DIVER by Broadlook

Looks like the people at Broadlook Technologies have another winner on their hands. I was happy to be able to download and test drive their latest offering to the recruiter community, Diver. Broadlook, a company whose products have appeared in this column many times over the years, continues to serve this community by offering products and services that make us more and more productive.

Diver, simply put, is a search engine interface. You still run your own searches in Google, Yahoo, AlltheWeb, and/or AltaVista, but your results are all parsed for you into a grid. Once in the grid, the results are easily accessible by double-clicking on the line entry. The actual results page is visible from within the program. This feature saves any sourcer all the time it normally takes to click on one result at a time, review the result, then click back to the main results page – literally hours if you do a lot of this type of work. Once you have the results from a search in the Diver grid, you can filter the results and keep only those that have some type of contact information, then export your results to any number of destinations, including documents, contact managers, and even ATS’s.

Aside from locating résumés on the search engines, Diver has another service I wanted to mention. They have built-in strings for specialty searches that make it easy for you to find information on companies, lists, member directories, persons, trade shows, org charts, and associations. All you have to do is add a name or keyword or two and Diver does the rest.

Diver is a very simple program and easy to learn and use – my favorite kind. You have your projects on the left, complete with a number of examples you can use in your future searches, the search engine results page is on the upper right, and the grid is on the bottom of the screen. It allows you to take advantage of search strings offered by industry experts, or you can build your own searches and save them in project folders – as many as you like. Anyone who has ever had AIRS training or any other advanced search string training should take a look at this product. Diver can take what someone learns with search string training and take productivity to the next level.

Diver retails for $1,995 per year on an annual subscription but is heavily discounted for existing Broadlook customers. Aside from their free three-day trial, a first for Broadlook, they are also offering a free copy of Diver for each copy purchased. This is a Fordyce Letter subscriber special good until November 14. They are OK with people getting together and pooling resources to get their copies. For instructions to get your three-day trial, visit this Web page: www.broadlook.com/fordyce.

Anyone with an interest in finding out more about this great product can visit the Broadlook Technologies website at www. broadlook.com or contact Brian Galovits, Broadlook’s Director of Client Relations, via email at BGalovits@broadlook. com or via voice at (262) 754-8080 x227.

Sheeee’s Back

- Barbara Ling, That Is

I am happy to be writing about Barbara again as one whose name has appeared in this column many times over the years. I first met Barbara back in my early days as the TFL columnist and remember reviewing her watershed book, The Internet Recruiting Edge, back in the late nineties. I can still recall what a good review the book received. I am happy to report that her new material is just as good, if not better. After an absence of four years, Barbara Ling, one of the original pioneers of Internet recruiting, has returned to the scene with brand-new resources for today’s recruiter.

Barbara has always been and continues to be well known for demystifying the most difficult of technical activities by translating them into simple lessons that any recruiter can implement. Boolean searching, networking with passive candidates, teaching recruiters the easy way to market to their targeted population – she accomplishes the above with humor, plain speaking, and an uncanny knack of dispelling any online confusion.

Currently, Barbara offers several recruiting services mostly relating to recruitment technology and candidate sourcing, areas that all regular readers of this column know are close to my heart. These include emailed seminars for those recruiters who don’t want to leave their offices (offering the added bonus of one-on-one interaction with her) at www.risetrends.com/eseminars.html, a RISE private recruiter knowledgebase at www.risetrends. com/membership.html, simple one-page solution sheets for common recruiting goals at www.risetrends.com/solutionsheets.html, and SEO-friendly website templates at www.rise trends.com/sample/sample.html.

TIP

SearchAllinOne.com

Here is an interesting site that basically is an interface to literally dozens of search engines, many that I am sure you have never heard of. I know I hadn’t. Of course they offer access to all of the big search engines but also allow all-in-one access to many specialized search engines for sports, news, science, encyclopedias, government, financial, education, meta search engines, and directories (which are compiled by humans, not spiders). If you need an answer to almost any question in any category, visit this site. In this case it is true that a picture (website) is worth a thousand words. Take a look at http://www.searchallinone.com/search.html.

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.

In my world, recruiting is something that comes naturally and never stops. I don’t have any employees to manage and on best days struggle just managing my own workload. But I do have two awesome furry, four-legged, tail-wagging buddies that I observe daily as they naturally go about their business, which includes recruiting.

