FIVE RULES of SUCCESS with HTC RESEARCH

FIVE RULES of SUCCESS
Our objective is for the Client to make a hire off each and every project that they initiate with us. For a Client to use our research successfully we have laid down some rules to follow. We have found that if these rules are followed our Clients have a much higher success rate, as high as 90%. If a Client does not follow these rules then failure is more likely.
RULE #1- The 72 Hour Rule Clients (the Hiring Manager or Recruiter) have 72 hours to contact a Qualified Interested Candidate. After 72 hours a greater percentage of Candidates will drop out of the running. For one reason or another they lose interest.
RULE #2- Sell the Opportunity, Company, Product or Service FIRST. When a Hiring Manager or Recruiter calls the Candidate for the first time, the first 15 -25 minutes of the conversation should be selling the opportunity, Company, product or service. After the "pitch" is completed and all the Candidate’s questions have been answered there is nothing wrong with continuing with the phone interview and qualifying the candidate for experience and background. This portion of the process will allow you to determine if a face-to-face interview is warranted.
RULE #3- Passive-VS-Active. HTC Research Corp. specializes in both Active and Passive candidate research. A Passive Candidate that is someone that is not necessarily looking for a new job but if the right opportunity were presented to him/her at the right time they would be willing to pursue it. An Active Candidate is someone who is actively seeking new employment. Since a Resume is what an Active Candidate uses to market themselves, they usually have a current one readily available. However, since the Passive Candidate is not actively looking they usually will NOT have an up to date Resume. This does not mean they are any less qualified than the Active Candidate. This is why we provide a Profile of the candidate. A typical Profile will include most of the pertinent information needed to conduct a phone interview with a candidate regardless of their status.
RULE #4 - The Follow Up Rule - Our Clients must provide us with follow-up on all candidates we send to them in a timely manner. Follow-up in the form of a phone call or e-mail to the sales representative is acceptable. Feedback on every candidate is crucial to the success of the research project. Researching the passive candidate market is an imperfect science. If our research staff is off target for any reason the feedback we get from you will help us get them back on track quickly. The longer it takes to get us back on track the more costly it is to do the research. Be assured that as a Client you will never pay for a candidate that is not Qualified and Interested in new opportunities as per the job specifications which were outlined in the original job order.
RULE # 5 - HTC Research is a research/sourcing company, not a recruiting firm. We provide passive candidates that are Qualified and Interested in new job opportunities. We do this very quickly and at a reasonable price. At this time, we do not perform background checks, drug screens, set up interviews or negotiate contracts with candidates.
Copyright HTC Research Corp 1995 thru 2008

What changes would I like to see in the Contract Recruiting and Strategic Sourcing arena?

Question was originally posted by Josh LeTouneau on Linked in
my reply is below.
Contract Recruiters and Sourcers: What Changes In The Current Model Would You Like To See?

Good afternoon, Contract Recruiters and Strategic Sourcers! I wanted to briefly reach out to ask what kind of changes you'd like to see in the contract recruiting and strategic sourcing market (particularly the U.S.). Would changes be compensation related, process related, recruiting architecture related, etc.?

Joshua Letourneau
Managing Director
LG & Associates Search / Talent Strategy
jletourneau (at) lgexec.com
www.lgexec.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jletourneau
My Reply

