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4 Ways to Stay Ahead Of Competition in the Recruiting Game

by Liz Carey

It’s hockey playoff time, and it got me thinking about how hockey can draw comparisons to the recruiting world.

In a huge upset, the record-setting Tampa Bay Lightning (who were the best team all season) were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round. How did they fail to win a single playoff game and get swept by the eighth-seeded Columbus Blue Jackets?

Easy, they were too good. When you are used to dominating, you can end up taking it for granted, and it becomes almost expected. That’s when you let your guard down and become vulnerable.

Similarly in recruiting, it’s not always the best man that wins. You might have a longstanding relationship with a client, but suddenly get undercut by a competitor and lose that business.

Just because something has been working for you for a long time, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t constantly be trying to grow, progress and learn. If you put yourself on cruise control, you’re going to get edged out by someone battling for your business.

Here’s 4 ways to stay ahead of the competition in the recruiting game:

1. Constantly grow your network:

  • Identify one new resource for finding candidates. Ask your candidates where they go when they are seeking a new opportunity. Get recommendations on trade publications and blogs they read and join in the discussion. Join professional associations in your candidates’ niche. Ramp up networking efforts on social media sites like LinkedIn. Implement a candidate referral program. Attracting candidates that your clients can’t find on their own through job board ads or website postings will ensure that you’re a resource that they can’t eliminate.

2. Be aware of competition:

  • Whether it’s other recruiters or your client’s internal recruiters, know who your competitors are and what they are up to. Check their websites, social media and job postings. Knowing what they offer will help you understand your offerings and where you can differentiate yourself. For example, you could offer your candidates resume writing, coaching, or interview prep.

3. Promote your brand and be visible:

  • Even if you are a longstanding firm, it’s important to stay on top of marketing. Stay active on social media and within industry-related groups. Engage in discussions in groups and forums related to your industry. Attend job fairs, networking events, and industry conferences. Hand out your business card.

4. Stay up-to-date on trends:

  • Clients and candidates may find benefit in new advances in technology, whether it’s mobile apps, live and editable documents with real-time updates on job postings and candidates, or video interviewing. Operating more efficiently and flexibly with automated and mobile solutions will make your firm stand out to clients and candidates.

How do you stay competitive in the cut-throat world of recruiting?

Recruiter Relationships Are Still Critical

by Veronica Blatt

Our guest blogger is Pam Robison of J. Gifford Inc. in Tulsa, Oklahoma. J. Gifford Inc. is a small, quality conscious firm providing highly individualized recruiting services to clients on a local, regional, national and international basis. The firm’s recruiting activities are focused on professional, technical and managerial placement, as well as contractor and international staffing for clients. Pam is the Director of the US Midwest Region for the NPAworldwide Board of Directors. Today, Pam discusses the importance of strong recruiter relationships.

I’ve been a professional recruiter for about 15 years now. My how the landscape has changed over the years! Technology is king. Today’s recruiting is currently being defined by the strongest candidate driven market I’ve ever seen. Here in the USA there is an extreme shortage of talent. Read the rest of this entry »

Email Marketing for Recruitment

by Veronica Blatt

There are plenty of articles floating around the interwebs proclaiming that email is dead. I disagree. Email is still a powerful tool and effective when marketing for recruitment. It’s important to stay on top of the latest trends and best practices. Here are a few pointers if you haven’t reviewed your process recently. Read the rest of this entry »

Fewer on the Move…A Trend Effecting Recruitment

by Dave Nerz

While we all sweat the latest technology introduction and the onslaught of robots that are touted to replace recruiters, a more serious threat looms. In the US and globally, fewer candidates relocate or move.

In a recent HR Magazine graphic (Spring 2019 edition), there are stats on the relocation/movement of the US population. The U.S. Census Bureau has been documenting these trends since the 1940s. In the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, somewhere between 17.7% and 20.3% of the U.S. population was on the move! Since then the late 1990s the rate decreased to 16%, and in the 2000s move rates fell to just 11.9%. Read the rest of this entry »

Leveraging Recruiting Network Partnerships

by Liz Carey

One of NPAworldwide’s most successful members recently hosted a topical call on leveraging recruiting networks.

