Executive Recruitment in the USA

Executive recruitment is big business in the United States. Recruitment is the activity of finding workers for companies and other organizations. Different recruitment agencies make money by looking for suitable people for employers.

Sometimes recruiters are called head-hunters. A head-hunter is a professional who searches for talented and highly-qualified specialists. He/she usually offers them to leave their job and take another job which has better pay. It may be a job with a rival firm. Recruiters do not care very much about such things as loyalty to old companies and morals. On the other hand, head-hunters help prosperous firms hire excellent professionals and give talented people an opportunity to receive fair pay for good work.

Scott Walmsley is an authority on executive recruitment. He is Executive Director of the Association for Sales Force Management. It is a Seattle-based organization dealing with recruiting top sales managers.S.Wamsley knows the inside of recruitment and his advice is professional and sensible. In his article Some useful facts about executive recruiters he describes the system of finding management professionals for companies.

In the USA there are two different types of recruiting firms: retained and contingency. Retainer firms are hired to find and recruit key people. The compensation for these positions typically starts at $75,000 and goes up from there. The retainer firm is paid a fee whether or not a candidate is hired, all expenses are paid by the client firm. Only one firm works on the search. Retained recruiting firms are often large and international.

There are two groups of people working in retained firms, search consultants and researchers. Search consultants deal with clients. They choose and present candidates to the client firm. Consultants who work in the large prestigious firms make excellent incomes. They are famous in their industries.

The other group is the researchers. They find candidates that match the client's specification and make the initial contact with them. Researchers also do most of the reference checking.

The other type of recruiter is a contingency firm. The recruiter only gets a fee after they find a candidate that is hired by the client. Most of the positions contingency firms recruit for pay about $40,000 to $90,000. Contingency recruiters pay all the expenses and often compete with other contingency firms working on the same assignment. The fee paid to the recruiter is usually based on a percentage of the annual compensation, typically 15-25%.

Recruitment firms help managers to get better jobs and fill higher positions in companies. Their services are in great demand in the USA. Similar recruitment organizations work in other countries, including Russia. But in this country an effective system of finding management professionals is still developing.

People looking for a job with a prosperous company apply to a recruiting firm. They usually send their resumes and covering letters. Some firms may ask applicants to submit their curricula vitae and references. At present, candidates usually fax or e-mail their papers. Suitable candidates are invited for interview. At the meeting the recruiter asks them questions about themselves, their skills, abilities, experience and finds out if they fit the client's criteria. The recruiting firm chooses the best candidates and the client company takes the final decision.

Scott Walmsley also gives some tips on applying to recruiters. These tips are of interest to Russian professionals, too.

The resume and cover letter must be short, to the point and understandable. Large firms receive over 100 resumes a day and they are not going to read every word. They look for "key words" which relate to past experience, positions and accomplishments. Applicants are recommended to make a short statement of their education, qualifications for the job, professional achievements, career goals and plans to contribute to the success of the organization.

In the "objective" section applicants should write how they are going to improve the work of the company. They must be ready to work hard, introduce innovations, move to another place, etc. Employers need creative, energetic and enterprising workers.

Any good recruiter will check the references. He matches the interests of the client with those of the candidate.

 

Exercise 11. Find in the text the equivalents of these words and word combinations.

Подбор руководящих кадров; наниматели; ищет талантливых и высоко квалифицированных специалистов; организация, находящаяся в Сиэтле; получать гонорар; оплачивать все расходы; конкурировать с другими фирмами, занимающимися подбором кадров по заданию клиента; задание; ежегодная компенсация; услуги; подобные организации, занимающиеся подбором кадров; способствовать успеху организации; творческие, энергичные и предприимчивые работники; проверяют рекомендации.

 

Exercise 12. Answer the following questions in pairs.

1. Who are head-hunters?

2. What does Mr. Walmsley do?

3. What types of recruiting firms are there in the USA?

4. How is work organized in retainer firms?

5. What are the responsibilities of search consultants?

6. What are the duties of researchers?

7. How is work organized in contingency firms?

8. Are the services of recruiters in demand in the USA?

9. What documents must the applicant submit to the recruiter?

10. What tips does S.W. Warmsley give on applying to recruiters?