As a Talent Sourcer at People First Recruiting I’m lucky to work with a team of incredibly talented individuals.  Oddly enough, we’re all very different yet we fit together like a beautifully crafted puzzle.  I like to think of the work I do in a similar way.  When I’m tasked with researching the talent landscape on behalf of a client, each piece of information I’m able to gather is like a piece of a puzzle, waiting to be solved.  Once the information is gathered, the fun of solving the puzzle begins and typically involves some good old fashioned teamwork. 

Over the past three years, I’ve been working on a puzzle of a different kind, artistically speaking.  As a proud Winnipeg resident I’d like to announce a newly unveiled mosaic mural located on the north wall of the Red Road Lodge at Logan and Main.  Working together with a team of talented and artistic individuals, and with the help of many community members, this mural was lovingly created over the span of three years. 

 

Our group was comprised of a group of core artists, led by Annie Bergen and mentored by local tile mosaic artist Ursula Neufeld.  Most of the materials used were donated by local business people and the rest were purchased with funding we received from Neighborhoods Alive, Take Pride Winnipeg! and the Manitoba Arts Council.

Many lessons were learned during the planning and creation of this mural.  New acquaintances were made and lifelong friendships developed.  But most importantly the value of teamwork was clearly demonstrated and its power felt.  Without the many people who donated their time, many of it evenings and weekends, the mural may never have been finished.  What we started out to accomplish in the beginning, even if it was overly optimistic of us, was realized and the result is a beautiful community mural which Winnipeggers can take pride in.  I invite you to stop by and visit the mural yourself when you have the chance.

I personally found a great love for the way the tiles seemed to find their way back to one another, ultimately creating a beautiful mosaic of color and form.  Sifting through the various materials we had collected to find just the right complement of color and texture was like food for my soul.  It’s similar to a gigantic puzzle really, where you’re trying to find the pieces that fit best together.  Tile mosaic has become one of my favorite mediums as an artist and I believe in a way it further kindled the passion I have for the work I do at People First.

As I mentioned earlier, as a Talent Sourcer at People First I work as part of a team to identify talent on behalf of our clients.  This often involves creative thinking and problem solving, much like the fitting together of tile mosaic pieces on the mural.  There is nothing more gratifying than the successful completion of a project, whether the result is a person you identified through research offered a job by our client or a beautiful community mural.  With the strength of a team behind you, anything is possible.

Written by Pamela Habing - Talent Sourcer for People First Recruiting

It's Halloween and what better way to celebrate the ghoulish than turning our recruiting expertise towards that hard-to-find but oh-so-sought-after skill set of zombie hunting?

Click on the position profile below to read through our newest, spookiest recruitment initiative yet.

 

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

I am still very surprised to come across people tasked with hiring and recruiting who have not caught on to how beneficial the social media world is to recruit talent from and to promote a company brand through.  We have been using LinkedIn for the last 6 years and have been more active in other social media platforms for about a year and a half now and I can comfortably say we are realizing our return on investment.

This next comment will come as no surprise to many of the companies that I have had the opportunity to work with – traditional recruitment methods no longer work.  On their own. 

Yes, paper advertising still has its place, as do online job boards, but if you are not using tools liked LinkedIn then you are missing out on a very affordable and highly effective method of social recruitment.

How do I define social recruitment?  It is many things.  It’s candidate attraction, it’s brand awareness and it’s listening.  Social recruiting isn’t just about reaching out to candidates and recruiting them.  It’s where you can literally spend about an hour a day promoting why your organization is a great place to work or to promote the new job opportunities you have.  The reality is social recruiting takes patience and effort and is not an immediate result type investment.  It takes time to build awareness in the online social world but eventually you will start to see more people visiting your web or career site, or reaching out to you and asking questions.

