Just found this great article by Lou Adler about a technical recruiter scorecard and decided to look in the mirror a bit closer and see how I rank in his evaluation. I’ve listed the main points as well as the evaluation criteria and a self evaluation of how I see myself in the rankings.
You can find the whole article and more here:
http://www.adlerconcepts.com/resources/column/newsletter/the_passive_candidate_recruite.php
Grading Rubric:
Level 1: Has no ability whatsoever, or doesn’t want to do it under any circumstance.
Level 2: Has some ability, but needs urging or hasn’t done it, but has the potential to learn.
Level 3: Has strong ability, has proven results, and is self-motivated to do it consistently.
Level 4: Has very strong ability with proven results and does it faster or does a lot more of it. Often trains others.
Level 5: Is one of the best in the business in this area. So good, in fact, is sought out to train others.
(Lou claims that 25 is average… let’s see if I’m just an average technical recruiter…)
Critical Technical recruiter Competencies and Skills
The following ten factors represent the abilities a technical recruiter needs to possess to be able to recruit passive candidates for most corporate positions from experienced staff to senior manager. Our definition of a passive candidate is one who is not looking on job boards, so you need to reach out with a phone call or message to attract the person. Using the 1-5 scale described above, rank yourself on each of these factors. (Note: each topic is linked to a few articles in our resource library.)
Remark: I challenge the notion of a passive candidate. If I search a job board a year back, is the candidate I find in a perm job passive or active just because they left a resume on monster. On the flip side, I can find candidates of Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn as well as on the internet on message boards, in newsgroups, and message forums. Which candidates are really passive and which are really active? I think every candidate is active if you have a better opportunity for them.
1. Knowledge of Real Job Needs. Good technical recruiters need to clearly understanding the actual work that needs to be performed, rather than rely on skills and experience to assess competency. With this knowledge technical recruiters can determine how strong the person is based on what they’ve accomplished. They’re also better able to defend their candidates from weak interviewers, and as a result, make more placements.
Self Evaluation: This is one of my trademarks. I have to know what the person will be doing before I recruit for the position. Just picking keywords out of a job description and plugging them into a search to find a random resume doesn’t cut it. From my very first job as a technical recruiter I have always asked “what does this guy do every day?”. By understanding what a candidate does, I am able to source more accurately and pinpoint the right skills for the job without having all the keywords in the resume.
Grade: I give myself a 5 on this point.
2. Partner with Hiring Manager Clients. Technical recruiters who are partners have more influence in the final decision, get ample time to discuss real job needs, and are seen as advisors and coaches to the hiring team. In addition, 100% of their candidates are seen without hesitation. Partners send in the fewest number of candidates per hire. Technical recruiters who just submit resumes waiting for the manager to decide to see the person would rank no higher than Level 2 on this factor.
Self Evaluation: This particular point is hard to apply to agency technical recruiters working in a technical recruiter/sales model because the technical recruiters rarely get to speak with the hiring manager. It would be unfair to rank all agency technical recruiters who do not do this a 1 because they have not had an opportunity and could probably do a very good job. When I worked for LoganBritton, I had direct access to the hiring manager. The feedback was fast and it took only 3 resumes to make a hire. This partner approach is definitely more effective then shot-gunning resume to the hiring manager.
Grade: So am I shirking responsibility here? No, I believe in the partner approach 100%. In a corporate setting this is exactly the approach I would take and the approach I believe all account manger should take with their managers. Unfortunately, I have not had much experience building this partnership with hiring managers because I have always worked in the technical recruiter/ sales split. I have built some very strong relationships with account managers that have contributed to my success. Does that count?
I’ll give myself a modified 3( Has ability and desire, but not much experience)
3. Counselor to Candidates. Top candidates look to the technical recruiter as someone who understands the job, understands the market, and someone who can provide career counseling and advice. The ability to guide and counsel candidates into making the right choice is a critical skill. While it must be used with caution and not abused, those who are true counselors make more placements, and those who aren’t see their best candidates take other offers.
