It has been a VERY busy time in the DFW IT Staffing and Services Industry. DFW IT Staffing will resume with 2 new and original postings next week. Stay Tuned…….
Posts Tagged ‘Dallas Recruiter’
New Posts Coming Next Week
Friday, September 3rd, 2010How do we assess Value in a boutique recruiting organization?
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
Building a recruiting organization is tough work. A recruiting firm is quite different than any other company in any type of industries. Why? The basic nature of our work is different from the rest of the world. We (as recruiters) don’t have measurable assets that we can sell when it comes time to find a potential buyer. What can a potential buyer see (as measurable assets) in a recruiting organization?
As recruiters, we can normally say that our ‘client lists’ are our prized possession – however, the hard reality and truth of recruiting is that if an ‘Account Manager’ or a recruiter is not servicing an account for a specific length of time, the customer WILL go somewhere else. That’s just harsh reality. Also, the relationship between the customer and the firm is normally built by the Account Manager and not by the recruiting organization. If the account manager leaves the firm, there’s no stopping that the customer will not follow that account manager.
Now, I know that there are non-compete and non-solicitation clauses that can prevent this, however, most of the times, these non-compete and non-solicitation clauses don’t hold up in a court of law. Also, if the account manager is doing such a great job servicing the customer, there’s no stopping the customer from ‘hunting down’ that recruiter wherever he is in order to once again receive that same level of service. So, if our customer lists can easily leave a recruiting organization, the question lies, what else is left that remains a measurable asset to the firm?
Maybe the answer is people. Building a recruiting organization with strong people and forming a team might provide some value to a potential buyer. The only way that I can see value to a recruiting organization is having deep relationships with the clients. This means having more than one point of contact with the customer and servicing the customer in various ways (not just in recruiting, but maybe in organization development, HR strategy or providing a profiling service that will profile jobs against potential candidates). In this way, the customer will be hard to leave a recruiting organization because the organization has ‘poked’ the customer in various and different pain points. Now, the recruiting organization can dig deeper into culture of the organization and finally analyze why the potential candidate worked or did not work.
It is hard to assess value in a boutique recruiting organization that just does permanent search. The amount of fees (although substantial) are significant but the relationship is very transactional instead of strategic. If a firm just does contingent permanent search only, it is very hard to retain the client for 2 – 5 years. If a customer’s organization is well-managed (to be realistic, most of them are not!), there should be growth and more potential business to the recruiting organization. However, if the organization is not well managed, recruiting firms can make their money on replacement and employees leaving the customer organization.
The kicker here is that ‘how do we know that the customer will use the same recruiting organization over and over again’. Let’s be frank: There is no loyalty from the customer in recruiting (we – as recruiters – might think we have that big exclusive assignment only) but I can tell you that exclusivity is a myth. Exclusivity might last at most two weeks and if a recruiting firm does not perform within that timeframe, there’s no reason why that the customer can’t go shopping around. I understand that upfront retainer fees can prevent this – but with the plethora of recruiting organizations on the market providing payment upon hire services, why would a customer pay upfront?
As you can see, customer loyalty has very little value when assessing boutique recruiting organization.
3 quick ways to begin engaging with candidates today!
Friday, July 16th, 2010
“This is a guest post, by Chris Brablc, who blogs for SmashFly Technologies at http://blog.smashfly.com.”
Originally posted on the SmashFly Recruitment Marketing Blog.
With the rise of sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, it is readily apparent of the importance of building connections into your Talent Networks. With every new connection you experience exponential growth to your network as you not only become connected to that one person but to all their connections as well. The bigger you build your network base, the more influence and reach you have to spread your message and employment brand to others.
The key to building these networks is candidate engagement or the process of interacting with interested candidates with your employer brand. This interaction can take many forms but the key is providing value to your Talent Network in their careers. Whether it’s useful job searching tools / advice or great job opportunities, it’s important to keep in touch with the best candidates on recurring basis.
Over the past few months, I’ve seen a lot of people stress the importance of candidate engagement in their recruiting process but few that have actually provided examples of simple ways to put this in action.
So here are 3 quick ways to help engage with interested candidates and build your Talent Network:
Get Social: One of the best ways to stay connected is through social networks. The key with social networks however, is the time commitment needed to make the initiative successful so make sure you have this commitment from your recruiting organization to provide value on a timely basis through this medium whether it’s Twitter, Facebook or another social network. Lastly, once you create and start engaging with candidates, you need to make sure you are transparently providing incoming qualified candidates with a way to connect with these social networks whether it’s a simple link on your career page or a call to action directly in your application process!
