The following is an e-mail interview Doug Burris of Intronic Solutions, a third party Recruiting firm in Kansas City. Intronic Solutions is very forward thinking, including being current on online employment, publishing jobs as an RSS feed, and a host of other things that I can't tell you about. They are the wave of small, independent recruiting shops throwing their weight around in local markets. And soon they will be blogging. My interview with Doug:
1. Give me a thirty second pitch for Intronic Solution Group. What is
your role at Intronic Solution Group? How long have you been there?
Intronic Solutions Group is an Overland Park, Kansas based consulting firm specializing in the areas of Information Technologies and Engineering. Intronic Solutions Group was founded in 2004, and the team we have assembled has worked together for nearly 9 years at other successful staffing companies. Our unmatched ability to understand our client’s needs and deliver has been the cornerstone of our tremendous success. We have a resounding network of both client contacts and candidates allowing us to deliver both candidates to clients and opportunities to job seekers. Personally, I have been with Intronic Solutions Group since it’s inception. My role is multi-fold. I operate as a Human Resources/Recruiting consultant for our clients both on-site and remote assisting them with best practice recruiting solutions and process improvement. In addition, I act as recruiter, account manager/consultant and assist Grant Gordon with Marketing/Advertising/Public Relations efforts in addition to web site design and blogging activities.
2. Every company says they are different in the way they recruit. We can't all be the best, so what makes you unique to the client. And for this question, you're not allowed to use marketing speak.
Our recruiting focus is based on our relationships with our long term consultants. We utilize our network first to get referral candidates, Network based tools such as LinkedIn second and the internet boards (monster, careerbuilder, dice, hotjobs, etc) last. We RARELY post our positions as we are usually seeking very specific skill sets and experiences and when we do utilize the internet resume databases, we do so as a networking tool. We recognize our competition is using the same tools we are. We put a focus on the candidate, what exactly they are seeking and who they know who may be seeking similar opportunities. We spent an inordinate amount of time with each candidate identifying their drivers for change, motivators for success and best working culture fit before we consider submitting them to a client. We feel these things are more important to the long term success of our consultant in their relationship with our client, than just the keyword skill sets.
3. Give me three reasons why a candidate should call you before calling other recruiters.
1.) We deliver. We form long term personal business relationships with our clients, know exactly what they are seeking and match those needs with our candidates covering personality fit, skill sets and experiences. We aggressively market our candidates to opportunities with companies that we are not currently doing business with and work diligently to find jobs for people, not just people for jobs.
2.) We care about the well being of the candidate. Very few firms have dedicate resource managers, particularly firms of our size. It was priority to have someone on staff whose sole mission is to care for our consultants. From the minute they walk onto a client site, they have a single point of of contact to whom they can ask any questions, raise any concerns or get information. Darci Crow has been in the business 10+ years and is uniquely dedicated to serving our consultants needs be they related to benefits, payroll or last minute help with anniversary gift suggestions. Unlike most of our competition, we also provide monetary service awards, and other unique perks for our consultants and recruiters which helps them feel like Intronic Solutions is a ‘home’ while in the consulting/contracting space.
3.) Our team has been together for 9+ years with no turnover, all the time based in the Kansas City Area. We know the culture, the environment and the opportunities with most of the employers in the area. We have a wide and deep network of contacts in many of these organizations and can speak with authority on the pros and cons of each organization with our candidates to ensure the best fit for their career goals.
4. What would you like to see improved in the way Intronic does business in the next year?
I would like to expand into other regional markets such as St. Louis, MO, Wichita, KS, Omaha, NE and Des Moines, IA in order to present more opportunities to our consultants and expand our recruiting base in order to provide opportunities in Kansas City to those interested in relocating to our hometown. Our goal for next year is to have a 100% increase in our Engineering division through the formation of solid relationships with both candidates and clients.
5. Do you currently read Blogs or use any of the new Web 2.0 tools?
I am an avid Blog reader. Recruiting.com, ERE, KCRecruiting.com, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, recruiting animal, recruiting fly, six degrees, jim stroud, exceler8ion, Heather Hamilton, etc. We are utilizing LinkedIn and have looked into Jobster. We see www.intronicsolutions.com as entry level web 2.0 with our RSS feeds of our open positions and hot jobs and want to expand this into a blog for our consultants. We want to get more aggressive with posting positions and linking our feed to the various IT user groups.
6. Have you seen any tools or software that make the job of the recruiter easier, or is it the same old broken system running faster?
