Allen Plunkett, CEO Phoenix Staff, Board Member KidsatHope.org

What's our "brand"?

  

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I heard author David Avrin speak at a recruiting conference in Phoenix last week.  Aside from being a great speaker and touching on some very obvious, but often overlooked areas of branding and brand identity, he gave an inspiring presentation on what some (i.e. ALL) agencies in this industry do – offer nothing that makes them unique.  The interesting aspect is that we all think we do and that we are - unique.  Each of us thinks that we offer the best candidate to our client, we all say we have a unique process and we all believe we are able to attract the best talent because we have the best opportunities.  Each one of us believes this to our core.  It simply isn’t true.  Each of us fish from the same pool of resources, each of us work with the same customers and we all use the same resources to find those candidates and clients.  We are all looking to build the best relationships and each of us knows as many people looking to leave the client company as we do those who want to join that very same company.

So, where does this leave us?  Well, if everything were indeed the same, we would all be looking to move out, but this industry offers us all a tremendous chance to do something that other industries don’t.  It gives us a chance to change people’s lives for the better.  As another speaker will always say, things can be going along great in your job and then, “bam, life happens”.

Now, you can be in this industry for the money and you can be in this industry to move from agency to agency and simply be in a sea of sameness forever, or you can make an earnest attempt, as I believe we do, to change lives for the better.  The Phoenix Staff brand, if you will, is Education.  A bit nebulous?  Let me explain

What does Education mean at Phoenix Staff.

1. It starts with our internal team – we offer training that develops those who have no experience in the industry an opportunity to get experience. I believe those who have no preconceived notions are the easiest to turn into great recruiters. You can teach someone to take pride in the fact that they are in a life changing career. I struggle however, to get the “transactional” persona to go away if someone already has it embedded inside them – those focused on the dollar tend to not last long at Phoenix Staff. When the belief system is preached and practiced it becomes a part of you are – good or bad. Those who don’t buy-in will elect out – good or bad. I have worked with as many people who are passionate about the relationship and the outcome for all sides as I have for those who worry about the money. I know who I prefer to work with and have the luxury of choosing to work with (and “grow our own”) of those folks.
2. Educate ourselves so that we can educate our candidates with a top-down approach. In order to give good advice to candidates who are looking for work, you need to know what the work looks like in a year, 2 years and 5 years down the road. In technology, obviously, it’s difficult to see that far in the future with any clarity, but the folks who are at least looking that far ahead are those who are at the top of the Technology food chain, the CIOs. We interact with the CIOs in every market we serve so that we know what’s on their mind and can give good insight to our candidates as they look to further their own training or education. If we don’t know what’s coming, how can we give solid advice?
3. We make it a community effort. When you make a statement as broad as “education is what defines us”, you need to enlist the help of more people than just your own staff. We have built an outreach program to the local schools, universities and community colleges to engage with students as they make the decision to direct their education toward a technology discipline. As recruiters, being interested in a person’s future is a natural inclination. Though most of our clients don’t hire us to find recent college graduates, being involved with students and helping them with direction will enable us to stay connected with them when they do graduate and move into the areas our clients will need their assistance. We just look to establish that connection earlier in their “career”.

So does all of this help separate us from our competition?  I would imagine that it does, but as David poignantly mentioned during his presentation, “your ‘brand identity’ is what comes to mind when your customer’s hear your name”.  I hope that as we build this as our own reality that Phoenix Staff, the “education focused” recruiting company comes to the minds of those who hear our name.