Power Tools for Power Searching

The recruiter community is continuously bombarded with calls and emails from industry vendors offering quick and easy ways to locate résumés and leads for passive candidates on the Internet. As most of my readers know, I often teach classes on how to locate these resources using the search engines. However, for those who do not have the time, the patience, or the inclination to perform this function themselves, the tools and services available to recruiters can be very attractive. As the marketplace for sourcing tools and services expands in response to the demand, so does the confusion. Part of the confusion stems from the wide range of pricing and the differences in the actual service you get for your money.

There are basically two types of services: those that offer you the ability to search a proprietary database of screened profiles and those that offer a front-end to an actual Web search. Although there is something out there for everyone, the question becomes – where do you start? Here are a few options for you to review. I have omitted any pricing information because this often changes rapidly, most pricing plans are based on usage, and most vendors offer heavy discounts for member of certain groups. In no particular order . . .

ZoomInfo. Zoom has been around for many years, starting out as Eliyon. They have a huge proprietary database of over 37 million contacts and 3.8 million companies. They populate their Web-based database themselves from a wide variety of sources and it is verified on a regular basis. They have a free names lookup service on their homepage but also offer two pay services: ZoomExec (access to 1.4 million executive-level contacts) and PowerSearch (full search capability against their entire data-base). This service offers nam (profiles) only. Many have full or partial biographies and also Web and news references. Email addresses and phone numbers are also normally included. Check them out at www.zoominfo.com.

SourcePoint (AIRS). The service that offers both comprehensive name and résumé generation capability. They offer one, the other, or both, via a modular (a la carte) service. Their service searches the Web for names and résumés, searches business networks, the pay boards (if you are a subscriber), your own ATS, and your own desktop/pc. This very flexible, comprehensive offering has built-in CRM software and many other features. More information at the AIRS website, www.airscorp.com.

Platinum Recruiter by Info-GIST. A very popular tool used for résumé generation only. This installed program has many features and too many to cover in this synopsis. It searches for your keywords in over 400 free résumé sources but also searches pay résumé sources (if you are a subscriber), can search Canadian and European résumé sources, and has a flip search feature as well. Can also perform desktop searches. More info available at their website, www.infogist.com.

TalentHook. An early player in the résumé-generation field. It is an installed program with an easy-to-use interface. You can perform a freestanding search or create a client folder and link a search to a company and/or assignment. You can perform a Web search, college search, free résumé board, pay résumé board (if you are a subscriber), flip searches, and desktop searches. Their open Web search searches dozens of search engines, communities, and ISPs automatically. Learn more at www.talenthook.com.

ResumeFinder by eGrabber. A new entry in eGrabber’s long history of providing data-capture tools to the recruiting industry, it is the least expensive tool in this space. This product differs from the others in that it installs as a toolbar in IE. It is a very simple program that comes with a number of professionally developed search strings (by yours truly) that you can use as is or is completely customizable to support any search string that works best for you. You simply type in keywords, locations, and/or a free résumé site or two (or as many as you like) and hit Find. It searches Google using multiple search strings simultaneously and opens up a separate tab for each string run. For more information, visit www.eGrabber.com.

SGA Executive Tracker by Sheila Greco Associates. Don’t think that because this product is lesser known, it is lesser quality. This Web-based proprietary names database is maintained solely by Greco’s own research staff and is 100% telephone-verified, making it one of the most reliable names databases out there. It’s heavy in top and mid-management executives. A nice touch is SIC code searching, which many others don’t have. For more information, visit www.sgaexecutivetracker.com.

Diver by Broadlook. Another fairly new product, Diver is another very simple, easy-to-use interface that allows easy access to passive candidate leads and résumés from Google, Live, Yahoo, AltaVista, and AlltheWeb. This product lets you use your own search strings or has a number of examples for you to use as well. You run your searches, but then Diver parses the search results into a grid contained in the program. From the grid you can easily view one result after another without all the usual clicking back and forth. The program also contains very nice specialty searches for companies, lists, member directories, people, trade shows, org charts, and associations. More information at the website, www.broadlook.com.

Because of space limitations, I have not provided every feature available and encourage interested parties to contact the vendors directly for more complete information, a demo, and often a free trial. Please know I have not listed every player (SearchExpo and D&B come to mind) in this marketplace. I have offered a few with which I am personally familiar and know provide good results for their users. Full reviews on most of these products will be in The Fordyce Letter archives, as I have written about each of them at least once in this column, but never in a list format as above. Something for everyone out there.

News from HireAbility

I wanted to share with everyone some news from HireAbility, a recruiter group I have supported in the past and I am sure will support in the future. “A New Era in Recruiter Social Networking,” per their email announcement, addresses some major changes affecting their recruiter network, one that I have written about in this column before.

One of the major changes is that they have expanded the features and availability of the Talent Trader networking platform by adding Web 2.0 technologies and opening the membership to the recruiting community with a new basic membership option offered at no charge. At this new membership level, all staffing professionals will have access to the network and will have the ability to contribute their own content and develop their own recruiting communities based around discussion groups defined by the members themselves.

They also announced a big change in their pricing model. They have eliminated transactional fees for placements among members, unheard of in this industry. Craig Silverman, their EVP of sales and marketing, told me that HireAbility is trying to initiate an overhaul in the ways recruiters and staffing professionals network together in a “split placement” scenario. They are doing this by offering their members a fully secure way to share candidate and job order information under a subscription-based model that no longer includes fees for split placements.

To me, still one of the best reasons to take a close look at their membership is the outstanding discounts for members from a wide variety of recruiting industry vendors. These discounts are sometimes 50% or more off retail pricing, and often the annual savings from just one of these services can actually pay for an entire year of HireAbility membership fees.

For more information on HireAbility’s Recruiter Network and Talent Trader memberships, visit the website at www.hire-ability.com/rn or call (603) 432-6653.

StaffBytes.com

I recently became aware of a neat recruiting site I thought I would share with everyone, StaffBytes.com. This is a fairly new site and definitely a work in progress, but there’s lots of great content already. Basically, it is a news-oriented site dedicated specifically to the recruitment industry. The content takes the form of step-by-step techniques, instructional videos, site reviews, expert tips, demonstrations, and more. They will also be highlighting websites, and products and services of interest to the recruitment community.