I do not think there is any recruiting silver bullet out there. All of the tools I have seen just make the networking a bit easier or more comfortable for those who do not want to pick up the phone. The internet is a wonderful tool for exchanging ideas and networking and I think the myspace/facebook phenomenon is interesting. However, in recruiting it is still about developing real relationships between candidate, agency and client. That relationship will never be very deep unless you make a personal connection and understand what all parties are truly interested in pursuing. Corporations who are trying to take the human element out of recruiting by utilizing a strictly automated system are doing themselves no favors.
7. What’s a better sourcing strategy – the internet, the telephone, or a mixture?
A mixture. Let’s face it, a great percentage of candidates post their resumes on the net just to see if they get a bite. They end up getting hammered by recruiters and pull their resume down due to being overwhelmed by phone calls and emails. We use the internet to mine candidates and to supplement our network recruiting strategy. The internet is too big a piece of recruiting to ignore, however, it should not be utilized as your sole source of candidate generation.
8. The reputation for recruiters falls somewhere between realtors and car salesman. Is that the fault of industry practices or do jobseekers have the wrong expectations?
I blame both. Some recruiters are more aggressive than others and can offend some “passive” candidates or administrators/receptionists/switchboard operators with their tactics. However, by and large recruiters are just seeking to offer people new opportunities. There is an old saying in our business “You are either a client or a target” Companies should not be surprised or offended if they are getting “targeted” by recruiters. It is up to the individual organizations to ensure their employees are challenged, satisfied and not interested in listening to other opportunities when called. My personal philosophy, as I have been on the receiving end of the headhunting call is: When opportunity knocks, open the door and listen to the pitch. No one is forced to buy the opportunity. Give the recruiter 30 seconds and decide if you are interested in the opportunity and feel comfortable with the recruiter. If you are not, tell the recruiter you are not interested and either invite them to keep you in their database or not to call again. At Intronic Solutions, we work hard to develop a relationship with the candidate before we discuss specific opportunities. We are in the relationship business knowing those personal connections pay much more than the finders fees.
9. If you were starting a job as a headhunter today, is there anything you would do differently?
Develop an application on which people can easily upload video files to be shared with internet users around the world and call it “YouTube”. Honestly, I cannot imagine doing things much differently. Our team has been recruiting long enough we remember doing it before the internet and job boards were what they are today. I would put a strong focus on networking, making personal connections and relying on relationships and not tools.
10. Is there a Talent War going on in Kansas City, or is this just the cycle of news stories when unemployment is low?
The Talent War we have been hearing so much about is definitely being waged in Kansas City. Our clients share with us they are struggling to find talent in all areas of their companies and they are not sure what to do. We have been told, by virtually all of our clients they would hire more talent today if they could find the talent they were seeking. It is not a matter of budget or lack of projects to staff. The talent is just not available and is getting more expensive by the minute. The firms and companies that will prevail are those with a strong foundation that move quickly to acquire the talent available. We feel poised to serve our clients due to our strong network of relationships, not just resumes.
11. How is Kansas City different than other markets for recruiting?
Kansas City has Midwestern values at it’s core. Our market is not as reactive as the coasts in regards to the swings of staffing and technology and our corporations are fiscally conservative. It is a big small town and it is rare to speak with a candidate who does not know someone at the client you are discussing.
12. List two trends affecting corporate recruiting departments.
Understaffed and too reliant on “post it and they will come” mentalities. For the most part, corporate recruiters are responsible for large client groups and are handling both internal and external recruiting/screening/hiring as well as job postings, client management at some companies employee relations, benefits and compensation. They are simply spread too thin to effectively market their opportunities, source, screen, recruit, interview and hire the best talent. I have recently spoken with recruiters at three of Kansas City’s largest and most respected employers. They are each working 50+ and in one company 70+ IT or Engineering positions. There is no way possible to effectively recruit for this “load”. They are relying simply on posting positions online, screening for keywords and baseline experience and forwarding to the hiring managers. They have no time for sourcing, branding, marketing or relationship building, the tenets of world class recruiting. The best corporate recruiters are allowed the opportunity to act as agency “headhunters”. Unfortunately, reliance on the job posting boards has created a administrative staffing mentality instead of a recruiting mindset.
13. Anything you want to add? Any special promotions, press or referral plans you want to talk about?
-- Q3 was our most active quarter to date for philanthropic projects in Kansas City. We contributed or participated to several charities and organizations including : • American Breast Cancer Foundation American Council of the Blind Big Brothers Big Sisters of Topeka Crawl for Cancer The Family Conservancy Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation - Race for the Cure United Way -- Some key Q3 2006 updates for our company -- We exceeded our 2006 delivery and sales goals in October. We have now had high double-digit growth for 6 straight quarters. -- Our company has recently been listed on the Best Workplaces for Commuters.
