As an owner and manager of an IT recruiting company we are constantly talking to candidates and clients alike about the advances of technology and how it can impact our industry or potentially help us run our business better. Over twenty plus years I’ve gone from a 100% paper environment to an almost paperless existence and seen the rise of the fax machine, PC’s, the Web, company websites, job boards, social networks and many different software tools developed specifically to assist our industry.

Currently we’re in the midst of a complete redesign of our Website and Blog and have been for several weeks (look for it soon) and of course continue to look at differing technologies to assist us in what we do. So it struck me as funny this week after reflecting on an interview I had just done with Bill Vick (www.xtremerecruiting.tv) where he asked me about my belief in technology and the tools out there and what recommendations that I would give to new recruiters. Instead of talking about the great tools and all the ways they can help a recruiter I went on to say (since it’s not posted yet this is my best recollection) that the tools are there to help us do what we do and shouldn’t be our first or only focus, and that most recruiters fail when they don’t learn the basics of selling and working within their industry before sitting at a computer to source names and make those all important phone calls.

So while I like the tools out there and they certainly assist me in doing more work faster (making placements) I guess I still think in a bricks and mortar kind of way that everyone should be grounded in the basics.

Communication: \kə-myü-nə-kā-shən\ - a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system

I think that we’ve all heard how email communications are a poor substitute for speaking on the phone, and that most of us believe that since the aspect of understanding someone’s emotions or sense of humor is just so tough.

However, I’m not here to complain about misunderstandings that email creates (deal with people). I’m here to talk about how the one thing that email does well (allow us to put facts & information into other peoples hands quickly) gets completely screwed up by those people who fail to utilize the tool properly (similar to those people who leave voicemails that only say “call me”).

Maybe it’s just me, but as I try to communicate with others I find it imperative to convey the message whether I’m on the phone, leaving them a voicemail or sending them an email. So I’m constantly asking or answering questions during this process and it baffles me how when I receive a reply none of the questions have been answered (much less addressed). Of course in typical insult to injury style this non-message is followed by the request to speak at some unidentified future time and date (since they didn’t bother to provide those details either), and the result is scheduling a meeting to schedule a meeting to discuss the actual topic, when it could have been resolved with a little information exchange days ago.

While I understand some topics need not be shared via voice/email (“you’re fired” comes to mind) remember that by providing some information it allows the other person to act and move forward so that when you do actually connect the process can be resolved more quickly (and easily).

As Managers, sometimes it can be difficult to determine what your employees are really thinking. Of course, once you do then you’re faced with how to react, and what to do. If there is one lesson in all of this it is the old adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

Let’s face it, some managers don’t fully value input from their employees. Part of the issue is that they can feel that if they receive input/feedback then they must do something about it. The good news is that you don’t. Employees are like kids. They don’t always see the big picture, can often be selfish, and sometimes they don’t play well with others.

So listen to what they say on their way out the door, but don’t wait for the autopsy on the exit interview to find a cure for what ails your employees. Ask the tough questions you need to and you’ll find that you may just garner their respect AND make it a place where people want to work.

The Information Age can be such a wonderful thing. Well, most of the time anyway. With information shared, referenced and linked so quickly via the internet, sometimes the effect can be less than desirable. Whether it’s a major media outlet or a small web site, things slip through the cracks. Other times, the errors are even bigger.

Take the recent example of an article I read in a local paper about whether relocating for a job was worth it (original article here). The article was picked up from a columnist out of Dallas, Texas and according to my best estimate has been referenced and/or re-printed approximately 200 times in just over a week. Not too shabby, particularly for an article about relocating for a job.

While I was a little surprised about how this article had spread like wildfire through the internet I was dismayed about two things in particular.

1. How an article is trimmed and reduced so it will fit in a newspaper, often leaving out extremely valuable information, and preventing the reader from getting the true focus of the article that was intended by the writer.

2. Propagating somewhat sketchy information to begin with, and then exacerbating it by taking out supporting information, providing the reader with bad information.

So where’s my beef? Beyond this being a standard warning that any information you read, be it on the web or in your local fish wrap may not be 100% accurate. Let me state that he’s also way out of line when he says that a “30% raise should be expected” when you relocate for a job (nor should the 10-20% range that was mentioned in tougher economic times). Of course, if it was my job would be a lot easier.

Some people love them (count me in) and some hate them, but analogies are what assist many people in getting their point across where otherwise it would have fallen on deaf ears.

So it was funny for me to read in the Brazen Careerist the other day as Penelope Trunk was making several very valid points about how people should invest in their careers and make decisions that will help them along the way, and to see her use a rather interesting analogy (that of Ashley Dupre – call girl to Eliot Spitzer). As you may imagine several of her reader took umbrage to the reference and somehow lost the nugget of knowledge she was passing along (oops!).

In that it was unfortunate as they failed to understand the point, but it also raises one of the biggest issues any two people have, and that is the ability to effectively communicate. Let’s face it two people who don’t share a common history (brother/sister, best friends, etc.) don’t have a good understanding of the other person, their vocabulary and their sense of humor, and therefore have a huge potential for getting it all wrong during the most innocuous conversations, much less during an interview.

So I’ll continue to compare your career path to grocery lines, and the interview process to dating and you leaving your company to ending a bad marriage because sometimes analogies are the only way to make your point clear without beating people over the head with the message.