In Search Of Good Researchers? Where Do You Look?
It appears to me that there is a shortage of good researchers in our industry. The MMR and MSMR Programs in the United States graduate less than 100 people every year with each graduate getting multiple offers.
When someone leaves your company unexpectedly what do you do?
For M/A/R/C we will do a number of things that breakdown into four buckets:
- Use referrals from our current staff. This makes up about 15% of our new hires. People want to work with their friends and contacts especially if they are happy. We do have a referral bonus program in place that seems to work pretty well.
- Pay attention at conferences — You can pick up some really good leads there. This makes up about 20% of our new hires. Once I get the attendee list, I will review the list a few times looking for clients, prospects and potential new hires. This has worked very well in the past. If you aren’t doing this you might want to try it.
- I tend to use industry contacts. If I call someone a friend, I put a very, very, very high value on our friendships. We can ask each other for favors and bounce things off each other knowing that the person asking the question will get a candid response — not necessarily the response they are looking for. I always rely on industry contacts for potential new hires and references. This has probably made up 50% of all of our new hires.
- The other bucket is a miscellaneous one that contains ads, search consultants, advisory boards, presenting at colleges, conferences and makes up 15% of our new hires. Some of these things you need to do just to keep the buzz about your company fresh. For me, there hasn’t been an immediate return with staff, but there have been some pleasant surprises like this blog recruiting a person whom I had lost touch with 15+ years ago.
- Where do you look for new talent?
- Have you had success putting ads in research publications or online sites?
I look forward to hearing your comments.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:29 pm
> When someone leaves your company
> unexpectedly what do you do?
What do you mean by “unexpectedly”? Isn’t it simplier to keep the people you already have?
MR agencies in Moscow have the same problems with recruiting new staff - lack of sociology alumni, many young people in the industry which leads to massive number of maternity leaves etc. They handle it by allowing more benefits - like free fitness club memberships, ability to work from home, guaranteed salary for the mothers on maternity leave, flexible shedules for them in the baby’s first years and so on.
Think of it - it is simplier to keep an existing worker than to invent the ways of looking for a new one and then invest in his or hers learning in the first months…
May 1st, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Ten years ago, referrals from current employees were the best source. Industry contacts are the best source for senior employees and suppliers.
Things have changed a lot, though. Now, with professional and social networking sites from Facebook to LinkedIn, it’s a lot easier to see who’s active in the market. It also helps to bring up names of people and companies that may not be top of mind.
Oh, and with the new “company profile” feature on LinkedIn, it’s even easy to spot where companies seem to be drawing the most employees - naming competitors, customers and also schools. Some companies may not be pleased about the transparency, but it also shows where employees have gone - unexpectedly or not.
May 5th, 2008 at 6:00 am
Sanja,
Thanks for your comments and question. To answer your question - yes it is much simple to retain the staff you already have. They are already trained and contributing to your team. What I mean by unexpectedly could be a number of things from someone needing to move to take care of their parents, all of a sudden wanted to go back and get their MBA, wanting to change careers - it could be lot’s of things that all of sudden just come up.
I like your ideas of adding more benefits - some of the ones you mentioned we do as well. We have a personal trainer come in once a week for the staff, have summer hours on Friday (we get out at 1:00) and a number of other things. We have found that the little things really help with employee retention.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Merrill