ResumeFinder
by eGrabber

Those of you who attended the Fordyce Forum last June are already familiar with this venerable provider of products to the recruiting industry, eGrabber. I have reviewed their Resume-Grabber, AddressGrabber, and ListGrabber products in this column a number of times over the last 10 years. This month I am pleased to write about a new offering for our industry, Resume-Finder, a tool that can help us all quickly and easily cull résumés of passive candidates from the Google search engine.

Although ResumeFinder is an installed program, one aspect I really like is that it integrates with Internet Explorer (7) and resides in your browser as a “toolbar.” It can be accessed anytime you have a browser window open. Once it’s installed, you simply type in a few keywords, hit the Find button, and the ResumeFinder starts feeding the installed search strings (co-developed by yours truly) into the Google search engine and creates a new IE “tab” for each string. Although ResumeFinder comes with a number of professionally developed search strings, users can also add search strings of their choice to the search methodology and the program will feed those user-developed strings into Google and create a new tab for those as well.

ResumeFinder also allows limiting your search results to specific locations. The location settings are user configurable and are populated with individual states, but users can also add specific cities or regions (using zip code ranges for the number range command) and save any new entries to the list.

The program also allows “site” searches, a very popular résumé-generating method I often teach in my classes. The “portal” list is populated with many of the more popular Internet communities and ISPs (aol.com, fortunecity. com, geocities.com, etc.) and networks (linkedin.com), but again, this list is user configurable, and users can add sites to the list whenever they find one that they would like to include in their search methodology.

Their options (setup) feature allows users to limit their results to pages that were updated at any time, or you can even limit your results to those pages that were updated in the last three months, in the hope that these pages contain more current information.

In closing, just as their ResumeGrabber product was standard issue for any Internet recruiter 10 years ago in the industry’s infancy, Resume-Finder should be on every recruiting desktop. This product allows any recruiter to take advantage of the millions of free résumés that can be found using the Google search engine by just typing in a keyword or two. Very little in the way of training is required for this product.

This product retails for a very reasonable $350. In their tradition of supporting The Fordyce Letter subscribers and other recruiting groups around the country, they have offered TFL subscribers a $100 discount off their normal retail pricing and have developed a landing page specifically for this audience. For more information, a demo, or a free three-day trial, visit the site at http://www.eGrabber.com/ fordyce/. To purchase this product, click the Buy Online link at the top of the landing page, then click the link next to the ResumeFinder entry. Go to the Shopping Cart and enter the coupon code: FORDYCESPL. On checkout, your discount will be calculated automatically on purchases made before Thanksgiving Day (11/22/07).

eSkill

eSkill is a relative newcomer to the skills-assessment market-place, having launched in 2003. However, it is the first assessment product that intelligently customizes each skills test to fit each job requirement, by picking individual questions based on the subjects and skill levels required.

For instance, an employer needs a candidate with skills in English language, basic computer knowledge, and typing speed. Logging into their eSkill account, the employer can select these skills from eSkill’s menus and generate a seamless test covering all three subjects. Clients can create tests of any length for prescreening or in-house proctored testing, and adjust the relative difficulty level as appropriate.

Serious hiring managers can pick their own ideal questions from the eSkill database with powerful search tools. The optional Editor provides an easy authoring tool for clients who wish to add their own proprietary test content to their service.

Compared to off-the-shelf, single-subject tests, an eSkill customized test will be more thorough, time efficient, and legally defensible due to job relevance.

eSkill has hundreds of organizations across five continents as clients, including Federal Express, Lehman Brothers, Winn-Dixie, PepsiCo, Sapphire Technologies, and Accenture. Many have submitted testimonials that can be seen on their websites. Recruiters have noted a 30% in-crease in placements that included an eSkill test score with their initial referral.

eSkill offers both pay-per-test and unlimited testing plans for both small businesses and large. For more information, visit their website at www.eskill.com or you can contact them via voice at (866) 537-5455 or via email at info@eskillc.com.

Microquest

Diversity Passive Candidates

I recently received an email from Microquest and hadn’t seen much in the way of a firm specializing in diversity passive candidates, so I thought I would let subscribers know of this service. I did not have access to the materials for this article. Microquest is a research firm that has been publishing directories since 1990. They provide databases of scrubbed passive candidates presented in print directories and on CD. The CDs are searchable and exportable. Customers receive updates throughout the one-year site license.

Their diversity line focuses on senior women and minority executives at Fortune 1000-class companies. They have identified virtually all “diverse” board members at Fortune companies as well as executives at the director, VP, and C-level. Used by national search firms and leading boutique diversity recruiters, they have helped to place more than 40 board positions since 1994.

They also have a technology track that identifies all the major technology companies in the different segments and identifies individuals from CEO down to staff-level engineers with hundreds of entries at the major companies. They claim their information is accurate to approximately 90%, with rosters highly organized by rank and function.

Their data is generated by an in-house research group that classifies, dates, and hand-enters every entry. People are identified from a wide array of public sources, including hundreds of magazines and journals, IEEE abstracts, press releases, SEC filings, websites, and Internet search programs. As records age they are automatically reviewed and reverified by telephone. As of this writing their data does not include email addresses, but they have plans to add that information later this year.

Anyone with an interest in this type of resource can visit their website for more information at www.mqc.com, or you can contact Lorraine Ross, Microquest President, via email at lorraine@mqc.com or via voice at (415) 209-6540.

Tip

www.wisenut.com

It seems like every time we turn around, there is another search engine up and running. It would be a full-time job for any recruiter or sourcer/researcher to actually use all of them in our daily affairs, so we have to pick and choose which ones are best for us. I have always been a big promoter of, at the very least, using the top three engines, Google, Yahoo, and Live. These are the largest and most productive for us when it comes to résumé and name-generation. However, we are leaving a lot of information on the table if we don’t at least check out some of the others from time to time to see if they generate information to help us fill our job orders.

Here is one to look at – the typical “David vs. Goliath” scenario. Even though Yahoo and Live are in the top three, it is Google that everyone goes after. One thing I like about Wisenut is that it uses search technology similar to Google’s Page Ranking and Relevancy settings automatically to give you results more targeted to your search requests. Another nice feature is that it automatically categorizes your results into folders of related content. This feature allows a quick snapshot of your results so you can go directly to those folders that look like the best matches.

Something REALLY NICE is the ability to use their “Sneak-a-Peek” feature, which lets you take a look at the results page without having to leave the Wisenut results page. I wish all of them would do this, as it alleviates a lot of clicking to look at results.

This engine claims to have indexed over 850 million Web pages. Not quite the one billion plus that Google claims, but surely a healthy chunk.

A Google-killer? Probably not, but this engine has some innovative features that deserve a look. Check it out at www.wisenut. com.

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 web-site is www.swatrecruiting. com, and we recommend that you visit it to see archives of his articles and information offerings exclusively for recruiters.

I see lots of posts on the boards about starting a recruiting business; in fact, when you do a search on Google on “starting a recruiting business” you get 611 hits. When you do a search on “selling your recruiting business” or “selling a recruiting business” you get no hits. What’s up with that?

Many short winters ago I sold small businesses. For those of you who know me, you also know I spent 20-plus long years doing this, most of which for a company that I owned and ran.

