Rule 1: Get excited about your position.
Before you sell a candidate on a position, sell yourself on it. A candidate will never be more enthusiastic about the position than you are. Spend some time finding out what the positives are in the position and the type of candidate that would match best for it.
Rule 2: Make sure you have a good match.
If you're working too hard to close a candidate then take a step back and ask if this is a good match.
If you feel it's not a good match, spend your time working to find a better one.
If you feel it is a good match, work to express this to the candidate.
If you're not sure if it's a good match, you haven't qualified the candidate or position well enough, work to re-qualify.
Rule 3: Pre-Close a candidate. There should be open, direct communication before an offer is presented. You should have a clear idea of what the candidate is willing to accept. Example: According to our previous conversations, if we were able to get you an offer at the responsibilities, title and compensation we discussed are you ready to accept?
If yes, you've done your job.
If no, get things nailed down before you go any further. Candidates should have a paper offer letter after they verbally accept and before they give notice to their current employer, they may also want to clarify terms of employment/benefits. There are 2 other reasons candidates may ask for written offer letters:
1)They ask for the offer letter to buy time while shopping around for other offers.
2)They are using the offer letter as leverage to get a raise from their current employer.
If you feel a candidate is asking for one of the less savory reasons, then you should hold off until the candidate is ready. A job offer is active, and can not be made to another candidate, until a candidate accepts, declines, or it expires. Putting an offer out with little or no guarantee of acceptance can severely impact your time to fill the vacancy.
Fred Dimyan
Fred@YourLeap.com
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
RPO: Recruitment Puzzle Outsourcing?
Hype: When it comes to sourcing candidates, RPO's often tell you how complicated and puzzling it is to find the right candidates, and then they tell you how they can offer you the best solution. They over complicate a simple problem, and then they help you solve it. RPO's promise you the best tools and usually claim they are proprietary to just them.
Reality: The most powerful sourcing tool is universally accessible. The Internet is the most powerful, transforming tool recruiting has ever experienced. There are over 100 million resumes on the Internet and that doesn't factor the even larger amount of candidates who use the Internet for their job search but don't post their resumes. Most companies don't realize the true power of the Internet because there are simply too many resources and too many choices. Companies have to balance the job boards with the time they have to navigate through them. Ideally a company should load both sides of the scale, but those with limited recruiting budgets are constrained.
Organizations who don't have all the pieces or enough time to put the pieces together, look to outsource to companies who already have the resources in place. Access to resumes and postings on the Internet is a commodity. Companies should look for maximize exposure to this commodity, while minimizing their cost. Selecting and managing an RPO, with all the cost and risk involved, often turns out to be a more expensive, more layered way to access that commodity. RPO clients are recognizing this, in fact two of the largest RPO's, Hudson and Spherion have reported decreased revenues in their most recent earnings and acknowledged that some of their clients are taking recruiting back in house.
What companies really need is a time and cost effective way to maximize their access to all the resumes on the Internet without giving up control of the process or adding risk. Given the proper pieces and the proper time, most recruiting departments can put the puzzle together themselves.
YourLeap, based in Stamford, CT has a unique approach to RPO. YourLeap gives you whats most valuable to you without all the fluff. They don't claim to be more valuable than the job boards, they feel that if boards were used effectively, many companies wouldn't need to outsource any of the recruiting process. YourLeap industry experts post your position and search daily on all the major boards and hundreds of niche boards. The results are easy to access by logging in to YourLeap.com and viewing the pre-sorted responses from all the major job boards, as well as the hundreds of niche boards they post to. YourLeap provides this to you in an easily scalable and cost effective way.
Reality: The most powerful sourcing tool is universally accessible. The Internet is the most powerful, transforming tool recruiting has ever experienced. There are over 100 million resumes on the Internet and that doesn't factor the even larger amount of candidates who use the Internet for their job search but don't post their resumes. Most companies don't realize the true power of the Internet because there are simply too many resources and too many choices. Companies have to balance the job boards with the time they have to navigate through them. Ideally a company should load both sides of the scale, but those with limited recruiting budgets are constrained.
Organizations who don't have all the pieces or enough time to put the pieces together, look to outsource to companies who already have the resources in place. Access to resumes and postings on the Internet is a commodity. Companies should look for maximize exposure to this commodity, while minimizing their cost. Selecting and managing an RPO, with all the cost and risk involved, often turns out to be a more expensive, more layered way to access that commodity. RPO clients are recognizing this, in fact two of the largest RPO's, Hudson and Spherion have reported decreased revenues in their most recent earnings and acknowledged that some of their clients are taking recruiting back in house.
What companies really need is a time and cost effective way to maximize their access to all the resumes on the Internet without giving up control of the process or adding risk. Given the proper pieces and the proper time, most recruiting departments can put the puzzle together themselves.
YourLeap, based in Stamford, CT has a unique approach to RPO. YourLeap gives you whats most valuable to you without all the fluff. They don't claim to be more valuable than the job boards, they feel that if boards were used effectively, many companies wouldn't need to outsource any of the recruiting process. YourLeap industry experts post your position and search daily on all the major boards and hundreds of niche boards. The results are easy to access by logging in to YourLeap.com and viewing the pre-sorted responses from all the major job boards, as well as the hundreds of niche boards they post to. YourLeap provides this to you in an easily scalable and cost effective way.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Passive Candidates, an Oxymoron?
