Hiring Managers Seeing More Lies on Resumes

Editor's Note: In a survey of 3,500 employees by HireRight, it was reported that 88% of those tested had lied on their resume compared with 70% five years ago. In this article in Fortune, Anne Fisher interviews Mary O’Loughlin, HireRight’s vice president of global customer experience, to find out why people are exaggerating on their resumes.

Yet another reason for inventing whole chunks of a CV: Embarrassment about having lost a job to the recession. “Candidates think there is a huge stigma attached to unemployment,” notes O’Loughlin. “So they make up things to fill that gap in their work history.”

She notes that it is a far worse stigma to be dishonest than to lose a job! Click here to read more.

How an Employer can Hire a Headhunter

Employers want to hire the best candidates for their companies, but time is of the essence - that is where a headhunter comes in handy. But how do you go about hiring the headhunter? Read this article to find out.

Running a business can monopolize more time than you have to recruit new talent–particularly if you’re running solo. Hire a headhunter to fill key positions and bring in qualified personnel…

Step One

Investigate the cost. Headhunters may charge you as much as 40 percent of your new employee’s first-year salary, although 20 to 30 percent is more the norm.

Step Two

Understand how search firms charge. A contingency search firm only charges a fee if it finds a suitable hire. A retained search firm charges a fee based on a percentage of the new hire’s salary, but does a lot more legwork to narrow the list of qualified candidates. Many top-notch headhunters will not work on contingencies, and many will want a fee if you fill the position with them or without them.

Step Three

Find a headhunter with extensive experience in your particular industry or functional area to get the type of candidate you’re looking to hire.

Step Four
Verify their success rates. Some headhunters strike out on as much as 25 percent of their searches, depending on the industry they specialize in or the type of position they try to fill.

Click here to read part 2 of this article

Recruiting WITHOUT a Headhunter

Just as the economy is slowing down, there may be positions that still need filling. If you are employer, you know the pain of having a vacant position, especially if it is a key one - typically you are doing the work yourself or are having to overburden your staff to get the job done.

Here is my response, albeit changed a little, to a similar question on Linkedin:

Recruit through associations and industry organizations

First thing that comes to mind when an employer is looking to recruit is to advise that they go directly to the associations or industry organizations that these type of candidates are members of. Depending on who you are looking to recruit, there will be whole membership lists online if you look carefully. Also, sometimes they have meetings and you can attend, sometimes you can advertise - it is worth getting involved as much as possible with these professional organizations as you will no doubt pick up a ton of leads from working with them.

Ask for referrals

Do you know at least one person that works within the area you are looking to recruit from? If so, you can build upon that. You can this person for referrals within and outside the company - sometimes if you take the time to discuss the opportunity with them (preferably after hours), they will open up more and be willing to help you out especially in the event that they are not the right fit for the position. I find that people are looking to share their knowledge and if you give them the opportunity, they will talk - both about themselves and about others, their company and the industry as a whole. (And don't be put off if you are new to the particular area they specialize in - many people actually enjoy educating you about their career and specialty!) Then of course keep that relationship alive - how I like to do it is by calling them after a week or so and give them a few names of people I have found and who I think may be a fit - and I and ask their opinion. Not only will you learn about the individual you are talking to as well as the people you mention, but you may be on the way to getting business from them as a client (since you are so thorough and professional with them, why not give you some business?) Ph, and one more thing about getting referrals - when asked, some people respond with "I don't know anyone who is looking." If you hear this, don't just say OK - tell them "I understand...what I would like to know is who does this kind of work within your organization?" Most will say AH, I understand as people assume you are looking for someone who is actively looking for their next opportunity...

Click here to read part 2 of this article

How an Employer can Hire a Headhunter (pt. II)

Step Five

Ask questions about the process they use for identifying potential candidates, whether any personality or skill-based assessments are performed, and if references are routinely verified.

Step Six

Check the firm’s references. Asking past clients about the firm’s performance is an excellent way to gauge how they’ll approach your hiring needs–reputation is gold in the headhunting business, so do your homework.

Step Seven

Ask who’ll be doing the actual search: a principal of the headhunting firm or a lower-level staff member. Find out how long a typical recruitment search takes.

Step Eight

Ask if there are companies they can’t approach. Many headhunters won’t recruit from their own clients, which limits the pool of candidates they bring to you. Similarly, provide a list of companies you do want them to approach. Chances are you know your competition better than the headhunters do; spend the time to educate him or her.

Step Nine

Be very detailed in your description of job requirements. A recipe for failure is to tell a headhunter, “We need a really smart person to head up sales.” A more successful description is, “We need a candidate who has served in a VP capacity with a Fortune 500 company, handling international distribution of enterprise software to value-added resellers in Europe.”

Click here to read part 1 of this article

http://howto-business.freehostia.com/how-to-hire-a-headhunter/

Recruiting WITHOUT a Headhunter (2)

Find one phone extension and you can start recruiting

Once you have exhausted that avenue, one thing you can do is to get into the company's voice mail system after hours - many systems have a dial by name directory. Start by calling the extension of your contact (and if you don't have any contacts, try Jigsaw, ZoomInfo, LI etc - there is bound to be at least one person who works in the target area whether they are the right level or not), and listen to the options after you hear the recording..sometimes it says "to be transferred to the person taking calls for ____, press O or an actual extension..." In this case you may get a colleague or an assistant - either way it is valuable information. The next thing you can do is to try extensions in the same sequence - increasingly I am finding companies no longer use the proper sequence for a variety of reasons, but play around...you might be surprised!

Cold-calling options

Once you have a list of names of potential candidates for your open position (even if you do not have all of their titles or extensions), start by calling reception and asking for the exact spelling of the person's name and then "and I have them as the Tax Manager of XYZ area, am I right?" Oftentimes they will correct you and you have everything but the extension.

Another trick you can try is to dial security during the night, as Paul suggested - often it is one lonely person sitting waiting for something interesting to happen - I find they are very helpful and generally have no problems reading to you the entire department list, including titles and extensions.

Another idea is to ask for the mailroom - they typically do not get a lot of calls and you can always call and ask the same thing you asked of reception - especially if they have been trained to be a pitbull gatekeeper - and get results.

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Tara Gowland, Seattle Jobs Examiner, May 22, 2009
http://www.examiner.com/x-1495-Seattle-Jobs-Examiner~y2009m5d22-How-to-recruit-without-a-headhunter