It’s an exhausting and trying business; mostly, you’re attempting to sell “small businesses” to people who can’t get a job. Try that on for size. People “who can’t get a job” are driven by other factors than people who can get a job. People who can’t get a job are many times older; they may have lost their jobs in economy moves that their former employers made that set them out on stoops with little to no security for the future. These people sometimes are shell-shocked and bitter, and dealing with some of them can take a special set of patience and temerity mixed in with empathy.

Once in a while you get some-one who nobody will hire for legal reasons. I once had a wife tearfully call me the night before closing on a $350,000 deal to tell me (for the first time) that her husband was a jailed felon and could only receive permission to attend the closing during a certain short two-hour period and what could we do to accommodate the jailer’s schedule? YES, this actually happened. He attended and sat dutifully next to his wife (who was buying the business with HER money FOR him, a second husband after the death of her first), a broken and sad soul. I forget what he had done that landed him there and only learned of all this shame that night before the closing and learned more when I was called upon to sell the business two years later for the “arrangement” that wasn’t working out.

There are many other stories I could tell, but the reason I bring these up here is to demonstrate that your likely field of “buyers” usually comes with some “issues.”

The first thing you must do if you own your own business is PLAN, PLAN, and PLAN some more. You’re not going to live forever and, yes, it’s easy to get caught up in the 15-hour-a-day madness that it takes to own and run your own business. DO NOT overlook this component. Hire professionals to help you do this. Be careful about thinking your kids want your business; they usually don’t, so don’t burden them with it! They might, though, and the best way to equip them for the future trauma is to make sure they receive a college education beforehand followed by an internship of service that includes running every single part of the business in some capacity.

You might also consider some-one within your own business with whom you have a mentoring relationship who has expressed an interest in future ownership. People aren’t mind readers; talk to this person about this subject like a Dutch uncle (you do talk to this person in this manner anyway, right?) and set some kind of stepping-away timetable that ties the company’s performance to some kind of revenue-sharing benchmark for yourself. It’s never too early to plan.

If you have nobody lined up “internally” to act as your successor, the time will come when you want to sell. You will need to take a cold-blooded and calculatingly hard look at your business and see it for what it is. Blood, sweat, and tears have no market value, so lose them in this process. Selling a business takes time. Be prepared for at least a year’s stretch; it can take less, but in my experience a year is a pretty good benchmark.

I say one year if, in fact, you have collected everything ahead of time that you will need to sell your business. My best advice to you at this point, once again, is to hire professionals. You’ll need your financials in order, and these should include at minimum three years of tax returns and accompanying balance statements. You will also need to set a price on your business, and that can be a very tricky endeavor. Your price is impacted (usually almost wholly) by the financials you can bring to the table to “show.” Any monies “on the side” (wink, wink) are not countable, so don’t even bring it up. You’ll look like a fool. Different “multiples” are customary across different industries. Do you know what they are? Do you know what can be considered as value in the original multiple?

You also need to look at what the selling market is like at the time you wish to sell. Is what you’re selling unique? Is it hard to duplicate? Is there a lot of inventory and equipment that needs to be addressed in the selling price? Real estate? You may need the services of a Realtor; try to find one who has business brokerage experience. Good ones are rare, but they’re out there. Does your recruiting business consist almost wholly of human capital? Can it exist without you fueling the furnace? What happens when you are gone?

Do you have contracts in place with your customers? How do they read? Will your customers stay with the business when there is a change of ownership?

You’re also going to need someone’s advice as to how to structure a sale. Your account-ant/tax person is a good one to turn to for this advice, but don’t be fooled by a shingle. Ask them if they’re knowledgeable about cur-rent tax laws in selling a business. Tax law is a tricky and moving target, changing constantly.

And last but not least, you’re going to have to decide if you want to deal with all the crazies who show up on your doorstep, wanting to “lookie-lou” your business over. “Everyone” wants to own their own business, and you’re going to be deluged with nine and a half requests out of ten by people who do not have the wherewithal (money) to buy your business. You have the energy to wade through all that? Do you understand how to ask for a confidentiality agreement? How to vet a buyer’s balance sheet? You may (and probably) want to hire a professional to do this for you. There are brokers who specialize in the sale of small (and large) businesses. They usually charge a commission on the sale (10-12% is not unusual) and, if they’re smart, will charge you some other nonrefundable fees to bring your business to market in a professional manner. Having someone between you and the crazies is priceless.

But don’t ask me to represent you. I wouldn’t go back to that nightmare for all the tea in China. I love telephone names sourcing!

Maureen Sharib (maureen @techtrak.com) is a telephone names sourcer, names sourcing since 1997. She and her husband, Bob, own the names-sourcing firm TechTrak.com, Inc. (www.techtrak.com), which helps companies fill their hard-to-place positions at a fraction of the cost of traditional recruiting venues. Maureen is the 2007-2008 Guild Guide for the newly formed Sourcers Guild, a professional organization for sourcers. Sourcers Guild: http://finance.groups. yahoo.com /group/sourcersguild/. She is also the author of the very popular “Magic in the Method,” a one-of-a-kind telephone names sourcing training course, and a frequent contributor to many online recruiting-related sites. Maureen has a BA in economics from the University of Cincinnati and lives in Morrow, Ohio, on a 12-acre paradise with Bob, their dog Buster, and three barn cats. She is most grateful to be able to do what she does.

In the August issue of TFL you read about the “Little Search Firm That Could.” While you may have found the fairy-tale approach endearing, the story itself was all true. It described how one small search firm (my own) took one client and turned that one little account into multiples of millions of dollars in fees over more than a decade. It also described how the client itself profited from the relationship.

But all good things must end. And we knew that someday, somewhere, somehow, someone would figure out that an end must be brought about to these ridiculous fees being paid to “The Little Search Firm.”

We were prepared. With some external oversight and help from Bob Marshall of Atlanta, I had begun working on a “pre-emptive” strike to reposition our company without needing one of our major accounts any longer.

This was just as our best year ever came to a close, with a record-breaking level of fees well into the mid-six figures from this one account alone. I knew the party could not last forever.

Bob and I worked a strategy to gradually wean ourselves from needing or wanting to work with this company. It took about two full years (one year on my own and a few quarters working with Bob) to develop several new accounts that not only replaced the original, but were better, paid faster, and used us for higher-level hires.

The company itself outlined in the story proceeded with the type of plan I had anticipated they would for years:

- They fired all of their regional, experienced personnel specialists that had decades of experience locally in the areas where they worked around the United States.
- They replaced each of the senior recruiters (internal recruiters) with 20-something types that had failed in the search industry and were now highly qualified to work for a corporation (I got to see the résumés of a few and am not making this up).
- One such new recruiting individual had a bachelor’s degree in – get this – zoology! Not that I have anything against zoology, but to fire tenured internal recruiters with 20 years’ experience for THAT?
- For approximately 40 thousand dollars each, the corporation replaced all the knowledgeable recruiters it once had out in the field with a staff of 30 Generation Y types who knew nothing about the employer, its history, political dynamics, managers, managers’ histories, etc.
- Result: The new 30-person “replacement recruiting force” was clueless.

Did they save money? Probably. To clarify, they saved recruiting fees. When I asked regional managers and vice presidents, here’s what they replied:

“Frank, I’m worried. What used to take three to four weeks to find a low-level trainee is now taking us six months. In 12 years with this company I never needed to wait six months to find a decent recent grad we could hire for our trainee program.”

