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Thanksgiving Thoughts for Recruiters

by Liz Carey

Here in America, it’s the day before Thanksgiving, and a time to reflect and express gratitude for things that give your life meaning. In the recruiting world, this may be a time where candidates assess whether their work gives them satisfaction and if they find it meaningful. With the start of a new year coming up, candidates may be at the point where they want to make a change if they don’t feel they are making a positive impact in their current job.

I recently read a great article that suggests steps employers can take to help keep employees satisfied with meaningful work, which ultimately will help ensure the retention of top talent: https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2019/11/27/how-to-make-work-more-meaningful/

Similarly, recruiters can take this time to reflect and express gratitude for all the people and tools that help make you successful. A quick email blast with a Thanksgiving wish can help remind candidates that they aren’t just a number to you… and it will reinforce that personal connection that makes your work meaningful.

Recruiting can be stressful and time-consuming, but take the time to remind yourself of the success stories of finding a candidate their dream job, or fulfilling a difficult need for your client, or sending a lead to a trading partner that helped them land a new client, and it may help you appreciate the hard times and realize how rewarding this line of work is.

Be thankful for your candidates, clients, and trading partners; when you make your next placement, they’ll surely be thankful for you.

5 Business Development Tips for Recruitment Firms

by Liz Carey

In recruiting, the biggest piece of infrastructure that needs to stay solid and sound is your pipeline. You should always be developing new clients and candidates. Even if you have a handful of solid, longtime clients that keep you busy…. things can happen, such as job orders being cancelled or put on hold indefinitely, or your client company could decide to move recruiting efforts in-house. Never take your pulse off developing new clients and building strong relationships with candidates… but that doesn’t mean you have to spend hours on end doing cold-call sales calls.

Here are 5 best practices when it comes to business development: Read the rest of this entry »

How to Prep Your Client for an Interview

by Liz Carey

Recruiters know to prep their candidates for an interview – a great resume only gets you so far. Sometimes, the best person for a job isn’t the best interviewee. Similarly, hiring managers aren’t always the best interviewers, and may not leave the best impression on the potential hire they interview.

At the end of the interview, the hiring manager often asks “so, do you have any questions for me today?”, and many recruiters take this opportunity to arm their candidates with penetrating questions in order to make a lasting impression. So if you have a hiring manager who isn’t prepared to answer these questions, the candidate might doubt the leadership at this company and lose interest in the role. It’s a candidate’s market, and in today’s fierce recruiting environment, you have to make sure your client sells not only the role, but themselves, to the candidate.

Here are some tips to give your client regarding the interview process:

  1. First, is making sure everyone is on the same page by using a calendar invite or similar software to get the interview on both your candidate’s and client’s calendars. Trying to coordinate calendars by calling or emailing back and forth with available times is a big hassle and time-waster. Get interview scheduling under control with something like Calendly or SimplyBook.me to find times that work for everyone and reduce cancelled or missed interviews. With scheduling software, your client can set their availability preference, share the link with you and the candidate(s) they want to interview, and let them pick a time, which is automatically added to you and the candidate’s calendar. It’s efficient and simple.
  2. Second, the interview itself. Sometimes recruiters are so good at prepping candidates that the interviewer isn’t prepared for the interviewee’s questions! A corporate headhunter told me a story of a time the hiring manager was at a loss for words when a interviewee asked about potential financial risks of the company’s that they garnered from the company’s public financial statements. Be prepared to answer questions about the company, its culture, career development, reductions in force, ethics, etc.
  3. You want every interview to be a dialogue, not just bombarding the candidate with questions. You want the candidate to feel comfortable opening up to you. Build in time during each interview for candidates to ask questions, and for the interviewers to thoughtfully respond to them.
  4. If you don’t know the answer to a question, tell the candidate that you will get back to them. …And make sure you actually do follow-up within 24 hours.
  5. Many candidates do not want to waste time waiting, as they may have other interviews/offers on the table, so be prepared for direct questions like “When may I expect an offer?” or “When will you decide on filling this position?”

And importantly, if a candidate doesn’t ask questions, that is a huge red flag. It shows they didn’t take the time to research the company and shows a lack of interest. You want candidates who ask questions because that shows they have a genuine interest in your client and its success.

 

Business Development Tips for Recruiters

by Liz Carey

Recently, two of NPAworldwide’s most successful members hosted a topical call, “Business Development- Let’s Grow!” They covered topics like: How can you set yourself apart from other recruiting agencies? And how do you get started with business development? Here are some of their tips:

How did you get started doing business development? Read the rest of this entry »

How to Sell an Opportunity That’s Not Particularly Enticing

by Liz Carey

Some job orders on a recruiter’s desk are easy sells – the ones for companies that offer generous packages and great working environments with on-site gyms, or roles in locations that are hotbeds for that industry, or clients who hold spots on “Best Places to Work” lists. Then… then there are the other orders – positions in rural areas, roles at companies that aren’t so “sexy,” jobs that require long hours or lots of travel, etc.

