Recruiting Process Phase - 4

Phase IV– Screening Candidates
1. Now you will start getting calls and emails and chat messages for your job requirement due to earlier campaign that you did.


2. Now use your experience to search by yourself in Dice.com, corp2corp and company database to go after individuals who are qualified consultants – use your creative searching capability techniques to search qualified, suitable, genuine and good communication skilled profiles.


3. Once you get hold of profiles on each site and any other job boards that you may have access too.


4. Start reviewing the resume and as you go reading the resume, search for few key strings of the job description in resume and see his legal situation, location, availability, experience depth and versatility in summary skill sets.


5. Look for any awards, achievements, certifications, great solutions that consultant has outlined in resume to make yourself convinced that the candidate could qualify for the job requirement that you are looking for.


6. Please use your courteous communication skills, soft skills, pleasing skills, effective writing skills, speaking skills to pursue the candidate and let him know what kind of project the client has, what kind of client environment the client provides and convey that the client is looking for genuine, committed to deliver attitude and good experienced professionals to make consultant motivated to work for the client.


7. Also assess market rate for the position that you are looking profiles for, do give best possible respectable rate to the consultant to make sure consultant joining the client will stay until the end of the project so no client interests were lost. By placing good consultants at the client site earns the respect for consultant and vendor relationship to the client and it is the right synergy to move forward in recruiting process.


8. Quickly have your quick introduction email and job description ready and mail them the stuff and ask them if they are interested. Do see what time they are allowed to call and what method they are allowed to call and call them.


9. Also keep searching on social sites like LinkedIn, Myspace, FaceBook, twitter etc. In social sites, please join the groups related to your requirements nature. Use those social sites to get the best consultant for the best possible rate so that the best talent can get to client doors.


10. From time to time do spend on responding emails that come from online social sites and increase your network with people in various directions to get associated so that your job makes easier when you are looking for talents for rare skill sets that your client may looking on.


11. Keep continuing and decide how much long you want to do this and in the meanwhile you may get distracted on the phone calls – emails popping up – chat messages coming up – you need to learn juggling windows on your screen or keep them in a size window that you are looking at all the windows from high height view.


12. Based on this list of resumes collected, you may now start reviewing the profiles, mix n match the skill/ requirements specified with those of each profiles, prioritize according to their extent of matching the requirements.


13. Over the time learn the art of sensing qualified resume against unqualified resumes. Your rate of decision making is very crucial in making decision to put the resume either in probable list or not in probable list.


14. Try to accumulate good amount of probable short listed resumes. Call each consultant and do some questions related to the requirement and ask the consultant to discuss about the experience that he mentioned in the resume. Be an advisor yourself to see whether the consultant looks qualified and have good communication skills to explain the questions in a logical manner and you feel he seems fit.


15. While talking to each probable list, please try to note down notes so that it will help you when you need to decide the final top best 3 profiles that you need to submit to your manager for submitting to the client.


16. Sometimes when you work on easy and straight requirements, you get lot of resumes – in this situation you need to learn and practice the art of filtering bad resumes, resumes that are far away from requirements, close matching resumes and best resumes with certifications and locations close to the client site.


17. Sometimes when you work on rare skilled requirements, you get few resumes or none – in this situation you need to be creative in finding the profiles from job portal sites, improve your search ability, look for similar skills that match the requirement – use those keywords to pull out the resumes on portals. Use your people network to ask them to let you know if they have any suitable resume matching that special skill set or close to that requirement in that area. Call all the leads that you get either from colleagues or related skilled consultants and social sites to search and try to convince few good candidates for this type of requirements. Once you are sure that they have agreed and you are comfortable and it makes complete winning situation for client then try to negotiate with the consultant.


18. When locking the rate between the company and the consultant, be very specific on what type of relationship that the consultant will work with the company like W2, W2-Benefits, C2C or 1099. Try to work with some formula or equation to match to market rate to know what rate that you have to offer the consultants so that you can know the boundaries of your negotiation.


19. Do not push the consultant to go down very much on the rate from his asking rate to get to your market rate. Do negotiation only when you see the consultant asking rate is around plus or minus to 15% from the market rate. Otherwise ask him the final rate and try to cut short the conversation by ending the talk professionally. Also check with the consultant if for this requirement if the rate does not get qualified by the client can you get exclusivity from the consultant to market his profile to some other clients in his asking rate. That way you can help the company to attract good qualified talented and experienced professionals on our marketing list.


