Entries Tagged with Recruiters

Friday August 13th, 2010
Up-close and personal with Head2Head at the 10th anniversary event

Hard to believe it's been 10 years since we first brought 'recruiting recruiters' to the Canadian marketplace.

As you probably know, 2010 marks Head2Head's 10th anniversary.  We've accomplished a lot over the past 10 years, and we owe our success to the fantastic clients, consultants, employees and 'champions', many of whom have been working with us almost since we first opened our doors.

In May we hosted an anniversary party at Lobby Bar in Toronto, and we asked people:  "What made you choose to work with Head2Head?  What makes Head2Head so different?"

If you've ever wondered what it's like to work with Head2Head, take a look at the video - doesn't it make you want to be part of the Head2Head family?

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Sunday July 18th, 2010
Getting candidates who don't reflect your brand? Ask these 5 questions.

You may be getting lots of candidates - from your recruiting agency, recruiting team, or company website - who look great on paper, but if they just aren't a good fit for your company, you're not attracting the right people. 

A hamster may fit in the shoes of the previous person in the role, but ultimately he's not going to be able to walk in them very effectively.

Anyone who's worked in recruiting for more than 5 minutes is familiar with the problem:  The client - internal or external - gives you a set of criteria for a role (skills, experience, education, etc.); you find candidates who fit the criteria to a tee and send them on interviews, only to have them rejected one after the other.

You ask the client for feedback, and all they can say is "He wasn't a good fit." 

After Rejected Candidate #10, you try to pin the client down, but the client's still talking vaguely about 'fit'.

RECRUITER:  "But, Ms Client,  he had all the criteria you asked for, and I know he presents well in interviews.  So can you give me some more specific feedback?"

CLIENT:  "I just think we're kind of a dynamic environment here, and he seemed too conservative or something."

RECRUITER:  (sigh)

Clients understand about brand personality and how it's expressed through employees.
They just don't always know how to articulate it to recruiters.

Recently, American Apparel generated a lot of negative buzz  in the blogosphere when their recruiting and hiring practices were made public.  Former employees say that American Apparel only recruits/hires good-looking people, even if they're incompetent; American Apparel says they hire people with a good fashion 'style', and that it's perfectly reasonable to want employees in a retail clothing chain to reflect the spirit of the brand.

Both groups have a point:  No one should be rejected out-of-hand simply because they don't conform to some perceived stereotype of 'beauty'; at the same time, we all know that employees are the most effective marketing tools organizations have - so they need to reflect the brand just as consistently and positively as other marketing efforts.

But 95% of clients aren't marketing professionals themselves, so they don't always know how to articulate feedback beyond talking about "fit". 

And of course most employers are petrified that if they talk about a candidate's appearance or personality or style, it'll come across as discrimination and they'll be in big trouble.  But saying "Our brand is all about being unobtrusive, serious and discreet; an employee with a green mohawk doesn't reflect our corporate values" is the same as "Our brand is all about being unobtrusive, serious and discreet, which is why we require all our client-facing staff to wear suits and ties at all times."

5 questions to help you identify the candidates with the 'fit' the client is looking for

Asking these 5 questions before the sourcing starts will help reduce the amount of candidates rejected on the basis of 'fit'.

1. In terms of your organization's personality, would you say you're more like Google or more like a big bank?
2. You've given me the required skillls, experience and education for this role.  What about personality and temperament?  Do you need someone who thrives on change, deadlines and adrenaline, or someone more slow-and-steady?
3. If you could choose 3 words to describe the ideal candidate, what would they be?  How do these relate to the company's overall brand and positioning?
4. What kind of personal 'style' seems to be most successful in your office?  Quiet and reserved, or outgoing and effusive?
5. Do new employees get training/guidelines about 'living the brand'?  Can I see a copy of these?

These questions not only ensure the client rejects fewer candidates on 'fit' - they'll generate better feedback when they do.

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Monday January 4th, 2010
Ignoring Feedback: In marketing, not all opinions are equal

So, a few weeks ago we launched a new video [embedded below - just scroll down].

'Irreverent' videos like ours are old hat in the B2C marketplace, but relatively new for B2B/professional services, and there aren't yet a whole lot of established best practices in this area, especially around recruiting.

With that in mind, here's some follow-up - if you've been thinking about doing a video in the coming months, you may find the following post helpful.

Ah, the feedback...

To me, the most interesting part of making a video like this is hearing what people feel/think/say about it.  For example:

John Zappe loved the video. 

Eric Shannon, on the other hand, did not. 

John says it could be the "....most honest career video ever made" and that it "....[nails] recruiting."

Eric, however, says that it has "...crappy message and positioning" and that it "Does more damage to the brand than the attention will benefit."

