by Elliot S. Cohen

With employment at an all-time low, attracting and recruiting top candidates is more difficult than ever. But that's not the only complication. Costs of bringing in candidates for unfilled positions are soaring, as are competing salaries and additional perks. To unlock a top candidate from a current employer, a company needs to do more than ever before to attract top talent. And, the demand for good candidates seems insatiable. For answers on how to win over candidates from the competition, contacted Chere Estrin, President of Estrin Organization, a Los-Angeles-based contract and full-time attorney and management staffing organization.

EC: How would you characterize this job market?

CE: Anytime the employment rate dips as low as it is right now, there are fewer candidates available for job openings. I think the unemployment rate is around 4.2 percent. Companies across the board are having a difficult time finding qualified candidates.

EC: The competition is fiercer?

CE: Yes. Candidates who perhaps a few years ago would have been sitting around thinking, "what am I doing to do about a job?" are now finding themselves in multiple offer situations. Even candidates who aren't top candidates are getting multiple offers. It has been many years since we've seen anything this difficult. Employers nowadays have to use all kinds of innovative techniques to attract and win top job candidates.

EC: In other words, it has become a job seeker's market rather than an employer's market?

CE: Oh, yes.

EC: In this job seeker's market, then, the job candidate holds all the cards. Let's say an employer is adamant about ceiling the job at say, $60K, but a qualified candidate is seeking much more. How would an employer up the incentives? ~ CE: An employer should always talk in terms of the total compensation package. The employer may be able to shake loose of a hiring bonus, offer continuing education, a possible career path, private window office, secretary, car allowance, stock options, better benefits, gym membership, sabbatical or more. Does the position pay overtime? If so, was this an option for the candidate at his or her previous position? How about a merit bonus? How else can you make up these dollars? The employer will want to make sure that the candidate walks out of the interview thinking base plus.

EC: What if the candidate still isn't sold? How can the employer keep the base salary at the same level and win that candidate over?

CE: You'll have to sell the candidate on something other than dollars. To do so, employers have to get inside the candidate's mind to find out what it is that will excite that candidate. They must remember to sell the candidate on the company. It's no longer about the candidate selling his or her skill set to the employer. Those days are gone. It's so important for an employer to structure the interview into three parts: intake, selling the "features and benefits" of the company, and questions. So, some of the questions an employer might ask during the intake are?"Tell me what excited you most about your last position?" or "What was the single most exciting thing to you in your position?" The candidate might say, "I loved the sophistication of my assignments, the camaraderie of the team and the fact that we were all working toward a common goal." Save comments for the sales portion of the interview at which point you'll say something like, "Our project director likes to delegate sophisticated assignments. Her team works well together and is known for their camaraderie." Be sure to pick up some of the exact words the candidate uses. Candidates will not only feel as though you heard them but you will easily establish rapport.

EC: I'm sure most people still view the job seeking process as being the candidate's responsibility to sell him or herself to the company's personnel director. What you seem to be saying is that in this tight job market, the truly qualified job candidates don't fully realize that they may have the upper hand. ~ CE: Some of them do realize it, because again, they're sitting on multiple offers. They're getting three or four job offers. So, the employers are actually the ones in the dark ages.

EC: Of course, the longer a job remains open, the more money the company looses. What tips would you offer to Personnel Directors and managers to win these candidates?

CE: One of the things I see frequently is how badly employers treat job candidates. Some candidates have taken off from work in order to make the interview. Some have gone to great expense. They show up fifteen minutes early for the interview and the employer leaves them sitting in the lobby for an hour. The candidate may be treated rudely by a receptionist. Or once the person actually reaches the interview, the interviewer doesn't have enough details about the position. Believe me, the candidate doesn't walk away thinking "boy, was that receptionist rude or the HR person didn't seem familiar with the job." The candidate walks away saying "I don't want to work for that company" because they now think the whole company is inferior. The message to the candidate is, "you're not important to me." Candidates should be treated like gold. They should be greeted on time. If they're going to have a round of interviews they should be told about it in advance. They need to be given a company brochure and perhaps a written job description. They need to recognize why working for your company rather than the company down the street is a great career move. Another thing I find is that employers wait too long to make up their mind about extending an offer. By the time they finally do extend an offer, the candidate is long gone. They then have to start the whole recruiting process all over again. Because some of them are bogged down in red tape, they lose the best candidate. ~ EC: Some of the veteran recruiters may not realize that in this computerized world everything moves much faster, and that now more than ever, "time is money." A few years ago, a two-month vacancy would not have been perceived as a long time, but now it can represent a substantial financial loss for a corporation.

CE: Right. What it comes down to is this: if you see the right candidate?hire him or her. Don't wait. Candidates don't sit around waiting months for that offer. They don't need to anymore. I'm working with a client right now for whom we recruited top candidates from major firms and top ten schools such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Stanford. These candidates weren't necessarily looking and I recruited them specifically for this job. The company would not get back to me. It was the old hurry up and wait game. By the time the company did respond, and said, "these are great candidates, we want to see them," those candidates were disenchanted and no longer interested in the job.

EC: Even though they were just putting feelers out?

CE: Their egos were bruised. They weren't perceived by the company as being good enough for the company to act quickly, so they were turned off on the company. We had to start all over again. The candidates' impression of the company was that it moved too slowly and was unable to make decisions.

EC: Or that the company was behind the times.

CE: Exactly. Candidates want to be attached to a company that's a winner. One they can point to with pride. It doesn't necessarily mean the company has to be loaded with dollars. It just means that they have to take a lot of care of the image they present to the public. ~ EC: Do you have any final suggestions to impart?

CE: My final comments are: You don't have to overpay in this market. You can attract candidate just with what you have. It's all in how you sell it.

Elliot S. Cohen is a nationally renowned celebrity journalist who has interviewed hundreds of famous music starts including John Mellencamp, Roy Orbison, The Kinks, The Beach Boys, Led Zepellin. Kiss, Chrissie Hynde, Chuck Berry, and Carlie Daniels, to name a few. His photos have appeared in USA Today, Rolling Stone, MTV and HBO. He holds a Masters Degree in Journalism and is a recent transplant to Los Angeles from his beloved New York City.