Skip to content

10 ways the world of recruitment is changing – right now!

Last week I was honoured to present a keynote address to the RCSA National Conference in Hobart.

All subscribers to ‘The Savage Truth’, will receive the digital version of my presentation over the next few days (subscribe here to ensure you receive it).

In that speech I laid out 10 trends that I believe will impact the recruiting profession and which we need to factor into our strategies and business planning.

  1. Expectations of clients are rising and will continue to rise. Clients want insights, not just résumés. They want better service. They want specialist level consulting advice. And they want it faster and globally.
  2. Clients and talent are savvier, more discerning, and more sensitive to quality. Right now, publicly listed recruiters are reporting rising revenues and profits. But at the same time we see increasing numbers of small recruiters going into liquidation. Big firm or smaller player, clients will not accept the second rate, the cumbersome or the old-fashioned.
  3. Employers will continue to aggressively build their in-house capacity to recruit staff.  Clients will develop corporate in-house recruitment teams, build recruitment technology, enhance employer branding, and use social media. And all of these will be used to cut recruiters out of the process. It’s a major issue for our industry and we have to offer something measurably different to be seen to be providing value.
  4. An increasing majority of vacant jobs will not be advertised anywhere. Forget web advertising vs. print media. More and more jobs just won’t get announced at all. Networking, social media, and skilled, specialised recruiters will fill most jobs before they ever hit the mainstream media. That has huge implications for us in the way we develop business, access talent and make the match. And also for the skill-set of our recruiting staff.
  5. Talent will become smarter and wiser to the way our industry works. They will be far more discerning about the recruiter they work with. They will take charge of their job search and of their employee brand. Technology has made things so much more transparent for job seekers and the pathway for them to connect with employers is now wide open, potentially leaving third-party recruiters out in the cold. This raises massive questions around the way we engage with candidates and our entire talent acquisition strategies.
  6. Reputation and Brand – of recruiters – will become our most valuable asset. And we will not be able to influence brand via traditional PR and media anymore, because social media is so viral, so transparent and so powerful, that your business can be destroyed or made by it at lightening speed. Our brands are being defined by the voices of strangers.
  7. Referrals will become the primary sourcing channel for all levels of positions. Not print, not job boards – but word of mouth, reputation, networking and referral programs.
  8. Customers’ loyalty will become key. And by customers I mean both clients and talent. Churn and burn will not work. We need to retain what we have, and develop it intelligently and consistently.
  9. On top of all this, there will be increasing pressure on price. Clients will not pay the same for what they used to get.
  10. To sum it all up, yesterday’s “delivery” market will become tomorrow’s relationship market with both clients and talent.
  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in Coaching recruiters, Management Skills, Recruiter coaching, Recruitment, Recruitment Trends.

Tagged with , , , , .

19 comments

By Greg Savage – August 31, 2010

Each recruiter you hire costs you $100,000 before you pay them a salary!

Yes, the staffing market may be recovering, but every day we read of recruitment companies going into liquidation. And even in the best of times, I know plenty of recruitment business owners are frustrated by how hard they work for such modest returns.

And the tendency is to blame clients, or the market or the government.

But often the real culprit is much closer to home. Profitability of a recruitment business is totally dependent on recruiter productivity. And more to the point, poor returns are usually a result of long-term acceptance of mediocre performers.

And plenty of business owners are naïve when it comes to the real cost of their staff. They talk of accepting people billing a modest multiple of their salary as being sufficient. I have often heard such statements as “Well, I only paid her $60,000 a year and she billed $70,000, so she covered her cost”. Total nonsense, that was a loss making hire, make no mistake.

What is often forgotten is the opportunity cost of having a serial under performer in your company when you could have a high performer, covering overhead and contributing to profit.

This short video above explains a quick, rough and ready way to work out what recruiters cost you – even before you pay their salary!

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in Leadership, Management Skills, Recruitment.

