James Hornick: “The job market for recruiters themselves is like something I’ve never seen”
James Hornick is a partner at Hirewell. A US-based recruiting firm with specialized practices in technology, HR & recruiting, marketing, sales, finance & accounting, and real estate. They also have a strong internal recruitment competency (our on-demand service) and recently acquired a recruitment software company to drive innovation in the industry. He started out as a tech recruiter before launching on their marketing recruiting practice. Currently, he oversees business development, marketing, and GTM strategy.
What are the main challenges and difficulties that recruiters are facing right now?
Deciding where they want to work? The job market for recruiters themselves is like something I’ve never seen. Every company is short-handed and salaries for recruiters are skyrocketing. So if you’re a recruiter, it’s a high class problem.
But the real challenges are what’s driving the demand for recruiters: the demand for high skill talent like software devs, product, sales, marketers, etc. Everyone in these areas has their pick of opportunities. Even when you find great candidates, every hire is a battle.
Even when you find great candidates, every hire is a battle.
What you would say is the deepest flaw in the present recruiting community? What needs to be revised ASAP?
The contingent recruiting model and the employer side’s continued use of it. Asking anyone work without making a commitment ensures the lowest possible effort. No other services industry (tech consulting, digital, advertising, accounting, etc.) would even consider doing it. And it compounds when more hiring orgs’ MO is to use multiple.
Contingent recruiters tune out and bail on searches at the first sign of difficulty. This causes massive problems with candidate experience, poor vetting, ghosting and pretty much every other thing people hate about the recruitment process.
Can you explain what Managed Recruiting is and why you think it is the future?
Traditional contingent recruiting services provide glorified sourcing and prelim screening. Meanwhile, hiring has become more complex. Skill sets in every sector have become more specialized, so the people you need are harder to find. And the competition for that talent has increased, making efficient interview processes and messaging critical. Managed Recruiting bridges these gaps.
Our teams have domain knowledge in their respective areas far deeper than a generalist recruiter could. And they’re well versed on the internal process side. It’s a true partnership where we can manage all the time-consuming internal aspects: running the interview process, creating job ads, setting up and managing an ATS, partnering with hiring managers on process improvement and messaging, finalizing offers, etc. We do all the recruiting work and make our client’s lives easier.
Stop making assumptions about what job seekers want to see. If you want to know what will get them interested in your company, go to the source. Survey job seekers, both those who applied to your positions and those who didn’t. And recent new hires.
What makes them respond to a recruiter? What did they want to know about a company before accepting an offer? What questions do they ask in interviews? How did they find your company? What did they like about it when they accepted? What do they like most now?
You can run all this with simple Google Surveys. You’ll get a ton of insights on what works and what doesn’t.
Stop making assumptions about what job seekers want to see.
What will be you advice to the recruiters that are reading us?
If you’re working at a boiler room contingency shop (where most of us started), hating life because you’re caught up in underpaid, micromanaged hell: get out. There’s no need to put yourself through it. Not all firms are like this. There are plenty of shops who take a consultative approach to solving hiring challenges and give their teams the freedom they need to succeed without any unnecessary pressure. If you’re interested in joining Hirewell, hit me up.
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