Recruitment
www.abacusrecruit.com.au
Recruitment/Retention/Revenue - 3 R Manifesto
12 Self Evident PropositionsPreamble
* Yes, there are minor exceptions to each Proposition.
* Yes, each could be expressed more tactfully and qualified with more words (as I have in my books and media articles).
* But words just remove the spotlight from the significant problems of a self-serving industry. Direct and blunt is harder to ignore.
The Propositions:
1. That there are only small pockets of skills scarcity. Six powerful groups continuously promote a Skills Crisis for their own self interest. However, there is scarcity if you continue to follow most other employers and do what has failed in the past - insanity says Einstein.
2. That there are major untapped and ignored pools of talent which are often discussed in the media. However, just knowing they exist and paying lip service to hiring from them will not get an employer the best from any pool: it requires focus and changes to your processes.
3. That people who are paid on commission focus on money. A commission sales person is not an advisor or consultant. How your suppliers are remunerated matters if you want uncompromised advice to achieve your goals.
4. That virtually all recruitment 'consultants' are paid by commissions. Even recruiters who are paid a base 'salary' - given their performance is only judged by the revenue they produce, the 'salary' is just an advance on their commission cheque. They remain commission sales people.
5. That recruitment has a huge staff turnover (ironic given their role) because recruiters who can't generate sales don't survive. Turnover matters as employers need advice to hire well - but many in the industry are inexperienced with no time to learn skills.
6. That recruiters have the ability to improve the perceived quality of their product and can unethically profit from it. It simply involves not revealing something negative about 'their' candidate, something they can later deny knowing about. Clearly large commissions payable the day the candidate starts work severely aggravates this problem.
7. That the recruitment industry is remunerated by a candidate joining an employer so it's what they focus on. Their earnings are unaffected by how long the employee stays.
8. That the guarantees provided by the industry are virtually worthless. Their fee was paid, now they have to replace for free. In a world where there are thousands of recruiters and many thousands of potential clients, lip service is often paid to the hard task of replacement.
9. That large, expensive advertisements in the front of newspapers primarily benefit the recruitment firms. The money trail always reveals the truth: Some big recruitment firms pay substantial cash incentives to staff for selling ads. It's not altruism but clever commercial logic that disregards the needs of their clients who pay for their PR.
10. That the majority of career advice is delivered by those who the public believe are the experts - recruiters. But they are people with an agenda. Whose advice is often tainted by blatant self interest (big dollars if the person takes their client's job) and often by ignorance and inexperience (high staff turnover). The cost to people's wealth and happiness is colossal.
11. That the anti-discrimination laws passed more than 20 years ago made discrimination on age and gender worse. The laws drove the problem underground - it was removed from advertisements, so 'undesirables' were encouraged to apply but then they were quietly and discreetly weeded out. So now we have both discrimination and a huge waste of time for both employers and applicants.
12. That virtually any employer, small or large, can find star employees if they follow some simple processes and 'think different'.
The Goals of the Recruitment Manifesto
* For the majority of recruitment firms to become ethical professionals who work in partnership with their clients and be rewarded for services rendered and retention
* For people to manage their careers and find rewarding employment with less hindrance from ignorance, greed, prejudice and poor information flows
* For good employers to learn of recruitment firms that follow a different model - one based on retention, professional salaries and ethics.
The Methodology to Achieve the Goals
* Bringing the secretive and self serving recruitment industry practices into the bright light of day
* Promoting the internet as the best method of matching people to jobs - and clearing transaction driven recruitment agencies and newspapers out of the way
Providing the information and resources that employers and employees need to make good, informed decisions
Recruiting Great Planners? Forget it.
In this article we are not going to focus on the mechanics of recruiting - There are only 2 methods to attract quality planners to your practice:1. Recruit them yourself by spending time building a pool of potential candidates. You then get to know them and build mutual trust, and after 3, 6 or even 12 months, some of them will join you.
