Sirona Says

I was genuinely stunned when I received THIS email from a recruiter!

Every week, probably just like you, I receive emails and LinkedIn messages from recruiters asking me about; (1) jobs,  (2) referrals and occasionally (3) help in identifying companies for niche candidates. Depending on their approach, I help if I can. 

But when I got an email like the one I received a few weeks ago, I was genuinely stunned at the presumptive nature of it.!! A brazen recruiter, naive or just plain damn lazy -  you decide. And no, I don't know the recruiter...... 

Dear Andy

My client is a global leader in the provision of XXXXXXX solutions. I am currently searching for a "XXXXXXX Manager" whilst my client is flexible on package ideally they would like to pay circa £80k+ basic salary with a bonus of around 20%+ (neg).

According to our records you may be able to refer me to the right person, I would be very grateful if you could forward my mail to any of your contacts that may/could be interested, I'll forward a full job specification with my availablity for meetings to any interested applicants.

I'm also searching for new clients so please let me know of anyone that is struggling to find the right candidates in the XXXXXX Sector. I am a proven specialist and have been highly successful working at exec level for many years.

Yours sincerely 

Three things in one email......
"According to our records you may be able to refer me..." <<<< What sort of line is that?  Then the recruiter wants me to be their PA by helping to arrange their meetings for them! Dream on!

And just to finish it off they want some new clients referred to them as well! Don't we all!

Have you seen a worse example of a recruiter email than this?

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Recruiters: The world is moving on, why are you still standing still?

 

I am amazed. Honestly I am truly amazed.......

What planet are many recruitment companies living on when it comes to the future of their businesses? Over the last few months I have spoken to many different types of recruitment business, from small to huge, generic to sector specific to micro-niche etc, and I am staggered by the level of resistance to change. 

In my opinion, I think we are seeing more change in the recruitment sector now than we have seen for many years. Exciting isn't it? Well it maybe for some people, but it seems that my industry - recruitment - still wants to sit back, watch decide on its fate at a later date. Here are 10 points why I think recruitment agencies just cannot afford to wait any longer to make changes:

1. Job seekers (the lifeblood of recruiters) are suffering from are suffering from 'job board-itus' and are now using less job boards. YET recruiters are now using more job boards in the hope they will find the people they want. Only one answer to that - DIMINISHING RETURNS.
2. Candidate exclusivity is extinct. The days of being able to get exclusivity (and the subsequent 'control') from candidates is well and truly over. The proliferation of social media and openness of data has seen to that.
3. Job adverts - the longstanding default for recruitment companies - are producing less and less relevant results. No longer can recruitment consultants simply take a job requirement from a client, place an advert and fill it from the advert response. Firstly, the likelihood is that the client has already done this, and secondly 'job-board-itus' mentioned in point, means good candidates are less likely to see the adverts and actually apply.
4. The one and only income source for recruitment companies -  their fee-paying clients - are relying less and less on recruitment agencies for recruitment. They are doing more direct sourcing, building better career sites, using recruitment technology more effectively than ever, utilising the power of their brands via the social channels and actually using the same resources (job boards, LinkedIn etc) as the recruitment companies themselves!
5. The once successful days of hitting the phones solidly from 9-5 with meaningless scripts and (lets be honest here) sh*t so-called sales calls are over, in my opinion. Too many companies and candidates have been on the end of them, and they have developed a much harder and apathetic approach to the them. However, the days of quality, researched, knowledgeable and respectful sales calls is very much here - they are the ones that clients AND candidates are happy to receive.
6. There is still a massive expectation, that as long as recruitment agencies keep doing what they have always done, things will 'turn round in the end', and their businesses will return to successful times again. Doh! Do you read the news? Does the word economy mean anything to you? Things will never go back to the way they were - surely your decreasing sales figures will show that.
7. Many recruiters are under-skilled in many of the new methods needed to survive in the changing recruitment world. To be fair, this is more circumstance and speed of change that anything else. The ability to think laterally, be creative in sourcing techniques, strong relationship builders, multi-taskers and be prepared to accept change, are not necessarily in-built in today's recruitment needs. Training is needed to help them adapt and change.
8. There is SO much focus on next month's perm targets / contract numbers / billings / reveues / targets / (have I missed anything here?) that little time is spent developing strategies for the next 3,6 and 12 months. It is as if the world just revolves around the next 4 week cycle. What about the word relationship? Time invested in these now, more often than not yields success further down the line. The better recruiters have always understood this, and have invested their time accordingly. 
9. Big data has happened. Everyone (whether they like it or not) has a digital footprint online across the social web. That means with the right tools and training everyone can be found. Online sourcing is now at levels like never before. It is for this reason that point 2 above has happened. And there are some really awesome tools recruiters can tap into immediately to find good people. Of course, the sourcing is just the first stage, engaging with them is another!
10. It is actually 2012, not 2007. Just checking that you realised that - I have been convinced in my many conversations that recruitment owners haven't realised! 

