Recruiting firms have two primary ways of functioning: on a contingency basis or on a retainer basis. Which one is best for your needs? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each.

Retainer

In a retainer situation, the hiring company pays the recruiter an initial fee before recruiting begins. Once the initial retainer has been paid and the recruiting agreement is signed, the recruiter begins work. Usually, the retainer is paid in three installments, with the second and third retainer payments tied to specific performance outcomes or timelines. The recruiter may be working on that particular assignment exclusively, and their responsibility is to provide qualified candidates for the open position for the client (the hiring company).

When a company establishes a retainer relationship with a recruiter, it's on more of a trusted partner basis. The recruiter is being hired and paid as an outside extension of a client’s internal team. With this type of arrangement, recruiters ise a dedicated search process to find the right candidate. The focus is on quality and appropriateness for the position.

With a retained search, recruiters are protected from competition from other recruiters because they usually have an exclusive working relationship with their clients.

Contingency

In a contingency search arrangement, the recruiter only receives payment if they fill the position. And it 's not unheard of for the same assignment to be farmed out to a number of recruiters.

Contingency search can be non-exclusive or exclusive. In a non-exclusive contingency search, there is no mutual commitment, and candidates can be presented to multiple clients. This approach is frequently used on low-priority positions. An exclusive contingency is a signed exclusive agreement between the client and recruiter, and typically includes a specific timeline, commonly 30 to 90 days, in which the recruiter must deliver results.

A contingency arrangement is more of a client-vendor relationship. A client may have several recruiters that are attempting to fill a position. While a client may assume that having multiple recruiters to find a candidate is advantageous– and it can be – there are definitely some drawbacks.

When recruiters know they're competing with others on a search, there's a tendency to rush the process and be the first one to present a good candidate.

Some recruiters in a contingency situation may have the attitude: “Well, it’s not a perfect fit, but I'll submit this candidate to see what the client thinks.” In this scenario, the recruiter may think a candidate is a long shot—and now that long shot has to be examined and vetted by the client.

In addition, contingency searches involving more recruiters can mean more work for the client. There tends to be more people to interview with this approach. If they're the right people, that’s wonderful. But if multiple candidates miss the mark, the contingency process can take up valuable time that many clients don't have.

So which route should you go? It depends. Contingent recruiter relationships might be best in the following circumstances:

• There are many high-quality candidates available.
• The need is less mission-critical and less urgent.
• You have more time to interview and vet candidates that might not seem like the best fit.

Retainer recruiter relationships might be the best if:

• The need is urgent and critical to the company’s mission.
• You're looking for a recruiter who is accountable to you and will provide extensive documentation to recommend a candidate.
• You're willing to pay an expert recruiter for their time and expertise to seek out the best candidates.

The decision of the best approach should reflect the priority of the client in filling the position. The client and recruiter should discuss the appropriate priority in filling each opening. Once that's established, the recruiter and client can decide whether a contingency or retainer would achieve the best results.

Recruiting has gotten to be so technical between the Internet, email, databases, ATS and mobile channels, that sometimes we forget one of the best ways to find good candidates is to reach out to people.

Sure, it's tempting to just get on the computer and compile a list of 100 skilled candidates without ever picking up the phone, but good recruiting is about establishing strong relationships with a personal touch.

Go Right to the (Human) Source

Many candidates can be found simply by checking with the hiring manager on each search assignment. Start by asking:

• Have you interviewed anyone in the past that might develop into a candidate for this job or into a source of referrals?

• Have you met anyone in the recent past (at a trade show, industry meeting, etc.) that might be able to help me in the search?

• Can you tell me where the people on your staff worked prior to working for you? And may I speak to them, to see if they have any contacts at their old companies that I might call?

Next, start working through your own list of contacts. If you call 5 contacts, and they give you 5 names, then those 5 give you several more names… you see where this is going.

Presentation is Everything

Now it's time to start calling. How can you increase the number of referrals you get?

Think about your presentation. In a first-call situation, you have very little time to connect with the other person, so you have to stimulate interest quickly. If you sound like you're just reading a job posting ("My client is a Fortune 500 company, looking for a degreed engineer with three years’ experience in automotive gears, knowledgeable in CAD/CAM, blah, blah, blah..."), you'll probably won't engage the candidate. Instead, use a technique called storyboarding:

1. Set up your presentation. Explain who you are, why you're calling and what you hope to accomplish.
2. Describe the dilemma: Tell a compelling story, using vivid language, about the relevancy of a particular search. The more you engage someone in your client's problem, the more the person will want to help you solve it.
3. Suggest a happy ending. Describe the hoped-for outcome that would solve the problem and benefit the client.
4. Ask for the prospect's help. This is where you hope your efforts will be rewarded—in the form of a direct referral, a suggestion of where to look or a declaration of interest on the prospect's part.

