There are several training programs and related training material that one could choose from. The first step in the process is to determine the following before you select a training program:
? What is the area of focus for these recruiters and how will your team be structured?
? Are your recruiters going to be doing full-lifecycle recruiting or would they be supported by a team of sourcers?
? What is the competency level of these recruiters and what level of training would they be requiring?

Based on the answers to the above you could either craft a training program in-house to address the specific need of your recruiters based on their competency level or have them attend one of the many training programs available.

The best training that I have come across so far is by Lou Adler who is a subject matter expert in Recruitment training. He has several programs and some of them are delivered over the web. Please visit http://www.adlerconcepts.com/about/louadler.html for information on Lou Adler and http://www.adlerconcepts.com/workshops/rbc_main.php for information on his Recruiter Boot camp programs. We sent 4 of our recruiters to his boot camp which was a day long live session and each of them had great things to say about the quality of the program. Thanks to this training and our other in-house training efforts our recruiters are now a cut above the rest.

I had the honor of meeting Lou Adler personally and attending one of his sessions and felt that he was the best. I have been in this industry and the workforce for over 20 years and have not seen anything better.

Please feel free to contact me should you need any further information.

Regards,
Ravi Subramanian
Principal Consultant
Illuma, llc.
Ravi.subramanian@illumallc.com
(312) 676-2320

For free resume sourcing tips, check out the following blogs:

http://www.jimstroud.com/
http://recruiting-online.spaces.live.com/

On Jim Stroud’s sight he also has some books and videos that you can purchase. I’ve found them to be very helpful.

For recommended reading, explore Shally Steckerl’s blog:

http://www.jobmachine.net/

For Shally’s blog, click on further reading, news & books, and Shally’s wish list, and then ‘My Recruiting Wish List.’

I hope this helps.

Thanks for your article. It was interesting. I run a recruiting firm in India. This is a red-hot market right now and I believe that if you can’t ‘get’ recruiters, you will have to ‘create’ them. Unfortunately the recruitment industry is in a nascent stage in India, hence we do not get access good recruitment training. Is there somewhere I can get training material – books, CDs, Videos? Can someone recommend such material?

Really appreciate your suggetions.

Prashant

‘This is the form we use to spam. Well, no it’s not really spam. Yes it IS a form letter but.. that’s the form we use.’

‘Here is our reject letter. Yes, I know they’ve been in the process 2.5 mos., signed an NDA, allowed us to do a credit check, flew out twice, but that’s the form we send.’

‘When you finish the phone screen, be sure you say I’ll be your blah blah.’

‘Yes, I know it’s an urgent requirement but we only post ads on Fridays so they’ll on top over the weekend. Here’s the ad we use for that.’

‘Tell the candidate you got his name by referral.’ They’ll be more inclined to talk to you. (well it’s true, the name DID come out of a sourcing center didn’t it?)

Mediocrity at its finest.

KUDOS, Kevin! Kudos, Helen. See the comment section on the article ‘Recruiting the Recruiter’ by Jeremy Eskenazi. http://www.ere.net/articles/db/B94159C1CF674A558A3270FBD8A2196D.asp

I feel your pain. (Upset & passionate folks write foot long paragraphs). Sounds like you hate ‘sales people’, group them into a ‘bazaar-like’ steriotype, and blame them for the shoddy things that go on in recruiting. That’s your call.

Great sales folks (mostly outside the ‘bazaar setting’) are hard working solution sellers, many with a sales cycle longer than the often 2-4 mos. in recruiting, and are a credit to the economy.

Selling something often not in stock, I guess when asked what you are selling, you can say ‘Nothing’. But asking for money up front from those you often have not met, is not psychology. Nor is it brain surgery, but at least you don’t have to pay the doctor up front.

Incidentally, we have 2 (former) psychologists on board, but they are not the highest billers.

‘Jon’

Your remarks hit to the soul of recruiting and the reasons I, too, love and have such passion for our profession. In your words ‘It’s all about long-term relationships with both candidates and clients and to be able to forge these, recruiters need to be able to earn that respect’. Many times during my 5 years of recruiting (agency, corporate and third party), the relationships I have developed with my candidates have lead to placements. During my initial interview, I tell my candidate that I feel that her/she is just as important as my client or company (they do not hear that very often) because it is very important that this potential placement be a win-win for both, otherwise neither is going to be happy in the long run. Many, many times candidates (whether placed or not) have thanked me for what I have done and this gives me immense satisfaction that I have treated and respected them as they should be. I love recruiting as it touches so many lives in so many positive ways. I would not want to do anything else.

I have seen companies who should know better than to spam, spam techies aka geeks. Geeks despise spam. They’ll often forward the spam to buddies and/or they’ll post the spam to their blogs.

In an more interesting case I saw, the geeks initially disbelieved who was spamming them and where they were spamming them; their very own backyard, a social network sphere.

The geeks had fun with it. They verified the e-mail address was legit and then they toyed with the recruiter. One geek posted, ‘Company A spamming us?… let the games begin.’

Spam, late interviews, black holes, radio silence, mediocre rejection letters, and the lack of common courtesy generate negativity.

Your article will help raise attention. Kudos. Thanks for trying to better our industry, image, and improve candidate experiences.

I am lucky that I work for an organisation that focusses on what I have illustrated – they pay an attractive base salary in appreciation for what the consultants do to. Yes, we are still targetted on the financial side of things but, it’s not all about the moeny. It is providing a quality service to candidates and clients alike and, if you do that, it may take a wee bit longer, the fee’s will come.

These barriers are presented as supposed ‘key competencies’ or ‘critical experience required’ but in reality are little more than prejudices of the individual hiring manager (eg age, gender, industry experience, years of experience, qualifications etc). The hiring manger may be very sincere in believing these sorts of pre-requisites are vital but a recruiter’s skill in effectively, and respectfully, challenging a hiring manager to see beyond these well intentioned, but ultimately ineffective indicators of likely success in the role, ensures they deliver the best result for the client in the most time and cost effective way.