The RecruitLoop team is always trying to come up with new and interesting ways to engage with our community of recruiters. We recently launched a Slack Community, exclusive to our Verified Recruiters, and we are using Slack as a way to keep them up to date on all things RecruitLoop.
We’ve also been generating tons of community discussions on our weekly Recruiter Community Q&A calls. They are “live-slacked” so to speak, and we recently had our very first “Ask Me Anything” event.
And who was the lucky guest for the AMA? Our very own CEO, Michael Overell. He spent just over an hour chatting with our recruiters and answering questions about everything from future product plans to favourite books.
We’ve summarized the discussion for you below. Have more questions? Jump into our Community Forums, open to anyone!
What are some of the biggest differences between recruiting in the US vs Australia?
– Danny Powell
Houston, Texas
MO: The biggest difference I’ve seen is the prevalence of active vs passive recruiting.
In Australia, a single job board (Seek.com) has +80% market share. So almost every job is posted there, even if there is some true sourcing required. ‘Posting to Seek’ is the first step for almost all employers (and recruiters).
In the US, job posting seems much less common. There is much more focus and sophistication around sourcing passive candidates. And for many of the clients I speak with, almost a bias against hiring active candidates (“if they’re looking for work they can’t be the best”).
Do you see the market picking up or slowing down in Q4?
– Anne Downing
Phoenix, Arizona
MO: It depends which market!
Most parts of the US economy we’re exposed to seem to be picking up dramatically. We’re pumped for an even bigger Q4 (after what will be a record Q3). Having said that, the market jitters of a few weeks ago seem to have a few people / sectors on edge. If China really slows down (even more), it could have flow through impacts. That would impact the financial markets first – we’re already seeing a slow/freeze in new IPOs. Although I’d suspect it takes a few more months for that to really impact hiring. Hence = bring on Q4!
How involved are you these days with the daily activity? Do you still know a lot of the recruiters or are you further from the action? What is your next project?
– Tiffany Kilpatrick
Portland, Oregon
MO: 1. How involved are you these days with the daily activity?
Incredibly! Most of my time the past 1-2mths has been focused on a combination of marketing and new product development. The marketplace success team (@heatherkpage @rory and of course, led by @paulslezak) is more active operationally in the day-2-day of individual projects. But I’m staying pretty close to all our key clients, and checking in regularly (ie daily) with those guys on certain aspects.
2. Do you still know a lot of the recruiters or are you further from the action?
Many of them, but would love to know more! Whenever I’m travelling I aim to meet any of the recruiters in the local area. Just yesterday I had lunch with a potential new recruiter – and the former head of talent at Adroll.
3. What is your next project?
My wife is due to give birth any day now (our first baby, a girl). That’s a massive project I’m looking forward to!!!
How would you position RecruitLoop for a successful recruiter that works with clients at 25% payable on start date, 22.5 if they pay 2500 upfront or 20 percent if 5k is paid up front? There seems to be a logical addition of hourly to that slate of fee choices.
– John Palcisko
Cleveland, Ohio
MO: Good question! We’ve been testing a ‘hybrid’ model of pricing similar to this with some clients (and recruiters). The model is sometimes called ‘Container’ (a mix of contingent and retainer). We’ve been positioning it to clients as a ‘lower hourly rate, combined with a fixed payment upon placement’. Some clients have responded well to this. They like the idea that both parties are invested in the success of the project. Although we haven’t locked on any fixed amounts or percentages.
Which successes are you most proud of? (Small win in the early day/product features/anything)
– Rebecca Martinez
Sydney, Australia
MO: Tough question @rebeccam – there are many!
Honestly, one of the most fulfilling ‘achievements’ we’ve seen emerge in the past 12-18mths has been the strength and engagement in the community, across the globe. It’s super exciting to see the value our platform/product is bringing individual recruiters in a range of locations/situations. eg, the work-from-home mum who is providing income for the family and balancing family needs. That’s a hard thing to measure, but something I’m pretty proud of.
How do you make ‘remote work’ work for RecruitLoop?
– RecruitLoop Community
MO: I’m a HUGE believer in the value and importance of remote/flexible work. Personally, I’m just as (or more) productive from my desk at home as I am in the office. One book that inspired me on this topic was ‘A Year Without Pants’ – about the company behind WordPress (+300 employees all distributed).
Key elements to making it work as a team:
Trust.
Over-communication of expectations, deliverables, timing, feedback.
Collaboration tools like Slack/Hipchat, Google Docs, Skype.
Hiring / selecting excellent people.
I also just found an amazing flexible standing desk for the home setup, which is about to transform my personal experience. Highly recommended!
If you are in the middle of an assignment but want to increase/change your hourly rate for new assignments, does this affect the billing with the current client?
– Wendy De Audney
Sydney, Australia
MO: You can change the ‘public rate’ on your profile at any time. This will not affect the rate for any active projects.Stay tuned for the upcoming product release, where you’ll be able to change the rate even WITHIN a project (eg, if you want to charge a different rate for different activities within a project).
Can you describe some of the creative ways you’ve seen campaign pages used? How would you summarize the main benefits of that feature?
