Archive for the ‘Recruitment’ Category

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Recruiters and Your Salary: the 7 Secrets You Have to Know

Friday, August 20th, 2010

The idea of recruiters seems fairly straightforward. On the most fundamental level, they’re hired by companies to identify the best potential employees and “recruit” them. For some, this may bring to mind visions of champagne receptions and ball game box seats, but recruiters can bring up feelings of suspicion for many potential employees, especially when it comes to the salary negotiation.

Recruiters work for the company, after all, so isn’t their goal to save the company money rather than get you the best pay possible? If you are in doubt about working with a recruiter, here are 7 secrets about recruiters and how to work with one to get your desired position and salary.#1. Recruiters Have the Inside Scoop

For many positions, salary is somewhat negotiable, but recruiters usually have the inside scoop. So let’s say a company lists the salary range for a position, but you suspect you can get them to go higher. The recruiter actually knows if they will or won’t budge, so the end effect is that working with recruiters can make the job search process easier for everyone since they can pre-negotiate. If you know you won’t take less than $100,000, and the recruiter knows the company won’t go above $85,000 for the position, everyone knows early on that the fit isn’t right, and you and the company both save time.#2. Recruiters Can Sometimes Get You a Higher Salary

Not every company hires recruiters, and recruiters don’t recruit for every position. Recruiters often work on identifying candidates for hard-to-fill positions. It may be that the qualifications for the job are very specific and appropriate candidates hard to track down, or it may be that the position is in some far-flung location that doesn’t draw lots of applicants. Whatever the reason, the company wants and needs to fill the position, enough to pay a recruiter to help them do it, and in many cases, enough to sweeten the financial package for the potential employee. So it’s not a given that a recruiter can get you a higher salary, but a company hiring a recruiter signals that the position may offer a higher salary to begin with.#3. Honesty is Critical

This one’s less a secret and more a mantra for job seekers everywhere. Being up front with recruiters about your qualifications, your salary requirements, and your interest in various positions will take you a long way. They won’t spend weeks advancing your candidacy for Job A just to find out that you’re only really interested in Job B or only really qualified for Job C. In the end, your honesty saves recruiters time, helps you earn their trust and respect, and means that they’ll root for you and be happy to work with you again in the future.#4. Honesty is a Two-Way Street

Recruiters can do a lot to help you in your job search, and one of the most useful services they can provide is honest reflection of your candidacy. You may think you’re exceptionally qualified and that you deserve a salary at the top of the pay range for a position. A recruiter, especially one you have a good relationship with, can tell you whether or not that’s true. This is one of the points where some candidates become most suspicious of recruiters – since they work for the company of course they’ll tell you you’re worth less than you think you’re worth. Chances are that’s just not the case, especially if they’re doing their jobs right and trying to find great candidates for hard-to-fill positions.#5. Skirting Doesn’t Pay

It may occur to you that the best way to work with a recruiter is to work around a recruiter – use them to help you identify a position and then skirt the recruiter and go directly to the company to work out the job and the salary on your own. Unfortunately, this clever plan almost universally backfires. The company knows they hired a recruiter, and they know you’re attempting to go behind their back, which is patently unethical behavior. Most companies see dishonesty as a major warning sign. What’s more, the company is no more inclined to give you a higher salary than a recruiter would be. Think about it: If a recruiter works for the company, someone at the company works?for the company.#6. Recruiters Often Have Long Lead Times

Recruiters offer up a whole new avenue for finding jobs, and they’re unlikely to do anything to hinder your ability to command the salary you deserve, but they’re not necessarily your best bet if you’re in a hurry. Companies often put recruiters to work months before a position opens up. If you’re already working and simply looking to move up or change companies, a recruiters’ pace may work just fine. If you’re not working and need a salary ASAP, more active searching is probably a better match.#7. Not Just This Job, But the Next One

You can get the most out of your relationship with a recruiter (and a higher salary) by being a great performer on the job after you’re hired. If you do well, you make the recruiter look good, and they’re much more likely to keep you in mind for future, higher-level positions.

Once you know the secrets, working with a recruiter to land the job and the salary of your dreams gets that much easier.

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World of Warcraft Recruitment: How to Get Good Results

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

1. Introduction

Recruitment is one of the most important duties of guild leaders or officers. At the same time it is also an area where a lot of guilds go wrong. Often guilds go about the task of recruitment the wrong way. Or you might have thought that recruitment is something that happens automatically and suddenly find yourself out of active members. In this guide we will look at the most important aspects to consider when recruiting for a guild. How do you properly advertise your guild? How do you get good results?

The first step toward successful guild recruitment is to set your goals, in detail. Regardless whether you’re just starting out or just want to kickstart your recruitment, you should spend some time writing a guild charter. Explain what makes your guild special among all the other guilds on the server. Here’s a list of questions you should answer in your charter:

 

2. Public relations

Writing a charter for your guild serves a double purpose. First of all it will provide you an opportunity to think about what you really expect from the game, from your guild. What do you expect from your members and what are you willing to do to reach those goals.

Secondly the charter will provide you with the perfect foundation for a good guild website. Often your website will be the first (and all too often the last) thing people will look at when considering your guild. Time working on your website is always time well spent. A good website does not just list your progress and provide your members with a forum to chat during work hours. If done right, it should provide potential recruits with invaluable information about your guild.

The most important aspect of recruitment lies in how you make other players perceive you and your guild. To mold your guild and attract the right people to help you on your path, you have to project the correct image to the public. A good guild reputation is your most valuable asset. The charter is the first step toward this. Making everybody aware of your goals in the beginning will help you avoid a lot of grief later on. One of the most common underlying reasons to guilds failing is the failure to communicate your guild’s ideology properly.

