Recruitment by HR Consulting Firms
This article is based on HR consulting firms and discusses its features and business process. The focus is on recruitment as a challenging function from the perspective of a consultant/recruite r. The article throws light on understanding the mindset of jobseekers and the vital role of a consultant as a link between the jobseekers and the organizations.
Human Resource Management (HRM) covers a wide range of functions—recruitment, training and development, performance management, employee and labor relations, and organizational development. One of the important functions of HRM is recruitment. Nowadays, recruitment has become a challenge for any organization. That is why many organizations are outsourcing recruitment function to consulting firms, which are in the business of seeking suitable candidates and providing them to the concerned organization. It saves time and allows the organizations to have a focused approach towards their core business. It ensures quality, efficiency and effectiveness. Recruitment is one of the important functions of HR consulting firms.
An Introduction to Consulting Firms
HR consulting firms are the firms involved in providing manpower solutions to the corporates by managing the complete recruitment cycle. The gamut of activities in a consulting firm include sourcing and screening resumes, shortlisting candidates, scheduling interviews, selection and closing a position. The essential features of consulting firms include the following:
Resourcefulness
The consultants working in the consulting firms should have full knowledge of the business and the market.
Flexibility
Consulting firms should be flexible to meet immediate business demands.
Focus
No business can be profitable without focus. Focus and determination are the souls of a consulting business.
Adaptability to Changing Market Conditions
Requirements of companies change with changing times. Consulting firms should be adaptable to all kinds of contingencies.
Business Process in Consulting Firms
The business process in consulting firms would go through the strategy of planning, searching and choosing. The employees/recruiter s of these firms involve themselves completely in providing opportunities to the candidates/jobseeke rs, selling the organization to the candidates/jobseeke rs and attracting the candidates/jobseeke rs to the required position of the organization. The challenges of the recruiters lie in choosing the profiles of the candidates for the required position. Thorough and clear understanding of the job description provided by the client organization is a must for the recruiters of the consulting firms. The next step involves telephonic conversations with the right candidates that would save time of the recruiters. After sourcing and a telephonic interview of the candidates, the profiles of the candidates are forwarded to the client organization. Then interviews are scheduled with the concerned manager of the client organization. At this stage, there could be either selection or rejection of the candidates. If there is selection, then all the subsequent processes are followed to offer the job to the candidate and it is ensured that the candidate joins the organization. But if there is a rejection, then the candidate should never be considered as unfit. The recruiter should ensure that feedback is taken on the rejected candidate. So, regular follow ups will help build long-term relationship ensuring that business is carried on smoothly. But sometimes there might be a delay in feedback from the client or there might be certain exigencies due to which the position is kept on hold for a while. During this phase, there comes a challenge for recruiters to keep the candidate active, so that he/she could be given other opportunities. A good relationship should always be maintained with both, the selected, as well as the rejected, candidates. This is because these candidates help expand the talent pool in the basket of the consulting firms and help in building a good database of candidates.
Types of Candidates/Jobseeke rs
Telephonic interviews act as an invaluable tool to shortlist candidates. A candidate is usually assessed during telephonic conversation. So, candidates who are looking for a job or are looking for a change in the job should take it seriously. At this stage, self-confidence, clear career goals and aspirations, knowledge, and the maturity level of the candidates are assessed during a short span of time. The candidates should feel at ease and show high level of enthusiasm that should reflect in their voice. The candidates with whom the recruiters talk over the phone should be able to gain an impression of the company. On the other hand, recruiters need to be well-prepared, so that they leave a good impression of their own consulting firm, as well as of the client organization.
Moreover, while talking to the candidates, a recruiter should be able to classify the candidates into the following:
Brand-conscious Candidates
These candidates get attracted to the requirements of only brand companies. Only big corporate names make them interested for the position.
Money-seeking Candidates
These candidates consider money to be the most important asset and thus, get attracted where more salary or a salary hike is involved. So, whether the company is small, medium-sized or big, hardly matters for them.
`Referent Others' Candidates
The `equity theory' on job motivation, propounded by John Stacy Adams, explains that individuals are motivated not only by the comparison between their own input and output ratio but also by the satisfaction they get by comparing their own input-output ratio with the input-output ratio of others. Here, input could be effort, hard work, ability, skill, etc. Output could be tangibles like salary, benefits, perks, and intangibles like promotion, higher responsibility. It says that individuals are more concerned about others' situation and compare themselves with others. Adams used the term, `referent others', to explain individuals with whom we compare our own situation. Thus, the candidates who fall into this category compare themselves with their friends or colleagues and feel proud of the opportunity because they perceive that they are better off than others. These candidates, if selected by the organization and given an offer, would go for it due to the sense of satisfaction they get in being better off than the others.
Risk-takers
These candidates look for a challenging job. These candidates are particular about their job roles and responsibilities and the kind of risk involved. Higher responsibility rewards and personal growth are important for these candidates.
Location-specific Candidates
Candidates who like relocation and mobility are open to go anywhere for the opportunity but some are specific about the location which might be due to personal, social, or environmental reasons.
This makes clear that the motivating factors, and hygiene factors as defined by Herzberg, for individuals are different. Frederick Herzberg in his Two-factor Theory has classified the factors influencing job satisfaction as hygiene and motivating factors. Motivating factors can be: achievement, recognition, growth and responsibility. Hygiene factors can be: status, salary, job security, company policy, working conditions and interpersonal relations. But there is possibility that a factor could be a motivator for one individual, and a hygiene factor for another.