The two best recruiters I know are Gideon, the Australian shepherd, and Gracie, a two-year-old Samoyed. Bear with me as I define their world. We live in an average suburban neighborhood with houses and people, yet there seems to be at least one canine in every other house. In our family, we believe in being social and getting out for walks. It is in this “circling the block” mode that Gracie and Gideon do their recruiting.

I watch in true envy as these two different breeds approach the houses where they remember another dog lives. Now, sometimes their job is easy, and the furry resident comes blasting around the garage or out of the front door to greet us. Oh, they are also confined by the miracle of an “invisible fence,” which limits how far they come, but the barking and wagging and jumping with enthusiasm of a welcome greeting radiates far beyond the natural boundary.

Of course, no two recruiters of the human species are the same. Well, the two best recruiters I know also approach their jobs differently. Gracie is a social networking guru. You know a recruiter like her; she is the one with 500 contacts on her profile and always in search of another website to source or join. Gracie approaches each and every dog, adult, and child she sees as a possible recruit. She spots them as far as a block away and intently stares and tugs at the leash until I give in and she is able to greet the on-comer. Gideon takes his time, is more discriminating, watches, but focuses only on the yards within his immediate reach. He is really “old-school” and wants to operate out of his personal network. He approaches recruiting more like a seasoned professional who realizes that only certain candidates are a fit and doesn’t waste his time with the masses. Gracie is the new kid on the block and sees the potential of a “best athlete” type of candidate in everyone she meets.

After the prospective recruit is identified, there is the typical screening procedure. Here, too, Gracie and Gideon have distinct methods. Gideon will watch, stare, and wait for the candidate to make the first move. If they don’t, he may just move on. Gracie can’t pass up a yard without casually strolling by, constantly in hope of some type of engaging conversation (insert barking if you are being literal). Gideon has a predetermined set of criteria that the candidate has to pass first. Gracie doesn’t and sees a possible fit for everyone. For Gideon, the candidate has to prove to be a worthy and specific fit. On the other hand, Gracie sees the possibilities beyond education (obedience school), previous experience (adopted from the shelter), or salary history (eats a lot).

The final challenge facing any recruiter is attracting and hiring that star recruit. My personal revelation occurred only last week as we walked and approached a neighbor with a little boy in a stroller. This toddler has an attraction for Gracie. He can’t speak much, but is enthusiastic about waving. Of course that is all Gracie needs for encouragement. She will begin with her own excited greeting and tugging to spend a few quality minutes with him. Then it becomes clear that she wants him to come home with us. The toddler seems agreeable, but the adult pushing the stroller decides differently and they walk on to their home. Gracie has tried but wasn’t successful. She will not give up, though, and I know she hopes every time we meet the little boy that he will change his mind and finally join our team.

For someone with only two legs approaching the world at six feet tall and not four legs and two feet tall, it is apparent that lessons do come from the least expected places. I understand that there are steps we take in our search for a top-notch individual that have proven successful for us in the past. There are also new ways to look at recruiting that today we don’t know about, yet tomorrow may be at the top of our list. I don’t know what the new cell phone will look like, and I am not sure about what new idea is percolating in a technology center out on the coast. What I do know is that the exciting part of not knowing is what keeps me enthusiastic and passionate about recruiting.

Encouraging thoughts should always be the way we close out a conversation. So, for me, I will pass on these brief insights and hope that everyone in recruiting stays excited about the pure aspects of recruiting. You know, we get excited about the search and dialogue and networking that leads to finding that diamond of a candidate. That is what I mean by the pure part of recruiting. Don’t be bogged down by or dependent on some technology that frustrates you. Those are only the methods, not the livelihood of the job.

To quote a line from Marsha Sinetar’s book Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow, “Even though we are all fairly adaptable, elastic, and multi-dimensional, we are not born to struggle through life. We are meant to work in ways that suit us and draw on our natural talents and abilities as a way to express ourselves and contribute to others.”

Gideon and Gracie are naturals at recruiting. I hope you feel the same. Get out and around the block, your block, and take a page from the Gracie and Gideon book of recruiting. Never get disappointed and always look for that new recruit.

Jeff Gross has over 20 years of consulting experience where he has counseled many organizations on assessment-based methods to evaluate their company’s leaders and managers. He also has over 15 years of professional experience in both corporate recruiting and retained executive search. He is the creator of TopGrade Recruiting and has hired and trained recruiters in all facets of recruiting. Jeff can be reached at (216) 559-2246 or jeff@topgraderecruiting.com.

