May is warming up to be a fantastic month for recruiters in Canada seeking new opportunities to work on exciting staffing projects with top earnings potential. If you are looking for a new assignment as an executive recruiter, search consultant, or branch manager in Canada, then you will want to review the great assignments we have this month at Professional Selection!

Here are just a few of the featured recruiter jobs in Canada for May:

Submit your cover letter and a recent resume/CV directly to us for consideration: http://www.professionalselection.com/search-jobs.php

IT Recruiters, Account Managers, Development Managers and more abound in the Ottawa, Vancouver, Toronto, North York and Montreal regions. Several prominent IT and communication firms have either moved into the area or are in the process of building new facilities, so there is a huge need for recruiting pros in the information technology field. Apply now if you have experience in this industry and are looking for flexible work.

General Recruiters and Search Specialists are needed in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto and Mississauga are needed to source and place multiple professionals in several leading industries including technology, engineering, health care, energy and more. We are looking for those who either have strong sales or recruiting backgrounds , and the desire to earn between $50,000 to $120,000 annually.

Engineering Recruiters and Business Managers with at least 1-3 years of experience and a solid track record are needed to earning six figure salaries in Calgary. This area has many energy and oil companies moving into the area so they need good people like you to find great employees. Expect higher than average earnings and a fast paced work environment.

Accounting and Finance Search Consultants and Recruiters needed in Canada to fill exciting assignments in this exploding industry. The new economy demands top finance and accounting staff, so if you have experience in this area, be sure to apply for an opening in Mississauga or Vancouver today!

Think you have the skills and experience to make a difference in Canadian recruiting? We want to talk to you now!  Submit your professional cover letter and a recent resume/CV directly to us at: http://www.professionalselection.com/search-jobs.php

Closing the agreement between a recruiting client and a superb candidate can be a hair-raising activity. It requires the skills of a seasoned recruiting professional to be able to seal the deal when there is a lot at stake.

After spending a great deal of time screening, interviewing and identifying the key talents of your candidate, you want to make sure he or she is placed in the best possible assignment with the right client. Once the interviews have produced a positive response in both parties, it’s time to help both sides to get what they want and need out of the employment relationship.

Read on for 5 tips on how to successfully close the circle between clients and candidates.

Tip 1 – Know all the “Must Haves” Before Matching Candidates with Clients

As you talk with both your candidate and your client, be sure to identify specific factors that are not areas for negotiation. These can be areas such as salary range, specific job duties, qualification requirements, and length of service. Get these things out on the table first, so that a proper employment contract can be created that agrees with both sides.

Tip 2 – Find out What the Client Can Offer the Candidate for the Long Term

Every candidate, especially those who are higher level, is seeking opportunities for long-term career growth. Therefore, you will want to make sure that the corporate culture and the opportunities present are a good fit for your candidate.

Tip 3 – Develop Trust with Hiring Managers and Candidates

Building rapport with your candidates and clients will help you to become the trusted authority as you work with them. This will help you to better seal the deal in terms of how both sides can agree on the employment arrangement.

Tip 4 – Keep all Communication Open and Honest

One of the key success factors in any employment agreement is the ability to communicate freely with both your candidate and your client. If a question comes up, swiftly get the right information to quell any concerns. Act as a facilitator between your clients and candidates.

Tip 5 – Anticipate Additional Requests and Expectations

As you go into negotiations with your candidates and clients, you will have new requests come up. Be prepared with counter-offer terms and some ways to add benefits to both sides. Highlight as much positive as you can, and set a deadline for making the deal happen.

For more recruiting tips and advice for being a more effective recruiter, be sure to come back to the Professional Selection blog often. Remember that we also have many career opportunities for recruiters too.

Getting candidate referrals can be the lifeblood of a successful recruiting career. By having the right referral sources, a recruiter can cut back on the time spent searching through countless candidate resumes, placing emphasis back on sourcing great assignments for high quality professionals. For the most progressive recruiters, it’s not where you look, but who to ask, that makes all the difference.

