by Gary R. Crumb
Recruiting online is a Twenty-First Century phenomenon, which has grown from an oddity in the nineties to a post-Millennium HR contender for business dollars. Today, all of the Fortune 500 companies recruit on the Internet. In fact, most employers and job seekers assume that any job recruitment or job search will involve the Net in some capacity. Why? Employers and job seekers both save time and money when technology drives recruiting.
Recruiting--A Job Best Left to the Professional
Professional recruiters offer advantages over the in-house HR departments of small and midsized businesses, such as resources and contacts useful for recruiting competitors' employees. Add the benefits of recruiters' expertise in job description preparation, salary information research, and initial employment screening, and it becomes apparent that recruiting is best left to the professionals.
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- Recruiters who hire lower-level personnel generally work on a contingency basis and only get paid when they find someone who is hired by the company. These types of recruiters typically keep a database or run ads to find and screen qualified applicants.
- When recruiting for higher levels of management, recruiters usually work on a contract basis that requires paying a fee regardless of their success. While this may sound risky, these recruiters have to be successful if they want to earn future recruiting orders. Recruiting of this nature requires more extensive contacts and more advanced research.
- Recruitment of those with highly-prized industry knowledge, such as advanced software developers, extremely specialized engineers, or those whose creative or management skills have received industry-wide recognition is best achieved by recruiters who have a thorough understanding of the business and a multitude of contacts--usually developed during a successful career in that field. The best, like Accolo, willingly track cost-per-hire measures.
The Recruiting Contract
Many recruiting firms offer a probationary period of sixty to ninety days during which they will replace an employee if he or she quits or is terminated. Recruiting firms should clearly define the tasks, such as research, screening, background checking, and testing, that they will perform. In addition, it should be spelled out in writing what the extent of the firm's liability for problems such as employment discrimination complaints, poorly-performed background checks, or other mishaps will be. Finally, the contract should list all of the details for job searches including the amount to be paid upon successful completion of the search and the length of time allowed for the search.
Sources:
Accolo
Association of Executive Search Consultants
National Association of Executive Recruiters
Recruiting Trends
Gary Crum is nationally published author with over twenty five years of management experience in the banking industry. He has a BSBA in Human Resources Management from Florida State University and an MBA from Florida Atlantic University.
