100th Column

Last month, this month, next month; I am not sure, but I do know I am right around the 100 mark. I am now in my ninth year as The Fordyce Letter Internet/Technology columnist and wanted to say what a privilege, honor, and outright pleasure it has been for me. To write for the “Cadillac” of industry publications . . . nothing better.

As you might imagine, a lot has changed as it relates to both the Internet and technology usage in general in our industry. This column has gone from promoting mostly active candidate boards for the first couple of years (remember Headhunter.net, CareerMosaic, Online Career Center) to searching for the résumés of passive candidates on the Internet using AltaVista (back in 2000). We have been reporting on online recruiter databases since 1999 and have reviewed dozens since. We have been reporting on Internet name-generation techniques and resources since early on as well (remember Eliyon, now ZoomInfo, and SearchStation, now SourcePoint), trying so hard to keep on top of the latest and greatest in our business. Had a great time doing it as well.

These days, it’s mostly tools and resources, with some technique thrown in from time to time. My monthly tip always offers a way for you to do something yourself. There has been so much to write about.

Out front, look for more on recruitment technology. New ways to recruit candidates. More on recruiter databases. Blogs, social and business networks, job-lead aggregators, competitive intelligence, names databases, sourcing techniques, recruiter networking and collaboration, anything and everything I can think of that you might use to increase your placement volume.

I have heard from many of you over the years, both calls and emails, and have thoroughly enjoyed every correspondence and phone call. Don’t be bashful – I hope to hear from many more over the next 100 columns.

SGA Executive
Tracker 2.0

I reviewed this great service from Sheila Greco Associates once before, but it was quite some time ago. In light of the continuing interest among the Fordyce subscribers in name and lead generation of passive candidates on the Internet, I thought it might be time to give them another look. I noticed many improvements since my last review. I really like their user interface. It is very clean and simple. Those regular readers know that is something I always look for. An easy-to-use interface with a short learning curve. Not a lot to learn here. This service contains information for over 7,600 companies, fed by a proprietary database based on the past 18 years of research, is 100% phone-verified in-house, and is updated regularly on a 90- to 120-day basis. Title levels range from senior level down through lower management, including supervisors, team leaders, sales managers, and buyers. Just fill in a few fields, click submit, and there is your list of names from industries, titles, functions, companies, and more.

The two main search components of this product are either searching for executives or browsing by company name. When searching for executives, you can search by company name, ticker symbol, industry, sales, number of employees, job function, title level, state, and SIC code, which is a very nice feature, especially for competitive intelligence. Browsing by company is a bit simpler. Just pick a letter of the alphabet and the list of companies follows.

Using the executive search mode, I left the company name blank and picked the Home Furnishings subcategory in the Consumer Goods category. Then I also selected the Merchandising Job Function. I left everything else blank. I was returned six great-looking merchandising executives (VP level) from furniture companies. From this point you can click on each contact’s name to obtain contact details, including phone number. On each contact details page, there is also a link to Colleagues that is a listing of other employees in the database from that same company. You can export the results to an Excel spreadsheet if you like or simply return to perform another search.

I then decided to search for all the Sears employees I could at their corporate headquarters in Chicago (yes, I was on a retail kick). I typed Sears in the Company Name field and also picked Illinois from the State list, then clicked Submit. I came up with a healthy 700 results that time. Too many to review, so I went back to my search page and added Supply Chain to the Job Function list and was returned six results, all managers with supply chain expertise.

I then tried my hand at Browsing by Company. I picked Deloitte, knowing their employees are highly sought after. I clicked on the Deloitte link and was taken to a Company Details page that offers some basic contact info, website address, sales, employees, SIC codes, a list of competitors, an email address formula (FirstInitialLastName@ deloitte.com), and a company description. The database contained over 4,400 Deloitte employees, mostly their consultants staff with their areas of expertise included in the job title. Again, I could click on any name to get the Contact Details.

I tried one more. I went back to my Merchandising search and picked one of the furniture companies I’d seen earlier, La-Z-Boy Inc. I clicked on the Company Details page and found that one of their SIC codes was 25, which is a code for Furniture and Fixture Manufacturers. I cleared my previous results and selected 25 from the SIC code list. I ran my search and ended up with a very large list of furniture and fixture manufacturers employing over 9,000 executives that are listed in the database. From here I could easily pare down my results based on job title, function, location, company size, or any of the other criteria mentioned earlier.

I want to say once again how easy it is for anyone to navigate searches with this product.

Pricing: This service has an annual, subscription-based fee structure, with one, full-year unlimited access at $4,995 or access to select industry sectors (consumer goods, financial, etc.) at adjusted, lower pricing. You can also access the product on a “pay-per-view” basis, i.e., $150/month, including a monthly download limit of 150 records.

I want to thank Anne Scofield, the VP of business development with Sheila Greco Associates, for her help with this review. Anyone interested in an easy way to locate the names of passive candidates can contact Anne via telephone at (518) 843-4611, ext. 234, or via email at ascofield@ sheilagreco.com. You can also visit the SGA Executive Tracker website at www.sgaexecutivetracker.com.

Advanced Live.com
A Recruiter’s Cheat Sheet
by Shally Steckerl

We have written about Shally’s Cheat Sheets in this column on more than one occasion. They are always wonderful, inexpensive resources that in a few pages seem to be able to give you all the information you need to be productive in the topic at hand.

This article will cover his Cheat Sheet on the search engine Live.com (formerly MSN Search). It is four pages of advanced search strings and the innovative use of special commands that produce better sourcing results in your passive candidate searches.