The best way to meet your pool is at industry functions and conferences. Another way is to run a series of ads in the trade press, inviting people to 'commence a dialogue' with you. A single ad is unlikely to be effective, and does not send a 'we are committed' message.
Some practice or regional managers have made an art form out of this, such as industry veteran Peter Fysh of Financial Services Partners. He would be the first to acknowledge that his success comes after significant time and effort. However, many dealer groups are simply too short term focused to make this investment.
We would recommend that all practices follow this pool approach, as it is low cost and will deliver quality planners. However, if your need is more urgent, or your time is scarce or if you need more than 1 or 2 planners, then%u2026
2. Form a trust based partnership with a specialist planning recruitment consultant. There is simply no point in briefing multiple agencies - you will just get 'disgruntled bank planners' sent to you! Again, don't expect quick results from this method, though it's more likely with an experienced partner than if you work on your own.
This advice to work with a consultant begs the question of how you find a partner you can trust? There are well over a hundred 'consultants' trying to do planning recruitment in Sydney, probably about a hundred in Melbourne, and proportionately similar numbers elsewhere.
One approach is to ask your industry colleagues for endorsements. If you can't find a consultant who is strongly endorsed, don't feel discouraged as it's not unusual (see Inside Knowledge for why many recruiters make insurance salesmen from the 1980s look good!).
Without an endorsement, you need to put recruiters through a 'beauty parade', and ask them some tough questions. A practical piece of advice would be to ask some of these questions over the phone to narrow the Melbourne Cup sized field - your time is too precious to waste in meetings. We'll only look at 4 broad filters here, and there is more analysis on Inside Knowledge.
Firstly, if they try to sell you an expensive mass media advertisement, eliminate them. You are just paying for their publicity. It is also likely that they overly rely on such advertisements and haven't built other recruitment skills such as search.
Secondly, have they recruited 3 or more planners in the last 12 months? If not, let someone else's business pay to teach them the incredible complexities of financial planning. A generalist recruiter just won't have the knowledge you need, nor understand that there is no such thing as a generic planner - there are 40 or more different categories, some would argue over 100.
Thirdly, have they at least 2 years recruiting experience, and hopefully a lot more? It takes time to learn the mass of detail in our industry, as it does in yours.
And finally, do they have trust-based relationships with 2 or more financial planning groups? If they haven't, they probably don't have the skills or temperament to move away from a short-term transaction focus.
The one factor that is critical in successfully recruiting planners is trust. You, or you and your recruitment consultant partner, have to invest the time to build it.
www.abacusrecruit.com.au
Toby's Magical Manual
Free: Chapter 1
Toby Marshall has been working to connect candidates and employers for 19 years.
He is an accomplished and entertaining public speaker who understands the real dynamics of the recruitment industry. Toby shares his insight and no-nonsense, easy-to-implement solutions in "The Ultimate Recruitment Manual" , a manual designed for employers from all industries who want to hire from one to 1000 great employees.
Toby's analysis of the employment market lead him to a powerful conclusion: that the job market is fundamentally flawed and inefficient. This inspired him to develop a set of solutions that would solve skill shortages for employers and enable candidates to find a better job.
Toby has been a recruiter, an employer and an employee. He has been recruited, retrenched and has launched, liquidated and sold two businesses.
Toby is married with two almost grown up children. He is an active member of his community and holds many industry and not for profit chairmanships. His interests include skiing, sailing, travel, gardening, debating, fitness and watching the world go by in cafes.
Some of his friends describe e Toby as a Practical Eccentric. For example, he rides a Vespa with a flag on the back, possibly the only motor bike with a flag in Australia. But it's there for safety, to be practical, just a s the scooter is practical for city commuting. This manual is a practical aid for navigating the many roads that make up the great world of employment.
In Toby's view, it's the others who are eccentric for being flagless.
With this manual he hopes to help both employers and employees find what they need to achieve their goals and live out their passions. Written by an industry insider, "T he Ultimate Recruitment Manual" is your roadmap for navigating the complex and often exasperatingly irrational job market in Australasia.