What changes would I like to see contract recruiting and strategic sourcing market?
1) Staffing needs to be removed from HR. Most High Tech companies have done this, especially those on the west coast but other industries need to catch up. Staffing is not an HR function any more.
2) Pricing models for strategic sourcing will be completely revamped. (The market will do theis naturally) This is because the skills needed to be an internet researcher are easily duplicated across organizations and there has been a plethora of companies, individuals creating training seminars on the subject. There will be a huge influx of internet researching talent which will flood the market as the market goes through it's next phase of growth, (baby boomer replacements etc) this influx will drive going market rates for internet researchers down. Additional pressure from offshore companies from India and other locations will also force US providers to become more efficient and reduce pricing models for the same services. Pricing could fall below $1000 per month for a researcher as competition heats up as there are few other market deliniations and variations in the range of services offered.
3) Pricing models for Phone Based Candidate Sourcing will remain at current levels as the talent pool for doing this type of work as not increased as more and more researchers have taken to internet based research. Additionally, when internet researchers are not successful in finding enough prospects Employers/Clients have few alternatives.
4) Hiring Managers need to be more in tune with the current and future staffing market. As the staffing model becomes more and more of a "low touch" model. In an effort to reduce costs the marching orders for staffing has been to get the candidates as far along in the recruiting process as possible before someone has to speak to them. In some cases the first person to have a real relationship building conversation with the candidate is the hiring manager. Unfortunately, few hiring managers are prepared for this especially in the high tech arena and don't know how to build rapport, yet alone close a candidate on the position.
5) Much of the disconnect starts with the writing of the requisition. Left to their own devices many Hiring Managers either make the requirements so restrictive that the potential pool of candidates is a water droplet and others are so nebulous that there is little direction other than I want the best that I can find that does this___.
6)The current battles between Internet and Phone based researchers need to be resolved. When internet researchers started coming on the scene a rift began to open between them and the war of words on ERExchange etc started to come to a head. What researchers on both sides of the coin need to realize is that the client doesn't care one way or another where/how the candiadte was sourced. The client just wants the end result, a hire. The process should always be, find low hanging fruit first then move up the tree. And low hanging doesn't mean more or less qualified or more or less interested. Low hanging means it was either cheaper, easier or faster to locate, identify, pre-screen that candidate the method or tactics don't matter. All methods should be implemented by a good researcher/research firm. Process matters very little to the hiring manager and it doesn't come in to play when making a decision on whether or not to make an offer to a candidate.
7) The Semantic Web, adding context to internet search results will dramtically change how companies locate and identify top talent. Right now Internet search engines are missing the mark on quality.
8) There need to be some rules/boundaries on candidate online privacy especially for people that will be entering the workforce in the next few years and that were early adopters of social networks. I think we've all heard of a candidate or two that hasn't been hired because of what was on a personal MySpace or FaceBook account. It would be a shame if a few indescretions that a "young" person made on-line were to be immortalized in digital cyber space forever.
9) Companies need to better define the staffing and recruiting models within their own organizations. Staffing strategies take time to implement, strategies are not faucets you can turn on and turn off. I see company after company, create a strategy, implement it only to abandon it 2 to 3 months later and create and implement a new strategy which lasts for 2 or 3 months. This is not only poor planning on the part of the executive staff but also of a colosal waste of time and resources.
10) I agree with Rob McIntosh's # 7 about "More effective use of competitive and business intelligence (both internally and external) to better map the size of the realistic talent pools" but feel that this process should start before a requisition is even opened/approved and that aqualified recruiter or recruiting manager should work with the Hiring Manager to identify those talent pools. If it's decided that the talent pool is too small that would give better direction to writing a better job description rather than having a req that's going to remain open for upwards of 6 to 9 months.

Thanks
Jeff Weidner
925 313 9005 X 200
HTC Research Corp
HTC Research Blog
Top 10 resources to build target company lists
LinkedIn Jeff Weidner

OK from time to time

I get a bite from the satire bug and write articles like the one below on Hill Deer. Please don't call about making a donation to the HDAA, it's fictional, as are the deer. I posted this on erexchange.com early in the week and actually started receiving calls from people concerned about the plight of the Hill Deer and either wanting to make a donation or wanting to take in a few deer as they have a "huge piece of land with a great hill on it". I'm sure the deer would be very touched by their generosity, if they existed.

Thanks,

Jeff Weidner
925 313 9005 X 200
HTC Research Corp
HTC Research Blog
Top 10 resources to build target company lists
LinkedIn Jeff Weidner

The plight of the Hill Deer of California

On a calm spring day just around sunset if you look out onto the hillsides of Northern California you will most likely see a familiar sight. The Hill Deer of California have captured the hearts of all those that come into contact with them. A close relative of the Whitetail Deer and the Mull Deer, the Hill Deer of California have developed special adaptations to allow them to walk in the hilly terrain more easily. One of the more predominant adaptations is that one set of legs is typically shorter than the other allowing them to walk around the hillsides in a circular fashion while grazing. Scientists have dubbed these deer either LSSL or RSSL Hill Deer. LSSL (Left Side-Short Leg) and RSSL (Right Side-Short Leg). Herds are usually self-segregating through out the Northern California deer population and very rarely do deer from RSSL herds intermingle with deer from LSSL herds. Scientists believe that this is a natural process rather than a chosen one because deer with the legs on the left side of their body tend to graze in a counter-clockwise pattern around hillsides while deer with shorter legs on the right of their bodies tend to graze in the opposite direction.