This is not a recruitment agency bashing post at all - recruitment is in my blood, why would I do that? There are massive opportunities in this market at the moment, for those with the vision, speed and desire to change to take advantage of them. New skills niches are opening up every day, candidate sourcing has hugely opened up your available options to find good people, and with your competitors still sitting on the social fence, you have a real opportunity to steal an march on them.

Change is upon us, and worryingly I see too many recruitment agencies prepared to sit still and watch the business world pass them by at an alarming pace. Many would expect me to bang-on about social recruiting and how you must implement it tomorrow just to survive. Well the truth is, this is much bigger than just using social networks to recruit. This is about a more fundamental review of what you think your recruitment business is actually going to look like in 1-2 years time. Now is not the time to 'suggest a review' in 6 months time (which is what one of the big household name recruitment companies have just done), now is the time to figure out how best you can get competitive advantage while you still can.

 

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The Recruiters Perfect Storm [short video]

At the end of last year, I delivered several presentations to groups of recruitment companies, that seemed to hit a few nerves (positive ones I might add!). The aim of the presentations was to try to get recruiters to understand that the recruiting landscape has changed significantly, and that they need to be thinking a little differently for any future prosperity!

As they were so well received, I have recorded a series of mini presentations based on sections of the presentation I delivered.

Here is the first of these mini-presentations, The Recruiters Perfect Storm

Other mini-presentations in the series are:

The Recruitment Apple Tree

Tha Candidate Communication Puzzle

You Can't Ignore Generation Y

These are intended to be bite-sized video presentations, focused around one small subject. If you like the concept I will continue with further mini-presentations over the coming months.

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Dear Recruiter: R.S.V.P. #SocialRecruiting

 

Dear Recruiter,

It may have escaped your attention last year,as you were busy shuffling CV responses from your job board adverts, that it was getting harder to find and engage with prospective candidates?
I know you haven't got time to think about building relationships with candidates and thinking more than one month ahead in your office. How many months of missing your targets will it take for to realise that the game is changing fast? 
You know that thing called social media that you have been dismissing as a waste of time for you? Remember the conversations we had in 2011 - "Twitter is rubbish"; "Facebook is just for mates", "Google Plus - what the hell is Google Plus? "; "We are already on LinkedIn" - well, unless you start eating some social media humble pie, it will be your competitors hitting your targets, not you.

On behalf of social media, we - Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn and our many friends would like to welcome you to the 2012 Recruitment Party of The Year - Social Recruiting.
There will be lots of Researching, Sourcing, Tracking, Engaging, Communicating, Informing, Learning, and of course, Recruiting.
As with all good parties you will be getting a goody bag to go home with in the shape of more new candidates, long lasting relationships and maybe a few more placements along the way.

Remember, it is a party so make sure you bring along a nice bottle social media profile or two, and start talking to people and networking like you know you want to.

Have a great party and make some great friends :-)

Kind regards

Social Recruiting

 

Picture idea from here

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7 ways to differentiate your recruitment business with your clients

 

Most people that read this blog will have experienced recruitment agencies professionally at some point in their career to date (as well as a healthy number of actual recruiters reading it!).
You will have sat on either side of the recruitment fence, so I hope you appreciate where I am coming from here in this post. Recruiters sometimes do themselves no favours with clients. Their reputation does go (well) before them in some cases, with the good and the bad being accentuated by their actions (or lack of them!)
A post I read on ERE.net today was the reason for today's post, and I have added my experiences to what the author of the article wrote about from his experience on the client side of the recruitment process.

