Virtual Hiring Ventures - Give Me The Job

New Zealand Management ,  Mar 1, 2009   by Helen Tatham


Holding a gun to the head of a person interviewing you for a senior executive role in a major company is hardly a good way to make an impression. Neither is taking all your clothes off " but both of these situations happened when a well-known taxation, audit and advisory firm went looking for new talent on the social website Second Life.

Using the internet to find potential employees has come a long way from the well-known Seek or other advertisement-based websites. Frog Recruitment director Jane Kennelly says companies are experimenting using social networking sites to look for skilled staff such as engineers and accountants " expertise which is in hot demand in New Zealand. But the practice is still in the settling- down stage and Kennelly suggests it may be a bit early to take it seriously.

She tells the story of the firm which got some fairly bizarre results when it tried setting up a character in Second Life to interview potential candidates for a role.

Its worth experimenting but it can be an alien world, she says. While new technologies are arriving every day, were still not sure how to use them.

One area that offers real potential and has got many recruitment firms excited is an online professional business network known as Linked In. Frog Recruitment's development manager Katherine Hall says a recruiter creates a profile for themselves in Linked In the same way they would in social networking sites like Facebook or My Space. The site allows only individual profiles, so its not possible for an agency or group to register. It is full of potential candidates in many industries.

Theres a couple of ways to use it, Hall says. Some recruitment firms use it to search key words to link with individuals with expertise in some areas. You can also advertise a role or send messages through your network to see if people can refer others to you.

However, Hall believes Linked In is not being utilised as it potentially could be in New Zealand.

Kennelly says Linked In has been successful because it is business to business. One person may have made connections with 30 others, but they can also be connected with their connections connections. That means the number of people they can contact increases exponentially.

Through a network of contacts you can cast your net to link in to a particular organisation. It is like an advertising vehicle but using business-related networks already set up. It is phenomenal the reach these things have.

Peter Kerridge of Kerridge and Partners says the firm uses Linked In to connect to the global market. One of the partners is connected to 32 different countries.

It gives our clients confidence that we can authentically attract talent from offshore, which is of increasing importance, Kerridge says.

He says eight out of 10 candidates applying for jobs were born outside New Zealand.

Even social-oriented networking sites like Facebook and My Space are becoming more popular in the recruitment industry. Instead of banning the use of social sites in the office, companies are encouraging the staff to go online to find people who might be interested in filling vacant positions.

Young people talk about their company all the time, Sheffield director Ian Taylor says. The intention in allowing this is to build the company brand as one worth working for.

Some companies pay large sums of money ($5000 and even up to $15,000 Taylor believes) if a staff member finds someone who applies for a role and is selected.

There are a myriad of social networks that can be used positively by companies for attracting talent and that is happening more and more and will continue to happen, Taylor says.

Kennelly says there is a very strong body of evidence that people recruited after an internal referral stay longer than an external candidate.

Recruiters also need to think more creatively about using other forms of technology to present their clients company and its available roles.

They have to understand in this competitive market that you have to think of ways to reach an audience that allows them to stand out head and shoulders from anyone else, she says.

One way to achieve this which Kennelly has found successful is turning the job description into a video format. She says to be successful, this must be authentic.

Its like taking back the curtain and looking into the business to see what it is like there, Kennelly says. Its real people, talking to real people about a real job.

Frog Recruitment recently did this to advertise an executive assistant position. The video was put on the company's website and attracted 142 applications.

Kennelly recommends the website careertv.com for examples of the best and worst job promotion videos.

She also has a warning for companies that put profiles of staff on their own websites " beware of the cyber sleuth.

Its almost like allowing people to window shop, she says. There is definitely a new type of individual on the recruitment market.

That is why I don't have many of my staff up there [on the Frog Recruitment website]. They are too precious. To have your people on your website is like asking for headhunting to increase.

With the increasing use of the internet for recruitment, what will become of recruitment agencies?

Taylor believes there will be more of a role in strategy and evaluating talent. This includes personality profiling, assessing intellectual acuity and qualitative judgement. Recruitment agencies are increasingly involved in finding the right person for the job, not just a warm body to fill a seat. Rather than relying on a transactional model, where agencies find a bunch of candidates and their client company makes a selection, some companies are taking the smarter approach of going into partnership with recruiters.

Kerridge says companies are getting more conscious about managing the induction of top-level executives. A commitment is made to the firm within the first 60 to 90 days of taking up a new role, he says. If its not done right, even if the executive stays, they will spend their first two years thinking about the next step in their career.

Kerridge and Partners offers a coaching service which mentors new candidates during their integration into the business.

With CEOs in a new role, who do they turn to for support? They cant turn to the board because that is seen as weak and you simply don't turn to senior managers. We talk to them as often as they require. Its customised to each individual. Its usually a monthly catch-up with loads of phone calls in between over three to six months with more intensity at the front end, Kerridge says.

The economic situation in New Zealand is also causing a flight to quality, Kerridge believes, with companies being choosier about the recruitment firms they use. They're thinking that if they are going to invest money, they want to make it count and are prepared to spend a bit extra to get a quality result.

Swann Group director Don Jaine disagrees and believes companies are actually looking for ways to save money and turning to in-house recruitment as a solution. He says The Warehouse has been very good at this and is also using the internet well.