Shally covers many types of searches, for both résumés and names. You can learn about finding résumés using advanced methods, using synonyms, by file type, from academia, international, consultants, résumé templates, personal and employee homepages, and other methods as well. He teaches you how to find names of potential candidates from associations, conferences, alumni pages, mailing lists, and blogs, and by location offering search syntax examples that anyone can take and use for their own assignments.

He caps it off by explaining the use of results ranking and matching, results popularity, and results aging. These are all little-known and underutilized features of Live.com.

You can find out more about this publication or place an order at Shally’s website, www.jobmachine. net. Just click on the link on the left side of the page to Cheat Sheets. Also, be on the lookout for Shally’s new book, co-authored by yours truly, Live.com For Recruiters, due out by the end of this month.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Shally Steckerl will appear as a faculty presenter at the Fordyce Forum 2007 on June 14. More information is available at: www.fordyceforum.com.
HireAbility News Release
This is straight from the email, edited for length:

Londonderry, NH – April 9, 2007
- Today, HireAbility.com, a leading provider of integrated recruiting software and services, unveiled Talent Trader, a hosted professional networking platform that enables numerous recruiting communities to link their members to make more placements, obtain industry advice, resources, and job opportunities, and more. Talent Trader is the platform for HireAbility’s own recruiter network of over 350 professional staffing firms, and can be private-labeled for other networks of any size.

Using Talent Trader, members of large national staffing associations or small geographic-specific recruiter groups can easily locate and communicate with potential business partners, networking contacts, and industry experts. Detailed member profiles, discussion groups, activity ratings, endorsements, user-definable “recruiting partners,” and other tools once found only in social networks make this possible.

Additionally, because recruiters interact in members-only arenas, their discussions are more candid and carry more valuable decision-making information than those conducted in online public chat rooms.

Talent Trader also offers recruiters significant advantages over today’s social-networking tools. Functions for sharing job openings and candidates, cross-posting to job boards, and add-ons for Internet résumé mining are just a few of the ways HireAbility meets the unique needs of the staffing industry. Its own recruiter network leverages these features and more, such as libraries of shared documents, recruiter training materials, webinars by industry experts, résumé parsing, and weekly split placement conference calls.

TIP
Find Résumés on Live.com

For this month’s tip, I thought I would steal a tip from Shally’s Live.com Cheat Sheet. It is easy to locate the résumés of passive candidates on this search engine if you know what you are doing.

Go to www.live.com and type into the text box:

inbody:present inbody:resume java developer -job -jobs -send -submit -you

Most résumés contain the phrase “xxx to present.” Knowing this, I ran the search and got back over 11,000 results. I am sure that not every one of those was a résumé, but many were. To cull out more relevant résumé documents, we would add some keywords relating to the skills of our assignment, and also maybe put in some keywords reflecting a geographic area (city, state).

Give this a try. Just copy the string above and then substitute my Java and Developer keywords for the keywords from your assignment.

Thanks to Shally for this month’s tip.

Mark E. Berger, CPC, AIRS CIR, has been in recruiting since 1979. He is currently a partner in Ramsey Fox, Inc., an IT services firm, and has been there and at its predecessor, M.E. Berger & Associates, since 1986. He has been heavily involved in Internet recruiting and is an expert on recruiting and sourcing products, services available on the Internet, and how these products add to the bottom line. Mark’s interests include successfully integrating both computer and Internet recruiting technology into a traditional recruiting environment. He has taken AIRS I and II training and has obtained the AIRS CIR designation. Mark is also on the board of directors for the Missouri Association of Personnel Services. He can be reached at mark@ramseyfox.com. His website is www.swatrecruiting.com and we recommend that you visit it to see archives of his articles and information offerings exclusively for recruiters.

One of the most critical Success Principles is using your time wisely. While squandered money can sometimes be replaced, wasted time is gone forever.

The pace at which the world is moving seems to be increasing exponentially. We now have the tools to monitor a universe of information continuously: companies buying and selling; changes of ownership; economic ups and downs; the war on terrorism; the war for talent; the war on drugs; natural disasters; racial tension; campus massacres; and at home my kids growing by inches every time I turn around. Things are different now, and downtime is diminishing.

So, how do you muster enough power to accomplish everything you need to get done in a frenetic world where information overload is the norm, and stay committed to being the best you can be at work and home?

My personal breakthrough in time management has to do with gaining mastery on three levels: leveraging my power, choosing my opportunities wisely, and becoming a power user in Outlook. Each level took me time to grasp, master, and implement. The breakthrough into power, freedom, and peace of mind I experienced came from a course I attended years ago (when I was a Landmark Seminar Leader) called Mission Control. That course certainly had an impact on me; it showed me that I was spending a considerable amount of time doing things that did not “light me up,” that I was not particularly adept at, or that were simply distractions on the path to achieving my goals.

That course made me realize there were many things I needed to delegate, outsource, or simply stop doing. Over time, I built a business in which anything that I was not any good at, did not have value to me personally, or did not bring forth new opportunities for Alliance, was delegated. Using the power of talented people and resources has enabled me to essentially clone myself 25 times – through the use of full-time, part-time, and “virtual” employees, or off-site consultancy capacities. Now I have much more time to watch my sons’ basketball games and to be a part of their lives, and all because I do not try to do everything myself. This is a continual learning process because discovery takes place each time I ask, “Is this the best use of my time, and if not, who can I find to take care of this and how can I structure it so it works for everyone?”

The second level to gain mastery of was attracting and choosing my customers and business opportunities wisely. Who are the people you find pleasurable to work with? Who are the people who respect and appreciate my 22 years in the recruiting and selection industry as a top performer ranked for quality and integrity? Who will pay me to save their time? Who has a compelling mission that people can wrap their hands around and to which they want to contribute? Who offers a well-managed work environment that fosters excellence in employee performance as well as in development?

The more specific I am on what type of customers and opportunities I want to represent, the easier it is to spend my time on things that have a payoff or make a difference, and that use my best skills and talents. When I compromise any of the above for the sake of “getting a deal,” I always wind up spinning my wheels, becoming frustrated and exhausted. The technique of choosing your clients wisely can also be applied to attracting and choosing your perfect mate and/or employee and is based on a process called the “law of attraction,” a process detailed in the book Attracting Perfect Customers (Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez).

The last level that I needed to become powerful with was using a tool like Microsoft Outlook to foster mastery in productivity and eliminate time bandits. I learned about every function that Outlook offers and how to use those elements of the software to impact the way I spend my time as well as to create efficiencies in my workday.

The message is clear: time – there is a limit on it; we have only so much of it; and as the song says, “You only got 100 years to live.”

Best in Success.

Margaret Graziano, CPC, CTS, and mother of three, has been a top producer in the staffing and recruiting industry for the past 20 years and has owned her own firm since 1991. She prides herself on client retention, and making the right hires. She has earned over $5 million in personal “desk production” income and has placed over 2,000 candidates in direct-hire positions. With the competitive business world and the war on talent in full force, Margaret’s company, Alliance HR Network, has ventured into new realms of talent acquisition, organizational development, and human capital consulting services, thus diversifying Alliance’s revenue streams and gaining new and exciting talent acquisition and assessment consulting opportunities. Margaret’s email is mgraziano@alliancehrnetwork.com, and her phone number is (847) 690-0077. The strategic planning forms are listed under a Strategic Planning Downloads section at http://www.alliancehrnetwork.com/employers/industry_training.asp.

Do you love what you do for a living? I remember hearing this quote when I started out as a recruiter, “If you love what you do, you’ll never have to work another day in your life.” I recall feeling drawn to those words but not knowing exactly how to apply it to my work life.

In my work as a coach and business consultant, I’ve noticed that a consistent theme with high performers is that they love what they do. Meaning they follow their bliss. They love their niche. They love their clients. They love the process of recruiting.

Consider this quote from Joseph Campbell:

If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a track that has been there all the while, waiting for you. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.

When I started in the business, I worked in Los Angeles for a firm that did contingency IT recruiting. I noticed that when I went on client meetings, I’d often find myself yawning uncontrollably when my clients talked about various aspects of their information technology goals and needs. It was boring.

Then by accident, I began doing some searches for large law firms. I found that when I went to meet with department heads within law firms, my ears perked up and I was very interested in learning about their business. To this day, I’m not really sure what the attraction is. I just know that I enjoy working with them.

So after several years of being bored by IT searches, I decided to take a stand and declare my firm a firm that works only with law firms, and on a retained basis. This seemed like a bold move at the time, but it was where my passion was leading me and I felt excited by the challenge. My billings and enjoyment of the business skyrocketed when I finally decided to follow my bliss and work the way I wanted to and with the clients I wanted to.

How to apply this to your desk or office:

1. Follow your bliss when selecting the clients you’ll work for.

2. Follow your bliss when deciding what niche or subniche to focus on.

3. Follow your bliss when it comes to the parts of the recruiting process to focus on vs. the parts you’ll outsource to others.

4. Follow your bliss when it comes to the new projects, strategic alliances, or business relationships to take on.

5. Follow your bliss when deciding what terms you’ll accept.

6. Follow your bliss when setting goals and deciding how large or small your business should be.

7. Follow your bliss in regard to work/life balance and time off.

Gary Stauble is the principal consultant for The Recruiting Lab, a coaching company that assists firm owners and solo recruiters in generating more profit in less time. Gary offers FREE how-to articles, tools and special reports online to assist you in building your firm. Learn more now at www.therecruitinglab.com.

The year was 1994. I was attending my first ever Pinnacle Society meeting. I was super excited to be in this room of top producers from all around the country. We gathered on a bright Thursday morning and the sun reflected back off the fresh snow that covered the tall mountains at the resort, my first time in Colorado. I didn’t know a soul at the meeting, but to begin the conference, everyone did a self-introduction. To this day, this is my favorite part of the Pinnacle Society gatherings. A good headhunter is usually part storyteller and part comedian. There are always lots of laughs and funny stories. Each tells a tale of beginnings and their history in the recruiting business.

As we went around the room, people introduced themselves and were asked to include their name, what type of people they recruited, where they were from, and what was their average fee.

After we went around the entire roundtable, I realized that I had the second-lowest average fee in the entire group. I was working harder for less money. I drew a line in the sand that day and made a firm resolve not to work on any searches that were below a $10K fee. I set my floor.

It was one of the best moves I have ever made. That day paid for all of my Pinnacle dues that year and for every year since. Setting your floor is one of the most important principles I teach in the 21 Ways Training Program. Richie Harris says, “In order to be successful, you have to decide not only what you’re going to do, but what you’re going to not do.”

I believe in the vacuum theory of success. To create something new, you often have to give up something existing. I gave up working on searches for A/P clerks and junior accountants and focused my energy on searches at $10K fees and above. I raised my minimum fee every year until it was $30,000. Then 9/11 hit and my minimum fee was a thousand dollars and a Big Mac! Just kidding, but of course I had to make an adjustment. When the job market recovered, I was able to raise my minimum fee again. These are the good times, my good friends. We should all consider raising our minimum fees in the good times. After all, won’t our clients ask us to cut our fees in the bad times?

I’m not afraid to talk about my minimum fee, either. If you call a great attorney, the first thing he or she will tell you is the hourly rate. I have no problem telling a new client my minimum fee. This might work for you or it might not. But EVERYONE can benefit from setting in stone their absolute minimum fee.

Take a moment now and write down your absolute minimum fee. Be conservative and pick a number you know you can stand by. You will turn away anything below BLANK DOLLARS. You can always raise it, but you want to set a firm floor.

Did you do it? Take a moment now and set your floor.

The clarity of knowing in your own mind solidly what you will and won’t do is powerful. It will free you from wrestling with the “should I or shouldn’t I” back and forth on shoddy searches that are below the capabilities you now have developed. Success requires clarity. Soon after setting your floor, you’ll find yourself working higher-level, more rewarding searches.

Joe Pelayo is a true “self-made” man. He began in the recruiting business in 1986 at the ripe old age of 17, when he says he “found every way to fail in the recruiting business.” After finding success with two recruiting firms, he started his own in 1990. As CEO of Joseph Michaels, Inc., Joe works an active desk recruiting CFOs and related financial and accounting executives. He is a longtime member of the Pinnacle Society, an organization consisting of 75 of the top recruiters in the United States.

Joe is also author of the new book Work Your Network! which has received excellent reviews from Les Brown, Brian Tracy, and industry leaders, speakers, and trainers, including Terry Petra, Bill Radin, Paul Hawkinson, and others. He writes a monthly newsletter, The Network, sent to 50,000 executives and is the author of several motivational DVD training programs, including the soon-to-be-released training system 21 Ways to Increase Your Billings!

Joe is past president of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization, a group of million-dollar-business owners under age 40. Joe is available for speaking and training and can be reached through his website www.jpspeaking.com or via email at Joe@jpspeaking.com.

Every market, strong or weak, creates problems. The difficulties inherent in a good market are far preferable to those encountered in a poor one. Nevertheless, to proceed as though a booming market is totally free of problems is to reduce income in an excellent market and to develop habit patterns that will be very difficult to correct should the market turn sour.

While we’ll detail the Strategic Traps in a future article, the most obvious is simply a reduction of effort. Every long-tenured manager has seen this phenomenon. Transferring his observations to his staff, however, or even avoiding the trap himself may be a different matter.

In a solid market of demand for talent exceeding supply, it is (relatively) easy to produce acceptable or more than acceptable billings. However, there is an appropriate Wall Street saying that applies to our industry as well: “Don’t confuse brains with a bull market!”

While our industry actually contains its fair share of brains, there are two areas where many of us do come up short – a strong work ethic and a continuing desire to improve in good times!

It is part of a sales personality to be optimistic and confident. While this is clearly a positive in terms of tenacity during difficult times or situations, there is an accompanying negative to this trait. That negative is the belief that good times will last forever and a ten-dency to “coast” in a buoyant market.

This is no time to “coast”! Rather, it is a time to work hard, stay focused, improve skills, and reap all the rewards we deserve.

The following quiz will take less than five minutes to fill out. And it will provide a valid indicator as to whether you are maximizing your market or letting the market carry you along!

Work Ethic Daily Quiz
(To be filled out at the end
of every day)

1. Did you arrive on time at the office this morning (no later than 8:30 a.m.)?

2. Was your daily planner filled out thoroughly from the day before?

3. Did you make at least five business calls before 9:30 a.m.?

4. Do you have a slightly addictive “reward program” (example: second cup of coffee) set up for five early presentations? Did you earn the reward early today?

5. Did you accept or make no more than one nonbusiness call during office hours? (Calls under 30 seconds do not count.)

6. If business is good, did you make presentations to (and qualify) at least two new prospective accounts today? If business is only fair, did you make presentations to (and qualify) at least five new prospective accounts today?

7. Did you achieve at least 30 fairly extensive business conversations today?

8. Did you set up at least one first interview (including phone interview) today?

9. Do you have a sign/note on your phone that is less than a week old to remind you to improve habit patterns?

10. Is your daily planner thoroughly and logically filled out for tomorrow?

11. What time are you leaving the office to go home? Is it at least 5 p.m.?

12. Do you have plans to improve skills at least slightly this evening? Examples: Reading business book, critiquing previously taped call, watching part of a business video. (Should be done at least three days a week.)

Deductions

1. Did you do general reading (such as newspapers) or industry reading (such as magazines in your area of specialization, or industry books or newsletters) in the office during working hours?

2. Did you participate in nonbusiness discussions in the office during prime working hours? Did you allow yourself to be distracted by pointless “business” conversations? More than five minutes is too much!

3. Did you spend more than five minutes of nonbusiness time on the Internet?

Scoring

Ten points for each yes answer. If you answered yes to any of the deduction questions, deduct 10 points each. Notice that you had 12 questions, so if one does not apply to how you do business, this is factored in.

Results

100+ points Terrific! Combine this with good skills, and you are doing what you must to be successful.
90 points Signs of problems ahead. Long term, this will affect your productivity.
80 points Not good. This will lead to sporadic performance and more-than-occasional slumps.
70 points Poor! How serious are you about succeeding, anyway?
60 points/less Quit fooling around! This is not acceptable!

If this test seems difficult to you, or unrealistic in some ways, note that a no answer to any of the main questions, or a yes to any of the deductions, will absolutely reduce your concentration and production. Moreover, this test is more flexible than it seems. Twelve correct answers would give you 120 points. You could effectively miss two questions and still score 100 points!

How often should this quiz be taken? Daily for 30 days will be more than enough to identify long-term areas of concern. Anyone can have an occasional unproductive day. But if you find yourself missing the same questions, your productivity reduced by the same problems, for an entire month, then it’s time to realize that you are skating on thin ice.

Success in our business is not measured solely by annual produc-tion. Rather, it is measured by billings in relation to the general state of your market.

Good production combined with poor focus is an eventual recipe for disaster! You will find it very difficult to suddenly change habit patterns in a deteriorating market.

The above test will identify areas where you may have drifted away from a serious concentration on business. When combined with solid industry-specific selling skills, a consistently good score will enable you to maximize your income – in any market!

Steven Finkel is the president of the St. Louis-based firm Professional Search Seminars. For over two decades, and on four continents, he has been regarded as a leading speaker and trainer in our industry. Recruitment International magazine, Europe’s largest such publication, has referred to him as “the only major trainer in search and permanent placement in the United States.” His website is www.stevefinkel. com, or he can be reached at (314) 991-3177. Mr. Finkel is the author or co-author of a number of hardbound books for our industry, as well as a full line of other quality training products.

Establishing mutual commitments is the key to a meaningful relationship. In our profession, recruiters enter new relationships every day between clients, candidates, and occasionally a new member of an office team. The bedrock of a meaningful relationship is trust. Trust is solidified or broken by our reliability in honoring commitments.

We have all heard expressions such as “His actions spoke so loudly, I could not hear his words” or “She says what she will do, and does what she says.” When we secure a candidate profile or a search assignment, we are entering into a professional relationship with another person. The same is true when we hire another team member, join a new team, or have a new member join our team.

In each of these situations, the key is to establish our mutual expectations and accountabilities. Candidates, clients, and coworkers do not have a rule book for correct behavior by themselves or us unless we get one from them, give them one, or co-create one. We may be upset that a candidate interviewed at another company without telling us, but when did we let the candidate know to share that with us? Did we cover it thoroughly?

We have all had a hiring manager who said he would review our candidate’s information and get back with us the next day, but after a week, we still had no feedback. Did the hiring manager break a commitment that was a meaningful one or simply think it was not a big deal? When people get married, they usually exchange vows or promises. This way each party knows what to EXPECT from the other and, of course, then knows what to fight about later!

The participants in every meaningful relationship should spend some time covering “what you can count on from me and what I need from you.” This sentence should be burned onto the hard drive of every recruiter! By covering this, both parties know what is expected from the other and what is expected of them. This can be covered verbally and/or in writing. When a person joins a search firm, what can that recruiter count on from the leader, and what must the recruiter promise to deliver? When a candidate is recruited or a search assignment taken, what should the candidate or hiring manager expect from the recruiter and vice versa?

Every firm should create a document that is covered with every member who joins the team. It could include things like expected behaviors, time in office, work ethic, policies, etc., and what will be offered to those who join. Because every firm is so different, I am hesitant to share a standard-example document and would rather suggest that every firm create its own.

With regard to clients and candidates, again there are differences in what is expected and what each recruiter is willing to offer. However, there are far more similarities. The following charts illustrate examples of what a document could look like to ensure that mutual expectations are covered. Covering it verbally or even getting every person to sign it DOES NOT guarantee acceptance, but people are far less likely to break commitments when they know what is expected of them and have agreed to it. The same is true for each of us in honoring what we say we will do!

The following charts are examples of what this could look like for candidates and clients. You may wish to cover this list verbally or get it signed. You can add, delete, or modify. The key is that you cover what people can count on from you and what you expect from them every time you enter a new professional relationship. The following lists are examples:

Mutual Expectations Between Client and Recruiter

What you can count on from me:

1. Will dedicate sufficient time to generate quality candidates in a timely manner

2. Will create a detailed position profile, presentation, and search plan that can be reviewed

3. Will prequalify all candidates by phone or in person before presentation to you

4. Will provide detailed information on skills and background as well as motive for considering change and needs

5. Will share accountability for interview, make client aware of any time constraints and candidate’s perspective, and coordinate visit

6. Will prepare you thoroughly for each interview with additional specifics on each candidate and cover any issues needed

7. Will provide detailed feedback from candidate and act as your agent to navigate you through any issues faced

8. Will give regular status report with detailed progress and market feedback

9. Will answer calls and emails within 24 to 48 hours unless in crunch time and then sooner, or will give you my phone number, cell, email, all contact info so you can hunt me down when needed sooner

10. Will act as your agent to secure a candidate you want to hire

11. Will work extensively with you and the candidate through the offer, acceptance, resignation, possible counter offer, and transition

12. Will maintain strict confidentiality with any information shared in confidence

What I need from you:

1. Exclusivity/financial commitment – cover greater detail in clearing fee

2. Share all information in a timely manner relevant to search (changes, new people, time frames, etc.)

3. Timeliness of response to calls and emails (24-48 hours and less when needed)

4. Know interview availability a few weeks in advance and have access to someone who can schedule your time

5. Willingness to continue interviewing even when you find one candidate you like

6. Immediate decision on interview after presentation or within 24 to 72 hours of résumé review (explain candidate’s feeling when no response)