Another fabulous tool in our social recruiting arsenal, (of which there really is an art to) is the position job profiles – the ones you write up and publish to the world.  When we create a job profile for our clients, we tell them that this is our attraction tool.  It is the marketing piece we use to excite candidates about that amazing career opportunity. It’s not enough to get them to stop for just a second to click open that document and read it.  They need to understand what’s in it for them, they need to get excited about the role and so if you can get as clear and creative as possible in your job profiles, then you will have a better chance at attracting the right type of candidates. 

The job profile serves another purpose though. Think of how you may go about purchasing a new appliance or finding that four star hotel for your next vacation.  Many of us will go right to the internet and enter a string of words, perhaps like this:  ’I want a four star hotel in Barbados’.  What comes up?  A set of fine tuned results.  Now translate that to a candidate searching for a new job.  They will do the same thing when it comes to job hunting online. ’HR Manager jobs in Winnipeg’ might be the words they use.  The more relevant keywords you have in your job profile and the more places online that you have it posted, the more likely that profile will show up in their search results.  A well written job profile is absolutely essential to a well executed recruitment.  Again, it isn’t enough to post a job to a job board with a paragraph that simply says, ‘Looking for a new HR Manager’ and then follow it up with terminology that is only specific to your business.  If someone isn’t familiar with your business, they certainly won’t be familiar with your terminology.  Think about the candidate and put yourself in their shoes.

Social Recruiting is more than just using social media to find candidates, it is about showing why a candidate should work for you in the first place.  Why you are different.  I am not claiming for a second that social media in itself is the end all and be all of recruiting nor have we, ourselves mastered the techniques of recruiting or the art of job profiles.  It is a learning process every moment.  But a couple years ago, after much consideration and discussion, we took the leap into putting our time into social media and thought it was either going to be successful or not.  The results are paying off. 

Now I will finish with some shameless self promotion. On October 23rd and 24th we will be at Connect 2012, The Degree of Difference conference held by the Human Resource Management Association of Manitoba (HRMAM).  It is a two day conference where we have been invited to discuss and share with the members and guests our experience with social recruiting; the ups, the downs and the how to’s.  If you are going to be attending, we would love to share more with you so stop by The Social Recruiting Lounge (booth 36) in the exhibit hall and let’s talk!

And if you can’t be there then talk to us through Twitter with the hashtag #HRConnect2012.

 

I previously wrote a blog on The Pros and Cons of Contingency Recruitment and even though we are an exclusivity recruitment firm, I know many companies do prefer to work with multiple recruitment firms. The purpose of that post was to show the benefits and potential challenges of contingency recruitment from my perspective.

I am going to conclude, for now, my posts on fees by shedding some light on exclusive, retained and retingent fees or as some call it, container fees.  Personally I don't care for the words container or retingent.  Here at People First we just call them engagement fees.

Why a recruiter promotes one fee contract over another is normally based on the complexity of the search and risk management.  We ask ourselves the following questions: 

Complexity of the recruitment:

• Is the role executive or a hard to find, scarce skill set?
• Is it a local, national or international search?
• Is the role in a specialized industry?
• Will the search process need to be changed or expanded due to the nature of the role? 

Risk Management:

• Has this position been vacant for a long time?
• Could there be challenges identifying candidates because of the total compensation?
• Is the scope of the role so narrow that it may take much longer to bring the search to a successful conclusion?
• What is the perception of the company in the marketplace?

As I attempt to provide definitions behind the exclusive and engagement fee options please keep in mind that every recruitment firm will structure them differently.

Exclusive Contingent:

• Typically this contract is promoted when the search is more junior in nature and the role can be filled locally.
• The company agrees to work with the recruiter exclusively and will not hire others.
• The company can continue to search for a candidate on their own and hire their candidate if preferred.
• Fees are charged only if the company hires the recruiter’s candidate.

Engagement and Retained Fees:

• These fees are almost always for executive level, professional and complex recruitments.  Essentially, recruitments that are potentially longer in duration due to the complexity.
• The fees are structured in installments with an installment being billed immediately upon starting the recruitment.
• The installments continue in stages either a) at the end of the recruitment or b) two additional installments during the recruitment.