I have, firsthand, experienced building a relationship from the ground up several times. I made one or two placements and before I knew it, I had made 20 or 30, or even 200 over a period of time. I am sure we have all had the experience of a very large account that, over time, uses us less or even stops using us entirely. In some cases, the hiring manager leaves the organization, and our relationship goes with him. In other cases, the company grows so significantly with our unique contribution that we work ourselves out of a job because they have added to their recruiting staff and can no longer justify our fees.

Either way, no matter how good you are or what great service you personally provide, companies change, people change, jobs change, responsibilities change, and often our key contact is out of the picture before we can blink an eye, and very shortly after that, so are we. We all know that relationships are critical in our line of business, yet that alone is not sufficient to guarantee our prosperity and long-term success as talent management professionals. It is the systems, processes, and operating practices that we utilize to deliver our services that withstand the test of time, personnel changes, and cost-saving measures.

There is NOTHING that differentiates and solidifies like standardized systems, processes, and service offerings. How many of us would be willing to promise or guarantee that our service consistently operates with and makes the best choices for their customers? For our industry to grow collaboratively in volume, VALUE must be present on a continuous basis.

For a moment use your imagination, the science fiction part of your brain, and go 20 years into the future. How will recruitment in 2027 be the same? How will it be different? Given the exponential growth taking place in the frontal lobe of the human brain over the past 300 years and the human mind’s capacity to expand and innovate, my theory is that some things will stay the same while everything will change.

Companies can and will find what they need through a myriad of alternative resources, other than a traditional 32% search and placement firm, and we as an industry must band together and innovate or we will see our fees, our margins, and our market share disintegrate.

I just read today in a leading staffing industry report that Adecco purchased a recruitment process outsourcing provider, which was no surprise to me after visiting the SHRM conference this summer and seeing 15 brand-new RPO providers exhibiting. Furthermore, I was recently advised to Google “baker’s dozen RPO” and came to find that again the industry leaders are jumping on the RPO bandwagon. These companies charge flat fees and conduct massive nationwide hiring programs; they systematize the process such that they can take advantage of the economies of scale. They charge much less than a standard placement fee and sign contracts with key members of the management team affording them exclusivity within multiple departments and with hiring managers within these companies. While other recruiters pooh-pooh these concepts, and companies, frankly their existence rocks me.

Recruitment outsourcing is here, and like Monster.com, it is another means to commoditize what many of us have been doing to earn a living for a very long time.

Am I fearful that this signals our industry’s demise? Certainly not. What I am concerned about is the future perception of our industry, and that we continue to be respected as the founders, leaders, and experts in the recruitment field.

There are obvious advantages to incorporating functional and repeatable systems and processes within your company. It begins with using these types of processes to differentiate and separate yourself and your service from the sea of competition. It is sustained through systematic management of those operating systems and processes that serve to augment the delivery of your service efforts while enhancing your ability to deliver on the promises of your sales representatives. Addition-ally, another aspect of having solid systems and processes is that you will see a dramatic decrease in the time it takes for a new recruiter to make her mark and generate a financial return on your hiring investment. Finally, you can reengineer your internal staffing plan to include a person or two who thrives on managing and working within defined parameters, and it leverages your overhead substantially because the rainmakers make it rain and get paid for that.

The taskmaster plans and prepares for the rain, catches the rain in buckets, and utilizes the rainwater for a myriad of purposes, and gets paid in accordance with that contribution. This also leaves the rainmaker to focus on the profound privilege of making it rain.

Some of the systems that I have built within my recruiting firm are search processes, applicant screening checklists, a front office intake system, and interviewing systems and guides. I have also harnessed some of the leading assessment tools and talent evaluation programs, as well as developing some of my own, to aid my staff in recommending the very best talent for our clients’ needs. Additionally, I have implemented a “Sandler,” a.k.a. Alliance, Selling System, as well as a marketing protocol structure and a proven order-fulfillment method. Actually, all in all I have developed a comprehensive 26-step “A to Z” recruitment and sales system that itemizes every step of the day-to-day operation, creates maximum efficiency, and eliminates many of the pitfalls encountered in the staffing and recruiting process.

