Candidate Reference Checks are unquestionably a key ...

Proactive Recruiting

In A War For Talent Economy
By Paul Siker

© 2007 Advanced Recruiting Trends, LLC
15636 Britenbush Ct., Suite 200
Waterford, Virginia 20197
(540) 882-9077

First published in 2007 by:
Advanced Recruiting Trends, LLC (USA)
15636 Britenbush Court, Suite 200
Waterford VA 20197
(540) 882-9077
www.artofrecruiting.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Copyright © Paul Siker, 2007
All rights reserved

ISBN 978-0-9788674-0-9

Printed in the United States of America

Publisher’s Note:

Without restricting or limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise)
without the prior written permission of the author and the publisher of this book.

The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means
without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best
efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties of any kind. The
advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. Neither the
publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages,
including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Proactive Recruiting In A War For Talent Economy ♦ vii

Table Of Contents

Preface ......................................................................... 1
1 Passive Vs. Proactive Recruiting ............................... 6
2 Consultative Selling In Recruitment ......................... 19
3 Building Partnerships With Hiring Authorities ........ 35
4 Proactive Sourcing Strategies ................................... 52
5 Compelling Voicemail Messages ............................... 77
6 Advanced Introductory (Cold) Calls .......................... 86
7 Understanding Candidate Motivators ....................... 115
8 Reaping Reference Check Rewards .......................... 141
9 Referral Acquisition Techniques ............................... 173
10 Salaries, Offers, & Closing The Deal ......................... 186
11 Counter-Attacking Counter-Offers ............................. 225
12 Planning & Performance Metrics ............................... 249
265
Afterword ..................................................................... 267
About The Author ........................................................ 268
Index .............................................................................

Proactive Recruiting In A War For Talent Economy ♦ 1

Preface

Like so many people within the recruiting landscape, some
twenty years ago I found myself entering a profession for which I was
admittedly ill-equipped. Unlike most other vocations, one truth about
recruiting is the frequency with which people simply fall into the role
of “recruiter.”

As a colleague of mine has aptly remarked on various
occasions, “Paul, no one at the age of 12 says, ‘When I grow up, I
want to be a recruiter’.” And this assessment is correct; at the point
when kids consider future careers they tend to think about becoming
Doctors, Scientists, Police Officers, Athletes, etc. But I have yet to
meet anyone who, at a very young age, has said that they envisioned
themselves becoming a recruiter or sales professional.

When I got into the business of recruiting, I joined a small
start-up firm called The Guild Corporation that had been started by
my older brother, David, and a friend of his, Mike Kohonoski. Both
had graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with degrees in
Electrical Engineering, and after working in the trenches as engineers,
and briefly for a national recruiting firm, elected to create their own
technical search firm in McLean, VA outside of Washington, D.C.

In joining The Guild Corporation, I found myself within a
fledgling business. I don’t use the term “fledgling” lightly. This was
truly a start-up entity, comprised of two guys and a Macintosh
computer with an external floppy drive. We had a reception area that
was outfitted with a desk, on which sat a broken CRT monitor, and a
phone that didn’t work. A sweater was permanently draped over the
receptionist’s chair, and we would rotate various pieces of fruit on the
reception area desk to lend the appearance that we actually had a
receptionist.

2 ♦ Preface

At this time, there was no Internet, email, or voicemail, and
fax machines were a rarity. My formal training commenced and
ended in my first week on the job, and was largely comprised of
situational role-plays that were designed to expose me to some of the
selling scenarios I would likely encounter.

It immediately became evident that my deficiencies as a
recruiter were as vast as they were profound. While theoretically I
had a degree in science, my degree was in Political Science (ah yes,
the default college major!!), which hardly equipped me to interact
with Engineers and software professionals. In truth – I knew nothing.
I knew nothing about recruiting, nothing about working with
candidates (let alone interviewing them), nothing about the
technology domain, and perhaps most significantly, nothing about
sales.

