Welcome to The Fordyce Letter:

The Fordyce Letter

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Business

Business, Fees, Staffing

Stop Being Bullied: It’s About How Much the Client Saves. Not What You Charge

by 20 hours ago


Negotiation image - freedigital

Negotiation image - freedigitalThere’s a nasty little trend that seems to have permeated our industry, and I am baffled to understand why or how. Frankly speaking, there are far too many recruiting firms who either do not realize or significantly undervalue what precious assets temporary employees can be to their business.

As a rule, our industry is far too willing to allow clients to tighten the thumbscrews on temp bill rates, and simply roll over and cave at the first sign of pushback or hesitation. Too many of us practically give away temps at huge discounts, often out of desperation and because we’ve been tricked into reactionary fear thanks to our old friend, the economic recession.

If you find yourself sheepishly nodding in agreement, consider this a wake-up call: Providing our services for a profit is priority one!

Yes, I love what I do but no, I’m not going to be so impertinent as to suggest for one minute that I’d do it for free. You are here to make money — and I hope you value your work enough to insist on making a lot of it — by not letting margin and profit slip through your fingers.

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Business, How-To, Staffing

Marketing Basics To Help You Jump Start Your New Temp Business

by 1 day ago


Marketing business sales

Companies across the United States want to streamline their processes. Flexibility, efficiency, and cost savings are necessary to survive in this new economy. Contract staffing allows companies to achieve those goals and become productive at the same time.

There are three pieces of good news here for recruiters. One is that the companies you are already working with for direct hire placements probably need contractors, and you already have those business relationships established.

The other piece of good news is that any recruiter, regardless of size, can add contract staffing to their business model if they use a full service back-office provider. The back-office should handle the financial, legal, and administrative tasks so you don’t have to deal with funding, contracts, time sheets, payroll, taxes, workers compensation, background checks or any other administrative issue.

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For Managers, How-To, The Business of Recruiting

Some Simple Steps to Help You Protect Your Business and Your Assets

by 3 weeks ago


PC Security - freedigital

PC Security - freedigitalEditor’s note: With the conviction of executive recruiter and former Korn/Ferry employee David Nosal, there’s heightened interest on steps owners can take to protect themselves from embezzlement, theft, and the loss of their client and prospet lists, and other intellectual property. Bill Gibbens, an owner and CPA, reviews the internal financial controls every firm owner should consider.

“Internal Controls” are an organization’s structure of work and authority flows, people and management information systems, designed to help the organization accomplish specific goals, and which provide a foundation for preventing and detecting fraud and protecting the organization’s resources.

In the search business our primary assets are: cash, accounts receivable, database, client base, and our people. Internal controls around each of these assets will allow you to sleep at night. Without them or other similar controls you are at risk.

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Business, For Managers, Jeff's On Call!

Track Your Recruiters’ Hours Or You Could End Up Writing One Big Check

by 4 weeks ago


JeffOnCall_logo

Jeff,

Thank you for all you do for us in the field!

I have a question regarding tracking time and compensation of recruiters. You are aware that many of us work more than 40 hours a week, probably more like 56, and much is performed away from the office.  

I don’t track my time or that of my recruiters. Should I? 

I read a case brought by a group of recruiters  a year or so ago in which they claimed that although they received a base (draw against commission) and were paid an agreed upon percentage of a fee, that they should also be compensated for the overtime they worked even though a placement was not guaranteed outcome of that work and the time spent was discretionary.

As an owner, should I have recruiters complete timesheets? Should recruiters be paid for all the hours they work? Should researchers be compensated differently then recruiters who have split desks or are out of the office more in a sales/recruiter role? If so, how does one account for the time spent responding to email while watching a movie for five minutes. or taking the 20 minute phone call?

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Ask Barb, Business Development

Can Your Team Say What Makes Them Better Than the Competition?

by on Apr. 10, 2013


Ask Barb

Dear Barb:

Can you give me some idea of how to brand myself and my company? I saw you speak recently to a room full of owners. You asked us to tell you why we should use your firm. You told us we could not say anything that anyone else in the room could say. I found it almost crazy that none of us could think of an answer. If we as the owners don’t know why someone should use us, how are the people who work for us supposed to know the answer?