1 comment

By Greg Savage – August 24, 2010

Recruiters, some great tips to leverage your PR

Guest blog from Sam Woodward, BlueSky PR

First of all, thank you to Greg for letting me infiltrate his brilliant blog. If you ever need a success story for Twitter this would be it – engaging with Greg online led to some great PR success for Aquent and a new client for BlueSky! But that’s another blog post.

Investing in PR is key for recruiters who want to boost their brand in the eyes of their clients, candidates and even potential employees for themselves – however that’s really only half the story. What should recruiters do to really leverage that PR coverage and make sure that great article isn’t quickly forgotten?

We’re always saying to our clients that using PR coverage is essential. Why make that investment if all you do with the coverage is send it to your proud mother or maybe tuck it away in a folder on reception? PR can establish you as a credible and respected commentator in your field – so make sure you shout about it! And not only that, the chances are that whatever you are talking about in the media is going to be of interest to your audience, so sharing this information will be of benefit to them, and they’ll remember you for it.

With the boom in social media it’s easy to spread information at the touch of a button, so maximise on this. Put the coverage and/or a link to it onto your blog, tweet about it, Facebook it, put it on LinkedIn – not only will all your connections see it, some may pass it on to their network too. There are plenty of examples of how stories can spread virally and your news is no exception. And don’t forget to put it on your website too (just be aware of copyright rules).

But don’t just share coverage amongst management and marketing – make sure it is shared with everyone in the team. It can boost motivation and arm everyone with some useful collateral. If a recruiter is in contact with a client or candidate and the company has had a nice mention in the press, they should flag it up. Email the link or mention it over the phone – it will be informative for the recipient, whilst boosting your credibility.

In the same way, PR can be key when it comes to winning new business. One of our clients was pitching to recruit for a big Financial Director role, however he was last in on a Friday afternoon so the odds were against him. Nevertheless he began the meeting by showing the client an article we had ghost written in his name in one of the heavyweight publications in his sector. The client had in fact read the piece the day before, it automatically boosted the tone of the meeting, he won the business and made the fee – that’s a direct return on investment.

Turning PR coverage into media packs that consultants can use is therefore another great idea.

So all in all, PR isn’t just nice for your ego – if used properly it can lead to increased credibility, more business and to future PR opportunities which you can use to start the process again!

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in Recruitment.

1 comment

By Greg Savage – August 23, 2010

Recruiters, use your ‘necktop’ when engaging with clients (video)

The savage truth is that most recruiters have no idea how to build relationships with their clients, nor how to develop business opportunities through their day-to-day interaction with customers.

It’s an ironic tragedy, but the more technology we have available, the less recruiters actually use that technology to connect with clients and candidates in a meaningful way.


View video on YouTube

Walk into most recruitment consulting offices now days, and its like walking into a typing pool. Everyone bashing away at emails, texts, and social networking updates.

Now here is the point. About 70% of the e-mails we send are unnecessary, or at least the message could have been better delivered verbally. Sending email is a missed opportunity much of the time. It’s also supremely unproductive.

Recruiting is about relationships. Selling is about hunting, persuading, seducing and consummating. Email is bland, annoying and often not read by our clients.

Please do not misunderstand my message here. Email and the newer technologies and communications platforms have incredible application and I use them all the time. I am after all engaging with you via a blog and via a video too, right now.  But I keep asking myself “what outcome am I trying to achieve, and am I more likely to achieve it by phone or face-to-face?”

Our job as recruiters is about compelling people to action. What we do, or should do, is create outcomes and facilitate decisions. Email does not do that. Your job is about selling, understanding and building trust. Email does not do that.

Success in recruitment is about connecting. Technology is an enabler. If you want to compete, make sure you and your team talk to clients and candidates on every possible occasion. Ask questions, listen actively, and solve problems.

Challenge people in your office. Why send an email?  Why not pick up the phone or even go and see the person?

