Letters, we get letters…
It stands to reason that with the economy struggling, cold calling among third party recruiters has picked up a bit. And within that universe of cold calls, it also stands to reason that bad, "we can handle any recruiting need you have", spam-like cold calls are up as well. It's really the aspect of the third party business that tends to push HR pros and Corporate Recruiters to dislike fielding any inquiry, which is too bad. The good third-party recruiters (TPRs) tend to get lumped in with the spammers, just like the good HR pros get lumped in with the "I'm good at administration and don't want to do anything else" HR lumps.
Still, that doesn't mean that corporate recruiters aren't getting sick of the bad, cold calls, which definitely go up in a bad economy. I received the following email from a FOT reader who serves as a corporate recruiter, and he's mad as hell and doesn't want to take it anymore. Take a read:
"From a Corporate Recruiter to ALL Agency Recruiters
I received a call today. It was from Janet at Staffing Sensations. She went to my company’s web site and found our employment listings and noticed we had several openings that she thought her firm would be able to help out with. I was so excited that she called. I don’t think she realized that we have a master list of over 220 firms and actual signed agreements with over 75 of those firms. Mind you that we have only been tracking these calls for less then 8 months. But this call was different. Staffing Sensations was different. They are the kind of company that can handle all of our needs. It doesn’t matter where the position is located or what the title is. They can fill it! I knew that this call was different. I knew that this was the call I had been waiting for. My prayers had been answered. Finally, ONE company that can fill all of our openings, no matter what or where it may be. The problem is that Janet was the third call today and it’s only 10:00 AM. I had had enough. I know that Janet did no wrong. She was just doing her job and cold calling like a madwoman.
I guess there are several issues that I want to point out. First of all, we have a great disclaimer on our employment page about how to click HERE if you are interested in becoming a vendor. Way too many companies ignore our very tasteful and well crafted disclaimer and contact our hiring managers directly or send unsolicited resumes instead of an inquiry email. That is what I call getting off on the wrong foot. Secondly we are a company that has offices in 23 different states. Why would we want one company to try and fill all our positions on a national basis? I see a lot more value in localized, niche recruiters finding us local niche candidates. I don’t think anyone in Knoxville, TN has any business recruiting for accountants in Seattle, WA. Have they ever been to Seattle? Do they know if it really rains there 330 days a year? I’m sure the local recruiters in Seattle know their market rates, candidates, business cycles, etc, better than anyone from Tennessee.
If we need outside recruiting assistance, we will go out and find the best firm to fit our needs. We look at niche. We look at geography. We look at fee.
Back to Janet. I graciously listened to how awesome your recruiters are and how your process is ISO 10,002. I let you know that I will add you to the mammoth list of potential vendors. I even agree to your follow up emails and occasional, "How ya doin?" telephone calls. The reality is that I will add your name to the list, but that is probably as far as we will get. I just spent 4 minutes talking to you and another 2 minutes updating my list.
From this corporate recruiter, I am asking that you back off and let us breathe a little. I know that without your calls and emails we would never know that you exist, but there is a fine line between cold calling and full on stalking. Why can’t corporate America try to fill the positions by just posting on our web site and see what happens (I know "post and pray"). Look, in this economy, the last thing we need is help filling the handful of positions we have. We need to justify our existence not someone else’s!
Your Corporate Recruiter
Sigh. He's right, and if TPRs pitch in and defend themselves, it's not THEM he's talking about. It's the ones who get paid a 24K base and have to cold call to try to build a book and a reputation. Seriously, any TPR who reads talent blogs is likely not part of the stereotype. Like the sales process of every other business, you have to accept the spam and recognize the value the good TPRs bring to the table.
