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The Fordyce Letter

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Closing

Closing, How-To

30 Client Questions That Will Save You Time and Make You Money

by 4 weeks ago


Question man cartoon - freedigital

Just like a golfer tees up the ball to optimize their drive for distance and accuracy, a Recruiter needs to prepare thoroughly before embarking on a candidate search, to maximize the chances for a successful outcome.

Proper qualification of a new requirement or job order is both a critical part of the recruiting process and great opportunity to further cement the relationship with your client. I’ve seen too many recruiters scurry off at the sniff of a new job order and start blasting away without having much of a clue as to the nature of the requirement or their chances of success.

I have worked with a multitude of recruiters and account managers in my 20 years in the industry in the UK and the USA. Most recently, I was the managing director of Kforce’s Silicon Valley Technology Practice.

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Closing

Treat Actives Like Passives and You’ll Close More Candidates

by on Apr. 23, 2013


candidate hiring concept

candidate hiring conceptOften we see articles about recruiting passive candidates. The perception is that active candidates are not as desirable as their working counterparts.

Allyson Doyle, contributor tr About.com wrote, “Employers often actively seek passive candidates for employment, especially when they are seeking candidates with very specific skills and experience.”

Does that mean that active candidates are no good? Before making a premature judgment, read on; you may not want to discount active candidates.

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Closing, How-To

How To Make A Successful Hire

by on Apr. 12, 2013


Job interview

Job interviewAn indisputable fact: the job market is heating up. Candidates seeking employment no longer go months without returned phone calls, but rather, quite the opposite. Recently, when speaking with a candidate who declared he was ‘actively looking’ for a new role, I was informed that since beginning his career search just a few days before,  he had received 152 emails regarding job opportunities.

Another candidate, who was directly recruited out of her organization, had to choose from one of four offers – all with a 10% increase in base salary and a significant equity component.

These are all very solid signs that the job market is better than last year. But with a positive shift in the economy comes a new set of challenges that hiring managers must be prepared to combat. In a candidate’s market, what is the best approach when at the offer stage? Below are some suggestions to help you and the team make a successful hire.

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Closing, Interviews

The Parable of the Two Principals: A Tale to Share With Clients

by on Feb. 14, 2013


Lone woman at conf table - freedigital

Lone woman at conf table - freedigitalShe’d found her calling as a teacher of kids with special needs. She loved her job, and enjoyed working for the person who’d graciously given her a start. She was constantly engaged, challenged, and acclaimed in this role.

Her commute to work, however, was two hours roundtrip; 10 hours a week, 40 hours a month in freeway traffic. For personal, economic and safety reasons, working closer to home made sense if she could find an equally rewarding position, and boss. After much encouragement from friends and family, my daughter Ryan reluctantly decided to explore alternative job options.

Ryan attended a district?wide job fair for the school system within her home community. She quickly went through second and third interviews, and was invited for final interviews for open positions at two nearby, high?quality schools.

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Closing, Motivation

The Relocation Candidate Who Said Yes, But Meant No

by on Jan. 25, 2013


House moving in box

House moving in boxYou’ve got a new job order. You have a good feel of the group and the partner the new hire will  work with. You begin making calls and networking in the local market. After several weeks you come across a candidate with what looks like the perfect background. The concerning part is he’s outside the area.

You decide to reach out to the prospect anyway, and find him receptive. You are excited. You ask for a resume and when it comes, it’s as good as his profile on the law firm website; even better actually. Your heart skips a beat. You reach out to the candidate thank him for being so prompt, and you start the placement process by interviewing him. Great personality. Yes he would fit in well with the group. You stress this is a relocation; is he good with the idea? Wait was there hesitation in his voice when he answered the question. Maybe it was just your imagination.

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Closing

Why the Client Should Never, Ever Discuss Money With the Candidate

by on Dec. 13, 2012


Businessman backing off

Most recruiters and consultants realize the importance of preparing their candidates to “never, ever, discuss money” with one of their clients.  However, how often do you prepare your clients to “never, ever discuss money” with one of your candidates?

Recently, I received a call from a recruiter who wanted to discuss his process for working with clients.  As he detailed the step-by-step process, I was stunned when he reached the “offer stage” and stated, “… at that point I step out of the picture and allow my client and candidate to speak directly with one another about the specifics of the offer.”  Although I did not say anything initially, when he completed his description, I made this statement:

“Anytime you have a candidate and a client in direct discussion about compensation, you have lost control of the process.”

He then asked, “What if the client brings up the subject with the candidate?” or “… asks the candidate how much they are currently earning?”

My reply was:

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Closing

Arm Yourself and Your Client to Win the War for Talent

by on Nov. 16, 2012


Search for talent

Most executives agree about the importance of having the right talent in place. Jim Collins, in Good to Great, talks about getting the right people on the bus (and getting the wrong people off) as a common strategy of great companies.

Some companies endeavor to apply a ‘best practices’ approach to talent acquisition, development and retention. Schlumberger, for example, continues aggressive pursuit and development of top talent in both good times and bad. This has resulted in deep bench strength and a reputation for the most talented employees in the oilfield services business. Financial results have been strong, and approximately 80% of top management started at the company right out of school. Further, attrition of high potential individuals is treated as a catastrophic event, warranting the same full-blown investigation as a major downtime event on an oil rig.

Many organizations apply various ‘just in time/ lean & mean’ approaches, which certainly have their advantages. But obvious downsides include a thin bench and inability to scale when appropriate. When a key defection or promotion occurs, a very painful and expensive vacancy can result in significant opportunity costs.

And of course, we all know of firms for which the “people are our greatest asset” claims are merely rhetoric.

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Closing

Recruiter Poll Says Candidates Are Getting More Offers

by on Aug. 23, 2012


Candidate Offers Poll

It may be a sign companies are wising up when it comes to top talent, or evidence that recruiters are vetting their sendouts better than ever, or maybe both, but a Top Echelon survey says candidates are getting more offers today than they did a year ago.

As the chart shows, nearly a third of the networks recruiters who took the poll reported their candidates were getting “substantially more” offers today than last year. A larger percentage reported getting “a little more” offers.

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Closing

Close Before You Close

by on Mar. 1, 2012


Josh Bear

Every recruiter, whether you are a contingency headhunter or an in-house corporate recruiter, wants to pride themselves on their ability to “close” deals. After all, your ability to get a candidate to sign on the dotted line determines your success in this industry.

Traditionally recruiters hear the word “offer” and immediately start going into Closer Mode! They start fantasizing about the fee that is coming their way and immediate start saying whatever is needed to close the deal. If you start working on closing a deal once an offer is made, then you are already too late.

Pre-Close

To truly close a deal, you must actually work on “pre-closing” the deal. This begins the minute you start working with a candidate. From the very first call or meeting, you are working on building a relationship. You are building a trust with the candidate. A trust that you have their best interest at heart … not your own. If we know why someone is unhappy and if we know why someone is looking in the first place, then our job becomes very simple. Putting this effort in at the beginning of the process will save a lot of time and headache in the end.

Every candidate has a certain criteria for a new job/job search. They have a list of things that are important to them. When aligning a candidate background with a prospective employer, your first job is to identify if the opportunity matches their criteria.

Here are five points that are traditionally important to most candidates:

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Closing

Hiring Speed: A Crucial Component of the Recruiting Process

by on Jan. 19, 2012


maximum_warp_speed_by_d38i5mk

Clients who drag out the process of hiring and making an offer to candidates are doing a tremendous disservice to themselves, the potential hire — and you!

I recently had a company take eleven business days to make an offer after a final interview. During the eleven days, the candidate had one on-site interview and two phone interviews with three other companies. This candidate I recruited for my customer didn’t have options when I first contacted him; then suddenly he had several. In the end, he had two offers on the table to consider and was beginning to wonder if he was my customer’s second choice.

Recruiting and hiring is a delicate emotional dance; if your date has to wait too long to be asked to the prom, they will simply go with someone else. In this case, if the company had been quicker with an offer he would have not interviewed with the other companies.

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