When I’m not wearing my marketing/communications hat for NPAworldwide, I’m hard at work planning and executing our in-person meetings around the world. There is an interesting parallel between hotels and recruiters as it pertains to room rates and fee integrity. Hotel room pricing is very much subject to the laws of supply and demand. When supply is low and demand is high, hotel rooms become more expensive. Conversely, when supply is high while demand is low, hotel rooms typically become more affordable. However, a few economic downturns ago, hotel rooms got MUCH more affordable – hotels offered fire-sale rates in a desperate attempt to fill rooms and bring in lucrative meetings business. Read the rest of this entry »
Maintaining Fee Integrity During a Downturn
by Veronica BlattWhen you pay a recruiter, what are you REALLY paying for?
by Veronica Blatt
Our guest blogger is Deon Haar of Source Junction in Brisbane, Australia. Source Junction is a boutique firm that manages clients’ use of recruitment agencies, across Australia and internationally, with main specialisations in Accounting & Finance, I.T., Pharmacy and Sales & Marketing. Deon has been a member of NPA for 16 years, with 6 years as area leader for Queensland, Australia.
Speaking with a potential new client on Friday, I was asked why it was “so expensive to just have an email sent with a resume attached.”
This was a great opportunity for me to trot out my ever-favourite ‘Diamonds’ analogy.
Diamonds are a scarce resource; they are found by exploration companies who buy vast pieces of land, because their research shows there could be diamonds in there. Equipment is bought and transported. Raw materials are mined, crushed and screened; diamonds are discovered and sorted. They are then shipped and sold to retailers, who buy them, insure them, and hold them as inventory in fancy retail stores which demand high rents, overseen by staff who are paid to be there for whenever you decide you want a diamond.
That’s why, when you go into a store and ask for a 1ct teardrop diamond, the assistant shows you 5 or 6 on a pretty little leather pad, and 10 minutes later you’ve spent anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000. You’re not just paying for 10 minutes of help from a retail assistant, you’re paying for ALL the work and expenses that caused that diamond to be RIGHT there, WHEN you needed it.
Recruitment is very similar, and great candidates are rare.
In our agencies, we have teams of salaried people, whose sole job is to get to know our candidate pools; to learn their career goals and aspirations, what they can bring to roles and organisations, what roles they see for themselves next, where they will and won’t go, and what sort of packages and benefits they want. We do that so that WHEN you decide you need someone great for your team (or have the need forced on you), we know who to talk to and present your opportunity to, in order to deliver what you want.
When you pay a recruiter, you’re not paying for someone to send you an email with a resume and some notes attached, you’re paying for everything that went into making sure that candidate was there, and the right person for you, WHEN you needed them.
No Work Life Balance, The New Normal?
by Liz Carey
It truly is an unprecedented time – never before have so many companies been forced to drastically change their operations in the span of just a few weeks. Most companies, whether or not they already had work-from-home employees, had to transition to a fully remote operation.
When the world opens back up after the Covid-19 pandemic, what will the “new normal” look like? Will the work-from-home experiment continue? Many companies, including Facebook, Google, Twitter and Square, have already extended remote work through the end of the year and/or indefinitely.
A survey of CFOs by research firm Gartner found that 74 percent of companies plan to shift some employees to remote work permanently. It is estimated that 30 percent of the entire workforce will work from home at least a couple times a week, compared to less than 10 percent before the pandemic.
On the surface, this sounds great. But this flexibility doesn’t necessarily equate to a better work-life balance — in fact, many are experiencing the opposite effect. While work-from-home does allow the opportunity to get up from your desk and say, throw in a load of laundry, or walk the dog, it also doesn’t allow you to ever “punch out” and leave the office.
“Several data sources show that the typical workday is getting longer. People are signing on earlier and answering questions and queries later, thanks in part to the software that makes all this possible. You’re not leaving to go home. You’re already home,” according to this article from Vox.
Because you have all your work technology at home with you, it’s hard to actually leave work and tune out. Not to mention the other challenges that the pandemic has thrown along the way – homeschooling, daycares closed, etc. Additionally, companies have increased the number of meetings (whether Zoom / Skype / conference call) to help with communication/accountability, and now many workers are feeling over-scheduled and over it.
Bloomberg found that about 45 percent of workers said they were burned out after working from home.
Granted, a lot of this falls on the employee to set a schedule and treat working from home just as they would coming into the office – put on real “work” clothes, set boundaries, etc. But employers also have to realize that working-from-home flexibility may not be a “perk” that keeps employees there… many employees prefer having an office to go into, co-workers to converse with, a lunch room to escape to, etc. Work from home post-Covid will more likely be an adjustment rather than a benefit in an employee’s eyes. Make sure your expectations are realistic and your employees can still maintain a work-life balance, especially when that line is blurred.
HR Best Practices in a COVID-19 Working Environment
by Veronica Blatt
Today’s guest blogger is Ed McConnell with HUB International, discussing best practices for HR departments during the coronavirus pandemic. HUB International provides a wide range of business and personal insurance options including liability, health, life, and more.
COVID-19 has quickly become a malady of its own for human resources departments, as employers across the U.S. struggle to make sense of new HR and employment practices liability (EPL) issues.
