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Recruiters: You're Worth the Money You
Charge
By
Bill Radin
As a recruiter, I can’t tell you
the number of times I’ve heard the expression, “fifty percent
of something is better than one hundred percent of nothing.”
To which I reply: Hogwash! Fifty percent is better only in a
collection or bad debt crisis, when someone is cheating you
out of what he owes you, and you feel lucky to recoup any part
of your loss.
But caving in on a regular basis and
accepting less than what your service is worth is not only
costly in financial terms; it subconsciously telegraphs to
your customer that you’re not a “believer” in what you do for
a living. Eventually, this kind of noncommittal attitude will
harm your credibility, and weaken your earning
potential.
Some years ago, I had a “fifty percent of
something” experience which proved to be very painful in the
short term, but beneficial in the long. I cold-called the vice
president of a company and proceeded to market an extremely
talented MPA (most placeable applicant).
“Bill, your
candidate sounds like the sort of person we need,” explained
the vice president. “In fact, we’re currently conducting a
search. But we’re using a retained search firm on this
assignment.”
“So you’re pleased with the results you’re
getting,” I replied.
“Well, not exactly. You’re
probably aware of how difficult it is to find someone like
this.”
“Indeed I am, Mr. Employer, and that’s why I
called you. What should we do?”
“Tell you what,” said
the vice president. “Why don’t you talk to Leo, the other
recruiter? Tell him the situation; that you have an ideal
candidate I want to interview. Maybe the two of you can split
the fee. See what he says, and call me back.”
What
could be the harm? I figured. Sure enough, Leo was
receptive to the idea. It turns out he wasn’t getting anywhere
on this assignment.
“How about it, Bill? You and I will
split the fee fifty-fifty,” suggested Leo. “That way, we’ll
both look good. And besides, fifty percent of something is
better than one hundred percent of nothing,
right?”
“I’m not sure,” I hesitated. “Let me think
about it and I’ll call you back.”
Now I was really
confused! I went to my manager for advice.
“I’m sorry,
Bill,” he said, shaking his head, “but I can’t approve a split
deal like this.”
“But it would mean walking away from a
lot of money,” I groaned. “And besides, there’s no guarantee I
can place my candidate anywhere else.”
“That’s just the
risk you’ll have to take,” my manager replied. “You see, the
issue here isn’t the money. The issue is the value of your
service.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, you took
the initiative to call the employer and present your
candidate, right?”
“Right.”
“And he’d like to
interview your candidate because he’s perfect for the
job.”
“True,” I said.
“Now, let’s suppose you
were to arrange the interview, and as a result, the company
decided to hire your candidate. Haven’t you done everything we
teach you to do, and done it well?”
“Sure,” I answered
proudly.
“So aren’t you entitled to 100 percent of the
fee, and not a penny less?”
“I guess so.”
“Now
ask yourself this: What did Leo, the other recruiter, do to
earn half your money?”
As I walked back to my desk, I
thought about what my manager just told me. He’s right! Why
should I give Leo half my fee, just because he happened to
write a job order? A few
minutes later, I called the vice president.
“Mr.
Employer,” I said. “I spoke with Leo, as you suggested, and he
offered to split the fee with me. But I’ve got some
disappointing news for you. I thought it over, and I can’t in
good conscience give Leo half my fee. I just don’t feel it’s
fair.”
“I don’t blame you,” said the vice president.
“Leo shouldn’t be rewarded for his failure to find me the
right person. Unfortunately, I have to stick with Leo, because
we signed an exclusive agreement, but I appreciate your
calling me. Let’s keep in touch.”
“Fine. I’ll call you
in a few months”
Would you like to know how this story
ended? Leo finally placed a marginal candidate with the vice
president’s company. I stayed in touch with the company, and
even made a courtesy call to meet the vice
president.
Two years later, the candidate Leo placed
was fired, and I was asked by the company to fill the vacant
position, which I did, for a full fee. The lesson I learned?
You never need to settle for less than you’re
worth.
Staffing Agency
News
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Health Systems Solutions, Inc. Announces Expansion in Midtown Manhattan to Accommodate Growth, Triples Existing Office ... (Centre Daily Times)
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Yahoo-recruiting-software, Wed, 14 May 2008
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Health Systems Solutions, Inc. (HSS), (OTCBB: HSSO), a leading software and technology company, announces that it is expanding its New York City-based operations. HSS has begun recruiting additional high-end software developers and technology-oriented customer service specialists to help deliver the innovative and cutting-edge solutions its clients' demand - an initiative it expects to continue ...
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French Iraq recruiters are jailed (BBC News)
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Yahoo-recruiting-software, Wed, 14 May 2008
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Seven men are convicted in France for recruiting young people to fight against the US-led coalition in Iraq.