Whether we are competing against corporate HR with lucrative hiring and referral bonuses, or with Monster, CareerBuilder, and the like, or with virtual recruiting networks, offshore recruiters, or RPOs, things certainly are NOT getting any easier; they are becoming more challenging every day. My call to action is to arm yourself with what the big guys are arming themselves with – systems, structures, and processes that afford you the ease to leverage your time, money, and resources. See my article in this issue on the RPO function.

Best in success.

Margaret Graziano
President/CEO
Alliance HR Network, Inc.
85 West Algonquin, Suite 170 Arlington Heights, Il 60005
(847) 690-1312

It’s Monday morning, and our well-intentioned recruiter, dedicated to self-improvement and big billings, is back from a recruiting conference where she attended a training session. This session was touted as a must attend event where one could learn all one needed to become a big biller. People who had attended sessions delivered by this trainer raved about how great it was to be a part of one of them. They claimed that they learned a great deal and that this trainer was extremely good with the audience. Every effort and due diligence about this session seemed to point out that if you wanted to become more productive, improve your skills, create wealth, and invest your time wisely, this was a must-see event.

As is often the case, this session was available, among others, at a weekend conference offered by an organization that was well respected in the industry. Our recruiter, bent on getting the biggest bang for her buck, pored over the conference material, speaker bios, and session descriptions to cherry-pick those sessions that best addressed the areas where she felt she needed the greatest improvement to meet her goal of becoming a top-producing recruiter. After careful consideration and gathering the opinions of others, she opted to attend the session.

Since there were other sessions where she wanted to be in attendance, there was a conflict in scheduling. The one session she felt compelled to attend was concurrent with another she wanted to visit. The “conference-meisters” had wisely scheduled all speakers in back-to-back sessions, thus making it possible for people to attend the sessions where a scheduling conflict occurred. She wanted very much to attend the first of the two sessions offered by this coveted trainer, but so she could attend both sessions, she opted to attend the second one instead.

As soon as the first session she had chosen ended, she raced down the hall to assure herself of a good position at the doorway and a good seat during this crowded training session. This legendary trainer’s first session was running long. Our recruiter’s anxiety, brought about by waiting her turn, was eased by the incredible enthusiasm, laughter, kudos, and praises voiced by those departing the first session. Finally the room cleared out and she had her chance. She raced to the front of the room and grabbed a great seat.

The trainer stepped up to the platform and the entire audience was fixated on him as he delivered a step-by-step, proven process. Details concerning the circumstances, the conditions, and time-tested criteria were clearly explained. The speaker’s eloquent style and humorous nature struck a chord with every recruiter present. Insights in his offered anecdotes documented that this was a speaker who had real hands-on experience. The room burst into laughter every few minutes. Notes were taken furiously. Everyone swarmed the speaker with questions at the conclusion of the session. Training materials offered by the speaker were cleared off the table by eager recruiters. Our recruiter left the session knowing that her decision to make this a priority was a beneficial one.

The rest of the conference went very well. Other sessions attended by our recruiter were enlightening and entertaining, and brought a sense of real value to the overall conference experience and investment. At the dinners and luncheons, she overheard many positive comments by her peers who had attended this coveted session. The social gatherings, dinners and luncheons, and hallway dialogues were considered a great networking tool by our recruiter. She sought trading relationships with many peers in attendance. Her conference bag was stuffed with training handouts and business cards of those with whom she had networked.

On the flight home, she contemplated the extensive exposure to experiences and insights she had gained. She made a commitment to herself to apply all she had learned come Monday morning. Armed with new tools and deal-making techniques, she knew she was now well on her way to becoming a top-producing recruiter.

So here we are again. It’s Monday morning. It’s 8 a.m. and it’s time to apply all the secrets, techniques, and skills she acquired at the conference. As she reached for the phone, a rising sense of panic engulfed her. It now seemed that what she so clearly understood in the sessions had faded out of her consciousness. She put the phone down, reached for her conference bag, and furiously reviewed notes and handouts from the session. What had happened? Why wasn’t she, when it counted the most, able to apply what seemed to make so much sense in the session, and afterward?

She spent the next several hours grasping for every recollection from the session. The more she tried to apply the mastery and techniques presented, the more frustrated and disappointed she became. By lunch, she had all but given up on her dedication to improvement. While she ate her salad and drank iced tea in the balmy fall sunshine, she concluded that she was doing pretty well. After all, she didn’t live to work. Next time she’d take better notes.