The homepage of the site is set up in a blog-type format, with features posted and comments welcomed. There are many other pages in the site as well, with information about free résumé sites, job boards, communities, blogs, names searching, sourcing, search engines, and many other topics as well.

As of this writing, the site is free to take a look at and enjoy. I would encourage anyone with a spare few minutes to visit www.staffbytes.com.

News from Sendouts

Sendouts Pro 6.0, the venerable applicant tracking system provider, now includes integrated back-office functionality through its integration partnership with StaffMetric, the industry’s leading staffing-specific time and attendance Web-based service solution. This integration enables Sendouts users to track and manage timesheets and synchronize with popular back-office applications such as QuickBooks, Peachtree, and ADP for billing and payroll processing.

Anyone who would like additional information on the advanced Sendouts Pro 6.0 can contact them via voice toll-free at (977) 309-5222, ext. 114, or visit www.sendouts.com.

Tip
MySpace.com

Unless you live in a cave, you have probably heard about the social networking site MySpace. Its membership is now in the tens of millions and growing by millions each month. There is a common misconception that MySpace is the exclusive domain of teenagers. It makes sense to think that, as usually when you hear about MySpace, it is in the context of younger people. I have three young children who are all members, but so am I. Actually, you might be surprised to know that the average age of users is mid-30s. It is fast becoming a great way to get leads for passive candidates on the Internet. Although you can go directly to the MySpace website and search the membership from theirs, we have had better luck using one of the lesser-known search engine techniques – the “site” search method. Try this:

Go to www.google.com (or any other search engine that supports the site).

Type in: site:www.myspace.com “graphic artist.”

Click the search button.

I got over 3,000 results using the string above. Not résumés, but profiles of people of all ages, many who were graphic artists. Since that is a lot of hits to go through, to pare down the results I would maybe add some other skills keywords to the string or even some geography keywords to find people in a specific locale.

Do try this in your office: simply replace “graphic artist” with keywords of your choice. Be sure to use the quote marks if you are using a keyword phrase and omit them for individual keywords.

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 traininxg 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.

Names sourcing is a means to an end. It creates a list of persons holding specific titles who are likely to possess specific skill-sets out of (usually) specific companies that can be used to fill your positions. Names sourcing can deliver a solution that links company recruiters with qualified candidates in a short amount of time – three to five business days being reasonable on a medium-sized job (50-100 names). A list of candidates is delivered in a few days, while traditional recruiting routes may take weeks and months to do!

There are a variety of techniques used by names sourcers to get this list assembled, and we’ll be discussing many of them in this learning series. But the first step in any names sourcing job is to understand your hiring manager’s, or the customer’s, needs. Understand them very completely because, without that grasp of the requirements, you’re sure to miss your mark! Names sourcing delivers to your customer a targeted list of persons he can sit down at his desk and call on the telephone the very next day and offer his job opportunity. It appears very simple, but the reality is that to get to this stage, a complicated, well-honed, disciplined process ensues that produces these results for your customer.

Names sourcing should be the starter activity for every candidate search. It should be included in every recruiter’s methodology, without exception. It should be taught as a first-line activity for every candidate search. It’s estimated that less than 10% (and I think this estimate is generous!) of a recruiter’s daily activities are engaged in names sourcing – the number should be three times that! If you spent two hours of every day “names sourcing” (believe me, the time will go very fast!), your pipelines would fill to overflowing in no time at all!

In the real estate business, they say, referring to listings, “If you don’t have it on the shelf, you can’t sell it!” It’s no secret in that business that the best sales agents are usually the best at listing properties for sale. When I was a broker, my sales always elevated in the years I had the highest volume of listings “on the shelf.” To list property, the real estate industry recommends “farming” to its participants” Farming involves cultivating a specific set of targets. They may be in a specific area, in a specific price range, in any specific reference area. The idea is to have a multiple number of contacts with the same people, getting your name and service in front of them, in an effort to procure their business. In marketing, it’s called branding, and in our industry I propose we call it sourcing.

Telephone vs. Internet

There are two types of sourcing: Telephone and Internet. Telephone sourcing is the reliance on the telephone as the main procuring cause for the information that is gathered. It does not mean you don’t do a little Internet sourcing in combination with the telephone – in fact you do! A telephone sourcer uses the Internet many times to glean “a few names in” that will facilitate her calling once she starts.

Internet sourcing is the reliance on the Internet as the main procuring cause for the information that is gathered. It does not mean you don’t do some telephoning in combination with the Internet – in fact you do! An Internet sourcer uses the telephone many times to “check” the veracity of the information that is found on the Internet.

The “checking” phase of Internet search holds vast promise. When you’re checking whether someone’s title is, in fact, still Research and Development Manager, it sometimes occurs that this person has moved into a Director or VP position within the organization. Armed with the name (that is, in fact, still an important part of the organization), a skillful Internet researcher will ask, “Who is the Manager of R&D at the present time?” More often than not, they’ll be told!

Another fascinating aspect of Internet search is the networking capability of the format. Internet sourcers who are also skilled at communication can fruitfully turn one name into 20, picking up whole departments on their forays into organizations. This prototype is approaching being a true telephone sourcer, because this is what telephone sourcers are notorious for. It is my opinion, and some may disagree with me, that many Internet sourcers do not care for the human interaction that is required to turn one Internet sourced name into several. Or they may not have the ability (language, proper equipment, allowances) to do this. Telephone sourcers have a great edge over the sourcing competition in this realm, in my opinion!

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.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 (http://finance.groups. yahoo.com/group/sourcersguild/). She is also the author of the one-of-a-kind and very popular “Magic in the Method” telephone names sourcing training course and a frequent contributor to many online recruiting-related sites. Maureen holds a bachelor of arts in economics from the University of Cincinnati and lives in Morrow, Ohio.

Do you know who you’re interviewing? Really know them? Chances are good that you don’t.

According to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, between 30% and 40% of all résumés and job applications include outright lies or exaggerated facts. Trusting a candidate solely on the basis of what their résumé says could be a recipe for financial and/or legal disaster.

