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Archive for May, 2009

How many “friends” do you have?

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

In my blog post last week, we talked about the differences between transactional recruiters and relationship recruiters.

Among the many characteristics defined, I mentioned that relationship recruiters invest time in developing relationships with professionals within the industry/skill set they recruit for and have a lot of “friends”.

So how many “friends” do you have?

Well – before you answer that question, I want to define what I believe a “friend” is in the context of this discussion . . .

A friend

  • Will call you back within 24-48 hours after you contact them (if they are not traveling, etc.).

  • Is a professional within the industry/skill set for which you recruit.

  • Will unconditionally allow you access to people within their network.

  • Will unconditionally provide you with information and competitive intelligence that can help you recruit top talent for your organization.

  • Provides you with names and contact information of professionals that they used to work with at former companies.

  • Allows you access to their network on Linkedin. They will either contact folks on your behalf and/or allow you to contact them using their name as the referral source.

  • Provides you with attendee lists from conferences they attend.

  • Provides you access to the alumni network from their schools.

While most recruiters are building up their “professional networks” on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter, etc., how many true friends do you really have from this activity?

Do you invest the time required to build long lasting relationships that can create a network of “friends” that become an invaluable source of candidates, competitive intelligence, etc.?

The reality is this – If you spent time building relationships and creating a huge network of friends, you would not have to spend as much time “cold” sourcing. Your network of friends would provide you with ample people to either recruit or network with to find top talent for your organization!

So how many “friends” do you have?

If you haven’t already done this, I recommend that you create a list (in your ATS, Outlook, Exel, etc.) of all the friends that you have. I would categorize them by the various industries/job categories you recruit.

Every three months, I would make a plan of action to “grow” your friends list. I would dedicate time each week/month (ideally – - say 2 hours a week) to build relationships to grow this list.

Developing a list of friends is not a hard thing to do, but you do have to invest time to the activity.

Trust me – - the rewards are worth it!

Posted in David Szary, Recruiter Academy, Relationship Recruiter, Transactional Recruiter | No Comments »

Are You a Transactional or a Relationship Recruiter?

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

In preparation for a conference speaking engagement last week on sourcing best practices, it became apparent (in my mind!) that there are distinctly two different type of recruiters:

1. Transactional Recruiters
2. Relationship Recruiters

In this “era of abundance”, we have access to millions of prospects via job boards, social networks, blog sites, and Boolean searches, etc. While on the surface, this seems to be a good thing (and for the most part – - I think it is), I also believe it can provide a false sense of security.

These tools can provide the security that if you just keep digging; you will find an interested and qualified candidate. Unfortunately the time spent on these efforts often can take away from building relationships with industry professionals, that when engaged correctly, provide access to quality talent quickly and for free!

Outlined below are some attributes associated with Transactional and Relationship Recruiters.

While this list is not exhaustive, I think it can be a good barometer to gage which one you are.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to expand on this topic and discuss how to leverage all the data we have access to, combine it with best practices of relationship recruiters, and exponentially increase access to top talent within the industries you recruit!

I hope you have a great week!

Transactional Recruiter

  • Spends most of time on internet and emailing
  • Makes tons of outbound emails, sms, cold calls
  • Gets off the phone quick to get to the next call
  • Referrals per contact/call – very low
  • Very few strong relationships with people in the industry they recruit for
  • Doesn’t make “indirect” calls (calls with professionals that will know the person you are looking for)
  • Small “friends” list
  • Doesn’t spend much time developing relationships with top talent
  • Always asking, never giving

Relationship Recruiter

  • Spends most time on phone talking to people
  • Makes targeted calls to people who provide valuable information
  • Spends 10, 20, 30 minutes (even an hour!) on the phone with a person
  • Referrals through contacts is very high
  • People in their network unconditionally provide access to their network
  • Mastered the art of the “indirect” call!
  • Huge “friends” list
  • Disciplined to carve out time each month to develop relationships
  • Give and you shall receive!
  • Never lets them see you sweat!

Posted in David Szary, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Training, Relationship Recruiter, Sourcing, Transactional Recruiter | No Comments »

Recovery? Perspective? A long road ahead?

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

I found this article on ERE interesting. It is always nice to get an objective, not completely negative perspective on our current situation. Some points made by John Zappe:

  • While unemployment is at its highest level since November of 1983 (8.5%), 4.4 million people were employed in March of 2009.
  • That is just slightly lower than the 4.5 million people employed in January of 2009.

To be sure, John points out in his article that this number of hires nationally is well off the recent high of 5.63 million workers in July of 2006.

And I am pretty sure that for millions of folks that are currently unemployed, this economic data does very little to help.

With that said, many experts do believe that we are seeing some signs of recovery – although we probably have a long road ahead of us till we see the days of sub-5% unemployment rates.

What does this all mean?

Well if your glass is half empty – - maybe not too much.

But if your glass is half full…

  • 4.5mm people employed in the dead of winter – WOW! This is a sign of hope for the unemployed.
  • People are actually hiring recruiters – that is a positive sign. (And – baby boomers are still retiring, even if at a slower rate, creating more jobs)
  • My 401k went up a bit. Better than going down.
  • Summer is coming (I’m in Detroit, MI – nice weather is a big deal!)

I hope the rest of your week is productive and positive!

Posted in David Szary, LEAN recruitment, Recruiter Academy, Sourcing | No Comments »