Archive for category recruiting
Solicitations and Contractors
Posted by Dan Hall in recruiting on January 3, 2009
With the downturn in the economy, I have noticed a distinct increase in recruiting solitications as well as the number of hardcore contractors looking for work. About six months ago, I would receive one maybe two calls at most from a recruiting agency (I have my calls screened and don’t call back). Now, the same recruiter is calling half a dozen times, the total number of different agencies cold calling are increasing as well.
I have also noticed an increase in applicants who have normally only done contract work. In my experience, a good portion of the people who find the contracting lifestyle attractive usually stay on that career path. I am finding more and more applicants who have contracted steadily for the last five to ten years applying for full time positions.
Of course we have all read (and felt) how the economic crisis is affecting businesses but sometimes it is interesting to see some of the second or third order effects.
Dan Hall
Seattle Human Resources Manager
Re: When recruiters tell you the opposite of what you are looking for
Posted by Dan Hall in Startups, recruiting, social media on July 5, 2008
A friend of mine who is connected within the Seattle Startup community, sent me this post by Marcelo Calbucci on the Seattle 2.0 blog discussing the frustrations and shortcomings that Startup Managers have of recruiting agencies in general.
I felt compelled to respond, having gone through a similar process, while recruiting for my Company as an internal Seattle HR Manager.
My response is below:
I am the Recruiting and HR Manager for a Social Media startup in Seattle. In the past six months I have personally recruited dozens of employees.
Being in-house, I have a distinct advantage because:
1. I passionately care about the future and well-being of my Company.
2. I recognize that I am the first person a potential candidate hears outlining my Company and our products. I take that responsibility very seriously. If I am not passionate to be here why would a candidate? People want to work at a Company people are passionate about; this gives me a huge advantage over some of those Companies you listed in your post.
3. A lot of candidates don’t use recruiters, nor care to. I work with contingent recruiters and recruiting agencies at times. There are some good recruiting agencies out there but most only try to fill the req and don’t have a large stake in the fit.
4. Recruiting agencies rarely (and I mean rarely) go below 20% placement fee structures. Their candidates better be 20% better than anyone I can source (which is not a normal occurrence – again I know the culture and fit of my Company and evangelize it passionately).
If you plan on hiring more than 5 or 6 employees in a year, do yourself a favor and hire a good fulltime HR and
Recruiting Manager, not only you will get better candidates, but you will also reduce liability (which there is, and don’t kid yourself, a lot from a HR standpoint), and save money.
Plus every candidate who doesn’t get a job, now knows our Company from someone who loves it and they have a positive lasting, impression, which has cascading effects in the long term.
Dan Hall
Seattle Human Resources Manager
Oh the Funny Things Recruiters Do….
Posted by Dan Hall in recruiting on April 15, 2008
In my practice as a Seattle Human Resources Manager, I have run across my own job postings posted by Recruiting Agencies that I didn’t authorize.
Yes, that’s right. Let me say it again, I have run across my own job postings (ones that I have personally created) posted by Recruiting Agencies in the guise of my Company being their client.
Why is this bad and who really suffers?
The job seeker is the one who ultimately suffers because I refuse to do business with an agency that I find doing this. You may be the best candidate for the job but working with an Agency adds another 20% (placement fee) of overhead to the total cost to my company. You better be at least 20% more valuable than the next candidate.
This is not to say that I don’t work with recruiters, there are some added value relationships I have in my hip pocket to call when warranted. Agencies that pretend to represent my company are unethical (and I have a growing list of Agencies I will not work with for this reason).
So, how this works is:
The Unethical Recruiter contacts you either through their own network or in response to your inquiry to their unauthorized, misleading job posting.
Unethical Recruiter: “Hello, I represent a Social Media Web 2.0 Start-Up in Seattle who is looking for X. Are you interested?”
Job Seeker: “Yes, but I am concerned about working with a recruiter. I don’t want to sign an all-encompassing exclusivity clause.”
Unethical Recruiter:”Oh don’t worry, you can just sign a exclusivity clause for this specific position with this specific client of ours.”
Job Seeker:”Ok, that seems to make sense especially considering I wouldn’t find this job another way.” Emails resume to Unethical Recruiter.
In the mean time, being the very diligent Human Resources Manager that I am (I regularly read job postings to see what other companies are posting, so I can ensure we are competitive for both requirements and expectations. I also have a ever growing Social Network that informs me of these things), I stumble across the Unethical Recruiter’s job posting.
