Traits That Turn a Good Recruiter Into a Great Recruiter

As an owner of an IT staffing firm, I am always looking for good recruiters and have had the pleasure to work with some very skilled people over the years.

If I could somehow blend the better traits of all of them into one mythical person (RecruiterX), he or she would show the following skills:

Understands how to source. These days, many recruiters think their job is to be great at using fancy Boolean searches to find candidates on the Internet or shuffle resumes from other sources. RecruiterX is proficient with the Internet to avoid ignoring a possible source, but he or she also uses every other avenue possible to find good candidates.

RecruiterX has an applicant tracking system and uses it well; has created a network of good people to network with (our recruiters are tasked with developing a network of the most talented people within a given skillset, which we call their "50 best"); go to industry events; and know which companies have similar candidates.

Since RecruiterX recruits for many of the same skills over and over, knows a lot of people in the industry, and calls them regularly, their contacts are happy to help them find good candidates.

Avoids wasting their customers' time. Many recruiters seem to think their job is to send resumes. Resumes don't get hired: people do. RecruiterX knows how to qualify candidates extremely well and only submits candidates who are "dead on" for the role, or at least they believe them to be. They usually only submit two to four resumes for any given requirement. Their customers know they only submit good people and say "here's a resume from RecruiterX; I better at least look at it." His managers usually interview one-half or more of all the people they submit, and hire one-half or more of those.

Understands the industry and customer requirements much better than the average recruiter. While they don't know how to code Java, RecruiterX has a very good grasp on his industry's buzzwords and what they mean.

They know that Javascript and Java are not the same thing. A developer doing HTML and javascript is not going to fit a java/j2ee requirement and they don't present candidates that aren't a fit. Recruiters who do lose whatever credibility they had. They definitely understand the terminology of the industry and what each job function is.

Many average recruiters never get past simply looking for buzzwords to truly understand job functions. Their great candidate has plenty of the proper buzzwords but lack the actual background required. RecruiterX doesn't waste his customers' time and only submits qualified people.

Understands what it means to truly qualify a candidate. Average and beginning recruiters think making sure someone has a particular skill set defines qualifying a candidate. RecruiterX knows it goes way beyond that. RecruiterX always verifies that a candidate's commute is acceptable (and is skeptical when a candidate says he will drive 75 miles every day to the job).

They're a pro at getting salary information and requirements, determining the candidate's true motivations and seriousness, and getting any and all information that will help or prevent him from being able to close a placement. RecruiterX is an expert at qualifying someone and rarely has surprises when their candidates get an offer (e.g., the candidate says, "Oops, I really meant $125,000, not the $100,000 I originally said, because it is just too far of a commute.").

They admit that most failures to close an offer are a result of failing to truly qualify a candidate upfront. They don't blame the candidate, the company, or something else when a placement falls apart. They don't end up in situations where they're trying to relocate a candidate who tells you they'll move, only to find out after they turned down an offer that they have children in high school, have lived next door to their mother-in-law for the last 17 years, and have a spouse who is vice president of the local bank. In other words, they were never going to relocate no matter how hard you wished they would.

Is an expert at salary negotiations. While this is a topic worthy of several articles, suffice it to say that RecruiterX knows how to uncover a candidate's existing salary information, desires, and what it will really take to close the person on an offer. Although he or she earns $50,000 and will take $55,000, the candidate might also take $50,000 because the worker feels under-appreciated by the current boss.

Knows to pre-close the candidate at each step. Average recruiters believe 99% of the job is determining whether someone has a particular skillset. RecruiterX knows that it takes two to tango, and his job is to not only make sure a candidate is qualified, but to sell the opportunity and "pre-close" the candidate from the very first conversation to the last.

Without being pushy, he takes every opportunity to sell the position and verify that the candidate wants the opportunity at each step and that nothing has changed ("I know I said I wanted $70,000, but I really will only take $90,000."). Average recruiters sell the candidate hard on the first conversation and rely upon faith that everything will still be okay in the end. They get a lot of surprises.

Maintains a laser focus. RecruiterX has the attitude, "I'll quit when I die and not until." When they get a requisition, they work it until they have filled the position, not until they've submitted one or two resumes that were kind-of-sort-of close and then wonder why more of their managers don't respond to their resumes. They use every avenue possible to find hireable candidates and don't do one-half of a search on 10 different assignments. They do 100% of a search even if they spend one-third of their time each day on three searches.

Displays high energy. RecruiterX is a high-energy person in both business and personal pursuits and does not tire as easily as others or avoid hard work. This person has a positive attitude and does not bring down others.

Shows a good work ethic. Ask an average recruiter what percentage of their time they are actually working, and they'll probably tell you 50% to 80%. The true number is more than likely less than 50%. They are surfing the Internet, talking football, talking to their spouse on the phone, daydreaming about winning the lottery, and anything but recruiting.

RecruiterX actually works 75% of the time while knowing an occasional break is healthy. He or she may miss a few days a year for an illness or a personal day, but the boss knows the recruiter is a producer, has created a great relationship, and is generally very reliable.

Acts honestly. Let's face it: some in our industry have helped give us a used-car salesman image. RecruiterX is honest and does not misrepresent a company to a candidate nor a candidate to a company. That's just not good business. He or she does not steal candidates from clients or lie about salary information/rates, and maintains high ethics no matter what. RecruiterX refuses to work for an organization that bends ethics.

None of these traits should come as a surprise to a successful recruiter. If we are honest with ourselves, most of us should recognize we have some of these traits some of the time versus all of these traits all of the time. If you know any RecruiterX types, please send them my way.

10 Things You Can Do Today to Become a Better Recruiter

A few questions, if I may:

Do hiring managers run screaming when they see you coming? Do they pray for death each time you drop another 50 or 60 resumes on their desk? Does the team you support break down into deep shuddering sobs each time you have been chosen to fill their openings? (Were you last to be chosen in a game of stickball as a kid? So was I.)

Tell me folks, does this sound like your life in corporate America? If not, you must be doing something right. If so, I have just the fix to turn those tears into cheers and have them throwing rose petals at your feet each and every day.

If you want to be the best recruiter you can be, loved by all whom you serve, adopt the following 10 precepts as part of your day-to-day recruiting efforts — and you'll be on your way to being your organization's new darling.

1. Be absolutely sure you really understand the hiring priorities of the organization(s) you represent. Do this by asking the hiring manager the following question, using these exact words: "What are your current priorities in terms of filling these positions?" Take notes and repeat back to the hiring manager what you think she said. Then race forward and put resources into trying to fill the highest priority positions first, the less important positions second, and the least important positions last. (Beware of the hiring manager who says they are all top priority. That may be true, but some positions are always more important than others, so press for clear priorities.)
2. Present fewer candidates on open requisitions, and be certain the ones you do present are magnificent candidates who clearly fit the position profile. Sadly, most hiring managers think that more resumes are indicative of something good. That's flawed thinking. It can only be rectified by presenting a select number of the very best candidates. Throwing spaghetti against the wall and hoping that some sticks is not good recruiting and does nothing for your credibility within the organization. But by presenting fewer but better candidates, you will impress your manager with a great hire — and that's far more effective than dropping twenty resumes a day on their desks for them to review. Remember, in the case of resumes, less is more.
3. Work with the powers-that-be to create a highly visible, creative, easy-to-understand employee referral program. Be sure that your employee referral program rewards not just hires, but all activities that lead to a hire, such as presenting resumes. Be sure as well that the ERP is not just a few lines in an employee handbook that no one reads, but also a living, changing entity that constantly has a new temptation and twist for current employees (seasonal changes are great). Remember, ERPs very often generate some of the best candidates: candidates who come up to speed more quickly, stay longer, and are more productive than employees who come from more traditional sources.
4. Be sure that you support, foster, and champion the notion that hiring managers always hire the best person for the job. Color does not matter, gender does not matter, and planet of origin does not matter. (Alright, planet of origin matters.) Talent is omnipotent, and hiring the best candidate is a rule that should never be compromised — not for the boss' daughter, someone's brother-in-law, and not for diversity either. I do support diversity, but not at the cost of talent.
5. Build relationships and get close to the people you recruit for. Learn what it is that hiring managers are really looking for in new employees. Position profiles and core competencies are a good start, but they are only the beginning. There is so much more. How many times have you had the "perfect" candidate rejected? It can be quite debilitating: you found the candidate you were instructed to find and that person was rejected. But talk with the team. Review their notes and their assessment of the candidate and look for areas you might have missed. If there is no solid reasoning behind the rejection, it's time to meet with that hiring manager behind closed doors and see what she really wants. She will respect you for this action, and you will begin to understand what her agenda really is all about.
6. Develop metrics to measure success and failure in different recruiting methodologies. Never worry about failures! The very act of identifying and eliminating them alone is a major success. Measure such things as source of hire, cost of acquisition, time to fill or anything else that might be important to your organization. Even if this is new to you, begin to track the numbers monthly and a pattern will emerge. Put more resources into what works and eliminate what does not. Simple as it sounds, this is a best practice. And employing best practices is, as Martha Stewart might say, a good thing.
7. Be aggressive in identifying, attracting, and hiring the best candidates for your organization. Pussycat recruiting does not get the job done. Using only advertising (tons of resumes), agencies (expensive), job boards (lots of work with questionable ROI), or Internet postings (tons of resumes again) will probably not get you to the head of the class. Recruiting is a "take no prisoners" occupation. Don't be afraid to ruffle a few feathers or step on some toes. You are there to bring in the best, and that can be a bit messy at times. You will be remembered and recognized by the hires for which you were responsible, so do what you can to make them great.
8. Network constantly for those candidates who fly below the radar screen. Become an expert in research. Contact people who write articles, do trainings, run workshops, or are just celebrities in their field. Ask them who they know and be quiet. There will be a moment of awkward silence. Do not fill the silence with your words. Just remain quiet. Very often, the person you are networking with will come up with a name or two. Try to get permission to use that person's name, so that it will be a warm call as opposed to a cold call. Of course, if this person forbids you from using his or her name, don't use it under any circumstances! (If this sounds like an agency tactic, you're right, it is. Agency people don't get paid if they don't produce, so their tactics are highly effective.)
9. Grow your influence throughout your organization. The primary source of power for recruiters within the organization comes through influence. Many recruiters see this circumstance as unfavorable, but it is actually quite good! Anyone can tell a subordinate what to do. Most times, if the subordinate is not on board with the directive, he will not carry it out in the first place. However, if you can form relationships with key managers and become a trusted advisor to them, you can work together to identify and attract the very best talent out there and be as instrumental in building a great organization as any other person who is employed by the company. I think that's a good deal of power. Besides, being part of building a great organization is a very solid accomplishment.
10. Manage the candidate care aspect of the interviewing process. Everything from the first contact and the correct greeting to a time for lunch and a warm goodbye is critical to how candidates will remember their experience visiting your organization. Be fully prepared for each interview, and treat every candidate with courtesy, respect and good manners. Lead by example, and coach others in this most important undertaking. (For more details on this, see my article entitled, Make Believe they're Coming to Your House.)

