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| Urgent Help Needed Big Problem... |
| Author: | Recmill1 |
| Date: | Friday, 8th Sep 2006 14:15 |
| Views: | 1,396 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Standards and Reputation | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=3405 |
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Hi
End of august I was working away great, jobs in, interviews up, great buzz with candidates and clients... all going well.
Anyway end of August I got very sick, and also some personal problems, and was out of work for 10 days, voice mail was full for 10 days, so no one could leave a message, I had very limited email.... I am a solo recruiter and I had no one to help, or who could come in (see I work from off shore into europe)
Anyway now I am just back 8 Sept, and I have lost face and reputation with a major client.... in fact 2 candidates I had in before I went MIA, and had interview requests... client went and set up interviews themselves.
client is very cool with me now, though I think I might be able to win them about with hard work.
Also lost others clients or potential clients though no getting back on job orders, and off course a ton of pissed off candidates....
This is not my form, and i have not been out of work for years.
Anyway I am not sure how to salavage the situation as best as I can.
I have email and called all....mainly voicemail to apologoies and say I was out sick etc....
One client who is a major top 100 and I placed 3 people there this year... give me a dig that as a "solo man" these things can happen... so now I am worried will I get passed over in future cause I am a "solo man"
I am very worried and stressed, and not sure what to do, and it is going to be another week before I am back fully 9 -5... next week will be part time work re my situation.
I feel my reputation is really screwed in the small niche I work.
Help! :-(
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: Urgent Help Needed Big Problem... |
| Author: | Andrew |
| Date: | Sunday, 10th Sep 2006 13:12 |
| Views: | 333 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Standards and Reputation | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=3405 |
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Hi
I had similar experience recently. Unfortunately did some advertising for my business which wasn't very effective.
I then thought "OK, I need one more partner to boost active sales". Got a lady to join my business and offered her 25% commission as motivation to perform at her best.
But she didn't do any calls or even hardly responded to emails. So this was great, situation - wrong advertising and useless partner.
So now I have decided to make an end to both. She is out and the advertising is cancelled.
Hmmm... What now? Stick with recruiting without a motivated partner or go into other areas which provided a better income?
Well, you can outsource many things like accounting, hosting, even the recruiting but the sales / client relationship activities you just can't leave to outsiders.
I understand very well your situation.
What really places a warning sign is the tendancies of how the recruiting market is moving. there is an increase in defaults.
Any recruiting agency consistent of 1-3 people will be at risk if they aren't in the "headhunting" field. Clients are increasingly reluctant to pay for our services. They try to push the percantage down and include their own clauses (to avoid paying).
How many vacancies have you placed adverts for, which have been filled by competitors?! There are hunderds of small companies fighting to keep floating in this volatile environment.
Like the internet bubble I believe that eventually we all will have to find new areas of income.
Where I live there are large rec companies getting losts of cheap labour from poland to manage their recruiting. They are really badly paid. Thats unfair to us smaller rec's but for their employees its not nice either.
But we are just not in the position to change the world.
I've been thinking about the future a lot recently. My friends who also have a 2-man rec company are also diversifying into other sectors.
hmmm.... |
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: Urgent Help Needed Big Problem... |
| Author: | Murray Sparkle |
| Date: | Sunday, 10th Sep 2006 22:10 |
| Views: | 329 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Standards and Reputation | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=3405 |
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Recmill,
I sympathise with you completely. I too work in the Irish market so on certain points I can see where you're coming from.
I've been in similar situations before where I've basically had to shut up the office temporarily to handle emergency situations. Earlier this year my 1 and a half year old son was hospitalised for about a week and as any parent will understand work went by the wayside. As soon as I could I got on the phone to the main clients explained the situation and bought myself time. When the little fella was sorted out I was left with a low billing June but every client relationship in tact. On the candidate side I tried to speak to as many as possible during the entire episode but naturally there were a few that were overlooked. Of those only one cut me no slack when I told them what had happened. When she started to give me grief I interupted here and told her that if she wanted to behave like that she could go elsewhere. After all, whilst I have a living to make and a family to support I do want to come out of every situation with my dignity intact. After a few weeks the candidate was still jobless and came back to me and I refused to deal with her.