20. Please follow below additional practices during the conversation with the consultant.
a) Introduce yourself well about the company, client and yourself to make consultant become comfortable and start to open up to talk freely with you. b) Respect the candidates time and privacy (always ask if it is the right time to speak).
c) Check if they are currently working. d) Ask the candidate for technical skills and map with the requirement. e) Check-out the Location preferences/constraints. f) Skills assessment/match/screening o Strength in Technical experience o Strength in communication skills o Strength in his personality o Strength in leadership experience o Strength in his reaction toward the job posted g) Give position details. h) Ask about expected / target pay rate (GC/Citizens) i) For H1B do not discuss the rate with consultant if he is not willing to transfer H1B to our company. j) If H1B consultant want to work on C2C with his employer and if the client contract allows us to do sub-contracting then talk to his employer on rate confirmation. Please send NCA signed by his employer before considering the consultant in the final list for selection. k) Check the availability of consultant and any restrictions that you need to be aware of. l) Take as much information as you can in the first call itself (like his email ids, contact no’s, his location etc) m) Try to get all the details like from the consultant when you talk to him like his Full Name, Present location, Email Id , Contact Details, Official Status, Availability, Total IT Experience, Total US Experience, Relocation, Rate, official References, No of years of experience in each skill set.


21. On successful rate locking with the consultant and the type of relationship allowed to work with the company – do send a confirmation email to the consultant to make sure it is black and white and acknowledged by consultant before you make decision to consider for submission.


22. Sometimes for some requirements and for some clients, you may have to fill-out questionnaire or kind of spread sheet for the submission. So if that the case then check with consultant can he fill out such form once internal review process decisions comes out that he would be submitted to client. Getting all acknowledgements in first round of conversation with the consultant makes you look like more professional, more organized and more planned. In the process you will earn the confidence from the consultant.


23. Also over the time you will get lot of profiles, lot of resumes, lot of consultant ids, add-on network in socials sites – use that database as yourself database for looking up to find the matching consultant for the job requirement that you are looking for.


24. Also please let your team know that you are working on particular skill set requirement and ask them to share any prior submissions that they have that can be shared with you. That will definitely cut your search effort to lot less as those profiles have already gone through quality check process and you can be one step closer for fast turn-around of resume submission.


25. Below are additional tips for short listing profiles:
o Is the candidate's latest work experience related to the job being offered? o Does the candidate have a strong academic background? o What type of companies has the candidate worked for in the past? o What achievements has the candidate demonstrated from previous jobs? o What non−technical and job−specific skills does the candidate possess? o After short listing the profiles, Have a phone conversation with the candidate to check his communication and ensure the content of his resume reflect his experience/ knowledge in the required stream. In this stage the research that you have done in the above step (1.) gives you confidence enough to pose the suitable questions to the candidates and assess them. o Once you feel that the candidate has passed through the above screening process, you may consider the profile as shortlisted o Check for any certification that the consultant has achieved and ask consultant that can he share the copy of certificate to submit to the client. Based upon the feedback you get you can understand the confidence level on the consultant to decided whether he/she can put in the probable list or not? o Also try to ask some negative questions to consultant like are you actively looking since how long? o What is the reason the consultant is now looking for job? o Ask consultant does he ever in the past has not completed the client contract term before he switching the job and find out if they are some then what were the reasons that has happened? o Ask consultant does he have any travel plans in the near future? o Also ask consultant if relocation is any inconvenience to him and if client selects what would be his relocation situation like he/she is prepared to move wherever the job comes or do they have any restrictions? Please note all the conversation notes to help you better judgment that you have to do at later stage. o If enough questions and answers were exchanged during the conversation with consultant, it will make sure that you have enough information to decide whether this consultant is right probable or not. By doing best recruiting practices you are saving your work and making your job easier and earn the consultant respect towards you to let submit his resume at all times.


26. Always remember when you either contact consultant through email or through phone call or through chat message or through online social sites, please make sure your communication exchange is always professional and courteous and do respect any questions that consultant asks you during the conversation and do make effort to reply them to make them comfortable that you are genuine and working recruiter in professional
manner. Do think that is your duty to respond to questions as you are representing both our company and the client while marketing client requirement.


27. If you are struck somewhere in the search process and you need to some tips or direction when expected situations are not common – then please do not hesitate to approach your colleagues or managers to discuss and find a strategy and better approach so you can manage the situation very well.


28. Always shoot for to short list at least as many resumes that meets or exceeds the job requirement as first step and then out of them try to short list the profiles that are close to market rate and close to client asking rate if it is not open rate and official status and location wise you don’t see any restrictions.


29. Company standard is to have short list at least 5-8 best candidates for each requirement to your manager.


30. Below are the tips that you should know and avoid any conversation regarding below topics.
Don’ts with candidate at all times: 1. Avoid introducing race, religion, national origin and other such factors as subject of discussion. 2. Avoid asking about marital status/medical history and they should not be discussed unless the candidate indicates that employment options for his/her spouse are a factor to be considered. 3. Avoid comments about a candidate’s physical appearance and they are inappropriate at all times, even when intended as compliments. 4. Avoid questions related to Criminal record directly. Do not ask if a candidate has been arrested but you may ask the candidate if he has ever been convicted of any crime.