Of course, part of the problem is the overall tight labor market. But having spent $1.2 million on a state-of-the-art “centralized” résumé submission and applicant tracking system, the company is not now experiencing results that align with the exorbitant IT expenditures they made.

The IT company that sold the new consolidated system won the battle for the heart and mind of this company. The recruiting industry did not.

But it was a very short honeymoon. After one year of tolerating the new system, executives got desperate and went over HR management’s head demanding to get my firm back into the picture. Retribution can be so sweet.

Sometimes the best remedy for evaluating our worth is simply letting business take its course and allowing a company to com-pare the difference with the alternatives. I’m somewhat glad we stepped away from the process for a year, as it made the managers value our services even more in comparison to the new alternative.

If your client is re-organizing, re-engineering, or re-inventing its recruiting systems, be patient. Maintain diplomatic relations and stay in touch.

Just as you think the end of a long relationship is about to happen, you could be in for a surprise if you just give it enough time.

Frank G. Risalvato is a staffing and recruiting consultant who has been in the search profession since 1987. He has contributed hundreds of articles to publications, has appeared on TV and radio, and has been called upon by state and federal agencies for expert testimony. His recruiter training services, books, and kits are found on www.searchwizardry.com. Call (973) 300-1010 for an exclusive one-on-one experience with his training style. His new Charlotte, N.C., direct telephone is (704) 243-2110.

What’s keeping you from your greatness in recruiting? It could be your originality.

Recruiters often ask me, “How do I break through my billings from $_____ per year to $_____ per year? What’s the key?” The question is a variation on Jim Collins’ great book, Good to Great. “How do I go from good to great in the recruiting business? I’m already doing well,” they say. “But what do I need to do to become great?”

I remember when I first started my company, Joseph Michaels, Inc., we hired Bob Marshall, one of the great trainers in our business, and I asked him that same question with regard to my recruiters. He said to me something I’ll never forget. He said, “The problem with hiring recruiters is that in order to make it in our business, they have to be two things. Very smart and very creative. So, Joe, we hire very intelligent, very creative people and then we ask them to not think – for about six months.”

You’re laughing now because you know it’s true! Think about all the dumb things you did in your first six months in the recruiting business. I’m laughing now myself, thinking about my own major-league blunders, and let me tell you, they were aplenty. I remember one time calling in a bunch of my high school dropout friends for some of the jobs for which we were recruiting. Boy, as I look back on it, 21 years ago, thinking that they might actually get hired for some of those positions, it was like thinking that they could flap their arms and fly around our office. As if they weren’t high already!

So anyway . . .

We hire these smart, creative people and we try to teach them the business, but because they are smart and creative, they keep thinking up new ways to do the business.

The great ones stick with what works. They add in new things periodically and they are always learning new techniques, but for the most part, they stick with what works. I have a great script I use for recruiting. It works a HUGE percentage of the time. So I use it EVERY TIME. One of the things that befuddles me is that so many recruiters are smart and creative to a fault. As soon as they find something that really works great, they reinvent it!

Watch Tiger Woods address a ball – notice that he does the same thing every single time. Watch a pro basketball player shoot a free throw – same thing, every time. Watch a great recruiter call a new recruit; he does the same thing every time. Watch a good recruiter – he’s really smart and really creative, so he’s always changing his approach rather than perfecting his script. Don’t get me wrong; Tiger takes time to work on his game – he’s devoted to self-improvement – but he works with what works.

Like a lot of great ball players, I’m superstitious. When I have a good client visit, I wear the same suit to the next client visit. If I win again, guess what, same suit next time. I’ll wear the same suit to every meeting as long as I’m winning. Then I start a new streak. I have number of quarter-million-dollar suits.

Oh, come on, Joe. Next thing you know, you’ll tell me that if I have a good day eating a certain breakfast, I should eat the same breakfast every day. Why not?

Listen, creativity is very important in recruiting, but sometimes you gotta go with what you know works! Sit next to someone in your office who’s billing like they are starting a new bank next month. Write down some of the key phrases they say. Now, don’t use the script your way, yet. Try it their way first. And, if it works, use their script, assuming that’s OK with them. But, you say, “Oh, Joe, I want to be original.” Or “Oh, I want to do it my own way.” What would you rather be, original-broke or copycat rich? You don’t have to do everything your way. Listen, I’ve been original-broke and I can tell you from experience it’s better to be copycat rich! People who say that money isn’t important to them will probably lie about other things as well. Rita Davenport said, “Money isn’t everything, but it’s right up there with oxygen.” I used to be so broke I could walk by a bank and the alarm might go off! But the reason I’m successful now in the recruiting business is that God gave me the gift of humility when I started out. How could I be anything but humble after making about six weeks’ income in my first six months on the job?

I set my ego aside. I used other people’s scripts and ideas, and I found a few good mentors. I studied what the great recruiters were doing and what they were saying and I copied it, the same way they did it. I studied every great recruiter I could find. I bought every book, video, and audiotape ever produced on recruiting, and when I found a script I liked I used it. Jim Rohn says, “You don’t have to be original; you just have to be good.”

So I hope you’ll take this the right way. What’s keeping you from your greatness in recruiting? It could be your originality. Think about it. More next issue . . .

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 finally 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 recruiters and 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 resident of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization, a group of million-dollar-business owners under age 40. Joe is available for speaking and training recruiters worldwide, and can be reached through email at Joe@jpspeaking.com. His website is www.jpspeaking.com.

That’s a great question. Unfortunately, the answer is both simple and complicated.

Whether you’re new to the industry or have been around for years, I’ll bet you came to healthcare with grandiose ideas of how recession-proof this industry was. Maybe you came to feel this way because of the articles you read about the large number of candidate shortages. Or maybe you came to this industry in an attempt to try and make a difference. Well, regardless of what brought us to the healthcare market, we probably all need reminding from time to time of how cyclical this market can be.

We need to know that, regardless of how things are going in other industries, healthcare is a world unto itself. But this time it isn’t just a cyclical shift. Rather, it is a historical convergence of four factors: declining revenues from reimbursement cuts (federal, state, and third-party payers), shortages of skilled professionals, inadequate services, and misconduct by recruiters. And it’s all wrapped up in the uncertainty of the geo-political environment leading up to the 2008 presidential election. See, simple but complicated.

Many of these factors have been affecting healthcare for years, so why have they all converged at this time? This article will attempt to break down each area, give its importance, and suggest how to counteract the negative effects from the convergence of these factors.

First of all, recruiters have created the situation in which we find ourselves. Although that may seem an overstatement considering the players in the market today, the resistance we find to our presence is a reaction by the market to recruiters in general. Now, not all recruiters have created this problem, but the 10% of recruiters who did create the problem have left the remaining 90% of us with a challenge to provide a solution. Most of the more experienced recruiters and trainers I know are suggesting that we should all just make more phone calls. I would suggest this is the last thing we should be doing.

