Barbara Bruno
on Sep. 14, 2011
Business is improving, but now I’m dealing with all kinds of conflict with my recruiters. They have become extremely territorial and I’m beginning to feel like a referee in my own business. I’m still the top producer in my firm and can’t afford all the time and energy this is taking away from my desk. Do I just fire these senior prima donnas and start from scratch?
Judy J., Colorado Springs, CO
Lee B. Salz
on May 9, 2011
A disconnect exists between sales managers and recruiters that causes challenges for both. Together, they can resolve this issue by creating their company’s Sales Talent Screening Program.
Candidate screening is one of the most difficult tasks that recruiters and managers face. Most will tell you that screening sales talent is the toughest of all. Why? Sales people are trained in the art of persuasion. They know how to provide the desired responses to the questions. Even more daunting is when you are interviewing sales people that worked for a competitor. These sales people know the language and industry buzz words making it even more challenging to screen them. Fret not! It is possible to successfully screen sales talent, but there is work to be done before you even look at a résumé.
Amybeth Hale
on Feb. 15, 2011
Today, Barb Bruno launched www.happycandidates.com, a site designed to provide career assistance to those “can’t help” candidates, with the idea that the resources in Happy Candidates will certainly be able to assist them. “We have shifted once again to a more candidate-driven market,” says Bruno. “As such, many recruiters find themselves fielding an enormous number of calls from what would be classified as “can’t help” candidates. Imagine helping more people find fulfilling and rewarding jobs while saving your company time, money, and resources. That’s the idea behind Happy Candidates.”
Jon Bartos
on Jan. 18, 2011
Recruiting is a tough business; an activity oriented phone- and Internet-based business where statistics indicate that nine out of ten new recruits don’t survive their first calendar year. It’s also one of the only businesses where the product can tell you “no.” Add to these inherent challenges the fact that research shows the average US worker wastes 26% of their day on socializing and personal Internet use (Malachowski, 2005), which is probably closer to 40% now that social media has taken over with Facebook and Twitter. The ability for a manager to develop a strong culture of performance is extremely difficult, if not outright impossible.
Some organizations manage to do this despite the challenges. How do they do it? How do they grow aggressively and reach 50-100 employees while others struggle to hire and keep a few productive ones? The answer: successful owners and managers develop a strong culture of performance.
Jon Bartos
on Jan. 13, 2011
When things wind down past mid-season in baseball, separating the teams in the pennant race from other teams is not a difficult task. It seems year after year the same teams are vying for the top and showing strong performances, as many others are struggling to remain competitive.
With hopes long gone of any chance of a winning season, what happens to the team’s morale? How frustrating for the owners who spend millions on key talent, for team managers who spend countless hours coaching, and for players who have given the game their heart and soul. Do they continue with a great attitude, knowing their ultimate goal will not be achieved, or do they accept the situation and go through the motions of playing out another average season of effort and performance?
The real question is what do the successful team managers do that give them more wins consistently while many managers struggle to keep their teams alive with mediocre results year after year? Can’t we ask the same of our industry? Why do some offices see recruiting performance success and enjoy strong growth and profitability on a consistent basis year after year while others just struggle to survive in any economy? Like a professional baseball team that can never get the right formula to consistently be in the pennant race in the middle of the season let alone the end of the season — the problem ultimately lies in ownership and accountability.
Michael Gionta
on Jan. 10, 2011
A few weeks ago, some friends and I went out to dinner. and when we left we agreed: “It was OK.” Translation: we were slightly disappointed. There wasn’t anything wrong. Just nothing noteworthy or exceptional. Just little things like the fact that the table wasn’t clean when we sat down, that we had to summon the waiter several times, and we weren’t attended to as frequently as we’d like, etc. Nothing singularly mind-blowing, just a combination of mediocre events.
Since there are many other restaurants to choose from we probably won’t go back there. On the other hand there is a restaurant I frequent and take different friends to all the time. Why? The food is pretty good, but the service is exceptional. If the owner is working he makes a point to come out to all the tables, he remembers his regulars by name, and he sometimes buys us a round of drinks or gets us a dessert in appreciation. Do we get free drinks every trip? No — that’s not the point. His manner and appreciation combined with the service orientation of his wait staff enhance the dining “experience.” You feel special. You come back — again and again!
Do your clients feel special? How about your employees? Clients can choose from hundreds of recruiters to fill their needs; why should they choose you? What do you do for them that they do NOT expect? What do you do that makes them feel good about themselves? Where are you excellent?
Tom Keoughan
on Nov. 15, 2010
We recently ran an article entitled Speaking of Perceptions… outlining a piece written in Smart Money about the 10 Things Employment Recruiters Won’t Say. One of our readers, Tom Keoughan, had an opinion on the Smart Money article he wanted to share. Below is his response….
I don’t know where you got your information, but it paints a highly distorted view of the way executive recruiters work. Certainly there are good people and bad people in every profession, but a lot of the weak recruiters have been washed out of the business during the current economic downturn. As someone who has been a successful executive recruiter for almost thirty years, I will tackle your points one by one.
Jeff Allen
on Oct. 28, 2010
Editor’s Note: Jeff has covered this topic for us in the past, but as he has said, it needs to be addressed again, and more thoroughly. You can read his original post here for further information.
In the United States, a “draw” (technically known as a non-recoverable draw against commission) is the most common, yet the most misunderstood way of paying a recruiter.
I’ll show you how to get back most of that draw in a minute. But first, let’s see how the draw arrangement works legally:
A draw is either a loan (temporarily given) or wages (mandatory “can’t-get-it-back” pay for work) depending on whether the recruiter (employee) is still employed at the end of the pay period (a loan) or not (wages). This “disappearing salary” feature is designed to comply with the minimum wage laws.
The recruiter is given a fixed amount of money at scheduled intervals (the pay period). Usually all payroll deductions are taken out, so it’s a net amount.
Amybeth Hale
on Oct. 8, 2010
When you hire a new recruiter, how do you welcome them into your organization? Here’s a cute video from LocumTenens.com on a great way to break in your new search consultant!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qc-ykmHh8s
elaine.rigoli
on May 14, 2010
The recent Stanford University 2010 Conference on Entrepreneurship brought together a well-developed panel: it combined the experience of an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, an executive recruiter, an in-house HR and recruiting expert, and the Human Capital Partner of a leading VC firm to discuss how to effectively recruit teams and structure appropriate compensation — in terms of both cash and equity — at all stages of a company.
Panel members include Joe Dobrenski, a venture capitalist who formerly was an executive recruiter for Russell Reynolds, and Andy Price, a recruiter at Schweichler Price Mullarkey & Barry, a retained executive search firm.
Price, with about 16 years’ experience, says his firm has built one of the largest technology recruiting firms that focuses almost exclusively on “board, CEO, VP, and C-level searches.”
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