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Diversity Recruiting, Candidate Relationships, and HR Bosses

Mar 10, 2010
This article is part of a series called News & Trends.

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Here’s what’s going on in the ERE community this week:

  1. Are you clueless about diversity recruiting?
  2. Developing and nurturing candidate relationships
  3. Working for a boss that doesn’t know recruiting
  4. Monthly retainers for recruiters
  5. How common is a draw in commission based sales positions these days?
  6. Featured group of the week: Independent Recruiters

1. Are you clueless about diversity recruiting?

Sarah Welstead writes, “Age discrimination in the workforce is still prevalent, but it’s based on obsolete information.  The 50+ group is the fastest-growing demographic on the Internet; they’re more productive than younger counterparts (fewer sick days, less-frequent turnover); and our own research found that almost 85% of them had cellphones (and almost 10% of them were using Blackberrys every day)!

What is your take on diversity recruiting? Weigh in on Sarah’s post.

2. Developing and nurturing candidate relationships

Matthew Hakaim writes about the importance of candidate relationships. He states, “Building candidate relationships with each and every individual that will stand strong over the months and years translates into loyalty and referrals that will increase placements and income.  Critical to the process of building that relationship is the art of listening.  Make it a practice to be fully present during all of your conversations.  Learn what is important to each unique candidate.

Building relationships is important but does it work in an environment where more recs are being pushed to recruiters? What’s your take?

3. Working for a boss who doesn’t know recruiting

Sung Kim writes, “It’s not really a secret that I believe that “corporate HR” and “Recruiting” should be two separate departments, neither one reporting into one another but rather facilitating each others’ needs as distinctively individual units.  It’s not been the first time I’ve said it or blogged about it since it’s always been my professional stance.  Simply put, the “traditional HR” person just doesn’t get it.

Is working as a recruiter in an HR department more difficult? Let Sung know what you think.

4. Monthly retainers for recruiters

Have you ever worked as a recruiter on a monthly retainer? A commenter in the forum asks, “I have been retained before by clients, but never on a monthly basis.  Have any of you made a monthly retained agreement?  Wondering what to charge?” Can you share any tips with her?

5. How common is a draw in commission-based sales positions these days?

Have you been seeing more draw based commission-only sales positions out there? What have you seen as far as structures for these arrangements? A questioner in the Independent Recruiter group asks, “When there is a base plus commission model, how common is it to have a draw (recoverable or nonrecoverable) on commission for a few months?

A commenter threw out this warning: “I would be very leary of a recoverable draw scenario where there are no existing accounts given and no initial period of a non-recoverable draw.” What’s your take on draws?

6. Featured group of the week: Independent Recruiters

The Independent Recruiters group was founded by Craig Silverman and is all about connecting the community of independent recruiters. The statement for the group states that, “[t]his is a group for recruiters that are interested in working with independents or as an independent to share information. We will discuss topics such as: fee agreements, split placements, Applicant Tracking Systems, direct recruiting, job boards, account management, developing contract business, back office services, building your brand image, and more.

There are several discussions going on such as the best industries for independent recruiters and who’s responsibility is it to check references.

To see what else you’ve been missing, check out the ERE community.

This article is part of a series called News & Trends.