How Recruiters Make Decisions

If you're frustrated with lack of or slow response from your recruiting firm, take a minute to think about these things:

*Did you communicate the urgency of your staffing need?
*Have you been responsive in the past when presented with candidates?
*Is your compensation range competitive?
*Are you a shopper ... wanting to do the recruiting firm's work instead of establishing a partnership where they can do the work for you?
*Is your hiring process so lengthy that top candidates often get other offers first?
*Do you conduct cattle calls and enlist three or more firms simultaneously?
*Are you constantly competing with your recruiting firm?
*Do you continue to change your specifications as you interview more people?

Hiring Sales Professionals

Sales recruiting is up -- good news for just about everyone. We know that companies are doing better when the phone starts ringing for sales professionals. We also know that there are lots of landmines in this path and Princess Diana isn't here to help get rid of them.

Some employers have a formal process, but in many small to mid-size businesses on-boarding consists of signing employer paperwork and learning where the coffee and kitchen are. We know because we, too, are a small business. And, coincidentally, we are getting ready to hire a temporary staffing manager.

Here are some links/resources to successfully onboarding new sales pros:

Understand who can sell to your customers: http://www.super-solutions.com/HowtoHireTheMillionDollarSalesPerson.asp#axzz1ZkWBOvnp

Four Key Skills Salespeople Need: http://www.ere.net/2011/01/19/hiring-salespeople-trust-or-consequences/

Look at it as an on-going training process, NOT a hiring event: http://salestrainingconnection.com/2011/08/05/on-boarding-sales-people-its-not-your-fathers-oldsmobile/

Onboarding salespeople is one of the toughest things my small businesses face: http://smartsalestips.com/2011/04/25/is-your-sales-person-onboarding-program-causing-underperformance/

When we enrolled in a sales training course in the past, I asked a trainer friend her opinion of some that we were considering. It won't surprise you to hear: "Any of them can be good, if you follow them."

So noted!

Yes, You Have To.

We get asked: If a job posting asks for salary history or requirement, do you have to fill it in?

Sadly, yes. It’s a horrible system. But HR has to institute every possible automated screening tool because they are overrun with candidates, many of whom are not in the least qualified.

One of our candidates said he was frustrated with online applications. They always asked for his salary history, he said, and he was concerned that his response would get him eliminated. I explained to him that by not following—fully—the instructions and requests in an online posting he was probably wasting his time using that venue.

Too many people, too few jobs. And it’s hurting everyone — keeping the talented, qualified people from getting the attention they deserve. But you really need to apply online exactly as the employer has requested.

Once again, that’s why it’s important to network. You need pull-through from a networking contact on the inside of the employer organization, to overcome being tossed aside for arbitrary, unknown criteria.

Last post, we were singing ...

and now, we definitely need to add to the choir. More jobs! Seriously, please take a look and pass it on to people in your network: http://www.landajobnow.com/static/jobListings.html

Now, there's a need for:

*traffic manager for agency
*senior art director for in-house agency
*account manager(s) -- in-house and agency
*admin/recruiting intern for LandaJob
*production artist for corporation
*on-going temporary designer -- avg. 20 hr/wk
*online marketing manager for corporation
*CRM director
*PR manager for agency

We got embroiled in a Linked In discussion last month about search firms/headhunters/recruiters that took on a (bleak and angry) life of its own; a creative talent had some very nasty things to say about our profession. Although we're sorry to hear it, long ago we realized every profession has some bad apples. And we continue to try to illuminate the process and rules of the road to manage expectations, but some people aren't interested. We've got a track record that says we mean it when we say we put the employers' and employees' needs before our own. And, as we say to our clients: track record is everything.

Jobs are springing up all over

You should be grateful that I type, not sing. Consider taking a look at our partial list of search assignments and forwarding on to a friend: http://www.landajobnow.com/static/jobListings.html

We need:

*a Design Director for an NYC cosmetics giant
*an Account Planner for a Chicago agency
*an Editorial Asst. for a KC contract/temp assignment
*CRM and one-to-one experts

... and a lot more. It's like watching tulips bloom! Write, call, send your resume -- throw your hat in the ring.

Good ‘N Plenty? No, Fabulous & Free!

We’re excited to share our latest effort to help jobseekers:

www.Mylandajob.com

This free, really, no-salesman-will-call, site is our effort to help jobseekers everywhere. It’s simple to sign up, easy to access tools for your job search, anonymous (naturally), and valuable. Did I mention it’s free?

The process is segmented into 3 parts: Preparation, Search & Connect, and Interview. Each of these areas contains 5 or 6 tabs to walk you through the process, like these:

*Assessments – again, free – find out what really trips your trigger
*Select: determine targets and your personal brand
*Resume/Cover letter/references – there’s a (free) resume builder, a resume review option and more (like a talking Career Wizard who encourages honesty)


There are some pieces you can choose to purchase, and only if you choose, and it won’t be a surprise. For instance, there’s a resume tune-up for only $59. There are other levels of resume re-write services that top out at $169 for a senior level jobseeker.

