Author: Jon Hindman

Those who have been in the recruiting business for more than a decade have likely been through this type of hiring environment before.

It can be summed up like this: Companies are waiting to hire for key positions. A slew of nonqualified job applicants are vying for the potential job openings. And companies are being extra picky about their hiring moves, even when there is clearly some top-notch talent that could fit the open position like a tailored Armani suit.

“I started my career in the mid-’90s, and I worked through the uptick of the recession of the early ’90s. And I worked through the dot-com boom and bust, which affected a lot of other industries, as well,” says Robert L.S. Boroff, managing director of San Francisco-based executive search firm Reaction Search International. And, adds Boroff, the present economic conditions haven’t been friendly to recruiters from his company or other firms nationwide.

Yet recruiters have been survivors, even dating back to the 1930s.

“The executive search industry was actually created during the Great Depression,” says Boroff, giving a quick history lesson. “It was created because there were too few jobs and too many people applying for those jobs. And companies needed an agent to basically screen through those people to find the very best.”

Similar to other tough economic times, the oversaturation in the current market can be a thorn in recruiters’ sides.

“Thousands of people are applying for jobs, which can be very frustrating and a real time-waster, especially as companies are laying off some of their internal recruiting and HR functions,” Boroff says.

New technology has come to the aid of recruiters, something that wasn’t readily available in prior years—even in the wake of the dot-com meltdown. According to Wayne Cozad, managing partner of Cube Management in Beaverton, Oregon, using Internet-related social networking and other available technology has been one key to surviving the recession.

Cozad says Cube, which focuses on placing sales and marketing managers and executives, uses “social networking sites for advertising positions and finding candidates, and for networking with folks who may not be a candidate but might know a candidate. We also use about 800 job boards to post ads, and we feel it’s important to be an Internet-savvy company. We’re definitely part of the electronic age.”

He’s also confident that adopting new technological advances will position Cube well once the economic recovery materializes.

But don’t expect that recovery soon, Cozad says. He expects the job market to affect recruiters, companies and job seekers at least into the fall.

Cozad is not alone. According to the recent Execunet Recruiter Confidence Index, a survey of executive search firms, only 28 percent of recruiters are confident or very confident the executive employment market will improve in the next six months.

Boroff isn’t quite as pessimistic, saying, “Traditionally if you look at the ebbs and flows of hiring, the first part of the year is strong. It wasn’t that way this year. Then usually it goes through the dog days of summer and things slow down. But since we missed that first big hiring influx because everyone was thinking the sky was falling, now companies don’t have a choice but to fill some of those critical roles.”

Boroff’s prediction for the job market may differ from Cozad’s, but one thing they do agree on is that too many of their colleagues in the recruiting field are hanging on to the traditional ways of doing business.

Now it’s more important than ever to listen to a client’s needs and work the referral networks, Boroff says. On top of that, he says recruiters at RSI are direct-recruiting instead of waiting for candidates to come to them.

“Things that we’re doing differently today are using sites like LinkedIn,” Boroff says. “It really gives you a chance to access people that you normally would not be able to get to on a résumé search or database search because they’re not on the marketplace.”

Astoundingly, Cozad says the number of recruiters not using LinkedIn and other social networking is higher than he would have thought. A recent example: “I just got back from a national show down in Tampa with all these recruiters,” he recalls, “and I was really surprised how many sales and marketing recruiters, in particular, still do the ‘old’ résumé/call/referral kind of work without using the Internet and other electronic means that are out there.”

Cozad insists that just tapping into online resources such as Monster isn’t going to cut it.

“Using Google AdWords and other avenues out there to promote your business will bring candidates and clients to you if you’re creative about where you place yourself on the Internet,” he adds.

In other words, adapt or become extinct.

It shouldn’t come as a huge shock that military officers are a sought-after group of individuals for corporate management positions.

In particular, recruitment is heavy in industries such as aerospace and defense, where assets including leadership, work ethic, commitment and even Rolodexes filled with names of key military personnel are elements to individual and corporate success.

Officers, however, are often jarred by the bumpy road they face when transitioning into civilian leadership positions. There are exceptions to every rule, but by and large, there is a certain culture shock that takes place. Recruiters and the corporations pursuing military officers need to be aware that special attention must be paid to this particular segment of job recruits.

Emily King never sugarcoats the transition from military leadership to civilian leadership with her clients. King has had more than a decade of experience working with veterans to help them—and the corporations that hire them—better understand what’s in store. Two years ago she started her own Washington-based consulting firm, King Street Associates, which has a division dedicated to military-transition coaching.

“What we’ve found is that many ex-military officers leave their first civilian job within the first three years,” King said. “They often have the misconception that since they’re being hired for their military experience, the job is going to be basically like it was in the military, just in a different venue.”

This is far from the truth, and Eric Peterson, manager, diversity and inclusion initiatives at the Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Virginia, points out that an entirely different approach has to be taken when placing veteran officers in corporate positions.

“At SHRM, we really take a broad definition of diversity,” Peterson said. “It’s not simply the traditional diversity categories you might think of, but anything that makes you markedly different.”

In other words, it makes sense that much like someone with a disability requiring special needs and attention, military officers may also need particular tools and education that other job recruits would not.

“The military has a very specific culture. They break you down and build you back up as a soldier,” said Peterson, who added that it’s a difficult proposition to just leave that lifestyle behind.

Some military leaders have trouble shifting their managerial style in a corporate setting. They might bark commands or mismanage time and resources to meet a deadline because they were never instructed on how different the corporate culture is from what they’ve been accustomed to during their military careers.

King says most recruiters and corporations don’t understand how important catered training programs are to these former armed forces commanders.

“They don’t have any specialized knowledge or resources to help these leaders easily transition, understand the learning curve and become productive quickly,” King said. “They’re thrown into new-hire orientations with kids coming out of college and other new employees. But these officers have a specific set of challenges that aren’t shared by most other groups.”

King has seen a lack of patience too.

“The time that it takes for them to be productive, successful and accepted by their peers in an organization is a lot longer,” she said.

Peterson agreed, and said that not taking proactive steps to train and educate former military leaders “is almost always a recipe for failure.”

If these recruits seem too high-maintenance, King and Peterson insisted that the upfront investment pays off. While they’re highly recruited and normally paid lofty salaries, the experience, knowledge and dedication they bring to the table is often unparalleled by other employees—even other executive leaders.

Because of this, King recommended that recruiters try to better understand what the transition will be like and work with their corporate clients to develop mentoring and training programs, which could even be taught by other former military leaders. Putting more stock into the “human capital” investment is always a smart move, but almost a necessity in this case.

Peterson said companies that are able to keep these unique leaders on board ultimately will reap the benefits. And as for recruiters, he said one important piece of the puzzle is to make sure veterans, whether former officers or not, feel wanted, valued and respected.

Ultimately, he added, tapping into the military for recruiting efforts, if done correctly, can give recruiters an additional, viable pool of candidates.