Starting a profile takes less than a minute, so try it out now!
Opt-In Opportunities: As candidates are coming to your career site and filling out job applications, you have a tremendous opportunity to collect their contact information and add them to your network. After that you have permission to engage. Through email & SMS, you will be able to provide the value to candidates that will ensure a steady flow of great candidates for future job positions. A monthly newsletter could be a great way to start engaging with candidates.
Career Blog: One of the best ways to get found and engage by qualified candidates is to create great content on the specific disciplines you are recruiting for. Make it a habit to consistently create great content that provides value to the best candidates in your field and you will instantly gain trust among these group of potential star employees. Make sure that your career blog provides an RSS feed for candidates to subscribe to, making it easy to follow your content.
Get started in improving your candidate engagement today as there are plenty of simple, free ways to keep in touch with your best candidates. The hard up front work of engaging with candidates and building your Talent Network will yield great results. As once you build that critical mass of qualified candidates, you will have an extraordinary recruitment marketing pipeline to work with as you look to find great employees for future positions.
About the Author: Chris is the Marketing Analyst for SmashFly Technologies. SmashFly is the provider of the first recruitment marketing platform called WildFire that enables companies and staffing firms to easily distribute and more importantly measure the performance of their recruiting efforts online.
The WildFire recruitment marketing platform offers every tool you need for your recruitment marketing needs all in one centralized solution including Real-Time Recruitment Metrics, Job Ad Distribution (job boards, social networks, SEM, email & SMS campaigns), Recruitment Opt-In Database, Recruitment CRM, Web Commercials / Micro-sites and Resume Sourcing services.
“It only takes one!”
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
In one of my recent blog posts I addressed the fact that Dallas / Fort Worth is a Hot Market for IT candidates and, hopefully, by now you have started to convince your clients of the same.
I have spoken to a number of staffing companies and hiring managers over the last few months and I am hearing things like “Best month we’ve had in two years”, “I can’t remember the last time we’ve made so many offers”. As a blogger who actually works in the IT Staffing and Services business, I can personally tell you that I haven’t seen this many job orders in a couple of years and the candidates are getting multiple offers and quickly taking new positions. Which brings me to my new philosophy…………”It only takes one!”
My philosophy on covering jobs has always and continues to be at least 3 qualified candidates per open job requirement; however, with this sudden influx of opportunities my new thought is it only takes one qualified candidate to get the job. If you are an IT Account Manager or Recruiter, you understand the value in expediting or shortening the sales cycle. It’s time to start pressing our buyers (Clients, Hiring Managers, HR, Procurement, etc) to do the same. If we can collectively push our clients to make a decision once they’ve seen a great candidate, we’ll all be better for it.
It only takes one great candidate to get the deal. I know that some of your clients like to compare candidates, but as soon as our clients start in on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th candidate, they could lose the “one” to another company willing to make the move. Remember that the clients are always the last to know that the market is hot and it is our duty as IT Service Professionals to educate them.
Let’s collectively take the first step by letting our clients know that it only takes one great candidate and that the days of interviewing 8 people for 1 position are coming to an end.
We also need to move the “It only takes one!” philosophy to the interview process itself. I actually like clients that have the phone screen – face to face – offer process. We need to get past the 4/5 different interviews for the same candidate. I know that some clients like to believe that they are being thorough and that it adds value but as a 17 year veteran of recruiting (wildly successful I might add) it doesn’t. Too many client interviews waste valuable time in production for existing staff and personal time for the candidate. If a client wants to do 4 or 5 different interviews, knock them out in 1 day. Good candidates don’t like waiting, especially the good ones that are currently working (Taking time out of work to interview can be stressful). It’s OK if you don’t agree with me – I’ll show you my numbers if you show me yours.
Even if you don’t agree with the “It only takes one!” philosophy, at least educate your clients that the market is hot. We IT Staffing and Service professionals are the first to know. I mean, we do this for a living don’t we? Our clients usually can be a 6 month lag if we leave them unchecked. Let’s not let that happen.
I sincerely hope that we can collectively build an “It only takes one!” mindset and hopefully get it to catch on.
2 NEW POSTS!!
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010Below are 2 Blog posts that were recently featured on Recruitingblogs.com . At DFW IT Staffing, we believe the market has picked up to the point where it is a candidate’s market and the following articles reflect that trend.
The articles were written by Sam Smith and John Sanders. You can connect with both Sam and John on Recruitingblogs.com
We hope you enjoy:
From an Employer’s Market to a Candidate’s Market, the Shift is On!
