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Independent Recruiters, Do Your Clients Insist Industry Experience is Required?

by Veronica Blatt

Today’s post is from Russ Bray with Southern Recruiting Solutions in Tampa, Florida. Russ is a two-time member of the NPA Board of Directors, as well as a long-time member of the network. Southern Recruiting Solutions specializes in placing professionals in the chemical, oil/gas, and manufacturing industries throughout the U.S.

image of newspaper career sectionAs independent recruiters, how often do we hear from clients that industry experience is REQUIRED? A lot! Because of that I wanted to share with you a little detail about a split placement I just did. A trading partner placed a candidate of mine into a maintenance manager position with a chemical industry client of hers. What was interesting is my candidate had no prior chemical industry experience! She also told me she placed someone from the aerospace industry into chemical.

The candidate and I had talked about this during my initial phone screen. He had done some job searching on his own, talked to some other independent recruiters, and knew the scenario. Chemical and oil/gas companies would not consider his background because he worked in the steel industry. (Note: I’m not picking on the chemical industry. It just so happens that’s the area I’m working in currently. In my previous experience recruiting in information technology and aerospace/defense, I heard the same thing.)

Everything else about him looked good in my opinion. Good tenure, degree, reasonable salary, professional to work with and we both felt a lot of the equipment in the steel plant was similar to what is used in a chemical facility.

Well, kudos to my trading partner for giving him a shot. Her client saw the value in the candidate as well.

What makes this a more critical problem today? Earlier this year, NPA members listened to an industry speaker quote some Department of Labor statistics about the talent shortage. Some of you will also know what I am talking about. From now until about 2020 we are facing a shortage of professional personnel in the 6-20 million ranges. Share that with your clients next time you speak with them. Also let them know that other companies are making some concessions for this very reason. It’s a variation on the saying, “Don’t let perfect get in the way of good.” Lou Adler would say this is what is wrong with skills- and experience-based job descriptions, which focus on what a candidate HAS instead of what a candidate can DO. By helping clients define success based on performance instead of on skills and experience, independent recruiters might find a lot more opportunities for great candidates who come from similar – but not exact – industries.

Obviously there are jobs where industry experience is mandatory and you’re not going to change their mind. But in addition to listening to your client (regardless of the industries you work) remember that as independent recruiters your job is also to advise your client on whether their expectations are realistic. If the job has been open for six months, obviously there is a problem.  A good question to ask when taking the job order is, “If I can show you a candidate that meets the vast majority of your requirements but comes from a different industry would you like to see him/her? This could allow you (the employer) to fill this position much quicker and stop the job vacancy from costing your company money.”

What is your experience with clients hiring candidates from a different industry? What do you hear from other independent recruiters? Comment below!

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Agency Recruiting Under Counteroffer Attack

by Dave Nerz

fencer-lungingAgency recruiting firms have long repeated the stories of employees accepting a counteroffer only to be fired weeks later. We have all heard the numbers. Eighty percent of employees accepting a counteroffer are gone within a year of accepting the deal. That doesn’t stop counteroffers from happening. More and more employers are using counteroffers as an active strategy. They have become aggressive during recent years.

At one time, many employers refused to make counteroffers. Instead they accepted the resignations and asked employees to pack up immediately. Where there was no competition to the recruiter, now there is an all-out battle with agency recruiting businesses. Companies are aware of the cost-to-hire, the cost of positions left vacant and most importantly how easy it is to offer a candidate a big increase that they will never fully payout. Employees are by nature willing to entertain the counteroffer as it means less change in their lives and if the employer is creating a perceive windfall, all the better. This change may be largely a result of the shortage of good employees. Employers, desperate to hang onto top talent in this tight labor market, have been increasing the use of the counteroffer. Yet experts agree, accepting a counter is typically a poor career move.

What are agency recruiters to do? 

Those working the agency recruiting side of the equation need to prepare for the counteroffer on the initial candidate contact. Make sure you know the motivation for change and confirm it on every call to the candidate. The motivators are rarely just money. While the existing employer can beat the agency recruiter’s new job’s salary offer, they cannot effectively address poor company culture, bad managers, and the host of other reasons the candidate started a search with an agency recruiter in the first place.

What have you experienced? How many recent turn-downs are a result of a counteroffer? Are the wage increases significant? Have those accepting the counters stayed? How long? Do you see this in one industry or profession more often than in others?

