After researching endless solutions to common independent recruitment problems, recruiters may find themselves more frustrated, and unable to see why their system is just not working anymore. Too much to process with a lack of resources can slowly, yet surely, cause damage to your recruitment brand. Here are three suggestions to improve your brand and recruitment process: Read the rest of this entry »

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.

I used to go to a lot of networking events – easily one or two a week. And then life got a little busy (that networking was paying off!), and I stopped.

While I do a huge amount of networking via Twitter, and have a lot of referrals come to me that way, I miss the face-to-face interactions that going to a networking event provides. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s guest blogger is Wilson Cole. He is the founder and CEO of Adams, Evens & Ross, the nation’s largest credit and collection 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.

Clients are starting to tell us that the economy is picking up, and for the first time in years they are starting to feel optimistic. This is a good thing. I am seeing cash flows improve from debtors as well, so we will all keep our fingers crossed and hope that this positive sign continues.

One of the issues that I have seen a very large increase in is back-door hires and conversion. I would be willing to bet that if I had 100 clients go back and check their candidates, 25% of our clients would find that at least one of their candidates was hired over the last 12 months. Yes this is a problem, but it is also a big opportunity. If you are willing to take the time and spend an afternoon checking LinkedIn, I would bet that you could find $15,000 to $45,000 in placements.

The reason I bring this point up is because the economy is improving, and debtors now have more money in their bank accounts. The chances of them paying you once you bring the hiring of your candidate to their attention has greatly increased from a few years ago. Then, debtors used to prefer to hold on to their money and prefer that you sue them because it bought them more time. Now, with sales increasing and cash flow improving, the debtor will more likely just cut a check vs. having to spend the money on an attorney.

So what should you do if you learn that one of your temps or candidates was hired by your client? The following suggestions may be helpful:

• Pull an inventory of your paperwork. Do you have a signed agreement? Do you have an email trail? Can you show clearly that the client knew it was your candidate and if they hired that individual, then a fee would be owed?
• Reach out to the hiring company and inform the company of its unfortunate “oversight.”
• Send the company an invoice. If you have to guess what is owed because you do not know what they are paying your candidate, then take an educated guess. Use the higher side of your best guess without being out of line of course (if the candidate’s potential hire meant the company had to pay the fee, then contact the former candidate to find out what he or she is being paid).
• Send an invoice with a specific date. For example, don’t have the invoice say net 10 days or due upon receipt. Have your invoice read 5 – 10 days from the day you cut the invoice. If today is March 2 then you would put Due March 12 — 20XX.
• Send the invoice, and wait until the first day after the invoice was to be paid.
• Then call and send a letter giving the client 5 days more. Give an exact date.

There is so much hype about passive candidates vs. active candidates. It seems like most recruiters, when pressed, will tell you that passive candidates, i.e. candidates who are not looking for a job but might be interested if the right opportunity came along, are the ‘gold standard’ of recruiting. Active candidates are sometimes overlooked or written off as undesirable, and I’m not sure that’s the smartest approach.

You know what I think? I think too many recruiters think “active candidates” = “unemployed candidates.”

The definition of an “active candidate” is one who is actively, currently, looking for a new role. It’s a big jump to automatically assume that candidate is unemployed. Consider the following examples of active candidates:

• Those who have reached the top of the payscale at their current company
• Those who have no more room for promotion at their current company
• Those who are caught up in a merger / acquisition that is likely to impact their job downstream (change in focus, consolidation, etc.)
• Those who work for bad managers (remember, employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers)
• Those who are interested in relocation for a variety of reasons

In some ways, I believe recruiting active candidates might be the smarter move — for one thing, you don’t have to convince them to leave what is familiar for something unknown. They have already emotionally separated themselves from their current employer and are ready to move on to something new. There is a high(er) likelihood they’ve already talked with their spouses, so the career move is not an out-of-the-blue shock. They’d probably like to remain employed until they find a new role, which means they probably aren’t shouting out their job search from every available rooftop, job board, or social media channel. Nothing undesirable about any of that, is there?

The goal (I think?) is to get the best person in front of your client. If the best person is someone who has already decided a career move is in order, would you NOT present them to your client? Would your client ‘pass’ on an interview? Probably not. Don’t be so quick to label active candidates or passive candidates; instead, focus on the *best* candidates.

What do you think? Has the “active” versus “passive” debate run its course? Why or why not?

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net