Click on a Topic to Go There.
SOURCING STRATEGIES CHANGING
Print media advertising is less effective as a recruitment source.
WHAT YOUR CLIENTS NEED TO KNOW
The tight labor market requires a new sense of urgency.
EMPLOYMENT APPLICATION
Does it add value or duplicate effort?
RECRUITER NETWORKS
Projects S.A.V.E. and S.A.M.E. have counterparts in other cities.
Over the last three years, the demand in the labor market has forced many employers
to change their strategies for attracting and acquiring new human resources for their
organizations.
The Employment Management Association has been tracking source utilization trends
as part of its ongoing national cost per hire survey. In the 1996/97 study, it
became evident that traditional print media advertising was beginning to lose its
position of prominence as the major source of recruits for corporate America.
While print media advertising has fallen from 30% of all hires in 1995 to
18.4% in 1997, college recruiting has been on the increase and Internet
recruiting has begun to emerge as a viable new source. Forecasts call for
both college recruiting and Internet recruiting to increase in 1998.
Employee referrals have consistently shown a return of 23 to 25% of all hires each
year. Other sources, such as empllyment agencies and job fairs are contributing
7.5% and 8.6% respectively.
With Washington area unemployment rates dropping to just 3.3%
(and 2.8% in the suburbs), most area employers have begun to feel the labor pinch.
But it appears that many of the managers we serve who have hiring authority have
yet to get the word. Every day, recruiters bemoan the fact that their client
managers don't have a clue about the competitive nature of today's market.
A large part of this problem is that many managers are still living in the past.
They assume the job market is just the same as it was when they landed their jobs
10, 15 or even 20 years ago. Back in the 60's, 70's and 80's, it may have been
possible that candidates would line up at your door, wait as long as you required,
and would accept whatever salary you offered.
Nowadays, the tables have been turned. Candidates pick which companies they want
to consider, move in and out of the marketplace in days (not weeks or months),
and make virtually everything an item for negotiation.
To create a sense of urgency in our clients, we need to educate them about
the expectation applicants have for prompt decisions. They need to know what
the current salary demands are for the specific skills they are seeking. They
also need to understand what candidates are looking for so they can be better
prepares to sell to them.
We may not be able to fix the supply problem, but we can significantly improve
our clients' ability to compete for the candidates we bring to their doorsteps.
Many companies are still using the same employment applications they have been using
since the 1960's. Is anyone listening to job applicants today? They hate filling
them out. Why? We usually ask for information that has already been presented on
their resumes.
It may be high time to redesign your application to focus on collecting
additional data rather than duplicate information.
An employment application needs to stimulate your managers to ask questions they
may not ordinarily think to ask, such as: starting position and ending position
for each employer; base salary vs. commission, etc; company size in terms of
annual revenue and/or number of employees; number of hours worked per week; and,
reasons for leaving each employer.
The answers given to these questions may not reveal the whole story, but will
certainly stimulate discussions that will allow your interviewers to more thoroughly
understand the applicant's background and motivations.
In your redesign, why don't you also make it more user friendly. Add lots of
white space marked - For Office Use Only - to allow you and other interviewers
to make clarifying notes during the course of the interview. Of course, these notes
would be only made on copies of the application form, not the original.
You may want to do yourself another favor by adding - Names of Supervisors and Titles -
as well as - Names of Employees Supervised and Titles. What better way to get reliable
references that can speak to the applicant's actual job performance and behavior!
Since written communication skills are often so important, you may want to add
a large space on the back of your form where you can ask, "Please write a short
paragraph about your long term goals and how you see your career with our
company meeting these goals". This will not only give you a real-time sampling of
their writing skills, but also provide some interesting insights into the applicant's
job and career motivations.
Project S.A.V.E., the Staffing Alliance of Virginia Employers, and Project S.A.M.E.
(Maryland employers), are not unique. There are several recruiter networks located
around the country in major metropolitan areas.
All of these groups provide a networking opportunity to their members. What makes
Project SAVE and SAME a little bit different is the fact that neither of these
organizations charge any mebership dues or fees.
Project SAVE was founded in November, 1990, by Gary Cluff while managing the effects
of the Contel/GTE merger. From approximately 24 initial participants, Project SAVE
has grown to more than 380 participating companies. The mission of Project SAVE is
to simplify the job-filling process both for the recruiter and the job-seeker by
providing a monthly forum for the free exchange of job postings and resumes. Monthly
meetings are held at various locations, usaully the third Wednesday of the month.
Membership is open to corporate or contract recruiters who represent specific
organizations, and to federal, state and county services and non-profits who
assist job-seekers. Third-party recruiters who charge fees to the employer or
to the applicant upon placement are not encouraged to participate.
Project SAME has been operating for more than four years and has had a similar
mission and growth record. Bret Hollander, same@netrecruiter.net, is the coordinator of
Project SAME. Monthly meetings are usually held the second Thursday of the month.
Here are a some of the contacts for Technical Recruiter Networks in other locales:
Southeast Employment Network, Atlanta, Van Treadway, www.senetwork.com
Delaware Valley TRN, Philadelphia, Alex Godun, www.dvtrn.com
TRN, Chicago, Jeff Baron, email: terra@occ.com
Minnesota TRN, Dian Albers, www.psijobfair.com/trn/
NY TRA, NYC, Nancy Hopkins, (212)639-3482
128/495 TRA, Boston, Nancy Percival, (508)271-8212
Southwest High Tech Cooperative, Dallas, Richard Bell, www.trsn.com
Colorado TRN, Denver, Tony Bengston, www.cotrn.org
Southern Calif. TRN, LA, Tom Peebles, (714)385-4315
No. Calif. Network, East Bay, San Francisco, Suzanne McFadden, (510)926-3354
HRCA, San Francisco Bay Area, Frank Gaudallier, (408)721-3209
Seattle Area Network, Suzanne Davidson, (206)455-1004
Cluff & Associates can be reached by calling 1-800-890-2795, or you can
email us
by clicking the button below:
