As anyone in my family will tell you, I love my electronic toys and lately I have been eyeballing Apples whenever I can...sooner or later I'm going to get one. Merlin Mann gave my his two cents and said go with the Mac Book, or Mac Book Pro if I can cover the added cost. And that's the thing with Apple, they cost more...but everyone I talk to who has dumped Bill Gates (its not you, its me) and goes and gets an Apple absolutely love it.
Now, its common knowledge that HR is the red headed step child to corporate IT departments. So, of course, recruiters usually get crappy equipment and the security guys in IT don't quite understand why recruiters need to get on personal networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook and why a recruiter's secruity permissions need to be different than everyone elses. Recently I was talking to a recruiter asking about his "technology capabilities" and he said, "think of brick sitting on your desk... that's what I have." That's a shame.
I'm not crazy or rich, but if I was either I would be ordering this Mac right now. With all my "wants," this bad boy comes in at cool $17,074.00 including two drive-in sized monitors. Boy, could I change the world with this thing. Of course, my wife would go get her knife on the spot and as she says, "get to cutt'n" me up.
I'm a big believer that the sword in a Recruiting Samurai's arsenal is the simple telephone. So what if recruiters had kick ass tools...would they be more productive? Depends on what you define recruiting as.
The No Scenario
To me, if we are talking about "post and pray" recruiting, then the answer is no... because that's not recruiting...that's processsing. Can you say outsoure? If that's the case then go get the cheapest Dell model you can find...make sure it has email and an internet connection..and your set.
The Yes Scenario
To me, when I say you are "recruiting someone" that means that you, or your recruiting department together, have to do the 5 following things:
- Find them. They didn't find you.
- Establish two way communication. The hardest thing to do in "passive recruiting."
- Gain their interest. Why should they come work for you.
- Qualify them. Are they right for your company now or maybe for later? If not, should they "be in your network."
- Get them hired. Getting them hired is your job, not the hiring manager's job.
I know my last point may go against a lot of corporate recruiter's beliefs that "hiring" is the hiring manager's job and a recruiters job is to find people or submit resumes...I just don't buy into that.
So, what I like about the new Apple's and their technology is their ability to create and deliver a message. The message usually comes down to a "hey, this is me and who I am" which is exactly what "high end" recruiters do. They relate before they recruit. They give before they get. They make the "talent" want to know them because it "pays off" in different ways. That pay off could come in a new job, good advice, interesting information, etc. It cuts the communication gap and once you have communication (item #2), you can take care of everything else. But without it, you can't do anything.
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