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Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on September 5, 2008 at 9:58am

The lack of curiosity (amongst many, not all) in the Recruitosphere. In particular, how things (economic conditions, awareness, relationships, etc. ) relate. It won't make you a hero but it might get some people to think.

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Permalink Reply by Michaela Holmberg on September 5, 2008 at 1:17pm

As a recruiter for a public sector agency, the biggest challenge for us is getting the whole company involved in recruitment. Most of our hiring managers do not believe that it should be a consolodated effort to brand our agency as a great place to work and still think the good employees are a dime a dozen and that a good employee can be found on paper.
How do we get our clients to move forward with us into the next generation of recruitment? I feel like (at least for our agency) this is the biggest thing holding us back.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Walztoni on September 5, 2008 at 1:28pm

Thanks for the opportunity to have my say. My coaching and consulting business begins after a person accepts an employment offer and extends through their first 100 days in a new role.

Since major research studies show that over 60% of newly hired leaders leave their new company or fail to meet expectations within the first 18 months in a new role, how can recruiters’ best add value for their clients by "vaccinating" new hires against early failure?

Granted, one answer to this question is self-serving, but with over 600,000 Fortune 500 managers changing jobs each year, that's a whopping 360,000 potential failures with significant negative business, employee, and personal costs. Not to mention redoing searches for free within the guarantee period.

Does addressing this problem fall into a recruiter's role now, or should it?

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Permalink Reply by Nikki on September 5, 2008 at 1:29pm

Why do most companies treat recruiters with such disrespect? I'm hearing this from allot of recruiters out there. Also, what is some of the best recruiting tools to find candidates besides careerbuilder, blogging and alike job boards.

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Permalink Reply by Deborah Denman on September 5, 2008 at 1:56pm

I am finding that I am having a lot of people that are beat down. They have had been looking for positions on their own and have been terribly unsuccessful and feel like a reject. Its hard to get them back into feeling like a winner. A person feeling like this does not interview very well. I am in the housing industry where it has been a challenge to keep the spirits up.

Deborah Denman

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Permalink Reply by Michaela Holmberg on September 5, 2008 at 2:09pm

This is interesting too. If you're recruiting for a company, there is an interesting discussion about whether recruiters are responsible for retention as well. In the past, companies usually have one unit called "Recruitment and Retention". However, more and more people are starting to realize that they are two very different things.
I'm not a big statistics buff because anything can be manipulated to show what you want, but in the majority of our exit interviews (which are done confidentially), the people leaving the agency list their manager as one of the top reasons for leaving. They list this above better opportunities, benefits and flexible schedules.
I believe that as a recruiter, it's our responsibility to provide more than one quality candidate to our client, but the onus on retention is on the manager. It's their responsibility to choose a good cultural fit for their office and their responsibility to give that person what they need so they stick around.

Mark Walztoni said:

Thanks for the opportunity to have my say. My coaching and consulting business begins after a person accepts an employment offer and extends through their first 100 days in a new role.

Since major research studies show that over 60% of newly hired leaders leave their new company or fail to meet expectations within the first 18 months in a new role, how can recruiters’ best add value for their clients by "vaccinating" new hires against early failure?

Granted, one answer to this question is self-serving, but with over 600,000 Fortune 500 managers changing jobs each year, that's a whopping 360,000 potential failures with significant negative business, employee, and personal costs. Not to mention redoing searches for free within the guarantee period.

Does addressing this problem fall into a recruiter's role now, or should it?

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on September 5, 2008 at 2:43pm

Gavin,

When I go to a conference and to a workshop as it relates to recruiting, I want concrete data. I don't go for philosophical discussions, I want information that I can bring home to my desk and immediately implement to increase billings. So, to that purpose, if I were in your shoes I'd look at what you know you do really well, what your core strengths are and what tips you can share that will add immediate value. For instance, for me I know my strengths are in client development, it comes really easily and I love it. Where I am always looking to improve is in time management, so I'm always drawn to very specific workshops on how to prioritize. Recently a workshop that was helpful was one where the speaker talked about changes he implemented that year that almost doubled his billing. Another talked about what not to do....different mistakes he'd learned from. Another detailed a very successful, and unusual sourcing and interviewing approach.

It really depends on your audience. If it will be mostly third party recruiters, I'd try to give some solid nuts and bolts tips they can use asap. Corporate recruiters might be more interested in discussions on retention, etc.

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Permalink Reply by Careers In Holland on September 5, 2008 at 4:07pm

What I see and hear around me makes me wonder if some recruiters aren't forgetting the basics. For example: some major companies invest a lot in talent acquisition programs. At the same time, agencies are shut out even if the can prove being able to provide the right candidates at a reasonable price.

Or the corporate site holds a complex job portal. However the job portal itself is hidden behind multiple clicks and pages, and the postings can often not even be found through Googling. Or the site doesn't actually show the current vacancies and lags behind, even worse.

And if a jobseeker reacts through whatever channel, he/she doesn't get a response or it takes weeks, even in a tight jobmarket. And a recruitment department is often the first point of contact and therefore plays an important role in image building an corporate branding.

I mean, what's the point if end of the day, your job is to find the right people at the right moment, and you're not even open to channels that can actually deliver, or if you don't even go through the "trouble" of giving a decent response? Or is it you're tied by some corporate policies preventing you from doing the best you can and want? Or is it actually line management not responding when you pass on candidates?

No this is stuff someone could go on and on about for hours....

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Permalink Reply by Erin Culp on September 5, 2008 at 5:30pm

Gavin-I'm reading replies and comments to your discussion...seems like lots of recruiters out there don't feel like they are as valued by their organizations as they should be. I've always wondered...why is there no degree program out there for Recruiting? Maybe if a Bachelors degree in Recruiting was available, Recruiters could get started in the profession with a little more credibility behind them and colleagues would start to recognize Recruiting as a profession, not just something individuals with "good people skills" get into.

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Permalink Reply by Chet Hayes on September 6, 2008 at 7:32am

As a corporate recruiter, I have to agree with Michaela. One of the greatest challenges to recruiting in a corprate environment is making sure the entire company understands the importance of participating and sharing information of their own industry contacts. I've just had this discussion with a group of corp. recruiters and we all talked about which recruiting tool is most successful and everyone agreed that it was networking with the manager's and gathering internal referrals. Good candidates just don't magically appear as some manager's believe they do.

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Permalink Reply by Gavin Chase on September 6, 2008 at 9:03am

Some interesting ideas coming out here... my thinking had been around the audience who will be largely 3rd party recruiters. I see some comments from Corporate recruiters and I wonder if you all think there is a need for both parties to be educated in what each other is "thinking" in order to better build relationships and success from both sides of the recruitment fence!

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Gray on September 6, 2008 at 11:26pm

I agree whole heartedly here. People leave people they don't leave companies.

The key thing to tie this to is the extreme number of companies that want you to guarantee the success of the candidate you place. They ask for the impossible with a 90 day or any number of days unconditional warranty.

You are not able to make sure that the candidate that you place will show up on time and not be subjected to cruel or unusual work stress. how can you possibly guarantee that they would stay in that position?

Michaela Favre said:

I believe that as a recruiter, it's our responsibility to provide more than one quality candidate to our client, but the onus on retention is on the manager. It's their responsibility to choose a good cultural fit for their office and their responsibility to give that person what they need so they stick around.

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