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How Agency Recruiters Can Work More Effectively with Clients

by Veronica Blatt

red-fortune-cookieToday’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Kimberley Chesney. Kimberley is the owner of Prime Management Group in Canada, with offices in London and Kitchener (Ontario). Kimberley is a long-time volunteer for NPA, currently serving as Chair of the NPA Board of Directors.

Why is it that clients are asking for so much information before they make a hiring decision? One of the frustrations agency recruiters have is working with clients who are slow to pull the trigger and HIRE!

When this type of thing happens, it is a good idea to learn something. For example, if this is a new client and you haven’t worked with them before, chances are, you don’t know much about their decision-making style. Many so-called hiring authorities are just one link in the chain of command and really have no sole discretionary powers to actually create the offer of employment. Unless you are dealing directly with the owner of a firm, you are likely faced with a situation where there are multiple inputs coming from different parties before the hire actually happens. Your contact may be asking people’s advice from inside as well as outside of the company. Suddenly, everyone becomes “recruiting experts” and they start adding layers of opinions, sometimes clouding and delaying the big decision.

A good practice is for agency recruiters to evaluate how decisions are going to be made before starting the search process. In a bureaucratic “cover your behind” type of environment, you will just need to breathe and take it one step at a time. Delays will happen. On the other hand, in an entrepreneurial environment where decisions can happen quickly, agency recruiters must be prepared to provide the required information in a timely fashion so the client can respond.

For example, how many of you actually do a Google or other type of internet search on the name of your finalist candidate? Sounds simple, but you can be sure those so-called recruitment experts are searching Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and looking at what your candidate is all about. Agency recruiters who skip this step could end up in an awkward situation if the client finds out something before they do!

Successful agency recruiters never assume they are being paid to provide a name and a resume. A robot can do that. What are you doing to allow the client to make an informed hiring decision? When you send them that invoice for a nice big fee, will they look at it and say, “That was worth it,” or will they be left wondering, “What did I really get for that price?”

Stop and think about what you are actually sending your clients. Is it what they want and need or is it just something you think they should have? Too much or too little? You need to decide — and it will be different for each client!

image of button for free checklist to evaluate split placement networks

Summer Reading for Independent Recruiters

by Veronica Blatt

I came across the following recommending summer reading list on SlideShare and wanted to share it with the independent recruiters who follow this blog. As an added bonus, each book also includes a recommended beverage. Yes, I know it’s winter in the southern hemisphere. It’s also currently 11:17AM US ET, but in the immortal words of Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.” Hopefully recruiters from all over the globe can find something interesting on this list.

From the list, I’ll be adding Blink by Malcolm Gladwell and Lean In by Sheryl Sandburg to my reading list. Independent recruiters will find other recommendations on a good range of topics and authors.

And in case you’re interested… as soon as I finish up the bodice-ripper romance novel I am currently reading, I’m looking forward to starting The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood. You see, it’s summertime in Michigan. And that means baseball. Since nothing goes with baseball like an ice-cold beer, I’ll be enjoying a locally-brewed Bell’s Oberon.

Independent recruiters, what are you reading right now?

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Nimble Markets & Old Habits for Recruitment Agencies

by Veronica Blatt

image of cheetah runningToday’s guest blogger is Geoff Crews with Forsythes Recruitment in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Forsythes Recruitment specializes in engineering and technical recruitment; corporate recruitment, including executive, sales, HR, and finance; office support recruitment including admin, accounts, and clerical; trade and industrial recruitment; and organizational consulting including psychometric assessment, outplacement, and OD. Geoff serves on NPA’s Board of Directors where he is a member of the Tools, Knowledge, and Services Committee.

We have decided to unplug the TV at our house recently. A kind of family experiment. We were spending longer in front of it for an ever-decreasing return in entertainment. It was losing its value.

It has opened up a new world of communication with our young kids. Creativity. Paper planes. Uno. Board games. Taking turns. Dice. Encouragement. Strategy. Winning. Losing.

The TV experiment means I miss a lot of advertising. And so this business – www.nimble.com.au – was new to me when I stumbled across it recently.

Nimble is an online business providing simple, short-term loans of less than $600. The online form takes 5 minutes and the money is deposited into your account within the hour.

