A very simple question...well, perhaps two.

I'm consistently impressed with the folks on recruitingblogs. Specifically, the varying philosophies and methodologies that span this blog all pointing to one common goal; client satisfaction. With this in mind I have two questions:

1) What is the value that you, as an external recruiter offer your client - (what do they pay you for?)

2) Do your clients give a hoot where/how you source your candidates? Specifically, if they are impressed by your candidates but not how you sourced them, would they punt on a hiring decision or continue to work with you?

Comment by James Todd on March 30, 2011 at 5:29pm: CB you are a machine. That is amazing volume for one person. A big part of the cost equation for clients is not only fees, it is the cost of interviewing. Travel costs & management time can be very expensive, one way I think recruiters can add value is to have a high percentages for interviews to offers and offers to acceptances. Your numbers are very good. Ours vary depending on the company and position, We have one company where the stat is close to 90% in both categories, others are significantly less.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on March 30, 2011 at 5:34pm: I second Christopher's second of Jason's comment on Alex's comment. Right! What he said.

CB shall henceforth be known as recruitimex, the mariachi who keeps on tickin.

Comment by Jason Monastra on March 30, 2011 at 9:56pm: That is an interesting question, however I believe clients care. The fact is however, they should not. If the professional is a solid fit, they like them, and they hire them - what is the issue? Do they pay you for finding a diamond somewhere no one else is looking or do they hire you to find the right person. People come from all sorts of venues - referrals, networking, user groups, job boards, etc. How do you pick as the vendor where/when the right person comes to your desk - you can't.

The service you provide needs to be more than finding someone. It needs to be getting someone to want to work for your client company who has the technical skills required, along with the functional and cultural match. That in itself goes far beyond simply identifying a resume. A resume is nothing - what you do with it, how you vet it, and how you present your solution - that is the difference. People ask about value add - create your own. Trust me there a great deal of ways to do it. One example that differs between our integrator and others - when we present a solution, we not only present the type of people and number of people needed, we present a team summary with specific profile details letting our client know the staff members that will address their project. I hear constantly from clients that no one else does that...they provide the RFQ response with the solution, hours, cost, etc. and the number of people. Clients choose us since we have the team already put together that will address their challenge. That is a double bonus. Not only do they know we can do the work, they know we have the people ready now to address their project.

Figure out what you can do to create value and that will assist your clients in not caring about where you find people and pay more attention to what service you are providing.

Comment by Sean O'Donoghue on March 31, 2011 at 5:47am: Hi everyone,

Good comments here... I'd say that right now, a large client doesn't really care about 1 or 2, as long as you deliver them the best candidate and they stay for longer than a year in their job. This is especially true for any client with a HR team in play, which keeps you distant from the business - the business won't even know who you are, and the HR team will get all the credit for any hire we help them make anyway.

As for smaller clients, then yes, they want to know exactly what we have to offer them as value for money is critical - and anything we do badly can affect them in a big way. They will also care about how we deal with our candidates... which leads me on to my next point...

What are we doing for our candidates? Who's looking after them, and how???

This will start up a whole new conversation, so rather than taking Christopher's discussion off topic, if anyone is interested in commenting on what they do for their candidates, as well as seeing my view on why I feel that if we treat candidates in the right way then the big companies will be forced to use us.... take a look at my new discussion here

Comment by Christopher Poreda on March 31, 2011 at 7:10am: Well said Jason! I believe clients don't engage you to funnel resumes and see what sticks...they engage you to manage the process, make their lives easier and have the candidate they want to say YES! This management is an art, not a skill and differs greatly amongst recruiters. That's what separates the wheat from the chaff.

Comment by Christopher Poreda on March 31, 2011 at 7:44am: Great reply Alan...I agree!

Comment by Paul Alfred on March 31, 2011 at 8:28am: So far the Job Board expert Christopher can't answer my questions... Hmmm Its easy to agree with the Status Quo . Present a challenge and you quiver ... I am still waiting for a Business Response to my question. As my clients do ask me our approach and why should they work with us I provide an answer tell them to check my site for proof and they agree. Even more importantly when I need to win an Request for Proposal. Will I get a response from Christopher ....

Comment by Christopher Poreda on March 31, 2011 at 8:36am: Paul, you're not getting a response because you're being ignored. At best you're responses are unprofessional, at worst they're antagonistic and mean spirited.

Comment by Paul Alfred on March 31, 2011 at 8:49am: Christopher - I read my questions again to see where it was I was being unprofessional - These questions are asked of me from Clients with Billions in Revenue are you saying that these questions are not valid in them evaluating whether or not they should work with a Vendor ? Please take this in no other way but a pure Business question I get asked every time I meet a new client in my market. Please Don't take this personal you wrote a blog I responded If I wrote a blog and you ask me to respond I will .... Why bother writing a blog if you only want people to agree with you ... Its ok if we don't agree ... I apologize if you are offended by my question ...

Comment by Christopher Poreda on March 31, 2011 at 8:53am: Paul, I understand and accept your apology...but the phrase "present a challenge and you quiver" is hardly professional.

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