Whether you have been working at a company for 5 years or 20, it is totally normal to desire a new job. You may not receive proper compensation or you want a new challenge. Whatever your reason is, your work life could improve with a job transition.

For many people, the job search prevents them from transitioning to a new company. They don’t know when or how to approach the task. A good recruiter can make the process much easier and coach you through the different stages of interviewing and transitioning into a new role.

The following tips can help everyone who is entering a job search. Timing is everything. The tips in this article can help you determine if it is the right time to start searching. Knowing when to leave is essential for your professional and personal success.

When the Company You Are Interested in is Hiring

Do you have a dream employer? You may even search their website for career listings every few months. One day, you are searching their website and your position appears on their career listings! There is no better time to start your job search than when your dream employer is hiring.

When Business is Slow

Almost every company has a slow season. If your employer is barely keeping up with tasks, don’t start your job search. Finish the season on a good note. You are more likely to receive a positive referral when you start interviewing.

When Your Competitors Are Paying More

According to the 2016 Global Workforce Study, which surveyed more than 31,000 employees around the world, almost half of US employees believe they are being paid unfairly compared to workers who hold similar jobs either at their own or other companies.

Realizing that you receive low pay for your industry is a hard blow. You feel unappreciated and discouraged. Before you assume that you are not receiving enough compensation, there are signs as to whether you are receiving fair compensation for your job.

• Review similar job postings in your area.
• Your company’s revenue increased but your wage stayed the same.
• You make less than your colleagues with similar education and experience.
• Your responsibility has increased but your title has not.

This is also something a good recruiter that specializes in your field of work and places people in companies in your area can help with. They know the market and know what salaries people with similar backgrounds are being paid.

When You Dread Going to Work

Nobody should dread work. If you feel like you are just “getting through the day,” it is time for a new job. As a recruiter, I have helped many people change jobs because they are unhappy with their current situation, and even some that the stress of their current job was causing medical problems. The following are some of the reasons employees dread their jobs:

• Your values do not align with company values
• You are not receiving proper compensation
• You are bored with the assignments
• You loathe your boss
• You see no opportunity for advancement

Transitioning jobs can be one of the best things that you do for your professional and personal well-being. Time your job search right and you can leave on a good note. If you are working in the pharmaceutical, medical device, or biotech industries in the San Francisco Bay Area, I specialize in working with life sciences professionals and would be happy to help. Contact me, Jeff King, at jking@rqfocus.com or (541) 639-3501.

YOU DON’T NEED US if the position(s) you have to fill are not considered critical, AND you can take whatever time is necessary for the right person to see your job posting, AND you have the time to review all submitted resumes to find the ones you want to interview. If this is the case traditional methods of recruiting may work for you.

BUT, YOU MAY WANT TO CONSIDER US if filling the position(s) quickly and with the right person is critical, and you need someone with the experience and understanding to do the first level screening to weed out all but the top 3-5 candidates for you, AND you are not getting much response to your current recruiting efforts. Top caliber candidates are NOT scouring job postings. They’re too busy getting their work done. They also take less time to get up to speed.

WHAT MAKES US ANY DIFFERENT OR BETTER THAN OTHER RECRUITERS?

• I worked for 4 years as an Engineer designing new medical devices, and 5 years as a Marketing Product Manager developing and launching new products to the market.
• I’ve spent the past 20+ years filling critical positions in the Bay area with experienced, top performing Regulatory, Clinical, and Quality professionals.
• I’m also a career counselor to several local Regulatory, Clinical, and Quality professionals and understand what they’re looking for in their careers, and know how to approach them to have them consider your opportunity.
• I am a certified Facilitator for Everyday Engagement methodology for building High Performance Teams.
• I take the time to get to know the “personality” of my client companies so I can better match the personalities of the candidates for a better and longer lasting fit.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM US

• I will take the time to understand what problems you are trying to solve and what type of person would perform best in that role and send you the top 3-5 pre-screened candidates to consider.
• Weekly updates on the status of your search so you KNOW it’s being worked on.
• I have a 74% accuracy rate on submitting candidates you want to interview.
• I have a 93% success rate on getting your offers accepted and having the candidate ready to go on day one.
• Periodic follow ups with the candidate and the hiring manager during the first year to ensure a good fit.
• A 5 year replacement policy to ensure you’re happy with the outcome.

TESTIMONIALS

“…I know that Jeff is not in the business to make ‘a quick buck’. He is a reliable, trustworthy resource who has my best interest in mind. In my fifteen years of experience, the proof is always in the end result. Candidates represented by Jeff have gone on to become key contributors and successful team members. When staffing needs arise, Jeff King is the first person I contact.” – J. Cook QA/RA Director

“…Jeff is thorough in understanding the requirements of each open position. He is considerate of my time, as well as conscientious in his follow up. He is a pleasure to work with.” – M. Ashburn HR Manager

Communication is one of the biggest complaints candidates have throughout the recruiting and interviewing process, and is one of the key reasons you may be missing out on some of the best candidates. It is important to use a recruiter who establishes a strong communication system with employers and candidates and keeps both sides informed at each step of the process. This can prevent you from losing valuable candidates.