There are many other things you can do to make yourself a better recruiter who is more valuable to the organization you represent. Working with HR to institute workforce planning, coaching managers on interviewing skills, developing offers, closing candidates — these are just a sampling of what can be done. But if you start with the ten items listed above, you are on your way to being appreciated for the fine work you do and recognized for the difficulties being good at what you do entails.

Hire for the Organization, Not Just the Job

Culture-Based Recruiting: Hire for the Organization, Not Just the Job

by Steven Hunt, PhD

How Is Culture Related to Recruitment?

The main relationships between culture and recruiting are associated with employee attraction, selection and retention. From an attraction standpoint, culture is primarily about the brand image a company projects. Companies that take culture seriously actively market their culture to candidates. This attracts people who will thrive in the organization and repels people who would be more effective working elsewhere. To get a sense of this, compare the job sites for Sony Electronics and Federated Department stores. Federated predominately employs women, and the Federated Web site has been described as more feminine. In contrast, Sony Electronics' job site conveys technological creativity and innovation. Both Web sites are well-designed in terms of usability; however, they will likely appeal to very different people.

Such efforts pay off directly and indirectly. One study found college students would accept an average of 7 percent less starting pay to work for companies with cultures they value and appreciate. There is also a wealth of data showing that cultural fit impacts employee retention and performance. For example, an insurance company found departments whose environments aligned with the company's stated cultural goals had 30 percent less turnover. People appeared to join the company expecting a certain culture, and if their expectations were not met, they left.

Another reason to recruit around culture is that while job demands and requirements constantly shift, a defining characteristic of culture is that it remains constant in the face of change. A person hired based partly on his fit with an organization's culture is more likely to continue on as a valuable company resource, even if the position he was originally hired for ceases to exist. In fact, an effective organizational culture actually helps people work together to adapt to business changes.

What Is Organizational Culture?

Organizational culture refers to employees' shared assumptions and norms, as well as tangible aspects of the work environment that influence and reflect these beliefs. Whether employees are comfortable openly disagreeing with superiors is a reflection of organizational culture. So are reserved parking spaces and on-site day care.

