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Welcome to issue 363 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. Enhanced Brand Promotion on UKRecruiterJobs with our new and unique Job Posting Branded Template option. Click here for an example. | 
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CONTENTS
Visit http://www.ukrecruiterjobs.co.uk for the latest recruitment industry jobs. |
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Article One: Recruitment Lessons from 'Sex and the City' by Gaynor Lowndes Like seemingly everyone else in Sydney, I took myself to see the long awaited and much anticipated Sex and The City movie, on its opening weekend. Afterwards, I found myself thinking that, strange as it sounds, there are some important lessons for recruiters to be found in the film! Think of it: These women constantly search for the elusive “Relationship.” In a different context, of course, recruiters should be searching for the same sort of exclusivity when it comes to their clients. Before I explain the importance and benefits of exclusive and retained relationship recruiting, let me first explain what is wrong with the current method. The majority of recruiters today work on a contingent level, where the emphasis is on speed-to-market; ‘Get those resumes to the client before a competitor does.’ So what is the problem with this? The answer is simple: There is no mutual commitment. You are committed to providing your client with the best in service, but your client is all the while working with your competitors. It’s like a relationship where one partner is exclusively committed, but the other continues to ‘play the field.’ This doesn’t really make sense when you stop to think about it. Sure, it’s the way we’ve been working as an industry for years, and many people who attend my training point this out as though it’s some kind of excuse or justification. It isn’t. Rather, the fact that we have been working this way long-term, may well explain some of the problems that we face as an industry today: The industry’s reputation is not as healthy as it should be, and this is no surprise. Stories abound of clients being “Burned” by inattentive, money-grabbing recruiters who throw piles of unsuitable resumes at clients, hoping that one will eventually stick. We in the industry shake our heads, and lament that a few sub-par recruitment providers are ruining it for the rest of us. The truth, however, is that this frantic approach is nothing more than the practical reality of Contingent recruitment. The desperation to fill the vacancy before the competitors do means that the consultant does not have time to properly assess the suitability of the candidates they put forward. Essential details are skimmed over, and the client ends up with a pile of resumes that are either obviously useless, or deceptively suitable (In which case the client will waste valuable time interviewing the candidates, only to realise that the resumes do not reflect the reality). As a result, the client can only conclude that they would have been better off filling the vacancy themselves. In short, the competition of contingent recruitment inevitably compromises the quality of service. To return to the relationship analogy: The partnership can only last in a healthy way if commitment is exclusive and mutual. Competition from outsiders erodes the intimacy and quality of the relationship, to the point where the competition has to either be shut out, or the relationship has to end, as it is a waste of time. The same can be said of recruitment. The solution to the quality service issue is to shut out the competition by selling retainers to your clients. This means, in short, that the client pays a percentage portion of the expected fee upfront, for you to source and select a quality shortlist to present to them. Commonly known as the Fee for Service Concept, the financial commitment eliminates the competition, and therefore the frantic speed to market component of contingent recruitment. It certainly makes your job easier (You need to work fewer jobs for the same financial result), but more importantly (And this must be emphasized to the client), it allows you to find the very best in candidates for the particular role, or roles, now that you have time to do the sourcing and selection properly. Here’s a process I emphasize in my training for the development of a healthy, exclusive client relationship, not dissimilar to the development of the romantic kind: You prospect for new business (You are in the pub on Friday night, checking out the talent); You successfully secure a client visit (First date); The client starts working with you contingently (The second, third, fourth dates etc); The client works with you exclusively (Falling in love, deciding to date no others); the client becomes an advocate and works with you on a retained basis (You make a commitment towards each other). Will there be objections? Of course: clients, like lovers, can often be commitment-phobic. Many consultants I train are reluctant to sell retainers because they are afraid of the initial response. All you need to do is point out to your clients that a retainer allows you to give their needs top priority. If you had to compete with other agencies for their business, you would not have the same time available to find the highest quality candidates for them. Tell them that you want and intend to make their commitment worthwhile, and that their retainer will easily pay for itself in the form of top quality candidates who may not have been found in the rush of