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010The following article was written by Sam Smith. You can view other postings and Sam Smith’s blog by clicking
on the Gravity Icon.
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote a blog post about the recovery of the technology job market, referencing positive indicators found on Indeed.com. Well, the trend continues and it’s now evident that we’ve undergone a shift
from an employer’s market to a candidate’s market.
As few as 4 months ago, employers were at the helm. But the recovery has created a sharp spike in demand for tech talent and caused a noticeable shift giving job seekers the upper hand. More jobs and higher quality opportunities are
great for Bay Area job seekers. People that have been out of work are finding
it easier to get interviews and there plenty of exciting opportunities for
those passive job seekers that are considering an upgrade.
But this is not rosy news from everyone. The increased activity spells trouble specifically for unprepared employers. Increased demand creates competition and requires employers to, among other things, streamline
interview processes in order to make decisions faster. Salaries are up too. The average starting salary for a software
engineer in the Bay Area has increased nearly 3% since January. Businesses need
to make subtle adjustments to how they interview and must be willing to be flexible
when approaching compensation conversations.
Here’s evidence of a shift to a candidate’s market from the technical recruiters at GravityPeople.
1. Simply, there are more jobs available. This is creating demand for technical
professionals in major tech centers across the US.
2. Candidates are receiving multiple offers. Other than the sheer number of new jobs that we are trying to fill, the fact that
many candidates are receiving multiple offers is a tell-tale sign that job
seekers are in the driver’s seat.
3. Smart companies have responded to competition in the employment markets by shortening interview cycles. At the beginning of
2010, we were seeing average interview cycles taking nearly 4 weeks. Today, aggressive employers are moving
applicants through processes that are designed to take less than 14 days.
4. Candidates, presented with multitudes of viable opportunities, are increasingly more selective. In December 2009, very few
active job seekers would decline the opportunity to interview for regional
jobs. Today, job seekers are much more sensitive
to title, commute and compensation.
How to Conduct a Passive Search
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010The following article was posted by John Sanders. You can view other articles by John Sanders at http://www.akajohnsanders.com
It’s true; most employers prefer passive candidates. A passive candidate is a gainfully employed professional who is open to hearing about career opportunities and would actually accept a new job if it made sense to them and their family.
Employers believe that a person is employed because they are the top of crop. When I say employers I refer to specific managers who maintain this mindset. I don’t personally know of any managers who think this way, but I have come across hundreds who feel this way.
Infinity Consulting Solutions conducted a study in 2009 where 400+ job seekers in the New York City area were asked whether employers preferred employed candidates over unemployed candidates, 59% believed that employers indeed preferred employed candidates.
To most of us this is no secret. So today I am going to show you how to conduct a passive job search. Once you are done reading this article, you will have learned the art of changing jobs when you want to, not when you have to!
Phase I – Things you can start doing now:
1. Take your resume off all of the job boards. You don’t want to be seen as someone who is always looking. Sure job boards are a good way to attract every recruiter on the planet, but is that what you want? My advice is to focus on quality not quantity.
2. Make a list of the following information:
- target companies
- target job titles
- target salary, compensation
- target geographic location
- any if/then scenario (i.e. if the salary offered is above $300k, then I will take a job in Siberia)
3. Look within your own organization for opportunities that fit your criteria. This is a very important step. It also should always be your first, second and third option. Always give your current employer more than a fair shot to meet your needs and to ensure that you are compensated at market value.
Don’t wait to engage your employer after you have accepted another offer. That is bad business and its called a counter-offer. For more information on why that is career suicide, read here: http://akajohnsanders.com/?p=752
4. Keep your ears open for any opportunity that you hear about. You will be surprised what you hear after you really start paying attention. Also, conduct targeted searches on sites like Indeed & Simply Hired and look for opportunities that fit your criteria. Remember the objective here is to build on your current career.
5. Go to the career sites of companies that you are interested in working for and submit your resume to openings that they have. If there are no openings, don’t apply. Let a recruiter do that for you. I will have to explain ”why” in another article, but for now just take my word for it.
Phase II – Find a specialized recruiter to help:
1. Ask your trust worthy peers if they know of any recruiters that they can recommend. Or look online for a specialist recruiter in your field. Notice I said specialist recruiter. Believe it or not, most good recruiters only recruit for one or two areas of specialization. A do it all recruiter will probably be spread too thin to help you in the long run. Just like you would not let your plumber pull your teeth, don’t let any recruiter find your next job. Only work with a specialized recruiter from your industry.
