Articles - Recruiting and Candidate Dev

The evolution of the economy since the the start of the recession demands change in how we market our services, win new clients and evaluate activity. Locating a client in the last eight years, who hiring multiple candidates was as difficult as falling out of your chair. Today, the way in which we will find grade “A” clients and their search activity is in marketing, marketing, and more marketing.

But the rules of marketing have changed dramatically. Banging way at the keypad with a “really great candidate in hand simply does not work. This approach was fruitful for some recruiters during a period of tremendous candidate demand. Recruiters had the luxury (and curse) for the last eight years of a marketplace that seemed to forgive a lack of the “relationship-based marketing thing”.

Many recruiters have never worked a “desk” in other than that previous flourishing economy.  Some recruiters have never, until now, needed to master the fundamental skills of the relationship-based recruiting process. Others need to return to it. A few can keep doing it. We all have to honestly assess our recruiter skills to succeed today. The toughest challenge today is changing how we made money for the last decade. This affects everybody from the new recruiter to the seasoned veteran. Nearly everyone clings desperately to what once brought them continued success.

We have seen no slow down in our firm. We refuse to allow the barrage of media negativity to enter into our career as recruiting professionals. What we know is that this economy demands that we work with more clients and generate new relationships. We must now, without any excuses, give higher level, value-added services to each company with which we choose to work. This is a gross impossibility trying to serve the wobbling client or the indecisive candidate.

Your clients are faced with stockholder anxiety and corporate fraud paranoia. Many decision-makers in our client companies are inexperienced in facing the challenging economics of today. In the role of hiring manager, they are often left in fear of making a decision. This drives them to decisions to reject candidates. These decisions are often made in an overly-cautious manner, or worse, there is no decision at all. Tolerating hiring freezes, positions left hanging open, candidates left “hanging,” and recruiters left frustrated does not lead to wealth. Many recruiters are now in fear of losing a once fruitful arrangement with a now faltering client because it seems impossible at times to find great search activity. Today, more than ever before, we must say that one word that top-billing recruiters say more than any other: NO!

The realities of this decade demand we ask every tough question of every client contact, every time. This is not the time to start compromising our criteria or hanging on to the comforts afforded us by the affluent period behind us.

Get back to “working a smart desk.” Re-establish grade “A” criteria for clients and their searches. If you want to make more money today, work with a larger number of clients and fill the same number of searches as we did a year ago, or more! This demands that we work with the true decision-makers. These are clearly the people empowered to decide who will be hired and who will not. Once we reach these key contacts, we need to reach outside the “box” in which they may place us. Take on a consultative attitude and approach. Do not live in fear of losing a client or search from those who are adverse to providing answers to our questions, even when the questions we ask place them outside of their habitual comfort zone. The affluent times of just a year ago allowed our clients to develop some habits that now place them in jeopardy.

The candidate pool is just as shallow as it was during the good economy. However, the perception of many client contacts is that the mass layoffs have flooded the pool with candidates ripe for the picking. We (and they) know that the majority of displaced professionals at present do not represent the best-qualified candidates available. The Internet jobsites are flooded with candidates that are either recently out of work or whose status makes them difficult to place. Regardless, the perception of these sites and the candidates they represent to our clients is one of a lower caliber than they were once believed to be. The days of cleverly fishing these sites and then representing the candidates found there as “direct recruits” is over. Most HR professionals as well as their hiring managers are disenchanted with these sources of potential employees. As many now investigate very diligently, the genesis of our referrals. A client today, who discovers our referred candidate to have been “E-cruited”, is less than compelled to see us as a preferred provider of staffing services.

Direct recruiting remains the best method of finding people who can meet the challenges our clients face. In order to be effective at direct recruiting we must become, literally, an extension of our client company, its culture, its challenges, its community and the hiring decision-maker. To meet this challenge and provide value-added service to our clients, we have to drill deep into the minds of our client contacts. Some of the questions we must resolve are tough to ask and tough to answer.

A few of the general questions we must ask are:

• Why would a highly qualified person leave their current position (one which compelled them to join their current employer) to accept this position? What makes this job an opportunity?
• Why would this person you seek want to work for your firm?
• What makes your community an attractive place to live, raise a family, retire, etc.?
• Why would a highly talented individual capable of solving the problems associated with this role want to work for you? What would your current subordinates say about that?

Naturally we must also ask all of the fundamental questions regarding fees, terms and referral practices. There are three conditions which must be present to qualify a search as a grade “A”:

You need Cooperation, Urgency, and Something to Sell (C.U.S.) in any search you deem as Grade “A”.

C.U.S. without them, you do not have a qualified search or job order to fill.

In conclusion, I feel compelled to say that among the many recruiters I meet around the world I see two groups, the positively minded recruiter who is enjoying success, and the crestfallen recruiter who is wallowing in despair, self pity and is totally convinced that the sky is falling. The latter group is invariably finding failure everyday. Buck up guys! This is not going to last. The market is recovering, correcting and gaining momentum. This decade will prove soon to be a great one. It’s your decision. Yes or No. Make your decision to say ‘Yes” to the best situations and “No” to all others. Say “Yes” to the promise of a great future and “No” to the naysayer. By making the right decisions, you will meet these times of change with enthusiasm and find success.

-------------------------------------------------------

BIOGRAPHY

Doug Beabout CPC CSP brings over twenty-seven years of expertise in top production, personnel services firm ownership, and industry training. His reputation for training excellence has placed him, repeatedly, as a guest speaker for the National Association of Personnel Services. Doug currently works with many state level associations as a featured trainer and speaker at several state conferences. He is a business consultant to many franchised and independent personnel services firms.

Doug is owner and president of The Douglas Howard Group, a personnel and training services company. Doug works a “desk” every day and he is uniquely qualified as a personnel services industry trainer. Many of his clients have put their net worth ON THE LINE to succeed in the personnel services industry and did as a result of his training and guidance.

Doug previously held the position of Vice-President of Training and Development for SRA International, Inc. for ten years and was responsible for the establishment and success of hundreds of personnel services firms and their staff members. Prior, Doug was owner and president of a successful contingency, temporary and retained personnel services firm for ten years in Dayton, Ohio. He gained his early placement experience as a personnel services consultant in an independent firm.

Doug’s professional experience started as an officer in Strategic Air Command. He was assigned to several B-52 bomber units throughout the continental U.S. and Pacific regions. Doug has a Bachelor's degree in Comprehensive Training and Education.

Doug has held the title of CPC; certified personnel consultant (NAPS) since 1981 and is included in several Marquis’ Who’s Who publications.

His websites, www.RecruiterElearning.com and www.ResearcherElearning.com detail many of his services to the recruiters in this ongoing War for Talent. 

Doug can be reached at his Destin Florida Search Consulting firm, the Douglas Howard Group, 850.424.6933Call Doug today at 850.424.6933 or email him at trainer@recruiterelearning.com , he will take you to your highest billing goals.

Comments: