As our experience in business consulting and recruiting for large and medium-sized businesses has shown, closing the positions of key specialists with specific knowledge necessary to solve important company problems usually takes much longer than the customer suggests. At the same time, it can be argued that the larger the company, the higher its requirements for the level of development of candidates' competencies, the more complicated the selection process. Often, having searched among active candidates, we quickly realized that there were no suitable candidates among them, and if there were, they were already occupying “warm” places in other companies and competitors. And since personnel is a valuable resource, it can and should be obtained by any means.
Headhunting (from the English head - head and hunter - hunter) has already become firmly established in recruiting practice as a method of direct and targeted search for key high-level specialists, or, in other words, "enticing" specialists from one company to another. Ideas of neurolinguistic programming represent special opportunities for a headhunter.
Considering that NLP is a system of modeling and transferring any successful experience into a new context, we will talk about the methods and techniques that we actively use, both in tough negotiations and in recruiting staff.
Headhunter on the "hunting trail"
The basic needs of headhunters on the hunting trail can be categorized as follows:
- Assess the potential of the HR brand of the customer company seeking to lure the desired top manager or key specialist. Companies with a well-formed HR brand have a priority in advance: the image of the employer, transparent career prospects, a well-built system for the development of personnel of various categories.
- To study in detail the profile of the position (corporate and professional competencies in the position) for which the search is carried out, the company's ambitious business plans to be decided by the candidate, to determine the preferences of the company's management to the candidate, both personal and those that will allow him to adapt to the corporate culture of the company - customer. For example, the case when a good territorial distribution manager did not fit into the working style of retail banking (with similar functionality) is also indicative. The “hunter” must first of all be a professional in recruiting or assessment in order to match the demonstrated competencies and the required ones.
- Determine whether the client company will be able to provide the required star candidate with the required conditions. Despite the fact that the "star" is lured away, there is no need to misinform the candidate. Honesty and transparent future working conditions of the candidate are the key to successful hunting. After all, the headhunter not only carries out the selection, but also guarantees his successful work in a new place (as a rule, it is six months or a year).
- Possess advanced communication skills - it is easy to establish contacts and gain confidence, to have to yourself.
- It is good to represent and conduct labor market research on key positions in the region.
- Build a network of contacts and expand the base of candidates for key positions in the industry / region.
- Be good at handling candidate objections. The standard “no, everything suits me” not only does not stop the “hunter”, but also encourages flexible responses with special linguistic constructions (language tricks described by Robert Dilts). Tricks of the language allow a competent communicator to shake or completely destroy in a matter of minutes the candidate's conviction that "everything suits him", to plant a seed of doubt and shake the confidence in the unambiguity of the choice.
T RED Here on the fields (Recruiting Dictionary) - to give a concept (definition) about the focuses of the language.
- It is already possible not to mention the skill of attentive listening and observation in the communication process, and yet we emphasize that this is an integral part of a professional communicator. Including the ability to determine the metaprogram profile of the candidate for compliance with key competencies in the position will be useful.
- And of course, we find special techniques to influence the candidate, possession, or at least knowledge of recruiting methods extremely useful. These methods came to us from a mysterious and cryptic intelligence, which we know mostly from films. However, these methods are increasingly being used in business, in the context of negotiations, for example. What is headhunting but negotiations?
So, we start recruiting.
Defining values and building dependencies
The term "recruitment in business" was introduced into the everyday life of modern NLP by M. Pelekhatym as a result of his modeling of the work of special services in the formation of a network of agents of influence. D. Gordon.
Recruitment is closely related to the concept of "communicative manipulation". Literally manipulation is control. In NLP manipulation is understood as such communication management, which implies responsibility for its result. In other words, communicative manipulation, in contrast to intuitive behavior, involves assessing the ecology of the consequences and taking into account the interests of all negotiators.
First, let's define how recruiting differs from a simple cooperation agreement.
Simple agreements assume that the goals of the parties are the same. In the event of a conflict of goals and objectives of the parties, an agreement is possible as a compromise solution, for a short period of time. Recruitment involves cooperation with a fundamental mismatch or even contradiction of goals at the level of the individual's key values.
It should be noted that behind the formally declared goals there are always positive intentions associated with the implementation of key needs. K. and T. Andreas [7] propose to carry out the investigation by tracing a chain of explicit or veiled "why?" In the process of communicating with the prospective candidate, we first of all carefully listen to what the person voices independently or as a result of implicit questions or hints suggested by the headhunter.
The first thing that an inexperienced recruiter can think of is an offer of a reward or better material conditions. Our experience shows that cooperation based on material interest is relatively unstable for at least several reasons:
- There is always a possibility that there will be competitors with a more powerful material incentive;
- The needs of the candidate may grow faster than your ability to meet them.
