Rain makers, heavy hitters, seller-doers and design leaders are what we are all seeking to lead our companies, professionals, projects and design departments. Someone who can rally the troops or bring in the new client and break into a new market can usually write their own ticket. How do you attract these people? How is your opportunity to build a group any different than what they are currently doing for your competitor? Will bringing this person on alienate your current professionals? Should you offer stock or a sign on bonus to capture this “whale”? Can you hire this professional in spite of his or her non-compete? These questions trouble the big firms and small firms alike. We have sat in the office of the presidents of all sorts of companies and discussed with them the difficulties of attracting talent.
Are you experienced attracting someone from a national top 50 AE firm? What if you are the national player? Many small firm top players are leery of becoming just another number in a big firm. The initial conversations with the highly sought after candidate are critical. Any top performer is already aware of your firm. Make sure the recruiter you choose to work with is capable of handling the difficult questions right away. The should be very imformed about the people that the candidate will be working for and with. Additionally make sure that same recruiter knows about the difficulties and issues your firm has faced. You really can't give enough information to prepare a recruiter. The typical job description of managing a design department and bringing in new clients doesn’t cut it. Tom Cruise once said, “Help me help you”.
There is a reason so many people try recruiting. It’s a great career. Recruiters get to offer people new jobs. What a fulfilling reward. As a headhunter we play hr, private eye and vice president of sales all in one call. Inherently there is a great reward presented to you when an engineer who’s worked on BART, the Alyeska Pipeline and a controversial project in the Florida Keys asks you what to do regarding a career opportunity you have presented. This means more people enter recruiting than the AEC community can sustain and you have an excess of professionals doing what they must to make a living. Having influential people rely on you to make critical career decisions is a great weight also. Top recruiters are capable of outside of the box thinking and have a fast paced mental capacity allowing them to handle real questions and difficult issues. Possessing a strong business acumen and healthy professional rapport is also key for anyone making a living on the phone.
Fusion recruiting has the ability to judge which candidates to bring to the table and dig down and find the quiet unknown diamond in the rough. We are also able to attract the strongest most well known candidates. At that point it is our job to make sure you have the tools to entice this key player. Continuing to keep the pressure on without scaring the passive candidate can also be a huge hurdle. How many times have you met a competitor who asked you to cross the street every time you saw him at a function? This type of persistence is actually a deal killer.
Think of all the hires that didn’t work out. Did you keep your promises to the construction management professional who didn’t want to pound the pavement and cold call clients? Did you hire an architect who prefers to work in an AE environment versus a pure architectural firm? Did you create a disgruntled business development professional by removing him or her from the project work once the project was won allowing for an insufficient client relationship?
I can assure you Fusion Recruiting has more of these conversations than most AEC consulting firms do. Experience the difference with a recruiter who knows your industry and wants to work hard with you to achieve your goals.
From time to time we have been asked to place professionals on a temporary or hourly basis. Feel free to discuss these needs as well.