RECRUITER
NEWSLETTER

by Doug Beabout CPC
Inside this edition:
Building a Fire Under Your Hiring Manager
Key Traits of Great Recruiters
The Case For Container Search
Could Technology Tools Harm Your Business ?
Best Practices: Hiring and Implementing a Researcher in a Recruiting Business
Key Traits of Great Recruiters
Criteria Focused: Top producing recruiters, by either great training or hard knocks, have determined the key criteria of what constitutes a great search assignment or job order. They never compromise these criteria by request or demand. Even on a bad day (Yes, they have them too!) they stick to their proverbial guns in this War for Talent realizing that any condition from a client that compromises their effectiveness and process fails everyone. Big billers are aware that in a shallow candidate pool some candidates can become unrealistic about their worth or attractiveness to potential employers. They follow the rule that an uncooperative candidate cannot be one!
Self-Awareness: As entrepreneurial people, top recruiters carry a predisposition to have control over everything. I have met a few recruiters who take great pride in having absolute hands-on control over every issue, step, and situation that arises. Typically, they are not on the list of top producers. That is okay but my primary motivation, as is also the case with most top recruiters, is wealth generation. Great recruiters know that they need to focus on their strengths and allow others to perform tasks less focused on rainmaking. Top billing recruiters remain in constant contact with three categories of people; those who pay fees, those they can place and those that lead them to the other two. Nearly every top recruiter has a researcher (or more) in direct support of their practice.
Believe in Their Value: Armed with a proven process, a cooperative client, and the support staff required, top producers know, without a trace of doubt, that what they are capable of creating is of tremendous value to all involved. They leverage great careers for candidates, provide huge return on client fee investments, and manifest tremendous wealth. Their efforts, just like yours, are met by clients who make unrealistic or self-defeating demands that compromise their ability to produce the desired outcome of their process. They say "NO" and explain how a better approach can benefit the client. When faced with rigidity in these clients, they walk away, period. They realize that the time spent trying to make something out of a compromised search is typically a waste of time and more time consuming than applying their process and skills where they should. Further, they never compromise their fee or the basis by which it is calculated (total annual taxable compensation). They never offer a refund of a fee; rather they promise a result that solves the problem. They know instinctively, that they must work closely and primarily with the hiring decision-maker while maintaining respectful communication with all other parties involved.
They Value Their Evolution: Having trained thousands of recruiters across two decades, I have seen many arise to the top of their profession. Invariably, the best recruiters are constantly seeking an improvement in their skills and process. It is a normal human tendency to hold tight to what has made us successful to one degree or another. Top recruiters are aware that the world outside of their "trench" is constantly evolving, changing, and growing. They anticipate the necessary changes in their practices and seek skilled training. They attend conferences frequently and seek the wisdom of their peers. Not for self-assurance of their greatness, but most often for the piece here, the tactic there, and the modifications that the day demands, they seek training opportunities. Change is not right or wrong, it is inevitable. They know the wisdom of this timeless adage and it drives them to seek improvement.
   The Case For Container Search
My arrival in this business was at a time when candidates were abundantly available. This condition remained until the recent past when Baby-Boomers started leaving their corporate employment in droves. Forced by economic adjustments, cost reduction initiatives, or by a desire to retire, their ranks, once a huge force is shrinking by the day and causing a 40mm person shortfall in the next few years. By 2011, less time than the average car lease, they will almost all be off the recruiting radar screen.
