Are Recruiters worth the money?

These Days, Recruiters Are Worth the Money

When it comes to sourcing the right interview candidates, I've never been keen to use recruiters. 

But I recently changed my mind.

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My company, Metal Mafia, has an excellent candidate screening process, a super training program, and a very successful team of employees to show for it.  But hiring has always been a difficult task for me because each time I get ready to hire, it takes me forever to find the right type of candidates to even get the screening process started.
Despite the fact that I carefully consider where to advertise for candidates--I try to maximize the search dollars and get a good mix of potential applicants--it always takes me a long time to find people suited well to the company, and therefore, even worth interviewing.
I've tried everything from placing ads on large job boards like Monster.com, to smaller specialized job boards that cater to sales hires or fashion jobs, to local university boards where I can post for free (or close to it). Each time, I experience the same slow crawl toward finally finding the right person. It has taken me up to five months to find the right kind of hire in the past. So in November when I decided I needed to think about hiring for the new year, I was not optimistic.
For me, recruiters have traditionally been out of the question because I figured they would be a waste of time and never be as good at sending me the right people for the job as I would be in reviewing resumes myself. They're also too expensive for my small budget. But as I got ready to place my job ads again, one of my senior staff members came to me and offered me the name of a fashion recruiter she knew and thought could help. I was skeptical, but I called her anyway, figuring listening would cost me nothing.
The recruiter convinced me she would do a thorough job, but I still hesitated because of the price. I do not have large sums of money to devote to the hiring process, and by my calculations, when all was said and done, using the recruiter was going to cost me three times as much as my usual techniques. On the other hand, the recruiter would only charge me if she found someone I decided to hire, which meant I was risking nothing, and could always come back to my original methods. I bit the bullet and signed up, reminding myself "nothing ventured, nothing gained."
The recruiter sent me the resumes of 10 entry-level candidates. I screened six by phone, met three in person, and found the right hire--all in a month. The cost suddenly became much less, because I saved so much time in the process, and because I got a pool of applicants who were decidedly better to choose from than in the past. Even more interesting, perhaps, was an insight the right candidate shared with me during the interview process. When I asked why she had chosen to work with a recruiter rather than post on job boards, she said "because recruiters make sure your resume gets seen, while submitting via the Internet is like sending your resume into oblivion."
If most people these days are thinking like my new hire, the recruiters will clearly have the best selection of candidates every time. Looks like I've got an essential new hiring strategy.

TIME KILLS ALL DEALS!

How Slow Employers Lose Great Talent

When I was a kid, my friends and I would often say to each other, “If you snooze, you loose.” When I finally entered the working world, I heard the grown-up version of this mantra, “Time Kills Deals”. Both of these sayings essentially mean the same thing: With every minute that elapses – after you’ve been presented with an opportunity that you don’t take – the chances become less likely that you’ll ever get it.
I’m here to tell you, the recruiting and hiring process is no different.
So if you accept that the hardest to find, or the most talented candidates are getting the lion’s share of the interviews – how likely is it that these talented candidates are going to patiently wade through your slow hiring process? Don’t kid yourself, it isn’t likely.
Even those candidates who are employed have to be very judicious about the time they take off from work to go on interviews – so they have little patience for a long, drawn out hiring process.
So, how do the very best employers snag the top candidates? Well, they act decisively. They understand that top talent is a highly perishable resource. They don’t skip steps, cut corners or accept sub-par talent – they just compress the hiring process. Even though plenty of people are out of work today, the most successful companies understand what it takes to land rare, top-notch talent – and, believe me, it isn’t a slow, bureaucratic process.
Here is what recruiters experience throughout the year –
The client calls and explains that they need to fill an open position “ASAP”. So, the recruiter rallies the troops and begins a blitzkrieg of activity to quickly uncover the very best candidates and then “sell” the most qualified prospects on the opportunity. Within days, the recruiter presents a slate of candidates to the client. A week later the client gets sidetracked with other priorities. Another week goes by and the candidates are getting a bit irritated and the client is just starting the process of pulling together the cast of folks who are going to meet the candidates. By the end of the third week the recruiter finally gets the approval to start scheduling interviews – but by then some of the best candidates have already accepted offers from other employers. As each day goes by, more and more of the very best candidates are lost.
Now consider a survey I recently read: According to a national poll, 61% of all U.S. households are living paycheck to paycheck and 30% of all households earning over $100,000 per year are in the same position. And, even when you consider the number of families who have three to six month emergency funds, you learn quickly that few families are prepared to weather a long job search.
So, is it any wonder that great job candidates, who have been out of work for a couple months or more, are unwilling to put up with a slow hiring process?
You might ask, as an employer, “What can our company do about it?” Well, first of all, consider that your survival in the marketplace is directly tied to hiring BETTER candidates than your competitors. Start taking the hiring process far more seriously by killing your bureaucratic processes and understanding that reducing time-to-hire can often dramatically increase talent quality – as well as reduce opportunity cost and customer service issues caused by long-term vacant positions.
Before you get the wrong idea, I am NOT suggesting you rush into decisions.
What I am suggesting is that you move through your recruiting and hiring process as rapidly as possible – without violating your due diligence process. You need a proven and thorough selection process, but that doesn’t mean it needs to take a long time.
It’s time to update the old adage, “Hire Slow and Fire Fast” to – “Hire Fast and Fire Fast”.
Lastly, the most important advice I can give any employer: You should be actively talking to prospective candidates – throughout the year, even when you don’t have an open position.
It’s highly unlikely that the very best talent will be actively looking for a position during the same, small window of time when you absolutely have to fill an open position. That’s why the best managers are looking for talent – every waking minute.
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SEVEN WAYS SLOW JOB SEEKERS LOSE GREAT JOBS
1.) After they lose a position, they lick their wounds and/or use the front end of their severance as a vacation – and don’t immediately begin their job search. During this delay, several windows of opportunity come and go.
2.) After they determine they want and need to change positions, while currently employed, they don’t immediately begin their job search – and instead, wait until they are miserable. During this delay, several windows of opportunity come and go.
3.) They don’t respond to employer phone calls or emails within the same day.
4.) They don’t rearrange their schedules to quickly get in front of employers who show interest in interviewing them.
5.) They don’t complete/submit paperwork or provide additional information in a timely fashion (e.g. applications, references, compensation history, work samples…).
6.) They are slow to tell the employer that they are sincerely interested in the position.
7.) They don’t accept the position within the time prescribed by the employer.