Your first call from a headhunter is one of those minor rites of passage. While it’s good to know that someone has called you, such contact is about more than just a warm glow. It could be the start of a long-term relationship that is crucial to your career.
Expressing a long view is rarely easy in today’s economic climate. Businesses are looking for immediate results and this pressure can make candidates and recruiters focus too strongly on short-term gain. At Spencer Stuart, consultants take a long-term approach to working with candidates – because many of them will eventually become clients.
In for the long haul
“We recognize that our relationships with our candidates are not one-off transactions,” says Rick Routhier, consultant with Spencer Stuart in Stamford.
Routhier says the firm aims to be involved with high-caliber people throughout their careers. Tim Burrage, head of the Spencer Stuart’s UK CFO practice in London, agrees. “We have long-standing relationships going back as far as thirty years,” he says.
The right level of support from beginning to end
Continuity is a key element in the way Spencer Stuart organizes search assignments.
The firm usually assigns a consultant and researcher to each assignment and the same person from this team handles candidates throughout the process, from the initial approach call to interviews and taking up references. This builds trust throughout the assignment and means that candidates benefit from a high level of care.
The team structure at Spencer Stuart ensures that each candidate is thoroughly researched. Candidates are carefully targeted and few calls are wasted.
For Jimmy Weir, a Spencer Stuart placement who joined EMAP Consumer Magazines as finance director in August 2002, this approach also had an immediate time-saving benefit. With other firms, Weir says, “you don’t feel you’re actually getting right to the people who make the decisions”. At Spencer Stuart, Weir says, “I was in having a grown-up conversation quickly.”
Do you qualify?
Search consultants recognize that no single candidate is perfect and can tick off everything on the job specification. The recruiter’s role is to understand the client’s requirements and match these to a long-lasting placement. So a good consultant will not put a candidate forward unless he/she genuinely feels the person is right for the role and can honestly vouch for them.
Burrage says that Spencer Stuart’s approach is one of the purest in the industry. “It’s not our job to make up the numbers,” he says. “We don’t tend to interview people unless we think they’re pretty well qualified.” The aim is to really understand candidates and to have gathered enough intelligence to know who would say “yes” to the proposed placement. “We don’t make many approach calls to candidates,” he says, “because we’ve done an awful lot of homework before we even think about picking up the phone.”
Make every contact count
Approach calls aren’t the only reason a recruiter might want to speak to you. Recruiters may want to know who the best people are for an assignment, take up references or even just update their information on an industry or function.
Whatever the reason, the Spencer Stuart philosophy treats each contact as a potential opportunity to add to a long-term relationship with a talented individual. So it’s worth taking the call – and taking it seriously.
This is easier said than done, Routhier admits. “It’s easy to appreciate the time you spend with people when you have an existing need,” he says. “What’s harder is to set aside the time for the conversation when you’re not at the point when you’re ready to leave.”
Respect the process
The concept of value exchange is central to the way top-end recruiters work. It means it’s always worth investing time in a recruiter even when you can’t see an immediate payback.
This is a two-way process. Although they are not in the business of outplacement, good consultants will try to help active job-seekers. This puts a certain onus on candidates, says Routhier. “We are more than happy to provide appropriate career advice. But what a candidate shouldn’t do is be the kind of person who looks to a search consultant to solve his need for a new job,” he says. “If you have never hired the firm, or have not been a placement, and are chronically calling for advice and support, that wears on consultants after a while.”
Respecting the recruiter’s time also applies once you’re in the middle of an assignment. “We don’t just ring out of the blue. So if people are organized and fairly crisp in what they do that helps both parties,” says Burrage. He advises candidates to make decisions promptly and to get back to people when they say they will. Don’t forget that recruiters are trying to produce a slate of candidates in a certain timeframe.
Find out what you’re getting into
This means doing your due diligence so that you’re in a good position to respond quickly. “However excited you may get about the role, you have to know what you’re going into,” says Weir. He spoke to as many people as he could to learn about his prospective employer. He also worked closely with Spencer Stuart’s Fleur Cowley, drawing on her long-standing knowledge of EMAP to ensure he was adequately briefed for eight hours of interview.
Such feedback is a vital aspect of the recruiter’s role. After every meeting, Cowley explains, there are feedback sessions for clients and candidates. The recruiter looks for consistent messages from both sides to see if that elusive “fit” is being achieved.
While this process can help ensure candidates feel adequately prepared for a role, it is not designed to force square pegs into holes. Spencer Stuart candidates have to remain in a role for at least six months. So it’s in everybody’s interest for the placement to succeed. “The last thing we want to do is force somebody into something for it then not to work out,” says Cowley. As an additional check, Spencer Stuart conducts post-assignment audits and follows up placements.
When the cap doesn’t fit
In today’s market, clients can be exceptionally precise about their requirements, looking not just for a match on paper but also for “chemistry”. This makes handling rejection even tougher, wherever it occurs in the recruitment process.
Routhier advises candidates to be as constructive as possible when the fit isn’t right. “Try to understand what the client was looking for,” he says. “Be aware that once you are seen as a good candidate, search firms are more likely to be supporting you with the next set of clients.”
And don’t think that your relationship with a recruiter ends because of an unsuccessful candidacy. As Cowley points out, it’s in your interest to handle rejection with grace and look to maintain a positive relationship with the search consultant you are dealing with – people in search have long memories.
Negotiating the final hurdle
When a candidate is successful, the search consultant plays a skilful role in negotiating the package. Both client and candidate actually benefit from the recruiter’s dispassionate perspective, says Routhier. “Without a search consultant it can get extremely delicate,” he says. “You can misread intent during the negotiating process and totally derail an otherwise successful relationship.”
Burrage says that in the current tough market the war for talent is still being fought on the same terms. “The number of really good people hasn’t changed,” he says. “Clients realize that if they want to recruit someone really excellent they’re not going to get them on the cheap.” However he has noted less negotiation recently around the minutiae of options and increasing awareness of pensions issues.
The relationship with your recruiter doesn’t end with a successfully negotiated package. Spencer Stuart looks to maintain its relationship with high-caliber people throughout their careers. This makes good business sense: many candidates go on to become clients, and three-quarters of all assignments are for existing clients.
Building continuity is at the heart of Spencer Stuart’s approach, as Routhier notes. “We recognize that people will be involved with the firm for, hopefully, their entire careers,” he says. “So we want every transaction to be a positive one.”
How to work with recruiters
- Treat all calls seriously whether or not they are about a new role.
- Every contact provides an opportunity for you to add value.
- Be honest and open with recruiters so they know who they are dealing with.
- Do your due diligence to aid fast decision making during a placement.
- Stay in touch with recruiters but don’t treat them as career advisers.
- Don’t take rejection personally. How you react affects your chances of being put forward again.
- Leave negotiation to the recruiter. He/she is trained to handle delicate situations dispassionately.