Yeah, I know, I am "preaching to the choir" about this reality. The issue is brought up because it is my observation that many clients have yet to face the impending reality that there will most certainly be more open requirements for professional candidates than the pool can fill. This is evidenced by the fact that many clients and their HR professionals are still placing undue faith in the job boards and technology tools. They invested heavily in these alternative candidate sources. This investment has led many to a stubborn reliance on these sources in the face of reality.
The reality is that 99% of professionals are employed. Since the recession ended, many candidates have changed employers from those they survived under during the early 2000's. These realities constitute a strong argument for the narrowing of options down to a major reliance on skilled surgical recruiters capable of penetrating source companies, effectively grabbing the attention of employed professionals, and recruiting them.
Many recruiters grew far too dependent on the exclusive use of technology tools to recruit and source candidates. I hear from many of them today. They are frustrated and feel that they are unfairly treated by HR. I feel their pain but feel compelled to say, "Wake up and smell the Starbucks!". The days of e-cruiting as a sole business have passed. Again, change is not right or wrong; it is inevitable for those who expect to survive and thrive in the War for Talent.
Further, the mindset of these candidates and the generational traits of Gen-X or Millennials give cause for a very skilled and thorough candidate evaluation process blended with a continuing recruiting effort. Most companies are sorely lacking in these skills or knowledge. These times frustrate many employers who are facing serious issues and challenges that depend upon the acquisition of the external talent and people with experience to create solutions and meet competitive initiatives. Frankly, I see a near term trend where companies may in fact fail as organizations when they cannot recruit critically required people.
Could Technology Tools Harm Your Business?
Since the invention of the PC and the Internet, we have made great strides in information technology tooling. Information is of itself our greatest variable resource. Effective access and retrieval of information gathered by us in our efforts to conduct search activity is a major asset to any recruiting and search enterprise.
During the last years of the 1990s, many innovative Internet resources were created and populated by many candidates we sought. Major innovations and tools to seek these candidates were popular among search practitioners and clients. Once the recession hit shortly after the turn of the century, many employers were enticed by certain search "gurus" to exploit the databases, networks, company websites, and job board to "Poach" candidates and stockpile them for the inevitable economic recovery, This was a very popular practice and sizeable candidate vaults were created.
These companies were also advised that during the recovery, as their recruiting needs emerged, they could find many of the candidates they needed in these candidate databases. This morphed, in some cases, into a practice of accepting a candidate referral from a third-party recruiting firm, checking then to see if they had this candidate in their stockpile. In the event they had a record of this person, they thanked the recruiter for their efforts to recruit and qualify that person but refused to pay a fee for the placement once that candidate was hired.
As fortune would have it, this did not last for long since, as we realize, candidates have a very short shelf life. The explanation of this reality was seemingly missed by their mentors.
Now that the recovery is well underway, and demographic facts promise that the demand for candidates will not diminish regardless of who ends up in the White House, the common realization is that 99% of professionals are at work. Since many professionals have changed employers since the recovery, few are populating the job boards. Many surveys of professionals reveal a common candidate observation that they are working extended hours and feel overwhelmed at work; rarely achieving 100% of their objectives. This is a major reason why most candidates are not "out on the "net". They are working hard and have lives.
We can reach them. Pick up the phone and call them at work.
Technology is a fabulous resource when used prudently as another means of finding candidate names, developing competitive search intelligence, and retrieving critical data when we need it. It was once heralded as the new recruiting method that would quickly replace the telephone focused recruiter. Someday that may be true. For the next decade, this recruiter will continue to use it wisely, but practice the Art of Recruiting on my instrument of choice, the phone.
For extensive information on Doug's additional recruiter training resources check out his website at:
www.DougBeabout.com