Less email, less typing, less laptop, less desktop. More talking, more listening, more asking, more necktop!

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in Client Skills, Coaching recruiters, Personal Branding, Recruiter coaching, Recruitment, Recruitment Skills.

Tagged with , , , , , .

4 comments

By Greg Savage – August 17, 2010

Recruitment. It’s like running a marathon, just harder

For alerts on new postings, recruiting information, free training videos and more, please subscribe to ‘The Savage Truth’.

*****************************************************************************************************

Not so long ago, I ran the Sydney Half Marathon.

That’s 21.1 kilometres around the streets of Sydney. Took just over two hours for me to do it too.

But running a Half Marathon is no big deal. Even at my age, and with my drinking habits. Thousands do it regularly. In the Aquent business we have plenty of real athletes, some of whom comfortably run full marathons!

So why tell you this? Well, running this marathon reminded me of a very important life lesson. And it’s a lesson that has huge significance for anyone who wants to be a great recruiter and make a long-term career in this industry.

The story goes like this.

I suspected I might be a little unfit, so I went for a jog around my neighborhood. Problem was that after three kilometres I had to stop as I was out of breath and felt dizzy. Bad news. I was seriously unfit! As I hobbled home, I made a rash promise to myself. It was 9 weeks until the Sydney Half Marathon, and I decided I would get fit enough to run it.

So easy to say. So hard to follow through.

But I was determined, and I started training. Gym. Road running. Running on a treadmill. It hurt. I hated every second. The gym was full of smug dudes who looked like models from Men’s Health magazine. Running the streets was cold, and friends of mine would honk and laugh as they drove past.

One week into my programme, I got home from a run and I started to waver. “This is ridiculous,” I thought. “I am too old for this rubbish,” I reasoned. “I don’t need to actually run a marathon to get fit,” I persuaded myself. “I am far too busy. I have travel coming up. There is no time to get fit for this,” I tried to convince myself.

By the time I got into my warm living room I had decided to give up the stupid half marathon idea, and I was on my way to the fridge to grab a beer (which I had given up for 9 weeks too by the way!)

Suddenly an image flashed into my mind. I was sharply reminded of a conversation I had had that very afternoon with a recruiter in our Sydney team. This person was a good recruiter, but young and relatively inexperienced. He was going through a rough time. Two bad months. Offers turned down. He was despondent and was telling me he was not sure “if recruiting was right for him”.

During that conversation I did not hold back. I talked about persistence. I spoke of the fact that nothing worth having ever came easy. I spoke of courage and character. I told him stories about bad patches I had had, and how determination had turned things around.  I examined how building a reputation and a real business took time. I shared my opinion that often you feel as though you are getting no traction, but that all the work he was doing would pay off in time, and when it did he would feel pride and self-esteem and a sense of achievement.

And every word I told him is true. But as I hesitated at the fridge door, about to grab the beer, I realised what a hypocrite I was being. How could I tell this guy to knuckle down? To persevere in the face of something he found difficult, when I was giving up on my half-marathon after only 6 days training?

I closed the fridge and the next day hit the road again. Over the next two months I trained four or five times a week and I hated almost every session. I got a calf injury and came so close to giving up. I made so little progress for the first month that I felt I was getting less fit instead of more fit. I had to travel overseas for work and the temptation to give up training was overwhelming. But I held firm and I trained in hotel gyms and I jogged along the murky Singapore River in 90% humidity, when I could have been in the cool bar of the Marriott hotel.

School holidays came around and I took the family on a holiday to Borneo and with only two weeks to go until race itself, I resisted the hotel in-pool bar and jogged down the main street of Kota Kinabalu instead – to the utter amazement of the locals who were sensibly resting under shady trees, or sitting under fans drinking iced tea.

But that conversation with the Sydney recruiter kept coming back to me. Don’t give up. This will pay off. You have to put in the hard work before the rewards come.

