successful relationship with a third-party recruiter hinges on your ability to express your needs and the recruiter’s willingness to listen.

    "Recruiters need more than just a list of job skills to find quality candidates. They need to understand your culture and environment," says Tom Lucas, senior vice president of HR and employee relations at Adecco North America, an international employment firm headquartered in Melville, New York.

    Good recruiters research your work environment by asking questions and interviewing employees. Once the relationship has been established, they stay in touch, calling periodically just to chat, or to let you know they’ve found a job candidate who’d be perfect for you, even if you aren’t currently hiring. "This is a personal relationship," he says. "You need someone whose judgment you trust, who understands you, and is looking out for your best interest."

    Finding that person can be tricky. "You aren’t going to get the information you need from the phone book," Lucas notes. "Recruiting is a huge industry, and there are not a lot of standards to govern it." The best way to find a good recruiter is to ask around. Turn to your network: ask your peers who they use for their own recruiting and who got them their jobs.

    Also, think about the jobs you need to fill. Some agencies recruit for all positions. Others specialize in areas such as HR, IT, finance, or trade skills. The one-stop shops are handy if your hiring needs vary, but specialty companies will have better access to high-quality people with unique skills, and will have a pipeline of existing candidates to fit your needs.

    If your offices are dispersed, location may be another factor to consider. You want a company that can help you regardless of which city you are hiring in, Lucas says.

    With these criteria in mind, narrow your search to a few companies and then investigate their style and approach. From the beginning, they should actively seek information about your company and your core competencies. If they don’t, be skeptical, Lucas says. "If they come in talking about what they can do for you, if they are arrogant and don’t listen to you or ask questions, then you shouldn’t hire them."

    Before you make a selection, find out how accommodating they are, says Cathy Fyock, president of Innovative Management Concepts, a recruiting consultancy in Crestwood, Kentucky, and author of Get the Best: How to Recruit the People You Want (Irwin Professional Publishing, 1993). Ask if they have flexible rates when you use their service more frequently, if they can customize invoices to meet your billing requirements, or if they are willing to negotiate aspects of their contracts. To meet the budget constraints of customers, many recruiting firms will unbundle their offerings to be more competitively priced, allowing companies to purchase individual services such as pre-screening or background checks.

    If you can’t afford the full service, using recruiters just for prescreening can be valuable in today’s economy, since so many people are looking for work, says Ron Griffin, regional marketing manager at Randstad North America, an international recruiting firm based in Houston. "In the past you could put an ad in the paper and expect 20 responses; now you get 400," he says. "A staffing company can use all 400 résumés, but an HR person looking to hire just one employee doesn’t have the time to wade through them all."

    Fyock points out that although a lot of companies don’t have the recruiting budgets they had five years ago, when the economy was booming, they still need recruiting help. "By unbundling services, the recruiter maintains the relationship and the employer only purchases the services it really needs," she says.

    Once you find a recruiter you like, be prepared to commit time to building that relationship, sharing information about your company, its culture, and its values. "Give them your value statement, define your core competencies, and share your interview questions," Fyock says. She also suggests allowing the recruiter to interview some existing employees to get a feel for who they are, and to participate in the first few screening processes to be sure they are asking all the right questions.

    It’s easy to find candidates who have basic skill sets. What you want is for the recruiter to find people who fit into your environment, Fyock says. A recruiter needs the information that comes with regular discussions about your requirements, and with feedback on why the candidates they provide either work out or fail. "Every time you give them feedback, they can translate that into their screening process," she says. "That means the next time you need someone, they will be able to respond faster, with better people."

Workforce, July 2002, pp. 74-77 -- Subscribe Now!