Toby’s 3R Rant

The sales pitch for giant Cane Toad Ads comes down to one word: Browsers.

The salesmen masquerading as your consultant then attempt to convince you that that newspapers will deliver them. Which brings us to the ‘browser’ sales pitch:

I learnt this pitch 19 years ago when I worked at a giant recruiter with hundreds of ‘consultants’: it was drummed into us at the weekly sales meetings. We were made to practice it on each other and in front of the mirror. You had better believe that this pitch is the foundation stone of Australia’s major recruitment firms.

The pitch is simple, plausible and seemingly valid: people read the front of the newspaper, and their eye is caught by an advertisement so they become interested in it and apply. They are argued to be better applicants because they are more likely to be happy in their current job and therefore likely to be good at what they do. And of course, would not see jobs where active job seekers go to look - online or in classifieds.

Who could argue with something so self-evident??

No surprises that I’ll have a go. There are 3 counter arguments that rubbish the whole sales pitch:

Firstly one that came to me at 4.30 a.m. on a recent Cold August Night, the hour when all good ideas roam in a fevered brain. In the 3 years since I wrote a version of this Rant in my book, Get Great People, I had thought there were only 2 main counter arguments. This final one is the Big Momma - the last and very large nail in what is now virtually a metal coffin:

That we have moved to a world of Free Agents and the Internet. Where people manage and assess their careers constantly (even if usually not particularly well!). A world where people under 40 (Gen x and Gen Y) consider themselves independent of their employers, even if they enjoy their jobs. That they have a life outside work, or in more extreme cases, that they have a life, and work is just a small component of that. Something that many of us Boomers have also come to believe and live our lives by.

In this world, the Free Agents browse 10 or 20 or a 100 websites a week (even I, a geriatric, am on at least 20 different sites every week). And one of the sites they go to is MyCareer, Seek or Monster. Just for a look. To keep in touch. Because you never know. And what about all those niche job boards attached to professional forum sites: LOTS of browsers on those. And what about the snowballing LinkedIn and Facebook and all the other social networking sites. Full of browsers. Full of recruiters.

And because it is so easy to apply for jobs with just a few clicks they are more likely to make an enquiry than that browser reading the paper in a cafe or their garden.

Now, if the price was about the same, the ad salesman just might have a point. But we are talking chalk and cheese on cost. Not in the same ball park. A hundred dollars versus many thousands.

So, you tell me:

Who are the browsers? Where are the browsers? And, in particular, where do the browsers go, who in this ageist world, are the most sought after by employers? Reckon there are way more of these valuable young applicants on the job boards and social network sites than there are reading the Early General News in the Saturday papers.

Maybe the ad salesman is looking a bit like a seller of dodgy cars - even before we get to the other two reasons ….

Secondly, we read the Saturday pages ‘eyes up’.

If there were only 2 or 3 job ads on a page, and they were designed to attract the eye, no problem attracting eyeballs. That’s the argument of all advertising agencies and media sales people and it’s completely valid.

With recruitment, all the ads are in a block at the bottom of the page. Or, even worse, they are on a whole page by themselves when you get towards the back! Great for browsers!

I can remember the incredible hubris one Friday when I was at a Mega Firm and we had sold a whole broadsheet page of ads - it was all us! We were so proud! We were the champions! But hey, didn’t we forget something: what sort of insane browser browses a whole page of ads!? Maybe a desperate job seeker?

The ads are all the same size and all look pretty much the same - even better they are now in color so stand out like the proverbial dog ba.ls. They are also conveniently located in the bottom half of the paper - so handy for folding the broadsheet in half as I lie in my deckchair on Saturday morning!

So after 30 years of such ads, those browsers know where the ads are - they know to keep their eyes focused on the top of the page. That is where they find what they are looking for: something interesting to read.

I don’t have any major research to quote, but I have talked to a lot of people - it is quite common to read the Saturday papers ‘eyes up’. Don’t you?

Thirdly, the Saturday papers are now conveniently divided into sections.

The sections help readers find the bits they want to read. And in what order they want to read. And of course it helps in selling ads to particular demographics (now there’s a thought: recruiters could place ads in sections that attract who they are trying to employ?!)