There are of course many points to be considered when it comes to recruitment fees, these are only a few examples. In the end the recruiter must be completely confident they can fill the position and the company must trust that the recruiter has the experience and capabilities to find the best candidate.  It's always in your best interest to ask questions surrounding recruiting fees.

Last week I was having lunch with a long term client and the topic of recruiter ethics came up.  More specifically it was the "rules" surrounding placement of a candidate and headhunting.  (Headhunting is a recruiting term and is generally defined as proactively contacting candidates who are employed in another company.) 

Not surprisingly this is a subject that comes up frequently.

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Sheryl Smolkin who had come across our whitepaper on Maximizing Your Recruiter Relationship.  She was writing an article for The Toronto Star about working with recruiters. She asked me a question about soliciting placed employees for future recruitments and was citing examples of how this may occur.  It was her article on working with recruiters which prompted me to write more about this subject.

This is a difficult and sensitive issue so I am going to do my best to provide some clarity to this topic with the following considerations:

• Most Recruitment and Executive Search firms should have a "no solicit” or “hands off" policy. It generally means once a candidate is placed in ABC Company by the recruiter, there will be no further direct solicitation of employees from ABC Company, including the placed candidate. 
• The criteria, so to speak, for becoming a no solicit client will vary greatly from one recruiting firm to the next.  What generally ensures you are on their no solicit list is that you are a company who has paid for their recruitment services.
• The length of time you are a 'no solicit' client is where it starts to get a little grey depending on the recruitment firm.  For example, one year ago you may have hired a full time candidate through a recruiting firm but their no solicit policy may only be for six months in length.  If you haven't used their recruiting services since that placement one year ago, then you may no longer be on their no solicit list.
• If you work with a recruiting firm who does temporary placements on your behalf, their policy may apply to permanent placements only.

What is most important is to understand what a recruiter's no solicit policy actually is. For us it means we will not intentionally pursue employees of our clients for the purpose of engaging them in other employment opportunities.  In terms of placed candidates, same ethical rules and principles apply.  This however does not preclude recruiters from working with potential candidates of their clients completely.  An example is if a candidate that happens to be an employee of Client A solicits a recruiter or applies for a job ad directly. 

This sensitive issue is not only about company policy or industry protocol it is primarily about personal and business ethics to both the company and the candidate. In the end the recruiter knows if they have crossed a line and that the results will be costly; personally or professionally.

My best advice is to get clarity at the beginning of any recruiting partnership.  Ask your recruiter about their no solicit policy and their personal view on solicitation of candidates.

We Recruiters really want to know one thing when it comes to candidates: “Are you the ideal candidate for our client?”  However the answer isn’t a simple yes or no as there are many layers that Recruiters consider.

• Do you have the right skill set and education that is necessary for the role?
• Do you come from a similar industry to that of our client?
• What type of environment are you going to thrive in? (After all, we do want you to succeed!)
• Are you motivated for a new career for the right reasons?  (Hint: money shouldn’t be the first one because it takes more than money to support your success).
• And finally, are you excited about the opportunity?

Why do you need to consider these questions?  Because it will save you and your Recruiter a whole lot of time and energy.  You are the only one who knows yourself well enough to know whether an opportunity is the right one for you.  Is it in an industry you love or always wanted to try and work in?  Is it a role that intrigues you, excites you and captivates you?  Is it with a company that you admire or that you heard has an excellent culture? 

It is one thing to hear us out about the newest Marketing Manager role or that sought after Web Developer position, but it’s an entirely different thing to be honest about whether or not you truly have the skills (and desire) to knock it out of the park.  This is probably the biggest frustration for us Recruiters; candidates applying for a job that doesn’t match their experience or skill set in anyway.  So save you and your Recruiter time - know thyself. 

If you are on the job search and are considering working with a recruiter, download our whitepaper to get some more insight on the recruiter/candidate relationship.

