Recruiting Resources

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?

The end of the year is quickly approaching (gulp!), which means it’s a great time to think about next year’s business expenses. Here are a few areas you might review, whether you need to spend money or are looking to save some:

• Telephone – A lot has changed in the telecom world over the past few years. We’ve been in the process of reviewing our telephone system and we have learned a lot! VoIP systems have improved greatly – you can probably lower your bill *and* get a system that allows for a more flexible work environment. While you’re at it, see how many lines you are paying for. Do you really need a dedicated fax line? How about that inbound toll-free number?
• Internet – Slow Internet really doesn’t cut it anymore, especially as more and more software services move to the cloud. If you’re going to consider VoIP, make sure you have enough bandwidth to support it. Also, watch out for bandwidth ‘thieves’ – like streaming music and video.
• ATS / Technology Tools – Again, the landscape has changed greatly. If it’s been awhile since you’ve been in the market for new technology tools, maybe it’s worth another look. Cloud-based subscriptions seem to be the current trend in software – this *might* mean an increase in monthly operating costs (no more skipping upgrade cycles). The upside is that you get upgrades as and when they occur, and you’re always using the ‘current’ version. Next, are you *really* using the full feature set with LinkedIn Recruiter, or could you switch to a less expensive option? What about job boards, aggregators, and advertising sites? Is there an opportunity to share a package with another recruiting firm? While you’re looking at software and tools, take a look at your hardware too. There are great deals on laptops between now and the end of the year! Can you move your email to the cloud and get rid of your mail server? What about a cloud-based back-up system? Money spent on that is cheap compared to the misery (not to mention time & expense) of recovering data after a catastrophic failure.
• Website – If you haven’t spent any money on your website in the past 5 years, please, for the love of Pete, spend some next year! Invest in a fully mobilized site. Think about moving to a dynamic structure that allows you to easily edit and add content – instead of having to write constant small checks to your developer every time you need an update.
• Marketing – Your recruitment agency budget definitely needs to include some money for marketing. That could mean investing in a tool to make it easier to send newsletters. It could mean outside help for print or digital advertising. It definitely includes printing and postage. How about your letterhead and business cards? Consider hiring a dedicated resource for social media, blogging, and SEO. Be careful you don’t get suckered by a scummy SEO outfit promising page one search results or anything else that sounds too good to be true.
• Professional Development – Do you set aside money every year for your own professional development? What about your staff? There are a lot of affordable options for online and/or local educational opportunities. What is available through the Chamber of Commerce? Your local library? After that, look at memberships and professional associations. You may find a membership to a local chapter of a professional association offers educational, networking, and business development opportunities that provide value far in excess of the membership fee.
• Business Process Outsourcing – Do you know how much time you spend on non-revenue-producing activities? How much does that cost in lost productivity? Consider outsourcing some of your business processes – you know, those nagging tasks that need to be done, but don’t directly tie to revenue. Data entry, database maintenance, research, sourcing, and email marketing are a few ideas worth pondering. Yes, it may seem like this is an additional expense, but it is probably cheaper than doing it yourself. You’ll be able to devote more time to revenue-producing activities. A few more placements each year could easily cover the cost of outsourcing.
• Office Space – Are you still renting office space? Can you find less expensive space? Share with another firm? Relocate to a home office, and utilize flexible office space like Regus when you need to conduct interviews or have other in-person meetings. I’ve known solo-proprietor attorneys who share office space AND administrative support.
• Taxes and Insurance – Review your insurance policies. Make sure you are covered for everything need, but aren’t overpaying. Errors and omissions insurance is worth considering, along with business interruption coverage. Remember to set aside enough cash for those pesky quarterly tax estimates – late fees and other penalties can add up quickly!

Do you have any great budget tips you can share? Comment below!

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As independent recruiters, it is difficult to keep up with the rapidly changing industry and not get caught up in the standard pitfalls that come with the territory. In order to stay ahead of the competition, it is easy to make promises you can not necessarily keep, take on more than you can possibly handle, or let those tasks on your list fall off without completion.

