StlRecruiting

Christina Tedesco Joins Creatives On Call

Christine Tedesco, who sounds like a female version of me, has joined Creatives on Call, an agency specializing in marketing and digital and all that.

AdSaint has a cool write-up on it, and I for one plan to give her a call.  A marketing, recruiting, small business owning St Louisan!  Someone needs an interview!

The State Of St Louis Staffing

I've been talking to quite a few staffing firms, and business is steady in St Louis.  It's down, no doubt, but there are still jobs to be had.  The problem, as always, seems to be the easy money has dried up, and recruiters have to work harder to pay the bills.

Clients are more cautious about hiring, but that's a trend that has been accelerating for some time.  Job Descriptions still fail to adequately explain what is needed, and far too often the skillset requested is a compilation of older requirements.  Companies big and small post boring descriptions that don't mean anything, and then wonder why they can't get jobseekers to read the position before applying.

In a world where social media is touted as a cure-all, it's shocking that hiring information is still at a premium.  Jobseekers flood to LinkedIn and Facebook and job boards, but I'm not hearing much about it benefitting them.  LinkedIn is a part of the puzzle, but too many people are replacing, "I clicked Apply Now" with "I have a LinkedIn profile." 

Not to blame jobseekers - recruiters spoiled by lots of jobs and posting are realizing that the phone, that accursed tool for talking with people, is still a requirement in staffing.  Email and IM and Twitter are good for communicating process - setting appointments, adding value - but no one is persuading a candidate to take a job through text.  And as for new requirements - being interesting and connected are requirements for getting heard.  Hiring managers are getting more calls, but worse calls.  That's a shame - as making connections when they don't have an open position is the backbone of your long-term financial worth.

Here's where I sound like John Sumser. We're learning that the old ways still work. Personal connections, industry experience, and the recognition that activity drives results on both sides of the equation are back in vogue.  There is business and there are jobs to be had.  Listening to recruiters, I sometimes long for the simple days of having no responsibilites but smiling and dialing.  I'd make a killing in this market.

   

OCI Joins The YouTube Revolution

Okay, this is pretty funny, and if you're a developer, then it's really, really funny.

OCI, a provider of Java and OOD services, and well-known in St Louis for training classes, has started a YouTube Channel to help in instruction.  It's silly, but it's also informative, and it works for the developers looking to learn.

More companies in St Louis need to start looking at ways to connect with candidates, and this is a good start.  Something to keep in mind - if as a company, you are not involved online, someone is going to come along and fill that niche, and then you'll be paying them for access to the candidate pool.

Good job Kristen. 

Structural Negotiation In Recruiting Sales

I'm reading a book on negotiation, and it covers the importance of negotiating with decision makers.  The example given is that of a car dealer, where the salesperson actually has no authority to make the decision on a deal.

If you've ever been annoyed when a car salesman leaves to go speak to the sales manager, it's helpful to remember that the salesperson isn't actually the decision maker.  The process is set up so any negotiations have to be "run up the flag pole for approval."

In the book, the correct negotiating tactic in these situations is to do an end run to the decision maker, which got me thinking about the way that recruiters tend to make an end run around Human Resources to get to the hiring manager.

Clearly, HR isn't the final decision maker on hiring a candidate. The manager is. But the manager is in a weaker negotiating position, as they need the candidate, and thus may be open to price manipulation as they value the candidate for their impact.  Human Resources in this instant is a shield put up to protect the company from high pressure tactics.  The implicit promise of company-wide business, and the threat of gaining no business (or breaking the deal) puts the company in a better overall negotiating position, as Human Resources doesn't feel the personal pressure to hire a particular candidate.

The war between outside recruiters and Human Resources is sometimes seen as unnecessary, but it's clearly a structural barrier put in place by corporations to blunt recruiting salespeople.  Going around HR is a good tactic, but a risky one, as it's flagrantly pitting internal divisions (line managers versus HR) against each other. 

The truly interesting piece is that the success rates of the strategy have little to do with the efficacy of the salesperson, and everything to do with the comparative internal position of the hiring manager versus the human resources employee.  And in a further note of irony, the more successful the strategy, the more likely that the balance of power shifts to human resources over time, as the hiring manager is always in a weaker negotiating position, and thus is open to less economic candidate choices.

The Effect Of The Anheuser-Busch Merger On The St Louis Staffing Market

InBev did it.  They came in and merged with the All American brewery, amidst the beating of breasts and rending of garments from St Louis loyalists.  It's a fact of globalization, but it's a tough blow for a city that keeps losing household names to global mergers.

Do the household names matter?  St Louis has a lot more here than the Fortune 500 headquarters.  We have a stable, loyal, conservative workforce, decent housing prices and transportation, and a reasonably relaxed state and local government.

So we'll be okay, but there will be changes, and one of those changes is the local information technology staffing business.  AB-MSG is the umbrella organization for all of the IT at AB.  They started swallowing up smaller divisions like the brewery, the theme parks, packaging several years ago, and employed at their peak, some 500 contractors to add to their 500-700 employees.  That's a lot of contractors, and the result was a vendor list of the top staffing firms in St Louis.

The problem?  Working with AB is a bit like working for Walmart.  They bring you a lot of revenue, but once you're in, you're terrified of losing their business, and scramble to put your best people on the account.  You've heard of the 80/20 rule?  80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients?  With AB, for several firms in St Louis, 80% might be a bit low.  One Client shops aren't that strange in the recruiting world.  When an account manager has a good client, you want to work with them as much as possible, and there was definitely a ego piece to working with AB.  Contractors liked it, and so did you friends and family.  Anheuser-Busch was the holy grail of employment in St. Louis.  That was true for a long time for both full time employees and contractors.  It wasn't just the two cases of free beer.   