Let me paint you a real-world example of why I say this. I can remember a TV commercial where a sports celebrity was running through an airport. Hurdling seats and zigzagging through passengers. The TV commercial was conveying the message of a late-arriving passenger racing to secure his rental car. In this day and age, if a person were running through an airport, the airport would be shut down for fear of a terrorist attack. I could name many other examples of how our world has changed so that we now fear either the actions or words of a person that we wouldn’t have given a second thought in the past. As recruiters, the things we used to say and do had little to no immediate effect on the market, but in light of this present set of issues, we find the market taking a very different response to our methods. So the very methods we are using are intensifying the negative reaction the market in general is having toward recruiters.

We are experiencing a negative paradigm shift – an overused phrase with an unfavorable connotation. What recruiters need to understand is that this could be a time of “positive paradigm shift,” but our actions have pushed the market away from us. As we all know, “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Well, we (or at least some of us) have taken action in a way that has caused a reaction opposite to what we wanted, and consequently, many employers have chosen not to work with any recruiters.

More hospitals than ever before are implementing “no recruiter” policies. Why do you think this is so? Well, it’s certainly not because we’ve done remarkable and/or high-quality work in filling their job orders. Well, I plan to name names and describe the crimes I have witnessed over my last 12 months of healthcare recruiting. But before I do that, let me explain the importance of the other issues that the healthcare market is struggling with.

Money! It makes the world go around, right? Or at least that’s what they say. Well, these days there isn’t as much money to go around as there used to be, at least for the hospitals. Declining revenues over the last 10 years have created a situation where hospitals, clinics, and medical centers are forced to give away a lot of their services to the poor or uninsured. Additionally, it has forced them to operate with skeleton crews or reduce the quality of the services they offer.

Now don’t get me wrong. There is plenty of money “in” the healthcare market; it’s just not getting to the people who provide the services. There are so many different subgroups tapping into the revenue stream these days that, by the time the money passes through, there’s very little for the person at the end of the line – the one actually providing the service. But that’s not the half of it. Even when a hospital finds itself at the end of the line, receiving a smaller portion of the revenue for the services they provide, they can even be asked to pay for being a part of the healthcare community (call it a membership charge).

Let me give you an example. When the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 was passed, it was described as a stroke of genius and hard negotiating by the Clinton administration to force government to live within its means. The truth is that the Balanced Budget Act required every hospital in this country to pay an average of $2 million per facility back to the government just for being a part of the healthcare community. The government extracted these fees from hospitals by substantially reducing reimbursement rates. As a justification, the legislation tied it to a hospital’s participation in the Medicare program. No other industry in the United States paid as much as the healthcare industry did during this time. So after all this smooth talk and wrangling, our wonderful government stuck it to our healthcare system. This caused a number of community hospitals to go out of business; and, additionally, placed a larger number of hospitals on the brink of disaster by draining their reserves.

The contributors to this problem aren’t just our federal government (Medicare, federal laws, etc.) but also our state governments (Medicaid, state laws, etc.); insurance companies (through reduced reimbursements, or cutting reimbursement altogether for some tests, treatments, or drugs); other third-party payers; the uninsured; and other service providers. This is not a good time to be a hospital, clinic, or medical center.

Most hospitals consider it a good year when they have an end-of-the-year reserve of 3 to 5%, but a large number are barely breaking even.

In light of this information, about three years ago a small group of hospitals started developing policies and procedures that were designed to increase year-end reserves to the 15 to 20% range. This is where our paradigm shift comes in. The programs that these hospitals implemented have become very successful. So much so that other hospitals started to follow their lead by implementing the very same programs. So what were these programs? The senior management of these progressive hospitals started putting into place measures that reduced the prices of some vendors and eliminated other vendors. And the way senior management has structured who gets cut versus who gets eliminated is based largely on how much clout the vendor has. For example, with pressures being placed on doctor practices by Medicare, Medicaid, and insurance companies, many doctors are now more than happy to make the shift to becoming employees of hospitals instead of independent practitioners, which would have been unheard of five years ago. Other examples are the product vendors (implants, surgical supplies, office supplies, drugs, etc.), who have all been given ultimatums on pricing structures. Contracts have been established for approved vendors, and the other vendors (unable to capitulate) have been cut from the herd.

On top of this are the record shortages of skilled professionals. If you go to any hospital website and check out the “Current Openings” link, you will see a long list of the hardest-to-find professionals these facilities are trying to recruit. But at the same time, a recruiter who calls this facility will be told that they don’t have any openings. What’s the truth? I suggest that you read more into people’s actions than their words. If they take the time to post a position on their website, then there is most likely an opening. The real truth is that for every opening they post, there are five other openings for lesser-skilled titles they don’t have time to post.

We all have been reading for years that 7 out of 10 jobs by 2010 will be healthcare-related, and there’s a reason for that – it’s called baby boomers (78 million strong). But in light of an increase in patient traffic, with fewer skilled professionals (caregivers) to meet the new demand, why have hospitals decided to misrepresent their employee needs to inquiring recruiters? Why do hospitals feel justified in misrepresenting their openings to the one group that could help relieve the pressure of these issues? Rodney Dangerfield put it best when he said, “I get no respect!” Client hospitals have lost so much professional respect for recruiters that they feel it’s not unethical at all to misrepresent their situations to recruiters. Quite frankly, they feel it’s absolutely none of the recruiter’s business as to what openings they have or don’t have. Besides, the hospitals I work with feel that recruiters are the cause for all these openings in the first place. They (management) share no responsibility for employee falloffs, or employee separations.

And finally, let’s wrap all of this up in a geo-political football and kick it around a little. As far as the healthcare market is concerned, history is about to repeat itself. This 2008 presidential election is being reported far sooner than any other election in history, and in these reports, our industry (healthcare) is being reminded that the person they defeated in 1994 (Hillary Clinton) as the First Lady, assigned to the task of overhauling healthcare, may, as president, take a second shot at the healthcare industry.

To remind you of the climate in 1994, healthcare was a bundle of nerves because of two years of secret sessions (by Hillary Clinton) to create a type of “Universal Healthcare for all.” It was compared to the system in Canada. They wouldn’t admit it, but they wanted the U.S. healthcare system to become “socialized medicine.” This is bad news (big time) for more reasons than can possibly be explained in this article.

During this 1993-1994 cycle, healthcare went through many of the same symptoms that it’s experiencing today. It tightened up, and overreacted to a situation that never came to pass. But from this overreaction came managed care, and set in motion many of the healthcare issues and problems we all face today.

So let’s review. We are working in a market that is forced to accept reduced revenues from a big brother (the state and federal government) while at the same time is required to provide more services with less-skilled professionals for a customer base that is the largest in modern history. Now, when surviving seems almost impossible, our market is being reminded that “Big Brother” might become the worst nightmare ever, due to a power-wielding president hell-bent on saving face from a defeat she suffered as first lady. If the market were a turtle, it would be so far back in its shell it would be hard to tell if it were dead or alive. The market is scared stiff, convinced that the world as they know it may be doomed.

Regardless of your political beliefs or affiliations, this is how this market reacts when confronted by changes within the federal government. If we want the healthcare industry to function, then leave it alone. I suggest that the same people we count on to save our lives or treat our family members can also be trusted to police the very industry they call their own.