This is also the reason why guilds often require their members to follow a certain code of conduct. Your members are your guild’s face to the public. Try to prevent your members from behaving inappropriately toward other players, be it ingame or on forums. One thoughtless comment by one of your members can ruin weeks of hard work you put into building the guilds reputation. Being polite and helpful toward outsiders demands very little effort on your part and it’s an easy way to build a good reputation on your server.

 

Recruitment officers

Picking the right kind of people as recruitment officers can have a major impact on your guilds recruitment. In most guilds the job of recruitment officer is limited to screening applications on your guild forum. That is a mistake. Replying to applications on your forums should only be a small part of what your recruitment officer does. A recruitment officer is basically your public relations officer. The most important thing your recruitment officers can do is to run heroic instances with people outside your guild. This accomplishes two goals of recruitment:

 

Poaching

Members and officers who actively seek groups with players outside the guild are your best tool for healthy recruitment. However, when try to avoid to be seen as a poacher. Poaching is the act of specifically trying to recruit people who are already guilded.

Now, technically, there is nothing wrong in a moral sense with this practice. It’s comparable to standard headhunting practices in the business world. If a rival guild has a talented member which you think you might persuade to join your guild, then by all means, try to recruit him/her. If the player decides to leave his old guild then he wasn’t a good match for his old guild anyway.

You may want to keep in mind tho that the other guild and the players in it might not see it that way. Most guilds are fiercely protective of their members. This is only natural, since your recruitment activities may directly interfere with their ability to pursue their own goals. Because of this they call your active recruiting poaching, trying to portray you as a thief. Of couse, most guilds have double standards in this regard. If they do it, its active recruitment or inviting friends to their guild. Still, it is in your best interest to avoid being branded as poacher guild.

It’s not worth to poach any player outright if that means you will antagonize yourself to other potential recuits in that guild or even the whole server. Befriend them and when there is an opportunity, try to induce doubt in their current guild. Let them know that they are the sort of person that you think fits into your guild. Just be available and desirable.

 

Selecting recruits

It can often be difficult to find recruits that fit your guilds requirements. Make use of online resources. Check recruitment forums. Specialized websites, such as recruit-gamers.com can help you finding players that meet your basic gear requirements and playtimes, be it on your server or willing to transfer from another server. That being said, make sure the players also are a good match for your guild in other aspects. Don’t just look at their equipment and playing hours. Take a few minutes to talk to them about their personal goals. See if their goals mesh with the guild’s goals. Look at their reputation on their server. Recruiting somebody with a bad attitude will do more harm than good, no matter how good their skills and/or playtimes might appear.

Recruitment Check-list:

 

When do you stop?

So when do you stop recruiting? Let’s say you have enough members to do raid instances (10 or 25, depending on your goals). Does this mean your recruitment officer can take a break? Well, if your members are all hardcore raiders, he could, but I would advise against it. Sure, people like to have their guaranteed raid spot. Sure, you might get great progress raiding with the minimal numbers required. But it is a fact that people sometimes quit playing. When that happens, you want to be prepared. The size of your raid force should depend on how active/dependable your members are, but it should always exceed the minimal number required. As a rule of thumb i would suggest the following:

 

 

Resources:

 

Official WoW Guild Recruitment Forumshttp://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.aspx?fn=wow-guild-recruitment
Most guilds submit recruitment posts on the official forum. The downside is that your post will quickly disappear in the back pages if you don’t keep bumping your post to the top.Recruit-Gamershttp://www.recruit-gamers.com/
Offers an alternative to the official forum. Submit your guild’s recruitment status to a searchable database. Or if you want to actively look for new members, search the database for potential recruits.Warcraft Realms Character Historyhttp://www.warcraftrealms.com/charhistory.php
Check up on your applicant’s guild history.

 

 

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Permanent Recruitment Concerns for the Average Business

Sunday, July 4th, 2010

The process of applying and interviewing for a new job obscure an applicant’s view of what employers search for during permanent recruitment. An applicant takes hours of his time to fill out background information without thinking about why companies are asking for these details. You need to appreciate the goals set by a company during permanent recruitment to guide your quest for a long-term position.

Every employer wants to know that an applicant is committed to the company over the long term before making a final decision. The use of permanent recruitment takes a significant amount of time, energy and money for a hiring company. The hard work of recruiters, interviewers and trainers cannot be wasted on candidates who will leave in the near future. You should look long and hard at your career objectives to determine if you meet this initial criterion.

A continuous work history from college through the present helps an applicant garner attention during permanent recruitment drives. Most companies look through job histories to find unexplained holes. These holes are used in interviews to weed out candidates who have switched careers and lack experience for a particular position. You need to be able to fill in these holes with reasonable expectations like starting a family and illnesses if you want to please potential employers.

The compatibility of an applicant with current staff members and other applicants should not be overlooked. One way companies test the chemistry between applicants and current employees is the use of group interviews. These interviews allow experienced staff to write out questions dealing with daily responsibilities and assess the communication skills of applicants. These group interviews rarely form a majority of the decision-making process though applicants should act natural to develop rapport with potential colleagues.

Recruiters and managers will look at permanent recruitment in financial terms when multiple applicants fit the aforementioned criteria. A company using permanent recruitment will look at the initial costs of hiring an employee. This cost is compared to the benefits of greater efficiency and decreased stress by other staffers to determine the value of the hiring decision. The annual savings of an individual hiring decision are extrapolated over multiple years to determine how an applicant fits into a company’s long term goals. You need to demonstrate that your skills, experiences and personal style will be a good investment for an employer before you accept a job.

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