Why do companies routinely pay tens of thousands of dollars to commission-based recruiters who simply introduce a name and resume?
Why does the recruitment industry have a staff turnover rate over 50 per cent? This is the same industry that promises you employees who will stay with you long term. So who pays the real price of this inefficiency? You do.
If you want to hire great people, you need to understand the dynamics of the recruitment industry. Understanding the way head-hunters work and what motivates them will enable you to work the system to your benefit.
Realising that the way you outsource recruitment may be damaging your business is the first step.
This manual puts you in the driver's seat and provides the roadmap you need to hire great people.
If you would like a copy of this free E-book' please click onto the link below
The 15 Secrets to Finding Great Employees When You Need Them
Graduate Recruitment & Gen Y
Graduate Recruitment - how did we get into such a mess and how can we fix it
The world of business is so different from fifty years ago. One big change is WHEN our smartest young people enter the workforce - they are MUCH older.But how we bring graduates into the corporate world doesn't recognise or allow for these changes - the result is a big waste of money and a lot of pain.
The smart kids, the ones who now do 4 or 5 year degrees, used to leave school and most started work immediately - joining the corporate world was all about part-time study. You started at the bottom with filing, copying and running errands and you were given an afternoon off to go to lectures. After a year or so you were put into a real job. If you didn't like it, most just put up with it and worked hard to get a promotion or moved to somewhere better.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the smartest kids went straight to University in much greater numbers, with most doing 3 or 4 year degrees. Again, most of them joined a firm when they graduated and stayed there for years. It was what everybody did.
Since the 1990s, more of the best students study full-time for 4 or 5 years AND now have large loans to the government that have to be repaid. Not getting these kids solid exposure to the corporate world much earlier in their lives, and then into the right job causes the waste.
The usual Graduate Program shoves unprepared kids with few survival skills into the deep end - though a better analogy would be shoving them into a wild river with some scary rapids!
Under our current system we isolate them from 'grown up' work until they are quite old - at least 21 and usually 2 years older. Then they start a job which has an absurdly high chance of failure.
When they quit or need to be sacked, companies excuse the failure with "it's just Gen Y, they won't stick in a job".
Rubbish.
Professionals in recruitment know that if a new job involves too many changes from what a person used to do, there is a high risk of failure. What sort of factors combine to create failure in a new job and are present in most roles for new Graduates?
1. A totally new job role, one they have no experience with.
2. Change how they work: go from a part-time role with VERY flexible hours to full time for 40++ hours.
3. Change them from a small organisation to a very large one (remember big firms are where most of the best grads go).
4. Have them join a new, totally alien culture in a VERY different tribe that has lots of unspoken rules on how to behave.
Mix all these obstacles up in the swirling rapids, and then add three other problems to the mix:
1. The best grads have been told since chidhood how good they were; how special. Makes it hard when they discover the things they have been learning and what they know is not much practical use at Big Company. And that they are now just one of many. Can lead to dummy spits!
2. They are determined to prove how good they are. They've waited a long time for this. They have big debts, they are in a hurry. Too big a hurry. Dummy spit.
3. They have often chosen the wrong company and even the wrong career - see http://tinyurl.com/6krvj9 to see why wrong choices are so common.
Is this all down to Gen Y being greedy and unreliable? No. Just to much of the corporate world having blinkers on.
The best way to avoid dummy spits is the SMARTS program. It gets the best students exposure to the real world earlier. They learn some skills and learn what they want to do in the future. Companies avoid the HUGE losses of high graduate turnover.
It really is Smart - you can Know/Act/Profit first by going to http://tinyurl.com/55kemu and learn what innovative companies are doing.
Recruiting and Motivating Generation Y
(Part 1 of 4)
If you would like more information on this topic please feel free and visit our website at
www.abacusrecruitment.com.au or visit my blog at Toby's 3R Rant
The 'Miracle' of Graduates
It's amazing.