Truth to be told, we are not a contingency recruiting firm so this will be one of the more difficult blogs for me to write.  However prior to joining People First I spent over 15 years as Branch Manager of a few national contingency recruiting firms and I was once a big believer of the model.

With contingency recruitment you are not required to pay a recruiter a placement fee until you have selected your ideal candidate – “payment is contingent upon hire of candidate”.  The other key differentiator with contingency verses retained (which I will discuss in a later blog) is that you are not working with the recruitment firm exclusively.  You can continue to search on your own and work with multiple firms if you so choose.

Here are my views of the pros and cons:

Pros

• You don't pay fees unless the recruiter refers you a hireable candidate
• You can still recruit for the position on your own
• The recruitment can be cancelled at anytime with no fees charged
• You can work with as many recruiting firms as you choose
• You could receive a lot of resumes - fast
• You should have a lot of candidates to interview
• You may be able to negotiate fees

Cons

• You will generally hire a candidate that is available to you quickly but they may not necessarily be the right 'fit', resulting in turnover
• The chance for disputes is higher since the placement will be awarded to the recruiting firm that presents the resume first – determining “who got there first” can be very awkward
• Because of the "who got there first" point, a thorough and targeted search specific to your company and the role is rarely, if ever, performed
• You could face some potentially embarrassing candidate situations if the candidates are working with multiple recruiting firms
• Managing the communication and referral processes of one, two or even more recruiting firms can be challenging
• It takes much longer to bring the recruitment to a successful conclusion

Earlier I wrote that I was a big believer in the contingency fee model. Why?  Because once upon a time I felt that a Recruiter does not add value until the right candidate is found.  I don’t believe that any longer.  My belief now is that finding the right candidate is the end result of a strong, mutually rewarding partnership and, the value we provide the client and candidate leading up to the hire. 

A couple months ago I wrote a whitepaper called “Maximizing Your Recruiter Relationship”.  It gives companies simple tips for hiring and working with a Recruiter to ensure a successful partnership.  From a company perspective, the big question always is “what's this recruitment going to cost me?” 

Over the next few weeks I will be blogging about recruiting fees.  First up though is a summary of what you, the company, should get from the recruiting fees you are charged. 

The job posting

• A job posting is a tool to advertise the job.  There is an art to writing an effective job profile especially once you consider search optimization and key words.  A Recruiter that understands online search techniques knows how to write job profiles so your ad can be found online.  Finally a well networked Recruiter has the contacts to send the job profile to, as well as a library list of free job boards, associations and industry networks. 

Finding candidates

• Print and online advertising alone does not guarantee you results.  That is the “let’s wait and see what we get” mentality.  Sometimes timing works out perfectly though and you hire a candidate from an ad, but did you get the best candidate?  Unless you conduct a search you really don’t have the answer to that.  Recruiters go to the market and search.  They will identify companies or like companies in your industry where candidates are performing similar jobs.  They will identify competitors.  They will look for industry thought leaders. 

Interviewing

• If the Recruiter isn’t certified in Behavioural Based Interviewing at the very least most will have training.  Behavioural Interviewing is based on the theory that the best predictor of future success is past performance.  This method of interviewing allows for a more structured and fair assessment process and it takes away the “gut feeling”.  Fit is also assessed.  Recruiters interview every single day so they are quite skilled at it. 

Reference checking

• A good reference checker knows how to listen for cues, they don’t accept just any answer.  They know to probe, to ask the individual for more information to get an honest reference.  It’s amazing how many companies don’t do references before hiring an employee.  This step in itself is worth the money.

Simply put you are paying a Recruiter to find a candidate, qualify a candidate and present a short list of candidates.  Stay tuned for more blog posts on exclusive, retained, contingency searches, guarantees, refunds, credits and so on.

We tweet, we blog and we Facebook (is that a verb now?). 