What I would suggest is this - get on the phone and explain the situation. I have worked in large recruitment firms and when you are out you know that you're desk isn't being managed properly - so don't get all tough on yourself for being a one man band. Challenge the perception of solo operators and give this client a better than usual service next time. If possible I'd even go so far as to offer a one off reduction as a good will gesture. I have done that before when things have gotten hairy and the relationship survived. It shows that you are committed to them long term and value their custom. There might be people who object to what I have just suggested, but it has worked for me.
Also don't stress too much -the more you do the bigger mistakes you will make.
Get into a conversation with your clients and explain the situation to them. Forget e-mails and voicemails -get chatting to them. It's very easy to hide behind technology. How many of us have received messages on our office phones left very late at night by candidates knowing that we wouldn't be there? Brave it out.
Overall, be honest and make amends.
I hope that it all works out.
I've been a solo operator for two years now and for 4 months had a temp in doing all the jobs I hated. Tomorrow morning I've got to go back into the office for the first time in ages and be on my own for 10 hours. I've also got a 'will I start - won't I start' candidate situation and I'm dreading it. But I'll have to brave it out. I suggest you do likewise.
Murray |
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: Urgent Help Needed Big Problem... |
| Author: | Recmill1 |
| Date: | Monday, 11th Sep 2006 10:44 |
| Views: | 308 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Standards and Reputation | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=3405 |
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Yes. thanks folks for the kind replys.
This week I am still out of the office, but I can do enough to keep a few calls and emails going.
I thought about it, and if someone cannot take an apology I was sick, and accept some people are human, then to hell with them....I will find new clients.
sure its like this... you nearly always loose a few clients a year for various reasons, and always gain a few more.
sometimes clients just turn away from you for no reason.
anyway please God next week, I will be up full steam and will do 12 hours a day to get back on track.
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: Urgent Help Needed Big Problem... |
| Author: | JLDA |
| Date: | Monday, 11th Sep 2006 11:23 |
| Views: | 315 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Standards and Reputation | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=3405 |
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Good luck recmill. Just a minor point but if you haven't got a Blackberry do get one asap as you will at least always have access to your email wherever you are. |
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: Urgent Help Needed Big Problem... |
| Author: | Resourcespecialist |
| Date: | Friday, 15th Sep 2006 18:03 |
| Views: | 342 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Standards and Reputation | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=3405 |
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Recmill1,
Good to hear that you are getting well now. I can understand your situation very well. I'm into solo recruiting for last one year and faced the similar problem of yours in the very beginning of the sixth month. I was not having any one to assist me in my work nor I was having enough money to hire someone to do that on behalf of me. I lost my client (worth to mention the first and the only client i had at that time). That was the time when I felt like loosing the earth under my feet. But now, I feel grateful to everything that happened to me, i got the chance to learn an important lesson before its too late. I believe, falling down in the beginning of the race and getting up early to restart is better than falling down a foot away from the "finish" line. There are situations and circumstances in life which we can’t predict but can think of them in advance and take precautions (which I never did earlier).
Co-piloting with God, I started a new voyage realizing that, if i faced this problem there must be others too. I understood having a “brother” in a business is not only always helpful but necessary too. I started searching for solo recruiters and recruiting firms who need help and did not find any suitable solutions; either they were like me and couldn’t afford to pay or hire some one full time or splitting a fee with some one is also not exactly what they want. Not to much of my surprise, soon I came across some one who liked my idea and decided to try it out.
Later he wrote to me, “…..This can be named as "Recruiters' Red Cross". It helped me financially and professionally in my hard times and I will like to continue with this…”.
Now i have two happy clients with four "recruiting Brothers" in my team within 4 months time. I think it’s not so bad!
Bottom line is that :Be happy, learn from every single opportunity you get and turn every negative incident to a positive achievement. Life is what you want to shape it as.
Feel free to drop me a line if you need any help or interested to know more.
Good luck and get well soon.
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| Reply To This Thread |
| Re: Urgent Help Needed Big Problem... |
| Author: | Tom Atkinson. |
| Date: | Sunday, 17th Sep 2006 18:39 |
| Views: | 317 (excluding Digests and RSS feeds) |
| Category: | Standards and Reputation | | URL: | http://web.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum/Forum/read.php?i=3405 |
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This week we launch a "Virtual Administrator" service for our one man band (and other) temp agency customers who find themselves in a similar position to Recmill1 and want the cover as of course if temps don't get paid all hell breaks lose. This trail makes me wonder if a similar service would be valued for the perm market. I'd be grateful for any thoughts on such a service. |
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