Chris Wellington “The Recruiting Guy”, President, The Wellington Group

Wow, I don’t think this was at all what people were expecting to see and read about, DOL News Release. Most had predicted as high as 11% unemployment and continued doom and gloom in the job market. The impact of a much stronger (lower) unemployment number is not hitting the markets yet, the DOW again for a second day has started off below 10,000.

So what is truly in this DOL report and what can we take away from it? First, the overall number has not changed and is in fact negative by 20,000 more unemployed Americans. While job losses have slowed the job increases have not caught up yet. Healthcare continues to be a strong and growing sector, opposite to the continued decrease in construction jobs in the US. Manufacturing jobs rose by 11,000 while an even bigger gain was seen in retail jobs, 42,000. Transportation took a hit, but it’s such an undefined or obscure category that needs further analysis of the data points and types of jobs lost to understand the root cause. An interesting statistic on job increases was the number of new Government hires in January. 33,000 people put to work, with just less than half of that being the 2010 Census project, so more hires will be coming in this sector for sure.

One great sign for professionals in the recruitment and more so temporary labor industry, 52,000 new heads out in January. For those who have studied this piece of the overall trending data going back generations now, temporary help is a first key indicator of jobs coming back. It’s a “dip your toes in the water” scenario, if you will, by many employers to see what impact that person(s) may have in driving ROI to the organization. A great data point which is not tracked nor communicated well is the ratio of temporary labor headcount turned into full time employees. Since September, the temporary labor job number has increased by 247,000.

Ok, if you have looked at the numbers and are hearing the news then 9.7% does not seem correct. We went to the negative more but had a decrease in the total unemployed? My speculation for this is twofold. First, more people are getting out of the mainstream job market and starting their own businesses. Not hiring others, but sole proprietors working now in every niche from drug development consulting to accounting services and even a major spike in network marketing enrollees. Secondly, some people have simply quit looking for a job and their unemployment has run its course. As a result they are not reporting weekly status updates to the Fed, and as such the DOL can’t report data it does not have.

In the DOL’s own release 2.5 million people were not counted as “They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.” These are mainly disgruntled Americans who feel there is no work for them.

Overall, it is exciting to see that we are back in a more “normal” range for unemployment. I am a believer that levels we have been seeing over the past 6 months are the new norm. 4-5% unemployment rates are in the past or the distant future until all the uncertainty surrounding healthcare, small business (individuals making over $250,000) tax rates, lending and other impending items are worked out between Congress and the Whitehouse.

Chris

Chris Wellington “The Recruiting Guy”, President, The Wellington Group

“ABC Recruiters company has just added Dr. James E Worthing Jr. as Managing Director of the company’s X niche recruitment focus…Dr Worthing has spent the last 35 years of his career in senior management with a number of well-known companies…”

Being so involved in all aspects of the recruitment or executive search business, I see headlines, email blasts (spam), self made PR pieces, tweets, etc all with a very similar theme. Someone with a great career in another industry making the jump now into recruiting based solely on the credentials they have on their own resume. I am not saying this is good or bad as I myself have focused 7-8 years of education on the FDA regulated product development niche. What I will attempt to do in this blog segment is help educate you the consumer (hiring company or job seeker) on what to look for when you see this information or someone selling their past career and not their current results.

Let’s start with the obvious. How can someone who knows NOTHING about the recruiting, executive search, or the staffing industry all the sudden be an ideal “Managing Partner, Principal, or General Manager of XYZ division?” That is like saying, “we have a new Partner in our law firm with a chemicals background, he never went to law school but he has managed a chemicals plant.” What? Can this new figure-head, who has never gone through the training nor put in the time to become a professional recruiter, suddenly lead a team of people through a true talent search process?

At this point I am going to get, “Chris, they have been a senior manager before and have hired people.” That is great, it means they have been handed pre-screened resumes or the application of someone who works in another area of the company and went through a predetermined interview process, WITH ALL THE RESOURCES OR WORK DONE FOR THEM. What they lack is the 2-6 months of training before being put on your most critical staff need or taking and helping to structure your resume and bio to represent you at their client. You see, just being a manager and having to hire in the past does not anoint them as a true, professional headhunter. It goes to the old belief that if we hire a PhD in Chemistry every Chemical Company will want to work with us, ignoring the fact that we may not have a database, network nor the experience as a firm in that niche.

I have had a lot of experience in my career dealing with this very same challenge in adding staff or growing a company. Do you hire experienced recruiters to meet either your internal needs or as headhunters to meet the need of your clients? Or, do you hire someone from their industry and hope they can pick-up the recruitment piece? 9 out of 10 times the second scenario does not work out in the long run. Short term it seems great. They have a lot of connections, make a number of calls, etc, etc, etc. But, that call list grows short very quickly, more so when the past companies they have worked for are large fortune or global in nature. Take IBM for instance. Hiring an ex-IBM executive was a major trend a number of years ago with both the Manpower’s and Korn Ferry’s of the industry. The trend we thought, was if the individual has been there in the past they can call back in and WHAM we have business or we’ll have an immediate candidate base. Well, that was not the case. People, more so Sr Management, worked in very specific groups, had limited networks and employee access, and did not want to start at the bottom and work their way back into a new career (which is truly what this situation is). The same goes for ex/current legislators, judges and even HR Directors.

Here are a few questions to ask when a firm is trying to sell you on the non-recruiting credentials of this new figure-head:

1. What training have you had on the latest recruiting technologies and techniques
2. What is your firms on-boarding and training program
3. How many similar clients and staff searches do you have under your belt
4. Name some of the tools and resources you might use to fill our need
5. Do you have an HR or Recruiting Certification (to ensure they don’t get you into a hot mess by asking illegal questions on your behalf)
6. Who is on your team doing the actual research, sourcing and headhunting work
7. What is your recruitment process

At the end of the day, the headhunter or recruitment firm is representing you, your company or your brand. Be cautious on who you select with this invaluable possession - for it is not enough to have the working knowledge of your industry - the person or firm must also have the training, technology and recruitment process expertise to make them a true extension of your recruitment resources.

Chris

^{To hire The Recruiting Guy as a speaker or trainer visit The Recruiting Guy or contact The Wellington Group @ info@thewellington-group.com.}