Welcome to The Fordyce Letter:

The Fordyce Letter

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Toby Nathan

Toby is a seasoned talent acquisition consultant, entrepreneur, coach and speaker, and has worked with clients in a variety of industries and functional areas. She possesses over fourteen years of retained executive search experience and worked at Whitney Group (Carlyle Group, Ltd.), A.T. Kearney Executive Search, Kensington International and Wujcik & Associates. She is also an AIRS Certified Internet and Social Sourcing Recruiter. Prior to executive search, Toby spent fourteen years in the health care industry and served as a senior human resources manager with a special emphasis on recruitment, compensation, and benefits.

Articles by Toby Nathan

Social Media

Social Media + Legal Reality & Perspective = Caution for Recruiters

by on Sep. 23, 2010


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As search professionals and recruiters, we are learning more about the benefits of leveraging social media and integrating it as a trusted recruiting tool in identifying talent for our clients. It should be a critical component to sourcing combined with other proven methods. After all, our clients and candidates use it and so should we. I see social networking becoming more of a key component to recruiting as we can reach out to more people using social networks. It is also critical that we understand the powerful opportunity it presents for corporations to engage in real-time dialogue with customers, stakeholders, and candidates, and use it similarly with our clients as well.

Using social networks can give us a competitive edge in identifying and engaging the best candidates available, however, these sourcing options also bring potential legal pitfalls that we need to be aware of. For example, what happens when a candidate has revealed protected information via their social profiles?

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Definition of ‘Green Recruiter’ Standards

by on May 12, 2010


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Companies like Johnson & Johnson, Intel, and Starbucks have painted themselves in shades of green to boost their recruiting and leverage their environmental pedigree to attract talent.

These companies also ranked in the Top 10 on Newsweek‘s 2009 Green Rankings List. This list identifies their exclusive environmental ranking of America’s 500 largest corporations.

Whether you are a small or large recruiting firm, I think it is equally important to show your clients and candidates your green credentials.

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Social Networking Strategies in Recruiting On the Rise…

by on Apr. 21, 2010


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As the technology for the recruiting world continues to progress, top talent is more accessible than ever before. The potential for LinkedIn and other social networking sites to play a major role in your recruiting strategy is increased as millions of prospective candidates profile themselves on these sites.

In February 2010, LinkedIn announced that it has reached the 65-million user mark, growing quite rapidly, averaging 300,000 new profiles per month, with over nine million at the director level and above.

It’s not enough anymore to post a vacancy on the major job boards. Employers are typically spammed with many resumes from unqualified applicants. We have still found great candidates through these job boards, so continue to use them as a part of your recruiting mix. But the world of recruiting is changing. More and more, the online focus rests on social networking sites and smaller, specialized job boards.

Ten years ago, applicant tracking systems revolutionized recruitment methods. These methods have evolved and progressed to reflect the needs of recruiters today. We believe that this will continue to happen with social recruiting (which many applicant tracking systems already incorporate). Social recruiting seems to be the recruitment tool of the now and into the future.

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Focus on Top Client Retention Strategies

by on Dec. 30, 2009


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Customer retention is defined as the percentage of customer relationships that, once established, a business is able to maintain on a long-term basis.

Your database is your most precious asset in this current sales economy, so managing it appropriately can exponentially increase sales and profits. We all must remember that your current clients are only as valuable as the quality of the relationship you have with them — quality judged by that client’s opinion of your relationship.

The old saying that your customers are always right (even if they’re wrong) still rings true.

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Focus on Client Development

by on Dec. 23, 2009


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One of the most common mistakes we all make is to fail to prospect on a regular basis. Your actions are priceless and as a result, we are the recipients of irregular revenues and inconsistent fees or commissions.

This happens when we’re extremely frustrated or engaged with following many hot leads, and prospects who demand lengthy proposals, multiple meetings, conference calls, presentations, and references. It is this time when we need to be out there prospecting and focusing the key activities that produce new clients to ensure that a steady sales flow doesn’t suddenly disappear.

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Creating Your Own Brand: Increasing Your Online Presence

by on Nov. 23, 2009


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As we balance the demands of several different roles — business partner, recruiter, consultant, human capital advisor, go-to-expert, and advocate — we don’t pay much attention to branding ourselves as a professional for our own future.

If you have created a background of accessible and transparent communication, then using corporate social networks to reinforce your brand impact should be a natural extension of the work that you have already done.

Establishing credibility in your field is essential in building meaningful relationships and elevating your online presence. Branding (how you package yourself internally and externally) should be the first step in developing your personal and professional career presence. It is not a new concept, however, with the advancement of Web 2.0 tools, it is more important to be clear about what your personal brand is and to consistently communicate that brand across all platforms.

Your compelling and unique brand is important and influential as you have authentically created it to be an integral part of your company’s culture. Now it is time to use the strength of the human resources, recruitment, or third-party sourcing brand that you have built to attract new talent to market your leadership abilities, establish yourself as a subject matter expert in your field, get your name out there within your area of interest, and capitalize on what you know.

What will fellow recruiters, candidates, clients, hiring decision-makers, or industry leaders uncover when they Google your name?

Some of the most important reasons you should build your personal brand includes:

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