Overcoming Recruitment Inertia Chapter 1: Challenges of relying on your Internal Recruiter Chapter 2: The Independent Executive Recruiter Chapter 3: Executive Recruitment Advertising – Does it really work Chapter 4: Is your recruitment PSL becoming complacent Chapter 5 Summary In memory of Tony Jones – 1953 - 2014

Chapter 1: Challenges of relying on your Internal Recruiter It has not gone un-noticed that in the last few years there has been a significant increase in the number of large organisations increasing the size of their in-house recruitment teams. A recent international survey by KellyOGC found that 43% of organisations have a centralised recruitment function compared with 48%, where at least some recruitment activities are decentralised. So what is the main driver behind this and is the in-house recruiter the panacea to all ills in respect of fulfilling an organisation’s recruitment needs? Firstly let’s look at the dive behind this which arguably is down to cost. The perception is that the cost associated with using an external recruiter is going to be higher that of the internal recruiter. Whilst on the surface this might well be true, one has to question the overall effectiveness of a salaried individual who has very little incentive (apart from keeping their job) to actually deliver the highest calibre of candidate for the role that they are looking to fill, whereas the external recruiter not only has a financial incentive to do so but also has on the whole a reputation to maintain. The success of a recruiter matters when it comes to building a professional reputation in their sector. This means that an external recruiter with many years experience within their chosen field of operation should be able to identify potential candidates far more effectively than the in-house recruiter. There are of course situations when using your own in-house recruitment team can and will be an effective means of filling vacancies, for example mass recruitment drives or lower level high volume campaigns. The question really becomes interesting when an organisation is looking to hire talent at a senior level where the position to be filled has the potential to have a high impact of an organisation’s bottom line. Most recruiters operating at a senior level have spent many years building up their network of contacts and are on the whole far better connected in their field than the in-house recruiter. In many instances they also have a higher level of credibility than the in-house recruiter when it comes to speaking to “C-Suite” executives. More often than not the in-house recruiter is confined by internal processes and procedures whereas the external recruiter has the freedom to be far more creative in tracking down and identifying talent. By attempting to manage all recruitment internally an organisation runs the risk of significantly reducing their talent pool and whilst they might be able to attract the “best in the market that is actively looking for a new job” the question is are companies missing out on the “best in the market that is not actively looking for a new job”? Despite the fact that there are a multitude of people seeking new positions, are “the best in the market” spending their days looking at job sites and alerting the world to their availability? One of the reasons stated by many organisations for bringing recruitment in-house is that it will enhance the employer’s brand. Quite often this does not work effectively with

candidates not feeling fully engaged throughout the interview process and not provided with feedback after interviews. External recruiters have a vested interest in managing a seamless recruitment process and again have their reputation as a professional on the line. A typical candidate may only change jobs five or six job searches in his or her professional lifetime. Therefore going through an interview process can be quite a daunting thing especially if the lines of communication after each step in the process are not fully explained at the outset. Another concern quite often voiced by candidates is the element of confidentiality involved with putting themselves through an interview process especially if they are currently employed Building and managing relationships with candidates are a fundamental part of any external recruiter’s job; even if the candidate is not successful in actually getting the job. If handled professionally this candidate still has the potential to become a future client or make themselves available for the next opportunity presented to them. It is also essential to keep candidates fully engaged throughout the recruitment process which on occasions can be quite drawn out. Another key part of the external recruiter’s role is to act as an ambassador for their client’s organisation promoting not only the opportunity but also the company to be an employer of choice. A highly respect recruiter with many years experience in their field is regarded as a highly credible individual and as an unbiased party in the recruitment process thus adding significant value to the candidate experience. When the decision to recruit externally has been made for whatever reason, whether it is to replace someone who is leaving the company or a new position has been created the need to bring someone new in to the organisation tends to have a degree of urgency attached to it. In terms of the external recruiter they will tend to either get paid in stage payments or a single one off payment when the successful candidate has been placed. Whichever way they are remunerated their incentive to deliver is very high. Whereas the internal recruiter has very little incentive at least financially to turn around a project as quickly as possible. In some instances there is almost an argument to be made that the internal recruiter could potentially elongate the process to appear to be adding some form of value to their role. Most external recruiters have had many years experience of interviewing and screening numerous candidates from a variety of backgrounds and tend to have honed their interviewing skills quite significantly. Interviewing senior level candidates requires credibility and a lot of practice to be able to draw out the specific competencies that are required for the position in hand. This only comes with practice and many years experience. In many cases internal recruiters tend to be relatively young by comparison to the seasoned executive recruiter and whilst they may have youth and vitality on their side they can lack the credibility and gravitas required to be able to interview senior level candidates. The professional recruiter will immerses themselves with both client and candidate during what can be a lengthy and drawn out process. Yes the end goal is to fill the role that they are recruiting for and to ultimately be paid a fee for doing so but one has to look at the

bigger picture. This for the recruiter is to deliver an exceptionally high level of service to the client so that the client will use their services on a regular basis.