That disaster could take the form of a negligent-hiring lawsuit if something goes wrong on the job, something that could have been avoided if you had known about certain aspects of the candidate’s past. And even if something doesn’t go wrong, you’re still at risk. For example, if your client company discovers that one of the candidates you supplied has a criminal record, they’re probably not going to be inclined to use you for a search in the future. (Talk about failing to cultivate client loyalty.)

All of this potential disaster can be avoided, however, if you take the time to conduct a background check on a candidate. There are two main things you need to remember about background checks: 1. They should be conducted only after the candidate signs a release form, and 2. Legal experts recommend that a contingent job offer be extended before running the back-ground check.

Checking a candidate’s background helps protect you, your reputation, and the relationship you have with your clients. According to the January 12 issue of the “Staffing Industry Report,” background screening is a $4 billion industry. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Reference and Background Checking Survey Report indicated that 99% of large companies and 93% of small to midsize companies conduct some type of background check on their candidates.

Clearly, companies want to hire candidates who have been properly screened, especially in this day and age. If you truly want to ensure that you’re providing the best possible service – and the best possible candidates – to your clients, then background checks are not a luxury. They’re a necessity.

Ann Walker, MS, SPHR, has been a human resources manager in the business environment, as well as at a medical facility, for a number of years. During her career, she’s seen it all, including the rise in the use of background checks. According to Walker, there’s a reason that more and more background checks are being utilized in today’s market.

“The reason for background checks is simple,” said Walker. “It’s risk management. There’s more potential, as society changes, for candidates to have background issues that may concern a potential employer. From a business perspective, it makes more sense to know the negative information before finalizing the employment offer.”

You never know what you’re going to discover when conducting a background check. One of Walker’s candidate background check screenings unexpectedly turned up a 25-page criminal history.

The Basics

So, where do you start? The answer: a release form. A criminal background check should be conducted only after the candidate has signed a release form. (I really can’t stress this enough.) This form must be separate from a job application or other paperwork. In addition, background checks must be conducted in compliance with state and federal laws, and as I mentioned above, legal experts recommend that a contingent job offer be extended before running the background check.

Once the candidate signs the release form and also supplies his or her Social Security number, you’re ready to go. Below is a list of the standard information you can expect to gather with a background check:

- Bankruptcy records
- Social Security number verification
- Court records
- Credit records
- Criminal records
- Driving records
- Sex offender lists
- State licensing records
- Motor vehicle registrations
- Fingerprinting

In addition, there’s other information you can uncover through a background check if you don’t have time to verify that information yourself. (However, these are things that are part of most recruiters’ process.)

- Education
- Credentials
- Past employers
- Personal references

Drug tests can also be required of a candidate. This can be done either through a standard urine panel screening or through a hair sample. Many companies are now opting for the latter, which produces more accurate results. Along with a drug test, however, you also need an appropriate “chain of custody.” This is a term that refers to the process of providing documentation of proper specimen identification and handling from the time of collection to the time that the lab releases its results. An accurate and exact chain of custody is needed in case the results come under legal challenge.

The Complexities

While background checks are a necessary and invaluable tool, there are certain steps and procedures that must be followed when conducting one through a third-party vendor. First and foremost, the check must be in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, enacted by Congress in 1970; the Americans with Disabilities Act; and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

In addition, an employer’s screening policy must not have negative effects on the disabled and provide for fair and unbiased treatment no matter the gender, race, color, disability, national origin, marital status, religion, or other protected class of a candidate. As you can see, conducting a background check is not something to be taken lightly. There are a lot of components involved and many requirements that must be followed.

The entire process can appear a bit daunting. Clients want the best and brightest candidates in the industry, but they also want to make sure that those candidates are low-risk. If you don’t provide them with low-risk candidates, you could be damaging your reputation and your relationship with that client. That makes background checks a necessity. On the other hand, if you don’t make sure that those checks are conducted in complete compliance with established laws and regulations, you could potentially be exposing yourself to an entirely different set of legal woes.

And it’s not as though things will get easier in the future. If history is any indication, conducting background checks will become even more complicated as state and federal mandates are added or modified. So at the same time that the need for background checks continues to increase, their degree of difficulty will increase as well.

Our Screening Process

Top Echelon Contracting conducts background checks for candidates being placed on a contract assignment through our back-office. If a recruiter is going to place a contractor or a temp-to-hire candidate through Top Echelon Contracting, we automatically conduct a standard background check.

When candidates are issued their contract employment paperwork, we include a Back-ground Investigation Release Form. Once we have a signed release form, we outsource this critical task to IntelliCorp Records Inc., a subsidiary of Insurance Services Office, Inc. They offer a variety of pre-employment verification and screening services, including criminal background checks, previous employment and education references, motor vehicle registrations, and more.

IntelliCorp typically provides results of background screenings to Top Echelon Contracting in 24 hours or less. Top Echelon Contracting has identified Intelli-Corp as a preferred vendor and has negotiated discount rates for recruiters working on permanent placements. You can find out more about IntelliCorp by visiting our website at www.TopEchelon Contracting.com, clicking on the “Recruiters” tab, and then clicking on “Resources.”

However you choose to conduct background checks, it’s imperative that they become an integral part of your recruiting process because, if you don’t know who you’re interviewing, then you don’t know who you’re placing.

Debbie Fledderjohann is the president of Top Echelon Contracting, the recruiter’s back-office solution. Since 1992, Top Echelon Contracting has been helping perm recruiters nationwide make contract placements. As a contract staffing service provider, they handle all of the administrative details associated with being the employer, including employee paperwork, legal contracts, timesheet collection, payroll funding, payroll processing, tax withholding, benefits, workers’ compensation coverage, invoicing, collection of accounts receivables, background checks, etc. For more information, call (888) 627-3678 and ask to speak with a contract administrator. Please note: This article is intended to give general information only and should not be construed as legal advice for specific situations. Please contact your legal counsel before taking any action.

I’ve recently returned from speaking at the National Association of Personnel Services Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas. My speech topic might be of interest to you if you are an owner/manager who’s also running your own desk. Here are a few highlights from “Can I Herd My Cool Cats and Still Be the Top Dog?”

