The ABC of Recruiting

The first thing they teach us as toddlers is the alphabet. In much the same way, new recruiters should also be guided to the ABC's of Recruiting.

A - Advertising - the good ol’ post & pray method

B - Blogs - even if you don't write them, you'll be exposed to plenty

C - Clients - in case you didn’t realise, they pay the bills !

D - Data Base - the resting place for candidates until you take action

E - Employment – the eternal question does employment dictate recruitment or the other way around?

F - Fall Offs - candidates rejecting your job offer after accepting

G - Goal Setting - without which you’d be totally lost

H - Head Hunting – opportunity offers to those already working

I - Interviewing candidates – …….is the only way to place them

J - Job Seekers – are not to be confused with active or passive candidates

K - KPI's - if you think this is bad, wait till you get to ‘T’

L - Linked In - that's where you'll find passive candidates

M - Meetings – the bane of your work life if these are too many or too long

N - Negotiating - business terms / salaries / time

O - Online job boards – contrary to popular belief they cannot replace recruiters

P - Preferred Supplier Listings - you’re either in it or not

Q - Qualifying – time, energy & money down the drain if your jobs & candidates are not qualified

R - Resumes - tons of them with loads of info

S - Shortlisting - the ideal ‘fit’ of candidate to job & vice versa

T - Targets - you really thought the industry did not have any eh?

U – USP – you’d better have some unique selling proposition to compete in this industry

V - Visiting your clients – an absolute necessity

W - What / Why / When / Where - you'll be using these frequently whilst interviewing & qualifying

X - 'X' factor - not just yours. Find out your candidate's ‘X’ factor for a successful reverse market

Y - Yahoo !! - you've just made a placement if you've followed A to X diligently.

Z - zzzzzzz - a good weekend snooze after putting in over 50 hour weeks !!

Comment by C. B. Stalling!! on March 15, 2011 at 9:27am: A Always

B BE

C CALLING

I did not see anywhere in your long message about picking up the phone..

Comment by Ben McGrath on March 15, 2011 at 1:09pm: V - Visiting your clients must?? Perhaps Vetting your client is a more realistic V.

We recruit worldwide with almost none of it in our own city. Visiting clients is prohibitive to most successful recruiting businesses.

Comment by Alban on March 15, 2011 at 5:30pm: @ CB Stallings - Picking up the phone is implied in D, H, I, N, Q, S & W. I can't help it if this blog is long cause there are 26 alphabets in the Engish language :-)

@ Ben - You make a good point with V. However, I'm not too sure I agree with you completely on most 'successful recruiting businesses' not being able to visit their clients due to geographical prohibitions. Fact is we are a 'successful recruiting business' and cause we are local, are able to visit all our clients. Ability to visit / not visit is certainly not the criteria to being successful.

Comment by Ben McGrath on March 15, 2011 at 6:08pm: Alban - Great point - which is why I said MOST successful businesses. I think it's terrific that you have enough business to succeed within your city or close proximity. It certainly has it's advantages.

However, I don't think that most firms have that advantage.

Comment by Valentino Martinez on March 15, 2011 at 9:02pm: Alban,

You had my attention all the way to Y, then zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz happened.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on March 17, 2011 at 1:17am: CB. That is obnoxious.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on March 17, 2011 at 12:58pm: I would suggest to CB that he take that mess down, apologize for junking up a post and refrain from acting like an adolescent troll in the future.

Comment by Alban on March 17, 2011 at 7:26pm: @ Sandra, Rayanne – I too find CB Stallings’ comments obnoxious & stupid. I can easily delete his comments, but will not, cause I want readers to judge for themselves.

I understand when we blog we should be prepared for comments – good, bad or ugly. Initially my thoughts were to just ignore him, but then silence is generally taken as agreement hence decided to express my views.

I feel sorry for anyone who has to resort to typing a single word numerous times just to prove their point.

And he’s doing me a great favour, cause the more he comments the more hits my blog gets :-) so pls carry on CB Stallings – spend your days commenting on my blogs instead of picking up the PHONE !!

@ Valentino – nice one, like your sense of humour. I struggled with a recruiting term that begins with Z

Comment by Sandra McCartt on March 18, 2011 at 4:57pm: I agree Alban. I never take down a comment. In this case i think he should but ya can't fix stupid. :)