Important Steps to Remember

Your recruiter should be following up with candidates after an interview and providing you feedback from the candidate’s perspective.

Many recruiters tell their clients, “I will let you know when I have news,” but that is not good enough. Your candidate should hear from you within 1-2 days to do a debrief of their interview experience. It is respectful to the candidate and keeps them engaged with your position, but also gives you valuable feedback on how your company and interview team are being perceived by candidates. It is also the first chance to identify and clarify any possible “miscommunications” that may have come up during the interviews.

Many recruiters or hiring managers choose to use email to follow up with candidates, and that is certainly a good option and better than no contact with them at all, but you get a much better picture of where things stand by having an actual conversation with the candidate. That is where a good recruiter can use their relationship with the candidate to get honest feedback for you on the interview and also see if they are interviewing elsewhere and if there may be other competitors for this candidate.

If you choose to use an email to follow up with candidates after an interview, here is a template that you can use to follow-up on an interview:

Dear [X],

We would like to thank you for coming in to interview with our team. We are in the process of collecting feedback from all of the interview team members to let you know their decision, and it may take a few more days to hear from everyone, but I didn’t want you to think I had forgotten about you.

You may have questions for me, and I hope you’ll let me know if that is the case. I will be in touch as soon as the interview team’s feedback is complete, but I am always happy to answer your questions in the meantime.

Thanks and have an outstanding day!

Yours,
[X]

This simple email made a positive difference in the candidate’s interview experience.

The stronger the candidate, the stronger the expectations. Make sure you are using a recruiter that builds a strong communication system with your candidates.

Jeff King of RQ Focus follows through with each candidate to make sure you know how the he or she feels about your company and opportunity, and helps you prepare an offer for your chosen candidate that is fair and will be accepted. His professional methodologies help ensure that you hire the highest-quality candidate.

Since Recruiters are paid strictly on a commission basis, we are constantly evaluating our workload to determine where we should be focusing our efforts. We do this for two reasons: 1) to ensure our client company’s needs are being met, and 2) to ensure a placement is made, and a commission is earned.

The elements of a search assignment that we use as a basis of our evaluation are as follows:

• An urgent need to fill the position.
• A well defined and realistic idea of the job candidate you are looking for.
• An open line of communication with the hiring manager.
• A commitment to work as a team to attract and hire top talent.
• Prompt return of phone calls and feedback on job candidates submitted and interviewed.
• A fair and competitive salary is being offered.
• The company is attractive to potential job candidates.
• A fair fee agreement has been signed.

When we receive a job order, we evaluate these elements to categorize the search into one of three classifications:

“A” Search – This classification means the search contains all of these elements. This type of search will get our full attention, meaning we will:

• Conduct a thorough search of our database of current, qualified job candidates.
• Conduct a search of our database of job candidates we know that have the right background, but are not yet qualified job candidates.
• Tap into our networks for referrals to qualified job candidates.
• Cold calling into competitor companies to lure their employees to your opportunity.
• Give weekly updates as the search progresses.

“B” Search – This classification means there are some elements missing, but it’s still a pretty good search. It will still get our attention, but takes a back seat to the A searches. For this type of search we will:

• Conduct a thorough search of our database of current, qualified job candidates.
• Conduct a search of our database of job candidates we know that have the right background, but are not yet qualified job candidates.
• Keep the position in mind as we recruit for our A client companies.
• Submit job candidates only after our A client companies have had first right of refusal for them.

“F” Search – This classification means most or all of the elements are missing. It’s not important to the client company, so it’s not important to us. For this type of search we will:

• Keep the position in mind as we recruit for our A and B client companies.
• Submit possible job candidates only after the A and B client companies have had first right of refusal.

ACTIONS THAT LOWER A CLIENT COMPANY’S CLASSIFICATION

Let’s elaborate on some of the search elements listed above, and how a client company’s actions can reduce the attractiveness of a search assignment.

Prompt Feedback on Job Candidates

If it takes more than 2 or 3 days to get some initial feedback on a job candidate, it can kill the momentum and interest the Recruiter has worked so hard to instill in the job candidate. It also tells the Recruiter that filling this position is not urgent. Also, the better job candidates usually have other options. There is ALWAYS a need for top talent and they will most likely choose to go to a place that shows interest in them and appears more organized during the interviewing process.

