told
you so
Have
you used the Internet wisely? If you are reading this article hopefully that
means you are still in business. We started telling everyone over a year ago to
start moving away from the large, pricey career sites that all of our clients
now subscribe to. We offered ways to find candidates our clients couldn’t and
other ways to extract money from our clients using our Internet skills. We
talked about ways to set you apart…to add value to your service.
But…as
I write this article I am sure there are still a number of you that still
subscribe to Monster…Headhunter (CareerBuilder), HotJobs and other large
“Fortune” oriented services. And…probably still make placements. I
haven’t been a subscriber to any of these types of services for years now but
I’ll bet if I were I’d still be making a placement here and there. That has
never been my point. My point has been that you waste so much time with these
candidates and there is so much crossover with what your clients are able to
find on their own that without these services you would actually be making more
placements. That without these services you would actually be adding
value…making your self more indispensable to your clients. Just keep in mind
every dollar you send to these services is a dollar they will use to put you out
of business.
Do
you know what the big career hubs have to offer these days? Steve Finkel, one of
our industries most notable trainers has a saying. I can’t remember it
verbatim at present and couldn’t find it on his website but goes something
like: The
very best of the unemployed, overpaid and under qualified. Why would your
clients want to pay you for providing this type of talent? The market is
overloaded with resumes right now. Peter Weddle, who we have written about in
the column before, calls them Graffiti Candidates. They post their resumes on
every service they can…they use resume zappers to send their resumes out to
thousands of recruiters at a time; they scan the Web sites to locate new places
to send their resumes. I wouldn’t be surprised to start finding them posted in
seedy, inner city locations any day now. Maybe supermarket bulletin boards. Can
you blame them…no. Many of these people I see have been unemployed since last
fall. Are they the type of candidates our clients are looking for? Probably not.
Find them people, on the Internet or otherwise, that they cannot find on their
own and they will pay you for it…just like they always have.
I
went to a seminar recently put on by one of the big sites - probably over 75
people in attendance. Very informative…a lot of good information…tons of
statistics. I love statistics. I use them all the time when making presentations
to prospective clients. Give me a group of numbers and some way, some how I will
make myself out to be some kind of recruiting genius. One of the big statistics
the big services use is the “cost per hire” number. They tag agencies as one
of the highest cost per hires and career sites as one of the lowest. Sure they
do. They simply compare the cost of an Internet ad against the cost of an agency
fee. Let’s see…$200 versus $12,000…what sounds less expensive to you? One
employer mentioned recently they received 1400 resumes for a sales job and were
going to interview 45 of them. Now add to the $200 the time it is going to take
their $100,000+ manager to review all these resumes and conduct all these
interviews and the $200 ad is not as good a deal as one might think. As
recruiters, we might submit three candidates and the client probably hires one
of them. This is how we have always sold our services and how we need to
continue to sell ourselves to our clients.
Now…after
only a few years the tide may be turning again. Monster saw their fourth quarter
earnings drop 4% from a year earlier. Those SuperBowl ads are expensive, you
know. No…not a big decrease but significant nonetheless. Ever heard of
DirectEmployers.com? A group of employers have now banded together and formed
their own job site to cut out the Monsters of the world. If they are so happy
with career sites what prompts a group of 300+ employers to take this action?
What value is Monster or HotJobs or Headhunter to a Fortune client when the
total cost per year is above and beyond what all the agency fees combined used
to cost? Not much I imagine. The clients are finally starting to realize that
all they did was replace one expensive external resource with another. But…we,
the agents, at least gave them quality…they didn’t have to go through 150,
400, 800 resumes just to get a match. If we ever tried that we’d be bounced
out on our ear. We match on the first try. They are finally starting to look at
the bigger picture.
If
there is an industry in trouble these days I don’t think it is the recruiting
industry. I am not saying our business won’t change. So what. It has changed
numerous times since I have been a recruiter but I have changed with it, as have
all the other recruiters I know with 20+ years experience, as should you.
Internet recruiting, by both recruiters and clients is here to stay.
…
a great excuse for not making placements. I am not saying there isn’t one…or
wasn’t one but just don’t kid yourself into thinking that is the main reason
you aren’t making placements. If you are not making placements it is because
you are not selling what your clients are buying. This isn’t really related to
Internet recruiting but I simply couldn’t resist. I was a non-Internet
recruiter for many years, and still am. At a meeting recently attended by about
twenty people from different firms, this guy, you know the type…has a comment
on everything even if he has no idea what he is talking about…says “this is
the worst recession I have ever seen”. I hate being rude or unprofessional in
public, so I kept my thoughts to myself, but I did think…where were you in
1980/81? Now that was a recession. Interest rates were sky high…have you ever
tried to talk a candidate into leaving his 6% mortgage behind to move across the
country and take a new mortgage at 16%. Go ahead. Unemployment was unbelievable.
