Recruiting Resources

Today’s guest blogger is Anne Downing with Demetrio & Associates, LLC located in greater Phoenix, Arizona. Demetrio & Associates is a boutique recruitment firm that has clients across the US as well as in international locations. The firm places candidates in sales & marketing, advertising, wireless and software positions. Anne is currently serving the NPAworldwide Board of Directors.

In today’s recruiting world it is important to have a great website. Your recruiting website is your brand! Your clients, potential clients and candidates all view your website. You need to make your website – your brand – stand out.

If any of the below describe your website, then NOW is the time to update your site:

1. Your content is not up to date. If you have old content on your site it is a big turn off for viewers. They will most likely leave your site once they view outdated content!
2. Your website is not mobile friendly. Your site MUST be optimized for mobile devices. Over 75% of job seekers use mobile devices to conduct their job search. If your site is not mobile-friendly, then you are missing out on some great candidates.
3. Your site isn’t found on search engines. Potential clients have to be able to find your recruiting website on search engines. You never know who is looking to hire a new recruitment agency, and you don’t want to miss out on new business.
4. Your site is unresponsive. You need to have either a specific mobile site or a responsively-designed site. This means your site is designed to provide an optimal viewing experience – easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling – across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones).
5. Your site doesn’t allow visitors to ‘share’ content. Allowing visitors to share content will keep them on your site for a longer period of time. Including visual content in addition to text is much more appealing to the eye and will entice viewers to explore your site in detail.

If any of the above describes your site, I highly recommend updating your site NOW!  Don’t wait because every day you wait means you are missing out on potential business. Take the time to research the best options for your site and find a company that will build you the best site possible for your needs. Remember, potential clients and candidates are drawn to websites that are user-friendly, have great content and are mobile-optimized!

“You can always train on the technical side”, states Hilarie Geary of Executive Connections during an interview with Business Advice Centre regarding top recruitment tips for small businesses. Since the recession, many changes have occurred in the recruiting process, the top one being that strong candidates have become a commodity. As a small recruitment firm with limited resources, sourcing top talent can sometimes be difficult, but knowing the warning signs and following some of these tips can help step up your game as the economy begins to improve.

1. Sell and Showcase. In order to stand out from other recruiters you must present a stronger face on the market, putting yourself out on public domain. Invest time and resources in a strong campaign both on your site and on social media that will drive candidates to you, and also create a network for yourself that will cause people to respect your brand. Post in special interest groups on LinkedIn or Facebook, and share with local business organizations as well as professional bodies. Sell your flexibility as a small business to attract clients. Small recruitment firms are able to be lenient around working hours and locations, and provide both clients and candidates with personal attention that they could not receive from a larger agency.
2. Hire for Behavior. By reference checking your candidates, you are not only able to verify where they have been or what they have accomplished, but what their behavior has been. Being able to find out how flexible they are and how they need to be managed can be the best knowledge for a candidate your client is going to have to transition. If they do not have the technical skills, those can always be learned, while behavior is impossible to train.
3. Recruitment Plan. Always have an ongoing workforce plan, don’t panic recruit. You can do this by matching planned headcount to projected growth rates so you can drive your own business growth. Be analytical about which tools you have used and make sure you always have a way to track and measure what where you had success, so that you do not repeat failures.
4. Analyze. Consider using additional tools such as psychometric and skills testing to offer more information regarding your candidates and strengthen your recruitment process. By analyzing each tool and campaign you are able to ditch those strategies that provide poor return on investment and therefore evolve your process to be as effective as possible.
5. Make the Right Hire. By setting up processes such as a training guide that covers the new hire’s duties and expectations of them, you will establish a client respect leading to more business. If you are unsure of a candidate, perhaps a short term contract or a freelance arrangement would be a better fit for them.

I get to see lots of position openings and jobs because the members of our recruitment network post their jobs on our job board. It is a very unique job board because it is a contingent job board. It is free to post, and if you make a placement then you pay a small fee for the postings that delivered results for you. That is why we refer to it as a contingent job board.

Quantity over quality has never been a recipe for success. As it relates to job openings advertised on a job board or to a fellow recruiter in a recruitment network, or promoted on aggregator sites like Indeed, a quality description will deliver superior results. Here are a few tips to make your job/position openings better:

Detail something specific about the employer. Can you state why people what to work at this company? Do they have great leadership, market position, history of promotion from within, culture, compensation program, bonus program, growth potential or a dozen other things that candidates care about? Make it real. Tell me about a candidate that you placed there or something that you experienced. For example, “The last 3 candidates I placed there have all been promoted and absolutely will require dynamite to blast them out of this company. They are so happy to be here.”

Make the posting read less stiff and more naturally. We can all cut and paste from a job description. That is not a talent, that is lazy. I can tell you that it also helps to have someone else read and comment on your posting before you make it live. I had crafted one for an NPAworldwide employee about a year ago and had a member read and comment on it. Wow, am I glad I did. She made the company and the job sound interesting and dynamic…by the way, we are, but I was so fixated on ticking off the correct details that I missed making it fun and exciting. You have all seen the postings that once you read the first line you can almost predict the next 10 lines of content will be bland and boring. The content is important for delivering the job opening to the right candidates from their job board searches but there is no reason you cannot make it more exciting and interesting…perhaps even unique and different. Maybe offer some examples of what a successful hire would accomplish in their first year.

Do not forget the basics. Did you know that Monster has sample descriptions for lots of jobs? Here is the link:  http://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/recruiting-hiring-advice/job-descriptions/sample-job-descriptions.aspx

Be honest. Don’t sell someone on something that is not real. If it is long hours and low pay, maybe it should say something like, “This is a job that will require long hours. The starting salary is low but the long-term potential is worth the investment. This is not a good job for a 9-to-5er or a clock watcher.” If the employer churns and burns through people, capture the position as a good introductory stop in a career focused on XYZ, a solid point of entry into the industry, or a great way to build a foundation of experience in the ABC industry. Don’t sell a career if that will never happen.

Be specific. “The best candidates will have excellent writing skills and a passion for writing. They are easily understood when they write and they enjoy creating lots of content. It should come easy for the right person. Much of the day will be creating messages for external audiences and it needs to be an existing talent not a skill under development. And if you do not enjoy writing, this job is not for you.”

Better job postings will attract more of the right candidates. Do a side-by-side trial someday if you are not convinced. I know that different postings will be attractive to different people.

I’m excited because just six weeks from today, members of NPAworldwide and NBN will convene for our 2015 Global Conference. This annual event brings together our members from all over the world for two days of networking, training, and trading group breakout sessions. It’s a whirlwind of noise and activity. I love how excited our members are to see old friends and make new ones. I love to watch new trading relationships bloom. And I especially love the “ah-ha” moments when a brand-new member realizes how belonging to our global split placement network is going to benefit their business. I think there is no substitute for face-to-face meetings with your closest business partners … and I’m not just saying that because I happen to plan our meetings.

Here are 8 reasons you should attend recruitment conferences:

Learn – Obviously, recruitment conferences are a great place to learn about your industry – from social media best practices to legal changes to growth markets, and many other areas.

Share – Sharing is also an important part of a recruitment conference. Not only can you share your own expertise with fellow participants, you can also share what you learned with others in your office, or even your clients and candidates. Some events allow you to live-share via social media such as Twitter or Facebook.

Network – This is often cited by NPAworldwide members as their #1 reason for attending our Global Conference. They want to meet new trading partners who can help them make placements. The more networking time available, the happier they are. This can come in the form of small group discussions, shared meals, breaks, or social activities. Everyone wants to be connected.

Recharge – Everyone gets in a rut from time to time. Attending recruitment conferences can be a great way to break free of the “same old, same old” way of doing things. Perhaps you’ve forgotten some basic tools, or let a few skills get rusty. Being around a group of successful recruiters will help you recharge, refocus, and get back to your desk with a sense of renewed purpose.

Evaluate – You’ve heard about a new tool or piece of software, but don’t know if you should purchase it? Here is your chance to evaluate them! Other participants are probably using them. Use some of your networking time to ask questions, see what others are doing, and evaluate whether you can make any changes.

Discover – Recruitment conferences can be a fantastic way to discover new service providers, whether that be web designers, job boards, ATS, aggregators, or any number of recruitment-related offerings. You’ll have a chance to speak directly with representatives from those companies, perhaps even satisfied customers. You might have an opportunity to save thousands of dollars or thousands of hours of your time.

