Saturday, July 28, 2007
What I wish staffing agencies knew?
For all those on the other side of recruiting, this is my treatise on how a staffing agency can earn my business and my trust;
1. When you call a company, so have many other agencies that day, be empathetic to this. Try to be a little creative as to how you differentiate yourself. I hear the same old - We don't use job boards, we have a large database, we're working with your competitors, it's free unless you hire someone, we're representing someone that wants to work for your company... etc. Try something more creative than the above spiel.
2. Know that when you call into a hiring manager, CEO, CTO of a company your email or voicemail will be forwarded to me, the internal recruiter. When you know their is an internal recruiting presence, reach out to them. Having a strong partnership with the internal recruiter is more powerful than a strong relationship with a hiring manager.
3. The perception of an agency is that they are very expensive so you need to present a value to your service other then routing resumes. Prove to us that your the expert! Provide a detailed summary on why you think the candidate is a good match for the job, how they meet the important skills, why they're leaving their current role, their salary etc, etc. It is more frequent in my experience that I will just receive a resume with very little or no notes at all in the body of the email - this is a bad and sloppy practice and a company paying $30k plus for a service with little expertise associated with it, gives agencies a bad rap.
4. When you get feed back that a candidate is not a match, instead of arguing with the hiring manager or recruiter, try to learn more about what is a great match and realign your search. I have seen it too many times, when an agency will try to force a square block into a round hole than realigning the search to find the right match. You need to trust that we know what we're doing on our side of the fence.
5. The calls I despise the most are from an agency we don't have a contract with saying their representing a candidate with skills that we don't need, and they're usually calls I delete before getting the phone number, because they're just too long and drawn out. The next most annoying type of call or email is when an agency just assumes they can work on our requisitions because we have them posted on our website. The first golden rule, is ask if you can work with the company first! This is respectful. Then ask about specific reqs, just assuming you can submit resumes to our jobs on the website without a contract comes across as a little too presumptuous
6. Differentiate yourself from other agencies. One tactic that worked really well for me was when an agency was so confident of their service they were willing to lower their fee for the first placement. This is a good tactic as the biggest obstacle to agencies getting business is the cost of their fees. This meant our business was important to them; they were in it for more than just the fee; and it showed a level of confidence in their ability to deliver than just a cliched sales pitch.
7. Find out if the company is using job boards internally. If so, find out which ones, and then don't send candidates from those job boards. It leaves a better impression when you find candidates we can't find.
8. When calling for business, instead of jumping into your selling spiel, turn the conversation into an informational interview. Ask questions instead of blurting out a sales pitch. Questions like - Are you looking for an additional service to help with recruiting; where do you need help; what kinds of folks do you hire; and how can we win your business. This puts the recruiter at ease and you come across as more credible.
9. Don't use the phrase "It's free unless you hire someone". Most corporate recruiters know the soft costs of managing your candidates. Getting feed back from managers, scheduling phone and onsite interviews, making and confirming travel plans for the candidate to interview all takes a considerable amount of time and resources from the internal reruiter. Yet have I seen an agency pick up this burden, so being aware of these costs is helpful. Using the "It's free until you hire someone" comment just shows how much you don't know about how companies attract and close candidates from the inside.
10. Research a company before you call them. Through social networking or internet searches, you can find out who the internal recruiters are. I had someone call me and they researched our company, competitors, me. This came across as very credible and enabled them to stand apart from the large pack who use the same tactics.
A company will hire an internal recruiter to save costs and add quality control to the hiring process, so it is a delicate balance to align with an internal recruiter. It is however possible, and can prove very fruitful for both parties. I hope the above advice can help. I write this treatise to improve the quality of cold calls I get, as the sheer volume of calls is challenging to manage, and the really ineffective overly used approaches are becoming frustrating to hear 11 times a day, 5 days a week. Also, if someone can quote my blog, than I will be impressed as well.
Thanks for hearing me out and happy hunting.
1. When you call a company, so have many other agencies that day, be empathetic to this. Try to be a little creative as to how you differentiate yourself. I hear the same old - We don't use job boards, we have a large database, we're working with your competitors, it's free unless you hire someone, we're representing someone that wants to work for your company... etc. Try something more creative than the above spiel.
2. Know that when you call into a hiring manager, CEO, CTO of a company your email or voicemail will be forwarded to me, the internal recruiter. When you know their is an internal recruiting presence, reach out to them. Having a strong partnership with the internal recruiter is more powerful than a strong relationship with a hiring manager.
3. The perception of an agency is that they are very expensive so you need to present a value to your service other then routing resumes. Prove to us that your the expert! Provide a detailed summary on why you think the candidate is a good match for the job, how they meet the important skills, why they're leaving their current role, their salary etc, etc. It is more frequent in my experience that I will just receive a resume with very little or no notes at all in the body of the email - this is a bad and sloppy practice and a company paying $30k plus for a service with little expertise associated with it, gives agencies a bad rap.
4. When you get feed back that a candidate is not a match, instead of arguing with the hiring manager or recruiter, try to learn more about what is a great match and realign your search. I have seen it too many times, when an agency will try to force a square block into a round hole than realigning the search to find the right match. You need to trust that we know what we're doing on our side of the fence.
5. The calls I despise the most are from an agency we don't have a contract with saying their representing a candidate with skills that we don't need, and they're usually calls I delete before getting the phone number, because they're just too long and drawn out. The next most annoying type of call or email is when an agency just assumes they can work on our requisitions because we have them posted on our website. The first golden rule, is ask if you can work with the company first! This is respectful. Then ask about specific reqs, just assuming you can submit resumes to our jobs on the website without a contract comes across as a little too presumptuous
6. Differentiate yourself from other agencies. One tactic that worked really well for me was when an agency was so confident of their service they were willing to lower their fee for the first placement. This is a good tactic as the biggest obstacle to agencies getting business is the cost of their fees. This meant our business was important to them; they were in it for more than just the fee; and it showed a level of confidence in their ability to deliver than just a cliched sales pitch.
7. Find out if the company is using job boards internally. If so, find out which ones, and then don't send candidates from those job boards. It leaves a better impression when you find candidates we can't find.
8. When calling for business, instead of jumping into your selling spiel, turn the conversation into an informational interview. Ask questions instead of blurting out a sales pitch. Questions like - Are you looking for an additional service to help with recruiting; where do you need help; what kinds of folks do you hire; and how can we win your business. This puts the recruiter at ease and you come across as more credible.
9. Don't use the phrase "It's free unless you hire someone". Most corporate recruiters know the soft costs of managing your candidates. Getting feed back from managers, scheduling phone and onsite interviews, making and confirming travel plans for the candidate to interview all takes a considerable amount of time and resources from the internal reruiter. Yet have I seen an agency pick up this burden, so being aware of these costs is helpful. Using the "It's free until you hire someone" comment just shows how much you don't know about how companies attract and close candidates from the inside.
10. Research a company before you call them. Through social networking or internet searches, you can find out who the internal recruiters are. I had someone call me and they researched our company, competitors, me. This came across as very credible and enabled them to stand apart from the large pack who use the same tactics.
A company will hire an internal recruiter to save costs and add quality control to the hiring process, so it is a delicate balance to align with an internal recruiter. It is however possible, and can prove very fruitful for both parties. I hope the above advice can help. I write this treatise to improve the quality of cold calls I get, as the sheer volume of calls is challenging to manage, and the really ineffective overly used approaches are becoming frustrating to hear 11 times a day, 5 days a week. Also, if someone can quote my blog, than I will be impressed as well.
Thanks for hearing me out and happy hunting.