One week out from the race I went to the Sydney Botanical Gardens and ran 15 kilometers. I did the distance, but it hurt so much I wanted to lie down under one of the giant Port Jackson fig trees that line Sydney Harbour. I truly came so close to giving up on the race there and then.

On the day of the race I nearly didn’t get out of bed. It was cold. I knew that 15 km had nearly floored me. How could I run 21 kilometers? At the event itself were 10,000 runners. And trust me this was no fun-run. No one was pushing prams or dressed in Superman outfits. These guys were serious!  They all looked like East African Olympians. Skinny with all the right gear. I felt well out of place and half felt like slinking off and going home.

But I did the race. And I was pumped and sped through the first 15 kms as though it was a stroll in the park. It got harder after that, but I finished, ran every step and I did it in a better time than I expected.

And it felt great.

No doubt it was worth all the hassle and the pain.

And so is it with our jobs. It’s true that often people have early success in our job. A good match, a bit of good fortune, a client or two inherited.  It can make you look good and there is nothing wrong with taking wins when they come around.

But real success? Building reputation that will last? Developing sophisticated skills? Building a portfolio of loyal clients? Evolving into a trusted advisor? Generating referrals and word of mouth talent? Generating repeat business? Securing clients who use you exclusively?

That takes time, perseverance and effort.

It takes consistent activity. It takes moral courage to do difficult things like cold calling. It takes ego strength to withstand rejection and poor results. It takes an open mind to learn new skills and work at the things you are not good at.

And slowly but surely the rewards will come.

Recruitment or running. The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in Coaching recruiters, Employee engagement, Leadership, Management Skills, Recruitment.

Tagged with , , , .

8 comments

By Greg Savage – August 10, 2010

Most of all, social media is for grown-up recruiters

It’s easy to think social media is a trivial diversion, ideal for 20-something’s with an addiction to technology and too much time on their hands.

But I don’t think so. In fact, properly used, it is a highly sophisticated business development and relationship management tool, which has the ability to increase recruiter productivity exponentially.

Twelve months ago I wrote my first blog for ‘The Savage Truth’. At about the same time I posted my first tentative tweet. I already had a LinkedIn page, but my excursion into social media was mostly an attempt to understand it from the inside.

And while I won’t claim to be any kind of expert, I can now point to thousands of blog readers a week, and close to 5000 followers on Twitter, all of whom are in my target audience of Recruiters, Marketers and Designers.

These social media platforms can grow your personal and corporate brand in a way that 1000 client visits cannot. Through my social media exposure I have hired staff, selected vendors, won clients, sourced many candidates, been invited to speak at conferences, filled up seats at those conferences, and generated tens of thousands of dollars of media exposure.

I have also learned a great deal that assists me in my business, made offline friendships and found another way to engage with my own staff, currently working in 13 counties across the world.

Generally speaking, the more senior the person, in years and status, the less they feel social media is relevant to them. That’s a fallacy that needs to be overcome.

Recently, I was interviewed by Jeff Bullas, a highly influential blogger and thought leader on social media, marketing and the web. The short video interview can be viewed here.

If you have even a suspicion that social media might be important for you and your business, please watch it. It might just steer you in the right direction.

View video and blog post: The CEO and Social Media written by Jeff Bullas
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/07/04/the-ceo-and-social-media/

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in Marketing, Personal Branding, Recruitment, Social Networking.

9 comments

By Greg Savage – August 3, 2010

Coaching Recruiters. Shut up and let them talk!

Please subscribe to ‘The Savage Truth’ for alerts on new postings, recruiting information and more. It’s free and takes no more than 20 seconds to do. Subscribe now

**************************************************************************************************

This is the fifth blog in my series on great coaching for managers of recruiter teams.

Previously I expanded on the importance of ‘live feedback’, ‘real life coaching’, as well as the tactic of ‘plugging in’ new recruits.

