WE SELL OUR EXPERTISE, NOT ONLY INFORMATION! 

－THE INSIDE STORY ABOUT EXECUTIVE RECRUITING 

There are many kinds of recruitment agencies, such as the newspaper or the website, organizations of employment service, employment agencies, etc. When we talk about professional recruiters, executive recruiters are usually what we mean; and sometimes we refer to them as “headhunters”.

Because of its peculiarity, an executive recruiter is sometimes covered by a mysterious color. The question is, do they just sell their information? And if so, they tend to charge very high fees! In order to explain this situation clearly to the readers, I have listed below some cases in the recruitment process.

A multinational company was recruiting a department manager. Firstly, the HR department posted the position advertisement in the newspaper and the website.  After the interviews with the selected job-seekers, they didn’t find any suitable candidates. The whole procedure lasted for over half a year. Under these circumstances, the HR department had to change their strategies, and turned to Onpress International, an executive recruiter, for help.

Who will send their resumes to the advertiser, according to the posted position advertisement? This is a problem for us to think about. Based on our experience, usually they are from job-hoppers: someone who does not fit into the new environment, or someone driven by money, or someone with no confidence in themselves or the organization, etc. Most employers are very selective on their requirements for any suitable candidates. Therefore, getting the candidates’ information through the advertising channel will not lead to a satisfying result.

A professional executive recruiter is an operator who approaches the right candidates in the market in a confidential and professional manner. Firstly, we will determine a certain industry area for an in-depth market research. Then we will evaluate and select the related candidates based on an accurate understanding of the job description and candidate profile. We will not stop presenting candidates until the client is satisfied with at least 2 selected candidates. The whole process may require one week to two months. From the point of view of time control and candidate matching, a professional executive recruiter can usually deliver the promises.

Herewith is another case: a company had found a marketing manager candidate through a recruiting firm. After several rounds of interviews between the hiring manager and the selected candidate, both parties agreed to an appointment. But the deal was aborted finally as the candidate refused to sign the offer letter. The recruiter realized at a later date that the main reason for the rejection of the job offer was money, being too little relative to the selected candidate’s expectations.

Salary is always an important issue in the recruitment process. For most situations, money is the biggest motivating factor in any career move. Someone would take a completely new challenge just for money.  In such an economic climate, salary is recognized to be a key measurement of one’s value. Sometimes even if one does not care about money, the candidate will be concerned about his total compensation, just for a self-evaluation. In any career move, salary has become a very sensitive issue, and a hard problem to handle and resolve. A criterion should be related to one’s contributions to the organization.

A professional recruiter not only knows the candidate’s salary status, but also the candidate’s expectations if he makes a career move. On the client’s side, the recruiter should understand the range of salary/package offered for any position. And he should also know, that under what kind of situations, will the monetary offer be different from the original. As most things are decided by people, and therefore decisions can also be altered by people. The negotiation on the monetary range is an important part of the recruitment process. With the recruiter’s intervention, this issue can be resolved satisfactorily for both the employer and the candidate.

The third case: after a successful recommendation from a recruitment firm, the client was going to do a reference check on the selected candidate. The candidate was unwilling to proceed at that time. This recruitment firm had therefore commenced the target process of the candidates again.

A possible explanation of the above event is that the candidate had described his status dishonestly previously. In order to cover up this lack of integrity, the candidate had to withdraw his candidacy in a most negative manner.

For a professional executive recruitment firm, reference checks cannot be omitted. Based on the reference checks, the selected candidates’ information shown to the client can be proved true or false. And the integrity issue must be resolved before the final appointment.

The following is a kind of occurrence heard regularly; a person was successfully recommended to a new employer, but he left only after one month. When the recruiter inquired this candidate of the reason for the departure, the candidate said that he did not enjoy the new company because of the company’s culture or the management style of the boss.

To move to a new company is a major decision for most people, and very emotional. To the employer, accepting a new comer into a key position is also an important decision. The employer is choosing an employee; at the same time, the employee is also choosing an employer. It’s a therefore a case of mutual choice and satisfaction.

A professional recruiter should know thoroughly the criteria of choice for both parties, as well as any hidden values.

So, in evaluating a candidate, we analyze his intelligence, capacity, experience, as well as his personality, adaptability, ambitions, potential, culture-matching, value orientation and motivation.

We should pay attention to not only the suitability between the two parties, but also the flexibility of the candidate.

For the professional recruiter, there are many other obstacles: one example is that the client does not clarify its requirements in the candidate’s qualifications, especially in the starting or reforming phases of a company. They may be lacking in the experiences in human resource management. A recruitment consultant also provides the service of compiling a job and position description to the client, based on its market situation and its own policy.

Executive recruitment is an industry related to the use of brain power. It depends on management experience, psychology, strong communication and negotiation skills, and sensibility in capturing the market information. It does not just sell its information directly to the client.

It is the intentions of the author to brief any incoming professional recruiters of the pitfalls in this industry, and to alert these newcomers some of the pros and cons in this industry.