7. Set time for preparation call

8. Set time for post-interview debrief call

9. Preliminary estimate of offer before interview

10. Route all other candidates through me in overall effort to produce best possible candidate with me as sole filter

11. Access to all decision makers

12. Decision on go/no go and offer within ______ time frame after final interview

Mutual Expectations Between Candidate and Recruiter

What I need from you:

1. Exclusivity in working with you – if they hear of other position, then they will let you know and if you cannot help them, you will let them go on their own or through someone else

2. Have them write a commercial about themselves to ensure commitment, get sense of how they present themselves, and get good material for your client presentation about the candidate

3. Let you know every situation they currently are in, where résumé has gone or goes if exclusive, and when they hear of another open position

4. Make you aware of any changes in any situation or any new situations when they arise and give you access to all decision makers in the family

5. Agree to share any familial issues that could impact their candidacy (health of loved one, special-needs child, etc.)

6. Call you immediately after interview and give their
feedback

7. Make you aware of any W-2 compensation changes, raises, promotions, etc., and to be realistic about compensation expectations

8. Alert reference to expect your call

9. Respond within certain time frame (24 hours) to voice mail or email and, perhaps, less time in crunch time

10. Reasonable availability to interview

11. Agree to give their word to never take a counter offer

12. Be a referral source of names, info, organizational charts, directories, etc.

What you can count on from me:

1. I will never give an offer unless it is acceptable

2. Give a thorough preparation for their interviews and cover who they will meet with, what to expect, etc.

3. Return phone calls, emails within a reasonable time frame (24 hours) – less in crunch time

4. Represent their needs to the client effectively and fairly

5. Maintain strict confidentiality with any information they share about themselves, anyone else, or anything they say is confidential

6. Give regular status reports and feedback on where they stand, good or bad

7. Get all questions answered that they have about company or position

8. Help family with any special issues, benefits from relocation to rollovers, etc.

9. Potentially make a dedicated effort to conduct a campaign on their behalf, or at least be willing to contact certain organizations to investigate potential on their behalf

10. Let them review the presentations you deliver or send to the client on their behalf

11. Provide any information on the market that they want that you can get

12. Provide general career advice even if they never leave

I recently spoke to a group representing 18 European countries and soon will be heading off to Asia to do the same there. With dozens of owners and recruiters from so many different countries, one would think that the differences in recruiting must be vast. There are a number of differences, but at the core, the global search business is more common than it is different. Simply put, people are basically the same wherever you go! People may forget what you say, but they will never forget how you make them feel, and you are more likely to be judged by your actions than your intentions.

In light of this, I have selected Bryan Blakeman’s tip as this month’s message from the trenches! Bryan specializes in complex searches and recruitment of risk-management teams and individuals for large public and nonpublic insurance brokerage firms, carriers, and wholesalers. He worked as a solo producer in 2006 (his fifth year at Kaye/Bassman) and achieved $713,000 in production. He is building a team this year and targeting a multimillion-dollar insurance practice within two years. By the time this goes to press, the Fordyce Forum will be a couple of weeks away. I will be there and look forward to meeting as many loyal readers as possible. See you in New Orleans, and enjoy this suggestion from one of the best!

Big Game Hunters Live in the Jungle

Consistently earning $50K fees and higher takes a deeper understanding of both your clients and candidates. Ask yourself these questions: What is my biggest client’s spouse’s name? What does my client’s office look like and where is it located? What does my most valuable candidate want the most from a new opportunity? What hobbies do the industry’s movers and shakers you are trying to know enjoy? In all cases, and many more, people do business with those they see as friends. Integrating yourself into the industry you recruit will help opportunity find you.

First, take great notes when you talk to anyone and everyone on the phone. Ask and record personal facts about the individual you are speaking with, then follow up on a regular basis. This person should enjoy taking your calls, and that will happen only if you connect in a personal way.

Second, spend time in the field. Nothing replaces human-to-human contact. Spending time in a client’s office to meet the others and see the operation makes you a better representative of that company. It’s not just about PR. It’s about learning who they are and how they operate (your competitor is not doing this). Lunches, drinks, and dinners are fun ways to build those relationships. Remember, friends rarely fire friends. Strong friendships help both sides through the toughest negotiation.

Finally, create interactions and conversations beyond business. Make them your friend first and the rest will follow.

Nothing is fully learned until it is fully applied. Business is good if you make it good. GO GET IT!

Jeff Kaye is president and CEO of Kaye/Bassman International and Next Level Recruiting Training. This former Management Recruiter National Recruiter of the year has helped build the largest single-site search firm in the country, with annual search revenue in excess of $18 million. His firm has won national awards for philanthropy and workplace flexibility and also was named the best company to work for in the state of Texas in 2006 and 2007. Kaye/Bassman has retained over 30 search professionals whose annual production exceeds $400,000. The same training that helped build this successful firm is now available through Next Level Recruiting Training. To learn how to take your practice and business to the NEXT LEVEL, please visit www.nlrtraining.com to view their product and service offerings. You can also send Jeff an email with a thought or question to jtk@nlrtraining.com.

How top recruiters win by educating their clients

Recruiting today is experiencing a significant market shift. As talent demand continues to increase and the talent pool shrinks, it becomes much more difficult to locate and persuade A players to take a look at new opportunities. We hear from clients across the country that job boards aren’t working anymore and that recruiters are not successfully identifying and delivering top talent. While the problem starts with the clients themselves – they have not changed their belief systems and hiring cultures to accommodate this new paradigm – the solution lies with us.

