Recruiting Bloggers.com

LinkedIn Discussion for Sales Managers: What Do You Do When HR Can’t Find the Hunters You Need?

by Peggy McKee

I recently posted this question on LinkedIn:

Sales Managers:  What do you do when your HR group isn’t able to identify the hunters you need?

With the incredible costs due to unfilled positions (customers going with the competition, RFPs not completed and generally missed sales opportunities), what do you (the sales manager) do to help HR see the need to use an outside source? I have 2 managers right now with open jobs, no real candidates in the pipeline and HR says that they want to fill the job internally.

I got some really great answers from sales managers, business owners, recruiters, and HR people from around the country, and I thought the gist of the discussion was worth posting here for you.

The general consensus seems to be that HR departments are difficult to work with on a candidate search because (1) there are often corporate politics coming into play, (2) HR doesn’t have the expertise to handle finding specialized sales professionals, and (3) HR doesn’t understand the true cost of a vacant position (and might not be all that interested).   Especially if HR is working with a limited budget, they’re not going to be interested in using an outside recruiting source–because they don’t grasp the true cost of a vacant position to the company as a whole.  So, they should stick to the onboarding portion of bringing in a new candidate.

More than a few say that sales managers should just bypass HR entirely–because sales and marketing departments are much more equipped to recruit than HR departments, much more versed in what it is that they need in a new sales rep, and should already have an extensive network of sales reps to mine for their needs.  (In some cases, these were also their arguments for not using a third-party recruiter.)  Most importantly, if the sales manager is going to be held responsible for making the numbers, he or she shouldn’t have to rely on another department to that extent for their team’s success.

My position is, of course, that sales managers make much more productive use of their time by working with the team they have in place to make the sales, and leaving the candidate search to a recruiter.  The more money a manager generates in a normal cycle, the more it costs to use that time finding a new sales rep.  And if recruiting isn’t your business, you’re almost never going to have access to the kind of candidate pool a recruiter has, no matter how extensive your professional network is–which means you’ll be missing out on some very high-caliber talent.  If the sales manager (or the HR department) has to run ads to find talent, that becomes a costly gamble which can easily bring you no results from your efforts.  A good recruiting team saves time and money, while increasing productivity and sales force effectiveness.

What do you think?  Let me know in the comments below.

How RiseSmart Is Disrupting Outplacement

By Richard Becker 

When RiseSmart first entered the recruiting industry in 2008, it set its sights on a specific niche. One year later, RiseSmart shifted its business model to include outplacement. The difference between the two places presents a case study in disruptive business. 

RiseSmart is a provider of Web-enabled outplacement and job search services. The former helps laid-off employees find jobs faster. The latter helps professionals find jobs in the $100k market. 

"Our initial thought was that we would need to make significant traction with a B2C offering in order to build interest in the B2B solution," says Sanjay Sathe, founder and CEO of RiseSmart. "But the moment we introduced Transition Concierge in the second half of last year ... we had an extraordinary amount of interest, and were signing up Fortune 500 companies almost immediately." 

Social media and HR - arch enemies or vital partners?

By Matt Alder 

(This article was originally published on the UK based HR site Changeboard)

The recent ban by Portsmouth City Council on their employees accessing social media sites such as Facebook while at work, has provoked much debate in other companies and organisations.

I suspect that a large number of HR departments up and down the country are looking at the issue in more detail than ever. Retail magnet Theo Paphitus encapsulated the social media detractor’s point of view very well when he said this in a recent interview: “At Ryman, we had to knock this problem on the head about a year ago, when it became obvious that too much staff time was being eaten up by this nonsense”.

Hiring Medical Sales Reps? First–Review Your Current Team

By:  Peggy McKee

Are you hiring sales reps for medical sales, laboratory sales, clinical diagnostics, imaging sales, medical device sales, biotech sales, pathology sales, surgical supplies sales, hospital equipment sales, pharmaceutical sales, or other healthcare sales?  

Your first step should be to review your current team:  What works in your sales reps and what doesn’t?  Then you can make a hiring decision that’s based on past results of what works in your company and be more confident in your choice.

Need to Skip Work? Then You Need to get Some Kids Quick!

Blog Post by Michael Glenn (via) Glennlist.com

I used to work with this guy that would leave early on Fridays. He was complete a slacker. While the rest of busted our humps to get resumes to clients, he’d belly up to the bar across the street. His excuse? Kids! And, he had a gaggle of them too.

Businesses lose $1.4 Billion Dollars annually to employee absenteeism due to childcare problems.

Now that I have a kid and one on the way, I get a free hall pass. Woohoo!

Don't Hire Senior People for Junior Jobs

Lance Haun, Human Resources Blogger

Lance on Linkedin, lancehaun.com, YourHRGuy.com, HRMToday.com, Twitter

LISTEN HERE

1pm: Maureen Sharib and the Telephone Sourcing Show

CLIPS: HR Types, Gen Y Quiz

Twitter
marenhogan: listening to @animal, hoping they can't hear me eating Archer Farms chips

thelance: @Animal Thanks, that was fun. I didn't even know we had hit the hour yet. I'll try to come up with sexier answers the next go around.

HRMToday.com

Lance Haun, started HRMToday.com. TOPIC: Common HR issues NOT career issues. PARTICIPATION OPEN to HR pros.

Lance impressed me last week with the freewheeling power of his comments on JibberJobber.com. He has the angry passion necessary to make a blog interesting.

Success Follows Happy Employees

Herb Kelleher, the CEO says:

‘You have to treat your employees like customers. … When you treat them right, then they will treat your outside customers right. That has been a powerful competitive weapon for us.’

‘We’ve never had layoffs. …We could have made more money if we furloughed people. But we don’t do that. And we honor them constantly. Our people know that if they are sick, we will take care of them. If there are occasions or grief or joy, we will be there with them. They know that we value them as people, not just cogs in a machine.'

Source: John Hollon, Workforce

Talent-On-Demand Planning

1. Companies should use internal development programs to produce most of the talent they need.

2. Forecasts of talent needs may be inflated. So don't spend tons of money putting all candidates through a massive management training program. Use narrowly focused trainings for relevant groups of employees.

3. Get more return on your training by sharing the cost with employees.

4. Give the people you train a reason to stay with the firm.

Source: Harvard Business Online