recruiting & talent strategy summary

Winning the Human Capital War by Don W. Gee

Winning the Human Capital War by Effective Recruiting By Don W. Gee Enclosed are highlights and methodologies of my background in Recruiting, Talent Strategy, Recruiting & Sales Management, Training and Model Implementation

2008

Don W. Gee [email protected] Phone: 213.716.5563


Management & Training Achievements &

Highlights

As a Sr. Manager with Hall Kinion-Chicago,

created a Recruiting Training curriculum for

new hires. Due to its success, was retained by

the Corporate Office to conduct a formal

training program at the Global Headquarters,

which was videotaped & instituted company-

wide as the new recruiting methodology.

As a Sr. Manager with Hall Kinion, grew the

Chicago location from $1.7MM to $10MM in

two years. Also produced two Recruiters that

were globally ranked #2 and #5, and produced

the #4 Sales Executive in the company. Also

produced the “Rookie of Year,” and yielded the

highest bill-rate than another office in the

company world-wide.

With Esquire Deposition Services, re-engineered

the Midwest regions sales methodology. Also

implemented a 52-page sales guidebook, which

outlined Esquire’s new sales methodology,

scripts, checklists and tactical strategies for

Account Retention & Growth and Business

Development. Hired, trained and produced

three sales executives that yielded 190%, 300%

& 181% territory growth (all within their first

year of employment, all with no industry

experience).

With Essential Insight (subsidiary of Escendent)

designed an Organization Evaluation model for

performance-based companies. With Escendent

designed a recruiting model & delivery program

& a comprehensive Human Capital delivery &

fulfillment model for Project-based Human

Capital engagements. With Essential Insight,

designed an Organizational Evaluation Model for

Performance-based companies

Recruiting Achievements

& Highlights

Have implemented Talent Strategy standards,

metrics and training programs for various

organizations throughout the U.S. which has

included the following; talent strategy audits,

reducing CPH & TPH, vendor evaluation and

consolidation, employer branding, retention &

recruiting strategies, CRM implementations,

compensation surveys while spearheading

Talent Fulfillment delivery

With Escendent, designed a Human Capital

Solutions Fulfillment Model & implemented an

Organizational Design Model for consulting

engagements for Essential Insight (subsidiary of

Escendent)

As the Lead Sales Recruiter for Business.com,

2nd month on contract, enabled Business.com

to exceed their hiring goals for the first time in

the companies history

As a Corporate Contract Recruiter for Amdocs

(world’s largest telecom-billing software

company) I streamlined their hiring process and

saved Amdocs over $360,000 by reducing

vendor utilization and reducing TPH from 8

weeks to 3 weeks. Was also responsible for

staffing 7 locations throughout the US, including

solely staffing one of the most prominent Fraud

Detection software development projects in the

industry

As a Project Recruiting lead for ITG, staffed a

web based/OO project headed by Ivar Iacobson

(author of Iacobson use case methodology) for

Icon Nicholson in New York

With Hall Kinion, I headed up a Recruiting Team

that staffed one of the first project teams for

Motorola for their StarTec/Webphone project.

I have recruited in the following industries/domains; Retail, Technology, Consumer Products, Financial,

Telecommunications, Government, Entertainment, Manufacturing, Semi-Conductor, Online Advertising,

Advertising, Professional Services, Banking, Financial Services, Legal (Including Litigation Support,

Document Management & Litigation Technology) and Insurance


Background & Services Provided:

Talent Strategy Consulting - Streamline an

organizations talent acquisition function

through audits, talent acquisition organization

design, strategy development, e-Talent

acquisition strategy, hiring process consulting,

employer branding, vendor management, and

training

Hiring Audits – I have provided detailed audits

of a talent acquisition function to maximize the

efficiencies and costs as well as providing

detailed reviews of a clients function in

comparison with industry leading best-practices

Organization Design – I have developed talent

acquisition strategies and organization models

for organizations to properly structure and have

the capacity to organically build an organization

to support efficient, timely, and cost-effective

growth

Internal Recruiting Design – I have hired,

trained and assembled extremely successful

recruiting programs, as well as training

programs on industry leading best practices in

employer branding, creative direct candidate

sourcing, organizational design, etc.

Employment Branding - I have worked with

companies to build employee commitment and

position organizations as an employer of choice.