Of course, that doesn't stop the calls…
Writing purely from experience, I prefer to deal almost exclusively with the actual hiring manager. If I am required or forced to even funnel candidates through an internal intermediary, I put that client on a tier other than number one. No offense corporate recruiter guys/gals. The fewer people between me and my candidate and the fewer between my candidate and the hiring manager who’s in pain, the better. I have all the appreciation in the world for process, procedure, policy, etc…But staying close to the guy with the pain is where processes move forward. For example, imagine you have a horrific injury – say a compound fracture. I’ve got morphine. Would you prefer I take the morphine to your assistant and ask him/her if he/she would like to try it first and the if applicable, arrange for you to get a dose at 1:30PM next Friday? Or would you prefer that I just come straight to you and give you the shot? I thought you’d agree.
In my previous career as a corporate recruiter, in one hundred percent of the cases where a hiring manager brought me a resume and said, “Some headhunter emailed me this guy – bring him in,” guess what happened next? I brought him in, no questions asked. Knowing how this process works from the hiring manager’s perspective has convinced me of one absolute truth: the fewer layers that stand between me and my candidate and the hiring manager and his pain, the more likely we will all achieve success.
Todd: The letter wasn’t so much about the “gate keeper” vs. hiring manager as it was the numerous calls we receive about how your firm can solve all of our hiring needs. Did I mention numerous?
Aw, man…stole my thunder. I was going to post on something similar. Good letter.
I recently had a conversation with a TPR. Beyond just “post and pray” I let them know that, with our current light req. loads, if we as corporate recruiters can’t fill our jobs without forking out tens of thousands of dollars for external assistance, how are we going to justify our own salaries in the coming months. We’re hired to recruit. Not to pay someone to recruit for us. We also have a list, and when things pick up, again, I’m sure we’ll be re-engaging TPRs.
Todd…you can probably add Microsoft to your other than number 1 tier. There is no way I would be okay with one of my HMs working exclusively with an external partner who doesn’t know our tools or our policies. I’ve got an HR hat to wear, too. And, the reason we have everyone work through the recruiter is so that all of our rules are followed. If you’re based out of Boston, how much do you know about laws in Washington State? Too risky. You can work with the HM, but only with me acting as the third wheel. Recruiters that try to go around us tend to end up on the “other” TPR list.
As a Firm recruiter I fully agree with your Rant. I listen to my POOR sales guy make the same calls and not listen to the other end. Not read the website. If he does not sell you on him I give you permission to not even put him on your list or take his calls. In fact block his emails. He has to get better and know that his approach is week.
But in defense he is trained to try and build rapport and get his foot in the door, anyway possible. Also needs to fill his 250 call a week quota. And what is he supposed to do wait for your call? You probably wont call, you don’t want to pay fees, and with 200 vendors you don’t know which ones will fill your needs well or at all.
So as the recruiter how do I get my candidate that I worked with and built rapport with in front of you? Do I have to just give up and let you have him. Tell him to apply on your website? Will he even get a call or email back? Just trying to understand how we can work together and help more people in the current market.
This whole thing has pluses and minuses, but we are all not that bad in the FIRM world. And I don’t think you are all perfect in the CORP world either.
You scratch my back I will scratch yours we will both benefit!!!
Jared: It’s simple. Follow the process we have in place. As Jason pointed out, not doing so will get you on the “other” list. My company does use FIRMS, but only when we need to. We like to test the waters first and then go to the “pros”.
Those cold calls come to us candidates on the other side of the equation too. As a professional job seeker, I receive a lot of calls for reqs that don’t even exist yet – within a two week period I received 18 calls from different middle people for a PM position on an ATG implementation that had stalled in the contracting stage; they were sourcing for the integrator (this was verified and made clear to me by the middleman who placed me with that same integrator last year for an ATG gig at the world’s largest retailer).
Sometimes I just delete all emails that look like the same position. And though I may be actually looking for a job, sometimes the spam calls are so thick I stop answering the phone.
However, I must say that more than a few times I have been placed by middlemen to the recruiter to the client – big time corporate clients at that. So I can’t totally give up on them.
