Our guest blogger is Gregg Whitt with Professional Personnel Associates in Clemson, South Carolina. Gregg is a longtime member of NPAworldwide, currently serving on the board of directors. Professional Personnel Associates provides recruitment services in the technical, engineering, manufacturing, professional, and management fields across the United States. Read his thoughts on your recruiting attitude below.
Remember the times when you posted your job openings in your publication of choice without really putting too much effort into it? Or the times when you posted a job opening on one or two job boards, and just waited and got many high-quality applicants?
Those recruiting days have ended, and the sooner you face the truth and forget about those days, the better!
Consider that there are two basic components of a candle besides the wick. There is wax (worry) and there is flame (action). The question we must ask as recruiters today is… are we spending our time working in our ‘flame’ or in our ‘wax?’ To find our harmony in our recruiting efforts, I think we are all still guilty from time-to-time of falling back into our old ways of thinking, and when we do, more than not, we find ourselves in wax. It is a sticky mess, we get frustrated with ourselves of the investment of time and effort with little to show for it, yet it is hard to let go of that time SPENT. When we are working in our flame, though, we’re excited, passionate, motivated, and ready to pursue our ambitions.
To find the harmony in recruiting that will help keep our flame burning bright, and re-energize our souls, consider the story of Nick Stizman, who was a part-time railroad worker. Nick was a large bull of a man. He was married with two children. Nick had one big issue; he was a worrier (wax). He was always worrying about something bad happening to himself or his family.
One mid-summer day, Nick was working on a refrigerated box car in the rail yard. When Nick finished his work, he realized he was locked in the freezer car and no one knew he was there. He began to beat on the doors screaming for help until his voice was completely hoarse. He had beaten the door with his fists until they were bruised and bloody. He began to realize his worst fears, he was going to die in the freezer. He began to cut a message into the wooden floor as his dying declaration. He even mentioned that his hands were so cold that he could no longer write in the wooden floor. He knew he was going to die there.
The next morning when his fellow workers came in and opened the box car, there they found Nick dead on the floor. It appeared that he had frozen to death, which an autopsy later confirmed. The strange part of the story is the box car was only 55 degrees when they found him. It was determined the box car temperature never dropped below 50 degrees. However, Nick’s own thoughts were so powerful, he truly believed that he was freezing to death and did die from hypothermia. Nick’s powerful thoughts and years of wax had manifested itself into his own death.
This may be an exaggerated tale, but I think we can all agree that our thoughts can have significant influence over our lives and the outcomes of our activities!
Recruit in the Flame:
- Be present…where you are. When you need to think about how you are going to accomplish the task at hand…don’t think about family and other distractions, don’t be thinking about the jobs you have to fill or work to do at the office or when at home. Wherever you are, be there – fully and completely.
- Get out of your normal work space. Look for ways to integrate other elements into your recruiting efforts to find the skills you need.
- Focus on the “must have” skills that are truly important to the client.
My wish is that you have the opportunity to work in your ‘flame’ and not in your ‘wax.’ Be creative. Find ideas that work for you and the life YOU live. Make the time to be innovative. Harmony is created where harmony is sought.
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
~Albert Einstein