– RecruitLoop Community
MO: My favourite example has been recruiter who have used them for BD / marketing purposes, to show a client how they would promote the role; or how they have worked on similar roles. Jonathan Buzelan has been a great innovator here. He often includes links to previous Campaign pages in his proposals to new clients. I find this gives a new potential client a great snapshot of both your ability to promote a role, and educates them about the power of the product.
What is a quick version of your daily schedule? How do you keep up with the flow of information/social media?
– Tiffany Kilpatrick
Portland, Oregon
MO: I try to wake early, and either GSD or exercise. No day is ever standard! But here’s what today looked like:
5:45am – wake and punch out 60mins productivity (no email or social media!)
7am – run with the dog or exercise
9-11am – in the office with a few team or external meetings
12:30 – lunch. I get grumpy if I don’t eat.
1-4pm – I try to block time either for strategic projects, or external meetings
4-5pm – Team 1:1s
5-7pm – Email and/or info catchup
7pm – dinner at home (try to get home for dinner as much as possible)9pm – late – whatever didn’t get done for the day.
Re: the flow of information. I try to ‘chunk’ activities as much as possible. I’m terrible at multitasking. I’ll literally close my email or turn over my phone when trying to GSD. A couple of tools I find super helpful to manage info flow: Pocket – save articles for later; Buffer – share content to many networks at the same time
Care to describe what the 60 minutes productivity is?
– John Palcisko
Cleveland, Ohio
MO: It depends on the day! Last thing before bed, I try to write down the 3-4 top things for the next day. The pre-morning GSD is usually one of those things. This morning it was writing a JD for an upcoming role we’re looking to hire at RecruitLoop.
What’s the future vision look like for RecruitLoop? In your mind, how does RecruitLoop look different from today in 12 months?
– RecruitLoop Community
MO: Our long-term vision: The world’s biggest and best community of Talent Professionals, helping organisations of any size find and engage the best Talent. In the next 12mths, we’ll see some big innovation with our online product (making it easier for recruiters to be effective and get great results for clients); changes in how we position and market different components of the hiring process to clients (eg, a specific focus on sourcing); many many more recruiters, sourcers, and talent professionals engaged in the community from around the world; and of course, more business and client activity for all of those professionals. We want more recruiters having the ability to earn more through RL than can anywhere else.
Do you ever worry about getting too far away from the original focus/design of RecruitLoop?
– Tiffany Kilpatrick
Portland, Oregon
MO: Yes, and no. The original focus of RL was to help small business owners save money and time on recruiting, with recruiters who work by the hour. That is still a cornerstone of our focus, even as we’ve expanded to work with larger companies who have different problems.Fundamentally, one of the problems we wanted to fix – even if we didn’t articulate it years ago in Australia – was the broken relationship between companies (who need to find/hire talent) and the people in the market who can help them do it well (‘recruiters’). Everything we’re doing today, is linked to that problem in some way.
Are there certain things that you see RecruitLoop’s most successful recruiters doing that new or newly-active recruiters would benefit from?
– RecruitLoop Community
MO: GREAT question! First, what defines our most successful recruiters? It’s not just billings, although this is an indirect measure. It’s also client feedback; repeat rates; and metrics around satisfaction.
The best recruiters I see treat their RL clients as their #1 priority. Even if they have other clients in parallel, they are providing a top-level professional, consulting style service with fast communication. They are partnering with clients to build a relationship beyond an individual project. Providing advice or ‘value add’ beyond the scope of an individual project (and not always billing for that!). Showing clients that they have their best interests at heart. Whenever we’ve heard not-great feedback from clients, it generally stems from the feeling that they weren’t the recruiter’s #1 priority. Or the communication fell down in some areas.
Are there any hiring markets that you think our recruiters are currently under-chasing? Are there industries with room for growth in recruitment consulting?
– RecruitLoop Community
MO: A few areas we’ve seen (or indirectly heard) of huge need for ongoing recruitment services:
– Healthcare. Nurses are impossible to find. Hospitals have budgets, and aggressive targets. Just last week @paulslezak was talking with a very high-profile hospital around needs in this area.
– Auto services and mechanics. I was talking to the CEO of Hireology recently. They provide an ATS for franchise businesses – many in the auto industry. Their clients have so many challenges sourcing auto mechanics, that they were almost considering building our a recruiting arm just to help with that!
Another area of growth we’re particularly excited about is in specialising along different activities in the hiring process. E.g.: Sourcing experts. Outreach experts. Interviewing experts. This won’t be relevant for every client, but it is an area of growth we are seeing from many.
What book/books do you recommend for recruiters to read to better themselves professionally and personally? Or which book has impacted you the most professionally/personally?”
– RecruitLoop Community
MO: Professionally, one that I recommend to everyone on the team (they groan): The Minto Pyramid Principle. It’s dry, boring, but was the first professional book I read after joining the workforce (it is given to every new hire at McKinsey). I use the principles here every day. Personally, the most insightful book I’ve read in the past few years is this one: Antifragile. It’s long, but articulated and reinforced many ideas that I believed, but hadn’t been able pull together.
Thanks everyone for all the questions!! Have more pressing questions about RecruitLoop or recruiting? Start a discussion in our Community Forum!