Talent Search Partners, Inc.

TALENT SEARCH PARTNERS, INC.

Menu

Career Insight

A Cost Effective Approach To Profitability

Career Insight, Career Preparation, Leadership, Recruitment /

One of the weaknesses of leaders that I’ve witnessed is their resistance to engaging in proactive dialogue with talent in their industry. Most decision makers are reactive when it comes to talent acquisition. It’s for certain that an organization will experience turnover by way of resignation, retirement, parental leave, termination, or death. We know these things will happen as a normal course of doing business, yet we wait for the inevitable, and scramble to fill these gaps in our talent structure. These are generally not when the best decisions are made. Hires in these moments are normally made out of convenience to stop the bleeding. The best time to take a loan is when you don’t need one. The same theory applies to hiring. The smartest time to be engaging in conversations with suitable people in your marketplace is when you don’t need to, or when your team is running at full capacity. Talent scouting should not take a break since you can’t control people and the decisions they make. We’ve all had those untimely meetings with our best people on a Monday morning. They usually start with, “Good morning, Steve – I’d like to thank you for this amazing opportunity to work with you and my team at XYZ Company for the past 10 years. That being said, I’ve decided to take my talents to South Beach.” The first reaction is usually how you can soften the impact of this person’s departure and prevent any disruption to the core activities of your business. Counteroffers seldom work, and the process of searching for a replacement is time consuming and taxing emotionally for all involved. What I’m proposing is the initial investment of 1 conversation a week with someone in your industry. However this person comes to you, you should be receptive to these meetings / discussions as a way of evaluating your market, that person’s fit, and the likelihood of a hire now, or in the future. This is proven, and guaranteed to solve a lot of your people problems. The argument against this might be, “It’s a waste of time to engage in these discussions without an official hiring request.” Or, “this goes against company policy. All such conversations should be had with the appropriate HR or TA professional within our organization.” Fair. Follow the appropriate policies and procedures. Don’t burn bridges. I’m speaking to a minority of decision makers at the highest level who can afford to be having these conversations with key people in their industry, choosing not to handle such situations as they come. This is detrimental to talent building. By the way, these discussions should also be happening internally with members of your current team as a way of succession planning, and knowing what roles are appropriate to be evaluating externally. You may need to push back on the conventional mindset, and that requires diplomacy and patience. What’s for certain is you’ll be ahead of your competitors, and your brand will reach those in your marketplace that wouldn’t have known about you otherwise. Your organization will reap the benefits for years to come. This is what good leadership looks like.

A Cost Effective Approach To Profitability Read More »

Some Vultures Wear Custom-Fitted Suits

Career Insight, Leadership, Recruitment /

Recruiters! You’re feeding on dead-end positions; chasing after them like hungry vultures; willing to compromise for an organization that will not give you repeat business. You’re feeding on dead-end positions; positions that have no legitimacy or strategic direction, no growth trajectory for top prospects, no upper management support, and will likely end in termination or resignation of the hired employee within a year. This cycle has repeated itself time and time again, and you’re guilty by association. You’re complicit in this hoax of a hiring process by accepting these types of roles from hiring managers that are looking to exploit the most vulnerable the marketplace has to offer. Top performers don’t trust you, and rightfully so. Why would I put my career and family’s well being in the hands of someone who operates out of desperation and purely transactionally?! You have been biting the fee bait, taking anything dangled in front of you, and feeding this into the marketplace. We have a responsibility to the people, families, and corporations we represent to hold ourselves to a higher standard. There are times when you will have to walk away from something (or someone) to guard the integrity of what you do as a profession. This test will come to all of us. If not you, then who? If not now, then when?

