6 Reasons Why You Should Use a Recruiter

Some people (recruiters especially) would tell you that you should use a recruiter first thing. I would say try to tap into your own network first for people you know would be good possible job candidates for the job. If you don’t have success with that then you should use a recruiter. I’m not talking about your company’s internal recruiter either. They are good at the more general positions, but unless they have experience specifically finding, attracting, and hiring Regulatory, Clinical and Quality professionals, their success is usually pretty limited.

When we are told we can only talk to HR about helping in a search, they almost always tell us they are finding some good job candidates on their own and don’t need my help, but when we talk to the actual hiring manager they tell us a very different story. They are either seeing a lot of resumes – most of which are pretty lousy, or they are getting very few resumes and they are still not very good. Let’s face it, good Regulatory, Clinical, and Quality people are hard to find no matter what the employment market is like and rarely have the time to go scouring the internet to find your opportunity.

WHY SHOULD YOU USE A RECRUITER?

There are 6 reasons you may want to consider using a recruiter to fill a critical position on your team:

Reason 1: A good recruiter will take the time to get to know what problems you are trying to solve by filling an open position. In order for them to do their job and find the right person for you, they have to focus on the true needs you have and the requirements the successful job candidate MUST have to do the job. This makes the company really focus and helps them make better hiring decisions. Some of the multi-page job descriptions that contain things like “Must be able to sit at a computer for extended periods of time and occasionally lift up to 25 pounds” are pretty worthless and do not help you find or identify the right person for the job.

Reason 2: A good recruiter (especially if they specialize) can access a broader range of qualified and interested job candidates than you can. Only 30% of the qualified talent pool is either actively or semi-actively in job changing mode. These are the ones that respond to ads. The other 70% are busy working and not looking. But a specialized recruiter can access that other 70% to find the person you need.

Reason 3: A good recruiter can drastically reduce the chance of a job candidate withdrawing from contention before an offer is made. Since we establish a rapport with the job candidates we submit, we can tell you of other companies they are talking to, or offers they may be getting. We can keep in touch with the job candidates when the interviewing process breaks down so they are not left wondering what’s going on, and moving on to other opportunities.

Reason 4: A good recruiter can greatly increase the likelihood that your offer gets accepted, and the job candidate shows up on the first day. Since we don’t work directly for our client companies, job candidates are more willing to talk freely about what they are looking for in a job, and what concerns them about a possible opportunity. With that knowledge, and by constantly re-affirming their interest in a possible offer from you, and re-qualifying them on why this opportunity is a good fit for them, we get the people you want over 90% of the time (that’s our success rate, not for recruiters in general).

Reason 5: A good recruiter can greatly reduce the chance of a job candidate accepting a counter offer from their current employer – leaving you without a new hire and having to start the whole process over again. By constructing a good transition strategy including helping the job candidate navigate the resignation and exit process from their current employer, and arming them with how to handle a counter offer situation, you won’t be left with any unwelcomed surprises at the end of the process. This alone will save you a tremendous amount of time, money and frustration; because if a counter offer is accepted you not only lose that job candidate, but most likely lose any runner-up job candidates as well.

Reason 6: Establishing a good relationship with a recruiter offers you a few other benefits that most people don’t think about. For one, you no longer have to settle for mediocre performance from your staff. If someone is underperforming, you can discreetly contact your recruiter and have them find a few alternative job candidates for you to replace the underperformer. The recruiter can also quickly find the right people for you when you need to add to your team because they already know your company, your team, and you. And another benefit is that you can have the right of first refusal on some of the best talent out there. Since we are talking to top performers all the time, when one decides they are ready to look for a new opportunity you can be informed of their availability before anyone else knows about them.

Our client companies are friends and partners in solving critical staffing problems. We like to know what they do, how the team works, what the company is like to work for, and how we can help them achieve their goals. We want them to know how we work, what to expect, and have confidence that we can do what we say. It’s not a transactional type of relationship, but more of a partnership, and both sides benefit from it.



How to Prepare for a New Hire

New Hire at Company

The time between accepting an offer and the end of the first week on the new job can be an emotional time for a new hire.  During this period your new employee will feel disconnected from the job they had, and uncertain about what lies ahead.  This makes them extremely vulnerable to a counter offer.  There are a few steps that you can take to make them feel welcome and confirm to them they have made the right decision.

