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Season 6 | Episode 2

Rethinking Recruiting with Tim Sackett

In this edition of recruiter fuel, Steve sat down again with Tim Sackett, the president of HRU Technical Resources, to talk about retraining recruiters and recruiting Gen Z.

How Do You Retrain Recruiters?

Steve started the discussion by prompting Tim to discuss how he retrains recruiters. All too many recruiters these days have been trained to send InMails and emails without any thought toward relationships. As such, Steve wanted to know how Tim goes about retraining them to do the job the right way.

Tim talked about how HRU is a very data-driven organization, which gives them great insight into where their recruiters need to be for metrics at every part in the process.

“We know the baseline for what a good recruiter looks like for activity. At the very least, right, we need to see that baseline of activity.”

Once recruiters are delivering the right level of activity, Tim looks for any specific parts in the process that might be falling short. For example, each recruiter should be hitting certain metrics for response rates and interview rates for submitted candidates. In the case of submitting candidates that the hiring manager interviews, he has very high standards.

“It’s a batting average thing that should be 90%, not like a 300. 300, major leagues, you’re a hall of famer. If you’re a recruiter, 300 batting average, you’re fired…if I send five people to a hiring manager, they better request interviews for four or something’s wrong. Something’s wrong with my screening skills, but also something’s wrong with my relationship with that manager.”

How Do We Build That Relationship Between Recruiters and Hiring Leaders?

Steve shared an anecdote of when he went to speak with a Fortune 100 financial company. He asked the hiring leaders what they thought of the recruiters, who said “they suck, they’re horrible.” Then when he asked the recruiters about their relationship with the same hiring leaders, they said “it’s great, they love us!”

What causes this disconnect, and how do we repair the relationship between these two groups?

“Some it is just flat out time, you have to put that time in so that that hiring manager knows one, you know their business, you know what their intricacies are in terms of what they’re looking for, and that they know that you care enough that you’re going to put in that.”

It’s all about slowly building relationships with the hiring managers, and getting them to own their reqs and help recruiters.

“The other thing I love to do from a recruiter standpoint is say “hey, hiring manager, let’s do some sourcing as a team together.”

It’s about prompting the hiring manager to pull together some names and getting them involved in the process.

“This is your team. This is your ownership…the relationship starts to get built. You’re one on my team as well, you’re my right-hand person to do this.”

How Come Recruiters Don’t Build These Relationships?

Steve asked Tim why recruiters don’t really go through with building these relationships. Tim said he often feels like the recruiters believe hiring leaders don’t want to spend the time to form that relationship. It leads to quick intake sessions that just confirm the information you have on an existing job posting. That sort of process really doesn’t dig deep enough to enable recruiters to make great hires.

“Where’s the shortcomings in your team right now, who’s potentially going to be leaving you, let’s really dig into this, almost from a consultant standpoint..to analyze them and their leadership style and where they’re at from succession.”

Through these discussions, recruiters can connect dots for hiring managers. Oftentimes, hiring managers don’t realize that what they need is different from what they’re looking for.

One of the best things we can do for these relationships is just invite someone out to lunch. It gives recruiters and hiring managers some time to get to know each other rather than just talking shop.

Gen Zers…How Will They Differ From Millennials?

“What I see from Gen Z that’s a little different, is they grew up in the recession, right? They saw a parent lose a job. They saw a friend lose a house. They saw the biggest recession that ever hit the U.S. since the Great Depression. What I see from is the security of a job becomes very important.”

A big trend with millennials was seeing them jump between several different jobs in as many years. In comparison, Tim sees Gen Zers value the security offered by a job, and will be more inclined to stay with a company for a long period of time.

In a nutshell, Tim thinks Gen Zers equate most to the Greatest Generation. He observes that they seem to like to keep their head down and just work hard at organizations, in contrast to millennials, who were eager to rise through the ranks and have their voice heard.

Additionally, he sees Gen Zers being more interested in the health of a company – which we haven’t seen for decades. Whereas millennials would work for a start-up in a heartbeat, but Gen Zers will stop to consider whether they’re actually profitable! So recruiters should expect to see more questions about the financials of a company from younger candidates.

Stay tuned for another discussion with Tim on recruiting, and even some of his thoughts on the #MeToo movement.

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