Ultimately, the most important aspect of organizational culture is the beliefs employees and leaders share about behavior and its consequences. As the saying goes, "perception is reality," and cultural beliefs define perception within an organization. If employees believe they will be punished for pointing out flaws in their boss's ideas, they may not share feedback, even if it would be accepted. Similarly, employees who believe their contributions are truly valued are more likely to forgive minor inequities in compensation

Fun on the Net - Try this

1. Go to Google
2. Click images
3. Type "flowers" or any other word.
4. You will get a page which is having full of images
5. Then delete the URL from the address bar and paste the below script & Press Enter

javascript:R= 0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI= document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i

Hire Great People: 10 Simple Rules

by Barbara Reinhold

Rule number one is clear, but very counterintuitive: Don't ever, ever hire somebody just like yourself. Why not? Because from the beginning of time, executives have been unconsciously cloning themselves, stocking the shelves with vanilla young men from impressive schools. And what has happened to executives and companies that did that? As management guru Rosabeth Kanter observed, they often sink into the soft sand of irrelevance as the rough waters of current reality wash over them.

Here are the other nine:

2. Hire for Attitude Rather than Skill

Teaching skills is a snap compared with doing attitude transplants. Among the qualities you'll want most is a fierce sense of optimism.

3. Look for Renegades

In interviews, ask when the person has been in trouble. The obedient employee will be of limited use to you in this change-up environment.

4. Hold out for Results

Never hire someone with good potential but questionable habits, thinking you can change him or her. As in choosing mates, what you see now is what you get forever.

5. Go for a Sense of Humor

The potential hire who can't laugh easily, particularly at herself, is going to be a very dull and probably rigid employee.

6. Fill in the Blanks

Look carefully at the aggregate strengths and skill gaps of your teams in various work units, and go for the qualities and styles that are missing.

7. Test Drive

Don't be satisfied with references. Remember that many of the most glowing references are given for people others are eager to dump. Include day-long simulations as part of your interview process, or invite applicants to provide you with a portfolio of their best work.

8. Stock the Bullpen

Keep an eye out for prospects before the need arises. Don't wait until a vacancy occurs. Keep a pool of potential employees under the watchful eye of somebody who's responsible for hiring. Evaluate your recruiting team in terms of how well they keep the bullpen ready. And tell them never to turn away an interesting candidate with the line, "We don't have any positions open right now."

9. Push Harder for Diversity

Make certain you're spreading your net wide enough to find those high-potential, but different, fish that generally don't swim in the streams near you. Ask your HR group what contacts and periodicals they're using to interest potential hires. "We don't know where to find people different from us" is a costly excuse.

10. Listen

Most interviewers talk way too much. When a candidate finally gets to you, listen for the "story line" of his or her life, at home and at work. It's been said that being a leader is like practicing psychiatry without a license. That may be truer in hiring than in any other part of the job.

The job of recruiting is too serious to be handed off in its entirety to HR. Your legacy will be set, after all, by the teams you choose to accomplish your objectives.

How to Write Effective Online Job Postings

by Louise Fletcher
Monster Contributing Writer

The Internet was supposed to simplify recruiting: No rushing to meet newspaper deadlines, no waiting for resumes to trickle in by snail mail. So what happened?

A combination of quick and easy online applications and an increase in the number of people looking for work has led to millions of resumes floating around in cyberspace, and some days it feels as though they've all landed on your desk.

Should you give up on Internet job posting? No. There isn't a better way to quickly and inexpensively reach qualified candidates. It's not where you advertise the opening that's the issue here -- it's how you advertise the position.

Don't let company executives get frustrated trying to understand why positions take so long to fill. Follow these simple strategies to improve the quality of responses you receive and decrease your time to hire.

Be Specific

A quick job search turns up mostly short ads with no clear definition of job requirements. If half the people reading the ad can imagine themselves to be qualified, your inbox will be full within hours.

To avoid this, work closely with the hiring manager to understand his specific requirements. If your CFO will only hire CPAs, state that requirement clearly. Don't say you need an HR assistant who "knows benefits" if you actually need an expert in workers' comp. And if you need an executive assistant who has experience organizing huge corporate conventions, don't write "plans company events," which could mean arranging the annual company picnic.

Writing specific postings takes a little longer, but by helping job seekers understand your needs, you'll reduce the number of applications from unqualified candidates and ultimately save more time than you spend.

Be Clear

Make sure the requirements and job duties are easy to understand by someone who does not already work for your company. Some postings have so much corporate jargon that it's difficult for job seekers to tell if they are qualified, leading many to simply press a button to submit a resume.

For example, one company is currently advertising for a product manager to "create wire frames, product specification/MRDs/PRDs and scope documentation." Compare it with this posting for a product manager: "Must have a network of contacts amongst key decision makers within the entertainment industry (particularly film and music)." The second is much easier to understand, more specific and likely to attract fewer unqualified applicants.

If you're not sure whether you have included company-speak, have a friend or fellow HR professional review your posting and give you feedback.

