent sake!

The funnel approach to recruiting seems pretty tiring:

• What will get me the most candidates?  A favorite among hiring managers and usually implies that “somewhere in this pile of crap is a pony”
• What source will most likely get me the hire?  A favorite among recruiters and implies that “because I have a favorite hammer, I’m going to hammer this search into submission.
• Will you make your hire-by-date?  A favorite among recruiting or HR management and implies that “I don’t give a crap what you do or use, just make the delivery time.”

Generalizations?  Absolutely.  Yet we’re all guilty of think along these lines at some point.  This week, I was feeling particularly guilty.  I knew I was missing the bigger picture.  So I went off and looked for another angle.  I looked at the number of applicants versus hires by source for this fiscal year across all hires (temp and perm).  We’re talking about conversions here or, more specifically, the “conversion ratio”.

Here’s are some of my findings mixed in with my initial reactions:

• More isn’t necessarily better: Duh.  Examples of this include our career site and job boards, which as a source, has a conversion ratio of 00.5% and 00.8% respectively.  ”Effectiveness” comes to mind – or really, the lack there of.
• Clarification is key: Defining and setting expectations can only help your partners, your employees your would-be-candidates to better select initial fit upfront.
• Over fishing? Employee referrals, as a source, has a conversion ratio of 10%.  As a source of hire it’s 45% of our hires.  I wonder if this could leave of disappointed employees.  Sure employees can see the status of their submissions and we do call all employee referrals.  Yet the employee could be disappointed if only 1 in 10 of their referrals get hired, not to mention the recruiter workload in this area is felt.  Further investigation will be required.  Perhaps different forms of employee recognition could be in order
• Agencies can be helpful: Agencies, as a source, has a conversion ratio of 2%. That’s pretty good. If they are selected and managed carefully, agencies can have a great ROI.  Clarity of requirements and timely feedback from the client are critical, but often-overlooked investments by corporate clients.  I must note that we’re quick to “un-assign”  agencies that don’t deliver.  To be fair, I don’t have that kind of control over my other sources.  I turn off my corporate jobs page, now can I?
• Testing 1, 2, 3: Conversions, as a source, has a ratio of 100%.  The try-before-you-buy approach works and the current economic climate makes this even more attractive.

How would your sources or behaviors change if you knew your conversion ratios?

Photo by Joe Pemberton… and, no, I’m not trying to convert anyone to “become a PC”.