You own or lead a manufacturing facility. You need more ‘good people.’ Whether it’s skilled technicians, skilled sales professionals or skilled cost-accountants, you need to hire more good people. For most manufacturers, this talent acquisition process is tough. Do you believe you could do better?
Here are five tips to look for in an executive recruiter:
- Industry Knowledge: What knowledge and experience do they have of your industry? Do they know your competitors, your geographic and customer reach? Do they regularly search the specific job or jobs you’ll want them to fill. This is a good first question.
- Transparency: Consider this a partnership for you and your company. Does their social media brand suggest they will do what they say? When they promise you something, do they do it? What is the process they suggest? Are they willing and patient enough to explain it to you? Understand how they operate, and be sure you are comfortable with that process.
- Know Your Culture: Find someone who understands your company and its culture. If you have a real high-energy culture, you want to hire high-energy candidates. If you have a culture where people work a lot of hours, you want people who are comfortable working a lot of hours. If you have a casual culture, you want someone who is comfortable in a casual environment. A long-term commitment from an employee results from feeling good about working for you and your company. Good recruiters will find out about your culture from you when you meet in person, or if not possible, through significant phone time.
- Timeline: How quickly does the recruiter expect to fill the job? Your time line is critical to you. Make sure the recruiter regularly performs at the level you need before engaging. Understand that they can fill the kind of job you need filled in the time frame you have in mind. Timeline a definite way to verify their qualifications.
- Follow-Up Process: Do they follow up well? Does their process include weekly updates with feedback on what they’re hearing and seeing on the search as part of the process. You can identify recruiters via Google and through their websites and LinkedIn company profiles. Do more than that. Develop questions to ask prospective recruiters. Commit to phone calls to vet their qualifications.
If you follow these tips, you’re far more likely to engage an interim internal recruiter partner with reasonable certainty that the hard-to-find good people will be walking through your doors soon!
Read 5 Tips to Hire a Good Executive Recruiter and the other informative articles in this issue of Soar to Success magazine.
