Managing the salary expectations of your client…

Part of a good account manager’s job is to manage the salary expectations their clients have when it comes to making a hiring decision.  Being able to properly educate your clients on what the fair market value is for a certain skill set comes with a certain level of expertise in the staffing industry.  Ultimately, properly advising your clients that their salary expectations may be inaccurate will likely set the expectations of your clients before the search for candidates has even begun.

A very common staffing scenario is when an employee has grown into a unique role and leaves for another opportunity.  It is a fair assumption that most of the time this employee is moving on because he or she finds another opportunity that is going to pay them a much better rate.  This causes your client to replace this person however they usually want to do it at the salary level the former employee was at.

Does it make sense that you would be able to find someone at the same salary when that salary level was not enough to hold on to that employee?  NO!!

However, this is a frequent scenario with permanent placements and usually does not work out well for both parties.  A client in this case needs to realize that when they go out to the market for this new employee, they are likely going to have to pay more then they were.  This is somewhere where the account manager can help their clients.

If this scenario is not addressed before the position is recruited, how can you deal with it during your search?

If you run into this scenario after you have already started speaking with candidates you have to communicate your challenges to the client.  You should present them with some CVs of candidates you have spoken to and express their salary expectations to your client.  If you can find a candidate who is weaker then your other candidates, but is within the salary range of your client, you should also present this candidate but convey to your client that this is what their salary expectations will get them in the current market.

Use the feedback you get and tailor your future searches to match that feedback moving forward.  There may come a point where the client is unwilling to change both their salary expectations as well as the requirements.  If the two do not match, it may be in the best interest of the staffing firm to walk away from that particular order instead of burning their cycles on unclose able business.

Presenting to the client: How tough is it?

In the recruiting business, getting a position that needs to be filled can be one of the most challenging pieces of the puzzle, but not always.  My office spent a few hours today discussing how we are going to continue responding to our Government bids moving forward – which has gotten me thinking that this is also one of the biggest pieces to the overall puzzle.

While the Government is unique in how they want to be presented with candidates, the ability to understand the presentation required in order to please your client is a key step to the whole process.  Often times, simply sending in a quick note about your candidate and a copy of their resume is not enough for your client, so you need a bit more.

As mentioned before, I do recruit some positions for partners of ours (System Integrators) and each partner has their own unique presentation style.  While the concept is the same for each, there is always a bit of difference from firm to firm.  Understanding these differences was ultimately the goal of my meeting today and we wanted to set up some best practices moving forward.

I wonder if other recruiters (ones who are hopefully reading this) go through similar exercises with their firms.  Is it common practice for staffing agencies to have templates and guidelines for how to deal with candidate presentations?  How about guidelines/expectations that they need to convey to their candidates?

Since my only tenure in the recruiting business has been with the same firm (which is not a bad thing) I have only been exposed to ‘our’ way of doing things and can only get bits and pieces of outside information on how other firms proceed with presentations.  I am asking for enlightenment, so please share!

Who is the client???

I am sure people often wonder when they are working with a recruiter why they can not be told who the client is right off the bat.  And there are several reasons for this so let me briefly mention a few.

 

PROTECT THE CLIENT

 

Recruiters often keep the client secret to protect their clients from competitors.  While it often is not an individuals intention to reveal the client to competing agencies, this can quite simply happen through a harmless conversation about what other opportunities your presently working on.

 

DECREASE YOUR CLIENTS FLOW

 

The client is kept secret in many case not because there is a lack of trust but rather because if the recruiter told everyone who their client was, the candidates that were screened out would more then likely go and apply directly to the client.  Clients for recruiting agencies often engage their services because they are swamped by a high  volume of resumes and only want to see qualified candidates, or they lack the process to effectively source and screen all the applications they find.  If we turned more traffic to our clients own processes, we would likely not be doing them any favours.

 

SO CANDIDATES DO NOT APPLY DIRECTLY

 

Often times a candidate thinks that if they apply on their own, it will increase their odds of getting hired into the client.  And let me be the first to say that this is normally very far from the truth.  First of all, client hiring practices are generally slower then an agencies because the agency deals with hiring mangers rather then going through the HR process.  Secondly, the agency will no longer be able to represent you as you have now put yourself into their system and the client can stake ownership on your application.  Thirdly, you will have ruined your relationship with the recruiter.

 

 

I think ruining your relationship with the recruiter is one of the most detrimental aspects of any relationship between a recruiter and any candidate.  Often times I have personally felt that when I told someone who my client was and then they applied on their own – that they broke the trust I had in them.  I personally look at this situation as my candidate would not have been turned on to that opportunity without my help and then they have turned around and ruined any chance I have of working with them and my client. 

 

While not every opportunity works out for every candidate that is represented, agencies often work with industry leading clients on multiple positions.  While your current opportunity might not have worked out for you, your recruiter might be able to work with you and that client again in the near future.  Breaking that trust and relationship will likely lead to a recruiter passing over your resume next time they are searching for a similar position.