78 2 1 13 recruiting purple squirrels innovators for t r

HOW TO RECRUIT

PURPLE SQUIRRELS,

INNOVATORS AND

PIONEERS Feb 6, 2013

© Dr John Sullivan

1www.drjohnsullivan.com

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Dr Sullivan’s background

• 40 + years in HR• Former Chief Talent Officer of Agilent Technologies,

the HP spinoff with 43,000 ee’s• Fast Company Magazine called him the “Michael

Jordan of Recruiting”• Staffing.org called him “the father of HR Metrics” • SHRM called him “One of the industries most

respected strategists” • Selected among HR’s “Top 10 Leading Thinkers”• Authored more than 900 articles and 10 books• Currently he is a Professor of Management• Advised over 175 firms on all 6 continents >

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The global reach of Dr Sullivan

Work Published in 43 Countries

Publicly Presented/Advised in 27 Countries

I Have Spoken On All 6 Continents

High-tech Consumer products Others

1. Adobe2. Agilent technologies3. AOL 4. Apple 5. Cisco 6. Compaq7. Dell8. Ericsson9. Facebook10. Google11. HP 12. Intel13. KLA-Tencor14. Microsoft15. National Semiconductor16. Nokia17. Oracle 18. Pac Tel19. PeopleSoft20. Qualcomm21. Siemens22. Sprint23. SUN 24. Symantec25. Yahoo

26. 3M 27. BMW28. Carlson Companies29. Choice hotels30. Coors31. Cox Communications32. DrPepper/ Snapple33. Emirate Airlines34. Fairmont Hotels35. GAP36. General Mills37. Macy’s West38. Marriott 39. McDonald’s40. MGM Grand41. Nestlé & Nestle Purina42. NIKE43. Pepsi44. Quaker Oats45. SC Johnson46. Sodexo47. Starbucks48. Whirlpool49. WL Gore50. Wegman’s Food

51. Abbott labs52. Bank of America53. Charles Schwab 54. Catholic Healthcare West55. Chevron56. Dow Corning57. E&Y58. CUNA Mutual59. Fidelity Investments60. Deloitte consulting61. GE62. J.P. Morgan63. Johnson &Johnson64. KPMG65. Genentech66. Lockheed Martin67. McKinsey and Company68. Monsanto69. Morgan Stanley70. Merrill Lynch71. Pfizer72. Raytheon73. Stanford hospital74. Transamerica75. Vanguard

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• To make you think

• To have some fun

• To show you how to successfully

recruit Purple Squirrels

• To give you a handful of things to

add to your “I’ll try that” list

• To answer your questions

My 5 goals for today

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• What is a purple squirrel?• Why are Purple Squirrels becoming

a high priority?• Are they worth all the effort?• The benchmark firms• Why existing recruiting approaches

won’t work• The available strategies• The 10 key steps for recruiting

Purple Squirrels

Topic areas we will cover

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Introduction

Part I

Do some firms in the media and information space have more productive employees?

A comparison of employee output estimates (rev. per employee)

Pearson PLC $141,181

Thompson Reuters $222,400

Yahoo $352,100

Bloomberg L.P. $538, 462

Google $931,600(Calculated using 2013 data from http:// www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=apple+revenue+per+employee ) 8

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A quick definition of a purple squirrel

A rare individual (less than 1% of all employees in a field)

who is highly sought after because they are capable of bringing a major breakthrough to a firm…

because they have a successful track record of producing innovations that created a measurable ROI of at least 10X that of the average employee…These innovators go by a variety of names including:Purple Squirrels (Google)Pioneers (Facebook)Game changers (GE)Disruptors (Intel)

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The most noted purple squirrel

Tony Fadell conceived of the concept of the iPod MP3 player… and he was recruited away from Philips to Apple, where he made them billions

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The business case for recruiting and

retaining Purple Squirrels

Part II

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You hire Purple Squirrels… because of their ROI

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Why you should prioritize recruiting Purple Squirrels

1.Innovation is replacing productivity as the #1 corporate goal (as a result of the success of the Apple approach)

2.Technology superiority is becoming essential in every industry and at every firm

3.A purple squirrel’s areas of expertise are critical to dominance in the marketplace (i.e. product development, mathematics, the monetization of products/services, marketing, SM and technology)

4.Their economic impact and ROI are so great… that they will measurably impact company products/services and revenue within 18 months

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Why should you prioritize Purple Squirrels?