2. Once you have identified your recruiter, interview that recruiter. If they are good, they will gladly share their information & accomplishments with you. If they are out to make a quick buck, they will be a lot less patient with you. Learn how they protect your privacy, what companies do they currently work with. How do they plan on helping you? These are all valid questions to ask.
3. After you have selected your recruiter(s), share your list of requirements with them. And tell them that this is your criteria for entertaining any opportunity. Let them give you feedback on whether you are being realistic or not. If all is well then sit back and let your recruiter go to work for you.
4. If there are target companies on your list that do not have any external openings, then ask your recruiter to try and work the inside track. A lot of the top jobs never make it to the public job sphere. If your recruiter is really good, they will be well networked within your industry and will be able to get your name in front of the right people.
5. Most importantly be as open and honest with your recruiter. The more accurately you explain your requirements the easier it will be for them to help you.
Now that you understand the 2 Phases of setting up your passive search. Here is a bonus. Use LinkedIn until something better comes out. Update your professional profile and link to other professionals within your industry. The more visible you are on LinkedIn, the better it is for your passive job search.
If you continuously invest a few hours a week into these activities while remaining fully engaged at work, you will eventually build an opportunity pipeline that will benefit you in the long run. And at some point through these efforts a great opportunity will present itself.
After all, good things happen to those who are in the right place at the right time!
If you have any additional questions on how to conduct a passive job search, you can contact me directly at:
john.sanders@jobisms.com You are at: http://www.akajohnsanders.com
Just Give Us the Facts
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
Since we started the DFW IT Staffing blog, I have received feedback from some of my readers (Job Seekers, Recruiters, Hiring Managers) that I can come off as rude and/or obnoxious with some of my opinions. Unfortunately, I have a great deal of historical perspective that has shaped my opinions and views that I cannot change – I’m old, what can I say?
If you think that my previous posts have been rude, you will not like this particular post but, keep in mind, I am trying to help some of you Job Seekers that may be looking for or, more importantly, needing a job.
I think I can speak for most recruiters when I tell you that it is very frustrating when we are screening a prospective candidate to have to sit through a candidate’s attempt to dazzle us with what they think they “can do” instead of what they “have done” or technical ramblings that have nothing to do with the skill sets or position that is being discussed.
If you are an IT Job Seeker and are being screened by a recruiter, I have a few tips that will help expedite the process and get you to a Hiring Manager quickly and efficiently:
How Long and How Recent?
Simply put, how long have you worked with a particular skill/tool or been in a particular role and when was the last time that you worked with the tool or were in the position? Give a straight answer. We know that there can be circumstances but most of the time, it’s an easy answer. Anything other than number of years and last position in your Employment History is typically a waste of both of our times.
Do you have the skill or not?
Recruiters, Hiring Managers and Interviewers in general do not want a story from you about how you worked with a skill that is similar or that the skill is really like another skill wrapped in a different package. Now, I can hear the arguments – “As a Job Seeker you should point out the similarities to sell yourself”. As a recruiter, I can tell you that this RARELY works unless you have 99.9% of the other skills the client is looking for. You are better off stating that you do not have the skill THEN go into a brief explanation of similar skills or your ability to pick up things quickly.
Keep it simple
Most IT recruiters do not understand code, scripts, polymorphism, inheritance, etc. You are wasting your time with too much tech talk. Keep the conversation to an overview level. We definitely like to be educated on things we do not know but keep the descriptions at the Recruiter level – somewhere between middle school and community college.
I hope these tips are helpful and I didn’t come off as too direct. Keep in mind that my goal is to help IT Job Seekers get a position and quickly move from the screening process with a recruiter to an interview with a hiring manger. That is a fact!!
Are you a Farm Animal or are you Wildlife?
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
Anyone that has worked with me for a period of time knows that the Farm Animal vs Wildlife analogy is one of my favorites. I typically classify Recruiters and Business Development professionals in one of the two categories. My categorization is based upon the simple premise that there are some people that hunt for their food (you can use money if you prefer) and some that wait for the food to be delivered.
Instead of a long diatribe about what constitutes a Farm Animal and/or Wildlife, I will provide a short synopsis of examples on how each category handles particular situations:
Sales Calls
Your typical Farm Animal will call a prospective client or candidate and “wait” for a return call. Now, I understand that you don’t want to make a prospective customer/candidate angry, but a person that fits into the Wildlife category understands that prospective clients and candidates are busy and they do not have the time to call back. “Wildlife Professionals” may leave 1 message but they will call throughout the day in order to reach the prospect and they will be ready with their intro and services. I have been known to call a candidate 10 times in 20 minutes (I would advise a funny quip regarding a restraining order once they answer).