How do you post the job order or present it to a candidate when you don’t have a great first line like: “Work for a booming startup in the heart of Manhattan; this client offers great perks like a company vehicle and generous PTO policy…”?

Of course, you have to be honest… you can’t tell a candidate that your client offers something that is totally false. But there is always a way to spin a negative into a positive (for example, rural areas can be lauded for their low cost-of-living, and long hours might be the first steps in a company with a road to advancement). You need to be up-front about any drawbacks regarding the role — 1) to prevent a potential fall-off, because 2) the candidate will eventually find out anyway, and you will likely ruin the relationship with them because they won’t trust you anymore.

Here’s some tips on selling your “less-than-perfect” job orders:

  • Emotion is always number 1. While fat paychecks and great benefits are always a plus, candidates want to work for a company they align with and feel connected to. What is at the core of the organization’s mission and value of its work?
  • It’s easier to sell jobs at big companies who are leaders in their field. If your client is a smaller business/organization, stress to your candidate that its employees may have more opportunity for advancement, or they may have more “say” in decision-making, etc. Big fish, smaller pond.
  • Not located in a major city or desirable location? Stress the company culture – a strong culture reduces turnover, improves employee productivity and satisfaction, and is linked to greater profits.
  • What if the candidate thinks they could get a bigger salary from the same role elsewhere? Explain that your client is in a location with a low cost of living, low taxes, low crime rates, high quality of schools, etc. Do some research on the area and present this to your candidate – they may prefer small-town life, and realize that it all equals out – a higher salary elsewhere will also come with a higher cost of living.
  • If the workplace itself is difficult — long hours or problematic leadership — point out the room for opportunity. Without challenge, there is no change. Working in a challenging environment can build skills, and can create more opportunities in the long run.

As a recruiter, you must be honest and point out your client’s challenges and shortcomings, but also do some research to emphasize the overall opportunity for the candidate.

 

How to Get More Work from Clients

by Liz Carey

What do you do if your client comes to you with a job order that you don’t have the bandwidth to help fill? How can you keep your client happy without adding to your costs by hiring another recruiter or opening a branch in another location?

Many recruiters turn to a split placement network, which gives you access to trading partners all over the globe, to help gain more clients, get more work from current clients, and start to broaden their reach nationally and even internationally. While some recruiters may balk at having to split a fee, recruiters who do splits understand that half a fee is better than no fee at all.

Here are a few recent examples of how NPAworldwide members were able to help fulfill their clients’ needs by utilizing network resources – and pocketing part of a split fee they otherwise would not have been able to obtain: Read the rest of this entry »

Goodnight Recruiters

by Liz Carey

As a member engagement specialist with NPAworldwide, I spend my days talking to recruiters about their jobs, their candidates, and connecting them to other NPA members who may be able to help them with their reqs. After I clock out, it doesn’t mean work is over… I have a 2.5 year old son. Currently, his favorite book is the classic Goodnight Moon. I’ve read it so many times, that I thought it would be fun to re-write it as an ode to recruiters everywhere. Read the rest of this entry »

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? 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 »

How to Be Your Clients’ No. 1 Resource

by Liz Carey

Recruiters spend a lot of time and money on new business development and marketing to try and win new clients, but have you tried getting more work from your existing clients? Think about it… you already have a relationship with this client, and they know you can deliver. So, it might be time to teach them that through your membership in a recruitment network, you can help them with all of their staffing needs — whether it is outside your niche or your hiring contact’s department.

For example, maybe your client, an accounting firm, doesn’t need any more tax people right now… but you might be able to get work from a different division of the same company and help them fill roles outside of your typical niche. For example, they might need IT people or lawyers.

You can also try getting more work from your clients if they are an international company, or if they are expanding overseas. Yes, you might be their resource to fill all their roles at their NYC headquarters, but if they have an office in Spain, you can let them know that you have a trusted network partner right in that region that can help with unfilled requirements there.

An international network partner has the expertise and knowledge of that local market, and can help you make your clients happy.

Here is a great example of how to leverage your membership in a recruitment network to get international work:

An Australian NPAworldwide member had a Technical Manager role for a client based in Melbourne, which was given to them after their client had tried for 6 months to fill the role themselves.

“We were asked to assist because we are industry experts in their field,” he said. “We explained to the CEO that there are no Australians willing to relocate to Melbourne to fulfill this role (most live in Sydney). I informed him that he needed to go global. He said that he had thought of this but did not know how. NPA and our expertise were his answer.”

He posted the role onto NPA’s internal job board for members, and a number of recruiters responded with candidates. The best of them came from a firm based in Romania, and they placed the candidate, an Italian citizen living in Italy.

“A truly global effort!” the Australian member said.

NPAworldwide membership gives independent recruiters and small firms a way to compete in a global marketplace, be more effective and efficient to clients, and enhance revenue-generating opportunities.

 

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