Complications in deer herds occur when a fawn is born of parents from opposite legged herds. If a RSSL male and a LSSL female have offspring there is a 50% chance that the fawn will have legs that are shorter on the opposite side of its mother. When this happens the fawn is usually lost or abandoned by its mother because it is walking in the opposite direction while grazing. Every spring, when the new fawns are due to arrive the volunteers from the Hill Deer Adoption Agency are out in full force trying to locate as many orphaned fawns as possible before a predator or starvation kills them. Last year over 230-orphaned Hill Deer were located and placed with foster families in the state. Because of an exceptionally mild summer, a very prolific rutting season and abundance in the deer’s food supply, this seasons’ number of orphaned Hill Deer fawns is expected to be nearly double.

Since 1968, the Hill Deer Adoption Agency has been placing fawns that have been separated from the mothers and the rest of the herd with foster mothers and family that have the same side of legs that are shorter than the other. In recent years however there has been an increasing number of deer that are left sided short-legged or LSSL and there aren’t enough adoptive mothers to place the fawns with. For now the Hill Deer Adoption Agency is asking for volunteers to hand raise these orphaned deer until a more permanent solution can be put into place. Interested parties can call the Hill Deer Adoption Agency at (888) HILL DEER or (888) 499 4482 X 200 All volunteers must have easy access to a hillside for the fawns to be raised on.

thanks,

Jeff Weidner
925 313 9005 X 200
HTC Research Corp
HTC Research Blog
Top 10 resources to build target company lists
LinkedIn Jeff Weidner

Client Backlash to Social Networking candidates (Linked In, Jigsaw, Doostang etc)

discussion started 4/24/2007, 10:00 a.m. by Jeff Weidner

With the growing popularity of these Social Networking sites, just as with the job boards 10 or so years ago we are beginning to see a backlash from clients rejecting candidates that we identify thru other means that also happen to be on the Social Networking flavor of the month. This month it happens to be Linked In.

Do you feel, as sourcers, that clients should be prepared to pay for candidates that are identified through other means but also happen to be in client's network on Linked In?

I'm hoping to open it up to discussion but HTC has taken the following stance on the issue:

At this time I have told my clients that because these sites are so prevalent and are becoming more and more ubiquitous there is no way for me to screen candidates for these sites for the following reasons;

A) We don’t use some of the sites and I don’t know what site everyone of my contractors use as they are not under my control

B) Just because a person is on the site doesn’t mean that is how we obtained their name

C) We can’t be expected to verify every candidate we source on a weekly basis against every social site on the internet, as is the case for job boards as well.

D) On some sites such as Linked in they may not have been in “our Network” so we may not have known about them (it is connection dependent)

E) My Name Generators are instructed to only use true phone recruiting and networking techniques to find candidates but there is bound to be duplication.

F) There are so many new members and connections being made on a daily, weekly, monthly basis that it is impossible for us to monitor every site and still be effective at what we do.

G) There are too many variables. As with most things in recruiting entering search criteria is highly human intensive. Only a person can type in specific combinations of skill sets and key words and apply a Sr Warp Core Engineer to a Sr DBA for Oracle position. It depends on the experience of the person doing the searching on their ability to find qualified candidates. Our clients pay for that experience.

Now, as with the backlash with the job boards 10+ years ago I fully expect this backlash to be a temporary inconvenience and that the issue will die down as they become more widespread but I thought it would make good fodder for discussion on the group.

I originally posted ERE.net Electronic Recruiters Exchange
So go there for other members responses to my post.



Thanks,

Jeff Weidner
925 313 9005 X 200
HTC Research Corp

Top 10 Tools for developing target lists.

So you and your crack staff of recruiters have decided to penetrate the passive candidate market to see if there are any qualified candidates out there that would rather be working for your company. Now what? The first step is to identify the list of target companies that you could potentially pull candidates from. But where do you start? What resources are out there to help you build a qualified target company list?

Here is a list of Top 10 resources that HTC uses to identify potential targets.

