(July 02, 2003) - Recruiters funnel. They take large piles of information and make them small. Every single aspect of Recruiting carries this one core principle. Recruiters take the complex and make it simple. Recruiters simplify.

This is neither an easy thing to do nor an easy thing to teach.

The more experienced a Recruiter is, the more they simplify. Reading between the lines of a resume, intuitively understanding interview body language, recognizing the nuances of a reference check, understanding the needs of each individual hiring manager, appropriately packaging the company story, drenching productivity out of time crunched hours, qualifying prospects, resolving conflicting priorities, each task in a Recruiter's day is subject to the same set of simplification principles.

What is the most valuable way to spend my time at this moment?

Apparently, the hardest thing to automate is the variability in this process. The way that the Recruiting funnel is constructed depends on a matrix of dependencies:

• Is the job being filled a low volume position or a routine requirement?
• Is it worth the time to build a detailed job description and qualifications process?
• Is the hiring manager high or low on the totem pole?
• What priority has the boss assigned?
• Is there an advertising budget?
• What is the real schedule requirement?
• Is it an easy or hard to fill slot?
• Is it higher or lower priority than the rest of the workload?

In other words, quality variations in the Recruiting process are normal and predictable. One of the skills that a great Recruiter must possess is the ability to judge the level of resources that will be expended to fill this particular job. Some are clearly more important than others. Some deserve full process rigor.

Some do not.