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One of the more painful things for me to hear are recruiters discussing how “bad” their clients are behaving these days.  I know hiring managers aren’t angels and I’ve experienced plenty head-banging frustration.  Dissing clients only reinforces the idea that I don’t need to change and rarely does it help. 

You want a better client?  Be a better recruiter, change your approach.  Sounds too easy?  No, it’s simple.  The hard part is the answering the question of will you and I be willing to change.   Chris Brogan wrote a great email on What your boss needs most from you.  Great stuff and, in that vein, here are my four recruiter visa vis client starter list:

1. Don’t confuse hard work with business deliverables:  Many recruiters say their calendars are sooo full of resume filtering, phone screens, posting/networking efforts and in-person interviews.  None of this matters to a client.  Results, as in viable candidates a hiring manager can interview do.  Knowing your metrics will help you calibrate your effort to maximize your effect.
2. Know your craft:  By this, I don’t mean what your specific hiring process is.  I’m referencing to how you are going identify talent worthy of your client hiring.  If you show them a process, a client isn’t impressed.  Any recruiter can show them a multi-step hiring solution.  This only leads you to “more of the same” in the effort category.  Not good.   Show them a game plan of hiring their Linux System Administrator (because you’ve done it before) matched to a time line – now you’re talking.  This is a project perspective, not a process mindset.  I’ve covered this in other posts, there is a huge difference.
3. Know your options, create new ones:  If you are stuck on a recruiting project, bring the challenge to the client (or your manager) with two or more possible solutions and their cost/implications.  Nothing makes you look helpless and not resourceful than a shrug or “I don’t know what else to do”.  Maybe the marketplace isn’t full of Flash engineers for your full-time opening.  Scout out a temporary staffing solution, an external agency (yes, I said it) or even a 1099.  “That’s not my area…” some might say.  It should be now – learn it.  Be a consultant to your client.
4. Know your business: This goes well beyond a marketing slogan.  This is about you being able to connect the dots between the significance of the opening you are working on to the client’s engineering team product launch timeline to the company’s position in the industry to the candidate that is on the phone with you and their next career move.  If you have candidates asking you, “So what is your role is in the company?” just smile.  You are viewed as a business person first and your client will greatly appreciate it.

 
This is a start and I’m sure there are more – what would your client add?  Let’s raise the bar.

Photo by Saquan Stimpson/monstershaq2000

The prior post in this series, Applied Recruiting Project Management, covered why recruiting projects “go wrong”. When projects “go wrong”, you (as a recruiter) goes into recovery or course-correction mode. However, the price of lost time, energy – perhaps even a candidate or two has already been exacted. Here is how to proactively address those dangers:

Invest time up front – Most recruiters and hiring managers will say, “I don’t have time for this, I need to be recruiting!” My response is that if the need to hire is so important; take the time to do it correctly, thoroughly, up front.  The less up front time investment is made, the longer the recruiting project and delay in hiring. If necessary, formalize this “prep time”, build it into your recruiting timeline. Not sure where to start? Try this.

Set expectations – Usually, recruiters are eager to please the hiring manager and fail to articulate who does what and when (define roles). This makes success a moving target and sets up both sides for frustration. Add to that the invisible timer counting down to possible failure and disappointment. To partner with a client, know what they want. Here is some insight.

Document – Some call them service level agreements (SLAs), at my company we call them “project briefs”. Either way there is more information you need to capture than a typical ATS offers. Documentation helps organize your search and can be a tool in negotiating resources or changes downstream. Of course this requires proper introduction to your clients so that they understand the value (which starts with you being clear on the value first). Some resources to check out:

• Email me (see right nav) for a copy of the project brief we use.  We cover: interview team composition, locations to source talent, marketing verbiage for public consumption, and expectations for (speed) responsiveness.
• Lou Adler
• David Szarzy

Address the Triple Threat – In basketball this is the position that your opponent must be prepared to address. With respect to your recruiting project, it is something you need to be prepared to address with your hiring manager. In this case, the Triple Threat is time, budget and scope:

• Time – When does your client need to have this position filled? Yes, an actual date that has a consequence tied to it (i.e. slip in product delivery, sales numbers not reached etc.). Is this data realistic in light of vacations, product launches or attending a conference by your client or interview team members? Does this date account for all the major phases in selecting a candidate and their transitioning from their current job to the new one? Do you have enough time to source candidates? Have there been prior searches for this skill set or the hiring manager before that support this date?
• Budget – How much money is set aside for this role? Do you have any historical data on costs? Beyond the base pay, have you nailed down the variable pieces: stock, sign-on, MBO-based, anniversary, or spot bonuses? What about relocation and/or immigration needs? Then there is the recruiting activities themselves to factor in: purchasing research, attending events, posting and publishing materials and advertising. What will it take to find the type of talent you seek in this current market?
• Scope – From a target perspective, most good hiring managers write a description that is a bull’s eye. There are likely problems with this: 1) It unduly misses other talent that could be acceptable and 2) Listed skills or experience may not be prioritized (important versus critical). Discuss the “range of tolerance” for the recruiting project – i.e. 5 years of ABAP experience required or will 4 years do if the person is “smart”?
• In discussing the Triple Threat, the salient point is that you and the hiring manager can control two out of the three items, but never three out of three. Which two will it be? Don’t start the recruiting project until you have agreement.

Agree to a Plan “B” – You have a recruiting plan, but do you have a contingency plan?  I’ll explore this topic in a future full post.

As a recruiter, your peers in other disciplines use these principles and tactics. When employing project management skills in your recruiting projects, said peers will relate better to what you and be impressed with the results. Happy project managing! 8~)

Photo by Cappelmeister

Prior posts in series:
• Part 1: Why recruiters should look at project management
• Part 2: How another discipline uses project management

The bottom line: most recruiting focuses on the quick start of a search. There isn’t sufficient weight given to the front end, the set up. Project management, as an approach to recruiting, helps balance thing for a resulting better search.

Where does project management fit into recruiting? At the individual requisition-level, multiple requisitions (where the skill sets being sought are similar or identical across) and any research efforts corresponding to the first two items. There is a fit because two essential pieces of PM are met. First, there is a defined start, stop. In recruiting this is the approval of requisition and an accepted offer. Second, there is a product as a result. In recruiting this is the candidate(s) hired.

Kevin Wheeler has an annual what-would-you-do scenario. There are a lot of comments, because there are a lot of experiences of recruiting projects going wrong. Why do things go bad? At a high level, for the corporate recruiter, there are three important principles:

1. No agreement on the project’s goal(s). Recruiting, like project management, involves multiple parties. Any disconnect between two parties can be problematic: recruiter, hiring manager, executives, and interview team members. The negative effects are seen in confusing feedback, the lack of referrals, lack of enthusiasm for the search and/or the inability to settle on a final candidate. Remember, the requisition if a financial control lever, not a consensus builder.
2. No control over the scope of the project. If you simply take the req and start recruiting to it, you are: a) a short order cook and b) probably frustrated and tired. Ready to change the dynamic? Who is the expert for the talent you seek? Most would say: the hiring manager. Wrong. The hiring manager is the expert in the work that needs to be done , not in finding the talent. It should be you, the recruiter. If it isn’t, I would submit that you should get an external vendor to help (assuming the talent needed is critical). This applies not just to the skill set, but the tactics and budget required getting said skills sets.
3. Lack of management support. Just because the hiring manager opens the requisition and wants a hire, doesn’t mean there is support within a department. Senior management might have given the ok for the headcount, but are they committed to getting the project done, making the hire, and committed to the cost? Just because the hiring manager (even a VP) has influence in his/her own department, it doesn’t mean there is support across the organization.

Of course, if you’re a vendor, you have an additional layer of communication to see/hear through. One way a 3rd party recruiter can mitigate this is by specialization. Bringing depth to your client gives you respect and influence in the relationship. Focus can’t just be in geography, but must also include skill set(s) and/or industry(ies).

The next post in this series will be about how you can successfully address these areas. 8~)

Photo by paddymurphy