So what happens now? Patrick Thibodeau of Computer World writes about the possible impact of the merger.

The future for Anheuser-Busch's IT may be in outsourcing. In 2005, InBev outsourced its IT functions, including its data center, to IBM and its global communications infrastructure to BT Global Services. More than 160 InBev IT employees were transferred to IBM. InBev followed that move a year later with further consolidations as it moved to shared services.

InBev's decision three years ago to outsource its IT department fits with a general trend of companies deploying IT outsourcing to help prepare for mergers and acquisitions, said Linda Cohen, an analyst at Gartner Inc. "It just makes the deal easier," she said. And unless an acquiring company is experiencing problems with its current outsourcing relationship, merging firms will often extend their outsourcing arrangements to the acquisition. "Once you start outsourcing, you tend to do more of it," she said.

InBev likes to use managed outsourcing, which could mean IBM, Accenture, EDS, or another company coming in and running the show.  Anyone who has been through a merger like that knows it doesn't work out for the staffing firm.  Margins have to be squeezed to accomodate the new managed service, and when margins are tight (which they are), the only recourse is to cut the contractor or drop off the vendor list.

Experienced Recruiter/Branch Manager/Sales Manager Hits St Louis Market

Got a note from an experienced recruiter that he's on the market.  If you want someone to run your office and manage a team, especially if you don't have a team and need to build one he's your guy.

Experienced in Information Technology Staffing, Executive Search, Sales, and Operations.

Drop me a note if you want to know who it is.

I put this up on Twitter too - we'll see which is faster for responses.  To follow me http://twitter.com/smheadhunter

Speaking At The MAPSS Event March 19th

I'll be speaking at the morning meeting of the local St Louis chapter of MAPSS on March 19th.  It's a closed meeting, but if you're a local member in St Louis, it will be worth your time to join us.

The topic will be Utilizing Social Media In Recruiting, but I prefer the title, How Staffing Firms Can Use The Internet To Make Money.  We'll cover websites, blogs, LinkedIn, MySpace, Video, and basic strategies to improve your company's and your personal online profile.

The speech will be focused on third party staffing firms, and it will be an executive overview.  I strongly suggest that local regional managers and public staffing firms come join us.  (ed.If you don't, the people there are going to learn how to eat your lunch).  Seating is limited, and the event is over by Olive and Mason in Creve Coeur.

Hope to see you there.  Cost is $30 for members and $50 for non-members.   Sign up at the MAPSS site.

Account Manager Opening

A local staffing recruiter (to St Louis) has an account manager position to fill.  His description:

Selling staffing services can be very lucrative if you have the good fortune to be in a true performance based compensation plan. Many Account Managers work 55-60 hours a week and barely earn 60k-70k per year. This is the equivalent of earning 40k per year with overtime. Aren't you worth more than that?

In my years of staffing recruiting, I have seen the very best to the very worst of compensation plans. Working for a company with a true performance based compensation plan can be the difference between earning 70k per year or 130k per year without increasing your sales effort. If you are interested in hearing about opportunities to earn substantially more by working smarter and not harder, contact me. I would love to discuss in detail.

If interested - shoot me an e-mail or resume or LinkedIn profile, and I'll pass you along to the recruiter.

Comsys Recruiter: Interview with Stephanie Grimshaw

COMSYS St Louis is the December sponsor for StlRecruiting, and today we publish an interview with Stephanie Grimshaw, a COMSYS recruiter.

What is your specialty at Comsys?  What is your strongest area of expertise?

No specialty; but, being able to match personalities, skills, and candidate requirements to open positions.   Being able to find a win win for everyone.  A candidate might not be the perfect match for one particular opening but through networking and building relationships I can then market that person to another company and hopefully find that perfect match.

Using no marketing speak, why should a candidate choose you and Comsys over another recruiter?
A comprehensive benefits package, opportunity to work for top clients such as Anheuser Busch, Emerson, Express Scripts, Monsanto, Edward Jones, MasterCard just to name a few.  Having a huge support system, attention to detail, along with a great team at the branch office.  We have been here in St. Louis close to 20 years and placing people with some of the largest companies in the St. Louis marketplace.

ies for the various positions.

COMSYS Recruiter Interview: Tera Hockaday

COMSYS is a sponsor of the StlRecruiting Weblog, and so I thought it appropriate to introduce some COMSYS recruiters to you, in the hopes that candidates finding their way to this blog looking for technical or IT recruiters in St Louis will call them and see if they have positions that fit your skills.

What is your specialty at Comsys?  Placement Manager/Recruiting

What is your strongest area of expertise?

Java, SAP, COBOL, Testers, Project Managers. Good knowledge of COMSYS benefits, history of the company and excellent understanding of the market and career growth opportunities. My background includes a good understanding of immigrations including visa transfers and green card processing.

Using no marketing speak, why should a candidate choose you and COMSYS over another recruiter? I have been working for COMSYS for the past 13 years in multiple roles including Human Resources, Consultant Liaison and Recruiting. I have a unique perspective that allows me to understand the candidate's needs and communicate them effectively to COMSYS and the client. My knowledge of the industry and the trends allows me to help job seekers understand the market and increase their marketability.