5. The impact of innovators (that are mid-level in the organization) is becoming greater than the impact of many executives

6. Adding Purple Squirrels to your workforce will instantly improve your employer brand image and the likelihood of attracting other top talent

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Some firms have already calculated

the performance differential of

Purple Squirrels

Why should you prioritize Purple Squirrels?

The performance differential for Purple Squirrels

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A “star” is worth 5-10 average performers.

Jack Welch while at GE

The performance differential for Purple Squirrels

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“The difference between the average programmer and a great one”… it's at least 25

"The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world”. And when you're in a field where the dynamic range is 25 to 1, boy, does it pay off."

Steve Jobswhile at Apple

The performance differential for Purple Squirrels

One top-notch engineer is worth “300 times or

more… than the average

…

we would rather lose an entire incoming class of engineering graduates than one exceptional

technologist.”18

Alan EustaceSenior Vice President, Engineering and Research

The performance differential for Purple Squirrels

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“One great programmer is worth 1000 good programmers.”

Bill GatesFormer

Chairman

Quote courtesy of AIRS

Is recruiting top performers worth the extra effort?

Acquired “engineers are worth half a million to one

million”

What is your cost per hire… compared to your value add?

(Pennies on the dollar)

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Vaughan SmithDirector of Corporate

Development

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Do you have data to prove…

which Talent Management function

has the highest impact on profit?

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Let’s now answer that question…

Which HR function has the highest business impact?(BCG)

22Source: BCG/WFPMA - From Capability to Profitability: Realizing the Value of People Management, 2012

Mid and lower impact HR functions

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Are customers satisfied with recruiting’s work?(Hackett group)

Source: Business Services Talent Management Performance Study - The Hackett group, 2012

TM functions Very dissatisfied Dissatisfied Total % of unhappy customers

1. Collaboration/ knowledge sharing

48% 31% 79%

2. Retention 38% 32% 70%

3. Learning & develop.

29% 40% 69%

4. WP and succession 31% 37% 68%

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A focus on innovation

shows up on the bottom line

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You must demonstrate the “value add” of recruiting of top performers

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01239.x/full

The remaining half of the bell curve

represents… the bottom performing ½ of all employees

Employee output is in grey

This half of the bell curve represents… the

top performing ½ of all employees

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Top performers produce an amazing percentage of all output

This grey area to the left of the red arrow represents the amount of output produced by the

top 5% of all employees (26%)http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01239.x/full

This small grey area represents the amount of output produced by

the bottom performing ½ of employees

Around 5% cost you $ (stay home)

Innovation shows up on the bottom line

What performance level are you targeting?The DMV?An average firm IBM like HP like Facebook likeMicrosoft likeGoogle likeApple like

Which of these firms have the most / fewest Purple Squirrels?

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Do the firms with the most innovators dominate?

A comparison of employee output (rev. per employee)

Average $208,000 IBM $246,900 (22% above the average)

HP $354,800 (Nearly 1¾ times the average)

Microsoft $811,000 (Nearly 4 times the average)

Facebook $1,105,810 (5 ¾ times the average)

Google $1,209,000 (Nearly 6 times the average)

Apple $2,249,000 (Nearly 11 times the average)

Key learning - It takes 9.5 X more employees at IBM… to produce the same revenue as Apple (Calculated using 2012 data from http:// www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=apple+revenue+per+employee )

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Does innovation increase profit?

Dollars of profit per employee (Profit per labor $ spent is a better measure)

HP $14,949

IBM $37,057

Microsoft $259,378

Google $327,357

Apple $610,063

Key learning - it takes nearly 16X more employees at IBM… and 40X more at HP to produce the same profit as Apple (Calculated using 2012 data from www.wolframalpha.com ) 30

OMG! doesn’t that

make you curious… as to what causes the difference?

How to do your own PS dollar impact calculations

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Work with the CFO… (the King of metrics calculations and credibility)

Identify jobs where the performance is already calculated for each individual (i.e. sales jobs, programmers, customer service, call centers etc.)