Purchase – “Show special” pricing is no joke. Whether it’s books, tapes, or other training materials available from the conference speaker, or other special deals, you can find some out-of-this-world discounts. It’s easy to dismiss the “show floor” as unnecessary. Don’t.

Visit – Last but not least, recruitment conference offers you the chance to travel, to visit a place you haven’t been before, to tie in a trip to meet up with clients, candidates, family, or distant friends. Get your money’s (and time’s!) worth out of the conference destination!

What’s your top reason for attending recruitment conferences? Share in the comments below!

Image courtesy of sixninepixels at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Last month I introduced the subject of discovering newly emerging recruiting jobs in the December 16 blog post, Pact With The Devil.

I also promised a follow-up in which I would share with you another layer of business opportunities I sometimes uncover as I call into companies every day looking for those hard-to-find candidates that aren’t exposed on social media.

I know some of you work directly with business owners who are glad to have someone take over the difficult process of hiring people. In this respect many of you become a trusted advisor and friend to these owners.

I also know that in this capacity some of you have listened to (or overheard) these owners mention that one of their plans for growth is in acquiring other companies. You may not realize it but you are in a particularly advantageous position to be on the front-end lookout position for this effort.

Let me tell you a story from that job I was working on in last month’s blog post.

As you recall, I was looking for a Director of Operations for a Midwestern heat exchanger manufacturer. They wanted a hands-on plant manager out of a discrete/engineered products manufacturer in Tornado Alley. I was calling into plants identifying plant managers on the first leg of my job.

I’d done that at fifty or so companies and the second leg of the job was to contact each one to see if they’d have an interest in speaking with the recruiter for the heat exchanger manufacturer.

I’d called and spoken with several when I got the seventh or eighth one on the line.

“Bob? This is Maureen Sharib and you don’t know me. I’m calling on behalf of XYZ and they’ve asked me if I would call you to see if you might have an interest in speaking with them about a Director of Operations position they have open at…”

Blah blah blah I finished my opening and he listened politely and then he said:

“Well, now that sounds all ducky and if I were at that point in my life I sure might be interested but seein’ as I own this joint I ‘spect I’m kinda’ stuck here for the time bein’….”

I swallowed hard knowing I’d made a mistake when I picked up the name – I’d called and asked who the “Plant Manager” was and whoever it was I spoke with gave me the Owner’s name! Now I know some of you are thinking, “Stupid mistake!” and it was, I admit, but hey, we’re all human!

What would you have done at this point?

Here’s what I did.

As I said I swallowed hard and then I said, “You’re the owner? I’m sorry. I thought you were the Plant Manager.”

“I’m that too,” he said, humorously. “I wear a lot of hats around here.”

“Do you think about selling?” came out of my mouth next.

Here’s why I said that.

This particular customer I was doing this job for has shared with me their strategy for growth and it includes buying other heat exchanger manufacturers. This gentleman owns one.

It never hurts to ask.

“I’m 71 years old,” he said. “I’m going to sell sometime.”

I’m not at leisure to share much more with you at this time about this particular transaction (maybe someday I will!) but suffice it to say there’s money out there for you recruiters that you’re not participating in (well, maybe some of you are!) that takes the form of bird-dog fees that can add up to some wonderful bonuses that can represent whole year recruiting volumes every so often.

Recruiting isn’t just about matching people to jobs anymore. It’s about matching people (and companies) to opportunities and you can be a part of that brave new world.

Did you notice one thing though, in this exchange?

I was calling people on the telephone.

I was talking to people.

As long as you’re doing that you’ll always be in the money stream.

***

I really appreciate that you took the time to read my post. I regularly write about phone sourcing and business development issues and trends. If you’d like to read more about the mysterious world of phone sourcing (it’s really not that mysterious!), Google my name and the word gatekeeper – lots of articles will come up for you that I’ve written over the years. It’ll be a good introduction for you to the subject!

Follow me on Twitter at @MaureenSharib and/or join my sourcing group on Facebook – Sourcers Unleashed.