Self Evaluation: I love this point because I believe in this lies the essence of why you would want to recruit in the first place. At Total Tech I was knows for an uncanny ability to place people who had no chance. I loved it. This point also plays back to point 2 about becoming a partner; you are a partner with the candidate as much as you are a partner with the client. If their resume is not that great gently let them know how it could be improved. If they are asking for rates that are vastly under market and you have a big margin, give them a raise. (I know, some recruiting managers are raising their eyebrows in shock right now, but I think squeezing candidates when you are making a killing is unethical. Prove me wrong. ).
Level with the candidate. The candidate will find out eventually if you were forthright with him or not and whichever way your interaction went your relationship will go the same way. Ethics dictate how much you can disclose to the candidate about the environment, managers, and salary expectations, but your story should line up with the truth as closely as ethically possible to serve both your client and your candidate fairly.
Grade: I rate myself a 4 on this point. I’d take the 5 but I have more to learn.
4. Ability to Cold Call. The future of recruiting will largely involve cold calling people found on some social network site or through some Boolean searching of resume databases. Call reluctance is the bane of most corporate technical recruiters, preventing them from naturally picking up the phone and conversing with strangers. If a technical recruiter can’t comfortably make dozens of cold calls every day, the person won’t be able to ever recruit passive candidates on a consistent basis.
Self Evaluation: Ability to cold call any name in any company at any time. One critical caveat that this point does not address is telephone name sourcing. On one hand, I have been very successful using just databases and job boards to source. On the other hand, I know that there is more talent out there that is not on the internet that no social network or job board will lead me to.
Grading: By Lou’s grading rubric I’m a 5 on this scale, but without the telephone name sourcing, I can only give myself a 3. If your technical recruiters lose the internet tomorrow and can never have it again, how effective will they be? I’ll call Maureen Sharib ;-).
5. Ability to Obtain High-Quality Referrals. While cold calling passive candidates is a critical skill, converting these people into candidates and getting 2-3 great referrals from each one is how you maximize technical recruiter performance. Networking will be the primary means to find the best people in the future, and those that know how to convert a cold phone screen into a hot list of great referrals will make the most and best placements.
Self Evaluation: I agree this is a critical skill, but how you come by those referrals is an interesting question. Obviously every phone call involved the question” Do you work with anyone who can do this/ Do you know anyone/ Can you recommend someone from your competitor?” However, how forcefully do you ask for referrals?
Tactfully and not forcefully. Try not to sound like you are just using the candidate for the referral. Offer something to them. Scott Love suggests offering the candidate a free salary evaluation if the candidate is ever searching for a job. This way you have given something to the candidate and the next time you call, he will not remember you as that used car type, but the helpful technical recruiter who really cares. Have a better way? I’d love to hear it.
Grading: Since 20% of my candidates working for me are referrals and some of the toughest placements I’ve made have been referrals, I’ll give myself a 3, because I should have more, and there is room to improve.
6. Effectively Use Boolean Strings and Search Engines. Of all of these factors, this is perhaps the easiest to master, yet we still see some technical recruiters who get flustered by the “ANDs,” “ORs,” “NOTs,” and “NEARs.” Being able to use advanced Boolean operators is an important skill, whether you’re using Google or searching a resume database. Using specialty keywords and terms that self-rank the good resumes from the bad is the next trick that few technical recruiters even know about. So even if you’re great a Boolean search, but don’t know how to separate the good from the bad resumes, you deserve no more than a Level 3.5 ranking on this factor.
Self Evaluation: Googling is great. Boolean is great too. But if you don’t understand what the candidate does and do not read the resume this point is effectively useless. Sometimes I don’t use Boolean on purpose because no matter how big or specific your search is you will be limiting your search. When you just start out relying on Boolean logic works wonders, but if you depend on Boolean as a crutch and cannot source a good resume with a few keywords I see this a s a handicap.
Grading: 5. Add reading resumes to using Boolean. Sadly, not all technical recruiters know what a candidate does, nor care.
