No Longer An Order Taker

Staffing companies increasingly are becoming partners with corporate America.

by Carol Carter

April 1, 2008

H igh touch trumps high tech in the world of staffing and executive recruiting, according to three Atlanta placement executives. "There was a time," says Eugenia "Genia" Spencer, managing director of human resources for Randstad USA in Atlanta, "when it was believed that agencies would be eliminated because of the Internet, but the fact of the matter is you do not replace the heart and the mind."

Randstad personnel, like others in the industry, spend an enormous amount of time getting to know client companies. The reason, Spencer says, is that an open position or a newly created position "is so much more dependent on knowledge and a cultural chemistry fi t that both individuals searching for new jobs and companies needing key people look toward companies like ours to provide that expertise." "Nobody goes to school and gets into business to grow up and be a vendor," says Nancy B. Pineda, president of Hire Profile Inc. "That's not my goal either," she says. "I don't want to be one of the many places [a client] might call for recruiting and we're in a horse race with everybody in town. It doesn't give me a warm, fuzzy feeling, and it surely doesn't inspire my staff to take these searches to heart."

There was a time, Spencer says, when staffing meant a call into the agency to find someone to cover the front desk because the receptionist was out. "But, as time has evolved and technology has fi lled so many gaps, positions become much more about knowledge and chemistry than they are about getting a transaction completed," she says. "We go through the thousand people that might be qualified on paper for a job," she says, "and find the person who is going to not only have the competencies but also have the chemistry to work with and be engaged in a company's culture." Tatum LLC provides C-level executives, particularly in the areas of finance and technology, to corporations. Lorraine Chilvers, the associate managing partner of the Atlanta office, says that providing value-added services is becoming increasingly important.

"I have been a vendor, consultant, contract employee, and in the last ten years, clients' expectations have changed, and we have to adapt to meet our clients' needs." For Tatum, that meant offering a broader range of services, including adding technology and consulting services. "We want to advise our clients on strategy, help them gather the data to make the decisions that will move them forward," she says.

Randstad uses a strategy called the unit approach to build partnerships with client companies. Two-member teams talk to employers on a monthly basis to get to know them. "It's about knowing what their company strategy is, physically visiting the environment and knowing their culture," she says. "Through the unit, we have a team so that when one member is out calling on clients, the other is in the office." That means, Spencer says, that when a client needs help, there is someone answering the phone at Randstad who knows that client. "It's not like every time they call, they have to start over again with, 'This is who I am, and this is what I need.' "

Pineda, whose firm specializes in the advertising industry, spends most of her networking time not at staffing industry events but at advertising industry events."We enter their world," she says."We show up at their world.We hang out. We see them about town.They feel like we are a part of their industry."

And it helps, she says, that she has a background in advertising."When they use the terminology that they use, I understand it. And I can always remind them that I was them at
one point in my career."

Pineda also meets clients in their offi ces, talks to them on the phone and engages them in conversations about the industry.

"Sometimes, I'll just call clients and ask them questions: 'What do you think about the name change of this agency? Can you believe it?' I think it shows I'm building a rapport with them versus just being an order taker."

She says she can feel the difference between clients who treat her as a vendor and those clients who treat her as a partner.

"When you start to build that rapport and you find that you are talking to your clients not only about just the search, but also about their business, you can feel yourself crossing into the next arena."

That crossover manifests itself in terms of responsiveness. It comes through to her with responsiveness. A client who writes her an e-mail saying that a candidate is not a fit is not a partner, she says."That's not feedback.That's not going to get us closer to the right person. If we're continually met with that kind of nonresponsiveness, we'll probably finish that search, but we probably wouldn't pursue that client."

Relationship building becomes vitally important when it comes time to place a job candidate.

"These candidates," Pineda says,"trust us and ask us questions about the client, the job, the atmosphere, the fit, the culture.We have to be able to speak that intelligently, and we can't do that unless the doors to that client have been open to us.They don't open to the vendor list," she says."They open to a partner."

"If we can't be a strategic partner," says Brian Patrick Cork of Brian Cork Human Capital,"we don't want the work. I really believe," he says,"that when I put a guy on the job that I am affecting his family. What I really care about is helping really good people find jobs in companies that change the world. We want to build cultures that endure."

And, to be certain, technology helps professionals like Spencer, Pineda and Cork fi nd candidates. But the fact remains that technology alone cannot get the job done."We build speed in our transactions by using the technology," Spencer says, "and we keep our focus on people to build relationships and knowledge. One never replaces the other."

And even when résumés make it through information systems and are found, that's only the beginning of the process.

"We will ensure that any job offer is accepted.We will walk them through quitting their existing job, making sure that they give notice, that any counter offers are rejected," she says."All of that goes way beyond the résumé arriving in your e-mail box.We know that the work only begins when the e-mail arrives."

The work she refers to is fast-paced and multilayered and is conducted from a virtual office, which finds Pineda and her associates constantly e-mailing, instant messaging, faxing and talking on phones and cell phones.The pace, she thinks, is better suited to women than to men, and, indeed, all of her associates are female.

"I can't say that's 100 percent by design," she says."A man just hasn't shown up yet." But she adds her opinion that executive recruiting is more "man-styled. I think men are better at looking at one thing, doing a big, long, extensive, thorough search. And I think women are better at the volume business.

"We can have 19 things going at the same time. I feel that the men, at least the ones I have spoken to, would be frazzled by the pace and the amount of stimuli that would hit their desks."

She may have a point. Cork estimates the percentage of women working in executive search at around 40 percent and the percentage of women working at mid- level placement at 80 percent.

"I would venture to say," Spencer says,"that staffi ng has one of the highest representations of female executives."

People who succeed in the industry have a desire to get to know people, to help people.

"We put people to work every day," she says."We help people get jobs and build relationships.Women have always been very active in staffing because of the nature of the work."