Well, I did it… finally made the decision to go independent. After much soul searching, debating and comparing scenarios it was abundantly clear to me that if I truly wanted to become an independent recruiter and be my own boss, the time is now!
One of the deciding factors was the fact that so many corporations are now outsourcing recruiting and HR. A friend of mine who works with a subsidiary of a major telecom carrier informed me that all of their recruiting will be outsourced within the next few months. Also it seems that more and more of my colleagues, senior recruiters with 15+ years in the business, are working through RPO companies on contract assignments.
I discovered that the demand for high producing recruiters, who are technically savvy, socially networked and can hit the ground running is at the pinnacle right now. In fact some of these RPO companies offer benefits and even pay a portion of the consultant’s insurance. What was I waiting for????
So I gathered my courage, dusted off and upgraded my home office, updated my resume and opened for business. Now it’s time to make the announcement to my social media network so here goes… posting it on my blog, Facebook and LinkedIn pages as well as tweeting the news!
And just to confirm this was the right decision… I have started a contract assignment with Capital One as of August 2nd and absolutely love it! Got the gig in less than a week from a Facebook buddy who I had never met in person. (See… social networking really does work;) Now calls and emails are coming in weekly with at least 3-5 requests for a senior recruiter, which I happily pass along to my network. The moral of this story is… do what you love; stay networked and help as many people as you can. It will change your life and probably someone else’s as well.
Showing posts with label RPO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RPO. Show all posts
Friday, August 20, 2010
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Recruiting from the Cloud - Changing the face of 3rd Party Recruiting
Most of my career as a recruiter has been with smaller, boutique firms… companies who specialize in a specific market, develop relationships with customers and carve out a niche business in the process. About 10 years ago I noticed a changing trend in the marketplace. One of my biggest clients, Sabre, contacted me and informed me that they were moving to a centralized staffing model and I would be working with a third party company, Chimes. This was my introduction to VMS. I wasn’t pleased… it seemed to me that the Great Wall of China had been constructed. Essentially I no longer had direct access to the hiring managers or control over the process.
As time passed, more and more of my larger clients were adopting Vendor Management Systems. Then just when I could spell VMS; the business vertical evolved from software companies licensing their products to large corporations into a birth, if you will, of some of the largest staffing companies such as Volt, Manpower, and Adecco spin off’s of VOPs (Vendor on Premises) , MSPs (Managed Service Providers) or BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing) services.
Now I had to go through one of my competitors to even gain access to a company’s recruiting or HR department. I am no longer displeased… I am hopping mad! The veins in my forehead are throbbing, my eyes are popped out and when I hear for the 20th time in a day from a hiring manager that I now have to contact their new VMS to become an “approved vendor” (even though they don’t want to go that direction… it’s coming down from above), my brain explodes, a sharp pain hits the pit of my stomach and I double over in my chair (and maybe even throw up in my mouth a little bit). Is it worth all my hard work and efforts to get on this merry-go-round? Time to regroup and reevaluate… how am I going to be able to continue to do business today?
Then a few months ago, the veil lifted and I was able to ascend to the clouds… or at least the Recruiting Cloud! I am so excited about this concept of a staffing marketplace that I have become a Program Evangelist and am here to spread the word to all the independent recruiters and boutique agencies out there that there is a way to do business in this new recruiting environment. Don’t give up! Think of an independent marketplace for buying and selling services. A place where independent recruiters can have access to companies with open requisitions who are looking for the best possible candidates to fill these openings... Enter YOLO Talent Exchange.
YOLO Talent Exchange is reinventing and improving the way employers and staffing agencies interact to exchange workforce talent. YOLO Talent Exchange is all about building a better process and adding value for both the Employer and the Staffing Agency, and doing this on a national scale.
Why is YOLO unique? I'm so glad you asked. YOLO Talent Exchange is building a unique marketplace design that will change the staffing industry! We believe this will result in a more efficient, more productive, and much more powerful talent-providing machine. So what do we call it? The “YOLO Talent Exchange”. “The better solution for buying and selling staffing services.” We are most certainly not a VMS.
As time passed, more and more of my larger clients were adopting Vendor Management Systems. Then just when I could spell VMS; the business vertical evolved from software companies licensing their products to large corporations into a birth, if you will, of some of the largest staffing companies such as Volt, Manpower, and Adecco spin off’s of VOPs (Vendor on Premises) , MSPs (Managed Service Providers) or BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing) services.