Despite only being a member of NPAworldwide for less than 3 years, he has done 26 splits with 22 different affiliates in 4 countries over 3 continents. He’s helped affiliates earn a total of $361,772.  This year, NPAworldwide has accounted for 100% of his business. So what makes some recruiters more successful within a recruiting network than others?

Here are a few of his ‘best principles’ that keep him inspired and drive his success: Read the rest of this entry »

What Happens if You Receive a Counteroffer?

by Veronica Blatt

Changing jobs can be a huge source of stress, even when you *know* it’s the right decision. It’s common to feel sad or anxious, or even a little bit guilty even if you are excited about the new opportunity. On top of all those emotions, you have to actually resign – you know, tell your boss you’re leaving. And that’s when they hit you with the counteroffer. Maybe you didn’t see it coming, or maybe you should have, but either way it’s on the table and now you have to deal with it.

If you’re working with a recruiter, you have likely had the “counteroffer talk” multiple times throughout the hiring process. While that might make it less of a surprise, it can still feel like you’ve been caught off guard. It can still be difficult.

If you’re not working with a recruiter and you haven’t ever received a counteroffer, here is some information to help you navigate this process.

Assume you’re going to receive a counteroffer

Unemployment in the US is hovering around 3.6% percent. There are more available jobs than workers. Companies know how hard it is to find good employees, and they are increasingly likely to make counteroffers. In fact, a Robert Half study showed that 58% of employers ARE doing that already. Make a list of the pros and cons of your existing job. Compare that to the pros and cons of the new job. Most of the time a counteroffer involves more money. If your current job has no career path, more money will not solve that problem. If you don’t like your boss, more money will not solve that problem. Understand the WHOLE monetary value of your new offer. Benefits have a cash value, even if you don’t see that as extra money in your paycheck. Role play a counteroffer situation with a trusted peer. Practice your response until you feel comfortable saying it out loud. Prepare yourself early, and make sure you know why you’re really leaving.

Counteroffers are about THEM, not you

While it may seem flattering to receive a counteroffer, understand that it is more about solving the employer’s problem than yours. You’ve just presented your resignation letter. They are now filled with the difficult task of finding a suitable candidate to replace you (perhaps at a higher salary), losing the institutional knowledge you possess, training and onboarding someone new, lost productivity (and potentially revenue), and maybe even a dip in morale or additional departures. It’s much easier for THEM if you don’t leave. Your departure is likely not going to come at a good time – when is it ever a “good” time to lose productive employees? A counteroffer may keep you around long enough for them to create a plan for your inevitable departure, or even start looking for your replacement while you’re still on staff.

Understand that you will burn bridges

You’ve spent time interviewing with the new company. You’ve accepted their offer. Turning them down NOW means they have to start over. They have to tell other stakeholders you won’t be starting after all, which makes them look bad. They may think you’re unprofessional. They may say “no, thanks” to you in the future. Meanwhile, your current employer knows you’re ready to leave, that you’re dissatisfied with your role or the company. They may question your loyalty. If there is a “reduction in force” on the horizon, you might be impacted.

In short, accepting a counteroffer is a risky proposition. Don’t allow guilt or anxiety to make that decision for you. Understand clearly why you are ready to make a career move. Focus on the good things waiting for you and move forward with confidence.

Six Major Services Clients Expect from Recruiters

by Veronica Blatt

Today’s guest blogger is Tim Bell, President of People 2.0’s Global Search and Recruiting Support Division. People 2.0 is a leading provider of back-office solutions for staffing and recruiting organizations, nationally and globally. People 2.0 is an NPAworldwide Endorsed Program.

Being a recruiter making a call to a client, it’s already assumed the problem you believe you can solve. Unlike other sales arenas, uncovering their problems is not what you’ll need to do. Instead, you must reveal to them the results you provide when you solve that problem. To do so, it’s necessary to appeal to what clients care about!