Create Reputations for Your Recruiters

When I joined Ryals & Associates, my boss Paul Austin spread a rumor about me. I was supposed to be this Superstar Great Recruiter/Big Biller. I had billed $100K, which was okay in 1988 but far from superstar level. But Paul had spread this rumor so well that when I arrived, everyone said to me, “You must be the new superstar Paul has been talking so much about.” I had a choice: to explain to them I was not a superstar, or to quickly grow into my new “reputation.” I stepped up to my “reputation” and ended up doubling my billings and EARNING over $100K in 1989. What reputation are you creating for your recruiters? I think we need to speak life into the people who work for us and begin to create reputations they can live up to.

Eliminate Hairballs

I have a mentor named John Adams. He’s at least 20 years my senior, and his company is at least $20 million larger than mine. I try never to take advice from anyone more messed up than I am. But when people are $20 mil and 20 years ahead of me in life, I find myself VERY coachable! One day I was explaining the challenges I was having with one of my recruiters when John hit me with this little gem of wisdom. “Why don’t you just fire him?”

“You see, Joe,” he explained, “once you have started down that ‘coaching path’ with someone – not coaching to improve, but coaching to correct behavior – you only have a 50/50 chance of keeping the person, and most of the time if they do make it, they will be only average and never be a superstar for you. However, if you are any good at all in recruiting, you could fire them, start over, and have a 50/50 chance of hiring a superstar.

“Furthermore, Joe, if that person is not self-actualizing under you, they might never self-actualize under you. It is therefore your duty to the universe, Joe, to fire them and give them a chance to go to work somewhere where they might self-actualize. When you start down that ‘coaching path’ with someone, ask yourself, ‘If this person resigned tomorrow, would I be upset?’ If not, you probably need to help them to self-actualize somewhere else. (On someone else’s draw!) Like my good friend Jim Ashworth says, ‘Don’t be more committed to their success than they are.’ ”

Spend Your Time Where It’s Deserved, Not Where It’s Needed

Most managers spend the bulk of their time with their worst performers. You want to spend the majority of your time with your best performers.

Rewarding Your Best

We talked at length about incentive plans and how to hire and keep great recruiters. People stay when they are appreciated and it’s fun, and even more so when they have a stake in the game. Consider making your best recruiters “Partners.” Even a very small equity stake and “Partner” on their business cards can make them more likely to stay with you when the competition calls them or when the entrepreneurial bug bites.

Recommended Reading

There’s a list of recommended books for recruiters on my website http://www.jpspeaking. com; for management, I like these:

Good to Great, by Jim Collins
Topgrading, by Bradford Smart
GMP: The Greatest Management Principle in the World, by Michael LeBoeuf
1001 Ways to Reward Employees, by Bob Nelson

Joe Pelayo is available for speaking and training recruiters worldwide. He is the author of a brand-new DVD program for recruiters, “21 Ways to Increase Your Billings!” Add it to your training library today by visiting www.jpspeaking.com. His email is Joe@jpspeaking.com

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 still works an active desk. 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 book “Work Your Network!” – available at Amazon.com – which has received rave reviews from industry leaders, speakers, and trainers, including Terry Petra, Bill Radin, Paul Hawkinson, and many others.

Freedom versus security. My coach once asked me to rate which was more important to me. I continually re-ask myself this question every time I embark on a new endeavor.

It’s been about 14 years since I became a business owner. Owning a staffing business was not really something I had planned on. It was something I did in reaction to my employer going out of business. I was more than eight months pregnant, and had two small children already at home, a new mortgage, and a marriage that was definitely not set up for the trials and tribulations of business owner-ship.

I often hear young rookies, as well as seasoned veterans, speak about how great it would be to own their own firm or break out on their own and go independent. These days, it seems, “being my own boss” is some-thing of an American dream. However, I can’t help but wonder if I knew then what I know now, would I have done it, or would I have done it the way I did it?

In Robert Kiyosaki’s book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” he writes that there are four financial quad-rants: employee, self-employed, business owner, and investor. Many of us in this industry, even if working for someone else, are considered self-employed. Some of us who run contract staffing operations could also be considered business owners even if we work for a parent company. The point is that we are in a unique, lucrative, and rewarding profession that promises financial freedom for anyone who buckles down, masters the game, and stays in it for the long haul.

The question many recruiters ponder at one point or another is “Where should I do this wonderful work of recruiting? Should I work as part of a high-performing group like Hobson Associates, or as a free agent member of Agent HR, or as an independent member of Hire-Ability or Top Echelon, or should I do it better than anyone else and start my own firm?” The answers to these career-defining questions often come out of a response to what one is facing at the moment rather than what is the best move for an individual’s personality, work style, lifestyle, goals, and objectives.

When I look back at my career in recruiting, I am blessed to have had the privilege of working in three of the four financial quadrants about which Kiyosaki speaks and I am planning on working in the fourth sooner rather than later. Given that I am about to close one chapter of my life in recruiting and open another, it seems as good a time as any to share my experience of working in these quadrants; my intention is that maybe you can learn from some of my road bumps and spare yourself the pain of making the wrong move for you and your family.

As I look back, I remember significant attributes and problems with the four companies (including my own) and work situations – a.k.a. quadrants – that I have been part of.

I don’t have any regrets, just grist for the mill, and with grist it is always a good idea to put it to use; so I share what worked and share what didn’t, and if one person can learn just one thing from me, then my sharing has made a difference.

My first job, in 1983, was probably my best job. I was considered an employee, but I was really self-employed in an employee/employer setting. It was a place where everyone who made it out of training (1 out of 30) had to earn a minimum of $68,000 their first year on a desk or they were not welcome to stay. I did not know it then, but I know now what a gift it is being in an environment where everyone is committed to working hard and winning the game, to a recruiter, or for that matter, to anyone. The other thing I remember about the good old days is that work was for work and we were all there to make things happen, for ourselves and for each other. What did not work for me was that I was very young, in my early 20s, and when after three years I grew bored with placing secretaries, rather than dealing with my boredom and creating new challenges for me, my manager poked fun at me. It was that firm’s lack of harnessing and leveraging their talent that eventually made 90% of their top producers walk away after three to five years and take their book of business with them.