Recruitment from the point of view of NLP is a way of creating a certain kind of "dependence", when an individual associates the satisfaction of his key values with the right person or organization. "Addiction" or commitment in a business context is formed in a few simple steps.
Firstly, as we have already mentioned, it is important to determine in the process of communication with the interlocutor of interest to the headhunter, the key values associated with the current job (both satisfied and not quite).
Second, values declared to be satisfied can be manipulated by moving them from one generalized value category to another. For example, if a person says that at the current job he is “constantly in demand in a variety of tasks,” we, using the focus of the language “redefinition” (R. Dilts), the fact of constant involvement in solving various problems from internal value categorization (S. Andreas) “constantly in demand specialist" is transferred to another category: "Ie. you are the person who covers all the holes in the production process. "Or, further strengthening the focus of the language" analogy "(R. Dilts) -" in every barrel of a plug "And the presentation of constantly increasing sales plans as" ambitious business goals "- from the category of" achievements " - can be reformulated into the category "squeeze all the juices out" ... Note, that here we are not arguing with the person about the facts, we even support his statements, maintaining the state of rapport (adjustment and balanced communication, in terms of NLP). However, at the same time, using the techniques of "verbal balancing act" we change the way of interpreting these facts by the very object of recruitment. At the very least, we generate doubt. And doubt opens the way to the perception of new opportunities. For something firmly confident person, from the point of view of NLP in the "hole" of the psychological landscape, and is closed to new information. Exit into the "zone of doubt" is an exit from such a "hole" and a transition to the "search zone", from where a transition to a new conviction is already possible. using the techniques of "verbal balancing act" we change the way of interpreting these facts by the very object of recruitment. At the very least, we generate doubt. And doubt opens the way to the perception of new opportunities. For a firmly confident person in something, is from the point of view of NLP in the "hole" of the psychological landscape, and is closed to new information. Entering the "zone of doubt" is an exit from such a "hole" and a transition to the "search zone", from where a transition to a new belief is already possible. using the techniques of "verbal balancing act" we change the way of interpreting these facts by the very object of recruitment. At the very least, we generate doubt. And doubt opens the way to the perception of new opportunities. For something firmly confident person, from the point of view of NLP in the "hole" of the psychological landscape, and is closed to new information. Exit into the "zone of doubt" is an exit from such a "hole" and a transition to the "search zone", from where a transition to a new conviction is already possible.
In NLP, a lot of attention is paid to the "meta message", ie what, in addition to words, is conveyed non-verbally in the message. Therefore, it is useful to supplement the game with the tricks of the tongue with a very dosed, without overplaying, manipulation of the demonstrated emotions. Those. By changing the inner interpretation of a person, one can formally agree with his unwanted thoughts with a light set of negative emotions: sadness, contempt or sympathy. And the conversation about the option we want to lead with a positive meta message that conveys interest.
If a person stubbornly stands on his beliefs (interpretations) regarding his current position - in the methods of subtle recruitment of NLP, the transition to direct confrontation is excluded. Better to agree with a cocktail of non-verbally transmitted emotions of "sympathy", "pity", "sadness", "worldly wisdom". In trainings on "Combat NLP" we call such a cocktail of emotions demonstrated alternately or together "Molotov's cocktail of the combat negotiator" (the term was proposed by NLP trainers M. Pelekhaty and Y. Chekchurin a source]). One of the vivid illustrations of such a delayed recruitment by the method of "sowing doubts" can be the well-known episode of communication between Sukhov and Vereshchagin from the film "White Sun of the Desert". At first glance, Vereshchagin has everything arranged and life is a success. Life is completely satisfied: wife, caviar, peacocks in the yard. But portraits of a military officer still hang on the walls, and a machine gun with a full set of ammunition is gathering dust in the storeroom. After Vereshchagin's refusal, Sukhov agrees with him, and only a small smile at parting, in which irony is combined with slight contempt and pity: "Peacocks, you say?" give rise to the very "zone of doubt" in Vereshchagin, which later decides the case. Sukhov agrees with him, and only a small smile at parting, in which irony is combined with slight contempt and pity: "Peacocks, you say?" give rise to the very "zone of doubt" in Vereshchagin, which later decides the case. Sukhov agrees with him, and only a small smile at parting, in which irony is combined with slight contempt and pity: "Peacocks, you say?" give rise to the very "zone of doubt" in Vereshchagin, which later decides the case.
FROM ed. And what does such a movement give? As a result, what is suggested to the candidate?
Thirdly, it is possible to expand the focus of the candidate's attention, search for opportunities to implement value criteria (development, career growth, well-being, stability) in a larger number of objects of attention. For example, we point out that not only his current job meets the criteria that he applies to an ideal job, but also a significantly larger number of positions and positions in other equally interesting companies than the potential candidate previously assumed. And here the trick of the language "resizing the frame" is actively used.
