Getting From Headhunter Hell to Headhunter Heaven

Transcription

1 The Benefits of Great Headhunting Without the Messy Side Effects Thought Leadership

2 1 Introduction It s one of the paradoxes of corporate recruiting: Corporate recruiters pride themselves on being skilled and self-sufficient professionals, yet they routinely turn to headhunters. BountyJobs, the leading online recruiting marketplace that connects corporate recruiters with headhunters, knows this to be a fact. Marketplace statistics bear it out, too. 1 Sending a job to a headhunter is certainly not an admission of corporate recruiting defeat. It s simply the right solution when it s needed. With one-third of the Fortune 500 as clients and more than 10,000 approved headhunters on tap, BountyJobs is eminently qualified to shed light on how headhunters can solve problems for corporate recruiters and, more specifically, why a marketplace can help corporate recruiters best manage the jobs they send to the headhunter channel. This paper from BountyJobs succinctly illustrates: The three most common reasons corporate recruiters use headhunters. The four most common headaches in dealing with headhunters. The four key reasons a transparent, online marketplace can move corporate recruiters from headhunter hell to headhunter heaven. The good news about using headhunters is that they work. The bad news especially for any company that uses headhunters a lot is that managing them is a big hassle, said Mike Hard, CEO of BountyJobs. The solution is a management tool that helps corporate recruiters more effectively and efficiently work with the headhunter channel. What Hard is referring to is a headhunter management tool that gives back to corporate recruiters the time and resources they waste negotiating fees, interviewing and taking calls from headhunters, and dealing with all of the administrative hassles that working with headhunters requires. 1 HRxAnalysts, What HR Thinks and Feels: The 2011 HRxAnalysts Psychographic Survey of HR Professionals (used by permission).

3 2 The Naked Truth, Part 1: Corporate Recruiters Regularly Use Headhunters The truth is that most corporate recruiters hate using headhunters yet they use them regularly, nonetheless. Depending on the economy, employers in the last several years have spent between $4 billion and $8 billion annually on headhunters in the United States alone. Another truth is that when a corporate recruiter turns to the headhunter channel, it s because other attempted solutions have failed or those options simply didn t make sense to try in the first place. 2 The experience of BountyJobs, as well as industry research, shows that when a corporate recruiter turns to a headhunter, it s for one of three reasons: 1. The corporate recruiter has tried to fill a current open position or previously tried to fill a similar role and, for whatever reason, was unable to get the right candidate. Personal networks and referral programs are limited in scope. Job boards are inefficient. Social networks are laborintensive and inefficient. Successful headhunters have skills and tools that go beyond the standard methods of finding candidates, particularly passive candidates. 2. The position that the corporate recruiter is filling is a niche role or a specialty position either for the corporate recruiter or for the company; it requires expertise that the corporate recruiter doesn t have in-house. Another truth is that when a corporate recruiter turns to the headhunter channel, it s because other attempted solutions have failed or those options simply didn t make sense to try in the first place. The individual corporate recruiter or the recruiting team often lacks the knowledge of a niche to efficiently identify a roster of qualified candidates. For example, the organization may need someone highly skilled in a technical job related to a new product line and outside of the company s core capabilities. 3. The corporate recruiter is simply operating at peak capacity and needs to outsource one or several job searches. This is often a matter of a temporary spike in recruiting volume. For example, a retailer may be opening a handful of new stores at the same time. Or a company may be expanding as we come out of the recession but doesn t yet want to expand its recruiting department. The bottom line here, said Hard, is that no matter how skilled a corporate recruiter is, and no matter how large their team, there are simply times when they need to go outside of their own team to get the job done. Tim McKenna is director of staffing for Acxiom, a global provider of information services and products. He and his team of inhouse recruiters are intimately familiar with the critical lack of bandwidth that many corporate recruiters face occasionally. We tend to use contingent recruiting when we need to augment our internal team in one of two ways, McKenna said. Either we ve got a search for senior talent that we re struggling with or our internal recruiting bandwidth is just too stretched. We ve kept to that strategy during this economic period, but since we ve cut back our internal resources, we ve needed to lean on contingent recruiters more. 2 HRxAnalysts.

4 3 The Naked Truth, Part II: Headhunters (Traditionally) Are a Headache for Corporate Recruiters The good news about using headhunters is that they work. If that weren t the case, it wouldn t be an $8 billion business and world-class companies like Acxiom wouldn t be turning to the headhunter channel. The not-so-good news, especially for companies that recruit in large numbers or rely on headhunters routinely, is that managing the headhunter channel can be a huge hassle. Research shows that among the most common methods of sourcing and finding qualified candidates, the use of headhunters is the option that causes the most headaches. 3 + Headhunters + Social Networks Expense + Job Boards + Employee Referral Program + Colleagues Hassle 3 Starr Tincup, 2010 Psychographic Research, used by permission.

5 4 Drilling down a little deeper, based on working with more than one-third of the Fortune 500, BountyJobs has identified four key reasons that working with the headhunter channel is likely to give a corporate recruiter headaches: 1. Cold calls. Once they step into the headhunter channel, corporate recruiters are constantly bombarded with cold calls from headhunters hoping to either sell a candidate or land a contract job. 2. Haggling and negotiating fees. The traditional relationship between headhunters and corporate recruiters is just this side of antagonistic. Fees vary based on any number of variables that range from how scarce the field of candidates might be for a job posting to the type of firm a headhunter falls into. 3. Finding headhunters who truly are effective. No industry statistics have traditionally existed on headhunter efficiency and success rates, such as how long a headhunter takes on average to return a list of qualified candidates or the ratio of a headhunter s candidates that result in interviews or hires. 4. Managing the communication with a headhunter after they ve been retained. It s obvious that a successful headhunter must be able to communicate and interact with people and be able to sell a position to prospective applicants. Where things often break down, however, is between the corporate recruiter and the headhunter. Issues as diverse as lack of communication with the corporate recruiter to re-negotiating the terms of contracts in the course of a search come up constantly. In a nutshell, the most significant hassles corporate recruiters face in dealing with the headhunter channel are minutiae that unnecessarily eat into their time and take them away from responsibilities that they enjoy more and that can return greater value to their organization. There s also all of the communication that a corporate recruiter must handle in addition to sourcing and recruiting, such as arranging interviews with hiring managers and developing job requisitions. All of that can hamstring a corporate recruiter from doing what most of them do best and want most to do: recruit. In a nutshell, the most significant hassles corporate recruiters face in dealing with the headhunter channel are minutiae that unnecessarily eat into their time and take them away from responsibilities that they enjoy more and that can return greater value to their organization. Acxiom s McKenna expressed the corporate recruiter s general exasperation with the time-consuming administration that working with the headhunter channel usually requires. When as a recruiting department you are trying to do more with fewer people, McKenna said, it really bogs you down if you have to negotiate terms or contracts recruiter by recruiter. Kate Jackson, senior recruiter at The Nielsen Company, voiced similar frustration with the amount of paperwork and communication needed to work with headhunters in the traditional relationship. I ve got 20 open jobs on my desk and I m doing everything to recruit for them right down to scheduling the interviews with hiring managers, Jackson said. I don t have time for all that; I m a hunter, not a scheduler. I need a way to take all of the nonessential stuff off my plate so I can recruit.

6 5 The Naked Truth Part III: A Better Way Exists Any corporate recruiter who hires in large numbers is constantly seeking a recruiting method that: Helps the corporate recruiter manage the volume of cold calls from headhunters, without sacrificing the potential for connecting with headhunters who might have great candidates. Lets the corporate recruiter set the fee, without haggling, based on current business needs. The bottom line: Corporate recruiters are more able to hit their goal of filling jobs by using headhunters, without all of the headaches and hassles that until now have been part of their relationship. Provides a tool to evaluate qualified headhunters on objective data and proven track records. Offers a simple channel of communication to simultaneously manage any number of jobs that are out to search (with any number of headhunters), keep track of the status with active candidates, and update headhunters throughout the process. The solution to the corporate recruiter s pain is to connect with qualified headhunters online through a third party that handles all of the administrative work, allows the recruiter to state their fee upfront and helps the corporate recruiter choose headhunters based on actual performance data. The bottom line: Corporate recruiters are more able to hit their goal of filling jobs by using headhunters, without all of the headaches and hassles that until now have been part of their relationship. This Web-based recruiter-headhunter marketplace offers four significant features and benefits that prove its value to the people who have jobs to fill and those who have candidates to place: 1. Instant access to a vast network of approved headhunters, regardless of how big or small their agency is, and in nearly any niche. The Internet has dissolved the perceived differences between large and small contingent search firms. Any firm actually, any single headhunter with Internet access can share the stage with the largest of firms. It s a major boon for corporate recruiters. It s a great way for me to get an introduction to different recruiters, said Erica Berger, recruiting specialist for HCA Healthcare in Dallas. Because I can look at statistics like interview rates and fill histories, I m able to avoid the headhunters who I know aren t serious or who are going to send unqualified candidates my way. (For a more complete view of the features and benefits of an online marketplace for corporate recruiters and headhunters, please see the BountyJobs white paper Leveraging the Online Marketplace: The Time Is Now for Headhunters and Employers. ) 2. No more cold calls from headhunters. The same way that shopping for qualified headhunters has traditionally wasted a corporate recruiter s time, so has the constant flow of calls from headhunters seeking to place a candidate or land a contract. Having instant access to a network of approved headhunters (as many as 10,000, in the case of BountyJobs) returns valuable time to corporate recruiters.

