Working with your client: Are more resumes better?

by The Imagination Factory

Kimberley Chesney, CPC, Prime Management Group,NPA 7525

How many times have you been asked to provide more resumes so your client can make a hiring decision? As annoying as it may be, we have to look at this from the client’s point of view. How you react to this request should be dependent on how well you know your client. Read the rest of this entry »


Anatomy of a Successful Split Fee NPA Partnership!

by The Imagination Factory

Gary Eastwood, Beck/Eastwood Recruitment Solutions, Valencia, CA

The beauty of the NPA experience is that there’s no wrong way to work successfully with a trading partner, if the importer and exporter are on the same page. Following is a case study in developing a new trading partner met at an annual conference and developing a partnership that yields multiple split placements.

In my experience, the backbone of a great NPA partnership is finding a process between importer and exporter that is efficient, particularly if you’re working with several different types of positions with different clients. In my case, I met Jeff Kortes from Human Asset Management in Milwaukee at last year’s Nashville conference.

Jeff is an ideal importer for me, as he’s a one-man-band, with more clients than he has time to satisfy with great candidates. I’m more or less, a pure NPA exporter, doing candidate ID and opening the relationship to Jeff, the Primary to the client. Since the meeting, we’ve hit four splits together (3 acceptances in one week!). And, none of them has been particularly easy, with three being relo situations, home sales issues, etc.

The first one was a Buyer. She had issues with the initial offer, but also required sponsorship, so we were able to handle the salary compression issue by managing her expectations, pointing out her opportunities with other companies were limited by her lack of citizenship.

The second one was months in the making, an Engineering assignment with the candidate experiencing every concern in the world, from fear of change, to collecting a November bonus, to the sale of his home in small town Iowa. The client went to bat to iron out all of his issues, including allowing him to work from their Sioux Falls office while he unloads his home, to giving him a January ’09 start date so he could collect the bonus he’s earned in ’08. Jeff and I supplied so much intel to the hiring manager, that this one was a true three-way partnering, with the hiring manager REALLY going the extra mile to bring it home.

The third was another buyer, where the candidate was actually light for a Senior Buyer role, but her palpable hunger for this first US job took her to offer. Our briefing and hand-holding and the candidates willingness to accept tactics and positioning made the difference on that one. Then, we were empowered to make a verbal offer at one salary level and in the eleventh hour, were informed that corporate would only sign off on the hire at $5k less. We handled this glitch and the candidate will start in a week.

The most recent, on Friday evening, Halloween night was fraught with potential, as well. The candidate owns a home nearly fifty miles from the office, doesn’t want to move; he drives low mileage vehicles, including a 4 wheel drive truck in Denver, for winter driving. He also had sky-high salary expectations that needed to be met. Once again, Jeff partnered with the GM and the GM delivered the offer as part of a one year plan that indicated he’d be getting a raise with his PE certification, an April review and the very real expectation that in one year he’d be a team leader. He covered the commute by throwing in a small sign-on bonus as a down payment on a higher mileage commuter vehicle and indicated that in his tenure, he would be at client and prospect sites a lot, so it won’t really be a 5 day commute to the office. That was yet another perfect partnership between hiring manager and both importer and exporter.

With the volume of work Jeff and I are doing, we’ve had to grow our process a lot to keep the pipeline for each job order flowing. We both have defined, if shifting roles in the placement process. In some cases Jeff has has the primary relationship with the candidate, in others I handle the heavy lifting on the candidate side. The important thing is, we recognized the clogs in our flow and re-engineered our working process to be able to optimize the volume we do together, and it’s working!

Finally, it’s still all about the clients and candidates. Our partnership on the hiring process has given our candidates faith that not one, but two recruiters are working hard on their behalf. Second, the clients are quickly realizing Jeff’s value in bringing hard-to-find Engineering and Supply Chain people in and closing acceptances where other vendors have failed.

There are a myriad of other ways to have success in NPA, but this partnership has proven to be effective and really fun! See all of you in San Antonio! Good Hunting.


Go Global or Go Broke!

by Dave Nerz

Recent financial events have me thinking about our globally connected world and the importance of diversification. We have long understood the continued globalization of world economies but it is highlighted when China’s demand for commodities has an impact on Main Street. These signs of change can cause many to retreat to our comfort zones and expect that our world won’t really change. Or we assume, perhaps even hope, that what we do will remain unchanged.

If you haven’t been touched by globalization and the flattened world, you are either in a uniquely localized market or in a niche that is insulated from the global economy. Most recruiting businesses are touched, impacted, maybe even clobbered by the growing worldwide influences on our economy and particularly on the industries we serve. Ask someone in the auto industry.

Read the rest of this entry »


Why Professional Representation?

by The Imagination Factory

It saves time, effort, and frustration, and gets results. Representation by an experienced recruiter greatly increases your chances of interviewing success for several reasons:

  • Better information about the client and their hiring preferences, work environment, and compensation package
  • A recruiter can check your references and promote you in a way you could never do yourself
  • A recruiter serves as a buffer to smooth the interview and hiring process and can often circumvent misunderstandings
  • Provides feedback on the interview
  • He can let you know your realistic chances of getting an interview for a particular position
  • Gets your resume noticed
  • Companies that enlist the services of a recruiter are serious about hiring a talented engineer
  • He can tell you when your job change expectations are unrealistic

Robert Ambs

Ambs Chemical Search


Resume Posting Online: What You Need to Know

by The Imagination Factory

This information provided by Dennis Stuempfle of Palatine Technology Services, LLC as a courtesy to our candidates. Dennis can be reachedby phone at856-358-0320.

Despite what job boards will tell you, posting your resume online is not right for everyone. Deciding whether or not to post your resume on a major job board will depend on your unique situation.

If you have a good skill set, a stable work background and can afford to be selective in looking for the right opportunity, use caution regarding “continued” posting. A well-planned, targeted approach to your job search will serve you well. At the very least, follow the advice of Careerbuilder.com and make your posted information “confidential” or “non-searchable.”

Read the rest of this entry »


Principles of an NPA Survivor

by The Imagination Factory

James Brackin
Brackin & Sayers Associates
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Following are some thoughts from someone whose been voted off the island many times, but continues to bob to the surface:

CompaniesClients, etc.
The basic principles apply in good times and bad
a. Get closer to your client companies (those who’ve paid you a fee in the last 12-24 months)
b. Service the bejabbers out of them
c. Make a concerted effort to get to know them betteryour friends in hiring companies will see you through
d. Remain very selective in referring candidates
e. Focus on companies that tend not to be cyclical
f. Market outstanding candidates (no company has too many winners). In fact, in a down market many savvy companies seize the opportunity to upgrade their employee talent.

Your firm
a. Money can still be made if you scrutinize your overhead
b. Alter your recruiters’ compensation package (higher commissionslower fixed salaries/fixed costs) The good ones will survive.
c. Get out of the officego visit some clients (see c above)
d. Expand your practicemaximize NPA for additional jobs and marketable candidates.
e. Identify trading partners within your niche to better service your client base
f. Respond to NPA job orders.
g. Market outstanding candidates to your NPA trading partners who recruit in the candidates’ area of expertise
h. Remain upbeat and optimisticremember the economy is the product of an attitude.


Why do international business in NPA?

by The Imagination Factory

Jim Gifford
J. Gifford, Inc.
Tulsa, Oklahoma

In my role as chair of the International Development Committee for NPA, occasionally I hear comments from US members that lead one to think that doing international placements is hard work requiring a different skill set than is used in the US, or that the international placement activity has relatively little bearing on what the majority of our US members are doing. Both statements are incorrect. Read the rest of this entry »


NPA International Assignments: A Placement Process

by The Imagination Factory

Nancy Neumann
Hong Kong Executive Search
Hong Kong

1. Promote and market your organization’s capability in handling international assignments through your NPA partnership network.

2. When you secure the job order, you have to determine how you wish to work this job order:

2.1. On an importer/exporter relationship (when the client is based in home country and looking for staff outside of home base).

2.2. On a referral arrangement (when the client is based outside of home country and your NPA partner has the charge to pitch the assignment, manage the client on-site, as well as source candidates). Here usually it will be up to the affiliates to negotiate an equitable fee split, usually 20/80 or 30/70 are the norm.

2.3. Work exclusively with one firm or a scattered gun approach. On retained searches, it is highly recommended to engage a qualified partner who is committed to the project.

3. Post the job order to SplitZone and email the job order individually to those consultants whom you identified as having the expertise to assist you in the project.

4. In the case of an exclusive working arrangement with one NPA firm, agree on the fee split and document such arrangement if it is not the normal 50/50 split.

5. For retained searches, agree with your NPA partner on timelines and milestones of the search including submission of progress reports. Communicate to your NPA partner your style of candidate presentation. If you want the candidate profiles/reports to be submitted according to a firm-specific presentation format, send your NPA partner a sample.

6. After you gathered your long list of candidates, arrange telephone interviews (mindful of the time difference between locations). On rare occasions, the importer may want to conduct video conferencing interviews.

7. Present the short list to your client and arrange telephone/video conference interviews between your client and the candidates.

8. Conduct reference checks on the finalists.

9. Offer accepted by candidate. Deal closed. Celebrate!

10. Importer submits placement report to NPA.

11. On receipt of client’s settlement, remit the exporter’s fee share and NPA brokerage via wire transfer as international checks can take a month to clear.


Marketing NPAs international capabilities to clients

by The Imagination Factory

Jim Gifford
J. Gifford, Inc.
Tulsa, Oklahoma

Incorporate it into your business plan

Develop “NPA international” as part of your company and personal business plan and have a strategy and formula to implement it.

Proactive vs. reactive strategy

Instead of waiting for the phone to ring and reacting to those job orders, progress to proactively identifying and marketing to clients
who can provide you with international staffing opportunities.
Marketing to the right person

Do your homeworkfind out who makes hiring decisions on international staffing, and make your presentations to that person. Find
out who at both the staff and operations levels has hiring authority and responsibility.

Involve your international affiliate. Have a 3-way teleconference among you, your local hiring representative, and your in-country NPAaffiliate. Or, have the hiring representative meet face-to-face with your in-country affiliate if the company person responsible for that
staffing is located in, or traveling to, the affiliate’s home country.
Have a formal presentation

Develop a formal presentation that presents your business as part of an international network rather than a casual “seat of your
pants” plan.

Feature benefits & services (e.g. local in-country recruiting experts able to not only provide candidates on the local level, but also cultural information relevant to hiring/placing candidates, local compensation rates and ranges for positions, unusual benefits [i.e. 13-month salaries, superannuation], visa or immigration issues and processing).

Highlight areas of specialty expertise these international affiliates have relevant to the types of positions your client is looking to staff.

Focus on “case study” success stories of international placements using NPA.

Presenting features & benefits

Efficiency of the Internet for candidate identification, communication between client and affiliates, both locally and internationally,ease of candidate delivery.

Video interviewing

Cost savings on travel of management to interview/recruit

Retention of local control and involvementclients able to continue working with their local recruiting firm who is known and proven to them, yet still get needed staffing assistance half a world away.

In-country affiliatesusually, there is more than one affiliate in a given country or city, meaning the client gets the benefit of several firms identifying local, pre-screened talent, which is then able to be further screened and cultivated and controlled at the local level.

Tested techniques to increase international job orders:

Branding program: NPA, The Worldwide Recruiting Network

Mailers and emailers

Web site and company brochures

“Bulls-eye” marketing

Association memberships

Trade shows and exhibitions

Formal presentation on international capabilities on every client marketing call

Use of the local SHRM chapter to set up an international roundtable on a recurring basis for local chapter members involved with International HR issues. Remember this audience is comprised of “operating company” clientsNOT other recruiting firms.

Attendance at NPA’s international meetings.


The case for tracking attendance

by The Imagination Factory

by Maggie McPhee, PHR, Director of Information Services

Courtesy of: www.teagr.com

Every year when we do our absenteeism and turnover survey I never cease to be amazed at how many companies do not track either statistic. There was a recent article in Workspan magazine (February, 2007) that supports the position for tracking absenteeism, ideally through computer automation. Read the rest of this entry »


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