Comments on: Re-engineering the Recruiting Function

By: Stephanie McDonald

Stephanie McDonald — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 08:42:00 +0000

Does anyone want to step up to the plate here? Do we have any recruiters who used to be drivers?

I’m afraid you will seriously limit your job search if you care about a recruiters age. Finding someone who will represent you, follow up and act as your advocate is much more important than how long they have been alive. And finding people who are directly experienced as drivers will, I would imagine, also be a challenge!

good luck to you!

By: Jim Cargill

Jim Cargill — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:43:00 +0000

Bernard,

Perhaps the recruiter you will be speaking with does not like to interview people old enough to be their father, and in the industry so long that they have lost interest in recent advances.

Prejudiced candidates fail as often as prejudiced recruiters. There is no place for either in the work force. Apparently, you do not understand the role of today’s best recruiters. The most successful recruiters, whether agency or corporate, often do not have work experience in the industry. What makes them successful is their combination of sales ability, and understanding of people. Becoming a recruiter is not something one does when they can no longer do their ‘real job’. It is a profession often pursued, and excelled at, by stock brokers, insurance and real estate salespeople and brokers, and VP and C-level executives from all industries.

Your take on recruiters shows an obvious prejudice and lack of knowledge.

By the way, I am 57, have owned my own office for 14 years, and left a successful retail career to own/manage a recruiting firm specializing in healthcare and logistics.

By: Bernard Weston

Bernard Weston — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 02:19:00 +0000

Madame: You deliver a very interesting insight. If I may, as a candidate, further paint upon your picture of the recruiters that may fail:
Personally I always welcome an interview with a recruiter that was previously employed in the industry or field for which he or she is now recruiting for. I never enjoy interviewing with a recruiter young enough to be my child and obviously not old enough or experienced enough to know the industry for which they now recruit.

Bernard Weston

By: Marni Samapir

Marni Samapir — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 04:37:00 +0000

I am a small recruiting firm, and am using Taleo, the cost if low, the customizing is easy to do, they have a toolbar that allows you to drag and drop and add the search number so you can work on numerous jobs at once, then with 2 clicks send all of them an e-mail. I couldn’t be without it, it makes me so efficient and able to double my work load! Contact jneil@taleo.com you won’t regret it!

Best,
Marni Sampair
The Constant Search
marni.sampair@theconstantsearch.com

By: Helen Wilson

Helen Wilson — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:30:00 +0000

I am assessing ATS. I have been using Winsearch and am looking for something less detailed and more inline with basic recruiting process, integrates with the search process beyond my own database and includes a social networking component..does anyone have suggestions?

By: Jim Cargill

Jim Cargill — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 03:51:00 +0000

Just a couple quick thoughts here…

First, when we use the term ‘recruiter’, it would help if everyone would identify whether they mean ‘corporate recruiter’ or ‘agency recruiter’. Using the term ‘recruiter’ interchangeably defeats any attempt to make a clear expression of thought. The two halves of recruiting are not interchangeable, at least not currently.

Second…I know a real estate agent who started selling real estate, in Las Vegas, in 2002. She made a ton of money in her first three years. Now, she can barely pay her mortgage. We were talking the other day, and she said, ‘All the buyers have gone away…they just aren’t out there anymore’. She never learned to look for buyers, because the market was hot. For some recruiters, on both sides of the fence, the story is the same, ‘There just aren’t any candidates out there’. Sadly, those are the recruiters who learned to do the job via the internet. Candidates were a dime a dozen, and resumes were floated around the internet like flotsam on the seas. Today, and probably for the next two decades, recruiters, both corporate and agency, will have to be both business and process savvy. Agency recruiters who rely on the internet to find candidates, and corporate recruiters who draw the hiring process out over weeks in an effort to control that process, will both fail.

By: Christine Tranthim-Fryer

Christine Tranthim-Fryer — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 10:37:00 +0000

The solution is that we need to re-engineer the thinking of the recruiters. In my experience many of them believe they have to always be in control. This has had its’ down side it alienates and infuriates candidates, it drags out the recruitment process which adds costs and it frustrates the company that is trying to fill a position. Why can’t we make positive changes to this industry?

By: Craig Overlock

Craig Overlock — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:38:00 +0000

Pity the poor recruiter or ‘hunter whose only battle experience cooresponds with the advent of user-based technologies. Those old soldiers who remember the days when the only tools were a telephone and a notepad had to have guile and organizational savvy to identify, screen ansd select candidates. Nothing against Boolean logic, it is my friend as well but is that what will make you a great recruiter? Savvy, guile and professional insight leads to out-of-the-box hires who become difference makers. The development and improvement of systems tools has not resulted in better recruiting as measured by shortened cycle times, quality of hire, hiring executive satisfaction, faster ramp-up, etc. It HAS resulted in a deterioration of pure recruiting skills; moreover, ask yourself this ‘ In the eyes of top management am I a highly valued star or a transactional job board-peeling clerk?’ So I propose a ‘Step 6′ to Kevin Wheeler’s model: Make yourself a more skilled, effective and respected recruiter by improving your job scoping abilities, interviewing and assessment skills, your presentation of candidates to your hiring managers, your preparation of both candidates and interviewers, and your overall coordination of a very stressful experience for your candidates.

By: Mike Burtner

Mike Burtner — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 03:27:00 +0000

Aligning Best Practices with your operation, management and training means being able to replicate your success exactly, as you add new desks. Resources like intranet FAQs and Wikis are such low-impact tools to implement, compared to the documenting processes of the past.

Identifying and working emerging market segments, rather than working geographically or in broad focus, allows the recruiter to leverage contacts within in industry specialty as both candidates, hiring authorities and marketing resources. Effectively keywording and automating your ATS , including integrating a job board on your website, means almost no data entry, and phone calls that don’t get derailed by pecking on the keyboard.

Using online social networking like blogging, RSS feeds, and SEO methodologies to speak directly to expert, professional peers are crucial in this hyperlocal marketing environment.

We find that most of our clients don’t take advantage of technology to align, streamline and automate their practices because they are too busy doing what they do best: talking on the phone, filling jobs. Success means finding strategic partners to help them do just that.