I've done my share of tv commercials and videos over the past 15 years, so these two extremes aren't surprising to me - in fact, it's been my experience that the more polarizing a video is, the more effective it's likely to be, overall.

Don't confuse 'total audience' with 'target audience'

Eric wasn't the only one who thought the video was entertaining but totally misguided.  Since the video was completed, scarcely a day has gone by without me having some version of the following conversation:

NON-MARKETING PERSON:  "Sarah, I've got some feedback about the video. People don't understand it at all.  They think it's funny and everything, but it's too confusing - they had no idea what the 60 hours thing was."

ME:  "Hhmmm...how many people have you shown it to?"

NMP:  "Well, 3.  But two of them said it was confusing."

ME:  "Who were they?  Clients?  Candidates?  HR people?"

NMP:  "Actually, it was my mother, and my aunt who lives in New Zealand.  They're retired now but they were both teachers."

ME:  (sigh)

NMP:  "Well, don't you care?"

ME:  "Not really.  They aren't the target - we wanted to reach recruiting decision-makers.  As long as the video didn't engender your mother's undying revulsion, I'm not really concerned with whether she understood the message."

NMP:  (secretly thinking that I probably don't know as much about marketing as I think I do)  "Harumph!"

We all feel like marketing experts.
We're not.

Since most of us have absorbed hundreds of thousands  of marketing messages in our lifetimes, and we've been absorbing them practically since birth, it's not surprising that most of us think that we have some level of marketing expertise.

But when your doctor puts a cast on your broken arm, you don't say, "Well, that looks okay for a first draft - just let me run this by 10 people in the sales and supply chain department to get their insight, and then I'll let you know the revisions." 

It's really all about the results.

Ultimately, the goal of marketing is simple:  To sell more stuff. 

It's not about whether people like the video; it's about whether it's effective.  It's not about how many people see the video; it's about how many of those people then do something as a result of seeing it.  

So what have our stakeholders done as a result of this video?

• Several past clients called to re-engage us, citing the video as a positive reminder of how much they like working with us
• Several potential clients requested meetings with us, because they wanted to hear more about our alternatives to contingency recruiting
• Increased web traffic by about 20%
• Increased average PPV (pages per visit) by about 33%
• About 25 of our 'brand champions' reported referring us to a boss, friend or colleague ("I sent Bob at Acme Ltd. the link to the video and told him he should call you guys in the new year.")

 
So far, our ROI on this video (measured solely on short-term revenue) is so high that it almost seems fake - in excess of 500% - and we expect to see more in 2010.  And that's the most important feedback the marketplace can give you.

WATCH THE VIDEO:

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Monday November 30th, 2009
"Dear Sarah IV: Can I work with more than one recruiter at a time?"

A BIT OF HOUSEKEEPING:  A number of readers in the past couple of weeks have asked if they can reprint/reproduce these "Dear Sarah" pieces for use with their own candidates.  The answer:  Yes, absolutely - as long as they are properly credited, with a link to this blog and my email address (sarah@head2head.ca).   Dropping me a line to let me know you're using it would be great, too - I appreciate a good ego-stroke as much as the next person.

In the last "Dear Sarah" post, we talked about what happens when more than one recruiter submits your profile to a client, and how it can make everyone look bad.

But does that mean you should never work with more than one recruiter?

Well...no.  But.

Some recruiters will tell you that unless you (as a job-seeker) work exclusively with them, they won't represent you or present you to clients. 

Here's why:  Good recruiters will tell you when they're submitting your profile to a client;  the best recruiters  will ask your permission in advance.  But the not-so-great recruiters just submit lots of candidates to lots of clients and hope that something sticks. 

At the same time, many clients will engage several recruiting agencies to fill a given role, so they're getting candidates submitted to them from multiple sources.

That means that your profile could currently be in front of a whole bunch of clients, and the new recruiter doesn't want to look like an idiot by submitting a profile of a candidate that their client saw 2 weeks ago from some other recruiter. 

Going to 8 zillion different recruiters increases the chance of your profile being submitted to a particular client, and after a while it's not just the recruiter who looks like an idiot:  Once a client has been given your profile from 4+ different recruiters over a couple of months, they start to wonder just how desperate/unemployable you really are.

However, putting all your eggs in one basket with one recruiter isn't wise, either, especially if you don't know how successful/connected that recruiter is in your field.

Some guidelines for working with more than one recruiter:

1. Be honest and up-front.  If you're already working with a couple of recruiters, let the new recruiter know.  If you know you've been submitted to an opportunity, tell them about it.
   