Best Practices:
Hiring and Implementing a Researcher in a Recruiting Business

There's never enough time to do it right, but there is always time enough to do it again".

Time was our most precious and elusive element as we took advantage of the affluence of the 1990s. Search assignments were plentiful.Then we hit the wall. Now we face a historically lucrative period of both recovery and intense demand for candidates.In this challenging recovery, the volume of search requirements grows exponentially as does the complexity of each search.Our client's are demanding more and more of our time, as their talent requirements continue to grow.The demand placed an impossible load on our human capacity as recruiters who were trying to maintain a high level of value-added service to those clients.We approached the edge of temptation to "cut-back" on some added efforts and thereby increase our capacity to manage the avalanche of search assignments.
We discovered an optional approach; in lieu of working furiously and covering more, we decided to work more diligently to serve even more clients.In order to accomplish this seemingly impossible feat, we knew we would have to add staff.The answer did not lie in simply hiring more recruiters.
Another issue taken into consideration involved applying new technology tools available to us that could make us more productive and capable of providing added services.The Internet, email, websites (theirs and ours) were promising great potential but also offered further strain on the time we had to provide the most important client service; recruiting the best-qualified candidates.Having come from the days of rotary dial phones and airmail, I was aware of the value offered and the pitfalls of exploiting these tools.I wanted to insure that the quality reputation were had developed by sweat equity investment would not suffer but grow instead.In respect of all this issues and challenges, we adopted and perfected a "process" of finding, evaluating, hiring, training and implementing full service research services.
These services were initially intended as an internal support and increased service value.They evolved into an added resource that produces sizeable impact on profits.The following is a summary of how this process works; the detailed description of a prime candidate for the role of researcher and the specific duties integrated into the search process once "owned" entirely by the "full desk recruiter".
Take a picture of this:You spent big bucks on technology and you want to reap the rewards that of your investment. Your office has cable access to the Internet and you have several 3.5-GHz dual core Athlon PCs running 4-8 gigabytes of ram.You acquired the latest software and database management tools.You probably invested a pretty penny in a recruiter "desktop management tool". Everyone that you deal with, clients and candidates alike, expect your business and your staff to operate on the leading edge of technology.
As you work your desk every day, it becomes increasingly apparent that to truly compete, you must have the fastest "time to market" with your candidate referrals.Are you mining or making deals?Obviously both are essential to growth and success.The problem is you are too busy, as is your staff, working your desk to "mess" with all this technology.Worse, your staff is spending more time on the keyboard than the keypad.After all, it takes a lot of time to learn this new software and all the "techno tricks" everyone expects from you. Not least of all, you want to see a profitable return on the investments made in all these tools.
Whenever I discuss the placement business, I operate on the assumption that our clients expect two things from us: recruiting and closing.The incredible advances in information technology available to us could certainly place us on the cutting edge of competitiveness.If there were 30 hours in the work day; we could all work our desk at 110 %, master our technologies and still have personal lives.In the placement industry there are three distinct groups in terms of the technology challenged.First, knee deep.Second, up to the neck.Third, drowningTo meet the challenge technology places before the placement professional you need to resolve this question:When you're using technology are you really productive, or just very busy?Or, another way of saying it, are you cyber-advantaged or cyber-paralyzed.
What are some of the advantages technology brings to us at the placement desk?It saves time.It creates time.It provides a fire hose of information.Internet technology grants us instantaneous global access.We can access information from anywhere at light speed.When properly integrated into your office and staff efforts-- these are truly competitive edges.What suffers the most from poor technology utilization in our practices?Time, information, and imageTime becomes a disadvantage when technology takes it away while we stumble around using tools we simply do not understand how to use effectively.Information in its raw form is of little use to the recruiter.Raw information is typically the byproduct of an unskilled effort on the Internet.Open up your Internet browser, search with the words "oracle programming", and see how many hundreds of thousands of hits you receive.
I've seen more than one recruiter diligently reviewing all the promising hyperlinks made available by such an Internet search.It makes the "needle in the haystack analogy" seem to be an inadequate description.In a telephone intensive business, such as ours, image is created, maintained and enhanced on a virtual playing field.This was true long before the invention of the PC, the Internet, and Microsoft.Many of our hiring companies utilize technology inefficiently without truly realizing the negative impact of the time they're wasting.Recent credible surveys have indicated that the average amount of time spent in Internet browsing by Corporate Americans is in excess of three hours per workday.The search consultant or recruiter cannot afford to invest time in any endeavor that is not creating wealth.Surfing the Web during primetime hours can cost your office hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost placement fees.But yet, our clients expect us to be master's of e-mail, Internet browsing, desktop publishing, and become our own world-class webmasters.We have to learn to profit from technology.
The profits of technology can come to us in several ways.Your recruiting reach is inarguably global.Your time to market is potentially the fastest in history.Your ability to communicate is accentuated by e-mail, voicemail and wireless technology.Let us not fail to mention the virtuosity afforded us by the cell phone.This speed of information technology equipment and the capacity of the same allow us to react to client and candidate expectations at light speed.However, as was stated earlier in this article, are you mining or making deals?Are you more efficient at the cost of effectiveness?I read recently where technology advancement is doubling every 0 .4 years (twice as fast as was growing just four years ago).This becomes painfully apparent to the person who buys "state-of-the-art" computer equipment just to find out that within six months it is antiquated.I truly believe that today's technology must be exploited and forged into a wealth generating asset.In order to achieve this though, I believe we need to divide the "desk".
The division of which I speak is between the creative and administrative sides of the recruiting practice.Both dimensions of the placement process are critical to its success.A creative recruiter who fails to manage the details will often fall short of the minimum standards he or she sets.A recruiter, obsessed with details will literally miss the "forest for the trees".If you divide the desk you must answer the question of "Who should do what?".The researchers role involves process oriented tasks can manage those details critical in the placement process, ongoing office support tasks and maintaining currency of records and contacts.
A few technology and process-based tasks they should perform are:
Name gathering for search activity
Marketing Lead Generation
Initial candidate contact and qualification
Secondary reference checks
Interview travel arrangements and confirmations
Gathering and distributing closing information
Spousal and other interface to determine key decision points and obstacles
Placement invoicing and follow-up
Quality Assurance input gathering
Candidate and referral follow-up
Managing quality assurance actions and programs*
Building specialization files and libraries
Creating in maintaining client company information files
Conducting scheduled candidate e-mail distribution*
Classified advertisements intelligence gathering (of printed media and the "Net")*
Managing office interruptions and distractions*
Administrative correspondence and marketing campaigns*
Sweep and document additional and alternative markets niches*
Idle client tracking and maintenance efforts*
Web site maintenance and upgrading administration*
Internet and Web surfing information source manager*
Web 2.0 exploitations*
Gatekeeper of all databases*
Idle candidate maintenance*

These tasks may also be accomplished by staff whose responsibilities are more global than the tactical focus of a researcher.While a researcher is managing the tasks listed above, the search consultant is free to do far more of what really produces fees: marketing, recruiting and closing.

Obviously the individual researcher can be far more productive if they are trained and proficient in the use of information technology tools.Skilled researchers are adept at efficient Internet-based information gathering.The role of the researcher may appear to be somewhat administrative in the classic sense.But, I would advise that a fully trained and dedicated researcher must be supported by an office assistant handling word processing, answering a telephone, and other administrative chores.

We are considered preferred providers of placement of personnel services when we perform our recruiting and closing efforts to the satisfaction of our client companies.Only then can we evolve, in their eyes, as trusted advisors. Wealth generation in today's is dependent upon rapid "time to market"; with our referred candidates.

A skilled researcher can filter the information to the placement desk thus eliminating large amounts of time spent by the recruiter discerning the value of raw information.Maintaining currency of the database and client contacts is a recommended procedure for all placement services companies.The time spent chasing lost causes and dead-ends is very costly.Researchers can insure that the candidates we call our both pre-qualified, currently available and worth our critical time.In this recovering and affluent marketplace recruiting firms will compete by being able to provide multi-skilled and critically talented people.... yesterday.

The biggest billers will be those who can work the most searches and deliver the goods.Having a fully qualified and effective researcher utilizing an intelligent investment in technology tools has become a non-negotiable reality of the competitive recruiting firm.The placement process can often appear as a very complicated matrix of twists and turns.The people we deal with on both sides of the equation present challenges and obstacles to the "deal".In the confusion of the moment, it can seem overwhelming and very time-consuming to handle every little detail necessary to gain our fair share of wealth.The fundamental reality is that once we remove all the various labels and circumstantial challenges, there are only two realities we have to manage and sell to both clients and candidates:time and information!

