Welcome to The Fordyce Letter:

The Fordyce Letter

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Fees

Fees, Interviews

The Best of The Fordyce Letter 2011, #1 — I “FIRED” My Candidate…and Still Closed $27k

by on Dec. 30, 2011


yourefired

Editor’s note: Brian Kevin Johnston’s article was the most popular article on The Fordyce Letter in 2011. It originally ran in March.

I “fired” a candidate during the interview/offer process, and I am 100% convinced the only reason I still earned the fee was because… (are you listening?) I emotionally “checked out” of the torment and refocused my efforts on the things in my business I could control, which were sourcing and recruiting candidates for other searches on which my firm was engaged. After nearly fourteen years as a third-party recruiter, I have learned a thing or two about candidate or client control… IT DOES NOT EXIST!

Keep reading »
49 Comments

Closing, Fees, How-To

“The Phone Rang…” Lessons From Robocruiter, Part 4

by on Nov. 18, 2011


Robocruiter logo

Editor’s note: Last week, we gave you part 3 of “The Phone Rang…” Robocruiter series. This week we continue this short series from Bob Marshall with part 4.

To recap, in Parts 1-3 we covered the definition of The Total Account Executive, the analogy between the A/E and the doctor, the ten manifestations of failure due to the lack of commitment, the six reasons why we market and how to market with a Feature-Accomplishment-Benefit format, and the “I have arranged…” technique.  So, here we go with Part 4…

Recruitable JOs

When we market we will uncover three distinct types of JOs:  Search Assignment (SA), Matching and Can’t Help JOs.  This is a ‘given;’ it is indisputable; and we must recognize that fact.  If a superstar writes 15 JOs, 0-1 will be of SA quality and recruitable; 4-5 will be matching and semi-recruitable; and 10, or 2/3rds will be of the Can’t Help variety.  So, the $64,000 question is:  How do you determine which JOs are which?  And which are recruitable?

Keep reading »
No comments

Fees, Jeff's On Call!

Jeff’s On Call!: Enforcing Old Fee Agreements

by on Sep. 12, 2011


law_gavel

This week’s inquiry comes from Tarin Yankovich:

Hello Jeff,

First off, I have been a fan of you and the Fordyce articles you write for years, thank you for all your great advice! Your experience and wisdom have giving me the foresight on numerous occasions to avoid situations that would have otherwise cost my firm valuable business. Here is a recent question that came up; I thought you’d be the perfect person to shed some light on it for me and possibly your readers.

I run a search firm in Los Angeles and run a national practice within the Finance space. We work with many of the largest finance companies in the world. As most, our business goes in cycles with clients, meaning we’ll do many searches with a client one year and the next we won’t. As a result, sometimes a couple years go by during which time we won’t work with a client but still have contracts with them.

I have one particular client I worked with in 2007; we did many VP level searches for them and they were happy with our results. At the time I had several contacts at various levels within the organization in Chicago, Boston, and New York.  Since the 2009 recession and with a myriad of internal changes at the company literally all of my original contacts both in HR and management have moved on, their assistants have moved on, and even the President of the firm has moved on. Additionally, the firm changed their name a couple years ago using hyphenated name, and recently the firm has dropped the old name altogether and only uses the new one.

Here is my dilemma, I have continued to call on the firm and know who most of the new players are.  Recently I found an open door and am trying to rekindle this relationship with a new search assignment. I don’t want to lose momentum with a new contract if I don’t have to. I have a signed contract, my contract (not theirs), from several years ago, at a percentage I really like. I don’t want to haggle with a new HR person, renegotiate a good contract, and possibly lose the search or get a lower fee than I negotiated pre-recession. However I’m smart enough to see a couple possible issues. I have a contract, with no expiration date, which is signed by a signatory who is no longer there, under a name that the firm no longer uses. I do have some wording that says should the signatory leave his position the contract is still valid, but I fear I’m facing a few issues and want to make sure I’m covered. So, is my contract still valid?

Any guidance would be much appreciated.  Thank you Jeff!

Tarin

Keep reading »
No comments

Fees, Jeff's On Call!

Jeff’s On Call!: Candidate Fee Reimbursements

by on Aug. 29, 2011


law_gavel

This week’s inquiry comes from Neil Arden:

Hi Jeff-

Enjoy your column!

Thank you for providing you services to the staffing community through the Jeff’s on Call column. I look for your columns and articles in The Fordyce Letter every month and would recommend everyone in recruiting profession to do as well. They too will see how your responses and tips are insightful and helpful when needing advice for different situations.

A candidate we want to hire has an agreement with a recruiter who placed him at a bank as a mortgage banker. It is a 100% commission job but receives benefits. He has been there for 3 months and has not had any luck closing loans. The deals he has brought to the table for the bank have either fallen through or been put on hold because of the overlays/underwritings of the bank. With some of the new regulations arising from the Dodd-Frank bill, he doesn’t see the light at end of tunnel with this company. He feels it is best to look around, but when he approached his recruiter who placed him at his current position (in good faith), the recruiter told him he will have to reimburse him the $10,000 placement fee he received from the bank.

My question is regarding a non-salaried/exempt employee; is a candidate liable to reimburse the placement fee to the recruiter, if the candidate wants to resign from his company within the guarantee stated by recruiter, if he is not earning enough income to provide for his family?