Upon her return to the office, she realized she had several phone messages from clients and candidates. She raced back to her desk to return these calls quickly. As the heat of the desk increased and the rest of the day passed by, the session she had attended, the insights she had gained, and the commitment she had made faded into memory.

Our recruiter’s story is a common one. I have attended a long list of conferences in the past. I will likely be in attendance at many conferences to come. As a recruiting practitioner, I attend many training sessions, keynotes, and social networking events. During my formative years as a recruiter, I attended all the training sessions I could find. I took copious notes. I bought training materials. I devoured the material over and over again. From my experience and from the experience of many with whom I have worked as a consultant, there seems to be a major disconnect between what we hear in a training session and what we are able to apply in the aftermath. This challenge is not unique to recruiters. From professional development to self-improvement, opportunities abound to gain training. The Internet, multimedia, stand-up training, and other forums offer a variety of training and development.

As fall approaches, we are confronted with many opportunities to attend conferences and training seminars in our recruiting industry. Owners, managers, and sole practitioners are well advised to make the investment in participating in these conferences and seminars. In your due diligence and evaluation of these training and development experiences, I recommend that you apply your own map of needs for improvement when choosing which sessions to attend. Be very honest with yourself about where you need to improve. Conduct positive evaluation and analysis sessions with your staff members and recruiters. Openly discuss the training that you see offered and direct yourself and members of your office into those sessions that best address their needs.

If your motivation to attend training is to be entertained, there are a multitude of very energetic, humorous, and entertaining speakers, and many industry conferences and sessions. This is not a bad thing in any way; however, it is not the answer to development of professional skills mastered by top producers. The exposure to experienced recruiters is a tremendous foundation in developing recruiting mastery. What becomes equally critical to your success in becoming a top producer is the personal mentoring and coaching necessary to develop you as a unique individual and recruiting practitioner. As I conduct training seminars and deliver my messages, I am always encouraged when I see people taking notes and paying attention. Having spoken to thousands of recruiters in the past, I am equally aware that many of those notes end up in that year’s conference bag, never to be seen or referred to again.

Establishing a relationship with a skilled coach and mentor is a prerequisite to developing yourself as a top producer. Every big biller with whom I have had the pleasure and privilege to work formulated the foundation of their skills and abilities by interacting with someone who had been there and done that and possessed the unique ability to develop the skills in others.

There are countless valuable tools available to recruiters today. Each offers its own advantages, when applied wisely. Not one of these individual tools or systems can live up to its claims of productivity merely on the basis of reading directions or listening to an accompanying CD. Top producers wisely choose from among this myriad of offerings those tools that can best serve their unique needs. Of greatest importance, however, is that fact that they also seek practical advice and mentoring, achieving a balance between the use of these tools and personal/artful execution.

One of the barriers or obstacles many face in achieving a coaching relationship is the lack of available personnel within your office or enterprise. Owners and managers, often working their own desk as well, rarely have the time or disposition to function as a coach. Sole practitioners are, by definition, alone. Regardless of your circumstances, there are many folks in our industry who possess the skills to develop you.

Keep in mind, though, that the adage “Training without coaching is entertainment” can be either a motivation to seek competent coaching from industry experts and trainers or a cause for regret when you forget what you learned.

Doug Beabout, CPC, CSP, has 30 years of recruiting experience. He has a very active schedule of speaking and training at various forums worldwide. Additionally, Doug maintains his skills and hones his recruiting insights at his own search and recruiting desk. He currently serves a unique niche within the military/industrial complex. With the support of two highly skilled researchers, Doug continues to maintain his status as a top producer.

“Sourcing! Sourcing! Sourcing! It’s all I hear these days – source this and source that and source this way and source that way – what’s up with this sourcing business?” the tired HR executive said at the end of a long, grueling day of perusing still unfilled vacancies on his company’s staffing roster.

Putting down the sheet and looking up over his glasses at his staffing director standing before him on this late Friday afternoon, he continued, “Now that you have my attention, what is sourcing anyway? How is it accomplished? You’ve mentioned we need a sourcing group here in-house. Tell me more – do we really? How do we form one and where do we find the people to fill it? How do we pay them and what are the potential pitfalls to avoid? Will our recruiters embrace the process? Is it good money after bad? What, what, what? Talk to me.”

“Third-party recruiters have been using these guys for years!” the staffing director shot back excitedly. “Heck, before I came ‘inside,’ when I ran my own staffing firm, we used one in particular – she’s in Cincinnati and her name is Maureen.”