Storyboarding helps you engage the prospect, increasing your chances to build a relationship and earn the right to ask for referrals.

Want more tips on how to reach out and talk to candidates? Or would you like Donaldson & James to tap into our extensive network for you? Let's talk – contact us today!

You've probably heard by now, the hottest trend in hiring is to go after passive candidates: the top people who aren't actively looking for another job. If you’re interested in trying the passive candidate recruiting game, you'll have to learn a new approach. Here's an introduction:

The Recruiting Process: The process when you're sourcing and hiring active candidates is fundamentally different than what’s required to hire passive candidates. Passive candidates go slower, take more time to decide whether to become a candidate and won’t follow traditional approaches.

Most companies use a “surplus of candidates” model to plan their workflow—meaning their hiring processes are designed to get lots of people to apply, with the hope that a good person emerges. If you want to hire passive candidates, you have to use a "talent scarcity" model—designed around the concept that great talent is much more discriminating and a career opportunity discussion/decision dominates every step, from first contact to the final close.

Making Contact: When you're dealing with passive candidates, the criteria for engaging in a discussion are different than the criteria to accept an offer. Upon first contact, passive candidates usually want to know the job title, the company, the location and the compensation for your position. However, before they accept an offer, passive candidates will ask about the career opportunity, the importance of the work, the hiring manager and team, the compensation and total rewards package, work/life balance, and the company mission and culture. If you can bridge this gap on first contact, it can make the difference between hiring great people and wasting your time.

Adjust Your Pace: For top passive candidates, the decision to change jobs is a strategic decision, and it takes extra time. As a recruiter, you'll have to use consultative selling every step of the way, fashioning a career move for the candidate as part of the process. In this situation, being results-oriented is more about advancing the process along the path and hiring the best vs. getting positions filled quickly.

Want more advice on reaching passive candidates? Contact Donaldson & James today.

Have you ever hired someone who seemed great on paper, convinced you in the interview that they were the right person for the job, then turned out to be the monkey wrench in the smooth workings of your team?

Most positions you're trying to fill require teamwork, or at least interaction with peers. Since applicants put their best foot forward in a job interview, it can be a bit difficult to spot a loner who prefers to work in a vacuum—but they're the ones that can really wreak havoc on an otherwise high-functioning team.

So how can you weed out the non-team players?

1. First, trust your instincts. You get feelings about someone when you're talking to them that go beyond the spoken words. Even if you don't notice any arrogant body language or poor eye contact, pay close attention to an interviewee's words. Are you hearing “I, I, I” or “We”? Does she mention working with colleagues, or does she present herself as a superstar soloist? If you sense that this person is a lone wolf and not a team player, pay attention. If you hire the wrong person, your team will be getting the same feeling—and worse—40 hours a week.

2. If you're still unsure, try personality testing. Personality profile tests can reveal a lot about a candidate that may get glossed over or miscommunicated in an interview.  Reliable tests are available online from many reputable companies and can be given to all applicants you're seriously considering. By showing you which candidates aren't likely to work well with others, you can save yourself time and money by crossing them off the hiring list.

3. Another way to protect against hiring the anti-social type is by thoroughly checking references. Go beyond the perfunctory questions. For example, ask a former employer to give you 5 words that describe the applicant and pay close attention to the responses.

• Good communicator, cooperative, flexible? Team player.
• Keeps to himself, gets along well with superiors, independent worker? Dig deeper.

Ask how the candidate gets along with peers. Does independent mean needs little supervision or demands to be left alone?

4. And, of course, you can always ask specific questions during the interview to get at the heart of the matter:

• Do you feel decisions are best made on your own or as part of a group process?
• Do you get along with your coworkers?
• Tell me about a time you had to handle conflict with another peer or supervisor.
• Do you prefer to work alone?
• Have you ever been a team leader?

This direct approach may be all you need to cull the lone wolves from the pack.

Anti-social employees can cost your company a great deal in lowered morale, poorly executed projects, wasted training dollars and unhappy customers. You can avoid these expensive mistakes by following these tips, or with some help from Donaldson & James. We pre-screen candidates for you and so much more. Contact us today to see how we can help!

It's 2012, and with the new year hopefully comes a new attitude: a revitalized spirit, gusto and determination to make this the year you make a change. With the evolution of job hunting over the past few years, it's good to think about what will make the biggest impact in landing a job this year.