Yes, I do (grudgingly) have a LinkedIn profile – send me an invite at maureen at techtrak.com – I’ll accept. I do post articles over there as well.

I own the phone sourcing/competitive sniffing firm TechTrak.com, Inc. that helps companies find and telephone contact candidates for their hard-to-place positions at fractional traditional recruiting costs.

You can always contact me at 513 646 7306.

Please be reminded that effective Monday, January 12th, blog posts from NPAworldwide will be distributed exclusively via Jetpack. Currently, we are running in a dual-distribution environment through both Feedburner and Jetpack. The Feedburner distribution will be shut down on January 11th. Any blog subscribers who have NOT re-subscribed to receive email from the new provider, Jetpack, will stop receiving new posts from us. RSS subscribers are NOT impacted by this change.

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We are taking a holiday break until early January. Thank you to all of our subscribers for following our blog and sharing our posts throughout the year – we appreciate your support! We’re looking forward to bringing you another year of great content, including contributions from special guest bloggers. Best wishes to all of you for a happy, healthy, and successful 2015!

In case you did not see these, here is a recap of our five most popular recruitment blog posts of the year:

6 Questions to Ask a Split Placement Network Before You Join – From “how much does it cost” to “who owns the network” and “how are disputes handled,” here is our list of six questions you absolutely MUST ask before joining a split placement network.

Mobile Job Search is the New Normal – Not only did Indeed acquire MoBolt (a technology platform that allows job seekers to apply directly for any job, from any device), Beyond.com announced that 64% of job seekers prefer to use a smartphone for their job search activities. View this blog for a link to the full infographic.

Differences Between NPAworldwide and Fee Trader – Prospective members often wonder how NPAworldwide differs from Fee Trader. One of the key differences is that Fee Trader has a ‘bidding’ option on posted jobs, but there are other differences as well. This post will give you a quick summary of the major differences.

Worldwide Recruitment Buzzwords of 2013 – LinkedIn offered an infographic of the top ten most overused buzzwords on their platform in 2013. NPAworldwide president Dave Nerz shares the LinkedIn infographic, plus added his own list of the top 10 buzzwords most overused by recruiters globally. Feel free to add your own ideas to the list!

Hot Specialty Niches for Recruiters – If you’re a generalist looking to develop a niche practice area, here are some suggestions on the hot specialty markets, based on data collected from NPAworldwide members.

Do you have any requests for blog content next year? We are always looking for content ideas; please add yours in the comments!

Remember to confirm your email subscription using the button below – we are completing our migration to a new email service. Beginning January 12th, all email notices will be handled solely by our new provider, Jetpack.

As technology has changed many things in recruiting over the last two decades, there is something that suffers the pain of change inextricably in many organizations and that something of which I speak is the act (and art) of communication.

I could go on and on in this article about how nobody is talking to anybody anymore because of technology and this is pretty much true inside the recruiting departments of companies and is pretty much the reason many of you are in business today; however the reason for this article isn’t to bemoan that happy fact.

The reason for this piece is to share with you my techniques for learning about new business opportunities while I am phone sourcing.

Let me backtrack for just a moment.

What is a phone sourcer?
People hire me to call in to companies to find people with vey specific titles (or people doing very specific jobs) inside (usually) very specific organizations.

Kind of like in the old days when you had the time to do it yourself – old fashioned headhunting. I do the research and the recruiter does the recruiting.

Isn’t everyone on LinkedIn?
If they were you and I wouldn’t be in business. It’s a common misconception (lie) nowadays (especially among corporate recruiters who have to justify the massive amounts their bosses are spending for LI Recruiter seats!) and the truth of the matter is some industries are woefully under-represented (think manufacturing, healthcare) while others (think recruiting) are sickeningly over-represented.

Be that as it is, on my daily sojourns a gatekeeper usually answers my first dial in.

Recently I was working on a Director of Operations for a Midwestern heat exchanger manufacturer. They wanted a hands-on plant manager out of a discrete/engineered products manufacturer in Tornado Alley. I was calling into plants identifying plant managers on the first leg of my job.

You know the plant gatekeeper type:

Thank you for calling ABC Company, Marie speaking, may I help you?

Yes, Marie. This is Maureen Sharib. Can you tell me who your plant manager is?