Today we look at ‘role swapping’.

Many managers I have worked with feel that if they are not doing the talking or showing the consultant how the job is done, then they are not providing valuable input.

This is not always true. From time to time, it is highly effective for the manager or coach to reverse roles, providing feedback after the event.

For example, once you have a consultant up to a certain level of competence, or even with your more experienced people, take them on a client visit with you where they lead the discussion, where they take in the job, where they do the selling and you play a secondary role.

You may be surprised how difficult this is to do! Many managers simply cannot help themselves on a client meeting and leap in to take control. I understand why, but look at the bigger picture. When is the recruiter ever going to learn if you always take control? In fact you are setting that person up for disaster because the first time they actually get to run a client meeting, they really will be on their own. i.e. when you are not there.

So sure, be ready to leap in if it goes totally off the rails, but otherwise let the recruiter run it.

Then afterwards in the cab back to the office, or in a coffee shop, do a full, immediate de-brief, pointing out missed opportunities or where things could be handled differently.

The same role swapping should be applied to interviewing candidates. Your consultant interviews, you observe and feedback afterwards.

The most powerful coaching you will ever do.

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in Coaching recruiters, Employee engagement, Leadership, Management Skills.

Tagged with , , , .

No comments

By Greg Savage – July 27, 2010

‘Plug-in’ your new recruiters for fast learning

Please subscribe to ‘The Savage Truth’ for alerts on new postings, recruiting information and more. It’s free and takes no more than 20 seconds to do. Subscribe now

******************************************************************************************************

This is the fourth blog in my series on great coaching for managers of recruiter teams.

Previously I expanded on the importance of ‘Live Feedback’ as well as the ‘Real Life’ approach to consultant coaching. Today we talk about effectively inducting new hires through clever coaching.

If you spend all your time training consultants in a one-on-one situation, your own productivity will suffer dramatically, plus we agree ‘classroom learning’ has limited effectiveness. A neat solution to this problem is to plug new recruits into your own desk.

Assign one or even two new people to literally follow you around and listen to every conversation you have for an entire morning. Let them listen to you taking job descriptions, let them come with you on client visits, let them sit in on interviews with you.

This way you expose new people to the full variety of consulting situations, they absorb your style and ethos, and after all they are getting it from the best consultant in the team (hopefully).

You can also plug new recruits into other senior members of your team. One word of warning. If you do plug consultants into yourself or your colleagues, it is very important to have regular debriefs where you ensure that they understand what has been happening and they have the opportunity to ask questions. Three or four times a day, stop and ask them to tell you what they have heard and learned. Then refine their perceptions and explain dynamics they have missed. Maybe set them follow up tasks. At the very least it tells you where they need more input.

You can’t limit your new hire training to this technique, but you can certainly liberally plug new recruits in during their early weeks. It’s much better than have them sit there and read a training manual!

Plugging people in is a highly effective way of getting on with your job, while at the same time providing exposure to the fundamentals of the role.

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in Coaching recruiters, Employee engagement, Leadership, Management Skills.

Tagged with , , .

No comments

By Greg Savage – July 13, 2010

Coaching Recruiters. Doing your job while teaching them their job!

Please subscribe to ‘The Savage Truth’ for alerts on new postings, recruiting information and more. It’s free and takes no more than 20 seconds to do. Subscribe now

******************************************************************************************************

This is the third blog in my series on great coaching for managers of recruiter teams.

Last week I expanded on the importance of ‘Live Feedback’ as a coaching tool, and today we turn our attention to the sadly under-utilised ‘Real Life’ approach to consultant coaching.

One of the major learnings for me about effective coaching is that telling people how to do things is only fractionally as successful as showing them how it’s done. Neither is as good as having consultants actually try the task to perfect it.

Real life situational coaching is best done on an individual basis, and can involve simply sitting down next to the consultant, listening to the way they make phone calls and providing feedback and guidance.