Numerous is precisely my point. Corporate staffing professionals do receive dozens of cold calls weekly; I know this having once been one. Hiring managers, GMs, directors, VPs also get lots of them, too. I prefer and do everything in my power to be among the latter as opposed to the former. The person who has the actual pain caused by the unfilled position is going to be far more receptive and approachable than anyone else involved in the recruiting process. For clarity, you’ll have a difficult time finding blog or opinion-pieces where a hiring manager expresses his frustration with the cold-calling headhunter who brought him a good hire.
Incidentally, I’ve placed people with companies that “We don’t use staffing agencies,” (<-that’s an actual cut/paste from the HR manager’s email…I enjoy re-reading it from time to time). Nevertheless, in said example the hiring manager I cold-called had a strong need. He found money in his budget, made a good hire, and sent me a thank you card with his check. I still speak with that hiring manager…but not the HR manager.
I’m curious with some of the other areas. I specialize in healthcare, more specifically in pharmacy, and we do work with many places that tend to get a high number of calls. The common things I note that allow us to work with someone is speed to fill (having a candidate now), and quality (having a great candidate now). I absolutely agree that having a local niche firm is the best way to go. I work in NC and would not dare to staff people in Wisconsin (what do I know about things there?).
I did have a question, how does it improve the relationship by meeting the TPR in person? That is something that we do with each of our clients and we find that it helps us truly understand what we are working on when we start a search assignment for either a contractor or a perm employee.
Great insight though above and thanks for the thoughts.
Its not just the TPR’s!!
I am getting bombarded by all sorts of vendors, as I am sure we all are, but this last one takes the cake! I had a rep from a regional job board call with the full court press about how great their service was. I cut her off and told her that we do not have any work anywhere near her area (we are a national contractor). She recovered quickly by saying that they actually represent 100′s of boards across the country and could help in any geographic area we needed. Having been a Recruiter (aka salesperson) all my life – I was irritated that she hadn’t at least done her homework enough to know we had no openings where she was pushing for initially so she got my standard “We already have annual contractos with other vendors and are not currently in need of additional help, blah blah blah” and told her she could send me info on her company for future consideration. She did.
Last week I was on vacation and she called to follow up. All of my calls were routed automatically to my boss, the HR Director who answered this woman’s call. The woman did not ask who my boss was or what her role was and launched into this line of garbage insisting that I had already agreed to a trial of their services. My boss told her that she didn’t think that was correct and the pushy sales rep insisted it was and said to my boss – the Director of HR – and I quote, “Just who are you anyway?” After my boss explained that she was the Director and trials would have been approved by her and nothing had, the woman shifted gears and started to shove me (head first) under the bus and suck up to my boss. My boss and I have worked together for 6 years so she knows better.
When I came back to work this week I forwarded my documentation of the initial call and email to my boss and she had a little conversation with the sales rep’s boss.
Come on everyone….we are all having a rough time – but do we really need to forget our ethics?
Ronni
I understand that corporate recruiters are annoyed by continous calls. I’m sure I would feel the same way. However, as a TPR myself, I’m really there to make your life easier. I know it’s sounds like a sales call, but my goal is to work WITH you and not against you and this is what I firmly belive. Sure, we’d rather work directly with the hiring manager, but the last thing you want is an angry corporate recruiter who has access to jobs in other departments wherase that particular hiring manager has access to his/her department.
This is a tough time to be a TPR and we have to make a living and we simply cannot do that without approaching potential clients with out services. I know you have to stop what you’re doing and answer yet another sales call, but take a few moments to listen because some of us actually have excellent services to provide.