1. Clients care that you have a process.

The central point of your pitch is your process. You need to be ready to explain the steps you will go through to ensure you will deliver quality candidates to your client and how your process fuels that recruiting cycle. Read the rest of this entry »

Use Your Phone More – It’s a Great Recruitment Tool!

by Veronica Blatt

image of business telephoneWe had some terrific speakers at our recent Global Conference in Long Beach, California. Scott Wintrip, Mark Tortorici, and Jenifer Lambert all delivered top-notch tips and advice and were well-received by our members. I walked away with several “a-ha” moments from each speaker, but something Jenifer said really spoke to me. Jenifer is the chief revenue officer for TERRA Staffing Group, a large organization in the US Pacific Northwest. I value her perspective as a speaker because she is running a successful recruitment/staffing firm every day, including hiring, training and managing staff. Jenifer stressed the importance of using the right recruitment tool at the right point in the process, particular as it relates to communication. Her advice about which medium to use, and when: Read the rest of this entry »

More Job Boards? A Recruiter’s Success

by Sarah Freiburger

With so many third-party job boards out there, many of which are free to post on, why would a recruiter decide to join a recruitment network and post their job orders on that organization’s job board instead?

 

The answer is easy: results.

 

If you’re a niche recruiter, oftentimes you don’t get the right caliber of candidate on generic job boards. If you join a specialized recruiting network or a split network that has other recruiters who work in your specialty, chances are you will have an easier time finding that “needle in the haystack” candidate, as opposed to a generic job board that caters to everyone from cashiers to forklift operators.

 

While most active candidates begin their search on job boards, recruiters have the advantage on finding passive candidates – those who are still employed and are not actively looking, and therefore, don’t have their resume posted on job boards. They may know a top candidate with the skills your client is looking for, and they often can post these candidates’ info within the network because it is confidential, whereas the candidate would not publicly post their information on a job board.

In addition, working with other recruiters’ candidates can help save you time and effort. Recruiters keep in close personal contact with their network of candidates, so if a candidate is referred to you by another recruiter, they’ve likely spoken to them to confirm they are still actively looking, their salary range, their relocation preferences, etc. Whereas if a candidate posted their resume to a job board several months ago, they might have already found a job and not taken down their information, and you would waste your time reaching out and trying to get in touch with them.

 

Rather than posting a job order to a generic job board and taking the “wait and see” approach to see if they get talent or bottom-of-the-barrel candidates, recruiters in a recruitment network post to the network’s internal and/or external job boards to get quick and effective results. Take, for example, this story from a relatively new member to NPAworldwide:

 

“One of our long standing clients, an Australian based manufacturer of specialty chemicals, asked us to find a Business Manager for their rapidly growing American market.  This role has responsibility for the d

evelopment and management of business growth in the US, South American, Canadian and UK markets.  The brief was to find someone with a strong business development orientation and entrepreneurial flair, who could develop and grow with the company.”

 

She placed advertisements on the LinkedIn job board and Monster, as well as listing it on NPAworldwide’s internal and external job boards. This was the first time her firm had used the NPA job board, and she said they were interested to see what the results would be.

 

“We were very pleased with the results from the NPAworldwide job board, which was very good in both number and quality, giving us a consistent stream of good candidates.  The response from Monster, while reasonably good in number, was short lived and disappointing in quality.  Response from LinkedIn was very poor in both number and quality.”

 

In addition, some USA-based NPAworldwide partners referred several very good quality candidates to her, she said. The short list she presented to the client consisted entirely of NPA-sourced candidates, except for one.  Ultimately, the successful candidate was from the NPA job board, with a candidate referred to the firm by another NPA partner coming a close second. 

 

“Also, because of the high level of NPA job board response, we had the added security of knowing that we had gained a good understanding of that specific candidate market.”

 

The results from the split placement network’s job board were higher in number and much more relevant than those of the other job boards. While third party job boards can assure you of applications – you don’t want to spend all your time deleting a bunch of irrelevant resumes. Time is money, and sometimes it is worth it to pay for quality over quantity.

Tips for a Great Webcam Interview

by Veronica Blatt

Today’s guest blogger is Anthony McCormack, founding consultant, managing director and entrepreneur behind Macstaff with offices in Bristol and Abergavenny, United Kingdom. Macstaff is a high impact recruitment consultancy majoring on right-fit permanent placements in construction, property, manufacturing and engineering sectors in UK & Internationally. Macstaff joined NPAworldwide in 2019. Anthony offers tips for a successful webcam interview in the post below, which originally appeared here.

Being interviewed on a webcam or video conference may save you traveling costs but there are still plenty of things that you need to get right to give yourself the very best chance of being successful on the day.

So you have secured an interview, presumably for a company and job role you find attractive.

Then you discover the interview is going to be in a video conference or webcam format. Read the rest of this entry »

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