The second job took me 22 phone interviews and nine offers to find. I wanted Utopia. I wanted a professional environment, good mentoring, a strong team, flexible hours (after all, I had kids), and I wanted freedom from territories and I wanted ongoing training, great Christmas parties, four weeks off, and a great bonus. To find this job, I did what I did for candidates and got on the phone and marketed my MPC – which this time was me. Much to my dismay, no one operated even remotely like my previous employer. By the end of my first week in the search, I realized that the only way I could create my past was to work for myself, and I resolved that one day, I would start my own place when the timing was right. Then someone gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. A higher commission and flextime. WOW. My big list was boiled down to two deal breakers. (Good lesson to keep in mind for those candidates who want it all.)

What my youthful mind could not foresee was that the level of flexibility in the pay and hours came at a high cost. No two people in that organization worked the same. There were no systems, processes, or policies, the place was a free-for-all, and my credibility that I had worked so hard to build was constantly being challenged by the level of talent with whom I was partnered. The average recruiter income at this company was $45K. I stayed for four years, and even though I worked fewer hours for a bit more money, I remember that my stress and unhappiness level increased tenfold.

And then came the dream-come-true opportunity, or was it? I had never made a recruiting call, let alone received one – and then it happened. A woman had called one of my staff, a rookie, and was trying to recruit her. The rookie was scared, so she handed me the phone and the woman on the other end said, “Margaret, Margaret Graziano, you are the one I was looking for.” (Flatter me some more.) She went on to tell me that several of my “alma maters” were currently on her team, and that they wanted me to join them. She told me that everyone on the team billed in excess of $300K (in 1990 that was pretty significant for office-support placement), so I would be among peers. Best part – she told me that I could join if I paid a fee for rent, phones, to be with the best, and then I could keep 90% of the take. WOW, everything I ever dreamed of, the RE/MAX of recruiting. How could I say no?

I quit my job and the next thing I knew, America was going to war. With a new mortgage, a new marriage, and a kid on the way, I was scared, freaked out, to say the least. I walked in on my first day and made more phone calls than anyone in all three offices. I got to my desk, smiled and dialed until I had enough workable job orders to produce $30K per month. I needed to succeed and nothing was going to stop me. This is the way it was here for four years. The only problem was that there was only one other person in the entire enterprise with my level of billings, commitment, and client list. In the beginning that didn’t bother me entirely because I always had candidates to fill my jobs and felt like I had total freedom, I came and went as I pleased, and I was raking in the dough. Life could not get any better, or so I thought.

Turns out that that perception is not always real. The problem with having only two people out of 40 who were actually making enough money to pay the rent was that the company was in major financial crisis. Even though the RE/MAX program was a good concept in theory, because of poor management and execution, it was a bad concept in reality. There were serious integrity issues and serious money issues.

One by one, people were leaving and opening up their own firms, and when they left they took things that didn’t belong to them. Contacts, job orders, contracts were downloaded, copied, and pillaged. With everyone deemed a free agent, and no noncompetes in place, it got really ugly and eventually the business imploded, and what had started out as a dreamy situation turned into a lot of ugly lawsuits and wage claims.

And there I was: Another 22 phone interviews or Go Start Utopia. I chose Utopia and boy, oh boy, was I not prepared for the journey.

Employees, leases, bank loans, rent, commission plans, non-competes, training programs, policies, temp service agreements, more employees, more clients, not enough candidates, more employees, overhead, quality issues . . . Calgon, take me away.

And it got better, and it got worse, and then it got really great, and then it got really bad, and then it got better.

Business ownership is not for everyone. Often many of us have the dream of being our own boss, as Michael E. Gerber states, because we want to right our previous bosses’ wrongs, or because we want freedom and control. There are many reasons to become a business owner, and one of them can be to escape the boss, but that reason is often one that leads to failure. The reason has to be big enough to carry you through a recession, a job-order shortage, a candidate shortage, through failures, through lost clients and unhappy or unproductive employees – the reason has got to be compelling enough to give your life to it, or it’s not worth doing.

If it is freedom you’re looking for, I recommend becoming self-employed as a better solution than choosing business ownership. With business ownership, true freedom does not come into play until you turn into more of the investor and you have strong management in place to run the day-to-day operations. Without strong management in place, you are most likely working for someone much worse than your last boss. You are working for yourself! The time you used to spend producing is now spent doing things that don’t provide any immediate return on investment, and your time is often squandered by people, tasks, and issues that do not provide the same thrill as being in the trenches closing a full-fee placement.

If it is power and control that you are after, whether you want to be an independent or a new business owner, I recommend doing a lot of strategizing and planning. I recommend building a network of people to play with that can leverage your already proven talents.

I recommend you get flat on your values, your non-negotiables in your work style and service offerings, and make certain that the people you bring into your circle as employees or split partners share your fundamental beliefs about how to operate in the business. The wrong people doing the wrong things can destroy your reputation, your passion, and can cloud your vision.

As I review the past 14 years of being a staffing business owner, I can remember feeling at times a little like Citizen Kane did when all he wanted was to get back to the simple life. The reality is that some of the very best times I have had in this business were when I was working for someone else. There was always a steady stream of job orders, someone else paid the rent, someone else funded the 401(k). I came in, did my work, and left. Maybe I matched or contacted a few candidates at night, but all in all I had it made. I made more money than anyone I knew. I had virtually no stress, my weekends were mine, and when I left at 5, everything else was someone else’s problem. Security has its perks.

So before you go out and start your own bonfire club (as Danny Cahill so eloquently demonstrated in his NAPS presentation), do some real thinking. If your boss is demanding, remember that you will someday be that demanding boss. If you like doing splits, then you need people with whom to do splits. If you’re a better recruiter than a job-order person, then know that you will always need job orders and without them you will starve. If you hate research, figure the solution to that before you go out on your own.

Being a business owner has been one of the very best growth experiences of my life, I have made a lot of money, have developed as a leader, manager, and overall business person, and it has not been easy.

