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25 fact-filled articles
to help improve your performance
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Tips for Recruiters
Table of Contents
Strategy & Tactics
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Make Placements --
FAST!
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Voice Mail &
E-mail: Eight Simple Rules
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Job Orders --
Better, Faster, Smarter
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How to Switch Desk Specialties
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Who Makes the Most
Money?
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Retainers: Look
Before You Leap
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How to Add Value, Not Redundancy
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Intelligent Online
Recruiting
Skill Building
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Counteroffers: Can You Spot the
Signs?
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Resume Makeovers: Quick Tips
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Is There a MAGIC to Closing?
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Finding the Right Recruiting Script
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Storyboarding for Maximum Impact
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How to Stimulate Candidate Referrals
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Expand the Supply of Candidates
Candidate Management
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Playing Softball
with Your Candidates?
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The Power of Interview Preparation
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Control: The Key to Recruiter Success
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How to Fight the Counteroffer Bug
Employer Relationships
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You’re Worth the Money You Charge!
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Negotiate for Higher Recruiting Fees
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Anti-Discount Tactics for Recruiters
For Candidates &
Employers
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Graceful Exits for Job-Changers
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Advice for Engineering Candidates
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What’s Your Capture Strategy?
Q & A
for Recruiters
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Answers
to Your E-mail Questions
Bill Radin answers letters from recruiters around the world.
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Contingency or Retained
Recruiters:
Who
Makes the
Most Money?
By Bill Radin
Which
recruiter makes more money, retained or contingency? Generalist or
specialist? Lone wolf or team player?
The answer? All of the above. The highest paid recruiters aren’t
necessarily tied to a particular approach to the business; nor are they
the smartest or the hardest working. They’re simply the ones who play
to the strength of their respective business models.
Let me explain. The term “business model” refers to a unique
combination of methods designed to turn a profit. If you’re like most
recruiters, your business model is already in place; it was taught to
you during your first week on a desk.
Terms like “contingency,” “retainer” and “generalist” merely
describe the broad nature of each different business model; but it’s
the detailed inner formula—the business model and its
implementation—that’s really the key to success.
Most of the business models I’ve studied can provide a wealth-creating
framework for the aspiring recruiter. These include the multi-desk
franchise, the home-based solo operation, the split-network model, and
so forth.
Occasionally,
a business model can break down. For example, the resume-distribution
model made lots of recruiters rich a few years ago when mid-level
candidates were in short supply. When the market suddenly produced a
surplus of candidates, the business model became obsolete,
resulting in a riches-to-rags scenario for resume-blasting recruiters,
no matter how hard they worked the system.
However, most recruiters fail not because of their system, but from fighting
a system that already works. Chances are, your current business model
works just fine. Remember, the characteristic common to top recruiters
isn’t that they all use the same system; it’s that each works his or
her system to the point of perfection.
Feeding
the System
Take a good look at your system and what it needs to operate at maximum
efficiency. If you feed the machine what it likes, you’ll be rewarded.
Starve it, and you’ll be punished.
For example, a multi-desk office with five recruiters tends to reward
conformity and punish non-conformity. The system works best when fueled
by recruiter synergies, a homogeneous candidate population and economies of scale.
So recruiters who work the same (or overlapping) desk specialties and
generate split business will succeed more easily than non-conforming
recruiters who try to orbit alone, outside the critical mass.
If you’re not sure what to feed your system, ask your manager. If you
run your own business, you may need to tweak to your system to maximize
your profits—or tweak your recruiters to maximize your system.
Whenever I attend a company or network meeting, I listen carefully to
the top-producing recruiters as they accept their awards at the podium.
And every time, it’s like deja vu—the acceptance speech is
exactly the same.
“Thank you very much for
giving me this award,” the winning recruiters say as they gaze at
their silver trophies and Caribbean cruise tickets. “But I don’t deserve all the credit.
“All I really did was work the system.”
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