Candidates with Masters degrees were driving cabs. I’ll bet if your Mom was a
hiring manager back then you couldn’t get a job order from her. That’s how
bad it was. Then there was 1990/91, which did not seem to have the impact of the
previous decades downturn but again, there were massive layoffs from almost
every blue chip firm, little hiring and it seemed like an eternity for the
employers to come around and start hiring again. The downturn in hiring this
time was as much a result of the events of 9/11 and the anthrax scare as it was
anything truly economic. Now they are saying the recession might be over.
OK…so it took a year…maybe a little less. Now, move forward. Take a look at
the corporate Web sites, like I do all the time. You will see almost every
company at least has something or other open. Ask for their most difficult
assignment. Make more cold calls; get to work a little early if you have
to…stay a little late. Do whatever you need to do.
Just
what the doctor ordered. In this time of economic uncertainty…every recruiter
in town vying for the same job orders…hiring manager’s getting dozens of
calls per day…how do you stand out? My business partner Geoffrey told me one
manager said to him in the last couple of weeks: “Geoff…I can’t have lunch
with all hundred of you.” This is a reality in today’s marketplace. While,
at this writing, it seems the employment market is picking up, it still has a
ways to go before it is anywhere near where it was just 1 ½ years ago. What do
you do in the mean time? Check out Bulldog Strategies. They may have just the
answer for you.
A
lot of recruiting agencies are small firms, some employing one person, that
typically haven’t ever considered using an “image consultant” or a
“branding expert”. Small firms don’t have to think small. I think almost
any company of any size could benefit in some way from this type of service,
whether you are the corner agency placing in a local market or a larger firm
placing multiple vocations nationwide. How do you want to come across? What do
you want potential clients to think when they visit your Web site? They offer
assistance in several areas.
Marketing.
Quoting the Web site: “Marketing is the lifeblood of business”. They can
assist you in creating effective messages to break through to new clients and
new markets, build name recognition and reputation, increase market share,
launch new products and/or services, master direct marketing, marketing planning
and exploit strengths you did not know you had.
Branding.
What is a brand…it is how you define yourself to your customers, your
candidates and the general public. Bulldog says to create a clear, guiding
message for your company, your services and products to penetrate the
marketplace clutter. Well said. They can help to define who you are and
capitalize on your strengths, ensure consistency of branding messages, and
message delivery. They partner with you to create a powerful branding strategy
designed to help you get to the top and stay there.
Public
Relations. Again…from the Web site: “A
firm's reputation is arguably its most important asset. And PR is the tool
of choice for building your reputation, enhancing your image, and delivering
your message to all of your firm's target audiences.”
They can help to manage your media strategy, get your name in the press
and in front of your target audiences, generate third party endorsements,
increase name recognition, bolster your reputation, and more.
Internet
Strategy.
Are you lost in the “Internet Jungle”? Are you Internet challenged? Use the
Internet as a powerful ally by using it properly. Create a top-flight Web
design, offer great content, generate site traffic, get your site registered and
noticed…compel your visitors to act…now.
Vince
Bank, CEO of Bulldog Strategies is one who understands the needs of the staffing
industry having spent time as an executive recruiter on a draw check. He then
switched to the field of communications conducting PR and branding for recruiter
networks, executive recruiting firms of all sizes and staffing software firms.
He is well published and actively participates in a marketing/PR forum for
Recruiters Online Network (RON), giving free advice wherever needed.
Bank
calls his pricing model “pretty straight forward,” charging $75.00 an hour
for all strategic services. Bank doesn’t charge for research time, and
doesn’t tack on surcharges if outside vendors are used.
He asks for a $150 dollar “good-faith deposit” to get a project
rolling.
Send
written inquiries to Vince at vince@bulldogstrategies.com
or call him toll-free at 866-253-1469. Any
recruiter seeking free PR advice can also post a question at RON’s CoffeeShop
forum, found at www.recruitersonline.com.
WEDDLE’s:
RECRUITER’S GUIDE TO EMPLOYMENT WEBSITES 2002
Hot
off the press, I received my review copy in the mail in the last week or so.
With it came a personal note from Peter Weddle himself, author of the latest
edition of this excellent guide. In his note he gave me three reasons he felt
his book was a good choice for recruiter’s seeking a resource of this type.