Occasionally, it is important to reverse the roles, and you can make the phone calls, allowing the consultant to evaluate the way you are approaching the task.

An excellent example of this type of coaching is where you have a consultant whose approach is selling a job to candidates over the phone is lacklustre or generally poor. Instead of lecturing the consultant on how to sell the features of a job to a candidate, you pick up the phone, call that consultant’s candidate yourself, while the consultant is sitting there, and brief the candidate on the job. It only takes a few minutes and the learning is substantial.  And you earn huge credibility by actually doing the job ‘live’. And of course you are being productive, because you are executing a task that could well lead to revenue.

You are doing the job while teaching the job! It’s beautiful, beautiful thing.

Where possible, make your own recruitment consulting visible to the team, so they can learn from real situations as they occur. Instead of locking yourself in a room when you have to make those difficult phone calls (e.g. fee dispute, counter offer) gather your team around you. Explain the issue, brainstorm with the group how best to tackle it… and then make the call right there, in the spotlight. Yes, its nerve wracking. But the learning is intense, and so is the respect you garner but putting yourself out there.

You will certainly never be accused of not ‘walking the talk’.

Real Life. Nothing like it when it comes to coaching recruiters to greatness.

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in Coaching recruiters, Recruitment Skills.

Tagged with , , , .

7 comments

By Greg Savage – July 13, 2010

Coaching Skills # 1 – Live Feedback

Please subscribe to ‘The Savage Truth’ for alerts on new postings, recruiting information and more. It’s free and takes no more than 20 seconds to do. Subscribe now

******************************************************************************************************

In my last blog post I explained how great coaching is built on two key functions – recognition and correction.

Today I expand on one of the tactics I have found exceptionally helpful in mentoring and coaching recruiters to outstanding performance, ‘Live Feedback’.

This may sound unusual, but a good leader who wants to have an impact as a coach should actively look out for opportunities to catch their consultants in the act of doing something good!

Yes, live feedback starts with the positive.

If you want to see a behaviour repeated, reward it via recognition. So for example, if you hear a consultant doing a great job of selling a temp rate to a candidate who was hoping for more, as soon as that recruiter puts down the phone, tell them. ‘Heard the way you handled that conversation Bob. Great job! It’s really crucial we keep our margins up on this temp desk and that starts with paying our temps market rates, but no more. Well done’.

What’s more I think you should pass on this recognition publicly and immediately. It is wonderfully uplifting for the individual, and will certainly reinforce that behaviour. But it also starts to create a team ethos and culture that rubs off on everyone in the team.

But of course as a manager you must also be on the lookout for practical situations to improve a consultant’s skill and performance. This is the ‘correction’ component of effective coaching. This will mean keeping an ear out for conversations where you feel the consultant has said the wrong thing or could have said something differently or better.

The key here is not to be punitive or demeaning in words or tone. It’s a real skill to position your feedback as constructive, but it can be done. Say you heard a consultant making a bit of a hash of handling a counter-offer. You may start with something like this. ‘That was a tricky situation Bob, and you handled it well, but just thinking, when your candidate said he had been offered more money to stay, do you think it would have been good to take him back to his original reasons for considering a move…’ And out of that question will come an impromptu coaching session on handling these situations. It’s immediate. It’s powerful. It’s positive.

Always be prepared to speak to the consultant immediately they have put the phone down. The learning and retention by the consultant is far more powerful if you can relate a concept to a real and recent situation. This takes discipline and means that you often have to consciously listen out for situations and opportunities.

Live feedback is incredibly effective. It’s real because the consultant has just felt the euphoria of success and or the pain of failure. You will never have a better time to really drive home behaviour.

And that is coaching.

Coming up next week in this consultant coaching series of blog posts – ‘Real Life Situations’.

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in Leadership, Recruiter coaching, Recruitment.

Tagged with , , , , , .

1 comment

By Greg Savage – July 6, 2010