“Sharib. I’ve heard her name,” the VP interrupted. “I think someone just sent me an ERE article she wrote last month – something about the secrets of sourcing?”

http://www.ere.net/articles/db/0C88327111DB488D9721A2352427E83D.asp

“Yes, she writes a lot on the subject and has been for the last few years. I think she started over on ERE three-four years back, and since then she’s been aggressively advocating the use of telephone sourcing in proactive research. She took some heat in that article you mentioned because she suggested sourcing could be considered as a Six Sigma methodology subject. I happen to agree with her suggestion, and so have a couple others over the past few years.”

http://www.erexchange.com/Articles/default.asp?CID={6FFC61FA-A146-4D7B-83D5-EAEA23F8703D}

“So tell me, what is sourcing?” the HR decision maker asked as he pushed back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head, waiting for an answer.

“It’s when you work to proactively fill your jobs with people that do not necessarily have their résumés ‘out there’ or ‘in here.’ It’s when you find people that reside inside other companies that are hard at work doing the work we’d like to see them doing for us!”

“You mean cold calling? Hell, that’s how we did it in the old days!” he guffawed, leaning forward in his high-backed chair as his feet hit the ground with a thud. “You mean to tell me we’re not doing that today?” he demanded incredulously.

“Are you kidding me?” the staffing director remonstrated. “All I have in this department are paper pushers and board surfers. Ask them to get on the phone and find someone who isn’t listed in a database and they tell me, ‘That’s not my job.’ We’ve got kids, here, Sir, no offense, and they need shaking up.”

“They certainly do,” the VP replied. “How can we get this thing back on track?”

“The first thing we can do is give them the tools they need to succeed. I suggest we do this in a two-pronged approach. Because there are two types of sourcing – Internet and telephone – we bring in trainers to teach our people how to do both in a one-two punch. There are a couple people out there I’d recommend for Internet training: one is Barbara Ling – she was one of the early adapters – and the other is Shally Steckerl. Both of them have Internet-based and on-site training capabilities.

www.risetrends.com
(Barbara Ling)

www.jobmachine.net
(Shally Steckerl)

“For telephone sourcing the only program I know of is Maureen’s “Magic in the Method.” It’s provided online as well as on-site, and it picks up where the Internet search instruction ends. (http:// www.techtrak.com/magicmethod/magicmethod)

“It teaches telephone sourcing skills, and that’s what we really need to kick things up around here. Some of them may not like hearing about the new sheriff in town, but it’s what they need!”

“I agree,” the gray hair said. “How fast can you make this happen?”

“I can announce the new program immediately. It would help if I could be budgeted with money to accomplish the training. It may take in the range of $20,000 to bring the training to all 20 of our people. What they do with that should repay the training in a few days.”

“You’re kidding!” the HR VP exclaimed. “In a few days?”

“In a few days,” the staffing director affirmed. “In a few days,” she repeated, for emphasis.

NEXT:

How is names sourcing accomplished?

How to find names sourcers and how to pay them.

Is it legal? Immoral? Unethical? Fattening?

Maureen Sharib is a telephone names sourcer, names sourcing since 1997. She and her husband, Bob, own the names-sourcing firm TechTrak. com, Inc. (www.tech trak.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 continuous contributor to many online recruiting-related sites. Maureen holds 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.

We all see the sweep of the human resources outsourcing craze (HRO) and how it enables companies to stay focused on their core competencies and not worry about the things they never meant to worry about in the first place, like payroll, benefits, compensation, hiring, assessment, succession planning, performance programs, etc. For many the HRO craze has created pathways of new revenue sources and grown current income sources, and for others the HRO craze has been one heap of frustration.

The business process outsourcing (BPO) movement has greatly impacted the staffing, search, and recruiting industry as we know it today. RPO is a form of business process outsourcing where an employer outsources, or transfers, all or part of its recruiting, selection, and onboarding activities to an external service provider. As companies strive to stay competitive, they are exploring ways to create efficiencies in their operations, and BPO, HRO, and RPO are ways to narrow their focus, play to their strengths, and leverage their power.

