On Search&Selection

You have chosen the Search&Selection (S&S) option from ChannelCRM - or you are considering to do so - so now is the time to gain insight into the workings of the module. The first chapter will try to explain what makes ChannelCRM stand out among the (few) Search & Selection solutions in the marketplace.

First of all - rest assure that you have chosen one of the best if not the best solution for you business

The reasons we dare to put it so boldly are numerous, and we will uncover them in the following chapters and at the same time you will learn exactly which processes that are supported by ChannelCRM S&S.

The word "processes" has been carefully chosen. S&S is a discipline that is all about processes. There are loads of applications that allows you to store CVs and some basic information about clients, this you may even do in Excel for that matter. It may even be quite fine if you are building up a collection of candidates or if you work entirely alone.

But when it comes to "real" S&S you will realize that all candidates are going through one or more processes. Just to keep track of them all is often extremely difficult - and avoiding to "drop the china on the floor". As a S&S professional you are familiar with the fact that it is the processes that determines the outcome - the effort you put into the process, and the quality of your work: When the candidate is experiencing the different steps in the process she will build up expectations, resistance, and reactions will be tested. All of these things helps you make a better decision about who is the right person for the position, and equally important, that the candidate starts in the new job with the right set of expectations.

On the other hand, if there is no control of the processes, the outcome is bound to be poor. You might be able to attract a few candidates for the position, but  the candidate who is chosen for the position might begin the the job with inappropriate expectations. You might have found a better candidate, but you did not because your process was ill timed or flawed. Maybe your customer did not realize the potential of your candidate, because you did not manage a process to create a set of balanced expectations.

Processes are the single most important factor in successful S&S. ChannelCRM S&S has been designed from a process perspective. The data is a trivial matter.

It is not incidental that the processes-support has been designed into the system. ChannelCRM started as two companies. ChannelCRM Software and HeadCount Search & Selection. HeadCount S&S funded the development of ChannelCRM Software and once ChannelCRM Software took off, HeadCount S&S was discontinued.

Today ChannelCRM S&S is used by some of the most successful Danish S&S companies. The collective experience of these organizations and our own background makes for a unique industry insight. We know the processes.

One specific area where processes are important is how you treat your "product". Your product is human beings. This sets S&S apart from most other businesses. Where in other industries you may store your product or put it on the shelf, then in S&S you have limited opotions to do so. Instead you are faced with the challenge of having to sell twice: The product must be sold to the customer and the customer must be sold to the product. Both sales needs to be executed succesfully, or the entire sale will miss. But a lot of S&S professionals have experienced that the sale must not be conducted "to well". If the product is oversold, the result will be that the expectations with your customer and your product are not properly alligned. This will eventually always fall back on you. The candidate leaves within a year or does not perform, and your customer will choose another party for S&S next time around.

Your product is even perishable. Probably more so than most other products. If you forget your feedback to the candidate, if interviews are sloppy, or if you are unprepared with respect to knowledge of the position, the customer organization, the candidate will immediately register this. You might not discover it, because the candidate will not tell you, but surely she will tell others in her network. Even this you might not discover, since you still have a steady flow of fresh candidates.

But what is happening now is that the overall quality of candidates is falling. The best candidates can pick and choose among S&S companies and to make it even worse: The exact network that has been informed about a faulty process will consist of the best candidates. (Experience shows that when a candidate shares his experiences with his network, he always confide himself to colleagues at his own level or at a higher level. In other words, with an example from the world of sales: The best salespeople do not care about the experiences of poor salespeople, and poor salespeople are not considered worthy of confidentiality by excellent salespeople.)

An easy way to make ensure an optimal relation with the best candidates is to live up to your commitments and appointments 100%. If you have met a candidate for an interview, she should expect structured feedback within a reasonable timeframe. If the candidate calls you for an update, he should expect that you are up to date with the process. With CannelCRM you will easily be able to live up to such expectations, but you would be surprised to learn how many S&S who fails here.

Why then this coupling of S&S with CRM? Well, we have devoted the next chapter for an in depth explanation of this, but lets look at the first argument here: Because in the real world S&S and CRM are two entirely integrated disciplines. The degree of success depends on the ability to connect the right people to the right people. Your customers will be in your CRM system, your candidates in your S&S system. Contacts in the CRM system could turn into candidates in the S&S system. If you find a coandiate in your S&S that you determine would be an asset for a customer, you might wnat to proactively sell this candiate to the customer using the CRM system. Given these obvious connections - who would not want to have an integrated solution?

Another way of putting it: What good is it to have loads of prime candiates if you do not have any customers to sell them to? And how do you want to attract the best candidates, if you cannot tell them about your exciting customers?

A successful S&S company will be in control of the flow of both candidates and customers - and this control is most easily obtained in an integrated CRM/S&S solution.

We have now seen that processes are important, that you need to carefully handle your perishable goods, and that you still need to take care of sales towards your customers. Anything else? Yes indeed - you have to collect information in your S&S System. For two reasons:

For many years, the S&S industry has been characterized by individuals with strong networks, who has been successful. Most often all of their knowledge is stored in their brains, and most often these individuals are happy doing business this way. If you are such a person - fine, you probably don't need a system to help you along. But if you are not, then you have to make sure, that knowledge about customers and candidates are made into an asset for your company. This can only happen if the knowledge is is easily stored in a system and easily put into use in your business processes.

Finally there is the matter of price. It serves noone any good to be chosen as a supplier just for being the cheapest. If this is the case you have only one way to go: towards even lower prices. You have to show your customer, that you are worth a higher price. One way of doing so is to have the customer experience relevant information about how you do your business. Which suspects have been identified, how is your rating of the candidates, who have you been in contact with, how did your tests go? etc? In most cases, your customer will see the process that you are conducting as a part of the total impression of his company left with both the candidate who gets the job but also with those candidates who doesn't.

Openness and professionalism in the transfer of knowledge between you and your customer is important. ChannelCRM is your mean to this end.

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