To get to the bottom of making referrals work for you, it’s important to examine how recruiters today are getting in front of the right influencers to find great candidates. The best candidates are those whom are not actively looking for a job, but rather working hard to build a career. While personal networking with local businesses and associations is still critical to getting ongoing referrals, there are also many online resources available. Such tools as social media and professional directories can be ripe with passive candidates.

There are some ways to step up your ability to get more referrals by learning how to get to these passive candidates through your circle of influence. One of the best ways is to develop a presence on your own social channels and associations as a premier recruiter in your specific niche. This can easily be accomplished by setting up professional profiles on social networking sites, a website, and through local marketing efforts. Casually hoping to get a few good candidates is not going to get you in front of the right people, but rather actively putting yourself in places where you are likely to attract passive candidates.

If you have placed good people on assignments, many times these folks can be your biggest cheerleaders in terms of getting more referrals. In addition to being put in touch with suitable colleagues, oftentimes you may hear of other businesses in your niche looking to bring on board equally great candidates –opening the door for you to work with more organizations in your niche. This becomes a win-win situation for all involved.

Sometimes, the best referrals you can get for upcoming assignments can come from those you associate with on a regular basis; other recruiters and HR pros. In this day and age when there are still many people looking for suitable employment, there are likely to be candidates who have terrific skills that will be perfect for your assignment. Consider the advantages of partnering with other recruiters in split-commission arrangements and you can double the efficiency of your recruiting efforts.

Keep an open mind when it comes to your referrals, as sometimes they come from unusual sources, such as friends, family members, civic and religious associations. There may be opportunities to help your clients get great people on board, merely by asking for referrals from these sources. As a recruiter, you should always be looking for candidates with a variety of skills, so be sure to ask around and get a handful of these high quality candidates in your pocket and ready for the next assignment.

With various Internet and technology-based options available to help find highly qualified and skilled candidates, there are more employee recruitment opportunities now than ever before A variety of methods can give you the best possible list of qualified candidates when looking to fill a position.

While print advertisements are still frequently used for recruiting new employees, there are other ways to supplement job advertisements when looking for skilled applicants, many of which are a big improvement from traditional recruitment methods. If you can develop an improved strategy for recruiting employees, your company will discover a smoother process when hiring new employees.

• Internet resources. The internet offers a wide variety of options when you are looking for new job candidate recruitment methods. For starters, you can place an advertisement on a variety of job boards, online trade magazine sources or blogs, and forums dedicated to job seekers in your industry. Aside from placing ads for the position you are recruiting for, you can also search employer-employee websites that offer detailed search options to find potential candidates which match the skill set you are looking for.
• Social media. Social media on the Internet, such as Facebook, Linked In and Twitter, offer a range of possibilities when looking to recruit. While social media websites originated as a way for individuals to communicate on a more personal level, they are now being used for business purposes. Through social media outlets, it’s possible to find great candidates who have the educational background, work experience, or skills you are looking for in a potential candidate.
• Employee referrals. One of the best ways to find high quality job candidates is through your current employees. Employee referrals offer a way to get in touch with individuals who are extremely qualified, yet provide you with a professional reference as well. By communicating upcoming job positions in your company, you may find the best candidates come directly from employee referrals.
• Mobile recruiting. Technology has paved the way to more advanced and successful ways of finding quality job candidates, including mobile recruitment. Mobile recruiting includes using various smart phone applications and social technology for contacting individuals who are qualified for the position and may be interested in working for your company. It is just beginning to become a popular way for finding potential job candidates.
• International recruitment. When recruiting for a niche or specialized market or when you are in search of an individual who will fit a senior position at your company, International recruitment is often the best available choice. Global recruiting offers more options when searching for job candidates and is especially beneficial for businesses with a very specific, niche market.
• Self-advertisement. Self-advertising is still commonly used for finding high quality job candidates and you may find that you are more comfortable with this option. Self- advertising for a job position includes print advertisements in the newspaper, trade magazines, or other forms of job advertisements where job seekers typically come to you when they are interested in the position you have available. By being upfront about the requirements, such as their educational background, work experience and skills, you can find high quality candidates using self advertising methods.