Because of a demographically declining slope of skilled available people, the normal ebbs and flows of business, and a global war for rising and shining stars, the RPO market is heating up. Players from Adecco to Kelly are jumping on the RPO band-wagon, and more are engaging every day. There are even two associations and large forum conferences serving the RPO community. The concept of an employer outsourcing the management and ownership of part or all of its recruiting process was first realized during the late 1990s, and today it permeates corporate America like the smell of freshly baked apple pie in a country store. RPO was originally created to fill the talent gap in the late 1990s. Between the dot-com boom and the Y2K crisis, companies simply did not have the resources to manage their recruitment internally, and their outsourced recruiters were reportedly not giving them the quality of care they required, hence the birth of RPO.

Cutting costs is often cited as the main reason for other forms of business process outsourcing, and this may also be the case with RPO. However, when most organizations consider RPO, it is not necessarily to cut costs, but rather to make their recruitment costs more variable and more closely aligned to organizational business cycle dynamics. While there is certainly a need for temporary staffing, executive search, and contingency recruiting, where RPO dominates is in the area of multiple hires for a similar or a group of similar roles. While this is okay for many private recruitment firms, why not put our hat in the ring and compete to fill 40 to 50 similar positions? Clearly the economies of scale and scope would only leverage our ability to grow and earn stronger profits.

The biggest distinction between RPO and other types of staffing is Process. In RPO the service provider assumes ownership of the process, while in other types of staffing the service provider is part of a process controlled by the organization buying their services. Given that there is a ton of training on “client control” and “owning the account,” I would think that for these reasons alone as an industry we would be champing at the bit to land good solid RPO contracts.

A main point to consider is that once the RPO masters the clients’ staffing requirements and creates efficiencies in the recruitment process, they could very easily become the single source provider for a company’s hiring needs. Given the mass access to offshore, virtual, and contract recruiters, who is to say that a great RPO cannot master every level of the client’s hiring needs, including the executive level? So if anything is possible, and it certainly has proven to be, why couldn’t a single source or a team of single sources band together and provide the same quality and quantity of sourcing, searching, assessment, placement, onboarding, and retention services?

The Benefits of RPO

RPO promoters claim that the solution offers improvement in quality, cost, service, and speed. RPO providers claim that economies of scale enable them to offer recruitment processes at lower cost, while economies of scope allow them to operate as high-quality specialists. Economies of scale and scope are said to arise from having a larger staff of recruiters focusing on individual clients rather than jumping from one assignment to the next; a continuous population of customized databases of candidate résumés; investment in peer-to-peer networks, associations, and educational affiliations; capital investment in sourcing tools; and high-volume buying power of hiring and selection tools.

Potential Concerns with RPO

Outsourcing of company recruitment processes may fail if not implemented correctly and with the right mind-set. An improperly implemented RPO could reduce the effectiveness of recruitment. Additionally, the costs charged for recruitment transactions may total more than the cost of the internal recruitment staff, if the internal staff is not using agencies and tools that increase their overhead. Additionally, an RPO solution may not work if the service provider has inadequate recruitment processes or procedures to work with the client.

How Can You Benefit From Incorporating an RPO Process in Your Firm?

Beginning with concrete job/role analysis and bench-marking through sourcing, assessment, and selection, as well as customized retention, onboarding, and employee-development programs, your firm can attract the same level of business that an RPO can serve. Many times, companies will choose an RPO for the process, systems, and assessment, onboarding, and retention tools and overlook a traditional search or placement company because they lack those tools.

Contrary to popular belief, most recruiting consultants who choose this profession as their life’s work embrace such service offerings, saying that they catapult their credibility and position them as true consultative partners in their clients’ businesses.

Whether you provide a complete soup-to-nuts approach or simply augment your current staffing services with segments of what the RPOs are offering, you will catapult your credibility with your clients when they are clear that you are well aware of what is happening in their world and that you are armed and ready to contribute to their talent management program at the level they require.

Competing in the HRO market allows you to leverage your economies of scale and scope while improving your efficiencies, making more placements, guaranteeing a steady stream of direct placement income, and growing your market share!

Innovate or evaporate: What are you waiting for?

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.

Ever feel somewhat embarrassed by the fact that a candidate brought a cloud over the interview by revealing that all they did is answer your ad on Monster?

This article should help you, the recruiting industry readers, leaders, and TFL subscribers who use job boards as part of your overall recruiting menu, save tons of lost fee revenue. It will help protect, preserve, and maintain client relationships as well.

In fact, it is required reading for IRES candidates and ought to be “required reading” for any candidate you have sourced from an Internet job site.