I have been in everyone’s shoes here and will address both sides. The answer is education. When working in house I to got all the calls and emails. I would usually put some emphasis on persistence so if a sales person was persistent I would give them a req and told them to send me one resume. They wouldn’t listen and send me tons of people that were unqualified. For corporate recruiters I agree with the process it has taken time, money and effort to create it. However don’t close the door as there is always good people and new technology that can help people. Here is what I recommend and or do. I to get calls from vendors and they begin with the same opening line…I can help you…we have..etc etc. So what I do is ask them a couple of questions. The first one usually is who can you help…specifically what problem do you solve. Second who am I or what’s my business. The business piece always gets them..I came up on some call sheet and now you have me so sell me. If you know nothing about my business how can you help me. The blanket rule/call is crazy we can be everything to everybody at anytime. Come on. Now on the flip side I’m glad a job seeker chimed in here…recruiters need to read resumes…don’t scan, look for keywords or dates but read. No candidate wants to be called with a script of questions to answer. Don’t try and fit a round peg in a round peg…your in the people business. So ask and listen. When I worked at IBM and would interview a candidate I was evaluating the person and the skills not for a fit for my one need but for every need. Just my two cents.
Jason Gorham
CEO
Sharkstrike.com/CareerMetaSearch.com
Reminds me if the really hot girl that complained of all the guys calling her. What happens when people stop calling? You never heard such complaining.
For every HR rep complaining about calls, I’ll show you another one let go who calls the recruiter looking for a job. My favorites are the ones who switchbover to agency work and quickly turn into the caricatures they once railed against.
Rather than blaming each other, we should have some compassion for eachbother- recognizing that the role dictates much of the behavior. If you learn to treat salespeople with respect, you’ll find good ones. The suggestion to ask a tough question and wait for a response is a good one.
I’m going to ask you one question, and if you answer it, I’ll listen. If you can’t, you don’t call for at least three months. I’d have loved that call.
HR reps don’t mind salespeople. They mind bad salespeople and taking calls when they can’t do anything. A final thought. It is part of the job, though. HR reps take calls so managers don’t have to. If you’re ducking calls, you’re begging got a good salesperson to go around you. Even if we tick you off, there’s a chance you change companies, and I’ve built a relationship with a manager. They move too, and in the next company, maybe theydon’t need to go through HR.
Of course, these days, marketing yourself correctly, you do less truly cold calls and you have the information to ace the warm ones
Marc: I encourage the local firms to come to my office and meet me. They can do a much better job if they get a first person sense of the work environment and culture.
Alexa and Jim: I guess you are ignoring the fact that we have a process in place that clearly states what the steps are to be considered as a vendor to support us. No where does it say to call us. Follow the process and then you will be treated with the respect you are looking for. Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on how you look at it) our process is email driven. You have to start somewhere.
Jason: I completely agree with the comments about doing your homework. Calling into HR and saying “I saw you had an opening for XYZ on Indeed.com” without knowing anything about the company you are calling is crazy. I will start to use the question above to screen out the folks that actually invest the time to learn about us vs. the ones dialing for dollars.
I’m still a little shocked by the notion that some people actually invest time and effort dealing with someone other than the decision-maker (as opposed to someone who is an influencer or filter).
I am all about processes and efficiency. But if the person on the other end of the phone isn’t sitting in the alpha-chair, then the best I can expect to get out of that call is information.
The timing on this could not be better. I’ve reached the end of my rope with this topic. I spent over half a decade on the staffing side before coming to the corporate side. So I can speak to both here. At my current corporate role, all three internal recruiters are former agency recruiters, and we all had successful runs on that side of the table.
Jason, you hit the nail on the head for me. My typical staffing agency call goes like this:
Them: Hi May I speak to Pete XXX? (Usually they butcher my name which isn’t all that hard.)
Me: Hi.
Them: I’m The Great Googly Moogly from Blahdy Blah Staffing. We are a universe-wide firm with a database of 10 trillion exclusive candidates. I can fill all your positions here and now. In fact, I have a perfect candidate for your .NET developer role.
Me:Why are they perfect?
Them: Because they have .NET.
Me:(Wanting to shoot myself), I see. So why are they perfect for comScore. Do you know what we do?
Them: No I don’t (or some very very wrong description of what we do here)Or they tell me knowing our business is not important. (no seriously, someone said that)
Me:Call me when you have done your homework.
Cold Calling is only half true. EFFECTIVE Cold Calling however, involves research and knowing your target, if you want to be successful.
