I get asked this question a
lot by my customers when they come to me for my phone sourcing services -
especially by my new customers.
The Short Answer: It depends.
The Long Answer: It depends
on a lot of things but the biggest qualifiers are what and where the job is.
If the job is one in which
there is a plentiful supply of talent in the local market (relocation STILL
being a big issue in recruiting today – most of my customers prefer not to do it!)
and the job itself is one in which there is a healthy employee turnover rate (4-5
years) usually between 35 and 50
telephone sourced names will effect one immediate hire.
Why do I put those words in
italics?
I say usually because there is no magic bullet in recruiting and several
factors play into this formula:
-The skill of the recruiter
in contacting and “selling” a job to a person who really isn’t looking for a
job in the first place and can truly be considered the “passive” candidate.”*
-If we’re looking in some of
the very challenging arenas – like oral and written communication skills in the
IT space (the most in-demand IT skill!), biotech, pharma and military
clearance-required defense sector jobs - three and four and five times my
stated estimate may be required! In
those cases sometimes it’s best to ask your phone sourcer to do the project in
phases to keep your costs contained and order more as you need them.
Understand, though that there are more costs to the phone sourcer each
time he restarts your jobs so there may be additional costs (and longer time to
your project) added for those expenses.
-If the compensation
(including benefits) doesn’t coincide with industry averages usually no amount
of recruiter skill or company reputation is sufficient to overcome this
fly-in-the-ointment that spoils the effort.
-If the target companies from
which the candidates are sourced aren’t chosen carefully for both competitive and culture match to the hiring company’s
fit that 35-50 estimate will very well skew off the graph. However, if the target companies are chosen
carefully and correctly the caliber of candidates that emerges is usually so
high that the “first draft” of candidate elimination necessary in so many applicant-tracking
systems is unnecessary. This is the
great benefit in being the chooser and
not the chosen in recruiting.
-If the opportunity is a
lateral or an “up” move is an issue that impacts the number of names you’ll
need but a skilled recruiter understands the variables on both and can make
sense of lateral moves many times when a less-seasoned recruiter may miss the
opportunity.
Surprisingly, this formula
for phone-sourced names has remained pretty much unchanged over the years even as
the shiny new balls have come and gone, losing their lusters along the way.
Sure, I could up the number
here for a particular type of quality manager and down the number there for a
sales representative selling windows and tweek the number there for a marketing
manager skilled in the Innovation space but overall, 35-50 phone-sourced names will get your job filled within 30-60 days if
you start calling the names immediately once we send them to you.
Notice I keep saying phone-sourced names. I do that for a reason. Phone-sourced names are likely to be unique;
they’re not likely to have been called repeatedly before by recruiters; they’re
not likely to be residing on the Internet in a manner that tags them to the
jobs they’re doing (of course this depends on the industry – every recruiter in
the world is on LinkedIn!) and, in general, are receptive to a recruiter’s call
and find them refreshing, never (usually) having been called by one before!
That being said, they’re not
likely to have shown up on an Internet-culled “list” that was handed from
Internet sourcer to recruiter with a next step that probably resulted in an
email (or an Inmail) or, in a very few instances, a left-on-the-doorstep-after-6PM
one-stop hurried-through canned Voice Message with a “Call me back about this great job opportunity!” that never got
enough listening time to make it to the “Call me back” part of the message.
There’s something else
wonderful about phone-sourced names -they don’t wear out. If you “pipeline” them – put them into your database
and make friends with them; get to know them and communicate (remember that most sought-after skill above?) with
them when they too reach that “healthy employee turnover term” (4-5 years) chances
are you may even hire some of them!
I’m sure I haven’t covered
all the variables above and if you have any to offer I invite you to do just
that in the comments. If you agree
(or, better yet, disagree) with what I’ve just said I invite you to do that
too!
*For more information on this
process email me for my “What Do I Do Now?” paper. Maureen at namesourcer.com
Maureen Sharib
513 646 7306