2. Depending on your career stage and profession, you probably shouldn't work with more than 5 recruiters at a time.  (If you're quite junior and trying to get a foot in the door, it's probably okay to talk to a whole bunch of recruiters; if you're more senior and working in a field where 'word gets around', you probably shouldn't work with more than 2 or 3 recruiters at a time.)
   
3. A recruiter who refuses to work with you because you've spoken to another recruiter either thinks you're not a particularly good candidate ("I can't trust this person to tell me about the other positions s/he has been submitted to") or doesn't do his/her homework ("I just submit all my candidates to all kinds of clients - I can't be bothered to call you to double-check to see if you've already been submitted"). 
   
   Either way, s/he probably isn't the best recruiter for you, anyway, so don't feel too badly about walking away.
   
   (NB:  There are exceptions to this, especially in industries in which the talent pool is very small and where there may be only a handful of qualified candidates for a given role.  In these situations it's appropriate to work with a single recruiter.)
   
4. Try to build long-term relationships with a couple of recruiters who specialize in recruiting people in your field.  A recruiter who's known you for 5+ years is more likely to 'sell you' into a potential employer than someone you just met yesterday. 

Again, if you're a junior just into your first or second job, it's worthwhile to make the rounds of lots of recruiters - it'll help you get a feel for what's out there, who has the best opportunities, and who might be a great long-term contact.  As you become more senior, you'll be able to leverage these long-term relationships to make your job search much easier - and more painless.

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Tuesday November 17th, 2009
"Dear Sarah: Who pays recruiters and how do I get one?"

Think this blog post is 100% wrong?
Tell me why on the "I totally disagree with Sarah" page.

If you're new to the job market - and even if you're not - your biggest source of confusion about recruiters (aka 'headhunters') is probably a simple one:  Who the heck pays them? 

(Yes, if you're a recruiter here on ERE, you - presumably - know all about headhunters and how they get paid.  But as I explained in the first "Dear Sarah" post, this series was created so that the next time you get a  question from a non-recruiting friend or relation, you can just send them this link rather than having to spend too much time explaining.)

First, a word on lexicon:  Though you and your friends may talk about 'headhunters' - i.e. the people who call you and try to sell you on a Fabulous New Job Opportunity - that's not a word used by headhunters themselves.  It's sort of like how real estate salespeople never call themselves real estate 'agents', even though the rest of the world does. 

There's a fair amount of recruiting-industry lexicon with which you may not be familiar, actually.  The more you know about the lexicon, the more 'in the know' you'll seem to recruiters, so I've provided brief descriptions below.

Anyway, it's the client - i.e. the company who makes the hire -  who pays the recruiter, not the job-seeker. 

Here's how it (typically) works:

1. The client decides they need to fill a position (also called a 'role')
2. They send their requirements (also called a 'job requisition' or 'job req') to a recruiting agency.  In most cases, the client will send their job reqs to more than one agency at a time
3. The job requisition will be assigned to one or more recruiters, who will then look through their database, make calls to their network of contacts, and/or search online to find potential candidates.  It's at this stage that they might call or email you to see if you're (a) interested and/or (b) meet the skills/experience parameters of the position
4. If they think you're a good potential candidate, the recruiter may arrange to interview you
5. If the interview with the recruiter goes well, s/he will send your profile (which could include your resume, a summary of your strengths/weaknesses, and recommendations) to the client
6. The client is likely receiving profiles of potential candidates from several other recruiting agencies at the same time
7. The client reviews your information.  If they think you might be a good fit, they tell the recruiter to schedule an interview with you
8. When the client makes a hire, they pay the recruiting agency a fee.  This fee is typically 16-20% of the new hire's annual salary
9. The client pays the fee only to the recruiting agency who sent the successful candidate (i.e. the one who got hired).  The other recruiting agencies receive nothing.

This is called contingency fee-based recruiting, because the fee is contingent upon a hire being made.

(There are other recruiting models, and fees can vary - such as much lower fees for junior/high volume roles and higher fees for very senior/executive roles - but this is the basic contingency model and the one you're most likely to encounter if you're working with a recruiting agency.)

Typically, recruiters are paid a base salary by the agency they work for, plus a commission based on the contingency fees they generate for the agency.  So when you're hired through an agency, the recruiter you've been working with gets a piece of the 20% of your starting annual salary that the client pays to the agency.

I know it sounds like a lot of money - if your starting salary is, say, $60k, then the client pays $12,000 for the privilege of hiring you - but keep in mind that a typical agency recruiter will interview 25+ candidates per week, but only a handful of them will ultimately be hired.

So how do I connect with a recruiter?

Well, this is a big topic and one we'll revisit in future posts, but the first step is to do some research to find out which recruiting agencies specialize in your profession/field/industry.  Though some larger recruiting agencies recruit for all positions, you'll do better if you hook up with a recruiting agency - or even a recruiter - which specializes in one or two fields/roles, such as IT positions, supply chain positions or clerical positions.