In my first year in the business I worked extremely hard and
muddled through. Actually, I did okay, primarily because I had two
people monitoring my every move.

But in my second year, I hit the proverbial sophomore slump.
I officially knew enough to be dangerous -- mostly to myself. Deals
that I worked on seemed to regularly find the most innovative ways of
blowing up at the most inopportune times and in the most elaborate
manner.

It got to the point where I likened the business as being similar
to walking through a mine-field – the days you got through unscathed
were the days you made money. But most of my days weren’t
complete without a couple of significant explosions. During this
timeframe I continually reminded myself that “adversity builds
character”, and became convinced that if this were true, I was rapidly
becoming one of the biggest characters in the metropolitan
Washington area.

During my teenage years, my father, E.S. Siker, MD, offered
timeless advice in saying, “Son, always consider the consequences of

Proactive Recruiting In A War For Talent Economy ♦ 3

your actions.” These words had always served as a guiding light,
prompting me to consciously and thoughtfully consider important
decisions in my life. As I confronted my inadequacies as a recruiter, I
couldn’t help but wonder if I had disregarded my father’s advice by
entering a profession without fully understanding what I was getting
myself into.

As the months unfolded, I started to seriously question
whether or not I was in the right business. One day, I met a friend for
lunch who shared a simple observation when he said, “Paul – it’s like
chess – to be successful in this business, you have to think
strategically, execute tactically, and work doable deals.” Sometimes
it’s the seemingly simple pieces of advice that can cause an epiphany,
and for me these words were catalytic.

It was as though someone clicked a switch. As I really
became cognizant about the assignments I was working on, and began
taking the time to bring a value-add to candidate and client
relationships, I started realizing greater levels of success. As I began
to meaningfully appreciate and understand candidate motivators, and
the subtleties of relation-based selling, most of my deals started
closing themselves. My management and utilization of time
improved dramatically. As the recession of the early 1990’s
unfolded, I pursued understanding my client’s business mission with
greater interest and intensity, and despite the recession, repeat
business opportunities presented themselves with increasing
frequency.

While my brother had since departed the firm to go to medical
school, we began adding staff and brought in a third partner, Bill
Joyce. Over the next 7 years we grew net revenues by over 25%
annually and typically achieved a 95% annual repeat-business ratio
with our clients. At the point where we sold the firm, we had 18
tenured recruiters and less than a 5% annual attrition. We had built an
extremely service oriented, boutique search firm, and had crafted a
brand identity that was synonymous with quality.

4 ♦ Preface

In my own experience as a recruiter, I have endured a great
deal of what I refer to as “experiential learning.” As my father-in-
law, Julius Nemeth once advised me: “Good judgment comes from
experience....and experience, well that comes from poor judgment.”

To his point, some of the lessons that I have learned over the
years have been extremely painful, costing me a significant amount of
time and money. Other lessons were true revelations, where
something really wonderful happened because I had the good fortune
to effect a creative solution or approach that meaningfully addressed
an aspect of the recruiting sales puzzle.

Barring an unforeseen economic collapse, we are poised to be
in a candidate-driven marketplace for the foreseeable future. The
demand for talent will continue to increase, which means that
organizations and recruiters will face a significantly greater degree of
competition in engaging, securing, and winning the best possible
talent for existing openings.

In the training programs that I conduct, I regularly cite my
belief that the recruitment sales process is among the most complex
selling cycles within the business world, principally because many
aspects of the recruitment sales process are not particularly or
naturally intuitive. In recognition of this, I have devoted a
tremendous amount of time and energy to exploring how recruiters
can optimize their performance, while minimizing the amount of
negative experiential learning that they must incur; and this is
ultimately the underlying premise of this book, Proactive Recruiting
in a War for Talent Economy.