Vendor Management – Have worked with

various organizations by implementing

evaluation and measurement criteria to ensure

potential vendors will be a strategic resource,

for current vendors they will be measured to

ensure their performance justifies their costs.

Competitive Intelligence, Research, & Name

Generation – I have provided research for my

clients’ competitors; utilize the power of the

internet to mine for the best possible talent,

and utilize direct recruiting techniques to

deliver perfectly matched passive candidates

for our clients needs

Recruiting Services

I have fulfilled

various positions in

various industries

(both contract and

employment) by

utilizing my personal

database, my

network of contacts,

leveraging the power

of the internet, direct

sourcing & referrals. I

have placed

contract/temp

resources from $8.00

per hour, up to

$275.00 per hour. I

have placed full-time

resources from $28K

to $225K a year.


Common Recruiting Downfalls

Corporations

In most companies (both large and small) a traditional HR Department is tasked with the recruiting function which is often too reactive

Time per hire is too long

Cost per hire (in both soft and hard cost) are too high

Too much dependence on recruiting agencies

Lack of employer branding/competitive positioning

Effective negotiating

Too many consultants, not enough employees

Lack of Proactive Recruiting Campaigns

Lack of Competitive Intelligence

Recruiting Agencies

Recruiting Model is inferior to an agencies sales efforts

Recruiting is reactive vs. proactive

Recruiters often do not know how to utilize behavioral interviewing

Too much dependence on Job Boards

Lack of recruiting life cycle integrity

Body Shop tactics

Lack of quality screening

Recruiting one dimensional candidates, seeking candidates with a specific skill set only vs. seeking candidates with strong skill sets, strong domain experience and a high degree of business acumen

89-90% of Recruiting Agencies have an interior model that defies the rules and conditions of the marketplace

Agency Sales/Recruiting Cycles Most “Recruiting Agencies” divide their organizations into two divisions, sales and recruiting. 80-90% of Recruiting Agencies have an internal hierarchy that places more significance on sales and not recruiting. Recruiting Agencies that are potential vendors will assault clients with sales calls, hefty promises and eloquent sales presentations. However once a client agrees to utilize a Recruiting Agencies services, their internal recruiting efforts fall short by one or more of the following: leaving the position open or unfilled, providing candidates that are poorly screened and bombarding the client with a mountain of resumes to sift through (these are just to name a few). Traditionally there are two sides of the business, each having representation by the following, Sales Function (Client Side) and Recruiting Function (Candidate Side). The levels of difficulty for the Sales Executive and Recruiter change throughout the Sales/Recruiting cycle.

Sales Cycle (Client Segment)

Sales Executives are assigned to acquire new clients with endless promises of excellent candidates and stellar services. There is no refuting the level of difficulty for the SE in the beginning of the Sales/Recruiting Cycle. Landing an account, opening a new one, establishing a new relationship can be extremely difficult, especially in the current market conditions. However, once a “client/potential client” sees the value in our services and agrees to a potential relationship, the level of difficulty for the SE significantly declines, now it’s the responsibility for the Recruiting Team to deliver the candidate.


Recruiting Cycle (Candidate Segment)

In the beginning of the Recruiting/Sales Cycle,

the level of difficulty for the Recruiter is exactly

the opposite. To call a candidate who is seeking

an opportunity is not that challenging for a

Recruiter. There is very little, if no sales

resistance, whereas for the Account Executive,

it’s the exact opposite in the beginning of a

cycle. However, once a candidate (especially a

marketable one) begins a pre-submission phase,

the Recruiters job becomes substantially more

challenging; therefore the level of difficulty rises

sharply.

To continue to pre-close a candidate and re-

close a candidate once an offer is extended

becomes even more challenging. Often times,

candidates will have other offers, other

opportunities in the works to continue to

manage this process prompts the level of

difficulty to rise substantially.

Here is an example of what a typical agency

cycle looks like.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Recruiting

Sales

Starting in the late 90’s to

2001, after spending massive

amounts of capital on

staffing agency outsourcing,

high agency attrition and

poor service, organizations

began to shift their models

to a more “organic” hiring

structure by separating HR

and Recruiting into

separate entities within HR.

This trend continues

however most organizations

design & methodology for an

internal recruiting function

is not as effective as it could

be. As a business cycle begins, levels of difficulty swap from sales to

recruiting; sales faces a higher level of difficulty & complexity, but as

the cycle moves forward recruiting faces a higher level of intricacy.


