Sunday May 23rd, 2010
7 Tips for making the switch from 'agency' to 'corporate' recruiting

Another fantastic guest blog by Maureen Carroll, Manager of Recruiting at Head2Head!

Since Head2Head places more recruiters, with more organizations, than anyone else in Canada, we're often asked for advice on how to move from agency (i.e. full desk, contingency-fee) recruiting to corporate (i.e. working in-house for a client as an employee or on contract) recruiting.  This week, Maureen - who's been recruiting recruiters for almost 10 years now - offers her insights about how to make the switch.

So you want to be a corporate recruiter...

Anyone who's ever worked in a recruiting agency will tell you that agency recruiting can be exciting, action-packed, lucrative - and a whole lot of fun.  But it's also unpredictable, highly sales-oriented, and transactional.  So we hear from a lot of agency recruiters who are thinking about making a move 'client-side', where they'll get more experience with long-term strategic recruiting programs.

However, recruiters who have spent several years working in an agency environment may find it difficult to make the move to corporate - they may find themselves perceived as fast-talking 'salesmen' who are more focused on putting 'bums in seats' rather than building strategic recruiting solutions.

How can you overcome the stereotypes and demonstrate you'd make a great corporate recruiter?

These 7 tips will go a long way towards impressing a potential employer that you're ready to make the move to corporate recruiting:

1. Think  - and speak! - like a corporate recruiter
   Corporate recruiting has a different lexicon than agency recruiting, and using the right terminology demonstrates that you know the difference.  For example, don't talk about 'fills' or 'fill rates' - those aren't internal terms.  Instead, talk about 'hires'.  This indicates you know that corporate recruiting is less about meeting numbers and more about getting the right people.
2. Be focused
   Most organizations with strong recruiting functions - i.e. the kinds of organizations you'd most like to work as a corporate recruiter - are looking for recruiting specialists in specific areas most relevant to their business.  You'll have better success if you position yourself as an expert in one or two key areas.  (This is where a little research can go a long way:  If you can speak to the organization's most pressing recruitment challenges, you're sending a message that you understand how recruiting can deliver against the organization's business goals.)
   
   
3. Demonstrate you can work with internal clients
   A big factor in the success of any corporate recruiter is how well they work with 'internal clients'.  In other words, how well they work with managers from other departments when they engage the recruitment department to fill a role.  
   
   As an agency recruiter, it's important to have ready examples of working directly with line managers - especially managers outside of HR.  Evidence that you can successfully build long-term relationships with a variety of stakeholders, even if they know little or nothing about recruiting, is a good way to demonstrate you can make the transition from agency to corporate recruiting.
   
   
4. Gain experience with full-lifecycle recruiting 
   Most corporate recruiting is full-lifecycle, from identifying and articulating the opportunity, through to sourcing, making the offer, doing the paperwork, and even onboarding.  
   
   While you're working in an agency environment, try to work on a project that will allow you to manage full-lifecycle recruiting - including the administration!
   
   
5. Build relationships with candidates
   For 99% of organizations, building positive, long-term relationships with candidates is one of their Top 3 priorities.  And let's face it:  One of the reasons agency recruiters get a bad rep is the perception that agency recruiters only call candidates when they need them, don't follow up, and don't respond to applications.
   
   So you need to highlight your commitment to building candidate relationships.  Talk about candidates with whom you've kept in touch over time, before and after you've placed them; speak to the fact that your network thrives on the referrals you get as a result of long-term relationship-building; indicate that you've participated in industry events; point out your participation in relevant LinkedIn groups, etc.
   
   (One good example we heard recently from an agency recruiter in an interview for a corporate recruiting position:  "Since 2007, I have used autoresponder emails for my job postings, to ensure that every candidate who applies receives an immediate acknowledgment.  Every time I send a candidate to an interview, I call them to follow up within 24 hours.  I call or email every active candidate in my network at least once a month, and call or email the inactive ones at least once every 6 months."  
   Then she produced the Excel spreadsheet to prove it!
   
   And yes - she got the job.) 
   
    
6. Get some training in Behavioural Interviewing
   Being able to accurately, reliably assess candidates is crucial for corporate recruiters, so being able to demonstrate you understand and have experience with behavioural interviewing is one of the most important factors in making the switch from agency.
   
   Having some formal training in BBI is best, but if that's not possible, there are plenty of online resources to consult, and you could start using BBI techniques in your current interviews.  That demonstrates you know how important BBI is in a corporate recruiting setting.
   
   
7. Don't dwell on your sales skills
   As a full-desk agency recruiter, great sales skills are a big advantage.  In a corporate recruiting setting, they'll only make you look like the fast-talking, annoying Ari Gold type who confirms all their worst fears about agency recruiters.
   
   Go ahead and speak to your ability to deliver results - but focus on the results most relevant to organizations:  Improving quality of hire, reducing time-to-hire, and making recruiting budgets work more efficiently.



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Sunday May 23rd, 2010
Are you your workplace?