Chapter 2: The Independent Executive Recruiter Quite often when making the decision to appoint an Executive Search firm, organisations will turn to the “big brand” well known firms with a presence in every major city globally. Whilst there is sometimes a rationale to do so, it is sometimes necessary to question whether or not this is the best decision. The so called global firms of Head-hunters with an international presence carry a huge overhead in terms of property, administrative and support staff (non fee earning) and all the other expenses involved with running large corporate entities. Before making any profit at all these overheads need to be covered. The only way that this can be achieved is by passing this cost across to the client company. This is the reason why they have to charge extremely high fees for their services. The independent Executive Search firm on the other hand operates a very lean and by comparison low cost operation with a significantly lower percentage of non fee earning staff to fee earning staff. This therefore allows them to operate far more cost effectively in the market place. So is the perception that by using a large firm of Head-hunters you will receive a better level of service and ultimately find a better quality of candidate correct? The large firms with their many directors or partners will tend to deal with numerous clients and in some instances clients operating within the exact same sectors therefore causing a potential conflict of client interest and in some cases rendering the best candidate “off limits”. As these firms have large client bases if they were to for whatever reason lose a client they have many more to work with. The independent firm will only work with a small number of clients and will place a huge value on each client individually. The upshot of this is quite clear really, by working with a smaller firm you will on the whole receive a more professional and tailored service and quite often end up dealing with the firm’s owner who has a vested interest in ensuring that results are delivered in a time efficient manner. The value that the independent firm places upon their clients is huge and the only way that they will retain their client base is by delivering quality candidates time and time again. So how does the independent recruiter fair when it comes to recruiting globally when they just have one office based in one country? Well in 2015 with the advancement in technology this should never be an issue. There are many UK based independent recruiters who have successfully filled roles across all six continents without having the need to have offices based there. Are they doing this more or less efficiently that the larger players? Well arguably more efficiently due to the fact that they have to be masters of time management when working across different time zones. Surely the quality of service that a client would receive from a large international firm would be far superior to that of the smaller boutique firm? Well let’s just think about it for a minute, typically when dealing with a smaller firm you will actually be dealing directly with the business owner who has more than a vested interest in delivering the highest quality of

candidates in the most time efficient manner. Compare this to the consultant employed by the larger firm, yes they will have the best intention and utilise all of their resources to do the best that they can but what is the consequence of failure, they will probably put this down to experience and move on to the next client. The smaller firm does not have this luxury and the chances of a timely conclusion to the recruitment project are therefore more likely to happen. When for whatever reason the decision has been made to look externally for a key member of staff time is often of the essence and a solution needs to be found quickly. A smaller independent firm will be able to spring in to action at the drop of the hat without being bound by cumbersome processes and procedure that often mean the larger firm may not get started for a matter of days or in some instance weeks. The independent head-hunter also has to be more selective and honest with their clients when it comes to deciding which projects to walk away from if they fall outside of the area of expertise. The worst thing a firm can do is to take on a project that they do not fully understand or have had previous experience in, as failing to deliver as mentioned previously would significantly damage the client relationship. Clients would far rather a recruiter turn down a project that they did not feel confident in filling; surprisingly in this situation this actually enhances the view of the recruiter as a professional in their field and has the potential to improve the relationship with the client. One of the major challenges faced by the independent recruiter is having too few clients due to the fact that they have limited resource to service effectively more than a handful of clients. Therefore the clients that they do work with tend to be given an extremely high level of service to protect and enhance the relationship. In summary the quality of service a hiring company will receive from an independent recruiter on the whole will tend to be far better than that received from a large firm. The smaller firm will always go the extra mile to deliver a service that is above and beyond what is expected. They tend to develop closer relationships with both client and candidate, deliver in a more time efficient manner and the most successful recruiters work extremely hard to impartially manage the recruitment process to a successful conclusion.