As professional executive search consultants, it is our responsibility to educate our clients about the best ways to achieve success in 2007 and beyond. A high-demand, low-supply market means that clients must whip themselves into fighting form to win the battle for top talent. That is where we come in. We must make sure our clients are the winning teams, the ones who can beat not only competitors in their industry but also local companies vying for the same A players.

Playing the Field is a Losing Strategy

Many hiring authorities believe that more is better. As in, the more recruiters a company works with, the more candidates they will be able to choose from. But the reality is that clients who partner with a single recruiting firm will net the best results overall. Do you want three recruiting firms giving you 30% of their time or one giving you 100%?

When companies turn a search into a race by working with multiple contingency firms, they lose. Because as with any race, the participants are focused on one thing: speed. Most contingency recruiters will try to cut corners to be the first to present a candidate. Many times, basic and essential steps in the process are ignored. Something as fundamental as making a phone call to a candidate to present the opportunity doesn’t happen. Recruiters shoot over database candidates to a client and if there is interest, then the recruiters – the ones who give us all a bad name, by the way – belatedly make the effort to reach out to the candidate. No pre-qualification. No quality.

What clients must understand is this: in the end, quality control still happens. But in this type of search, the client, not the recruiter, is the QC Mgr. When 10 times more candidates are presented to a client, it is 10 times more work for the client. The hiring authority has to weed through the candidates and actually do the recruiters’ job for them. The result? Offer the job to the least offensive person from a lackluster pool of candidates and hope for the best. It is a process that simply doesn’t work in today’s marketplace.

The bad news is that one out of every two hires in this country today is a mishire, thanks in large part to outdated hiring practices. The good news is that this is where top recruiters break away from the pack. They educate their clients about the many benefits of partnering with one firm, as opposed to playing the field. It is a partnership you are selling. When a professional relationship is developed between a recruiter and a client, there is time to gain a complete understanding of exactly what the client is looking for. A targeted, detailed plan can be executed. The recruiter can develop a healthy brand identity for their clients in the talent marketplace, as opposed to sabotaging it by presenting the same opportunity to the same candidates in different ways. Michael Eisner said: “A brand is a living entity – and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures.” In no profession is this truer than ours.

The best recruiters pay attention to the many, many details that every search entails and deliver the best talent. The end result is higher-quality talent being hired, happier clients, and more successful business partnerships.

A Players Don’t Hang Around Forever

It’s a candidates’ market. With the high demand for good talent, A players can choose their team carefully. That is why our clients’ hiring processes must be reasonable. We live in an Internet world where information is at our fingertips and communication is instantaneous. Hiring processes that take six to eight weeks don’t cut it. Streamlined hiring processes do. To top talent, a bogged-down hiring process represents the decision-making process for everything else in the company. They see an organization not nimble enough to compete.

One of the most important things a good recruiter does is consult with clients to help develop a healthy hiring process. The goal is to trim the hiring process to a lean and efficient two weeks once the candidates have been submitted. Anything longer than four weeks and the A player will be gone. Only the B and C players will remain. Not a championship team in the making. It’s critical to streamline the hiring process to appeal to top talent and be ready to opt out of the game if the client clings to a drawn-out process.

Offers Should Not Go Out Without Knowing They Will Be Accepted

Recently I was asked by a major banking institution to help with a commercial lending VP search. In our discussion, I learned that the bank had sent out five offers, with not one being accepted. I was surprised but not shocked. Many companies are experiencing the same problems in today’s talent-driven market.

Still, most hiring managers think it is perfectly okay to send out an offer without knowing it will be accepted. One hiring manager said to me, “Let me give him something to think about.” Good idea. It did give him something to think about: which trash can to toss the paperwork in.

Candidates know whether they will accept the job before the final interview. As long as there are no surprises in that discussion, the decision should be a done deal. The candidate has already been thinking about it for up to four weeks based on the interview process. Good recruiters set expectations up front, addressing any concern, compensation, vacation, title, responsibilities . . . nothing is left to chance. Because the recruiter has qualified the candidate, there is no need for a candidate to think about it overnight or over the weekend or the next week. It is your job to help your clients understand why the commitment of acceptance should be in hand before any offer goes out. It saves a lot of time, aggravation, and wasted paperwork.

It’s True. You Get What You Pay For

I see this everywhere. Companies that are unwilling to pay for an A player struggle along with teams composed of B and C players. In a high-demand, low-supply market, companies like this really suffer. Candidates think if you are cheap with people, you will be cheap with everything else. Companies can’t afford this perception.

Statistics show that an A player (top 10%) candidate is five times more productive than the average B player. The Pareto Principle – 80% of the result will come from 20% of the people – is something you should discuss with every client. Put it to them this way: “Would it be worth that extra 10% to 20% more in compensation to add to that pool of 20% of the people who actually produce 80% of the results?” Sure, top talent costs more, but you don’t get a Mercedes for Taurus prices.

But your clients should also understand that this principle applies to their relationship with a trusted recruiter. When clients pressure recruiters to discount their fees, they do not value their services as they should. It will be a problem. If companies want the best people, they partner with the best recruiters and pay them a full fee. Many successful recruiters refuse to discount fees, and even if they did, would not spend any significant time on the search. How could they justify it? If you have 20 great search assignments on your desk, why make time to work on a discounted search? What your client needs to know is that the best recruiters don’t discount fees. They don’t have to. It is the individuals who are new to recruiting or without a strong value proposition in our industry who begrudgingly discount fees – the recruiters who have nothing else to work on.

