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RANDY WILBURN , from page 9

skills, the communication abilities, and the other charac- teristics that you’re looking for are in short supply. They’ve always been in short supply. You can fill a job with someone who meets the technical re- quirements. But is that person going to be your future star and business leader? The whole 35 years I’ve been in this business, it doesn’t matter what discipline you’re talking about – engineers, landscape architects, architects, interior designers, construction administration people, surveyors – finding people that have these other attributes that ulti- mately make them successful, they’ve been in short supply. The other thing is to reexamine what the retained recruiter can really do for you. Finding the people to talk to – that’s only step one. And, to some extent, that’s easier today be- cause we do have some of the resources that we didn’t have in the old days, such as the Internet. But that doesn’t mean getting people to move and take a new job is easier. That may be harder today: People are more skeptical. They’re more rooted in where they are. Relocation and changing jobs may seem riskier than it did in the past. Your good retained recruiter is really giving you the insight into the candidate’s thought processes at every step along the way and giving you information that’s going to help you hire this person and create a situation that he or she can be suc- cessful in. It’s so much more than just, “Here’s a body, now it’s up to you to hire them.” Good retained recruiters are going to help you hire this person at the best price that’s affordable for you. It’s kind of like real estate. In one of my other businesses, I’m a de- veloper, and I have a design-build contracting firm. I never try to cut out my real estate agent, because he always earns his keep in the negotiation and closing processes. If we get a contract that closes, it’s because he’s very carefully work- ing both ends of the deal. If we sell a house, I get the high- est price I’m going to get. Many times, I’ve been willing to throw in the towel and he’s like, “No! I think we can do bet- ter.” And he’s never been wrong. Think of the retained recruiter like that: They’re going to help you. They’re working for you to get the best person and to get that person on board with their heads screwed on straight about what they can expect, so they’re going to be happy over the long haul. That’s just a lot more than, “Here’s a candidate you can hire.” RW: Imagine you’re in a room with CEOs of engineer- ing and architectural firms. What would be the singular piece of advice that you would give them based on your experience, from a recruiting and retention perspective? MZ: My No. 1 piece of advice is stop thinking about re- cruiting as a way to keep bad people out and start thinking about it as a sales process where you’ve got to get good people in. Once you have the mindset that we’re trying to get the best people to want to work here, and then you select the best people, you’re going to be more successful building your company. Let’s face it, talent is the key to building one of these businesses. Yes, a great brand name is probably your greatest asset. But, if you’ve got a great brand name, you’ve got to back it up with good people, and the good people are going to make that brand what it can be. You’ve got to be out there selling to get good people in. If you can do that, you’ll be successful.

open to discussing an opportunity. If someone makes a job change under that set of circumstances, they’re more likely to be rational about it and do it much more carefully and thoughtfully and last on the job longer than someone who’s out looking. RW: Do you think it’s short-sighted on the part of firms to gravitate toward contingency recruiters with the idea that they don’t want to throw a lot of money to this situation? MZ: I think it is because they’re compromising. They’re not going to get the same quality of candidate, they’re not going to get the same effort from the recruiter. I mean, think about it! Contingency recruiters are only going to be working with companies that are making job offers quickly that they think they can get somebody hired at. If the con- tingency recruiter perceives the firm’s requirements as too picky, its leadership too finicky or too difficult to please, they’ll quickly move on to other pastures. You may think that the contingency recruiter is actually working for you, but he or she isn’t. And then, you’re wasting time, and the real loss is the opportunity cost of not having that indi- vidual on board. So that’s a problem. But hiring the wrong person is a huge problem. It’s costly. You spend money and time in interviewing and relocation expenses possibly, paying the fee, getting the person up to speed, and then it also hurts management’s credibility. You look like you’re incompetent, and that’s bad. It also looks bad to your clients, especially if they have any interaction with somebody who then doesn’t last on the job. So yeah, I think it’s short-sighted. A lot of people think contingency recruiters are working on their behalf, but they’re not. In a contingency firm, the recruiter works on his own behalf. If you get somebody in a retained recruitment firm, these are salaried employees. They can have a much longer hori- zon for how they define success, the only measurement of building a long-term client relationship of mutual benefit. RW: What is the benefit to a company to engage and work with a retained recruiter on an annual contract ba- sis as opposed to a job-by-job basis? MZ: The primary benefit is the recruiters really get to know the company, the managers, and the culture of the client, so they have a great idea of the kinds of people that will fit in there and last over the long-haul. It’s like looking at a company from the outside very superficially or work- ing somewhere for a year or two or three: You’re going to know that company a lot better. You’re going to know its culture better. You’re going to know how to work with it to please its managers. The longer-term the relationship, the more effective the retained recruiters are going to be. And, they’re always going to be keeping an eye open in the course of everything they do for the kinds of people that they think would be appropriate for your organization. RW: You have more than 30 years of experience in this industry. Is there anything that has stayed pretty con- sistent in the way people approach AEC recruiting? MZ: I think that if there’s been any theme that’s recur- ring, it’s that good people who have the design or technical abilities that you’re looking for that also have the business

THE ZWEIG LETTER AUGUST 31, 2015, ISSUE 1118

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