As mobile usage continues to increase, employers and recruiters continue to lag in developing good mobile recruiting strategies. If you haven’t heard this message before, you MUST make it easy for job seekers to interact with your recruiting firm via their mobile device. You must. If you aren’t sure what this means, take out your mobile device right now, and look at your company’s website on it. If you can’t effectively use it on your mobile device without pinching, stretching, scrolling, or typing excessively, you do NOT have a mobile-friendly site. If it is hard (or impossible) for job seekers to visit your site, apply for a job, or share your content from their mobile device, they will stop coming back. If I sound a little bit alarmist, good. Read the rest of this entry »
What Independent Recruiters Need to Know About Payback Agreements
by Veronica Blatt
Today’s installment is courtesy of guest blogger Jon Fishman. Jon is a Relocation Coach with Recruiter Relocation, a firm that provides relocation support for recruiters and their candidates domestically and internationally. Jon has over 10 years of combined service in the real estate, relocation and customer service industries. Jon is considered a subject matter expert in relocation placement best practices. For more information, contact Jon at www.recruiterrelocation.com
Payback agreements are always recommended due to the high cost of relocation programs. In the event the employee voluntarily resigns or is terminated, the company is left footing the bill and looking for another candidate, who will incur further relocation spend. A payback agreement acts as a contract between the employer and new employee that states the employee will pay back part or all of the relocation costs if they leave the position within a specific amount of time. The payback agreement can be pursued for years after the employee terminates based on the laws within the state. Typically, a repayment agreement is included at the time the offer letter is given to the candidate. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Reasons to Conduct Video Interviews
by Veronica Blatt
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 on NPA’s Board of Directors.
If you are not using video interviews to interview your candidates, or if your clients are not using video interviews, now is the time to start. Video is EVERYWHERE. YouTube has over 1 billion unique visitors EVERY MONTH. People are using video for more reasons than just watching their favorite band perform. Read the rest of this entry »
Tips to Improve Your Independent Recruiting Environment
by Veronica Blatt
I saw a Twitter post last week titled “22 Things Happy People Do Differently” written by Chiara Fucarino and published in Life’d and although it doesn’t directly relate to the recruiting industry, these things can be applied to you, your employees and your independent recruiting firms. I strongly believe that a work environment plays a large part in the productivity of your independent recruiters so it might make sense to think about each of the things listed below and evaluate whether you can do more improve the environment you and your employees spend 40+ hours a week in.
1. See problems as challenges – problems are typically viewed as negative situations and challenges cast a more positive light and encourage you to rise to the occasion. Read the rest of this entry »
Reputation, Trust, and Independent Recruiters
by Terri Piersma
Reputation and trust in the 21st century were the topic of a TED Talk by Rachel Botsman entitled “The Currency of the New Economy is Trust.” She is the author of the book entitled “What’s Mine is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption Is Changing The Way We Live.” In the talk, Rachel commented on the impact of collaborative consumption:
- Collaborative consumption is a social and economic system driven by network technologies that enable the sharing and exchange of assets from spaces to skills to cars in ways and on a scale never possible before.
Wrestling with Employee Retention
by Veronica Blatt
Today’s guest blogger is NPA member Jeff Kortes with Human Asset Management in Franklin, Wisconsin. Jeff has 25 years of experience as a human resources professional, trainer, and consultant. He has held leadership roles while working for companies such as ConAgra, Midas International, SPX, and Regal Ware, Inc. After three facility closures, a strike and a corporate buyout, Jeff started Human Asset Management LLC. He has trained hundreds of first-line supervisors, managers, and executives during his career.
Dave Nerz recently wrote a blog on the fact that voluntary turnover will be increasing as employee confidence in the economy increases. We are in fact seeing that more and more. Unfortunately for most companies, they don’t see it.
Dave posed the question in his last blog, “What is the best way to keep top talent?” The answer that I often tell my retention consulting clients became VERY clear a couple of weeks ago while I was at the WI State Wrestling Tournament two weeks ago. Read the rest of this entry »
International Headhunting is in Season
by Dave Nerz
International headhunting is returning to pre-recession levels. International search firms are reporting a shift in the calls they are receiving from job seekers. “No longer are calls just coming from the unemployed and underemployed,” states Jeff Kortes, a recruiter and employee retention consultant. Kortes owns Human Asset Management in Franklin, Wisconsin and his firm is working closely with employers to develop retention strategies as the international headhunting community revives it efforts to attract and move the best talent to new employers.