However, just Googling may not be enough here.  For example, if you look at the website of Canadian recruiting company Mandrake Management Consultants, you wouldn't know that they've long had a specialty in recruiting for advertising/marketing jobs - but they do.  So your best bet is to ask around:  Ask friends and colleagues which recruiting agencies they've worked with recently, and which ones specialized in your field.

While you're at it, ask your friends/colleagues for the names (and contact info!) of the recruiter(s) they've worked with.  There's nothing more pointless - and more guaranteed to generate rejection - than randomly calling recruitment agencies and asking to speak to 'anyone'.  Recruiting agencies get hundreds, if not thousands, of unsolicited calls and emails every day - they're very good at screening.  Getting the direct email/phone number of a specific person, and being able to reference someone they've successfully placed, will put you miles ahead.

BONUS TIP:  When you're asking your friends and colleagues for referrals to recruiters, don't specify that you want the names of recruiters they liked; ask for the names of the recruiters who seemed to have jobs.  Because you don't have to like the recruiter, as long as they can actually connect you to great opportunities.

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Monday August 10th, 2009
Recruiters are all over LinkedIn. How to ensure they find you first. (Part II)

DON'T FORGET:  This Thursday we're hosting another session of our ultra-popular 'Leverage LinkedIn as a Recruiter' webinar.  The last two were completely booked well in advance, but we've made a few more spots available this time.  It's totally free - just click here to register!

Guest blog by Kim Benedict, Director, Sales and Operations (and LinkedIn guru!) here at Head2Head

Editor’s note:  Here at Head2Head, we’ve been using LinkedIn for recruiting for more than 5 years, and are now recognized as the Canadian experts in using LinkedIn for research, sourcing, and building long-term relationships with top talent.  Kim’s guest blog below is the second in a 3-part series on how candidates can leverage LinkedIn most effectively. 

(Are you a recruiter?  We also host (free) webinars on using LinkedIn for recruiting.  The next webinar is scheduled for August 13 – click here   to register.)

So what can you do to ensure that recruiters not only find you on LinkedIn, but are interested enough to get in touch with you directly?  Here are our 5 tips:

1. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is complete, up-to-date - and active

Your LinkedIn profile says more about you than your resume and can be easily updated.  Ensure your work history covers at least the last 3 positions you’ve held (if applicable), and that your education section (including any recent certifications) is fully populated.  Be specific about your projects and achievements in these positions.

And don't just 'set it and forget it'.  Visit your LinkedIn profile at least twice a week (more if you're actively looking for a new job).  Regularly updating your "What are you working on?" (aka 'status') statement, for example, tells recruiters your profile is active, current - and worth taking a look at.

2.  Grow your network

On average, referrals and social networking account for 40% of a company’s source to hire (and this stat is increasing rapidly).  Closing the gap on your six degrees of separation puts you closer to potential opportunities and increases your visibility during the search process. The more connections you have, the bigger your network, and the more likely it is that recruiters will find you.  If you're actively looking for a new job, adding and updating connections should be a part of your daily routine.  Even if you're not actively looking, building your network is a great investment in your career - you never know when a recruiter will come along with your dream job.

3.  Make your profile attractive and appealing

Your LinkedIn profile is essentially an advertisement for you and your services.  Like any advertisement, it's designed to get the audience (recruiters) interested enough to learn more about you, and to give them the information they need in an easy-to-understand way.

Tips to make your profile more appealing to recruiters (and to others who may be in position to recommend or refer you):

• Ensure your spelling and grammar is flawless!
• Take the time to write a compelling 'Summary' (get a friend to write one for you if you're not a wordsmith)
• Add applications like 'Reading Lists' and update it regularly
• Showcase presentations or articles you've authored by using Slideshare to post them to your profile
• Make sure your status is open to receiving inmails and job enquiries – even though you may be happy in  your current position – you never know when a once in a lifetime job may land on your doorstep
• Get recommended and make recommendations

4.  Join groups

Recruiters will often use alumni or join industry-, profession- and role-specific LinkedIn groups to tap into groups of candidates with specialized skills and experience.  By joining groups appropriate for your career - and participating in the group discussions - you'll raise your profile.  And recruiters will often broadcast a job opening only to group members, so joining the group means you'll hear about opportunities first.

5.  Picture perfect

Like Facebook, Twitter, etc., LinkedIn is a social media tool.  However, unlike many other social media tools, LinkedIn is primarily for professional networking.  So your profile photo should reflect your "9-to-5" self.  In other words, stick to a professional-looking headshot - LinkedIn isn't the place for family snapshots or cartoon character avatars.