Frame - in NLP, a frame means a frame of perception of a situation, a certain point of view. Changing the size of the frame implies considering the same fact on a different time scale or among a larger number of possible options.
From ed. Desirable in Dictionary: frame, frame size.
Also, in addition to verbal interventions, it is important to monitor the non-verbal manifestations of the key values of the potential candidate being recruited.
Spatial synesthesia method
The first way to clarify the hierarchy and realization of significant human values is the method of "spatial synesthesia" proposed by M. Pelekhatym [8]. People talk a lot about their meaningful values, and they also demonstrate most of the information non-verbally. At the same time, NLP methods proceed from the fact that a person marks out any space in front of him in a certain way. It is a great illusion that all the images born in the head remain in the inner space. It can be noted, for example, that his owner places things and objects in his office in a certain way and that some especially significant and important objects are located separately from things that are of much lesser importance. Therefore, submit to the owner of the office the papers that you would like to give a certain weight and importance in the eyes of your partner, better on the positive and meaningful side. Just don't make the mistake that one of our familiar negotiators made by submitting material for consideration from the “right” side of the table, but covering up the photographs of the wife and children, the owner of the office, with his papers. The man was saved by the fact that he noticed the emotion of contempt in time and quickly corrected himself, apologizing, and naturally correcting the geography of his actions. the owner of the office, with his papers. The man was saved by the fact that he noticed the emotion of contempt in time and quickly corrected himself, apologizing, and naturally correcting the geography of his actions. the owner of the office, with his papers. The man was saved by the fact that he noticed the emotion of contempt in time and quickly corrected himself, apologizing, and naturally correcting the geography of his actions.
If you start a conversation about what a person considers important for himself in work, in life, and you will carefully observe the movement of his head, body and direction of his gaze, then you can easily note that when referring to a particular value in a conversation, the person places her in a very definite way in space.
Such placements of value objects, the inner picture of the human world, in real physical space in modern NLP are called "spatial synesthesias". The word “spatial” is clear from the context, the word synesthesia shows that such a spatial “anchor” is complex for the object of observation, that is, it contains the components of all representational systems: visual, auditory, and even kinesthetic.
NLP trainer M. Pelekhaty, when training recruiters, suggests ranking spatial synesthesias on two scales:
ñ remoteness , that is, how far or close a person places an object relative to himself;
ñ vertical ranking (shows the placement height).
Our experience in the practical application of this method of working with synesthesia suggests the need to expand this description system. In addition to the above parameters, one of the authors of this article, D. Yushchenko, proposed to introduce also:
ñ association in synesthesia, that is , to what extent a person immerses himself in the presented image of his value. When the interlocutor tells you about the importance of warm friendly relations in the team and, as it were, already falls into this family-collective, then he is associated (immersed, experiencing emotions, demonstrating rich gestures, leaning forward, he has a pinker skin color on his face). A minute later, he talks about the importance of being responsible for the team - we observe clear logic, not clouded by emotions, sometimes he even leans back in his chair, moves away. This is the position of dissociation;
ñ basic emotion associated with spatial synesthesia. Agree that joy at the mention of creativity can be distinguished from equal indifference when talking about clear planning and regulation of activities. P. Ekman describes in detail the methods of recognizing basic emotions in his works.
This expansion, according to the experience of the authors of the article, significantly improved the results of recruiting key specialists in the context of the banking and IT business using the described method.
Let us now explain how to track (calibrate) and interpret observation results for all four spatial synesthesia ranking scales.
Distance is noted by the direction of the gaze, the stretching of the chin by the “object of recruitment,” when he talks about something related to this value. Also observe whether the person squints, as if trying to "see" something, or, on the contrary, opens his eyes wide and looks somewhere straight ahead. The meaning is very simple. The further spatial synesthesia is located, the fewer specific representations the corresponding value is presented in the client's current experience. And vice versa, if, for example, talking about wages and the dependence of income on the results of labor, a person makes gestures near him, and looks there, then the described value (the dependence of income on the invested labor) at the current place of work has a very specific meaning for him and can only be overridden by a more interesting sentence,
Vertical ranking indicates a hierarchy of values for an individual. It is still simpler and more logical here - the higher the value is placed in the space, the more significant it is for it.
Particular attention should be paid to the underlying emotion associated with the appeal to each of these spatial synesthesias. As the experience of the authors of the article shows, the most motivating and “tasty” for a recruiter is not the emotion of joy, as it might seem at first glance, but the emotion of interest and curiosity.
Thus, it is the values presented in spatial synesthesias that are located higher and further, the least associated and associated with the basic emotion of "interest", that are of greatest interest, as they have a high level in the personal hierarchy, and the least sensory content in the current picture of the world, recruited by a specialist. ... It is they who can be used by a headhunter to fill it with specifics and opportunities for its implementation at a new place of work.
