It’s a good artice and pretty useful for every sales or recruiter.

Do keep sending the forum excellent articles like this.

I suppose it’s all about building relationships – relationships with your HR Managers, relationships with your Candidates. Once you’ve done that, matching them becomes easy!

Something tells me not too many HVAC technicians qualify as ‘Executives’. I consider an executive
to be CEO (main company who reports to board), President (Main company or division), Any of the ‘C’ positions, i.e. COO, CIO, CFO, etc. Or executive to Vice President levels.

These are the project levels we only accept with significant upfront retainer as the work, planning, procedure, time expenditure, focus, staff resources, hotel meetings, etc. consists of a different process.

Keep that in mind when referencing AESC.

Have you ever seen a chaotic operation? I am referring to an absolutely Crazy operation: people walking off the job, high turnover, revolving doors, disgruntled employees, horrible managers, bad numbers, name blaming, poor attendance, low morale, finger pointing…Drama!

I believe that the beginning process of turning a bad culture around is to hire right the first (simple concept). Recruiters play a huge role in helping an organization be successful. The more that I grow and develop in this profession, I am learning that it takes skills to deal with the many personalities and demands of hiring managers. I believe saying NO in the right way is critical. – If not it is easy to get burned out in this profession. The hiring managers will cause the unknowing recruiter to create the revolving door by rushing to hire and then blame the recruiter/staffing for operational failures.

The staffing process has to be controlled and there must be a strong focus when searching for the right people. It is imperative to get to the core of talent/skills or target market that fit the job: the hiring manager should know but, if they don?t, the recruiter has to work with the manager to figure it out (a recruiter who has been promoted from within an organization, especially from operations has the inside knowledge- this may make life easier).

We are not talking about rocket science here. I believe a fundamentally important aspect of the hiring process is learning to effectively deal with people: establishing trust, credibility, relationships, respect and partnership.

Is it a misnomer in this industry to think that hvac recruiters ONLY recruit for techs? I don’t actually recruit for techs – actually less than 1 percent of my work will include install or technicians.. and only for preferred clients and high level top security scenarios.

See Frank, in this industry there are these Big businesses – heavy construction in high rises, hospitals, governmet facilities and such like, that deal with Large Aspects of Chillers, centrifugals and such like, well these projects demand specialized Knowledge… Sales, Professional engineering, project management, estimation, management.. No cross over from industry to industry will work.. Knowledge of the mechanical or Building Automation/energy systems is indeed necessary.

That Frank is what I deal with.. High level, specialized positions in the industry..

I hope that eleviates the confusion.

Try standing in front of a mirror and practice saying ?No?. Once you master the trait of ?No?, practice it on the hiring managers that don?t give feedback, or pushback on interviews, and the indecisive. The power of no, can be used until you gain knowledge of the business unit or develop a better working relationship. For example, ?No, I will not recruit for your open position, until we discuss the type of work or person needed for the role.? Every great recruiter always said ?No? until they achieved success. No. It?s the fifth trait. Learn it and you are on your way to becoming a great recruiter.

I really enjoyed reading your article. I strongly believe there is a difference between average recruiters and ‘great recruiters’.

In my opinion, ‘Recruiters’ fill positions and in the process make a MESS of the work environment. There focus is NOT on relationship, building credibility, hiring for the right fit, respect for candidates and hiring managers, true knowledge of the job needs or building solid networks….Average recruiters may hear the latest recruitment buzz word,run after it, and miss the point of what this career is all about.

You have demonstrated in your article what a great recruiter is. In my opinion, this individual is a true professional with an objective to hire right the first time. They take the time to understand real job needs; build relationships and credibility with the hiring managers, candidates AND sources as well as they focus on making sure the hiring process is fair and consistent. Ultimately they focus on quality and not quantity. Thank you for highlighting the difference between greatness and average.

The qualities each Big Biller shared were:

1 – Attitude
2 – Discipline
3 – Focus
4 – Commitment
5 – Control

The other truth that was clear is Big Billers keep their eyes on the metrics of calls, sendouts and the many other measurements and transactions we use to monitor performance or productivity but they universally feel great recruiting is a first and foremost a relationship driven business.

Bill

We really need to heed these comments, especially when one considers the requirements are becomming more focused on privacy, knowledge and understanding of culture and of course knowledge of the industry

The clients want more from their executive search firms, and they are speaking loud and clear. Time indeed will tell what will come from this, but based upon comparitive predictions from leaders in this industry, I venture to say that we will see recruiting becoming more profession; as Search Firms will gain more accountability for their work, they will invest more time in education, specialize more, and clients will be able to count on more professionalism and ethics

Client Survey Results
?What is Important from an Executive Search Firm??
http://www.aesc.org/_downloads/reports/200410/client.pdf

Also see Who is the Next Generation of
Executive Search?
A look at AESC member search consultants under 40
http://www.aesc.org/_downloads/reports/200409/nextgeneration.pdf
What is interesting in this survey – the younger recruiters would like to see more professionalism, more regulation, and a not so easy bar to entry to this industry