As a recruitment company here are 7 ways to ensure you can differentiate yourselves the next time you make that sales call, have a client meeting or (if you are lucky) when you pitch for 'that' really big deal:

1. You are recruitment experts, tell them about your process: a client isn't engaging a recruitment company to do something they can’t do internally.Posting jobs on job boards is not a value-add - clients can do that (and they are more frequently). What clients don't have alot of, is the depth of recruiting process knowledge and experience a good recruiter will have. After all recruiters do it every day, whereas clients may well only recruit several times a year. Your recruitment process should be the nuts! If it isn't what makes you different to all the other recruitment hopefuls out there?
2. What is your business elevator pitch'? How do you differentiate yourself in a sentence? How are you different from the 3 sales calls the client has had that morning from other recruiters? What is going to make them give the business to you?
3. Give them honesty not b*llsh*t; This sounds such an obvious statement but to be honest WE ALL KNOW the 'wild' sales pitches that come out of the mouths of many recruiters, don't we? Fear of losing (or getting) a requirement or a contract seems to do strange things to a recruiters brain. Honesty will prevail - especially with the growing transparency of social media channels.
4. Do what you say NOT say what you do; an old adage but so true. This could be aligned to all of the above but to be honest, it is always a big criticism levied at recruiters. Too much talk - "I can do this", "I can do that" without any intention of actually doing it (or rather knowing they haven't got a cats hell chance of doing it, but it sounded good at the time!) Just practice what you preach - it's not rocket science is it?
5. Relationships not relationship; relationships are key in the recruitment industry aren't they? Clients like to build relationships with people - in fact the better the relationship, the more chance there is of securing business or solving a problem. Every time you introduce new people to accounts, or consultants leave and new ones come along, you potentially put the important client relationships at risk. Good recruitment companies will have an openness around their team and structure from the start. They don't work on an insular client approach, they look at relationships NOT relationship.
6. Knowledge is king; do you take the time to understand what your clients are trying to achieve? Have you even asked them about strategy or vision aside from 'how many people will you be recruiting this year?' Do you even do any homework, aside from looking at a website just before the meeting? When working with recruiters for clients, I always ask then what they know about the company, projects, people, etc Could you answer those questions? Do you even give a damn? 
7. Actually give a sh*t about your clients; I have left my favourite quote until last. This was said to me recently by an HR Director, when describing the level of service they were receiving from 3 out of 4 companies on their PSL, "the three agencies are household names, but quite frankly they don't give a sh*t about our business, all they worry about is how many CV's they sent me last month, whether they were relevant or not !" Do you take the time to give a sh*t about your clients?

I work with both clients and recruitment agencies and am able to see this from the two different sides. I would like to make the point that there are obviously 'poor' clients as well as 'poor' recruitment agencies, and I am certainly not trying to say otherwise.

The article by Matt Lowney  on ERE that provided me with the starting point for this post is really worth reading. If you are in-house recruiter I just know you are just going to be saying 'yes' to most of the post!

Have I missed anything here? Is there anything you would add?

 

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The Social Recruiters Path To Online Trust [Graphic]

Recruitment and online trust are, for many candidates, poles apart. We ALL know this in our industry, don't we? Too many recruiters (certainly NOT ALL) will say anything - even if it isn't true - just to get candidates interested in jobs and attend interviews. These recruiters are just plain idiots because the candidates will realise immediately at the interview they have been lied to, and probably had their time wasted. >>Another bad experience with a recruiter!!<<
But do these types of recruiters actually give a sh*t anyway? Probably not - if they throw enough brown stuff at a wall, some of it will stick, right?

I found the image below on the excellent Mindjumpers.com blog, and took the opportunity to make a few additions (in green), to highlight some of the things recruiters could do to help themselves build some online trust. As more and more recruiters enter the world of social recruiting, their online reputation will become very important to them.