Hudson executive and specialist recruitment general manager Sara Clarke agrees with the do-it-yourself trend.

Companies recognise what an expense it is to them to keep recruiting and they are looking at different ways to manage a reduction in that expense, she says.

When it comes to salary and benefits, Clarke says there has been significant upward pressure on salaries for executive roles " of about eight to 10 percent.

To put that in context, we saw most markets increase in 2006/07 and in 2008 that has not dropped back, but the rate of increase has slowed down in keeping with the slowdown in the economy, she says.

Clarke says there has been a move towards cash-based packages so employees can choose how they want to invest the money.

Movement in the market has reduced, Clarke says.

 There is always going to be fewer of those [senior executive] roles the closer you get to the top of the pyramid. Once they have reached that level in their career, people are more reluctant to change roles due to potential job insecurity. Its going to take somebody at that level in their career a lot longer to find the next position, she says.

But Kerridge disagrees. He has seen a fairly steep rise in the number of people looking for a career change. He believes this is due to the unease in the economy, not necessarily that the jobs are under threat.

Taylor says there has been an emphasis on keeping talent with companies offering development initiatives as part of the benefit package.

More money is being spent on leadership development, he says. The most commonly quoted reason that people leave is because they are not inspired by their business.

Those who do start to make the move to another company often find themselves considering a counter offer.

Jaine says four out of five people who get a counter offer accept it but leave within 18 months.

Once people have made up their mind to do something different, they do something different, he says. M

Helen Tatham is a Franklin-based freelance journalist and business writer.

Linked in and looking

Deloitte Fast 500 company, Author-it, is using Linked In to recruit a sales team to assist its expansion in the United States and is impressed with its success.

Human resources manager for Author-it, Amanda Paxton, says shes still familiarising herself with Linked In but so far about 75 applicants have responded to an advertisement on the site. Author- it only needs four sales staff and two consultants.

Were struggling because were getting people who are too over qualified for what we are looking for. Youre touching such an elite group of people.

Paxton says she had not heard about Linked In until she started with Author-it four months ago. But these initial experiences have encouraged her to investigate further.

I would like to use Linked In more, she says.

How are the current difficult economic conditions affecting the ability of corporates to attract quality candidates?

Is it getting easier or harder?

NZ Management canvassed several executive recruitment companies to discover their experiences.

Executives who think they can hold onto jobs theyve long regarded as secure need to watch out as the current economic crisis is blindsiding some.

Seqel Partners director Don Jaine says there are more executives in the market who have either been made redundant locally or who are returning from less buoyant offshore labour markets.

A few of those executives looking for work fall into the top talent category and will be immediately marketable, he says.

Boards of directors and chief executives are making tough decisions which would have been untenable or unpopular in a typical labour market, he says.

This involves replacing solid executives who, whilst being long- serving and popular, are regarded as average performers versus top talent.

 This market is a good opportunity to clean up a variety of subtle performance issues which have, in many cases, been left too long.

However, Jaine says most of those who are newly redundant or have returned to New Zealand from overseas will face significant challenges finding work.

For some, contracting has become a more popular option.

Signium Executive Search International managing director Maurice Ellett says the executives who are being let go are those who no longer meet high standards of technology literacy, more rigorous

analysis and a tougher commercial approach in delivery of both technical and leadership acumen.

We have found that employers continue to tighten their specifications and are comfortable to wait an extra few weeks to get exactly the candidates they want onto a short list, rather than compromising.

Kerridge and Partners Peter Kerridge says the bar continues to be raised when it comes to specifying the requirements for senior executive hire.

The current economic conditions just accentuate this ratchet effect, Kerridge says.

When a client wants us to find their next CEO, they never ask us for someone not quite as good as the current CEO!

Vikki Maclean of Kerridge and Partners says many organisations are in uncharted waters.

They demand a special set of leadership qualities and these leaders are in very short supply, MacLean says.

Frog Recruitment director Jane Kennelly describes the current recruitment climate as akin to an early tsunami indicator.

The water has been sucked out and its that okay, what now? atmosphere. Its definitely tough economic conditions. Theres an apparent abundance of available talent but there is also a sudden slowing in decisions to hire. The prevailing business strategy since late last year seems to be an open ended wait and see, she says.

As an industry veteran of 21 plus years, currently I feel its like winding the clock back 20 years, especially when it comes to candidate behaviour and emotional responses. As in the 1980s and early 90s, job seekers are very anxious. They seek security and assurance so the notion of jumping ship to another position can be felt to be too risky, Kennelly says.

In our opinion, good candidates will now go underground. They will not be browsing Seek just to check whats out there.

Jo Harrison, also of Kerridge and Partners, says great leaders are always in demand. What has changed in recent months is the levels of due diligence that many are prepared to do before accepting a new role.

No chief executive wants to work for a board they do not have complete confidence in. A CEO is as good as their board will allow them to be, Harrison says.

Drake general manager Gay Barton says its definitely getting easier to find high quality candidates.

Weve moved from a candidate tight market which has softened over the past six months or so, Barton says.

The number of people who have recently been made redundant and higher unemployment rates mean that corporates are getting more responses to their [job] ads and a higher quality of applicants.

Roles are becoming more readily available than those we experienced during the traditionally quieter December and January. The numbers still arent great, but they are increasing.