So, I bet you’re thinking how did we, as recruiters, cause any of this? And on the surface, you would have a point because the picture I have painted in the past paragraphs would have happened regardless of our existence. But let’s go deeper. Let me ask you a question. What do some people do when they are forced to operate in a way that they do not like? Do they become bitter and resentful toward others? Do they become disgruntled toward their family and coworkers? Would some of them even seek out others to vent their frustrations? Yes, Yes, and Yes. What I mean by this is that healthcare has no choice but to operate in a dysfunctional system of checks and balances forced upon them by the administrators of the system. But where they do have a choice is the question of with whom they will work during their time of misery.

For years, recruiters have been tolerated as a necessary evil of doing business in an industry of candidate shortages. But in the last four years, we have seen an explosion of wannabe recruiters thrashing their way through healthcare in a way that would embarrass even the worst of recruiters.

These wannabe recruiters, unbeknownst to them, entered a difficult and complicated market where placements (even if they knew what they were doing) could take four to six months to complete. As months turned into a year, these recruiters became more desperate, so in an attempt to survive financially they took aggressively to the phones. They told any employer who would listen that they would work for any fee: 20% fees, then 15% fees, then 10%, to finally flat fees of $2,500 to $5,000 per placement. This gave employers the idea that we were all for sale. At first the market tolerated these calls, but then it became apparent that something had to be done. So in a time when hospitals saw a need to cut vendors from the herd, we have seen a huge shift toward “No Recruiter” polices.

During this time of historical convergence of three legitimate issues, recruiters stuck their heads up and became the whipping boy for the whole situation. Unfortunately, it seems that recruiters have become the mental scapegoat for all that’s wrong in the healthcare industry today (at least for management). Hospitals have found someone else farther down the food chain and are rejoicing because they feel powerless to control the outcome of their present situation – misery loves company.

But for all of these symptoms, there is an antidote – and I will reveal them in my next article.

Clay Abbott is the president and founder of the Academy of HealthCare Recruiters, Inc. Clay is one of the healthcare recruiting industry’s leading recruiters, trainers, public speakers, and consultants. He has 21 years of healthcare experience and has successfully developed the only guaranteed Home Study HealthCare Recruiter Training programs in the industry. Many solo recruiters and recruiting managers are finding the crossover into healthcare possible with Clay’s leadership and knowledge. To learn more about his training products and services, visit his website at www.academyofhealthcarerecruiters.com. Clay can be reached at (812) 522-2992 or e-mail him at clay@academyofhealthcarerecruiters.com.

It is a great time to be in this industry! The future is both exciting and distinctly different from recent years. There is room for all kinds of services offered by professionals who find, evaluate, and place people. In my opinion there has never been a better time to engage in both full-time direct placement and supplemental temporary staffing, simultaneously.

Everything from CEO briefings to The Wall Street Journal to CNN suggests that a top strategic initiative of many companies is to hire not only new talent, but also the right talent. Even with the diminishing available talent pool in this country, and the tempting message about the lower costs of skilled and unskilled offshore labor providers, I anticipate that employers will put their money toward hiring solid people and creating positions that leverage opportunities to innovate, compete, and achieve corporate objectives. In my 22 years of running a staffing and placement desk/company, my observation of this talent “shortage” is that clients are demanding more, not less, and are unwavering in their expectations to attract and hire “difference makers” and “key contributors.”

This not only adds opportunity for temporary-service firms to cash in on supplementing those vacancies while their clients hold out for the right hire, but it also affords a magnitude of opportunity for the human resources service provider that masters the fit and executes in a manner that continually provides that fit to their customers. It provides even more opportunity to companies that can effectively do both.

Consider that unemployment is as low as most of us have seen it. Our candidates are fully aware that the opportunity to work, and work full-time, is there if they so choose. They are becoming choosier. If at all hirable, most candidates who want a full-time job are interviewing for perm positions, even while temping for you. So, offering perm placement to your temporary talent pool is just good common, as well as business, sense. It tells your temporary employees that you have their best interest at heart and are always on the hunt for a full-time job for them, and it gives you unique leverage as the current employer who will serve as the reference. Temp employees whose intention is to have you give them a good recommendation make the very best type of temporary workers.

While temp and perm are very different, they share many commonalities. Companies do business with people they like. Even when a company has a temporary service agreement with Manpower, or Spherion, they will almost always take quality, “difference making” candidates from other placement firms that understand their culture, needs, and fit. Just as a great service coordinator on the temp side masters the art of duplicating “right” and builds a strong pipeline of available talent, the astute perm recruiter is well aware of the replication processes and their clients’ hiring cycles, ready to deliver when their clients have a need.

Additionally, before a temp staffing company enters the perm placement business, there are other things that must be considered. In addition to the obvious, such as who will do the work, a major consideration is whether people will run a blended desk, where both temp and perm placement are provided, or if a separate team of folks will be developed who are dedicated to identifying perm candidates and marketing those candidates to existing or new customers. If the decision is to open a perm service and maintain two separate divisions, a policy will have to be set forth for candidate and client ownership because there is sure to be a squabble over who did what, and what that contribution was worth.

Likewise, the temp staffer and the perm recruiter share many of the same behaviors. Both typically have a strong sense of urgency, have varying degrees of competitiveness, and enjoy variety and customer interaction. And top performers on both sides are aware of and eager to hit their production goals. The most glaring difference I can see is the time in which the employee is expected to produce a result, and that cannot be underestimated. I was once told that working a temp desk is like running the 50-yard dash, while running a perm desk is like the mile-and-a-quarter race: fast at first, then slow and steady, then come in with a strong stride. The other big difference is that most of the work on the perm side is done before the placement happens, while most of the work on the temp side is done after the placement starts. Temp takes a strong service and a light sales mentality, while perm takes a strong sales and a discerning service mentality.

Temp companies should also recognize the difference in the sales process. Temporary sales are typically an industrial selling solution and a client-centric order-fulfillment philosophy, whereas the most popular form of perm selling is running with an MPC, and the emphasis is on getting great people great jobs. From what I have seen, heard, and experienced, the spin selling system works well in both sales scenarios. What works the same in both types of staffing is that you are perceived as ONLY as good as the last person you placed. Everything you do can and will be held for or against working with you again in the court of more business.

There is also the infrastructure: the systems, operating practices, and day-to-day functionality of the office. What works on temp may work on perm, but you will need to modify your screening and selection process as well as add a few steps to manage your teams’ effectiveness. And then there is candidate control, preparation, counteroffers, navigating multiple offers, and negotiation.

Working out billing issues in advance is smart. Will your company offer temp to perm with no fee? Or will you stand on the ground that you will offer perm placement and ANYTIME someone takes someone out of their assignment parameters, a fee will be due? Or is your policy determined on a case-by-case basis (not recommended).

Another item to consider is the caliber of people being placed. Are they the same people you are placing on temp? Or are they higher-caliber, harder-to-find people? Can you interview them both in the same office? Or do they need separate entrances? It seems trite; however, birds of a feather flock together, and often when high-caliber perm candidates come in for an interview and see five industrial-labor applicants in the lobby, those perm candidates will unconsciously select themselves out before they even know what your company is offering. First impressions are lasting.

Compensation is another item to consider, as perm recruiters typically get paid very differently than temp. Answers to most of the questions above will determine the answer to the compensation question.

Finally, how you will differentiate your company from your competitors? Are you in a niche market? Is your service offering totally unique? Is it your recruiting maneuvers that set you apart, or your selection process? What can you leverage to make your company special?

