There was a song written and composed by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in 1970 called “Big Yellow Taxi” that was originally released on her album Ladies of the Canyon. Amy Grant released it in 1994, and some of you may recall some of the lyrics:
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They took all the trees
And put ’em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half to see ’em
It seems to me these days they’ve pretty much done the same thing to our paradise, let’s call it “Sourcelon,” and slathered it over with application upon application of sourcing DDTs leaving us what we have today, now that what we had is gone.
The latest entry into the Sourcing Babylon is dating apps. Tinder, Grindr, happn, OKCupid, we’re supposed to spend our time mining profiles for crumbs of information about where potential candidates work (the chum the savvy ones lay down) and then excitedly cross-mine that to information to create potential candidates for pipelines.
Unless this is a hobby of yours and something you don’t mind doing on those lonely Saturday nights to build secondary value out of your dating site investment. I recommend the much more straightforward and faster approach of choosing a short list of target companies that are most likely to contain the best and most qualified candidates, then pulling what’s readily and easily available online and then filling what’s missing in those teams. Fast and deadly phone sourcing is more expeditious and is the most productive means of getting the job done of modern recruiting done today.
Team Challenge: Here are a couple of mold technician names off Linkedin – that location should have more than that there – see if you can’t find more.
OK!
Team Member A finds a couple of names on Facebook. One shows a location – one can be sent a message. Still, they’re names to use when calling in.
Team Member B finds a name on a new marriage registry online. This is the name to use when calling in!
Team Member C finds a name listed in a technical school graduation list that also lists the company as a place of employment, but it’s from 2000. It could be a name to use when calling in.
Time to call in!
Ring-a-ding-a-ding!
Hello, Marbles Manufacturing. This is Suzette, may I help you?
Hello, Suzette. This is Maureen. Can you transfer me please to the mold department?
Do you have a name?
Well yes, Suzette, I do. Mark Malarkey, please.
He’s no longer with us.
I see. Is there someone else in his department you can transfer me to?
You need a name.
Joel Mathews, please. Can you transfer me to Joel Mathews?
Just a minute-
Suzette?
Yes?
(Suzette has been pulled hopefully off-balance.)
Before you transfer me – what is Joel’s extension in case I get disconnected?
(When the exchange goes as it did above the caller has about a 50/50 chance of getting the extension on the “ask.”
He doesn’t have an extension. The tool room shares an extension. It is 4526.
Valuable information! This means anyone who answers that phone might be a mold technician. Your phone sourcing just took a quantum leap in possibilities with just this one small nugget of information that leaked from Suzette’s lips and if you can engage her further in conversation. If you can get her to thaw just a little more, who knows what else you might learn? Let’s see.
4526? Thanks! It’s 3:00 PM. Do you think they’re still in?
Oh yes. The Second shift doesn’t start until 4:00 PM.
Great. You just learned this company has a second shift and now you’re wondering if maybe it might even have a third shift. Why not ask?
Suzette, is the Mold Manager over all the shifts or does each shift have a manager? I ask, so I don’t sound so stupid in case Joel isn’t there.
She laughs. She doesn’t know why she’s laughing.
All the shifts have the same Manager. Her name is Linda Larkins.
Do you have three shifts?
We used to. We’ve been running two, but there’s talk of going back to three.
Okay, great. Can you tell me, Suzette- in case, Joel isn’t in the tool room, what shift does Pete Jenkins work?
Pete was the name found on the recent marital registry.
He works second shift, but he’s been out on medical leave. He’s supposed to return next week. They’re short-shifted in that department right now. There are only two others on second, Mike Orthinson and Roberta Saunders.
When a Gatekeeper starts singing she is likely to continue to sing unless someone saunders by and shuts her down. That happens more often than she checks herself.
What time do you open?
First shift starts at 8:00 AM, I get here around 7:30; make the coffee and turn the heat up. I live alone, so I don’t mind coming in early. I’ve been doing this a long time.
Well, I appreciate your help Suzette; what did you say that extension was? 4526? Can I dial that direct?
You sure can! You just dial area code xxx xxx and then 4526!
And ask for Joel?
He’ll probably pick up. He’s the supervisor in there. If he doesn’t Mandy or Jim will. They ’re a couple of the other techs in there as well.
Oh, okay! I appreciate that. How many are there? I didn’t realize there were so many! They’re a bunch, like bananas!
She laughs.
Yeah, we have a bunch, probably a dozen or so. It’s a pretty good-sized room!
So there you have it, the delight of the phone conversation and the convivial art of making friends fast and the double-edged sword of the use of the telephone in our trade as a business tool.
No, no, no
Don’t it always seem to go,
That you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone
They sourced Sourcelon
And sucked the soul out of paradise.