“Attract Human” is the concept of authentic, everyday interactions with people and gaining their interest in your service, products or brand.  This is critical in any business due to the evolution of consumer driven marketing.  Brands no longer push the message as social media, review sites and instant feedback have forced an evolution unprecedented since the Mad Men days.

So how can employers attract human?

  1. Participate in the conversation on review sites.  Glassdoor, Indeed and others for your employer brand, but also Yelp, Amazon, etc… as people consider symbiotic relationship between consumer and employer brand messaging.
  2. Traditional resumes must die.  It is a travesty how decisions are made on humans based on a list of bullet points electronically uploaded for review by people who have limited insight into the capabilities of a java developer (hint, it’s one of the reasons they don’t send resume to recruiters).
  3. Job fairs aka paper resume waste factories should be redesigned.  Host events where human beings come together and have a conversation….no resume, no cards, no titles….carry on a dialogue between humans about goals, innovation, ideas and life.
  4. Stop referring to it as “talent acquisition”, it sounds selfish.  It sounds as if you are acquiring talent until the skills are no longer required (that’s called downsizing).  You are working with people, who provide for their little people and have desires beyond corporate profits.
  5. Authenticity is not cliche, showcase the good and bad, show and tell people why they would and would not like being part of your organization.  Allow humans to make the decision with ALL the information….
  6. It’s simple, “do unto others”, call people, text them, provide feedback on interviews
  7. Personalize interviews.  The “where do you see yourself in 5 years” question is dumb!  “Heck, I’m looking forward to lunch, not thinking about 5 years” and “don’t get me started on my lotto plan” are unacceptable but real.  We had a client ruling people out because they could not answer or did not know….
  8. Kill off annual performance reviews, no one likes them, managers dread giving them and human resources thinks more about the process than the product (not all but many).  Feedback is conversation and conversations between people who are within 10 feet of each other 2000+ hours a year should happen daily!
  9. Automation is obviously not human; vendor managed systems, automated responses, keyword rule outs have one common goal, squash human relationship and make the process transactional.
  10. Defaulting to “we’re avoiding a lawsuit” as a defense for poor hiring processes is ludicrous,  just be consistent.

More to add?  Would love to hear your thoughts on making the attraction process more human! #attracthuman #behuman