It is important to stay true to your brand, and most importantly to treat each client and candidate with the same respect to keep your reputation of integrity. Below are some common recruiter mistakes that seem to happen when times are busy:

1. Stop working dumb. This is another way of me telling you to find the smartest strategy to manage time and a full desk. Jeremy Sisemore speaks on how to build a $1 million dollar recruiting desk, and his strategy starts with planning. Use your time on clients who will give you full fees and fire those clients that won’t accept your competitive fees. Learn to walk away from low fees, and strive more towards getting exclusivity from those clients who have proven to be good clients.
2. Strive for high level searches. Have influential hiring managers introduce you to other hiring managers within the same organization. On these, Jeremy Sisemore gives the advices to offer a performance guarantee if you are granted a retainer on the search. Tell your client that they will get the retainer back if you fail to deliver X amount of qualified candidates within a specific timeframe.
3. Under-promise and over-deliver. In any aspect of life, always remember to only promise what is realistic. This will gain respect and clients will value your honesty. Once you begin to let people down by not being able to deliver, your reputation will be tainted as that is what you will be remembered by.
4. If you don’t like them, your trading partners won’t either. If you happen to be in a split placement network such as NPAworldwide, have respect for your partners when asking for help filling a position. If you hate working with a particular client, chances are high that your trading partner will also be frustrated by the long wait, uncertain decision making, and unstable fees. Be upfront with trading partners as to how difficult a position may be to fill, and let them make an honest decision if they want to help you with the search. Same with candidates. If you have had difficulty placing a candidate due to several concerns that arise, do not place them in front of a trading partner in hopes of them having any better luck.
5. Have a healthy desk. A desk should have about 20-30+ assignments and job opening with clients at any given time. If you have much more than that, you are probably not able to devote the appropriate time to the searches, and if you have less, look to adding split placements to your business model to build your business.
6. Keep the relationships you have. With technology making things less personal, and the pressure to grow and quickly accomplish searches building, it is easy to forget about those clients that have been loyal and have made you successful. Strive to visit those key account or local clients on at least a yearly basis, quarterly if you are able.

If you have an interest in adding split business to your independent recruiting firm, feel free to contact me.

I recently saw an infographic called The Job Seeker’s Bill of Rights. It was a well done piece on what a candidate should expect or demand when working with a recruitment firm or recruiter. Some of the more controversial items were a right to:

• Know your recruiter’s opinion on how you compare to others put forward for the job.
• Register with as many recruiters and recruitment agencies as you want.

Many of the items were common sense items with no real impact on the recruiter, the candidate or the way the recruitment process normally flows.

It got me thinking about what should a recruiter expect and demand from a candidate? Here are a few…maybe you can add your favorites???

RECRUITER’S BILL OF RIGHTS (What recruiters can expect of candidates)

1. Recruiters have the right to respect and civility when contacting prospective candidates. It is OK for a candidate to say they have “no interest in being recruited”…no need to be rude or hostile.
2. Recruiters have the right to work with truthful candidates. Candidates should never say “yes” when they mean “no.”
3. Recruiters have the right to work with candidates who honor commitments. If a candidate says they are ready to interview, and an interview is offered…take the interview.
4. Recruiters have the right to speak the truth to candidates. If a candidate is not a good fit or is not at the right experience level, a recruiter can be direct and honest with a candidate.
5. Recruiters have the right to timely feedback. Candidates need to call the recruiter with feedback immediately after an interview.
6. Recruiters have the right to a motivated candidate who does not make excuses when they do not act in the best interest of gaining an offer. If a candidate is asked to do company research prior to an interview or send a thank you note following an interview, they do it. No excuses.
7. Recruiters have the right to ask for exclusivity on a candidate’s search. The candidate can say “no” and the recruiter has the right to lower the priority of the candidate’s search if it is not exclusive with that recruiter.
8. Recruiters have the right to know all the other potential jobs and opportunities a candidate is pursuing. Since most recruiters are working free of change until successful deal is done, they need to know what else is in consideration, so they know the potential for success.
9. Recruiters have the right to assign action steps and hold candidates accountable for completing assignments. A candidate should complete the resume as requested, talk to spouse or partners about a potential move, do research on the company before an interview and anything else they are assigned to do.
10. Recruiters have the right to “fire” any candidate that fails to live up to the expectations listed above. Many recruiters work on a contingent basis and only get paid if a deal is done…so it is only fair that they do not waste the precious resource of time on a candidate that is less than committed to being fair.