7. Search Engine Marketing Ability. Narrowcasting and candidate segmentation is the buzz. Basically this means placing ads where they can be found by someone using a search engine. Rank yourself high on this factor even if you don’t know how to conduct search engine optimization techniques yourself, but are getting others to do it for you. Rank yourself low if you don’t know what Web 2.0 is all about or you don’t know how to use pay-per-click, aggregators, and behavioral marketing techniques.
Self Evaluation: How about having your won web sties and blogs optimized for specific keywords that show up high on search engines like Google, Yahoo! And MSN? How about using optimizing job description and knowing what distribution sites like Indeed and Craigslist rank higher in search results then any random keyword optimization? I would add that you should be blogging, social networking, and widely participating in the internet community to get a 5 on this point. I do all of this.
Ask yourself:
1. Do you know what SEO stands for?
2. Have you ever optimized a web site?
3. How about a copy for a website?
4. Do you know what meta tags are?
5. What is PR?
6. How does the PR algorithm work?
7. How do search engines work?
8. What is an Index?
9. What is a searchbot?
10. What is a Web Crawler?
Grading: 5. Need an explanation? Shoot me an email.
8. Applicant Control. If a cold-called passive candidate ever says to you they’re not interested in a job, you rank low on this factor. If you’re the one who determines if you’re interested in the cold-called passive candidate, you have strong applicant control. Applicant control is a core skill for passive candidate recruiting. From the first call to the close, applicant control allows the technical recruiter to lead the conversation, negotiate offers based on career moves instead of compensation, get more referrals, and prevent counter-offers.
Self Evaluation: Applicant control is a myth. The phrase “If a cold-called passive candidate ever says to you they’re not interested in a job, you rank low on this factor.” Is so arrogant it makes me gag. If shoving a job down someone’s throat makes you a good technical recruiter, then YOU rank low on my recruiting ethics scale.
I’m not going to give myself a grade on this because over the years I haven’t lost many candidates to counter offers and competiton. And the ones I closed I was not controlling. There are certain issues that you need to know when you speak to a candidate such as why they are interested, how much money they make, does their spouse(if they have one) support their move, and their general personality and drive. If you have a good conversation with someone and level with them on a personal and professional level they will level with you about other opportunities, their fears, and their hesitations about moving.
I work in contracting where I sometimes have to educate people that have worked perm all their lives about what it means to be a consultant:
1. What it means to be expandable.
2. What it means to have no job security.
3. What it means to have no insurance.
4. What it means to negotiate your rate.
5. What it means not to get worked over by an agency
6. What it means not to give away your reference without an interview
Grading: Boycotted.
9. Defend Your Candidate from Weak Interviewers. Most managers aren’t very good at interviewing. Some overvalue technical competency, some overvalue their intuition, and some overvalue the candidate’s presentation. Technical recruiters need to be better interviewers than their clients in order to overcome these problems. The key here is to present detailed evidence and facts to prove that your candidate can perform the job at least at a Level 3 (same scale as above). This is often in a written report or by leading the formal debriefing process, or leading a panel interview. Having the ability to interview accurately is one half of this factor; the other half is using it to prevent good candidates from getting inadvertently excluded.
Self Evaluation: Doesn’t apply in the Sales/ Recruiting model. Obviously an important skill for whoever speaks with the manager; often a skill that is completely missing.
Grading: n/a
10. Recruit and Close in a Very Competitive Marketplace. The best people are getting multiple offers and counter-offers. Technical recruiters must be in a position to overcome whatever challenges they’re facing to keep their candidates interested and close the deal. Rather than money the technical recruiter needs to position the move early on as more of a career opportunity than comp increase. Overcoming objections, use of a formal multi-step closing process, coordinating the offer process with the client, negotiating compensation, and acting as a career counselor to the candidate are all aspects of strong passive candidate recruiting. If you prevent early opt-outs and close 80-90% of candidates you’re interested in on standard comp terms, you rank high on this factor.
Self Evaluation: If you build a good relationship with your candidate you will close more often in the competitive marketplace.
Grading: I haven’t had one offer turned down in the last year so I’ll generously give myself a 4 to leave room for improvement. 
Overall Performance: 32/40(took out the boycotted and N/A question)
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