Beyond Efficient Recruiting

It is not big news that Verizon bought Yahoo. It is not big news that Yahoo acquired over 50 companies to find the best talent out there. It is not big news that the strategy failed.

Trying to buy other companies’ talent often does not work. The idea of getting a new perspective from new blood has much merit. Many companies get in the “same old rut” and live in their comfort zone. The new blood, new thinking, and different way of doing things is often just what is needed to get out of the rut. But the very small issue of culture comes into play. Is the new person or culture so different to the practiced culture that a major revolt takes place? Does the new person/culture not respect the important and not-to-be-changed parts of the old culture?

Culture cannot be underestimated in looking for talent. I know of too many cases where competent seasoned practitioners, trying to advance their career, moved to a new company and that culture ate them alive. Even with good vetting, actual culture just cannot be explained in numerous interviews and a visit.

How do you find good talent, more explicitly, the right talent for your company?

Brigham Young University’s MBA program has made a huge step forward in addressing this issue. For the last 15 years BYU has conducted a three-day onboarding event, inviting the companies that will recruit first-year students for summer internships.

This is no ordinary event. The program invites the new students in the OB/HR track and the GSCM track to attend the special orientation on their own dime. They travel seven hours in vans to the event’s mountain location. The main event is two days of whitewater rafting.

Whitewater rafting has several advantages for the participants. It is a team-based activity that requires balanced and aligned teamwork. If each team member does not follow the commands of the leader, there are immediate consequences, i.e., a possible flipped raft and a watery swim. There is also the possibility that some swimming is a team goal and that may take a special strategy and execution.

The recruiters have time to see how people respond in stressful situations, solve problems, communicate, and work with others in the water and on land. They observe who joins in the water fights and who hangs back, who is up at the crack of dawn for breakfast, and who sleeps in until the very last minute. They notice who is up front leading, who is the quiet leader, who influences, and who serves. They also notice who are the takers.

But what is in it for the first-year students besides a nerve racking, three days trying to impress 20 Fortune 500 recruiters?   They have the chance to ask questions, listen, observe, learn the lingo, and hear about the issues each company is addressing. The can quiz the returning second-year students about their internships, what they liked, disliked, and the experiences. There is also time just to just get acquainted with each other by eating, sitting in the hot springs, and playing “mafia” in unscheduled time slots. The students also observe the recruiters: the kind of skills they have, the kind of values they espouse, and the career experiences they have had.

The result is a perfect three days of interaction to learn if there is a fit from both sides for a common culture. Does this company want traditional HR executers or are they looking for change agents and innovators? Does another company want purchasers or someone that wants to work with the entire value chain? Everyone has an opportunity to explore their own values on the companies’ culture that an interview and visit will never show.

Each year 100-130 people make this daring adventure and what are the results? Most interns are offered a job by the company they interned with. An added

benefit for them is to work with the person who will most likely be their direct manager in the future employment. Just as important as company culture is the culture and personality of the manager. The old saying “People don’t leave companies they leave managers” is very true. Most of those who accept their job offer stay for more than five years. This means the investment in the new hire has more that paid for itself. The company gets the right person for the right job and the new hire has less culture shock with the company’s culture.

The rafting trip also creates bonds, that continues on for years. Students (and recruiters!) help each other out when someone is looking for a new job. Because they know each other well, their recommendations make for another good match in moving to a new company.

The BYU onboarding experience illustrates how a whole systems approach yields better results than traditional, simpler, more “efficient,” methods.