We don’t have a plant manager right now. He died suddenly last month. Would you like to speak with our manufacturing manager? He’s handling his duties for now…

Whoa! Surprise. But it happens. Death is rather extreme, but this example happened on this job along with three other vacancies I heard about at the fifty or so plants I called into. They were:

• Director of Operations
• Production Manager
• Plant Manager (who needed coil fabricators at another plant)

All these represent business opportunities for recruiters that someone who is calling into companies on the front lines of recruiting research is hearing about because someone is still willing to talk with people.

A great deal of this early probing and talking with people is not happening nowadays because technology is removing this research “burden” from so many and so many are so glad-fully handing it over without a thought to this lost opportunity cost.

They have no idea what they’re losing in this pact with the devil they’re making.

Next month I’ll regale you with a tale of the second leg of my job – when I contacted the plant managers to “tickle” their interest in my customer’s opportunity and report to you the next layer of business opportunities I uncovered.

***

I really appreciate that you took the time to read my post. I regularly write about phone sourcing and business development issues and trends. If you’d like to read more about the mysterious world of phone sourcing (it’s really not that mysterious!), Google my name and the word gatekeeper – lots of articles will come up for you that I’ve written over the years. It’ll be a good introduction for you to the subject!

Follow me on Twitter at @MaureenSharib and/or join my sourcing group on Facebook – Sourcers Unleashed.

Yes, I do (grudgingly) have a LinkedIn profile – send me an invite at maureen at techtrak.com – I’ll accept. I do post articles over there as well.

I own the phone sourcing/competitive sniffing firm TechTrak.com, Inc. that helps companies find and telephone contact candidates for their hard-to-place positions at fractional traditional recruiting costs.

You can always contact me at 513 646 7306.

Mel Kettle is a communications and social media consultant, speaker, blogger, educator, coach, bookworm, obsessive foodie and eatie, and a budding photographer. She blogs on marketing and social media at www.melkettle.com.au. Mel is passionate about working with organisations to show them how to communicate effectively so they can develop communities, share their stories and raise awareness. She particularly enjoys working with people who want to make a difference to other people’s lives. In her spare time Mel writes a food blog, The cook’s notebook.

My last blog post was about how to choose which networking events to go to.

So now that you have chosen, how are you going to make sure you get the most out of the event or conference? These are my top networking tips:

1.    Take LOTS of business cards – there is nothing more frustrating than meeting someone interesting and having to rely on them to contact you because THEY don’t have a card. Don’t be one of those people. Please. I am currently trying to track down a woman I met at a networking event recently to give her some work, but she didn’t have a card to give me, and hasn’t sent me her details – it’s making it a little tricky…

2.    Have a plan. Depending on the type of event, I generally plan to meet – and have a conversation with – a specific number of people. It might be one, it might be ten. The actual number depends on how much time will be allocated for networking, the format of the event and my mood at the time!

Try and have a look at the attendee list so you can see who will be there and where they are from – this can help you target specific people to talk to. With so many events now registering people online, it’s far easier to see who is going to be there, as often online lists are created. Some fabulous event organizers will even create a Twitter list or a Facebook group of attendees so you can start the conversation before you meet! How cool is that??

3.    Don’t just hang around with your friends or the people you are comfy with. Presumably you have gone to a networking event to network. So go and meet people! And yes, as an introvert I do know this can be difficult. Just talk to one new person. Please! It does get easier.

4.    Try and learn something about the people you meet. Don’t just fling around as many cards around as you can! You are better off meeting five people and finding out something about them so that a relationship can be established, rather than “meeting” 25 people you just give a card to. Be genuine about who you are when you are talking to people. Show interest in who they are and what they do. It’s not ALL about you!

5.    Follow up within a day or so. This can be as simple as sending an email saying you enjoyed meeting them. Or perhaps sending an interesting article you found that is about something they are interested in. Don’t send them reams of information about your business and how you want to work with them – unless they specifically asked for it.

6.    Please, please, please don’t drink too much alcohol at a networking or industry function. It doesn’t take much to ruin a hard-earned reputation. And no one really wants to talk to the tipsy chick or the drunk dude who is starting to slur his words.

7.    Most of all, have fun!

What are your top networking tips to make the most out of networking events?