Feel free to obtain reprint permission from TFL or www.searchwizardry.com for the portion that follows below. The following is that which you may want to copy and share with candidates sourced through websites prior to their first face-to-face or telephone interview with a hiring client.

Attention, Candidates (you may personalize this section with their specific name):

Here’s why you must never reveal using an Internet website to the hiring manager during a search being handled by a contracted executive recruiter or staffing consultant.

Might you be a job seeker who posted your résumé on Monster, HotJobs, or any of the hundreds of specialty or local sites on the Internet?

Are you one of the fortunate ones who got a call from a recruiter and experienced a positive first telephone interview?

Congratulations! You got noticed.

Here’s a tip that will enhance your salary/offer negotiations.

This is guaranteed to work.

It’s important that you know you should never reveal having posted your résumé on the job board or reading ads on that job board during the interview process.

Why?

Because most hiring managers will possibly interpret your résumé posting or reading HotJobs or similar ads by labeling you as an “aggressive job seeker.” This is bad for several reasons, which follow:

1. Hiring manager can think: “Gee, if we have a tough week in my department, what’s to keep this employee from hopping on the Internet during lunch and searching for yet another job when the going gets tough?”

2. “If he’s using that website, he probably is getting anxious, so I can take my time and use that as leverage in my negotiating.”

3. “Is this what I’m paying a search firm for? Finding ads posted on Monster? I’m going to sit this out and find a real candidate instead and let that search firm earn its fee.”

These are just a few of the thoughts a manager’s mind may begin to ponder. All of them are negative. All of them are not good for you the candidate and potentially detrimental to your goal of securing the job.

It is to your advantage to come out of an interview leaving the impression that you are a “Semi-passive” job seeker.

In other words, you want to create the illusion or perception that you are someone who will interview if and only if the job is just right and the package presented is right as well (which is most likely the truth anyway).

It’s similar to the college dating process. Play “hard to get” just a little bit, and chances are whoever is courting you may have their interest piqued more so. Come across as “too easy,” and the message sent could imply that you would definitely accept an offer so early in the process that it curtails the fun of the chase, to the point that you might not get to see the offer at all.

You are in the best possible negotiating position when you come across as picky, selective, and only responsive to certain, specific offer conditions.

So how do you respond when a manager asks:

“How did Joe, the recruiter we’re using, find you, Shirley?”

Your response should be:

“He somehow tracked me down and contacted me. He’s a persistent guy, you know.”
PERIOD.

NEVER REVEAL ANYTHING MORE THAN THAT.

NEVER SAY:

“He found me on Monster.”

This exposes your poker hand too early in the process and cheapens the perception of your value in addition to the other problems listed above.

The latter also can imply that your recruiter took the “easy route,” when in fact he/she may be undertaking hundreds of avenues or approaches well beyond an Internet ad/or résumé search to locate you.

Not to mention – There is some level of skill required for writing ads that recruiters rarely get credit for, and they are viewed by some as having “cut corners” for using such Internet sites with success.

At the end of every interview process, the candidate has to be sourced from somewhere.

It becomes too easy using Monday morning quarterbacking for a hiring manager to think, “Gee, I could have posted on Monster.” Or “Gee, why didn’t I think of posting the job with that alumni association?” Or “Why didn’t I think of posting with that financial network group?”

The truth is that most search firms are employing all these techniques combined with direct recruiting simultaneously, never knowing the final source until the hire is made.

In the end of every search is the simple truth – one source resulted in the successful hire. Trouble is, no one knows which source will work at the outset.

I have found that many hiring managers will begin believing “how easy” the search could have been once the source, technique, etc., is revealed. Much as you might feel that you were duped when a clever magician finally reveals how he made the playing card appear to float in midair. The point is, the magician did what he was supposed to do – and it required great skill.

Even if the technique that the magician reveals initially looks easy, it may in fact require six months of intense practice and perfection for you to be able to execute it with the same level of flawlessness.

Leave the specific source out of the entire dialogue and you completely avoid all the issues, troubles, prejudices, and mis-conceptions likely to occur as a direct result of being too specific.

In the end you have a goal: getting an acceptable offer.

Leave the specific source out and you can more quickly return the interview dialogue back to its focus: why you should be hired.

Written by Frank G. Risalvato, CPC, author of “Top Ten Candidate Interview Blunders and How to Avoid Them.” 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.