Successful recruiting can be a daunting task when you are flooded with resumes of candidates who are not entirely qualified for the position. By using different methods of finding high quality individuals, you can have the position filled rather quickly though. Choose from a variety of options by incorporating technology, directories, and referrals in order to broaden your search for the perfect candidate.

Social media is an important part of the lives people lead today. It can even be instrumental in the job search process for candidates seeking a job. It’s safe to say that most job applicants today have some sort of social media presence. You may have even used social media in an effort to attract high-quality candidates to apply for an available position. But how ethical is it to look them up and use the information you discover to help you make hiring decisions?

The Pros of Social Networking for Recruiting

There are many benefits to using social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to help you find top talent in almost any field. It’s great to be able to actively recruit highly qualified candidates through the power of technology and social networks alone.

In fact, it’s a mutually beneficial use of the social networking circle. There are even circles or groups that are designed to help maximize the roles of social networks in the job search and recruitment process.

The Possible Downside of Social Networking for Recruitment

It’s all good when everything is positive. It’s when things turn negative and social networks are being used to validate or eliminate potential employees that social networking looks a little murkier.

The problem is that it is new territory, from a legal point of view. Once again, technology is outpacing the laws put into place to protect potential employees from perceived discrimination. Many people post a lot of information on their social networking pages that is legally protected in matters of discrimination.

Religious views, political affiliations, marital/relationship status, children, and so much more are posted among “friends” on these feeds. The problematic issue is that no one can prove if someone is passed over for a position based on what they post. And, as a recruiter, you can’t prove that an offending post didn’t contribute to your decision not to hire someone, since the post was available and you did use social networks as part of the hiring/background gathering process.

But the stickiness is just beginning. On the other side of the legal coin is the fact that if something negative happens as a result of you hiring an employee, and it is later discovered that there were clear indicators of a history of violence in this employees social networks at the time he was hired, the company could possibly be held legally liable.

Right now, there is no clear-cut, absolute answer as to whether it’s legally right or wrong to use information on social networks as part of the hiring process – much less whether or not it’s morally right or wrong. The general consensus is that the value of the information gained through checking out the social media history of applicants is minimal at best, and possibly not worth the potential risk it poses. Business owners, of course, in consult with their legal representatives, will be left to ponder this question on their own,   until case law catches up with technology and the courts begin setting precedence on the subject.

April is warming up to be a very active month in terms of new recruiting assignments in Canada! Professional Selection has multiple open assignments for salaried and retainer recruiters, both flexible and full time roles. We’d love for your new career to take off by submitting your qualifications to us!

Here is a rundown of the featured career opportunities at Professional Selection this month:

Sales and Account Managers – A premier Vancouver IT specialty staffing agency is looking for multiple sales personnel, account managers, recruiters and a business development manager. Salaries range from $45,000 to $90,000, plus generous commissions for highly successful recruiting pros. If you have an IT or software background, you will want to apply now.

Recruiting Generalists and seasoned staffing pros from all industries – are invited to apply for several assignments in Vancouver, Edmonton, and Montreal territories. Flexible hours with above average salaries from $50,000 to six figures!

Engineering Search Consultants and a Branch Manager assignment awaits you with a progressive Calgary recruitment firm. If you love working a flexible schedule, sourcing from a large array of resources, and love people – then this is the place for you. Look forward to salaries in the range of $50,000 to $75,ooo annually, with generous benefits.

Toronto, Montreal and Ontario offer some of the best Recruiting and Management opportunities this year, with multiple assignments open in the IT and Engineering industries that are just exploding. Look for starting salaries in the $40,000 t0 six figure range. Previous technology and sales candidates are encouraged to apply.

Be sure to submit your professional cover letter and a recent resume/CV directly to us at http://www.professionalselection.com/search-jobs.php

As is often the case, recruiters are asked to convert from a contingency search to a retainer. While there are certainly superficial differences between a contingency search and a retainer, particularly in how the recruiter is compensated, a true retained search agency practice is in a lot of ways like a temp agency business — at least more so than a permanent placement business. However, both use the business division of labor model.