Vendor Management

Companies that need to hire difficult to find candidates or have an internal recruiting function that does not have the capacity to fulfill them, staffing agencies can be a resource that can be helpful to compliment an organizations efforts. It is often prohibitive for companies to maintain the level of recruiting organization necessary to consistently find some of these positions. Outsourcing should be strategic and vendors/staffing agencies should be utilized if there isn’t an internal capacity sufficient to fulfill the needed resources. In other words, it should be a last resort. It is common (and recommended) to utilize a vendor/staffing agency for temporary resources. The particular positions being referred to

staffing agencies will dictate the type of

companies able to find these people. A

combination of search firms the company has

worked with in the past and others providing

similar services should comprise the evaluated

group. Historical hiring data is collected and

examined to determine the current levels of

service enjoyed by the company. Service levels

will be determined for the types of recruiting

services required.

If an agency utilization historical data shows

above 15% attrition, low resume submission,

low interview volume, above 60% offer

rejection it may be time to re-evaluate that

respective vendor/vendors.

What is the vendors’ internal process to source,

evaluate a candidate’s skills, background and

overall professionalism?

During the evaluation process, it is imperative

to understand how an agency manages their

candidate screening process. Do they provide

values in areas such as; direct sourcing passive

job seekers, niche’ focus into a specific

candidate competency/skill set or industry and

leverage a quality large database. What is the

quality of their internal recruiting function? Is

there recruiting process thorough? Lastly,

what is the agencies recruiting personnel

turnover? If a vendor claims to be experts in

the human capital business, however, their

internal recruiting function has a high

turnover, question their process, model and

quality.

Basic Vendor Utilization Criteria:


Escalation Process

After determining the number and types of candidates that need to be hired, an assessment must be made regarding the company’s ability to hire them. Once that determination is made, another assessment must be made to determine an escalation process to determine if a respective requisition/requisitions need to be outsourced. First and foremost, the goal of any organization is to fulfill their requisitions organically, this will enable an organization to maintain a lower CPH and reduce attrition (that national average for agency attrition is 20% and above). It can be common place to utilize agencies for temp/contract positions, however, for full-time positions; agency utilization should be a last resort. It is recommended an escalation process be created to determine whether or not more time is needed to continue internally recruiting or outsource the position/positions to a vendor.

Metrics to Consider Before a requisition is outsourced to a vendor,

first of all how well is the internal recruiting

function performing? Once a requisition is

approved and opened, evaluate the

marketplace and determine how difficult the

position will be to fill.

Within the first 2 weeks of the opening, if there

isn’t at least 3 candidates that have moved from

a recruiter pre-screen to a face to face

interview (or at least a hiring manager phone

screen), that could be the first indicator that

outsourcing to a vendor might be the best

course of action. Also, after 15 business days,

if there hasn’t been at least one face to face

interview, it might be time to outsource to a

vendor.

Process Centralization

All vendor activity (outsourcing requisitions, vendor evaluation, and vendor selection) should be centralized and supervised by the HR/Recruiting department. Department heads or hiring managers may have pre-existing loyalties or relationships with certain agencies; however these agencies should be evaluated and held to the same standards as other agencies. A centralized vendor process ensures better quality control, accurate performance and accountability tracking. This process needs to be centrally managed by the HR/Recruiting Department.

Outsourcing Process

When a position remains unfilled,

it would be recommended to

evaluate the compensation

package of the role and evaluate

if it is competitive. With skill sets

that are in high demand,

compensation variances can vary

from quarter to quarter.


The Cost of Outsourcing To ensure a client understands the cost of outsourcing (both in hard and soft costs) they need to fully understand in “black and white” the costs and risks that are associated with excessive outsourcing. Outsourcing to agencies can be costly. If a thorough process has not been implemented to evaluate and re-evaluate vendor processes, vendor standards and performance the cost can be devastating to an organizations bottom line.

Snapshot of Averages: On average IT positions are outsourced more than any other skill set, and the national average for base salary for an IT professional is $70,000. In the Chicago marketplace, the average IT salary is $71,400.

Most agencies charge a fee on the first year’s salary between 15-25%.

To fulfill individual requisitions, most organizations under $500MM outsource over 50% their hires

Agency attrition averages above 20% If an agency hire voluntarily resigns from a position within the first 90 days, an agency should refund the fee or given a chance to refill the position at no charge.

