Getting Return on Your Recruiter Investment
By Erin Douglass
Experts recently confirmed what many of us have feared and known for months: The country is in a fullblown recession.
As a result, most employees are hiring less often. And when they are on the hunt for new blood, they are proceeding very, very carefully.
One way to step gently through the hiring night is to turn to the pros for help. These tips will help you make the hours spent working with recruiters more time and cost efficient.
A Recruiter's Wish List
Despite beliefs to the contrary, hiring a recruiter brings with it a short, vital list of tasks for you or the hiring manager. And though it means a little more work, taking on these tasks is like investing in recruiting insurance.
Recruiters can't—and shouldn't—work in a vacuum. Says recruiter and director Jennifer Baley of Clarity Consultants, a technical communications recruiting company in Campbell, California: "I see things fall apart all the time because hiring managers don't provide the basic materials recruiters need."
Be sure to note and meet these five essential needs.
- Complete job descriptions. Recruiters require up to date, accurate and thorough job descriptions that focus on the goals of the job—managing a staff of seven programmers, producing an 80-page catalog twice a year—rather than simply the skills required. As Baley says: "I wouldn't give you half a job candidate's resume, so why would you give me only half a job description?"
- Quick turnaround. Respond to recruiters' questions, resumes submitted for your perusal or requests for interviews within 24 hours. Otherwise, you'll miss hooking that bright and shining candidate.
Kelly Herrick, New Media Recruiter for Cutting Edge Personnel in New York City, emphasizes the importance of speed. "The very best people will go quickly," she says. "If you call back a recruiter 10 days after being contacted, the candidate will be off the market. And if the interview process is too protracted, you'll lose the candidate." - Accessibility. Don't hire a recruiter and then disappear on a three-day ski vacation or get barricaded in the boardroom over budget discussions. Recruiters need to know where their contacts at the company will be, how to get in touch with them or whom to call if their original point people won't be available.
- Feedback. A recruiter needs to know why candidates are or aren't good fits. Says Jennifer Baley: "If a resume turns out to be a bad match, we want to know where we missed the mark. Sometimes we'll discover that there's an important element missing from the job description."
- Realistic expectations. Expectations must be rooted in reality. To keep your expectations from flying away, take these earthgrounding steps.
Evaluate the pay. Take an honest look at the position you are trying to fill and the salary you are willing to pay. For a good reality check, go online and investigate current salaries for the particular job and your industry and geographical location. Or pick up the phone and talk to similarly situated colleagues.
Kelly Herrick recalls one client who wanted to pay $35,000 for a candidate with five to six years of experience. "When this happens, you have to manage expectations and tell clients what the market rate truly is for those skills and qualifications," she says. And if the clients ignore reality? "I won't work with them. It isn't worth it."
Assess the requirements. Ask yourself if the vacant position can be filled by a single soul or if it cries out for more pairs of eyes and hands to complete the required work. Too often companies, in the name of budgeting, try to cram several positions into one.
Avoid overloading. Don't load up your recruiter with open positions that you hope to fill immediately. Force yourself to select the ones you'd like to fill most and first and put the others on the backburner. Otherwise, you'll end up disappointed in the quality of resumes that come your way—and burn out the recruiter.
Steer clear of The Perfect Candidate Syndrome. Warns Kelly Herrick, companies often have unattainable candidates in mind—someone who will join the fold and save the day. The result of this syndrome: You'll end up overlooking qualified candidates as you wait for the Worker in Shining Armor.
The Icing on the Cake
Several other professional courtesies can make the difference between a happy recruiter and a hired gun.
- Welcome the recruiter. From the very beginning of the hiring process, make the recruiter feel that he or she is part of something, not just off working alone.
- Be selective. Recommends Jennifer Baley: "Work with two to three agencies that you know you can rely on. Otherwise you'll get slammed with resumes that aren't relevant." Plus, recruiters will be more loyal and work harder knowing that you aren't in cahoots with every agency in the book.
- Meet face to face. It may seem like yet another thing to cram into your schedule, but a one on one meeting with your recruiter is indispensable. Says Baley: "There's so much information that you can glean from meeting in person with the hiring manager—what the work environment is like, whether there are cubicles or offices, how relaxed the manager is and whether or not he or she is going to micromanage."