Bottlenecks in Communication

If a Recruiter is told “you have to direct all communications through HR”, in most cases that will drop the search to at least a B level search, if not an F. This is not an insult to HR departments, but is more indicative of the problems with this type of approach. The person in HR is usually a lower level person that may not fully understand what a hiring manager is looking for in a job candidate, and probably also has several other open requisitions on their desk, as well as other duties outside of the recruiting process. Often times these people are overworked and outside of their area of expertise. It’s inefficient to ask them to funnel the appropriate job candidates to you when they might not know what that job candidate looks like, or how to select them.

Also, as part of matching a possible job candidate to a company and job, a Recruiter needs to have some contact with the hiring manager to get a feel for personality fits and departmental culture (management style, departmental priorities in the coming months, etc.). HR should certainly by kept in the loop in all communications and activities with the job candidates, but if that is the ONLY communications allowed with a client company, it is extremely rare that that client company will ever get to the “A” priority.

Too Much Authority in the Wrong Hands

In cases where a lower level HR representative is given the authority to review job candidate resumes, or conduct an initial phone interview, and then make the decision of whether or not the hiring manager will even see the job candidate’s resume, we will decline the search 90% of the time. This may seem like a stream lined approach to recruiting, but it often backfires in the following ways:

• VERY few people in the lower levels of HR have a strong enough understanding of the roles of Regulatory, Clinical, and Quality to be able to decide who is a good job candidate and who isn’t.
• An HR employee or contract Recruiter intentionally stalling on a Recruiter’s job candidate to see if they can find someone stronger by themselves to preserve job security.
• An HR employee showing favoritism for a particular search firm’s job candidate because they like that search firm better, or got a nice gift basket from them.

The hiring manager misses out on some very good job candidates and is unaware any of this is going on. The Recruiter can move on to another search assignment, but the client company’s job remains open.

If One Recruiter is Good, Maybe Five Would Be Better

Don’t count on it. You may be thinking that you will have more eyes and ears in the market looking for you, however, there is a limited supply of job candidates in the Regulatory, Clinical, and Quality fields, and even fewer that are considered top talent. If several Recruiters are calling the same people, two things will happen; none of which are good for you.

First – the qualified pool of job candidates will begin to wonder what’s wrong with that company, thinking that they are really desperate needing so many Recruiters because:

1. The opportunity isn’t very appealing.
2. The company must be disorganized.
3. The job opening has an overwhelming workload, and no one else wants to step into that situation.
4. The company is looking for just any “warm body” to fill the position.

Second – the Recruiters will hear that these job candidates are getting calls from several other Recruiters for this position, and they will immediately drop them to a B or F level search.

You may think you have 4, 5, or 10 Recruiters out there working for you when in fact you have 4, 5, or 10 Recruiters that have placed your search on the back burner and have moved on to searches that have a better chance of being filled.

Cutting the Recruiter Out of the Interview Process

This is one that really makes no sense and, luckily, doesn’t happen too often. The Recruiter submits a job candidate you like and you want to interview them. You decide to handle setting up the interviews and contacting the job candidate yourself, without involving the Recruiter. It sends the message you don’t trust the Recruiter. Even more important, you shut yourself off to the inside knowledge the Recruiter has already obtained during their screening process to see if the job candidate is right for your job. For example, we inquire as to whether the job candidate is motivated by salary, title, a new set of responsibilities, etc. Job candidates are less guarded about discussing their concerns with their Recruiter than they would be with a potential employer. If the job candidate gets hired, you still have to pay the Recruiter’s fee – why not get the absolute most for your money? Let the trained Recruiter do their job and earn their fee.

Deteriorating Facilities

You may think this is not very relevant to the decision-making process for a job candidate that is considering an offer from a company, but it’s actually in the top 3 or 4 factors on their list. A job candidate is not only looking for a good opportunity, with a chance to progress in their career, but also a pleasant place to spend 40+ hours a week of their lives. If the building is run down, dimly lit, and depressing, you are fighting an uphill battle in the war for talent.

When we have a job candidate turn down an offer, and the money, title, and scope of responsibilities are all in line with what they are looking for, the next reasons that come up are either the commute, or the facilities. After a job candidate’s first interview, we always ask them if they can picture themselves working for the company. If they say “not without getting a good shrink”, you will have a difficult time getting them on board and offering more money probably won’t do the trick.

Reverse the roles for a minute and consider this. If a job candidate came in to interview for a job wearing ripped jeans and a tee shirt with their favorite band on the front, and had little life to their personality, chances are you would pass on that job candidate. Even if they have the perfect background for the job, and you also have another really good job candidate (but not quite as good as the sloppier job candidate) that is in contention for the job, who showed up dressed much more professionally, you will most likely choose the one that made the better impression. It’s no different for a job candidate considering a new job.