Karin and I still consider ourselves newbies to this whole social media arena.  Two years ago we decided to take the plunge and immerse ourselves into the social media world with books, webinars and consulting with the experts.  Through the excitement of new ways to reach out to clients and candidates we were on our way but we still felt we were missing something.  Sure we have a Facebook page, but what do we put on it?  Sure, we have Twitter but what do we tweet out?  This was when the realization hit us that there was another world in which social media could not exist without.  Content.  That realization was made when we attended the Content Marketing World conference in 2011.  Create our own content?  Who knew?  We left re-energized, focused and excited – high fiving each other all the way home.

It is now content that we focus our efforts on.  Whether it’s Karin writing her very first whitepaper, pushing out blog posts and putting together ideas for a certain little purple guy, content has been the soothing balm of our social media anxiety.  We have answered the question of “what do we tweet out?” 

Now we just have to answer the question “how do we find the time?”

Well, we are still working on that.  Count yourself lucky if you have one or two people who you can work with on your social media strategies.  Who despite trial and tribulation and fear due to uncertainty will plow through the learning with you.  I am lucky that I have Karin in this regard.  I have a Manager who saw the potential and who got just as excited about it as I did.  With her partnership, mentorship and encouragement I am now fulfilling a role within our recruiting division that is pretty cool.  Along with sourcing candidates, I lead our social media and content strategies and sometimes, when it’s just right, I can do both at the same time. 

We have learned a lot and the most important lesson in my opinion?  Never stop learning.  With the speed at which social media moves we are all students of it, though there are some who have been students just a wee bit longer than most of us and it is those people that we really want to thank.  Karin does a great job of mentioning those people in her Recruiting, meet social media post.  Head on over and read about the people who helped us along the way.

Annette

Blogging, tweeting, Facebook, and LinkedIn are really quite new to me and People First Recruiting.   Yet more often now, we are getting questions and requests for advice about how individuals or firms can begin their own social journey.   I can’t tell you how surprising this is to us given how new we are at this.  Yet maybe, just maybe the hard work and energy we have been putting into this is starting to pay off - because people are noticing.  Besides it’s great that we can help and when it comes to social media, that’s really what it is all about.
In fact, that was one of the first lessons we learned about social media – be helpful to others.  Share and help others with tips, knowledge and at times advice in the business you consider yourself to be good at.  In our case it’s recruiting.  Helping others by sharing information online (for free) is the essence of this fabulous new way of recruiting candidates and growing our recruiting business.

So for this blog I want to give a shout out to a few of the organizations and individuals who have helped us along the way:

• Matthew Shepherd, a Social Media consultant.  He was our first  “live instructor”.  He showed us the way and set us on the path by teaching us about the various social channels and the ones that are the most appropriate for our business; @MatShepSEO
• Colleen Holloway and Colin Whitney at ThinkShift, our creative, energetic partners who helped us bring life and identify to our brand as well as our beloved Purple Squirrel; @twistntoad and @ColinWhitney
• Content Marketing Institute and the Content Marketing World conference in 2011 – this is where Annette Kohut (our Social and Content Leader) and I had our AHA moment.  This place was where the reason for us taking this social journey in the first place all came together;
• Marcus Sheridan, The Sales Lion.  A passionate business owner that embraced blogging a few years ago.  He was a speaker at a conference I attended and gave me the inspiration I needed to begin blogging myself; @TheSalesLion
• Sociable! A book authored by Shane Gibson and Stephen Jagger.  First book I read which put social media and content into perspective for me.

The reality is we are beginners still in training, we’re taking risks and learning through trial and error.   We receive great, and at times not so great feedback and comments yet we remain fiercely committed to this because we believe it is essential to our clients, candidates and our overall business success.  Plus, it’s fun – we wouldn’t be doing it otherwise.
One of the most frequent questions asked is “how do you find the time” and honestly we are still working at this every day.  For me though I am lucky I have a fabulous Social and Content Manager who is also our Talent Sourcer, the amazing Annette Kohut.  Take some time to visit her post Newbies on the social recruiting block, about her experience and thoughts.

Karin