In the wake of the pandemic which has affected more Americans than any other country to date, employee benefits (EB), pay continuation, employee medical information confidentiality, Family and Medical Leave Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, layoffs, furloughs and more are a concern for just about every industry. We have provided some HR department coronavirus considerations in this new, ever-evolving world. Read the rest of this entry »
Company Culture: Hiring and Onboarding During a Pandemic
by Dave Nerz
Our recruitment network just completed a survey of our global recruiters regarding trends during these days of the COVID-19 pandemic. What we found is that there is still hiring activity out there, but much reduced from more normal times. Some of this reduction in activity allows recruiters and employers the time needed to hire, onboard, and showcase company culture in a completely new way.
So during a pandemic, the dinner meetings, lunches with prospective new hires and even the basic face-to-face meeting preceded by a solid handshake are things of the past. Good candidates and good matches for open positions are still out there, but the process to find and attract this talent needs some updating. Read the rest of this entry »
As A Small Business, Should I Hire a Recruitment Agency?
by Sarah Freiburger
These past few months have likely impacted your small business in one way or another. Many businesses experienced some level of layoffs or employee changes and as they look to find a new normal and anticipate what is to come, it might seem that hiring a recruitment agency to fill vacancies is an expense you should cut.
Smaller employers often think the following in regard to hiring:
- You should search for candidates yourself
- Working with recruiters is a waste of time
- Reviewing resumes for the “right candidate” should be done by yourself as you know best who to interview, and
- Hiring a recruiter is too expensive for a small budget.
However, the reality is when you speak with a small employer who has successfully used a recruitment agency, the comment you most often hear is that they cannot believe they had spent so much time and energy trying to find the “right candidate” even though they thought they had been saavy by using a variety of ways including placing ads on large and specialized job boards.
What many do not understand is that if you first try a recruitment agency on a contingent basis, you would only pay the recruiter if you hired candidate presented by the recruiter. BAM! All of that time and frustration spent trying to learn HOW to recruit a candidate for your company is returned to you as the professional takes over.
Our member’s clients comment that by using a recruitment agency they:
- Filled the position faster.
- Spent less money considering the overall cost of hiring which included the cost of their time to search for candidates.
- Had the “right candidate” for the position delivered to them.
Bottom line: If you have not yet tried to use an independent recruitment agency, these next few months would be the time to find one that can help you come out stronger.
Relationships and Recruiting
by Veronica Blatt
Our guest blogger is Pam Robison of J. Gifford Inc. in Tulsa, Oklahoma. J. Gifford Inc. is a small, quality conscious firm providing highly individualized recruiting services to clients on a local, regional, national and international basis. The firm’s recruiting activities are focused on professional, technical and managerial placement, as well as contractor and international staffing for clients. Pam is a member of the NPAworldwide Board of Directors.
I’ve been in the recruiting industry for nearly 20 years now. I actually “stumbled” into this career after deciding to leave a large US-based manufacturer during a downtime in the industry. For 2 of my 17 years there, I was the human resource manager where one of my responsibilities was recruiting. Back in those days we would network as much as possible to gain referrals. We also placed ads in local papers and sat back waiting to receive resumes by mail. It wasn’t really much different when I began full-time recruiting in 2001, except technology had advanced to the point of website job postings and email. The advances in technology certainly helped reduce the lag time between the posting of a job and receiving responses from potential candidates. Read the rest of this entry »
The 14 Pitfalls We See Most in Recruiting
by Veronica Blatt
Today’s blogger is Ryan Winemiller, with TopFunnel, the automated sourcing platform that is enabling talent teams to attract and engage the most qualified candidates with a single click. TopFunnel’s suite of products helps teams unlock their talent pipeline with solutions built for streamlined sourcing, pipeline development, and fully automated scheduling. TopFunnel is an NPAworldwide Endorsed Program.
Pitfall #1: You require a pre-interview test or case study right after you’ve reached out to a potential candidate
Remember, when sourcing candidates via outbound recruiting it’s your job to sell the candidate on the position, not the other way around. If a test or case study is part of your interview process, save it until later on in interview rounds for outbound candidates.
Pitfall #2: Your messages sound inauthentic
While it is essential to paint the available opportunity in good light, you must also remember that this isn’t a sales prospect. Differentiate yourself in a crowded marketplace by being personable, and most importantly authentic. Read the rest of this entry »
Returning to Work After the Pandemic
by Veronica Blatt
If you’re a business owner or manager whose team is currently working remotely, have you started to think about what returning to work will look like? You will need to have a plan in place to ensure worker safety, even in an office environment. This will be true whether you own a building or rent space. Some things you may need to consider in your plan:
Maintaining social distancing in your office
Those in an open floor plan will need to create physical separation between work spaces. Ideas include moving work stations farther apart (if feasible), installing “sneeze guards” or other barriers, and working in shifts. This could mean some people work from home while others work from the office. It could mean having people working at different times of the day. Read the rest of this entry »
Marketing Activities for Recruiters
by Veronica Blatt
Many recruiters are wondering what they can DO right now while placement activity is slow-to-nonexistent. You may be wondering whether it’s OK to make sales calls or ask your clients about their hiring plans. Some recruiters are working to offer outplacement assistance or resume coaching to candidates. I would like suggest there are valuable marketing activities that you can be doing, especially since some (most?) of these tend to get pushed to the bottom of your priority list in better times. Read the rest of this entry »