Nov / Dec 2011: In this issue...

Get the Most from Your Third Party Recruiter

By Ron Torch, CEO & Chief Marketing Officer - Torch Group Inc.

Working with an external or third party recruiter requires teamwork. It takes a combined effort and partnership to hire the best employees and build solid companies. Once you make the decision to partner with, and invest in a third party recruiter, we believe you should get the most from your investment.

With this in mind, Torch Group has some suggestions on how to get the most from your partnership to ensure a smooth, effective and efficient hiring process:

Let your recruiting firm know as soon as possible that you are adding headcount. A recruiter needs enough time to thoroughly complete their process in order for you to get the best possible hire. Don't ask the recruiter to make shortcuts. A thorough customized search strategy requires 60-90 days.

Know the exact type of person you are looking to hire so recruiters don't present unqualified candidates. Research shows that 75% of hiring managers don't' know what they are looking for when hiring. Take some time before contacting a recruiter to think about what you want including years and type of experience as well as competencies required to be successful in this position. Also, list the soft skills that will ensure a cultural fit. Today, culture-fitting a candidate has become an essential part of the interview and selection process.

Respond to the qualified resumes presented to you. Candidates are an impatient lot. They are real people waiting to hear whether you are planning to move forward with the interviewing process. If you wait too long between receiving the resume and scheduling the interview, a candidate's interest grows cold. Also, consider this fact…your top candidate might be interviewing and waiting for an offer from one of your competitors!

Have your interviewing team in place. Prior to interviewing a candidate, be sure to prepare your interviewing team so they can perform a top notch job with all candidate-facing activities. This means they should have done their homework and reviewed the candidate's resume, social media presence, etc. before the scheduled interview. In addition, formulate questions that you plan to ask the candidate well in advance. Remember to coordinate these questions with your interview team so as not to duplicate the same questions. The better you interview, the better the candidate you will hire.

Provide timely post-interview feedback. Let your recruiter know how well the initial interview went. Inform your recruiter if you want to move forward in the interview process with a particular candidate or shut it down and be specific with your feedback. Recruiters take your information and act on it so as not to waste your time by presenting unqualified candidates. Not providing an immediate answer stalls the process and loses candidates but it can also have a negative impact on your employer brand.

Communication is critical. Whether the position, start date, requirements, etc. have changed, it's important to keep your recruiter informed. Just as important, you need to establish a single point of contact at your firm. This will avoid misinformation, multiple instructions and contradictions. We recommend that you pre-schedule a weekly or bi-weekly meeting throughout the selection process to keep all parties abreast of the latest information.

Work together with your recruiter to close your candidate of choice. Originally, the transaction started between the recruiter and the candidate. A competent recruiter will have gained the trust of the candidate and therefore, gained insight to the candidate's real motivation behind changing jobs as well as any compensation issues. Use this relationship and the information gleaned to close the candidate.

Hopefully these guidelines will build a bridge of understanding of how to best work with a third party recruiter. The better we understand each other's needs and requirements, the most efficient and effective all parties will be in getting the job done.

ABOUT TORCH GROUP, INC.

For more information about Torch Group, visit us at www.torchgroup.com.

Ronald S. Torch
President & CEO
Torch Group, Inc.
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