We all know what active candidates are, they have their resume prepared, they are on the major job boards and they are actively applying to jobs. What is a passive candidate? The common definition is that passive candidates are not actively looking and they have to be pursued.
Are candidates open to job inquiries on Linkedin.com, and other networking sites active or passive? The transition from passive to active is a click, literally.
Once a candidate prepares their resume, dusts off an old one, or reactivates it on a job board, they are now officially considered active. The second a candidate becomes active, he or she is a couple clicks away from accessing millions of opportunities on the Internet.
There is a perception that passive candidates are of higher value than active candidates. Doesn't that directly conflict with the belief that top candidates get multiple offers and choose among them? How could a candidate get multiple offers without sending their resume out multiple times? The reality is that both passive and active candidates are valuable. Instead, there should be two categories: Active and Ultra-Active. Ultra- Active candidates are on every job board and apply to many jobs they are not qualified for and they remain on job boards for a longer length of time.
Candidates that are too passive may also raise a flag. Being passive is not a good trait as an employee, why should it be a good trait as a candidate? After all, marketing yourself and maximizing your worth is a trait of motivated individuals. Companies should focus instead on casting a wider net, rather than narrowing the net to a specific set of candidates.
YourLeap, based in Stamford, CT helps companies cast the widest net possible to maximize their chances of attracting the best candidates, passive or not.
Are candidates open to job inquiries on Linkedin.com, and other networking sites active or passive? The transition from passive to active is a click, literally.
Once a candidate prepares their resume, dusts off an old one, or reactivates it on a job board, they are now officially considered active. The second a candidate becomes active, he or she is a couple clicks away from accessing millions of opportunities on the Internet.
There is a perception that passive candidates are of higher value than active candidates. Doesn't that directly conflict with the belief that top candidates get multiple offers and choose among them? How could a candidate get multiple offers without sending their resume out multiple times? The reality is that both passive and active candidates are valuable. Instead, there should be two categories: Active and Ultra-Active. Ultra- Active candidates are on every job board and apply to many jobs they are not qualified for and they remain on job boards for a longer length of time.
Candidates that are too passive may also raise a flag. Being passive is not a good trait as an employee, why should it be a good trait as a candidate? After all, marketing yourself and maximizing your worth is a trait of motivated individuals. Companies should focus instead on casting a wider net, rather than narrowing the net to a specific set of candidates.
YourLeap, based in Stamford, CT helps companies cast the widest net possible to maximize their chances of attracting the best candidates, passive or not.
Metrics, Statistics and Marketing
Monster claims they have over 25 million resumes, but Monster allows you to post different versions of your resume. So how many are unique and how old are they? CareerBuilder claims they have more page views than any other job board. Is that because more results are returned since they default at a 20 mile radius search vs. Monster's 15 mile default?
Recruitment Process Outsourcers claim they decrease your cost and time to hire. I have heard statistics as absurd as reducing average time to hire to 8 days. Can any RPO free up hiring manager schedules, remove vacations, and get all the decision makers together to decide? All while getting top talent, that is usually employed and busy, free to quickly interview and then decide within days?
Even more absurd: the notion that a RPO's proprietary database produces better results than all the major job boards. Just one major board, Monster.com had revenue of $1.4 billion last year. According to Gartner, the entire RPO industry, including all it's players are only a $1.3 billion market. If any single RPO's had a database more valuable than Monster alone, they would be better served getting in to the job board business.
There is a lot that companies have to filter through when deciding on RPO. Companies ask what resources can a RPO give you that they can't get themselves at some price? And is that price worth the risk?
YourLeap, based in Stamford, CT has a unique approach to RPO. YourLeap gives you whats most valuable to you without all the fluff. They don't claim to be more valuable than the job boards, they feel that if boards were used effectively, many companies wouldn't need to outsource any of the recruiting process. YourLeap industry experts post your position and search daily on all the major boards and hundreds of niche boards. The results are easy to access by logging in to YourLeap.com and viewing the pre-sorted responses from all the major job boards, as well as the hundreds of niche boards they post to. YourLeap provides this to you in an easily scalable and cost effective way.
Recruitment Process Outsourcers claim they decrease your cost and time to hire. I have heard statistics as absurd as reducing average time to hire to 8 days. Can any RPO free up hiring manager schedules, remove vacations, and get all the decision makers together to decide? All while getting top talent, that is usually employed and busy, free to quickly interview and then decide within days?
Even more absurd: the notion that a RPO's proprietary database produces better results than all the major job boards. Just one major board, Monster.com had revenue of $1.4 billion last year. According to Gartner, the entire RPO industry, including all it's players are only a $1.3 billion market. If any single RPO's had a database more valuable than Monster alone, they would be better served getting in to the job board business.
There is a lot that companies have to filter through when deciding on RPO. Companies ask what resources can a RPO give you that they can't get themselves at some price? And is that price worth the risk?
YourLeap, based in Stamford, CT has a unique approach to RPO. YourLeap gives you whats most valuable to you without all the fluff. They don't claim to be more valuable than the job boards, they feel that if boards were used effectively, many companies wouldn't need to outsource any of the recruiting process. YourLeap industry experts post your position and search daily on all the major boards and hundreds of niche boards. The results are easy to access by logging in to YourLeap.com and viewing the pre-sorted responses from all the major job boards, as well as the hundreds of niche boards they post to. YourLeap provides this to you in an easily scalable and cost effective way.
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