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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

digital propertyMany 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 »

Don’t Panic … With Temp and Contract Placements!

by Veronica Blatt

Today’s blogger is Judy Collins with Evergreen Contract Resources, which becomes the employer of record  with complete back office services.  Judy helps recruiters start and expand their temporary and contract placements throughout the US. Evergreen Contract Resources is an NPAworldwide Endorsed Program.

Natural, and man-made, disasters can strike at any time. We know from the Boy Scouts’ motto that we should “Be Prepared.” The current crisis brought about by the COVID-19 virus demonstrates the wisdom of this advice. Sadly, we now realize that our preparedness for this biological disaster was lacking and we find ourselves in reaction mode, struggling to keep our businesses and daily lives going in the face of ever-mounting upsets and challenges. We must stay calm and carry on. Read the rest of this entry »

Recruiters, Now’s the Time to Innovate

by Liz Carey

With Covid-19 shuttering the doors of retailers and restaurants alike, many businesses are thriving by thinking outside the box – sit-down restaurants have shifted to carryout service, grocery markets and butchers are now offering home delivery, salons are selling do-it-yourself dye kits, breweries are now manufacturing hand sanitizer, and apparel companies have shifted operations to make masks. Read the rest of this entry »

What You Should Be Working on Right Now on Collections

by Veronica Blatt

Today’s guest blogger is Wilson Cole. He is the CEO of BackdoorHires.com and Adams, Evens & Ross, the nation’s largest credit and collections agency designed exclusively for the staffing and recruiting industry. In 2008 he was inducted into INC Magazine’s, “INC 500” for being the CEO of Adams, Evens & Ross, the 307th fastest-growing privately held company in America. Adams, Evens, & Ross has helped more than 3,000 staffing and recruiting firms recover more than $1 billion in past-due debt and is an NPAworldwide Endorsed Program.

With the pandemic sweeping the nation, here is some advice on what you should be doing regarding the collections side.

Reach Out to Your Clients

If you have been working with a company to settle their debt over a long period of time, the best thing you can do is to reach out to them. Let them know that there is still an invoice and see if they can make a good faith payment. Most companies will be able to make these as payroll protection loans are being offered by the government. Read the rest of this entry »

Recruitment Advice in a Pandemic

by Veronica Blatt

I think we’re all collectively suffering from information overload as recruitment firm owners and people all over the world struggle to adapt to the global pandemic we are in. One of the things that has been especially difficult for me is finding actionable advice, actual things we can all DO RIGHT NOW to help get through the crisis and also focus on what comes after the crisis. Here are a few resources and pieces of recruitment advice I have stumbled upon that focus on action. Read the rest of this entry »

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