Some Vultures Wear Custom-Fitted Suits Read More »

You Are More Than Just A Resume (The Follow Up)

Career Insight, Career Preparation, Inspiration, Recruitment /

📢 Candidates! The job market is tough right now, but your activity will lead to positive results… The key is to create small wins everyday by following up. A good follow up is not always discussed, but it’s your key to standing out. The average job seeker does a quantitative blitz of the marketplace, thinking it’s about volume of send outs. True to some extent, but a well thought-out and personalized follow-up to a decision maker (HR or hiring manager) is important to gaining momentum, and landing that dream role. I speak with job seekers regularly and the most common frustration stems from a lack of responses from decision makers. These are the types that will accept a position that they are not truly interested in, and end up quitting shortly thereafter 🤔 Stop treating the job search like a mind-numbing numbers game. Instead, approach it like a Consultant. Make your outreach directed and customized to the organization’s you’d like to work for. When you’ve applied via a posting or through a referral, follow up at least 3 days later. Empathy dictates that the hiring manager is inundated with applications, and time is a scarce resource for them. We’re also dealing with AI generated screening mechanisms that rule you out based on prompts from the company. Differentiate yourself by showing hiring managers how much you care. You are more than just a resume 📜 Here’s an example of a concise, yet effective follow up ⤵️ =================================================== Hello, Mike – I am a Project Manager with 10 years in the plastics industry. I am presently employed for ABC Plastics, and I am steps away from acquiring my PMP designation. I am interested in learning more about the following advertised vacancy on your team: ▶️ Program Manager, Injection Molding I followed the necessary steps to be considered for this position through your online posting, but I wanted to take an additional step by sending this email to you personally. You have my resume, so please let me know how we can coordinate another step to be introduced. Thank you. Troy Saddler=================================================== Talent Search Partners, Inc. was designed to empower job seekers and to allow decision makers to sleep better at night 🛌💤

You Are More Than Just A Resume (The Follow Up) Read More »

Why The Recruitment Industry Can’t Move Forward…

Career Insight, Leadership, Recruitment /

Trust is key across all relationships. The issue that most have with recruiters is they are just untrustworthy… It starts with the initial outreach… A smooth pitch and tons of promises about how great an opportunity it is for your career… Followed by a request for your resume, then… Silence. This is precisely why the profession isn’t taken seriously… Most recruiters don’t set out to work this way. In fact, I’d like to think that the majority start out sincere with the best of intentions… They don’t want to operate transactionally, and they believe in treating people well, but pressures and quotas internally prohibit the operation of ethics and best practices… Recruiters are tossed into the deep end with no real training and are expected to deliver. When they don’t, they’re callously let go, and the process starts with another recruiter… The problem starts within our own ranks. This is why leadership at the forefront of this industry matters. KPIs and quotas are great measurements for success, but when it becomes all about benchmarks, then you prematurely weed out talent that can be groomed into high performers with time and patience – I fell into this bucket. I was not a top biller when I started in this industry, but I was resilient and learned how to remain relevant. Many top billers have fallen by the wayside either because of arrogance or complacency… Slow and consistent remains underappreciated. Many decision makers are comfortable engaging two to three recruiters for a given search despite the poor results associated with doing so. These recruiter cage matches are bad for everyone’s business. “We’ve always done it this way!”… …I think someone said that this mindset is the quickest way to go out of business. We’re willing to revamp other business practices, yet we remain archaic in how we handle recruitment, the growth engine for the enterprise… Your business deserves better representation.

Why The Recruitment Industry Can’t Move Forward… Read More »