In today’s business climate, it isn’t enough for us to be good at what we do. A great recruiter must focus on educating every client about the importance of developing the right belief system and hiring culture to be successful at hiring the top talent in today’s demand-driven market. This requires superior communication skills, a strong belief in your own professional worth, and the confidence that you – and you alone – will deliver the top talent available in the marketplace.

Jon Bartos is a premier speaker and consultant on all aspects of human capital. As CEO of Jonathan Scott International in Mason, Ohio, he has achieved industry-leading success. He is one of an elite group of executive recruiters who year after year have billed over $1 million annually. Jon has also established JSI as a top executive search and contract-staffing firm. The office has won 14 international awards in the MRI franchise system, including International Billing Manager of the Year and Top 10 SC Office. He runs an executive-coaching program called Magnum Program and also hosts a career-focused talk show on Fox radio, Talent Wins with Jon Bartos, Your Personal Career Coach, every Sunday at 2 p.m. EST. Jon can be reached at (513) 701-5910 or jon@jonathanscott.com or jon@talentwinsonline.com.

Q. I’m writing to you out of pure frustration. Our company has been sold and now we only have ownership of our candidates for 90 days. Everyone knows this is a candidate-driven marketplace and top talent is difficult to recruit. If I don’t place a candidate I have recruited in 90 days, anyone in my office can place this person and I get nothing. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to discuss this with our new owner (who has no experience in the recruiting profession) and he accused me of being territorial. I’d love to know the “norm” when it comes to candidate ownership.
Lisa S., Canton, OH

A. It is a candidate-driven marketplace, and you are correct when you say it is difficult to identify top talent. There is tremendous work that goes into identifying and recruiting candidates. With long interviewing processes, it can often take more than 90 days to place an MPC (most placeable candidate). Recruiting firms are, for the most part, owned by entrepreneurs who are in business to make a profit. Most recruiting and staffing firms actually place less than 5% of the candidates they represent. This 90-day policy would promote marketing this candidate to prospective clients and a sense of urgency to match and book this person. If you want to approach your owner, you need to show how a change in this policy would benefit him and help the company make higher profits. Most owners get frustrated when experienced recruiters have hundreds of candidates they claim they own, but are not actively working. Most firms have some type of time frame for candidate ownership to prevent this from happening. With this candidate-driven marketplace, top talent is “off the market” quickly.

Q. I attended the Top Echelon Conference and thoroughly enjoyed your Owners Session. I’ve lost many hours of sleep since the conference and wanted to ask you what you meant by keeping proper records for a corporation. I file an annual report each year, but I’m not sure if that is sufficient. You kept referring to “Piercing the Corporate Veil,” which is why I’m asking this question. I’m being sued and after hearing you, I’m very concerned that this company could come after me personally.
Concerned Top Echelon Member

A. It is important that you have minutes that acknowledge all major events, purchases, and changes that occur in your business. If you decide to lease a car, that needs to be included in your corporate minutes. If you elect different officers, that needs to be reflected in your corporate minutes. If your minutes are not current, a lawyer could prove that you are not properly functioning as a corporation and could go after you personally. If you have a corporate credit card, you cannot make personal purchases with this card. If you have more than one company, you should have a separate credit card for each corporate entity. Personal expenses should be charged on a personal card, NOT a business credit card. You cannot commingle business and personal expenses.

If you have a Sam’s Club or Costco membership, you need to separate your business expenses from your personal ones. I personally check out of Costco twice, once for my home, once for my business. It is critically important that you keep your corporate records detailed and current. If you want the name of a company that can update your corporate records, email my office and we can provide a referral for you! Proper corporate and accounting records can make or break your business. You can email me at bbruno@goodasgoldtraining.com. Please put FORDYCE LETTER in the subject line. Keeping records current is not optional, it’s mandatory.

Q. I heard you at a recent conference and you made the statement “If you are your company, you have just bought yourself a job.” I don’t agree with you. I work from home, I make a great living, and I don’t have the hassles of the owners who are babysitting with their employees. I’m incorporated and I do have a business!
Jennifer H., Clearwater, FL

A. I’d just like to ask you two questions:
1. What would happen to your business if you could not work for the next six months?
2. What is your Exit Plan – Your Financial Freedom Day?

The test of a business is whether it is an entity that can operate successfully if you are there or not! Many individuals in our profession are sole operators who plan to earn as much as they can, and when they decide to quit working, they close their doors. There are pluses and minuses to this type of arrangement. The primary issue is that you only make money if you are working. You do not have a team of people helping you generate sales. I’ve often encouraged sole proprietors to join networks so you can split with other recruiters, who could keep your business alive if you could not work for a period of time!

If you ever plan to “sell” your business, you cannot “be” your business. In fact, you dramatically decrease the value of your business if you are the top producer of your firm. You need to teach others what you know, develop systems, and eventually replace yourself as the top producer. As the owner, you want to focus on growing your business and increasing profits.

Barb Bruno, CPC, CTS, is one of the leading international speakers for the recruiting profession today. Sign up for Barb’s FREE NO BS Newsletter and receive notices on the two FREE teleconferences she conducts each month – one for owners, one for recruiters. Go to www.staffingand recruiting.com/newsletter