Calculate the percentage differential between the average performer and the top performer in the same job family

Multiply that % increase by the average rev. per employee… to get the $ impact of a purple squirrel

Have senior managers provide their own estimates

Use the final agreed upon % of performance differential to extrapolate to other jobs

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The benchmark firms

to learn from

Part III

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Benchmark firms

GoogleFacebookAppleZyngaMicrosoftZapposSodexhoNikeMiami Heat / New York YankeesMajor entertainment/music firms

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Why existing recruiting approaches

don’t work on Purple Squirrels

Part IV

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From a recruiting perspective… 10 ways in which Purple Squirrels are different

1. Even though they are rare individuals (less than 1% of the workforce), they can easily be identified because of their past high impact work

2. They must be fought for… because they already have a good job, their boss will fight to keep them and they constantly receive “anytime you’re ready” job opportunities

3. Rather than perks and even money… you must realize that their primary motivator is “the work” and the opportunity to do the best and most challenging and impactful work of their life (Apple)

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10 ways in which Purple Squirrels are different4.They are “super passive” prospects... that cannot

be successfully recruited or even contacted using traditional methods

5.They realize their value and power, so they will expect special treatment and a great candidate experience during recruiting and after being hired

6.If they don’t experience innovation during the recruiting process, they will assume it doesn’t exist at the firm… and they will drop out

7.Offering remote work is a necessary option because Purple Squirrels expect “the work” to shift to… where they want to work

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Using video interview tech might impress them

Initial interviews are now done live but remotely using a web cam

Firms that have used it include: Zappos, HP, Microsoft, Google, Whirlpool, E*TRADE , PepsiCo, Wal-Mart and Starbucks

It now has an app for iPhone interviews

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10 ways in which Purple Squirrels are different

8. Skill assessment becomes secondary because they have a successful track record of implementing innovation that is… pioneering, game changing or disruptive

9. Because they probably already have a personalized job and work environment, you must be willing to offer at least the same level of personalization (their “dream job”)

10.A longer-term relationship and understanding their “job acceptance criteria” are both required before you can even discuss a career opportunity

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Select a recruiting strategy

for hiring Purple Squirrels

Part V

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Select a recruiting strategy for Purple Squirrels

Six recruiting strategies for Purple Squirrels

1. A recruiting culture / referral based strategy

2. An employer branding strategy

3. A direct poaching strategy

4. A senior executive recruiting strategy

5. A talent community strategy

6. An involve them in your work strategy

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Select an overall recruiting strategy

A recruiting culture / referral based strategy

Basic premise – employee contacts with Purple Squirrels may be numerous. Employees in the same profession are more credible and they can better sell the experience that “they live”.

Benchmark firms Facebook - Employees are experts on social mediaGoogle – “Great people know great people” AmTrust bank - Referrals can exceed 70% Agilent - Offered a referral bounty on key targets

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Use the right source to get quality hires

Source effectiveness /quality of hire

1. Employee referrals

2. Large job boards

3. Niche job boards

4. Temp to perm

5. Recruiters

6. Trade media

7. Staffing services

8. College recruiting

9. Career fairs

10. Co-op education

11. Mass media

12. Military

Source: staffing.org 2011

Source popularity Volume

1. Referrals 28.0%

2. Job boards 20.1%

3. Career site 9.8%

4. Recruiter initiated 9.1%

5. College 6.6%

6. Rehires 4.3%

7. Social media 3.5%

8. 3rd party 2.8%

9. Print 2.2%

10. Temp to hire 2.1%

11. Career fairs 1.9%

12. Walk-ins 0.8%

Source: CareerXroads 2012

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Select an overall recruiting strategy

An employer branding strategy

Basic premise – getting “best place to work” and “most admired” rankings and providing viral stories can together become a powerful attractor.

Benchmark firms Google, Wegmans, Genentech – #1 on the

Fortune great place to work list Apple – #1 on the Fortune most admired list Zappos - Stories and videos are easy to find Some examples >

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Consider a story book

Zappos publishes a book full of 300+ employee written stories about what it’s like to work there (Available on Amazon)

44Their CEO also wrote a book… Delivering happiness

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Employer branding is the only long term rec. tool

Make “finding the excitement” easy for outsiders

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Branding requires story inventories

Microsoft “Spreadthelove” internal websiteTheir “Spreadthelove” website allows Microsoft

employees to "write up" their own individual story about their career with Microsoft (their story might include pictures, testimonials and video)

Employees can then share the web link and "spread the love" with targeted friends, family and with potential Purple Squirrel referrals

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Select an overall recruiting strategy

A direct poaching strategy

Basic premise – the best Purple Squirrels work at major competitors. Poaching them away helps your firm… while simultaneously hurting your competitors.