If you are up to it – all of it – GO FOR IT. If you are not, save yourself the 80-hour workweeks, save yourself the fights with your spouse or significant other, save yourself the agony of having to terminate someone because they have not made placements in 120 days, save yourself the pain of having to choose work (or not) over your kid’s 3 p.m. basketball games.

Being a business owner is not for the weak of heart, it is not for someone trying to escape the wrath of a demanding boss. It is for someone out to cause something extraordinary – someone who has the skill, the will, the desire, and the discipline to create an environment where people can choose to thrive.

Whether you are happy working for someone, happy being an independent, happy being a business owner, or have created a situation where you are the happy investor and someone else is dealing with the day-to-day, cherish what you have, honor your strengths, and leverage your power right where you are, every day.

Best in Success

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

Another “manna from heaven” story related to candidate relationships and candidate control.

I returned from my noontime run and the “message” light on my phone was blinking. I hit the “caller ID” button and saw the name of a company I had never heard of before. I listened to the message:

“Neil, my name is Susan, and I am the human resources manager at (XYZ) Company. (Name), one of our senior managers, gave me your name and asked me to contact you. Please give me a call.”

The name she mentioned was a guy I had placed 15 years ago when he was a junior Naval officer looking for his first job after the military. From time to time, he would call me and ask for my advice on various issues related to hiring and career management, which I gladly gave him. Now he was apparently a “big gun” at this company. I presumed that this HR manager was calling me to give me a position to fill. I called her. What I heard was the first time this has ever happened.

“Neil, (Name) asked me to call so you can send me your invoice for his outplacement counseling. We need to know where to send the $2,500 for his outplacement support.”

I told her I would need to get back to her. I immediately called my friend. I didn’t know he was losing his job, nor did I want to be contractually required to perform outplacement services. (I prefer to “place” people where the fees are 10 times outplacement fees, and require one-tenth the effort!) Also, if this guy was high up in the “food chain,” it would be very tough to place him. However, I would be glad to counsel, assist, and coach him simply because he was a friend.

My friend surprised me: “Neil, I already have another job. I just want you to receive payment for all the career advice you have given me over the years because your tips from the past helped me land on my feet in this instance. HR said I had to spend the money and could send the money to whoever I wished, so I told them to send it to you. Enjoy!”

Moral: Treat everyone respectfully, and give of yourself. Too many in our industry teach that you should never spend any time at all with nonplaceable people, almost to the point of rudeness. Also, “candidate control” does not mean hammering people into submission; it means creating a bond between you and your candidates that your candidates will not want to break. This guy was once one of my candidates whom I “controlled,” but apparently he appreciated it.

Neil P. McNulty, McNulty Management Group – Creators of the “30/30 Placement Programâ„¢” www.mcnultymanagement.com.

As promised, I will occasionally ask individuals from both inside and outside Kaye/Bassman to guest write this column. This month’s Next Level column is written by Jeff Wittenberg. Jeff joined Kaye/Bassman almost a decade ago. He began as a junior recruiter on a team and quickly rose to become a practice partner. He eventually took over the entire practice once his partner retired. Jeff began aggressively growing the team and teaching others to do what he had been doing. He gradually outsourced his way out of a job! The year he turned his practice over to his team, they had produced over $1.7 million!

There were five others with varying levels of responsibility who only a few years before had done less than one-third of that amount! He has since left his practice and is a full-time leader at Kaye/Bassman and coach for Next Level Recruiting Training. His primary role is to help others build whatever-size teams they want and help those on their teams to grow as well. This topic has been one of our most frequently asked about. Enjoy.

About three years ago, Jeff Kaye asked me if I was ready to consider transitioning off of my practice and into a full-time corporate leadership role working with the other teams in the firm to help them achieve their goals. While flattered, I told him I wasn’t quite ready to exchange my uniform as a player for that of a coach. Well, like any good recruiter, he didn’t take no for an answer. Before I knew it, I found myself in a player/coach role, balancing time between developing my practice ($1.7 million in revenue in 2006) and helping others develop theirs while simultaneously working toward weaning myself completely off of my practice. Oh, and did I mention doing it over a three-year time frame without a drop in personal practice revenue.

So how did I do it? Well, first let me save you the time in looking for a “book for dummies” on how to do it because it doesn’t exist (trust me, I checked). My hope is that the following will serve as a mini version on how it could be done. With that said, let’s dive in.

Step 1: Create standard operating procedures (SOPs) for everything you do on your practice

- This will ensure that the consistency and quality you established continues once you transition off of the practice.

- Standardize all of your forms (candidate data sheet/profiles, job order, closing, etc.).

- Standardize how everyone uses your contact management software/database (coding records, entering data, saving records, etc.).

- Develop standard reports for tracking production and performance.

- Establish a team meeting schedule and format.

Step 2: Identify and groom someone(s) to backfill your “production” role

Make sure the individual(s) has not only the desire but also the skills (or has the potential to develop the skills) to successfully handle the entire placement process.

Step 3: Outsource portions of the placement process gradually until that person(s) is handling the process

You might start with having them:

- Recruit on your positions, then
- Schedule interviews, then
- Prep candidates for interviews, then
- Present candidates to clients, then
- Prep clients for interviews, then
- Conduct reference checks, then
- Close clients/candidates on offer/acceptance and set start date, then
- Prep candidate for resignation, then
- Account manage that client, then
- Market to develop new client relationships.

It’s important to note that throughout this process of outsourcing, you are closely “shadowing” them until such time as you’re confident that they’re being effective.

Step 4: Identify and groom someone(s) to backfill your “leadership” role

This isn’t easy because this person(s) must have not only the credibility as a producer (as evidenced by successfully and repeatedly completing the placement process) but also the team’s trust to lead them, provide them with a vision/ mission, inspire them to achieve the vision/mission, coach them to improve their personal production, and develop them into becoming leaders them-selves someday. This doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and willingness on your part to push change at a rate that can be absorbed by everyone on the practice.