The bottom line

LinkedIn has long been the leading social media tool for recruiters looking to connect with candidates.  However, it's rapidly becoming the #1 resource - online or offline - recruiters go to when they're looking to fill a position.  Which begs the question:  If you aren't leveraging LinkedIn, will recruiters know you exist?

Next week:  More on using LinkedIn for recruiting!

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Wednesday August 5th, 2009
Recruiters are all over LinkedIn. How to ensure they find you first. (Part I)

Guest blog by Kim Benedict, Director, Sales and Operations (and LinkedIn guru!) here at Head2Head

Editor’s note: Here at Head2Head, we’ve been using LinkedIn for recruiting for more than 5 years, and are now recognized as the Canadian experts in using LinkedIn for research, sourcing, and building long-term relationships with top talent. Kim’s guest blog below is the first in a 3-part series on how candidates can leverage LinkedIn most effectively.

(Are you a recruiter? We also host (free) webinars on using LinkedIn for recruiting. The next webinar is scheduled for August 13 – click here to register.)

A new airport is opening in Dubai, and they’re looking to hire an HR professional with travel and training experience. It’s your dream job and you’d be perfect for it – but when their recruiter starts scouring LinkedIn for candidates, will they find you?

Recruiters are increasingly leveraging LinkedIn to connect to both passive and active candidates (in fact, our recent survey indicated that 70% of recruiters consider LinkedIn their #1 social media tool for finding top talent). Understanding how they’re are using it is the key to ensuring they find you first.

Top 5 ways recruiters use LinkedIn to connect to A-list talent:

REVERSE REFERENCE
Recruiters us LinkedIn’s Reverse Reference function to find people who have worked at a particular organization and/or on a specific initiative within that organization, such as and SAP implementation or HR transformation.

REFERRALS
LinkedIn allows you to use your connections to access a vast network of people. Recruiters leverage this by using their connections – and their connections’ connections – to find people who have the skill set and experience they’re looking for.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Currently LinkedIn has 43 million people in its network and is growing at a rate of 1 new member a second. Given the size of the talent pool recruiters with often look at your recommendations to assess and select A-list players.

GROUPS
Recruiters search industry specific groups as well as alumni associations on LinkedIn as part of their targeted selection process.

INMAILS
Recruiters use LinkedIn inmail campaigns and their status bars to broadcast opportunities.

Next week: 5 ways to ensure that recruiters find – and get excited about – your LinkedIn profile!

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Friday July 24th, 2009
REMINDER: Tell us your true recruiting tales

Don't forget to tell us your story!

We'll be publishing a selection of the best in early August.

(Seriously, where else can you rant about that unbelievably bad candidate/recruiter/interview you'll never forget? Because you've told your friends the story 3 times already - you need a new audience.)

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Wednesday July 1st, 2009
Now Not to Recruit

There was a great post on blog The Anti-Pimp recently, 7 Things Recruiters Do That Irritate Me. I had to laugh -- so many of the things listed are complaints that I've heard from quite a few candidates myself.

So I started speaking to contractors that I know to see what other things irritate and annoy them -- sometimes to the point of refusing to work with a particular recruiter or company. In this far-from-scientific survey, I've spoken to a few IT consultants (business analyst, systems analyst, technical writer, and a programmer), as well as a contract HR specialist, a recruiter, a travel nurse, and a proposal writer.

Perhaps the most common complaint (and I've experienced this one a time or two myself!) is recruiters not listening to what the candidate is telling them -- whether it's about what sort of position would be a good fit, salary and compensation, or just that they're unavailable to talk at the moment.

A technical writer complained: "I was recently in the check-out line at the grocery store when a recruiter I'd been speaking to called back with some feedback from a recent interview. ... Despite the fact that I told him that no, this wasn't a good time, and could we please speak a little later (like when I'm not bagging groceries!), this guy just kept right on talking."

In addition to the rudeness of such situations, many also commented to the effect that if they can't trust a recruiter to respect that they are unavailable at the moment -- whether it's due to an important meeting or a family dinner -- how can they be sure that they'll listen to anything else?

But the complaint that surprised me was the idea of recruiters attempting to build rapport by talking about how hard it is to be a recruiter right now. I spoke to a nurse who frequently works with agencies for travel nursing positions. One of her worst experiences, she said, was with a recruiter whose skills were apparently not quite up to the recent challenges posed by the economic slowdown:

"Literally, about the first five or ten minutes we were talking, it was all about how hard her life was these days. How she used to have dozens of open jobs on the go at any one time, and now she only had one or two at a time -- if she was lucky. Better yet," the candidate added, "this recruiter actually told me that these days the candidates she sent rarely got interviews."