Hoover’s Online - Hoover's, Inc., delivers comprehensive company, industry, and market intelligence that drives business growth. Our database of 12 million companies, with in-depth coverage of 40,000 of the world's top business enterprises, is at the core of our business tools and services that customers find vital to their business operations. Hoover's editorial staff of some 80 editors and researchers bring vital business information and knowledge to their coverage, updating the site daily to bring our visitors and subscribers the most up-to-date business information in the industry. (From their web site www.hoovers.com)

CorpTech - CorpTech researches and publishes both high-quality private company profiles and public company profiles. This unique source of business directory information on the hi tech business segment allows you to perform in depth company research to generate competitive intelligence, business leads, mailing lists, and unique company profile data points for use in all your company research activities. (From their web site www.corptech.com)

Candidate Resumes – Review the resumes of candidates that interviewed but were not hired. Their current or past employers may provide another target or two to add to the list.

Hiring Managers – Most Hiring Managers can name at least a few candidates that are from direct competitors. They’ve worked with them in the past, met them at industry functions, heard them speak at conferences and read their articles in magazines. Tap into this resource because referrals are an excellent way to network your way into a company. Just ask, “Who do you know?”

The Marketing Department – This is an often forgotten resource. Not only does the Marketing Dept. keep track of who the company is trying to market to, but they also track who else is marketing similar products or services to your customers. They should have a list of direct and indirect competitors readily available.

Search Engines – Use the advanced search area of just about any search engine and type in your company’s name and the word ”competition OR competitors”. Unless you work for an obscure company you should at least be able to get one or two companies from reading the various articles. Then perform the same search with one of those company’s names.

Industry Sources – Symposiums, Conferences, Consortiums, Magazines, Trade Shows, Standards Associations, Testing Laboratories etc. We once were performing a search for a client that was entering into the PDA market. They wanted to target other PDA manufacturers but only the obvious top 5 companies came to mind. We added another 20 companies by doing a search on Google for “PDA Manufacturers and Conference” a sight came up which was a web site for a PDA Manufacturers Conference that had taken place a few months prior and it listed every PDA Manufacturer in the world and even sorted them alphabetically, by location, by price etc.

Online Retailers – This works great for companies that are in the consumer goods arena. Do a search on Amazon for makers of your same product.

Job Boards – Look through the job postings to see who else has posted similar jobs.

User Groups/News Groups - There are tens of thousands of news and user groups to cover every possible interest and topic. They tend to be a little slow in developing a viable list of targets but as a last resort they can be a valuable resource.

When all else fails, look for “Like/Kind” companies or indirect competitors to pull candidates out of. These are companies that are making or selling like/kind products or services. If you can’t get that Wireless Engineer away from that hot cell phone manufacturer maybe you could find them at a PDA company that uses wireless technologies or a pager company. Or maybe you could look at a completely different industry that uses the same or similar technology.

There are at least another 1000 resources available to recruiters but these are the ones we have found to be the most useful. Not every resource is effective 100% of the time so hopefully you'll be able to add one or two to your bag of tricks and be able to impress that hiring manager the next time he asks "Where else can we find qualified candidates?".


Thanks,

Jeff Weidner
925 313 9005 X 200
HTC Research Corp
Top 10 resources to build target company lists
LinkedIn Jeff Weidner



Copyright © 2004, HTC Research Corp., Inc All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Top 10 Reasons to Use Passive Candidate Research

If you’re a recruiting firm

1. Need to spend more time doing sales and less time talking to the wrong candidates
2. Unfamiliar with specific geographic region, target company or industry
3. Need to reduce internal cost of finding qualified candidates
4. Need qualified candidates quickly. (24-48 hours)
5. Placing ads on job boards was unsuccessful.
6. Client has agreed to pay for research costs.
7. No time to do the sourcing internally.
8. No resources to do the sourcing internally.
9. Want to build a database of “hot” candidates for future needs.
10. You’re a little rusty on the phone skills needed to find candidates effectively.