Chapter 3: Executive Recruitment Advertising – Does it really work So you’ve identified a need to recruit, maybe because one of your key members of staff is moving on, maybe you’ve restructured and this has driven out a need to bring additional talent into the business. Whatever the reason you then need to decide the most effective way of attracting the best talent to your organisation. So what are your options? Well you can easily advertise the position yourself on either LinkedIn or one of the many other jobsites available or a specialist industry magazine and then internally deal with the responses. You could instruct a recruitment company to advertise the position, let them filter the responses and send you through what in their opinion are the best candidates for the role or instruct an advertising agency to write the ad and place it for you. Whilst these are all valid options there are several key issues that one should really consider before going down this route. Advertising can be a key element of the recruitment process but over the last fifteen years has changed significantly with the ease of access to the internet. All you need to do is to look at the appointments section of The Sunday Times which fifteen years ago was a standalone supplement quite often numbering thirty + pages, today in 2015 it is down to one page tucked away in the back on the Business section. There are literally hundreds of online jobs boards out there, industry bodies typically have a careers page on their job site, LinkedIn has over two hundred thousand jobs advertised in the UK alone and in excess of half a million in the USA. So firstly you have to try to decide where on earth is the best place to advertise? With so many choices open and no guarantee of success it can quite often be a difficult decision to make. Secondly, you have to question who will be scanning the jobsites or press for a new role? The answer on the whole are those candidates who are actively looking for a new job. There are of course many valid reasons why potential candidates are actively seeking new employment, they could have been made redundant, a contract has come to an end, their career is beginning to plateau in their present organisation, they don’t like their boss, the list goes on. Whilst advertising will on some occasions attract some quality candidates the question that you have to ask is; is it likely to attract the absolute best in the market? In many instances where organisations have advertised vacancies directly on-line and a candidate clicks to apply for the role they are directed to the organisation’s on-line career portal. Most online portals will require the candidate to complete various lengthy sections before being allowed to submit their CV. If the candidate is busy and pressed for time this can be extremely off-putting not to mention very impersonal. The issue of confidentiality also has to be considered. If a candidate is gainfully employed they could well be cautious about submitting his CV online as in reality they do not know who will have sight of his CV. More often than not a recruitment advertisement is a condensed version of the job description and may not contain sufficient information to entice a candidate to apply.

Salary is also an important point to consider. With many organisations their policy is not to state salary on an advertisement, this maybe for valid reasons but because every company has different job titles for similar roles the job title itself may not be reflective of the status of the actual position that is looking to be filled. For example, Marketing Leader in one organisation could be Marketing Director in another and Marketing Manager in another. The message can be very confusing and could potentially lead to the best candidate simply not applying as they are unsure what the role really is. Whilst some job sites allow you to post an advertisement within a set salary range others including LinkedIn, will estimate the salary based upon the job title. This has the potential to be very confusing for potential candidates. For example when a job that is paying £125,000 has an estimated salary of £32,000 and conversely when a job paying £80,000 has an estimated salary of £140,000. This will obviously have an impact on the number of candidates applying for the role and also the quality of candidates. Advertisements whether placed on-line or in other media are only live for a set period of time, usually anywhere between one week and one month. So if the best candidate for the role does not actually view the advertisement and apply during this period of time you end up having to select from candidates who have applied or even re-advertise the position at additional cost. Reputational issues also need to be considered. If for whatever reason the hiring company has had some adverse media coverage; whether justified or not, this could cause potentially interested parties to decide not to apply. So how does one overcome the many challenges of relying on recruitment advertising and being faced with making a selection for the best of who has applied rather than the best in the market place? Whilst there are many instances where recruitment advertising will be effective is this the most effective and efficient way of hiring senior executives in to your organisation? The short answer is NO! The only way to guarantee that you identify the best talent in the market place is to take a proactive approach to your recruitment needs. By utilising the services of an experienced executive recruiter who has experience of identifying and approaching the best candidates in the market you will be in a position to make your hiring decisions based on the knowledge that no stone has been left unturned. A seasoned recruiter is often viewed as an industry insider with extensive knowledge of a sector and the key individuals within that sector. Unlike advertising active search does not have a shelf life; many of the best candidates in the market are extremely busy and could potentially be travelling extensively. It takes time patience and skill to be able to track down and make contact with top talent. An experienced recruiter will undoubtedly have the connections and tenacity to be able to do this with good effect. The fact that a candidate is not actively seeking a new opportunity is usually a good indicator that they are being successful in their present role, this does not mean however

