Comment by Noel Cocca on June 25, 2013 at 10:12am

Good question, I would like to hear more about this myself.  I know we have a lot of sourcing pro's that can help also.  

Comment by Amy Ala Miller on June 25, 2013 at 3:18pm

As a TPR turned Corp Recruiter I'm on the fence about this... I think sourcers are great, and sounds like you're better off starting new relationships WITH SOURCERS. The existing TPRs you work with (I'm assuming) have relationships in place w/ your company and probably are full cycle - asking them to essentially drop half the service they provide may not be in their best interest. Are you going to pay for names or stay fee upon hire? If that's the case, why would I (as a TPR) give you my "best" candidates when I have no control over the second half of the situation?

When I worked with TPRs from the corporate side at my last company, I did a thorough interview as well and partnered with the TPR to negotiate a winning offer. I still expected them to manage the candidate expectations and be very transparent with me as I was with them from the hiring manager side. I'm not saying it's not a good idea or can't work, but I'm a bit skeptical. Very interested in hearing sourcers and TPRs weigh in on this.

Comment by Derdiver on June 25, 2013 at 3:36pm

Noel beat me to it...LOL!! I agree with Amy. 

You say you have a team? What do they do exactly? Why is no one on the team doing sourcing full time? If you need to have outside vendors doing perm hiring for you what exactly are the recruiters doing?

You should just forgo the agency all together and hire a sourcer to find candidates for you.  Heck I know of a few people that would give you a GREAT deal.  The thing here is when you pay a TPR you are paying for a tried and true sealed and signed prequaled person.  Done. They more than likely want the job unless your company turned them off.  Most agencies IMO will look at this and say we still want our 20%. Then ANY candidate they send qualified or not is now going to be someone you will have to pay for since they sent them to you within what ever time frame you set. IE allowing them to send over just paper and expect high fees.  Maybe I am reading this wrong. If I am I am sorry.  Sounds to me that you have a lot of "process recruiters" and no sourcers.

 

Comment by Amber on June 25, 2013 at 4:30pm

Lisa, I know it may be a bit different because we are a TPR, but I will share some things we have done for clients and also what we have had other people do for us. We don't do any of these things super frequently, as we mainly focus on permanent placements. You definitely want to be sure you are clear and detailed as to what exactly you are expecting, sourcing can mean different things to different people.

1. When we have provided strictly resumes that were VERY briefly pre-screened, we charged an hourly rate and a flat fee if a hire was made.

2. Same as above, but did a brief phone screen with the candidate (client had 5 questions they wanted asked). We charged an hourly rate, a flat fee per candidate contacted, and a fee if placement was made.

3. When we have had people who wanted to get started in sourcing and/or recruiting, we hired them to locate candidates and qualify them. We paid a flat fee and a percentage of placements, plus they were able to use many of our resources.

If you want to know more specifics, please feel free to contact me at 225- 751- 8283, or amber@eastmangroupllc.net

Comment by Lisa Ranger on June 25, 2013 at 4:49pm

Amber, thank you for your input on this topic and I can honestly say that it's not an easy one to solve.  It's interesting to note that the recruiters who have presented the better candidates are not thrown off by our request to do the references and negotiate the offer.  It's the ones that are providing less qualified candidates (which I question how thorough they are being at the early stages) that tend to have a problem with our process but happy to invoice us for their services.    I understand the work involved for a TPR, but not all of them are earning their fees with good service and that's where we need to be more selective. 

Comment by Amber on June 25, 2013 at 5:08pm

I understand completely! We have processes that differ widely depending on the client. You're right that sometimes it's a matter of finding the "right" one. I am finally at a point in recruiting where we are also choosing the clients - I even have some that hire us on non-refundable retainer that were so difficult to work with that I say no to them now. It's hard to do when they are willing to pay a premium, but I want to succeed in the placement, give my customer good value for their money, and be able to treat candidates respectfully. I think the HR Generalist was shocked when I refused the last request to work on a position!

Good luck, and at least you have a good sounding board here on RBC!

Comment by pam claughton on June 28, 2013 at 6:06am

It sounds like you are looking for someone to do the actual recruiting piece? I don't think you'd find many third party recruiters willing to unbundle their services, especially if they already have a relationship with your company. But, you may want to look into researchers. You could buy research consisting of targeted names and then you or your in-house sourcer/recruiter could recruit them. Or you could have the researchers also contact the names, profile them and forward any interested ones. One of the girls who works for me did this for a research firm before she worked for me. Years ago, when I did a contract on the client side, we purchased research all the time and then called the names. It worked out well. I believe pricing was usually on an hourly basis, both for names and profiling.

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