Benchmark firms FacebookAppleZyngaGoogle some examples >

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Aggressive poaching from top competitors

What firm has directly poached 22,676 hires fromMicrosoft – 4,981IBM – 4,480HP - 2,580Yahoo - 2,438Oracle - 2,043Accenture– 1,849Cisco - 1,620Intel - 1,367Apple - 1,345Sun - 1,340

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The world’s only recruiting machine

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Aggressively e-mailing a competitor’s employees

Hi

I am a member of Microsoft's marketing staffing team…

I know a lot of people from Yahoo! have been reaching out to us lately because they are nervous about the pending layoffs…

You've read this far so you must be at least a bit intrigued by what we may have to offer...

Global Central Sourcing Team, Microsoft >

We’re Hiring!

Silicon Alley Insider 1/08 49

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Boldness is the “new normal”

Is this a subtle recruiting approach? 150 baskets

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Free tacos attract resumes and the media

Tokbox parked a taco truck across from Yahoo's

12/10/08

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Would this be an aggressive poaching?

EA vs. Radical entertainment (ASK-EE)

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Select an overall recruiting strategy

A senior executive recruiting strategy

Basic premise – the CEO (and other senior executives) needs to be the chief recruiter for Purple Squirrels.

Benchmark firms Facebook - Campus visits by the CEO Apple – Direct CEO calls Zynga - Private meetingsAn example >

Convincing hard to sell candidates to say “yes”

Starbucks CEO calls

I called CEO Jim Donald and asked him to help close particular candidates that were critical

“Not only did he enjoy being asked, it sent a signal to him as the CEO that “not everyone wants to work at Starbucks …” Jason Warner

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Select an overall recruiting strategy

A talent community strategy

Basic premise – building relationships over time… based 100% on learning and best practice sharing may be the only way to reach Purple Squirrels.

Benchmark firm Microsoft An example >

Microsoft uses “talent communities” to assess and build relationships over time

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MS twitter communities:• Music• Zune• Gaming• Xbox live• Xbox 360• XNA• Games for windows• Microsoft game Studios• Connected TV• Mediaroom

• Specialized devices• PC hardware• Windows automotive• MACBU• Surface• Hardware• Windows media Center• Communications• Mobile• Danger

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Select an overall recruiting strategy

Involve them in your work strategy

Basic premise – getting them involved in your work and your team… either as a consultant or a beta tester, may be the best way to convince Purple Squirrels.

Benchmark firms Wells Fargo – Involve them in selection Agilent Technologies – An invited open house

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The 10 primary steps

for recruiting Purple Squirrels

Part VI

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Purple Squirrel recruiting step # 1

Set your goals and develop a planPrioritize your jobs – determine which jobs would

absolutely require an innovatorSet your yield ratio – determine how many Purple

Squirrels must you target in order to hire oneDevelop a recruiting plan – develop a unique plan

for each prospectAssign accountability – assign both an executive

and a recruiter to each targetSet your recruiting budget - for each target

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Step # 2

Implement a process for identifying your targetsProactively ask top performers to make referralsUtilize “names research” firmsLook for award winnersLook for conference speakersPost advanced questions on technical forums

and question sites (i.e. Quora, Focus)Ask during interviews “name the best innovators”Use contests to find the bestReward employees for providing names only

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Some examples

Children’s hospital in DallasPays $100… just for names in key jobs… even

if they are not hired (Must provide contact information, they must be someone working in the field and be interested in a new job)

25% of the names result in a hire

www.ere.net/2011/08/03/paying-for-names-not-just-referred-hires/#more-20189

http://www.genomeweb.com/blog/interesting-referral-incentive

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LinkedIn tools can find anyone

LinkedIn Recruiter

You can do polls, form groups and find anyone

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Contests identify innovators

Experience has shown that… “applicants who fill out the hiring challenge are the ones who are talented and already have a job."