For instance, in a larger retainer practice, it is typical for a search director to farm out some duties to a support staff. Some of the tasks a search director delegates in the research and screening. This resembles a business organization whereby a sales or account manager will dish out the function of recruiting to a staffing professional or coordinator.  On the other hand, a large majority of recruiters on contingency perform their own research and screening when filling their job order assignments.

As far as payment terms go: Because a retained search executive is assigned to an exclusive project designed to identify and screen suitable applicants for a designated position, the estimated fee is typically set up in three monthly installments. On the flip side, for the vast majority of contingent arrangements, the fee is contingent on successful completion. Therefore, if the individual receives an engagement fee, it’s considered a contingency search, which includes a cover charge.

Accordingly, before you decide to provide retained search services, we recommend looking at the candidate experience and qualification level. For positions that pay a salary of under $100,000 annually, rarely are retainers used. For instance, if you mostly handle mid-market type of candidates such as programmers, accountants, and engineers, it’s rare that you will be doing retained work.

To drive this point home further: Let’s say you are filling non-management or middle level positions. Retained searches for these types of positions are not usually worth the trouble. Unfortunately, they can also end up in disaster. Looking at the big picture — from an economic point of view — you are exposing yourself to an open-ended commitment, matched up with a fixed rate. This is not ideal. Although the money is guaranteed, what happens if the search ends up bogging you down? Well, what happens is you are stuck with working for something like a dollar an hour.

Here’s another con to add to the list: many hiring managers of lower level or even middle level positions do not consistently put forth the required effort to attract not only the best talent, but suitable talent to put. Typically, what you will find that they lack a sense of urgency, which results in delayed closing and filling of qualified candidates.

For these reasons, we say be careful what you wish for — if what you are wishing for is retainers.

If you are thinking about becoming a recruiter or just became one, you may have learned by now that recruiting firms have two primary ways of functioning: on a contingency basis or retainer basis. Let’s take a look at the major features of each.

Retainer

In a retainer situation, the client — who is the hiring company — pays the recruiter at least an initial retainer before the actual recruiting on the assignment begins. Once the initial retainer and recruiting agreement is signed, the recruiter can begin work. It’s quite common for the retainer to be paid in three installments, whereby the second and third retainer payments are tied to specific performance outcomes or time lines. The recruiter may be working on that particular assignment exclusively, and their responsibility is to provide qualified candidates for the open position for that company.

This all sounds good, but keep in mind that the recruiter who is working on a retainer, it can be feast or famine. The client has greater control of the entire recruiting process in a retainer setup. Additionally, the client typically must be convinced that the recruiter can be successful in sourcing, recruiting, and delivering qualified candidates.

Contingency Search

In a contingency search arrangement, the recruiter only receives payment if they fill the position. And it is not unheard of for the same open position assignment to be farmed out to a number of recruiters.

Contingency search can be non-exclusive or exclusive. In a non-exclusive contingency search, the client only receives from each recruiter one measured outcome. That is, there is no mutual commitment. Because it is non-exclusive, candidates can be presented to multiple clients. This approach is frequently used on low-priority open positions.

On the other hand, an exclusive contingency is a signed exclusive agreement between the client and recruiter, and typically includes a specific time line. The time frame is commonly 30 to 90 days. In specific, the recruiter must deliver results according to a specified time line. The recruiter penetrates the talent pool more greatly in an exclusive contingent search. All candidates, whether externally sourced, referrals, internal, or walk-ins follow the same process, which enables the client to make an unbiased decision. This arrangement is typically desired for high-priority open positions or time-sensitive positions. With an exclusive contingency, regardless of the source of a candidate filling the position, the recruiter is entitled to payment during the period of exclusivity.

Which is Better?