The consultant with the right information at the right time is the winner!The most successful search consultants and recruiters manage their time most effectively.They always do the right thing at the right time. Successful time management in a daily performance business such as ours boils down to task management.There are two basic task groups: tasks that create deals and the detail-oriented administrative tasks. The details are important, but do not create wealth alone.These tasks will be detailed later.The major advantage of employing a researcher is the time one gains to create wealth by virtue of someone else handling the time consuming details.Researchers give us more:

Prime time activity
Greater search load
Competitive reaction
Time to manage staff
Information mining
More marketing and recruiting leads and insights
Larger network
Exposure: "right place, right time, right stuff"
The search for researcher candidates can be (and should be) the most important project on your desk.The assets of a researcher can bring both immediate value in terms of increased billings and equity to your business.I suggest the following checklist for a researcher search:First, Write up a grade A search assignment for a Researcher (serve yourself as well as you serve clients)
Determine compensation plan
Source possible candidates
Staff referrals
Client referrals
Advertisement considerations
Evaluating researchers
Screen on the telephone
Face-to face interviews
Evaluate: Individual characteristics (described later*)
Skills testing
Office culture/personality fit
Telephone exposure/exercise
Library exercise
Decision point
*The best choice for a researcher is best decided by the characteristics and personal skills of the individuals you interview.The most critical elements common in the best researchers are:
Initiating, improving and maintaining client relationships
Managing multiple searches
Office and staff development
Administrative:
Handling details and tasks
Technology tools maintenance
Vendor interface
Information mining
Handling telephone traffic
Researchers can be most productive when given the lion's share of the administrative tasks (as described above) thus freeing up invaluable creative time for the recruiter to generate wealth.
Building a Fire Under Your Hiring Manager

My first journey to the Emerald Coast beaches of the Florida panhandle began with a stern warning from the resident lifeguard. He imparted upon me his wisdom and the reality of this intended day of fun and SPF 30; “When you go into that water remember that there are two kinds of fish out there, predators and food. Guess where you stand in the food chain!”

I approached the sand with a clearer and wiser perspective about wave riding!

Today’s recruiting landscape offers enormous opportunity that if effectively exploited, can land you on the beach in early retirement at the top of the financial food chain. You must face certain realities. The recession/depression/economic turndown (choose your favorite label) presented a long period where recruiters should have taken stock in what they were doing and what the challenges the recovery would put before them. Some seized this with clarity and ambition. They came out of the trenches armed with new tools and commitment to excellence and its inevitable reward, wealth and security.

Others held on to what they did before their markets collapsed, hunkered down and waited until enough smoke cleared to start doing it all over again. After all, they made a living before, “why not now?” Still others, mainly our friends in HR, seized the moment to scour the land and plunder its applicant watering holes. They stuffed everyone they could into nice neat records so that when the economy strengthened and their employer started hiring once again, they would be armed with a massive database of people.

Let’s explore these three groups and evaluate the potential of their strategies and impact on us. Let us begin with the ambitious visionary. We will refer to them as the predators. This group is comprised of both previous top producers, the enlightened people, all of whom recognize that quality of service, and strict client criteria are quintessential to creating wealth in recruiting. They aggressively pursue clients seeking multi-dimensional talented candidates. Their clients must exhibit a willingness to embrace a process that, once effectively sold, is a compelling means to locate critically required people. Hiring managers among these clients are just as busy as their more transactional contemporaries.

They are, however, aware of the importance of working with a professional recruiting consultant, who acting as an extension of their situation, must be partnered with a cooperative client. The extent of their cooperation goes beyond a few minutes and a couple of extra questions. These wiser hiring managers understand that the recruiter must interface directly with the individual in their company making the final hiring decision. Finally, these clients subscribe to the importance of acquiring the very best qualified people through the skilled efforts of an ethical recruiting process and recruiter. Makes sense, right! Of course it does! The fact is, however, that clients like this represent the minority of employers.

Take heart in the fact that it takes a small number of clients to exceed your billing ambitions. This group of recruiters has established strict criteria by which they choose their clients and search activity. They realize that these criteria must be reflective of the process they are ready to apply. This group is not defined exclusively by the terms by which they work, i.e., retained or contingency. These search consultants are best defined by the value-added, consultative service they apply to critical candidate requirements where urgency, cooperation, and sizzle exist. They are not predatory in their actions but they choose their projects as wisely as a predator. They certainly have fewer blank deposit slips than most.

