When it comes to recruiting, nearly every executive I work with has two things in common: One, they understand the impact that great recruiting can have on their organization. Two, they all think that doing the recruiting work themselves is a royal pain in the rear.
The solution that many entrepreneurs and managers arrive at is to hire a full-time recruiter. While I generally agree that established businesses should have a dynamite recruiter on staff, there are some general guidelines that to consider before adding an expensive recruiting resource to the payroll.
Unless you hire at least one person a month, don’t hire a full-time recruiter. A good recruiter is going to cost you a minimum of $65K a year, before benefits. If you already have someone on staff who’s responsible for HR, then you might be able to get away with hiring a lower-level recruiter with responsibility for just sourcing (“finding”) candidates. Without the volume of at least 1 hire per month, you’re spending money needlessly. Consider using a low-cost candidate sourcing provider instead.
Most recruiters know how to do one thing: search job boards. My recruiting brethren may skewer me for saying this, but 90% of corporate recruiters are only effective when searching the major job boards for candidates. The 10% who are well-versed in high-end recruiting techniques typically end up working for a search firm – or are in business for themselves.
Two implications: one, if your business doesn’t fork out $10K a year per license for sites like Careerbuilder.com, or a premium LinkedIn license, then there is a good chance that your newly hired full-time recruiter is going to struggle, big-time. When you’re writing your job profile for the recruiter role you’re opening, ask yourself, “what kind of positions will this person be trying to fill?” Executive level roles? Technology resources? Mid-level managers? Sales? Admin? All of the above? Believe me, the answer matters.
Recruiters make cold calls. A lot of them. When you’re screening your recruiter candidates, make sure you focus in on their production. Just like sales, a recruiter should have the following approximate ratios: 100 calls to yield 10 viable candidates, 10 telephone screens to yield 3 in-person interviews, a minimum of 3 in-person interviews to yield one hire. Some recruiters will tell me that they can do their job without making a lot of cold calls. Not a risk I’m taking – I challenge you to show me a salesperson who can consistently close 6-figure deals using nothing but email.
[read the rest of this post at Better Hiring Today]
