Note: This article was first published in Danny Cahill’s newsletter, According to Danny.

Dear Danny,

I’m going to try and explain my situation as best I can because there are a lot of moving pieces.

I have a VP I work with and we have a great relationship. I know exactly what he’s looking for and every placement I’ve made with him has been very successful (according to both parties). During my time working with him I also built a great relationship with a woman in HR and she gave me several searches that weren’t related to the VP I know.

Recently I made a placement with her. After the first month of this person starting, he got sick, very sick and was in the hospital for almost 30 days. My contact and I agreed that we would extend my guarantee for 30 days on the premise that I would find a replacement if needed for 66% of my normal fee. That was in line with my 30, 60, 90 day guarantee, only extended to 120 days.

Well, on day 117 he quit. (more…)

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Earlier this week I invited Fordyce readers to tell us how often they got a response — any response at all — to cold-call emails and voicemails you send or leave for candidates and clients.

The results are reported in the accompanying chart. The headline is that emails get a better response rate than do phone messages.

What it says is that almost 40% of those of you who took part in the survey say you get a call back to your phone message less than 25% of the time. Looked at from another angle, hardly anyone is getting anywhere close to half their messages returned.

Email, though. gets better results. Just under 8% of the respondents told us they are getting a response to at least half — and in some cases more than 75% — of their emails.

Our poll is anything but scientific. A properly conducted, random survey of recruiters and response rates might come up with very different results. However, it does track with what I’ve heard anecdotally, and with some surveys about email reply rates.

What prompted our Fordyce poll was a  Top Echelon Network poll about same day callback rates. That survey of members of the splits network found few are getting called back the same day they leave a message.

In a recent post written by Neil Patel for Quicksprout, he states, “In most cases recruiting firms don’t have the best candidates. Why you may ask? It’s because talented people don’t need recruiters to help them find a job.”

That’s a pretty loaded statement.

Patel then goes on to say,

If someone is really good at what they do, they’ll constantly be bombarded with job offers.

Recruiting firms are not the temp agencies of yore. Patel needs to update his information. (more…)

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Dear Barb:

I feel like there are so many trainers out there, and after attending two conferences in the last year, my people are confused on what ideas they should implement. We attend all the free teleconferences or webinars offered, read three trade publications, have internal training, and I send my team to at least two conferences.

How do you know who has the better methods or techniques when trainers, in essence, disagree with each other? It confuses my sales team, and I’m wondering if I’m not providing too much training if that is possible. I mandate that each of my employees reads a sales book each quarter. Some of the ideas they come back with, I would never implement in my company. How do I get the greatest ROI on the money I’m spending on training?

Ron H.

Dallas, TX

Dear Ron:

When I first entered this profession, I felt the same confusion and there weren’t near as many trainers as you have today in our profession. It has been proven by the Department of Education and great sales organizations that you must create and implement a consistent successful repeatable sales process. (more…)

More tech startups than at any time in the last four years will be looking to hire this year, says Silicon Valley Bank, but they worry they won’t be able to find the talent they need.

Even as most leaders and founders of the firms surveyed by the bank for its annual Startup Outlook say conditions in the U.S. are better this year than last, the number of them who report hiring talent is their biggest challenge has grown. Nine out of 10 executives report finding and hiring the talent they need is their biggest challenge.

The annual survey, says 87% of the tech startups reported plans to add staff this year. That’s up four points from last year, and 14 points from the first survey conducted in 2010. The strongest market for startup hiring, according to the report, is Texas. The Boston area and metro New York are 3rd and 5th respectively.

Finding Talent Is Biggest Challenge

Software and hardware startups report having the hardest time finding the tech talent they need. For healthcare sector firms, hiring is not quite as much of a challenge — 17% describe it as “extremely challenging” compared to the next lowest scoring industry, cleantech, where 23% described hiring that way. However, healthcare startups are also the least likely to be adding staff, at least compared to the sectors.

Perhaps not too surprising, only the smallest of startups, those with fewer than 10 workers (which tend to be very early stage firms), say their biggest challenge, just ahead of finding talent, is the compensation it takes to land tech professionals. For every other size firm the biggest challenge is finding workers with the necessary skills.

Most in demand, especially among hardware startups, are the STEM skills; 82% of the executives said they are looking for those workers, and 40% reported no skills are more important. Only 17% said management, marketing, or other non-STEM skills are important to them.

Today I have had a great morning on the telephone, I have:

• Called my consultants for updates and offered my advice in a couple of areas they were struggling in;
• Rang my key clients with updates (picked up a few new exclusive roles whilst doing so);
• Chased a few candidates for interview feedback and was advised to call an excellent professional who is looking for a move (MPC for next week);
• Spoken with various candidates who are all great matches for two urgent positions we are working on at the moment. One informed me of an interview he had attended recently with a client I have worked with in the past;
• Chased a lead and have secured a new training session;
• Made just six calls (to companies I have not spoken to before) on my MPC and arranged two telephone interviews.

I admit I loved every minute of it. All my calls were planned. I did not think for one minute I was making a sales call, but what did happen was I achieved results,. The calls reminded me how much I enjoy using the telephone; the results are instantaneous, not delayed waiting for a reply to an email. (more…)

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Note: Larry A. Green is a a speaker at the upcoming Fordyce Forum 2013. His breakout, Diversity Is Good For Your Business, will show you how to connect with diversity candidates, and meet your client’s requirements that your candidate list be as inclusive and broad as possible. In this article, he offers insights to what you need from the hiring organization and what it should be looking for in a search firm committed to diversity. Register now at Fordyce Forum 2013.

Many organizations do a good job of diversity recruiting at the college and mid-management level, but often fall short when it comes to the senior management ranks. It is well-recognized that having women and people of color in the top spots will assist in your overall diversity recruiting efforts as well as in retention of diverse mid-managers and entry-level employees.

Dedication to attracting talented women and people of color who often are underrepresented at the senior management and board levels of many organizations has now become a priority.

Traditional recruiting methods used by internal recruiting departments, such as posting jobs and identifying individuals in similar positions may not yield the desired results when attempting to build an inclusive workforce. Thus, hiring organizations often turn to executive search firms, insisting on an inclusive candidate slate, but often are disappointed with the results. (more…)