“As the economic recovery progresses, it gives employees more comfort in cutting the ties to long-term employers,” according to Kortes. Human resource experts are recognizing that highly skilled workers are increasingly willing to consider new employment opportunities.
What is known as “voluntary turnover” is expected to accelerate in 2013 as the recovery continues and is more evident across a great number of industries. This trend is adding urgency to a situation that some employers have already identified as serious. The best talent is critical to business success, yet top performers are the most likely and able to leave their employers. Many employers struggle to retain their most talented workers as higher paying competitors come headhunting their best.
Top talent is in season! What is the best way to keep top talent? Do you or your clients have a retention program in place?
9 Talent Shortage Resources Independent Recruiters Can Share
by Veronica Blatt
Earlier this week I talked with one of the independent recruiters in NPA. He was lamenting yet *another* placement deal that fell apart because the client took too long to make an offer. It seems that many clients still don’t understand the reality of the talent short market that we are in. For several years, government and media sources in the USA have been hammering home the high unemployment rate, leading many employers to believe there is a glut of available job candidates. While it’s true that the rate is still high, the rate on its own doesn’t tell the whole story. For people with a bachelor’s degree or higher – the kind of people your clients want to hire – the unemployment rate is below 4%. This is generally considered “full employment.”
Here are 9 resources independent recruiters can share with their clients about the realities of today’s labor market, and how they are losing candidates due to slow hiring processes: Read the rest of this entry »
Are Your Recruiting Resources Attracting the Mobile Job Seeker?
by Dave Nerz
Have you been out to lunch today? Take a look around on the streets, on the sidewalks, on benches, in line and in restaurants…people are using smart phones. Some of these people are using Facebook or texting but more than a few are connecting to global recruiting resources and job search tools. That’s right—they are using tools to look for a job while you (perhaps an employer or a recruiter) stand behind them in line waiting for your lunch order or walking by them on the sidewalk. Maybe these mobile job seekers are in your waiting room right now prepping for an interview with you on a mobile app?
Here are a few of the apps candidates are using to do job searches with mobile tools like smart phones and tablets. These tools must be viewed as recruiting resources to attract talent or you will be missing out on the next generation of talent. The ones referenced here are for iPhone. Similar versions are available for Android and other phones and tablets. Read the rest of this entry »
International Search Firms Create Many Paths to Success
by Veronica Blatt
Today’s guest blogger is Meri Laird Jones of Davidson Laird, Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky with a remote office in northern Michigan. Meri is a current member of NPA’s board of directors. Davidson, Laird Inc. places technical, operations, sales and manufacturing professionals, primarily in the renewable energy, automotive, paint, plastics, chemical and processing industries.
Whether you’ve been in the recruitment business for a year or several decades, you know that while the rewards can be great, it is an industry that sincerely takes “true grit.” It’s emotional, fast-paced, and constantly changing. What is truly amazing though, is the incredible diversity within our industry. I just got back from a global conference of international search firms in Las Vegas and I came away once again amazed by “the 1000 faces of a recruiter.” I also came away with my head spinning thinking how important it is to stay on top of what is going on with our industry trends and with technology.
It was amazing to hear the stories of the different recruiters who attended from around the world. Like the guy who always ran a large office but decided to make a life change and work from his coastal mountain home where he could enjoy more quality time with his family. I asked him how that affected his bottom line and what his clients thought about the change. He confirmed the beauty of the recruiting industry is that, if we do it really well, and have the right tools such as good technology and a strong network, we work from anywhere. In fact, he’s actually simplified his “desk” by concentrating on a few of his best clients and expanding his work with them to more of their locations around the world with the help of the other international search firms in his network.
Another story was quite the opposite, of how a recruiter started in a small firm in Australia, but had the dream of growing her business into one that could compete with other international search firms. At a time and an economy when that didn’t seem practical, she made it happen and recently opened an office in Shanghai. The crazy thing is both of the above work in similar markets. They are both successful and they are both living their dream.
The other huge difference I noticed was how we are each utilizing the million different technology advances which are emerging at lightning speed. Mobile apps, ATS options, Twitter, Bull Horn, LinkedIn, and the list could go on for at least another five paragraphs! My big billing colleague barely uses anything but his mobile phone and occasionally a tablet! Yet, others doing equally as well are just focusing on one or two tools and making them work. Oh – and have you heard about the new trend replacing traditional resumes and CV’s? The YouTube video resume. This is where I definitely need a little help from my colleagues!
It’s great to be in such an incredibly dynamic industry – and so important to go interface to learn and share with those who are doing it well in so many different ways!