The first thing to do before offering perm placement is to investigate the other services that your clients are already using: what is working, what is not working. Second, take pen to paper and answer the questions listed in this article. Third, evaluate your team and determine whether they have what it takes to offer perm placement at the level that your planning efforts lead you to choose. The only mistake in launching is in not planning and heading face first into the water. As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

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 for 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.

In today’s frantic employment market, there are many recruiters moaning about how they would be billing top dollars if not for their “bad luck” in having their candidates either decline offers or accept counter-offers. They do this in the (mistaken) belief that their skill as recruiters had nothing to do with this state of affairs. I doubt that Roger Federer rationalizes any defeat by Rafael Nadal as “bad luck.” I suspect that Federer identifies the specific skill differential between himself and Raf and then goes about doing his best to close the skill gap. That’s what champions do – they truly understand the adage “the harder I practice, the luckier I get.”

So what’s the cause of the skill gap that has some recruiters appearing to suffer more than their fair share of misfortune at the hands of “weak” or “deceitful” candidates at the offer stage? In my experience it boils down to the recruiter not understanding the difference between candidates’ rational motivators and their emotional motivators, and how this difference affects candidates decision to stay or go when confronted with the reality of leaving their current employer.

Brain science tells us about the difference between the decision-making of the left brain (rational brain) and the right brain (emotional brain). Legendary sales trainer Tom Hopkins puts it succinctly: “Many of us try to sell our products through logic and only through logic. Remember this: seldom do people buy logically. They buy emotionally, and then defend their decisions with logic. Find ways to get them emotionally involved with your product or service.” In other words, human decision-making and, therefore, behavior is driven predominantly by emotional thought, not rational thought.

As recruiters, we are intimately involved with one of the most emotional decisions a person can make: changing jobs. Yet when I observe what recruiters typically ask in an interview, the following questions predominate:

- What salary package will you accept?
- What industry do you want to work in?
- What job responsibilities are important to you?
- How far are you prepared to travel to work each day?
- What size company do you prefer to work in?

They are all valid questions, the answers to which provide you with a sound foundation on which to assess the candidate against your current vacancies for a likely match.

However, they are only 20% of the equation. They are all left-brain questions, accessing the candidate’s rational decision-making. The missing piece of the puzzle is the questions that access where the real decision is driven from, the candidate’s emotions (right brain).

Research consistently supports what recruiters know to be true from their on-the-job experience: that the major reason for people staying in, or leaving, their job is the quality of the relationship they have with their direct up-line supervisor/manager. In other words, whether we stay or leave our employment is overwhelmingly an emotional decision. It is a natural human instinct to want to have our emotional needs met. And having them met at work is no less important than having them met at home, especially in this day and age, when it is not un-common to spend more waking hours with our boss and work colleagues than with our partner and family!

So what are these emotional needs (also known as our values) that we are seeking to have met through work? Some examples are:

- Security (think public servants)
- Challenge – mental (think tax accountants)
- Challenge – physical (think brain surgeons)
- Recognition/being valued (think salespeople)
- Love/caring (think social workers)
- Adventure (think overland tour drivers)
- Leadership (think CEOs/GMs)
- Creativity (think designers)
- Community service (think teachers)
- Independence (think authors)
- Accomplishment (potentially any job!)

The well-reported trend of people “downshifting” highlights the differences about which I am talking. Downshifters have recognized that their emotional motivators were being compromised, so they have left their current job/career (e.g., corporate executive) where their rational needs were being met (e.g., money, title) to find a job/career (e.g., teaching) more in line with their emotional needs (e.g., community service).

When an offer is on the line or a counteroffer is made, the candidate now confronts moving from the rational theory of leaving his current job (“I want a better package,” “I want to change industries,” etc.) to the emotional reality of leaving his current job (“I love the people I work with,” “My boss has invested so much in my development,” etc). Even if the emotional concerns are quelled long enough to verbally accept the offer, it’s predictable that the candidate’s boss, when being delivered the resignation face-to-face, will pull all the emotional strings she can (and a smart boss knows the emotional strings of each staff member very well!) to prevent the departure. We know what happens next. Suddenly the recruiter finds that the candidate is uncharacteristically not contactable for 48 hours, and then a one-line email drops into our inbox unemotionally announcing, for some bland reason, that “I have decided not to accept the offer from XYZ Inc.” And we’re placement-less and frustrated as hell!

So, how (as much as is humanly possible) do we avoid this scenario? The key is to follow three critical steps:

1) During the initial interview, ensure that you ask questions that will give you access to the candidates’ emotional motivators driving both their “go” and “stay” decisions with respect to work.

2) During the initial interview, and again before you put any offer to them, take the candidates from the rational thought of leaving their job to the simulated emotional reality of resigning and leaving their current job.

3) Keep checking in with the candidates during the whole recruitment process to find out whether anything has changed (at work and at home) that could significantly affect the decision to leave their current employer and seek an alternative position.

Let me explain each step in more detail.

First, we most effectively access the emotional motivators of a candidate at work by asking some, or all, of the following questions.

What part of your current job do you enjoy the most/least? Why?

What you most enjoy/not enjoy about working for your current boss? Why?

Tell me about the job that you have most/least enjoyed in your career. Why?

Tell me about the boss that you have most/least enjoyed working for in your career. Why?

Notice that these are behavioral interview questions where you are accessing the candidate’s emotional extremes (i.e., happiness vs. anger or frustration) with respect to past work situations. Remember, the candidate’s past emotional responses are the most reliable guide to future emotional responses. You may be tempted to ask some questions about the candidate’s likely future behavior. Although the answers are not irrelevant, it is important to keep in mind that these are speculative answers, based on what the candidate thinks will occur. It doesn’t guarantee that this future behavior will occur. Examples of these sorts of questions are:

What will you miss most about leaving your current employer? (Your counteroffer warning bell should be sounding very loudly if the person answers “My manager”!)

What difficulties would you expect to be the most significant ones when transitioning from your current role to this role at XYZ Ltd?

Second, let’s drill down on simulating the counteroffer conversation at either the initial interview or after the candidate has received an offer. Because the offer is likely to be the point in the whole recruitment process where the candidate’s emotions are going to be most raw, it’s also the most vulnerable time in potentially changing the person’s mind about leaving the current employer. Knowing this, I recommend that you role-play the counteroffer conversation with the candidate. Having gained solid information about the candidate’s relationship with her current boss, reasons for leaving her current role, and primary emotional drivers at work, you should be able to effectively simulate a counteroffer conversation. The role-play allows you to watch and listen to what the candidate actually does and says in the conversation, which may be completely different from what the candidate may tell you she would do and say in such a conversation with her boss. In the role-play, be alert to all the communication coming from the candidate’s body language and voice, which will tend to give you far more accurate information about the candidate’s vulnerability to a counteroffer than anything she might actually say.

I strongly advise you to simulate a very difficult resignation conversation with the candidate (pulling the candidate’s emotional strings as hard as possible), so no matter how tough the candidate’s boss makes it in the real resignation conversation, she finds it easier to handle than your simulated conversation.

After the simulated conversation, ask permission to give appropriate feedback and coaching, in how the candidate handled the conversation, and how to handle it more effectively.