Nimble launched in 2005 and recently rebranded, incorporating an impressive website. Their journey has been challenging but inspiring.

When did the market emerge for such small loans?

And while we’re retrospecting (spell check likes it, so remain calm), I note 140 characters suddenly became enough to communicate something meaningful.

And putting your resume online, in full view of your employer, even though you actually quite liked your job, became acceptable.

What is Nimble providing that credit cards can’t? Twitter providing that emails can’t? LinkedIn that recruitment agencies and job boards can’t?

Speed?

Simplicity?

Accessibility?

Transparency?

Specialisation?

Authenticity?

Whatever your answer, can you use those same words to describe your industry?

This economy, as frustrating as it is, is an oddly exciting time for recruitment agencies. Fertile ground for experimenting with established markets. Being creative. Putting value under the microscope.

A good time to consider unplugging old habits.

Confessions of the Independent Recruiting Industry

by Veronica Blatt

I came across this infographic today created by BeHiring and was kind of shocked by some of the information it contained. After reading through it, it seems to be pretty accurate, but also pretty negative. Independent recruiting is a fast paced, busy environment and most times, recruiters don’t have time to waste on job seekers to that are submitting sub-par resumes and cover letters.

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A couple things I found interesting:

17% chance your cover letter will be read – should job seekers even be submitting cover letters if the chance is so high independent recruiters aren’t even going to read them?

427,000 resumes are posted on Monster every week – that’s A LOT of resumes. It’s probably a more productive effort for job seekers to use smaller and narrower niche jobs boards. Is that true, independent recruiters? Do you have luck finding candidates on Monster?

As an independent recruiter do you find these statistics to be generally true? If so, use this infographic to educate job seekers about the life cycle of their resume.

Recruiting Strategy: How to Avoid Credit Collection Mistakes

by Veronica Blatt

image of folders for past due recruiting feesToday’s guest post is courtesy of Wilson Cole from Adams, Evens & Ross, a collection agency specializing exclusively in the recruitment and staffing industry. Back in 2003 Wilson Cole, the President and Founder of Adams, Evens & Ross, was asked to produce a video series detailing the most common credit and collection mistakes that staffing and recruiting firms make when working with their clients. The finished product was a series of short, to-the-point videos called The Seven Deadly Mistakes That Staffing and Recruiting Firms Make And What You Can Do To Avoid Them. In 45 minutes you will learn what are the most common pitfalls that clients make and you will also learn a system that will help reduce your risk and make sure that you get paid in a timely manner. DISCLOSURE: Adams, Evens & Ross is an NPA Alliance Partner. NPA members receive discounted services from AER.

Have you ever had to collect a recruiting fee owed to you by a client? Ever experienced ‘temp-napping’ or a ‘back-door’ hire? Part of your recruiting strategy needs to include protecting yourself from clients who don’t pay the fees you are owed. In this video, part one of a seven-part series, Wilson discusses how including a personal guarantee in your fee agreement can help you avoid the need to resort to collections. Personal guarantees are most effective when your client is a small company that is less than three years old. If you like this video, you’ll find links to the remaining six videos on the Adams, Evens, & Ross YouTube channel.

Well-written fee agreements are an important part of any recruiting strategy. Make sure your agreements ensure you get paid for the work you do!

Please share this blog post with other recruiters you know!

Global Recruiting Agencies in a Mobile Recruiting World

by Dave Nerz

As if the pace of change and demands of a talent short market are not enough, global recruiting agencies must now add integration of mobile recruiting to their project list. My advice is that we all get busy doing this because as the infographic from Hirerabbit shows below, mobile recruiting is a growing trend and it will impact access to candidates. I hope the data you find in this infographic gets you thinking about the importance of a mobile strategy for your independent recruiting agency.  Let me know what you think by posting a comment or sharing this with your fellow recruiters.

Mobile Recruiting Infographic

The Keyword Mistake That Wouldn’t Die

by Veronica Blatt

Caution TapeA few months back I wrote a blog about aligning independent recruiting with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (referred to as “the keyword that shall not be named” moving forward). Boy, was that a mistake! Not that the content wasn’t good or the topic wasn’t interesting, but it generated so much traffic to NPA’s blog that was completely irrelevant because of the use of “the keyword that shall not be named.”