 
The original graphic can be found here

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Social media privacy goes both ways in the interview process!

 

The thorny subject of social media privacy and online candidate checking raised its head a few weeks ago (again), when I had a discussion (well you can call it that!) with an HR Manager who was niaive at best.

I don't need to go into a lengthy discussion about this, as it is to flaming obvious! I was explaining to this HR Manager some of the advice I give to job seekers when trying to get an advantage in the recruiting process. Nothing overly clever, just some basic stuff like:

• Search for the interviewer on LinkedIn and read their profile
• X-Ray search them if can't access full LinkedIn profile, so they get full background
• Google them (obviously!)
• Do a search on www.pipl.com for more links
• Do a Twitter and Facebook search as well
• Basically, find as much information as you can about the interviewer

Shall we say this HR Manager was not best pleased? I got accused of being a trouble maker and a bad influence on candidates!!!

My answer (direct quote); "Stop being a prat and take your head out from where the sun doesn't shine!"

I continued....."Are you telling me that you don't ever do an online search (of any kind) for candidate either during selection or pre/post an interview?" [loaded question as I already knew the answer was yes! ]

The pregnant pause is always a good close..........

On admittance of their use of social media to 'check people out', I just turned the tables on them; "so If it is good enough for you to do your homework on candidates, why isn't it ok for candidates to do their homework on you (the interviewer) using the same social media channels ?"

Suffice to say, the argument (sorry I meant to say discussion) ended soon after that!!

Many people doing the recruiting and interviewing simply forget or don't even consider that candidates can also search their online profiles. It is in fact a superb way of helping in an interview, if you gone to some length to do your homework on the interviewer. Finding commonality is a great way of positively breaking the ice at an interview.

So whichever side of the interviewing table you sit, just bear in mind that the person opposite you may know more about you than you think!

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The Pied Piper of recruitment walks among us blowing his pipe

 

Today I am opening up a story book and sharing with you a story that has captivated many thousands of recruiters over the last few months,[you can substitute the word captivate with enraged, p***ed off or annoyed, and it may be equally as relevant]. But for this pantomime tale lets just go with captivated (for reasons you will see later).

So, let me begin........

Once upon a time there was an entrepreneur with his eyes set on the recruitment industry. He had already tried to crack this lucrative marketplace with previous recruitment companies but to date hadn't been successful. But he still believed that there were pots of gold at the end of the recruitment rainbow just waiting for someone to get hold of. But just how could he gets his hands on it?

He already knew that even though the recruitment industry was huge and that the two leading bodies of the sector had their doubters and, for whatever reason, had not managed to truly galvanise the recruitment industry with its many thousands of recruitment professionals.  >>An opportunity beckons!<<

He also knew that there were many recruiters who craved to be part of a recognised body that they could call their own and be proud of.

[Cue the pot of gold at the end of the recruitment rainbow]

This individual just happened to be on the board of a software company. His brain was now working overtime. How to tap into the recruitment market and produce a recurring revenue stream, while at the same time creating extra value for your company?

>>>>Easy when you put it like that>>>>>

Why don't you create a membership site, create a new industry institution and encourage 1000's of people to join,with promises designed to pander to their expectations? And of course, charge them for the privilege at the same time! **Genius** There will of course be a free option that doesn't amount to much - it is just for PR benefits!
AND THEN sell, sorry, give these newly paid-up for members some software (built by your own company of course) to use in the membership site? Of course you will tell them it is free, and they will all be happy! [Just don't get them to ask why they are paying a licence fee for the software membership fee?] **Double Genius**

How could you refuse an offer like that?

So the entrepreneur blew his pipe and all the recruiters came running from far and wide, to follow the mesmerising sound of the pipes of promise, floating through their office windows and down the fibre optic cables!

The entrepreneur was a shrewd operator.100's and 100's of recruiters couldn't open their wallets quick enough.