Step 5: Step aside and watch them soar

This definitely isn’t as easy as it sounds because we have two psychologies working against us. The first is that of a control-freak producer who thinks no one can manage the placement process as well as he can. The second is the emotional attachment you have to your practice, much like the one you have to your child. Regarding the first, you just might be right that no one can do it as well as you can. They just might be able to do it better. As for the second, just remember that no matter how independent and old your child or practice becomes, it’ll always be your baby to watch grow beyond its wildest dreams.

As with every Next Level coaching tip, what I described above is “a” way, not “the” way, and the “right” steps are the ones that enable you to achieve what it is that you want. Use the five steps above as a guide to help you determine what the right steps, in the right order, and at the right pace, are for you. Said differently by the teachings of Buddha, “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sense.” Lastly, always remember that it’s about the journey of discovery, not the destination. I wish you safe travels!

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

Benjamin Franklin once said, “There are two ways to acquire wisdom; you can either buy it or borrow it.” By buying it, you pay full price in terms of time and cost to learn the lessons you need to learn. By borrowing it, you go to those men and women who have already paid the price to learn the lessons and get their wisdom from them.

This is the essence of the mentor-protégé relationship. By going to people who are ahead of you in the personal or professional arena and opening your-self to their input, advice, and guidance, you can save yourself the many months (maybe even years) it would take and the thousands of dollars it would cost to learn what you need to learn all by yourself.

M. R. “Kop” Kopmeyer, a respected success authority, once told me that perhaps the fastest way to get ahead was to study the experts and to do what they do, rather than trying to learn it all by yourself. In fact, he mentioned that no one lives long enough to learn everything he needs to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to help us learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.

The mentors you choose should be people you respect, admire, and want to be like. The advice you seek should be guidance regarding your character and personality and specific ideas on how you can do your job better and faster. Remember, you can’t figure it all out by yourself. You must have the help of others. You must find men and women who will guide you and advise you on the road of life, or you will take a long, long time getting anywhere.

There are two vital qualities to look for in a mentor. The first is character and the second is competence.

Character is by far the more important. Look for a mentor who has the kind of character you admire and respect. Look for a person who has high degrees of intelligence, integrity, judgment, and wisdom. The more you associate with men and women who are advanced in the development of their character, the more you will tend to pattern them and to become like them.

The second quality you look for in a mentor is competence. This means that the person is extremely good at what he or she does. A good mentor in your career is one who has the knowledge, skills, and abilities to move ahead far more rapidly than his or her peers.

The impact of a mentor on your life is dependent on two additional factors. The first is your degree of openness to being influenced by another person. Openness is so important because many people, especially young people, are extremely impatient, always looking for shortcuts. When they get advice on something that another person has spent many years learning, they often try to add their own variations and improve on it without ever having mastered the original instruction.

Remember, when you open yourself up to guidance and input from another person, concentrate first on under-standing and learning exactly what that person has to teach you. Afterward, you can modify and change that lesson to suit your changing circumstances.

The second factor that determines the influence of a mentor on your life is the willing-ness of the mentor to help you in every way possible to achieve your goals. We know that the more emotionally involved someone is in our lives, the more susceptible we are to being influenced by that person. When you seek out a mentor, you must look for someone who genuinely cares about you as a person and who really wants you to be successful in your endeavors.

So, for a good mentor-protégé relationship, you must be wide open to the influence and instruction of the other person, and at the same time, the mentor must be genuinely concerned about your well-being and your ultimate success. These are the two essentials.

Your ability to choose your mentors can be a crucial step toward achievement in all areas of your life. So here are 12 steps for building successful mentor-protégé relationships:

1. Set clear goals for yourself in every area of your life. Know exactly what you want to accomplish before you start thinking of the type of person who can help you accomplish it.

2. Determine the things you will have to do in order to achieve your goals, the obstacles you will have to overcome, and the roadblocks you will have to surmount.

3. Identify the areas of knowledge, skill, and expertise you will have to acquire in order to overcome the obstacles existing between you and your goals.

4. Look around for the most successful people in the areas in which you will need the most help.

5. Join the clubs, organizations, and business associations these people belong to.

6. Once you have joined these organizations, become actively involved and volunteer for responsibilities. This will bring you to the attention of the people you want to meet faster than anything else.

7. Work, study, and practice continually to get better and better at what you do. The very best mentors are interested in helping you only if they feel it is going to be worth their time. You will have no problem attracting people to you when you develop a reputation for being up-and-coming in your field.

8. When you find a potential mentor, don’t make a nuisance of yourself. Instead, ask for 10 minutes of his or her time, in person, in private. Nothing more. Remember, most potential mentors are busy people, and they may be opposed to someone’s trying to take up a lot of their time. It’s not personal.

9. When you meet with a potential mentor, express your eagerness to be more successful in your field. Tell him or her that you would very much appreciate a little guidance and advice to help you move ahead. Ask for an answer to a specific question, for a specific book or audio program recommendation, or for a specific idea that has been helpful to him or her in the past.

10.After the initial meeting, send a thank-you note expressing your gratitude and appreciation for his or her time and guidance. Mention that you hope to meet again if you have another question.

11.Each month, drop your mentor a short note telling him or her about what you are doing and how you are progressing. Nothing makes a mentor more open to helping you further than your making it clear that the previous help has done you some good.

12.Arrange to meet with your mentor again, perhaps on a monthly basis, or even more often if you work closely together.

Over the course of your life, you will have many mentor-protégé relationships. As you grow and develop, you will seek out different mentors, the people who can give you the kind of advice that is most relevant to your current situation.

Successful people are very open to helping other people who want to be successful. This is especially true if they know you are willing to be a mentor to others who are younger and less experienced than you. The more open you are to helping others up the ladder of success, the more open others will be to helping you.

Brian Tracy is a legend in the fields of management, leadership, and sales. He has produced more than 350 audio/video programs and has written over 42 books, including his just-released book “The Way to Wealth.” To receive a free copy of one of Brian’s CDs, go to www.briantracy.com and click on the Special Offers, Free Audio Program. Also check out Brian Tracy University of Sales and Entrepreneurship at www.brian tracyu.com. Brian can be reached at (858) 481-2977 or www.briantracy.com.

Today it’s a candidate’s market, full of bountiful opportunities and lots of choices. The best candidates know exactly how valuable they are, and that isn’t good news for our industry.