Leadership Is A Mirror

Career Insight, Inspiration, Leadership, Recruitment /

So, why do you put so much emphasis on people? I wrote a blog post 2 years ago, entitled: The Great Departure – A Recruiter’s Guide To Retaining Your Best Talent (read it here – https://talentsearchpartnersinc.com/the-great-departure-a-recruiters-guide-to-retaining-your-best-talent/) That post did very well, and the feedback supported that… In it, I discussed the 6 areas where leadership has failed, and it resonated with readers… One of the benefits of serving under a poor leader is you get to eye witness everything they are doing wrong, which allows you to not repeat those mistakes… It pained me to watch good people leave that office… Rather than accept the blame for the revolving door that existed, my then boss blamed those who left, highlighting their weaknesses, rather than taking ownership… I did what I could to save what was a sinking ship, but the damage was irreparable, and he was delusional… So, why do you care so much about people and good leadership? Because, no matter how much you’ve made financially or how large your office is, how you treat people will ultimately determine your success & longevity… He spent money on “things” to keep the office running, but he treated people like replaceable resources, and not assets… The office eventually closed. He said very little, but it was the way he treated us that scarred the most… It would’ve been an easier pill to swallow if he had yelled, heaved chairs across the office, put holes in the walls, or kicked the water cooler. But it was his silence that pierced. It made you feel like you didn’t exist. Almost like you were being done a favour… It felt like he kept a life vest in his office, and everyone else was vulnerable… I vowed to never make another human feel like that; not on my watch… He ended up alone, and that came as no surprise. Sad, but not surprising. The best amongst us know how to pull the best out of people. They leverage technology, resources, business intelligence, etc., but they never lose sight of the human factor… The way you make people feel can either build up or tear down. My role in recruitment has afforded me the privilege of working with some great people. I am directly tied to an organization’s growth by aligning them with talent, and with that comes great responsibility… As such, I will not misrepresent an opportunity to a candidate… The people who were hired to work for my former manager were deceived, quickly realizing that the man they interviewed with, was not the same man they encountered 6 months into the role. The honeymoon phase was short-lived, and the list of casualties kept growing. The tipping point for me was his inability to see his own errors. In that state, he was incapable of changing, and my days in that office were numbered after that conversation… Leadership is a responsibility. It’s not a right, and it’s nothing to boast about… If you are leading a team of 1 or 30, it’s a responsibility, and how you make people feel will monetize every time… You won’t need to convince them to go the extra mile. They will go willingly because they know that you will secure their life-vest before you tend to your own… I know they say that you must first put the oxygen mask on yourself during an aviation emergency, but real leaders put others first… This is your competitive advantage.

Leadership Is A Mirror Read More »

“I Could Never Work For That Guy!”

Career Insight, Inspiration, Leadership, Recruitment /

He was on his phone during the interview…………and it wasn’t the candidate. It was the CEO/Founder of a multinational company with roots that span over half a century… It was shocking to me and the candidate that a CEO would behave in this manner… What a first impression for a seasoned executive who had great meetings with everyone up to that point within the organization… The fit was strong, and the ROI was clear… The candidate had a strong leadership background working for a variety of manufacturers and expertise in the standardization of processes, something the company lacked and desperately needed to compete outside of their immediate marketplace… He was also excellent at developing talent. His people-centric style of leadership resonated with his potential counterparts and addressed major retention issues with the company… It’s tough, I get it. Change breeds uncertainty, which is the reason it’s avoided. The human element is also prevalent in these cases. We are innately biased & insecure, and that influences decision making… A few things come to mind… 1️⃣ If you’re running a company that produces a product for customer use, then you need standard processes and procedures that will exist beyond your tenure with the company. The opposite of standardization means that you’re constantly moving your goal posts based on present day circumstances, and you don’t understand the essence of succession planning. Standardization essentially allows you to effectively plan for the future, while holding people accountable. You don’t get to make things up as you go… 2️⃣ As a leader, you have to be able to trust the team under you. This sounds simple, but it’s the hardest thing for many leaders to do. They are hyper-active in areas that should be delegated to their leadership team… 3️⃣ Decency is required to succeed. It’s inappropriate to be on your phone while you are interviewing someone for a position within your company… 4️⃣ Empowering others to make decisions doesn’t diminish your authority… 5️⃣ If longevity is truly your goal, then you’ll do what it takes to accomplish that, even if it means checking your ego.

“I Could Never Work For That Guy!” Read More »

He Brought A Sledgehammer To Work On His First Day

Career Insight, Inspiration, Leadership, Recruitment /

As a newly hired business leader within an organization, the first 6 to 18 months should be a learning period. You should be spending the majority of your time getting to learn the company, your team, the culture, & your customers. Avoid making any major decisions during this time until you’ve had a chance to survey the landscape of this organization – this requires patience. As a leader, you’ve become a steward of the organization’s assets, primarily its people. Unless you were hired with a specific mandate with an aggressive timeline to achieve a set of goals, the agenda should be to understand the business and forge alliances within your team. This does not happen on your first day. For any leader who is going through the interview process, one of your primary questions to the CEO or President of a company should be: What is your vision for this position within the first year? If that goal is cost-cutting centric for instance, then I’d question that. There’s a lot that you don’t know about the company and won’t know until the completion of your first year, in some cases longer. You may discover through your own exploration that there are issues that require a different approach that will ultimately lead to the same end goal. One of my most tragic placements came with a company that I had served for several years. I built a great relationship with one of their key executives and became a trusted partner for him in the development of his engineering team. Through that relationship, I was able to break into other areas of the business, culminating in a conversation with the CEO to help him find a new VP of Operations. I sifted the marketplace to find someone who had served in a similar capacity in his previous role. He was young, energetic, communicated well, had great references, and he genuinely hit it off with the team. He was hired! Shortly thereafter however, things took a weird turn… Hidden within his briefcase was a sledgehammer (not a literal one) and he wasn’t timid about using it. He made his primary agenda to find and expose problems, rather than formulating solutions. He alienated members of the leadership team, rather than leaning on their expertise and experience to understand the business and its direction. Granted, there were issues within the company, but as a new leader and someone who had been hired to drive new processes and procedures, his first course of action should’ve been to get to know the people by watching what they do and learning how they do it. Along that growth path, some people will be weeded out, but that should be handled delicately, not with a shotgun as one of the team members shared. He was ultimately fired by the CEO, and his departure came as a sigh relief to those within the organization. Lessons for newly hired leaders…