The job market is still tough. But with the right tools, you can improve your search, broaden your networking opportunities and align yourself with a career that fits your skills.

Tip #1: It’s all about social media.

Job hunting has become all about leveraging social media channels to find your next position. More than 18 million Americans can thank Facebook for helping them land their current job; eight million credit Twitter and 10.2 million used LinkedIn. Clearly, social media sites are THE places to look for employment these days.

• Make sure you have a basic understanding of the target audiences for each social media channel.

• While Facebook may primarily serve as your place to engage with friends, the BranchOut app shows your professional face to your connections.

• Twitter allows you to broadcast to a large number of people, but most information is publicly available.

• LinkedIn is for communicating with professional contacts you’ve made through your career, people you may not be comfortable adding on Facebook.

• Follow companies that interest you, as this will keep you in the loop on their activities and also give you a chance to directly interact with them.

TIp #2: A favorable online identity will be key to employment success.

With social networking playing an increasingly important role in the employment process, it’s important not only to clearly identify which networks you want to participate in, but to mold your online identities accordingly. More than 90 percent of recruiters check social networks before hiring a candidate, which means that your online persona should properly represent who you are offline and show that you’re the right person for the job.

• Activate the correct privacy settings, especially on Facebook, and hide images or comments that you don’t want a future employer to see.

• Your public identity is an extension of your resume. Therefore, keep your public posts as professional as possible.

Tip #3: Go mobile.

The explosion of mobile usage is only going to grow in 2012, causing a shift in the way people exchange information. The ever-increasing use of smartphones means people are foregoing traditional networking avenues in favor of connecting digitally. More than 75 percent of jobseekers are already incorporating mobile apps into their searches, and this figure will undoubtedly rise in the coming year.

• Use QR (quick response) codes to quickly share your personal information and link to your social networks.

• Download apps on your mobile device that allow you to instantly exchange contact information with new people. Four good ones to try are  Bump, Google Goggles, Pocket Resume and Resume Bear.

Happy New Year and good luck on your job search!

When you're interviewing for jobs, you try to prepare as best you can by reviewing your resume, thinking about what questions might be asked and how you’ll answer them, and practicing your responses. Then you walk in and realize the interviewer wants to ask you situational interview questions.

What’s a situational interview question?

• There are two types: past experience questions and circumstantial questions.
• For past experience questions, you'll be asked to provide a negative situation from your professional experience, and detail how you successfully resolved it.
• For circumstantial questions, you'll be given a specific set of circumstances or challenges and asked how you would create a positive outcome from them.

How do you prepare for these types of questions?

Interviewers use past experience questions because they believe your past behavior makes a good indicator of your future behavior on the job. The interviewer wants to know how you’ve tackled previous challenges.

They’ll ask you to tell them about a difficult situation you’ve faced in your past work history – one that is relevant to the question being asked – that you resolved successfully.

Think of some examples before the interview, review those situations, and analyze them. What steps did you take? What words did you use? Become so familiar with your actions, and those of the others involved, that you can give the interviewer very specific details and demonstrate your knowledge of what it takes to create a positive outcome.

Part of the reason employers use circumstantial questions is to gauge your ability to think on your feet. For these questions, the interviewer will create a challenge for you to solve. It may be a situation you actually have faced in your work history, or you may be required to respond to a hypothetical scenario.

This can be difficult if you’ve never dealt with such challenges before, but use the same structure: specific actions leading to specific results, all handled in a smooth, professional way.

It’s impossible to anticipate in advance what specific situational interview questions will be asked, which makes it hard to prepare your answers. However, it’s fairly safe to expect the interviewer to investigate the following broad areas:

• organizational skills/time management skills
• leadership skills
• communication skills
• interpersonal skills/conflict resolution

In addition to the above examples, an interviewer may formulate more technical or focused situational questions pertaining specifically to your field or area of expertise.

Here are some common situational interview questions that you may encounter:

You have a deadline approaching and fear you will be unable to meet it. What do you do?

Describe a situation where you were in disagreement with a coworker and explain how you handled it.

A coworker frequently leaves early when the boss is not around, and asks you to cover for him. What would you do?

Please describe a project that you led from start to finish and describe your strategy for seeing it through.

While situational interviews may be drastically different from your past interview experiences, they're not impossible to conquer. It's a chance for you to show how you handle real work situations, your problem-solving style and what your personality is really like.