And for those who want to see me as the annoyance and the gatekeeper, well go right ahead. BUT, remember that I’ve taken time to build rapport and
TRUST with all my managers, and when you call them and they direct you to me, you’d be smart to go through me in the future. Because though I may be the “gatekeeper” to you, I’m the guy who champions us using your company as opposed to the other 40 that call each day, and as someone here said, those that don’t follow that rule go to the “other agency” pile.
What irks me most, is that most companies are calling now because their Microsoft, Oracle, Freddie Mac, or Fannie Mae accounts (read: cash cows) have dried up and they need new business. I know – been there, done that. BUT if you took some time to build rapport with me when times were good, you’d be one of the 4 companies I will give the time of day to now.
Just a little research – Linked In is great. You can research the HR Gatekeeper and see if they came from the staffing side. See if they may know what you have to offer. Differentiate yourself from the resume peddlers and slick Snake Oil salesmen, and YOU WILL be the one we tell managers that we’re going to use when we need extra help.
“I even agree to your follow up emails and occasional, “How ya doin?” telephone calls.”
If you say THAT to a TPR you have nothing to complain about when they do actually call you.
And from a TPR’s perspective there is nothing worse than a passive aggressive HR person who enjoys stringing along agency recruiters but then complains about the volume of calls they receive.
Nice rant, but… Although I am on the European continent, things are pretty much the same over here, financial crisis and all. Companies are going through a rough patch and need to do some cold calling to get their business. So that’s companies, not just recruitment agencies or TPR’s. What I’m trying to say say is: dear corporate recruiters, stop complaining, grow up and just do your job. Your own salespeople, that you’ve just hired last month, are probably annoying the shit out of other companies marketing managers, buyers, directors, etc. as well. Wait, my phone is ringing… Ah, it’s a salesperson from t-Mobile. Think I’m calling their corporate recruiter…
Recycled posting? Here I am several months later, still working directly with a hiring manager – several of them. I’m personally comforted knowing that the less creative and less effective members of the TPR guild are still diving head-first in to the (often) tangled web of process and procedure. It’s kind of an oxymoron I suppose.
For this reason, among a few others, I prefer small and medium businesses over large (enterprise) any day of the week.
TPR’s keep lists as well. If the internal recruiter at a company is rude and can’t be bothered to talk to me I usually make the assumption that the company culture most likely stinks. What better reason for an A level candidate to consider leaving? But the internal recruiter most likely does not care because they know it’s just one more position for their fill “list” and one more hiring manager stopping by with a resume in hand demanding them to set up an interview.
As a Corporate Recruiter I have a niche list of preferred recruiters I deal with. When you call with ‘the perfect candidate’ and then don’t deliver or try the song and dance routine – you are finished. I am all about developing partnerships and that’s how I view the role between HR Recruitment and TPR’s. I’ve been on both sides – when I would cold call I made sure I did have the right candidate for the role…..
I love the agency folks who post about getting to the decision-maker. In my time in staffing on solely the corporate side the amount of hiring management and leadership who simply skirt HR process has continued to dwindle year after year after year…For a very simple reason. Lawsuits. Ahh the joys of expensive selection lawsuits, depositions and the like. So for those on the agency side who will continue to do their best to skirt HR, I completely understand in many instances how this makes you getting a fee more likely. But those opportunities will continue to wane…and that is a flawed business model.
For my part on the corporate side I appreciate the firm that knows me and makes a value play for something I can not do. This is something worth paying for…As for the perception that following HR process means no placement, or slow placement, well, you are working with an inept HR group. The right approach will always be to partner with a strong corporate recruitment function that in many instances will ASSIST you in getting that call back from the elusive sales SVP who is traveling too often to get you candidate feedback. TPRs are a partner in this. Those who approach HR as the adversary to be avoided will end up on the “to be avoided” list. Same goes for corporate HR in their treatment of TPRs.
If you are in a not good position and have no cash to move out from that point, you would require to receive the loan. Just because that will help you definitely. I take short term loan every year and feel myself good because of it.