He Brought A Sledgehammer To Work On His First Day Read More »

The Real Measure Of Value

Career Insight, Inspiration, Leadership, Recruitment /

My walk last night did little to solve my value conundrum. The dog feces left along my path certainly didn’t help the situation… I’m struggling with value… Every recruiter pitches their value the same… “a huge database of resumes” “years recruiting in your industry” “a team of recruiters who will be dedicated to your roles” “flexible fees” …a great list of value cliches, but this is not real value because it doesn’t address the needs of the end user… Recruiters are in over-supply and the demand for talent is at an all time high. There is a recruiter on every street corner and the trail of scarred executives runs deep… I’ve encountered executives within companies who would rather struggle to fill positions through their own efforts than work with “another recruiter.” Hard to blame them… 3-months, 6-months, 9-months, a year goes by, and the position still hasn’t been filled… If recruiters are in over-abundance with demand for talent running at the same pace, then why haven’t these two variables been able to marry each other at this equilibrium point… If there are so many of us and an equal number of roles to be filled, then why are executives reluctant to sign on that dotted line to engage that recruiter? Why would they rather deal with the lost revenue and frustration of having positions go unfilled for quarters… I believe the issue lies in quality, not supply… Recruiters for years have over-promised and under-delivered. They talk a big game but fail to show up when it counts. This has happened so many times over the years that companies have caught on and would rather forgo the trauma of another failed attempt to work with a recruiter… The missing link in this relationship has nothing to do with statistics and experience. It has everything to do with doing what you said you would do… Executives are tired of being taken on a roller coaster ride. For most, the thrill no longer exists, and they are exiting the ride in droves… Most executives in my opinion could live with the result of a failed attempt to fill their position if recruiters demonstrated traits of resilience and integrity… We don’t need another recruitment agency. These days anyone with Wi-Fi and a cell phone plan can be a recruiter… What we need are professionals who understand the importance of what they do and how they can drive an economy forward. The key is to serve, not extract, with the end goal of facilitating lasting partnerships. This remains the greatest stumbling block within the recruitment process… I don’t mind paying for a service (even overpaying) if I believe there will be a true exchange of value & a commitment to quality. The reason why there is so much negotiation is because of a misunderstanding of how both sides benefit in this equation.

The Real Measure Of Value Read More »

The Follow-Through

Career Insight, Career Preparation, Inspiration /

Proper basketball shooting mechanics dictates a consistent “follow-through” contributing to a smoother and more accurate shot attempt. As part of good fundamentals, following-through is not only taught, but encouraged at all levels. It’s the last thing in the act of shooting that helps to guide the ball into the basket, yet few regularly follow-through. The average recruiter can take an order from a customer, source resumes, submit them to the hiring managers, arrange interviews, make the placement, & collect the fee; rinse and repeat. Yet, despite doing all of the “right things” to make the placement, one in four recruiters are likely to leave within a year of starting at an agency. That’s 25% annually. The average basketball player can dribble the ball, pivot, position their elbows and knees into a shooting posture, & release the ball, yet only a few have the success rate of Stephen Curry. So, what’s the differentiator in all of this? Like shooting, recruiting relies heavily on details. Why are recruiters seemingly doing everything right, but not able to build healthy relationships with clients and candidates? The answer lies in the follow-through, which for many, are details seldom emphasized. I think of following-through as the small steps in-between the bigger steps to a successful outcome. Getting to know your clients and candidates by engaging in several conversations during the hiring process; visiting your customer’s office or facility; making yourself available after hours and on weekends; providing interview feedback to candidates; post hire congratulatory gifts; reaching out consistently post hire to ensure the well-being of your candidates. What would your career look like if you followed-through? What about your job search? If more recruiters were dedicated to the details of proper execution, this would not only lead to more placements & satisfied customers, but there would be less frustration within our ranks leading to decreased turnover. What does following-through look like in your profession? How can you be a better executer in your field?