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The Most Effective Way to Change Your Brand
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ERE Articles, Wed, 14 May 2008
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One of my favorite recent hot topics in recruiting is employer branding. The concept goes like this: All employers have a brand for the product or service they provide. So, too, they can develop a brand as a place to work. Everyone in the recruitment advertising world stands ready to help us build employer brands, including job boards (delivery vehicles for electronic employment advertising). Some firms have even devised ways to measure employer brand awareness and incorporate these results into targeted branding campaigns. There's only one catch to all of this brand happiness: Most employers really don't have employer brands. At least not in the way the term is currently used. The Branding Illusion I recently attended a conference where a newly appointed recruiting manager proudly presented his new branding campaign. The company needed to promote its employer brand, he explained, because the company was a solid place to work but a well-kept secret in its industry. This was hurting recruiting results at a time when they were growing aggressively. His recruitment advertising firm had created a new set of ads with new messaging, new artwork, a new internal referral program, and new external media placement. All in, the campaign cost a little over $200,000. This manager was happy to report that as a result of his campaign, resume intake had risen and the company's brand awareness was on the rise. His applicant tracking system was abuzz with newfound talent. I found this hard to believe, so for fun, I tested this claim. One day at lunch, I stood outside of this firm's offices in downtown Philadelphia with a clipboard and asked random pedestrians three questions about the company: Do you know what the company does? Can you name any of its products? Do you know what it's like to work there? For all questions, less than 10% of the respondents had anything close to the correct answer. Over 60% of all respondents answered with a plain 'don't know.' And remember, this unscientific survey was taken right outside of the company's main office. Killer question: Where's the brand? A Real Brand To understand the power of a brand, let's look at a product that rates high on anyone's brand awareness chart: Coca-Cola. Here's a simple way to rate the power of that brand: What colors comprise this brand's logo? What is the shape and feel of this product's bottle? What is this brand's tagline, advertising theme, or jingle? What is the price of a 12-ounce can of Coke from the typical vending machine? Chances are that everyone you know will answer these questions correctly. And chances are that you could ask these questions to anyone in any developed country (and many under-developed ones, too) and still nearly everyone will get them right. That's a brand: universal recognition fueled by relentless promotion; strong consumer opinion shaped by first-hand customer experience; the promise of something to meet a consumer's need; and the consistent, predictable delivery of that something. Coke spends more than $1 billion annually on advertising, and more on overall marketing activities. That's about $115,000 per hour, all day, every day, to maintain a brand that is already the strongest in the world. How much branding mileage do you think the rookie recruiting manager really received from his $200,000 campaign? The Real Corporate Employment Brand The simple fact is that, in recruitment, we don't have the budget to brand anything. If you eliminate ineffective mass-marketing jargon from the employment-branding discussion, things get really simple and very clear. All companies already have a company brand: it's their earned reputation for how they treat their employees. This 'brand' is not built through clever ads on job posting sites, nor through multi-channel 'branding' campaigns, nor any other promotional method. A corporate brand is shaped primarily by three things: How a company actually treats its employees. What those employees say to other people about how they are being treated. What the company's ex-workers say about how they were treated while they were employees. A select number of larger employers (Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Kellogg's, SAS, etc) can have employer brands that are shaped my national media coverage, but this is a rarified breed. For most companies, employer brands are simply earned reputations. Those reputations usually exist narrowly in industry niches, occupational specialties, or in multiple slices of demographic clusters that are either geographically or occupationally close to the company. Some Examples A large pharmaceutical firm advertises that its cutting-edge research offers accelerated career opportunities. Its reputation is that it is a slow, risk-adverse, old-school corporation offering a rich benefits package, easy nine-to-five jobs, and a preponderance of highly paid, mediocre talent. A large community hospital launches a branding campaign directed at RNs about its quality-of-care mission, hoping to appeal to nurses driven to provide the best patient care and remind them why they got into nursing in the first place. The hospital's reputation is that it is a poorly run institution with lots of turnover, unreasonable overtime expectations, and a mediocre-to-above-average salary structure. An energy company launches a campaign to lure women into non-traditional jobs as line workers, cable-stringers, and tree-limb removers. The word on the street is that the company favors referrals and relatives of current employees. But it is worth trying to break into because its union-avoidance strategy is to offer excellent salaries, a generous benefits package, a pension plan, and nearly guaranteed employment for life. In all three cases, and countless others that we could recite, these 'branding' campaigns affect no chance in the employers' marketplace reputations. We need to stop kidding ourselves. Another killer question: How much of a 'branding' budget would you need to change these earned reputations? Corollary question: How long would it take? The most effective way to change your brand is to change your practices around people. The answer to the question of 'How do I become known as a great employer?' is simple: Be a great employer. Word will spread. And it's free. Final killer question: Could it be that all this happy talk about building employer brands is actually good branding by the recruitment advertising industry to promote their services?
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Spectrum Health Selects Lawson Talent Management to Help Simplify Recruiting and Compensation (Centre Daily Times)
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Yahoo-recruiting-software, Tue, 13 May 2008
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Lawson Software (Nasdaq: LWSN) announced today that Spectrum Health, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., is the first healthcare organization to select the new Lawson Talent Management Suite. Lawson Talent Management is part of the Lawson Strategic Human Capital Management System, and was introduced during the Lawson Conference and User Exchange (CUE) in March. Spectrum Health will use the Lawson ...
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