Part 2: Meet Ryan Leary, Philadelphia’s Ambassador of The Virtual Handshake - Metrics

Posted on April 23, 2008
Filed Under LINKEDIN |

By Dave Mendoza, Master Cybersleuth, Affilate Partner JobMachine, Inc.
See Shally and myself at Kennedy Expo’s Sourcing Summit, May 16th, Register HERE

Ryan Leary
Linkedin Invite, Click HERE
Email
Linkedin Profile
Corporate Recruiter at Beckman Coulter C/O Kenexa
Wayne, Pennsylvania
Phone: 610-971-8901

Miss Part 1? Click HERE

Six Degrees: How many applicants at your present employer do you estimate are hired from your corporate website as compared to how many are hired through referrals?

Ryan: When we look at the overall number something like 56% of our hires in Q4 were a combination of employee referrals and organic hires, which is a great sign! The remainder of hires in Q4 was split between job boards, direct sourcing and our corporate employment site.

Six Degrees: What is the source of the “Most Hires” collected from at your present employer? (In terms of Quantity #)

Ryan: By far, the greatest numbers of candidates are coming from both employee referrals and organic growth from within. This is closely followed by job boards and social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook etc. Our industry (Medical device) is very incestuous, and as a leader in the industry, our employment site attracts a lot of semi-passive talent. It’s what you do with the talent once you get connected that counts.

Ryan: Six Degrees: What is the source of your “LOWEST COST OF HIRES” - (least amount of invested resources for the easiest hires, regardless of quality) at your present employer?

Our lowest cost per hire is definitely our employee referrals. It’s typically a quick process; the referring employee will normally validate the talents of the referred. Though we may have already posted for the position and interviewed a few people, searches from referrals will typically close out much sooner and use less manpower to fill the requirement.

Six Degrees: What talent niche groups do you target and are these particular talent areas specialized under your review?

Ryan: As a whole we target all areas of recruitment. I specifically target corporate level Finance and Accounting professionals. We are split by vertical which will run the board and cover, Scientific, Engineering, Finance, Technology, R&D, and Manufacturing both exempt and non-exempt.

Six Degrees: What types of training in sourcing/recruitment are available to you and have you taken advantage of?

Ryan: This is actually an initiative that I have been part of now for a short while within Kenexa. We are currently developing an internal training process that will help our internal recruiting teams providing a “tool box” at their finger tips.

I take advantage of every training, seminar and Webinar I can find. I find that I use the internet quite often, subscribe to multiple online letters and Blogs. I’ve got to give credit were credit is due, and credit is due here. I find myself reading daily articles and taking part in Webinars from the one and only Dave Mendoza, Jason Davis, Shally Steckerl and Lou Adler. Thanks for the guidance!

Also as an honorable mention – DEI Sales training run by Steve Schiffman. This is an excellent program on cold calling and getting to close.

Six Degrees: What recruitment software tools do you use in your day to day recruitment activities & do they translate effectively within all of the different countries where you recruit?

Ryan: Outside of our ATS and Global research teams, I am a faithful user of LinkedIn, Zoominfo, and D&B. I have recently been turned onto SecondLife, which I know some of the largest companies today are using. If you haven’t seen this yet, check it out. Just Google Second Life and it should pop up. Leading companies are creating virtual job fairs and are attracting some of the most forward thinking and innovative talent on the market. The internet can be responsible for some of the most outrageous things.

Six Degrees: What tools (technology or old school file folder, for example) did you first encounter early in your recruitment career?

Ryan: I know question will typically get the old school answer, no computers, just the phone… I had to walk 5 miles with no shoes on…. Fortunately for me, I always had the computer to work with. Technology has grown tremendously in just the last couple of years; I have been introduced to and I am working to master creative techniques like cybersleuthing and deep internet recruiting. This is definitely the new age of recruiting, and to be successful I believe it is vital for all top recruiters to buy into this method.

Six Degrees: How did your expectations of being a recruiter compare to the actual, first time you got on the phone or in the cubicle? In your opinion, how do people’s assumptions about our vocation differ from reality?