Candidates are often so intoxicated with their own worth that they do not see the need for outside advice or help. They’ve got the power, and they aren’t afraid to use it. Exceptional offers are being turned down at record levels. Candidates are growing increasingly selective. It’s becoming more and more difficult to keep control of our candidates and the hiring process.

I don’t know about you, but I have experienced a growing sense of entitlement within the talent market, at all levels.

If you’re frustrated, you’re not alone. I recently talked to a colleague who has billed over $400K annually for two decades in pharmaceutical recruiting. He said the past 10 months have been the least rewarding of his entire career. “Candidates aren’t returning my calls,” he said. “They’re accepting counteroffers and falling off in huge numbers.”

This is a conversation I’m having with recruiters all around the country. We’re losing our influence with candidates, and we need to reestablish our relevance in a very real way. But how? What do we do on our end to remain vital in a high-demand, low-supply market?

This trend requires a new approach. It is time to move from the tactical recruiter to the valued career coach and trusted business adviser. And how is this accomplished?

By developing a thorough and true understanding of our candidates. By recognizing their hot buttons, the reasons they are considering a change, their likes and dislikes concerning their current positions. By getting a handle on their dream jobs. But this is not new. This is what being a good recruiter is all about.

Don’t be fooled. There are new variables in this familiar equation. They are Generations X and Y, and along with the baby boomers, they make up a volatile generational mix. To attain success today, recruiters must acknowledge and understand the unique values, needs, and desires of these distinct generations.

A one-size-fits-all approach to recruiting is no longer viable. We must now consider candidates’ generational profiles to ensure success in changing professional relationships and work environments. Not just typical characteristics, but what drives them and motivates them. What is behind their decision-making processes?

With three generations in the workforce, each with unique world views and varied work styles, it becomes increasingly difficult to completely understand a candidate’s true individual needs. It is our job to make sure there is harmony and under-standing between the recruiter and the candidate, despite potentially very real differences. Our goal is to avoid fall-offs and turn-downs, to make solid placements that are successful for both client and candidate. To do this, it is imperative to have strategies in place that make it easier to navigate this generational mine-field.

Three generations make up over 90 percent of our workforce: baby boomers, born between 1946 and1964; Generation X, born between 1965 and 1981; and Generation Y, born between 1982 and 2002. As recruiters, we must take the time to learn about each generation’s likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, and work and communication styles in order to make successful placements.

A short overview of the generations can be used as a helpful guideline:

Baby boomers are hardworking, competitive team players with a youthful self-image. They tend to be more optimistic than their younger counterparts. They are often stereotyped as old-fashioned, rigid, and averse to change. Boomers have a get-it-done attitude in the workplace. They respect authority and value accomplishment. They communicate best through a structured network. They crave rewards and career advancement and are motivated by others’ recognition of their hard work. They are highly loyal employees, and for them, work comes first.

Recruiters can influence boomers by appealing to these characteristics. Tell them exactly what impact they will have on an organization. Share the company’s vision and how the candidate is well suited to help them accomplish it. Appeal to the boomer’s natural love of a challenge by bringing positions to them that will help them shine.

Generation Xers value work/ life balance, so when presenting a position to them, make sure to outline the ways in which it is congruent with this philosophy. Gen Xers have a self-reliant and practical approach to the workplace. But they are often seen by others as slackers, selfish, and cynical. They can be casual and direct in their approach to coworkers and managers, but they have the potential to contribute great things to the right team.

Gen Xers enjoy a flexible workplace where rules aren’t too rigid and the atmosphere is collaborative. They thrive in a job that offers a balance of fair compensation and ample time off. Gen Xers most definitely don’t possess the employer loyalty of the boomers and can be job hoppers. To successfully work with this inwardly focused generation, appeal to their individual career goals. Tell them why the position you are presenting is the best next step in their careers. Explain precisely what’s in it for them. Xers really want to continue to grow professionally, so make sure you inform them of any training and development they would receive in the opportunity.

Generation Yers are the team builders. They are the ultimate at multitasking. They are technologically savvy and ready for fun. They are perceived by the older generations as disrespectful, lacking focus, and too dependent on technology, but these youngest workers are highly desirable team players. They are eager to please and respond very well to public praise. They will work hard to get the job done, but they are deadline, not schedule, focused. When presenting a position to Gen Y, keep in mind that they value their autonomy. When polled, Gen Yers cited their number one priority as a good salary followed by advancement opportunities. When recruiting them, make sure your client companies understand they may have to pay more for this rising generation.

Gen Y is less inclined to pursue formal leadership positions, so you may need to do some fast talking to get them to see the value of taking on more responsibility. They seek varied experiences in life and in work. Explain how the opportunity will give them the chance to broaden their skills and vision. To successfully recruit them to an organization, show them how it will help them to achieve their personal and professional goals.

You will find that Gen Years do not hesitate to bring their personal life to work. Make client companies aware of this. Gen Yers tend to be more loyal than Gen Xers, but their ties are to the people they work with. Remember, they will get the job done, but they aren’t going to hang around the office just to put in old-fashioned “sweat equity.” Terms that appeal to this generation are: job sharing, tele-commuting, and compressed workweeks. Don’t try to force an old-fashioned, 9-to-5 opportunity on a Gen Yer. You’re setting yourself, your candidate, and your client up for failure.

The key to success in this changing market is to recognize and address the two critical issues. The multigenerational workforce lends a new twist to traditional methods. You must work to become as familiar with your candidates and their unique generational traits as you are with any position and client company. It is no longer enough to treat people the way you would like to be treated. Chances are they will have very different preferences. It’s up to you to understand each profile, and to honor it with every individual and every interaction.

Second, the talent shortage gives increased value and power to candidates. Now is the time to establish a career-coach relation-ship with your candidates. Make sure you are seen as knowledgeable and trustworthy. Bring value to the process – develop a true understanding of what their needs are and how you can influence and assist their decisions. Work to build solid relationships in which you are seen as a vital part of the process, giving you influence in decision-making. Don’t waste your time and your credibility by presenting the wrong opportunities – because in today’s brutal market, you probably won’t get a second chance.

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.