| March/April
2004
“Want
not, get not”
ARE
YOU EXPECTING TOO LITTLE FROM YOUR SEARCH FIRM?
IN A
COST-CUTTING MOVE, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company announced
this February that it has outsourced 100 human resources positions
to an outside vendor. Goodyear joins companies as large as
General Motors and Procter & Gamble in outsourcing various
staff functions. Among the transferred jobs at the Akron,
Ohio, tire producer are recruiting and staffing (along with
payroll, benefits administration and training).
The ex-Goodyear
employees join a Dallas-based business-process outsourcing
company that manages 40,000 positions in nearly 100 countries.
While workers initially will remain in Akron at their old
desks, even Goodyear acknowledges that is likely to change
over the next few years. As positions migrate to Dallas or
Timbuktu, those who hold them will begin to reflect the culture
and values of their new employer, Affiliated Computer Services,
as opposed to Goodyear Tire & Rubber.
Certainly
a case can be made that a clerk, given necessary training,
can process a Goodyear payroll from almost anywhere on the
planet. It is a major leap of faith, however, to think that
some remote specialist, with no further ties to Goodyear and
its traditions, will find the caliber of people that once
made the company great.
Affiliated,
meanwhile, needs to make a profit on the deal. Therefore it
has to deliver services for fewer dollars than they cost pre-transaction.
Internal recruiting specialists likely will be expected to
work for several clients, while outside firms hoping to gain
searches will be asked to share Affiliated’s pain by
reducing fees. The quality of the end result will reflect
those new facts of life.
Is
There a Better eWay?
Suppose,
in this post-industrial society, that employers everywhere
will need to continue making more with less, which means that
productivity improvement will remain the mantra for some time
to come.
Major
outsourcing providers (such as Affiliated, EDS, IBM and ADP)
are counting on that supposition. “You are in the business
of making widgets,” they say, “not hiring people
or running a payroll or programming computers.” The
seductive appeal of their pitch masks the fallacy that not
all jobs are fungible, capable of being occupied by anybody
anywhere. Great organizations were not built – nor will
they be – on the principle of lowest-common-denominator
hiring.
It is
disappointing, if not completely surprising, that some of
the employers who 10 years ago urged search firms to add greater
value to the recruiting process now want those firms to become
subcontractors to outside vendors.
In an
era when every job counts and corporate fat has been ruthlessly
trimmed, wouldn’t it make more sense to demand the utmost
in quality, service and performance from one’s outside
search providers?
Expecting
More, Getting More
In the
early 1990s, Sanford Rose Associates examined the entire hiring
process and concluded that many employers focus on what is
often the least critical function, matching a candidate’s
skills to the requirements of the job – as enumerated
on the typical position description. Of course, some jobs
are largely skills-based (computer programming and basic accounting
come to mind), but most at the managerial level and higher
depend on more than the successful performance of a task.
That
led the Sanford Rose organization to create Dimensional Search®,
a proprietary process that not only assesses personal skills
in light of job requirements, but also matches both specific
past experience to future job needs and managerial style to
corporate culture. The goal: identifying candidates who are
an exceptionally close fit.
Consider
Smith and Jones, two contenders for a division general manager
position at Acme Corporation. On paper (or its electronic
equivalent), Smith appears to be the stronger candidate –
a Harvard M.B.A., four promotions in the past six years at
his present employer, domestic and international experience,
etc. Jones, by contrast, lacks an advanced degree, has limited
international experience and has held her current position
(equivalent in responsibility to Smith’s) for five years.
Further
checking by a skilled search consultant reveals that Smith
is known throughout his company as the “Prince of Darkness”
and has been used by his multi-division employer as Mr. Fix-It
– cleaning up ailing units and firing underperforming
employees. Jones, who is a sort-of “minister without
portfolio,” is the go-to person who solves employee
problems, soothes ruffled customers’ feelings and, day
after day, gets things done.
Who is
right for Acme? It depends on whether the company needs a
reign of terror or quiet leadership. That sort of holistic
approach to executive search requires a close collaboration
between outside recruiters and internal hiring authorities.
The e-mail exchange of job descriptions and résumés
doesn’t come close.
What
to Require of a Search Professional
Employers
who ask too little of their executive recruiters will not
be disappointed. There is always a firm or individual willing
to provide poor service for a low fee.
In contrast,
genuine search professionals base their livelihood on providing
client companies their time and their expertise, so they gravitate
to clients who will value both and reward them accordingly.
If you
too value superior search performance, here are some factors
to consider in selecting the right individual and firm:
- How
long has the search firm been in business? (Individual practitioners
may be at different stages of their own careers, but they
should be part of a firm that has played the recruiting
game for a long time and knows the ropes.)
- Does
the firm have broad national/international capabilities?
- Has
the search consultant taken the time to get to know me,
my company and our industry?
- Will
the consultant provide me a detailed document (such as the
SRA Dimensional Search analysis) that confirms our mutual
understanding of the search requirements?
- Has
the recruitment process the consultant will follow been
explained to me in depth, and does it seem on target?
- Does
the consultant’s sense of urgency and commitment match
my own?
- Has
the consultant earned my confidence and respect?
- In
return, am I willing to grant exclusivity and pay a fair
fee?
With
the coming shortage of managerial candidates as the Baby Boom
generation retires, and with the return to job mobility as
the employment market strengthens, sound recruiting and assessment
practices will become more and more critical – not less.
And within
the universe of employers who benefit from the wise use of
executive recruiters, size does not determine need. In fact,
in a company as large as Goodyear, it could be argued that
a bad hire or two will not affect the corporate coffers. In
a smaller company, however, the cost of any bad hire –
in terms of poor decisions, lost profits and reduced productivity
– can be astronomical. Good recruiters help get it right
the first time.
Accordingly,
be skeptical of turning over hiring to third parties. Instead,
demand much of yourself and of your search firm as well; your
company’s future may depend on it.
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