In my last blog post, I said it was time to let candidates have a blog soapbox to help themselves get hired.  It would make those niche job boards trying to launch blogs (or vice-versa) more interesting content-wise.  Something that would convey the person beyond the resume could be interesting content.  In this guest blog entry, Jim does just that.

Is the issue rate or quality and ultimate cost per hire?

By James Boesel

That question was the subject line of my response email to the potential employer saying my rate was too high.  Although the email was much shorter, here are some of the issues I addressed.  I sent it not expecting a response, yet two days later got a request to meet!

• Cost per hire – Starting from nothing, my cost per hire has been roughly $3K each for very senior positions.  This includes the cost for my services with no agency hires and only two from Monster, despite hundreds of resumes downloaded.
• Direct sourcing – Downloading posted resumes off the Internet is not direct sourcing.  It’s finding people based on where they work and what they do regardless if they were looking for a job when you called them.  This also requires skill in dealing with passive candidates because people not looking need to be given a reason to consider change.  If they’re willing to talk but don’t have a resume, I provide enough information for the manager to make a decision.  Once the process begins, the candidate is motivated to create a resume.
• Full cycle recruiting – This means managing the entire hiring process through its outcome, not just finding resumes.  By setting expectations and later getting feedback from both parties, I ensure everyone makes the right decision, and made for the right reasons.  This includes providing HR with all the necessary hiring information to complete the hiring process.
• Quality of hire – Whenever possible, I make it a point to find other employees who may have previously worked with the candidate for blind internal references.  This can lead to a decisive hire, or, a candidate’s rejection despite stellar resumes.
• Lost hires – Most companies lose track of candidates once they’ve been through the screening process, regardless of why they didn’t go to the next step.  I’ve developed ways to source these old resumes even if they were never entered into a candidate tracking system.  There’s almost always a candidate(s) where, despite what happened over a year ago, would make an excellent hire today.
• Job postings – In today’s economy, people are very reluctant to change jobs unless it’s in their best interest.  When their posted jobs didn’t get results, I re-wrote them to convey the career opportunity to the candidate.  In one case, this resulted in more submissions in less than two weeks than they’d previously gotten from the previous posting on multiple websites.  Out of 25 submissions, they got 12 good resumes which narrowed down to four candidates interviewed and two hired.

If you saved $15 an hour on a recruiter that took twice as long and that was only able to produce candidates actively looking, what is your ultimate cost per hire?  A company is only as good as its people and that begins with the recruiter finding them for you.

Thank you, Jim!  Others with an interesting story to sell themselves as a candidate (but don’t make it read like a cover letter) are welcome to send them to blog[at]recruiting-online{dot}com for possible publication here.  Email Jim Boesel directly (boeselj[at]yahoo{dot}com) for his resume, or if you’d just like to discuss any topics he raised (though blog comments below are welcome, too).