What would you add or change???

Recruitment organizations are being challenged from all sides. Employers and candidates are looking for alternate ways to locate talent or to seek employment. Specifically, as it relates to employers, the age-old recruitment model is being threatened by in-house recruiting functions, recruitment technology tools, off-shore sourcing models, and low-cost posting options. All of these tools, methods and services are about the “finding” component of recruiting. These options are all based on the premise that “finding” is the key to a successful new hire for employers. While this can be true for lower level and entry level jobs, the facts are that for the more mission-critical types of roles at the key contributor, manager, director and above levels, finding is the easiest component of the recruiting process. The key to success in these competitive and mission-critical roles is in the “selection and persuasion” of candidates. That is where the value of a recruiter is greatest. Read the rest of this entry »

Every independent recruiter or entrepreneur has had one of those days, weeks, or even months where the road to success can be full of bumps and dead ends, and ultimately seem like a lonely game. Especially here, where the end of the year is coming close, and holiday gatherings with family and friends will start taking you away from work, and it may seem easy to write off time, thinking that you will regain momentum next year.

I encourage you to keep going. I challenge you to pull out the business goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year, and if you have not hit them, realize you have over two months left to crank out some results, or set up your business to perform better in the upcoming year. If you have a running list of vendors, marketing programs, or recruitment networks you planned on checking out, invest the time now. If you had plans to hire more staff, or devote more time to certain tasks, invest in that planning now.

It will take many failed attempts to eventually hit the business model that fits in with your vision and goals, as well as lifestyle. When I find myself struggling in business or lacking motivation, I turn to inspirational quotes to regain focus and change my mindset to positive. Here are my some of my favorites:

• “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” ~ Henry Ford
• “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” ~Warren Buffett
• “You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” ~ Steve Jobs
• “People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves, they have the first secret of success.” ~ Norman Vincent Peale
• “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” ~ Swami Vivekananda
• “Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” ~ Henry Ford
• “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ~ Thomas A. Edison
• “The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” ~Mark Zuckerberg
• “Progress always involves risks. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.” ~ Frederick B Wilcox
• “If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents. Value what you know and start charging for it.” ~ Kim Garst
• “Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.” ~ David Rockefeller
• “Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.” ~ William Durant
• “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” ~Warren Buffett
• “If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.”~Jeff Bezos

Do you have any that I did not include that you turn to personally? Share them in the comments!

For today’s post, I would like to share three recruiting blog posts that are especially relevant:

Let’s Be More Human – Maureen Sharib, owner of TechTrak (and a past paid speaker for NPAworldwide) blogged on ERE.net about the importance of human interaction and communication and [gulp] using the PHONE. Everyone is overwhelmed with email. Candidates are ‘signing out’ of LinkedIn to avoid the constant barrage of InMail from random, unknown recruiters. She suggests that a change in attitude, from an inwardly-focused one to an outwardly-focused one of “What can I do for someone else” would go a long way to helping overcome the telephone reluctance that has become so pervasive. Recruiting is still about making connections, and electronic ‘communication’ just doesn’t build rapport in quite the same way as voice or in-person activities.

11 Fascinating LinkedIn Usage Stats for Recruiters [INFOGRAPHIC] – The good people at Social Talent (Johnny Campbell has also been a paid speaker for NPAworldwide) have released their 2014 Global Sourcing Survey, and have created this infographic about how recruiters are using LinkedIn to accompany the survey results. You’ve probably heard that 96% of all recruiters have a LinkedIn account, but did you know that almost half of them are using a free, basic account? Only 6% of recruiters are reporting using the phone to reach out to candidates, but phone-users are getting higher response rates than those who are using LinkedIn (InMail or Connection requests). Maybe it’s time to dust off that old relic?

Why Mobile is a Must for Your Recruitment Arsenal – By 2016, we are expected to have more mobile devices in the world than people. More than 90% of adults report having a smartphone within reach at all times. There is simply no getting around the fact that mobile behavior has changed candidates’ expectations for how the hiring process works. Unfortunately, a shockingly small number of businesses offer mobile-friendly websites and application processes. Read this blog for five common mobile mistakes that recruiters make, and how to avoid them.

What’s YOUR favorite recruiting blog? Share in the comments below!

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net