Hunter to Hunted.........

Offense to defense....

It is a weird change of mindset. How does it relate to Recruitment and how do we combat it?

My view of the current market I am operating in seems to confuse me from time to time. Job boards are flooded with candidates, taking even longer to get through all the frog kissing. When I get to candidates we want to hire, they at times have a number of other offers to weigh up at the same time.

We are using other mediums as well to pro-actively target people we want to attract to our business. We are not alone...

People, ie our competitors, agencies etc have begun to target our people again, and I can feel and see campaigns starting. Some of my people are getting a number of calls per week with enticing "deals".

Does you mindset change, when people are using your company as a hunting ground?

When I was working as an agency I was taught there were only 2 types of companies, clients and target sites. :)

What do you do to combat being a target?

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on June 21, 2009 at 1:03pm

Dan,

Happy people don't generally leave. The best way to combat being a target is to ask for some feedback from employees as to how they are feeling, do they like their jobs, feel that the company is stable and offers growth opportunity? How does your compensation match up with the marketplace? If your people are under-market, they will be ripe for outside recruiters, or if they are nervous about their propects for advancement or fearful for the companies future. Best way to keep people, is to keep them happy. Likewise, this also helps with your own recruiting efforts if you can point to things like low-turnover, and career growth.

Good luck!
Pam

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Permalink Reply by Dave Serafin on June 22, 2009 at 4:52pm

This market makes it more difficult to recruit in some scenarios...You would think because there aren't many opps. out there that this wouldn't be the case but it is...It puts more precedence on the recruiter to create the value add for the opportunity.

As a target, it is more important than ever to make sure that strong employee retention plans are in place.

The thing is, I have always targeted companies as a recruiter, and have always looked to recruit the passive candidate, so it's business as usual for me...Just more work involved because some targets are more reluctant to make moves in this economy...It's an interesting time to be a recruiter for sure.

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Permalink Reply by Harold Ensley on June 23, 2009 at 9:55am

I think you have to ask - how important is knowledge to your company? if it is vitally important, there has to be a strong enough employee value proposition for people to join, and stay. I agree with Pam's comments below, it's important to find out what these levers are, and adjust accordingly.

Now most companies will say that knowledge / people is the most important asset to their company.
If only humans could be owned, perhaps!!!

A lot of this is propaganda - to be blunt. Often, no one at the top is losing sleep over turnover, unless it's vital for success; however if you can quantify the cost of turnover v.s. keeping people at perhaps a higher pricepoint, then you can assemble a better defense.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Nuroo on June 23, 2009 at 10:17am

We actually had a place ok competitor, where a couple of our Senior people go and allegedly take a staff list. They offered lots of people $40% more and 3 free business suits.

We know their model, and see that it seems to be built on a house of cards, we have a strong EVP, which is lived and breathed by the company, but when someone offers you 40% more it's tough to turn down. (I know I did, not sure what that says about me though)

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Permalink Reply by Slouch on June 23, 2009 at 10:39am

You cannot combat being a target. If my client needs someone and I know they work at your company, it's just the way it is. It of course needs to be managed, the balance between a source company and clients because you can;t represent all the best companies since you need some of those good companies as a source. If the candidates coming from Job boards to you represent an issue due to the fact that everyone knows they are looking, go and tell you boss- listen, I know you don't like third party recruiters but you need to bite the bullet and start writing some of my good friends checks for delivering the the good guys/girls. That made me laugh.