Graduate from university and you are paid $50,000 or more, have a big training budget and lots of expensive management attention.
12 months earlier and all you could do was flip burgers.
How does this miracle happen? It's the same 'miracle' parents perform in the 4 years when their stroppy teenagers go from 16 to 20. The children turn 20 and are surprised how much their parents learned in just a couple of years!
The students were always capable of more than burgers or pulling beers. Capable of making much greater contributions to employers.
So what does western society do with the best qualified generation ever with their great ability to learn complex technology? Well, lets give them repetitive and menial jobs. Hire them casually. No responsibility. Tolerate other employees treating the students badly as they are only temporary. And often sack them with a week's notice or less.
Amazing!
This is just one of the large pools of talent that we ignore in white collar work. If 100,000 to 150,000 of our better students in Australia (and comparable numbers in other countries) were doing higher skilled, more responsible part-time jobs, it would have a big impact on Australia's overall productivity.
Who would do the jobs the students were doing previously? Leave the detailed analysis to the economics guru, Ross Gittens. However, about 5 forces get triggered. For example, more of these low level jobs head off to India; the price of labour for making burgers goes up, so more automated equipment is bought; the price of burgers goes up, so some people buy less, etc.
One thing is guaranteed: there is no permanent skills shortage. That's an impossibility despite the thousands of 'chicken little, sky is falling' articles by recruitment firms, HR consultants, etc.
At Abacus we are very active in the specialised area of part time under-graduate recruitment - it is a much better, lower risk way of hiring graduates. And a great low cost, productive resource for your team. We call them SMARTS.
Einstein says insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Given the HUGE failure rate in graduate recruitment, with each costing OVER a year's salary when they walk out the door within 2 years, it is time to Think Different.
To learn more about SMARTS, visit our website: http://www.abacusrecruit.com.au/smarts.pdf
So what do Gen Y want?
Well, what we all want from jobs, but they actually expect it and walk without it.
Accused by Boomers with being demanding and fragile, it's more that they value feedback and input. It's not that they are slackers or easily distracted as much as they want to enjoy work, and they value lifestyle and balance. Also, they are on-line a lot. There is a real blur between their social and work lives, both online and offline.Now, you can't give them everything that we discuss below: some of these are privileges to be earned, they are not a right. A critical part of managing the young is about controlling their expectations. And managing them well and keeping them with you and productive is rarely about the money.
The specifics:
* They want a workplace where they can belong, which is stress-free and social. One which values the triple bottom line - not just profits, but also the environment and people (socio-economic concerns).
* Make the workplace fun: perhaps a relaxed dress code, fun photo boards/noticeboards, regular celebrations (birthdays, achievements, new clients), supporting their favourite charities etc.
* They don't respond well to a lot of rules, managers who say "because I said so" or "that's how we do it here", who don't say thank you enough, or sterile, lifeless offices.
* Training that helps their career not just the work they are doing for you; meetings where they can participate, interact - and have some food.
* They value feedback: from handwritten notes or cards (unusual, so it stands out), non-cash rewards (movie tickets, itunes vouchers etc) to formal recognition (certificates, references). Negative feedback? Absolutely; but always constructive, ask permission to give it and do it immediately so it's relevant.
The reality: There will always be lower retention rates for this generation but it can be improved.
Some tips for improving retention and keeping them for the long haul:
Accessibility: take the mystery out of how you make decisions - the young grew up in smaller families where they were involved in family decisions. They expect it.
Variety: give junior staff greater responsibility and more variety in their work. For example, let them manage a project such introducing a new piece of software; give presentations; and organise staff events (they'll do stuff they enjoy - get used to it!).
Understand the revolving door: if they leave for a new job, or further study: keep in touch - they may want to return. They rejoin you with new experience plus both sides know each other - great for your productivity. Always allow for the big overseas trip: applies to Australians as well as most European countries: let them go, welcome them back with a gift. The ones that travel are often the very best.