One was that he provides evaluation metrics, which I will explain more about,
necessary to compare recruitment sites. Two is that many sites are reviewed by
practicing recruiters’…people that actually use these types of services
(authors note: yours truly reviewed 5 or 6 or these sites for this book) and
three is that he provides a structured methodology for site shopping…rather
than following the herd (or your clients). So, rather than just list a bunch of
Internet sites…Peter has added a lot of value here by offering information
above and beyond what you might normally find in a reference type book. I say
reference, as this is not the type of book you sit down and read from cover to
cover. This is something that would normally sit on your desktop and you would
open it up whenever you had the need for it.
Evaluation
metrics are critical for making sure you get your money’s worth. Peter
includes a number of metrics for each site reviewed including number of unique
visitors per month, number of pages viewed per month and the attention span of
each visitor…how many pages did the average person visit while on the site. He
also includes metrics for job posting services available at the site including
any types of jobs posted, fees and candidates density (visitors per posting).
Metrics for resume services are also available including how the resumes are
acquired, number of resumes in the database, how long the resumes are archived
and any fees for viewing the resumes.
Recruiter
reviews are unique for a book of this nature. For most sites, Peter has included
a brief paragraph written by a recruiter, evaluating the site. People who
normally use these types of systems that have day-to-day experience evaluating
services of this type write these mini-reviews.
As
part of his methodology for site (the SmartSelect Process) he suggests you first
determine your options by identifying possible recruitment sites of interest,
and then evaluate your options by using the site profiles and metrics comparing
one possibility against another. Then visit all your selections online and
preview the service as if you were a candidate. A good suggestion for sure. If
you don’t have a good experience from that point of view you probably won’t
from the recruiter point of view either. Make your selection…track your
results and continuously reassess and fine-tune your selections.
The
real meat of this book is the 350 site reviews offered. Obviously, all the large
services are covered but of more interest to most recruiters are the niche
services most of our clients don’t know about (unless they read this book
also). A fully cross-referenced index provides many examples. Engineering
recruiters can choose from 19 sites to evaluate. Eight for banking…two for
insurance…six for legal…five for non-profit…four for real estate…etc.,
etc.
In
closing, it is obvious this book was written especially for recruiters…there
is another edition written for the job seekers. Peter says this book will help
you maximize your ROI, Return on the Internet. A big problem these days with so
many services to choose from. Everyone should have a copy on his or her desktop.
You can purchase this book at most leading book stores or on-line at www.weddles.com
for the list price of $27.95, a great value.
JOBMACHINE
If
you recall, for last month’s column we wrote about an excellent recruiter
resource, JobMachine (www.jobmachine.net),
but with so many things to do and so little time to do them I forgot to include
an important item you might be interested in. At their Web site they offer a “SneakPreview”,
which is a 12-minute mini class on Internet recruiting, available in Flash, HTML
or PDF format, for free. The class includes an overview of basic Internet skills
plus some tips on how to get results by searching for 10 minutes or less. I
imagine most everyone could learn something from this presentation.
TIP
Another
great tip from Shally Steckerl of JobMachine for this month. He offers a newly
implemented but as yet undocumented tip from Google, one of his favorites.
Google
has compiled an incredibly large phonebook of both business and residential
listings. Normally when you search Google with some combination of First Name,
Last Name (or Business Name) along with a City, State, Area Code or Zip Code you
get two results at the top of the screen representing the most likely phonebook
entries.
For
example, searching for “johanson, chicago, IL” display’s two entries named
Johanson in Chicago, IL. You can also click on “More phonebook listings” to
see all residential and business records matching your criteria. Now there is an
undocumented command that allows you to search only the phonebook records!
Here
is how the “phonebook:” command works, enter “phonebook:kinkos, phoenix”
and Google returns a listing of the dozen or so Kinkos in Phoenix, all on one
page. The listings show business name, phone number, addresses, and two map
generators. But why is this command necessary? Well Google may not return
phonebook listings on a search unless you ask for them.
For
example, searching for just “Johnson, Chicago” won’t return any phonebook
entries but “phonebook:Johnson, Chicago” returns results only in phonebook
mode. The first set is 221 Business listings and below that are 600 Residential
listings.
Say
you only wanted to find residential numbers? Simply use the command “rphonebook:”
for residential only listings. Alternately use “bphonebook:” for business
only listings. Use these the same way as the phonebook command, with Google’s
normal phonebook syntax which you can find here: http://www.google.com/help/features.html#wp