Request for Proposal Based upon examination of the historical data and consultation with company leaders, a Request for Proposal (RFP) should be constructed. Weighting of factors important to the company will be given and the RFP will be sent to the prospective vendor pool. Upon receipt of the results a list of companies to be interviewed will be determined and the results of those interviews will finalize the selections.

For every 100 positions

that are outsourced, the

hard cost of agency

utilization can exceed

$1.4 Million.

Add the soft cost of

agency attrition, which

averages over 20%, the

total cost of agency

utilization can exceed

$2.2 Million.

Most organizations

don’t do enough to

investigate the

capabilities of the

vendors they select.

Outsourcing hiring

needs to an ill-equipped

staffing agency can be a

financial disastrous

option.


Prime Vendor Outsourcing certain or all hiring to a Prime Vendor enables a company to appoint one vendor to manage the entire human capital process. Outsourcing the entire process can relieve a company from having to maintain staff dedicated to vendor management. Fluctuations in hiring needs can leave a company with people responsible for agency hiring when no hiring is needed. A prime vendor assumes responsibility for managing all hiring done with any agency and allows a company to ratchet up their hiring capability at will with out the cost of internal staff.

Retention Evaluation

Most organizations have a sound recruiting

process but do not take an honest look at their

attrition and evaluate what more they can do to

improve employee retention.

To evaluate an organizations attrition

percentage, this will require intensive research.

The following data will be evaluated to analyze

the variables that can contribute to high

attrition:

Cost of Attrition As a rule of thumb, when an employee resigns that can cost the company 1.5 -2 times of the vacated salary. The hard and soft cost includes time and money spent on refilling the position, advertising fees, agency fees, employee development and training. This does not include other hard and soft costs such as lower productivity, company morale and the impact this could have on customers/clients. When an organization loses someone, they are also losing revenue and profitability.

New Hire Onboarding Minimizing attrition starts on day one. It is crucial when an employee first starts, there is NO DOWN TIME. There needs to be a clear program for new hires, orientation and transition. Not only should a structured, meticulous orientation be created, but once an orientation is completed there is a system in place to plug the employees into their position and begin their knowledge curve. Orientation is important, but there must be other activities after orientation to ensure the candidate is welcomed such as; introductions to their managers and team, site tours to internal training.

Employee Communication

Communicating with employees can accomplish more than meets the eye. Keep the company up to date with company news, key new hires, significant company accomplishments and other news that will keep employees in the loop.

Benefits Ensure you’re providing a good benefit plan. Also, offer the best vacation package you can. If your competitors are offering two weeks, offer 3-4 weeks.

Awards Recognition is another way to raise performance. You can have awards for “Best Employee Award,” or “Best Turnaround,” or whatever highlights your company culture. If you want to tie in a bonus to this award, that can further compel individuals to exceed expectations, but not necessary.

On Going Training Offer your employees opportunities to further their respective skill sets through training. Depending on the cost of the training, you can either reimburse them or pay for the training directly.


Talent Strategy Delivery

Recruiting Cycle

This is my basic 4 step recruiting cycle. This model may change, depending on the environment or

domain, but this is a basic blueprint I adhere to. In my 7 page Recruiting Cycle; each step is outlined in

precise detail. My Recruiting process is strict, thorough and precise. This cycle acts as a “filter,” to

ultimately identify several key candidates out of many that will ultimately be a fit for what my client is

looking for.


Case Study

This is a case study that highlights my results as a Contract Recruiter/HR Consultant for Amdocs (the

world’s largest Telecommunications software billing company).

One of the world’s largest

telecom billing software

companies

Proj. Employee growth of

over 75+% per year

HR had little recruiting

experience and was

relying heavily on outside

search firms

Average Cost per hire was

$11,700

Client Create a strong brand Create a high volume growth

strategy and build an engine to fuel the explosive growth

Reduce the cost per hire to create substantial cost savings

Reduce the hiring cycle time substantially to grow quickly

Challenge Audit of hiring practices

Branding campaign to

position the client as an

employer of choice

Designed a recruiting

strategy

Designed a new hiring

process

Consolidate vendor list

Solution

• Successfully filled positions in St. Louis, Chicago and Portland with little vendor assistance

• Reduced the hiring cycle time from 6 weeks to 2 weeks, resulting in bottom line impact of increased project delivery and completion

• Total Savings of over $360,000 in recruiting costs

• Reduced CPH from per hire from $11,700 to $3,200

RESULTS

recruiting & talent strategy summary

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