Advice for a new recruiter?

I'm about to become a recruiter. After spending 10 plus years on the vendor side running job boards and other recruiting products I've accepted the chance to become the Talent Acquisition Manager for a small tech company called GoEcart in Connecticut. We're going to double in size going from 11 - 20 employees this year. (I'll still be running CareerCloud but in a reduced capacity)

I know a lot about attracting talent, tools, sourcing and branding but I'm sure there are things about being a corporate recruiter that I don't know yet and I would love the community's advice.

What say you?

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Permalink Reply by Matt Charney on February 11, 2014 at 11:12am

I've heard good stuff about this whole mobile thing...seriously, though, congrats, Chris! That's awesome news, and hope that you'll share your hands on experiences and perspectives you pick up in your new role...looking forward to hearing some great stories.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Russell on February 11, 2014 at 11:15am

Thanks Matt and yes I plan on sharing some of my stories/tips along the way.

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Permalink Reply by Amber on February 11, 2014 at 11:42am

Disclaimer: I'm not, nor have I have ever been, a corporate recruiter. I am an independent 3rd party recruiter and former hiring manager at a large corporation. But I would guess there are lots of universal truths involved.

1. Get enough details to know what the priorities are.

2. Develop a solid relationship with the hiring managers.

3. Be sincere and thoughtful with candidates.

4. ASK for help - from company, candidates, other recruiters, etc. Best way to learn about varied positions, etc. are from the people who actually do those jobs. Be open to ideas, especially from those who do well at what you want to accomplish.

Congratulations, and look forward to hearing about your experiences!

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Permalink Reply by Chris Russell on February 11, 2014 at 11:51am

Thanks Amber, all good points.

Amber said:

Disclaimer: I'm not, nor have I have ever been, a corporate recruiter. I am an independent 3rd party recruiter and former hiring manager at a large corporation. But I would guess there are lots of universal truths involved.

1. Get enough details to know what the priorities are.

2. Develop a solid relationship with the hiring managers.

3. Be sincere and thoughtful with candidates.

4. ASK for help - from company, candidates, other recruiters, etc. Best way to learn about varied positions, etc. are from the people who actually do those jobs. Be open to ideas, especially from those who do well at what you want to accomplish.

Congratulations, and look forward to hearing about your experiences!

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Permalink Reply by Amy Ala Miller on February 11, 2014 at 1:49pm

What Amber said. Remember your job is to find and deliver quality people to solve your company's problems. YOU CONTROL THE PROCESS. Get clear expectations and SET clear expectations up front with managers. Same with candidates. Don't get distracted by shiny crap. You might get great applicants. You might find great people on LinkedIn. You might even get a response to a tweeted job posting. Who cares. Don't get distracted by all the noise and focus on connecting quality people with your hiring managers and slowly moving the from A to B to C to Offer.

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Permalink Reply by Keith D. Halperin on February 11, 2014 at 4:54pm

Hi Chris,

My suggestions:

1) Remember that recruiting is fundamentally about "putting quality butts in chairs on-time and in-budget."

2)) To figure out who you can get (as opposed to who they think they deserve to get) you could use the CDS

Corporate Desirability Score.

You take a number of things that people want and companies provide (like, pay, benefits, etc.) and rate them on a 1-100 score relative to other companies. It’s like a Radford Survey with additional factors:

Basics (what every company has to some degree or another)
Benefits
Commutability
Compensation
Growth/promotion/raise potential
Interesting work/type of technology
Overall importance of what the company does
People (staff & management)
Recognition (personal and/or group)
Reporting Structure (reporting to CXO- versus manager-level)
Stability
Work environment and corporate culture
Work/life balance
……………………………………………..

Bonuses (typical of some startups and a few others)
Free food & refreshments
Pre-IPO stock
Misc.

To use the CDS, get the most accurate and objective information you can (maybe from HR, maybe from other sources). Be suspicious of very high or very low numbers, and if you get these very high or low numbers, you should probe for the basis of them. If no one knows: guess. You add up all the numbers, and divide by 12 (you could have higher score than a 100). That ‘s your CDS.

3) To set up a guide for how you'll recruit, you could use this:

Manifesto for Agile Recruiting

We are uncovering better ways of hiring people by doing it and helping others do it.

Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Quick, quality hires over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

Principles behind the Agile Recruiting Manifesto

We follow these principles:

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of quality hires.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
Deliver quality hires frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Internal customers and recruiters must work together daily throughout the project.
Build projects around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a recruiting team is face-to-face conversation.
A quality hire which is on time and within budget is the primary measure of progress.
Agile processes promote sustainable employee development.
The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
Continuous attention to professional excellence and first-class service enhances agility.
Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential.
The best requirements, processes, and hires emerge from self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Finally, for further advice: Talk to REAL RECRUITERS and NOT people who make their living telling recruiting heads what REAL recruiters should do. Within a very few weeks, the greenest "newbie" probably knows more how to improve their own job than the most experienced Recruiting Thought Leaders do.

Best of Luck

-Keith Halperin keithsrj@sbcglobal.net

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Permalink Reply by Kelly Blokdijk on February 11, 2014 at 8:05pm

Congrats, Chris! Agree w/ everything everyone else wrote - especially about getting and setting clear (and REALISTIC) expectations. Most of it is common sense, which I'm sure you have plenty of...

I've only been (what I think Recruiting Animal calls it) a corporate HR flunky w/ recruiting responsibilities, so my perspective is pretty basic: understand your business, get to know your hiring managers, prioritize the must haves for successful on-the-job performance for each role and build your search, screening and selection process around that.

Curious how this career development came about... were you pursuing a change or did the opportunity find you?

Best of luck!

~KB @TalentTalks

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Permalink Reply by Chris Russell on February 12, 2014 at 10:18am

Kelly I noticed the job recently on a Linkedin group digest email. I clicked it out of curiosity since it was close to where I live. As I read it I kept saying 'I can do that'. And I've always thought about helping a company attract talent since Ive been on the other side of the fence for so long. I have so much knowledge it seemed to be the perfect chance to prove myself. Though my startup is finally profitable I needed to find something steady for a while so I started looking around. Little did I know it would be the first job I clicked on.

I beat out 100 other applicants and I didnt even use a resume.

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Permalink Reply by Linda Ferrante on February 12, 2014 at 3:27pm

Don't allow yourself to be 'bullied' by aggressive job seekers. They never make good employees! Seriously, though, give yourself breathing room with aggressive job seekers. You are in charge, not them. They will tell you how things are going to go, but it's not their call. They don't perceive recruiters to be allies, but instead, just another level in their way.

Good luck to you, Chris, being a recruiter is awesome!! :)