With the sections, many of us have developed very idiosyncratic ways of reading. Take how I read the Saturday SMH (apologies for those who don’t live in Sydney):

I start with the front page; quick glance at the back page for some scurrilous gossip; Mike Carlton and Peter Fitzsimons for a laugh; rugby news; the rest of News Review; Spectrum; and sometimes the Good Weekend. And finally, if I get through all that, I turn to the news bits where the recruitment ads are - pages 2 to about 20 - and religiously keep my eyes up. But most weekends I don’t get to it.

Again, no research on readership that I can quote, just an informal survey of professionals; but it is common practice to read selectively. Of course the newspapers do lots of market research, which lead them to create sections in the first place.

So, three strong reasons that rubbish the browser sales pitch - just tell the advertising salesman masquerading as a consultant to go and spin his B.S. to someone else.

Love to hear your stories of ‘consultants’ trying to sell you ads. Or, even better, a recruiter defending them!

Cheers, Toby

P.S. For more on this topic and some wonderful examples of the behaviour it drives

Recruiters are primarily sales people. Most are persuasive and present very plausibly.

So, how do you look behind the suit? How do you find a recruiter that can really add value to YOUR business?

Ask some tough questions:

1. Will you play SWITCH?

This is where a senior, experienced recruiter comes in and sells you on their services. You brief them on your role, and then you find they are not doing the work. This happened to me a few years ago when I brought a specialist recruiting firm in to work with one of my clients. The junior and inexperienced person had not been at the briefing and only had 6 months in recruiting - and so had no clue about the nuances of a difficult job to fill. What a time waster for my client.

Now, once you know this person will be doing the work for you ….

2. How long have you been in the trenches?

Do you want a newbie learning at your expense? It’s ironic given what they do, but recruitment has a huge staff turnover because recruiters who can’t generate sales don’t survive. This is a problem as employers need advice to hire well - but many recruiters are inexperienced with no time to learn skills.

3. What recruiting have you done in my industry sector recently? How many similar roles in my sector?

4. What salary will I need to pay to get quality applicants?

5. What organisations are likely to have good candidates who may want to move?

6. Can I talk to some of your clients about the service you provide?

7. Can you show me a list of people working in similar roles?

This one really sorts them out! Especially if you don’t give them much notice. However, you cannot expect to keep the list.

8. Do you supply a list of all the applicants who apply to the advertisements we pay for? Are you happy for us to speak to some of the applicants?

9. Do you provide the applicant’s original resume?

Some firms like to retype to ’standardise them’. If they do, insist on the original also. Helps ensure that their retyping is a fair reflection - plus you get to see the applicant’s writing skills.

These questions get to the heart of whether a recruiter is experienced and a specialist who can really help you. If they’re not, why are you using them?

Next Post in 2 weeks: Why so many recruiters in Oz are English travellers and the mayhem they cause.

Cheers, Toby

It’s a hot February night in 1994 and a bunch of recruiters are drowning their sorrows in a bar overlooking the Sydney Opera House.

It had been a long day at a Human Resources conference where the last session was on ‘Working with Recruiters’. This had morphed into ‘Let’s bash Recruiters’ – 3 senior HR managers politely but bluntly dumping on the industry.

One sorrow drowner was an industry veteran and Peter said something 14 years ago that stayed with me:

“Most employers see our role as just finding people – simply sending in resumes. The real value we could provide is reducing the RISK of making a wrong hire.
But in our industry 95% of recruiters offer their services for free so employers don’t know this is an option. That this is a service that could be included for the same price they ultimately pay.
It’s very hard to sell our services and seek a commitment when employers can just ring these contingent recruiters, pay them nothing and they start work. But as we know, such recruiters work for themselves and not in partnership with their clients - it’s all about the fees.
The big firms attract a lot of candidates because of those giant advertisements their clients pay for. So they are good at getting candidates and sending them out to many clients at once.
No wonder recruiting has such a bad reputation!”

We returned to our drinks and frustration, but those words stuck as they explained the problem so neatly.

Size mattered 14 years ago but here’s the thing …..

Online a small recruitment firm is now as big as it wants to be. If you can work the search engines and networking sites and specialise in a field, you can compete with the big firms. Boutiques can just as easily find candidates.

In this brave new world, what do employers REALLY need from recruiters?

They need a warts and all discussion of the shortlist and advice on who is really the best candidate. But employers get unbiased advice only if their recruiter gets paid something regardless of who gets hired or even if no-one does.

You don’t pay your accountant or architect contingently, why is a recruiter so different?