Below are the reasons the use of “the keyword that shall not be named” turned out to be a disaster.

  1. It drove the wrong traffic – the people who searched for “the keyword that shall not be named” and found my blog post were not actually looking for it. For the most part, they were probably looking for a definition or the history of “the keyword that shall not be named”
  2. It was unintended – “the keyword that shall not be named” was not used intentionally to increase traffic, but by using such a well known topic, it literally became the focus keyword. It probably didn’t help that I used “the keyword that shall not be named” in the title of the blog post.” I definitely wouldn’t suggest doing that.
  3. It skewed our website analytics – everything from page views, to bounce rates, to duration on our website, to engagement was out of whack due to the high volume of bad traffic caused by this particular blog. Eventually we decided to remove the post from our website and it took several months for us to recover and receive accurate analytics.
  4. The topic was too broad – “the keyword that shall not be named” is taught in grade school and high school and for the most part is a topic searched upon far more broadly than the content we write about to attract independent recruiters. By including “the keyword that shall not be named” in a blog post, I would venture to guess that the majority of the traffic I generated was from students doing research or looking for more information on “the keyword that shall not be named” and not on “independent recruiters” which was the keyword I used for the blog post.

If I had to do it all over again, I might consider writing on the same topic but I would definitely not include “the keyword that shall not be named” in the title of the blog and also do a little keyword testing to see if “the keyword that shall not be named” was overshadowing the intended keyword of “independent recruiters.” Keyword Best Practices: Part II of the Seven Habits of Highly Successful Search Engine Marketing might help to point you in the right direction as you navigate the keyword seas.

Share this post with your fellow independent recruiting colleagues and keep them from making the same mistake I did!

Recruiting Tools Don’t Equal Recruiting Success

by Veronica Blatt

seedlingIt’s springtime in Michigan and with any luck, we’ve had our last freeze for awhile. This weekend, I’m going to be spending some time in my yard pulling weeds, moving dirt, and getting my tiny garden patch ready for planting. That got me thinking about how HARD some of this work is going to be, so I guess I’ll also be making a stop at my local hardware store to rent a few tools that will make the work easier. And THAT got me thinking about recruiting tools, which some people seem to think are all that’s needed to be a successful recruiter.

Here are three ways recruiting tools are like gardening tools:

Recruiting tools can make the job easier. I need to till the soil in my garden so that I can plant some vegetables. I can till by hand, but it’s hot and dirty, and will take me a long time, so I’m going to rent a gas-powered tiller. I’ll still have to till, but with the right tool, I can till more ground, in less time, with more uniform results. Recruiting tools offer the same assistance. You can use recruitment software to automate some tasks so that you can complete more tasks, in less time, more consistently…but you still have to complete the tasks.

Recruiting tools do not make you a recruiter. Between the skunk that likes to hang out in my yard and the winter snowfall, I need a new cover for my compost bin. I’ve got a brand-new Craftsman© circular saw, but since I don’t know how to build a cover, it’s not going to do me any good. (Anyone want to buy a saw?) Paying big money for a fancy ATS or an upgraded LinkedIn account won’t turn you into a recruiter. You can use the tool to find fertile ground (pun intended), but the tool won’t convince a passive candidate to switch jobs, make an interview happen, or convince a spouse to pack up and move.

Recruiting tools can’t evaluate or fix your process. A couple of summers ago I planted zucchini (or courgettes, depending on where you live). The plants grew huge, with lots of flowers. I had great soil, plenty of sunlight, and sufficient water, but never got a single zucchini. A farmer acquaintance told me the bees probably hadn’t shown up to pollinate the plants. Changing to a new irrigation system wouldn’t have solved my problem. If you think you’re doing all the right things, but your activities aren’t bearing fruit (again, pun intended), you might have a broken process as opposed to a faulty tool. Acquiring a new tool isn’t likely to change your outcome; you may need to reach out to a trusted adviser.

Gardening is a very part-time hobby for me, and I’m not very good at it. If my tomatoes don’t grow, I’ll simply make more visits to the local farmer’s markets and grocery stores. Recruiting is your livelihood. Learn how to be a great recruiter. Work hard at it. Hone your craft. Use appropriate tools to support your recruiting activities. Then you will be in a better position to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

What are you doing to ensure a bountiful yield in your garden?

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