I moved my blog to The Fordyce Letter. I was SO excited to see the site up and running with content. It's been my favorite publication for over 20 years. Now I even get to write in it. In a couple years you'll also get to see back catalog of Pinnacle Perspectives. See you there! Dave.
I just became aware of a really interesting looking site yesterday and signed up . It's www.recruitingblogs.com I have already had three people ask to add me as friends. First was Jason Davis who owns and started the site. We have quite a bit in common and I'd be happy to call him a friend when we know each other well enough that he'd say that. Next is a guy who is in a sub-group dealing with the market area I search in. And I actually think we might have met once in the past. Certainly a worthy association but also a dilution of the word friend. No offense to him. I am sure he'd agree. Especially when he gets to know me better. Now,third, comes a guy I have never heard of in my life. I even spent 5 or 10 minutes checking to make sure of this. The same guy also invites everyone to join his LinkedIn network. I really think all of these networking tools COULD be very valuable if they are respected...but now I'll probably thought to be a jerk if I do not accept his bid for "friendship". Who knows, maybe he could be my best friend someday but on my end , we'll at least need to meet or have a reason first. I like wood floors but not Pergo. I like Mahogany walls but not vinyl paneling. I like crabmeat that pink crap that comes packed like modeling clay. I really like my friends. This is where I need a new word....
I'd probably not be quite as pre-occupied with this thought if I were not in the middle of Steve Martin's brilliant book on the stand-up phase of his career. Check it out. It's a great read/listen.
The information transmitted in this email is intended only for the entity or person to whom it is addressed (and the other 6 million people who think Bill Gates talks to Walt Disney) and may contain confidential and/or privileged material (but is probably only an old joke or a picture of a guy with a mullet). Any review, retransmission, dissemination, or other use of this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited (by whom and on what authority with what consequences?, you may wonder). If you receive this email in error, please contact the sender and delete the material immediately (and don’t think of a pink elephant right now and jury, disregard that last comment). I do this because even though I only send one out of a million emails to the wrong person, I once went to a seminar given by some divorce attorney who sent the pictures to the husband instead of the wife.
My ego defenses are strong enough that I almost immediately laughed about this incident but there was enough sting to make me very appreciative that I almost never do what I am about to describe anymore because I don't have to. I do know that bragging about strong ego defenses is dangerous and could make me look even dumber to those who know more about that than I do.
Anyhow, a past candidate who is now a client contact passed me a lead the other day and offered to get me a contact there because he thought our practice would suit their needs. I said , 'no let me try going through 'the front door'. I have not done that in a long time.' My clients are all engaged and I have relationships with hiring managers who are also usually top management since they are mostly small companies. I also work well with their HR/Staffing people. Every single current engaged client is from a referral to a manager. Not one of them is from a cold call to HR.
My heart now goes out to anyone who regularly hears "Please do tell me about what you do...Oh we'd never pay an up-front fee...I was in your business so I know everything you are saying... I have to run to a meeting...send me your information and we'll call you..." I heard all of that while barely saying anything with all the humility I could muster during the dotted parts.
My evil ego defenses now demand that I network into her CEO or CTO and have him tell her what I do and how she'll do it. Humility be damned...or at least postponed for a minute...
...and finally the giveaway...bad sex... Right, all things that if they ever ARE bad are still pretty good. I had to start this way because those who know me know I have always been a strong supporter of Danny Cahill's work for many reasons for many years.
Just when I was thinking there could not be much more said about our industry no matter who is doing the talking Danny did our full day TRA training event last Friday. It was almost shocking in that,after 20 years I go just to hear and be refreshed on "the greatest hits". This was like a whole new album. I don't remember a single person sneaking out to take or make a cell call all day.
I have heard several speakers talk recently about our fragile Gen Y kids and Danny explained them but he also put it in perspective for us in a way that 60 minutes and Penelope Trunk just can't. He talked about adaptation, explained better uses of email and just put out many practice-changing ideas in fresh ways like the concept of aches vs pains. I usually strut around in my own head like Mr. Heard-it-all and don't take many notes anymore. I ended up with 3 pages from this outing. We had some other industry old-timers there and all the ones I spoke with afterward said the same thing. Wow...What a great way to start the year. Now our Board has to figure out how to follow this..Phone' ringin'....
Maybe it's just me...It sure seems like everyone came back from the holiday vacation and found a memo that said "Ok, go spend your budget money". I know things are heating up when I find myself not even having time to finish my sandwich at my desk in mid-afternoon. It's almost like Y2K all over again...Phone's ringin'...
I don't know what age one needs to be to recognize the significance of the headline. When I was a kid it seemed that every time I went to Radio Shack to get a plug adapter for $1.89 they wanted me to fill out my name, address, phone etc etc. I am not sure they still do that. What's making me think of this is that every time a friend in the business uploads his contacts into Plaxo,LinkedIn,Spock,FaceBook,MySpace or any of these other things of varying utility it asks me to go see what they did,do what they did or join what they joined.