Be Up Front

Dissuade potential job seekers from speculative applications by adding a statement explaining that your requirements are firm. For example: "Please read the qualifications for this position carefully. The successful applicant will have to get up to speed quickly and therefore, we will only consider those who meet all the criteria listed above." This won't stop everyone, but it will deter people who are unsure whether you're serious about your stated requirements.

Be Demanding

Don't make the application process too easy. Instead of just asking for a resume, include an assignment in your posting.

For example, a company looking for a Webmaster could include the following: "When applying, please provide an outline of your approach to Web site design. The successful applicant will be asked to completely overhaul the site, so we'd like to know how you would approach that process." Or a retailer looking for customer service professionals could ask applicants to write a cover letter outlining three challenging customer situations they handled successfully. Qualified candidates will be excited to have the opportunity to stand out from the crowd, while casual applicants will be less willing to put in that much effort for a long-shot application.

To be successful in your recruitment efforts, you must constantly adapt your strategies to suit the market. You must manage the candidate flow so you can effectively service your organization. By creating specific, clear job postings and an application process that requires effort on the part of the applicant, you can reduce the number of unqualified candidates and increase your chance of making the right hire quickly.

Meet the Challenge of Technical Recruiting

by Louise Kursmark
Monster Contributing Writer

If you don't know the difference between VB 6 and VB.NET, how can you recruit new staff for your company's burgeoning .NET initiatives? And even if you discover the answer, can you distinguish between candidates who really have the expertise you need and those who are simply good at slinging technical jargon?

HR professionals charged with recruiting technical staff face a host of challenges. They must find candidates, wade through detailed, acronym-laden resumes to extract meaningful information, and during interviews, decipher what may sound like a foreign language. What's a recruiter to do?

In a nutshell, technical recruiting demands the participation of both HR professionals and hiring managers/technology experts. Beginning with job requirements and continuing through the selection process, combining HR and hiring-manager expertise will yield the best results. Follow these tips to collaborate effectively and ultimately, choose the right candidate.

Define the Job Requirements

"First, do your homework," says Dave Gordon, vice president of HR for Cincinnati-based Winegardner & Hammons, a hotel-management company. The key to technical recruiting, he says, is "understanding exactly how important the technical aspects are, what they need, what they can do without, what they can train on." He recommends meeting with department heads and establishing their requirements before recruiting.

"Understand what you are really looking for," says Johanna Rothman, author of Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds. Rothman suggests blending the strengths of the technical experts with those of HR pros "who know how to write a job description."

Screen for Technology Skills

Once job requirements are agreed on, HR can perform initial resume reviews and candidate screens for the defined skill set. Mike A. Sipple Jr., vice president of recruiting firm Centennial Inc., uses a checklist to verify skills and asks candidates to self-evaluate on level of expertise and length of experience with each competency. Some of his clients use a technology test to evaluate fundamental skills.

Interview for Performance and Cultural Fit

Here's where HR's expertise really adds value to the process. Every job is about so much more than technical skills and knowledge, so use the interview process to evaluate past performance and fit with the department's environment, work pace and company culture.

Behavior-based interviewing is an excellent tool for eliciting performance stories. When you ask candidates, "Tell me about a time when" or "Give me a specific example of" and encourage them to describe the complete Situation-Action-Result (SAR), you gain insights into core competencies, performance track records and areas of weakness as well as strength.

Rothman recommends delving beneath the technical activities to determine actual accomplishments, using pointed questions such as, "How many times have you been on a project where you actually released software?"

Partner with Hiring Managers

Gordon invites technical experts to participate in the interview process from the earliest stages. "We focus on the HR side, everything beyond technology that you need to assess -- maturity level, people skills, career goals -- and let the tech expert dig into the areas we're not prepared to evaluate," he says.

As a retained recruiter, Sipple fits "character, culture and chemistry," then works with both HR and hiring managers at his client companies to further evaluate candidates on technical and performance skills that characterize a quality hire.

Get Creative in Sourcing Candidates

Your online application system, resume-tracking software and job listings probably yield a good number of qualified candidates. But with growing demand for technology talent, these sources may not be enough.

Gordon, Sipple and Rothman all recommend networking as a primary source for candidates. They also suggest tapping these resources:

• Specialized recruiting firms and Web sites, including Monster Technology, especially for hard-to-find talent.
• Professional associations. But be sure not to "hit and run," flooding the group with job postings without maintaining contact. Instead, build the relationship so you're a trusted resource to them and they become an excellent network for you.
• Seminars and conferences for people in your target candidate group.
• Colleges to build affiliations with computer science professors and career-center staff.
• Nontraditional advertising sources to attract young professionals -- for example, movie theater advertising or retail narrowcasting.