Now I had to go through one of my competitors to even gain access to a company’s recruiting or HR department. I am no longer displeased… I am hopping mad! The veins in my forehead are throbbing, my eyes are popped out and when I hear for the 20th time in a day from a hiring manager that I now have to contact their new VMS to become an “approved vendor” (even though they don’t want to go that direction… it’s coming down from above), my brain explodes, a sharp pain hits the pit of my stomach and I double over in my chair (and maybe even throw up in my mouth a little bit). Is it worth all my hard work and efforts to get on this merry-go-round? Time to regroup and reevaluate… how am I going to be able to continue to do business today?
Then a few months ago, the veil lifted and I was able to ascend to the clouds… or at least the Recruiting Cloud! I am so excited about this concept of a staffing marketplace that I have become a Program Evangelist and am here to spread the word to all the independent recruiters and boutique agencies out there that there is a way to do business in this new recruiting environment. Don’t give up! Think of an independent marketplace for buying and selling services. A place where independent recruiters can have access to companies with open requisitions who are looking for the best possible candidates to fill these openings... Enter YOLO Talent Exchange.
YOLO Talent Exchange is reinventing and improving the way employers and staffing agencies interact to exchange workforce talent. YOLO Talent Exchange is all about building a better process and adding value for both the Employer and the Staffing Agency, and doing this on a national scale.
Why is YOLO unique? I'm so glad you asked. YOLO Talent Exchange is building a unique marketplace design that will change the staffing industry! We believe this will result in a more efficient, more productive, and much more powerful talent-providing machine. So what do we call it? The “YOLO Talent Exchange”. “The better solution for buying and selling staffing services.” We are most certainly not a VMS.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
RPO, Retained Search or Contingency?
Ere.net had a great article last week... Let's Revolutionize the Standard Recruiting Model. The author, Mark Bielecki, posed some interesting solutions to recruiting in a down turned economy. One possible solution was to have the client's pay the contingency recruiters a lesser fee for the qualified resumes that are submitted or interviews scheduled rather than a larger fee only when a candidate is hired. This solution would allow the recruiter to be compensated for their knowledge and efforts even if circumstances beyond their control prevent a hire from being made. What a concept... I like it!
Having come from a contingency agency background, working for RPO's the past few years has been an absolute breath of fresh air. While contingency searches bring in more money in fees, the percentage of hires per job order is much lower. After all, who hasn't had that contingency search where you worked for weeks to find that purple squirrel the client demanded only to have the hiring manager decide to put the position on hold during the offer stage or decide not to fill it at all?
Here at HumCap, we typically fill every RPO order we receive. Is that because the customer is paying for our services on a time and materials basis and they have more invested in the process? Working within this more consultative model, we are truly partners in the process and are better able to advise, counsel and educate the hiring managers to ensure the success of the hire. I can remember the last time I did contingency searches, coming up with a "contained search" model... part retained and part contingency. This was way before the RPO concept and required the client to pay a partial fee upon initiation of the search and the remainder of the fee when the hire was made. This win/win approach gave me as the recruiter an incentive to fill the position quickly and the client a vested interest in working with me to accomplish our goals.
I still prefer the true partnership of an RPO project or retained search and believe this is the future of the industry but I'm all about being creative and making money... what about you?
Having come from a contingency agency background, working for RPO's the past few years has been an absolute breath of fresh air. While contingency searches bring in more money in fees, the percentage of hires per job order is much lower. After all, who hasn't had that contingency search where you worked for weeks to find that purple squirrel the client demanded only to have the hiring manager decide to put the position on hold during the offer stage or decide not to fill it at all?
Here at HumCap, we typically fill every RPO order we receive. Is that because the customer is paying for our services on a time and materials basis and they have more invested in the process? Working within this more consultative model, we are truly partners in the process and are better able to advise, counsel and educate the hiring managers to ensure the success of the hire. I can remember the last time I did contingency searches, coming up with a "contained search" model... part retained and part contingency. This was way before the RPO concept and required the client to pay a partial fee upon initiation of the search and the remainder of the fee when the hire was made. This win/win approach gave me as the recruiter an incentive to fill the position quickly and the client a vested interest in working with me to accomplish our goals.
I still prefer the true partnership of an RPO project or retained search and believe this is the future of the industry but I'm all about being creative and making money... what about you?
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