Unethical Recruiter calls me:”Hello, My name is XXXX XXXX, I am from Unethical Recruiters ‘R’ Us, and I have the perfect candidate for you.”
Diligent Seattle Human Resources Manager: ”I saw your ad on Craigslist pretending to represent my company, I don’t recall ever signing an agreement with you, am I mistaken?”
Unethical Recruiter:”Umm… Ah… Well, I have this perfect candidate….”
Diligent Seattle Human Resources Manager:”Don’t bother calling me ever again. Goodbye.”
And I go on to successful source and place my own candidate without the additional overhead. My Company still wins. Unethical Recruiter doesn’t care, although they should because word spreads among the Seattle Human Resource Management field and my Social Network. Recruiters routinely include the candidate’s resume in the email, ensuring we can’t place the forwarded candidate without paying a fee. Ultimately the Candidate loses out when it could have been a great match for both parties.
Warning: Social Media Can Be Hazardous to Your Job Search
Posted by Dan Hall in Personal Brand, The Lasting Tale of the Web, recruiting on March 27, 2008
That cute, affable guy who brags of his drunken exploits on FaceBook.com may be meeting a lot of other partiers online, but he’s probably not getting added to the “friends” lists of many corporate recruiters. A recent study by the executive search firm ExecuNet found that 77 percent of recruiters run searches of candidates on the Web to screen applicants; 35 percent of these same recruiters say they’ve eliminated a candidate based on the information they uncovered.
“You’d be surprised at what I’ve seen when researching candidates,” says Gail, a recruiter at a Fortune 500 company who recently began looking up potential hires on the Web. “We were having a tough time deciding between two candidates until I found the profile of one of them on MySpace. It boasted a photo of her lounging on a hammock in a bikini, listed her interests as ‘having a good time’ and her sex as ‘yes, please.’ Not quite what we were looking for.”
“Another time I went to a candidate’s site and found racial slurs and jokes,” Gail continues. “And there was yet another instance where a candidate told me he was currently working for a company, yet he left a comment on a friend’s profile about how it ‘sucked’ to be laid off, and how much fun it was to be unemployed!”
As the amount of personal information available online grows, first impressions are being formed long before the interview process begins, warns David Opton, ExecuNet CEO and founder. “Given the implications and the shelf-life of Internet content, managing your online image is something everyone should address — regardless of whether or not you’re in a job search,” he says. Because the risks don’t stop once you’re hired.
Twenty-three-year old Kara recently took a job as a management consultant at a high-profile practice in the Los Angeles area. An Ohio native, with no friends or family on the West Coast, Kara put up a profile on MySpace in the hopes of meeting new people.
Kara was judicious in how she set up her site: “I didn’t fill out that cheesy questionnaire many people post, where you describe your best feature and say whether or not you shower every day.” she says. “I used a photo that was flattering but not at all provocative and was even careful what music I chose.”
Within a few months, Kara met many others online who shared her interest in biking and water sports. One Friday morning, Kara decided to call in sick and go surfing with a few of her new pals. That weekend, unbeknownst to Kara, her friend posted some of the day’s pictures on her profile and sent Kara a message saying, “We should call in sick more often.”
Unfortunately for Kara, her boss happened to be patrolling MySpace to check up on her college-age daughter and came across Kara’s site and the dated photos!
Mortified, Kara says she learned an important lesson — not only about honesty, but about how small the world of online social networking can be and how little control you have over any information put out there.
Not all employers search candidates and employees online, but the trend is growing. Don’t let online social networking deep-six your career opportunities. Protect your image by following these simple tips:
- Be careful. Nothing is private. Don’t post anything on your site or your “friends” sites you wouldn’t want a prospective employer to see. Derogatory comments, revealing or risqué photos, foul language and lewd jokes all will be viewed as a reflection of your character.
- Be discreet. If your network offers the option, consider setting your profile to “private,” so that it is viewable only by friends of your choosing. And since you can’t control what other people say on your site, you may want to use the “block comments” feature. Remember, everything on the Internet is archived, and there is no eraser!
- Be prepared. Check your profile regularly to see what comments have been posted. Use a search engine to look for online records of yourself to see what is out there about you. If you find information you feel could be detrimental to your candidacy or career, see about getting it removed — and make sure you have an answer ready to counter or explain “digital dirt.”
This article is courtesy of Careerbuilder.