Not exactly a confidence-booster. (Not to mention unprofessional.) It can be great to build a personal rapport with candidates -- but that doesn't mean that recruiters should vent to their candidates, whether about job orders or a client, no matter how frustrating things can get.

Another concurred. "I don't see why recruiters are asking me to sympathize with them. You don't have lots of orders? Honey, I'm the one looking for a job."

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Wednesday January 14th, 2009
The Better R-Word? Resilient

It's interesting that this Toronto Star article about independent bookstores can hold so many lessons for recruiters, or indeed, anyone who is feeling a bit threatened these days.

Survival is a business issue and there is plenty to be learned from those who have shown the determination, positivism and interest in staying alive. Independent booksellers have faced down threats from big box stores and online retails, and yet, they remain. 

Here are the lessons the survivors have learned and the recruiter's equivalent:

1. It's all about community.

For Bookstores:

"Type Books, which has opened three stores in just over two years, runs weekly literacy classes with three local schools," says the article.

"They also do a children's story time and have a gallery in the basement at the Queen St. W. store (the others are in Forest Hill Village and on the Danforth).

""We use these services to make ourselves a real hub in the community," said Type Books co-owner Joanne Saul. "We've made it more than a retail experience. We try to make it a vibrant place to be so people will want to come and share the experience of books,"" says the Star piece by Jason Miller.

The Recruitment Equivalent:

Make a commitment to the community. You don't have to be like the fire department and tell every school child not to play with matches, but the wider world should know who you are and what you do.

Share your process to build your market. Work with universities and colleges to lead seminars for students in job search skills, networking and professional behaviour.

If you're the kind of person, like J.P. Winkler describes in this article, who only has five friends, you might want to work on your connections to the outside world.    

2. Specialize, but keep your generalist skills sharp.

For bookstores:

"Our niche is art, design and photography," Eleanor Johnston, manager of David Mirvish Books, told the Star. "We have focused on that specialty while providing a little bit of everything else. When it pertains to our specialty we're a bit ahead of the curve than most big box stores."

For Recruiters:

If you're managing relationships properly, and keeping general skills sharp, you should be able to help clients even when they need something outside your current specialty. 

3. Be unique.

For Bookstores:

"We've seen things go up and down during the tough economic period," Matt Sturrock manager of Nicholas Hoare told the Star. "We've survived because we carry things you just don't see anywhere else. Our specialty in British books offers the customers a reason to come to our destination. Customers get a chance to experience a beautifully designed store. We spend a lot of money on creating a pleasant atmosphere to shop in."

For Recruiters:

Make sure you're different by communicating your brand in unexpected ways. Announcements of charitable gifts and initiatives, the previously mentioned educational campaigns, and volunteer projects are all places where no expects recruiters to be found. Change that, and people will remember.  

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Thursday December 18th, 2008
Flaming Recruiters

Earlier this month, Toronto recruiters were in the spotlight of the finance crisis. I've been trying to process what to say about the article ever since it appeared.

Obviously, the industry needs some flame. We need some viral marketing that will take the edge off the "throw them to the lions" perception and let us be people again.

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Monday December 15th, 2008
Protecting the Future in Difficult Times

image source 

Ok. Perhaps it's been said a little too often. We Are the World get's a lot of air time over Christmas and people who are dealing with problematic lives get tired of hearing: "The children are our future."

I certainly have a lot to contribute to "the future" over the next 40 to 50 years that I hope to live. I pay taxes to support schools and social services. All the parents I know work like fiends just to put food on the table and keep a roof over their children's heads. It's getting harder and harder to support a family. What about those of us who are working now? What about all the insecurities all of us have and what, oh what, about now?

It's true. Now is a terrible time. We're dealing with disappointment, with loss and with even less security.

But to get to this point in our lives, we had to be pretty confident. Think, for a moment, of the people you went to school with who got pushed down too early. Maybe they had an abusive or an addicted parent. Maybe they never got a word of encouragement in terms of how they performed at school. Maybe they never got that first chance to gain a foothold on the way to a career.

And then, there are the kind who say; "$40,000 in student loans and I am still working a McJob."

Think of the people you know who gave up long before the financial crisis hit.

If you're reading this, it's because you didn't give up. You believed in yourself, and if that is true, then there is someone else on this planet who believed in you too. And, chances are, if you had that in the past, you've got the emotional resources and the resilience to survive this recession too.

I think, when times are bad, it's even more important to teach children that there is value in learning, in following the rules, in doing what we are supposed to do. That means, if you are a good boy or a good girl, you get Christmas presents even if the adults in your life have had bad luck.