A final comment: young people now travel in packs, with highly developed networks and a strong sense of individual and group identity. They have a strong personal brand. Your employer brand must recognize, accept and embrace this.
Recruiting and Motivating Generation Y
(Part 2 of 4)
Stay tuned for the next 2 videos on Recruiting and Motivating Generation Y.
If you would like more information on this topic please feel free and visit our website at www.abacusrecruitment.com.au or visit my blog at Toby's 3R Rant
9 Tough Questions for Recruiters
Recruiters are primarily sales people. Most are persuasive and present very plausibly.
So, how do you look behind the suit? How do you find a recruiter that can really add value to YOUR business?
Ask some tough questions:
1. Will you play SWITCH?
This is where a senior, experienced recruiter comes in and sells you on their services. You brief them on your role, and then you find they are not doing the work. This happened to me a few years ago when I brought a specialist recruiting firm in to work with one of my clients. The junior and inexperienced person had not been at the briefing and only had 6 months in recruiting - and so had no clue about the nuances of a difficult job to fill. What a time waster for my client.
Now, once you know this person will be doing the work for you %u2026.
2. How long have you been in the trenches?
Do you want a newbie learning at your expense? It's ironic given what they do, but recruitment has a huge staff turnover because recruiters who can't generate sales don't survive. This is a problem as employers need advice to hire well - but many recruiters are inexperienced with no time to learn skills.
3. What recruiting have you done in my industry sector recently? How many similar roles in my sector?
4. What salary will I need to pay to get quality applicants?
5. What organisations are likely to have good candidates who may want to move?
6. Can I talk to some of your clients about the service you provide?
7. Can you show me a list of people working in similar roles?
This one really sorts them out! Especially if you don't give them much notice. However, you cannot expect to keep the list.
8. Do you supply a list of all the applicants who apply to the advertisements we pay for? Are you happy for us to speak to some of the applicants?
9. Do you provide the applicant's original resume?
Some firms like to retype to 'standardise them'. If they do, insist on the original also. Helps ensure that their retyping is a fair reflection - plus you get to see the applicant's writing skills.
These questions get to the heart of whether a recruiter is experienced and a specialist who can really help you. If they're not, why are you using them?
Recruiters Are Human Too!
Humans are animals and animal behaviour is hard wired and mostly predictable. One behaviour in particular:
People always choose the easiest way to get what they need. Which doesn't mean our needs can't be complex or irrational or altruistic. Just that given a choice we always choose the easiest path.Now job seekers who have had 40 unreturned phone calls would argue, but recruiters are human beings. They will find and choose the easiest path to make the money to feed their kids and to support their favourite charity.
The point of this Rant is to look at the way most employers work with recruiters: They brief 3 recruiters for the same job.
What the recruiters then do is totally predictable: All 3 focus on the low hanging fruit, the active job seekers who are doing the rounds of recruiters and applying to ALL the online job ads. They are easy to find, and each firm races to put ads up so they can find them first. The screening can be quite perfunctory as the race is to get their resumes in first.
Why is it predictable that they do this? They are all on contingent fees, so get your agency brand onto the person who is hired and it is $20000, lose the race and it's a big fat nothing.
That's the first hard wired, predictable behaviour. The second is the bit that seems to baffle many employers and HR managers.
None of the 3 recruiters will invest the 3 to 4 days of hard work to dig out some high hanging, quality fruit as they have only about a 20% chance of getting paid for their efforts.
Why just 20%? Because after a week of talking to candidates, other agencies have heard of the role, and they have talked to some other low hangers. And because there is sometimes an internal candidate who gets the job or perhaps the position is restructured.
As pointed out in last week's Rant, any experienced recruiter can dig out candidates if they put the time in. Predictably they won't bother if you brief more than one firm. Would you in their shoes? Employers think they are 'testing the full market' or 'keeping the recruiters honest'.
No. Just predictably not getting value. And wasting a lot of their time looking at candidates who only barely match the brief but have been put forward because the agency wants that $20000.
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