The pot at the end of the recruitment rainbow started to fill up <ka-ching>; the software licence sales at the software company grew <ka-ching> and the net worth of the company grew at the same time <double ka-ching>

NOTE TO ALL GETTING INVOLVED: REMEMBER THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN

Caveat to this tale: if the membership site actually did bring peace, harmony and prosperity to the recruitment industry, then this author will shout loudly from the rooftops and rejoice accordingly.

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Talent warehouses, recruitment communities and chocolate talent pools

 

Over the last month I have been doing a-l-o-t of writing. I had been commissioned to write a business report book looking at social media in recruitment and the reality of it in the workplace.As part of the process, there was obviously much reading and research.
It surprised me at how much it takes over ALL your time, but at least it is now with my editor and publisher for them to take my words and produce the book itself! <phew!>

One area that caused me some deep consideration is the subject of candidate databases. While I do have a strong opinion on them and where they will end up, a blog post I read this week by one of the world's top sourcing specialists, Glen Cathey, got me thinking again............... and in the opposite direction to where I was going with my thinking!!

In short here is a quick precis of my thoughts:

1. Most candidate databases might as well be full of chocolate and marshmallows for all the good they do! The clients keep filling them up with loads of candidates applying for their jobs - never to be touched again. No emails, no searching and certainly a waste of time.
Many have recruitment software that is limiting their management of their database, most have people in charge of recruitment that (to be fair) just don't understand the worth of what they have. And if they even have a clue of the worth of their database, then they have no idea what to do about it! {Apologies to the few that do >> you really are the exceptions :) ]

2. Some people call these Talent Pools. As per No.1 - as useful as a pool of liquid chocolate!
Different name but same outcome.

Caveat: there is absolutely nothing wrong with these in the recruitment process at all, as long as they are recognised as what they are. They are a list of people that at some stage have shown interest in working for your company (or via your recruitment agency). They are not a community/network/talent hub or whatever some people call them!

So where is it all going?

3. Interaction and two-way communication is, in my opinion, where evolution needs to take place with regards to these 'collections' of candidates.
The encouragement of dialogue and reverse discussion (i.e. candidates asking questions and interacting) needs to happen. There needs to be a way of engaging the talent that have shown an interest in working for your company.
Talent communities, recruitment communities, online communities or whatever you want to call them, are going to be the way forward for creating engaged prospective talent for the future.They may be small or large, but will have to be interactive in nature (and will probably need to be on different platforms (other than some of the ATS's) to be truly effective.

And for those of you that say that talent communities are just a bunch of more fluffy marshmallows, take a look at the 1000's of LinkedIn groups (as an example).
What do you think they are then? A business focused network (LinkedIn) that has groups of like minded people discussing subjects that are relevent to them. They are engaged with, and have an affinity for their niche - whether it be 100 or 1000 strong. Maybe not all talent communities by name, but in practice they are focused groups of similar talent engaging with each other

Then came the blog post by Glen.

4. Talent Warehouses. Glen's take is with regards to data. The more there is the better - but (and this is the key) - they are within secure talent data warehouses. Own the data and you own the access to the talent.
Glen's angle is that, just like business intelligence professionals and data miners, there will be an evolution in recruitment towards these skills. It is an interesting concept and maybe one that the huge global employers will consider adopting, building more skilled and able recruitment teams.


But hasn't social media and the proliferation of social networks and online databases done some of this work already? The likes of LinkedIn and Xing and Hi5 have all got millions of potential candidates sitting there. I haven't even mentioned the likes of Facebook, Twitter and other social sites, as potential people sources (note I didn't say candidate sources).

There is so much conjecture, conversation and debate around this whole subject currently, it does make for interesting discussions.

All I know is that, for me, job seekers are crying out for engagement. They are fed up with populating recruitment databases for no gain.

My stake is firmly in the ground for community-led recruitment and resourcing going foward.

Engage the talent and you shall reap the benefits in the future.
Carry on just building your database and all you are doing is creating the worlds biggest walnut whip!!

Image credit Flickr

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Is this what you would find in a headhunters talent pool?

 

Picture credit - Terrie Yeatts

Today, the image says it all! I saw this image today while doing some research on talent pools!! Apologies if it too visual for some, but it certainly made me smile, with regards to the creativity and black humour!

 

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