Introducing disappointment, a total lack of pay off, a sense of unfairness in childhood does not encourage ambition. It does not give children a sense of the meritocracy we all want to believe in. It does not reward hard work.

Will these become features of the future workforce we want to deal with for the next forty or fifty years?

Not if I have anything to say about it. Not if other recruiters agree with me.

All over Canada, World Vision will ensure that children are warmly dressed for winter weather. The Salvation Army will deliver toys to 130 000 children. In Toronto, the Star Santa Claus Fund has distributed boxes to children in need for more than a century.

Every gift tells a child that someone believes in them. It's called hope and it prepares children from all backgrounds to become productive, thoughful and optimistic adults. The kind of people we like to work with.

And the hope works both ways. How are you giving/getting yours this Christmas?

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Monday October 13th, 2008
Egregiously Bad Candidates:
You can't make this stuff up

Recruiters get a bad rap - sometimes, candidate behaviour is just plain inexplicable

For years, recruiting professionals have ranked somewhere between 'real estate agent' and 'travelling salesman' on the Unscrupulous Professions list.  And there's no question that recruiters aren't always as assiduous in acknowledging or responding to candidate applications as they should be.

But it's no wonder that recruiters often come off looking jaded or dismissive when it comes to candidates, because while the conversation above is unique in its specific punchline ("The IT guy who doesn't have a computer"), it's just one of the many, many examples of inexplicable candidate behaviour that most recruiters see every day.

As the Director of User Experience for a recruitment services company, I am often the recipient of out-of-the-blue phone calls from candidates ("To speak with someone in our marketing and communications department, please press 2043...").

Most of the time, I just roll my eyes a little: A-list candidates know that unless you have a specific contact name, it's best to make first contact with a recruiting company by email or applying online - so when I get a random phone call, it's generally safe to assume that the candidate on the other end is either a bit clueless or a little desperate. But it's easy enough to gently redirect these candidates to the website.

But once in a while, I end up having a conversation which reveals just how useful the term 'WTF????!!' really is.

Unbelievable but true

Friday afternoon, I picked up the phone and engaged in the following - slightly abridged, but otherwise verbatim - conversation:

ME: "Sarah Welstead."

MALE CANDIDATE, AGED 22-35: "Your office is open?"

ME: "Yes, we're open today..."

MC: "But you're closing at 2 o'clock?"

ME: "Ummm...no. We're here til 5 today."

MC: "So you're not closing? I can come there?"

ME: "The office is open, but - I'm sorry, did you have an appointment with someone here?"

MC: "I want a job. I'm going to bring my resume there now and talk to someone about getting a job."

ME: (light dawning) "Oh, I see. Actually, we don't really take resumes in person like that. Have you visited our website? If you're interested in a specific position, or want to send us your resume, you can do that through the website."

MC: "I need to talk to someone. I want to give you my resume."

ME: (eyes now rolling quite a bit) "Yes, the best way to do that is online. Once we receive your resume or application, a recruiter will be in touch and you can make an appointment."

[this back-and-forth continued for several minutes - he was determined to drop off his resume in person and was disinclined to believe me when I said it wasn't the best way to get our attention]

MC: "But I need some advice."

ME: "About looking for work? What kind of job are you interested in?"

MC: "IT - information technology."

ME: (trying to stay positive) "Great! We've got an IT recruiting division, so you should just check out the IT jobs we've got posted, and apply to whichever ones you're interested in. If you don't see anything that fits with your skills, you can email us your resume and we'll let you know when something comes up."

MC: "But I don't have email."

ME: "You don't have an email address?"

MC: "I don't have a computer or internet."

ME: [a few seconds of silence] "Um, you'd like to work in IT but you don't have a computer or access to the internet?"

MC: "Yeah."

ME: [speechless]

I did finally succeed in giving him the email address of one of our IT recruiters (who, 30 minutes later, received a brief email from someone requesting a meeting and 'advice' - but no resume or an indication of the type of job or advice he was looking for).  But two days later, I can't get the conversation out of my head. I can't stop thinking: "What the HECK was that guy thinking?"

Why did he forego any semblance of a greeting or explanation ("Hi, my name is Bob and I'm looking for work in IT and would like to drop off my resume...")?

Why did he persist in his resume drop-off plan after I'd told him that the best way to bring himself to our attention was to go online?

And why did he tell the recruiting company that he wants a job in IT but doesn't have a computer or internet access?

So what's my point?

As a marketing consultant with a specialty in recruitment marketing, it's my job to understand how people think and process information, so that I can develop effective messages (and media).

So when I have an interaction like the one above, I end up asking myself:  "Is this candidate just a clueless anomaly who I can safely ignore? Or has he got great skills but just doesn't realize that it's important to make a good first impression on recruiters, since they're the gatekeepers of so many jobs?"