The Follow-Through Read More »

Choose Your Next Window Contractor Wisely

Career Insight, Employer Insight, Human Resources, Recruitment /

Why should it matter to you whether that recruiter is retained, contained, or contingent? To many people, recruiters are all cut from the same bad cloth. When you sense that it’s another recruiter on the line with the same self-serving pitch, you likely tense up, rush them off the phone, or hang up before they can complete their sentence (hopefully you don’t do the latter too often. There is something humane about letting another human finish what they have to say, even if you’re completely disinterested). I digress… Retained, or not to be retained. That is the question! Let’s first dissect this misunderstood word. In simple terms, it means working exclusively with a service provider with a monetary deposit to ensure the commitment to & integrity of the relationship (I did not use Google for that). Let’s employ an everyday scenario… You’re looking to get your windows done and you hire a contractor to do the work. The contractor comes over to assess the job, provides a selection of window options, and offers a quote for the job along with a timeframe for completion. You agree to use that contractor, at which point, the contractor requests a deposit to solidify commitment from you, the customer. That deposit is then subtracted from the final cost of the job once completed. Simple enough and agreeable as a practical way of doing business. Let’s now take a look at the recruitment industry… When I broke into this field almost 15 years ago, I was trained in a purely contingent environment. The normal way of doing business under this model was to solicit business from a company to fill one of their vacancies, take the request, create a stealth job description, reach out to prospects, facilitate interviews and final offer, & close the deal. Rinse & repeat. Pretty standard to the industry, but in all of this is an open-ended, commitment-less relationship with zero accountability to the other party. What do you mean Troy? Do tell… Let’s go back to the window contractor example… You hire that contractor to do the job, but this time, there is no deposit made to the contractor. They agree solely based on a signed contract. They start the work, and everything is progressing well enough. All of a sudden, the contractor shows up late for the job. The day after, they’re a no show. Your calls go unreturned for the next 3 days and you’re left wondering if the job will get done. Friday afternoon, you receive a call from the contractor, and they agree to complete the job the following Monday. On Monday, they’re a no show and you’re left with an unfinished job, money in your pocket, but now you begin the process with another window contractor hoping for a better experience. This is what we commonly refer to now as ghosting. That contractor abandoned the job, likely for another customer who paid a deposit. So, why are hiring executives disagreeable to paying a retainer for exclusive recruitment services? It stems entirely from how recruiters have positioned themselves in the marketplace. For years, they’ve worked for free and hiring authorities have lived with the poor results associated with “free” If you’ve been getting a free service for years, why would you one day want to start paying for that service, even if the facts declare that free hasn’t resulted in positive outcomes for you? Recruitment is no different from any other service and we need to start seeing ourselves as organizational difference makers, change agents, & facilitators of growth. If we don’t value what we do, then how dare we get upset when others don’t. The issue is internal. Once we start respecting what we bring to organizations’ and peoples’ lives, then we will see real change and lasting relationships with decision makers. Google defines retained recruitment as a search process that focuses on quality and long-term value over speed, leading to a lower risk of bad hires and a more thorough search process (with more transparency). In essence, retained recruitment is better because it prioritizes finding the right person for the role, reduces the risk of bad hires, and fosters a strong partnership between the recruiter and the hiring company, leading to more successful hiring outcomes. Wouldn’t you consider this to be more desirable than what I described above? The onus lies entirely within the recruitment industry to redefine its image and start positioning itself as a service that allows executives to sleep better at night. The days of recruiters competing against themselves, chasing candidates in a reckless manner, candidate redundancy, and a poor brand image are the past. Welcome to the future of the candidate/recruiter/customer relationship, and only those willing to do something different will reap the benefits.

Choose Your Next Window Contractor Wisely Read More »