If you’re a Staffing Dept in a Corporation

1. Budget does not allow for use of contingency or retained search firm.
2. Receiving too many resumes from job boards and newspaper ads that aren’t qualified.
3. Need to target specific geographic region, target company or industry for candidates.
4. The position has been open for 30 days or more.
5. The quality of candidates from other sources are not meeting your needs.
6. Need to reduce your overall cost per hire (CPH) to less than $5000 per hire
7. Want to reduce your overall time to fill (TTF) to less than 45 days.
8. Want to build a database of “hot” candidates for future needs.
9. Hiring Manager has a vague idea of what they want.
10. Need to hire more than one candidate with similar skill sets.

Thanks,

Jeff Weidner
925 313 9005 X 200
HTC Research Corp
LinkedIn Jeff Weidner



Copyright © 2002-2007, HTC Research Corp., Inc All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written authorization.

The Value of the Passive Candidate

by Jack Young
You’ve set up your website, posted job openings on expensive subscription Internet job boards, and then you wait for the right candidate to respond. Meanwhile, you are being inundated with, and let’s not forget paying for, resumes of candidates whose work histories don’t resemble the ideal person you had in mind. The trouble is, the most persistent responders to job ads and Internet postings are “active candidates” – often these candidates are either unemployed or disgruntled job seekers who are desperate for ANY job with ANY company.
Most recruiters are not even aware that there is another pool of candidates to pull from. They are so intent on pushing paper that they never even realize there might be better way to consistently find and place highly qualified candidates. The fact is that the largest talent pool available is a group commonly known as “passive candidates”. Passive candidates are defined as candidates that are currently employed and not actively seeking new job opportunities. These are the “hidden” gems whose names will not be found on online databases or resume banks at Internet job sites. They are the qualified candidates that you want to speak with. Why? Because passive candidates, are often, the most successful in their chosen fields. Just because these talented people may not be ACTIVELY looking for a job does not mean they are not PASSIVELY interested in hearing about your opportunity. The truly exceptional employee is most often too busy performing an outstanding job for his/her employer, not actively looking for another job.
Unfortunately, the best candidates are called passive for a reason. They are content in their jobs and not looking, otherwise they’d be knocking at your door. The problem is that most staffing professionals lack the time and knowledge necessary to mine the gems found in the passive candidate market. However, once found the passive candidate can be motivated by a larger goal, whether that goal be an increased professional challenge, a higher compensation package, a shorter commute or a more conducive lifestyle. This is the hook that will land them at your client.
When effectively approached, the passive candidate will admit that while he is not “actively looking”, he is keeping his ears open to enticing opportunities. Many passive candidates understand that they have nothing to lose by investing a few minutes to listen. The most savvy of these passive job seekers know that, at the very least, they may have the opportunity to make a solid contact for future professional networking purposes. These savvy ones know the value of always listening, even if they don’t act on all opportunities presented to them. Because the passive candidate is under no pressure to find a new job, he is frequently more candid and forthright and less inclined to waste his time or yours. In addition, a subtle benefit from speaking with a passive candidate is that they can be an excellent source of referrals, especially if a good rapport is built. Obviously, an active job seeker would be less inclined to offer a referral of someone who might then become a competitor for the same job.
The simple fact that a candidate is labeled a passive candidate does not automatically make them a better candidate than the average active candidate. That’s where true headhunting and candidate research methods need to be effectively employed to make sure that the correct candidates are identified at the onset of the search. A good passive candidate research associate or firm should be able to identify 20 potentially qualified candidates within a few days, depending on the complexity of the search criteria and the availability of target companies within the given geographic region. All that remains to do after these candidates are identified is to make sure that they meet the minimum skill set requirements of the client.
The benefit of using passive candidate research is that it can yield very specific candidates with specific skill sets from very specific target companies. Doing a little research up front affords you the opportunity to talk to candidates that are better qualified for the position you are recruiting for, not to mention their referrals. No form of advertising, whether it is done on job boards, the Internet, or in the newspaper classifieds can produced these candidates. Common sense dictates that if a recruiter spends more time talking to qualified candidates and less time searching through resumes of candidates that may or may not qualified, odds are they’d make more hires every month. Recruiting is a numbers game; why not stack the odds in your favor?
Now that you have been introduced to the passive candidate, stop plowing through countless resumes from active candidates that hopefully meet your search criteria and start calling on the passive candidate market. Through out your career as a top recruiter, placing the best candidates in the market will always pay the best dividends.
Copyright HTC Research Corp 1995 thru 2008


Jeff Weidner
925 313 9005 X 200
HTC Research Corp