(Don't you wish that, when you encounter one of these Egregiously Bad Candidates, you could just ask them, straight out, how they thought that doing [insert inexplicable behaviour here] was going to bring them any closer to their dream job?)

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Wednesday September 10th, 2008
Back to School Blog Out Week Part 3

Just to contradict myself, I have another tip to add to yesterday's learning lesson.

While most corporations have budgets for employee training and professional development, seminars, courses and conferences are not the only places to access information and insights about the recruitment industry.

Independent recruiters don't have the budget to attend industry events. That doesn't mean that they fall behind. Instead they go about reading, reflecting and making critical analyses independently. These are all certainly tools all of us must develop and use on our own.

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Tuesday September 9th, 2008
Back to School Blog Out Week: Part 2

Today, subscribers to Head2Head's Recruiter newsletter will get an insight into how independent recruiters often maintain "a learning edge" over corporate recruiters. Next week, subscribers to our HR newsletter will learn how Generation Y is preparing itself for challenges on the HR horizon. Subscribing from our web site is a simple process, all you have to do is select the newsletter you want to receive and enter your email address.

The simplicity is part of today's tip for keeping your learning edge sharp:

Automate whatever tasks you can to focus on relationships.

It is always easier to let someone teach you something than it is to seek out opportunities to learn. The interview really is everything when it comes to learning and a good interview creates a relationship.

To keep their focus on relationships, independent recruiters automate whatever non-relationship building tasks they can. They set up Google alerts to get regulatory updates in their in-boxes, their email accounts that receive résumés have auto-responders, all the documentation they use on a regular basis are in template form, up-to-date and filed appropriately for immediate use.

These automated efficiencies clear up time for phone calls, networking and relationship maintenance. That emphasis on personal conversation ensures that recruiters can learn everything possible from whomever they meet and apply that information immediately. In this way, learning becomes an on-going and integral part of every recruiter’s day.

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Monday September 8th, 2008
Back to School Blog Out Week!

September, for those of us who went to school for a long, long time, is the season for new beginnings. It is also a time for new pens. And new ideas!

So, I thought I would spend this week talking about on-going education for recruiters. Today, while I wait for you to respond to our August Poll , I am going to start with a little lecture about the Work Foundation.  The UK-based not-for-profit org investigates the nature of work, its meaning in our lives, how we respect it and degrade it. They are the Zen masters of thoughts about work and I think we can all learn a lot from them.

In particular, I'd like to point you to their research into The Rise of Meaningful Work and what that entails for both employers and employees. Here is a quote from the abstract:

• Employers have a role in enabling the search for meaningful work by providing high quality jobs for people. But employers cannot create meaning and should not try to. It is up to individuals to find work that is meaningful for them. However, employers are capable of destroying meaning through exploitation, disrespect, and poor organisation of work.

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Thursday July 10th, 2008
Where Gen Y Wants to Work

We've been talking a lot about what Generation Y wants and how to deal with them. DECODE, Brainstorm Consulting and Universum have been finding out where they want to work and what they want from employers.

“The competition to hire top graduates is more intense now than I’ve seen it in twenty years,” stated Graham Donald of Brainstorm Consulting, one of the co-authors. “This Report gives us a good idea of which companies will be able to attract the best and which need to revisit their recruitment strategy.”

In the spring of 2007, DECODE, Universum and Brainstorm Consulting conducted a survey of 23,826 Canadian students from 41colleges and universities. They asked the students about their top employers, their career aspirations, and about how key career decisions are made.

The 2007 Learning to Work Report examined many of Canada’s leading employer brands and their relative ranking as places to begin a career. Students have ranked The Government of Canada as the number one most desirable employer for the last three years running

Other highlights:

• Google took the top spot among technology companies
• RBC Financial Group came out as the most desirable bank
• Deloitte and Ernst & Young led the accounting firms on the list
• L’Oreal and Procter and Gamble emerged as the leading Consumer Packaged Goods employer brands

That sums up the “where they want to work.”

The study found that today's students and recent graduates are focused, informed and rational in their decision making. Tomorrow’s workforce, the authors maintain, wants to achieve a healthy balance between career and life, expects opportunities for advancement and learning, and are striving to build a secure financial base.

The study also found that students believe that finding great people to work with is almost as important as finding opportunities for advancing their careers. Today’s students also look to parents and professors for advice on career opportunities first and foremost when seeking advice.

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About the Authors

Paul Dodd
Co-founder and President
Head2Head Canada

Paul has one simple goal: To help companies hire great people - and get the most out of every recruiting dollar they spend. That's why he's recognized as one of the best recruitment-industry thinkers in Canada.

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