To qualify, engineers must first solve 3 practice problems

Once a month, qualifiers face a one-minute challenge problem… that is assessed by a Quixey operator who is on the line

Every winner is automatically invited to interview

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Talent pool targets over the next five years

This NFL team builds a talent pool by pre-identifying the key players on other teams that it wants to recruit away over the next five years

Source Lou Mantinelli BPI 2006

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Purple Squirrel recruiting step # 3

Conduct your market research (behavioral profile)

Set up a “Google alert” on each target

Identify where they “hang out” (websites, social

media sites, video sites, forums, blogs, groups etc.)

Identify events that they attend

ID their favorite topics (personal and professional)

ID their preferred communications channels

A behavioral profile reveals where targets “hang out”

Would we find a purple squirrel?

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Step # 4

Make your initial contactJoin the online groups that they are members of

(Personal and professional)

Friend them on Facebook, link with them on

LinkedIn and follow them on Twitter

Look them up at events and meet-ups

Read and complement them on their work

Ask a mutual friend to make an introduction

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Amazon is bold and agressive

They placed information on their educational reimbursement benefits on…

Their hope page!

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Step # 5

Build your relationship over time

Build outside of work relationships

Ask them a technical question

Criticize their work

Ask them to review your work

Ask them for their predictions

Ask them to join your firm’s talent community

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Source: Whirlpool

____

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Step # 6

Get to know them over timeIdentify the factors that cause them to enter “job-

search mode”

Identify and monitor the factors that may cause them to want to leave their current job

Identify their minimum job acceptance criteria

Identify their dream job criteria

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Purple Squirrel recruiting step # 7

Identify the “right day” to discuss an opportunity

On most days, you would get a hard “no” from purple squirrels… except on these “right days” A boss/ mentor/ best friend / CEO left Day of a merger or layoff Lost a promotion or a key project After their yearly bonus After their performance appraisal When their project is ending Their last child graduates

Mobile recruiting… the hard way

This firm drove a van around the neighborhood of their “target” competitor (Blue Coat) when they were in trouble… with this sign in order to enticed their employees

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“Right day” recruiting 175 sent out and 130 responded

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Purple Squirrel recruiting step # 8

Influence the influencersIdentify who they will consult with before

making a major decision (i.e. spouses, colleagues, references, mentors etc.)

Make a subtle sales pitch to each influencer

Two examples >

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You must “influence the influencers”

Dear Mrs. Wallace. You could be driving this car if…

My wife told me to!

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“Bring your parents to work” influences them

4,000 showed up

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Purple Squirrel recruiting step # 9

Be able to move fast when they are available Assess their work over time on the Internet Assess them through friends and colleagues Open a “corporate resource” position for them Let them use a LinkedIn profile in lieu of a resume Prepare a personalized offer in advance that meets

each of their job acceptance criteria Be able to make a hiring decision in one day when

they become available Be prepared with a counter offer strategy

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Purple Squirrel recruitingstep # 10

Include bold offer strategies & at least one WOW

“Dream job”

Hire them both

Pick your own boss / team / project / location

Exploding offers

Additional bold and aggressive

recruiting approaches to consider

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Convincing hard to sell candidates to say “yes”

FirstMerit… skipped the interview and mailed

them an offer letter

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Can you match this – Free beer for life

Hipster… offered $10,000, a lifetime supply of Pabst Blue Ribbon, "authentic" skinny jeans, striped bowties, and a pair of Buddy Holly glasses

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Google attracts purple squirrel math majors

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Would $20,000 get your attention?

DNAnexus offered a $20,000 referral bonus… plus a free DNA screening for referring a new hire

Guess what the job was?

http://www.genomeweb.com/blog/interesting-referral-incentive

A software engineer

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Are you ready for this?Individualized recruiting is here

They plastered her name on billboards, pizza boxes and gas pumps -- and even aired a commercial on MTV -- in hopes of getting her to enroll. As one message put it: "We just hope you're on your way to Wilkes University next year."

Mobile recruiting… the hard way

He also handed out business cards, cut out of cardboard with their URL scrawled onto it in black Sharpie pen. “Find me a programmer and we’ll buy an island together,” he told interested programmers

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Notice the intentional mis-spelling

As time permits…let’s go over any remaining questions

[email protected] 87

Did I make you think?