Well there is often a good reason - many are just sales people and expert advice is beyond them. How to find those who don’t just sell bodies is next week’s Rant. It’s certainly not the ‘English backpacker’ who is so pervasive and damaging in our industry: their motto is “sell hard, not here next year to clean up the mess!”

The world has changed and there are more recruiters who work in partnership with their clients. There are MANY more who would like to help their clients reduce the risks of hiring the wrong person – they know hiring is hard and teamwork is critical.

Employers now have the choice to work this way. To decide not to brief multiple agencies for a single job (we’ll look at how that destroys your Employment Brand in a future Rant).

Why pay for a service and get less than half of it? In fact, why pay the entire fee when the person starts – what about the recruiter holding some back for retention? Abacus does this – why don’t more employers demand it?

Next Week: Recruiters who don’t just throw bodies – how do you find them?

…..

12 Self Evident Propositions

Preamble ….

• Yes, there are minor exceptions to each Proposition.
• Yes, each could be expressed more tactfully and qualified with more words (as I have in my books and media articles).
• But words just remove the spotlight from the significant problems of a self-serving industry. Direct and blunt is harder to ignore.

The Propositions:

1. That there are only small pockets of skills scarcity. Six powerful groups continuously promote a Skills Crisis for their own self interest. However, there is scarcity if you continue to follow most other employers and do what has failed in the past – insanity says Einstein.
2. That there are major untapped and ignored pools of talent which are often discussed in the media. However, just knowing they exist and paying lip service to hiring from them will not get an employer the best from any pool: it requires focus and changes to your processes.
3. That people who are paid on commission focus on money. A commission sales person is not an advisor or consultant. How your suppliers are remunerated matters if you want uncompromised advice to achieve your goals.
4. That virtually all recruitment ‘consultants’ are paid by commissions. Even recruiters who are paid a base ‘salary’ – given their performance is only judged by the revenue they produce, the ’salary’ is just an advance on their commission cheque. They remain commission sales people.
5. That recruitment has a huge staff turnover (ironic given their role) because recruiters who can’t generate sales don’t survive. Turnover matters as employers need advice to hire well – but many in the industry are inexperienced with no time to learn skills.
6. That recruiters have the ability to improve the perceived quality of their product and can unethically profit from it. It simply involves not revealing something negative about ‘their’ candidate, something they can later deny knowing about. Clearly large commissions payable the day the candidate starts work severely aggravates this problem.
7. That the recruitment industry is remunerated by a candidate joining an employer so it’s what they focus on. Their earnings are unaffected by how long the employee stays.
8. That the guarantees provided by the industry are virtually worthless. Their fee was paid, now they have to replace for free. In a world where there are thousands of recruiters and many thousands of potential clients, lip service is often paid to the hard task of replacement.
9. That large, expensive advertisements in the front of newspapers primarily benefit the recruitment firms. The money trail always reveals the truth: Some big recruitment firms pay substantial cash incentives to staff for selling ads. It’s not altruism but clever commercial logic that disregards the needs of their clients who pay for their PR.
10. That the majority of career advice is delivered by those who the public believe are the experts - recruiters. But they are people with an agenda. Whose advice is often tainted by blatant self interest (big dollars if the person takes their client’s job) and often by ignorance and inexperience (high staff turnover). The cost to people’s wealth and happiness is colossal.
11. That the anti-discrimination laws passed more than 20 years ago made discrimination on age and gender worse. The laws drove the problem underground – it was removed from advertisements, so ‘undesirables’ were encouraged to apply but then they were quietly and discreetly weeded out. So now we have both discrimination and a huge waste of time for both employers and applicants.
12. That virtually any employer, small or large, can find star employees if they follow some simple processes and ‘think different’.

The Goals of the Recruitment Manifesto

• For the majority of recruitment firms to become ethical professionals who work in partnership with their clients and be rewarded for services rendered and retention

• For people to manage their careers and find rewarding employment with less hindrance from ignorance, greed, prejudice and poor information flows

• For good employers to learn of recruitment firms that follow a different model – one based on retention, professional salaries and ethics.

The Methodology to Achieve the Goals

• Bringing the secretive and self serving recruitment industry practices into the bright light of day

• Promoting the internet as the best method of matching people to jobs – and clearing transaction driven recruitment agencies and newspapers out of the way

Providing the information and resources that employers and employees need to make good, informed decisions