You said hiring authorities tell you that we all say we’re different and then when they ask us how, we all give the same answer. I think you’re 100% right, this has bothered me since I returned from the conference. We had a brainstorming session about this question and it did not go well. We were all saying the same things that I know our competitors say. I can’t remember some of the examples you gave us and would appreciate it you would refresh my memory.

Pat D.

Tulsa, OK

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Business Development, Entrepreneurship, Staffing

Adding Temp To Your Services? Here’s How To Market It

by on Apr. 9, 2013


fordyce-default

marketingCompanies across the United States want to streamline their processes. Flexibility, efficiency, and cost savings are necessary to survive in this new economy. Contract staffing allows companies to achieve those goals and become productive at the same time.

There are three pieces of good news here for recruiters. One is that the companies you are already working with for direct hire placements probably need contractors, and you already have those business relationships established.

The other piece of good news is that any recruiter, regardless of size, can add contract staffing to their business model if they use a full service back-office provider. The back-office should handle the financial, legal, and administrative tasks so you don’t have to deal with funding, contracts, time sheets, payroll, taxes, workers compensation, background checks or any other administrative issue.

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Ask Barb, Business Development

You Need 30 Clients to Keep You Safe

by on Apr. 3, 2013


Ask Barb

Dear Barb:

I hear you always warn against having too few clients. We have four clients that provide more than enough orders for us to cover. We are currently only filling about 40% of the orders we are given. Do you still advise to continue marketing our services to other prospective clients?

Sharon M.

Springfield, IL

Dear Sharon:

I strongly advise that you build a client territory of 30 accounts for your business.

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For Managers

A Checklist to Help You Know If You’re Leading or Just Managing

by on Apr. 2, 2013


fordyce-default

TeamLeadThe business world is full of managers. Even in the face of recent economic-fueled cutbacks and downsizing, managers remain in abundant supply. Yet despite all the management, so many companies remain starved for genuine leadership. That’s because while businesses (budgets, market strategies, production quotas, etc.) need to be managed, employees need to be led.

So stop managing and start leading! Begin by learning what true leadership qualities are. While we’ve all known and admired that “natural-born leader,” more often than not most leadership skills simply lie dormant or undiscovered. If we just open our eyes and look, we can find and develop leadership.

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Business Development

If You Want My Business, Here’s What You Need to Do

by on Mar. 19, 2013


Staffing agency

Editor’s note: Matt Lowney, EVP of talent & operations at The Buntin Group, will be speaking at the 2013 Fordyce Forum.  He’s worked with hundreds of outside recruiters and agencies during his years as a recruiting leader at HealthSpring and DaVita. He’s been pitched so many times he’s lost count, but knows what works and what doesn’t. He’ll share that insight during his Forum presentation and tell you just what you need to do to get his business and how to set yourself apart from the herd.

Staffing agencies struggle to differentiate their brand message and uniqueness in a sea of competition. In my dealings with staffing agencies, their pitches all begin to sound the same, but they also recognize that the sheer volume of competitors makes it difficult to sound different, if they truly are. In most local markets there are a handful of solid players and a larger number of peripheral staffing firms that tend to create the “noise” (read: sales calls).

Here are my thoughts on being a top agency player in your market:

Be different: I harped on this point a while ago, but I challenge any staffing agency that wants to be great to clearly communicate their compelling business case. Talk about your recruiting process, client relations, local market connections, and client successes.

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For Managers, The Business of Recruiting

Here’s Why the World Needs Recruiters

by on Mar. 12, 2013


Adrian Kinnersley

Recruitment can mean different things to different people. There is a plethora of different business models within the staffing industry, so I thought it might be a good idea to define what I believe good recruitment is. This will perhaps put into context why I don’t believe that  LinkedIn — or for that matter any other web-based product — can ever replace the service we provide.

Talent Is Not an Online Commodity

Getting the best possible talent to join your company is not the same as purchasing a product online. Talent has opinions, options, and time constraints. Talent can be unpredictable, irrational, high maintenance, and uncommunicative. A product you buy online will always show up if you have paid the appropriate price and followed the correct purchasing process. A product won’t have any thoughts or feelings that it wants to discuss with a third party. It won’t have any opinions on how well you selected it. It won’t wait for a better company to buy it if it doesn’t like your communication style or your company values. A product won’t consult with family members, professional acquaintances, and even someone it met on the train to provide fresh objections about why they aren’t going to show up at your company.

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