Once your offer letter has been signed and returned to you, you need to start preparing to bring your new employee on board. These are small actions on your part, but have a huge, positive impact on a new hire. The suggested steps are:

  1. Send a Welcome Package – This would include any company promotional material, an employee handbook, benefits package, etc.
  2. Notify Payroll of the new employee so there is no delay in them getting paid.
  3. Notify Security (if applicable) to get the process of providing them with a security/I.D. badge underway.
  4. Create an Email and Voicemail account for them along with instructions on how to change their password.
  5. Office Announcements – Let the rest of the team know about the new employee and include their new phone number and email address. A nice touch would be to have the team send them a welcome email or voice mail.
  6. Introductory Lunch – Within the first few days on the job, arrange for a lunch with the new employee and the rest of the department or key people they will interact with. This too helps them settle in quickly and start feeling like part of the team.
  7. Industry Announcement (if applicable)
  8. Start the enrollment process for health and other benefit programs.
  9. Allocate a Work Space. Make sure they have a desk (cleaned out) and computer (preferably loaded and configured) on the day they start. There is nothing worse than showing up to your new job excited about getting going only to find that you had been forgotten about, and not planned for. Having a place ready for them lets them know you are happy they have joined your team, and allows them to get settled in and become productive much faster.
  10. Order Business Cards and Office Name Plates. Again, a simple touch, but it tells the new employee you’re glad they have joined your team.

 

Once your new employee knows you have gone to the trouble to make them feel welcome, they are much more confident they have made the right choice and feel ready to start this next step in their career. It also makes your job easier because you know you are ready for your new team member to begin without having to do a last minute dash. I hope this list is helpful and makes this process as smooth as possible for you.



7 Steps to Resolving Conflict

Company Conflict

Whether in your professional life or your personal life, you are going to run into someone that is causing problems either for you directly, or for your group. Most people prefer to avoid conflict and end up harboring resentment, and get stressed out because the situation doesn’t change. Here are a few simple steps to help you approach the person causing the conflict and resolving the situation or at least bring the problem to their attention.

  1. Set up a private meeting with the person. If you call the person out in front of others it will only embarrass them. This will only cause them to become defensive and make a positive outcome very unlikely.
  2. There are basically two types of mindsets people have; they are either LEARNERS or JUDGERS. Most of us go through life judging ourselves or others, but when you come to this meeting, come with the attitude of LEARNING and not JUDGING. If you go in with a judgmental attitude towards the person this too will get their defenses up very quickly. Instead, go in with the attitude that you want to learn what is going on with the person that is causing the disruptive behavior. You never know what might be going on in their life that may be causing the behavior.
  3. Start by telling the other person how important they are to you and the team so they know they are valued.
  4. Focus on the behavior that is causing the problem and not the person. Don’t make general statements like “you are ALWAYS late”, or “you NEVER follow through”. Again, this comes across as very judgmental and sets the wrong tone for the meeting. Instead, simply state your observation such as “I’ve noticed that for the past 4 meetings you have been coming in late”.
  5. Let them know SPECIFICALLY how this behavior is causing problems for you or the team. Such as, “by coming in late it holds us all up from being able to finish the meeting on time so we can get back to work and it’s really not fair to the other team members” or “we end up having to go back over material that you missed and some of the other team members have complained that this is wasting their time”. Try to keep your comments to actual problems and keep emotions out of it.
  6. Ask them if there is something going on with them that is causing the behavior and really listen to them. By giving them a chance to explain what is going on and offering to help if you can changes the tone of what could be a tense and unpleasant conversation into one that shows you are concerned about them and want to help.
  7. If there is something you can do to help the situation, let them know what you are willing to do to help them resolve the problem. For example, if they are having a hard time getting to your meetings on time, consider changing the time of the meeting to better accommodate their schedule if the other team members agree. Ask them what they think they can do to improve things as well.
  8. Do a quick summary of what both of you are willing to do and get a commitment to make the changes by a certain date. Also have them agree to meet with you again in a week or two to go over the progress on resolving the issue or see if there are other things that need to be done.

This same approach works if you are the one being confronted by someone that is irate or being judgmental. If you are the one being confronted:

  1. Try to move the conversation to a more private location.
  2. STAY IN A LEARNER MODE.
  3. Tell them how much you value their contributions and that you want to understand their issue and resolve it.
  4. Ask them for specific examples of the behavior that is troubling them.
  5. Ask them what the impact of the behavior is and how it makes them feel.
  6. Ask for their suggestions on what behavior they think would help.
  7. Work with them to find a solution that works for both of you.

I hope these steps help in making your work environment more collaborative and efficient. I would love to hear back on your experience in using this technique.

Good luck!

Jeff King