The absolute majority of authors are unanimous – the service quality is inseparably linked with professionalism of the whole staff and separate consultants and managers [23, 53, 68, 74, 81, 84, 104 and 108]. Stanislaw Shekshnya adds [83]: “…it is impossible to hire the whole team in bulk. You can hire employees, but the team is being created within rather long time. I select my employees under three basic criteria: (1) professionalism…, (2) values and vision of the world; however, these things have not to coincide with my ones”.
The record of service for the professional shall be no less than 2-3 years [22]; he shall know fundamentals of psychology [8, 74], have communication and presentation habits [117], understand specificity of vacancies to sufficient degree [60, 88 and 105] and specificity of respective enterprise [5, 10 and 107], assess professional skills of nominees [69, 74], consult on situation on the labor market, characterize demand/offer/salary for each vacancy, correlate levels of salary and qualification [20, 74, 77, 81, 85, 90 and 92], know forms of stimulation in other companies [24].
In addition to the traditional interview the recruiter may use such forms as assessment (business games), psychological and professional testing [69, 91], criterion-oriented technologies [23], situational interview [96].The professional shall possess the sales technique [85]. Both the employers and nominees take into account the phone speaking as indicator of the quality [23, 33 and 76]. At all obvious necessity of electronic databases so many agencies don’t use them [3, 4, 69, 74, 85, 100 and 106].
The required recruiter’s properties are charisma, charm, ability to win an opponent [61], spirit of enterprise, endeavor, discipline, orderliness, ability to keep faces in his mind, high professional and personal properties [85].
The consultant shall follow such ethical norms as: honesty, equity, scrupulosity, prevention of conflicts, confidentiality, loyalty, equal possibilities for job placement, service for society interests [117].
The professional starts work with an order from clarification of the following: to what extent the demanded position is needed for the company; the main goals and tasks of the company; schedule; scope of the specialist’s responsibility; organizational structure of the company; specificity of corporative culture; remuneration package and prospects of career growth; personal properties of the specialist; hire structure (probation period, conditions of the work contract conclusion, scheme of salary increase); technical issues of interaction with the agency [77, 85, 89, 94, 101, 102, 103, 109 and117].
Application of contemporary analytical methods is welcomed [24]. In [80] a case is described, when on the basis of the SWOT-analysis a scheme was developed on interaction between a customer and agency. Some consultants acting in accordance with this scheme closed orders of only the said company within 1.5 months under guarantee of exclusiveness. The both parties insured their risks (about third of the budget) by dividing the fee payment into three phases: 30% – prepayment, 30% – on the expiry of the order’s term. The third payment was made only under the fact of all positions closing and was reduced in case of delay. This was a stimulus for the consultants to fulfill the work within the agreed time. To minimize the fulfillment duration the employees used to work as a single team: irregardless who closes any position – the employees of the company or agency – the position was considered as closed by consultants (!). The hiring problem was solved within minimal time at minimal expenses.
Methods of the project management are used [84, 85]. The search is being divided into separate phases, technical task is being developed, marketing research is being conducted, the project’s team is being formed with specific task for each participant, clear success criteria and dates are being formulated and monitored.
It is possible to see in literature some more exotic tools, such as Skandia Navigator, Strategic Assessment Research, Temporary Reassignment Program and Integrity tests. For instance, [97] assert that namely application of Skandia Navigator for revealing and increasing the company’s intellectual reserve has transformed the Skandia into an organizational system, in which the human talents blossom and total profit was increased from USD 300 mln. in 1991 to USD 16 bln. in 1998.
If the agency representative answers questions concerning dates, recourses and methods irresolutely, loses train of thought etc., this means that there is no structured technology in the agency, and work with orders is conducted chaotically [101,102, 103 and 111]. “Collaboration with such agencies is rather risky business, since their success depends to a large extent on skill of some separate consultants, at resignation of which nobody will be able to ensure high level of sourcing. Unclear phrases about exclusiveness and specific methods of work are to put anybody on the alert. The fulfillment technology of problematic orders shall be absolutely transparent for the customers [77].
to be continued…