Recruitment consulting. Improving the paradigm

Yerk . That word is “individual”. Really must check better.

Can you “improve” a paradigm? I guess so but its an unusual term, to me anyway.

Until recently I dealt with a number of agencies from the employers side of the fence.In my experience their focus was 50% getting the right person and 50% making sure they supplied more candidates than the others. Geebus the endless coffees hearing how they were different from the others and would give me an individuasl service.

Over eight years ago Spherion went out of business (bankrupt). They kept on “churning” freshly trained IT staff through Government jobs for about six months contracts. Those staff were mostly never to work again afterwards in IT. Word spread throughout Government offices of how poor they were then Spherion ceased business. The damage that organisation caused was double because a fully owned subsidiary of theirs was running case-management of permanent staff who had been put under pressure to take redundancy from jobs Spherion wanted for their contractors. Tactics included profiling by a third party psychologist in order to find out how to best “push their buttons”. This was an earlier method of what now is being called “mobbing bullying” that involved a senior public service manager.

My thoughts echo many of the previous posters.

Don’t pay commission. Its obvious when someone is on a commission because they are only motivated to get people into a job, any job. I’m sure it works for the company to only pay for what comes in, but in my experience bonuses work just as well and can be taylored to the recruitment companies current financial status.

Be upfront on the fees you charge to both the employer and employee. I’ve blacklisted a few recruitment companies, because I found out how much they were charging on top of my wage. In one case I dropped my asking rate by $10 an hour only to find out the recruiter was making about $50 an hour! Also I only heard from them, when it was time to find more work.

If you are going to rewrite resumes, get someone who can actually do a good job. I’ve seen so many poorly written resumes come out of recruitment agencies.

Above all, don’t treat people like a commodity. Treat people with respect and intelligence. I lot of the dodgy stuff recruiters do, is pretty easy to find out, because its in the best interest of the employer and employee to know if anything dodgy went on or they are being ripped off.

Also a different approach might be to match recruiters with potential employees based on experience and skills, even personal interests. Always a nice start to talk about something other than work.

Cars and expensive items, tell me someone has expensive tastes and is paying for it somehow. Regardless of what skill recruiters think they have, potential clients will always have better skills, more valuable skills and will want to feel better off than the recruiter who is working for them. We all understand people and companies need to make money, but don’t rub it in our faces. I’ve got no issues trying to get that job via another recruiter, regardless of the ethics.

Oh one last thing, I once wanted to move on after 10 months on a contract. The job was clearly putting a stress on me, I was extremely depressed and the recruiter kept telling me how much money they’d lose and could I stick it out for 2 more months. Clearly they didn’t give a stuff about my health.

LSWCHP said :

I’ve been dealing with recruiters in a highly technical field for about 15 years now.

My advice:

Know what you’re on about. Preferably have staff who’ve worked in the field that you’re recruiting in.

Ask employers what they’re looking for. Don’t shotgun random resumes at an employer, and then ring up all aggrieved and accuse the employer (me) of being too hard to please when none of the candidates are successful.

Understand the industry you’re recruiting into. Someone with years of valuable experience in web development or mainframe transaction programming will be useless in an advanced electronic embedded systems environment. Understand this, and look for appropriate people for each position.

Understand about security clearances for Defence work. Vladimir who arrived from Russia two weeks ago won’t be eligible for a Defence security clearance, and won’t be able to work on most (if any) Defence projects.

Cold-calling employers may be a necessary part of the gig, but recognise that it’s probably an unpleasant experience for the person on the other end who may have other things to do. Treating someone like your long lost best friend when it’s the first time you’ve spoken on the phone rings false and creates a bad impression.

Finding out what employers want in recruits is necessary, but tread carefully. Asking unnecessarily probing questions about projects or corporate IP will lose you business at best, and result in you being investigated by The Spooks at worst.

Business people understand the need to make a profit, unlike many in the public service. Being prosperous is one thing, but showing up at a meeting with either an employer or a candidate in your new Porsche Boxster and wearing a $10K silk suit will destroy your credibility.

I could go on and on, but that’s enough unpaid consultancy work for now. 🙂

+1 on all this. Think about what you don’t like about wealthy real estate agents, and use that as a guide.

I agree with duffbowl. Don’t try to connect to me on linkedin by telling me you have a job in another city that I “would be perfect for”. I am in canberra for a reason. you might do better to ask me if I am looking for a job up front. In fact, many people on linkedin advertise that they are looking for work or to change their job by saying “looking for new challenges / opportunities” – go after them.

be open and honest – if you are a people seller, just say so. If you rely on contracts to make extra income, you are selling something. nothing wrong with that.

The occasional call to see if I have found a job wouldn’t go astray, if I am on your books.

If you can find me on linkedin, chances are I can find you, when I am looking for work.

😀 (as seen on real ads)
1) Don’t advertise for 6-10 years experience on SQL Server 2008.
2) Don’t mispell IT technology acronyms. This shows you don’t care about spelling/grammar.
3) Don’t repeatedly misspell the IT technology acronyms. That proves that you know s***.

I’ve been dealing with recruiters in a highly technical field for about 15 years now.

My advice:

Know what you’re on about. Preferably have staff who’ve worked in the field that you’re recruiting in.

Ask employers what they’re looking for. Don’t shotgun random resumes at an employer, and then ring up all aggrieved and accuse the employer (me) of being too hard to please when none of the candidates are successful.

Understand the industry you’re recruiting into. Someone with years of valuable experience in web development or mainframe transaction programming will be useless in an advanced electronic embedded systems environment. Understand this, and look for appropriate people for each position.

Understand about security clearances for Defence work. Vladimir who arrived from Russia two weeks ago won’t be eligible for a Defence security clearance, and won’t be able to work on most (if any) Defence projects.

Cold-calling employers may be a necessary part of the gig, but recognise that it’s probably an unpleasant experience for the person on the other end who may have other things to do. Treating someone like your long lost best friend when it’s the first time you’ve spoken on the phone rings false and creates a bad impression.

Finding out what employers want in recruits is necessary, but tread carefully. Asking unnecessarily probing questions about projects or corporate IP will lose you business at best, and result in you being investigated by The Spooks at worst.

Business people understand the need to make a profit, unlike many in the public service. Being prosperous is one thing, but showing up at a meeting with either an employer or a candidate in your new Porsche Boxster and wearing a $10K silk suit will destroy your credibility.

I could go on and on, but that’s enough unpaid consultancy work for now. 🙂

From a contractor’s point of view.

Don’t try to connect to me on LinkedIn or other social media if there is not an existing relationship. Have a social media presence that gives enough information about your company to get client’s interested in connecting to you.

Don’t sell me as an asset to an organisation if there is not an existing relationship between us.
This has happened to me a couple of times, and I know enough people around Canberra that I get questions like “Why didn’t you tell me you were looking for other work?” Never a great opening to a conversation with an existing boss.

Don’t get annoyed if I tell you that I’m not suitable for a role that you’ve suggested.
Get to understand the qualifications required in a field, or at least those most commonly seen/asked for.

Don’t try and use technical jargon to sell a job if you don’t know what it means.
I don’t mean have the same level of understanding as your clients, but at least get a good comprehension of the roles in question.

Don’t expect me to roll over on demands just because your representative wears a low cut top or an open blouse, miniskirt, etc.
While you might be nice to look at, that’s not the reason I will sign up with your company.

Don’t take 20%+ of the value of a contract for doing seemingly bugger all, then tell me that contractors are ripping you off.

Don’t cry poor during a meeting, and then drive off in your new $80k+ car.

I also had a paradigm, but only in black and white.