Ryan: In the beginning I thought that recruiting would be a challenge, but an overall easy job. Place an Ad, people apply, someone interviews them and that’s it. Obviously this is not the case and I fell in love with recruiting and the challenge of sourcing, securing and growing my talent pool, building deep lines of talent. I think my expectations of being and becoming a recruiter is pretty cool. I view this job as a huge puzzle. I am faced with 30 holes or openings, and it is my job and challenge to source and scour the industry to find the one person that will fit into this hole.

I think that most people respect what we do. On the contrary, there are those who say “stay away from the head hunter…” Than again, these are the same people who will need a job in 3 months and will still need one in 6 months and again in 9 months…..

Six Degrees: Worst mistake, biggest goof, lousiest practice you thought would fly but didn’t…and how that was a learning experience?

Ryan: Well, this story is before my recruiting days but does have to do with an outside sales executive role I held early on. I’ll premise this by saying I was very successful in my role. With that said, I was on a call and speaking with a client about trends and forecasting etc. In our conversation and transfer of materials I accidentally gave my client the competitor’s information which showed a better trend and pricing for this specific circumstance.

I thought I was ahead of the curve by studying my competitors, but I learned quickly that attention to detail and organization will be the key to any success I would have.

Six Degrees: How do you personally expect to facilitate change within our industry, and/or at your place of work? If you started that process, outline the problem, your solutions, and the vision.

Ryan: Change is good and I view myself as a change agent. I like to be innovative and creative, finding new ways to accomplish tasks; I like to work smarter not harder. I have had the opportunity to speak with Lou Adler in the past and I quickly learned the difference between a world class recruiter and a good recruiter. I want to be a world class recruiter, a master at my profession. It’s my goal and passion to change views and show the benefits of deep sourcing, direct sourcing, cybersleuthing, and social networking. I know they work, you know they work, and I want to be part of the circle that changes the face of recruiting.

Six Degrees: “Best practice” you are most proud of developing (now or in the past) in your recruiting career?

Ryan: Though I did not develop this best practice or technique, I have learned quickly the value of candidate and hiring manager control. By creating yourself and positioning yourself as an expert you instantly become a trusted resource to your hiring teams and candidates. Once you have accomplished this, you now have the ability to control your destiny; sourcing time, time to fill, retention, etc.

If you want to be successful, you have to be able to understand this.

Six Degrees: What are some of the frustrating aspects/obstacles to your day to day as a staffing professional and in general?

Ryan: Anything that takes me away from my desk preventing me from sourcing and speaking with candidtes. Administrative work, reporting, incompetent hiring managers…..

Six Degrees: What are the most common themes of strategic and/or tactical mishaps involving past or present HR/Staffing org?

Ryan: Communication and Urgency. Communication and Urgency are crucial to all aspects of our job. Weather it be the sourcing strategy, candidate flow, priorities, urgency with on boarding, there always seems to be a breakdown in communication from one group to the other. This breakdown can be detrimental to the success of the organization and ultimately retaining top talent.

Six Degrees: Considering all of the frustrations you have experienced in your career as a recruiter, — what inspires you as you continue in your career?

Ryan: Passion and competitiveness. I have a passion for what I do. I’ll give the example of the puzzle from earlier. There is a crazy drive inside of me that just wants to put his puzzle together everyday.

Six Degrees: What one thing do you ideally hope to accomplish in 2008?

Ryan: I want to establish myself as an emerging leader in the recruiting industry. I’d like to take part in and present at a speaking engagement or a motivational recruiting seminar.

Six Degrees: Anything you want to plug?

Ryan: I have recently created a new recruiter group specific to the Philadelphia, Pa. Area. I have done so on recruitingblogs.com. I’d like to invite all Philadelphia area recruiters to join forces and participate in this new venture.

Philadelphia Recruiters (http://www.recruitingblogs.com/group/phillyrecruiter)
LIRN Blog (http://lirn.wordpress.com/)

Six Degrees: How Are You Going To Change The Recruitment Industry?

Ryan: Simply by sourcing with a passion to succeed

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