Of course you a company can lower fees. . . but you will need to lower your expectations.
Let me ask this:
Do you expect to receive the same attention to detail?
Do you expect to receive the same level of serice.
Do you expect to get as many targeted referrals?
Do you expect to work with someone as experienced?
There are a lot more questions I could pose, but these are basic questions. If you answer yes to any of these questions, you're being unrealistic.
Why?
An experienced search professional invests a lot of time and resources and effort to complete a search. Why should they work for a half or a third of what they could earn in the current climate (a hot market with labor shortages)?
And the successful recruiter wants to be paid for their efforts and experience, just as your company does.
Let me pose this question--If your company is approached today about selling its product or service for a half or a third of what it charges, would it sell it and support it for that?
Why should a recruiter do that unless they were selling you the best of what was left after they sold it to their normal paying clients? To say it another way, they will send their best applicants to the company that will pay them a normal fee. After all, if you referred someone who is hired at a $100000 salary, don’t you think they want to $20000, $250000 or $30000 instead of $10000?
But, I’ll offer them volume and exclusivity!
Experience says that isn’t the case and that you’ll expect them to work as hard as they do now for their higher fee.
The fact is, I know search firms who accept a flat fee of $3500 per hire for a generic staff person . . . and the experience is very generic and they require very little effort or pre-screening.
Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com
© 2006 all rights reserved.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist..
To learn more about his search services for employers, go to www.thebiggamehunter.net
To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.vippersonalsearch.com.
If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).