In this initial edition of the book, I have tried to address what I
perceive to be fundamental truths about various aspects of the
recruitment sales cycle. I have also highlighted specific approaches
and techniques that will positively impact the performance of all
recruiters, regardless of whether they work within an in-house
corporate recruitment function, or work within a staffing agency or
search firm. Furthermore, I have addressed subject matter in a

Proactive Recruiting In A War For Talent Economy ♦ 5

manner that doesn’t merely consider the theoretical, but that presents
tested, real-world, tactical approaches that fundamentally work.

Whether you have been performing as a recruiter for ten years
or ten weeks, and regardless of whether you are an agency or
corporate recruiter, I’m confident that as you read this book, you’ll
uncover a host of useful information and ideas that favorably impact
your own efforts in recruiting. To this end, I wish you all the best.

Paul Siker
Waterford, Virginia

Proactive Recruiting In A War For Talent Economy ♦ 267

About The Author

Embarking on his recruiting career in 1987, Paul Siker
is the Founder and CEO of Advanced Recruiting
Trends, a recruitment training and consulting firm. He
is also Managing Partner of The Artisan Group, an
executive search firm.

Previously, Paul served as an Officer, Partner, and
Senior Executive Search Consultant at The Guild
Corporation, an undisputed leader in the Washington,
D.C. recruitment marketplace. Over the last decade,
The Guild Corporation experienced extensive growth
by building a staff of 18 tenured recruiters and by
achieving a client repeat business ratio in excess of 95
percent.

Following the sale of The Guild Corporation to SystemOne Technical Services
(later acquired by TMP Worldwide), Paul continued to perform in managerial,
leadership, and recruiting roles, and was instrumental in the creation and roll out of
a comprehensive, division-wide recruitment training program.

Concurrent to his managerial responsibilities at Guild, SystemOne, and TMP
Worldwide, Paul successfully executed assignments on a contingent, retained, and
contract placement basis. In his career, he has placed hundreds of professionals into
individual contributor, managerial, and executive officer level positions.

Paul has been a featured speaker at the American Staffing Association (ASA) World
Expo and Convention, the New England Association of Personnel Services
(NEAPS) Conference, and at the National Association of Personnel Services
(NAPS) Annual Conference. Paul is a frequent presenter to firms seeking to
implement recruiting and selling “best practices,” and has regularly been cited in
recruiting and employment articles by “The Washington Post,” “National Business
Employment Weekly,” “Virginia Human Resources Today,” and other trade
publications.

Paul obtained a B.A. in Political Science from Wittenberg University and has also
obtained the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS) CPC (Certified
Personnel Consultant) designation. He resides in Northern Virginia with his wife,
Joni, and his sons, Steven and Scott.

268 ♦ Index

Index

Candidate Compensation .............................................187-210, 219-220
Compensation Analysis Process ....................193-200
Compensation Discussion Flowchart.............202-203
CRAP.............................................................203-207
Five Realities of Compensation.....................207-209
Lowest Acceptable Offer Scenarios ..............201-203
Multiple job offers .........................................206, 219-220
Unrealistic compensation expectations .........203-210

Candidates....................................................................47-50, 115-140, 222-228, 230-239
Candidate Attitudinal Survey .......................236-238
Candidate motivators.....................................115-125, 239
Discovery process..........................................116-117
Fear of the Unknown .....................................222-223, 231, 246-247
Qualifying Candidates ...................................115-140
Presenting to hiring authorities......................47-50
Resignation process .......................................230-233, 238, 239, 241

CAREER Communications Approach.........................117-118, 125-140
Candidate phase.............................................125-128
Attitude phase................................................129-131
Reality phase .................................................131-132
Endorsement phase ........................................134-136
Exploration phase ..........................................132-133
Rapport phase ................................................136-139

Cold calls: ....................................................................77, 86-114
Attention phase ..............................................95-98
Closing phase.................................................101-103
Focused Cold Calls........................................90-92, 98
“How Did You Get My Name” .....................104-105, 184-185
Interpreting Outcomes ...................................109-113
Negative response to cold call .......................105-108
Objective phase .............................................99-101
Phases ............................................................95-103
Purpose ..........................................................89
Unfocused Cold calls.....................................92-93, 108-114