Too Many Decision Makers in the Interview Process

The more people involved in the interviewing process that get to cast a deciding vote, the more likely the job is going to remain open for a very long time, or possibly never get filled. While you will want the job candidate meet with all of the people that are considered critical, and the people they will be working directly with, you should try to limit the number of people that can cast a “deciding” vote to 2 or 3. Any more than that and you significantly decrease your chances of getting a unanimous approval.

If you’ve had some difficulties getting results from recruiters on past searches, maybe you can look back and see where some of these elements may have contributed to the poor results. Or if a recruiter was doing a good job for you and then stopped producing, call them and ask if anything has changed on your search. Sometimes things are going well with the recruiter and the hiring manager, but they keep running into roadblocks or getting different instructions from HR (or vice versa) causing enough confusion and conflict to lower your search ranking.

Of course, it could also be that you were choosing the wrong recruiter for the job. But that’s a discussion for another article.

If you have comments or a story to share, we would love to hear them. And if you have questions, we would love to hear them too.

Some people (recruiters especially) would tell you that you should use a recruiter first thing. I would say try to tap into your own network first for people you know would be good possible job candidates for the job. If you don’t have success with that then you should use a recruiter. I’m not talking about your company’s internal recruiter either. They are good at the more general positions, but unless they have experience specifically finding, attracting, and hiring Regulatory, Clinical and Quality professionals, their success is usually pretty limited.

When we are told we can only talk to HR about helping in a search, they almost always tell us they are finding some good job candidates on their own and don’t need my help, but when we talk to the actual hiring manager they tell us a very different story. They are either seeing a lot of resumes – most of which are pretty lousy, or they are getting very few resumes and they are still not very good. Let’s face it, good Regulatory, Clinical, and Quality people are hard to find no matter what the employment market is like and rarely have the time to go scouring the internet to find your opportunity.

WHY SHOULD YOU USE A RECRUITER?

There are 6 reasons you may want to consider using a recruiter to fill a critical position on your team:

Reason 1: A good recruiter will take the time to get to know what problems you are trying to solve by filling an open position. In order for them to do their job and find the right person for you, they have to focus on the true needs you have and the requirements the successful job candidate MUST have to do the job. This makes the company really focus and helps them make better hiring decisions. Some of the multi-page job descriptions that contain things like “Must be able to sit at a computer for extended periods of time and occasionally lift up to 25 pounds” are pretty worthless and do not help you find or identify the right person for the job.

Reason 2: A good recruiter (especially if they specialize) can access a broader range of qualified and interested job candidates than you can. Only 30% of the qualified talent pool is either actively or semi-actively in job changing mode. These are the ones that respond to ads. The other 70% are busy working and not looking. But a specialized recruiter can access that other 70% to find the person you need.

Reason 3: A good recruiter can drastically reduce the chance of a job candidate withdrawing from contention before an offer is made. Since we establish a rapport with the job candidates we submit, we can tell you of other companies they are talking to, or offers they may be getting. We can keep in touch with the job candidates when the interviewing process breaks down so they are not left wondering what’s going on, and moving on to other opportunities.

Reason 4: A good recruiter can greatly increase the likelihood that your offer gets accepted, and the job candidate shows up on the first day. Since we don’t work directly for our client companies, job candidates are more willing to talk freely about what they are looking for in a job, and what concerns them about a possible opportunity. With that knowledge, and by constantly re-affirming their interest in a possible offer from you, and re-qualifying them on why this opportunity is a good fit for them, we get the people you want over 90% of the time (that’s our success rate, not for recruiters in general).

Reason 5: A good recruiter can greatly reduce the chance of a job candidate accepting a counter offer from their current employer – leaving you without a new hire and having to start the whole process over again. By constructing a good transition strategy including helping the job candidate navigate the resignation and exit process from their current employer, and arming them with how to handle a counter offer situation, you won’t be left with any unwelcomed surprises at the end of the process. This alone will save you a tremendous amount of time, money and frustration; because if a counter offer is accepted you not only lose that job candidate, but most likely lose any runner-up job candidates as well.

Reason 6: Establishing a good relationship with a recruiter offers you a few other benefits that most people don’t think about. For one, you no longer have to settle for mediocre performance from your staff. If someone is underperforming, you can discreetly contact your recruiter and have them find a few alternative job candidates for you to replace the underperformer. The recruiter can also quickly find the right people for you when you need to add to your team because they already know your company, your team, and you. And another benefit is that you can have the right of first refusal on some of the best talent out there. Since we are talking to top performers all the time, when one decides they are ready to look for a new opportunity you can be informed of their availability before anyone else knows about them.

Our client companies are friends and partners in solving critical staffing problems. We like to know what they do, how the team works, what the company is like to work for, and how we can help them achieve their goals. We want them to know how we work, what to expect, and have confidence that we can do what we say. It’s not a transactional type of relationship, but more of a partnership, and both sides benefit from it.