If the candidate displays significant vulnerability to a counteroffer, then be straightforward. Let him know you have major doubts about his motivation for leaving his current role. Tell him to think it over and call you back within 48 hours to tell you whether he really is serious about leaving. Either way, you cannot lose. If he calls you back to pull out of the process, then you have saved yourself (and the client) time and heartache, and if he calls back and tells you he is serious, then his commitment to leaving has just gone to a whole new level.

Third, you must be alert to any change in the candidate’s situation at work or at home that makes it more likely she will decline an offer or accept a counteroffer. Most recruiters operate under the (usually) mistaken belief that candidates will keep them abreast of any relevant changes that may impact their enthusiasm for a new job (e.g., increase in salary, new boss, partner’s parent has rapidly declining health, etc.). Although communicating with candidates may be currently very front-of-mind for the recruiter, you can be assured that for the candidates, communicating their updated circumstances with the recruiter is much lower down on their current to-do list!

The simple thing to do is to keep asking the candidate “has anything changed?” questions. I would recommend directing specific questions to the areas that were highlighted when the candidate gave you the answers to the questions you asked in (1) above. For example:

You mentioned at our initial interview that you weren’t happy with the opportunities your boss was currently providing to you. Has anything changed in this area since then?

You mentioned at our initial interview that you were feeling pressured at home, due to your long hours at work. Has any-thing changed in this area since then?

At our interview six weeks ago, you mentioned that you were having a performance review in the next month. Has that review happened? If so, did anything come out of that review that either confirmed your decision to seek a new position, or to perhaps reconsider your job search?

You might be very surprised at the answers you get, based on the (mistaken) assumption that the critical (in your eyes) piece of information you have uncovered would have been communicated to you by the candidate, without prompting.

The three things I have outlined to help you avoid declined offers and accepted counteroffers are not guaranteed to work every time. However, by the consistent application of these three steps, you should significantly reduce the “bad luck” you have in not taking candidates from being a “theoretically interested” candidate to an “emotionally committed” job seeker.

Ross started his professional recruitment career in London at the beginning of 1989. Since then he has worked in the UK and three cities across Australia. He has been professionally recognized by the designation MRCSA (Accredited Recruitment Professional), awarded by the Recruitment & Consulting Services Association (Australia & New Zealand). As a Certified Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Ross has a real skill and flair for communicating his passion for recruitment to others in a simple and powerful way. He now runs his own business as a recruitment coach and professional speaker. Ingenius Coaching, PO Box 425, Bentleigh East, Victoria, Australia 3165; Phone: 03 9563 8200; Mobile: 0423 557701.

The global marketplace is buzzing. We are living in the greatest economic boom in modern history. Across the globe, experts are going on record with great news about the current worldwide expansion. “This is far and away the strongest global economy I’ve seen in my business lifetime,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson observed recently. John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco, echoes Paulson, calling it “the strongest global trend” of his career.

With global GDPs soaring to historic levels, $36 trillion today as compared to $13 trillion in the 1970s, world markets are dev-eloping faster than ever. It truly is an exciting time to be an executive recruiter. As executives everywhere seek to grow their organizations globally, they will be forced to face upcoming talent shortages. They will struggle more every year to find the top talent that can lead them to new successes in this unique marketplace. It is in times like these that some search consultants will achieve the careers of their dreams and others will be content to wallow in mediocrity.

There is a familiar adage: Make hay while the sun shines. And that day is upon us, my friends. Recruiters everywhere have an unprecedented opportunity to take advantage of an economy that is growing exponentially, because it is also one that is experiencing a significant skill and talent shortage. In the next few paragraphs, I’ve laid out the essential steps to exceptional recruiting success in this new era of prosperity.

Pick a niche and dominate it

Take a market that you are excited about, one that’s growing, and dominate it. In this economy, being a generalist can work but won’t pay huge dividends. Why? It’s going to be extremely difficult to find talent. If every search requires you to start from scratch in a fresh market and for a new position, it will be very difficult to build momentum. By selecting a niche within a market, you’ll have synergy in your searches. With similar candidates and job orders, you will be much more productive because your efforts can be used again and again. Synergy creates placements and puts money in your pocket.

Not sure how to pick a niche market? It must be an industry you know and one about which you’re passionate. Right now, thanks to emerging global markets, a smart choice may be companies and positions with international operations. Re-search your markets, limiting your choices to those that will be hot for the next five years. And then research more. Learn everything you can about those potential markets. Take a look at which positions within the industry are high-demand. Decide on geographical boundaries based on the market size. Your market should possess a solid 500 potential client companies. Much more than 500, and you need to narrow your initial marketplace. Any less, and your chosen market may not be big enough for you to get the financial results you want. Many recruiters use DIG -Discipline, Industry, and Geography – when defining markets.

Develop high and wide relationships with all client companies

When working with client companies, never be satisfied with one main point of contact. Things change, power shifts, and people come and go. If your only contact leaves the organization for any reason, your business is in jeopardy. Develop relationships that are high and wide, a broad spectrum of professional contacts at all levels within your client companies. Salesperson, VP of Sales, CEO, VP of Engineering, they should all know your name and take your calls. By working within every level and department of a company, you’ll not only get more business, but you’ll also gain a better understanding of its corporate goals and objectives, enabling you to help achieve them. With the high and wide approach, you establish yourself as a trusted talent adviser versus a tactical recruiter.

The best recruiters will equip their clients to navigate the rapidly approaching talent-shortage maze. You should educate them, showing them how to structure their hiring processes for this marketplace, helping them to be adaptable so they can meet top-talent demands. Building multiple relationships within an organization gives you credibility, and the power to deliver success in this tight market.

Build and maintain a strong brand identity in your clients’ eyes

The only way to build a positive brand identity is to deliver. Our clients’ perception of our professional worth is completely dependent on the talent we bring to them. Recruiters who consistently deliver quality talent, the impact players who make a significant difference in their organizations, have a strong brand identity. Your clients will want to partner with you again and again. Those who regularly schlep in with poor to average candidates will also achieve poor to average results. They’ll have a brand identity, though: that of a résumé pusher only interested in a fee.

Because talent will be so hard to come by in this market, some recruiters will be tempted to settle for less than perfect talent. Don’t. By lowering your standards, you also lower your brand identity in your clients’ eyes. Remember, in this business, perception is reality. Your brand must be that of an exceptional business adviser who brings great talent to the table. Always!

Develop partnerships in international emerging markets

This is all about vision. Don’t overlook the rest of the world. It’s not just the United States experiencing an unprecedented economic boom. A significant part of the growth of the world’s GDP is happening in four countries: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Some of these countries will double the expansion of the United States. Many corporate executives are doing whatever they can to take advantage of those emerging markets. Chances are, many of the companies you do business with today are looking overseas to grow and prosper as these foreign markets heat up. But whether they’re in China or Kansas, what do they need? Talent. It’s the one constant in all countries, across all industries. And that is why executive recruiting is the greatest career in the world today.

Specifically here in our country, we need talented people who have the skills and experience to grow business internationally, as well as to attract talent in those markets. As search consultants, we must anticipate some of these needs for our clients, working with the executive team to fulfill them. Propose strategic or long-term planning meetings to gain a thorough understanding of a client’s direction internationally in order to be ready to present solutions to talent issues before they’re a problem.