that they would not be interested in exploring another opportunity that would allow them to take their career to another level. To attract this type of high achieving candidate requires a significant amount of gentle persuasion and sharing of sufficient information to convince them that the new opportunity is worthwhile taking a closer look at. An experienced head-hunter will promote the hiring company, their growth plans and the potential for this role to take the candidate’s career to another level. It is also worth noting that during discussions an experienced recruiter will also be able to identify potential time wasters who would just want to use the opportunity to increase their salary with their existing employer. As mentioned earlier the role of the recruiter is to act as an ambassador on behalf of their client. The approach of the Head Hunter is always done with extreme confidentiality and therefore allows initial discussions with candidates to be open and frank, covering off such issues as salary expectations, reputational issues and the need to submit one’s CV to a faceless online portal. It is very easy to see how the direct professional approach will give a hiring organisation access to a far higher quality of candidate who throughout the recruitment process will be dealt with professionally and personally which also enhances the reputation of the hiring company.

Chapter 4: Is your recruitment PSL becoming complacent? New research recently published by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, and the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, surveyed 272 employers about their use of preferred supplier lists, recruitment process outsourcing, and vendor neutral and master vendor models. Senior HR and procurement professionals were asked to select the three most important factors that contribute to their choice of resource model. ‘Attract the right people into the role’ (67 per cent), ‘reduce the cost of recruitment’ (42 per cent) and ‘reduce time to hire’ (39 per cent) were the most popular responses. ‘Ensuring the candidate receives a high-quality experience’ was a priority for 20 per cent of respondents and 14 per cent ranked communicating their brand to candidates as something they prioritised when selecting a resourcing model. In general, procurement and HR professionals agree on what’s important when selecting a resourcing model; ‘attracting the right candidate’. However, the two groups naturally have some differences in what they rank as most essential: - 46 per cent of procurement professionals selected ‘reduce costs of recruitment’ as one of their top three considerations when selecting which recruitment model to use compared to 34 per cent of HR/recruitment professionals. - Procurement professionals (44 per cent) were more likely than those in HR/recruitment (32 per cent) to choose ‘reduce time to hire’ as a key driver for their decision. - HR/recruitment professionals (44 per cent) were more likely than colleagues in procurement (32 per cent) to select ‘retain staff’ as an important determining factor. So with that said, what is really the most important thing that one should consider when hiring executive talent in to an organisation and is your PSL really working as efficiently as possible or are they becoming complacent? Well firstly let’s deal with the effectiveness of an organisation’s PSL. The concept of having an appointed PSL is extremely valid; go back fifteen years and most large corporates had no idea what their overall recruitment spend was, recruitment firms were used on occassions not because of their ability to deliver but because of a long standing relationship with someone who had the authority to hire. You had recruiters charging different levels of fees to different parts of the same organisation; the whole thing was a mess, so something had to happen. PSLs or Preferred Suppliers Lists are now a very common phenomenon in the corporate sector and for many organisations the way they recruit the majority of their staff. A PSL is not just a list it is a tool to acquire resources in an effective and efficient manner. It helps

the organisation acquire talent for various segments and save on both the time and money involved in the process. A PSL is simply a tool to make your hiring process more efficient in terms of both time and money. Like any other tool that you use, this should be reviewed and updated periodically. If not, you would inevitably find yourself in a position where you are neither saving time nor money and the candidates that are being introduced are not of the required calibre. So why do recruitment firms on a PSL become complacent? For a lot of firms gaining preferred supplier status on a large corporate client is viewed as a huge win giving the recruitment firm in some instances a guaranteed stream of work for a period of time. In many instances organisations tend to fill their PSL with larger well known brands who once on one PSL will soon be looking for their next one. I have mentioned in an earlier chapter the potential pitfalls of working with larger organisations. Ultimately it comes down to individuals who will actually end up working on the assignments within the selected recruitment firm, which particularly with larger firms, will differ from the original point of contact that you may have dealt with. A lot of larger firms will employ business development specialists whose role it is to win business. These tend to be sales specialists and not recruiters. The actual day to day recruitment activity is undertaken by junior consultants who typically do not have an intimate understanding of their client’s business. The way certain organisations are utilising their PSL’s also can cause some concern. There have been instances where a vacancy has been identified and then been put out to between five and ten firms on the PSL. The firm that ultimately identifies the selected candidate will receive the fee when the candidate gets the job. In this situation you will find firms utilizing a variety of CV databases and candidates receiving several approaches from different recruiters for the same role. This ultimately reflects badly on the hiring company and can cause numerous problems when it comes to the “ownership” of the candidate. In this situation recruitment firms are scrambling to be the first past the post and quite often are only looking at immediately available candidates and possibly missing out on the best. There does appear to be a certain reluctance from organisations who have engaged firms on