I am no Luddite. I love technology but we need to develop some guidelines and limits or all this social masturbation that is passing for social networking is going to eat up a lot more productivity than Spam already does. In fact...it needs a name like Spam. Maybe it should be called Potted Meet Food Product. The two things had their origins in something real and they are both hard to swallow.
As I suspected, the previous blog and controversy was valuable only as a philosophical exercise. The guy didn't get the offer. We were in a good position if he had received and accepted one but I am left with a distinct urge to go work on a better deal. The whole thing reminded me of earlier days working in firms that had 15 and 20 recruiters in a given market...All the breath that was wasted by all those people arguing about stuff that never would happen... What fun!!
In response to an inquiry I have pasted in the two (and only two) lines of our agreement that address what constitutes a referral. In 22 years I have seen all kinds of things in fee agreements... Strange things written at times by both sides. Even though language dealing with time frames is offered in the model direct hire agreement put forth by NAPS and ASA I don't recall ever seeing it offered by the search side in an actual agreement. It's very common on the client side and I fight it all the time. Earlier in my career I even worked under agreements with "expiration dates" for referrals when I thought I'd only be introducing one or two candidates. Even the language in the model agreement that I just looked up refers to whether the candidate has an interview scheduled NOT when the data was made available. I'd never work under an agreement that states only that the first entity to make the data arrive at the destination is due a fee.
I'll be happy to argue this point as long as I remain in the business. I'll also support the notion that anyone working under,let alone, SELLING the idea of nothing more than a time stamp establishing a referral on the front end simply needs more practice and training. I'd love to have someone show me material from any credible trainer supporting this idea.
I am sure there are some people out there who think this is the way to go. There's someone out there forwarding every new Monster resume every morning hoping they'll get a call from their client asking to interview the guy they have never spoken with before....And I am sure they make just enough money to make them keep doing it again and again and again
Employer agrees to pay a placement fee to SearchPartner when a candidate directly or indirectly referred by SearchPartner is hired for any position by employer or any of its affiliates.
Employer's employment of any candidate who has been directly or indirectly referred by SearchPartner constitutes employer's agreement with SearchPartner’s fee schedule and terms.
(names have been replaced with titles or made up. we have three placements there already)
Dear Engaged Client VP of HR:
Here is what I understand the situation to be and a review of what I offered in case you need it for your records. I am sending it because it appears to me that Ken Tarmac is an excellent candidate and there could be a good fit with CodeBlowers if the right position is identified/designed.
1) Time stamps mean nothing from a legal perspective when a candidate is introduced to a company by more than one entity. An exception might be when all parties agree to this in advance. Even then these exceptions are challenged in our industry regularly.
2) This is because courts nearly always rule in favor of the entity that set up the interview with the client.
3) For these reasons as well as the description below of what occurred, SearchPartner will indemnify CodeBlowers from any costs beyond the normal contracted fee if Ken Tarmac is hired. If this situation were not clear and correct we’d not offer this.
I believe Ken will echo this understanding in the event you find it necessary to involve him.
I received Ken’s information from a trading partner and screened him for availability and interest and verified that he had not heard of CodeBlowers previously. I forwarded him to you on Thursday 11/1 without copying Sue Staffing because we lost at least two qualified candidates for this position due to previous delays. You replied in an email that day that you’d review Friday and advise.
You let me know Friday 11/2 that you and VP Ops would like to have a conference call at 3pm EST Monday 11/5 which was one of the available times for Ken to interview as relayed in the original introduction. Friday afternoon around 5pm EDT I reached Ken to confirm the time for the interview.
Ken has told me that sometime between that time and now the representative from the other company called to set the call with PM. He says that he thought her involvement had something to do with the process already going on with CodeBlowers and SearchPartner. I asked Ken how she’d have gotten his resume and he said she may have gotten it from clearancejobs.com. Since we learned of him through work he did with my trading partner previously and since he had not heard of CodeBlowers until I spoke with him it did not matter to me and I did not ask if his resume was otherwise available.
My guess is the other company likely sent Ken’s information to Sue Staffing before speaking with Ken (one of the dangers of publicly posting a resume) and then contacted Ken after Sue requested a call with Veto.
I hope this will leave CodeBlowers to comfortably pursue Ken for a Sr. Sales position without worries of difficulty on the back end. Also, I again, highly recommend CEO to be involved in the process early on. I think Ken can be much more than a sales rep but I think he can do that as well.
Ironically, this exact same situation happened with the same recruiter who set the appointment at a different client of mine 19 months ago. We offered that client the same solution and the candidate is happily employed there today.
Please let me know if you need further information.
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