How to Interview a Selection Recruitment Group
Executive recruiters can provide excellent advice and guidance for your hiring process. Once you've developed a short list of recruiting firms and received proposals, you can prepare to interview selection recruitment groups to determine which will best meet your needs.
Instructions
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Know what you want. Do you want to be heavily involved throughout the process, or would you prefer to be involved at steps along the way? Do you want a recruiter with experience hiring for this type of position? Is knowledge and experience of your industry more important than knowledge about the job type? Should your recruiter know more about your local market, or do you need someone with national or global expertise? Do you want a retained recruiter or a contingent-based recruiter? Research the differences between a retained and contingency-based recruiter and determine which best meets your needs. Knowing the answers to these types of questions will help prepare a list of criteria by which you can compare different groups.
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Know your prospects. Review the proposals so you will know what your prospect has in mind. Make notes of questions you want to ask. They should have included lists of fromer clients and positions they have filled. Write down questions about those specific companies and positions that will help you understand the process they undertook in each situation. Make a list of other questions you want to ask your potential recruiter. Ask the recruiter how long the people they have placed have stayed in the positions. They should be able to give you an average number of months or years. Also include a question about the recruiter's off-limits policy and list. Many recruiters put their clients off-limits for recruiting for a certain period of time. This protects clients from having their employees poached by their own recruiter for another company. It may also limit the number of companies your potential recruiter can go into for you.
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Meet with the recruiters. Whether you choose to meet with everyone who submitted a proposal or first narrow it down to three, two or even one, never skip the in-person interview. This is a professional relationship in which you are asking a recruiter to represent you and your company. Assess their professionalism and approachability. How will your company be seen in the eyes of potential employees? Invite them to your place of business. They may want to make a presentation, after which you will have time to ask questions. If you would prefer no presentation, tell them in advance it will be a strict interview in which you will question them. Ask them the questions you have prepared in your research. Also ask them to describe their recruiting process in general and for specific positions. Look for flexibility. You want a recruiter with a proven process that can be tweaked to meet your specific needs.
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Tips & Warnings
Kennedy Information publishes the "Directory of Executive & Professional Recruiters," the most complete listing of recruiting professionals. It is available at most libraries or can be purchased from Kennedy.
The Association of Executive Search Consultants offers "Search Alert," a service in which they will broadcast requests for proposals to a list of recruiters based on criteria you establish.