A particularly important element of filling the concrete value of the recruiting basis is the fixation on the goal, based on the model of "well-formed outcome" (HSR) proposed in NLP Leslie Cameron Bandler. At one of the stages of this model, the recruited object is invited to mentally become the owner of the confirmation of the specified value and to feel its real attainability.
If development and self-improvement for a potential candidate is high and far, then take this value and fill it with reality: show many opportunities for training and development in the company, let the person mentally visit foreign internships in the process of your story, unique expensive educational programs, find out his wishes regarding future learning. Draw the details - this is how the person is fixed on the goal. In this case, the goal of self-development will be more clearly drawn for him and now it will connect with the capabilities of your company.
At this stage, it is also useful to “play” the game “closer - farther”, showing the person how the possibilities of achieving the goal get closer as they agree to change and disappear as the current status of the recruited object is maintained.
Learned helplessness - a source of new opportunities
If the candidate is satisfied with everything at the current place of work, the headhunter can resort to creating the so-called state of learned helplessness, which was first discovered by the American psychologist M. Seligman [someone's term?]. This state presupposes a person's passivity in relation to external circumstances, when a person does not see opportunities to influence the situation. Seligman believed that helplessness is caused not by the events themselves, but by the person's idea of the uncontrollability of these events. A living creature becomes helpless if it gets used to the fact that the consequences of its active actions do not depend on these actions in any way. That is, a disordered feedback loop arises.
The state of learned helplessness presupposes a “stalemate” situation for a person. We show that some of the meaningful goals that a person sets for himself are unattainable for him with only those opportunities that he has now. For this, the method of transferring the client's focus from the “result frame” to the “problem frame” is very effective. How to do it? Let's step by step.
- In a conversation, we find out whether a potential candidate has any problematic situation or obstacle in the current "warm" place.
- We direct his thought exclusively in the framework of the "problem". Here are examples of questions that ask such a frame:
- What is the cause of the crisis? Why did it happen?
- How long will the current situation last?
- Search for the guilty. Who did the wrong thing?
- Why haven't they done anything to achieve the goal?
- We point out that he has already done everything that he could in the given circumstances, but external reasons beyond his control limit his capabilities.
Thought viruses in NLP are called thoughts, thinking, which is meaningless from the point of achieving goals, but at the same time takes away a lot of personal energy from a person. The state of such thinking is called "non-resource" and corresponds to the basic emotion of negative passivity - sadness. The strategy of the thought virus, as a rule, is quite simple: a negative picture appears in the mind, which gives rise to a negative feeling, something self-deprecating is said about this in the internal dialogue, which in turn causes a new non-resource picture, about which another uncomfortable and non-resource thoughts. And this process is repeated. With prolonged experience of sadness, the emotion goes into a state of "depression".
In this state, a person becomes inactive and demotivated. What is the point of doing something if the possibilities are exhausted? But the needs do not disappear, they simply “slumber”, waiting for the “deliverer”, that is, the one who will provide new resources and new opportunities, which, in the representation of the object, will allow him to achieve what he wants, or at least substantially approach it. And this is where the recruiter comes in, representing a similar source of opportunity.
Complementary Values and Conflict Criteria Methods
A natural question arises of what to do if the recruiter does not identify problem areas in the “target of recruitment”, that is, we are talking about a specialist who, at his current place of work, satisfies all the main value criteria that are in the focus of his attention. In this case, it is useful to build a conversation using the methods "Complementary values" and "Conflict of criteria".
The Complementary Values method is based on the idea that every personality has a shadow side, which means that every realized value has an unrealized complementary value.
Let's give an example from our experience.
A highly qualified specialist in a stable company that has existed for many years was provided with a full package of material support and a “decent” salary in his opinion. However, the “shadow side” of stability was the absence of reasonable risks in experimentation and room for creativity. At the same time, in the process of preparation for the object of recruitment, we defined the metaprograms “Difference for the new”, “Reference context”, “Opportunities”, “Sorting gates: Result” [2]. For such a person, the focus of attention is significantly shifted towards the above “complementary” (complementary) values, which were filled with specific content tied to the transition to a new job.
The Conflict of Criteria method implies an indication that, given the current state of affairs, significant criteria cannot be satisfied simultaneously and even contradict each other. The work on this method takes a long time, and we will show only its structure. For example, we fix the attention of a specialist on the fact that, devoting a lot of time to his family and home, he does not work at this time, which affects his income, and therefore the prosperity of the family. At the same time, if he spends more time at work, he will be able to increase the material well-being of his family, but at the same time, his relatives will enjoy these benefits mainly without him, since he is busy most of the time at work. In such a case, as a result of the work carried out, the specialist accepted an offer providing for a free schedule.