7 6 Jennifer Morris, manager of recruiting and employment at The Medical Center of Plano in Plano, Texas, knows the ordeal of endless cold calls from headhunters and the difference that comes from using a marketplace of approved third-party recruiters. We used to get inundated with cold calls from headhunters I could have hired someone full time just to handle them, Morris said. When they called, I honestly couldn t tell who was good and who wasn t, who had a good reputation or a good history. What I like about BountyJobs, Morris said, is that I can see a history of all of the search firms that are asking to work with me: their interview rates, their history, where their focus is. 3. The power to set fees, without haggling, and to have headhunters compete on objective metrics. On BountyJobs, the corporate recruiter sets the fee he or she is willing to pay for a successful hire, giving the employer full control of their spending. The fee is posted with the job requisition; headhunters can accept the fee and submit candidates or pass on that particular job. When a headhunter makes a placement, BountyJobs keeps a portion of the fee and the bulk goes to the headhunter. If the new hire doesn t last for a specified period (up to 90 days), the employer gets a full refund. For corporate recruiters, an efficient, online recruiting marketplace that provides centralized, all-inone administration eliminates the hassles of managing the headhunter channel. Because we re totally transparent about how much is being paid for what jobs, it doesn t make sense for employers to undercut the market, because headhunters will simply refuse to work with them, Hard said. Also, to make the recruiter s job more efficient and effective, BountyJobs provides data that helps the recruiter instantly assess a headhunter s skill and capabilities for any job requisition. For example, a recruiter can see at a glance if the headhunter has filled similar jobs and, if so, how many; what the headhunter s interview-to-hire rate is; where the headhunter has placed candidates and at what salary level. (For a more complete look at a headhunter marketplace with set fees, please see the BountyJobs white paper Removing Fee Negotiations From the Recruiter- Headhunter Equation: A Transparent, No-Haggle Relationship. ) 4. Streamlined, third-party administration managed in one location. An efficient online business-to-business conduit offers comprehensive and professional administration for any transaction. It frees both parties in the arrangement to put their energy and time into what they do best. For corporate recruiters, an efficient, online recruiting marketplace that provides centralized, all-in-one administration eliminates the hassles of managing the headhunter channel. It saves time and reduces soft costs by fully eliminating problems like paperwork, contracting, approvals and procurement. I have a search going on right now outside of BountyJobs where we are stuck in contractual details, for instance, said Acxiom s McKenna. With BountyJobs, we bypass that step and get right to the search.

8 7 Summary The online marketplace is Like it or not, admit it or not, corporate recruiters use headhunters. Why? the only system today that According to market research and BountyJobs experience with more than allows corporate recruiters to one-third of the Fortune 500, corporate recruiters turn to headhunters for operate smoothly and with one of three main reasons: The corporate recruiter has tried to handle the success in the headhunter job and for whatever reason, it didn t work; the position being filled is in a channel, to reduce the niche or is a specialty position that requires expertise the recruiter doesn t have in-house; or the recruiter or recruiting team is simply operating at headaches, aggravations, peak capacity and can t handle the work. expense and lost time involved in the traditional There is one other reason corporate recruiters turn to headhunters. They work. Yet the relationship between headhunters and corporate recruiters has, until now, been rife with headaches and hassles for corporate recruiters. Recruiters have had to deal with unceasing cold calls from headhunters. They are constantly haggling and negotiating fees. Recruiters spend enormous amounts of time and resources finding headhunters who truly are effective. And finally, there s the hassle of managing the communication and administrative details with a headhunter after they ve been retained. The online marketplace is the only system today that allows corporate recruiters to operate smoothly and with success in the headhunter channel, to reduce the headaches, aggravations, expense and lost time involved in the traditional relationship. When it s laid out from start to finish when you see why corporate recruiters use headhunters despite the headaches they have traditionally put up with out of necessity it s easy to see the comprehensive value proposition that underlies an efficient, effective and transparent headhunter marketplace like the one BountyJobs provides. About BountyJobs BountyJobs is an online marketplace that connects recruiters and employers with a national network of seasoned headhunters in seconds. Rather than being chained to the phone with headhunters all day, BountyJobs guarantees efficient collaboration with the headhunter channel through a single Web-based application. BountyJobs is the preferred contingent search solution for more than one-third of the Fortune 500, and our marketplace features more than 10,000 approved headhunters. Happy Headhunting.