Having lived on both the Hiring Manager and Recruiter sides of the spectrum, I have come to appreciate the benefits and value to networking and team work as a discipline. Take care to care, for your most valued assets– your clients, your candidates, your partnerships.. and think win win, while on the court, you can not help but build a relationship that will produce positive outcomes.

While the client might feel a bit foolish, it points directly to the reason good recruiters continue to survive. They know good talent and how to sell it. Anyone can find bodies. Knowing the difference between a warm body and good fit is often why we get paid the big bucks.

Employment has become a numbers game… and numbers make lousy employees.

I have had a headed discussion with a corporate client and a candidate who resents the fact that no one in a company calls the candidate yet they are considered corporate property.

This is an issue of not recognizing quality of candidates over quality……………

I do not buy your argument……….it is irrevelant……..to this discuss

In every post, there are ALWAYS great points brought out on all sides of this, and am now writing my input.

First, I might be one of those rare birds (came out of the programming side- then started the Atlanta division of Source Consulting) running a full desk, then became a functional consultant and Project Manager, before coming back into the staffing side.
Throughout the years I have been fortunate to have been a keynote speaker on sales and recruiting, and even wrote a book about it back in 1996 (no- this is not a plug).

I too- have been not just on the both sides of the table- but more importantly in what I coined ‘the square side of recruiting’- where some of you may not have been.

The square side comes from not just the recruiting sides- but from the BILLABLE side on both the candidate and Project Manager.

As a billable consultant who may have been ‘courted to join another firm’ what I cared most about was the marquee clients I would have the opportunity to work, the NEW implementations (not doing support work) and the type of people I would be working with (to include any mentoring).

So my first question is, Do you have a ‘sell sheet’ (as a TPR or CR)that you provide? This can be a very powerful tool.

There are other criteria/questions- but that can probably be used for another whole discussion, and would love to see some additional input.

The second part of the ‘billable’ piece comes from just understanding what the hiring managers are trying to achieve. Are these ‘hot slots’ for projects/implementations already been awarded?

If so, the clock has started (whether it was a fixed fee bid or straight long term T&M project)and there is a project plan that has been committed to- where many times bonuses are assigned to these dates so the project lead/manager SHOULD be looking to fill these slots as quickly as possible.

From a PM standpoint- and a candidate’s view, the toughest part is to get all the players lined up during their normal 14-16 hour work day.

Both are ususally handling current client issues, and just can’t take a call during the day (unless it the initial one minute call- to gain some interest for a call later on in the evening).

I know that many of us on the staffing side (both TPR’s and Corporate staff) work well into the evenings and weekends to search and locate the talent needed- then to find out we can’t arrange a phone screen DURING THE DAY THAT WILL WORK!

My suggestion would be to set-up the after hour calls with a conference call setting to get the parties together, make the introductions then either stay on the call- or leave it.

Lastly, understanding the ‘career game’ being played out in the current hiring craze on all four channels of the radio station (WIIFM) What’s IN IT For Me will help us all in the quest to working a deal to conclusion.

Sorry for the long e-mail and hope everyone has a great New Year!

Regards,

Mark Nolan

The BOTTOM LINE IS: CLEARLY, Large corporations’ recruiting systems are BROKEN for today’s world, and they need fixing. In my mind, CEO’s AND CFO’s need to wake up and smell the coffee. With the talent shortage we have corporate recruiters and HR people are OVERLOADED and expected to do FAR TOO MUCH. In addition to this, many companies put HR/COmpliance people in charge of sales/recruiting functions. Putting compliance people in sales focused positions illustrates a lack of understanding and lack of respect for recruiting in general. That’s like putting your tax accountant or controller in charge of the sales department. You cannot apply the same strategies of the old days and get different results.

Whatever the reasons, reality is that third party recruiters everywhere see good candidates lost every day to a broken system. By this I mean a situation where there IS an opening, the HR/Corporate recruiter has accepted the resume, scheduled the interview, etc.

CORPORATE AMERICAN, Wake up! Respect your HR people and corporate recruiters for what they CAN provide, and reengineer your system. You’re asking too much of your HR/Recruiting staff. Times Have Changed.

I wholeheartedly enjoyed reading your article. It was great food for thought. I appreciate that when you assessed corporate recruiters that you implied ‘some’ in your assessment. I happen to be a corporate recruiter with a passion and drive for finding quality talent for the positions I must fill. I also believe that it is important to recognize the importance of experience and value a recruiter may bring to the table whether corp. or third party. We each play a significant role in the process and it is important to continuously evolve and learn from one another with the ultimate goal of building strong workforces.

Based upon my experience it is also the responsibility of the corporation to drive the process by enabling the recruiter to excel in their role. If the corporation does not value the importance of the ‘chase’ then this certainly limits the recruiter from being as effective as they can. In other words, I’ve seen situations in which the corporations have overburden the recruiter with massive requisitions, limited training and means of attracting quality players along with other arduous responsibilities. This has hindered them from being the star ‘head hunter’. For the corporation, the underlying importance is ‘filling positions’ fast and quality second (evidence: the revolving door). In my opinion, quality driven organizations seek to find better ways to find the right people on a continous bases.

The growth of this profession in my opinion means continuous evolvement, open mindedness, support from corporations, education and listening and learning from thought leaders on both sides of the fence who have sucessfully developed bench marks, best practices and continue to pave the way for.

Thank you..

If companies do really want to hire impact players/employees(and why wouldn’t they)they have to be proactive and unrelenting in their pursuit of talent.

The best way to get there, hire an experienced TPR.

Corporate recruiters are unwilling to do this and their organizations, immeasurably pay for it.

Well done,

Mark Lally
Principal
Grapevine Staffing Group

We have many fine recruiters at my company that are just as good as (and sometimes better) than many of the third party recruiters with whom I have worked. I could stereotype third party recruiters as being sales driven and then disappearing and not performing once they’ve presented a few recycled candidates or as double-dealing individuals who while helping you fill one position, are taking employees from your company and placing them with another. This is also not true and an unfair characterization.

A third-party recruiter friend of mine once told me the most enlightening experience he had in recruiting was taking a temporary assignment as a corporate recruiter. He will share with you how he has a much greater appreciation of the issues with which corporate recruiters deal and that he now recognizes the importance of partnering with the corporate recruiter rather than trying to do an end run around the recruiter. He couldn’t be more correct!

Believe it or not — we get it! We want to be proactive and build relationships with passive candidates so that we can produce the superior candidate at a moment’s notice. We don’t want to be focused on cost/hire or days-to-close (especially days-to-close!). But the reality is, we have budgets that our CEO’s and CFO’s expect us to honor and we can’t use third party recruiters whenever we want or whenever you produce a brilliant candidate that we just have to see. We are privy to information about pending lay-offs that have yet to be announced to the rest of the organization and are planning ways to find displaced employees new homes within our organization. We know what projects are in trouble and need the most immediate recruiting attention. We are audited by federal organizations that can cost an organization millions of dollars if we don’t follow strict established procedures. If you think I’m exaggerating, go ask Boeing about not following the rules.

Are we perfect? Absolutely not — we have much to improve. Are you perfect? Same story.