Follow Up
Once again, Wildlife Professionals will make it their duty to follow up with a prospect on a regular basis. For example, you reach a prospect and are told “We aren’t hiring right now, call back next quarter”. Now, your typical Farm Animal will actually wait until next quarter. A Wildlife Professional will call back in a month or less. I know some of you don’t agree with that philosophy and I can only say MOOOOO…MOOOOOO.
Emails
This one is tricky. Most managers that I deal with prefer email and I agree that it is one of the best ways to reach a manager (Text being the other) but you have to follow up with all forms of communication. A Farm Animal will send an email and wait for a Manager or Candidate to respond. If you are Wildlife, you don’t have the time or patience to let someone control your destiny and you are continually following up with calls, more emails or text.
Meetings
Think of meetings like a lioness getting low to the ground and stalking prey. It is a required skill for the hunt. If you have a sales person not meeting with a client or recruiters not scheduling meetings with candidates, you have a Farm Animal eating at the trough. Meetings build relationships and lead to deals.
Bottom line, Wildlife drives the process and Farm Animals wait for things to happen. I don’t know about you but, when I wake up in the morning, I ROAR!!!
Snap Back to Reality
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
I have recently heard from many DFW professionals in the IT Staffing and Solutions business that tell me their business is back in a big way and are seeing dramatic increases in Job Requisitions both on a contract and direct hire basis.
Recent articles by Staffing Industry Analysts point to a healthy increase in Direct Hire, IT Executive positions, in the DFW area. I believe it’s time to take advantage of this market by spreading the news to Job Seekers, HR and Hiring Managers. Sometimes they are the last to know that the market is picking up. I’m not saying that they are ignorant or blind to the market. Sometimes they are too busy with their companies and core business and, as IT Staffing Professionals, it is our job to make them aware that the recession is over (at least from an IT Staffing point o view in DFW). While we’re at it, we can also eliminate some misperceptions from IT Talent and people in hiring positions:
I know you’ve got a couple of hundred resumes but……
…how many candidates are a fit. One misconception that we have to overcome as staffing professionals is that a high volume of unqualified resumes from people that answer on-line ads or are sent by agencies do not equate to an abundance of talent in the marketplace. On the contrary, this is one constant in an up or down market and one of the reasons that good recruiters stay in business. This year, I am personally speaking with more candidates that have multiple job offers. Make your HR Contacts and Hiring Managers aware that the good people are interviewing and getting offers (quickly).
Afraid to check out those new opportunities in a tight job market because you need your current job
My answer: Then stay; however, you need to know that the market has picked up and it is time to start looking. Start passively looking at the job boards and call a recruiter that you trust. There are 5 staffing companies that I spoke to for this article, and based upon their feedback, we averaged that Job Requisitions were up over 20% from last year. Now is the time put your “feelers” out. You owe it to your candidates to explain that the market in DFW has, at the very least, improved over the last 2 years.
We have too many vendors on our current list and are trying to shorten the list
I gotta tell ya, I hear this no matter what the economy and hiring trends tell us. DFW IT Staffing speaks with over 15 local VMS Administrators on a weekly basis and, while most of them tell us they would like to shorten their vendor lists, the same people tell us that their current vendors are challenged to find the hiring managers perceived higher end skills and talent that eventually get farmed out or project/outsourced to IT Solution or Consulting Companies. Work with your VMS Administrators and Hiring Managers to determine their hard to find skill sets or projects that are outsourced and determine if you can find a solution.
Personally, I have a philosophy that no matter what the economy, unemployment percentages or staffing analysts tell me, Talented IT Professionals are always hard to find. Maybe that’s using ignorance as an advantage.
One of my favorite characters is Chance the Gardener from the movie Being There. The movie is about a simple-minded gardener (Chance) who ultimately becomes a presidential candidate because of his simple musings and his ignorance to the world around him. In the final scene, as the party elite discuss their choice of Chance as their preferred candidate in the upcoming presidential election, Chance is seen wandering over an estate. He comes to the edge of a lake and then proceeds to seemingly defy gravity by walking on the surface of the water, and not sinking into it. I like to think that Chance did not drown or fall into the water because he developed his own reality or maybe he was just too simple to know that he should sink.
My point is this: Develop your own reality and keep a positive mindset no matter the outside influences and remember that the market is what you make it. The best way to change market perception is to verbalize what’s going on for individuals that aren’t privy to the info.
Good luck and spread the word that IT Staffing is back in a big way in DFW and for some of you, it never left.