In a contingency search versus a retainer comparison, one is not necessarily a better approach than the other. Rather, the relevant question is which approach would better serve the interest of the client. The decision of the best approach should reflect the priority of the client in filling the position. A careful discussion between the client and recruiter should take place to determine the appropriate priority in filling each opening. Once the priority is established, the recruiter and client can decide whether a contingency or retainer would be a better fit for the recruiter and achieve the best results for the client.

As a recruiter, your job is often to get the best possible person in the position, at the most reasonable salary. When someone comes in for an interview, you may need some time to make that decision. On the other hand, you do not want to be the victim of a counteroffer that knocks your offer off the table. What can you do to give yourself time and yet not lose the potentially best candidate for the job? It is all about knowing what the signs are of a potential counteroffer.

Consider Candidate Motivation

Is the person motivated to find a new job and why? Determine that the actual reason for job dissatisfaction is. In some situations, an individual is not going to be upfront about this. However, if you can determine if it is just money related, you can likely count on a situation in which a counteroffer is all the individual is after.

Past Positions

Ask the candidate how he or she chose their last position. As part of your conversation, ask questions about the last time the individual was hired. Determine if the individual accepted past counteroffers. If so, that is a clear indication that he or she is likely to do it again. Be aware that this may or may not happen – it depends on what other factors were at hand.

Are They New to Applying for Jobs?

One thing to be specifically interested in is how many jobs the individual has had in the past. Those who have had limited job experience or may even be applying for their first position are more at risk of accepting counteroffers than those who are more seasoned in the process.

How to Prevent It

When it comes to protecting the company and your time, it pays to put in place some level of prevention. Every candidate will react in a different way to a warning about counteroffers. Some will see it as a positive sign while others will treat it more aggressively.

What can you do to prevent this from happening then? If you have put an offer on the table and the candidate has accepted it, you can take a deep breath but just for a moment. Be sure the candidate understands the offer and is ready to move. Encourage them not to talk to competitors.

Are You Seeing the Signs?

Consider the warning signs for the counteroffer. Are you dealing with these?

• Delays or interruptions during the interview cycle may indicate that the individual is interviewing with others.
• If the individual is indecisive for a long period, this could also be a problem. If the individual keeps coming back asking for additional information, this is also an indication he or she just does not want the job.
• Did the current employer just throw in a surprise review? It is understood that a good candidate is worth keeping around and a current employer is likely to offer a review, a raise or better benefits.

What can you do? Help the candidate you have offered a position to move on. To do this, help them with that resignation letter. Put a time stamp on it. Get the ball rolling quickl

Early in the year is a great time to launch your recruiting career in Canada! If you are a recruiter of any level seeking a new and improved assignment this year, then the exciting recruiting assignments we have currently can offer you just the opportunity you need to succeed. We have recruiting work in many different industries from technical and IT recruiting to financial and accounting recruiting jobs.We invite you to review our current jobs at Professional Selection, including our featured jobs for February!

Just review our top jobs for February and then be sure to submit your professional cover letter and a recent resume/CV directly to us at http://www.professionalselection.com/search-jobs.php

Here are our February featured recruiting jobs in Canada we are looking to fill with great candidates now!

IT Recruiting and Sales Assignments in Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal – both full time and part time, we have many IT recruiting assignments to fill this year that can help you make a difference in this growing industry. Expect flexible schedules, and generous salaries from $45,000 to $90,000 annually, with plenty of bonuses.

Contract Recruiters and Search Consultants in Vancouver and Calgary- look for great candidates to fill positions in many top industries, which translates to above average earnings, work-life balance, and plenty of fun. Salaries ranging from entry level $65,000 to $250,00 for manager level.

Recruiting Generalists and Account Managers in London, Toronto and Ottawa – For more seasoned generalist recruiters and sales professionals, we have many assignments in the $65,000 to $80,000 range. Look for several openings in IT, Accounting and Finance, and Engineering.

Review our entire listing of new recruiting assignments in Canada by clicking HERE

See something that you may be qualified for? Please submit your professional cover letter and a recent resume/CV directly to us at http://www.professionalselection.com/search-jobs.php