No Fa-Fa-Fa Foolin’ (Rapp Out)

Kathy Rapp Always Be Closing, Career Advice, Change, Change Management, Communication, Culture, Employee Engagement, employee experience, Engagement and Satisfaction, Giving Notice, HR, Kathy Rapp, Leadership, Managing People, Offboarding, Onboarding, Retention 16 Comments

Almost 12 years ago, I wrote my first blog post for FOT. It was about Joe Elliott of Def Leppard and when he mistakenly placed the Stanley Cup upside down during an NHL event. I wrote: Why the blunder? Because no one coached him. No one took the time to pull him aside and whisper, “Hey Joe, this is the …

Time to Stick a Fork in Cover Letters? Only If You Want to Miss the Best Candidates

John Hollon Always Be Closing, Candidate Pool, Interviewing, Recruiting, Resumes

A couple of years ago, Fistful of Talent published a blog post of mine that not only created a huge reaction but was easily the most well-read article I’ve ever had here.  The title should tell you why: Looking Back at What May Be the “Balliest” Cover Letter of All Time.’ It was about a classic cover letter that the …

Candidates Who Over-Talk May Need To Work Elsewhere

Dawn Burke Always Be Closing, Audacious Ideas, Candidate Pool, Hiring Managers, HR, Selection, Talent Strategy

“You talk too much. You never shut up.” – Run DMC To shut a candidate up or not to shut a candidate up? That is the question. A question, as an interviewer, I’ve contemplated for many years. A question I admittedly flip-flop on. But here is where I am with this now. Candidates, you need to control your explanations. You …

Every Recruiting Process is in Disorder until you Organize it

Ben Martinez Always Be Closing, Ben Martinez, candidate experience, Employment Branding and Culture, Recruiting, Talent Acquisition

What is disorder? Disorder is a messy desk, dirty house, a body that needs to be showered, work that is not in order. When you woke up today was everything in order? Were the dishes done, work happening and no dogs barking? Did I mention kids? If you have kids, was everything in order with their lives this morning? Beyond …

Efficiency Recruiting Is Like An Impossible Burger; It’s Got No Meat

Dawn Burke Always Be Closing, Bad HR, candidate experience, Candidate Pool, Dawn Burke

Here is the scene:  This week, my hubs and I were on a travel jaunt and after 3 hours in the car I was desperate for a latte’ (unsweetened almond milk with lots of cinnamon and Splenda on top). Since we were somewhere in the middle of “where the hell?” and “did we almost run over a possum carrying a …

Amazon’s New Hiring Commercial Gets One Thing Really Right!

Tim Sackett Always Be Closing, candidate experience, Candidate Pool, Employee Communications, Employment Branding and Culture

It seems like the world has a love/hate relationship with Amazon. We LOVE Amazon Prime and get all of our stupid stuff next-day, but we tend to want to grind them on their employee experience and hiring practice. It’s quickly becoming holiday season and Amazon probably needs to hire three hundred million people, so they have a new commercial out …

Are You Brave Enough To Teach Leaders To Not Treat Everyone Equally?

Kris Dunn Always Be Closing, Audacious Ideas, Culture, FOT Reads, HR, HR (& Life!) Advice, Influence, Kris Dunn, Learning, Learning and Development

Leadership slang time, people. Let’s give you a term you can text your fellow HR/Talent pros in response to hearing that they’re stuck in a time-suck they shouldn’t be in. The term/acronym? NINA. “No Influence, No Authority.” NINA refers to people who really can’t get things done in an organization, and it’s position/situation specific. Consider the following: – Authority is downward sloping. People with …

Your 5-Point “My Careers Site is Ok” Audit

Katrina Kibben Always Be Closing, candidate experience, Employee Communications, Employment Branding and Culture

“Did you see our careers site?” I mumble, “yes,” knowing what they are going to say next. I get the question every time.  “Well, what do you think of it?”  I use the same answer every time, too: “Do you want the explicit truth or the polished answer?” I usually laugh when I say this to break the awkward silence …

What is the best day to post your job?

Tim Sackett Always Be Closing, ATS, Candidate Pool, Uncategorized

It’s a blocking and tackling-type of a question in talent acquisition and recruiting, right? Most of us believe it’s part science and part art. “Well, Tim, that all depends on…” No, it doesn’t. It depends on data and the Appcast data from their 2019 Recruitment Media Benchmark Report says this: Yep, it turns out Monday is the day. Then on …