Whether you’re preparing a resume for your first job search, or because you're trying to find a new full-time job in a tight employment market, it’s time to look at your resume in a new light. Are you highlighting all of your marketable skills? Or just presenting a list of work responsibilities? Employers don't want to know what you did as much as what you can do.

Marketable job skills may be "hidden" in those everyday tasks you performed. If you can uncover them, they can be important additions to your resume and can help you land your next job.

The first step is to identify those skills. Take a look at your resume and distinguish your duties from your skills. Duties are the activities you perform on the job, such as generating reports, helping coordinate an industry conference, providing desktop support. Skills are the tools and techniques you use to accomplish these tasks: knowledge of certain software, communication abilities, leadership.

When you list the skills and abilities that were necessary to accomplish each of your duties, don't limit yourself to full-time jobs. Also include part-time work and volunteer positions. Say you served as the president of your homeowners association. Didn’t you accumulate leadership skills, negotiation abilities and a knowledge of budgeting processes? When you look at your resume this way, chances are you'll uncover a number of talents you hadn't considered.

For example, if you've worked as an administrative assistant, your duties probably included arranging meetings, drafting correspondence and answering the phone. The skills you developed as a result most likely included strong planning skills to ensure meetings went smoothly, strong communication abilities to accurately convey your manager's messages to staff and solid customer service skills to successfully interact with internal and external clients. Don’t forget technical skills, such as typing speed, research abilities and knowledge of Microsoft Office. These are the things that employers like to know.

Here are the top 5 “hidden” job skills you’re most likely to find when you look:

1. Planning: Scheduling meetings, writing letters, handling calls -- all involve planning.
2. Communication: Dealing with various departments and unique personalities to get work done.
3. Leadership: Stepping up and helping lead a plan to completion
4. Problem-solving: Identifying the root causes of problems, and coming up with solutions
5. Resource management: Getting done what you need to get done with the resources at hand

Being aware of your marketable skills will make you more competitive in the job market. Employers want people who have what it takes to perform well on the job, so make sure you make yourself stand out from other applicants. If you take the time to identify your true skills, you will realize just how valuable of an employee you are -- and employers should, too!

Are you graduating this year? You’re going to be facing a tough job market, as you know, but on the plus side, you’re among the age group most likely to be hired in coming months.

According to Andy Chan, vice president of career development at Wake Forest University, "Organizations are very interested in hiring young people because they have a lot of energy and are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.”

Remember that expectation. But no matter how well-positioned you are, you’ll have a better chance of success if you avoid these common job hunting mistakes:

1. Not Being Proactive Enough This isn't the time to sit back and be casual or lazy, assuming that the right job will fall into your lap. Instead, create a list of five to 10 target companies, then analyze and work your network to find an 'in' at each.
2. Not Spreading the Word When you're looking for work, you need to let everyone know. Tell family members, friends, professors and former coworkers.
3. Not Networking in Person In a recent poll, 57 percent of respondents said networking was a factor in landing their current or most recent job. When thousands of candidates are applying to the same jobs online and posting their resume to the same job boards, candidates need to stand out by making connections. Job boards are a good tool, but new grads also need real-life networking.
4. Not Creating Customized Resumes Don't send out a resume that just lists your courses, your degree and your job experience. Think about what you can offer an employer -- such as that energy and can-do attitude mentioned above -- as opposed to what you want to get from one. Think of your resume as a marketing tool: sell yourself, and show the employer why you are the right person for this job.
5. Not Using the Right Internet Sites New grads are all about social media, but of course LinkedIn is not as fun or exciting as Facebook or Twitter. However, LinkedIn is your best resource for getting names and building a professional identity.
6. Not Following Up It's not enough to send resumes and wait to be contacted. Don’t expect your resume to be discovered in the bottomless pit of the Internet or the employer’s inbox. Keep track of where you’ve applied, and when, and follow up on a regular basis.
7. Not Cleaning Up Your Act Make sure you're ready for employers' scrutiny and “sanitize” your online profile if need be. Check your Facebook page for inappropriate pictures, tags and posts and change the voicemail greeting on your cell phone or answering machine if it’s off-color or otherwise immature. In other words, start acting like a professional, not a college student, both in real life and online.
8. Not Taking the Job Interview Seriously Even when you're applying for an unpaid internship, you need to adhere to common standards of professionalism: dress appropriately and prove that you’ve researched the company by asking intelligent questions when it’s your turn.
9. Not Using the College's Career Office "A career office can help [students] identify networking contacts, learn important job search skills, and significantly improve their resume and cover letter," says Wake Forest University's Chan. Just remember the career office's job is to prepare you for your job search, not to conduct it for you.
10. Not Doing Your Homework Use those research skills you perfected in college: when applying for a position, go beyond the job description to find out more about the company. If you can glean any beyond-the-basics knowledge of the job and the company, you’ll be better able to communicate specific ways you can contribute to that organization.