their PSL to consider using firms outside of this even when the non PSL firm might have access to the best candidate for the role due to their market knowledge or sector expertise. Whilst one can understand this to a certain extent it is quite a narrowly focused view to take and could ultimately be detrimental to the organisation’s future success. These decisions tend to be made by someone in HR who is protective of their domain and probably unaware of the potential negative impact that their

actions are having on their employer’s future success.

In a recent survey of 158 HR & Resourcing Professionals representing over 200,000 hires a year conducted by TheJobPost, research found some interesting facts

Almost 1 in 2 struggled to find the specialist hires they needed via their Preferred Supplier List

64% had rejected a suitable candidate from a non-preferred agency 45% of respondents reported the ongoing challenges relating to specialist hires, with

the same percentage stating that they struggled to find the hires they needed via their Preferred Supplier List.

Furthermore of the respondents, 36% worked for an organisation that had chosen not to run a Preferred Supplier List, with individuals citing the restrictions of this method as being the increased specialisation of hires, geographical requirements of roles, and volume of hires needed. Results led us to question the value of the Preferred Supplier List and conclude that it is not the right resourcing tool for all organisations. The other consideration here is cost and false economy. Becoming a preferred supplier for an organisation often comes with a compromise and that is usually the recruiter fees which in most cases are being driven down by the promise of a constant stream of work. Is this really effective? Well if you look at this from the recruiter’s stand point, if the organisation that they preferred supplier status with are paying a fee equivalent to 20% of first year’s salary and they have other clients that are paying 25% where are they going to place their best candidates? The answer is obvious, to the client that is paying the larger fee which means that the organisation they have PSL status with might not necessarily receive the best candidates available. Well one might argue that there is only a 5% difference in the fee between 25 to 20% but in reality this is actually a reduction of 20%!

Chapter 5 Summary So what is the answer to overcoming recruitment inertia? Well there are several really the main one being flexibility and the willingness to question the way things are done. Just because something has been working adequately for the last few years doesn’t mean that it can’t be improved on. If you are relying on your internal recruitment function to solve all of your recruitment needs are you missing the opportunity to increase the calibre of candidates that you are hiring in to your organisation. Are you missing out on sector expertise and the knowledge of an experienced recruiter and the access that he has to top notch talent? Yes by all means use your internal recruiters where you can but recognise that on occasions it is wise to look elsewhere. So you need to hire a new member of your senior management team, where do you turn to? To the global firm with offices in every major centre across the world with massive overheads that have to be paid for by their clients? Or should you just consider for one moment how effective and how driven a smaller independently owned boutique search firm could be in going to market quickly and effectively to solve your immediate need. Big isn’t always beautiful when it comes to the recruitment market but it tends to be slow cumbersome and expensive. Recruitment advertising can be a highly effective means of attracting talent in to your organisation, but when it comes to hiring key individuals in to your company that can dramatically improve profitability and shareholder value do you really just want to hope that the best person for the job is going to be looking at you job ad at the precise moment that you are looking to hire. These talented individuals need to coerced and courted and be convinced that the grass is greener; this takes skill talent and many years of experience. A PSL on occasions will work and work effectively but why be so short sighted to reject an exceptional candidate just because the organisation making the introduction is not on your list, this makes no sense at all. For organisations to be successful in bringing in talented individuals they need to have the flexibility to consider all options over and above their PSL and to be willing to enter in-to discussions with non PSL recruiters that might actually have the immediate answer to their problem.

About the author Mike Meyrick is a highly experienced international executive search consultant specialising in leadership recruitment, with a proven track record of delivering high quality candidates to clients across many different sectors and global locations. Having recruited C-Suite and senior level executives he has filled many niche confidential positions and is regarded as an extremely professional recruiter operating with the highest level of integrity Mike has 20+ years experience in the retained and contingency recruitment market and has recruited for many blue chip organisations as well as several start up businesses. Working in partnership with clients his role is to source exceptional candidates to best match their requirements by providing a fully integrated recruitment solution.