The next group we will refer to as scavengers. I do not mean to denigrate anyone by using this label. Rather, I mean to portray and accurate picture of how they are typically seen by those they seek to pay them fees. Scouring every source from the job boards to the web and beyond can produce countless names, titles and in some cases, résumés. Many highly successful, value-added firms avail themselves of this source of intelligence. The practice of cataloging these folks, running the job title duties and dollars of a published or offered job through a computerized matching or searching utility in order to send the “fits” to a company falls a great distance short of anything that resembles service. These actions were practiced by many recruiters in the end days of the last period of affluence. This shallow approach was accepted by many firms in their desperate attempt to find people in a very shallow pool of talent. I believe that this conditional reaction by clients was widely misperceived by recruiters as an accreditation to their methodology of “referral”.

There is a news flash for all recruiters who think they found the Holy Grail of recruiting in these innovations…., Many HR folks jumped on this easily replicated process, bought (or renewed) their own subscriptions to the job boards and search tools and are well prepared. The best thing I have observed about being a full service, value-added search consultant is that in nearly thirty years of practicing this art I have yet to have seen a company replicate it. Most highly successful recruiters employ these innovations as an added source of candidates but rarely do they become dependent upon them. This brings us to the last group.

We will refer to the third and final group by their actual moniker, HR. Many client company folks were hunkered down from early 2001 until the fall of 2004, and once again from 2008 until now trying to hang on until things got better. Many HR people saw an opportunity to develop an internal system by which, at least in theory, they could catalog everyone who they may have future interest in as an applicant. Once the recovery started, they would be justified in the investments made by the obvious avoidance of the fees they expected to pay to recruiters. Many a recruiter has been “burned” when working in earnest to find a candidate just to be informed that the company had that person “in the database”. Of course this nefarious practice is not performed but by a minority of people in HR. The real dilemma that exists in the scavengers’ approach is that it is no more than a replication of what many companies are now capable of doing by their own means.

Out of the recession comes good news! Many of the current hiring authorities are new to both their roles and the process of working with recruiters. The observation of their predecessors in hiring people taught them the valuable lesson that less is better than more in terms of interface time with recruiters. They also saw the many miss-hires as result of a transactional referral process with recruiters. Now that they are in the seat of decision-making they more open than ever to embracing the concept of having a lesser numbers of recruiters at their call. Spending more time in detail with fewer recruiters dramatically increases the odds of offering a critical position to a highly qualified individual.

The complexity of the positions we seek to fill today cannot be serviced effectively by limited knowledge or interface with those other than hiring decision-makers. The current and future U.S. demographics and the resultant vanishing candidate pool offer enormous opportunity to skilled recruiters who can execute a precise recruiting process. Where do you want to be in the food chain? As a predator or scavenger? Making the choice also includes a commitment to a consultative, due-diligent process, tough client and search assignment criteria and ethical practices.

Remember that the high road ends at the top!

Acquiring comprehensive training, not just a great session at a conference, but in a continuing source of education is the best and most expedient path to success in this rich but unforgiving recruiting landscape.Now you have access the training you require to reach the top of the recruiting industry (Not by self-assembling conference sessions or an uncoordinated set of CDs or books.)

There has never been a training program with the rich content and practical techniques available now in the Art of the Recruiting Masters.

See details at: www.RecruiterElearning.com.

Contact me at 850.424.6933 or at: trainer@recruiterelearning.com if you want more information or have questions.

Get the training you need and know how to create wealth. Know when to say YES and when to walk-away.Art of the Recruiting Masters ten-week Ecourse is an intense training experience sans the fluff. You will receive real world training from a recruiting practitioner.This recruiter is racing up the recruiter wealth ladder in 2010 and beyond. I hope to see you there. The view up there is great!

SUBCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER!

Membership to the Mailing List newsletter@recruiterelearning.com

On this web page you can subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, the mailing list newsletter@recruiterelearning.com.

Click The link Below to Unsubscribe from THE RECRUITER NEWSLETTER FROM DOUG BEABOUT CPC CSP

Link

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE RECRUITER NEWSLETTER FROM DOUG BEABOUT CPC CSP