There are also (free) forms to help you, like an organizer (oh, joy! Have you really remembered to follow-up with every contact, every time, on-time?) and an interview de-brief form. There are video training clips, webinars (like “Objections are Buying Signs”), and one weekly email.

Here’s why we’re offering it: as recruiters for full-time positions and temporary staffing agents to the same clients, we are paid by the client companies who are hiring. And we can’t help every jobseeker as much as we’d like and remain in business. But most of us got into this work because we love helping great companies find great employees and vice versa. This career portal is our way of accomplishing that loftier goal.

The gates have opened ...

In the past couple of months, our inbox runneth over. We're averaging about 50% more resumes than we have in the past several years. It appears that jobseekers know the timing is right for a new job, or just a job, if they've been out of work. News sources have been warning companies that a lot of employees are unhappy and biding their time to make moves to new jobs. It appears they were right.

Digital traffic control is slowing down with this influx, so remember to re-attach your resume when corresponding with hiring managers or recruiters. This is especially helpful if you have followed the path of responding to a post and then are fortunate enough to have pull-through from a referral on the inside of the company.

There are new positions opening up every day, but most positions have narrow requirements and the line of qualified candidates is long, so make the effort to stand out from the crowd in a positive way.

Is this Spring? Really?

Advice to the joblorn, new, available talent and a note to employers can be found in our March newsletter:

http://conta.cc/hF16pB

Warning: Some of your very best are burning out

We are hearing from lots of people recently. Yes, some calls are happy "we need to hire" calls, and there are still lots of unemployed jobseekers. But the preponderance of contacts recently has been from employees who are working and over-worked as business has picked up. One salaried person has logged over 80 hours in a week (so, no over-time and may not receive compensatory time either); another replied to a post for a lower-level job saying "I have to get out of here, before I have no family left." Another said that they've never seen a comparable firm staffed this sparsely and that the work was suffering from it.

Employers, take note: lots of people have been giving it their all and then some to overcome the deficiencies in this business economy. If you want to retain these people and want to avoid the high cost of replacement (ramp up and training time, internal and external recruiting costs, customer relationships, benefits administration, etc.) but you're not certain where the staffing budget will end up, consider using temporary/contract staff. Every field has staffing specialists who can provide every level of expertise within your business.

We know many employees happily situated in new jobs who were hired as temporary contractors, then converted to full-time, permanent employment. Try-before-you-buy works for all concerned.

Winning in the economy recovery

He who hires best, first, wins the economic recovery race.

Everyone senses or is experiencing the long-awaited turnaround in the marketplace. Thankfully, that includes recruiters, who are suddenly very busy again. Unfortunately, some employers haven’t caught on that it’s not business as usual when making hires. They still think they’re in the driver’s seat and can operate the way they have for the past few years. The opposite is true.

The reality is that the best candidates are finding jobs—quickly! Over the past few months we have seen too many companies lose out on great new hires. The practices of dangling offers, low-balling compensation and relo packages, and dragging out the process while searching for the elusive “more perfect” candidate have ended with no hire being made and highly talented candidates being hired by the competition.

Here are some tips to get your hiring practices in line with the new realities:

*Identify which hires you need to make to immediately to help your company or department get ramped up for growth.

*Create a well-defined, realistic job description with appropriate, competitive compensation and benefit packages.

*Initiate recruiting plan using posts, social media, in-house and external recruiting.

*Identify the best candidates and initiate interviews quickly.

*Merchandise your organization, environment, and benefits.

*Evaluate the finalists and move to offer.

*Don’t allow the process to get bogged down or sidetracked at any point.
Sign up for the LandaJob newsletter: http://www.landajobnow.com/ for monthly news of available candidates and industry updates.

And we're the ones with all the proofreaders!

We sent an unedited version of our newsletter yesterday, and then recovered with a second one, headlined "Oops ..."(http://conta.cc/gSax9y)

Lots of people will agree: recovery is everything. There's no way to avoid falls, slip-ups, mistakes in life, or in your career. One of the most important questions I ask in an interview is "Tell me about your biggest screw-up." If they take too long to answer, I assume they haven't experienced it yet. Or, if further along in their career, I make a note about their humility.

I'll tell you that we've already gotten calls about some of the talent we featured -- hiring is still ramping up! -- and no one mentioned the errors in our newsletter. And, hopefully, that's a mistake we won't make again.

What happened to December? and a January bonus!

Whew. We're moving f-a-s-t around here. Hiring's picking up, both in temporary and full-time and it looks like 2011 will be better for lots of people. In that vein, we're contributing Wednesday work all during January. See "Everybody works on Wednesday" on our website http://www.landajobnow.com/static/whatsNew.html for details.

And, we know, the movie line from Dave was also "Everybody works on Mondays". The point was it's good to work everyday! Call us if we can help you fill in some blanks.