Seth Godin caught my attention with a post on how one's workplace affects behavior and personality:

Your boss and your job determine not only what you do all day, but what you learn and who you interact with. Where you work is what you market. Work in a high stress place and you're likely to become a highly stressed person, and your interactions will display that. Work for a narcissist and you'll develop into someone who's good at shining a light on someone else, not into someone who can lead. Work for someone who plays the fads and you'll discover that instead of building a steadily improving brand, you're jumping from one thing to another, enduring layoffs in-between gold rushes. Work for a bully and be prepared to be bullied.

Having survived a bad job or two myself, I know just what he means. (There's a reason I know why I need to avoid certain work environments: past positions can be excellent aversion therapy.)

Recruiters and hiring managers often speak of finding a candidate with the right "fit" for the role and company. Yet how many candidates seriously examine whether a given position will be good for them not only in terms of career advancement and personal goals, but their stress levels, personal interactions, and overall happiness? It can be hard think of such long-term things -- especially when in need of a job. But such considerations can make the difference between landing a job you survive and a job you love.

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Tuesday May 18th, 2010
The ROI of business cards for EVERYONE in your organization

If you're not giving all your employees - even the junior ones - their own business cards, you're missing out on a huge marketing opportunity.

This week I was speaking to the executive team of a smallish-but-growing company (50+ employees) in the professional services industry about their onboarding efforts.

Like many entrepreneurial companies of their size, they're a very lean organization and don't have big budgets for office supplies, printing, promotional items, etc.  One of their 'money-saving' policies is that junior employees do not receive business cards unless their role requires them to frequently interact with third parties (i.e. if they're in sales or recruiting).  In some roles - such as in the accounting department - even manager-level employees don't receive cards.

"They're not meeting people," the execs told me.  "We'll spend all that money on business cards and they won't get used.  We can't afford to throw money around like that."

If an employee isn't worth a $50 investment, you probably shouldn't have hired them in the first place

Guess what?  Once you've had a designer or print shop set up your first business card, changing the name/contact info takes about 5 minutes.  

And digital printing has come a long way in the past few years:  You can order beautiful, 4-colour business cards online for less than $50, including shipping.  

By not getting cards for new employees, the message you're really sending is:  "We don't think you're worth $50."  It's hard for a new hire to feel passionate and invested in your organization if the relationship starts off with that kind of subtext.

Every business card is a viral marketing opportunity

By now, most of us know that word-of-mouth is the #1 factor in business success.  

Ensuring that all employees - from the rah-rah sales team to the quietly productive finance department - are brand champions who speak often and enthusiastically about their workplace is especially important for smaller organizations with limited marketing budgets.

Giving them business cards is a great way to do that, especially for new, junior-level employees:  Remember getting your first business cards and how excited you were?  Remember how you were so proud of your new job - and your new cards - that you handed them out to everyone you knew?  And how your parents put them up on their fridge?

Suddenly, that $50 investment has bought you 25 buzz-building conversations, with 25 people who probably wouldn't otherwise know much about your company.  

(Plenty of advertisers are prepared to pay as much as $50 or $100 to trigger a single one-on-one word of mouth opportunity between friends/family colleagues.  So a cost of $2/conversation is an exceptional value.)

Not just for juniors or new hires, either

I don't care how senior you are or how long you've been with a company: Everyone gets a kick out of arriving in the morning to find a brand-new box of business cards, with their very own name on them, waiting on their desk.  It's like getting a hockey jersey or varsity jacket:  It makes you feel like you're a valuable member of the team.

The more you feel like part of the team, the more invested you are in the organization; the more invested you are, the more likely you are to talk about the organization to everyone you know.

Make it part of your onboarding process

Everyone has a network; not everyone is a natural networker. Everyone engages in word-of-mouth; not everyone realizes that they're engaging in 'viral marketing' when they tell their sister they love the new Gain laundry detergent.

That doesn't mean they can't use business cards as a marketing or recruiting tool - you just have to give them some tips as to how.

You're already giving new employees various materials and documents as part of their onboarding sessions; it's easy to add a paragraph or two about business cards and how you'd like employees to use them.

Make it fun - not forced

You'll have better success getting people to use their cards as marketing tools if you make it a fun, team-spirit-type game rather than another 'mandatory duty' to add to their list.  

Provide a 'cheat sheet' with every box of cards, with a tongue-in-cheek headline like "Go ahead, talk about us behind our backs!" and an overview of your buzz-building philosophy ("We love working here, and know you will, too - so of course you'll want to tell everyone you know about all the great stuff you're doing!").

Then add some specific examples of good business card-sharing opportunities:

• When you're out for dinner with friends and they ask about your new job
• When your family asks for your new work contact details
• Whenever anyone asks for your email address
• Whenever you meet someone who you think might be a good potential employee
• When you're dropping off your drycleaning, prescriptions, etc. - any time you need to give someone your name and contact info
• When there's a fishbowl saying "Enter your business card for a chance to win a free dinner" beside the counter (just make sure the logo is clearly visible!)
• When you participate in training courses or other professional events
• When you meet with suppliers or potential suppliers

Turn it into a contest

Why not run a contest to see who can come up with the most creative opportunities to share their business cards?  It's a good opportunity to educate your employees about why they're important, and it facilitates even more conversations!

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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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