Candidates could be `active' or `passive'. Active candidates are those candidates who are actively looking for a job. Active candidates are clear in their mind as to why they would go for an opportunity in an organization. On the other hand, passive candidates are those candidates who are not actively seeking a job but certain factors could attract them. Passive candidates take decisions after considering a lot of factors. This is because job security, working conditions and stability could be their priorities. Sometimes, passive candidates might be looking for certain subtle factors in their job. It is not very difficult to attract active candidates but definitely difficult to make passive candidates active in the job market. This is because understanding the motivating factors behind the passive candidates would take lot of time. To reach the passive candidates, networking is needed so that referrals become easy to get.
It is worthwhile to mention here that previous research on recruitment have shown that candidates form a lot of beliefs while applying for a particular position. Consumer-based Brand Equity Theory has been applied to find out certain dimensions of employer knowledge. First dimension - Candidates' awareness of a company as a potential employer: Familiarity with a company brings a positive attitude towards it. Second dimension - Employer reputation: What matters here are others' views regarding a company. How others perceive the company as an employer, is what defines the reputation of the employer. Third dimension - Employer image: It can be described as the characteristics of the job and its employees. It has been found that there is a direct positive relationship of each of these three dimensions with the behaviors displayed by the candidates to apply for a position.
Thus, it is crucial for the companies to go for `recruitment branding' - a term used commonly nowadays. Recruitment branding, in simple terms, means what it is like to work for a company. It reveals the mission, vision, values and culture of a company. Defining and implementing recruitment brand in an appropriate manner helps a company to convey the right message to the right candidate and recruit them. It shows the opportunities for a candidate to work for the company and the setbacks the candidate is going to have, if he/she goes for the same company. While defining the recruitment brand of a company, it would be good to keep in mind that "honesty is the best policy". A potential candidate would be able to evaluate the company through the values its recruitment brand portrays. Recruitment brand should be honest and project the correct image of the company. Otherwise, it may attract wrong candidates and thus, would lead to wastage of time. The success of a company's recruitment brand could attract the best talent and make the company, the employer's choice. So, if a company plans to outsource its recruitment function to a consulting firm, the consulting firm should understand the recruitment brand of the concerned company and strengthen it.
Recruiters' Role in Judging the Candidate
It is important for a recruiter to judge the candidate appropriately. Sometimes, it might happen that candidates would fake their emotions and would give a wrong impression during the telephonic conversation with the recruiter. This is because they assume that once their profiles are forwarded to the companies for the required position, they would put forth their demands and bargain for what they really want. These kinds of candidates can be judged by probing more into their emotions by asking them a set of questions. Thus, before reaching the candidates/jobseeke rs, a set of questions need to be framed by the recruiters for knowing the reason as to why the candidate is looking for a change in the job. Of course, the position and job description should be kept in mind. It is not easy to find out whether a candidate is really interested in the position or not. So, most of the MBA graduates who take up recruitment as a career, should not only understand the changing market needs and the challenges of the industry but also keep themselves updated regularly.
There are numerous consulting firms in this corporate era vying for the top slot in the consulting business. Though it seems easy to find candidates and close the vacant positions, it is a herculean task to do so. The job seeking population is really huge but the availability of suitable candidates is less. The need of hour is the right candidate for the right position with the right knowledge, skills and abilities. The job description provided by the organization to the consulting firms is specific, and therefore, should be understood by the recruiters.
The recruiters should always have in their mind an idea of `force field analysis'. Force field analysis is a technique to analyze a situation with its opposing and supporting forces. Opposing forces are those forces which prevent a particular situation from occuring. On the other hand, supporting forces are those forces which make a situation. This could help them analyze the candidate in an appropriate manner. A recruiter could see the pros and cons of a candidate and take an effective decision. For example, force field technique could help the recruiter to look into the factors that could prevent a candidate from accepting a job offer and the factors that could make a candidate to reject an offer. Moreover, this technique could also help to analyze as to why a candidate is reluctant to go for a particular opportunity in any company.
The search of right candidates is like the search for a treasure. One of the important aspects is judging the attitude of the candidate. Certain candidates show a negative attitude and project themselves to be a complete package where they can suit the requirements. In this scenario, the recruiter has to take his/her own stand and should be patient enough to explain to the candidates the opportunity and his/her role requirement. Thus, it is essential for recruiters to possess the following qualities: patience, good listening skills, and sociability. Though aggressiveness is required in terms of the pace of work, yet right attitude is what is expected of them.
Recruiters should be good at networking. They are the ones who build relationships with the candidates, as well as the client organizations. This is how learning and growth happens, both professionally and personally. The social life at work should be fair enough to motivate them. Sometimes recruitment might seem to be a monotonous and thankless job. But passion for the job would enhance productivity and would enable one to accomplish more than expected. Thus, recruiters should be risk-takers in their approach and should wait for success to come. Recruiters should be a good at managing time and meeting deadlines. They should be skillful in handling clients and resolving issues in the shortest possible time. Recruiters should possess good communication skills. Proactiveness, customer focus, good decision-making skills, smart working, competitiveness, problem-solving skills, good listening skills, convincing skills, good marketing skills and team spirit could be included in the list of qualities of a recruiter.
Conclusion
Consulting firms are conducting business in a tactful manner in today's scenario to survive in the market. As a good marketing technique is the essence of any business, so also it is the soul of consulting business to deliver and generate huge revenues. Recruitment in consulting firms is considered as one of the challenging careers in this dynamic economy. MBA graduates who plan to take up recruitment as a career could have options. Those who are target-oriented and would like being evaluated quantitatively could go for the role of a consultant. These MBA graduates would like to interface clients and would be more in the role of a business partner. Those who would like to interact with different kinds of people could go for the role of a researcher. Nevertheless, aspiring consultants/ recruiters should have a vision and strong determination. They should have business acumen to be successful in their careers.
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