Compelling Voicemail Messages.................................77-85
Computing Technology Industry Association survey..54-56

Proactive Recruiting In A War For Talent Economy ♦ 269

Consultative selling .................................................... 19-34
Actionable relationships................................ 27-28
Human dynamic ............................................ 21, 22, 24
Recruiting sales process ................................ 19-21

Counter-Offers: ........................................................... 186, 225-248
Counter-offers counter measures .................. 233-241, 243, 245-248
Employer's resignation reaction phases ........ 232-233, 238
Understanding the Candidate’s frame of mind

External recruitment approaches ................................. 6-12, 52
Hiring managers/authorities ........................................ 24, 35-51, 232-233 238

Communicating with hiring authorities......... 38-44
Defining and validating job requirements ..... 44-46
Engaging consultatively................................ 44-46
Hiring Manager/Recruiter Communications Chart
Partnering with hiring authorities.................. 35-51
Presenting candidates to hiring authorities.... 48-51
Help "sell" the job ......................................... 46-47
North American Industry Classification System ......... 60
Offer Negotiation, Extension, and Closing ................. 186-224
Compensation Discussion Flowchart ............ 202-203
Compensation Analysis Process ................... 193-200
CRAP ............................................................ 203-207
Five Realities of Compensation .................... 207-209
Lowest Acceptable Offer Scenarios.............. 201-203
Make the first offer the best offer ................. 210-211
Offer closing ................................................. 212-221, 224
Offer extension.............................................. 212-222
Offer negotiation process ............................. 186-210
Recruitment Progression Chart ..................... 211-212
Salary equity and salary compression .......... 209
Trial closings/Verbal offers........................... 212-221, 224
Unrealistic compensation expectations ......... 203-210
Written employment offers .......................... 212-213, 220-222, 224, 240-241
Passive recruitment ..................................................... 6, 7, 9-13, 52-55, 57
Corporate Websites ....................................... 6, 7, 12, 52-54,
Internal Candidate Databases ....................... 6, 11-12
Internet Job Boards ...................................... 6, 9-10, 12, 52-55, 57
Job fairs......................................................... 6, 10-11
Newspaper ads .............................................. 6, 9-10, 12, 52-55, 57

270 ♦ Index

Performance metrics ...................................................186, 258-261
Planning and Performance Metrics ..............................248-264

Buffer time.....................................................254
Compartmentalizing recruitment activities....255-257
Daily activity chart ........................................252-253
Daily planning ...............................................248-257
Daily planning chart ......................................255-257
Email and voicemail ......................................262
Monthly Activity Summary...........................259-260
Priority assessment ........................................250-251
Staying out of reactive mode .........................261-264
Tracking Recruitment Activities....................258
Weekly activity planning...............................250-251, 253-254
Proactive recruitment self-assessment .........................15-17
Recruitment Progression Chart ...................................211-212
References: .................................................................113, 141-172
Candidates rights ...........................................161-162
Daily reference checks...................................154
Disclosure form/notification..........................152-153, 160-161, 164
Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970.................159-162
Legal considerations ......................................159-163
Reference check disclaimer ..........................162
Reference Check Form .................................164-170
Reference check phases .................................162, 163, 164, 170
Reference checks ...........................................141-172
References as leads........................................150-152, 172
Referrals:......................................................................6-9, 30-31, 173-185
Acquisition ...................................................173-185
Direct approach to referral acquisition ..........178-179
From active candidates ..................................177-178
From passive candidates ................................174-176
Indirect approach to referral acquisition ........180
Internal Referral Programs ............................6-9, 182-183
New hire referrals ..........................................183
Potential objections to referral requests.........181-182
When to ask for referrals ...............................176-177
Where did you get my name? ........................104-105, 184-185
Salary equity and salary compression .........................209
Selling the candidate ....................................................145-149