"Andy Brown Wants You", FAST Company, June 1999

FAST Company June 1999

"Andy Brown Wants You"

"Andy Brown Wants You" is an article written by Polly Labarre that struck me as an opportunity for the University of Minnesota Extension Service to possibly look at in terms of personal recruitment. This was just after a University of Minnesota college student named Susan Resch had completed her employment as a Summer Ag/Environmental Intern in our county office.

I liked the attitude and logic Sergeant Andy Brown of the Marine-recruiting substation in Santa Barbara, California has in recruiting top candidates for the U.S. Marines. The 45-year old Brown has screened thousands of candidates, looking for the right people to defend our country, but he's also looking to return those people to society as better people. After 20 years of recruitment, Brown has earned the reputation as the "best Marine recruiter on the planet". He shared with Labarre of Fast Company his secrets for winning the battle for talent.

If you want to hire the best, have your best do the hiring. Brown claims most people who have never been in the "trenches" do the hiring. He approached prospective recruits by asking them "what motivates them" or "what they want out of life". He realized that the Marines couldn't offer a larger paycheck than the other Armed Forces, but if he found a man or woman who wanted to become a better person, then that's the recruit he wanted to commit. The Marines pride themselves in leadership, camaraderie and excellence. That is their selling point.

I believe the University of Minnesota Extension Service could benefit from the system. I realize as a land-grant institution, we have to publicly advertise and this can still be done. However, I do believe that educators who believe in themselves and believe that their professional Extension careers have helped make a positive difference in people's lives need to be recruiting personnel for open positions. Obviously, these people must be respected, successful professionals and the open positions be in their discipline.

In my opinion, this type of effort would attract some potential employees who might have looked only at income and not at personal development and satisfaction, which I believe is one of the greatest benefits Extension can offer to its employees.

When I evaluated the summer intern program that the University of Minnesota Extension Service implemented this past year, I thought it was very successful for a number of reasons:

1. It exposed college students to the vast and diverse programming area in Extension. 2. It provided an opportunity for personnel and professional development for the student. 3. This program lessened the workload for county staff. 4. The program provided employment and income for students, which ultimately helped pay for college expenses. 5. Most importantly, it should allow us (University of Minnesota Extension) the inside tract in personal recruitment if these students were placed with top staff.

If we want good people, we need to go after them with good people. Extension does that somewhat now and the summer intern program certainly will sort out and allow University of Minnesota Extension the inside tract to these people. However, I believe we still need to make the one-on-one approach with our top people in order to recruit the best, just like Andy Brown of the Marines does.

--James B. Nesseth (jnesseth@extension.umn.edu), October 14, 1999

-- Anonymous, October 15, 1999