Developing partnerships with other offices across the globe is a great way to add value to your current clients. Many recruiting organizations have international business offices or partners. These people have feet on the street in the local markets across the globe. MRI has an exceptional international business unit that provides talent worldwide. If you don’t have access to a network of international business partners, get on Google and find them. Many will work with you to help find the local talent you need. However, be prepared to give a percentage of your fee away. Many will only work on splits starting at 25/75. But an international recruiting contact gives you the ability to recruit in emerging foreign markets. That kind of global vision pays off in the long run.

Take more impact players to the market

To succeed in this high-demand, low-supply talent market, it isn’t enough to fill jobs. You must also go back to bringing the “Impact Player” to the market. Your “time to fill” metric on positions will continue to increase as this talent shortfall trend grows stronger. Although it’s a new era in the global marketplace, an old recruiting tool has never been more reliable. The old MPC call, the presenting of a solid A player, is delivering better results today in recruiting than ever. Companies are starved for great talent. By feeding them a steady diet of A players within their industry, you will build your brand identity and credibility. You will prove you are the search consultant who is in contact daily with the top talent in their industry. If you have an A player, get on the phone. Chances are you’ll make just as many placements with basic marketing calls with an MPC as by filling those needle-in-the-haystack searches you have piled on your desk.

Recruiting in this market environment does have its challenges. With the demand for talent high worldwide and the supply low, our job won’t be easy. The good news is, if you are able to make a few changes in your focus, your client relationships, and your approach, you will have the opportunity of a lifetime – the greatest worldwide economic expansion in history! Make the most of it.

Jon Bartos is a premier speaker, writer, 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 bill on average over $1 million annually. Since 1999, he has achieved over $9 million in cash in on his personal desk performance. Jon has also established JSI as a top 10% executive search firm. The office has won 15 international awards in the MRI franchise system, including International Billing Manager of the Year and Top 10 SC Office. Jon runs an executive-coaching program for recruiters and recruiting managers called “Magnum Program.” He also hosts a career-focused talk show on Fox radio, “Talent Wins with Jon Bartos, Your Personal Career Coach.” Are you ready to take your company or career to the next level? Jon can be reached at (513) 701-5910, jon@jonathanscott.com, or www.talentwinsonline.com

Unless you work exclusively on mid-six-figure executive searches and are always paid a retainer and travel expenses, you’re probably one of thousands of recruiters who often refer candidates without actually meeting the candidate in a face-to-face situation. In that case you’ve probably heard a statement similar to the above from a surprised client at some point once it was discovered you’d never met the candidate they just hired.

I recall the first time in my recruiting career that I was confronted with this shocked reaction from a large company client I had just signed on. The tone used in discussing this matter with me seemed to indicate that I should have felt as if I had “cheated” or done some-thing naughty.

Yet I knew it took a well-trained three-person recruiting team (two recruiters and one administrative coordinator) to pull off that feat. Here I was, being hailed as a hero one minute and assailed as a con artist the next when it was discovered that I had never met the woman I placed.

I was on-site visiting the company and surrounded by executives who all wanted to know who this wizard of search was that found the individual they had failed to identify or hire on their own for nearly one year. In this particular case, the position I had filled was titled Western Hemisphere Director of Financial Analysis. Big title. So-so salary. Nevertheless, I was attempting to enhance the relationship by making an on-site visit.

When the candidate appeared, one of the observant managers immediately noticed that she and I did not recognize one another instantly. “Of course, Frank, you know Gloria – or should I intro-duce you two?” he sarcastically asked.

Another manager hopped in with “You mean you never met her? What personnel service doesn’t actually meet the candidate they’re referring?” And so it went as each manager present repeated the comment like well-trained parrots.

“Oy vey!” I thought to myself. My meeting was rapidly spiraling out of control.

This happened in the early 1990s, and by the end of that decade the advent of the Internet, email, and rapid expectations of instantly transmitted résumés would greatly diminish the expectations of face-to-face meetings – especially for rank-and-file contingency searches scattered across state lines in industries where it is well known that hot competition is breathing down the company’s neck.

Having a script has bailed me out of that situation a number of times since then.

I decided to write a rebuttal I could use again and again whenever this particular objection was raised. Interestingly enough, this topic was never covered by Anthony Byrne, who used to train our recruiters back then.

Here’s what I came up with -simple, straightforward, and honest. I hope it helps if you ever encounter this challenge:

Employer: “You mean you never actually met the candidate?”

Recruiter: “Mr. Employer, with all due respect, the most difficult and time-consuming aspect of any search is the searching process itself.

Ninety percent of our time is dedicated to contacting, networking, and communicating and establishing dialogue with hundreds of individuals in order to find the one elusive candidate worthy of referring to you.

Finding the candidate [emphasize this statement] is the most time-consuming part of our efforts. This is where many of our competitors give up and fall short because they are not interested in dedicating the time necessary for achieving success.

Meeting the candidate, once he or she has been discovered and identified, is very easy in comparison to the searching aspect.

There would be no candidate for us to ever meet unless we invested hours each day over many weeks executing the search aspect properly to begin with.

Anyone can conduct a face-to-face meeting once a candidate is identified. It’s the searching process that leads to identifying a candidate that presents the greatest need for skill and dedication.”

Stated with confidence, this usually takes care of this particular objection 90% of the time. In those few instances when the client continues to be dumb-founded as to how you can be dealing with people in a people business and not meeting those people, there may be other questions asked, such as:

Employer: “But how do you know if the person has the right image for us?”

The reply I usually provide is:

“I’ve conducted thousands of face-to-face and tens of thousands of telephone interviews over my 20 years of search. In 95% of cases, my telephone interview assessments have confirmed what the face-to-face assessment would have concluded. Only in rare instances – around 2.5% of the time – does someone thoroughly fool us in an in-depth telephone interview who would not have been able to do so in person.

Issues such as:

- split-second pauses before a reply to an interview question
- split-second hesitations in reaction to questions such as “Are you comfortable in a face-to-face sales environment?”
- and other factors . . .

are all assessed as part of the “face-to-face” process that can be handled telephonically.”

Beyond these two counter-objection steps, if the client continues balk I use this opportunity to upgrade the compensation or fee structure. After all, I’ll do anything for the right dollar figure. Including flying to Syracuse, New York, in the middle of winter if my expenses are covered and the engagement fee or retainer justifies such.

If they wish for us to physically meet their candidates, that’s fine, provided we are compensated accordingly and the contract is redrawn to specify such.

Remember:

If a client finds out after the fact that you never physically met the individual candidate, NEVER EVER allow that person to walk away believing you did not earn your fee or that you cut a corner. Truth is, YOU DID EARN YOUR FEE. Every dime of it. Don’t let them walk away believing otherwise.

Make certain you explain that the “finding” aspect of search is precisely what they agreed to pay you for. Meeting someone is easy – but meetings can be scheduled only by those select recruiters that actually find their candidates!

Frank G. Risalvato has been a staffing and recruiting consultant in the search profession since 1987. He has contributed hundreds of articles to various media, has appeared on TV and radio, and has been called upon by state and federal agencies for expert testimony. His recruiter training services, books, and kits are found on www.searchwizardry.com. Call (973) 300-1010 for an exclusive one-on-one experience with his training style. His new Charlotte, N.C., direct telephone is (704) 243-2110.
Email: fris@iresinc.com