When interviewing candidates, you have to be very careful not to ask inappropriate or illegal questions. But if you stick to only “safe” questions based on the candidate’s resume, you might end up missing some red flags and hire the wrong person.

You want to know if this person is dependable, a good worker who gets along with others and can make a real contribution. Asking the right questions can give you insight into the kind of character traits you’re looking for, and those you’re looking to avoid.

What brings you here today?

This is a great opening question for two reasons: one, it’s open-ended. Two, it surprises most candidates, and their answers might give you an immediate glimpse into their personalities. They might reveal a bad attitude toward their current employer, or a positive trait like being able to think fast on their feet.

How would your best friend describe you?

The candidate’s response to this question indicates how she wants you to feel she is perceived. Take notes on the response, then ask if you can call the best friend to see if they’d give the same answer. Of course you don’t really have to call the friend, but the candidate’s response and body language after the follow-up question can indicate if you received a truthful response.

What would you say are your 2 greatest weaknesses?

This question reveals the candidate's ability to identify the need for personal improvement. The best responses include a plan on how the candidate is addressing those weaknesses. Watch out for candidates who are unaware or will not admit that they have any.

How do you alleviate stress?

Everybody experiences stress, especially on the job. If someone says they never get stressed or says they don’t do anything about it, beware. They are either lying or don’t know how to handle it. A good answer mentions positive releases or hobbies, not drinking, other substance use or dangerous activities.

How do you typically deal with conflict?

As with stress, conflicts are something everyone has to deal with. You want to see if a candidate can deal with an issue without getting frustrated. Ask for a real-life example of how they handled on-the-job conflict or build a hypothetical scenario and ask how they would handle it.

What tools or habits do you use to keep organized?

Instead of asking, “Are you an organized person?”, this makes the candidate describe their organizational skills. Whether they use a planner, an electronic calendar or an old-fashioned notebook, their answer can confirm that the potential employee is reliable and responsible.

Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond to get a job done.

This question not only lets a potential employee really sell herself, it lets the hiring manager see what type of work ethic this person has.

What was a major obstacle you were able to overcome in the past year?

Asking this question will show you what kind of problem solving skills the candidate has. What kind of thinker is he? How determined can he be?

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Save this question for the end of the interview. A good answer will reveal thoughtful long-term goals. Beware of candidates who plan to be in the same position five years from now, or worse, those who don’t know.

Asking the right questions can help you weed out the wrong candidates. If you feel uneasy about any of the answers you hear in an interview, discard that candidate, even if they look good on paper.

It’s a touchy subject, but one that inevitably comes up during a job hunt. What was your previous salary? Potential employers request this information as a means of screening applicants. However, job hunters are often hesitant to divulge their salary history out of fear it will harm their chances of getting the job – or getting a halfway decent offer.

According to a survey by the Career Masters Institute, 90 percent of human resource and hiring managers say they wouldn’t eliminate applicants simply because they neglected to divulge their salary history. Still, most job search experts advise applicants to withhold such information.

Admittedly, concerns about sharing past salaries are not without merit. If your previous salary was much higher than what the employer is prepared to pay, you may be excluded from the running altogether. You won’t even have the opportunity to decide if you’re willing to take a hit. The employer will simply assume you either won’t be willing to accept less money or you would be eager to jump ship as soon as a better offer arises. That can be particularly problematic in today’s economy when some people would be more than happy to receive any job offer, even if it means a slight dip in pay.

On the other hand, if your history is substantially lower than what the potential employer has budgeted, they may offer something commensurate with your most recent salary. You may still get the job, but you won’t get paid as much as if the employer had not known your salary history.

Divulging your salary history may also strip you of the power to negotiate since a potential employer is already aware of how much you have been paid in the past. No one wants to be in a weak bargaining position when their career is at stake.

In the end, whether or not to divulge your salary history is a judgment call. You could ignore the request, but that may eliminate you from the running prematurely. If you decide to honor the request, make sure you reflect your “total compensation” by providing details of benefits, such as 401(k), insurance, bonuses, and commissions. And by all means, avoid the temptation to inflate your previous salaries. A potential employer can easily find out how much previous employers paid you. If you lie about it, you won’t have to worry about making time for new hire orientation, that’s for sure!