contingent recruitment. If they remain sceptical, emphasize the candidate-short market and the fact that finding the quality job-seekers has become more difficult and therefore more costly. Retained and exclusive recruitment is a win-win for all involved, from the placing consultant to the client to the recruitment industry, whose standing in the business world can only improve as the quality of its service do so. Old habits die hard, and I understand this, but if you commit to moving your clients from contingent to retained and exclusive, then I guarantee that the results will speak for themselves! Gaynor Lowndes, the Managing Director of The Recruitment Training Company and The Factory (an innovative private training college for the recruitment industry), has over 20 years recruitment experience, gained in both Australia and the UK. If you liked this article, consider Gaynor’s highly successful book “The Art of Recruitment”. Visit www.trtc.com.au to place your order. |
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Article Two: CV Makeovers: Should You Even Bother? by Bill Radin It’s a fact of life: Worthy candidates often have less-than-perfect CVs. Which poses a dilemma. Like most recruiters, I’ll happily throw a rope to a drowning candidate. Helping an otherwise-qualified job-seeker improve his odds of getting interviewed is not only the right thing to do; it also boosts my odds of making a placement. However, I could easily spend all my time fixing funky CVs, which is not the purpose of my business. In order to assist my candidates—without changing my job description— I developed a quick and effective CV-improvement strategy. Here’s how it works: First, choose a CV from your files that you consider “ideal,” in terms of layout, structure and clarity. Remove or change any contact data that might identify the candidate or reveal confidential information. When you’ve tweaked the CV to perfection, publish it on your company Web site. Make sure to place the CV on a page that’s easy to find. Or, if you like, you can create a separate page called “CV Tips” and create the necessary linkage to take your Web site visitors to the page using a minimum of clicks. Before you begin a CV makeover, ask your candidate if he would be receptive to making improvements that will give him a competitive edge. If the candidate is reluctant or too proud to accept your professional advice, you may want to reconsider your working relationship with the candidate. A lack of trust regarding something as basic as a CV could be a red flag. Fortunately, most candidates will consider your help worthwhile, and will invest a few minutes to further their careers. Next, ask the candidate to visit your “CV Tips” web page and study the template you’ve created. If you walk through this step “live” (that is, while you and the candidate are on the phone together), you can point out the crucial differences between the “right” and “wrong” ways to structure a CV. Then ask the candidate to revise his or her CV accordingly. Ask the candidate to send you a “draft” of his newly-revised CV, so you can catch any editorial mistakes before a final version is completed. Involving yourself in the process not only improves the candidate’s CV (and your relationship with the candidate); it also helps you gain a better understanding of the candidate’s work history and accomplishments. Tip: I’ve found that CV formats will vary significantly, depending on your candidates’ position, title, skill set and industry affiliation. For example, a powerful sales CV will differ considerably from a technical CV, not only in the way it’s laid out, but in the type of information that’s most important to the prospective employer. So the CV format that’s most effective in one field may not cross over to another. An Unfair Advantage My experience has shown that most career books, CV services and outplacement advisors give poor advice to candidates with respect to their CVs. That’s because they’re unfamiliar with what the hiring managers in different industry niches need to know when they’re reviewing a CV. As recruiters, we have an advantage over generalists, since we know precisely which data points are hot in our specialty niches, giving us the ability to shape our candidates’ CVs for the greatest possible impact. Not long ago, I had to help a senior-level candidate completely rewrite his CV - after he had just shelled out $300 to a CV service. The CV he paid for looked very crisp and professional, but the information in it was totally superficial, and lacked the specific details my retained search client needed in order to make an intelligent evaluation. In theory, a candidate shouldn’t need a CV at all; he’d only need our recommendation. But in our world, the world of reality, the candidate’s CV not only serves as a useful assessment and interviewing tool, it becomes a highly visible (and often indelible) component of the candidate’s overall presentation. And a direct reflection of our value in the employment process. (An example of the “exemplary CV” technique can be found at www.billradin.com/resume_tips.htm.)
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Online Recruitment Update (This section is sponsored by http://www.1Job.co.uk; "the leading UK job search engine") UKRecruiterJobs:
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Don't Miss This Recruitment Acquisitions and
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Regards
Louise Triance
UK Recruiter http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk
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