Some practical tips for the HR Manager to select the right recruiter

by Cristina Savuica
Country Manager - Lugera & Makler s.r.l, Romania:
cristina.savuica@lugera.ro

Many of the potential clients Lugera & Makler is meeting, share negative experiences when working with recruitment firms. In many cases the recruitment firm obviously made mistakes and where not able or not willing to correct things in order to meet the client's whishes. But not in all cases the recruitment firms are to be blamed. Mistakes from the client side may also contribute to an ineffective recruitment procedure.

In this article we have tried to write down some considerations that may result in a better mutual understanding and a more effective search & selection procedure.

The better your profile is, the better the recruitment firm can do its job. It is helpful to determine which requirements are crucial and which are to be preferred only. If candidates must fulfill a long list of requirements, then this may result in longer search times and often-higher starting salaries. For example: if you want the financial manager to master the financial module of SAP you can expect higher salary demands. Are you prepared so? Based on the profile the search plan is designed. An incomplete profile results in an incomplete search plan. It is the task from the recruitment firm to ask you the right questions, and to read in between the lines. If you do not get some critical questions about the profile, then be aware. Something might go wrong!

Many of the HR Managers have an overloaded agenda. Hardly any time to breath. And certainly no time to visit the recruitment firm. Unfortunately. Meeting them in their offices will give you a much better impression then inviting them into your offices. When they visit you, you can only base your opinion on their smooth talking and beautiful promises, their very nice dresses and great catalogues.

Being in their offices you can get an impression of the atmosphere; are the phones ringing? Are they conducting interviews? Is it a dead office or is there a lot going on?

When inside you can easily check all their arguments. But on what can you base your selection criteria? What to ask and what to check? Below we have written a checklist in order for you to choose the recruiter who really deserves to work for you:

Nearly all recruitment firms have a database of CV's in hard copies and in their computer system. Ask your recruiter if you can see the files in which they have put the hard copies. If this looks nice and tidy it is a good sign and indicates that they treat the confidential CV's from their candidates with respect. But do not be surprised if you see piles of CV's shattered all around the place: only one advice for you: run…

Your second check is their recruitment software. Ask your recruiter to run some filters for candidates in their system. Ask them to get you an AS/400 programmer with English language skills. Or a marketing manager in the Telecom branch. Or ask them to run a filter according your profile. They should be able to do this instantly. If they tell you that for confidentiality reasons or any other silly excuse, they cannot show you this, than you can be sure that they have nothing to show you, which would convince you to work with them.

Further they should have a good database of companies for their direct search activities. Every recruiter should have a rich database of many companies in Romania in which they can select on branch, region and city, ownership (local, French, English etc.). This is crucial if you must execute a direct search in the insurance sector. The searchers need instant access to all insurance companies in order to call for potential candidates. But do not be surprised if your recruiter is still using the Yellow Pages. And you know, if they do, better run again.

Besides the software, have a look at the hardware of the system. Do they have a good network; do they have a leased line for Internet?

The above-mentioned database is only one of many tools a recruitment firm has for search & selection. And not always the most important tool, although many people think so. It is of major importance for you to know how they will treat your vacancy. As you have no time to lose, you want to be convinced that your recruiter is not going to waist your precious time, as vacancies cost the company money due to loss of productivity.

The first question is to let them explain you how their search plan looks like. A solid search plan contains at least 4 or 5 of the following components:

1. Data base search: how many potential contacts will this give and how long will it take.
2. Company search: which companies do they intend to contact, how many potential candidates will this generate and the time span.
3. Internet: will they put the vacancies on their website and on career sites. Are they going to search at other companies' corporate sites for possible leads?
4. Advertising: will they support their search with advertising? And why?
5. Direct Search: are they prepared and are they able to execute an intensive direct search (the real headhunting)? How do they do this and what will be the result? Although it is hard to believe but most consultants and searchers at recruitment firms do not have the skills and do not like direct search at all! But, direct search is one of the most effective and fastest tools for the recruiter. So make sure that the recruiter is not afraid of this!
6. Network Management: Do the recruiters have a network in the field of your vacancy? Do they know enough potential candidates already? Which tools do they use for this? Do they have instruments for mass e-mailing all their potential candidates instantly, or do they do it all manually?
7. Search cases: Can they rely on previous and similar search & selection procedures where they already have been contacting potential candidates you might need.

Secondly make sure that you will talk to the searcher or consultant who is responsible for your vacancy and brief this person into detail. And make sure that you have enough trust in this person, otherwise it will not work.

Ask to have a look at the CV-Questionnaire and check critically the questions in order to find out that they will not forget to ask the candidates questions, which are critical for your profile. Further you can check the capability of the recruiter how they execute the interview with potential candidates.

Make sure you have a penalty clause in your contract with your recruiter stipulating in clear terms that they will not contact your personnel for vacancies at other clients. If they are not willing to do so, you can be sure that they are going to use you as a source as well.

If you have the above mentioned condition in the contract ask the recruiters client portfolio as it will not be possible for them to search for potential candidates at their clients which may limit the number of qualifying candidates they are able to introduce to you.

You would prefer to see candidates yesterday rather then tomorrow, as tomorrow is already too late. But do not let your recruiter make you promises, which are not realistic. For a solid search & selection procedure the recruiter needs time. The right recruiter selects potential candidates at least from 50 to 100 persons. From this group of persons invites between 10 to 20 persons for a personal interview. And only after a personal interview the right recruiter is able to select the most qualifying candidates. In practice this means that an effective recruiter will need between 8 and 15 business days. This depends also on the profile of the candidate, of course.

Ask the recruiter to give you regular up-dates: how many candidates they contacted, from which companies, who rejected the vacancy and the reasons. This will enable you to modify your profile or to change the focus of the search procedure.

Recruiters should give you sound guarantee conditions in case the hired candidate turns out to be a recruitment error. From experience we know that 2 out of 100 placed candidates leave the client within the guarantee term. The average for the recruitment business is between 5-10 guarantee cases out of 100 placements. Guarantee vacancies should have top-priority at the recruiter.

Basically there are three possible fee structures, all with their advantages and disadvantages.