Is this agreement enforceable in court, when an employee cannot survive financially nor provide for his family?

Thank you!

Neil

Keep reading »
No comments

Closing, Fees

Developing Exclusives – Q&A and Final Thoughts

by on Aug. 23, 2011


exclusive contract

Our previous three articles have focused on “how” to develop exclusive client relationships. In this article I will provide a summary of the questions from the near record number of calls and emails I have received in response to those articles.

Keep reading »
No comments

Closing, Fees

Developing Exclusives – The Written Agreement

by on Aug. 16, 2011


exclusive contract

The agreement to work on an exclusive basis with your client can be confirmed either verbally or in writing. However, as a wise man once noted:

“Verbal agreements aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.”

The exclusive relationship is established verbally but should be confirmed in writing and signed off by both parties. If you are dealing with a reputable client who is sincere about utilizing your services on an exclusive basis, there should be no valid reason why they would not sign a document that confirms that to which they have already agreed. Therefore, we will concentrate on written agreements.

Keep reading »
No comments

Closing, Fees

Developing Exclusives – The Presentation

by on Aug. 10, 2011


exclusive contract

In our previous article we stated that “… exclusive relationships generally produce better results, in less time, while requiring the investment of fewer client resources than traditional methodologies.” However, this is a fact that may not be widely accepted by your prospect/clients. Therefore, in order to sell the concept of exclusivity, whether retainer or contingency, you must understand the justification for establishing such a relationship.

Keep reading »
1 comment

Closing, Fees

The Power of Exclusives

by on Jul. 13, 2011


exclusive contract

The state of the economy notwithstanding, the opportunity to secure business on an exclusive basis may be greater today than at any time in the past ten years. Companies have no margin for error when filling mission critical positions and many of them are choosing to use fewer vendors who can produce better, more consistent results. This presents an increased opportunity to build exclusive relationships with your clients. However, in order to take advantage of this opportunity, you must be prepared to understand and properly present the benefits that accrue for clients through this type of mutually supportive relationship.

The major difference between a contingency client relationship and an exclusive client relationship may have been stated best by a client who said:

“If I understand it correctly, with a contingency relationship I’m in if it works. However, in an exclusive relationship, I’m in and it better work. Does that about sum it up?”

Yes, that about sums it up.

Keep reading »
3 Comments

Fees, Jeff's On Call!

Jeff’s On Call!: Candidates “In the System Already”

by on Jul. 5, 2011


law_gavel

This week’s inquiry comes from Rhonda Miller:

Hi Jeff,

I really appreciate your contribution of time and expertise in the Jeff’s On Call! column. Since I started reading it, I find that I have broader thinking on day-to-day scenarios and give more thought to the legalities of potential pitfalls. It is a much more enlightened perspective than before.

I have a placement in Illinois where the client has offered a 5K fee rather than the 25K required on my fee schedule because supposedly an in-house contract recruiter had the candidate in the pipeline (unbeknownst to the candidate) and had referred the candidate to some manager six months earlier – although not for any particular job.

This company is looking for employees with my candidate’s experience all the time. The manager didn’t act on the referral and then left the company. Therefore, nobody acted on the referral at all. (Since the candidate worked for a subsidiary of the client, it is possible that is how the contract recruiter got the resume. She is very aggressive, so it may have been on LinkedIn also.)

My fee schedule was signed before the client started using contract recruiters, and there is nothing about them in it. It provides that I have a 12-month referral period, but they say they had the candidate’s name in their system before my referral. There is no doubt that “but for” my efforts for four months, the candidate would not have been hired.

The internal recruiter explained the situation to the RVP for this division and came back with 5K in recognition of my efforts. She maintains that had this gone to her boss (who doesn’t want to pay outside recruiters) there would be no fee at all. I really worked long and hard on this deal.

What should I do? I don’t want to lose the 5K, but I also don’t want to give up half the fee in attorney’s fees and possibly even lose the 5K offered.

Keep reading »
1 comment

Fees, Jeff's On Call!

Jeff’s On Call!: Split Fee Owed?

by on Jun. 27, 2011


law_gavel

This week’s inquiry comes from Sue Yager:

Jeff, I really need your help. As an avid reader of The Fordyce Letter for 10 years now, I have always appreciated your insight and knowledge of the recruiting industry, and find myself needing your help for the first time.

I believe I have more of a moral dilemma than a legal dilemma. Here’s the story: 4 years ago I worked with another recruiter, who was with another agency, and we sometimes did splits. This other recruiter emailed a resume to me and told me this candidate was fantastic, and asked whether she would be a good fit with any of my clients. I called the candidate and did a full interview with her even though I didn’t have any job opportunities for her at the time. I kept in touch with this candidate over the past 4 years, and she is now actively interviewing with one of my clients. I have not spoken to the recruiter who sent me her resume for about 2 years, and the candidate hasn’t spoken to her for several years.

Here’s my dilemma: Do I still owe that recruiter part of the fee? I want to do the right thing, but I don’t want to give away money unnecessarily either. (P.S., there was never a formal split fee agreement in place between us.)

Thank you for all of your help.

Respectfully,

Sue

Keep reading »
1 comment